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Which cordless vacuum is best?
If the prospect of unfurling your vacuum cleaner’s power cord, switching between outlets as you move around the house, then coiling the cord back up again makes you not want to clean, a cordless vacuum is the right choice for you.
Streamlining the vacuuming process, they’re perfect for anyone who’s reluctant about chores. The Samsung Jet 90 Cordless Vacuum is a great choice with plenty of suction power.
What to know before you buy a cordless vacuum
Battery life
Battery life is a major concern for most people buying a cordless vacuum for the first time. Cheap, basic vacuums can have maximum run times of as little as 15-20 minutes, while high-end versions can last up to 60 minutes on a single charge.
Consider how big your home is and how long it takes you to thoroughly vacuum the whole thing. Ideally, the battery should last long enough to clean all your floors, otherwise, it can be frustrating.
It’s worth noting that the maximum battery life is usually calculated in standard mode. If you use boost or high-power modes or motorized attachments, the battery will deplete more quickly.
Filter
HEPA filters are the gold standard, trapping more than 99.9% of minute particles within a given size range, including common allergens, such as pollen and pet dander. If anyone in your house has environmental allergies, it pays to buy a vacuum with a HEPA filter. Cordless vacuums on the more affordable end of the price spectrum are unlikely to have HEPA filters, but their filtration system should still do a good job of trapping dust and finer particles.
Always check how to clean and when to replace filters, if necessary, to keep your vacuum cleaner running smoothly.
Handheld option
Most cordless vacuums let you remove the top part of the vacuum from the stick and cleaning head to use it in handheld mode. This is great for vacuuming stairs, couches and other soft furnishings, sucking crumbs off counters and cleaning right into the corners of stairs. It saves you from buying a separate hand vac and makes spot cleaning a breeze.
What to look for in a quality cordless vacuum
Removable battery
When you can remove the battery from the body of the vacuum, it lets you switch out the main battery with a spare. This is great when you have a large home that you can’t clean from top to bottom on a single charge.
Power boost
The power boost mode temporarily increases suction power to target areas that need deeper cleaning.
Anti-tangle brushroll
If you have long hair or long-coated pets, you’ll know the pain of detangling hair from a brushroll. Some vacuums have anti-tangle brushrolls that hair doesn’t wrap around, leaving you with one less thing to worry about.
How much you can expect to spend on a cordless vacuum
You can find basic cordless vacuums starting at around $100-$200, while top-end versions can cost as much as $700-$800. While price isn’t everything, you generally get what you pay for, so you can’t expect a $200 vacuum to perform as well as a $600 one.
Cordless vacuum FAQ
Are cordless vacuums as powerful as corded models?
A. The simple answer to this is no, usually not. If you compare a cordless vacuum cleaner with a corded version of a similar quality or price point, the corded model will generally have better suction power. However, most people vacuum more regularly when they have cordless vacuums because the process is more painless, which makes up for the slightly lower suction power. What’s more, top manufacturers, such as Shark and Dyson, are starting to bridge the gap in suction power between their high-end cordless and corded models.
How long should I expect my cordless vacuum to last?
A. This is hard to answer as it depends on a wide range of factors, including sheer luck. On average, you can expect a cordless vacuum to last at least five years before the battery or another important part needs replacing. It’s possible to have broken vacuums repaired and it’s extremely straightforward to replace the battery if your vacuum has a removable battery anyway — just switch it out with a spare.
What’s the best cordless vacuum to buy?
Top cordless vacuum
Samsung Jet 90 Cordless Vacuum
What you need to know: Powerful and versatile, it works just as well on carpets as it does on hard floors.
What you’ll love: The 60-minute battery life is enough to vacuum almost any home, but the battery is removable in case you need to charge a spare and switch partway through. The turbo action brush combined with excellent suction cleans all kinds of flooring well.
What you should consider: The battery lasts significantly less than 60 minutes on high-power mode.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top cordless vacuum for the money
Eureka RapidClean Pro Cordless Vacuum
What you need to know: This decent midrange cordless vacuum provides up to 40 minutes of fade-free cleaning.
What you’ll love: It’s extremely lightweight and easy to maneuver, even laying flat so it can reach further under furniture. The rest nook makes it easier to lean it against furniture when you need to take a break from vacuuming.
What you should consider: The suction could be better and can get clogged easily.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Shark IZ363HT Anti-Allergen Pet Power Cordless Vacuum
What you need to know: With excellent suction power and a tangle-free brushroll, this is an ideal vacuum for homes with pets.
What you’ll love: The HEPA filter with complete seal captures and traps dust, dander and other allergens. It has a battery life of around 50 minutes on standard power setting, and its boost mode gives you extra suction power to tackle tough areas.
What you should consider: Tall users may find it a little short for comfortable vacuuming.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Kohl’s
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Lauren Corona 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. | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/home-br/vacuums-br/best-cordless-vacuum/ | 2022-04-11T21:58:01 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/home-br/vacuums-br/best-cordless-vacuum/ |
Which Gaggia espresso machine is best?
If you’re an espresso aficionado who wants to brew their own barista-quality drinks at home, a Gaggia espresso machine is worth the investment.
These Italian-made automatic machines can brew a variety of drinks at the push of a button. They are known for their strong technology, commercial quality and top-tier customer service.
The Gaggia Anima Prestige is the best of Gaggia’s offerings for the most popular drink settings, ease of use and competitive pricing.
What to know before you buy a Gaggia espresso machine
The key factors to look for when shopping for a Gaggia espresso machine are the type of machine, the various drink settings, ease of use and maintenance requirements.
Semi-automatic vs. automatic espresso machines
Espresso machines from Gaggia are either semi-automatic or fully automatic. Automatic machines will grind your coffee beans for you and handle the brewing process internally. If you use a semi-automatic machine, you’ll want to use a high-quality burr grinder and tamper to get the best espresso possible.
Drink settings
Each machine offers a variety of drink settings and options. Most importantly, they all let you pull a high-quality single or double shot of espresso. Beyond espresso, some models offer up to six other drink varieties. Many Gaggia machines also have programmable buttons so you can schedule and save your favorite drink settings to brew at a predetermined time.
Ease of use
Gaggia prides itself on delivering commercial quality espresso to the consumer with easy-to-use technology. The buttons and interfaces on all their machines are straightforward and always clearly labeled. Whether you’re using an LED screen or simple switch buttons, it won’t take long to learn how to brew a delicious espresso with these home espresso machines. Additional features are typically easily accessible, such as the water reservoir, bean hopper and milk frother.
Maintenance
To keep your machine running smoothly, Gaggia recommends you descale and clean it about every two months if you use it regularly. The automatic models will include a light to alert you when it’s time to clean, and may even have an automatic cleaning mode. If not, you need to purchase a specific descaling solution from Gaggia.
Replacing the water filters regularly will also help prevent mineral buildup over time, extending the time you can brew between cleaning cycles.
What to look for in a quality Gaggia espresso machine
All Gaggia espresso machines offer a commercial quality experience, though some make it both accessible and high quality. These are the main features that set the best Gaggia machines apart from the rest of their models.
Milk frother
If you’re someone who enjoys a latte over a shot of espresso, having a milk frother will come in handy. Some semi-automatic models come with a steam wand, while other fully automatic models have a milk vessel and frother attached. The automatic versions will come with a higher price tag, but it may be worth it if you plan to brew espresso drinks with milk regularly.
Grind type
Coffee connoisseurs know that the grounds have a big influence on how the coffee turns out. Semi-automatic machines generally won’t have a built-in grinder, so you’ll need to grind your own beans before you’re ready to brew.
Coffee enthusiasts likely know that a high-quality burr grinder offers the fastest, quietest and most consistent grind.
Automatic models will include a grinder, and also allow you to add grounds manually. If the grinder is built-in, check if you can adjust the grind settings based on the type of coffee you’re brewing.
Accessories
Additional features help to make the entire experience easier from start to finish. Machines with an adjustable drip tray allow you to pour into different cup sizes while protecting your countertop from drips. An attached milk carafe makes it easier to prep and steam your milk. Easy-to-remove water reservoirs and water filters help speed up the refill and cleaning process.
How much you can expect to spend on a Gaggia espresso machine
A Gaggia espresso machine costs between $450-$2,000 depending on how many additional features and functions it has.
Gaggia espresso machine FAQ
Can I make a regular cup of coffee with a Gaggia espresso machine?
A. Gaggia espresso machines specialize in brewing espresso and crafting espresso-based drinks. That said, they do offer some completely automatic models that include the option to brew regular coffee. If you want your espresso machine to pull double duty, you’ll want to look for one that allows you to customize your grinder settings and select a larger cup size.
What’s the best Gaggia espresso machine to buy?
Top Gaggia espresso machine
What you need to know: This high-end espresso machine from Gaggia brews exquisite espresso for those who care more about quality espresso drinks than extra features.
What you’ll love: Programmable drink options make your espresso routine even easier to enjoy. This model offers temperature control so you can set your ideal coffee temperature before you sip. Its one-touch button options are easy to use for any level of espresso lover. The water reservoir is easy to access and remove, which makes refills and maintenance simple.
What you should consider: There are fewer brewing options than Gaggia’s more expensive models.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Gaggia espresso machine for the money
What you need to know: This model is an all-in-one machine that brews classic Italian espresso shots and cappuccinos for a competitive price.
What you’ll love: Gaggia’s rapid steam technology heats the water in 10 seconds, speeding up the brew time. The automatic machine is easy to use with a front-loading water reservoir, a hopper and a bypass dozer to make brewing easy with either whole beans or grounds. The buttons on the front panel are user-friendly and programmable.
What you should consider: It has fewer brewing options and a bulkier body than other slimmer, more expensive models.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This is Gaggia’s original espresso machine, built for caffeine enthusiasts who want commercial quality espresso without the need for extra bells and whistles.
What you’ll love: The simple switch control panel is easy to understand and operate without needing to read a pile of instructions first. With a three-way solenoid valve, a portafilter and a steam wand, you can brew like a barista at home. The body is slim and comes in six color options.
What you should consider: There aren’t as many brewing options, and there is no touch-screen display like Gaggia’s other options.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Katy Palmer 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. | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/coffee-accessories-br/best-gaggia-espresso-machine/ | 2022-04-11T21:58:07 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/coffee-accessories-br/best-gaggia-espresso-machine/ |
Meal prep lunch ideas
When you’re rushing out the door in the morning, it’s hard to find the time to prepare a nutritious lunch. But a balanced, healthy meal is crucial for restoring much-needed work-life balance. If you’re finding you can’t spare the time to put something together each day, meal prep is a great way to ensure you’re hitting all the food groups come lunch hour.
This method has you planning a week ahead, so you’ll need a few items for preparation, storage and transportation.
How to meal prep
What what meal prep is
Meal prep is a method of food preparation where you make multiple days’ worth of food at once. It’s designed to take some of the time burden off of busy people, and it also works great to give you more control over your diet. The primary tool for any meal prepper is the food-storage container, which helps with portioning and portability.
When to meal prep
The most common meal prep method involves cooking large batches of food. Most preppers like to do this on Sundays. After cooking, you dish your meals into storage containers that you then take out of your refrigerator or freezer each day during the week. When and how you meal prep will depend on your dietary restrictions, nutrition goals and schedule, but set aside three to four hours for preparation, cooking and dishing up.
How to meal prep
There are many ways to get organized so lunch time is breezy and never boring.
- Batch cooking: The most common form of meal prep, batch cooking involves cooking everything at once and portioning it out. This typically takes a few hours and is best saved for when you can carve out the time. Batch cooking is a good solution to meals that require lengthy cooking times, such as meats, stews, curries and sauces. Rectangular plastic takeout containers are a meal prepper’s best friend when it comes to this method. But you can also use plastic or glass storage containers.
- Ingredient prep: For those who work at home or who have adequate kitchen amenities at work, ingredient prep is a great way to ensure fresh ingredients in every meal. This method cuts down on one of the most daunting aspects of making lunch every day by getting all of your fixings in order ahead of schedule. You can then put a sandwich or salad together, heat your meal quickly in the morning, or bring your ingredients to work. In addition to storage containers, condiment containers and plastic, resealable bags are big helpers.
Best products to help you meal prep for work
Best meal prep tools
Instant Pot Duo 7-In-1 Electric Pressure Cooker
The slow cooker is every meal prepper’s secret weapon. The ultimate tool for batch-cooking, it can even cut time from meal prep — just throw everything in and let it stew. And what makes the Instant Pot Duo so up for the task is the sheer number of functions it can perform. From cooking rice to steaming vegetables, you’ll be able to hit all the food groups using one device.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
GreaterGoods Digital Food Kitchen Scale
Whether you’re counting calories or just trying to even out your portions, a food scale is a critical kitchen tool for meal prep. It can help you stay on track with your diet or meal plan and take the guesswork out of lunchtime at the office.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Tiluck Stainless Steel Measuring Cups & Spoons Set
This comprehensive set of measuring cups for dry goods not only helps with basic recipe prep but also portion control. Made from food-grade stainless steel, the cups have embossed and etched measurements so they’ll never rub off.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Pyrex Glass Measuring Cups Set
Oven-, microwave- and freezer-safe, these liquid measuring cups are a game changer in the kitchen. Great for pouring broths, stirring sauces and mixing marinades, you’ll never have to worry about rinsing tiny dry-good cups mid-recipe with these dedicated tools of the trade.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Best food storage for meal prep
Bayco 8-Pack Glass Meal Prep Containers
Divided into three compartments, these bento-box style containers are perfect for apportioning meals. They’re made of glass, so you can store your meals in the fridge for the week and reheat them at work. The airtight lids prevent spillage during transport, and with eight containers, you’re set for the week (even if you forget to wash a couple).
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Arctic Zone Canvas Expandable Horizontal Lunch Box
With a mature design and adjustable shoulder strap, this lunchbox is great for office workers on the go. It’s large enough for most food prep boxes and expands so you can add snacks, a drink, or an ice pack to keep your food fresh.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Cooler Shock Reusable Ice Pack
Never worry about yucky spoiled lunches and food poisoning with these cooler packs. Designed with a low melting point, these can keep your food cool for up to 8 hours.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Condiment Cups Containers with Lids
These miniature plastic storage containers are great for dressings, sauces and condiments. They’re available in a few sizes for those who want a convenient way to break up dry foods into snack-size groups.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Best meal prep seasoning
Make Your Day Condiment Packets
Condiment packets are a lifesaver, preventing both soggy sandwiches and dry lunches. This set of five has all of the essentials to cover a variety of meals so you don’t have to worry about lugging around half your fridge for flavor. You get 50 packs each of ketchup, mustard, relish, mayonnaise and barbecue sauce for a total of 250 pieces.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
On-The-Go Assorted Hot Sauce Condiment Packets With Mini Hot Sauce Packets Keychain
When it comes to condiments, you can’t forget the hot sauce, and this huge assortment has a spicy packet for just about any kind of meal. This is a great flavor enhancer for the meal prepper who likes to cook all around the world. And it even includes a mini squeeze bottle for those whole like to make their own hot sauces at home.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Karl Daum 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. | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/grocery-br/what-you-need-to-meal-prep-for-work/ | 2022-04-11T21:58:16 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/grocery-br/what-you-need-to-meal-prep-for-work/ |
Which stud finder is best?
Some believe that old-school methodology works best. However, knocking on walls to listen for a stud is outdated and unreliable. If you’re trying to hang something on your wall, you’ll need a stud finder. These convenient, handheld devices help you reliably locate studs in the walls and avoid electrical mishaps when drilling. Despite their simple function, different stud finders have varying key features that set them apart depending on your needs.
For an all-around, reliable tool with the capabilities most users require, check out the Zircon SuperScan M4 Stud Finder.
What to know before you buy a stud finder
What is a stud finder?
A stud finder is a handheld device that uses electricity or magnets to detect the framing studs behind your wall. Commonly used for homes constructed with drywall, stud finders are an essential tool for drilling and hanging items safely.
How to use a stud finder
Stud finders are easy to operate. All you need to do is press down on a button and hold it to activate the sensor. Then, place the finder on your wall to find where the studs are located. Don’t worry if it takes a little time to find a stud. Just relocate the finder on the wall and move the finder back and forth, waiting to hear a beep which indicates a stud within dead wall space. Mark this location with a pencil so you know where to drill.
Why you should use a stud finder
Drywall can only hold about 1 pound of weight. So if you’re mounting shelves, brackets or hanging wall art, your best bet is to locate a stud. A screw in a stud can hold around 80-100 pounds. If you can’t locate a stud, you can try using an anchor, even though these are generally weaker and may cause more damage to your walls to install.
What to look for in a quality stud finder
Type of stud finder
- Edge: These are the most common stud finders. Simply calibrate them on the empty part of your wall and move them to locate the edge of the stud. You will likely need to do this from both sides of the stud to locate each edge and determine the center point yourself. These stud finders are a little more error-prone than other styles, and they can potentially be off by about an inch.
- Center: These use a dual set of sensors to identify the center of a stud. These have a similar calibration as edge finders, but you only have to use them from one direction.
- Instant: Also known as multi-sensor stud finders, instant finders have a complex array of sensors that take multiple readings of your wall. They can locate centers, edges and empty wall space. Their unique design doesn’t require calibration or moving the finder back and forth.
Scan modes
Some stud finders can locate electrical wires in the walls as well. If you want to make sure you don’t accidentally drill into a live wire or damage an unseen electrical setup, get a stud finder with wire detection.
Depth
Standard stud finders can detect anomalies at about 2-inches deep, making drilling difficult if you have thick drywall. Deep scan modes let you extend the detection range to 4-6 inches, so you can identify pipes and other structural elements hidden in your wall.
How much you can expect to spend on a stud finder
You can find a budget stud finder for $10-$25. If you want something with greater functionality, you’ll likely spend about $80 or more for a premium stud finder. Professional-grade stud finders can cost well over $500.
Stud finder FAQ
How far apart are studs typically?
A. Studs spacing differs between the exterior and interior walls of your home. For interior walls, the usual distance between frame elements is about 16 inches. Exterior wall studs tend to be 24 inches apart.
What if what I’m hanging doesn’t line up with the studs in my wall?
A. Your best bet is to try and adjust and hang on the stud. If this isn’t possible, you’ll need to use an anchor rated for the appropriate weight of the object you want to hang.
What’s the best stud finder to buy?
Top stud finder
Zircon SuperScan M4 Stud Finder
What you need to know: The M4 offers construction-site features at an affordable price.
What you’ll love: Made by the original manufacturer, Zircon M4 is a reliable, updated tool for the modern household. This stud finder reliably locates wood using five separate detection modes. It allows you to find stud centers and edges, wires, plastic and metals.
What you should consider: You have to move this model slowly for it to operate well.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Top stud finder for the money
Zircon StudSensor HD55 Stud Finder
What you need to know: If you only need a reliable, straightforward stud finder, this is a great option.
What you’ll love: The HD55 is an edge-detecting stud finder that can scan for wood or metal studs and wires. This is more than enough functionality for basic DIY tasks around the house. It’s lightweight and fits in your pocket, and the grooved notch at the top helps you make precise wall marks.
What you should consider: With a 3/4-inch stud-finding depth, you may risk hitting the occasional pipe.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Worth checking out
Franklin Sensors ProSensor M210 Center and Edge Professional Stud Finder
What you need to know: The Franklin M210 stud finder deviates from standard design to provide a professional-grade option that won’t break the bank.
What you’ll love: This model comes with plenty of features and doesn’t require calibration. The built-in level ensures you don’t have to juggle multiple tools at once, and the pencil caddy is a nice touch. Its 13 sensors detect edges and centers simultaneously and display measurements using an LED array. The live-wire meter will also help you avoid electrical components.
What you should consider: The only thing missing from this beloved model is a center notch for pencil marks.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
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Karl Daum 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. | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/tools-br-lawn-garden-br/measuring-detection-tools-br/best-stud-finder/ | 2022-04-11T21:58:22 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/tools-br-lawn-garden-br/measuring-detection-tools-br/best-stud-finder/ |
Which miter saw is best?
Miter saws are a workshop staple and an essential tool for any craftsperson. Whether you’re a novice or a seasoned maker with decades of experience, miter saws are great for making a variety of cuts in your wood. Additionally, unlike most other power saws, you can transport them quite easily.
Miter saws are more accurate than ever before, and many come with precision alignment systems. However, with so many brands and models to choose from, finding the right miter saw for your needs can be difficult. One solid choice is the DeWalt Sliding Compound Miter Saw. It is a high-quality, durable miter saw that can do it all.
What to know before you buy a miter saw
Blade size
Miter saws come in many blade sizes, but bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Larger blades tend to wobble slightly more than smaller blades, making them less precise in their cuts. If you need a larger blade to handle thick lumber or sheet material, saw blades larger than 12 inches deliver optimal results. They’re especially effective when you use them with a sturdy stand.
Saws with 10-inch blades or less maximize portability over capability and are ideal for anyone who does a lot of trim work. Miter saws with blades that are exactly 10 inches offer a combination of capacity and portability.
Saw type
Before you buy a miter saw, consider how you plan on using it. This way, you’ll get a saw that works for your needs without paying for features that you don’t want. There are three distinct types of miter saws.
- Standard miter saws, also known as chop saws, rotate from side to side, allowing the user to cut angles from the top of the material. However, they do not tilt from right to left at an angle. Standard miter saws are the most affordable design.
- Compound miter saws turn left to right and also tilt at an angle. Compound miter saws allow you to make bevel cuts, straight cuts and miter cuts. Compound miter saws cost more than a basic miter saw.
- Sliding compound miter saws are the most complex of the three saws. In addition to tilting and turning in both directions, they also include a sliding mechanism that increases the total cut capacity without increasing the size of the blade. Sliding table saws give you maximum control over your cuts, and they are the most expensive design option.
What to look for in a quality miter saw
Blade material
The blade is the core of any miter saw, and high-quality models include blades made from durable materials. Look for blades made from carbide or blades with carbide-tipped teeth, as these features make more efficient cuts.
Alignment system
The best miter saws tend to include a precision alignment system that increases the accuracy of your cuts. DeWalt uses LED lights to cast a shadow of the cutline, while companies like Bosch often equip their miter saws with a laser that shows the cut line directly onto the material. Some saws also include integrated fences and stop blocks that enhance accuracy and your ability to make repeated cuts.
How much you can expect to spend on a miter saw
Miter saws can be expensive, but you can still get something practical on a budget. Expect to spend between $240-$300 on a high-quality, affordable miter saw. Expect to spend more than $400 on top-of-the-line models.
Miter saw FAQ
Do I need a miter saw stand?
A. You can use your miter saw on any stable, flat surface. Contractors will often use stands because they’re convenient and portable, but you can set up your saw on a sturdy table. Remember to ensure it’s stable and won’t move as you’re cutting, and check that the blade is set to 0 degrees after you move the saw to avoid any mistakes.
Can I cut warped or twisted wood with a miter saw?
A. Ultimately, it’s not a good idea to cut warped or twisted wood with a miter saw. In fact, it’s best to stay away from cutting warped or twisted wood altogether. If the warp is slight and barely noticeable, a clamp will likely be able to hold it flat for the duration of the cut. However, if the warp is severe, it may cause the blade to pinch, sending the material flying.
What’s the best miter saw to buy?
Top miter saw
DeWalt Sliding Compound Miter Saw
What you need to know: This rugged miter saw is designed to withstand tough conditions and comes with plenty of premium features that are perfect for hobbyists and professionals alike.
What you’ll love: Powered by a robust 15 amp motor, this miter saw cuts through various materials, including knotty hardwoods. Plus, it’s incredibly accurate thanks to the unique XPS alignment system, which uses LED lights to cast a cutline shadow onto the material. This miter saw has a double bevel, safely cutting various materials for all kinds of projects.
What you should consider: This miter saw is on the more expensive side, and the large 12-inch blade has a bit more wobble than 10-inch and 8-inch blades.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top miter saw for the money
Craftsman V20 Sliding Miter Saw
What you need to know: If you’re in the market for an affordable, reliable compound sliding miter saw that’s easy to transport, look no further than the Craftsman V20.
What you’ll love: This miter saw is ideal for anyone short on space or needs to be able to transport their saw between job sites. In addition to being cordless, the V20 is only 21 pounds and comes with carrying handles, making it easy to move it around. Although the blade isn’t big, the motor runs at 3,800 RPM and can handle standard hobbyist projects.
What you should consider: Because this saw is cordless and has a rather small blade, it may not have the power to tackle larger contractor-style projects.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Bosch CM8S Single Bevel Sliding Compound Miter Saw
What you need to know: The Bosch CM8S miter saw is the sweet spot between a heavy-duty professional saw and a hobbyist option.
What you’ll love: This saw is well-designed and intuitive to use. It’s packed with convenient features, such as the integrated expanding base extensions and the thumb-activated miter detents. Although the blade is less than 9 inches, the sliding feature gives this saw the same cutting capacity as a standard 10-inch stationary miter saw.
What you should consider: The Bosch CM8S is expensive and lacks an LED or laser alignment system.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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William Briskin writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
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What are the best tips for keeping a dog cool in the summer?
Summer is a tough time for dogs, as most climates change to much warmer temperatures. It’s important to keep dogs cool when it’s hot out, not just so they’re comfortable but to prevent heatstroke, which is often fatal.
Some dogs are particularly susceptible to hot weather, such as thick-coated and flat-faced breeds, but all can get in trouble if you don’t look out for them on hot days. Luckily, keeping your canine companion cool is easy once you know how.
Tips for keeping your dog cool
Limit walks in hot weather
Dogs can easily overexert themselves on walks and end up dangerously overheated. On hot days, limit walks to the coolest hours: early morning before the sun has come up or late night when the sun has set and temperatures have started to drop. Even on warm days, you should avoid walking your dog when the sun is at its hottest (roughly between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.).
Cooling vests can help your canine companion maintain a safe body temperature if it’s still fairly warm outside after the hottest hours of the day.
Check the temperature of the roads or sidewalk before you take your dog for a walk, as it can get hot enough to burn dogs’ paws. Place your hand on the sidewalk, and if it’s too hot to hold it there for 20 seconds, it’s too hot for your dog’s paws.
Keep your dog indoors
When it’s hot outside, your dog should spend the majority of the day indoors, since it will be cooler in your home than out in the yard. Keep the blinds or curtains closed, as sunlight coming through the windows will heat up your home. If you don’t have central air, consider running a portable air conditioner or a window unit for your dog on exceptionally hot days. You can keep your dog entertained indoors by playing games with them, engaging in short trick training sessions and giving them interactive toys to play with.
Put out a pool for your dog
Your dog still needs to spend some time outdoors on hot days to go potty and stretch their legs and having a pool for them to splash around and lay down in can let them safely spend more time in the yard. It’s easy to find dog pools with reinforced bases to keep dogs from puncturing them. Some dogs also love splash pads or being sprayed with a hose to cool off.
Create shade in the yard
If there’s no natural shade in your yard, create a shady spot for your dog to hang out in using a shade sail or a gazebo. However, you still shouldn’t let your dog spend too much time outdoors, even in shady spots, when it’s extremely hot.
Make sure your dog always has access to water
It’s easy for dogs to become dehydrated on hot days, so make sure they always have access to fresh water. If you work out of the home and your dog will be along for much of the day, consider buying a pet water fountain, since these have a larger capacity than a regular water bowl and circulate the water through a filter to keep it clean.
What to buy to keep dogs cool in summer
Ruffwear Swamp Cooler Evaporative Dog Cooling Vest
This vest works using evaporative cooling to keep your dog cooler on hot days. It’s a great choice for walking your dog during those periods of the summer when it seems to be hot 24 hours a day, so there’s no cool time of day for a walk. Simply soak the vest in cold water, wring it out and it’s ready to keep your pup cool.
Sold by Amazon
PetSafe Drinkwell Pet Water Fountain
With a whopping 450-ounce water capacity, this will easily keep multiple dogs in fresh water all day. It circulates and filters the water inside to keep it fresh and hygienic.
The Green Pet Shop Dog Cooling Mat
There’s no need for freezing or refrigeration with this cooling mat. It contains a special pressure-activated cooling gel that helps cool your dog off when they lay on it. If your dog can never seem to find a comfortable spot to rest on hot days, this mat will help.
Coolaroo The Original Cooling Elevated Pet Bed
While plush beds and sofas can feel too warm for dogs to lay on when it’s hot, this cooling bed has a mesh sleeping area with full airflow underneath. It gives your dog somewhere comfortable to lounge without overheating. If your canine companion often opts for cool tile floors or other unusual spots on hot days, they may benefit from this bed.
Available in a range of sizes to fit any dog, this pool is a great choice for sticky summer days. It’s easy to fill and empty and folds up into a compact package for storage when you aren’t using it. The textured non-slip base is reinforced for added durability.
Sold by Amazon
This splash pad is suitable for dogs, kids or both. Attach it to a hose and it squirts water from multiple points around the rim. If your dog loves being squirted from a hose or playing with water, this splash pad multiplies that excitement, giving them something fun to do while keeping them cool. The base is reinforced so dogs’ nails won’t puncture it.
Sold by Amazon
Black and Decker Portable Air Conditioner
When the weather’s exceptionally hot, the best thing you can do for your dog is keep them inside for most of the day with the shades closed and an air conditioner running. This portable air conditioner is a worthwhile investment, quickly and easily cooling rooms of up to 350 square feet.
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.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/pets-br/dog-health-br/how-to-keep-dogs-cool-in-summer/ | 2022-04-11T21:58:40 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/br/pets-br/dog-health-br/how-to-keep-dogs-cool-in-summer/ |
19 presents to make every mom happy this Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is all about celebrating moms and the other important women in your circle of family and friends. With the holiday only a few weeks away, it’s time to find the perfect gift for the maternal figures in your life.
We picked products that are top-rated and sure to make any type of mom happy — whether she wants to ring in the holiday on a hike or with a glass of wine.
Gifts that celebrate moms
These gifts will make any mom or maternal figure feel loved this Mother’s Day.
Mom and Mini Bracelet Set: available at Macy’s
These pink and gold bracelets give Mom the opportunity to match with whoever gives her this set. Both bracelets are adjustable to fit different wrist sizes.
WillowTree figurine: available at Wayfair
This statue of a woman holding a child is a sweet keepsake for any maternal woman in your life, including moms, aunts, grandmothers or wives.
Birth Month Flower Heart Necklace: available at Uncommon Goods
Give Mom a piece of jewelry to commemorate the month she became a mother. The 12 necklace options showcase each month’s birth flowers encased in eco-resin.
Mother’s Embrace Bouquet: available at 1-800-Flowers
Surprise your mother with this bouquet that includes a mix of lilies and roses in varying shades of pink. The flowers also come in a pink glass vase that features a spiral design.
Gifts for outdoorsy moms
For the mom that is always in nature, these gifts will help her enjoy the outdoors.
Arm-Protecting Garden Gloves: available at Uncommon Goods
Extra-long gloves that cinch at the forearm provide maximum protection for Mom as she hits the garden this spring. They are available in a dainty floral pattern and three sizes.
Steel Outdoor Fire Pit with Lid: available at Wayfair
Make any backyard feel warmer and more welcoming with this astrological-themed fire pit. It comes with a spark screen, a poker and a lid for safety.
Adidas Mini Tote Crossbody Bag: available at Dick’s Sporting Goods
Whether she’s going on a hike or running errands, Mom can pack all of her essentials in this small yet sturdy bag. It’s available in black or white.
Lulu Lemon Wunder Under Crop Leggings: available at Amazon
Give your mother the gift of support and flexibility with these high-rise leggings. She can wear them to the gym or around the house.
Gifts for moms who are always trying new recipes
If your mother loves cooking, these gifts will elevate her next dinner party.
Sur La Table Jardin Apron: available at Sur La Table
This adjustable apron is bespeckled with florals and makes for a fashionable staple in the kitchen. In case of spills, it is machine-washable.
Spode Blue Italian Stemless Wine Glass: available at Wayfair
Made of glass and decorated with a blue pattern, this set of four wine glasses is great for toasting to Mom.
Online Cooking Class: available at Sur La Table
Select from a variety of online cooking classes offered by Sur La Table. Options range from mixing margaritas to searing Mediterranean steak.
Gifts for moms who need more comfort in their lives
Your mother works hard, so help her unwind with these calming gifts.
Audible Subscription: available at Audible
For a mom who loves to read, give her the gift of an unlimited library of audiobooks with a subscription to Audible. Subscriptions are available for one month, three months, six months or a year.
Minnetonka Women’s Sheepskin Slide Slippers: available at Dick’s Sporting Goods
Keep your mother’s toes warm in these suede and sheepskin slippers. They are available in multiple colors, including black and pink.
Relaxing Lavender Mineral Bath Salt Soak: available at Ulta
Make Mom’s bath extra calming with these lavender-scented bath salts. It is formulated without parabens or silicones.
Sonoma Goods For Life Cozy Pajama Pants: available at Kohl’s
Available in multiple colors and patterns, these bestselling pajama pants will make any mother feel ready to relax.
Laneige Berry Sweet Lip Set: available at Sephora
This set comes with one full-sized lip mask and one mini lip mask, and each one features a sweet flavor. The mask can be used overnight or during the day to help keep lips hydrated and smooth.
La Vie Est Belle Perfume: available at Sephora and Ulta
Add to your mother’s perfume collection with this warm Lancome offering that has hints of vanilla, orange and iris. It’s available in multiple sizes, so Mom can keep her perfume on her dresser or throw a rollerball in her purse.
Apotheke Earl Grey Signature Candle: available at Macy’s
With notes of tea and bergamot, this 11-ounce candle will make any room smell like a cozy coffee shop. It is the perfect gift for a tea lover.
iReliev Percussion Massage Gun: available at iReliev
Whether your mom works out or simply works hard, this massage gun promotes blood flow and helps ease tension. It is simple to use and features three levels of intensity.
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Sophia Adamucci 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. | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/mothers-day-gift-guide-2022/ | 2022-04-11T21:58:49 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/reviews/mothers-day-gift-guide-2022/ |
Amber Alert issued in Maryland for missing 12-year-old
(Gray News) - State police in Maryland issued an Amber Alert on Monday for a missing 12-year-old boy.
Maxx Geiger has been missing since April 8. He is described as a 5-foot-3 white male, 120 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
He and the suspect, 35-year-old Christopher Geiger, were last seen in Hampstead, Carroll County, Maryland.
Christopher Geiger is described as a 6-foot-tall white male, 230 pounds, with blonde hair and green eyes.
The child may also be in the Westminster area of Carroll County. They are believed to be traveling in a black 2021 Jeep Wrangler with Maryland plate DV15797.
Anyone with information can contact the Maryland State Police Westminster Barrack at 410-386-3001 or call 911.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/amber-alert-issued-maryland-missing-12-year-old/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:14 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/amber-alert-issued-maryland-missing-12-year-old/ |
More than two years ago, when many offices closed for two weeks — and then two more, and then indefinitely — Kaitlin Soule knew the change in routine would ultimately spell trouble for people with social anxiety.
“I remember thinking at the beginning of the pandemic, this is going to be the worst thing for them,” said Soule, a therapist based in the San Francisco Bay area. She knew that while people with social anxiety initially might be excited about the opportunity to dodge their triggers — busy offices, awkward meetings or conferences swimming with strangers — avoidance would eventually exacerbate their anxiety. “We say in the anxiety world that the more you practice sitting with the uncomfortable, the better you get at it. So, after two years of not practicing, it’s jarring and feels like a big mountain people have to climb to get back to work.”
Indeed, as offices recall workers who were remote during the pandemic, therapists report their clients are talking frequently about social anxiety. That could stem from rustiness at socializing, or even fear about returning with a few extra pounds. “I think a lot of people assumed things would stay remote, and they’re feeling like they’re being thrown to the wolves,” Soule said.
Social anxiety about returning to the office can be quite debilitating. Soule likens it to “the Sunday scaries, but times 10.” Someone might feel overwhelming dread, or ruminate over the same thoughts, she said: “What am I going to wear? How am I going to act? What kind of things am I going to say?” Physically, social anxiety can trigger an increased heart rate, feelings of panic and shortness of breath.
On a Tuesday afternoon in late March, Benjamin Miller, a clinical psychologist and president of the national mental health foundation Well Being Trust, noted that he was feeling anxious while attending his first in-person event since before the pandemic. “It’s totally normal — we’ve been away from people for over two years,” he said. By exposing ourselves to what’s making us nervous, he added, we’ll become “desensitized” and more comfortable with certain situations again. “Last night, after two hours of being around people, I started to remember what it felt like. It was like muscle memory — ‘This is what it’s like to be social.’”
Miller emphasized that employers have a responsibility to make the workplace a safe space for everyone, including those with social anxiety. They can do this, for example, by normalizing in company emails or in discussions the fact that some workers might have trouble interacting at first.
Kati Vilkki, an organizational coach with Nordic technology consultancy Reaktor, suggests companies hold welcome-back gatherings to help colleagues get reacquainted with each other. Those in leadership positions should also identify which staffers are having difficulties and reach out to them to ask what they need and help them make connections. Another idea: scheduling “dialogue sessions,” or facilitated discussions for people to talk about their feelings and needs pertaining to the return to the office.
Though some of the onus is certainly on the employer, experts say there are ways workers experiencing social anxiety can prepare for returning to the office. Here are tips:
• Do a dry run. Drive to your office one afternoon, but don’t go inside. Just weather the feelings it triggers, suggests Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist and president of Barnard College in New York City. “We’re really good at adapting when we practice,” she said. “This is why students take practice tests under timed conditions.”
• Similarly, Soule recommends getting coffee near your office, and then sitting down outside and looking at the building. It’s one small way of approaching your fear instead of running away from it, she said.
Meet up with co-workers before the official return. Beilock suggests grabbing a drink or lunch with your colleagues before your first day back in the office. As she put it: “Why does everything have to be new that first day?” Spending time with your colleagues in advance of returning to the office can help eliminate some of those first-day jitters.
• Talk about it. It can be helpful to confide in someone about how you’re feeling, Miller said: a colleague, close friend or even your manager, if they’re supportive. “The more we talk about it, the more we normalize it, which means the more likely we are to feel better about it.”
• When Francesca Nacu, 27, a senior account executive who’s based in Frederick, Md., first returned to the office, she remembers feeling like a zombie — drained and exhausted from the change in routine. “Talking about it with my friends and colleagues helped me realize that we’re all feeling some level of anxiety about returning to work,” she said. Some of her friends shared that they felt so depleted after being around co-workers all day that they took the next day off. That resonated — Nacu said she’s learned that she “can’t simply jump from 0 percent of my interactions being in person to 100 percent right away.”
If you’re new to the office, find a guide. Lots of people changed jobs during the pandemic and will be heading into offices for the first time. If you’re feeling anxious about meeting your colleagues in-person, reach out to someone you have a connection with and ask them to mentor or guide you that first day, Soule said.
The guide can do such things as facilitate introductions and spend lunch with a newcomer. Knowing you have one friendly face to count on can help temper some of the scariness of being in a new environment.
• Brainstorm conversation starters. If you’re displeased at the idea of once again running into colleagues at the water cooler, “offload some of the work you have to do in the moment” by planning ahead, Beilock said. You might ask people what they’re doing that weekend, how their kids are or how they feel about the return to the office. And remember, Beilock added: “People actually do like to talk about themselves, for the most part.”
• Make your office space comfortable. Bring in something that will remind you of home — maybe the beautiful orchid you keep on your kitchen counter, said Melanie Palmietto, a psychotherapist in New York City. Or perhaps it’s your favorite mug, or some photos of your pandemic puppy. Having reminders of your happy place can help ground you during an anxiety-provoking situation.
• Step outside or take a break in a quiet spot. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, pop outside into the fresh air, Palmietto suggests. Go on a solo coffee run, or find a bench to sit on in a park and practice deep breathing. “It can make such a difference just to breathe and be by yourself and be outside for a second,” she said.
• Plan something you enjoy for after work. The return to the office will be draining, “so make sure you schedule and engage in a relaxing activity,” said Naomi Torres-Mackie, a psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and head of research at the Mental Health Coalition. “Anxiety activates you on a very physical level,” which is why it’s important to calm down — maybe by blocking off an hour to read or watch your favorite sitcom. It will also give you something to look forward to.
Beilock suggests reducing the “cognitive load” around going back to the office by making things as easy as possible at home: Order groceries to be delivered before the week starts, for example, or decide you’ll order out or that the kids will be in charge of dinner one night. That will help you feel like “the bases are covered now that you’re moving into this new environment,” she said — it’s one less thing to worry about.
• Ease back in. If possible, take baby steps back into working in the office, Torres-Mackie suggests. “Go in for smaller chunks,” like a day or two a week, and then slowly ramp up how much time you spend there.”
• With the okay from her company, Nacu, the Maryland-based worker, goes into the office at least once every two weeks and is planning to gradually increase that schedule to once or maybe even twice a week. She urges others to be clear about communicating their preferences to their employer.
Seek professional help. There are two main signs that you need to see a therapist or other mental health provider, Miller said. One is that your social anxiety is interfering with your day-to-day life — if you stop going places, quit exercising or are unable to sleep, for example. The other is the duration of the discomfort: It’s natural to be anxious for the first week or two back, Miller noted, but if those feelings have lasted months, it’s probably time to enlist help.
• Be kind to yourself. If you’re experiencing social anxiety over the return to the office, know that you’re in good company. “We’ve been handed so much uncertainty over the past couple years. Give yourself a lot of grace and patience as you learn how to be in this new world,” Soule said. “As long as you’re moving toward your fear instead of away, you’re doing a great job.” | https://www.unionleader.com/how-to-cope-with-social-anxiety-about-returning-to-the-office/article_6a020fc5-7489-542e-bc14-f242c15518dd.html | 2022-04-11T22:00:20 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/how-to-cope-with-social-anxiety-about-returning-to-the-office/article_6a020fc5-7489-542e-bc14-f242c15518dd.html |
Britney Spears says she is pregnant
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 3:09 PM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
(Gray News) - Britney Spears says she is pregnant with her first child with fiancé, Sam Asghari.
Spears made the announcement in an Instagram post.
“So I got a pregnancy test … and uhhhhh well … I am having a baby,” she said.
Spears also said she “won’t be going out as much” due to the paparazzi.
She opened up about having “horrible” perinatal depression in the past, and that she plans to practice yoga everyday.
Spears has two sons from a previous marriage to Kevin Federline.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/britney-spears-says-she-is-pregnant/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:20 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/britney-spears-says-she-is-pregnant/ |
Jack Higgins, a British thriller writer whose 85 books sold more than a quarter of a billion copies and who had his greatest international success with ″The Eagle Has Landed,” a novel about a fictional Nazi plot to kidnap or assassinate British wartime leader Winston Churchill, died April 9 at his home in Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands between England and France. He was 92.
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of his publisher HarperCollins UK, announced the death but did not provide a cause. Higgins — the best known of the many noms de plume of Henry Patterson — had a nervous system ailment that in recent years interfered with his writing.
Used different pen names
A former soldier turned teacher, Higgins began writing in the evenings under his birth name and over the years used Hugh Marlowe, Martin Fallon and James Graham because he churned out so many novels so fast that no one publisher could print them all in any given year.
“The Eagle Has Landed,” published in 1975, made Jack Higgins a global commodity (Higgins was his mother’s maiden name). One would be hard-pressed to find an airport bookshop anywhere in the world, even in non-English-speaking countries, that doesn’t display a Higgins novel on its shelves. In a statement, Redmayne said that Higgins was known around the publishing house as “The Legend.”
For all its adventurism, “The Eagle Has Landed” also demonstrated Higgins’s ability to remind his readers of moral complexity and cast doubt on who are heroes or villains in individual circumstance — in this case, war.
The book is set in September 1943 when Germany’s war effort, including Hitler’s original intention of invading Britain, is faltering. A group of disguised German paratroopers, aided by an anti-British sympathizer from the Irish Republican Army (IRA), is tasked with trying to kidnap or kill Churchill during his visit to a village in eastern England.
Instant classic
When Higgins wrote his first draft, he said an executive at Collins Publishers was first confused by the title (“he said it sounded like a bird book”). The executive then grew hesitant because the plot seemed too sympathetic toward the German protagonists, showing them as honorable men on a mission they considered justified, and also glorifying the IRA’s anti-British stand. The author, raised for part of his youth amid the sectarian conflicts of Northern Ireland, was keen on exploring the moral and psychological ambiguity of his characters.
But his editor at the time said he viewed it as an “instant classic” and was fully validated after Holt, Rinehart and Winston brought it out in the United States to resounding commercial success. “The Americans had to reprint it once a month for a year to meet demand,” he told Reuters.
“The Eagle Has Landed” went on to sell 50 million books in more than 50 languages and was turned into a 1976 movie starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall and Jenny Agutter.
Higgins reportedly received seven-figure advances for his later work, most of which were impervious to middling reviews. “Too much depends upon likely coincidence,” thriller and mystery reviewer Newgate Callendar wrote in the New York Times of Higgins’s “A Season in Hell” (1989). “But Higgins is a real pro, and he keeps things moving so fast the reader is apt to forget and forgive.”
Such was also the case with his last novel, “The Midnight Bell” (2016). Set in Northern Ireland, its plot involves a former IRA hit man, Sean Dillon, the subject of many of his earlier books, as well as an al-Qaeda terrorist leader, the White House, the CIA, the British government and several subplots. Many readers found the story hard to follow, but it — like so many before it — wound up on the bestseller lists.
Father walked out on him
Henry Patterson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, in northeastern England, on July 27, 1929. His father was a shipyard worker turned racetrack bookmaker from Scotland, while his mother was from Belfast in Northern Ireland.
He was a toddler when his father walked out on the family, and he and his mother moved to her family home in Belfast. Conflict was simmering between pro-British Protestants and Catholics who wanted a united island of Ireland; this was long before the violent “Troubles” that erupted in 1969.
Young Harry, a Protestant, witnessed bombings as well as a gun attack on the streetcar he was riding to school (his mother pulled him to the floor to protect him).
He also recalled that his great uncle, whose name was Jack Higgins, had a drawer full of handguns and would load one, put it in his overcoat and casually tilt his trilby hat in front of the hall mirror before taking young Harry for a walk along Belfast’s Shankill Road.
Flogged by headmaster
When he was 13, his mother remarried and took him to Leeds, England, where he got into trouble by throwing snowballs at his new school’s tower clock. The headmaster told him he would “amount to nothing” and flogged him with a cane. “I was in agony, of course,” he told the Yorkshire Evening Post. “He didn’t just give me six, he gave me nine strokes. But I was buggered if I’d blubber (cry) for him.”
Leaving school at 15 to help support his mother, he took on menial jobs helping erect tents for traveling circuses and working as a fare collector on local street tramcars.
For his compulsory national military service in 1947, he found himself in the British army’s Household Cavalry, a historic combination of regiments, although best known now for its formal role as protectors of the monarch. Higgins gained awards as a sharpshooter.
Military tests showed that he, in fact, had an exceptional IQ, and he was determined to return to school. He received a degree in sociology from the London School of Economics (LSE) and became a schoolteacher. Meanwhile, he was given a battered copy of the F. Scott Fitzgerald masterpiece “The Great Gatsby” and was inspired to try writing.
His first book, “Sad Wind From the Sea” (1959), an adventure story set in China, was published under his given name for a 75-pound advance.
His school pupils were impressed, and, despite modest sales, he was emboldened to continue.
He said that his 1966 novel “A Candle for the Dead,” written as Hugh Marlowe and about an escaped IRA explosives expert, also had underwhelming sales but that the 1967 film version, “The Violent Enemy,” brought in royalties three times his teaching salary. He decided to give up teaching and write full time.
His 1971 novel “The Wrath of God,” about a band of revolutionaries in South America and written as James Graham, brought in even more royalties with a 1972 film starring Robert Mitchum. Later screen adaptations of his work included “A Prayer for the Dying,” which was turned into a 1987 film starring Mickey Rourke as an Irish nationalist.
Higgins’s first marriage, to Amy Hewitt, a fellow LSE student, ended in divorce. In 1985, he married Denise Palmer, a former literary agent. In addition to his wife, survivors include four children from his first marriage. His daughter Sarah Patterson is author of a young-romance novel set against a World War II backdrop, “The Distant Summer” (1976).
Like many Britons who had just become wealthy, Higgins fled England after the British government raised the upper rate of income tax to more than 80% in the late 1970s. He settled on the island of Jersey, which is part of Britain but has lenient offshore tax status. He lived there for the rest of his life, in a mansion he described as “just like Monte Carlo,” writing until the wee hours of the morning before a glass of champagne, a bacon sandwich and bed.
In a 2010 interview with the Guardian, he said: “Yes, it’s been good. I’ve had the chance to do it all. The car, the driver, Beverly Hills, MGM, the movies, the Carson show, Larry King, hanging out with Richard Burton, being waited on by a dwarf in a green jacket in the Polo Lounge . . . the Hollywood dream and the Hollywood weirdness all happened. My son thought it was all a load of pretentious rubbish. He was right, but I thought I’d just enjoy it anyway.” | https://www.unionleader.com/jack-higgins-best-selling-author-of-the-eagle-has-landed-dies-at-92/article_a280d7bf-274e-56ce-b7b3-90aa1af9ad13.html | 2022-04-11T22:00:26 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/jack-higgins-best-selling-author-of-the-eagle-has-landed-dies-at-92/article_a280d7bf-274e-56ce-b7b3-90aa1af9ad13.html |
Ex-officer convicted of storming Capitol to disrupt Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday convicted a former Virginia police officer of storming the U.S. Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of all six counts he faced stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
His sentencing hearing wasn’t immediately scheduled.
Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial, which started last Tuesday. Jurors deliberated for several hours over two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.
A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure. Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Fracker testified Thursday that he had hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
During the trial’s closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Defense attorney Mark Rollins conceded that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he used the stick as a dangerous weapon and that he intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Fracker testified that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress.
Under cross-examination by Rollins, Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Fracker said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson. Wagner said the U.S. Army veteran was using the stick to help him walk because he has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told jurors that Robertson was charged for his actions, not his political beliefs. Wagner also said Robertson should be judged by his actions, not his words.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents.
Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
Robertson’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:27 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ |
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One dead, two injured in Rochester crash on East Circle Drive
ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – As of 2:45 p.m. Monday traffic is backed up because of a deadly crash. Both sides of East Circle Drive NE are blocked. Viola Road is both blocked off as well. Traffic is being diverted.
Rochester Police confirm the crash is fatal. A female driver of one vehicle died at the scene. Her passenger and the other driver were transported to the hospital. The KTTC team on the scene says one of the cars was a gray sedan.
The area remains closed to traffic as of 3:30 p.m.
RPD says a call came in around 1:23 p.m. Forensic mapping and a drone team is on the scene to determine what exactly happened. Witnesses say it was a head-on crash.
Local school buses have been informed this area is blocked off.
Copyright 2022 KTTC. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/fatal-rochester-crash-backs-up-traffic-east-circle-drive/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:35 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/fatal-rochester-crash-backs-up-traffic-east-circle-drive/ |
CONCORD -- Two of six Free Keene activists charged in a Bitcoin-money laundering conspiracy are expected to appear in federal court on Tuesday and plead guilty.
Derry residents Andrew and Renee Spinella have change of plea hearings scheduled before U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Laplante Tuesday morning.
In March 2021, the FBI arrested the Spinellas and four others on charges involving wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Authorities allege that Free Keene activist Ian Freeman, the Spinellas and three others operated a wide-ranging, no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange. They are accused of charging high dollar-to-cryptocurrency exchange rates to scammers and others engaged in criminal activities.
"I don't know what they have to say," said Freeman's lawyer, veteran New Hampshire criminal defense attorney Mark Sisti. He acknowledged that sometimes people charged with conspiracy will plead guilty and agree to testify in exchange for lenient sentencing.
But also, people will sometimes plead guilty without any such cooperation.
When defendants have resolved a case, they are much more approachable because they have fewer Fifth Amendment concerns about self-incrimination, he said.
Sisti plans to attend the hearing Tuesday morning in U.S. District Court to pick up on any details.
Another key date is April 25, the deadline the prosecutors face for filing any superceding indictments. Sisti has a deadline in July to file any challenges to evidence.
He said he hopes to go to trial before the end of the year.
"We're ready to go. It's a unique case, very interesting case," he said.
Three others were arrested with the Spinellas and Freeman: Aria DiMezzo, a former Republican candidate for Cheshire County sheriff; Nobody, who is formally known as Rich Paul; and Colleen Fordham. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/two-expected-to-plead-guilty-in-free-keene-bitcoin-conspiracy-case/article_95a22d0f-9d6e-5d4d-8f76-1585c3f1b298.html | 2022-04-11T22:00:38 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/courts/two-expected-to-plead-guilty-in-free-keene-bitcoin-conspiracy-case/article_95a22d0f-9d6e-5d4d-8f76-1585c3f1b298.html |
Florida teen said she was being followed on the way to school before disappearing, police say
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (Gray News) – Police in Florida are searching for a missing 15-year-old girl who told her friend she was being followed on her way to school Monday morning.
Port St. Lucie police said Saige Stiles was last seen walking to school but never arrived to class.
While walking to school, she was on the phone with a friend and said she was being followed. Her friend called 911.
Officers searched the area where Stiles was walking and found her backpack and cell phone on the sidewalk.
Police recovered home surveillance footage that showed Stiles walking between homes in the neighborhood, and they said she did not appear to be in any immediate danger or distress at the time.
Police said they have spoken with Stiles’ friend and father, who are cooperating with the investigation.
Stiles is 5 feet 5 inches tall, 120 pounds, and has brown hair. She was last seen wearing jeans and a long-sleeved gray shirt.
If you have any information, please call 911.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/florida-teen-said-she-was-being-followed-way-school-before-disappearing-police-say/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:41 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/florida-teen-said-she-was-being-followed-way-school-before-disappearing-police-say/ |
An environmental group has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Manchester-based Nylon Corp. of America has violated the Clean Water Act and other water pollution laws.
A complaint filed in U.S. District Court last week by the Conservation Law Foundation alleges the Nylon Corporation has been dumping too-hot water from its heat exchanges into the Merrimack River, and letting zinc, oil and other chemicals, and plastic pellets and dust wash into the river.
Nylon did not respond to a request for comment Saturday. According to the complaint, Nylon pulls water from the Merrimack River to cool equipment in its Sundial Avenue manufacturing facility, and then pumps water from its heat exchanges back into the river.
The complaint states Nylon is not supposed to release water warmer than 83 degrees into the river, but the complaint alleges that at least six times since the summer of 2018, the plant has released water above that temperature limit — from 84 to 87 degrees. Nylon has discharged water with higher concentrations of zinc, the complaint alleges, and has not submitted required monitoring reports to the the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration.
The complaint also alleges plastic pellets and plastic dust, as well as fuel oil and other chemicals, have been spilled and trickled into culverts, and washed into the Merrimack River.
The Conservation Law Foundation is asking the federal court to impose fines for violations of the Clean Water Act and other water-pollution laws.
The allegations that Nylon released overheated water into the river are similar to those against the Merrimack Station, the coal-fired power plant in Bow run by Granite Shore Power, in a 2019 suit brought by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club.
Earlier this year, a judge ruled that lawsuit could move forward.
The March 2019 suit claims releasing heated water violates the terms of the plant’s EPA license because it blocks the zone of fish passage, changes indigenous populations, and has substantial contact with surrounding shorelines.
In his ruling in January, Judge Joseph Laplante said testimony from experts convinced him that enough material facts are in dispute that the case can move forward. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/environment/environmental-group-suing-nylon-corp-over-releasing-too-hot-water-pollutants-into-merrimack-river/article_e2de09cd-1b96-5189-a414-654005b6ab49.html | 2022-04-11T22:00:44 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/environment/environmental-group-suing-nylon-corp-over-releasing-too-hot-water-pollutants-into-merrimack-river/article_e2de09cd-1b96-5189-a414-654005b6ab49.html |
Johnson acknowledges his company, others benefited from law
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told backers at a recent event in Wisconsin that his plastics company benefitted from a key provision he pushed for in former President Donald Trump’s tax bill in 2017, addressing a line of attack being made against him during his reelection bid
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson told backers at a recent event in Wisconsin that his plastics company benefitted from a key provision he pushed for in former President Donald Trump’s tax bill in 2017, addressing a line of attack being made against him during his reelection bid.
Johnson made the comments in reaction to a question from an audience member at an event Friday in Medford, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday.
Johnson said that his company, Pacur LLC, some of his prominent donors and many other businesses benefitted from the small-business tax provision.
“Now, did my business benefit? Sure. Did some of my donor businesses? Sure. When you give tax relief to everybody, everybody benefits,” Johnson said. The Journal Sentinel posted audio of the interaction.
“So they want to make it sound like I carved out some loophole for a couple of people," Johnson said in reference to attack ads on the issue. "What I did is I made sure that 95% of American businesses weren’t left behind in tax reform. I’m really proud of that achievement.”
Johnson is seeking a third term in November. Nearly a dozen Democrats are running for a chance to take him on in a seat that could determine majority control of the Senate.
ProPublica reported in August that the tax break Johnson championed resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in deductions to megadonors who funded his campaigns.
Johnson’s campaign spokesman, Jake Wilkins, said the audio “is exactly what Senator Johnson has said in public and private for years."
“Despite strong opposition, he secured tax relief for more than 90% of U.S. businesses who benefited from it after it became law," Wilkins said. "It is a gross distortion to imply his tax cuts were a special deal for a few. His tax cuts benefited the many.”
Johnson, in his comments at the Friday meeting, criticized the “distorted attack ads” that have run against him.
“They said I doubled my wealth,” he said. “That’s true.”
Johnson explained that after he got elected in 2010, he took all of his “marketable securities” and placed them in cash so that he would have no conflicts.
He said the reason his wealth doubled is that he sold his business.
“I sat on cash,” he said. “I’m still sitting on cash. I knew during the COVID recession that this was a good time to invest in the stock market. I didn’t. I stayed invested in, I’ve just got cash, OK.”
He added: “I’m not asking anybody to feel sorry for me.” | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/johnson-acknowledges-his-company-others-benefited-law/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:47 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/johnson-acknowledges-his-company-others-benefited-law/ |
What began as a North Country effort that went statewide has resulted in more than 100 body-armor vests and a number of helmets headed to Ukraine to provide protection to emergency responders and frontline personnel as they work to defend their country from the invasion by Russia.
Struck by the horrors of Russia’s unprovoked, illegal Feb. 24 full-scale military attack upon Ukraine, John Scarinza, who is a deputy sheriff with the Coos County Sheriff’s Office and the retired commander of State Police Troop F, which covers all of Coos and much of Grafton counties, thought about what he could do to help Ukraine.
Scarinza realized he had two used body-armor vests in a closet at his home in Randolph and that led to his reaching out to other law-enforcement agencies, including his current employer, which not only donated old body armor but also served as an aggregator for similar donations.
The collection ended April 6 and representatives of the Coos County Sheriff’s Office transported the equipment to Concord, where the California National Guard picked it up for delivery to Ukraine.
In total, “the Coos County Sheriff’s Office transported 74 slightly used and several new but expired ballistic vests which were collected in Coos, parts of Grafton and Sullivan counties,” said Scarinza in an April 9 email.
Thanks to publicity about the collection, Scarinza said “An additional 16 tactical vests in very good condition were also contributed by the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and additional vests from the Claremont police department also made their way to Concord. That makes the total number of vests that were collected and delivered at over 100 as a part of the effort which started in Coos County.”
Eight tactical-ballistic helmets were also donated, he said, and will be shipped to Ukraine.
The total amount of body armor that is ultimately going from New Hampshire to Ukraine may be larger than he reported, Scarinza said, because other law enforcement agencies throughout the state did their own collections, information about which he did not immediately have knowledge.
“Suffice it to say that once the word got out throughout the state, many law enforcement officers, current or retired, searched the recesses of their equipment closets and found expired but serviceable ballistic vests which could be repurposed for the military conflict in Ukraine, and for everyone that participated they should be proud of the effort to make this happen,” said Scarinza.
He thanked “each and every active and retired law-enforcement officer who participated in the mission” and also expressed gratitude to the media for their coverage of the body-armor collection. Scarinza noted that in Sullivan County, Key Chevrolet-Buick-GMC of Newport paid to have public service announcements on the radio.
Body armor, according to Scarinza and Coos County Sheriff Brian Valerino, has a shelf life determined by its manufacturer, and if used after its “best-by-date” may create a liability for the issuing agency.
That said, both men agreed that even old, used body armor is better than none in the Ukraine.
“As I said in the beginning of this effort, if only one life is saved, or one serious bodily injury of a first responder avoided because they were wearing a repurposed ballistic vest from New Hampshire, the effort will certainly have been worth it,” Scarinza summed up. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/more-than-100-body-armor-vests-collected-in-north-country-and-statewide-are-on-the/article_29c82006-46c3-5379-ad8d-521f5019267e.html | 2022-04-11T22:00:50 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/human_interest/more-than-100-body-armor-vests-collected-in-north-country-and-statewide-are-on-the/article_29c82006-46c3-5379-ad8d-521f5019267e.html |
President Joe Biden hugs gun violence victim Mia Tretta during an event to announce measures by his administration to fight ghost gun crime at the White House, in Washington, U.S., April 11, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
President Joe Biden hugs gun violence victim Mia Tretta during an event to announce measures by his administration to fight ghost gun crime at the White House, in Washington, U.S., April 11, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
KEVIN LAMARQUE
Parts of a ghost gun kit are on display at an event held by President Joe Biden to announce measures to fight ghost gun crime.
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden unveiled a new rule to rein in so-called ghost guns and ban the manufacturing of the untraceable firearms on Monday as the administration faces growing pressure to crack down on gun deaths and violent crime in the United States.
Ghost guns are privately made firearms that are not marked with a serial number and are difficult for law enforcement to trace when used to commit a crime.
The Department of Justice's final rule has been making its way through the federal regulation process for nearly a year and is likely to draw opposition and litigation from gun advocates in the coming weeks.
"These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals," Biden said during an event in the White House Rose Garden. "We're going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice."
The rule would make it illegal for businesses to manufacture such kits without a serial number and for a licensed gun dealer to sell them without a background check, Biden said.
The rule is part of a series of measures announced by Biden and the Justice Department in April last year to tackle growing gun violence in the United States and curb mass shootings.
In 2021, there were about 20,000 suspected ghost guns reported to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) as having been recovered by law enforcement in criminal investigations -- a tenfold increase from 2016, according to statistics shared by the White House.
The Justice Department rule bans unserialized "buy build shoot" kits that individuals can buy online or at a store without a background check and can readily assemble into a working firearm in as little as 30 minutes with equipment they have at home. It also turns some ghost guns already in circulation into serialized firearms.
Gun deaths increased in 2021 over 2020, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
In 2021 there were 20,726 gun deaths in the United States, not counting suicides by gun, the group reported. This included 693 mass shootings, defined by four or more people being shot, and claimed 702 lives and injured more than 2,800 people, the group reported.
Biden also nominated Steve Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney from Ohio, to run ATF. | https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/biden-cracks-down-on-ghost-guns-with-new-rule-to-tackle-gun-violence/article_2e8a7f4d-b2c1-5346-90a9-7d5aed16842f.html | 2022-04-11T22:00:56 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/news/national/biden-cracks-down-on-ghost-guns-with-new-rule-to-tackle-gun-violence/article_2e8a7f4d-b2c1-5346-90a9-7d5aed16842f.html |
Judge dismisses lawsuit over Dane County Jail death
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died from a drug overdose in the Dane County Jail
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died from a drug overdose in the Dane County Jail.
U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled there was not enough evidence to put the case in front a jury.
The lawsuit was filed two years ago by the family of 37-year-old Shannon Payne, who overdosed in 2016 on what was said to be heroin that had been smuggled into the jail.
“In granting summary judgment to the defendants, the court in no way means to diminish the tragic events surrounding Payne’s overdose and death,” Conley wrote. “Of course, it is awful that heroin was smuggled into the jail, and as a matter of public policy, the jail should do all it can to restrict, if not eliminate, the presence of any unauthorized drugs within its walls.”
Conley said lawyers for Payne’s family failed to present sufficient evidence that would support the finding that Payne’s constitutional rights were violated or that the county was somehow liable, the State Journal reported.
According to court documents, Payne went into a restroom at the jail with another inmate, where both apparently used drugs. Payne suffered an overdose in the bathroom and was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later.
Defendants, which included Dane County and then-Sheriff Dave Mahoney, maintained it was not known when the drugs Payne took were smuggled into the jail, who smuggled them in and how, and whether Payne or the other inmate had possessed the drugs that were used in the bathroom. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-over-dane-county-jail-death/ | 2022-04-11T22:00:56 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-over-dane-county-jail-death/ |
Legalizing medical marijuana gets first public hearing
A Republican-authored bill to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin will be getting its first public hearing next week, achieving one goal of backers even though the measure will not pass this year
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Republican-authored bill to legalize medical marijuana in Wisconsin will be getting its first public hearing next week, achieving one goal of backers and the latest sign of progress for those who want to loosen the state’s laws.
The bill won't become law this year because Legislature has adjourned and won't be back until 2023. But the April 20 Senate committee hearing on the medical marijuana bill will give supporters their highest profile chance to make the case for loosening Wisconsin's marijuana laws.
Thirty-seven states have legalized medical marijuana and 18 have fully legalized it, including Illinois and Michigan. Wisconsin’s other two neighbors, Iowa and Minnesota, allow medical marijuana.
“I want to encourage every Wisconsinite who has an interest in this to come engage in the process, share your perspective, and learn about the bill,” said the measure's sponsor, Republican Sen. Mary Felzkowski, of Tomahawk, in a statement Monday announcing the hearing.
“Whether you think the bill goes too far, or not far enough, what’s important is that we all come together to have an open, honest and respectful discussion about moving this idea forward,” she said.
Felzkowski also chairs the Senate committee on insurance, licensing and forestry that will be holding the hearing. The Legislature's largest hearing room was reserved for the hearing.
Democratic Sen. Melissa Agard, the chief proponent for full legalization, said holding a hearing on the bill after the Legislature had adjourned was “a cynical political ploy that gives people false hope about the prospects of this legislation."
Agard said she was encouraged that people will have a chance to testify, but she was disappointed it didn't happen while the Legislature was in session.
“Sadly, Republicans are all talk and no action when it comes to legalization efforts in Wisconsin," she said.
This session in Wisconsin there were bills from Democrats and Republicans that would legalize medical marijuana, from Democrats that would also legalize it for recreational use, and a bipartisan measure that would decriminalize the possession of marijuana.
All of those measures died when the Republican-controlled Legislature adjourned its session in February.
But the hearing next week will bring new attention to the issue and perhaps provide momentum for next session. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has voiced support for medical marijuana, while Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu has said legalization is a federal issue.
Felzkowski introduced the same medical marijuana bill last session but it died without a hearing.
She has said the proposal was written in a limited way — it doesn’t allow for smoking medical marijuana, for example — in order to gain support from Republican lawmakers. The Democratic medical marijuana bill would have allowed for smoking it.
“Medicine is never one-size-fits-all, and it’s time for Wisconsin to have the conversation on adding this additional option which may help patients find the relief they need,” Felzkowski said. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/legalizing-medical-marijuana-gets-first-public-hearing/ | 2022-04-11T22:01:03 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/legalizing-medical-marijuana-gets-first-public-hearing/ |
Strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible Tuesday night
Mainly after 8 p.m. for SE Minnesota
ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Last week was Severe Weather Awareness week and Minnesota and now this week we are tracking a chance of strong to severe thunderstorms Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning.
Here’s what you need to know:
The severe weather outlook for northern Iowa is a threat level 3 out of 5 (for areas in red) Tuesday evening. Right now, this appears to be the greatest threat of strong winds and tornadoes. Thunderstorms will develop west of I-35 around 5-8 p.m. Tuesday. They’ll race to the east-northeast as a long line of storms develops along a frontal boundary after 8 p.m. Storms should approach Hwy-52 after 9 p.m. The threat level for most of SE Minnesota is a level 2 out of 5 with the main threats of strong winds and large hail. Isolated tornadoes will still be possible in areas in orange as this line moves out of our area.
Don’t forget you can download the FREE KTTC Weather Authority App! You can get instant notifications for severe weather alerts and we send push alerts when we have new forecast data!
Temperatures behind this week’s weather-maker will take a nose dive. Highs will return to the upper 30s Thursday and Friday with strong northwesterly winds. Highs will stay around 10-15 degrees below average for the upcoming weekend. Highs will be in the lower 40s with partly sunny skies. Lows will take a nose dive too this week. Overnight lows will drop well below freezing in the middle and lower 20s.
Stay weather-aware Tuesday night!
Nick
Copyright 2022 KTTC. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/strong-severe-thunderstorms-will-be-possible-tuesday-night/ | 2022-04-11T22:01:11 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/strong-severe-thunderstorms-will-be-possible-tuesday-night/ |
Two winners to land free tuition at Iowa community college
MASON CITY, Iowa (KTTC) – North Iowa Area Community College wants those 23 and older to apply for what it’s calling an ‘Extreme Makeover.’ It’s the 16th year NIACC has provided this opportunity for a couple adult students to return to college at no cost.
Two winners will receive an entire year of free tuition, textbooks and more. Additionally, three other finalists will win half-price tuition to NIACC for the 2022-23 academic year.
To enter this year’s contest, simply fill out the online form and tell why you need or deserve an educational makeover. If you’re at least 23 years old and haven’t taken a NIACC credit class in the past three years, you’re eligible to apply for Extreme Makeover: College Edition. For contest rules and to enter the Extreme Makeover: College Edition, call 1-888-GO NIACC or visit www.niacc.edu/admissions/extreme-makeover.
Entries must be received by noon on April 24th.
Copyright 2022 KTTC. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/two-winners-land-free-tuition-iowa-community-college/ | 2022-04-11T22:01:18 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/two-winners-land-free-tuition-iowa-community-college/ |
Your personality can either protect or age your brain, study says
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 4:15 PM CDT|Updated: 45 minutes ago
(CNN) – Worry less now and your brain will stay healthy longer.
A new study shows people who worry more, lack self-discipline and are introverted are more likely to develop cognitive decline earlier in life.
It also applies to a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The study examined the personality traits of nearly 2,000 people.
It found being socially engaged with others could buy you an extra year of living without dementia.
If you keep anxiety at bay and stay organized and goal-oriented, it can get you two years of healthy cognitive function.
The study was published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ | 2022-04-11T22:01:24 | 1 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ |
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By DAVID A. LIEB
UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S., sales of window coverings at Halcyon Shades quickly went dark. So the suburban St. Louis business did what hundreds of other small manufacturers did: It pivoted to make protective supplies, with help from an $870,000 government grant.
But things haven’t worked out as planned. The company quit making face shields because it wasn’t profitable. It still hasn’t sold a single N95 mask because of struggles to get equipment, materials and regulatory approval.
“So far, it has been a net drain of funds and resources and energy,” Halcyon Shades owner Jim Schmersahl said.
Many companies that began producing personal protective equipment with patriotic optimism have scaled back, shut down or given up, according to an Associated Press analysis based on numerous interviews with manufacturers. Some already have sold equipment they bought with state government grants.
As COVID-19 was stressing hospitals and shuttering businesses in 2020, elected officials touted the need to boost U.S. production of protective gear. Yet many manufacturers who answered the call have faced logistical hurdles, regulatory rejections, slumping demand and fierce competition from foreign suppliers. After the initial scramble for PPE subsided, many industry newcomers had difficulty selling products.
“At the end of the day, when everybody said they wanted American-made, nobody’s buying, not even the state,” said Tony Blogumas, vice president of Green Resources Consulting, a rural Missouri firm that received an $800,000 state grant but has sold only a few thousand masks. “We’re kind of upset about the whole situation.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson also is disappointed. His administration divided $20 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds among 48 businesses for the production of masks, gowns, sanitizer and other supplies. Parson hoped to seed a permanent field of manufacturers.
“I’m still a firm believer in that — that we need to be making PPE here in this state,” Parson said. “Unfortunately, a lot of entities went right back to where they were getting it before.”
The onset of the pandemic revealed that the U.S. was highly dependent on foreign countries for protective gear. When China limited exports because of its own battle against COVID-19, U.S. stockpiles plummeted. Prices skyrocketed as federal officials, governors and health care systems competed for supplies.
Though federal stockpiles have been replenished, shriveling domestic production has raised concerns that state governments, medical facilities and others could again get stuck scrambling for gear during a future pandemic.
The AP identified more than $125 million in grants to spur production of pandemic supplies made to over 300 business in 10 states — Alabama, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York and Ohio. It’s possible that grants were awarded in additional states, but there is no central clearinghouse to track them.
In November 2020, Alabama awarded one of the single largest grants — nearly $10.6 million from federal pandemic relief funds — to HomTex Inc. The company was to equip a new Selma facility to make 250 million surgical masks and 45 million N95 masks annually. The plant has yet to make anything due to a lack of customers.
“I can’t produce product that I can’t sell,” HomTex President Jeremy Wootten said.
Some PPE manufacturers point to federal regulations as part of the reason for their struggles. Three-ply masks need FDA approval to be marketed for medical use — an important designation for building a long-term customer base. Companies need approval from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to market products as N95 respirators, which filter at least 95% of airborne particles.
During the first two years of the pandemic, NIOSH approved 30 new manufacturers — more than seven times the typical number during a similar pre-pandemic period, according to agency data. Some applications remain pending, while numerous others were denied.
Halcyon Shades’ N95 certification was rejected in October because its samples didn’t have head straps attached. While the company works on another application, its equipment sits idle, with partially finished masks paused on a conveyor belt.
Without federal approval, “we’re just dead in the water,” said Schmersahl, the company owner.
Progress reports filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development show that nearly all its PPE grant recipients faced challenges by July 2021, especially with sales.
Ohio awarded $20.8 million to 73 businesses to manufacture pandemic-related supplies, according to state data. Of 60 businesses that complied with a recent reporting deadline, more than one-third no longer produced PPE by the end of 2021.
Dozens of businesses banded together to form the American Mask Manufacturer’s Association with the goal of sustaining the industry. But the group’s membership has dwindled as more and more go out of business.
Association organizers say the industry has reached a critical point. They want the federal government to treat PPE manufacturers like the nation’s defense industry — entering into long-term contracts to perpetually replenish a stockpile for future pandemics or emergencies.
“If the federal government doesn’t come in and help support the U.S. manufacturing base, it’s almost certainly going to go back to China, and we’ll be just as vulnerable as we were in early 2020 and 2019,” said Brent Dillie, the association chairman and co-founder of Premium-PPE, a Virginia manufacturer started during the pandemic that has shed about two-thirds of its roughly 300 employees. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/efforts-to-make-protective-medical-gear-in-us-falling-flat-2/ | 2022-04-11T22:07:41 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/efforts-to-make-protective-medical-gear-in-us-falling-flat-2/ |
By DAVID PORTER
AVENEL, N.J. (AP) — The familiar sights and sounds are still there: the scuffed and faded floor tiles, the relentless beige-on-beige color scheme, the toddlers’ clothes and refrigerators and pretty much everything in between.
There’s even a canned recording that begins, “Attention, Kmart shoppers” — except it’s to remind folks about COVID-19 precautions, not to alert them to a flash sale over in ladies’ lingerie like days of old.
Many of the shelves are bare, though, at the Kmart in Avenel, New Jersey, picked over by bargain hunters as the store prepares to close its doors for good April 16.
Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the U.S. — once well over 2,000 — will be down to three in the continental U.S. and a handful of stores elsewhere, according to multiple reports, in a retail world now dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.
The demise of the the store in the middle-class suburb, 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of New York City, is the tale of the death of the discount department store writ small.
“You’re always thinking about it because stores are closing all over, but it’s still sad,” said cashier Michelle Yavorsky, who said she has worked at the Avenel store for 2 ½ years. “I’ll miss the place. A lot of people shopped here.”
In its heyday, Kmart sold product lines endorsed by celebrities Martha Stewart and Jaclyn Smith, sponsored NASCAR auto races and was mentioned in movies including “Rain Man” and “Beetlejuice.” It was name-dropped in songs by artists from Eminem to the Beastie Boys to Hall & Oates; in 2003, Eminem bought a 29-room, suburban Detroit mansion once owned by former Kmart chairman Chuck Conaway.
The chain cemented a place in American culture with its Blue Light Specials, a flashing blue orb affixed to a pole that would beckon shoppers to a flash sale in progress. Part of its success was due to its early adoption of layaway programs, which allowed customers who lacked credit to reserve items and pay for them in installments.
For a time, Kmart had a little bit of everything: You could shop for your kids’ back-to-school supplies, get your car tuned up and grab a meal without leaving the premises.
“Kmart was part of America,” said Michael Lisicky, a Baltimore-based author who has written several books on U.S. retail history. “Everybody went to Kmart, whether you liked it or not. They had everything. You had toys. You had sporting goods. You had candy. You had stationery. It was something for everybody. This was almost as much of a social visit as it was a shopping visit. You could spend hours here. And these just dotted the American landscape over the years.”
Kmart’s decline has been slow but steady, brought about by years of falling sales, changes in shopping habits and the looming shadow of Walmart, which coincidentally began its life within months of Kmart’s founding in 1962.
Struggling to compete with Walmart’s low prices and Target’s trendier offerings, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2002 — becoming the largest U.S. retailer to take that step — and announced it would close more than 250 stores.
A few years later, hedge fund executive Edward Lampert combined Sears and Kmart and pledged to return them to their former greatness, but the recession and the rising dominance of Amazon contributed in derailing those goals. Sears filed for Chapter 11 in 2018 and currently has a handful of stores left in the U.S. where it once had thousands.
Kmarts continue to operate in Westwood, New Jersey; Bridgehampton, on New York’s Long Island, and Miami.
It didn’t have to end this way, according to Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia University in New York and former CEO of Sears Canada. Trying to compete with Walmart on price was a foolish strategy, he said, and Lampert was criticized for not having a retail background and appearing more interested in stripping off the assets of the two chains for their cash value.
“It’s a study in greed, avarice and incompetence,” Cohen said. “Sears should have never gone away; Kmart was in worse shape, but not fatally so. And now they’re both gone.
“Retailers fall by the wayside sometimes because they’re selling things people don’t want to buy,” he continued. “In the case of Kmart, everything they used to sell, people are buying but they’re buying it from Walmart and Target.”
Transformco, which owns Kmart and Sears, did not respond to an email seeking comment and a phone number listed for the company was not taking messages.
Nationwide, some former Kmarts remain vacant while others have been replaced by other big-box stores, fitness centers, self-storage facilities, even churches. One former site in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is now a popular dine-in movie theater.
Employees at the Kmart in Avenel found out last month that the store would close.
Unlike 20 years ago, when news of impending Kmart closures around the country prompted an outpouring of support from loyal shoppers and a Detroit radio station even mounted a campaign to try and save a local store, the closing of the Avenel location was met mostly with an air of resignation.
“It’s maybe a little nostalgic because I’ve lived my whole life in this area, but it’s just another retail store closing,” said Jim Schaber, a resident of nearby Iselin who said his brother worked in the shoe department at Kmart for years. “It’s just another sign of people doing online shopping and not going out to the retail stores.”
The closing packed a little more of an emotional punch for Mike Jerdonek, a truck driver who recalled shopping at Kmart in Brooklyn and Queens in his younger days.
“It’s like history passing right in front of our eyes,” he said as he sat in his car outside the Avenel store. “When I was younger I didn’t have any money, so it was a good place to shop because the prices were cheap. And to see it gone right now, it’s kind of sad.” | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/once-a-retail-giant-kmart-nears-extinction-after-closure/ | 2022-04-11T22:07:47 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/once-a-retail-giant-kmart-nears-extinction-after-closure/ |
Rapper Pitbull – aka Mr. Worldwide – will headline the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on Aug. 28.
Tickets are priced from $84 to $39 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Etix or by calling 800-514-3849. Australian rapper Iggy Azalea, who was briefly popular in 2014 thanks to her hits “Fancy” and “Black Widow,” opens.
Born Armando Perez to Cuban immigrants, the 41-year-old Pitbull began recording in 2004, but his career didn’t truly take off until 2008’s “Krazy,” the first of a string of hits that include “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho),” “Hey Baby (Drop it to the Floor),” “Don’t Stop the Party,” “Feel This Moment,” “Timber” and “Time of Our Lives.”
He’s also a popular guest artist and has collaborated with Usher (“DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love”), Jennifer Lopez (“On the Floor,” “Dance Again,” “Booty”) and Enrique Iglesias (“I Like It”).
Over the past 15 years, Pitbull has performed a handful of local concerts, including last year’s KDWB Jingle Ball, Twin Cities Summer Jam in 2019 and Mystic Amphitheater in 2018. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/rapper-pitbull-added-to-minnesota-state-fair-grandstand-lineup/ | 2022-04-11T22:07:53 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/rapper-pitbull-added-to-minnesota-state-fair-grandstand-lineup/ |
Authorities on Monday identified the motorist killed Saturday in a single-vehicle wreck in Burnsville as Sydney Nicole Kohner, a 16-year-old Lakeville North High sophomore who was a passenger.
Two others in the car with Kohner were severely injured in the crash, which happened around 6:30 a.m. near Nicollet Boulevard and Grand Avenue, Burnsville police said. Kohner died at the scene of multiple blunt-force injuries, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said.
Police said Saturday officers responded to a noise complaint at the Best Western Premier Nicollet Inn when they saw three people getting into a car and fleeing the parking lot at a high rate of speed. Officers found the car crashed less than a mile from the hotel.
A city spokesperson said Monday that it appeared to officers at the scene Monday that the car had rolled.
The driver and other passenger were taken to Hennepin County Medical Center with severe injuries, said police, who have yet to identify them.
“With deep sadness, we are writing to share some difficult news,” Principal Kim Budde said wrote in an email to families on Sunday. “We have been notified by law enforcement that Sydney Kohner, a sophomore student at our school passed away as a result of a single vehicle crash that occurred yesterday in Burnsville. Our hearts are with the Kohner family. We know that this is an incredibly challenging time for our students, staff, and community.”
A statement on Monday by Lakeville Area Schools said the high school is responding to “student needs in this time of grief.”
“We extend our deepest sympathy to the Kohner family,” the statement read. “This is an especially difficult time for our Lakeville North students and staff, and our community as a whole.”
Grief and mental health resources, including grief counselors, are being made available to support students, the school district said.
The Minnesota State Patrol is assisting police with the accident investigation. | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/teen-killed-in-weekend-car-wreck-idd-as-lakeville-high-sophomore/ | 2022-04-11T22:07:59 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/04/11/teen-killed-in-weekend-car-wreck-idd-as-lakeville-high-sophomore/ |
Scottie Scheffler walked off the 18th green Sunday at Augusta National as a first-time Masters winner, but it’s become a regular occurrence for his caddie.
Ted Scott, who spent 15 years caddying for two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, has now been on the winning bag in three of the last 11 Masters.
After so long with Watson, how did Scott suddenly wind up looping for the current world No. 1? Watson admitted after Sunday’s final round at the Masters that he dealt with a wrist injury throughout much of 2021, which led him to call Scott this past fall and discuss what the future looked like for both of them.
“I said, look, man, I'm 43 years old. I don't know what I'm going to do,” Watson said. “My wrist is killing me. He is like he needs ten more years, and I gave him — I felt like a nice retirement package when we split up, but we split up mutually.”
After the split from Watson, Scott planned to go into teaching. He’s reportedly a plus-4 handicap, who tried his hand on mini tours and has experience coaching.
Then came the call from Scheffler.
After a long conversation, Scott decided the two would be a good fit and agreed to get back inside the ropes. Safe to say it’s worked out well for the long-time caddie.
Watson has watched his former caddie have an incredible run of success early in his time with Scheffler, and it sounds like the shot-shaping lefty is happy the two have gotten off to such a great start.
“We're still great friends,” Watson said. “We hang out. We played practice rounds together a couple of tournaments ago. Very thankful and awesome for a friend of mine to have a great bag like that, right? He can now teach another young kid hopefully leadership like he taught me for, what, 15 years.” | https://www.golfchannel.com/news/bubba-watson-happy-former-caddie-ted-scott-who-he-calls-great-friend | 2022-04-11T22:10:25 | 1 | https://www.golfchannel.com/news/bubba-watson-happy-former-caddie-ted-scott-who-he-calls-great-friend |
From the opening tee shot by the honorary starters, to the green jacket ceremony and everything in-between, the Masters never fails to deliver indelible moments.
Here's seven shots — and one unforgettable moment — that helped make the 86th Masters one to remember:
Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa go out with a bang
The two multiple-major champions were grouped together Sunday, each playing with a best-ball mentality. On the 72nd hole, they both found themselves in the right greenside bunker. McIlroy holed out for birdie — finishing his day with a 64 that tied the lowest final-round score in Masters history — and then Morikawa matched it.
McIlroy said it was the happiest "I've ever been on a golf course right there," while Morikawa called the moment "the coolest thing in the world. " With what they both have accomplished in their careers, those are significant words.
Stewart Cink's hole-in-one
Though Cink missed the cut shortly after his heroics, he didn't leave Augusta empty-handed. In Round 2, Cink stepped onto the par-3 16th's tee box, took out his 8-iron and then holed the 24th ace on No. 16 in Masters history.
"This golf course and the tournament, it's just a wonderful environment anyway," he said. "So to have something like that happen was really something I'll always remember for sure."
But there's another component to the moment that made it even more memorable. It made for the perfect gift as Cink had his son, Reagan, whose 25th birthday was Friday, on the bag.
"That's the extent of my birthday present. I gave him the ball," Stewart Cink said. "That should be enough, right?"
Bubba Watson's blast from the past
A decade since his iconic rope-hook from the pine straw in a playoff to win his first of two Masters, Watson found himself deep in the pine straw once again, but this time on the par-4 18th. With 171 yards to the hole, below an umbrage of trees, Watson, with a pitching wedge, hit his ball flawlessly through the gap leaving it just feet from the cup. Although it didn't lead to him donning the green jacket, as it did 10 years ago, Watson felt very strongly after the latest version of Bubba Golf.
"I'll be honest, not that you want to know, but that was the best shot I've ever hit at Augusta National," he said, "that one right there."
Charl Schwartzel's eagle en route to his best finish of 2022
Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, came to Augusta ranked last on Tour in strokes gained: total statistic. However, he became a surprise contender and his best moment happened in Round 3. On the par-4 10th, with 136 yards to the hole, the South African holed-out for eagle to move into second place a 6 under.
Schwartzel, now ranked 131st in the world, finished T-10 and made his first cut since November.
"Overall, it was probably the best week I've had this year," he said.
Hudson Swafford loses club head on Amen Corner in Round 2
Swafford at first — and still — probably wouldn't characterize this as his favorite moment from his week at Augusta National, especially being as confused as anyone right after the head went flying on his second shot at the par-5 13th.
But from a viewer's standpoint, it made for one of the best viral, in-between moments of the tournament. And making the club malfunction even more notable was the fact that the ball flew the full 235 yards and then some. The ball ran through the green and into a back bunker, from where he eventually made par.
Also, PXG quickly made sure that Swafford's bag was full for the weekend, too.
Scottie Scheffler's chip-in Sunday on No. 3
Scottie Scheffler's 54-hole lead was cut from three to one after Cam Smith opened the final round with consecutive birdies. And on the par-4 third, it appeared Scheffler was starting to unravel after he hooked his drive into the pine straw.
Things didn't look better for Scheffler after he left his approach short of the elevated green. But with his main goal "just to get up-and-down," the world No. 1 had the signature moment of his win, holing his chip for birdie.
It was reminiscent of Phil Mickelson's iconic bunker shot on Kiawah Island's fifth hole in last year's PGA Championship. Trying to fend off Brooks Koepka early, Mickelson, with a one-stroke lead, holed out for birdie, extended his lead, and, like Scheffler, never looked back en route to victory.
After 508 days and five holes, Tiger Woods nearly makes an ace
Making his first official competitive start since the 2020 Masters, Woods set out Thursday with a massive following. And he didn't disappoint. Woods shot 1-under 71, highlighted by his first birdie since the final round of that November Masters, at the par-3 sixth hole. It was a 2 that was nearly a 1.
Tiger completes the comeback
More than just a solitary shot, this week will be remembered as the Return of Tiger.
Woods' goal is always to win. And although the 15-time major winner finished the week in 47th place at 13 over, just completing all 72 holes at Augusta National was a victory in itself, considering where Woods was a year ago.
The 46-year-old, in his 24th Masters, gave the sports world a week to remember. And because of that, his week was capped off with an applause as he walked up the 18th fairway Sunday that made it seem like he'd just won his sixth green jacket.
"It was an unbelievable feeling," Woods said after the final round. "Just to have the patrons and the support out there. I wasn't exactly playing my best out there, but just to have the support out there and the appreciation from all the fans.
"I don't think words can really describe that given where I was a little over a year ago and what my prospects were at that time to end up here and be able to play in all four rounds. Even a month ago I didn't know if I could pull this off." | https://www.golfchannel.com/news/reviewing-some-most-memorable-shots-2022-masters-tournament | 2022-04-11T22:10:32 | 0 | https://www.golfchannel.com/news/reviewing-some-most-memorable-shots-2022-masters-tournament |
The regular season is almost over, and the race is wide open for the Fred Haskins Award presented by Stifel.
Of the 15 players who made the latest watch list, the penultimate one of the season, five players boast two victories while no one has three. Washington's R.J. Manke has the most top-3 finishes with eight, including two wins. Oklahoma State's Eugenio Chacarra and Oklahoma's Chris Gotterup are among the other players with two wins apiece.
The Haskins Award is awarded annually to the most outstanding men’s college golfer, as voted on by players, coaches and media members. Past winners of the Haskins Award include Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw and last season's winner, John Pak.
Here are the 15 players, listed in alphabetical order, named to the latest Haskins Award Watch List:
Ludvig Aberg, Jr., Texas Tech
Wins: The Prestige
Other results: second, Aggie Invitational; T-3, Valspar Collegiate; T-5, Cabo Collegiate; T-9, Blessings Intercollegiate; T-15, Amer Ari Invitational; T-26, Maridoe Collegiate; T-31, Carmel Cup
Sam Bennett, Sr., Texas A&M
Wins: Louisiana Classics
Other finishes: T-2, Johns Burns Intercollegiate; third, Aggie Invitational; T-3, Maridoe Collegiate; T-3, Golf Club of Collegiate; T-22, Valspar Collegiate
Fred Biondi, Jr., Florida
Wins: Gators Invitational, Calusa Cup
Other finishes: T-2, Southern Highlands Collegiate; T-7, Linger Longer Invitational; T-13, Isleworth Collegiate; T-27, Sea Best Invitational
Michael Brennan, Soph., Wake Forest
Wins: Colonial Collegiate, Old Town Club Collegiate
Other results: second, Southwestern Invitational; third, Calusa Cup; T-9, Wake Forest Invitational; T-28, Maridoe Collegiate; T-34, Valspar Collegiate; T-37, Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate
Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Sr., Illinois
Wins: Boilermaker Invitational
Other results: second, Hoosier Collegiate; T-3, Isleworth Collegiate; fourth, NIT; T-4, Mobile Bay Intercollegiate; T-12, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational; 14th, Blessings Intercollegiate; T-16, Augusta Haskins Award Invitational; T-21, Southern Highlands Collegiate
Pierceson Coody, Sr., Texas
Wins: Augusta Haskins Award Invitational
Other results: T-11, Colonial Collegiate; T-12, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational; T-34, Maridoe Collegiate
Chris Gotterup, Sr., Oklahoma
Wins: East Lake Cup, Puerto Rico Classic
Other finishes: T-3, Colonial Collegiate; T-3, Maridoe Collegiate; T-9, NIT; T-14, Carmel Cup; T-50, Southern Highlands Collegiate
Palmer Jackson, Jr., Notre Dame
Wins: Jackson T. Stephens Cup
Other results: T-3, Windon Memorial; T-4, Watersound Invitational; T-4, Marquette Intercollegiate; T-4, Gopher Invitational; T-9, Lamkin Grips San Diego Classic; T-9, Schenkel Invitational; T-10, Stitch Intercollegiate; 13th, Fighting Irish Classic; T-23, Augusta Haskins Award Invitational
Frederik Kjettrup, Fr., Florida State
Wins: The All-American
Other results: second, Valspar Collegiate; T-2, Daniel Island Intercollegiate; third, Watersound Invitational; T-5, Cabo Collegiate; T-8, Jackson T. Stephens Cup; T-18, Mobile Bay Intercollegiate; T-20, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational
Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, Sr., Oklahoma State
Wins: Amer Ari Invitational, NIT
Other finishes: T-2, Augusta Haskins Award Invitational; T-3, Gators Invitational; fourth, East Lake Cup; T-6, Carmel Cup; ninth, Cabo Collegiate; T-13, Colonial Collegiate; T-20, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational; T-32, General Hackler Collegiate
R.J. Manke, Sr., Washington
Wins: Fighting Irish Classic, Oregon State Invitational
Other results: second, Duck Invitational; second, Windon Memorial; T-2, Lamkin San Diego Classic; T-2, Husky Invitational; T-3, Amer Ari Invitational; T-3, Maui Jim Intercollegiate; T-18, Southwestern Invitational; T-57, The Goodwin
Logan McAllister, Sr., Oklahoma
Wins: Carmel Cup
Other finishes: T-3, Colonial Collegiate; T-7, Southern Highlands Collegiate; T-12, East Lake Cup; T-16, NIT; T-16, Puerto Rico Classic; T-18, Maridoe Collegiate
Trent Phillips, Soph., Georgia
Wins: Williams Cup
Other results: second, Carmel Cup; second, Linger Longer Invitational; fourth, Puerto Rico Classic; fourth, Calusa Cup; T-10, Southwestern Invitational; T-28, Colonial Collegiate; T-32, Southern Highlands Collegiate
Cole Sherwood, Soph., Vanderbilt
Wins: Cabo Collegiate, Mason Rudolph Championship
Other results: fourth, The Prestige; T-4, Linger Longer Invitational; T-18, Williams Cup; 41st, Carmel Cup
Cameron Sisk, Jr., Arizona State
Wins: Maridoe Collegiate
Other results: T-2, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational; T-2, Southwestern Invitational; T-5, Isleworth Collegiate; T-10, Amer Ari Invitational; T-12, East Lake Cup; T-17, Valspar Collegiate; T-23, Oregon Duck Invitational; T-48, Cabo Collegiate
Michael Thorbjornsen, Soph., Stanford
Wins: None
Other results: second, Cabo Collegiate; T-2, Colonial Collegiate; T-7, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational; T-8, The Goodwin; T-15, Amer Ari Invitational; T-16, The Prestige; T-23, Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate; T-34, St. Mary’s Invitational | https://www.golfchannel.com/news/washingtons-rj-manke-osus-eugenio-chacarra-headline-haskins-award-watch-list | 2022-04-11T22:10:38 | 0 | https://www.golfchannel.com/news/washingtons-rj-manke-osus-eugenio-chacarra-headline-haskins-award-watch-list |
CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WRIC) — BJ’s Wholesale, a warehouse grocery chain, is opening a new location on Hull Street Road in Chesterfield.
Site plans filed with the county show the store will be just under 100,000 square feet, and include parking for more than 400 cars. In addition to grocery shopping, the store will provide tire changes.
BJ’s Wholesale, a grocery chain with two locations in Henrico, is breaking ground on a new site on Hull Street Road in Chesterfield. (Photos: Tyler Thrasher/8News)
The 28-acre construction site, located at the corner of Hull Street Road and Lonas Parkway, was purchased by Rebkee Partners for $4.2 million in September 2021.
Once the BJ’s wholesale is open, the site plan filed with the county indicates the developers intend to open an oil change station and restaurant on the property.
The BJ’s Wholesale will be located near the intersection of Hull Street Road and VA-288, a major corridor in Chesterfield County that’s seen a surge in development over the last decade. | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/chesterfield-county/new-bjs-wholesale-grocery-mega-store-breaks-ground-in-chesterfield/ | 2022-04-11T22:10:40 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/chesterfield-county/new-bjs-wholesale-grocery-mega-store-breaks-ground-in-chesterfield/ |
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC)–The Diamond will open up to nearly 10,000 Flying Squirrels fans Tuesday night. On Monday crews were prepping the field for the Squirrels’ opening day.
Todd “Parney” Parnell, the team’s CEO, said the atmosphere will be electric.
“I haven’t slept all week and I’m so excited. You can see it in my voice, hear it in my voice, maybe you can see it in my voice I don’t know,” he said.
Fans will have to follow Minor League Baseball’s recently implemented bag policy, which restricts fans to only clear bags or ones smaller than 16 by 16 by 8 inches.
The concession stand will offer its newest food item the “Walk Off Taco” and fans can enjoy a new bar on the concourse called the 804 Corner Cantina.
“Everything is coming together. People, even though they came last year, I feel like people were still in pandemic mode and I feel like we’re close enough to getting out of it that. People are going to feel like they did back in 2019,” he said.
This year’s home opener will look a lot different from the past two seasons when COVID-19 protocols were in place.
In 2020, the Flying Squirrels’ season was canceled.
Last season the team went back on the field, but the games started in May instead of April. The stadium was also operating at only 30% capacity.
Parney said the weather and anticipation is the perfect combination for this year’s opening day.
“We love Richmond and Richmond loves us back and tomorrow night’s just going to be an edification of that love affair between the fan base and the team,” he said.
The gates open at 5 p.m. tomorrow night when the players take on the Altoona Curve. | https://www.wric.com/sports/flying-squirrels-opening-day-to-draw-thousands-of-fans-to-the-diamond/ | 2022-04-11T22:10:46 | 0 | https://www.wric.com/sports/flying-squirrels-opening-day-to-draw-thousands-of-fans-to-the-diamond/ |
Amber Alert issued in Maryland for missing 12-year-old
(Gray News) - State police in Maryland issued an Amber Alert on Monday for a missing 12-year-old boy.
Maxx Geiger has been missing since April 8. He is described as a 5-foot-3 white male, 120 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
He and the suspect, 35-year-old Christopher Geiger, were last seen in Hampstead, Carroll County, Maryland.
Christopher Geiger is described as a 6-foot-tall white male, 230 pounds, with blonde hair and green eyes.
The child may also be in the Westminster area of Carroll County. They are believed to be traveling in a black 2021 Jeep Wrangler with Maryland plate DV15797.
Anyone with information can contact the Maryland State Police Westminster Barrack at 410-386-3001 or call 911.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/amber-alert-issued-maryland-missing-12-year-old/ | 2022-04-11T22:11:49 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/amber-alert-issued-maryland-missing-12-year-old/ |
Child bitten by shark in Highland Beach, taken to hospital
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 5:06 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
A boy was treated for a shark bite Monday afternoon in Highland Beach, according to fire rescue officials.
Officials said the bite occurred at about 4 p.m. at 3300 S. Ocean Blvd.
The child, described as an adolescent, said he saw a small shark dart toward him as he stood in shallow water.
The shark bit the boy's right foot near his big toe before swimming away.
Delray Beach Fire Rescue said paramedics bandaged the wound and transported him to Bethesda Hospital.
Officials did not release the condition of the child.
Scripps Only Content 2022 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/child-bitten-by-shark-delray-beach-taken-hospital/ | 2022-04-11T22:11:58 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/child-bitten-by-shark-delray-beach-taken-hospital/ |
Ex-officer convicted of storming Capitol to disrupt Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday convicted a former Virginia police officer of storming the U.S. Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of all six counts he faced stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
His sentencing hearing wasn’t immediately scheduled.
Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial, which started last Tuesday. Jurors deliberated for several hours over two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.
A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure. Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Fracker testified Thursday that he had hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
During the trial’s closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Defense attorney Mark Rollins conceded that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he used the stick as a dangerous weapon and that he intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Fracker testified that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress.
Under cross-examination by Rollins, Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Fracker said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson. Wagner said the U.S. Army veteran was using the stick to help him walk because he has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told jurors that Robertson was charged for his actions, not his political beliefs. Wagner also said Robertson should be judged by his actions, not his words.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents.
Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
Robertson’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ | 2022-04-11T22:12:04 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ |
Family of 1-year-old killed in West Palm Beach shooting seeks justice
The family of a 1-year-old boy who was shot and killed in West Palm Beach last week is seeking justice for his death.
Patrikia Robinson is hurting and filled with grief over the shooting death of her nephew, Kaleb Watson.
"He’s an energetic, happy baby that was taken," Robinson said. "His mom and dad is hurting. Y’all took their only child."
Robinson said Kaleb was known for his infectious smile that could light up a room.
"We’re still trying to wrap our hands around why," Robinson said.
Robinson and Kaleb’s grandmother are now forced to live without that smile all because of a senseless shooting that remains under investigation but hasn't produced any arrests.
"Y’all took something I will never ever see again. It should’ve been me and not him," said Francis Robinson, Kaleb's grandmother.
Police said Kaleb was in his car seat with his mom and dad sitting up front last Thursday when someone came up and fired several shots and ran away.
One of the bullets hit baby Kaleb. He died the next morning at the hospital. His mom was grazed by a bullet and survived.
"We’re not sleeping, we’re not eating. We’re trying to get justice served. We’re hurt," Patrikia Robinson said.
Kaleb's family has set up a GoFundMe account to help with funeral expenses. To donate, click here.
West Palm Beach police are now offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who provides information that leads to an arrest and conviction in the case.
Anyone with information that can help investigators is asked to call the West Palm Beach Police Department at 561-822-1900 or Crime Stoppers of Palm Beach County at 800-458-TIPS.
On Friday, Kaleb's family invoked Marsy's Law and police could no longer provide information about the investigation. Out of respect for the trauma the family is suffering, we decided not to use the child's picture and name.
On Monday, the family has asked us to use the child's picture and we are complying with their wishes. Marsy's Law is still in effect with this case.
Scripps Only Content 2022 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/family-1-year-old-killed-west-palm-beach-shooting-seeks-justice/ | 2022-04-11T22:12:11 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/family-1-year-old-killed-west-palm-beach-shooting-seeks-justice/ |
Missing 15-year-old Port St. Lucie girl found safe
Port St. Lucie police said a missing 15-year-old girl who never showed up to school Monday morning has been found safe.
WPTV confirmed around 5:30 p.m. that Saige Stiles is now with a police department detective.
Officers responded to the area of Southwest Tulip Boulevard between Southwest Darwin Boulevard and Southwest Belmont Circle around 6:55 a.m. Monday after receiving a 911 call from Stiles' friend.
According to police, Stiles was talking to that friend on the phone while walking alone to Treasure Coast High School and said she was being followed by someone.
Officers arrived on scene and found Stiles' backpack and cell phone on the sidewalk of the Panther Trace Community on Southwest Tulip Boulevard.
Police said a camera system in the area showed Stiles at 7:30 a.m. walking behind houses in the community and "did not appear to be in any immediate danger or distress at the time."
"She just was walking. Didn't appear she was in danger or distress. Just walking through the backyard," said Sgt. John Dellacroce at a news conference Monday.
WATCH NEWS CONFERENCE:
Just hours later, Stiles was seen walking in the area of Southwest Hawthorne Circle and Southwest Paar Drive just before 12 p.m., again, not appearing to be in "any immediate danger or distress at that time," police said.
For hours Monday, detectives from the Port St. Lucie Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division investigated the circumstances of Stiles' disappearance.
Police have not released any additional details about how Stiles was found, only that she is safe with a detective as of 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Exclusive video from WPTV Chopper 5 showed multiple police cruisers and yellow caution tape blocking off a large wooded area on Southwest Tulip Boulevard. There were several evidence markers on the ground, along with K9s searching and a crime scene van at the scene.
Police eventually took the yellow tape down around 10:15 a.m.
The area where Stiles vanished is heavily residential with patches of woods.
WATCH CHOPPER 5 VIDEO:
Around 10:15 a.m., a Port St. Lucie police officer could be seen digging through what appeared to be a large purse or backpack, and leafing through what looked like a purple notebook.
It's unclear if those items belong to Stiles.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office was involved in the search, using a helicopter to survey the area. In addition, the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office used its bloodhounds in the effort.
The police department said investigators have spoken to Stiles' friend who called 911, along with Stiles' father, and both are cooperating with the investigation.
"When a call comes out like this, every available officer. It's intensive manpower, an intensive search," Dellacroce said. "It's all hands on deck until we can find her."
REPORT FROM SCENE:
Scripps Only Content 2022 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/missing-15-year-old-port-st-lucie-girl-found-safe/ | 2022-04-11T22:12:17 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/missing-15-year-old-port-st-lucie-girl-found-safe/ |
Your personality can either protect or age your brain, study says
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 5:15 PM EDT|Updated: 57 minutes ago
(CNN) – Worry less now and your brain will stay healthy longer.
A new study shows people who worry more, lack self-discipline and are introverted are more likely to develop cognitive decline earlier in life.
It also applies to a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The study examined the personality traits of nearly 2,000 people.
It found being socially engaged with others could buy you an extra year of living without dementia.
If you keep anxiety at bay and stay organized and goal-oriented, it can get you two years of healthy cognitive function.
The study was published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ | 2022-04-11T22:12:23 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ |
Brooklyn Beckham, the eldest son of David and Victoria Beckham, married American actress Nicola Peltz in a glamorous, star-studded wedding on April 9. Beckham, 23, and Peltz, 27, held a multi-day celebration on Peltz’s $99 million, 44,000-square-foot family estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Guests arrived on Friday to enjoy welcome cocktails at the lavish, oceanfront affair. The bride’s family set up three massive white tents on the beach for the cocktail reception, ceremony and celebration following the nuptials.
The wedding, which included a traditional Jewish ceremony, was in a stunning flower-covered chuppah with orchids hanging from the ceiling and an elevated runway over flowers floating in the water on each side. Peltz’s grandmother served as her maid of honor, People reports, and the couple read their own vows before a rabbi and nearly 600 guests.
David Beckham shared a photo of the couple and wrote “welcome to the family” to his new daughter-in-law:
The bride wore a Valentino haute couture gown. At her mother’s request, the dress had an evil eye talisman (a traditional charm said to protect against jealousy) and a personal message stitched into it with blue thread. (Peltz retweeted Vogue’s story about her dress, which explains that designers spent a year working on her wedding look.)
Along with their influential family members, including Beckham’s parents and siblings — Romeo, 19, Cruz, 17, and Harper, 10 — and Peltz’s billionaire businessman father Nelson Peltz, model mother Claudia Heffner and seven siblings, including professional hockey player Brad Peltz and actor Will Peltz, countless celebrities were in attendance. The guest list included Mel C, Serena and Venus Williams, Jordana Brewster, Gordon Ramsay and Eva Longoria. In addition, magician David Blaine performed during the cocktail hour and Marc Anthony sang during the reception.
The couple first met at Coachella in 2017 but didn’t begin dating until they met again at a Halloween party in 2019. They went public as a couple in January 2020 and were engaged by the summer of the same year. Before tying the knot, the couple reportedly signed a prenuptial agreement. While the Beckhams are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the bride’s family’s fortune is said to be in the billions.
During his wedding speech, Peltz’s father asked that guests make donations in support of Ukraine in lieu of gifts to the bride and groom.
Congrats to the happy couple!
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories. | https://www.wrtv.com/brooklyn-beckham-and-nicola-peltz-married-in-a-star-studded-weekend-wedding | 2022-04-11T22:13:22 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/brooklyn-beckham-and-nicola-peltz-married-in-a-star-studded-weekend-wedding |
DELPHI — Investigators are expanding their search for anthony_shots profiles to additional social media messaging sites in connection with murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams.
Indiana State Police say the profile named "anthony_shots" was used from 2016 to 2017 on social media applications, including but not limited to, Snapchat and Instagram.
They are now looking for anyone who may have communicated with the profile anthony_shots on the social media application called Yellow, also currently known as Yubo.
The profile used images of a well-known male model and portrayed himself as being extremely wealthy and owning numerous sports cars. The creator of the fictitious profile used this information while communicating with juvenile females to solicit nude images, obtain their addresses and attempt to meet them.
Police say the man in the photos is not a person of interest, but they are looking for information about who created the profile and used his images.
Investigators would like any individual that communicated with, met, or attempted to meet the anthony_shots profile to contact law enforcement at abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com or 765-822-3535.
Detectives are asking for as much information as possible, including:
- When you communicated with anthony_shots
- How you communicated with the profile
- What social media applications the account used
- If anthony_shots attempted to meet you or obtain your address.
If you have saved images or conversations with the anthony_shots profile, you are asked to attach them to your email.
Indiana State Police included multiple images posted by the creator of the anthony_shots profile with their initial release.
State police said the person in the photos is not a person of interest, however, they are looking for the person who created the anthony_shots profile and used these images.
A video from Indiana State Police is below. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/delphi/delphi-investigators-expand-search-for-anthony-shots-accounts-to-other-social-platforms | 2022-04-11T22:13:29 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/delphi/delphi-investigators-expand-search-for-anthony-shots-accounts-to-other-social-platforms |
INDIANAPOLIS — For the first time since the mass shooting at the FedEx facility in Indianapolis last April, the shooter's mother has spoken with WRTV.
Sheila Hole discussed her reaction to the new lawsuit filed by families of those killed in the shooting.
Hole is in support of the lawsuit because she feels FedEx has not said where they fell short.
"That’s what FedEx needs to say to themselves," Hole said. "It wasn’t enough, or we wouldn’t have had this outcome.”
The families of Amarjeet Johal, Amarjit Sekhon, Jasvinder Kaur, John “Steve” Weisert and Karli Smith filed the lawsuit on Monday. They, along with Matthew Alexander, Samaria Blackwell and Jaswinder Singh, were killed in the shooting on April 15, 2021.
Hole said she knows her son walked into the building twice, as the lawyers for the people killed said in the press conference held Monday. It’s something Hole said shouldn’t have happened.
“Can you (FedEx officials) say ‘hey we tried?’," Hole said. "Because although this happened, I can stand here and say, ‘hey I tried.' I really, really tried. Can you as a multi-million or billion-dollar corporation say ‘well we tried’? No, you did not. And had you tried, as bad as it sounds, maybe my son wouldn’t have killed that many people.”
Hole speaks openly about sharing the documents and stories about the multiple pathways she tried to get her son help.
Now, she said she is cooperating and helping support the families of the eight people killed as much as possible too.
“I know that I’m here for the victims," Hole said. "I gave them (the attorney's representing the families) everything here."
Hole said she hasn’t received some of her son's belongings back yet. During Monday's press conference, lawyers said they’re suing to help them gather some information as well.
Today, Hole said any laptops or phones, can go towards helping this case.
“As far as I’m concerned, they can keep them," Hole said. "I mean, what do I want them for? I don’t. But if the victims need them for any type of lawsuit; I give all permission for them to be turned over to the victims. That’s horrible to keep them and not allow people to sue the people that need to be sued, if there’s some type of information in there that can be used."
Friday, April 15 will be one year since the FedEx shooting occurred. The lawsuit announcement comes as the families and communities affected remember the lives lost. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/fedex-shooting/sheila-hole-mother-of-fedex-shooter-supports-lawsuit-against-fedex-securitas | 2022-04-11T22:13:35 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/fedex-shooting/sheila-hole-mother-of-fedex-shooter-supports-lawsuit-against-fedex-securitas |
INDIANAPOLIS — According to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, their East District Violent Reduction Team made multiple firearms arrests following a chase that ended near 38th Street and Moller Road on April 5.
The arrests came after an investigation that spanned several months, according to IMPD. The investigation followed past convicted felons with previous firearm-related convictions and a sexually violent predator, according to the police department.
The pursuit began with officers conducting surveillance on a residence on the east side of Indianapolis. Upon beginning a traffic stop near 34th Street and Lafayette Road, the suspects fled and crashed their vehicle near 38th Street and Moller Road, according to the police department.
Following a foot pursuit, three people were taken into custody, according to IMPD.
The department said K-9 officer Panda uncovered a bag of narcotics which led to further investigation and the discovery of two handguns, 45 grams of methamphetamine, 30 grams of heroin, nine grams of crack cocaine, 10 grams of marijuana and $747 in cash.
While IMPD shared images of the firearms found in the investigation, they did not release a full list of all that was found.
The three suspects are facing multiple charges for firearms possession. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/impd-chase-ends-with-multiple-firearms-found-arrests-made | 2022-04-11T22:13:41 | 0 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/crime/impd-chase-ends-with-multiple-firearms-found-arrests-made |
Juneteenth is officially a paid holiday for city employees in New York City.
On Monday, Mayor Eric Adams announced the decision, calling Juneteenth "a time for reflection, assessment, and self-improvement."
It’s time for our city to finally do what’s right and officially designate Juneteenth as a city holiday. This decision is long overdue, which is why it will immediately take effect this year.
Read my full statement: pic.twitter.com/W0yPmKTl5q
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) April 11, 2022
“As the second Black mayor of New York City, I know that I stand on the shoulders of countless heroes and sheroes who put their lives on the line to secure a more perfect union," Adams said. "Now is the time for me to do a small part and recognize one of our nation’s greatest wrongs."
Juneteenth, which became a federal holiday last year, is celebrated on June 19.
The holiday commemorates the anniversary of Union troops bringing the word to Galveston, Texas, in 1865 that slavery had been outlawed.
Then-President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier.
New York City is the latest city to recognize Juneteenth as a paid city holiday, including Phoenix and Chattanooga, Tennessee. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/new-york-city-mayor-declares-juneteenth-paid-holiday-for-city-employees | 2022-04-11T22:13:47 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/new-york-city-mayor-declares-juneteenth-paid-holiday-for-city-employees |
(PARIS) — Societe Generale has announced it is ending its Russian activities, making it the first big Western bank to announce it’s quitting Russia.
SocGen is also selling its entire stake in Rosbank to a company linked to a Russian oligarch, costing the French bank some $3.3 billion.
Rosbank is a heavyweight in the Russian banking sector, and Societe Generale was the majority shareholder.
“After several weeks of intensive work,” the bank said in a statement, it had signed an agreement with Russian investment fund Interros Capital to sell all of its stake in Rosbank as well as its insurance subsidiaries in Russia.
Interros is one of the largest funds in the country, which holds assets in heavy industry and metallurgy. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/russia-ukraine-conflict/french-bank-socgen-becomes-first-big-western-bank-to-end-russia-ties | 2022-04-11T22:13:53 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/russia-ukraine-conflict/french-bank-socgen-becomes-first-big-western-bank-to-end-russia-ties |
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East Union boys and Myrtle girls won first place in the Division 1-2A track meet on Wednesday at Potts Camp.
East Union edged out host Potts Camp by two points to take the top spot by a 122-120 score. Myrtle boys were fourth with 23 points.
Myrtle girls won going away as they racked up 124 points while East Union was a distant second with 82 points.
Bryce McLellen threw his way to two first place finishes as he won the boys shot with a 39-09.25 toss and also a first in the discus with a top throw of 106-00.
McLellen's teammate Caleb Johnson was second in both events with throws of 35-03.50 in the shot and 81-02 in the discus.
Chance McLellen won the pole vault with a top effort of 8-06.
Riley Williams placed third in the long jump at 18-06.25 while Hayden Frazier was third in the triple jump with a 29-02.
Luke McVey gave the Urchins a second with his 5-01 jump in the high jump.
The Urchins also had a first place finish in the boys 4x400 relay plus Williams took first in the 200 meter dash.
Gabe Rakestraw had a second in the 3200 meter run and 1600, plus a fourth in the 800.
John Evins was second in the 800 and Chance took second in the 300 hurdles.
McVey and Frazier placed second and third in the 100 meters dash for the Urchins.
East Union was second in both the 4x100 and 4x200 relays while placing third in the 4x800.
Myrtle boys won the 4x800 in 10:07.97.
Other qualifiers for Myrtle included Tanner Fryar in the 100 meters (fourth), Hunter Page was third in the 1600 meters, Kaleb Thomas picked up third in the 400 meters, Zack Page was fourth in the 3200 meter run.
Gordon leads Lady Hawks to win
Kinsley Gordon turned in another outstanding day in field events as she won three times to pace the Myrtle girls.
Gordon won the discus with a throw of top throw of 98-10. Emma Adams of East Union placed fourth.
Gordon also won the triple jump with her top effort of 31-07.50. Reagan Johnson of East Union was second at 28-02.25, Myrtle's Harleigh Herring was third at 26-09.50 and Lilly Watson of East Union was fourth with 23-03.50.
Gordon made a it a trifecta for the day with her win in the long jump with her best effort of 15-07.50.
Briley Lesley of East Union won the pole vault at 7-06. Sydney Turner of Myrtle was second at 7-00, East Union's Daisy Johnson placed third at 6-06 and Myrtle's Harleigh Herring was fourth at 6-00.
East Union had two throwers place in the shot put, Adams took third while Lilly Bruce came in fourth.
Coach Chris Greer's Lady Hawks were dominant in the relays, winning the 4x800, 4x200, 4x400 and placing second in the 4x100.
East Union placed second in the 4x800 and 4x400 while coming in third in the 4x200 and 4x100.
Maiyla Johnson won the 100 meter hurdles for Myrtle in 18.95 and the 300 hurdles as well in 56.11.
Lauryn Jordan of Myrtle was third in the girls 100 meter dash.
Maggie Moody of Myrtle was second in the 1600 and 800 meters. Maci Rae McLellen of East Union was third and Myrtle's Micah Gray placed fourth in the 1600.
East Union's Brianna Courtney and Sunshine Fulgham was third and fourth in the 800.
Indya Simmons was the winner for Myrtle in the 400 meters with her time of 1:07.95. Ella Johnson of East Union was second.
Simmons also pulled down a second in the 200 meters.
East Union had two runners in the top four in the 3200 meters as Kenley Conwill was third and Maci Rae was fourth. | https://www.djournal.com/new-albany/sports/east-union/urchins-lady-hawks-win-1-2a-division-meet/article_19694657-0b87-54cb-9b7e-233317552d8f.html | 2022-04-11T22:21:54 | 1 | https://www.djournal.com/new-albany/sports/east-union/urchins-lady-hawks-win-1-2a-division-meet/article_19694657-0b87-54cb-9b7e-233317552d8f.html |
If there was ever a moment for presidential leadership, it is now. Ukraine is engulfed in a bitter war with Russia, gas prices are soaring and inflation is holding back our full economic recovery. Unfortunately, President Biden’s new budget proposal totally fails to meet these priorities.
His plan would cut our military strength at a time of international crisis. It would also impose job-killing tax hikes that Congress has already rejected on a bipartisan basis.
Biden plan would weaken the Navy
Biden’s budget would increase military spending by 4%. Although this sounds positive, it would amount to a substantial cut when adjusting for 7.9% inflation. This is simply unacceptable at a time when war is breaking out in Europe and American security is being challenged globally.
The president’s plan would fall especially hard on our Navy fleet, which has been underfunded for years and is now outnumbered by China’s. With additional threats emerging from Russia and Iran, the Navy needs a concerted shipbuilding effort with strong and consistent funding.
Biden’s budget fails to meet this critical need. His proposal would build only nine ships next year while retiring 24. Instead of building the Navy needed to secure peace, it would direct money toward “climate change” initiatives that would do little for the environment.
This is exactly the wrong message to send the world’s dictators, who are currently on the move in part because they sense American weakness.
Recently I questioned Biden’s top defense leaders before the Senate Armed Services Committee. I pushed them to provide Congress with a long-overdue 30-year shipbuilding plan and a study on amphibious ships, which they said will be ready in a few weeks. I will be closely assessing those proposals to see if they match the Navy’s needs.
Failure to support Eastern Europe
With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, we have entered the most dangerous period in world affairs since the height of the Cold War. Congress recently approved $14 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, but supplies are not moving into Ukrainian hands fast enough because of bureaucratic delays — something I am urging Biden’s officials to fix.
Biden has also deployed several thousand troops to NATO countries. Yet his budget fails to keep up with this commitment. His proposal would keep Army funding essentially flat. It would also scrap a sea-launched missile program, which is important to maintaining our nuclear deterrent.
This is not a serious defense budget aimed at securing peace through strength. In the coming weeks, I will be pushing Congress to assert its constitutional power of the purse to make sure our security needs are met.
Worst time for tax hikes
In addition to weakening our military, Biden’s budget includes a list of tax hikes that have already met bipartisan opposition in Congress.
His plan would impose $2.5 trillion in new taxes, ignoring the fact that tax revenue is already at a 50-year high. It would also raise taxes on job creators from 21 percent to 28 percent. This would shrink the economy and eliminate over 138,000 jobs, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
The president is even proposing a socialist tax on wealth, something he refused to support when he was running against far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders.
As the budget process moves forward, Republicans will continue fighting to defeat these harmful tax hikes and provide our military the resources it needs to keep us safe. | https://www.djournal.com/sentinel/opinion/biden-plan-would-appease-dictators-while-indulging-socialism/article_29b488aa-a2c8-5865-b63a-4521e2c19811.html | 2022-04-11T22:22:00 | 1 | https://www.djournal.com/sentinel/opinion/biden-plan-would-appease-dictators-while-indulging-socialism/article_29b488aa-a2c8-5865-b63a-4521e2c19811.html |
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Raleigh Midtown Kiwanis Club kicked into action on April 11, holding its second annual kickball tournament with all proceeds and donations going toward the Boys and Girls Club.
Children from five local Boys and Girls Clubs participated in the tournament at the club on North Raleigh Boulevard.
In addition to supporting the Boys and Girls Club, the tournament aimed to promote sportsmanship and positive attitudes, according to Richard Hart of the Raleigh Midtown Kiwanis Club.
"That's one of the things we are really happy about this event," said Blake Phillips of the Raleigh Midtown Kiwanis Club. "Getting them out here having a chance to display their skills, have fun, get recognition and to feel like people care about them."
When not competing, participants had the opportunity to connect with one another and partake in face painting, cornhole, and lunch.
Andrew Pierce, the grandson of one of the Kiwanis Club members, played the role of announcer for the event.
"I just get to watch the game, and they get to have fun and I get to have fun," Pierce said.
The Wake Forest Boys and Girls Club were the winners of year's tournament, making this their second consecutive win. | https://abc11.com/kickball-tournament-raleigh-midtown-kiwanis-club-boys-and-girls-fundraiser/11738284/ | 2022-04-11T22:23:28 | 1 | https://abc11.com/kickball-tournament-raleigh-midtown-kiwanis-club-boys-and-girls-fundraiser/11738284/ |
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Chief investigative reporter Jonathan Dienst on crime, corruption and terrorism. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/guilty-verdict-in-ms-13-murder-trial/3640489/ | 2022-04-11T22:23:35 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/guilty-verdict-in-ms-13-murder-trial/3640489/ |
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As Seen On
As seen on News 4 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/miya-ponsetta-pleads-guilty-in-nyc-hotel-attack-on-teen/3640896/ | 2022-04-11T22:23:42 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/miya-ponsetta-pleads-guilty-in-nyc-hotel-attack-on-teen/3640896/ |
A federal jury on Monday convicted a former Virginia police officer of storming the U.S. Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of all six counts he faced stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
His sentencing hearing wasn't immediately scheduled.
Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial, which started last Tuesday. Jurors deliberated for several hours over two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.
A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure. Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Fracker testified Thursday that he had hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
U.S. & World
During the trial’s closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Defense attorney Mark Rollins conceded that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he used the stick as a dangerous weapon and that he intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Fracker testified that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress.
Under cross-examination by Rollins, Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Fracker said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson. Wagner said the U.S. Army veteran was using the stick to help him walk because he has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told jurors that Robertson was charged for his actions, not his political beliefs. Wagner also said Robertson should be judged by his actions, not his words.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents.
Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
Robertson’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/ex-officer-convicted-of-storming-capitol-to-disrupt-congress/3640951/ | 2022-04-11T22:23:49 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/ex-officer-convicted-of-storming-capitol-to-disrupt-congress/3640951/ |
A jury deliberated for just 18 minutes Monday before finding a fervent Islamic State supporter guilty of stabbing lawmaker David Amess to death a slaying that shocked the nation and sparked calls for increased police protection for politicians.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was found guilty by London’s Central Criminal Court of murder and preparing terrorist acts. Ali stabbed the veteran British lawmaker to death last year while he was meeting with voters at a church hall in eastern England.
Ali, who had spent years researching and planning potential attacks on lawmakers, had defended his actions by saying Amess deserved to die as a result of voting for airstrikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015.
Ali, a London man with Somali heritage, had denied charges of murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Tom Little said the case was “nothing less than an assassination” carried out because of a “warped and twisted and violent ideology.”
“It was a murder carried out by that young man who for many years had been planning just such an attack and who was, and is, a committed, fanatical, radicalized Islamist terrorist,” he said.
Little said Ali bought the knife used to attack Amess five years earlier, and that Ali tricked his way into meeting Amess by pretending to be one of his constituents.
U.S. & World
Amess, 69, had been a member of Parliament since 1983. He was pronounced dead at the scene after the stabbing.
The prosecutor also said that Ali had researched and planned attacks on lawmakers and the Parliament building from at least 2019. The research included reconnaissance trips targeting work and home addresses of two other lawmakers, Mike Freer and Cabinet member Michael Gove, he added.
The slaying of Amess shook the nation, as lawmakers often meet directly with the public. It came five years after Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by a far-right extremist. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/is-supporter-found-guilty-of-killing-uk-lawmaker-david-amess/3640952/ | 2022-04-11T22:23:55 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/is-supporter-found-guilty-of-killing-uk-lawmaker-david-amess/3640952/ |
A private company announced Monday that power had been fully restored to Puerto Rico’s almost 1.5 million customers nearly five days after a fire at a main power plant sparked an island-wide blackout and prompted public schools and government agencies to close.
Officials are now focused on investigating what exactly caused the failure of a circuit breaker at a substation within the Costa Sur power plant in southern Puerto Rico, one of four main plants in the U.S. territory.
“I know many in Puerto Rico are asking, ‘How is it that this happened?’” said Wayne Stensby, CEO of Luma, a company that took over transmission and distribution for the Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority last year. “There’s no question the electricity grid in Puerto Rico is incredibly fragile.”
The blackout outraged and worried many on the island of 3.2 million people, including those who cannot afford generators and have medical conditions including diabetes and respiratory issues that depend on electricity for their treatments.
The outage snarled traffic, shuttered businesses and forced some people to sleep outdoors given the heat.
Customers angry over the extended outage noted they have been hit with recent increases in their power bills, and people complained the blackout damaged electrical appliances and forced them to throw out groceries as the island struggles to emerge from a more than decade-long economic crisis.
Gary Soto, director of Luma project system operations, said another outage occurred just days after the blackout that affected 25% of customers due to a new failure at another power plant involving a boiler that crews had recently repaired.
U.S. & World
Shay Bahramirad, an engineering vice president, said a third party will look into the failure of the circuit breaker, noting that the blackout occurred 19 seconds after the initial fault was recorded. She said equipment at the power plant where the fire occurred dates from 1969 to the mid-1970s, although she declined to provide details including maintenance records on the failed circuit breaker, saying it would be taken out of context.
It was not immediately known what maintenance, if any, Luma had performed on the circuit breaker once it took over operations of Puerto Rico's transmission and distribution last June.
When asked several times whether maintenance on the circuit breaker was delayed, the company’s CEO said, “We are not going to speculate.” Stensby said independent third parties would be responsible for the investigation and the structural testing and engineering design to rebuild the damaged area.
The outage comes as Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Company tries to emerge from a bankruptcy-like process and restructure some $9 billion in debt. The utility has long struggled with corruption, mismanagement and a lack of investment in the electric grid, which Hurricane Maria razed in 2017. Emergency repairs were made at the time, but reconstruction projects have yet to start.
In addition, a series of strong earthquakes that hit southern Puerto Rico in late 2019 and early 2020 damaged the Costa Sur plant and other infrastructure.
Prior to Hurricane Maria, a fire at another power plant sparked an island-wide blackout in September 2016. A large fire in June last year at a substation in the capital of San Juan left hundreds of thousands of clients without power. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/power-restored-in-puerto-rico-nearly-5-days-after-blackout/3640898/ | 2022-04-11T22:24:02 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/power-restored-in-puerto-rico-nearly-5-days-after-blackout/3640898/ |
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As seen on News 4 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/drivers-in-westchester-county-frustrated-by-parking-app-overload/3640868/ | 2022-04-11T22:24:15 | 1 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/drivers-in-westchester-county-frustrated-by-parking-app-overload/3640868/ |
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As seen on News 4 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/iconic-little-italy-shop-faces-closure-due-to-pandemic/3640889/ | 2022-04-11T22:24:21 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/iconic-little-italy-shop-faces-closure-due-to-pandemic/3640889/ |
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As seen on News 4 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/rockville-centre-woman-apologizes-over-antisemitic-comments/3640903/ | 2022-04-11T22:24:33 | 0 | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/on-air/as-seen-on/rockville-centre-woman-apologizes-over-antisemitic-comments/3640903/ |
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (WFLA) — The Fort Pierce Police Department said it is looking for a man who threw molotov cocktails at a house Sunday morning.
Police said at 11:40 a.m., officers went to a home on Avenue L for an arson call.
Officers learned that a man ran up to the home and threw a molotov cocktail at the house’s front window. A surveillance camera captured the explosion on video.
The suspected arsonist then threw another bottle over the roof after running to the side of the house, according to police. After throwing the second bottle, the man ran away.
If you know who the man is, call Detective Kevin Mohamed at 772-467-6905 or email him kmohamed@fppd.org. You can also call Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273-8477. | https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-police-look-for-man-who-threw-molotov-cocktails-at-house/ | 2022-04-11T22:26:25 | 0 | https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-police-look-for-man-who-threw-molotov-cocktails-at-house/ |
Krispy Kreme is selling a dozen doughnuts for the same price as a gallon of gas
Krispy Kreme wants to take the edge off higher gas prices by lowering doughnut prices.
Every Wednesday from April 13 through May 4, Krispy Kreme will sell a dozen original glazed doughnuts for the price of a gallon of regular gas. Each week, the chain will use Monday's national average gas price to set the promotional cost for its doughnuts.
Gas prices have been soaring recently in part because of the war in Ukraine, prompting the Biden Administration to release gas from the strategic petroleum reserve to lower prices.
On Monday, AAA put the national average at $4.11 per gallon. So on Wednesday, a dozen original glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts will cost $4.11. That's a good deal: A dozen original glazed would typically go for at least $10 at Krispy Kreme.
The doughnut chain often ties its promotions to topical events. Last year, for example, it gave customers who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 free doughnuts. In January, after the Red Cross said it was experiencing the worst blood shortage in over a decade, Krispy Kreme gave away doughnuts to blood donors.
With those promotions, Krispy Kreme was trying to "encourage folks to take advantage of a kind offer from us to do something good for others," Dave Skena, Krispy Kreme's chief marketing officer, told CNN Business. In this case, "we're just trying to help [people] get through the week."
It's also a way to keep Krispy Kreme top of mind for consumers, and tempt new customers with a taste of the brand's signature sweet.
Why Krispy Kremes gives away its signature doughnuts
When Krispy Kreme gives away free doughnuts, it usually offers up the original glazed doughnut, rather than other flavors or specialty items.
The original glazed is "our most popular doughnut," said Skena. "It's what's kept us in business for 85 years."
So why give it away for free (or cheap)?
"It's the brand experience we really want [people] to have," said Skena. In other words, Krispy Kreme wants to make the best possible first impression on customers who may be trying Krispy Kreme out because of a promotion.
Plus, the original glazed is relatively simple to produce.
"It is easier to make them" than more complicated flavors like Oreo or birthday cake doughnuts, said Skena. "We can make more of them faster. When we create these big peaks in demand, we need to be able to make a lot of doughnuts quickly. "
That will especially come in handy if, for example, the price of oil suddenly dips and more people want to take advantage of the promotion. Krispy Kreme is ready for that possibility, Skena said.
"If gas prices plummeted over the next four weeks, even though it wouldn't be as 'good' for us, we'd be so happy to sell people two-dollar doughnuts." | https://www.koat.com/article/krispy-kreme-is-selling-a-dozen-doughnuts-for-the-same-price-as-a-gallon-of-gas/39692782 | 2022-04-11T22:32:30 | 0 | https://www.koat.com/article/krispy-kreme-is-selling-a-dozen-doughnuts-for-the-same-price-as-a-gallon-of-gas/39692782 |
Ex-officer convicted of storming Capitol to disrupt Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday convicted a former Virginia police officer of storming the U.S. Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of all six counts he faced stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
His sentencing hearing wasn’t immediately scheduled.
Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial, which started last Tuesday. Jurors deliberated for several hours over two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.
A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure. Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Fracker testified Thursday that he had hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
During the trial’s closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Defense attorney Mark Rollins conceded that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he used the stick as a dangerous weapon and that he intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Fracker testified that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress.
Under cross-examination by Rollins, Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Fracker said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson. Wagner said the U.S. Army veteran was using the stick to help him walk because he has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told jurors that Robertson was charged for his actions, not his political beliefs. Wagner also said Robertson should be judged by his actions, not his words.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents.
Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
Robertson’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ | 2022-04-11T22:34:45 | 0 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ |
Genesee Co. official reacts to clerk being charged
FLINT, Mich. (WNEM) - After he was arraigned on witness intimidation and willful neglect of duty charges, Genesee County Clerk John Gleason still has his position.
His charges are a result of an investigation that started with a marriage license incident involving Gleason more than two years ago.
Domonique Clemons, the Chair of the Genesee County Board of Commissioners, talked about the arrest of Gleason.
“Things have certainly been interesting over the last couple of days,” Clemons said.
Gleason is charged with one count of witness bribing/intimidating/interfering. A felony punishable by up to four years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.
He is also facing a willful neglect of duty charge. A misdemeanor that carries a penalty of one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine.
TV5 has learned Gleason’s alleged victims are two female employees at the Genesee County Clerk’s office.
Despite Gleason’s legal troubles, Clemons said he is still the clerk.
“He will remain the clerk until either resigns from office, or the citizens initiate a recall process, which is a lengthy, several month-long process, or he is removed from office by the governor,” Clemons said.
Gleason may have more issues to deal with in the coming weeks.
“We also as a board, still have our own internal investigation going on into his office for harassment and hostile work environment. That investigation is continuing to move forward. And once we have findings on that, we will determine action that we can take on that,” Clemons said.
Clemons is quick to point out the county board does not have the power to remove Gleason from office.
In the meantime, Clemons is working to make sure the clerk’s office has the support it needs with an election just over three weeks away.
“We have been in communication with each other, and we have been in communication with the Secretary of State office to ensure that everything is running smoothly for our upcoming May election,” Clemons said.
Clemons said he has not talked to Gleason since his arrest. Clemons said Gleason will have his day in court. He has not t called for Gleason to step down, but he thinks there are things the embattled county clerk needs to mull over.
“Mr. Gleason should take into serious consideration if, with en-light of everything that’s going on, if he is able to execute the duties of office, if he is able to effectively serve the residents of Genesee County,” Clemons said.
Copyright 2022 WNEM. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/genesee-co-official-reacts-clerks-charges/ | 2022-04-11T22:34:51 | 1 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/genesee-co-official-reacts-clerks-charges/ |
Spotty sprinkles & showers this evening, warm with some sun Tuesday
SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) - After a noisy start to the day on Monday, with showers and thunderstorms rolling through early in the morning, we had some sunshine and warm temperatures that followed.
As we start the evening hours, clouds have moved back in and there are some showers on radar, but it looks like those showers are sprinkles or very light at best, and many of them aren’t reaching the ground. If you’re headed out this evening, be mindful that you could feel a few raindrops, however it may not be worth cancelling your plans.
This Evening & Overnight
We reached into the 60s today and even touched 70 in Flint, but temperatures have cooled off pretty quickly this evening behind a cold front. Many are in the 50s now, which is still nicer than many days we’ve had recently, but a big change from the peak earlier this afternoon.
As mentioned above, a few showers aren’t impossible early this evening, but we should dry out and clear our skies from midnight onward into Tuesday morning. Overnight lows will settle in the lower to middle 30s, with winds becoming light, turning southwest late tonight.
Tuesday
Skies should be filled with sunshine through the first half of Tuesday, which is expected to warm our temperatures pretty quickly from the cooler start. Highs should reach into at least the lower and middle 60s for Tuesday afternoon, if not a bit higher if we overachieve.
Winds will turn from southwesterly to southeasterly through the day, building to around 5 to 15 miles per hour, occasionally gusting near 20 miles per hour.
Although our next system will be moving in late Tuesday night, signs are pointing to us remaining dry through at least midnight, so evening plans on Tuesday should be in good shape, despite clouds that are expected to gradually fill in through the evening.
Overnight lows into Wednesday morning should remain more mild with the clouds, and showers eventually arriving. Expect 40s to low 50s to start the middle day of the workweek.
Wednesday
Showers and thunderstorms are expected to be possible through the day on Wednesday, however, there are expected to be breaks between a few rounds.
A warm front is expected to lift through during the morning with showers and thunderstorms possible then, potentially followed by a break, before more showers and storms are expected ahead of a cold front that comes through late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. There could also be some scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon ahead of the main line later in the evening.
Highs will have a chance to warm into the 60s and 70s on Wednesday, and we may get an early summertime feel as dew points start to rise as well.
The Storm Prediction Center has all of the TV5 viewing area under a Marginal Risk (isolated) for severe storms on Wednesday, meaning severe storms are possible, but a low chance. Right now with the front passing through later in the day as we cool off, this keeps our chances a bit lower. However, if the front arrives sooner, our chances will have a chance to go up.
We’ll keep a close eye on this timing, as well as other ingredients through the next 24-36 hours and stay on top of the threat. Any updates, you’ll know about them!
Copyright 2022 WNEM. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/spotty-sprinkles-showers-this-evening-warm-with-some-sun-tuesday/ | 2022-04-11T22:34:57 | 0 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/spotty-sprinkles-showers-this-evening-warm-with-some-sun-tuesday/ |
Your personality can either protect or age your brain, study says
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 5:15 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
(CNN) – Worry less now and your brain will stay healthy longer.
A new study shows people who worry more, lack self-discipline and are introverted are more likely to develop cognitive decline earlier in life.
It also applies to a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The study examined the personality traits of nearly 2,000 people.
It found being socially engaged with others could buy you an extra year of living without dementia.
If you keep anxiety at bay and stay organized and goal-oriented, it can get you two years of healthy cognitive function.
The study was published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ | 2022-04-11T22:35:03 | 0 | https://www.wnem.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ |
The 318: Caddo child drowns in Black Bayou, Bossier man arrested in connection with child porn charges
This week in the 318, both Louisiana state senators voted against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Bossier man was arrested for 900 counts of child pornography, and a toddler drowned in Black Bayou Lake.
Caddo Parish toddler dead after Monday morning drowning in Black Bayou
Just before 10 a.m. April 4, Caddo Fire District 8, received a call regarding a toddler drowning on Gator Hole Freeway in Hosston, Louisiana.
The child was found floating in Black Bayou Lake Monday morning.
Bia Rolden, Public Information Officer for Caddo Sheriff's Office said, "what we do know so far is that the mother was looking for the child and found the child in the water. The mother got the child out of the water and at some point, someone called 911."
The child later died.
Louisiana man arrested in connection with more than 900 child porn charges
Bossier Parish Sheriff's Detectives have arrested a Haughton man in connection with possessing more than 900 images of child sexual abuse.
Detectives say, Bernard Radcliff, 57, admitted viewing and possessing the pornographic images after they executed a search warrant of his home where they found the images on an electronic device.
Radcliff has been charged with 936 counts of pornography involving juveniles. His bond is set at $4.68 million.
Senators Bill Cassidy, John Kennedy will vote against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: Here's why
Louisiana Republican U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy will vote against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court nomination, both said Monday.
Jackson is the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. She is Democratic President Joe Biden's first nomination to the nation's highest court.
Cassidy was among the few Republican senators considered by some political analysts as a possible yes vote for Jackson, who will all but certainly be confirmed by the Senate after Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said last week she'll vote for her.
Learn more about Cassidy and Kennedy's decisions to vote against Jackson here.
Ultimately, Jackson was confirmed by a vote of 53 yeas and 47 nays. Jackson received approval from three Republicans: Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
Meet the young Louisiana photographer documenting life in Shreveport
Twenty-four-year-old Jamal Martin uses his Leica M6 to document where he has been, who he was with and what he has seen. He switches from film to digital, from still to video, with the ease that a younger generation seems to be born with.
In a recent Instagram post, he wrote, "At the end of the day anything that I create will revolve around slowing down and appreciating the beauty around me because it’s easy to just allow the days to pass without stopping and realizing how special the present is."
He credits his step-father, Jerome Prince, for introducing him to photography. When Martin was a child, Prince would take photos of the family. They would gather to see the images on the computer, selecting a few for printing. He realized that photos were capturing moments in his life and preserving memories.
Read more about Martin's inspiration for photography here.
A look at Shreveport's violent racial history in light of anti-lynching bill: 'Bloody Caddo was real'
Long before the past record-breaking year for homicides in Shreveport, Caddo Parish was known in Louisiana as "Bloody Caddo" for its reputation of white mobs lynching Black people in the years directly following the Civil War.
Some studies suggest only one or two American counties had more lynchings than Caddo Parish from 1865 to 1950, a period known as the Nadir, or lowest point, of race relations in America. Nearby parishes also rivaled Caddo's numbers.
"Bloody Caddo was real, but it was also Bloody Bossier, Bloody Desoto, Bloody Webster, and more," LSUS history professor Gary Joiner said about lynchings during that time. He says Caddo and Bossier Parishes ranked higher than anywhere else when paired together.
On March 29, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that, for the first time, makes lynching a federal crime, nearly 125 years after journalist Ida B. Wells first visited the White House and asked that anti-lynching legislation be enacted. Since Wells' visit, Congress failed 200 times to pass anti-lynching legislation that had been introduced.
Read more about Caddo Parish's history of lynchings here.
Kendrick Dante writes for the USA Today Network and is a government watchdog reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana. He enjoys cooking, concerts, and content. Email him at kdbrown1@gannett.com or connect on Twitter @kendrickdante. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/11/318-child-drowns-black-bayou-bossier-man-charged-child-porn/9532741002/ | 2022-04-11T22:40:51 | 1 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/11/318-child-drowns-black-bayou-bossier-man-charged-child-porn/9532741002/ |
Shreveport community outreach group says city won't explain why they can't use facilities
The founder of a Shreveport program helping ex-convicts functionally re-enter society said to the Shreveport City Council Monday that her organization is being blocked from accessing city facilities they were previously allowed to use for reasons they are not being provided.
Carla Buntyn, told the Times believes the reasons are political. Buntyn's organization Compassion for Lives provides support for substance abuse, job readiness skills, IT training, and the GED and High School Equivalency Test.
CFL was hoping it could teach GED/HISET classes from the city's computer labs located at community centers.
Buntyn said CFL can teach 12 students at a time from their office. She was hoping they could use Bill Cockrell Community Center so they can faster serve a waiting list of people requesting their services.
In response to a Times email, the city's Director of Communications sent guidelines that say "the purpose of the rental is to be intermittent use and shall not be consistent and on-going," implying that Buntyn's organization did not qualify to use the center.
But Buntyn said they have previously used the center last year for a 15-week period every Thursday, only stopping because the center closed as COVID numbers spiked.
CFL sent the Times the sign-in sheets for 11 training classes held at Hattie Perry Community Center on a weekly basis between June 22, 2021 and October, 28, 2021.
At the Monday City Council meeting, Dr. Kirkpatrick Williams said "the needs for the class is starting to outgrow the facilities we have."
Councilman Jerry Bowman, Jr. asked Williams what Roadblocks are you facing, to which Williams said they received an email back saying they could not use the facilities but were not given a reason why.
"In fact, the email said 'we don't know why,'" Williams said at the meeting.
"I think we want ongoing GED classes if we can have them," Councilman John Nickelson said.
Bowman expressed concern over a denial email being sent without a reason.
Kendrick Dante writes for the USA Today Network and is a government watchdog reporter in Shreveport, Louisiana. He enjoys cooking, concerts, and content. Email him at kdbrown1@gannett.com or connect on Twitter @kendrickdante. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/11/community-group-says-city-wont-say-why-they-cant-use-city-facilities-shreveport-louisiana/7280950001/ | 2022-04-11T22:40:57 | 0 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/11/community-group-says-city-wont-say-why-they-cant-use-city-facilities-shreveport-louisiana/7280950001/ |
Shreveport mayor announces new fire chief
Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins announces Administrative Assistant to the Fire Chief Clarence Reese Jr. will serve as fire chief for the Shreveport Fire Department.
“Chief Reese has a vision and plan for the future of the Shreveport Fire Department,” said Mayor Perkins. “His nearly two decades of service displays his commitment to our citizens on a daily basis. Fostering longstanding relationships in the community will be crucial for recruitment efforts and building a stronger department for citizens.”
The nearly 20-year veteran of the department started his career as a firefighter/EMT. He’s been a Public Information Officer for the past four years and was most recently named Administrative Assistant to the Fire Chief in 2021.
Reese is also a certified law enforcement officer and is a reserve deputy with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. “I’m invested in creating a safer community for all families living in this city,” said Chief Reese.
“Shreveport has been my home since 1996 and it is where I’m raising my children. I’m dedicated to ensuring that the Shreveport Fire Department delivers quality services to those who are in need of our care. Developing a plan for this department that will best serve future generations is what I plan to do in my new role as fire chief.”
Chief Reese is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs/Firefighters, Government Finance Officers Association, and National Informational Officers Association. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/11/shreveport-mayor-announces-new-fire-chief/7283051001/ | 2022-04-11T22:41:03 | 0 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2022/04/11/shreveport-mayor-announces-new-fire-chief/7283051001/ |
Caddo Parish hosting Jr. NBA Skills Challenge in honor of murdered Huntington High basketball star
Caddo Parish Parks and Recreation announced Monday that they will be hosting the Jr. NBA Skills Challenge on April 23 in honor of a slain Huntington High basketball star.
Devin Myers was shot in the back multiple time on March 3 in Shreveport.
“One of our core priorities at Caddo Parks and Recreation is to provide safe and educational opportunities for our Parish youth,” Patrick Wesley, Director of Parks and Recreation said.
The Jr. NBA Skills Challenge will provide boys and girls ages seven to 13 designed instruction to improve basketball skills in five fundamental areas: shooting, lay-ups, dribbling, passing, and defense.
Local law enforcement and mental health representatives will be on site to discuss the impact of gun violence in our communities.
More:Bossier’s Joseph Manning credits Huntington's Devin Myers as his toughest defender
This event is a partnership with 99.7 FM-KMJJ, it is free and open to the public.
“We are pleased to partner with KMJJ and host an event that will allow our youth to hone in on developing their skillsets, improve their fitness, and honor a young man whose life was cut entirely too short,” Wesley said.
Pre-registration is required for more information visit www.caddoparks.org or contact Mary Murphy at mmurphy@caddo.org or (318)-220-6284. The deadline to register is April 20.
Lunch and snacks will be provided for all registered participants.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/11/jr-nba-skills-challenge-event-memory-devin-myers/7276440001/ | 2022-04-11T22:41:09 | 1 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2022/04/11/jr-nba-skills-challenge-event-memory-devin-myers/7276440001/ |
LHSAA on NILs: 'We're educating, not regulating'
The LHSAA has made the decision to jump to the forefront for disseminating information to member institutions about name, image and likeness contacts and is not promoting Louisiana student-athletes getting paid to play, according to LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine.
Speaking during a Zoom meeting with members of the media Monday morning, Bonine said he doesn’t expect to see an increase in LHSAA investigations due to student-athletes receiving compensation through NIL deals going forward.
“We will still have individuals who try to work around the rules, and we will monitor that,” Bonine said. “We have 12 very good compliance officers, all former principals, who do a great job. If there are more issues then that will allow us to learn more of the pitfalls of NILs.”
It would be against LHSAA rules for a booster at one school to offer financial assistance to an athlete at another school to change schools, according to Bonine.
RUINATION: Could NIL deals forever alter the high school landscape?
The LHSAA released information Friday that it had entered into an agreement with Eccker Sports to educate the state’s administrators and athletics directors about what NILs entail. The message created a firestorm from the state’s coaches, who were unclear about what it meant for their athletes. Bonine addressed those concerns.
“Education not regulation. We're educating individuals about NILs in our state association. We're not regulating it,” Bonine said. "We're not promoting it. We're not condoning it. We do not have anything in our bylaws that currently prevent a student-athlete from receiving compensation for their name, image or likeness. You all know that some tuition-based schools provide tuition reduction for some student-athletes to attend. That’s been happening for a long time.”
North Caddo wide receiver Omarion Miller posted on Twitter Sunday that he was open to NIL deals.
"DMS. Let's talk," he posted.
Bonine also said the NILs are not solely for athletes. Sponsorships are available for band members, thespians and other students involved in extracurricular activities.
The danger for athletes is signing contracts without knowing what the contract entrails. Bonine said he’s heard of high school athletes who have signed deals that can’t be replaced by a better deal when they move on to the collegiate level.
“And if a car dealership gives a student a car – What’s the lease on that vehicle – $300 to $400 per month?” Bonine asked. “After two months, the student has to receive a 1099 because the value has passed $600. Are they putting aside the money to pay the taxes on that gift? Most high school kids I know wouldn’t. Those are the kinds of pitfalls we are trying to avoid.”
Eccker Sports’ Randy Eccker said his company’s website offers considerable information for administrators, athletics directors, parents and athletes on how to deal with NILs.
“There has been a lot of fear, doubt and uncertainty in the high school market in regard to NILs,” Eccker said. “Education is the best protection.”
While a high school student can receive compensation for name, image or likeness per the current LHSAA bylaws, he or she could run into trouble if for receiving money to participate in an athletic event. That hasn’t changed, but the LHSAA is trying to get in the forefront of the NIL craze.
“Someone had to address the elephant in the room,” Bonine said. “We couldn’t just stick our heads in the sand and hope it would go away.”
Jimmy Watson covers Shreveport-Bossier area sports. Email him at jwatson@shreveporttimes.com and follow him on Twitter @JimmyWatson6. | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/04/11/lhsaa-nil-bylaws-do-not-prevent-athletes-receiving-payments/7275962001/ | 2022-04-11T22:41:15 | 1 | https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/04/11/lhsaa-nil-bylaws-do-not-prevent-athletes-receiving-payments/7275962001/ |
WOODBURN, Ind. (WANE) – Woodlan High School’s all-time leading scorer is heading to St. Francis as six-foot-seven forward Joe Reidy signed with the Cougars on Monday afternoon.
Reidy finished his pre career with 1,809 points for the Warriors. As a senior he tallied 21.5 points and 11.1 rebounds per game for a Woodlan team that finished 16-9 overall. | https://www.wane.com/high-school-sports/woodlans-reidy-signs-with-st-francis/ | 2022-04-11T22:45:12 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/high-school-sports/woodlans-reidy-signs-with-st-francis/ |
VIENNA (AP) — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Monday that he urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Ukraine and raised the issue of “serious war crimes” committed by the Russian military.
Nehammer was the first European leader to meet Putin in Moscow since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine Feb. 24.
In a statement released after the meeting, the Austrian chancellor said his primary message to Putin in the “very direct, open and tough” talks was that “this war needs to end, because in war both sides can only lose.”
Nehammer told Putin all those responsible for war crimes in the Ukrainian city of Bucha and elsewherewould be “held to account.”
He also stressed the need to open humanitarian corridors so that civilians trapped in cities under attack can access basic supplies like food and water, according to his statement.
The Austrian leader called the Moscow trip to Moscow his “duty” to exhaust every possibility for ending the violence in Ukraine, coming just two days after travelling to Kyiv for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Nehammer said face-to-face talks to look “each other in the eye, discussing the horrors of war,” could have a greater impact over the long term.
But he said he walked away from the meeting without much optimism for an end to the war any time soon.
“It might be necessary to do it 100 times,” Nehammer said of the meeting. “But I think it’s necessary to do it, so that peace reigns again and the people of Ukraine can live safely.”
European Union-member Austria supported the 27-nation bloc’s sanctions against Russia, though it so far has opposed cutting off deliveries of Russian gas. The country is militarily neutral and is not a member of NATO.
But Nehammer and other Austrian officials have been keen to stress that military neutrality does not mean moral neutrality.
“We are militarily neutral, but have a clear position on the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,” Nehammer wrote on Twitter Sunday when announcing his trip to Moscow. “It must stop!”
Nehammer said he told Putin the EU is “as united as it’s ever been” on the issue of sanctions, and that these will remain in place – and may even be strengthened – as long as Ukrainians continue to die.
Earlier Monday, Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg said Nehammer decided to make the Moscow trip after meeting with Zelenskyy in Kyiv and following contacts with the leaders of Turkey, Germany and the European Union.
Schallenberg said ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg that it was an effort to “seize every chance to end the humanitarian hell” in Ukraine.
He added that “every voice that makes clear to President Putin what reality looks like outside the walls of Kremlin is not a wasted voice.” | https://www.wane.com/news/austrian-chancellor-tells-putin-to-end-ukraine-war/ | 2022-04-11T22:45:18 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/austrian-chancellor-tells-putin-to-end-ukraine-war/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spoke on a video link with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, stressing the countries’ shared values as the U.S. has pushed India and others to take a harder line against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden opened the conversation by emphasizing the defense partnership between the two countries and by saying the U.S. and India are going to “continue our close consultation on how to manage the destabilizing effects of this Russian war.”
“The root of our partnership is a deep connection between our people, ties of family, of friendship and of shared values,” the U.S. president said.
India’s neutral stance in the war has raised concerns in Washington and earned praise from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who lauded India this month for judging “the situation in its entirety, not just in a one-sided way.”
Modi called the situation in Ukraine “very worrying,” and he noted that an Indian student lost his life during the war. He said he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appealing to both of them for peace. India has condemned the killings uncovered in the city of Bucha and has called for an independent investigation.
Still, India has refrained from some efforts to hold Russia accountable for its invasion. India abstained when the U.N. General Assembly voted Thursday to suspend Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers in Ukraine engaged in rights violations that the U.S. and Ukraine have called war crimes.
The vote was 93-24 with 58 abstentions.
In the virtual meeting, Biden planned to talk about the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine “and mitigating its destabilizing impact on global food supply and commodity markets,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday.
They’ll discuss “strengthening the global economy, and upholding a free, open, rules-based international order to bolster security, democracy, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” she said.
India continues to purchase Russian energy supplies, despite pressure from Western countries to avoid buying Russian oil and gas. The U.S. has also considered sanctions on India for its recent purchase of advanced Russian air defense systems.
Last month, the state-run Indian Oil Corp. bought 3 million barrels of crude from Russia to secure its needs, resisting entreaties from the West to avoid such purchases. India isn’t alone in buying Russian energy, however. Several European allies such as Germany have continued to do so, despite public pressure to end these contracts.
Indian media reports said Russia was offering a discount on oil purchases of 20% below global benchmark prices.
Iraq is India’s top supplier, with a 27% share. Saudi Arabia is second at around 17%, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 13% and the U.S. at 9%, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Biden and Modi last spoke in March.
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Sharma reported from New Delhi. | https://www.wane.com/news/biden-modi-to-speak-as-us-presses-for-hard-line-on-russia/ | 2022-04-11T22:45:26 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/biden-modi-to-speak-as-us-presses-for-hard-line-on-russia/ |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric, the nation’s largest utility, has agreed to pay more than $55 million to avoid criminal prosecution for two major wildfires sparked by its aging Northern California power lines and submit to five years of oversight in an attempt to prevent more deadly blazes.
The company didn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in the settlement announced Monday with prosecutors in six counties ravaged bylast year’s Dixie Fireand the 2019 Kincade Fire. The utility still faces criminal charges for a 2020 wildfire in Shasta County that killed four people.
The civil settlements are designed to accelerate payments to hundreds of people whose homes were destroyed so they can start rebuilding more quickly than those who suffered devastating losses in 2017 and 2018 blazes ignited by PG&E’s equipment. Those fires prompted the utility to negotiate settlements that included $13.5 billion earmarked for victims — money that still hasn’t been completely distributed.
The deal also thrusts the utility back into five years of independent oversight, similar to the supervision PG&E faced during itscriminal probation after it was convicted of misconduct that contributed to a natural gas explosion that killed eight people in 2010.
Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch said that oversight was the biggest accomplishment to come from the settlement.
“We have limited tools and criminal law to deal with corporations and what we were able to do here was to get a five-year agreement that they will be overseen, that there will be an independent monitor, and that they will have to meet certain benchmarks,” she said Monday.
All told, PG&E has been blamed for more than 30 wildfires since 2017 that wiped out more than 23,000 homes and businesses and killed more than 100 people.
PG&E’s federal probation ended in late January, raising worries from the federal judge who tried to force the utility to reduce fire risks by requiring more maintenance and reporting. U.S. District Judge William Alsup warned that PG&E remained a “continuing menace to California” and urged state prosecutors to try to rein in the company that provides power to 16 million people.
In a joint statement covering five of the six counties that settled, prosecutors said PG&E will be “essentially on a five-year probation” to be overseen by Filsinger Energy Partners, which already acts as a safety monitor for California power regulators.
PG&E will have to underwrite the federal monitor’s costs, up to $15 million annually, in addition to the $55 million in other payments and penalties that the utility expects to incur in the settlement.
As part of their settlement, Sonoma County prosecutors agreed to drop 33 criminal charges filed last year that accused PG&E of inadvertently injuring six firefighters and endangering public health with smoke and ash from the Kincade Fire that began in October 2019.
Fire officials said a PG&E transmission line sparked the fire, which destroyed 374 buildings in wine country and caused nearly 200,000 people to flee as it burned through 120 square miles (311 square kilometers), the largest evacuation in county history.
Prosecutors in the other five counties were exploring criminal charges in last year’s Dixie Fire before cutting the deal that they said will result in far larger payouts than had they hauled PG&E into court. Because there were no deaths in the Dixie Fire, prosecutors said the utility would have paid a maximum penalty of about $330,000 if it had been found guilty in a criminal case.
Ravitch said state laws that limit punishment against a corporation to probation and fines helped motivate the settlement. She said if PG&E had been successfully prosecuted in the Sonoma County case it would have paid a fine of just $9.4 million, most of which would have gone to the state.
Instead, the county will now receive more than $20 million earmarked for nonprofits that help people affected by wildfires and for Santa Rosa Junior College so that it can expand fire safety and vegetation management programs. It will also reimburse the DA’s office for the costs of investigating and litigating the case, she said.
Even when PG&E pleadedguilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter f or the deaths in the 2018 Camp Fire, the company was fined just $3.5 million.
In a statement, PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said the utility welcomed the chance to be more transparent — and ultimately more accountable — for its operations.
“We are committed to doing our part, and we look forward to a long partnership with these communities to make it right and make it safe,” Poppe said.
The money that that PG&E will pay as part of the settlements will account for a just sliver of its anticipated liabilities in the Kincade, Zogg and Dixie fires. As of December 31, PG&E estimated it will likely be held responsible for at least $2.3 billion in losses stemming from those wildfires. Some of the estimated $1.15 billion in damages caused by the Dixie Fire may be paid by a state-backed insurance fund that California lawmakers created after PG&E filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
The Dixie Fire burned nearly 1 million acres (3,900 square kilometers) in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta, and Tehama counties and destroyed more than 1,300 homes and other buildings. The blaze started on July 13, 2021 when a tree hit electrical distribution lines west of a dam in the Sierra Nevada, according to investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The settlement for the Dixie Fire was made by district attorneys in Plumas, Lassen, Tehama, Shasta and Butte counties, which will receive nearly $30 million.
Although her office participated in the Dixie Fire settlement, Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett said she will continue to pursue a criminal case related to the Zogg Fire, which killed four.
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Liedtke reported from San Ramon, California. | https://www.wane.com/news/california-utility-to-pay-55-million-for-massive-wildfires/ | 2022-04-11T22:45:39 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/california-utility-to-pay-55-million-for-massive-wildfires/ |
BEIJING (AP) — The manufacturing hub of Guangzhou closed itself to most arrivals Monday as China battles a major COVID-19 surge in its big eastern cities.
Shanghai has taken the brunt of the rise, with another 26,087 cases announced on Monday, only 914 of which showed symptoms. The city of 26 million is under a tight lockdown, with many residents confined to their homes for up to three weeks and concerns growing over the effect on the economy of China’s largest city.
The financial hub has seen international events canceled because of the crackdown, and local football club Shanghai Port has been forced to withdraw from the Asian Champions League because travel restrictions prevented it from attending games in Thailand.
No such lockdown has yet been announced for Guangzhou, a metropolis of 18 million northwest of Hong Kong that is home to many top companies and China’s busiest airport. Just 27 cases were reported in the city on Monday.
However, primary and middle schools have been switched to online after an initial 23 local infections were detected last week. An exhibition center was being converted into a makeshift hospital after authorities said earlier they would begin citywide mass testing.
Only citizens with a “definite need” to leave Guangzhou can do so, and only if they test negative for the virus within 48 hours of departure, city spokesperson Chen Bin said in a social media announcement.
China has stuck to its “zero-COVID” strategy of handling outbreaks with strict isolation and mass testing, despite complaints in Shanghai over shortages of food and medical services.
China’s government and the entirely state-controlled media are growing increasingly defensive about complaints over the COVID-19 prevention measures, censoring content online and rebuking foreign critics.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Sunday said China had “lodged solemn representations with the U.S.” after the State Department advised Americans to reconsider traveling to China due to “arbitrary enforcement” of local laws and COVID-19 restrictions, particularly in Hong Kong, Jilin province and Shanghai. U.S. officials cited a risk of “parents and children being separated.”
China was “strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the U.S. side’s groundless accusation against China’s epidemic response,” Zhao said.
Despite that, and indications the hardline policy is being dictated by head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping, China has rejected any notion that its response is political in nature. Xi has demanded social stability above all else in the runup to a key party congress later this year at which he is expected to bestow on himself an unprecedented third-term as party leader.
The English-language China Daily acknowledged that Shanghai’s measures are “far from perfect,” and pointed to the firing last week of three local officials for failing in their duties. But it said that shouldn’t become an “excuse to politicize the event and blame China.”
Zhao issued a further defense of China’s virus controls on Monday, saying they have “proven to be effective and in line with its national conditions and needs, and have made an important contribution to the global fight against the epidemic.”
Shanghai has brought in thousands of additional health workers from other cities, provinces and the military. Despite the large number of cases, no new deaths have been reported in the Shanghai wave, possibly because the omicron variant is less deadly than older variants.
City authorities also say they have secured daily supplies for residents, following complaints about deliveries of food and other necessities.
Residents have resorted to group buying of groceries because they are not allowed to leave their buildings, with only partial success in obtaining needed items.
Officials say they will begin relaxing restrictions beginning with areas where no new infections have been detected for two weeks. Residents will be allowed to move around their districts while remaining socially distanced.
A second category will be allowed to move around their neighborhoods, while others will remain isolated in their homes.
Chinese club Shanghai Port has been forced by the city’s COVID-19 lockdown to withdraw from the Asian Champions League, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said Monday.
Due to travel restrictions in the city, Port was unable to make the trip to Thailand for six Group J games.
Its first game was scheduled on Saturday against Vissel Kobe of Japan.
“The AFC acknowledged the travel restrictions faced by Shanghai Port FC as a result of the recent lockdown measures enforced in Shanghai,” the AFC said in a statement.
The capital, Beijing, has seen relatively few restrictions, although the Erjiefang neighborhood including the famed 798 art district has been cordoned off and classified as high risk after eight infections were reported there over the past two weeks.
China is facing one of its worst local outbreaks since the pandemic began. China is still mostly closed to international travel, even as most of the world has sought ways to live with the virus. | https://www.wane.com/news/china-closes-guangzhou-to-most-arrivals-as-outbreak-spreads/ | 2022-04-11T22:45:46 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/china-closes-guangzhou-to-most-arrivals-as-outbreak-spreads/ |
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The corruption trial in South Africa of former President Jacob Zuma has been postponed again on Monday pending the outcome of the ex-leader’s appeal to get the state prosecutor removed from his case.
Zuma was not present in the Pietermaritzburg High Court due to a “medical emergency,” his lawyer Dali Mpofu told the court.
His legal representatives requested that the start of the trial be postponed until the Supreme Court of Appeal decides on Zuma’s effort to have state prosecutor Billy Downer removed from the case. Zuma accuses Downer of bias against the ex-leader.
The case is set to resume on May 17.
The delay is the latest of many as it has been nearly 17 years since Zuma was first charged with corruption, fraud and money laundering related to South Africa’s controversial 1999 arms deal.
He is charged alongside French arms manufacturer Thales, which is accused of paying bribes to Zuma through his former financial advisor Schabir Shaik, who was convicted on related charges in 2005.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority opposed the application for the postponement, accusing Zuma of delaying tactics to prevent the start of the trial.
While Zuma has publicly said he wants his day in court, he has over the years launched numerous legal actions that have delayed the start of the trial.
Delivering his judgment on Monday, High Court Judge Piet Koen said while the delay of the trial could lead to frustrations, the current delay was unavoidable as the court had to await the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision.
Zuma, 79, is currently on medical parole on a 15-month prison sentence following his conviction last year of contempt of court for defying a Constitutional Court order to appear before a judicial commission investigating corruption during his presidential term from 2009 to 2018.
Zuma was imprisoned in July last year which set off days of rioting in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces in which shops, warehouses and factories were looted and many burned. More than 300 people died in the unrest.
About three months later Zuma was released on medical parole, for an undisclosed health condition. A subsequent court judgment ruled the medical parole was invalid, but his lawyers are appealing that judgment. | https://www.wane.com/news/corruption-trial-delayed-against-south-africas-ex-president/ | 2022-04-11T22:45:54 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/corruption-trial-delayed-against-south-africas-ex-president/ |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — An area at the U.S. government’s nuclear waste repository in southeastern New Mexico was evacuated over the weekend after workers handling a shipping container discovered a small amount of radioactive liquid inside it.
There was no indication of airborne contamination and testing of workers’ hands and feet turned up no contamination after the discovery was made late Saturday in a bay where containers are processed before being taken underground for disposal, officials said in a statement.
“The event at the site has been secured. There is no risk of radiological release and there is no risk to the public or the environment,” plant officials said their most recent statement, issued late Saturday.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the liquid came from and which government facility had packed and shipped the waste. Bobby St. John, a spokesman for the contractor that manages the facility for the federal government, said Monday that more information would be provided later.
The repository is the backbone of a multibillion-dollar cleanup program that involves tons of Cold War-era waste from federal labs and defense-related sites around the country.
The waste — remnants of decades of nuclear research and bomb making — typically consists of lab coats, gloves, tools and debris contaminated with plutonium and other radioactive elements.
Independent federal investigators last month raised concerns about whether cost overruns and missed construction deadlines will continue at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
A multimillion-dollar project is underway at the underground facility to install a new ventilation system so that full operations can resume, following a radiation leak in 2014 that forced the repository’s closure for nearly three years and led to major policy overhauls.
The container that caused that release had been inappropriately packed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in northern New Mexico.
Operations had to be reduced after the waste plant reopened in 2017 because areas of the facility were contaminated and airflow needed for mining and disposal operations was limited.
It was unclear Monday whether operations had resumed in the area where shipments are processed or what plans were in place to ensure worker safety.
The repository was carved out of an ancient salt formation about a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) below the ground because officials say that the shifting salt will eventually entomb the radioactive waste.
Its current footprint includes eight sections, which the U.S. Energy Department estimates will be filled in 2025.
State regulators are weighing a permit change that some critics have said could lead to expanded repository operations. A decision is expected later this year. | https://www.wane.com/news/discovery-of-radioactive-liquid-pauses-work-at-us-nuke-dump/ | 2022-04-11T22:46:01 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/discovery-of-radioactive-liquid-pauses-work-at-us-nuke-dump/ |
CAMBRIDGE CITY, Ind. — A Wayne County woman told deputies she set fire to a Cambridge City home because “God told her to do so.” She claimed her husband was “the beast” and that “mass destruction of abuse and damage” had occurred under the roof, court documents reveal.
Holly Wyatt, 52, has been preliminarily charged with arson that results in bodily injury to another person, a level 3 felony. She is currently being held on a $20,000 bond.
According to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, dispatch was notified of heavy smoke coming from the area of Frank Myers Road and State Road 1 in Cambridge City at 4:12 p.m. Sunday. Responders quickly descended upon the area and found a house in the 14800 block of Frank Myers Road completely engulfed in flames. Police said the fire had even started to spread to a nearby wooded area.
One mile away, sitting inside a black Ford pickup truck in a driveway off of State Road 1, police found Wyatt. Police said Wyatt and her husband had been living inside the Frank Myers Road home, renting the property from Wyatt’s aunt.
According to court documents, a deputy walked up to Wyatt and asked how she was doing. “Wonderful,” Holly reportedly responded. Wyatt then admitted to burning the house down, stating burning the home to the ground was the reason she was feeling so good. The lighter she reportedly used to start the fire was still inside her truck at the time of her arrest, police said.
During her interview with police, Wyatt mentioned several times that it was God who had told her to burn the house down. She claimed the home had housed many evil deeds, including abuse, and said that God had told her that her husband was “the beast.”
Wyatt said no one was home when she started the fire, according to court documents. She told deputies that after taking a shower she knew “she was not going to be safe until everything was gone,” meaning burning the house to ash.
Court documents state that Wyatt started the fire by using a grill lighter and spray paint. She caught boxes full of items on fire on the back porch before setting fire to the bed in the master bedroom, curtains in the living room and even lighting baskets of laundry on fire.
Wyatt told police after the house became fully engulfed that she walked outside, sat back in her pickup and watched the house burn with her dog at her side.
After the fire began to spread to a nearby outbuilding, Wyatt said she drove down the street and pulled into the driveway of a house on State Road 1.
During Wyatt’s interview with police, she told officers that God told her that her husband had “clocked out,” meaning that she believed her husband was dead. She told police she “had no reason to believe she was ever going to hear (his) voice or see him again.”
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Department confirmed afterward that Wyatt’s husband was alive and safe, staying with family members.
A firefighter was injured during the process of extinguishing the fire, authorities said. He suffered from smoke inhalation, dehydration and heat exhaustion and was transferred to a hospital where he was later released. | https://www.wane.com/news/docs-wayne-co-woman-claimed-god-told-her-to-burn-down-house-where-the-beast-lived/ | 2022-04-11T22:46:09 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/docs-wayne-co-woman-claimed-god-told-her-to-burn-down-house-where-the-beast-lived/ |
UNIVERSITY CITY, Mo. (AP) — When the coronavirus pandemic first hit the U.S., sales of window coverings at Halcyon Shades quickly went dark. So the suburban St. Louis business did what hundreds of other small manufacturers did: It pivoted to make protective supplies, with help from an $870,000 government grant.
But things haven’t worked out as planned. The company quit making face shields because it wasn’t profitable. It still hasn’t sold a single N95 mask because of struggles to get equipment, materials and regulatory approval.
“So far, it has been a net drain of funds and resources and energy,” Halcyon Shades owner Jim Schmersahl said.
Many companies that began producing personal protective equipment with patriotic optimism have scaled back, shut down or given up, according to an Associated Press analysis based on numerous interviews with manufacturers. Some already have sold equipment they bought with state government grants.
As COVID-19 was stressing hospitals and shuttering businesses in 2020, elected officials touted the need to boost U.S. production of protective gear: “All this stuff should be made in the United States and not in China,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in remarks echoed by others.
Yet many manufacturers who answered the call have faced logistical hurdles, regulatory rejections, slumping demand and fierce competition from foreign suppliers. On April 1, Florida-based American Surgical Mask Co. became one of the latest to close.
“I’m just done with the fight,” CEO Matt Brandman told the AP.
After the initial scramble for PPE subsided, many industry newcomers faced difficulty selling products. Government agencies sometimes wanted huge quantities at tough-to-meet deadlines. Hospital systems tended to contract with established suppliers. Retail sales waned after every virus surge.
“At the end of the day, when everybody said they wanted American-made, nobody’s buying, not even the state,” said Tony Blogumas, vice president of Green Resources Consulting, a rural Missouri firm that received an $800,000 state grant but has sold only a few thousand masks. “We’re kind of upset about the whole situation.”
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson also is disappointed. His administration divided $20 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds among 48 businesses for the production of masks, gowns, sanitizer and other supplies. Parson hoped to seed a permanent field of manufacturers.
“I’m still a firm believer in that — that we need to be making PPE here in this state,” Parson said. “Unfortunately, a lot of entities went right back to where they were getting it before.”
The onset of the pandemic revealed that the U.S. was highly dependent on foreign countries for protective gear. When China limited exports because of its own battle against COVID-19, U.S. stockpiles plummeted. Prices skyrocketed as federal officials, governors and health care systems competed for supplies.
Though federal stockpiles have been replenished, shriveling domestic production has raised concerns that state governments, medical facilities and others could again get stuck scrambling for gear during a future pandemic.
The AP identified more than $125 million in grants to spur production of pandemic supplies made to over 300 business in 10 states — Alabama, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York and Ohio. It’s possible that grants were awarded in additional states, but there is no central clearinghouse to track them.
In November 2020, Alabama awarded one of the single largest grants — nearly $10.6 million from federal pandemic relief funds — to HomTex Inc. The company was to equip a new Selma facility to make 250 million surgical masks and 45 million N95 masks annually. The plant returned $1.8 million of the state grant and has yet to make anything due to a lack of customers.
“I can’t produce product that I can’t sell,” HomTex President Jeremy Wootten said.
Other companies also had trouble living up to political hype.
In October 2020, New York announced eight grants that then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, now the governor, said were “a model for how we build back better for the post-pandemic future.” Those included $800,000 for newly formed Altor Safety and $1 million for startup firm NYPPE.
But NYPPE’s equipment wasn’t ready until February 2021, by which time the market had changed, President Connor Knapp said.
So Knapp tapped the brakes on his plans. NYPPE still hasn’t sold any N95 masks because it lacks regulatory approval. It just recently scaled up production of surgical masks, after obtaining a U.S. Food and Drug Administration certification that came with its purchase of Altor Safety.
Some PPE manufacturers point to federal regulations as part of the reason for their struggles. Three-ply masks need FDA approval to be marketed for medical use — an important designation for building a long-term customer base.
That process can be time-consuming. Facing delays, Angstrom Manufacturing in Missouri ended up buying another business that already had FDA approval, President Chris Carron said. By then, it was fall 2021 — a year after it received a state grant.
Companies need approval from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to market products as N95 respirators, which filter at least 95% of airborne particles.
During the first two years of the pandemic, NIOSH approved 30 new manufacturers — more than seven times the typical number during a similar pre-pandemic period, according to agency data. Some applications remain pending, while numerous others were denied.
Halcyon Shades’ N95 certification was rejected in October because its samples didn’t have head straps attached. While the company works on another application, its equipment sits idle inside the clear plastic-sheet walls of a “clean room” specially built to shield materials from airborne contaminants. Partially finished masks remain paused on a conveyor belt, waiting to be deposited into a cardboard box.
Without federal approval, “we’re just dead in the water,” said Schmersahl, the company owner.
Progress reports filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development show that nearly all its PPE grant recipients faced challenges by July 2021, especially with sales.
Patriot Medical Devices, which received $750,000 from Missouri, hired nearly 100 people as it cranked out millions of masks during a COVID-19 surge in late 2020 and early 2021, CEO Rick Needham said. Fewer than 10 employees remain.
“We felt it was our patriotic duty to do something to help solve the problem,” Needham said. But, he added, “It’s frankly a little bit of a dysfunctional business model at this point.”
Ohio awarded $20.8 million to 73 businesses to manufacture pandemic-related supplies, according to state data. Of 60 businesses that complied with a recent reporting deadline, more than one-third no longer produced PPE by the end of 2021.
Cleveland Veteran Business Solutions, which received a $500,000 grant to get into the PPE business, made about 5 million surgical masks beginning in August 2020. It ultimately halted production in the face of cheaper imports and sold its machines this year, co-founder Taner Eren said.
“It was surprising and disappointing strategically that there wasn’t support for a local PPE manufacturing industry,” Eren said.
The business was among several dozen that banded together to form the American Mask Manufacturer’s Association with the goal of sustaining the industry. The group’s membership has dwindled as more and more go out of business.
Association organizers say the industry has reached a critical point. They want the federal government to treat PPE manufacturers like the nation’s defense industry — entering into long-term contracts to perpetually replenish a stockpile for future pandemics or emergencies.
“If the federal government doesn’t come in and help support the U.S. manufacturing base, it’s almost certainly going to go back to China, and we’ll be just as vulnerable as we were in early 2020 and 2019,” said Brent Dillie, the association chairman and co-founder of Premium-PPE, a Virginia manufacturer started during the pandemic that has shed about two-thirds of its roughly 300 employees.
Infrastructure legislation signed by President Joe Biden took a step toward bolstering domestic suppliers. Effective in February, it required new contracts for PPE purchased by the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs to run for at least two years and be awarded to U.S. producers — unless there’s not sufficient quantity and quality at market prices.
The health and veterans departments said they haven’t bought anything yet. Homeland Security hasn’t answered the AP’s questions. Documents show the government solicited bids due Dec. 6 for up to 381 million U.S.-made surgical masks over three years for its stockpile. No deal has been announced.
Other documents show the government is looking to contract with three major suppliers — 3M, Moldex, and Owens & Minor — for a total of $115 million in U.S-made N95 masksover three years. A justification document says noncompetitive contracts are necessary to preserve capacity for future coronavirus surges or emergencies.
The Biden administration also formed a task force of experts from federal agencies, health care providers, PPE manufacturers and distributors to develop a national strategy for ensuring a “resilient public health supply chain.” Its work is expected to extend for years.
Some manufacturers said they can’t wait long for a federal life preserver.
Dentec Safety Specialists is wrapping up a contract to supply 125,000 rubber reusable respirators and 500,000 filtration cartridges from its Kansas facility for the national stockpile, said President Claudio Dente. It needs more orders soon to prevent layoffs, he said.
“I thought that COVID would really change the mindset of the people, the governments and manufacturing,” Dente said. But he added: “The general marketplace is reverting back to their old ways — meaning looking to buy product from China.” | https://www.wane.com/news/efforts-to-make-protective-medical-gear-in-us-falling-flat/ | 2022-04-11T22:46:15 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/efforts-to-make-protective-medical-gear-in-us-falling-flat/ |
DETROIT (AP) — A jury’s inability to reach a unanimous verdict for two men charged in a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer means the federal government can take them to trial again.
The jury last week acquitted Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta, whom prosecutors described as “soldiers” in the foiled plot, but deadlocked on the alleged leaders, Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. It was an extraordinary setback for the government, which claimed the men wanted to trigger a civil war before the 2020 election.
HUNG JURY
A hung jury is unable to unanimously agree on someone’s guilt or innocence. It could be just one person on the 12-member panel who disagrees with the others.
Prosecutors can put someone on trial again or drop the case. U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge told reporters Friday that Fox and Croft are “awaiting trial and we’ll get back to work on that.” They remain in jail.
Mark Chutkow, who until recently led the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit, said he would be surprised if prosecutors fold, citing the significance of the allegations.
“The government has two cooperating defendants who pled guilty, who said they were part of the crime. That’s pretty compelling evidence,” Chutkow said, referring to Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, who testified for prosecutors.
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
Only the jury knows. U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker barred lawyers from contacting jurors for any post-trial intelligence, but jurors can reach out to them on their own.
Chutkow said it could help prosecutors and defense attorneys as they prepare for a second trial.
“As a litigant, sometimes you get in the fog of war,” he said. “You’ve spent so much time with your case, you’re not objective as to what it looked like.”
Fox, who was living in the Grand Rapids area, and Croft, from Bear, Delaware, didn’t testify. Their defense came through the cross-examination of the government’s witnesses.
Fox and Croft might have been angry with Whitmer over COVID-19 restrictions, but there was no real plan to kidnap the Democratic governor, their lawyers insisted. They say undercover FBI agents and informants inside the groupfueled wild talk.
Detroit-area defense lawyer Michael Rataj said the challenge for prosecutors in Grand Rapids will be picking a jury from western and northern Michigan.
“It’s Trump country and they don’t like Whitmer. Prosecutors have an uphill battle,” Rataj said.
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER OTHER BIG CASES WITH HUNG JURIES?
Prosecutors sharpened their focus after a federal jury couldn’t agree on 23 of 24 charges at former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s 2010 corruption trial. Jurors said just one person was a holdout.
At Blagojevich’s second trial, prosecutors skipped past his expensive taste for tailored suits and furs for his wife. He was convicted of multiple crimes, including an effort to sell an appointment to the U.S. Senate.
But prosecutors decided against retrying New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez.Many jurors at his 2017 trial favored acquittal. A judge subsequently threw out key bribery charges.
“Sometimes, there is bluster and chest thumping” by prosecutors about a retrial after a deadlocked jury, said Alan Tuerkheimer, a Chicago-based jury consultant. “But when the dust settles and they think more clearly, they can change their minds.”
Learning how jurors voted can be crucial. A jury that was one or two votes away from acquittal is a sign of a weak case, Tuerkheimer said, and can dissuade prosecutors from trying again.
WHO’S IN THE WINGS?
Eight other men face state charges in either Jackson or Antrim counties. They’re accused of assisting the others in the Whitmer plot, among other crimes, and have pleaded not guilty.
Whitmer’s vacation home is in Antrim. Fox and Croft, accompanied by undercover operatives, took a night ride to check the location and look at a bridge that could be blown up during a kidnapping, according to evidence in the federal case.
The state cases have moved slowly since fall 2020; five men charged in Antrim still haven’t had a key hearing at which a judge decides whether there’s enough evidence to go to trial.
Defense attorney Kareem Johnson, who is representing Pete Musico, a founding member of the Wolverine Watchmen militia, compared the two acquittals in federal court to a thrilling basketball game.
“It’s like when a teammate hits a 3-pointer. It motivates you to get back on defense and get a stop,” Johnson said Monday.
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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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Tarm reported from Chicago. | https://www.wane.com/news/explainer-2-men-in-gov-whitmer-plot-could-be-tried-again/ | 2022-04-11T22:46:28 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/explainer-2-men-in-gov-whitmer-plot-could-be-tried-again/ |
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Months of economic discontent in Pakistan were capped by days of tense drama. When the week ended, one of the country’s most charismatic prime ministers was ousted, and his replacement was a member of a prominent political dynasty.
And the turmoil may not be over yet, with implications for the whole region.
Veteran politician Shahbaz Sharif, the brother of a disgraced former premier, was sworn in Monday to head a coalition government of disparate parties spanning the political spectrum from the left to the radically religious. They also have a history of rivalry, and governing won’t be easy.
Sharif replaces Imran Khan, a beloved cricket star turned conservative Islamist politician who was toppled by a no-confidence vote, after a fight that went all the way to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
A look at what happened and what may be ahead:
WHAT LED TO THE CHANGE?
On April 3, Khan sidestepped an initial no-confidence vote demanded by the opposition by dissolving parliament and calling early elections. The opposition, which accuses Khan of economic mismanagement, appealed to the Supreme Court. It ruled Khan’s move was illegal and the no-confidence vote went ahead early Sunday, removing him from power.
Khan has tapped into anti-American sentiment in Pakistan since 9/11, accusing Washington of conspiring with his opponents to topple him because of his independent foreign policy. The U.S. State Department denies any involvement.
Still, the change in government may be good news for the U.S., whose chaotic departure from neighboring Afghanistan amid the Taliban takeover has left Washington in need of allies in the region.
WHO MAKES UP THE GOVERNMENT NOW?
The new government is a collection of disparate parties that have fought each other bitterly.
The largest are Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by the son and husband of Benazir Bhutto, the slain former prime minister. Both are family-run and family-dominated, allowing no leadership challenges.
The third biggest partner is the pro-Talban and radically religious Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan or Assembly of Clerics. Its religious schools are spread across the northwest, not far from the Afghan border, and have supplied soldiers to the Afghan Taliban and the homegrown Pakistani Taliban. The leaders of the JUI also are a family dynasty, led by Fazl-ur-Rahman.
The leadership of all three parties are tainted by allegations of corruption. That includes Sharif, who was to have been indicted Monday on money-laundering charges. They deny the charges as politically motivated.
They joined forces to oust Khan, but have little in common politically, other than an agenda to change election laws and realign constituencies to improve their chances in the next election, which must take place by summer 2023. They also are united against a return of Khan, who seeks to end Pakistan’s dynastic politics. There are no guarantees their shared agendas will keep them together.
Emboldened by nationwide rallies that brought out hundreds of thousands of his supporters Sunday, Khan also seems to want to force early elections through “street power.” That could lead to violence, because his base is made up mostly of a passionate younger generation.
Even though the opposition ousted him by citing economic mismanagement, it’s not clear if the new government has any easy solutions.
HOW WILL THE CHANGE AFFECT U.S. POLICY IN PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN?
When asked after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan if Pakistan would aid the U.S. with territorial rights, Khan said: “Absolutely not.” saying his country would only be a partner “in peace, but not in war.”
He was a strident critic of the U.S. war on terror after 9/11, a stand that resonates with many in Pakistan who feel they have been unjustly targeted and accused of “not doing enough” to stop the Taliban during Washington’s 20-year war in Afghanistan.
About 80,000 Pakistani civilians died in militant attacks as a result of the war, and nearly 5,000 Pakistani soldiers have been killed, according to Khan, even though no Pakistani or Afghan was involved in 9/11 attacks by al Qaida. Its leader, Osama bin Laden, found a safe haven in Afghanistan to plot the attacks and was killed while hiding in Pakistan in 2011.
Khan has refused to give the U.S. any access to Pakistani territory or airspace for so-called “over- the-horizon” attacks on Islamic State targets in Afghanistan. That strategy allows the U.S. keep its forces out of Afghanistan by using air power to strike militant targets where they find them.
U.S. President Joe Biden did not have a phone call with Khan since his election, lending credence to the conspiracy theories of a rift between Islamabad and Washington. Khan says the U.S. wants a “subservient” Pakistan and opposes its warm relations with China and Russia.
Khan’s government pushed hard for the world to engage more with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and resisted U.S. attempts to punish them. Khan was deeply critical of Biden’s decision to earmark $3.5 billion in Afghanistan’s reserves held in the U.S. for the families of 9/11 victims.
While Pakistan resisted recognition of the Taliban under Khan, it led efforts to move the world in that direction. He justified some of the Taliban’s restrictive rules, such as stopping education for girls beyond the sixth grade, on tradition and culture. That raised the ire of many, even those in Afghanistan.
Washington is likely to find more willing and like-minded partners among the new government in dealing with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.
WHAT ECONOMIC TROUBLES LIE AHEAD?
The opposition said Khan had failed to properly manage the economy, with both inflation and energy prices soaring.
He tried last month to cut the price of gas at the pump by 10 Pakistani rupees (a few U.S. cents), but it’s almost certain his successors will have to raise them again. Pakistan also is a net importer of oil and gas from Russia, which is waging war in Ukraine.
The family of the new prime minister controls one of Pakistan’s biggest business houses, owning sugar and steel mills. Sharif’s win strengthened the Pakistani rupee from 86 to 82 to the dollar, and the troubled Karachi Stock Exchange made modest gains.
Khan’s government was praised internationally for managing the coronavirus pandemic with “smart lockdowns” that protected the important construction industry, which provides jobs to the poorest. His anti-corruption reputation encouraged Pakistanis abroad to send money home, returning $29.4 billion in 2020-21. That amount is expected to climb to $31 billion in 2021-22.
But the economic future still looks bleak: The Islamic Development Bank expects Pakistan’s gross domestic product to slow to 4% from 5.6% last year, and inflation is expected to rise from 8.9% in 2021 to about 11% this year.
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The effort to hold drug companies, pharmacies and distributors accountable for their role in the opioid crisis has led to a whirlwind of legal activity around the U.S. that can be difficult keep tabs on.
Three trials are underway now, in Florida, West Virginia and Washington state. New legal settlements are being reached practically every week to provide governments money to fight the crisis and in some cases funds for medicines to reverse overdoses or to help with treatment.
In all, more than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and other entities in state and federal courts over the toll of opioids. Most allege the industry created a public nuisance in a crisis that has been linked to the deaths of 500,000 Americans over the past two decades.
Collectively, businesses have faced settlements, judgements and civil and criminal penalties totaling more than $47 billion in the last 15 years. The three main entities targeted are the companies that manufactured and sold the pills; the businesses that distributed them; and the pharmacies that dispensed them.
An overview of the litigation and settlements involving the various companies:
PURDUE PHARMA
Purdue is the maker of OxyContin, an extended-release version of oxycodone that packed higher doses into pills. The drug, released in 1996, became a heavily marketed blockbuster drug — and is associated closely with the epidemic’s first wave.
Like other opioids, it was promoted not just for post-surgery and cancer pain but for chronic pain — an area where doctors previously were reluctant to prescribe such powerful drugs.
Faced with thousands of lawsuits, the company went into bankruptcy protection in 2019 to help reach a settlement.
A deal is now in place, but it’s not final.
It calls for members of the Sackler family who own the company to give up their stakes, making way for it to become a new entity — to be known as Knoa Pharma — with profits funding the fight against the opioid crisis. Additionally, family members are to pay $5.5 billion to $6 billion over time, with a portion of the money going to victims.
Earlier this year, three members of the family attended an online hearing in which parents described losing children to addictions that started with OxyContin, and people recovering from addictions described their journeys.
As part of the exchange, Sackler family members would get protection from lawsuits over opioids.
For the settlement to be finalized, a higher court must overturn a judge’s ruling that threw out an earlier version of the deal. A hearing on that is scheduled for April 29 before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
In the meantime, activists and some members of theU.S. Senate are asking the Justice Department to consider charges against family members.
OTHER DRUGMAKERS
In a major court victory for drugmakers last year, a California judge ruledagainst some local governments in their case against pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Endo International and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries.
Some of those drugmakers — Johnson & Johnson, Allergan and Teva — are now on trialin West Virginia.
But companies have largely been settling suits.
Mallinckrodt, which was a leading producer of generic oxycodone, also used bankruptcy court to reach a settlement, agreeing to a $1.6 billion nationwide deal in 2020.
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to a $5 billion nationwide settlement. It was announced alongside a separate settlement involving the three biggest drug wholesalers. The company’s Janssen subsidiary stopped selling its fentanyl patches and pain pills in the U.S. in 2020. J&J was also the first drugmaker to be held liable for the opioid crisis in a trial, though the Oklahoma state Supreme Court later overturnedthe ruling.
Endo made the opioid Opana, which was eventually removed from the market. The company has been reaching individual settlementswith states. Deals since last year with Florida, New York, Texas, West Virginia and some district attorneys in Tennessee have totaled well over $200 million.
Late last year, a New York juryfound Teva partly responsible for the state’s opioid crisis through its marketing of the fentanyl drugs Actiq and Fentora. Most of the other companies the state and two counties sued settled before or during a trial last year. A separate trial is to be held to determine damages.
Since the New York trial, Teva has reached settlements with Texas, Floridaand Rhode Island totaling more than $250 million. It will also provide drugs to reverse overdoses and treat addictions.
Allergan, now a subsidiary of AbbVie, has been settling suits involving the extended-release morphine pill Kadian. It reached one major settlement with New York last year. Since then, it has been part of the multi-company settlements in Florida and Rhode Island.
Executives from drugmaker Insys were convictedin 2019 of bribing doctors across the U.S. to prescribe their sublingual fentanyl spray Subsys. Company founder John Kapoor was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in federal prison.
The company also paid $225 million to resolve federal investigations into allegations that it paid kickbacks and used other illegal marketing tactics.
DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES
The three big national companies — AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson — finalized their settlement, worth a total of $21 billion over 18 years, in February.
The deal, combined with Johnson & Johnson’s, is expected to be the single biggest settlement between companies in the drug industry and governments.
The total amounts include separate settlements covering all federally recognized Native American tribes.
With settlement money starting to flow to state and local governments, officials are figuring out how to prioritize it. The funds are arriving at a precarious time: The number of U.S. overdose deaths from all drugs topped 100,000 in a 12-month period for the first time last year. The majority of those deaths are from opioids — and particularly illicit synthetic versionsincluding fentanyl.
Unlike the tobacco settlements of the 1990s, there are safeguards intended to steer most of the opioid settlement funds to addressing the crisis. Public health experts have ideasfor how to do that, but the decisions are up to government officials.
The distribution companies also went to trial last year in West Virginia. A judge has not yet ruled.
Closing arguments in Washington state’s trialagainst the distributors are expected this week.
PHARMACIES
Pharmacy chains have been sued less often than companies that make or distribute opioids. In one groundbreaking case, a federal jury in Ohio last year found CVS, Walgreens and Walmart recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in Lake and Trumbull counties.
Late last month, CVS settled in Florida. That left Walgreensto go to trial Monday.
CONSULTING COMPANY
Global consulting firm McKinsey & Company also reached dealslast year with the states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories for advising businesses on how to sell more prescription opioids amid the overdose crisis. Those settlements totaled more than $600 million.
A group of U.S. senators is pushing for a federal investigation, saying there were conflicts when the company consulted on opioid-related issues both for companies and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. | https://www.wane.com/news/explainer-where-do-us-opioid-trials-settlements-stand/ | 2022-04-11T22:46:43 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/explainer-where-do-us-opioid-trials-settlements-stand/ |
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron declared Monday that he wants to “convince” a broad range of French voters to back his centrist vision, kicking off a two-week battle against far-right challenger Marine Le Pen ahead of the country’s presidential runoff vote.
Le Pen, meanwhile, is ready for the fight, eager to highlight rising prices for energy and food that have hit poorer households especially hard recently as Macron has focused his efforts on seeking a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.
The two candidates came out on top in Sunday’s first-round presidential vote, setting up an April 24 replay of their duel in 2017. Macron trounced Le Pen five years ago in the presidential runoff but all opinion polls show the leader of the National Rally is much closer this time to a potential win.
The outcome of the French presidential election will have wide international influence as Europe struggles to contain the havoc wreaked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Macron has strongly backed European Union sanctions on Russia while Le Pen has worried about their impact on French living standards. Macron also is a firm supporter of NATO and of close collaboration among the EU’s 27 members.
Macron headed Monday to an economically depressed area of northern France where a majority of voters had chosen Le Pen, close to her electoral stronghold of Henin-Beaumont.
“I’m here, and I’m determined to fight,” the 44-year-old president said during his visit to the town of Denain, adding that he has heard the concerns of people who struggle to find a job and earn more money.
“They need to be reassured,” he said.
For her part, Le Pen met with National Rally officials to plan her strategy for the runoff and visited a cereal producer in the Burgundy region to speak about rising prices and making “strong, urgent decisions to protect the purchasing power of the French.” The topic has been at the core of her campaign this year, but Macron’s team argues that, due to the economic impact of the war in Ukraine, France does not have the financial means to meet Le Pen’s campaign promises.
Macron said he wants to court those who voted for the “extremes” or opted to stay at home. He met with residents in Denain, many of whom criticized his proposed pension changes, which include raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 65.
Denain Mayor Anne-Lise Dufour-Tonini told reporters she will vote for Macron ‘with no hesitation” in the second round, but intends to push for him to adopt more “leftist proposals.”
Many of the 10 presidential candidates who were defeated in the first round Sunday encouraged voters to choose Macron in the second round, including conservative candidate Valérie Pécresse and the Green and Socialist candidates. Pécresse warned of “the chaos that would ensue” if Le Pen was elected.
Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came in third in Sunday’s vote, urged voters not to choose Le Pen, implicitly suggesting that just staying at home could be an option too.
Le Pen was backed by the other far-right candidate who was defeated, former TV pundit Eric Zemmour.
On her third attempt to become France’s first woman president, Le Pen was rewarded Sunday for her years-long effort to rebrand herself as less extreme. Macron is not buying it, however, accusing Le Pen of pushing a dangerous manifesto of racist, ruinous policies. Le Pen wants to roll back some rights for Muslims, banning them from wearing headscarves in public, and drastically reduce immigration from outside Europe.
Macron and Le Pen are to debate on national television next week.
“Our focus is now on the project and the values,” said Sen. Francois Patriat, a member of Macron’s party.
Le Pen’s camp, meanwhile, is hoping to capitalize on anger at Macron over policies seen as favoring the rich.
“Now everything is possible,” said Aurélien Lopez Liguori, a councilor with Le Pen’s party in the southern city of Sete, adding that, compared with 2017, “now Macron has a record, a bad record.”
French Minister for European Affairs Clément Beaune told the AP that only five years ago “Le Pen was proposing — must not forget it — to leave the euro, to break Europe when Brexit and Frexit were trendy.”
Le Pen has dropped earlier threats to pull France out of the EU and abandon the shared euro currency if elected, but some of her proposals, including setting up a national border control, are contrary to EU rules.
With all first-round votes counted Monday, Macron had 27.8% support, Le Pen captured 23.1% and Melenchon was third with close to 22%.
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John Leicester and Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed.
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — The 2018 prosecution of Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens played a pivotal role in his eventual resignation. Now, questions about St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s handling of the case jeopardize her career, even as Greitens tries to make a political comeback.
Gardner faces a hearing Monday before the Missouri Office of Disciplinary Counsel. She is accused in a 73-page report of failing to disclose evidence to Greitens’ lawyers, misrepresenting evidence, and other ethical violations.
If the three-person panel finds fault, it will be up to the Missouri Supreme Court to decide punishment, though a decision wouldn’t be expected for several weeks. The most severe punishment — suspension or disbarment — would likely cost Gardner her job because state law requires elected prosecutors to hold active law licenses.
Gardner, a 46-year-old Democrat, is St. Louis’ first Black female circuit attorney and is one of several progressive prosecutors elected in recent years with a focus on creating more fairness in the criminal justice system.
In the past 12 months, Greitens has emerged as a leading contender for the Republican nomination for one of Missouri’s U.S. Senate seats, despite recent allegations of abuse by his ex-wife.
The brash former Navy SEAL officer with presidential aspirations was a year into his first term when news broke in January 2018 of an affair three years earlier with his St. Louis hairdresser. The woman alleged that Greitens took a compromising photo and threatened to use it as blackmail if she spoke of their relationship.
“There was a victim, someone saying they had been attacked,” Gardner’s lawyer, Michael Downey, said.
But neither the FBI nor St. Louis police seemed inclined to investigate, Downey said. Gardner’s in-house investigator was away on military duty.
So Gardner hired private investigator William Tisaby, a former FBI agent. The investigation led to Greitens’ indictmenton one felony count of invasion of privacy. Greitens claimed he had been the victim of a political witch hunt.
Jury selection had just begun when Gardner dropped the charge after a judge ruled she would have to answer questions under oath from Greitens’ attorneys over her handling of the case. She said that it put her in an “impossible” position of being a witness in a case she was prosecuting.
Meanwhile, Gardner filed a second charge accusing Greitens oftampering with computer data for allegedly disclosing to his political fundraiser a list of top donors to a veterans charity he founded, without the charity’s permission.
Under investigation by lawmakers as well, Greitens resigned in June 2018, and Gardner agreed to drop the criminal charges.
Attention then turned to how Gardner and Tisaby handled the investigation. In 2019, Tisaby was indicted on six counts of perjury and one count of evidence tampering. He pleaded guilty last month to misdemeanor evidence tampering, and received a suspended sentence of one year of probation.
The case stemmed from Tisaby’s statement that he had not taken notes in an interview with the woman when a video later showed that he had, and his statement that he hadn’t received notes from the prosecutor’s office before he interviewed the woman when a document later showed that he had.
Greitens’ attorneys raised concerns about Gardner’s failure to correct the record on Tisaby’s statements, and whether she concealed evidence.
Downey said any mistakes were unintentional, the result of Gardner’s heavy workload during the Greitens investigation.
“Under the circumstances of the case I think they were doing the best job they could to manage the case,” Downey said. “We’ve admitted in our answer that mistakes were made.”
Washington University School of Law Professor Peter Joy, who teaches and writes about legal ethics, said the fact that Gardner didn’t disclose Tisaby’s note-taking isn’t necessarily a violation because Missouri law doesn’t specify a timeline for such disclosures — and in this case, testimony hadn’t even begun.
“I don’t think the ethics case against her is so clear cut,” Joy said. “This isn’t somebody falsifying evidence.”
If she is disciplined, Joy said it was highly unlikely that Gardner would be suspended or disbarred. That would disappoint her critics, who contend Gardner’s office is dysfunctional and ineffective.
Last summer, charges were dropped in three murder cases in one week because prosecutors failed to show up in court or weren’t prepared after months of delay, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The newspaper also cited Circuit Court data showing that about one-third of felony cases were dismissed — triple the percentage of her predecessor.
Gardner contends that her reforms have made the city safer, and the criminal justice system more equitable. She has expanded a diversion program and stopped prosecuting low-level marijuana possession, helping to significantly reduce jail overcrowding.
Gardner has often been at odds with police, especially in 2019, when she placed dozens of officers on an“exclusion list,” prohibiting them from bringing cases. The list was developed after a national group accused the officers of posting racist and anti-Muslim comments on social media.
In 2020, Gardner filed a lawsuit accusing the city, a police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office. The lawsuit alleged violations of the Ku Klux Klan Actof 1871, which was adopted to thwart efforts to deny the civil rights of racial minorities.
Downey, in a court filing, said the latest ethical complaints involve “another attempt by Ms. Gardner’s political enemies – largely from outside St. Louis – to remove Ms. Gardner and thwart the systemic reforms she champions.”
Greitens had remained largely out of sight until Sen. Roy Blunt’s announcement in March 2021 that he would not seek a third term. Republican leaders worry that he could win the primary but lose to a Democrat in the general election, forfeiting what should be a sure-thing GOP seat.
In a court filing last month in a child custody case, Sheena Greitens accused her ex-husband of being physically abusive to her and their children. Eric Greitens called the allegations “completely fabricated” and “baseless.” | https://www.wane.com/news/greitens-case-at-center-of-scrutiny-for-st-louis-prosecutor/ | 2022-04-11T22:46:58 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/greitens-case-at-center-of-scrutiny-for-st-louis-prosecutor/ |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Gunmen burst into a home just north of Mexico City and killed eight members of a family, including four children.
Prosecutors in the State of Mexico, which borders the capital, said the shootings occurred in the township of Tultepec, just north of the capital.
The shootings happened between late Sunday and early Monday. Seven people died at the scene, and one woman died late at a hospital.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive, but Tultepec is known for its fireworks workshops, both legal and illegal. | https://www.wane.com/news/gunmen-kill-family-of-8-near-mexico-city/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:05 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/gunmen-kill-family-of-8-near-mexico-city/ |
Ex-officer convicted of storming Capitol to disrupt Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday convicted a former Virginia police officer of storming the U.S. Capitol with another off-duty officer to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
Jurors convicted former Rocky Mount police officer Thomas Robertson of all six counts he faced stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, including charges that he interfered with police officers at the Capitol and that he entered a restricted area with a dangerous weapon, a large wooden stick.
His sentencing hearing wasn’t immediately scheduled.
Robertson’s jury trial was the second among hundreds of Capitol riot cases. The first ended last month with jurors convicting a Texas man, Guy Reffitt, of all five counts in his indictment.
Robertson didn’t testify at his trial, which started last Tuesday. Jurors deliberated for several hours over two days before reaching their unanimous verdict.
A key witness for prosecutors in his case was Jacob Fracker, who also served on the Rocky Mount police force and viewed Robertson as a mentor and father figure. Fracker was scheduled to be tried alongside Robertson before he pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Fracker testified Thursday that he had hoped the mob that attacked the Capitol could overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Robertson was charged with six counts: obstruction of Congress, interfering with officers during a civil disorder, entering a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted area while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly or disruptive conduct inside the Capitol building, and obstruction. The last charge stems from his alleged post-riot destruction of cellphones belonging to him and Fracker.
During the trial’s closing arguments Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Risa Berkower said Robertson went to Washington and joined a “violent vigilante mob” because he believed the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump. He used the wooden stick to interfere with outnumbered police before he joined the crowd pouring into the Capitol, she said.
“The defendant did all this because he wanted to overturn the election,” Berkower said.
Defense attorney Mark Rollins conceded that Robertson broke the law when he entered the Capitol during the riot. He encouraged jurors to convict Robertson of misdemeanor offenses but urged them to acquit Robertson of felony charges that he used the stick as a dangerous weapon and that he intended to stop Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote.
“There were no plans to go down there and say, ‘I’m going to stop Congress from doing this vote,’” Rollins said.
Fracker testified that he initially believed that he was merely trespassing when he entered the Capitol building. However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to conspiring with Robertson to obstruct Congress.
Under cross-examination by Rollins, Fracker said he didn’t have a “verbal agreement” with anybody to obstruct the joint session of Congress. Fracker said he believed everybody in the mob “pretty much had the same goal” and didn’t need for it to be “said out loud.”
Robertson and Fracker drove with a neighbor to Washington on the morning of Jan. 6. Robertson brought three gas masks for them to use, according to prosecutors.
After listening to speeches near the Washington Monument, Fracker, Robertson and the neighbor walked toward the Capitol, donned the gas masks and joined the growing mob, prosecutors said. Robertson stopped to help his neighbor, who was having trouble breathing. Fracker broke off and entered the building before Robertson, but they reunited inside the Capitol.
Defense attorney Camille Wagner told jurors that Robertson only went into the Capitol because he wanted to retrieve Fracker, who entered the Capitol a few minutes before Robertson. Wagner said the U.S. Army veteran was using the stick to help him walk because he has a limp from getting shot in the right thigh while working as a private contractor for the U.S. Defense Department in Afghanistan in 2011.
Jurors saw some of Robertson’s vitriolic posts on social media before and after the Capitol riot. In a Facebook post on Nov. 7, 2020, Robertson said “being disenfranchised by fraud is my hard line.”
“I’ve spent most of my adult life fighting a counter insurgency. (I’m) about to become part of one, and a very effective one,” he wrote.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told jurors that Robertson was charged for his actions, not his political beliefs. Wagner also said Robertson should be judged by his actions, not his words.
The town fired Robertson and Fracker after the riot. Rocky Mount is about 25 miles south of Roanoke and has roughly 5,000 residents.
Robertson has been jailed since Cooper ruled in July that he violated the terms of his pretrial release by possessing firearms.
More than 770 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 250 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors.
Robertson’s trial is one of four so far for Capitol riot defendants. Two others had their cases decided by bench trials before the same judge.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden convicted New Mexico elected official Couy Griffin last month of illegally entering restricted Capitol grounds but acquitted him of engaging in disorderly conduct. On Wednesday, McFadden acquitted another New Mexico man, Matthew Martin, of all four charges that he faced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:07 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/11/ex-officer-convicted-storming-capitol-disrupt-congress/ |
Grand jury clears state trooper in Juniata shooting
HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - A grand jury said the shooting death of a Juniata man last August was justified.
Brooks Hacker, 35, was shot and killed by a state trooper after an hours-long standoff August 11 at his home in Juniata.
The Adams County grand jury heard two days of testimony from law enforcement officers, a forensics expert and Hacker’s girlfriend. In a 391 page report the grand jury determined that the state trooper who shot and killed Hacker did nothing wrong.
The report revealed that Hacker fired 79 shots from a nine-millimeter gun during that night. One of the shots hit another trooper, who was treated and released with a minor wound. Other shots were fired at Hacker’s girlfriend and at officers surrounding the Juniata house. Several shots were fired into law enforcement vehicles.
Hacker had two felony convictions from Lancaster County for drugs and theft. Information in the grand jury report also indicated that he was taking medication for a mental condition.
Copyright 2021 KSNB. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/11/grand-jury-clears-state-trooper-juniata-shooting/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:11 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/11/grand-jury-clears-state-trooper-juniata-shooting/ |
Your personality can either protect or age your brain, study says
Published: Apr. 11, 2022 at 4:15 PM CDT|Updated: 1 hours ago
(CNN) – Worry less now and your brain will stay healthy longer.
A new study shows people who worry more, lack self-discipline and are introverted are more likely to develop cognitive decline earlier in life.
It also applies to a higher likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
The study examined the personality traits of nearly 2,000 people.
It found being socially engaged with others could buy you an extra year of living without dementia.
If you keep anxiety at bay and stay organized and goal-oriented, it can get you two years of healthy cognitive function.
The study was published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:12 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/2022/04/11/your-personality-can-either-protect-or-age-your-brain-study-says/ |
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — An Idaho judge ruled Monday that a mother accused of conspiring to kill her children, her estranged husband and a lover’s wife is now mentally competent to stand trial on some of the charges in Idaho.
Daybell and her new husband, Chad Daybell, face numerous charges in the complicated case involving allegations of bizarre spiritual beliefs involving “zombies” and doomsday predictions.
Prosecutors have said that Lori and Chad Daybell espoused the religious beliefs in an effort to encourage or justify the murders.
The case against her had been hold for months after Judge Steven Boyce ordered her committed to a mental facility so she could undergo treatment in an effort to make her mentally fit enough to assist in her own defense.
Boyce’s new order said Lori Vallow Daybell “is restored to competency and is fit to proceed” in the Idaho murder case. He did not provide other details about her treatment or mental condition.
She is scheduled to be formally arraigned in court next week and both Lori and Chad Daybell are set to stand trial together early next year.
Tare charged withconspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Lori Daybell’s children 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
Lori Daybell is also charged in Arizona with conspiring to kill her former estranged husband, Charles Vallow, with the help of her now-deceased brother, Alex Cox.
Chad Daybell has pleaded not guilty to the charges and Lori Daybell has not yet had an opportunity to enter a plea. Chad Daybell’s attorney, John Prior, declined to comment on the case. Lori Daybell’s attorney, Jim Archibald, did not immediately respond to voice and email messages requesting comment.
An indictment said Chad and Lori Daybell in 2018 while still married to other people began espousing an apocalyptical system of religious belief.
Lori Daybell’s brother Alex Cox shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in suburban Phoenix, according to an indictment in Arizona.
Cox asserted the shooting was in self-defense, and he was never charged. At the time, Charles Vallow was seeking a divorce, saying his wife believed she had become a god-like figure responsible for ushering in the biblical end of times. Cox later died of an apparent blood clot in his lung.
Shortly after Charles Vallow’s death, Lori Daybell — who then had the last name Vallow — and her children moved to the rural eastern Idaho community of Rexburg, near where Chad Daybell lived. At the time, Chad Daybell was married to Tammy Daybell. She died in October of 2019, and her obituary said the death was from natural causes.
Authorities grew suspicious, however, when Chad and Lori Daybell got married just two weeks later, and investigators had Tammy Daybell’s body exhumed for an autopsy. Authorities have not released her cause of death.
Police began searching for Lori Daybell’s youngest two children in November after relatives raised concerns. The Daybells quickly left town, and were found months later in Hawaii without the children.
Investigators later found the bodies of JJ and Tylee buried in Chad Daybell’s yard back in Idaho. They have not disclosed causes of death but court documents said Tylee’s body was partially burned.
Friends of the Daybells told investigators that the couple believed people could become “zombies” if they were possessed by evil spirits, a state in which their soul was trapped in limbo, according to police reports. The couple reportedly believed that the only way to rid a person of a zombie was for their body to die, according to police reports.
A friend of the couple, Melanie Gibb, told investigators that Lori Daybell referred to her youngest children as “zombies,” and police in Arizona said the couple exchanged text messages saying that Tammy Daybell had been possessed by a dark spirit. | https://www.wane.com/news/idaho-judge-mom-accused-in-kids-killings-now-fit-for-trial/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:13 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/idaho-judge-mom-accused-in-kids-killings-now-fit-for-trial/ |
NEW DELHI (AP) — An unusually early heat wave brought more extreme temperatures Monday to a large swath of India’s northwest, raising concerns that such weather conditions could become typical.
The India Meteorological Department forecast that the temperature in New Delhi would reach 41.8 degrees Celsius (107.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday, nearly eight degrees above normal.
The weather agency declares a heat wave when the temperature is at least 4.5 C (8 F) above average.
The main summer months — April, May and June — are always excruciatingly hot in most parts of India before monsoon rains bring cooler temperatures. But the heat wave has arrived early and grown particularly intense in the past decade, killing hundreds every year.
During heat waves, the country usually also suffers severe water shortages with tens of millions of its 1.4 billion people lacking running water.
Extreme temperatures have struck large parts of northern and western India in the last week, with Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and New Delhi among the worst hit. Higher temperatures also were felt in relatively cooler Indian-controlled Kashmir in the Himalayas, where many Indians go to escape the summer heat.
Already this year, India has recorded its warmest March since 1901.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that heat waves and humidity-related heat stress will intensify in South Asia, and scientists who study climate change say Indians can expect more of the same hot temperatures in the coming years.
Vimal Mishra, an expert at the Indian Institute of Technology’s Water and Climate Lab, said the number of Indian states hit by heat waves has grown in recent years, as extreme temperatures become more frequent and intense.
“If you are looking for the clearest signal of climate change in India, then heat waves are a classic example. They are unavoidable and will occur more frequently,” Mishra said.
Heat waves are especially dangerous for daily wage workers, rickshaw drivers, street vendors and the homeless, many of whom have to work outside in hot conditions and are at the greatest risk of heat exhaustion and heatstroke.
India’s worst heat wave since 1992 was in 2015, when at least 2,081 people died. | https://www.wane.com/news/indias-northwest-reels-under-unusual-early-heat-wave/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:20 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/indias-northwest-reels-under-unusual-early-heat-wave/ |
NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — In 2008, this overwhelmingly white state was Barack Obama’s unlikely launching pad to become the nation’s first Black president. Fourteen years later, Iowans aren’t showing a similar embrace for the woman running to become its first Black governor.
Democrat Deidre DeJear is finding Iowa a much changed place, trending staunchly conservative, endorsing many aspects of Trumpism, with an electorate that is so far displaying little interest in her history-making candidacy.
Educated younger adults who were once reliable Democratic voters have fled rural Iowa seeking opportunities elsewhere. The strength of organized labor has eroded. Obama’s general election victories in 2008 and 2012 seem like distant memories.
The changes are part of a broader transformation that has spread through the Northern Plains over the past two decades, making it increasingly difficult for Democrats to compete in the region even as they make inroads in other places like the Deep South and Sun Belt.
“Times are so different from Obama’s 2008 campaign,” said Dave Leshtz, a veteran Democratic organizer from Iowa City, after a DeJear event in the liberal enclave. “It’s an entirely different state.”
DeJear, a 36-year-old Des Moines businesswoman, cemented her status as a rising political star in 2018 when she became the first Black candidate to win a statewide primary in Iowa. She lost the general election for secretary of state, but she won national attention and invitations from Democratic presidential hopefuls to serve as a state adviser.
She is struggling to translate that lower-wattage fame into support from voters. Only 31% of likely Iowa voters said they know enough about DeJear — running unopposed in the June 7 primary — to form an opinion, according to The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, conducted in late February and early March.
Meanwhile, she posted an anemic $8,500 fundraising balance in January, raising less than $300,000 since announcing her candidacy in August. It paled next to Republican incumbent Gov. Kim Reynolds’ $4.8 million balance and $3.8 million in contributions.
Story County Democrat Barb Wheelock attributed part of DeJear’s struggle to racism, both inside the party and among the state’s voters.
“I think it’s part that she’s Black and people don’t think she’ll do very well — the people in our state party, the people with the money,” Wheelock, a 70-year-old retired physical therapist, said while attending a DeJear stop in Story County last month.
DeJear told The Associated Press that she suspected her race may be on some minds as she seeks supporters.
“Of course no one has said that to me outright,” DeJear said. “But there is a question of whether or not a Black woman could win. That is definitely a question.”
DeJear tried to put any such doubts aside as she bounded onto the stage at an event in Nevada, a small farm town in central Iowa. With an upbeat style and a trace of her native Mississippi accent, DeJear reminded the audience that Iowans boasted a groundbreaking legacy, including an Iowa Supreme Court decision that made Iowa the first state to desegregate public schools after the Civil War.
“I believe in what’s possible,” she said. “We made a conscientious decision that no matter what your skin color was, no matter what your race was, each and every one of our students should have access to a quality public education.”
It was a nod to an Iowa progressive streak that carried well into the 21st century.
In 2009, the Iowa high court ruled gay marriage legal, making the state the third to allow it, after similar rulings in Massachusetts and Connecticut but five years before the U.S. Supreme Court. A year before, Iowa voters had not only backed Obama by a healthy margin in the general election, they overwhelmingly sent liberal Democrat Tom Harkin to the U.S. Senate for a fifth term.
Iowans ushered in the new millennium with Tom Vilsack, a Democrat and former mayor from rural southeast Iowa, as governor. And during the 1988 Democratic presidential caucuses, the Rev. Jesse Jackson finished a notable fourth, relying on support from rural Iowa.
But a sharp decline of union jobs and an exodus of young, college-educated adults, have altered Iowa’s once dynamic political map.
In a striking illustration, Obama carried the state in November 2008 by winning 52 of its 99 counties. Joe Biden, who on Tuesday will make his first trip to Iowa as president, lost the state in 2020, winning only six counties.
After decades of divided state government, Republicans have controlled the Legislature and the governorship for six consecutive years, cutting taxes and reining in voting and abortion rights. Today, five of Iowa’s six members of Congress are Republicans.
State Rep. Ras Smith had hoped to interrupt the trend as a candidate for governor in this year’s race. The 34-year-old Smith, who was voted the Iowa Democratic Party’s “Rising Star” award recipient in 2019 and is Black, found it difficult to persuade some of the party’s major donors in the state, who are white, to give him a look.
Despite Smith’s promising profile and DeJear’s 2018 breakthrough, some wealthy Iowa Democrats sought out others to run, including state Rep. Todd Pritchard, who is from rural northern Iowa and white.
Smith said some influential donors declined his invitation to meet to discuss his campaign. Among them, he said, was Fred Hubbell, the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor. A wealthy Des Moines-area businessman, Hubbell spent $7 million of his own money in narrowly losing to Reynolds.
“It wasn’t about the dollars,” said Smith, who ended his campaign in January, leaving DeJear unopposed in the primary. “He didn’t come to an event and was turned off. We didn’t have coffee and I said something that pissed him off. That’s the part that felt disrespectful. It was disrespectful.”
Smith said he and Hubbell spoke by phone but never met despite several invitations. Hubbell did not respond to requests for comment.
“My party doesn’t think it’s nearly as racist,” said Tom Courtney, a former state senator and longtime union activist from the once-booming manufacturing corridor along the Mississippi River, who is white. “But some of that is going on.”
The sentiment stings for Iowa Democrats, as national party leaders, frustrated by the state’s lack of diversity, are taking steps to shift the early presidential nominating contest away from the traditionally first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Hubbell endorsed DeJear in a written statement last month, two months after Smith’s withdrawal made her the Democrats’ only candidate. Hubbell has since contributed to DeJear’s campaign, though her campaign declined to say how much. Smith has also endorsed DeJear, one of several Black Democratic women running for statewide office around the country this year.
Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams is again seeking the governorship. Former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley is running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat. And Florida Rep. Val Demings is the leading Democrat to face Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
But DeJear is the only Black woman campaigning in such a predominantly white state. In 2020, 90.4% of Iowans were white, according to census data. Roughly 62% of the nation’s population was white, and more than 13% Black.
Still, DeJear, who campaigned for Obama as a college student at Drake University in Des Moines in 2008, is optimistic she can relight the flame.
“We also look to Obama and what he was able to accomplish,” she said in the interview. “I believe that Iowans have this innate ability to see the humanity that exists in other folks. And that’s what drives us.”
___
This story has been corrected to show the candidate’s first name is Diedre, not Dierdre. | https://www.wane.com/news/iowas-political-swing-makes-obamas-wins-harder-to-repeat/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:28 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/iowas-political-swing-makes-obamas-wins-harder-to-repeat/ |
LONDON (AP) — A jury deliberated for just 18 minutes Monday before finding a fervent Islamic State supporter guilty of stabbing lawmaker David Amess to death a slaying that shocked the nation and sparked calls for increased police protection for politicians.
Ali Harbi Ali, 26, was found guilty by London’s Central Criminal Court of murder and preparing terrorist acts. Ali stabbed the veteran British lawmaker to death last year while he was meeting with voters at a church hall in eastern England.
Ali, who had spent years researching and planning potential attacks on lawmakers, had defended his actions by saying Amess deserved to die as a result of voting for airstrikes on Syria in 2014 and 2015.
Ali, a London man with Somali heritage, had denied charges of murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Tom Little said the case was “nothing less than an assassination” carried out because of a “warped and twisted and violent ideology.”
“It was a murder carried out by that young man who for many years had been planning just such an attack and who was, and is, a committed, fanatical, radicalized Islamist terrorist,” he said.
Little said Ali bought the knife used to attack Amess five years earlier, and that Ali tricked his way into meeting Amess by pretending to be one of his constituents.
Amess, 69, had been a member of Parliament since 1983. He was pronounced dead at the scene after the stabbing.
The prosecutor also said that Ali had researched and planned attacks on lawmakers and the Parliament building from at least 2019. The research included reconnaissance trips targeting work and home addresses of two other lawmakers, Mike Freer and Cabinet member Michael Gove, he added.
The slaying of Amess shook the nation, as lawmakers often meet directly with the public. It came five years after Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed to death by a far-right extremist. | https://www.wane.com/news/is-fanatic-found-guilty-of-killing-uk-lawmaker-david-amess/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:35 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/is-fanatic-found-guilty-of-killing-uk-lawmaker-david-amess/ |
MILAN (AP) — Italian Premier Mario Draghi travels to Algeria on Monday to sign a deal for more natural gas, the latest push by a European Union country to acquire alternative energy sources to reduce dependence on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is Italy’s biggest supplier, representing 40% of total imports, followed by Algeria, which provides some 21 billion cubic meters of gas via the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline. The new deal would add an additional 9 billion cubic meters of gas from Algeria, just eclipsing Russia’s 29 billion cubic meters a year.
Europe is trying to cut its reliance Russian natural gas imports quickly, with leaders recognizing that their payments help fund Moscow’s war. At the same time, there is concern Russia might turn off the taps in reprisal for sanctions, a threat that would have devastating effects on the European economy. Natural gas is used to generate electricity, heat and cool homes and power industry.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has already sought to have gas payments be made in rubles, in an apparent bid shore up the currency.
The tiny Baltic state of Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, recently cut itself off entirely from Russian gas imports, the first of the European Union’s 27 nations using Russian gas to break its energy dependence on Moscow.
Lithuania has been planning that move for years, and the task is more difficult for economic powers like Germany and Italy, which have gotten most of their natural gas from Russia.
The deal between Italy and Algeria is the first concrete result of missions by Italy’s foreign minister to energy-producing nations to secure alternate sources, also including Azerbaijan, Qatar, Congo, Angola and Mozambique.
Draghi is traveling with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, the energy transition minister, Roberto Cingolani, and the CEO of Italian energy company Eni, Claudio Descalzi.
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. Eni has operated in Algeria for more than 40 years. | https://www.wane.com/news/italys-premier-to-sign-gas-deal-with-algeria-amid-war/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:42 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/italys-premier-to-sign-gas-deal-with-algeria-amid-war/ |
ACTION DAY: National Weather Service issues red flag warning for southern Arizona
TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - The KOLD News 13 weather team has issued First Alert Action Days for Monday, April 11 and Tuesday, April 12 because of high winds in the forecast.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for southern Arizona until 7 p.m. Monday because of strong and gusty winds, low relative humidity and high fire danger.
Southwest winds are expected to increase to 25 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. Relative humidity will fall to 10 to 15 percent.
On Tuesday, a wind advisory will still be in effect for areas east of Tucson, including Greenlee, Graham and Cochise Counies.
Any fires that develop will have the potential to spread rapidly because of these conditions.
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Forecast
Below is our forecast as of Monday morning. You can get the most up-to-date information at www.kold.com/weather or in our weather app. Apple users should go HERE, and the Android version is available HERE.
MONDAY: Red flag warning and air quality alert in place. Sunny with highs in the mid-80s.
TONIGHT: Clear skies with temps in the mid-50s.
TUESDAY: Mostly sunny with highs in the mid-70s. Windy.
WEDNESDAY: Sunny with highs in the low 70s.
THURSDAY: Sunny with highs in the low 80s.
FRIDAY: Partly sunny with highs in the mid-80s.
SATURDAY: Partly sunny with highs in the upper 80s.
SUNDAY: Mostly sunny with highs in the mid-80s.
Copyright 2022 KOLD News 13. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2022/03/29/action-day-scattered-showers-some-thunderstorms-are-likely/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:49 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/2022/03/29/action-day-scattered-showers-some-thunderstorms-are-likely/ |
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — A jury was selected Monday to hear a long-anticipated libel lawsuit Johnny Depp filed against his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, whom he accuses of falsely portraying him as a domestic abuser.
Depp sued Heard over an op-ed piece she wrote in The Washington Post in 2018 in which Heard refers to herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” The article doesn’t mention Depp by name, but he says it clearly refers to allegations Heard made in other forums that she suffered physical abuse at his hands. Depp denies the accusations.
The lawsuit brought a little bit of Hollywood to a courthouse that has a long history of dealing with high-profile crimes, just not those involving movie stars.
More than a dozen women, some waving signs saying “Justice for Johnny,” joined other fans who waved pirate flags in recognition of Depp’s signature role in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, waited outside the courthouse an hour before the hearing.
The courtroom in the city of Fairfax was closed to the public Monday, with limited closed-circuit access in an overflow courtroom. People lined up before 7 a.m. for the wristbands granting access. Both Depp and Heard were in attendance, but court personnel brought them in and out utilizing special access points that frustrated fans’ ability to see them.
The judge overseeing the trial, Penney Azcarate, has imposed a series of access rules to try to maintain decorum in the courthouse. Most significantly, neither Depp nor Heard are permitted to pose for photos or sign autographs in the courthouse or on the courthouse grounds.
Depp’s fans have been vocal in their support, saying he has been falsely accused. Raylyn Otie, a Depp fan from Bluefield, Virginia, drove five hours to see the movie star. She was disappointed when Depp did not greet fans personally, as sheriff’s deputies carefully limited fan access.
“I’m so disappointed. I came to give him flowers to show some support,” she said, bouquet in hand.
In a separate lawsuit Depp filed against a British newspaper, a judge dismissed the case, finding that Depp assaulted Heard on a dozen occasions and put her in fear for her life on multiple occasions.
Heard has filed a countersuit against Depp that accuses his lawyers of defaming her at his direction.
Heard’s lawyers tried unsuccessfully to have the case moved to California, where the actors reside. A Fairfax judge ruled that Depp was within his rights to bring the case here because the Post’s online editions are published through servers located in Fairfax County. Depp’s lawyers have said they brought the case in Virginia in part because the laws here are more favorable to their case.
A jury of seven, plus four alternates, was selected by Monday afternoon. The smaller jury is typical for civil trials in Virginia.
Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to last more than a month. A long list of witnesses includes actors James Franco and Paul Bettany, and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk. Some witnesses are expected to appear in person, while others will testify via video link. | https://www.wane.com/news/johnny-depp-suit-against-amber-heard-starts-with-jury-picks/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:49 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/johnny-depp-suit-against-amber-heard-starts-with-jury-picks/ |
Amber Alert issued in Maryland for missing 12-year-old
(Gray News) - State police in Maryland issued an Amber Alert on Monday for a missing 12-year-old boy.
Maxx Geiger has been missing since April 8. He is described as a 5-foot-3 white male, 120 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
He and the suspect, 35-year-old Christopher Geiger, were last seen in Hampstead, Carroll County, Maryland.
Christopher Geiger is described as a 6-foot-tall white male, 230 pounds, with blonde hair and green eyes.
The child may also be in the Westminster area of Carroll County. They are believed to be traveling in a black 2021 Jeep Wrangler with Maryland plate DV15797.
Anyone with information can contact the Maryland State Police Westminster Barrack at 410-386-3001 or call 911.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2022/04/11/amber-alert-issued-maryland-missing-12-year-old/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:55 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/2022/04/11/amber-alert-issued-maryland-missing-12-year-old/ |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota judge will hear arguments Monday on whether to allow live video coverage of the upcoming trial of three former Minneapolis police officers charged with aiding and abetting the murder of George Floyd.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill took the rare step of allowing live audiovisual coverage of ex-Officer Derek Chauvin’s murder trial last year, making an exception to the normal rules of Minnesota courts. He cited the need to balance protecting participants from COVID-19 against the constitutional requirement for a public trial.
Now that the U.S. has entered a new phase of living with the coronavirus, Cahill must decide whether to allow the same sort of access for the trial set to begin in June for former Officers Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng.
A coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, that wants Cahill to allow video coverage said in a brief filed Friday that it understood the judge planned to prohibit it. The coalition said it presumed the reasons included defense objections and the judge’s belief that his hands are tied by the normal court rules “absent the extenuating circumstances caused by the pandemic.”
Thao, Lane and Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both manslaughter and murder when Chauvin used his knee to pin Floyd, a Black man, to the pavement for 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back, Lane held his legs and Thao kept bystanders back. The killing, which was recorded on video, sparked protests around the world and a national reckoning on race.
Defense attorneys have raised concerns about the willingness of witnesses to testify. Minnesota court rules generally require the consent of all parties for audiovisual coverage of trials, with fewer restrictions for sentencings. Chauvin’s trial was the first in Minnesota to be entirely televised, from jury selection to his murder conviction to his sentencing to 22 1/2 years in prison. People worldwide tuned into the livestreams.
“I think livestreaming that trial enabled people here and around the world to see the inner workings of a system that was handling one of the most important trials of our time,” said Suki Dardarian, senior managing editor and vice president of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, which is part of the media coalition.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office initially opposed having cameras in the court for Chauvin’s trial, but now supports them for the other officers’ upcoming trial.
“The Chauvin trial demonstrated the benefits of robust public access to this important case and proved that the Court could successfully navigate the concerns animating the State’s initial opposition to audio and video coverage,” prosecutors wrote last week. “The Court’s commendable transparency inspired public confidence in the proceedings and helped ensure calm in Minneapolis and across the country.”
Due to federal court rules, live video coverage was not allowed for the first trial of Thao, Lane and Kueng this year, when all three were convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Nor was it allowed for Chauvin’s federal case in which he pleaded guilty to civil rights violations. But it was allowed in the December state court trial of former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter in the death of Daunte Wright, who was killed one year ago Monday.
“None of the bad things that critics feared transpired, and we had the huge benefit of giving the public at large an opportunity to observe the proceedings,” said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, another coalition member.
An advisory committee to the Minnesota Supreme Court is considering whether to allow more video coverage of criminal proceedings. It’s due to release its report by July 1.
Cahill, in a letter to the committee, said he had opposed cameras in criminal cases before, but that his experience in Chauvin’s case changed his opinion, and he now believes they should be presumptively allowed, subject to the trial judge’s discretion.
Hennepin County Judge Regina Chu, who presided over Potter’s trial, told the Star Tribune in an interview that both the Potter and Chauvin trials convinced her that cameras can be present without being disruptive.
“I forgot they were even there,” Chu told the newspaper. | https://www.wane.com/news/judge-weighs-cameras-in-next-trial-over-george-floyds-death/ | 2022-04-11T22:47:57 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/judge-weighs-cameras-in-next-trial-over-george-floyds-death/ |