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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.”
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https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2022
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Now's your last chance to get a third stimulus check
There's still time to claim a third stimulus payment worth up to $1,400 per person.
Eligible taxpayers who didn't receive the payment or may be due more money than they initially received are allowed to claim a tax credit on their 2021 federal tax return by the April 18 deadline.
The vast majority of the third stimulus payments were automatically delivered to taxpayers' bank accounts or via a check in the mail last spring. The payments were authorized by the American Rescue Plan in March 2021 and were meant to help people struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the payments were calculated last year based on the most recent federal tax return on file at the time. If a taxpayer's income or family size changed in 2021, the individual may be eligible for more money.
Other people may have missed out on the stimulus payment altogether. Those with incomes so low they don't have to file taxes may have never received their payment because the Internal Revenue Service did not have their information.
How much are the payments worth?
The third round of stimulus payments is worth up to $1,400 per person. A married couple with two children, for example, can receive a maximum of $5,600.
Families are allowed to receive up to $1,400 for each dependent of any age. Earlier rounds limited the payments to dependents under the age of 17.
Generally, low- and middle-income U.S. citizens and U.S. resident aliens are eligible for either a full or partial third-round stimulus payment.
Individuals earning less than $75,000 of adjusted gross income, heads of households (like single parents) earning less than $112,500 and married couples earning less than $150,000 are eligible to receive the full amount of $1,400 per person.
But the payments gradually phase out as household income increases. Individuals who earn at least $80,000 a year of adjusted gross income, heads of households who earn at least $120,000 and married couples who earn at least $160,000 are not eligible for any money -- regardless of how many dependents they have.
Undocumented immigrants who don't have Social Security numbers are not eligible for the payments. But their spouses and children are eligible as long as they have Social Security numbers.
Who may be eligible for more money?
Taxpayers who earned less money in 2021 than the previous year may be eligible for more money than they initially received from the third round of stimulus payments.
Those include single filers who had incomes above $80,000 in 2020 but less than this amount in 2021; married couples who filed a joint return and had incomes above $160,000 in 2020 but less than this amount in 2021; and head of household filers who had incomes above $120,000 in 2020 but less than this amount in 2021, according to the IRS.
Individuals and families who added a child in 2021 -- through birth, adoption or foster care -- could be eligible for additional money. Families that added another kind of dependent, such as an aging parent or grandchild, may also be eligible.
Here's how to claim the payment on your tax return
Those who believe they are due more money must file a 2021 tax return, even if they don't usually file taxes, and claim what's called the Recovery Rebate Credit. If a taxpayer is eligible for more money, it will either reduce any tax the person owes for 2021 or be included in a tax refund.
In order to claim the Recovery Rebate Credit, a taxpayer will need information that was sent in a letter from the IRS in the past couple of months. Known as Letter 6475, it confirms whether a taxpayer was sent a third stimulus payment and the amount. Alternatively, that information can be obtained by accessing your IRS online account.
For most taxpayers, the federal tax return filing deadline is April 18, though it's a day later for residents of Maine and Massachusetts. Taxpayers having difficulty meeting the deadline can file for an automatic six-month extension by using Form 4868.
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This is CNBC's live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Russia is looking at ways to bolster its troop numbers after heavy losses as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urges NATO members for more aid and continues to call for a ban on Russian oil. The EU spends billions of dollars per week on energy imports from Russia.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Saturday, pledging increase weapons support and funding.
Heavy shelling continues in Ukraine's east as the Donbas region prepares for a ramp-up of Russian bombardment. Civilians in the east are being urged to flee.
Russia seeks to rebuild troop numbers with retired soldiers, U.K.'s MoD says
Russia's military is aiming to increase its troop strength with soldiers discharged in the last decade after suffering heavy losses in its invasion of Ukraine, the U.K.'s Ministry of Defence said in its daily intelligence update on Twitter Sunday.
Money Report
"In response to mounting losses, the Russian armed forces seek to bolster troop numbers with personnel discharged from military service since 2012," the bulletin read.
"Efforts to generate more fighting power also include trying to recruit from the unrecognised Transnistria region of Moldova," it added.
NBC could not immediately verify the report.
— Natasha Turak
Zelenskyy renews call for immediate embargo on Russian oil, says Ukraine can't wait
Ukraine's president has renewed calls for the "whole civilized world" to immediately ban Russian oil as "Ukraine does not have time to wait."
In his nightly address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "Action must be taken immediately... And the oil embargo should be the first step."
It must be carried out "at the level of all democracies, the whole civilized world," he said. "Then Russia will feel it. Then it will be an argument for them — to seek peace, to stop pointless violence."
Zelenskyy has been pressing world leaders to impose a full embargo on Russian energy for weeks now.
"Oil is one of the two sources of Russian self-confidence, their sense of impunity," he said in the late night address. "Another source — gas — will also be shut down over time. It's just inevitable."
But the Ukrainian leader stressed the urgency, saying that "Ukraine does not have time to wait. Freedom does not have time to wait."
— Joanna Tan
Zelenskyy calls on other countries to follow UK on increasing aid
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Western nations to increase their support for the embattled country after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged more military and financial aid.
The two leaders met in Kyiv earlier in the day, leading Britain to increase support for the country.
"It's time to impose a full embargo on Russian energy, to increase the supply of all weapons to us," Zelenskyy said.
—Jessica Bursztynsky
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/business/money-report/russia-wants-to-rebuild-troop-strength-with-recently-retired-soldiers-uk-mod-says-follow-our-live-updates/3638975/
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Chase Golightly
Updated: April 09, 2022 09:21 PM
Created: April 09, 2022 08:34 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – There is a new plan to give those without a home a new and safe place to stay in Albuquerque.
Mayor Tim Keller is now saying a city-managed and designated homless camp could be a solution to some homelessness problems in the city. KOB 4 spoke with a city council member about the idea and where those potential locations would be.
"We see them every day, who are not ready to get into permanent supportive housing," said Albuquerque City Councilor Pat Davis.
Even with Tiny Homes Village and the proposed Gateway Center, Davis says it's a way to address the issue of those who don't want to be placed in a home.
"Even though we are putting $40 million into housing every year, we still have a waiting list, and we still have people who aren't willing to get into those other places and we need to come up with an answer for some of them. Maybe this is an option we should explore," said Davis.
While the plan is still very much in it's beginning phase, the goal is to clear out homeless camps at parks and move them to empty dirt lots. Now, the city says they don't plan on picking just any dirt lot, they are looking for locations that are near homeless services and ones that are far from any homes.
"This is not about turning your neighborhood park into an encampment. This is about incentivizing in certain parts of town where they are not disruptive to other residents or other uses," said Davis.
And the camps wouldn't be open to just anyone.
"Some of the early things we have learned is that they have to be small enough to be manageable, they have to be managed, it can't just be a free for all, there needs to be a structure and a system for it," said Davis.
This isn't a new idea, Santa Fe is also looking into it and Las Cruces has already created these types of camps.
"Done right, other cities have seen a lot of success with it, but we got a lot of details yet to be sorted out before the City of Albuquerque will start doing these," Davis said.
The city council knows this is going to be a big topic of discussion in Albuquerque. They say in April and the start of May, there will be multiple meetings where citizens will be able to speak their minds about this. But the city will have to make a decision soon, it has until the end of May to finalize the budget.
Copyright 2022 - KOB-TV LLC, A Hubbard Broadcasting Company
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This summer the N.H. Senior Games expects to see 700-plus athletes compete across 20 events.
The New Hampshire Senior Games has a couple of reasons to celebrate this year: 2022 marks both the 35th anniversary of the games and the return to a full schedule of events.
NHSG has the mission of promoting healthy sports competition and social interaction for adults in the Granite State. And they have a lot of fun competing in 20 different events.
All athletes must be at least 40 years old to register, except for track and field and cornhole, which has an age minimum of 35. Cycling and road race have a minimum age of 45. Pickleball and golf — both popular events — have a minimum age requirement of 50 years old, according to the website.
This year’s games will be a qualifier for the 2023 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, according to the organization’s website. Athletes over the age of 50 can qualify for nationals.
“These events, the larger ones especially, it really is like an Olympic-type event,” said Glenn Graham, chair of the board of directors for the games.
Graham explained that they typically get 700 to 800 athletes that participate in a qualifying year. In nonqualifying years, the event draws between 600 and 700 people.
“Pickleball is the most popular. Track and field is the second most popular,” Graham said of what events attract the most participants.
David Wells, 73, of Wolfeboro, is a track and field athlete who started competing in 2004. In 2015, he went to nationals for the first time.
“I’ve been a long-time runner and have done triathlons and things like that,” Wells said. “When I’m sprinting, I feel like a little kid again.”
Wells said it is never too late for people who are interested to join in the fun. He has been able to travel and meet athletes from other parts of the country because of his involvement.
“The senior games are more about camaraderie and fitness than it is about competition,” Wells said.
Joe Santoro is a board member for the New Hampshire Senior Games and organizes pickleball competitions. He said hundreds of people compete during the games.
“We were at 200 last year,” Santoro said. “We expect to have 300 players in 2022.”
Pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, is one of the nation’s fastest growing sports. According to usapickleball.org, pickleball grew in 2021 to 4.8 million players in the United States, with a 39% two-year growth rate.
“Pickleball is a new phenomenon,” Santoro said. “It’s gotten to be more popular in the last 15 years partially because of the older people who want to keep active.”
Santoro said many participants are former tennis players, but athletes don’t need to be fast or cover the entire court. Some people are wheelchair-bound.
People who enjoy pickleball are like a large family, Santoro said.
“Everyone there loves the sport,” Santoro said. “They just love being together as long as they possibly can.”
Monica Blair is secretary of the board of directors for the New Hampshire Senior Games, an athlete and an independent distributer for BEMER medical devices. She demonstrates BEMER’s devices, which are designed to improve circulation.
At 58, Blair doesn’t consider herself to be a “senior” yet. She said the competitors at the games are fit. “These are amazing athletes,” she said.
This year’s games start in late June with a candlepin bowling tournament and end in September with a cycling event. There will be 20 different sporting events and the top three finishing athletes in each sport will qualify for next summer’s national games.
Events will be held at several southern and central New Hampshire locations, and a couple in Maine. New Hampshire is an open state, which means athletes from outside of the state are welcome to compete.
Martin’s Point Health Care is the major sponsor of the games for the fourth straight year.
David Howes, CEO of Martin’s Point, said his organization’s legacy of support for the games is closely aligned with their mission.
“Our daily goal is ensuring the health and wellness of those we serve across Maine and New Hampshire. The Senior Games not only support health and fitness for older adults, but they also foster vital social interactions — a key health factor,” Howes said in a statement.
Online registration is now open. Athletes can register online up to one week before their event. Same-day sign up is available for selected events and can done via check or cash, according to a press release.
For more informationand to register for this year’s games, visit www.nhseniorgames.org.
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/silver_linings/nh-senior-games-35-years-of-competition-camaraderie-and-fitness/article_bc4f4be7-aa66-5d18-a0db-61213117bb76.html
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Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s volunteer-based model is “for the pure enjoyment of learning.”
Dottie Nelson’s roster of upcoming classes at OLLI is varied and expansive.
“The list is long. I tend to take a lot of them,” said the 79-year-old Fremont resident.
This semester, she’s enrolled in classes on midterm elections, film, an introduction to tai chi, a class on Nathaniel Hawthorne, and a class called “Great Decisions.”
“I just finished one ... it was a Zoom class – ‘Awakening Wisdom in Compassion.’ It was about Buddhism,” she said.
Nelson and other New Hampshire seniors say OLLI — Osher Lifelong Learning Institute — offers a broad spectrum of classes for people 50 and older that can be enlightening and educational, and are a chance to socialize and meet new people.
OLLI is a volunteer-based, member-driven learning program tethered to colleges and universities like Dartmouth and Granite State College. The program is geared toward the semi-retired and retired population. There are four “learning regions” across New Hampshire: Mount Washington Valley, Manchester, Concord and the Seacoast, with more than 800 members statewide.
According to Director Toniann DeSousa, there are 125 OLLI programs in the United States, with at least one in all 50 states. OLLI is funded in part with an endowment by the Bernard Osher Foundation, membership dues, class fees and other revenue streams.
Volunteer presenters can also attend classes and join committees. Some are former educators, and some members present simply because they’re passionate about the subject they’re teaching.
“It’s just for the pure enjoyment of learning,” DeSousa said.
Formerly of Nashville, Nelson retired in 2005. She found OLLI in 2006, and while there are other college offerings for seniors around the state, she was most attracted by the offerings at OLLI.
She and her husband have taken advantage of all aspects of OLLI.
“Both my husband and I started taking classes and we took whatever we wanted. We both got involved in a number of committees, and we both have taught classes. One of our history presenters, I think was a librarian, but she’s always had a passion for history,” Nelson said.
Classes and outings
Sharon Kace, a Manchester resident and member of OLLI since 2010, remembered what first attracted her to the program. “I was fascinated by the people who were so welcoming, who were involved in so many different things.”
She ticked off just a few examples of class offerings.
“Let me just give you the topics: arts and humanities, history, personal enrichment, science and technology, social sciences, exploring the community, and also outdoor adventures within those categories,” said Kace.
Classes on New Hampshire history are often popular, and focus on the history of the Mount Washington Valley, history of Native Americans in New Hampshire, and presidential elections.
There are also hikes at Odiorne State Park in Rye, Wagon Hill Farm in Durham, Great Bay National Wildlife Refuge, classes on crafts and painting, chances to travel nationally and internationally, or just take a day trip to places like the Kennedy Library in Boston.
No homework, no exams
One of OLLI’s biggest selling points is that there are no exams, no credits, no degrees and no homework, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t stimulating conversations or rewarding accomplishments.
“They always have an educational component with them. We’ll do spring birding and learn about the birds in the region, or they’ll visit a specific historical site. Or they’ll hike to learn about the water supply,” DeSousa said.
“We not only do education, which is our primary function, as you can tell, but we have a tremendous amount of social activity. And it really brings people together,” Kace said.
Nelson said as an undergraduate student majoring in electrical engineering at Northeastern, there weren’t many opportunities to take classes outside her major.
“As a student, we had like, no electives. (OLLI) had kayaking and hiking and snowshoeing and touring local museums. It was just like this marvelous feast of things that I could choose from,” said Nelson.
Kace was also surprised at the options at OLLI.
“All of a sudden I can take any kind of classes I want, things on history and politics and art and religion and things that are kind of fun, which is why I really liked OLLI — and no stress,” she said.
Joining a community
She pointed out that OLLI may help combat isolation.
“Loneliness is one of the major problems of people who are maturing. And we do consider ourselves a community. It’s a community of like-minded individuals who are curious about the world around them,” said Kace.
She wants to debunk the stigma of being a “senior citizen.”
“As soon as you say ‘senior’ anything, people think of little old ladies sitting in a rocking chair, who are not even reading the newspaper. Our members are far from that. They are very active both physically and mentally. Of course, as we get older, we pay a little more attention to our health. But we are very, very active,” Kace said.
There are no quizzes or tests at OLLI, and no homework. It’s more about having roundtable discussions with others who are curious to learn more.
Teaching opportuniies too
Student Mike Baker, who attends classes and also teaches literature at OLLI, said he and his wife were also looking for the chance to advance their education in some way. Baker said OLLI’s affordability nudged him and his wife to give it a try. Formerly from Maine and new to Manchester, the couple found OLLI was a great way to make new friends, and it was close by.
“There are no papers. There are no quizzes, or no examinations or what have you. It’s just learning for the fun of it. And that couldn’t be more ideal,” said Baker.
Baker’s courses last anywhere from three to five sessions, and might cover, for example, the short stories of Ernest Hemingway. Students get materials in advance and then discuss subjects in class or on Zoom.
“There’s been classes on immigration and our stance on immigration. I’ve taken classes in the primary, New Hampshire primary, which are excellent. Folks who have been presenters in this are authorities on the various subjects they’re doing.”
He’s looking forward to an upcoming class on how to improve his photography skills.
“There’s just a wide gamut,” he said.
Nelson, Baker and Kace all mentioned the school’s motto: “Join for the classes, stay for the friends.”
“It was a great opportunity to meet very interesting, curious people like ourselves. We made some very close friends as a result of this program,” Baker said.
There’s even a lunch program called Lunch and Learn.
“We would meet in groups for lunches, and the conversation was always lively and stimulating,” said Baker.
“I’ve met people from all walks of life, like educators and business people and scientists and doctors and dentists and nurses and politicians. We’re still excited in everything that was going on, and not sitting back and saying, ‘I’m retired.’ So we’ve made a lot of really, really good friends,” Nelson said.
Try something new
Baker prefers attending classes he would never get the chance to otherwise, like beekeeping.
“There’s no way on earth that my own formal education enabled me to do something like that. But now, with this kind of a program, it was a stimulating class. I really, really enjoyed it,” he said.
Baker, who taught literature at the high school and college level, says a level of wisdom comes with teaching people 50 and older compared with traditional undergraduates and graduate students.
“A 16-year-old or 18-year-old doesn’t bring much to literature in the end, because they don’t have the life experience. But when you have a classroom full of professional people, or people who have been out in the working world all their life, they bring so much to it. They wouldn’t be there ordinarily,” Baker said.
He said people can present opposing viewpoints more freely at OLLI, and generally, everyone is eager to participate.
“Every single one of them is 100 percent prepared. They all want to engage in discussion. And best of all — a teacher’s dream — they all want to be there. It just couldn’t be more ideal from a teaching standpoint,” said Baker.
Flexibility
OLLI has also begun offering classes at night and on Saturdays to accommodate pre-retirees who might not have the flexibility that others do.
OLLI membership is $40 per person for two semesters — fall and spring. Courses can last up to eight weeks and cost $20 for the first session and $5 for each additional session. There are also scholarship opportunities available. Visit olli.granite.edu or osher.dartmouth.edu to learn more.
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/silver_linings/osher-lifelong-learning-institute-join-for-the-classes-stay-for-the-friends/article_182e7bd2-4252-5214-8557-e956764e9e01.html
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Today’s seniors do their research and know how to use technology on trips.
KELLY COOKE remembers when she went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., to scope out an escorted tour for her clients. “I wanted a rooftop private reception with champagne and canapes,” Cooke recalled. Company representatives said, “Yes, we do that, but not for bus tours.” Cooke said she wanted the reception for her people, to which Biltmore staff countered, “But it’s expensive.”
Cooke remembers telling them, “But how many of them will have the chance to do this again?”
She got her reception.
Cooke is the founder and principal of Terrapin Tours. She’s dedicated her career to changing the image of bus tours, senior tours, and tours in general, so her clients can experience more and make more memories.
Cooke began her career as a travel agent, then moved into tour directing and escorting in 1997. She liked her clients but didn’t like the “If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium” aspect of most group tours.
For seniors in particular, it was “a grumpy group of senior citizens being dragged from one spot to another,” according to Cooke.
She wanted to break that mold, to have her tours go at a slower pace, where her guests could “have fun, enjoy the moment, and enjoy the camaraderie.”
There are two main trends in escorted tours today, according to Cooke: student tours and senior tours.
Most of today’s seniors have the time and the financial stability to travel. But they’re wary of traveling alone, and many choose group tours because they’re safer. Cooke agreed that group tours are safer where crime is concerned, but she also pointed out they are safer for health reasons. If one of her senior clients has a medical episode, she’s right beside them, making arrangements and sticking by them until it’s resolved.
Offering more time is key
With her previous company, the philosophy was to stuff as many travelers as possible on the bus and to do “as many things as possible in one day.”
Her tours are about the journey, both literally and metaphorically, according to Cooke. “We don’t just hop on and off the bus.” She builds in time to enjoy whatever attraction they’re visiting.
For example, Cooke previously hosted tours of New York City where the guests stayed out of town, in New Jersey, because it was cheaper. “But they spent two hours on the bus each day, going to and from the hotel,” she noted.
Cooke found a good, safe hotel in midtown, and created a Big Apple tour with plenty of free time. “Our clients can shop, go up the Empire State Building, visit a museum — or just sit in a cafe and people-watch,” she explained. “Not every person has the same pace.”
“We could include more stuff, but that would be just people checking off boxes,” Cooke mused.
Today’s seniors are more adventurous
Today’s seniors choose the boxes they want to check off. When Cooke first started travel guiding, the older clients she served were products of the Depression. “In their 60s, they thought they were ‘old,’” Cooke explained. They were not technologically savvy, and they had a certain amount of fear of the unknown. “When we went to New York 20 years ago, they were afraid, and stuck by your side,” she said.
Today’s seniors do their homework, mapping out the restaurants they want to visit with their GPS. They have cellphones and can reach out to Cooke if there’s a problem, but they don’t need hand holding.
And they’re a lot more adventurous than their parents, seeking new experiences, she said. While she doesn’t do “adventure tours,” many of her trips, such as Iceland and Yellowstone, require people to be a little more active, she said.
Today’s seniors are also more comfortable financially, and willing to pay for experiences such as the Biltmore roof reception, she added.
She plans more intimate tours, with 36 passengers on a 56-passenger bus, she said. “Today’s seniors are willing to pay more for a more comfortable experience.”
Thumbs-up from a single traveler
Marie Jones, 67, of Contoocook is an experienced and enthusiastic Terrapin traveler. A day trip to a theater performance left a good taste with Jones, so she signed up for a multi-day tour to Charlebois, Quebec, a couple of years ago. The widow goes by herself most of the time, quipping, “I like having the bathroom to myself.”” But she makes friends easily, she added, noting, “We all take care of each other.”
Though Jones walks and is in good shape, she likes the way more delicate members of the party are treated. Even the bus driver is alert to needs, helping a nearly blind woman when she became disoriented during a Pennsylvania Dutch outing, she said.
Cooke plans meticulously, according to Jones, and she’s full of surprises. When a group did the Southern Holidays tour, “she wore a Christmas onesie,” Jones recalled. “She has so many trips up her sleeves.”
Jones has traveled with other groups, including a AAA trip to New Orleans, and said, “It was — OK.” But she likes the extra attention and care Cooke puts in her tours. “We went to Nashville,” Jones said. “Kelly not only arranged a happy hour at the Grand Old Opry, she got one of the performers to talk with us. And we had seats in the first and second rows.”
Jones’ trips for 2022 include 16 days in Newfoundland, and shorter trips to “Hamilton,” the Nantucket Daffodil Festival, the Brandywine Country, and Quebec in December.
Two thumbs-up from a traveling couple
Cynthia Williams and her husband, Garry, know travel — they spent most of their marriage living abroad and took countless trips to corners of the globe. When they retired to their vacation home in Glen, they found a new social circle, and their new friends spoke often of Terrapin Tours. The couple wasn’t ready to hang up their walking shoes or put away their passports, so they gave Terrapin a try in 2017. “I think it was to Canada,” Williams said.
They have since been back for a range of experiences with Terrapin. “I consider it a boutique company,” Williams said. “It’s a small group, Kelly gets us the best hotels, and we eat at the best restaurants.” They’ve made friends through the group and they also know all the drivers and all the tour guides.
Williams has traveled a lot, but, she said, Cooke seems to find new sights and events in places Williams has already been.
Williams has been on day tours, multi-day tours and Cooke’s “signature” tours. While she doesn’t have a favorite, she has fond memories of a Christmas jaunt to Canada. “We stayed at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and we went to the Christmas markets,” she said. “Then we went to Montreal. There was snow everywhere. It was like a fairy tale.”
But with Cooke at the helm, Williams has also enjoyed the seemingly mundane. When COVID was finally breaking up, the couple signed up for a Terrapin Tour titled, “Visiting Europe Without a Passport.” She had her doubts when she learned the trip was to Ohio, but she had a great time. “We went to Dublintown, Germantown, each of these towns with a European flair,” she said. They saw Irish dancers, ate at a German restaurant, and experienced European culture in the heartland.
The couple has 12 Terrapin tours booked for 2022. “The tours fit our lifestyle,” she said. “We’re still very active — but we’re careful.” On the Ohio trip she observed a fellow traveler fall down granite steps and hit her head. “Kelly stayed with her until her family members could get there,” Williams said, adding, “Garry and I know this is a safe place for us to be.”
To learn more, visit www.terrapintours.com.
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/silver_linings/terrapin-tours-creating-the-gold-standard-for-group-tours/article_8463f0d5-a2f3-564b-8fa3-7a226870e2b3.html
| 2022-04-10T10:56:25
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https://www.unionleader.com/news/silver_linings/terrapin-tours-creating-the-gold-standard-for-group-tours/article_8463f0d5-a2f3-564b-8fa3-7a226870e2b3.html
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(The Hill) — Georgia congressional candidate Vernon Jones (R) on Thursday argued that gay rights should not be compared to civil rights for people of color because being gay is a choice.
In an interview with former Trump aide Steve Bannon on his podcast “War Room,” Jones argued that the civil rights movement for African Americans and the civil rights movement for the LGBT community are “two different things.”
“Civil rights for Blacks and civil rights for gays are two different things,” Jones told Bannon. “I don’t know what you are unless you tell me what you are if you’re gay. But when I walk into that room, you can tell that I’m Black from cradle to grave. Let’s not get that confused.”
Jones, who is running for a U.S. House seat in Georgia’s 10th district, has been endorsed by former President Trump.
He told Bannon that members of the LGBT community could change their identity.
“They can actually change. You can go from being straight to being gay to being transgender and all these other genders,” Jones continued. “But when you’re Black, I don’t have a choice. I don’t have a choice. So to compare the two … it rubs me the wrong way.”
Jones initially launched a bid for Georgia governor but announced in February he was dropping out of the race after he met with Trump and the former president had endorsed former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) for governor.
LGBT rights, specifically revolving around the transgender community, have become a key issue in the lead up to the 2022 midterms.
Republican-led state legislatures across the country have introduced or passed bills that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
States including Florida, Utah and Alabama have passed legislation that would ban transgender women and girls from participating on the sports team that corresponds with their gender identity.
During Thursday’s interview, Jones accused Democrats of “breaking down the moral fiber and fabric of the African American community” with woke ideology.
“To see what’s happening now, it’s un-American,” Jones added. “It’s going to take conservative African Americans to save the Republican party. Because they saved us from slavery.”
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https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/gop-candidate-vernon-jones-says-gay-rights-civil-rights-are-two-different-things/
| 2022-04-10T11:07:35
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https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/gop-candidate-vernon-jones-says-gay-rights-civil-rights-are-two-different-things/
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TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Temperatures are chilly on this Sunday morning with most spots starting out in the 40s and 50s.
It’s cool right now but it will warm up fairly quickly with temperatures expected to be warmer than yesterday.
Highs will be in the mid to upper 70s, but that is still below average for this time of year. The winds will not be quite as gusty and sunshine will be abundant.
Temperatures will get chilly again this evening as they drop into the mid to upper 50s tonight. After one more below average start on Monday morning, it’s a big time warm up for the rest of the week.
In fact, by Monday afternoon temperatures will be back to well above average with highs in the mid 80s. However, the humidity will still be nice and low.
By Tuesday and Wednesday temperatures will be approaching 90°. The humidity will start to creep up for the end of the week and rain chances will slowly increase with a few scattered showers and thunderstorms possible in the afternoon.
A weak front will approach the area by the end of the week but it will not bring us cool temperatures like we’re seeing right now.
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https://www.wfla.com/weather/forecast/cool-start-nice-warm-up-w-low-humidity/
| 2022-04-10T11:07:41
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https://www.wfla.com/weather/forecast/cool-start-nice-warm-up-w-low-humidity/
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INDIANAPOLIS – One person is in critical, but stable condition following a shooting and robbery on Indianapolis’ near northwest side.
Police with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were dispatched to the 1400 block of West 35th Street around 1:19 a.m. early Sunday Morning. Upon arrival, officers said they found an adult male inside his home with injuries consistent with a gunshot wound.
Officers on scene provided medical aid prior to the arrival of medics that downgraded their condition. The adult male was transported to an area hospital in serious, but stable condition.
IMPD believes a robbery occurred outside of the victim’s home and is what led up to the shooting. The suspect fled in their car after the shooting before officers arrived.
Anyone with information about this incident is being asked to call IMPD Crime Stoppers at 262-TIPS.
This is a developing story. This article will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
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https://fox59.com/news/person-injured-in-northwest-side-shooting/
| 2022-04-10T11:12:29
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https://fox59.com/news/person-injured-in-northwest-side-shooting/
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I have read some intriguing books about Heaven.
Don Piper’s “90 Minutes In Heaven” and Rick Joyner’s “The Final Quest” both give interesting looks at what Heaven will be like.
It is remarkable that the offer of Heaven, or the fear of Hell after death, do not seem to motivate people to seriously consider becoming a follower of Jesus like they used to.
I am not sure that this change is all bad.
The fear of Hell or the prospects of Heaven have never seemed to create genuine and lasting change in those who declare themselves to be Christians. Why is that?
When the offer of life is made in the Bible, it appears to be an offer to experience life now, not just a life after death. Many of us have been taught to breathe a sigh of relief when we or someone we care about gets “saved.”
We have grown accustomed to believing that a choice to become a Christian is all about getting people into Heaven and protecting them from Hell. They have been “saved” from Hell.
What I think Jesus was trying to communicate to those who would listen was that He came to bring men and women back into a relationship with God that begins now, and is continued later in Heaven.
He kept emphasizing over and over that the kingdom was now, not later.
He did tell His disciples that He was going ahead to prepare a special place for them, but it was not His emphasis.
Why is it ours?
You might be thinking, “OK, I am already alive and living. If Jesus was offering life to those who were living, breathing individuals within the sound of His voice,
He must have been referring to some other form of life.” If that is what you are thinking, you are right.
He seemed to describe a kind of living that could only occur if we chose to reconnect in our relationship to the one who created us. That choice to reconnect becomes our first step in genuinely being alive and living.
You can be alive, yet not really be living. A person in a coma on a respirator is alive, but not really living. A person who has made an initial commitment to be a follower of Jesus and is just “hanging out” till they die and go to Heaven is alive, but not really living.
We have been offered more. We have been afforded the opportunity to have a true sense of meaning and purpose in our everyday life.
If we are willing to consider that God is busy in this world and that He welcomes our joining Him in meeting the needs of hurting individuals, families and whole cultures, we can be busy too, every day.
Instead of feeling like we never have enough, we can learn to feel content with what we have.
We are promised that we can learn to have hope and joy instead of fear and sadness in spite of our circumstances.
Am I describing the kind of living that you have been looking for? If so, you can start whenever you are ready.
Tell God you are ready, and invite Him to move into your life.
Tell Him you are ready to follow Him and work His agenda. If you are already a follower of Jesus and are “waiting” for the good stuff of Heaven, tell God you are ready now.
I am sure that Heaven will be great. How could it not be?
Jesus said He was going to get it ready for us. How could the Son of God prepare anything less than great?
But living, in the truest sense of the word, was designed to begin now. Are you ready to start?
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https://www.normantranscript.com/community/faith-can-i-start-living-now/article_97be00ec-b6c2-11ec-8af7-279d9e576e2a.html
| 2022-04-10T11:12:34
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https://www.normantranscript.com/community/faith-can-i-start-living-now/article_97be00ec-b6c2-11ec-8af7-279d9e576e2a.html
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As the city tries to move its homeless shelter out of downtown Norman, officials have made many claims about the facility and its residents.
City staff have proposed the council move to relocate the shelter from 325 E. Comanche St. to 900 E. Main St., near Griffin Memorial Hospital and Le Monde International School. Proponents have argued the new location will put the shelter near mental health and substance abuse services at the hospital and near additional homeless services at nearby Food & Shelter, Inc.
But Ward 3 Councilor Kelly Lynn and Ward 5 Rarchar Tortorello have pushed back against this recommendation. The councilors claim the shelter would put a criminal element — specifically, sex offenders — near Le Monde.
The Transcript has fact-checked claims about homelessness and the proposed homeless shelter in Norman through interviews and corroboration of statements from public officials.
CLAIM: “Low-barrier” means sex offenders will be able to stay at the shelter.
RATING: False [in Norman, at least]
On his city councilor page, Lynn has argued a “low-barrier shelter” like the one the city is proposing will allow sex offenders to stay there.
“The Mayor and the majority of Council want to put a low-barrier [everyone can come in, even sex offenders and violent offenders, drunk or high] homeless shelter next to a school and other youth services,” he said on his Ward 3 Facebook page.
While low-barrier shelters in other cities have allowed sex offenders to stay there, Ward 4 Lee Hall said the shelter in Norman will not.
“A low-barrier shelter is not equal to a no-barrier shelter. Drugs are not allowed to be used in the shelter. Alcohol is not allowed to be consumed in the night shelter. Registered sex offenders are not allowed to stay at the night shelter,” Hall said at a March 29 study session.
City Manager Darrel Pyle verified Hall’s remarks after the meeting.
CLAIM: Sex offenders are already staying at the shelter, and there are likely unregistered sex offenders staying in Norman.
RATING: Inconclusive
Lynn has asserted that “statistically,” a handful of sex offenders likely stay at the current homeless shelter. The city has more than 20 unhoused sex offenders, according to records, and 266 homeless residents, according to the latest point-in-time count in 2020.
In an April 1 news release, Oklahoma Sen. Rob Standridge, R-Norman, asserted it’s likely there are more sex offenders in Norman’s homeless population.
“While it is always possible that we have sex offenders living in the city who are not registered, NPD investigates all reports or concerns of residency violations within our jurisdiction,” Norman police spokesperson Sarah Jensen said in an emailed response to The Transcript. “We believe that persons should not rely solely on the offender registry as a safeguard against offenses in their community.”
The city doesn’t check sex offender status at the shelter — like other shelters in the Oklahoma City metro area, they require the sex offender to know if they can stay there. As it currently stands, the city has not determined whether sex offenders are staying at the shelter.
Jensen declined to respond to The Transcript when asked what a sex offender would have to do to get into the shelter.
However, unhoused sex offenders are required to check in with NPD weekly — and not sleep at the current shelter, which is within 2,000 feet of two schools — under threat of prosecution.
Pyle has proposed the city update its code to allow shelter workers to conduct background checks on anyone who wishes to stay there. If it does, the city will have signs telling sex offenders to stay away from the shelter, verification at the door and ongoing verification through NPD.
CLAIM: The shelter will bring crime to the area.
RATING: Mixed
Lynn and Tortorello have expressed concern that the shelter will bring not only sex offenders, but violent offenders to the area as well.
NPD has responded to high-profile incidents involving unhoused people at the shelter. On Jan. 20, police shot Isis McMullen after she allegedly shot a man in the face, killing him, and shot another man nonfatally.
On March 31, NPD responded to the shelter for a reported knife fight. A security guard tased one of the two people involved in the fight before police arrived. Following the fight, an area business owner told KOCO News he’s seen multiple fights outside the shelter.
“I think it’s a bad idea to move this thing where the school is,” Tortorello said at the March 29 meeting.
Ward 1 Brandi Studley said Le Monde parents have emailed her about unhoused people in the area causing issues in the past but said they couldn’t give specific examples of issues they caused.
Despite these reports, council has not heard complaints from nearby Lincoln Elementary and Longfellow Middle School about the current shelter. At the March 29 Council meeting, Pyle said the schools would have notified the city if the unhoused population had caused them problems.
Food & Shelter, Inc. Director April Doshier has also argued it’s a misconception that crime in the unhoused population is greater than the rate in the housed population.
CLAIM: Sheriff’s deputies can arrest shelter staff if a sex offender is found there.
RATING: Inconclusive
At a March 23 study session, Lynn suggested Cleveland County sheriff’s deputies, who have jurisdiction over the state-owned property that would house the proposed shelter, arrest staff if a sex offender is found on the premises.
Oklahoma law prohibits anyone who has reason to believe a sex offender is in violation of registration requirement and who intends to help them elude arrest to not tell law enforcement, lie to law enforcement or harbor the offender. Lynn’s interpretation of the law puts him at odds with assistant city attorney Rick Knighton, who at the March meeting argued the law would only apply to staff who knowingly help sex offenders elude arrest.
While Sheriff Chris Amason has said he’s “adamantly opposed” to the shelter’s proposed relocation, the sheriff’s office has not responded to request for comment on Lynn’s proposition.
Cleveland County assistant district attorney Travis White declined to give an opinion on this idea because it’s hypothetical at this point.
But White said the District Attorney’s office would prosecute a sex offender if they resided at the shelter because they’d be violating state law.
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https://www.normantranscript.com/news/fact-check-the-norman-homeless-shelter/article_f5fd027a-b816-11ec-a3c3-ff3c4a06dbd5.html
| 2022-04-10T11:12:40
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https://www.normantranscript.com/news/fact-check-the-norman-homeless-shelter/article_f5fd027a-b816-11ec-a3c3-ff3c4a06dbd5.html
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A pedestrian was killed in a collision Friday night on Interstate 35 in Norman.
According to the collision report, a southbound 1999 Buick Lesabre struck Christopher Paxton, 42, of Blanchard when he stepped into the roadway.
EMS personnel pronounced Paxton dead at the scene, the report states.
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https://www.normantranscript.com/news/pedestrian-killed-in-friday-night-collision/article_f4591d40-b83f-11ec-8256-138d5e7b7a8f.html
| 2022-04-10T11:12:47
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https://www.normantranscript.com/news/pedestrian-killed-in-friday-night-collision/article_f4591d40-b83f-11ec-8256-138d5e7b7a8f.html
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Celebrating Palm Sunday Mass before crowds in St. Peter’s Square for the first time since the pandemic, Pope Francis said that the “folly of war” leads people to commit “senseless acts of cruelty.”
Francis did not explicitly cite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the reference was clear and he has repeatedly denounced the war and the suffering brought to innocent people.
During his Palm Sunday homily, the pontiff said: “When we resort to violence ... we lose sight of why we are in the world and even end up committing senseless acts of cruelty. We see this in the folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet another time.”
Francis lamented “the unjust death" of husbands and sons, refugees fleeing bombs, young people deprived of a future and “soldiers sent to kill their brothers and sisters.”
After two years of celebrating Palm Sunday Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica without a crowd due to pandemic distancing measures, the solemn celebration returned to the square outside. Tens of thousands pilgrims and tourists clutched olive branches and braided palms emblematic of the ceremony that recalls Jesus’ return to Jerusalem.
Traditionally, the pope leads a Palm Sunday procession through St. Peter’s Square before celebrating Mass. Francis has been suffering from a strained ligament in his right knee that has caused him to limp, and he was driven in a black car to the altar, which he then reached leaning on an aide.
Palm Sunday opens Holy Week leading up to Easter, which this year falls on April 17, and features the Good Friday Way of the Cross Procession.
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/pope-francis-denounces-folly-of-war-in-palm-sunday-homily/3639002/
| 2022-04-10T11:13:26
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/pope-francis-denounces-folly-of-war-in-palm-sunday-homily/3639002/
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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.
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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.1011now.com/2022/04/10/graphic-russian-aggression-not-limited-ukraine-alone-zelenskyy-says/
| 2022-04-10T11:19:39
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https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/10/graphic-russian-aggression-not-limited-ukraine-alone-zelenskyy-says/
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Seven months after Peyton and Eli Manning provided a template on how alternate broadcasts could succeed, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Kay think they can improve on it.
The “KayRod Cast” with Rodriguez and Kay debuts Sunday night on ESPN2 when the Boston Red Sox take on the New York Yankees. It will be the first of eight this season that will take place while “Sunday Night Baseball” airs on ESPN.
“Well, we’re presently in the legal maneuverings to get adopted by a pair of people so we can actually be brothers, so that will give us more of a ‘Manningcast’ feel,” Kay said jokingly during a conference call earlier this week. “I thought the ‘Manningcast’ was great. I think we’re going to pay a little bit more attention to the game.”
Alternate broadcasts can go off the rails because the game becomes secondary to the interviews and personalities, but baseball might be the one sport that can blend both due to the pace of play.
While Rodriguez and Kay aren’t related like the Mannings, they are longtime friends. Kay has broadcast Yankees games since 1992 while Rodriguez spent 12 of his 22 major league seasons in pinstripes.
Rodriguez has managed to transition into broadcasting despite some controversies on and off the field. While he has been engaging while doing studio work for Fox, he struggled as an analyst during his four seasons as an analyst in the “Sunday Night Baseball” booth.
But Rodriguez thinks he did some of his best analyst work during a short stay in the “YES Network” booth with Kay and David Cone during a 2019 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“I think it was the best four innings I’ve ever done on TV because I was in the middle of two very close friends, and it was going back and forth,” Rodriguez said. “Michael knows exactly how to set me up because he knows me so well, so I think this format will do well for me.”
Rodriguez also thinks his suspension for taking performance-enhancing drugs — and the criticism he got from many, including Kay — helped prepare him for his new opportunity.
“That’s what’s going to make this show really, I think, good, is because you’re going to get forthrightness from both him and I,” he said. “Honestly, pre-suspension, I think the show wouldn’t have been as good because I wasn’t as comfortable. I think I’m just more comfortable in my skin today, and we’re going to let it rip.”
Mark Gross, ESPN’s senior vice president for production and remote events, said guests during the broadcast are likely to lean more toward players who played well on Sunday afternoon or during the past week. It also will include batting and fielding demos by Rodriguez.
Sunday’s show will have Kay and Rodriguez together at ESPN’s Seaport District Studios in New York. Some subsequent broadcasts could take place remotely, depending on their schedules. Rodriguez is spending most of his time in Minnesota as part of the ownership group of the NBA’s Timberwolves.
When it comes to ratings, comparing “KayRod Cast” to “Manningcast” would be unfair. The “Manningcast” averaged 1.58 million viewers per game last season. By comparison, “Sunday Night Baseball” was up 18% in 2021 according to Nielsen, and averaged 1.46 million.
A better gauge might be audience percentage. Last season, 12% of the total “Monday Night Football” audience watched the Mannings compared to the main broadcast.
Ratings aside, Kay said his main goal is to get Rodriguez to project his natural personality.
“I want to get Alex Rodriguez to be the Alex Rodriguez that I used to speak to in front of a locker where there wasn’t the confinement of this has to be done for television, you have to look here, you have to break here, because I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who knows more baseball than Alex,” he said.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/espns-kayrod-cast-looks-to-blend-conversation-with-game/
| 2022-04-10T11:42:33
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https://www.cenlanow.com/entertainment-news/espns-kayrod-cast-looks-to-blend-conversation-with-game/
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DETROIT (AP) — Jack White surprised fans by marrying musician Olivia Jean on stage during his Detroit homecoming show Friday.
The Detroit-born singer, songwriter and producer invited Jean onstage to join his performance and introduced her as his girlfriend.
White asked her to marry him during a rendition of song ‘Hotel Yorba’ and right before the lyric “let’s get married.”
Jean, a fellow Detroit native, teared up and said yes, the Detroit Free Press reported. White then carried her offstage.
The two later re-emerged for an encore and married in an onstage ceremony officiated by Ben Swank, a co-founder of White’s record label.
Jean is part of the label’s garage goth rock band Black Belles, which is on hiatus, and is also signed by his label as a solo artist.
White, who founded the White Stripes, was previously married twice. His Friday show was his first hometown solo show since 2018, and kicked off his Supply Chain Issues Tour and release of his new album “Fear of the Dawn.”
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| 2022-04-10T11:42:40
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jennifer Lopez has an engagement ring on her finger, and Ben Affleck may be the one who put it there.
“So, I have a really exciting and special story to share,” a giggling Lopez said in a video posted Friday on her Twitter feed. She said more could be found on the website for her “inner circle,” OnTheJLo.com, which requires visitors to sign up.
A video posted there showed an emotional Lopez gazing at the left-hand ring, which held a large green gem that matched her tank top.
Lopez’s representatives declined to confirm an engagement, directing inquiries to the actor-singer’s online post. A representative for Affleck didn’t respond to a request for comment Saturday.
Lopez and Affleck rekindled their romance 17 years after they broke off their engagement in 2004. The pair, who met making the 2003 movie “Gigli,” had moved on to other marriages and divorce before going public with their reunion last year.
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| 2022-04-10T11:42:47
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Anxious about the wellbeing of their Ukrainian refugees, city mayors across Poland are refusing the government’s instructions to sound air raid alarm sirens Sunday as part of memorial observances for Poland’s 2010 presidential plane crash.
The right-wing central government wants the sirens to go off at 0641 GMT Sunday, the exact time the plane crashed in Russia 12 years ago, killing President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other prominent Poles.
Kaczynski was the twin of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is the ruling Law and Justice party’s leader and Poland’s key politician.
But city mayors, who represent local governments, are refusing to do that, saying it will be an unnecessary trauma for people — especially children — who recently fled their homes at the sound of air raid sirens and headed to shelters to avoid Russian bombings since it attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24.
More than 2.5 million refugees from Ukraine have sought security in neighboring Poland and are staying at special reception centers or with private people. Many need psychological assistance to deal with their trauma.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki insisted Saturday that the 2010 plane crash was a national tragedy and its victims merit every form of commemoration. He said text messages were being sent to refugees to explain that the sirens mean no danger.
Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Polish government is reviving its controversial allegation that the crash on April 10, 2010, which killed the president, the first lady and other leading political figures, was a Kremlin assassination plan. Sunday’s observances are being given special attention.
But local governments, often run by opposition politicians, say the use of air raid sirens for the anniversary is “extremely irresponsible.”
The sirens also bring frightful associations to many Poles who either experienced World War II as small children or watched documentaries of the country’s destruction during the war.
“We will not sound the sirens on the anniversary,” said Rafal Bruski, mayor of the central city of Bydgoszcz. “I have seen too many children terrified by war.”
Bruski said he has grown accustomed to many “unwise” decisions by the current right-wing government “but there are limits to stupidity.”
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Follow all AP stories about developments in the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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| 2022-04-10T11:42:54
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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The medical technician who drew blood from New Hampshire Rep. Peter Schmidt after he broke his leg in February was registered with the state, thanks to a 2014 law enacted after a traveling medical technician infected dozens of people with hepatitis C.
But by the time Schmidt was back on his feet, colleagues had hijacked his bill aimed at improving the registry. House lawmakers passed a bill last month eliminating the registration requirement altogether, and Schmidt is now urging senators to reject it.
“Please do not pass this, this is a terrible idea,” Schmidt said. “I think we need to continue to register these medical technicians, otherwise we are opening ourselves up to a potential repeat of the Exeter experience.”
New Hampshire created the Board of Registration for Medical Technicians in response to David Kwiatkowski, who is serving 39 years in prison for stealing painkillers and replacing them with saline-filled syringes tainted with his blood.
At the time, officials hoped the board would become a model for other states, but that hasn’t happened. And those who want to ditch it say it creates unnecessary bureaucracy at a time when health care facilities are struggling to hire workers.
“The actions of one bad actor, however heinous, are not reason to require thousands of technicians to register and pay fees,” said Rep. Carol McGuire, R-Epsom, when the House passed the bill last month.
But Linda Ficken, a Kansas woman who contracted hepatitis C from Kwiatkowski in 2011, said she believes any medical worker with access to drugs should be registered and should undergo frequent drug testing.
“Every time I go into the hospital, I can’t help but wonder, is this a repeat?” she said. “Cured or not, the thoughts and anxiety are still there.”
Despite being fired numerous times over drug allegations, Kwiatkowski had worked in 18 hospitals in seven states before being hired in at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire. After his arrest in 2012, 46 people in four states were diagnosed with the same strain of the hepatitis C virus he carries, including one who died in Kansas.
In all, 32 patients were infected in New Hampshire, seven in Maryland, six in Kansas and one in Pennsylvania. Kwiatkowski also worked in Michigan, New York, Arizona and Georgia.
The case highlighted the fact that medical technicians aren’t as closely regulated as nurses or doctors, whose misconduct and discipline are tracked via a nationwide database. While some states require certain technicians to be licensed, four of the states where he worked didn’t license any of them at the time of his arrest, including New Hampshire.
The registry New Hampshire eventually created applies to all health care workers who are not otherwise already licensed or registered and have access to both patients and drugs. Hospitals are required to report disciplinary actions to the board, which also investigates complaints and takes disciplinary action.
The board has struggled to maintain a quorum, however, and hasn’t met in more than a year, said Lindsey Courtney, director of the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification.
“We’re greatly concerned the state is not meeting its obligation to protect the public,” she said at a public hearing.
Courtney, who isn’t taking a position on eliminating the board, supported Schmidt’s original proposal to convert it to an advisory panel that would make recommendations to her office. There are currently 1,691 registered technicians, and although complaints are rare, the board has taken action in a handful of cases each year.
Schmidt said his goal was to shift some of the administrative burden from the board to the larger agency. He hopes the Senate will either kill the amended bill or return to his original idea.
While hospitals are on the front lines of preventing and responding to drug diversion, partnering with public health, licensing and law enforcement agencies is essential, said Dr. Matthew Crist, a medical officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He said the CDC isn’t aware of outbreaks in recent years related to drug diversion and is cautiously optimistic given that health care facilities have improved security around controlled drugs, and many state licensing agencies have taken steps to improve communication across state lines.
In the decade before Kwiatkowski’s arrests, similar hepatitis C outbreaks had been traced to other hospital technicians in Texas, Colorado and Florida, and CDC officials said at the time that the Kwiatkowski case highlighted a problem that was a growing concern across the public health system.
Even though other states didn’t follow New Hampshire’s lead, the registry likely has deterred people like Kwiatkowski from coming to the state in the first place, said state Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, who led the bipartisan effort to create the board.
Sherman, a gastroenterologist who is running for governor, played a key role in discovering Kwiatkowski’s misconduct when he and his colleagues noticed a cluster of hepatitis C cases among their patients and realized they all had been treated in Exeter Hospital’s cardiac catherization lab. He’s now urging his fellow senators to consider “the price of doing an experiment to see what happens if we get rid of the board.”
“People died because of that outbreak,” he said. “This was a very carefully thought-out solution that has worked. To take it away now means we just don’t learn from history.”
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s veto of a measure to expand access to abortion in the state was overridden on Saturday by the General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.
The state will end a restriction that only physicians can provide abortions. The new law will enable nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and physician assistants to provide them with training. It creates an abortion care training program and requires $3.5 million in state funding annually. It also requires most insurance plans to cover abortions without cost.
Del. Emily Shetty said she was supporting the measure on the House floor as a mother who had experienced a high-risk pregnancy. She also described being a sexual assault survivor in college and the difficulties she experienced “with the weight of what had happened after that incident.”
“And thankfully, the incident did not result in pregnancy but had it, it would have drastically changed my life if I had not been able to access the care that I needed at that time,” Shetty, a Democrat, said.
Hogan, a Republican, wrote in his veto letter that the legislation “endangers the health and lives of women by allowing non-physicians to perform abortions.”
The measure comes at a time when the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether tooverturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling that banned states from outlawing abortion.
If they do, at least 26 states are likely to either ban abortion outright or severely limit access, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights.
“In this context, it’s very important that we keep in mind that the strategies that this bill is using is ensuring that people can access the care that they need, when they need it, no matter what happens with the rest of the country — no matter what happens with the Supreme Court,” said Del. Ariana Kelly, a Democrat who was the lead sponsor of the bill, said.
Republican lawmakers criticized the provision allocating $3.5 million of taxpayer money annually to pay for the training. Del. Haven Shoemaker, the House minority whip, described the bill as “the most radical expansion of abortion in Maryland’s history in a state that already has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country.”
“Madam speaker, this bill is too extreme, even for Maryland,” Shoemaker, a Republican, said, referring to House Speaker Adrienne Jones, a Democrat.
Kelly said the measure is modernizing the choice the state’s voters made in 1992, when they approved the right to abortion in a statewide vote with 62% of voters supporting it.
“It is making sure that people have access to care, particularly people of color, particularly low-income people, particularly rural people,” Kelly said. “We know that physician-only restrictions exacerbate health inequalities, and we are trying to reduce health inequalities in the state of Maryland with this bill.”
The measure takes effect July 1. The insurance provisions apply to all policies, contracts, and health benefit plans issued, delivered, or renewed in the state on or after Jan. 1.
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Danielle Russell was in the emergency department at an Arizona hospital last fall, sick with COVID-19, when she made the mistake of answering completely when she was asked what medications she was on.
“I said yes, I was taking methadone,” said Russell, a doctoral student who also was in recovery from heroin use. “The smart thing to do, if I wanted to be treated like a human, would be to say no.”
Even though her primary doctor had sent her to the ER, she said she was discharged swiftly without being treated and given a stack of papers about the hospital’s policies for prescribing pain medications — drugs she was not asking for.
“It becomes so absurd and the stigma against methadone especially is so strong,” she said, noting that other people in recovery have had it worse. “You’re getting blocked out from housing resources, employment.”
It’s a problem people in the addiction recovery community have dealt with for decades: On top of the stigma surrounding addiction, people who are in medical treatment for substance abuse can face additional discrimination — including in medical and legal settings that are supposed to help.
This week, the U.S. Department of Justice publishednew guidelinesaimed at dealing with the problem: They assert that it’s illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act to discriminate against people because they are using prescribed methadone or other medications to treat opioid use disorder.
The guidelines don’t change federal government policy, but they do offer clarification and signal that authorities are watching for discrimination in a wide range of settings. The Justice Department’s actions this year also show it’s taken an interest in the issue, reaching multiple legal settlements, filing a lawsuit and sending a warning letter alleging other violations.
One of the government’s recent settlementswas with a Colorado program that helps house and employ people who are homeless. A potential client filed a complaint claiming she was denied admission because she uses buprenorphine to treat her addiction. As part of the settlement, Ready to Work is paying the woman $7,500. Stan Garnett, a lawyer for the organization, said Thursday that the organization’s staff is being trained to comply with the law.
“It’s terrifying to be told by some authority — whether it’s a judge, or a child welfare official, or a skilled nursing facility — someone who has something you need is telling you you have to get off the medication that is saving your life,” said Sally Friedman, senior vice president of legal advocacy at the Legal Action Center, which uses legal challenges to try to end punitive measures for people with health conditions, including addiction.
Friedman said advocates and lawyers will cite the new guidelines when they’re making discrimination claims.
Dan Haight, president of The LCADA Way, which runs addiction treatment programs in the Cleveland area, said a suburb where they wanted to put a clinic at one point nixed the idea because of a moratorium in place on new drug counseling centers.
“We’re not looked at as another medical facility or counseling office,” Haight said. “We’re looked at because we do addiction.”
The new guidelines suggest that such broad denials could be violations of the ADA.
Overdoses from all opioids, including prescription drugs containing oxycodone, heroin and illicit laboratory-made varieties including fentanyl, have killed more than 500,000 Americans in the last two decades, and the problem has been growing only worse. That has frustrated advocates, treatment providers and public health experts who see the deaths as preventable with treatment.
Even as the crisis has deepened, there have been glimmers of hope. Drugmakers, distribution companies and pharmacy chains have announced settlements since last year to pay government entities about $35 billion over time plus provide drugs to treat addictions and reverse overdoses. Most of the money is required to be used to fight the epidemic.
It’s still to be determined how the money will be deployed, but one priority for many public health experts is expanding access to medication-based treatments, which are seen as essential to helping people recover.
But there’s still a stigma associated with the treatment programs, which use the medication naltrexone or drugs that themselves are opioids, such as methadone and buprenorphine.
Marcus Buchanan used methadone from 2016 through 2018 to help end a decadelong heroin habit. During that time, he was looking for work near his home in Chouteau, Oklahoma — mostly at factories — and could never land one.
“I can nail an interview. It would be the drug-screen process” when he’d explain why the results showed he was using methadone, said Buchanan, who is now an outreach coordinator for an opioid prevention program. “Every job, more than 20 probably, during those two years, was a door shut in the face.”
Dr. Susan Bissett, president of the nonprofit West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute, said people who are in treatment programs often hide it out of fear that they could lose their jobs.
She said she wants to reach out to business leaders and encourage them to hire and retain people who are using the medications.
“The next step is helping employers understand this is a disease instead of a moral failing,” Bissett said. “We don’t think about substance abuse disorder the way we think about diabetes, for example.”
One of the places where medication-assisted treatment is sometimes restricted or banned is in state drug diversion court programs, which are intended to get people help for addiction rather than incarcerate them.
Fewer than half the states have specific language that prohibits judges from excluding people who are taking the medications from participating in diversion programs or requires that they allow its use as part of the programs. That finding is based on an Associated Press review of legislation, administrative court orders and drug court handbooks that guide state drug diversion court programs.
Some states allow individual courts to make their own rules, while others only include language saying people can’t be excluded. Judges in some states still require defendants to taper off the medications and allow the diversion programs to decide whether the medications are appropriate for each person enrolled.
The Center for Court Innovation is trying to steer the drug courts into creating policies and programs that support people taking those medications instead of incentivizing them to stop.
“It can be frustrating, because nobody needs to tell a judge they need to allow someone to take blood pressure medication,” said Sheila McCarthy, a senior program manager for the Center for Court Innovation. “But for some, there is just a disconnect about the real effect these medications have on a person’s daily life.”
Veronica Pacheco has been off methadone for nearly a year after being on it for more than six years to treat an addiction to pain pills.
She said some people in the medical field — a physician, a dentist, a pharmacist — seemed to treat her differently after they learned she was on methadone treatment. They sometimes assume she was going to ask for new prescriptions for pain medications.
“I felt like I had a sign on my forehead saying, ‘I am a methadone person.’ The minute someone has your medical record, everything changes,” said Pacheco, who lives in the Minneapolis suburb of Dayton. “Now that I’ve been off it, I can see the night-and-day difference.”
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Mulvihill reported from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s prime minister has called for a May 21 election that will be fought on issues including Chinese economic coercion, climate change and theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday advised Governor-General David Hurley as representative of Australia’s head of state, Queen Elizabeth II, to set the election date.
Morrison’s conservative coalition is seeking a fourth three-year term. The date is the latest available to him.
He urged voters to stick with a government that delivered one of the lowest pandemic death tolls of any advanced economy rather than risk the opposition Labor Party.
“This election is a choice between a government that you know and that has been delivering and a Labor opposition that you don’t,” Morrison said.
Morrison led his government to a narrow victory at the last election in 2019 despite opinion polls consistently placing the center-left opposition Australian Labor Party ahead.
The Liberal Party-led coalition is again behind in most opinion polls, but many analysts predict a tight result.
The last election occurred in thehottest and driest year Australia had ever experienced. The year ended with devastating wildfires across Australia’s southeast that directly killed 33 people and more than 400 others through smoke.
The fires also destroyed more than 3,000 homes and razed 19 million hectares (47 million acres) of farmland and forests during the Southern Hemisphere summer.
Morrison was widely criticized for taking a secret family vacation to Hawaii at the height of the crisis while his hometown Sydney was blanketed in toxic smoke.
He cut his vacation short due to the public backlash, but was further criticized over his explanation for his absence: “I don’t hold a hose.”
His government was criticized for its responses to the fires and also record flooding this year in some of the same areas in Australia’s southeast that were razed two years earlier.
Both the government and opposition have set a target of net zero carbon gas emissions by 2050.
Morrison was widely criticized at the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in November for failing to set more ambitious targets for the end of the decade.
The government aims to reduce emissions by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels, while other countries have made steeper commitments.
The Australian Labor Party has promised to reduce emissions by 43% by 2030.
Australia was initially successful in containing the death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic largely through restrictions on international travel.
But the more contagious delta and omicron variants have proved more difficult to contain.
The opposition criticized the government over the pace of Australia’s vaccine rollout, which was derided as a “stroll out,” as it fell months behind schedule. Australia’s population is now one of the most vaccinated in the world.
The government has defended its pandemic record and takes credit for Australia having the third-lowest death toll among the 38 Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation countries.
With China imposing official and unofficial trade sanctions against Australia in recent years, the government argues that Beijing wants Labor to win the election because the party was less likely to stand up to economic coercion.
Labor takes credit for thwarting the government’s plan in 2014 to sign an extradition treaty with China. Bilateral relations have since deteriorated, and the government now warns that Australians risk arbitrary detention if they visit China.
Several experts say both sides of politics are largely united on national security issues and that the government in confecting differences on China.
“The government is seeking to create the perception of a difference between it and the opposition on a critical national security issue, that is China, seeking to create the perception of a difference when none in practice exists,” said Dennis Richardson, a former head of Defense, Foreign Affairs and the spy agency Australian Security Intelligence Organization and the former Australian ambassador to the United States.
“That is not in the national interest. That only serves the interests of one country and that is China,” Richardson added.
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| 2022-04-10T11:43:21
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LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Saturday joined the stream of European leaders showing their support for Ukraine by traveling to the nation’s capital for face-to-face meetings with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Johnson’s surprise visit included a pledge of new military assistance, including 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems. This came a day after he promised to send an additional 100 million pounds ($130 million) of high-grade military equipment to Ukraine, saying Britain wanted to helpUkraine defend itself against Russian aggression.
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.
“Today I met my friend President @ZelenskyyUa in Kyiv as a show of our unwavering support for the people of Ukraine,” Johnson said on Twitter. “We’re setting out a new package of financial & military aid which is a testament of our commitment to his country’s struggle against Russia’s barbaric campaign.”
The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said “the conversation was rich and constructive,” but offered no details.
An image of the two leaders meeting was posted online by the Ukrainian Embassy in London with the headline: “Surprise,” and a winking smiley face.
The package of military aid Britain announced Friday includes more Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, another 800 anti-tank missiles and precision munitions capable of lingering in the sky until directed to their target.
“Ukraine has defied the odds and pushed back Russian forces from the gates of Kyiv, achieving the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century,″ Johnson said in a statement. “It is because of President Zelenskyy’s resolute leadership and the invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people that Putin’s monstrous aims are being thwarted.”
As Zelenskyy makes a continuous round of virtual appearances to drum up support from lawmakers around the world, an increasing number of European leaders have decided the time is right to travel to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, for in-person talks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was in Kyiv on Friday, following earlier visits from the Czech, Polish and Slovenian prime ministers.
Nehammer met with Zelenskyy earlier Saturday and pledged that the EU would continue to ratchet up sanctions against Russia “until the war stops.”
“As long as people are dying, every sanction is still insufficient,” he said, adding that Austrian embassy staff will return to Kyiv from western Ukraine.
Von der Leyen, who heads the European Union’s executive branch, travelled to Warsaw on Saturday to lead a fundraising event for Ukraine. She was joined by Polish President Andrzej Duda, with Zelenskyy and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appearing by video link.
At the end of the 90-minute meeting, von der Leyen said 10.1 billion euros ($11 billion) had been raised for Ukrainian refugees.
The event was held in Warsaw because more than 2.5 million of the 4.4 million people who have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24 have entered Poland. Many have stayed, though some have moved on to other countries.
Convened jointly by von der Leyen and Trudeau, the event sought to attract pledges from governments, global celebrities and average citizens.
It ended with Julian Lennon singing his father John Lennon’s peace song “Imagine,” which he said is the first time he did so publicly.
Julian Lennon posted on social media that he always said he would only sing the song if it was the “end of the world.” He says it’s the right song to sing now because “the war on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy,” and he felt compelled to respond in the most significant way that he could.
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Associated Press Writers Colleen Barry in Milan, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw contributed.
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Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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| 2022-04-10T11:43:28
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SANTIAGO, Chile — Dozens of protesters gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Chile’s capital of Santiago on Saturday to denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Protesters unfurled a large banner featuring the colors of the Ukrainian flag. The group included Ukrainians living in Chile.
Some protesters lay down on the ground and clutched stuffed animals to honor child victims of the war. A large banner read, “Stand with Ukraine.”
“We want to be united at this time with our children, with our families,” said Alina Prus, a Ukrainian living in Chile. “Several of us have our families who are now living the horror of what war means.”
Another protester, Dária Gryshko, said many Ukrainians living in Chile have family or friends living both there and in Russia.
“It is painful to see how families break up, how relationships break up, when opinions are divided within a family,” she said. “Because the people who live in Russia are exposed to a lot of propaganda, even when you show them video of what is happening now, they don’t believe, because they don’t come out from their TV.”
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Zelenskyy, in AP interview, says he seeks peace despite atrocities
— War Crimes Watch: A devastating walk through Bucha’s horror
— S&P downgrade indicates Russia headed for historic default
— Civilian evacuations continue in battle-scarred eastern Ukraine
— Intel: Putin may cite Ukraine war to meddle in US politics
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
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.”
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MARIUPOL, Ukraine — Shelling by Russian forces of Ukraine’s key port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov has collapsed several humanitarian corridors and made conditions seldom right for people to leave.
It was not clear Saturday how many people remained trapped in the city, which had a prewar population of 430,000. Ukrainian officials have put the number at about 100,000, but earlier this week, British defense officials said 160,000 people remained trapped in the city.
Ukrainian troops have refused to surrender the city, though much of it has been razed.
Resident Sergey Petrov said Saturday that recently two shells struck around him in quick succession, but neither exploded upon landing. He was in his garage at the time and said his mother later told him, “I was born again.”
“A shell flew in and broke up into two parts but it did not explode, looks like it did not land on the detonator but on its side,” he said.
He added that when another shell flew in and hit the garage, “I am in shock. I don’t understand what is happening. I have a hole in my garage billowing smoke. I run away and leave everything. I come back in several hours and find another shell lying there, also unexploded.”
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ATHENS, Greece — A Ukrainian soccer club on Saturday opened a series of charity games on a government-backed “Global Tour for Peace” wearing the names of heavily bombarded cities on its jerseys.
The tour by the Shakhtar Donetsk club aims to raise money for Ukraine’s military in the war against Russia, and also help Ukrainian refugees displaced by the war.
Its first game Saturday was a 1-0 loss to Greek league leader Olympiakos.
Soccer clubs around Europe have been offering to play games against Ukrainian clubs and host youth players after soccer in the country was shut down when Russia invaded in February.
Shakhtar already was displaced from its home of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Playing in the Athens area on Saturday, Shakhtar players replaced their names on the back of their jerseys with those of cities bombarded by Russian forces, including Mariupol.
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BUCHA, Ukraine — Civilians remaining in Bucha lined up Saturday for food donated by the local church in the battered Kyiv suburb where Ukrainian forces and journalists reported evidence of war crimes after Russian soldiers withdrew.
With other civilians fleeing in the wake of Russia’s invasion, most of the people remaining in Bucha were elderly, poor or unable to leave loved ones. Russian troops withdrew more than a week ago.
Volunteer Petro Denysyuk told The Associated Press that he and fellow church friends started providing food, with a wide array of basic foodstuffs and hot meals.
“We have gathered together with the youth from our church and prepared food for the needy,” Denysyuk said. “We prepared pilaf, boiled eggs, prepared meat, sausages, noodles.”
Ukrainian forces and journalists that went into Bucha saw bodies strewn in the streets, evidence of summary executions and the remains of people who could not have threatened soldiers. Russia has denied accusations of war crimes and accused Kyiv of staging them.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the leaders of Britain and Austria for their visits to Kyiv on Saturday and pledges of further support.
In his daily late-night video address to the nation, Zelenskyy also thanked European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for a global fundraising event that raised more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion) for Ukrainians who have had to flee their homes.
Zelenskyy said democratic countries were united in working to stop the war. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer became the latest of several European rulers to meet Zelenskky in Kyiv.
“Because Russian aggression was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone, to the destruction only of our freedom and our life,” he said. “The entire European project is a target for Russia.”
Zelenskyy repeated his call for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, calling them the sources of Russia’s “self-confidence and impunity.”
“But Ukraine does not have time to wait. Freedom does not have time to wait. When tyranny begins its aggression against everything that keeps the peace in Europe, action must be taken immediately,” he said.
He added: “And an oil embargo must be the first step. Moreover, by all democratic states, the entire civilized world. Then Russia will feel it. Then it will be an argument for them to seek peace, to stop the senseless violence.”
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LVIV, Ukraine — Eyewitness descriptions are coming from Kramatorsk, the town in eastern Ukraine where a missile hit a train station packed with evacuees on Friday.
The Sydorenko family could have been among the 52 dead and more than 100 wounded, but their taxi didn’t show and they had to wait for another one. They finally arrived for the 11 a.m. evacuation train just three minutes after the explosion.
Ivan Sydorenko says there were around 2,000 people inside the station and on the platforms when the missile hit. He says they got out of their taxi in a scene of burning cars, burning pieces of the missile and people fleeing for their lives.
Ivan managed to escape by bus and then train with his wife and daughter, eventually reaching the relative safety of Lviv in western Ukraine. The Sydorenkos are just one of thousands of families clamoring to leave eastern Ukraine ahead of an expected Russian onslaught there.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 10 evacuation corridors were planned for Saturday, and other stations were open for trains full of refugees.
Russia meanwhile has denied responsibility, accusing Ukraine’s military of firing on the station to try to turn blame for civilian slayings on Moscow.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Panicked residents of eastern Ukraine boarded buses or looked for other ways to leave Saturday, a day after a missile strike killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station.
The attack in in Kramatorsk left the city with no trains running and came with thousands of people seeking to leave. Ukrainian authorities have called on civilians to get out ahead of an imminent, stepped-up offensive by Russian forces in the east.
Residents on Saturday feared the kind of unrelenting assaults and occupations by Russian invaders that brought food shortages, demolished buildings and death to other cities elsewhere in Ukraine.
“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.”
Western military analysts said an arc of territory in eastern Ukraine was under Russian control. It was from Kharkiv — Ukraine’s second-largest city — in the north to Kherson in the south.
But Ukrainian counterattacks are threatening Russian control of Kherson, according to the Western assessments, and Ukrainian forces are repelling Russian assaults elsewhere in the Donbas region in the southeast.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials predict Russian President Vladimir Putin may use U.S. support for Ukraine as justification for a new campaign to interfere in American politics.
Intelligence officials tell The Associated Press that they have yet to find any evidence that Putin has authorized measures like the ones Russia undertook in the last two elections to support former President Donald Trump. Several people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive findings said it remains unclear which candidates Russia might try to promote next.
Trump has repeatedly assailed U.S. intelligence officials and claimed that investigations of Russian influence on his campaigns to be political vendettas. In Ukraine and elsewhere, Russia has been accused of trying to spread disinformation, amplifying pro-Kremlin voices in the West and using cyberattacks to disrupt governments.
Top U.S. intelligence officials are still working on plans for a new Foreign Malign Influence Center, authorized by Congress, that will focus on foreign influence campaigns by Russia, China and other adversaries.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The Associated Press on Saturday that he is committed to seeking peace despite Russian attacks on civilians that have stunned the world.
He said no one wants to negotiate with people who tortured their nation — “as a man, as a father, I understand this very well.” But he said “we don’t want to lose opportunities, if we have them, for a diplomatic solution.”
Zelenskyy said he’s confident Ukrainians would accept peace despite the horrors they have witnessed in the war. But meanwhile, Russian troops are regrouping for an expected surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, including the besieged port city of Mariupol that Ukrainian defenders are battling to retain.
So Zelenskyy renewed his plea for countries to send more weapons. He says they have to fight for life — not “for dust when there is nothing and no people. That’s why it is important to stop this war.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, promising so much support that his nation might never be bullied again.
Johnson’s surprise visit included a pledge of 120 armored vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems, part of another 100 million pounds ($130 million) of high-grade military equipment. Johnson also confirmed an additional $500 million in World Bank lending, taking Britain’s total loan guarantee up to $1 billion.
Johnson said Ukraine defied the odds pushing Russian forces “from the gates of Kyiv, achieving the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century.″
The prime minister credits “Zelenskyy’s resolute leadership and the invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people” for thwarting what he calls the “monstrous aims” of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Johnson says Britain and its partners “are going to ratchet up the economic pressure … not just freezing assets in banks and sanctioning oligarchs but moving away from use of Russian hydrocarbons.”
Johnson also described a vision for a future Ukraine so fortified and protected by the equipment, technology and know-how of Britain and its partners that it can never be threatened in the same way again. In the meantime, Johnson said, “there is a huge amount to do to make sure that Ukraine is successful, that Ukraine wins and that Putin must fail.”
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MILAN — An Italian government source said Italian Premier Mario Draghi is traveling to Algeria on Monday to sign a deal for more gas.
Italy has been urgently looking for alternatives to natural gas from Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. Russia is Italy’s biggest supplier, representing 40% of total imports.
Italy’s foreign minister has traveled to Algeria as well as Azerbaijan, Qatar, Congo, Angola and Mozambique to secure more deals. Algeria is Italy’s second-largest supplier of natural gas, which is the main source of the nation’s electricity, providing some 21 billion cubic meters of gas via the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline.
Italian energy company ENI has operated in Algeria for 40 years. ENI announced a significant oil and gas discovery in Algeria last month and said it would work with Algerian partner Sonatrach to fast-track its development for the third quarter of this year.
— Italy business reporter Colleen Barry.
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Julian Lennon has explained why he decided to sing his father’s song “Imagine” for the first time publicly.
He’s posted on social media that he always said he would only sing the song if it was the End of the World. He says it’s the right song to sing now because “the War on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy,” and he felt compelled to respond in the most significant way he could.
The son of John Lennon says murderous violence in Ukraine is forcing millions of innocent families to leave the comfort of their homes. He says the lyrics reflect our collective desire for peace worldwide, and “within this song, we’re transported to a space, where love and togetherness become our reality, if but for a moment in time.”
Lennon joined celebrities around the world calling on world leaders to do more to support refugees in the Stand Up For Ukraine campaign.
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BOSTON — The International Monetary Fund has created an account to give donor countries a secure way to funnel financial assistance directly to war-ravaged Ukraine.
The multilateral lender said in a statement Friday that it’s launching the account at the request of several member countries.
The goal is to help Ukraine meet its payment obligations and help stabilize its economy using loans or grants from pooled resources.
The IMF says Canada has proposed routing up to 1 billion Canadian dollars ($795 million) to Ukraine through the new account.
Two weeks after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the IMF approved a $1.4 billion emergency loan to Ukraine.
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BOSTON — S&P Global Ratings has downgraded its assessment of Russia’s ability to repay foreign debt, signaling increased prospects that Moscow will soon default on such loans for the first time in more than a century.
The credit ratings agency issued the downgrade to “selective default” Friday night after Russia arranged to make foreign bond payments in rubles last week when they were due in dollars. It said it didn’t expect Russia to be able to convert the rubles into dollars within a 30-day grace period.
S&P said it believes sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are likely to increase, impeding its willingness and ability to honor its obligations to foreign debtholders.
The Kremlin has signaled it’s willing to pay its debts but warned it would do so in rubles if its overseas accounts in foreign currencies remain frozen.
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WARSAW, Poland – The head of the European Union’s executive branch says 10.1 billion euros ($11 billion) have been raised globally in a fundraising event for Ukraine and people who have fled the country invaded by Russia.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was joined at the event in Warsaw by Polish President Andrzej Duda and — remotely — by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At the end of the 90-minute event, a smiling von der Leyen said the donations will go to help refugees, both outside and inside Ukraine.
“We will continue providing support. And once the bombs have stopped falling, we will help the people of Ukraine rebuild their country,” von der Leyen said.
Saturday’s pledging event was held in Warsaw because more than 2.5 million of the 4.4 million people who have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24 have entered Poland. Many have stayed, though some have moved on to other countries. The event aimed to prompt political leaders and global celebrities to provide funding and other donations for the people of Ukraine.
It ended with Julian Lennon singing his father John Lennon’s peace song “Imagine.”
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MOSCOW — YouTube has banned the channel of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, prompting government officials to renew longtime threats against the platform.
The Duma TV channel reported the ban on the messaging app Telegram, noting that it had 145,000 subscribers and over 100,000 million total views. In comments to the Russian news agency Interfax, Google didn’t give an exact reason for the move, but said the company follows “all applicable sanction and trade compliance laws.”
Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that YouTube unblock the channel. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Saturday that the service “has handed itself a sentence” and urged its users to “download content, transfer it onto Russian platforms. And fast.”
State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called the move against the parliament’s YouTube channel “another proof of violations of the rights and freedoms of citizens by Washington.”
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A small archipelago off Mexico’s Pacific coast that had been home to an island prison colony is now ready to receive tourists.
Getting to Islas Marias, however, will be a challenge for even the sturdiest tourist: a five-hour boat ride in often choppy waters.
But some people, like Beatriz Maldonado, are already imagining the voyage. When Maldonado was imprisoned between those “walls of water” — as a Mexican writer also confined there described it — she thought she would never see her mother again.
Maldonado only spent one year of her six-year sentence there for drug and weapons possession, but it was the most painful. “I lost my smile, my happiness,” she said. Now at age 55, a laundry worker and an activist advocating for other imprisoned women, she wants to return to close wounds.
The Islas Marias prison colony was founded in 1905 on Mother María Island, the largest of the four islands and the only inhabited one more than 60 miles off the coast of Nayarit state. Frequently buffeted by hurricanes scraping along Mexico’s coast, the government closed the prison in 2019.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had it converted into an environmental education center, though which some 150 youths have passed. Now the government wants to make it an ecotourism destination where visitors can watch sea birds and enjoy the beaches.
Last year, authorities said they would now allow camping or build hotels, because it is a protected reserve. It was unclear if any lodging would be provided in the existing buildings, but without it, drawing tourists could be difficult. It is not as easily accessible as Alcatraz, the infamous prison accessed from San Francisco. It could end up like the Panamanian island prison colony Coiba, closed in 2004, that is being reclaimed by the jungle.
Maldonado planned to watch López Obrador’s visit to the island this weekend. “I would have liked to slip myself into his pocket,” she said.
The island now is nothing like the dirt-floored warehouse-like prison dorms with five bathrooms for 500 women that Maldonado remembers. “We lived in a chicken coop,” she said.
Now a colorful mural of former South African leader Nelson Mandela, himself held for years on an island prison, welcomes visitors to remodeled buildings, a whitewashed church and a cultural center.
“What was a hell is becoming a paradise,” López Obrador said.
There was a time when it was considered the “tomb of the Pacific.”
Writer José Revueltas, imprisoned there during the 1930s for his work in the Communist Party, said the prison was much more terrible than he could describe in his book “Walls of Water.” The worst couldn’t be described, he said, because of modesty or because you don’t know how to show that it’s really true.
Island prison colonies were common around the world to make escapes nearly impossible or to rehabilitate through forced labor. Most tried to be self-sufficient.
Prisoners on Mother María Island harvested salt and farmed shrimp. They tried to make a little money brewing their own alcohol from fermented fruits, illegally trading exotic birds or killing boa constrictors to make belts.
In later years, it was known as a “prison without walls” where some prisoners lived with their families in semi-freedom and relatively good conditions.
That changed when President Felipe Calderon launched the war against the drug cartels in 2006 and hundreds of new prisoners were sent there. In 2013, the inmate population reached 8,000.
Maldonado served her time during that era. She said the women, who were the minority, were the worst treated. Unlike the men, they weren’t allowed outside the fences even though they had skills and barely received enough food. Maldonado’s weight dropped to about 45 pounds. “They didn’t pay attention to us when someone got sick,” she said. “My friend’s gallbladder ruptured.”
The extreme isolation was the most punishing part, broken only on the 15th of every month when they were allowed a 10-minute phone call with a relative. Some who tried to escape drowned. Occasionally the Navy rescued others who set out on improvised crafts.
“The boats came on Thursdays to bring us supplies and letters, and I saw the tears of my mother on the stained pages,” Maldonado said. “The worst was thinking that I would never see her again.”
Infrequently some relatives made visits that then involved 12 hours at sea.
Maldonado’s one colorful memory was of a tube of red lipstick, the only personal item she took. When it ran out she solemnly buried it because she felt like it gave her life.
A year after Maldonado was transferred to a prison in Mexico City, six people died on the island in a riot sparked by a lack of food.
It was closed in 2019 because of the high operating costs, some $150 a day per prisoner, which was much higher than on the mainland. Prison reform had also significantly reduced its inmate population.
Devil’s Island in French Guiana, immortalized in the film “Papillon,” closed in 1946. Alcatraz closed in 1963. Later, others in Chile, Costa Rica and Brazil were shuttered. The most abrupt was Peru’s El Fronton in 1986 when the government used gun boats to put down a riot, killing more than 100 inmates.
Maldonado applauded the Islas Marias closure and supports the idea of inviting visitors. She said the proceeds should go to re-insertion programs for inmates.
She has already written to former cellmates to see if they’d like to go with her to the place she thought she’d never see again.
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| 2022-04-10T11:43:42
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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — When lunchtime comes, Maybel Sequera and Juan González share a plate of noodles and beans at their home in a low-income neighborhood west of Venezuela’s capital. Their meager lunch was a gift from a nonprofit organization as the couple cannot afford to feed themselves.
Sequera, 72, and González, 74, worked for years as a seamstress and driver to build their two houses and raise their four children. But now, after 50 years of marriage, they rely on donations for food, medicines and clothing.
The government raised their combined monthly pensions from about $4 to roughly $60 last month. But it would have to be multiplied by six for them to be able to buy a basket of goods.
“Now that they have increased us to 130 (each), we are going to see how we manage with those 130 because it is not enough either,” Sequera said referring to the pension in bolívares, Venezuela’s official currency and in which pensions are paid.
In Venezuela, the pension is the amount paid monthly to workers who retire after reaching 750 weeks of Social Security contributions and turning 55, in the case of women, and 60 for men.
Since 1995 — years before Hugo Chavez imposed in the South American country what he considered socialism — a pension is equal to the monthly minimum wage. Workers contribute between 2% and 4% of their salary to Social Security while employers pay an additional 9% to 11% on behalf of workers.
The pensions of Sequera, González and millions of other similarly situated retirees went up last month because President Nicolás Maduro increased the monthly minimum wage from roughly $2 to about $30, an amount insufficient to pay basic goods, whose cost in February was estimated at $365, according to the Venezuelan Finance Observatory, an organization specializing in economic studies.
Venezuela has just over five million pensioners, according to official figures. Annual inflation, which slowed last year but still reached 686.4%, has eaten up their pensions for years.
Although the country in the second half of the last decade experienced a severe shortage of food and hygiene items, prompting people to stand in long lines outside supermarkets to buy whatever they could, store shelves are now well stocked and display imported products. But high prices set in dollars make it impossible for much of the population to afford goods.
This dynamic leaves many older adults dependent on remittances from the more than six million Venezuelans who have migrated due to the economic, political and social crises of recent years.
Nonprofit organizations and churches fill some gaps, but it is not uncommon to see the elderly on the sidewalks of Caracas, the capital, selling candy or begging for money.
“I have to manage to get food. It’s not easy, because you’re of an age, you go out on the street and many people look at you with contempt,” Miriam Jiménez, 68, told The Associated Press after picking up a plate of food at a soup kitchen for the elderly in western Caracas. “One has to beg in the streets. Sometimes, a neighbor gives me something.”
In other South American countries, pensions range from $230 to $650, but the amounts are also usually below the cost of a basket of basic goods or the monthly minimum wage. In Chile, new President Gabriel Boric promised to raise the amount to $310, although it will remain below the $435 monthly minimum wage.
Luis Francisco Cabeza, director of Convite, a non-governmental organization focused on care for the elderly in Venezuela, said social security for the elderly population should not just be a pension. He said it should also include access to medicines, medical care and recreation.
“The pension is a system that seeks to protect you against the contingency of reaching old age,” he added. In Venezuela, the hospital system is precarious, so patients must bring all medical supplies to be treated.
Sequera has been diagnosed with two types of cancer this year, including a type of skin cancer that required an operation on her face. To pay for medical supplies, she sold two of her three sewing machines, which she used to mend neighbors’ clothes in exchange for money.
Pensioners protested dozens of times across the country last year. At the protests in the capital, some could be seen wearing broken shoes and worn clothes.
Sequera and González had a cup of coffee after finishing the plate of noodles and beans for lunch.
“Today, (at breakfast) we ate the last little egg. We are going to wait for another blessing to come out there,” González said.
“For the night, God will provide,” his wife interjected. “And if not, a glass of water and go to sleep,” González lamented.
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| 2022-04-10T11:43:49
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ISTANBUL (AP) — A powerful earthquake hit eastern Turkey on Saturday but no casualties or serious damage were immediately reported, the country’s disaster service said.
The 5.2 magnitude quake struck the town of Puturge in Malatya province at 5:02 p.m. local time (1402 GMT), Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) said. The tremor was recorded at a depth of 6.7 kilometers (4.2 miles).
“We have not received any negative reports so far. Our teams continue their scanning activities in the field,” Malatya Governor Aydin Barus told the state-run Anadolu Agency.
Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum tweeted that the Turkish government was closely following the situation.
Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent.
A 6.7 magnitude earthquake hit neighboring Elazig province in January 2020, killing 41 people and injuring more than 1,600. In 1999, at least 17,000 people died in a powerful earthquake in northwest Turkey.
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| 2022-04-10T11:43:56
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Thousands of Sri Lankans rallied in the country’s main business district and Christian clergy marched in the capital to observe a day of protest on Saturday calling on the debt-ridden nation’s president to resign, as anxiety and anger over shortages simmered.
Protesters carrying national flags and placards, some bemoaning the hardships through songs, blamed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his administration for mismanaging the crisis. He has remained steadfast in refusing to step down even after most of his Cabinet quit and loyal lawmakers rebelled, narrowing a path for him to seek a way out as his team prepares to negotiate with international lending institutions.
“Go home Rajapaksas” and “We need responsible leadership,” read the placards.
The protest also included a large number of youngsters who had organized themselves through social media and refuse to accept any political leadership. Many carried signs, saying “You messed with the wrong generation!”
The protesters stayed around the president’s office and vowed not to leave until their mission is accomplished.
For months, Sri Lankans have stood in long lines to buy fuel, cooking gas, food and medicines, most of which come from abroad and are paid for in hard currency. The fuel shortage has caused rolling power cuts lasting several hours a day.
The Indian Ocean island nation is on the brink of bankruptcy, saddled with $25 billion foreign debt over the next five years — nearly $7 billion of which is due this year alone — and dwindling foreign reserves. Talks with the International Monetary Fund are expected later this month, and the government had turned to China and India for emergency loans to buy food and fuel.
Much of the anger expressed by weeks of growing protests has been directed at Rajapaksa and his elder brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who head an influential clan that has been in power for most of the past two decades. Five other family members are lawmakers, three of whom resigned as ministers last Sunday.
Thakshila Jayasinghe, a 35-year-old lawyer who joined the protest, said that she felt sorry for voting for Rajapaksa in the 2019 presidential election. “I wonder what sin I have committed by voting for this president when I see the people suffer,” she said.
Reports said that at least four elderly people have died while standing in lines for hours trying to buy cooking gas or kerosene oil.
Jayasinghe said she voted for Rajapaksa believing he was the best candidate to restore national security following the 2019 Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed more than 260 people. The attacks, blamed on local Muslim militants with ties to the Islamic State group, also shattered the tourism industry, alongside the pandemic, depriving Sri Lanka of hard currency.
At the same time, critics accuse Rajapaksa of borrowing heavily to finance projects that earn no money, such as a port facility built with Chinese loans.
Catholic clergy and lay people joined a rally from the “martyrs cemetery” in Negombo, north of the capital Colombo, where more than 100 people who died in the suicide attacks in the area’s St. Sebastian’s Church are buried.
They protested the economic crisis as well as the government’s alleged failure to uncover the conspirators behind the bombings.
“Today the country needs a major change and a new beginning,” Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the archbishop of Colombo, told protesters. “We ask from every citizen of this country to come together and change this system. To get together and tell these people to leave.”
“It’s enough now, it’s enough destroying the country, now leave and hand it over to someone who can govern this country,” he said.
The protest later moved near the Anglican cathedral in Colombo.
The Catholic Church in Sri Lanka has been critical of the investigation into the bombings, citing allegations that some members of the state intelligence units knew and met with at least one of the attackers.
Rajapaksa earlier proposed the creation of a unity government following the Cabinet resignations, but the main opposition party rejected the idea. Parliament has failed to reach a consensus on how to deal with the crisis after nearly 40 governing coalition lawmakers said they would no longer vote according to coalition instructions, significantly weakening the government.
With opposition parties divided, they too have not been able to show majority and take control of Parliament.
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BOSTON (AP) — The credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded its assessment of Russia’s ability to repay foreign debt, signaling rising prospects that Moscow will soon default on external loans for the first time in more than a century.
S&P Global Ratings issued the downgrade to “selective default” late Friday after Russia arranged to make foreign bond payments in rubles on Monday when they were due in dollars. It said it didn’t expect Russia to be able to convert the rubles into dollars within the 30-day grace period allowed.
S&P said in a statement that its decision was based partly on its opinion that sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine “are likely to be further increased in the coming weeks, hampering Russia’s willingness and technical abilities to honor the terms and conditions of its obligations to foreign debtholders.”
An S&P spokesperson said a selective default rating is when a lender defaults on a specific payment but makes others on time.
While Russia has signaled that it remains willing to pay its debts, the Kremlin also has warned that it would do so in rubles if its overseas accounts in foreign currencies remain frozen.
Tightened sanctions placed on Russia this week after evidence of alleged war crimes — the killing of civilians in the town of Bucha during Russian military occupation — barred it from using any foreign reserves held in U.S. banks for debt payments.
Russia’s finance ministry said Wednesday that it tried to make a $649 million payment toward two bonds to an unnamed U.S. bank — previously reported as JPMorgan Chase — but that the tightened sanctions prevented the payment from being accepted, so it paid in rubles.
Western sanctions have severely squeezed Russia’s economy, and S&P and other ratings agencies had already downgraded its debt to “junk” status, deeming a default highly likely.
Russia has used strict capital controls, other severe measures and proceeds from oil and gas sales to artificially prop up the ruble.
The country has not defaulted on foreign debt since the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, when the Soviet Union emerged. Even in the late 1990s, following the Soviet Union’s demise, Russia was able to continue to pay foreign debts with the help of international aid. It did default on domestic debt, however.
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| 2022-04-10T11:44:12
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — 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 in 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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AP photographer Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this story.
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| 2022-04-10T11:44:18
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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.
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 claimedthat 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.”
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Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. 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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| 2022-04-10T11:44:25
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One million gallons of radioactive water is inside a former nuclear power plant along Cape Cod Bay and it has got to go.
But where, is the vexing question, and will the state intervene as the company dismantling the plant decides?
Holtec International is considering treating the water and discharging it into the bay, drawing fierce resistance from local residents, shell fishermen and politicians. Holtec is also considering evaporating the contaminated water or trucking it to a facility in another state.
The fight in Massachusetts mirrors a current, heated debate in Japan over a plan to release more than 1 million tons of treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in spring 2023. A massive tsunami in 2011 crashed into the plant. Three reactors melted down.
Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts, closed in 2019 after nearly half a century providing electricity to the region. U.S. Rep. William Keating, a Democrat whose district includes the Cape, wrote to Holtec with other top Massachusetts lawmakers in January to oppose releasing water into Cape Cod Bay. He asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to examine its regulations.
Keating said in late March that Holtec’s handling of the radioactive water could set a precedent because the U.S. decommissioning industry is in its infancy. Most U.S. nuclear plants were built between 1970 and 1990.
“If they’re listening, sensitive and work with these communities, it’s important,” he said. “That’s the message for future decommissioning sites.”
Holtec has acquired closed nuclear plants across the country as part of its dismantling business, including the former Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey and Indian Point Energy Center in New York. It’s taking ownership of the Palisades Nuclear Plant on Lake Michigan, which is closing this year.
Pilgrim was a boiling water reactor. Water constantly circulated through the reactor vessel and nuclear fuel, converting it to steam to spin the turbine. The water was cooled and recirculated, picking up radioactive contamination.
Cape Cod is a tourist hotspot. Having radioactive water in the bay, even low levels, isn’t great for marketing, said Democratic state Rep. Josh Cutler, who represents a district there. Cutler is working to pass legislation to prohibit discharging radioactive material into coastal or inland waters.
Holtec said Pilgrim already discharged water into the bay for 50 years while the plant was operating and environmental studies, conducted by the plant operators and now Holtec, have shown little or no environmental impact. Radiological environmental reports are shared with the NRC annually.
“We are working to provide scientific data, educate the public on the reality of radiation in everyday life, and working to have experts explain the true science versus the emotional fear of the unknown,” spokesperson Patrick O’Brien wrote in an email in March.
WHAT ARE HOLTEC’S OPTIONS?
Holtec could treat the water and discharge it in batches over multiple years, likely the least expensive option. Or, it could evaporate the water on site, as it says it has done with about 680,000 gallons (2,600 kiloliters) over the past two years.
Evaporating the water would be more challenging to do now because the spent nuclear fuel is in storage, and couldn’t be used as a heat source. Holtec would have to use a different — likely more expensive — method that would release gas.
Or, Holtec could truck the water to an out-of-state facility, where it could be mixed with clay and buried or placed in an evaporation pond, or released into local waterways. That’s what Keating wants.
Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, another boiling water reactor, was shut down in Vernon, Vermont, in 2014. It’s sending wastewater to disposal specialists in Texas and other states. Entergy operated and sold both Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim. NorthStar, a separate and competing corporation in the decommissioning business, is dismantling Vermont Yankee.
Nuclear plants occasionally need to dispose of water with low levels of radioactivity when they’re operating, so a process to release it in batches into local waterways was developed early in the nuclear industry.
In recent years at Pilgrim, the two largest releases were in 2011, with 29 releases totaling about 325,000 gallons (1,500 kiloliters), and 2013, with 21 releases totaling about 310,000 gallons.
The water from those releases was well below the federal limits for the amount of radionuclides in millirems a person would be exposed to in a year if they ate local seafood or swam in nearby waters, according to the NRC.
NRC spokesperson for the Northeast Neil Sheehan said the limits are set very conservatively and are believed to be protective of the public and environment. He said it’s important to consider the role of dilution — once the discharges mix with vast quantities of water any radioactivity is typically not detectable.
WHY ARE PEOPLE WORRIED?
In Duxbury, Kingston and Plymouth Bays, there are 50 oyster farms — the largest concentration in the state, worth $5.1 million last year, according to the Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative. The collaborative said dumping the water would devastate the industry, and the local economy along with it.
Diane Turco, a Harwich resident and longtime Pilgrim watchdog, questions if the water is heavily contaminated, especially from the pool that covered the stored, spent fuel for cooling and shielded workers from radiation.
“Isn’t this a crazy idea for Holtec to use our bay as their dump? No way,” she said.
Others didn’t know Pilgrim’s water went into the bay in previous years and they don’t want it to happen again.
“We can’t change that, but we can change what’s happening in the future,” said Cutler, the state lawmaker. “It’s the first time it has ever been decommissioned, so to compare this to the past is a convenient excuse. ‘Well, we did it in the past,’ that sounds like my kid.”
Towns on the Cape are trying to prohibit the dispersal of radioactive materials in their waters. Tribal leaders, fishermen, lobstermen and real estate agents have publicly stated their opposition as well.
Sheehan, the NRC spokesperson, said the water is not different or distinct, compared to water released during the plant’s operations. Holtec would have to handle it the same way, by filtering it, putting it into a tank, analyzing the radio isotopes and calculating the environmental impacts if it was released in batches, he added.
WHO GETS THE FINAL SAY?
Holtec wouldn’t need a separate approval from the NRC to discharge the water into the bay. However, Holtec would need permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency if the water contained pollutants regulated by the Clean Water Act, such as dissolved metals.
If the water contained only radioactive materials regulated by the NRC, Holtec wouldn’t need to ask the EPA for a permit modification, according to the EPA’s water division for New England. Holtec has never given the EPA a pollutant characterization of the water associated with decommissioning, the division’s director said.
Mary Lampert, of Duxbury, is on a panel created by the state to look at issues related to the Pilgrim’s decommissioning. She believes the state could use its existing laws and regulations to stop the dumping and plans to press the Massachusetts attorney general to file a preliminary injunction to do so.
The attorney general’s office said it’s monitoring the issue and would take any Clean Water Act violations seriously.
Holtec said this week it’s examining the water for possible pollutants but the lab results won’t be available for awhile.
The company expects to decide what to do with the water later this year. Discharge, evaporation and some limited transportation will likely all be part of the solution, Holtec added.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — In the days after a group of West Point cadets on spring break were sickened by fentanyl-laced cocaine at a South Florida house party, community activists sprang into action.
They blitzed beaches, warned spring breakers of a surge in recreational drugs cut with the dangerous synthetic opioid and offered an antidote for overdoses, which have risen nationally during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Street teams stood under the blistering sun, handing out beads, pamphlets and samples of naloxone, a drug known by the brand name Narcan, which can revive overdose victims.
“We weren’t sure how people would react,” said Thomas Smith, director of behavioral health services for The Special Purpose Outreach Team, a local mobile medical program. “But the spring breakers have been great. Some say, ‘I don’t do drugs, but my buddy sometimes does something stupid.’ They are happy to get Narcan.”
Smith’s team pulls up to Fort Lauderdale beach in a brightly colored mobile clinic van. They walk the sidewalks that run parallel to the beach, across the main drag from the bustling oceanfront clubs and restaurants.
“Have you heard of Narcan?” Huston Ochoa, a clinical counselor for The SPOT, asked Tristan Gentles on a recent afternoon as music blared from the Elbo Room, a bar at the heart of Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Gentles, who worked as a bartender and bouncer in New York City before moving to Fort Lauderdale, said he appreciates their efforts.
“There’s only so much you can do when you see someone on the floor,” he said, adding that he had witnessed numerous overdoses during his days in New York.
Fentanyl and other synthetic drugs, which can be 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin or prescription opioids, are what make the overdoes so dangerous, said David Scharf, who oversees community programs for the Broward Sheriff’s Office and is the chairman of the county’s Opioid Community Response Team.
Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that for the first time more than 100,000 Americans had died of drug overdoses over a 12-month period. About two-thirds of the deaths were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. Stress from the coronavirus pandemic and the use of fentanyl are considered factors in the increase in deaths, according to preliminary reports by the CDC.
Broward County led the state in fentanyl deaths in 2020, the latest year for which statistics are available from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. In the vast majority of the deaths, fentanyl was combined with another drug, the sheriff’s office said.
“One snort, one swallow, one shot can kill,” said Jim Hall, a retired epidemiologist from Nova Southeastern University, who has worked with the county’s opioid response team. “It is not just in Florida but anywhere in North America.”
For the first three months of 2022, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to 373 calls involving a possible overdose, where Narcan was administered, Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan said. That’s an average of more than four per day.
The reaction in Broward was swift after the five U.S. Military Academy cadets overdosed in Wilton Manors on March 10, just as thousands of college students were heading to Fort Lauderdale for spring break.
The following Monday, more than 100 people representing agencies from law enforcement to social service organizations and hospitals met via Zoom to devise a plan to keep spring breakers safe.
Groups such as The SPOT and the South Florida Wellness Network, which partner with the United Way of Broward County, agreed to hit the beaches to talk with people about the dangers associated with fentanyl-laced drugs. They also talked to restaurant and bar owners who could distribute Narcan if “someone went down,” Scharf said.
The groups have so far distributed more than 2,000 doses of Narcan supplied by state grants. The SPOT volunteers handed out packages with two doses of the nasal spray plus instructions.
“It was kind of a blitz operation to get out there as quickly as possible, and to get as much information and Narcan out on the streets,” Scharf said.
The volunteer groups and sheriff’s office don’t have figures on how many of the distributed doses were actually used but believe the program has succeeded in raising awareness.
The region isn’t yet out of the spring break period, which runs until mid-April, but Scharf said organizers have been heartened to see a couple of weekends pass without any overdoses that resulted in emergency calls.
“We had zero, which is like the first time in forever that we had none,” Scharf said.
“We had a terrible situation,” with overdoses of the cadets and others, and turned it into “an opportunity to really beef up our education and prevention efforts by flooding the beaches and the streets,” Scharf said.
Smith, of The SPOT, said spring breakers were “grateful and appreciative” and his group now has to plan how to “keep the momentum going.”
To that end, the street teams plan to continue working events that bring in large crowds, such as this weekend’s sold out Tortuga Music Festival on Fort Lauderdale Beach.
“It’s about saving lives,” said Emy Martinez, who manages a safe syringe program for The SPOT. “It’s all about saving one life at a time.”
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Outside the Michigan courthouse where a jury did not convict any of the four men charged with planning to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a defense lawyer said jurors saw the alleged plot as what it was: Dirty FBI tactics and “rough talk.”
The men — who were heard on audio during the trial talking about killing Whitmer, blowing up a bridge and other violence — didn’t say anything shocking, attorney Michael Hills said. He noted one of the defense witnesses he considered calling to testify planned to assert that he’s “heard worse from pregnant mothers up on the Capitol.”
“If I don’t like the governor and it’s rough talk, I can do that in our country. That’s what’s beautiful about this country. That’s what’s great about it,” Hills said. “So hurrah, freedom in America. It’s still here.”
But to others, Friday’s outcome following a weekslong trial was a chilling reminder that the political violence that is raging across the U.S. too often goes unpunished. From attacks on social media and elsewhere that disproportionately affect women lawmakers, to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the plan to abduct Whitmer, people are increasingly angry and feeling emboldened to act on it, they say.
Whitmer, a Democrat, has blamed former President Donald Trumpfor stoking anger over COVID-19 restrictions and refusing to condemn right-wing extremists. On Friday, her office said people across the country are experiencing “a normalization” of violence. A Democratic state lawmaker said the threats posed won’t be taken seriously “until someone dies.”
“The plot to kidnap and kill a governor may seem like an anomaly. But we must be honest about what it really is: the result of violent, divisive rhetoric that is all too common across our country,” Whitmer’s chief of staff, JoAnne Huls, said in a statement. “There must be accountability and consequences for those who commit heinous crimes. Without accountability, extremists will be emboldened.”
Whitmer wasn’t a trial witness, didn’t attend the trial and has not directly commented on the proceedings, but on Saturday, she alluded to the trial’s outcome.
“I have often been asked why the heck do I want to keep doing this job. And after yesterday I’m sure we all have to ask that question maybe once or twice,” she said during a speech at the Michigan Democratic Party Endorsement Convention in Detroit. “But here’s the reason: Tough times call for tough people and we are going to get through this together.”
Four men — Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris — were arrested in October 2020. Federal prosecutors said they wanted to kidnap Whitmer because they were angry over pandemic restrictions she imposed, and saw her as a “tyrant” who needed to be removed.
The charges came at a particularly divisive time, with debate raging over the pandemic and just weeks before the 2020 presidential election between Trump and Joe Biden. Armed protests were occurring at the Michigan Capitol and elsewhere in the U.S., and in the streets of many cities, demonstrations over the police killing of George Floyd at times turned violent.
Prosecutors presented evidence at the federal trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from undercover agents, an FBI informantand two men who pleaded guiltyto the plot. Jurors also read and heard secretly recorded conversations, violent social media posts and chat messages.
Defense attorneys argued that the men were entrapped by the FBI— pulled into an alleged plot they would never have participated in if not for the government and its informants luring them. They painted the men as wannabes who were frequently high and easily influenced, or in one case, a former member of the military who wanted to brush up on firearms training.
Before returning their verdicts, the jury said that after nearly five days of deliberations they could not agree unanimously on all 10 of the charges against the men.
Harris, 24, and Caserta, 33, were found not guilty of conspiracy. Harris also was acquitted of charges related to explosives and a gun.
The jury could not reach verdicts for Fox, 38, and Croft, 46, which means the government can put them on trial again.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge said after the verdicts that “We have two defendants that are awaiting trial and we’ll get back to work on that.”
Hills, who defended Caserta, said the outcome was a message to the government that the FBI’s actions were “unconscionable.” He said the federal government should “let it go” rather than take Croft and Fox to trial a second time.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, tweeted after the verdict that the “FBI and DOJ need a complete and total cleansing. … All the rot must be removed and these agencies must be restored.”
Others were stunned by the jury’s decision, and said it set a dangerous example.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Democrat, called for an end to “the hatred and division in this country” and said she is “Deeply concerned that today’s decision in the Whitmer kidnapping trial will give people further license to choose violence and threats.”
Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist called on elected officials, parents, teachers and others to stand up to “these hateful actions and teach our kids that there is a better way.”
“Our differences must be settled at the ballot box, not through violence,” he said. “We need to be honest and clear about what causes violence by extremists and do all we can to address the root cause of it.”
Michigan state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, a Democrat, noted on Twitter that a man who threatened to kill her in 2020 was acquitted.
“The next time you ask why we can’t get good people to run for office, consider today’s verdict,” she said, adding, “This won’t be taken seriously until someone dies.”
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Find AP’s full coverage of the Whitmer kidnap plot trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial
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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Shortly after Riley Briones Jr. arrived in federal prison, he cut his long, braided hair in a symbolic death of his old self.
As a leader of a violent gang and just shy of 18, Briones drove the getaway car in a robbery turned deadly on the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community outside Phoenix in 1994. He was convicted of murder and given a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
In prison, he has been baptized a Christian, ministers to other inmates who call him Brother Briones, got his GED and has a spotless disciplinary record, his attorneys say in their latest bid to get the now 45-year-old’s sentence cut short.
“He’s clearly on the side of the line where he should be walking free,” said his attorney, Easha Anand.
The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for that possibility with a 2012 ruling that said only the rare, irredeemable juvenile offender should serve life in prison. Over the past decade, most of the 39 defendants in federal cases who received that sentence have gotten a reprieve and are serving far fewer years behind bars.
Meanwhile, more than 60 legal experts and scholars have asked the federal government to cap sentences for juvenile offenders at 30 years, create a committee to review life sentences in the future and reconsider its stance in Briones’ case.
But the move toward greater leniency has been gradual and not without resistance.
Briones is among those whose life sentences have been upheld in recent years, though he still has another chance.
Prosecutors in his case have opposed a reduced term. They argue despite Briones’ improvements, he minimized his role in the gang and its crimes that terrorized Salt River amid an explosion of gang violence on Native American reservations in the 1990s.
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Briones began serving prison time in 1997 for the death of Brian Patrick Lindsay, a Northern Arizona University honors student who was home for the summer and had picked up a solo shift at a Subway sandwich shop.
Briones drove four others from the notorious “Eastside Crips Rolling 30s” gang to the restaurant on May 15, 1994, one of whom was armed with a 9 mm pistol, according to court documents. Lindsay was preparing food they ordered when one of the gang members went outside to talk to Briones, came back inside and suddenly shot Lindsay in the face. He pumped more bullets into Lindsay as he lay bleeding on the floor.
They had planned the robbery to get cash for guns, prosecutors wrote in court documents. They weren’t able to open the cash register but took a bank bag with $100 and the food the dying clerk had prepared.
Briones instructed another gang member to kill a maintenance man whom they saw earlier clearing the sidewalk, but they couldn’t find him, court documents state.
Prosecutors said the murder was the most egregious of the violent crimes that Briones helped plot and carry out on the reservation about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Phoenix. But there were others that demonstrated a “murderous, unrepentant and unapologetic attitude,” prosecutors said.
The gang members set diversionary fires while they firebombed a rival’s house and did drive-by shootings. They stole cars and firearms to carry out the crimes. They also hatched plans to kill a tribal judge, federal prosecutors and tribal police investigators but didn’t follow through, according to court documents.
Briones was arrested at his home in 1995. Along with murder, he was convicted of arson, tampering with a witness and assault with a dangerous weapon. Three of his co-defendants were sentenced to life. One cooperated with prosecutors and received a lesser term.
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Bennit Hayes can’t imagine that version of Briones, whom he served time with at the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. Hayes said he learned about Sunday chapel services and a Bible study group that gathered on the prison yard, and Briones welcomed him with a big smile and a hug.
Hayes said he respected Briones because he never talked over others, he studied intently, and he worked hard and encouraged others to lead better lives. Briones prayed for anyone who asked, Hayes said.
“God blessed me not only to have the camaraderie and the brotherhood but to see genuine change,” said Hayes, whose sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2016. “He was the light in the candle that I put up against everything else going forward.”
By then, Briones had cut his hair that fell past his waist, abstained from food for 40 days and surrendered to God, said his wife, Carmen Briones.
“Riley made that decision,” said Carmen Briones, who is enrolled Pascua Yaqui. “He said, ‘I have to have a different life. I can’t have the same life I had before.’”
The couple met while they were teenagers attending a youth camp at Arizona State University. They had a daughter who is now 30 and got married in 1999 while Briones, who is San Carlos Apache and Salt River Pima-Maricopa, was in prison.
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Briones’ case became eligible for resentencing after the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama. It was part of a series of cases in which the court found minors should be treated differently from adults, partly because of a lack of maturity. The court previously eliminated the death penalty for juveniles and barred life-without-parole sentences for juveniles except in cases of murder.
A handful of the defendants in the 39 federal cases — most of whom are minorities — have been released from prison.
The Feb. 17 letter seeking reform from the Justice Department pointed to statistics that show the median sentence for adults convicted of murder in the federal system is 20 years — nearly half the median for the juvenile offenders.
“Taking a life is really, really serious, and I don’t belittle that at all,” said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center, one of the signatories. “But a full life in prison when you’re a juvenile and you’re talking about 40, 50, 60 years in prison is exceedingly excessive probably in almost every case and not consistent with typical sentences for homicides, even adults.”
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.
A decision in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 gave Briones an opportunity to plead again before a district court judge to lower his sentence. But before he got the chance, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold the case until it decided another one, Jones v. Mississippi, meant to clarify rulings in two other cases regarding juvenile offenders.
From there, Briones’ case went back to the 9th Circuit.
A three-judge panel ruled against Briones, and now his attorneys are asking the full court to reconsider. The federal government’s response is due in May.
The California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a victims rights group, said changes in the law that continually allow juvenile offenders to get another shot at freedom are damaging for the families, communities and the criminal justice system.
“Some of these crimes are just very horrible, and the impacts on the families are substantial, and they never go away,” said the group’s president, Michael Rushford.
The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth has long argued the changes a person makes once they’ve entered prison should matter, and juveniles offenders should be able to live as adults outside prison walls.
“If the facts of the crime are always going to be the overpowering force, then Miller isn’t going to be meaningfully interpreted to outweigh all this positive growth,” said Rebecca Turner, who tracks the federal cases for the group.
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The federal court in Arizona has resentenced more of the juvenile offenders to life in prison than any other state. Texas has two juvenile offenders who are serving life but weren’t able to be resentenced because of how courts interpreted Miller v. Alabama. South Carolina resentenced one inmate to life.
All three federal cases in Arizona were from Native American reservations, where the federal government has jurisdiction when the suspect, victim or both are Native American for a set of major crimes, including homicide. The penalties, in general, are stricter than if the crimes happened off the reservation and the cases ended up in state court.
Branden Pete, who is Navajo, got a mandatory life sentence for raping and then killing a woman by throwing rocks at her head on the Navajo Nation in 2002. A judge considered his dysfunctional upbringing, substance abuse issues, prison disciplinary record and the brutality of the crime in resentencing him to 54 years in prison in 2017.
It’s the third-longest resentence among defendants, not including those whose life sentences were reaffirmed or didn’t get a chance to plead for less time. The resentences range from 15 years to 70 years.
The other Arizona defendant, Johnny Orsinger, is serving life for the deaths of four people in two incidents when he was 16. Orsinger, who is Ute and Mexican, also committed the crimes on the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. A co-defendant in one of the cases, Lezmond Mitchell, was executed in 2020. He was the only Native American on federal death row at the time.
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Prosecutors in Briones’ case acknowledged he’s changed for the better and expressed remorse but argued he should remain imprisoned for life because he hasn’t accepted responsibility for Lindsay’s death and minimized his role as a founder and leader of the gang that spanned other tribal reservations.
The U.S. District Court judge who resentenced Briones in 2016 said he considered Briones’ troubled childhood that included abuse at the hands of his father — with whom the gang consulted — along with Briones’ alcohol and drug use, and immaturity. He also noted Briones had been a model inmate.
“However, some decisions have lifelong consequences,” the judge wrote.
The trial for Briones and his co-defendants was the first prosecution in Indian Country under a federal law meant to enhance sentencing for organized crime. During the trial, prosecutors played the 911 recording in which Lindsay told dispatchers through a mouthful of blood that he had been shot. His parents were in the courtroom.
“I can still almost hear that tape,” Paul Charlton, one of the prosecutors at the time, recently told The Associated Press. “And if you had been through that trial, if you had seen the callous and remorseless way in which these individuals faced the evidence against them and their lack of remorse at that time, most people would be as I remain today, unsympathetic to Mr. Briones’ arguments.”
The Salt River Police Department declined to comment. Emails and phone messages left at a number listed for Lindsay’s parents were not returned.
In a letter to the court during Briones’ 2016 resentencing, Sharyn and Brian Lindsay said the passing of time hadn’t made their lives easier or mended their hearts.
“Isn’t a lifetime without our son enough without having to go through another court proceeding?” they wrote.
They established an engineering scholarship in their son’s name at Northern Arizona University.
Briones now is at the federal prison in metropolitan Phoenix, about a 50 minute drive from Carmen Briones’ home on the Salt River reservation. She hasn’t seen him since last May because of pandemic restrictions, but they keep in contact through email and phone calls.
She said releasing Riley Briones from prison would mean they could be a family in a more meaningful way. But whatever the 9th Circuit decides won’t change who her husband has become, she said.
“He’s still going to continue wherever he’s at to minister, to mentor, to be a positive example and give guidance to those who he has contact with,” she said. “We’ve had enough appeals come and go that … wisdom would tell you just pray and see what happens.”
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Fonseca covers Indigenous communities on the AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FonsecaAP
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| 2022-04-10T11:44:52
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NEW YORK (AP) — A suspect was charged Saturday in the fatal shooting of a teen girl who was walking home from school when she was hit by a stray bullet during a street dispute in New York City.
New York Police Department officials announced the arrest of Jeremiah Ryan on charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with Friday’s shooting.
Police identified the girl killed in the shooting as 16-year-old Angellyh Yambo. Another 16-year-old girl was hit in the leg, and a 17-year-old boy was wounded in the buttocks. Both are expected to survive.
Prosecutors said Ryan, 17, would have a court appearance either later Saturday or on Sunday. They declined further comment.
It was not immediately clear if Ryan had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The shooting in the Bronx was the latest episode of headline-grabbing violence in the city amid a surge in crime during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Police had said the gunfire appeared to start after Ryan and another person were gesturing at each other across an intersection. The teens who were struck were walking by on the sidewalk headed home from school, police said.
Police were investigating whether the shooting suspect, who had no criminal record, was using a so-called “ghost gun” — homemade firearms that can be built with parts bought online and lack serial numbers normally used to trace them. They said a total of six rounds were fired.
At a news briefing on Saturday, Deputy Police Chief Timothy McCormack expressed dismay over the circumstances of the case.
“We have two families that are completely destroyed right now — our victim’s family and our shooter’s family,” McCormack said. He described the suspect’s mother as “a hard-working woman” whose child had “zero police contact” before his arrest.
The shooting happened outside of the South Bronx Educational Campus, which is home to two schools, Mott Haven Village Prep and University Heights Secondary School.
The Department of Education said two of the teens went to Mott Haven. The third teen went to University Prep Charter High School, a short distance away.
Mayor Eric Adams has made fighting crime a priority since taking office Jan. 1. Homicides are down slightly from this time last year, but gun violence overall remains at levels not seen in a decade.
New York City saw shootings drop to modern-era lows from 2012 to 2019, but that progress was partly erased during the pandemic and social unrest of the past two years. Violence still remains at levels far below the city’s nadir in the 1990s or even in the decade after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
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ATLANTA (AP) — Police are searching for at least one armed suspect in connection with the killing of the owner of a gun range in Georgia and his wife and grandson, authorities said Saturday.
The Grantville Police Department said via Facebook that the robbery occurred Friday evening. When officers arrived at the scene around 8 p.m., they discovered the bodies of the owner of Lock Stock & Barrel Shooting Range, along with his wife and grandson.
According to WSB-TV,Grantville Police identified the victims as the gun range owner, Thomas Hawk, 75; his wife, Evelyn, 75; and their grandson, Luke, 17.
Police Chief Steve Whitlock said the Hawk family was well-known and well-respected in their small, tight-knit community. The Hawks had operated Lock Stock & Barrel for nearly 30 years. Their grandson was on spring break, helping his grandparents at the shop.
“This is just a shock to everybody in the community,” Whitlock told The Associated Press. “We’re trying to do the best that we can to figure this out.”
Whitlock said investigators believe the robbery and shooting happened around 5:30 p.m. Friday, which is when the range normally closes. He said Hawk’s son, Richard, came by the business and was the person who found the victims.
There are no suspects as of early Saturday, and no arrests have been made, he said. Investigators said that as many as 40 guns and the range’s surveillance camera were also stolen.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating, but when contacted Saturday referred all inquiries to Grantville Police. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also called in due to the amount of weapons taken. Whitlock said he’s grateful for the help from other law enforcement agencies in the investigation.
“We’re just a small town, 12 officers. I’ve been here eight years and have never had to investigate anything like this. It’s been kind of hard on us. The crime rate is really, really low,” he said.
A reward of $15,000 has been posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer or killers in the case, according to the ATF Atlanta office’s Twitter feed.
“ATF and our law enforcement partners will work tirelessly to bring the killer(s) to justice,” ATF Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Benjamin P. Gibbons said in a statement. “The brutality of these senseless murders along with the fact that these killer(s) have acquired additional firearms makes solving this case our top priority.”
A message left with the ATF office in Atlanta was not immediately returned.
Police are asking any witnesses to come forward. Whitlock said they don’t have any video evidence to work with right now.
“Anyone having driven by the shooting range during the time frame of 530pm to 630 pm that may have seen vehicles other than a white Ford dually truck and a black Ford expedition are asked to contact the police department,” Grantville police said in their Facebook statement.
The shooting range is in rural Coweta County, about 50 miles (about 80 kilometers) southwest of Atlanta.
Coweta County Sheriff Lenn Wood said in a statement on Facebook that the entire community was forever broken by the “senseless and tragic” killings of the Hawk family members.
“I am also fervently praying that God will use our law enforcement community and the Coweta Community,” he said, “to bring justice swiftly.”
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Associated Press writer Chevel Johnson reported from New Orleans.
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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 exemptedfrom 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.
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops on Saturday raided the hometown of a Palestinian who carried out a deadly shooting in Tel Aviv, sparking a gunbattle in the occupied West Bank that left at least one Palestinian militant dead, according to Israeli and Palestinian accounts.
The arrest raid was the latest in a series of events that have escalated tensions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Clashes and protests in Jerusalem last year helped spark an 11-day war with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
In Saturday’s raid, the Israeli military said it conducted what it described as a counterterrorism operation in and around the city of Jenin — the area in the northern West Bank where the gunman in Thursday’s attack had lived. It said troops were surveying the attacker’s home “to examine the potential demolition of the house.” Israel often demolishes the homes of Palestinian attackers in a controversial practice that it says deters future attackers but which critics dismiss as collective punishment.
The army said it also conducted an arrest operation on people suspected of militant activity.
During the raids, it said soldiers came under fire. Troops fired back, killing one militant. The Islamic Jihad militant group identified the man as a member.
The army said a second gunman was shot and wounded and taken away for medical treatment. It said the man’s weapon was confiscated.
Jenin is considered a stronghold of Palestinian militants. Israeli forces often come under fire when operating in the area. Even the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters, appears to have little control.
In Thursday’s shooting, a Palestinian gunman opened fire in central Tel Aviv, killing three people. The attacker, identified as Raad Hazem, 28, of Jenin, was later killed by Israeli forces.
It was the fourth deadly attack in Israel by Palestinians in three weeks and came at a time of heightened tensions around the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Two of those attacks were carried out by men from Jenin.
Despite the violence, Israel has been taking steps to ease tensions, including the granting of thousands of work permits to residents of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and allowing thousands of Palestinians to enter Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers on Friday.
But on Saturday, Israel announced further restrictions on Jenin and its residents. The measures included banning Arab residents of Israel from entering the city for shopping, halting entry permits to Israel held by Jenin’s senior businessmen, and depriving Jenin residents from visiting relatives in Israel as part of Ramadan’s goodwill gestures granted to West Bank Palestinians.
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ATLANTA (AP) — When she ended her first bid to become Georgia governor in 2018, Stacey Abrams announced plans to sue over the way the state’s elections were managed. More than three years later, as she makes another run at the governor’s mansion, the lawsuit is going to trial.
Filed in November 2018 by Abrams’ Fair Fight Action organization, the suit alleged that state officials “grossly mismanaged” the election, depriving some citizens, particularly low-income people and people of color, of their right to vote. The lawsuit originally called for a sweeping overhaul of the state’s elections, but its scope was considerably narrowed after the state made changes that addressed some allegations and others were dismissed by the court. The trial is set to begin Monday.
Even if U.S. District Judge Steve Jones sides with the plaintiffs, it’s unclear whether that will affect elections this year. Jones and other federal judges have been reluctant to order last-minute changes, noting that the Supreme Court has repeatedly said federal judges shouldn’t alter rules “on the eve of an election.”
In the months preceding the 2018 election, Abrams, a Democrat, accused her Republican opponent in the governor’s race, then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, of using his position as Georgia’s chief elections officer to promote voter suppression, an allegation Kemp has vehemently denied.
In the more than three years since that fiercely fought contest captured national attention, the focus on Georgia’s elections has only intensified. Problems during the 2020 primary drew sharp criticism. Later that year, former President Donald Trump hurled insults at state officials who declined to overturn his narrow general election loss in the state. And the nation watched closely in January 2021 as a pair of Democrats unseated the state’s two incumbent Republican U.S. senators.
Numerous GOP-led state legislatures passed election bills last year after Trump stoked false claims that widespread fraud led to his 2020 defeat. Georgia’s bill, which Kemp signed into law a year ago, was one of the broadest. Among other things, the state’s measure reduced the window to request an absentee ballot, stripped power from the secretary of state and sharply curtailed the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in populous and Democratic-voting metro Atlanta counties. Voting rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice promptly sued; those lawsuits are pending.
Republicans in Georgia this year passed legislation to let the Georgia Bureau of Investigation initiate probes into alleged election wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Abrams, a state lawmaker who was little known outside Georgia when she ran four years ago, has become a household nameand Democratic Party star. The only Democrat running for governor, she’ll face Kemp again in November if he fends off a primary challenge from former U.S. Sen. David Perdue.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accused Abrams and her allies of trying to undermine the integrity of Georgia elections.
“Her 3-year ‘stolen election’ campaign has been nothing more than a political stunt to keep her in the national spotlight, and it’s a disservice to Georgia voters,” he said in an emailed statement.
Fair Fight says it works to promote voting rights and support progressive candidates around the country, and its PAC has raised more than $100 million since its founding. It filed the lawsuit along with Care in Action, a nonprofit that advocates for domestic workers. Several churches have also joined as plaintiffs.
Fair Fight collected statements from people who said they had problems voting. The lawsuit cited multiple alleged problems, including the purging of eligible voters from voter rolls under a “use it or lose it” policy; the state’s so-called exact match voter registration rules; an insufficient number of voting machines at some precincts; and a lack of sufficient training for election officials. It asked a federal judge to find that Georgia’s elections processes violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law.
“Since the start of this lawsuit, we have highlighted real voters and their challenges because we believe that is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate the barriers in Georgia’s elections system,” Fair Fight executive director Cianti Stewart-Reid said in an emailed statement. She added that voters from around the state will testify at trial about obstacles faced while trying to vote.
Some of the alleged problems were addressed by changes in state law. For example, a 2019 law called for replacing the state’s outdated voting machines. The new system was implemented statewide in 2020.
In February 2021, Jones threw out parts of the lawsuit, saying some allegations were made irrelevant by changes in state law or the plaintiffs’ lack of standing. Among them were some of the claims about voting machines and election technology, as well as the security of voter lists and polling place issues. The following month, Jones dismissed claims targeting the “use it or lose it” policy and some allegations of inadequate training of poll workers. He also dismissed some claims relating to provisional and absentee ballots.
The issues remaining for the trial have to do with the “exact match” policy, the statewide voter registration list and in-person cancellation of absentee ballots. The plaintiffs claim that Georgia’s secretary of state and State Election Board members are “denying and abridging Georgians’ right to vote” in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the U.S. Constitution.
Under the “exact match” policy, information from voter registration applications is checked against information held by the state Department of Driver Services or the federal Social Security Administration. If there’s a discrepancy, the would-be voter must show identification to county officials before being able to cast a regular ballot.
The plaintiffs say data entry errors or differences as minor as a missing hyphen or apostrophe can trigger a non-match and that naturalized citizens can also be wrongly flagged as noncitizens if records are outdated. These problems disproportionately affect people of color and can depend on where a person lives because counties do things differently, the plaintiffs say.
The statewide voter registration database is “error-ridden,” the plaintiffs say, resulting in the erroneous deletion of eligible voters’ registration or critical information being incorrect. That can prevent eligible voters from being able to vote or force them to overcome undue burdens to do so, the plaintiffs say.
The plaintiffs also say election officials aren’t sufficiently trained on canceling an absentee ballot if someone chooses to vote in person instead, which can cause voters to be turned away or forced to cast a provisional ballot.
Lawyers for the state argue the claims in the lawsuit “are not supported by the evidence.” The number, geographic scope and severity of the alleged problems experienced by voters identified by the plaintiffs “do not rise to a level sufficient to demonstrate an unconstitutional burden on voting in Georgia,” state lawyers wrote in a filing. Additionally, they argue, the alleged problems cited are not the responsibility of the state officials named in the lawsuit.
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Colorado Republicans on Saturday voted to place on their U.S. Senate primary ballot a state representative who attended the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol and is a supporter of former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election.
The gathering is a key step toward garnering the party’s nomination to face Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in November. State Rep. Ron Hanks was the lead choice of 3,700 delegates to the state GOP’s assembly, winning 39% of the vote. His only GOP rival in the June 28 Republican Senate primary will be businessman Joe O’Dea, who chose to circulate petitions to get on the ballot rather than go through the assembly.
“I fully expected Donald Trump to win in 2020 — and he did,” Hanks, who has made the election his central issue, said to resounding cheers from the crowd at an arena in Colorado Springs. “When we saw what we saw on election night in 2020, it changed everything just like the changes we felt after 9/11.”
The gathering showed how central Trump’s election lies are to the party faithful, even as repeated audits and reviews — including by Trump’s own Justice Department — have found no significant voter fraud in the contest.
The assembly passed a resolution calling for an end to Colorado’s universal mail voting system, under which every voter is sent a ballot through the mail.
Hanks’ supporters also rallied around Tina Peters, a clerk in a western Colorado county who has been indicted for her alleged role in the copying of confidential voting data that has been posted widely by Trump supporters online.
Peters, who was barred by a judge from overseeing last year’s local elections, is running for the GOP nomination for Colorado’s top elections office, secretary of state. She won 61% of the vote at Saturday’s events. Two other Republican candidates — businessman Michael O’Donnell, who came in second at Saturday’s assembly, and Pam Anderson, a former suburban county clerk who avoided the assembly and filed petitions backing her candidacy, will also be on the June ballot for the GOP nomination.
Greg Lopez, a former mayor of a Denver suburb, was the top vote-getter for the party’s gubernatorial nomination after promising to pardon Peters if he were elected governor. He and Heidi Ganahl, a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, will face off in the June primary. The winner will challenge Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.
Candidates for statewide office must receive support from at least 30% of the delegates to be placed on the primary ballot, or circulate petitions gathered in each of the state’s eight congressional districts. Five other Republican Senate hopefuls split the remaining votes evenly, with none clearing the critical 30% threshold, ending their campaigns.
An Air Force veteran and former military intelligence officer, Hanks has quickly become a polarizing figure in Colorado politics after winning election to the statehouse in 2020. He has made questioning the election his top issue, visiting the erratic, Trump-backed review of the election in Arizona’s largest county and filing a lawsuit against the state’s Democratic secretary of state, Jena Griswold, to compel a similar review of Colorado’s election system.
His rival, O’Dea, has instead focused his campaign on economics and social issues.
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| 2022-04-10T11:45:33
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WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog has found a “substantial likelihood” the federal Bureau of Prisons committed wrongdoing when it ignored complaints and failed to address asbestos and mold contamination at a federal women’s prison in California that has already been under scrutiny for rampant sexual abuse of inmates.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel now wants Attorney General Merrick Garland to step in to investigate the allegations after multiple whistleblower complaints were filed earlier this year. The office detailed its findings in a letter this past week and has asked Garland to submit a report within 60 days.
The whistleblower complaints, filed by union officials at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, alleged that senior Bureau of Prisons officials had failed to act to resolve the allegations of workplace contamination. The union had repeatedly complained that correctional officers and other prison workers and inmates were being exposed to potentially hazardous mold and asbestos but says those concerns were ignored.
“Management’s failure to address unsafe and dangerous working conditions at FCI Dublin has put the health and safety of both employees and inmates at considerable risk,” Dublin union president Edward Canales said. “We look forward to the outcome of this investigation, which we hope will result in the unsafe conditions being remedied and appropriate disciplinary actions being taken against the managers who failed to act.”
The Justice Department has already been investigating serious misconduct at Dublin, where five employees — including the former warden — have been charged with sexually abusing inmates. An Associated Press investigation this year revealed a pattern of sexual misconduct and detailed a toxic culture that enabled it to continue for years.
After the AP’s investigation was published, whistleblowers at the prison said they were being attacked for speaking up. The Bureau of Prisons launched a task force of 18 senior executives who visited the prison in March to assess the conditions there and work to reform the facility. The agency’s director, Michael Carvajal, also visited the prison.
The Justice Department said Saturday it had received the letter and “appreciates OSC’s responsiveness to these concerns.” It said the Bureau of Prisons was “addressing concerns raised by staff at Dublin and working to ensure that all facilities are operating under safe, healthy conditions.”
In a statement, the Bureau of Prisons said its staff members perform weekly fire, safety and sanitation inspections and staff members are encouraged to report unsafe or unhealth conditions to their supervisors. It said anyone who believes that such a condition exists could report it to the warden, other prison system officials or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“All safety concerns reported by staff at Dublin are being addressed,” Bureau of Prisons spokesman Emery Nelson said in a statement.
The Office of Special Counsel said that while it found “a substantial likelihood of wrongdoing” based on the complaint that was filed, the referral to Garland does not constitute its final determination. The case remains open until the agency submits its final report, which is then forwarded to President Joe Biden and Congress.
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Sisak reported from New York. On Twitter, follow Balsamo at twitter.com/mikebalsamo1 and Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump endorsed Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania’s crowded Republican Senate primary, ending months of jockeying for his support.
In a statement Saturday evening, Trump said his decision was “all about winning elections” as he formally backed the celebrity heart surgeon best known as the host of daytime TV’s “The Dr. Oz Show.”
“The Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has a tremendous opportunity to Save America by electing the brilliant and well-known Dr. Mehmet Oz for the United States Senate,” Trump said, in part. Later, at a rally in North Carolina, he said: “You know when you’re in television for 18 years, that’s like a poll. That means people like you.”
Oz had been competing for Trump’s endorsement in the May 17 primary against former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, whose wife, Dina Powell, served in Trump’s administration. The two had gone to extensive lengths to win over the former president, who remains deeply popular with the Republican base and has been wooed by candidates in primary races across the country.
At a conservative forum in Pennsylvania last weekend, the candidates were asked if they would like Trump’s endorsement and for him to come to Pennsylvania to campaign for them.
“That’s the easiest question we’re going to get all day,” replied one of the candidates, Jeff Bartos, a real estate investor. “Yes. 100%, yes.”
The decision marks a disappointment for McCormick, who met with Trump last week and had hired a litany of former Trump aides for his campaign. Though he was virtually unknown to voters before declaring his candidacy in January, he topped a recent Fox News poll of Pennsylvania GOP primary voters.
Trump had previously endorsed Sean Parnell in the race, but Parnell withdrew his candidacy amid allegations of abuse from his estranged wife. The turnabout raised questions about the vigor of Trump’s vetting process and concerns among Republicans about whether the former president was bolstering candidates who might be able to win their respective primaries but flounder in general elections that will determine which party controls the Senate.
This time, Trump made clear that electability was top of mind. In his statement, he noted that Oz was a well-known quantity who has “lived with us through the screen and has always been popular, respected, and smart.”
“Perhaps most importantly, I believe that Mehmet Oz will be the one most able to win the General Election against a Radical Left Democrat looking to do unthinkable harm to our Country,” he added. “Women, in particular, are drawn to Dr. Oz for his advice and counsel. I have seen this many times over the years. They know him, believe in him, and trust him,” he said.
When Oz interviewed Trump on his show in 2016, Trump told him at one point that his wife, Melania Trump, was “a big fan” of the show.
Oz also has a long personal history with Trump.
Oz said in a recent interview that he had first met Trump in 2004 or 2005 when he asked Trump to use his golf course for an event for Oz’s children’s charity. Trump agreed. After that, they saw each other intermittently at social events before Oz interviewed Trump about his health during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump, in conversations, has often praised Oz for his positive treatment on the show. “He even said that I was in extraordinary health, which made me like him even more (although he also said I should lose a couple of pounds!),” Trump wrote in his statement.
McCormick, meanwhile, has made deep inroads with party donors and officials in Pennsylvania, and has landed endorsements from former Trump administration officials Sarah Sanders and Mike Pompeo. But he has had to work to turn himself into a pro-Trump, America First candidate.
McCormick carries strong Republican establishment ties going back to his days in President George W. Bush’s administration. In 2015, McCormick held a fundraiser for Jeb Bush, Trump’s 2016 rival.
That has opened McCormick, who spent a dozen years as an executive at one of the nation’s biggest hedge funds, to charges from some conservatives that he is a “globalist,” a derogatory term as adopted by Trump and others in his orbit to conjure up an elite, international coterie that doesn’t serve America’s best interests.
Meanwhile, McCormick and a super PAC supporting him have spent millions attacking Oz.
The ads pick apart Oz’s long career on TV and as a public personality and accuse him of being a liberal, pointing, for instance, to his repeated public advocacy for “Obamacare,” former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. They also accuse Oz of being too “Hollywood.”
Oz also has taken heat in the race for carpetbaggery. He lived in New Jersey for two decades until just before deciding to run in neighboring Pennsylvania, where his in-laws live.
Trump’s decision drew criticism from some Oz critics, including Parnell, who endorsed McCormick.
“I have enormous respect for President Trump. I was honored to have his endorsement in PA,” he tweeted. “But I’m disappointed by this. Oz is the antithesis of everything that made Trump the best president of my lifetime—he’s the farthest thing from America First & he’d be very bad for PA.”
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Which Tommee Tippee pacifiers are best?
Finding the correct pacifier takes trial and error since babies’ preferences vary widely. Tommee Tippee pacifiers offer unique features that go beyond the traditional pacifier design. For some parents, a Tommee Tippee pacifier is the only brand their baby will accept. Tommee Tippee is known for producing pacifiers that soothe the transition between breast, bottle and pacifier. The Close to Nature Night Time Breast-Like Pacifier is the top choice for a glow-in-the-dark pacifier that helps both bottle and breastfeeding babies. Tommee Tippee also produces a variety of other valuable pacifiers to consider when purchasing from their brand.
What to know before you buy a Tommee Tippee pacifier
Size
You should match the baby’s size and age to the pacifier’s size and shape. The age suggestions are merely a guideline for purchasing, and the baby’s actual mouth size should dictate whether a small (0-6 months) or large (6-18 months) pacifier is the best fit. Learn more about pacifier sizing in BestReviews guide to the best pacifiers.
Construction
Pacifiers use either a single or three-part design. A pacifier with three parts breaks down into a nipple, a mouth shield and a handle. The mouth shield should be large enough to prevent the child from placing the entire pacifier into the mouth. There are various nipple designs with each brand. For example, the Tommee Tippee brand is known for its breast-like nipple design. However, the three-part pacifier handle presents a possible choking hazard if it is separate from the nipple and shield.
Lifespan
Expect to replace a pacifier after a month or two for safety and hygiene purposes. Users should sanitize pacifiers frequently in the dishwasher or hand-washed with soapy water. This breaks down the materials and can lead to a choking risk or accelerate the risk of puncture areas where mold can grow. Never attempt to clean a pacifier with solvents or harsh chemicals, as this does nothing to extend the lifespan of a pacifier and can be poisonous.
Pacifier holders
Parents can purchase a pacifier holder to clip a Tommee Tippee safely to clothing for easy access. Pacifier holders are beneficial for babies who have not yet developed the motor skills to hold pacifiers themselves.
What to look for in a quality Tommee Tippee pacifier
Shield
Tommee Tippee offers a wide variety of pacifier shields. The glow-in-the-dark shield is convenient when locating a pacifier spat out in a dark room. Another option ideal for babies with sensitive skin is the Tommee Tippee shield with ventilation holes. Drool does not become trapped on the skin due to the cutouts on a shield with ventilation holes.
Nipple
There are various orthodontic-shaped nipples to choose from when purchasing a Tommee Tippee pacifier. Each nipple supports oral development. All Tommee Tippee nipples are also reversible, making it easy to insert them correctly into the mouth. Some Tommee Tippee nipples are shaped like their bottle nipple, so a bottle-fed baby will be more familiar with the design from feeding.
Orthodontic
Orthodontic pacifiers are beneficial as soon as teeth emerge. An orthodontic-shaped nipple is less likely to negatively affect a baby’s dental arch, ridge and gums. Tommee Tippee orthodontic pacifier nipples are symmetrical and not flattened like many other brands’ orthodontic pacifier designs.
Newborns
Specialty-sized and shaped pacifiers are essential for babies 3 months and younger. A newborn should use a one-piece pacifier that has hospital-grade, BPA-free and latex-free silicone.
How much you can expect to spend on the Tommee Tippee pacifier
Tommee Tippee pacifiers are typically between $6-$13, depending upon the style and quantity of multi-pack.
Tommee Tippee pacifier FAQ
What is the best way to clean a Tommee Tippee pacifier?
A. Run pacifiers through the dishwasher daily and hand wash with soap and water whenever dropped on a contaminated surface such as the floor. It is also possible to sterilize a pacifier by boiling it in a pot of water for 2 minutes. When sanitizing a pacifier with boiling water, take extra precautions by using tongs to squeeze out any water that may have gotten stuck inside the nipple. Always allow the pacifier to be sufficiently cooled before returning to the baby.
Is it okay to use a pacifier while breastfeeding?
A. There are pros and cons to using a pacifier while breastfeeding, so it is ultimately up to a parent to determine what is suitable for the family. There is not sufficient evidence to indicate that pacifier use is a hindrance to breastfeeding.
What’s the best Tommee Tippee pacifier to buy?
Top Tommee Tippee pacifier
Tommee Tippee Close to Nature Night Time Breast-Like Pacifier
What you need to know: This option has a glow-in-the-dark handle. The breast-shaped nipple makes that the perfect nighttime pacifier.
What you’ll love: It is easy to clean since there’s no worry about water getting stuck inside the nipple and forming mold.
What you should consider: The hole in the back of the pacifier is large enough to fit a finger.
Where to buy: Amazon
Top Tommee Tippee pacifier for the money
Tommee Tippee Fun Style Pacifiers
What you need to know: These orthodontic pacifiers are lightweight and create a good suction that helps the baby hold it longer.
What you’ll love: The nipples are symmetrical and do not flatten like other orthopedic brands.
What you should consider: The nipple is larger compared to other pacifiers.
Where to buy: Amazon
Worth checking out
Tommee Tippee Advanced Sensitive Skin Pacifiers
What you need to know: This option prevents the shield from touching the face and trapping moisture. It is perfect for sensitive skin.
What you’ll love: There is less moisture on the skin to decrease irritation, rashes and cracked lips.
What you should consider: The nipple is thin and a tad longer compared to other pacifiers.
Where to buy: Amazon
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Elizabeth Foley writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://www.cenlanow.com/reviews/br/baby-kids-br/nursing-feeding-br/best-tommee-tippee-pacifier/
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Which three-sided toothbrushes are best?
Most people try to take good care of their teeth and gums but despite their best efforts, improper brushing technique and not doing it for long enough often results in a less-than-adequate cleaning. Three-sided brushes help solve this problem.
For the best results, opt for an electric model such as the Triple Bristle Sonic Electric Toothbrush. This particular one produces 31,000 strokes per minute at its highest speed setting and features an autotimer to remove the guesswork when it comes to brushing for the recommended amount of time.
What to know before you buy a three-sided toothbrush
Benefits
Three-sided toothbrushes help solve the problem of not brushing for long enough as well as missing hard-to-reach and neglected areas. Thanks to the design, they ensure you brush the front, back and top evenly. The angled brushes on the sides get all the way down to the gum line.
Electric vs. manual
Both electric and manual toothbrushes can remove plaque and tartar but the former do it quicker and more effectively. This is because the small micro-movements combine with your broader strokes to increase the overall amount of brushing. Electric toothbrushes also might be easier to use for those with carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis or hand weakness.
Despite their benefits, electric toothbrushes may not be for everyone. They are more expensive than manual toothbrushes, which can put them out of reach for those on a tight budget. Some may find the vibrations to be irritating or tickle their nose and gums.
What to look for in a quality three-sided toothbrush
Bristles
Pay attention to the firmness of the bristles when buying a toothbrush. According to a study, firmer bristles remove more biofilm but have a higher chance of causing gingival abrasion. Most dentists recommend using a soft-bristled toothbrush because of this. If you feel like you don’t get a good enough cleaning with a soft-bristled brush and want to use a medium-bristle option instead, make sure you don’t brush too hard.
Tongue scrubber
Some three-sided toothbrushes have an integrated tongue scrubber. This usually is located at the back of the brush head, but it also can be in the handle. There are some toothbrushes that come bundled with a separate tongue scraper.
Grip
A three-sided toothbrush handle should be comfortable and allow for a secure grip. To aid with this, many manufacturers add high-friction rubber or plastic to the handle. Toothbrushes designed for kids may have thicker, contoured handles that are easier for children with still-developing motor skills to hold.
Colors
If you live in a household with other people, it is helpful to buy everyone a different colored toothbrush. This way, there is never any confusion over whose is whose.
Speed settings
Electric three-sided toothbrushes often have three to five speed settings. The lower speeds are useful for those with sensitive teeth or for massaging the gums, while the higher speeds can remove plaque more quickly.
Timer
Since one of the most common mistakes people make when brushing is not doing it long enough, some manufacturers incorporate timers in their electric toothbrushes. Some three-sided toothbrush timers may signal quadrant intervals to let you know when it is time to move to a different spot in your mouth.
How much you can expect to spend on a three-sided toothbrush
Expect to spend between $25-$100 for an electric three-sided toothbrush. Manual three-sided toothbrushes generally cost between $2-$10.
Three-sided toothbrush FAQ
Can you use a three-sided toothbrush with braces?
A. Yes. Not only can you use a three-sided toothbrush with braces, clinical studies have shown them to be more effective at removing food particles stuck in the nooks and crannies. This should result in less plaque and tartar buildup.
Can you brush for less time if you use a three-sided toothbrush?
A. While you theoretically can brush for less time if you use a three-sided toothbrush and get an adequate cleaning, it is a good idea to get into the habit of spending two minutes brushing your teeth each time. If you really want to do it for less time than that, it is best to consult with your dentist and ask what they recommend.
What’s the best three-sided toothbrush to buy?
Top three-sided toothbrush
Triple Bristle Sonic Electric Toothbrush
What you need to know: With 31,000 vibrations per minute, this three-sided sonic toothbrush provides an incredibly effective cleaning in a short amount of time.
What you’ll love: Its bristles change color to let you know when it is time to change the head. It comes with a tongue scraper, and the charging base is compact so it doesn’t take up much space on the bathroom counter.
What you should consider: It is more than twice the price of the company’s non-rechargeable model.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Top three-sided toothbrush for the money
What you need to know: A great choice for big households on a budget, this combo pack comes with three different colored toothbrushes for a low cost.
What you’ll love: Both kids and adults can use them and they feature an integrated tongue cleaner.
What you should consider: The bristles tend to wear out quickly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Worth checking out
FridaBaby Triple-Angle Toothhugger Training Toothbrush
What you need to know: Designed to make brushing easy for toddlers, the Toothhugger cleans all sides of the teeth at once and has a thick, soft, contoured grip.
What you’ll love: It has a suction cup on the base so the head doesn’t have to come into contact with dirty counters.
What you should consider: Some children may find the bristles too hard.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which Mario Badescu product is best?
For many years, brands emphasized covering flaws rather than healing skin. Recently, however, beauty treatments have switched to starting with healthy skin. Mario Badescu is a classic cult brand has a philosophy of providing simple, effective skin care. It’s known for its old-school labels and product names as well as for its affordability.
Many high-profile influencers and celebrities have adopted and promoted the brand in the past few years, bringing it forward from its cult status and into the limelight. A favorite is Mario Badescu Drying Lotion.
What to know before you buy a Mario Badescu product
History
Mario Badescu founded his namesake brand in a two-room Manhattan apartment in 1967, back when skin care was the realm for professionals. An aesthetician, Badescu was inspired by the tradition of European facial skin care. More than 50 years later, skin care has boomed and the brand is going strong. After Badescu passed away in the 1980s, Morise Cabasso purchased the company and it has stayed in the family since. For more affordable skin care options, check out the BestReviews guide to best skin care value sets.
Skin concerns
Acne: Acne-prone skin requires skin care that cleanses the skin without stripping everything from it. Consistency is vital in a skin care regimen for acne-prone skin, not just in-the-moment spot treatments.
Aging: Aging is a natural process, so anti-aging skin care doesn’t fight aging but protects the skin from external factors that can prematurely age it. Sun protection is critical, as is moisturizing. Products with high SPF are the best ways of preventing skin damage.
Oiliness: Oily skin requires balance. Products that contain alpha hydroxy acids or other minerals can help with removing excess oil from the skin.
Dryness: Dry skin needs intensive moisturizing. Gentle hydroxy acids can help prep the skin to absorb more heavy-duty moisturizers.
Sensitivity: Sensitive skin responds best to mild products, especially fragrance-free options and those lacking harsher chemicals and ingredients. All skin is different, so those with sensitive skin will benefit from patch testing.
What to look for in a quality Mario Badescu product
Ingredients
Mario Badescu products contain both botanical and ingredients for more personalized skin care. Go by your skin type and skin issues to find ingredients that work for you. For example, gentler botanicals such as chamomile are better for sensitive skin.
Scents
Pick scents that won’t bother you. Fragranced products can irritate some skin, but it can often depend on the product or fragrance, so look at all the options available, including the ingredients. There are a wide variety of scents from which to choose.
How much you can expect to spend on a Mario Badescu product
Mario Badescu products are affordable as a whole, although price varies. Expect to spend as little as $7-$10 for facial sprays and toners and $40-$50 for items like serums.
Mario Badescu product FAQ
Are Mario Badescu products cruelty-free?
A. Mario Badescu products are cruelty-free, as stated on its website. It doesn’t test on animals or allow testing of its products on its behalf. It also doesn’t sell in retail stores in areas that require animal testing.
Are Mario Badescu products vegan?
A. Mario Badescu is not vegan, although some products are. The products aren’t clearly marked vegan or non-vegan, so it may take some digging to find the status.
Are Mario Badescu products safe for sensitive skin?
A. It depends on the product. As a brand focused on skin care for all skin types, Mario Badescu has a line for sensitive skin with gentler ingredients. Not all products are suitable for sensitive skin, so always patch test before using a new product.
Mario Badescu drying lotion how-to-use guide
Mario Badescu’s drying lotion is a classic product with a stand-out two-tone solution that is pink on the bottom and transparent on the top. It’s one of the original products formulated in the 1960s that has stuck around for decades because it works.
- Don’t mix or shake the bottle. The drying lotion is meant to be separated.
- Before bed, after cleansing the skin, take a cotton swab and swipe it into the pink part at the bottom before pulling it up through the clear liquid. This combination of the two components is what will clear up your acne.
- Apply it to the spot you want gone. Don’t rub it in.
- Leave the drying lotion on overnight before rinsing it off in the morning.
- Keep an eye out for skin irritation.
What’s the best Mario Badescu product to buy?
Top Mario Badescu product
What you need to know: The is the brand’s most iconic product and a quick fix for breakouts.
What you’ll love: This drying lotion is an old-school, effective solution for irritating spots. It comes in a glass bottle.
What you should consider: It can irritate sensitive skin.
Where to buy: Sold by Sephora and Ulta
Top Mario Badescu product for the money
Mario Badescu Facial Spray With Aloe, Herbs and Rosewater
What you need to know: The Mario Badescu product that initially went viral with influencers in the 2010s is known for its skin-soothing effect and vibrant pink color.
What you’ll love: It’s a low-priced facial spray that includes botanical ingredients for skin health. It’s refreshing and simple.
What you should consider: Some aren’t fans of the plastic packaging.
Where to buy: Sold by Sephora and Ulta
Worth checking out
Mario Badescu Glycolic Acid Toner
What you need to know: This is a mild, alcohol-free toner to brighten and balance the skin.
What you’ll love: It contains alpha hydroxy acids for resurfacing and balancing the skin.
What you should consider: Alpha hydroxy acids increase sun sensitivity, so avoid sun exposure as long as you’re using this product. It may be too strong for those with sensitive skin.
Where to buy: Sold by Sephora
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Arabella Matthews writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which Youth to the People skincare product is best?
Youth to the People is dedicated to using naturally sourced ingredients for skincare products that not only leave skin looking fresh but can reduce facial impurities caused by pollutants and environmental stressors over time. The brand strives to provide the best skincare routine to its customers, even helping build customized skincare plans. Youth to the People use all vegan ingredients and eco-friendly packaging. If you are looking for an all-around moisturizing and age-defying beauty product, the Adaptogen Deep Moisture Cream is the top choice.
What to know before you buy Youth To The People skincare products
Ingredients
One of the most important things to consider when purchasing a product that will be directly applied to your skin is the ingredients. Located on the side of the packaging, the ingredients will tell users if the product contains chemicals or substances that won’t benefit their skin type. Youth to the People are very transparent with the ingredients used in their products and try to make formulas that are free of chemicals and other skin-harming ingredients. It’s still a good idea to be aware of each ingredient going onto your skin, and double -heck for anything you may be allergic or sensitive to.
Cruelty-Free
Most brands have adopted a more natural, eco-friendly way of life, including a reduction of animal testing on products. Youth to the People have run an entirely vegan and cruelty-free operation since opening their doors in 2015. To make sure an item is not tested on animals look for a PETA-approved bunny, a leaping bunny or the words “not tested on animals” directly on the packaging.
Mission
Youth To The People products are created with the natural idea that what you are putting on your skin should contain just as many beneficial nutrients as what you put into your body. All of their products are formulated with natural ingredients and are gentle enough for all skin types. This company believes in helping the environment in any way it can and only uses glass containers for its products. On their website, you can find helpful resources and articles on sustainability and living an eco-friendly lifestyle.
What to look for in a quality Youth To The People skincare product
Formulas
Products that are a cream will typically be oil-based. These tend to provide a smooth application but may take longer to absorb into the skin. They’re extensively moisturizing and can benefit those with dry or otherwise damaged skin. These products can leave steaks and are usually white in color.
Other products are water-based. These skincare products are typically more lightweight and are more beneficial to oily and combination skin types. These products are typically colorless and absorb quickly into the skin while hydrating. With this type of product, there’s less chance of clogged pores or a buildup of product on the skin. However, it doesn’t deeply moisturize as well as some cream-based products.
Skin type
Purchasing the right product and formula for your skin type will ensure that your skin remains hydrated as needed and will help makeup blend easier and look more natural.
Dry skin: If you have dry skin, consider a cream formula, which deeply hydrates dry skin. Lightweight, water-based formulas may not moisturize as effectively if your skin’s extra dry. Products containing natural oils also benefit those with dry skin. Make sure your Youth to the People skincare product is also alcohol-free to prevent excessive drying.
Oily skin: If you have oily skin, consider an oil-free, lightweight, water-based skincare product. This will lessen the chances of your pores getting clogged and your skin looking extra shiny. If you have oily skin, avoid products that are heavier and contain many oils.
Combination skin: It can be trickier for people with combination skin types to find products that match their skin needs. Hydrating formulas that are oil-free can be a great choice. If you have this skin type, you may experience oil on your forehead, nose and chin and may want to use different types of formulas accordingly. To find the right product for you, test a few different formulas out until you find your optimal combination.
Sensitive skin: Those with sensitive skin should avoid use of chemical fragrances. Youth to the People doesn’t use sulfates or parabens in their products, making them less likely to irritate sensitive skin. If a product is particularly good for sensitive skin, it will likely be mentioned in the product description.
How much you can expect to spend on Youth to the People skincare products
Youth to the People products range in price, depending on the quantity and ingredients of the products. You can find all skincare products between $15 on the cheaper end and $80 on the high end.
Youth to the People skincare products FAQ
How do I know when these products expire?
A. On the bottom or side of the product’s container, there will be a small jar graphic. Inside this jar will be a number. That number will specify the time that the product can be used effectively before the ingredients expire. For example, if the product you purchase has a 12 inside the jar graphic, the product expires after 12 months. You can also find the expiration date in the product FAQs on the website listing.
Is it safe to use food ingredients in skincare?
A. Superfoods contain amino acids, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties which can make them great for skin health, specifically when it comes to environmental stress and pollution’s effects on the skin.
What are the best Youth to the People skincare products to buy?
Top Youth to the People skincare product
What you need to know: This is a deeply hydrating moisturizer with superior plant extracts and a pro-grade peptide that works to soothe sensitive skin.
What you’ll love: It’s fragrance free and, though the formula is thick, it will not clog the pores.
What you should consider: This moisturizer is not deep enough to be effective for extra dry skin and will take longer to show true effects.
Where to buy: Sold by Youth to the People, Sephora.
Top Youth to the People skincare product for the money
Superfood Hydrate and Firm Peptide Eye Cream
What you need to know: The container is small, but the effects of the cream are significant.
What you’ll love: The peptides contained in this product are used to firm the skin under the eye and naturally reduce the look of dark circles over time. It also contains restorative vitamins that brightens under the eye.
What you should consider: The container is small and the product can go quickly.
Where to buy: Sold by Youth to the People.
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This powerful, gentle daily face wash is formulated with cold-pressed antioxidants — kale, spinach and green tea — to deeply cleanse the skin.
What you’ll love: It works to prevent buildup in pores, removes makeup and balances pH without drying the skin.
What you should consider: Some users noticed the pump leaking, which results in a waste of product.
Where to buy: Sold by Youth to the People, Sephora, Amazon.
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Logan DeLoye writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T11:46:14
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Which bathroom fan is best?
A bathroom fan is an essential feature for bathrooms of all sizes. Without one, the high moisture levels in your bathroom may lead to problems like damaged wood, paint and plaster, the formation of mold and even lung issues if the quality of air suffers. A bathroom fan regulates humidity to keep your bathroom clean and free from moisture damage.
Regardless of your budget and the size of your space, there’s a good bathroom fan option for you. Choosing one can prove overwhelming given the various technical considerations that go into selecting the right bathroom fan, such as the size of your ductwork, the amount of airflow required for the size of your bathroom and whether to opt for additional features, such as lighting, moisture-sensing and heating.
For powerful air movement and quiet performance, the Panasonic WhisperCeiling Ventilation Fan is the best of the best.
What to know before you buy a bathroom fan
Airflow rate
To ensure the circulation power of your fan is good enough, look for its rating of how much air it moves per minute, measured in units of cubic feet per minute or CFM.
Best practice is to select a bathroom fan with at least approximately 1 CFM for every square foot of bathroom space you have. For most small or medium-sized bathrooms, a rating of 50 CFM is sufficient. If you have a large bathroom, look for a fan with a rating of 75-100 CFM.
Noise output level
Look for a bathroom fan that indicates “whisper quiet” operation if low noise levels are a primary concern for you. If members of your household sleep and shower on different schedules, a quiet bathroom fan helps ensure a loud fan early in the morning or late at night doesn’t disturb them.
Bathroom fan noises are measured in sones, which is a subjective unit of perceived noise. Quiet fan models have a rating of less than or equal to 1.0 sones. Very quiet fans can be as low as 0.3 sones, and louder fans may be as loud as 4.0 sones, which would be a very noticeable level of noise.
Size
When selecting a fan, take stock of your current bathroom ventilation ductwork setup. You probably already have ductwork in your bathroom, so you should measure the duct prior to purchasing a new model to avoid purchasing one that’s too small and leaves a gap.
Placement
Install your fan above or near your shower to clear out humidity in the bathroom. It’s also important to have good ventilation near the toilet to dispel odors.
What to look for in a quality bathroom fan
Heating elements
Some high-end bathroom fans include heating elements to keep you warm when you walk out of your bathtub or shower. This is a helpful feature to have, but keep in mind this type of fan uses a lot of energy, similar to a small space heater.
Also, note that heating bathroom fans shouldn’t be installed directly over your shower. This could be problematic if you already have a ventilation system set up over your shower and don’t want to move the duct.
You should consult with an electrician if you choose to install a heating fan to ensure you have the correct wattage hookup in your bathroom and avoid tripping a circuit.
Lighting
Consider whether you want your bathroom fan to include LED lighting. This is a nice feature in a smaller bathroom where installing both a bathroom fan and a lighting fixture takes up too much ceiling space or creates a cluttered look.
Automatic on and off function
A fan with a humidity sensor automatically turns on and off based on the humidity level in the air. This is useful for preserving the quality of the walls in your bathroom and avoiding moisture-related problems, such as mold. This could save you a little bit of mental energy, because without this function, you’ll need to remember to leave your fan on for up to a half an hour after showering.
How much you can expect to spend on a bathroom fan
Bathroom fans range in price from budget models available for less than $50 up to luxury models that cost up to $200 with additional features like LED lights, built-in heaters and variable speed. Expect to pay around $100 for a powerful, durable and quiet fan.
Bathroom fan FAQ
How do you use your bathroom fan separately from the bathroom light?
A. Many bathroom fan models can be set up to operate on a switch that’s separate from your bathroom lighting. If you don’t already have wiring set up for this function, you should consult with a contractor who can take care of wiring for you. Attempting to do this yourself could pose a hazard or lead to work that isn’t up to code.
Where should you install my bathroom fan?
A. Install your bathroom fan above your bathtub or shower to most efficiently reduce humidity in the space. If your fan has a built-in heating function, however, you should install it on the ceiling not above your shower.
What’s the best bathroom fan to buy?
Top bathroom fan
Panasonic WhisperCeiling Ventilation Fan
What you need to know: This is a highly rated fan that operates quietly, moves air efficiently and saves money with Energy-Star rated performance.
What you’ll love: As its name suggests, this fan is very quiet when in operation. It allows users to customize airflow to 110, 130 or 150 CFM.
What you should consider: Some customers find installation of this model difficult, although it’s designed with easy installation in mind.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and The Home Depot
Top bathroom fan for the money
Broan-NuTone 688 Ceiling and Wall Ventilation Fan
What you need to know: This fan costs less than others and provides stunningly powerful performance.
What you’ll love: At a fraction of the cost, this powerful fan moves air and clears humidity with surprising efficiency, especially in small bathrooms. You can also paint this fan to match other finishes in your space. It’s relatively simple to install.
What you should consider: This fan is louder than others on the market.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: Easy to install, this quiet fan has an attractive white housing.
What you’ll love: The fan receives high marks for durability, whisper-quiet operation and a simple snap-in ceiling installation process. It offers impressive performance for its price.
What you should consider: Some customers find the plastic housing a bit thin or flimsy, but it performs well once installed.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Evelyn Waugh writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which bathtub sliding door is best?
Sliding doors improve the look of your bathtub and make getting in and out easy whether you are bathing or showering. Sliding doors keep water where it belongs better than shower curtains. They are easier to clean and less likely to collect mold. Unlike full-length sliding doors for showers, sliding doors for bathtubs are made so the frame sits atop the side of the tub.
The type of frame, glass and hardware all factor in the price of bathtub sliding doors. If you are looking for a sleek and modern frameless bathtub sliding door for your bathroom makeover, consider the DreamLine Mirage-X 56-60-Inch Frameless Sliding Tub Door.
What to know before you buy a bathtub sliding door
Bathtub sliding doors are almost all glass, so choosing the right glass for your needs and preferences is an important first step.
Glass safety
Safety glass is essential in bathtub doors. You have two choices of what happens if your bathtub sliding door ever breaks.
- Tempered glass is the most common type and is the same material found in car windows. It is stronger and more durable than the window glass found in homes. When broken, safety glass does not fracture into pieces with sharp edges. Instead, it breaks into small pebble-like pieces that do not cause cuts or injuries.
- Laminated glass has two outer layers of thin glass sandwiched around a plastic inner layer. In the case of breakage, the plastic holds both outer glass sheets in place and no pieces fall to the floor.
Glass thickness
Most of the glass in bathtub sliding doors is between ⅛ and ½ inch thick. Thicker glass is used in frameless bathtub sliding doors to provide greater structural support. However, the thinner glass that is used in budget bathtub sliding doors is not as safe and is more likely to break.
Glass style
There are four common styles of glass, each admitting a different type and amount of light.
- Clear glass is the most common choice. It is the least expensive and the hardest to keep clean.
- Patterned glass has designs etched on the surface and is favored by many who want to add a decorator’s touch.
- Textured glass is translucent and offers more privacy by blurring what is seen from both inside and out while still admitting all the light.
- Frosted glass is a privacy glass with an etched or sandblasted finish that obscures the view in both directions.
To learn even more about bathtub sliding doors, take a look at the full bathtub sliding door buying guide from BestReviews.com.
What to look for in a quality bathtub sliding door
Frames
Bathtub sliding doors are made in full-framed, frameless and semi-frameless styles.
- Full-framed doors: These doors are the least expensive of the three, contain the most metal and provide the tightest water seal. The metal runs along the top, bottom and sides of the glass panels.
- Frameless sliding doors: The most elegant and the most expensive are the frameless sliding doors. The only metal is at the hinge points and the handles. Frameless sliding doors are found in minimalist bathrooms.
- Semi-frameless tub doors: These have metal along the top edge of the glass panels but not the sides.
Metal finish
All three door frame types have some metal parts, like hinges and handles, and some have full or partial frames. These metal surfaces are usually finished in chrome because chrome is the most common surface found in the bathtub fixtures, faucets and controls in most homes. However, better finishes like stainless steel, polished brass and brushed nickel allow people to give custom looks to their sliding glass doors.
Glass coatings
Water-resistant coatings applied by the manufacturer are a good feature to have if you want to save cleaning time. They prevent the buildup of mold and soap scum and make the glass easier to clean.
How much you can expect to spend on a bathtub sliding door
Midrange bathtub sliding doors cost between $250-$350. Here you will expect to find better glass and better finishes. Bathtub sliding doors under $250 will be made of lower-quality materials. Above $350, you will find smooth-operating, frameless bathtub sliding doors with the best glass panels and best coatings.
Bathtub sliding door FAQ
Can I install my bathtub sliding door myself?
A. You will be dealing with glass and metal in a tiled environment that is made to be wet. Unless you are an avid DIYer with a workshop full of tools, you are better off leaving it to professionals so you don’t get leaks.
What is the best number of shower doors to have?
A. The choice is yours. Some like a large single movable door. Others like having two or three doors that slide in either direction because different people can use it in different ways.
What’s the best bathtub sliding door to buy?
Top bathtub sliding door
DreamLine Mirage-X 56-60-Inch Frameless Sliding Tub Door
What you need to know: The frameless design of this tub door is very sleek and modern and ideal for custom baths.
What you’ll love: A single large door slides open for easy access to the bathtub. The L-bar provides a streamlined look and structural support. The proprietary ClearMax coating is water-resistant and protects against the buildup of lime and scale. The aluminum frame is anodized to resist corrosion.
What you should consider: This product is pricey, and the installation is challenging.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top bathtub sliding door for the money
DreamLine Visions 56-60-Inch Semi-Frameless Sliding Tub Door
What you need to know: The unique dual sliding door design opens at the center.
What you’ll love: This sliding tub door looks great with any bathroom decor. This product has smaller handles than most sliding bathtub doors. The ANSI-certified tempered glass repels water and resists water spotting. The aluminum frame has a chrome finish.
What you should consider: It has only a 4-inch width adjustment.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Delta Trinsic 60-Inch Semi-Frameless Sliding Bathtub Door SD3927410
What you need to know: Choose the glass style, handle and track that you like best.
What you’ll love: This 1-2-3 shower door is a beautiful product that fits many different installations with its 8-inch range of adjustment. The large handles are conveniently placed and easy to use, and this product’s certified safety glass is coated to resist water spots.
What you should consider: This unit needs a perfectly level bathtub area.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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David Allan Van writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which bed frame is best?
Several things contribute to a good night’s sleep: mattress quality, sheet quality and perhaps most important, bed frame quality. A good bed frame holds your mattress in place while supporting it. The best bed frames are made from high-quality wood or metal and do not squeak or move while you are in bed.
For a sturdy bed frame with adjustable settings, you can’t beat the Classic Brands Comfort Upholstered Adjustable Bed Base, which also has a massage function for those days when you’re feeling a little tense.
What to know before you buy a bed frame
Type
The traditional box-spring bed frame puts a bed foundation between the frame and the mattress and is the most common type of bed frame. Usually made with horizontal supports or metal lattice, the frame gives the mattress necessary support. A platform bed frame uses slats to support the mattress. Adjustable bed frames allow users to raise and lower either the head or the foot of the bed to provide extra comfort. Adjustable bed frames typically are far more expensive than traditional bed frames due to the ergonomic technology used.
Size
Making sure the bed frame fits the size of your mattress ensures the frame correctly supports the mattress.
Integrated vs. separate frames
Freestanding bed frames are the typical design you see with most bed frames. You can pair one with a headboard to complete a bedroom’s look. On the other hand, integrated bed frames come fully integrated, typically with a headboard, footboard and side rails, creating a more complete and finished look.
What to look for in a quality bed frame
Material
Most bed frames are made of three materials: metal, wood or upholstery. Wooden frames create a more natural appearance and typically are solid and durable. However, solid-wood options tend to be more expensive. Metal frames are durable and lightweight. They often are more affordable than wooden options and usually fit more in modern room designs. Upholstered bed frames tend to be made from a wood composite or frame and upholstered with fabric padding. They often come in integrated frames.
Height
As a rule of thumb, most standard beds are approximately 25 inches off the ground including the height of the mattress. However, some frames range significantly in height, allowing for beds to be higher or lower. Low-profile beds provide a more contemporary feel to a room, while more elevated beds add a sense of sophistication.
How much you can expect to spend on a bed frame
Bed frame prices are determined by both the construction of the frame and the materials used. The least expensive frames cost between $30 and $100 and generally are metal box spring or platform frames. Midrange bed frames range between $100 and $500 and are made of sturdier materials such as wood, metal or upholstery. Some bed frames in this price range may be adjustable. High-end bed frames cost more than $500 and are constructed with high-quality materials such as ornate solid wood. Some of these frames can cost as much as $5,000.
Bed frame FAQ
Do you need a headboard with a bed frame?
A. Some bed frames come with integrated headboards. However, a headboard is not necessary. This is dependent on your aesthetic style and whether a headboard can fit in your room.
Should you also buy a new mattress with a new bed frame?
A. This is not necessary. As long as the mattress fits the bed frame, the bed will be supported and ready for use. However, you should replace your mattress every five to 10 years.
What’s the best bed frame to buy?
Top bed frame
Classic Brands Comfort Upholstered Adjustable Bed Base
What you need to know: This customer favorite is a versatile, adjustable bed base and one of the best options for bed frames.
What you’ll love: For an affordable price, this frame provides several comfortable settings to accommodate every kind of sleeper. It comes equipped with convenient USB ports and a massage function.
What you should consider: Some users have reported the legs can feel wobbly and the wireless remote has been known to freeze on occasion. Additionally, this frame is more expensive than many others.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top bed frame for the money
Zinus SmartBase Super Heavy Duty Mattress Foundation
What you need to know: The ZINUS mattress foundation is one of the most reliable bed frame options providing stability and height.
What you’ll love: This frame has a solid construction that is supportive and stable. It has additional space underneath for extra storage.
What you should consider: Some users have reported this frame may squeak after extended use.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Zinus Michelle Compack Adjustable Steel Bed Frame
What you need to know: This is an adjustable frame designed for comfort and years of use.
What you’ll love: The rugged frame stands out with its adjustability and can accommodate full- to king-size beds.
What you should consider: This frame will not work with some headboards with different screw types.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jared Lindsay writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which early childhood education material is best?
The more the learning experience is a pleasurable one, the more your child sees learning as a fun and interesting activity and not a dreary chore. When a child’s brain is exposed to the right stimuli, they have a greater understanding of the world around them, preparing them for school and beyond.
If you’re looking for a set of learning materials that builds your child’s vocabulary while teaching them to sort and match, try the delightful Learning Resources Alphabet Soup Sorters with more than 200 letter, photo and vocabulary cards.
What to know before you buy early childhood education materials
Areas of early childhood development
- Gross motor skills: Gross motor skills include the bigger muscles of the body, such as the arms, legs and torso. Gaining control of these big muscles contributes to a child’s balance, coordination and reaction time.
- Fine motor skills: Fine motor skills develop control of the small muscles, especially those in the hands and fingers. They include reaching, grasping and controlling objects with the hands. The more quickly kids develop a high degree of control and precision with their fine motor skills, the quicker they’re able to do things for themselves.
- Listening skills: Learning to listen means far more than hearing sounds and knowing what they mean. When kids learn to listen, they learn to pay attention to things and others around them. The time-tested way of developing kids’ listening skills is reading to them. If you choose books with topics that interest them, you’re off to a great start.
- Academic skills: The best way to get started on this phase of your kid’s learning journey is with letters and numbers. Learning here is enhanced with rhymes and sounds. Kids learn to sort and count with collections of brightly colored objects like beads, blocks and cards.
- Free play: Also called unstructured or semi-structured play, free play allows kids to develop their creativity and learn how to solve simple problems on their own. You might give kids a simple instruction or two and then give them some interlocking plastic parts to build whatever they can imagine.
What to look for in quality early childhood education materials
Age group
Age ranges for early childhood education materials are broad guidelines and not hard and fast rules. You don’t want to bore children with games and projects they think are “baby stuff”; neither do you want to frustrate them with too great a challenge.
Grab their attention
The best way to keep kids’ attention is with brightly colored objects, games and other educational materials. Kids’ interest levels go up with things that light up, make sounds and play music, especially younger kids.
Safety
Young learners want to put things into their mouths. Make sure all the materials they play with are non-toxic and non-hazardous. Objects should be free of sharp corners. Avoid early childhood education materials that have parts small enough for children to swallow.
How much you can expect to spend on early childhood education materials
Simple early childhood education materials that develop motor skills, like stringing beads together or craft pages that involve cutting and pasting usually cost no more than $5. Learning kits and resource books cost from $10-$25 and develop motor, listening and early academic skills. Above $30, you can find larger items and sets, like numbers and letters.
Early childhood education materials FAQ
When is the best time to get kids started on learning?
A. Once kids reach 24 months or so, they have begun to develop the language skills necessary to interact with others.
What’s the best way to get my young child’s early childhood education started?
A. Read to your child — the more often, the better. The better your children learn to read, the better they can learn every lesson from kindergarten through graduate school.
Can I replace formal classroom learning with at-home learning?
A. Kids who do both generally learn more and learn it more quickly. If you choose to homeschool your child, you’ll need to do a lot of learning on your own so you teach your kids the right things in the right ways.
What are the best early childhood education materials to buy?
Top early childhood education materials
Learning Resources Alphabet Soup Sorters
What you need to know: These fun stackable soup cans teach your child aged 3 and above how letters look and what sounds they make.
What you’ll love: Each set includes 26 durable cardboard 3 x 4-inch “soup cans” with plastic lids. Inside each are one uppercase and one lowercase letter card, as well as five vocabulary cards for hands-on sorting and matching. This set of education materials builds your child’s vocabulary while developing their ability to sort and recall.
What you should consider: The plastic bag the cards come in is not environmentally friendly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top early childhood education materials for the money
The Outdoor Toddler Fun Activity Book by Krissy Bonning-Gould
What you need to know: Use this book to introduce your child to more than 100 outdoor activities.
What you’ll love: This potpourri of learning activities is organized by activity level, loudness and messiness. Icons tell parents which childhood education areas are targeted for each activity. The colorful book includes skill-building exercises and tips and tricks for more successful learning sessions.
What you should consider: Parents need to do some planning and gather some household materials.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Learning Resources Gears! Gears! Gears! 100-Piece Deluxe Building Set
What you need to know: Get your child started in the world of STEM learning with this 100-piece set of construction toys.
What you’ll love: This set introduces children to sorting, grouping, counting and designing. Kids use gears, axles, pillars, bases and a crank handle to make something out of a bunch of parts. Kids develop fine motor skills as they learn reasoning and problem-solving.
What you should consider: Smaller kids may have some trouble turning the crank.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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David Allan Van writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Jerry “The Geator” Blavat | photo courtesy of the artist
The Lost Dedications will take a trip down memory lane with The Geator and his unopened fan mail this Saturday on XPN
When famed Philly disc jockey Jerry “The Geator with the Heater” Blavat held court on WCAM radio in the 1960s, his audience of “yon teenagers” was devoted.
They called the station and made requests for song dedications: very specific dedications, filled with a litany of names and places and inside jokes. The studio’s phone lines often got jammed, and when they couldn’t get through, The Geator’s fans wrote letters. Sometimes those messages made it to the airwaves, and sometimes they stayed in their envelopes. Which is how we arrive at something that WXPN is calling The Lost Dedications.
The hour-long special, airing on Saturday, June 26th at 5 p.m. ET, finds The Geator presented with a box of unopened fan mail from the year 1962. He opens them live on the mic, talks about the letters with host Ben Vaughn, and reminisces about the music and memories they contain.
A couple years back, Vaughn was helping The Geator move out of his longtime office space on Market Street in Philadelphia. Several boxes were being readied for donation to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library in Cleveland, some boxes were simply being organized. In one of the boxes, Vaughn found many of those letters with dedication requests, and he was bowled over — not just by their age, but their content, how personally they addressed The Geator and how openly they shared with him.
And then, in a corner of the box, Vaughn found a bundle of 57-year-old letters that had never been opened. He couldn’t believe it.
“These letters are from his peak as a powerful radio personality in Philadelphia,” Vaughn said when we talked about the project over Zoom. “Think about it: we’re catching him before The Beatles. Kennedy is still alive. It’s insane what we have here.”
He kept the letters untouched, called up The Geator to tell him what he found, and they set to work documenting this musical time capsule.
Speaking over the phone last week, The Geator remembers getting dedication requests vividly. He describes them lighting up the phone lines; “I would say ‘if you couldn’t get through, write to The Geator, tell me what you want, and I’ll get it on for you.'” He remembers answering those requests on the air, and cherishes the freedom he had to do it because his station — broadcasting from Camden at a humble 250 watts on 1320 AM — was free of the “format radio” approach of commercial stations.
But as much as he tried to interacted with all his fans, “I never knew I had this box of letters,” he says. “When [Ben] came to me and showed me these letters, I said to myself, you know how wonderful it was for me at that time to connect to the audience with dedications and letters. They don’t do that today! In radio you don’t make dedications anymore. You don’t write to your favorite disc jockey anymore about the music and how you felt about the music he’s been playing.”
Feeling is very important to The Geator, and that’s something that will come across in The Lost Dedications. “I don’t just play music – music tells a story about life. My audience back then, as the audience of today, identifies with the song. It speaks for the human experience.”
Reflecting on his own experience and childhood connection to The Geator, Vaughn describes himself as a radio fanatic. Growing up in Mount Ephraim, New Jersey, he got his start listening to Philly’s pop stations WIBG and WFIL, and the soul station WDAS. He’d stay up all night, locked in, and one Saturday afternoon, as he arrived home from baseball practice, he caught The Geator’s television show. “I never played baseball again,” he says. “It was rock and roll 101.” Vaughn found himself attending dances hosted by The Geator, connecting with fellow music lovers through The Geator, earning himself a high school nickname (“Ben-a-phonic Ben”) due to his Geator fandom. And in The Lost Dedications, Vaughn paints a picture of teens just like him, their cars parked on the banks of the Delaware river, aerial antennas aloft, trying to get the clearest reception of the signal and vibrations coming from the Tower of Power Clock.
“When we were reading these letters, it was heartfelt,” The Geator says. “These were kids! A lot of these people who are still around are parents, grandparents, have had successful careers. That’s the greatest way to communicate in life, through music. I’ve been very fortunate my entire life to communicate with people I don’t see, that hear my voice, and they know the music I play.”
Tune in to The Lost Dedications on WXPN this Saturday, June 26th, at 5 p.m. ET; tune in in Philly at 88.5 FM on the radio dial, tune in everywhere else streaming at XPN.org.
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Which Marshall speaker is best?
Even those with limited knowledge of the music industry and all its attendant equipment, you have likely heard of Marshall speakers and their legendary “Wall of Sound” at concert performances. For those looking for a home stereo system that offers incredible performance and advanced technology as a live performance, the Marshall Woburn WiFi and Bluetooth Speaker delivers fantastic audio quality with a timeless style and appearance.
What to know before you buy a Marshall speaker
History of Marshall speakers
Legendary musicians have used Marshall speakers for the best part of 60 years. Therefore, by purchasing a Marshall speaker, you are becoming a small part of a proud musical tradition whose technological capabilities are more impressive than ever before. Check out the Marshall speakers buying guide on BestReviews to learn more about these products.
EU declaration of conformity
As anyone who has ever tried to make an international purchase can attest, you sometimes take risks when buying something from another nation whose technological safety and manufacturing standards are different from those of your country of residence. For multinational groups like the European Union, it is essential that products sold across the EU come with a declaration of conformity certifying a product’s adherence to a set of harmonized and relevant standards. Thankfully, Marshall provides declarations of conformity for 25 speaker models to ensure that international customers can be certain of what they are purchasing.
What to look for in a quality Marshall speaker
Speaker location
Like every speaker model has a specific purpose, it is equally critical to consider what kind of audio setup you wish to create and where you plan to enjoy your favorite audio. To clarify, you should purchase your Marshall speaker based on factors, including their ability to function as either a standalone unit or as part of a single or even multi-room setup. Other factors to consider include portability, IPX-level protection from the elements and battery life, if applicable.
Connections your speaker will need
While there have been many debates over the virtues and superiority of wired versus wireless audio connections, one thing that people can’t argue is that it’s always nice to have a variety of options. While any portable speaker will need to be Bluetooth compatible to get the most out of your music on the go, speakers installed in your home should be able to receive cabled connections for a more hard-wired setup. Many models of Marshall speakers come equipped with both wireless options like AirPlay, Bluetooth and Chromecast and physical inputs for both 3.5mm cable and RCA.
Ease of installation, pre-set audio options and great warranty
Thanks to the handy Marshall Multi-Room app, setting up your new speaker is just a matter of a few taps away, whether you are setting up your streaming room, recording studio, living room or the entire house. Better still, the convenience of several customizable pre-set buttons means that you can access your favorite artists, internet radio stations and Spotify playlist with a single press of a button. If your Marshall speaker suffers from a mechanical defect, a year-long Global warranty with service options covered all purchases, including Carry-In, Mail-in and DIY.
How much you can expect to spend on a Marshall speaker
Depending on your desired features and capabilities, a quality Marshall speaker can easily cost between $300-$480, and sometimes more.
Marshall speaker FAQ
Can I connect my Marshall speaker to my Smart TV?
A. Yes, you can connect your Marshall speaker to any Bluetooth compatible device, using your home WiFi network and employing the Marshall Multi-Room app.
How do I connect two or more Marshall speakers?
A. Simply open your Marshall Multi-Room app, select “couple speakers” and follow the instructions to connect your speakers into a single setup.
What’s the best Marshall speaker to buy?
Top Marshall speaker
Marshall Woburn Multi Room WiFi and Bluetooth Speaker
What you need to know: This is an attractive speaker that is convenient and capable.
What you’ll love: As Marshall’s most prominent speaker, this unit offers the ability to connect with RCA and 3.5mm cables as well as dual 5.25-inch woofers,110 watts of amp power and connects wirelessly through AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Bluetooth or built-in Chromecast.
What you should consider: Users reported issues with Bluetooth sound delays when watching films and problems with updating Google Home.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Marshall speaker for the money
Marshall Stanmore II Wireless Bluetooth Speaker
What you need to know: This is an excellent wireless speaker for taking your music with you around the house.
What you’ll love: This unit features Bluetooth 5.0 aptX lossless wireless sound at up to 30 feet, an iconic design Frequency Range of 50–20 000 Hz, multi-host functionality for connecting and switching between two different Bluetooth devices, as well as RCA and 3.5mm inputs.
What you should consider: Users have reported issues with power failures and the auto-shutoff function engaging for no reason.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Marshall Kilburn II Portable Bluetooth Speaker
What you need to know: This is the perfect speaker for taking quality audio wherever you go.
What you’ll love: This unit is ultra-portable at only 6.6 pounds while offering over 20 hours of portable music, IPX-4 certification against wind and water damage, solid metal grille and vinyl coating to protect against physical damage and multi-host functionality.
What you should consider: Users have reported units failing within a year of initial purchase, as well as Bluetooth connectivity issues.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Daniel Martin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which multitrack recorder is best?
As recording technology has progressed, the equipment involved in capturing sound has become more complicated. For musicians who don’t want to bother with expensive computers and complicated software, multitrack recorders offer a simple, quality option.
The Zoom R16 Multitrack Tabletop Recorder provides flexibility, portability and a straightforward, physical means of quickly capturing sound. This model’s 8 channel simultaneous recording and built-in digital effects make it the best choice if you want an easy to use, affordable recording experience.
What to know before you buy a multitrack recorder
The benefits of using a multitrack recorder
Musicians who find themselves frustrated by complex recording systems full of hard to use features usually prefer multitrack recorders. These devices provide a more cost-effective recording option, as they are much more affordable than the combined cost of the computer, hardware and software required for recording. They are also great for quickly recording songwriting ideas or capturing interesting field audio.
What kind of recording you want to do
Multitrack recorders are the ideal solution for recording small performances or minimalist songs. If you’re a musician on the go, looking for a quick way to save audio during moments of inspiration outside the studio or just have an interest in recording sound for fun, a multitrack recorder will suit your needs well.
Portability
One of the biggest reasons to use a multitrack recorder is portability. These units are compact and can easily be used in the field to gather recordings on the spot with minimal fuss. Even those with professional studios equipped with the latest computer technology can benefit from the convenience a multitrack recorder brings to the creative process.
What to look for in a quality multitrack recorder
Track count
Consider the kind of recordings you plan to make and the source of the audio you plan to capture. If you want to record simple, solo performances, a recorder with as few as four tracks may be all you need. For those who intend to record full band performances or larger ensembles, a recorder with eight tracks or more is best.
Inputs
Consider the complexity of your audio source. A singer who also plays guitar will require two inputs to allow you to keep their vocal and guitar audio separated for customized mixing. Keep in mind, however, if that same performer uses stereo effects on their voice or guitar, each audio source will then require a separate left and right input to be captured accurately. While it may be tempting to skimp on inputs to keep costs down, it is worth spending the money to have plenty of input options.
Microphones
Many multitrack recorders have microphones built in. This allows for convenient, on-the-spot recording without the need to bring along separate microphones, stands and cables. Built-in microphones will generally not be of the highest quality, but usually suffice for field recording and most small performances. For more info on microphones, check out this BestReviews guide.
Complexity
Some multitrack recorders are basic devices that simply capture audio for listening afterwards. Others are designed to be used as alternatives to full studio workstations. These recorders allow users to add effects, mix and produce their sound to professional standards. Consider what your end goal is for your audio recording, and think about investing in a more robust multitrack recorder to accommodate future projects.
How much you can expect to spend on a multitrack recorder
Quality multitrack recorders can be purchased for around $150. These will be small devices that capture audio, but are not designed for mixing or editing sound. Musicians looking for multitrack recorders with more tracks, features and inputs will have to spend $300-$1,000 to meet their needs.
Multitrack recorder FAQ
How do multitrack recorders save audio?
A. The multitrack recorders of years past used to capture audio on cassette tapes or rewritable CDs. Most of today’s models write data digitally to SD cards. You can swap out SD cards of different sizes to get more recording space.
How do I listen to the audio on my multitrack recorder?
A. Multitrack recorders include a headphone jack as well as outputs for connecting to speakers or studio monitors. These outputs can also connect to your audio interface, allowing you to record audio from your device directly into your DAW in real time.
Do multitrack recorders capture sound as well as a computer?
A. Yes. Multitrack recorders are capable of capturing professional audio. However, whether you’re capturing sound in a studio or in your bedroom at home, the quality of your end result will depend on your familiarity with proper recording techniques as well as the quality of your microphone.
What’s the best multitrack recorder to buy?
Top multitrack recorder
Zoom R16 Multitrack Tabletop Recorder
What you need to know: This multitrack recorder continues Zoom’s history of providing high quality audio gear at competitive prices.
What you’ll love: 16 tracks and built-in microphones make this a great portable recording studio. Eight separate inputs give you flexibility when it comes to capturing sound, and the device can also be used as an audio interface. This recorder can run on battery power for portability.
What you should consider: Users report that Zoom does not provide regular firmware updates, which may result in compatibility issues with some PCs.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top multitrack recorder for the money
TASCAM DP-006 6-Track Digital Pocketstudio
What you need to know: This multitrack recorder from TASCAM is a great tool for songwriters or those interested in learning about basic sound recording.
What you’ll love: TASCAM is a well-known company with deep roots in the history of audio recording. This recorder is compact and very light, making it easy to pack in a bag or guitar case. Two built-in microphones and battery power make this device perfect for travel.
What you should consider: The menu on this recorder is challenging to navigate and the device only allows two tracks to be recorded at a time.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Zoom H4n Pro 4-Track Portable Recorder
What you need to know: This compact model is incredibly portable and ideal for quick recordings and simple song sketches.
What you’ll love: This unit is small enough to fit in your pocket, but still captures pristine audio. Two inputs allow for the use of external microphones or instruments.
What you should consider: This device is best for collecting audio and is not suitable for mixing or producing a finished product.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Derek Walborn writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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What is the best Logitech webcam?
With the global COVID-19 pandemic, the economic focus has shifted from office-bound workers to employees working from home. For those who don’t have a laptop with a built-in camera, a webcam is the next best option.
But where do you start looking if you need one? Logitech has been manufacturing computer accessories and peripherals for a long time and knows a thing or two about webcams. So, for the best video and audio quality, check out the Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Webcam.
What to know before you buy a Logitech webcam
Video resolution
The quality of the video stream will be relative to what that camera captures. Webcams are generally available with either 720p, 1080p or 4K recording quality. Consider which video resolution is best suited for your situation. You will need an internet connection fast enough to handle the webcam’s output resolution.
Microphone capabilities
Next to the video resolution quality, another key aspect of the webcam is the microphone. Without it, other people in a video call won’t be able to hear you talk. The quality of the microphone is also important, as any popping or scratching sounds will distract from the discussions.
Mounting and placement
Most users like to mount their webcam on top of their monitor for the best viewing angle. This is done through the attached bracket or clip supplied with the webcam. Some cameras are available on small tripods for use on a desk. Consider which type of mounting or placement you prefer and make sure that everything is in view.
What to look for in a quality Logitech webcam
High-definition video calling
While a video resolution of 720p has been the standard for a long time, the most common resolution now is 1080p and higher. This gives you high-definition visuals, and the participants in a meeting can see you clearly. A good-quality webcam will also be able to adjust the resolution according to your internet connection, making sure that you are visible at all times.
Noise-canceling microphone
Whether it is a dog barking or a vacuum cleaner in the background, a good-quality webcam microphone will have noise-canceling technology. This allows for minimal audio distractions when on a call and ensures all the meeting guests can hear you perfectly.
Additional software
A good-quality webcam will be shipped with software (either on a disk or downloadable) that will allow you to blur your surroundings, replace the background with something else or adjust the contrast and brightness.
How much you can expect to spend on a Logitech webcam
Webcams are available in a variety of configurations, and the average price will depend on the device’s capabilities. An entry-level webcam can retail for $30-$50, while a 4K webcam can sell for as much as $200.
Logitech webcam FAQ
Can you use a Logitech webcam to record YouTube videos?
A. Yes, and in most cases, it will be perfect for that. A webcam isn’t just used for video conferencing, as it can record videos on your hard drive as well. Through the additional software, you can record your daily musings and upload them to any video-sharing platform.
Will a Logitech webcam work with a PC and Mac?
A. Most webcams are capable of functioning with Windows-based computers and Apple’s Mac machines. It is important to check the specifications of the webcam.
What’s the best Logitech webcam to buy?
Top Logitech webcam
What you need to know: A top-of-the-line webcam that records in 4K brilliance.
What you’ll love: In a sleek, matte black enclosure, the BRIO 4K webcam features the highest resolution video-capturing, high-dynamic range and autofocus. With the built-in Right Light 3 software, the webcam adjusts the recording contrast and brightness based on the surrounding environment. It can be digitally zoomed up to five times, and you have the choice of three different fields of view. It has two omnidirectional microphones, and the included USB cable is 7.2 feet in length.
What you should consider: The camera itself can’t swivel from side to side, as panning is done through the included software. You will also need bandwidth capable of streaming 4K video.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Logitech webcam for the money
What you need to know: A no-frills webcam that delivers on what it promises.
What you’ll love: One of the more affordable Logitech webcams, this model is only capable of capturing video at a maximum resolution of 720p. It features two hinges that can be adjusted to the perfect angle and clips onto your computer monitor. It uses a USB 2.0 port and is also capable of capturing still images at a resolution of 3 megapixels.
What you should consider: It doesn’t have an autofocus function, so you’ll need to make sure that you remain in focus at all times.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: An affordable HD webcam that is perfect in any condition.
What you’ll love: With a clip at the top and an angled foot at the bottom, the C920x fits onto the computer monitor securely. It has a maximum video resolution of 1080p and features built-in software that adjusts the lighting according to the surroundings. It has two omnidirectional and noise-canceling microphones, a five-element lens and autofocus.
What you should consider: You can’t replace your background with the included software. If that is something you want to do, you’ll need third-party software.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which external hard drives for Xbox One are best?
When the first video games were released, they comfortably fit onto several floppy disks. As the games became better, the format changed to 700MB CDs and eventually 4.2GB DVDs. Naturally, you needed a hard drive to store all the data as well.
Today, as digital downloads have become more prevalent than physical disks, the need for an external hard drive is growing. Gaming consoles have not been spared the limitations on storage, which is why you’ll need something like the Seagate Game Drive Hub for Xbox One. Check out the Best Reviews buying guide for a complete list of options.
What to know before you buy an external hard drive for Xbox One
Size and placement
Depending on the design of the hard drive casing, it can be a rather bulky device. Generally, you cannot use external hard drives in horizontal and vertical positions, making placement a lot easier. Consider the size of the hard drive and where you will place it to ensure that it is both out of the way and accessible to the Xbox One console.
Storage capacity
External hard drives for Xbox One come in a variety of storage sizes. The console has a built-in hard drive, but that can fill up quickly if you have a lot of data. Analyze your gaming habit and library to determine what size hard drive will be sufficient for your purposes.
Additional components
An external hard drive will connect to the Xbox One console through a supplied USB cable. But that isn’t the only way you can use it. Some manufacturers sell additional components that allow you to clip the drive directly onto the console. If that is the case, then you might want to consider some extra cooling options.
What to look for in a quality external hard drive for Xbox One
High-speed data transfer
It is vitally important that you use an external hard drive with a high-speed rate of data transfer. If you want to download the enhanced versions of Xbox games, you can only do so on high-speed drives. A good quality external hard drive for an Xbox One will have around 200MB per second transfer speed. Solid-state drives can go as fast as 540MB per second.
Sturdy case
Protecting your hard drive is the best way also to protect your data. Since the drive is in place, it should be moved around, especially when in use. A quality hard drive will have a sturdy case to protect the external hard drive from light bumps and handling.
USB connectivity
The only connection method of an external hard drive is through the USB cable. Coupled with the hard drive’s transfer speed, the USB speed also plays a vital role. A good quality external hard drive will have a USB 3.0 port and support the corresponding speeds.
How much you can expect to spend on an external hard drive for Xbox One
The cost of an external hard drive for your Xbox will depend on the brand and the drive’s storage capacity. Smaller drives can retail for around $80, while bigger storage options can cost as much as $200.
External hard drive for Xbox One FAQ
Can you use any hard drive with an Xbox One?
A. Yes, as long as the hard drive can connect to the Xbox through a USB connection and is formatted to the correct filing system. The Xbox can do that for you.
Do I need a solid-state drive or a hard disk drive?
A. The difference between an SSD and an HDD will be the rate of transfer. SSDs tend to be more expensive than HDD but operate at a much faster transfer speed. The storage capacity of SSDs is generally also less than HDD.
What’s the best external hard drive for Xbox One to buy?
Top external hard drive for Xbox One
Seagate Game Drive Hub for Xbox
What you need to know: Perfect in size and color, it will complement an Xbox One rather well.
What you’ll love: The Seagate Game Drive Hub is specifically designed for use with the Xbox One console, and it comes with a massive 8TB of SSD storage capacity. It has two front-facing USB 3.0 ports and connects to the console through a USB cable at the back. You can use the front USB ports to charge controllers or other mobile devices.
What you should consider: You need to connect it to its one power source through the included power adapter.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top external hard drive for Xbox One for the money
Seagate Game Drive for Xbox Game Pass Special Edition
What you need to know: Perfect for gaming, it’s sleek and includes a little something extra.
What you’ll love: Seagate is known for its storage devices, and gamers can’t go wrong with the thin and good-looking Game Drive for the Xbox One. It connects to the console through a USB 3.0 cable and doesn’t need its own power source. For storage capacity, it has a 2TB SSD with super-fast transfer speeds. This Special Edition drive comes with a 14-day free trial to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
What you should consider: The USB cable is only 18-inches, which might be a bit short if you want to store the drive somewhere else.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This option is made for gaming. It’s sturdy and good-looking.
What you’ll love: With a bit of a military look to it, the P10 external hard drive from WD is 5TB in storage capacity. That is more than enough for hundreds of games. It comes with an 18-inch USB-A to micro USB-B cable and is compatible with PCs and PlayStation consoles. The external case is made from metal, making sure that it is always protected.
What you should consider: This version is only a hard disc drive, but some games require that you install them to faster SSDs.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which travel router is best?
Whether you want to backpack across the European Union or make sure you stay in touch with your business partners from half a world away, having a travel router can assist you in circumventing some of the common network issues that occur during international travel.
Having a powerful and slim unit like the HooToo Filehub Wireless Travel Router HT-TM05 at your disposal, you can convert any wired internet connection into a WiFi connection with minimal effort, offering excellent security and a host of great technical options.
What to know before you buy a travel router
Keep your connection safe and secure
No matter where your travels take you, wired connections or accessing a public Wi-Fi connection could result in potential risk issues. Cybercriminals in particular target these public Wi-Fi hotspots where information quite often flows unprotected. Whether you are staying in a luxury hotel or just renting a bed for eight hours at a hostel, it never hurts to take that little bit of extra caution when accessing the internet.
Instead of seeking public unprotected Wi-Fi hotspots or physically plugging your computer into the internet, travel routers provide you with your own secure Wi-Fi network by connecting to an ethernet, act as a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect other devices and even perform the duties of a Wi-Fi range extender. Whatever your particular destination, a travel router will help keep you in touch with your friends, family and contacts and help ensure your digital safety.
Travel routers powering options
As with many advanced electronic devices, it is important to consider exactly how your brand new travel router will be able to power itself up. This will depend on the continent and the country you’re traveling to. While having the ability to simply plug your travel router directly into a wall socket is the most convenient way to keep your device in working order, having the ability to receive power via USB port or even batteries might be the only thing between you and your ability to access the internet. Check out the buying guide at BestReviews.com to learn more about what makes for a reliable and affordable travel router.
What to look for in a quality travel router
Physical specifications
Depending on just how far from the beaten path you intend to travel, you will absolutely need to purchase a travel router that doesn’t take up an excessive amount of room or weigh a ton. When it comes to challenging issues such as packing your luggage to be under the airline’s baggage allowance or needing your tech to easily slip into your backpack or pocket, you should always consider the size and weight of your travel router before you end up stuck with it for thousands of miles and countless hours.
Power banks, file storage and more
While having the ability to ensure secure internet access in a variety of forms is certainly an incredible convenience, some travel routers are capable of offering much more than that. For example, select travel routers contain power banks that can be used to charge and power up other devices while others can serve as file hubs capable of performing TITAN transfers between multiple USB devices simultaneously. In fact, some models of travel routers can even support traditional hard drives or HDDs as well as USB card readers, meaning you might not even need to bring your laptop along.
Additional protection and custom options like VPN and Open Source
On top of providing the protection of conventional Wi-Fi security measures like WPA2, some travel routers come equipped with the ability to connect to VPNs or virtual private networks clients and servers, providing additional layers of security and greatly improving the speed of your internet connection. For those who prefer to take their technological security into their own hands, some models offer extensive options for customization, including the ability to use Open Source operating systems and software, DIY hardware upgrades, extendable USB discs and much more.
How much you can expect to spend on a travel router
Depending on your desired features, a quality travel router can cost anywhere from $29-$59 and sometimes more.
Best travel router FAQ
Why do I need to buy a travel router in the first place?
A. While you technically don’t need to purchase a travel router, it certainly makes managing your Wi-Fi enabled devices and safely connecting to the internet much easier than it otherwise would be.
Will I need to pay a subscription fee to use my travel router?
A. Unless you purchase a device through an internet service provider or ISP to constantly provide services, owning and using a travel router will not incur any additional expenses.
What’s the best travel router to buy?
Top travel router
HooToo Filehub Wireless Travel Router HT-TM05
What you need to know: This multipurpose travel router will serve you well all over the globe.
What you’ll love: This unit includes the ability to instantly convert a wired network to Wi-Fi as well as transfers files between your device and multiple USB hard drives.
What you should consider: Users have reported issues with slow connection speeds as well as poorly written directions which makes operating it confusing in the beginning.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top travel router for the money
VONETS Mini 2.4GHz Portable Wireless Travel Travel Router
What you need to know: This affordable travel router offers a wide range of ports and functions.
What you’ll love: This unit offers two ethernet ports that can exchange and support Wi-Fi or WAN access in Wi-Fi router mode as well as Wi-Fi smart bridge mode, AP Client, hotspot, range extender and a one year warranty.
What you should consider: Users have reported being unable to access or change the admin password or creating solid connections.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
GL.iNET GL-AR750S Mini VPN Travel Router
What you need to know: This travel router is ideal for those who prefer to tinker with their technology.
What you’ll love: This unit has a preconfigured Cloudflare DNS and offers compatibility with over 30 VPNs. It has 128MB RAM, three ethernet ports, 16MB NOR Flash + 128MB NAND Flash, and a USB port.
What you should consider: Users have reported issues with the initial setup of the travel router as well as spontaneous failures within months of purchase.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Daniel Martin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which iPad stand is best?
When it comes to tablets, the iPad is a classic for a reason. No matter which model you own, the battery is long-lasting, the design is convenient and you have access to exclusive apps. However, there is one snag. Most of the time, holding an iPad requires two hands, which can be a challenge if you’re trying to multitask.
Luckily, an iPad stand can help make your iPad more visible and easier to use. Whether you’re looking for a stand that will turn your iPad into a second monitor or a convenient cookbook, there’s an iPad stand for you.
What to know before you buy an iPad stand
Height
The reason for getting an iPad stand will vary from person to person. You might want to use it as a bedside holder, while others would like to prop up their tablet while reading recipes in the kitchen. Consider all the ways you would use the stand and which height would be the best for your specific needs.
Adjustments
An iPad’s display will rotate depending on the tablet’s orientation. Ideally, you want an iPad stand that can just as easily be rotated as the display can. An adjustable stand will increase functionality and be more compatible with the tablet’s orientations.
Display size
There is nothing wrong with getting an iPad stand that fits your current model perfectly. But what happens when you upgrade to a device that is a different size? If that could be the case, consider a stand that is compatible with different iPad sizes. Most stands can also be adjusted in terms of the display’s size, so keep that in mind.
What to look for in an iPad stand
Cable management
As much as we would like it, iPads don’t have an infinite battery life. At some point, your device will need to be charged, but the one thing that can quickly make a space look untidy is messy cable management. A good quality iPad stand will have a spot for you to thread the charging cable through so that it is out of the way and out of sight.
Securing mechanism
The purpose of an iPad stand is to hold your device in place. If the mechanism that holds it there fails, you could end up with a cracked screen or a damaged tablet. A good quality iPad stand will have a mechanism to secure the iPad so that it doesn’t easily slip off or out of the stand.
Material
As with most accessories for tablets and computers, the more affordable products tend to be made from plastic. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a metal or steel iPad stand will provide you with the best aesthetics and durability.
How much you can expect to spend on an iPad stand
Stands for your iPad or other tablets are inexpensive to manufacture, resulting in an affordable purchase. A no-frills stand may be under $10, but more expensive models can retail for as much as $50.
iPad stand FAQ
Can I use a stand if my iPad has a case on it?
A. Yes, but in some instances, it could compromise the securing mechanism of the iPad stand. Most iPad stands are designed to accommodate thick cases though.
Can I secure the iPad stand onto a surface?
A. That will depend on the design of the iPad stand. If the stand has rubber or silicone feet, it won’t need to be secured, as this prevents the stand from slipping or moving around. Look for an iPad stand that isn’t top-heavy but has a large base.
What’s the best iPad stand to buy?
Top iPad stand
Lamicall Adjustable Tablet Stand
What you need to know: A sturdy stand that is big enough to hold most tablet sizes.
What you’ll love: Made from aluminum alloy, this iPad stand has a heavy and wide base to remain in place wherever it is used. The tablet rests on a small shelf, and the arm can be adjusted in two locations. The hinges are tight, which keeps the arm from sliding down or adjusting by itself. It is compatible with tablets ranging in size from 4 inches to 13 inches.
What you should consider: The holder itself can’t be rotated, so if you want to view the iPad in a different orientation, it needs to be picked up and rotated manually.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top iPad stand for your money
Amazon Basics Adjustable Tablet Holder
What you need to know: A no-frills iPad stand that will get the job done.
What you’ll love: Perfect on a bedside table or in the kitchen, the plastic stand consists of a triangle design. Two width-adjustable feet with a groove at the bottom help to secure it on a surface, while a third, upright arm prevents the tablet from toppling over. The arm can also be adjusted at two hinges, allowing for more flexibility.
What you should consider: The iPad stand is made from plastic, so the stand could break if it is knocked over.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: Versatile and durable. It works perfectly at any angle.
What you’ll love: The iPad stand is made from durable plastic and features a heavy metal base that can’t be easily knocked over. The iPad is held in place by retractable arms on both sides, which clamp onto the iPad’s edges. The stand can be rotated at two different hinges, while a third swivel is used to rotate the arm a full 360 degrees. You can thread a charging cable through the hole in the middle of the stand arm.
What you should consider: Due to its construction, it might not be suitable for use with iPads that have thick protective cases.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Charlie Fripp writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which window shade is best?
Today’s window shades offer much more than just a way to lessen or block the light entering a room from a window. With the wealth of options available regarding look, style and material, window shades have become a foundational part of interior design and insulating your home.
Madison Park Galen Cordless Roman Shades, available in a variety of neutral colors, provide excellent privacy and light control in an aesthetically pleasing package. With many sizes available and a thermal backing material, these are the best window shades. For further analysis and tips regarding window shade options, check out the window shade buying guide courtesy of BestReviews.
What to know before you buy a window shade
Types
- Shade blinds: These look similar to traditional blinds but the slats are connected with no space between them. They block more light and are more energy efficient than regular blinds due to the design. Often made of bamboo, these shades have a natural, earthy look.
- Roman shades: These shades feature stacks of draped or folded fabric when rolled up but have a smooth, seamless look when down. These often are thick canvas or other woven material.
- Cellular shades: Sometimes called honeycomb shades, these shades have cells within them that hold air and create an insulating barrier between your room and the window. They are available in both single-cell and double-cell varieties.
- Pleated shades: This type looks similar to cellular shades but does not have any insulating honeycomb spaces. The accordion design allows them to be tightly drawn up. These shades usually are made from sheer, thin material like paper that allows some light to filter through.
- Roller shades: As the name suggests, these window shades roll up tightly into a tube shape. Pulled down, they have a smooth, even surface. They are affordable and very easy to clean but may look too industrial or utilitarian for some.
Location
The room or area in which you will install your window shades is the most important factor when it comes to what type you should choose. Shades for a bedroom should block as much light as possible, while shades in open rooms that have more activity in them typically won’t need to be as opaque. Shades in sunrooms or outdoor areas should be made from weather-resistant materials that aren’t prone to deteriorating due to moisture or direct sunlight.
What to look for in a quality window shade
Opacity
Some shade types are designed to block light coming from either direction. These shades provide superior privacy and are great for bedrooms, bathrooms, home theaters or other areas where light can be a disturbance. Shades that are sheer and allow light to filter through are better suited for areas of your home that you prefer to be brighter, such as kitchens, breakfast areas or living rooms.
Raising and lowering
You pull a cord to raise and lower most shades. Some shades are constructed with motors that allow you to control their level with the push of a button. You move cordless shades up and down by pulling or pushing them to the desired height.
Size
Window-shade manufacturers provide standard sizes for their products, but many homes require a custom fit. Some companies build shades to specific measurements while others provide cheaper options you can cut to size. Choose a shade from a company whose sizing options best suit your abilities and budget.
Material
Window shades are available in all kinds of materials, from wooden slats connected with natural fibers to flat vinyl or laminated fabric. If you are going to place the shades outdoors or in areas exposed to weather, choose plastic or vinyl because these materials won’t get damaged or saturated if they are kept in damp conditions. The material you choose for indoor shades can be whatever you personally want.
How much you can expect to spend on a window shade
Inexpensive pleated shades are $10-$25, depending on the size. These shades provide little light blockage and are made from thin, fragile material. For quality shades made from strong, lasting materials, expect to pay $60 or more per window.
Window shade FAQ
Will window shades affect my utility bill?
A. Depending on your home, yes. Older houses that have not been updated often have drafty, single-pane windows. Leaving these windows with nothing to block drafts in the winter or hot outside temperatures in the summer can leave your thermostat working overtime to continually regulate your indoor climate. Window shades provide an added layer of protection between you and the outdoors.
Are window shade cords dangerous?
A. Long, dangling window shade cords can pose a strangulation risk to young children and pets. Cordless window shades are recommended due to these safety concerns.
Are window shades hard to install?
A. Potentially. Window shade installation usually requires screwing the necessary hardware into the window frame and ensuring everything is level and secure. You need power tools and a step ladder. Larger windows pose a greater challenge than small ones, so additional help is recommended.
Window shade tips
Stay cool
Keeping your shades pulled down over windows that receive direct sunlight helps keep indoor areas cool.
Be mindful of shadows
Shades that allow light to enter during the day also allow it to escape when it’s dark out. If privacy is a priority, look for shades that won’t show the silhouettes or shadows of indoor occupants at night.
Don’t forget to dust
Window shades are easy to overlook when it comes to cleaning, but they collect dust and odors. Depending on the material of your shade, you can use a vacuum or cloth duster to keep them tidy.
What’s the best window shade to buy?
Top window shade
Madison Park Galen Cordless Roman Shades
What you need to know: These homey fabric shades provide visual warmth and texture and are available in many colors.
What you’ll love: These cordless shades are available in multiple sizes and include mounting hardware. They feature a thermal foam backing that provides additional insulation from drafts.
What you should consider: These shades are not suitable for bathrooms or other areas that are high in humidity. Users have noted they allow light to pass through them easily, providing less privacy than they hoped for.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Bed Bath & Beyond
Top window shade for the money
Redi Shade Quick Fix Light Filtering Pleated Fabric Shade
What you need to know: Extremely economical, these sheer window shades allow filtered light through, giving your windows a pleasant glow.
What you’ll love: These window shades filter sunlight but also provide decent privacy. You don’t need tools for installation. Multiple sizes are available but you can cut these shades for a perfect fit.
What you should consider: These shades feature an adhesive mounting tape that can damage window-frame paint. The shade’s construction feels low quality even for its price point. It is best as a temporary solution.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Home Depot
Worth checking out
Windowsandgarden Custom Cordless Single-Cell Shades
What you need to know: These window shades provide great insulation and privacy because of their cellular construction and custom fit.
What you’ll love: Featuring the latest in cellular window-shade technology, these cordless shades are available in nine colors and you can choose custom sizes.
What you should consider: Some customers think these shades tear easily and are too flimsy.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Derek Walborn writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which KitchenAid blender is best?
Whether you like to start every day with a fresh smoothie, make frozen cocktails for parties or whip up milkshakes for the kids, a blender is usually a must-have kitchen appliance. If you want a top-notch model, you can’t beat a KitchenAid blender when it comes to features and performance.
KitchenAid offers a wide range of blenders so that you can choose from high-performance models, standard countertop options and even immersion blenders. The KitchenAid High Performance Series Blender is the top choice if you want a top-of-the-line blender with great, convenient features.
What to know before you buy a KitchenAid blender
Blender type
KitchenAid offers three main types of blenders:
- KitchenAid high-performance blenders provide the most powerful motors, so they can handle nearly any food, including pulverizing ice with ease. These models can even mix heavy batters, create nut butter and knead dough. However, they are the most expensive KitchenAid blenders.
- KitchenAid standard countertop blenders aren’t as powerful as high-performance models, but they can still handle plenty of tasks in the kitchen. They can effectively blend up smoothies, shakes, frozen cocktails, dips and sauces. Some standard models are more powerful than others, though, so you’ll need to shop around to find the best fit for your needs.
- Kitchen immersion blenders are commonly known as hand or stick blenders because they’re handheld models without a jar. That allows you to bring the blender directly to a pot or bowl to blend ingredients. They work incredibly well for making soup and sauces. KitchenAid immersion blenders are usually the most affordable models, though some come with extras like a whisk or chopper and cost a little more.
Horsepower
You can measure a blender’s motor power in horsepower. KitchenAid high-performance blenders usually offer 3.5 HP, while standard countertop blenders typically run at approximately 0.5 to 1 HP. To learn more, check out the complete KitchenAid blender buying guide at BestReviews.
Capacity
A KitchenAid blender’s jar capacity determines how much you’re able to blend at a time. KitchenAid blender jars typically range from 50 to 90 ounces. Since immersion models don’t have a jar, you can blend in a container of any size with one of these blenders.
Consider how many servings of your morning smoothie or how large a batch of soup you usually make to decide how large a jar you need.
What to look for in a quality KitchenAid blender
Controls
KitchenAid blenders can have a few different control styles. Some models feature buttons, while others have dial controls. Some high-end models even feature a touchpad. All types can work well, but touchpad controls are typically the easiest to clean because there aren’t any nooks and crannies for food residue to become trapped.
The controls that a KitchenAid blender typically offers include multiple speed settings and preset programs for extremely user-friendly operation.
Heating function
Some blenders offer a heating function that allows you to cook and blend soups and sauces without needing to turn on the stove. This is a rare option in KitchenAid blenders, so make sure to read the product specifications carefully if this feature is critical to you.
Jar shape
The jars that come with KitchenAid blenders are either round, square or diamond-shaped. While round jars are the classic option, square- and diamond-shaped models create a more effective vortex to pull the ingredients toward the blades. That helps ensure that your recipe blends until entirely smooth.
Color
Depending on the model, KitchenAid blenders are available in a range of colors. Some blenders only come in three or four shades, but others are available in as many as 15. You can find many neutral options, such as black, white or silver. However, some models also come in bolder colors like red or blue.
How much you can expect to spend on a KitchenAid blender
Depending on the model, you’ll usually pay $50-$600 for a KitchenAid blender. KitchenAid immersion blenders are typically the most affordable, with some models costing as little as $35 and high-end options topping out at $350. Standard countertop models generally cost $100-$200, and high-performance blenders are the most expensive, ranging from $300-$600.
KitchenAid blender FAQ
Do KitchenAid blenders have dishwasher-safe components?
A. It depends on the model, but most KitchenAid blenders have jars, blades and accessories that you can clean in the dishwasher. As a result, these models are the easiest to clean.
What recipes can I make with a KitchenAid blender?
A. A KitchenAid blender can whip up various foods, including basics like smoothies, milkshakes, sauces and dips. High-performance models can make even more recipes, such as nut butter, soups and super-smooth frozen cocktails.
What’s the best KitchenAid blender to buy?
Top KitchenAid blender
KitchenAid High Performance Series Blender
What you need to know: A powerful, high-performance model, this blender can handle any kitchen task you throw at it with ease, though it is one of KitchenAid’s pricier blenders.
What you’ll love: It boasts a potent 3-HP motor for maximum power. The controls offer nine speeds and a pulse function, the die-cast metal base is extremely stable and durable and the sleek, modern design looks great out on a counter too.
What you should consider: The blender only comes in three color options: black, white and gray.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Kitchenaid blender for the money
KitchenAid 5-Speed Immersion Blender
What you need to know: This high-quality immersion blender has all the features you could want at an attractive price point.
What you’ll love: It comes with a variety of attachments, including a whisk and mini chopper. It also includes a 4-cup blending and storage container. It also features a removable blending arm to make it easier to blend in deeper pots.
What you should consider: It’s somewhat pricer than other immersion blenders, but you’re paying for the performance quality and other features.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
KitchenAid 5-Speed Classic Blender
What you need to know: While it’s a fairly basic countertop blender, this model offers excellent durability and solid construction at a price that won’t break the bank.
What you’ll love: It comes with a 56-ounce, BPA-free round pitcher. It features user-friendly controls with five speeds, a pulse function and an ice-crushing feature. Its soft-start feature ensures the most even blending results.
What you should consider: There can sometimes be leaks around the blender’s blade shaft.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jennifer Blair writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which Contigo travel mugs are best?
Contigo is a familiar name in travel mugs and tumblers that has been providing spill-proof mugs to coffee drinkers for years now. Contigo travel mugs are great for people who are on the go. The brand’s name means “with you” in Spanish, and these travel mugs are meant to do just that — accompany you wherever you go.
Their sleek and spill-proof designs are great for commuters who need to get their coffee fix on the road. Our top pick, the Contigo Luxe Autoseal Vacuum-Insulated Travel Mug, is a travel mug with a particularly stylish stainless steel design. Thanks to its autoseal technology, you’ll never have to worry about spills.
What to know before you buy a Contigo travel mug
Why do I need a travel mug?
Travel mugs are great for people who have long commutes or like to take their coffee or tea to the office. These mugs are great for the office since they are spill-proof, portable and will keep your coffee hot for hours. Thus, you won’t have to worry about returning to a cold cup of coffee if you get sidetracked at work.
If you’re interested in checking out a few different types of travel mugs, check the full BestReviews travel mug buying guide.
Travel mug vs. thermos vs. tumbler
While all three of these products are designed to take both hot and cold drinks on the go, there are some key differences to consider.
Travel mugs are normally designed with hot drinks in mind, although they can also carry cold drinks. Travel mugs will sometimes come with a handle. These mugs are designed to be drunk out of directly.
Thermoses are meant to carry hot or cold drinks but are not meant to be drunk from directly like a travel mug. A thermos will often be larger than either a travel mug or a tumbler.
Tumblers are plastic cups that normally come with a lid and a plastic straw. These cups can handle both hot and cold liquids, though they are normally used for cold drinks. However, tumblers are not as spill-proof as travel mugs and thermoses.
Contigo spill-proof travel mugs
While most of Contigo’s travel mugs are marketed as spill-proof, they have a few different designs that use different technology to varying degrees of effectiveness. All of Contigo’s travel mugs are somewhat spill-proof, but some are more spill-proof than others.
For example, some of their travel mugs will have Contigo’s auto-seal technology, whereas some will come with Contigo’s snap seal feature. Therefore, consider which type of travel mug you prefer before deciding on which one to go with.
What to look for in a quality Contigo travel mug
A travel mug with a handle
Some Contigo travel mugs, such as the Contigo Randolph, come with a handle for added portability and comfortability. Travel mugs with handles are a staple in offices around the country.
How to clean a travel mug
Travel mugs can be notoriously hard to clean due to all of the different components in the lid. Most Contigo travel mugs are dishwasher-safe, but you may have to pay extra attention to the lid to ensure there isn’t any built-up grime.
Travel mug size
If you will be using your Contigo travel mug in the car, make sure that the travel mug will fit your car’s cup holders for added ease. Even some larger travel mugs are made to fit into cup holders.
If you choose to go with a Contigo autoseal travel mug, you can easily slip the mug into your bag and not worry about spills.
How much you can expect to spend on Contigo travel mugs
Most Contigo travel mugs are around the $10-$15 range, but some of their more deluxe models can reach up to $30.
Contigo travel mug FAQ
What’s the difference between snapseal and autoseal?
A. Contigo’s snapseal travel mugs seal and open using a convenient snap lid. These work by unsnapping one side of the lid, opening the hole on the other side of the lid. Autoseal travel mugs function by pressing a button on the lid while drinking from the cup.
Are Contigo travel mugs BPA-free?
A. All of Contigo’s travel mugs are BPA-free.
What’s the best Contigo travel mug to buy?
Top Contigo travel mug
Contigo Luxe Autoseal Vacuum-Insulated Travel Mug
What you need to know: The stainless-steel Contigo Luxe is the perfect travel mug for the office. It can keep hot drinks hot for up to 5 hours and cold drinks cold for up to 12 hours.
What you’ll love: While the design of this mug is lovely, this travel mug’s main feature is its 100 percent spill-proof lid. It even features a lock so that the auto seal button can’t be accidentally pressed.
What you should consider: Some users have reported that the stainless-steel lid can get a bit warm when used with hot drinks. However, the main body of the mug will remain cool to the touch.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Contigo travel mug for the money
Contigo Couture Snapseal Vacuum-Insulated Travel Mug
What you need to know: This fashionable travel mug is great for anyone looking to make a statement.
What you’ll love: This travel mug can fit most standard cup holders and can keep hot drinks hot for up to 6 hours.
What you should consider: This travel mug is not dishwasher-safe.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Contigo Autoseal West Loop Vacuum-Insulated Travel Mug
What you need to know: This travel mug is perhaps the most recognizable Contigo design and is great for getting your coffee from point A to point B, thanks to its autoseal lid.
What you’ll love: This travel mug has many of the same features as our top pick, the Luxe, at a slightly cheaper price point. It comes in many colors.
What you should consider: The lid is top-rack dishwasher safe, but the body will need to be hand-washed.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Addison Hoggard writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which corn peeler is best?
Eating corn on the cob is always a fun experience, but plenty of recipes call for fresh corn kernels off the cob. Of course, you can use a knife or spoon to scrape the kernels off, but a corn peeler makes the job much quicker and easier.
A corn peeler is a tool that can safely and efficiently remove the kernels from a corn cob. It doesn’t remove pieces of the cob either, so you wind up with the kernels only. The top corn peeler from Beaverve is a popular model because it can do multiple tasks in the kitchen in addition to effective corn peeling, including grating and measuring ingredients.
What to know before you buy a corn peeler
Cob size
Corn cobs can vary in size, with some cobs being shorter and/or thicker than the average cob. Some peelers can only effectively cut the kernels from cobs that are an average or standard size, though.
Look for a peeler that can work with cobs of various lengths and thicknesses, so you’re never stuck with kernels that can’t be removed.
Cutting depth
An average corn kernel measures approximately .25 to .5 inches from the area where it connects to the cob to its top. A corn peeler’s cutting depth affects how much of the kernel is removed. A model with a deeper cutting depth is better able to remove the entire kernel from the cob.
However, the problem with a deeper cutting blade is that it can remove some of the cob when cutting smaller kernels. It’s not a big deal if small bits of the cob make their way into your dish, but the cob is pretty tough, so you don’t want too much of it in your food.
Efficiency
The majority of corn peelers cut the kernels off the cob in narrow sections, so you need to make several trips around the cob with the peeler to fully peel it. You can find some peelers that actually remove all of the kernels in one motion, though. They are obviously the most efficient type of peeler, but they usually can’t work with cobs of different lengths and thicknesses.
Ease of use
It can be challenging to hold a corn cob steady while driving a peeler down it with the necessary force. The best corn peelers are easy to use and feature sharp enough blades that you don’t need to apply too much pressure to remove the kernels. The blades shouldn’t be so sharp that you have to worry about cutting yourself, though.
For even more information, read the full buying guide on corn peelers at BestReviews.
What to look for in a corn peeler
Design
Because removing the corn from a cob requires some strength, you want a peeler that’s ergonomically designed. That allows you to get a firm, comfortable grip on it so you can use it safely and effectively.
Keep in mind that some peelers are designed for right-hand use only. Left-handed individuals should look for a peeler that features a double-sided blade so it can be used in either hand.
Make sure that any corn peeler you choose features a solid, durable design too. You don’t want to worry about it breaking after only a few uses.
Container
Many high-end corn peelers come with an attached container that collects the kernels as they’re removed from the cob. That can limit the mess in your kitchen and keep you from having to wash too many bowls or dishes.
Care
Corn peelers are usually dishwasher safe, but some are more difficult to clean than others. Those with a more complicated design require taking the peeler apart and rinsing it before placing it in your dishwasher.
Smaller, compact corn peelers fit in your hand, making them easy to store in most drawers. You can also find some with a hook for hanging storage. On the other hand, larger peelers with an attached container require more space to store, making them a poor fit for a smaller kitchen.
Warranty
Some corn peelers are backed by a warranty, which can give you more confidence in your purchase. The longer a peeler’s warranty is, the longer you can expect to use it effectively.
How much you can expect to spend on a corn peeler
Corn peelers aren’t especially pricey, so you’ll usually pay between $5-$25 for one. Small, basic peelers typically cost between $5-$8, while more durable, ergonomically designed models generally range from $8-$12. More complex corn peelers with an attached container can cost as much as $12-$25.
Corn peeler FAQ
Should I use a corn peeler before or after I cook the corn?
A. You can remove the corn from the cob before or after cooking. You’ll usually have an easier time if you do it before you cook the corn, because it’s cool and easier to handle. Another benefit of peeling the corn before cooking is that the cooking process can kill any bacteria that might make their way onto the kernels during peeling.
How many kernels do you usually get from peeling an ear of corn?
A. It depends on the length and thickness of the ear you’re peeling. An average-sized cob of corn typically produces a three-quarter cup of kernels.
What’s the best corn peeler to buy?
Top corn peeler
What you need to know: A versatile kitchen tool that not only peels corn, this corn stripper also grates and serves as a measuring cup.
What you’ll love: It features a non-slip silicone ring on the bottom to keep the tool in place. The space-saving design frees up storage space, and the corn peeler offers a money-back guarantee.
What you should consider: It isn’t as durable as some buyers would like.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top corn peeler for the money
What you need to know: As a safe, efficient tool, the corn zipper allows you to quickly remove corn kernels without using a knife and risking a cut.
What you’ll love: It works much more quickly and safely than a knife, and it’s effective for both cooked and uncooked corn. The rubber shield covers the blades and reduces the risk of cuts.
What you should consider: It must be used over a large bowl or baking sheet to limit the mess in your kitchen.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
HIC Quick Corn Cutter Stripper
What you need to know: This is an extremely simple corn peeler that can effectively remove both small and large quantities of corn kernels.
What you’ll love: It offers an extremely easy, user-friendly operation. The ring is adjustable to fit different cob sizes. The peeler features durable stainless steel blades.
What you should consider: It can make a mess in your kitchen with flying kernels.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jennifer Blair writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which infusion pitcher is best?
An infusion pitcher is a powerful tool in the arsenal of anyone trying to drink more water. By combining the taste of fresh fruits with your water or tea, you’re much more likely to drink enough water to maintain healthy hydration levels, not to mention the additional benefits if you’re trying to cut down on the amount of soda you drink.
The best infusion pitcher is the Chef’s INSPIRATIONS 3 Core Infusion Water Pitcher, which is built for maximum durability and includes three separate inserts for ice, loose tea and fruit.
What to know before you buy an infusion pitcher
Material
Infusion pitchers are typically made of either glass or plastic.
Glass: Glass is more expensive than plastic, though it’s far less durable. It is also non-porous, which means that there’s no chance of flavors being absorbed into the material, like with plastics.
Plastic: Plastic is a lighter-weight and much more durable option than glass, though you sacrifice the aesthetic values of a glass pitcher for longevity. If you constantly use the infusion pitcher, plastic is probably a better option.
Infusion rod
Also known as the core, the infusion rod or rods are what hold the ingredients separate from the water, so only their flavor is mixed instead of their body. They come in three varieties: standard, loose tea and ice. Standard cores have medium-sized holes to allow your flavors to seep into the water while loose tea cores use a fine mesh to allow for steeping without the tea materials getting into the water. Ice cores have no holes at all, and simply keep the water cold without diluting the flavors.
Size
As infusion pitchers come in most any size you could want, consider how much need you’ll have of infused water as well as if the pitcher will fit in your refrigerator. It’s always best to get a size equal to what you think you’ll need instead of a size larger. You can always infuse more water, but you can’t shrink a big infusion pitcher if it doesn’t fit your space.
What to look for in a quality infusion pitcher
Rapid cool
Certain infusion pitchers are constructed to allow for vigorous shaking to speed up the cooling process using an ice core, also known as flash chilling if not rapid cooling. These infusion pitchers also tend to be able to speed up the infusion process in the same manner.
No-spill lid
Infusion pitchers that use lids that are completely sealable, spout and all, tend to be rapid coolable in addition to being much easier to store. They’re especially easy to transport if you like picnics or have other destinations in mind.
How much you can expect to spend on an infusion pitcher
Infusion pitchers are very affordable across the board, costing about as much, if not a touch more, than most standard pitchers. You can find small, simple pitchers for as little as $10, though you’ll probably want to spend up to $25 on one of the better, though smaller, infusion pitchers. If you need something in a bigger size, you won’t need to spend more than around $35.
Infusion pitcher FAQ
Are infusion pitchers free of BPA?
A. Most infusion pitchers are, but there are a few that aren’t, so if you’re concerned about BPA then make sure to double check. Glass pitchers obviously won’t contain any BPA, but if they use plastic or acrylic infusion rods, those might contain BPA. It should be fairly easy
to locate BPA-free signage on the product description or packaging, so if you can’t find it, you can be confident that that particular infusion pitcher will contain some amount of BPA.
Can hot drinks be infused in an infusion pitcher?
A. Only some infusion pitchers can infuse hot drinks. Those capable of this will explicitly say this somewhere on the packaging or in an included owner’s manual.
What are some examples of foods I can infuse into my water with my new infusion pitcher?
A. Really, any kind of fruit is a top choice for infusion in your new infusion pitcher as well as combinations of fruit. One of the more popular options is infusing a variety of berries, although oranges or apples are strong contenders as well. Don’t be afraid to add a little mint or cucumber either!
What are the best infusion pitchers to buy?
Top infusion pitcher
Chef’s INSPIRATIONS 3 Core Infusion Water Pitcher
What you need to know: This is a strong, durably designed infusion pitcher with three separate inserts.
What you’ll love: This infusion pitcher is narrow enough to fit in refrigerator shelves and dishwasher-safe for easy cleaning.
What you should consider: The spout is quite large which can mess with your pitcher muscle memory.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top infusion pitcher for the money
Primula Today Shake and Infuse Pitcher
What you need to know: This is an affordable, durable and efficient infusion pitcher with no extra fuss.
What you’ll love: This infusion pitcher is shakeable, which accelerates the infusing process.
What you should consider: The lid can be a little difficult to remove, and it’s a touch too big for some refrigerator shelving.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Mami Wata Fruit & Tea Infusion Water Pitcher
What you need to know: A nice, lightweight infusion pitcher, this model throws some extra features in for good measure.
What you’ll love: Included in the package are a loose tea infuser and an ice ball maker.
What you should consider: The plastic of the handle and body can feel a bit lackluster, and the ice tray is quite simple.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which fertilizer spreaders are best?
The right fertilizer has been known to significantly increase crop yields and is responsible for producing food that can feed more people, so it should be no surprise that it can also be used to bring out the best in your lawn or garden.
You don’t need to be a lawncare expert or a landscaper because it’s easier than ever to apply fertilizer if you have the right equipment. Choices may vary depending on your needs, but a top pick is Scotts 76565 Turf Builder Classic Drop Spreader.
What to know before you buy a fertilizer spreader
Types of fertilizer spreaders
- Handheld spreaders: For smaller gardens, lawns or areas where only limited patching of bare spots is needed, a handheld spreader is a cost-effective, hands-on option. They are easy to use, portable, lightweight and come in both manual or battery powered. However, they aren’t good for large areas and will require a battery replacement.
- Drop spreaders: These deposit fertilizer and seeds for broad coverage. This is a top choice for gardens, flower beds and lawns that have odd shapes. They are available in both the tow-behind and push models, but sometimes they require more passes to provide adequate coverage.
- Broadcast spreaders: Alternatively known as rotary spreaders, they provide an easy-to-use option that is great for covering large amounts of land. These can be more expensive and are not ideal for the specific distribution of fertilizer and seeds.
- Liquid spreaders: These are a great option for potted plants and container gardens, which specifically require a liquid version of fertilizer. They offer a very quick application, although they’re not very accurate. If you’re in the market for garden fertilizer, take a look at the buying guide for best garden fertilizers on Best Reviews.
Benefits of fertilizer spreaders
- Time: A fertilizer spreader is much less time-consuming than manual fertilizing, especially if you have a very large lawn or garden.
- Even distribution: A spreader allows you to evenly distribute fertilizer over a large area of land much better than if you were trying to do it manually. Fertilizer can be expensive, and that can add up over time if you’re using too much.
- Skin protection: Some fertilizers contain harsh chemicals that can cause irritation when coming in contact with your skin. A spreader keeps you at a safe distance from these chemicals.
What to look for in a quality fertilizer spreader
Area
The size of the area you need to fertilize should help determine the type of spreader you purchase. The bigger the spreader, the more it can hold and the less you have to refill it.
Material
Are you looking to save money, or do you want a product that will last? A plastic spreader will be less expensive, but a steel spreader is more durable and can last multiple years.
Distribution
It’s not just the size of a spreader and how much fertilizer it can hold that’s important, it’s how much ground you can cover with each pass. Different spreaders allow you to adjust the width of the spread.
How much you can expect to spend on a fertilizer spreader
A quality basic home spreader will range from $20-$50 and can handle space of 2,500 square feet. For larger lawns or commercial and professional use, fertilizer spreaders range between $50-$300.
Fertilizer spreader FAQ
How often should I clean the fertilizer spreader?
A. You should clean your spreader after each use to avoid wear and tear and any contamination if you later change up fertilizer. Lubricating the wheels can help it to move easily and smoothly, so it will last.
Can my fertilizer spreader be used for grass seed as well?
A. It is possible to use the fertilizer spreader for seeds, but depending on the size and texture of those seeds, it may not flow as evenly through the spreader since that’s not what it is designed for.
Is fertilizer dangerous to kids or animals?
A. Spreading fertilizer is safe. However, it is recommended to wait 24 hours before allowing kids or pets on the lawn.
What’s the best fertilizer spreader to buy?
Top fertilizer spreader
Scotts 76565 Turf Builder Classic Drop Spreader
What you need to know: Experienced gardeners will agree that this mid-range model is a quality product. This top-selling fertilizer spreader easily handles medium to large lawns.
What you’ll love: This spreader comes assembled, so you can easily use it right away. This has the capacity to cover up to 10,000 square feet while maintaining precise distribution.
What you should consider: Although this model comes pre-calibrated, some customers mentioned it functioned better after re-calibrating.
Where to buy: Amazon
Top fertilizer spreader for the money
Scotts Turf Builder EdgeGuard Mini Broadcast Spreader
What you need to know: This budget-conscious fertilizer spreader is good quality and has the capacity to meet the needs of most consumers.
What you’ll love: This model comes pre-calibrated, completely assembled and is also collapsible for easy storage. It holds enough fertilizer to distribute over 5,000 square feet and can also work to treat smaller areas.
What you should consider: Some customers feel the distribution is uneven when fertilizing larger areas.
Where to buy: Amazon
Worth checking out
Brinly BS36BH Tow-Behind Broadcast Spreader
What you need to know: This is a fan-favorite for those who want to cut down the time of spreading fertilizer on large areas of land over an acre.
What you’ll love: This spreader is long-lasting, durable and constructed with top-of-the-line
materials. With a patented auto flow spread control, this model offers professional-grade results.
What you should consider: Although this is a high-quality spreader for larger areas, the same results may not apply for smaller areas. You should be sure you purchase a spreader that meets the specifics of your lawn or garden.
Where to buy: Amazon
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Ryan Dempsey writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which bird carrier is best?
Birds are intelligent, curious animals that require ample time outside of their cages to play, exercise and interact with new objects and environments. Even small birds like parakeets benefit from enrichment.
A bird carrier is a great way to allow your pet a safe way to explore new sights and sounds. It’s also indispensable if you have to travel with your bird or make a trip to the vet. The Petsfit Bird Carrier With Stainless Steel Bowl is the best bird carrier for small to medium birds. It provides excellent visibility and ventilation, allowing for both security and flexibility because of its use of quality materials and its backpack design.
What to know before you buy a bird carrier
Traveling
Air travel: Traveling with a pet bird by airplane can be a challenge. Your bird carrier has to fit under the seat in front of you and will require a security inspection. Check with your preferred airline to determine their requirements and restrictions regarding birds in the cabin. Carefully select a bird carrier that complies with their requests.
Groomer or vet: Like other pets, birds require periodic trips to the veterinarian as well as to the groomer to get their wings, claws and beaks trimmed. If you expect that your bird carrier will only be used as a way to transport your pet for these short visits, you don’t require an especially large model with multiple food and water bowls or other accessories.
Trips for fun: If your bird is comfortable with new people and places, a trip to the park or other outdoor area outside the home is a great way to give them the stimulation and socialization they crave. If you anticipate that your bird carrier will be used for adventure and exploration, consider one that’s easy to move and provides your bird with good visibility, plenty of room and access to food and water.
Your bird’s personality
If your bird is particularly shy or sensitive, choose a carrier that offers them a feeling of security. While many birds enjoy meeting people and taking in new sights, they all appreciate the ability to choose their own level of privacy. For apprehensive birds, select a carrier with opaque sides or a mesh screen as opposed to a clear plastic one that will leave them feeling fully exposed.
What to look for in a quality bird carrier
Visibility
Birds are visual creatures. Not only do they appreciate being able to see their surroundings, they’re also comforted by being able to see their owner. Select a bird carrier that allows you to easily observe your pet.
Ventilation
Because of their delicate respiratory systems, fresh air and good ventilation is necessary for the health of your bird. Carriers with screen windows provide ample airflow. If you prefer a carrier with plastic sides, choose one that provides adequate ventilation through portholes or a mesh door.
Material
Parrots’ powerful bills can make short work of almost anything they determine to be worth chewing. It’s important that your carrier is made from a material that’s strong enough to prevent your bird from biting its way out. Large parrots like cockatoos that are especially prone to chewing require metal carriers.
Food dishes and accessories
Many bird carriers include bowls to provide clean water and food. However, a carrier in motion can result in spills. If you intend to do a lot of walking with your bird, seek out a model that allows you to use a water bottle as opposed to an open dish. While getting your bird to drink from a bottle requires some training, it greatly reduces the mess.
Size
Whether your bird carrier is used for short trips or an afternoon at the park, it should provide ample room for your pet to comfortably turn around and stand up at full height. Birds are especially protective of their tail feathers, so a carrier that extends below your bird’s perch and allows room for their tail to hang without dragging is ideal for your pet’s comfort and cleanliness.
Portability
Some bird carriers come with backpack straps to allow for easy travel. Others are built in the style of a duffel bag with a handle or strap that can be slung over your shoulder. Consider your plans with your pet to determine which configuration works best for you.
Color
From metal cages to patterned bags, bird carriers are available in a variety of colors and styles. Choose a look that best matches your personal aesthetic, but keep in mind that some birds are highly sensitive to brightly colored objects and may take more time to become acclimated to the stimulation.
Toys and accessories
Many bird carriers come with clips or hooks that can be used to hang your pet’s favorite toys or treats. While not necessary for short trips to the groomer, toys and other accessories can prevent your bird from getting bored during travel.
How much you can expect to spend on a bird carrier
Expect to pay $50-$100 for a quality bird carrier made from strong, safe materials. Bird carriers made from metal or those from premium brands can cost $200 or more, depending on size.
Bird carrier FAQ
How long can your bird be safely left in its carrier?
A. To avoid undue stress and mess, your pet bird shouldn’t be in its carrier for more than a couple of hours at a time. While this isn’t possible during extended travel, trips outdoors for socialization should be kept brief. Be sure your bird always has access to drinking water.
Can you put more than one bird in a bird carrier?
A. Depending on the carrier’s size and how well your birds get along, yes. Bonded pairs prefer the security of their partner, but some birds like more solitude. Placing birds who aren’t familiar with one another in a confined space can result in injuries due to fighting.
Will your bird get car sick if you travel with it?
A. You may be surprised to learn that some birds can get car sick. If your bird becomes nauseous during travel, try to limit drives to necessary trips only. If travel by car is a must, some owners recommend installing a hanging perch in your carrier. The swinging motion of a hanging perch provides a more comfortable car ride for some birds.
What’s the best bird carrier to buy?
Top bird carrier
Petsfit Bird Carrier with Stainless Steel Bowl
What you need to know: This bird carrier backpack is versatile and includes features only available in carriers that cost twice as much.
What you’ll love: Stylishly designed and comfortable to carry and wear, this bird carrier is an excellent choice for conures or other small parrots. Its mesh screen provides great ventilation and visibility. All side windows can be covered with flaps to provide your bird with privacy for sleeping or stressful situations.
What you should consider: This bird carrier’s plastic mesh isn’t suitable for aggressive chewers. Only one bowl is included. It is not large enough for many species.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top bird carrier for the money
Colorday Lightweight Bird Carrier
What you need to know: This lightweight bird carrier is available in two sizes and provides crystal-clear visibility.
What you’ll love: The included wooden perch provides your bird with a secure grip and stable balance. This carrier’s shoulder strap and handle make it portable and easy to move around.
What you should consider: Users have noted that this bird carrier’s window is covered in a protective plastic film that’s difficult to fully remove. Plastic mesh can be destroyed by birds who are excessive chewers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Featherland Paradise Perch ‘n Go Polycarbonate Bird Carrier
What you need to know: Rugged plastic construction and metal cage doors make this popular carrier a safe, secure option.
What you’ll love: This model’s carrying handle doubles as an additional perch for your bird to use outside of the carrier. It is easily cleaned, and the clear polycarbonate plastic provides great visibility.
What you should consider: This carrier is on the expensive side and is only acceptable for small birds.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Derek Walborn writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which bird ladders are best?
Birds are intelligent animals that spend their time in the wild navigating complex environments as they socialize and forage for food. Providing your pet bird with the mental stimulation and activity it requires ensures your companion will remain physically and emotionally healthy.
Bird ladders are popular with bird owners because their pets have a versatile toy with which to perch, play and explore. The Mrli Pet Bird Ladder with its bright colors, spinning beads and poseable internal wires is the best choice for bird owners who wish to give their pets a fun, functional accessory.
What to know before you buy a bird ladder
Type
Ladders come in three basic styles. Rigid ladders are made of wood or plastic dowels that do not flex or bend. Poseable ladders are wood or plastic rods and beads that have a bendable wire running through them, allowing for any number of twists and turns. Rope ladders feature swinging steps tied together and hung with rope.
Many bird owners decorate their cages with all three of these ladders to give their pets a varied environment. For examples of all three of these ladder types, check out the bird ladder buying guide from BestReviews.
Size
Select a ladder sized appropriately for your bird’s species as well as its cage. Cockatiels, budgies, small conures and lovebirds can easily climb a ladder with dowels around ½ inch in diameter. Macaws, cockatoos and other large birds require much bigger ladders. Long ladders are best for cages that house more than one bird so each animal can maintain its personal space.
Material
Bird ladders most commonly are wood. Wood is a natural material that will not cause any stress or irritation to your pet. A wood bird ladder not only provides your pet with an exciting new playground but also a satisfying chew toy. Plastic perches are acceptable for budgies, finches and other small birds that are not excessive chewers.
Extra features
Some ladders come with extras such as bells, swings or ropes for additional stimulation. Birds are fussy animals, with each having its own preferences. Only through experimentation with toys and other items will you be able to determine if a ladder that includes these accessories is right for your pet.
What to look for in a quality bird ladder
Style
From tropical colors and finished surfaces to natural bark and rope, bird ladders come in a variety of styles. Birds are visual creatures that tend to show a great deal of interest in brightly colored objects, making colorful ladders and toys obvious choices. However, natural bark gives your bird an opportunity to peel, shred and strip wood as it would in the wild.
Strength
Select a ladder that safely holds the weight of your bird. Unless the ladder is made of metal, chewing damage among parrots is unavoidable. Consider your bird’s individual enthusiasm for chewing and choose a ladder you feel will last the longest.
Attachment method
Rigid ladders usually attach to the side of your bird’s cage using open hooks as hangers. These are fine for small birds such as finches and parakeets. However, owners of conures and larger birds will find that anything attached in this manner is quickly dislodged. Metal locking hooks and carabiners are the most secure way to attach your bird’s ladders and toys to its cage.
How much you can expect to spend on a bird ladder
Ladders of all types and materials are $10-$15 if sized for small birds. Heavy-duty ladders for large parrots, or those that include additional accessories, platforms and toys, can cost $20-$40.
Bird ladder FAQ
Does my bird need a ladder?
A. From giant hyacinth macaws to tiny zebra finches, toys and enrichment are essential for a pet bird’s wellbeing. While a ladder is not a specific requirement for your pet, it provides a simple way to give your bird opportunities for perching and playing.
Will my bird destroy its ladder?
A. If you own a parrot, yes. Chewing is a favorite pastime among these busy creatures. While it’s disappointing to have to continually replace your pet’s cage furniture, do not expect toys and perches for parrots to last very long.
How do I clean my bird ladder?
A. Use warm water and a gentle brush to remove any droppings or food, then allow the ladder to dry. Avoid soap or bleach as wood can absorb these and pose a health risk to your pet. Replace ladders that become overly soiled or chewed.
Bird ladder tips
Don’t expect your bird ladder to last forever
Birds are both messy and destructive. Bird owners should expect cage furniture to require regular cleaning and replacement because of soiling and chewing.
Keep your bird’s life interesting
Birds are highly inquisitive and get bored easily. Every time you clean your bird’s cage, rearrange or swap out a few toys and perches to give your pet a new environment to explore and new problems to solve.
Treats make anything possible
Many birds are naturally cautious around new objects. If your bird is leery of its new ladder, encourage curiosity by placing treats or favorite toys on the ladder. Your bird will quickly learn its new accessory is not to be feared.
What’s the best bird ladder to buy?
Top bird ladder
What you need to know: This brightly-colored ladder features flexible wires and secure mounting clips.
What you’ll love: Available in three lengths, this poseable ladder allows you to change its shape to give your bird regular updates to its environment. Mounting clips keep the ladder firmly in place.
What you should consider: Larger birds can quickly destroy this ladder. The dye used to color the wood comes off easily when wet and may concern some bird owners.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top bird ladder for the money
Prevue Hendryx 62806 Naturals Rope Ladder Bird Toy
What you need to know: Natural wood and rope construction give your bird fun textures and the opportunity for stimulating acrobatics.
What you’ll love: This bird ladder will appeal to bird owners who prefer a more natural, muted look to their cage decor. Rope construction makes this ladder a stimulating climb and the included locking clips keep it secure.
What you should consider: Some users have complained this ladder’s rope has a chemical odor, which may be hazardous.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Chewy
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This natural seagrass ladder alternative gives birds both climbing and foraging challenges.
What you’ll love: You can roll this flexible mat into a shelter as well as hang it like a ladder or hammock. You can thread toys and treats into the material for foraging fun. Natural seagrass is safe for birds to chew and play with. It includes two small toys.
What you should consider: Given its woven seagrass construction, heavy chewers will make short work of this toy.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Derek Walborn writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which dog treat bag is best?
It’s always wise to carry dog treats with you on walks to reinforce recall and other good behaviors, but nobody wants a pocket full of dog treats stinking up their pants. Dog treat bags keep your pockets clean while allowing you easy access to treats when you need them.
But that doesn’t mean it’s so simple to know which dog treat bags are worth buying and which features to look out for. If you’re searching for a versatile dog treat bag, the Paw Lifestyles Dog Treat Training Pouch is an excellent choice.
What to know before you buy a dog treat bag
Carrying style
Different dog treat bags have various carrying styles. Some modes are designed to be strapped around the waist like a fanny pack, some are worn across the body like a mini messenger bag, and yet others are simply clipped onto a belt loop or belt. Those worn around the waist or securely fastened to a belt are less likely to get in the way than a crossbody treat bag, but different users have their own preferences.
Capacity
Consider the size and capacity of a dog treat bag before buying. You want a bag that’s large enough to hold all the treats you need but not so large that it will get in your way or even start to tire you out. If you’re unsure how large a bag will be based on its capacity, check the measurements to make sure it isn’t oversized.
Materials
Dog treat pouches are most commonly made from rugged materials such as nylon, which don’t easily stain or absorb odors. They should be tough enough to stand up to daily use, as many dog owners will want to take it along each time they go out with their pooch. The materials used are sometimes water-resistant or completely waterproof to keep treats from getting wet and mushy on rainy days.
What to look for in a quality dog treat bag
Easy access
One of the most frustrating things about some treat bags is that they’re hard to get into when you need to grab a treat. A quality treat pouch offers easy access to what’s inside. It should have a wide mouth or opening to allow you to get your whole hand in to quickly pick a treat. Some models have a hinged opening that might let it stay open unless you specifically close it.
Extra compartments
Some dog treat bags available come with additional zippered compartments for storing small personal items such as keys or a wallet. Models like this preempt the possibility of those without pockets in their clothes needing to take along another bag. Some treat pouches also feature a dedicated pocket for poop bags.
Color
Dog treat bags come in a range of colors and styles. Although this might not matter much to some buyers, others may prefer a dog treat bag that’s as stylish as possible.
How much you can expect to spend on a dog treat bag
Most buyers who decide on a treat bag that’s durable and easy to get into will likely pay $10-$20. Cheaper options are available, but the quality is often lacking.
Dog treat bag FAQ
Do you need a dog treat bag?
A. Sure, you can live without a dog treat bag. Dog owners could put treats inside a plastic sandwich bag or directly in a pocket, but dog treat bags are convenient. When training a dog, it’s important to reinforce good behavior as quickly as possible or it might not be clear to your canine what exactly they’ve done right and why they’re getting a reward. A good dog treat bag allows instant access to treats for more effective training.
How do you clean a dog treat pouch?
A. Check the label inside a treat bag to find its washing instructions. Most are machine washable, although there are some that require hand washing only. As a rule, allowing a treat pouch to air-dry will help it last as long as possible.
What’s the best dog treat bag to buy?
Top dog treat bag
Paw Lifestyles Dog Treat Training Pouch
What you need to know: A reliable multifunction dog treat bag, it is great for anyone who wants a built-in poop bag holder.
What you’ll love: It’s durably made and features a large opening for easy access to treats. You can wear the bag around the waist, over the shoulder or on a belt. It also has extra compartments for personal belongings.
What you should consider: This is a fairly bulky bag that might not be ideal to carry on longer hikes.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top dog treat bag for the money
What you need to know: This dog treat pouch offers excellent value for the money, and has standard and mini sizes available.
What you’ll love: It features a hinged mouth you can keep open when you want quick access but close up when you need to. It comes with an adjustable belt for around the waist.
What you should consider: The standard size is larger than many buyers have realized. Check the dimensions and decide if the mini is more appropriate.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Kurgo Dog Training Treat Pouch
What you need to know: This is a rugged treat pouch suitable for regular, heavy-duty use.
What you’ll love: It has a large opening so you can quickly and easily get to treats, plus a drawstring closure when you need to contain them. The carabiner clips onto a belt loop.
What you should consider: Some pet parents find this bag slightly too small.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Lauren Corona writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which balance pads are best?
If you want to bring your workout to the next level, you don’t necessarily have to try an entirely new routine. Introducing a balance pad to your usual strength training workout can help take it up a notch by requiring all of your muscles to spring into action to support and stabilize your body.
A balance pad has a spongy texture, so your body sinks into the material when you step on it. That means all your muscles must engage to keep you balanced on the pad, which makes your regular workout that much harder. If you’re looking for an excellent balance pad for everyday use, the AIREX Balance Pad is the top option.
What to know before you buy a balance pad
Size
Balance pads are typically available in three size options: small, regular and large.
Small balance pads are generally only large enough to place one foot on at a time. They usually have an oval shape and measure 16 by 9 inches or smaller. You can also find some models that are rectangular if that’s more comfortable.
- Regular balance pads are considered the standard size and measure 20 by 16 inches. You can step onto these pads with both feet at the same time, making them excellent for squats and other similar exercises.
- Large balance pads are approximately 38 by 16 inches and are sometimes classified as “extra-large.” Like regular balance pads, you can stand on them with both feet simultaneously, but they provide even more space to maneuver.
- You can also find balance beam-style pads that are a safer alternative to a balance beam since there’s not as much distance from the pad to the floor. They measure approximately 63 by 10 by 2 inches and feature a wider base. You use these pads by walking along them with one foot in front of the other to help you work on your balance.
For more information on size options, take a look at the full balance pad buying guide at BestReviews.
Quantity
The number of balance pads you need largely depends on whether you’ll be working out alone or with a partner.
In general, most workouts only require one balance pad at a time. Exercises like lunges and squats typically call for you to place one foot on the pad at a time, though some may require stepping with both feet. If you tend to work out by yourself, one balance pad is probably all you need.
If you work out with one or more partners, though, you’ll need one pad for each person exercising.
Dry vs. wet
Because of their lightweight construction, balance pads can float in water. As a result, some people actually purchase them to use as a flotation device. A regular-size balance pad can work well as a kickboard, while large models can work as a full-size board for kids. You can also use a balance beam pad as a neck rest when floating in the water.
If you want to use your balance pad for workouts and swimming, it’s a good idea to purchase two — one for dry use during exercise and one for wet use in the pool.
Safety concerns
A balance pad requires you to strain your muscles to remain balanced, so it’s not uncommon to fall when using one. As a result, you must use a balance pad in a wide-open area to prevent injuries. Make sure there is no furniture or other items with sharp edges in the vicinity to pose a risk.
If you don’t have an open place to use the pad, it’s a good idea to ask a friend to spot you while working out.
What to look for in a quality balance pad
Material
Most balance pads are made of some type of closed-cell foam. Some models feature EVA foam, while others offer latex-free foam. You can even find some manufacturers that advertise non-toxic, eco-friendly foam options.
Because all balance pads are made of similar soft foam, you can choose whatever type you like. If you have a latex allergy, though, you definitely want a latex-free option.
Color
Some balance pads are available in a wider range of color options than others. Many brands only offer a single shade. Common balance pad color options include blue, black, green, red and purple.
Textured surface
Higher-end balance pads often have a textured, non-slip surface. You’re generally supposed to use a balance pad barefoot, so some traction on the surface can help you stay balanced. These textured pads tend to cost more, though.
How much you can expect to spend on a balance pad
Most balance pads cost between $19-$75. The majority of small and regular-size pads range from $19-$40, while regular-size, textured pads can cost between $50-$75. For large and balance beam pads, though, you’ll likely pay more than $75.
Balance pad FAQ
Are balance pads the same thing as balance boards?
A. They’re a bit different, though they’re both designed to boost your strength and balance during low-impact workouts. Pads are made of soft foam, while balance boards feature harder materials. A balance pad is typically more effective at engaging multiple sets of muscles because of the softer material.
Can I use a balance pad if I’m a beginner?
A. A balance pad can be somewhat challenging to use if you’re just starting an exercise routine. Because the foam can throw off your balance, it makes exercises more challenging. If you’re not used to doing a particular workout, you may fall and get injured. It’s best to introduce a balance pad to your workout routine once you can complete all of the exercises confidently on solid ground.
What’s the best balance pad to buy?
Top balance pad
What you need to know: This durable, well-designed balance pad holds up to daily use with ease.
What you’ll love: The pad is effective for improving strength and balance. It can also help boost flexibility. It works well for physical therapy and can help improve confidence for everyday activities while you’re recovering. It’s an excellent option for improving balance for those who work at a standing desk, too.
What you should consider: While it’s effective for balance exercises, it’s not ideal for high-impact workouts.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top balance pad for the money
What you need to know: Recommended by physical therapists, this versatile balance pad is effective for both rehabilitation and everyday use.
What you’ll love: It features even padding throughout that’s ideal for people recovering from knee issues. It also comes in handy for regular workouts and can be used during everyday activities like watching TV. It not only improves balance but flexibility, too.
What you should consider: It can feel somewhat stiff compared to other foam pads.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This affordably priced balance pad is effective for improving balance even for beginners.
What you’ll love: The pad features an anti-skid surface to make it easier to maintain your balance. The price is an excellent value, considering how effective it is for building balance and strength. It’s an ideal option for seniors.
What you should consider: The simple design isn’t suited for more complicated rehabilitation exercises.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jennifer Blair writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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Which putting mat is best?
The putt is one of the trickiest and most important strokes in the entire game of golf. Sure, you need to be able to get your golf ball to the green itself, but that usually boils down to hitting it very hard and as straight or hooked as needed and through the air to boot. A putt has to take into account the shape of the ground, the water concentration of the grass and any other number of complicating factors.
The best putting mat to practice your short game so it’s ready for the big leagues is the Shaun Webb Golf Putting Green. Not only is it more affordable than many top-of-the-line putting mats, but it also has plenty of space to practice longer putts and has multiple holes for honing your precision.
What to know before you buy a putting mat
Coverage size
The most important aspect to consider before purchasing a putting mat is where exactly you plan on placing it. If you have a limited amount of space, you should purchase a smaller putting mat so it actually fits. You should also consider where you want to store it and how it folds away when not in use.
Mat markings
Mat markings are especially helpful for those learning the basic arts of the putting stroke and for those who generally have a rough short game. There are markings that provide a clear line to the hole or perhaps grid lines for assisting in spatial reasoning. If you prefer not to have any markings at all, there are plenty of putting mats without markings as well.
What to look for in a quality putting mat
Ball speed
Some putting mats have something called a stimp rating, which is a measurement of how fast a golf ball will roll on the surface of the mat. Real golf courses have stimp ratings for their various greens, so if you’re trying to improve your short game for a specific course, you can match up your putting mat to your local course’s greens.
Varying breaks
If you have an excellent short game on perfectly straight greens but struggle once uneven surfaces rear their ugly heads, you can purchase a putting mat with uphill and/or downhill breaks to get a feel for those course conditions.
Multiple holes
If you’re someone who detests doing the same things over and over again with no variation, you can purchase a putting mat with multiple holes to break up the repetition and give yourself some extra challenges.
Ball return
Some putting mats have methods of returning your ball to you to expedite setting up for your next stroke. Most will only kick the ball back to you if you get it in the hole, so practice, practice, practice!
Portability
If you want to take a putting mat with you to the office or on vacation, you’ll need one that’s easy to roll up. Seek out a high-quality mat so that repeated rolling won’t damage any part of its construction.
How much you can expect to spend on a putting mat
While you can find inexpensive putting mats for less than $30, you’ll probably want to spend at least $80 to ensure a quality and long-lasting putting mat. There are even putting mats that can reach upwards of $250. For a more detailed breakdown of putting mat price and quality ranges, you can visit the putting mat buying guide from BestReviews.
Putting mat FAQ
How do putting mats compare to the actual conditions of a real grass green on a course?
A. That depends on the putting mat, but most manufacturers try to get as close to real-world course conditions as they can. You won’t be able to practice things like a green logged with water and dew, but you can rest assured that your putting mat practice will be valid when used on a real grass green.
Can you use a putting mat anywhere you want?
A. Some putting mats are designed to be used indoors and outside, but you’ll find just as many that should only be used inside. Pro tip: place your putting mats on flat, firm flooring like tile and concrete; surfaces like plush carpeting can create an inconsistent put.
What’s the best putting mat to buy?
Top putting mat
What you need to know: There are plenty of different practicing options with this top pick putting mat.
What you’ll love: This putting mat is more affordable than many other mats.
What you should consider: The foam can tear in enough time and there’s a bump on the incline that can be difficult to get rid of.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top putting mat for the money
What you need to know: There’s no need to walk back and forth with this mat; you can place holes at each end.
What you’ll love: This 11-foot-long mat allows you to practice plenty of different putting techniques.
What you should consider: This mat tends to wear down faster than most would like.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
MESIXI Indoor/Outdoor Putting Mat
What you need to know: The balls come straight back to you with an automatic return so you can focus on your putting game.
What you’ll love: This mat comes with three bonus balls, so you don’t have to invest in extras.
What you should consider: The holes of this putting mat are smaller than standard, which can be better for developing aim but can be frustrating.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Jordan C. Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T11:48:42
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Which gardening cart is best?
Gardeners are always busy planting, watering, fertilizing, mulching and trimming. They need to haul tools and supplies out to the garden from the garage or shed and back again when they’re done. All those activities call for a garden cart that’s sturdy, rolls easily and holds the materials you work with regularly.
If you’re a serious garden enthusiast who needs a rough, tough metal cart that can carry 1,000 pounds, you’re going to like the Gorilla Carts Heavy-Duty Steel Utility Cart.
What to know before you buy a gardening cart
Wheels and tires
- Two wheels are good for getting in and out of smaller spaces and are usually found on smaller gardening carts.
- Four wheels are found on gardening carts that carry larger items and heavier weights than two-wheel carts. Four wheels are the most stable by far, not only for transporting things, but when you’re loading and unloading your cart, too.
- Plastic wheels are the cheapest material and effective only with small gardening carts and small loads. They do okay in dirt and grass but get chewed up quickly when used on paved surfaces.
- Pneumatic tires with treads give you the best grip and provide support to gardening carts that carry the biggest and heaviest loads. The downside is they need to be aired up from time to time and repaired or replaced when a tire is punctured or otherwise damaged.
Shape
Some garden carts are shaped like boxes with vertical walls. The walls may be made of wood, metal or plastic. Cart walls may be solid, made of open slats or metal mesh. Some walls are permanent and others are removable to convert the cart to a flatbed. Other carts are shaped like wheelbarrows, with shallow tubs made of a single piece of plastic or steel.
Material
Heavy-duty gardening carts should be made of strong materials like steel, which needs to be protected against rust and corrosion. Light-duty gardening carts are usually made of plastic to save money and weight. Lighter and less sturdy carts can fail if overloaded.
Size
If you have a small garden that you weed regularly, a small cart may be your solution. If you need to move lots of heavy things, you need a big, strong gardening cart. If you have limited storage space, buy a garden cart with a handle that folds down.
What to look for in a quality gardening cart
Assembly
Whatever material you choose, make sure of the quality of the materials and the precision of the assembly. Look for snug-fitting corners, tight seams and bright alloy nuts and bolts.
Body
Open mesh sides are great for carrying leaves, weeds and firewood but lousy for moving dirt. Rectangles carry more than tubs and have the added benefit of removable sides.
How much you can expect to spend on a gardening cart
Simple, light-duty plastic carts with two wheels for small gardens cost around $40. Larger four-wheeled carts cost $60-$100. Heavy-duty gardening carts that can carry 1,000 pounds cost from $150 to more than $300.
Gardening cart FAQ
How do I take care of my gardening cart?
A. Whether your cart is made of metal, plastic or wood, all you need to do is rinse it off and let it dry outside before putting it away. Check and lubricate wheel bearings as directed by the manufacturer. Check your tires regularly to see they stay properly inflated.
Is it better to buy a gardening cart that’s too big or too small?
A. If you go with a bigger one, it’ll be less likely to tip over. Another good reason to get a big cart is that you have to make fewer trips from where you keep your gardening tools and materials out to your garden and back again.
What’s the best gardening cart to buy?
Top gardening cart
Gorilla Carts Heavy Duty Steel Utility Cart
What you need to know: This is the all-around best option for gardening enthusiasts.
What you’ll love: This 56-inch long gardening cart is built for the serious gardener. It rides on 13-inch tires, is made of high-grade alloy steel and has a 1,000-pound capacity. The steel mesh sides can be removed to convert this 7 cubic foot gardening cart into a flatbed trailer.
What you should consider: If you use this cart for heavy loads, make sure you keep the tires properly inflated.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top gardening cart for the money
Gorilla Carts Poly Garden Dump Cart
What you need to know: Unloading is made quick and easy with this gardening cart’s patented quick-release dump feature.
What you’ll love: The frame is made of steel and the cart bed is made of tough and durable poly plastic. The padded handle and 10-inch pneumatic tires make it easy to pull 600 pounds of anything you can load it with, even over heavy terrain. The 40 x 25-inch bed carries things like dirt, mulch, rocks and more.
What you should consider: Some people say assembly is more of a challenge than it should be.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Suncast 15.5-Gallon Multipurpose Cart with Wheels
What you need to know: This weather-resistant cart handles smaller loads with ease.
What you’ll love: Not everyone needs to move lots of rocks and dirt; some gardeners want to move plants, mulch, weeds and so on. They like how this 11-pound cart is easy to maneuver and the handle telescopes into itself for storing in tight places. Users take this cart beyond the garden, using it to tote laundry and groceries.
What you should consider: This two-wheeled cart is prone to tipping over when overloaded or top-heavy.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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David Allan Van writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which aerator shoes are best for fall lawn care?
If you’ve been properly watering, weeding and fertilizing your lawn yet it still doesn’t look bright green and healthy, it may be because your soil isn’t properly aerated. Hard, compacted soil doesn’t allow the water and fertilizer to get down to the roots where it is needed.
There are many ways to aerate your lawn and break up thatch, but if you have a small property, aerator shoes are one of the best. When choosing aerator shoes, it is important to look for a pair with a sturdy strap system like the one featured in Leweio Lawn Aerator Shoes. This helps ensure they stay securely in place throughout the entire job.
What to know before you buy aerator shoes
Why lawns need aeration
Anyone who has ever tried to maintain a lawn knows that keeping it green and healthy is no simple task. It needs proper watering and adequate fertilizer, but just a bit too much or too little of either can result in grass that doesn’t grow well or dies off.
Over time, the soil gets compacted from people walking on it, heavy rains and various other reasons. Additionally, thatch from mowing and other sources can build up on top of the soil. Together, these two factors can result in a nearly impenetrable layer that stops water, oxygen and fertilizer from getting down to the roots of your grass. Periodically aerating your lawn breaks up this impenetrable layer so your grass can get the nutrients, oxygen and water it needs.
When and how often to aerate your lawn
Most experts recommend aerating your lawn at least once a year. That said, some lawns need more frequent aeration, while others can go for two or three years before requiring it. Some signs that your lawn may need aeration include a spongy feeling when you press on the grass, water pooling up after rains rather than quickly draining away and dying patches of grass that won’t grow even with regular watering.
You can aerate your lawn at any time without harming it, but you’ll get the most benefit from doing it during the peak growing season. This is early spring or fall for cool-season grasses and late spring or early summer for hot-season grasses.
What to look for in quality aerator shoes
Aerator shoe straps
One of the most important aspects of aerator shoes are the straps. If the straps aren’t sturdy or tend to loosen up as you work, they will allow the shoes to slip, which can potentially be dangerous. The wider and thicker the straps or the more there are, the better they will secure the shoes in place on your feet.
Aerator shoe buckles vs. velcro
Straps on aerator shoes are generally tightened in place through the use of buckles or Velcro. The latter is easier to don and remove quickly. It also tends to have better holding power. However, buckles can sometimes loosen up as you work, so you may want to avoid them.
How to keep lawn aerator shoes from slipping off
As an additional safeguard against your foot slipping around as you walk, some aerator shoes have a textured footbed which adds some traction.
Aerator spike reinforcement
On many aerator shoes, the spikes are secured to the plastic footbed. While this is often sufficient, it can lead to the shoes cracking with use. Higher-end models incorporate some kind of reinforcement, such as a metal plate, to reduce the chances of this happening.
How to assemble aerator shoes
While not complicated, assembling aerator shoes can be time-consuming because you have to individually secure each screw in place, and there are usually between 24-26 of them between the two shoes. If you don’t want to deal with this, look for a pair that comes pre-assembled.
How much you can expect to spend on aerator shoes
The majority of aerator shoes cost between $15-$35. However, most people may want to avoid models that cost less than $20, as they are often made with low-quality materials.
Aerator shoes FAQ
Do aerator shoes work?
A. Aerator shoes’ spikes are solid and push the soil to the side and downward when used, thus compacting the soil even more. You simply strap them to your feet and walk around your yard. You can even do it while mowing, allowing you to get two jobs done simultaneously.
Do aerator shoes actually work?
A. There is no doubt that aerator shoes work to aerate your lawn, but whether or not they are a suitable choice for your needs is another question. If you have a small property, they are an effective way to loosen your soil and can even be used when you mow to save yourself some time. However, if you have a large property, you will be better off with a push or tow-behind aerator. You can learn more about the different types of lawn aerators on the BestReviews buying guide.
Do aerator shoes come in different sizes?
A. No, they don’t. Pretty much all aerator shoes have a one-size-fits-all design.
What are the best aerator shoes to buy?
Top aerator shoes
What you need to know: With a sturdy platform and thick straps, these aerator shoes should be the go-to choice for those who find other models feel a bit too flimsy.
What you’ll love: Thanks to a combination of laces and Velcro, they are easy to don quickly and stay securely in place. Plus, they conveniently come fully assembled, so you won’t have to waste any time screwing down a bunch of nuts.
What you should consider: The spikes can bend if you hit large rocks in the soil.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top aerator shoes for the money
What you need to know: The Ergomind Aerator shoes stand apart from the rest thanks to an integrated heel support system that helps ensure they stay firmly in place as your stomp all over your yard.
What you’ll love: The spikes are embedded into a steel plate, so you don’t have to worry about plastic breaking if you hit something hard at an odd angle with them. Also, the sturdy metal buckles do an effective job at preventing the straps from loosening as you work.
What you should consider: They only come with two spare spikes.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: These basic lawn aerator shoes get the job done but are less durable than more costly models.
What you’ll love: The simple strap system makes them easy to don and doff without much fumbling around, and the textured footbeds offer a bit of traction, so they don’t shift around as you walk.
What you should consider: The spikes can loosen during use.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T11:48:56
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Which activity cubes are best?
If you are looking for a fun way to develop your child’s cognitive and motor skills, activity cubes are the way to go. They can help improve everything from hand-eye coordination to reading and problem-solving skills. Best of all, they keep kids entertained while doing so.
There are plenty of things to consider when choosing an activity cube for your child, such as the build materials and theme, but the most important is how well it fits their developmental age. If you want a cube that can grow with your child from the time they are a baby through to their toddler years, opt for a model with plenty of activities of varying skill levels, such as the Hape Country Critters Wooden Activity Play Cube.
What to know before you buy an activity cube
Developmental stage
Activity cubes can provide countless hours of entertainment and learning for a child, but only if you get one that fits their skill levels. Most activity cubes list the intended age range, but you’ll also need to consider an individual child’s developmental stage when choosing a model. Ideally, the activities should reinforce and build on things they already know or things you are just beginning to teach them.
For example, if your child understands a few letters, consider buying an activity cube that has the entire alphabet or perhaps a few basic words they can practice spelling out. Very young toddlers tend to do best with activity cubes that provide a lot of tactile sensations because they can enjoy these long before they begin to recognize shapes or letters.
In addition to cognitive skills, consider motor skills. An activity cube should be challenging for a child but not so difficult they become frustrated when trying to use it.
Theme
Along with your child’s developmental stage, consider their interests. Activity cubes are available in a variety of themes, ranging from sports to animals and storybook fantasies. Choosing a model that incorporates pictures, shapes and characters they like should make it more engaging for them. Some models also mix themes, which are great for children who don’t yet have specific likes and dislikes.
Safety
While you might assume any toy marketed for children is safe, this is not always the case. This means the responsibility ultimately falls on parents and other caretakers to ensure they aren’t giving children a toy that could be dangerous. When looking at activity cubes, consider the size of the pieces and if any can be detached or broken off by a determined child. Check that it doesn’t have sharp edges or corners.
Materials
Activity cubes are made from a variety of materials. Wood is the most eco-friendly option but plastic models often are cheaper and more likely to have sounds or music. There also are plushie activity cubes for babies.
What to look for in a quality activity cube
Number and type of activities
Some activity cubes only have a few activities while others might have 15 or more. The greater the number of activities and the more variety, the more time a child will spend playing with it. The most common activities are bead mazes, matching mazes, abacus sliders, shape sorters and spinning gears.
Sounds
Activity cubes with sounds can be more engaging, especially for young children. Some feature pianos, xylophones or other instruments. There also are models that play recordings at the touch of a button, such as counting, animal sounds or nursery rhymes.
Lights
Lights also can make activity cubes more interesting. These often come with models intended for babies between 1-2 years old.
How much you can expect to spend on an activity cube
Small plushies for babies tend to cost between $10-$20. Plastic models range from $10-$50, and wood activity cubes cost between $20-$125.
Activity cube FAQ
How do you clean an activity cube?
A. Activity cubes can be difficult to clean because of the number of nooks and crannies. Start by wiping down the exterior with a solution made from warm water and standard dish soap. Wipe it down one more time with a damp cloth to remove as much of the soap as possible. If you have a place to do it, you can leave it outside in the sun for an hour or two to help kill off germs and bacteria you may have missed when wiping it down.
Is it OK for a child to climb on an activity cube?
A. No. Never allow children to climb or pull too hard on an activity cube. Either of these actions can lead to the activity cube falling on the child and potentially causing injury. To ensure safety, always supervise your child when they’re using their activity cube.
What’s the best activity cube to buy?
Top activity cube
Hape Country Critters Wooden Activity Play Cube
What you need to know: With a country theme, vibrant colors and plenty of activities, this activity cube should keep most children between the ages of 12 months and 6 years entertained for hours.
What you’ll love: It is made from wood sourced from sustainable forests and finished with nontoxic, water-based paint. The durable construction allows it to withstand plenty of use.
What you should consider: You could easily lose some pieces.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Top activity cube for the money
Top Bright Toddler and Baby Activity Cube Toy
What you need to know: This model combines an elephant shape with engaging activities.
What you’ll love: You can remove the bead maze and use it separately, making it a great choice for multi-child households.
What you should consider: It is too small for some babies in the recommended age range.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Worth checking out
Play22 Activity Cube With Bead Maze
What you need to know: This affordably-priced toy keeps children engaged while allowing parents to keep to their budget.
What you’ll love: Most children are drawn to its bright primary colors, and its lack of any notable theme makes it suitable for all children, no matter their interests.
What you should consider: It’s very lightweight and some children may accidentally push it around while playing with it.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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| 2022-04-10T11:49:03
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Which adjustable dumbbell is best?
If you like to work out at home, you need dumbbells — and not just one or two of them, either. You need anywhere from 12-30 dumbbells if you want to work on every part of your body with the right amount of weight. Of course, most people simply don’t have room in their home to store this number of dumbbells. Instead, they try to make do with just a couple of pairs, which isn’t an ideal solution. That’s when adjustable dumbbells can help.
Models such as the Bowflex SelectTech ST552 come as a set of two but take the place of 30 traditional dumbbells. These particular dumbbells have a weight range of 5-52.5 pounds and adjust in 2.5-pound increments, making them ideal for casual and serious lifters alike.
What to know before you buy an adjustable dumbbell
Benefits of an adjustable dumbbell
The largest benefit of adjustable dumbbells is their space-saving design. If you’ve stepped foot in a gym before, you’ve probably noticed a row of dumbbells running the entire length of a wall. While that may be fine for a commercial gym, most people don’t have this kind of space in their home. Instead, you can opt for an adjustable dumbbell to take the place of anywhere from 4-15 traditional dumbbells.
Another benefit of adjustable dumbbells is their portability. If you like to work out at the park or another outdoor location, you only have to toss two dumbbells in your trunk and you’ll have a full set of weights to use.
Although adjustable dumbbells may seem expensive, they usually are more affordable than buying a full set of traditional dumbbells.
Size
Adjustable dumbbells may feel a bit awkward at first because of their unusual size and shape. You may not notice this when using the dumbbell at its maximum weight, but it becomes more apparent when using it at the lower weight settings. This is because the overall length of the dumbbell isn’t reduced as you drop the weight. The dumbbell will feel nearly as large when you use it at 10 pounds as it does when you use it at 50 pounds.
Durability
Adjustable dumbbells are great for traditional workout routines but aren’t ideal for any kind of activity where you are tossing around the weight. Due to the integrated weight adjustment mechanism, they are less durable than traditional dumbbells, which don’t have any moving parts.
What to look for in a quality adjustable dumbbell
Weight range
Every adjustable dumbbell has a minimum and maximum weight. The greater the weight range, the more exercises you can do, and the more users for which a particular pair will be suitable. Beginners need lower weights and serious lifters need heavier dumbbells. If you have several people with varying fitness levels at home, an adjustable dumbbell with a wide weight range will be equally suitable for all of them.
Increments
Along with the weight range, the increments a dumbbell adjusts are important. The most common increments are 2.5 and 5 pounds, but there are options that adjust in as little as 1-pound increments. The smaller the increments, the better. This allows you to only slightly increase the weight rather than making a big jump that may make an exercise too difficult.
Grip
An adjustable dumbbell’s grip determines how secure a hold you have on it as well as how comfortable it is for your hand. Any dumbbell you choose should have some kind of traction-increasing texture that reduces the chances of it slipping out of your hand. If you wear gloves when working out, dumbbells with a knurled metal grip are fine. However, if you normally work out without gloves, opt for a dumbbell with a soft grip.
Storage tray
Most adjustable dumbbells come with a storage tray where the unused weight plates sit while you work out. Put the dumbbells back into these trays when you want to adjust to higher or lower weights.
How much you can expect to spend on an adjustable dumbbell
Adjustable dumbbells can cost from $25-$250 for a single dumbbell. The weight range and ease and reliability of the adjustment mechanism are the two biggest determining factors in the price.
Adjustable dumbbell FAQ
Do you need two dumbbells?
A. While you could certainly put together a workout routine that only requires a single dumbbell, most people will be best served by buying a pair. Having just one dumbbell can make it more difficult to keep your body correctly balanced when performing certain exercises.
Do adjustable dumbbells require any maintenance?
A. As with traditional dumbbells, adjustable dumbbells require essentially no maintenance other than periodically cleaning them off with a damp cloth or sanitizing them with a disinfectant.
What is the best adjustable dumbbell to buy?
Top adjustable dumbbell
Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbell ST552
What you need to know: From one of the most reputable brands in home fitness equipment, the SelectTech ST552 can see you through years of constant workouts without you having to worry about their mechanism failing.
What you’ll love: They transition between plates smoothly, adjust in low 2.5-pound increments and have a dial system that is easy to use with gloves on.
What you should consider: Their high price tag can put them out of reach for many consumers.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Top adjustable dumbbell for the money
What you need to know: This reasonably-priced option is available as a single dumbbell and has a low weight range, which makes it a good choice for beginners.
What you’ll love: A simple push-pull design allows you to quickly switch between weights, and it features a comfortable, soft and textured grip you won’t mind holding onto without gloves.
What you should consider: It only replaces four standard dumbbells.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Worth checking out
Merax Deluxe 71.5 Pounds Adjustable Dial Dumbbells
What you need to know: This pair is best for serious lifters looking for high-weight adjustable dumbbells.
What you’ll love: Despite having a maximum weight of 71.5 pounds per dumbbell, you can adjust the weight to just 11 pounds.
What you should consider: The measurements are denoted in kilograms.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
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Brett Dvoretz writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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Which budget travel accessories are best?
Traveling can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. There are ways to keep costs down when exploring the world. Using travel accessories that are multipurpose and cost-effective is a great way to save money. When purchasing a budget travel product, consider how it was made and if it can be of optimal use at your destination. It’s also important to consider where you will be going, how you will be getting there and what the weather will be like, among many other factors.
If you are looking for a cheap yet high-quality travel accessory that can be used multiple times, the Wise Owl Outfitters Camping Travel Pillow is the top choice.
What to know before you buy budget travel accessories
Destination
When searching for the best budget travel accessories, consider where you will be traveling. If you’re traveling to a place that’s higher in elevation, consider purchasing products that will help you ease into the change in altitude. If you’re traveling internationally, there’s a chance that your destination will use different products. For example, each country has a different style of adaptor. This is something to consider as a product that you plan to use may not be of common use in another country and will not function properly. Researching a country’s specific customs before traveling will help you purchase travel accessories accordingly.
Transportation
When choosing a good budget travel accessory, consider how you’ll be getting around when traveling. Whether you’re walking to a campsite, taking a road trip or flying to your destination, it’s important for the travel accessory that you chose to be compact and lightweight for convenience. If you’re traveling by car, especially with multiple people, it’s important to consider compact packing. If there are many people, accessories that help you keep items private and organized will be key in helping the trip go smoothly. If you plan to travel by airplane, consider the ounces restriction and weight restriction for carry-ons for efficient, stress-free traveling.
Season
When choosing a budget travel accessory, consider the season you will be traveling. If you’re traveling in colder seasons and plan to be outside a lot during your trip, choose products that will keep you warm, such as thermal blankets and heavy-duty insulated luggage and other gear. If you plan to travel in the summer months, keep all of your travel accessories lightweight and purchase accordingly.
Some products are specific to the season. For example, if you’re traveling in the summer and plan to be in a place without air conditioning, consider a portable fan. If you’re traveling in the winter, consider bringing hand warmers as a useful travel accessory. It is important to always be prepared for the weather when purchasing a budget travel accessory.
What to look for in quality budget travel accessories
Compact
When choosing a budget travel accessory, make sure it’s compact enough for the type of travel that you’ll be doing. A good travel accessory won’t take up unnecessary space and will fit conveniently into whatever you’re using to store your things. If you’re camping or taking a road trip, there are no restrictions on size. However, if you are flying, there will be restrictions on the number of carry-ons that you can bring with you before a fee is added. If your travel accessory is compact, fitting everything you need into the minimum amount of bags won’t be an issue. Regardless of transportation, you’ll want a product that utilizes space effectively.
Organization
Travel accessories are meant to bring ease to your packing process and convenience to your traveling experience. One of the most important aspects of traveling is keeping everything organized so it can be unloaded easily, and you can be off on your adventures. Consider opting for budget travel accessories that provide more organization to the packing process. Whether this be luggage with different compartments or packing cubes, make sure the product is lightweight and helps with compacting your items into one space.
Multipurpose
A good travel accessory will be able to be used for multiple things. For example, purchasing a universal adapter can be used for trips to various countries. A cube organizer set for luggage can be used to keep dirty laundry apart from clean laundry, as well as organize the clothes in your bag. You can use a travel pillow at the place you are staying as well as on the trip during a bumpy bus ride to protect other parts of your body. Products like these can provide multiple uses, will save space and time in the long run and can be used for more than one trip.
For useful information on a multipurpose travel item, take a look at the full travel pillow buying guide from BestReviews.
How much you can expect to spend on budget travel accessories
A budget travel accessory will cost anywhere from $5-$40, depending on the style of product and its function. Smaller products will be between $5-$20, while larger products will cost anywhere between $20-$40.
Budget travel accessories FAQ
What is the most sustainable way to purchase travel accessories?
A. Shopping for used travel accessories secondhand is the most sustainable way to source items for travel. Thrifting needed products can save you money as well as save the environment. Some products, such as pillows, you may not want to purchased secondhand due to cleanliness.
What is the most efficient way to keep track of all needed accessories?
A. The best way to keep track of all needed accessories is to make a physical list. Write down what you will need to bring and search online for pre-made checklists for people who have traveled to the same destination. For efficiency, you can create a spreadsheet and share it with those you’re traveling with to make sure no one forgets an item and the trip goes smoothly.
What are the best budget travel accessories to buy?
Top budget travel accessory
Wise Owl Outfitters Camping Travel Pillow
What you need to know: This product is versatile and can be used to get to your destination and when you arrive at your destination.
What you’ll love: This product is compact, lightweight and portable, and it easily compresses down into a waterproof sack. It is machine washable and made with memory foam for added comfort and firm neck support.
What you should consider: The pillow looks larger than it is in images and may be too small for some.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Top budget travel accessory for the money
Worldwide All-In-One Universal Travel Adapter
What you need to know: This adaptor features four universal plugs and covers more than 150 countries.
What you’ll love: This product features built in safety shutter and an LED power indicator. It has dual USB ports for convenient charging of most electronics.
What you should consider: The Euro-tip on this product is easily breakable, so be careful when packing. It cannot be used in South Africa, India, Sweden or Italy.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
Worth checking out
Amazon Basics Small Packing Travel Organizer Cubes Set
What you need to know: This organizer cube set includes four gray travel cubes with handles for easy carrying and mesh tops for breathability.
What you’ll love: The mesh is soft enough to keep fabrics from being damaged, and the product is machine washable for convenience. It features interior seams for increased durability and a double zipper for easy open and close.
What you should consider: The fabric can be stiff and too bulky to conveniently fit into some suitcases.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon.
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Logan DeLoye writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen had quite the retirement ride on Saturday.
The 39-year-old Waley-Cohen marked his final race in the saddle by winning the world-famous Grand National horse race aboard a big outsider in 50-1 shot Noble Yeats.
“It’s a fairy tale, it’s a fantasy,” said Waley-Cohen, who runs a successful dentistry business and is a long-time friend of Prince William and Kate Middleton — even attending their wedding in 2011.
In a dramatic end to a race run before a crowd of around 70,000 spectators at Aintree, Noble Yeats reached the last of the 30 fences neck and neck with 15-2 favorite Any Second Now.
Noble Yeats pulled away on the long run to the finishing line on the 4 mile, 514 yards (6.9 kilometers) course and won by about three lengths.
Waley-Cohen was emotional as he returned to the winner’s enclosure one final time in his 23-year racing career, to the backdrop of cheers from racegoers. He spoke of his pride at winning Britain’s most storied horse race with the name of his late brother Thomas — who died of cancer in his 20s — on his saddle.
“You couldn’t make it up, could you?” he said.
The main storylines ahead of the first National staged with fans since 2019 revolved around two females in jockey Rachael Blackmore, who was looking to win it for a second straight year aboard Minella Times, and the horse Snow Leopardess, which was seeking to become the first mother to claim victory in the race — and first mare since 1951.
Minella Times fell at the ninth, though, and Snow Leopardess pulled up around two-thirds of the way around.
It was a record seventh win over the giant National fences for Waley-Cohen, including in the Becher Chase in 2014. That was on Oscar Time, with whom he finished second in the Grand National in 2011. He’d also finished fourth, fifth and eighth in the biggest race of the lot.
Waley-Cohen became the first amateur in 30 years to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in 2011 aboard Long Run — a horse owned by his father, Robert.
“For Sam to go out on a win like this, you could not write it,” said Emmet Mullins, the trainer of Noble Yeats.
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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:49:23
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Cardinals bench coach Skip Schumaker learned less than an hour before game time that he’d be filling in for ill manager Oliver Marmol. Nolan Arenado helped make his job a lot easier.
Arenado hit three doubles and a single, Paul DeJong homered and St. Louis, minus its rookie skipper, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2 Saturday.
“I wasn’t thinking when I woke up today that I was going to be managing from inning one,” Schumaker said. “I found out 45 minutes maybe before the game started that he was under the weather and had to go home and here we are.”
Marmol, a winner in his debut Thursday as a major league manager, was at Busch Stadium before the game and diagnosed with the flu. He tested negative for COVID-19 and left the ballpark.
Arenado drove in three runs in his second four-hit game since being traded to St. Louis prior to the 2021 season.
“Ever since I was a young kid, I was always hitting three or hitting in a spot where I could drive runs in,” Arenado said. “I don’t know what it is. That’s the position I’m in. Guys get on base, and I need to drive them in.”
St. Louis starter Miles Mikolas threw a career-high 41 pitches in the first inning, but gave up just run in that span. He was pulled in the fourth.
“I don’t love it, but I felt good,” Mikolas said. “Overall I’m not so discouraged with how I felt. I made some good pitches when I needed to, and I kept a lot of runs off the board that kept us in that game.”
Relievers Kody Whitley (1-0), Nick Wittgren, T.J. McFarland and Ryan Helsley and Giovanny Gallegos combined to throw 5 1/3 scoreless innings.
Mitch Keller (0-1) allowed four runs on six hits and two walks in four innings.
“I think we definitely saw improvement there,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “I thought the fourth inning was probably the inning he was the most aggressive and we’ve just got to translate that into the first couple innings.”
Arenado singled home Paul Goldschmidt to make it 2-all in the third. DeJong homered later in the inning.
Corey Dickerson, making his Cardinals debut, singled home Arenado in the fifth.
Arenado added an RBI double in the sixth.
UPON FURTHER REVIEW
Schumaker, formerly a popular player with the Cardinals, is in his first season on the St. Louis staff after four years with San Diego. He challenged a call at second base by umpire Dan Merzel, who had ruled Dylan Carlson came off the bag while trying to steal second in the first inning. The call was overturned and Carlson was safe.
“That’s on (video coach Chad) Blair,” Schumaker said. “That’s not on me. I’m not taking great credit for that. I think it was actually kind of a big spot in the game because if you lose that challenge early then you don’t get it for awhile.”
Shelton successfully challenged first base umpire Mike Muchlinski’s ruling that Roberto Pérez was called out returning to the bag after Kevin Newman lined out to McFarland in the sixth inning.
SHOWTIME
Pirates rookie Diego Castillo stroked his first major league hit when he doubled off McFarland in the sixth inning as a pinch-hitter.
“It’s a good sign,” Shelton said. “To come in and get the pinch-hit double and get it off, and I think we saw all spring how well he swung the bat, but when you get your first major league hit and you check that off, it definitely lets you breathe a little bit easier.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: Placed RHP Duane Underwood, Jr. (right hamstring strain) on the 10-day injured list retroactive to Friday and recalled RHP Roansy Contreras from Triple-A Indianapolis. Underwood departed Thursday’s game after throwing 10 pitches. … 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes returned to the lineup after leaving Thursday’s game with cramping in his right forearm.
UP NEXT
Pirates: RHP Bryse Wilson (3-7, 5.35 ERA in 2021) has allowed seven runs in five innings over two appearances against the Cardinals.
Cardinals: LHP Steven Matz (14-7, 3.82 ERA in 2021) is scheduled to face Pittsburgh for the first time since 2019 as he makes his debut for St. Louis.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:49:30
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — With his mullet flapping in the Georgia breeze, Cameron Smith made sure Scottie Scheffler didn’t run away from everyone else at the Masters.
Thanks to Smith, the leader will have to work for that green jacket.
The 28-year-old Aussie turned in a third round that didn’t seem possible at Augusta National with the unseasonably cold temperatures and strong gusts on Saturday.
Smith shot a 4-under 68 — the only score in the 60s — to pull within three shots of Scheffler and join him in the final group Sunday.
“It was really tough out there,” Smith said. “I think I did a good job of just staying within myself, staying patient with the course. Just hitting lots of quality iron shots, and the putts went in as well.”
This is not an unusual position for Smith.
In five previous Masters appearances, he has three top-10 finishes — including a tie for the runner-up spot behind Dustin Johnson in 2020.
That year, with the tournament played in the fall for the first time because of the coronavirus pandemic, Smith became the first golfer to post four straight Masters rounds in the 60s.
It wasn’t good enough to top Johnson, who romped to a record-setting, five-stroke victory with a 20-under score.
Smith had to settle for the satisfaction — or frustration — of knowing his score, which was matched by Sungjae Im, would have won the Masters outright in all but seven years.
Smith is not likely to get to 15 under this year — that would require a closing 63 — but he may not need to go so low to claim his first major championship.
He’s certainly shown the game to capture one of the biggest prizes, most notably winning this year’s Players Championship against perhaps the strongest field in golf.
“I can get it done, I guess, when I’m up against the best guys in the world,” Smith said. “It’s a good feeling to have. It’s earned. It’s not given to you.”
Time and time again, he’s demonstrated a calm demeanor that gets him through the inevitable tough patches.
Smith made a double-bogey on the very first hole of the tournament Thursday, and another that day at No. 18. In between those forgettable bookends, he strung together eight birdies for 68 that put him right in the mix.
Smith struggled to a 74 in the second round, leaving him six shots behind Scheffler, but the Aussie sliced that deficit in half with a dazzling performance Saturday.
Even in conditions that felt more like a British Open than the Masters, Smith managed to make six birdies.
His only stumbles came at No. 3, where an errant drive caused him to overshoot the green with his second shot, and at No. 16, where Smith had a chance to get up and down from the bunker but missed a slick, 5-foot putt.
“I hit a pretty nice shot, and that’s really where you try to miss it there anyway,” Smith said of that second bogey. “It’s probably the easiest bunker shot on the course. Didn’t really hit my best bunker shot, but it’s just what this course throws up at you from time to time.”
Through the first three rounds, Smith has made nine birdies on the back side.
He knows he’ll need a few more to chase down Scheffler, so look for Smith to really attack the greens once he makes the turn on Sunday.
“I think you have to stay really patient through the front. There are a couple of birdie opportunities, but I think the back nine is obviously where the tournament will be decided,” he said. “You can give yourself plenty of looks if you’re hitting it good.”
Starting three shots back against the game’s hottest player, a guy who won three of his previous five tournaments to claim the No. 1 spot in the world rankings, means Smith will have his work cut out for him.
He’s eager for the challenge.
“Hopefully everything just falls into place,” Smith said. “I can’t control what anyone else is going to do tomorrow. So just go out there and really focus on myself.”
Someone jokingly asked if this modern-day Samson might consider cutting his trademark mullet to try to throw Scheffler off his game.
You probably know the answer to that one.
“No,” Smith shot back. “Definitely not.”
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Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963
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More AP Masters: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-10T11:49:37
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DETROIT (AP) — Dylan Cease remained unbeaten in 10 career starts against Detroit and Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run homer that led the Chicago White Sox over the Tigers 5-2 Saturday.
Cease (1-0) allowed one run and two hits in five-plus innings with eight strikeouts and three walks. He is 9-0 against the Tigers.
“I don’t want to jinx myself, but the results have been good so far,” Cease said of his success against Detroit.
Cease went 6-1 in his final 11 starts of last season, and manager Tony La Russa sees a carryover.
“He was outstanding,” La Russa said. “They’ve got a nice club over there and he was just rock solid, in command of all of his pitches. When he got a little out of sync, he got right back on it. That’s what he started to do midseason on. He’s a quick learner.”
Cease’s take on his first start this season was a little bit different. He relied upon his slider more than usual.
“I feel like I was kind of a one-trick pony a little bit with the slider,” he said. “That was the pitch I had the best feel for. Sometimes, you have those games where you just have to compete with what you’ve got.”
Aaron Bummer gave up singles to Miguel Cabrera and Jonathan Schoop starting the ninth, then struck out Eric Haase, Spencer Torkelson and pinch-hitter Dustin Garneau for his first save.
Chicago’s A.J. Pollock left because of right hamstring tightness after he singled leading off the third and took a wide turn at first. Pollock is off to a 4-for-7 start since he was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 1 for closer Craig Kimbrel.
Eloy Jiménez hit a two-run single with two outs in the first. José Abreu had two hits and scored twice for the White Sox, who rebounded from a 5-3 opening-day defeat.
Detroit’s Casey Mize (0-1) allowed four runs and seven hits in five-plus innings.
Grandal homered on a 1-1 fastball in the sixth, driving the ball over the right-field wall for a 4-0 lead.
Tigers manager A.J. Hinch didn’t second-guess himself for allowing Mize to start the sixth.
“I think he earned it,” he said. “He was at 70-some pitches and other than the first inning he’d been able to navigate pretty efficiently. We need our starters to take on a lot of innings.”
Cease was replaced by Reynaldo López after allowing Austin Meadows’ leadoff single in the sixth. Jeimer Candelario had an RBI double.
.Javier Báez was thrown out trying to score from third when a pitch glanced off Grandal’s glove, and the catcher threw to López covering the plate.
“They work on that in spring training,” La Russa said. “That’s a key play in the inning. That did a lot to help us.”
Schoop drove Candelario from third with a grounder that shortstop Leury García bobbled for an error.
Andrew Vaughn added an RBI single in the seventh.
“We just didn’t do enough to win this game and they did,” Hinch said. “It had nothing to do with Casey. Just had to do with the way the game went.”
SITTING OUT
Chicago’s Tim Anderson served the second game of his two-game suspension for making contact with umpire Tim Timmons during the ninth inning of a game on Sept. 27. Anderson is expected back in his leadoff spot Sunday.
TRAINER’S ROOM
White Sox SP Lucas Giolito will be placed on the 10-day injured list due to a lower abdominal strain. Giolito was injured during the fourth inning of the team’s opener on Friday. “Optimistically, maybe a couple of starts,” manager Tony La Russa estimated of the pitcher’s layoff.
UP NEXT
White Sox: RHP Michael Kopech (4-3, 3.50 ERA in 2021) will start the finale of the three-game series. Kopech, who started in four of his 44 appearances last season, only pitched four spring training innings.
Tigers: LHP Tarik Skubal (8-12, 4.34 ERA in 2021) will make his season debut. Skubal won two of his three starts against the White Sox last season, striking out 23 in 16 innings.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Colton Herta broke the Long Beach track record in Saturday qualifying, and the California native will start from the pole for his home IndyCar race.
Herta turned a lap at 1 minute, 05.3095 seconds on the temporary street course set up through downtown Long Beach to earn his eighth career pole and the right to lead the field to green on Sunday. The previous track record was 1:06.2254 set by Helio Castroneves in 2017.
Herta, who is from nearby Valencia, is the defending race winner and hoping to give Andretti Autosport its fourth consecutive victory in the most prestigious street course race in the United States.
“As a young kid, I always trained to be an IndyCar driver and that’s because of this race,” Herta said.
Herta paced a fast session for Andretti, which saw him, 2018 and 2019 winner Alexander Rossi and Romain Grosjean advance into the final qualifying round. But as Grosjean was chasing Herta for the pole, the former Formula One driver hit a tire barrier that brought the session to a sudden stop.
Herta celebrated as he drove back to pit lane because he thought the session was over. Instead, IndyCar said there were 2 seconds remaining on the clock and would permit drivers to go back on track for one final qualifying lap. Felix Rosenqvist and Rossi were the only two in the Fast Six to make another lap and neither advanced position.
Grosjean, who had been second-fastest before he crashed, was docked his fastest lap and dropped to sixth on the starting grid. That moved Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, winner at Texas in IndyCar’s last outing, to second.
Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou qualified third for Chip Ganassi Racing, followed by Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren SP, Rossi and Grosjean.
“Man, the Andretti cars look really good. Not just Herta,” said Newgarden. “They are going to be tough to beat.”
Jimmie Johnson, who broke his right hand in a crash Friday during practice, wore a carbon fiber splint on it Saturday and qualified 25th in the 26-car field. He also crashed in Saturday’s practice and was docked his fastest two laps in qualifying for impeding Graham Rahal as they merged onto the racing surface.
“I’m in damage control with my hand,” said Johnson. “I am just going to need to work my way forward, if I can, and I am sure some attrition will come into play. Hopefully my hand will hold up and get me through the race, I can log laps. I need some points, I am sitting tied 10th right now in the championship and I’d love to earn as many points as I can to stay as high in the points as possible.”
Jack Harvey, who suffered a concussion in a crash at Texas that caused him to miss that race, returned to competition at Long Beach and qualified 21st.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:49:51
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BOSTON (AP) — David Carle was an incoming freshman at Denver when he was diagnosed with a heart condition that ended his playing career. The Pioneers honored his scholarship anyway, and kept him on the team as an assistant coach.
Now the head coach at just 32, Carle rewarded the school for its decision in the Frozen Four final Saturday night when he guided Denver to a 5-1 victory over Minnesota State and its record-tying ninth NCAA hockey championship.
“Denver hockey and the university has done a lot for me,” Carle said, his suit still drenched from the sports drink his players dumped on him during the on-ice postgame celebration. “That responsibility does not fall on me lightly. I owe a lot of what I have in my life to this place. This program is very special; it means the world to me.”
Ryan Barrow and Mike Benning scored less than three minutes apart to give Denver the lead, and the Pioneers awakened with five goals in the third period to rally from a 1-0 deficit. Massimo Rizzo added another goal with 6:26 to play, and Brett Stapley and Cameron Wright had empty-netters 30 seconds apart.
Magnus Chrona stopped 27 shots for the Pioneers (31-9-1). They won their first championship since 2017 and improved to 9-3 in title games — including the last four in a row.
“You come to Denver to win national championships,” said Barrow, a fifth-year senior who set a school record by playing in his 168th game.
“I came the year after they won it,” he said. “You hear all their stories about winning the national championship and you picture winning one yourself. I can’t tell you how many times I watched the 2017 pump-up video of them winning the ‘natty.’ It will be pretty sweet to watch my own now.”
Two nights after eliminating Michigan in the Frozen Four semifinal, Denver joined the Wolverines as the only schools with nine championships.
“It certainly was a goal, to get to nine,” said Carle, who is the fourth-youngest coach to win an NCAA title. “The ultimate goal is to get to 10, I will tell you. Winning Thursday against Michigan, the team at nine, was a huge step in that direction. And obviously tonight is an even bigger step.”
The game matched the top two offensive teams in the nation, but from the moment Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask dropped the ceremonial first puck, the emphasis was on defense.
Minnesota State (38-6) took a 1-0 lead on Sam Morton’s first-period goal and dominated — outshooting Denver 18-8 in the first 40 minutes. That was still the only goal until there were five minutes gone in the third, when Barrow slid a rebound of Benning’s shot through the legs of Hobey Baker Award winner Dryden McKay.
Forty seconds later, Morton was sent off for tripping; he had just returned to the ice and crossed into the defensive zone when Benning one-timed it into the net to give the Pioneers the lead. Benning also had two assists in the semifinal, including on the overtime winner, and was selected the Frozen Four Most Outstanding Player.
Rizzo made it 3-1 and, when McKay was pulled for an extra skater with about 3:30 left, Stapley and Wright clinched it.
McKay made 15 saves for Minnesota State, which led the nation in wins and had won 18 in a row since Jan. 14.
“Once we gave up the first one, I thought we started leaking oil a little bit and couldn’t stop the bleeding,” Minnesota State coach Mike Hastings said. “It’s a spot we hadn’t been in in a while, and I don’t think we managed it very well. They smelled some blood in the water and they were incredibly aggressive and they were rewarded for that.”
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Luka Doncic will be able to play for the Dallas Mavericks in their regular-season finale after the NBA office rescinded his 16th technical foul of the season Saturday, wiping out an automatic one-game suspension.
The Mavericks, already guaranteed opening the playoffs at home, host San Antonio on Sunday night. They still have the possibility of moving up to the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.
It was the second time this season that the league rescinded a technical foul called against the All-Star guard.
Doncic got his latest tech at the end of the first quarter of the Mavericks’ 128-78 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night. He was upset there was no foul called after he was undercut and knocked down when taking a shot from beyond midcourt.
Crew chief Tony Brothers, who issued the tech, told a pool reporter after the game that Doncic wouldn’t stop complaining.
“He started to complain to each of the officials. When I was walking toward the table, he was 15 feet in the backcourt still complaining, so he got a technical for continuously complaining,” Brothers said, adding that there was no profanity used by Doncic.
Doncic, who had 39 points and 11 rebounds while playing only three quarters, said after the game that he was just asking how the play wasn’t a foul on the quarter-ending play.
After taking an inbound pass in the backcourt with 2.6 seconds left in the first quarter, Doncic moved by Elijah Hughes, who reached in and then appeared to stumble. That led to contact with Doncic, who was then in the air and fell on his rear end while the shot was no good.
As soon as he fell, Doncic extended both of his arms and pleaded his case to the referee closest to him. He then got up and went to talk to Brothers.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:05
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joel Embiid made his closing argument for MVP votes and all but wrapped up the NBA scoring title, scoring 41 points while adding 20 rebounds and four assists to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 133-120 victory Saturday over the Indiana Pacers.
Embiid shot 14 for 17 from the floor, went 11 of 15 from the foul line and made both his 3-point attempts in a game that Philadelphia (50-31) needed to win to remain alive in the hunt for the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It was the first time this season that an NBA player scored 40 or more points and had 20 or more rebounds in a game. It was the third time in Embiid’s career it has happened — with all three times coming against the Pacers.
“I’ve always said that every single night, I want to dominate,” Embiid said. “If you are dominating, things can show up in a lot of different ways — whether it is offensively or defensively. Sometimes, the numbers don’t show it. But it’s good, I guess.”
Philadelphia coach Doc Rivers said: “It’s methodical and historical. Whatever the calls you want to put on it, it’s what’s he’s been.”
James Harden had 22 points and 14 assists for Philadelphia, who also got double-digit point performances from Tobias Harris (18), Tyrese Maxey (18) and Danny Green (15).
“We’re getting better,” Rivers said.
Oshae Brissett scored 20 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 19 for Indiana (25-56), which lost its ninth straight game. The Pacers fell behind by 21 points in the first half, then cut the deficit to five late in the third quarter before Embiid and Harden began to take control of the game.
“We haven’t seen a guy like this in the history of the league who has this kind of power and skill,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said of Embiid. “He’s able to score on all three levels effortlessly. He’s an amazing player and it will be interesting to see what teams do in the playoffs to try to slow him down.”
Embiid is now averaging 30.6 points for the season, which is just ahead of LeBron James’ 30.3-point-per-game clip for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant’s 30.1 average for the Brooklyn Nets.
But neither James nor Durant will play enough games to qualify for the statistical title; in an 82-game season, 58 games played is the minimum. That means the scoring race comes down to Embiid and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who would need a miracle finish to grab the scoring crown. The last center to win a scoring title with a more than 30 ppg average was Bob McAdoo, who averaged 31.1 points in 1976-77.
Embiid also has been considered one of main contenders for league MVP, along with Antetokounmpo and Denver’s Nikola Jokic. Saturday’s game was Embiid’s 13th scoring 40 or more points.
The Sixers can move up to the third seed in the East and a first-round matchup with Chicago with a victory over Detroit on Sunday and a Boston loss at Memphis. Otherwise, Philadelphia will face Toronto in the 4-5 matchup in the first round of the postseason tournament.
Embiid said no decision was made about his playing status for Sunday night’s game, which takes place at the same time Boston faces Memphis.
“I want to, but at the same time it’s a back to back and we have to get ready for the playoffs,” Embiid said. “I want to play because we still need to work on my spacing and chemistry. Whatever we can get out of this last game, it will be good.”
TIP-INS
Pacers: Indiana guard Malcolm Brogdon was ruled out with lower back soreness while Jalen Smith sat because of left groin soreness. Reserve forward Nate Hinton was ruled out for the final two games because of the NBA’s health and safety protocols. “He’s in a van heading home,” coach Rick Carlisle said.
76ers: For the second straight game, Philadelphia inserted veteran guard Danny Green into the starting lineup in the spot normally held by top defender Matisse Thybulle. Thybulle may not be able to play in a possible first-round series in Toronto because of his COVID-19 vaccination status. Canadian rules forbid cross-border travel to anyone not vaccinated; Thybulle has not said publicly whether he is vaccinated. He missed Thursday night’s 119-114 road loss to the Raptors and was listed as “ineligible to play.” … Guard Georges Niang missed Saturday’s game with left knee soreness. Rivers said the move was precautionary. “If this was a playoff game, he would be in there,” the coach said in his pre-game meeting with the media.
UP NEXT
Pacers: Play at Brooklyn on Sunday to finish their season.
76ers: Host Detroit on Sunday night in regular-season finale.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:11
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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Even though Casey Thompson hasn’t been named Nebraska’s starting quarterback officially, all indications through spring practices point to him taking the first snaps when the Cornhuskers open the season.
“I’m glad I’m on the other end of sitting and waiting my turn,” he said.
Thompson has a clean slate after transferring from Texas, where he started 10 games last year but was unlikely to get the job in 2022. He is now in an environment where statewide passion for the program runs deep but expectations are tempered following five straight losing seasons.
He’ll be playing for his third head coach in Scott Frost and fourth offensive coordinator in Mark Whipple, who was hired in December and is adding to Frost’s spread system elements of the pro-style game he used with 2021 Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett at Pittsburgh.
Thompson said the system is aggressive, stretches the field vertically and horizontally and operates at a fast tempo.
“There are a lot of options, so I really like it,” he said. “It’s been fun so far and it’s been easy to grasp.”
Thompson waited three seasons for his chance at Texas and then, after entrenched QB Sam Ehlinger left, he lost a lengthy competition against Hudson Card last year.
Thompson replaced Card in the middle of an ugly Week 2 loss at Arkansas. He shared playing time with Card in some games and played with an thumb injury on his right (throwing) hand, and his hold on the job was a week-to-week proposition.
After a 5-7 season that included a six-game losing streak, Texas’ longest in 65 years, coach Steve Sarkisian said he would throw open the quarterback competition for 2022. Thompson decided to leave when five-star recruit Quinn Ewers announced he would transfer to Texas from Ohio State and Sarkisian signed highly rated freshman Maalik Murphy.
Adrian Martinez’s transfer to Kansas State created a job opening at Nebraska, and Thompson picked the Huskers after also considering Auburn and Oklahoma.
“I really love it here,” Thompson said. “I enjoy the fan base. I enjoy the team. I enjoy it that everyone here just loves football. There are good people in Nebraska and here in Lincoln.”
Thompson’s first task was to establish his leadership. He didn’t rush things. He laid back and observed the first week or two he was in Lincoln and built relationships off the field.
Thompson said he took the offensive linemen to dinner and got together with the receivers to throw passes and look at film. Omar Manning, Oliver Martin, Alante Brown and LSU transfer Trey Palmer have impressed him.
“We have enough talent and pieces in place to win ball games and compete at a high level, so that’s why I decided to come here,” he said.
Thompson also has familiarity with Nebraska through his father, Charles Thompson, who quarterbacked Oklahoma at the height of the schools’ rivalry. Charles Thompson led OU to a 17-7 win over a top-ranked Nebraska in Lincoln in 1987. The Sooners lost 7-3 the next year in Norman, with Thompson breaking his leg late in the game.
Casey Thompson set an Oklahoma high school record for total offense and was a four-star recruit pursued by Alabama, Oregon and OU, along with Texas and others. Casey’s older brother, Kendal, was an OU quarterback from 2011-13 and finished his career at Utah.
Casey said Texas just felt right, but that changed as he found himself repeating the cycle of one step forward, one step back.
Before he settled on Nebraska, he called Martinez to find out what he was walking into in Lincoln.
“He had nothing but great things to say about the program, the team and the state of Nebraska,” Thompson said. “He said it was just time for him to move on and I understood that. He said there are highs and lows. But, honestly, I just came from the University of Texas and I grew up around the University of Oklahoma, so I’m kind of used to the big-time football programs and being around that type of football and those types of fan bases.”
Still, Thompson said he’s surprised how big a deal football is in the state. Because of that, he said, the pool of name, image and likeness opportunities runs deep. He landed a deal with athletic apparel company Soldier Sports a couple of weeks after his arrival.
“The community here is more close-knit and everyone is kind of in the know,” Thompson said. “Austin, Texas, is more spread out. It’s a big city. Here in Nebraska, if I go to a restaurant or go to a local high school basketball game or to the gym down the street to get some lifts in on the weekend, I’m going to end up getting stopped and having to take pictures and stuff like that.”
Thompson said he enjoys his celebrity and is cognizant of maintaining a positive image.
“When I wake up and decide to leave my house and go to a restaurant or any public place, I kind of have to make sure I’m presentable and have to watch who I’m with and what I’m saying,” he said.
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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP—Top25
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:18
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Ja Morant had 21 points and nine assists in his return from soreness in his right knee, Dillon Brooks scored 23 points and the Memphis Grizzlies routed the New Orleans Pelicans 141-114 on Saturday night to tie the 2012-13 franchise record for victories in a season at 56.
After missing nine games, Morant played almost 27 minutes as the second-seeded Grizzlies got their starting lineup back together in preparation for the postseason. They will close the regular season at home against Boston on Sunday night.
Morant had not played since he was injured in a loss at Atlanta on March 18.
“Being out there with my team is something I’ve been waiting on since March 19,” Morant said, referring to the day after his injury. “I was finally able to do that. Excited to be out there. Had a lot of fun. Just preparing for this stretch we’re about to go on in the playoffs.”
Brandon Clarke added 20 points for Memphis, making all 10 of his field goal attempts. Ziaire Williams had 19 points, and Desmond Bane had 18. Bane was 6 of 7 on the night, including making all four 3-point attempts. The Grizzlies shot better than 60% through three quarters. They snapped a two-game losing streak.
CJ McCollum led New Orleans with 16 points but was 6 of 17 from the field. Willy Hernangomez added 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Jaxson Hayes had 13 points.
“It was a tough night. Tough night for CJ. Tough night for me. Tough night for our group,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said.
“It just felt like they were more ready than use,” Hayes added. “They came out aggressive. Got up into us and just kind of pressured us the whole game. It was hard to get anything going.”
Trying to secure the ninth seed for the play-in tournament, the Pelicans played without scoring leader Brandon Ingram. He’s missed his second straight game because of hamstring tightness.
Memphis dominated through the middle stages. By the end point of the third quarter, the lead had reached 39, and Memphis was shooting 64% overall and 60% from 3-point range, connecting on 15 of 25 from distance. Memphis scored a franchise-record 55 points in the third quarter, giving the Grizzlies a 119-80 lead heading into the fourth.
Memphis was 20 of 26 shooting in the third, making 7 of 10 from 3-point range and handing out 16 assists in the period alone. Pelicans coach. Green said the third quarter was a bad sign, but more of a continuation of problems for New Orleans throughout the night.
“The whole game we could have been better,” Green said. “The third quarter was by far our worst.”
For Memphis, which did not play well in a loss last Thursday to Denver, the performance was a return to style the Grizzlies played before the two-game losing streak. And with a full complement of starters
“All we need to do is attention to detail, know player personnel and give effort,” Brooks said.
GOOD DILLON THE VILLAIN
Brooks, who has been known to jaw with referees and opponents while playing his physical style of defense, seemed to play a little looser Saturday night, even smiling at times, particularly after the Grizzlies built the insurmountable lead. “I’m trying to smile more so I don’t get too upset out there and (officials) start T-ing me up,” Brook said.
TIP-INS
Pelicans: Started 0 of 7 from outside the arc. … G Devonte’ Graham did not grab a rebound and still needs one for 600 in his career. … Trey Murphy III, who leads rookies in 3-point shooting percentage at 38.4%, was 1 of 3 from outside the arc. … C Jonas Valanciunas, who was in foul trouble most of the game, was limited to six minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing only one rebound. … McCollum who was 2 for 11 midway through the third, had 10 points in the period.
Grizzlies: Entered the game second in scoring at 115.4 a game. The franchise has never finished in the top 5 in scoring. … Are 30-0 when reaching 120 points. … While setting the franchise record for points in a quarter with 55 in the third, Memphis also set franchise marks for field goals in a period (20) and assists (16).
UP NEXT
Pelicans: Host Golden State on Sunday night.
Grizzlies: Host Boston on Sunday night.
More AP NBA coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:25
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant returned to action Saturday night against the New Orleans Pelicans after missing nine games with right knee soreness.
The point guard, the team scoring leader at 27.6 points a game, was announced in the starting lineup shortly before the game. Morant’s return gives Memphis an opportunity to have its starters play together before the playoffs.
Memphis holds the second seed in the Western Conference.
Morant, who was listed as questionable in the pregame injury report, hadn’t played since injuring the knee March 18 at Atlanta. During that span, the Grizzlies were 7-2, the losses coming in the last two games at Utah and Denver.
Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins said even before it was determined Morant would play against New Orleans that no decision has been made regarding Morant’s status for the season-finale against Boston on Sunday.
Asked if Morant would be on a minute restriction against New Orleans, Jenkins replied: “He may not play his playoff minutes. We’ll be smart. Obviously, we want to get him as good a run as possible with the group he’s playing with.”
Morant, who was named an All-Star starter for the first time this season, also averages 6.7 assists and 5.7 rebounds and has been one of the main catalysts behind the Grizzlies rise near the top of the NBA this season. He also leads the league in points in the paint at 16.8 points, the only guard in the top 10 in the category mostly dominated by centers and forwards.
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:32
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LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Jimmie Johnson pulled one glove over the carbon fiber splint built specifically for his broken right hand. A piece of tape around two fingers outside of the glove was to prevent him from using his pinky — the digit closest to the fracture — as he drove his car around the downtown streets of Long Beach.
But what was supposed to be a Saturday morning test to determine Johnson’s fitness a day after he was injured ended in another crash, another trip to the medical center and another set of X-rays.
“I had no pain on track, I felt great, just trying to go too fast into Turn 1 and locked the tires and got wide,” Johnson said outside the medical center. “I’m more disappointed in myself making the mistake and tearing up the car again. But from an injury standpoint, I feel really good.”
Johnson said he’s good to go for Sunday at Long Beach, the IndyCar stop considered his home race. He grew up two hours away in El Cajon, so Long Beach was an annual childhood family trip, and Johnson rented a suite for 40 friends to watch him make his second career IndyCar start at Long Beach.
It’s been a whirlwind weekend, though, for Johnson. He arrived in Long Beach coming off an IndyCar career-best sixth-place finish in his oval debut at Texas Motor Speedway — a performance that suddenly vaulted the seven-time NASCAR champion into the Indianapolis 500 contender conversation.
Johnson himself was among those hyped for his Indy 500 debut in Friday morning comments; hours later, he crashed into a tire barrier and broke his hand. The injury was apparent immediately as Johnson’s in-car camera showed him shaking his right hand.
It had appeared that Johnson did not remove his hands from the steering wheel, a common practice in open wheel racing to protect the driver from the force of the impact. NASCAR drivers do not typically remove their hands from the steering wheel in a crash.
But Johnson clarified Saturday he did remove his hands from the steering wheel but did not pull them back far enough to avoid injury.
“I let go, I didn’t get them far enough out of the way,” Johnson said. “But I let go and then with the impact, I guess my hands moved into the pathway of the wheel spinning and the bottom of the wheel caught it.”
The X-rays taken Friday showed the break, and his Chip Ganassi Racing team was tasked with building a splint IndyCar would approve for use in the car. The small black piece was wrapped in tape alongside the ridge of his right hand and had to be approved by IndyCar safety pioneer Dr. Terry Trammell.
It made for several tense hours as CGR and Johnson frantically worked to get him back in the car by Saturday morning. Ganassi sports car driver Sebastien Bourdais, a four-time IndyCar champion, would likely be Johnson’s replacement if he can’t race Sunday.
“We went through all the right steps and then on-track, it just faded away in my mind and I was just driving laps,” said Johnson, who arrived at the track at 6 a.m. Saturday to acclimate to the splint.
“Dr. Trammell is amazing. He knew exactly what to build, how to build it and where it needed to be positioned. Turns out, the man knows what he’s doing.”
The X-ray on Saturday showed that the break had aligned overnight, and aside from some repairs to his No. 48 and Johnson forgiving himself for his second crash, he was ready to get back in the car.
“I’m just upset with myself. I know where I need to get better in these cars and how to attack, and that’s in the braking zones and releasing the brakes,” he said. “I had a personal best lap the lap before and I was in that rhythm of releasing the brake and allowing the car to roll quicker at the apex.
“And when I did, I lost the back and had to catch it and ran into the tires. I hate making mistakes, and I’ve made two now (at Long Beach).
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:39
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Joel Embiid is about to make a lot of history. And a half-dozen first round or play-in game matchups are set to be decided.
The final day of the NBA season has no shortage of storylines.
A new scoring champion will be crowned and, barring something crazy, Embiid — who hails from Cameroon — will become the first international player to win that title. The Philadelphia big man also be the first center to win the scoring crown since Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-2000.
Embiid scored 41 points Saturday in Philadelphia’s 133-120 win over Indiana. He’s now averaging 30.6 points for the season, which is just ahead of LeBron James’ 30.3-point-per-game clip for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kevin Durant’s 30.1 average for the Brooklyn Nets.
But neither James nor Durant will play enough games to qualify for the statistical title; in an 82-game season, 58 games played is the minimum. That means the scoring race comes down to Embiid and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, the star from Greece — also bidding to be the first international NBA scoring champion — who would need a miracle finish to grab the crown.
If Embiid plays in Sunday’s 76ers’ regular-season finale against Detroit and didn’t score — which is unlikely — Antetokoumpo would still need 47 points in the Bucks’ finale at Cleveland to take the lead. If Embiid doesn’t play at all Sunday, Antetokounmpo would need 77 points to tie Embiid for the crown.
Antetokounmpo is averaging 29.9 points entering the season’s final day.
EAST RACE
Miami is the No. 1 seed. Toronto is the No. 5 seed. Chicago is the No. 6 seed. Everything else remains unclear.
Philadelphia’s win over Indiana on Saturday means that the 76ers will be either No. 3 or No. 4. Boston or Milwaukee will be No. 2; the Bucks lock up that spot with a win at Cleveland on Sunday. Boston can get to No. 2 by winning at Memphis and the Cavaliers beating the Bucks.
EAST PLAY-IN RACE
All that is certain is Atlanta cannot finish 7th and Brooklyn cannot finish 10th. The Nets can be No. 7, No. 8 or No. 9 — and the Hawks can be No. 8, No. 9 or No. 10. Cleveland and Charlotte will be in there too, in some order.
There are four Sunday games that will tell the tale, all 3:30 p.m. Eastern starts: Indiana at Brooklyn, Milwaukee at Cleveland, Washington at Charlotte and Atlanta at Houston.
The Nets would be No. 7 with a win, and might get there with a loss as well. Cleveland would be no worse than No. 8 with a win. The Cavaliers and Hornets could each be 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th.
WEST RACE
Phoenix is the No. 1 seed, Memphis is the No. 2 seed. Dallas and Golden State will be No. 3 and No. 4 — in some order. And Denver and Utah will be No. 5 and No. 6 — again, in some order.
Golden State would be locked into No. 3 with wins Saturday at San Antonio and Sunday at New Orleans.
Utah will be the No. 5 seed with a win over Portland on Sunday, or if the Los Angeles Lakers beat Denver in the regular-season finale for those teams.
WEST PLAY-IN RACE
The only matchup and site that is locked in so far is: The Los Angeles Clippers will play at Minnesota on Tuesday night, with the winner getting the No. 7 seed and a first-round series with the Grizzlies.
The other West play-in game will have New Orleans facing San Antonio in the 9 vs. 10 matchup on Wednesday night. It’ll be at New Orleans, unless the Spurs go 2-0 on Saturday and Sunday while the Pelicans go 0-2 on the final weekend of the regular season.
RACE TO 82
Only five players are in position to play on Sunday and officially appear in all 82 regular-season games with their team this season: Phoenix’s Mikal Bridges, Detroit’s Saddiq Bey, Washington’s Deni Avdija, Dallas’ Dwight Powell and (if he plays Saturday night) Golden State’s Kevon Looney.
It’ll be the fewest number of players in NBA history to have appeared in every game for a full regular season.
There were 11 players who appeared in all 72 games last season, which was shortened by the pandemic. There were 14 every-game players in 2019-20, where teams played differing numbers of games, again because of the pandemic and then with not every team advancing to the restart bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
THREES WERE DOWN
For the first time in a decade, the NBA won’t set a 3-pointers made record — at least not in terms of average.
Teams are making 12.4 3’s per game this season, down slightly from the 12.7 per game last season. The 2020-21 season was the ninth straight in which the 3’s-per-game average had increased to a new record.
The record for 3’s taken per game will be broken again, for the 11th consecutive season. And total 3’s made in a season is another record, with the league going over the 30,000 mark for the first time on Friday night.
All that said, the 3-point craze is still officially happening. The league will take somewhere between 86,000 and 87,000 3’s this season by the close of business on Sunday. That’s almost double what was taken 11 years ago.
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More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:46
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KYIV, Ukraine -- 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.
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."
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Anna reported from Bucha, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.
President Zelenskyy: Russian aggression not limited to Ukraine alone
By ADAM SCHRECK and CARA ANNA
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A look at what’s happening around the majors Sunday:
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HE’S VERY GREENE
Reds right-hander Hunter Greene will make his much-anticipated major league debut when he faces the World Series champion Braves in Atlanta.
Greene’s status as a top prospect has been boosted by attention given to his 100 mph fastball.
“It’s a special gift and he should embrace that and it should give him confidence,” Cincinnati manager David Bell said Saturday. “… There’s more to pitching than velocity, and he knows that.”
The 22-year-old Greene (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) was the second overall pick by the Reds in the 2017 draft. He posted a combined record of 10-8 with a 3.30 ERA at Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville in 2021. He’s struck out 234 in 179 innings in three minor league seasons.
Bell said he’ll try to make the debut for Greene “as normal as possible. ”No matter what, it’s going to be a big day for him. He’s prepared and he’s set up for success.”
Ian Anderson is set to pitch for the Braves. In his last start that counted, he threw five hitless innings in Game 3 of the World Series against Houston and got the win.
GIANT GIANCARLO
Not always a fan favorite in the Bronx, Giancarlo Stanton is earning his pinstripes against the rival Red Sox. The Yankees slugger became the first player to homer against Boston in six straight games during a 4-2 win Saturday, and he’ll get a chance at No. 7 in prime time. Stanton and Anthony Rizzo became the first players in Yankees history to homer together in both of a season’s first two games.
Three players had homered in five games in a row against Boston: Mickey Mantle (1954), Ken Griffey Jr. (1996-97) and Jim Thome (1997).
Tall company for the 6-foot-6 Stanton, and more on the way: The Saint Peter’s men’s basketball team will be honored pregame Sunday night at Yankee Stadium for their run to the Elite Eight, and 6-foot-7 forward KC Ndefo will throw the ceremonial first pitch.
HIS RAYS PHASE
Two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber makes his Tampa Bay debut when he takes on the Orioles at Tropicana Field.
The 35-year-old righty joined the Rays after going 5-3 with a 3.83 ERA for the Yankees last season. He pitched a no-hitter for New York, but also missed significant time with a shoulder injury.
Kluber also has pitched for Cleveland and Texas in his 12-season career.
The two-time AL East champion Rays have beaten Baltimore 14 straight times, their longest streak against a single opponent in team history. The string includes a pair of victories to start this year.
Tampa Bay is 20-1 against the O’s since the start of the 2021, outscoring them 157-75 in that span.
CHECK HIM
The Cardinals will see how manager Oliver Marmol is feeling, a day after he missed a game after being diagosed with the flu.
Marmol, a winner in his debut Thursday as a major league manager, was at Busch Stadium before Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh. He tested negative for COVID-19 and left the ballpark.
St. Louis bench coach Skip Schumaker filled in for Marmol in a 6-2 win over the Pirates.
EARLY EXIT
White Sox ace Lucas Giolito will be sidelined with a lower abdominal strain that occurred while he was pitching on opening day.
Giolito is going on the 10-day injured list. He felt discomfort during three consecutive pitches and notified the coaching staff after the fourth inning at Detroit on Friday. The 27-year-old righty gave up one hit and struck out six before leaving.
“From my understanding, it’s a random, freak, weird thing,” Giolito said. “It doesn’t happen to baseball players very often. … I’m very optimistic this won’t affect my season too much.”
The All-Star was 11-9 with a 3.53 ERA last season.
Another Chicago starter, Lance Lynn, underwent knee surgery earlier this month and is expected to be out four to six weeks.
GRAY MATTER
Rangers newcomer Jon Gray will be out because a blister that developed on opening day.
Signed to a $56 million, four-year contract after spending seven seasons in Colorado, Gray threw four innings at Toronto on Friday before leaving with the blister on his middle right finger. He gave up three runs in four innings.
Texas has put the 30-year-old righty on the 10-day injured list.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:50:53
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The Latest on the Masters (all times local):
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7:30 p.m.
Despite big trouble on the 18th hole, Scottie Scheffler salvaged a 1-under 71 that gives him a three-stroke lead heading to the final round of the Masters.
Scheffler came into the day with a five-shot advantage that tied for the biggest ever after 36 holes at Augusta National. He maintained a lead of anywhere from three to six strokes throughout the third round.
The 25-year-old Texan yanked his tree shot at the final hole into the towering pines left of the fairway. He found his ball but had to take a one-shot penalty for an unplayable lie.
After dropping his ball where he could take a swing, Scheffler ripped a brilliant long iron off the pine straw that sailed just a couple of feet wide of the flag, rolling off the back of the green. He putted it up next to the hole and tapped in from about 2 feet for a bogey that felt so much better.
Scheffler is at 9-under 207 after three rounds.
Cameron Smith posted the best round of the day in very difficult conditions, a 4-under 68 for a 210 overall. The first-round leader, Sungjae Im, is the only other player within five shots of the lead at 212.
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7 p.m.
Cameron Smith has posted the best round of the day in very difficult conditions at Augusta National.
The 28-year-old Australian shot a 4-under 68 that brought him within three strokes of leader Scottie Scheffler as he walked off the course.
Smith is at 6-under 210 through three rounds. Scheffler is at 9 under with two holes to play, having stumbled a bit with a stretch of three bogeys in four holes on the back side.
Smith’s performance is nothing unusual. In five previous Masters appearances, he had three top-10 showings — including a tie for the runner-up spot behind winner Dustin Johnson in 2020.
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6:25 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler has stumbled just a bit, but he’s still firmly in control as he approaches the end of the third round at the Masters.
Scheffler bogeyed both the 12th and 14th holes, sandwiched around a birdie at the par-5 13th, to leave him at 10 under for the tournament.
He still has a four-stroke lead over Cameron Smith, who is shooting the best round of the day at 4 under with the final hole to go.
Charl Schwartzel is six strokes behind, while 18-hole leader Sungjae Im and Shane Lowry are at 3 under.
Smith got as close as three shots off the lead, but Scheffler has maintained distance on the field throughout the day. The Texan came in with a five-stroke advantage after 36 holes.
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5:40 p.m.
Tiger Woods has posted his highest score ever at the Masters.
Finally showing the effects of a terrible car wreck that could’ve cost him his right leg, Woods shot a 6-over 78 in the third round to ruin any hope of making a run at a sixth green jacket.
It was a tough day for just about everyone, with temperatures struggling to get into the 50s (10 degrees Celsius) and plenty of wind.
But it was especially difficult for Woods, who had never shot a score higher than 77 at Augusta National. He’ll head to the final round at 7-over 223.
After two solid rounds of putting, Woods really struggled on the greens. He described it as having “zero feel.”
Still, it’s been an encouraging performance given all that Woods has been through. The Masters is his first competitive tournament in more than 500 days.
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5:15 p.m.
On a day when it’s been tough to go low, Scottie Scheffler is turning in another dominant performance at Augusta National.
Scheffler made the turn in the third round of the Masters with a 3-under 33, pushing him to 11 under for the tournament and keeping his lead at five strokes over Charl Schwartzel of South Africa.
Schwartzel is only that close because he holed out from the fairway at No. 10 for an eagle. Cameron Smith of Australia is another stroke back at 5 under.
How commanding has Scheffler been? Only seven players are within 10 shots of the leader, who hasn’t been bothered at all by the cool, windy conditions.
Scheffler already matched the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history with his five-stroke advantage.
The record for 54 holes is Tiger Woods’ nine-shot lead in 1997, when he won the first of his five green jackets.
Woods has no chance of winning his sixth. He’s 4 over for the day and a whopping 16 strokes behind Scheffler.
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4:50 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler began his day with a five-stroke lead at the Masters.
As the world’s top-ranked player approaches the midway point of the third round, he’s increased the margin to six shots.
Solid as can be, Scheffler posted four birdies and a single bogey over the first eight holes, pushing him to 11 under for the tournament.
Cameron Smith and Shane Lowry are his closest challengers, both at 5 under, with Charl Schwartzel another stroke back.
Tiger Woods hasn’t been able to mount a charge. He’s 2 over for the round and 14 shots behind the leader.
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3:40 p.m.
Scottie Scheffler is threatening to blow away the field at Augusta National.
Scheffler has started the third round with birdies at the second and third holes, pushing his score to 10-under par.
That give the world’s top-ranked player a six-stroke lead over Shane Lowry, with Cameron Smith and Charl Schwartzel another shot back.
In cool, windy conditions, all but 12 players are at least 10 shots behind the leader.
Tiger Woods is 3 over for the day and 14 strokes off of Scheffler, essentially eliminating any hope of a record-tying sixth green jacket.
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3:45 p.m.
Chasing his first major championship, Scottie Scheffler is looking to protect a big lead in the third round of the Masters.
The world’s top-ranked player built a five-shot advantage over the first two days.
That matches the biggest 36-hole lead in Augusta National history. Four of the five who did it previously went on to capture the green jacket.
The 25-year-old Scheffler made a comfortable par at the first hole and he’s still five shots clear of the field. No one is making much of a move on a cool, windy day at the Masters.
First-round leader Sungjae Im started off with a double bogey to drop seven shots behind Scheffler.
Tiger Woods also has slipped from serious contention. He four-putted No. 5 for a double bogey and made the turn at 3 over for the day and a daunting 12 shots off the lead.
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2:20 p.m.
A big stumble for Tiger Woods at the Masters.
Woods four-putted the tough fifth hole at Augusta National for a double bogey. That dropped him 11 shots off the lead before Scottie Scheffler even teed off.
Woods’ putter was a big asset over the first two days, but he had a three-putt at No. 1 for a bogey Saturday. Then came major trouble at No. 5.
An errant approach left Woods on the green 65 feet from the pin. He putted up a ridge to within 6 feet of the cup, only to need three more putts to get down.
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1:55 p.m.
With the leaders waiting to tee off, no one is making much of a move on Moving Day at the Masters.
The cool, windy conditions are preventing anyone from going real low.
Only a handful of players are below par in the third round, led by Viktor Hovland at 2 under with four holes to play.
Tiger Woods is even through his first four holes after bogeying No. 1 and bouncing back with a birdie at the par-5 second.
Scottie Scheffler came into the day with a record-tying five-stroke lead through 36 holes. Woods is nine shots back.
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1 p.m.
Tiger Woods has teed off in the third round of the Masters, looking to slice into a nine-stroke deficit between him and 36-hole leader Scottie Scheffler.
In his first official tournament since a horrific car crash nearly 14 months ago, Woods made his 22nd consecutive cut at Augusta National.
Winning a sixth green jacket will be much more difficult.
Woods begins the round with a 1-over 145 score. Scheffler is at 8 under, five shots clear of the field and matching the largest 36-hole lead in tournament history.
Only one player who previously built such a big margin at the halfway point failed to go on to win the green jacket.
Even so, Woods believes he still has a shot in the difficult conditions.
“It’s going to be quick, and I need to go out there and put myself there,” he said “If you’re within five or six on that back nine going into Sunday, you’ve got a chance. So I just need to get there.”
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12:35 p.m.
It looks like a tough day for going low at Augusta National.
With unseasonably cool temperatures and a stiff breeze whipping across the course, par will likely be a good score in the third round of the Masters.
Half the field has teed off so far. Si Woo Kim made an eagle at No. 2 to get back to even par overall, but only three other players are below par in the early stages of the round.
Scottie Scheffler tees off at 2:50 p.m. EDT, having a built a record-tying five-stroke lead through 36 holes.
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11:05 a.m.
The Masters winner gets a gold medal, a green jacket, a lifetime invitation back to Augusta National and a sterling silver trophy.
And this year, more money than anyone has ever won at the Masters.
Augusta National announced Saturday that the winner of this year’s tournament gets $2.7 million out of a total purse of $15 million. Both are tournament records.
It’s about a 30% increase over last year, when Hideki Matsuyama got $2.07 million from a purse of $11.5 million.
In terms of total dollars, it’s by far the biggest one-year increase in Masters history. Percentage-wise, the tournament saw a bigger jump from 1982 to 1983, when the purse and winner’s share both increased about 40%. The winner in 1982 got $64,000; the winner in 1983 got $90,000.
The Masters purse and first-place check now match what is offered at the first two stops of the FedEx Cup Playoffs — the St. Jude Championship and the BMW Championship.
If Tiger Woods finishes eighth or better, he’ll eclipse $10 million in career Masters earnings alone. A solo eighth finish would pay $465,000. Woods entered this week with $9,556,069 won in his Masters career, by far the most in tournament history.
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10:30 a.m.
It is sunny, it is chilly and the third round of the Masters has started at Augusta National.
The temperature was in the low 50’s when play got underway for the day on Saturday, unseasonably cool. But the rain from earlier in the week is long gone, with puffy clouds the only thing blocking the view of blue sky over the Masters.
Scottie Scheffler has a five-shot lead going into the third round. He doesn’t tee off until 2:50 p.m. and will play with Charl Schwartzel.
Tiger Woods is nine shots back to start the day. He tees off at 1 p.m.
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More AP Masters coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-10T11:51:00
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MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) — William Byron knew he was in for a big challenge with a two-lap overtime sprint about to start and the very aggressive Joey Logano right behind him.
He also felt like he had a pretty remarkable co-pilot in his corner.
“This one is for my mom,” Byron said. “This same weekend last year she had kind of a mini-stroke and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It means a lot to have her here and it’s been a crazy year. But she’s doing great. I kind of felt like she was riding in there with me.”
Byron took the lead on pit road after Stage 2 stops and held it pretty much the rest of the way at Martinsville Speedway — he led 212 laps — to become the first repeat winner this season in NASCAR’s Cup Series on Saturday night.
Byron needed to hold off a challenge — and a nudge — from Logano on a two-lap overtime sprint to finish it, but won for the fourth time in his career and gave Hendrick Motorsports four victories in eight races this season.
When the final caution, and only the second for an on-track issue of the night, came with five laps to go, Byron and the seven drivers behind him opted to stay out for the final dash.
“I thought everyone behind us would pit, and luckily we stayed out,” he said. “We were aggressive; we felt like we could refire on the tires and be OK, and you’ve got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in Logano.”
Byron had both a fast car that allowed him to pull away on restarts and a strong one on long runs, critical since there wasn’t a caution for anything but the end of a stage until the 311th of 400 laps on the 0.526-mile oval.
That changed when Todd Gilliland had a flat tire and hit the wall with five laps to go. Byron and the top eight cars on the track opted not to pit, with Byron picking the inside lane and Austin Dillon, running second, on the outside.
That gave Logano a prime opportunity to bump the leader out of the way, especially when Dillon spun his tires on the restart. Logano bumped Byron in Turn 2 on the last lap, but Byron held on for his second win of the weekend. He won in the Truck Series on Thursday night, earning him a pair of the raceway’s unique grandfather clock trophies for three days of solid racing.
“Willy kind of messed up off of 4 and let me get to him, and he did a really good job of brake checking into third, right, which is a good job,” Logano said. “He did what he was supposed to do, and kind of got me all stuffed up behind him and I couldn’t accelerate off the corner and be as close as I needed to be.”
Logano was second, followed by Dillon, Ryan Blaney and Ross Chastain.
Dillon appeared to have a car likely to challenge on a long green-flag run, and beat Logano for second on a restart with 80 laps to go, but after Byron pulled away, lapped traffic and consistency helped him build a nearly three-second lead.
The start of the race was delayed by more than an hour when rain and sleet fell on an already frigid night. It got underway with radar suggesting more precipitation was coming, perhaps even some snow, but none materialized.
It all conspired to provide a clean track, and a virtual single-file parade.
Pole-sitter Chase Elliott led the first 185 laps, winning the first and second stages for the fifth time in his career, but lost the lead in the caution stops that followed Stage 2 and had trouble as the night went on. He finished 10th.
QUIRKY
Elliott’s 185 laps led to begin the race matched what Darrell Waltrip did at the start of the 1980 race at Martinsville. Waltrip, though, went on to win.
JGR STRUGGLES
Coming off a victory at Richmond Raceway and to another short track where he leads all active drivers with five wins, any hope Denny Hamlin brought to Martinsville was taken away bit by bit. He qualified 25th, was lapped by Elliott at the end of Stage 1 and made laps in the back of the field and finished 28th.
The rest of the Joe Gibbs Racing stable didn’t fare much better, though Kyle Busch rallied for seventh. Martin Truex Jr., who’d won three of the last five races here, finished 22nd and Christopher Bell was 20th.
UP NEXT
The top series moves to its third straight short track, this time on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway next Sunday.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-04-10T11:51:07
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rory McIlroy’s wait to complete the career Grand Slam will extend into at least 2023.
His 14th Masters will not be the one where he gets the green jacket slipped over his shoulders. The four-time major championship winner — two PGA Championships, one British Open, one U.S. Open — shot a 1-under 71 on Saturday in the third round of the Masters.
That left him 1 over for the tournament and tied for ninth but 10 shots behind leader Scottie Scheffler.
“You’re just trying to go out and shoot the best score that you possibly can without being reckless and without taking on too much risk,” McIlroy said. “So, I’ll try to go out and do that tomorrow. I think I moved up a few places with that score today and just try to move up a few more tomorrow and try to get a top 10 and move on.”
McIlroy has had six top-10 finishes at the Masters, and that doesn’t even include 2011, when he led after three rounds but shot 80 on Sunday to freefall all the way to a tie for 15th. He missed the cut last year.
“It’s just hard to go very low out there,” McIlroy said. “Anything under par is a good score. It’s just blustery. There’s no easy birdies. Even the par 5’s aren’t. Usually they’re sort of, not guaranteed 4’s, but you feel like they’re holes that you would likely pick shots up on. … Yeah, it’s been a tough couple of days, and I’ve just sort of hung in there as best as I could.”
EAGLES ON 10
Augusta National went 14 years between eagles on the 495-yard par-4 10th hole.
And then came two in the span of two days.
After Gary Woodland did it on Friday, Charl Schwartzel holed out from the fairway on Saturday. It was the 10th eagle on No. 10 in Masters history, and this is the first year in which that hole has been eagled twice.
MASTERS MONEY
The Masters winner gets a gold medal, a green jacket, a lifetime invitation back to Augusta National and a sterling silver trophy.
And this year, more money than anyone has ever won at the Masters.
Augusta National announced Saturday that the winner of this year’s tournament gets $2.7 million out of a total purse of $15 million. Both are tournament records.
It’s about a 30% increase over last year, when Hideki Matsuyama got $2.07 million from a purse of $11.5 million.
In terms of total dollars, it’s by far the biggest one-year increase in Masters history. Percentage-wise, the tournament saw a bigger jump from 1982 to 1983, when the purse and winner’s share both increased about 40%. The winner in 1982 got $64,000; the winner in 1983 got $90,000.
The Masters purse and first-place check now match what is offered at the first two stops of the FedEx Cup Playoffs — the St. Jude Championship and the BMW Championship.
WEATHER WOES
The lack of Georgia Peach ice cream at the start of this year’s Masters — supply chain issues were blamed — was a bit of a story at Augusta National earlier in the week.
Might not have been a big seller on Saturday anyway.
Ski hats, mittens, gloves and hand warmers were part of various ensembles on an unseasonably cold Saturday at Augusta National. The temperature for much of the afternoon was in the upper 40s; the wind chill when leader Scottie Scheffler teed off at 2:50 p.m. was 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celcius), and some fans huddled under blankets as they watched.
“I’ve got five layers on,” Marc Leishman said after his round. “And I never even thought about taking any of them off. Yeah, you had to pack well for this week. Lucky enough, I had a good sponsor who sent me some stuff, and I was very warm.”
Collin Morikawa had a gaiter around his neck to try to stay warm. Scheffler kept putting a quilted vest on between shots.
“I’ve got four hand warmers,” Rory McIlroy said. “I’m getting soft. I’ve been living in Florida for too long now, so this is cold for me.”
Forecasters said frost was possible at Augusta National by early Sunday, though the high temperature on final-round day at the Masters is expected to reach the low 70s.
MESSING WITH TEXAS
The Masters Club dinner is held in Georgia, obviously. But it’s a Texan that has always presided over the festivities.
And if Scottie Scheffler hangs on Sunday at Augusta National, he’ll be the latest Texas man to etch himself into permanent Masters lore.
He could become the 10th Texan to win the Masters — which would extend the record for most from any U.S. state — and join Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Jimmy Demaret, Ralph Guldahl, Jackie Burke, Charles Coody, Ben Crenshaw, Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed as winners at Augusta National.
Texas, in Reed’s estimation, is a great practice ground for the Masters.
“You have to be a shot maker,” Reed said. “I think that’s the biggest thing about this place. You never have a flat lie. You’re always having to create something whether it’s ball above feet, ball below feet, downhill lie, uphill lie. You’re having to do something. It’s never just a step-up driving range swing. It’s always having to manipulate it in some way. I feel like we’re able to do that really well.”
Winning the Masters gives someone the chance to pick the menu (and pay the bill) at the Masters Club dinner, commonly called the Champions Dinner.
The dinner was first suggested by Hogan — one of the Masters champions from Texas — in the early 1950s. He presided over the first four of them, before giving that distinction to Nelson, a fellow Texan who stayed in the role for about a half-century. From there, the presider’s role went to Crenshaw, another fellow Texan, who as part of his duties sits at the head of the table with the defending champion and introduces him.
Finish this one off, and Scheffler would secure the seat alongside Crenshaw next April.
DIVOTS
The par-3 6th hole has played over par on average at every Masters since 1975, but it was — by its standards — easy Saturday. The average score on the hole was 2.962, way better than the 3.311 in Round 1 and 3.112 in Round 2. … Tiger Woods’ best round so far this week was a 71 on Thursday. The only times he played the Masters and didn’t have a 70 or better were 1995, 1996, 2007 and 2012. … Adam Scott shot an 80 on Saturday, matching his worst score ever at the Masters. He also did it in the first round of the 2004 tournament.
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More AP Masters coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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| 2022-04-10T11:51:14
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — The harsh cold and relentless wind. The lead late Saturday afternoon at the Masters. All the elements were there for Scottie Scheffler to start feeling the pressure of trying to win his first major at Augusta National.
Scheffler never looked worried until the final hole, and then only briefly.
His lead at four shots, his confidence level high, Scheffler’s wild drive to the left of the 18th fairway into the trees didn’t bother him nearly as much as the sight of the spotter poking around in the leaves in a desperate search for the golf ball.
“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 there?’ Fortunately, they found the ball. And then all I was trying to do was figure out how I was going to get it on the green.”
Like everything else this week, Scheffler figured it out.
He took a one-shot penalty, dropped it onto pine straw and then ripped a 3-iron from 240 yards that hit the green and rolled just over the back, leaving him two putts for a bogey that felt much better.
Scheffler had a 1-under 71 — one of only nine scores under par in the third round — that gave him a three-shot lead over Cameron Smith going into Sunday.
Scheffler spent all day fending off the cold wind by slipping on a vest over his layers of clothing after every shot on every hole. Maybe his next wardrobe change will be a green jacket.
Smith had the low round at 68, the only player to break 70, and gave himself another shot at winning the Masters in his first start since his victory in The Players Championship. He was a runner-up to Dustin Johnson at Augusta two years ago.
“ Should be a great fight tomorrow,” Scheffler said. “Obviously Cam is a tremendous player, and he’s got a fantastic short game, and he’s coming off a huge win at The Players. Both of us are in good form, so I’m definitely looking forward to the challenge of playing with him tomorrow.”
Sungjae Im (71), also a Masters runner-up in 2020, was the only other player within five shots.
Tiger Woods wanted to find a way to get into red numbers and wound up with his worst score ever at the Masters, a 78 that will be remembered for his first four-putt at Augusta National. He also had four three-putts and was 16 shots behind.
“You’d think I’d have figured it out somewhere along the line, but it just didn’t happen,” he said.
On such a cold day — the wind chill was in the upper 40s most of the day — perhaps this was a warmup for what Scheffler can expect on Sunday at Augusta National, typically the greatest theater of the majors, especially for those seeking their first major.
The last player who failed to hold a lead of three shots or more going into the final round was 21-year-old Rory McIlroy in 2011.
Scheffler looked as thought he might turn this into a runaway when he made his fourth birdie of the round on the par-5 eighth and expanded his lead to six shots.
But then a shot from the front bunker on the par-3 12th went over the green. He bounced back with a birdie only to come up well short of the monstrous mound guarding the back right pin on the 14th for bogey, and three-putting the par-5 15th for another bogey.
Even after his best shot of the round, a wedge from 160 yards that rode the right-to-left wind and settled 4 feet away for birdie on the 17th, he ran into trouble off the tee and managed to limit the damage.
“You hate bogeying the last hole, but the way I bogeyed it, it for sure felt like a par,” he said.
Scheffler was at 9-under 207.
Sunday will be the first time since a final pairing at a major featured players from the top 10 in the world since the 2015 PGA Championship with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth.
Scheffler and Smith might be the two hottest players in golf, too.
Scheffler has won three of his last five tournaments, all against some of the strongest fields of the year, a run that has elevated the 25-year-old from Dallas to No. 1 in the world.
Smith began the year by taking down the former No. 1 player, Jon Rahm, with a record score to par at Kapalua. His latest feat was to win the next best thing to a major, The Players Championship, last month.
“It just means I can get it done, I guess, when I’m up against the best guys in the world. It’s a good feeling to have. It’s earned. It’s not given to you,” Smith said. “So I’m going to have to go out there tomorrow and play really good golf again, probably similar to today. Hopefully, everything just falls into place.”
Woods finished as Scheffler was still comfortably ahead, and the five-time Masters champion feels as though he has seen this before. Players hit peak form all the time, and it’s especially sweet when that run is in the spring with the Masters on the calendar.
Woods won back-to-back ahead of his Masters victory in 2001. Jordan Spieth won and had a pair of runner-up finishes when he won his green jacket in 2015. Fred Couples won twice and was runner-up twice ahead of his 1992 victory at Augusta.
“We all wish we had that two, three-month window when we get hot, and hopefully majors fall somewhere along in that window. We take care of it in those windows,” Woods said. “Scottie seems to be in that window right now.”
Charl Schwartzel, who won the Masters in 2011, was trying to keep stride with Smith until he three-putted from about 8 feet for bogey on the 16th and dropped another shot on the 17th, slipping to a 73. He was at 2-under 214 along with Shane Lowry (73).
Justin Thomas (72) and Corey Conners (73) were the only other players under par.
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https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Dwayne Haskins was working on a second chapter for his young NFL career. The 24-year-old quarterback was spending time with some teammates with the Pittsburgh Steelers, getting ready to compete for a starting job.
That’s when his life was cut short.
Haskins was killed early Saturday morning when he was hit by a dump truck while he was walking on a South Florida highway. Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman Lt. Indiana Miranda said Haskins was pronounced dead at the scene.
“He was attempting to cross the westbound lanes of Interstate 595 when there was oncoming traffic,” Miranda said in an emailed statement.
Miranda didn’t say why Haskins was on the highway at the time. The accident caused the highway to be shut down for several hours, and Miranda said it’s “an open traffic homicide investigation.”
A 2019 first-round draft pick by Washington, Haskins was released by the team after going 3-10 over two seasons. He was signed by Pittsburgh as a developmental QB, but he didn’t appear in a game last season.
Haskins appeared to be in South Florida this week with several teammates, including fellow quarterback Mitch Trubisky, running back Najee Harris and tight end Pat Freiermuth.
Haskins’ death sparked an outpouring of grief from multiple corners of the NFL, particularly from former teammates with the Steelers and Commanders.
“I am devastated and at a loss for words with the unfortunate passing of Dwayne Haskins,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “He quickly became part of our Steelers family upon his arrival in Pittsburgh and was one of our hardest workers, both on the field and in our community. Dwayne was a great teammate, but even more so a tremendous friend to so many. I am truly heartbroken.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Kalabrya, and his entire family during this difficult time.”
Washington coach Ron Rivera said he was “absolutely heartbroken” to learn of Haskins’ death.
“Dwayne was a talented young man who had a long life ahead of him,” Rivera said in a release. “This is a very sad time and I am honestly at a loss for words. I know I speak for the rest of our team in saying he will be sorely missed. Our entire team is sending our heartfelt condolences and thoughts and prayers to the Haskins family at this time.”
Ohio State posted a photo of Haskins on its Twitter feed, topped by the description “Leader. Legend. Forever a Buckeye.”
At Ohio State, Haskins set single-season records for touchdowns passing with 50 and yards passing with 4,831. He was the 2019 Rose Bowl MVP as the Buckeyes went 13-1.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who was the quarterbacks coach during Haskins’ final season at the school, called Haskins’ death “beyond tragic.”
“For those who knew him closely, he was much more than a great football player,” Day posted on Twitter. “He had a giant heart, old soul and an infectious smile. The Ohio State community and our entire football program are heartbroken.”
The Steelers gave Haskins a chance to resurrect his career in January 2021 when they signed him a month after being released by Washington. Humbled by the decision, Haskins stressed he was eager to work hard and absorb as much as he could from Ben Roethlisberger and Mason Rudolph.
Haskins made the roster as the third-stringer but only dressed once, serving as the backup in a tie with Detroit after Roethlisberger was placed into the COVID-19 protocol the night before the game.
“The world lost a great person today,” Steelers star T.J. Watt posted on Twitter. “When Dwayne first walked into the locker room I could tell he was an upbeat guy. He was always making people smile, never taking life for granted.”
Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert both praised Haskins for his improvement since joining the team, and the Steelers re-signed him to a one-year deal as a restricted free agent in March. He was expected to compete with Rudolph and Trubisky at training camp.
“Dwayne meant so much to so many people,” Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward posted on Twitter. “His smile was infectious and he was a guy you wanted to be around. We are all in shock about losing him. We are going to miss the heck out of him as well. We lost you way too early. Luckily I got a chance to get to know you. RIP DH.”
ESPN was the first to report Haskins had died.
“Devastated,” Rudolph said on social media.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Tiger Woods used to turn weekends at Augusta National into gripping theatre, relentlessly charging up the leaderboard one fearless drive, one feathery iron, one nervy putt at a time.
Not now. Maybe not ever again.
The magic the five-time Masters champion summoned so easily for so long was nowhere to be found during another labored four-plus hour journey underneath the Georgia pines on Saturday. His 6-over 78 marked his worst in 93 career rounds at the tournament he has come to define and left him at 7-over.
The limp from his surgically repaired right leg growing more pronounced with each deliberate, cautious step, the 46-year-old slipped further down the leaderboard to end whatever chance — however unlikely — of being a factor come late Sunday afternoon.
There was no familiar charge in the early April chill. Just the reality that 14 months removed from a serious car accident that threatened to end his career, Woods can still play golf. He just can’t do it — at least not at the moment — at the level needed to compete in a field consisting of younger players, many who grew up idolizing him but have long outgrown standing in awe of him.
Following a gritty back-nine push on Friday that helped him stay on the fringe of contention, Woods walked to the first tee Saturday two hours before the leaders. Looking to send a jolt through the gallery that stood five-deep in places hoping for a glimpse and a chance to roar, Woods instead spent most of the afternoon silently glaring at the hole or his putter — or both.
He three-putted the par-4 first from 54 feet for a bogey, a sign of things to come. On the par-4 fifth, he slung his club in disgust after his approach drifted to the right, far away from a back left hole location. His lag attempt from 60-feet over a ridge was well short. His 9-foot par putt rolled his 3-feet by and his comebacker for bogey hit the hole and bounced out. It was Woods’ first four-putt at the Masters — ever.
Things never really got better. Three more three-putts followed on an afternoon where nothing really felt right. And it wasn’t just his leg. It was his back. His hands. His posture. Everything.
Even worse, there seemed to be no way to compensate. He tinkered, the kind of searching usually reserved for the practice range, not in the middle of a major.
“As many putts as I had, you’d think I’d have figured it out somewhere along the line, but it just didn’t happen,” he said.
While Woods was slowly making his way up the 18th fairway, leader Scottie Scheffler — just 25 and the world’s top-ranked golfer — was making the turn doing at the Masters what Woods has done so often over the last quarter-century: imposing his will on the course and the tournament.
“We all wish we had that two, three-month window when we get hot, and hopefully majors fall somewhere along in that window,” Woods said. “We take care of it in those windows. Scottie seems to be in that window right now.”
A window that is currently closed for Woods. While it would be easy to call his mere presence in northeast Georgia this weekend a victory in itself considering last fall he wondered if he’d ever play competitively again, Woods isn’t in this to be a feel-good story. He has no interest in being a ceremonial field filler.
His steely 1-under 71 during the first round on Thursday only seemed to embolden him. Following a shaky front-nine 39 on Friday, he recovered to shoot 74 and easily get in under the cutline.
He opened with another sloppy 39 on the front Saturday. And for a few fleeting minutes shortly after he made the turn, it appeared another rally was in store.
A crisp iron to 14 feet on No. 12 and a two-putt birdie at the par-5 13th provided a spark that never became a flame. He bogeyed the 16th and 17th and his approach up the hill to the 18th sailed into the gallery. His bump-and-run caught the slope and kept rolling, with Woods gingerly chasing after it long before it came to a stop nearly 60 feet away from the pin.
Three more putts and his worst round at Augusta was finally over. His 78 was one more than the 77 he put together in the third round of his first trip to Augusta in 1995.
He was an amateur back then, a 19-year-old phenom. Two years later, he was a champion. Two-plus decades later, he is a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest in the history of his sport. He’s also a middle-aged father of two trying to recapture something far more elusive than it used to be.
“Each and every day is a challenge,” he said. “Each and every day presents its own different challenges for all of us. I wake up and start the fight all over again.”
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For more AP Masters coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/the-masters
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It was a Premier League day that could hardly have gone any better for Tottenham.
With its 4-0 win at Aston Villa — inspired by Son Heung-min’s hat trick — and losses for both Arsenal and Manchester United on Saturday, Tottenham became favorite to claim the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot.
Antonio Conte’s team is hitting form just as its rivals are imploding and now has a three-point cushion in fourth place over Arsenal, which slumped 2-1 at home to Brighton for a third loss in its last fourth games.
As for United, a 1-0 loss at an Everton team that had been in freefall constituted another low in what has turned into a desperate season. One, remarkably, that could yet end without qualification for European competition.
United is in seventh place, six points behind Tottenham and with plenty of traffic between them.
In Son, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski, Tottenham has an attacking triumvirate that is proving impossible to keep down, and they scored and assisted all four goals against Villa.
Son now has six goals in his last three league games, having opened the scoring in the third minute after a shot from Kane deflected into his path at the edge of the area. His finish was unforgiving, kissing the post on its way in just like his third goal — in the 71st and off a pass from Kulusevski — which completed his first hat trick of the season.
Two glancing headers from Kane set up the other goals from Kulusevski and Son in the 50th and 66th minutes.
Tottenham and Arsenal meet in their third-to-last matches of the season, respectively. Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will just be hoping his team isn’t out of the running by then.
ARSENAL’S ABSENCES
The absences of first-choice left back Kieran Tierney and influential holding midfielder Thomas Partey are proving significant for Arsenal, disrupting the team’s defensive solidity established under Arteta.
Five days after a 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, Arsenal was undone by goals from Leandro Trossard and Enock Mwepu for Brighton. Martin Odegaard scored an 89th-minute consolation for Arsenal.
“We know with the team we have available the difficult challenge we have ahead, that is for sure,” Arteta said. “The injuries make the situation more complicated but we are not looking for excuses.”
One positive for Arsenal is the game in hand it has over Tottenham, though that is a rearranged meeting with third-place Chelsea.
LACKLUSTER UNITED
With a spot in the Champions League on the line, United has been held to a draw at home by Leicester and now lost to a relegation-threatened team in Everton.
Anthony Gordon was Everton’s match-winner against United, with his 27th-minute effort deflecting in off the outstretched leg of the unfortunate Harry Maguire.
Interim United manager Ralf Rangnick refused to accept that the search for a new manager to take over for next season is leaving the team in limbo
“The players themselves should be eager to play international football, if possible Champions League,” Rangnick said.
“But if we play like we did here, we just don’t deserve it. In order to qualify for Europe you have to be able to score in 95 minutes in a game like this.”
Everton moved four points clear of the bottom three, with third-from-last Burnley visiting Norwich next weekend.
ANOTHER HUMILIATION
Having lost 9-0 in each of the last two seasons, Southampton looked set to be beaten by a similar scoreline when Chelsea romped into a 6-0 lead after 54 minutes of their match at St. Mary’s Stadium.
Mercifully, Chelsea eased up in the final half-hour ahead of a trip to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday and that’s how the game finished.
Mason Mount and Timo Werner both scored twice while there were also goals for Marcos Alonso and Kai Havertz.
“It seems,” Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said, “we have to have one game like this a season, which is not nice to watch and very hard to take.”
Chelsea consolidated third place in the league and looks almost certain of returning to the Champions League next season, having moved eight points clear of fifth-place Arsenal. It is 10 points behind second-place Liverpool.
In the day’s other game, next-to-last Watford lost 3-0 to Leeds and slipped six points from safety.
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Wearing the names of heavily bombarded cities on its jerseys, Ukrainian soccer club Shakhtar Donetsk opened a series of charity games on a government-backed “Global Tour for Peace” with a 1-0 loss at Greek league leader Olympiakos on Saturday.
The tour aims to raise money for Ukraine’s military in the war against Russia, and also help Ukrainian refugees displaced by the war.
Shakhtar is also set to play Fenerbahce, Hajduk Split and Lechia Gdansk, with other opponents still to be confirmed. Soccer clubs around Europe have been offering to play games against Ukrainian clubs and host youth players after soccer in the country was shut down when Russia invaded in February.
Shakhtar was already displaced from its original home of Donetsk in 2014.
At Karaiskaki stadium in Piraeus on Saturday, Shakhtar players replaced their names on the back of their jerseys with those of cities bombarded by Russian forces, including Mariupol.
“The names of those cities, where so many people died, will remain forever in our hearts. The guys were crying in the locker room after the game,” Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko said. “We thank Olympiakos for giving us the opportunity to play the game … We hope we passed our message against war and for peace.”
Olympiakos coach Pedro Martins said he hoped Ukrainian teams “will soon return to European competitions and Ukrainians (will return) to normality.”
Shakhtar’s Italian coach, Roberto De Zerbi, did not attend because he felt unwell a couple of hours before the game and doctors recommended that he stay at the hotel. He hopes to coach in the next game, against Polish team Lechia Gdansk, on Thursday.
Shakhtar, which had been playing in Lviv and Kharkiv before the war, had not played a game since December, and Stepanenko said his team did well given the lack of preparation. Players trained in Turkey before flying to Greece. All the team’s foreign players have been released and replaced by players from the youth academy, Stepanenko said.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and the Ukrainian ambassador to Greece, Sergii Shutenko, attended the game.
The 32,000-seat stadium appeared to be not more than a quarter full. A lively contingent of Ukrainians occupied one end of the stadium. The opposite end, where Olympiakos hardcore fans normally sit, was empty. Their official fan club, called Gate 7, boycotted the game.
In a statement, Gate 7 said it “refused to take sides” and “play political games.”
A small section of seats was filled with 176 teddy bears and other children’s toys in memory of the 176 children who, Ukraine said Saturday, have died in the war since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion
After a minute’s silence for the victims of war, the match began and the warm camaraderie lasted about five minutes before home fans started to treat it as a normal game of soccer and jeered their opponents.
Brazilian forward Tiquinho got the only goal with a header in the 22nd minute in a game where the score never really mattered.
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Prized rookie Bobby Witt Jr. made an eye-popping play at third base to nail a runner at the plate in the top of the 10th inning, then Adalberto Mondesi’s RBI single in the bottom half lifted the Kansas City Royals over the Cleveland Guardians 1-0 Saturday.
With a runner at third and one out in the Cleveland 10th, Oscar Mercado hit a hard grounder down the line that looked like it might break the scoreless tie.
But the 21-year-old Witt, the top-rated prospect in the majors, skidded onto his knees to make a backhanded stop. All in one motion, he made an off-balance throw home, where All-Star catcher Salvador Perez backhanded the ball on the second hop and made a swipe tag to get Owen Miller.
“(Collin) Snider was throwing that nasty sinker in there, so I knew there was a possibility of the ball coming to me,” Witt said. “I knew they’re going on contact, too.”
“The ball was hit to me and I just threw the ball. I knew I had to get it to Salvy because I knew he was going to make the play on it,” he said.
Kyle Isbel began the bottom half as the automatic runner at second base and moved to third on a single by Hunter Dozier. Mondesi followed with his single to center off Emmanuel Clase (0-1).
“When we started to get going offensively, they made some plays,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said.
Snider (1-0) pitched one inning in his major league debut. The Royals improved to 2-0 with their second win over the Guardians.
Brad Keller allowed two hits in six innings for Kansas City, striking out five with one walk.
“Brad looked like a different pitcher,” Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “…He was so efficient, pounding the zone, getting ahead. That’s everything we were hoping to see. He did a great job handing it off to a bullpen that was so impressive, right down the line, every single one of them.”
Royals relievers Dylan Coleman, Amir Garrett, Taylor Clark, Josh Staumont and Snider combined for four innings of scoreless ball with five strikeouts.
Cleveland starter Zach Plesac pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up three hits. He fanned three and walked none.
Andrew Benintendi went 3 for 4 and got half of Kansas City’s hits.
Steven Kwan had two of Cleveland’s five hits.
TRAINER’S ROOM
The Guardians have RHP Cody Morris (right back strain) and RHP Carlos Vargas (right elbow rehab) on the injured list.
UP NEXT
The series continues on Sunday with Cal Quantrill starting for Cleveland against Kris Bubic.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/tag/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Italian-Argentinian polo player Camila Rossi remembers the odd looks the boys gave her when she was in youth tournaments with them. American Erica Gandomcar doesn’t forget her failed attempts to convince the leaders of her country’s polo association that they should organize a world-class championship for women.
These women talked about the hurdles they faced to play a sport dominated by men, as they enlist with another 22 to test their horses outside Buenos Aires. Saturday is the opening day for the first women’s polo world championship.
Argentina, United States, England, Ireland, Brazil and Italy will face off at the Campo Argentino de Polo, which is considered a sacred place for the sport. Tickets are free, as part of the efforts to make women’s polo more popular.
“Polo has been dominated by men for a long time. And now women in general, all over the world, are being heard,” said Gandomcar, who is part of a committee of the United States’ polo association. “For years we tried to organize a women’s polo tournament. This is a dream come true.”
The six teams will be split into groups of three and they will all play against each other. The two first of each group will be in the semifinals, with the winners fighting for the title on April 16.
“The idea was born out of the growth of women’s polo in recent years. It is impressive how many women started playing,” said Horacio Areco, the Argentina president of the International Polo Federation. “
Women’s polo began in Argentina with a group of pioneers who started competing in men’s teams. In 2010, the country’s polo body established a special handicap for women so it could have a system to measure the level of their game. The maximum handicap of 10 is for professional players. Zero is for starters.
“Today everything is flowing. It was much more difficult,” said Rossi, an Argentine who will play for Italy. “I started at a club where I was the only woman among boys. A world championship helps the sport settle well in each country, be promoted and be fostered.”
In the city of Pilar, outside Buenos Aires, polo players were instructed about the rules of the tournament in English. Matches will be played in five parts, known as chukkers, of four minutes and 30 seconds.
Some of the horses involved in the championship cost more than $100,000.
English polo player Fran Townend, who uses crutches due to an traffic accident five years ago, calmly rode on a horse given to her in a draw. The two started roaming around to get familiar.
“It is very exciting to be picked to represent England in the first women’s polo world championship. As a disabled player, be recognized at the same level of other players,” Townend said. “The women’s game is not about power, it is about mental clarity to play.”
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