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https://www.enterprisenews.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.enterprisenews.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2022%2F04%2F08%2Fbrockton-28-petronelli-way-boxing-gym-legend-marvelous-marvin-hagler-apartments-ted-carman%2F9475179002%2F
| 2022-04-08T16:06:49
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https://www.enterprisenews.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.enterprisenews.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Flocal%2F2022%2F04%2F08%2Fbrockton-28-petronelli-way-boxing-gym-legend-marvelous-marvin-hagler-apartments-ted-carman%2F9475179002%2F
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BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The 2022 Bentonville Farmers Market is returning to Downtown Bentonville Saturday, April 9.
The market will be held every Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through the end of October.
The Bentonville Farmers Market is produced and executed by the nonprofit organization, Downtown Bentonville Incorporated. The organization promotes Downtown Bentonville by creating lively experiences, educating, and storytelling.
Last year, the market broke record after making $1,289,955 in sales and is set to grow even more this year.
This season, visitors can expect farmers and vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, arts, and crafts. Visitors can also expect farmer's market takeovers and unique pop-up events.
Better Homes & Gardens will take over the market on the first Saturday as it welcomes guests with the following displays and experiences.
Beautiful outdoor living vignettes around the Bentonville Square
Free patio set raffles throughout the day
"Building the Perfect Planter" demonstrations by Max Wilker
Information on how homebuyers can earn $9,000 back with a special incentive program through Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey
Photos with the Easter Bunny and furbabies, compliments of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey
Four-legged friends can pick up complimentary treats and water dishes.
To learn more about the Bentonville Farmers Market and see upcoming market experiences, click here.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/2022-bentonville-farmers-market-season-kicks-off-weekend-downtown-fresh-fruit-vegetables-meat/527-1bd60e92-275b-428e-950c-78f043aa6f60
| 2022-04-08T16:26:49
| 0
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/2022-bentonville-farmers-market-season-kicks-off-weekend-downtown-fresh-fruit-vegetables-meat/527-1bd60e92-275b-428e-950c-78f043aa6f60
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POTTSVILLE, Ark. — Pottsville, Arkansas is a city that's home to just over 3,000 people and now, it's also a place where a nationally recognized hero resides.
"It's Pottsville, you blink and you miss it on the interstate when you're passing through. Everyone treated it as a regular call, but once I saw what it was, I knew it deserved some merit," Pottsville Police Chief Joseph Paterak said.
Roughly a year ago, one of Paterak's officers, Cody Hubbard responded to a call for cardiac arrest in regards to then 3-week-old Grady Chronister.
Bodycam footage from that day captured Officer Hubbard's heroics as it showed him performing the Heimlich Maneuver on Grady.
"You didn't present as stressed or stressed out. You presented as the calm among the storm." U.S. Attorney Jonathan Ross said during an event in Officer Hubbard's honor.
At the time of the call, Officer Hubbard was barely a month out of the academy.
Fast forward to the present and Hubbard now has experience, and Grady is a full year older, all thanks his efforts. Those actions have caught the attention of those outside of the state too.
Officer Hubbard received national recognition from the U.S. Attorney General's office for distinguished service and community policing.
He's one of just 18 officers in the entire country to receive the recognition.
"I was just praying that this didn't turn out the way that I was expecting it to turn out, I was wanting it to actually go in my favor as it did," Officer Hubbard said. "The lord was on my side that day, and it ended up being life changing for me."
It was a life changing for Grady and his family too. The child is still alive thanks to Officer Hubbard's actions.
They were at Thursday's ceremony where they supported not only an officer in town, but someone that they now consider to be a family friend.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's a family friend. Grady can call him Uncle Cody, he's part of the family now," Joe Chronister, Grady's father said.
In the moment, Officer Hubbard said he barely remembers what happened – but he'd do it all over again if he had to.
"You know, a life is something that you can't bring back or you can't change," Officer Hubbard said.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-officer-awarded-saves-baby-life/91-57f1478d-4d9a-40cc-8a37-fa05d5c278e8
| 2022-04-08T16:26:55
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/arkansas-officer-awarded-saves-baby-life/91-57f1478d-4d9a-40cc-8a37-fa05d5c278e8
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The City of Fayetteville will host a blood drive in honor of fallen officer, Stephen Carr.
Officer Carr was killed while in the line of duty in December 2019.
The blood drive will be held with the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks (CBCO), the sole provider of blood and plasma to all Northwest Arkansas area hospitals.
The event will be held Wednesday, April 13 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Fayetteville Town Center located at 15 W. Mountain St.
In 2020, Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan declared April 13 as Officer Stephen Carr Day in honor of his badge number, 413.
Donors will receive a free T-shirt. Appointments are strongly encouraged to manage donor flow. You can make your appointment by calling Bonnie Bolinger at 479-575-8333, emailing bbolinger@fayetteville-ar.gov, or online.
CBCO has a QuickPass system that allows the registration process to start before arriving to the blood drive. The QuickPass system allows you to complete your health history questions online on the day of the blood drive making it a faster experience for donors.
To access the donor QuickPass page, click here.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/city-fayetteville-host-blood-drive-honor-officer-carr-stephen-killed-line-of-duty/527-7d62df93-e08b-4c66-bb74-4a78fc8b40da
| 2022-04-08T16:27:01
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/city-fayetteville-host-blood-drive-honor-officer-carr-stephen-killed-line-of-duty/527-7d62df93-e08b-4c66-bb74-4a78fc8b40da
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It's something that we've all noticed because it's a topic that everyone keeps talking about... things are a lot more expensive right now.
Specifically, everyday necessities like gas and groceries.
Gas in Arkansas is up more than a dollar compared to this time last year, according to AAA.
The price increase is impacting us all, so we wanted to learn why things are so high currently, along with finding out when those prices could drop.
During the first half of March gas increased by nearly 70 cents, but has since fallen by 20 cents up until now.
That 20 cent drop could be an outlier as experts said we might not feel that much relief any time soon.
"This is a really complex global market and it doesn't turn on a dime," John Anderson, Agricultural Economics Department Head at the University of Arkansas, said.
Many of us would love to go back to filling up for $2.50 a gallon, but Anderson said don't get your hopes up.
"Overall I think this year will be relative to recent years, kind of a high price year for energy prices overall," he said.
Before you immediately turn the blame on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Anderson said gas prices were already on the rise due to pent up demand, but the tensions overseas sure didn't help.
"I think the shock of the invasion and the related events has subsided some, but the disruption is still there," he said.
Disruption that is causing the U.S. to release 180 million barrels of oil over the next six months, but according to Anderson that's just a band-aid for the problem.
"The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is is designed to be a stop gap. It's not really designed to be a solution," he said.
Experts aren't just expecting gas prices to stay high either, they're also anticipating the same for the groceries.
According to Steve Goode with the Arkansas Grocers and Retail Merchant Association, there's a direct correlation between rising fuel prices and the price hikes for food.
"I've been in the grocery business since I was 16. There's never been a time like this, where we've seen this kind of inflation affect supermarket retail prices," he said.
Goode said there's a lot of blame to go around from fuel, to shipping, to even the bird flu.
"The consumer that shops at Easter this year for Easter eggs for their Easter baskets, they're going to face some sticker shock in a lot of retail stores," he said.
While many are ready for more wiggle room in their wallets, Goode said that relief may still be a whiles away.
"I don't think we're out of the woods on this anywhere at all yet," he said.
If you're a family on a budget, Goode said if you can buy in bulk, that is always the best bang for your buck.
Poultry and meat products are especially high right now, but by keeping a careful eye on protein prices, you can find ways to save.
For example, you can find much better prices if you switch from bacon to sausage.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/experts-dont-expect-gas-grocery-price-drop/91-de4641c7-2b32-46bf-a145-39b5b0cd3a34
| 2022-04-08T16:27:07
| 1
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/experts-dont-expect-gas-grocery-price-drop/91-de4641c7-2b32-46bf-a145-39b5b0cd3a34
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FORT SMITH, Ark. — The United States Marshals Museum will be hosting an evening of Cherokee storytelling. Award-winning storyteller, Robert Lewis of the Cherokee Nation will entertain guests with stories of Cherokee history and culture at the United States Marshals Museum in Fort Smith.
The storytelling event will take place on Friday, April 8 from 7-8 p.m. The event will be held in conjunction with the event Goingsnake @ 150: A Symposium which will be held April 8-9 in partnership with Cherokee Nation.
“Mr. Lewis will provide an evening of entertainment, as well as the passing on of Cherokee history and culture,” said Leslie Higgins, the Museum’s Vice President of Learning & Engagement. “I think guests will truly enjoy his fun and engaging program.”
The event is free and open to the public, but the museum asks that guests make reservations at Stubs.net.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/us-marshals-museum-host-cherokee-storytelling-event-robert-lewis/527-636d4f7c-c5c7-4c80-be5a-7b82c650ac19
| 2022-04-08T16:27:13
| 1
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/us-marshals-museum-host-cherokee-storytelling-event-robert-lewis/527-636d4f7c-c5c7-4c80-be5a-7b82c650ac19
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WASHINGTON — 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.
Watch Biden's remarks with closed captions here.
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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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/jackson-confirmation-event-white-house/507-2b1cd476-ed97-4f48-b190-3b399f8fb4d0
| 2022-04-08T16:27:19
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/jackson-confirmation-event-white-house/507-2b1cd476-ed97-4f48-b190-3b399f8fb4d0
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WASHINGTON — 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, until Justice 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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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/jackson-supreme-court-makeup/507-20b60e91-8d72-4c72-9ffa-5fd4a0827789
| 2022-04-08T16:27:26
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/nation-world/jackson-supreme-court-makeup/507-20b60e91-8d72-4c72-9ffa-5fd4a0827789
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PORTLAND, Ore. —
When you think Easterseals you may think help for children with special needs or disabilities. But the same is true for adults. In fact, Easterseals Oregon works hard focusing on veterans in need.
Greg Rains is one of them.
"Two years homeless, that’s a long time," said Rains, describing the past two years, in a situation he really didn’t like, living in his car.
Rains served in the U.S. Army in the 1980s. In recent years, he fell on hard times. But thanks to Easterseals, the veteran is celebrating life in a new apartment. The nonprofit helps financially but also by assisting with the process of getting into housing.
"Nobody would even give me the time of day," Rains said, with tears in his eyes. "These guys are awesome. They’re great they really are. I couldn’t have done it without them."
And Easterseals Oregon probably couldn't do it without the tulips. For three decades, the flowers from Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm in Woodburn have played a role in raising money for a good cause.
"Yes, Bloomfest is our largest fundraiser, 31 years this year," said Kristen Rantz, interim CEO of Easterseals Oregon.
Rantz said this year they've expanded the fundraiser beyond the Portland metro to include the Salem area.
It's pretty simple: you buy the flowers and the proceeds go to support Easterseals.
There's a variety of ways to take part. But Alpenrose delivery customers can have Bloomfest bouquets delivered to their door. They sold 2,000 last year and are going for 3,000 this year.
"It's $9 you’re probably going to spend anyhow to bring a little joy into your home," said Josh Reynolds, general manager for Alpenrose Dairy. "Why not do it so that it supports a great cause?"
The Alpenrose effort is all earmarked for veterans. And along with the tulip drive, Alpenrose will gift groceries to every veteran Easterseals gets into housing this year.
Rantz said helping those who served is a big deal.
"The joy that brings veterans when they get to start out their first night with the tools and food they need to be successful for their future is absolutely amazing," Rantz said.
The nonprofit said it expects to assist 300 veterans this year get into stable housing.
Alpenrose tulip deliveries run until April 15. All next week there are a number of ways to get tulips to benefit Easterseals Oregon, including ordering online and selecting a pick-up location.
More KGW stories about veterans:
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/community/easterseals-bloomfest-fundraiser-for-veterans/283-06bbb9d9-0d0f-425d-b336-905536176041
| 2022-04-08T16:28:40
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/community/easterseals-bloomfest-fundraiser-for-veterans/283-06bbb9d9-0d0f-425d-b336-905536176041
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OLYMPIA, Wash. — A state committee is sending a letter to the Department of Interior (DOI) voicing its opposition to the process the department has proposed to remove the derogatory word “sq---" from geographical place names.
The word was declared derogatory by DOI Secretary Deb Haaland late last year in an order that also mandated its removal from more than 650 place names across the country.
In late February, the DOI proposed renaming 18 geographical locations in Washington state whose names contain the word, submitting a list of five possible new names for each location to be considered by the newly formed Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force.
Per Haaland’s order, the task force must conduct public outreach as well as seek input through Tribal consultation to get feedback on the new names and potentially add options.
After this period, the task force is expected to gather its findings and submit its proposal for the name changes to the DOI’s Board of Geographical Names (BGN). The BGN will then make a decision on the replacement names.
The entire process, from the time the task force receives the list of name change proposals to the BGN rendering its final decision, is required to last no more than eight months, according to Haaland’s order.
However, the Committee of Geographical Names within Washington’s Department of Natural Resources is sending a letter voicing its disapproval of the process, which it feels is too hasty.
The committee met on Thursday to vote on the matter, unanimously agreeing to send Chairwoman Sara Palmer’s letter that claims “there is a fundamental disconnect between the implementation of [Haaland’s order] and our existing state process as designed by Washington’s Legislature.”
“We must object to the process as currently proposed,” the letter states.
Among the various problems the committee finds with Haaland’s proposed process, is the lack of time it allows to gather Tribal feedback, which is only allowed 90 days under her order, as well as thoughts from the public, which is given 60 days to respond to the potential new names.
Also, the committee opposes particular names the DOI is proposing, questioning how the name changes will honor the individuals and culture of the state’s past.
“Replacing names referring to Indigenous women with names such as ‘White,’ ‘Columbia,’ ‘Bonneville,’ and ‘Franklin Delano Roosevelt,’ as proposed in Interior’s draft replacement names list, is not an appropriate solution,” the letter reads.
The committee said it has taken steps to comply with Haaland’s order by agreeing to meet at least once quarterly to ensure the renaming of geographical places across the state with “sq---” in their name. Still, the committee states that it believes the discussions necessary to determine new names for these sites “will probably take at least the next two years.”
During Thursday’s committee meeting, Palmer and other committee members reiterated their commitment to getting public feedback on the issue.
“We really do want to get those public proposals,” Palmer said, adding that the committee can only comment on what the DOI does. “We want to commemorate Indigenous women on the landscape. That’s really important to all of us.”
Barring any changes to the DOI’s process for renaming these sites, the public has until April 25 to comment on the proposed name changes.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/geographic-names-derogatory-word/281-237957d9-8e62-4f31-989b-635b7f9c15f6
| 2022-04-08T16:28:46
| 1
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/geographic-names-derogatory-word/281-237957d9-8e62-4f31-989b-635b7f9c15f6
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LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. — One person was injured and at least one cat died in a fire that broke out at an apartment complex in Lake Oswego on Thursday night, Lake Oswego Fire reported.
The fire started around 7:30 p.m. Thursday at an apartment complex on Evergreen Road and 3rd Street in Lake Oswego, according to Lake Oswego Police. Fire officials said seven units were completely damaged with a total of 22 units affected.
Investigators said the cause of the fire was cooking-related and that it started in a downstairs unit. The tenant of the unit where the fire started suffered burns to his chest and was treated and released from the hospital, Lake Oswego Fire reported. Officials said they plan to release more details Friday morning.
Drone video from the scene showed flames burning through the roof with plumes of smoke.
The Red Cross Cascades is helping 22 people who were displaced by the fire. Nine of those requested shelter.
More Lake Oswego news:
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/large-apartments-fire-lake-oswego/283-16356954-7d15-4a23-8768-5c70b68f2015
| 2022-04-08T16:28:52
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/large-apartments-fire-lake-oswego/283-16356954-7d15-4a23-8768-5c70b68f2015
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WASHINGTON — 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.
Watch Biden's remarks with closed captions here.
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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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/jackson-confirmation-event-white-house/507-2b1cd476-ed97-4f48-b190-3b399f8fb4d0
| 2022-04-08T16:28:58
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/nation-world/jackson-confirmation-event-white-house/507-2b1cd476-ed97-4f48-b190-3b399f8fb4d0
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A credit score is a mathematical formula designed to tell a company how likely a person is to pay off a loan completely and on-time. Companies use them to make decisions on whether a person should be offered a mortgage, credit card, auto loan or other credit product.
Credit scores are frequently a source of frustration for many social media users, and people’s complaints about the reliability of this widely used credit scoring system have been shared hundreds of thousands of times.
One recurring claim about credit scores is that the universal credit score used today wasn't invented until 1989.
THE QUESTION
Were credit scores as we know them today invented in 1989?
THE SOURCES
- FICO
- Equifax
- Fair Credit Reporting Act
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act
- John Ulzheimer, a credit expert who writes for badcredit.org
THE ANSWER
Yes, Fair, Isaac and Company, now known as FICO, created its universal credit score in 1989; the FICO score is used in the majority of lending decisions today. However, credit reporting and more industry-specific credit scoring existed before the universal credit score.
WHAT WE FOUND
Credit bureaus have existed in the United States since the 1800s. These bureaus put together reports on a consumer’s lending history, and until government regulations in the 1970s, included personal information like marital status, race and gender. Companies began developing and using scores specific to certain credit industries, such as credit cards, in the mid-to-late 1900s, but there wasn’t a universal score that was uniformly applied to all lending situations until 1989.
The first universal, personal credit score was created by Fair, Isaac and Company, now known as FICO, in 1989. FICO was unique because its credit score was universal — one score that could be applied to all credit offers regardless of industry. The FICO score, which ranges between 300 and 850, is used today in the vast majority of lending decisions.
“We launched the FICO Score in 1989 as a universal and impartial tool for evaluating credit risk, and in 1991, it became available from all three major U.S. credit reporting agencies,” a FICO employee said in a company blog post. “We weren’t the first or only scoring option available at all three major credit bureaus, but we were the first with a common design blueprint.”
Credit reporting, and even industry specific credit scoring, had existed long before then, but credit scores were often individualized for certain industries and would be based on different criteria from company to company.
Credit-reporting bureaus were first established in the mid-1800s to collect information on consumers’ lending histories, although they were often small and locally based, said credit expert John Ulzheimer in an article on badcredit.org. One such bureau, founded in Atlanta in 1899 as Retail Credit Company, later became Equifax, one of today’s three major credit-reporting bureaus.
But businesses often made decisions on whether to grant a person loans based on subjective character judgments and biases throughout much of America’s history, even through the late 1900s.
“Early credit reporting wasn’t without its problems,” Ulzheimer said. “It was often subjective, unfair, and didn’t lend itself to consistent credit decisions. In response to these problems, Congress passed a series of laws designed with consumer protection in mind.”
The first of those laws was the Fair Credit Reporting Act in 1970, which required credit reports to be accessible to the people they apply to, put time limits on negative information included in credit reports and limit who can look at a person’s credit report. The second was the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which is a civil rights law to prevent lenders from discriminating by race, religion, gender and a host of other personal characteristics that are irrelevant to a person’s lending history. These laws also worked to limit what information on consumers credit-reporting bureaus could keep.
At this time, the company that is now FICO had been working on developing automated credit scoring in an attempt to reduce or remove the subjectivity in lending decisions. It built its first credit scoring system for the American investment industry back in 1958, just two years after its founding. Their early scores were for specific industries or companies, such as scores for credit card lenders to base decisions on.
In 1989, FICO built the BEACON score for Equifax; Equifax still calls its version of the FICO score BEACON to this day. All three major credit bureaus began using FICO scores by 1991. FICO claims its scores are used by 90% of top lenders today.
But today’s credit scores are still plagued by many of the problems that have long existed in credit reporting. Although each credit bureau uses the same formula or very similar formulas, the data they keep in their reports can be different — and sometimes inaccurate. Credit scores can also continue reinforcing the biases it was meant to eliminate.
“A FICO score is probably a more impartial way to handle credit approval than just having some bank representative make a superficial judgment about potential applicants,” said the writers at financial management education blog OppU. “But algorithms can actually reinforce racial disparities that already exist.”
People without credit scores, estimated to be 45 million Americans, tend to be low-income, younger, and minorities, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in Jan. 2022. That’s led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to explore more widespread inclusion of alternative data, such as rent and utility payments, in credit reporting.
More from VERIFY: Yes, crude oil prices fell significantly but gas prices did not
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/fico-first-universal-general-purpose-credit-scores-invented-1989/536-56164106-e439-461e-b0fc-728e24d1135a
| 2022-04-08T16:29:04
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/fico-first-universal-general-purpose-credit-scores-invented-1989/536-56164106-e439-461e-b0fc-728e24d1135a
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A proposed bill in Tennessee is drawing criticism from social media users across the country due to a couple of provisions related to marriage allegedly included in the bill.
Some people suggested the bill proposed by a Republican lawmaker “creates a separate, privileged class of marriage for heterosexual couples” in Tennessee. Meanwhile, several others (here, here, and here) claimed the bill would allow children of any age to get married without parental consent. The backlash led to the hashtag #TennesseeRepublicans trending on Twitter.
VERIFY looked into both claims.
THE SOURCES
- Tennessee Code
- Tennessee House Bill 233
- Tennessee Senate Bill 562 - Amended Version
- Tom Leatherwood, Tennessee State Representative
- Sarah Warbelow, Legal Director, Human Rights Campaign
- Whitney Traylor, legal expert and retired associate professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver
THE QUESTION
Would a new bill make it legal for anyone to marry a child in Tennessee?
THE ANSWER
No, a new bill in Tennessee would not make it legal for anyone to marry a child, but an early version of the bill did omit an age requirement.
WHAT WE FOUND
In the United States, there is no federal law in place that sets a minimum age requirement for marriage. Instead, states set their own guidelines, and currently, 20 U.S. states do not require a minimum age for marriage, according to human rights organization Equality Now.
Under Tennessee law, children who are 17 years old can get married with parental consent, but children under the age of 17 cannot legally marry. In January 2022, Tennessee Republican state Rep. Tom Leatherwood proposed Tennessee House Bill 233 (HB 233) that would create a new “common law” marriage in the state. In an early version of the bill, the text left out any rules relating to age minimums for that common law marriage.
According to legal expert Whitney Traylor, the age limits in Tennessee’s current marriage law would not automatically transfer to the new common law marriage stipulated in HB 233. Traylor explained the omission of the age requirement created a loophole that could potentially allow children to marry.
On April 6, HB 233 and its companion bill in the Tennessee Senate, SB 562, were amended to reflect the updated age requirement. The amended bill now says that “one man and one woman” may file for a common law marriage if “both have attained the age of majority,” which is 18 years old in Tennessee.
In an email, a Tennessee House GOP spokesperson told VERIFY that HB 233 “would not have ever allowed minors to marry.”
Leatherwood also told VERIFY in a statement that HB 233 “does not allow minors to get married.”
THE QUESTION
Would a bill proposed in Tennessee create a separate class of marriage only for heterosexual couples?
THE ANSWER
Yes, a bill proposed in Tennessee would create a separate class of marriage only for heterosexual couples.
WHAT WE FOUND
If passed, House Bill 233 (HB 233) would create a new common law marriage in Tennessee. A common law marriage is a “legally recognized marriage between two people who have not purchased a marriage license or had their marriage solemnized by a ceremony,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The language used in HB 233, however, stipulates that this new common law union must be “between one man and one woman.”
Leatherwood told VERIFY in a statement that HB 233 does not change Tennessee’s current marriage laws. Instead, he says this new common law option appeals to people with “deeply held religious convictions” and “conscientious objections” to the current law that allows same-sex couples to receive a marriage license in Tennessee.
Legal expert Whitney Traylor told VERIFY if HB 233 were to be passed in Tennessee, it would not apply to same-sex couples. Traylor said that by including the “one man and one woman” clause in the bill, Republican lawmakers are trying to “get around the law that says same-sex marriage is lawful, and you have to recognize same-sex marriages, even from other states.”
In 2015, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the United States. In the landmark case, Obergefell v. Hodges, the court ruled that heterosexual and same-sex couples had equal rights to marriage in all 50 states under the Fourteenth Amendment. The court also said bans on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional.
Although HB 233 would not ban same-sex marriages in Tennessee, Sarah Warbelow, who serves as the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, told VERIFY that the exclusion of same-sex couples in this common law marriage could still lead to legal challenges in the future if passed.
“The intent of the primary sponsor of the bill is to have this other mechanism by which people can marry that same-sex couples would be excluded from. That would make it ripe for a legal challenge because the Supreme Court in deciding Obergefell really made clear that same-sex couples were entitled all the same rights, benefits, obligations, and the institution of marriage itself. Coming up with an alternative way of letting people get married is still a problem under the Obergefell decision,” Warbelow explained.
As of April 7, the bill is still working its way through the Tennessee Legislature. It will be heard by the House Civil Justice Committee on April 13 and presented in front of the full Senate on April 14.
More from VERIFY: No, political ads on TV aren’t required to be factual
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/proposed-tennessee-common-law-bill-gay-child-marriage-hb233-amendment/536-499495d4-145e-447f-9fd8-b3c035fa217c
| 2022-04-08T16:29:10
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/proposed-tennessee-common-law-bill-gay-child-marriage-hb233-amendment/536-499495d4-145e-447f-9fd8-b3c035fa217c
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In late March, some Verizon mobile users reported getting a suspicious text message, made all the more alarming by its sender: the user’s own phone number.
Verizon customers on Reddit, Twitter and Verizon’s community forum all shared similar stories saying they received the suspicious message. The text message Verizon customers described said some version of: “Free Msg: Your bill is paid for March. Thanks, here’s a little gift for you,” and then included a link.
THE QUESTION
Did Verizon send mobile customers a payment confirmation text message from the customers’ own phone numbers?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, Verizon did not send mobile customers a payment confirmation text from the customers’ own phone numbers. Verizon said the messages came from “bad actors.”
WHAT WE FOUND
Verizon mobile customers reported receiving the confusing text messages that appeared to come from their own phone numbers on March 28. People who clicked on the link in the text said in community forum posts they were directed to one of two places: Either a website offering a “free” tech gift in exchange for filling out a survey and providing credit card information, or a Russian news website.
Verizon confirmed it did not send the text messages, and the messages were from what they called “bad actors.”
“Verizon has blocked the source of the recent text messaging scheme in which bad actors were sending fraudulent text messages to Verizon customers,” a Verizon spokesperson confirmed to VERIFY. “In this case, the text messages sent appeared to come from the recipient's own number.”
As to one of the links that redirected to a Russian news website, the Verizon spokesperson said: “We have no indication of Russian involvement or that any of our customers' phones were compromised.”
The New Jersey Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Cell called the texts a “SMiShing campaign,” which is an attempt to trick someone over text messages. The organization also said the text messages targeted customers of providers who piggyback off of Verizon’s network, such as Spectrum. It said a similar campaign targeted AT&T customers in August 2021. Posts dated to that time from AT&T’s community forum shows customers received text messages with nearly identical wording to the one Verizon customers recently received.
The fraudulent text messages are typically designed to trick people into handing over personal or financial information to scammers.
Additionally, several Verizon customer support representatives who replied to the community thread about the text messages said the messages used a tactic called “caller ID spoofing.” This tactic is more commonly used with spam calls.
“Scam artists now use technology to make a person's caller ID show their own name and phone number — making it appear as though a person is calling him or herself,” the Minnesota Attorney General’s office warns. “These scam artists are falsifying — or ‘spoofing’ — caller ID information. Spoofing scams are often perpetrated by criminal gangs located outside the state or country attempting to mask their identity and evade law enforcement.”
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/verizon-did-not-texts-from-customers-own-phone-numbers/536-a4fd7064-1b13-4909-91e7-dde5b5c4d0df
| 2022-04-08T16:29:16
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/verizon-did-not-texts-from-customers-own-phone-numbers/536-a4fd7064-1b13-4909-91e7-dde5b5c4d0df
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Great harm being done to our nation
It is so sad that John Krull is director of the journalism program at Franklin College. With this deeply dishonest journalist in charge, we can expect brain-washed Franklin College-trained students to follow the example of biased reporting prevalent in today’s mainstream media. Suppression of news and skewed reporting is the rule rather than the exception for many contemporary “reporters.” The rule against opinion in a news story has long been discarded by those of Krull’s ilk.
He is grieved over the damage being done to the U.S. Supreme Court and to “the judicial branch’s reputation for non-partisan administration of justice … ” I agree. However, we disagree on the cause. He insists this is caused by the conservative voices in our country. How convenient that his memory is selective.
How could Krull forget what Democrats did to nominee Robert Bork in 1987 when they gleefully blocked the confirmation of this imminently qualified candidate? They then coined a new verb as they crowed about “borking” ensuing nominees. This began the Democrat strategy of a “scorched earth” policy in attempting defeat of nominees with philosophies with which they disagree.
How could Krull forget the brutal attacks on Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh during their “hearings.” They could more accurately be described as public floggings. The qualifications of these men couldn’t be undermined, so the brave, upright Democrats drummed up unsubstantiated sexual misconduct accusations against them. They brought in “witnesses” whose testimony was not backed up by facts.
How could Krull forget the filibuster the Democrats instituted against Justice Gorsuch, even though they had no legitimate grounds to oppose his confirmation. Gorsuch garnered only three Democratic votes for confirmation. Those three Democrats represented deeply conservative states and faced tough re-election battles.
How could Krull forget Amy Comey Barrett. Not one Democrat voted to confirm this outstanding woman. This is how Democrats proceed when considering Conservative nominees.
In contrast, hearings on Democratic nominations have been confined to examining judicial rulings and philosophies by Republicans. No Democratic nominee has been subjected to the vicious character assassinations that have become the norm for many Republicans nominees.
Yes, I agree when Krull laments that those who damage the judicial branch’s reputation for non-partisan administration of justice do great harm to our nation.
Loretta Holihan, Kokomo
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https://www.kokomotribune.com/opinion/sound-off-great-harm-being-done-to-our-nation/article_565e441c-b74a-11ec-bef0-e364195b0bb2.html
| 2022-04-08T16:35:31
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https://www.kokomotribune.com/opinion/sound-off-great-harm-being-done-to-our-nation/article_565e441c-b74a-11ec-bef0-e364195b0bb2.html
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https://finance-commerce.com/2022/04/april-8-2022-digital-edition/
| 2022-04-08T16:39:24
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https://finance-commerce.com/2022/04/april-8-2022-digital-edition/
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FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — Retail giant Five Below opened its doors at the Shoppes at Glenbrook in Fort Wayne on Friday.
Five Below is known for having many items priced under $5 and its target customers are “tweens, teens and beyond…” according to the company’s website.
The new storefront is located at 145 W. Coliseum Blvd.
This is Fort Wayne’s second Five Below location. There is another location at Orchard Crossing Shopping Center.
The home furniture store HomeGoods is also set to open this month at the Shoppes of Glenbrook as well.
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https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/retailer-five-below-opens-new-fort-wayne-store/
| 2022-04-08T16:39:34
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https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/retailer-five-below-opens-new-fort-wayne-store/
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LA County bans official travel to Fla. over controversial law
The largest county in the U.S. is banning all official travel to Florida because of the state's controversial LGBTQ+ policies.
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to forbid any taxpayer-funded business-related travel to the Sunshine State.
The travel ban also applies to Texas.
"As we've done in the past where states have enacted some egregious laws that contravene everything that we done in L.A. County and in California, this motion calls for a travel ban on all travel to these states," Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said during Tueday's meeting, according to KTLA.
Kuehl, who co-sponsored the motion with Supervisor Hilda L. Solis, said the travel ban "sends a message that we won't support this egregious behavior."
The move came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed into law a bill that forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, which opponents have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law.
WATCH: DeSantis signs 'Don't Say Gay' bill into law
"The kind of school environment imagined in this legislation is one that is uncomfortable, unsafe, unwelcoming and toxic for all students and staff alike, particularly those who identify as LGBTQ+," the motion reads, in part.
DeSantis has defended the Parental Rights in Education law, saying it gives parents a greater voice in their children's educational upbringing.
WATCH: DeSantis speaks about Parental Rights in Education bill
Many L.A. County residents who spoke during public comment at Tuesday's meeting seemed to support the motion, including Halle Schaffer, who said recent policies in Florida and Texas "have no other incentives but to harm the well-being of transgender, gender non-conforming and queer individuals."
Isabel Tecum, whose daughter is part of the LGBTQ+ community, agreed, saying she wants her daughter to feel safe wherever she goes.
But at least one resident, Rachelle Paniccia, shamed the Board of Supervisors for their actions.
"This is government overreach because of personal feelings," she said.
The motion states that all county business-related travel to Florida is suspended unless it's determined "that the failure to authorize such travel would seriously harm the county's interests."
Scripps Only Content 2022
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/la-county-bans-official-travel-fla-over-controversial-law/
| 2022-04-08T16:50:48
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/la-county-bans-official-travel-fla-over-controversial-law/
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Man killed estranged wife, son, former daughter-in-law before taking his own life in Mississippi, sheriff says
JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX/Gray News) - A father is accused of killing his estranged wife, their son and the son’s ex-wife before turning the gun himself, authorities said Friday.
The alleged murder-suicide happened Thursday between 7:30 and 8 p.m. local time at a home in the Latimer community, WLOX reported.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell said deputies responded to a 911 call after receiving a report of a shooting. When the deputy arrived, he heard a single gunshot from the house, Ezell said.
That final shot is believed to have been the one fired by 64-year-old Thomas Griswold that ended his life.
Investigators said they believe he shot his estranged wife 64-year-old Veronica Griswold, their 36-year-old son Bjorn Griswold, and Bjorn’s ex-wife Jillian Pavolini, 39.
Copyright 2022 WLOX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/man-killed-estranged-wife-son-former-daughter-in-law-before-taking-his-own-life-mississippi-sheriff-says/
| 2022-04-08T16:50:54
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/man-killed-estranged-wife-son-former-daughter-in-law-before-taking-his-own-life-mississippi-sheriff-says/
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North America to experience total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 11:38 AM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
(Gray News) - A total solar eclipse will cross North America two years from today on April 8, 2024.
With a total solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, completely blocking the face of the sun.
NASA says 13 U.S. states will be within the path of totality: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Parts of Mexico and Canada will also be within the path of totality.
For exact times on when the eclipse will occur in each area, visit NASA’s website.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/north-america-experience-total-solar-eclipse-april-8-2024/
| 2022-04-08T16:51:00
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/north-america-experience-total-solar-eclipse-april-8-2024/
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Price of stamps to increase starting in July
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 12:38 PM EDT|Updated: 10 minutes ago
(Gray News) - The cost of stamps will be increasing in July.
According to the U.S. Postal Service, a first-class mail Forever stamp will cost 60 cents, a 2-cent increase from its current price of 58 cents.
Other mailing services will also cost more, including:
- Letters (metered 1 ounce) will cost 57 cents, up from 53 cents.
- Letters additional ounce(s) will cost 24 cents, up from 20 cents.
- Domestic postcards will cost 44 cents, up from 40 cents.
- International letters will cost $1.40, up from $1.30.
The proposed increases are scheduled to take effect July 10. The Postal Regulatory Commission will review and approve the prices before they take effect.
The U.S. Postal Service says the increased prices are a result of inflation and increased operating expenses.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/price-stamps-increase-starting-july/
| 2022-04-08T16:51:06
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/price-stamps-increase-starting-july/
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Proud Boys member pleads guilty to conspiracy in Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A North Carolina man on Friday became the second member of the extremist group Proud Boys to plead guilty to conspiring with other group members to stop Congress from formally certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Charles Donohoe, 34, pleaded guilty during an appearance in federal court in Washington to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting or impeding federal officers. His plea agreement includes a provision to cooperate in the ongoing Justice Department cases against other Proud Boys members.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of about six to seven years, although terms of his sentence will be up to a federal judge.
The indictment against Donohoe and other members of extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been a focus of the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Donohoe — who had been president of a local Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina — has close ties to the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio.
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.
Tarrio pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he remotely led a plot to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential election. Though he wasn’t at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, prosecutors say Tarrio organized encrypted chats with Proud Boys members in the weeks before the attack, had a 42-second phone call with another member of the group in the building during the insurrection and took credit for the chaos at the Capitol.
A New York man, Matthew Greene, became the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy in December. He agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea agreement.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, according to one of the indictments. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors, the indictment says.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 775 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, officials said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/proud-boys-member-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-jan-6-riot/
| 2022-04-08T16:51:12
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/08/proud-boys-member-pleads-guilty-conspiracy-jan-6-riot/
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NEW ORLEANS • 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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While 50,000 Mississippians face the prospect of going without affordable medical care thanks to a contract dispute between the state’s largest hospital and insurer over reimbursement rates, the salaries for executives at both entities are shielded from the public.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi sued the state over a decade ago to make sure its executives’ compensation could not be disclosed, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center — despite being under the purview of the Institutions of Higher Learning and receiving state and federal funding — cites a broad exemption in state law when withholding its top administrators’ salary information.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi is required to file information about its executives’ compensation as part of its annual report to the Mississippi Insurance Department. But in 2009, the insurer sued the department to stop it from releasing that information to the public.
Several current executives at the company — Carol Pigott, the CEO; Thomas Fenter, the chief medical officer; and Bryan Lagg, senior vice president of consumer marketing and sales — are listed as plaintiffs in court filings.
Hinds County Chancery Court Judge Patricia D. Wise sided with Blue Cross, ordering the department “to withhold from public disclosure all information concerning the compensation of BCBSM executives.” Wise determined that the Insurance Department didn’t use the information to carry out its duties, so it isn’t a public record, and that disclosing the salary information would violate “the privacy rights of the individual plaintiffs/executives.”
Top executives make seven figures, a longtime former employee of the insurance company told Mississippi Today.
The median household income in Mississippi is around $46,000.
“Salaries and employee compensation of all employees at BCBSMS is not pertinent to the contract dispute with UMMC, and simply distracts from what is really important — high-quality, cost-effective care for our Members,” Cayla Mangrum, manager of corporate communications for the company, said in a statement to Mississippi Today.
But Mississippians faced with exorbitant health care costs or the added burden — financial and otherwise — of driving elsewhere for care might see it differently.
Carmen Balber, executive director of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, said that health insurance is essentially a public good, even when delivered through private companies.
“At the end of the day, we’re paying for those salaries,” she said, speaking about health insurance companies generally because she doesn’t have specific knowledge of BCBS Mississippi. “I’m certain that any consumer who’s had issues with their health insurance, paying for what they need, would be very interested to know that the CEO of the company was making $1 or $2 or $6 million a year.”
In many other states, that information is public record. In California, for example, an executive compensation report published annually on the company’s website shows their top executive made $6.4 million in 2020. In Michigan, the company’s CEO made $15.6 million in 2021. A spokesperson for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the umbrella group for 34 different BCBS companies, said they did not have information about the number of states in which BCBS executive compensation is withheld from the public.
A 2016 survey by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners of its members around the country found that insurance company compensation figures were kept confidential in at least 12 states, including Mississippi.
The company awards yearly bonuses to employees — as much as six figures for executives — around March each year, said the former BCBS employee, and the amounts of the bonuses also increased in recent years.
The company told Mississippi Today the bonuses are “an important part” of incentive-based compensation.
“Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi (BCBSMS) is proud of our employee incentive program because it rewards (and thanks) our employees for their individual performance and contribution to the achievement of the Company’s health and wellness goals for our Members,” Mangrum said.
Though the University of Mississippi Medical Center receives about 9% of its funding from the state, the hospital shields its executives’ compensation, too. When Mississippi Today requested hospital salary information last year, UMMC invoked the broad hospital exemption in the state’s public records law to withhold the information. When reporters asked the Institutes of Higher Learning for the salary information this week, a spokesperson cited the law and said UMMC employees’ salaries are exempt from disclosure.
The salary for Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of health affairs and dean of the school of medicine, was $700,400 a year in 2016, according to a news article.
A 2021 report by the Economic Research Institute showed the average nonprofit hospital CEO made $600,000 in 2018.
On March 31, Blue Cross and UMMC missed their deadline to sign a new contract, forcing tens of thousands of patients to pay higher costs for out-of-network care at the hospital, or go elsewhere. UMMC maintains it has been underpaid relative to other academic medical centers in the region and is asking for a 30% overall increase in reimbursement rates from Blue Cross in the first year of a new contract. Blue Cross argues that’s too much.
Contract disputes between the two have been tense in the past, but this is the first time UMMC has gone out of network with Blue Cross, hospital officials said.
In 2009, reporters from WLBT requested information on Blue Cross Blue Shield executive compensation from the Insurance Department, on behalf of several policyholders who wanted to know where their money was going.
Blue Cross then sued the Insurance Department, triggering the court order in their favor.
Last week, Mississippi Today filed a records request with the Mississippi Insurance Department for the executive compensation information Blue Cross Blue Shield is required to file with the state annually. The department responded that the 2009 court order prohibits it from fulfilling the request.
“In accordance with the Court’s directive, MID is prohibited from releasing the aforementioned information which is the subject of your request,” wrote deputy commissioner Mark Haire.
Historically, public hospital records were exempt from public disclosure. But after Singing River Health System in Pascagoula secretly stopped paying into its pension system from 2009 to 2014 as it faced a hidden financial crisis, legislators moved to require greater transparency. Public hospitals are now required to share board meeting minutes and financial records. But employee salaries and personnel records are still exempt.
In a statement to Mississippi Today, Blue Cross said they make money not from customer premiums but from “administrative efficiency and investments.” They also said they outperform federal requirements for the percentage of customer premiums they spend on claims, a figure called the medical loss ratio. For large employer groups, the requirement is 85%; Blue Cross says it hit 94%. For individuals, the requirement is 80%, and Blue Cross reached 99%.
“Our medical loss ratio performance clearly illustrates Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi’s ability to ensure the vast majority of the Member’s premium is for health care costs,” the statement said.
In other states, legislatures have passed laws preventing disclosure of insurers’ executive compensation. Alabama, for example, used to release the information publicly. In 2015, following lobbying from the insurance industry, the law changed to make salaries confidential.
Alabama health care attorney Jim McFerrin told AL.com that making salary information public gave customers more information about where their money was going and could allow them to take legal action in certain situations – like, for example if they believed a rate increase was unreasonable.
“A decrease in transparency means a decrease in accountability,” he told the news site.
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| 2022-04-08T17:01:43
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KYIV, Ukraine • A missile hit a crowded train station in eastern Ukraine that was an evacuation point for civilians, killing dozens of people Friday, Ukrainian authorities said while warning they expected to find more evidence of possible war crimes in parts of the country previously held by Russian troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said thousands of people were waiting to board trains at the station when the missile struck. Photos from the scene showed bodies covered with tarps on the ground and the remannts of a rocket with the words "For the children" painted on it in Russian.
The Russian Defense Ministry denied attacking the station in Kramatorsk, a city in the eastern Donetsk region, but Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian leaders accused Russia's military of deliberately targeting a location where only civilians were assembled.
"The inhuman Russians are not changing their methods. Without the strength or courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population," the president said on social media. "This is an evil without limits. And if it is not punished, then it will never stop."
The regional governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said that 39 people were killed and 87 wounded. The office of Ukraine's prosecutor-general said about 4,000 civilians were in and around the station, most of them women and children heeding calls to leave the area before Russia launches a full-scale offensive.
"The people just wanted to get away for evacuation," Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said while visiting Bucha, a town north of Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, where journalists and returning Ukrainians discovered scores of bodies on streets and in mass graves after Russian troops withdrew.
Venediktova spoke as workers pulled corpses from a mass grave near a church under spitting rain. Black body bags were laid out in rows in the mud. None of the dead were Russians, she said. Most of them had been shot. The prosecutor general's office is investigating the deaths, and other mass casualites involving civilians, as possible war crimes.
After failing to take Ukraine's capital and withdrawing from northern Ukraine, Russia has shifted its focus to the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking, industrial region in eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years and control some areas. The train station is located in government-controlled territory.
Ukrainian officials warned residents this week to leave as soon as possible for safer parts of the country and said they and Russia had agreed to establish multiple evacuation routes in the east.
One analyst said only Russia would have a reason to attack civilian railway infrastructure in the Donbas, and that Ukraine would not deliberately kill its own civilians in "a war of survival."
"The Ukrainian military is desperately trying to reinforce units in the area … and the railway stations in that area in Ukrainian-held territory are critical for movement of equipment and people," said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
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https://www.djournal.com/print-features/missile-kills-dozens-of-evacuees-at-ukrainian-train-station/article_9cfd096a-ee20-5fd5-88c3-14816526a22f.html
| 2022-04-08T17:01:49
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OXFORD • When Yashwant Prakash Vyas talks about access, equity and inclusion, he uses the language of policy and systems because he knows a concerted strategic effort makes room for more students to further their education.
Vyas is director of diversity education and strategic initiatives in the University of Mississippi's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. Passionate about creating equitable and accessible pathways to education, he has seen education's impact firsthand.
"I'm motivated by my own journey to center access, equity and inclusion in my work," Vyas said. "Growing up in rural India, I had very limited opportunities.
"One thing I am most grateful for was the opportunity for a quality education, and because of it, I was able to improve my circumstances, and not just mine but that of my family."
His strategic and interdisciplinary approach was recognized at the 2022 annual conference of the American College Personnel Association – College Student Educators International in St. Louis. He also was recognized at the 2022 annual conference of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education in Baltimore.
Vyas also led a number of educational sessions around peer leadership programs, student retention, graduation, leadership development, intercultural competence, and inclusive and equitable organizational culture at the conferences.
His awards include:
2022 ACPA Outstanding Social Justice Educator, Trainer or Mentor Award
2022 ACPA Annuit Coeptis Award – Emerging Professional
2022 NASPA NOW Professional Award for Innovation
When asked about himself, Vyas almost always starts by saying he's a proud second-generation educator who grew up watching his mother and aunt dedicate their careers to educating children in their rural Indian communities.
At the center of most of Vyas' initiatives and teachings is a spirit of making evidence-informed best practices a part of daily practice. He is interested in putting knowledge and strategy into practice on campus to foster a climate of equity and inclusion.
"There are several TED Talks and inspirational speeches about how educational attainment leads to better life outcomes," Vyas said. "We know that. Thus, we need to focus on making education more accessible.
"Given the history of exclusion and inequities around higher education, getting people here is important, and it's equally important to ensure they have equitable opportunities. Coming here is different from leaving here with a credential."
Valeria Ross, program manager for diversity, equity and inclusion in the College of Liberal Arts, described his initiatives and training sessions as amazing.
"His trainings are educational, but somehow he weaves into his presentations not only the information on the subject, but also information on how to use that new knowledge," she said. "Additionally, he lives and breathes everything that he teaches others."
Shawnboda Mead, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement, said she is happy to see Vyas' work receive recognition because of the impact it is already making on the university.
"In just a short time on campus, there are already several examples of his innovative ability to establish structures, programs and services to address institutional needs," Mead said. "This is truly an outstanding accomplishment, and I look forward to seeing what lies ahead for Yashwant's future in higher education."
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https://www.djournal.com/print-features/ole-miss-administrator-recognized-for-unique-approach-to-inclusion/article_637f3e57-f5bd-5bc6-88b8-f283329c513d.html
| 2022-04-08T17:01:55
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. • SpaceX launched three rich businessmen and their astronaut escort to the International Space Station on Friday for more than a week's stay, as NASA joins Russia in hosting guests at the world's most expensive tourist destination.
It's SpaceX's first private charter flight to the orbiting lab after two years of carrying astronauts there for NASA.
Arriving at the space station Saturday will be an American, Canadian and Israeli who run investment, real estate and other companies. They're paying $55 million apiece for the rocket ride and accommodations, all meals included.
Russia has been hosting tourists at the space station — and before that the Mir station — for decades. Just last fall, a Russian movie crew flew up, followed by a Japanese fashion tycoon and his assistant.
NASA is finally getting into the act, after years of opposing space station visitors.
"It was a hell of a ride and we're looking forward to the next 10 days," said former NASA astronaut and chaperone Michael Lopez-Alegria on reaching orbit.
The visitors' tickets include access to all but the Russian portion of the space station — they'll need permission from the three cosmonauts on board. Three Americans and a German also live up there.
Lopez-Alegria plans to avoid talking about politics and the war in Ukraine while he's at the space station.
"I honestly think that it won't be awkward. I mean maybe a tiny bit," he said. He expects the "spirit of collaboration will shine through."
The private Axiom Space company arranged the visit with NASA for its three paying customers: Larry Connor of Dayton, Ohio, who runs the Connor Group; Mark Pathy, founder and CEO of Montreal's Mavrik Corp.; and Israel's Eytan Stibbe, a former fighter pilot and founding partner of Vital Capital.
Before the launch, their enthusiasm was obvious: Stibbe did a little dance when he arrived at the rocket at Kennedy Space Center.
SpaceX and NASA have been upfront with them about the risks of spaceflight, said Lopez-Alegria, who spent seven months at the space station 15 years ago.
"There's no fuzz, I think, on what the dangers are or what the bad days could look like," Lopez-Alegria told The Associated Press before the flight.
Each visitor has a full slate of experiments to conduct during their stay, one reason they don't like to be called space tourists.
"They're not up there to paste their nose on the window," said Axiom's co-founder and president, Michael Suffredini, a former NASA space station program manager.
The three businessmen are the latest to take advantage of the opening of space to those with deep pockets. Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin is taking customers on 10-minute rides to the edge of space, while Virgin Galactic expects to start flying customers on its rocket ship later this year.
Friday's flight is the second private charter for Elon Musk's SpaceX, which took a billionaire and his guests on a three-day orbit ride last year.
Axiom is targeting next year for its second private flight to the space station. More customer trips will follow, with Axiom adding its own rooms to the orbiting complex beginning in 2024. After about five years, the company plans to detach its compartments to form a self-sustaining station — one of several commercial outposts intended to replace the space station once it's retired and NASA shifts to the moon.
At an adjacent pad during Friday's launch: NASA's new moon rocket, which is awaiting completion of a dress rehearsal for a summertime test flight.
As a gift for their seven station hosts, the four visitors are taking up paella and other Spanish cuisine prepared by celebrity chef José Andrés. The rest of their time at the station, NASA's freeze-dried chow will have to do.
The automated SpaceX capsule is due back with the four on April 19.
Connor is honoring Ohio's air and space legacy, taking up a fabric swatch from the Wright brothers' 1903 Kitty Hawk flyer and gold foil from the Apollo 11 command module from the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta.
Only the second Israeli in space, Stibbe will continue a thunderstorm experiment begun by the first — Ilan Ramon, who died aboard shuttle Columbia in 2003. They were in the same fighter pilot squadron.
Stibbe is carrying copies of recovered pages of Ramon's space diary, as well as a song composed by Ramon's musician son and a painting of pages falling from the sky by his daughter.
"To be a part of this unique crew is a proof for me that there's no dream beyond reach," he said.
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https://www.djournal.com/print-features/spacex-launches-3-visitors-to-space-station-for-55m-each/article_b774bb7e-f3a8-5ad5-b816-8db1864c8331.html
| 2022-04-08T17:02:01
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Salina South girls soccer defeats Salina Central, 2-0: Three takeaways
Another installment of the Salina Showdown occurred Thursday night at Salina Stadium.
For the second consecutive year, Salina South defeated Salina Central, 2-0.
South improved to 3-4, while Central fell to 1-4.
Here are some takeaways from Thursday's match.
More:Sacred Heart High School names Jeremy Hopkins as new head football coach
Anahyssa Nash steps in for Giselle Nash
Anahyssa Nash is South's second go-to scorer. With her sister, Giselle Nash, exiting the game early with a rolled ankle, Anahyssa needed to step up in her absence.
Anahyssa Nash scored both of the Cougars' goals, finding the back of the net in the ninth and 50th minutes.
"It was pretty big, to be honest," Anahyssa Nash said. "I had to fill in my sister's spot because she's used to being the one scoring all the goals. Someone had to do it."
South coach Trey Crow said Anahyssa Nash played hard and did everything she was asked to do.
"Her goals were just pure effort," Crow said. "The first one was a nice ball by Kamila (Ojeda) and she just followed up and was there to put it away. The second one was just splitting defenders and doing what she does very well for us."
Central playing with a young team
A majority of the Salina Central team is very young.
With four seniors — Mackenzie Nutter, Lexie Fischer, Araceli Davila and Valeria Martin — leading the way, Central is counting on underclassmen and players who are brand new to the game to fill the remaining slots.
Along with their four seniors, juniors Faith Rost and Brynn O'Hara and sophomore Maylin Owen also are emerging as leaders.
"We need the experience," Central coach Leonel Alvarado said. "In our varsity lineup, we have two that have (not) played in a long time. We work together with our seniors' leadership (and) a couple of juniors. I think we're building the progress (together). Unfortunately, it's a little slow.
"We get in there and we are working for what we want."
Leonel Alvarado takes over Central girls program
For Alvarado, he's taking on another challenge.
After spending last fall as the Mustangs' boys coach, he is now head coach for the girls' program as well, replacing Lexi Fenn.
"It's great," Alvarado said. "It's a good vibe and we're gonna get there."
What's next for South and Central
South and Central return to action on Tuesday with the Mustangs traveling to Hutchinson and South playing host to Arkansas City at Salina Stadium. Both matches are slated to start at 6:30 p.m.
Dylan Sherwood has been a sports reporter for the Salina Journal since August 2019. He can be reached at dsherwood@salina.com or on Twitter @DSherwoodSJ
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https://www.salina.com/story/sports/high-school/soccer/2022/04/08/salina-south-girls-soccer-defeats-salina-central-2-0-kshsaa/9498368002/
| 2022-04-08T17:07:31
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EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Juarez police are investigating two double homicides occurring hours apart from each other in different parts of the city. In both cases, the victims were couples, the municipal police said.
The first two victims were found near an abandoned Chevrolet Tahoe late Thursday near the Camino Real highway on the western outskirts of the city. The bodies of a man and a woman and their vehicle were on a road overlooking the highway.
Later, gunmen shot and killed a man and a woman waiting for a green light inside their compact vehicle on Tecnologico Avenue. Police said a female riding in the victims’ vehicle survived the shooting and was taken to a hospital.
No arrests were reported in either case. Juarez has recorded 19 homicides just in the first week of April.
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https://www.wane.com/border-report-tour/juarez-police-investigate-pair-of-double-homicides-hours-apart/
| 2022-04-08T17:16:02
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(KTVX) – Cracker Barrel’s virtual brand Chicken n’ Biscuits has become the latest establishment to offer a fried chicken sandwich.
The Chicken n’ Biscuits brand — described as part of Cracker Barrel’s “virtual brand marketplace” — will be making the sandwich available at 400 locations nationwide through DoorDash, UberEats, and Grubhub.
Cracker Barrel is also positioning the sandwich as the newest entrant in “the chicken sandwich competition,” which is already crowded with offerings from outlets including Popeyes, KFC, Burger King and even Chili’s.
“For years, the debate around ‘the best chicken sandwich’ has been growing, and Chicken n’ Biscuits by Cracker Barrel is excited to enter the competition with our new Homestyle Chicken Sandwich,” said Matthew Schaefer, the senior director of strategy and innovation at Cracker Barrel. “The best part is that guests can enjoy this new sandwich plus other homestyle comfort food made with care like Hand-Breaded Fried Chicken Tenders or scratch-made Biscuit Beignets right at home through their favorite on-demand delivery partners.”
The new sandwich from Chicken n’ Biscuits features hand-breaded fried chicken with pickles and Duke’s mayonnaise, all served on a brioche bun. The dish comes with a side of steak fries.
The brand’s press release didn’t specify a price, but menus from DoorDash and UberEats in several markets advertise the sandwich (and a side of steak fries) for $9.99.
Customers can order the sandwich through an on-demand delivery app from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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https://www.wane.com/news/cracker-barrels-virtual-brand-debuts-new-chicken-sandwich-excited-to-enter-the-competition/
| 2022-04-08T17:16:08
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PERU, Ind. (AP) — An inmate at a northern Indiana prison has been convicted in a 2020 attack on a correctional officer who was slashed in the face with a razor blade, leaving him with a permanent scar.
A Miami County jury found 67-year-old Raul Sotelo guilty Thursday of attempted murder, battery with bodily injury to a public safety officer and other charges in the July 1, 2020, attack.
The Kokomo Tribune reports Sotelo attacked the correctional officer with a razor blade wrapped with cardboard, slashing the left side of his face. The officer’s wound left him with a permanent 5-inch-long scar. Sotelo’s sentencing is scheduled for May 4.
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https://www.wane.com/news/indiana/indiana-inmate-convicted-in-razor-blade-attack-on-officer/
| 2022-04-08T17:16:14
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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A jury said Friday it has reached decisions on “several” of the 10 charges but was deadlocked on others in the trial of four men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker acknowledged the struggle on the fifth day of deliberations but told the jury to keep working during lunch.
Decisions to convict or acquit must be unanimous.
“I know it’s tough. We all know it’s tough,” Jonker told the jury.
There are 10 charges in the case: one against Brandon Caserta, two against Adam Fox, three against Barry Croft Jr. and four against Daniel Harris. The men all face the main charge of a kidnapping conspiracy; the other counts are related to explosives and a firearm.
The judge read the jury’s note in open court.
“We’ve come to a decision on several counts. However are locked on others. How should we proceed?” the note said.
Jonker recalled the line, “Is that your final answer?” from the ABC TV show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”
“Before that final answer, I’d like you to go back and take another effort to see if you can come to agreement on the issues that you’re stuck on,” Jonker said.
Deliberations resumed earlier Friday with a court employee handing over a large plastic bag containing pennies, known as exhibit 291. The pennies were requested before jurors went home Thursday.
Pennies taped to a commercial-grade firework were intended to act like shrapnel, investigators said.
According to evidence, a homemade explosive was detonated during training in September 2020, about a month before the men were arrested.
In his closing argument on April 1, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler said Croft wanted to test the explosive as a possible weapon to use against Whitmer’s security team. He quoted him as saying the pennies would be so hot they could go “right through your skin.”
The trial now has covered 20 days since March 8, including jury selection, evidence, final arguments and jury deliberations.
Prosecutors offered testimony from undercover agents, a crucial informant and two men who pleaded guilty to the plot. Jurors also read and heard secretly recorded conversations, violent social media posts and chat messages.
Prosecutors said the group was steeped in anti-government extremism and angry over Whitmer’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Defense lawyers, however, said any scheme was the creation of government agents who were embedded in the group and manipulated the men.
Croft is from Bear, Delaware, while the others are from Michigan.
Whitmer, a Democrat, rarely talks publicly about the plot, though she referred to “surprises” during her term that seemed like “something out of fiction” when she filed for reelection on March 17.
She has blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting anger over coronavirus restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists like those charged in the case.
Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
White reported from Detroit.
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| 2022-04-08T17:16:20
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(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden marked the historic confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court Friday.
“Our children can look at this moment and go ‘I was there,’ Biden said, as he touted Brown Jackson’s humility.
It’s a quality that “allows so many Americans” to see themselves in the judge, he added.
Jackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge with nine years of experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47 by the Senate Thursday, mostly along party lines.
Biden criticized some senators’ lines of questioning during Jackson’s confirmation process, saying what she went through was “verbal abuse.” While some senators were overcome with “joy,” as Cory Booker of New Jersey said he was, others, led by Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, quizzed the federal judge about her views on issues of race and crime, amplifying election year grievances and a backlash over changing culture.
In her confirmation, Jackson made history by becoming the third Black justice and only the sixth woman in the court’s more than 200-year history. Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer.
On Friday, Jackson gave her “heartfelt thanks” to the many people she said helped her get to the Supreme Court— her family, including her husband, Patrick and daughters Leila and Talia, friends, mentors and more.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be here with you,” Jackson said in her remarks. “It is hard to find the words to express the depth of my gratitude … I have come this far by faith and I know I am truly blessed.”
Jackson would be the current court’s second Black justice — Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, is the other — and just the third in history. Jackson would replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Breyer. Biden nominated Jackson in February.
The 51-year-old federal appeals court judge will join two other women, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, on the liberal side of the current 6-3 conservative court. With Justice Amy Coney Barrett sitting at the other end of the bench, four of the nine justices would be women for the first time in history.
While the vote was far from the overwhelming bipartisan confirmations for Breyer and other justices in decades past, it was still a significant bipartisan accomplishment for Biden in the narrow 50-50 Senate after GOP senators aggressively worked to paint Jackson as too liberal and soft on crime.
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Jackson said her life was shaped by her parents’ experiences with racial segregation and civil rights laws that were enacted a decade before she was born.
With her parents and family sitting behind her, she told the panel that her “path was clearer” than theirs as a Black American. Jackson attended Harvard University, served as a public defender, worked at a private law firm and was appointed to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in addition to her nine years on the federal bench.
“I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously,” Jackson said. “I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.”
Once sworn in, Jackson would be the second-youngest member of the court after Barrett, 50. She would join a court on which no one is yet 75, the first time that has happened in nearly 30 years.
“This is not only a sunny day,” Biden said Friday. “This is going to let so much sun shine on so many young women. We’re gonna look back and see this as a moment of real change in American history.”
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| 2022-04-08T17:16:26
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SALT LAKE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) – A wild scene was caught on camera as a driver runs straight into a motorcyclist, sending him flying into the air.
The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office says the suspect, Kenneth Cordova, 34, was arrested on charges of attempted murder for intentionally using his car to hit another person.
Authorities say the incident happened at a Salt Lake County apartment complex on Thursday.
In the video, the victim is seen sitting on a motorcycle outside of an apartment complex. Cordova’s car is seen speeding directly towards the victim, slamming into him moments later.
The impact sent the victim flying into the air, landing on the car’s windshield before eventually falling to the ground. Cordova is seen quickly hopping out of his car while aggressively confronting the victim.
During police questioning, Cordova admitted to intentionally targeting the victim because he allegedly saw him holding a gun minutes before the incident.
Cordova believed the victim “had a hit” on him dating back from 2009. He says he felt, “he had to kill or be killed.”
Authorities say there is no evidence the victim ever possessed a firearm. The victim also says he’s never seen or interacted with Cordova before the incident. The victim was transported to a local hospital. He sustained injuries throughout his body although none were major, according to police reports.
Officials say Cordova is a “multi-state offender, convicted felon and has a history of violent behavior.” He has a criminal history with offenses in Nevada and Arizona, as well.
“The suspect, Kenneth Eugene Cordova, showed complete disregard to human life when striking the victim with his vehicle and then continuing to assault the victim after he was hit by his vehicle,” arresting documents say.
Cordova has been arrested on one charge of attempted murder and is currently booked at the Salt Lake County Jail.
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| 2022-04-08T17:16:32
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Cheers for Jackson as Biden declares ‘moment of real change’
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday celebrated the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court, hailing “a moment of real change in American history.”
It was a moment 46 days — and more than two centuries — in the making. Jackson, who was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, will take the bench later this year, filling the shoes of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on a court that was made up entirely of white men for almost two centuries, that declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed American segregation.
Jackson, at times speaking through tears as she thanked her family and mentors for their support, promised to follow in retiring Justice Breyer’s footsteps on the bench.
“I have done my level best to stay in my lane and to reach a result that is consistent with my understanding of the law,” she said, “And with the obligation to rule independently, without fear or favor.”
Jackson’s arrival on the bench won’t upend the current 6-3 conservative balance. But in addition to the racial history, it will put for the first time four women on the court at one time.
Biden 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, and Biden said the promise of putting someone like Jackson on the court helped motivate his bid for the Oval Office.
“I could see it as a day of hope, a day of promise, a day of progress, a day when once again the moral arc of the universe — as Barack (Obama) used to quote all the time — bends a little more toward justice,” Biden said at a boisterous event on the South Lawn of the White House. “I believe so strongly that we needed a court that looks like America.”
Biden praised Jackson’s “incredible character and integrity” during the confirmation process, saying she put up with “verbal abuse, the anger, constant interruptions, the most vile baseless assertions and accusations.” He praised the three Republican senators who joined Democrats to back her for the court: Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
Jackson will be the high court’s first former public defender — with the elite legal background of other justices as well. She has degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School and held top clerkships, including for Breyer himself.
The crowd on the White House lawn included Jackson’s family, members of Biden’s Cabinet, some of the Democratic senators who backed her nomination, as well as Democratic representatives and allies. The White House said all current and former justices of the Supreme Court were invited, but none attended.
The event came amid a COVID-19 outbreak among Washington’s political class that has sidelined members of Biden’s administration and lawmakers, including Collins and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who tested positive for the virus just hours after voting for Brown’s confirmation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was on the invite list, tested positive for the virus on Thursday.
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.
While not all attendees would be newly tested for the virus, Psaki said those close to Biden would be. Vice president Kamala Harris was to attend and deliver remarks, though she was identified on Wednesday as a close contact of a staffer who tested positive. Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines she was expected to wear a mask while around other people.
On Thursday, 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.
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.
“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 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 failed nominee Robert Bork, then the successful confirmations of Anthony M. Kennedy, David Souter, and Clarence Thomas — the last dominated by allegations of sexual harassment against Thomas by law professor Anita Hill — as well as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Breyer.
He was on the committee in 2005 but no longer chairman when now-Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed, 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 to step down after the court concludes its current term, which is usually in late June or early July. Only then will she take the oath to become an associate justice. A White House official said Jackson will remain on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until then but will continue to recuse herself from cases.
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AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:23:52
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Jury deliberating in ex-police officer’s Capitol riot trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — A defense attorney conceded on Friday that a former Virginia police officer broke laws when he entered the U.S. Capitol during last year’s riot, encouraging a federal jury to convict him of misdemeanor offenses.
But the lawyer urged jurors to acquit former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of felony charges that he armed himself with a weapon and stormed the Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors began deliberating after hearing closing arguments from Justice Department prosecutors and defense attorney Mark Rollins at Robertson’s jury trial, the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Rollins said Robertson is “absolutely guilty” of illegally entering restricted areas of the Capitol and of engaging in disorderly conduct on Jan. 6, 2021. But the defense attorney argued that the evidence doesn’t support more serious charges that Robertson intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote or that he was armed with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington, D.C., and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial. A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure.
Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.
Fracker testified on Thursday that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct the joint session of Congress.
Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the congressional proceedings. He said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
“It was clear that everyone around them had that same goal,” Berkower said.
Rollins said Robertson didn’t engage in any of the violence or destruction carried out by “knuckleheads” and “clowns” who stormed the Capitol.
“Don’t judge him by what the other people are doing,” he told jurors.
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner said Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker. Wagner also denied that Robertson wielded the stick as a weapon. She said the U.S. Army veteran was using it as a walking stick because he still has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Prosecutors said Robertson paid Fracker more than $30,000 after they were arrested, but Fracker said he believes Robertson wanted to cover his lost wages and wasn’t trying to “buy” his testimony.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
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’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:23:59
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Jury trial postponed in Hastings fatal crash case
HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - The trial for a Hastings man charged in connection with a fatal December car crash has been postponed from May until August.
Anthony Pingel, 32, is charged in Adams County District Court with two counts of felony Motor Vehicle Homicide, two counts of misdemeanor Third Degree Assault, one count of misdemeanor Driving Under the Influence and one count of Contempt of Court. Pingel was arrested after a Dec. 12 accident just east of Hastings in which two teenagers died.
Pingel’s trial had been scheduled for May 2, but Thursday a judge granted a motion from his attorneys asking for more time to prepare their case and the trial was re-scheduled for August 8.
The teenagers who died in the crash were Victoria Fleming, 16, of Superior and Tristen Owens, 18, of Hastings. The vehicle carrying the victims was fully engulfed in flames when emergency crews arrived at the scene. The assault charges are related to injuries suffered by two other passengers riding in the victim’s vehicle. An Adams County court official told Local4 that the contempt of court charge was related to Pingel’s alleged refusal to comply with a court-ordered blood test.
According to the arrest affidavit, when deputies arrived on scene, they observed a silver Jeep, registered to Pingel with extensive front end damage. Court records indicate that investigators observed Pingel to be under the influence of alcohol.
If convicted of felony motor vehicle homicide, Pingel could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison on each of the two counts, for a possible total of 40 years. The max penalties for convictions on the misdemeanor charges total just more than two years in prison and/or $2,500 in fines.
Copyright 2021 KSNB. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:24:05
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North America to experience total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 10:38 AM CDT|Updated: 1 hours ago
(Gray News) - A total solar eclipse will cross North America two years from today on April 8, 2024.
With a total solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, completely blocking the face of the sun.
NASA says 13 U.S. states will be within the path of totality: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Parts of Mexico and Canada will also be within the path of totality.
For exact times on when the eclipse will occur in each area, visit NASA’s website.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:24:11
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Price of stamps to increase starting in July
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 11:38 AM CDT|Updated: 44 minutes ago
(Gray News) - The cost of stamps will be increasing in July.
According to the U.S. Postal Service, a first-class mail Forever stamp will cost 60 cents, a 2-cent increase from its current price of 58 cents.
Other mailing services will also cost more, including:
- Letters (metered 1 ounce) will cost 57 cents, up from 53 cents.
- Letters additional ounce(s) will cost 24 cents, up from 20 cents.
- Domestic postcards will cost 44 cents, up from 40 cents.
- International letters will cost $1.40, up from $1.30.
The proposed increases are scheduled to take effect July 10. The Postal Regulatory Commission will review and approve the prices before they take effect.
The U.S. Postal Service says the increased prices are a result of inflation and increased operating expenses.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:24:17
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Proud Boys member pleads guilty to conspiracy in Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A North Carolina man on Friday became the second member of the extremist group Proud Boys to plead guilty to conspiring with other group members to stop Congress from formally certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Charles Donohoe, 34, pleaded guilty during an appearance in federal court in Washington to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting or impeding federal officers. His plea agreement includes a provision to cooperate in the ongoing Justice Department cases against other Proud Boys members.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of about six to seven years, although terms of his sentence will be up to a federal judge.
The indictment against Donohoe and other members of extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been a focus of the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Donohoe — who had been president of a local Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina — has close ties to the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio.
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.
Tarrio pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he remotely led a plot to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential election. Though he wasn’t at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, prosecutors say Tarrio organized encrypted chats with Proud Boys members in the weeks before the attack, had a 42-second phone call with another member of the group in the building during the insurrection and took credit for the chaos at the Capitol.
A New York man, Matthew Greene, became the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy in December. He agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea agreement.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, according to one of the indictments. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors, the indictment says.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 775 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, officials said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:24:24
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Several homes destroyed by large wildfire in Gosper and Furnas Counties
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - A large wildfire burned across Gosper and Furnas Counties Thursday and continues to smolder.
According to the National Weather Service, around 30,000 acres have burned. The fire traveled over 20 miles and destroyed several rural homes and outbuildings with farm equipment inside. There are reports of animals killed.
Elwood Fire Chief Darren Krull was killed in a car accident while responding to the fire Thursday. Phelps County Emergency Manager Justin Norris sustained serious injuries in the crash.
Region 17 Emergency Manager Roger Powell said 26 departments worked together to fight the fire in high wind conditions. They were able to contain the fire early Friday morning but several small fires remain. Highways are back open and evacuation orders have been lifted.
Volunteer firefighters will continue attacking hot spots for days to come.
Copyright 2022 KNOP. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:24:30
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Trans kids, parents fight wave of legislation in red states
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Ninth grader Harleigh Walker, 15, spends her time after school like many girls her age: doing homework, listening to Taylor Swift, collecting records and hanging out with friends.
But this year, her spring break also included trying to persuade members of the state House and Senate to reject legislation banning gender-affirming medications for transgender kids like her under 19. She was unsuccessful. On Thursday, Alabama lawmakers passed the measure. If Gov. Kay Ivey signs it into law, Harleigh will no longer be able to take testosterone-blocking drugs.
“Honestly, I’m a little scared now,” she said Thursday after learning the bill had passed. “But we’re still going to fight no matter what.”
Harleigh said she is holding out hope the governor will veto the bill or it will be blocked by a court. Ivey has not indicated whether she plans to sign it.
Alabama is among multiple states with Republican-controlled legislatures that have advanced bills not only to block medical treatment but to ban transgender children from using school restrooms or playing on sports teams that don’t correspond with their sex at birth. The Alabama medication bill is one of the most far-reaching: It would put doctors in prison for up to 10 years for prescribing puberty blockers or hormonal treatment to trans kids under 19.
Conservative lawmakers say the measures are needed to protect children and parental rights.
“We regulate all kinds of things that are harmful for minors — alcohol, cigarette smoke, vaping, tattoos — because their minds aren’t ready to make those decisions about things that can affect them long term,” said Rep. Wes Allen, the sponsor of the House version of the Alabama legislation. Allen cited public hearing testimony from a woman who said she regretted taking hormone therapy to try to transition to being male.
“With these powerful medications that have detrimental effects on their body long term, we just want to put a pause on it ... give them a chance to develop and grow out of that,” Allen said.
But opponents say transgender health is being used as a deliberate political wedge issue to motivate a voting base — in the same way they say bills about critical race theory have been employed. Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Numerous Republican-controlled legislatures have proposed bills to block its teaching in public schools.
The measures involving trans youth have prompted swift backlash from medical experts, Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the families of trans youth. Last month, the Justice department sent a letter to all 50 state attorneys general, warning them that blocking transgender and nonbinary youth from receiving gender-affirming care could be an infringement of federal constitutional protections.
“My child is not a political tool. This is not a fair fight to pick on vulnerable children,” said Vanessa Finney Tate, the mother of a 13-year-old trans boy in Birmingham, Alabama, after testifying at a public legislative hearing on bill that would block students from using bathrooms corresponding to their gender.
Harleigh’s father, Jeff Walker notes that many of the same Alabama lawmakers who supported the ban on gender-affirming medical treatment recently argued, ‘It’s your body and your choice’ regarding coronavirus vaccinations. He said the family is now scrambling to find another state where it can continue Harleigh’s medical care.
“We just don’t want people meddling in our medical care,” he said.
Medical groups including The American Academy of Pediatrics have publicly opposed efforts to outlaw gender-affirming care.
“Gender-affirming care benefits the health and psychological functioning of transgender and gender-diverse youth,” the Endocrine Society said in a statement. “When an individual’s gender identity is not respected and they cannot access medical care, it can result in higher psychological problem scores and can raise the person’s risk of committing suicide or other acts of self-harm.”
The organization notes that only reversible puberty blockers are recommended for younger adolescents, while older adolescents might qualify for hormone therapy.
Harleigh received the medication — which stops her from going through male puberty — only after consulting with a team of doctors for years. She said it’s “weird” to see lawmakers with no medical experience call her medication “child abuse,” when six doctors have agreed she should have it.
Angus, a 16-year-old trans teen who requested that his last name not be used because of the bullying he has received in his north Alabama town, said he knew at puberty that the mirror reflected “a body that wasn’t my own.”
After coming out to his mother, he began slowly testing the waters: dressing as a man, changing his name. Only after years of talking to a team of doctors, was he able to recently get medications to stop his periods. The next step, which he is eager to start, would be a small dose of testosterone.
“I have been waiting for seven years to finally become a man, the man that I’ve always known I am,” Angus said.
He said bills to block such treatments are harming, not protecting trans youth.
“The government is saying, ‘Oh, parents are abusing their children by letting them transition,’” he said. “Actually, it’s more child abuse to not let them transition if they come out. What these bills really are doing is putting trans youth lives at risk because these suicide rates will spike exponentially. And a lot of families will lose their children.”
Similar bans are moving forward in other states.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the state’s child welfare agency to investigate as abuse reports of gender-confirming care for kids. And a law in Arkansas bans gender-affirming medications. That law has been blocked by a court, however.
Trans youth in many red states say they feel attacked, angry, betrayed and scared by the wave of legislation aimed at them.
“It feels like a back-stab,” Harleigh said. “I’ve lived in this state my whole life. For them to just say, ‘Well, you know what, this is an issue that’s really popular on my side of the aisle so I’m just going to raise it up and support it because it’ll help me win my election’ — It just hurts to see them do that.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:24:36
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EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Juarez police are investigating two double homicides occurring hours apart from each other in different parts of the city. In both cases, the victims were couples, the municipal police said.
The first two victims were found near an abandoned Chevrolet Tahoe late Thursday near the Camino Real highway on the western outskirts of the city. The bodies of a man and a woman and their vehicle were on a road overlooking the highway.
Later, gunmen shot and killed a man and a woman waiting for a green light inside their compact vehicle on Tecnologico Avenue. Police said a female riding in the victims’ vehicle survived the shooting and was taken to a hospital.
No arrests were reported in either case. Juarez has recorded 19 homicides just in the first week of April.
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| 2022-04-08T17:27:42
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ROME (AP) — Prices for food commodities like grains and vegetable oils reached their highest levels ever last month largely because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the “massive supply disruptions” it is causing, threatening millions of people in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere with hunger and malnourishment, the United Nations said Friday.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, averaged 159.3 points last month, up 12.6% from February. As it is, the February index was the highest level since its inception in 1990.
FAO said the war in Ukraine was largely responsible for the 17.1% rise in the price of grains, including wheat and others like oats, barley and corn. Together, Russia and Ukraine account for around 30% and 20% of global wheat and corn exports, respectively.
While predictable given February’s steep rise, “this is really remarkable,” said Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of FAO’s markets and trade division. “Clearly, these very high prices for food require urgent action.”
The biggest price increases were for vegetable oils: that price index rose 23.2%, driven by higher quotations for sunflower seed oil that is used for cooking. Ukraine is the world’s leading exporter of sunflower oil, and Russia is No. 2.
“There is, of course, a massive supply disruption, and that massive supply disruption from the Black Sea region has fueled prices for vegetable oil,” Schmidhuber told reporters in Geneva.
He said he couldn’t calculate how much the war was to blame for the record food prices, noting that poor weather conditions in the United States and China also were blamed for crop concerns. But he said “logistical factors” were playing a big role.
“Essentially, there are no exports through the Black Sea, and exports through the Baltics is practically also coming to an end,” he said.
Soaring food prices and disruption to supplies coming from Russia and Ukraine have threatened food shortages in countries in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia where many people already were not getting enough to eat.
Those nations rely on affordable supplies of wheat and other grains from the Black Sea region to feed millions of people who subsist on subsidized bread and bargain noodles, and they now face the possibility of further political instability.
Other large grain producers like the United States, Canada, France, Australia and Argentina are being closely watched to see if they can quickly ramp up production to fill in the gaps, but farmers face issues like climbing fuel and fertilizer costs exacerbated by the war, as well as drought and supply-chain disruptions.
In the Sahel region of Central and West Africa, the disruptions from the war have added to an already precarious food situation caused by COVID-19, conflicts, poor weather and other structural problems, said Sib Ollo, senior researcher for the World Food Program for West and Central Africa in Dakar, Senegal.
“There is a sharp deterioration of the food and nutrition security in the region,” he told reporters, saying six million children are malnourished and nearly 16 million people in urban areas are at risk of food insecurity.
Farmers, he said, were particularly worried that they would not be able to access fertilizers produced in the Black Sea region. Russia is a leading global exporter.
“The cost of fertilizers has increased by almost 30% in many places of this region due to the supply disruption that we see provoked by a crisis in Ukraine,” he said.
The World Food Program has appealed for $777 million to meet the needs of 22 million people in the Sahel region and Nigeria over six months, he said.
To address the needs of food-importing countries, the FAO was developing a proposal for a mechanism to alleviate the import costs for the poorest countries, Schmidhuber said. The proposal calls for eligible countries to commit to added investments in their own agricultural productivity to obtain import credits to help soften the blow.
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| 2022-04-08T17:27:49
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(KTVX) – As the U.S. deals with a nationwide shortage of truck drivers, Walmart has announced that the company will be offering their long-haul drivers a salary of up to $110,000 per year.
In a press release, the company said the latest investment not only gives first-year truck drivers the ability to make up to $110,000 but also gives drivers who have been with Walmart the opportunity to earn even more.
The average salary for a long-haul driver is $63,433 (base salary plus additional pay) per year, but “most likely” ranges between $28,000 and $149,000 annually, according to a Glassdoor study.
In raising its truckers’ salaries, Walmart is now on the same playing field as Sysco, which also advertises that its employees can make up to $110,000 a year.
Walmart also announced the launch of the first Walmart Private Fleet Development Program, a 12-week program where supply-chain associates in the Dallas, Texas, and Dover, Delaware, areas earned their commercial driver’s license (CDL) and became full-fledged Private Fleet Walmart drivers.
Last October, the American Trucking Association (AHA) announced that the current driver shortage had left the trucking industry “short” by 80,000 drivers — a worrying new record, according to the ATA.
The ATA said that trucking will need to recruit nearly one million new drivers in order to keep up with demand for freight.
“Because [there] are a number of factors driving the shortage, we have to take a number of different approaches,” said Bob Costello, the chief economist for the ATA, in a press release issued in Oct. 2021. “The industry is raising pay at five times the historic average, but this isn’t just a pay issue. We have an aging workforce, a workforce that is overwhelmingly male, and finding ways to address those issues is key to narrowing the shortage.”
More information on Walmart’s program, including a list of requirements for potential drivers, can be found at the company’s Careers portal.
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| 2022-04-08T17:27:55
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BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested a man connection to drug distribution arising from an extensive “Operation Bayou Clean Up” drug investigation.
The Bayou Clean-Up is a parish-wide investigation that identifies suspects involved in illegal trafficking of illegal drugs.
Lucien James Aucoin Jr., 60, allegedly distributed illegal narcotics during April of 2021. He evaded arrest until a search warrant was executed. During the search, officials discovered methamphetamine.
Aucoin was transported to the Assumption Parish Detention Center and booked on the charges of distribution of methamphetamine and possession of methamphetamine.
He remains incarcerated pending a bond hearing.
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| 2022-04-08T17:28:01
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CHATTAHOOCHEE COUNTY, Ga. (WRBL) – The Georgia Bureau of Investigation has announced charges in the cold case murder of a Fort Benning soldier in 1982.
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, GBI officials said Marcellus McCluster, 64, is being charged in the murder of René Dawn Blackmore.
Blackmore was stationed as an Army Private on Fort Benning at the time of her death, she disappeared after leaving the barracks on the night of April 29, 1982.
McCluster is being indicted with one count of malice murder and four counts of felony murder for the death of Blackmore.
Blackmore’s wallet and sweater were found on the side of a road in Cusseta, Georgia, nearly a month after her disappearance. It wasn’t until June 28, 1982, when her remains were found off a logging road where authorities say she was killed.
Authorities with the GBI spoke about Blackmore’s death in the news conference, highlighting the upcoming 40th anniversary of her disappearance.
“We know that she would have been 59 years old if she could have been with us today. But we don’t know who she might have loved, what relationships she might have built, what dreams she might have realized. All of those things got extinguished by a blast from a cheap shotgun about two miles from the middle of nowhere down in south Chattahoochee County,” said Assistant District Attorney of the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit Kim Schwartz.
Blackmore’s mother Donna Reitman released the following statement:
“Even after 40 years, I don’t feel emotionally able to answer media questions, but have prepared this statement for them.
“I would like to express my appreciation to the GBI Cold Case Unit for their dedication and determination to find, prove, and finally see charged, the man who murdered my daughter.
“René did not live to see her 21st birthday, which would have been May 5th. She was killed on April 29th, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of her death. René was a focused young woman; not always serious — she loved laughing and having fun with friends. When she was 12, one of her friends was killed by a drunk driver, which prompted her to write her own will. In it, she expressed the desire for her ashes to be scattered in the nearest woods, because she was very much an outdoor girl. She loved hiking and camping and hunting , and just looking at a star-filled sky. She felt she had found her niche in her high school ROTC program, and by her senior year, commanded the unit.
“I have lived these 40 years always feeling the pain her absence causes, and believing no one outside of her family and friends even cared. It is with a grateful heart that on March 28th, 2022, this belief was shown to be untrue. These detectives of GBI Cold Case unit had spent the past 18 months working to solve her case, because they, too, cared, and believed Rene’ deserved justice.
“Nothing can give René back to me, but I do find solace in learning these men cared enough to search out that justice.
“Thank you.”
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| 2022-04-08T17:28:09
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SECRETARY OF STATE
Bob Evnen, Incumbent
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
Nebraska Secretary of State, 2019-present; Member, Nebraska State Board of Education, 2005-2012; Attorney in private practice, 1987-2018.
Why are you running for office?
I’m running to continue my work expanding Nebraska’s economy through trade missions that increase Nebraska’s export markets, to continue securing Nebraska elections through Voter ID, Winner-Take-All in casting our electoral votes, prohibiting private funding of election operations (so-called “Zuckerbucks”), further securing ballot drop boxes, and to continue to lead our state in the many other duties of the Secretary of State.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
Further securing our elections, especially in early voting; opening and expanding international markets for Nebraska agriculture and other businesses.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/bob-evnen/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:14
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(NEXSTAR)– It may feel in some parts of the United States that the coronavirus pandemic is in the rearview mirror, but new cases have spiked this week in some of the country’s most populous areas, showing we aren’t yet done with COVID-19.
Cases are up roughly 60% in New York City and have doubled in Washington, D.C., according to an analysis from The New York Times. The Times notes new cases are increasing in Colorado, Vermont, Rhode Island, Alaska, and New York.
This comes following two months of case declines. The average number of daily cases in the U.S. is hovering around 30,000 after a height of more than 800,000 in January. According to New York Times stats, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have all declined nationwide over the last two weeks. Hospitalizations are now at the lowest point they’ve been since the first few weeks of the pandemic.
The increase in the Northeast is being blamed on the BA.2 subvariant. Last month, WHO confirmed it was now the dominant variant around the world. At one point in March, it accounted for 75% of coronavirus cases globally.
This week, the World Health Organization said its tracking an omicron variant that’s a recombination of BA.2 and BA.1. According to the Associated Press, this variant could be slightly more transmissible than previous mutations.
Globally, WHO confirmed the COVID situation is much improved over earlier this year. In its latest pandemic report, WHO said 9 million cases were reported over the last week, a 16% weekly decline, and more than 26,000 new deaths from COVID-19. The U.N. health agency said confirmed coronavirus infections were down in all regions of the world.
The agency has continued to warn countries not to drop their COVID-19 protocols too quickly and predicted that future variants could spread easily if surveillance and testing systems are shelved.
In the meantime, the CDC advises everyone stay up to date on their COVID vaccine. Whether or not you’re “up to date” depends on your age, health conditions, the type of COVID shot you got, and how long it’s been since your last dose.
As long as the virus continued to circulate, it will continue to spawn new variants – some of which could prove more contagious, more immune-evasive, or more deadly.
“The virus will pick up pockets of susceptibility and will survive in those pockets for months and months until another pocket of susceptibility opens up,” Dr. Michael Ryan, a WHO executive director, said in March. “This is how viruses work. They establish themselves within a community and they’ll move quickly to the next community if it’s unprotected.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
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| 2022-04-08T17:28:15
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George Dungan III
Tell us about yourself.
I have lived in Lincoln since 1963, the year my Father accepted a teaching position with LPS. A Lincoln High and UNL graduate, I’ve been instrumental in launching three small businesses in the community.
I worked for fifteen years as a member of the Academic Technologies Group for UNL. Previously, I served for twelve years as a flight medic and a 1st Lt in the Nebraska Army National Guard, as well as a partner and principal in three local business efforts. I was transplanted to Lincoln in 1963 when my Father accepted a position with Lincoln Public Schools and attended Lincoln High and graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Business in 2010.
I’ve been honored with a wide variety of awards and distinctions from military and civilian occupations and have been active in many community coalitions, serving on a number of boards including Flatwater Shakespeare Company, The Indian Center Trust, Meadowlane Area Residents Association, The Lancaster County Food Policy Council and the Indian Center Board of directors.
During my tenure with the University, I had been a strategic member of a diverse team charged with the delivery and use of educational technology. That process added tremendous value to the instructional platform for a Big 10 University, allowed rapid transition to remote delivery platforms during the pandemic, and transformed teaching methods and pedagogy for three campuses and over 50 thousand stakeholders.
Aside from my four adult daughters and six grandchildren, an accomplishment that added a deep sense of fullfilment was being part of the effort to eliminate the alcohol sales in White Clay, Nebraska with Frank LeMere and John Maisch. He and Frank inspired me to assist in rebuilding the community and culture that has been intrinsic to the Indian Center, and through some amazing efforts, that revitalization is now well under way.
I truly look forward to investing my talents and energy for the state of Nebraska as an elected representative.
Why are you running for this office?
I have spent most of my adult life in multiple aspects of public service, arriving at an age where I can devote significant time to the office and the constituents I would represent, as well the rest of the state, as we navigate difficult questions about tax policy, funding models for education, workforce development and affordable housing. Creating additional revenue channels that can reduce regressive tax levels would be a priority, assuring equitable rates across income, sales and property taxes. What would be your top three priorities if elected?
1. Continue Senator Lathrop’ work on criminal justice and sentencing reform to alleviate a stressed corrections system 2. Assure asset and earnings retention for Nebraska’s middle-income work force by creating protected savings plans and secure home ownership 3. Nurture rural growth by developing infrastructure that attracts development, entrepreneurial activity and educational opportunity. Food production and security are skilled jobs at every level 4. Supporting early childhood education and affordable higher education that creates actively engaged Nebraska communities.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top priority is to give families the best chance to succeed. As your next state senator, I will work to create and retain good-paying jobs in Northeast Lincoln, ensure access to affordable healthcare, including mental health services, and promote public safety by reducing crime through youth education and employment, mental health services, and investing in problem-solving courts, like drug courts. Additionally, I would fight to preserve the nonpartisan nature of the Legislature.
What relevant experience would you bring to the office?
Former officer with the Nebraska Army National Guard
Partner or sole proprietor for three entrepreneurial efforts in Lincoln
2010 Graduate, University of Nebraska College of Business
Board member, Indian Center Inc.
Board member, Indian Center Trust
Former Board chair, Flatware Shakespeare Co.
Former Board President, Meadowlane Area Residents Association
Presenter, Rural Futures Initiative
Fifteen years of employment with higher education in multiple roles
Member, Lancaster County Food Policy Council
Do you support tax relief for Nebraskans? If so, what type and how would you make it happen?
By addressing income and sales reform. Nebraska benefits most by finding ways to increase wages and sales. We have vast resources in our rural communities for entrepreneurs, untapped tourism potential and tremendous local food production capacity. Creating employment that pays higher than average wages attracts talent that contributes to greater productivity and a reduced tax burden for all of Nebraska.
How do you plan to make housing more affordable for Nebraskans?
One of the current practices in urban areas is to create infill spaces that are modeled after European housing norms. By building dense housing in a smaller footprint, taxes associated with housing are held constant or drop because the payments required to provide services (roads, fire and safety, health and traffic controls) are minimized. Lower taxes leads to a small portion of affordability. The other is to create convenient mass transit (see below) that allows for rapid, safe and convenient commutes when needed. Shifting to rural locations supports both affordable housing and builds a broader tax base for school funding.
How would you address concerns from business owners across the state dealing with supply chain issues and labor shortages?
I am prepared to propose a trans Nebraska Railroad that would expedite transpiration across the state, increase Nebraska tourism, generate hundreds of full time well paying jobs and increase mobility for the workforce of rural and urban communities.
What measures would you support to address overcrowding within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services?
I would prefer to work towards sentencing reform so that non-violent offenders aren’t incarcerated for long periods of time when they could be contributing to the community. To place these types of offenders in a prison environment may prove counter productive to rehabilitation, and adds to our current overcrowding. Combined with diversion programs, it would help reduce overall prison population.
What steps should the legislature take to entice young professionals to remain in the state?
1. Attract companies and support small businesses which allow young professionals to express their skills and expertise in a challenging and fulfilling manner, establishing an incentive plan that offsets the first two years of employment cost for companies that hire Nebraska.
2. Create a student loan buy-back process that allows a scaled matching payment system for filling positions vital to the growth and sustainability of Nebraska’s economy by Nebraska graduates.
3. Provide training opportunities for skilled labor positions that are needed desperately to fill voids in all building and trades occupations.
4. Create new partnerships with all of the UNL and State College campuses to establish a 90 day “neutral zone” for graduates entering that work force that allows all graduates who have not accepted employment offers to collectively participate in a “Solve this for Nebraska” exercise.
Do you support any changes to the way elections are run in Nebraska?
Yes. I believe that they should be fair, uncomplicated and held on a day that all voters who wish to vote have easy access to the polling places. That includes assuring that local precinct stations remain open and staffed, that voter roles are not purged without a concerted effort to contact any registered voter that is in question, and that vote by mail continue to be allowed for any voter who finds it the most beneficial way to cast a ballot.
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| 2022-04-08T17:28:21
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HOUMA, La. (WNTZ) – In a signing ceremony today, Fletcher Technical Community College (Fletcher) and Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA) signed an articulation agreement making it easier for students to transfer credits from Fletcher to LSUA. In the agreement signed, Fletcher and LSUA have agreed to allow students to complete the Associate of Applied Science Degree at Fletcher and transfer credit hours earned toward completion of the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration or Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences.
Alexandria Zoo receives $42K for COVID relief
The agreement was announced and signed by Fletcher Technical Community College Chancellor Dr. Kristine Strickland and Louisiana State University of Alexandria Chancellor Dr. Paul Coreil.
The new articulation agreement between Fletcher and LSUA marks the beginning of a new and exciting partnership for students to continue to further their education and training after graduating from Fletcher.
“Fletcher Technical Community College is thrilled to sign three new agreements with LSU-Alexandria. Our focus at Fletcher remains on assisting our students in pursuing their career goals. We recognize that many students will want to continue their education onto the bachelor’s degree. These agreements provide a seamless pathway for students to achieve this. Learning is a lifelong endeavor and in our current economy the ability to continue to learn new things and upskill are critical to successful families, communities, and economy” said Dr. Kristine Strickland, Chancellor for Fletcher Technical Community College.
“We are committed to providing seamless opportunities for Fletcher Technical Community College (FTCC) graduates to continue their education and obtain a Bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA),” said Dr. Paul Coreil, LSUA Chancellor. “Working together for the benefit of all Louisiana students is clearly a shared objective that we know will result in a better prepared and educated workforce statewide.”
“As graduates of applied associate degrees gain work experience, they often seek to further their education to gain earning power by completing a four-year baccalaureate program,” says College of Business Dean, Dr. Randall Dupont. “The BAAS removes the difficulty of transferring technical coursework. Furthermore, this flexibility will be beneficial to veterans and active-duty military who have earned credit through military programs.”
About Fletcher Technical Community College
Originally known as South Louisiana Trade School, Fletcher Technical Community College has provided education and career-minded training to the Bayou Region of South Louisiana since 1948. Fletcher Technical Community College will serve a diverse population of 5000+ individuals annually by providing pathways to higher education, the workforce, life-long learning, and/or personal enrichment. The college prepares students for success through technology-driven curriculum and a uniquely supportive environment. The college actively engages business and industry to develop the Bayou Region’s workforce. www.fletcher.edu
About Louisiana State University of Alexandria
In 1960, LSUA began as a two-year institution. After 40 years of educational success, the University was elevated to a four-year university in 2001 – granting bachelor’s degrees and expanding its importance to the educational advancement of many across Central Louisiana and beyond. Today, LSUA not only serves students from every parish in Louisiana but also students from 45 states and 28 countries. LSUA consists of five academic colleges led by their own deans and department chairs. The university upholds a strong commitment to academic excellence and expanding its engagement with students, scholars, and the larger community. www.lsua.edu
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RAPIDES PARISH, La. (WNTZ) – Patrol Deputies responded to a report of possible sexual misconduct involving a juvenile victim. Deputies began their investigation and Jammie Ballard, 61 of Glenmora, was identified as the suspect. The case was turned over to the Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit (SVU) for further investigation.
Through their investigation, and with the assistance of the Children’s Advocacy Center, SVU Detectives developed sufficient probable cause that supported the original allegations and a warrant was obtained for the arrest of Ballard for one count First Degree Rape and six counts Molestation of a Juvenile Victim Under the Age of 13.
On April 5th, 2022, Ballard was taken into custody by the SVU Detectives, arrested on the warrants and booked into Rapides Parish Detention Center. Ballard remains in jail at the time of this release, being held on a $400,000.00 bond.
SVU Detectives say their investigation is still ongoing and if anyone has any information related to this case, they are asked to please contact Detective Cali Philpot with the RPSO Special Victims Unit at (318) 473-6727.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/glenmora-man-charged-with-first-degree-rape/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:27
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/glenmora-man-charged-with-first-degree-rape/
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Janet Chung
Tell us about yourself.
My parents were immigrants. They met in Iowa where my father was getting his Phd at Iowa State University. We moved to Lincoln when he accepted a teaching position at the University of Nebraska in Electrical Engineering.
I graduated from Southeast High School and received a bachelor’s degree in Journalism at the University of Nebraska.
I managed people and operations while working in commercial property management, telecommunications, and a public utility. I’m known for my work at Lincoln Electric System in the energy services department where I helped residential and commercial customers with energy efficiency, promoting sustainability initiatives and coordinating community outreach activities. I also worked for a nonprofit promoting community service helping other nonprofits recruit volunteers.
Why are you running for this office?
I’m running so I can help Nebraska families with job opportunities and public education. As a former public power employee, I believe in supporting our public services to better serve businesses and community needs. I’m committed to building a better Nebraska for everyone.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
- Support property tax relief and public education.
- Invest in workforce development, retention, and recruitment.
- Address the effects of extreme weather that threaten public health and safety.
What relevant experience would you bring to the office?
I’ve demonstrated my ability to work with diverse groups while living in five different states, and towns like Kearney and Grand Island. I am a long-time volunteer with Leadership Lincoln and I’m on the Bryan Medical Center Board of Trustees. I also served on the Board of Directors for Leadership Lincoln, Southeast Fire & Rescue Department, Asian Community and Cultural Center, American Red Cross and homeowner’s association.
Do you support tax relief for Nebraskans? If so, what type and how would you make it happen?
We should be working for reforms to reduce property taxes and support public education with income and state sales taxes.
How do you plan to make housing more affordable for Nebraskans?
Nebraska should use Federal funds to help with rent relief and affordable local housing projects.
How would you address concerns from business owners across the state dealing with supply chain issues and labor shortages?
We should support workforce development, retention, and recruitment programs. This includes recruiting and development programs for immigrants, refugees and formerly incarcerated people. Supporting community colleges will help provide the technical training needed for qualified individuals to fill workforce needs.
What measures would you support to address overcrowding within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services?
We should work to increase mental health solutions and prison reform programs to reduce recidivism. We should also provide more resources for public school programs to break the cycle of school to prison pipeline.
What steps should the legislature take to entice young professionals to remain in the state?
We should work together to make life better for everyone in Nebraska. We should support equal rights and equal pay for everyone. There should be less divisive rhetoric.
Do you support any changes to the way elections are run in Nebraska?
Nebraska elections have been safe and secure. For working families, voting may be difficult because they have obstacles of distance, limited transportation and scheduling. We should continue to improve access to voting.
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ALEXANDRIA, La. (WNTZ) – Local shop owner Mary Byrd at Kid’s B’ Dazzled designs a line of children clothing for all seasons. She puts in many thoughts on how the child will feel in the clothing. With April being Autism awareness month, she wants parents to know you can shop local for children’s clothing that won’t be itchy, bothersome, or uncomfortable for the child.
According to Nation Today, Autism Spectrum Disorder is a brain developmental disorder caused by genetic mutation and sometimes, by environmental triggers. Although the autism spectrum is vast, some of the common signs in autistic individuals are repetitive behaviors, hyperactivity, and extreme sensitivity to light, touch, and sound.
Mrs. Byrd designs a line of clothing especially for children with Autism or other special needs. Sometimes children just do not like the feel of certain materials or the tags and seams may bother them. You can find milk silk jumpers, dresses, rompers, etc for all seasons that children will feel comfortable wearing.
Mary Byrd the owner of Kid’s B’ Dazzled located at 3204 Jackson Street, Alexandria, LA. Her telephone number is 318-792-4000.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/local-shop-owner-designs-clothes-for-children-with-autism/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:33
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ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE
Jennifer Hicks
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
I have never held political office. I have spent the last eighteen years focusing on raising my three boys, all of whom have been homeschooled. During that time, I have not worked outside the home, but I have been involved with organizations in which my kids took part, such as 4-H and Civil Air Patrol. Prior to staying home to raise my kids, I worked as a Claims Adjudicator for Social Security Disability. In the last couple of years I have been extensively involved in activism involving election integrity, medical freedom, Second Amendment issues, and battling against the teaching of CSE and CRT in schools. I maintain the voicesofnebraska.com website, where I post many articles regarding my political views. I believe that all experience has the potential to be beneficial and to inform a person’s actions. What is LEARNED from experience determines whether or not that experience brings with it a benefit, so I don’t believe that time spent inhabiting a role in government or politics is necessarily beneficial. (Senator Biden is the proof of that.)
Why are you running for office?
I am running for office because I do not feel that I have any representation in government. My attempts to have my concerns addressed have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. I am running for attorney general because we need someone in office who will speak up when people’s rights are being violated by elected officials who permit violations of the U.S. Constitution and the Nebraska State Constitution to go unanswered. Currently, the government is run by people whose priority is to protect their peers in office. We need true servants of the people who prioritize defending the rights of the people. We need officeholders who adhere to their oath. I believe that we need to restore the people to their rightful place in government, and to remind the government that they work for the people, not the other way around. When I look around at the world, I don’t like seeing what we’ve done to it. I would like to be part of the solution to fix it, and I believe that the government cannot effectively serve nor represent the people faithfully when they are not listening to them.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
My top priority is election integrity, and I am tackling that already. We need election integrity restored before the primary election. Our elections are currently run by Big Government and Big Tech, and the people have been removed from the election process. Our vote is our voice in government. Without that, we are not free people. I seek to restore “we the people” to our rightful role in government, and to remind the government that they work for us. Currently existing laws, including the U.S. Constitution, are not being followed to defend people’s rights. They should be. I would also prioritize protections of First Amendment rights, for I believe that the failure of our elected officials to defend our First Amendment rights is a primary reason why we are presently on the brink of losing our country. Upholding the First Amendment safeguards our Second Amendment as well, which is also a priority of mine.
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| 2022-04-08T17:28:34
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https://www.1011now.com/page/jennifer-hicks/
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ALEXANDRIA, La. – Louisiana State University of Alexandria and the LSUA Foundation extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and loved ones of former LSUA Foundation board member, and CLECO executive, Mike Madison. Madison passed away on Tuesday, March 31, 2022.
Mr. Madison, served as President and Chief Executive Officer at CLECO while also serving on the LSUA Foundation Board of Directors. During this time, he was instrumental in facilitating, along with then-Chancellor David Manuel, a gift of $600,000 for the CLECO/Scott O. Brame Endowed Chair in Business. This gift enabled the LSUA Foundation to apply for matching Board of Regents funds and leverage the gift to a $1,000,000 Chair. This was one of many things that Mr. Madison did to help our community.
Madison graduated from Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, then attended the University of Oklahoma where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. After graduating, Mike began his career with the Public Service Company of Oklahoma in 1971 as an engineer for the generation division of business. He held a number of positions at Central and Southwest Corporation subsidiaries (now known as American Electric Power) including the Executive of the British Utility Seeboard and went on to retire as President of SWEPCO in 2003. Upon his retirement, Mike was hired as Chief Operating Officer of CLECO Corporation in Pineville, LA. After two years, he was promoted to President and Chief Executive Officer. Mike was instrumental in the development and design of a power plant that now holds his name, Madison Unit 3. It is because of his vision and dedication that the highest honor in the electrical industry, the Edison Award was awarded to CLECO in June of 2011. In 2012, Mike retired from CLECO and went on to serve with the Board of Directors for Blackhill Corporation, in Rapid City, SD, until 2021.
Mike held many other positions and titles during his career, including President of the Committee of 100, an organization of leading business executives helping to develop Louisiana’s economy. He was also a director of the Cenla Advantage Partnership, a privately funded economic development organization taking a new approach to developing central Louisiana’s economy. Mike also served as a board member of the Edison Electric Institute, the Christus St. Francis Cabrini Hospital, the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies, the Better Business Bureau, Capital One Bank, the Council for a Better Louisiana, the LSUA Foundation, and he was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Protection, Restoration, and Conservation.
Funeral Services honoring the life of Michael Howard Madison were held at 2:00 p.m., Monday, April 4, 2022, at Rose-Neath Funeral Home, Shreveport, Louisiana. Mr. Madison was laid to rest on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, in Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Mike was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May 26, 1948.
He is survived by his wife, Terri Patton Madison; daughters, Holly Farmer and husband, Urban, April Lutz and husband, Chris; grandchildren, Briar Stott, Madison Stott, Hunter Farmer, and Colton Lutz; sisters-in-law, Glenda Madison, Debbie Lancaster and Tammy Castillo and husband, Richard; and numerous nieces, nephews and great-nieces, and great-nephews. He was preceded in death by his father, Harry Howard Madison; mother, Wilma Jeane Madison; sister, Victoria Sanders; and brother, Gary Madison.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations may be made to The Simple Church, 601 Benton Road, Bossier City, LA 71111, the University of Oklahoma Gallogly College of Engineering, 202 West Boyd Street, Room 107 Norman OK, 73019, or a charity of the donor’s choice.
Written by Melinda Anderson, LSUA Chief of Staff to the Chancellor
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/lsua-remembers-former-board-member-at-passing/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:39
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/lsua-remembers-former-board-member-at-passing/
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AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS RACE
Larry Anderson
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
No previous elected offices held. However, I have a unique experience having worked at the State Auditor’s office for nearly four years and then the University of Nebraska for seven years. These accounting roles have a direct involvement with State funds and the oversight they require. I also have a current Nebraska CPA license. In addition, I’ve served in the Nebraska National Guard for 15 years; the military has allowed me to work with a variety incredible people and experience the full reach the State has on the country and the World. Working with the military has allowed me to gain firsthand experience with a variety of unique people from all walks of life; this includes my superiors, peers, and subordinates. I’ve learned that every person’s story is unique and it’s important to take the time. I’ve enjoyed meeting & befriending so many people along the way and overcoming challenges as a team.
Why are you running for office?
I know I would serve the office and Nebraskans quite well. I strive to make a difference on a daily basis; I want to use my knowledge, skills, and abilities in a position to make a positive impact for Nebraskans where it counts. I think the office is the perfect combination to do just that. My main priority would be upholding the performance and integrity of the office and its audit staff. The auditors within this office perform at an incredibly high caliber and they need the continued support and resources to do so. You’re only as good as the people who work for you; therefore, supporting the auditors doing the ground work is furthering the watchful eye over Nebraskans’ State tax dollars.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
There are no hot button issues that come to mind currently. Keep in mind, given the nature of the work, no news is often good news. I would like this office to be less of a political one. It seems this office has turned into somewhat of an alternate political placeholder for the Governor’s office, which isn’t the intended purpose of your auditor. I actually want the office for it is; this office is not a stepping stone for me. I don’t want to be your Lt Governor, the tax commissioner, or the economic development director. I want to do good things at the State Auditor’s office and I believe deep down to my core that I will do an outstanding job for Nebraskans.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/larry-anderson/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:42
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https://www.1011now.com/page/larry-anderson/
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ALEXANDRIA, La. (April 7, 2022) — The Alexandria Zoo has been awarded $42,316 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) under the Endangered Species COVID-19 Relief program, funded by the American Rescue Plan.
“The Alexandria Zoo was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic as the facility was ordered closed for a period and then had to limit the number of visitors for more than a year, which significantly impacted revenue. At the same time, we still incurred the costs of caring for and maintaining the animals and the facilities,” said Alexandria Mayor Jeff Hall. “Our commitment to meeting the needs of our animals and to maintaining the standards set by AZA has never wavered. We are very grateful to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to AZA for providing this much-needed funding so that we can continue to do the important animal care, education and conservation work at the Alexandria Zoo.”
Alexandria Zoo Director Dr. Max Lakes said the money will be used to cover expenses for feeding and care of specific endangered animals at the zoo, such as the black bears, the cougars Jack and Diane, the Louisiana pine snake and bald eagles as well as rescued animals that can’t be released back into the wild such as a barn owl the staff is caring for. “This funding is amazingly important,” Lakes said. “It helps offset the cost of the amazing conservation work we do at the Alexandria Zoo.”
Doris Day’s animal charity honors late star with fundraiser
As part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Congress recognized the dedication of zoos, aquariums, botanic gardens, and other facilities across the nation in helping save animals and plants from extinction by appropriating $30 million to reimburse expenses related to the care of captive species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), as well as rescued and confiscated wildlife that are at risk of extinction.
“As we reviewed the applications for this funding, it was clear that despite the pandemic, zoos, aquariums and other facilities continued to provide extraordinary care for federally protected species and a critically important service to the agencies dedicated to endangered species recovery. That is why we are so grateful to partner with the Service to direct this funding to provide some relief to facilities who need it,” said Dan Ashe, president and CEO of AZA.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/zoo-receives-42k-for-endangered-species-covid-relief/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:46
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https://www.cenlanow.com/local-news/zoo-receives-42k-for-endangered-species-covid-relief/
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ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE
Larry Bolinger
Political Party: Legal Marijuana NOW
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
I have run for local, State, and Federal offices and have argued many policies. I am a Veteran of both the Airforce and Army National Guards. I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Major in Political Science and Minor in Criminology with a concentration in government affairs and civic engagement. I studied law, constitutional law, international law, policies, and police procedures. I have conducted several research analysis to help argue for a change in policies that will help me achieve my goals.
- Was on the City of Alliance Planning Commission for several years
- Chairman for LMN Party of Nebraska District 3
- I helped raise funds for Nebraska Boys Ranch, YMCA, ABATE, and the DAVA for disabled veterans.
- Volunteer on the Activate Alliance Initiative. One of the programs I worked on is to create a bicycle share program for the city of Alliance.
- Gave free rental space for the BBC tower to allow internet access for the local government in Alliance, NE.
- Volunteer In Police Services (VIPS). This organization helps the local law enforcement where needed voluntarily.
- Donated training materials to several police departments and law enforcement academies.
Why are you running for office?
My focus is on Law Reform, trying important cases, and working with programs that reduce recidivism.
Over the past 20 years, our government has been focused on harsher penalties, adding more law violations, and lacking diversion programs. So we ended up with a higher recidivism rate which caused Nebraska to have the highest per-capita prison population in the Nation. We need more focus on law reform, mainly working on victimless crimes. We need to push hard on diversion programs so we reduce the possibility that someone is going to be a repeat offender. When we make the change we reduce recidivism and we save the state a significant amount of money as each person in prison cost taxpayers $28,000 per year. Rehab and other diversion programs are far more successful and cost significantly less.
Law reform will be a big undertaking and I would need legal staffing that is up to date on laws, procedures, and statistics. They would need to be motivated for change and that might mean a revamp of legal staff to meet both what I expect, what I require to meet my goals, and what is needed to meet the needs of the people. I would hope to get some fresh new faces from our Law schools that are from Nebraska.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
- I expect to try all important cases. There will not be cases approved based solely on political affiliation. Cases are based on what is a constitutional infraction or a possible infraction. Some examples of cases I would try are: issues of fraudulent enrichment practices and business ethics infractions in our banking industries. This would include extortion of funds from contractors and ethics violations in foreclosure practices. I would look into issues of the pharmaceutical companies in price gouging and unethical political activities. I would press charges against a government that willfully violates Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001. 1) knowingly and willfully; 2) make any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; 3) in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the United States. IRS ethics violations and enrichment violations in their billing practices. I would look further into the Mead environment disaster and the EPA policy violations. I would look into the responsibility of the corporation and the responsibility of the government. The government has the obligation to act when a company does not.
- Law enforcement reform. Continue the education on the Presidential taskforce on 21st Community policing
- Bail Reform: There is a problem in our bail system where if you are wealthy you’re able to post bail and not see any jail time while if you are poor you go to jail. We need a better program that treats the poor and wealthy as equals when there is a crime committed.
- Reform to reduce recidivism: I would support diversion programs. We do need to review our current correctional status. If we do need a new correctional facility. We may need a new correctional facility because the old one is run down. But we need to implement a diversion program. Statistically, we need to be running more diversion programs because it has proven to reduce recidivism by as much as 60%.
- Veteran Funds: There has been an issue brought up of donations to help veterans are not being used to help veterans. For every $100,000 donated, only $9,000 is actually going to veterans. I will launch an audit to find those funds and hold those accountable for not doing what they promised to do.
- Discrimination cases: There are several discrimination cases that I would like to push. In our country we have an amendment that states everyone has equal protection under the law. Many organizations and lawmakers have forgotten that. I will be the reminder that discrimination will not be tolerated.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/larry-bolinger/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:48
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https://www.1011now.com/page/larry-bolinger/
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(NEXSTAR) – More than 100,000 Murphy-style beds have been recalled in the U.S. after one of them fell on a 79-year-old woman who later died.
The Bestar Wall Beds, which were also sold in Canada, were found to pose “serious impact and crushing hazards,” according a safety recall issued by the Consumer Safety Product Commission. The recall affects approximately 129,000 wall beds in the U.S.
The beds were sold at online retailers including Amazon.com, Costco.com, Cymax.com and Wayfair.com between June 2014 and March 2022. A full list of the recalled models — of which there are nearly two dozen — is available at Bestar.com.
In a safety notice Bestar is sending to consumers, the company warned of beds “suddenly” coming loose from the wall if “installation instructions are not followed.”
“If the wall mounting screws are not properly installed to the wall structure (wood studs, metal studs, or masonry), or if ‘hollow wall’ anchors have been used, then the wall bed can suddenly detach from the wall and fall, resulting in serious injury or death,” the company wrote in the letter.
Bestar had received over 60 reports of injuries caused by the beds detaching from walls. In 2018, a 79-year-old woman died after suffering a spine injury when a Bestar Wall Bed fell on her, according to the CSPC.
Bestar is contacting consumers who purchased the recalled models. In the meantime, Bestar and the CSPC are urging customers to refrain from using the beds until they can be reinstalled by a professional. Bestar is also arranging to reimburse customers whose wall beds require reinstallation.
More information can be found at the CSPC and Bestar websites. Consumers can also contact Bestar at 888-912-8458 or email the company at Bestar8577@stericycle.com.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/national/129000-wall-beds-sold-at-amazon-costco-wayfair-recalled-after-death-of-79-year-old-woman/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:52
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https://www.cenlanow.com/national/129000-wall-beds-sold-at-amazon-costco-wayfair-recalled-after-death-of-79-year-old-woman/
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AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS RACE
Leroy Lopez
Political Party: Legal Marijuana NOW
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
Newcomer to Political Office
Small Business Owner for almost a year
Graduated from Southeast Community College in Mass Media/Communications
Graduated from Peru State College in Business Management
Managed Retail, Restaurant and Service Industry Businesses nearly 20 years
Why are you running for office?
I am running for State Auditor as part of the “We the People” movement. It is not what political power holds power, but that the power lies in “We the People” and not in lobbyists, corporations, PACs, NGOs, and special interests. Nebraskans want real people who will speak truth, righteousness, and who want to serve their state, not their own personal ambitions.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
I want full financial transparency and accountability from all the departments of the state. I will conduct investigations into PPP loans and other funds involved with Non-Government Organizations. I will work to find discrepancies and end unjustified payouts. As State Auditor, I want to put literal money back into the pockets of the taxpayer. I am willing to work with the governor, legislators, and heads of the different state entities to serve the people better. I have no loyalty to either major party, just loyal to my state and consider myself a Nebraskan first.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/leroy-lopez/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:55
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https://www.1011now.com/page/leroy-lopez/
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(The Hill) – The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would direct President Biden to prepare a report on the government’s efforts to collect and examine evidence related to war crimes and other atrocities committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The bipartisan legislation, dubbed the Ukraine Invasion War Crimes Deterrence and Accountability Act, passed the lower chamber in a 418-7 vote, with all those in opposition belonging to the Republican Party.
A spokesman for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said the congresswoman mistakenly voted against the bill, and plans to tell the House clerk that she meant to vote in favor.
GOP Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Warren Davidson (Ohio), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Scott Perry (Pa.) all opposed the bill.
Biggs, in a video posted to Twitter on Thursday, said that while he supports cataloging and investigating war crimes in Ukraine, he does not think information should be turned over to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The text of the bill does not mention the ICC specifically, but it does say that evidence and information collected can be used “in appropriate domestic, foreign, and international courts and tribunals prosecuting those responsible for such crimes.”
“Yesterday I took a vote on a bill that would have allowed us to catalog and investigate war crimes in the Ukraine. I support that 100 percent, 100 percent. We should be doing that. On the other hand, we should not be giving our information over to the International Criminal Court, and this bill indicated that’s where it was going to go,” Bigg said.
“I do not support affiliating ourselves with the multilateral institutionalist court, the International Criminal Court. That’s why I voted no here,” he added.
The congressman, however, said Russia has “probably committed some pretty serious, hostile crimes against humanity.”
Greene told The Hill in a statement on Thursday that she was against the legislation because it would give authority and information to the International Joint Commission (IJC) and ICC. She said she will not cast a vote “for globalism.”
“The bill would hand over authority and our intelligence to the ICJ and ICC – international courts that could put our military on trial. I will not vote for globalism and the slow slide to become a one world government. I will only vote to protect America, our military, and our borders,” Greene said.
Massie wrote in a tweet on Thursday that he opposed the bill because it has language that could set the foundation for “spurious war crimes charges” being brought against American service members for mistakes made during military operations.
“Some of my colleagues and I voted against this resolution in part because it contains language that could set the table for bringing spurious war crimes charges against American service members for mistakes made during military operations in theaters such as Afghanistan,” Massie said.
Wednesday’s vote was not the first time Biggs, Greene and Massie opposed legislation responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Last month the trio voted against a bill to revoke normal trade relations with Russia, along with five other Republicans. The eight GOP members in opposition of the legislation have all worked to maintain close ties to former President Trump and have frequently found themselves in the far-right wing of the Republican Party.
In a video posted online, Greene said she could not back the U.S. getting involved in the conflict because there are larger issues Americans are facing at home. Massie wrote on Twitter that he believed the bill gave the president too much authority to impose sanctions on other nations.
Also last month, Biggs, Greene and Massie voted against a separate bill that called for a ban on Russian oil imports and additional sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. Gosar joined the trio in opposition.
Biggs said he would not back a Russian oil ban without a guarantee that the U.S. would make efforts toward achieving energy independence, and Massie wrote on Twitter that he was opposing the legislation because Biden did not have plans for energy production. Gosar slammed the bill in a tweet for not making the needs of the American people a top priority.
And in June, Biggs, Greene and Massie made headlines for opposing a bill that called for awarding Congressional Gold Medals to the U.S. Capitol Police and all individuals who defended the Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Greene told Politico that she voted against the bill because she did not like that the legislation referred to the Capitol as “the temple of our American Democracy” or that it called the Jan. 6 attack an insurrection.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/national/here-are-the-six-republicans-who-voted-against-investigating-russia-for-war-crimes/
| 2022-04-08T17:28:59
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https://www.cenlanow.com/national/here-are-the-six-republicans-who-voted-against-investigating-russia-for-war-crimes/
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AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS RACE
Mike Foley
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
State Senator 2001-2007
State Auditor 2007-2015
Lt. Governor 2015 - present
Why are you running for office?
To aggressively and professionally ensure that public funds are spent properly and to root out waste, fraud and abuse of public resources.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
Run the office of State Auditor in a competent and honorable manner to serve the taxpayers of Nebraska.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/mike-foley/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:01
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https://www.1011now.com/page/mike-foley/
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — CJ McCollum scored 23 points in 29 minutes against his former team, and the New Orleans Pelicans moved closer to clinching a home play-in game with a 127-94 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Jonas Valanciunas, who returned from a sore right ankle, scored 14 points in 21 minutes for the Pelicans, who were without leading scorer Brandon Ingram because of his tight right hamstring. But the Pelicans wound up not needing any of their starters on the floor for as many as 30 minutes against a reeling Blazers team that had a patchwork lineup and lost its ninth straight. Drew Eubanks led Portland with 20 points.
(Story via The Associated Press)
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https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/mccollums-23-points-leads-pelicans-past-blazers-127-94/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:05
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https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/mccollums-23-points-leads-pelicans-past-blazers-127-94/
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ATTORNEY GENERAL RACE
Mike Hilgers
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
I am a practicing litigation attorney with over 15 years of experience. Owner and founder of Hilgers Graben, named one of the fastest growing companies in the country by Inc. magazine.
I currently serve as Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature. I have represented District 21 for the last 6 years; I was elected originally in 2016 and re-elected in 2020.
Why are you running for office?
I am running for attorney general because Nebraska needs an attorney general who can protect the Constitution, enforce the rule of law, fight back against federal overreach, and help keep our communities safe.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
There are a number of critical issues that the next Attorney General will face. Among them are: protecting the Constitution and the rule of law; supporting law enforcement; protecting our water rights; and using business principles to find more value for taxpayers. I am prepared on day one to tackle these issues head on.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/mike-hilgers/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:07
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https://www.1011now.com/page/mike-hilgers/
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LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – Lafayette firefighters say an improperly discarded cigarette caused a two-alarm fire at the Choo Choo Lofts on Lee Avenue.
It happened Thursday around 5 p.m. according to Lafayette Fire Department Spokesperson Alton Trahan.
He said the fire was located outside the entrance to an upstairs units that was occupied by a family from out of town.
According to Trahan, the fire was caused by a cigarette that had been left in a planter outside the front door.
No injuries were reported.
The fire was ruled an accident, Trahan said.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/bed-breakfast-fire-in-downtown-lafayette-started-from-cigarette-butt-in-planter/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:12
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https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/bed-breakfast-fire-in-downtown-lafayette-started-from-cigarette-butt-in-planter/
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Paul Anderson
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
I’m retired from the US Navy Reserve (21 years) , and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe RR (35 years). I have run for 13 elective offices, but held none.
Why are you running for office?
I’m running for this office because, as your state treasure, I pledge and promise to establish and maintain a high level of trust, integrity, and accountability, when it comes to spending or not spending, Nebraskans (hard earned) tax dollars.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
As state treasurer, one of my top issues will be, to work with the state legislature in getting legislation supporting required mediation and joint custody for divorcing parents with minor children. Child support collection is the responsibility of the treasures office. And child support has been used as a weapon against the non-custodial parent, and it’s the children of divorcing parents, who are the casualties!
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https://www.1011now.com/page/paul-anderson/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:14
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https://www.1011now.com/page/paul-anderson/
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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Chris Owens is being remembered tonight at a candlelight vigil in front of her nightclub.
Friends and family gathered to celebrate her life and talk about what made Owens “larger than life.”
Chris Owens lived right next to Antoine’s Restaurant and over the years CEO of Antoine’s got to know her and he said it was always special when Chris was in the restaurant.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/friends-in-the-french-quarter-remember-iconic-entertainer-chris-owens/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:18
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https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/friends-in-the-french-quarter-remember-iconic-entertainer-chris-owens/
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SECRETARY OF STATE RACE
Rex Schroder
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
Candidate did not answer.
Why are you running for office?
Passion for the constitution
To serve the people of Nebraska
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
Restore election integrity
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https://www.1011now.com/page/rex-schroder/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:20
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https://www.1011now.com/page/rex-schroder/
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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The LSU Military Museum in the Memorial Tower celebrated its grand opening Thursday evening.
Celebrations started shortly before 7 p.m. at the LSU War Memorial on the Parade Ground. Governor John Bel Edwards, LSU President William F. Tate IV, and American Legion National Vice Commander Cory Bates were in attendance.
In recent years, the museum has undergone a $14 million expansion to make room for exhibits honoring veterans from all wars to the present day since LSU’s founding. The museum is open to the public and its exhibits will be rotated every few months.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/lsu-military-museum-celebrates-grand-opening/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:25
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https://www.cenlanow.com/state-news/lsu-military-museum-celebrates-grand-opening/
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SECRETARY OF STATE RACE
Robert Borer
Political Party: Republican
Previous related work experience/political offices held:
Not a politician. Just a patriot. Retired Fire Captain with Lincoln Fire & Rescue (27 years). Congressional Public Safety Medal of Valor Award recipient, our nation’s highest civilian distinction for courage and bravery.
Why are you running for office?
Election integrity can only happen with the right people in charge. If we don’t have free, fair, and honest elections, we don’t have a voice on taxes, foreign trade, or unconstitutional mandates. Your vote is the ultimate measure of accountability for public servants. I intend to fight the frontline for the sanctity of your vote and the security of our elections so that the “Good Life” is greater for future generations.
What will be your top issue to tackle if elected?
Election Security. I have a plan to ACT - to hold local and state government officials and agencies ACCOUNTABLE, have the moral COURAGE to honor our Constitution and prioritize people over politics, and instill integrity back into our state’s elections and restore public confidence with TRANSPARENCY.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/robert-borer/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:28
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https://www.1011now.com/page/robert-borer/
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(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden marked the historic confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court Friday.
“Our children can look at this moment and go ‘I was there,’ Biden said, as he touted Brown Jackson’s humility.
It’s a quality that “allows so many Americans” to see themselves in the judge, he added.
Jackson, a 51-year-old appeals court judge with nine years of experience on the federal bench, was confirmed 53-47 by the Senate Thursday, mostly along party lines.
Biden criticized some senators’ lines of questioning during Jackson’s confirmation process, saying what she went through was “verbal abuse.” While some senators were overcome with “joy,” as Cory Booker of New Jersey said he was, others, led by Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, quizzed the federal judge about her views on issues of race and crime, amplifying election year grievances and a backlash over changing culture.
In her confirmation, Jackson made history by becoming the third Black justice and only the sixth woman in the court’s more than 200-year history. Jackson will take her seat when Justice Stephen Breyer retires this summer.
On Friday, Jackson gave her “heartfelt thanks” to the many people she said helped her get to the Supreme Court— her family, including her husband, Patrick and daughters Leila and Talia, friends, mentors and more.
“It is the greatest honor of my life to be here with you,” Jackson said in her remarks. “It is hard to find the words to express the depth of my gratitude … I have come this far by faith and I know I am truly blessed.”
Jackson would be the current court’s second Black justice — Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, is the other — and just the third in history. Jackson would replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Breyer. Biden nominated Jackson in February.
The 51-year-old federal appeals court judge will join two other women, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, on the liberal side of the current 6-3 conservative court. With Justice Amy Coney Barrett sitting at the other end of the bench, four of the nine justices would be women for the first time in history.
While the vote was far from the overwhelming bipartisan confirmations for Breyer and other justices in decades past, it was still a significant bipartisan accomplishment for Biden in the narrow 50-50 Senate after GOP senators aggressively worked to paint Jackson as too liberal and soft on crime.
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Jackson said her life was shaped by her parents’ experiences with racial segregation and civil rights laws that were enacted a decade before she was born.
With her parents and family sitting behind her, she told the panel that her “path was clearer” than theirs as a Black American. Jackson attended Harvard University, served as a public defender, worked at a private law firm and was appointed to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in addition to her nine years on the federal bench.
“I have been a judge for nearly a decade now, and I take that responsibility and my duty to be independent very seriously,” Jackson said. “I decide cases from a neutral posture. I evaluate the facts, and I interpret and apply the law to the facts of the case before me, without fear or favor, consistent with my judicial oath.”
Once sworn in, Jackson would be the second-youngest member of the court after Barrett, 50. She would join a court on which no one is yet 75, the first time that has happened in nearly 30 years.
“This is not only a sunny day,” Biden said Friday. “This is going to let so much sun shine on so many young women. We’re gonna look back and see this as a moment of real change in American history.”
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https://www.cenlanow.com/washington-dc/biden-marks-ketanji-brown-jacksons-scotus-confirmation/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:31
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Robert Clements, Incumbent
Tell us about yourself.
I grew up in Elmwood, about 18 miles east of Lincoln in Cass County, and graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in mathematics. I played trumpet in the Cornhusker Marching Band and continue to play in the Alumni Band. Forty-nine years ago I married my high school sweetheart, Peggy, and we started a family that has grown to five adult children and thirteen grandchildren. Today, along with my brothers and our sons, I own and manage a small-town bank and financial services business in Elmwood, where I have lived and worked for 40 years.
Why are you running for this office?
In 2017 I was appointed to the Legislature to fill a vacancy and was re-elected in 2018. I am a fiscal and social conservative and want to limit government spending, lower taxes, and protect family values.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
I would continue to focus on property and income taxes, support individual freedoms and pro-life proposals.
What relevant experience would you bring to the office?
I am a 40-year community banker, insurance agent, and tax preparer. I am experienced in the Legislative process. I have served in the Nebraska Legislature for six years as a member of the Appropriations Committee. I am also on the Retirement Committee, Rules Committee (Chairman), and Legislative Planning Committee.
Do you support tax relief for Nebraskans? If so, what type and how would you make it happen?
- Further Inheritance Tax reductions, which I introduced and passed in 2022.
- Property tax reduction by increasing the Nebraska income tax credit.
- Increase the Social Security benefit exemption to 100% for Nebraska income tax over 5 years.
- Lower the individual income maximum rate from 6.84% to 5.84% over 5 years.
How do you plan to make housing more affordable for Nebraskans?
I supported the Affordable, Middle Income, and Rural workforce housing programs which help more people afford housing. I support increasing the tax credit for property taxes paid on homes.
How would you address concerns from business owners across the state dealing with supply chain issues and labor shortages?
I support increased scholarships for Community College tuition, apprentice programs for trade workers, and internship incentives for high school students.
What measures would you support to address overcrowding within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services?
I toured the Nebraska State Penitentiary in 2022 and believe is is beyond repair, needing replaced. A new prison would have more capacity, increase programming classes, and more counseling treatment to help inmates qualify for parole sooner.
What steps should the legislature take to entice young professionals to remain in the state?
- We must lower income taxes and property taxes.
- We need to expand broadband to all areas of the state, so new professionals can work from rural communities.
- Incentives for creating more housing is needed.
Do you support any changes to the way elections are run in Nebraska?
- We should require a Voter ID to make sure who is voting and secure elections.
- Ballot drop boxes need to be secure and monitored if used.
- We should prohibit private financing of election functions so only election officials conduct the process.
- I support a shorter early voting time to 22 days before election day to limit fraud.
- Ballots should be mailed only to those who send in a signed request form.
- Signatures must be matched on all mailed in ballots to be counted.
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| 2022-04-08T17:29:34
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Sarah Slattery
Tell us about yourself.
I am a professional chef, School Nutrition Director, and single mother from Plattsmouth, NE.
Why are you running for this office?
As a working-class mom, I think that working families deserve better representation in the legislature. We deserve a seat at the table where decisions about our lives are being made.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
My top priorities all have to do with helping working families thrive. I will focus on funding education and school nutrition programs, increasing access to healthcare, and protecting workers’ rights.
What relevant experience would you bring to the office?
I have worked in a school for the last 7 years, and as a School Nutrition Director for 3. I understand the needs and pressures that our educators and students are under and I will bring that experience with me to the State House. Additionally, I have been a small business owner for 15 years, so I know a lot about the determination and grit it takes to succeed.
Do you support tax relief for Nebraskans? If so, what type and how would you make it happen?
Absolutely. Property taxes here are disproportionately high, and we rely too heavily on property taxes for school funding. Proportionately taxing the 1% would enable us to ease the tax burden on working Nebraskans, providing much needed relief.
How do you plan to make housing more affordable for Nebraskans?
The quickest and easiest way for housing to be more affordable would be to increase wages and decrease property taxes.
How would you address concerns from business owners across the state dealing with supply chain issues and labor shortages?
As a business owner, I have felt the supply chain issues first hand. Finding ways to connect businesses so that they can source the supplies they need locally would both address the issue and support local businesses. As far as labor goes, providing increased wages and benefits to workers will solve the shortage.
What measures would you support to address overcrowding within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services?
I support fully funding public education so that we can stop the school-to-prison pipeline. I support treatment and diversion programs for drug offenses. I support the development of programs to help inmates assimilate back into society after completing their sentence, to reduce recidivism. I think that mandatory sentencing guidelines need to be re-evaluated and give more discretion to the judges because no two cases are the same. I do not support the building of a new prison to address the overcrowding problem.
What steps should the legislature take to entice young professionals to remain in the state?
We need to make a conscious effort to retain our most talented young Nebraskans. The cost of living is affordable, so why do they keep leaving? That’s the question, isn’t it? In my experience, young people leave Nebraska in search of more exciting, diverse, and welcoming places to live. Inclusion is important. We can reduce this “brain drain” by ensuring that we welcome and protect our neighbors from all walks of life, in an effort to foster diversity.
Do you support any changes to the way elections are run in Nebraska?
Nope! Nebraska’s elections have always been safe and secure. Furthermore, the nonpartisan nature of the Nebraska Unicameral is one of its best features. It ensures that our senators work together to get things done. Adding blatant partisanship to the legislature is a bad idea.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/sarah-slattery/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:42
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https://www.1011now.com/page/sarah-slattery/
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Schuyler Windham
Tell us about yourself.
I was raised in Nebraska and have lived here most of my life. I’m married to my wonderful husband, Daniel, and we’re raising our teenage nephew after the death of Daniel’s sister last year – our nephew is graduating from Lincoln Northeast High School this spring. I’m a lawyer and entrepreneur. I graduated from UNL in 2015 and Nebraska College of Law in 2018. In my spare time, I’m a fiction author and musician in a band out of Lincoln, playing banjo, singing, and writing songs. I am passionate about helping people and believe that good leaders are of the people and by the people, not above the people.
Why are you running for this office?
I am running for Nebraska State Legislature to enhance our freedoms. I specifically chose the Unicameral because I have previous experience working with the legislature and love how Nebraskans have the opportunity to testify on every bill introduced. I will hit the ground running when elected without a learning curve as the next Senator for LD 2.
What would be your top three priorities if elected?
1) Strong Families & Communities: reducing taxes and other government burdens on Nebraska’s families, local businesses, and farmers
2) Constitutional Rights: ensuring our inherent rights are protected from an overbearing government; freedom of choice
3) Public Safety & Criminal Justice Reform: making sure we have safe streets and are giving Nebraskans second chances, focusing our resources on violent crime
What relevant experience would you bring to the office?
I am a lawyer and have worked on public policy for several years: lobbying and drafting legislation. I decided to run for office myself using the skills I developed so that I could better represent my neighbors directly. But really, my most relevant and important experience is simply living in Nebraska most of my life and raising a family here.
Do you support tax relief for Nebraskans? If so, what type and how would you make it happen?
Yes, I support tax relief for Nebraskans. I will introduce and co-sponsor legislation which will reduce our tax burdens on any and all fronts. I am interested in serving on the Appropriations Committee so we can balance Nebraska’s budget and respect taxpayer money. You work hard for your money and you should keep it.
How do you plan to make housing more affordable for Nebraskans?
Housing is a supply and demand issue. I will help get the government out of the way so our local developers can do what they do best, building quality housing for Nebraskans. I’ve seen some really innovative, affordable housing options from local builders that are helping families at all income levels. I’m a proponent of home ownership when families are ready because it is statistically one of the best ways to pass down intergenerational wealth and gives so much financial peace of mind to initial retirees with a paid off home.
How would you address concerns from business owners across the state dealing with supply chain issues and labor shortages?
I’ve spoken with a lot of small business owners, especially in Lincoln, who explained their concerns. While supply chain issues and labor shortages are problems, the major issues brought up were burdensome and discriminatory taxes and regulations in Lincoln, as well as how businesses were treated by the DHMs during the pandemic. When we can alleviate government barriers, the market will sort itself out much more quickly. What is devastating is that our family owned businesses were outright harassed by the government during the pandemic when everyone was struggling and doing the best they could. I will fight hard in the Unicameral to ensure that never happens again.
What measures would you support to address overcrowding within the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services?
I want our neighborhoods to have safe streets and for Nebraskans to have an opportunity at second chances. I strongly support policies such as marijuana legalization and freeing those sentenced for it. We should focus our energy and resources on violent crimes (murder, assault, pedophilia, human trafficking, etc.) rather than locking Nebraskans up for mere drug possession. My younger sister was almost taken from our family and placed in a group home for simply not attending high school due to mental health issues – that is absurd. We were able to help her with a private online school option despite the government attacking us at every level, but it just goes to show how much the juvenile justice system has overstepped its bounds, too. It’s irresponsible for the government to waste our tax-payer money on a bloated prison system which does little to nothing to rehabilitate or help people and to escalate juvenile justice situations like what happened with my family.
What steps should the legislature take to entice young professionals to remain in the state?
As a young professional myself, I will tell you what matters most to me. I value freedom and leadership which trusts that I know what is best for myself and my family. Liberty facilitates prosperity and opportunity. Free markets allow our entrepreneurs to innovate. Respecting the family structure ensures that parents can best care for and educate our children. Policies such as marijuana legalization will do wonders for our hemp farmers and allow Nebraska to be competitive in this growing industry. Eliminating special interest legislation which benefits corporations over our local businesses is a major priority for me. Nebraska is home: I love living here where I grew up and being close to my family. We have a lot of potential with our low-cost of living and a great environment for young people to raise new families. I value the freedoms we have here and I strive to enhance those freedoms in the Unicameral for all people.
Do you support any changes to the way elections are run in Nebraska?
Secure and transparent elections are necessary for our Constitutional Republic to exist and thrive. I am well aware that Nebraskans from across the political spectrum want to ensure voters have access to the polls and also that people voting are who they say they are. I will weigh these important considerations when reviewing any proposal on changing election laws.
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https://www.1011now.com/page/schuyler-windham/
| 2022-04-08T17:29:49
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“Brews for the Zoo” fundraiser aims to raise money for new nature center
BYRON, Minn. (KTTC) – Friends of Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo are inviting the public to its “Brews for the Zoo” fundraiser to raise money for the park’s new nature center.
The event is on Sat. April 30 from 4 p.m.- 8 p.m. at Bearwood Event Barn in Byron, 5901 County Rd 105 NW.
For $95, people will be able to sample beer from five local breweries, including Kinney Creek Brewery, Forager Brewery, South x Southeast Brewing, and sample food from Wildwood Sports Bar and Grill. This is a 21+ event. It will also feature yard games, raffles, live music, and more.
The money is going to help fund the new nature center at the park. The current nature center was built in the1980s and project leaders said it’s just too small now, as the zoo and park has seen increased visitors every year.
Construction on a new nature center started last year. It is triple the size of the current one. The group has raised about $400,000 of its one $1 million goal.
“We have a growing number of visitors each year, not only from the surrounding area, but from people who visit as well,” Friends of Oxbow Park & Zollman Zoo board member Kris Nelson said. And so, our numbers keep increasing our desires for classrooms, spaces for classes, and events.”
The center will feature parts of Minnesota’s biomes including forest displays and an epoxy river. The birds and snakes will also have new habitats.
“The new habitats will make it easier for the naturalists to teach people about the animals and clean their enclosures,” Nelson said.
The nature center is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
To purchase tickets, click this link.
Copyright 2022 KTTC. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/brews-zoo-fundraiser-aims-raise-money-new-nature-center/
| 2022-04-08T17:34:21
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Cheers for Jackson as Biden declares ‘moment of real change’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tearfully embracing a history-making moment for the nation, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said Friday her confirmation as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court showed the progress of America, declaring, ″We’ve made it — all of us..”
Jackson delivered emotional remarks on the sunny White House South Lawn a day after the Senate approved her nomination, saying, it was a moment the entire country could be proud of.
“We have come a long way toward perfecting our union,” she said. “In my family, it took just one generation to go from segregation to the Supreme Court of the United States.”
She added: “It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. But we’ve made it. We’ve made it, all of us.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday celebrated the confirmation of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to reach the Supreme Court, hailing “a moment of real change in American history.”
It was a moment 46 days — and more than two centuries — in the making. Jackson, who was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday, will take the bench later this year, filling the shoes of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer on a court that was made up entirely of white men for almost two centuries, that declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed American segregation.
Jackson, at times speaking through tears as she thanked her family and mentors for their support, promised to follow in retiring Justice Breyer’s footsteps on the bench.
“I have done my level best to stay in my lane and to reach a result that is consistent with my understanding of the law,” she said, “And with the obligation to rule independently, without fear or favor.”
Jackson’s arrival on the bench won’t upend the current 6-3 conservative balance. But in addition to the racial history, it will put for the first time four women on the court at one time.
Biden 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, and Biden said the promise of putting someone like Jackson on the court helped motivate his bid for the Oval Office.
“I could see it as a day of hope, a day of promise, a day of progress, a day when once again the moral arc of the universe — as Barack (Obama) used to quote all the time — bends a little more toward justice,” Biden said at a boisterous event on the South Lawn of the White House. “I believe so strongly that we needed a court that looks like America.”
Biden praised Jackson’s “incredible character and integrity” during the confirmation process, saying she put up with “verbal abuse, the anger, constant interruptions, the most vile baseless assertions and accusations.” He praised the three Republican senators who joined Democrats to back her for the court: Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
Jackson will be the high court’s first former public defender — with the elite legal background of other justices as well. She has degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School and held top clerkships, including for Breyer himself.
The crowd on the White House lawn included Jackson’s family, members of Biden’s Cabinet, some of the Democratic senators who backed her nomination, as well as Democratic representatives and allies. The White House said all current and former justices of the Supreme Court were invited, but none attended.
The event came amid a COVID-19 outbreak among Washington’s political class that has sidelined members of Biden’s administration and lawmakers, including Collins and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who tested positive for the virus just hours after voting for Brown’s confirmation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was on the invite list, tested positive for the virus on Thursday.
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.
While not all attendees would be newly tested for the virus, Psaki said those close to Biden would be. Vice president Kamala Harris was to attend and deliver remarks, though she was identified on Wednesday as a close contact of a staffer who tested positive. Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines she was expected to wear a mask while around other people.
On Thursday, 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.
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.
“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 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 failed nominee Robert Bork, then the successful confirmations of Anthony M. Kennedy, David Souter, and Clarence Thomas — the last dominated by allegations of sexual harassment against Thomas by law professor Anita Hill — as well as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Breyer.
He was on the committee in 2005 but no longer chairman when now-Chief Justice John Roberts was confirmed, 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 to step down after the court concludes its current term, which is usually in late June or early July. Only then will she take the oath to become an associate justice. A White House official said Jackson will remain on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until then but will continue to recuse herself from cases.
___
AP writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:34:27
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Jury deliberating in ex-police officer’s Capitol riot trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — A defense attorney conceded on Friday that a former Virginia police officer broke laws when he entered the U.S. Capitol during last year’s riot, encouraging a federal jury to convict him of misdemeanor offenses.
But the lawyer urged jurors to acquit former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of felony charges that he armed himself with a weapon and stormed the Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors began deliberating after hearing closing arguments from Justice Department prosecutors and defense attorney Mark Rollins at Robertson’s jury trial, the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Rollins said Robertson is “absolutely guilty” of illegally entering restricted areas of the Capitol and of engaging in disorderly conduct on Jan. 6, 2021. But the defense attorney argued that the evidence doesn’t support more serious charges that Robertson intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote or that he was armed with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington, D.C., and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial. A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure.
Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.
Fracker testified on Thursday that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct the joint session of Congress.
Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the congressional proceedings. He said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
“It was clear that everyone around them had that same goal,” Berkower said.
Rollins said Robertson didn’t engage in any of the violence or destruction carried out by “knuckleheads” and “clowns” who stormed the Capitol.
“Don’t judge him by what the other people are doing,” he told jurors.
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner said Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker. Wagner also denied that Robertson wielded the stick as a weapon. She said the U.S. Army veteran was using it as a walking stick because he still has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Prosecutors said Robertson paid Fracker more than $30,000 after they were arrested, but Fracker said he believes Robertson wanted to cover his lost wages and wasn’t trying to “buy” his testimony.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
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’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/jury-deliberating-ex-police-officers-capitol-riot-trial/
| 2022-04-08T17:34:34
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Officials find 6 human skulls in shipment at Chicago airport
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 12:29 PM CDT|Updated: moments ago
CHICAGO (CNN) – U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents working at the Chicago O’Hare International Airport discovered human skulls in a shipment at the end of March.
In total, agents found six skulls that were shipped from the Netherlands and headed to Iowa. Three separate packages sent from the same person were seized, each containing two skulls.
The shipments were inspected after X-rays showed anomalies.
The skulls were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further evaluation.
Officials are investigating the incident but did not provide further details.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/08/officials-find-6-human-skulls-shipment-chicago-airport/
| 2022-04-08T17:34:40
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If you’re spending time online in North Carolina, you’re not alone.
North Carolinians can’t get enough of social media — propelling the state to the top of a national list. Researchers studied online habits and found the state was the “most social media obsessed” in the country, according to figures released Thursday, April 7.
The marketing agency Hennessey Digital said it came up with the list after it studied internet data over the past two years. It found “Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat” were the most popular U.S. social media sites by search volume.
Then, analysts studied the number of times people Googled those platforms “in each state to see which ones had the most searches per month for every 1,000 people,” officials said in a news release.
North Carolina — home to over 10 million — came out on top, with people looking up social media platforms more than 9 million times each month. That’s about 867.87 searches per 1,000 residents, results show.
So, which online platform was the state most curious about? Facebook topped the list with 6.12 million average monthly searches in North Carolina.
“Instagram comes in second with 823,000 searches a month and Twitter in third with 550,000 monthly searches,” officials said.
Those figures mirror the nationwide trends, which rank Facebook before Instagram and Twitter in terms of search popularity. Snapchat was the lowest-ranking of the social media platforms studied.
Though it didn’t match North Carolina’s level of interest in social media sites, neighboring Tennessee landed the No. 2 spot in the overall rankings. Rounding out the top five were Maine, New Hampshire and New Mexico.
“Hawaii was found to be the least social media obsessed state, with 440.34 searches per 1,000 people,” officials said.
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/back_page/nh-and-maine-residents-ranked-in-top-5-for-social-media-use/article_617fd3f7-2fb4-58ec-b168-d22fdacc28f8.html
| 2022-04-08T17:34:44
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Price of stamps to increase starting in July
Published: Apr. 8, 2022 at 11:38 AM CDT|Updated: 56 minutes ago
(Gray News) - The cost of stamps will be increasing in July.
According to the U.S. Postal Service, a first-class mail Forever stamp will cost 60 cents, a 2-cent increase from its current price of 58 cents.
Other mailing services will also cost more, including:
- Letters (metered 1 ounce) will cost 57 cents, up from 53 cents.
- Letters additional ounce(s) will cost 24 cents, up from 20 cents.
- Domestic postcards will cost 44 cents, up from 40 cents.
- International letters will cost $1.40, up from $1.30.
The proposed increases are scheduled to take effect July 10. The Postal Regulatory Commission will review and approve the prices before they take effect.
The U.S. Postal Service says the increased prices are a result of inflation and increased operating expenses.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:34:47
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WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden on Friday celebrated the confirmation of his nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court during an outdoor event at the White House with political allies.
Jackson, a federal appellate judge, was confirmed to the lifetime post by the Senate on Thursday on a 53-47 vote in a milestone for the United States and a political victory for the Democratic president. Jackson, 51, will replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, on the liberal bloc of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority.
"We're going to look back and see this is a moment of real change in American history," Biden said at an event on the White House South Lawn under sunny skies on a mild spring day in the U.S. capital, with a row of American flags gently fluttering in the background.
The outdoor setting was chosen in part as a nod to COVID-19 safety, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, amid a rise in cases in the Washington region and a raft of top Democrats in Biden's inner circle contracting the coronavirus.
Black women are a key Democratic constituency and helped propel Biden to the party's presidential nomination in 2020 with a victory in its pivotal South Carolina primary.
Biden made a campaign promise to name a Black woman to the nation's top judicial body. When Jackson is sworn in after Breyer departs at the end of the court's current term - usually in late June - she would become the 116th justice to serve on the high court. To date, all but three have been white, with two Black members, including current Justice Clarence Thomas, and one Hispanic, current Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the first Black woman to hold that post after Biden selected her as his 2020 election running mate, at the ceremony noted that Jackson's confirmation also means that four women will be serve together on the Supreme Court for the first time.
Biden has been suffering in opinion polls, with high inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushing geopolitical concerns to the fore. Jackson's confirmation - overcoming Republican opposition - could be a needed jolt to excite Black voters and other left-leaning constituents ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections in which Democrats risk losing control of one or both chambers of Congress.
A Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday showed that Biden's public approval rating inched higher this week to 45%, up 3 percentage points amid stronger support from within his Democratic Party. In the poll, Biden's job approval among minorities was 53%.
Among those invited to the event were members of Jackson's family, U.S. senators who voted to confirm her, Democratic House of Representatives leaders, labor figures and advocacy groups.
There is increasing concern about COVID-19 in Washington.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tested positive on Thursday morning after appearing with Biden at crowded indoor events on Tuesday and Wednesday. Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo and House Democrat Adam Schiff also got positive results back in recent days.
The White House said it is taking measures to protect Biden.
"It is possible he will test positive for COVID at some point," White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said on CNN, noting the availability of vaccines and antiviral medications. "We have treatments. So people are out living their lives and certainly the president of the United States is doing that."
Biden, 79, tested negative following his interaction with Pelosi.
The decision to hold the event outside comes after former President Donald Trump's nomination ceremony for his Supreme Court appointee Amy Coney Barrett turned into a COVID-19 super-spreader event, affecting many top Republicans who attended. During his four years in office was able to appoint three justices, who together moved the court rightward.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Alexandra Alper and Jeff Mason; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Jason Lange; Editing by Will Dunham, Richard Pullin and Andrea Ricci)
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/real-change-biden-lauds-confirmation-of-supreme-court-pick-jackson/article_31252ac9-543f-5ea9-84eb-09346ceee3dc.html
| 2022-04-08T17:34:50
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Proud Boys member pleads guilty to conspiracy in Jan. 6 riot
WASHINGTON (AP) — A North Carolina man on Friday became the second member of the extremist group Proud Boys to plead guilty to conspiring with other group members to stop Congress from formally certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Charles Donohoe, 34, pleaded guilty during an appearance in federal court in Washington to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting or impeding federal officers. His plea agreement includes a provision to cooperate in the ongoing Justice Department cases against other Proud Boys members.
Federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of about six to seven years, although terms of his sentence will be up to a federal judge.
The indictment against Donohoe and other members of extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, have been a focus of the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. Donohoe — who had been president of a local Proud Boys chapter in North Carolina — has close ties to the group’s leader, Enrique Tarrio.
More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.
Tarrio pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he remotely led a plot to stop Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 victory in the presidential election. Though he wasn’t at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, prosecutors say Tarrio organized encrypted chats with Proud Boys members in the weeks before the attack, had a 42-second phone call with another member of the group in the building during the insurrection and took credit for the chaos at the Capitol.
A New York man, Matthew Greene, became the first Proud Boys member to plead guilty to conspiracy in December. He agreed to cooperate with authorities as part of a plea agreement.
On the morning of Jan. 6, Proud Boys members met at the Washington Monument and marched to the Capitol before President Donald Trump finished addressing thousands of supporters near the White House.
Around two hours later, just before Congress convened a joint session to certify the election results, a group of Proud Boys followed a crowd of people who breached barriers at a pedestrian entrance to the Capitol grounds, according to one of the indictments. Several Proud Boys also entered the Capitol itself after the mob smashed windows and forced open doors, the indictment says.
Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 775 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, officials said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:34:53
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WASHINGTON - A leader of the far-right Proud Boys pleaded guilty on Friday to charges related to the attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a court filing, a victory for prosecutors that could bolster their cases against members of the group.
Charles Donohoe, the leader of the group's North Carolina chapter at the time of the Capitol attack, entered the guilty plea during court hearing on Friday in the District of Columbia.
Donohoe admitted to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding — a felony carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He also admitted to assaulting and impeding police officers.
Under U.S. sentencing guidelines, Donohoe faces a likely sentence of around six years in prison, with credit for time already served. He will be sentenced at a later court hearing.
Donohoe agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they prepare for trial against other Proud Boys defendants.
Donohoe, 34, was arrested in March 2021 and charged with conspiring to impede federal officers protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and obstructing an official proceeding, among other charges. He has been in custody since last year.
Donald Trump's supporters stormed the seat of Congress that day in a bid to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
Donohoe and other Proud Boys were videotaped leading a crowd toward the Capitol during the riot. In court filings, the U.S. Department of Justice said they helped lead the break in of the Capitol. The men dispute the charges.
"Mr. Donohoe is charged with interfering in the nation's peaceful transfer of power," Kelly said during a court hearing in June, adding that the charges are "gravely serious matters that favor detention."
An indictment unsealed last month alleged that Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio was deeply involved in recruiting members of the group and directing their actions in the days prior to the Jan. 6 attack.
Tarrio's attorney entered the not guilty plea on his behalf during a virtual hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
(Reporting by Jan Wolfe, additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Alistair Bell)
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| 2022-04-08T17:34:56
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Trans kids, parents fight wave of legislation in red states
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Ninth grader Harleigh Walker, 15, spends her time after school like many girls her age: doing homework, listening to Taylor Swift, collecting records and hanging out with friends.
But this year, her spring break also included trying to persuade members of the state House and Senate to reject legislation banning gender-affirming medications for transgender kids like her under 19. She was unsuccessful. On Thursday, Alabama lawmakers passed the measure. If Gov. Kay Ivey signs it into law, Harleigh will no longer be able to take testosterone-blocking drugs.
“Honestly, I’m a little scared now,” she said Thursday after learning the bill had passed. “But we’re still going to fight no matter what.”
Harleigh said she is holding out hope the governor will veto the bill or it will be blocked by a court. Ivey has not indicated whether she plans to sign it.
Alabama is among multiple states with Republican-controlled legislatures that have advanced bills not only to block medical treatment but to ban transgender children from using school restrooms or playing on sports teams that don’t correspond with their sex at birth. The Alabama medication bill is one of the most far-reaching: It would put doctors in prison for up to 10 years for prescribing puberty blockers or hormonal treatment to trans kids under 19.
Conservative lawmakers say the measures are needed to protect children and parental rights.
“We regulate all kinds of things that are harmful for minors — alcohol, cigarette smoke, vaping, tattoos — because their minds aren’t ready to make those decisions about things that can affect them long term,” said Rep. Wes Allen, the sponsor of the House version of the Alabama legislation. Allen cited public hearing testimony from a woman who said she regretted taking hormone therapy to try to transition to being male.
“With these powerful medications that have detrimental effects on their body long term, we just want to put a pause on it ... give them a chance to develop and grow out of that,” Allen said.
But opponents say transgender health is being used as a deliberate political wedge issue to motivate a voting base — in the same way they say bills about critical race theory have been employed. Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Numerous Republican-controlled legislatures have proposed bills to block its teaching in public schools.
The measures involving trans youth have prompted swift backlash from medical experts, Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, the U.S. Department of Justice and the families of trans youth. Last month, the Justice department sent a letter to all 50 state attorneys general, warning them that blocking transgender and nonbinary youth from receiving gender-affirming care could be an infringement of federal constitutional protections.
“My child is not a political tool. This is not a fair fight to pick on vulnerable children,” said Vanessa Finney Tate, the mother of a 13-year-old trans boy in Birmingham, Alabama, after testifying at a public legislative hearing on bill that would block students from using bathrooms corresponding to their gender.
Harleigh’s father, Jeff Walker notes that many of the same Alabama lawmakers who supported the ban on gender-affirming medical treatment recently argued, ‘It’s your body and your choice’ regarding coronavirus vaccinations. He said the family is now scrambling to find another state where it can continue Harleigh’s medical care.
“We just don’t want people meddling in our medical care,” he said.
Medical groups including The American Academy of Pediatrics have publicly opposed efforts to outlaw gender-affirming care.
“Gender-affirming care benefits the health and psychological functioning of transgender and gender-diverse youth,” the Endocrine Society said in a statement. “When an individual’s gender identity is not respected and they cannot access medical care, it can result in higher psychological problem scores and can raise the person’s risk of committing suicide or other acts of self-harm.”
The organization notes that only reversible puberty blockers are recommended for younger adolescents, while older adolescents might qualify for hormone therapy.
Harleigh received the medication — which stops her from going through male puberty — only after consulting with a team of doctors for years. She said it’s “weird” to see lawmakers with no medical experience call her medication “child abuse,” when six doctors have agreed she should have it.
Angus, a 16-year-old trans teen who requested that his last name not be used because of the bullying he has received in his north Alabama town, said he knew at puberty that the mirror reflected “a body that wasn’t my own.”
After coming out to his mother, he began slowly testing the waters: dressing as a man, changing his name. Only after years of talking to a team of doctors, was he able to recently get medications to stop his periods. The next step, which he is eager to start, would be a small dose of testosterone.
“I have been waiting for seven years to finally become a man, the man that I’ve always known I am,” Angus said.
He said bills to block such treatments are harming, not protecting trans youth.
“The government is saying, ‘Oh, parents are abusing their children by letting them transition,’” he said. “Actually, it’s more child abuse to not let them transition if they come out. What these bills really are doing is putting trans youth lives at risk because these suicide rates will spike exponentially. And a lot of families will lose their children.”
Similar bans are moving forward in other states.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the state’s child welfare agency to investigate as abuse reports of gender-confirming care for kids. And a law in Arkansas bans gender-affirming medications. That law has been blocked by a court, however.
Trans youth in many red states say they feel attacked, angry, betrayed and scared by the wave of legislation aimed at them.
“It feels like a back-stab,” Harleigh said. “I’ve lived in this state my whole life. For them to just say, ‘Well, you know what, this is an issue that’s really popular on my side of the aisle so I’m just going to raise it up and support it because it’ll help me win my election’ — It just hurts to see them do that.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-08T17:34:59
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AMESBURY, Mass. — A New Hampshire woman ordered by a judge not to use drugs while awaiting trial for a drugged driving offense in February was ordered held without bail after testing positive for drugs Thursday in Newburyport District Court.
Jocelyn S. Brown, 37, of Manchester was charged on Feb. 24 with a second drugged driving offense, possession of a Class C drug, heroin possession and negligent operation of a motor vehicle following her arrest by state police just off Interstate 495 north in Amesbury.
She was arraigned March 1 and ordered to return to court Thursday for a pretrial heating. Prior to the hearing, Brown was tested at the courthouse and fentanyl was found in her system, according to a court probation officer.
Upon hearing the news, Judge Allan Swan revoked her release. Brown is due back in court May 2 for another pretrial hearing.
On Feb. 24 about 2:10 p.m., Brown was spotted by Trooper Michael Benevento on Route 150 while erratically merging onto Interstate 495 south.
Benevento had just received word of an erratic motorist on the three-lane highway and found her within seconds. Benevento pulled her over and immediately noticed that she appeared tired with droopy eyes.
When told he had been alerted to an erratic driver, Brown explained that she had pulled over to the side of the road because she got sick. The trooper then asked if she had been using heroin or any kind of drugs but Brown denied taking anything before getting behind the wheel.
Benevento then asked if she knew where she was. Brown was unsure telling the trooper she might have been on Interstate 93.
"Brown continued to confuse me about what city she was coming from or going to. Brown could not tell me what highway she was on. Brown continuously held an unlit cigarette in her hand," Benevento wrote in his report.
Eventually, Benevento asked Brown to take a series of field sobriety tests. Brown failed the tests, prompting the trooper to arrest her.
Benevento then admitted that she had a drug problem and used heroin earlier in the day. She also told Benevento she had heroin, a spoon and a needle in her bra.
When police searched her car, they found a pocketbook containing five kinds of prescription drugs.
A check of her record showed she had a prior drugged driving arrest in Sanford, Maine, in 2010, according to Benevento's report.
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| 2022-04-08T17:35:03
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PRAGUE - The Czech Republic has delivered tanks, multiple rocket launchers, howitzers and infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine among military shipments that have reached hundreds of millions of dollars and will continue, two Czech defense sources said.
Ukraine has repeatedly called on the West to urgently supply more weapons, especially heavy equipment, as Russian forces regroup in the country's east for a new offensive after withdrawing from around the capital Kyiv and other regions.
NATO members are providing a wide range of weapon systems to the country, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday.
The Czech Republic - a former Soviet satellite as part of then Czechoslovakia - has spare equipment that Ukrainian forces are familiar with in storage as well as a defense industry focused on upgrades and trade in such weapons. It has been among the most active EU nations in backing Ukraine.
Defense sources confirmed to Reuters a shipment of five T-72 tanks and five BVP-1, or BMP-1, infantry fighting vehicles seen on rail cars in photographs on Twitter and video footage this week, but those were not the first shipments of heavy equipment.
"For several weeks, we have been supplying heavy ground equipment - I am saying it generally but by definition it is clear that this includes tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, howitzers and multiple rocket launchers," a senior defense official said.
"What has gone from the Czech Republic is in the hundreds of millions of dollars."
The sources declined to discuss numbers of weapons supplied.
The senior defense official said the Czechs were also supplying a range of anti-aircraft weaponry.
Independent defense analyst Lukas Visingr said short-range air-defense systems Strela-10, or SA-13 Gopher in NATO terminology, have been spotted on a train apparently bound for Ukraine, in line with a report in Czech weekly respekt.cz.
The Defence Ministry declined to comment on concrete military aid. Reuters has asked the Ukrainian government for comment although it normally declines to give information on weapons shipments.
One agreed shipment publicized by the German government includes 56 Czechoslovak-made infantry fighting vehicles that used to be operated by East Germany and by Sweden.
They were later sold to Czech arms firm EXCALIBUR ARMY, part of industrial and defense holding CZECHOSLOVAK GROUP that is instrumental in the Czech supplies to Ukraine.
The company declined to comment on specific shipments. It said its supplies since the war started included heavy equipment.
FUNDRAISING FOR WEAPONS
The Czech program to ship weapons includes money raised in public fundraising efforts by the Ukrainian embassy, which has raised $42.31 million as of Friday, the embassy said.
It said the effort was unique among aid campaigns by Ukrainian embassies in its sole focus on buying weapons in cooperation with local authorities, and that $31.18 million had been used. It declined to comment on the weapons purchased.
Funding also comes in the form of Czech government gifts of army equipment and ammunition - worth over $44.51 million to date, according to the Defence Ministry - and from Ukrainian and other governments, the defense official said without giving further details.
Sourcing, of both light and heavy weapons, is done from army stockpiles and through Czech defense companies and their network of contacts in other countries, the sources said.
Visingr said the Czech army had possibly around 60 tanks and a three-digit number of fighting vehicles and CZECHOSLOVAK GROUP had even more pieces of heavy equipment in storage that could be potentially supplied to Ukraine.
The fact that a lot of the equipment has not been modernized is a plus for Ukraine due to time constraints, he said.
"That is a benefit, not a deficiency. These are things the Ukrainians know perfectly."
The Czech Republic has also been in talks with Ukraine about repairing damaged Ukrainian equipment.
The defense source said this could be equipment in Ukrainian storage that needed repairs, or equipment damaged in fighting. Czech repair companies were being consulted about their possibilities, the source said.
($1 = 22.4530 Czech crowns)
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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| 2022-04-08T17:35:09
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Finland reported an attack on government websites and a suspected airspace violation by Russian aircraft just as speculation mounts that the Nordic nation will opt to apply for membership in the NATO alliance.
Finland said on Friday a Russian state aircraft is suspected of having violated its airspace, followed by a cyber attack on the websites of Finland's Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry, as well as some other government services. The events coincided with a webcast speech to Finnish lawmakers by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The 5.5-million-nation, which has the European Union's longest border with Russia and fought two wars with the Soviet Union, underwent a historic shift in public backing for joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in a matter of days following its neighbor's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While opinion polls in neighboring Sweden reflect a similar change, its ruling Social Democrats have so far remained opposed to such a move.
The Finnish government is due to send a white paper to parliament on its changed security environment next week, launching a formal process that would be finalized by the end of June, according to Prime Minister Sanna Marin. While Marin and President Sauli Niinisto have steered clear of giving a clear endorsement to the NATO entry, speculation is growing among pundits and media that other options are less likely by now. Almost half of all lawmakers openly support an application.
While the security-policy white paper won't contain a proposal for joining, the government and president are prepared to submit an addendum on that "when the time is right" after they are satisfied lawmakers back the bid, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Thursday.
Russia has repeatedly warned both Finland and Sweden against joining NATO, making both Nordic countries concerned about potential aggression from Moscow if they formally signal their alignment with the western bloc. NATO's Article 5 mutual defense clause only applies to members.
The denial of service attack on websites was over at 1 p.m. in Helsinki, the government said in a tweet, adding most sites operated normally during the attack due to countermeasures. In a joint decision with Niinisto, the cabinet also expelled two Russian diplomats, with a Russian embassy employee also denied a visa extension.
Finland's security service last month warned Russia would increase its spying and influence operations against the Nordic country. Authorities said earlier this week they are investigating a series of airspace violations by Russian civil aircraft that took place in March.
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/military/finland-hit-by-cyber-attack-airspace-breach-as-nato-bid-weighed/article_d3770bbb-8d2c-57e6-8237-bde5ca6c8bc3.html
| 2022-04-08T17:35:15
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ALLENSTOWN
Christian and Krista Beck to Laurie Desrochers, 15 Heritage Dr., Unit 15, 3/22/2022, $215,000.
AUBURN
David and Elizabeth Sotnik to James Mortell and Kristin Nelson, 378 Wilsons Crossing Rd., 3/21/2022, $477,000.
BEDFORD
74 Barrington LLC to Peter Siegesmund and Julia Whitley, 74 Barrington Dr., 3/23/2022, $1,275,000.
Karen A Mead RET and Karen A. Mead to Stanley T. Stark Jr, 30 Cambridge Rd., 3/25/2022, $381,000.
Jeannine L. and Glenn Mcenerney to David Tallinj and Karla Tallini, 66 Old Bedford Rd., 3/21/2022, $400,000.
West Bedford Cnty Farm to Gregory and Christine Murray, Rock Rd., 3/23/2022, $329,933.
Daniel and Kendrah Schiappa to Timothy Robbins, 48 Rosewell Rd., 3/22/2022, $2,275,000.
Kim P. Nguyen to Travis Trottier and Jennifer Nguyen, 33 Timberlane Dr., 3/25/2022, $407,000.
CANDIA
Jeffrey G. and Lynn M. Walz to Ronald B. and Susan K. Petraitis, 193 Crowley Rd., 3/22/2022, $650,000.
BMT Construction LLC to Michael Espey, 398 New Boston Rd., 3/22/2022, $575,000.
Kim Cinquegrana to Amy and Jameson Aubrey, 307 Raymond Rd., 3/24/2022, $390,000.
CHESTER
Carla M Hamm RET and Carla M. Hamm to Arthur Carvalho and Laura Hayes, 196 Haverhill Rd., 3/22/2022, $475,000.
Robert A. Murphy to Michael F. Wonoski, 868 Raymond Rd., 3/24/2022, $365,000.
Kevin C. and Theodore P. Scott to Champagne Enterprises LLC, N/A., 3/25/2022, $125,000.
Kevin C. and Theodore P. Scott to Champagne Enterprises LLC, N/A., 3/25/2022, $150,000.
DEERFIELD
Peter J. Quirk to Quirk FT and Daniel J. Quirk, Danielle Way, 3/24/2022, $334,000.
Sara and Ryan Oconnor to Nicholas Ellis, 61 Nottingham Rd., 3/23/2022, $540,000.
DERRY
David Incerto to Alexandria Matossian, 226 Chases Grove Rd., 3/23/2022, $275,000.
Tyler Mckallagat and Amy Saxton to Jessica Diprima, 82 Derryfield Rd., Unit L, 3/22/2022, $285,000.
Hagop and Alexandria Matossian to Robin Snicer, 24 Dixon Ln., 3/22/2022, $950,000.
Richard J. Greeley to Sharon Naro, 65 Fordway Ext., Unit 1105, 3/25/2022, $260,000.
Eugene R Towne FT and Jeannette Buonora to Inner Circle LLC, 58 Frost Rd., 3/21/2022, $479,000.
Andrew A. Hitchcock to Sandra Pappas, 3 Nutfield Ct., Unit 9, 3/24/2022, $330,000.
Caroline N. Fox and Brandon Siwacki to Thomas J. Arndt and Allison Siwacki, 2 Spollett Dr., 3/22/2022, $386,000.
Mammoth Properties LLC to 270 Nashua Rd LLC, 60 W Broadway., 3/24/2022, $755,000.
Jonathan J. Moschilli to Joseph K. and Michelle L. Currie, 8 Wright Rd., Unit 8, 3/23/2022, $439,933.
DUNBARTON
Carol A. Maher to Karen L. Henderson, 2 Karen Rd., 3/21/2022, $325,000.
GOFFSTOWN
Charpentier Assoc LLC to Andrew M. and Xiuwen Desrosiers, 722 Mast Rd., 3/21/2022, $186,666.
David R. Miller to Matthew Kulesz, 12 Rosemont St., 3/25/2022, $330,000.
Richard L. and Kathleen A. Paquin to Joseph S. Mcdonough and Robert C. Murnane, 28 Saint Anselms Dr., 3/22/2022, $325,000.
Paul F. Welch to Max Blindow, Shirley Hill Rd., 3/21/2022, $375,000.
HOOKSETT
Together We Rise LLC to Welcome Hm Residences LLC, 10 Bell Ave., 3/24/2022, $1,600,000.
Robert D. Camann to Nicole Brown and Ronald H. Wooles 3rd, 8 Fieldstone Dr., 3/23/2022, $577,000.
LONDONDERRY
Lorden Commons LLC to Robert and Jennifer Kelly, 63 Clover Ln., 3/21/2022, $739,933.
Brendan T. Kelly to Michelle and Kathleen Goes, 31-C Constitution Dr., Unit 31C, 3/25/2022, $185,000.
Katelyn Williams to Donovan D. Allen Jr, 91 Granite St., Unit 91, 3/21/2022, $248,000.
Muriel E Plummer IRT and Peter A. Plummer to Amy J. and John J. Leonard Jr, 110 High Range Rd., 3/25/2022, $400,000.
Robitaille Eleanor M Est and Jeremy Robitaille to Robin L. Slocomb, 20 Lincoln Dr., Unit 20, 3/24/2022, $331,900.
Janet L. and Dennis J. Griffin to Joseph G. Campbell and Nicole A. Levesque, 211 Mammoth Rd., 3/25/2022, $492,000.
William J. Jr and Rachel R. Klein to Vincent Dibiasio, 19 School House Rd., Unit 19, 3/22/2022, $801,000.
Nancy E Covey RET and Nancy E. Covey to Scott E. Fritchy, 12 Vista Ridge Dr., Unit 39, 3/22/2022, $150,000.
MANCHESTER
Timothy S. and Leah J. Hayden to Krysta J. Marinelli and Will R. Brewer, 40 Allied St., 3/23/2022, $403,000.
Members First CU to Mor RE Holdings LLC and Allison Street Hldg LLC, 42 Bridge St., 3/25/2022, $1,150,000.
Felisha A. and Shay Jones to Julio A. Melendez, 1720 Candia Rd., Unit 160, 3/21/2022, $339,933.
Felisha A. and Shay Jones to Julio A. Melendez, 1720 Candia Rd., Unit 165, 3/21/2022, $339,933.
Felisha A. and Shay Jones to Julio A. Melendez, 1720 Candia Rd., 3/21/2022, $339,933.
Mcdall LLC to 3375 Cap Chestnut St LLC, 513 Chestnut St., 3/21/2022, $850,000.
Sylvio G Leblanc FT and Lucie Collins to Sophiasoe S. Shai and Sai Wonshai, 63 Columbus St., 3/21/2022, $360,000.
Jodi L. Perkins to Brian S. Zinn, 84 Conant St., 3/25/2022, $448,000.
Robert E. Eaton Jr to Chang Shu and Ping Shen, 23 Country Club Dr., Unit 21, 3/23/2022, $162,000.
RGGS Realty LLC to N and M Realty LLC, Dover St., 3/25/2022, $349,000.
Debbie Patterson to Margaret Galvez, 245 Edward J Roy Dr., Unit 311, 3/22/2022, $290,000.
R and J Frost T and David C. Frost to 1934 Elm Street LLC, 1934 Elm St., 3/24/2022, $510,000.
Tammy M. Gauthier to Javier Perez-Rodriguez and Yeni M. Camejo-Rojas, 921 Fox Hollow Way, Unit 921, 3/24/2022, $320,533.
Carmen P. and Megan E. Giampetruzzi to Ashley Giampetruzzi and Stephen A. Hemming, 36 Foxwood Cir., Unit 36, 3/25/2022, $275,000.
RGGS Realty LLC to N and M Realty LLC, Granite St., 3/25/2022, $349,000.
Robert A Myers RET and Robert A. Myers to Scott and Michelle Smith, 92 Hilton St., 3/21/2022, $336,400.
Michael J. Socha to UO St Michael Hall and Delecia Hall, Holly Ave., Lot 20, 3/23/2022, $350,000.
Michael J. Socha to UO St Michael Hall and Delecia Hall, Holly Ave., Lot 22, 3/23/2022, $350,000.
Lindsey Grant to Gina M. Maniscalco, 69 Lamprey St., 3/24/2022, $306,000.
Michael J. Socha to UO St Michael Hall and Delecia Hall, Lincoln St., Lot 20, 3/23/2022, $350,000.
Michael J. Socha to UO St Michael Hall and Delecia Hall, Lincoln St., Lot 22, 3/23/2022, $350,000.
Charles W. King Jr to 1628 Group Inc, 347 Mammoth Rd., Unit 16, 3/22/2022, $185,000.
Charles W. King Jr to 1628 Group Inc, 347 Mammoth Rd., Unit 15, 3/22/2022, $185,000.
Charles W. King Jr to 1628 Group Inc, 347 Mammoth Rd., Unit 32, 3/22/2022, $185,000.
Charles W. King Jr to 1628 Group Inc, 347 Mammoth Rd., Unit 31, 3/22/2022, $185,000.
Charles W. King Jr to 1628 Group Inc, 347 Mammoth Rd., Unit 18, 3/22/2022, $185,000.
Charles W. King Jr to 1628 Group Inc, 347 Mammoth Rd., Unit 17, 3/22/2022, $185,000.
Richard A. and Lorraine J. Pilotte to Richard Hook RET and Richard Hook, 588 Montgomery St., 3/21/2022, $525,000.
Michael J. Socha to UO St Michael Hall and Delecia Hall, Morey St., Lot 20, 3/23/2022, $350,000.
Michael J. Socha to UO St Michael Hall and Delecia Hall, Morey St., Lot 22, 3/23/2022, $350,000.
Deborah K. Dillon to Mary F. and Kevin P. Gustafson, 320 Oak St., 3/25/2022, $325,000.
Joshua and Haley Bouchard to William Feeny and Maria I. Castro, 167 Patricia Ln., 3/23/2022, $396,000.
Claire T. Lay and Elise M. Robinson to Ryan M. Boisvert, 216 Perley St., 3/23/2022, $275,000.
Erika Locke and Ryan Williams to David Miller, 131 Red Coat Ln., 3/21/2022, $345,000.
Jong S. and Linda Lee to Margaret and Thomas Derosa, 55 River Rd., Unit 8C, 3/23/2022, $307,000.
Maria E. Aguirre to Gustin Properties LLC, 1029 S Mammoth Rd., Unit 8, 3/25/2022, $270,000.
Philip L. and Jennifer Sirois to A and W Properties LLC, 235 Spruce St., 3/22/2022, $460,000.
Norman Cayer and Joseph St Cyr to Jaclyn Brennan and Kevin Marcos, 367 Thornton St., 3/21/2022, $350,000.
MERRIMACK
Pellegrino Anthony J Est and Stephen Pellegrino to Scott and Jason Walsh, 35 Amherst Rd., 3/21/2022, $319,000.
Stacey A. Marino to Nils Scheie, 5 Bernards Rd., Unit 26, 3/21/2022, $225,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 7 Charles Rd., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
Joshua T. Ham and Kimberly D. Schildroth to Chandra L. Parris, 11 Danbury Dr., 3/25/2022, $385,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 11 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 14 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 15 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 17 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 18 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 19 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 21 Elizabeth Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
Christopher Rodriguez and Katia Fratticci to John E Gudzinowicz RET and John E. Gudzinowicz, 3 Esquire Ln., Unit 3, 3/22/2022, $410,000.
Cynthia E. Silveira to Carl A. Hamlin and Jennifer Freeman, 94 Indian Rock Rd., Unit 94, 3/21/2022, $303,000.
Bouchard Normand R Est and Elaine J. Makara to Luz M. Arroyave, 2 Maple Ridge Dr., Unit 38, 3/22/2022, $215,000.
George and Stella Demetri to Gabriella Cernolev, 79 Middlesex Rd., Unit 79, 3/25/2022, $375,000.
Dennis Zibolis Jr to Stephen and Amy Brunelle, 12 Naticook Rd., 3/21/2022, $210,000.
RCL Realty LLC to Shawn Lortie and Michelle Porter, 4 Squires Dr., 3/21/2022, $200,000.
Brett W Vaughn RET and Brett W. Vaughn to Jean M. and John M. Holsenbeck Jr, 2 White Tail Rdg., 3/24/2022, $255,000.
Brett W Vaughn RET and Brett W. Vaughn to Jill R. Leven, 6 White Tail Rdg., 3/24/2022, $255,000.
Jonathan P. Nappi to Robert O. and Lisa J. Doherty, N/A., 3/24/2022, $660,000.
NASHUA
Andy S. and Leila M. Dressel to Doug and Justyna E. Brown, 22 Alder Dr., 3/21/2022, $305,000.
Maria C. Wesley to Marcia H. and Roberto O. Marques, 17-1/2 Balcom St., 3/21/2022, $435,000.
Justin Deflumeri to Anand Kumar, 19 Blackstone Dr., Unit 1913, 3/25/2022, $243,333.
Paul E. Sampson and Paula Calvetti to Kristina C. Piccirillo, 45 Brinton Dr., 3/24/2022, $542,000.
Kyle D. Thornton to Jianchang Li and Yan Cheng, Broad St., 3/25/2022, $325,000.
Chen Chen to B and S Sundara Realty LLC, 310 Brook Village Rd., Unit 12, 3/25/2022, $210,000.
Diane C. Bluff to Ravish and Usha K. Khetarpal, 143 Cannongate 3, Unit 143, 3/22/2022, $256,000.
Gail A. Heald to Cathy R. Tran and Edin Vukicevie, 12 Chautauqua Ave., 3/25/2022, $340,000.
Jonathan Aguiar to Debora R. Carvalho and Lucio E. Desouza, 7 Cherry St., 3/22/2022, $335,000.
Danielle M. Oshea to Kayla Nicewicz, 111 Coburn Ave., Unit 85, 3/21/2022, $335,000.
Gimak Properties LLC to Robert and Michelle Russell, 29 Dodge St., 3/23/2022, $621,000.
75 Deerwood Drive LLC to Ashish Bandekar, 18 Dumaine Ave., Unit B, 3/22/2022, $405,000.
75 Deerwood Drive LLC to Paige Choi, 18 Dumaine Ave., Unit C3, 3/22/2022, $404,933.
Colinbrooke Homes LLC to R S. Santana-Martinez and Jaritza Calderon, 3 Gydians Way, 3/22/2022, $440,000.
Lisa J. and Colive Heaven to Anne M. Green and Elijah White, 41 Laton St., 3/25/2022, $405,000.
Yan F. Wang to Martell and Chari Henry-Wilson, 12 Queensway Cir., 3/23/2022, $645,000.
John Laforme Jr to Jennifer Simonds, 2 Tetreau St., 3/22/2022, $435,800.
Rachel and Patrick Lessard to Patrick Lessard, 3 Twilight Dr., 3/21/2022, $40,000.
Christopher M. and Kerry Anderson to Colin N. Smith and Julia Doyle, 101 Windsor St., 3/25/2022, $495,000.
Terrence and Bozenna K. Rochford to Felix Labelle, N/A., 3/24/2022, $265,000.
NEW BOSTON
William Gary Allen RET and William G. Allen to Russell C. and Nancy E. Friend, 68 Butterfield Mill Rd., 3/25/2022, $308,000.
Scott M. Nault to Austin A. Quinlan, 50 Mason Dr., 3/25/2022, $425,133.
Kristina L. Guilmette to Taylor Stonge, 23 Page Ln., 3/23/2022, $92,000.
PEMBROKE
MDR Rehab and Dev LLC to Jessica and Joshua Bursey, 234 Buck St., 3/25/2022, $357,000.
Edward J Coffey RET and Edward J. Coffey to Kevin Lally, 100 Main St., Unit 211, 3/25/2022, $165,000.
RAYMOND
Cory J. Bushong Jr to Jonathan Vogt and Kelsey Mckechnie, 97 Chester Rd., 3/21/2022, $350,000.
Harlan T Westney RET and Noelle Sanderson to Carol Jayne, 3 Country View Dr., 3/23/2022, $475,000.
Joel R. Porter Jr to Matthew and Carol Zarba, 1 Francesca Dr., 3/21/2022, $315,000.
David Kent to 1 Sky Cmnty Svcs Inc, 29 Nottingham Rd., 3/23/2022, $527,400.
Patrick and Hayley Ringwood to Anthony and Brittney Borg, 189 Route 27, 3/24/2022, $350,000.
Joseph Daigle to Darren Brown and Andrea Macri, 202 Route 27, Unit 30, 3/22/2022, $260,000.
WEARE
Mensur Ramie and Amira Ramic to Chad M. Hughes and Christine L. Doyle, 8 Fessenden Ln., 3/21/2022, $476,000.
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https://www.unionleader.com/property-transfers-04082022/article_6c81a7a4-ec6f-572d-9564-f7dcadd98018.html
| 2022-04-08T17:35:21
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https://www.unionleader.com/property-transfers-04082022/article_6c81a7a4-ec6f-572d-9564-f7dcadd98018.html
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To accommodate the Noble Street Festival and the Sunny King Criterium, the city of Anniston has announced street closures.
On Saturday, April 9, from 2 a.m. until 12 a.m. on Sunday, the following streets will be closed.
— Noble Street from 9th Street to 12th Street.
— Wilmer Avenue from 9th Street to 12th Street.
— Moore Avenue from 12th Street to 11th Street.
— Gurnee Avenue from 10th Street to 11th Street.
— 10th Street from Gurnee Avenue to Noble Street.
— 12th Street from Moore Avenue to Wilmer Avenue.
— Intersection of 10th Street and Moore Avenue.
In addition, starting at 6 p.m. Friday, April 8, the Anniston Police Department will begin barricading parking spots on Noble Street between 10th Street and 11th Street, the goal being to prevent cars being left on the street prior to the 2 a.m. road closures. Vehicles left within the closed areas will be towed. City officials want to make sure no vehicles are left within the festival footprint area.
Jackson Hodges, City of Anniston public information officer, said he is optimistic about the success of this year’s event.
“Overall, this looks to be one of the best festivals in recent memory. The weather is projected to be great, there will be a free Kidzone, combat park, live music and professional cycling all day,” Hodges said.
The festival begins at 11 a.m.
For more information on the street closures: https://bit.ly/3NOgbNQ
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/anniston/street-closures-announced-for-noble-street-festival/article_cd5e19b8-b752-11ec-ae14-bf87a260517c.html
| 2022-04-08T17:37:15
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/anniston/street-closures-announced-for-noble-street-festival/article_cd5e19b8-b752-11ec-ae14-bf87a260517c.html
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In Calhoun County and across the state, motorists will be unable to obtain a new driver’s license, or to have one renewed, from Monday, April 18, through Monday, April 25.
The licensing function is being temporarily shut down due to the installation of a new system and software. Also, online services will be unavailable.
These two services are usually available at the Ken Joiner Calhoun County Administration Building, 1702 Noble St., and the Public Safety office, 1703 Pelham Road S., Jacksonville. The tax and title office in the administration building will remain available to assist the public, as will these services in Piedmont and Alexandria.
“The Calhoun County Commissioner of Licenses Office is proud to participate in the upcoming debut of the new driver license system known as the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Driver License System (LEADS),” said License Supervisor Kate Engel.
“Although our driver license office will be closed to the public during this time, we will still be available to answer questions over the phone. Since LEADS only concerns driver license system installation, all other office business can be conducted as normal.”
These include services such as obtaining motor vehicle licenses, titles, business licenses and more.
Once installed, LEADS will allow people to pre-apply for the Alabama Driver License online and enter information prior to visiting the local offices to save wait times. Also, residents will be able to update their addresses and pay, reinstate licenses online and access other services.
For more information, call 256-241-2900.
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/state/driver-s-license-offices-to-close-temporarily/article_3ba2effe-b751-11ec-a97b-2f7a4caba1b6.html
| 2022-04-08T17:37:21
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/state/driver-s-license-offices-to-close-temporarily/article_3ba2effe-b751-11ec-a97b-2f7a4caba1b6.html
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U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, joined a bipartisan chorus of military and elected officials saying China is actively moving towards surpassing the United States in military power.
The remarks Tuesday came during a meeting of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee of which Rogers serves as the ranking member.
Concerns of needing to boost the budget of the nation’s defense for fiscal year 2023 due to inflation was the order of the day with the committee’s chief witnesses being Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Outside challenges to security also took center stage with China being the foremost element of that category.
In his opening statement to the committee, Rogers called the current threats to national security “more formidable than at any point during the 20 years I’ve had the privilege of serving on this committee.”
“Unprecedented Chinese military modernization has enabled them to leapfrog us in key capabilities,” Rogers said. “The Chinese Community Party now controls the largest army and navy in the world. It has more troops, more ships, more hypersonic missiles than the United States.”
Rogers said the Chinese opposition to American interests “becomes more and more clear every day.”
“To make matters worse, Chinese President Xi Jinping has entered into a ‘no limits partnership’ with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, providing him with strategic cover and international legitimacy,” he said.
Milley told the committee China remains the “number one long term geo-strategic pacing challenge.”
“The People’s Republic of China has and continues to develop significant nuclear, space, cyber, land, air, and maritime military capabilities, and they are working every day to close the technology gap with the United States and our allies,” Milley said. “In short, they remain intent on fundamentally revising the global international order in their favor by midcentury, they intend to be a military peer of the U.S. by 2035, and they intend to develop the military capabilities to seize Taiwan by 2027.”
Austin echoed the general’s remarks by saying China “has expanded and modernized nearly every aspect of the People’s Liberation Army, including its conventional forces and nuclear capabilities, with a focus on offsetting U.S. military advantages.”
“The PRC seeks to fragment U.S. alliances and security partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region, and the PRC’s leaders hope to leverage their economic influence and the PLA’s growing military strength to coerce China’s neighbors and threaten their vital national interests,” Austin said. “The PLA is also rapidly advancing and integrating its space, counter-space, cyber, electronic, and information-warfare capabilities to support its holistic approach to joint warfare.”
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/state/rogers-joins-bipartisan-worries-on-china-military/article_052f9eb2-b752-11ec-8349-27162a235f2c.html
| 2022-04-08T17:37:28
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/state/rogers-joins-bipartisan-worries-on-china-military/article_052f9eb2-b752-11ec-8349-27162a235f2c.html
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Austin Public Schools hires interim AHS principal for 2022-23 school year
Published 9:29 am Friday, April 8, 2022
Austin Public Schools announced Friday that former Austin teacher, coach and administrator Dr. Sheri Allen has been named the interim principal at Austin High School for the 2022-23 school year.
She will be replacing current principal, Andrea Malo, who will transition to the role of Gifted Services for Talent Development and Mentorship Coordinator as part of the district’s administrative reorganization. Current coordinator, Edwina Harder, will be retiring after this year.
Allen retired as superintendent of Mankato Area Public Schools in the summer of 2019, and is in her third year of consulting for TeamWorks International.
Announced in January, Superintendent Dr. Joey Page shared the organizational changes that he said would help better align Austin’s administrative team with district goals. The reorganization will also ensure that Austin’s schools are better aligned in instruction, curriculum, and assessment.
Allen began her career as an elementary and middle school teacher in the APS district, where she also coached. Eventually she served as principal at both Neveln and Sumner elementary schools during her time in Austin.
She also held principal positions in the Owatonna School District, as well as being the executive director of Elementary and Secondary Education for the Rochester Public Schools District.
“We began a comprehensive search for Austin High School’s next principal in February,” Page said. “To find the best candidates for Austin High School, we needed to exceed stakeholder expectations and advance our district’s commitments, and the schools’ commitments, to improvement. Dr. Allen’s incredible experience and accomplishments will afford us more time to think differently about talent, what ‘the best candidate’ means, and what finding the best candidate requires.”
Allen will begin her duties as the interim Austin High School principal this summer, and an open search will start for a permanent AHS principal after the start of the 2022-2023 school year.
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/austin-public-schools-hires-interim-ahs-principal-for-2022-23-school-year/
| 2022-04-08T17:37:29
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/austin-public-schools-hires-interim-ahs-principal-for-2022-23-school-year/
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There’s a cliché that goes “you can’t give what you don’t have.” This is also why you have to take care of yourself to be able to take care of others, including the people you love.
And when we say take care of yourself, we mean your overall health, including your mental health, which entails your psychological, emotional and social welfare. It affects how you feel, think, behave, make decisions and connect with others.
Why take care of your mental health?
Being intentional in taking care of your mental health can help you:
—Prevent the onset of mental illnesses
—Become physically healthy (because too much stress and other mental health concerns can contribute to various types of diseases)
—Keep healthy relationships
—Learn how to deal with the stresses of life in a healthy way
—Realize your highest potential
—Make a positive impact on the people around you
How to take care of your mental health
There are countless ways to maintain good mental health. What matters most is what works for you, so we encourage you to explore various ways to keep your mind healthy such as the following:
—Practice gratitude: Think of good things that happen to you on a daily basis. They don’t have to be grand all the time. You can be grateful for simple things like the good weather, meeting an old friend or finishing a task. You can also write them down so you can easily look back on them when you’re not feeling your best.
—Acknowledge what you feel: Do not beat yourself up when you don’t feel like what you think you’re supposed to feel. You’re human so it’s okay to feel things. Also, avoid bottling up your emotions. Speak with someone you trust or a professional if you think you can no longer handle your emotions.
—Get enough sleep: Sleep can make a great impact on your mood. Continuous lack of sleep can also increase your risk for depression and other mental health conditions. As much as possible, stick with a sleep schedule and avoid things that can make it harder for you to fall asleep such as blue light exposure from gadgets.
—Stay physically active: Exercising is a great way to release tension and negative emotions, even if it means walking for just a few minutes a day. It can also help improve your mood, focus and decision making.
—Eat nutritious food: Not getting certain nutrients may contribute to mental conditions such as depression, so eat healthy. It can also help decrease stress and anxiety and improve your mood.
—Stay hydrated: This can help you stay mentally focused and improve your energy levels.
—Find time to relax: If you’re not yet sure which healthy relaxation strategies would work for you, you can try yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, journaling or listening to music. You can also switch them up from time to time, whatever works for you.
When to seek professional help
Just like physical health, seeking care early can help you prevent various types of mental health conditions. Please see a doctor if you experience any of the following symptoms for an extended period of time (two weeks or more):
—Sleeping difficulties
—Changes in appetite that result in significant weight gain or weight loss
—Not wanting to get out of bed
—Extreme mood swings
—Significant changes in behavior (i.e., angry outbursts)
—Concentrating difficulties
—Neglect of hygiene or grooming
—Loss of interest in doing the things you used to enjoy
—Inability to perform day to day tasks or responsibilities
Meanwhile, if you or someone you know have thoughts of self-harm or suicide, please call 911 immediately. Your life matters.
Dr. Bridget Gibson is a family medicine physician for Brookwood Baptist Health.
Sources: National Institute of Mental Health; National Alliance on Mental Illness; National Center for Biotechnology Information; Medline
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https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/free/dr-bridget-gibson-seven-ways-to-take-care-of-your-mental-health/article_88495f68-b757-11ec-95a5-bf188aaf0b46.html
| 2022-04-08T17:37:34
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https://www.annistonstar.com/the_daily_home/free/dr-bridget-gibson-seven-ways-to-take-care-of-your-mental-health/article_88495f68-b757-11ec-95a5-bf188aaf0b46.html
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Courtney Jean Traynor Pogones, 32
Published 11:03 am Friday, April 8, 2022
Courtney Jean Traynor Pogones was 32 years old when she was tragically taken from us on Saturday April 2, 2022. She spent the last seven years coping with and eventually losing her life to the issues associated with bipolar disorder. Courtney is a hard person to tell you about with words – you’d really need to meet her to understand the dynamo she was. She had a presence you can’t quite pin, a smile and giggle that could light any room and eyes that sparkled and shined with glee and mischief.
Courtney was born in Austin, Minnesota on June 7, 1989, or as she liked to joke, 6-7-89. Her parents, Roger and Nancy Traynor, raised her here in Austin until they divorced when she was 5. She eventually moved to Jordan, Minnesota with her mom who met and married Ben Robling, who, at her insistence, taught Courtney to drive a tractor.
At age 12, Courtney’s mom was killed by a drunk driver near Jordan, Minnesota and Courtney relocated back to Austin to live with her dad. Recently, Courtney agreed to meet the person who killed her mom and together they did a public service announcement on the dangers of drinking and driving that aired around Minnesota ahead of prom season. Courtney somehow found it in her heart to offer forgiveness to the man who took her mom from her.
Courtney attended Austin High School where she was involved in countless activities and a gifted artist who won the Watercolor of the Year contest. Courtney was known for always being the quirky one with her ideas. Like the time she went to a party and wore a fanny pack filled with people’s senior photos. When her friend Meg asked what she was going to do with those photos, Courtney replied “They’re conversation starters!”. Courtney made you laugh, she made you see the world differently, she made you try new things and she loved you fully.
In 2005, while back in Austin, Courtney met Tyler Pogones and they hit it off immediately and were inseparable from their first date. After their graduations, they moved to Colorado and enjoyed snowboarding, running, skateboarding and the chance to experience building a life together. Courtney was also attending school and working several jobs to help support them. Courtney was often recognized as Employee of the Week, Month, Year – or any accolades an employer offered – and if you talked to anywhere she worked, you would be told she was the best worker they’d ever had.
Health issues separated them in 2010 when Tyler had to return to Rochester, Minnesota for surgery. Courtney returned to the area a couple years later and they started their relationship where they left off. They got engaged and were surprised with the beautiful blessing of Bella Louise in 2014. As often happens, Courtney’s pregnancy triggered her diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and the strains of both of their struggles began to show. Determined to build a life for Bella, Tyler and Courtney married September 5, 2015 and tried as hard as any two people could to make a happy home. After four years, they lived separately because of the pain and chaos their struggles created at home and led them to a joint decision to divorce in order to provide a safe haven for Bella.
In early 2021, Courtney found a new medication to be very effective and Tyler, Courtney and Bella resumed spending time as a family – shopping, going to parks, jumping on the trampoline and just being together. Bella was given the irreplaceable gift of this special time with her mom and those memories will last forever. Tyler was excited to see a glimpse of his true love shining through Courtney’s wondrous eyes again.
Courtney will be missed for many things, among them her bubbly personality and her ability to light up any room, any place. Courtney was the type of person who only knew one way to give love to her friends and that was at full speed. She never loved you a little, she only ever loved you a lot. The type of love where when she saw something that reminded her of you, she would gift it to you – it didn’t have to be your birthday, she would give you little gifts all the time. She had the type of love that when she wasn’t able to get the words out right, she’d show up with an extravagant meaningful craft she had made for you. Like the time she crafted a handmade fishing pole for her friend who had recently lost her dad. Courtney loved you fully and we loved her just the same. She brought so much joy to all of us who were lucky enough to call her our friend.
What we, as her friends and family will remember most about our Courtney, is the amazing mother she was to Bella and how Bella lit up her life. Her life changed the moment Bella arrived. Watching her become a mother was such a special time and we will forever share those memories with Bella. We will remember Court’s contagious laugh, contagious smile & quirky sense of humor. We will remember her when we see butterflies, when we hear her favorite songs on the radio and when we all come together to talk about the good ol’ days. But most of all, we will remember the way Courtney loved us and how blessed we were to have her in our lives.
Courtney is survived by Tyler and their most precious creation – a tenacious, intelligent, beautiful and funny little Courtney clone named Bella. She is also survived by her loving and doting father Roger Traynor, brother Kyle Traynor (Dezaray), sister Katie Robling, brother Willie Robling, grandmother Katie Woitas and countless aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 am on Monday, April 11th at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Austin with Father Jim Steffes officiating. Visitation will be at the church one hour prior to the service. Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery. Lunch will be served at the church following the funeral.
Clasen-Jordan Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/courtney-jean-traynor-pogones-32/
| 2022-04-08T17:37:35
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/courtney-jean-traynor-pogones-32/
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Delivering the perfect message and sentiment via greeting cards is one of the many ways Chanda Tucker lets the people she cares about know they’re special. Her giving heart is one of the many reasons Tucker herself is special.
Born and bred in Pell City, Tucker is a proud graduate of Pell City High School’s Class of 1998. Continuing her Panther pride, Tucker works within the Pell City School System by serving as a child nutritionist at Coosa Valley Elementary School since 2013. She began working in the school system in 2004 when she stepped into the classroom as a substitute.
“I love my Coosa kids,” Tucker said.
Tucker shared her love of community with her family, who are also proud graduates of PCHS. Logan, 26, is now a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in agriculture business and economics. Logan has been married to Tucker’s daughter-in-law, Karlee, for 2½ years, and will be giving Tucker one of the greatest gifts she could receive — a grandchild due in August.
“We are so excited,” Tucker said. “Her name will be Leena, after her great grandmother and Logan’s birth mom.”
Colton, 22, is a senior at the University of Alabama, graduating in August 2022 with a business degree. Macy, also 22, is earning her nursing degree from Jefferson State Community College and graduating in December 2022. Alora, 19, is also attending Jeff State where she’s studying radiology. When Tucker was around Alora’s age she wanted to be a flight attendant.
In 2001, Tucker had one of the best days of her life when she married her husband Scott.
“We just clicked,” Tucker said. “He’s my buddy and best friend.”
One of the ways they click is their love of concerts.
“There’s just something about live music," she said. "It gets in your body and soul.”
Tucker’s first concert was Pearl Jam in Birmingham and her most recent was with Scott at The Hangout in Gulf Shores where they danced and sang along to the bands, The Molly Ringwalds and Velcro Pygmies. In 2008, Scott won tickets to see Motley Crue in Los Angeles from the former Birmingham Rock station 99.5.
“We flew out to see them at the Palladium Theater, got a VIP tour and met Motley Crue and Buck Cherry,” Tucker said. “Wow, what a show.”
During their time in L.A., they took in the sights on Rodeo Drive and Sunset Boulevard.
“We went in the Whiskey A Go-Go and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre,” Tucker said. “It was an experience for sure.”
Looking forward to another adventure-filled experience, the Tuckers, Chanda and Scott, are headed to Mexico this May to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.
Something else Tucker loves is gardening.
“I garden anything and everything,” Tucker said. “We sell okra, peas and other fresh veggies to friends and family.”
Tucker’s perfect day consists of hanging out with friends, who she lovingly refers to as the “Slough Crew,” while boat riding on the lake. A few of her favorite things are watching Alabama and Auburn football, cooking even if it’s for four or 304, antiquing and greenhouses.
“My mom and I recently started visiting greenhouses,” said Tucker, adding this fun fact: “My mom and dad live on a farm in Pell City (where I grew up). That’s a full time job. We noticed their neighbors were getting ready to sell their house, so we became my parents' neighbors four years ago.”
She and Scott enjoy eating at Highway 77 in Lincoln and one of their favorite eateries on the water is The Back Porch. Another favorite thing is spending time binge watching shows.
“My girlfriends and I text each other with great shows for each of us to watch,” she said.
While Tucker loves writing and sending cards, a message that speaks to her is God’s word in Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (NIV)
Living out the message of faith, hope and love, Tucker says community is about togetherness.
“When all your friends get together to enjoy each other’s company, whether it’s football in the fall or just getting together to share a meal, it’s about being there and loving on each other through the sad and happy times,” she said.
As for what Pell City, St. Clair County and being a good neighbor mean to her, Tucker said, “Being a good neighbor means always looking out for one another. I love when people come together in my community. Pell City is a great town to raise your kids.”
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https://www.annistonstar.com/the_st_clair_times/meet-your-neighbor-pell-city-native-chanda-tucker/article_cf03f82e-b756-11ec-b3f5-43105640db12.html
| 2022-04-08T17:37:40
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https://www.annistonstar.com/the_st_clair_times/meet-your-neighbor-pell-city-native-chanda-tucker/article_cf03f82e-b756-11ec-b3f5-43105640db12.html
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Heidi A. Hecimovich, 56
Published 11:02 am Friday, April 8, 2022
Heidi A. Hecimovich, age 56, of Brownsdale, Minnesota, passed away on Monday, April 4, 2022, at her home. Heidi Ann Swank was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, to David and Karen (Schlekau) Swank on May 27, 1965. She graduated from Austin High School. On August 8, 1996, Heidi married James “Jim” Hecimovich and were blessed with two children. Heidi loved being a mom, grandma, and taking care of Jim. She was always there for her family and was always caring of those around her. Heidi enjoyed reading, traveling to see her grandkids, and playing Sims. She will be greatly missed by all her family and friends.
Survivors include her husband, Jim Hecimovich of Brownsdale, MN; mother, Karen Swank of Austin, MN; children, Michelle (Ben) Meyer of Osage, IA, and Cherie (Matt) Morgan of Elk River, MN; grandchildren, Lauraelai, Raleigh, David, Monica, Anabelle, Lillyana, and Elliana; siblings, Ricky Swank, Michael (Janine) Swank, and Daniel (Darby) Swank. She was preceded in death by her father, David Swank.
A private family service will be held. Memorials are preferred to the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. Worlein Funeral Home of Austin is assisting the family with arrangements. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.worlein.com.
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/heidi-a-hecimovich-56/
| 2022-04-08T17:37:41
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Minnesota St beats Minnesota 5-1 to reach Frozen Four final
Published 6:57 am Friday, April 8, 2022
BOSTON — 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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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/minnesota-st-beats-minnesota-5-1-to-reach-frozen-four-final/
| 2022-04-08T17:37:47
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/minnesota-st-beats-minnesota-5-1-to-reach-frozen-four-final/
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Sandra L. Gaughran, 83
Published 11:05 am Friday, April 8, 2022
Sandra L. Gaughran, age 83, of Austin, Minnesota, passed away on Friday, January 21, 2022, at the Legacy of Brownsdale. Sandra Lee Miller was born October 8, 1938, in Austin, Minnesota, to Ervin and Ruth (Davis) Miller. She grew up in Austin and graduated from Austin High School. On August 19, 1957, Sandra married Adolph “Gus” Gaughran and together had a daughter (Jodi) and son (Todd). Sandra worked doing various jobs including as a conservator, Austin Public Schools, and for Hormel in Austin. She was also a caretaker and took care of her husband, then her daughter and grandkids. She loved to play cards with family and was a wonderful cook. Traveling and taking road trips with her kids was another love of Sandra’s. She enjoyed trips to Colorado, California, Washington, North Dakota and Arizona. Her favorite destination was Hawaii. Growing up she was known as the mom of the neighborhood. Sandra was a strong Christian and great mom who sacrificed a lot for her kids. She loved her kids and grandkids and was very proud of them. Sandra will be dearly missed by all who knew and loved her.
Survivors include her children, Jodi (Scott Johnson) Fossey and Todd (Diane) Gaughran; three grandchildren, Jen (Gerad) Welch, Stephanie Ladi, and Katelyn (Brad) Yorkivich; six great grandchildren; siblings, Linda Nicol, Marsha Shaw, and Randy Miller. She was preceded in death by her husband, Adolph “Gus” Gaughran. parents, Ervin and Ruth Miller; and brother, Jerry Miller.
A memorial gathering for Sandra will be held from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, 2022, at Worlein Funeral Home in Austin. Services are prearranged and performed by Worlein Funeral Home of Austin. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.worlein.com.
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/sandra-l-gaughran-83-3/
| 2022-04-08T17:37:53
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https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/04/sandra-l-gaughran-83-3/
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