text
string | url
string | crawl_date
timestamp[ms] | label
int64 | id
string |
|---|---|---|---|---|
It is not too late to take Arizona tax credits for 2021, providing you have not filed your taxes yet. The deadline to take advantage of tax credits is April 18 or when you file your taxes, whichever comes first. The tax deadline falls during Passover; a time to reflect on what previous Jewish generations endured to be able to pass the faith on for generations to come. In that spirit, consider investing in the future of the Jewish community by taking advantage of Arizona’s various tax credit programs.
What are the tax credits and how do they work? The tax credit programs allow taxpayers to take a dollar-for-dollar credit against their state tax liability to support the state’s nonprofit organizations. There are several different tax credits including the Qualifying Charitable Organization (QCO), Private School Tuition Organization (STO), Qualifying Foster Care Charitable Organizations (QFCO), Arizona Military Family Relief Fund and public schools. There is also a corporate private school tuition program, but has its own requirements and deadlines. If interested in the corporate program, call a school tuition organization (STO) or visit the Arizona Department of Revenue website at azdor.gov for more information.
Each tax credit has a maximum amount that varies, although you can take advantage of each of the credits for a total of close to $6,000. Taxpayers can be divide their support within each category of tax credit, but cannot exceed the maximum amount for that category. For example, the 2021 maximum amount for the private school tuition tax credit is $1,219 for individual taxpayers and $2,435 for married couples. A taxpayer can give the maximum to one STO or they can divide their support among several STOs, as long as the total does not exceed the maximum amount allowed for the private school tuition tax credit. Taxpayers have the opportunity to support causes that are meaningful for them through the tax credits without an additional cost to the family budget. The various qualified organizations and details for each type of credit can be found on the Arizona Department of Revenue’s website.
Funds raised through the Arizona tax credits support programs of each of the qualifying organizations. For example, the private school tuition program, through STOs, provides scholarships for children to go to private schools that are the right choice for their specific educational and family needs, the public school tax credit provides for field trips or afterschool activities and giving to qualifying charitable organization supports a range of programs depending on the organization such as assistance for food, rent/mortgage, healthcare and other basic needs.
The East Valley Jewish Community Center, Gesher Disability Resources, Jewish Free Loan, Kivel Campus of Care, Jewish Family & Children’s Service and Jewish Tuition Organization have a collaborative website at jewishtaxcredit.org that makes it easy for taxpayers to support these organizations. The Jewish Tuition Organization is a school tuition organization and the other five members of the collaborative group are qualifying charitable organizations. The group came together to make it easy for members of the community to be able to support organizations of choice at one time either through a brochure mailing that goes out at the end of the year or at jewishtaxcredit.org. The Qualifying Charitable Organization tax credit maximum amounts are $400 for individuals and $800 for married couples and as with the previous STO example, you can give the maximum to one organization or divide the amount among several.
When you support a Jewish tax credit organization you are making a difference in the lives of members of your own community now and ultimately the future, and you are choosing a cause that is close to your heart. Consider making a difference for a family or a person in need as you prepare your 2021 taxes and take the credit. JN
Linda Zell is the executive director of the Jewish Tuition Organization, jtophoenix.org.
|
https://www.jewishaz.com/specialsections/it-s-tax-time-take-advantage-of-arizona-s-dollar-for-dollar-tax-credits/article_0c71b6c6-b6ba-11ec-b4be-6b935a04561c.html
| 2022-04-08T08:10:43
| 0
|
https://www.jewishaz.com/specialsections/it-s-tax-time-take-advantage-of-arizona-s-dollar-for-dollar-tax-credits/article_0c71b6c6-b6ba-11ec-b4be-6b935a04561c.html
|
NATO eyes in the sky, keeping Europe out of Russia’s war
UEDEM, Germany (AP) — As Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine accelerated early this year, military planners at NATO began preparing to dispatch scores of fighter jets and surveillance aircraft into the skies near Russia and Ukraine. It was a warning to Moscow not to make the mistake of targeting any member country.
Even in the weeks preceding the war, politicians and analysts were divided over whether President Vladimir Putin would really order Russian troops to invade. From a military point of view, though, the forces arrayed around Ukraine appeared designed to do just that.
It became a matter of urgency to put more eyes in the sky and to tightly link NATO aircraft, warships, ground-based missile systems and radar installations to protect the alliance’s eastern flank.
“We are monitoring very closely,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week. “Information, best possible situation awareness, is of course extremely critical in such a dangerous situation as we see in Ukraine now.”
In the lead-up to the Feb. 24 invasion, the alliance’s Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, western Germany, shifted gear. A few dozen military personnel now simultaneously manage up to 30 aircraft in skies from the northern tip of Norway down to Slovakia.
From an underground bunker in quiet farmland, patrolling aircraft are diverted to monitor suspicious Russian planes. Jets on 15-minute standby are routinely “Alpha Scrambled” from around Europe to intercept unidentified aircraft near NATO airspace.
More than 100 aircraft can be working aloft on any given day, mixed in among roughly 30,000 civilian flights made daily through European skies.
Six Boeing E-3A surveillance planes from NATO’s ageing fleet of early warning and control aircraft help create an “air picture” to share with member nations. These “eyes in the sky” do not fly into Ukraine or Russia, but can see up to 400 kilometers (250 miles) across borders.
Fighter jets also provide information about what is going on inside part of two countries at war. These “assets” are sometimes sent from as far away as western France, refueled mid-air, and can patrol for about an hour in the border area before they must return.
The 30-nation military alliance is wary of being drawn into a wider war with Russia, so borders and airspace are scrupulously respected.
“There is always the fog of war, and we don’t want to have NATO assets close by because even unintentionally you might have some losses,” said Major General Harold Van Pee, commander of the NATO facility in Uedem.
The most sensitive zones for unidentified planes are the Kola Peninsula — at the high north borders of Russia and Norway — the Gulf of Finland approaching the Russian city of St. Petersburg, and the skies around Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
From their computer screens, NATO personnel can also track cruise missiles, like those that Russia used last month to pound a military training base in western Ukraine near NATO member Poland, killing 35 people.
But shadowing them with aircraft is a high-risk endeavor, particularly at night, in poor weather or when the missiles hug the ground, flying so low that electrical pylons and cables become a danger. “We have to be convinced that there is a credible threat” to go after one, Van Pee said.
A less obvious challenge to NATO airspace is rogue drones. Military officers said that Russia is using powerful electromagnetic devices for communication jamming purposes which can disrupt remotely controlled flights.
Last month, a military drone drifted uncontrolled out of Ukraine through the airspace of three members – Romania, Hungary and Croatia – before crashing in the Croatian capital. Some parked cars were damaged but no one was hurt.
The drone weighed just over 6 tons. Both Russia and Ukraine denied launching it. Military officers and NATO officials refuse to comment on the incident until an investigation is completed.
“Even if you fly alongside one of those drones, are you going to do something about it? You have to ask yourself, because if you shoot it down then for sure you’re going to do damage on the ground. If you let it fly, hopefully it will crash in the sea. I mean, you don’t know,” Van Pee said.
Whether it’s a rogue drone or a missile threat, political and legal experts are supposed to be involved in any decision to shoot something down. Despite the war in its backyard, NATO is operating under strict peacetime rules and is determined to keep it that way.
“Before you start using force there has to be an imminent threat to either NATO forces or NATO populations. That’s a judgement call, and that’s always hard to make,” Van Pee said.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/nato-eyes-sky-keeping-europe-out-russias-war/
| 2022-04-08T08:55:30
| 1
|
https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/nato-eyes-sky-keeping-europe-out-russias-war/
|
By definition, the safety devices most effective at saving lives are those people will actually use. Suspender-style, automatically-inflating life vests that are not bulky and don’t restrict movement achieve that goal.
Recreational time on the water is meant to be relaxing and fun. Bulky life jackets that are cast aside to avoid discomfort aren’t likely to save anyone in a true emergency, but forcing people to wear them has not proven to be practical either. Makers of Coast Guard-approved vests in the inflatable suspender-strap style offer a product that’s light, comfortable and easy to wear. Worn over the top of clothing, it’s easy for a wearer to forget they even have this life vest on.
By law, any water craft must carry one life vest for each person on board. Though laws vary by state, generally speaking, any passenger age 12 or younger is typically required to be wearing a life vest while the boat they’re on is underway. They can have the vest off while the boat is still or being moved with a trolling motor. Those 13 and older generally aren’t required to actually wear their life vest at any point, only to have it reasonably accessible. Far too often, this plan proves insufficient to save a life.
Coast Guard statistics show more than 75 percent of all boating fatalities happen when people fall overboard and drown. In 2020, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 767 people died and 3,191 were injured in boating accidents in United States waters. Of those who drowned, 84 percent were not wearing a life jacket.
Inflatable vests are light and lie flat. When the wearer goes into water, automatic inflation is triggered by a device that detects either water or water pressure. They can also be inflated intentionally with the pull of a handle. The vests use bladders that are filled from a replaceable CO2 cylinder and can be rearmed and used again. The vests typically sell for $50 to $100. Rearming kits generally run $25 to $30.
The vests are designed for emergency use but typically exhibit top-quality construction. Those under the Mustang and Onyx brands are both well-made and affordable.
Along with wearing a life jacket, most other water safety precautions fall comfortably into the category of common sense. In no case, however, is common sense fool proof protection from what other boaters on the water with you may do.
Float sober
“The first thing any boat needs is a sober driver,” Mississippi Conservation Officer Greg Walters says. Those operating a boat on most waters are held to the same standards of sobriety as those operating a vehicle on the roads. “Next, they need to have their boat registration with them, one life jacket per person, a throwable flotation device if their boat is over 16 feet long, a fire extinguisher and an emergency sound device.”
Pretty often, as accident statistics show, the worst mistakes are made by people who had more than enough life experience to know better, and nowhere is this more apparent than on the water. With experience comes complacency and, often, accidents are quick to follow.
One solution for this is mandatory boater education. In Mississippi, anyone born after June 30, 1980 must complete a boating safety course to operate a boat. The state course, which involves six hours of classroom study, is taught by teachers approved by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. Much like a hunter education certificate or a drivers license, it is accepted by other states nationwide. Learn more about this as well as online course options at mdwfp.com/education-outreach.
Experience is one of life’s best teachers though, when it comes to boating safety, the lessons can be cruel. Bobby Cleveland of Mississippi, a lifelong fishing enthusiast, has seen it all and then some. When it comes to spotting bad judgement in action, he’s had lots of experience.
Every boater should know the basic rules of safety. Cleveland says these are the most commonly forgotten:
Check your wake
“Outside of the obvious, which would be not wearing a personal flotation device, the most overlooked aspects of boating safety are which boat has the right of way, and being responsible for your boat wake,” he says.
“The first thing I tell new boaters is that in all situations involving close proximity, the other boat ALWAYS has the right of way. That’s because I’ve learned it’s a pretty safe bet the other boat operator doesn't know the rules.
“Boat wakes are a pet peeve of mine because, in 99 percent of cases, problems related to wakes could have been avoided. Every boater is responsible for his or her wake, but I think most are unaware of the water they’re kicking up.”
A perfect example is found at Rose’s Bluff at Mississippi’s Ross Barnett Reservoir, a popular anchoring area for boats each summer.
“Families park pontoons and pleasure craft in close proximity, to swim and enjoy the group atmosphere,” Cleveland says. “Knowing that, and seeing that, it’s idiotic but routine to see boats race back in the corner or swing up close to the anchored boats and make an abrupt turn. The wake causes parked boats to swing on anchor, and I've seen kids get caught between boats and adults racing to keep them safe.
“Also, as a fisherman, I know what it's like to be working a riprap bank and have a boat race by, improperly trimmed, and kick up a wake that pushes me into the rocks.”
Do unto others
“Another thing that makes me steam is to be anchored in the middle of the lake, far from boat channels or any port or landing, and have a boat pass within 10 or 20 yards on a 33,000-acre lake,” Cleveland says. “It’s not like a river, where you have little choice.
“It would be just as easy to loop around 200 or 250 yards out, thus not creating any danger that comes with boats in close proximity.
It’s not a written rule but it is a courtesy and it just makes a lot more sense.”
Mind those PWCs
“If I was younger, I’d probably have a jet ski, also referred to as a personal watercraft,” Cleveland says. “I have played on them and they are fun. I recognize that they are a popular choice and that they have every right to share water.
“However, I do have a major problem with some PWC operators, especially those who feel they have to race up behind a boat and jump the wake. The only two boat/PWC collisions I’ve seen involved exactly that. PWC operators need to understand they are required to follow the same navigation rules as conventional watercraft, they need to practice common courtesy.”
Watch for the careless
“It’s important to keep your head on a swivel and know where all other boats around you are located and what they are doing,” Cleveland says. “If you are running in a channel and approaching the area where you plan to stop, it’s important to know if there’s an idiot right on your tail.
“And, in our shallow Southern waters, if you don’t know the lake as well as you know the layout of your house, stay in the boat channel.
“Finally, heed this advice from a guy who has been hit by lightning twice, though not on the water: Always be weather wise. Know what the forecast is. All smart phones now have apps that not only provide GPS but also current weather maps.”
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/outdoors/inflatable-life-jackets-comfortable-safe/article_a749821e-4081-5ce2-8281-544e846c8ae5.html
| 2022-04-08T09:07:23
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/outdoors/inflatable-life-jackets-comfortable-safe/article_a749821e-4081-5ce2-8281-544e846c8ae5.html
|
I looked past the tip of the heavy rod, suddenly bent double in the Boy’s hands, and saw the fish take flight.
Similarities between scaled swimmers in the sea and feathered fliers in the air are hard to miss. The comparison that day was made easier, though, because the first tarpon I ever saw in the wild spent a good bit of time dancing through both.
We had been fishing less than an hour that morning, casting big chunks of cut mullet on 7/0 hooks away from the sunrise. The terminal gear was weighted to sit on the bed of the sea.
More mullet steaks, scattered freely into the current, had nurse sharks making their rounds. We hooked three heavy ones in quick succession, lugged them boatside and cut them free.
When the Boy’s rod bent for the fourth time, though, it was different. Everything was different. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
Though the end of the line lay at least 75 yards away, the shock of the hook set was as clear as the crystal depths below. Fine spray leapt from heavy braid as the rod bent, not gradually, but in a blink. The impact ran from rod tip to toe tip. The reel’s drag screamed and the Boy, standing barefoot on the foredeck, took a surprised step forward.
Our backs were to the Atlantic, our faces toward the Gulf. Halfway to the horizon, seven feet of living, silvered steel split the surface and soared 10 feet into the air. With a snap of its head, it sent a big chunk of mullet away on a high arc of its own.
For a moment I thought it had thrown the hook, but it was only the bait that was gone, clearing the floor for a fight that would outlast the next hour.
The first run covered a hundred yards or more. Every time I thought it was certainly over, the big fish rallied and stripped the drag again, subtracting in seconds line the Boy had been many minutes working to reclaim.
From the 30-minute mark on, the fish was always in sight through water that was clear below and turquoise all around. A steady southeastern breeze made shirts flap and hats fly, but the fight had taken us to the leeward side of Lower Matecumbe Key, and the water’s surface was calm.
Finally the Boy reeled the leader into the rod for the last time. We got our hands onto the
behemoth’s lower jaw, unhooked him and offered a prompt and appreciative goodbye.
We watched him swim away like nothing had even happened. He
clearly wasn’t as
impressed with us as we were with him.
He didn’t even seem particularly impressed with himself. Maybe that confidence is what makes tarpon the silver king.
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/outdoors/sun-in-the-keys-tarpon-in-the-air-quite-a-sight/article_326bac17-cf87-55fc-aa4b-08f4c9bc40ea.html
| 2022-04-08T09:07:29
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/outdoors/sun-in-the-keys-tarpon-in-the-air-quite-a-sight/article_326bac17-cf87-55fc-aa4b-08f4c9bc40ea.html
|
MOVIES AND TV NOW STREAMING
Binge watch these top new releases on your favorite streaming services.
Amazon Prime
“All the Old Knives,” Amazon original movie
Netflix
“Metal Lords,” Netflix original movie
“Return to Space,” Netflix original documentary
“The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On,” Netflix original reality series, season 1
Hulu
“Madagascar: A Little Wild,” Hulu/Peacock original animated series, season 7
“The Croods: Family Tree,” Hulu/Peacock original animated series, season 2
“The Hardy Boys,” Hulu original series, season 2
“Woke,” Hulu original series, season 2
HBO MAX
“Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off,” HBO original documentary
“Tokyo Vice,” HBO Max original series, season 1
“A Black Lady Sketch Show,” HBO original series, season 3
“The Invisible Pilot,” HBO original documentary miniseries
Apple TV+
“Pinecone & Pony,” Apple TV+ original animated series, season 1
Paramount+
“iCarly,” Paramount+ original series, season 2
NEW MUSIC OUT NOW
Camila Cabello, “Familia”
Father John Misty, “Chloe And The Next 20th Century”
Wet Leg, “Wet Leg”
Jack White, “Fear of the Dawn”
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
By Chuck Sheppard
The Neighbors: When ya gotta go ... At 4:40 p.m. on March 4, Kenneth Clark Carlyle, 64, walked up his neighbor’s driveway in his birthday suit and relieved himself, No. 2 style, on the neighbor’s glass patio table, The Smoking Gun reported. The whole thing was caught on not one, but two “separate angles of the victim’s home security video footage,” the police report noted. Clearwater, Florida, officers arrived at Carlyle’s RV camper, where they spoke to him “through the door ... and he was still visibly naked and highly uncooperative.” The bond on this incident is $250, but he was already in trouble from a December infraction, so he remains in the pokey.
|
https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/features/stuff-we-like-friday-april-8-2022/article_af58e34e-b5b3-11ec-aee2-0f890d1bdf1a.html
| 2022-04-08T09:11:44
| 1
|
https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/features/stuff-we-like-friday-april-8-2022/article_af58e34e-b5b3-11ec-aee2-0f890d1bdf1a.html
|
The basketball odyssey of one Monte Towe, now in its sixth decade, is one letter and more than 900 miles from where it began.
One of the most decorated athletes in the history of Oak Hill High School, the 68-year old Towe recently completed his sixth season as the boys hoops coach at Oak Hall School in Gainesville, Florida.
Hall, not Hill.
Gainesville, not Converse.
Florida, not Indiana.
Hundreds of yellowed newspaper articles removed from being the 5-foot-6 spitfire who quarterbacked the Golden Eagles football team, started at second base for the baseball program, lettered two seasons in golf, and, yes, ran the point for coach Galen Smith’s basketball squad, the memories remain fresh.
Particularly those pertaining to the hardwood.
The 1970-1971 Golden Eagles, a senior-laden group and the fourth sectional championship team in boys hoops for a school first opening its doors for the 1959-1960 school year, advanced to the Fort Wayne Semistate before losing in the semifinals to eventual state runner-up Elkhart, 74-63.
Towe and Gary Dedaker were the starting guards; forwards Lynn Anthony and Ken Groom, standing 6-1 and 6-4, respectively, teamed with no-nonsense 6-3 center Jay Hayes to form a front court that refused to be intimidated.
“That front line was really key for us being good,” said Towe. “We were a very good team with players who played a lot of sports together. I’ve never played with a tougher guy, and I mean clean tough, than Jay Hayes. But they were all that way. Winning was everything.
“We grew up together, but we had a wonderful group of coaches, too.”
Smith passed away in November 2020 at the age of 84. Groom, Dedaker and Tim Moorman, a senior backup guard that season, all preceded their coach in death.
The assistant coach on that Oak Hill team, former Golden Eagles standout Jack Keefer, a 1961 graduate, just completed his 46th season as the Lawrence North head coach — and 50th overall — and ranks second all-time in Indiana with 865 career victories.
Keefer was one of the standout athletes during the infancy of Oak Hill, a consolidation of Converse, Swayzee and Sweetster high schools that wasted little time establishing a reputation of its own.
The 1959-1960 team’s very first postseason game resulted in a 53-52 victory at the Marion Sectional against the host Giants. Oak Hill made it to the regional final before losing to Bluffton, 66-63.
Golden Eagles ball clubs advanced to regional the following two seasons, as well.
“The culture was already in place,” said Towe. “We just put our touch on it.”
The senior players on the 1970-1971 Golden Eagles were pinpointed as something special back to elementary school.
Hayes recalls how as seventh-graders, their hoops team lost its first game and then didn’t lose again. Midway through what would be a 16-0 season as eighth-graders, Hayes and his teammates began noticing spectators they hadn’t previously seen at their games.
Word was out. This group is unique.
“Monte was the engineer on this railroad, but what made our team unique is that we were so close and played together through the summer,” said Hayes. “We had a couple of really nice barn basketball courts where we played.
“In the summer, the park in Swayzee was the hot spot where we played against some of the older Oak Hill graduates.”
Towe, Hayes and Groom were elevated to the junior varsity as freshmen. It served as a valuable head-start for a class that propelled Oak Hill to a combined record of 41-9 over its final two seasons.
During the latter, seniors Mike Tribbett, Dave Shellen, Steve Berry and Terry Berger contributed off the bench, as did juniors Brad Shellen and Jack Hunt.
Towe was named to the 1971 Indiana All-Star team before going on to gain national notice as the point guard for North Carolina State, which won the NCAA title his junior season (1973-1974). He later spent a decade as an assistant coach at the University of Florida under his former head coach with the Wolfpack, Norm Sloan.
Sloan, too, was and remains something of an Indiana legend having been born in Anderson and graduating from Lawrence Central High School.
He passed away in 2003.
Hayes, too, was an Indiana All-Star, only in football. An offensive tackle and defensive lineman at Oak Hill during the autumns, he was the school’s first football All-Star after helping the 1970 Golden Eagles go undefeated and outscore the opposition, 394-7.
After that group had graduated, Oak Hill waited 29 years before winning another sectional, this one in 2000, the third season of class hoops in Indiana. Five Golden Eagles squads have claimed 2A sectional titles with the 2017-2018 group experiencing the ultimate with a state title.
Looking back, it might surprise some to know that Towe, who spread himself about as thinly as possible athletically at Oak Hill, was also part of three different school bands – a self-described “weak second chair trumpet.”
Be that as it may, the harmoniousness of what Towe, Hayes, Dedaker, Groom and others accomplished on basketball courts in and around Grant County remains legendary.
They were Eagles who were Golden, and not only in name.
|
https://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/towe-led-golden-eagles-squad-made-semistate-appearance-in-1971/article_da1d21c2-b2d3-11ec-a30b-63c7a68a121c.html
| 2022-04-08T09:11:51
| 0
|
https://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/towe-led-golden-eagles-squad-made-semistate-appearance-in-1971/article_da1d21c2-b2d3-11ec-a30b-63c7a68a121c.html
|
Zaleski stays hot as Bloomington South baseball faces Edgewood in Monroe County matchup
Runs have been hard to come by for the Bloomington South baseball team.
Figure part of that is facing three straight Top 10 Class 4A teams and the type of pitching that comes with it. That includes back-to-back nights Tuesday and Wednesday against a pair of Indiana University recruits in Jasper's Connor Foley and Center Grove's 6-foot-7 beast, Ben Murphy.
The Panthers proved their focus wouldn't wane against county rival Edgewood at the end of a five-game homestand. South picked up up eight hits and a season high in runs, scoring five with two outs to top the Mustangs, 6-2 on Thursday at Groh Field.
Credit Justin Zaleski for part of that sustained effort.
Just three Panthers are hitting above .200 and the the junior second baseman leads the way at .375 and four RBIs after going 2-for-4, driving in three runs and scoring another.
More:Oeding, Bloomington South deliver baseball thriller vs. No. 5 Jasper
"What I really try to do is find the pitch I like, usually a first pitch fastball," Zaleski said. "And just 'See ball, hit ball' is what they tell me, so I just try and do that."
Zaleski doubled in a run and scored in the fourth and capped the scoring with two-out, two-run bases loaded single in the sixth that was set up with a double, a sacrifice bunt and two walks.
"He's good at pitch selection," South coach Phil Kluesner said. "All the work we've done in the off-season, I've noticed that. He doesn't swing outside the strike zone very often.
"It gives you a head start if you know what the zone looks like then you know how to attack it when the ball comes in."
It earned him a special post-game award that notes many hands make light work. South hit four doubles, two by Brayden Blevins and another from Mason Younger.
"Kluesner says just to do your one-ninth," Zaleski said. "And that's just to get on base and when we start getting on base, hits come with runners in scoring position.
"After the game, Kluesner gave me the 'H-to-H' shirt, which stands for Help the Helper. I didn't do it all by myself."
Fifth inning swing
South led just 2-1 after four innings and it looked like Edgewood might tie or take the lead in the top of the fifth.
No. 8 hitter Gabe Headdy had a leadoff ground rule double and Cam Ingalls drew a one-out walk. But South starter Blaise Oeding (1-1) induced a fly ball to center, then battled through an eight-pitch at bat against Andrew Good before a fly out ended the threat.
Edgewood and starter Connor Thummel wouldn't get off the hook in the bottom half.
AJ Brinson, who tripled and scored in the first, earned a one-out walk. Then Zaleski punched a double to right center that ricocheted off the top of the fence and allowed Brinson to circle the bases to make it 3-1.
Then with two outs, Younger hit a sharp ball to second that wasn't fielded cleanly and beat the late throw. Zaleski scored for a 4-1 lead. A two-out error had also led to South's go-ahead run in the fourth.
More:Blaise Oeding putting it in neutral on the mound for Bloomington South baseball
"The two errors we had, they were only two errors, but they were two errors at the wrong time," Edgewood coach Bob Jones said. "But they hit the ball well.
"Connor started with the ball high in the zone. (Pitching coach Jake Bauer) kept working with him, trying to get it down and he did. We told him, you've just got to throw the ball where the umpire wants it."
Edgewood not backing down
Edgewood (0-4) has also played some tough competition, starting with Gibson Southern, Evansville Central and Vincennes Lincoln.
"We're just trying to get ourselves prepared for conference play," Jones said.
Edgewood got within 4-2 in the top of the sixth to chase Oeding, but a caught stealing helped Logan Wright pick up his first save of the season.
Carson Druckrey and Brayden Ault each went 2-for-3, while Connor Thummel (0-1) had a solid first start, going five innings, striking out four and walking two.
"I thought we hit the ball well, we're just not putting things together," Jones said. "But I think it's something that we'll eventually start to do.
"And I thought we played a competitive game until we started getting the ball up in the zone again."
Outside of the errors, the defense sparkled. Center fielder Cam Ingalls turned a double play off a fly ball with a man at second, Druckrey had a smart stab at third and Ault threw out a would-be base stealer.
"I was glad to see we had two or three real good defensive plays," Jones said.
Growing confidence
South now sits 2-1 for the week after taking Edgewood as seriously as it did Jasper and Center Grove. And also by posting its first error-free game of the season.
"I'm very happy," Kluesner said. "I was kind of concerned all day, it's been a grinder with the big teams we've played, so I hoped we wouldn't be flat today because Edgewood is competitive and they always play hard.
"But I very pleased with the fact we come to the ballpark ready every day."
South's intangibles apparently took care of that.
"The chemistry on this time is like nothing that I've ever been a part of," Zaleski said.
What's next
A trip to Terre Haute North (2-2) looms on Saturday for Edgewood, as it preps for next Wednesday's Western Indiana Conference opener against Indian Creek.
South heads to Vincennes Lincoln (1-2) for a noon doubleheader and then to Bedford North Lawrence on Monday.
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
BLOOMINGTON SOUTH 6, EDGEWOOD 2
Edgewood (0-4) 001 001 0 — 2 9 2
Bloomington South (2-3) 100 122 x — 6 8 0
W: Blaise Oeding (1-1). L: Connor Thummel (0-1). Sv: Logan Wright (1). 2B: Gabe Headdy (E), AJ Blevins (BS) 2, Justin Kaleski (BS), Mason Younger (BS). 3B: Brayden Brinson (BS).
|
https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/sports/2022/04/08/zaleski-stays-hot-bloomington-south-baseball-faces-edgewood/7251879001/
| 2022-04-08T09:16:50
| 0
|
https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/sports/2022/04/08/zaleski-stays-hot-bloomington-south-baseball-faces-edgewood/7251879001/
|
Officials identify Nebraska hero killed in Pearl Harbor
Published: Apr. 7, 2022 at 6:53 PM CDT|Updated: 9 hours ago
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - An American hero from Nebraska who was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor has been identified.
Walter Pentico was a 17-year-old second-class Navy seaman from Lexington, Nebraska.
Pentico was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma.
His remains were analyzed by military scientists and were positively identified.
Pentico’s name is recorded on the walls of the missing at The Punchbowl at Pearl Harbor.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he’s been accounted for.
Copyright 2022 WOWT. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/07/officials-identify-nebraska-hero-killed-pearl-harbor/
| 2022-04-08T09:32:53
| 0
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/07/officials-identify-nebraska-hero-killed-pearl-harbor/
|
NATO eyes in the sky, keeping Europe out of Russia’s war
UEDEM, Germany (AP) — As Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine accelerated early this year, military planners at NATO began preparing to dispatch scores of fighter jets and surveillance aircraft into the skies near Russia and Ukraine. It was a warning to Moscow not to make the mistake of targeting any member country.
Even in the weeks preceding the war, politicians and analysts were divided over whether President Vladimir Putin would really order Russian troops to invade. From a military point of view, though, the forces arrayed around Ukraine appeared designed to do just that.
It became a matter of urgency to put more eyes in the sky and to tightly link NATO aircraft, warships, ground-based missile systems and radar installations to protect the alliance’s eastern flank.
“We are monitoring very closely,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week. “Information, best possible situation awareness, is of course extremely critical in such a dangerous situation as we see in Ukraine now.”
In the lead-up to the Feb. 24 invasion, the alliance’s Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, western Germany, shifted gear. A few dozen military personnel now simultaneously manage up to 30 aircraft in skies from the northern tip of Norway down to Slovakia.
From an underground bunker in quiet farmland, patrolling aircraft are diverted to monitor suspicious Russian planes. Jets on 15-minute standby are routinely “Alpha Scrambled” from around Europe to intercept unidentified aircraft near NATO airspace.
More than 100 aircraft can be working aloft on any given day, mixed in among roughly 30,000 civilian flights made daily through European skies.
Six Boeing E-3A surveillance planes from NATO’s ageing fleet of early warning and control aircraft help create an “air picture” to share with member nations. These “eyes in the sky” do not fly into Ukraine or Russia, but can see up to 400 kilometers (250 miles) across borders.
Fighter jets also provide information about what is going on inside part of two countries at war. These “assets” are sometimes sent from as far away as western France, refueled mid-air, and can patrol for about an hour in the border area before they must return.
The 30-nation military alliance is wary of being drawn into a wider war with Russia, so borders and airspace are scrupulously respected.
“There is always the fog of war, and we don’t want to have NATO assets close by because even unintentionally you might have some losses,” said Major General Harold Van Pee, commander of the NATO facility in Uedem.
The most sensitive zones for unidentified planes are the Kola Peninsula — at the high north borders of Russia and Norway — the Gulf of Finland approaching the Russian city of St. Petersburg, and the skies around Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
From their computer screens, NATO personnel can also track cruise missiles, like those that Russia used last month to pound a military training base in western Ukraine near NATO member Poland, killing 35 people.
But shadowing them with aircraft is a high-risk endeavor, particularly at night, in poor weather or when the missiles hug the ground, flying so low that electrical pylons and cables become a danger. “We have to be convinced that there is a credible threat” to go after one, Van Pee said.
A less obvious challenge to NATO airspace is rogue drones. Military officers said that Russia is using powerful electromagnetic devices for communication jamming purposes which can disrupt remotely controlled flights.
Last month, a military drone drifted uncontrolled out of Ukraine through the airspace of three members – Romania, Hungary and Croatia – before crashing in the Croatian capital. Some parked cars were damaged but no one was hurt.
The drone weighed just over 6 tons. Both Russia and Ukraine denied launching it. Military officers and NATO officials refuse to comment on the incident until an investigation is completed.
“Even if you fly alongside one of those drones, are you going to do something about it? You have to ask yourself, because if you shoot it down then for sure you’re going to do damage on the ground. If you let it fly, hopefully it will crash in the sea. I mean, you don’t know,” Van Pee said.
Whether it’s a rogue drone or a missile threat, political and legal experts are supposed to be involved in any decision to shoot something down. Despite the war in its backyard, NATO is operating under strict peacetime rules and is determined to keep it that way.
“Before you start using force there has to be an imminent threat to either NATO forces or NATO populations. That’s a judgement call, and that’s always hard to make,” Van Pee said.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/nato-eyes-sky-keeping-europe-out-russias-war/
| 2022-04-08T09:32:59
| 1
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/nato-eyes-sky-keeping-europe-out-russias-war/
|
Bogus test taker to be sentenced in college admissions scam
BOSTON (AP) — A former Florida prep school administrator who took college entrance exams for students in exchange for cash to help wealthy parents get their kids into elite universities is facing sentencing.
Judge Nathaniel Gorton is slated to hand down the decision against Mark Riddell in Boston federal court on Friday.
Riddell admitted to secretly taking the ACT and SAT in place of students, or correcting their answers, as part of a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme which has ensnared celebrities, business executives and athletic coaches at sought-after schools such as Stanford and Yale.
Riddell, who had been cooperating with federal authorities in hopes of getting a lesser sentence, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in April 2019.
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins’ office, in a filing ahead of Friday’s hearing, has asked the judge to sentence Riddell to four months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and a previously-ordered forfeiture judgment of nearly $240,000.
Riddell’s lawyers, in their own sentencing memo, argued for one to two months in prison. They also note he’s paid nearly $166,000 toward the forfeiture obligation.
The Harvard graduate, who emerged as a key figure in the wide-ranging scandal, has previously said he’s “profoundly sorry” and takes full responsibility for his actions.
Riddell oversaw college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy, a school in Bradenton, Florida, founded by renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri that bills itself as the world’s largest sports academy. Riddell has since been fired.
Authorities say the admissions consultant at the center of the scheme, Rick Singer, bribed test administrators to allow Riddell to pretend to proctor the exams for students so he could cheat on the tests. Singer typically paid Riddell $10,000 per test to rig the scores, prosecutors said.
Riddell made more than $200,000 by cheating on over 25 exams, prosecutors said.
Since March 2019, a parade of wealthy parents have pleaded guilty to paying big bucks to help get their kids into school with rigged test scores or bogus athletic credentials in a case prosecutors dubbed Operation Varsity Blues.
The group — including TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli — have received punishments ranging from probation to nine months behind bars.
A Boston jury is also deliberating Friday on the fate of Jovan Vavic, a decorated former water polo coach at the University of Southern California. He’s the only coach of the many implicated to challenge his role in the scheme in a trial.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/bogus-test-taker-be-sentenced-college-admissions-scam/
| 2022-04-08T09:44:24
| 1
|
https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/bogus-test-taker-be-sentenced-college-admissions-scam/
|
NATO eyes in the sky, keeping Europe out of Russia’s war
UEDEM, Germany (AP) — As Russia’s military buildup near Ukraine accelerated early this year, military planners at NATO began preparing to dispatch scores of fighter jets and surveillance aircraft into the skies near Russia and Ukraine. It was a warning to Moscow not to make the mistake of targeting any member country.
Even in the weeks preceding the war, politicians and analysts were divided over whether President Vladimir Putin would really order Russian troops to invade. From a military point of view, though, the forces arrayed around Ukraine appeared designed to do just that.
It became a matter of urgency to put more eyes in the sky and to tightly link NATO aircraft, warships, ground-based missile systems and radar installations to protect the alliance’s eastern flank.
“We are monitoring very closely,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week. “Information, best possible situation awareness, is of course extremely critical in such a dangerous situation as we see in Ukraine now.”
In the lead-up to the Feb. 24 invasion, the alliance’s Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, western Germany, shifted gear. A few dozen military personnel now simultaneously manage up to 30 aircraft in skies from the northern tip of Norway down to Slovakia.
From an underground bunker in quiet farmland, patrolling aircraft are diverted to monitor suspicious Russian planes. Jets on 15-minute standby are routinely “Alpha Scrambled” from around Europe to intercept unidentified aircraft near NATO airspace.
More than 100 aircraft can be working aloft on any given day, mixed in among roughly 30,000 civilian flights made daily through European skies.
Six Boeing E-3A surveillance planes from NATO’s ageing fleet of early warning and control aircraft help create an “air picture” to share with member nations. These “eyes in the sky” do not fly into Ukraine or Russia, but can see up to 400 kilometers (250 miles) across borders.
Fighter jets also provide information about what is going on inside part of two countries at war. These “assets” are sometimes sent from as far away as western France, refueled mid-air, and can patrol for about an hour in the border area before they must return.
The 30-nation military alliance is wary of being drawn into a wider war with Russia, so borders and airspace are scrupulously respected.
“There is always the fog of war, and we don’t want to have NATO assets close by because even unintentionally you might have some losses,” said Major General Harold Van Pee, commander of the NATO facility in Uedem.
The most sensitive zones for unidentified planes are the Kola Peninsula — at the high north borders of Russia and Norway — the Gulf of Finland approaching the Russian city of St. Petersburg, and the skies around Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
From their computer screens, NATO personnel can also track cruise missiles, like those that Russia used last month to pound a military training base in western Ukraine near NATO member Poland, killing 35 people.
But shadowing them with aircraft is a high-risk endeavor, particularly at night, in poor weather or when the missiles hug the ground, flying so low that electrical pylons and cables become a danger. “We have to be convinced that there is a credible threat” to go after one, Van Pee said.
A less obvious challenge to NATO airspace is rogue drones. Military officers said that Russia is using powerful electromagnetic devices for communication jamming purposes which can disrupt remotely controlled flights.
Last month, a military drone drifted uncontrolled out of Ukraine through the airspace of three members – Romania, Hungary and Croatia – before crashing in the Croatian capital. Some parked cars were damaged but no one was hurt.
The drone weighed just over 6 tons. Both Russia and Ukraine denied launching it. Military officers and NATO officials refuse to comment on the incident until an investigation is completed.
“Even if you fly alongside one of those drones, are you going to do something about it? You have to ask yourself, because if you shoot it down then for sure you’re going to do damage on the ground. If you let it fly, hopefully it will crash in the sea. I mean, you don’t know,” Van Pee said.
Whether it’s a rogue drone or a missile threat, political and legal experts are supposed to be involved in any decision to shoot something down. Despite the war in its backyard, NATO is operating under strict peacetime rules and is determined to keep it that way.
“Before you start using force there has to be an imminent threat to either NATO forces or NATO populations. That’s a judgement call, and that’s always hard to make,” Van Pee said.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/nato-eyes-sky-keeping-europe-out-russias-war/
| 2022-04-08T09:44:31
| 1
|
https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/nato-eyes-sky-keeping-europe-out-russias-war/
|
Palm Coast City Council tentatively approves giving itself about a $35,000 raise
Despite overwhelming opposition from residents at the meeting, the Palm Coast City Council tentatively voted on Tuesday to give each council member an approximately $35,000 pay raise, an increase of 365%.
The City Council must still vote a second time to approve the pay raise for it to take effect. The City Council's next meeting is at 9 a.m. April 19.
Mayor David Alfin, who was elected in July, proposed the increase, saying it would help draw more talented people to serve on the council. Alfin also said the job is a full-time responsibility that demands a great deal of time.
Alfin and Council Members Ed Danko, John Fanelli and Nick Klufas voted to approve the raise, according to a webcast of the meeting.
Palm Coast pay raises:Palm Coast City Council proposes raising council pay from $9,600 annually to $44,670 each
New council member:Flagler County School administrator appointed to Palm Coast City Council
Vice Mayor Eddie Branquinho voted against the increase. Branquinho said that he opposed such a large increase and that he had served on a school board in New Jersey for no pay.
Branquinho made a motion for a smaller pay raise of $12,000 for council members and $15,000 for the mayor. It received a second for discussion by Klufas who then withdrew his second and no vote was taken.
If approved on a second vote, council members’ pay would increase to $44,670 per year and the mayor's pay to $46,470. The pay raises would take effect after the November election.
Palm Coast City Council paid less than in comparable cities, Alfin says
When Palm Coast incorporated in 1999, City Council members were paid $1,200 annually. Now, two decades later council members are paid $9,600 annually and the mayor is paid $11,400. They also receive reimbursements for expenses related to council business.
Alfin has said that according to a Florida League of Cities survey, council members in cities with populations similar to Palm Coast earned a median annual salary of more than $30,000.
Alfin also has said that Flagler County Commissioners are paid $54,746 and Flagler County School Board members earn $34,594.
Alfin said that the pay increase for the City Council would not increase taxes. He said the pay to the council would equal to about 0.07% of the yearly budget.
He said the council has a big responsibility overseeing a $250 million budget. Alfin also said the budget had increased seven-fold since the city was incorporated in 1999. It had a population then of 32,732, which has since tripled, he said.
“I believe that raising salaries would expand our pool of competent applicants giving us a city council we expect, need and deserve,” Alfin said.
Alfin said City Council members must review agenda packages which typically have several hundred pages for each meeting.
Klufas said that the job was demanding and increasing the pay would increase the potential number of people interested in the job.
"The amount of energy that's involved to do a good job far exceeds what you would expect," he said.
Keeping the pay at $9,600 would eliminate a lot of people who are working other jobs from serving on the council, he said.
Fanelli, who will only be on the council for the remainder of the year, also agreed that the job was demanding.
Councilman Ed Danko said it takes money to run for political office and increasing the pay of the position would increase the number of potential candidates. Danko also said the job requires a great deal of time, not only at meetings but also talking to residents who call him about issues.
Some residents unconvinced
But a number of residents spoke at the meeting against the council giving itself such a large pay raise. Residents said if the council was to get a raise it should be far smaller.
Former Council Member Alan Peterson spoke out against the pay increase. Peterson said he had set the council's current pay.
"I can fully support and I think the public could support an increase of a third," Peterson said.
Peterson proposed an increase to $12,000 a year for council members and $15,000 a year for the mayor.
"But more than that I'm afraid that people will run for that job, for your job, for the money and not because they want to provide service to the public," Peterson said.
Michael Martin, another resident, said he had started a petition drive to change the City Charter to take away the council's power to give itself a raise and require a vote by residents.
However, that would not impact this raise which the city can do by two votes of an ordinance.
Branquinho said that if he legally could as a council member he would sign the petition.
One resident said the council was confusing service with pay, which Branquinho agreed with.
Residents told the council that if they did not believe they were paid enough or could not afford to stay on the council they should resign.
After the council voted to approve the pay increases, some residents yelled "Go find Jesus" and "You are all crooks" as they walked out of the chambers.
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2022/04/07/palm-coast-florida-city-council-tentatively-approves-giving-itself-big-raise/9479296002/
| 2022-04-08T09:51:30
| 1
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2022/04/07/palm-coast-florida-city-council-tentatively-approves-giving-itself-big-raise/9479296002/
|
Mark Lane: Reprieve for City Island's rec hall, but what's next?
In a surprise move (don't you love government stories that start with the phrase "in a surprise move"? I do) the Daytona Beach City Commission on Wednesday night spared the old City Island Rec Center.
The fate of the recreation building seemed sealed a long time ago. And not unreasonably. It's ugly. It's in a bad location. It looks like a crack house inside. And nobody has yet come up with a good use for it even if it were restored, something that promises to be breathtakingly expensive.
But the commission votes shifted and even Mayor Derrick Henry, who for years spoke of the structure in it's-time-for-old-Spot-to-be-put-to-sleep terms, joined in the unanimous vote not to demolish the structure.
Previous coverage:Fire station, City Island Rec Center Daytona commissioners' agenda
And this:Daytona appears headed toward leveling 80-year-old City Island Rec Center
The building does have a remarkable history, as 24 of its advocates trooped up to the dais to argue at the meeting. It was dedicated Dec. 30, 1943, and called the Community Service Recreation Building because it was built for the servicemen and WACs stationed here. A lot of service people were here by that time. The war revitalized the town's economy, which had been in the dumps since the late 1920s.
"Beautiful and charming though Daytona Beach is, men and women in uniform clearly need someplace to which they can come when they are off duty," Capt. Willis Cleaves of the Daytona Beach Naval Air Station explained at the building's opening.
After the war, the hall became an all-purpose city civic center — library events when the library was next door, summer camp events, square dance clubs, cloggers, tai chi lessons, bingo, club and civic meetings. The last time I set foot in it was in 2014 when plans for the Veterans Memorial Bridge were presented for public comment. The place felt like an abandoned warehouse.
A neglected structure
A little maintenance, repair and showing the building a little love, say 20 years ago, might have kept the structure in sounder shape. But keeping the building did not appear to be part of the long-term plans for the area. Certainly not a priority.
The result looked a lot like what preservationists call "condemnation by neglect." A passive-aggressive way to get rid of old buildings. You just refuse to keep them up. Don't spend any energy figuring out alternative uses. And eventually the building will come down all on its own. For years, final condemnation always seemed just one hurricane away.
Which is why some preservationists felt the city purposely neglected the place — a suspicion that seemed justified when the city tried to slip demolition approval through the commission without debate nestled among routine items in a 2018 consent agenda. As a result, city estimates of a multi-million-dollar renovation bill have been met with some public skepticism.
More steps are ahead for a formal historic building designation and meetings are planned to find some use for the building. Frankly, I can't think of one, but the building clearly has its advocates and maybe they'll get creative.
Meanwhile, I'm more hopeful about the possibilities for another historic building downtown — the old Fire Station No. 1, on the corner of S. Beach Street and Orange Avenue. The city also agreed Wednesday to buy property on South Ridgewood Avenue that just might be useful as a site for a new fire station. An understandable desire on the part of the fire department since a station that opened in 1926 to serve a town of 10,000 cannot be expected to fill the demands of modern firefighting in a city of 73,000.
To the city’s credit, there have already been discussions about preserving the old station and turning this property into one more part of downtown's comeback.
Bringing the station back to more of its 1920s Mediterranean look would be something to see — as a restaurant, bar, apartments, offices, venue or something. Remember, a building doesn't need to be a museum to be preserved.
Tradition on the outside; vibrant, possibly tax-paying, commercial activity on the inside. It's the sign of a living downtown that has retained a little character.
— Mark Lane is a News-Journal columnist. His email is mark.lane@news-jrnl.com.
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/04/07/daytona-beach-reverses-course-old-rec-halls-future/7267322001/
| 2022-04-08T09:51:42
| 1
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/04/07/daytona-beach-reverses-course-old-rec-halls-future/7267322001/
|
Fishing Report: Ride that wind, cover more ground, but protect that bail!
Sometimes you just can’t deal with the weatherman, but you can adopt the judo philosophy and use his own strength and power against him.
Leverage, leverage, leverage.
We bring this up because just as the rain clouds are expected to move along, strong winds step in behind them. Good news: It’s looking like a west wind, which is much preferred to north or east gusts (not a windsock to be found under the water, but somehow the fish know).
It can be uncomfortable, either on the boat or at the dock, pier or surfline. But if possible, it never hurts to get the wind at your back and the current coming at you.
“You can actually use it to your benefit,” says Capt. Jeff Patterson (Pole Dancer charter). “You’re able to make some super long casts and let your bait drift and cover more area.”
Two other tips from Patterson to help negate some negative wind effects.
“Close your bail as soon as your bait hits the water and then keep that rod tip down as low as you can,” he says.
On to the roundup …
FISHBITES:The idea for Fishbites began with young Billy Carr in New Smyrna Beach
SOME TIPS:Gone fishin' but not getting any bites? These area anglers have some tips for you
Halifax/Indian River
While Patterson says the intracoastal was slow early in the week, it was a different story — as usual — around Ponce Inlet.
“Very productive with a variety,” he says. “Sheepshead, really nice Spanish mackerel, a bunch of jacks, bluefish and some nice flounder.”
The river wasn’t a total loss, however, as long as you enjoyed the challenge of bringing in sandbar sharks.
“A pile of them in the 2-4 foot range,” Patterson says. “Also some small mangroves and small flounder.”
In the Port Orange area, Craig Patterson (no relation) says the flounder have been a bit bigger and especially fond of mud minnows. Sink your bait near the bottom and retrieve slowly, he says. And don’t be surprised if a strike is followed by the feel of dead weight.
“Many times the angler thinks he’s hung up because the flounder usually doesn’t run with the bait,” says Patterson (Donald’s Bait & Tackle). “A firm hook-set is required and because of the fish’s bony mouth, a quick landing before the head-shake will help avoid losing the fish at the net.”
Rig of choice, according to Patterson: Carolina rig, 2/0 hook, mud minnow.
Surf & Piers
B.J. Taylor, who operates the Southern Bred Charter and specializes in both shark fishing and general surf fishing, joins the conversation this week. He likes what he’s seeing and hearing on the beaches, from Brevard all the way up to Flagler.
“Whiting, pompano, bluefish and sharks are the hot bite,” he says. “Whiting and pompano have been hitting fresh clams, shrimp, crab knuckles, and live sandfleas if you’re able to find them.”
Loosen up the shoulder if you’re hoping to get some of those early pompano making their way north, however.
“Unlike most spring runs, where the pompano are in close to the beach, most have come from far over a 100-yard cast — that’s been producing the larger of the fish,” Taylor says.
With temps dipping over the weekend, keep tabs on the ocean temps. If it’s at or near the pompano’s magic 68-degree mark, get your rig together.
Taylor also reminds you, if you’re specifically targeting shark, you must go to MyFWC.com and get your free shark-fishing license (after passing a test, that is).
St. Johns
Along with the ongoing largemouth catches, Capt. Bryn Adams (Highland Park Fish Camp) says they’re starting to see some good-sized stripers and hybrids in the main river.
In and around Lake Woodruff, Adams says “we’re seeing bluegill and other panfish starting to come in, but with the cooler temperatures coming this weekend, we’re expecting a short pause in action.”
“Once the weather levels out,” she adds, “this is a great time of year to pitch crickets, live worms or Beetle Spins against the bank to catch a mixed bag.”
This & That
• OK, so you finally bought a boat. Well, now you have to keep it running. Help is here.
Tommy Burnup will do the seminar duties this month (April 21) at the Halifax Sport Fishing Club in Port Orange. Burnup owns and operates TB Marine, a local mobile marine service. He’ll give advice on maintaining a functioning boat and motor and will show off some of the parts and materials to make it happen.
More info: HSFC.com.
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/sports/outdoors/fishing/2022/04/08/fishing-report-east-coast-florida-big-blow-way-so-here-couple-tips/7264151001/
| 2022-04-08T09:51:48
| 0
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/sports/outdoors/fishing/2022/04/08/fishing-report-east-coast-florida-big-blow-way-so-here-couple-tips/7264151001/
|
This content is only available to subscribers.
Support Local Journalism
$1 for 6 Months.
Your subscription supports:
Are you a subscriber with digital access?
Sign in to your accountAre you a subscriber without digital access?
Activate your digital accountAre you a subscriber without digital access?
Activate your digital accountThis content is only available to subscribers.
Support Local Journalism
$1 for 6 Months.
Your subscription supports:
Are you a subscriber with digital access?
Sign in to your accountAre you a subscriber without digital access?
Activate your digital account
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news-journalonline.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2022%2F04%2F07%2Fsurplus-unlimited-marine-supply-store-endures-34-years-daytona-beach%2F7216285001%2F
| 2022-04-08T09:55:31
| 1
|
https://www.news-journalonline.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news-journalonline.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2F2022%2F04%2F07%2Fsurplus-unlimited-marine-supply-store-endures-34-years-daytona-beach%2F7216285001%2F
|
CARMEL, Ind. — Thousands of people are headed to Carmel this weekend to put their minds and bodies to the test.
The Carmel Marathon is taking place Saturday, but the anticipation has already begun.
The Carmel Marathon is returning for its 12th year and is expected to welcome the largest field of runners ever.
For the second year in a row, the race has sold out its full marathon event and is on track to reach capacity in the half marathon.
So far, participants are registered from 43 states and five countries. It’s also the largest percentage of out-of-state runners ever!
Organizers said this is because last year’s marathon was one of only a handful that still happened during the peak of COVID-19.
“We had a completely full, sold-out event in 2021,” said Todd Oliver, president and race director of Carmel Red Racing Group. “We were one of the first marathons in the US to go live. We did have COVID restrictions in place with mask requirements and spaced-out corrals, and we did our expo outside vs. inside. So we did do we implement COVID protocols, but we were live and we were full scale.”
Nearly 3,500 people are expected to make their way to Carmel this weekend to race and cheer on their loved ones. Organizers say they are working with the city to ensure traffic flows smoothly and detours are available.
The fitness expo is returning to Carmel High School. It kicks off at 11 a.m. Friday and offers free fun for the whole family. There will be vendors featuring apparel, running products, food retailers and much more.
To learn more, click here.
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/carmel-marathon-returns-for-12th-year-sold-out-ahead-of-race-day/
| 2022-04-08T09:59:48
| 0
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/carmel-marathon-returns-for-12th-year-sold-out-ahead-of-race-day/
|
INDIANAPOLIS – A weekend event aims to help middle and high school families prepare for the next step in their education.
The Indy School’s High School Fair will feature 17 public high schools. Each will have a representative available to help families figure out the best fit for their student.
Organizers said they’ve seen a need for schools with unique programs.
“A lot of these high schools offer things like earning IT certifications during high school, study abroad programs, early college and dual credit, some STEM focused, project-based learning things. So many things that students can encourage their interests and strengths with,” said Kateri Whitley with the Mind Trust.
The fair will feature workshops on preparing for college and how to apply for scholarships. Organizations can also sign students up for summer learning labs.
The event will feature more than $2,000 in raffle prizes, including gas and grocery gift cards.
If you’re interested, the fair is Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Global Village Welcome Center on Lafayette Road. You can find more information here.
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/fair-aims-to-prepare-students-for-education-future/
| 2022-04-08T09:59:54
| 1
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/fair-aims-to-prepare-students-for-education-future/
|
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled the women who claimed Indiana’s former attorney general drunkenly groped them cannot pursue a lawsuit against the state government under federal sexual harassment laws.
The Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a decision issued Wednesday that the women worked for Indiana’s legislative branch as House or Senate staffers and upheld a lower court judge’s ruling that state government as a whole and then-Attorney General Curtis Hill had no employment authority over them despite his elected position as the state’s top lawyer.
The three female staffers filed the lawsuit alleging that the Republican attorney general inappropriately touched their backs or buttocks and made unwelcome sexual comments during a 2018 party at an Indianapolis bar.
Hill has denied wrongdoing but the state Supreme Court ordered a 30-day suspension of his law license after finding “by clear and convincing evidence that (Hill) committed the criminal act of battery” against the women and then-state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, a Munster Democrat.
Lawyers for the women argued before the appeals court in December that dismissing the state from the lawsuit would create a “loophole” allowing it to avoid responsibility.
The lawsuit remains pending against the Indiana House and Senate and the appeals court ruling said those entities were the women’s employers.
“Plaintiffs protest that the House and Senate are not the Attorney General’s employer and can’t control him — but the statute requires people to sue their own employers, not someone else’s,” the ruling said. “Many decisions say that an employer can be liable for failing to protect employees from discrimination by third parties, such as customers, even when the employer cannot directly control those third parties.”
The Indianapolis law firm representing the women declined to comment Thursday on the appeals court decision.
Hill faces a separate lawsuit filed by the women in Marion County court, seeking unspecified monetary damages against Hill on claims that he committed battery against them and defamed them with repeated statements that their allegations were false. Trial is scheduled for September.
The groping allegations were key campaign issue against Hill when he lost the 2020 Republican attorney general nomination for his reelection to Todd Rokita, who took office in January 2021.
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indiana-not-liable-in-curtis-hill-groping-suit-court-rules/
| 2022-04-08T10:00:00
| 1
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/indiana-not-liable-in-curtis-hill-groping-suit-court-rules/
|
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Avian influenza has been detected in a northern Indiana duck farm, state officials said Thursday, marking the disease’s spread to a third poultry species.
Laboratory testing of a commercial duck flock in Elkhart County has come back as presumptively positive for the virus, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health said. The samples are being verified at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa.
The duck flock has an estimated 4,000 birds, the agency said.
The animal health board in an announcement Thursday night did not say whether the ducks would be destroyed, as happened with six turkey farms in southern Indiana’s Dubois and Greene counties.
So far this year, there have been cases of bird flu in 24 states affecting chickens and turkeys.
Pending test results should indicate if it is the same strain of the virus that has been found elsewhere and if it is highly pathogenic.
Animal Health Board staff have reached out to known hobby/backyard poultry owners in the area to schedule testing of birds there, it said.
The agency said avian influenza does not present an immediate public health concern and no human cases of avian influenza viruses have been detected in the U.S.
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/state-officials-bird-flu-found-at-indiana-duck-farm/
| 2022-04-08T10:00:06
| 0
|
https://fox59.com/indiana-news/state-officials-bird-flu-found-at-indiana-duck-farm/
|
LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Ca. (KTLA) — Nearly a dozen people were stuck on a theme park ride at Universal Studios Hollywood Thursday afternoon after the ride encountered a mechanical issue.
Los Angeles County firefighters responded to the theme park in Universal City around 3:45 p.m. after 11 people became stuck on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride within the Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of the park.
First responders were able to slowly get riders off the theme park ride, which takes riders along an indoor track that Universal says features “sudden tilting, turning and jarring action,” and “abrupt multi-directional motion that turns you on your back.”
The exact type of mechanical issue is unclear at this time. There have not yet been any reports of injuries related to the stalled ride.
|
https://fox59.com/news/national-world/mechanical-issue-stalls-harry-potter-ride-at-universal-studios/
| 2022-04-08T10:00:12
| 0
|
https://fox59.com/news/national-world/mechanical-issue-stalls-harry-potter-ride-at-universal-studios/
|
Pockets of rain and snow have arrived, along with the colder air. Out-the-door, bring a heavier coat and umbrella for today, as winterish weather whips back into the state. Due to the lack of full sunshine, passing showers and breezy, westerly winds, today will feel more like February than April! Afternoon highs will struggle to reach the middle 40s…roads will be wet NOT icy.
Additional wintry mix will continue for this evening and overnight! Lows will drop down to around 32°, so roads should remain wet and not frozen through tomorrow morning.
Saturday brings additional rain and snow showers off and on, while winds remain steady and brisk from the northwest at 12-18 mph. More clouds will hamper a warm-up until Sunday afternoon. Temperatures could drop to 30° early on Sunday, threatening plants and flowers. A frost advisory could be issued for your county.
Bright sun returns on Sunday, along with a return to milder air. A larger push of warmth arrives on Monday through Wednesday, as highs return to the middle 70s. Medium range models remain inconsistent on rain timing early next week. For now, I’m keeping us in drier pattern with limited shower/storm chances for both Monday and Tuesday mornings…be sure to check in this weekend on those trends before making your early workweek plans.
|
https://fox59.com/weather/wintry-mix-is-here-sunday-brings-sunshine/
| 2022-04-08T10:00:18
| 0
|
https://fox59.com/weather/wintry-mix-is-here-sunday-brings-sunshine/
|
The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Don't Waste Your Money may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link to the retailer's website.
If you’re looking to shake off those winter blues and celebrate spring, Lowe’s SpringFest is returning for the second year in a row, offering deals, workshops and more both online and in-store now through May 4.
Just a few of the standout deals include $100 off select EGO lawn mowers (valid April 7-20), a Char-broil 5-Burner Gas Grill for $278 (valid April 7-20) and a four-piece Patio Conversation Set for $498 (valid April 7-13).
Other deals include 5 for $10 on select 4-pack annuals in stores, 3 for $12 select Bonnie Plants 19.3-ounce vegetables and herbs in-store and 5/$10 2-cubic-feet of Premium Mulch (valid April 7-13).
Along with the deals, you’ll also find seed giveaways at select in-store locations and new 30-minute in-store lawn and garden “walking tours” with Lowe’s store associates.
The SpringFestival Garden Tours will be offered three times per day every Tuesday and Thursday. Time and dates include 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on April 19, 21, 26 and 28. You can register for a time slot at Lowes.com/SpringFest.
After joining the tour, you’ll receive a coupon for $10 off when you spend $75 in-store or online that same day.
Lowe’s will also be offering workshops throughout the season, including How to Build and Plant a Raised Garden Bed and How to Create a Beautiful Lawn. The workshops are in-store or via livestream.
The first workshop is live online on April 19 at 8 p.m. Called Make the Neighbors Jealous with Colorful Flower Beds, you’ll learn how to add color, personality and curb appeal to your landscape with easy-to-follow flower bed design tips.
You can register for the workshops by visiting Lowes’ website.
There will also be a few kid’s workshops, including The Little Gardener’s Workshop in-store on April 16 from 9 a.m.-noon. Kids will build a See it Grow Planter Kit that they can use to plant flowers.
You can register now through April 15. Because this is an in-person workshop, you’ll need to make sure you have a Lowe’s near you and that they are offering the workshop.
You can find out more about Lowe’s SpringFest by visiting their website.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money.
|
https://www.wmar2news.com/lowes-springfest-sales-workshops-freebies-begun
| 2022-04-08T10:21:19
| 0
|
https://www.wmar2news.com/lowes-springfest-sales-workshops-freebies-begun
|
If you haven’t purchased some “Forever” stamps in a while, you might want to stock up.
The U.S. Postal Service is looking to increase the price of stamps by 2 cents every six months beginning July 10, 2022. The U.S.P.S filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission proposing the change, but it has not yet been reviewed. The increase, if approved, would take the current price of stamps from 58 cents to 60 cents this summer.
The increase would raise First-Class Mail prices approximately 6.5%, which is lower than the annual inflation rate of 7.9%, which is the highest single-year jump since 1982.
If it takes affect, the single-piece letter additional ounce price would increase to 24 cents, the metered mail 1-ounce price would increase to 57 cents and the price of a postcard stamp would increase to 44 cents. If you often send mail to other countries, you’ll see a one-ounce letter mailed out of the U.S. increased to $1.40.
The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for special services products like Certified Mail, Post Office Box rental fees and Money Order fees, but they have not revealed the exact prices they’re looking at.
The U.S.P.S. announced the proposed increase in January, saying that in each subsequent year, they plan to implement price changes in January and July. They will be filing the necessary paperwork for review each preceding October and April, which means the next increase could be January 2023, taking the cost of stamps to 62 cents, then 64 cents in July 2023.
Here’s a breakdown of the proposed Mailing Services price changes:
Forever stamps, which will work despite the price increase, can be purchased at your local post office or grocery store, or you can order them online.
You’ll find nearly 50 different stamps for 58 cents, including nature-themed, American flags, Star Wars and more.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money.
|
https://www.wmar2news.com/price-stamps-could-increase-every-6-months-beginning-july-2022
| 2022-04-08T10:21:25
| 1
|
https://www.wmar2news.com/price-stamps-could-increase-every-6-months-beginning-july-2022
|
Six candidates for Calhoun County Commission seats spent an hour together Thursday night on a dais with the opportunity to give their views on seven different subjects — and they did so without rancor or combativeness and with agreement on most subjects.
The candidates were participating in a forum presented by the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce along with The Anniston Star, Calhoun County Democratic Party, the Calhoun County Republican Party and the Cheaha Republican Women’s Club.
Henry Mullinax, chairman of the Chamber’s Public Affairs Committee, served as moderator and offered the candidates the questions, which were derived from submissions and suggestions of local constituents, then chosen by a non-partisan panel.
Incumbent commissioners Fred Wilson (District 1) and Lee Patterson (District 5) face no opposition for their posts, but were in attendance as part of the audience numbering around 40 at the Anniston City Meeting Center.
District 2 candidates incumbent Danny Shears (R), Charity Beecham (R), and Mercy Pilkington (D); District 4 candidates incumbent John “J.D.” Hess (R) and Terry Howell (R); and District 3 incumbent Carolyn Henderson (R) made up the dais. District 3 candidate Scott Martin (R) was unable to attend due to a family emergency.
A brief summary of each candidate’s views on each issue presented during the forum follows. Voters are encouraged to contact any candidate for further explanation of their stands on the issues or any other issues of concern.
Use of the $22.6 million of one-time funds the county will receive from the American Rescue Act
Beecham: “The funds will definitely need to be used at the police station. I know there are a lot of issues their incorporating mental health with the inmates. Economic development is important as well.
Hess: “The Rescue money has very stringent overlooks on it. We have to go through the group that is over this. It has to be approved by them what you spend it on. You can think of a lot of a great ideas. Mental health is a big issue we have to face today. That’s a top priority to me. The jail needs upgrading. Our water and natural resources in the rural parts of the county and roads and bridges are a top priority also.
Henderson: “My request was approved and I intend to put a holding tank at the end of Corning up on the mountain so these residents can have water pressure they haven’t had in 80 years. That’s already in the works. And, I want to see water lines and fire hydrants.”
Howell: “When I ran last time, I visited the jail and it was in much needed repair then. Mental health is definitely an issue. We have a lot of roads in District 4 that need attention. The Ag Center should continue also.”
Shears: “There are stipulations on these funds and we have to use the funds by 2026 or they are forfeited. We have to use it for certain things that qualify. We are working on some great projects in the county right now. It’s up to us to be good stewards of that money and I believe we will.”
Pilkington: “As an educator, my first thought is always going to be our schools and our children. Our children have mental health needs, too, and they are not being addressed either in the medical system or our school systems because that’s not the job of the systems. I want more broadband access and being more prepared next time we have an issue like the pandemic.”
How to use the estimated $1 million in revenue from the simplified sellers use tax
Hess: “I want to see some moneys set aside for our employees, law and first responders. They’re in dire need for more money. Our people are getting further and further behind the more we go along.”
Henderson: “I would like to spend my part on making sure I give back to the people of my district some of the tax money they have paid out with the services I am allowed to give them.”
Howell: “The retention rate at the sheriff’s office is terrible. Taking that money and upgrading deputies, jailers and the entire organization would be great. It seems like the sheriff’s office has just become a training ground for a lot of other agencies.”
Shears: “If we give increases with that simplified tax, you have to think there is more people purchasing from the internet and are less likely to go to Oxford, Anniston, Jacksonville or Piedmont to buy those things at a brick and mortar store. If it nets out in revenue, I’d say our number one priority as a county would be to take care of our employees.”
Pilkington: “That money comes from people who are not shopping in Calhoun County for whatever reason. I would like to see a lot more effort in getting young people staying in the county and start business and help keep them here.”
Beecham: “Taxes can be very important; however, we as citizens and business owners are being taxed to death right now. I don’t like the idea of outside vendors. That’s an issue for me. What to use the money for if applicable? Definitely, employment. It’s important for the county commission to take pride in its employees.”
The loss of concealed carry permit fees under recently passed legislation and its effects on the sheriff’s office budget
Henderson: “If we have a major loss, we can always float a bond. We’ve already done that to fund the sheriff’s department and rebuild the sheriff’s department. That’s already being done and that’s $5 million. We’re hoping in the future to put in a medical wing there. That would stop any transportings.”
Howell: “I informed the sheriff I travel out of state and I will continue to buy my permit to support that. The sheriff has done an excellent job in funding vehicles and maintenance with the money that has come in from that. I’m not sure how to adjust the funds, but something will have to be done because [the sheriff] is definitely going to be short [of funding] for buying vehicles.”
Shears: “Over the years, we’ve had to do the best we can with the sheriff’s department during tough times. Losing that permit funding is going to sting a little bit because we weren’t expecting that. However, as a commission I know we’ll work together by maybe cutting a little here and there to fund the sheriff’s department. Without proper policing, people won’t be coming to this county for tourism and things like that. You have to make it where people feel safe to come to Calhoun County and right now they do.”
Pilkington: “Is this where I go full Democrat and say legalize marijuana? If we tax the snot out of it, we won’t need the pistol permit funds. I say that as a pistol carrying permit Democrat. That law was a terrible blow. We had our sheriff’s association saying not to do this. They relied on that income. We need to encourage as many people as possible to go ahead and get that permit. You need it to cross state lines and you can get a picture ID. We could look at raising the fees on traffic violations.”
Beecham: “If applicable, some have talked about using the American Rescue Act fund. It would seem wise if we could until the commission could figure out a better plan.”
Hess: “I have a close working relationship with our delegation in Montgomery. I have been assured they are going to see what the shortfall is. I have been assured they are going to take care of this. If it were to turn out a different way, we have always found a way to make it happen and we’ll do it again, I assure you.”
Rural broadband access
Howell: “The bottom line is funding will have to come from the Federal level to secure what is going to be needed. It’s going to be a very, very expensive project, but we have kids here that couldn’t do their homework when schools shut down and that can’t be.”
Shears: “It’s going to happen because it was in the first Federal stimulus package. Broadband was given billions of dollars throughout all the states. It’s going to happen. They’re putting things in place. The representatives in Montgomery are on board with it.”
Pilkington: “It’s not only a matter of having the access, 55 percent of the entire state only has one choice of a provider. It’s also about having the competition so we’re not all held to paying $90 to $100 a month for something children have to have for school, job applicants have to have it and college students have to have it.”
Beecham: “We have to bid out the internet. It only goes to the lowest bidder, but sometimes the lowest bidder isn’t the best. It is a problem for both city and rural areas. There are grants that can help with internet infrastructure. That’s something I would look into a lot more.”
Hess: “[Legislators] from the state and Washington, D.C. are going to have to fund it. It’s as simple as that. The need is there. That’s our future and I think it going to happen in the near future.”
Henderson: “We’re at the mercy of the legislative delegation. There’s not much the county commission can do to make them give us the money. We’re kind of low on the totem pole.”
Home rule for Calhoun County?
Shears: “I sat with a local mayor and a state representative on one side of the table and a large company on the other side of the table. They were looking at doing a more than $300 million investment in Calhoun County. To me, that was fun to set there and think we were negotiating with a company that could bring jobs and money into Calhoun County. We have what we need. I’ve never been in favor of home rule. If the wrong people were in charge, taxes would go up.”
Pilkington: “When it comes to spending money as a political body, I appreciate a commission that would be cheap. I don’t like the thought of making the ability to spend money easier than we do. As far as finances for our county commission, it it’s not broke don’t fix it.”
Beecham: “I’m against taxes and businesses are vital for the growth of the county and employees and for revenue purposes.”
Hess: “Home rule is more than just taxes. Home rule would give you opportunities to have zoning laws and have the authority to clean up some of the areas in Calhoun County. If you go out in the country and build a $300,000 house, then somebody builds a shack next door and junks it up — we’ve got problems. Home rule has some good points to it.”
Henderson: “I would like to have just one thing of home rule, and that’s zoning power.”
Howell: “I’m not in favor of home rule. We have quality jobs. The Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce does a great job of promoting jobs. There are several manufacturers here.”
Completion of new water tower project in the Wellborn area
All six candidates gave enthusiastic support for a Wellborn water tower project.
Condemnation/nuisance law
Beecham: “I would like to partner [with Anniston] with what they are doing with properties. I think we need to work together. Nobody likes to see a condemned properties or live next to it.”
Hess: “We have a real problem with homes that have been left. They need to be torn down, but that’s a two-headed sword. If you tear the house down, there’s no taxes coming in and you have the investment of tearing it down. We do have revenue set aside to clean up and tear down houses, but it can be detrimental in the loss of tax revenue.”
Henderson: “This doesn’t help the people in my district. We’re kind of in a catch-22 here. We either clean them up or we don’t, so we choose to do it at taxpayers’ expense.”
Howell: “Nuisance abatement is always a large portion of the commission agenda. They spend a tremendous amount of time on that. It has to be addressed. It’s just that — a nuisance to our county. We have people coming in bringing jobs, and they ride around and consider things like that. I support whatever we have to do to clean it up.”
Shears: “There is a reason people like to live in the country and not the city — there is less restrictions on it. I think we do pretty well on nuisance abatements and dismissals. We give them every opportunity in the world to clean up their place before we take action.”
Pilkington: “If there is money for us to go ahead and clean up some of the properties, I’d like to see that turned into loans for the homeowners. A lot of the things that stops someone from improving their property is they can’t afford it. If we have money to tear something down, let’s use some to build it up as a loan with low or no interest rates so a person can afford to improve that property.”
|
https://www.annistonstar.com/news/chamber-forum-generally-agreeable-affair/article_7d28f6ae-b6f6-11ec-9189-bbe954a5cbf3.html
| 2022-04-08T10:57:07
| 0
|
https://www.annistonstar.com/news/chamber-forum-generally-agreeable-affair/article_7d28f6ae-b6f6-11ec-9189-bbe954a5cbf3.html
|
NJ school report cards portray plunging participation in pandemic
TRENTON – New school report cards issued by the state this week offer a snapshot of what the pandemic did to schools and students in the 2020-21 academic year, between the categories that are missing and the trends in others.
Reports for the state, each district and each public school can be accessed on the state Department of Education website or through www.njschooldata.org.
Assistant Education Commissioner Kathy Ehling said New Jersey is in line with national trends and that the takeaways should include a need to focus on the whole child.
“While it’s important to look at all of this data and the academic impacts, that we really can’t talk about the academic impacts without thinking about all of the other pieces that need to be supported in not just our children but in our educators,” Ehling told the State Board of Education.
Ehling said New Jersey schools are using their federal COVID funds for things such as learning acceleration, summer and afternoon programs and comprehensive mental health.
“I do think that that’s going to be the story that’s going to be told moving forward out of the pandemic,” she said. “It will be years before we know exactly the full impact, but we need to make sure that we are making investments now so that we can support our students moving forward.”
JUST AHEAD: County-by-county lists of each high school's average SAT scores are at the bottom of this post.
The impacts of the pandemic are evident throughout the reports, and not just because the pages detailing state standardized tests and student progress are blank because the federal government waived the requirement that the exams be administered.
For instance, the data in the report reflects that about 60% fewer students took the PSAT, 35% fewer took the SAT, 40% fewer took a special education assessment and 30% fewer took an assessment for English-language learners.
“Most of the impacts are decreases in overall participation, with some areas seeing larger impacts than others,” Ehling said.
Among those who did take the tests, performance was up. The average combined score on the PSAT climbed from 949 in 2019-20 to 1020 in 2020-21, and it rose from 1072 to 1117 on the SAT. The ACT average score went up in math, reading and science and was level in English.
It’s possible the higher average scores could reflect that it was generally the most committed students who took the exams.
Enrollment in Advanced Placement classes stayed the same, though slightly fewer took and passed the exams. Disciplinary incidents plunged 89% from before the pandemic – but so many virtual school days limited the opportunity for teachers to observe conflicts.
Michael Symons is the Statehouse bureau chief for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at michael.symons@townsquaremedia.com
Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.
|
https://nj1015.com/nj-school-report-cards-portray-plunging-participation-in-pandemic/
| 2022-04-08T11:01:07
| 0
|
https://nj1015.com/nj-school-report-cards-portray-plunging-participation-in-pandemic/
|
NJ weather: A beautiful spring day Friday, not a perfect weekend
The Bottom Line
Over the past few days, we got soaked. Rainfall totals ranged from just over an inch in parts of South Jersey to over four inches in North Jersey. As we've discussed, we really needed the rain to mitigate our year-to-date rainfall deficit and drought concerns. (We'll find out the true impacts of the soaking next Thursday, when the new Drought Monitor report comes out.)
We do have some residual flooding issues, big puddles, and patchy fog around the state Friday morning.
Looking ahead, there are no more super soaker storm systems in our immediate future.
As the sun comes out, Friday will turn into a nice day.
But the weekend forecast is not perfect. Temperatures will be stuck below normal. Clouds will win the sky. And we do have to talk about some hit-or-miss rain showers too.
The long-range forecast still shows a nice warmup by the middle of next week.
Friday
A much brighter, drier, happier weather day.
Although there could be some lingering clouds early and late, sunshine should dominate the sky. Our weather will stay completely dry during the daytime hours.
We're starting out in the 40s across the state Friday morning. Highs should reach about 60 to 65 degrees Friday afternoon.
Friday evening also looks good. We'll see partly cloudy skies, with lows in the mid 40s. (Not a frost/freeze.) However, spotty rain showers may creep in after Midnight through early Saturday morning.
Saturday
Things may be a bit damp, with some hit-or-miss rain showers around. Best chance of raindrops will be during the morning. I'm not sure you'll need to carry the umbrella necessarily. Just don't be surprised by a spurt of wet weather.
Saturday does look mainly dry. We'll likely see more clouds than sun overhead. And high temperatures will consequently only reach the mid 50s. That is about 5 degrees below normal for this time of year.
Sunday
Sunday looks like the brighter and drier day of the weekend. But also the cooler day — a morning frost/freeze is possible, and highs will only reach the lower 50s.
Look for partly sunny skies, with a stiff northwesterly breeze over 20 mph at times. In general, a NW breeze is a chilly one. And Sunday's wind is no exception - I think it will keep us in "jacket weather" all day.
Some models plug in a sprinkle around the midday hours on Sunday. But again, mainly dry across the entire day.
Monday & Beyond
Monday's forecast has trended downhill lately. It looks mostly cloudy and seasonable, with highs around 60. And yet again, I can't rule out a quick shower at some point.
Tuesday will be our next "beautiful" day. Sunshine will help push high temperatures to near 70 degrees. It could be our first widespread 70-degree day since mid-March.
Thermometers will wobble a bit through the second half of next week, but should still stay above normal. I can't guarantee when our next completely dry weather day will be. But isn't that what showery April is all about?
Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates.
|
https://nj1015.com/nj-weather-a-beautiful-spring-day-friday-not-a-perfect-weekend/
| 2022-04-08T11:01:13
| 0
|
https://nj1015.com/nj-weather-a-beautiful-spring-day-friday-not-a-perfect-weekend/
|
Klotzbach and the university released their annual outlook, which is calling for 19 named storms, nine hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
The reasons for the above-average forecast include the lack of El Nino and warmer than normal subtropical Atlantic temperatures.
El Nino, Klotzbach explained in a tweet, generally increases vertical wind shear in the Atlantic, tearing apart hurricanes.
One of the reasons for the above-average Atlantic seasonal #hurricane forecast from CSU is due to the likely lack of #ElNino this summer/fall. El Nino generally increases vertical wind shear in the Atlantic, tearing apart hurricanes. pic.twitter.com/ef5kiv56Ci
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) April 7, 2022
Average August-October sea surface temperature anomalies in CSU's six analog years for 2022 Atlantic hurricane season: 1996, 2000, 2001, 2008, 2012 and 2021. Analogs selected based on cool neutral ENSO/weak La Nina and near average to warm tropical Atlantic for August-October. pic.twitter.com/FcxSFwf2jz
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) April 7, 2022
The chance for at least one major hurricane making landfall for the entire continental U.S. coastline is at 71%. The average for the last century has been 52%.
Of note for people here in Texas, the probability of a major storm along the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle westward to Brownsville is at 46%.
Major hurricanes are storms that are Category 3, 4, or 5 and those windspeeds will be over 111 mph.
While hurricane season isn't here just yet, the forecast's release is a reminder that you should stay ready as it only takes one hurricane making landfall to affect lives.
You're urged to be prepared the same for every season, regardless of the predicted activity. A below-average Atlantic Hurricane Season was forecasted in 2017, which is the year Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas coast.
The most active season on record took place in 2020, when 30 named storms, 14 hurricanes, and 7 major hurricanes occurred.
The Atlantic hurricane season starts on June 1 and ends on Nov. 30. But in recent years, named storms have become common in May and even as early as April.
Atlantic seasonal #hurricane forecast from @ColoradoStateU calls for above-average season: 19 named storms, 9 hurricanes & 4 major hurricanes. Reasons for above-average forecast include predicted lack of #ElNino and warmer than normal subtropical Atlantichttps://t.co/uauRVHEjql pic.twitter.com/7dzsFjQBN9
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) April 7, 2022
|
https://abc11.com/2022-hurricane-season-predictions-colorado-state-university-prediction-when-is-what-the-for/11721784/
| 2022-04-08T11:05:37
| 0
|
https://abc11.com/2022-hurricane-season-predictions-colorado-state-university-prediction-when-is-what-the-for/11721784/
|
SANFORD, N.C. (WTVD) -- A North Carolina woman will soon make her lifelong dream come true: performing on Broadway.
Mariah Reives of Lee County is in Funny Girl, the show that put Barbara Streisand on her road to fame.
"I am dancing my life away through this show and it's so much fun," Reives said. "As a little girl I always knew I wanted to be a dancer. I knew I was put on this earth of perform, so now that this dream has actually come to fruition, I am so grateful every single day I get to go to the theatre and I get to perform this show and get to do it in front of an audience."
Reives started dancing at the age of three, taking classes at "Dancer's Workshop" in Sanford. She went on to train at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts while in high school and she later attended college in New York.
Funny Girl will be at the August Wilson Theatre beginning April 24. The show is expected to run for about a year.
|
https://abc11.com/funny-girl-mariah-reives-broadway-tickets/11724837/
| 2022-04-08T11:05:44
| 0
|
https://abc11.com/funny-girl-mariah-reives-broadway-tickets/11724837/
|
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A new development is in the works for Glenwood South in Raleigh.
Soon, shipping containers will be used to house restaurants, bars and shops--much like the recent development known as Boxyard RTP, which opened in late 2021.
Developers see an opportunity to bring a similar space to a piece of land at the corner of Peace Street and Glenwood Avenue where an old gas station and car inspection station now sits.
The Yard, as it is being called, would be home to a bar, kitchen, 20 shipping containers with more bars and food, outdoor space, fire pits and more.
|
https://abc11.com/glenwood-south-the-yard-boxyard-shipping-containers/11725000/
| 2022-04-08T11:05:50
| 1
|
https://abc11.com/glenwood-south-the-yard-boxyard-shipping-containers/11725000/
|
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A chase on Interstate 40 ended with a North Carolina State Highway Patrol cruiser mangled in a crash.
The chase started in Johnston County when the driver refused to pull over, according to deputies. The chase then dragged on to I-40 and into Raleigh.
NCSHP and Raleigh Police Department then joined in on the car chase.
It all ended when the suspect crashed into two vehicles, including a State Highway Patrol cruiser, near the Rock Quarry Road exit on I-40.
One person had to be taken to the hospital, but no other details have been released.
Stay with ABC11.com as we gather more information about this.
Interstate 40 chase ends in crash near Rock Quarry Road exit
Copyright © 2022 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
|
https://abc11.com/i40-crash-police-chase-trooper-near-rock-quarry-road/11724904/
| 2022-04-08T11:05:56
| 0
|
https://abc11.com/i40-crash-police-chase-trooper-near-rock-quarry-road/11724904/
|
Bogus test taker to be sentenced in college admissions scam
BOSTON (AP) — A former Florida prep school administrator who took college entrance exams for students in exchange for cash to help wealthy parents get their kids into elite universities is facing sentencing.
Judge Nathaniel Gorton is slated to hand down the decision against Mark Riddell in Boston federal court on Friday.
Riddell admitted to secretly taking the ACT and SAT in place of students, or correcting their answers, as part of a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme which has ensnared celebrities, business executives and athletic coaches at sought-after schools such as Stanford and Yale.
Riddell, who had been cooperating with federal authorities in hopes of getting a lesser sentence, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in April 2019.
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins’ office, in a filing ahead of Friday’s hearing, has asked the judge to sentence Riddell to four months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and a previously-ordered forfeiture judgment of nearly $240,000.
Riddell’s lawyers, in their own sentencing memo, argued for one to two months in prison. They also note he’s paid nearly $166,000 toward the forfeiture obligation.
The Harvard graduate, who emerged as a key figure in the wide-ranging scandal, has previously said he’s “profoundly sorry” and takes full responsibility for his actions.
Riddell oversaw college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy, a school in Bradenton, Florida, founded by renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri that bills itself as the world’s largest sports academy. Riddell has since been fired.
Authorities say the admissions consultant at the center of the scheme, Rick Singer, bribed test administrators to allow Riddell to pretend to proctor the exams for students so he could cheat on the tests. Singer typically paid Riddell $10,000 per test to rig the scores, prosecutors said.
Riddell made more than $200,000 by cheating on over 25 exams, prosecutors said.
Since March 2019, a parade of wealthy parents have pleaded guilty to paying big bucks to help get their kids into school with rigged test scores or bogus athletic credentials in a case prosecutors dubbed Operation Varsity Blues.
The group — including TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli — have received punishments ranging from probation to nine months behind bars.
A Boston jury is also deliberating Friday on the fate of Jovan Vavic, a decorated former water polo coach at the University of Southern California. He’s the only coach of the many implicated to challenge his role in the scheme in a trial.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/bogus-test-taker-be-sentenced-college-admissions-scam/
| 2022-04-08T11:06:11
| 0
|
https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/bogus-test-taker-be-sentenced-college-admissions-scam/
|
SpaceX to launch first all-commercial crew to space station Friday
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 6:56 AM EDT|Updated: 7 minutes ago
SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket in the first all-private human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station.
The first targeted launch window for Axiom Space’s Ax-1 mission from the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is 11:17 a.m. Friday.
A crew of four, led by a former NASA astronaut, will go on a 10-day mission to the space station aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
The crew will be first laying ground work for Axiom Station, a private space station.
The ultimate goal of the mission will be to conduct over 25 experiments of research while on the orbiting laboratory, as well as participate in educational outreach with people back on Earth.
Scripps Only Content 2022
|
https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/spacex-launch-first-all-commercial-crew-space-station-friday/
| 2022-04-08T11:06:17
| 1
|
https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/spacex-launch-first-all-commercial-crew-space-station-friday/
|
Double Decker Arts Festival has been a long-standing tradition in Oxford, Mississippi since 1996. After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the festival will return with art, food and live music the weekend of April 22 and 23 around the historic Courthouse Square.
Kinney Ferris, Executive Director of Visit Oxford, recently sat down with Mud & Magnolias to discuss the details of the 25th annual Double Decker Arts Festival.
When is Double Decker?
"Double Decker is happening Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23. One thing we want everyone to know is the main art vendors will just be there on Saturday. There’s live music Friday and Saturday night. On Friday, we will have demonstrations and the Oxford Artists' Guild set up by the Oxford Visitors Center with demos. That starts Friday at 10 a.m., and it goes until 4 p.m. The Artist Guild will also be selling goods during that time."
What kind of music will attendees be listening to?
"On Friday evening starting at 6:15 p.m. until 10 or 10:30 p.m., we will have a country music night. The Wilkins Sisters, 49 Winchester and country music star Brett Young will be performing on North Lamar. Saturday's music starts at 11 a.m. and lasts until 10 p.m. The Revivalists will be headlining that day. That’s a little more of a mix of genres with local music, including Oxford band Happy Landing and some good rock and blues music. It’s a little bit of everything during the day."
Can you talk about the festival's food?
"All food will be right around the courthouse. From BBQ to popsicles to funnel cakes to sliders to pizza to chicken salad to ice cream, we'll have a little bit of everything! We’re excited to include local restaurants every year. Taylor Grocery will be there in addition to lots of other local food joints."
What will the art scene look like this year?
"There will be 180 booth spaces. You can basically find any kind of handmade art. The artists have gone through a process to be selected and are from all over the region. Different types of painting techniques will be represented, along with a diverse selection of art. It's a great time to support local artists who haven't had a chance to get their art out in the last few years."
What else can Double Decker attendees look forward to?
"The Double Decker Spring Run will be Saturday morning. Also, the kids area will be set up from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. downtown that same day. There'll be a 'Best Dressed Pet' contest for anyone who's interested in dressing up their furry friend!
One new addition is the Blue Delta Blues Alley where you can listen to blues music. Also, shuttles will be picking up at the old Baptist parking lot (University South Campus), and there will be a shuttle that drops you off at Something Southern. You can also be picked up at Something Southern and taken back to your car. There’s also a pickup at the high school which will take you to Something Southern.
One important thing to remember is we do expect big crowds, especially after two years, so we’re encouraging people to use the shuttle to make it a better experience for everyone."
And finally, what will it cost to attend?
"It's free!"
For more Double Decker info, follow Visit Oxford and Double Decker Arts Festival on social media.
@visitoxfordms on Facebook and Instagram
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/oxford-double-decker-arts-festival-turns-25/article_de1b994b-bafb-5dff-b8a6-bd2572806b47.html
| 2022-04-08T11:13:51
| 1
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/oxford-double-decker-arts-festival-turns-25/article_de1b994b-bafb-5dff-b8a6-bd2572806b47.html
|
IUKA • As Holy Week approaches, the Rev. Nicholas “Nick” Phillips of Iuka will have a lot of plates spinning.
Phillips, who for a time was a religion columnist for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, splits his time between practicing law and being a minister in the Presbyterian church (PCUSA).
Phillips has been an attorney for 33 years. For the last 18 of those, he has also been the minister at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Biggersville. Recently, he helped form the Church of Our Savior, a “new worshiping community” of Presbyterians who meet in the former Episcopalian church in downtown Iuka.
Phillips said the new congregation meets in a pre-Civil War Carpenter Gothic structure once slated for demolition.
“They were going to tear it down and move it to Water Valley to replace the church that got blown away by the tornado,” he said. “A group of local citizens bought it and formed a foundation for the purpose of preserving it. It’s a beautiful building, and we really enjoy it.”
Members of both of Phillip’s congregations will celebrate this Sunday with the “Liturgy of the Palms,” followed by the more somber observances of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday during Holy Week. Phillips said the formal, liturgical style of these services helps congregants connect with the events of Holy Week in a more grounded way.
“It brings all the senses to participate in worship,” he said. “That’s one of the beauties of being able to live fully liturgically into the seasons of the church year.”
Adding depth to these observances is the fact that, unlike other seasons of the church year, Holy Week helps celebrants “sync up” with the events on both a temporal and symbolic level.
“It’s not like any other time in the church year,” he said. “Maundy Thursday was on a Thursday. Good Friday was on a Friday, and so on. It’s playing out day by day in real time, at least figuratively. That just makes it even more dramatic.”
The hushed, austere tone of the Maundy Thursday service is especially meaningful, Phillips said.
“At the end of the service, we strip the altar,” he said. “It’s totally silent as the appointments are taken away. The church is darkened, and people leave in silence. People always say it’s the most powerful part of the service.”
Services like these, with their roots in ancient traditions of the church, help congregants understand prayer on a deeper level, Phillips said.
“In these services, we have spoken prayer,” he said. “We have singing as a form of prayer, and we also have acts, like the stripping of the altar, that serve as what the Presbyterians call ‘enacted prayer.’”
Liturgy, movement, colors and symbols all connect the worshiper with the holy on more than a purely intellectual level, Phillips said.
“Worship is more than assent to a set of intellectual beliefs,” he said. “Expressing worship in a tactile way that engages all the senses is a way of living out our theology of Incarnation.”
While Holy Week will be a busy week for Phillips, he said the slate of services ramping up to Easter is an essential prelude to the celebration of Easter.
“We need to express a full range of emotions in worship,” he said. “We need to sit with the somber season of Lent to be ready for Easter’s triumph. It’s hollow to think about resurrection without thinking about how we get there; how it happened.”
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/iuka-presbyterian-church-takes-holistic-approach-to-holy-week/article_7cd68694-6f00-5aaf-9f3a-d999e2b7c5ca.html
| 2022-04-08T11:13:57
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/iuka-presbyterian-church-takes-holistic-approach-to-holy-week/article_7cd68694-6f00-5aaf-9f3a-d999e2b7c5ca.html
|
Bible nerds tend to be word nerds, too. Word studies are fascinating. Take, for example, the concept that we refer to as time. The ancient Greeks had two words for time. The first word, chronos, means clock time, as in, "What time does church start this morning?" The second word, kairos, means quality time. "Redeem the time, for the days are evil" (Ephesians 5:16). That's kairos.
This second concept fills the pages of the Hebrew Bible. For Jewish people, time did not exist as a separate, distinct reality but was reflected and embodied by the fullness of all life. Not so much, "What is the best use of my time right now?" but rather, "What is the best use of my life right now?" (Ronnie Littlejohn).
The famous sentence "for everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1) uses two different terms to get at this same idea that you should savor and discern the times of life rather than attempt to manhandle and tabulate them. Jewish writers often marked time by the seasons, as when Naomi returned to Bethlehem with her daughter-in-law Ruth during the barley harvest. It was harvest time because the grain needed to be harvested.
For a Jewish person, the single most important moment in their history, the exodus, does not exist in an inaccessible catacomb in some distant past but abides as a pulsating, ongoing revelation that informs and shapes life. In this sense, remembering means just what it looks like it means: Something or someone re-membered, recreated during and for the present moment.
This was Jesus' approach to life, of course. The last meal he shared with friends before his enemies caught up with him, they all ate some bread and drank some wine. "Do this in remembrance of me." Not just a meal, mind you, but a living, breathing reality. For all times.
The Rev. Eugene Stockstill is pastor of Ebenezer United Methodist Church and Myrtle United Methodist Church in Union County.
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/meditation-times-of-life/article_456e15c6-62cc-5f17-84fd-3a1a1193d508.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:03
| 1
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/meditation-times-of-life/article_456e15c6-62cc-5f17-84fd-3a1a1193d508.html
|
As we focus on the cross, I’ve been thinking about a couple of stories that E. V. Hill told.
Hill served as pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles from 1961 until his death in 2003. Dr. Hill spoke to a meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Pittsburgh in 1983 that I attended. This is how he began his sermon: “It is a wonderful privilege to be able to speak tonight to the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. When I think of your millions of members, your thousands of missionaries, your six great seminaries, your multi-million dollar annual budget, and your outstanding leaders, it is an honor to be around you—just because of who you think you are!”
Touché! He had set us up perfectly, and then he had nimbly pricked the balloon of our pride. Just exactly who did we think we were?
That was one of the problems with the folks in the first century, and it is the problem with people in the 22nd century. We all think very highly of ourselves. We overestimate our sterling qualities and underestimate our sin. The cross of Christ is an eternal reminder of the depth of our sin and rebellion against God.
But I also remember another E. V. Hill story. When he was serving as pastor of his church in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, he took some strong stands in favor of racial equality and racial justice. Not everyone was pleased by his stands.
One night, Dr. Hill’s phone rang, and the voice on the phone said, “We have heard what you have been saying. Some morning when you come out of your house, get into your car, and turn the key, a bomb is going to put an end to you!”
The message was a shock to Dr. Hill and his wife, and they discussed it until late in the night. The next morning when Dr. Hill woke up, his wife was not beside him. He got up, ran through the house to the garage, and the car was missing. As he panicked, the car slowly pulled into the garage, and his wife got out. He rushed to her and asked, “Where have you been?” She said, “I got to thinking about what that man said last night about putting a bomb under your car, and I thought it would be far better for them to take my life than to take yours.”
Dr. Hill said, “I put my arms around my wife and held her close to me for a long time. And ever since that morning, I have never again asked my wife, ‘Do you love me?’”
And ever since Jesus died on the cross, no one ever has to ask Him, “Do you love me?” The cross is His eternal, “Yes! I love you!”
LYNN JONES is a retired pastor, supply preacher and author who lives in Oxford. He can be reached at kljones45@yahoo.com.
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/religion/lynn-jones-messages-from-the-cross/article_f08b8981-38ef-5ab4-85c0-09de550777d6.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:09
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/religion/lynn-jones-messages-from-the-cross/article_f08b8981-38ef-5ab4-85c0-09de550777d6.html
|
Felonies
The following people were booked into the Lee County-Tupelo Adult Jail in connection with felony charges ending Thursday at 11 a.m.
Landria Letrice Harris, 43, of Tupelo, was arrested by the Tupelo Police Department, felony child abuse.
Andrew W. Pierce, 62, of Baldwyn, was arrested by the Guntown Police Department, driving under the influence third offense, child endangerment, no child restraint, no insurance, no driver’s license, open container.
Lee County Sheriff's Office
The following reports were filed Thursday by the Lee County Sheriff's Office.
A Gardner Creek Tupelo woman said her ex-boyfriend is letting her drive his Lincoln MKX. He called and said following an argument with a female acquaintance, she threatened to damage his car. The next morning, the back glass was broken out of the vehicle.
A Palmetto Road man spotted a suspicious white truck at his house on security cameras at 1:30 p.m. and called 911. The driver admitted he had stopped at the wrong address to work on his radio. Deputies asked the man to leave. He did.
A Highway 348 Guntown store employee said while he was helping a customer, a man went behind the counter and stole more than $2,200 from a moneybag under the cash register. The suspect and his girlfriend, who was present at the time, are regular customers of the store and were easily identified by the clerk.
A Golden woman said a male relative stole her 2005 BMW 325 from a Highway 371 Mooreville residence. She said the car had engine damage and did not run well, and the key was burned in a previous house fire.
An Aberdeen man said his Cadillac Escalade had electrical trouble and he was forced to leave it on the side of Highway 45 near the Brewer exit around 9:30 p.m. When he returned the next morning, it was not there. He contacted the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Shannon and Verona police departments. None of the agencies said they had the truck towed.
A County Road 831 Saltillo man said his neighbor lives behind him down a long driveway. The neighbor ran off the drive and got stuck, damaging the man’s yard.
A County Road 1213 Baldwyn man said he has been hearing gunshots from the bridge recently. The shots start around 5 p.m. nearly every day. He is concerned about the safety of his livestock.
A County Road 1389 Saltillo man said three white males came to his front door around 6:45 p.m. and started assaulting him and his girlfriend. He recognized one suspect. After the assault, the three suspects left.
A County Road 506 Shannon woman was in her house around 9 p.m. when she heard three or four gunshots from the road.
Tupelo Police Department
The following reports were filed Thursday by the Tupelo Police Department.
A man said he was at a South Green Street store at 5:45 a.m. when a Nissan Altima backed into his Chevrolet Equinox, damaging the left front bumper. He tried to get the information of the other driver, but she drove away.
A man said he stayed the night at the Clarion Inn with a female acquaintance. The next morning, she said she was going to the front desk to get shampoo so he could shower. She never returned. When he checked his bag, $700 cash was missing.
A Lee County Library employee said a man had been there since 9 a.m. Around 11:30 a.m., he became irate with employees because the computer he was using was running slow. Police told the man he needed to leave and not return.
A woman told police that she had a witness who saw her daughter’s accident four days earlier. The man said he saw a Chevy Tahoe run the red light at South Gloster and Highway 6 and strike the front bumper of the Chevy Impala in the middle of the intersection as the daughter tried to make a left turn on the green arrow.
A Bryan Drive woman said that after leaving one job, she and a former coworker got into a heated exchange on social media. It got to the point where the suspect threatened her physically, saying she would “whoop her (posterior).” After getting the message, she blocked the suspect.
An officer on patrol at 7 p.m. saw an SUV turn off of South Gloster onto Chickasaw Trail. The Jeep Grand Cherokee ran off the road and into a yard before the driver recovered. The man smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech. He said he had left a restaurant where he was doing landscaping and had one beer. He failed a field sobriety test and had several outstanding warrants with the Lee County Sheriff’ Office.
A man said a female acquaintance stole $25 from him, but she agreed to meet him at Alibabas on North Green Street to return the money. She didn’t have the money, so they started arguing. He began walking home, and she followed with a hammer in her hand. When he saw she was armed, he reached down and picked up a stick to defend himself. She put the hammer down, picked up a brick and hurled it at him. The brick hit his chin, leaving him bloodied. Police did not find the brick. The female told police she was at Alibabbas when the man walked up stick in hand. He jumped in her car, grabbed her phone and ran to his house. She said she called 911 and followed him. She found her phone outside his house, which is all she wanted.
Anyone with information on any of these crimes is urged to call the Lee County Sheriff's Office at 841-9041, the Tupelo Police Department at 841-6491 or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at (800) 773-TIPS or download the P3 Tip App and leave an anonymous tip that way.
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/crime-law-enforcement/crime-reports-friday-april-8-2022/article_d8e4e899-c7d5-51fa-952c-f57bad105062.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:15
| 1
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/crime-law-enforcement/crime-reports-friday-april-8-2022/article_d8e4e899-c7d5-51fa-952c-f57bad105062.html
|
TUPELO • A man accused of robbing a downtown Tupelo bank at lunchtime Wednesday has a history of robbing banks that dates back more than two decades.
Jasper Michael Wagner, 56, of Tupelo, was arrested about four hours after the West Main Street branch of Community Bank was robbed April 6 at 12:30 p.m. He was captured by the Leeds (Alabama) Police Department 150 miles away, just east of Birmingham. Wednesday evening, he was booked into the St. Clair County Jail, where he remains incarcerated awaiting an extradition hearing.
Since 2002, Wagner has pleaded guilty in federal court to 10 bank robberies in seven states, from New Mexico to the Carolinas, including two in Mississippi. Wagner’s life of crime has followed a distinct pattern. He robs several banks, then gets caught, serves about 10 years in prison, gets out and starts robbing banks again.
He did just that in 2000-2001, again in late 2010 and possibly one more time in 2022. Leeds Police Chief Paul Irwin told AL.com that Wagner is a suspect in other robberies in both Mississippi and Alabama.
While he has used a gun, most of the time he is unarmed and unmasked during the robberies.
Wagner's bank robbing days started in 2000 in New Mexico
His first documented string of bank robberies began in late 2000 and included banks in New Mexico, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and two in South Carolina. He robbed a Community Bank branch in Hernando on April 11, 2001. That crime spree continued until he was arrested in east Tennessee in June 2001.
In June 2002, he pleaded guilty to seven bank robberies and was sentenced to 10 years for each, to serve concurrently, with three years of post release supervision — commonly called probation. He was also ordered to pay $59,048 in restitution.
He did not serve the full 10 years. He was released March 22, 2010, but he violated the term of his release less than nine months later.
Wagner was out less than a year before hitting another bank
On Dec. 9, 2010, he was living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when he took a car on a test drive and never returned the black Acura RSX. He failed to show up for a mandatory drug test the following day. Over the next three weeks, he robbed three banks in three states before being captured in Mississippi.
On Dec. 13, 2010, Wagner handed a note to the teller at the SunTrust Bank inside a Horn Lake Kroger. He was not wearing a mask and not carrying a gun. According to court documents, he walked away with $2,749 in cash.
On the morning of Dec. 20, 2010, he walked into the Wachovia Bank in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. According to court documents, Wagner “asked for everyone’s attention and displayed a handgun.” He walked out with $7,311. Less than five hours later and 200 miles away, he robbed the Randolph Bank in Mebane, North Carolina. He did not wear a mask as he stole $4,468.75.
On Dec. 28, 2010, Wagner was stopped on Interstate 20 near Jackson. A routine tag check revealed the car was stolen and Wagner was a wanted man.
Wagner's sentence could have kept him in jail until late-2023
He pleaded guilty to those three bank robberies in January 2013, and the following June he was sentenced to 130 months (just under 11 years) plus 5 years of supervised release as well as more than $14,000 in restitution. He was sent to a federal prison in Atlanta but again did not serve the full 130 months.
According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Wagner was released Dec. 17, 2021.
Less than four months later, he is accused of robbing the Community Bank in Tupelo.
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/crime-law-enforcement/suspect-in-community-bank-robbery-has-a-long-history-of-robbing-banks/article_8e087e4a-6cc8-5015-9993-213ea50922c9.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:21
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/crime-law-enforcement/suspect-in-community-bank-robbery-has-a-long-history-of-robbing-banks/article_8e087e4a-6cc8-5015-9993-213ea50922c9.html
|
TUPELO • Business brought Ted and Lynn Moll to Tupelo, but it was the strong leadership that drove their philanthropic efforts.
“The thing that is so meaningful with our involvement in the community is that we’ve met so many great people,” Ted Moll said of their far-reaching charitable work, which has been ongoing for years. “We’ve been very fortunate.”
The couple will be presented with this year’s Red Rasberry Humanitarian Award on Tuesday, April 12, at the Tupelo Furniture Market Building V. The event will open with a meet-and-greet at 6 p.m., followed by dinner at 7 p.m.
Named in honor of the late John “Red” Raspberry, the award is given annually to a person or persons who supports not just Regional Rehab, but the community as a whole.
The dinner is hosted annually by the Regional Rehabilitation Center (RRC). The event serves as a fundraiser to keep the nonprofit clinic’s services free for clients.
Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, the Molls have been married for 56 years and together for over six decades. They went to high school together, and continued dating in college.
“We went to two different colleges,” Lynn Moll said. “He would do all the driving back and forth every weekend to come see me, so he swept me off my feet.”
Lynn Moll became an elementary school teacher in her hometown, even teaching in the same school and classroom she learned in, working under the same principal. Ted Moll worked with MTD Products for over 50 years before he retired.
Ted and Lynn Moll moved to Mississippi in 1972, after Ohio-based MTD Products transferred Ted Moll to Indianola. While in Indianola, the couple were involved with the Methodist church. While there, Lynn Moll started her own kindergarten and nursery with the church, running it for 10 years.
“I enjoyed teaching,” Lynn Moll said. “That was fun.”
The two moved to Tupelo after 17 to 18 years in the Delta. They’ve been in the All-America City ever since.
The Molls’ local philanthropic efforts began with the encouragement of their minister, the late Rev. Prentiss Gordon, former Community Development Foundation Executive Officer Harry Martin and the CDF team.
Ted and Lynn Moll were drawn to organizations that served children. They took part in the Boy Scouts and the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Mississippi (BGCNMS). They also served the Talbot House.
Lynn Moll served on the Red Cross of North Mississippi board and the Good Samaritan Free Clinic. Ted Moll has served or been on the board of the North Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Tupelo Community Theatre, the United Way of Northeast Mississippi (NEMS) and Rust College in Holly Springs.
“You can do as much or as little as you want in a community like Tupelo,” Ted Moll said. “There’s just so many opportunities and it’s really an inviting community to work in.”
The couple are inspired by the strong leadership of Tupelo’s nonprofits, Ted Moll said. It was a great honor when RRC Executive Director Robby Parman invited the two to be this year’s Red Rasberry awardees, he said.
Over the more than two decades they’ve been involved with RRC, they’ve seen the organization grow and progress, both as supporters and recipients. They’re especially impressed with how the organization has adapted to the increasing need for dyslexia treatment, early childhood intervention, outpatient physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology services.
“We think we’re fortunate to be a part of this community,” Ted Moll said. “I think our impact is rather negligible. If we can make something happen, if there’s a need, we’re going to try to be part of that.”
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/local/married-duo-s-philanthropy-to-be-celebrated-at-april-12-red-rasberry-dinner/article_dd708482-0ad7-572d-8083-65177a8d9aa2.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:27
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/local/married-duo-s-philanthropy-to-be-celebrated-at-april-12-red-rasberry-dinner/article_dd708482-0ad7-572d-8083-65177a8d9aa2.html
|
Marchell Graham, the school nurse at Lawhon Elementary School in Tupelo, receives a gift from Kory Hunter, Junior Auxiliary of Tupelo Public Relations Chairman, to honor her for her service to the school and its children on April 7, 2022. Graham has served as the school's nurse for 17 years.
TUPELO • The Junior Auxiliary of Tupelo has honored the work of a longtime school nurse.
On Thursday, April 7, the group presented a surprise gift to Marchell Graham, Lawhon Elementary School in Tupelo’s school nurse. Graham has been a school nurse for 29 years, 17 of which she’s spent at Lawhon.
When asked about what’s kept her in the profession for nearly three decades, Graham said she enjoys helping each child and family.
"I love being able to make a difference in the life of a child and their family," Graham said. "You meet somebody where they are. One shoe doesn't fit everybody.”
For Graham, the nursing profession is all about helping people.
"That's why I got into it," she said.
Newsletters
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Error! There was an error processing your request.
A native of Tupelo, Graham graduated from Tupelo High School in 1985 and then attended the University of Southern Mississippi, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1989.
Since then, she has returned to her hometown to serve children in the Tupelo Public School District.
Kory Hunter serves as the Junior Auxiliary of Tupelo’s public relations chairman. She said that this week is Junior Auxiliary Week, and Tupelo's JA wanted to go the extra mile for those that serve children in the area.
"As a local chapter (of the Junior Auxiliary), we want to focus on those that have helped us throughout the year, especially with the children," Hunter said.
In addition to Graham, Junior Auxiliary of Tupelo present gifts to 26 nurses throughout Lee County's schools.
The Junior Auxiliary of Tupelo is dedicated to serving the children of Lee County. The women's organization provides assistance through scholarships, school supplies and food for those in need.
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/local/tupelos-junior-auxiliary-presents-gift-to-longtime-school-nurse/article_544f2a97-b4ba-5a53-8f1d-c3d63f8620fb.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:33
| 1
|
https://www.djournal.com/news/local/tupelos-junior-auxiliary-presents-gift-to-longtime-school-nurse/article_544f2a97-b4ba-5a53-8f1d-c3d63f8620fb.html
|
If you missed the Gumtree Museum of Arts presentation Sunday afternoon of the remembrance of the Tupelo tornado of 1936, you missed an opportunity to hear novelist Minrose Gwin talk about her writing and research of the twister.
Fortunately, the Oren Dunn City Museum joined with the downtown arts museum under the Mississippi Humanities Council sponsoring umbrella to help with the programs, both Friday and Sunday. In doing so, we had the opportunity to spend some time with Gwin and talk about women and writing as well as other issues.
In the so-called afterglow of these programs and the visits with Gwin, I began to wonder about other female writers from Tupelo.
The late-Miriam Weiss caught my attention.
Weiss was born in Tupelo on May 9, 1905. Yet, her family moved her to Memphis at an early age. Weiss attended secondary schools there. She earned her bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1926 and her master’s from what was then known as Memphis State College, now Memphis State University, in 1964.
In 1969, after a career as a personal service correspondent for Sears, Roebuck and Co., a plumbing-heating and water supply estimator, correspondent and draftsperson and a buyer of children’s clothing, she wrote a scholarly tome called “A Lively Corpse — Religion in Utopia.”
Oh, and she also edited the Hebrew Watchman and taught English at the University of Tennessee Downtown Center in Memphis.
Interestingly, the book resides at rare book sellers online, either in paperback or hard back. Reviews of the only book she wrote seem in short supply. We couldn’t find one. The University of Tennessee has the notes and drafts of the book. She donated the collection to the university’s library between 1970 and 1971.
She also wrote scholarly articles.
Weiss loved cats. She also loved world travel. During her travels she collected more than 200 various examples of cats in all forms: wooden, ceramic, glass and volcanic rock. She took this love of cats to another extreme.
She wrote an article in the winter edition 1965-66 of The Mississippi Quarterly called “Poe’s Catterina.”
Edgar Allen Poe, the father of the detective story, had a favorite cat, Catterina. In fact, Weiss points out in this five-page article that Catterina, the cat, ranked third in Poe’s most important influences. The others included Elizabeth Arnold Poe, his mother and a famous English actress who died at the age of 24 of what historians believe was tuberculosis, and John Allan, Poe’s foster father from the time the writer came into the Allan family at the age of 2. Allan, a tobacco merchant in Virginia, never adopted Poe. Letters between Allan and Poe indicate their relationship was strained at best.
Weiss not only wrote of the human/feline relationship but also pointed out that other writers seemed to like cats, including T.S. Eliot (of course), who wrote “The Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” and Rudyard Kipling, who wrote “The Cat Who Walked By Himself.”
To the best of our knowledge, Weiss never returned to Tupelo except to visit. She died after a long illness on Oct. 22, 1989, at the age of 84. The Commercial Appeal gave her an extended obituary the following day, but not much more.
|
https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/and-speaking-of-authors/article_6647df61-0980-52f0-8d0b-489c25ce5263.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:40
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/and-speaking-of-authors/article_6647df61-0980-52f0-8d0b-489c25ce5263.html
|
Facebook is good for two things: 1. Seeing captioned photographs of kittens; and 2. Figuring out who is hated.
I don't understand either.
For the sake of brevity, and because it's what I want to write about, we'll focus on the later: Facebook hating, or just hate in general.
Mind you, I'm not a very volatile person by nature. You basically have to set my head on fire for me to become hostile. And if you did set my head on fire, I wouldn't hold it against you for long — partially because I am a forgiving soul, but mostly because I seem to forget anything that happened after two days.
But I do understand holding some animosity. For instance, in popular culture, I can sort of comprehend the public disdain for someone like Lance Armstrong or Bernie Madoff or O.J. Simpson. They did bad things, and people got hurt. I get that.
But there's a lot of hate, as seen on Facebook and elsewhere, that I can't fathom. Here are some I simply don't get the hate for:
Jimmy Carter
So, a lot of people consider him a bad president. OK, fine. But since he was defeated in his re-election bid (shouldn't that be enough?), which was 42 years ago, the guy has done little but devote his time and energies to charitable and worthwhile causes and making the world a better place. He's spent the last four decades devoted to eradicating guinea worm disease in third-world countries, saving millions of lives. What have I done more important than that? Absolutely nothing.
Ben Affleck
Yes, I understand he acted in "Gigli." And "Reindeer Games." And "Jersey Girl." But Steve Guttenberg was in four of the "Police Academy" movies, as well as "P.S. Your Cat Is Dead," and I don't see the same kind of contempt for him.
Maybe it's because Ben Affleck is politically active. That's crazy. If we are going to base our consumption of movies, or pizza for that matter, on someone's personal political views, then we're going to have to quit movies, and pizza — which I certainly will not advocate.
Ben Affleck has also made some pretty darn good movies lately. I don't get it.
Sarah Palin
So a lot of folks think she wasn't qualified to be vice president? So what? She lost, a long time ago. Isn't that enough? Why keep up the loathing?
Tim Tebow
First of all, I admit I wasn't fond of Tebow when he was quarterback for the Florida Gators. It wasn't personal. It's because the Florida Gators made it a habit of beating my alma mater like a drum for most of my life, and most of his tenure in Gainesville.
But he seems like a genuinely nice person. Whether he would have been a good NFL quarterback or professional baseball player or is a good TV commentator is up for debate, but hating the guy seems rather absurd.
Taylor Swift
So, she sang about breaking up with her boyfriend. It that really a legitimate reason for all the scorn? Neil Diamond sang a song about E.T. — a fictional space alien (1982's "Heartlight"). Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson sang "The Girl is Mine." Those are two of the three worst songs in the history of the world (the third being Starship's "We Built This City.")
Until Taylor Swift sings something that horrible, I don't think the derision is justified.
Maybe I'm just lazy, but hating someone on Facebook, or in the real world, seems to take a lot of effort. I'd rather just have "friends with disagreements."
|
https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/i-prefer-having-friends-with-disagreements/article_6e696c9b-cd5b-5b63-a9df-2c6d1dd91b1d.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:46
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/i-prefer-having-friends-with-disagreements/article_6e696c9b-cd5b-5b63-a9df-2c6d1dd91b1d.html
|
College baseball season that we so enjoy in these parts hasn’t gotten off to a roaring start.
Mississippi State has rarely looked like a team that could position itself to defend the national championship, and Ole Miss hasn’t looked like a No. 1-ranked team, though it spent two weeks at that position.
Both teams have had to remake themselves after major injuries – though the Rebels should get Kevin Graham’s productive bat back in the lineup at some point.
The injury situation has been more severe for the Bulldogs who had season-enders for Landon Sims, arguably the nation’s best pitcher, and reliever Stone Simmons.
So much of what happens in a baseball game is dictated by that guy on the mound.
Ole Miss gained a lot of preseason attention because every significant position starter returned from an offense last year that led the SEC in batting average and was second in runs scored.
It’s not easy to hit your way to the top, as the Rebels are finding.
For Mississippi State, losing Sims was the college baseball equivalent of losing Tom Brady.
You don’t subtract that guy and not feel it.
It naturally meant the bullpen would need to find more quality innings, and that also got harder with the loss of Simmons who got some big outs in 24 1-3 innings last year and had not allowed a hit or a run in 4 1-3 innings over three appearances this season.
That guy on the mound thing.
Week Four of 10 SEC weekends begins Friday with MSU and Ole Miss both 4-5 and tied for last in the Western Division. That’s a bit misleading. Everybody’s last except Arkansas at 7-2 and Auburn at 5-4, the latter having lost its only conference series against Ole Miss at Auburn.
Both the Bulldogs and Rebels could make a quick pitching pivot in a positive direction.
The bullpen struggles for MSU got big boost in Game 3 at Arkansas when Jackson Fristoe closed with 3 2-3 scoreless in a 5-3, 12-inning victory.
Fristoe said he’s felt himself improving, but his numbers had been erratic. His Arkansas performance validated why MSU coach Chris Lemonis keeps giving him the ball.
If Fristoe can begin to stack strong performances on top of one another it would be huge for the Bulldogs.
Pitching was always going to be a restoration project for Ole Miss, which saw two starters drafted in the top 58 picks last spring. The Rebels also lost a dominant closer in Taylor Broadway.
Mike Bianco’s first couple of starting plans didn’t work, but he continued to push buttons, and the Rebels may have found something in last week’s series win at Kentucky with Dylan DeLucia, Tupelo freshman Hunter Elliott and Oregon State transfer Jack Washburn.
All three were starting an SEC game for the first time, and the trio allowed just one earned run in a combined 15 2-3 innings.
Behind DeLucia that dynamic Ole Miss offense won a 2-1 SEC game on the road.
That guy on the mound matters so much.
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/bulldogs-rebels-could-make-a-pitching-pivot-this-weekend/article_a743caaa-7494-5e37-8f1b-71a61a10cd6d.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:52
| 1
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/bulldogs-rebels-could-make-a-pitching-pivot-this-weekend/article_a743caaa-7494-5e37-8f1b-71a61a10cd6d.html
|
STARKVILLE — Jason Washington hardly has to move when he needs help. The Mississippi State running backs coach can just cup his hands around his mouth, lean back in his chair and let out a hearty shout.
Join the conversation in our exclusive Facebook group for Bulldog fans
The message doesn’t need to travel far. Across the hall is special teams coach Eric Mele who coached MSU’s running backs last season. In Mike Leach’s reshuffling of the staff following Dave Nichol’s departure in the offseason, Mele and Washington found themselves in new roles.
For the former, moving to special teams wasn’t new. Washington can’t say the same, which is why he doesn’t hesitate to holler for help across the hall.
Washington joined Leach’s staff at MSU in 2020 as a safeties coach. He had coached only in the secondary since he began working in the college ranks in 2004.
So when Leach approached Washington and asked him to coaching running backs in the Air Raid offense, his response was as expected.
“Are you sure?” Washington told Leach.
Leach knew the importance of Washington’s recruiting to the program. With defensive coordinator Zach Arnett taking control of the safety position, Leach knew he needed to find a spot for Washington.
The move was unorthodox, but Leach put Washington in an experienced room. Jo’quavious Marks and Dillon Johnson have been a two-headed duo in State’s backfield throughout Leach’s tenure. Washington got to know them through work in special teams drills, so he wasn’t meeting any new faces.
Washington has preached “anticipation” to his backs — the art of knowing which holes to hit before they present themselves. Working with a group that has seen that skill in live action, Washington feels teaching the art has been simpler.
“They’re able to reiterate and talk that back to me,” Washington said.
Though he hasn’t coached the position, Washington makes sure to remind his group of his glory days. He played running back in high school before his move to defensive back at Texas State.
He gives them the typical “back in my day” rants you’d expect from an elder relative, but it resonates with his players.
“It gives me a little bit of credibility,” Washington said. “I’m trying to find film, but it’s all in black and white. So, that makes it kinda hard right now.”
STEFAN KRAJISNIK is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for the Daily Journal. Contact him at stefan.krajisnik@djournal.com.
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mississippi-state/washington-pushing-anticipation-in-new-role-as-mississippi-state-running-backs-coach/article_0d28899e-14ce-5f2d-930b-1b66d3b186de.html
| 2022-04-08T11:14:58
| 0
|
https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mississippi-state/washington-pushing-anticipation-in-new-role-as-mississippi-state-running-backs-coach/article_0d28899e-14ce-5f2d-930b-1b66d3b186de.html
|
KYIV, Ukraine -- At least 30 people, including two children, were killed after Russian forces carried out a missile strike on a railway station in eastern Ukraine that was being used by civilians trying to flee the fighting, a regional official said Friday.
Tetiana Ihnatchenko, a spokeswoman for the region of Donetsk where the attack took place, said that first responders had confirmed the initial casualty figures and warned the numbers were likely to rise. At least 100 injuries have been reported so far, CNN reported.
The eastern city of Kramatorsk was one of the first places to be targeted by the Russian military when the invasion of Ukraine was launched on Feb. 24. Ihnatchenko said Ukrainians had been using the train station since late February to evacuate the region.
RELATED: UN assembly suspends Russia from top human rights body
"The Russians knew that thousands of people are there (at the train station) every day," she said.
Two missiles struck the station, according to the head of Ukraine's national rail system, Oleksandr Kamyshin. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional military administration, said the Russian military used Iskander short-range ballistic missiles.
The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
Russia-Ukraine war: At least 30 killed in train station missile strike as civilians try to flee
By Olga Voitovych and Nathan Hodge, CNN
|
https://abc11.com/russian-ukraine-war-news-russia-today/11725035/
| 2022-04-08T11:20:47
| 1
|
https://abc11.com/russian-ukraine-war-news-russia-today/11725035/
|
The AFC possesses more than half a dozen of the NFL’s upper echelon quarterbacks, so don’t be surprised if this conference is the most competitive in 2022.
Especially after the improvement made by such teams as the Buffalo Bills (Von Miller), Denver Broncos (Russell Wilson), Los Angeles Chargers (Khalil Mack, J.C. Jackson), Las Vegas Raiders (Davante Adams), Cleveland Browns (Deshaun Watson) and Miami Dolphins (Tyreek Hill) have made this offseason.
Take a look at the key additions and departures from every AFC team, analyzing what teams improved the most, and which ones remain stagnant. We also break down the top four position needs for each team heading into the NFL draft.
AFC EAST
Buffalo Bills
Additions: Added pass rushers Von Miller and Shaq Lawson and defensive tackles DaQuan Jones, Tim Settle and Jordan Phillips, who should improve the defensive front of a unit that finished as a top-five defense in 2022. Offensive tackle Rodger Saffold was signed to replace Jon Feliciano. Tailback Duke Johnson and tight end O.J. Howard were added to complement the offense.
Departures: Slot receiver Cole Beasley got waived, and Emmanuel Sanders remains a free agent. Buffalo re-signed Isaiah McKenzie and added Jamison Crowder as their replacements, but that’s a lot of veteran savvy lost. The Bills also lost defensive tackle Harrison Phillips to the Vikings, and cornerback Levi Wallace to the Steelers.
Top Needs: CB, LB, OG, RB
Miami Dolphins
Additions: Miami traded three 2022 draft picks and two 2023 selections to acquire Pro Bowl receiver Tyreek Hill. The Dolphins also signed offensive tackle Terron Armstead and offensive guard Connor Williams to improve last year’s troublesome offensive line. And Miami added tailbacks Chase Edmonds and Raheem Mostert to replace Duke Johnson, Malcolm Brown and Phillip Lindsay. Receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr. was signed to man the slot, and Teddy Bridgewater was added as Miami’s veteran quarterback.
Departures: DeVante Parker and a 2022 fifth-round pick were traded to the New England Patriots for a 2023 third-round selection. Offensive guard Jesse Davis and receiver Allen Hurns were waived to create cap space. Davis signed with the Vikings. Cornerback Justin Coleman signed with Seattle and veteran defensive back Jason McCourty remains a free agent.
Top Needs: ILB, EDGE, C, CB
New England Patriots
Additions: Cornerback Malcolm Butler returned to New England after spending three seasons with the Titans. The Patriots acquired receiver DeVante Parker and linebacker Mack Wilson in offseason trades, and signed safety Jabrill Peppers. New England also re-signed offensive tackle Trent Brown, safety Devin McCourty, kicker Nick Folk and linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley.
Departures: Pro Bowl cornerback J.C. Jackson signed with the Chargers. Offensive linemen Ted Karras signed with the Bengals and Shaq Mason was traded to the Buccaneers for a 2022 fifth-round pick. Linebackers Dont’a Hightower, Kyle Van Noy and Jamie Collins, who were all starters last season, remain free agents. And Chase Winovich was traded to the Browns.
Top Needs: CB, Edge, ILB, WR
New York Jets
Additions: The Jets added guard Laken Tomlinson and re-signed offensive tackles Conor McDermott and Dan Feeney. C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Conklin were signed to upgrade the tight end position. And the Jets also added defensive lineman Solomon Thomas, linebacker Jacob Martin, cornerback D.J. Reed and safeties Jordan Whitehead and Lamarcus Joyner.
Departures: Receiver Jamison Crowder signed with the Bills, further depleting a lackluster receiver unit. Starting right tackle Morgan Moses signed with the Ravens. Safety Marcus Maye signed with the Saints, and linebacker Jarrad Davis signed with the Lions.
Top Needs: OT, WR, LB, CB
AFC NORTH
Baltimore Ravens
Additions: Safety Marcus Williams signed a massive five-year, $70 million deal to join the Ravens. Offensive tackle Morgan Moses was added to compete with a rehabbing Ja’Wuan James to become Baltimore’s starting right tackle. And nose tackle Michael Pierce was re-signed after spending one season with the Vikings.
Departures: Aged veteran defensive lineman Calais Campbell remains a free agent, as does defensive tackle Brandon Williams, edge players Pernell McPhee and Justin Houston and receiver Sammy Watkins. Center Bradley Bozeman signed with the Panthers and cornerback Anthony Averett signed with the Raiders.
Top Needs: Edge, IOL, DL, CB
Cincinnati Bengals
Additions: The Bengals beefed up their troublesome offensive line by adding right tackle La’el Collins, offensive guard Alex Cappa and interior player Ted Karras, who has started 49 games the past six seasons. Cincinnati also signed defensive tackle B.J. Hill, tight end Hayden Hurst, re-signed cornerback Eli Apple, and used the franchise tag to retain safety Jessie Bates.
Departures: Starting tight end C.J. Uzomah signed a three-year, $24 million deal with the Jets. And receiver Auden Tate signed with the Falcons. Offensive linemen Trey Hopkins, Riley Reiff and Quinton Spain remain free agents. Cornerbacks Vernon Hargreaves III, Trae Waynes and Tre Flowers are also still free agents, and safety Ricardo Allen retired.
Top Needs: CB, OL, DT, Edge
Cleveland Browns
Additions: Cleveland acquired Pro Bowl quarterback Deshaun Watson in a trade with Houston that sent the Texans three first-round picks (2022-24), a third-round pick (2024) and two fourth-round selections. The Browns also traded a 2022 fifth-round pick and swapped sixth-round selections with the Cowboys for receiver Amari Cooper, and signed receiver and return specialist Jakeem Grant. Cleveland also acquired pass rusher Chase Winovich from the Patriots for linebacker Mack Wilson.
Departures: Tight end Austin Hooper signed with the Titans and quarterback Case Keenum was traded to the Bills. The Browns released starting center J.C. Tretter and receiver Jarvis Landry, who each are still free agents. Defensive linemen Jadeveon Clowney, Takkarist McKinley and Malik Jackson all remain free agents, as do safety Ronnie Harrison and linebacker Malcolm Smith.
Top Needs: Edge, DT, WR, S,
Pittsburgh Steelers
Additions: Pittsburgh signed former Bears starter Mitch Trubisky to a two-year deal worth $14.25 million and will have him compete with Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins for the starting quarterback job. To improve the Steelers’ troublesome offensive line, guard James Daniels signed a three-year, $26.5 million deal, and center Mason Cole was added. The Steelers also added linebackers Myles Jack and Genard Avery, and cornerback Levi Wallace.
Departures: Ben Roethlisberger retired, and three of his former receivers — Juju Smith-Schuster (Chiefs), James Washington (Cowboys) and Ray-Ray McCloud (49ers) — left as free agents. Offensive linemen Trai Turner and Zach Banner, tight end Eric Ebron, cornerback Joe Haden, linebacker Joe Schobert and safety Terrell Edmunds remain free agents.
Top Needs: CB, S, OL, QB
AFC SOUTH
Houston Texans
Additions: Marlon Mack was added to a backfield that already had Rex Burkhead and Royce Freeman, who was re-signed. Linebacker Blake Cashman was acquired from the Jets for a 2023 sixth-round pick, and will work alongside newcomers Obo Okoronkwo and Jalen Reeves-Maybin, and holdovers Neville Hewitt, Kamu Grugier-Hill and Christian Kirksey, who were all re-signed.
Departures: Deshaun Watson was traded to the Browns for a bounty of picks, and veteran quarterback Tyrod Taylor signed with the Giants. The Texans signed veteran quarterback Kyle Allen to compete with Davis Mills, who had a 88.8 passer rating in his 11 starts as a rookie, for the starting quarterback job. Cornerback Terrance Mitchell signed with the Patriots and safety Justin Reid signed with the Chiefs. Tailback David Johnson, receiver Danny Amendola and offensive tackle Marcus Cannon are still free agents.
Top Needs: Edge, OT, CB, TE
Indianapolis Colts
Additions: The Colts acquired 37-year-old quarterback Matt Ryan from the Falcons for a 2022 third-round pick after trading Carson Wentz to Washington for a swap of second-round picks, a 2022 third-round pick and a conditional 2023 third-round selection. Indianapolis also acquired pass rusher Yannick Ngakoue from the Raiders for cornerback Rock Ya-Sin, and re-signed tight end Mo Alie-Cox.
Departures: Indianapolis must rebuild its secondary because of the trade that sent Ya-Sin to the Raiders, and the fact corners Xavier Rhodes and T.J. Carrie and safeties Andrew Sendejo, Jahleel Addae and George Odum are all free agents. Tight end Jack Doyle retired and pass rusher Al-Quadin Muhammad signed with the Bears as a free agent. Starting right guard Mark Glowinski signed with the Giants. Offensive tackle Eric Fisher and receiver T.Y. Hilton remain free agents.
Top Needs: OT, WR, Edge, CB
Jacksonville Jaguars
Additions: Jacksonville remade their offense by adding two front-line receivers, signing Christian Kirk to an eye-opening four-year, $72 million deal, Zay Jones to a three-year deal that could be worth as much as $30 million, and tight end Evan Engram to a one-year deal worth $9 million. The Jaguars also used the franchise tag to retain left tackle Cam Robinson and signed offensive guard Brandon Scherff to a three-year deal worth $49.5 million. On defense, Jacksonville signed cornerback Darius Williams, linebacker Foye Oluokun, defensive tackle Foley Fatukasi and pass rusher Arden Key.
Departures: The Jaguars lost three starting offensive linemen this offseason. Starting center Brandon Linder retired, and starting guards A.J. Cann (Texans) and Andrew Norwell (Commanders) signed elsewhere. Receiver D.J. Chark signed with the Lions. Linebacker Myles Jack, who was released, signed with the Steelers, and fellow starting linebacker Damien Wilson signed with the Panthers. Defensive lineman Jihad Ward signed with the Giants, and defensive line cohort Taven Bryan signed with the Browns.
Top Needs: Edge, S, OT, IOL
Tennessee Titans
Additions: The Titans acquired receiver Robert Woods from the Rams for a 2023 sixth-round pick, re-signed tight end Geoff Swaim and added veteran tight end Austin Hooper this offseason. Tennessee also re-signed pass rusher Harold Landry, center Ben Jones, cornerback Buster Skrine, and tailback Dontrell Hilliard, keeping some of the nucleus of the 2021 team intact.
Departures: Julio Jones, whose 2021 season was hindered by injuries, was released. As was starting cornerback Janoris Jenkins. Neither of these veteran starters have signed elsewhere yet. Offensive guard Rodger Saffold signed with the Bills, linebackers Jayon Brown (Raiders) and Rashaan Evans (Falcons) left Tennessee. David Quessenberry, who started all 17 games at right tackle last season, remains a free agent.
Top Needs: WR, LB, OT, CB
AFC WEST
Denver Broncos
Additions: The Broncos acquired Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson and a fourth-round pick from the Seahawks for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round selection and three veterans. Pass rusher Randy Gregory signed a five-year, $70 million deal, and the Broncos signed linebacker Josey Jewell, defensive tackle D.J. Jones and offensive linemen Billy Turner and Tom Compton.
Departures: Quarterback Drew Lock, tight end Noah Fant and defensive tackle Shelby Harris were the three veterans who were traded to Seattle for Wilson. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater signed with Miami. Receiver DaeSean Hamilton signed with the Texans. Tailback Melvin Gordon, cornerback Kyle Fuller, safety Kareem Jackson, and offensive linemen Cameron Fleming and Bobby Massie remain free agents.
Top Needs: Edge, LB, TE, RB
Kansas City Chiefs
Additions: Kansas City added JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Corey Coleman to replenish a receiver unit that has been depleted by trades and free agent defections. The Chiefs also signed tailback Ronald Jones to a one-year deal that’s worth up to $5 million and linebacker Jermaine Carter Jr.
Departures: The Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins for a treasure chest of draft picks, but also lost receivers Byron Pringle (Bears) and Demarcus Robinson (Raiders) this offseason. Pro Bowl safety Tyrann Mathieu remains a free agent, but likely won’t return because of the signing of Justin Reid and Deon Bush.
Top Needs: WR, CB, Edge, S
Las Vegas Raiders
Additions: The Raiders reunited Davante Adams with Derek Carr, his college quarterbacks, by trading a 2022 first- and second-round pick to Green Bay for the Pro Bowl receiver. Las Vegas also signed receiver DeMarcus Robinson and tight end Jacob Hollister to provide new coach Josh McDaniels some weaponry. The Raiders also signed pass rusher Chandler Jones to pair him with Maxx Crosby, who signed a four-year, $99 million extension.
Departures: The Raiders traded Yannick Ngakoue, who registered 10 sacks last season, to the Colts in exchange for cornerback Rock Ya-Sin. Quarterback Marcus Mariota signed with the Falcons. Zay Jones signed with the Jaguars. Defensive linemen Quinton Jefferson signed with the Seahawks. Solomon Thomas signed with the Jets, and Gerald McCoy and Carl Nassib are free agents. Linebackers Cory Littleton signed with the Panthers, and Nicholas Morrow signed with the Bears. Cornerbacks Casey Hayward (Falcons) and Brandon Facyson (Colts) signed elsewhere, and cornerback Desmond Trufant, linebacker K.J Wright, receiver DeSean Jackson and offensive guard Richie Incognito remain free agents.
Top Needs: OL, DT, CB, WR
Los Angeles Chargers
Additions: The Chargers acquired Khalil Mack from the Bears for a 2022 second-round pick and a 2023 sixth-round selection, and signed Pro Bowl cornerback J.C. Jackson to a five-year deal worth $82.5 million. The Chargers also signed tight end Gerald Everett, who has caught 175 passes for 1,867 yards and 12 touchdowns in his first five seasons, to potentially replace Jared Cook, who remains a free agent.
Departures: Linebackers Uchenna Nwosu (Seahawks), Kyler Fackrell (Raiders) and Kyzir White (Eagles) signed elsewhere. Offensive linemen Oday Aboushi, Bryan Bulaga and Michael Schofield, cornerback Chris Harris and defensive tackle Linval Joseph are still free agents.
Top Needs: OT, DT, LB, WR
()
|
https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/08/afc-offseason-moves-summary-2022-nfl-draft-primer/
| 2022-04-08T11:23:32
| 1
|
https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/08/afc-offseason-moves-summary-2022-nfl-draft-primer/
|
Q: Ira, when I hear all the talk about the Heat being so deep but having to stick with a nine-man rotation, I think that it is much more likely that we will ultimately through the playoffs end up with an 11-man rotation, when you consider injuries (both minor and more severe), should we make it to the NBA Finals. I believe that when it’s all said and done, Markieff Morris and Victor Oladipo will be more involved than anyone thinks, should we go the distance. — Brent, Wellington.
A: Well, based on the calf strain sustained by P.J. Tucker and the uncertainty with his timetable, you might be particularly correct about Markieff Morris (not as sure with Victor Oladipo, considering how it appears Gabe Vincent is the preferred choice there). But the problem with utilizing depth in the playoffs is that it means that someone you were counting on is not there to be counted on. And as we saw with the Heat in the 2020 NBA Finals against the Lakers, once Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic went down, that was about it. So, yes, the Heat have the type of depth that offer options as fill-ins for leading men. But just as on Broadway, when you go with the understudy, it’s just not the same production value. If there is health, the Heat’s rotation will be limited. If there isn’t, then the playoff run could be limited.
Q: Nothing tops The Warden — Tom.
A: This was in response to the piece on how Dewayne Dedmon got his nickname of The Mechanic. And, yes, Joel Anthony as The Warden certainly struck a chord. But so have several others over the Heat’s 34 seasons, including Sherman Douglas as The General, Mark Strickland as Pogo Man, Wayne Ellington as The Man With the Golden Arm, Derrick Jones Jr. as Airplane Mode, Goran Dragic as The Dragon, Dan Majerle as Thunder Dan, Rodney McGruder as The Scavenger, Gary Payton as The Glove, Jason Williams as White Chocolate, Dwyane Wade as Flash, and, of course, Chris Andersen as Birdman.
Q: To me, a full-time Heat fan who watches every possible game during the long, tough 82-game season, first in the 15-team Eastern Conference is a big deal. Playoffs are different, where a toe on the 3-point line can make the difference between winning and elimination. And that is OK, too, just different. — Roland, Borrego Springs, Calif.
A: Exactly. It has been a heck of a six-month ride, one that deserves to be celebrated.
()
|
https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/08/ask-ira-can-understudies-carry-the-day-need-be-for-heat-in-playoffs/
| 2022-04-08T11:23:38
| 1
|
https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/08/ask-ira-can-understudies-carry-the-day-need-be-for-heat-in-playoffs/
|
After an exceptionally long winter and shortened spring, Orioles baseball is back.
The Orioles play their first game of the 2022 season Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays, opening a 162-game slate that for a time didn’t seem as if it would reach that tally. Like all teams, Baltimore waited out Major League Baseball’s 99-day lockout this offseason before major league players could report to spring training, which was two weeks shorter than normal. The result was a delayed opening day and a handful of games crammed into the schedule, but it’s a grand improvement from 2020′s 60-game schedule amid the coronavirus pandemic, the effects of which lingered into the early portion of 2021.
“It’s the first time in three years that we felt like we’ve got real, unrestricted baseball ahead of us after a lot of events that have interfered with the sport since the beginning of 2020,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said Thursday.
For those who perhaps stopped paying attention during the lockout — or perhaps after last year’s 162nd game — here’s what you need to know about the Orioles’ 2022 season.
The prospects are coming.
Don’t go looking for them on the opening day roster, but this figures to be the year a good chunk of the Orioles’ well-hyped farm system reaches the majors.
Catcher Adley Rutschman might have been on the season-opening roster if not for the right tricep strain he suffered just before major league camp last month, but once healthy, it might not take him long to prove he belongs at Camden Yards. By the time he joins Triple-A Norfolk’s roster, it will likely also feature fellow top-25 prospects Grayson Rodriguez, Kyle Stowers, Kyle Bradish, Terrin Vavra, Kevin Smith and Yusniel Diaz, all of whom could make their major league debuts this season.
“We’re sitting on top of the best minor league system in baseball,” Elias said, “and those players are getting closer and closer to joining Camden Yards.”
The lineup could be potent …
Although the Orioles are waiting for that prospect group to arrive, there’s already some potential pieces of their future in place.
Center fielder Cedric Mullins is coming off the first 30-homer, 30-steal season in Orioles history and finished in the top 10 of American League Most Valuable Player voting. First baseman Ryan Mountcastle slugged 33 home runs, a franchise record for a rookie. After a couple of early-season hamstring strains, left fielder Austin Hays stayed healthy and had another strong September.
Add in Trey Mancini and Anthony Santander, who preceded Mullins as Most Valuable Oriole recipients, and the upper half of the Orioles’ lineup will be solid on a nightly basis. Rutschman’s eventual ascension paired with potential breakouts from infielders Ramón Urías and Jorge Mateo will deepen it further. Veterans Rougned Odor and Robinson Chirinos will also add some established presences to a lineup that has lacked them in recent years.
… but pitching remains a problem.
Left-hander John Means will make his second straight season-opening start, coming off a year in which he was one of baseball’s best pitchers through two months and threw a no-hitter. But the rest of the pitching staff is loaded with questions.
Right-hander Jordan Lyles received the largest contract Elias has given out in 3 1/2 years as Baltimore’s GM, and he’s coming off a year in which he threw 180 innings but also had a 5.15 ERA and led the majors in home runs allowed. The Orioles will deploy Tyler Wells, who went from Rule 5 draft pick to closer last season, as their third starter, but they’ll need to pair him with another bulk pitcher as he transitions to a starter.
In fact, they might use that tandem approach for each of their final three starter spots. Of a group of mid-20s starters who spent time in the majors last season, only Bruce Zimmermann has been assured a place in the rotation; the Ellicott City native will be the first Maryland-born pitcher to start the Orioles’ home opener in more than 50 years.
The bullpen is perhaps even more uncertain. Most of the seven true relievers on the team’s 28-man roster — mercifully expanded two spots into early May after the shortened spring — came to the organization via waiver claims. In trading away Tanner Scott and Cole Sulser, the Orioles left manager Brandon Hyde with only two relievers who have more than two years of major league service time.
They’ll get some help from the ballpark.
In its 30th anniversary season, Camden Yards will have a new look.
This offseason, the Orioles elected to move back the portion of the iconic ballpark’s left field wall between the left field corner and the bullpen in left-center field, with the wall’s height increasing from 7 feet to 13 feet. The changes were made to reduce the ballpark’s home run friendliness. Take your pick: Since 1992, 2002 or 2012 (and many years between), more home runs have been hit at Oriole Park than any other ballpark.
The changes are significant, with the wall moving back nearly 30 feet in some spots and taking the wall from one of the shortest and shallowest in the league to at some points the deepest of any park in that area. With the bullpens unmoved, there is sharp angle in left-center, creating a new and unique element to the historic park.
This could be Trey Mancini’s final year as an Oriole.
Mancini was on the roster for the most recent Orioles playoff game, and he would love to play in the next. But it seems doubtful that will happen.
Despite agreeing to a contract that includes a mutual option for the 2023 season, Mancini said, “I don’t think it changes my situation very much, if I’m being honest.” Mutual options, he notes, are rarely picked up by both sides, and thus it’s likely he’ll become a free agent this offseason regardless.
The Orioles aren’t expected to be competitive — the American League East features four other teams that won 90 games in 2021 and seem capable of doing so again — so Mancini’s status makes him a likely trade candidate. He’s held that status for much of this rebuild, but it’s accentuated in these circumstances. The Orioles even had Mancini, a natural first baseman, return to the outfield this spring. Him playing there not only increases Baltimore’s lineup flexibility but also shows opposing teams they can put him out there if that’s where they have a need come July’s trade deadline.
Last season’s comeback from colon cancer made Mancini one of the best stories in baseball. This year could be his final chapter in Baltimore.
Season opener
ORIOLES@RAYS
Friday, 3:10 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
()
|
https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/08/orioles-guide-to-fridays-season-opener-what-to-know-about-the-2022-season-before-it-gets-underway/
| 2022-04-08T11:23:44
| 0
|
https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/08/orioles-guide-to-fridays-season-opener-what-to-know-about-the-2022-season-before-it-gets-underway/
|
Bogus test taker to be sentenced in college admissions scam
BOSTON (AP) — A former Florida prep school administrator who took college entrance exams for students in exchange for cash to help wealthy parents get their kids into elite universities is facing sentencing.
Judge Nathaniel Gorton is slated to hand down the decision against Mark Riddell in Boston federal court on Friday.
Riddell admitted to secretly taking the ACT and SAT in place of students, or correcting their answers, as part of a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme which has ensnared celebrities, business executives and athletic coaches at sought-after schools such as Stanford and Yale.
Riddell, who had been cooperating with federal authorities in hopes of getting a lesser sentence, pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges in April 2019.
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins’ office, in a filing ahead of Friday’s hearing, has asked the judge to sentence Riddell to four months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and a previously-ordered forfeiture judgment of nearly $240,000.
Riddell’s lawyers, in their own sentencing memo, argued for one to two months in prison. They also note he’s paid nearly $166,000 toward the forfeiture obligation.
The Harvard graduate, who emerged as a key figure in the wide-ranging scandal, has previously said he’s “profoundly sorry” and takes full responsibility for his actions.
Riddell oversaw college entrance exam preparation at IMG Academy, a school in Bradenton, Florida, founded by renowned tennis coach Nick Bollettieri that bills itself as the world’s largest sports academy. Riddell has since been fired.
Authorities say the admissions consultant at the center of the scheme, Rick Singer, bribed test administrators to allow Riddell to pretend to proctor the exams for students so he could cheat on the tests. Singer typically paid Riddell $10,000 per test to rig the scores, prosecutors said.
Riddell made more than $200,000 by cheating on over 25 exams, prosecutors said.
Since March 2019, a parade of wealthy parents have pleaded guilty to paying big bucks to help get their kids into school with rigged test scores or bogus athletic credentials in a case prosecutors dubbed Operation Varsity Blues.
The group — including TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin and Loughlin’s fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli — have received punishments ranging from probation to nine months behind bars.
A Boston jury is also deliberating Friday on the fate of Jovan Vavic, a decorated former water polo coach at the University of Southern California. He’s the only coach of the many implicated to challenge his role in the scheme in a trial.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/bogus-test-taker-be-sentenced-college-admissions-scam/
| 2022-04-08T11:39:20
| 1
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/bogus-test-taker-be-sentenced-college-admissions-scam/
|
Happening this weekend in Lincoln
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Stay busy this weekend in Lincoln with a compiled list of events in Friday Fast Facts from the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
ConStellation 11
ConStellation 11 is Lincoln’s annual science fiction and fantasy convention, bringing together people from all walks of life for one weekend of fan-filled fun every year. The theme this year is “Fandom is Family.”
Friday-Sunday; Check website for prices
More info: HERE
I Love My Dog Expo
Get ready for two days of dog-friendly, family-oriented fun! I Love My Dog Expo is a perfect opportunity to visit vendors for dog-related products, services or find your new best friend at one of several rescue organizations in attendance. There will be entertainment, games, training demonstrations and of course, plenty of shopping. It’s also fun for those who don’t have a dog and just want to come, check out the cool canines and be a part of the festivities.
Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tickets: $12
More info: HERE
Easter Eggstravaganza 2022 – Christ Place Church
Christ Place Church invites you, your friends and family to join them at this fun-filled event! They’ll have egg hunts, inflatables, food, giveaways and more. This event is at Christ Place Church – Old Cheney Campus and Van Dorn Campus.
Saturday 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Free
More info: HERE
Return Of The Thunderbirds
Join the fun of this cultural community event to connect us back to the earth and to each other. It will be a day celebrating the return of the Thunder Beings - who bring rain and storms for the spring - as well as the return of migratory birds to Nebraska. The day will be full of music, food, art, dance, bird and nature activities and possibly some native plant/seed sales.
Sunday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Free, $5 suggested donation
More info: HERE
Nebraska Trumpet Ensemble Presents Music For Eight Trumpets
This recital will feature works such as Giovanni Gabrieli’s “Sacrae Symphoniae”, Gioachino Rossini’s “Sinfonia” from the Barber of Seville, Paul Dukas’s “Fanfare” from La Péri, Percy Grainger’s “Ye Banks and Braes O’ Bonnie Doon” and “Semper Fidelis” by John Philip Sousa.
Sunday 3 p.m.; Adults: $15, Seniors: $12
More info: HERE
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/happening-this-weekend-lincoln/
| 2022-04-08T11:39:27
| 0
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/happening-this-weekend-lincoln/
|
More sunshine and not as windy Friday
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The upper level low responsible for the clouds, wind and cold is slowly moving out of the region. We do anticipate more sunshine Friday, but it will still be cool and blustery. Saturday will be a nice day with sunshine and temperatures returning to the 60s. A few more clouds, breezier on Sunday.
Red flag warning for much of Nebraska on Friday. Lower humidity and gusty winds will create critical fire conditions.
Partly to mostly sunny, breezy and cool on Friday for the Lincoln area. Highs in the lower 50s with a north-northwest wind 15 to 25 mph with gusts around 35 mph.
Mainly clear and cold Friday night and early Saturday morning. Lows in the mid 20s and a northwest breeze 5 to 15 mph.
Mostly sunny skies and warmer on Saturday. Highs will climb into the lower 60s Saturday afternoon with a southeast wind 10 to 15 mph and occasional gusts up to 25 mph.
Partly sunny, breezy and a bit warmer for Lincoln on Sunday. There is a slight chance of rain late in the day. Highs in the upper 60s with a southeast wind 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph.
Monday will be a little cooler with a small chance of rain. Breezy and warmer on Tuesday with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Cooler on Wednesday with showers still possible. Cold and blustery on Thursday.
Copyright 2022 KOLN. All rights reserved.
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/more-sunshine-not-windy-friday/
| 2022-04-08T11:39:33
| 1
|
https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/08/more-sunshine-not-windy-friday/
|
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A missile hit a crowded train station in eastern Ukraine that was an evacuation point for civilians, killing dozens of people, Ukrainian authorities said Friday after warning they expected even worse evidence of war crimes in parts of the country previously held by Russian troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that thousands of people were at the train station when the missile struck. The Russian Defense Ministry denied targeting the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, but Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the bodies lying in what looked like an outdoor waiting area.
“The inhuman Russians are not changing their methods. Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population,” the president said on social media. “This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop.”
The regional governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, later said that 39 people were killed and 87 wounded. The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said about 4,000 civilians were in and around the station, most of them women and children heeding calls to leave the area before Russian forces arrived.
“The people just wanted to get away for evacuation,” Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said while visiting Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, where journalists and returning Ukrainians discovered scores of bodies on streets and in mass graves after Russian troops withdrew.
Venediktova spoke as workers pulled corpses from a mass grave near a church under spitting rain. Black body bags were laid out in rows in the mud. None of the dead were Russians; she said. Most of them had been shot. The prosecutor general’s office is investigating the deaths as possible war crimes.
After failing to take Ukraine’s capital and withdrawing from northern Ukraine, Russia has shifted its focus to the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking, industrial region in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years and control some areas. The train station is located in government-controlled territory.
Ukrainian officials warned residents this week to leave as soon as possible for safer parts of the country and said they and Russia had agreed to establish multiple evacuation routes in the east.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in northern cities and towns as the Russians depart. He said horrors worse than the ones in Bucha already had surfaced in Borodianka, another settlement outside the capital.
“And what will happen when the world learns the whole truth about what the Russian troops did in Mariupol?” Zelenskyy said late Thursday, referring to the besieged southern port that has seen some of the greatest suffering since Russia invaded Ukraine.
“There, on every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region after the departure of the Russian troops. The same cruelty. The same terrible crimes.”
Spurred by reports that Russian forces committed atrocities in areas surrounding the capital, NATO nations agreed to increase their supply of arms after Ukraine’s foreign minister pleaded for weapons from the alliance and other sympathetic countries to help face down an expected offensive in the east.
Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said investigators found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation. Most victims died from gunshots, not from shelling, he said, and some corpses with their hands tied were “dumped like firewood” into mass graves, including one at a children’s camp.
Fedoruk said 320 civilians were confirmed dead as of Wednesday, but he expected more as bodies are found in the city that was home to 50,000 people. Only 3,700 remain, he said.
Ukrainian and several Western leaders have blamed the massacres on Moscow’s troops. The weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported Germany’s foreign intelligence agency intercepted radio messages among Russian soldiers discussing killings of civilians. Russia has falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
In a rare acknowledgment of the war’s cost to Russia, a Kremlin spokesman said Thursday that the country has suffered major troop causalities during its six-week military operation in Ukraine.
“Yes, we have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told British broadcaster Sky.
Peskov also hinted the fighting might be over “in the foreseeable future,” telling Sky that Russian troops were “doing their best to bring an end to that operation.”
Asked about his remarks Friday, Peskov said his reference to troop losses was based on the most recent Russian Defense Ministry numbers. The ministry reported on March 25 that a total of 1,351 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine.
“It is a significant number,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.
In anticipation of intensified attacks by Russian forces, hundreds of Ukrainians fled villages in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions that were either under attack or occupied.
Marina Morozova and her husband fled from Kherson, the first major city to fall to the Russians.
“They are waiting for a big battle. We saw shells that did not explode. It was horrifying,” she said.
Morozova, 69, said only Russian television and radio was available. The Russians handed out humanitarian aid, she said, and filmed the distribution.
Anxious to keep moving away from Russian troops, the couple and others boarded a van that would take them west. Some will try to leave the country, while others will remain in quieter parts of Ukraine.
On Thursday, a day after Russian forces began shelling their village in the southern Mykolaiv region, Sergei Dubovienko, 52, drove north in his small blue Lada with his wife and mother-in-law to Bashtanka, where they sought shelter in a church.
“They started destroying the houses and everything” in Pavlo-Marianovka, he said. “Then the tanks appeared from the forest. We thought that in the morning there would be shelling again, so I decided to leave.”
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said that more than 4.3 million, half of them children, have left Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 and sparked Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
The International Organization for Migration estimates more than 12 million people are stranded in areas of Ukraine under attack.
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief told The Associated Press on Thursday that he’s “not optimistic” about securing a cease-fire after meeting with officials in Kyiv and in Moscow this week, given the lack of trust between the sides. He spoke hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of backtracking on proposals it had made over Crimea and Ukraine’s military status.
Two top European Union officials and the prime minister of Slovakia traveled to Kyiv on Friday, looking to shore up the EU’s support for Ukraine. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said he, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell have trade and humanitarian aid proposals for Zelenskyy and his government.
Part of that, Heger says is “to offer options for transporting grains, including wheat.” Ukraine is a major world wheat supplier and Russia’s war on Ukraine is creating shortages, notably in the Middle East.
Western nations have stepped up sanctions, and the Group of Seven major world powers warned that they will keep adding measures until Russian troops leave Ukraine.
The U.S. Congress voted Thursday to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, while the EU approved other new steps, including an embargo on coal imports. The U.N. General Assembly, meanwhile, voted to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.N. vote demonstrated how “Putin’s war has made Russia an international pariah.” He called the images coming from Bucha “horrifying.”
“The signs of people being raped, tortured, executed — in some cases having their bodies desecrated — are an outrage to our common humanity,” Biden said.
Rosa reported from Chernihiv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
|
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/missile-kills-30-evacuees-at-busy-ukrainian-train-station/
| 2022-04-08T12:06:00
| 1
|
https://www.wane.com/top-stories/missile-kills-30-evacuees-at-busy-ukrainian-train-station/
|
Have you ever had a cavity? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it’s almost a certainty.
According to the CDC, about 90% of adults aged 20 and older have had at least one cavity. In fact, the CDC also reports that one in four adults from ages 20-64 has at least one cavity right now! If you have dealt with tooth decay in the past or currently have dental issues, you might be wondering: Can you reverse a cavity?
Experts say that under certain conditions, you actually can reverse the effects of tooth decay. Taking steps to eradicate a cavity is a good idea. Along with pain, an untreated cavity can lead to an infection that leads to problems speaking, eating and even focusing on work. And if the infection becomes severe, it can spread to other parts of the body with serious — even fatal — results.
How To Tell if You Have a Cavity
Before we get into the question of “Can you reverse a cavity?” it’s helpful to determine whether you even have one. This can be challenging. The signs of a cavity can vary greatly depending on how large it is and where it is located.
Some of the symptoms you might experience with a cavity include:
- A toothache that occurs spontaneously and without any obvious trigger.
- New tooth sensitivity.
- Pain when you bite down.
- Suddenly experiencing pain when you eat or drink something hot or cold, or even something sweet.
- Noticing a visible hole or pitted appearance in a tooth.
If the cavity is very small, you might not have any symptoms at all. And even if you have some or all of these symptoms, they could be caused by another dental issue. The most reliable way to find out if you have a cavity is to go to the dentist for a routine exam.
What Causes Cavities?
Cavities occur when decay causes a hole to erode inside of a tooth. This decay is caused by a number of factors, including bacteria in the mouth, acid from certain foods and beverages, sugar that remains on the teeth after eating sweets, and insufficient brushing and flossing.
When any combination of acid, bacteria and food remain on your teeth, they create plaque. This sticky, colorless residue eats away at the natural enamel that protects your teeth.
Without enamel defending your teeth, they will begin to lose their natural minerals. When it happens frequently, you become susceptible to decay, as the plaque will begin to corrode the surface of your teeth. But, can you reverse a cavity once it’s settled in? It primarily depends on how much decay and mineral loss has already occurred.
Can You Reverse a Cavity?
The point at which you notice decay will determine if you can reverse a cavity. The good news is that it can take up to three years for a cavity to form.
Tooth decay can affect all layers of a tooth. The strong outer layer is enamel. The middle layer is called dentin. The innermost layer, called the pulp, contains the nerve endings and blood supply. This can lead to the following levels of tooth decay:
- Smooth surface decay is a slow-growing cavity that dissolves enamel. This is the easiest type to treat and the only kind that can be reversed without professional help.
- Pit and fissure decay cavities usually form on the top of the tooth’s chewing surface. However, this decay can also damage the front of back teeth. Pit and fissure decay progresses quickly.
- Root decay occurs when gums recede, exposing the root to plaque and acid. This type primarily affects older adults whose gums have receded.
If you are able to detect smooth surface decay, you can take steps to reverse it. Because mineral loss causes this type of decay, using fluoride can reverse or stop a cavity’s progress. Fluoride replaces lost minerals and prevents further loss. It also reduces bacteria’s ability to produce acid.
There are several ways to get extra fluoride:
- Drink fluoridated water. The CDC reports that 73% of the U.S. population on community water systems have access to fluoridated water. It is important to note that most bottled water does not contain enough fluoride to prevent tooth decay.
- Brush with a toothpaste that contains fluoride. Avoid rinsing after you brush. You might also wish to rinse with fluoride mouthwash between brushing.
If these methods of reversing a cavity are not working as quickly or as effectively as you hoped they would, contact your dentist. They may be able to offer more solutions, such as the following:
- Applying fluoride gel or varnish to the surfaces of your teeth.
- Prescribing fluoride tablets.
- Prescribing a fluoride mouth rinse.
Unfortunately, pit and fissure decay or root decay is usually impossible to reverse yourself. In this case, you will need to visit your dentist for a check-up and, most likely, a filling or other procedure, such as a root canal or extraction.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/can-you-reverse-cavity
| 2022-04-08T12:06:36
| 0
|
https://www.wrtv.com/can-you-reverse-cavity
|
The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Don't Waste Your Money may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link to the retailer's website.
If you’re looking to shake off those winter blues and celebrate spring, Lowe’s SpringFest is returning for the second year in a row, offering deals, workshops and more both online and in-store now through May 4.
Just a few of the standout deals include $100 off select EGO lawn mowers (valid April 7-20), a Char-broil 5-Burner Gas Grill for $278 (valid April 7-20) and a four-piece Patio Conversation Set for $498 (valid April 7-13).
Other deals include 5 for $10 on select 4-pack annuals in stores, 3 for $12 select Bonnie Plants 19.3-ounce vegetables and herbs in-store and 5/$10 2-cubic-feet of Premium Mulch (valid April 7-13).
Along with the deals, you’ll also find seed giveaways at select in-store locations and new 30-minute in-store lawn and garden “walking tours” with Lowe’s store associates.
The SpringFestival Garden Tours will be offered three times per day every Tuesday and Thursday. Time and dates include 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on April 19, 21, 26 and 28. You can register for a time slot at Lowes.com/SpringFest.
After joining the tour, you’ll receive a coupon for $10 off when you spend $75 in-store or online that same day.
Lowe’s will also be offering workshops throughout the season, including How to Build and Plant a Raised Garden Bed and How to Create a Beautiful Lawn. The workshops are in-store or via livestream.
The first workshop is live online on April 19 at 8 p.m. Called Make the Neighbors Jealous with Colorful Flower Beds, you’ll learn how to add color, personality and curb appeal to your landscape with easy-to-follow flower bed design tips.
You can register for the workshops by visiting Lowes’ website.
There will also be a few kid’s workshops, including The Little Gardener’s Workshop in-store on April 16 from 9 a.m.-noon. Kids will build a See it Grow Planter Kit that they can use to plant flowers.
You can register now through April 15. Because this is an in-person workshop, you’ll need to make sure you have a Lowe’s near you and that they are offering the workshop.
You can find out more about Lowe’s SpringFest by visiting their website.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/lowes-springfest-sales-workshops-freebies-begun
| 2022-04-08T12:06:42
| 1
|
https://www.wrtv.com/lowes-springfest-sales-workshops-freebies-begun
|
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly a day after Ketanji Brown Jackson was confirmed as the new Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver remarks on the historic event.
Jackson will serve as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court this year.
She is replacing Justice Stephen Breyer in late June or July.
Usually, Supreme Court justices are sworn in nearly immediately after being confirmed.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was sworn in after her confirmation when she replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg after her death.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh was also sworn in immediately, after replacing Anthony Kennedy who retired at the end of a term but didn’t announce his retirement before the term ended.
In this case, Breyer gave plenty of notice on his retirement, which also gave Democrats plenty of time to fill the vacancy.
President Biden is expected to sign Jackson’s judicial commission in three months.
That is also when she will be sworn in to sit on the Supreme Court.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/ketanji-brown-jackson-will-wait-months-before-being-sworn-in-as-supreme-court-justice
| 2022-04-08T12:06:48
| 1
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/ketanji-brown-jackson-will-wait-months-before-being-sworn-in-as-supreme-court-justice
|
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says about 30 people were killed and around 100 injured following a rocket strike on the railway station in Kramatorsk in the east of the country.
Writing on social media platforms, Zelenskyy said thousands of people were present in the station at the time of the strike.
The head of the Ukrainian railway service, Olexander Kamyshin, made similar comments about the strike.
Kramatorsk is a city in part of the Donetsk region that is controlled by the Ukrainian government, and its railway station was being used to evacuate civilians.
Zelenskyy lashed out at Russian forces, saying they were “cynically destroying the civilian population” and called it “an evil without limits.”
Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk have claimed that Ukrainian forces were responsible.
One leader of the European Union is calling for more sanctions after the attack.
The president of the European Council tweeted Friday morning, “Horrifying to see Russia strike one of the main stations used by civilians evacuating the region where Russia is stepping up its attack.”
He went on to say, “Action is needed: more sanctions on Russia and more weapons to #Ukraine are under way from the EU. 5th package of EU sanctions just approved.”
Meanwhile, the president of the European Union’s executive commission and the EU’s foreign policy chief went to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/russia-ukraine-conflict/ukraine-russian-missile-kills-30-civilians-at-train-station
| 2022-04-08T12:06:54
| 0
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/russia-ukraine-conflict/ukraine-russian-missile-kills-30-civilians-at-train-station
|
HANCOCK COUNTY — A place in Hancock County offers Hoosiers as young as 13-years-old a safe space to get help with a substance use disorder.
The Landing wants to offer 'a safe place to be real' to adults and teens alike.
Currently, 82 of Indiana's 92 counties offer programs for substance use disorder.
Ostewig is the executive director of The Landing in Greenfield.
She knows all too well that substance use disorder can happen to anyone, anywhere.
“My daughter struggled in addiction for 11 years and I went into recovery myself working on my own stuff and recovery,” Ostewig said.
That’s why nine years ago she opened The Landing, a safe place for teens ages 13 to 19 to come once a week and work on their recovery.
“We soon realized that there was way more that we could be doing for the community and recovery,” Ostewig said.
That’s how the Recovery Café came to be. The café is open Tuesdays and Thursdays for anyone recovering from substance use, mental health challenges, trauma and homelessness.
Ostewig said some days are draining but making a difference in the lives of Hancock County residents makes it worth it.
“It’s really painful," Ostewig said. "It's really hard at times to do and you get really tired, but at the same time…. and then you see a young person picking up a coin for 30 days for not you know shooting heroin."
To learn more about The Landing and other programs they offer, click here.
They are looking for volunteers to help with security around the building, small group leaders, musicians, people good with technology and administrative work.
They offer food, water and coffee to anyone who comes in and donations are welcome.
The Recovery Café also has a place for those that need it to take a hot shower.
More Resources
If you or someone you know is dealing with a substance use-related emergency, call 911.
For more information on a recovery organization near you, you can visit the Indiana Recovery Network website.
You can call 211 for help 24/7 in Indiana.
You can call the Indiana Addiction Hotline at 1-800-622-HELP (4357).
To find where you can get Naloxone near you, click here.
To learn more about NaloxBoxes, click here.
To view more resources from NextLevel Recovery Indiana, click here to visit its website.
Learn More
Click here to learn more about substance use disorders.
Substance use disorder-related data from the state.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/working-for-you/greenfield-organization-offers-space-for-recovery
| 2022-04-08T12:07:00
| 0
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/working-for-you/greenfield-organization-offers-space-for-recovery
|
INDIANAPOLIS — The city of Indianapolis has opted-in to a national lawsuit against 20 drug companies over their role in the opioid crisis.
Four of the companies have already settled, and those settlements could bring in up to $40.2 million to the city, with payments starting as early as next month, according to a city spokesperson.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, overdoses and addiction numbers are sky-high. In the first two months of 2021, the Marion County Coroner investigated more than 150 overdoses. Indianapolis EMS used 30% more naloxone in February 2022 than 2021.
Naloxone is a drug used to treat overdoses.
Lauren Fraser is in long-term recovery and now works in the community to help others.
“People think that addicts and stuff are people living in the streets, but it's everywhere. It's in your most affluent neighborhoods all the way down to the streets. It’s everywhere at this point,” she said.
Wendy Noe is the executive director at Dove Recovery House for Women.
“At Dove House, we've seen as many as 85 people waiting for a bed, and most of those people will never make it into a bed,” she said.
But the new settlement money could help alleviate the pressure. The money is required to be used to help combat the effects of the opioid crisis.
The idea of additional services gives Fraser hope.
“I know I wouldn't be here if I didn't have resources that this money can provide,” she said.
Kyle Morris is also in long-term recovery, and agrees that resources are the most important component to recovery.
“How do we get those resources out there to try and affect the future, rather than try to clean up the past?”
And this might not be the end. There are still 16 companies in litigation, and the city can still choose to pursue its own lawsuit against the companies, as well.
“It is amazing to see that our government has held accountable these organizations that were making a lot of money from our cities from out communities for their own personal pockets. And they needed to be held accountable and they are and I hope that continues,” Noe said.
“It's good for folks to see that these companies that were such a big part of the problem for so many years, are being forced to be part of the solution, as well,” Brandon George, director of the Indiana Addictions Issues Coalition, said.
Advocates also worry about how the money will be spent.
“Not everybody is an expert on addiction, so making sure our mayors, our county councils have people around them that can really help put good plans in place for these dollars," George said.
More Resources
If you or someone you know is dealing with a substance use-related emergency, call 911.
For more information on a recovery organization near you, you can visit the Indiana Recovery Network website.
You can call 211 for help 24/7 in Indiana.
You can call the Indiana Addiction Hotline at 1-800-622-HELP (4357).
To find where you can get Naloxone near you, click here.
To learn more about NaloxBoxes, click here.
To view more resources from NextLevel Recovery Indiana, click here to visit its website.
Learn More
Click here to learn more about substance use disorders.
Substance use disorder-related data from the state.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/working-for-you/indiana-to-receive-up-to-40-2-million-in-national-opioid-settlement
| 2022-04-08T12:07:06
| 1
|
https://www.wrtv.com/news/working-for-you/indiana-to-receive-up-to-40-2-million-in-national-opioid-settlement
|
If you haven’t purchased some “Forever” stamps in a while, you might want to stock up.
The U.S. Postal Service is looking to increase the price of stamps by 2 cents every six months beginning July 10, 2022. The U.S.P.S filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission proposing the change, but it has not yet been reviewed. The increase, if approved, would take the current price of stamps from 58 cents to 60 cents this summer.
The increase would raise First-Class Mail prices approximately 6.5%, which is lower than the annual inflation rate of 7.9%, which is the highest single-year jump since 1982.
If it takes affect, the single-piece letter additional ounce price would increase to 24 cents, the metered mail 1-ounce price would increase to 57 cents and the price of a postcard stamp would increase to 44 cents. If you often send mail to other countries, you’ll see a one-ounce letter mailed out of the U.S. increased to $1.40.
The Postal Service is also seeking price adjustments for special services products like Certified Mail, Post Office Box rental fees and Money Order fees, but they have not revealed the exact prices they’re looking at.
The U.S.P.S. announced the proposed increase in January, saying that in each subsequent year, they plan to implement price changes in January and July. They will be filing the necessary paperwork for review each preceding October and April, which means the next increase could be January 2023, taking the cost of stamps to 62 cents, then 64 cents in July 2023.
Here’s a breakdown of the proposed Mailing Services price changes:
Forever stamps, which will work despite the price increase, can be purchased at your local post office or grocery store, or you can order them online.
You’ll find nearly 50 different stamps for 58 cents, including nature-themed, American flags, Star Wars and more.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/price-stamps-could-increase-every-6-months-beginning-july-2022
| 2022-04-08T12:07:12
| 1
|
https://www.wrtv.com/price-stamps-could-increase-every-6-months-beginning-july-2022
|
The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Don't Waste Your Money may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link to the retailer's website.
Spring has sprung, and outdoor sports fans are getting warmed up for lots of fun to come. That includes players of pickleball, a relatively new sport that’s consistently growing in popularity.
From its homespun beginnings in the 1960s to 58 member countries in the International Federation of Pickleball (IFP) in 2021, pickleball is taking its place in the world of racquet sports. The IFP is even preparing a push for the sport to gain recognition as an Olympic sport!
The unusual name doesn’t offer much info about what pickleball actually is: a sort of hybrid sport that mixes ping-pong, badminton and tennis.
The game uses firm, table tennis-style paddles to whack a modified wiffle ball over a net to score points. Players play singly or as a doubles team, as in tennis.
Pickleball courts are smaller than tennis courts, however, and rules prevent the game from getting too aggressive — the zone closest to the net, for example, is off-limits for forceful, impossible-to-return volleys.
The smaller court, the light, bouncy ball and the relaxed style of play helped the game take off. By the end of 2021, more than 53,000 players had joined the USA Pickleball organization, a 43% increase over the previous year.
According to Psychology Today, pickleball’s mental and physical health benefits are part of the appeal. Since the court is smaller and play is less intense, it’s a great workout that’s easier on your body than tennis. And, of course, regular exercise is a fantastic mood booster.
If this all sounds appealing, there’s no time like the present to start! Check out these Amazon deals on pickleball essentials to get in on the game.
GRM By Gonex pickleball Paddles, Set Of 2
This classic starter set comes with four balls and a handy carrying case. Plus, at $69.99, it’s 13% off its usual list price. It’s got great reviews, too: Purchaser Mike said, “This is a great set for the price for players who are just getting started and refining their skills.”
Niupipo Pickleball Paddles, Set Of 4 Balls And 1 Bag
Here’s another good beginners’ set with two paddles, four balls and a case. It’s also on sale for $62.99, a $9 savings. Reviewers like the OG Elf go for these paddles’ ease of play, posting, “The paddles are lightweight and when I’ve used them I haven’t had any issues with my tennis elbow.”
GRM By Gonex Set Of 4 Pickleball Paddles
Get the whole family on the court with this set of four paddles and four balls. Around 82% of reviewers gave this set a full five stars, with one fan writing, “I’m so glad we chose these … the quality is very apparent as you play with them.” They’re currently going for $118.99 — $41 off the regular price!
Amazin’ Aces Wooden Pickleball Paddles, Set Of 4
This Amazin’ Aces set offers another great option for beginners, especially those who don’t want to spend a lot upfront. It includes four maple-wood paddles, four balls and a mesh bag. Save $15 by buying now; this set is a steal at $39.99.
Once you’ve got the balls and paddles, you’ve gotta have a net, right? Amazon’s got you covered there, too.
Flybold Portable Pickleball Net
This strong, light, metal-framed net goes where you go, thanks to its collapsible design and a nifty tote bag. It goes for $124.97 and has a four-and-a-half star average rating from buyers.
SwiftNet 2.1 Portable Pickleball Net System
Here’s another pick for the pickleball player on the go. Reviewers give this lightweight, $369.99 net with a frame of carbon fiber and aluminum a thumbs-up. User Kevin Curtis writes, “I wanted a net that was light, quick to set up and adjusted to the proper net height easily. SwiftNet nailed it.”
VIVOHOME Portable 22-Foot Pickleball Net
This stable net of nylon, iron pipe and PVC is a lower-cost option that gets some great reviews. Verified purchaser Sue titled her 5-star review, “Easy to put together, sturdy enough to leave on the court without taking it down every time.” Say no more! It’s selling for $84.99.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money.
|
https://www.wrtv.com/top-rated-pickleball-paddles-are-sale-right-now
| 2022-04-08T12:07:19
| 1
|
https://www.wrtv.com/top-rated-pickleball-paddles-are-sale-right-now
|
Minnesota Senate passes tax cut bill
Published 6:54 am Friday, April 8, 2022
By Brian Bakst
The Minnesota Senate passed the keystone of the Republican plan for the state’s projected $9.25 billion surplus – a tax bill that would cut income taxes by $3 billion this year and at least $2.5 billion each year after.
Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, leaned on a well-worn mantra as he described the goal of the bill, which passed by a 42-24 vote, with six DFLers crossing over to join all Republicans.
“To put more money in the pockets of working Minnesotans, every single paycheck, week after week, month after month, year after year,” Miller said.
“Taglines don’t solve problems. Let’s come to the table with real solutions and not fake fixes,” said Senate Minority Leader Melisa Lopez Franzen, DFL-Edina. She described it as a risky plan that could come back to haunt the state.
The bill takes a cleaver to the bottom income tax rate – dropping it from 5.35 percent now to 2.8 percent. It applies to the rate assessed on roughly the first $40,000 joint filers earn and about the first $25,000 in taxable income for singles.
Senate Taxes Committee Chair Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, argued that Minnesota is an outlier because its lowest rate tops the highest tax rate of many states.
“This is a small step to right the ship, to support hardworking Minnesotans and to make our state a bit more competitive, and to encourage innovation, growth and economic expansion in our state,” Nelson said.
The other big piece of the plan would exempt all Social Security income from taxation. A change like that would align Minnesota with most states, but it would also deliver the most money to people with annual earnings above six figures because most people receiving those benefits already don’t pay taxes on them.
Democrats see the plan as a recipe for disaster.
“Another Legislature is going to come back next January and face the music of whatever decisions that we’re making now,” said Sen. Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul. “And I think the Republican majority is spending money like teenagers who have just earned their first paycheck.”
Sen. Matt Klein, DFL- Mendota Heights, said a huge tax cut will crowd out other pressing needs.
“If you were a Minnesotan who had hoped we would use this historic surplus to address climate change, to rebuild our schools after these difficult couple of years, to address the housing crisis and get homeless people into safe places,” Klein said. “If you were hopeful that we would finally reward our heroes and our frontline workers, you will be disappointed in this bill.”
An analysis from nonpartisan staff shows that 75 percent of taxpayers would benefit from the income tax rate cut, at an average of $759 per year. Those with higher incomes generally fare better in dollar terms. The Social Security tax change would award the biggest savings to upper earners.
Klein called that irresponsible.
“The surplus is spent and much of it on very affluent people,” he said.
Republicans argued that tacking more money onto state-supported programs isn’t the answer. Sen. Julia Coleman, R-Waconia, said families need a break as they cope with rising costs of almost every essential item, from groceries to gas to heating bills.
“They aren’t asking for a government spending spree,” Coleman said. “They aren’t asking for a one-time check. They are asking for permanent tax relief so they can catch their breaths.”
The Senate plan isn’t the only one in play at the Capitol. DFL Gov. Tim Walz has proposed expanded education and family care credits along with a one-time rebate that would send up to $1,000 to 2.7 million households.
Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, tried to put those $2 billion in rebates in place of the Republican-backed bill, but the Senate rejected the move.
“I think it’s insulting to think Minnesotans would prefer a one-time check as opposed to ongoing tax reform, ongoing tax relief,” Nelson said.
House Democrats have proposed a tax plan one-third the size of the Senate’s that would deliver money through income-based credits, existing property tax aid programs and a smaller-scale rebate.
Lawmakers are a day away from starting a week-long break. When they return, they’ll have about a month left to fit the pieces together before shifting focus to an election that will determine the Capitol power structure in 2023.
At a press conference ahead of the Senate bill’s passage, Miller wouldn’t say whether a permanent income tax rate cut was imperative for striking a deal.
“I think it’s too early to answer that question,” Miller said. “Republicans are open to any ideas to put more money back in the pockets of Minnesotans.”
|
https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/minnesota-senate-passes-tax-cut-bill/
| 2022-04-08T12:11:22
| 1
|
https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/minnesota-senate-passes-tax-cut-bill/
|
Robert Kaput, 70
Published 6:49 am Friday, April 8, 2022
Robert Michael Kaput, 70 years old of London, MN passed away on March 2 in Austin, MN.
Robert (Bob) was born in Austin MN on August 20th, 1951. He attended Lyle Public School. He married Jodi Lynn Leidall on February 15th in Austin, MN at Crane Chapel. He worked in the Agriculture Industry for Center Valley Co-Op for over 40 years. He was a veteran of the Vietnam War and served in the Army and was awarded the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, and Vietnam Campaign Medal.
Robert (Bob) is preceded in death by parents, Sisters Linda Kaput Ellis and Sharon Kaput.
Bob is survived by loving wife Jodi Lynn Kaput, Son Jacob (Gabi) Kaput, Daughter Jenny Kaput. Sisters Kris Kaput Bartness (Kenny), Nancy Kaput Knipp. Grandchildren Marcus Tapia, Rayna Rose Krebsbach, Adrian Bacilio, Tailyn Joy Kaput, June Caprice Knoy, Dallas Michael Knoy and Nicolo Scott Juhasz, Jr., and nephew Eric Lorenzen.
A celebration of life will be announced later this summer.
|
https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/robert-kaput-70/
| 2022-04-08T12:11:28
| 1
|
https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/robert-kaput-70/
|
Amazon plans to file objections to the union election on Staten Island, New York, that resulted in the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the company’s history.
The e-commerce giant stated its plans in a legal filing to the National Labor Relations Board made public Thursday. Among other things, the company accused the Amazon Labor Union, a group of former and current employeeswho spearheaded the union drive, of threatening warehouse workers to vote in favor of the organizing effort. Eric Milner, an attorney representing the ALU, said the claims were “patently absurd.”
“The employees have spoken and their voices have been heard,” Milner said in a statement. “Amazon is choosing to ignore that, and instead engage in stalling tactics to avoid the inevitable — coming to the bargaining table and negotiating for a contract” on behalf of the warehouse workers on Staten Island.
Warehouse workers on Staten Island cast 2,654 votes — or about 55% — in favor of a union, giving the fledgling group enough support to pull off a victory Friday. Federal labor officials had said the results of the count won’t be verified until they process any objections — due by April 8 — that both parties may file. Amazon requested a two-week extension, which the labor board has granted. It now has until April 22 to back up its claims.
The company had initially signaled it planned to challenge the election results based on a lawsuit filed in March by the NLRB, which sought to force Amazon to reinstate a fired employee who was involved in the union drive. In the filing made public Thursday, Amazon said it was also objecting to the labor agency’s conduct “before and during the polling,” that the company says interfered with the election.
A labor dispute down in Alabama, where the other union election was held, is also heating up. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which is trying to unionize an Amazon warehouse in the city of Bessemer, said Thursday it filed several objections with the federal labor board over how the retail giant conducted itself in that election. Among other things, the RWDSU said the company fired and retailed against union supporters.
Initial results in the Alabama union election show the RWDSU down by 118 votes, with the majority of Amazon warehouse workers rejecting a bid to form a union. The final outcome is still up in the air with 416 outstanding challenged ballots hanging in the balance. A hearing to review the ballots is expected to begin in the coming weeks.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/amazon-plans-to-object-to-union-win-in-new-york/
| 2022-04-08T12:14:31
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/amazon-plans-to-object-to-union-win-in-new-york/
|
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The spread of a bird flu that is deadly to poultry raises the grisly question of how farms manage to quickly kill and dispose of millions of chickens and turkeys.
It’s a chore that farms across the country are increasingly facing as the number of poultry killed in the past two months has climbed to more than 24 million, with outbreaks reported nearly every day. Some farms have had to kill more than 5 million chickens at a single site with a goal of destroying the birds within 24 hours to limit the spread of the disease and prevent animals from suffering.
“The faster we can get on site and depopulate the birds that remain on site, the better,” Minnesota State Veterinarian Beth Thompson said.
The outbreak is the biggest since 2015, when producers had to kill more than 50 million birds. So far this year, there have been cases in 24 states, with Iowa the hardest hit with about 13 million chickens and turkeys killed. Other states with sizable outbreaks include Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Indiana.
Farms faced with the need to kill so many birds turn to recommendations by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Even as it has developed methods to kill the poultry quickly, the association acknowledges its techniques “may not guarantee that the deaths the animals face are painless and distress free.” Veterinarians and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials also typically oversee the process.
One of the preferred methods is to spray water-based firefighting foam over birds as they roam around the ground inside a barn. That foam kills the animals by cutting off their air supply.
When foam won’t work because birds are in cages above the ground or it’s too cold, the USDA recommends sealing up barns and piping carbon dioxide inside, first rendering the birds unconscious and ultimately killing them.
If one those methods won’t work because equipment or workers aren’t available, or when the size of a flock is too large, the association said a last resort is a technique called ventilation shutdown. In that scenario, farmers stop airflow into barns, which raises temperatures to levels at which the animals die. The USDA and the veterinary association recommend that farmers add additional heat or carbon dioxide to barns to speed up the process and limit suffering by the animals.
Mike Stepien, a spokesman for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said the techniques are the best options when it’s necessary to quickly kill so many birds.
“State animal health officials and producers carefully weigh the different options to determine the best option for humane depopulation and do not make such decisions lightly,” Stepien said.
Not everyone agrees.
Animal welfare groups argue that all these methods for quickly killing birds are inhumane, though they are particularly opposed to ventilation shutdown, which they note can take hours and is akin to leaving a dog in a hot car. Animal rights groups delivered a petition last year signed by 3,577 people involved in caring for animals, including nearly 1,600 veterinarians, that urged the veterinary association to stop recommending ventilation shutdown as an option.
“We have to do better. None of these are acceptable in any way,” said Sara Shields, director of farm animal welfare science at Humane Society International.
Opponents of the standard techniques said firefighting foam uses harmful chemicals and it essentially drowns birds, causing chickens and turkeys to suffer convulsions and cardiac arrest as they die. They say carbon dioxide is painful to inhale and detectible by the birds, prompting them to try to flee the gas.
Karen Davis, of the nonprofit group United Poultry Concerns, urged the veterinary association to stop recommending all of its three main options.
“They’re all ways that I would not choose to die, and I would not choose anybody else to die regardless of what species they belong to,” Davis said.
Shields said there are more humane alternatives, such as using nitrogen gas but those options tend to be more expensive and could have logistical challenges.
Sam Krouse, vice president of Indiana-based MPS Egg Farms, said farmers feel miserable about using any of the options.
“We pour our lives and livelihoods into taking care of those birds, and it’s just devastating when we lose any of those birds,” Krouse said. “Everything that we’re doing every day is focused on keeping the disease out and making sure that we’re keeping our hens as safe as possible.”
Officials emphasize that this virus that’s spread primarily through the droppings of infected wild birds doesn’t threaten food safety or represent a significant public health threat. Sick birds aren’t allowed into the food supply and properly cooking poultry and eggs kills any viruses that might be present. And health officials say no human cases of bird flu have been found in the United States during this current outbreak.
Once poultry are dead, farmers must quickly dispose of the birds. They usually don’t want to risk the chance of spreading the virus by transporting the carcasses to landfills, so crews typically pile the birds up into huge rows inside barns and combine them with other materials, such as ground up corn stalks and sawdust to create a compost pile.
After a couple weeks of decomposition, the carcasses are converted into a material that can be spread on cropland to help fertilize crops. In some cases, carcasses are buried in trenches on the farm or incinerated.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/bird-flus-grisly-question-how-to-kill-millions-of-poultry/
| 2022-04-08T12:14:38
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/bird-flus-grisly-question-how-to-kill-millions-of-poultry/
|
ConAgra cut its outlook for the year with inflation outpacing the price hikes put into place by the major food producer.
The cost of goods increased 10.1%. during the quarter and on Thursday, the Chicago company said it expects full-year gross inflation to be approximately 16% compared with its previous guidance of 14%.
Another round of price increases will be needed, the maker of Birds Eye, Slim Jim and Reddi-wip said Thursday.
“We experienced higher-than-expected cost pressures as the third quarter progressed and expect those pressures to continue into the fourth quarter, particularly in certain frozen, refrigerated, and snacks businesses,” said CEO Sean Connolly. “In response, we have taken steps to implement additional inflation-driven pricing actions.”
Global inflation is hitting consumers hard as prices rise for essential goods like fuel, housing and food. An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the U.S. Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February from last year.
The Fed signaled this week that it would take a much more aggressive approach to curtail inflation, meaning that borrowing money is about to grow more expensive.
Rising prices have caught producers of everything from food to cars in a pinch as they try to cover rising costs while trying to avoid losing customers.
Higher prices being rolled out by ConAgra will not become evident until the first fiscal quarter of 2023, Connolly said, and company shares slipped 1% at the opening bell.
The Chicago company lowered it’s adjusted per-share earnings expectations by 15 cents, to $2.35. That’s well below the $2.42 per share Wall Street had been projecting, according to a survey of industry analysts by FactSet.
During the third quarter, ConAgra earned $218.4 million, or 45 cents per share. A year earlier it earned $281.4 million, or 58 cents per share.
Stripping out certain items, earnings were 58 cents per share, which met Wall Street’s expectations.
Sales for the period ended Feb. 27 rose 5% to $2.91 billion from $2.77 billion partly on higher prices. This beat the $2.85 billion analysts called for.
Foodservice segment sales surged 18.9% as restaurant traffic continued to improve amid an easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Sales for the grocery and snacks unit climbed 6.2% on increased prices and favorable brand mix.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, ConAgra expects adjusted earnings of about 64 cents per share. Gross inflation is anticipated to be approximately 16%.
Wall Street predicts earnings of 70 cents per share.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/conagra-cuts-outlook-as-inflation-outpaces-its-price-hikes/
| 2022-04-08T12:14:45
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/conagra-cuts-outlook-as-inflation-outpaces-its-price-hikes/
|
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde tweeted Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19 and has mild symptoms but will continue working from home.
“I am vaccinated and boosted, and my symptoms are thankfully reasonably mild,” Lagarde, 66, wrote on Twitter. “I will work from home in Frankfurt until I am fully recovered. There is no impact on the ECB’s operations.”
The news conference she typically holds following the meeting of the Frankfurt-based bank’s rate-setting council is slated to go ahead next Thursday, with the format to be decided in the coming days.
Lagarde’s tweet comes as numerous European countries have dropped nearly all their COVID-19 restrictions and are battling a surge of the virus fueled by the highly infectious omicron subvariant BA.2.
Another tweet from Lagarde shows her speaking unmasked with European finance ministers at a meeting Monday.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also has tested positive for COVID-19, her spokesman said Thursday, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with President Joe Biden.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/european-central-bank-head-says-shes-positive-for-covid-19/
| 2022-04-08T12:14:52
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/european-central-bank-head-says-shes-positive-for-covid-19/
|
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Federal Reserve intensifies its efforts to tame high inflation, its top officials are casting their aggressive drive in a new light: As a blow against economic inequality.
That thinking marks a sharp reversal from the conventional view of the Fed’s use of interest rates. Normally, the steep rate hikes the Fed is planning for the coming months would be seen as a particular threat to disadvantaged and lower-income households. These groups are most likely to suffer if rate hikes weaken an economy, cause unemployment to rise and sometimes trigger a recession.
Instead, some of the most dovish Fed officials, who typically favor low rates to nurture the job market, are now going out of their way to point out ways in which inflation falls hardest on poorer Americans. Curbing high inflation, they argue, is a fairness issue.
The burden of high prices “is particularly great for households with more limited resources,” Lael Brainard, an influential member of the Fed’s Board of Governors and a longtime interest rate dove, said in a speech Tuesday. “That is why getting inflation down is our most important task.”
Brainard noted that food and energy together account for one-quarter of the price spikes that have driven inflation to 40-year highs. Poorer Americans spend about one-fourth of their incomes on groceries and transportation, she said, while wealthier households spend less than one-tenth.
Members of Congress from both parties generally agree that the Fed must tackle the surge in inflation by steadily raising rates, which will make many consumer and business loans costlier. Indeed, most economists have said the Fed has waited too long to do so and now runs the risk of having to tighten credit too fast and derailing the economy. Last month, the Fed raised its key rate from near zero to a range of 0.25% to 0.5%.
Still, some Democrats have expressed concern that higher rates will slow hiring significantly, even while unemployment for Black workers, for example, remains higher than that for whites.
“We clearly have a long way to go when it comes to making sure everyone has a good quality job,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said last month at a hearing on Jerome Powell’s nomination for a second four-year term as Fed chair. “Hiking up interest rates too early can depress job growth.”
Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist at SGH Macro Advisers and some other analysts say the Fed is right to highlight the damage that inflation can do to Americans’ ability to afford basic needs such as food, gas, and rent. But they also suggest that some recent Fed comments have exaggerated the notion that inflation worsens economic inequality.
Nathan Sheets, global chief economist for Citi and a former Fed economist, notes, for instance, that inflation reduces the burden of debt, which can disproportionately benefit lower-income Americans. Wages typically rise to keep up with inflation. But mortgages and other debts usually carry fixed interest rates, making them easier to pay off.
Brainard’s speech this week was one of the starker examples of the Fed’s argument that inflation can exacerbate inequality. Brainard, who has been nominated for the Fed’s No. 2 role and is part of Powell’s inner circle, said that lower-income households — defined as the poorest one-fifth — spend 77% of their income on necessities, including food and housing. By contrast, the richest one-fifth spend just 31% of their incomes on those categories.
Likewise, Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and long a dovish voice on the Fed’s policymaking committee, surprised Fed watchers this week when she declared that “inflation is as harmful as not having a job.”
“I understand … that if you have a job (but) you can’t pay your bills, or I feel like I can’t save for what I need to do, then that’s keeping you up at night,” Daly said in remarks to the Native American Financial Officers Association.
Brainard, in her speech, noted that poorer people often pay higher prices for the same item. Higher-income households, for example, can afford to make bulk purchases or to stock up on an item when it’s being sold at a discount, thereby lowering their cost per item.
And when inflation rises, Brainard said, households that buy name-brand cereals can switch to cheaper store brands. But poorer consumers that are already buying cheaper items can’t make an equivalent price-lowering switch.
Powell himself began shifting his rhetoric in this direction last winter during testimony to Congress, Duy said, when the Fed chair mentioned the harsh impact that inflation inflicts on disadvantaged Americans. Powell hadn’t raised that concern in previous testimony in September.
It was a notable change for the Powell Fed, which has focused on inequalityin the job market more than its predecessors. In August 2020, the Fed updated its policy framework to specify that its goal of maximum employment was “broad and inclusive.”
This meant the Fed would consider unemployment rates for Black and Hispanic workers, rather than just headline figures, in setting its interest rate policies. The central bank also said it would no longer raise rates in anticipation of higher inflation, but would wait until higher prices actually materialized.
Brainard had highlighted one reason for taking a more patient approach in a speech in February 2021. In those remarks, she said that raising rates to pre-empt inflation “may curtail progress for racial and ethnic groups that have faced systemic challenges.”
Powell and other Fed officials say their goal now is to reduce inflation by slowing, but not stopping, growth. Reducing high inflation is important to keep the economy expanding, they say, and, ultimately, to keep unemployment low.
For now, Sheets suggested, the Fed can raise rates without worrying too much about hurting the job market because its benchmark rate is so low. Fed officials don’t think their key rate will start to restrain growth until it reaches about 2.4%.
The minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting in March, released Wednesday, showed that the officials want to “expeditiously” reach that level, and economists expect them to do so by the end of this year. At that point, if inflation is still too high, the Fed might have to raise rates further, to a point where layoffs occur and the risks of a recession rise.
“That’s when it will get sticky and challenging for the Fed — when those short-run trade-offs arise,” Sheets said.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/fed-casting-its-inflation-fight-as-battle-against-inequality/
| 2022-04-08T12:14:59
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/fed-casting-its-inflation-fight-as-battle-against-inequality/
|
McDonald’s investors will consider a proposal for a civil rights audit of the company after the federal government denied McDonald’s request to remove the proposal from the agenda at its annual meeting.
SOC Investment Group, a shareholder advocacy group that supports union pension funds, submitted the proposal for a vote at McDonald’s annual meeting. The proposal, which is one of 10 listed on McDonald’s proxy statement, asks McDonald’s board to oversee a third-party audit that would analyze the company’s civil rights record and provide recommendations for improvement.
SOC backed a similar proposal at Apple’s annual meetingin March. Apple shareholders voted in favor of a civil rights audit over the Cupertino, California-based company’s objections.
McDonald’s annual meeting hasn’t yet been scheduled but is generally held in May.
In its proposal, SOC noted more than 50 complaints and lawsuits alleging sexual harassment at the company’s restaurants over the last six years. It also said multiple lawsuits against the company have been filed by Black franchisees and executives accusing the company of discrimination.
SOC also faulted the company for reporting diversity data only for its company-owned U.S. stores, even though 95% of its stores are owned and operated by franchisees.
“We urge McDonald’s to assess its behavior through a civil rights lens to obtain a complete picture of how it contributes to social and economic inequality,” SOC wrote in the proxy statement.
In a letter sent in January to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, McDonald’s asked to remove the proposal from its proxy statement because publicly reporting on its civil rights record could harm its legal defense in multiple lawsuits.
The Chicago-based company also noted its ongoing efforts to promote diversity, including a $250 million commitment to increase the number of franchisees from historically underrepresented groups and new requirements for anti-harassment trainingat its stores worldwide.
The company said it has also set a goal of gender parity in its leadership positions by the end of 2030.
But in a letter sent to McDonald’s Corp. and SOC this week, the SEC turned down McDonald’s request, saying the proposal goes “above and beyond” McDonald’s legal matters and should remain on the proxy statement.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/mcdonalds-investors-will-consider-civil-rights-audit/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:06
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/mcdonalds-investors-will-consider-civil-rights-audit/
|
DALLAS (AP) — Spirit Airlines said late Thursday that it will talk to JetBlue Airways about its $3.6 billion bid to combine the two airlines, which appeared to leapfrog an earlier offer by Frontier Airlines.
Spirit said that after speaking with financial and legal advisers, its directors believe JetBlue’s offer could “reasonably” turn out to be the better of the two deals.
JetBlue said it looked forward to completing a deal, calling itself “the best partner for Spirit.”
Frontier did not comment immediately.
In a statement, Spirit said it is still bound by terms of a $2.9 billion deal that Spirit and Frontier announced in February, and its board has not changed a recommendation that shareholders approve the offer.
JetBlue’s bid for Spirit has received lukewarm reviews from Wall Street, with investors sending JetBlue shares down 18% since news of the offer broke on Tuesday. Some analysts have questioned whether JetBlue is underestimating the difficulty and cost of combining two very different airlines.
JetBlue operates with higher fares but offers travelers more amenities than Spirit. They have overlapping networks on the East Coast, which analysts believe could cause antitrust regulators to object to a tie-up.
Frontier and Spirit, on the other hand, are both budget airlines that charge rock-bottom fares but add fees for some things that are included in the ticket price at bigger airlines. Frontier, based in Denver, operates primarily in the West, while Spirit, based in Miramar, Florida, is stronger on the East Coast and the Caribbean.
Both JetBlue and Frontier say that acquiring Spirit would help them compete against the nation’s four biggest airlines — American, Delta, United and Southwest.
JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said in a call with analysts on Wednesday that Spirit’s fleet of Airbus jets and its orders for 120 more planes in the next few years could help JetBlue grow faster than it could alone.
This is second time in less than six years that JetBlue has jumped into bidding to buy another airline. In 2016, Alaska Airlines emerged the winner in a battle for Virgin America. JetBlue is the nation’s sixth-biggest airline by revenue, just behind Alaska.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/spirit-airlines-will-talk-to-jetblue-about-takeover-bid/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:13
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/spirit-airlines-will-talk-to-jetblue-about-takeover-bid/
|
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as layoffs remain at historically low levels.
Jobless claims fell by 5,000 to 166,000 for the week ending April 2, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The previous week’s number was revised down a whopping 31,000 claims.
Last week’s claims match the figure from two weeks ago, which is the lowest since November of 1968 when 162,000 people filed for unemployment benefits, according to historical government data. First-time applications for jobless aid generally represent the pace of layoffs.
The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, fell by 8,000 to 170,000 from the previous week’s 178,000, which was revised down by 30,500.
In total, 1,523,000 Americans were collecting jobless aid for the week ending March 26, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week, which was the lowest in more than 50 years.
Last week, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers extended a streak of robust hiring, adding 431,000 jobs in March and pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.6%. Despite the inflation surge, persistent supply bottlenecks, damage from COVID-19 and now a war in Europe, employers have added at least 400,000 jobs for 11 straight months.
Job openings hovered at a near-record level in February, little changed from the previous month, continuing a trend that Federal Reserve officials see as a driver of inflation. There were 11.3 million available jobs last month, matching January’s figure and just below December’s record of 11.4 million, the Labor Department reported last week.
The number of Americans quitting their jobs was also historically high, at 4.4 million, up from 4.3 million in January. More than 4.5 million people quit in November, the most on records dating back two decades.
The Fed launched a high-risk effort last month to tame the worst inflation since the early 1980s, raising its benchmark short-term interest rate and signaling up to six additional rate hikes this year. The minutes from that mid-March meeting, released Wednesday, revealed aggressive Fed officials saying that half-point interest rate hikes, rather than traditional quarter-point increases, “could be appropriate” multiple times this year.
Last week, an inflation gauge closely monitored by the central bank jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans’ finances. Other measures have shown prices rising close to 8% in the past year.
Fed policymakers have projected that inflation will remain elevated at 4.3% through 2022.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/us-jobless-claims-stay-at-historically-low-levels-last-week/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:20
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/us-jobless-claims-stay-at-historically-low-levels-last-week/
|
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart workers who once unloaded trucks now have a chance to drive them.
The nation’s largest retailer has launched a training program that gives employees who work in its distribution or fulfillment centers a chance to become certified Walmart truck drivers through a 12-week program taught by the company’s established drivers.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, also said it is raising pay for its 12,000 truck drivers. The starting range for new drivers will now between $95,000 and $110,000, according to Walmart spokeswoman Anne Hatfield. The retailer said that $87,500 had been the average that new truck drivers could make in their first year.
The moves announced Thursday come as the pandemic has made trucker shortages more severe as demand to move freight reaches historic highs. The American Trucking Associations, a large industry trade group, estimates that the nation is short about 80,000 drivers.
Walmart said about 20 workers in Dallas and Dover, Delaware, have earned their commercial driver’s licenses. About 400 to 800 workers in the company’s supply-chain network are expected to complete the truck-driving program this year, Hatfield said.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/walmart-offers-supply-chain-workers-a-chance-to-drive-trucks/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:27
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/business/walmart-offers-supply-chain-workers-a-chance-to-drive-trucks/
|
NEW YORK (AP) — The second shoe has dropped at “Plaza Suite” on Broadway.
First Matthew Broderick tested positive for COVID-19 and a few days later his wife and co-star, Sarah Jessica Parker, has done so herself.
Parker tested positive Thursday and the show has been canceled. What happens with future performances “will be announced as soon as possible,” according to producers.
The show had kept going despite Broderick’s absence on Tuesday with an understudy, but with neither star — who play three couples over three acts in a hotel suite — available, producers had little options.
The twin cases at “Plaza Suite” comes at a time when coronavirus cases are rising in the city and on Broadway again.
The musical “A Strange Loop” canceled its first preview performance after COVID-19 cases were discovered within the company and the off-Broadway musical “Suffs” has been derailed. Daniel Craig has also been sidelined from his revival of “Macbeth.”
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/sarah-jessica-parker-sidelined-as-broadway-fights-virus/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:33
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/sarah-jessica-parker-sidelined-as-broadway-fights-virus/
|
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Unable to walk or move half his face after being injured by the same Russian shell that killed his father as they tried to flee Kyiv, a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy has found new hope in a Polish hospital.
Pediatric surgeon Professor Jan Godzinski, of the T. Marciniak hospital in Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, said Thursday that a detailed diagnostic scan has been performed to help doctors choose the best treatment for Volodymyr.
“What moved me most was that he smiled when we told him we will be able to help him,” Godzinski said on Poland’s private TVN24.
Volodymyr was injured in the early phase of the Russian invasion, in late February, when a shell struck his family’s car. Doctors in Kyiv were able to save his life but he requires further surgery and long, specialized treatment for severe injuries to his spine and facial nerves, Godzinski said.
Surgeons will also need to remove remaining shrapnel fragments from the boy’s body.
Volodymyr and his mother, Natasha Karavanska, who is unhurt, were brought to the hospital Monday from Lviv, in western Ukraine, by ambulance.
Neighboring Poland has received more than 2.5 million refugees from Ukraine and has designated 120 of its hospitals to help treat those injured in the war. They arrive in a special medical train or in ambulances.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/badly-injured-ukrainian-boy-finds-hope-in-polish-hospital/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:40
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/badly-injured-ukrainian-boy-finds-hope-in-polish-hospital/
|
LONDON (AP) — In the latest Senate package targeted at stopping the coronavirus, U.S. lawmakers dropped nearly all funding for curbing the virus beyond American borders, a move many health experts slammed as dangerously short-sighted.
They warn the suspension of COVID-19 aid for poorer countries could ultimately allow the kind of unchecked transmission needed for the next worrisome variant to emerge and unravel much of the progress achieved so far.
The U.S. has been the biggest contributor to the global pandemic response, delivering more than 500 million vaccines, and the lack of funding will be a major setback. The money has paid for numerous interventions, including a mass vaccination campaign in the Cameroonian capital that saw hundreds of thousands of people get their first dose, as well as the construction of a COVID-19 care facility in South Africa and the donation of 1,000 ventilators to that country.
Other U.S.-funded vaccination campaigns in dozens of countries, including Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Mali, could also come to a grinding halt.
“Any stoppage of funds will affect us,” said Misaki Wayengera, a Ugandan official who heads a technical committee advising the government on the pandemic response. He said Uganda has leaned heavily on donor help — it received more than 11 million vaccines from the U.S. — and that any cuts “would make it very difficult for us to make ends meet.”
“This is a bit of a kick in the teeth to poor countries that were promised billions of vaccines and resources last year in grand pledges made by the G7 and the G20,” said Michael Head, a global health research fellow at Britain’s Southampton University.
“Given how badly we’ve failed on vaccine equity, it’s clear all of those promises have now been broken,” he said, adding that without concerted effort and money to fight COVID-19 in the coming months, the pandemic could persist for years.
While about 66% of the American population has been fully immunized against the coronavirus, fewer than 15% of people in poorer countries have received a single dose. Health officials working on COVID-19 vaccination in developing countries supported by the U.S. say they expect to see a reversal of progress once the funds disappear.
“Vaccination will stop or not even get started in some countries,” said Rachel Hall, executive director of U.S. government advocacy at the charity CARE. She cited estimates from USAID that the suspended funding would mean scrapping testing, treatment and health services for about 100 million people.
Although vaccines are more plentiful this year, many poorer countries have struggled to get shots into arms and hundreds of millions of donated vaccines have either expired, been returned or sat unused. To address those logistical hurdles, U.S. aid has financed critical services in countries across Africa, including the safe delivery of vaccines, training health workers and fighting vaccine misinformation.
For example, in November the U.S. Embassy in the Cameroonian capital set up a tent for mass vaccination: Within the first five days, more than 300,000 people received a dose. Those kinds of events will now be harder to conduct without American funds.
Hall also noted there would be consequences far beyond COVID-19, saying countries struggling with multiple disease outbreaks, like Congo and Mali, would face difficult choices.
“They will have to choose between fighting Ebola, malaria, polio, COVID and more,” she said.
Jeff Zients, the outgoing leader of the White House COVID-19 task force, expressed regret the legislation doesn’t include resources for the international pandemic fight, noting that would also compromise efforts to track the virus’ genetic evolution.
“It is a real disappointment that there’s no global funding in this bill,” he said. “This virus knows no borders, and it’s in our national interest to vaccinate the world and protect against possible new variants.”
Still, Zients announced the U.S. would be the first to donate “tens of millions” of doses for children to poorer countries and said more than 20 nations had already requested the shots.
J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, lamented that lawmakers were erring on the side of optimism about the pandemic precisely when another surge might be arriving.
“We’ve made that mistake several times in this pandemic. And we may be making that mistake again,” he said. In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases caused by the hugely infectious omicron subvariant BA.2 have surged across Europe, and American officials say they expect a U.S. spikesoon.
Other experts worried the suspension of U.S. global support for COVID-19 might prompt officials to drop current vaccination goals. The World Health Organization had set a target of immunizing at least 70% of people in all countries by the middle of this year, but with nearly 50 countries vaccinating fewer than 20% of their populations, hitting that target is highly unlikely.
Instead, some organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation have pushed for officials to “refocus vaccination goals away from vaccinating 70% of all adults by summer to vaccinating 90% of those most at-risk in each country,” in what some critics say is an implicit acknowledgment of the world’s repeated failures to share vaccines fairly. Others point out there shouldn’t be competing vaccine targets and that health authorities simply need to do more, rather than adjusting global goals.
In Nigeria, which has so far received at least $143 million in COVID-19 aid from the U.S, authorities dismissed suggestions their coronavirus programs would suffer as a result of lost funding. The Nigerian president’s office said help from the U.S. was mostly “in kind” via capacity building, research support and donations of laboratory equipment and vaccines. “We are confident that this will not cause any disruption of our current programs,” it said.
However, others warned the U.S. decision set an unfortunate precedent for global cooperation to end the pandemic at a time when fresh concerns like the Ukraine war are drawing more attention.
U.S. President Joe Biden originally planned to convene a virtual summit in the first quarter of this year to keep international efforts on track, but no event has been scheduled.
“In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, we don’t yet have a final date for the summit, but we are working closely with countries and international partners to advance commitments,” said a senior Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly.
As of this month, WHO said it had gotten only $1.8 billion of the $16.8 billion needed from donors to speed access to coronavirus vaccines, medicines and diagnostics.
“Nobody else is stepping up to fill the void at the moment and the U.S. decision to suspend funding may lead other donor countries to act similarly,” said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center.
Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, described the U.S. suspension of funding as “devastating.”
“How could this possibly be what we’re debating right now?” she asked. “It’s a moral obligation to the rest of the world to continue to contribute to this global pandemic response, not only to protect ourselves but to protect people from around the world.”
____
Megerian reported from Washington. AP writers Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda; Mogomotsi Magome and Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg, and Chinedu Asadu in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/experts-say-us-suspension-of-covid-aid-will-prolong-pandemic/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:47
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/experts-say-us-suspension-of-covid-aid-will-prolong-pandemic/
|
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare said Thursday it’s considering a cut in enrollee premiums, after officials stuck with an earlier decision to sharply limit coverage for a pricey new Alzheimer’s drug projected to drive up program costs.
The agency “is looking at that, and is still going through the process,” spokeswoman Beth Lynk said of a potential reduction in premiums, as Medicare announced its final coverage decision for Aduhelm, a drug whose benefits have been widely questioned in the medical community.
Officials said Medicare will keep coverage restrictions imposed earlier on the $28,000-a-year medication, paying for Aduhelm only when it’s used in clinical trials approved by the Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Health.
The projected cost of Aduhelm was a major driver behind a $22 increase in Medicare’s Part B premium this year, boosting it to $170.10 a month. That price hike is already being paid by more than 56 million Medicare recipients signed up for the program’s outpatient coverage benefit. Lawmakers have called for a rollback and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra already directed Medicare to reassess.
Thursday’s coverage decision illustrates the impact that a single medication can have on the budgets of individuals and taxpayers. It comes as legislation to authorize Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices remains stuck in the Senate, part of President Joe Biden’s stalled social and climate agenda. That’s left Democrats with nothing to show on their promises to cut prescription drug costs, unless they can overcome internal disagreements.
Medicare’s determination on Aduhelm included an important caveat. Officials said that if it or any other similar drug in its class were to receive what’s called “traditional” FDA approval, then Medicare would open up broader coverage for patients. Such approval is granted when a medication shows a clear clinical benefit.
That was not the case with Aduhelm. It received what’s known as “accelerated” approval last year because of its potential promise. But manufacturer Biogen is required to conduct a follow-up study to definitively answer whether Aduhelm truly slows the progression of Alzheimer’s. If that study is successful, FDA would grant full approval.
That would also open up Medicare coverage.
Dr. Lee Fleisher, chief medical officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said “there will be quick access for Medicare beneficiaries” for Alzheimer’s drugs that receive the traditional FDA approval, after demonstrating a clear benefit.
Aduhelm hit the market as the first new Alzheimer’s medication in nearly two decades. Initially priced at $56,000 a year, it was expected to quickly become a blockbuster drug, generating billions for Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen.
But although the company slashed the price in half — to $28,000 a year — Aduhelm’s rollout has been disastrous.
Pushback from politicians, physicians and insurers left the company with just $3 million in sales from Aduhelm last year. Doctors have been hesitant to prescribe it, given weak evidence that the drug slows the progression of Alzheimer’s. Insurers have blocked or restricted coverage over the drug’s high price tag and uncertain benefit.
The CMS decision means that for Medicare to pay, patients taking Aduhelm will have to be part of clinical trials to assess the drug’s safety and effectiveness in slowing the progression of early-stage dementia.
Tamara Syrek Jensen, head of CMS’s coverage and analysis unit, said “it’s status quo” as far as limitations the agency initially imposed on Aduhelm in January.
The limits stayed on despite a massive lobbying push by the Alzheimer’s Association to change Medicare’s position, including outreach to members of Congress, online advertising and social media campaigns directed at the agency.
The association, the largest group of its kind, has received contributions from drugmakers, including Biogen.
The group’s CEO said he was “very disappointed” after reviewing Medicare’s decision.
“Denying access to FDA-approved Alzheimer’s treatments is wrong,” Harry Johns said in a statement. “At no time in history has CMS imposed such drastic barriers to access FDA-approved treatments for people facing a fatal disease.”
Aduhelm has sparked controversy since the FDA approved it against the recommendation of outside advisers.
The medicine, administered intravenously in a doctor’s office, hasn’t been shown to reverse or significantly slow Alzheimer’s. But the FDA said its ability to reduce clumps of plaque in the brain is likely to slow dementia.
Many experts say there is little evidence to support that claim. And a federal watchdog and congressional investigators are conducting separate probes into how the FDA reviewed the medication.
Alzheimer’s is a progressive neurological disease with no known cure. The vast majority of U.S. patients are old enough to qualify for Medicare, which covers more than 60 million people, including those 65 and older, and disabled people under 65.
The reason Aduhelm falls under Medicare’s outpatient benefit, and not its pharmacy drug program, is that it’s given in a doctor’s office. Beneficiary premiums are set to cover about 25% of the cost of outpatient care.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/medicare-weighs-premium-cut-after-limiting-alzheimers-drug/
| 2022-04-08T12:15:54
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/medicare-weighs-premium-cut-after-limiting-alzheimers-drug/
|
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Powerful lawmakers in Puerto Rico are joining conservatives in states across the U.S. mainland in attempting to set tighter restrictions on abortions, alarming feminist groups and others on the island.
A recently introduced bill would prohibit abortions starting at 22 weeks, or when a doctor determines that a fetus is viable, with the sole exception being if a woman’s life is in danger. That is roughly in line with most U.S. state laws, though more limiting than Puerto Rico’s current status, which sets no term limit.
The move comes at a time when a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has many speculating that it may reverse or weaken the constitutional right to abortion recognized under the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
A Puerto Rico Senate committee approved the bill last week in a 9-3 vote despite objections from the island’s health and justice departments. The health secretary said the measure interferes with the patient-doctor relationship and doesn’t take into account circumstances that affect women’s health and access to abortion services. The justice secretary objected to the bill’s call for a government registry of those who terminate pregnancies and the reasons behind it, which he said could endanger patients’ right to privacy.
Feminist groups and others also complained of a lack of public hearings before the bill was approved.
Some were further angered when José Luis Dalmau, president of Puerto Rico’s Senate and the opposition Popular Democratic Party, said last week that those who abort a viable fetus are “murderers.”
His speech brought criticism from former governors of his own party, which has long been considered more liberal than the New Progressive Party of Gov. Pedro Pierluisi.
While many polls show majority support for abortion rights in many or most cases on the U.S. mainland, there are signs the opposite is true in Puerto Rico: Recent polls are scarce, but a 2017 survey by Pew Research found that about three quarters of people in Puerto Rico opposed abortion in all or most cases — a far higher percentage than among Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland.
Smaller, more recent surveys by local media organizations suggest public opinion hasn’t swayed much. And key politicians from Puerto Rico’s two main parties seem to see advantages in appealing to anti-abortion beliefs.
Raúl Cotto-Sierra, a political philosophy professor at the University of Puerto Rico, said both the Popular Democratic Party and the New Progressive Party are trying to regain conservative supporters they lost in the recent election to newer parties such as Project Dignity, which ran on a Christian platform and vowed to implement abortion restrictions.
Sen. Joanne Rodríguez Veve, a member of that party, is one of the authors of the current abortion bill. Joining her are Dalmau and Sen. Thomas Rivera Schatz, a former Senate president who is a member of the New Progressive Party.
If Puerto Rico lawmakers approve the bill, they would join a growing trend of U.S. states restricting abortions.
Forty-four U.S. states have imposed a threshold on abortions — many at fetal viability or in a range of 20 to 24 weeks. And last year, 19 states enacted more than 100 abortion restrictions, the highest total in any year since the Roe v. Wade ruling, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based research organization that supports abortion rights. The most recent occurred Tuesday, when the Republican-controlled House of Oklahoma approved a bill that makes performing an abortion in most circumstances a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Puerto Rico’s Senate had been expected to vote Monday on the bill, but instead kicked it back to the Committee on Life and Family Affairs following criticism about the lack of public hearings. Rodríguez, one of the senators who authored the bill, oversees that committee.
“This is a real threat that we’re facing,” said attorney Amárilis Pagán, executive director of Mother Project, a nonprofit group focused on helping women. “We have to align forces so we can fight this.”
The committee is expected to hold public hearings this month and send it to the Senate for a vote. If it passes, it would go to the House of Representatives.
Sens. Dalmau, Rivera and Rodríguez released a joint statement implying they don’t expect hearings to sway positions: “Some believe or imply that holding public hearings would change the minds of those who favor or those who oppose the measure. Time will tell.”
Their supporters include the activist group Women for Puerto Rico, which said the bill could help boost the island’s dwindling birth rate and argued that fetuses at 23 weeks have survived.
The territory of 3.2 million people recorded a total of more than 3,700 abortions in 2020, a drop from the 4,200 reported in 2018, according to the latest government statistics. Health officials say about 99% of abortions in Puerto Rico are done before 22 weeks.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi has not joined the debate, saying only he favors public hearings “so that we can obtain input from all parties, including medical criteria. We must be careful in this matter, and it must depend on the greatest amount of analysis possible.”
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/puerto-rico-steps-into-abortion-restriction-debate/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:01
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/puerto-rico-steps-into-abortion-restriction-debate/
|
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The World Health Organization said that up to 65% of people in Africa have been infected with the coronavirus and estimates the number of actual cases may have been nearly 100 times more than those reported.
In a new analysis released Thursday, the U.N. health agency reviewed 151 studies of COVID-19 in Africa based on blood samples taken from people on the continent between January 2020 and December 2021. WHO said that by last September, about 65% of people tested had some exposure to COVID-19, translating into about 800 million infections. In contrast, only about 8 million cases had been officially reported to WHO during that time period.
“This undercounting is occurring worldwide and it’s no surprise that the numbers are particularly large in Africa where there are so many cases with no symptoms,” WHO’s Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement. WHO’s analysis found that a large proportion of people with COVID-19 — 67% — showed no symptoms when infected with the disease, a higher percentage than other world regions.
Despite repeated warnings from WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus that the coronavirus would devastate Africa,the continent has been among the least affected by the pandemic. In its new analysis, WHO said the milder COVID-19 cases seen in Africa were attributable in part to the continent’s much smaller proportion of people with underlying risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.
“Africa’s youthful population is also a protective factor,” the U.N. health agency said. Some studies have also suggested that previous infection with diseases including malaria, may offer people some protection against the coronavirus, although those hypotheses have yet to be confirmed.
To date, Africa has reported 11.5 million COVID-19 cases including more than 250,000 deaths. WHO said the virus has been trending downwards since January, although there have been some variations in some countries and some, including South Africa, have been hit particularly hard during successive waves of disease. Last week, WHO said the number of COVID deaths fell by about 30% on the continent.
“Despite Africa’s declining infections and high exposure to the virus, we cannot declare victory yet against COVID-19,” said WHO Africa chief Moeti.
“The risks of more lethal variants emerging which overwhelm immunity gained from past infections cannot be brushed aside,” she said, calling for increased vaccination rates across the continent. To date, only about 15% of people in Africa have been immunized against COVID-19.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/up-to-65-of-africans-have-had-covid-far-more-than-thought/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:08
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/health/up-to-65-of-africans-have-had-covid-far-more-than-thought/
|
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government announced Thursday it will ban foreign investors from buying homes in Canada for two years in a bid to cool off a hot housing market.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland took a number of measures to tamp down speculation and demand amid record home prices in announcing the federal budget for the year.
The government announced a two-year ban on foreign home buying as well as higher taxes for people who sell their home within a year, though both measures include multiple exceptions including for permanent residents and foreign students.
The budget also includes billions for new housing and measures to help Canadians trying to get into the market, including a new savings account and changes to the first-time home buyers tax credit.
The government is under pressure to cool an overheated market after prices climbed by more than 20% last year, while rental rates have also been rising.
The federal Liberal government is also promising $500 million Canadian (US$397 million) in additional military aid to Ukraine as well as more humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv in response to Russia’s invasion.
Canada responded to months of pressure from the NATO military alliance and others by promising more than $8 billion Canadian (US7.2 billion) in new military spending over the next five years. Canada will remain far short of NATO’s spending 2% of GDP target, even as other allies dramatically ramp up their own military investments following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last month, the Canadian government announced it selected Lockheed Martin Corp. and the F-35 as the preferred bidder in its competition to buy a new fighter jet.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/canada-bans-foreign-home-buyers-for-two-years-to-cool-market/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:15
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/canada-bans-foreign-home-buyers-for-two-years-to-cool-market/
|
MEXICO CITY (AP) — For the first time in history, Mexicans will vote Sunday on whether their president should finish out the rest of his term.
It has been a bizarre journey to this vote. For one thing, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador himself demanded it. The president got angry when electoral officials set up a limited number of polling places to save money.
Second, there’s little chance that the required minimum of 40% of voters — almost 40 million — will show up to make the referendum valid.
And third, there’s little chance López Obrador could lose, with current approval ratings of around 60%.
So why is Mexico going through with the vote, which will cost almost $80 million?
Analysts say López Obrador wanted the recall to mobilize and energize his supporters; he is a president who has been constantly on the campaign trail since 2005, and he depicts his administration as a twilight battle to defeat conservatives.
So he is hoping the get-out-the-vote effort will shore up his party in state elections this year, with a possible spill-over effect for the 2024 presidential race. The ballot asks whether López Obrador should continue as president or be replaced.
While some opposition groups have called on people to boycott the vote, some opponents want to actually try to win, and say people should turn out and vote to recall the president.
Martín Meneses, 58, a formal postal worker, says such a vote “is important, so the president can see that the people are waking up from their slumber.”
Like many opponents, Meneses sees López Obrador’s highly personalistic, charismatic style as weakening democracy. The president has bridled at criticism, verbally attacked journalists, lashed out at judges whose rulings he disagrees with and has done away with niceties like environmental impact statements for his pet building projects.
Meneses sees the vote as another, expensive play by López Obrador to put himself at center stage. Referring to the government’s failure to buy enough medicine for childhood cancer treatments, Meneses objected to “stratospheric costs to hold a vote, when children with cancer don’t have medicine.”
The president’s supporters see the vote as equally vital.
María Hernández, a 70-year-old homemaker in Mexico City’s rough Colonia Obrera neighborhood, is all too conscious of the old-age stipend of about $75 per month instituted by López Obrador.
“In good times and bad, we have to stick with him, because if he isn’t here, they’ll take away the benefits we have,” said Hernández. “They can’t recall the guy who has helped us.”
Abel Medina, 40, who owns a small tortilla ship in Mexico City’s historic downtown, said the vote “will be worth it, to give legitimacy to the president.”
“Now we have a good president, not like those of the past who dug us into a whole by selling off state-owned companies,” Medina said. “That’s why we ant him to continue.”
If its unlikely to have any real effect, what’s the harm in holding a vote, apart from the money spent?
Rubén Salazar, director of the Etellekt Consulting firm, said there were dangers in the way López Obrador’s administration has been trying to whip up enthusiasm for the vote; the president’s previous referendums have drawn sparse turnout.
“The government’s own propaganda apparatus has carried out a very intense campaign, using public money,” Salazar said, noting “those who receive social benefits program have been pressured” to vote.
That remains a concern; Mexico was ruled for seven decades by the old Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, whch routinely traded hand-out programs in exchange for votes.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/mexicans-vote-on-recall-of-president-an-effort-he-asked-for/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:22
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/mexicans-vote-on-recall-of-president-an-effort-he-asked-for/
|
PARIS (AP) — The International Energy Agency said Thursday that its member countries are releasing 60 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves on top of previous U.S. pledges to take aim at energy prices that have soared since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Paris-based organization says the new commitments made by its 31 member nations, which include the United States and much of Europe, amount to a total of 120 million barrels over six months, the largest release in the group’s history.
Half of that will come from the U.S. as part of the larger release from its strategic petroleum reserve that President Joe Biden announced last week.
The IEA agreed last Friday to add to the amount of oil hitting the global market. It comes on top of the 62.7 million barrels that the agency’s members said they would release last month to ease shortages.
The releases show “the determination of member countries to protect the global economy from the social and economic impacts of an oil shock following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said. “Events in Ukraine are becoming more distressing by the day, and action by the IEA at this time is needed to relieve some of the strains in energy markets.”
Energy markets have been squeezed by surging demand as the global economy rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic, outpacing supply and driving up prices. High energy prices have fueled inflation worldwide, and the war in Ukraine exacerbated the problem amid uncertainties about oil and natural gas supplies from Russia and Western sanctions on Moscow.
Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, with about 60% of exports going to Europe and 20% going to China.
The U.S. has banned all Russian energy supplies, while the United Kingdom says it will phase out Russian oil and coal by year’s end and halt natural gas imports “as soon as possible.”
The European Union on Thursday approved a ban on Russian coal, its first move against the Russian energy supplies it depends on to generate electricity, power industry and fill up diesel-powered vehicles and equipment.
IEA member countries hold 1.5 billion barrels in public reserves.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/nations-to-release-millions-of-barrels-of-oil-amid-war/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:29
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/nations-to-release-millions-of-barrels-of-oil-amid-war/
|
Global atmospheric levels of the potent but short-lived greenhouse gas methane increased a record amount last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday, worrying scientists because of the large role methane has in climate change.
The preliminary airborne level of methane jumped 17 parts per billion, hitting 1895.7 parts per billion last year. It’s the second year in a row that methane rose at a record rate with 2020 going up 15.3 ppb over 2019, according to NOAA. Methane levels are now way more than double pre-industrial levels of 720 parts per billion, said Lindsay Lan, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA and the University of Colorado.
Methane is a big contributor to climate change, leading to about a 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) increase in temperature since the 19th century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Carbon dioxide has caused about 50% more warming than methane.
“This trend of accelerating increase in methane is extremely disturbing,” said Cornell University methane researcher Robert Howarth.
Methane is about 25 times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. But it only lasts nine years in the air instead of thousands of years like carbon dioxide, Lan said. Because it doesn’t last in the air long, many nations last year agreed to target methane for quick emission cuts as low hanging fruit in the global efforts to limit future warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius (2.7 or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times. The world has already warmed 1.1 to 1.2 degrees Celsius (about 2 to 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit).
“To limit warming to well-below 2C this century, we need to cut our methane emissions dramatically, and today we are clearly moving in the wrong direction,” climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of Stripe and Berkeley Earth said in an email. “Cutting methane has strong immediate climate benefits, as it is the only greenhouse gas for which emission reductions can quickly cool the climate (versus slowing or stopping the rate of warming).”
NOAA has been tracking methane levels in the air since 1983.
Lan said early signs point more to natural causes for the methane jump, because of La Nina, the natural and temporary cooling of parts of the Pacific that change weather worldwide, but it’s still early. La Nina tends to make it rain more in some tropical regions and the two years in a row of record increases during La Nina points to methane escaping from wetlands, she said.
Methane is also a natural gas and an increasingly used energy source. Much methane comes out of livestock and human-generated agriculture, as well as from landfills. Scientists also fear future release of trapped methane under the ocean and in frozen Arctic land, but there’s no indication that’s happening on a large scale.
The key question is whether this increasing trend could add to climate change problems or is a pandemic-related blip due to the decrease in methane-destroying nitrous oxides from less car and industrial pollution, said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson.
“It seems to be something else instead of COVID,” Lan said. She figures high levels in 2020 and then even higher levels in 2021, when lockdowns were eased, point away from a pandemic effect.
Both fossil fuels and agriculture are key in methane increases, Howarth said. But he said, “my research strongly points toward fossil fuels as being the largest cause of the increase since 2008, with increase emissions from shale gas production from fracking in the U.S. being a major part of that.”
In a study last year, Lan looked at the chemical isotopes to isolate where steady increases in methane emissions since 2006 may be coming from. The chemical signature pointed away from fossil fuels as the bigger guilty party and more toward either natural wetland emissions or agriculture, she said.
NOAA also said carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere last year increased 2.66 parts per million over 2020, one of the higher increases in history but not a record. The annual average for 2021 for carbon dioxide was 414.7 parts per million. Pre-industrial is about 280 parts per million. NOAA said carbon dioxide are now the highest since about 4.3 millions year when the sea level was about 75 feet (23 meters) higher and the average temperature was about 7 degrees Fahrenheit (3.9 degrees Celsius) warmer.
“Our data show that global emissions continue to move in the wrong direction at a rapid pace,” said NOAA chief Rick Spinrad said in a statement.
___
Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://www.apnews.com/Climate
___
Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears
___
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/noaa-potent-heat-trapping-methane-increases-at-record-pace/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:36
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/noaa-potent-heat-trapping-methane-increases-at-record-pace/
|
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea is demolishing a South Korean-owned hotel at a North Korean resort that was one of the last symbols of inter-Korean engagement, according to Seoul officials who called for the North to stop the “unilateral” destruction.
South Korea built dozens of facilities at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort to accommodate tourism by its citizens during a high period of engagement between the rivals in the 1990s. But North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2019 called the South Korean facilities there “shabby” and ordered them destroyed after months of frustration over Seoul’s unwillingness to defy U.S.-led sanctions that kept the tours from resuming.
The North postponed the demolition work in 2020 as part of stringent measures to prevent COVID-19.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said Friday that North Korea was proceeding with the demolition of the Haegumgang Hotel. The floating hotel, docked at a coastal area of the resort, was a major property among dozens of facilities South Korea established to accommodate Diamond Mountain tours, which began in 1998.
Unification Ministry spokesperson Cha Deok-cheol said it wasn’t clear whether the North also was destroying other facilities at the site. He said Seoul “strongly regrets North Korea’s unilateral dismantlement” of the hotel and urged the North to engage in talks to resolve disagreements over the South Korean properties at the site.
Commercial satellite images indicate the demolition work has been underway for weeks. Cha said Seoul used inter-Korean communication channels to demand an explanation and talks on the issue, but the North has ignored the request.
The demolition comes amid heighted tensions over recent missile launches. North Korea conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test since 2017 on March 24, as Kim revives brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States and other rivals to accept the North as a nuclear power and remove crippling sanctions.
South Korean tours to Diamond Mountain were a major symbol of cooperation between the Koreas and a valuable cash source for the North’s broken economy before the South suspended them in 2008 after a North Korean guard fatally shot a South Korean tourist.
South Korea can’t restart mass tours to Diamond Mountain or any other major inter-Korean economic activity without defying sanctions, which have been strengthened since 2016, when the North began accelerating its nuclear and missile tests. While U.N. sanctions don’t directly ban tourism, they prohibit bulk cash transfers that can result from such business activities.
During their brief diplomacy in 2018, South Korean President Moon Jae-in met Kim three times and vowed to restart Diamond Mountain tours, voicing optimism that sanctions could end. But North Korea suspended cooperation with the South after diplomacy with the U.S. collapsed in 2019 and Seoul wasn’t able to wrest concessions from Washington on its behalf.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/north-demolishing-hotel-that-was-symbol-of-korean-engagement/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:43
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/north-demolishing-hotel-that-was-symbol-of-korean-engagement/
|
LONDON (AP) — Pink Floyd is releasing its first new music in almost three decades to raise money for the people of Ukraine, the band announced Thursday.
“Hey Hey Rise Up” features Pink Floyd members David Gilmour and Nick Mason, with vocals from Ukrainian singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the band BoomBox. Roger Waters, who left the band in the 1980s, is not involved.
The track features Khlyvnyuk singing a patriotic Ukrainian song from a clip he recorded in front of Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and posted on social media.
Gilmour, who performed with BoomBox in London in 2015, said the video was “a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
After Russia’s invasion, Khlyvnyuk cut short a tour of the U.S. to return to Ukraine and join a territorial defense unit.
Gilmour said he spoke to Khlyvnyuk, who was recovering in a hospital from a mortar shrapnel injury, while he was writing the song. He said: “I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future.”
The song is being released Friday and the band says proceeds will go to the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund.
“We want to express our support for Ukraine, and in that way show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become,” Gilmour said.
Pink Floyd was founded in London in the mid-1960s and helped forge the U.K. psychedelic scene before releasing influential 1970s albums including “The Dark Side of the Moon,” “Wish You Were Here” and “The Wall.”
Original member Waters quit in 1985, and the remaining members of Pink Floyd last recorded together for the 1994 album “The Division Bell.” After keyboard player Richard Wright died in 2008, Gilmour said he doubted Pink Floyd would perform together again.
“Hey Hey Rise Up” also features Guy Pratt on bass and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards.
___
Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/pink-floyd-members-reunite-to-record-song-for-ukraine/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:50
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/pink-floyd-members-reunite-to-record-song-for-ukraine/
|
Nobel Peace Prize-winning Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov said he was attacked on a Russian train Thursday by an assailant who poured red paint over him, causing severe discomfort to his eyes.
Muratov told Novaya Gazeta Europe, a project launched by newspaper staff after the paper suspended operation last week under government pressure, that the assault occurred on a train heading from Moscow to Samara.
“My eyes are burning terribly,” Muratov was quoted as saying on Novaya Gazeta Europe’s Telegram channel. He said the assailant shouted: “Muratov, here’s one for our boys.”
The post showed photos of Muratov and a train compartment drenched in red liquid.
Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s leading independent newspaper, announced March 28 that it was suspending operations for the duration of what it referred to in quotation marks as “the special operation” in Ukraine, the term that Russian authorities insist media must use for the war in Ukraine.
The newspaper was the last major independent media outlet critical of President Vladimir Putin’s government after others either shut or had their websites blocked since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24.
The trigger for the shutdown was a second formal warning from the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor, which has increasingly taken on the role of a censor in recent years, Novaya Gazeta had long had a difficult relationship with the government.
Longtime editor Muratov shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Maria Ressa, a journalist from the Philippines.
Exactly why Novaya Gazeta was warned remains unclear. Roskomnadzor told state news agency Tass that the newspaper had failed to identify an unnamed non-governmental organization as a “foreign agent” in its reporting, as required by Russian law. It didn’t specify the report in question.
Novaya Gazeta removed much of its war reporting from its website after Russian lawmakers passed a law March 4 threatening jail terms of up to 15 years for information deemed to be “fake” by Russian authorities. That can include any mention of Russian forces harming civilians or suffering losses on the battlefield.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/russian-nobel-winning-editor-says-he-was-attacked-on-train/
| 2022-04-08T12:16:57
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/russian-nobel-winning-editor-says-he-was-attacked-on-train/
|
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwandans have begun a solemn commemoration of the 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu who tried to protect them were killed.
President Paul Kagame on Thursday laid a wreath at a memorial site where more than 250,000 people are buried in the capital, Kigali. The ceremony marked the beginning of a week of somber events.
Kagame said he opposes any attempts to rewrite the history of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. The killings were perpetrated by extremist Hutu over a period of 100 days.
Some rights groups have accused Kagame’s soldiers of carrying out some killings during and after the genocide in apparent revenge, but Rwandan authorities strongly deny this allegation.
Kagame said that his group had shown restraint in the face of genocide.
“Imagine people being hunted down day and night for who they are. Also imagine if those of us who were carrying arms, if we had allowed ourselves to pursue those who were killing our people indiscriminately,” he said. “First of all, we would be right to do so. But we didn’t. We spared them. Some of them are still living today, in their homes, villages. Others are in government and business.”
Kagame, who is widely credited with stopping the genocide, has become a polarizing figure over the years as his critics accuse him of leading an authoritarian government that crushes all dissent. But he is also praised by many for presiding over the relative political stability allowing Rwanda’s economy to grow.
The mass killing of the Tutsi was ignited on April 6 when a plane carrying President Juvénal Habyarimana was shot down and crashed in Kigali, killing the leader who, like most Rwandans, was an ethnic Hutu.
The Tutsi were blamed for downing the plane, and although they denied it, bands of Hutu extremists began killing them, including children, with support from the army, police and militias.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/rwandans-remember-1994-genocide-with-somber-events/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:04
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/rwandans-remember-1994-genocide-with-somber-events/
|
LONDON (AP) — A British security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin who is accused of passing information to a Russian military attache denied espionage charges Thursday in a London court.
David Ballantyne Smith, 57, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court to face nine charges under the Official Secrets Act related to “the collection and communication of information useful to the Russian state.”
The alleged offenses took place between October 2020 and August 2021, when Smith was arrested by German police at his home in Potsdam, southwest of Berlin. He is accused of attempting to communicate by letter with “General Major Sergey Chukhurov, the Russian military attache based out of the Russian Embassy, Berlin.”
The material “contained details about the activities, identities, addresses and telephone numbers of various members of Her Majesty’s Civil Service.”
He is also accused of collecting “material relating to the operation and layout of the British Embassy in Berlin, and that information was calculated to be or might be or was intended to be directly or be indirectly useful to an enemy, namely the Russian state.”
Other allegations include claims that Smith communicated information about building repairs at the embassy.
On Monday, Germany expelled 40 Russian diplomats that it accused of being spies.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/security-guard-at-uk-embassy-in-berlin-denies-spy-charges/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:11
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/security-guard-at-uk-embassy-in-berlin-denies-spy-charges/
|
LONDON (AP) — A man accused of stabbing a British lawmaker to death during a regular meeting with his constituents told a court Thursday he targeted the politician because he voted for air strikes on Syria.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, is accused of murdering veteran Conservative lawmaker David Amess on Oct. 15 during a routine meeting with voters in a church hall in the town of Leigh-on-Sea in eastern England. Ali, who stabbed Amess repeatedly with a carving knife, denies charges of preparing acts of terrorism and murder.
Giving evidence Thursday, Ali said he decided to take action in the U.K. to help Muslims in Syria because he couldn’t join the Islamic State group.
“He voted previously in Parliament, not just him,” he said. “I decided to do it because I felt that if I could kill someone who made decisions to kill Muslims, it could prevent further harm to those Muslims.”
Ali, who is from London, said he “deeply” regretted not being able to join the terrorist group and did not think the attack on Amess was wrong.
“If I thought I did anything wrong, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said.
He added he had expected to be shot and die at the scene, but decided to drop his knife after seeing that the first police to arrive were not armed with guns.
Prosecutors allege Ali had spent years researching a number of high-profile politicians and carrying out reconnaissance on possible targets to attack, including lawmakers’ addresses and the Houses of Parliament in London.
They allege he managed to set up an appoint with Amess, 69, on the day he was killed by convincing the politician’s office that he had newly moved to the area and wanted to discuss local issues.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/suspect-tells-court-he-killed-uk-lawmaker-over-syria-vote/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:18
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/suspect-tells-court-he-killed-uk-lawmaker-over-syria-vote/
|
ROME (AP) — A judge in Genoa on Thursday ordered all 59 defendants to stand trial for the deadly 2018 collapse of a heavily used highway bridge in that Italian port city which sent cars and trucks plunging into the dry riverbed below.
Forty-three people were killed when a large section of the Morandi Bridge broke off during a violent rainstorm on Aug. 14, 2018, on the eve of Italy’s big summer holiday. Charges against the defendants include multiple manslaughter and making false statements.
Italy’s Rai state TV, reporting from the Genoa courthouse, said trial will begin July 7. It took Judge Paola Faggioni two hours to read aloud all the reasons why she was denying various objections raised by defendants’ lawyers before she ordered the trial.
Among those facing charges is Giovanni Castellucci, former CEO of the company that manages many of Italy’s highways and bridges, Rai said. Lawyers for Castellucci expressed confidence that a “fair trial” would find him innocent, the Italian news agency LaPresse reported.
Also standing trial are several people who worked for Italy’s transport and infrastructure ministry, the Genoa daily Il Secolo XIX reported.
The Genoa newspaper also reported that Faggioni approved plea bargain requests by both the highway company, Autostrade per Italia, and the Spea Engineering company, to pay 29 million euros ($33 million) to the Italian government in exchange for avoiding a trial.
Prosecutors argued in their indictment that some defendants were aware that the bridge, which was built in the 1960s, was at risk for collapse. They alleged that corners were cut on maintenance to save money.
The bridge’s designer had recommended regular upkeep to remove rust, especially due to the corrosive effect of moist air from the nearby Ligurian Sea, and maintenance to counter pollution’s effect on concrete.
A replacement bridge, designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, a Genoa native, features 43 lamps in memory of those who perished.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/trial-is-ordered-for-59-in-deadly-collapse-of-genoa-bridge/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:25
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/trial-is-ordered-for-59-in-deadly-collapse-of-genoa-bridge/
|
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A missile hit a crowded train station in eastern Ukraine that was an evacuation point for civilians, killing dozens of people, Ukrainian authorities said Friday after warning they expected even worse evidence of war crimes in parts of the country previously held by Russian troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that thousands of people were at the train station when the missile struck. The Russian Defense Ministry denied targeting the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, but Zelenskyy blamed Russia for the bodies lying in what looked like an outdoor waiting area.
“The inhuman Russians are not changing their methods. Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population,” the president said on social media. “This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop.”
The regional governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, later said that 39 people were killed and 87 wounded. The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said about 4,000 civilians were in and around the station, most of them women and children heeding calls to leave the area before Russian forces arrived.
“The people just wanted to get away for evacuation,” Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said while visiting Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, where journalists and returning Ukrainians discovered scores of bodies on streets and in mass graves after Russian troops withdrew.
Venediktova spoke as workers pulled corpses from a mass grave near a church under spitting rain. Black body bags were laid out in rows in the mud. None of the dead were Russians; she said. Most of them had been shot. The prosecutor general’s office is investigating the deaths as possible war crimes.
After failing to take Ukraine’s capital and withdrawing from northern Ukraine, Russia has shifted its focus to the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking, industrial region in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years and control some areas. The train station is located in government-controlled territory.
Ukrainian officials warned residents this week to leave as soon as possible for safer parts of the country and said they and Russia had agreed to establish multiple evacuation routes in the east.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in northern cities and towns as the Russians depart. He said horrors worse than the ones in Bucha already had surfaced in Borodyanka, another settlement outside the capital.
“And what will happen when the world learns the whole truth about what the Russian troops did in Mariupol?” Zelenskyy said late Thursday, referring to the besieged southern port that has seen some of the greatest suffering during Russia’s invasion. “There, on every street, is what the world saw in Bucha and other towns in the Kyiv region….The same cruelty. The same terrible crimes.”
The prosecutor general also expressed concern about the death toll in Borodyanka, where the process of retrieving bodies from shelled and collapsed buildings has just begun. Twenty-six bodies were found Thursday from the ruins of just two buildings, Venediktova said.
“We don’t know what’s under these houses,” she said, estimating it could take two weeks to find out.
Spurred by reports that Russian forces committed atrocities in areas surrounding the capital, NATO nations agreed to increase their supply of arms after Ukraine’s foreign minister pleaded for weapons from the alliance and other sympathetic countries to help face down an expected offensive in the east.
Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said investigators found at least three sites of mass shootings of civilians during the Russian occupation. Most victims died from gunshots, not from shelling, he said, and some corpses with their hands tied were “dumped like firewood” into mass graves, including one at a children’s camp.
Fedoruk said 320 civilians were confirmed dead as of Wednesday, but he expected more as bodies are found in the city that was home to 50,000 people. Only 3,700 remain, he said.
Ukrainian and several Western leaders have blamed the massacres on Moscow’s troops. The weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported Germany’s foreign intelligence agency intercepted radio messages among Russian soldiers discussing killings of civilians. Russia has falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
In a rare acknowledgment of the war’s cost to Russia, a Kremlin spokesman said Thursday that the country has suffered major troop causalities during its six-week military operation in Ukraine.
“Yes, we have significant losses of troops and it is a huge tragedy for us,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told British broadcaster Sky.
Peskov also hinted the fighting might be over “in the foreseeable future,” telling Sky that Russian troops were “doing their best to bring an end to that operation.”
Asked about his remarks Friday, Peskov said his reference to troop losses was based on the most recent Russian Defense Ministry numbers. The ministry reported on March 25 that a total of 1,351 Russian troops had been killed in Ukraine.
“It is a significant number,” Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters.
In anticipation of intensified attacks by Russian forces, hundreds of Ukrainians fled villages in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions that were either under attack or occupied.
Marina Morozova and her husband fled from Kherson, the first major city to fall to the Russians.
“They are waiting for a big battle. We saw shells that did not explode. It was horrifying,” she said.
Morozova, 69, said only Russian television and radio was available. The Russians handed out humanitarian aid, she said, and filmed the distribution.
Anxious to keep moving away from Russian troops, the couple and others boarded a van that would take them west. Some will try to leave the country, while others will remain in quieter parts of Ukraine.
On Thursday, a day after Russian forces began shelling their village in the southern Mykolaiv region, Sergei Dubovienko, 52, drove north in his small blue Lada with his wife and mother-in-law to Bashtanka, where they sought shelter in a church.
“They started destroying the houses and everything” in Pavlo-Marianovka, he said. “Then the tanks appeared from the forest. We thought that in the morning there would be shelling again, so I decided to leave.”
The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said that more than 4.3 million, half of them children, have left Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24 and sparked Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. The International Organization for Migration estimates more than 12 million people are stranded in areas of Ukraine under attack.
The United Nations’ humanitarian chief told The Associated Press he was “not optimistic” about securing a cease-fireafter meeting with officials in Kyiv and in Moscow this week, given the lack of trust between the sides. He spoke hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of backtracking on proposals it had made over Crimea and Ukraine’s military status.
Two top European Union officials and the prime minister of Slovakia traveled to Kyiv on Friday, looking to shore up the EU’s support for Ukraine. Prime Minister Eduard Heger said he, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell brought trade and humanitarian aid proposals for Zelenskyy and his government.
Part of that, Heger says is “to offer options for transporting grains, including wheat.” Ukraine is a major world wheat supplier and Russia’s war on Ukraine is creating shortages, notably in the Middle East.
Western nations have stepped up sanctions against Russia following the alleged atrocities found on the outskirts of Kyiv. A day after the United States imposed sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, the European Union and Britain followed suit Friday.
The U.S. Congress voted to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and ban the importation of its oil, while the EU approved an embargo on coal imports. The U.N. General Assembly, meanwhile, voted to suspend Russia from the world organization’s leading human rights body.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.N. vote demonstrated how “Putin’s war has made Russia an international pariah.” He called the images coming from Bucha “horrifying.”
“The signs of people being raped, tortured, executed — in some cases having their bodies desecrated — are an outrage to our common humanity,” Biden said.
___
Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Chernihiv, Ukraine, and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/ukrainian-leaders-predict-more-gruesome-discoveries-ahead/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:32
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/ukrainian-leaders-predict-more-gruesome-discoveries-ahead/
|
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The United Nations’ humanitarian chief said Thursday he’s not optimistic about securing a ceasefire to halt the fighting in Ukrainefollowing high-level talks in Moscow and Kyiv that underscored how far apart the two sides are.
Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths gave the bleak assessment in an interview with The Associated Press in the Ukrainian capital after wrapping up talks with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and other top officials. That followed discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow earlier in the week.
“I think it’s not going to be easy because the two sides, as I know now … have very little trust in each other,” he said.
“I’m not optimistic,” he added later.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres dispatched Griffiths to the Russian and Ukrainian capitals to explore the possibility of establishing a cease-fire that would allow desperately needed aid into Ukraine and potentially lay the groundwork for talks aimed at ending the war.
Griffiths suggested that goal remained far in the distance.
“Obviously, we all want that to happen. But as you know — you’re here — that’s not going to happen immediately,” he said.
Russia launched its assault on Ukraine just over six weeks ago, on February 24. The fighting has displaced millions of people within the country and prompted more than 4 million Ukrainians to seek shelter abroad.
The UN’s human rights office has recorded more than 1,400 civilians killed in the fighting, though the actual numbers of deaths is certain to be higher.
Representatives of the two countries have held a number of meetings by video link and in person, but those discussions have not ended the fighting.
Short of a full ceasefire, Griffiths said he is seeking ways to build confidence on both sides and focus on smaller goals, such as establishing local ceasefires in parts of the country and creating humanitarian corridors that allow civilians to escape the fighting.
“This war is not stopping tomorrow,” he said. “Where we are a little bit closer is to get the understanding of both sides … of what a local ceasefire would affect. There are many parts of Ukraine where we can achieve tomorrow local ceasefires, which are defined in geography and time.”
Relief supplies have begun flowing to some harder to reach parts of the country, he noted.
Russian troops have withdrawn from parts of Ukraine, particularly around Kyiv, ahead of what many believe is an intensified push in the country’s east.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba renewed his country’s plea for more weapons from NATO countries Thursday, pointing to atrocities that have come to light in the town of Bucha and other areas that Russian troops have withdrawn from in recent days.
Local ceasefires could still mean progress even in areas without ongoing fighting, Griffiths said, because they require that forces don’t move and so therefore could not regroup elsewhere.
Aid groups have struggled to get supplies to those in need.
Over the past week, members of a Red Cross convoy were prevented from reaching the besieged city of Mariupol to help evacuate a convoy of civilians. They were detained at one point during their mission, and eventually ended up accompanying around 1,000 people who had found ways of their own out of Mariupol to a city further west.
An overwhelming majority of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly has twice called for an immediate end to the fighting in Ukraine, on March 2 and March 24.
Griffiths said he expects to travel to Turkey in the next week or two for further talks aimed at reaching a ceasefire. That country, which shares a Black Sea coast with Russia and Ukraine, maintains ties with both and has positioned itself as a go-between for peace negotiations.
He also expects to return to Moscow, and characterized his most recent visit as a first round of talks.
“Look, I’m used to the idea that a ceasefire, which is what I’m tasked to try and achieve, takes time,” he said.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/un-aid-chief-im-not-optimistic-about-ukraine-ceasefire/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:39
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/un-aid-chief-im-not-optimistic-about-ukraine-ceasefire/
|
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The jury in the trial of four men accused of scheming to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ended its fourth day of deliberations Thursday and said it wants to look at evidence related to an explosive when it resumes its work.
The jury gave no signal to the judge that it’s struggling to reach decisions about the defendants: Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta.
When jurors return for more deliberations Friday, they said they want to look at pennies that, according to the government, were used during the demonstration of a homemade explosive while the men trained in September 2020.
“We will have that for you,” U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said, adding that they can look at any evidence that was introduced during 13 days of testimony.
Earlier in the week, the jury asked for a definition of “weapon.” Jonker said it’s something that could be used to “injure, kill or destroy someone or something.”
The jury is considering 10 charges in the case: one against Caserta, two against Fox, three against Croft and four against Harris. The men all face the main charge of a kidnapping conspiracy; the other counts are related to explosives and a firearm.
A conviction on any count must be unanimous.
“We can all see you’re hard at work,” Jonker told the jury. “It can be an exhausting way to spend spring break. We know that because that room is not huge. It gets smaller each time you come back and spend more time looking through everything. We appreciate your diligence.”
The evidence included testimony from undercover agents, a crucial informant and two men who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and pointed a finger at the others. Prosecutors said the group was steeped in anti-government extremism and angry over Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions.
The men trained with a crudely built “shoot house” to replicate her vacation home in September 2020, according to testimony.
Defense lawyers, however, said any scheme was the creation of government agents who were embedded in the group and manipulated the men.
Croft is from Bear, Delaware, while the others are from Michigan.
Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the plot, though she referred to “surprises” during her term that seemed like “something out of fiction” when she filed for reelection on March 17.
She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case.
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
___
White reported from Detroit.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/4th-day-of-deliberations-starts-in-gov-whitmer-kidnap-plot/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:46
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/4th-day-of-deliberations-starts-in-gov-whitmer-kidnap-plot/
|
NEW YORK (AP) — Rejecting suggestions he has lost interest in going after Donald Trump, the Manhattan district attorney said Thursday a criminal investigation into the former president and his business practices is continuing “without fear or favor” despite a recent shakeup in the probe’s leadership.
In a rare public statement, Alvin Bragg denied the three-year-old investigation was winding down or that a grand jury term expiring this month would impede his office’s ability to bring charges.
Citing secrecy rules, the district attorney said he couldn’t discuss details of the probe but pledged to publicly disclose findings when it’s over.
“In recent weeks, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been repeatedly asked whether our investigation concerning former President Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, and its leadership is continuing,” Bragg wrote. “It is.”
The Democrat’s affirmation of the investigation was part of a double dose of bad legal news for Trump on Thursday.
It came shortly after the New York attorney general’s office asked a judge to hold Trump in contempt and fine him $10,000 per day for not meeting a March 31 deadline to turn over documents in a parallel civil investigation. Trump is appealing a subpoena for his testimony in that investigation, but not one requiring him to provide documents.
“Instead of obeying a court order, Mr. Trump is trying to evade it,” Attorney General Letitia James said. “We are seeking the court’s immediate intervention because no one is above the law.”
Trump slammed James as an “operative for the Democrat Party” and called her effort to sanction him “a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”
“I’ve been investigated by the Democrats more than Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Al Capone, combined,” Trump said in a statement. “This has been going on for years, and in all cases, I have been innocent.”
Bragg’s statement proclaiming that the Trump investigation was still active marked his first public comment on the matter since the two men who had been leading it, Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, resigned Feb. 23 in a dispute over the direction of the case.
Pomerantz, a former mafia prosecutor, wrote in a resignation letter that he believed Trump is “guilty of numerous felony violations” but that Bragg, who inherited the probe when he took office in January, had decided not to pursue charges.
Pomerantz said in the letter, published last month by The New York Times, that there was “evidence sufficient to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” of allegations he falsified financial statements to secure loans and burnish his image as a wealthy businessman.
“I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest,” Pomerantz wrote.
Bragg’s silence after the resignations and the March 23 publication of Pomerantz’s letter gave rise to a narrative that the investigation was effectively dead.
After Pomerantz and Dunne left, Trump lawyer Robert Fischetti told the Associated Press: “I’m a very happy man. In my opinion, this investigation is over.”
Pomerantz and Dunne started on the probe under former District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
Pomerantz wrote that Vance had directed them to seek an indictment of Trump and other defendants “as soon as reasonably possible,” but that Bragg reached a different conclusion after reviewing the evidence.
Vance and Bragg are Democrats. No ex-president has ever been charged with a crime.
In his statement Thursday, Bragg tried to wrest back the narrative, putting Trump on notice that he isn’t done while reassuring his own supporters, who backed him in part because he pledged to continue investigating the former president, a Republican.
Bragg said that a team of “dedicated, experienced career prosecutors” is working on the investigation, led by his Investigation Division chief Susan Hoffinger and that they are “going through documents, interviewing witnesses, and exploring evidence not previously explored.”
“In the long and proud tradition of white-collar prosecutions at the Manhattan D.A.’s Office, we are investigating thoroughly and following the facts without fear or favor,” Bragg said.
So far, the three-year investigation has resulted only in tax fraud charges against Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, and its longtime finance chief Allen Weisselberg relating to lucrative fringe benefits such as rent, car payments and school tuition. They have pleaded not guilty.
Weisselberg’s lawyers filed court papers in February asking a judge to throw out his case, arguing that prosecutors targeted him as punishment because he wouldn’t flip on the former president.
Trump has cited potential peril from the criminal case as he appeals a ruling requiring him to answer questions under oath in James’ civil investigation.
Trump’s lawyers contend James, who assigned two lawyers to work on the criminal case, is using the guise of a civil deposition to get around a state law barring prosecutors from calling someone to testify before a criminal grand jury without giving them immunity.
James, a Democrat, has said her investigation has uncovered evidence that Trump may have misstated the value of assets like golf courses and skyscrapers on his financial statements for more than a decade.
Bragg said his career and perspective have been shaped by “high-profile, complex investigations,” including a lawsuit he oversaw while a top deputy in the attorney general’s office that led to the closure of Trump’s charity over allegations he used it to further his political and business interests.
“Prosecutors fulfilling their duties cannot and do not bring only cases that are ‘slam dunks,’” Bragg wrote. “To the contrary, every case must be brought for the right reason — namely that justice demands it. That’s what I’ve done throughout my career, regardless of how easy or tough a case might be.”
A grand jury convened in the Trump investigation last fall hasn’t met regularly for several months and its term is expected to run out soon, but Bragg said there are grand juries sitting in Manhattan all the time and “there is no magic at all to any previously reported dates.”
“In the meantime, we will not be discussing our investigative steps. Nor will we be discussing grand jury matters.” Bragg wrote. “In short, as we have previously said, the investigation continues.”
___
Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
___
Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/ag-fine-trump-10k-a-day-for-failing-to-turn-over-evidence/
| 2022-04-08T12:17:53
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/ag-fine-trump-10k-a-day-for-failing-to-turn-over-evidence/
|
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — No longer waiting for a federal investigation that has so far taken two and a half years, a state prosecutor said Thursday that he intends to pursue his own possible charges against the Louisiana troopers involved in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene.
Union Parish District Attorney John Belton told a bipartisan legislative committee looking into the case that U.S. Justice Department prosecutors last week dropped their request for him to hold off on a state prosecution until the federal probe is complete.
And he added that Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, also asked him to independently pursue charges against the troopers who were seen on long-withheld body-camera video swarming her son after a high-speed chase, jolting him with stun guns, punching him the face and dragging him by his ankle shackles as he wailed, “I’m scared! I’m scared!”
“No one is above the law — no one,” Belton told committee members at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge. He added that, based on the evidence, the officers “committed criminal acts, including the violation of Mr. Greene’s civil rights.”
Belton said he is “moving swiftly” to empanel a special grand jury as soon as he collects the most up-to-date evidence from the federal investigation. That includes a reexamined autopsyordered by the FBI last year that rejected troopers’ initial account that Greene died from injuries suffered in a car crash. It instead attributes Greene’s death to “physical struggle,” troopers repeatedly stunning him, striking him in the head, restraining him at length and Greene’s use of cocaine.
“It is of the utmost importance that the Ronald Greene family and the public as a whole be provided with the complete and truthful answers about what happened to him,” Belton said.
To date, nearly three years after Greene’s May 10, 2019, death along a rural roadside in northeast Louisiana, no one has been criminally charged.
Long shrouded in secrecy and accusations of cover-up, it took 474 days for state police to open an internal inquiry into the case and officials from Gov. John Bel Edwards on down refused to release troopers’ body-camera video for more than two years until The Associated Press obtainedand published it last year.
That jump-started the ongoing federal investigation into Greene’s death, which expanded to look into whether state policebrassobstructed justice to protect the troopers. One supervisor recently told the legislative committee that his bosses instructed him not to give prosecutors the body-camera footage of Greene’s arrest.
Federal investigators are separately looking into a string of other cases in which troopers are accused of beatings and cover-ups, even when they are caught on video.
Lawmakers in Thursday’s hearing repeatedly expressed frustration at the length of time the federal investigation is taking and the pace at which the state police are seeking answers internally.
State Rep. Tony Bacala, a Republican, appeared particularly upset when the head of the Louisiana State Police, Col. Lamar Davis, said it would likely take several more weeks to complete an internal probe of his second-in-command, Lt. Col. Doug Cain, for having his state cellphone “sanitized” — erased of all data — amid the federal investigation.
“We’re exceeding the speed limit,” Bacala said, “and you all are putting down the road.”
Another tense exchange came when state Rep. Edmond Jordan, a Democrat, questioned Davis about a 120-hour internal suspension given to a lawyer for the state Department of Public Safety, which includes state police, for telling colleagues about her part in an i nternal investigation of state police beatings of Black motorists. That was more than double the 50-hour internal punishment Trooper Kory York received after he was seen on the body-camera video dragging Greene by his ankle shackles.
“It seems the only people disciplined are the people who are trying to do the right thing,” Jordan said. “This is difficult to deal with.”
The legislative probe into “all-levels” of the state’s response to Greene’s death began in February after an AP report that Edwards was informed within hours that troopers arresting Greene had engaged in a “violent, lengthy struggle.” Yet the Democrat stayed mostly silent on the case for two years as state troopers pushed the car crash narrative.
Edwards has said he did not speak out about the troopers’ actions — even after privately watching body-camera footage of the arrest — because he did not want to interfere with the federal investigation. He has since come to describe the actions of the troopers in Greene’s arrest as criminal and racist.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/louisiana-prosecutor-pursues-own-case-in-ronald-greene-death/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:00
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/louisiana-prosecutor-pursues-own-case-in-ronald-greene-death/
|
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A suspect arrested in connection with last weekend’s mass shooting outside bars near the California state Capitol served less than half his 10-year sentence because of voter-approved changes to state law that lessened the punishment for his felony convictions and provided a chance for earlier release.
Smiley Allen Martin was freed in February after serving time for punching a girlfriend, dragging her from her home by her hair and whipping her with a belt, according to court and prison records. Those count as nonviolent offenses under California law, which considersonly about two dozen crimes to be violent felonies — things like murder, rape, arson and kidnapping.
Martin, 27, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun. He is among the 12 people wounded during Sunday’s shooting, which killed six others. Police say the violence was a shootout between rival gangs in which at least five people fired weapons, including Martin’s brother, Dandrae Martin, who also was arrested.
Smiley Martin typically would have remained behind bars until at least May after serving a minimum of half his time for his previous arrest in 2017, but prison officials evidently used a very expansive approach to applying time credits to his sentence, said Gregory Totten, chief executive officer of the California District Attorneys Association and a former Ventura County district attorney.
“They’ve been given very broad authority to early release folks and to give them additional credit and all kinds of considerations for purposes of reducing the length of sentence that somebody serves,” Totten said.
Corrections officials did not dispute that Martin was among thousands of inmates receiving additional credits that sped up his release under state law. But they said their policy prohibits disclosing what credits Martin received.
They cited credits through Proposition 57, the 2016 ballot measure that aimed to give most felons a chance at earlier release. Credits were also broadly authorized to lower the prison population during the pandemic.
Proposition 57 credits include good behavior, though corrections officials would not release Martin’s disciplinary report. Good conduct credit is supposed to be reserved for inmates who follow all the rules and complete their assigned duties.
The state “has implemented various credit-earning opportunities to incentivize good behavior and program participation for incarcerated individuals, including those created in furtherance of Proposition 57— which was overwhelmingly approved by voters,” corrections spokesperson Vicky Waters said in a statement.
Proponents, including former Gov. Jerry Brown, who pushed for Proposition 57, say it’s important to give inmates a second chance. The opportunity for earlier release encourages inmates to participate in education and other rehabilitative programs, while helping to reduce mass incarceration.
“The most recent reforms in California are seeking to change a culture that has been churning out recidivism problems for generations,” said Will Matthews, spokesperson for Californians for Safety and Justice, which backed the changes. “The question we need to be asking ourselves is, how are we engaging in behavior change?”
Under Proposition 57, there are credits for completing rehabilitative or educational programs, self-help and volunteer public service activities, earning a high school diploma or higher education degree and performing a heroic act. Officials added credits during the coronavirus pandemic, including 12 weeks of credit that applied to most inmates.
Martin was denied parole in May 2021 under California’s process for nonviolent offenders to get earlier parole, after a letter from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors objected based on his lengthy criminal record and asserted Martin “clearly has little regard for human life and the law.”
Six months after he turned 18, Martin was caught in January 2013 with an assault rifle and two fully loaded 25-bullet magazines, prosecutors said. Months later, he pushed aside a Walmart clerk to steal computers worth $2,800, they said. In 2016, he was arrested as a parolee at large. And less than six months after that was the assault that sent him back to prison.
It’s not clear if Martin has an attorney who can comment on his behalf.
Martin pleaded no contest and was sent to prison on charges of corporal injury and assault likely to cause great bodily injury in January 2018 under a plea deal in which charges of kidnapping — considered a violent felony — and intimidating a witness or victim were dismissed.
The sentencing judge awarded Martin 508 days of credits for time he spent in Sacramento County jail before his conviction, based on a California law that allows judges to double the actual time in jail, which in Martin’s case was 254 days.
Martin also had “a variety of additional post-sentencing credits,” which corrections department spokesperson Dana Simas said were awarded for time served while awaiting transfer to state prison from county jail.
Before Proposition 57, he would have qualified for 20% “good time” credits — meaning he could reduce his time served by one-fifth — but corrections officials used their authority under the ballot measure to bump those to 50%. Pending regulations opposed by most of the state’s district attorneys would further increase good time credits to two-thirds of a sentence for such repeat offenders.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a progressive Democrat who formerly led the state Senate, was among those upset when he learned of Martin’s record.
“If people have a history of committing violent acts, and they have not shown a propensity or willingness to change, I don’t think they should be out on the streets,” he said at an event where officials requested more than $3 billion from the state to expand crime prevention programs.
Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, who once headed the state parole board, said “good time” credits are generally awarded automatically, without inmates having to do anything to earn them.
“It gives them enormous opportunity to free up beds,” said Nielsen, an opponent of earlier releases.
The state has relied on such efforts, particularly its powers under Proposition 57, to keep the prison population below the level required by a panel of federal judges who ruled that inmate crowding had led to unconstitutionally poor conditions.
Martin was released to the supervision of the Sacramento County Probation Department in February. County probation officials wouldn’t provide the terms, saying their records are not public documents.
Without discussing Martin’s case, Karen Pank, executive director of the Chief Probation Officers of California, said generally someone coming out of prison on Post Release Community Supervision with an extensive and violent criminal history would likely have been treated on a “high-risk” caseload.
That would subject him to more intensive supervision, including a requirement that he check in with his probation officer more frequently and in person, although individualized determinations on risks and needs would be made and treatment and services would continue to be offered.
Hours before Sunday’s shootout, Martin posted a live Facebook video of himself brandishing a handgun, a law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to public discuss details of the shooting investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pank said if there is evidence of a felon in possession of a firearm, that can be grounds for a violation, which may result in time in jail. However, it’s unlikely anyone from law enforcement could have acted in time even if they had seen the video.
“The big if is would they have known about it,” said Totten. But in this case, “it didn’t matter — it was so close to the time” of the shooting.
___
Associated Press writers Adam Beam, Stefanie Dazio and Michael Balsamo contributed to this story. Dazio reported from Los Angeles and Balsamo from Washington, D.C.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/mass-shooting-suspect-served-less-time-with-california-law-2/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:06
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/mass-shooting-suspect-served-less-time-with-california-law-2/
|
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A suspect arrested in connection with last weekend’s mass shooting outside bars near the California state Capitol served less than half his 10-year sentence because of voter-approved changes to state law that lessened the punishment for his felony convictions and provided a chance for earlier release.
Smiley Allen Martin was freed in February after serving time for punching a girlfriend, dragging her from her home by her hair and whipping her with a belt, according to court and prison records. Those count as nonviolent offenses under California law, which considersonly about two dozen crimes to be violent felonies — things like murder, rape, arson and kidnapping.
Martin, 27, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun. He is among the 12 people wounded during Sunday’s shooting, which killed six others. Police say the violence was a shootout between rival gangs in which at least five people fired weapons, including Martin’s brother, Dandrae Martin, who also was arrested.
Smiley Martin typically would have remained behind bars until at least May after serving a minimum of half his time for his previous arrest in 2017, but prison officials evidently used a very expansive approach to applying time credits to his sentence, said Gregory Totten, chief executive officer of the California District Attorneys Association and a former Ventura County district attorney.
“They’ve been given very broad authority to early release folks and to give them additional credit and all kinds of considerations for purposes of reducing the length of sentence that somebody serves,” Totten said.
Corrections officials did not dispute that Martin was among thousands of inmates receiving additional credits that sped up his release under state law. But they said their policy prohibits disclosing what credits Martin received.
They cited credits through Proposition 57, the 2016 ballot measure that aimed to give most felons a chance at earlier release. Credits were also broadly authorized to lower the prison population during the pandemic.
Proposition 57 credits include good behavior, though corrections officials would not release Martin’s disciplinary report. Good conduct credit is supposed to be reserved for inmates who follow all the rules and complete their assigned duties.
The state “has implemented various credit-earning opportunities to incentivize good behavior and program participation for incarcerated individuals, including those created in furtherance of Proposition 57— which was overwhelmingly approved by voters,” corrections spokesperson Vicky Waters said in a statement.
Proponents, including former Gov. Jerry Brown, who pushed for Proposition 57, say it’s important to give inmates a second chance. The opportunity for earlier release encourages inmates to participate in education and other rehabilitative programs, while helping to reduce mass incarceration.
“The most recent reforms in California are seeking to change a culture that has been churning out recidivism problems for generations,” said Will Matthews, spokesperson for Californians for Safety and Justice, which backed the changes. “The question we need to be asking ourselves is, how are we engaging in behavior change?”
Under Proposition 57, there are credits for completing rehabilitative or educational programs, self-help and volunteer public service activities, earning a high school diploma or higher education degree and performing a heroic act. Officials added credits during the coronavirus pandemic, including 12 weeks of credit that applied to most inmates.
Martin was denied parole in May 2021 under California’s process for nonviolent offenders to get earlier parole, after a letter from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors objected based on his lengthy criminal record and asserted Martin “clearly has little regard for human life and the law.”
Six months after he turned 18, Martin was caught in January 2013 with an assault rifle and two fully loaded 25-bullet magazines, prosecutors said. Months later, he pushed aside a Walmart clerk to steal computers worth $2,800, they said. In 2016, he was arrested as a parolee at large. And less than six months after that was the assault that sent him back to prison.
It’s not clear if Martin has an attorney who can comment on his behalf.
Martin pleaded no contest and was sent to prison on charges of corporal injury and assault likely to cause great bodily injury in January 2018 under a plea deal in which charges of kidnapping — considered a violent felony — and intimidating a witness or victim were dismissed.
The sentencing judge awarded Martin 508 days of credits for time he spent in Sacramento County jail before his conviction, based on a California law that allows judges to double the actual time in jail, which in Martin’s case was 254 days.
Martin also had “a variety of additional post-sentencing credits,” which corrections department spokesperson Dana Simas said were awarded for time served while awaiting transfer to state prison from county jail.
Before Proposition 57, he would have qualified for 20% “good time” credits — meaning he could reduce his time served by one-fifth — but corrections officials used their authority under the ballot measure to bump those to 50%. Pending regulations opposed by most of the state’s district attorneys would further increase good time credits to two-thirds of a sentence for such repeat offenders.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a progressive Democrat who formerly led the state Senate, was among those upset when he learned of Martin’s record.
“If people have a history of committing violent acts, and they have not shown a propensity or willingness to change, I don’t think they should be out on the streets,” he said at an event where officials requested more than $3 billion from the state to expand crime prevention programs.
Republican state Sen. Jim Nielsen, who once headed the state parole board, said “good time” credits are generally awarded automatically, without inmates having to do anything to earn them.
“It gives them enormous opportunity to free up beds,” said Nielsen, an opponent of earlier releases.
The state has relied on such efforts, particularly its powers under Proposition 57, to keep the prison population below the level required by a panel of federal judges who ruled that inmate crowding had led to unconstitutionally poor conditions.
Martin was released to the supervision of the Sacramento County Probation Department in February. County probation officials wouldn’t provide the terms, saying their records are not public documents.
Without discussing Martin’s case, Karen Pank, executive director of the Chief Probation Officers of California, said generally someone coming out of prison on Post Release Community Supervision with an extensive and violent criminal history would likely have been treated on a “high-risk” caseload.
That would subject him to more intensive supervision, including a requirement that he check in with his probation officer more frequently and in person, although individualized determinations on risks and needs would be made and treatment and services would continue to be offered.
Hours before Sunday’s shootout, Martin posted a live Facebook video of himself brandishing a handgun, a law enforcement officials told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to public discuss details of the shooting investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Pank said if there is evidence of a felon in possession of a firearm, that can be grounds for a violation, which may result in time in jail. However, it’s unlikely anyone from law enforcement could have acted in time even if they had seen the video.
“The big if is would they have known about it,” said Totten. But in this case, “it didn’t matter — it was so close to the time” of the shooting.
___
Associated Press writers Adam Beam, Stefanie Dazio and Michael Balsamo contributed to this story. Dazio reported from Los Angeles and Balsamo from Washington, D.C.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/mass-shooting-suspect-served-less-time-with-california-law/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:13
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/mass-shooting-suspect-served-less-time-with-california-law/
|
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit Thursday asking a Michigan court to recognize the right to get an abortion under the state constitution and to overturn a 176-year-old ban in the state that might take effect again if the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling is vacated.
The Democratic governor’s preemptive lawsuit, which was filed in Oakland County against prosecutors in 13 counties with an abortion clinic, came as the Supreme Court’s conservative majority considers allowing states to ban abortion much earlier in a pregnancy and potentially overturning the right. Planned Parenthood of Michigan and its chief medical officer filed a similar lawsuit in the state Court of Claims to block enforcement of the 1931 law, which dates to an 1846 ban.
Whitmer, who is up for reelection this year, asked the Michigan Supreme Court to quickly take up her case rather than let it wind through lower trial and appellate courts. A favorable decision could enable abortions to continue in Michigan after the federal high court rules.
“It was important for us to take action now, to ensure that women and providers across the state of Michigan know whether abortions will still be available in the state because it impacts their lives and our health care providers’ practices. It’s crucial that we take this action now to secure and ensure that the Michigan Constitution protects this right that we have had available for 49 years,” Whitmer told The Associated Press, saying nearly 2.2 million women may lose access to a safe, legal medical procedure.
Michigan is among eight states with an unenforced abortion ban that was enacted before the 1973 Roe decision legalized abortion nationwide. The law makes it a felony to use an instrument or administer any substance with the intent “to procure the miscarriage” of a woman unless necessary to preserve her life.
Whitmer wants the Michigan Supreme Court to declare a state constitutional right to abortion and to strike down the law, which could go back into effect if Roe is overturned or weakened. The lawsuit argues the law is invalid under the due process and equal protection clauses of the state constitution.
Michigan may soon be left with a near-total ban without even exceptions for rape and incest — “one of the most extreme laws in the country,” the governor told the AP. Her call to repeal the lawhas gone nowhere in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The state’s high court has four Democratic and three Republican justices.
Whitmer asked that the court intervene in part to avoid legal uncertainty when the federal high court issues its ruling on Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Should Roe be overruled or curtailed, she wrote, “health care providers may feel constrained to restrict access to abortion services to avoid potential criminal liability.”
The complaint says that although the Michigan Supreme Court in 1973 ruled that Roe limited the effect of the state ban, the right to abortion has been undermined over 50 years of litigation in federal courts. The state’s high court has not said whether the state constitution protects the right. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in 1997 that there is no state constitutional right to abortion — one reason the Supreme Court should step in immediately because that 25-year-old ruling is binding on lower courts, according to Whitmer.
The lawsuit points to “substantial ambiguity” about what the state ban prohibits.
Whitmer was criticized by groups that oppose abortion rights. Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing called the suit “frivolous.”
“While the legality of abortion is contingent upon democratic structures, it is unfortunate that the judicial branch is being used to try to invalidate a long-standing policy approved by elected representatives and left untouched by the Legislature for nearly a century since,” said Rebecca Mastee, a policy advocate at the Michigan Catholic Conference.
States on both sides of the abortion issue have been taking various steps to prepare for Roe being eroded or rescinded, including making it a crime to perform an abortion and banning legal action against people who aid or receive an abortion.
In Michigan, advocates have launched a ballot drive to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, but they will need about 425,000 voter signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot. Abortion rights proponents in Nebraska scored a surprising victory this week by derailing a bill that would have automatically outlawed abortion if Roe is overturned.
Also Thursday, seven Democratic county prosecutors who were named in Whitmer’s lawsuit pledged to not enforce the anti-abortion law in Wayne, Oakland, Genesee, Washtenaw, Ingham, Kalamazoo and Marquette counties. The other six elected prosecutors who were sued are Republicans.
The defendant in the Planned Parenthood case is Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat who has long said she would not enforce the ban. She said her office will not defend the law unless it is ordered to by a court. Other parties that support the law can seek to intervene, she said.
“I didn’t become attorney general so that I could head an office that put women in a position in which some of them will likely die,” Nessel said.
___
Associated Press writer Corey Williams in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and video journalist Sharon Johnson in Atlanta contributed to this report.
___
Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/michigan-governor-sues-to-secure-abortion-rights-vacate-ban/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:20
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/michigan-governor-sues-to-secure-abortion-rights-vacate-ban/
|
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina has scheduled its first execution after corrections officials finished updating the death chamber to prepare for executions by firing squad.
The clerk of the State Supreme Court has set a April 29 execution date for Richard Bernard Moore, a 57-year-old man who has spent more than two decades on death row after he was convicted of killing convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg.
Moore could face a choice between the electric chair and the firing squad, two options available to death row prisoners after legislators altered the state’s capital punishment law last year in an effort to work around a decade-long pause in executions, attributed to the corrections agency’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs.
The new law made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution while giving prisoners the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.
The state corrections agency said last month it had finished developing protocols for firing squad executions and completed $53,600 in renovations on the death chamber in Columbia, installing a metal chair with restraints that faces a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet (4.6 meters) away.
In the case of a firing squad execution, three volunteer shooters — all Corrections Department employees — will have rifles loaded with live ammunition, with their weapons trained on the inmate’s heart. A hood will be placed over the head of the inmate, who will be given the opportunity to make a last statement.
South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and one of four to allow a firing squad, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.
Moore is one of 35 men on South Carolina’s death row. He exhausted his federal appeals in 2020, and the state Supreme Court denied another appeal this week.
Lindsey Vann, an attorney for Moore, said Thursday she will ask the court to stay the execution.
The state lastscheduled an execution for Moore in 2020, which was then delayedafter prison officials said they couldn’t obtain lethal injection drugs.
During Moore’s 2001 trial, prosecutors said Moore entered the store looking for money to support his cocaine habit and got into a dispute with Mahoney, who drew a pistol that Moore wrestled away from him.
Mahoney pulled a second gun, and a gunfight ensued. Mahoney shot Moore in the arm, and Moore shot Mahoney in the chest. Prosecutors said Moore left a trail of blood through the store as he looked for cash, stepping twice over Mahoney.
At the time, Moore claimed that he acted in self-defense after Mahoney drew the first gun.
Moore’s supporters have argued his crime doesn’t rise to the level of heinousness in other death penalty cases in the state. His appeals lawyers have said that because Moore didn’t bring a gun into store, he couldn’t have intended to kill someone when he walked in.
South Carolina’s last execution was in 2011, when Jeffrey Motts, on death row for strangling a cellmate while serving a life sentence for another murder, abandoned his appeals and opted for the death chamber.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/s-carolina-schedules-1st-execution-with-firing-squad-ready/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:27
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/national/s-carolina-schedules-1st-execution-with-firing-squad-ready/
|
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy faces plenty of threats: War in Ukraine, high grocery bills, spiking gasoline prices, splintered supply chains, the lingering pandemic and rising interest rates that slow growth.
The Biden White House is betting the U.S. economy is strong enough to withstand these threats, but there are growing fears of a coming economic slump among voters and some Wall Street analysts.
The next few months will test whether President Joe Biden built a durable recovery full of jobs with last year’s $1.9 trillion relief package, or an economy overfed by government aid that could tip into a downturn. On the line for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections is whether voters see firsthand in their lives that inflation can be tamed and the economy can manage to run hot without overheating.
Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters this week that the 3.6% unemployment rate and last year’s robust growth puts the U.S. in a safe place compared to the rest of the world.
“The core question is whether the strength of the US economy is now an asset or a liability,” Deese said. “What we have done over the course of the last 15 months is driven a uniquely strong economic recovery in the United States, which positions us uniquely well to deal with the challenges ahead.”
But others see an economy that could struggle to preserve growth while reducing inflation now running at a 40-year high of 7.9%. The Federal Reserve has signaled a series of benchmark interest rate increases and other policies to slow inflation this year, yet Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has destabilized the global energy and food markets in ways that could push prices upward.
Deutsche Bank on Tuesday became the first major financial institution to forecast a U.S. recession. And Harvard University economist Larry Summers — a Democrat and former treasury secretary — noted that the U.S. economy has gone into recession within two years each time inflation eclipsed 4% and unemployment was below 5% as they are now.
Joe LaVorgna, who worked in the Trump White House and is now chief economist for the Americas at Natixis, said he expects economic growth this year to be just below 1%, a potentially dangerous level.
While household balance sheets are solid and unemployment low, wages are not keeping up with inflation, which could dampen consumer spending. And supply chain disruptions and higher energy costs will be additional drags.
“The reason why you have a recession when the economy is growing 1% is it’s like a weakened immune system,” LaVorgna said. “Any negative event, even a small one, is going to throw you off course and stall speed becomes a recession.”
Still, because of the strong labor market and household savings, LaVorgna also anticipates that any downturn would be mild.
So far, consumer spending has been healthy even if the public views the economy as anemic.
Nearly 7 in 10 Americans believe the economy is in poor shape, according to a poll last month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Yet Bank of America noted that total debit and credit card spending in March was up 11% from a year ago, and its analysts concluded households are “strong enough to weather the storm provided it doesn’t persist too long.”
There are also signs that consumers are adjusting as higher oil prices have led average gasoline costs to hit $4.15 a gallon, according to AAA. Gas costs have fallen in the past week, but they’re still up 45% from a year ago.
One consequence of higher prices is that Americans began to use less oil and gas. The U.S. consumed a daily average of 21.9 million barrels during the first full week of February; the figure fell 9% to 19.9 million barrels during the first week of April, according to the Energy Information Administration. That decline is larger than the normal seasonal drop-off in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Gasoline usage has dropped more than 6% during the same period.
A recent Goldman Sachs research note stood out to Biden administration officials because it suggested that job growth and pay increases would cushion the economy from higher commodity prices. Because of the strong labor market, the economy is better protected from commodity shocks than in the recessions of 1974, 1980 and 1990, as well as the 2008 financial crisis.
The White House has watched with some frustration as the public conversation about the economy has been reduced to inflation, believing that largely ignores the strength of the labor market and the idea that families are able to manage the higher prices because of the coronavirus relief provided earlier.
The administration believes that Fed rate increases as well as a drop in deficit spending this year will help to lower inflation. But the key message that the White House wants to deliver in response to public fears about the economy is that Biden understands their concerns.
The challenge, however, is that many Americans are so focused on inflation that they believe the job market — and wider economy — is weaker than it actually is. That means the White House has to make a nuanced case in which it recognizes the economic weaknesses but repeats the low unemployment rate again, again and again so that it lodges in the public mind.
The doubts about the economy — despite the solid jobs numbers — are “a signal that we need to continue to make that case clearly and unambiguously,” said Deese.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/news/ap-top-headlines/biden-bets-strong-job-market-will-shield-economy-from-slump/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:34
| 1
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/news/ap-top-headlines/biden-bets-strong-job-market-will-shield-economy-from-slump/
|
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A Palestinian opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv, killing at least two people and wounding several others. The attacker, who was from the occupied West Bank, eluded police for hours before he was killed in a shootout with security forces early Friday, officials said.
It was the fourth deadly attack in Israel by Palestinians in less than three weeks and came at a time of heightened tensions around the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Protests and clashes in Jerusalem during Ramadan last year eventually ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
The militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.
Hundreds of Israeli police officers, canine units, and army special forces, had conducted a massive manhunt in central Tel Aviv, searching building by building through densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said they eventually cornered the attacker in a mosque in the Jaffa neighborhood, where he was killed in an exchange of fire.
“After a difficult night, and after long hours of activity by police, the army and the Shin Bet, we succeeded this morning, through intelligence and operational cooperation, to close the circle and to kill the terrorist in a shootout,” Israeli police chief Kobi Shabtai said.
Thursday’s attack took place at the start of the Israeli weekend in the popular nightlife area. Medics described scenes of panic, with dozens of people fleeing after the shots rang out.
Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said two men around 30 years old were killed. Another seven people were wounded, three of them seriously, it said.
Eleven Israelis were killed in three previous attacks, making this one of the worst waves of violence in years.
The shooting took place on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare that has seen other attacks over the years. In the most recent, an Arab citizen of Israel shot and killed two Israelis and wounded several others on the street in January 2016.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Prior to the attack, Israel had said it would allow women, children and men over 40 from the occupied West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem on Friday, the first weekly prayers of Ramadan. Tens of thousands were expected to attend.
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and sits on a hilltop that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. The holy site has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel has worked to sideline the Palestinian issue in recent years, instead focusing on forging alliances with Arab states against Iran. But the century-old conflict remains as intractable as ever.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. The last substantive peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city to be its capital. It is building and expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which most of the international community considers illegal.
It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. But along with neighboring Egypt, it imposed a crippling blockade on the territory after the militant Hamas group seized power from rival Palestinian forces two years later. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since then.
Hamas spokesman Abdelatif Al-Qanou said late Thursday that the “the heroic attack in the heart of the (Israeli) entity has struck the Zionist security system and proved our people’s ability to hurt the occupation.”
On March 29, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank shot and killed five people in the central town of Bnei Brak. Two days earlier, a shooting attack by two Islamic State group sympathizers in the central city of Hadera killed two police officers. The week before, an IS supporter killed four people in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in the southern city of Beersheba. The Hadera and Beersheba attacks were carried out by Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The recent attacks appear to have been carried out by lone assailants, perhaps with the help of accomplices. No Palestinian militant group has claimed them, though Hamas has welcomed the attacks.
Israel says the conflict stems from the Palestinians’ refusal to accept its existence as a Jewish state and blames attacks in part on incitement on social media. Palestinians say such attacks are the inevitable result of a nearly 55-year military occupation that shows no sign of ending.
___
Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/news/ap-top-headlines/israeli-hospital-2-killed-8-wounded-in-tel-aviv-shooting/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:41
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/news/ap-top-headlines/israeli-hospital-2-killed-8-wounded-in-tel-aviv-shooting/
|
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — More than a million customers in Puerto Rico remained without electricity on Thursday after a fire at a main power plant caused the biggest blackout so far this year across the U.S. territory, forcing it to cancel classes and shutter government offices.
The blackout also left nearly 170,000 customers without water, forced authorities to close some main roads and snarled traffic elsewhere across the island of 3.2 million people, where the roar of generators and smell of diesel filled the air.
“We urge you to stay home if possible,” said Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Domingo Emanuelli, who is serving as interim governor since Gov. Pedro Pierluisi is on an official trip in Spain.
Those who could not afford generators and have medical conditions such as diabetes, which depends on refrigerated insulin, worried about how much longer they’d be without power. Owners of shuttered businesses also wondered when they could reopen.
Long lines formed at some gas stations as people sought fuel for generators. Others tried to charge their cellphones at businesses in scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which struck as a Category 4 storm in 2017.
Frustration and anger grew throughout the day as officials warned the outage could stretch into Friday.
“No one can say exactly when” power would be fully restored, said Kevin Acevedo, a vice president of Luma, the company that took over transmission and distribution from Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority last year. “We have to be realistic. The system is complex, delicate.”
As of late Thursday afternoon, crews had restored power to some 500,000 customers out of nearly 1.5 million.
Officials in at least one city distributed food to hundreds of elderly people as well as ice to those whose medication must be kept cool.
“This is horrible,” said Luisa Rosado, a mother of two who lives in the San Juan neighborhood of Río Piedras.
She said she and her husband had sacrificed their savings to install a solar electricity system at their home after Hurricane Maria, which left them with at least partial power following the blackout.
She said her neighbors had been outraged by recent increases in power bills, which were already higher than in most U.S. states.
“To increase bills when you don’t provide a perfect service … the level of impunity is absurd,” Rosado said.
Luma said the blackout could have been caused by a circuit-breaker failure at the Costa Sur generation plant — one of four main plants on the island. But company officials said the exact cause of the interruption is unknown.
“It’s going to require an exhaustive investigation,” Acevedo said, adding that that the equipment whose failure sparked the fire had been properly maintained.
Officials said at least three generation units were back online by Thursday, with crews working to restore more.
Luma CEO Wayne Stensby called it a “very unusual” outage that “clearly indicates the fragility of the system.”
The outage occurred two months before the Atlantic hurricane season starts, worrying many about the condition of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid.
“Yes, the system is fragile, no one is denying that, but we’re prepared,” Acevedo said.
Police officers were stationed at main intersections to help direct traffic on Thursday while health officials checked in at hospitals to ensure generators were still running.
The outage further enraged Puerto Ricans already frustrated with an electricity system razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Emergency repairs were made at the time, but reconstruction efforts have not yet started, and power company officials blame aging, ill-maintained infrastructure for the ongoing outages.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency said late Thursday that it approved nearly $9.5B to Puerto Rico’s power company in September 2020 to rebuild the island’s electrical grid, but that it has yet to receive any transmission and distribution projects for evaluation and approval of construction funds.
A series of strong earthquakes that struck southern Puerto Rico where the Costa Sur plant is located also had damaged it.
The Electric Power Authority also is trying to restructure $9 billion worth of public debt to emerge from a lengthy bankruptcy. The company has struggled for decades with corruption, mismanagement and a lack of maintenance.
In June last year, a large fire at a substation in the capital of San Juan left hundreds of thousands without power. Another fire at a power plant in September 2016 sparked an island-wide blackout.
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/news/ap-top-headlines/major-outage-forces-puerto-rico-to-shutter-schools-offices/
| 2022-04-08T12:18:49
| 0
|
https://www.cenlanow.com/news/ap-top-headlines/major-outage-forces-puerto-rico-to-shutter-schools-offices/
|