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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A hole-by-hole look at how Tiger Woods played the first round of the Masters on Thursday:
No. 1, 445 yards, par 4: Driver down right side of fairway. Approach to front of green, rolling just back onto the fairway. Chip to 10 feet. One putt. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 8th.
No. 2, 575 yards, par 5: Drive down right side of fairway. Fairway metal short of green. Wedge from 50 yards. Two putts from 16 feet. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 5th.
No. 3, 350 yards, par 4: Iron off the tee to left-center of fairway. Wedge just short of green. Used putter from just beyond fringe, left short of hole. One putt. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 6th.
No. 4, 240 yards, par 3: Tee shot to front of green. Two putts from 40 feet. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 8th.
No. 5, 495 yards, par 4: Driver to fairway. Approach to 15 feet. Birdie putt lipped out. Tap-in. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 7th.
No. 6, 180 yards, par 3: Tee shot to 2 feet. Tap-in. Birdie. Score: -1. Status: tied for 2nd.
No. 7, 450 yards, par 4: Fairway metal to pine straw past the right side of fairway. Punch out short of green. Chip to about a foot. Tap-in. Par. Score: -1. Status: tied for 3rd.
No. 8, 570 yards, par 5: Driver to middle of fairway. Second shot short of green. Pitch to short of green. Chip to 8 feet. Two-putt. Bogey. Score: Even. Status: tied for 10th.
No. 9, 460 yards, par 4: Drive left into trees. Approach to front of green, rolled back to fairway. Third shot above hole to 8 feet. One putt. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 14th.
No. 10, 495 yards, par 4: Fairway metal to left-center of fairway. Approach to front of green, rolled back to fairway. Uphill pitch to 5 feet. One putt. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 17th.
No. 11, 520 yards, par 4: Driver to middle of fairway. Approach short of green. Chip to 4 feet. One putt. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 22nd.
No. 12, 155 yards, par 3: Tee shot to left side of green. Two putts from 30 feet. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 24th.
No. 13, 510 yards, par 5: Drive to center of fairway. Approach to 25 feet, below and left of hole. Two putts. Birdie. Score: -1. Status: tied for 10th.
No. 14, 440 yards, par 4: Drive left into trees. Approach off pine straw rolls just off back of green. Putter from just past fringe to 5 feet. Two putts. Bogey. Score: Even. Status: tied for 25th.
No. 15, 550 yards, par 5: Drive left into second cut. Second shot down left side. Third shot to 30 feet. Two putts. Par. Score: Even. Status: tied for 20th.
No. 16, 170 yards, par 3: Tee shot to 30 feet. One putt. Birdie. Score: -1. Status: tied for 9th.
No. 17, 440 yards, par 4: Driver to second cut on right side. Approach to 20 feet. Two putts. Par. Score: -1. Status: tied for 9th.
No. 18, 465 yards, par 4: Driver left into trees. Second shot layup to 75 yards. Chip to 6 feet. One putt. Par. Score: -1. Status: tied for 8th (at that point, with the round not yet complete).
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More AP Masters coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-08T12:18:55
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — He walked among the azaleas with just the slightest hint of a limp.
He couldn’t quite bend over to read the putts on Augusta National’s tricky greens.
Otherwise, there was nothing to indicate that Tiger Woods nearly lost his right leg 14 months ago in a devastating car wreck.
Woods’ greatest comeback yet got off to an electrifying start Thursday when he shot a 1-under 71 in the opening round of the Masters.
“To end up in the red,” he said confidently, “I’m right where I need to be.”
As Woods walked briskly toward the clubhouse after a grueling day that stretched to nearly 5 1/2 hours, he heard shouts of “Way to go, Tiger!” from the spectators.
He was just three strokes off the lead – with roughly half the field still on the course – after making three birdies, a pair of bogeys and a whole lot of solid pars — many of them salvaged by his deft touch around the greens.
Woods pulled off one last Houdini act at No. 18. After yanking his tee shot into the towering pine trees on the right, he had to lay up short of the green.
But he pitched to 6 feet and rolled in the putt to keep his score under par.
“I felt good,” Woods said. “Once the adrenaline kicks in and I get into my own little world, I knew I should be able to handle business.”
Yep, there’s still a long way to go. Woods still must prove his body can bounce back day after day — four of them, should he make it to Sunday.
But it felt as if he was already a winner.
“You just can’t not watch him,” said Australia’s Cameron Smith, among those tied for the lead after shooting a 68. “It’s an inspiration with him coming back and playing golf.”
With storm clouds giving way to brilliant spring sunshine, Woods defied everyone’s expectations.
Except his own.
When Woods delivered an emphatic clutch of the right fist after rolling in a 30-footer for birdie at the 16th hole, it seemed like old times at one of golf’s most hallowed courses.
From the collapse of his marriage to multiple surgeries, Woods has always found a way to bounce back.
He’s doing it again, looking every bit like the guy who’s won five green jackets and defied the odds time and time again.
A tap-in birdie at No. 6 sent the patrons into a frenzy. A sloppy bogey at the par-5 eighth brought some groans, but Woods’ brilliant short game kept him from posting one of those big numbers that can spell doom at Augusta.
He made it clear he had every intention of winning when he decided to make the Masters his first competitive tournament since that horrific car wreck in February 2021 led him to say doctors said his right leg might need to be amputated.
Woods started the round with five straight pars — he just missed a birdie at the tough No. 5 hole when a 15-foot putt lipped out — before delivering a vintage tee shot at the par-3 sixth.
The ball climbed up a ridge on the green and stopped 2 feet short of the flag, leaving Woods with a gimme that put him in red numbers for the first time.
A wedge shot and errant chip led to a bogey at No. 8, a hole that should be a prime birdie opportunity. “A loss of concentration there,” he moaned.
But Woods bounced back with a tricky downhiller from 8 feet to save par at No. 9.
Woods insisted his hands still held the amazing touch that has helped him win 15 major titles — the first of them 25 years ago at this very place — and capture a record-tying 82 victories on the PGA Tour.
Beginning at No. 7, he missed the green on five straight holes, but kept recovering with his short irons and putter.
Wearing a pink shirt and black pants, Woods was greeted by thunderous applause when his name was announced to a huge gallery surrounding the first tee.
Woods failed to make solid contact with his first shot: a 264-yard drive that faded behind a bunker on the right side of the fairway. His approach rolled off the front of the green, but he sank a 10-foot putt to save par, bringing another huge roar from the patrons.
Woods walked slowly, knowing that he faced four tough days on an extremely hilly course if he manages to make the cut.
He couldn’t fully bend over to read putts, forcing him to rely more on caddie Joe LaCava to help him judge the treacherous greens at Augusta National.
But those felt like minor inconveniences after all he’s been through.
Woods’ career was in jeopardy after the car wreck left him confined to a hospital bed for three months. Woods was out of the public eye until last November, when he posted a video of him swinging a club with a simple message, “Making progress.”
His lone tournament in the 508 days since he last competed was a just-for-fun event in December in which he rode in a cart and was paired with his 13-year-old son, Charlie.
Despite the long layoff and the obvious physical limitations with screws and rods still holding the bones in place in his right leg, Woods clearly thinks he can win his sixth green jacket.
At 46, he would be the oldest Masters champion by three weeks over Jack Nicklaus.
The biggest question is how Woods holds up over 18 holes over four straight days, presuming he makes the cut as he always does at Augusta.
He walked 18 holes last week — his first big test — during a scouting trip with his son.
Playing an entire tournament will be much more challenging.
What now?
“Lots of ice,” he said, breaking into a big grin.
Just like old times.
___
Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963
___
More AP Masters: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:02
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Prime Minister Imran Khan’s bid to stay in power, ruling that his move to dissolve Parliament and call early elections was illegal. That set the stage for a no-confidence vote by opposition lawmakers, who say they have enough support to oust him.
The decision followed four days of hearings by the top court on the political crisis. Khan had tried to sidestep the no-confidence vote by accusing his political opponents of colluding with the United States to unseat him.
Lawmakers will probably convene Saturday for the vote, and the opposition says it has the 172 votes in the 342-seat house needed to oust Khan after several members of his own party and a key coalition partner defected.
“It’s an unfortunate decision,” Khan’s ally and Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told The Associated Press following the unanimous ruling by the five-member Supreme Court. He warned that “instability will increase and I see no end to the crisis.”
Dozens of heavily armed police backed by paramilitary Rangers surrounded Pakistan’s stately white marble Supreme Court building. Roads leading to the court were blocked and a heavily armed contingent of police also encircled the nearby Parliamentary Lodges where opposition and government lawmakers stay when Parliament is in session.
Opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League and is the likely candidate for prime minister if the no-confidence vote succeeds, welcomed the ruling as a victory for “justice and the supremacy of law.”
The political crisis began Sunday when an embattled Khan dissolved Parliament and set the stage for early elections. Chaudhry had stood in Parliament and accused the opposition of “disloyalty to the state” by working with a foreign power to bring about a “regime change.”
The deputy parliamentary speaker Qasim Suri cited Chaudhry’s allegation to toss out the no-confidence resolution, but the Supreme Court ruled that Suri had no grounds to do so.
Chaudhry did not say what Khan’s next step might be. Khan previously had called for nationwide demonstrations to protest what he called Washington’s interference in Pakistan’s affairs.
During the week, the Supreme Court heard arguments from Khan’s lawyers, the opposition and the country’s president before handing down the decision Thursday night, after iftar, the meal that breaks the daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“This is the unfortunate fact about Pakistani politics — the political issues, which should be settled in the parliament are instead brought to the Supreme Court to settle,” said analyst Zahid Hussain, who has authored several books on militancy in the region and Islamabad’s complicated relationship with Washington.
“It is just a weakness of the system,” Hussain added.
Khan said the U.S. wants him gone because of what he describes as his independent foreign policy, which often favors China and Russia. He also has been a strident critic of Washington’s war on terrorism and was criticized for a visit to Moscow on Feb. 24, hours after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department has denied any involvement in Pakistan’s internal politics.
“Khan tapped into a potent vein of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan that is unlikely to dissipate any time soon,” said Elizabeth Threlkeld, Pakistan expert at the U.S.-based The Stimson Center. “Young people make up the majority in the country and grew up during the two-decades-long war on terror, which is deeply controversial in Pakistan.”
She warned the anti-U.S. rhetoric could further complicate Pakistan’s relationship with Washington
Pakistan’s top court or its powerful military have consistently stepped in whenever turmoil engulfs a democratically elected government. The army has seized power and ruled for more than half of Pakistan’s 75-year history.
The military has remained quiet in the latest crisis, although army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa told a security summit in Islamabad last weekend that Pakistan wants good relations with China, a major investor, and also with the U.S., the country’s largest export market.
“The ongoing constitutional crisis is a major test for Pakistan’s institutions, which stems from both tensions between the prime minister and the military and economic pressures that created an opening for the opposition,” Threlkeld said.
“While a serious challenge, this is also an opportunity for Pakistan’s institutions to demonstrate their resilience should they manage to restore a legitimate constitutional process,” she said.
The latest political chaos has spilled over into the country’s largest province of Punjab, where 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people live and where Khan’s ally for chief provincial minister was denied the post on Wednesday, after his political opponents elected their own candidate.
——
Follow Kathy Gannon on Twitter at www:twitter.com/Kathygannon
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:09
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Abortion rights proponents scored a surprising victory in Nebraska by derailing a bill that would have automatically outlawed abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturns its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure throughout the country.
The vote on Wednesday frustrated abortion rights opponents, who usually win fights over the issue in the conservative Legislature. More than a dozen other conservative states have passed similar measures already, but abortion rights backers in Nebraska managed to block it using a filibuster in the single-chamber Legislature.
The bill’s supporters fell two votes short of the 33 they needed to end the filibuster and force a vote. The 31-15 vote left the proposal essentially dead for the rest of the year, even though a majority of lawmakers supported it. The vote largely fell along party lines in the ostensibly nonpartisan Legislature.
In 2010, Nebraska became the first state to ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, and the state outlawed a second-trimester abortion procedure in 2020 despite fervent protests from abortion rights supporters.
The latest bill, however, faced a tougher path because of the current makeup of the Legislature, where Republicans are one seat short of the supermajority needed to overcome filibusters. One Republican and Democrat each crossed party lines, effectively canceling the other’s vote. One Republican and two Democrats were absent.
Supporters argued that the majority of Nebraska voters oppose abortion, based on who the state consistently elects.
“We envision a Nebraska where every life is celebrated and protected,” said state Sen. Joni Albrecht, the bill’s sponsor.
Opponents assailed it as an intrusion on women’s autonomy and vowed not to budge in their opposition.
“In state by state, legislatures are taking a sledgehammer to women’s freedom,” said state Sen. Anna Wishart, of Lincoln.
The debate turned personal at times, with abortion rights supporters railing against the bill’s backers for supporting it even though it doesn’t include exceptions for rape or incest.
“Proponents of this bill have no shame left,” said state Sen. Megan Hunt, of Omaha, adding that she was offended as both a mother and a sexual assault survivor. “I will cherish the time that I have worked here forever, but when I am term limited (out of office), I will probably not talk to most of you ever again.”
The debate came ahead of an expected June ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerns a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Both sides have told the court there’s no middle ground in the case. In anticipation of the ruling, 13 states have passed so-called trigger laws to automatically ban abortions if the court sides with abortion opponents. Ohioand Oklahomaapproved their trigger laws last year.
On Thursday, Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, filed a lawsuit asking a court to recognize the right to get an abortion under the state constitution and to overturn the state’s 176-year-old ban, which might take effect again if Roe v. Wade ruling is vacated.
The Roe v. Wade ruling allows states to regulate but not ban abortions up to the point of fetal viability, which is around the 24th week of a pregnancy. Justices reaffirmed the decision in 1992.
The Nebraska vote drew promises of political retribution against some elected officials. Jim Pillen, a top Republican candidate for governor, said Thursday that he would work to unseat some lawmakers who are up for reelection and who voted to block the bill.
“Last night, the Legislature failed the people of Nebraska in voting to keep abortion legal,” Pillen said. “Abortion is murder, and as a pro-life state, the majority of Nebraskans realize we need to outlaw it.”
___
Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte
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https://www.cenlanow.com/politics/ap-politics/abortion-rights-backers-block-trigger-law-in-nebraska/
| 2022-04-08T12:19:16
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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho gubernatorial candidate and antigovernment activist Ammon Bundy on Thursday received a $3,000 fine and 10 days in jail for contempt of court.
Bundy was immediately handcuffed in Fourth District Court in Boise and taken to the Ada County Jail.
Judge Annie McDevitt ruled Bundy failed to perform 40 hours of community service following a 2020 trespassing conviction at the Idaho Statehouse.
Bundy argued his work for his own campaign as governor counted toward the 40 hours of community service.
McDevitt disagreed, telling Bundy that he “took the time and effort to blatantly disrespect the court’s order, making a mockery of the sentence you received.”
Bundy was arrested Aug. 25, 2020, after refusing to leave a Statehouse auditorium after officials ordered the room to be cleared. He was there with others protesting coronavirus pandemic legislation during a special session of the Idaho Legislature called because of the pandemic.
Bundy, who is running as an Independent candidate to be Idaho’s next governor in a crowded race, is well-known for participating in armed standoffs with law enforcement, notably at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016, which left one man dead, and on federal land near his family’s ranch in Nevada in 2014.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/politics/ap-politics/antigovernment-activist-bundy-sentenced-to-10-days-in-jail/
| 2022-04-08T12:19:23
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 was upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court.
In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court and ordered dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the mandate. The ruling, a rare win for the administration at the New Orleans-based appellate court, said that the federal judge didn’t have jurisdiction in the case and those challenging the requirement could have pursued administrative remedies under Civil Service law.
Biden issued an executive order Sept. 9 ordering vaccinations for all executive branch agency employees, with exceptions for medical and religious reasons. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown, who was appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of Texas by then-President Donald Trump, issued a nationwide injunction against the requirement in January.
When the case was argued at the 5th Circuit last month, administration lawyers had noted that district judges in a dozen jurisdictions had rejected a challenge to the vaccine requirement for federal workers before Brown ruled.
The administration argued that the Constitution gives the president, as the head of the federal workforce, the same authority as the CEO of a private corporation to require that employees be vaccinated.
Lawyers for those challenging the mandate had pointed to a recent Supreme Court opinion that the government cannot force private employers to require employee vaccinations.
Twelve of 17 active judges at the 5th Circuit were nominated to the court by Republicans, including six Trump appointees.
Judges Carl Stewart and James Dennis, both nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton, were in the majority. Judge Rhesa Barksdale, a senior judge nominated by President George H.W. Bush, dissented, saying the relief the challengers sought does not fall under the Civil Service Reform Act cited by the administration.
The case marked ideological divides at the appeals court even before Thursday’s ruling.
A different panel had refused in February to block Brown’s ruling pending the appeal. That panel’s vote was 2-1. There were no reasons given by the majority — Judge Jerry Smith, a President Ronald Reagan nominee, and Don Willett, a Trump nominee.
But there was a lengthy dissent by Judge Stephen Higginson, a nominee of President Barack Obama, who said a single district judge “lacking public health expertise and made unaccountable through life tenure,” should not be able to block the president from ordering the same type of COVID-19 safety measures many private sector CEOs have ordered.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/politics/ap-politics/appeals-court-oks-biden-federal-employee-vaccine-mandate/
| 2022-04-08T12:19:30
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INDIANAPOLIS – One of the best bangs for your buck for home renovating is fixing up your kitchen.
If you don’t want to renovate the entire kitchen, you may want to consider a nice new tile backsplash. It can really set off the cabinets, stove and sink. I contacted contractor Monte Fields to show us how to do it like a professional.
Level with me
“The first thing you need to do when starting your tile backsplash, aside from picking your materials, is to make sure you have a level starting point. I like to use a laser level. I take a full tile and put that up on each end of the wall, where the backsplash will go. If needed, use a piece of tape to hold them to the wall. The laser, pointed at the top of the tile will tell me if the countertop is truly level, but in most situations, the counter won’t be,” said contractor Monte Fields.
You can buy a variety of laser levels online or at a local store. A variety of decent laser levels can be purchased for around $100.
If you don’t want to buy a laser level like the one Monte uses, you can simply use a regular level and make a level line on the wall at the top of the tile. The counter Fields was working on sloped downward to the left, so he marked and cut off the sliver of the tiles that stuck up too high on the first row. He then flipped the cut tile upside down so the cut side is on the bottom near the counter top.
“The reason for that is because there may be a rough edge to a cut tile, even if using a wet saw. If the cut edge is sitting on the counter, it will be hidden by the thin line of silicone. And now that the first row of tiles is perfectly level, the rest will follow,” said Monte.
Placement is everything
The next step is to determine the right to left placement of the tiles. Don’t just start at one end of the wall and work your way to the other. You may end up with a very thin last tile versus something that’s more symmetrical.
“You can do a couple of things. The first step is to find the center line of the wall and mark it. From there, you can see if you should use that center line to put up your tiles in each direction with the grout line in the dead center. Or you can use the center wall mark to put one tile in the center of it and then move left and right with your tiling. Either way, lay it out first on the wall without using mortar yet,” instructed Monte.
Mix, mix, mix!
Once you’ve figured out the best layout, you can mix your mortar or thin set. Most tile manufacturers or tile sellers will recommend what kind of mix you should use for their tile. Here is the specific mortar that Monte used.
Be sure to fully read the instructions on the bag mix and start with less water than what is called for in the instructions. You can always add water, but you can’t take it away.
“I like to add just a little bit more water to get my mix ratio proper. And the mixing buckets I use have lines on the inside, so I know how much water is in there. Another thing to keep in mind is if you start mixing the mortar up, it will start to dry out on you. So if you’re just doing a small space and you know it’s going to take you a little bit of time, mix small batches. It’s always easier to go back and mix more,” advised Monte.
Applying the mortar
Before putting up tiles, many tiles come with glue grids on the back or very thin netting on the front that’s hard to see. It’s put there by the manufacturers as a buffer to prevent scratching or breaking when tiles are packaged together. Make sure you gently remove any glue or netting before you put the tile on the wall. If there is material on the back side of the tile, they won’t stick as well to your wall.
How much mortar should you use? Some people put the thin set or mortar mix right on the wall and on the tile. Monte says he only puts the mortar on the back of the tile when they are smaller.
“Putting it on the wall is not necessary, and it will cause you to do more work. If you put the mix on the wall, it will squeeze out between the tiles when you push the tile on. Then you’ll just have to clean out the mix before it dries. Save the hassle by simply applying it to the tile itself. I also use the appropriate sized notched trowel to spread the right amount of mix onto the tile,” said Fields.
The trowels for smaller tiles generally have a ¼ inch notch. Your tile manufacturer should specify which size of trowel to use. After you apply the mortar to the tile, press the tiles onto the wall where you’ve marked to start. From there, you’ll need to space your tiles to keep them consistent on the walls. The smaller spacers that most home owners use work ok, but they are not what many professionals use.
“As you’re setting those tiles with the smaller spacers that fit into the 4 corners of the tiles, the mortar can start to deflect and start to move that tile a little bit. Instead I use these thicker and bigger horseshoe shaped spacers. It’s just a lot cleaner. Just placing them in the center of the tile will give you two good contact points, depending on the length of the tile. As you’re stacking the tile, it’s really crucial. If you’re level on the bottom, then traditionally you’re going to be level vertically as well,” said Fields.
To make cuts, use wet saws, dry saws, or hand tools. Follow the instructions and wear safety glasses. Generally an inexpensive wet saw is what you’ll need. I found a highly rated wet saw for about $85.
Not all spacers are created equal
And don’t forget the outlets and switches when tiling. If you just had a painted wall to begin with, the outlets will now be recessed because of the thickness of the tiles. In most cases, you’re not even going to get contact with your outlet screw holes when you put a cover plate on because it’s so far off.
“So it is crucial to get outlet spacers. Many hardware stores sell them. They are little pieces of plastic that are very inexpensive. You can stack them, rip them off, one two three, whatever works for you to bring the outlet almost flush with your new tile,” said Monte.
If you use spacers, you will have to use different length screws than those that came with the outlet because they will likely be too short. Most outlets will use the same 6/32” screws, regardless of length, so getting a variety pack of lengths is a good idea depending on the thickness of your tiles.
Don’t count out the grout
Finally, let’s talk about grouting. Get the right kind and color for your tile and follow the instructions. Generally you wipe on and push in the grout with a tile float at an angle.
“Using a grout float at a 45 degree angle gets the grout between the tiles, but the grout doesn’t get dragged back out. About 15 minutes later, wipe the tiles off with a clean damp sponge and possibly a second time a bit later. That way, no grout haze is left on the tile,” said Monte.
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https://fox59.com/morning-news/home-zone/home-zone-install-tile-backsplash-like-a-pro/
| 2022-04-08T12:19:36
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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.
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:37
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GREENWOOD, Ind. – Jurors found a Greenwood man guilty of molesting an 8-year-old child.
Richard Huffman, 53, faced a single count of child molesting as a Level 4 felony. The jury deliberated for about four hours before returning a guilty verdict Wednesday afternoon.
Huffman initially faced a Level 1 felony. However, prosecutors realized there had been a miscommunication regarding the nature of the allegation. They changed it to a Level 4, which includes touching and fondling, according to the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office.
The charge stemmed from an incident reported in September 2019. Deputies with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said an 8-year-old reported inappropriate touching between April and June 2019, according to court documents.
The child said Huffman was lying in bed when he touched the victim inappropriately three times and only stopped when the child pushed his hand away.
Huffman then apologized and told the victim “not to tell anyone” what had happened.
The child’s mother learned about the abuse while discussing body safety in September 2019. The child informed her of inappropriate touching by Huffman, according to court documents.
Police tried to interview Huffman after the allegations came to light, but he asked for an interpreter because he is hearing impaired. With no interpreter immediately available, police later contacted Huffman, whose lawyer said Huffman wouldn’t agree to an interview.
The trial included two days of testimony, with both the child and Huffman appearing in court. Prosecutors presented testimony from several witnesses who are hearing impaired, necessitating the use of sign language interpreters.
“In this case the parties and the court all had the additional hurdle of presenting the trial with multiple witnesses who were hearing impaired,” said Johnson County Prosecutor Joe Villanueva. “That necessitated the involvement of multiple sign language interpreters being used simultaneously, as well as extensive video equipment to memorialize the physical signing of the interpreters for any potential appellate purposes. To my knowledge, nothing of this magnitude has ever been done before here in Johnson County.”
Sentencing is set for May 4. Huffman faces up to 12 years in prison.
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:42
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WASHINGTON (AP) — In targeting Vladimir Putin’s adult daughters with sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration ripped aside the privacy Putin has long maintained over his closest ties — avoiding mention of the two women’s full names in public, and most other references to them as well.
The sanctions imposed on immediate family members of Putin and other Russian oligarchs also showcase improved techniques of the U.S. and its allies targeting individuals for financial penalties.
In Russia in particular and in autocracies around the world, sanctioning family members is often essential to making sure financial penalties have the desired punch. Powerful and wealthy leaders often employ the tactic common to many tycoons of putting assets under the names of spouses, children and others.
“We generally want to hold accountable those who have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian state and elevated their family members into some of the highest positions of power in the country,” said Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for the Treasury Department.
“But also, we know that oligarchs and other sanctioned elites often try to move money or hide assets via family members or other associates,” she said.
The U.S. announced Wednesday that it would target the assets of Putin daughters Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova and Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova.
Bill Browder, an influential longtime campaigner for sanctions over Russia’s human rights abuses, said the move was “sort of an obvious thing, particularly in … the Russian kleptocratic system.”
“You can’t just sanction the principal, you have to sanction the family because the family owns a lot of the assets of the principal,” Browder said. “We’ve seen this in so many different cases now.”
In the case of Putin, expanding what are already thousands of Western sanctions over Russia’s war to include Putin’s family may sting him personally, but not prove much of a threat to his wealth.
Putin — no stranger to fears of concerted Western moves against him — is believed to have taken care to have stashed much of his estimated $200 billion or more with the Russian oligarchs he helped enrich, says Browder, whose decades-long campaign has reshaped the U.S. global sanctions regime overall.
Sanctions against oligarchs’ family members started to ramp up in early March, when the U.S. specifically targeted wives and daughter of oligarchs. Oil executive Nikolay Tokarev’s family members — including his wife, Galina Tokareva, and daughter, Maiya Tokareva — were said to have benefited from his proximity to Putin and the Russian government and were also hit by the sanctions. Maiya Tokareva’s real estate empire in Moscow has been valued at more than $50 million, according to Treasury.
One reason family members are increasingly being targeted is that recently passed anti-money-laundering legislation helps federal officials unveil the true owners of property.
The targeting of family members goes both ways.
Russia recently imposed a travel ban on President Joe Biden’s son, although that was seen as more of a symbolic insult, at most.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki was dismissive in comments to reporters after Russia imposed its travel ban in mid-March against administration officials, as well as Hunter Biden and Hillary Clinton. “It won’t surprise any of you that none of us are planning tourist trips to Russia,” she said.
The Biden administration and administrations before it have included children and spouses of other countries’ leaders in sanctions. That includes Biden administration sanctions against family members of military officers in the 2021 coup in Myanmar, and Trump administration sanctions against the son of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Kim Richard Nossal, a political science professor at Queen’s University in Ontario, said financial penalties against children of the wealthy and powerful were in a special category of ethical considerations.
“Generally speaking, if my father commits a crime, it’s always wrong to punish me,” Nossal said. “But if my father commits a crime and I benefit from it, most people would say it’s entirely appropriate for the community to limit the benefits I get from someone else’s wrongdoing.”
“I think most people would say the onus is on the family member to demonstrate they have not benefited from the proceeds of the person being targeted,” he said.
The U.S. sanctioned Putin himself soon after he launched the invasion. Wednesday’s new measures also target the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s main defender to the world, who had already been named in the U.S. sanctions over the invasion.
Lavrov’s 26-year daughter is reported by British press to have lived a lavish life in London, including buying a multimillion-dollar apartment in cash.
Putin stressed the value of discretion in one of his few public mention of his own daughters.
“I never discuss my family with anyone.” Putin told reporters at a 2015 news conference, according to the BBC.
“Every person has a right for their fate, they live their own life and do it with dignity,” he added.
Putin married Lyudmila Shkrebneva in the 1980s when he was a KGB agent and she was an Aeroflot flight attendant. They divorced three decades later.
Oldest daughter Maria is a medical researcher focusing on the endocrine system of children. She’s also reportedly a businesswoman and developer.
Younger daughter Katerina was a competitive dancer turned tech developer, appearing publicly at performances and in occasional tech conferences.
Left unsanctioned by the U.S. so far is the woman named in news reports as Putin’s longtime romantic partner. Photos from public appearances document years of Putin beaming at Alina Kabaeva, an Olympic gymnast in her youth, as he hands her bouquets or state honors.
Kabaeva in later years became a lawmaker in the Duma and later a board member of a Russian national media company, whose news outlets have promoted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As British tabloids noted, Kabaeva’s photo and name disappeared from the website of the National Media Group this week, as sanctions on Putin’s intimates neared.
Imprisoned Russian rights campaigner Alexey Navalny urged sanctions against Kabaeva in a tweet from his cell this week, saying one of the news outlets under her authority was taking the lead in portraying Western accusations over the Russian invasion as an orchestrated campaign of disinformation.
Asked about any planned sanctions on Kabaeva, a senior administration official said it was still an option and that more sanctions on Russian elites close to Putin and their family members were possible. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal considerations.
Putin is thought to have been careful to hide away his wealth with Russia’s oligarchs, businesspeople obligated to the Russian leader for enabling and allowing their prosperity, often with the help of Russia’s government and resources, noted Browder.
That makes piling on more sanctions against oligarchs essential. But hitting Putin’s closest personal figures with sanctions will sting, too.
“He was living in this world where everybody was tiptoeing around him,” Browder said. “And now the West is sort of fully ignoring his sensitivities and going for the jugular. And I think that that’s a good thing.”
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:44
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MUNCIE, Ind. – Jurors found a Muncie man guilty of stabbing his neighbor to death with an 11-inch knife.
Chase Adams had been accused of killing 49-year-old Rex Morrison in October 2020 and charged with murder, obstruction of justice and criminal mischief.
Police were dispatched to the 2300 block of South Hackley Street just after midnight on Oct. 4, 2020. Morris was “bleeding profusely” from the back of his head and upper back. He’d suffered three stab wounds—one to the back of his head and two to his back—investigators said.
Prosecutors said the two had been feuding, with Adams slashing tires on Morrison’s property with the same knife he later used to stab his neighbor in the back.
Adams told investigators Morrison and another man had used a baseball bat to smash the windows of a Dodge Durango in retaliation. That led Adams to return to Morrison’s property to slash more tires, resulting in a confrontation.
Adams said Morrison was armed with a baseball bat and claimed he’d stabbed his neighbor in self-defense.
Adams later washed the blood off the knife, police said. He told other people at his home that they needed to leave; they drove to New Castle, where Adams’ mother lived.
A friend of Adams told investigators she’d seen Adams punch Morrison. When he returned to his home, Adams told her he’d “stabbed Morrison and may have killed him,” court documents said. The woman said Adams then hid the knife and went to a bar with friends because they “needed a beer.”
Police found the knife in a chimney flue. Adams claimed he didn’t remember where he put it, according to court documents.
“At no time did Adams or any member of his household contact the police to report the fight,” investigators noted in the probable cause affidavit.
Jurors deliberated for about seven hours before returning guilty verdicts against Adams.
Sentencing is set for May 25. Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said Adams faces up to 65 years in prison on the murder charge.
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:48
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments before the Senate beganJudge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation vote to become the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, the chamber filled with the swell of history.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus walked through the doors of the Senate to witness the moment.Black female lawmakers sat shoulder to shoulder along the back walls.
The visitor galleries above, largely closed these past two years, first from the COVID pandemic and then insurrection at the Capitol, filled with young people, including many young Black men and women, some congressional staffers, to watch.
Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who protected the chamber against an extremist mob on Jan. 6, 2021, ushered people into the gallery, guarding the members and their visitors once again.
“I’m here today to witness history,” freshman Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., said in the halls. “It’s touching, it’s moving and I’m so proud.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who presided over the session, called for the vote.
“The clerk will call the roll,” she said, beaming.
Senators remained seated, as is the tradition for momentous votes, and the roll was called one name at a time.
Despite the political divisions over President Joe Biden’s historic Supreme Court pick, the first Black woman in the court’s 233-year history, the last day of the process carried more celebration than tension, coming to a final vote not with a bitter public fight but a flourish.
The 53-47 tally was no cliffhanger. Democrats had the votes to confirm Jackson on their own with their slim majority, boosted by three Republican senators— Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney — who crossed party lines.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff watched from the gallery as Harris, his wife, presided over the session, though her tie-breaking vote would not be needed.
A short delay emerged when Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was late, making him the last to vote and slightly prolonging the inevitable outcome.
“What a great day it is for the United States of America,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, the first Black senator from Georgia, in a speech before voting began.
Jackson’s journey to this moment “is a reflection of our own journey” toward the nation’s ideals, the senator said.
Harris, Warnock and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey all huddled near the dais.
She then reached into a folder she had on her desk and pulled out two pieces of vice-presidential stationery paper.
Harris handed one each to Warnock and Booker. The assignment for the only two Black Democrats in the Senate, she told them, was to write a letter to a young Black woman in their life to mark this day in history.
“I thought it was a beautiful gesture,” Booker told The Associated Press after the vote.
The former presidential candidate said there were a few people in his life that immediately came to mind, but he wanted more time to think it over.
Shortly after, Paul popped his head out from the side cloakroom to cast his no vote.
“On this vote, the yeas are 53, the nays are 47,” Harris said. The nomination was confirmed.
Cheers broke out in the gallery. Louder than any at the Capitol in recent memory.
Democratic senators stood in ovation.
Murkowski joined their side of the aisle.
Many Republican senators had already left as the Senate is about to start a two-week spring recess.
The remaining Republicans filed out of the chamber.
Romney, alone on his side, stood clapping.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who led the nomination to confirmation, gave a nod to the rare show of bipartisanship, harkening back to an earlier era.
During the debate, he noted that Romney’s father, a former Republican governor, had marched for civil rights in Michigan.
“To my colleague, Sen. Mitt Romney — you are your father’s son,” he said.
After the vote, the vice president, herself a history-making leader, took stock of the moment, at a time of brutal war overseas.
“There is so much about what’s happening in the world now that is presenting the worst of … human behavior,” Harris said. “And then we have a moment like this that I think reminds us that there is so much left to accomplish.”
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:51
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SANTA ANA, Ca. (KTLA) — Police in Santa Ana, California, are investigating after video was released of one of an officer blaring copyrighted music in an attempt to thwart a YouTuber who was recording him.
Residents of a Santa Ana neighborhood were awoken to the sounds of police cars, a helicopter and something else they didn’t expect: Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
It happened around 11 p.m. Monday in a residential neighborhood on the 1600 block of West Civic Center Drive. Neighbors who came out to find the source of the commotion, were shocked to see the loud Disney music wasn’t coming from an annoying neighbor, but from a police car.
Alma Guzman was visiting her mom when she heard the unexpected noise.
“The police came, I guess there was a stolen vehicle,” she told KTLA. “Then the Disney music started playing. I didn’t know why.”
The video was apparently recorded by a YouTuber conducting what are called police audits. Auditing is an online practice of recording interactions with law enforcement officers. The practice is legal, but can sometimes be antagonistic toward police, and are generally unpopular among officers.
A man who identified himself as a city council member was seen on the recording scolding an officer. Neighbors said the man was Santa Ana Council member Jonathan Hernandez.
“Why are you playing this? Disrespectful,” Hernandez is heard saying in the video. As he admonishes the officer, Hernandez implores him to “have some respect for my community.”
Donna Sanchez, another resident in the neighborhood, said she was appreciative that the council member spoke up.
“I love Johnathan Hernandez sticking up for us,” Sanchez said. “I think it’s very disrespectful. We have to wake up pretty early.”
Sanchez said the person recording the video wasn’t doing any harm.
The officer told Hernandez and other onlookers that the music was played so that the YouTuber’s video would receive a copyright strike and the audio would be either muted or the video taken down entirely.
The Santa Ana Police Department is investigating that claim and will determine if the officers will face any discipline.
The Santa Ana Police Department released a statement that read in part:
“The Santa Ana police department is aware of a video that has surfaced involving one of our officers. We are committed to serving our community and we understand the concerns as it relates to the video. The Santa Ana police department takes seriously all complaints regarding the service provided by the department and the conduct of its employees. Our department is committed to conducting complete, thorough, and objective investigations. My expectations is that all police department employees perform their duties with dignity and respect in the community we are hired to serve.”
Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin
Guzman said the action of the officers was unacceptable. She said she believes people have the right to record the police.
“We should be able to record them without a problem,” Guzman said. She added she didn’t think using copyrighted music was an appropriate response by police.
KTLA reached out to the account where the video was posted but has not yet received a response.
Council member Hernandez also did not respond to a request for an interview.
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:54
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Virginia police officer who pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol with another off-duty officer testified on Thursday that he had hoped the mob could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that day.
Former Rocky Mount police officer Jacob Fracker, a key witness for federal prosecutors at the trial of former colleague Thomas Robertson, said he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building.
However, Fracker ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony charge that he conspired with Robertson to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Fracker agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in their case against Robertson, whose jury trial started Tuesday.
Under cross-examination by one of Robertson’s lawyers, Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Fracker said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
Fracker said he and Robertson both believed the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from former President Donald Trump. One of Robertson’s attorneys, Mark Rollins, asked Fracker if he believes he did anything worse than trespassing on Jan. 6.
“Sitting here today, yes. At the time, no,” Fracker replied.
Robertson confirmed with U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper that he won’t be testifying at his trial.
Prosecutors rested their case on Thursday afternoon. Jurors are expected to hear attorneys’ closing arguments on Friday before they begin deliberating.
During the trial’s opening statements, defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson.
Wagner said Robertson, whom she called “T.J.,” knew that he had entered restricted areas of the Capitol where he wasn’t supposed to be on Jan. 6. But he isn’t accused of engaging in any violence or property destruction, she noted.
Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month. He described Robertson as his mentor and a father figure.
“I absolutely hate this,” Fracker testified on Wednesday. “I’ve always been on the other side of things, the good guys’ side so to speak.”
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Prosecutors say Robertson paid Fracker more than $30,000 after they were arrested. Robertson first offered to give Fracker money on the day that they surrendered to authorities, according to a court filing accompanying Fracker’s guilty plea.
Fracker said Robertson also agreed to cover his legal fees, but he doesn’t believe Robertson was trying to “buy” his testimony with the $30,000 payment.
“He said it would cover a year’s salary for me,” Fracker said.
After the riot, Fracker bragged to friends on social media that he had urinated in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bathroom. That was a lie that he made “for cool points,” Fracker said.
Robertson used a large wooden stick to impede police officers who were trying to hold off the mob, according to prosecutors. Police body camera video captured his interaction with police.
When a prosecutor asked Fracker why he didn’t do more to help police officers who were trying to hold back the mob, he said he thought they should have been “on our side” and marching with the rioters.
“And you didn’t see T.J. help them, either?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower asked.
“Correct,” Fracker said.
Robertson is charged with six counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building while using a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. Five of the counts relate to his actions on Jan. 6. The sixth stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 240 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
Robertson is the second Capitol riot defendant to have a jury trial. The first ended last month with a jury convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all charges.
Two other Capitol riot defendants elected to have their cases tried without a jury and decided by the same federal judge. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden acquitted a New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four misdemeanor counts with which he was charged. Last month, McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct.
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| 2022-04-08T12:19:58
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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.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:00
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers approved sweeping legislation Thursday to outlaw gender-affirming medications for transgender kids and advanced a separate measure prohibiting early classroom instruction on sexual and gender identity, a bill critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 66-28 for legislation to make it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a doctor to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones or perform surgery to aid in the gender transition of people under age 19. The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey for her signature as Alabama becomes the latest red state to promote legislation and policies aimed at trans youth. Ivey has not indicated whether she will sign it.
The topic of transgender and LGBTQ identity has become one of the GOP’s “wedge” issues aimed at securing votes because they are popular with the party’s base.
Rep. Neil Rafferty, the only openly gay member of the Alabama Legislature, appeared to struggle to hold back his anger and maintain composure as lawmakers headed to the vote.
“This is wrong,” Rafferty said. “Y’all sit there and campaign on family being the foundation of our nation … but what this bill is doing is totally undermining that. It’s totally undermining family rights, health rights and access to health care.”
Republican Rep. Wes Allen of Troy, sponsor of the House version of the bill, argued during debate Thursday morning that transgender youth are not old enough to make decisions about gender-affirming medication.
“Their brains are not developed to make the decisions long term about what these medications and surgeries do to their body,” Allen said.
Rep. Chris England, who serves as chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, said the measure targets already vulnerable children and essentially tells them they are not welcome in Alabama.
“You’re saying this is about children. It’s not. What it is about is scoring political points and using those children as collateral damage,” England said.
The bill would also require school counselors, nurses and others to tell parents if a child discloses they believe they are transgender.
A spokeswoman for Ivey did not immediately reply to a text message asking if the governor will sign the measure.
“I want the governor to know that she doesn’t have to sign this, she can veto it,” Jeff Walker, whose 15-year-old daughter, Harleigh, is transgender, said Thursday afternoon. “All you are doing is hurting Alabama families with these bills.”
Arkansas approved a similar law in 2021, but it was put on hold by the courts. Advocacy groups in Alabama have vowed to quickly challenge the measure if Ivey signs it into law.
In a written statement, Chase Strangio, deputy director for Trans Justice with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, called the Alabama measure “the most deadly, sweeping, and hostile law targeting transgender people in the country.”
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice has warned states such laws and policies may violate the Constitution and federal law.
“Today’s vote in Alabama will only serve to harm kids,” she said.
The Alabama Senate advanced separate legislation Thursday related to public school bathrooms and discussions of gender and sexual identity in early grades.
Senators voted 26-5 to approve legislation mandating that K-12 students can only use multiperson bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with the gender on their original birth certificate, rather than their current gender identity.
Republicans in the Senate also added language similar to a law in Florida that critics called the “Don’t Say Gay”measure.
The Alabama language would “prohibit classroom instruction or discussion on sexual orientation or gender identity” for students in kindergarten through the fifth grade.
The Alabama proposal goes further than Florida’s law, which includes grades K-3.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:05
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SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Katia Lolia said she couldn’t believe how simple it was for her Ukrainian mother and sister to obtain humanitarian visas and enter the U.S. through Ped West, one of the pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Lolia lives in Salt Lake City but met her family members in Mexico City a few days ago.
Together they flew to Tijuana.
Her mother and sister spent a day in a shelter before being bused to the border and allowed to cross into the U.S.
“We’re very thankful it’s a very easy process for Ukrainians,” said Lolia, adding that the process was made easy by a network of volunteers from the moment they arrived at Tijuana’s airport.
“The Ukrainian volunteers with Ukrainian flags, they meet you at the airport and they register you they give every person a number,” she said.
Many of the volunteers are from north of the border and are providing transportation services for the migrants, the majority of whom fled Ukraine after Russia launched an attack on their county. They also find them a place to stay or take them to a shelter recently opened by the city of Tijuana.
“They are so nice, they even have music concerts for the migrants at the shelter,” said Lolia, whose mother and sister were taken by bus to the border where they crossed Thursday morning and got their visas.
Lolia met them on the north side of the border crossing as they came out.
“They’re allowed to stay in the United States for one year and who knows what it’s going to be in a year, if there’s still a war, they are allowed to extend, if the war is over they have to come back,” she said.
Pastor Phil Metzger, one of the volunteers, said they have lost track of how many Ukrainians have been helped, he believes it’s well over 2,000.
“We try to grab them right away at the airport to make sure people don’t get lost or get picked up by the wrong people that have other motives,” said Metzger. “We give them a number, we get them into digital system to track them all the way until they get across the border right here.”
Metzger says every migrant has one thing in common as they make it across the border.
“They’re tired, kind of scared but they’re feeling really welcomed, they come to be free and to be able to get out is a big deal.”
Metzger told Border Report that aside from the city of Tijuana making the shelter available, volunteers are providing almost all the resources to help the migrants.
But he is worried as more and more migrants arrive in Tijuana, their efforts might fall short.
“It’s been working, but the numbers now are too much, it’s overwhelming the system, it’s overwhelming all of us, they’ve got a lot of people over there right now.”
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:06
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CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian leaders predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in reclaimed cities and towns as Russian soldiers retreat to focus on eastern Ukraine, where officials said a Russian rocket attack on a packed train station used to evacuate civilians killed over 30 people Friday.
Hours after warning that Ukraine’s forces already had found worse scenes of brutality in a settlement north of Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that “thousands” of people were at the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, when it was hit by a missile.
Zelenskyy accompanied a social media post with photos that showed a train car with smashed windows, abandoned luggage and bodies lying in what looked like an outdoor waiting area. Authorities said the strike wounded more than 100 people.
“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. “This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop.”
After failing to take Ukraine’s capital, 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.
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. Kramatorsk is located in government-controlled territory.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy predicted more gruesome discoveries would be made in northern cities and towns the Russians withdrew from the concentrate on eastern Ukraine. He said evidence of civilians killed at close range and dumped on streets in Bucha already had surfaced in a worse way 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.
In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said Bucha’s horrors may be only the beginning. In the northern city of Borodianka, just 30 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of Bucha, he warned of even more casualties, saying “there it is much more horrible.”
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.
A Kremlin spokesman said Thursday that Russia has suffered major troop casualities 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 Sky News.
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.”
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.”
Hundreds of people have fled villages in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions that are either under attack or occupied by Russian forces.
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.
The United Nations estimates the war has displaced at least 6.5 million people within the country.
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.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:12
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional oversight committee on Thursday said the Justice Department is “obstructing” its investigation into former President Donald Trump’s handling of White House records by preventing the release of information from the National Archives.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland accusing the Justice Department of impeding the panel’s expanded investigation into the 15 boxes of White House records that Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida after leaving office last year. The Archives in February revealed it had found classified material in the boxes and referred the matter to the Justice Department.
The letter from Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., the chairwoman of the Oversight Committee, outlines communications between the committee and the National Archives that took place between February to late March.
In those letters, Maloney made a series of requests for information she said the committee needs to determine if Trump violated federal records laws over his handling of sensitive and even classified information. In response, the general counsel for the archivist wrote on March 28 that “based on our consultation with the Department of Justice, we are unable to provide any comment.”
“By blocking NARA from producing the documents requested by the Committee, the Department is obstructing the Committee’s investigation,” Maloney wrote in the letter released Thursday.
Maloney added that while the committee is not looking to interfere with the department’s ongoing investigation, lawmakers have not received any explanation as to why the department is preventing the archivist from providing information about the contents of the boxes.
The House’s oversight panel has repeatedly cited its authority to investigate matters involving the Presidential Records Act, which was enacted in 1978 after former President Richard Nixon wanted to destroy documents related to the Watergate scandal.
Maloney had warned in December 2020 that she had “grave concerns” that the Trump administration was not complying with the federal records act, even writing in a letter to the archivist citing those concerns that the departing administration “may not be adequately preserving records and may be disposing of them.”
While federal law bars the removal of classified documents to unauthorized locations, it is possible that in this case, Trump could try to argue that, as president, he was the ultimate declassification authority.
The former president has denied reports of tensions with the National Archives and his lawyers have said that “they are continuing to search for additional presidential records that belong to the National Archives.”
The attorney general has acknowledged that the department received the referral from the Archives, but it is longstanding Justice Department policy not to comment on investigations.
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill may face a long wait for answers to their questions about specific investigations.
Generally, under Justice Department guidelines, details of investigations are supposed to remain out of the public view until charges are filed or warrants are filed. And, if grand juries are convened, the Justice Department is precluded under federal law from discussing specifics of a grand jury investigation before an indictment is handed down.
Garland has also made clear to prosecutors that the Justice Department won’t be influenced by outside political pressure.
The Oversight Committee asked Garland to respond by next week with either a green light for the National Archives to cooperate with their request or provide an explanation as to why the department is imposing such limitations.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:12
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WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a moment 46 days — and more than 46 years — in the making.
President Joe Biden on Friday will celebrate the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court, marking the pinnacle of her legal career and bringing his political story full circle.
As a longtime Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Biden had a front-row seat to some of the most contentious confirmation battles in the Court’s history, as well as the hearings for Justice Stephen Breyer, whose retirement this summer is clearing the way for Jackson to join the bench.
“This is a tremendously historic day in the White House and in the country, and this is a fulfillment of a promise the president made to the country,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. She added that Biden’s time on the Judiciary Committee “was defining for him and gave him historically exceptional preparation” for putting a justice on the court.
In nominating Jackson, Biden delivered on a campaign promise to select the first Black woman to serve on a court that was made up entirely of white men for almost two centuries, declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed American segregation.
He also chose an attorney who will be the high court’s first former public defender and who possesses the elite legal background of other justices as well, with degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School and top clerkships, including for Breyer himself.
Jackson’s arrival on the bench won’t upend the current 6-3 ideological balance in favor of conservatives, but Biden sees the pick as historic nonetheless. He nominated her on the second anniversary of his pledge ahead of the South Carolina presidential primary to select a Black woman for the court. The move helped resurrect his flailing campaign and preserved his pathway to the White House.
“We’ve taken another step toward making our highest court reflect the diversity of America,” Biden said in a tweet Thursday after posing for a selfie with the justice-in-waiting. “She will be an incredible Justice, and I was honored to share this moment with her.”
Jackson had joined Biden at the White House to watch the Senate vote unfold on TV, the two of them clasping hands in the Roosevelt Room as her confirmation became reality.
“History doesn’t happen by accident — it’s made,” said White House chief of staff Ron Klain. He took note on MSNBC of the vote on Brown’s nomination being presided over in the Senate by Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black vice president, also selected by Biden.
Throughout his 50 years in Washington, Biden has played an instrumental part in shaping the court, both inside and out of the Senate. But this was his first opportunity to make a selection of his own.
Biden may not get another chance. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, in an interview Thursday with Axios, refused to commit to hold confirmation hearings for a future Biden nominee to the high court if the GOP retakes control of the Senate in 2023.
Biden took part in confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominees Sandra Day O’Connor in 1981 and Antonin Scalia in 1986, both nominated by President Ronald Reagan. He also participated in the 1986 hearing to elevate Justice William Rehnquist to the position of chief justice of the United States.
As committee chairman, he presided over the hearings for doomed nominee Robert Bork, then the successful confirmations of Anthony M. Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Breyer.
He was on the committee in 2005 but no longer chairman when now-Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed to the court, and in 2006 when Samuel Alito became a justice.
As vice president, Biden helped counsel President Barack Obama on his three Supreme Court picks: Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who were confirmed, and now-Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose nomination was blocked by the GOP ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Jackson won’t take office immediately. Breyer is set to step down after the court concludes its current term, which is usually in late June or early July. Only then will Jackson take the oath to become an associate justice. A White House official said Jackson will remain in her role on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit but will continue to recuse herself from cases.
Friday’s celebratory event on the South Lawn of the White House comes amid a COVID-19 outbreak among Washington’s political class that has sidelined members of Biden’s administration and lawmakers, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who tested positive for the virus just hours after voting for Brown’s confirmation.
Psaki on Thursday addressed concerns that the White House event could be a “super-spreader” for the virus, like President Donald Trump’s Rose Garden ceremony announcing the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Psaki emphasized that the risks from the virus are now much lower because of vaccinations and treatments.
“At that point in time, vaccines were unavailable, people were not vaccinated, it certainly puts us in a different space,” Psaki said.
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AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:19
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson will join a Supreme Court that is both more diverse than ever and more conservative than it’s been since the 1930s.
She’s likely to be on the losing end of a bunch of important cases, including examinations of the role of race in college admissions and voting rights that the high court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, will take up next term.
Jackson, 51, is the first Black woman confirmed to the Supreme Court following Thursday’s 53-47 vote by the Senate. She won’t join the court for several months, untilJustice Stephen Breyer retires once the court wraps up its work for the summer — including its verdict on whether to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights.
When Jackson takes the bench as a justice for the first time, in October, she will be one of four women and two Black justices — both high court firsts.
And the nine-member court as a whole will be younger than it’s been for nearly 30 years, when Breyer, now 83, came on board.
Among the younger justices are three appointees of former President Donald Trump, and the court’s historic diversity won’t obscure its conservative tilt.
In Breyer’s final term, the conservative justices already have left their mark even before deciding major cases on abortion, guns, religion and climate change. By 5-4 or 6-3 votes, they allowed an unusual Texas law to remain in effect that bans abortions after roughly six weeks; stopped the Biden administration from requiring large employers to have a workforce that is vaccinated against COVID-19 or be masked and tested; and left in place redrawn Alabama congressional districts that a lower court with two Trump appointees found shortchanged Black voters in violation of federal law.
Jackson’s replacement of Breyer, for whom she once worked as a law clerk, won’t alter that Supreme Court math.
“She’s just going to be swimming against the tide every day. That’s a lot to take on,” said Robin Walker Sterling, a Northwestern University law professor.
But Jackson’s presence could make a difference in the perspective she brings and how she expresses herself in her opinions, said Payvand Ahdout, a University of Virginia law professor.
Jackson, who was raised in Miami, may see the high court’s cases about race “from the lens of being a Black woman who grew up in the South. She has an opportunity early on to show how representation matters,” Ahdout said.
During her Senate confirmation hearings, Jackson pledged to sit out the court’s consideration of Harvard’s admissions program, since she is a member of its board of overseers. But the court could split off a second case involving a challenge to the University of North Carolina’s admissions process, which might allow her to weigh in on the issue.
“Historically, the court goes to some length to try to get as much participation as possible. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see the two dealt with separately,” said Ahdout, who was a clerk to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg the last time the court dealt with race in college admissions, in 2016. Just seven justices took part in that case, because Justice Antonin Scalia died before it was decided and Justice Elena Kagan had been involved as a Justice Department official before joining the court.
For now, Jackson might not have much to do. She remains a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington, but she stepped away from cases there when President Joe Biden nominated her to the Supreme Court in February and will continue to do so, a White House official said.
That could reduce the number of times Jackson has to recuse herself from any of her old cases that later make their way to the Supreme Court.
Breyer said in January that he would retire once his successor had been confirmed, but not before the end of the term. With a bare Senate majority, Democrats didn’t want to risk waiting until the summer for confirmation hearings and a vote.
That leaves Jackson in a situation that is “unprecedented in modern times,” said Marin Levy, a Duke University law professor who studies the federal judiciary.
Most new justices begin work a few days after they are confirmed, Levy said. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in to the court just a few hours after his tumultuous Senate vote.
Jackson could spend time arranging for her clerks and other staff for the Supreme Court, and closing down her current office.
But she won’t have to find new housing or upend the lives of her husband and children. Her new workplace is less than a mile from the court of appeals.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:26
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WASHINGTON (AP) — “On this vote, the yeas are 53, the nays are 47, and this nomination is confirmed,” Vice President Kamala Harris said from her chair presiding over the Senate. Then, she smiled.
And with that, the nation’s first female and first Black vice president announced the confirmation of the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. Ketanji Brown Jackson will join the high court following Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement this summer.
Cheers broke out in the Senate chamber. At the White House, Jackson and President Joe Biden embraced.
Reaction to Jackson’s confirmation was jubilant from many corners, and the word “historic” was repeated again and again. Others, including Republican lawmakers who voted overwhelmingly against her, kept up their criticism of her record, calling her an activist judge.
At Howard University’s law school, students watching the vote live on television listened raptly from a conference room of Houston Hall, the main academic building. The students at the historically Black school broke into applause when the vote was announced by Harris, who attended Howard as an undergraduate and is also the first person of South Asian descent to be vice president.
“We have a dark-skinned, Black woman on the Supreme Court with locks and she’s going to be looking for clerks,” said first year student Jasmine Marchbanks-Owens, 27, referring to the young lawyers who spend a year helping Supreme Court justices with their work.
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama were among those celebrating. “Like so many of you, I can’t help but feel a sense of pride — a sense of joy — to know that this deserving, accomplished Black woman will be a part of the highest court in the land,” the former first lady wrote on Twitter.
“This is a great day for America, and a proud moment in our history,” her husband wrote.
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Senate’s no. 2 Democrat, said in a statement it was “History indeed. And long overdue.” New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of only three Black senators and an exuberant supporter of Jackson’s during her confirmation hearing, said in a video message on Twitter: “Today is a mountain of joy. Today is a day for celebration. Today I rejoice. I cry tears of joy.”
District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, the city’s second Black woman to be mayor, called it “a day filled with great hope for the future of our country.”
Lawmakers weren’t the only ones cheering. Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted his congratulations, writing that Jackson’s nomination was “a long time coming.”
“I know there are millions of young girls, like my daughter, who are looking at this moment,” he wrote.
Martín Sabelli, the president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said Jackson also brings a diversity of experience to the court. She will be the first justice since Thurgood Marshall, the legendary civil rights lawyer who was the first Black person on the court, with significant criminal defense work on her resume. Sabelli is hoping to see even more perspective from “in the trenches” state defense attorneys reflected in the judiciary.
At Harvard, Jackson’s alma mater, law students watched the final vote take place. Historically Black schools also celebrated.
“As a proud ‘girl dad,’ I couldn’t be more thrilled to have the opportunity to explain to my two young daughters what this historic moment means to the African American community. Yet another glass ceiling has been permanently shattered on a national level. Representation does matter,” Jackson State University President Thomas K. Hudson wrote to students, faculty and staff at the historically Black school in Mississippi.
Only three Republicans in the evenly divided Senate voted to confirm Jackson: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah.
In a statement after the vote, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Jackson “a radical, activist judge” who is in “lockstep with the far left’s political agenda.” She vowed that Republicans would “hold Democrats accountable this November for supporting Biden’s radical pick.”
At Howard University, the celebration didn’t last long. There was studying to do. Still, Benjamin Baker, 27, of Sylacauga, Alabama, called Jackson’s confirmation “monumental” and said it was for all the Black women who had come before her. “This is for them and for all of the Black women that will come after her,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Zeke Miller in Washington, Aaron Morrison in New York City, Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans and Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:33
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Before he gave up his entertainment career to run for U.S. Senate, Mehmet Oz — the celebrity heart surgeon best known as the host of daytime TV’s “The Dr. Oz Show” — amassed assets worth more than $100 million, including homes, stock, life insurance and connections to his in-laws’ tree-trimming empire.
Oz on Wednesday night filed a financial disclosure form required of all candidates for Senate that tallies a long list of investments — over 400 individual accounts, businesses or holdings that have value — that back up the finances of a man who has said he put $10 million into his campaign in Pennsylvania.
Oz valued his assets at between $104 million and $422 million, according to a tally by The Philadelphia Inquirer, a wide range that is a result of the Senate’s request that each asset be valued within a certain dollar bracket. If elected, he would be one of the wealthiest members of the Senate — and possibly the wealthiest.
He reported earning about $10 million in 2021, nearly all of it from his TV show host salary and ownership of the show’s parent company.
Oz isn’t the only multimillionaire in the seven-person Republican primary field in Pennsylvania.
Former hedge fund CEO David McCormick has yet to file a financial disclosure. Another wealthy candidate, Carla Sands, filed a public disclosure of assets last year, valuing more than 50 accounts or properties at between $35 million and $152 million.
For Oz, his filing shows at least $11.5 million — and possibly much more — in non-public stock in Asplundh, the tree-trimming company owned by his wife’s family. He lists at least $6 million in non-public stock in the convenience store chain Wawa Inc. and at least $5 million in non-public stock in travel agency Five Star Travel Corp.
His tens of millions of dollars in equities includes millions in stock in Amazon, Microsoft, Sharecare and Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
Oz lists two homes in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, overlooking Manhattan, that he values at more than $1 million each — including the one where Oz lived for a couple of decades before deciding to run for the Senate — plus another home in suburban Philadelphia valued at $1 million or more.
There’s also his vacation home in Palm Beach, Florida, that Oz values at $5 million to $25 million and a cattle farm in Okeechobee, Florida, valued at $1 million or more. He puts the value of the cattle at $250,000 to $500,000.
Other assets include life insurance policies worth millions and interests in numerous commercial properties, including apartments in New York City and property on Boston’s Tremont Avenue and on Florida’s Clearwater Beach Island.
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Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/timelywriter.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:40
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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tested positive for COVID-19, a day after appearing unmasked at a White House event with President Joe Biden.
Pelosi, D-Calif., received a positive test result for COVID-19 and is currently asymptomatic, her spokesman Drew Hammill said Thursday in a tweet. He said she had tested negative earlier in the week.
“The Speaker is fully vaccinated and boosted, and is thankful for the robust protection the vaccine has provided,” Hammill said. Pelosi, he said, will “quarantine consistent with CDC guidance, and encourages everyone to get vaccinated, boosted and test regularly.”
The White House said Biden and Pelosi had only “brief interactions over the course of the last two days” and that the president was not considered a close contact of the speaker by CDC guidance — sustained unmasked contact within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes over a 24-hour period.
“Last night as a part of his regular testing cadence, the President tested negative,” the White House said in a statement. “He will continue to be tested regularly. The President wishes Speaker Pelosi a speedy recovery.”
The 82-year-old Democratic leader’s announcement came ahead of her weekly press appearance on Capitol Hill, which was abruptly called off. The House is set to start a two-week spring recess.
Pelosi also postponed a planned congressional delegation trip to Asia she was scheduled to lead.
Washington has experienced a rush of new COVID-19 cases as restrictions have lifted and more events and gatherings are happening across Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced positive tests. The officials were among more than a dozen attendees of the Saturday night Gridiron Club dinner to test positive for the virus. Pelosi did not attend the dinner, her spokesman said.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also announced Thursday that she tested positive for COVID-19 and would “work at home while following isolation protocols.”
Several lawmakers have announced positive test results and are isolating, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Collins’ office announced she had tested positive late Thursday, shortly after the Senate voted to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The CDC says people vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 are much less likely to suffer adverse outcomes, including serious illness and death, from the virus compared to those who are unvaccinated.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki has faced a flurry of questions in recent days about the COVID-19 protocols surrounding Biden, as more members of the administration and others in Washington have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Psaki said Biden planned to continue with his public schedule despite the uptick in cases, including hosting large events, such as one on Friday celebrating Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
“The most important message we’re sending to the public is that we have steps in place that we can take to continue to address it, and even as we’re continuing to fight COVID we can, for the most part, return to our normal routines,” she said Thursday.
Asked whether there was a concern that the Friday event could be a “super-spreader” for the virus, like President Donald Trump’s Rose Garden ceremony announcing the nomination of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Psaki emphasized that the risks from the virus are now much lower now because of vaccinations and treatments.
“At that point in time, vaccines were unavailable, people were not vaccinated, it certainly puts us in a different space,” Psaki said.
Biden has not been identified as a close contact by the White House Medical unit, despite being photographed hugging and kissing Pelosi, because they did not spend more than 15 minutes in close proximity over a 24 period — the CDC’s standard.
Psaki said if he was ever identified as a close contact Biden would follow the CDC’s guidance, including wearing a mask when around other people. “If he is in close contact, that is exactly what he will do,” she told reporters.
Psaki also defended Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision not to wear a mask in the Senate chamber while presiding over the Jackson vote, despite being identified as a close-contact of a staff member who tested positive for COVID-19.
CDC guidance recommends close-contacts who are fully vaccinated wear a tight-fitting mask when around other people.
“I know that she was alone kind of on the dais for most of that, but of course she’s been wearing a mask otherwise,” said Psaki.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:47
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WASHINGTON (AP) — One of two men accused of impersonating federal agents and giving actual Secret Service agents gifts and free apartments in Washington has claimed to have ties to Pakistani intelligence and had visas showing travel to Pakistan and Iran, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The men, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, were arrested Wednesday. The FBI raided a luxury apartment building in Southeast Washington, where the men were staying and had been offering free apartments and other gifts to U.S. Secret Service agents and officers.
During a court appearance Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein said Ali had told witnesses that he was affiliated with the Inter-Services Intelligence agency in Pakistan and that he had multiple visas from Pakistan and Iran in the months before prosecutors believe the men began impersonating U.S. law enforcement officials. Rothstein said the U.S. has not yet been able to verify the veracity of Ali’s claims to the witnesses.
Prosecutors believe the men were trying to “ingratiate themselves” and “integrate” with U.S. federal agents and people who worked in the U.S. defense community, Rothstein said.
The FBI searched five residences at the building on Wednesday and three vehicles. They found body armor, gas masks, zip ties, handcuffs, equipment to break through doors, drones, radios and police training manuals, Rothstein said.
The two men also had surveillance equipment and a high-power telescope, he said. The FBI found evidence that they may have been creating surveillance devices and also found a binder with information on all the residents in the luxury apartment building, which is home to law enforcement officers, defense officials and congressional staffers.
Prosecutors say the men had also set up surveillance in the building and had been telling residents there that they could access any of their cellphones at any time. The residents also told investigators they believed the men had access to their personal information.
The FBI also found several firearms — including handguns and ammunition — and disassembled rifle pieces and sniper scopes, Rothstein said.
Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to work for the Department of Homeland Security and work on a special task force investigating gangs and violence connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a television, a generator, a gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents. In one instance, Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect the first lady, prosecutors said.
The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating an assault involving a mail carrier at the apartment building and the men identified themselves as being part of a phony Homeland Security unit they called the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit.
Investigators believe Ali had taken multiple trips to the Middle East and had three visas showing he had been to Pakistan and two Iranian visas, Rothstein said. U.S. travel records also showed he had traveled to Istanbul, Turkey and Doha in Qatar, he said.
Prosecutors allege one of the men also tried to destroy evidence once he learned he was being investigated. After Taherzadeh found out the FBI was starting to investigate him, he took steps to delete posts on social media and admitted that he had deleted the posts that would’ve been evidence in the case against him, Rothstein said.
A lawyer for Taherzadeh and Ali argued that both men should not be detained. But Magistrate Judge Michael Harvey ordered both men held until a detention hearing can be held on Friday afternoon.
Rothstein said the case was being presented to a grand jury and he expected both men to face federal conspiracy charges.
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:52
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration moved Thursday to choke off U.S. exports to three Russian airlines as part of what officials described as an unprecedented enforcement action.
The Commerce Department said the move would prevent the airlines — Russian national flag carrier Aeroflot, Utair and Azur Air — from receiving items from the U.S., including parts to service their aircraft.
“Those restrictions are significant because it’s obviously difficult to keep flying if you can’t service your planes,” Matthew Axelrod, an assistant Commerce secretary for export enforcement, told reporters.
The effect, he said, is that the sanctioned airlines “and their fleet of aircraft will, over time, largely be unable to continue flying, either internationally or domestically, as they are now cut off from the international support and the U.S. parts and related services they need to maintain and support their fleets.”
The actions, known as temporary denial orders, do allow the Commerce Department to grant exceptions when the safety of a flight would be at risk. The orders extend for 180 days, though they can be renewed.
The three airlines that were singled out had already violated U.S. government restrictions, and the actions were taken to prevent expected violations in the future, officials said.
The private sector has also taken its own action against Russian airlines in response to the war against Ukraine, withDelta Air Lines in February suspending its codesharing partnership with Russian national airline Aeroflot.
In addition to companies in the aviation and heavy industries sectors halting business with Russia, major semiconductor and software companies have also announced that they’ve stopped shipments, said Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves.
“The totality of these actions and their ultimate impacts demonstrate the resolve of democratic nations in the face of tyranny, the support for the rule of law and our solidarity with the people of Ukraine,” Graves said.
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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
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| 2022-04-08T12:20:59
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Which black hamper is best?
Laundry piles up fast, especially if you live in a large household. Keeping it from piling up or spilling all over the laundry room floor can be a hassle, plus it can be embarrassing if you have guests. Using a black laundry hamper is a great way of keeping your dirty clothes in check and out of sight, plus multi-bin hampers can help you organize them.
The best black hamper is the Household Essentials Double Hamper. It has two bins for keeping lights and darks separate at an affordable price.
What to know before you buy a black hamper
Size and capacity
Your hamper should be just large enough to hold all of your dirty laundry. Too small and you’ll need to buy another one, too large and you’re restricting your space for no reason.
Clothes exist in too many shapes and sizes to give a general estimate of how much space one load of laundry takes up in a hamper. A good method of estimating the size and capacity you need is to visit a local retailer and check out their hampers. Find the size you think would work, note the dimensions and resume shopping until you find the black hamper you like.
Bins
Some hampers have one big empty bin; others have between two and four bins. Having multiple bins is an excellent way of sorting your dirty clothes in the manner you prefer. It can also save you space; for example, one three-bin hamper will take up less space than three one-bin hampers.
Portability
If you need to transport your hamper, either from room to room or from home to laundromat, you’ll want one with handles, wheels or both. Most hampers include handles, even large ones you might struggle to lift when full. Wheels are typically only found on large hampers.
What to look for in a quality black hamper
Liners
Some black hampers include liners. These liners are usually a shade of white, which adds a lovely two-tone look against the black shell. The best are removable — this lets them easily be washed with the rest of your clothes so you don’t have to spot clean the liner, and it adds an extra layer of portability.
Ventilation
Much of the grime you find on dirty clothes will start to smell if left inside a hamper with no ventilation. Mesh hampers have the best ventilation while solid wood tends to have the worst or none at all. Ventilation is most important for those who sweat regularly.
How much you can expect to spend on a black hamper
Inexpensive black hampers cost less than $20 while most cost $20-$40. High-quality black hampers start around $50 and can cost as much as $200 or more.
Black hamper FAQ
How many bins do I really need?
A. That depends on what you’re looking for in a black hamper. If you live alone and just want a place to keep your dirty clothes out of the way, one bin is more than enough. If you want to keep your clothes sorted or live in a small household, you should consider a two-bin hamper. Large households will likely need three- or four-bin hampers, or a handful of multi-bin hampers.
How do I maintain a black hamper?
A. The specifics depend on the material used, but generally speaking, black hampers have a problem with lint — especially fabric hampers. You need to keep a lint roller nearby to remove the white, gray and colored lint or your black hamper will eventually be overrun by it all. Fabric hampers also need to be cleaned occasionally so the sweat and dirt they absorb don’t start to stink. You can do this with any fabric cleaning spray.
Woven, wooden and plastic hampers don’t need much maintenance other than not subjecting them to damaging elements, i.e. no excessive moisture or sharp objects. Once they’re broken you can try and fix them, but you’ll likely just need to replace them.
Why should I choose black over other colored hampers?
A. Black is a color that matches or pairs easily with nearly any other color, making them simple to pair with your current home and likely to pair with any future home. Their only real downside is their problem with lint.
What’s the best black hamper to buy?
Top black hamper
Household Essentials Double Hamper
What you need to know: It’s has plenty of space without taking up much room.
What you’ll love: It’s only 26 by 24 by 14 inches but has two bins which each hold a full load of laundry. It has a magnetically attachable lid to hide your clothes and the bin folds down flat when not needed.
What you should consider: A few consumers had issues with the folding system collapsing inward on itself. The black linen exterior is a magnet for white lint.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top black hamper for the money
Storage Maniac Large Pop-Up Mesh Clothes Hamper, Two-Pack
What you need to know: Having two separate hampers opens up many possibilities.
What you’ll love: The two hampers can be used for sorting clothes or be split between rooms — you can also keep one in reserve for when the first wears out. It’s lightweight and easy to carry thanks to handles on the sides. It also has an exterior storage pocket.
What you should consider: Like all mesh hampers, it’s prone to tearing if overstuffed or poked with rigid objects. A few consumers had problems with the handles becoming detached.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Songmics Handwoven Laundry Hamper
What you need to know: The wicker adds a touch of elegance to your laundry room.
What you’ll love: It has handles on the sides for moving the entire hamper and comes with a removable liner if you only want to carry your laundry. The wicker is made of waterproof handwoven synthetic rattan and the metal frame is rustproof.
What you should consider: It’s a little pricey. It requires assembly and a few consumers didn’t receive instructions or didn’t receive all necessary parts.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:06
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Which EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker is best?
EcoXGear has been making high-quality yet reasonably priced audio equipment since 2006. In the last few years, it has risen to prominence as a premium, USA-based producer of portable Bluetooth speakers. In particular, EcoXGear is known for its high-volume speakers that are water-resistant or waterproof. Some of its offerings can even float, which makes them perfect for a day at the pool, beach or lake.
The best EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker for most people is the EcoXGear EcoBoulder Max due to its high volume, consistent sound quality and above-average portability for the size.
What to know before you buy an EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker
They’re especially rugged
EcoXGear explicitly designs its Bluetooth speakers to withstand the rigors of a fun party. All of their most popular models are resistant to water and many are entirely waterproof and able to float. Their most robust speakers are built with additional layers of shock protection including layers of durable silicone cushioning.
Some, such as the EcoXGear EcoJourney, even offer waterproof storage compartments. The EcoJourney has room for a decent amount of water-sensitive belongings, while the novel EcoXGear EcoExtreme 2 is basically a waterproof, floating phone case with an integrated Bluetooth speaker and microphone. These are especially nice for trips on the river in rafts or canoes.
They are not ideal for audiophiles
Granted, you probably won’t be too worried about lossless Bluetooth transmission or high-fidelity playback while hanging out with friends at the pool. Nonetheless, keep in mind that EcoXGear speakers aren’t exactly made for high-fidelity critical listening. That’s not to say they sound bad. In fact, they sound great at high volumes, all things considered.
Unfortunately, the company doesn’t actually make clear what Bluetooth codecs they use. Research indicates that most EcoXGear speakers support the standard SBC codec and Apple’s AAC codec. While the AAC codec is hit or miss in terms of efficiency on Android devices, it actually delivers above-average sound quality, especially when compared with SBC.
What to look for in a quality EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker
Peak volume
It’s hard to find exact figures for most speakers’ objective peak output, but EcoXGear makes clear the peak wattage for all of its models. Their outputs range from just 5 watts for the tiny EcoPebble Lite all the way to an impressive 500 watts for the high-end SoundExtreme Soundbar.
Ingress Protection Code
IP ratings indicate how resistant to dust and water an electronic device is. The first number represents dust resistance and the second water resistance. For example, an IP67 rating means a device is completely sealed from dust and can withstand immersion in up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes.
Many EcoXGear Bluetooth speakers boast that IP67 rating, which means as long as you don’t intentionally hold them underwater, they’re remarkably safe in a pool or lake. Pay attention to each individual model you consider, though, as some are rated to only IP66, which only guarantees resistance to powerful water jets and means the device might malfunction if it ever ends up fully underwater.
Battery life
Some manufacturers play fast and loose with battery life claims, offering buyers the longest possible time frames without specifying volume. EcoXGear, on the other hand, is considerably more upfront. For example, it openly states the EcoBoulder Max runs for 50 hours at average listening volumes but only 10 hours at maximum volume. While the company doesn’t exactly specify what it means by average listening volume, it’s a testament to its honesty that it even makes such a distinction.
EcoXGear also clearly states how long each speaker takes to recharge, and that length of time is always less than the battery life at maximum volume. In practice, that means you could leave any EcoXGear speaker plugged in and play it as loud as you want indefinitely.
How much you can expect to spend on an EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker
The cheapest EcoXGear speakers run roughly $35, while the most premium options cost as much as $500.
EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker FAQ
Can you use the storage-equipped EcoXGear speakers as coolers?
A. No. While some models do offer waterproof, floating storage, filling them with ice and/or cold beverages would make them sink and run the risk of introducing condensation to the components.
Do EcoXGear speakers produce stereo or mono sound?
A. Each individual EcoXGear speaker produces monaural sound. If you invest in more than one, you can connect them wirelessly and configure them for stereo output.
What’s the best EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker to buy?
Top EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker
What you need to know: Plenty of volume coupled with advanced connectivity and waterproofing make this one of the most interesting party speakers.
What you’ll love: It’s large and in charge, able to get surprisingly loud while operating on a decently large battery. It combines an 8-inch full-range woofer and a 3-inch tweeter along with a variety of connections, including Bluetooth 5.0. Not only is the EcoBoulder Max rugged, loud and dependable, it’s even waterproof and engineered to float.
What you should consider: It is pretty bulky, and it’s not what you’d call cheap.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top EcoXGear Bluetooth speaker for the money
What you need to know: One of EcoXGear’s smallest offerings, the EcoEdge Plus works especially well when you use more than one at a time.
What you’ll love: The company’s EcoConnect function allows you to pair multiple EcoXGear speakers for wireless stereo playback, making the EcoEdge Plus ideal for traveling to sunny, sandy destinations and partying with friends and family. In addition to the ability to float, it has a built-in bottle opener and color-changing LED accent.
What you should consider: It isn’t incredibly loud and doesn’t offer much in the way of thumping bass.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: It’s a rugged sound bar intended for outdoor use on the dunes or even on the water.
What you’ll love: Unlike most others, the SoundExtreme is designed for mounting to a boat, ATV or another outdoor recreational vehicle. Its IP66 rating means it can withstand dust and water, which makes it perfect for high-intensity outdoor activities. We’ve highlighted the version with an internal, rechargeable battery, but if you want to save money, you can opt for the one with no battery. With up to 500 watts of output, it’s EcoXGear’s most powerful speaker.
What you should consider: While it’s loud and durable, it’s also considerably expensive.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Chris Thomas writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:13
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Which electric range is best?
Electric ranges are clean, convenient and efficient, but there are quite a few models to evaluate when looking to replace or upgrade your current model. Aside from helpful features like convection fans and high-capacity ovens, reliability is one of the most important parts of buying the right one for your kitchen.
The best electric range overall is the Whirlpool WGE745C0FS because of its complete feature set, straightforward design and impressive dependability.
What to know before you buy an electric range
Freestanding vs. slide-in ranges
Freestanding ranges are the most common type and usually the most affordable. They’re called freestanding because the sides have finished panels that will look fine if they’re exposed to the kitchen. Freestanding ranges also usually have integrated backsplashes, sometimes housing the controls, so if you’re only doing a partial remodel you might not have to refinish the wall behind the range.
Slide-in ranges, on the other hand, are best installed as part of larger-scale kitchen renovations. They tend to have unfinished sides and almost never have a backsplash, so you’ll need some extra planning and finishing work to get them installed properly.
Finally, avoid looking for a drop-in range unless you’re ready to significantly customize your counter space and engage in skilled carpentry. Drop-in ranges require almost completely specialized installations and are suitable for only the most in-depth projects.
Size
Most consumer-grade electric ranges are 30 inches wide, but there are some 36-inch options meant for home use. You might need a 24-inch range if your kitchen is especially small, or a 40-inch or wider model if you’re looking for a commercial-grade appliance. The vast majority of home kitchens already have space for 30-inch ranges, and that’s where you’ll find the most cost-effective and feature-rich models.
What to look for in a quality electric range
Glass range top
If you look hard, you can save about $100 by finding an electric range with open elements. This is because those ranges are inefficient to begin with and only get worse over time. Consider an electric range with a durable glass surface, which ensures quick preheating and a consistent output.
Convection baking
Convection systems speed up the cooking process when compared to standard baking at the same temperature. This lets you get crispier crusts on baked goods and large cuts of meat. Advanced convection systems move heat through the oven so quickly, in fact, that you can put some frozen food right on the rack when you might otherwise have to defrost it first.
Not all convection is created equal, though. It’s important to pay attention to whether or not each convection system has a third element that’s meant specifically to heat the air behind the convection fan. These premium systems are sometimes known as European or true convection.
Expandable burners
Electric burners are typically somewhat small and may not be able to accommodate wide frying pans. Some of today’s best electric ranges mitigate this problem with an adjustable burner. Adjustable burners usually range from about 6-12 inches and deliver significantly more heat than standard burners.
How much you can expect to spend on an electric range
The absolute cheapest electric ranges are in the neighborhood of $600, but an $800 investment gets you more for your money in the short- and long-term. At the high end, you can easily spend $2,000 or more on a fancy electric range with various high-tech features.
Electric range FAQ
What’s the difference between air frying and convection baking?
A. With regards to ovens, nothing. The terms are used interchangeably. Since air fryers are so popular right now, manufacturers are attaching the terminology to many ovens to illustrate the effectiveness of their convection systems.
Are induction ranges worth it?
A. Not usually. In addition to their generally high cost, induction ranges are notorious for questionable durability. Instead, consider a standalone induction burner, which provides the precision and efficiency of an induction range without forcing you to commit to an unreliable element or use exclusively induction-friendly pans.
What’s the best electric range to buy?
Top electric range
What you need to know: One of the most advanced ranges, it’s excellent for people who frequently entertain guests.
What you’ll love: In addition to the dependability you’d expect from a Whirlpool appliance, it boasts a dual oven with a combined capacity of nearly 7 cubic feet. Inside, there’s a convection fan with a dedicated third element that ensures lightning-fast preheat times and enables high-speed baking without defrosting frozen food first.
What you should consider: The dual ovens are a bit small individually, and the cost is quite high if you don’t need either of those features.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Top electric range for the money
What you need to know: This is one of the most reliable ranges available and performs well despite its reasonable cost.
What you’ll love: It has all the features that most people need, including convection baking with a short warm-up time and an in-depth timer that’s easy to navigate. The most important thing to know about it is that it has more consistent heat and better long-term reviews than nearly any of the competition.
What you should consider: It lacks fancy features such as double ovens and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Worth checking out
What you need to know: It’s one of the most affordable choices from longtime leading appliance manufacturer Frigidaire.
What you’ll love: It has over 5 cubic feet of oven space in addition to a novel adjustable stove element that expands to fit large and small pots perfectly. The control scheme is as simple as can be and both the stove and oven heat up quickly and consistently.
What you should consider: It lacks a convection fan, and the stainless steel paneling doesn’t feel very heavy-duty.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot and Amazon
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Chris Thomas writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:20
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Which Samsung curved monitor is best?
It seems like it never happened, but curved TVs were once a pretty big deal. Though the concept was intriguing, in the end, it could never provide a perfect viewing experience unless the viewer was sitting up close, right in the center. Though curved TVs have mostly disappeared from the market, curved computer monitors are now gaining popularity.
A curved monitor can offer valuable benefits if you want a better gaming or working experience. You can never go wrong with a Samsung monitor, like the Samsung 49-Inch CHG90 QLED Curved Gaming Monitor. Customers love it for its vibrant colors, impressive visuals and super-wide display.
What to know before you buy a Samsung curved monitor
Curved vs. flat
If you’re reading this, you’re probably set on buying a curved monitor. However, some find curved monitors uncomfortable for viewing, especially at an angle. If you plan to stream movies and TV shows often and watch them at an angle, a curved monitor is a waste of money.
If you want to use your monitor for office work or gaming, it’s a good investment and can benefit you in many ways. In any case, choose a monitor that suits your needs.
Size
Curved monitors range in width. The smallest ones are around 22 inches wide, while the largest can be between 32 and 50 inches. Screens between 22 and 32 inches are suitable for small spaces and are ideal for office workers or casual gamers.
Screens wider than 32 inches often have more features geared toward hardcore gamers, but they can also be useful for work if you need to have several windows on your screen simultaneously.
Screen type
LED screens are the most common, and while they’re suitable for basic daily tasks, a QLED or OLED display is much more ideal for gaming and streaming high-definition content. QLED displays offer stunning visuals and vibrant colors, but their contrast isn’t as good as OLED monitors. An OLED monitor offers truer black levels, making movies and games with lots of dark or nighttime scenarios more watchable in low-light environments.
What to look for in a quality Samsung curved monitor
Refresh rate
A standard refresh rate is 60Hz and is enough for office work, streaming content and casual gaming. However, if you’re planning on using your monitor for extensive gaming sessions, a 120Hz refresh rate offers a more fluid and smooth experience.
Resolution
Most curved monitors have a full high-definition 1080p display resolution, but ultra-high-definition monitors can relay 4K content at 3840p. If you’re going to use your monitor for work and the occasional media streaming, a full HD display is adequate and usually the cheaper option. However, if you’re a gamer or want to watch 4K movies, you’ll need a UHD monitor that displays vibrant colors and sharp visuals to get the most out of your content.
Game mode
If your main priority is gaming, it’s crucial to have a game mode setting at your disposal. Game modes have pre-calibrated image settings, including brightness, contrast, and sharpness. It essentially disables non-essential features and focuses on reducing input lag.
How much you can expect to spend on a Samsung curved monitor
It depends on the size, but you can find a curved LED monitor in the $200-$600 range, but if you want a UHD monitor, it can cost you anywhere from $600-$1,200.
Samsung curved monitor FAQ
Why aren’t curved displays suitable for multiple people viewing simultaneously?
A. Curved displays only immerse viewers positioned directly centered in front of them. Watching from an angle causes an optical image distortion because the “side” of the image closest to you begins to appear shorter.
Are curved monitors more expensive than flat screens?
A. All things considered equal such as size and resolution, curved monitors are usually more expensive because the technology used in curved monitors is newer and more advanced.
What’s the best Samsung curved monitor to buy?
Top Samsung curved monitor
Samsung 49-Inch CHG90 QLED Curved Gaming Monitor
What you need to know: It’s great for work, but this monitor is a must-have for avid gamers looking for a smooth and immersive experience.
What you’ll love: This ultra-wide monitor has a 32:9 aspect ratio and has a blazing-fast 144Hz refresh rate. Quantum dot technology allows millions of different color shades to be displayed with crystal-clear definition. Also, it has high-dynamic-range technology for better color contrasts.
What you should consider: The stand is large and can compromise mouse and keyboard setups and the legs are built awkwardly. Also, it can only tilt upward.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Samsung curved monitor for the money
Samsung C27F390 27-Inch Curved LED Monitor
What you need to know: This monitor is easy on the wallet but looks fantastic, and it’s perfect for office work or light gaming.
What you’ll love: It has a stylish but slim and lightweight design and boasts a fast 4ms response time and a 60Hz refresh rate for a smooth viewing experience. It also supports AMD FreeSync Technology for a seamless gaming experience and has a 3000:1 contrast ratio for relaying deep blacks.
What you should consider: Game mode displays vibrant colors, but unfortunately, sharpness is too high and cannot be adjusted.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Staples
Worth checking out
Samsung LU32J590 32-Inch UHD Monitor
What you need to know: If you want a reasonably priced widescreen monitor with a stunning UHD resolution display, this model is worth a look.
What you’ll love: This monitor relays stunning 4K visuals, and at 32 inches wide, you can work more fluidly and efficiently to boost productivity. It also has an upscaling feature to convert standard and high definition video output to near-UHD levels.
What you should consider: It’s decent for casual gaming sessions, but serious gamers won’t be satisfied with its 60Hz refresh rate. Also, some found the stand wobbly.
Where to buy: Sold by Staples
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Kevin Luna writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:27
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Easter is a perfect opportunity to spend time as a family away from screens and tech, but once your kids are bored and hyped up on sugar, it doesn’t feel so idyllic. Playing games is a great way to keep kids engaged and occupied.
Once you’ve got your head around why Easter doesn’t fall on the same day each year, it’s time to plan some entertainment. These Easter family games will keep kids entertained, just choose options suitable for your kids’ ages and interests.
What games do you play on Easter?
Besides the traditional egg hunt, there aren’t really any specific games that are widely played on Easter. The good thing about this is it leaves you more freedom to find or come up with Easter-themed games that the kids in your life will enjoy. Any of the following can be great fun on Easter day.
Easter treasure hunt
Rather than hiding Easter eggs in multiple spots all over your home or yard, hide one big cache of eggs with a clue-based treasure hunt to find it. Start by giving your kids the first clue. Solving this will lead them to the location of the next written clue, which you can tuck inside a plastic Easter egg. Keep doing with more clues until the final clue leads them to the eggs.
The great thing about this kind of treasure hunt is that you can have as many clues as you like and you can tailor them to your kids’ ages and ability levels. If you think your children might lose interest without incentive, you can put a few pieces of candy in with every other clue.
Egg and spoon race
An egg and spoon race involves balancing an egg on a spoon over a set distance, with the first person to cross the finish line winning the game. Kids and adults alike can join in, resulting in some healthy intergenerational rivalry.
While you can use real hard-boiled eggs for this game, you can also buy egg and spoon race sets containing wooden or plastic eggs with spoons of a suitable size. These eliminate the prep time, potential mess and waste of food.
Carrots in a basket game
All you need for this game is an Easter basket for each team or child and a pile of carrots, for the Easter Bunny, of course. If you’re playing with just a handful of kids, they can each have a basket, but for large family gatherings with lots of kids, divide them into 2-4 teams.
The simple aim is to throw the carrots into the basket without crossing a set mark. It might not be an elaborate game, but this makes it great for young children. When older kids want to get involved, set their mark farther from the basket so they don’t have an advantage.
Challenge-based egg hunt
Spice up your usual egg hunt by filling half the eggs with your usual candy or toys and the other half with written challenges. These challenges can be anything you like but keep them fun and relatively brief. You can even make them Easter-themed, such as “hop like a bunny” or “make the sound of a chick.”
Scoop the jelly beans
For this game, you’ll need one bowl of jelly beans, one empty bowl and a spoon for each player. Give each player 30-60 seconds to move as many jelly beans as they can into the empty bowl using the spoon held in their mouth. Tip the jelly beans the player managed to move into a measuring cup and make a note of the measurement before moving on to the next player. At the end of each round, you can declare a winner.
Water balloon toss game
This is like an egg toss game but you won’t waste food and there’s less mess — assuming you play outside. Pair up the players and give them a filled water balloon each. The players must toss it between them, attempting not to drop it. If they drop the water balloon and it bursts, they’re out of the game. If it drops and doesn’t burst, they can pick it up and keep playing.
The last pair left in the game with an intact water balloon wins. You can make it more challenging for older kids by spacing them farther apart than younger kids, so it’s fairer for all players.
What you need for Easter games
Brach’s Classic Jelly Beans — 54 oz (Pack of 2)
These two bags of jelly beans contain roughly 6.75 pounds of beans total, which should be more than enough for any jelly bean-related games.
Sold by Amazon
With 36 plastic Easter eggs in a set, this should give you an ample amount for egg hunts, treasure hunts and so on. They come in six colors: orange, green, yellow, blue, pink and purple.
Sold by Amazon
Joyin Easter Egg and Spoon Relay Game
Containing 12 eggs and 12 spoons, this set is perfect for getting the whole family involved in an egg and spoon race.
Sold by Amazon
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Lauren Corona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:33
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Which towel bar is best?
To keep your towels fresh, it’s best to hang them up to dry after a bath or shower. Towel bars keep your towels spread out, which helps them dry faster and keeps bacteria at bay. Plus, a bar keeps your bathroom looking neat and tidy.
You may want to buy multiple bars for your bathroom, such as a smaller one for a hand towel and a larger one for a bath towel. A 24-inch bar, such as Moen Preston Collection Bathroom Towel Bar, is the perfect size for a regular towel.
What to know before you buy a towel bar
Base material
The majority of towel bars are made from metal, such as steel, zinc or brass. You want a rustproof and anti-corrosive base material for your bar, which is why stainless steel is used for so many. Wood and plastic towel bars are also available but not as popular as metal, which is a more durable material.
Size
Towel bars range in size from 9-36 inches long. The most common sizes are 18, 24 and 30 inches.
- 18-inch bars are perfect for a hand towel.
- 24-inch bars are suitable for a single bath towel folded in half lengthwise.
- 30-inch bars will fit a bath sheet, one unfolded bath towel or two folded ones.
Consider towel size, the number of towels and how much wall space you have when choosing a length.
Installation
Before you buy a bar, check its installation requirements, which can vary.
- Wall-mounted bars are common and should be easy to install. Mounting hardware is included but you’ll need an electric drill. Be sure the product also includes mounting instructions if you’ve never installed one before.
- Freestanding bars don’t require installation and they feature a base that rests on the ground. For some bathrooms, this may save space, but for others, this style has too big a footprint. However, no installation is required.
- Adhesive bars stick to the walls with sticky strips. They don’t require drilling or holes in your walls and are easy to install. The downside is that if the adhesive isn’t secure enough, the bar can come crashing down when you pull off your towel.
- Over-the-door bars feature hooks that hang over a bathroom or shower door and are the ultimate space-savers. They don’t require installation. However, this isn’t the most sturdy design and can also pull down.
What to look for in a quality towel bar
Finish
Metal bars come in a variety of finishes. You can choose a finish that matches your other bathroom finishes or your decor. Finishes include brushed nickel, polished chrome, oil-rubbed bronze, brushed steel, polished brass, brushed gold, vintage iron and matte black.
Shape
Bars are either cylindrical or flat. When choosing between a round or a square one, it’s a matter of personal preference, as neither shape affects the bar’s function.
Double
A double towel bar features two bars, with one bar in front and the other behind it, closer to the wall. This allows for two towels to be hung separately without touching each other or the wall, making it handy for a household of two.
Adjustable
An adjustable bar features a retractable rod for you to customize its length to fit your bathroom space perfectly. These are typically adjustable from 15-28 inches and are wall-mounted.
How much you can expect to spend on a towel bar
Towel bars range in price from $10-$40. Double towel bars can cost up to $100.
Towel bar FAQ
What’s the difference between a towel bar and a towel rack?
A. The difference is the number of bars each has. A towel bar only has one or two, whereas a rack has multiple bars to hold multiple towels separately without layering one over the other. Bars all have a horizontal orientation, while racks can be horizontal or vertical.
Is a towel bar better than a towel hook?
A. Towel hooks are better if you have limited wall space because they take up so little of it. However, a towel can easily grow mildew handing on a hook because it won’t dry as fast when it’s not spread out as it is on a bar.
What’s the best towel bar to buy?
Top towel bar
Moen Preston Collection 24-Inch Bathroom Single Towel Bar
What you need to know: This versatile towel bar can be placed in the bathroom or kitchen.
What you’ll love: The bar is narrow and doesn’t take up much space. The brushed nickel is a classic finish that goes with most decor. The mounting hardware securely fastens the bar to the wall.
What you should consider: The rod is pretty thin and light and feels too flimsy to some.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
Top towel bar for the money
Kes 12-Inch Self-Adhesive Single Towel Bar
What you need to know: This modern-looking towel bar is simple to put up and comes in three attractive finishes.
What you’ll love: The installation requires no tools; the self-adhesive backing sticks to the wall. It comes in two brushed metal finishes and a matte black finish as well as six sizes. As long as you clean your wall first, the bar will stick and won’t come down.
What you should consider: The future-forward design won’t match all bathroom decor.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Symmons Identity 24-Inch Wall-Mounted Towel Bar
What you need to know: For a no-frills towel bar, this 24-inch rod is a solid choice.
What you’ll love: It comes in two classic finishes: polished chrome and satin nickel. The rod is sturdy and looks attractive in your bathroom. The price is good and so is the quality of this bar.
What you should consider: You may want to provide your own anchors and screws, as the installation hardware isn’t great.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Ana Sanchez writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:40
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Which blue duvet covers are best?
A duvet cover is the first part of your bedding that people will notice. And if you spend a lot of time on your bed before you turn down the sheets, you’ll especially want something soft and durable — maybe even something that reflects your favorite color.
Blue duvet covers are a popular choice for their classic look. There are many blue duvet covers available, from navy to turquoise to periwinkle. The top pick, the Lauren Ralph Lauren Casey Stripe Duvet Cover Set, features wide navy and cream stripes with a pinstripe pattern on top for a timeless look.
What to know before you buy a blue duvet cover
Material
The most common fabrics for blue duvet covers are polyester, microfiber, cotton, linen and silk. If you spend a lot of time on top of your made bed, or you toss and turn during the night and throw off the rest of your sheets, it’s especially important to choose a material that’s soft against your skin.
Cotton is a popular all-around choice. It can wrinkle easily, which bothers some people, but otherwise it checks all the boxes. Silk is an elegant upgrade, but it’s harder to clean. If you have a pet who sheds a lot, consider microfiber. It’s the most resistant to dog and cat hair.
Size
Blue duvet covers are available in all of the standard mattress sizes: twin, twin XL, full, queen, king and California king. Keep in mind that measurements can change slightly within these categories, so if you already own a duvet or comforter, measure to make sure your prospective cover will work.
Some people prefer to size down so their duvet or comforter will be snug inside the cover. While not a bad idea in theory, this method leaves you out of luck should your cover shrink after washing.
Color and pattern
Blue is a huge color category that covers everything from light and airy sky blue to deep and elegant navy blue. If you’re looking for a blue-green hybrid, there are also many turquoise or teal models on the market. If shopping online, make sure to click through all of your color options.
Given blue’s association with the ocean and the sky, the most common patterns you’ll find are water and clouds. If you have a bedroom with a nautical theme, or beach-related decor accents, a blue duvet cover should fit right in.
What to look for in a quality blue duvet cover
Matching pieces
Most blue duvet covers come in a three-piece set that includes the cover as well as two pillow shams or pillow cases. These matching pieces help to tie your whole bedding look together.
Keep an eye out for sets that contain even more pieces, like actual throw pillows or bed skirts. “Bed in a bag” kits are also common. These include everything discussed above plus flat and fitted sheets.
Inner ties
No one wants a lumpy sleeping experience. The number one complaint about duvet covers is that it’s easy for the duvet or comforter inside to bunch up. The easiest way to prevent this is by purchasing a duvet cover with ties on the inside corners.
Some covers will have four ties, one on each corner, while other covers will have two ties, across the top. Either way, simply attach your comforter or duvet to the cover with these ties and it should stay firmly in place.
Closure method
The whole point of a duvet cover is to protect your comforter or duvet from dust, hair and oil. You want a cover that closes completely but is also easy to open and close for cleaning purposes.
The closure method of your duvet cover is a matter of preference. Some users prefer the ease of a zipper, while others prefer the more subtle design of snaps or buttons. Buttons and snaps take a lot longer to open and close than zippers, but they won’t tear or catch.
How much you can expect to spend on a blue duvet cover
Prices depend on size, quality and number of pieces in the set. Low-end models are generally $20-$50, but they are likely to have durability issues. Midrange offerings hover around $50-$150. High-end, luxury blue duvet covers can be anywhere from $150-$400.
Blue duvet cover FAQ
How do I prevent my comforter from bunching up in my duvet cover?
A. If your duvet cover has ties on the inside corners, use them. If your duvet cover doesn’t have inside ties, consider sewing them on yourself. It’s fairly simple if you know how to use a sewing machine. Beyond that, make sure you buy the proper size duvet cover for your comforter.
What’s the difference between a comforter and a duvet?
A. All duvets are comforters but not all comforters are duvets. Duvet comes from the French word for down feathers. Duvets are comforters filled with either real down or synthetic down feathers. Comforters can be filled with a variety of other materials like polyester, cotton or wool.
What’s the best blue duvet cover to buy?
Top blue duvet cover
Lauren Ralph Lauren Casey Stripe Duvet Cover Set
What you need to know: Classic style with a soft feel from a trusted brand make this navy-and-cream-striped duvet cover an easy top pick.
What you’ll love: It features an attractive pinstripe design. The set includes the duvet and two standard shams.
What you should consider: This option is a bit pricey when it’s not on sale.
Where to buy: Sold by Macy’s
Top blue duvet cover for the money
HC Collection 1,500 Thread Count Egyptian Quality Duvet Cover Set
What you need to know: This three-piece set gets high marks for comfort and durability.
What you’ll love: This option is available in ice blue or navy and is lightweight with rich color and great quality for the price.
What you should consider: Several users reported receiving damaged sets. Be sure to inspect carefully upon first arrival.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Bedsure 3-Piece Duvet Cover Set
What you need to know: A quality budget-conscious pick available in grayish blue, navy and teal.
What you’ll love: The smart design prevents fill bunching. This is the only set on this list available in twin and California king sizes.
What you should consider: A few previous buyers complain that the material is too thin, especially after several washes.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Herman Michael writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:47
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Which pink bed sheets are best?
Pink bed sheets are a bright, fun way of adding a little personality to your bedroom. There are several shades to choose from and various materials that affect the looks just as much as the feel of the sheets. Sheet sets don’t include everything — you’ll still need to decide on a comforter or duvet.
The best pink sheets are California Design Den Combed Cotton Sateen Weave Sheet Set. It comes in all bed sizes and uses soft and breathable 400 thread count cotton.
What to know before you buy pink bed sheets
Size
Pink bed sheets fall into the same standard sizes as all bedding: twin, full, queen and king. As long as you know what size your mattress is, purchasing a like sheet set should fit perfectly. However, there are two exceptions to be aware of. The first is if you have a size variant such as California king, which is narrower and longer than a standard king, which means the standard size won’t fit. The other exception is when buying sheets known to shrink in the wash. Generally, it’s best to avoid such sheets, but if your heart is set on them, consider purchasing a size up — it may not fit exactly, but it’s better to be a little too big than not to fit at all.
Mattress depth
Another dimension to consider when sheet shopping is the depth of your mattress. Any size mattress can have a variety of depths, and bedsheets are sized to accommodate this. Standard depth is 7-9 inches, deep mattresses are 9-15 inches and extra-deep mattresses are 16-22 inches. Deeper than necessary sheets can always be tucked under, so err on the side of caution.
What to look for in quality pink bed sheets
Material
Pink bed sheets are made of a variety of materials, most commonly cotton, linen and microfiber.
- Cotton is the most common material thanks to its softness, breathability, moisture-wicking properties and relative affordability. There are dozens of cotton options, including Egyptian and jersey.
- Linen is expensive but one of the most durable options. It has the unique property of becoming softer over time without becoming weaker. If properly maintained, it can last for decades.
- Microfiber is made from one of a variety of ultra-short length synthetic fibers, most commonly polyester. It’s among the more affordable and hypoallergenic materials, but it doesn’t breathe, so it can get toasty.
Thread count
Everyone thinks that higher thread counts immediately equal softer sheets, and this is true, to an extent. The sweet spot is a count of around 500 — anything more than this and your sheets start to feel stiff.
Smart tag
Smart tags are one of those ideas that make you stand back and say, “why didn’t they think of this sooner?” It’s a label on each side of the fitted sheet that says “short” or “long” so you never have to restart your bed-making process.
How much you can expect to spend on pink bed sheets
Pink bed sheets can be found anywhere from $20 to thousands of dollars. Most sheets cost $100 or less with sheets entering expensive territory around $150-$200.
Pink bed sheets FAQ
Should I buy pink sheets in a set or individually?
A. In most situations, it’s best to buy sheets in a set. If you’re just getting started, it’s cheaper to buy them together. If you’re replacing one sheet because of damage, the others won’t be far behind, so you may as well replace them all. The only situation where you want to buy pink sheets separately is if you want to go for a two-tone look using different shades of pink. Even then, you may still be able to find such a set if you look hard enough.
How should I wash pink bed sheets?
A. Most pink bed sheets are machine-washable and -dryable, but materials require different water temperatures and cycles to prevent damage, and a few need to be air-dried. Make sure to wash them separately or with other light colors. Some of the more delicate materials may need to be dry cleaned, though this is rare.
What are the best pink bed sheets to buy?
Top pink bed sheets
California Design Den Combed Cotton Sateen Weave Sheet Set
What you need to know: These feel luxurious without breaking the bank.
What you’ll love: These are available in solid pink or a pink and blue floral design. They’re made of breathable and soft cotton with a thread count of 400 and deep pockets for a tight fit on any mattress. They come in all standard and a few variant sizes.
What you should consider: Some consumers were unhappy with the level of softness. Others had issues with tearing after a few months of use.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top pink bed sheets for the money
What you need to know: These are more comfortable than the price tag suggests.
What you’ll love: These are available in a variety of pink shades and designs, including light pink and pink with unicorns. They’re made of soft microfiber polyester, which is comfortable for use in all seasons. These are machine-washable and -dryable and independently certified to meet safety and environmental standards.
What you should consider: Not all designs are available in all sizes. The microfiber construction means a limited amount of breathability, which can lead to overheating.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: These sheets are pricey but ultra-comfy.
What you’ll love: The soft pink matches the softness of these linen sheets and they come in queen and king sizes. The environmentally friendly linen bag they ship in is reusable for storage and moving. They’re machine-washable but need to be air-dried.
What you should consider: These are among the priciest sheets. Some consumers had issues with the sheets shrinking after being washed, even if they followed the care instructions exactly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:21:54
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Which cotton shower curtains are best?
Cotton shower curtains are not only functional, they also have an elegant look and feel to them, which is part of what makes them so popular in homes with a modern or sophisticated aesthetic.
If you’re looking for a beautiful shower curtain with a lovely floral design that brings a hint of color to the bathroom, check out Madison Park Adella Floral-Printed Shower Curtain.
What to know before you buy a cotton shower curtain
Hanging mechanism
Most cotton shower curtains feature holes big enough for hooks or rings to fit through. These holes are often constructed from reinforced fabric that’s resistant to the tearing that occurs from frequent opening and closing of the curtain.
Besides this, you’ll also need a shower curtain rod to hang the curtain. If you live in a rental house or apartment, choose a tension rod, since these are specially designed to avoid damaging the walls. If you live in your own home, you can opt for a rod that can be nailed or screwed into the wall.
Some shower curtains have a grommet style, so they can hang directly on the shower rod, making hooks and rings unnecessary.
Liner
Shower curtains are designed to prevent water from escaping the bathtub while showering. However, a cotton curtain requires a shower curtain liner to go with it. This is because cotton is absorbent but doesn’t dry easily. If it’s exposed to water or left in a room with high humidity for too long, it becomes susceptible to bacteria and mold.
Liners usually consist of materials such as polyvinyl chloride or other plastics. These are naturally waterproof and can protect the curtain from water damage, thus extending its longevity.
Cleaning and sanitation
It’s a good idea to wash your shower curtain regularly. For cotton and other fabric curtains, throw it into the washing machine on a gentle cycle once a month to keep it clean and prevent mold growth. You can use warm water and liquid detergent, but be sure to wash it on its own. To dry it, either hang it out to air dry or put it on tumble dry low in the machine.
Shower curtain liners need to be washed every month or so as well. Otherwise, red mold is likely to appear. This is especially common around the base where the liner traps moisture against the inside of the bathtub. You can use Clorox or a similar cleaning product to clean the liner.
When in doubt about the best cleaning method, check for any tags or instructions on the original packaging.
What to look for in a quality cotton shower curtain
Privacy
While some shower curtains are partly translucent, especially plastic ones, cotton ones are thick enough to provide full privacy. Even if you get a thinner curtain, the liner will add privacy as well, which can help you separate yourself from the outside world and take a moment to relax.
Design
Cotton shower curtains come in solid colors and different patterns, so there’s a great deal of variety. You can find solid prints in nearly any hue, ranging from bright blues, yellows and pinks to more toned-down tans, whites and blacks. If you’re going for a modern or minimalist aesthetic, neutral or dark colors are a good choice.
When it comes to patterned curtains, some have textures imprinted on them. These can help break up a bathroom or accentuate the overall look. You can find repeated patterns, geometric shapes, straight lines, animal themes or even floral designs throughout. Some curtains have a gradient instead of a full pattern, which draws the eye and makes a statement.
Size
A shower curtain should be wide and long enough to fit your bathtub without trailing on the floor. Ideally, there should be at least 4 inches of space. Standard curtains and liners are around 72 by 72 inches.
There are also extra-long curtains, which can be 90 inches in length. These curtains are usually reserved for high bathtubs. Also, if you’re using a curved or L-shaped rod, you might need a wider shower curtain.
Weighted base
Some cotton shower curtains and plastic liners have weights or magnets sewn strategically into the base. This keeps them from billowing out when the water’s running.
Accessories
Unless the shower curtain has grommets, you’ll need rings or hooks to go with it. Some curtains come with these accessories, while others require a separate purchase.
Other popular bathroom accessories include hand towels and bath towels, soap dispensers and rug sets. Look for items that complement the design of your shower curtain.
How much you can expect to spend on a cotton shower curtain
A high-quality, durable cotton shower curtain costs around $20-$30. Expect to spend $30-$50 for ones that also feature hooks, rings or a liner.
Cotton shower curtain FAQ
Does cotton shrink or wrinkle easily?
A. A shower curtain made from cotton might shrink an inch or two, especially after being washed in a machine. The fabric can also wrinkle, but you can fix this by washing the shower curtain and hanging it out to dry. Alternatively, you can use a blow dryer on high heat to iron out the wrinkles.
What are some other good fabrics for shower curtains?
A. This depends what you’re looking for. Cotton and polyester are both durable, but polyester is more resistant to water. Linen and canvas are also good options since they’re biodegradable and easy to clean.
What’s the best cotton shower curtain to buy?
Top cotton shower curtain
Madison Park Adella Floral-Printed Shower Curtain
What you need to know: This luxurious cotton shower curtain is adorned with either purple or teal flowers that make it a wonderful statement piece for most bathrooms.
What you’ll love: Available in the standard size, this shower curtain adds a splash of color to contemporary and romantic settings. It’s machine-safe and durable.
What you should consider: It wrinkles a bit when cleaned.
Where to buy: Sold by Kohl’s
Top cotton shower curtain for the money
Hall & Perry Modern Farmhouse Tassel Shower Curtain
What you need to know: This shower curtain has a striped pattern and tassels at the base, making it perfect for anyone who wants a minimalist design.
What you’ll love: It comes in eight colors and designs and is highly durable. The fabric is medium weight and doesn’t billow out much when showering.
What you should consider: It’s 72 inches long including the tassels, making it shorter than most.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Wrought Studio Campanella Cotton Striped Single Shower Curtain
What you need to know: This option has a vintage look that works great in understated or classic bathrooms.
What you’ll love: Offered in gray, navy and taupe, this shower curtain features colorful tassels at the base. It’s machine-washable in cold water and is durable.
What you should consider: It might shrink by a couple of inches after washing.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
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Angela Watson writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:22:01
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Which Canon DSLR camera is best?
In the age of smartphones, digital cameras can seem like a thing of the past. However, if you’re serious about taking pictures or video, a DSLR camera is a must. And there’s no better way to get into high-tech cameras than by sticking to a trusted brand like Canon. Canon offers a wide range of DSLR cameras for novices and professionals alike.
This Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Memory Card Bundle is a great option, and it features the renowned EOS 5D Mark IV body as well as a bonus memory card.
What to know before you buy a Canon DSLR camera
What is a DSLR camera?
People throw around the term DSLR a lot, but few know much about digital single-lens reflex cameras. DSLRs use a swinging mirror to filter images into the camera’s sensor, thus capturing a digital still that’s saved to your memory card. Don’t confuse this with mirrorless cameras, which let light pass directly through to the sensor. DSLR cameras offer more access to lenses, easier-to-use viewfinders and better pictures.
Use
How you plan to use your Canon DSLR camera will help determine which camera is right for you. If you need it for professional use, you may want one of the higher-end cameras with a few lenses to keep on hand. However, you can also expect to spend a lot more on these. Alternatively, if you’re a hobby photographer just starting out or want to upgrade to a better camera, you might consider some of the more affordable options.
Full-frame vs. APS-C sensors
You can buy DSLR cameras with two different types of sensors. The most common sensor is a full-frame, which takes photos the same size as a classic 35-millimeter camera. The other sensor type you can find in a DSLR is an APS-C image sensor. APS-C sensors have a slightly smaller frame than full-frame sensors, and they offer less dynamic range as a result. Still, you may prefer cameras with APS-C sensors for their smaller size or more affordable price point.
What to look for in a quality Canon DSLR camera
Resolution
Canon tends to categorize its cameras by the resolution. Resolution refers to the number of pixels a sensor capture at once, with higher resolutions capturing more megapixels. If you plan to shoot video, you may want to consider what resolution video the DSLR camera captures. For example, many buyers prefer a camera that can capture 4K video resolutions, which isn’t supported by every DSLR.
ISO range
A camera’s ISO range refers to the amount of light a camera lets into the body. Wider ranges let photographers shoot in more versatile lighting conditions. If you plan to shoot photos in low-light, you’ll want to find a DSLR camera with a high ISO sensitivity of at least 6,400.
Lenses and other accessories
While many high-end cameras are pricey on their own, you can’t get very far without certain accessories. Most importantly, you won’t be able to shoot without a camera lens. Consider buying a camera bundle with lenses and other accessories, such as memory cards, tripods, flash units and protective bags.
How much you can expect to spend on a Canon DSLR camera
You can find cheap Canon DSLR camera bodies for around $500. For bundles including lenses or Canon’s high-end cameras, you can expect to spend $1,000-$3,000.
Canon DSLR camera FAQ
Do Canon DSLR cameras come with a lens?
A. Not necessarily. While some cameras come with a lens, others may only include the camera body. If you don’t already have a lens or don’t plan to buy one separately, you’ll need to purchase a camera bundle that includes a lens.
Can Canon DSLR cameras record 4K video?
A. Some of them can. If you plan to shoot 4K video, it’s important to make sure the camera you choose supports video recording at 4K resolutions before making your purchase.
What’s the best Canon DSLR camera to buy?
Top Canon DSLR camera
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV Full Frame DSLR Camera with CompactFlash Memory Card
What you need to know: This camera supports high-resolution video and includes a touchscreen. The bundle comes with a 128GB CompactFlash Memory Card.
What you’ll love: With an impressive ISO range of 100-32,000, this camera works well even in low-light conditions. It can also shoot in 4K at 24 or 30 frames per second. It can shoot at 60 frames per second in HD resolution.
What you should consider: The camera bundle is more expensive than some.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Canon DSLR camera for the money
Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR Camera Bundle with Canon EF-S 18-55 Millimeter Lens
What you need to know: This bundle comes with everything you need to get shooting, including a case, lens, tripod, flash, two memory cards and more.
What you’ll love: The camera body features a full-frame sensor and an 18-55 millimeter lens. The bundle also includes a strap, a lens filter kit, chargers and a battery pack. It also comes with a one-year warranty.
What you should consider: The camera struggles with continuous shots and can only shoot video in resolutions up to 1080p.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Canon EOS 4000D Rebel T100 DSLR Camera with Canon EF-S 18-55 Millimeter Lens
What you need to know: This is another excellent bundle that offers basics, such as a case, memory card, lens, flash, two tripods and a strap.
What you’ll love: The camera features an 18-megapixel APS-C sensor and video recording up to 30 frames per second at 1080p. This camera also includes Wi-Fi and an extended ISO up to 12,800. This bundle comes with a standard 18-55 millimeter lens and several other accessories.
What you should consider: This camera doesn’t have a full-size sensor, and it also doesn’t support shooting in 4K video resolutions.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Peter McGuthrie writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which laptop docking station is best?
Today’s most portable and efficient laptops are better at a lot of tasks than full-size desktop PCs from just a few years ago, but they’re still limited to relatively small keyboards and displays. There’s also a lack of USB and other ports on a number of popular notebook PCs. One great way around these limitations is to add a docking station or hub to your setup, so you can plug in your laptop and instantly have an additional display, storage device, keyboard and mouse.
The most full-featured laptop docking station on the market is the Cable Matters Hybrid Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station, which has a wide selection of expansion ports and is certified to meet the high-end Thunderbolt 4 specification.
What to know before you buy a laptop docking station
Docking stations vs. hubs
While they have different names, docking stations and hubs accomplish very similar goals. The best ones connect via USB-C cable and add USB expansion ports, SD card readers, ethernet jacks and the like. The main differences are twofold. Docking stations are generally much larger than hubs, and they usually have their own power supply that allows for USB-C pass-through charging. In contrast, hubs are often compact enough to slide easily into a laptop bag, and you almost always have to supply your own USB-C PD power brick if you want to use the charging function.
Stick with a dependable manufacturer
It’s especially important to opt for reputable brand names when dealing with peripherals that provide power to your sensitive electronics. When possible, give extra consideration to products that are USB-IF certified. This is the organization responsible for setting and upholding USB standards, and their certification means a lot in terms of device safety.
What to look for in a quality laptop docking station
DisplayLink graphics controllers
Most laptop graphics processing units are notoriously underpowered, and some laptop hardware is restricted by design from driving more than a single secondary monitor. The DisplayLink chipsets found in some docks and hubs function as add-on GPUs that offload the graphics workload to the CPU and make it possible to use dual external monitors with GPU-challenged laptops.
They’re remarkably effective when set up correctly. Bear in mind that you may need to update your graphics drivers and tweak your graphics settings slightly to get DisplayLink outputs to work perfectly.
Ethernet jack
Wired network connections are significantly more stable, with lower ping times, better security and often higher speeds than Wi-Fi delivers. However, a lot of new laptops don’t have built-in ethernet jacks, though many of the most affordable USB-C hubs do.
SD card readers
Considering SD and microSD cards have impressively high capacities these days, adding one to a dock essentially turns it into an external storage drive. Card readers are also necessities for photo and video professionals, and not all laptops have them.
Plenty of USB ports
While a quality USB-C hub can do many things, make sure it has the most basic of expansion ports. Consider how many Type-A and Type-C devices you could possibly need to use at once, and make sure the docking station you’re considering can accommodate them.
USB Power Delivery charging
For peak convenience, make certain that your new dock supports USB PD power pass-through. The entire point of these products is convenience, so why get one that requires you to plug in multiple cables?
How much you can expect to spend on a laptop docking station
The most affordable USB-C hubs cost about $30, while the best premium docking stations cost just over $300.
Laptop docking station FAQ
What are the best USB-C power bricks?
A. The best currently on the market are the ones that use gallium nitride technology that results in a compact, efficient charger. For example, this one from Nekteck can deliver 100 watts over a single cable.
Do streaming services like Netflix work over a docking station?
A. Not usually. Unfortunately, the majority of docking stations don’t support the HD Copy Protection protocol that services like Netflix require in order to access their Full HD and 4K streams. Some simple USB-C video adapters do, but even that depends on which protocol your laptop uses to output video via the USB-C port. Ultimately, it’s hard to definitively answer this question because it changes on a case-by-case basis.
What’s the best laptop docking station to buy?
Top laptop docking station
Cable Matters Hybrid Thunderbolt 3 Docking Station
What you need to know: It has more ports than nearly any other and is engineered to work perfectly with all USB standards.
What you’ll love: Whether your peripherals use base-level USB-C technology or the high-speed Thunderbolt 4 protocol, this advanced dock is compatible. Both of its video outputs support either HDMI or DisplayPort connectors. It’s one of the few docks with a UHS-II SD card reader, which is considerably faster than the more common UHS-I version. There are a whopping seven USB expansion ports.
What you should consider: This kind of full-featured equipment doesn’t come cheap.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top laptop docking station for the money
What you need to know: While it’s far smaller than a traditional docking station, it offers the basic functionality that most people need and costs very little.
What you’ll love: It can pass up to 85 watts via USB-C Power Delivery, which is enough for a number of popular laptops. There are multiple USB expansion ports in addition to an HDMI port, as well as full-size and microSD card readers. Plus, it’s about as compact and affordable as they come.
What you should consider: Like many compact USB-C hubs, its HDMI output is limited to 30 hertz at 4K, and it doesn’t come with a power supply, so you’ll have to get your own.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Wavlink USB-C 5K Docking Station
What you need to know: If you’re having trouble getting your laptop to work right with two external displays, this advanced yet reasonably priced dock can help.
What you’ll love: The most notable feature of this docking station is that it’s equipped with a DisplayLink graphics controller that enables nearly all laptops to drive up to two external monitors. This is especially relevant if you’re using a MacBook or an older laptop with limited graphics processing capabilities. There’s also an ethernet port and a few USB slots. Unlike most other Wavlink docking stations, this one does in fact support USB Power Delivery, at a clip of up to 65 watts.
What you should consider: For best results, you may have to reinstall or tweak some drivers on Windows, particularly if your laptop has an AMD Radeon graphics card.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Great for high-powered laptops
What you need to know: It’s intended specifically for laptops that draw up to 130 watts.
What you’ll love: The vast majority of USB-C Power Delivery docks are limited to 100 watts or less; in fact, that’s actually part of the USB-C specification. This high-end option from Dell boasts a maximum of 130 watts of USB-C PD charging. That’s technically out-of-spec, but it’s trusted because Dell is a highly reputable manufacturer and it recommends this dock for use specifically with some of its most popular laptops.
What you should consider: It’s remarkably expensive and doesn’t have quite the connectivity options of many others.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Chris Thomas writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:22:15
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Is Apple or PC best for gaming?
Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS are the two most popular operating systems, and they’re both relatively accessible to the average user. While neither is terribly difficult to use, they have considerably different pros and cons and are most useful for very different things.
If you want a smooth user experience, like to work with audio, photo or video editing software and only casually play some low-impact games, an Apple computer is a great choice. If you have any interest in playing the latest AAA titles at high resolutions and frame rates, a Windows PC is an absolute must-have.
Apple gaming computers
The first difference between Apple and Windows computers is that Apple allows for basically zero customization on the hardware level. In fact, it’s a violation of Apple’s copyright to install macOS on a non-Apple computer, which means you can’t actually build your own Apple computer.
The advantage of this from Apple’s standpoint is it can optimize its operating system to work best with specific components and configurations that Apple has complete control over. The result of this optimization is an OS that makes efficient use of the hardware and delivers an unparalleled user experience. Tweaking your Windows PC to run just right can take some insight and patience, but macOS is powerful and easy to use from the first time you boot it up.
Unfortunately, if you want to play the latest, most cutting-edge 3D games, Apple and its operating system don’t have much going for them. Because few Apple computers have the necessary hardware, there are very few advanced games available for the platform. On the other hand, there are plenty of casual games available for macOS, such as top-down adventure games and puzzle games.
Apple gaming computer pros
- Great for non-gaming uses: Apple PCs are incredibly popular for photo and video editors. This is partly because programs like Adobe Photoshop are optimized to run smoothly on macOS and partly because Apple’s display quality is generally unmatched in terms of resolution and color accuracy.
- User-friendly experience: For the most part, Apple computers work perfectly out of the box with little to no configuration or tweaking.
- Fun casual games: There’s a decent selection of games that work with Macs. In particular, the new M1 chipset that powers the latest round of MacBooks is relatively good at medium-impact games like The Sims 4, Stardew Valley and Slay the Spire. There’s also a good variety of exciting, fast-paced games from just a few years ago that are confirmed to work on the new chipset. These include Rise of the Tomb Raider, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Bioshock Remastered.
Apple gaming computer cons
- High prices: Apple computers consistently cost more than Windows PCs with comparable hardware.
- Subpar performance: The components inside Apple computers simply aren’t powerful enough to run the latest 3D games.
- Limited premium game catalog: Since the code it runs on is so different from Windows, macOS lacks support for many games. A developer has to spend significant resources to create a macOS-compatible version of a game written for Windows, and few large outfits take the time to do that because Apples lack the necessary firepower for high-end graphics.
Best Apple computers for gaming
This is a good all-around laptop with high performance due to its groundbreaking new Apple chipset. It offers great performance on casual games and passable performance in more intense 3D titles.
Sold by Amazon
If you want to play the most resource-intensive games available to Mac users, consider the 2021 MacBook Pro M1 instead. Its 14-core graphics processing delivers high frame rates in a wide variety of exciting titles.
Sold by Amazon
Windows gaming computers
Windows PCs are and have been the top choice for dedicated gamers for many years. The ability to build a custom computer lets each user set their own performance level, but it can also add a significant degree of difficulty. Nonetheless, if you want to play flashy first-person shooters in Ultra HD at 120 frames per second, a Windows gaming PC is your only option.
Windows gaming PC pros
- A nearly endless catalog: One of the biggest upsides of PC gaming is that there’s practically no limit to the selection of games you can play. If your hardware can handle it, you can run nearly any software program released to the platform in the last couple of decades.
- Impressive performance levels: If you can afford premium hardware and know how to tweak it just right, a Windows PC can deliver performance that even Apple’s top-of-the-line hardware can’t match.
- Customizable hardware: The ability to pick and choose your components lets you set a specific budget for your gaming PC. By comparison, Apple computers force you to pay a particularly high price regardless of if you’ll use every single one of a MacBook’s premium features.
Windows gaming PC cons
- Configuration can be a little tricky: If you’re new to PCs or electronics in general, setting up a Windows PC can be confusing at first. Since Windows is designed to work with such a huge variety of hardware configurations, there are often hiccups in terms of how the software communicates with other software and the components. This is even more pronounced if you decide to tweak your setup for enhanced performance using methods such as overclocking.
- They’re still not cheap: Due to external forces like raw material shortages and massively increased demand, it’s surprisingly hard to get your hands on powerful components without spending an arm and a leg.
Best Windows gaming desktop computers
Its Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 makes easy work of some of today’s most exciting titles.
Sold by Amazon
While it’s not the most powerful PC, it runs most games just fine and is ideal if you’re willing to save up for some upgrades in the next year or so.
Sold by Amazon
It’s a compact desktop PC packed with your choice of some of the most advanced components on the market. The only downside is that it costs quite a bit.
Sold by Amazon
Best Windows gaming laptop computers
It offers a great balance of price and performance and is equipped with a 17-inch screen that can display up to 240 frames per second.
Sold by Amazon
This one is an excellent value on a 17-inch gaming laptop that makes surprisingly few sacrifices.
Sold by Amazon
If you demand peak performance from high-end components, this is the one for you.
Sold by Amazon
Should you get a Windows or Apple gaming computer?
If you’re focused on high-resolution, resource-intensive gaming, a Windows gaming PC is definitely the right choice. If you’re only interested in casual or older games and want something that can make your creative or professional life easier, Apple computers (particularly the new MacBooks) are more fun than ever.
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Chris Thomas writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:22:22
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Which controller for PC gaming is best?
The traditional way of playing games on a computer is to use a keyboard and mouse combination. That might work for most games, but titles like fighting games or racing benefit more from having a controller.
Driving accuracy is greatly improved, and the button combinations are easier to press on a controller. The best device is an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 if you have a Windows-based computer, as it easily connects to your PC.
What to know before you buy a controller for PC gaming
Compatibility with your PC
Several gaming controllers are available, but you must check that it is compatible with your setup as most will only work with Windows 10. If you have an older operating system or use Linux, you could struggle to get it connected. It will also be beneficial to make sure that you have, at the very least, a USB 2.0 port available.
Connection method used
The easiest connection method for a gaming device is to use a USB-powered controller. Then, you only have to plug the USB into your PC, and the controller will be registered. If you don’t want to deal with cables, you can opt for a wireless connection. But, unless your PC has a built-in Bluetooth receiver, you’ll need an adapter for the controller to work.
Button layout
There are generally two standard button layouts in gaming: the Xbox and PlayStation controller configuration. Consider which format feels more comfortable to you, and look for a controller that uses that layout. For example, Xbox controllers have an off-set thumbstick, while a PlayStation controller has different icons for the face buttons.
What to look for in a quality controller for PC gaming
Customizable button configuration
Most controllers have a standard button configuration (a button is permanently assigned to a specific action), but some good-quality controllers will let you change that. In addition, you can change what certain buttons do if the computer game doesn’t allow for remapping through button mapping software.
Haptic feedback
Console gaming is known for shaking or vibrating the controller while playing. These vibrating effects are known as haptic feedback. You can get the same rumble effect when playing on a PC if you get a good-quality controller that supports haptic feedback. The PlayStation equivalent is called haptic rumble, which works on the same principle by spinning small motors inside the device.
Resistance in the triggers
The two triggers on either side of the controller are some of the most used buttons in any game. To provide you with a more immersive experience, a good-quality controller will slightly resist the triggers for more accurate control. This is great for driving games where controlled acceleration is necessary or shooting games where you want to squeeze the trigger gently.
How much you can expect to spend on a controller for PC gaming
The average price of a PC gaming controller will largely depend on the manufacturer and the device’s capabilities. A solid entry-level controller can retail for $40-$70, whereas a professional model can retail for $200-$500.
Controller for PC gaming FAQ
Are there accessories for PC gaming controllers?
A. Yes, many manufacturers allow third-party accessories to be used with their gaming controllers. This can range from grips on the thumbsticks to different color faceplates and covers. They allow you to customize your controller to fit your desired aesthetic.
How long do wireless controller batteries last?
A. How long they last will depend on the controller and the size of the battery, but a reasonable estimate would be between four to six hours on a single charge.
What’s the best controller for PC gaming to buy?
Top controller for PC gaming
Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2
What you need to know: Considered by many to be the gold standard, the Xbox controller is one of the most-used accessories for PC gaming.
What you’ll love: It connects to a PC through the included USB-C cable and features adjustable-tension thumbsticks, a wraparound rubberized grip and shorter hair-trigger locks. You can also change the button mapping. The trigger and directional pad are customizable, and the controller has a battery life of around 40 hours.
What you should consider: It’s a great controller for PC gaming, but some of the features are only available for Xbox consoles.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top controller for PC gaming for the money
What you need to know: The Recon is an excellent controller if you are looking for an affordable accessory with plenty of features.
What you’ll love: Using the Xbox controller’s button layout, the Recon additionally features microphone controls and game volume buttons. It has textured grips and triggers and two mappable quick-action options. The Recon has four Turtle Beach presets that fine-tune the controller’s responsiveness. In addition, the controller has vibration feedback.
What you should consider: The controller isn’t available in a wireless version.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
SCUF Instinct Pro Wireless Controller
What you need to know: SCUF has made a name for itself as a good-quality accessories provider, and many gamers prefer it for customizable options.
What you’ll love: Available in five different colors, the Instinct features four rear paddles that can be remapped. The new adjustable triggers let you swap between instant and regular button registration, and the thumbsticks are interchangeable. The wireless controller connects to a PC through a USB cable and is compatible with Windows 10, Xbox One, and Android.
What you should consider: Some users have indicated that the controller can suffer from stick drift after some time. That is when a thumbstick doesn’t remain in the center, causing the camera or character to drift to one side slowly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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| 2022-04-08T12:22:29
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Which sublimation printer for beginners is best?
Sublimation can be a lucrative opportunity for novice entrepreneurs to create customized products for a niche market. While the process is not complicated, selecting the right equipment can make the difference between a successful venture and one that goes nowhere.
For the beginner, making their first T-shirt or printing a custom line of mugs or glassware, the sublimation printer may be their most important tool. Several printer manufacturers make excellent sublimation printers suited for both beginners and experienced users, but the Epson EcoTank ET-15000 is the top choice.
What to know before you buy a sublimation printer for beginners
What is sublimation?
Sublimation is a printing method that transfers a design onto a fabric or other material using ink and heat. The procedure is widely used in the apparel industry to modify shirts, T-shirts, pants, cotton fabric and more, according to the latest fashion trends.
In the sublimation process, the ink becomes infused into the fabric, a technique that differs from digital printing where images and color are printed on the surface of the material.
Sublimation begins with a wide-format inkjet printer that prints dye-sub inks on a special transfer paper. Using a heat press, the ink is then heat transferred from the paper onto fabric and converted from a solid to a gas, permanently embedding it into the polyester fibers. The result is a long-lasting, full-color image that won’t crack or peel and is less prone to fading even with multiple washings, while a digital print is subject to rapid decay.
Tools needed for sublimation printing
Sublimation printer
While several printer companies offer sublimation printers, both Epson and Sawgrass offer high-quality printers at reasonable prices for sublimation beginners.
Sawgrass printers are exclusively dedicated to sublimation printing, while Epson printers come from the factory using inkjet technology for normal printing. Once you have converted an EcoTank or traditional cartridge Epson inkjet printer for sublimation printing, you can’t go back to printing with normal ink on paper.
Sublimation paper
Customized logos, works of art and any picture or designs consisting of a full spectrum of color can be printed on sublimation paper.
Based on a normal paper substrate, the special sublimation paper has a coating made with about 35% silica and 5% binder to hold the dye sublimation inks. Copy printer paper does not work as well because it is a poor carrier of ink. If the colors bleed through, they could damage the printer.
Raster image processor software
Raster image processor (RIP) software translates computer vector files created by programs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, JPG, PDF and more, to a bitmap (raster image) composed of a matrix of dots that the printer interprets and prints.
Some sublimation printers include RIP software, but with others, it must be purchased independently. Make sure the software you select is compatible with your sublimation printer.
Heat press
Once the design has been printed on sublimation paper, it must be transferred to the designated materials such as T-shirts, tablecloths, coffee mugs and others, using a heat press.
Four main types of heat presses are used for sublimation:
- Calendar heat press: These are used for printing on larger soft materials such as clothes, sportswear, flags, fabric signs and interior decorations. The calendar heat press typically handles the small production of cut piece jobs and roll-to-roll.
- Small heat press: The small footprint makes this heat press ideal for smaller items such as handheld kitchenware.
- Flatbed heat press: While this press can be used for printing on apparel, it works well for harder material and most flat objects which can be heated above 200°C.
- 3D vacuum heat press: Designed for sublimating on items with diverse shapes and edges, this press is ideal for smaller objects without flat surfaces.
What to look for in a quality sublimation printer for beginners
Resolution
Resolution is the most important feature of a sublimation printer. High resolution means vibrant and detailed high-quality images.
To create a sharp print, the source design or photo needs enough pixels for the size at which it will be sublimated. A larger print size requires more pixels. Typically, artwork and photos between 150 and 300 dpi produce sharp printouts, but above 300 dpi is required for high-definition prints.
Most desktop printers can print up to 1200 by 1200 dpi.
Device compatibility
Look for a sublimation printer that not only produces high-quality prints but is also compatible with various types of media and multiple connectivity standards (Wi-Fi, USB, Ethernet). Many printers are multifunctional and can be used for embroidery, printing, and transferring more accurately than traditional methods.
Type of ink
Transferring graphics from paper to fabric or other material requires the use of a special ink capable of converting from a solid-state liquid to a gas.
These dispersed dyes (commonly called “dye-sub inks”) are available in vibrant colors and permanently bond to the finished product. Many sublimation printers come with dye-sub inks but for others, they must be purchased separately. For example, the Sawgrass printers include the Sublijet UHD Sublimation Inks starter kit ink cartridges. Make sure to select an ink that is compatible with your printer.
How much you can expect to spend on a sublimation printer for beginners
Entry-level inkjet printers for home or small business use that can be converted to sublimation printers sell for less than $300 while dedicated high-quality sublimation printers for beginners cost about $900.
Sublimation printer for beginners FAQ
How do I get the best results of sublimation printing?
A. Good sublimation printing results not only depend on a quality printer but also a high-quality heat press. The device must produce consistent pressure and temperature. Swing-away presses are recommended because they can accommodate thicker objects.
How long should sublimation be pressed?
A. The sublimation heat-press settings depend mainly on the type of substrate being used. For example, garments made of 100% polyester usually require around 385-400 degrees and 45-60 seconds at medium pressure.
What’s the best sublimation printer for beginners to buy?
Top sublimation printer for beginners
What you need to know: This printer uses a high-density print chip that generates about 40 million precise dots per second to create accurate prints, and a simple change of ink converts it to an excellent wide format 13×19 sublimation printer.
What you’ll love: The EcoTank ET-15000 is a multifunction printer with 2.7 inches color touch screen, scanner, copier, fax and ethernet capabilities. Epson includes low-cost replacement bottles that save up to 90% on ink.
What you should consider: Some users report the printer is more complex to use initially than competitive products.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top sublimation printer for beginners for the money
What you need to know: The EcoTank ET-2720 makes an excellent sublimation printer at a reasonable price that creates stunning prints on T-shirts, coffee mugs or other dye sublimation items.
What you’ll love: The unique micro piezo heat-free technology produces impressive color graphics and photos on any paper type including coated sublimation paper. Like the EcoTank ET-15000, the ET-2720 uses a cartridge-free solution with high-capacity, easily refillable ink tanks that save up to 90% on ink costs.
What you should consider: Users report the screen is too small, and the print speed is only average.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Sawgrass Virtuoso SG500 Printer
What you need to know: The super bundle package includes a complete set of Sublijet UHD inks, 440 sheets of Instant Dry Sublimax brand sublimation paper and five rolls of heat tape to get your sublimation printing business off to a good start.
What you’ll love: The Creative Studio online designer software and stock design library developed by saw grass are included. The printer includes a two-year warranty and partner plus support from Sawgrass to make sure your sublimation printing business gets off to a good start.
What you should consider: Although the print quality is excellent, the replacement ink is pricey.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jeff Harper writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/printers-office-electronics-br/best-sublimation-printer-for-beginners/
| 2022-04-08T12:22:36
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https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/printers-office-electronics-br/best-sublimation-printer-for-beginners/
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Which small lampshade is best?
Small is a matter of opinion and a function of necessity. A lampshade may appear large on its own but look small when placed on its intended lamp, or vice versa. One must also consider the shape of the lampshade. Graceful curves may make the lampshade seem smaller than it is, while a blocky square looks large even if it’s only 8 by 8 by 8 inches.
The best small lampshade is the Alucset Small Barrel Lampshade, as it’s a classic design with many color options.
What to know before you buy a small lampshade
Size
“Small” in lampshades can mean one of two things: it’s small overall, or it’s small for the lamp. Lampshades that are small overall are good; they’re rarely larger than 8 inches tall and 10 inches at their widest. Lampshades that are small for the lamp look bad — like putting a thimble on your big toe.
To find what size lampshade you need, start by measuring the widest portion of your lamp, wherever it may be, and double that number. This is the appropriate top and/or bottom width for your lampshade. Then, measure the height of your lamp to find the appropriate lampshade height — it should be two-thirds of that number. If any of your results are larger than 8-10 inches, you’ll likely need to search for medium or large lampshades instead. Also, floor lampshade heights don’t have a formula — they just need to be tall enough to cover the bulb and fitter.
Fitter
Small lampshades use one of three fitter types: uno, spider or clip-on.
- Uno fitters are placed over the light bulb socket and secured by screwing in the bulb on top. They’re uncommon for small lampshades.
- Spider fitters are the most common. They rest on top of a harp above the light bulb. Most lamps include a harp, and most spider-fitted lampshades are compatible with most harps.
- Clip-on fitters clip onto the bulb directly. These are uncommon for any size lampshade, as light bulb shapes vary too greatly.
What to look for in a quality small lampshade
Material
Most lampshades are made from paper or cotton, though many other materials are used.
- Paper and cotton shades diffuse light the best and are affordable to make. Paper is good for those who like to “arts and crafts” their small lampshades.
- Other materials include silk, parchment and metal. Metal especially is different as many have no actual shade, instead looking like a cage has been placed over the bulb.
Lining
The lining’s thickness and material have the greatest effect on how much light is let through.
- Thick liners let less light through than thin ones, but they’re also better at helping the lampshade retain its shape over time.
- Material mostly affects the appearance of the light coming through. Metallic liners reflect light in interesting patterns, for example, while colored liners change the color.
How much you can expect to spend on a small lampshade
Small lampshades are usually lower in cost thanks to their smaller material requirements, but they can still cost $100-plus if they use pricey materials and come from a designer brand. Most cost $20-$50.
Small lampshade FAQ
Does the color of a small lampshade matter?
A. Yes. A lampshade’s color changes the appearance and strength of your lamp’s light. For example, a black lampshade is much dimmer than a white lampshade. Another example would be the difference between a dark and light green lampshade. They both cause your lamp’s light to be greenish, but the lighter green is brighter and greener than the darker color. If you want a lampshade that doesn’t change your room’s aesthetics too much, go with a medium-thickness white model.
Can I personalize small lampshades?
A. Yes, though some lampshades are easier to personalize than others. Paper lampshades are the best for personalization as paper can hold many materials, such as paint or glue for making a 3D design. You can also glue light-blocking shapes to the liner of a plain lampshade for special “secret” designs only seen when the lamp is on, though small lampshades don’t have much space to play around with this idea.
Does pleating change the way light moves through a small lampshade?
A. No, pleating won’t limit the amount of light that shines through the small lampshade. It affects your home’s aesthetics, however, as pleating is considered old-fashioned or rustic compared to the sleeker, flat-fronted lampshades of today.
What’s the best small lampshade to buy?
Top small lampshade
Alucset Small Barrel Lampshade
What you need to know: This is a classic design at a great price.
What you’ll love: It’s 6 by 10 by 7.5 inches, making it a perfect choice for small table lamps. It comes in 10 color and material combinations, plus it’s made by hand. It uses spider fitters and is compatible with most harps.
What you should consider: Some consumers received lampshades that highlighted black markings on the inner material layer that can’t be accessed to fix without tearing into the lampshade.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top small lampshade for the money
Cleveland Vintage Clip-On Metal Lampshade
What you need to know: Shake up your interior design with this wire lampshade.
What you’ll love: The metal slats offer a unique design that allows the bulb to take center stage, which is highly effective for color-changing smart lights. You can add your own designs by attaching personalized paper or threading strings in interesting patterns. It clips directly to the bulb.
What you should consider: The 8 by 7 by 4.5-inch size is small, even for the smallest table lamps. Some consumers had issues with the clips not securing tightly enough.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Aspen Creative Transitional Drum Lampshade
What you need to know: This lampshade is modern and elegant.
What you’ll love: The off-white color and lightly painted grass look beautiful without the light of a bulb and glow with the light. It uses a spider fitter that’s compatible with most harps. It’s 8 by 8 by 8 inches for an evenly measured look.
What you should consider: Some consumers received dented or otherwise broken shades, while others had issues with the designs peeling off shortly after purchase.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:22:43
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When should you aerate your lawn?
Anyone who owns a home knows a great lawn doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a lot of planning and maintenance to get lush green grass that’s the envy of all your neighbors. Regular watering, mowing and fertilizing are important, but they won’t do anything for you if your soil doesn’t provide the right growing conditions.
Over time, soil can become so compacted that it doesn’t let nutrients reach the roots, where they can do the most good. Lawn aeration is a simple process that solves this problem. To get the best results, though, it is important to do it at the proper time — otherwise, you may be doing more harm than good.
The purpose of lawn aeration
In lawn aeration, you perforate your lawn with many small holes, breaking up heavily compacted soil so water, nutrients and oxygen can better reach the roots. This improves grass’s drought tolerance, so it can handle harsh weather better. It also improves drainage and encourages faster, better growth. The roots will grow deeper, letting them reach nutrients and water further down in the soil.
How often to aerate your lawn
You’ll be happy to know you don’t need to aerate it frequently. How often depends on the type of soil you have and how much foot traffic it gets. If your soil has a high clay content or is highly trafficked, you should aerate it once a year. Most other lawns only need to be aerated every two to three years as long as they are growing well and look healthy.
Signs that your lawn needs aeration
There are several signs that may indicate your lawn needs aeration.
- It begins to turn brown after just a few days of hot weather
- Water puddles on the surface after rain
- The grass isn’t growing or is growing slowly
- There are lots of bald or worn spots
- The grass is noticeably thinning
- There is a heavy buildup of thatch
If you are still unsure if your lawn needs aeration after seeing some of these signs, there are two tests you can perform. Try sticking a shovel into the soil. If it is difficult to penetrate, it is too heavily compacted. You can also dig into a section of your lawn and inspect the roots. If they don’t extend at least 2 inches, your soil likely needs aeration.
The best time to aerate your lawn
Though aeration helps your lawn, it also stresses it. To ensure it recovers quickly from any damage, only aerate it during its peak growing season. This varies based on the type of grass you have and your location. In cool climates and for cold-season grasses, early spring and early fall are good times. For hotter climates and warm-season grasses, late spring and early summer are best.
Types of lawn aerators
Lawn aerators come in two types: spike and plug.
- Spike aerators are less effective but tend to be more affordably priced. They make very small holes and don’t require any cleanup afterward.
- Plug aerators remove small, cylindrical chunks of soil. They leave these strewn all over the lawn, so you’ll need to mow over them or manually remove them later, but this is much more effective.
Tips for aerating your lawn
Aerating a lawn isn’t difficult, but there are a few tips to follow that can help you get the most from it.
- Moisture: Avoid aerating when it is overly dry. Instead, do it a day or two after it rains. If Mother Nature isn’t being accommodating, water the lawn thoroughly the day before you aerate.
- Obstacles: Before you start, flag sprinklers and any other obstacles in the grass to avoid accidentally damaging them.
- Repeat: During aeration, make several passes over the most heavily compacted areas to ensure through perforation.
- New growth: When you have finished, fertilize your lawn and, if needed, spread grass seeds. Your soil will be the most receptive at this time.
What you need to buy for aerating your lawn
If you have a small lawn, these affordably priced manual aerator shoes are a good choice. They strap securely into place via sturdy metal buckles, and each features 13 heavy-duty spikes that penetrate nearly 2 inches into the soil.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Agri-Fab 45-0299 48-Inch Tow Plug Aerator
For large yards, a tow-behind model like this can help you get the job done as quickly as possible and with the least effort. It’s equipped with 32 galvanized knives that penetrate soil easily and pull out plugs up to 3 inches in size.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
These bright flags are easy to spot against green lawns and have strong spikes that rarely bend when you stick them in the ground. They come as a pack of 100, so you’ll have plenty, and they have a nice wallet-friendly price.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Scotts 76565 Turf Builder Classic Drop Spreader
Fertilizer needs to be applied evenly for the best results and a rolling drop spreader like this is the best way to do it. Its hopper can hold enough fertilizer or seeds to cover 10,000 square feet, and it spreads them in a 22-inch pattern to make short work of medium-sized yards.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/lawn-care-br/when-you-should-aerate-your-lawn/
| 2022-04-08T12:22:50
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Which black patio furniture is best?
Every homeowner’s favorite thing to have is a nice backyard patio. It’s a place to grill, sunbathe and entertain. It’s your own private park. But, like any room inside your home, you need some furniture to complete it. Black patio furniture is a good pick, thanks to how hard it is for wear and tear to show and the fact that it simply looks good in any yard.
A top choice for black patio furniture is the Grand Patio Five-Piece Patio Furniture Set. However, it’s best suited to cooler backyards.
What to know before you buy black patio furniture
Black patio furniture set types
There are three main types of black patio furniture sets: conversation, dining and bistro.
- Conversation sets are perfect for hanging out. They can include any number of seating combinations from only two to 10-plus. They usually include a small table, but nothing large enough to hold more than a few drinks.
- Dining sets are all about eating outside. They usually have at least four chairs, though larger sizes are more common, in addition to a sizable table.
- Bistro sets are somewhat of a combination. They include a small table that’s just big enough to hold plates of food plus two or four chairs.
Style
Patio furniture, even when restricted to a majority color black, comes in a huge variety of styles. There’s modern, minimalistic, rustic, vintage, post-modern, farmhouse and more. When shopping for styles, try to find a set that complements your home’s interior and exterior designs.
What to look for in quality black patio furniture
Frame material
Black patio furniture frames can be various materials, each with its own pros and cons.
- Iron frames are heavy, durable and expensive. Many are so heavy, wheels are installed on their undersides so you can move them around as needed. Most maintenance revolves around treating rust.
- Steel frames are lighter and nearly as durable, plus a little more affordable. They also require rust-related maintenance.
- Aluminum frames are light, affordable and naturally resistant to rust and corrosion. They also require little maintenance, though they can easily blow away in stiff winds.
- Plastic frames are cheap, recyclable and easy to move in and out of storage as needed. They don’t last, but they’re perfect for those who infrequently take advantage of their patios.
- Wicker frames are light and reasonably durable. They’re one of the most aesthetically pleasing options.
- Wood frames are beautiful but are expensive and high maintenance. There are dozens of woods to choose from, each with unique strengths and weaknesses.
Cushioning
Many black patio furniture sets include cushions. The best cushions have covers that are heavily outdoor-proof. This includes UV, water and wind resistance. They can also be removable and machine-washable.
How much you can expect to spend on black patio furniture
Black patio furniture sets cost anywhere between $100 and thousands of dollars. Most sets cost $100-$1,000, with the $500 area serving as a divider between sets of medium and high quality. Premium, specialty, designer and extra-large sets usually start around $1,500 and can reach unfathomable costs.
Black patio furniture FAQ
How hot can black patio furniture get?
A. Depending on the material and the exact temperature, pretty hot. Black metal frames can become positively boiling in high temperatures with direct sun exposure, although aluminum won’t get as hot as steel. Most black fabrics can become noticeably warmer but not so hot as to be uncomfortable.
How long does a set of black patio furniture last?
A. That depends on a few factors, including the quality of your set and how well you maintain it. The average set put into storage when adverse weather strikes and is reasonably maintained can last for many years. Treat a cheap set badly, and you’ll be lucky to get a year out of it. One method of gauging longevity is to check its warranty. Longer-lasting and more comprehensive warranties always point to a more durable set.
What’s the best black patio furniture to buy?
Top black patio furniture
Grand Patio Five-Piece Patio Furniture Set
What you need to know: If you live in a cooler climate, this set is perfect for you.
What you’ll love: This set includes four rocking chairs with grey cushions and a central gas-powered fire pit. The cushion covers are machine-washable, and the chairs use Velcro to prevent the cushions from sliding. The fire pit can reach 50,000 British thermal units, which is very hot.
What you should consider: Some consumers didn’t receive the fire pit with the chairs. Others struggled to follow the assembly instructions. A few had issues with the chairs bottoming out.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top black patio furniture for the money
Greesum Four-Piece Patio Furniture Set
What you need to know: This set is simple and affordable.
What you’ll love: This set includes one wide bench, two chairs and a glass-topped coffee table. The chairs use mesh for breathability and to allow precipitation to pass through. The frames are made of rust-resistant steel and have rubber feet for stability. It includes everything you need for assembly.
What you should consider: Some consumers struggled to assemble the set. They do offer expert assembly, but it is expensive. Others reported receiving damaged frames or mesh.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Flash Furniture Six-Piece Nantucket Black Patio Furniture Set
What you need to know: This is another great budget set.
What you’ll love: This set includes four chairs, a glass-topped table and an umbrella. The umbrella is easy to take down and set up as needed and the chairs fold up for simple storage. The chairs and table are powder-coated steel for durability. Most consumers found assembly easy.
What you should consider: Some consumers didn’t receive various parts, such as necessary assembly tools. The umbrella isn’t durable compared to the chairs and the table.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:22:53
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Which portable propane fire pits are best?
Everyone loves a warm and cozy fire on a chilly night. Not only do portable propane fire pits provide you with much-needed warmth, but they also create a pleasant ambiance that can elevate an ordinary evening into something special.
Portable propane fire pits allow you to avoid the hassle and mess of a traditional wood-burning campfire. You carry them to your desired location, attach the hose to your fuel tank and push a button to ignite the fire.
When choosing a portable propane fire pit, it makes sense that ease of transport should be a top priority. The Outland Living Firecube 805 stands out in this regard thanks to its included lid to keep the lava rocks contained and a strap that allows for one-handed carrying.
What to know before you buy a portable propane fire pit
Reasons to buy a portable propane fire pit
There are many reasons to use a portable propane fire pit when camping or enjoying an evening on the beach. Unlike wood fire pits, you don’t have to add more fuel to them by hand constantly. You also won’t be left with a messy pile of ashes to clean.
Additionally, starting a fire in a propane fire pit is as easy as pushing a button or turning a knob. You don’t have to mess around with kindling or lighter fluid. Propane fires hardly create any fumes, too, so you’ll never have to worry about getting a face full of smoke if the wind turns in your direction.
Another considerable benefit of portable propane fire pits is that CSA-approved models can often be used in locations that have a campfire ban. Make sure to double check the regulations in your jurisdiction first before doing so just to ensure you are conforming to local restrictions.
Portability
Since you’ll likely be taking your fire pit on the go, portability is the name of the game. Several factors contribute to portability, all of which you should consider carefully. The overall weight and size will dictate how easy a propane fire pit is to carry and pack inside a vehicle. Some models also include straps that serve the purpose of securing the lid in place, if there is one, and double as a carrying handle. Folding legs allow you to make a fire pit more compact during transport but can sacrifice stability when the pit is in use.
Heat
The amount of heat a portable propane fire pit produces is measured in British Thermal Units. Most range from as low as 30,000 Btu up to 60,000 Btu. Those with lower Btu ratings won’t be as effective for heating a large space, so you’ll need to huddle much closer to the fire pit to keep warm.
What to look for in a quality portable propane fire pit
Rust-resistant construction
Portable propane fire pits are used outdoors in a variety of weather conditions. Because of this, it is advisable to purchase models that have rust-resistant construction. These should feature a stainless steel burner, an enameled or powder-coated finish and a chromed, aluminum or plastic knob.
Ignition
Most portable propane fire pits feature an automatic ignition system that only requires you to push a button or turn a knob. This way, you never have to worry about remembering to bring along a lighter or matches. That said, it is best to double-check the description of any product you are buying just in case. A few select models aren’t equipped with an ignition system.
Cover
Though not a necessity, a cover that secures in place in some manner makes for more convenient transport of a fire pit. It will keep the lava rocks contained when on the go, so there is no chance of them spilling out and making a mess.
Hose length
Nearly all propane fire pits include a hose that measures between 5 and 10 feet in length. The longer the hose, the better because it allows you to keep the propane tank far out of the way.
How much you can expect to spend on a portable propane fire pit
Most portable propane fire pits cost between $125-$250.
Portable propane fire pit FAQ
Can I use a portable propane fire pit for cooking food?
A. The majority of portable propane fire pits are not designed for cooking food and do not come with a grate of any sort. That said, you can use them for roasting marshmallows and cooking other items that you can hold on a stick or suspend above the fire in some manner. Just be aware this will likely make your fire pit dirty.
What size propane tanks do portable fire pits use?
A. Portable fire pits can use any size propane tank as long as it fits the included regulator. Most people will be best served by a 5- or 10-pound tank, as these provide enough fuel for plenty of use without being so large and heavy they become a hassle to transport.
What’s the best portable propane fire pit to buy?
Top portable propane fire pit
What you need to know: The Firecube 805 gives off plenty of heat to keep a large group of people warm and is CSA-approved for use in most locations currently under a campfire ban.
What you’ll love: It has a 10-foot hose, so you can keep the propane tank nice and far away, and it includes a lid and carrying strap for convenient transport.
What you should consider: You need to wait for the unit to cool fully before placing the strap on it.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top portable propane fire pit for the money
Outland Living Firebowl 893 Deluxe
What you need to know: The Firebowl 893 provides just as much warmth as the Firecube but at a lesser cost to save you some money.
What you’ll love: It has cute campfire cutouts in the bowl that add to its charming ambiance. Plus, you’ll never have to worry about chrome control knob or stainless steel burner rusting.
What you should consider: At 23 pounds, it is a bit heavier than some other models.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: Though it can be a bit expensive when not on sale, the Sporty Campfire is a lightweight and highly convenient model that features folding legs.
What you’ll love: The sides of the fire pit have diamond perforations throughout that help distribute heat out the sides where it can better warm users rather than straight up and into the air. It boasts a 60,000 Btu rating, too, which is slightly more than most competing models.
What you should consider: There are reports of the automatic ignition not always working well on some units.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:00
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How do you play rugby?
Rugby is a full-contact sport played by two teams of 15 players. Each team tries to move an oval-shaped ball into the try zone to earn points. The ball may be run, passed or kicked. To stop a team’s advance, the opposing team can tackle the player with the ball. While this may sound like a vague description of another sport, rugby is not football.
The rules of play for this brutal sport are unique and, at times, complicated. Understanding the game may take a little effort, but remember: this is one of the most popular sports in the world.
A brief history of rugby
Roughly 100 miles northwest of London, there is a county in England called Warwickshire. In 1564, it was the birthplace of Shakespeare. Over two centuries later, it was the birthplace of rugby.
According to the lore, in 1823 a 16-year-old disruptor at an independent school named, appropriately enough, Rugby School, decided running with the ball should be allowed in soccer. So after catching the ball, instead of putting it down as the rules required, William Webb Ellis took off for the touch line. While this account is hard to verify, it is considered the origin of rugby.
The rugby field
A rugby field is a rectangle a little bigger than an American football field, about 328 feet long by 230 feet wide (100 meters by 70 meters). At either end there is a try zone — think end zone — at least 33 feet (10 meters) deep. At each end of the field, there is an H-shaped goal 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide and at least 52 feet (16 meters) high. The crossbar is 10 feet (3 meters) above the ground.
The mandatory field markings are a dead ball line, a goal line, a 24-yard (22-meter) line, an 11-yard (10-meter) line and a halfway line. There are also touchlines on either side of the field and a center spot for restarting the game after points have been scored.
The rules of rugby
Rugby can be difficult to understand, especially for Americans who try to compare it to American football. Here are basic guidelines that can help you get a quick grasp of the sport’s mechanics.
The object of rugby
Rugby is an 80-minute game played in two 40-minute halves with a short break between. There are 15 players from each team on the field, and each team has seven substitutes. If a player leaves the game for any reason other than an injury, they cannot return. The object of the game is to be the team with the most points at the end of the second half.
The basic rules of rugby
When a team has possession of the rugby ball, it tries to maneuver the ball down the field across the try line to score. To earn points, the ball must be placed firmly down on the ground in the opponent’s try zone. A player can run with the ball or pass it to the side or behind — never forward. A player can also kick the ball to move it down the field or attempt a drop kick, in which they drop the ball and kick it after it hits the ground, trying to get it through the goalposts.
To stop the first team’s progress, its opponents must tackle the player with the ball. All tackles must be made below the shoulders. While tripping with the foot is not allowed, an ankle tap, which is performed with the hand, is considered a tackle and is permissible. Once a player is tackled, they have one second to get up or release the ball to keep the game going. Often after a tackle, a ruck is formed over the ball as each team competes to win possession.
There are no timeouts in rugby. Play only stops if the ball goes out of bounds, there is an infraction or the ball is buried in a ruck or a maul — when the player with the ball is stopped, but not tackled and is joined by at least one player from his own team. The only time the clock stops is if there is an injury.
How to score in rugby
There are four ways to score points in rugby:
- A try: When a player places the ball on the ground in the in-goal area, the team gets five points.
- A conversion: After a successful try, a team gets the chance to make a two-point conversion kick.
- A penalty kick: Penalty kicks are worth 3 points.
- A drop kick: A kick that goes through the posts during regular play is worth three points.
What you need to buy for rugby
Gilbert USA International Replica Rugby Ball
If you need a practice ball to develop your rugby skills, this replica will suit your needs. It features the USA Rugby bald-eagle emblem and team colors and has a synthetic latex bladder for superior air retention.
Where to buy: Sold by Dick’s Sporting Goods
Adidas Men’s Nemeziz .4 FXG Soccer Cleats
To get traction on the field, you need a pair of cleats. These high-quality soccer cleats from Adidas are suitable for dry natural grass, artificial grass and hard ground.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Adidas Kids Goletto VIII FG Soccer Cleats
These youth cleats have soft, lightweight uppers and a lace closure. The built-in heel pad adds comfort while the forefront stitching gives the player greater control.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Since rugby is a full-contact sport, it is important to wear headgear. This soft helmet is made of polyester and high-density foam. It has an adjustable chin strap and rear laces to ensure a snug fit. The multiple air vents provide comfort to the wearer.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Shock Doctor Gel Max Mouthguard
Repairing (or replacing) teeth is costly. If you play rugby, you need a mouthguard. This model has a gel-fit liner and a breathing channel for protection and comfort. The heavy-duty frame protects teeth, cheeks and tongue during impact.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
“Rugby For Dummies” by Matthew Brown, Patrick Guthrie and Greg Growden
If you’d like to take a deep dive into all the rules and nuances of rugby, you’ll need a book. This one not only outlines the rules, it gives you fitness tips and game-winning strategies as well.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:07
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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.
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https://www.wmar2news.com/can-you-reverse-cavity
| 2022-04-08T12:23:13
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How do you make s’mores without a fire?
Although you can make s’mores over an open flame, such as a campfire, it’s not the only way to cook these favorite comfort foods. There are several s’more-making devices, which means you can make them indoors anytime you like, day or night.
Each s’mores maker — and method — is different, and you’ll need to examine them closely to choose the right one. And if you expect to make these delectable treats for parties, it might be worthwhile to purchase more than one s’mores maker so you can make several batches quickly.
What you need to know about making s’mores without a fire
What you need for s’mores
The classic s’mores recipe calls for only three ingredients — marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars. However, there are endless ways to customize s’mores if you’re so inclined.
You can add toppings to freshly roasted s’mores, including chocolate or caramel sauce, Marshmallow Fluff, Nutella and peanut butter. If you have a fondue pot, fill it with chocolate and dip your s’mores. And if you’re open to a fruity spin on the chocolatey treat, you can add thinly sliced strawberries or bananas inside.
How to make s’mores without a fire
If you’re wondering how to make s’mores without fire, it’s simple. All you need is a different heat source to melt marshmallows and other ingredients. You can find one in everyday appliances as well as flame-free s’mores makers.
Many people prefer flame-free methods for s’mores making, particularly for safety reasons. Although flameless s’mores makers have heating elements that should be used cautiously, they’re safer than s’mores makers with open flames.
How to make s’mores indoors
From s’mores makers to everyday kitchen appliances, it’s easy — and safe — to make s’mores indoors.
- Heated s’mores makers: Some tabletop s’mores makers have flameless heaters at the center of a tray. They’re popular for all-ages s’mores-making. However, because they have exposed heating elements, children must be supervised while using them.
- Microwave: Microwave marshmallows for approximately 20 to 30 seconds before adding them to s’mores. There are also a few microwavable appliances that hold ingredients together for easy roasting.
- Oven: Place s’ mores in an oven-safe tray and broil for about two minutes. There are also s’mores makers for ovens, namely wire racks that press ingredients together. Ovens have the greatest make more s’mores faster than other methods, so they’re typically preferred for entertaining.
- Air fryer: Arrange s’mores at the bottom of the basket and cook them at 390 degrees for five to eight minutes. Remove them carefully with nonstick-safe tongs or spatulas.
- Toaster oven: Preheat the toaster oven to 400 degrees. Place s’mores in evenly spaced rows on a compatible tray, and bake for three minutes or until gooey.
How much you can expect to pay for s’mores makers
Most novelty s’mores makers fall in the $15-$60 range. Premium electric flameless ones, however, run as high as $80 and above.
Best devices for making s’mores without a fire
Nostalgia Indoor Electric S’mores Maker
This s’mores maker features a Lazy Susan tray so everyone indulging has access to ingredients. It has a stainless steel base and easy-to-remove tray, making it simple to pack away after use.
Sold by Amazon
Progressive Prep Solutions Microwave S’mores Maker
A budget-priced option, this friendly little s’mores maker has two arms that sandwich ingredients together for easy microwave cooking in 30 minutes. The plastic device is dishwasher-safe for quick and easy cleanup.
Sold by Amazon
S’more To Love Six-S’more Maker
If you’re a fan of crunchy graham crackers for s’mores, oven baking is your best option. This wire rack holds six full-size s’mores and fits inside regular ovens, larger toaster ovens and grills. The slender rack, only 3 inches wide, can be stored vertically in pantries and kitchens.
Sold by Amazon
Sharper Image Electric Tabletop S’mores Maker
This premium stainless steel s’mores maker has a sleek design and an electric heating element. The tray is serving-friendly and presentation-worthy, with individual compartments that hold graham crackers, chocolate bars and marshmallows.
Sold by Amazon
Cosori Air Fryer Oven Combo Max XL
This jumbo air fryer has a large tray that fits plenty of s’mores, making it ideal for entertaining or large-batch cooking. Because the air fryer crisps as well as baking, s’mores come out with crunchy graham crackers and gooey centers.
It’s simple to make s’mores in this toaster oven, but it’s the only thing you can make with it. This affordable model has four cooking functions, including toast, bake, broil and keep warm. It fits up to four slices of bread and personal pizzas up to 9 inches.
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Sian Babish writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:13
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TIMONIUM — The 15th Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival starts Friday at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.
You can enjoy all kinds of great food including a whole pig.
Locally brewed beer and bourbon will also be featured with 60 different beers and 40 different bourbons to choose from.
Every guest this weekend gets a souvenir glass.
The festival runs from 6 pm to 10pm Friday and 12pm until 6pm Saturday. Tickets start at 42 dollars.
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https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/beer-bourbon-bbq-festival-starts-friday
| 2022-04-08T12:23:19
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Best workstation for patios
Patio workstations keep your gardening tools handy and organized in a single location. They come in a wide range of sizes, materials and designs, and many are quite stylish. If you need a new workstation for all your gardening supplies, there are a few things you’ll need to consider first before choosing the one that’s right for you. The Yaheetech Potting Bench is a top contender.
What to know before you buy a patio workstation
Patio workstation materials
Most patio workstations are made of metal, wood or a combination of both.
- Wood: Many wooden workstations come stained with water-resistant resins to avoid being damaged if they get wet. Some include vinyl overlays that keep the wood safe.
- Metal: Metal workstations are often heavier and more durable, but not as stylish.
Wooden ones are more popular, since they’re more affordable, attractive and easy to move. Still, metal is ideal for those who need a heavy-duty workstation.
Patio workstation features
Although you’re likely buying a workstation to store your tools, there are numerous additional features worth considering. Many workstations include removable dry sinks that can be used for mixing soil. In many cases, the countertop slides out of the way to reveal the sink. Some feature doors and drawers that lock to keep your children from playing with your tools. If you plan to move your workstation often, a model with wheels is ideal.
Patio workstation benefits
Patio workstations help you keep track of and protect your gardening tools. Options that include dry sinks make it easier to start seedlings and transplant plants. Additionally, potting benches keep you from hurting your back and knees by letting you stand while you work.
Patio workstation dimensions
Consider the amount of space you’ll need. Buying a workstation with a countertop that slides out to reveal a dry sink will conserve space. Most potting-bench countertops are around 18 inches deep and 40 inches wide.
Other ways to use patio workstations
Many patio workstations can be used to serve food and store grilling essentials if you’re having a cookout. If the workstation is the right height, and there isn’t a shelf under the countertop, patio workstations can be used as an outdoor work desk. Metal patio workstations can be stored in your garage to hold power tools.
What you can expect to pay for a patio workstation
Those with simple designs and standard materials often cost less than $100. If you want one with drawers, cabinets, a sink or other features, you may spend $130-$200.
Best workstation for your patio
Made of solid wood and metal, this is available in gray, light green and natural. It’s durable and has plenty of space for storage. When not being used for gardening, it can act as functional furniture for grilling out and entertaining guests.
Sold by Amazon
Convenience Concepts Deluxe Potting Bench
This can be purchased in light oak or natural fir with or without the cabinet and dry sink. The cabinet features a lock to keep your tools safe. The metal tabletop is relatively flimsy, but the wood is durable.
Sold by Amazon
Luckyermore Potting Bench Table
Made from solid wood, it has two wooden wheels on one side, letting you move it easily. It features a dry sink for mixing potting soils. Although it’s less durable than other models, it’s affordable and easy to assemble. Many users loved the compact size.
Sold by Amazon
Topeakmart Fir Wood Potting Bench
It is easy to set up, and this only takes about 30 minutes. It’s affordable and stylish in gray or brown. It has a straightforward design with plenty of open space. Users were surprised by how durable it is.
Sold by Amazon
AmeriHome Multiuse Potting Bench
It features a straightforward, durable design that lets you use it as a potting bench or workstation. The galvanized steel is weather resistant. Assembly can be tedious, but most users were thrilled with the outcome.
Sold by Home Depot
It has a small top shelf, a countertop, a dry sink and an additional shelf on the bottom. It’s made of fir and comes in gray or natural. This is durable, lightweight and easy to assemble.
Sold by Amazon
Best Choice Products Outdoor Mobile Garden Potting Bench
Its tabletop slides out to reveal a convenient dry sink. Four wheels for easy transport lock in place when stationary. It offers plenty of space, including a two-level upper shelf.
Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
Mupater Potting Bench with Removable Stainless Sink
It comes in gray or natural wood and has a spacious tabletop, a drawer and two sets of shelves. The durable sink is easy to use and removable. Assembly is straightforward.
Sold by Amazon
Giantex Natural Wood Potting Bench
Made using moisture-resistant wood and galvanized metal, it features convenient side hooks, a drawer and a locking cabinet door. The assembly instructions aren’t intuitive, but the final product is durable and spacious.
Sold by Amazon
Outsunny Outdoor Folding Metal Potting Bench
This features a compact, straightforward design. Assembly is simple and the instructions are easy to understand. This bench is lightweight but doesn’t support as much weight as many other benches.
Sold by Amazon
Aivituvin Potting Bench with PVC Layer
This has a small dry sink with a lid that extends the counter space. It’s durable and assembly is straightforward. The included vinyl overlay helps protect the wooden countertop.
Sold by Amazon
RMP Aluminum Greenhouse Potting Bench
This features holes in the aluminum countertop and shelf to keep it from retaining water. It’s sturdy, lightweight and easy to set up. The countertop and shelf are spacious.
Sold by Amazon
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Cody Stewart writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:20
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BALTIMORE — An amendment to extend the gas tax holiday by another 45 days failed to pass the General Assembly on Thursday.
State lawmakers have until Monday, April 11 to come up with a solution.
It's the last day of the legislative session, so if they don't pass an amendment to extend the gas tax holiday, it will expire at 11:59 at night on Saturday, April 16.
Maryland's gas tax holiday gives drivers a 30-day break on taxes paid at the pump.
It wiped off 36 cents per gallon of gas.
A driver filling up a 14-gallon tank once a week would have saved a little more than $5 dollars per fill up, or a little more than $20 for the month.
While a driver filling up an 18-gallon tank once a week would have saved about $6.50 or about $26 for the month.
It's not exactly an amount that would have families living in luxury but some lawmakers fear the impact extending the gas tax holiday could break the bank on the state's cash reserves.
When it was proposed, the gas tax holiday was celebrated and passed across party lines.
Now, a republican delegate's amendment to extend the gas tax holiday by another 45 days to get drivers through the memorial day holiday weekend failed on Thursday, in a vote of 47 to 82.
Democrats are worried extending holiday would hurt the state's transportation fund, money which is used to fix roads and bridges.
Some wonder if governor Hogan will step in to issue an executive order to extend the holiday; however, Hogan has said he'd like the federal government to offer its own gas tax holiday.
If lawmakers don’t find a last minute solution on Monday, the 36-cent savings per gallon goes away next weekend.
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https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/times-running-out-to-extend-marylands-gas-tax-holiday
| 2022-04-08T12:23:25
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The unprecedented, experimental program to feed starving manatees in Florida is ending, but the greater issue is the polluted water that causes the marine mammals to run out of their natural seagrass forage.
Wildlife officials said Thursday that more than 202,000 pounds (91,600 kilograms) of lettuce has been fed to manatees at a power plant on Florida’s east coast where the animals gather in cold months because of the warm water discharge. Most of the cost was through donations from around the world.
With summer’s onset, that effort is ending but probably will resume next winter. Many manatees are still stressed from chronic malnutrition that won’t disappear just because of warmer weather.
Yet, during an online news conference Thursday, officials said the feeding program — again, never done before with wild animals like manatees — was generally a success.
“Going into this, we had no idea how it would work and if it would work,” said Ron Mezich, one of the main Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials involved in the project. “We haven’t had discussions about next winter yet.”
Last winter, a record 1,100 manatees died largely from starvation because water pollutionfrom agricultural, septic tank, urban runoff and other sources has diminished their main winter food source along Florida’s east coast, especially the Indian River Lagoon that stretches from Cape Canaveral to the south.
So far this year, Florida officials have confirmed 479 manatee deaths, compared with more than 600 last year at this same time. Both are well above the five-year average of 287 manatee deaths in the time period.
There are only an estimated 7,520 of the animals in the wild today, according to the state wildlife commission.
Manatees are gentle round-tailed giants, sometimes known as sea cows, and weigh as much as 1,200 pounds (550 kilograms) and live as long as 65 years or so. Manatees are Florida’s official state marine mammal and are closely related to elephants.
Although the feeding program is seen as a success, many manatees are still debilitated from malnutrition and won’t immediately recover, officials said.
“They are still in trouble,” said Martine deWit, a marine mammal veterinarian with the FWC. “It does not mean they are getting better.”
Dozens of distressed manatees have been rescued and taken to places like SeaWorld in Orlando, zoos and aquariums in Florida and elsewhere around the country. As of Thursday, there were more than 80 manatees in care at 14 facilities, almost all suffering from starvation.
This is an unprecedented effort to save a threatened species that has long had difficulty coexisting with humans, from the pollution problem to boat strikes.
“We’re all going to keep working to see what we can do better,” said Teresa Calleson with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Aside from the feeding, there is an effort to restore the seagrass beds. Since 2009 about 58% of the seagrass has been lost in the Indian River Lagoon, state estimates show.
State lawmakers appropriated about $8 million for restoration efforts, including access to natural springs and planting new seagrass. This will take years, however, and some political will.
“What’s going to solve the problem is restoring the Indian River Lagoon,” said Tom Reinert, FWC spokesman for the manatee program.
Officials ask anyone who sees a distressed or dying manatee to call the FWC hotlineat 888-404-3922.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/science/ap-science/florida-manatee-feeding-plan-ends-starvation-still-an-issue/
| 2022-04-08T12:23:27
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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.
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https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/ketanji-brown-jackson-will-wait-months-before-being-sworn-in-as-supreme-court-justice
| 2022-04-08T12:23:31
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The grand explanation physicists use to describe how the universe works may have some major new flaws to patch after a fundamental particle was found to have more mass than scientists thought.
“It’s not just something is wrong,” said Dave Toback, a particle physicist at Texas A&M University and a spokesperson for the U.S. government’s Fermi National Accelerator Lab, which conducted the experiments. If replicated by other labs, “it literally means something fundamental in our understanding of nature is wrong.”
The physicists at the lab crashed particles together over ten years and measured the mass of 4 million W bosons. These subatomic particles are responsible for a fundamental force at the center of atoms, and they exist for only a fraction of a second before they decay into other particles.
“They are constantly popping in and out of existence in the quantum froth of the universe,” Toback said.
The difference in mass from what the prevailing theory of the universe predicts is too big to be a rounding error or anything that could be easily explained away, according to the study by a team of 400 scientists from around the world published Thursday in the journalScience.
The result is so extraordinary it must be confirmed by another experiment, scientists say. If confirmed, it would present one of the biggest problems yet with scientists’ detailed rulebook for the cosmos, called the standard model.
Duke University physicist Ashutosh V. Kotwal, the project leader for analysis, said it’s like discovering there’s a hidden room in your house.
Scientists speculated that there may be an undiscovered particle that is interacting with the W boson that could explain the difference. Maybe dark matter, another poorly understood component of the universe, could be playing a role. Or maybe there’s just new physics involved that they just don’t understand at the moment, researchers said.
The standard model says a W boson should measure 80,357,000 electron volts, plus or minus six.
”We found it slightly more than that. Not that much, but it’s enough,” said Giorgio Chiarelli, another scientist for the Fermi team and research director for the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics. The Fermi team’s scale put the W boson at a heftier 80,433,000 electron volts, plus or minus nine.
It doesn’t seem like a big difference, but it is a huge one in the subatomic world.
But both the team and experts not involved in the research said such a big claim requires extra proof from a second team, which they don’t have yet.
“It’s an incredibly delicate measurement, it requires understanding of various calibrations of various little effects,” said Claudio Campagnari, a particle physicist at the University of California Santa Barbara, who wasn’t part of the Fermi team. “These guys are really good. And I take them very seriously. But I think at the end of the day what we need is a confirmation by another experiment.”
Earlier, less precise measurements of the W boson by other teams found it to be lighter than predicted, so “maybe there is just something wonky about this experiment,” said Caltech physicist Sean M. Carroll, who wasn’t part of the research and said it is “absolutely worth taking very seriously.”
The finding is important because of its potential effect on the standard model of physics.
“Nature has facts,” Duke’s Kotwal said. “The model is the way we understand those facts.”
Scientists have long known the standard model isn’t perfect. It doesn’t explain dark matter or gravity well. If scientists have to go in and tinker with it to explain these findings they have to make sure it doesn’t throw out of whack mathematical equations that now explain and predict other particles and forces well, researchers said.
It is a recurring problem with the model. A year ago a different team found another problem with the standard model and how muons react.
“Quantum mechanics is really beautiful and weird,” Toback said. “Anyone who has not been deeply troubled by quantum mechanics has not understood it.”
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:35
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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.
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https://www.wmar2news.com/news/national/russia-ukraine-conflict/ukraine-russian-missile-kills-30-civilians-at-train-station
| 2022-04-08T12:23:38
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NEW YORK (AP) — Two Black coaches joined Brian Flores on Thursday in his lawsuit alleging racist hiring practices by the NFL when there are vacancies for coaches and general managers.
The updated lawsuit in Manhattan federal court added coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.
The lawsuit said Wilks was discriminated against by the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 when he was hired as a “bridge coach” but was given no meaningful chance to succeed, while Horton was subjected to discriminatory treatment when he was given a sham interview for the Tennessee Titans head coach position in January 2016.
Flores also criticized the NFL in the rewritten lawsuit for its response to the lawsuit he brought against it and its teams several weeks ago.
The lawsuit added the Houston Texans to the teams Flores has alleged discriminated against him, saying the Texans engaged in “blatant retaliation” by removing him from consideration for its head coach vacancy after he sued the league.
In a release from the lawsuit’s attorneys, Wilks said he hoped the lawsuit would help bring racial equality to the league. Arizona replaced Wilks with Kliff Kingsbury, a white man with no NFL coaching experience, and gave a white general manager an extension despite a drunk driving conviction.
“When Coach Flores filed this action, I knew I owed it to myself, and to all Black NFL coaches and aspiring coaches, to stand with him,” Wilks said. “This lawsuit has shed further important light on a problem that we all know exists, but that too few are willing to confront. Black coaches and candidates should have exactly the same ability to become employed, and remain employed, as white coaches and candidates.”
Horton said he was “devastated and humiliated” when he learned that his interview with the Titans was a sham.
“By joining this case, I am hoping to turn that experience into a positive and make lasting change and create true equal opportunity in the future,” he said.
The NFL declined to comment Thursday.
“The decisions we made after the 2018 season were very difficult ones,” the Arizona Cardinals said in a statement. “But as we said at the time, they were entirely driven by what was in the best interests of our organization and necessary for team improvement. We are confident that the facts reflect that and demonstrate that these allegations are untrue.”
Houston, in a statement, said its search for a head coach was “very thorough and inclusive.”
“Due to his previous success as a coach in the NFL, Brian Flores was among the first candidates we held a formal interview with for the position and he remained a candidate until the very end,” it said. “We enjoyed our multiple conversations with Brian regarding his vision for our organization.”
It added: “In the end, we made the decision to hire Lovie Smith as our head coach and we believe he is the best fit for our team moving forward. It was a very fluid process that allowed us to spend time with a number of quality candidates. We are proud of our decision and will vigorously defend our process.”
Smith, who is Black, was announced as the Texans head coach in February. He served as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2021.
The Titans in a statement defended their 2016 coach selection process as “thoughtful and competitive,” saying it obeyed NFL guidelines and its organizational values.
“We conducted detailed, in-person interviews with four talented individuals, two of whom were diverse candidates. No decision was made, and no decision was communicated, prior to the completion of all interviews,” the Titans said.
The Titans concluded their interview with Horton by midday Jan. 16, 2016, and announced Mularkey was hired hours later. Mularkey said on a podcast in 2020 that he still regretted taking part in the interview process after having been told he would be the Titans’ head coach before they satisfied the Rooney Rule.
“I sat there knowing I was the head coach in ’16 as they went through this fake hiring process …,” Mularkey said then. “I’m sorry I did that. It was not the way to go about it.”
Flores sued the NFL and three teams on Feb. 1 after he was fired as Miami Dolphins coach in January after leading the Dolphins to a 24-25 record over three years. They went 9-8 in their second straight winning season, but failed to make the playoffs during his tenure.
He has since been hired as an assistant coach by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In the updated lawsuit Thursday, lawyers for Flores noted that the NFL responded to the lawsuit in February by saying it was “without merit” but its executives have made statements and taken steps in “unguarded moments” that showed it “has begrudgingly acknowledged the decades-long problem of systemic discrimination.”
The lawsuit, as it did previously, seeks class-action status and unspecified damages from the league and individual teams. It alleges that the league has discriminated against Flores and other Black coaches for racial reasons, denying them positions as head coaches and other top coaching posts as well as a chance to be a general manager.
It also highlights the lack of progress in the two decades since the “Rooney Rule” — named after former Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney — was created to give more minority candidates opportunities to become a head coach.
In 2020, the NFL amended the Rooney Rule to stipulate teams must interview at least two minority candidates not associated with their team for a head coaching vacancy and one minority candidate for coordinator positions and high-ranking front office positions, including general manager.
Last month, the NFL changed it again to require its 32 clubs to employ a woman or a member of an ethnic or racial minority to serve as an offensive assistant coach.
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AP Pro Football Writers Barry Wilner and Teresa M. Walker contributed to this story.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:43
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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.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:44
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Sun, showers and seasonal conditions will rule today with highs in the low 60s. An upper level level will keep the chance for showers around into tomorrow. It will be chilly with highs only in the mid to upper 50s. Sunday will be drier but colder with lows in the mid 30s and highs in the mid 50s. Frost is possible to start the new week. Temps will warm up to seasonal highs with a mix of sun and clouds for Opening Day. Much warmer by Tuesday into the end of the week with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.
Stay tuned!
7 Day Forecast:
Today: Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 64. West wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph.
Tonight: Showers likely, mainly between 9pm and 3am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42. Southwest wind 5 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Saturday: Scattered showers, mainly after 3pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 56. West wind 8 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Saturday Night: Scattered showers before 9pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 38. West wind around 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 53. Breezy, with a west wind 9 to 14 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 29 mph.
Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 36.
Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 62.
Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 47.
Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.
Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 54.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 78.
Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 58.
Thursday: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 78. Chance of precipitation is 40%.
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:50
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ATLANTA (AP) — Don’t count Ronald Acuña Jr. among the Atlanta players who will be missing Freddie Freeman as the Braves open their season.
Acuña said in an Instagram Live interviewhe had no feelings for Freeman, the former longtime Braves first baseman who helped lead Atlanta to the World Series championship last year and then signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Asked if he would miss Freeman, Acuña replied “Me? Nothing.”
Added Acuña, according to a translation of the interview in Spanish conducted by Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times: “We just shared the same stadium. … We had several clashes.”
Freeman was extremely popular with fans and most teammates. But Acuña said in the Instagram Live interview he wasn’t warmly welcomed as a rookie by some veteran players.
“It’s something that happens all the time,” Acuña said. “When you come up as a rookie, with your flow. There’s always someone who wants to put you in your place. You put your eye black, your sunglasses, your hat a little crooked. A lot of people doesn’t like it and yourself don’t see it as being bad because it’s part of the game. Lots of veterans did that to me.
“When I came up in 2018, they used a swipe and cleaned it up. I couldn’t say anything. I will be a veteran one day. I’m not saying I’m a veteran today, but no one is going to come and take something off my face today.”
Acuña didn’t name Freeman as one of the veteran players who disapproved of his style as a rookie. But Freeman acknowledged during an interview Thursday with MLB Network that he did scold Acuña for his eye black and sunglasses.
“When you put on a Braves uniform in that organization, there’s organizational rules,” Freeman said. “You don’t cover the ‘A’ with sunglasses, you don’t wear earrings. You have your hair a certain length. You wear a uniform out during BP. You don’t have eye black coming down across your whole face.
“Those are just organizational things, so, I guess I was one of the older guys that did have to enforce those kinds of things in the clubhouse, but when you put on a Braves uniforms, those are kind of what happens. I didn’t view it as any friction or clashes or anything like that.”
Freeman added that he and his family “love” Acuña and would miss him.
“I can’t wait for him to get healthy and get on the field,” he said. “I think he’s great for the game of baseball.”
Acuña attempted play down his comments before Thursday night’s opening game against Cincinnati.
“To be honest, I think it was just exaggerated and blown out of proportion by the media,” Acuña said through translator Franco Garcia.
Braves manager Brian Snitker said he was not aware of any conflicts between Acuña and Freeman.
“If it was, it was between those two,” Snitker said.
Acuña is the first Atlanta player to have anything but praise for Freeman, the 2020 NL MVP.
Many of Freeman’s teammates openly lobbied for the Braves to re-sign the free agent. When Atlanta would not offer more than five years, the first baseman signed a $162 million, six-year deal with Los Angeles.
The Braves countered by trading for Matt Olson, who is four years younger than Freeman, and quickly signing Olson to a $168 million, eight-year deal. Olson now joins Acuña as foundation players for the Braves.
Acuña is recovering from a torn ACL in his right knee suffered midway through last season and is on the injured list as the Braves open their season against Cincinnati on Thursday night. The Braves hope Acuña can return in May.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:50
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Cameron Smith’s signature mullet is flappable. Very flappable. His game? Not so much.
The 28-year-old Australian’s opening round at the Masters on Thursday started and ended with double bogeys. In between came eight birdies and ultimately a 4-under 68 that vaulted him to the upper reaches of the leaderboard, a surge fueled by the kind of creative and calmly fearless play that guided Smith to a steely one-shot victory at the Players Championship last month.
He’s well aware he could have gone even lower save for a pair of wayward approach shots at the first and the last. Yes, the mistakes will eat at him. Well, maybe. Minutes after calling his day “a little bit disappointing,” Smith insisted he’s already moved on.
“The less you guys bring it up, the less, the quicker I’ll forget about it,” he said with a laugh.
Smith’s game is an anachronism of sorts, one brought into stark contrast while playing alongside Bryson DeChambeau, who never met a driver he didn’t like to mash. That’s not Smith. He doesn’t hit it particularly far — he was 60th in driving distance in the 90-man field during the opening round — or particularly straight.
He doesn’t have to excel at either thanks to a world-class short game, the kind that lends itself to getting a green jacket draped over your shoulders on Sunday afternoon. The world’s sixth-ranked player didn’t panic after a tee shot into a bunker, a splash-out, a pitch that went long, a blah chip and two putts had him 2-over 20 minutes into his workday.
There was plenty of time to stew if Smith wanted. Paul Casey’s withdrawal due to back issues left Smith and DeChambeau a twosome stuck between a pair of threesomes, including one featuring Tiger Woods.
Yet during the long lags in play, Smith kept it loose, mostly chatting with caddie Sam Pinfold about the Brisbane Broncos, Smith’s hometown rugby team. Anything but the task ahead. Besides, he’s grown comfortable among the Georgia pines, never missing a cut in five starts and putting together a runner-up finish to Dustin Johnson in 2020.
“I love this place,” Smith said. “I think my short game has definitely got me out of a lot of bad spots around here, but at the end of the day I think you just need to give yourself opportunities. You need to hit your irons close, and you need to be really good with the putter.”
For twoish hours in the middle of his round, Smith did both while putting together eight birdies in a stretch of 12 holes.
A chip-in from off the green on the par-4 fifth provided a welcome jolt. His iron on the par-3 sixth landed a foot from the hole. A wedge to within five feet on the ninth helped him make the turn at 2-under. Birdies at 12, 14, 15 and 16 pushed him to 6-under and the lead before a tee shot that drifted right on the 18th blunted his momentum. A punch out, a wedge that came up short and three putts gave him a double bogey to bookend the one at the first.
He planned to work out any lingering angst by spending 30 minutes on a stationary bike back at the house he’s renting. Then maybe whip up a meal — he made some spaghetti Bolognese on Wednesday — and relax.
Sure, he could have posted a number for the rest of the field to catch. He didn’t quite get there, but he knows he’s in solid position heading into what could be a blustery weekend that will have the mullet his barber just cleaned up fluttering from underneath his hat in all its shabby-chic glory.
About the hair. It’s become part of his identity as much as his increasingly impressive performances, so much so that Hall of Famer Gary Player — who picked Smith to win his first major this weekend — wonders what might happen if Smith finds himself in Butler Cabin late Sunday evening.
“I’d love to see how he’s accepted with that long hair in the clubhouse,” Player said. “They might tell him to have a haircut.”
Or maybe not. The player that Player called “cocky” in the best way possible has no problem going against convention.
“He’s confident, which you’ve got to be, and he’s one hang of a putter,” Player said about an hour before Smith teed off. “It’s not going to surprise me, he’s not going to come in here and be overawed, as many players will be. He’ll be in there with a good chance to win.”
He’s on his way.
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More AP Masters: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-08T12:23:57
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Rayfield Wright, the Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive tackle nicknamed “Big Cat” who went to five Super Bowls in his 13 NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, died Thursday. He was 76.
Wright’s family confirmed his death Thursday to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which said Wright had been hospitalized for several days following a severe seizure. The Cowboys also confirmed the death.
A big player for his era at 6-foot-6 and over 250 pounds, Wright had already been a backup tight end for a couple of seasons when coach Tom Landry asked him about playing tackle. A surprised Wright said he had never played tackle in his life, but Landry told him he would make a good one.
Wright first started at tackle in a 1969 game lined up against Deacon Jones, the most dominant pass rusher of that era. Wright held his own and settled in as the full-time starter at right tackle in 1970, when Dallas made its first Super Bowl. The Cowboys then won their first Super Bowl title in 1971, the first of six consecutive seasons Wright was a Pro Bowler. He was a three-time All-Pro.
“He was absolutely the best,” Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach said before Wright’s hall induction in 2006. “Rayfield was a big, strong guy that was able to transfer his size and strength from tight end to tackle. He also had such quick feet that he was able to deal with some of the faster defensive ends and even the linebacker blitzes. If he got beat, I don’t remember it.”
His “Big Cat” nickname was because of being so nimble for his size.
Dallas won another Super Bowl in 1977, but Wright played only two games that season because of knee surgery. He had played in 95 of the team’s 98 regular-season games, starting 94 of them, the previous seven seasons.
After Wright started only 16 of his 31 games in 1978 and 1979, he was released by the Cowboys the following spring. He signed with NFC East rival Philadelphia, but officially retired because of lingering injuries early in training camp without playing a game for the Eagles.
“Rayfield Wright was the epitome of what it takes to be a Hall of Famer,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who bought the team in 1989. “His grit, his agility, his passion, his charisma and his love for football, the community and his family always shined through. He remained an important part of the Cowboys family long after his playing days ended.”
Wright was diagnosed with early stage dementia in 2012, but had long been plagued by seizures since his retirement. He believed they were from the effects of continued blows to the head while playing football. He had long hidden dealing with headaches, dizziness and, at times, unexplained irritability and forgetfulness.
In a 2014 interview with The New York Times, Wright said he incurred so many concussions during his NFL career that he couldn’t even count them.
When finally inducted into the Hall of Fame more than a quarter-century after his last game, Wright was presented in Canton, Ohio, by longtime Fort Valley State football coach Stan Lomax.
Wright didn’t even make his high school football team for three years in Griffin, Georgia, before he went to Fort Valley State in his home state to play basketball. The following summer, Lomax made him quit his summer job at a mill to get ready to join the football team.
Lomax tried Wright at free safety, then used him as a punter, defensive end and tight end. The coach also became a father figure to Wright, who was picked by the Cowboys in the seventh round of the 1967 NFL draft.
Wright still preferred basketball, though he turned down an offer after his junior season to sign with the NBA’s Cincinnati Royals, the franchise that is now the Sacramento Kings, so that he could finish school.
His sights were still set on the NBA when Cowboys player personnel director Gil Brandt called and said the team was interested in drafting him.
“I realized that potential, playing for the Cowboys, was a God-given opportunity, and I couldn’t ignore it. I decided to attend the Cowboys’ training camp which was in July. The Royals camp didn’t start till August,” Wright said in his Hall of Fame speech. “I kind of figured that if I didn’t make the Cowboys team, I could go right to the NBA.”
Wright said Brandt was “signing everybody that could walk” and that he was among 137 rookies in the Cowboys’ training camp in 1967. He was one of five that made the team.
Wright was a backup tackle the first two months of the 1969 season, then thrust into the starting job when Ralph Neely got hurt. His first start came when Dallas, then 8-1, played at the 9-0 Los Angeles Rams with their Fearsome Foursome defense.
“We go up to the line of scrimmage and I’m looking at Deacon Jones square in his eyes, his eyes seem to be red as fire, he’s kicking his back leg like a bull,” Wright later recalled. “I’m saying to myself, `My God, what have I got myself into?‘”
Before the ball was snapped, Jones bellowed, “Boy, does your Mama know you out here?” Wright was so stunned that Jones ran over him.
“I rolled over, looked over at our sideline thinking that coach Landry was going to take me out of the game,” Wright said. “By that time, Deacon Jones reached his big arms down and said, `Hey, rookie, welcome to the NFL.’ … I said, `Well, Mr. Jones, you don’t know my Mama, so don’t talk about her. You want to play the game this way, we’ll play it.’”
The Rams won 24-23, but Wright got a game ball for the job he wound up doing against Jones. Their duels over the years went a long way toward building Wright’s reputation.
Dallas never had a losing record in Wright’s 13 seasons, a span that included eight NFC championship games and those five Super Bowl appearances. He was part of the NFL’s all-decade team for the 1970s.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-04-08T12:24:04
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CHICAGO (AP) — Ian Happ offered Nico Hoerner some friendly advice after he hit the majors’ first homer of 2022.
“Keep hitting more,” Happ cracked. “Yeah, try not to get cold after that.”
It was that kind of opening day for the Chicago Cubs.
Happ had three hits, including a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh inning, and the Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 on Thursday.
Hoerner hit a two-run homer and Kyle Hendricks pitched neatly into the sixth, leading Chicago to the victory on a chilly, overcast afternoon at Wrigley Field. Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki reached three times and scored in his first big league game.
“Who had Nico in the first homer pool?” Cubs manager David Ross joked after the win.
On a day stuffed full of firsts and debuts, Milwaukee ace Corbin Burnes and catcher Omar Narváez became the first battery to use baseball’s new electronic pitch-calling system in a regular-season game. The 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner allowed three runs and four hits in five innings.
“Never really actually found the command of the cutter,” Burnes said. “Kind of one of those things, I found it a little bit in the third, but then I just kind of lost it.”
Suzuki singled in the fifth for his first big league hit and walked twice. The 27-year-old finalized an $85 million, five-year contract with Chicago in March in the Cubs’ biggest move of the offseason.
“In all my at-bats I was able to be myself,” Suzuki said through a translator, “so just enjoyed the game today.”
Andrew McCutchen, Willy Adames and Rowdy Tellez each had two hits for Milwaukee, and Lorenzo Cain drove in two runs. McCutchen served as the designated hitter in his first game with his new team after agreeing to a one-year deal last month.
The Brewers erased a 3-1 deficit with two runs in the seventh, but the Cubs went ahead to stay in the bottom half.
With runners on the corners and two outs, Happ hit a drive off Jake Cousins that caromed off the wall in center. Clint Frazier and Willson Contreras scored on Happ’s second double of the day.
Happ, who homered on baseball’s first pitch of the 2018 season, had elbow surgery in February, but he is feeling pretty good now — about himself and his team.
“Burnes starting Game 1, to be able to kind of put up some runs there and then get a few more and tack on, that says a lot for where we’re at as a team,” Happ said.
The reigning NL Central champions got one back on Cain’s sacrifice fly in the eighth, but David Robertson worked the ninth for his first save since 2018 and No. 138 for his career.
Milwaukee went 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base.
“It felt like a game, we didn’t time our hits very well,” manager Craig Counsell said.
Aaron Ashby (0-1) got the loss. He was charged with one run and three hits in 1 2/3 innings.
Making his third consecutive opening-day start, Hendricks permitted one run and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. The right-hander, who had a career-high 4.77 ERA last year, struck out seven and walked three.
Chris Martin (1-0) got two outs for the win in his Cubs debut.
The Brewers jumped in front when McCutchen singled and scored the majors’ first run on Cain’s groundout in the fourth. But the Cubs responded with three in the fifth.
Patrick Wisdom hit a sacrifice fly before Hoerner drove a 1-1 pitch from Burnes into the bleachers in left for a tiebreaking two-run shot. It was Hoerner’s first big league homer since Sept. 21, 2019, against St. Louis.
“Sometimes it just lines up,” a smiling Hoerner said.
HE’S HERE
Victor Caratini made his Milwaukee debut when he came on to catch Ashby in the bottom of the sixth. Caratini was acquired in a trade with San Diego on Wednesday.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Brewers: INF Luis Urías (left quad strain) and RHP Justin Topa (right forearm flexor strain) were placed on the 10-day injured list. Each IL stint was made retroactive to Monday.
Cubs: RHP Alec Mills (low back strain), LHP Wade Miley (elbow inflammation) and SS Andrelton Simmons (right shoulder inflammation) went on the 10-day IL. Each IL stint was made retroactive to Monday.
UP NEXT
Brewers right-hander Brandon Woodruff and Cubs left-hander Justin Steele start on Friday afternoon. But there is a wintry mix of precipitation in the forecast. Woodruff went 9-10 with a career-best 2.56 ERA in 30 starts last year. Steele made his big league debut in 2021, going 4-4 with a 4.26 ERA in 20 appearances, including nine starts.
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Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:24:11
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BOSTON (AP) — A former water polo coach at the University of Southern California facing bribery and fraud charges was just doing what he could to raise money for his dominant, championship-winning program as athletic officials at the elite Los Angeles school had demanded, defense lawyers argued Thursday as the latest trial in the sprawling college bribery scandal wrapped up in Boston federal court.
Jovan Vavic’s lawyer, Stephen Larson, also said in his closing remarks that the 60-year-old, who guided USC’s men’s and women’s water polo teams to 16 national championships, was always acting in the best interests of the school and his team, never lied and never took a bribe.
“Yes he was trying to get money for his team, and yes he was doing whatever he could legally,” he said. “It is clear Jovan Vavic wanted to recruit some water polo players who could be legitimately admitted to USC and whose families could donate to USC. That was his mindset.”
But Assistant U.S Attorney Leslie Wright painted it as a clear-cut case of “quid pro quo,” or “this in exchange for that.”
She said Vavic took more than $200,000 in bribes to fake athletic credentials and designate college applicants as water polo athletes to get them into USC.
He also helped recruit others to the scheme, Wright said, pointing to wiretap transcripts in which Vavic called the arrangement a “win-win” situation and where he encouraged a fellow coach with doubts about the scheme to “just do it.”
“The defendant’s own words tell you what you need to know,” she told the jury, which will begin deliberating Friday.
Vavic is the only coach of the many implicated to challenge in trial his role in the scheme, which involved wealthy parents paying bribes to have their children admitted into elite schools using rigged test scores or bogus athletic accomplishments.
In all, nearly 60 people were charged in “Operation Varsity Blues,” including prominent coaches from Yale and other elite schools, as well as wealthy and famous parents such as “Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli.
In court Thursday, Larson argued the money Vavic received went directly into a USC account for his team, and not his personal funds.
And he stressed his client believed the “tuition grants” paid directly to Vavic’s sons’ private high school for their education were legitimate payments from a nonprofit run by William Singer, who was considered the mastermind of the bribery scheme.
“The simplest explanation is sometimes the truth,” Larson said. “There’s no quid pro quo.”
He argued Vavic was a victim of USC’s desire to protect its reputation and cover up a “pervasive culture” of accepting wealthy students who could provide donations windfalls and that he’d been manipulated by Singer, who Larson branded a “con man” and “chronic liar.”
“This was part of USC,” Larson said. “It’s all about this wink and a nod. You don’t want this rep out there that USC is a place you can buy your way into.”
The university, which fired Vavic after his 2019 arrest, has stressed its admissions processes are “not on trial.”
Wright also dismissed Larson’s final arguments as a “sideshow.”
“Pretending to recruit unqualified candidates based on falsified credentials in exchange for money is wrong, no matter where the money goes or who else is doing it,” she said. “Common sense tells you it’s wrong. He crossed the line and in the process he broke the law.”
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A look at what’s happening around baseball on Friday:
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BRAND NEW BALLGAME
Rachel Balkovec is set to become the first woman to manage a minor league affiliate of a major league team when her Class-A Tampa Tarpons in the New York Yankees’ organization face the Lakeland Flying Tigers in the Florida State League.
“I’ve thought about it plenty,” the 34-year-old Balkovec said last week. “Just trying, with as many distractions there will be, lock in what we’re trying to do on the field and what we have to prepare, and that’s it.”
Balkovec has broken several barriers on her way to the position. She was the first woman to serve as a full-time minor league strength and conditioning coach, then the first to be a full-time hitting coach in the minors with the Yankees.
The Yankees announced her hiring as a minor league manager in January.
Balkovec, a former softball catcher at Creighton and New Mexico, got her first job in professional baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals as a minor league strength and conditioning coach in 2012.
THE MIGHTY MAX
Max Scherzer makes his New York Mets debut in the second game of the season at Washington, the team he helped lead to a World Series title in 2019.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner developed a problem with his right hamstring late in spring training but declared himself “good to go” after coming through some fielding work just fine Thursday at Nationals Park.
“I knew it was a hiccup. I knew it wasn’t a major, like, injury. I’ve done this a couple times and had an idea what it was,” Scherzer said, speaking in the visiting team’s clubhouse at a stadium he called home for 6 1/2 seasons.
Asked what he expects his return to the mound in the nation’s capital to be like, he said: “It’s just going to be a crazy, wild atmosphere.”
“You get used to playing for another team. You go out there and just compete and have fun. A lot of good memories here. There always will be good memories here,” Scherzer said. “But nothing lasts forever.”
Washington traded Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers last July and he finished a combined 15-4 with a 2.46 ERA and 236 strikeouts in 179 1/3 innings. He became a free agent in the fall and signed a $130 million, three-year contract with the Mets.
NEW DIGS
Freddie Freeman, Carlos Correa, Trevor Story and Kris Bryant are some other stars ready to debut for their new teams.
Freeman plays his first game for the Dodgers in Colorado against the Rockies, who signed Bryant to a $182 million contract in the offseason. Freeman, the 2020 NL MVP, inked a $162 million deal with Los Angeles after leading the Atlanta Braves to a World Series championship last season.
After a rainout Thursday, Correa makes his Minnesota debut in a showdown with new Mariners lefty Robbie Ray, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. Both players changed teams via free agency, with Correa departing Houston and Ray leaving Toronto.
Story gets his first taste of baseball’s biggest rivalry as his Boston Red Sox face the Yankees in New York, another opener pushed back from Thursday because of bad weather.
GO DEEP
New Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson’s first completion in Denver will be to a catcher.
Wilson will toss out the first pitch when the Rockies host the Los Angeles Dodgers in the season opener. Wilson was once an infielder taken by Colorado in the fourth round of the 2010 draft.
After batting .229 over two minor league seasons, Wilson did an end-around on baseball and chose the gridiron option.
The Broncos acquired Wilson in a deal with Seattle last month. He helped the Seahawks beat Peyton Manning and the Broncos in Super Bowl 48.
“I’m excited the Broncos got him,” Rockies opening day starter Kyle Freeland said. “Veteran quarterback who’s a proven winner.”
Freeland won’t be offering any first-pitch tips to Wilson.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Freeland said. “I’m sure he’s going to fire a strike.”
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Hideki Matsuyama is a Masters champion and apparently a master host.
Jack Nicklaus has been attending the Masters Club dinner since 1964, the year after he became eligible by winning, and he said Tuesday night was one of the best ever. The food Matsuyama chose? Sensational. Nicklaus also said the conversation was flowing.
“That part was neat,” he said. “But then Hideki, he gave about a three-minute speech in English. Doesn’t speak very much English, and he did not look at a note. He had figured out what he wanted to say. I’m sure he had some help getting it on paper and then memorized it or whatever. But he was terrific.”
Better yet, global traveler Gary Player responded to the speech in Japanese.
“Gary Player spoke very well in Japanese, which we were all just blown away by,” Mike Weir said.
Nicklaus added: “I thought that was terrific. I have no idea what Gary said.”
Tom Watson said he had his eyes trained on Matsuyama, seated between Ben Crenshaw and club chairman Fred Ridley, and he was visibly nervous.
“He made the speech. He didn’t miss a beat. He didn’t miss a word,” Watson said. “After the speech was over, he goes, ‘Whew!’ Simultaneously, everybody got up to give him a standing ovation — a standing O — because we really appreciated the effort that he put in to go through minutes in English when he had a hard time doing it.”
WELCOME TO THE MASTERS
No one was less prepared for Augusta National than J.J. Spaun. He wasn’t about to complain.
Five days ago, he was only planning to watch it on TV.
Spaun won for the first time at the Texas Open, earning the final spot in the field at the Masters. He arrived on Monday, had limited practice because of storms the next two days and was first off Thursday morning with two-time champion Jose Maria Olazabal.
Spaun opened with a 74, going bogey-free over the final 14 holes.
“A lot of nerves, especially with the lack of preparation I felt,” Spaun said. “I didn’t really have the time that I feel like a lot of people had to get ready. I mean, it’s a great issue to have. But with the rain, the weather delays, I saw the course very quickly.”
At least he had a big crowd to watch his debut, even if it was by default. Spaun and Olazabal teed off 20 minutes after the honorary start of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson.
“We had all the eyes on us in the morning on the first shot,” he said. “That was a cool kind of moment to be the first off because everyone is already congregated there for the honorary tee shots. Regardless, it’s still Augusta even if there’s people watching or not.”
CASEY OUT
Paul Casey’s run of playing in 30 consecutive majors ended Thursday. He withdrew before the first round Thursday citing persistent back issues.
Casey has been struggling with back issues since his third-place finish at The Players Championship. He withdrew the following week from the Valspar Championship, where he was the two-time champion. At the Match Play in Texas, he pulled out after two holes of his opening match with back spasms, then wound up conceding the next two matches.
Two weeks later, there has been no improvement. Casey missed his first major since he wasn’t eligible for the Masters in 2014.
In an Instagram post, Casey said, “The back issues are persistent and thus preventing me from being able to compete. I shall now focus on my treatment and recovery so I can return to competitive form as soon as possible.”
HAIR WATCH
Cameron Smith won The Players and is ranked No. 6 in the world. His game is more than good enough to earn him plenty of notice.
The hair helps.
The Mullet was one of the big stories on Thursday at the Masters, with Smith’s hairstyle a talking point all day — before and after his round of 4-under 68.
“I see the barber probably once a month and he cleans it up, and then towards the end of the month it gets scruffy again and then it gets clean again,” Smith said. “It’s probably at its cleanest it’s been for quite a while.”
THANKS, DUSTIN
Harry Higgs’ first competitive round at Augusta National went extremely well: He shot a 1-under 71.
He had a little help: The 2020 Masters champion was more than happy to show him around.
“I played Sunday afternoon and then Monday morning with Dustin Johnson, and kudos to him,” Higgs said. “He was a wealth of knowledge. He almost would come over and start talking to me when I would look confused. He could almost tell as if he was the same way when it was his first time around here.”
Johnson’s best piece of advice was pretty simple, and accurate. “This golf course,” Higgs said, “is really hard.”
AMATEUR LEADERS
The low amateur at the Masters typically gets invited to Butler Cabin on Sunday and, provided he makes the 36-hole cut, also gets a silver cup.
There’s a long way to go before Keita Nakajima needs to start making plans for Sunday evening, but he’s off to a fine start. The amateur from Japan shot an even-par 72 in Round 1, the lowest score of the six amateurs in this Masters field.
Austin Greaser was 1 under through nine before settling for a 74, the second-best score of the day among amateurs. Stewart Hagestad finished with a 7-over 79, while Aaron Jarvis, James Piot and Laird Shepherd all were at 9-over 81.
WIND COMING
Forecasters are saying wind gusts could approach 40 mph at Augusta National on Friday.
That has the attention of some players.
“I think tomorrow is going be a really tough day,” world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler said after his opening round of 3-under 69. “Especially late in the afternoon. If the forecast holds, it should be pretty gusty winds.”
DIVOTS
Joaquin Niemann’s eagle on the par-4 ninth hole was the first at the Masters since Bill Haas in 2013. … Mike Weir started with a double bogey. He played the next 17 holes in even par. … A handful of players failed to make a single birdie Thursday, including Cameron Davis, who had the proper attitude heading into Friday’s Round 2. “Ready to make them all tomorrow,” he said.
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More AP Masters coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Max Scherzer declared himself “good to go” for his New York Mets debut in Friday’s second game of the season against the Washington Nationals, the club he helped win the 2019 World Series.
The three-time Cy Young Award winner developed a problem with his right hamstring late in spring training camp in Florida and there had been some uncertainty about when he would be able to make his first appearance of the regular season.
With fellow Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom, twice a Cy Young honoree himself, sidelined for at least a month or two because of a shoulder blade issue, New York’s vaunted rotation appeared to be headed for a slow start under new manager Buck Showalter.
But Scherzer said he came through some fielding work just fine at Nationals Park before Thursday’s game on opening day.
“I knew it was a hiccup. I knew it wasn’t a major, like, injury. I’ve done this a couple times and had an idea what it was,” Scherzer said, speaking to reporters in front of a locker in the visiting team’s clubhouse at the stadium he called home for 6 1/2 seasons until getting sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline in late July.
“I was able to tell Buck: ‘Hey, Buck, I’m good to go,’” he said.
Scherzer became a free agent during and signed a three-year, $130 million contract with the Mets, part of a big-spending offseason for owner Steve Cohen.
During his time in Washington after getting a seven-year, $210 million deal before the 2015 season, Scherzer won a pair of NL Cy Young Awards (his other came in 2013 in the AL with Detroit), tossed two no-hitters and had a 20-strikeout game, in addition to helping win a championship two years ago.
Asked what he expects his return to the mound in the nation’s capital will be like on Friday, Scherzer said: “It’s just going to be a crazy, wild atmosphere.”
“You get used to it — you get used to playing for another team. You go out there and just compete and have fun. A lot of good memories here. There always will be good memories here,” Scherzer said. “But nothing lasts forever. As my baseball journey goes on, I’m here in New York and excited about what the future holds.”
Last season, he went 15-4 with a 2.46 ERA and 236 strikeouts in 179 1/3 innings for the Nationals and Dodgers.
“It’s going to be fun. He’s going to try to strike me out. And I will try my best to not strike out, because I know he wants that, really bad,” said Washington right fielder Juan Soto, the 2021 NL MVP runner-up.
He called Scherzer a mentor. Nationals pitcher Erick Fedde described the righty in similar terms.
“Him leaving last year was tough, for me, especially. I hadn’t been in the big leagues without him by my side,” Fedde said. “So it’ll definitely be weird. It’s not going to be fun, knowing the kind of player and competitor he is. But it’s one of those things where you step on the field and he’s on the other side, so hopefully we beat him up.”
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:24:40
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Andrew McCutchen of the Milwaukee Brewers got the first hit of the 2022 Major League Baseball season. As a National League designated hitter. Wearing a Roberto Clemente No. 21 patch, too.
New season, new look across the majors on opening day.
McCutchen sliced a double in the second inning into the right-field corner, down near the dead ivy on the brick wall at Wrigley Field, as the Brewers played the Chicago Cubs on Thursday. In the fourth inning, McCutchen singled and also scored the first run of the year.
Nico Hoerner of the Cubs hit the first home run of the season, connecting off reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes for a two-run drive in the fifth.
Earlier games postponed by inclement weather at Yankee Stadium and Minnesota made the Brewers-Cubs matchup the first of the year. It was a raw 44 degrees when Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks threw the first pitch, which Kolten Wong lofted for a wind-blown popout.
The MLB season originally was set to begin on March 31, but was pushed back because of a 99-day lockout as owners and players worked on a new labor contract.
As part of the deal, the National League has now permanently adopted the designated hitter — the American League began using it in 1973, and the NL added it for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season before going back to letting pitchers hit last year.
McCutchen, the 2013 NL MVP with Pittsburgh, signed as a free agent with Milwaukee in the offseason. He led off the top of the second inning with his double. Two innings later, he singled and eventually scored on a groundout by Lorenzo Cain.
The 35-year-old McCutchen is among several Roberto Clemente Award winners who will wear No. 21 — the number worn by the late Pirates Hall of Famer — on the backs of their hats and helmets for the rest of their careers.
MLB said it was a “special tribute to his enduring legacy.” The announcement was timed for the 50th anniversary of the year in which Clemente, the Pittsburgh great from Puerto Rico, died in a plane crash while on a humanitarian relief effort.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:24:47
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BOSTON (AP) — Reggie Lutz broke a second-period tie and Minnesota State scored three times in the third in the Frozen Four semifinal on Thursday night to beat big-city rival Minnesota 5-1 and advance to the national championship game.
Minnesota State will play for its first NCAA hockey title Saturday night against Denver, which beat Michigan 3-2 in overtime in the the early semifinal.
“We’ll see,” Mavericks coach Mike Hastings said. “We’ll take a kick at the can on Saturday.”
Hobey Baker Award finalist Dryden McKay stopped 16 shots for the Mavericks to earn his 38th win of the season. Benton Maass, Ondrej Pavel, David Silye and Brendan Furry also scored for Minnesota State.
“For big parts of the game, they kicked our butt,” Minnesota coach Bob Motzko said. “They scored exactly how we knew we had to defend. And then we were chasing the entire game.”
Justen Close made 27 saves for Minnesota before he was pulled for an extra skater with 3:51 left. But the Gophers, who have five NCAA championships in their Twin Cities trophy case, couldn’t convert.
Furry delivered an empty-netter to seal the victory over the Mavericks’ bigger, more decorated rivals.
“They’re the first team people think of, and they always will be,” McKay said. “I think it’s just kind of a cherry on top to beat them.”
In a Frozen Four of bluebloods that have combined for 22 NCAA titles, Minnesota State is the only school that has yet to win one. But the Mankato-based Mavericks were the winningest team in the country this year and the only one of the four to have reached the national semifinals last year as well.
Minnesota took the lead with 11 minutes left in the first period when MSU turned it over in the neutral zone to set up a two-on-none against the goalie. Matthew Knies and Bryce Brodzinski passed it between themselves three times before Knies slammed it past McKay on the Gophers’ first shot of the game.
“Not the start we wanted, giving up a two-on-oh,” Hastings said. “Kind of hoping Dryden was going to be able to pull the bacon out of the fire, and it didn’t happen.”
Maass tied it on wraparound about seven minutes into the second period, and about six minutes later Lutz found himself with the puck on the side of the net. He swiped at it twice, unable to get it past Close, then went behind the net and wrapped it around to make it 2-1.
“When I was young, every time I would score a wraparound goal my dad would take me to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal,” Lutz said.
The Mavericks made it 3-1 with two minutes gone in the third when Jack McNeely’s shot from the point was deflected in front by Pavel. Silye added another insurance goal with under seven minutes left.
“We’re a mature group. It doesn’t matter whether we’re up or down,” Dryden said. “We keep fighting, keep playing, and eventually we’re rewarded.”
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| 2022-04-08T12:24:54
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Nationals designated hitter Nelson Cruz pulled his game day hat off a hook by his clubhouse locker Thursday to show that a “21” patch was stitched onto the back to honor Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente.
Like other winners of the humanitarian award named in memory of Clemente, Cruz will be allowed to wear the late Pittsburgh Pirates star outfielder’s uniform number on his cap for the rest of his major league career. Cruz wears No. 23 on his jersey.
Major League Baseball announced the initiative on Thursday, saying it was a “special tribute to (Clemente’s) enduring legacy.” The announcement was timed for the 50th anniversary of the year in which Clemente died in a plane crash at age 38 while on a relief effort to help earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
“It’s a privilege. An honor. He means so much for baseball, in general. He was an example to follow – how to be professional, on and off the field. A remarkable player and a remarkable human being who lost his life trying to help others,” Cruz said before Washington’s opening day game against the visiting New York Mets.
“He paid the ultimate price, and whatever we do is not enough.”
The Roberto Clemente Award is announced during each World Series and given to a player for “extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field.”
“It means the world,” said Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who, like Clemente, is from Puerto Rico. “Everybody knows why you are wearing that number. It means a lot, for the player, for the families, for the organizations. I think it’s a great way to show respect to the individual.”
In addition to Cruz, active Clemente winners include Carlos Carrasco (Mets), Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), Andrew McCutchen (Brewers), Anthony Rizzo (Yankees) and Yadier Molina, Albert Pujols and Adam Wainwright (Cardinals).
“The Roberto Clemente Award is easily the best award I’ve won in my career,” Rizzo said. “Just representing him, having that recognition of his number on the forefront of a lot of players’ hats throughout the league will be will be in his honor. It’s very deserving because he served everyone else.”
Cruz said he was contacted during spring training about whether he wanted to wear the patch.
“Easy decision, no doubt,” he said.
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AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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BOSTON (AP) — Denver knocked Michigan out of the Frozen Four. Next comes a chance to match the Wolverines as the most decorated team in college hockey history.
Carter Savoie scored with 14:53 gone in overtime, converting on his own rebound Thursday night to lead the Pioneers past Michigan 3-2 and into the NCAA championship game. A victory would give Denver its ninth hockey title — a total only Michigan has reached.
“When we talk about what we want to do at Denver, it’s about winning championships and getting opportunities to hang banners,” said coach David Carle, whose team will play for the title Saturday night against Minnesota State — a 5-1 winner over Minnesota in the second semifinal.
“To have this opportunity is very special. To do it against Michigan, who is at nine and we’re at eight, is even sweeter,” Carle said. “And hopefully we can tie them and close the gap and reach our goal to getting to 10 first.”
Magnus Chrona made 19 saves for the Pioneers, who went ahead in regulation on goals from Brett Stapley and Cameron Wright. But Jimmy Lambert and Thomas Bordeleau each tied it, the latter with 11 minutes left in regulation.
It stayed that way until Michigan failed to clear the puck from its own zone, with two Wolverines skating past it near the blue line, each leaving it for the other. Savoie grabbed it, sent it on a deflection to Hobey Baker finalist Bobby Brink in the corner and then skated through the middle, waving his stick in the air to call for the pass.
Brink found him, and he delivered the winner on his second try. The Pioneers swarmed around him against the boards while the outnumbered Denver fans celebrated behind the team’s bench.
“That’s what he does,” Denver forward Ryan Barrow said. “He scores big goals, as we all know.”
Carle noted before the overtime that Brink, who leads the nation in scoring with 14 goals and 43 assists in 40 games, and the rest of the Pioneers’ top line had been shut out in regulation.
“They came through in the biggest of moments for us to extend our season,” Carle said.
Erik Portillo stopped 30 shots for the Wolverines, who won their last title in Boston in 1998 under Red Berenson and have only won one game in seven trips to the Frozen Four since then.
“It’s hard to get here. There were some really good teams that never had the opportunity to get here,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson, who made his 13th trip to the Frozen Four as a coach to go with one as a player.
“You have to be good. And you need a little bit of luck. We just didn’t seem to have any Lady Luck on our side tonight,” he said. “We were in the game. It’s one shot could go either way. The single-game elimination makes it so difficult to win.”
Denver scored first when Stapley picked up a rebound, slid it over to his backhand and easily beat Portillo with eight minutes gone in the first period. Michigan tied it four minutes into the second, when Nolan Moyle dug the puck out from behind the net and sent it in front to Lambert coming across the middle.
Denver took a 2-1 lead when Mike Benning flipped it in from the blue line and Wright it off the post and in.
Michigan tied it with 11 minutes to play in regulation after Mark Estapa threw himself to the ice to block a shot. The puck bounced off him and into the neutral zone, where Michael Pastujov grabbed it and took off.
As he approached the net, he tried to shoot or pass but the puck deflected off a defender and right to Bordeleau, who was trailing the play. His goal made it 2-2, and that’s the way it stayed when Michigan killed off two more penalties — three in all, to none for Denver.
“Discipline has been an issue of ours throughout the season at times. And it was the best it’s been all year in the biggest moment,” Carle said. “We didn’t give the refs any opportunities to make a call on us.”
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| 2022-04-08T12:25:13
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tom Watson didn’t think eight major championships, including two green jackets, would be enough to join the company of Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus on the first tee at Augusta National.
Even at 72, more than a half-century after he made his way down Magnolia Lane for the first time as an amateur, Watson remains somewhat in awe of the legends he spent decades chasing.
“I look at these old goats right here, I can’t carry their shoes,” Watson said Thursday morning, shortly after joining Player and Nicklaus as an honorary starter at the Masters for the first time. “I don’t kind of belong in the same realm as these two players here.”
Club chairman Fred Ridley disagreed. The invitation he extended to Watson to become the 11th honorary starter since the tradition began in 1962 included the provision that the 72-year-old Watson could hit away as long as he liked.
“Wow,” Watson said. “That meant a great deal to me.”
Even if it meant entering another phase of his golfing life. It’s a phase Watson, who won at Augusta in 1977 and again in 1981 and nearly pulled off a stunner in the 2009 British Open in Turnberry at age 58 before ultimately losing to Stewart Cink in a playoff, long ago came to terms with.
“I guess it’s a culmination of kind of the process,” he said. “I had a pretty good career. Not like (Player and Nicklaus), but I had a pretty good career. Just kind of the culmination of it.”
Watson took over the honor for Lee Elder, the first Black player at the Masters who died last fall. Watson, with 72 next to his name on the standard-bearer at the first tee, took a moment before teeing off and considered how things have come full circle.
He’d made it a point from the time he made his Masters debut as a 20-year-old amateur in 1970 to find his way to the first tee box early Thursday morning through the years to catch the men who helped define the sport. Freddy McLeod and Jock Hutchison. Sam Snead and Byron Nelson. Gene Sarazen and Arnold Palmer. Player and Nicklaus. And now, Watson.
“I’m very humbled to be a part of it,” Watson said.
Well, up to a point anyway. Watson couldn’t help but have a little fun when he, Player and Nicklaus were asked who put together the longest drive.
“Oh, come on,” said Watson, who is considerably younger than the 82-year-old Nicklaus and the 86-year-old Player.
While Nicklaus admitted he was the shortest, by his estimate “Gary and Tom were pretty close probably.”
A guesstimate that didn’t sit well with Nicklaus’ rival turned friend.
“Oh, I got (Player) by 50 (yards)!” Watson said with a laugh.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Andrew McCutchen got the first hit of the year, up against the still-dormant ivy at Wrigley Field. He delivered as a National League designated hitter. Wearing a Roberto Clemente No. 21 patch, too.
A little later on opening day, Nico Hoerner hit the first home run of 2022. He connected off a pitcher who used an electronic wristband to receive his signals from the catcher.
Soon after that, in another yard, the Cleveland Guardians took the field for the first time.
New season, and definitely a new look all across Major League Baseball.
And if the weather wasn’t quite summer-like in some spots Thursday, well, who cares?
“It might be cold, it might be windy. But it’s opening day,” Cardinals fan Mary Welsh of Belleville, Illinois, said at Busch Stadium before St. Louis hosted Pittsburgh.
Out near Disneyland, where temperatures neared 100 degrees, AL MVP Shohei Ohtani flashed his 100 mph heat and took his swings for the Los Angeles Angels.
Late night in Phoenix, after Padres starter Yu Darvish threw six no-hit innings, rookie Seth Beer cracked a three-run homer in the ninth to give Arizona a comeback win on National Beer Day in the United States.
No joke.
In Atlanta, the Braves celebrated their World Series championship with a pregame parade. At every ballpark, umpires started to get their say — this year, they’ve joined referees from other sports in announcing replay review decisions to the crowd.
As seats filled up in rainy Washington, chilly Kansas City and more, it seemed fans decided the 99-day owners’ lockout that delayed spring training and pushed back opening day by a week wouldn’t deter them from coming back.
Wearing an Ernie Banks jersey, 23-year-old Philip Lijewski from Guthrie, Oklahoma, enjoyed the view at Wrigley as the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers loosened up. He said the anger and acrimony over the labor strife didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for the game.
“Not really,” Lijewski said. “I’m glad that they came to a conclusion sooner rather than later. I was bummed that we didn’t get to do it April 4. But it’s April 7, so not too many days after.”
More than eight months after announcing a new change, Cleveland played its first regular-season game as the Guardians. Known as the Indians since 1915, the club made the switch in the interest of social justice.
Cleveland wore its road uniforms for the game in Kansas City, with the city name on the jersey.
“Supporting the city is what it comes down to,” star pitcher Shane Bieber said a day before the opener. “Going out there with my teammates, doing it the right way is really all we can do. It was a little bit different getting used to the change, but I’d say we’re all getting used to it day by day.”
Plenty of stars from other sports were at Kauffman Stadium to see top prospect Bobby Witt Jr. and the Royals beat the Guardians 3-1. Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid and several of his players were in attendance, as were members of the Kansas basketball team, which rallied past North Carolina in the men’s NCAA championship game Monday night in New Orleans.
A strong wind made it seem much colder than the game-time temperature of 47 degrees, and intermittent drizzle turned to streaking pellets of ice during the national anthem.
After earlier rainouts at Yankee Stadium and Target Field, the Brewers-Cubs game became the first one of the season.
It was a raw 44 degrees when Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks threw the first pitch, which Kolten Wong lofted for a wind-blown popout.
McCutchen sliced a double in the second inning for the season’s first hit, then singled and scored in the fourth for the first run. The 2013 NL MVP, the 35-year-old McCutchen was Milwaukee’s designated hitter.
As part of the MLB labor deal, the National League has now permanently adopted the designated hitter — the American League began using it in 1973, and the NL added it for the pandemic-shortened 2020 season before going back to letting pitchers hit last year.
Before the Cubs batted in the bottom of the third, the videoboard in left field showed a clip dedicated to pitchers hitting with Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You” serving as the soundtrack.
“Thank you pitchers. See you in a pinch,” it said at the end.
McCutchen is among several active Roberto Clemente Award winners who will wear No. 21 — the number worn by the late Pirates Hall of Famer — on the backs of their hats and helmets for the rest of their careers.
MLB said it was a “special tribute to his enduring legacy.” The announcement was timed for the 50th anniversary of the year in which Clemente, the Pittsburgh great from Puerto Rico, died in a plane crash while on a humanitarian relief effort.
“It’s a privilege. An honor,” said Nationals slugger Nelson Cruz, the most recipient of the Clemente award. “He means so much for baseball, in general. He was an example to follow – how to be professional, on and off the field. A remarkable player and a remarkable human being who lost his life trying to help others.”
“He paid the ultimate price, and whatever we do is not enough,” he said.
Hoerner launched the first homer, a two-run drive for the Cubs off NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes. Brewers catcher Omar Narváez and Burnes used the newly approved electronic pitch calling system — Narváez could push a button on his wristband to signal what he wanted thrown, without fear of wiggling his fingers and having the sign stolen.
Not that Hoerner needed any help, apparently.
“Who had Nico in the first homer pool?” Cubs manager David Ross kidded after the 5-4 win.
In St. Louis, Tommy Edman’s drive became the first play that resulted in an umpire announcing the result of a replay check.
“After review, the call is confirmed. Home run,” crew chief Jim Reynolds succinctly told the gleeful Cardinals crowd.
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AP Baseball Writer Jay Cohen, AP Sports Writers Tom Withers and Dave Skretta and AP freelance writer Steve Overbey contributed to this report.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:25:27
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PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s Pavin Smith sliced a line-drive single to start the seventh inning, ending an opening day no-hit bid by the San Diego Padres on Thursday night.
Yu Darvish threw the first six innings for San Diego without giving up a hit, but he was pulled before the seventh after throwing 92 pitches. Manager Bob Melvin’s decision wasn’t a surprise: Pitchers all around the game are on limited pitch counts following a shortened spring training.
Left-hander Tim Hill relieved Darvish, matching up against the left-handed Smith to start the seventh, but the hitter responded with a clean single to left. The next batter, Carson Kelly, grounded into a double play.
Darvish — a five-time All-Star — made his third opening day start and second for the Padres. The 35-year-old struck out three and walked four.
Bob Feller threw baseball’s only opening-day no-hitter for Cleveland in 1940. The Hall of Famer was 21 years old when he accomplished the feat against the White Sox.
There were a record nine no-hitters thrown across the majors last season. Most of those came before a midseason crackdown by Major League Baseball on the use of illegal sticky substances by pitchers.
The Padres led 2-0. It’s a rough offensive start for the Diamondbacks, who are trying to bounce back from a 110-loss season.
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Follow David Brandt at www.twitter.com/davidbrandtAP
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:25:34
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — With all eyes on Tiger Woods, Sungjae Im quietly turned in the round of the day at Augusta National.
Not a surprise, really.
The 24-year-old South Korean feels right at home.
A runner-up 17 months ago in his Masters debut, Im posted a 5-under 67 Thursday to grab the lead all to himself.
Still a long way to go, but there’s obviously something about this course that suits Im’s game.
“I feel comfortable when I come to Augusta,” he said through his translator. “I feel I can play well here every time.”
It must run in the family.
During the par 3 contest on Wednesday, Jitaek Im served as his son’s caddie. At the final hole, Sungjae let his dad take the tee shot.
Jitaek delivered a wild swing, almost like he was trying to slug a baseball, but the ball soared over the water and settled about about 5 feet from the flag.
“I didn’t expect much,” Sungjae said. “But once he hit the shot, it was the most beautiful shot I’ve seen. It was like a professional shot.”
Im hit a lot of beautiful shots when it really counted.
He got off to a blazing start, making birdies at the first three holes. Another birdie at No. 7 sent him to the back side at 4 under.
Im stumbled a bit after the turn, making back-to-back bogeys at 10 and 11, but then he delivered his best shot of the day at the par-5 No. 13. From 222 yards, he stuck it 12 feet from the flag and rolled in the putt for eagle.
Another birdie at the 15th and a brilliant save from the bunker at the final hole — he nearly holed out with his sand wedge and tapped it for par — gave him a one-stroke lead over Cameron Smith, with Dustin Johnson part of the group two shots back at 69.
If that sounds familiar, it should.
In 2020,Johnson won his first green jacket with a dominating performance, while Smith and Im were five shots back in the runner-up slot at the first November Masters.
“There is a coincidence there,” Im said. “It’s pretty cool to see that we’re all up there together.”
Im missed the cut at the 2021 Masters with rounds of 77 and 80, and arrived at this year’s tournament struggling a bit with his game — especially off the tee.
“I felt like my driving game was not as up to par as what it used to be, so I worked on my driving,” Im said. “The key to a successful round was having good tee shots, so that worked well today.”
Indeed, he was one of the day’s most accurate drivers, hitting 12 of 14 fairways. Only five players ranked above him.
Im said it’s important “to put the shot into spots where I have a chance to attack the green.”
A year ago, Hideki Matsuyama became the first golfer from Japan to win the Masters.
Im doesn’t want to get ahead of himself, but he knows that no South Korean golfer has ever won at Augusta.
In fact, Y.E, Yang remains the only male golfer from Im’s country to capture a major title, memorably rallying to beat Woods at the 2009 PGA Championship.
Woods, who is playing for the first time since a February 2021 wreck left him with serious leg injuries, was four shots behind Im after shooting 71.
Wood’s comeback is what most patrons will remember from Day 1 of the Masters.
Maybe by Sunday evening, they’ll be focused on Im.
“We’re only one day in,” he said. “I’ve got three more days to play. I just want to keep this momentum going and try to finish well this week.”
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Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963
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| 2022-04-08T12:25:41
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tiger Woods playing the Masters again, his shirt as pink as the azaleas at Augusta National, would have been enough reason to celebrate Thursday.
It felt that way to him, too.
Woods twirled his club after good shots, and there were enough. He pumped his fist after his longest birdie putt. And then normalcy gave way to reality when he used his wedge as a walking stick for his once-battered and now weary legs for a final climb toward the 18th green.
Another par save for a 1-under 71, four shots behind Sungjae Im.
But this wasn’t just about a score. Woods was competing in a major, the first time in 508 days since a car crash some 14 month ago that shattered his right leg. That much was clear when asked if simply being able to play felt like a victory. His answer: “Yes.”
“If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it’s at now, the pictures — some of the guys know; they’ve seen the pictures — to see where I’ve been, to get from there to here, it was no easy task,” Woods said.
It doesn’t figure to get any easier the rest of the way.
Still to come is Friday, the first time he will have walked 18 holes at Augusta National on consecutive days since the accident with what he described as “lots of ice” in between.
Ahead of him are a collection of players who have won majors, who have won at Augusta, and who have spent the last year honing their games instead of figuring out how to get from a hospital bed to finding joy in the simple pleasure of walking.
Im, the 24-year-old South Korean known for rarely missing the center of the club face, ran off three straight birdies at the start, recovered from a pair of bogeys with a 12-foot eagle putt on the 13th and added a late birdie for a 5-under 67.
He was one shot ahead of Cameron Smith, playing for the first time since winning The Players Championship a month ago. The Aussie with the mullet had the most dynamic round of the day with his eight birdies, all between a double bogey at the start and the finish.
“To be honest, those couple of double bogeys really didn’t have too bad a shot in them. It’s not like I was scratching it out of the trees,” Smith said. “Just misjudged the wind on both wedges. Just left myself in a bit of a tough spot. Other than that, it was just really solid.”
Im’s 67 was the highest score to lead after 18 holes at the Masters since 2014, and that was to be expected. Even with 2 inches of rain that softened the course, the front that cleared out the clouds brought enough wind to jangle the nerves at every turn.
Dustin Johnson, who held off Im and Smith when he won the Masters in November 2020, was 4 under through 10 holes and poised to present a daunting target with the scoring holes ahead of him. He had to settle for pars, dropped a shot late and was in the large group at 69.
Also at 69 were former Masters champion Danny Willett, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and Joaquin Niemann, who holed out for eagle on No. 9 and still didn’t get the biggest roar of the round. He was playing with Woods, who heard them all day.
The crowd was so large that Woods could barely be seen over so many heads as he walked from the clubhouse to the putting green and then to the first tee, big cheers at each station, all the way down to Amen Corner until the end.
“Probably at the beginning I noticed that there was a lot of people, but then I was trying to talk to my caddie, and I couldn’t hear anything that he was saying,” Niemann said.
Overlooked in Woods playing again was the return of the spectators, and it was a beautiful and roaring marriage. There were pockets of cheers from around Augusta National, and endless cheers for Woods.
He missed that. They missed him. And he didn’t waste time giving them reason for hope by making a 10-foot par putt on the first hole.
“The place was electric,” Woods said. “I hadn’t played like this since ’19 when I won because in ’20 we had COVID and we had no one here, and I didn’t play last year. So to have the patrons fully out and to have that type of energy out there was awesome to feel.”
He couldn’t feel the same about his legs. He said they were sore, which he expected, but he could compete over five hours on soft turf and so many undulations.
He came within a few feet of an ace on the par-3 sixth. He made a 30-foot birdie on the par-3 16th, and his other on an approach that hugged the top of the green at the par-5 13th for a simple two-putt. His big regret was a pitch that came up woefully short on the par-5 eighth, followed by a chip that was too strong and a poor putt.
He dropped another shot from a 4-iron chip on the 14th that ran 8 feet by.
It wasn’t his best. But after going that long without serious competition, he had few complaints.
“I’m going to be sore, yes. That’s just the way it is,” he said. “And this is only one round. We’ve got three more to go. There’s a long way to go and a lot of shots to be played.”
But it was a start, and that felt like a win. And he was among 17 players from the 90-man field who broke par, and that was big.
“I was able to finish up in the red,” Woods said. “I’m right where I need to be.”
The thousands of spectators who stood a dozen deep in some spots, who filled every inch of grass around Amen Corner, couldn’t have agreed more.
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https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-08T12:25:48
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Steven Stamkos notices a different feeling around the Tampa Bay Lightning.
For a team accustomed to winning — not only the Stanley Cup the past two years but in the regular season at a high level — it has been a challenging few weeks. The back-to-back defending champions have lost nine of their last 15 games, with three separate three-game skids handing them the kind of adversity they have not experienced in quite some time.
“It feels like every mistake right now is kind of ending up in the back of our net, so it’s tough not to get frustrated,” Stamkos said Wednesday night after a 4-3 loss at Washington. “We just have to continue to work our way through it. We have a lot of veteran leadership on this team that we know we can work our way out of it.”
The bigger question is whether the Lightning can harness the right lessons from the past month and apply them when the playoffs begin in early May. After coaching Tampa Bay on several long runs, missing the postseason entirely, enduring a stunning first-round sweep and then hoisting the Cup twice, Jon Cooper understands the answer won’t be clear until after the regular season.
“We can only wait and see if it’s going to help or not, but it tests you mentally and physically,” Cooper said. “The boys have played a lot of hockey over the last couple years. And especially these last two months, we’ve asked a lot of them. Sometimes it becomes a little bit more than just the physical part of it.”
There has been some roster turnover, but many core players are now 70 games into another regular season after almost 50 over the past two playoffs combined. No team has played more hockey since August 2020 than the Lightning.
With that comes fatigue but also the perspective of what the regular season means in the grand scheme of trying to win a championship. Players now have a good grip of that.
“There’s some uncomfortable moments for this group, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Stamkos said. “You want to try to work out the kinks as you go towards the playoffs. At the end of the day, that’s where teams are judged, right? You could have the best regular season in history, like we’ve shown, and it means nothing come playoff time.”
Winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular-season team in 2018-19 and setting a record for the most points accumulated did little for the Lightning when they were swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round. That group faced so little adversity until the playoffs that it lacked the ability to handle it.
The experience of that series undoubtedly played some role in Tampa Bay winning it all the past two years. But it’s not like players are simply writing off their recent performances thinking they can flip a switch against Florida, Carolina or Boston when the playoffs start.
“You always want to win games, and when it doesn’t go your way, maybe you’re second-guessing decisions on the ice and we don’t have time for that,” said defenseman Victor Hedman, who was playoff MVP in 2020. “We want to go out there and execute and be clear in our minds in what we want to do. And when we’re clicking on all cylinders, we know we’re a tough team to beat. So for us it’s all about going out there with the confidence that we’re going to win games.”
The immediate challenge is a visit from the Bruins on Friday night. The Lightning’s loss at the Capitals dropped them into a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, and while there are no easy matchups, it’s not a spot they want to be in without home-ice advantage.
Cooper called it a “pivotal” game, and a few more like it stand in the way before Tampa Bay can even try for the three-peat.
“The boys got to dig in here,” he said.
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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| 2022-04-08T12:25:55
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Albert Pujols held back tears during a lengthy standing ovation. The Cardinals designated hitter put on a big smile instead.
Plenty of reason for those on this opening day in St. Louis.
Adam Wainwright pitched six scoreless innings, Tyler O’Neill hit a three-run homer and drove in a career-high five, and the Cardinals celebrated Pujols’ return with a 9-0 season-opening win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.
“I was trying to hold it in a little bit,” Pujols said. “These fans really appreciate what I’ve done for this organization and hopefully I can continue to do that and finish strong.”
Yadier Molina threw out a runner trying to steal second in the first game of his final big league season, and Nolan Arenado and Tommy Edman also homered for the Cardinals, who won the managerial debut of 35-year-old Oliver Marmol. Paul Goldschmidt drew four straight walks, the first player to do that on opening day since Manny Ramírez in 2002.
The Pirates had just six hits and lost budding star Ke’Bryan Hayes to left forearm spasms in the first inning — just hours after news began to spread that Hayes had agreed to a $70 million, eight-year deal. Hayes said the issue was minor and not related to a wrist injury that spoiled his 2021 season.
“It was just a cramp,” he said.
Fans stood and cheered Pujols for nearly a full minute prior to his first at-bat, a flyout to left in the first inning. The 42-year-old played 11 seasons in St. Louis (2001-2011) and helped the Cardinals to a pair of World Series championships before leaving to join the Los Angeles Angels.
Pujols, who signed a one-year deal with St. Louis last month, was 0 for 5.
“He looked good, at least as far as his timing,” Marmol said.
Added Wainwright: “The time that he was here (before), he was a franchise player. A guy who changed the game and was the face of baseball in St. Louis. To see him come back, to be a part of this clubhouse again, is really, really cool.”
Wainwright (1-0) allowed five hits in his sixth opening day start and first since 2016. The 40-year-old struck out six and did not walk a batter. He and the 39-year-old Molina made their 305th start as a battery, fourth most in major league history. Molina made his franchise-record 18th successive opening day start.
O’Neill had an RBI single in the first, then broke the game open with a line-drive homer to left in the second inning against starter JT Brubaker (0-1) for a 4-0 lead.
“We’re an offensive force,” O’Neill said. “We have a lot of depth, one through nine. Everybody’s dangerous. The DH helps a lot as well. We’re always confident in ourselves.”
Wainwright wriggled out of his only jam in the fourth by getting Kevin Newman to ground into an inning-ending double play with two runners on base. Wainwright has not allowed a run against Pittsburgh in his last 32 innings.
“I’m not trying to take away how amazing today was,” Wainwright said. “But we still plan on getting that last out of the entire season.”
The Cardinals recorded their largest opening day margin of victory since beating Houston 14-3 in 1982.
Yoshi Tsutsugo had two hits for Pittsburgh, which opened the season on the road for sixth successive season.
Relievers Nick Wittgren, Genesis Cabrera and Ryan Helsley combined on the six-hit shutout.
Brubaker, who was the Pirates seventh opening day starter in as many years, allowed four runs over three innings. He struck out two and walked three.
HORSING AROUND
Pregame ceremonies featured the traditional parade of Clydesdale horses circling the field in addition to the introduction of 16 members of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. Ozzie Smith threw out the first pitch to Willie McGee.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: RHP Duane Underwood Jr. left the game in the sixth with right hamstring tightness. … OF Greg Allen was placed on the 60-day injury list with a left hamstring issue.
Cardinals: Opening the season without RHP Jack Flaherty, who is sidelined with shoulder stiffness.
UP NEXT
Pittsburgh RHP Mitch Keller (5-11, 6.17 last season) will face RHP Miles Mikolas (2-3, 4.23) in the second game of a four-game series Saturday.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-08T12:26:01
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bobby Witt Jr. searched the crowd for his family before his highly anticipated big league debut Thursday, finally spotting them in the sea of Kansas City Royals fans that had bundled up for a blustery opening day.
“I don’t know if they were even paying attention to me,” Witt admitted later.
Everyone was paying attention to him by the end.
After going hitless in his first three at-bats, Witt roped a double down the left-field line with two outs in the eighth inning, spurring the Royals to a 3-1 victory over the rechristened Cleveland Guardians.
“You couldn’t have scripted that any better,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said with a grin. “This isn’t one he’s going to forget, and I probably won’t, either.”
In a matchup of former Cy Young Award winners, Cleveland ace Shane Bieber and erstwhile Royals star Zach Greinke dueled to a 1-all stalemate before turning the game over to the bullpens on a cold day at Kauffman Stadium.
It remained tied until the eighth, when the Royals’ Michael Taylor worked a walk off Triston McKenzie (0-1) and then took second on Nicky Lopez’s sacrifice bunt. McKenzie struck out Whit Merrifield before Witt, regarded by many as the No. 1 prospect in the game, doubled down the left-field line to give Kansas City its first lead.
“I could kind of see it coming a little bit with the way the game was going,” said Greinke, who signed a one-year deal to return to the club that drafted him 20 years ago. “It felt like it was going to be a special day.”
Andrew Benintendi drove in Witt, giving Royals reliever Scott Barlow (1-0) a cushion. And after a perfect eighth, Barlow struck out Myles Straw with runners on the corners in the ninth to end it.
Lopez also drove in a run for Kansas City, while Jose Ramirez had an RBI double for the Guardians a day after agreeing to a $124 million, five-year deal to stay with Cleveland through what could be the end of his career.
Plenty of famous fans braved wintry weather to enjoy opening day.
Several members of the Kansas City Chiefs, including coach Andy Reid, dressed up in Royals gear. So did members of the Kansas basketball team, which beat North Carolina in the national title game Monday night in New Orleans.
It was 47 degrees at first pitch, and a gale blowing out to right field made if seem even colder. Then there was the off-and-on drizzle that turned to shooting pellets of ice during the national anthem, which probably made everybody stuck wearing a jersey long for the sun and warmth of Arizona spring training.
“The weather was not fun for anybody,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said.
Greinke didn’t seem to mind. He wore short sleeves for his first start in a Kansas City uniform since Sept. 30, 2010.
He didn’t have the same dominant fastball that he had in 2009, when he won the Cy Young, but he made up for it with the wisdom of 18 years in the big leagues — and a beguiling 69 mph curveball. Greinke made it through 5 2/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk while striking out one, then got a standing ovation from the crowd.
“He just knows how to pitch,” Francona said.
Bieber, whose Cy Young came 11 years after Greinke won his, was nearly as good. He allowed one run on three hits in 4 2/3 innings for Cleveland, which played with a new name for the first time since 1915.
Both of the staff aces were gone by the time Witt came to bat in the eighth inning, though. They were reduced to fans just like everyone else, watching in rapt attention as one of the game’s bright young stars stepped to the plate.
“I was going nuts. I jumped over the (dugout) railing,” Lopez said. “He’s ready for this moment. The Royals know he’s ready for this moment. We all know he’s ready for this moment.”
HONORING ART
The Royals honored longtime scout Art Stewart, who spent 69 years in professional baseball, with members of his family throwing out first pitches to George Brett and Mike Sweeney. Stewart died in November at the age of 94.
MONEY BALLERS
The Guardians announced their$20 million, five-year contract with closer Emmanuel Clase, which was agreed to over the weekend. They have yet to announce their deal with Ramirez because several details are still being finalized.
TRAINER’S ROOM
The Guardians placed OF Josh Naylor on the injured list as he works his way back from a fractured leg. C Luke Maile (right hamstring strain) and right-hander James Karinchak (back strained) joined him there.
UP NEXT
After taking Friday off, the series resumes Saturday with Cleveland RHP Zach Plesac against Royals RHP Brad Keller.
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| 2022-04-08T12:26:07
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” TV star, a Paralympic swimmer and a self-described “brand king” were among the Instagram and TikTok influencers who were paid by Chinese officials for a discreet campaign that promoted the Beijing Winter Olympics, new Justice Department documents reveal.
The social media posts fanned across a variety of popular Instagram and TikTok accounts that have a combined following of 5 million people who follow their videos, photos and content about travel destinations, sports, fashion and women’s issues. The Chinese Consulate in New York paid $300,000 to New Jersey-based firm Vippi Media to recruit the influencers. The posts were not properly labeled as ads in the way that TikTok and Instagram requires.
“It allows them to boost the reach and the resonance of their messaging to make it appear to be authentic, independent content,” Jessica Brandt, a Brookings Institution expert on foreign interference and disinformation, said of China’s social media campaign.
More details about the social media campaign were disclosed in filings Monday with the Justice Department, just days after an Associated Press examination revealed that China is using a sweeping network of influencers and social media accounts to subtly proffer propaganda to users around the globe.
The AP’s reporting found that Vippi Media had not yet filed updates with the Justice Department on its influencer campaign, even though federal law requires the company to do so within 24 hours of materials being disseminated. The company had registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law that is meant to allow Americans to know when foreign entities are trying to influence public opinion or policymakers.
Vippi Media’s campaign, targeted at U.S. social media users, reached roughly 4 million users with ads that were scattered in stories, videos and posts across TikTok and Instagram in January, February and March by nearly a dozen influencers. The accounts named in the filing shared posts promoting the Olympics with the hashtags #Beijing2022, #partner and #ad.
A majority of the Instagram and TikTok content shared by the influencers simply advertised the Winter Olympics, shared pictures from some of the ceremonial events or gave insight on Chinese cultural customs.
Crystal Kung Minkoff, a cast member of Bravo’s “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” who was listed as one of the influencers hired by Vippi Media, posted a video on her Instagram where she conducted an at-home, faux news-style broadcast of a mock Olympics game of musical chairs with her children. Later the post congratulates “Team USA” and says Beijing is the first city to host the summer and winter games. A message left with Minkoff was not immediately answered.
Meanwhile, Jessica Long, a decorated Paralympic swimmer and popular Instagram personality, celebrated the upcoming Olympics in a Jan. 27 post to her nearly 100,000 followers. “Have fun making lasting memories at the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China.” Long didn’t immediately return request for comment.
One of the most striking videos came from TikTok influencer Ryan Dubs, a “brand-king” with more than a half-million followers on his account, where he frequently hawks skin care products.
Dubs posted a 3-minute-long interview with China’s Consul General in New York, Huang Ping, who spoke with the Chinese and U.S. flags behind him.
The spot’s caption includes hashtags for the Beijing 2022 games. Huang and Dubs decry U.S. tariffs against Chinese imports. Dubs says he has amazing suppliers in China and encourages entrepreneurs in the U.S. to do business with China. Haung followed up by inviting U.S. businesses to come to China in the video. The Beijing games feature briefly, with Dubs saying they “helped define China in 2022.” Dubs did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment.
It’s unclear how much each influencer was paid to post the content.
Minkoff, Long and Dubs used #partner in their posts, but did not directly identify who sponsored the content. Instagram requires that influencers tag the sponsor, and both TikTok and Instagram require their users to register the posts as a paid partnership with the company. Most influencers, however, flout those rules — leaving social media users in the dark about who is paying for the posts they see in their feeds.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
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Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/china-used-tv-tiktok-stars-in-discreet-olympics-campaign/
| 2022-04-08T12:26:14
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https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/china-used-tv-tiktok-stars-in-discreet-olympics-campaign/
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Shares of HP Inc. jumped nearly 15% Thursday after Warren Buffett’s company snapped up more than 11% of the printer and computer maker over the past week in another uncharacteristic tech investment from the billionaire.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it now owns nearly 121 million HP shares, giving it control of 11.5% of the company.
HP shares rose more than $5 to close at $40.06 in the first day of trading since the purchases were disclosed. The company is based in Palo Alto, California.
Buffett began the year telling shareholders he was having trouble finding anything at attractive prices to invest Berkshire’s nearly $147 billion pile of cash. Since airing that sentiment in February in his annual letter, Berkshire said it would spend $11.6 billion to acquire the Alleghany insurance conglomerate, and it bought more than $7 billion worth of Occidental Petroleum stock.
Buffett has long shied away from investing in tech companies saying that it was too hard to pick long-term winners. Yet he’s liked Apple’s prospects enough to buy more than 5.6% of the iPhone maker in recent years and it appears he’s found something similarly alluring in HP.
Berkshire’s investments now lean heavily on financial services companies and “value tech investments,” said CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert.
Besides the high-tech investments in Apple, HP and electric car maker BYD, Berkshire’s $351 billion portfolio includes major investments in Bank of America, American Express, US Bancorp and credit rating agency Moody’s.
“This strategy makes a lot of sense, in our view, despite Buffet’s pervious wariness toward the tech space, since it further diversifies the broader Berkshire operating model, currently centered around energy, industrial, consumer and insurance,” Seifert said.
Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said even though HP makes printers and computers, Buffett may be looking at it more like a traditional manufacturer. And he said HP shares several qualities of other Berkshire investments, including a relatively cheap price compared to its earnings and a strong track record of returning cash to shareholders through dividends and repurchases. The company currently pays a quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share.
The Berkshire filing doesn’t disclose whether Buffett or one of Berkshire’s other investment managers made the HP purchases, but Buffett has said he typically handles investments of more than $1 billion. Berkshire didn’t immediately respond Thursday to questions about the HP investment.
Many investors track Buffett’s investment moves closely because of his remarkably successful track record over the decades.
Besides its investment portfolio, the Omaha, Nebraska, conglomerate also owns more than 90 companies outright, including BNSF railroad, Geico and a number of other large insurers, several major utilities and an assortment of manufacturing and retail companies.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/hp-stock-soars-after-warren-buffetts-company-buys-over-11/
| 2022-04-08T12:26:21
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https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/hp-stock-soars-after-warren-buffetts-company-buys-over-11/
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Hackers aligned with Russia broke into the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military officers and were working to upload videos of defeated and surrendering Ukrainian soldiers when the plot was disrupted, according to a report Thursday from Meta that details a troubling increase in social media disinformation this year.
The report from the owner of Facebook and Instagram found a surge in content linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as new cases of domestic disinformation and propaganda in countries around the world, suggesting that tactics pioneered by foreign intelligence agencies are now being used more widely.
“While much of the public attention in recent years has been focused on foreign interference, domestic threats are on the rise globally,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president for global affairs and a former British deputy prime minister.
Russia and its allies are major players, according to the report, with groups linked to the Kremlin spreading disinformation about its invasion of Ukraine while amplifying pro-Russian conspiracy theories at home.
Meta traced the effort to take over the social media accounts of dozens of Ukrainian military leaders back to a shadowy hacker organization known as Ghostwriter, which previous researchhas linked to Belarus, a Russian ally. Ghostwriter has a history of spreading content critical of NATO, and also has tried to hack email accounts.
“This is a tried-and-true thing that they do,” said Ben Read, director of cyberespionage analysis at Mandiant, a prominent U.S. cybersecurity firm that has tracked Ghostwriter’s activities for years. Last year Mandiant said digital clues suggested the hackers were based in Belarus, though EU officials have previously blamed Russia.
Belarus and Russia have not responded to the claims.
The report outlined other disinformation efforts tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including one involving dozens of fake accounts that spread anti-Ukrainian rhetoric. Another network filed thousands of fake complaints about Ukrainian Facebook users in an effort to get them kicked off the platform. That network hid its activities in a Facebook group supposedly dedicated to cooking.
Within Russia, the Kremlin has blockedhundreds of news sources and websites, including Facebook and Twitter, and threatened jail time to anyone who tries to report on the war. In the place of accurate journalism, the state-controlled media have pumped out discredited conspiracy theories about Ukrainian Nazis or secret U.S. bioweaponlabs.
Meta and other big tech companies have responded by removing or restricting Russian state-run media, by targeting disinformation networks and by labeling content it does not remove. Twitter this week announced it would also label state-controlled media from Belarus.
The prevalence of Russian-linked propaganda and disinformationon social media shows that a more aggressive response is needed, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a London-based nonprofit that supports greater social media regulation. A study by the group found numerous Facebook mentions of Russia’s discredited bioweapon conspiracy theory.
“Despite taking action against state channels under enormous pressure, Meta is failing badly to contain major disinformation narratives that benefit Putin’s regime,” said Imran Ahmed, the center’s CEO.
Meta said it would be rolling out additional policies in the coming weeks and months to make sure it stays ahead of groups looking to exploit its platforms. Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta’s head of security policy, noted that groups looking to spread disinformation and propaganda are adapting their tactics too.
“We would expect them to keep coming back,” Gleicher said.
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Klepper reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/meta-russian-invasion-driving-more-disinformation-online/
| 2022-04-08T12:26:28
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https://www.cenlanow.com/technology/ap-technology/meta-russian-invasion-driving-more-disinformation-online/
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House Select Committee comes to Gaston County to speak on the future of education
The House Select Committee "On An Education System for North Carolina's Future," led by Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, held a public hearing in Gaston County on Monday.
Monday's meeting was the third out of four hearings to gather the public thoughts on the state's public education system.
The fourth and last meeting will be conducted in May in Carteret County.
"If there was no education system in North Carolina today and you were tasked with creating one, what would be your suggestions?" asked Torbett.
"We have a large education system that is 60% of North Carolina's entire budget. When we — the committee — hear issues and concerns about our current system, then we know something is wrong," Torbett added.
Torbett, a Stanley native, alongside his wife Viddia Torbett, the committee's clerk, and five state representatives from different counties in North Carolina, met at Stanley Middle School.
Gaston County Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Booker began the meeting, highlighting the unique opportunities students in the county have through the School Choice program.
The committee then gave attendees the opportunity to express their concerns and suggestions for an hour.
Ten people stood to voice their concerns during the meeting, the majority of them coming from Mecklenburg County.
Rebecca Ivanov, an eighth-grade math teacher at Mountain Island Charter School in Mount Holly, suggested giving students who fail gateway classes to transition to high school, the opportunity to take the course again during the spring semester to avoid them from repeating the year.
"Math is the gateway to high school as we know and a lot of kids are suffering and the scores are abysmal, especially in Mecklenburg, where I live right now," said Ivanov.
Other suggestions ranged from less testing and fewer school days to an increase in teacher pay.
"We need strategies to attract and retain teachers. We need to increase teacher salaries and benefits, making them competitive and commensurate with their education and reflected in the high value we place on the profession," said Sara Baysinger, a member of the League of Women Voters of Charlotte and a Mecklenburg County public school parent.
Torbett said the committee wants to hear the public's thoughts before making recommendations to the General Assembly.
Beatriz Guerrero can be reached at 704-869-1828 or on Twitter@BeatrizGue_.
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https://www.gastongazette.com/story/news/2022/04/08/gaston-county-house-committee-visits-discuss-nc-public-education-system/9468036002/
| 2022-04-08T12:32:25
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https://www.gastongazette.com/story/news/2022/04/08/gaston-county-house-committee-visits-discuss-nc-public-education-system/9468036002/
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Soon after the invasion began, a hashtag war slogan popped up everywhere in Russia: "We don't leave ours behind." But many were.
In Irpin, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, two Russian soldiers killed in battle lay on a street corner, covered with a sheet of metal, legs poking out. A third lay a few feet away near a burned-out armored personnel carrier, a lower leg gnawed by dogs. A fourth lay further along the road, the victim of a mine.
In Moshchun, a once-idyllic hamlet northwest of Kyiv, another Russian soldier died badly inside a dimly lit kitchen, lying on a bench with a gruesome groin wound. Ten others were scattered about, several on the fringes of a forest.
While countless bodies have been abandoned on the battlefield, many more have found their way back to their families, but Russia's overall death toll, though staggering, remains elusive. At home, the Kremlin has clamped down on news of military casualties, apparently wary of how a nation's grief could turn volatile. In 2015, Putin signed a decree declaring all military deaths a state secret, and last year Russia criminalized statements discrediting the military.
NATO estimates that Russia has lost 7,000 to 15,000 troops during the six-week war, a startling number, while Ukraine puts the toll at 18,600. Those figures rival, if not exceed, the 14,453 lost during the Soviet Union's roughly 10-year war in Afghanistan and the 11,000 Russian service members who died in the two Chechen wars.
Russia puts the official military death toll of the Ukrainian campaign at 1,351, and state television does not dwell on this figure. With Russia now apparently girding for a grueling war of attrition and analysts predicting that Moscow will keep plowing in massive numbers of troops and material, the media in the Russian towns and cities that have lost the largest number of their sons are strangely quiet.
Dozens from the Russian town of Aleysk, in the Altai region, reportedly died in the first days of the war in fighting near the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. After news reached families, there was only one cryptic reference on the local community online news page: "Dear military family members! We kindly ask you not to allow people to gather in one place, not to succumb to provocative information."
A similar notice on the eternal memory page for Chelyabinsk - another Russian city with significant casualties - warned against fake information "created with the aim of whipping up hysteria." People must not share news of deaths, it added, claiming that "Nazis from Ukraine" were trying to "collect information about our soldiers for the subsequent development of fake information."
Vadim Kolodiy, a 19-year-old gunner from the 136th Reconnaissance Battalion based in Naro-Fominsk outside Moscow, died after he was attacked and trapped in his armored personnel carrier, the Russian military told his mother, Tatyana, last month, but she never received his body.
"I am hysterical. Vadim didn't even have a chance to escape. He burned inside," she wrote on social media. "The first week was like darkness. Pain, tears. I could not sleep or eat." She said she felt anger at men in their 30s and 40s out drinking beer, while "children" in their late teens and early 20s were dead.
A few weeks after Kolodiy's reported death, charred remains thought to be his were analyzed in a laboratory in Rostov, but the DNA did not match.
"No one is looking for these children," Tatyana said. "No one cares about them. How many of these children, husbands, are there? How much pain had this all brought?"
Nikita Deryabin's widow, Anya Deryabina, buried her husband last month, but still does not have a feeling of closure. Deryabin, 25, of Chelyabinsk had adored his wife and three young children. A sniper who loved the military, he was sent on a "training exercise," only to be killed in battle March 8.
"I still can't realize or believe that this is true," Deryabina said in written answers to questions because she said she could not speak without crying. At night, she dreams of him, feeling he is still with her. "Every day I talk to him. Every day I ask him what for and why.
"My brain refuses to accept the information that Nikitka is dead," she said, using a diminutive nickname. "I am still waiting for him to call, to come back."
Some bereaved family members want Russia to redouble its military campaign in Ukraine so, they say, that their boys will not have died in vain.
Gulnara Valiyeva, 43, whose son Yevgeny was killed with his German shepherd service dog in Hostomel, near Kyiv, called on social media for Russia to keep fighting "to the end." She buried him, and is begging the military to let her have the female Belgian shepherd pup he was training before he left, so that she can keep part of him.
But there are also flashes of dissent. "People are saying that their relatives are sent (to Ukraine.) What the f--- is this about? For what?" commented Olga Filippova on March 11, under Valiyeva's online post about her son's memorial.
Ukraine has about 7,000 unclaimed Russian corpses in morgues and refrigerated rail cars, according to Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of Ukraine's presidential administration. He said his government's figure of 18,600 Russian dead was based on Ukrainian reports from the battlefield and intercepted Russian military communications.
Ukraine tried to return the bodies of 3,000 Russian service members on the third day of the war, he said. "They said, 'We don't believe in such quantities. We don't have this number. We're not ready to accept them.' " Ukraine proposed an exchange several times, he said, but "they won't discuss this at all yet."
So Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs set up a website and Telegram channel where Russians can search photos of the dead and prisoners of war, or fill out an online form seeking information about family members.
Russia's Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment.
Yevheni Velichko, the 32-year-old mayor of Voznesensk, a southern Ukrainian town, asked residents to collect Russian corpses after a two-day battle "so that we can send these guys back to their mothers and wives."
"Russian or not Russian, we treated the bodies with dignity," he said, adding that they were sent to Kyiv.
In nearby Bashtanka village, Mayor Oleksandr Beregovyi said dead Russians were buried in mass graves after their documents were collected.
Keir Giles of the London-based think tank Chatham House said the difference between Western and Russian military attitudes about their war dead was "night and day . . . in exactly the same way as their attitude to civilian casualties and collateral damage is utterly unrecognizable from how Western militaries operate."
Russia had planned a swift operation in Ukraine, similar to what it had planned in its wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, but then got bogged down. "And then Russia pivots from the clever way to the brute force way of winning wars," Giles said, and casualties mount on both sides.
In Chechnya, Russian officials had expected swift triumph. The storming of the capital, Grozny, in 1994 was a catastrophe, with soldiers in armored vehicles getting lost and lacking air support and working radios. But Russia's media at the time was free, and civil society was blossoming. News programs aired footage of Russian soldiers burning alive in armored vehicles. Horrified parents of soldiers simply went to Chechnya and took their sons home.
The Soldiers' Mothers Committee, then led by Valentina Melnikova, was a focal point for protests and anger. In December last year, as Russia's military massed near Ukraine, her phone was ringing off the hook again, although she is long retired, Melnikova recently told Russian YouTube interviewer Ekaterina Gordeyeva.
Melnikova declined interview requests from The Post, saying that it was dangerous for her or the organization to speak, because of the law against discrediting the military.
Before the Feb. 24 invasion, she gave parents the same advice as she did in the 1990s: Either go and collect their sons from the army and hide them somewhere safe, or tell them to run away, she said in the YouTube interview, the only one she has granted. Not one parent did so, she said.
After the invasion, "I felt like I was back in 1995. It was a terrible feeling," she said. "It was like Grozny again, when around 2,500 dead soldiers lay on the streets for a month, half-eaten by animals." She said she believes Ukraine's list is fairly accurate because it lists names from identity documents.
"But since our army does not collect the bodies of the dead and don't always pick up the wounded, there can be many discrepancies," she said, referring to Russia's figures. "It's cheaper to report them as 'missing in action.'"
Sergei Krivenko, director of the rights group "Citizen Army Law," said Russians were sensitive about deaths of conscripts. Putin has said that conscripts have not been sent to Ukraine, but some have been. Losses among volunteers or "contract" soldiers in Ukraine, however, are less shocking.
"The mentality is that you're paid for this and if you are sent to a military operation and you die, it's your choice," Krivenko said. "A soldier is just a tool to do a job. . . . The main task is to destroy the enemy, and how many losses we take is a secondary issue."
Krivenko said he doubted the mounting Russian deaths would spark enough popular discontent to threaten Putin.
"Propaganda is shouting constantly that we are defeating fascists in Ukraine. So as long as the number of dead doesn't increase one-hundred-fold, I do not think there will be any instability," he said.
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russias-war-dead-belie-its-slogan-that-no-one-is-left-behind/article_22c992bf-ef48-55c9-b4ea-383ca0801875.html
| 2022-04-08T12:34:02
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/russias-war-dead-belie-its-slogan-that-no-one-is-left-behind/article_22c992bf-ef48-55c9-b4ea-383ca0801875.html
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"She [Russian billionaire Elena Baturina] gave him [Hunter Biden] $3.5 million so now I would think [Russian president Vladimir] Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it. I think we should know that answer." - Former president Donald Trump, in an interview with Just the News, March 29
"The FBI knew of the laptop, knew that Hunter received a $3.5 million wire transfer from the former mayor of Moscow's wife." - Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., interview on Fox Sunday Morning Futures, April 3
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Less than 50 days before the 2020 presidential election, the Republican staff of the Senate Finance and Homeland Security Committees issued a joint report with a startling claim - that Joe Biden's son Hunter had received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, a Russian billionaire and the widow of the former mayor of Moscow.
Trump quickly weaponized the factoid, mentioning it 42 times in the final weeks of the campaign. He sharply questioned Biden during the first presidential debate: "They were the ones involved with Russia, turns out not me, it was the opposite. But why did your son get three and a half million from the wife of the mayor of Moscow?"
An attorney for Hunter Biden denied the allegation in 2020 but it has lived on, especially in the right-wing media. Recently Trump called on Putin to reveal what he knows about it.
Trump's call-out to Putin inspired us to dig deep into this story again. We interviewed people familiar with the transactions, reviewed property and real estate documents and probed for leads in the emails contained on a hard drive copy of the laptop Hunter Biden supposedly left behind for repair in a Delaware shop in April 2019. None of our sources would speak on the record because of continuing investigations of Hunter Biden and his business practices, but we sought confirmation from corporate filings and other records.
The flimsiness of the allegation was apparent from the start merely by carefully reading the Senate GOP report itself.
The executive summary offers a seemingly definitive bullet point almost exactly the same as Johnson's comment: "Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow." But the two pages in the report that deal with this transaction are considerably more nuanced, never saying outright that Hunter Biden received this money and making no claim that any laws were broken.
The GOP report itself does not provide evidence to back up the claim that became a talking point - and our reporting has unearthed the best explanation about what really happened. It's a complicated story, involving a web of corporate entities, that eventually leads to the purchase of millions of dollars worth of real estate in Brooklyn by the Russian billionaire. We found no evidence that Hunter Biden was part of those transactions.
Let's start our story in China, where Hunter Biden invested in a private investment fund backed by Chinese state entities at a time when his father was vice president - a controversial practice that has raised ethical questions. The allegation that he received this payment hinges on his involvement with a firm called Rosemont Seneca Thornton that initially invested in the fund, generally known as BHR Partners.
The report says that on Feb. 14, 2014, Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, which it said was "co-founded" by Hunter Biden. The payment was listed as "Consultancy Agreement DD12.02.2014," the report said.
The report attributes details on financial transactions to a "confidential document" obtained from the Treasury Department. Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in 2019 had announced they had sought Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) on individuals and entities, including Hunter Biden. SARs are akin to an informant's tips, not evidence of fraud.
Rosemont Seneca Thornton was created on May 28, 2013 according to corporation records, and was incorporated in Delaware, which does not require shareholders or directors to be revealed. But Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, sometimes used "Rosemont" in company names and Biden used "Seneca." Thornton referred to Thornton Group, run by Jim Bulger, who brought expertise in investing in China.
But almost as immediately as Rosemont Seneca Thornton was created, the partners decided to dissolve it, according to a person with access to the board minutes. The original structure had added unexpected regulatory burdens to Thornton, and so Bulger's lawyers advised that the group split up, this person said.
Within a year, Chinese corporate records reflected that the foreign investors in BHR were Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC, with 20%, and Thornton Group LLC, with 10%. Corporate records show Rosemont Seneca Bohai, the replacement corporate vehicle, was formed on Feb. 13, 2014, the day before the Baturina transfer.
In theory, for Hunter Biden, Rosemont Seneca Thornton was no more.
But Rosemont Seneca Thornton was not dissolved as planned. Four people familiar with the company said that Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, controls it. Archer had kept the vehicle alive for his own real estate business, Rosemont Realty, which raised money from Eastern European and Central Asian investors, two people knowledgeable about his activities said. But he did not inform either Hunter Biden or Bulger, they said.
Archer's secret was exposed when the Senate report was published. Confronted, Archer told Bulger that he had used Rosemont Seneca Thornton to transfer funds from Baturina to purchase real estate in Brooklyn, according to a participant in the conversation.
Archer and his attorney, Matthew Schwartz, did not respond to queries. Hunter Biden's attorney, Chris Clark, declined to comment.
Baturina did not respond to emailed questions. When the report was released, she told the Daily Mail she was "not interested" in explaining an alleged consultancy fee. Her estranged brother Viktor Baturin claimed to the news organization that "it was a payment to enter the American market." Baturin, who is reported to be in custody after losing a fraud case filed by his sister, could not be reached for comment.
Hunter Biden's laptop does not contain significant evidence of direct interaction between Hunter Biden and Baturina, according to a review of emails that have been verified by experts working with The Washington Post as well as emails that the experts were unable to verify.
Her name, for instance, appears as a possible guest for a 2015 dinner that then-Vice President Joe Biden later briefly visited, according to our reporting, but it's unclear if she attended.
There's also no sign of a $3.5 million payment in Hunter Biden's reported income for 2014, the year of the wire transfer. That year, he reported earning almost $1.25 million, according to information contained in a verified laptop email he sent to his lawyer. The email said $400,000 of the income was related to Biden's board seat at Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.
Archer did a lot of business with Hunter Biden and had originally brought him into the BHR deal. But Archer also had many side deals in that period unconnected to his business with Biden. So doing his own deal with Baturina would appear to be part of that pattern.
In February, Archer was sentenced to a year and a day in prison after being convicted of defrauding Native American tribes and various clients in relation to the fraudulent issuance and sale of tribal bonds between 2014 and 2016. "I was doing too many things at once and not paying enough attention," said Archer before he was sentenced. "I have deep remorse for the victims of the crime."
Besides the allegation about Hunter Biden, the GOP report made other claims about payments from Baturina to Rosemont Seneca Thornton. But that part of the report showed sloppiness in the reporting and calls into question the thoroughness of the investigation. The report critically misidentified the recipient, mixing up two entities with virtually the same names.
The Fact Checker identified the correct owner of the entity that received the funds - and traced the money to real estate purchases in Brooklyn that match a statement by Baturina as well as Archer's admission that he used Rosemont Seneca Thornton to transfer funds for Baturina for real estate investments in Brooklyn.
The Senate report said that "between May 6, 2015 and Dec. 8, 2015, Baturina sent 11 wires in the amount of $391,968.21 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA LLC," with the transactions listed as "loan agreement." The report said that nine of the transactions, totaling $241,797.14, were sent to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton bank account, which then transferred the money to BAK USA.
The report said "BAK USA was a start-up technology company headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y., that produced tablet computers in cooperation with unnamed Chinese business partners." It turns out there were two BAK USA LLCs, but the one that received the payments had a comma in its name - BAK USA, LLC, which corporate records show was formed on May 28, 2014.
In 2016, Baturina issued a statement saying she had opened a representative office in New York to oversee investments in the United States. "Baturina's company has acquired the first set of commercial buildings next to Barclay's Centre, a very popular sports and entertainment venue. The company owns the buildings with a total area of 1,500 square meters, and the investment that went into their acquisition totaled US $10 million," the statement said.
New York City real estate records show that BAK USA, LLC, using the same business address as Archer's firm Rosemont Capital, on June 27, 2014 had purchased two parcels in Brooklyn within a half mile of Barclays Center. One parcel was bought for $4.1 million and another for $5.4 million, or a total of $9.6 million. The properties had been auctioned by the unclaimed and seized assets program of the United States government.
The property records and a property tax bill directed us to Helen Gotman, who is active in New York City real estate. She confirmed to the Fact Checker she managed the properties on behalf of Baturina.
In 2018, the properties were sold for about $11.7 million each, property records show, for a gain of more than $14 million.
J.P. Folsgaard Bak, a Danish lawyer who moved to the United States to become an entrepreneur, headed the Buffalo company misidentified in the report. The company had closed its doors in 2018 after Trump's Chinese tariffs made Chinese components more expensive and the tablets unprofitable. Bak said he was reading the Daily Mail in 2020, shortly after the Senate report was released, and was stunned to see an article saying his company had received payments from a Russian billionaire.
The committee staff had not contacted the company before publication of the report. Bak said the story exploded on social media and threats were being made against him and his wife. He sought an immediate correction from the committee but said the company's appeals were not heeded, with officials being told the burden of proof was on the company.
After the election, on Nov. 18, 2020, the committee issued a supplemental report that on page 16 included a footnote stating: "It appears that the tablet company did not receive the wires, but rather the other entity under the name BAK USA LLC was the recipient of those funds." Bak said he did not learn of the footnote until May of the following year, when he received a letter from the Grassley's chief of staff alerting him to it.
Alexa Henning, a Johnson spokesperson, said he stood by the report.
"Our report cited information from factual statements in U.S. government records," said Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee Republicans. "We've been provided no evidence to change our findings or dissociate Hunter Biden's financial connections to Devon Archer and Yelena Baturina." In an apparent reference to the Biden laptop, he added: "In fact, additional evidence has come to light that suggests Hunter Biden and Devon Archer collaborated on financial transactions with Yelena Baturina around the time of the transaction in question, and were involved in additional financial ventures together than had been previously known."
As for BAK USA, Foy said, "Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and their associates would routinely set up multiple corporations with similar names for limited use." He said that "the committee received angry messages" from "combative" BAK company officials but sought to clarify the record with the footnote in the supplemental report.
Bak said as far as he knows, no news organization ever corrected its reporting on BAK USA. "Our old company officially is still identified as the receiver of the funds, if you look it up at the Internet," he said. "Typical Washington strategy: October surprise on front page and subtraction at page 11 next to the crossword."
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/unraveling-the-tale-of-hunter-biden-and-3-5-million-from-russia/article_051651c0-df29-5838-bc76-8d5c4293e3e1.html
| 2022-04-08T12:34:08
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/voters/unraveling-the-tale-of-hunter-biden-and-3-5-million-from-russia/article_051651c0-df29-5838-bc76-8d5c4293e3e1.html
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I am so excited about the next couple of weeks! We are headed to various kitchens among the stars of the ABC11 Universe.
This week head to Troubleshooter Diane Wilson's House. She makes her mom's recipe for Fudge Jumbles. Basically, if you like Peanut Butter Cookies, if you like Hot Fudge, if you like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, well... let's just get to baking!
Ingredients
1 Box Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix
1 Cup of Jif Peanut Butter
1 stick of butter, softened
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 egg
Preparation
1. Combine Cake Mix, Peanut Butter, Butter, and Egg. Mix until crumbly. Diane uses her hands!
2. Reserve 1/3 of mix and put the rest in a sprayed 9x13 casserole dish
3. Mix the chocolate chips and milk and cook in microwave in 20 second intervals until melted. DO NOT BURN! The pour and spread over cake mixture.
4. Crumble the remaining dough over the chocolate.
5. Bake in preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes.
6. Let cool and serve!
It was SOOO good! I thought you could put a scoop of vanilla on it while it was still warm for an amazing dessert. There's a reason I'm a fat guy... Seriously, it was delicious! Thank you to Diane (and her Mom) for a great dessert. I hope you like it!!!
Also, if you have a great recipe that you want me to try, send me an email and I may feature it in this Big Recipe segment. Email Don.
RELATED: Hungry for more Big Recipes? Click here!
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Big Weather's Big Recipe: Diane Wilson's Fudge Jumbles
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https://abc11.com/big-weathers-recipe-fudge-jumbles-brownie-diane-wilsons/11715441/
| 2022-04-08T12:35:14
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RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Thousands of people are excited to pack the NC State Fairgrounds for this spring's Southern Ideal Home Show.
The event comes as housing prices remain high and interest rates are now increasing. Those things are leading to more people deciding to stay in their homes longer, thus possibly opting for some repairs and upgrades.
The Southern Ideal Home Show runs from Friday, April 8 until Sunday, April 10.
The show is back after being placed on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's open from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
"We're getting ready to get into the outdoor living phase in the Triangle...so people are looking for outdoor living spaces, everything from entertaining to work from home space outside. That's a huge trending thing right now; we see that there are benefits to actually being outside in nature and people are taking advantage of that," Liz Morgan said.
Morgan said the show is great for people who have a project in mind and maybe have already done some research. They can come to the home show, talk to contractors, learn about the latest trends and often get some of the best deals available.
But the show can also be an idea starter for people who are interested in some upgrades but have not thoroughly looked into what they want to upgrade.
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| 2022-04-08T12:35:20
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James Howard Jackson, 19, was released from jail Wednesday afternoon, according to booking records, which also show the charges against him were dismissed.
Details regarding how the charges against Jackson were dismissed and how exactly he was erroneously freed were not immediately available, but police said the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is now looking for him.
Jackson is one of three men charged last year with attempted murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree robbery for the shooting of Lady Gaga's dog walker, Ryan Fischer, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office.
Jackson is accused of shooting Fischer.
Fischer was walking Lady Gaga's three dogs - named Asia, Koji and Gustav - in Hollywood last February just off the famed Sunset Boulevard when he was attacked.
RELATED: Lady Gaga's dogs stolen in Hollywood; man walking French bulldogs shot
Video from the doorbell camera of a nearby home shows a white sedan pulling up and two men jumping out. They struggled with Fischer and one pulled a gun and fired a single shot before fleeing with two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav.
Lady Gaga offered a $500,000 reward - "no questions asked" - to be reunited with the dogs. The singer had been in Rome at the time filming a movie.
The dogs were returned two days later to an LAPD station by a woman who originally appeared to be "uninvolved and unassociated" with the crime, police initially said. The woman had reported that she'd found the dogs and responded to an email address associated with the reward, police said.
She turned out to be in a relationship with the father of one of the suspects, the LAPD later said.
The robbery would prompt headlines around the world - and motivate the owners of French bulldogs to be wary during walks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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https://abc11.com/lady-gaga-james-howard-jackson-dog-walker-shot-2022/11725165/
| 2022-04-08T12:35:26
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- A North Carolina family woke up and found a bear stuck inside of their car.
Ashely McGowin of Buncombe County said she let her dogs outside, like she does every morning, but this morning she saw something quite unusual.
She took out her phone and started recording as a bear forced its way out through the front windshield of her car.
After the momma bear was finished with the car, she and her two cubs walked off.
McGowin's insurance company confirmed the car was damaged severely enough to be deemed a total loss.
Bear punches its way out of North Carolina family's car
Copyright © 2022 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
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https://abc11.com/nc-bear-damages-car-destroys-bears/11725080/
| 2022-04-08T12:35:32
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TEL AVIV, Israel -- Israeli security forces early Friday hunted down and killed a Palestinian man who had opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv, killing two and wounding over 10 in an attack that caused scenes of mass panic in the heart of the bustling city.
It was the fourth deadly attack in Israel by Palestinians in three weeks, and came at a time of heightened tensions around the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank were set to enter Jerusalem for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with top security officials and announced that a major crossing in the northern West Bank near the attacker's hometown would be closed indefinitely.
"Every murderer will know that we'll get to him, and anyone who helps terrorists should know that the price he will pay will be unbearable," Bennett said in a statement.
Israel proceeded with plans to allow Palestinian women, children and older men to enter Jerusalem for prayers. Protests and clashes in the holy city during Ramadan last year eventually ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
Thursday's shooting took place in a crowded bar on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare that has seen other attacks over the years. Thursday night is the beginning of the Israeli weekend, and the area was packed with people in bars and restaurants.
In videos spread on social media, dozens of terrified people were seen running through the streets as police searched for the attacker and ordered people to stay indoors.
Hundreds of Israeli police officers, canine units, and army special forces, had conducted a massive manhunt throughout the night across Tel Aviv, searching building by building through densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Early Friday, authorities said they found the attacker hiding near a mosque in Jaffa, an Arab neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, and killed him in a shootout.
The Shin Bet internal security service identified the attacker as Raad Hazem, a 28-year-old Palestinian man from Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. It said he did not belong to an organized militant group and had no prior record. It said he had entered Israel illegally without a permit.
The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of one of the deadliest battles of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, 20 years ago. In April 2002, Israeli forces fought Palestinian militants in the camp for nearly three weeks. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers and at least 52 Palestinians, including civilians, were killed, according to the United Nations.
The Israeli military frequently conducts arrest raids in Jenin, often coming under fire. The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters, appears to have little control over the area.
After Thursday's attack, 13 Israelis have been killed in recent weeks, making this one of the worst waves of violence in years.
The militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility. President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the PA, condemned the attack, saying the killing of civilians on either side "can only lead to a further deterioration of the situation."
All of the attackers appear to have acted individually or with minimal support from a small cell. Three of them are believed to have identified with the extremist group Islamic State. But militant groups do not appear to have trained them or organized the attacks.
Seeking to avoid a repeat of last year's war, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks to discuss ways to maintain calm.
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. But the attacks have set off growing calls in Israel for a tougher crackdown.
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. Tens of thousands were expected to attend, and thousands of police were to be mobilized.
The mosque in Jerusalem's Old City 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 Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood, though he supports steps to improve their economy and quality of life.
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.
Israel 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.
Israel says the conflict stems from the Palestinians' refusal to accept its right to exist 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.
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https://abc11.com/tel-aviv-terror-avvid-attack-terrorist-shooting/11724992/
| 2022-04-08T12:35:38
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EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Solving the nation’s immigration challenges won’t be easy and ultimately require decisive action by Congress, a border lawmaker says.
Proof of that is that neither stepped up border wall construction during the Trump administration nor the application of a public health order to swiftly expel newly arrived migrants have slowed down migration, said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas.
“We have 1,900 miles of wall. That has not stopped, curbed or deterred migration. We’ve now had almost three years of Title 42. That has not stopped curbed or deterred migration,” she said.
Migrant encounters are already at historical levels and the Biden administration is bracing for the arrival of up to 18,000 a day – half a million per month – once Title 42 authority expires May 23.
Escobar said she has not been briefed yet on how the Biden administration intends to process migrants at ports of entry or elsewhere along the border after that date.
But she criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for saying he’ll bus arriving migrants to Washington, D.C., have state troopers inspect trucks coming from Mexico to screen for migrant smuggling and have National Guardsmen conduct defensive exercises and boat blockades on the Rio Grande.
“It’s incredible we have a governor who treats vulnerable people this way,” Escobar said in a Thursday Zoom call with reporters. “If a person is a soldier or a migrant, he doesn’t care. For him, they represent an opportunity to advance his politics of hate and cruelty. He’s not focused on solutions or on working with Congress to really help Texans; he’s focused on winning (re-election) at any cost.”
The congresswoman opined Abbott’s announced actions don’t strike her as legal and will invite lawsuits.
“I don’t know if he’s really going to do what he says – I don’t think so. But if he wants to go through with this treatment of vulnerable people, I think someone will take him to court,” she said.
Abbott this week said he’s taking those actions to protect Texans.
“The Biden administration’s open border policies have paved the way for dangerous cartels and deadly drugs to pour into the United States, and this crisis will only be made worse by ending Title 42 expulsions,” Abbott said Tuesday.
Escobar said migrants enter the country without authorization because their legal pathways are limited.
“We should not be surprised that when you limit legal pathways that there will be an increase in irregular migration,” she said. “I absolutely am concerned about the increasing numbers of vulnerable migrants who are arriving not just in El Paso, but across the Southern border. Unfortunately, Congress and federal government administrations … have failed to strategically and thoughtfully address this growing trend.”
She said the House has passed or introduced bills to improve migrant processing, legalize immigrants brought into the country without authorization when they were children, and provide a path to citizenship for 11 million unauthorized migrants who’ve been in the U.S. for several years. Most of those bills remain stuck in the Senate.
“The idea there’s one quick fix couldn’t be further from the truth,” Escobar said. “There will have to be a number of pieces of legislation we will have to pass.”
In the meantime, she called for the Biden administration to shore up migrant processing capabilities through the hiring of civilians to do clerical work that will free up U.S. Border Patrol agents and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers to return to their posts at ports of entry and on the vast stretches of U.S.-Mexico border. She is also advocating allowing migrants to apply for U.S. asylum from their home country.
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https://www.wane.com/border-report-tour/abbott-using-migrants-to-advance-politics-of-hate-and-cruelty-congresswoman-says/
| 2022-04-08T12:41:47
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https://www.wane.com/border-report-tour/abbott-using-migrants-to-advance-politics-of-hate-and-cruelty-congresswoman-says/
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EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Israel Ulloa-Osorio agreed to work off his human smuggling debt by guiding undocumented immigrants into the U.S. from Mexico.
According to court documents obtained by Border Report, the 27-year-old from Mexico did not have the $6,000 to pay off smugglers but learned he could make $500 for every migrant he delivered to a stash house in Dallas. Additionally, he would not be allowed to remain in the U.S. until he paid off his debt.
The scheme turned deadly in May 2020, when Ulloa-Osorio was guiding a group of migrants through the rugged West Texas desert to a pick-up location along Interstate 10. One of the men struggled to keep up and ultimately died in the desert.
Court documents state that the man’s son surrendered to Border Patrol, but Ulloa-Osorio successfully delivered the other migrants to the Dallas stash house two days later. However, smugglers ordered him to return to Mexico with the driver.
On June 7, 2020, border agents encountered Ulloa-Osorio and three other men in a part of Hudspeth County known as Cottonwood. Agents determined that all four men were from Mexico and in the U.S. illegally. They were arrested and taken to the Border Patrol’s Van Horn station for a medical evaluation and to be processed.
Later that day, records show, Ulloa-Osorio agreed to make a voluntary statement without the presence of an attorney. He told Homeland Security Investigations special agents of a previous deportation following a conviction for intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle out of Jefferson County, Texas, and his dealings with the human smuggling organization.
On June 2, 2021, Ulloa-Osorio pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to bring aliens into the U.S., resulting in death.
On Monday, Ulloa-Osorio received a 72-month prison sentence.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff said, “Human smuggling along the Southwest Border is dangerous and often deadly. The United States Attorney’s Office is committed to vigorously enforcing human smuggling laws.”
Added Frank B. Burrola, the Special Agent in Charge for HSI in El Paso: “This sentence underscores Homeland Security Investigations’ relentless efforts to identify transnational criminal organizations that make a profit from smuggling noncitizens into the United States with total disregard for people who may end up paying the ultimate price. … HSI is committed to ensuring that those who prey on the innocent face justice.”
HSI, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office investigated; Assistant U.S. Attorney Spencer D. Kiggins prosecuted the case, according to a news release from the office U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
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https://www.wane.com/border-report-tour/mexican-man-leads-migrants-across-border-to-pay-own-smuggling-debt-1-dies-in-desert/
| 2022-04-08T12:41:53
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SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Katia Lolia said she couldn’t believe how simple it was for her Ukrainian mother and sister to obtain humanitarian visas and enter the U.S. through Ped West, one of the pedestrian crossings at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Lolia lives in Salt Lake City but met her family members in Mexico City a few days ago.
Together they flew to Tijuana.
Her mother and sister spent a day in a shelter before being bused to the border and allowed to cross into the U.S.
“We’re very thankful it’s a very easy process for Ukrainians,” said Lolia, adding that the process was made easy by a network of volunteers from the moment they arrived at Tijuana’s airport.
“The Ukrainian volunteers with Ukrainian flags, they meet you at the airport and they register you they give every person a number,” she said.
Many of the volunteers are from north of the border and are providing transportation services for the migrants, the majority of whom fled Ukraine after Russia launched an attack on their county. They also find them a place to stay or take them to a shelter recently opened by the city of Tijuana.
“They are so nice, they even have music concerts for the migrants at the shelter,” said Lolia, whose mother and sister were taken by bus to the border where they crossed Thursday morning and got their visas.
Lolia met them on the north side of the border crossing as they came out.
“They’re allowed to stay in the United States for one year and who knows what it’s going to be in a year, if there’s still a war, they are allowed to extend, if the war is over they have to come back,” she said.
Pastor Phil Metzger, one of the volunteers, said they have lost track of how many Ukrainians have been helped, he believes it’s well over 2,000.
“We try to grab them right away at the airport to make sure people don’t get lost or get picked up by the wrong people that have other motives,” said Metzger. “We give them a number, we get them into digital system to track them all the way until they get across the border right here.”
Metzger says every migrant has one thing in common as they make it across the border.
“They’re tired, kind of scared but they’re feeling really welcomed, they come to be free and to be able to get out is a big deal.”
Metzger told Border Report that aside from the city of Tijuana making the shelter available, volunteers are providing almost all the resources to help the migrants.
But he is worried as more and more migrants arrive in Tijuana, their efforts might fall short.
“It’s been working, but the numbers now are too much, it’s overwhelming the system, it’s overwhelming all of us, they’ve got a lot of people over there right now.”
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https://www.wane.com/border-report-tour/network-of-volunteers-helping-ukrainians-cross-into-california/
| 2022-04-08T12:42:00
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SANTA ANA, Ca. (KTLA) — Police in Santa Ana, California, are investigating after video was released of one of an officer blaring copyrighted music in an attempt to thwart a YouTuber who was recording him.
Residents of a Santa Ana neighborhood were awoken to the sounds of police cars, a helicopter and something else they didn’t expect: Randy Newman’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
It happened around 11 p.m. Monday in a residential neighborhood on the 1600 block of West Civic Center Drive. Neighbors who came out to find the source of the commotion, were shocked to see the loud Disney music wasn’t coming from an annoying neighbor, but from a police car.
Alma Guzman was visiting her mom when she heard the unexpected noise.
“The police came, I guess there was a stolen vehicle,” she told KTLA. “Then the Disney music started playing. I didn’t know why.”
The video was apparently recorded by a YouTuber conducting what are called police audits. Auditing is an online practice of recording interactions with law enforcement officers. The practice is legal, but can sometimes be antagonistic toward police, and are generally unpopular among officers.
A man who identified himself as a city council member was seen on the recording scolding an officer. Neighbors said the man was Santa Ana Council member Jonathan Hernandez.
“Why are you playing this? Disrespectful,” Hernandez is heard saying in the video. As he admonishes the officer, Hernandez implores him to “have some respect for my community.”
Donna Sanchez, another resident in the neighborhood, said she was appreciative that the council member spoke up.
“I love Johnathan Hernandez sticking up for us,” Sanchez said. “I think it’s very disrespectful. We have to wake up pretty early.”
Sanchez said the person recording the video wasn’t doing any harm.
The officer told Hernandez and other onlookers that the music was played so that the YouTuber’s video would receive a copyright strike and the audio would be either muted or the video taken down entirely.
The Santa Ana Police Department is investigating that claim and will determine if the officers will face any discipline.
The Santa Ana Police Department released a statement that read in part:
“The Santa Ana police department is aware of a video that has surfaced involving one of our officers. We are committed to serving our community and we understand the concerns as it relates to the video. The Santa Ana police department takes seriously all complaints regarding the service provided by the department and the conduct of its employees. Our department is committed to conducting complete, thorough, and objective investigations. My expectations is that all police department employees perform their duties with dignity and respect in the community we are hired to serve.”
Santa Ana Police Chief David Valentin
Guzman said the action of the officers was unacceptable. She said she believes people have the right to record the police.
“We should be able to record them without a problem,” Guzman said. She added she didn’t think using copyrighted music was an appropriate response by police.
KTLA reached out to the account where the video was posted but has not yet received a response.
Council member Hernandez also did not respond to a request for an interview.
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https://www.wane.com/news/california-officer-plays-disney-music-to-thwart-youtubers-recording/
| 2022-04-08T12:42:06
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MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — More than 100 Texas National Guard members in full riot gear practiced military maneuvers on the banks of the Rio Grande on Thursday in deep South Texas, a day after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced sweeping border security plans due to the end of Title 42.
Wielding batons and wearing shields, the troops formed human chains as they moved together along the thorny brush of the Rio Grande overlooking Reynosa, Mexico, on Thursday afternoon just outside of Anzalduas Park.
They yelled “Move back! Move back!” and practiced swinging their batons and protecting one another. The practice formations are in anticipation of what could be a migrant surge crossing the narrow river, Maj. Mike Perry with the Texas Military Department, which is in charge of the National Guard, said Thursday.
Abbott said Wednesday that troops would begin practicing for “mass migration” surges in five locations along the border, including Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Laredo, Zapata and Anzalduas Park south of the town of Mission, Texas.
“We’re out here in anticipation of Title 42 expiring,” Perry said. “What we’re doing is showing our ability to flex capabilities, manpower and technology to any area in the state of Texas to respond to any mass migration.”
Abbott said there could be 18,000 migrants trying to cross the Southwest border from Mexico daily once Title 42 is lifted on May 23.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced last week that the Centers for Disease Control was lifting the 1940s-era public health law that had been put in place in March 2020 by the Trump administration to help prevent COVID-19 from crossing into the United States.
But migrant advocates say it was an unnecessary law earmarked at preventing migrants from trying to claim asylum on U.S. soil.
The exercises Thursday lasted less than an hour. The troops came in four large transport vehicles and were repeatedly told to hydrate as they practiced in 80-degree temperatures.
Similar exercises were to also begin in Laredo, Zapata, Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Abbott said.
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https://www.wane.com/news/national-guard-troops-in-riot-gear-conducting-military-exercises-along-rio-grande/
| 2022-04-08T12:42:13
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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — A DHL cargo jet has broken in half after sliding off the runway while landing at San Jose’s international airport.
The crash Thursday shut down the airport, but the two crewmen aboard were reported uninjured.
The fire department says the Boeing 757 had taken off from Juan Santamaría Airport just west of the capital but decided to return after detecting a failure in the hydraulic system. Officials say that upon landing the aircraft skidded, turned and broke in two, exposing its cargo.
A spokesman for cargo carrier DHL says both pilots were unharmed but one was being undergoing a medical check as a precaution.
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https://www.wane.com/news/photos-cargo-jet-splits-in-half-after-skidding-off-runaway-in-costa-rica/
| 2022-04-08T12:42:19
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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.
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| 2022-04-08T12:42:25
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Alex Jones appears for questioning in Sandy Hook lawsuit
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Alex Jones was questioned Wednesday by lawyers for families of Sandy Hook victims in Connecticut, where a judge had ordered the Infowars host to face mounting fines until he appeared for a deposition.
Relatives of some of the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, massacre sued Jones for defamation after he said the shooting never happened. A judge found Jones liable for damages and a trial on how much he should pay the families is set for August.
Jones, who lives in Texas, had defied a judge’s order to appear for a deposition in the case, saying he was too ill. But Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis said there wasn’t enough evidence that Jones was too sick to attend and ordered him to come to Connecticut for questioning and pay escalating daily fines until he did so. Jones paid $25,000 in fines for Friday and $50,000 in fines for Monday, according to court records.
Jones said in a video on the Infowars website that the deposition began Tuesday and was to continue Wednesday. He said in the video that the families’ lawyers began the deposition by “demonizing” him for his questioning official versions of events.
“It’s just totally insane to sit there and watch this happen and to watch them lick their lips and lick their chops and think we’re going to finally shut Alex Jones down,” Jones said. “These people want to put us in prison for our speech.”
Jones’ lawyer, Norman Pattis, said tempers flared at times during the deposition on Tuesday, and much of the questioning was not related to the school shooting.
“I had the impression watching the attack on Mr. Jones that this trial will be about something far greater than what happened at Sandy Hook,” Pattis said on the video. “The trial’s going to be about ordinary people’s ability to say I’m not buying it, I want to raise questions, I want to draw my own conclusions.”
The families’ lawyer, Christopher Mattei, said Jones has declared his “entire deposition confidential even while he and his attorney conduct media interviews discussing the details.”
“Accordingly, we are unable to comment further at this time,” Mattei said.
The deposition was held at the Bridgeport office of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. After it ended Wednesday, Pattis filed a court document asking Bellis to return to Jones the $75,000 in fees he paid, which the judge said he could request only after sitting for questioning. Bellis did not immediately rule.
Jones missed the originally scheduled deposition in the case on March 23 and 24 in Austin, Texas. He cited a health issue including vertigo that his doctors initially thought was a serious heart problem but turned out to be a sinus infection.
The plaintiffs have said they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy promoted on his website show. Jones has since conceded the shooting did happen.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:58:56
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AG Garland, Commerce Sec. Raimondo test positive for COVID-19
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland has tested positive for COVID-19 and will quarantine at home for five days, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Garland is the second Cabinet official to announce a positive test result on Wednesday. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo also tested positive for the virus using an at-home antigen test.
The two officials are among more than a dozen attendees of the Gridiron Club dinner to test positive for the virus in the past few days. Saturday night’s white-tie society affair was attended by some of the nation’s most prominent political leaders, journalists and media executives. Guests had been asked to show proof of vaccination but were not required to be tested for the virus and many mingled around without masks during the event.
Tom DeFrank, the president of the Gridiron Club, said the group knew of 14 guests who had attended and then tested positive. Many of the cases involve guests who were seated at three tables, he said.
“There is no way of being certain about when they first contracted COVID,” DeFrank said. “But they did interact with other guests during the night, and we have to be realistic and expect some more cases.”
The announcement from the Justice Department comes hours after Garland held a news conference in Washington, standing side-by-side with the deputy attorney general, FBI director and other Justice Department officials.
The Justice Department says Garland asked to be tested “after learning that he may have been exposed to the virus.” Officials say he is not experiencing symptoms, is fully vaccinated and has received a booster.
The Justice Department said Garland would isolate at his home for at least five days and work remotely. The department said it would also conduct contact tracing in line with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Raimondo’s office said she was experiencing “mild symptoms” and was sharing the news “out of an abundance of transparency.”
The nation’s capital appears to be experiencing an outbreak, hitting not only Cabinet officials but also members of Congress, staffers in the White House and members of the media.
Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Joaquin Castro, D-Tex., have also announced they tested positive for the virus. Both had attended the Gridiron dinner.
Other members of Congress including Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Scott Peters of California, both Democrats, have also said they tested positive.
The White House on Wednesday also said Jamal Simmons, the communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, had also tested positive and that Simmons was in close contact with Harris. Harris’ office said she would follow CDC guidelines and consult with her doctor but planned to continue with her schedule.
The CDC says people vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 are much less likely to suffer adverse outcomes, including serious illness and death, from the virus compared to those who are unvaccinated.
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Scavino, Navarro held in contempt of Congress in Jan. 6 probe
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino were held in contempt of Congress on Wednesday for their monthlong refusal to comply with subpoenas rendered by the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The two men became the latest members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle to face legal jeopardy as the select committee continues its more than nine-month-long probe into the worst attack on the Capitol in more than 200 years.
The near-party-line 220-203 vote will send the criminal referrals for Navarro and Scavino to the Justice Department for possible prosecution.
The contempt action followed hours of raw debate on the House floor as Republicans stood by Trump and charged that Democrats were trying to politicize the attack on the Capitol by his supporters.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy accused the Jan. 6 committee of “criminalizing dissent,” defended Scavino as a “good man” and lobbed harsh criticism at members of the committee, some by name. “Let’s be honest, this is a political show trial,” McCarthy said.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, among the nine members of the Jan. 6 panel, noted that the committee has two Republicans, including Liz Cheney of Wyoming. He added that the purpose of the floor vote was to make clear that “open contempt and mockery for this process, and for the rule of law” will not be allowed by the chamber.
“I mean, it is just amazing that they think they can get away with this,” the three-term lawmaker told reporters about Scavino and Navarro as the debate raged on Wednesday.
Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who is also on the select committee, were the only Republicans who voted in favor of the contempt charges.
While pursuing contempt charges may not yield any new information for the Jan. 6 committee — any prosecutions could drag for months or years — the vote Wednesday was the latest attempt to show that witnesses will suffer consequences if they don’t cooperate or at least appear for questioning. It’s all part of an effort to claw back legislative authority that eroded during the Trump era when congressional subpoenas were often flouted and ignored.
“This vote will reveal to us who is willing to show tolerance for the intolerable,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said on the floor, directing his comments to Republicans across the aisle.
Raskin and other Democrats made their case that Scavino and Navarro are among just a handful of individuals who have rebuffed the committee’s requests and subpoenas for information. The panel has interviewed more than 800 witnesses so far.
In the last week alone, the committee scored two of those interviews from Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner. Their virtual testimonies are the closest lawmakers have gotten to the former president.
Members of the panel said Kushner’s testimony last Thursday was helpful. Ivanka Trump, who was with her father in the White House on Jan. 6, was questioned for eight hours Tuesday as congressional investigators tried to piece together her father’s failed effort to delay the certification of the 2020 election results.
The main focus of the committee’s outreach to the former first daughter surrounds a telephone call they say she witnessed from her father to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden’s 2020 election win as part of his ceremonial role overseeing the electoral count. Pence rejected those efforts.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the committee, highlighted Ivanka Trump’s voluntary cooperation with the committee as opposed to Scavino and Navarro’s defiance. Raskin said Scavino has “refused to testify before Congress about what he knows about the most dangerous and sweeping assault on the United States Congress since the War of 1812.”
The committee says Scavino helped promote Trump’s false claims of a stolen election and was with him the day of the attack on the Capitol. As a result, he may have “materials relevant to his videotaping and tweeting” messages that day.
A lawyer for Scavino did not return multiple messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Navarro, 72, a former White House trade adviser, was subpoenaed in early February over his promotion of false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election that the committee believes contributed to the attack.
Navarro cited executive privilege when declining to testify, saying the committee “should negotiate this matter with President Trump.” He added, “If he waived the privilege, I will be happy to comply.”
But the Biden administration has already waived executive privilege for Navarro, Scavino and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying it was not justified or in the national interest for them to withhold their testimony.
Executive privilege was developed to protect a president’s ability to obtain candid counsel from his advisers without fear of immediate public disclosure, but it has limits. Courts have traditionally left questions of whether to invoke executive privilege up to the current White House occupant. The Supreme Court earlier this year rejected a bid by Trump to withhold documents from the committee.
The vote Wednesday will be the third time the panel has sent contempt charges to the House floor. The first two referrals, sent late last year, were for former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former Trump ally Steve Bannon.
The contempt referral against Bannon resulted in an indictment, with a trial set to start in July. The Justice Department has been slower to decide whether to prosecute Meadows, much to the frustration of the committee.
“It’s the committee’s hope that they will present it to a grand jury,” Thompson told reporters Tuesday. “Obviously, the Meadows case is still outstanding. We don’t really know where that is, other than we’ve done our work.”
He added, “The firewall goes up from our standpoint, and DOJ uses its systems to take it from there.”
Thompson suggested more witnesses could still be held in contempt in the weeks ahead even as the committee looks to wrap up the investigative portion of their work in the next two months.
A conviction for contempt of Congress carries a fine of up to $100,000 and up to a year in prison.
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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Cash App data breach could have affected over 8 million users
(Gray News) – A data breach committed by a former employee of the company which owns the mobile payment app Cash App could have affected over 8 million users.
According to a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Block, Inc. announced that it determined a former employee downloaded reports containing U.S. customer information from its subsidiary Cash App Investing LLC in December 2021.
Although the former employee had access to the information during their employment, the data was accessed without permission after they were no longer with the company, the filing says.
Only customers who used Cash App’s stock function are affected by the breach, according to the report. The information included the full name and brokerage account number, brokerage portfolio value, brokerage portfolio holdings and stock trading activity.
Downloaded data did not include usernames and passwords, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, payment card information, addresses, bank account information or any other identifiable information.
Customers outside of the U.S. were not affected, the filing says.
When it made the discovery, Block launched an investigation in partnership with a forensics firm. The company has notified regulatory authorities and law enforcement of the breach.
The filing says the company “takes the security of information belonging to its customers very seriously and continues to review and strengthen administrative and technical safeguards to protect the information of its customers.”
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:59:25
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Church not using ‘white music’ in worship services during Lent
OAK PARK, Ill. (Gray News) - A church in Illinois is ‘Fasting from Whiteness’ during the season of Lent.
Lead Pastor John Edgerton at the First United Church of Oak Park wrote in a March newsletter that the church’s worship services during Lent would not use any music or liturgy written or composed by white people. And that First United would be doing a mix of giving something up and taking something on.
According to Edgerton, the music during Lent will be drawn from the African American spirituals tradition, South African freedom songs, Native American traditions and others.
Edgerton also noted that the church would be offering a weekly program entitled “Tell Me the Truth About Racism,” a six-week series with Sunday meetings.
On Wednesday, the church updated its online content, releasing a statement about how some are questioning its message:
“Our Lenten theme has spurred considerable discussion, with some people questioning the message. In practice with the Lenten spiritual discipline of fasting, our intent was to lay aside our usual frames of reference and open ourselves to hearing the Gospel message through the voices of Black People, Indigenous People, and People of Color. Our worship services in Lent have been diverse and beautiful. We pray that God oils the hinges of our hearts’ doors that they might swing open gently to receive the good news of Christ’s resurrection, which we all await at the culmination of Lent.”
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lent is a 40-day Christian season of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T12:59:32
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