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Denver wins ninth NCAA hockey title with victory over Minnesota State originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Denver is on cloud nine.
Denver beat Minnesota State 5-1 in the 2022 NCAA men’s ice hockey national championship game at TD Garden in Boston on Saturday. The title is Denver’s ninth, tying the record for most in NCAA history.
While the Pioneers pulled out the victory, the Mavericks were in control for the first two periods.
Sam Morton opened the scoring for Minnesota State 14 minutes into the game on the power play. Ryan Sandelin and Lucas Sowder were credited with assists on the play.
The Mavericks came into Saturday’s tilt with a noticeable special teams edge. Both teams’ power play percentages ranked in the top 11 in the nation, but the Pioneers’ penalty kill ranked 39th out of 59 teams on the season.
After a scoreless second period, it appeared Denver didn’t have any answers for Minnesota State goaltender Dryden McKay, who was given the Hobey Baker Award on Friday.
In the third, however, Denver turned on the jets.
The Pioneers finally lit the lamp when Ryan Barrow netted his eighth goal of the season with 15:14 left in regulation.
Less than three minutes later, Mike Benning netted what turned out to be the game-winning goal. The sophomore defenseman blasted a one-timer past McKay to put Denver up 2-1.
Massimo Rizzo poured it on, doubling Denver’s lead off a pretty feed from Carter Mazur with 6:26 left in the game.
Somehow, Denver wasn’t done yet. Brett Stapley scored on an empty net and Cameron Wright found the back of the net within 32 seconds of one another, capping off an astonishing five-goal period.
Saturday’s victory marks the second time Denver won a national title in Boston, with the first coming in 2004. It also ended Minnesota State’s 18-game winning streak, which dated back to Jan. 14.
U.S. & World
Minnesota State had never reached the Frozen Four until 2021. That journey to a title was cut short as the Mavericks fell to the eventual runner-up, St. Cloud State. In 2022, the team made it one stage further, beating intrastate rival Minnesota in the Frozen Four on Thursday to reach Saturday’s championship game.
Denver’s Frozen Four journey began with a win over No. 1 overall seed Michigan on Thursday. With the Pioneers’ championship victory on Saturday, the two programs now share the all-time record for Division I men’s ice hockey championships.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/denver-wins-ninth-ncaa-hockey-title-with-victory-over-minnesota-state/3638892/
| 2022-04-10T03:31:46
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/denver-wins-ninth-ncaa-hockey-title-with-victory-over-minnesota-state/3638892/
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STAYTON, Ore. — Two years after wildfires destroyed thousands of Oregon homes, people are still working to rebuild. The Beachie Creek fire, later part of the Santiam fire, claimed at least five lives and scorched nearly 200,000 acres.
Volunteers with the Associated General Contractors' (AGC) Oregon-Columbia chapter have dedicated themselves to using their skills in support of fire survivors who lost their homes in 2020.
"It's all about teamwork, you got folks here from all different abilities," said Bill Smith, one of the volunteers.
Those different abilities are harnessed toward the same goal — to build sheds for victims of the Beachie Creek Fire. The group started building them last year to give wildfire victims storage space during the rebuilding process. The project is entirely run through donations.
"Originally we were building these sheds for about $1,400 a shed. When lumber prices went through the roof, it got to almost $4,000 a shed ... so it kind of put the dampers on us," said Smith.
But the sky-high cost didn't stop them. They've built 70 sheds so far and hope to make 80 by the end of May.
"What's exciting is when you're building one up at the site or delivering one up and actually get to meet the people, you get to hear the story," Smith explained.
Diana McGuire's story is one of those. She lost her home in the fire and now lives in a trailer on her property. Last year, McGuire was one of the first to get a shed from the volunteers.
"It's a godsend, I don't know what I would have done without it," said McGuire. "It instills hope, it's encouragement."
McGuire is able to safely store belongings in the shed as she rebuilds her home where it used to stand.
AGC is looking for volunteers to help build the sheds. You can contact AGC for more information.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/beachie-creek-fire-survivors-2020-contractor-volunteers-sheds/283-aac9d8ae-fed3-4dba-a57c-b2d672072033
| 2022-04-10T03:36:07
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/beachie-creek-fire-survivors-2020-contractor-volunteers-sheds/283-aac9d8ae-fed3-4dba-a57c-b2d672072033
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It’s borderline unfair.
Wait, let’s change that.
It’s entirely unfair what coach Patty Gasso’s Sooners are doing on the softball diamond and Saturday was another example.
Already up eight runs at Texas Tech, enough to secure their 29th run-rule victory in the space of 35 games in a season that has only included victories, Gasso chose to give Grace Green an at bat, pinch-hitting her for Taylon Snow, who despite entering the afternoon hitting an insane .485, was sitting 0 for 3 for the day.
Green stepped in hitting .158 only to deposit a Kendall Fritz offering over the left-field wall, a three-run jack, forging what became an 11-0 final score.
Not that the Red Raiders had any prayer of coming back, nor even of forcing a sixth inning, though they managed to put a runner on base when Hope Trautwein opened the frame plunking Riley Love.
In just about any universe, Love would have come around to score on the ball Peyton Jackson lifted down the right-field line, too. Only in Saturday’s universe, at Lubbock, inside Rocky Johnson Stadium, Riley Boone, who began nearer right-center field than straight up right field, chased it down and nabbed it in a full leaping dive over the foul line.
Like it’s not enough the Sooners are unbeaten, have played the full seven innings just six times, are collectively hitting .386, they must also crush souls along the way, making plays that would be the difference in the tightest contests, games one presumes they’ll still have to play come the World Series.
It’s bonkers.
Saturday’s final score was the same as Friday’s, when OU mashed even more than it mashed Saturday.
The Sooners collected six home runs in the series opener, including three from NCAA all-time leader Jocelyn Alo, pushing her season mark to 19 and her career mark to 107. Grace Lyons hit two and Tiare Jennings one.
Jennings hit another Saturday, as did Lyons. Kinzie Hansen hit one, her fifth of the season and Green’s was her third.
A year ago, when OU received the NCAA’s No. 1 overall seed entering regional play, Gasso was not happy.
She didn’t want it.
She’d heard all season her strength of schedule wasn’t what it ought to be, her pitching was suspect, nor did she care for the draw that would have OU meeting Washington a super regional.
None of it agreed with her.
She may not want it again this season, but she’s going to have a hard time running away from it.
She hasn’t lost and she may not and her squad’s numbers appear stolen from “Ripley’s Believe it or Not.”
Alo entered Saturday hitting .531, getting on base .689 and slugging 1.358.
In his very best season, 2004, Barry Bonds hit .362, got on base .609 and slugged .812.
If that's a bad comparison, how 'bout this one?
In her very best season, 2013, the great Lauren Chamberlain hit .458, got on base .613 and slugged 1.113. Alo is crushing every one of those numbers.
Can the Sooners be in the business of stealing nicknames, because Alo’s stats are beyond Ruthian, making her the real "Sultan of Swat."
More believe it or not stuff:
Tiare Jennings entered Saturday hitting .396, getting on base .534 and slugging .912. The home run she hit off her old teammate, Tech starting pitcher Olivia Rains, was her 15th of the season.
By any measure, she’s having a fantastic sophomore season.
She’s also hitting for a lower average than Alo, Snow, Boone, Jayda Coleman and Lyons, getting on-base at a lesser clip than Alo, Coleman and Snow, slugging at a lesser clip than Alo and Lyons and hitting fewer home runs that Alo and Lyons.
It’s bananas.
Finally, this:
OU’s earned run average dropped to 0.62 thanks to Hope Trautwein’s shutout, one that included four walks, a single hit and seven strikeouts.
The next lowest collective earned run average in the nation entering the weekend? UCLA’s 1.16.
It’s not fair.
Perhaps teams will hang closer to OU by not giving up on their starting pitching.
Rains trailed 5-0 in the fourth when she was lifted, but the roof fell in after Fritz entered the circle.
It was the same story Friday when Erna Carlin allowed six Sooner runs through 4 1/3, only for her relief, Ranci Willis, to allow five more while getting a single out.
Should opponents put the ball in play against OU enough, that could lead to something, for the Sooners’ .968 fielding percentage is not among the nation’s top 50.
None of that may matter.
If you can’t get them out, you can’t beat them and nobody’s getting them out and nobody’s beating them.
Once upon a time, Bud Wilkinson’s Sooners won 47 straight.
Gasso’s have won 37 with no end in sight.
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https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/horning-gassos-sooners-looking-nearly-unstoppable/article_1be63716-b864-11ec-ad04-2b8f65d2f192.html
| 2022-04-10T03:36:11
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https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/horning-gassos-sooners-looking-nearly-unstoppable/article_1be63716-b864-11ec-ad04-2b8f65d2f192.html
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PORTLAND, Ore. — KGW received a total of 43 nominations for the 2021 Northwest Emmy® awards by the Northwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in a competition that includes the Seattle market.
KGW earned more nominations than any other Portland news outlet and is the only Portland commercial station nominated for overall excellence. The nomination total is the most in KGW’s history.
“It is rewarding to be recognized for our work during 2021, a year filled with difficult stories, smart solutions, and inspiring people. Our dedicated team focuses each day on how we can tell unique and compelling stories that make a difference and help improve the community. It’s gratifying to see that we are fulfilling our mission of re-thinking what local news can be and serving our community with journalism that truly matters,” said Steve Carter, President and General Manager of KGW.
The nominations for outstanding work span every aspect of journalism including best morning and evening newscasts, daily news report, hard news report, continuing coverage, light feature, serious feature, business consumer, crime, environment/science, politics/government, historical/cultural, interactive media, and public affairs program.
The KGW marketing team is nominated three times for best news promo campaigns, three Program Promo Campaigns, in addition to best commercial single spot and commercial campaign.
Details of each award nomination may be found below:
Overall Excellence
- Steve Carter, General Manager
Evening Newscast
- The Story: Meth in Portland • Mila Mimica, Stephanie Villiers, Maggie Vespa, Ashley Koch
- The Story: Who You Gonna Call? • Mila Mimica, Stephanie Villiers, Maggie Vespa
News Special
- Understanding Gun Violence • John Tierney, Kyle Iboshi, Gene Cotton, Andrew Dorn, Cristin Severance, Dan Haggerty
Continuing Coverage
- Hayden Island Dealing with Abandoned Ships, Rampant Crime • Morgan Romero
- Pushing for Accountability After a Deadly Heat Wave • John Tierney, Mila Mimica, Stephanie Villiers, Maggie Vespa, Andrew Dorn
Daily News Report
- Bob & Nancy • Katherine Cook
Hard News Report
- The Impact of an Encampment • Kyle Iboshi, Kurt Austin
Light Feature
- The Santa of Willamina Avenue • Jeff Kastner
- First True Love • Katherine Cook, Jon Gudgel
Serious Feature
- Saving the Enchanted Forest • Laural Porter, Kurt Austin
Crime
- Why Don't Portland Police Have Body Cameras? • Kyle Iboshi, Gene Cotton
Health/Medical
- Declan the Dinosaur • Laural Porter, Kurt Austin
Health/Medical Long Form
- Overwhelmed: Inside Oregon's ICUs • John Tierney, Pat Dooris, Christine Pitawanich, Nick Beber, Zachary Carver
Environment/Science
- Let's Get Out There • Jon Goodwin
Politics/Government
- ODOT Contributed to a Car Going Off a Bridge • Kyle Iboshi, Kurt Austin
- Redistricting & Gerrymandering • Stephanie Villiers
Arts/Entertainment
- Desperate for Laughs • Katherine Cook, Jon Gudgel
- An illustration of Ascending Flow • Brittany Falkers
Diversity Equity Inclusion
- Queer Heroes • Galen Ettlin
- A Dragon Chasing the Sun: The Story of Hazel Ying Lee • Christine Pitawanich
News Promo Single Spot
- Overwhelmed: Inside Oregon's ICUs • Randy Cobb
News Promo Campaign
- Portland's Housing Crisis • Randy Cobb, Kevin Ebel, Jeff Patterson
Program Promotion Campaign
- The Story • Kevin Ebel, Jeff Patterson, Ellen Boynton, Amanda Lashbaugh, Randy Cobb, Jennifer Woodruff, Skyler Stever
Commercial Campaign
- KGW Good Energy • Josh Schreck, Kevin Ebel, Jeff Patterson, Joseph DeGise, Skyler Stever
- Toyota-Start Your Impossible • Joseph DeGise, Kevin Ebel
Public Service Announcement Single Spot or Campaign
- KGW Vaccine Campaign • Josh Schreck, Kevin Ebel, Jeff Patterson, Skyler Stever
Weather Anchor
- Matt Zaffino
Sports Anchor
- Orlando Sanchez
Reporter – News Single Shift
- Katherine Cook
Reporter – News Special Assignment
- Laural Porter
Program Correspondent
- Grant McOmie
Live News Producer
- Stephanie Villiers
Writer
- Katherine Cook
- Laural Porter
- Laural Porter
Photographer
- Kurt Austin
Photographer Short Form or Long Form Content
- Jeff Kastner
News Editor
- Kurt Austin
Audio
- Kurt Austin
Video Journalist
- Devon Haskins
- Steven Redlin
- Jon Goodwin
RELATED: The Story: Best of 2021
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/kgw-earns-43-regional-emmy-nominations-overall-excellence/283-8e367457-6a95-408a-b880-11e9decf27b5
| 2022-04-10T03:36:13
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/kgw-earns-43-regional-emmy-nominations-overall-excellence/283-8e367457-6a95-408a-b880-11e9decf27b5
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As Oklahoma coach Brent Venables works to bring the Sooners a new defensive identity, Danny Stutsman appears to fit the mold the staff is looking for.
Described by teammates and coaches as a hard-working, aggressive middle linebacker, Stutsman missed three games last season due to injury, but played in every other game. He finished with 38 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, a sack and two forced fumbles against Texas and Texas Tech.
Stutsman didn’t join Oklahoma until after spring practices last season, but quickly began turning heads with his work ethic and leadership skills in practice.
“It’s been exciting,” Stutsman said about his upcoming sophomore season. “Coming in here last year I was the fresh guy on the block. No one really knew me as you probably heard on the podcast or whatever. I’ve kind of taken a bigger role, I’ve stepped up. More reps, I’m competing … I want to be a leader out there.”
The Florida native’s attitude towards practice fits perfectly with the mindset that Venables is hoping to implement in the program. The former Clemson defensive coordinator played linebacker at Kansas State in the early 90’s.
At previous coaching stops, Venables has put an emphasis on high-effort, physical players that are coachable.
“It’s been great,” Stutsman said about being coached by Venables. “When he talks you listen, because he’s coached so many great guys. He’s put so many players in so many different positions, it’s mesmerizing. He’s got so much knowledge up there. Anything he says you’re writing it down, trying to keep track of it, because no one else is going to be able to say what he can say.”
Coming onto the team last season with seniors like Nik Bonitto, Bryan Mead, Caleb Kelley and Brian Asamoah, Stutsman had plenty of role models to look up to as a freshman.
With those players now gone, the Sooners will be looking for a new group of leaders to emerge and serve as role models for the incoming freshman class.
Jaren Kanak, Kobie McKinzie and Kip Lewis will add depth to the Sooners’ linebacker room.
“Those are my three kids,” Stutsman said. “We’re all in the dorms and there’s not one day I’m not with them laughing. Kip will just be on my couch sleeping. It was 12:00 one night, and I just came out and he was watching WWE. I said ‘What are you doing Kip? Go to your room. This is my room.’”
Though it remains unclear how Stutsman will fit in to Venables' defense, his attitude on the practice field and in the locker room appears to have made him a defensive leader for the Sooners during spring practices.
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https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/ou-football-notebook-stutsman-ready-to-take-on-bigger-role-in-sophomore-season/article_5d0a8d34-b862-11ec-8382-9fcfb8b2584d.html
| 2022-04-10T03:36:17
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https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/ou-football-notebook-stutsman-ready-to-take-on-bigger-role-in-sophomore-season/article_5d0a8d34-b862-11ec-8382-9fcfb8b2584d.html
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OREGON CITY, Ore. — People are going to see a big change in scenery around Willamette Falls as a more noticeable phase of demolition gets going on the old Blue Heron paper mill.
It's been more than two years since the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde purchased the old Blue Heron paper mill, on a part of the Willamette River with deep ties to indigenous peoples.
Now the teardown of this 23-acre property really gets going, with a "phase two" demolition starting this past week. It will remove four structures, including the water filtration plant, over the next two months. And the difference will be obvious from Oregon City.
“I think that's key where people can really start seeing some progress ... and you know, it's a fantastic site if you can imagine the buildings all removed, and I think this is going to help people start to imagine some of that," said Michael Langley.
Langley is a Grand Ronde tribal council officer, who as a small boy remembers seeing the falls from a distance. The plan is to restore parts of the area to its natural past in order to bring tribal members, and everyone else, much closer.
“It's exciting, because the public space is going to get the access there to share it with the world. A lot of times we think just the tribes and Oregon community, but really this is a place that should be shared with the world — and that's how we see it,” said Langley.
Along with public spaces, there will be commerce. Visual renderings show a vision that includes dining, shopping and lodging.
“And so we’ll bring back more of the natural feel to it — as much as we can — because it will still be, as it's always been, a place of commerce — and that will also be part of this development,” said Langley.
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde recently pulled out of a partnership with other indigenous nations and local governments, formed to develop a riverwalk and restore public access.
Grand Ronde leaders expressed frustration with a lack of progress.
Langley said people should not perceive that pullout as a sign it is not moving forward. In fact, he says, just the opposite.
“Our timeline is we want to keep it as short as possible; we have members who want that but we're excited," Langley said. "So it's not something that we're running away from it, really it is something that we want to get things moving as fast as we can.”
While this demolition phase is set to take about two months, there is no set timeline for finishing the project with restoration and development — however it will likely take more than a few years.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/willamette-falls-blue-heron-paper-mill-demolition-grand-ronde/283-34fcc896-d612-4553-a119-49cc3d68c06a
| 2022-04-10T03:36:19
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/willamette-falls-blue-heron-paper-mill-demolition-grand-ronde/283-34fcc896-d612-4553-a119-49cc3d68c06a
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On Saturday, tufts of cotton candy and errant balloons went gusting through the stiff winds in downtown Anniston at the annual Noble Street Festival and Sunny King Criterium. Regardless of the lost hats and flying hair, candidates running in the May 24 primary election greeted hundreds of festival goers.
Sylacauga resident Doug Bell, a potential candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives for Alabama’s Third District, was seeking the final thousand or so signatures he needed to be eligible to run.
He is married to Sarah Bell. Together, the couple has seven children, which relates to Bell’s motivation for running for political office. He is concerned about his children’s future.
“I want to preserve our nation and allow my kids to have the same advantages we’ve had,” he said.
His two oldest children, Audrey and Kaitlyn are helping him in his “sunrise to sunset” travels to challenge Rep. Mike Rogers. Audrey worked at Bell’s booth at Noble Fest.
Bell said he was an educator for six years, owned his own business for 18 years and is delivering pizzas at night to have time to campaign.
Eva Turner of Heflin was campaigning for Anniston resident Gayla Blanton who is running for State House of Representatives District 40. Along with her was a family from Jacksonville, James and Jeannie Haynes and their son Caden.
“We know Gayla through church,” Turner said. “I have been in Bible study for the last 12 months with her, and I know her heart. She had been praying so hard for the country after she saw a shift in things.”
Blanton is a teacher in Calhoun County. Turner said Blanton is concerned about all children and their future. Blanton’s faith led her to enter the fray as a candidate.
“Once she said yes to God,” Turner said, “she said she now sleeps better because she is doing the right things.”
All three candidates who are running in the Republican primary for the state senate, District 12 were present for Noble Fest.
Keith Kelly, who owns a real estate company in Anniston, said his campaign is going well.
“I get good remarks from the community,” he said. “People seem to be more in tune and want to know more about where candidates stand. Today was a big activity with a big economic impact for our county and the city of Anniston. Several candidates were looking for votes, but what we need is support for the local economy.”
Kelly said he was glad to see so many small businesses represented at Noble Fest.
“These are the people who may become the next Walmart, or they may remain a small business. However, these are the ones who support our schools and help when we have major disasters,” he said.
Wayne Willis, also a candidate for District 12, is a retired Anniston police officer and the mayor of Weaver. He ran for the same office during the last election.
“This campaign has picked up where that one left off,” he said. ‘The momentum is going faster than I can keep up with, which is a good thing.”
Willis said he had been at the “Shooting with the Sheriff” event earlier in the day.
“I have had a lot of support during my campaign,” he said. “Mine is a grass-roots campaign. I am doing it all, which takes a lot of leg work.”
Willis had earlier attended a health fair in Piedmont, in addition to the other two events.
“The polls show me ahead and I can’t let up,” he said. “I have a large amount of support from the community.”
Wendy Draper had lots of red, white and blue colors that drew attention to her booth at Noble Fest. In mid-afternoon, some of her volunteers were loading up election memorabilia to take to events in Talladega later in the day.
“I’ll be headed there to visit the good people in Talladega later,” Draper said. “That is after my five-year-old daughter takes part in the bike race here.”
Draper, who is a real estate agent, is appreciative of the support from family members, church friends, current friends, new friends and an active volunteer team.
“I got encouragement from the community to do this from the beginning of my campaign,” she said. “There are so many good, conservative Republicans who have joined me to spread my platform.”
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/anniston/candidates-find-a-crowd-at-noble-street-festival/article_4054302e-b870-11ec-a623-0358089eab7f.html
| 2022-04-10T03:40:25
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https://www.annistonstar.com/news/anniston/candidates-find-a-crowd-at-noble-street-festival/article_4054302e-b870-11ec-a623-0358089eab7f.html
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Jacksonville State got two homers from Carson Crowe, but Central Arkansas battered a trio of Gamecocks pitchers in an 11-9 win over JSU.
Crowe ripped a two-run shot in the fourth inning and added a three-run blast in the fifth. He added a single in the first as he went 3-for-5 with five RBIs.
Crowe now has six homers and 22 RBIs, and both figures lead the team.
JSU (13-15, 7-4 ASUN) is tied for second in the ASUN West Division with Central Arkansas (12-17, 7-4). Eastern Kentucky (21-10, 8-3) still is in first place, despite losing at Lipscomb on both Friday and Saturday.
JSU will play at UCA again Sunday at 1 p.m.
Six to know
—JSU pitchers Tanner Jones (three innings, five runs), Dylan Hathcock (two innings, three runs) and Trey Fortner (three innings, three runs) struggled on the mound. Hathcock (1-3) got the loss.
—T.J. Reeves went 3-for-5 with a solo homer. He scored three times. His 36 hits and 27 runs both lead the team.
—Alex Carignan was 1-for-2 with a pair of runs. He walked three times.
—Alex Strachan went 1-for-4 with an RBI and a walk. His 16 walks lead the team.
—Cole Frederick was 2-for-5.
—For JSU, Jake Peppers (2-2, 4.81 ERA) will start the Sunday game. This is his fourth start of the season, but the first as part of the weekend rotation.
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https://www.annistonstar.com/sports/jsu/jsu-baseball-crowe-homers-twice-in-gamecocks-road-loss/article_5cf49800-b874-11ec-9a05-1b4937807eb1.html
| 2022-04-10T03:40:31
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https://www.annistonstar.com/sports/jsu/jsu-baseball-crowe-homers-twice-in-gamecocks-road-loss/article_5cf49800-b874-11ec-9a05-1b4937807eb1.html
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Fighting fire with fire: The risk and benefits of a prescribed burn
New Mexico firefighters are fighting 2 wildfires that started as prescribed burns. Find out why prescribed burns are so important to our forests.
New Mexico firefighters are fighting 2 wildfires that started as prescribed burns. Find out why prescribed burns are so important to our forests.
New Mexico firefighters are fighting 2 wildfires that started as prescribed burns. Find out why prescribed burns are so important to our forests.
Two of the three major wildfires currently burning in our state started with prescribed burns. As of April 9, the Hermits Peak fire has burned 350 acres at zero percent containment, while the Overflow fire in Chaves County has burned 19 hundred acres and is 50 percent contained.
Although bad weather conditions like high wind can turn a prescribed burn into a wildfire, Eytan Krasilovsky, from the Forest Stewards Guild, says they are necessary to keep our forest healthy.
"Fire has a role. It shapes the forest, selects plants, releases seeds, and recycles nutrients. You intentionally return fire to an ecosystem by doing it in a specific place, in time, and under certain conditions," Krasilovsky said.
When drought reaches critical levels, our state can establish burn bans that prevent those prescribed burns. When a burn ban is put in place, sticks and shrubs dumped by the overgrowth become fire fuel, and if a wildfire does spark, it can spread much more quickly.
"Its absence creates another problem. There's so much growth, and so many sticks on the ground, that when it does burn, it's really uncharacteristic," Krasilovsky said.
That extra growth turns into fire fuel, and wildfires spread much more quickly.
Krasilovsky says, "When it's taken out, our fires worsen, or watersheds become less healthy. So we need to put fire back in these ecosystems."
Krasilovsky says prescribed burns help contain deadly wildfires, like the Medio fire from 2020.
"When it hit a prescribed burn, it became more manageable and led to a better wildfire outcome, and that's because these prescribed burn treatments on the land interact with wildfires," Krasilovsky said.
Krasilovsky says there are risks to prescribed burns. Sometimes bad weather conditions like high winds or dry land can turn a prescribed burn into a wildfire.
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https://www.koat.com/article/fire-risk-benefits-new-mexico-prescribed-burn/39682328
| 2022-04-10T04:04:10
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https://www.koat.com/article/fire-risk-benefits-new-mexico-prescribed-burn/39682328
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Ukrainian President Zelenskyy seeks peace despite Russian attacks on civilians
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that he is committed to pressing for peace despite Russian attacks on civilians that have stunned the world, and he renewed his plea for more weapons ahead of an expected surge in fighting in the country’s east.
He made the comments in an interview with The Associated Press a day after at least 52 people were killed in a strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, and as evidence of civilian killings came to light after Russian troops failed to seize the capital where he has hunkered down, Kyiv.
“No one wants to negotiate with a person or people who tortured this nation. It’s all understandable. And as a man, as a father, I understand this very well,” Zelenskyy said. But “we don’t want to lose opportunities, if we have them, for a diplomatic solution.”
Wearing the olive drab that has marked his transformation into a wartime leader, he looked visibly exhausted yet animated by a drive to persevere. He spoke to the AP inside the presidential office complex, where windows and hallways are protected by towers of sandbags and heavily armed soldiers.
“We have to fight, but fight for life. You can’t fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war,” Zelenskyy said.
Russian troops that withdrew from northern Ukraine are now regrouping for what is expected to be an intensified push to retake the eastern Donbas region, including the besieged port city of Mariupol that Ukrainian fighters are striving to defend.
The president said those defenders are tying up “a big part of the enemy forces,” characterizing the battle to hold Mariupol as “the heart of the war” right now.
“It’s beating. We’re fighting. We’re strong. And if it stops beating, we will be in a weaker position,” he said.
Zelenskyy said he is confident Ukrainians would accept peace despite the horrors they have witnessed in the more than six-week-long war.
Those included gruesome images of bodies of civilians found in yards, parks and city squares and buried in mass graves in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha after Russian troops withdrew. Ukrainian and Western leaders have accused Moscow of war crimes.
Russia has falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged. It also put the blame on Ukraine for the attack on the train station in Kramatorsk as thousands of people rushed to flee ahead of an expected Russian offensive.
Despite hopes for peace, Zelenskyy acknowledged that he must be “realistic” about the prospects for a swift resolution given that negotiations have so far been limited to low-level talks that do not include Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy displayed a palpable sense of resignation and frustration when asked whether the supplies of weapons and other equipment his country has received from the United States and other Western nations were enough to turn the tide of the war.
“Not yet,” he said, switching to English for emphasis. “Of course it’s not enough.”
Still, he noted that there has been increased support from Europe and said deliveries of U.S. weapons have been accelerating.
Just this week, neighboring Slovakia, a European Union member, donated its Soviet-era S-300 air defense system to Ukraine in response to Zelenskyy's appeal to help “close the skies” to Russian warplanes and missiles.
Some of that support has come through visits by European leaders.
After meeting Zelenskyy in Kyiv earlier Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he expects more EU sanctions against Russia even as he defended his country’s opposition to cutting off deliveries of Russian natural gas.
The U.S., EU and United Kingdom responded to the images from Bucha with more sanctions, including ones targeting Putin's adult daughters. While the EU went after the Russian energy sector for the first time by banning coal, it has so far failed to agree on cutting off the much more lucrative oil and natural gas that is funding Putin's war chest. Europe relies on those supplies to generate electricity, fill fuel tanks and keep industry churning.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson also made an unannounced visit to meet Zelenskyy, with his office saying they discussed Britain's “long-term support.”
In Kyiv on Friday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented Ukraine's leader with a questionnaire marking the first step for applying for EU membership. The head of the bloc’s executive arm said the process for completing the questionnaire could take weeks — an unusually fast turnaround — though securing membership would take far longer.
Zelenskyy turned introspective when asked what impact the pace of arms deliveries had for his people and whether more lives could have been saved if the help had come sooner.
“Very often we look for answers in someone else, but I often look for answers in myself. Did we do enough to get them?” he said of the weapons. “Did we do enough for these leaders to believe in us? Did we do enough?”
He paused and shook his head.
“Are we the best for this place and this time? Who knows? I don’t know. You question yourself,” he said.
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https://www.koat.com/article/ukrainian-president-zelenskyy-seeks-peace-despite-russian-attacks-on-civilians/39682385
| 2022-04-10T04:04:20
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AUGUSTA, Ga. – His lead restored to four shots, Scottie Scheffler was looking to put this 86th Masters on ice.
One final birdie during a hectic second nine at Augusta National would give him a little more cushion over Cameron Smith, the second-hottest player in golf. But Scheffler’s drive on the 18th hole darted into the left trees, out of view. Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, saw the ball clip a branch and he tried to reassure his boss.
“We’re like, No big deal, we’ll just be over there and chip out. Whatever,” Scheffler said.
But then the spotter couldn’t immediately locate the ball. Neither could the limited number of patrons in the area – Scheffler’s quick hook had traveled only about 225 yards.
“We saw the guy with the flag that always finds the balls kind of panicking,” Scheffler said. “I was like, Oh, crap. Wonder what’s going on?”
Full-field scores from the 86th Masters Tournament
Those three-minute searches can expire quickly, but Scheffler’s wayward drive was eventually found in a bush. He took an unplayable lie, slashed a 3-iron to the back of the green and walked off with a bogey that felt much better.
This Masters was no longer a coronation, not yet anyway: Up by seven at one point Saturday, Scheffler signed for a 1-under 71 that put him just three shots ahead of Smith heading into the final round.
“You want to play in the Masters with a three-shot lead on Sunday,” said Scheffler’s swing coach, Randy Smith. “Plus, think about this: What did he shoot, 1 under par? Some guys came to him. I thought today 2 under par was going to be the benchmark. In the back of my head, I thought that would be a good, solid performance. He could have shot better than that, but he didn’t just blow his foot off.”
No, but Scheffler at least stubbed his toe.
When he birdied the par-5 eighth hole, Scheffler was seven shots ahead of his closest pursuers. He played 2 over par to the house.
There was the 12th hole, when he found the bunker short and then blasted over the back of the green.
There was the 14th hole, when his wedge shot spun back off the front of the green and left a nasty pitch.
There was the 15th hole, when he wedged to 30 feet and then three-putted.
“He made a couple of mistakes,” Smith said, “but think about this: He didn’t pay the maximum penalty.”
He made bogey, not worse.
“He’s gotta stay on the offensive side,” Smith said. “That’s offense, with a great deal of common sense.”
This windswept Masters has been winnowed down to three contenders, the only players within six shots: Scheffler, winner of three of his past five events; Smith, who captured The Players in his most recent start; and Sungjae Im, the co-runner-up here in 2020 (with Smith) who came home in 32 Saturday to move within five.
It's rare that the final group will feature the two best players of the calendar year so far; Scheffler and Smith, respectively, have earned the most world-ranking points this season. Scheffler could become the fourth player to win the Masters while ranked No. 1.
“It should be a great fight tomorrow,” Scheffler said. “Both of us are in good form, so I’m definitely looking forward to the challenge of playing with him tomorrow.”
After the round, Randy Smith and Scott appeared eager to get to the tournament practice area before nightfall.
“I can’t tell you what happened on the 18th tee,” Smith said, “but I’m going to find out.”
Scheffler, too, seemed in a hurry, breezing through post-round questions about his New Jersey roots, about his family’s sacrifices growing up, about his relationship with Scott, who was on the bag for both of Bubba Watson’s Masters titles.
Soon after his media obligations, Scheffler appeared on the range, his bay illuminated by floodlights. He said that it wasn’t uncommon for him to head there post-round, that it’s part of his normal routine, that it helps him wind down and reinforce good habits. But it still was a bit unsettling to see the 54-hole leader, coming off a second nine with just three pars, working until the lights cut out.
“Scrapping and scraping,” Smith said of the day.
But most importantly: Still leading.
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https://www.golfchannel.com/news/2022-masters-scottie-scheffler-leads-three-saturday-wobbles-make-sunday-more-intriguing
| 2022-04-10T04:07:27
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https://www.golfchannel.com/news/2022-masters-scottie-scheffler-leads-three-saturday-wobbles-make-sunday-more-intriguing
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AUGUSTA, Ga. – Cameron Smith watches leaderboards, it’s just how he’s wired, and for the lion’s share of Saturday’s third frame at the Masters, he didn’t like the picture the iconic boards painted.
“Every hole, every chance there was. I believe in just looking at what you need to do,” Smith said when asked if he was watching leaderboards on Day 3. “The goal was today to keep making birdies. Scottie [Scheffler] was making birdies, so just trying to keep up.”
For much of an uncharacteristically cold day, Scheffler was treating the 86th Masters as his personal proving grounds, extending his lead to seven shots with a 3-under outward nine. And even when the world No. 1 blinked late in the day with bogeys at Nos. 12, 14 and 15, he was still in control with a four-shot lead when he stepped to the 18th tee.
The difference when he finally finished the uphill closing hole was just a single stroke. But in the hearts and minds of those who were looking for even the slightest sign of hope, it was huge.
Full-field scores from the 86th Masters Tournament
Scheffler pulled his drive off the 18th tee into the towering pines, took a drop and finished with a bogey for a wild 71 that included six birdies, four bogeys and eight pars.
What was shaping up to be a coronation late Saturday is now, at the least, a curiosity with Scheffler at 9 under and leading Smith by three shots with Sungjae Im five shots off the pace.
Scheffler, the winner of three of his last five PGA Tour starts, would still be the prohibitive favorite. But there is room, however slight, to consider the alternative.
Statistically, this is as clean as major championships get with the last 32 Masters champions coming from the top 5 through three rounds, which narrows Sunday’s list of would-be champions to Smith, Im, Shane Lowry and Charl Schwartzel, who are tied at 2 under and seven shots off the pace.
It's not the best-case scenario, but it’s a scenario.
“There's no point in going out there and standing up and hitting a 7-iron straight at the flag on the first because that's not going to work around Augusta,” Lowry said. “You just need to play your game plan and plod my way around the course like I've been doing and see where it leaves me at the end of the day.”
As well as Scheffler has played this season – and this week the math is probably not in Lowry and Schwartzel’s favor – there will probably need to be some sort of internal pep talk before the duo’s final round.
It was probably a similar conversation in 2011 when Rory McIlroy was on cruise control to his first Masters victory. The Northern Irishman was four shots clear of the field with 18 holes to play before a nervy first nine turned into a crippling finish that included a triple-bogey 7 (No. 10), bogey (No. 11) and double-bogey 5 (No. 12). It was a closing 80 and a tie for 15th and, as McIlroy explained, “13 years in a row empty-handed.”
Or if the game’s best needed another paradigm of hope, they could revisit the 2016 edition when Jordan Spieth led by a shot heading into the final frame a year after winning the tournament for the first time. It didn’t appear as if Spieth was going to claim his second green jacket, it felt like he was going to win all of the green jackets.
Like McIlroy, Spieth’s title hopes unraveled just past the turn when he played Nos. 10-12 in 6 over for an inward loop of 41.
There is a common theme here. In both cases the eventual winner put on a Sunday show – with Danny Willett in ’16 finishing with a 67 for victory and Schwartzel finishing with four consecutive birdies in ’11 to claim his green jacket – to go along with a healthy dose of help. It’s the latter that remains a variable.
Scheffler hadn’t shown many cracks this week until his closing nine on Saturday and he didn’t sound like a guy who was unnerved by the notion of winning his first major.
“Being in this position it's nice to be in control of the golf tournament. All I'm trying to do out there is be committed to my shots and execute, and after that it's not really up to me,” Scheffler said. “I'm looking forward to the challenge of tomorrow.”
Smith will be paired with Scheffler on Sunday in the day’s final group and won’t need to spend much time eying Augusta National’s ubiquitous leaderboards. But without a little bit of help from the 54-hole leader, the Australian probably won’t like what he sees.
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https://www.golfchannel.com/news/2022-masters-scottie-schefflers-win-or-lose-there-are-some-alternative-scenarios
| 2022-04-10T04:07:33
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Mason City police investigate third shooting in the span of a week
ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Mason City police are investigating the city’s third shooting in the span of three days.
It happened around 10 p.m. Thursday night in the 600 block of 10th Street NE. Police found a home there struck by gun fire.
No one was hurt in the incident and it doesn’t appear to be related to the other two shootings that happened earlier in Mason City this week.
“While the events over the last three days are certainly cause for concern, we urge our community to respond productively to these challenges. It is an opportunity for leadership for parents, mentors, and those with information about these incidents to share it with law enforcement,” MCPD said in a statement to KTTC. “It is also a chance to model what responsible citizenship looks like for young people in our community. Our residents are co-producers of public safety with MCPD. We appreciate your support and cooperation as we look to hold accountable those who have been responsible for these incidents this week.”
Anyone with information, or video surveillance, is asked to call MCPD at 641-421-3636.
RELATED STORIES:
Shots fired near Mason City apartment building (kttc.com)
Mason City Police Department investigating overnight shooting (kttc.com)
Copyright 2022 KTTC. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/10/mason-city-police-investigate-third-shooting-span-week/
| 2022-04-10T04:09:50
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Woman faces Texas murder charge after self-induced abortion
(AP) - A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.
It’s unclear whether Lizelle Herrera is accused of having an abortion or whether she helped someone else get an abortion.
Herrera was arrested Thursday and remained jailed Saturday on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement.
“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” Delgado said.
Delgado did not say under what law Herrera has been charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday because the case remains under investigation.
Texas law exempts her from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her own pregnancy, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press.
“(Homicide) doesn’t apply to the murder of an unborn child if the conduct charged is ‘conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child,’” Vladeck said.
A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.
The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.
However, some states still have laws that criminalize self-induced abortions “and there have been a handful of prosecutions here and there over the years,” Vladeck said.
“It is murder in Texas to take steps that terminate a fetus, but when a medical provider does it, it can’t be prosecuted” due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding the constitutionality of abortion, Vladeck said.
Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women also noted the state law exemption.
“What’s a little mysterious in this case is, what crime has this woman been charged with?” Paltrow said. “There is no statute in Texas that, even on its face, authorizes the arrest of a woman for a self-managed abortion.”
Another Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion-inducing medications after the seventh week of pregnancy and prohibits delivery of the pills by mail.
Medication abortions are not considered self-induced under federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, Vladeck said.
“You can only receive the medication under medical supervision,” according to Vladeck. “I realize this sounds weird because you are taking the pill yourself, but it is under a providers’ at least theoretical care.”
In Rio Grande City on Saturday the abortion rights group Frontera Fund called for Herrera’s release.
“We don’t yet know all the details surrounding this tragic event,” said Rockie Gonzales, founder and board chair of of the organization.
“What we do know is that criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent,” Gonzalez said.
Nancy Cárdenas Peña, Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said in a statement that abortion should be available on the woman’s own terms where she feels most comfortable.
“Allowing criminal law to be used against people who have ended their own pregnancies serves no reasonable state purpose, but may cause great harm to young people, people with lower incomes, and communities of color, who are most likely to encounter or be reported to law enforcement,” Peña said.
___
Miller reported from Oklahoma City and Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press reporter Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
| 2022-04-10T04:09:57
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WHO WAS happier to learn Matt Mowers voted twice in presidential primaries in two different states in 2016? Gov. Chris Sununu, or the field of candidates competing against Mowers for the Republican nomination in the 1st Congressional District?
As widely reported, Sununu, appearing at the exclusive Gridiron Club dinner, called Donald Trump crazy, with an expletive added. While Sununu may be a hoot on the road, ingratiating himself with the tony Beltway establishment, he bombed at home with us not-so-tony Granite Staters.
Longtime state representative and Trump supporter Al Baldasaro called Sununu a joke, while Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski reported there were Republicans looking for a candidate to primary Sununu.
Even if Sununu’s remarks do not precipitate a primary, they will hurt his reelection prospects if enough Republicans decide to leave the gubernatorial line blank in November. He already had alienated some of the party faithful by not running for the United States Senate and vetoing congressional redistricting maps.
The ripple effect goes beyond Trumpists. Whether you like Sununu’s “Governor Bro” persona or not, there just is something gross about a middle-aged governor trying to impress a tuxedoed crowd of Washington insiders by yelling expletives.
A few commentators remarked on Sununu’s courage. No, courage would be Sununu standing up at a New Hampshire Republican State Committee meeting and saying, clearly and seriously, that it is time to put Trump behind them.
In response to the negative New Hampshire reviews, Sununu went on a media tour announcing it was all a joke and that anyone taking his comments seriously did not “get” politics. No, we get politics, governor.
We get that you were trying to burnish your credentials with national media outlets like MSNBC, CNN and others that have adopted you as their pet Republican.
We get that you are looking beyond New Hampshire to a potential 2024 run for national office.
What you do not get is that pandering and dropping f-bombs in D.C., then smirking about it back home, raises questions about your sincerity and judgment that are not joking matters for New Hampshire voters.
Luckily for Sununu, the Mowers scandal, voting in two different states, chased the governor off the front pages.
Mowers, a native and longtime New Jerseyite, first landed in New Hampshire working for the state Republican Party. He then bounced around, working for Chris Christie’s 2016 presidential campaign and then Trump’s presidential campaign, eventually landing at the State Department. After a short stint as a political consultant, Mowers returned to New Hampshire in 2020 to run for congress, losing to Chris Pappas.
Fortuitously for Mowers, no one looked up his voter registration history back then. If they had, they would have discovered that Mowers’ voter registration also bounced around, from New Jersey to New Hampshire to New Jersey to New Hampshire. The problem is that Mowers voted in the 2016 presidential primaries both here and in New Jersey.
Big oops, for two reasons. First, a federal statute, 52 USC 10307, prohibits voting more than once in an election, which applies, inter alia, to any primary held solely or in part to select any candidate for the office of president. Second, New Hampshire Republicans have been alleging voter fraud ever since they started losing to Democrats in the 1990s. The Mowers controversy undermines an entire issue — an issue that Trump has been pushing nationally to explain away his defeat.
Mowers’ response, as congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt put it, was to hide behind his lawyer, who tried to pooh-pooh the controversy. That did not help.
Mowers eventually consented to an interview in which he claimed Hillary Clinton was trying to smear him and that he voted twice to help Donald Trump.
You know a Republican is in trouble when they play both the Clinton and the Trump cards.
Frank Guinta, the last Republican to hold the seat, also was a New Jersey transplant. He lost following a campaign finance scandal. No matter how much the district boundaries may change, it is doubtful that 1st Congressional District voters will want another representative with character questions.
This controversy and his fumbled response are making Mowers the former front-runner for the nomination.
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/kathleen-sullivan-who-was-happier-to-learn-mowers-voted-twice/article_9f629ab7-b637-5728-a931-c14971a712b5.html
| 2022-04-10T04:19:50
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/kathleen-sullivan-who-was-happier-to-learn-mowers-voted-twice/article_9f629ab7-b637-5728-a931-c14971a712b5.html
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SPEAKING OF the seven-week war in Ukraine ignited by Vladimir Putin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is warning us to expect a war that lasts for years.
“I do think this is a very protracted conflict ... measured in years,” Milley told Congress. “I don’t know about a decade, but at least years, for sure.”
As our first response, said Milley, we should build more military bases in Eastern Europe and begin to rotate U.S. troops in and out.
Yet this sounds like a prescription for a Cold War II that America ought to avert, not fight. For the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, while a declared goal of U.S. policy, is not a vital U.S. interest to justify risking a calamitous war with Russia.
Proof of that political reality lies in political facts.
For 40 years of the Cold War, Ukraine was an integral part of the Soviet Union. In 1991, Bush I warned Ukrainian secessionists, who wanted to sever ties to Russia, not to indulge such “suicidal nationalism.”
And though we brought 14 new nations into NATO after 1991, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama never brought in Ukraine.
Indeed, during the seven weeks of this war, President Joe Biden has refused to transfer to Ukraine the 28 MIG-29s that Poland offered to make available, if the U.S. would replace the Polish MIGs with U.S. fighter jets.
Biden has warned that this could ignite a collision with Russia that could lead to World War III. And he is not going to risk a third world war that could escalate to nuclear war — for Ukraine.
What is Biden saying by denying the MIGs to Ukraine?
That preventing Russia from amputating Donbas, Crimea and the Black Sea coast of Ukraine is not a U.S. interest so vital as to be worth our risking war with Russia. Ukraine is not only outside NATO; it is outside the perimeter of U.S. vital interests justifying war.
This crisis in Ukraine is calling forth the larger question:
For whom and for what should the United States go to war with a nation with a larger nuclear arsenal than our own, but which does not directly threaten us?
Currently, the Beltway war hawks and neocons are bristling with demands the U.S. send the MIGs to Ukraine, and the S-300 air-defense system, and anti-ship missiles to sink Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
They tell us Putin is blustering and bluffing when he suggests that Moscow might use tactical nuclear weapons rather than accept defeat and humiliation in Ukraine.
Yet, looking at a cost-benefit analysis of continuing this war, it would appear that the sooner it ends, the better.
For who would be the likely winners and the losers of Milley’s “protracted conflict” that will last “at least years for sure”?
The greatest losers would be the nation and people of Ukraine.
Already, in seven weeks, 10 million Ukrainians have been uprooted from their homes, and 4 million of them have fled the country. That is a fourth of the nation uprooted, and a tenth lost to Ukraine.
Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have died resisting the invasion. Thousands may have been murdered. Cities like Kharkiv have been horribly damaged, with Mariupol on the Sea of Azov destroyed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s willingness to negotiate with Putin after the proven atrocities and to accept temporary occupation of part of Ukraine suggests that he knows that, from here on out, Ukraine, which has won the first battles, could steadily lose the longer war.
Indeed, if the known huge losses for Ukraine came from the first seven weeks of fighting, what will be the losses from a second seven weeks, or a third, on the bloody road to Milley’s long war?
Putin’s Russia is a second loser in this war.
The initial invasion failed to capture Kiev or Kharkiv. The Russian army around Kiev has departed and, reportedly, many thousands of Russian troops have been killed, wounded, captured or gone missing.
The Russian economy is suffering from severe sanctions.
Yet over 80% of the Russian people still support Putin and his war. And Russia’s renewed drive into the Donbas and to take the Black Sea coast of Ukraine from Crimea to Odessa is not yet lost.
But while Ukraine and Russia have suffered greatly, the U.S. and NATO have suffered barely at all. Nor has China, which stands to be the major beneficiary when a bleeding, isolated Russia goes in search of support.
What Americans have to worry about is the long war that Gen. Milley is predicting, and the possibility that Russia’s continued bleeding causes it to resort to tactical nuclear weapons to end the losses and humiliation and prevent an outright defeat.
Thus, the sooner this war ends, the better for us and our friends — even if it means having to talk to the man Biden cannot stop calling a war criminal and clamoring for his prosecution.
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/patrick-j-buchanan-who-wins-who-loses-gen-milleys-long-war/article_ea7b9af0-e4c6-5168-9b3d-6985c895b85a.html
| 2022-04-10T04:19:56
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/columnists/patrick-j-buchanan-who-wins-who-loses-gen-milleys-long-war/article_ea7b9af0-e4c6-5168-9b3d-6985c895b85a.html
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Two New Hampshire men who continue to contribute much to public understanding of America are filmmaker Ken Burns and writer Dayton Duncan. Their latest work, a two-part series on Benjamin Franklin, has just aired on PBS. It is one of their best efforts.
With civics and American history receiving little if any attention in our schools, Franklin for many is reduced to a man holding a kite in a storm or a sayer of witty things. He was so much more and Burns and Duncan show how in a way that should engage both antsy school kids and easily-bored adults.
Their use of interspersing colorful art work and music with interviews of historians and the spoken words of their subjects is familiar to many. It can be tedious at times but not in the Franklin series. We are not sure if that’s because they have become so good at it or because Franklin gives them so much great material with which to work. Either way, it works well.
The Franklin series comes at a good time. The nation is once again caught up in bitter political turmoil and dissension. Understanding what Franklin and his peers went through in birthing the United States can be most helpful if we will take the time to watch, listen, and learn.
Further on the matter of Gov. Chris Sununu’s remarks regarding Donald Trump at an elegant Washington dinner last weekend. (And, no, we won’t even touch the subsequent COVID-19 outbreak.)
Chris Sununu would like all of us (press, people, politicos) to “lighten up” and understand that he was only joking about Donald Trump in a Washington appearance the other night.
The boxer Tyson Fury didn’t become great by taking the lineal heavyweight boxing crown when he beat Ukrainian war hero Wladimir Klitchko in what amounted to a 12-round dance off years ago. Fury became great by getting off the canvas to salvage a draw against Deontay Wilder years later. A win…
Donna Soucy, Democrat, deplores an attempt to ensure that only legitimate New Hampshire residents vote in New Hampshire elections. She and her party colleagues in the state Senate voted last week against a bill that would strengthen election integrity without harming in any way the rights of…
In a column we publish today, UNH President James Dean provides a cogent summary of accomplishments at the state university in the past four years since he took the helm. It’s quite a list and we commend it to you.
We hope the new spokesman for New Hampshire’s Attorney General misspoke last week. In refusing to provide the public with records regarding a fired state police officer, the spokesman said this is a case “about protecting the private, personnel records of the tens of thousands of public empl…
One good thing about the price of gasoline: It underscores how New Hampshire’s low-tax philosophy has kept motorists here in better shape than other states.
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/ben-franklin-a-solid-pbs-series/article_0da58cb1-2160-59ee-957b-710b322fb73b.html
| 2022-04-10T04:20:02
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/ben-franklin-a-solid-pbs-series/article_0da58cb1-2160-59ee-957b-710b322fb73b.html
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As a Chris Christie campaign aide, Mowers came to New Hampshire and took advantage of New Hampshire’s liberal law to vote in the first-in-the-nation primary. Christie, like many, got crushed by Donald Trump here.
Next, Mowers found work on the Trump campaign. He left New Hampshire and, using his parents’ New Jersey address, voted in that state’s June presidential and state party primary.
In 2020, Mowers was not only back in New Hampshire, he was running for the U.S. Congress. He lost. But this time he stayed on.
He is running for the same seat this year and is campaigning for, among other things, voter integrity.
Some politicians here want to alter the political map to make the First District seat a “safe one” for Republicans. Should Mowers be their nominee, unless he concedes his colossal error, there isn’t a map serpentine enough to assure that result.
Further on the matter of Gov. Chris Sununu’s remarks regarding Donald Trump at an elegant Washington dinner last weekend. (And, no, we won’t even touch the subsequent COVID-19 outbreak.)
Chris Sununu would like all of us (press, people, politicos) to “lighten up” and understand that he was only joking about Donald Trump in a Washington appearance the other night.
The boxer Tyson Fury didn’t become great by taking the lineal heavyweight boxing crown when he beat Ukrainian war hero Wladimir Klitchko in what amounted to a 12-round dance off years ago. Fury became great by getting off the canvas to salvage a draw against Deontay Wilder years later. A win…
Donna Soucy, Democrat, deplores an attempt to ensure that only legitimate New Hampshire residents vote in New Hampshire elections. She and her party colleagues in the state Senate voted last week against a bill that would strengthen election integrity without harming in any way the rights of…
In a column we publish today, UNH President James Dean provides a cogent summary of accomplishments at the state university in the past four years since he took the helm. It’s quite a list and we commend it to you.
We hope the new spokesman for New Hampshire’s Attorney General misspoke last week. In refusing to provide the public with records regarding a fired state police officer, the spokesman said this is a case “about protecting the private, personnel records of the tens of thousands of public empl…
One good thing about the price of gasoline: It underscores how New Hampshire’s low-tax philosophy has kept motorists here in better shape than other states.
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/jersey-barrier-mowers-bad-move/article_f7879d28-7c52-5cf7-9370-7081a2c903fb.html
| 2022-04-10T04:20:08
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/jersey-barrier-mowers-bad-move/article_f7879d28-7c52-5cf7-9370-7081a2c903fb.html
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Say the name of Tom Griffith to a Granite Stater and he or she is likely to think: solid, reliable, reassuring, reserved, and responsible.
In a news career of almost 35 years at WMUR-TV, Griffith has engendered confidence, not controversy. That’s remarkable.
Griffith, who has announced his upcoming June retirement from the daily grind, is a bit of a throwback in TV news. Never a prima donna, he took on whatever work was required and did it well. He has been an asset to New Hampshire. We will miss him.
MUCH OF WHAT can be said for Tom Griffith in his profession could and was often said of the late Judge Joe DiClerico in his work.
DiClerico died a week ago at age 81. He gave his life to the law and to New Hampshire, clerking for the state’s supreme court and serving as an assistant attorney general before beginning his own distinguished career as a judge on the superior court. He rose to become chief justice of that court.
He moved on to the U.S. District Court in Concord and occasionally on the First Circuit in Boston. He also took on many oversight and governance roles with the court. In retirement, he didn’t slow down much, serving on many boards of worthwhile groups.
There was a line in his obituary that struck us as being at the heart of his judicial makeup and of the man himself. It said he greatly admired the conscientiousness of New Hampshire citizens picked for jury service. “He held the firm belief that a well-instructed jury would render the right decision.”
No doubt his Maker has rendered the right decision and fitted Judge DiClerico for heavenly robes.
Further on the matter of Gov. Chris Sununu’s remarks regarding Donald Trump at an elegant Washington dinner last weekend. (And, no, we won’t even touch the subsequent COVID-19 outbreak.)
Chris Sununu would like all of us (press, people, politicos) to “lighten up” and understand that he was only joking about Donald Trump in a Washington appearance the other night.
The boxer Tyson Fury didn’t become great by taking the lineal heavyweight boxing crown when he beat Ukrainian war hero Wladimir Klitchko in what amounted to a 12-round dance off years ago. Fury became great by getting off the canvas to salvage a draw against Deontay Wilder years later. A win…
Donna Soucy, Democrat, deplores an attempt to ensure that only legitimate New Hampshire residents vote in New Hampshire elections. She and her party colleagues in the state Senate voted last week against a bill that would strengthen election integrity without harming in any way the rights of…
In a column we publish today, UNH President James Dean provides a cogent summary of accomplishments at the state university in the past four years since he took the helm. It’s quite a list and we commend it to you.
We hope the new spokesman for New Hampshire’s Attorney General misspoke last week. In refusing to provide the public with records regarding a fired state police officer, the spokesman said this is a case “about protecting the private, personnel records of the tens of thousands of public empl…
One good thing about the price of gasoline: It underscores how New Hampshire’s low-tax philosophy has kept motorists here in better shape than other states.
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/true-professionals-griffith-and-diclerico/article_dbb133ec-4fdd-52f2-8a61-683c8566d04d.html
| 2022-04-10T04:20:14
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/editorials/true-professionals-griffith-and-diclerico/article_dbb133ec-4fdd-52f2-8a61-683c8566d04d.html
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-election-integrity-for-thee-not-for-me/article_25df416a-6737-53e8-b4ab-15ae3f1d22f7.html
| 2022-04-10T04:20:20
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-election-integrity-for-thee-not-for-me/article_25df416a-6737-53e8-b4ab-15ae3f1d22f7.html
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THANKFULLY, New Hampshire’s economy is growing. But inflation is at a 40-year high, and soaring gas and energy prices are taking a big bite out of the wallets of New Hampshire families. Over the past decade, Republicans in the state Senate have safeguarded the New Hampshire economy by limiting spending growth and cutting taxes, resulting in booming revenues that we can now use to help Granite Staters fight inflation. As the Union Leader recently wrote, our plan “is more akin to the fiscal responsibility that Granite Staters expect.”
Thanks to fiscal discipline and our sound conservative budgets, New Hampshire businesses have come roaring out of the pandemic. In March alone, state tax revenues were more than $50 million ahead of our budget estimates. For Fiscal Year 2022, which ends in June, we estimate that revenues will exceed projections by at least $250 million. We project additional surplus revenues next year.
The Senate has found a way to get this surplus back to New Hampshire taxpayers. It’s your money. Rather than permanently ramp up state spending, we can distribute the surplus as one-time funds sent back for local schools and construction projects. Cities and towns can use this additional state aid to replace local spending and lower their local property tax rates.
This is the prudent, conservative approach that Senate Republicans have taken to managing our state’s budget. And it has delivered tremendous results. New Hampshire has long been ranked one of the safest in the nation. In fact, recent FBI data rank us the safest. U.S. News says New Hampshire is the top state for livability, and we have among the highest levels of per capita income. We have the lowest poverty rate in the nation, and one of the lowest unemployment rates. The Cato Institute recently crowned New Hampshire as the freest state in America.
We have focused spending on our most vulnerable populations, emphasizing education, public safety, mental health, and substance abuse prevention. At the same time, we have lowered tax rates to help encourage job creation, helping New Hampshire grow. That has resulted in booming state revenues. Let’s make sure New Hampshire families can share directly in those benefits.
The Senate Republican property tax relief plan includes $24.3 million over the next two years in Extraordinary Need Grants for New Hampshire schools. These grants will be targeted to districts with the greatest economic need, supplementing the Adequate Education Aid tied to every student in the state.
The House and Senate have already approved $12.65 million in state funding for local waste water projects, relieving some of the burden on local taxpayers. The Senate has also approved $5 million to increase nursing homes rates, helping to lower county property taxes.
Our latest package of property tax relief includes $36 million for the State Aid Bridge program, $30 million for municipal road projects, and an additional $1 million for local police departments to purchase body-worn and dashboard camera systems. In total, we’re proposing $109 million in new state aid to lower local property taxes.
That’s in addition to the increases in state education funding in last year’s budget, the $31 million annual increase in Rooms and Meals revenue sharing, and the $100 million cut to the Statewide Property Tax going to every taxpayer in the state next year.
When we began the process of lowering New Hampshire’s high business tax rates in order to make our economy more competitive, opponents claimed that cutting taxes would “blow a $90 million hole in the budget.” On the contrary, the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy found that over the past decade, as we were steadily lowering the rates of the Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax, New Hampshire business tax revenues exceeded projections by $650 million. Lowering rates created jobs and helped companies grow and thrive, generating higher revenues than if we had left tax rates high. Contrary to claims of those who wanted higher taxes, the Department of Revenue Administration reports that nearly 90% of BPT taxpayers are companies headquartered in New Hampshire.
When we lower the cost of government in Concord, we can help lower the cost of living for everyone in New Hampshire. We are proud to have gained broad, bipartisan support for this property tax relief plan. It shows that good government can still happen when we do things the New Hampshire way.
By sending surplus revenues to our cities and towns, we hope to lower property taxes again for everyone in the Granite State.
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/sens-chuck-morse-jeb-bradley-fighting-inflation-with-state-surplus-revenues/article_8ff994f5-0fa0-5f51-90b4-c3c14df5141f.html
| 2022-04-10T04:20:26
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https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/op-eds/sens-chuck-morse-jeb-bradley-fighting-inflation-with-state-surplus-revenues/article_8ff994f5-0fa0-5f51-90b4-c3c14df5141f.html
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ROGERS, Ark. — There is a certain stigma surrounding suicide. Some people have a hard time talking about it and even thinking about it. Student and staff organizers of the Out of the Darkness walk at Rogers High School want to erase that stigma once and for all.
“It’s really not something that should be difficult to talk about,” said Alyssa Huerta, an Out of the Darkness student organizer. “I know it definitely is, especially with people our age, but it shouldn’t be because it’s about our lives that we’re talking about, our loved ones.”
Saturday’s event drew a crowd of hundreds from all over the Rogers community. Members of the military, first responders, parents, teachers, and students from surrounding high schools all came together with one goal in mind: raising suicide awareness and prevention.
“It’s hard on a lot of people and for us to be able to put this on to help these people to see that people care, this is a whole community event, we’re here for each other,” said Payton Parsons, a student organizer for the Out of the Darkness Walk.
Opening the door for dialogue about suicide, recognizing when someone might need help, and having difficult conversations are all steps in the right direction for making a difference.
“It might save someone’s life and that’s what we’re here to do,” said Lakyn Crumbly, a teacher at Rogers High School. “Suicide is everyone’s business and ultimately, having those tough conversations can save a life. One person can make a huge change.”
People at the event wore colored beaded necklaces to represent their own personal connection to suicide. The eventual goal is for everyone to wear blue in support of suicide prevention.
Saturday’s walk was free, but any donations received went to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The organization gives eighty percent of all proceeds back to communities and with the remainder going towards education and training.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/rogers-community-walks-for-suicide-prevention-awareness/527-aff311a6-fb56-42b1-a486-094a338cd853
| 2022-04-10T04:27:49
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/rogers-community-walks-for-suicide-prevention-awareness/527-aff311a6-fb56-42b1-a486-094a338cd853
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Woman faces Texas murder charge after self-induced abortion
(AP) - A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.
It’s unclear whether Lizelle Herrera is accused of having an abortion or whether she helped someone else get an abortion.
Herrera was arrested Thursday and remained jailed Saturday on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement.
“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” Delgado said.
Delgado did not say under what law Herrera has been charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday because the case remains under investigation.
Texas law exempts her from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her own pregnancy, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press.
“(Homicide) doesn’t apply to the murder of an unborn child if the conduct charged is ‘conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child,’” Vladeck said.
A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.
The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.
However, some states still have laws that criminalize self-induced abortions “and there have been a handful of prosecutions here and there over the years,” Vladeck said.
“It is murder in Texas to take steps that terminate a fetus, but when a medical provider does it, it can’t be prosecuted” due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding the constitutionality of abortion, Vladeck said.
Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women also noted the state law exemption.
“What’s a little mysterious in this case is, what crime has this woman been charged with?” Paltrow said. “There is no statute in Texas that, even on its face, authorizes the arrest of a woman for a self-managed abortion.”
Another Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion-inducing medications after the seventh week of pregnancy and prohibits delivery of the pills by mail.
Medication abortions are not considered self-induced under federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, Vladeck said.
“You can only receive the medication under medical supervision,” according to Vladeck. “I realize this sounds weird because you are taking the pill yourself, but it is under a providers’ at least theoretical care.”
In Rio Grande City on Saturday the abortion rights group Frontera Fund called for Herrera’s release.
“We don’t yet know all the details surrounding this tragic event,” said Rockie Gonzales, founder and board chair of of the organization.
“What we do know is that criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent,” Gonzalez said.
Nancy Cárdenas Peña, Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said in a statement that abortion should be available on the woman’s own terms where she feels most comfortable.
“Allowing criminal law to be used against people who have ended their own pregnancies serves no reasonable state purpose, but may cause great harm to young people, people with lower incomes, and communities of color, who are most likely to encounter or be reported to law enforcement,” Peña said.
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Miller reported from Oklahoma City and Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press reporter Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
| 2022-04-10T04:32:10
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https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
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BOSTON — Sometimes, when glory seems so close to your grasp, you end up with heartbreak instead. That may be the theme of Minnesota State’s first trip to the national championship game, after the Mavericks controlled everything for 40 minutes, then saw their dreams of an NCAA title snatched away.
Third-period goals by Ryan Barrow, Mike Benning and Massimo Rizzo and a pair of empty-netters turned a Mavericks’ lead into a 5-1 Denver win, and a record-tying ninth national hockey title for the Pioneers.
Sam Morton had the lone goal for MSU, which stifled Denver’s offense for the first 40 minutes but could not build on its lead. That proved to be costly. Mavericks goalie Dryden McKay, who a day earlier had been honored as college hockey’s top player, had 15 saves but saw the team’s 18-game winning streak snapped on the game’s biggest stage.
The Pioneers, who won a share of the NCHC title in the regular season, got 27 saves from Magnus Chrona and turned the tables on the Mavericks in the final 20 minutes. Denver finishes with a 31-9-1 record, while MSU fell to 38-6-0 with the loss – the first by the Mavericks since late November.
Neither Denver nor MSU had taken a penalty in their opening round wins versus Michigan and Minnesota, respectively. That changed early on Saturday, as Benning went to the box for tripping, and the Mavs capitalized when Lucas Sowder’s cross-ice pass found Morton with lots of net to shoot at, and Morton — one of two Colorado natives on the MSU roster — scored for the early lead.
MSU also took a first-period penalty, but the Mavericks killed it off and held Denver to just three first-period shots on goal. The second period was more of the same. The Mavericks took a penalty. The Pioneers could do little offensively, and when they had rare chances to score, McKay was there. Denver averaged more than 37 shots on goal per game this season but had just eight in the first 40 minutes.
Denver finally got the equalizer early in the third, when Barrow popped the rebound of a Benning shot between McKay’s knees from close range. Benning blasted a rising shot past McKay soon after a Mavericks penalty had expired to give Denver its first lead. Rizzo capped off a 2-on-1 rush to the net in the latter half of the third period to give the Pioneers some breathing room.
Mavericks coach Mike Hastings pulled McKay with more than three minutes left, but MSU could not get anything else on the board. Instead it was Denver adding two empty-net goals for the final margin. It was the fifth NCAA title won by a team from the NCHC in the last six Frozen Fours.
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https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/09/denver-snatches-ncaa-title-from-msu-mankato-with-five-goal-third-period/
| 2022-04-10T04:33:01
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https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/09/denver-snatches-ncaa-title-from-msu-mankato-with-five-goal-third-period/
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Former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt sparked a massive social media backlash Saturday over comments he made about the tragic death of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
Haskins, 24, was killed after he was hit by a dump truck Saturday morning on Interstate 595 near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
News of his death quickly spread on social media as fans, coaches and fellow players mourned “the loss of a great player” and “a truly great friend,” while also honoring the life and career of a “phenomenal teammate, person and friend.”
But after Brandt was asked about Haskins on NFL Radio on Saturday, several people took to social media to express outrage at the 90-year-old Hall-of-Famer’s “completely inappropriate” comments, which quickly went viral after they were shared on Twitter by NBC Sports’ Pete Damilatis.
“I hate anytime anybody is killed or anybody dies. But he was a guy that was living to be dead,” Brandt told Vic Carucci and Dan Leberfeld of Sirius XM NFL Radio.
“They told him don’t, under any circumstances, leave school early. You just don’t have the work habits. You don’t have this, you don’t have that. What did he do? Left school early,” he said.
Brandt added later in the interview: “Maybe if he stayed in school a year he wouldn’t do silly things … [like] jogging on a highway.”
Reactions came in swiftly and fiercely.
On Saturday afternoon, hours after the initial backlash, Brandt apologized for his “poor choice of words.”
“This morning while learning of Dwayne Haskins’ passing, I reacted carelessly and insensitively on a radio interview,” he tweeted.
“I want to apologize to Mr. Haskins’ family and anyone who heard my poor choice of words. I truly apologize. My heart goes out to his family at this difficult time,” he added.
The apology wasn’t universally accepted.
While some social media users agreed that “people make mistakes,” others were left wondering if Brandt actually wrote the apologetic tweet, and still others said it simply wasn’t enough.
“Sorry, I do not forgive you,” wrote Twitter user L. Sue Szabo. “You said what you said.”
“No way a 90-year-old tweeted this,” wrote Twitter user Daniel Moore. “But a 90-year-old definitely said what he said on the radio.”
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https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/09/gil-brandt-slammed-over-disgraceful-comments-on-qb-dwayne-haskins-death/
| 2022-04-10T04:33:07
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https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/09/gil-brandt-slammed-over-disgraceful-comments-on-qb-dwayne-haskins-death/
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By ADAM SCHRECK and CARA ANNA
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Civilian evacuations moved forward in patches of battle-scarred eastern Ukraine on Saturday, a day after a missile strike killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station where thousands clamored to leave before an expected Russian onslaught.
In the wake of the attack in Kramatorsk, several European leaders made efforts to show solidarity with Ukraine, with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visiting Kyiv — the capital city that Russia failed to capture and where troops retreated days ago. Johnson met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a surprise visit in which he pledged new military assistance, including 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems.
Zelenskyy noted the increased support in an Associated Press interview, but expressed frustration when asked if weapons and other equipment Ukraine has received from the West is sufficient to shift the war’s outcome.
“Not yet,” he said, switching to English for emphasis. “Of course it’s not enough.”
Zelenskyy later thanked Johnson and Nehammer during his nightly video address to the nation. He also thanked the European Commission president and the Canadian prime minister for a global fundraising event that raised more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for Ukrainians who have had to flee their homes. He added that democratic countries are united in working to stop the war. “Because Russian aggression was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone. … The entire European project is a target for Russia.”
Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, which he called the sources of Moscow’s “self-confidence and impunity.”
More than six weeks after the invasion began, Russia has pulled its troops from the northern part of the country, around Kyiv, and refocused on the Donbas region in the east. Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under Russian control, from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south. But counterattacks are threatening Russian control of Kherson, according to the Western assessments, and Ukrainian forces are repelling Russian assaults elsewhere in the Donbas.
Ukrainian authorities have called on civilians to get out ahead of an imminent, stepped-up offensive by Russian forces in the east. With trains not running out of Kramatorsk on Saturday, panicked residents boarded buses or looked for other ways to leave, fearing the kind of unrelenting assaults and occupations by Russian invaders that brought food shortages, demolished buildings and death to other cities.
“It was terrifying. The horror, the horror,” one resident told British broadcaster Sky, recalling Friday’s attack on the train station. “Heaven forbid, to live through this again. No, I don’t want to.”
Ukraine’s state railway company said residents of Kramatorsk and other parts of the Donbas could flee through other train stations. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 10 evacuation corridors were planned for Saturday.
Zelenskyy called the train station attack the latest example of war crimes by Russian forces and said it should motivate the West to do more to help his country defend itself.
Russia denied responsibility and accused Ukraine’s military of firing on the station to turn blame for civilian casualties on Moscow. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman detailed the missile’s trajectory and Ukrainian troop positions to bolster the argument.
Major Gen. Igor Konashenkov alleged Ukraine’s security services were preparing a “cynical staged” media operation in Irpin, another town near Kyiv, intended to attribute civilian casualties to Russian forces — falsely, he said — and to stage the slaying of a fake Russian intelligence team that intended to kill witnesses. The claims could not be independently verified.
Western experts and Ukrainian authorities insisted that Russia attacked the station. Remnants of the rocket had the words “For the children” in Russian painted on it. The phrasing seemed to suggest the missile was sent to avenge the loss or subjugation of children, although its exact meaning remained unclear.
Ukrainian authorities have worked to identify victims and document possible war crimes in the country’s north. The mayor of Bucha, a town near Kyiv where graphic evidence of civilian slayings emerged after Russian forces withdrew, said search teams were still finding bodies of people shot at close range in yards, parks and city squares.
Workers unearthed 67 bodies Friday from a mass grave near a church, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Russia has falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
Ukrainian and Western officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of committing atrocities. A total of 176 children have been killed, while 324 more have been wounded, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Saturday.
Speaking to AP inside the heavily guarded presidential office complex in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said he is committed to negotiating a diplomatic end to the war even though Russia has “tortured” Ukraine. He also acknowledged that peace likely will not come quickly. Talks so far have not included Russian President Vladimir Putin or other top officials.
“We have to fight, but fight for life. You can’t fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war,” he said.
Ukrainian authorities have said they expect to find more mass killings once they reach the southern port city of Mariupol, which is also in the Donbas and has been subjected to a monthlong blockade and intense fighting.
As journalists who had been largely absent from the city began to trickle back in, new images emerged of the devastation from an airstrike on a theater last month that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians seeking shelter.
Military analysts had predicted for weeks that Russia would succeed in taking Mariupol but said Ukrainian defenders were still putting up a fight. The city’s location on the Sea of Azov is critical to establishing a land bridge from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.
Many civilians now trying to evacuate are accustomed to living in or near a war zone because Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014 in the Donbas, a mostly Russian-speaking, industrial region.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded with Western powers almost daily to send more arms and further punish Moscow with sanctions, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the global financial system and a total EU embargo on Russian gas and oil.
Nehammer said during his visit to Kyiv that he expects more EU sanctions against Russia, but he defended his country’s opposition so far to cutting off deliveries of Russian gas.
A package of sanctions imposed this week “won’t be the last one,” the chancellor said, acknowledging that “as long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient.” Austria is militarily neutral and not a member of NATO.
Johnson’s visit came a day after the U.K. pledged an additional 100 million pounds ($130 million) in high-grade military equipment to Ukraine.
Johnson also confirmed further economic support, guaranteeing an additional $500 million in World Bank lending to Ukraine, taking Britain’s total loan guarantee to up to $1 billion.
___
Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Robert Burns in Washington, Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
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https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/09/more-flee-as-ukraine-warns-of-stepped-up-russian-attacks/
| 2022-04-10T04:33:13
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https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/09/more-flee-as-ukraine-warns-of-stepped-up-russian-attacks/
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FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A car crashed into a home on Fort Wayne’s Southeast side after it collided with another vehicle just before 4:00 p.m. on Saturday.
The crash between the two vehicles happened at the intersection of Winter Street and Colerick Street.
Fort Wayne Police say both drivers were treated by EMS on the scene, but only suffered minor injuries.
Both of the vehicles were damaged.
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https://www.wane.com/news/car-crashes-into-home-on-fort-waynes-southeast-side/
| 2022-04-10T04:37:52
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https://www.wane.com/news/car-crashes-into-home-on-fort-waynes-southeast-side/
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Woman faces Texas murder charge after self-induced abortion
(AP) - A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.
It’s unclear whether Lizelle Herrera is accused of having an abortion or whether she helped someone else get an abortion.
Herrera was arrested Thursday and remained jailed Saturday on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement.
“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” Delgado said.
Delgado did not say under what law Herrera has been charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday because the case remains under investigation.
Texas law exempts her from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her own pregnancy, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press.
“(Homicide) doesn’t apply to the murder of an unborn child if the conduct charged is ‘conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child,’” Vladeck said.
A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.
The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.
However, some states still have laws that criminalize self-induced abortions “and there have been a handful of prosecutions here and there over the years,” Vladeck said.
“It is murder in Texas to take steps that terminate a fetus, but when a medical provider does it, it can’t be prosecuted” due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding the constitutionality of abortion, Vladeck said.
Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women also noted the state law exemption.
“What’s a little mysterious in this case is, what crime has this woman been charged with?” Paltrow said. “There is no statute in Texas that, even on its face, authorizes the arrest of a woman for a self-managed abortion.”
Another Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion-inducing medications after the seventh week of pregnancy and prohibits delivery of the pills by mail.
Medication abortions are not considered self-induced under federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, Vladeck said.
“You can only receive the medication under medical supervision,” according to Vladeck. “I realize this sounds weird because you are taking the pill yourself, but it is under a providers’ at least theoretical care.”
In Rio Grande City on Saturday the abortion rights group Frontera Fund called for Herrera’s release.
“We don’t yet know all the details surrounding this tragic event,” said Rockie Gonzales, founder and board chair of of the organization.
“What we do know is that criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent,” Gonzalez said.
Nancy Cárdenas Peña, Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said in a statement that abortion should be available on the woman’s own terms where she feels most comfortable.
“Allowing criminal law to be used against people who have ended their own pregnancies serves no reasonable state purpose, but may cause great harm to young people, people with lower incomes, and communities of color, who are most likely to encounter or be reported to law enforcement,” Peña said.
___
Miller reported from Oklahoma City and Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press reporter Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
| 2022-04-10T04:43:10
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
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Woman faces Texas murder charge after self-induced abortion
(AP) - A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.
It’s unclear whether Lizelle Herrera is accused of having an abortion or whether she helped someone else get an abortion.
Herrera was arrested Thursday and remained jailed Saturday on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement.
“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” Delgado said.
Delgado did not say under what law Herrera has been charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday because the case remains under investigation.
Texas law exempts her from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her own pregnancy, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press.
“(Homicide) doesn’t apply to the murder of an unborn child if the conduct charged is ‘conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child,’” Vladeck said.
A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.
The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.
However, some states still have laws that criminalize self-induced abortions “and there have been a handful of prosecutions here and there over the years,” Vladeck said.
“It is murder in Texas to take steps that terminate a fetus, but when a medical provider does it, it can’t be prosecuted” due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding the constitutionality of abortion, Vladeck said.
Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women also noted the state law exemption.
“What’s a little mysterious in this case is, what crime has this woman been charged with?” Paltrow said. “There is no statute in Texas that, even on its face, authorizes the arrest of a woman for a self-managed abortion.”
Another Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion-inducing medications after the seventh week of pregnancy and prohibits delivery of the pills by mail.
Medication abortions are not considered self-induced under federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, Vladeck said.
“You can only receive the medication under medical supervision,” according to Vladeck. “I realize this sounds weird because you are taking the pill yourself, but it is under a providers’ at least theoretical care.”
In Rio Grande City on Saturday the abortion rights group Frontera Fund called for Herrera’s release.
“We don’t yet know all the details surrounding this tragic event,” said Rockie Gonzales, founder and board chair of of the organization.
“What we do know is that criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent,” Gonzalez said.
Nancy Cárdenas Peña, Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said in a statement that abortion should be available on the woman’s own terms where she feels most comfortable.
“Allowing criminal law to be used against people who have ended their own pregnancies serves no reasonable state purpose, but may cause great harm to young people, people with lower incomes, and communities of color, who are most likely to encounter or be reported to law enforcement,” Peña said.
___
Miller reported from Oklahoma City and Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press reporter Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
| 2022-04-10T04:47:18
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https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/10/woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/
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Posted: Apr 9, 2022 / 11:11 PM EDT Updated: Apr 9, 2022 / 11:11 PM EDT SHARE Close Modal Suggest a Correction Your name(required) Your email(required) Report a typo or grammatical error(required) Submit Δ Suggest a Correction
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https://fox59.com/hoosier-lottery/daily-3-daily-4-evening-drawing-april-9-2022/
| 2022-04-10T05:01:17
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https://fox59.com/hoosier-lottery/daily-3-daily-4-evening-drawing-april-9-2022/
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Q. I’ve been wanting to start my own small business for years. The only problem has been my current job. I make good money, but I also put in a lot of hours. About a month ago, I came up with an idea I think would be really successful. How do you feel about me handling the books of this new business, and generally overseeing things, but hiring a manager to handle the day-to-day operation?
A. I don’t like this idea very much. In fact, I hate it. If your idea is to crunch a few numbers, and stop by once in a while just to make an appearance, then I’d advise against the whole idea.
The big problem with your plan is that you are only a small part of the equation, when it’s supposed to be your business.
Get the latest local and national business news from Daily Journal Business Editor Dennis Seid in this exclusive Facebook group.
In one survey by Forbes.com, several successful entrepreneurs were asked how many hours per week they worked. Not one said less than 50, and the majority put in closer to 70 or 80 hours a week. While the latter may not be feasible if you’re already working a full-time job, the idea is the same. You have to love what you’re doing, and you must be willing to put in the time and effort to make it work.
When it comes to being a successful entrepreneur, you are the ideas. You are the passion, the vision, the energy and the desire to get things done and grow the business. If you don’t have the drive to be all those things, you’re better off not doing it at all. You’d have a better chance of making something work if you bought an existing business with a manager already in place.
I’m sorry. But in my mind, your idea – as it stands now – is a big disappointment just waiting to happen.
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https://www.djournal.com/news/business/dave-says-dont-waste-your-time-or-money-of-youre-not-serious/article_fce352e6-7ebd-507f-9f0e-cb316a6370f0.html
| 2022-04-10T05:11:37
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https://www.djournal.com/news/business/dave-says-dont-waste-your-time-or-money-of-youre-not-serious/article_fce352e6-7ebd-507f-9f0e-cb316a6370f0.html
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• Martha Swindle has been promoted to community relations specialist in the West Region for the Tennessee Valley Authority, reporting to Gabe Franceschi.
She previously served as management assistant in the West Region. In her new role, Martha will serve as a key TVA contact for civic leaders in West Tennessee while she supports community outreach opportunities for the region.
Before joining TVA in 2011, Swindle assisted in setting up small businesses in the Renasant Center for IDEAs.
• James P. Brown, a representative of Modern Woodmen of America in Tupelo, has been named to Modern Woodmen’s President’s Council.
This distinction recognizes Brown’s high achievement in the sales of financial products to meet families’ protection, savings and retirement needs. Brown ranks among the organization’s representatives nationwide.
Founded in 1883, Modern Woodmen of America is a fraternal financial services organization offering financial products and fraternal member benefits to individuals and families throughout the United States.
• North Mississippi Medical Center recently presented the DAISY Award to Madison Mitchell, RN, a charge nurse on 3 Central.
Mitchell was caring for a patient who was recovering from COVID-19. The patient’s husband had passed away a few days prior. “The patient shared with Madison that her husband nicknamed her ‘Blue’ as a term of endearment because he would give her a blue silk rose every time he picked her up for a date,” a coworker wrote in her nomination. “Madison was so touched by the story that she gifted this patient with a vase of blue silk roses in loving memory of her husband. Three Central is so honored to have such a kind-hearted RN like Madison.”
Mitchell, who lives in Amory, graduated from Amory High School in 2016 and earned an associate degree in biology from Itawamba Community College in 2018. She completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mississippi University for Women in 2021. Mitchell was hired at HealthWorks! in 2016 and served as a nursing intern and extern on 3 Central before joining the staff full-time upon graduation.
• North Mississippi Medical Center recently presented DAISY Awards to Jeremy Murphree and Larrah Wilbanks and a BEE Award to Jennifer Ray, all of 3 Central.
The trio was nominated by a friend of a former patient on 3 Central, the Pulmonary Stepdown Unit. The patient spent more than a month at NMMC before passing away at Sanctuary Hospice House. “It was so incredible that folks from NMMC were so compassionate and generous with their time that they would visit a former patient,” the friend wrote. “The crew appeared promptly at 2:00, bearing gifts. I had assumed they were stopping by on their way into work but I was mistaken. All three of them came by on their off days, impressing me even more.”
Murphree, who lives in Houston, is a registered nurse who joined the 3 Central staff in 2021 after completing a nursing externship and internship on the unit. After 15 years in the furniture industry and doing construction work, he completed an associate degree in nursing from Itawamba Community College in 2021.
Wilbanks is a charge nurse who joined the NMMC staff in 2018. A graduate of Saltillo High School, she earned her associate degree in nursing from ICC in 2018 and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mississippi University for Women in 2020. She now resides in Pontotoc.
Ray is a certified nursing assistant, unit coordinator and monitor technician. She lives in the Palmetto community and graduated from Pontotoc High School in 1985. After working as a private sitter for many years, she trained to become a certified nursing assistant at ICC and joined the NMMC staff in 2002.
• Orthopaedic surgeon Stephen Southworth, MD, of Orthopaedic Institute of North Mississippi recently provided valuable volunteer experience to the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery.
Dr. Southworth served as an ABOS Oral Examiner. Dr. Southworth and several other leading surgeons from across the country collaborated to evaluate candidates hoping to obtain ABOS Board Certification.
To achieve Board Certification from the ABOS, Dr. Southworth first successfully completed a five-year residency program in orthopaedic surgery which was accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and then passed the rigorous ABOS Part I Examination, a comprehensive computer-based examination encompassing all facets of the field of orthopaedic surgery.
Following that examination, Dr. Southworth’s clinical competence was evaluated through a credentialing process and the ABOS Part II Oral Examination. After providing ABOS with a Case List of all surgeries performed over a six-month period, experienced surgeons selected 12 of these cases to comprise Dr. Southworth’s Part II Oral Examination. Specific skills that are evaluated during that examination include data gathering and interpretive skills, diagnostic skills, treatment expertise, technical skills, patient outcomes, and applied orthopaedic and medical knowledge.
After passing both the written and oral examinations, Dr. Southworth achieved ABOS Board Certification in Orthopaedic Surgery and is now considered a Diplomate of the ABOS. In order to maintain ABOS Board Certification, a Diplomate must pass a recertification examination, receive positive reviews from peers in their practice area, have a selected period of surgical cases evaluated, and participate in continuing medical education.
• Pinnacle Wealth, a newly formed registered investment adviser, and Argent Financial Group, a leading independent fiduciary wealth management firm, have formed a strategic partnership to deliver fiduciary-based wealth management and trust services to individuals, families, businesses, nonprofits and philanthropic organizations.
With this relationship, Pinnacle Wealth’s clients will continue to be served by the existing Pinnacle Wealth professional staff. In addition, those clients will have access to Argent Financial Group’s vast network of experts and broad range of wealth management services, including trusts and estate planning, investment management, ESOPs, retirement plan administration and consulting, funeral and cemetery trusts, charitable organization administration, oil and gas (mineral) management and other unique financial services.
To provide continuity for trust services, Argent Trust Company, the largest independent full-service trust company in the South, may serve as trustee for certain clients of Pinnacle Wealth.
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https://www.djournal.com/news/business/newsmakers/article_1665adc3-c01e-53b8-9fc1-68d03a2a9009.html
| 2022-04-10T05:11:43
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https://www.djournal.com/news/business/newsmakers/article_1665adc3-c01e-53b8-9fc1-68d03a2a9009.html
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TUPELO • The Mississippi Concrete Association was founded in 1957 to help promote the industry, and in 2013 it created its Hall of Fame.
And for the third time since then, B&B Concrete of Tupelo has had a member of the company named to the Hall.
The most recent inductee from B&B – and the only person named this year statewide – is Mark Jarrett, the company's sales manager. He follows in the recognition of B&B co-founder Henry C. Brevard Jr. (who was inducted in the first Hall of Fame class in 2013) and Vice President and engineer William F. “Bill” Waters Jr. (inducted in 2015).
Jarrett has spent his career at B&B, having started 42 years ago at age 21. His Hall of Fame induction last Wednesday was a testament to his hard work and dedication, both to the company and the industry as whole.
According to B&B Concrete President and CEO David Brevard, Jarrett's father, Henry, had a successful career as a brick salesman. Jarret seems to be a chip off the old block ... or brick, as it were.
"Mark’s ability and success as a salesman probably comes honestly to him as a reflection of his daddy," Brevard said. "Like his daddy, Mark is a people person. Like his daddy, Mark builds strong relationships, has a big handshake, and has a knack for remembering people’s names."
Jarrett grew up in the small community of Potts Camp, where he was a star basketball player and played on on state championship teams. After high school, he went to Northwest Mississippi Junior College and wanted to study civil engineering while still playing basketball. And that's when he found his way into the business.
"I answered a blind ad in the Daily Journal for a sales trainee with a construction material firm," he said.
That company was B&B, and it was Henry Brevard Jr. who called the young Jarrett for an interview. It was a good conversation on a Friday evening, and Brevard followed Jarret out to his car as he left.
"He said the interview went well, but I was young and inexperienced, and I think I commented that what I lacked in experience I could make up in hard work and dedication," Jarrett said.
The following Monday, he was invited back for a second interview, and he was hired.
"I was green and kind of learned the ropes on my own, but that's how it all started," Jarrett said.
Jarrett admired the elder Brevard deeply, and said he learned much from him.
"First and foremost he was a gentleman, and he said that no matter what I didn't know, to be nice," he said. "He and I engaged in a lot of one-on-one conversations, and he respected everyone in life, from employees to vendors. He was a good listener. As a businessman he was probably more in the style of doing more from the back room at his drawing table on the telephone, than he was out in front. But he was very involved in the community with a lot of civic clubs and organizations."
That clearly rubbed off on Jarrett, who has been quite active himself throughout out his career.
"Mark is a man of faith, family, work, and service," David Brevard said.
Jarrett is a Sunday School teacher, choir member, Missions Team member, and member of the Finance Committee at Belden Baptist Church. He is a former President of the Tupelo Civitan Club and former Coliseum Project Leader for the club. Mark is a Foundation Fellow for the Civitans. He has served on the Board of Directors for the American Red Cross (North MS Chapter), Catch Kids and the American Cancer Society (North MS Chapter). He has served on the Board of Directors for three construction industry related organizations in addition to the Mississippi Concrete Association, as follows: MS Associated Builders & Contractors, MS Road Builders Association, and the North MS Homebuilders Association.
Jarrett has served the Mississippi Concrete Association as a member of the Promotions Committee, the Board of Directors, and as the President (2013). He was one of three winners of the Mississippi Concrete Association’s 1993 Marketing Awards Competition, which was a statewide program to recognize the concrete industry’s top sales and marketing professionals in Mississippi.
And as Sales Manager for B&B, Mark is a member of the company’s senior leadership team.
"He is family to both B&B and the Brevard family," Brevard said.
Jarrett said that in his role as sales manager, it's important to put himself in the customers' shoes, to meet their needs and to learn something about them in order to establish a relationship.
"Once you can separate the individual from the work, you can solve any issue," he said. "It's more important to focus on the issues."
That has helped B&B grown into north Mississippi's largest ready mix concrete supplier, with thousands of customers across the region. The Tupelo main plant also serves as the support center for some 15 other plants scattered across the region.
"Concrete is perishable, so you have about an hour to get to where you need to get with it," Jarrett said, explaining why the company has so many plants. "That's why our plants are about 30 minutes apart."
And Jarrett's expertise and skills as a sales manager have helped contribute to B&B's success over the years, Brevard said.
"He's done that by being a people person and building relationships with customers, and he's helped us close on more sales over the years than I can keep track of," Brevard said. "He's just been a very valuable and valued member of the team."
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https://www.djournal.com/news/business/solid-performance-jarrett-latest-from-b-b-to-enter-hall-of-fame/article_927068b6-1c02-5dd8-824f-cf05cd52d132.html
| 2022-04-10T05:11:49
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https://www.djournal.com/news/business/solid-performance-jarrett-latest-from-b-b-to-enter-hall-of-fame/article_927068b6-1c02-5dd8-824f-cf05cd52d132.html
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agate High school baseball schedule, April 11-16 Brad Locke Brad Locke Senior sports reporter Author twitter Author email Apr 10, 2022 8 min ago Comments Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Monday, April 11Blue Mountain at WheelerCalhoun City at Potts CampHolly Springs at ByhaliaHoulka at West LowndesIngomar at Tupelo ChristianItawamba AHS at ShannonJumpertown at Hickory FlatTupelo at East UnionWater Valley at BruceTuesday, April 12Alcorn Central at KossuthBaldwyn at New SiteBelmont at WalnutBooneville at MantachieCaledonia at MoorevilleCharleston at BruceColumbus at SaltilloEast Webster at EuporaFalkner at BiggersvilleHickory Flat at SmithvilleNettleton at AmoryNew Hope at West PointNorth Pontotoc at New AlbanyOkolona at JumpertownPine Grove at MyrtlePontotoc at South PontotocRipley at HoustonShannon at Itawamba AHSSouth Panola at OxfordTishomingo County at CorinthVardaman at HamiltonWest Lowndes at HoulkaWest Union at East UnionWheeler at TremontWednesday, April 13Potts Camp at Calhoun CityThursday, April 14Amory at NettletonAshland at JumpertownBiggersville at FalknerBruce at HatleyCorinth at Tishomingo CountyEast Union at West UnionEupora at East WebsterHamilton at VardamanHouston at RipleyKossuth at Alcorn CentralMooreville at CaledoniaMyrtle at Pine GroveNew Albany at North PontotocNew Site at BaldwynSouth Pontotoc at PontotocTremont at WheelerTupelo at LafayetteTupelo Christian at IngomarWalnut at BelmontWest Point at SaltilloFriday, April 15Bruce at CharlestonLexington (Ala.) at Tishomingo CountyPine Grove at FalknerSaltillo at OxfordSaturday, April 16Amory at MoorevilleHamilton at Pine GroveHickory Flat at MantachieNew Albany at BoonevilleNew Hope at HoustonRipley at Alcorn Central, 2 p.m.South Pontotoc at Alcorn Central, 6 p.m.Tishomingo County at Tupelo ChristianTremont at Red Bay (Ala.)West Union at East Union brad.locke@journalinc.com Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Tags High School Baseball Schedule Brad Locke Senior sports reporter Brad is a senior sports reporter and columnist. Author twitter Author email Follow Brad Locke Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Recommended for you Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. The Daily You'll receive our top headlines each morning, seven days a week, as well as each weekday afternoon. News Alerts & Top Stories Get news sent to your inbox as it happens, as well as our top stories each week. The Session Get weekly recaps during Mississippi's annual legislative session, plus breaking alerts, from our state politics team. You must select at least one email list. Please enter a valid email address. Sign up All Newsletters
Brad Locke Senior sports reporter Brad is a senior sports reporter and columnist. Author twitter Author email Follow Brad Locke Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
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https://www.djournal.com/sports/high-school/high-school-baseball-schedule-april-11-16/article_651462d9-033b-5197-ba4a-c809e3745de4.html
| 2022-04-10T05:11:55
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https://www.djournal.com/sports/high-school/high-school-baseball-schedule-april-11-16/article_651462d9-033b-5197-ba4a-c809e3745de4.html
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agate High school softball schedule, April 11-16 Brad Locke Brad Locke Senior sports reporter Author twitter Author email Apr 10, 2022 11 min ago Comments Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Monday, April 11Alcorn Central at BiggersvilleAmory at AberdeenBaldwyn at BelmontBruce at East WebsterCaledonia at MoorevilleEast Union at New SiteFalkner at H.W. ByersHatley at PontotocPotts Camp at MyrtleShannon at West PointSmithville at IngomarTremont at Blue MountainVardaman at EthelWest Union at Tupelo ChristianTuesday, April 12Blue Mountain at Middleton (Tenn.)Booneville at MyrtleCaledonia at Tishomingo CountyCalhoun City at EuporaColumbus at West PointEast Union at Pine GroveHamilton at HoulkaHickory Flat at Potts CampHouston at RipleyIngomar at AmoryItawamba AHS at ShannonJumpertown at ThrasherJ.Z. George at East WebsterMantachie at KossuthMooreville at CorinthNew Site at WalnutNorth Pontotoc at New AlbanyNoxubee County at NettletonPontotoc at South PontotocSaltillo at New HopeTremont at Smithville, 4:30 p.m.West Union at Smithville, 6:30 p.m.Tupelo at StarkvilleWheeler at BiggersvilleWinona at VardamanWednesday, April 13Meridian at StarkvilleThursday, April 14Belmont at BaldwynBiggersville at FalknerCaledonia at ShannonColumbus at SaltilloEast Webster at Calhoun CityEupora at BruceHamilton at TupeloItawamba AHS at MoorevilleKossuth at MantachieMyrtle at M.S. PalmerNettleton at Noxubee CountyNew Albany at South PontotocNorth Pontotoc at HoustonPine Grove at East UnionRed Bay (Ala.) at HatleyRipley at PontotocStarkville at OxfordThrasher at WheelerTishomingo County at CorinthTupelo Christian at JumpertownVina (Ala.) at TremontWalnut at New SiteWest Union at IngomarFriday, April 15Ethel at South PontotocSmithville at FalknerSaturday, April 16New Albany at Myrtle brad.locke@journalinc.com Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Tags High School Softball Schedule Brad Locke Senior sports reporter Brad is a senior sports reporter and columnist. Author twitter Author email Follow Brad Locke Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Recommended for you Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. The Daily You'll receive our top headlines each morning, seven days a week, as well as each weekday afternoon. News Alerts & Top Stories Get news sent to your inbox as it happens, as well as our top stories each week. The Session Get weekly recaps during Mississippi's annual legislative session, plus breaking alerts, from our state politics team. You must select at least one email list. Please enter a valid email address. Sign up All Newsletters
Brad Locke Senior sports reporter Brad is a senior sports reporter and columnist. Author twitter Author email Follow Brad Locke Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today
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https://www.djournal.com/sports/high-school/high-school-softball-schedule-april-11-16/article_78edb4e5-1b23-5fbf-b876-3abdce5a7b76.html
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ANNISTON — The girls division of the 2022 Calhoun County soccer tournament was another verse of the same song. Donoho won, rallying in the final nine minutes to beat Oxford 2-1 on two goals by tournament MVP Erin Turley.
The county soccer tournaments were first played in 2017 and the Falcons have won all five girls championships. The was no tournament in 2020 as the Alabama High School Athletic Association called a halt to spring sports because of COVID-19 concerns.
For much of Saturday’s match, it appeared Oxford would spoil Donoho’s string of titles. A steady wind blew from the west goal toward the east goal at Anniston’s McClellan Soccer Complex. Playing with the wind at their backs, Oxford's girls took a 1-0 lead when striker Macie Williams scored on a breakaway with 6:15 remaining in the first half.
The wind favored the Falcons in the second half. Donoho head coach Jay Jenkins clearly expected more production when his team’s attack would be aided by the wind.
“They know what’s coming. Let’s go,” Jenkins told his players as they came off the field at halftime.
Seven minutes into the second half, Donoho’s coaches still felt the Falcons weren’t getting enough shots on goal. Oxford defenders -- including Mia Munoz, Sawyers Brooks, Alex Martinez Reyes, Hannah Grace Robbins and Reygan White -- kept the ball clear of the Yellow Jackets' goal.
The Falcons finally tied the match when Turley lofted a shot above the outstretched hands of Oxford’s goalkeeper but below the crossbar of the goal from near midfield, about 40 yards out, with about 8:30 to play.
“I knew the wind was going to carry it but I wasn’t sure it was going to drop in there,” Turley said. “We also had an advantage because the goalkeeper was looking at the sun. It was an amazing goal.”
Jenkins said he had seen shots like Turley’s but not recently.
“It was fun to watch that kind of skill. … Getting back tied up changed the game,” Jenkins said.
Six minutes later, Donoho got a throw-in from the left side. Turley took the pass, whirled and shot from about 25 yards out without looking directly at the goal.
“They gave me enough space, and I had just been looking to shoot the whole game so any opportunity I got I just tried to turn and get it in there. … I didn’t get my head up but I just got my hips around it and kicked it as hard as I could,” Turley said.
When the ball left Turley’s foot it appeared to be headed wide to the right of the goal. The farther it traveled the more it bent back and the shot settled into the goal just inside the right netting with 2:31 to play.
From that point, Jenkins moved all his players into defensive positions and the Falcons milked the final seconds off the clock.
Individual honors
MVP: Erin Turley, Donoho
Outstanding offensive player: Macie Williams, Oxford
Outstanding defensive player: Maggie Wakefield, Donoho
Also all-tournament:
Mya Allen, Weaver
Sawyer Brooks, Oxford
Olivia King, Jacksonville
Mia Munoz, Oxford
Alex Martinez Reyes, Oxford
Tosin Sanusi, Donoho
Madison Sawyer, Weaver
Kathleen Seals, Donoho
Lillie Mae Sherman, Donoho
Sarah Sloughfy, Jacksonville
Sam Wakefield, Donoho
Reygan White, Oxford
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https://www.annistonstar.com/sports/high_school/girls-county-soccer-donoho-wins-again/article_67bc45b4-b881-11ec-a368-4f58b81979a9.html
| 2022-04-10T05:25:02
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When Skylar Schneider first raced in the Sunny King Criterium, she wasn’t old enough to drive a car without supervision.
She could race her bike with the best of them, however. Seven years later, she raced the 20th Sunny King Crit better than all of them.
The 23-year-old star for L39ion of Los Angeles Racing emerged from the final sprint victorious Saturday in downtown Anniston. Her big smile after winning rivaled the sparkle of gold chain that dangled from her neck throughout her seemingly effortless ride.
“I’ve been coming here since I was 15 chasing this crown,” Schneider said. “It feels good to get it done.”
L39ion's Skylar Schneider wins the @AlabamaCycling Sunny King Crit women's pro race. pic.twitter.com/qknKpbBa5I
— Joe Medley (@jmedley_star) April 10, 2022
Best Buddies Racing’s Alfredo Rodriguez followed Schneider’s victory with one of his own in the men’s pro race, continuing on after injuring his right hand in a scary early-race crash that sent Automatic/ABUS Racing’s Dalton Collins to the hospital.
The Sunny King Crit, the first leg of the weekend’s Alabama Cycling Classic, continued its 20-year run as the sports anchor for the Noble Street Festival. It also led off the new 10-race American Criterium Cup, which replaced the now-dissolved USA CRITS.
Saturday’s pro races offered $12,000 purses disbursed over the top 20 places.The Cup offers a $100,000 purse for the series.
The Sunny King Crit continued its tradition of drawing top racing teams, like L39ion and Best Buddies.
Schneider, the younger sister of 2016 Sunny King Crit winner Samantha Schneider, prevailed Saturday over DNA Pro Cycling’s Maggie Coles-Lyster and L39gion teammate Alexis Ryan.
It was a big Cup start for the newly expanded L39ion team.
“This is only the second year that our race team has been in existence,” Schneider said. “Last year, we had two riders, and this year we have seven.
“We just have a really good cohesive team, and it feels like family.”
The Schneiders kind of feel like family for Sunny King Crit.
Skylar first raced in Anniston in 2015, at age 15. She wasn’t supposed to return in 2016 because of USA Cycling obligations abroad, but a March 22 terrorist attack in Brussels killed 32 people plus the three bombers. Among consequences of the deadliest act of terrorism in Belgium’s history was it forced USA Cycling to cancel its trip.
She’s built quite the career since, with 21 professional victories in 2021 alone, but her previous best finish in Anniston was third place. She dominated Saturday, breaking out early and dropping back then re-emerging after the field leaders shuffled five times in the final lap.
“I love Anniston, and it feels good to finally get the job done like my sister,” Schneider said.
Alfredo Rodriguez of Best Buddies Racing wins the @AlabamaCycling Sunny King Crit men's pro race. pic.twitter.com/UEg2xh9JkG
— Joe Medley (@jmedley_star) April 10, 2022
In the men’s field, Rodriguez and Best Buddies made their move to the front with three laps to go. They formed an aqua-and-black train reminiscent of the United Healthcare “blue train” and won the field sprint.
Rodriguez took the top spot on the podium, with second-place finisher Automatic’s Thomas Gibbons and L39ion’s Ty Magner in third.
Rodriguez was drawn into a major turn-3 crash that forced a race restart. Collins’ handlebar snagged a barrier, Gibbons said, turning his bike and causing a chain reaction.
Collins was transported to Regional Medical Center in Anniston. Collins’ teammates did not know his condition immediately after the race, and a message to his team inquiring about his condition had not been answered as of this writing.
Rodriguez raced on with a sore right hand.
“My hand was hurt the whole race, and when I was sprinting, it was so hard,” he said. “I was sprinting good, but I’m thankful for my team.”
Podiums for the @AlabamaCycling Sunny King Crit men's and women's pro races. https://t.co/tmyO35UvMH pic.twitter.com/7IuaCWDVBu
— Joe Medley (@jmedley_star) April 10, 2022
Magner, the 2015 champion, has Anniston ties. His mother, Rose Magner, was born in Anniston. Her father, Jack Casey, grew up in Jacksonville. Grandfather, Frank Casey, was mayor of Jacksonville.
Ty Magner made his sixth Sunny King appearance Saturday.
“I’m always trying to get here to this race,” he said. “We only had two guys here. There was a big race in California this weekend, but I was like, I’ve got to be in Anniston.”
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https://www.annistonstar.com/sports/sunny-king-queen-schneiders-day-to-shine-arrives/article_caa2ecee-b883-11ec-ab96-e728e4df8750.html
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How a big win by the Peoria Rivermen in season finale set their SPHL playoff path
The Peoria Rivermen blew out Vermilion County on Saturday in their regular-season finale, 7-1, at David S. Palmer Arena in Danville and settled into third place as their final position in the SPHL race.
Peoria earned the No. 3 seed in a tight four-team race that came down to the final game. That sends the Rivermen into a first-round best-of-3 playoff series against defending champion Pensacola.
More:Our mythical set of awards for Peoria Rivermen players, plus playoff schedules
Pensacola has no home-ice available, so it will host Game 1 of the series at neutral site Pelham Civic Center in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Game 2 will be in Carver Arena on Friday at 7:15 p.m.
Game 3, if needed, will be at Carver Arena on Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
First-round individual playoff tickets are $21 for glass seating, $19 for premium sections, $13 for Pilot House locations and $12 for upper bowl seats.
Tickets can be purchased through the Rivermen team offices in person (open 8 a.m.-4 p.m.) or by calling the team at (309) 676-1040. They can also be purchased online via Ticketmaster with a direct link.
STANDINGS: SPHL standings | BOX SCORE:Rivermen 7, Vermilion County 1
Knoxville clinched the top spot on Saturday with a 42-10-4 record for 88 points. Huntsville finished second at 41-13-2 for 84 points. The Rivermen finished third at 38-11-7 for 83 points. Fayetteville finished fourth at 40-14-2 for 82 points.
The first-round playoff series matchups are: (3) Rivermen vs. (6) Pensacola; (1) Knoxville vs (8) Roanoke; (2) Huntsville vs (7) Evansville; (4) Fayetteville vs (5) Quad City.
More:The Peoria Rivermen will sell you the shirts off their backs. Here's how it works
The Rivermen got big games in their finale Saturday from Jordan Ernst, Alec Hagaman and Zach Wilkie to close out the season series with Vermilion County at 13-0-2.
Ernst notched two goals and two assists, while JM Piotrowski also scored two goals, captain Hagaman had a goal and three assists, Wilkie had three assists and league scoring leader Alec Baer notched a pair of assists to reach the 80-point threshold for the season.
Rivermen veteran goaltender Eric Levine earned his 29th victory, tops in the league and a single-season record for Peoria's SPHL era.
Next up for the SPHL is the Monday deadline for final rosters to be set. Teams can declare 20 players, if one of them is a rookie added from college. The Rivermen are likely to go with 11 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
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| 2022-04-10T05:45:23
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Man suspected of burying mom, sister in backyard arrested
LYONS, Ill. (AP) - A man suspected of concealing the deaths of his mother and sister has been arrested on felony charges nearly a year after their bodies were found buried in the backyard of their suburban Chicago house.
Lyons Police Chief Thomas Herion said Thursday that 45-year-old Michael Lelko will be formally charged with two felony counts of concealment of a death. Herion said Lelko also could face federal charges in connection to his alleged cashing of his mother’s Social Security checks for years after she died.
In August, police discovered the bodies of 79-year-old Jean Lelko and 44-year-old Jennifer Lelko. Both bodies had been buried in plastic tubs that had been sealed with duct tape, according to the Associated Press. Police say Lelko told them his mother died in 2015 and his sister died in 2019.
Herion said charges were not filed for several months because the bodies were not positively identified until this year. Autopsies could not determine the cause of death for either woman.
Herion said Michael Lelko’s 41-year-old brother, John Lelko, remains the subject of an investigation, the AP reports. He could face obstruction charges because he initially told police that his mother and sister were alive and living elsewhere, even though he knew they were both dead.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/10/man-suspected-burying-mom-sister-backyard-arrested/
| 2022-04-10T05:45:33
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Man suspected of burying mom, sister in backyard arrested
LYONS, Ill. (AP) - A man suspected of concealing the deaths of his mother and sister has been arrested on felony charges nearly a year after their bodies were found buried in the backyard of their suburban Chicago house.
Lyons Police Chief Thomas Herion said Thursday that 45-year-old Michael Lelko will be formally charged with two felony counts of concealment of a death. Herion said Lelko also could face federal charges in connection to his alleged cashing of his mother’s Social Security checks for years after she died.
In August, police discovered the bodies of 79-year-old Jean Lelko and 44-year-old Jennifer Lelko. Both bodies had been buried in plastic tubs that had been sealed with duct tape, according to the Associated Press. Police say Lelko told them his mother died in 2015 and his sister died in 2019.
Herion said charges were not filed for several months because the bodies were not positively identified until this year. Autopsies could not determine the cause of death for either woman.
Herion said Michael Lelko’s 41-year-old brother, John Lelko, remains the subject of an investigation, the AP reports. He could face obstruction charges because he initially told police that his mother and sister were alive and living elsewhere, even though he knew they were both dead.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/10/man-suspected-burying-mom-sister-backyard-arrested/
| 2022-04-10T06:07:48
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Man suspected of burying mom, sister in backyard arrested
LYONS, Ill. (AP) - A man suspected of concealing the deaths of his mother and sister has been arrested on felony charges nearly a year after their bodies were found buried in the backyard of their suburban Chicago house.
Lyons Police Chief Thomas Herion said Thursday that 45-year-old Michael Lelko will be formally charged with two felony counts of concealment of a death. Herion said Lelko also could face federal charges in connection to his alleged cashing of his mother’s Social Security checks for years after she died.
In August, police discovered the bodies of 79-year-old Jean Lelko and 44-year-old Jennifer Lelko. Both bodies had been buried in plastic tubs that had been sealed with duct tape, according to the Associated Press. Police say Lelko told them his mother died in 2015 and his sister died in 2019.
Herion said charges were not filed for several months because the bodies were not positively identified until this year. Autopsies could not determine the cause of death for either woman.
Herion said Michael Lelko’s 41-year-old brother, John Lelko, remains the subject of an investigation, the AP reports. He could face obstruction charges because he initially told police that his mother and sister were alive and living elsewhere, even though he knew they were both dead.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T06:14:04
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SPRING SCOREBOARD — April 8
Baseball
Valley 12, West 6
Northwest 11, South Webster 6
Wheelersburg 11, Oak Hill 1 (6 innings)
Waverly 15, Eastern 1 (5 innings)
Clay 17, Western 4 (5 innings)
Notre Dame 12, Green 4
Ironton St. Joseph 4, New Boston 0, susp. in 2nd inning
Hurricane (W. Va.) 15, Ironton 5
Eastern at Symmes Valley, ppd.
Portsmouth at Rock Hill, ppd.
Fairland at South Point, ppd.
Chesapeake at Coal Grove, ppd.
Softball
Portsmouth 11, Rock Hill 0
West 14, Valley 3 (5 innings)
South Webster 14, Northwest 2 (5 innings)
Wheelersburg 21, Oak Hill 0 (5 innings)
Waverly 11, Eastern 1
Notre Dame 13, Green 0 (5 innings)
Western at Clay, ppd. to May 3
Gallia Academy at Ironton, ppd.
Fairland at South Point, ppd.
Chesapeake at Coal Grove, ppd.
Track & Field
Minford Falcon Invitational, ppd. to April 29
SPRING SCOREBOARD — April 9
Baseball
Southeastern 18, Notre Dame 2 (5 innings)
Wheelersburg at Chillicothe (DH), canceled
Gallia Academy at Warren, canceled
Softball
South Gallia 7, New Boston 4
South Gallia 4, New Boston 1
Clay at Fairfield, canceled
Green at Hannan (W. Va.), canceled
McClain at Western (DH), canceled
Fairfield Union at Gallia Academy, canceled
Hillsboro at Gallia Academy, canceled
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BORODIANKA, Ukraine — Firefighters continued searching Saturday for survivors or the dead in the debris of destroyed buildings in a northern Ukrainian town that was occupied for weeks by Russian forces.
Residents of Borodianka expect to find dozens of victims under the rubble of the several buildings destroyed during fighting between Russian forces and Ukrainian troops. The town is about 75 kilometers (47 miles) northwest of the capital of Kyiv and had more than 12,000 residents.
Russian troops occupied Borodianka while advancing towards Kyiv in an attempt to encircle it. They retreated during the last days of March following fierce fighting. The town is without electricity, natural gas or other services.
A 77-year-old resident, Maria Vaselenko, said her daughter and son-in-law’s bodies have been under rubble for 36 days because Russian soldiers would not allow residents to search for loved ones or their bodies. She said her two teenage grandchildren escaped to Poland but are now orphans.
“The Russians were shooting. And some people wanted to come and help, but they were shooting them,” she told The Associated Press. “They were putting explosives under dead people.”
This is a live update. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.
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| 2022-04-10T06:40:16
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is targeting all of Europe with its aggression, and that stopping the invasion of Ukraine is essential for the security of all democracies.
In his late night address to Ukrainians on Saturday, Zelenskyy said that Russian aggression "was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target for Russia.”
“That is why it is not just the moral duty of all democracies, all the forces of Europe, to support Ukraine’s desire for peace," he said. ”This is, in fact, a strategy of defense for every civilized state."
His address came as civilians continued to flee eastern parts of the country before an expected onslaught and firefighters searched for survivors in a northern town no longer occupied by Russian forces.
Several European leaders have made efforts to show solidarity with the battle-scarred nation. Zelenskyy thanked the leaders of Britain and Austria for their visits Saturday to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and pledges of further support.
He also thanked the European Commission president and Canada's prime minister for a global fundraising event that brought in more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for Ukrainians who have fled their homes.
Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, which he called the sources of Russia’s “self-confidence and impunity.”
U.S. & World
“Freedom does not have time to wait,” Zelenskyy said. "When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately."
More than six weeks after the invasion began, Russia has pulled its troops from the northern part of the country, around Kyiv, and refocused on the Donbas region in the east.
Newly released Maxar satellite imagery collected on Friday showed an 8-mile (13-kilometer) convoy of military vehicles headed south to the Donbas region through the Ukrainian town of Velykyi Burluk.
Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under Russian control, from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south.
But counterattacks are threatening Russian control of Kherson, according to the Western assessments, and Ukrainian forces are repelling Russian assaults elsewhere in the Donbas, a largely Russian-speaking and industrial region.
Civilians were evacuatingeastern Ukraine following amissile strike Friday that killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station where thousands clamored to leave.
Ukrainian authorities have called on civilians to get out ahead of an imminent, stepped-up offensive by Russian forces in the east. With trains not running out of Kramatorsk on Saturday, panicked residents boarded buses or looked for other ways to leave, fearing the kind of unrelenting assaults and occupations by Russian invaders that brought food shortages, demolished buildings and death to other cities.
“It was terrifying. The horror, the horror,” one resident told British broadcaster Sky, recalling Friday’s attack on the train station. “Heaven forbid, to live through this again. No, I don’t want to.”
Ukraine’s state railway company said residents of Kramatorsk and other parts of the Donbas could flee through other train stations. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 10 evacuation corridors were planned for Saturday.
Zelenskyy called the train station attack the latest example of war crimes by Russian forces and said it should motivate the West to do more to help his country defend itself.
Russia denied responsibility and accused Ukraine’s military of firing on the station to turn blame for civilian casualties on Moscow. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman detailed the missile’s trajectory and Ukrainian troop positions to bolster the argument.
Major Gen. Igor Konashenkov alleged Ukraine’s security services were preparing a “cynical staged” media operation in Irpin, another town near Kyiv, intended to attribute civilian casualties to Russian forces — falsely, he said — and to stage the slaying of a fake Russian intelligence team that intended to kill witnesses. The claims could not be independently verified.
Western experts and Ukrainian authorities insisted that Russia attacked the station. Remnants of the rocket had the words “For the children” in Russian painted on it. The phrasing seemed to suggest the missile was sent to avenge the loss or subjugation of children, although its exact meaning remained unclear.
Ukrainian authorities have worked to identify victims and document possible war crimes in the north. The mayor of Bucha, a town near Kyiv where graphic evidence of civilian slayings emerged after Russian forces withdrew, said search teams were still finding bodies of people shot at close range in yards, parks and city squares.
Workers unearthed 67 corpses Friday from a mass grave near a church, according to Ukraine's prosecutor general. Russia has falsely claimedthat the scenes in Bucha were staged.
Ukrainian and Western officials have repeatedly accused Russian forces of committing atrocities. A total of 176 children have been killed, while 324 more have been wounded, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Saturday.
In an interview with The Associated Press inside his heavily guarded presidential office complex, Zelenskyy said he is committed to negotiating a diplomatic end to the war even though Russia has “tortured” Ukraine. He also acknowledged that peace likely will not come quickly. Talks so far have not included Russian President Vladimir Putin or other top officials.
“We have to fight, but fight for life. You can’t fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war,” he said.
Ukrainian authorities have said they expect to find more mass killings once they reach the southern port city of Mariupol, which is also in the Donbas and has been subjected to a monthlong blockade and intense fighting. The city’s location on the Sea of Azov is critical to establishing a land bridge from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.
As journalists who had been largely absent from the city began to trickle back in, new images emerged of the devastation from an airstrike on a theater last month that reportedly killed hundreds of civilians seeking shelter.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded with Western powers almost daily to send more arms and further punish Moscow with sanctions, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the global financial system and a total EU embargo on Russian gas and oil.
During his visit Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he expects more EU sanctions against Russia, but defended his country’s opposition so far to cutting off deliveries of Russian gas.
A package of sanctions imposed this week “won’t be the last one,” the chancellor said, acknowledging that “as long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient.” Austria is militarily neutral and not a member of NATO.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit came a day after the U.K. pledged an additional 100 million pounds ($130 million) in high-grade military equipment. Johnson also confirmed further economic support, guaranteeing an additional $500 million in World Bank lending to Ukraine, taking Britain’s total loan guarantee to up to $1 billion.
In the interview with AP, Zelenskyy noted the increased support but expressed frustration when asked if weapons and equipment Ukraine has received from the West is sufficient to shift the war’s outcome.
“Not yet,” he said, switching to English for emphasis. “Of course it’s not enough.”
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Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Robert Burns in Washington, Jill Lawless and Danica Kirka in London and Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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Joshua Rhine laments the two years of disrupted learning students at his school endured during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rhine, principal of Early College Opportunities High School, said some students became disengaged last year, when the pandemic derailed their heavily hands-on curriculum.
Kids studying auto body work and welding suddenly had to shift to online learning from home.
ECO, a dual-credit school where students take college-level courses and earn professional certifications and associate degrees while they work toward their diplomas, saw a 17 percentage point drop in its graduation rate between the class of 2020 and the class of 2021.
Tighter connections between staff and students this year, brought by a return to in-person learning, should help keep seniors on track to graduate, Rhine said.
“Just the staff having that ability to know the majority of students and being able to read body language and know they need help” has been beneficial, he said.
ECO’s graduation rate dropped to 66 percent in 2021 from 83 percent the previous year, according to
state data, a troubling sign for an alternative high school gearing up for a multimillion-dollar expansion that would allow it to more than double its student population.
It was one of four small high schools in the city — two in Santa Fe Public Schools and two state-chartered schools — that saw steep graduation rate declines while the rates at other schools largely held steady.
While school leaders cited varied reasons for the declines, they agreed the pandemic took a toll, especially when it came to student attendance at nontraditional institutions designed to offer more intimate, hands-on experiences that were hampered by shutdowns.
Administrators at Santa Fe Public Schools point to smaller class sizes at ECO and Desert Sage Academy in 2021 as another big reason for their dramatic graduation drops.
With only a handful of kids in the senior class at each school last year, every student who didn’t make it across the finish line meant a significant decline in the graduation rate.
Officials at the two charter schools, Tierra Encantada and Monte del Sol, said they worried their graduation data was misreported to the state Public Education Department and they are reexamining the numbers.
Still, they said a larger number of students struggled to graduate last year than in previous years, and said some seniors who didn’t earn diplomas struggled with poor attendance.
A spokeswoman for the Public Education Department said the agency recently wrapped up a correction process for graduation rates and would meet with schools to address any possible errors.
Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez said in a recent memo rates at the district’s smallest high schools can “fluctuate, making year-to-year comparisons difficult.”
The district reported just seven seniors in 2020-21 at the predominantly online Desert Sage Academy, which saw its graduation rate drop to
54.2 percent from 90.8 percent the previous year.
Thirteen seniors made up ECO’s class of 2021.
“I think a lot of variety in numbers at a school like ECO is directly related to class size,” said Assistant Superintendent Michael Hagele, who served as principal there last year.
The lack of hands-on learning also had an effect, he added.
This year, ECO has a larger senior class, and most of them are on track to graduate, Rhine said.
Desert Sage Academy, which had its mission overhauled and expanded this year to serve students in grades K-12, also has a larger group of seniors this year, said Michael Granado, the school’s new principal.
He said this year’s seniors are largely working independently through the district’s online Edgenuity curriculum to earn their diplomas.
Many Desert Sage seniors are working while taking online courses, Granado said, and staff members are working to accommodate those schedules by making themselves available for questions late into the evening.
Granado hopes to add more in-person check-ins for students in the next school year, he said, “especially for the upper grades. If you don’t have a teacher there, you have to be highly motivated.”
At Monte del Sol, with a 2021 class of 47, Head Learner Zoë Nelsen fears the graduation rate drop was due to errors.
“Based on some of our research, I feel it’s an inaccurate percentage,” she said.
Nine seniors failed to graduate last year, Nelsen said, and six of them are taking credits this year so they can earn their diplomas.
Some students had been straight-A students, she said, but during the pandemic, “they essentially stopped coming.”
Nelsen, like other school administrators, said more students have been relying on online credit recovery programs to make up for losses during remote learning.
At Capital High School, where the graduation rate was unchanged at nearly 83 percent, Principal Jaime Holladay estimated 30 percent of seniors used credit recovery programs to finish on time last year.
Holladay said staff members made regular visits to homes of students who were struggling, which helped them stay on track.
Daniel Peña, director of Tierra Encantada, a dual-language charter school that emphasizes project-based learning, said he plans to meet next week with state education officials to discuss the possibility of data errors leading to a 57.4 percent graduation rate.
In the meantime, administrators are working to ensure their 40 seniors this year have the support they need to finish — which includes credit recovery aid.
Principal Angela Esquibel-Martinez said the need for credit recovery is “heavy” this year.
“We even aligned staff members to do just that — teachers who are managing our credit recovery program — because we’ve had such a great need,” she said.
Attendance plunged last year, contributing to students’
struggles, Esquibel-Martinez added.
Typically, high school seniors in the state must accrue 24 credits and demonstrate competency, either through end-of-course exams or, in some cases, special projects. The state has eased up on the competency demonstration requirement during the pandemic, including for this year’s senior class.
Rhine said that has been helpful for his students.
He believes they would perform well on end-of-course exams, based on assessments required to enroll in dual-credit college courses, but he said their path to graduation is simpler.
“It’s one less thing,” Rhine said. “I wouldn’t be too worried about my students being able to demonstrate competency.”
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An Albuquerque man accused of sexually assaulting six children, five of whom he allegedly infected with sexually transmitted diseases, faces several charges filed in Santa Fe County.
Anthony Padilla, 30, is accused of raping children from two families, one in Albuquerque and one in Española, court records show.
Prosecutors in the 2nd Judicial District in Bernalillo County initially charged him with six counts of first-degree criminal sexual penetration in October 2019 in connection with allegations he had assaulted three children in Rio Rancho. The case is pending.
Padilla’s attorney said the case has proceeded slowly due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Allegations of abuse by Padilla emerged after the Rio Rancho children’s mother became concerned about a health condition in her 3-year-old daughter, according to court records. The girl, her 8-year-old sister and 1-year-old brother tested positive for sexually transmitted diseases, records show.
The woman said Padilla was a childhood friend and “couch surfer” whom she had allowed to stay at her home. He had watched her children while she was at work in July and August 2019, she said.
Two Española children, a 2- and 3-year-old who are related to Padilla, also tested positive for gonorrhea and chlamydia at the time, according to court records.
The sixth child, an 8-year-old girl from Española who also is related to Padilla, did not test positive for the illnesses but told investigators Padilla had been raping her and having sex with adults in front of her since 2015, when she was 4, records say.
Charges against Padilla involving these children — six counts of criminal sexual penetration, criminal sexual contact and bribery of a witness — were filed in Santa Fe County under a pending plea agreement designed to resolve all the charges he faces, said his public defender, Cherylinn Gunning.
Padilla has been in custody since October 2019, when 2nd Judicial District Judge Charles Brown found him too dangerous to be released and granted prosecutors’ motion asking he be kept in jail until the charges against him are resolved.
He is an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque.
The terms of Padilla’s pending plea have not been made publicly available. Second Judicial District Judge Cindy Leos is scheduled to consider the agreement at an April 28 hearing.
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Firefighters were working to secure the edge of the uncontained Hermits Peak Fire northwest of Las Vegas, N.M., before the weather worsens, as well as to keep it out of Beaver Creek and Gallinas Municipal Watershed, according to a news release.
“Critical fire weather” is predicted for the rest of the week, according to the release from the Northern New Mexico Type 3 Incident Management Team, which assumed direction of firefighting efforts Friday. A higher-level multiagency incident management team is set to begin taking over command of the firefighting effort Monday, fire officials said.
The fire, which was zero percent contained Saturday afternoon, remained at 350 acres after a prescribed burn went awry Wednesday. No structures were at risk, according to the news release.
The response has involved four Hotshot crews, one specialized crew, eight engines, three helicopters, one rapid extraction module and one tactical water tender.
It’s far from the only problem spot in New Mexico.
The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings and fire weather watches that extend into Monday evening for the state except for snow-
covered areas in higher elevations.
The Collins Fire on the Reserve Ranger District in Gila National Forest was estimated at 1,200 acres Friday with zero percent containment, according to a Facebook post by the U.S. Forest Service.
The post added about
50 personnel were assigned to the blaze.
More information was not available Saturday.
In southeastern New Mexico, air tankers assisted crews from at least six agencies battling a fire that had burned 3 square miles of mostly grassland along the Pecos River southeast of Roswell as of late Friday and was contained around 50 percent, officials said in a statement.
The federal Bureau of Land Management said the fire was started Thursday as another prescribed burn to clear potential fire fuel but was declared a wildfire that afternoon after it grew outside the planned boundary due to a wind whirl, a small rotating wind storm generated by a fire’s extreme heat.
No injuries or structure damage were reported, but the fire burning knee-high at times threatened some homes, said Dustin Powell, chief of Dexter Fire and Rescue.
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| 2022-04-10T06:45:33
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TAOS — A Taos homeowner is set to be featured on national television this month after the PBS TV series Legacy List with Matt Paxton filmed the final episode of its third season about Marcia Gonzales-Kimbrough, who owns a property on the town’s south side.
The show — hosted by Paxton, one the former hosts of the international TV show Hoarders — focuses on decluttering and downsizing households around the country that have gathered collections of generations’ worth of items, some of which may be gems.
In the episode, which was filmed after the coronavirus pandemic began to wane, Paxton helped Gonzales-Kimbrough go through the various hidden treasures of her former home, including numerous historical items and evidence her grandfather spent time working for the government in secret military laboratories.
Built in the early 1960s, the home was constructed with a more modern approach to adobe, according to Gonzales-Kimbrough. However, her family is no stranger to the area. She said her ancestors were some of the first settlers to establish the area of Valdez, just north of Arroyo Seco. In fact, Gonzales-Kimbrough said, the Italianos Trail on the road to Taos Ski Valley was named after her great-grandmother’s grandfather, who used to herd sheep up the trail. She said she can trace her family back at least 10 generations on her father’s side in the area.
Gonzales-Kimbrough said she wrote into the show after seeing Paxton give a speech about decluttering at an AARP seminar in 2019. She realized she could use the help while cleaning out her grandfather’s house. Paxton, who is promoting his new book, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward With Your Life, agreed.
In an interview with The Taos News, Paxton said he found Gonzales-Kimbrough’s family story interesting and was originally hoping to squeeze it into the second season of the show but it wasn’t feasible. “[Gonzales-Kimbrough] was one of the first people we called going into Season 3, just hoping that we’d be able to get them,” Paxton said.
While looking through Gonzales-Kimbrough’s house, Paxton and his team searched for relics of local family history. Because her grandfather used to herd sheep, Gonzales-Kimbrough said, an old loom was found, alongside wool that appeared to be decades old.
The team also searched for information about Gonzales-Kimbrough’s grandfather. Over the course of their discovery, they found that her grandfather had worked in Los Alamos, Area 51, White Sands and possibly other government facilities in the Southwest.
Paxton and his crew chose to film their final episode of the third season with Gonazles-Kimbrough — and ended up spending much more time in the Taos area than expected.
“When we got to Taos, the history that we learned, and the people, and the food, and the spirit and spirituality — it’s such an amazing place. And just everybody we met, they know their history and they are super passionate about it,” Paxton said.
After the season wrapped up, Paxton said, he and the crew “flew our partners and our spouses out, and so everybody had family of some kind there for the last episode in Taos. It was really nice to be with our crew in that super-spiritual way because for us, it was just a reminder that, yeah, we want to keep making positive TV and good TV and something that people actually watch and appreciate.”
“They fit right into the congeniality and the welcomeness of what people in Taos are all about,” Gonzales-Kimbrough said of Paxton and his crew.
After Paxton and his team cleared the house, Gonzales-Kimbrough — who lives in California but spends time in Taos — said she is not quite sure of its immediate future, but knows it will “somehow stay in the family. It needs work — structural work — but we definitely want to keep the original adobe walls, the Vega and wood slat roof ceiling. It has to be remodeled to lived in.”
For now, the property is in the hands of her and her five siblings, who all carry on the legacy of Northern New Mexico.
This story first appeared in The Taos News, a sister publication of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
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Eve Phillips and her sons Micah, 9, and Jacob, 7, arrived 10 minutes late for Saturday’s annual Easter Egg Hunt.
“I didn’t get any eggs,” Micah said during the Santa Fe family’s 1-mile return walk from the event in Ragle Park to their vehicle.
Organizers scattered 14,000 plastic eggs, plus 100 bags of candy, and small toys in four fields for age groups, said Kristine Bustos-Mihelcic, director of community engagement and city clerk for Santa Fe. In a matter of minutes after the “10 a.m. sharp” start, children ranging from 1 to 10 years old picked up the loot. Children who found the 25 golden eggs received prizes such as water tables, scooters and bikes.
Sponsored by the city of Santa Fe, Food Depot, Hope UC and Santa Fe Little League, the Easter Egg Hunt normally attracts several thousand children, Bustos-Mihelcic said. Participants were asked to bring canned goods for the Food Depot food bank.
The event has been around for at least 30 years, but in recent years was held at the Municipal Recreation Complex, she said.
“We took a break the last two years due to COVID, but are excited for it to be back,” Bustos-Mihelcic said. “This is one of our biggest community events.”
Organizers moved the Easter Egg Hunt to Ragle to coincide with the afternoon opening ceremonies of the Santa Fe Little League’s 70th season.
“When we found out we would have opening ceremonies and the Easter Egg Hunt on the same day, we coordinated with the Little League president, [their board] and our staff and made a decision to move it to the same park in an effort to allow more kids to participate and make it easier for parents,” Bustos-Mihelcic said.
“The Santa Fe Little League program has been a community cornerstone since 1952,” said league President Aaron Ortiz. “This event is truly about bringing the community together.”
The city planned to have firetrucks and police vehicles on display in addition to garbage and recycling trucks, a snow plow and tractor.
Children also received free books.
As for the Easter Egg Hunt, Greg Lucero and Claudia Castillo’s 2-year-old son, Lyo, found more eggs than his older brother, Oliver.
“I got distracted and was talking to my friends,” said the 8-year-old from Santa Fe. “The next thing I knew, the eggs were gone.”
Khristie Garrett planned to take her 8-year-old son, Patrick, to a store to buy a toy after he didn’t get any eggs.
“There were just too many kids and not enough eggs,” Garrett said.
Jesse and Emily Gabriel’s daughter, Sophia, picked up numerous eggs.
“She kind of paused at first and I helped her out and got her moving,” Emily Gabriel said about her 2-year-old daughter, who brought a toy carrot to the event for the Easter bunny.
Jayden Valenzuela, 6, got
11 eggs. “I almost got a golden egg, but a girl got it,” said Jayden, who was at the event with his mother, Paola Valenzuela, 25.
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TAOS — When Kit Carson Electric Cooperative announced to customers recently “a decrease in electricity cost is coming soon,” many thought they’d entered The Twilight Zone.
How often do utility companies reduce consumer rates?
“It’s pretty unusual, and it’s consistent with the way the rates were structured” by
Kit Carson several years ago, said John Reynolds, utility division director for the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.
A combination of factors will see the average Kit Carson customer’s monthly bill reduced by as much as 25 percent starting in August or September, according to company officials, and the biggest factor is a significant reduction in the “fuel adjustment” line item on consumers’ electric bills.
In New Mexico, utility companies are allowed to charge customers fluctuating amounts commensurate with whatever the market cost is of buying an energy commodity like electricity or natural gas.
The reduction in fuel adjustment cost is due to Kit Carson deciding in 2016 to end its relationship with Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, the company that had long provided the bulk of its energy supply.
Kit Carson still partners with Tri-State for transmission services.
“They raised their rates
10 times in 12 years,” said Kit Carson CEO Luis Reyes, shaking his head as he recently stood amid the cooperative’s new solar array on the Taos Mesa northwest of town.
He said the cooperative’s new supplier, Guzman Energy, offers more stable energy rates and is a better overall fit with Kit Carson’s goal to transition away from nonrenewable energy.
After negotiating down from the original $137 million price tag to buy out its energy contract with Tri-State, Kit Carson paid $37 million through a payment arrangement with Guzman Energy.
That expense has been reflected in the fuel adjustment line of consumers’ energy bills for the past six years.
“The fuel adjustment line item on their bill includes fuel, or purchases [of] green energy — it’s a basket of items, including a certain amount of money to pay off the loan,” Reynolds said. “So that will no longer be part of the basket of items that’s recovered.”
Michael Santistevan, public relations coordinator for Kit Carson, said the timing couldn’t be better.
“We paid our debt off over the last six years,” Santistevan said. “Our last payment will be
June 30, 2022. In this hard world of inflation, [customers] will start seeing savings; business owners will really save.”
A customer who pays $10 in fuel adjustment costs could see that line item on their bill reduced to as little as $2,
Reyes said, depending on energy use.
Because people tend to rely on less-efficient sources of heat to warm what are typically less energy-efficient homes, “low-income users will see a bigger decrease” in their overall bills, Reyes said. “Some people’s bills will go down 20 [percent] to
25 percent.”
Kit Carson has been planning its transition to renewable energy sources far longer than other electric utilities in New Mexico and has been installing solar energy infrastructure throughout its territory for years.
Adjacent to the Taos Regional Landfill, the utility is nearing completion of a 170-acre,
15 megawatt Taos Mesa solar array project, which is by far the largest array in the company’s portfolio.
When it goes online in June, its 44,000 solar panels will have the capacity to provide 100 percent solar energy — during the day, when the sun is shining — to all of Kit Carson’s Taos area customers, representing
20 percent of the cooperative’s total energy needs.
The addition of 10 1.25 megawatt Tesla Megapacks — each of which look like a medium-sized storage container, but are, in the words of Tesla, a “large-scale rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary energy storage product” — will enable 12.5 MW of solar energy to be stored and released at times of peak demand, at night or into the grid. Megapacks cost $1 million each, and Kit Carson owns 13 of them: 10 for the Taos Mesa Array and three destined for Angel Fire.
When its 7.5 MW Angel Fire Array is completed later this year, Kit Carson says, it will have the capacity to produce enough solar power to serve all of its customers with solar energy during daylight hours on sunny days.
Two-sided or “bifacial” solar panels catch sun on both sides, making them particularly efficient when sunlight reflects off snow-covered ground.
“We have 300 days of sun here, so that’s 60 days” [and
360 nights] that will require energy sourced from the power grid or battery storage, Reyes said. Because the solar energy is produced locally, unlike the energy purchased from elsewhere, there are virtually no transmission costs.
And if there are shortages on the national grid, Kit Carson says it’s ready to fill the gaps with stored or locally produced energy so customers don’t lose power.
“We’re in a much better position because we planned ahead,” Reyes said.
“When PNM’s having shortages, we’ll have the power here to cover Taos,” he added.
Dustin Satterfield, site superintendent with Affordable Solar, the company contracted to oversee the Taos Mesa Array project, said Kit Carson being ahead of the curve on solar energy also helped it avoid severe project disruptions due to problems in the supply chain caused in part by a booming demand for solar panels, inverters and other related equipment.
“We’ve still got supply chain issues; there’s a 56-week lead time on some” material orders, he said. “But there’s more solar projects than there used to be, and a lot of them are stalled right now because they can’t get industrial commercial material.”
This story first appeared in The Taos News, a sister publication of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
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Santa Fe lost one of its best smiles Monday.
Karen Webb, a longtime Santa Fean who seemed to know everybody in town through her decades of work as a server at the Plaza Cafe, died at her home surrounded by family members and friends.
Webb, 70, had been suffering from an array of illnesses, said her sister, Robyn Hayes.
Webb was a saucy, spirited and sensitive woman whose restaurant work brought her national attention when she became one of the servers profiled in Vanessa Vassar’s 2002 documentary American Waitress.
The fame generated by that appearance often led strangers who came in first contact with Webb to ask, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
In fact, Webb was the sort of person whose positive, sometimes-over-the-top energy made people wish they knew her — or knew her better.
Born Jan. 25, 1952, the New Jersey native moved to Santa Fe in November 1971.
In a November interview with The New Mexican, Webb said of that move, “It’s where God wanted me to be.”
She became a familiar presence to anyone walking into the downtown Plaza Cafe. She welcomed them with a smile, a cup of coffee — regardless of whether they wanted one — and her familiar greeting, “How ya’ doin’, sweetie?”
The way the sweets-loving Webb delivered that line, it was less a stock question and more a loving friend’s query into the mental and emotional well-being of those around her.
“She dedicated a lot of her life to helping people,” said Webb’s granddaughter, Alexandria Hernandez.
Behind the scenes, Webb was a clothes and toy collector and helped run Santa Fe’s annual Wings for Hope Toy Run for nearly 40 years.
Friends say she always found ways to get clothes to children who needed them. Her customers often helped; Webb would find out what size of a dress a girl could use and would then ask regular restaurant patrons if they were planning to pass along a dress that size from a daughter who had outgrown it.
“If she saw a young woman who was pregnant, she would ask, ‘Do you need clothes for your baby?’ ” friend Sharon Palestine said. “She had them in the trunk of her car. If you looked in that trunk now, you’d find some clothes.”
Hayes said her sister’s commitment to giving to others stemmed in part from the energy their mother, Ruth Weingarten, exuded as they were growing up.
“My mother always said there was nothing we could do wrong that we couldn’t come home,” Hayes said. “She gave us that feeling. I guess we were always confident in her love, and she spread it easily.”
Over time, Webb eventually moved to the Plaza Cafe’s sister restaurant, Plaza Cafe Southside, where she worked as a hostess. In all, she put in about three decades between the two operations.
Those who knew Webb well say she loved that work and made it a career, not a job.
“She brought an amazing philosophy to the job,” Vassar said. “I still remember a scene at the beginning of [American Waitress] where she says, ‘If you don’t like what you are doing, don’t do that job.’ ”
Late last year, Webb contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized for some time. Family members say she overcame it but other ailments and pains began to wear her out and break her down.
Webb decided to take advantage of
New Mexico’s new dignity-with-death law, which allows doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to the terminally ill.
After consuming the drug Monday, Webb gave one last loving look to her friends and family members nearby.
“It’s been a fun ride,” she said.
Then she died.
Family members plan to celebrate Webb’s life from 1 to 4 p.m. May 1 at the Fraternal Order of Eagles hall on Early Street. In honor of her love of desserts, the remembrance will include creampuffs, pies and other pastries.
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Another year, another growing season that will need summer monsoon rains to avoid water shortages.
After a promising snowy start in late December, the weather became drier as expected under La Niña, with the regional snowpack and precipitation falling to levels below a year ago and the 30-year median, according to a newly released federal report on March conditions.
Lower temperatures this year have been a double-edged sword, causing more powdery snowfall with less water content. But the sometimes-frigid conditions have also kept the snowpack from melting too early — as it has done in recent years — so the runoff flows when New Mexico farmers need it for their spring planting.
Water managers say March offers the first accurate forecast of the upcoming runoff because that’s when the biggest snowpack buildup occurs.
This year’s snowpack would be sufficient if not for the reservoirs being low, as the state owes Texas a hefty amount of water. There’s also this problem, experts say: Climate change raises temperatures and increases evaporation.
The spring runoff should be enough to get irrigators through to July, but after that they’ll need robust summer rainstorms to boost water supply for the rest of the growing season, said Jason Casuga, acting CEO and chief engineer for the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District.
“I expect it to be difficult during the hot months,” Casuga said. “Without late-season storage, if we don’t get rain in the monsoon season, it’s going to be very difficult in the back half of the irrigation season.”
It’s a similar situation to 2021, also beset by a La Niña, a Pacific Ocean weather pattern that pushes precipitation north and causes drier-than-normal conditions in Southwestern states.
Nearly all of New Mexico is immersed in drought conditions ranging from severe to exceptional, with Santa Fe County grappling with extreme drought. Although far better than a year ago, when half the state was mired in exceptional drought, it’s a sharp downturn from January’s more favorable picture after the heavy snowfall.
Last year, some much-needed summer rainstorms came, replenishing water resources enough for most farmers to irrigate into the fall, in clear contrast to 2020, when almost no rain fell during the summer, resulting in severe water shortages by September.
‘Tough situation’ Data shows the Upper Rio Grande Basin’s snowpack is at 90 percent of the “long-term normal” and down 18 percent from a year ago, said Jaz Ammon, hydrological technician at the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service, who helped compile the report. This basin is the closest survey area to Santa Fe, with data collected at weather stations in Taos, at Ski Santa Fe and at other spots in the area, Ammon said.
Precipitation in the basin between October and April was 79 percent of the long-term normal, versus last year when it was 90 percent, Ammon said.
The long-term median, or normal, covers the period from 1991 to the present, he said.
State Engineer Mike Hamman said the agency recently moved the starting time up a decade, cutting out the wetter period in the 1980s, which created a drier scale that has made the drought years appear less arid.
“The bar is lower,” Hamman said.
A recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change says the West is experiencing the driest 22-year period since A.D. 800, putting the region, which includes New Mexico, in a megadrought.
Human-driven climate change is compounding the drought’s severity and lengthening its duration, the researchers say, estimating it could drag on to the 30-year mark before it finally passes.
The previous megadroughts predated the industrial revolution, when heat-trapping greenhouse gases began to be spewed en masse into the atmosphere, showing the West can have severe natural droughts independent of climate change, the study’s authors stated.
However, the cumulative greenhouse emissions of the past two centuries have clearly worsened the West’s current drought, they said.
The changing climate has raised average temperatures roughly 2 degrees since the 1990s and decreased precipitation, leading to what scientists call aridification.
It has intensified evaporation and parched the soil, making it soak up water like a sponge. That in turn has reduced the amount of runoff going into the Rio Grande and flowing downstream to farmers and Elephant Butte Reservoir, the main hub for passing water to Texas to pay the debt and meet obligations in a multistate water-sharing pact.
Meanwhile, back-to-back La Niña patterns are further depleting water sources.
Rolf Schmidt-Petersen, director of the Interstate Stream Commission, said the overall picture the federal report paints is bleak — unless the region gets a healthy monsoon.
“It indicates a tough situation coming our way,” Schmidt-Petersen said. “I see as difficult a year coming up to us as last year with less stored water available.”
No backup supply
Water storage will be greatly reduced this year because El Vado Dam’s renovation will get underway by summer.
The work will take out the main reservoir for keeping the Rio Grande’s “native” or natural water, as opposed to Colorado River water that flows through dams and tunnels in the federal San Juan-Chama system into the Rio Grande.
At the moment, losing the reservoir means there’s no place to store native water for irrigation, leaving the conservancy district no buffer to supply farmers in the latter part of the season, Casuga said. Having no backup water in a drought season can be problematic, he added.
State officials want to store additional native water in Abiquiú Lake but must overcome some hurdles. The Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees Abiquiú Dam, must sign off on it, and all Rio Grande Compact commissioners must approve.
Texas has opposed New Mexico expanding storage until it pays down its water debt to the Lone Star State of roughly 127,000 acre-feet, or 41 billion gallons. An acre-foot is enough to submerge a football field in a foot of water.
Hamman, the state engineer, said he wrote a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers asking to store 20,000 acre-feet, or 6.5 billion gallons, at Abiquiú to serve the pueblos’ water needs. He’s confident the corps will agree to it.
In addition, the state wants to store 45,000 acre-feet, or 14.6 billion gallons, at the reservoir to help cover irritation needs.
Hamman believes he can work through the impasse with Texas.
“We’ll continue to talk with the state of Texas to see if there are other scenarios that might benefit the entire basin,” he said.
Meanwhile, the irrigation district has staggered water deliveries to various areas since March, so growers get their supply early rather than late, as they did last year, Casuga said, adding that timely distribution is important as they face another challenging season.
“We wanted to make sure we were more on top of that and were more efficient than we were last year,” Casuga said.
Ammon said the only way to really solve the drought-induced problems is to have two or three above-average wet years in a row.
Robust snowpacks and precipitation would be required in all those years, he said.
“One or the other is not enough to cut it,” Ammon said.
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TAOS — The Red River Business Alliance hopes to raise money to purchase the rights to a holiday movie script about their community by screenwriter Karen Schaler, who has written scripts for Hallmark, Lifetime and Netflix films and has penned several Christmas novels.
Matt Dietz, president of the Red River Business Alliance, said in a letter to the community he contacted Schaler, an Emmy Award winner, at the beginning of 2022 and made a “prospective inquiry.”
Schaler wrote the Netflix movie A Christmas Prince and Lifetime’s Every Day is Christmas.
Dietz said in the letter Schaler is “more than an author, she is in fact, the human embodiment of Christmas.”
After some back-and-forth conversations, Dietz said Schaler agreed to “entertain the possibility of writing an original screenplay” about the town of Red River.
“After much discussion with economic development, Mayor [Linda] Calhoun and our honorable council members, the Red River Business Alliance, in cooperation with the chamber of commerce, has made the decision to take responsibility for this project in hopes to see it through to fruition,” Dietz said. “We’ve all said it, and I know we truly believe this little mountain town is like a Hallmark movie town. Now, we have a potential opportunity to become a Christmas movie.”
The Red River Business Alliance needs to raise about $65,000 to purchase a script. It has raised $19,800 in contributions from
26 local businesses. The alliance plans to sponsor a raffle to help raise more money.
To donate, contact Dietz at matt@dietzmail.net. Donations are tax deductible.
This story first appeared in The Taos News, a sister publication of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
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Shadé-Phea Young’s path to becoming a hoop dance world champion wasn’t supposed to include a missed flight and a long drive to Phoenix.
But those were the cards dealt to the Santa Fe Indian School junior and her mother, Nizhoni Denipah, when they began their trip to the World Championship Hoop Dance contest March 26. After missing a 5 a.m. departure from Albuquerque, the pair opted to hit the road, swapping an hour-plus flight for eight hours on four wheels.
“My mom was like, ‘All we can do is drive now,’ ” Young recalled.
The return trek was happier.
Young, 16, won the contest’s teen division and, in doing so, paid homage to her family’s legacy, the memory of a beloved and gone-too-soon role model and, maybe, her own athletic ability. After all, hoop dancing is just one of her many talents; others include volleyball, basketball and softball.
“It’s rare to find kids that wanna try everything and be part of everything and take ownership, and that’s what she does,” SFIS head softball coach Oliver Torres said of his star player. “She takes pride in showing ownership of her school and her team and where she comes from and everything like that.”
Sometimes, pride and grit connect in amazing ways. Such was the case for Young at the world championships, when she turned frustration into inspiration.
Advancing unexpectedly into the second round after rushing to the competition, Young then endured three more rounds of competition, including a dance-off against fellow SFIS student Mitchell Gray in the final, en route to winning the teen title with a 192-point score from judges.
The victory allowed Young to add another chapter in her family’s hoop dance history. Her uncle, fellow world champion Nakotah LaRance, parlayed his artistic style into a three-year run with Cirque du Soleil, plus an acting career before his unexpected death in 2020 at age 30. Her aunt, ShanDien Sonwai LaRance, also performed with her brother for Cirque du Soleil and is a model and actress.
The LaRances’ father, Steve LaRance, was instrumental in helping Nakotah LaRance create the Lightning Boy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides instruction for hoop dancing and other forms of dance for Native American kids, in 2013. ShanDien Sonwai LaRance is an instructor for the group.
Denipah said her daughter, who took the last name of her father, Darren Young, has been a hoop dancer since she could walk; Nakotah LaRance and ShanDien Sonwai LaRance were her instructors.
“When she was like maybe 2, she was dancing [at the World Championship Hoop Dance contest],” Denipah said. “We have pictures of her when she was in the Tiny Tots division.”
Last month’s hoop dance weekend was going to feature the family, as organizers held a memorial for Nakotah LaRance. It was the first time the event had been held in person since his death. After cases of the omicron COVID-19 variant increased, the recognition was moved from February to March to ensure people could attend.
“I think it worked out. It was a good turnout,” Denipah said of the rescheduling decision.
If nothing else, the timing worked perfectly because Young, who is Hopi, Navajo and Ohkay Owingeh, said she would not have performed on the original date because she was engulfed in basketball. She was a starting forward on the SFIS team that lost in the Class 3A championship game in mid-March.
She still did not plan to dance until a week before the contest, saying she did it to honor her uncle.
Steve LaRance said Nakotah LaRance had a profound effect on Young, especially after his death in a climbing accident. Not only was he her uncle and instructor, but Steve LaRance said one of Young’s first plane rides was to see Nakotah LaRance perform at the Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015.
“I think it reinstilled in all of us, including her, the desire to continue dancing and to continue teaching the young kids,” Steve LaRance said. “She does step in and help [ShanDien Sonwai LaRance], who has now become the master instructor for the organization, and help teach the younger kids as well.”
The family influence was clear at the contest. The coral dress Young wore for the competition was designed by her aunt; her mother created her leggings. Steve LaRance played the drum and chanted during Young’s dance-off.
First, though, she had to get to Phoenix. Young said she and her mother were running late, and they reached the gate for their flight only to find the doors had been shut moments before their arrival. Denipah said she had little sleep the night before their intended flight, and her daughter took up the driving duties for the first leg of the trip while she slept. Denipah handled the second leg, and they finally got to Phoenix with only minutes to spare.
Young arrived at the competition as her name was announced.
Each dance has a five-minute limit; competitors are judged on precision, timing, rhythm, showmanship and speed. Young said she didn’t feel like she put together a performance worthy of advancing to the second round, which she had never reached in the past.
But she went out to have fun.
“We barely made it on time, and I was surprised,” Young said. “I didn’t think my first performance was going to be that great. I mean, it went pretty smoothly, so ...”
Denipah said she believes Young’s time in other sports kept her in shape and probably helped her maintain the coordination to perform. Young dances on occasion at public events and on the weekends at the Plaza with the rest of the Lightning Boy group.
That constant action — on top of participation in all those other sports — came in handy at the competition. Young didn’t wilt in the Arizona heat as the finals began.
“It’s like trying to jump rope for a minute,” Denipah said. “It’s really rigorous. So, I have to imagine in some ways all that activity that she does — whether it’s basketball, volleyball or even softball — it kinda helps, at least from a conditioning standpoint, because she’s on her feet so much. She’s capable of handling five minutes.”
As Young continued to advance, the excitement and nervousness grew within the family. Denipah said she could tell her daughter “was in her own head” during the second round, but she still made it to the finals. After that, Young just relaxed. When she was announced as the teen division winner, Denipah said she was very proud of not only her but of Gray because they danced in honor of Nakotah LaRance.
Steve LaRance said it was an emotional moment because it capped a weekend that was a tribute to an entire family.
“We were humbled that they honored Nakotah and his contributions to the world,” Steve said. “Then for my granddaughter to walk away with the teenage championship was just kind of, like, a gift. You know, a blessing.”
Upon her return to Santa Fe, it was back to softball, where she’s one of the top pitchers in New Mexico’s Class 3A. Young threw a perfect game for the Lady Braves in a 15-0 win over Raton on March 29 — the first in the program’s history. She followed that by striking out 31 batters in a doubleheader sweep of St. Michael’s on April 2. She is 3-1 on the mound this season, with a 1.06 earned-run average and 83 strikeouts — tops in Class 3A.
Young said she has not thought about her college plans yet, preferring to focus on the present.
“I mean, the future is going to be there, regardless,” Young said.
The day before her 31-strikeout performance, Young got a chance to dazzle as a hoop dancer during a gallery exhibition for the late artist DeAnna Autumn Leaf Suazo at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque. She said the past few weeks have been dizzying, but she focuses less on the pressure of performing and instead concentrates on the fun.
As much as hoop dancing is a family tie that binds, she said she finds joy in sports — especially softball, in which she has competed since she was 5.
“I just try and make everything like just to have fun and not to put a lot of pressure on myself and just to play,” Young said. “Go out there and play like you love the sport.”
Still, not many athletes can also attach “hoop dance world champion” to their résumé. And can any of them say they missed a flight along the way?
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Monica Leyba has traveled a long way since she was a teenage tray-line worker 41 years ago at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center.
Her journey up the career staircase has carried her to the title of chief nursing executive, the top nursing position at the hospital, where she oversees about 450 people. Leyba described her path through the ranks as less a rags-to-riches story than one that conformed to a general plan beginning when she was a girl.
She married at 18 and remains with her husband, Frank Leyba, 38 years later.
It wasn’t just a good decision to marry him, she said. “It was the best decision.”
But that meant her nursing dreams would have to wait.
Leyba said she always believed in herself and serious doubts didn’t enter her mind when she focused mainly on family and finances and for 10 years delayed her goal of becoming a nurse.
The Leybas have two adult children — the first, Racquel, was born about four years after their marriage. When their second child, Ricardo, went to kindergarten, Monica Leyba returned to nursing school to get her two-year degree at Santa Fe Community College.
One of her closest work partners is Christus St. Vincent CEO and President Lillian Montoya, with whom Leyba frequently observes and interviews employees in a variety of departments. Besides making those rounds on weekdays, she and Montoya devote two hours on Saturdays to the task once or twice a month.
“She is my partner, my rounding partner, absolutely. She is the one I do it most with,” Leyba said. “We love to do that together.”
Asked if she might be viewed by some as “the CEO’s pet,” Leyba seemed taken aback. “I would hope they don’t think that,” she said. “She’s gonna hold me accountable for my job, and she’s very clear about that.”
For her part, Montoya said she admires Leyba as a problem solver and a “moral compass” who’s an expert in one of the hospital’s most critical fields.
Leyba, she added, “has this incredible ability to diplomatically and kindly influence people’s behavior so that they’re focused on improvement.”
Montoya said she didn’t know anyone who might think Leyba is her favorite, however.
“I’ve never heard that before,” Montoya said. “I’m close to everyone on my team.”
Still, the rounds, both women said, are critical to making sure the hospital is working as it should.
Montoya said she views the practice as a way to connect with people, listen, get feedback and “take a temperature of the organization” — in Christus St. Vincent’s case, 65 departments. Leyba said the CEO’s devotion to the practice has brought rounding to a new level.
Dominick Armijo, clinical nurse manager of Christus’ COVID-19 containment unit, said he appreciates Montoya’s and Leyba’s visibility as leaders of the institution.
“I really love that they’re both Northern New Mexico Hispanic women,” Armijo said. “They’re in it to win it.”
But winning isn’t always easy; hospitals and nurses have been tested in new ways the past two years. And the pandemic has created a nightmare and an opportunity for nurses.
Besides enduring long hours in stressful, dangerous conditions, some nurses have maximized their value during an intense nationwide shortage by becoming traveling nurses. They are well-paid temporary staffers who go from one hospital in the country to another.
“I think the pandemic has brought out the value” of nurses, Leyba said. “And truly, the responsibility that they have in caring for peo A lifetime spent nursing people back to health ple. And I honestly believe it is one of the most important jobs that anyone can have because we’re touching lives.”
Like many other hospitals, Christus St. Vincent has used traveling nurses in the pandemic. Leyba said 135 of her
450 nurses are traveling nurses.
But Leyba has never considered going that route, noting her roots in Santa Fe and love for the community rendered that out of the question. She only worked briefly elsewhere, in the defunct College of Santa Fe’s admissions office when she was there for a semester
40 years ago.
She started working in the Christus
St. Vincent cafeteria in high school and met her husband there. He was a cook.
“I grew up knowing that I always wanted to go into the health care profession and wanted to be a nurse and I wanted to help people heal,” Leyba said.
It took Leyba a while to get around to that career. When she was 17, Frank Leyba asked Monica’s father, Rudy Martinez, for the right to marry his daughter. Rudy Martinez, 78, said he told the couple to wait until Monica was 18. That is what they did.
Her father and mother, Jessie Martinez, recognized their daughter’s potential. She was a motivated leader, usually involved in activities and telling people what she thought. The parents said they knew Frank Leyba was a good guy who treated their daughter well.
Even with the nursing dream delayed, Leyba stayed close to health care: As a young woman, Leyba worked part time in various jobs at the hospital, such as cashier and patient billing positions, plus handling radiology film and registering patients in outpatient surgery.
Her mother recalled Monica Lebya saying to her parents one day, “I feel like I’ve disappointed you.” She vowed to go to nursing school when her kids were old enough to attend school.
“And sure enough, that’s what she did,” her mother said.
“She’s full of determination. She’s still bossing us,” Jessie Martinez added, saying Monica Lebya was all over her parents about maintaining COVID-19 precautions.
When Leyba’s son went to kindergarten, she headed for nursing school at Santa Fe Community College. She earned an associate’s degree in nursing 25 years ago.
She was a bedside nurse at Christus St. Vincent and gradually worked her way up, getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing along the way. She said she didn’t envision being a boss but early in her nursing career she suggested an improvement to the nurses’ record-keeping forms — emphasizing check boxes for ease and clarity.
“It was just an idea that I thought would be helpful,” Lebya said. Her notion gained acceptance, and that experience helped her realize she could have more influence over patient care and quality service.
By 2008, she had become nursing director over various hospital departments, then director of patient care, and in 2016, she was elevated to the No. 2 nursing job. Leyba was promoted to the top nursing job at the hospital five years ago.
Jan Weidner, now the No. 2 nursing boss at the hospital, said the importance of the human touch at Christus is emphasized. Montoya and Leyba “can tell you where so-and-so went on vacation last month,” Weidner said.
She said of Leyba: “Her love for people in this community is not only something I admire but I aspire to. When you have that kind of trust in who’s leading you, you’ll go anywhere they lead.”
Leyba will mark 41 years at Christus St. Vincent in early June, but she said she doesn’t see her career concluding in the near future.
She pointed to nursing leading a Gallup Poll reputation survey of honesty and ethics in professions for 20 straight years.
Leyba called nursing “sacred work” and brushed tears from her eyes. Seeing and touching patients “fills my bucket,” she said.
As a boss, she said, she touches many more in a different way.
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TAOS — Pat Pacheco, a fifth-generation cattle rancher and fourth-generation Taoseño, has been trying to carve out a cattle business after a 30-year career with the Bureau of Land Management.
It has been challenging, Pacheco said, adding, “There’s not a lot of money in it, to be honest.”
Still, he said, there are some good reasons why he keeps at it, like “food security, a love for doing it and an interest in natural resources and agriculture.” The meat shortage during the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic gave him another reason to help create more of a local meat economy.
“Do you have to have all your food coming from out of town on a semitruck from an industrial plant?” Pacheco asked. To him, the answer is clear: A network of local food security, including more agriculture, is a good thing for Taos County.
Making that happen means he and other ranchers in the county have to face considerable challenges.
He believes the pay scale for cattle ranching is uneven when it comes to the amount of labor put into raising the animals and the money a rancher stands to earn.
“You’re lucky if you get 20 cents an hour. No question. The average cow-calf producer makes $100 per calf per year. … That’s lucky,” Pacheco said.
Pacheco leases hundreds of acres in Taos and Colfax counties and southern Colorado for grazing his cows. On his way to feed his cattle Monday, a friend and rancher from Oklahoma called and told him his water table was dry and he would have to drill. The cost to drill, the rancher said, went from $900 10 years ago to $1,800 now. In Taos, Pacheco said, a well like that would cost at least $10,000.
The landscape surrounding the cattle business has changed since Pacheco was younger, when he learned the ropes from his father. Now, he said, there are fewer butchers, meat processors and parcels of land. Currently, New Mexico has six of the 800 federally inspected slaughter facilities, according to the Journal of the Western Economics Association.
In Northern New Mexico, Pacheco said, there has been a decline in the number of cattle ranchers. He cites a 2003 U.S. Department of Agriculture study on ranching, which found a “continuous decline in the number of grazing permits and the number of animals permitted.” In the Carson and Santa Fe national forests, the study said, 2,200 people held grazing permits in 1940. By 1970, there were fewer than 1,000.
Molly Manzanares, chairwoman of the New Mexico Livestock Board and a local meat producer with her husband, raises sheep south of Chama near Tierra Amarilla. Their business, Shepherd’s Lamb, sells organic-certified lamb and wool products. She said there has been a small resurgence to create more food security after the coronavirus pandemic’s disruption to the supply chain.
“When COVID hit the slaughterhouses, it really caused people to wake up and say, ‘We need to have that capability,’ ” Manzanares said.
She said she has noticed a decline in the number of meat producers.
Manzanares said she’s one of the last sheep herders where she lives.
“Quite a few people have reduced their [animal] numbers, partly due to drought, partly due to volatility in the markets,” Manzanares said.
She and her husband drive almost 130 miles to Durango, Colo., to get their meat processed; she said it’s one of the last places near them where they can get their meat processed and certified as organic.
Then they sell their products mostly at the Santa Fe Farmers Market and directly to customers.
Manzanares joked that she’s too old to continue laboring over the sheep.
The average age of U.S. farm producers in 2017 was close to 58, according to the USDA. The U.S. Department of Labor found the median age for cattle ranchers is 56.
Pacheco said he feels healthy, and the work helps him stay that way.
“[I’m] thinner than a horse. [I] can do 20 pull-ups. I’m 60 years old,” Pacheco said.
Manzanares was appointed during the administration of former President Barack Obama to serve as the Farm Service Agency state director, and one of the focuses of her work was trying to find initiatives to draw younger people to being farmers. She said she doesn’t know what the future is going to look like, though.
State Rep. Jack Chatfield, R-Mosquero, said two bills were passed in the Legislature within the last two years aimed at increasing the number of meat inspectors from six to 70. Chatfield, a rancher himself, said boosting the number of inspectors will make it easier for small and medium-size cattle ranches to operate.
There are four companies that produce 85 percent of the meat in the U.S., according to the USDA. Chatfield said these few “multinational corporations” not only control most of America’s diet but also the price of the meat. Chatfield would like to see less reliance on these corporations and an increase in the number of local farm-to-table producers in New Mexico.
“I see a consolidation of small family ranches into larger operations. And I would like to see the small family raise the remaining viable operation,” Chatfield said.
This story first appeared in The Taos News, a sister publication of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
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On the surface, all the familiar ceremonial trappings were in place for the event.
The reading of proclamations announcing April 9 as Bataan Remembrance Day. The playing of taps. Speeches honoring the legacy of the New Mexicans who gave their lives fighting, struggling to survive, dying far from home in a campaign ringed with deprivation, starvation and torture.
Still, Saturday’s morning commemoration of the April 4, 1942, fall of Bataan — the 80th anniversary — was missing something.
Bataan survivors.
For the first time since the New Mexico National Guard began hosting the Santa Fe event in the mid-1980s, none of them attended.
Age, infirmity and death have taken their toll on almost all of the survivors. The New Mexico Department of Veteran Services believes there may only be about five of those men still living around the country. And the event was not held live over the past two years because of the health restrictions surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet, watching the hourlong ceremony attended by about 100 people play out on Don Gaspar Avenue outside the Bataan Memorial Building, Fred Armijo, son of the late Bataan U.S. Army veteran Manuel Armijo, said he has no concern the legacy of those Bataan soldiers will be forgotten.
“I plan on keeping it alive,” he said, adding, in a joking fashion, “I plan to live to 100.”
The commemoration is held near a stone monument honoring the Bataan campaign, and Armjio said as long as that monument remains, people won’t forget.
He is well aware of his father’s role in keeping the history of Bataan alive.
Manuel Armijo, a first sergeant with the 200th Coast Artillery, is credited with initiating the annual commemoration in the postwar years. Some sources say he started it in 1946, silently standing outside a downtown government building while holding a white flag in his hands. Other sources put that date at 1953.
Regardless, the annual April 9 event has become something of a cornerstone military memorial event, a day to remember a generation of young New Mexicans — some still teenagers — who left the comfort of hometown America to wage war in some faraway place few had heard of.
Little could they have known, having entered the military before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II, they would become part of one of the most violent and tragic stories of New Mexico’s military history.
The Battle of Bataan in the Philippines — the first major military campaign of the Asian theater in World War II following the Pearl Harbor attack — took a huge toll on New Mexico.
Of the 1,800-plus New Mexican soldiers who fought in the battle, only half came home alive. And many of them, survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March and Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, came back physically, mentally and emotionally scarred.
From Dec. 8, 1941, to April 9, 1942, those 1,800 New Mexico soldiers fought alongside Filipinos and other Americans to fight off Japanese invaders on the Bataan peninsula. On April 9, Bataan’s military commanders surrendered, though the soldiers wanted to fight on, despite a lack of weapons, food and medicine.
Most of the American and Filipino defenders were killed, captured or forced to march 65 miles through the jungle. Japanese soldiers used their bayonets and bullets along the way to kill the weak, wounded and defiant ones on what became known as the Bataan Death March.
Manuel Armijo, like so many of the men who survived that ordeal, did not like to talk about what he endured, his son said. But Vincent Lithgow, Manuel Armijo’s grandson, recalled as a child sleeping over at this grandparents’ home and hearing his grandfather erupt in pain — at night.
“He screamed in English, he screamed in Spanish, he screamed in Japanese,” said Lithgow, who also attended Saturday’s memorial event.
His daughter, Rachel Lithgow, only recalls her great grandfather as a little, wizened old man.
“It was hard to imagine him being young,” she said after Saturday’s ceremony. “It’s hard to imagine his incredible heartbreak.”
She, too, feels the Bataan story will be carried on long after the last descendants of any of the soldiers who fought it have died. Though she lives in Las Cruces, Lithgow said she visits the Bataan monument every time she comes to Santa Fe. It represents “a deep rooted sense of connection to New Mexico history.”
“There’s a lot of him here,” she said as she looked at the monument.
Manuel Armijo died in June 2004 at the age of 92, his son said. His mother, Frances Armijo, lived almost six more years, dying in April 2010.
She died April 9, in fact.
“Here’s my take on it,” Fred Armijo said of that date. “My dad came for her.”
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/the-last-echo-bataan-vets-are-remembered-but-few-remain/article_93428658-b42b-11ec-9ab6-67cf79531bf4.html
| 2022-04-10T06:46:34
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Americans have debated over the efficacy of masks. Anti-vaxxers have refused shots that protect from COVID-19. Parents have screamed at each other over policies for opening and closing schools.
The two years of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic have left Americans at odds. But few people can disagree that clean air is good for humans, especially indoors, where people spend so much time.
That’s why the leaders of Santa Fe Public Schools put so much effort in improving air quality in classrooms, spending more than $3 million on a variety of interventions. Improved purifying equipment and better air filters were the foundation for air-quality COVID-19 mitigations, says Gene Bostwick, director of construction and real property for the district.
Across the district, the idea was both to scrub the air and bring fresh air in.
In some older schools, where it was more difficult for systems to draw in fresh air from the outdoors, a fixed fan went in the window to capture that air despite the challenges. “Sometimes,” Bostwick said, “you have to be creative in how you get that air in and out.”
In 75 percent of the district, decent filtration already was in place, Bostwick said. Those were upgraded to higher-grade filters; in another 25 percent or so, HEPA units were added, designed to exchange air three to four times an hour.
That so much effort was dedicated to improving air quality is a testament to leadership, because it did not happen in many schools across the country.
And it needs to happen in buildings across Santa Fe, New Mexico and the country. In discussing living with COVID-19, leaders have to talk about better indoor air quality. It’s a way not just to get back to normal, but to improve on pre-pandemic norms.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, improved indoor air quality in schools does more than stop the spread of the coronavirus that can cause COVID-19. In better-ventilated rooms, research has shown that influenza rates, asthma attacks and absenteeism go down, and reading and math test scores go up. The rooms also have lower amounts of carbon dioxide, meaning students can think more clearly.
Clean indoor air is a way to improve learning and the health of students. That much is clear. Right now, federal officials say they don’t know how many school districts across the country used pandemic dollars to improve indoor air quality. State departments of education — including New Mexico’s Public Education Department — should gather that information so necessary investments can be made.
Santa Fe Public Schools invested in better air quality, accepting not just initial costs but paying for higher-quality air filters and buying individual units. Recurring costs will be greater, but the benefits are worth it.
In buildings where investments haven’t been made, here’s a way to achieve similar results until systems are upgraded. Build a Corsi-Rosenthal box.
These gadgets are effective, inexpensive and simple to construct. An open-source design, all that is required is one box fan, four MERV 13 filters and duct tape. The air filters were created by Richard Corsi and Jim Rosenthal. Corsi is dean of engineering at University of California-Davis, while Rosenthal is CEO of Tex-Air filters.
Studies show the Corsi-Rosenthal box effectively can eliminate aerosols in indoor spaces. Since SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — is transmitted by aerosols, reducing or eliminating them reduces the spread of the virus. They work in offices, classrooms or homes.
Science teachers across the country are having students build boxes, a great hands-on learning experience. The boxes — just like better filtration and ventilation — have value beyond the pandemic. Cleaner air contains less pollen, a boon for allergy sufferers. In California, the boxes have been used to mitigate wildfire smoke indoors. They can filter dust and other viruses.
The pandemic upended life as we know it. But by applying its lessons, some areas of life can be better than before. Breathing easier increases the quality of life.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/editorials/breathing-easier-clean-indoor-air-is-the-key/article_3cb210b8-b77a-11ec-b918-f372fd0e6e82.html
| 2022-04-10T06:46:40
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“I am prepared to wait for your answer until hell freezes over.” That was the challenge Adlai Stevenson II, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, made to the prevaricating Russian Ambassador Valerian Zorin, who had denied the presence of any Soviet weapons in Cuba during the missile crisis in 1962. Why has no similar challenge been mounted to the blatant lies and evasions by the current Russian ambassador to the U.N. about the mass killing of Ukrainians civilians in Bucha and elsewhere? Condemnation and outrage are mere sputterings compared to actual confrontation. Why, for example, doesn’t U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield offer to invite the Russian ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, to join her on a visit to the sites of slaughter, all expenses paid? Or if words are her only weapons, at least use a phrase as memorable as Stevenson’s. The Russians may yield veto power in the Security Council but not over language biting enough to resound over decades.
Donald Lamm
Santa Fe
Too slow on Plaza
Santa Fe is the proud home of world-class artists and galleries. It is a city of proud and diverse history and a major destination site. This is all the more reason that the pathetic plywood structure — covering the base of the toppled obelisk — in the middle of our most visited site, the historic Plaza, is such a disgrace. Can’t we do better? And can’t the mayor and City Council and others complete the project about what needs to happen on the Plaza and at least communicate with the public on the progress? My personal preference is a beautiful fountain. Please, let’s show the country we know how to deal with issues and with art projects in a beautiful and efficient manner. I don’t want to look at the plywood panels yet another summer or Christmas.
Cathy Magni
Santa Fe
Hydrogen facts
In regard to a recent letter (“Hydrogen: Not green,” April 6), here are some facts. Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of sources. Gray and blue hydrogen are produced from natural gas and crude oil, respectively. Their production does generate greenhouse gases emission, which can be reduced with carbon-capture technology. Green hydrogen is produced through electrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen — typically utilizing electricity from clean sources such hydro, wind and solar power. It is pollution-free and CO2-free. True, it does consume water, but wastewater will work very well as a source, which is being demonstrated in central California.
Chuck von Huben
Santa Fe
Hardly transparent
State Auditor Brian Colón is not all about “transparency and accountability.” Over the last three years, I have filed not one but two Inspection of Public Records Act enforcement actions against the state auditor, Colón’s current job.
The first case was settled after an excellent memorandum opinion and order by Judge Clay Campbell. He pointed out that Colón and the Office of the State Auditor wanted to “turn IPRA on its head.” Colón then tried to change the law — he failed. The second IPRA enforcement action resulted in a court order, which Colón appealed. That appeal was just dismissed. Therefore, the proceedings will continue resulting in record production, damages, attorney fees and costs. If you violate state IPRA laws, how committed can you be to “transparency and accountability”?
Nancy Henry
Albuquerque
Proof of a heart
I have developed a surefire system your readers can use for determining whether their state legislator has a normal-sized heart, or if he/she has a heart that is “three sizes too small.” It all starts with a visit to the website, nm.legis.gov. There you can see how your legislator voted on individual legislation. My system is focused on two bills. House Bill 132 was passed in this year’s 30-day session and lowered the maximum interest rate for short-term loans from 175 percent to 36 percent. House Bill 2, which was passed in the recent special session, gives individuals $500 to help offset the spike in gasoline prices. Out of 70, 18 representatives voted against House Bill 132 and in favor of keeping the 175 percent rate. Likewise, 13 of 70 representatives voted against House Bill 2 and the $500 rebates. There are 12 representatives who voted against both bills, all Republicans. Find out how your representative voted.
Bob Carroll
Albuquerque
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/denounce-russia-before-its-too-late/article_3eb92d8c-b767-11ec-ae9d-57ad2dc8d254.html
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/denounce-russia-before-its-too-late/article_3eb92d8c-b767-11ec-ae9d-57ad2dc8d254.html
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At age 29, Marc Whitmore is a man of his time — adept, if not gifted, at employing all the technology and tricks that come with engineering music in the 2020s.
Seriously. We send flying machines into outer space with fewer bells and whistles, knobs and buttons than the array Whitmore controls in his studio on the city’s northwest side.
But when you talk to him, a new-to-town Santa Fean and key contributor to the winner of a Grammy Award, it’s pretty apparent Whitmore also is a man for another time — and not just because the resplendent red velvet suit he wore for the biggest night of his life is closer to 1972 than 2022.
“My musical taste has always been like that from 1968 to 1972,” confirms the earnest and affable Whitmore, listing Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zeppelin II as his three favorite albums.
Actually, there’s gotta be a fourth, too. It’s an eclectic collection called We Are, by mega-talented and multi-genred Jon Batiste.
Dude won the 2022 Grammy Award for best album last week in Vegas.
Whitmore, the recording engineer and mixer on “We Are,” was there for the festivities — and all the long days and nights that led to them.
You didn’t see Whitmore on the Grammy telecast, as he was high above where the artists sat and TV cameras hovered. Didn’t matter. The pride of doing something well — years of devotion to finding the right sound, regardless of musical hurdle — rang as true as a bell.
“I don’t want to say I was prepared for it or anything, but I do feel like there is like a part of me that kind of felt like this was the goal,” he says. “You know what I mean? … I’m like, ‘This is what was supposed to happen if you did things right.’ “
We Are is an ear magnet, thanks in large part to the talents of Batiste, best known to some as the band leader for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He received an incredible 11 nominations — one fewer than Michael Jackson, two more than Clapton and McCartney. Oh, yes, Batiste took home five Grammys overall.
That’s pretty good, yes?
Whitmore has long known about the musician’s abilities, having known him for about 61/2 years. Over time, they’ve built a trust and a collaboration, the kind of relationship that maybe only people within the industry really understand and develop.
Singers and recording engineers can spend days, weeks, months hunting for the right sound, Whitmore says; the single note that makes good great and great heavenly. When they unveil what they’re looking for, it’s as true as a tuning fork.
“I like to use a lot of other recordings that I like, to try to explain what I’m talking about,” Whitmore says, explaining his process. “Sometimes that’s easier, if people play me stuff. Like even if they don’t understand why the vocals sound a certain way in their favorite song, I can hear it and kind of decode it a little bit. It helps to sorta try to bond over music with an artist.”
Batiste isn’t the only musician Whitmore works with, and it’s likely last week’s Grammy recognition means others will soon be heading to Santa Fe. Such is the city’s allure — spend some time in collaboration with a guy who believes in teamwork; spend some time in one of the world’s more unique locales.
That’s sort of what drew Whitmore here — the not-like-anywhere-else vibe. Having grown up in Youngstown, Ohio, and working primarily in Cleveland and Nashville, Tenn., New Mexico is a refreshing, invigorating change, he says. And though there’s nothing beautiful about the coronavirus pandemic, it’s opened eyes and ears to new opportunities.
Like every other industry, you can work together or you can work remotely — and technology can stitch together whatever holes keep you apart. His studio is in a casita on a large spread in Las Campanas; he and his wife, Lynnie Whitmore, live in an apartment closer to downtown.
“[Santa Fe] kind of unravels people a little bit … allows them to relax and be themselves,” he says of his new base.
Dressed in a simple, black T-shirt, with a cloud of ’68-to-’72-era hair spilling about, Whitmore looks more than comfortable as he shows a visitor around his studio. He seems happy.
A musician himself — drums, mostly, but other stuff, too — he says he loves the creativity and the challenge that come with building sounds into art. He was a DJ at 15, then got into a program that led to an internship, then another. One connection led to another connection, and before you knew it, he was at the board, working with a group called the The Black Keys.
Then Batiste.
Then We Are.
Then … an evening in a red velvet suit.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/local_columns/santa-fean-celebrates-a-grammy-winner-with-velvety-attitude/article_153dbec6-b6a6-11ec-a5c8-47c199b4cf60.html
| 2022-04-10T06:46:58
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A number of recent studies on the challenges facing front-line workers all report the same troubling trend.
One article addressing the hostile behavior being directed at nurses is headlined, “Rudeness is on the rise — why?” It begins, “It’s not just you, and it’s not just health care. Poor behavior ranging from the impolite to the violent is having a moment in society right now.”
Nurses and health care workers are feeling burned out. To be subjected to personal attacks only adds to their distress. Police and other public health and safety professionals report the same thing. There may not be more actual crime, but police are dealing with people who escalate their anger much more rapidly and explosively. It feels worse out there, regardless of actual crime levels.
An article in The Atlantic that discusses the same problem is titled, “Why people are acting so weird.” The contributing factors are, to some extent, predictable. Stress due to COVID-19 has put people on edge. Social bonds have frayed. Isolation breeds disaffection and disconnection. Anger is not only more prevalent, it’s also more socially acceptable. Anger breeds more anger; it also inhibits people from practicing kindness. Experts agree: We seem to be living through a period when aggressive and anti-social behavior are on the rise.
What can the city do? What can each of us do to stem this angry tide?
We should all acknowledge what’s going on. Collectively, people are experiencing a lot of distress. Coming through COVID-19 has taken a toll — on all of us. Kids haven’t been able to have routine experiences in school. Parents have had their work and home lives disrupted. Some people’s mental or behavioral health issues have worsened. Others are dealing with feelings they may never have experienced before — a sense of a loss of control, or just plain loss.
We can also do a self-assessment: How many emotional and behavioral issues are we struggling to deal with? No one is immune; everyone can get caught up in a society-wide pattern. Anyone dealing with these issues can respond by getting counseling. If someone close to us is struggling, offer to help them get help. Think of this as part of the pandemic: Wouldn’t you extend a helping hand to get a friend or relative through COVID-19 sickness? This is COVID-related. Folks still need a helping hand.
Recently, we declared a Mental Health Day for city employees. A great team from the Community Engagement Office, Human Resources and the convention center helped the city pull together a terrific event. Employees came together, ate together and felt good together. There was information about mental and behavioral health, family and community health care, and services and organizations that can reduce stress and offer support. There were free chair massages and a couple of fun games to turn the event into a celebration.
We know that one event won’t turn the tide on a nationwide issue. But it can set the tone for each of us. Change starts at the level of the individual. Each of us can be more understanding and less angry. Each of us can practice random acts of kindness. We can be long when it comes to listening and slow to anger.
And we can all take time to be more thankful. An attitude of gratitude goes a long way toward striking a better mood for everyone. It starts with me and with you. Make it a point to say thanks. Say thanks to our first responders. Say thanks to our essential workers. Say thanks to our teachers. Say thanks to friends and neighbors. Write an actual note on paper, with a pen and an envelope and a stamp, and send a message of thanks to someone you know. And then thank the postal workers for picking it up and delivering it.
The truth is, we have so much to be thankful for, starting with being grateful to live in such a great place as Santa Fe. Let’s start a movement of gratitude and appreciation. It starts right here with each of us. Thanks: I’m grateful to you.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/lets-start-a-gratitude-movement/article_3427f5d0-b6b6-11ec-9b10-2b7f3520a67a.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:04
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/lets-start-a-gratitude-movement/article_3427f5d0-b6b6-11ec-9b10-2b7f3520a67a.html
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I have lived happily here in my adopted state since 1995. But I miss Austin, Texas. Sorely.
Not today’s South by Southwest, high-tech, traffic-jammed, celeb-sighting, $1 million-condo-on-Congress Avenue version. I miss the Austin I encountered as a freshman at the University of Texas in the fall of 1959. The two-industry, quiet city on the Colorado. When El Mat’s neon sign was the highlight of the skyline. And Darrell Royal’s football teams were rightfully feared.
I miss the congeniality of that Texas, the bipartisanship of that America. Complacent, perhaps. Imperfect, most certainly. But the state — and the nation — had finally found the courage to take those first, long-overdue steps toward racial equality, women’s rights and consideration of the environment. Most of us shared a heady sense of optimism. I was proud to say I was from Texas. Today I am ashamed. And I am gravely concerned.
This current Texas Legislature has parked its courage and traded in its soul on a self-righteous, mean-spirited crusade to eliminate every vestige it can of those first two precious, fragile gains. And it greedily wraps its arms around the oil and gas lobby while blithely ignoring the third.
The members wage these wars to placate their base and retain power at all costs — a hefty price paid largely by others who did not vote for them. Most shameful of all, Texas’ congressional congregation flaunts its Christian “values” as unabashedly as it would a new iPhone 13.
I lived in Austin twice as a student, once as an advertising executive. But I have not stepped foot in the state for years. Half of its population will most likely say good riddance, but let me say this to its better half. Texas cannot afford to lose any more men and women of good conscience and compassion. Not in the face of the seismic shift initiated with Dubya’s election in 1995 — a long legacy of dutiful Democrats ended, trampled by the roughshod run of the far right.
Sadly, what began with bemused ineffectiveness at best has quickly evolved into bitter vindictiveness at worst. It is no coincidence this darkness has seeped downward in synch with the putrid ooze of Trumpism — that disgraceful wielding of his racist cleaver to divide the nation. I have forever lost friends, loved ones and family because of this rift. And now I am losing my beloved home state.
There is a familiar old trope that opines one can’t go home again. I have found this to be true even in the best of times. And it brings me no joy to point out that these are among the worst.
There is little honor — and even less backbone — to be found in the halls of Texas’ magnificent, pink granite capitol. Call me naive, but my idea of home never imagined neighbors being rewarded for spying on other neighbors. Or blatantly suppressing the right to vote. These punitive acts reek of fascism, smelling so very, very foul to those of us who now choose to live in kinder, gentler environs.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/living-in-santa-fe-remembering-an-austin-of-yore/article_4c24a264-b071-11ec-ba46-db7f2cc868e6.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:11
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/living-in-santa-fe-remembering-an-austin-of-yore/article_4c24a264-b071-11ec-ba46-db7f2cc868e6.html
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As the state office of the National Audubon Society in New Mexico, Audubon Southwest’s mission is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity.
New Mexico had an unprecedented $8.5 billion budget to work with during this year’s legislative session. This year provided the perfect fiscal scenario and timing to invest in water programs and consolidate current data about water and infrastructure. Unfortunately, many water programs in the state did not receive large enough increases in funding, placing us further behind in our efforts to respond to the dire water crisis in New Mexico.
Water is life in New Mexico, and that life is under threat. We are the fourth-driest state in the country, and we are getting drier every year. We hear news daily about ongoing drought, difficulty in accessing drinking water in certain communities, litigation between Texas and New Mexico over the Rio Grande Compact, and low water levels at Elephant Butte Reservoir. All these events are indicators that the incredible wildlife that thrives in New Mexico, our beautiful landscapes, and our traditional communities and agricultural practices are in trouble. The fate of the next generations is directly tied to how the state adapts its water resources management today.
New Mexico needs to update its water infrastructure and management, fully fund water programs and plan for persistent drought by reducing use and ensuring the rivers are flowing. Banking water for future shortages is also critically needed and underfunded. 80 percent of our at-risk species are directly dependent on land near rivers and streams, and the governor has committed to protecting biodiversity and preserving sensitive ecosystems. This is a step in the right direction, but we need to do more.
Voters clearly support measures to address water issues in a meaningful way. As shown by a recent survey released by the Thornburg Foundation and Water Foundation, 75 percent of New Mexican voters want actions now to ensure future generations continue to have an adequate water supply. The survey also shows that 74 percent of voters support investing more in water infrastructure, 68 percent support using the Outstanding National Resource Waters program, which grants state protection to certain special waters, and 84 percent support updating water data while making it publicly available.
We missed a golden opportunity in the 2022 legislative session to make significant gains addressing the water crisis, but it’s not too late. We know we need to act now, and the public supports it, so let’s do it. The Legislature, the Governor’s Office and advocacy groups must start preparing for the 60-day session. Next year provides another opportunity to give state agencies innovative policy tools and the funding to implement them. We must work together to meet 21st century water use, protection and storage challenges. Audubon Southwest will work to support legislation to fund water programs fully, prepare for prolonged drought and modernize the state’s water management. For the good of our economy, environment and public health, we must get ready for the water challenges ahead. If we are to have a future, we have to act today.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/new-mexico-must-focus-on-water-in-2023/article_10fc6418-b6b8-11ec-ad7b-67a7c68ac113.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:17
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/new-mexico-must-focus-on-water-in-2023/article_10fc6418-b6b8-11ec-ad7b-67a7c68ac113.html
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Santa Fe is my adopted hometown. My original hometown, Logan, N.M., population 1,048, is a tiny village near Tucumcari. When I was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2012, the village threw a party that raised over $16,000 to help me meet my high deductibles and prepare for surgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center. My hometown helped save my life, despite being a place where many people live right at or below the poverty level. I desperately needed the help, and they provided it.
A few weeks ago, the Cancer Foundation for New Mexico (www.cffnm.org) threw a similar party to raise funds for Northern New Mexico cancer patients. This time I wasn’t the beneficiary. Instead, I was the board chair, a role I stepped into in August with serious trepidation. Bud Hamilton, the most dedicated person I know, had been board chair for 11-plus years. To say the least, I had large shoes to fill.
Luckily, I live in not only the most beautiful but one of the most generous cities in the world. When asked to open their wallets for Northern New Mexico cancer patients, Santa Fe stepped up in a big way. They made my job easy.
The Cancer Foundation’s Sweetheart Auction, our own great party for a great cause, was an overwhelming success, breaking all prior records in fundraising. The one record we didn’t break was in attendance, and that was OK. The foundation simply wanted to do what we’ve always done for the patients we serve.
The energy in the room that night was palpable. Folks were ready to get dressed up, get out and give in a big way. It was heartwarming to watch bidders compete for items that sold for four, five and even 10 times their stated value (as in the party for 10 at The Compound bar, which sold four times — thank you, Mark Kiffin!). It was even more exciting to see attendees smiling and greeting one another after two years of isolation.
Over 500 businesses and individuals donated items. Over 100 volunteers worked, some that night and some over the past eight months. We had a record number of corporate and individual sponsors and sold 3,000 raffle tickets long before the party. The foundation received a record number of cash donations before the event began.
And all for Northern New Mexicans who heard last year or last month or last week that they have cancer. Folks who require help to get to lifesaving cancer treatments in Santa Fe. The money raised will enable us to continue to help our Northern New Mexico neighbors.
In 2021, the cancer foundation helped with 29,922 patient visits, reimbursed 395,088 miles of travel (literally the distance to the moon and halfway back), disbursed 1,532 grocery cards and provided 872 free nights of lodging. Because New Mexicans stayed home and didn’t get diagnosed during the pandemic, we are seeing high numbers of late-stage diagnoses. The help we provide is more important than ever.
Santa Fe is not a perfect city. However, in my experience, it’s filled with the most generous folks anywhere. I stood on the stage at the auction and looked out over that room with tears in my eyes. This community had come together in the best way possible.
It seemed like a long way from tiny Logan to that stage, but the love and generosity was the same. Someone needed help, and Santa Fe happily provided it. Hats off to all of you who showed up in a big way!
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/santa-fe-shows-up-in-a-big-way/article_49f70710-aaff-11ec-87b4-03430e67f36c.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:23
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/santa-fe-shows-up-in-a-big-way/article_49f70710-aaff-11ec-87b4-03430e67f36c.html
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When the American Lung Association’s 2021 State of the Air Report gave failing grades for ozone pollution to New Mexico’s Eddy, Lea and San Juan counties, it sounded the alarm on the need for strong state regulations to tackle air pollution from the oil and gas industry.
And as the war in Ukraine pushes oil production to record levels, it is more urgent than ever that the state Environmental Improvement Board finalizes strong ozone precursor rules this month to protect the health of all New Mexicans as well as our kids, who are among those most at risk.
Ozone acts like a sunburn to the lungs, and can cause breathing issues, asthma attacks, respiratory and cardiovascular attacks. Even healthy people can experience shortness of breath and coughing when these pollutants are high. Air pollution is especially concerning in a state such as New Mexico with high rates of respiratory illness.
It is no coincidence that Lea, Eddy and San Juan counties are the state’s top oil- and gas-producing counties and also have unacceptably high levels of ozone pollution. Oil and gas operations are a significant source of ozone-forming volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, as well as methane emissions from venting, flaring and leaks. Well-site toxins can worsen respiratory diseases and trigger asthma attacks, and smog can worsen emphysema and impact the cardiovascular system. Methane is one of the key drivers of climate change — a powerful greenhouse gas that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term.
Eddy County is one of only two rural counties among the top 25 most polluted for ozone in the nation, underscoring the critical need for strong oil and gas rules. New Mexico took an important step forward last year to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for its waste and pollution when the state instituted a ban on routine venting and flaring, but it must follow up that action by requiring all operators to find and fix leaks — no exceptions.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham understood the public health imperative of reducing oil and gas emissions when she committed to enacting nation-leading air and methane pollution rules, and the EIB should follow through on that promise as it considers the New Mexico Environment Department’s proposed rule in April. By finalizing rules that allow no exemptions to leak detection and repair requirements and protecting those living closest to development with requirements for more frequent inspections to find and fix leaks, the board can help protect all New Mexicans and create a benchmark for other states and the federal government.
State government has no higher mission than safeguarding public health, and strong air pollution rules for oil and gas are an effective and equitable tool. More than 130,000 New Mexicans live within a half-mile of oil and gas development, including communities of color that face disproportionate impacts from climate change and pollution. Almost half of all Native Americans in San Juan County live within a half-mile of a well site, and across the state rural communities, tribal communities, children and the elderly are especially at risk for adverse health impacts of oil and gas pollution.
New Mexicans should not accept failing grades when it comes to protecting the state’s air. The Environmental Improvement Board has an opportunity to put New Mexico on a path toward a cleaner, healthier future for all its residents. At its April hearings, the board should finalize the strongest possible air pollution rules to protect public health, and hold the oil and gas industry accountable for its waste and pollution.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/strong-air-quality-rules-more-important-than-ever/article_81114a8e-b6b8-11ec-956d-03ba0121154c.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:29
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As innocent civilians — men, women and children — are executed in the streets of Bucha, Ukraine, we must ask ourselves hard questions.
Meanwhile, the local news stations barely mention the war criminal slaughter and don’t always show the photos that every adult should witness. More parts of the news hour are spent with people complaining about the gas prices, over which we have no control since it’s part of a global market. Meanwhile, we have refused to give up our mega-gas-guzzling vehicles even when we didn’t need them.
The rest of the world downsized decades ago. Our gas is $4 to $5 a gallon. In Europe, it’s above $7 a gallon. In parts of Scandinavia, it’s above $12. Yes, I know we have farmers and others businesses who need a big truck. Don’t jump on my case. I’m speaking of people who speed for fun, including in off-road vehicles and others who just want a big truck to brag.
Note that the far right complains we should just drill more or open the Canadian pipeline. This pipeline would provide few long-term jobs — most quoted are simply for building a pipeline to carry horribly dirty tar sands oil. And it would be years away. Instead of arguing, earlier investments could have created long-term renewable energy development. By now, that energy would have put us more free from Russian and Middle Eastern oil while helping our planet survive.
Then we go to the Albuquerque argument about ending the ban on plastic bags, while we ignore that we are sleepwalking into climate disaster. We are penny-wise and pound-foolish.
When food prices skyrocket, will we realize the destruction of Ukraine kept Ukrainians from planting crops? Ukraine is one of the top world producers of corn, wheat and other foods. Ukraine is also rich in natural gas and a multitude of other essential minerals and metals for our electronics, etc. Ukraine matters to us in our far distant corner of the world. And it is a democratically elected government.
Odesa, Ukraine, is next on Vladimir Putin’s list to conquer. Odesa, besides being a crucial port for Ukraine, was a world-acknowledged cultural center for music, arts, etc. when the area around Moscow was barely a village.
Do not doubt that should Putin succeed in Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and the Baltic states are next. He has already done this in Chechnya and elsewhere. It’s the same pattern that allowed Hitler to take over most of Europe while they bombed London.
Now there is just humanity. What is inhumane, and how much do you care? It will affect us no matter how distant we think we are.
What will you tell your grandchildren you said and did during these atrocities?
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/we-must-fight-atrocities-in-ukraine/article_2b970ab8-b6b7-11ec-bdd5-c7236aebee56.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:35
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/my_view/we-must-fight-atrocities-in-ukraine/article_2b970ab8-b6b7-11ec-bdd5-c7236aebee56.html
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Albuquerque, N.M., April 10 — The temperature dropped to 25 degrees above zero last night in a cold wave which struck here yesterday afternoon. Orchard men say that from 50 to 80 per cent of the fruit was killed.
April 10, 1947: Lupe Olguin, proprietor of Lupe’s Friendly service station, Alameda and College street, believes this is carrying friendliness too far — that is, looting his cash register. So he reported it to the city police.
Traffic Officer Stan Sussina, who answered Olguin’s call, said a man entered the station through the south door shortly after 2 p.m. yesterday while Olguin and his assistant were greasing a car on the north side. The stranger opened the register by pushing the “No-sale” key, took $20.
April 10, 1972: COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — Like Santa Fe, mobile homes are here to stay in this sprawling area of 236,000 people and will be utilized to a greater extent in the future, bringing with them an assortment of problems and challenges.
April 10, 1997: Dee Rusanowski is dispensing almost as many farewell hugs and kisses this week as she is doughnuts and green chile cheeseburgers. She and her husband, Bernie, will close Dee’s restaurant Saturday after more than 20 years in business.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/past_100_years/the-past-100-years-april-10-2022/article_a0ca1fc8-b789-11ec-a837-f766965046d6.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:41
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Softball
Abq. High 9, Capital 5
Abq. High 16, Capital 1 (three innings)
What happened: It looked like it was going to be a good day for the Lady Jaguars at the start of a District 5-5A doubleheader Saturday in Albuquerque, but the Lady Bulldogs quickly ruined those plans. Capital jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two innings in the opener, but that was the last of the good news as Albuquerque High scored 23 runs over the last four innings of the twinbill. The Lady Jaguars still led 5-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth when the Lady Bulldogs (8-9 overall, 4-0 in 5-5A) scored twice, then added five runs in the sixth to complete the rally. In Game 2, they opened with a six-run first, then added 10 more to invoke the 15-run, three-inning mercy rule.
Top players: Freshman Jadyn Padilla slammed two home runs in the opener and was 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Lady Jaguars. Athena Grimley was 2-for-2 in the second game.
What’s next: Capital (8-8, 2-2) takes on Los Lunas in a district doubleheader April 16.
Las Vegas Robertson 17, St. Michael’s 1
Las Vegas Robertson 15, St. Michael’s 5
What happened: The District 2-3A-leading Lady Cardinals continued to show their dominance, as senior Taylor Quintana fired her second one-hitter in a week in the opener. Meanwhile, the Lady Horsemen struggled in the field, committing eight errors that kept rallies alive for Robertson, which had 10 hits overall. St. Michael’s added eight more errors in Game 2, and the Lady Cardinals transformed a 3-2 lead after an inning into a 14-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth.
Top players: Arianna Archuleta was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored in the opener for Robertson, while Leigha Lucero had a pair of hits, including a double, to go with three runs scored in Game 2. Mia Duran had the lone hit in Game 1 for the Lady Horsemen — an RBI double — and was 3-for-3 in the second game.
What’s next: Robertson (14-3, 5-0) takes on Raton in a single game at home Tuesday, while St. Michael’s (7-9, 0-6) plays at Santa Fe High on Wednesday.
Santa Fe Indian School 13, Grants 0 (five innings)
What happened: Lady Braves head coach Oliver Torres gave his ace Shadé-Phea Young the day off from the pitching circle, preferring to showcase two former Lady Pirates — catcher Sanaa Lomayestewa and starting pitcher Celest Lucero, who played for them last year when SFIS didn’t field a team — as batterymates. SFIS rewarded the pair with five runs in the opening inning, added six more in the third and Lucero recorded a shutout. Torres added he used Saturday to give Young’s arm a break, and to rest a few starters to get them ready for the end of the season. “I got to rest some of my players who are injured, like [first baseman] Abrianna Herrera, who has that thumb issue,” Torres said. “Gotta work on some depth and it was good.”
Top players: Lucero struck out three in her complete-game performance. Senior Jordan Torres went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored to lead the hitting attack.
What’s next: SFIS (12-7) returns to District 2-3A play with a home gam against West Las Vegas on Tuesday.
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/sports/abq-highs-bats-get-hot-to-down-lady-jaguars-in-5-5a-doubleheader/article_e0f9de04-b878-11ec-ae38-c7cc2d227cb9.html
| 2022-04-10T06:47:47
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Like two heavyweight prize fighters who just exchanged one haymaker after another and were still standing at the bell, it’s only fitting Saturday’s much-anticipated baseball doubleheader between archrivals St. Michael’s and Robertson left us wanting more.
With the driver’s seat in District 2-3A on the line, each team’s ace shut down the opposing lineup to produce a split. The Horsemen (12-6 overall, 5-1 in 2-3A) rolled to an 11-0 rout in the opener while the visiting Cardinals (13-5, 4-1) took the second game, 8-5.
Assuming both teams hold serve against the remaining district schedule, the 2-3A title (and presumably a top 2 seed in the state tournament) will be settled April 26 when St. Michael’s heads up Interstate 25 to visit Robertson in the final week of the regular season.
“You know, I’m not sure other than it’s two really good teams showing they’re pretty even,” said Robertson coach Leroy Gonzalez when asked what Saturday’s games proved. “It showed we both have good pitchers and we can both hit.”
St. Michael’s did plenty of both in the first game, scoring nine runs in the first inning and getting a gargantuan home run to center by CeeJay Saiz. The blast easily cleared the centerfield fence and those who saw it estimated it traveled at least 400 feet.
It was part of a 5-for-6 day for Saiz, who also drew a walk to reach safely half a dozen times. He doubled and went deep in the first game, then singled and tripled in the other game to complete the doubleheader cycle (if there were such a thing).
His final at bat came in the bottom of the seventh of the second game. He launched a drive that cleared the outfielders in right-center. Ordinarily, he would have had a stand-up double, but he blazed right through Horsemen coach Augie Ruiz’s stop sign and easily beat the relay to third.
“I was going for third the whole way,” Ruiz said with a smile. “I wanted the cycle.”
It was part of a three-run rally for the Horsemen in the final frame of a game that was controlled by Robertson starting pitcher Adrian Rivera. Last spring, he shut down the Horsemen in the state playoffs; on Saturday he was a man on a mission after reading a quote from St. Michael’s senior Owen Gruda in a recent edition of The New Mexican, one in which Gruda suggested the Horsemen should be considered the team to beat and not the Cardinals.
Rivera tossed a complete game, giving up two runs in the first and three in the seventh — retiring 13 of the 18 batters he faced in the other innings. He finished with 10 strikeouts by controlling a curveball that came out of a three-fourths arm angle with him standing on the edge of the rubber to the first-base side.
“I usually don’t start my delivery over there, but the mound here has a huge hole in front of [the rubber],” Rivera said.
It was just second time in the last 11 games that the Horsemen hadn’t scored at least 10 runs, and was their lowest run total in nearly a month.
As for Gruda’s quote last week, Rivera wasn’t nearly as elusive as his slippery curveball.
“St. Mike’s is the biggest rivalry we have, and there was some crap-talking in the newspaper and that was kind of, like, motivating me,” he said. “It made me want to bring it.”
To Gruda’s credit, he more than backed up his talk by completely dominating the first game. He worked five innings, giving up just two hits and striking out seven without surrendering a run.
The top two hitters in Robertson’s order were a combined 0 for 5 with four strikeouts as he lowered his season ERA to 2.18 and improved to 6-0 in seven appearances.
After the big first inning, it was left to Gruda to take the Horsemen home — and he did. He was helped by 12 hits from his own lineup, two apiece from Derek Martinez and Reyes Baros.
Ruiz said he never really considered trying to match Gruda against Rivera on the mound. Gonzalez said his pitching rotation for weekend doubleheaders always has Quik Cordova throwing the first game with Rivera the second because Cordova is usually the starting catcher and he’d prefer not having Cordova squat behind the plate for seven innings and then be asked to take the mound in a starting role.
“I don’t really concern myself with pitching matchups at the pitching level, man,” Ruiz said. “These are just high school kids.”
The last time the Horsemen swept a doubleheader from Robertson was 2018. In the years since Ruiz said he has seen his teams sometimes get too worked up at the idea of facing the Cardinals. Those times appear to finally be changing.
“It’s a different breed with these guys,” he said. “There’s not the dread every time ... they see the name ‘Robertson’ on the schedule, whereas in the past it kinda did. We had guys waiting for the other shoe to drop, kind of.”
Saiz agreed, saying he didn’t necessarily notice any elevated animosity between the teams.
“I’d say it’s just the usual St. Mike’s-Robertson stuff,” he said. “It’s a big rivalry and, no matter what’s going on, it’s usually like this.”
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https://www.santafenewmexican.com/sports/horsemen-cardinals-split-key-doubleheader/article_f325e692-b871-11ec-a63d-1b5babef894f.html
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Man suspected of burying mom, sister in backyard arrested
LYONS, Ill. (AP) - A man suspected of concealing the deaths of his mother and sister has been arrested on felony charges nearly a year after their bodies were found buried in the backyard of their suburban Chicago house.
Lyons Police Chief Thomas Herion said Thursday that 45-year-old Michael Lelko will be formally charged with two felony counts of concealment of a death. Herion said Lelko also could face federal charges in connection to his alleged cashing of his mother’s Social Security checks for years after she died.
In August, police discovered the bodies of 79-year-old Jean Lelko and 44-year-old Jennifer Lelko. Both bodies had been buried in plastic tubs that had been sealed with duct tape, according to the Associated Press. Police say Lelko told them his mother died in 2015 and his sister died in 2019.
Herion said charges were not filed for several months because the bodies were not positively identified until this year. Autopsies could not determine the cause of death for either woman.
Herion said Michael Lelko’s 41-year-old brother, John Lelko, remains the subject of an investigation, the AP reports. He could face obstruction charges because he initially told police that his mother and sister were alive and living elsewhere, even though he knew they were both dead.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/10/man-suspected-burying-mom-sister-backyard-arrested/
| 2022-04-10T07:06:48
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https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/10/man-suspected-burying-mom-sister-backyard-arrested/
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ANNISTON — Donoho won the inaugural Calhoun County boys soccer tournament in 2017 at Choccolocco Park, but the Falcons hadn’t won the county tournament since.
They hadn’t even reached the championship game — until Saturday.
Two goals by tournament MVP Drew Williamson and one by Samuel Johnson carried the Falcons to a 3-1 win over Oxford at Anniston’s McClellan Soccer Complex.
First-year head coach Tim Melton said Donoho’s usual preparation routine, watching a lot of film and developing strategies for individual opponents, paid dividends against Oxford.
“Every game, we watch film. We individualize each player. Our team is responsible for going out and watching other teams play. They come back with a whole scouting report and present it to the team, so we do things totally different than most other teams,” Melton said.
The win ended Oxford’s run of county championships in boys play. The Yellow Jackets claimed three straight county titles with wins in 2018, 2019 and 2021. There was no county tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The Falcons never trailed and Oxford was never able to forge a tie but the Yellow Jackets made things interesting over the last six minutes of action.
Williamson’s first goal came at 24:57 of the first half on a pass from Samuel Johnson. Johnson saved a ball that appeared to be going out of bounds then took advantage of his peripheral vision to spotted Williamson in the middle of the field as he started a run toward the goal.
“I have trust in Sam to do that. He’s been doing it all year and he’s been doing it really good,” Williamson said. “He was able to play me, and I heard my coaches say, ‘Shoot,’ so I shot it and it happened to go over the keeper and go in.”
After Williamson buried the ball in the back of the net, the remainder of the first half went quietly. The Falcons still led 1-0 with just under 19 minutes to play when an Oxford player received a red card. That player had to leave the game and the Yellow Jackets were one player short the remainder of the match.
Johnson scored an insurance goal for the Falcons with 8:44 to play. Williamson’s shot from the left side came across the front of the goal. When Oxford’s keeper stepped up to deflect the ball it went toward Johnson who was on the right side of the net. Johnson headed the ball back just hard enough to get it into the goal for a 2-0 advantage.
“It hit off the goalie’s hand and it was right in my ear,” Johnson said. “I just happened to be right there, and I headed it in. … Once I shot it, I knew it was in. I just knew it.”
Johnson’s goal suddenly became more than insurance when Oxford’s Josue Alvarez scored on a rebound with 5:41 to go. Alvarez had been awarded a penalty kick inside the Donoho box. Richard Goad, the Falcons’ first-year goalkeeper, blocked the shot but Alvarez was first to the rebound and drove it into the net on his second try. Goad had another save at the three-minute mark.
“Richard played a great game,” Melton said before noting how much growth Goad has shown as a player in his first season of soccer. “This was his best game that he’s had by far, we believe.”
Goad credited defenders Trey Alexander, Ethan Rogers and Hunter Davenport with making his life in goal easier.
“I really look up to them and I try my hardest to be good as the last line of defense,” Goad said.
With 58.4 seconds remaining and the bulk of Oxford’s players moved forward, Grant Steed passed to Williamson on a breakaway and Williamson scored for the second time.
“When Grant got the ball in the midfield, he had a lot of space. He was able to play an unbelievable ball to me to my left foot and I was just able to get past the defenseman and kick it in the back post,” Williamson said.
Twenty seconds later, Oxford got the ball into Donoho’s goal again but this time the Yellow Jackets were offside and time expired before they could threaten again.
“Unbelievable,” Williamson said of the victory. “Better than anything.”
Individual honors
MVP: Drew Williamson, Donoho
Best offensive player: Riley Johnson, Donoho
Best defensive player: Alex Reyes, Oxford
Also all-tournament
Trey Alexander, Donoho
Caleb Boothe, Jacksonville
Layton Cheatwood, White Plains
Andy Garcia, Oxford
Nico Gutierrez, Oxford
Isaac Joiner, Jacksonville
Tristen Koontz, Oxford
Logan Melton, Donoho
Gleymar Perez, White Plains
Ethan Rogers, Donoho
Grant Steed, Donoho
Ray Zuniga, Oxford
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https://www.annistonstar.com/sports/high_school/boys-county-soccer-donoho-halts-oxford-s-win-streak-at-three/article_7ba0a3fc-b892-11ec-b323-a7c020ed1463.html
| 2022-04-10T07:13:20
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HEFLIN — Judson Billings hit two doubles while going 4-for-5 with three RBIs, and Donoho downed Cleburne County 11-1 on Saturday.
Other top performers for Donoho (13-3):
—Nic Thompson, RBI.
—Lucas Elliott, 2-for-3, four runs,
—Slade Haney, 1-for-5, run, RBI.
—Blake Sewell, 1-for-3, run, two RBIs; pitched five innings, allowing one hit, one earned run and three walks with 10 strikeouts.
—Kai Cleckler, 2-for-5, run, RBI.
—Peyton Webb, 2-for-4, RBI; pitched two innings of relief, allowing no hits or runs and one walk with two strikeouts.
—Will Folsom, 2-for-4, double, run, two RBIs.
—Marcus Lawler, run, RBI.
Alexandria 4-1, Springville 3-4: Alexandria split two baseball games with Springville on Saturday, winning 4-3 and falling 4-1. Top performers for the Valley Cubs (17-12):
—Samuel Henegar, double, single, two runs.
—Austin Jeffers, single, run.
—Jake Upton, double.
—Van Hall, single, run.
—Aaron Johnson, double, run.
—Evan Snow, pitched four innings, allowing three hits with no earned runs and four strikeouts.
—Austin West, double.
—Sam Wade, double.
—Aiden Brunner, single, RBI.
—Ian Cartwright, two singles.
Friday
Oxford 6, Pell City 4: In a late Friday game, Peyton Watts’ doubled home the go-ahead run in the 11th inning as Oxford finished off a sweep of Pell City. Watts was 2-for-3 with a run and two RBIs.
Top performers for Oxford (24-5):
—Sam Robertson, 3-for-5, double, two runs, RBI.
—Hayes Harrison, 2-for-6, two RBIs.
—Carter Johnson, 2-for-5, triple, double, run.
—R.J. Brooks, pitched 6 2/3 innings of relief, spreading out four hits with one earned run, one walk and six strikeouts.
—Hayden Gallahar, pitched 2 1/3 innings of relief, allowing no hits, no runs and no walks with one strikeout.
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https://www.annistonstar.com/sports/high_school/prep-roundup-donoho-oxford-win-alexandria-splits/article_92c8dcec-b898-11ec-9308-5f669fdba408.html
| 2022-04-10T07:13:27
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Kate McKinnon's Ruth Bader Ginsburg impression, and her many "burns," came back to "Saturday Night Live" in this week's cold open, in which Ego Nwodim debuted as soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In a major contrast to last week’s "Fox & Friends" opening, this skit was less about skewering humor and more about a celebration with Jackson in the Oval Office, awaiting the White House celebration of her historic confirmation, and meeting the ghosts of those who broke the glass ceiling and the color barrier.
When Ruth Bader Ginsburg, played by McKinnon appeared, Jackson asks her, “I’d love to know what advice you have for me as a woman on the Supreme Court.”
“Okay, here’s my advice. Always label your lunches. So the justices, they got sticky fingers. Second, if you are anything like me, white ladies are going to start wearing buttons of your face.”
“Look, I know your confirmation process put you through the ringer, but in the end people do the right thing. And you know, i was confirmed in the Senate 96 to 3, so what was your vote?’
“53 to 47,” Jackson said. “Yeah, a lot of them walked out and one guy kept asking me if babies are racist.”
Entertainment News
“Ted Cruz?” Ginsburg asked.
“You know it was. You should have seen that man. He actually sat there on TV and read a children’s book at me.”
“Well, it was Ted Cruz, so I bet the book was called, "Goodnight Cancun," and that’s a Gins burn," referencing to Cruz's trip to Cancun during a major snow storm with a power grid crisis last year in Texas.
Jackson also interacted with Thurgood Marshall (Kenan Thompson), the first Black justice on the Supreme Court; Harriet Tubman (Punkie Johnson) and Jackie Robinson (Chris Redd), who gives off a scream once he is told the salaries for today’s baseball players.
“So what advice for me do you have as a person of color on the Supreme Court?” Jackson asked Marshall.
“Well, never give up. Democracy can be slow and messy. It stumbles, but over time, it moves forward. I mean, I was the first Black Supreme Court justice, so you must be what, the 10th, the 20th?”
Jackson replied, “Nope. Just the third.
“No further questions, your honor,” Marshall said.
Jake Gyllenhaal returned to "SNL" for the first time since 2007, reflecting in his opening monologue about how long ago that was.
“That was like 400 Marvel movies ago,” the star joked. “To give you an idea of what it was like in 2007, in the show I hosted, there was a George W. Bush sketch, there were jokes about the first iPhone, and this is a photo of me from my monologue.”
The show then cut to an image of Gyllenhaal singing in a wig and gown, with Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig serving as his backup singers.
“There I am in full drag, singing a song from 'Dreamgirls,' to promote a movie where I played a gay cowboy,” said the host. “That was actually probably the least problematic thing in that episode, but looking back, I feel like I was a totally different person.”
Gyllenhaal then went on to discuss the fact that he’s developed a reputation as being an "intense method actor,” despite the fact that he “wasn’t even that good.“
He continues, "I remember for this movie 'Nightcrawler,' I went to the director and I was like, ‘Get ready for me to lose 48 pounds and win the Oscar.’ And then a week later I was like, ‘How would you like to see an actor lose 36 pounds and win the Golden Globe?” he joked.
The truth is, Gyllenhaal said he was only “doing that method stuff” because he thought that’s what you need to do to be a serious actor, and it led him to forget “how to have fun.”
“That’s when I realized something I should have realized a long time ago—acting is a really stupid job,” he said. “It’s pretend and it’s fun, and it should be filled with joy. Well, I’m finally embracing that joy again, and that’s why I’m back standing on this stage.”
Gyllenhaal then gave a passionate performance of Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” with Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim and Cecily Strong backing him up.
In the first sketch of the night, a game show host (Thompson) tries to find out why contestants (Gyllenhaal, Redd, and Fineman) liked certain photos on Instagram, and questioned their intentions.
An embarrassed Gyllenhaal liked a photo of another woman, despite having a girlfriend. Fineman liked a picture from five years ago posted by her ex-boyfriend's sister, in the hopes she is reminded to bring her up at the next family gathering.
Weekend Update kicked off with co-host Michael Che noting that former President Obama returned to the White House this week for the first time in five years, jokingly referring to Biden as ‘Vice President.’ “
Hey Barack,” Che deadpanned, “don’t confuse him.”
Co-host Colin Jost explained that as punishment for slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, the Academy has banned Smith from attending the awards show for the next 10 years.
“But is that a punishment?” he said. “He can still be nominated and win an award. He can even go to the afterparty. He just doesn’t have to attend the four-hour ceremony where someone is definitely going to make fun of his wife again.”
Jost, who hosted the 70th Primetime Emmys with Che, remarked that a real punishment would be to make Smith host next year’s Oscars. “Because trust me,” he said. “Nothing will make you question your choices in life more than hosting an award show.”
Next week Lizzo will be the host as well as musical guest.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/snl-kate-mckinnons-rbg-returns-to-celebrate-ketanji-brown-jackson-to-the-supreme-court/3638951/
| 2022-04-10T07:24:04
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: The previous two Bedlam meetings saw Oklahoma win behind late comebacks, including Friday night’s game to open the three-game series.
It was Oklahoma State’s this time around.
The Sooners’ four-run performance in the top of the seventh inning gave them a 7-3 lead over their in-state rival. The Cowboys responded with one run in the bottom of the frame, but the Sooners still held the advantage.
However, the Cowboys tied the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with three runs, two of them coming on a home run by Roc Riggio. The Sooners were unable to break the tie in the top of the ninth and needed to play great defense to force extra innings.
But OSU’s Marcus Brown was able to make it from second base to home on a wild pitch, giving the Cowboys an 8-7 win Saturday in Stillwater.
Blake Robertson finished with two hits and two runs, while Tanner Tredaway added 3 RBIs and a run.
The Sooners will look to bounce back at 3 p.m. Sunday to clinch the series.
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https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/ou-baseball-sooners-cant-hold-four-run-lead-lose-close-one-to-cowboys/article_6dd9d51e-b88c-11ec-bd03-ef6058da8c6a.html
| 2022-04-10T07:39:35
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https://www.normantranscript.com/sports/ou-baseball-sooners-cant-hold-four-run-lead-lose-close-one-to-cowboys/article_6dd9d51e-b88c-11ec-bd03-ef6058da8c6a.html
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The majority of power customers in Puerto Rico who were left in the dark earlier this week following a massive blackout that affected over a million residents had their electricity restored on Saturday.
The two entities in charge of providing electric services to 1.5 million power customers in Puerto Rico said their crews have been working hard since Wednesday night when a circuit-breaker at the Costa Sur generation plant, one of four main plants on the island, caught fire and caused the remaining power plants to shut down.
Power has been restored to at least 1.3 million customers as of late Saturday morning, according to Luma Energy, the Canadian-American private company that took over Puerto Rico’s power transmission and distribution last year.
As roughly 87 percent of customers gained access to electricity, Luma Energy also urged consumers to limit their power use in order to avoid energy demand upticks that could hinder the ongoing restoration process at some of the main power plants.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/power-restored-to-over-1-million-after-massive-blackout-in-puerto-rico/3638965/
| 2022-04-10T08:12:32
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/power-restored-to-over-1-million-after-massive-blackout-in-puerto-rico/3638965/
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Pets of the Week: Luda and Jada are Lab siblings seeking a fun-loving home
TAUNTON — The Taunton Animal Shelter Pets of the Week are Luda and Jada, 6-year-old black Labrador siblings.
They are a bonded team who absolutely love each other and are never far apart, whether they are walking or in the play yard, which they love. The shelter would like to keep them together and adopt them into the same home.
Both are happy and friendly dogs, with a smile and kiss for everyone and energy to spare! They need a fenced yard and an active family/person who will include them in lots of play time and walks. A harness and martingale collar is advised when walking Luda and Jada. They could also benefit from some training.
The shelter recommends no toddlers, as Luda would be too strong and active for a small child.
On the diamond:Here are the 22 Greater Taunton softball players to watch this spring
If you are looking for some fun-loving, happy and loving new best friends to make your life and home complete, come meet Luda and Jada!
Real estate report:Victorian on High Street in Taunton goes for more than $700,000
Call the Taunton Shelter at 508-822-1463, email deanie7243@aol.com or visit www.tauntonshelter.petfinder.com.
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/lifestyle/pets/2022/04/10/pet-week-luda-jada-black-lab-dog-adoption-taunton-rescue/9510936002/
| 2022-04-10T08:18:12
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/lifestyle/pets/2022/04/10/pet-week-luda-jada-black-lab-dog-adoption-taunton-rescue/9510936002/
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A visit to Taunton, England; show of support for Ukraine; new game shop opens: Top stories
Before we begin the new week in earnest, we're taking a look back at the week that was, and the stories that led the news with Taunton Daily Gazette readers.
Our top story of the past week took us across the pond, to our sister city, Taunton, England. As it turns out, both Tauntons have quite a lot of common ground.
Other top stories included: Taunton's New York Lace putting together a supportive display for Ukraine; a new gaming and collectibles store in the city, where customers can expect some royal treatment; and the latest real estate report, featuring a stately Victorian on High Street.
Rounding out our Top 5 stories of the past week was Operation Cuts for Kids, where volunteers delivered both styles and smiles.
These were our top stories of the past week, according to Gazette readers:
Curious Taunton: What is our sister city, Taunton, England, like?
Our top story of the past week took us over to England, to our sister city, also named Taunton. Our Taunton got its current name from the English settlers who came here, as many of them were from the other Taunton.
Thanks to the Sister Cities International network, our connections to that other Taunton have been maintained to this day.
Curious Taunton:What is our sister city, Taunton, England, like?
New York Lace shows support for Ukraine
The owners of New York Lace were recently inspired by a friend to show some support for the people of Ukraine.
Dolores and Francisco Milho were moved by their friend Pegi Conte's appearance before the City Council, where Conte got approval for ribbons to be displayed in solidarity. Conte has family in Ukraine, so the war hits especially close to home for her.
Now, there is a display at New York Lace lending some support and solidarity as well.
“It's at times like these that we all must pray and show solidarity and support for our friends during such difficult and unsettling times,” Dolores Milho said.
'Hopefully it will inspire others':New York Lace in Taunton shows support for Ukraine
Pro wrestler opens new gaming and collectibles shop in Taunton
Hear ye, hear ye! There is a new royal court in Taunton.
The King's Court, that is.
It's a new gaming and collectibles store, on Bay Street in Whittenton, run by Steven Baker, who goes by King Leon the 6th in the wrestling ring.
The King's Court also features a tabletop gaming facility, and there's something for everyone, no matter what fandom they pay homage to.
Take a tour of Baker's castle, right here.
Photos:The King's Court opens in Taunton
Real estate: Victorian on High Street goes for more than $700K
Old meets new in one of this week's top-selling Taunton area homes.
A Victorian on High Street that dates back to 1880 sold for $705,000 on March 17, according to real estate and mortgage data company The Warren Group.
It's got a blend of antique charm as well as some modern updates, plus more than 4,000 square feet of living space.
Real estate report:Victorian on High Street in Taunton goes for more than $700,000
Operation Cuts for Kids
Rounding out our Top 5 stories, the Boys & Girls Club of Metro South's Taunton Clubhouse recently hosted Operation Cuts For Kids.
Photos:Lots of styling haircuts and smiling faces at Taunton's Operation Cuts for Kids
Taunton Daily Gazette/Herald News copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/local/2022/04/10/top-taunton-stories-ukraine-support-game-shop-opens-sister-city-new-york-lace-kings-court-england/9513094002/
| 2022-04-10T08:18:18
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'Dighton is a conservative town': Zografos ousted in Selectman's race, loses to Caron
DIGHTON — Incumbent Selectman Brett Zografos was ousted in Saturday's annual Town Election, losing out to challenger Peter Caron in a campaign that sometimes seemed to hinge on conservative versus liberal values.
Caron, the Zoning Board chair and a former Finance Committee member, won the Selectmen's seat with 55% of the vote to Zografos's 45%, with Caron garnering 705 votes versus 584 votes for Zografos, who had served two terms on the board.
Zografos, who is open about being a gay man, pushed a proposal to fly the pride flag at town hall last year but relinquished focusing on the subject after a town meeting voted against it in November. Yet this one topic may have still left on imprint on voters in the mostly conservative-leaning town.
Selectman Leonard Hull acknowledged this factor in his response after the election results were announced.
"Dighton is a conservative town," Hull said. "So that's what we saw in this town election. A favoring of conservative values. The most important thing is answering to the will of the people. Defeating an incumbent is not an easy task. But it was the will of the people."
Hull also had words of praise for Zografos.
Standout athletes:Here are the 22 Greater Taunton softball players to watch this spring
"He brought in an estimated half-a-million dollars in grant money for the town in support of town projects. And that skill set will be sorely missed. With his set of skills, I doubt we have heard the last of Brett Zografos," Hull said.
"Dighton came up short today," Zografos responded to the election results in a text message.
"But I cannot thank the town enough for giving me the honor to serve the town for the last six years. I wish Selectman Caron much success in his new role and congratulate him on his victory today. I urge all my supporters to support him as he embarks on this new term in office."
Caron said people told him they were voting for him because of his promises of fiscal responsibility and lowering taxes.
Real estate report:Victorian on High Street in Taunton goes for more than $700,000
Of his campaign against Zografos, Caron said, "We both ran a great campaign. He was a very good selectman and served honorably. The voters just wanted a change."
Caron, 61, has been a resident of Dighton since age 23 and has worked on town boards for most of those years. He chaired the town Finance Committee for four years and has been a member and sometime chairman of the ZBA for 23 years. He retired from the Marriott Corporation at age 31 but hasn't stopped working. He became a distributor for Pepperidge Farms franchises in New England until retiring again. Now he's a leasing consultant for a luxury apartment complex in Walpole.
Saturday's election attracted 1,295 voters or 21% of the town's registered voters.
In other races, Rachel Goulart became a Parks and Recreation Commissioner with 595 votes against 544 for Kerri Lynn Fontaine and Gary Dingus won another term as town moderator with 640 votes versus 615 for William F. Moore, but Moore became a member of the Board of Assessors with 656 votes against 558 for Carol Beauregard.
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/04/10/dighton-election-selectman-brett-zografos-loses-peter-caron-rachel-goulart-leonard-hull/9518631002/
| 2022-04-10T08:18:24
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https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2022/04/10/dighton-election-selectman-brett-zografos-loses-peter-caron-rachel-goulart-leonard-hull/9518631002/
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Library study finds ‘challenged’ books soared in 2021
NEW YORK (AP) - Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, has never been so busy.
“A year ago, we might have been receiving one, maybe two reports a day about a book being challenged at a library. And usually those calls would be for guidance on how to handle a challenge or for materials that support the value of the work being challenged,” Caldwell-Stone told The Associated Press. “Now, we’re getting three, four, five reports a day, many in need of support and some in need of a great deal of support.”
“We’re on the phone constantly,” she added.
Accounts of book bannings and attempted book bannings, along with threats against librarians, have soared over the past year and the ALA has included some numbers in its annual State of America’s Libraries Report, released Monday. The association found 729 challenges — affecting nearly 1,600 books — at public schools and libraries in 2021, more than double 2020′s figures and the highest since the ALA began compiling challenges more than 20 years ago.
The actual total for last year is likely much higher — the ALA collects data through media accounts and through cases it learns about from librarians and educators and other community members. Books preemptively pulled by librarians — out of fear of community protest or concern for their jobs — and challenges never reported by libraries are not included.
The number could well grow again in 2022, Caldwell-Stone said, as conservative-led school boards and legislatures enact more restrictions. Last week, the Georgia legislature passed a bill that would accelerate the process for removing books seen as “harmful to minors.”
“Nothing would surprise me,” Caldwell-Stone says.
The two most challenged books on the ALA’s top 10 list have been in the news often: Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, “Gender Queer,” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man. Both have been singled out by Republican officials.
Last fall in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin backed a local school board’s banning of the two books during his successful run for governor. Around the same time, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster supported a school board’s decision to remove “Gender Queer.”
In Florida recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” upon signing a law that would force elementary schools to provide a searchable list of every book available in their libraries or used in instruction and allow parents, DeSantis said, “to blow the whistle.”
Kobabe and Evison noted during recent interviews an irony of their books being targeted: Neither set out to write a story for young people. But they gained a following among students with the help of the American Library Association, which has given each book an Alex Award for works “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.”
“I think a big part of our books getting so much attention is that they’re award winners and ended up being purchased by libraries all over the country,” Kobabe said.
Others on the ALA list, virtually all cited for LGBTQ or racial themes, include Angie Thomas’ bestselling “The Hate U Give,” centered on a police shooting of a Black teen; George Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay” and Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta.” Two older works that have been on the list before also appear: Sherman Alexie’s autobiographical novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s debut novel “The Bluest Eye.”
The library association defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” The ALA doesn’t keep a precise figure for how many books have actually been removed, but cases have come up routinely over the past year. Last December, a school district in San Antonio, Texas, pulled hundreds of library books to “ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
___
https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2022
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T09:17:34
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GRAPHIC: Russian aggression not limited to Ukraine alone, Zelenskyy says
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia is targeting all of Europe with its invasion of Ukraine, and stopping Moscow’s aggression is essential for the security of all democracies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as Russian forces prepared for battle in the east of his country.
Addressing the “free people of a brave country,” Zelenskyy said in a late night video message to Ukrainians that Russia’s war aim “was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target.”
“That is why it is not just the moral duty of all democracies, all the forces of Europe, to support Ukraine’s desire for peace,” he said. “This is, in fact, a strategy of defense for every civilized state.”
His address came as civilians continued to flee eastern parts of the country before an expected onslaught and emergency workers searched for survivors in towns north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, that are no longer occupied by Russian forces.
Russia has pulled its troops from the northern part of the country and refocused on the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years and controlled some territory before the war, now in its 46th day.
Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under assault, from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south. Newly released Maxar Technologies satellite imagery collected Friday showed an 8-mile (13-kilometer) convoy of military vehicles headed south to the Donbas through the town of Velykyi Burluk.
WARNING: Videos may contain graphic content.
However, Western assessments expressed increasing confidence in the ability of Ukraine’s defenders to repel Russian assaults, portraying Russia’s troops as suffering from low morale and mounting casualties.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that the Russian military was seeking to respond to mounting losses by boosting troop numbers with personnel who have been discharged from military service since 2012.
In an update on Twitter, the ministry also said that the Russian military’s efforts to “generate more fighting power” also include trying to recruit from Trans-Dniester, a breakaway region in Moldova that borders Ukraine.
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Moldova took up arms in 1992 to establish Trans-Dniester, which is not internationally recognized and where Russia maintains some 1,500 troops.
Several European leaders have made efforts to show solidarity with battle-scarred Ukraine. In his video address, Zelenskyy thanked the leaders of Britain and Austria for their visits to Kyiv on Saturday and pledges of further support.
He also thanked the European Commission president and Canada’s prime minister for a global fundraising event that brought in more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for the millions of Ukrainians who have fled their homes.
Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, which he called the sources of Russia’s “self-confidence and impunity.” Some European countries depend heavily on imported Russian energy.
“Freedom does not have time to wait,” Zelenskyy said. “When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately.”
In an interview with The Associated Press inside his heavily guarded presidential office complex, Zelenskyy said he was committed to negotiating a diplomatic end to the war even though Russia has “tortured” Ukraine.
He also acknowledged that peace likely will not come quickly. Talks so far have not included Russian President Vladimir Putin or other top officials.
“We have to fight, but fight for life. You can’t fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war,” the president said.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia forces of commiting war crimes against thousands of civilians during the invasion, including airstrikes on hospitals, a missile attack that killed 52 people at a train station Friday and shooting residents of towns in the north at close range.
Graphic evidence of civilian slayings emerged after Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, and firefighters were searching buildings in Borodyanka, another settlement outside Kyiv. Russia has denied engaging in war crimes and falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
Ukrainian authorities have said they expect to find more mass killings once they reach the southern port city of Mariupol, which is also in the Donbas and has been subjected to a monthlong blockade and intense fighting. The city’s location on the Sea of Azov is critical to establishing a land bridge from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded with Western powers almost daily to send more arms and further punish Moscow with sanctions, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the global financial system and a total EU embargo on Russian gas and oil.
During his visit Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he expects more EU sanctions against Russia, but defended his country’s opposition so far to cutting off deliveries of Russian gas.
A package of sanctions imposed this week “won’t be the last one,” the chancellor said, acknowledging that “as long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient.” Austria is militarily neutral and not a member of NATO.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit came a day after the U.K. pledged an additional 100 million pounds ($130 million) in high-grade military equipment. Johnson also confirmed further economic support, guaranteeing an additional $500 million in World Bank lending to Ukraine, taking Britain’s total loan guarantee to up to $1 billion.
In the interview with AP, Zelenskyy noted the increased support but expressed frustration when asked if weapons and equipment Ukraine has received from the West is sufficient to shift the war’s outcome.
“Not yet,” he said, switching to English for emphasis. “Of course it’s not enough.”
___
Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/10/graphic-russian-aggression-not-limited-ukraine-alone-zelenskyy-says/
| 2022-04-10T09:40:27
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/10/graphic-russian-aggression-not-limited-ukraine-alone-zelenskyy-says/
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Library study finds ‘challenged’ books soared in 2021
NEW YORK (AP) - Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, has never been so busy.
“A year ago, we might have been receiving one, maybe two reports a day about a book being challenged at a library. And usually those calls would be for guidance on how to handle a challenge or for materials that support the value of the work being challenged,” Caldwell-Stone told The Associated Press. “Now, we’re getting three, four, five reports a day, many in need of support and some in need of a great deal of support.”
“We’re on the phone constantly,” she added.
Accounts of book bannings and attempted book bannings, along with threats against librarians, have soared over the past year and the ALA has included some numbers in its annual State of America’s Libraries Report, released Monday. The association found 729 challenges — affecting nearly 1,600 books — at public schools and libraries in 2021, more than double 2020′s figures and the highest since the ALA began compiling challenges more than 20 years ago.
The actual total for last year is likely much higher — the ALA collects data through media accounts and through cases it learns about from librarians and educators and other community members. Books preemptively pulled by librarians — out of fear of community protest or concern for their jobs — and challenges never reported by libraries are not included.
The number could well grow again in 2022, Caldwell-Stone said, as conservative-led school boards and legislatures enact more restrictions. Last week, the Georgia legislature passed a bill that would accelerate the process for removing books seen as “harmful to minors.”
“Nothing would surprise me,” Caldwell-Stone says.
The two most challenged books on the ALA’s top 10 list have been in the news often: Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, “Gender Queer,” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man. Both have been singled out by Republican officials.
Last fall in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin backed a local school board’s banning of the two books during his successful run for governor. Around the same time, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster supported a school board’s decision to remove “Gender Queer.”
In Florida recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” upon signing a law that would force elementary schools to provide a searchable list of every book available in their libraries or used in instruction and allow parents, DeSantis said, “to blow the whistle.”
Kobabe and Evison noted during recent interviews an irony of their books being targeted: Neither set out to write a story for young people. But they gained a following among students with the help of the American Library Association, which has given each book an Alex Award for works “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.”
“I think a big part of our books getting so much attention is that they’re award winners and ended up being purchased by libraries all over the country,” Kobabe said.
Others on the ALA list, virtually all cited for LGBTQ or racial themes, include Angie Thomas’ bestselling “The Hate U Give,” centered on a police shooting of a Black teen; George Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay” and Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta.” Two older works that have been on the list before also appear: Sherman Alexie’s autobiographical novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s debut novel “The Bluest Eye.”
The library association defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” The ALA doesn’t keep a precise figure for how many books have actually been removed, but cases have come up routinely over the past year. Last December, a school district in San Antonio, Texas, pulled hundreds of library books to “ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
___
https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2022
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/10/library-study-finds-challenged-books-soared-2021/
| 2022-04-10T09:40:35
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Britain’s Ministry of Defense says that Russia’s armed forces are seeking to respond to mounting losses by boosting troop numbers with personnel who had been discharged from military service since 2012.
In an intelligence update on Twitter, the ministry also said Sunday that the Russian military’s efforts to “generate more fighting power” also include trying to recruit from Trans-Dniester, a breakaway region in Moldova that borders Ukraine.
Russia maintains some 1,500 troops in the region, which is not internationally recognized.
This is a live update. Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/uk-says-russia-trying-to-boost-troop-numbers/3638989/
| 2022-04-10T09:43:07
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/uk-says-russia-trying-to-boost-troop-numbers/3638989/
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Country
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/100th-birthday/article_575aa7e4-4e57-5062-8674-ad89ff80ed52.html
| 2022-04-10T09:53:51
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/100th-birthday/article_575aa7e4-4e57-5062-8674-ad89ff80ed52.html
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Arlie was squirming in her car seat as if her tiny body were packed full of caffeinated creatures, desperate to escape.
“What are you doing?” I said, fighting to restrain my 5-year-old daughter long enough to fasten the buckles that would prevent her from merging with the windshield should we have an accident on the two-minute journey from our driveway to her school’s parking lot.
“I’m trying to get comfortable, Daddy,” she told me as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“Well, stop it,” I said. “I need to buckle you in, and I can’t do it with you wiggling around like that.”
Arlie’s limbs went limp, and she seemed to sink down into her car seat. I pushed the belts to their proper locations atop her shoulders, snapped both pieces of the chest harness together, and then fastened the whole thing together at the buckle between her legs. I pulled the straps tighter, then gave it a tug to ensure it was secure.
“It’s too tight,” Arlie said, pulling at the restraints.
“It has to be tight,” I told her.
“Why?”
“To keep you safe.”
As I settled into the driver’s seat, I heard Arlie release a long and almost certainly exaggerated sigh from over my shoulder. I checked the rear-view mirror and saw my daughter staring wistfully out of her window.
“What is it?” I said as I cranked and then frantically lowered the volume of the blaring death metal before my daughter could complain about that, too.
“Nothing,” she said. Her tone suggested an abyss of sorrow.
“No, not ‘nothing.’ Just say what it is.”
“Nothing,” she said again, and then, “I just wish I could ride up front with you.”
Now it was my turn to sigh.
“We’ve been through this,” I said as I backed the car down the driveway and began slowly rolling toward the school. “You can’t sit up front until you’re older.”
“But why?”
“Because it’s not safe,” I said.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why isn’t it safe?” she said.
I slowed the car as we approached a stop side, then rolled through.
“Well,” I said. “Because front seats aren’t designed for little kids.”
Behind me, Arlie huffed.
“Well, they should be,” she said defiantly.
We pulled into the school parking lot, and I unloaded Arlie’s backpack and lunch bag. By the time I opened the car door to retrieve her, Arlie had already sloughed the straps from her shoulders, unbuckled the chest harness and was frantically working on the buckle between her legs.
“Good job, Arlie,” I told her, giving the top of her head a pat. “Just be sure you don’t do that while we’re still going down the road. OK?”
“Why?” she said.
“Because it isn’t safe,” I said. “You could get hurt.”
“Fine,” she groaned.
As we approached her school, Arlie trailed behind me, taking all the time in the world to examine her feet and explore every crack in the sidewalk, despite my protestations.
“Come on, girl,” I said when my frustration piqued. “You’re going to be late for school.”
Arlie stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me.
“Daddy,” she said. “You didn’t look both ways.”
I glanced around and realized I was standing in the middle of the school drive that cut through the sidewalk. The school traffic guard looked at me and smiled.
I finished crossing, folded my arms and waited as Arlie looked left, then right, then in both directions again before scurrying across the empty roadway.
When she reached my side, she was wearing the largest know-it-all smirk her minuscule face could produce.
“Sometimes kids are safer than adults,” she said. It wasn’t a question; it was a statement of fact.
“Yeah,” I said, patting her head again. “I suppose they are sometimes.”
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/accepting-unsolicited-safety-advice-from-a-5-year-old/article_d6d0905b-871d-5d70-bf56-d68a1f45f9d7.html
| 2022-04-10T09:53:57
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/accepting-unsolicited-safety-advice-from-a-5-year-old/article_d6d0905b-871d-5d70-bf56-d68a1f45f9d7.html
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If the following testimony, received from a 38-year veteran of the teacher wars, was a one-off, it could be dismissed, but the sad, sad truth is that it is but one of hundreds of such teacher testimonies I have obtained over the course of my career.
She reports: “I have often had a student, while in class, surreptitiously text a parent about a poor grade without discussing the matter with me first. Then I would receive an angry phone call or email from the parent accusing me of treating her child unfairly, or a request from the counselor for a meeting with the parent. ‘My student is an A student, so if she isn’t getting an A in your class, you are not doing a good job’ is one of my favorite lines, heard many times. On numerous occasions, parents would accuse me of lying when my explanation of a situation contradicts what their children have told them.”
One indication that I’ve stepped on a parent’s toes with something I’ve said in this column is the accusation that I engage in “Golden Age Thinking,” by which my antagonist means that I idealize the childrearing of a bygone era. So, without apology, here comes more indication of my supposedly unreliable memory.
When fellow boomers and I talk about the sort of parenting phenomenon reported by the above veteran, we agree that it “never” happened during our school days. I put quotes around “never” because I will yield to the likelihood that it happened once in a very blue-green moon.
In our day – before “parenting” possessed the land – parents had the good sense to know that children (a) are unable to accurately describe adult behavior (which is why they are not allowed to testify in court) and (b) tend to describe adult behavior to their own advantage.
So, when a teacher said one thing and a student said another, the pre-enlightened parent believed the adult. What a concept!
Take my parents, for example (and they seem to have been typical): When a teacher reported delinquency of one sort or another on my part (i was not an “easy” child), and I attempted to set the record “straight,” they immediately interrupted with, “We don’t want to hear your side of the story. We’ve heard all we need to hear.” And that was that.
A parent once told me that she came to her child’s defense concerning school matters because “I love him.” Sorry, lady, but that’s not love in the least. That’s enabling, and enabling is a mere facsimile of true love. Giving your child license to falsely accuse teachers of unprofessionalism is an abdication of parental responsibility. It is cruel. It is borderline sociopathic. There is no rational justification for it. I trust I’ve gotten my point across.
More often than not, if a child is guilty of misdeed, and a teacher handles the situation in a way that wasn’t abusive but could have been approved upon, the parent should still support the teacher. Perhaps the parent should provide the teacher, privately, with some helpful counsel, but the child in question needs to know that adults stick together.
When dealing with children, one must always keep in mind that when a child claims to have been treated “unfairly” by an adult, it usually means either (a) he didn’t get his way or (b) he didn’t get away with “it,” whatever “it” was.
In the final analysis, Golden Age Thinking prevails!
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/in-the-final-analysis-golden-age-thinking-prevails/article_e31ee995-7f75-5a91-860f-efbac86d024b.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:04
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/in-the-final-analysis-golden-age-thinking-prevails/article_e31ee995-7f75-5a91-860f-efbac86d024b.html
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Rain and warm weather are helping the garden jump, but bring an ancient set of foes along in tow. Time to start dealing with garden pests.
Mississippians have a tough time dealing with critters that try to eat us or our gardens. And we’ve tried our best to repel or deter them all, from mosquitoes to deer, deer flies, caterpillars, and squash borers, and not to overlook armadillos, moles and roaming cats.
And there are no easy answers. I was raised in the Delta where my dad would dust everything in the garden with insecticides that are no longer available because they were so poisonous or persistent, and he would tip the driver of “the fogging machine” to dawdle a little to soak our wooded lot with enough DDT to stop the birds from singing for a week. I’m still so laced with the stuff I probably couldn’t be cremated in California because my smoke would be too toxic!
We know better now, of course, that modern insecticides, both synthetic and natural, only work for a few hours or days max, and that timing is important (spray late in the day when pollinators are not present). Apply appropriate pesticides only to what is being affected, repeat applications as needed, and read the label – follow waiting periods when treating edibles.
We also know that zapping bugs with electricity and spraying the whole yard (or town) are as much emotional as effective; not to put the quietus on earnest efforts, but many researchers point out that it takes a holistic approach, not just sprays, because mosquitoes, which usually fly for several blocks or a mile or more, are only affected if they happen to fly through during the short period in which tiny aerosol droplets are suspended in the air.
And no, there are no general mosquito-repelling plants. Mint, pennyroyal, beautyberry shrub, all those with scented oily leaves have to be rubbed on to work.
What’s most practical are well-known: drain standing water, put mosquito dunks where you can’t, wear long sleeves, apply your repellent of choice, and add a fan or two to the deck to disburse the weak flyers. And keep the door closed, you’re letting them in!
But what about the bigger creatures? Deer, rabbits, armadillos? In a word, fence them out. No other solution works as well (please, no snarky emails about Irish Spring soap, bags of hair, mothballs, and the like. I hear you, but have to stick with what works across the board for everyone).
I know this isn’t always practical, especially for larger gardens, but it’s what we all did a century ago, and it still works now. I have a frame around my raised bed with the tops covered with removable dog fence panels to keep the larger animals out, and chicken wire around the bottom for the smaller ones.
And I’m amazed how so few Mississippi gardeners use insect netting over their vegetables. Individual beds of smaller crops in both home and community gardens in England and Japan are routinely netted with various-size mesh fabrics draped over simple frames or hoops. I have a hoop of rebar over my largest container garden that I cover with netting as soon as I see white butterflies looking for my cabbage. Here in Mississippi, few garden centers carry them, but I found a large selection of mesh and fabric sizes online.
Of course, none of this is easy, and I have to lift the netting over my squash to do some morning hand pollination. But, simply stated, it, like other fences, and the fans, works.
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/netting-like-fences-keeps-unwanted-pests-out-of-the-garden/article_8c2b459f-8881-5ff2-b9a5-ba1c8adc9553.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:10
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/netting-like-fences-keeps-unwanted-pests-out-of-the-garden/article_8c2b459f-8881-5ff2-b9a5-ba1c8adc9553.html
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When it comes to rabbits, most gardeners sympathize with Mr. McGregor and only have disparaging words for the likes of Peter Rabbit, the bunny that is prone to dine on garden produce. But Easter is next Sunday, and the Easter Bunny with his floppy ears and twitchy nose will be surreptitiously hopping about the garden dispensing Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies.
Now is not the time to lambast this critter that eats healthy vegetables; nor should one regale the family about the joys of rabbit hunting; nor should one rave about that French culinary delight, Lapin á la Moutarde, rabbit in mustard sauce. According to Gene Autry, the singing cowboy of the 1950s, “Peter Cottontail is hopping down the bunny trail,” and if a cowboy can sing a sentimental song about a rabbit, we must concur that rabbits convey a certain charm.
Rabbits, of course, are common mammals, and in Mississippi there are two species of rabbits, the Swamp Rabbit and the Eastern Cottontail. Cottontail rabbits are primarily found in rural, brushy areas near fields and meadows, but it is not unusual to find these rabbits in suburban areas. The Eastern Cottontail has long ears and the distinctive white cotton tail.
Near a creek or wetlands, one might encounter a Swamp Rabbit. The Swamp Rabbit is larger than the Eastern Cottontail, has shorter ears, and can swim. If you recall, former President Jimmy Carter on a hunting trip had a close encounter with a contentious Swamp Rabbit, which made the headlines. Both rabbit species eat vegetation, including grass, young shoots, clover, dandelions, and yes, fruits and vegetables, if available.
To help evade potential predators, rabbits have eyes on the sides of their heads which allows them to see a wily coyote as it approaches from behind. Wild rabbits can also run up to 35 miles per hour, and to escape their predator, they run in a zigzag pattern. And those long bunny ears that can discern sound better than a dog or human come in handy should a beagle on the hunt come into the area.
However, in spite of these traits, rabbits in the wild have a perilous existence and are the frequent victims of a variety of predators, including coyotes, foxes, hawks, eagles, snakes, skunks, minks, a wayward cat or dog, and humans who find rabbit hunts to be great sporting events. To compensate for their high mortality rate, rabbits are highly reproductive and most females, if they can outfox the fox and other predators, will have about five litters of bunnies per season. Interestingly, male rabbits are called “bucks,” female rabbits are “does,” and the baby bunnies are called “kittens.”
Even though the thought of predators preying on precious little bunnies is disturbing, such is nature’s way, and in certain areas, such as Australia, where rabbits were introduced and have no natural predators, these mammals have become a serious pest, destroying crops and vegetation.
But this is not the time to dwell on the fact that in the wild rabbits are a vital part of the food chain, or that the Easter Bunny may actually have pagan roots. Beatrix Potter’s whimsical paintings of rabbits still tug at our heart strings, and Mr. McGregor is still an old curmudgeon. And remember, even though Gene Autry now sings in a heavenly chorus, the Easter Bunny will be bringing a basketful of Easter joy for children Easter morn.
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/two-species-of-rabbits-found-in-mississippi/article_3d06fbe7-3431-5030-aca6-247b082c9427.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:16
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/two-species-of-rabbits-found-in-mississippi/article_3d06fbe7-3431-5030-aca6-247b082c9427.html
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PETROGNANO, Tuscany – It all starts with a lady named Annagloria. In 2009 I started planning a long trip that would take my family through 17 countries and 72 cities on two continents. We left the United States in August 2011, but a trip such as that takes a lot of planning.
For the two years prior, I spent most nights from 10 until midnight with my laptop researching destinations, restaurants to visit, villas and apartments to rent, and things to do and see. I set up a folder for each country, and within that country, I set up subfolders related to cities and regions. My Italy folder included Venice, Milan, Bologna, Rome, Ostuni, Sicily – along with several cities within that island – and of course, Tuscany. I probably spent the most time researching Tuscany because we would be there the longest.
I kept coming back to one particular villa in the Tuscan countryside. It was a 1,000-year old tower and a 1,000-year old barn that had been completely renovated that year. The lady who owned the villa that I was communicating with spoke English well, seemed to be a foodie, and really “got” what my family and I were doing. So I booked her place, Villa Il Santo.
The villa, the adjoining two towns, and the family who owned the villa were the perfect choices. The villa lies at the end of a remote gravel road in the Tuscan countryside; nothing around but a 30-mile view to the west of grapes and olives. No tourists hang out in the town or at the restaurants. It’s all locals. Exactly what I was looking for, but the bonus was that within 30 minutes, we could be in the city center of either Florence or Siena. It was the best of both worlds.
Though the bonus was Annagloria, her husband Enzo, and their family; they were the perfect hosts and helped guide us through those early days in Tuscany when I was just learning the ropes. Later, when I started hosting tours in this part of the world, Annagloria and her family became vital components in the process. She introduced me to a guide for Siena and Florence named Marina Mengelberg. She is Dutch but has lived in Tuscany for the past 20 years. She also introduced me to Ricardo, another guide we use in Florence. In turn, Marina introduced me to Jesse, who helps with our tours in Rome and Amalfi and just spent 10 days with us helping lead my tour through Spain.
All of these people have introduced us to other people and other places. I tell the guests I host on these tours that one of the great surprises leading people through Tuscany, Northern Italy, or Southern Italy – or Spain, for that matter – is that I knew I would have fun doing it. Still, I never knew I would make such good friendships with the people who travel with me. That has been the case, but also, it’s the same with the original trip; I knew I would have fun traveling with my family for six months traversing Europe. But I never knew I would make lifetime friends overseas in the process.
The key to my business success over the years (to the extent that I have had any business success over the years) is that I have surrounded myself with more talented people than myself. If I’m good at anything in business, it’s picking talented people and surrounding myself with them. I choose the path, point the ship in the right direction, and get out of the way so that those people can use their talents to help us reach the destination. The same goes for international travel. I am blessed that I have surrounded myself with talented people who help put these trips together and create once-in-a-lifetime experiences for Americans who travel to Europe.
It’s a career I never chose and almost fell backward into. I never intended to be a host for European travel. I planned on doing this once and then moving on. But that first group had a waiting list, and then the waiting list grew a waiting list, and then the first people we took to Tuscany asked, “Where are we going next?“ And so we hit Northern Italy a few times. And then more people asked, “Where are we going next?“ And so we hit Southern Italy with a few groups. A few weeks ago, when we finished traversing Spain from the north to the south, we had people on their fourth or fifth journey with me.
That is special. But I hesitate to take any credit for it because of the wonderful people I have met through the years, those who work with me, and those with whom I have surrounded myself. They are hard-working, talented, and extraordinary people who know the area and love hosting Americans.
Annagloria and Enzo know how to host Americans in their villas. Their children work hard to make guests happy and comfortable. Enzo has lived in the area his entire life, and Annagloria grew up in Florence, so they know the area well, which was huge on my initial visits. Marina is a licensed tour guide who has undergone a lot of intense studying and training in Florence and Siena. Ricardo grew up in Florence, and he knows the city well, as does his American-born wife, Cynthia.
There are countless restaurant and shop owners that we have come to know and love over the years to the point that when we arrive here, it feels like we’ve come home in a way. That doesn’t just happen without special places and special people. I am grateful for each and every one of them.
Onward.
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/visit-to-tuscany-feels-like-coming-home-again/article_80f7e533-3b86-5e3a-9f8d-123ec0209305.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:22
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/living/visit-to-tuscany-feels-like-coming-home-again/article_80f7e533-3b86-5e3a-9f8d-123ec0209305.html
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/pets-of-the-week/article_5aa42daa-74b3-5525-85fc-e76e4c0ee3df.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:28
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https://www.djournal.com/lifestyle/pets-of-the-week/article_5aa42daa-74b3-5525-85fc-e76e4c0ee3df.html
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TUPELO • As Tupelo experiences continued economic growth, its Development Services Department has moved forward on a myriad of changes with its new administration following a report detailing a “toxic” environment and outdated systems.
In the wake of two high-ranking development services employees leaving City Hall, Development Services Director Tanner Newman said the city moved to diagnose potential problems through an independent review to assess the department.
Over six months later, consultant Shane Davis outlined a laundry list of changes he believed necessary to rebuild Development Services, commonly called the Third Floor because of its location in City Hall. These changes included an overhaul of the permitting system, alterations to the command structure and suggestions to help improve the overall morale of the department’s employees.
Tupelo had seen explosive growth over the last few decades, and Davis said development services, arguably the driving force of economic growth for any administration, had not changed with the times, noting an artifact of that was the chief building inspector’s overarching role in the department. He said it was not uncommon for small cities in the state to operate with Tupelo’s old format, but as the city grew and needed more functions, the position absorbed too much.
While the administration believed the report was necessary, its critics — including members of the previous administration — have called it a “wasteful study” that did nothing but “justify changes they already wanted to make.”
Report claims poor working environment
Davis’ report, which included interviews conducted near the beginning of the new administration’s term, detailed the need for the director to effect a change in attitude for the department. He said communication needed to be improved and clear expectations needed to be set.
“Staff morale and productivity have suffered because of a general failure to treat the staff members as qualified professionals and part of a team with common goals and purpose,” Davis wrote.
The culture prevalent before the review was “toxic,” Davis said, and the problem stemmed from management styles. But as he continued his report, the consultant noted that he saw a marked improvement under Newman’s watch.
“A few bad apples can ruin the bunch,” Newman said. “I had to make some difficult decisions … This administration feels that the individuals that caused the poor work environment are no longer employed by the city of Tupelo.”
Though Newman would not specify who the “bad apples” were, just one month after Newman took office, two Development Services employees left. Former Chief Building Inspector Jimmy Farnham resigned, and Redevelopment Coordinator Donna Jarrell Robbins was terminated. Both left with the city citing unspecified ethical concerns.
Although Newman declined to provide details on either former employee’s exit, citing personnel issues, he said morale of the department has improved over the past nine months.
“We have taken huge steps to correct these issues,” he said.
Former Mayor Jason Shelton, who did not seek re-election last year, bucked the report and Newman’s claim that the department had a poor working environment.
“Every department has problems, but they did an excellent job,” the former mayor told the Daily Journal.
Like Newman, Shelton declined to discuss any specific issues within the department but said he was happy overall with the work performed by Development Services during his administration.
“You can hire a man with a briefcase to come say whatever you want about a department, but they did a fantastic job during my administration,” he said. “‘Morale issues’ is a term that gets thrown around usually when someone just wants to change something.”
The report also noted the director’s job was to help employees overcome obstacles. Davis said he added this to the report because the low morale led to employees either not getting certifications or letting their certifications lapse without renewing them because of lack of support.
Newman elaborated that, in the past, the department did not provide the assistance employees needed to further their careers. Specifically, he said building inspectors weren’t provided with financial assistance or incentives to get certified in specific inspection fields.
Certifications are important to making sure inspectors are qualified for their positions, Newman said.
“One thing we discovered throughout the assessment phase was that there were employees that hadn’t been offered the appropriate certification or training to perform their roles,” Newman said. “This administration immediately took action to offer them the resources for appropriate training.”
Complete overhaul balances division heads’ power
The key change to Development Services spurred by the consultant’s report was a hefty reorganization of the department’s structure. Multiple positions were cut and new jobs added to fill empty roles.
Under the old structure, the chief building inspector was over building inspections, code enforcement and planning reviews. Whoever held that role supervised 12 employees, while other division heads were put in charge of just one or two employees each.
According to the report, this created a lopsided approach to management.
“It just didn’t make sense to have rental and code enforcement inspectors answering to the chief building inspector when those are two different divisions,” Davis said.
With the new structure, the chief building inspector is only responsible for planning reviews and building inspections, which reduces the position’s supervisory role to just four employees.
The city has also added four more code inspectors to help fill out the city’s code enforcement after multiple complaints from council members.
Though Shelton did not think a total restructuring was necessary, he praised the Jordan administration for devoting more resources to the Third Floor — something he claimed he could not do during his administration.
Newman said the change was important to setting a new tone and refreshing the department, leading to a more cohesive and dependable Development Services.
Permit fees operated on the ‘honor’s system’
According to the report, the Third Floor was operating with outdated permit processes, including payments based on the “honor’s system,” applications that were not up to state code and a lack of delegation that gummed up the works.
According to the report, the city’s building permit fee system has a critical error. Permit fees are based on market valuations of a project, which the report noted was standard. But Tupelo’s permit system also doesn’t require detailed construction plans, which causes costs to be “difficult to accurately estimate” for staff and those seeking permits.
Newman said that while campaigning with Jordan, he had heard about several issues in the permit division, which led to its inclusion in the report.
“There were a lot of complaints from home builders and developers,” Newman said. “The system that we work under is, frankly, outdated, and with any organization growth, there comes growing pains, and these are growing pains we welcome and are working through.”
This system can lead to issues of over or undercharging, Davis said.
According to Home Builders Association President Kenneth Estes, the system the city currently has in place can cause bad estimations … a headache for local contractors.
“You had to guess at what the fee was going to be and hoped you estimated correctly,” Estes said.
Estes, who has been remodeling homes in Tupelo since 2002, said he and the association brought the issue up to the city and worked with it on the solution.
Newman said a more specific grading system for fees will be put in place soon, but his priority was hiring division heads.
How did it get like this?
The problems facing the Third Floor, Davis said, have been built upon years of minor changes and the weight of a top-down approach to management. It’s led to employees feeling disrespected and has damaged confidence, he said, resulting in a lower overall standard of work.
The Daily Journal was unsuccessful after multiple attempts to reach former employees to speak about the issues with Development Services.
Davis said the issues with the Third Floor were often seemingly small on their own, but amassed into something that weighed down the department and some of its employees.
“It was a general tone that developed over a period of years, small things that would shake the confidence and make them second guess themselves,” Davis said. “Unfortunately, it appeared that the staff members no longer took as much pride in their work. That dovetailed into a lack of professional development maintaining credentials and certifications.”
In his decades working with the staff from the Third Floor, Davis said he had noticed this decline from an outside perspective and was pleased to be part of the solution.
The lack of respect led to a lack of leadership, Newman said, adding roles were not clearly defined, which led to even more confusion for the staff.
“The morale was poor, and there seemed to be little trust amongst the employees,” he said. “As I dove into the history of the department, those things are not the result of one particular purpose or one particular thing. It was a history of poor leadership and, in some instances, lack of leadership amongst previous division heads in the department.”
Shelton, however, does not agree. He said there was a history of poor leadership.
“To say that the Third Floor was anything less than a resounding success is just not an accurate statement,” he said.
Instead, he said more resources could have benefitted from additional resources.
The future of the Third Floor
The recommendations laid out in the report were just a recommendation, but they are changes Newman said he intends to mostly follow. He said his primary goal after finishing the reorganization of the Third Floor is to “keep the city moving in the right direction.”
“The right direction, to me, is ensuring that Tupelo continues to grow commercially and residentially, that commercial growth follows residential growth, and that neighborhoods have adequate opportunity to purchase land and thrive,” he said.
The report also detailed the possibility of changes to the department based on the city’s projected growth. It projects the city will need to add a building inspector, receptionist, assistant city planner and assistant city engineer within the next five years.
Those are good issues to have. Once the staff is built out and acclimated, Newman said he plans to set his sights on his department’s namesake.
“I will continue to be hands on,” Newman said. “But long-term, I want to focus on moving toward the economic and development.”
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/the-third-floor-tupelo-development-services-feels-growing-pains-following-critical-report/article_2616c9aa-7544-5c98-91d7-7940b89b3e5c.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:34
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https://www.djournal.com/news/local/the-third-floor-tupelo-development-services-feels-growing-pains-following-critical-report/article_2616c9aa-7544-5c98-91d7-7940b89b3e5c.html
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JACKSON • Both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature adjourned Tuesday night, capping off one of the most consequential yet chaotic legislative sessions in recent years. Over the course of a few months, lawmakers slashed state taxes, reshaped political power through redistricting and established a medical marijuana program.
“When you contemplate the number of issues that we had before us, it was pretty staggering at the beginning,” Speaker Philip Gunn, R-Clinton, said.
Despite lawmakers agreeing on most of the issues on their agendas, the session was still marred by political infighting and hardball negotiations, often using the press to publicly air grievances instead of working together.
Nevertheless, lawmakers were able to negotiate a historic teacher pay raise plan, create a way to set aside funds for conservation areas and pass an equal pay law.
“Clearly, by any stretch, the Mississippi Legislature performed this year,” Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said.
What happened in the Legislature
Income tax cuts
The fight over cutting the state’s individual income tax dominated the legislative session. Infighting even forced the session to be extended by about a week.
Despite the frequently bellicose atmosphere, lawmakers were able to reach an agreement that will cut state taxes by an estimated $525 million over the next four years.
Starting in 2023, the 4% income tax bracket will be eliminated. The following three years, the 5% bracket will be reduced to 4%.
Medical marijuana
Gov. Tate Reeves in early February signed a bill to legalize medical marijuana for people with serious medical conditions.
The Legislature was backed into a corner and strongly encouraged to pass a medical cannabis program after voters in November 2020 an initiative to legalize medical cannabis.
The state Supreme Court, though, overturned the initiative by ruling it was not properly on the ballot over procedural issues.
The legislation allows for patients with debilitating medical conditions to receive cannabis if a physical, nurse practitioner or ophthalmologist certifies them for the treatment. Patients are allowed to receive up to 3.5 grams of cannabis per day, or around 3 ounces per month.
Teacher pay
Mississippi public K-12 teachers next year will receive pay raises that average more than $5,100, and assistant teachers will receive a $2,000 pay increase.
This is the largest teacher pay raise in several years and contains a pay schedule that will bump teacher pay each year to encourage educators to stay in the state long term.
Outdoor stewardship fund and state parks
Mississippi leaders have failed to maintain the state parks system and have not properly marketed them to attract tourists, according to recent reports.
But that may soon change. Lawmakers this legislative session set aside millions of dollars in general funds and American Rescue Plan Act dollars to improve the parks system.
Lawmakers also approved an outdoor stewardship plan to preserve and enhance outdoor recreation areas, including state parks. The new fund could be used to draw down federal dollars as well.
Both Sen. Neil Whaley, R-Potts Camp, and Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia, praised this year’s efforts to improve the parks and believe the state should reap the benefits in the next few years.
What didn’t happen
Restoring the initiative process
Lawmakers failed to agree on a process to allow voters to place issues directly on a statewide ballot to change the state law.
The state Supreme Court invalidated the state’s initiative process over technical issues with the state’s congressional districts, leaving citizens with no direct way to change state laws.
The disagreement between the two legislative chambers arose over the threshold petitioners need to reach in order to place an issue directly on a ballot.
The House argued that the number of signatures should be equal to 12% of the people who voted during the last statewide election for governor. The Senate wants the signatures to be equal to 12% of the registered voters - including those who did not vote – on the day of the last presidential election, which is a much higher threshold.
The required number of signatures of registered voters needed under the House plan would be about 106,000. Under the Senate proposal, it would be about 238,000.
Gunn told reporters on Tuesday that the Senate’s proposed plan was “too high of a hurdle”
“To require 12% of all registered voters – it was just an enormously high threshold that the citizens would probably never be able to achieve if they wanted to put a policy item in front of the voters.”
Extending postpartum Medicaid
The Senate passed a bill to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage for people who have given birth, but the House leadership killed it without offering the entire House members a chance to vote on it.
The state’s current policy allows two months of Medicaid coverage for people after they give birth.
Gunn said he is opposed to legislation that would give the perception that the state is wanting to expand Medicaid, even though the postpartum extension would not add anyone new to the program.
The speaker also said that he has contacted leaders from the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to weigh in on the topic, and they have yet to do so.
Hosemann and Senate leaders were disappointed in Gunn’s reluctance to consider the Medicaid enhancement and have said it should be a pro-life position to want to increase health outcomes for new mothers and their children.
“We have the most difficult births here, we have so many single parents,” Hosemann said. “There are a lot of issues here. We shouldn’t just be clouded by some discussion about a president that was three presidents ago.”
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https://www.djournal.com/news/state-news/the-2022-legislative-session-adjourned-here-s-what-happened-and-what-didn-t/article_8ff2b111-0200-51e9-a93b-da5de6b7857a.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:40
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https://www.djournal.com/news/state-news/the-2022-legislative-session-adjourned-here-s-what-happened-and-what-didn-t/article_8ff2b111-0200-51e9-a93b-da5de6b7857a.html
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It’s a great day for America — or at least it should be.
It’s Thursday, April 7. Major League Baseball’s Opening Day.
From Los Angeles to St. Louis to Washington, D.C., 14 teams are kicking off their regular season, and by the weekend all 30 teams will be in action.
Baseball in 2022 isn’t what it used to be — but these days, what is?
In my growing-up days in the 1950s, and decades before that in my dad’s growing-up days, the whole country couldn’t wait for baseball season to start, and Opening Day was treated like an unofficial national holiday.
In nearly two dozen Major League cities kids skipped school and adults ducked out early from work so they could go to the home opener, which was usually an afternoon game.
In those days, before the NFL and NBA became wealthy global brands, baseball was our undisputed national pastime.
It was the pro sport everyone in the country religiously followed for six months in the pages of the newspapers and on radio and eventually TV.
Its greatest stars — Ruth, Williams, Robinson, Mays, Mantle and a dozen others — were genuine American superheroes.
With all the tragic events going on in the world today, it would make a lot of sense for Americans to start celebrating Opening Day the way we used to.
It’d be a good excuse to turn off our TVs and smartphones and enjoy a relaxing afternoon at the baseball park — even if it’s a dome.
Grab a hot dog and a $12 beer and have some fun. Root for your favorite team. Yell at the umps — before they’re replaced by robots.
If you can’t attend in person, watch from your living room.
Either way, celebrating Opening Day for a few hours will help you forget the war in Ukraine, the murders in Chicago and the nonstop political stupidity coming out of Washington and the liberal media.
This year the National League will allow designated hitters for pitchers for the first time and “ghost runners” will be placed at second base in the 10th inning if games go into extra innings.
I don’t know what my father would think of using ghost runners, but baseball played an important part in his path to the White House.
He grew up a Chicago Cubs fan in Illinois and it was through his announcing of Cubs games on radio in the mid 1930s that he eventually found his way to Hollywood.
When my father announced the Cubs games for station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, he actually re-created the action for radio listeners by reading a ticker tape wired to him from the ballfield.
Half a century later, if you were lucky enough to sit next to him at a state dinner in the White House and wanted to talk about politics, it would never happen.
He’d rather talk to you about baseball and how he used to announce those Cubs games on radio.
He also might tell you about what happened in the middle of an inning when second baseman Tony Lazerri came up to bat and Dizzy Dean of the Cards was pitching.
As my dad was telling the audience “Dean winds up and …” the ticker tape went dead.
My dad had Lazerri foul off eight straight pitches until the ticker came back to life.
It turned out that Lazerri actually fouled out on the first pitch, but thousands of radio listeners were left thinking it was the longest at bat in baseball history.
My dad really loved baseball and I bet he’d agree with me that Opening Day is a special American “holiday” that deserves to be fully celebrated.
After all, your home team may be terrible, but there’s only one Opening Day a year. Don’t let it pass.
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/a-pitch-for-opening-day/article_af49d2f3-7689-5027-9173-0e873e014be6.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:46
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/a-pitch-for-opening-day/article_af49d2f3-7689-5027-9173-0e873e014be6.html
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We don't need more unity.
Apologies to Sean Penn, who last week made an earnest case for that virtue in an appearance with — of all people — Sean Hannity on Fox "News." The actor was discussing "what I experienced emotionally" in Ukraine, where he had been filming a documentary when Russia invaded.
"We all talk about how divided things are here," he said, "but when you step into a country of such incredible unity, you realize what we've all been missing."
It's a seductive argument. Penn is hardly alone in sensing that something important has gone missing from America. And when you consider the besieged people of Ukraine, all pulling together, striking as a single fist against a common foe, it's natural to identify the missing thing as unity.
But what we are seeing in Ukraine is the predictable byproduct of an immediate existential threat. Take away the threat and the unity will go with it. This is not to demean the stubborn, inspiring heroism of the Ukrainian people. It is only to say that it reflects the exigency of the crisis — not some essential nobility of character that this country lacks. If you doubt that, recall how unified Americans were after Sept. 11 and Dec. 7. Then recall how quickly we returned to our bickersome ways.
So, the view from this pew is that what has gone missing from this country is not some idealized unity. Rather, it is something more profound. We no longer share a narrative. We no longer have a common thread.
A poll released last week by Economist/YouGov testifies eloquently to this. The survey, which asked 1,500 Americans which news organizations they trust the most, came back with a truly stunning result:
Republicans trust almost nothing.
Even Fox is trusted only by a bare majority (53%). And the rankings go downhill from there.
PBS? Twenty percent.
The Washington Post? Sixteen percent.
CNN? Eleven percent.
It turns out The Wall Street Journal, widely considered the most reputable conservative-leaning news organization in the country, is trusted by more Democrats (52%) than Republicans (27%).
On its website, YouGovAmerica represents these results with a graphic of dots on a grid. It's a simple illustration, but the gaping distances between red dots and blue ones makes for an arresting visual. It's a map of national dysfunction, of a people pulling away from themselves.
So no, unity is not the problem. Let some international enemy bomb these shores and you'll have all the unity you can stand.
What Americans have lost — to be painfully accurate, what Republicans have trashed in pursuit of power — is the willingness and ability to share a common national identity. The average Republican trusts almost no mainstream source of information. As a result, Americans no longer proceed from the same baseline assumptions, are no longer driven by the same national aspirations, no longer understand the meaning and mission of their country in the same way.
That's the state of this union. America is a nation in stasis, getting nowhere because it is simultaneously being pulled in opposite directions toward fundamentally different visions. The need to fix this — better education in civics, history, critical thinking and media literacy along with improved policing of social media — could hardly be more urgent. After all, if you pull a thing in different directions at the same time, it can't move.
But it can break.
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/americans-have-lost-the-willingness-ability-to-share-a-common-national-identity/article_3762a975-8615-5d94-8c2b-fb67ab581e9e.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:52
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/americans-have-lost-the-willingness-ability-to-share-a-common-national-identity/article_3762a975-8615-5d94-8c2b-fb67ab581e9e.html
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Actor Denzel Washington has done something increasingly rare these days. Variety reports Bishop T.D. Jakes interviewed Washington about Will Smith's slap of Chris Rock during the recent Academy Awards ceremony. Washington said, "But for the grace of God go any of us. Who are we to condemn?"
Washington said he and Tyler Perry went up to Smith during a commercial break, put their arms around him and prayed with him.
It appeared that many in the Hollywood world, after first giving Smith a standing ovation when he won Best Actor for his role in the film "King Richard," quickly turned on him and condemned his behavior. Smith apologized to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and later apologized to Rock. The Academy should have followed Denzel Washington's example.
The goal should not be piling on Smith but redeeming him. Is that goal best accomplished by increasing levels of humiliation and condemnation, or reaching out to help him as Washington and Perry did?
Condemnation seems to be the norm in our politics and culture these days, but it never converts anyone to the other person's point of view. Instead, it has the effect of hardening the hearts of the one who condemns and the one on the receiving end of condemnation.
Four examples I can think of caused the world to pause and consider a better way than condemning others.
The first occurred in 1981 when Mahmet Ali Aqca shot Pope John Paul II four times and nearly killed him. The pontiff forgave Aqca and even requested his pardon in 2000.
The second occurred in 2006 in an Amish community in Nickle Mines, Pennsylvania. A man shot 11 young girls in a school room, killing five and then himself. The community offered the man forgiveness and donated money to his widow and her three young children.
The third was in 2015 when Dylann Roof, a white supremacist who had been welcomed into a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, South Carolina, opened fire, murdering nine people. Roof was convicted and sentenced to death. The nation was stunned when survivors and relatives of the victims extended grace and forgiveness to Roof.
The fourth was a model on which the others might have been based. It is recorded in the eighth chapter of the New Testament Book of John. Students of the Bible will recall the scene. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were trying to trap Jesus by bringing to him a "woman taken in adultery" and saying the law of Moses teaches that such a woman should be stoned to death. Jesus replied, "Let those without sin cast the first stone." He then used his finger to write in the dirt. Scholars speculate he wrote the sins of her accusers. When all silently walked away, Jesus said to the woman: "Does no one condemn you?" She replied, "No one, Lord." Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."
Notice how Jesus doesn't justify her sin, but instead refuses to condemn her while admonishing her to change her behavior.
As the Easter season approaches, we would do well to focus less on rabbits and eggs and more on the One who can redeem us and help us refrain from casting stones at others.
Again, the redemption of Will Smith should be the goal, not his condemnation. It is a message that ought to be considered not only by those in Hollywood, but by Washington politicians and the rest of us.
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/condemn-or-redeem-will-smith/article_f54dd484-a153-5789-a142-a0a3d0c0d580.html
| 2022-04-10T09:54:58
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/condemn-or-redeem-will-smith/article_f54dd484-a153-5789-a142-a0a3d0c0d580.html
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The failure of the Legislature to restore the initiative process that allows citizens to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide could be seen as a case study on how a handful of people or even one lawmaker can determine whether a proposal lives or dies.
In this case, the legislator was Senate Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Chair John Polk, R-Hattiesburg, who near the end of the just-completed 2022 session demanded a key change be placed in the final agreement restoring the initiative.
That demand resulted in the demise of efforts to restore the initiative.
The change Polk proposed was to more than double the number of signatures needed to place an issue on the ballot.
Whether rank-and-file members of the Legislature would have agreed with Polk’s proposed change will never be known. Polk never proposed the change for legislators to publicly debate. Instead, he tried to make the change at the end of the session in closed door negotiations.
Polk is far from the first and will not be the last member of the Legislature to exert such influence. But there is a certain degree of irony that Polk exerted that influence on a proposal designed to give citizens the right to bypass the Legislature and place issues on the ballot.
Just about all legislators went into the 2022 session saying they supported restoring the initiative that was ruled invalid in a controversial May 2021 ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The language that offended the Supreme Court justices said the signatures had to be gathered equally from the five U.S. House districts as they existed in 1990. The state lost a congressional district as a result of the 2000 U.S. Census
Multiple bills were filed at the start of the 2022 session to fix and to restore the process. Speaker Philip Gunn assigned most of the House bills to the Constitution Committee since the initiative is created in the Mississippi Constitution. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann assigned most of the Senate bills to Polk’s committee.
All of the Senate bills died when they were not taken up in committee, leaving the only vehicle to restore the initiative as House Concurrent Resolution 39. That proposal passed the House Constitution Committee and was approved by the full chamber.
The proposal mandated that the number of signatures of registered voters needed to place an issue on the ballot be equal to 12% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election — or roughly 90,000 signatures. That was the threshold in the original initiative process that was struck down by the Supreme Court.
On a deadline day — the final day for Polk to pass the bill out of his committee — he finally took up the House proposal to restore the initiative. He added a so-called reverse repealer to the bill — meaning it would be repealed automatically should it pass. Reverse repealers are common in the legislative process as a means to keep a bill alive while preventing it from passing without additional discussions.
The Senate voted on and overwhelmingly approved the original language requiring signatures be gathered equal to 12% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election. Polk or no one else tried to change that language.
But what Polk did by placing the reverse repealer in the bill was ensure that it would go to conference. In conference, three House members and three members of the Senate — but in reality Polk and House Constitution Chair Fred Shanks — would work out the final details of the bill.
In those closed-door discussions, Polk advocated the number of signatures needed to place an issue on the ballot should be equal to 12% of the registered voters (those eligible to vote) — or about 238,000 compared to about 90,000 signatures in the original proposal.
Polk was advocating for that position in a conference report that legislators could not change. They either had to accept, reject or send the proposal back for further negotiations during the final days of the session.
Shanks would not agree. Gunn, who supported Shanks’ position, said Polk was asking for “an enormously high threshold that we felt the citizens would never be able to achieve.”
Polk maintained the high threshold “makes sure more Mississippians care about the issue being presented.”
Hosemann said he supported Polk’s position.
“There was concern that … it is so easy to get people to sign,” Hosemann said. “… I think that was a concern of both the House and the Senate.”
Perhaps it is a legitimate concern. And indeed any legislator could have tried to amend the bill and had public debate about the number of signatures that should be required to place an issue on the ballot. None did until Polk at the very end of the session.
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/demise-of-ballot-initiative-reveals-the-power-of-one-in-legislature/article_2e2d275b-d78c-532b-aa35-2c4f50f7becd.html
| 2022-04-10T09:55:04
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https://www.djournal.com/opinion/columnists/demise-of-ballot-initiative-reveals-the-power-of-one-in-legislature/article_2e2d275b-d78c-532b-aa35-2c4f50f7becd.html
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STARKVILLE – Former Washington state senator Michael Baumgartner has met the brightest minds in national security. He’s met and run against some of the top politicians to come through the United States, and he’s seen firsthand the masterminds behind some of America’s most important battles in the Middle East.
Yet as he leans forward from his chair inside Missisippi State’s Old Main Academic Center, the fascination runs across his face. His grin stretches further and further and his eyes continue to grow as he watches a man in a Hawaiian shirt and jeans speak.
Through all the most complex minds, perhaps his favorite sits between the ears of his close friend and MSU football coach Mike Leach. And that mind, so fascinating and vastly filled will an abundance of knowledge, is so painfully simple.
“This is this way. This is that way,” Leach explained to Baumgartner as the man who once worked in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad during the Iraq Surge struggled with his PowerPoint clicker.
The two were back together Friday night in Starkville leading a lecture titled “insurgent warfare and football strategy,” as they did at Washington State.
It started with a trailer of Operation Mincemeat and a rehashing of the 1999 Cotton Bowl Caper. It ended with a look into the football mind of Leach – a look rarely seen in press conferences in interviews.
A piece of paper is no corpse
Working as an offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, Mike Leach had perhaps his toughest assignment of the season ahead of him. It was 23 years ago, and the Sooners were preparing for a battle with No. 23 Texas.
Leach was spending a typical late night preparing a gameplan, and with each hour of sleep he lost, Operation Mincemeat continued to gain traction in his head.
Before it was turned into a Netflix sensation, Operation Mincemeat was one of the most memorable deception operations in world history.
The British plan: Attach documents depicting false tactics onto a corpse and wash it up on Spanish shores. Once that corpse was found, the documents made their way to the German forces during World War II. They suggested the Allies would invade Greece.
In reality, the Allies were invading Sicily, Italy. It’s not entirely known if Operation Mincemeat was the reason for success, but the liberations of Sicily went quicker than most expected.
So, the idea arose in Oklahoma’s meetings. Why not script a fake gameplan – making sure it looks as believable as possible – and drop it on the Texas sideline before the game. Perhaps a coach or player would pick it up, bring it to the Longhorns’ defensive staff and make Texas gameplan for a complete fallacy.
“We figured if the Allies could drop dead bodies, it was relatively harmless to drop Xerox playsheets,” Leach said. “...We started out joking around, and then we got to thinking, ‘Well, why not?’ It was against Texas. We didn’t like them anyway.”
The plan worked to perfection. They watched as a Texas graduate assistant picked up the dropped playsheet, looked around to make sure nobody saw and sprinted to his staff.
Not long after, Oklahoma had itself a 17-0 lead.
Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers sat in the front row and could only laugh and shake his head as his coach relived the experience. The man he helps run a one-of-a-kind Air Raid offense took a war tactic from the 1940s and applied it to one of the biggest games he coached in.
Don’t let it sound complex. It’s common sense to Leach.
Grass = good
Mike Leach takes zero pleasure in his team leading the SEC in time of possession during his two seasons at the helm. There’s few metrics he dislikes more.
“These guys wanna hog the ball,” Leach said. “The quarterback stands around there, tickles the center’s (behind) and watches the clock tick.”
The metrics he cares about: points, first downs, third-down conversions and total plays. Controlling time of possession usually comes with success in those, but that’s not the goal.
How does that happen? Find the area on the field with the most grass, and throw the ball there. So, Leach created an unconventional offense to make it happen.
Think of Winston Churchill during World War I. Perhaps one of the worst British defeats came in Churchill’s missteps when looking to eliminate the Ottoman Empire. Churchill thought it best to attack Istanbul. It was a move anticipated by the opposition.
Enter Lawrence of Arabia. He was an archaeologist who worked in the Middle East who essentially becoming a spy for the British against the Ottoman Empire. Rather than attacking Istanbul, he encouraged an attack in the middle of the land.
That would split the opposing forces into two – creating space. And they attacked in what Baumgartner referred to as “unconventional” by raiding the railroads.
The Ottoman Empire, in this case, is the SEC. When Leach began his Power Five coaching career as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator in the late 1990s, the conference was already a juggernaut.
His approach was to make sure his opposition was facing something it would only see when going against Kentucky.
“They’re gonna play one team like us all year,” Leach said. “After that, everyone else is gonna play a lot more conventional offense … Same thing happened with the wishbone. Even though the wishbone runs it all the time, that’s probably the offense I identify with the most, in a way.”
Rogers joined Leach on stage to show how these simple concepts work during games. With highlights from last season’s wins against Louisiana Tech, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Auburn, they broke down schemes which proved crucial.
Using a green laser pointer, Leach circled pre-snap where the most open grass was. Rogers explained what needed to put done to get the ball there.
Leach says it irritates him when people treat each game like a different episode of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. His offense is unconventional enough to where he doesn’t feel he needs to set up various traps.
“There’s a point to where you have to decide, whether you’re on offense or defense, what you’re gonna be good at,” Leach said. “You have to do it over, and over, and over again and polish your skills and do all that with precision.”
Don’t try to make it too complex. It’s common sense to Leach.
Breaking down the Louisiana Tech game with Mike Leach and Will Rogers: pic.twitter.com/ieAW1G41RM
— Stefan Krajisnik (@skrajisnik3) April 8, 2022
Making the most out of Toyotas
Perhaps more important than tactic is culture, Baumgartner says. A group with the same goals, values and mindset works as a unit capable of beating any force.
Think of the Toyota War – where Libya, a country flooded with resources such as tanks and aircrafts, went against Chad. The latter country relied on Toyotas.
“Toyotas are real reliable cars,” Leach joked.
Similar to what Leach did at Washington State and hopes to do at MSU, he finds an ability to make the most out of fewer resources.
It comes from his constant push to create consistency within his culture. That starts with midnight maneuvers — something Leach says Geronimo would love.
MSU sets up nine stations across eight days in the offseason with various physical activities. It’s a gruesome stretch for even the top athletes in the nation, but solidarity is formed by a collective effort.
Various shirts are handed out each day with colors symbolizing the effort. If you’re awarded a black shirt, you’re someone teammates need to model after.
Leach would have midnight maneuvers last longer than the eight days, but it would begin to eliminate weight gain — it’s that labor-intensive.
But when Mississippi State is down 28-3 at Auburn, it’s part of the culture Leach and Rogers lean back on.
“The process is to create strength and toughness and identify who won’t commit to the process as far as working hard,” Leach said. “(You see) who’s gonna wilt when the pressure is on.”
Don’t overthink it. It’s common sense to Leach.
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https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mississippi-state/insurgent-warfare-and-football-strategy-a-class-inside-the-football-mind-of-mike-leach/article_17b14a1f-6be7-5c0d-8179-1ff80fcfcba0.html
| 2022-04-10T09:55:11
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https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mississippi-state/insurgent-warfare-and-football-strategy-a-class-inside-the-football-mind-of-mike-leach/article_17b14a1f-6be7-5c0d-8179-1ff80fcfcba0.html
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For hardcore sports fans, the agate page can be wonderful.
It’s a place for final scores, standings, schedules and transactions from a myriad of sports.
Brining it all together comes with a price, though, as the text size is about half that of regular newspaper stories.
Many times through the years there have been phone calls and voice mails with requests to make that text larger.
That text size carries over to one of newspaper’s most popular items: The March Madness bracket.
Not surprising, Sheron Kollmeyer needed help with that text when the time came to fill out her bracket.
She saw it not as an obstacle but an opportunity to spend time with her grandson, Collin Kollmeyer.
Collin and his dad Will Kollmeyer were visiting Will’s mom in a Milwaukee suburb with the added bonus of catching Wisconsin’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Colgate.
Prior to the start of the tournament, Sheron filled out her bracket.
Collin, a senior at Tupelo High School, cruised through the tiny text reading off every game and adding seeding information when asked.
Sheron Kollmeyer, 83, responded by picking three correct Final Four teams, the correct national champion and the Kansas points total – 72 – for the championship game.
“Collin would say, 'OK Grandma, in the first round so and so is playing so and so. Who do you like in that one? She would say ‘Let’s go with Purdue, or let’s go with Kansas.’ He would write it in. She went through all the whole way like that,” Will Kollmeyer said.
Known as Mrs. K among Will's friends, Sheron had Villanova, Duke and Kansas in her Final Four. Her miss was Purdue.
Sheron and the man she would marry, Will Kollmeyer II, grew up in Indianapolis before making a home in Wisconsin.
Simply being from Indiana gave her some interest and knowledge of basketball.
As a young mother she quickly identified sports as a means to quality family time.
She and her late husband had basketball season tickets for their beloved Wisconsin Badgers for many seasons.
Now that she lives alone much of Sheron’s winter television viewing is college basketball. There’s no extra package to follow only the Badgers. She watches whoever’s on the local cable.
“Sometimes I would call her and say, ‘What are you going to do tonight, Mom? She’d say, ‘Well, there’s a doubleheader. There’s an SEC game and then a Big 10 game.’ She even watches mid-majors and everything,” Will Kollmeyer said.
Sheron shrugged off her game-picking prowess as luck.
I said, ‘Well, yeah, there’s some luck involved. You’ve got all those upsets and everything, but all of that knowledge you gained from watching all those games … ,’” Will Kollmeyer said.
He added, “I told her this was her one shinning moment,” a wink to the NCAA’s March Madness marketing.
Indeed it was.
And no troublesome text size was going to stand in her way.
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https://www.djournal.com/sports/college/mrs-k-overcomes-small-text-for-family-time-and-a-big-bracket-run/article_72efbfef-9fbc-5d99-a740-e408c30e16b3.html
| 2022-04-10T09:55:12
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GRAPHIC: Russian aggression not limited to Ukraine alone, Zelenskyy says
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia is targeting all of Europe with its invasion of Ukraine, and stopping Moscow’s aggression is essential for the security of all democracies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as Russian forces prepared for battle in the east of his country.
Addressing the “free people of a brave country,” Zelenskyy said in a late night video message to Ukrainians that Russia’s war aim “was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target.”
“That is why it is not just the moral duty of all democracies, all the forces of Europe, to support Ukraine’s desire for peace,” he said. “This is, in fact, a strategy of defense for every civilized state.”
His address came as civilians continued to flee eastern parts of the country before an expected onslaught and emergency workers searched for survivors in towns north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, that are no longer occupied by Russian forces.
Russia has pulled its troops from the northern part of the country and refocused on the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years and controlled some territory before the war, now in its 46th day.
Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under assault, from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south. Newly released Maxar Technologies satellite imagery collected Friday showed an 8-mile (13-kilometer) convoy of military vehicles headed south to the Donbas through the town of Velykyi Burluk.
WARNING: Videos may contain graphic content.
However, Western assessments expressed increasing confidence in the ability of Ukraine’s defenders to repel Russian assaults, portraying Russia’s troops as suffering from low morale and mounting casualties.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that the Russian military was seeking to respond to mounting losses by boosting troop numbers with personnel who have been discharged from military service since 2012.
In an update on Twitter, the ministry also said that the Russian military’s efforts to “generate more fighting power” also include trying to recruit from Trans-Dniester, a breakaway region in Moldova that borders Ukraine.
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Moldova took up arms in 1992 to establish Trans-Dniester, which is not internationally recognized and where Russia maintains some 1,500 troops.
Several European leaders have made efforts to show solidarity with battle-scarred Ukraine. In his video address, Zelenskyy thanked the leaders of Britain and Austria for their visits to Kyiv on Saturday and pledges of further support.
He also thanked the European Commission president and Canada’s prime minister for a global fundraising event that brought in more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for the millions of Ukrainians who have fled their homes.
Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, which he called the sources of Russia’s “self-confidence and impunity.” Some European countries depend heavily on imported Russian energy.
“Freedom does not have time to wait,” Zelenskyy said. “When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately.”
In an interview with The Associated Press inside his heavily guarded presidential office complex, Zelenskyy said he was committed to negotiating a diplomatic end to the war even though Russia has “tortured” Ukraine.
He also acknowledged that peace likely will not come quickly. Talks so far have not included Russian President Vladimir Putin or other top officials.
“We have to fight, but fight for life. You can’t fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war,” the president said.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia forces of commiting war crimes against thousands of civilians during the invasion, including airstrikes on hospitals, a missile attack that killed 52 people at a train station Friday and shooting residents of towns in the north at close range.
Graphic evidence of civilian slayings emerged after Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, and firefighters were searching buildings in Borodyanka, another settlement outside Kyiv. Russia has denied engaging in war crimes and falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
Ukrainian authorities have said they expect to find more mass killings once they reach the southern port city of Mariupol, which is also in the Donbas and has been subjected to a monthlong blockade and intense fighting. The city’s location on the Sea of Azov is critical to establishing a land bridge from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded with Western powers almost daily to send more arms and further punish Moscow with sanctions, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the global financial system and a total EU embargo on Russian gas and oil.
During his visit Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he expects more EU sanctions against Russia, but defended his country’s opposition so far to cutting off deliveries of Russian gas.
A package of sanctions imposed this week “won’t be the last one,” the chancellor said, acknowledging that “as long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient.” Austria is militarily neutral and not a member of NATO.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit came a day after the U.K. pledged an additional 100 million pounds ($130 million) in high-grade military equipment. Johnson also confirmed further economic support, guaranteeing an additional $500 million in World Bank lending to Ukraine, taking Britain’s total loan guarantee to up to $1 billion.
In the interview with AP, Zelenskyy noted the increased support but expressed frustration when asked if weapons and equipment Ukraine has received from the West is sufficient to shift the war’s outcome.
“Not yet,” he said, switching to English for emphasis. “Of course it’s not enough.”
___
Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T10:01:00
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Library study finds ‘challenged’ books soared in 2021
NEW YORK (AP) - Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, has never been so busy.
“A year ago, we might have been receiving one, maybe two reports a day about a book being challenged at a library. And usually those calls would be for guidance on how to handle a challenge or for materials that support the value of the work being challenged,” Caldwell-Stone told The Associated Press. “Now, we’re getting three, four, five reports a day, many in need of support and some in need of a great deal of support.”
“We’re on the phone constantly,” she added.
Accounts of book bannings and attempted book bannings, along with threats against librarians, have soared over the past year and the ALA has included some numbers in its annual State of America’s Libraries Report, released Monday. The association found 729 challenges — affecting nearly 1,600 books — at public schools and libraries in 2021, more than double 2020′s figures and the highest since the ALA began compiling challenges more than 20 years ago.
The actual total for last year is likely much higher — the ALA collects data through media accounts and through cases it learns about from librarians and educators and other community members. Books preemptively pulled by librarians — out of fear of community protest or concern for their jobs — and challenges never reported by libraries are not included.
The number could well grow again in 2022, Caldwell-Stone said, as conservative-led school boards and legislatures enact more restrictions. Last week, the Georgia legislature passed a bill that would accelerate the process for removing books seen as “harmful to minors.”
“Nothing would surprise me,” Caldwell-Stone says.
The two most challenged books on the ALA’s top 10 list have been in the news often: Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir about sexual identity, “Gender Queer,” and Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy,” a coming-of-age novel narrated by a young gay man. Both have been singled out by Republican officials.
Last fall in Virginia, Glenn Youngkin backed a local school board’s banning of the two books during his successful run for governor. Around the same time, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster supported a school board’s decision to remove “Gender Queer.”
In Florida recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized “Gender Queer” and “Lawn Boy” upon signing a law that would force elementary schools to provide a searchable list of every book available in their libraries or used in instruction and allow parents, DeSantis said, “to blow the whistle.”
Kobabe and Evison noted during recent interviews an irony of their books being targeted: Neither set out to write a story for young people. But they gained a following among students with the help of the American Library Association, which has given each book an Alex Award for works “written for adults that have special appeal to young adults, ages 12 through 18.”
“I think a big part of our books getting so much attention is that they’re award winners and ended up being purchased by libraries all over the country,” Kobabe said.
Others on the ALA list, virtually all cited for LGBTQ or racial themes, include Angie Thomas’ bestselling “The Hate U Give,” centered on a police shooting of a Black teen; George Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay” and Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta.” Two older works that have been on the list before also appear: Sherman Alexie’s autobiographical novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s debut novel “The Bluest Eye.”
The library association defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” The ALA doesn’t keep a precise figure for how many books have actually been removed, but cases have come up routinely over the past year. Last December, a school district in San Antonio, Texas, pulled hundreds of library books to “ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.”
___
https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2022
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/10/library-study-finds-challenged-books-soared-2021/
| 2022-04-10T10:01:07
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https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/10/library-study-finds-challenged-books-soared-2021/
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GRAPHIC: Russian aggression not limited to Ukraine alone, Zelenskyy says
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Russia is targeting all of Europe with its invasion of Ukraine, and stopping Moscow’s aggression is essential for the security of all democracies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as Russian forces prepared for battle in the east of his country.
Addressing the “free people of a brave country,” Zelenskyy said in a late night video message to Ukrainians that Russia’s war aim “was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone” and the “entire European project is a target.”
“That is why it is not just the moral duty of all democracies, all the forces of Europe, to support Ukraine’s desire for peace,” he said. “This is, in fact, a strategy of defense for every civilized state.”
His address came as civilians continued to flee eastern parts of the country before an expected onslaught and emergency workers searched for survivors in towns north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, that are no longer occupied by Russian forces.
Russia has pulled its troops from the northern part of the country and refocused on the eastern Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian troops for eight years and controlled some territory before the war, now in its 46th day.
Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under assault, from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south. Newly released Maxar Technologies satellite imagery collected Friday showed an 8-mile (13-kilometer) convoy of military vehicles headed south to the Donbas through the town of Velykyi Burluk.
WARNING: Videos may contain graphic content.
However, Western assessments expressed increasing confidence in the ability of Ukraine’s defenders to repel Russian assaults, portraying Russia’s troops as suffering from low morale and mounting casualties.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that the Russian military was seeking to respond to mounting losses by boosting troop numbers with personnel who have been discharged from military service since 2012.
In an update on Twitter, the ministry also said that the Russian military’s efforts to “generate more fighting power” also include trying to recruit from Trans-Dniester, a breakaway region in Moldova that borders Ukraine.
Russia-backed separatists in eastern Moldova took up arms in 1992 to establish Trans-Dniester, which is not internationally recognized and where Russia maintains some 1,500 troops.
Several European leaders have made efforts to show solidarity with battle-scarred Ukraine. In his video address, Zelenskyy thanked the leaders of Britain and Austria for their visits to Kyiv on Saturday and pledges of further support.
He also thanked the European Commission president and Canada’s prime minister for a global fundraising event that brought in more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for the millions of Ukrainians who have fled their homes.
Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, which he called the sources of Russia’s “self-confidence and impunity.” Some European countries depend heavily on imported Russian energy.
“Freedom does not have time to wait,” Zelenskyy said. “When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately.”
In an interview with The Associated Press inside his heavily guarded presidential office complex, Zelenskyy said he was committed to negotiating a diplomatic end to the war even though Russia has “tortured” Ukraine.
He also acknowledged that peace likely will not come quickly. Talks so far have not included Russian President Vladimir Putin or other top officials.
“We have to fight, but fight for life. You can’t fight for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war,” the president said.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia forces of commiting war crimes against thousands of civilians during the invasion, including airstrikes on hospitals, a missile attack that killed 52 people at a train station Friday and shooting residents of towns in the north at close range.
Graphic evidence of civilian slayings emerged after Russian forces withdrew from Bucha, and firefighters were searching buildings in Borodyanka, another settlement outside Kyiv. Russia has denied engaging in war crimes and falsely claimed that the scenes in Bucha were staged.
Ukrainian authorities have said they expect to find more mass killings once they reach the southern port city of Mariupol, which is also in the Donbas and has been subjected to a monthlong blockade and intense fighting. The city’s location on the Sea of Azov is critical to establishing a land bridge from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine eight years ago.
Ukrainian officials have pleaded with Western powers almost daily to send more arms and further punish Moscow with sanctions, including the exclusion of Russian banks from the global financial system and a total EU embargo on Russian gas and oil.
During his visit Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he expects more EU sanctions against Russia, but defended his country’s opposition so far to cutting off deliveries of Russian gas.
A package of sanctions imposed this week “won’t be the last one,” the chancellor said, acknowledging that “as long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient.” Austria is militarily neutral and not a member of NATO.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit came a day after the U.K. pledged an additional 100 million pounds ($130 million) in high-grade military equipment. Johnson also confirmed further economic support, guaranteeing an additional $500 million in World Bank lending to Ukraine, taking Britain’s total loan guarantee to up to $1 billion.
In the interview with AP, Zelenskyy noted the increased support but expressed frustration when asked if weapons and equipment Ukraine has received from the West is sufficient to shift the war’s outcome.
“Not yet,” he said, switching to English for emphasis. “Of course it’s not enough.”
___
Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/10/graphic-russian-aggression-not-limited-ukraine-alone-zelenskyy-says/
| 2022-04-10T10:02:33
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