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SIOUX CITY, IOWA (KCAU)- The Iowa Hawkeyes are not only preparing for its first game against South Dakota State, which is less than one month away, but also for the expectations this upcoming season.
The Hawkeyes finished last season atop the Big Ten West standings with a 7-2 conference record while finishing the year at 10-4. After just missing out on being ranked in the preseason coaches’ poll, Iowa hopes to continue the program’s success while working on improving.
Iowa’s defense was a big reason for the team winning big games. But now, they hope the offense can step up. The Hawkeyes averaged less than ten points per game between their four losses. But overall, the team knows it’s a new season.
“The first thing we talk about in January is that it’s a new season, a totally new calendar year. Most importantly, a new team. So, we’re starting from scratch. We haven’t made a first down stop yet and the whole idea is just to get ready for the season,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said.
“Our motto this year has been one percent better each day and I feel like that we’ve really been achieving that, not just talking about it and last year was kind of embarrassing in the Big Ten Championship and we’re looking to take that next step and win it,” Iowa wide receiver Arland Bruce added.
The Hawkeyes face off against the Jackrabbits at home on September 3rd at 11 a.m. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/sports/hawkeyes-hopeful-for-another-successful-season/ | 2022-08-13T04:55:12Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/sports/hawkeyes-hopeful-for-another-successful-season/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The 49ers rookies put on a show during the first half. Danny Gray had two catches for 99 yards, including a 76-yard reception for a touchdown from Trey Lance:
TREY AREAAAAAAAAAAA.@treylance09 goes UP TOP to the rookie burner, @DGray_5! SIX!
— NFL (@NFL) August 13, 2022
: #GBvsSF on @NFLNetwork (check local listings)
: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/IPaxU4rWJN pic.twitter.com/dKC8ov5eS0
Trey Lance finished 4-for-5 for 92 yards with a perfect passer rating of 158.3.
The story of the half is Samuel Womack, who came up with two interceptions during the first half. One needed to be reviewed, while the other was a fantastic play where Womack undercut the route.
Spencer Burford and Aaron Banks played the whole first half. Burford had a few impressive blocks where he finished the defender into the ground. The fourth-rounder is legit.
Drake Jackson left with a shoulder injury. We’ll see if it’s a severe injury or if Jackson was held out since the game is meaningless — I’m leaning toward the latter. Next week, we’ll see if Jackson participates in joint practices against the Vikings.
Jackson looked athletic and played fast. I’d hold him out until Week 1 while he continues to practice. Any time a player gets nicked up, the 49ers would be wise to play it safe. There’s a reason the majority of starters sat out of tonight’s game. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/12/23303835/49ers-vs-packers-second-half-thread-the-rookies-are-putting-on-a-show | 2022-08-13T05:02:11Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/12/23303835/49ers-vs-packers-second-half-thread-the-rookies-are-putting-on-a-show | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
That was fun. Each 49ers QB led a touchdown drive. Trey Lance went 4-5 for 92 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown pass to Danny Gray. Nate Sudfeld went 8-11 for 103 yards, with a 39-yard touchdown toss to Ray-Ray McCloud. Finally, Brock Purdy, who did his fair share of scrambling, capped off a scoring drive after finding tight end Tanner Hudson in the end zone.
There were two injuries, as second-round pick Drake Jackson left the locker room with a shoulder injury during the first half. Then, in the fourth quarter, safety Dontae Johnson left with a rib injury. San Francisco left the game without any significant injuries.
One change we talked about during the past couple of weeks was how the 49ers' offense pushed the ball more aggressively down the field. We saw that tonight no matter who was under center:
Kyle Shanahan realizing he’s allowed to throw the ball down the field more than once a game again pic.twitter.com/NGoQu3HDDQ
— KP (@KP_Show) August 13, 2022
Despite more attempts down the field, the quarterbacks were only sacked three times. The offensive line held up well on the ground and through the air.
Lance slid after a seven-yard carry, which I’m sure made Kyle Shanahan a happy camper. Shanahan also won a challenge, which feels like something that doesn’t happen all too often.
Defensively, Dontae Johnson had the lone sack, while Robert Nkemdiche and Curtis Robinson added tackles for loss. The defensive line is going to be difficult for any team. It won’t show up on the stat sheet, but Kemoko Turay was active all night. Both he and Nkemdiche are fighting for roster spots. To me, both have done enough so far during camp, and tonight only helped.
You can’t discuss the defense without talking about Samuel Womack, who made two impressive interceptions. Turnovers have been something the 49ers have desperately lacked in the secondary during the past few seasons. I understand it’s the preseason, but Womack has gotten his hands on passes going on four years now. Tonight is the type of performance that’ll earn him reps with the first team next week.
Linebacker Marcelino McCrary-Ball had the other interception, while the defense also stopped the Packers on 4th down late in the game. The final score was 28-21. Shanahan doesn’t expect the starters to play next week, so we won’t see Lance again until the preseason finale. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/12/23303893/49ers-packers-preseason | 2022-08-13T05:02:17Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/12/23303893/49ers-packers-preseason | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Shares of plant-based meat substitute maker Beyond Meat (BYND) have left a bad taste in the mouths of shareholders over the past year, with a stock that shed over 90% of its value from peak to trough before recovering ever so mildly. Today, at around $36 per share, the name is far from its peak of around $240. It’s been a catastrophic implosion, making Beyond Meat stock a relic of the 2020-21 speculative run-up in markets.
Now that the stock has crashed and burned, the risk/reward seems to be tilted back in favor of venturesome investors willing to take a chance on a product they love and believe in.
Despite the negatives, headwinds, and cash bleed, I remain bullish on shares of Beyond Meat, primarily because of the depressed valuation.
Moving Beyond the McPlant
Now, there are many issues with Beyond Meat right now. The fundamentals have weakened considerably over the past year. Of late, Beyond Meat has made a habit of missing quarterly estimates. The company had reported a wider-than-expected loss for four consecutive quarters. With the recent flop of the McDonald’s (MCD) McPlant, questions linger as to whether alternative meats are genuinely ready for mainstream audiences (not just vegans or vegetarians but also meat eaters).
Indeed, the ditching of the much-anticipated McPlant is not a good sign for Beyond Meat or the plant-based meat substitute industry. It’s a devastating blow that leaves Beyond Meat in a tough spot as it looks to find new catalysts to re-excite shareholders and reignite sales.
There aren’t easy options for Beyond Meat at these depths. Independent research firm New Constructs recently rang the alarm bell on the stock, warning that a plunge to $0 per share was not out of the cards in a bear-case scenario.
Nobody wants to be caught holding a so-called “zombie company” on the way down. However, I think it’s a stretch to refer to Beyond Meat as such a firm, given the innovative technologies underneath the hood.
Further, Beyond Meat’s product has still hit the spot with many consumers and could find itself in the burgers of other big-league restaurant chains. McDonald’s may be the biggest game in town, but it’s not the only one.
Yum! Brands (YUM) and Beyond Meat have teamed up on alt-meat products before, and they could continue to create intriguing new menu items that could fuel a resurgence in the shares of both companies. For those unfamiliar with Yum! Brands, it’s the firm behind a trio of fast-food heavyweights in KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut.
As YUM looks to add Beyond across a diverse range of items, there’s a chance that a new product could stick and even hold more potential than the McPlant would ever have. If Beyond Meat can make its plant-based chicken even better than it tastes right now, then KFC alone could help bring out the best in Beyond Meat stock again and prove the doubters wrong.
Great Product, Subpar Fundamentals
I think it’s too soon to give up on the plant-based meat substitute market. The field is still in its early stages and could fuel many years of high double-digit growth. Despite competition from Impossible Foods, Maple Leaf (TSE: MFI), and many other players, Beyond Meat still looks to have a comfortable front-row seat in the nascent market.
Arguably, Beyond’s flagship product is the closest thing to replicating the taste of meat. As new updates to existing products and new product categories roll out, I do think many could regain an appetite for Beyond Meat again, as taste, texture, and nutritional value look to improve. In any case, there are serious concerns with the excessive cash bleed.
Amid hefty food price inflation, Beyond hasn’t been able to raise the price of its product that much. Beyond Meat already cost more than the real thing. Undoubtedly, many flexitarians (part-time vegetarians) likely switched back to real beef amid recent inflationary pressures.
Over time, I do think inflation’s effect will pass. For now, though, inflation and a waning economy are likely to continue weighing Beyond’s medium-term growth prospects heavily.
Make no mistake – Beyond Meat is still very much a growth stock. It has innovative capabilities to turn the ship around. At just 5.1 times sales, I’d argue the risk/reward is pretty good for investors with faith in management and the product.
In the meantime, Beyond is likely to continue clocking in considerable losses. With rising interest rates, such losses will hurt that much more. Inflation and a potential 2023 recession are just salt in the wounds of a firm that cannot seem to catch any breaks of late.
Is BYND Stock a Buy or Sell? Analysts Weigh In
Turning to Wall Street, BYND stock comes in as a Moderate Sell. Out of 12 analyst ratings, there are zero Buys, seven Holds, and five Sell recommendations.
The average Beyond Meat price target is $21.29, implying downside potential of 42%. Analyst price targets range from a low of $10.00 per share to a high of $30.00 per share.
Conclusion: Most Storm Clouds Have Passed
I think the firm’s innovative capabilities will shine through in due time. Beyond Meat is taking steps to do its best to improve upon its lackluster margins. It won’t be easy to make it through the coming economic hailstorm. However, I think most of the looming storm clouds have already impacted the stock. Shares are down around 85% from their peak, after all.
For now, I’m not buying that Beyond Meat is a zombie company. Sure, there are challenges, and the valuation got a bit out of hand in the months following the stock’s IPO. That said, there’s real innovation going on at the firm, and if it can ease margin pressures, perhaps some of its non-McDonald’s partnerships can bear fruit.
For now, volatility is pretty much a guarantee. Zero analysts view the stock as a Buy, with a Street-low price target of $10 per share — implying much more pain ahead. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/beyond-meat-stock-solid-value-even-after-mcplant-flop/ | 2022-08-13T05:05:33Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/beyond-meat-stock-solid-value-even-after-mcplant-flop/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention and its entities on the heels of an explosive report that detailed the mishandling of allegations of sexual abuse by church leaders, the SBC said in a statement Friday.
The report in May by a third-party firm, Guidepost Solutions, also said church leaders intimidated victims and their advocates and resisted attempts at reform over the course of two decades.
"Survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action," the report found, "even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry with no notice or warning to their current church or congregation."
The SBC is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with an estimated 14 million members across more than 47,000 churches.
In its statement Friday, the SBC Executive Committee said it had been recently made aware of the DOJ investigation and that it would fully cooperate.
"While we continue to grieve and lament past mistakes related to sexual abuse, current leaders across the SBC have demonstrated a firm conviction to address those issues of the past and are implementing measures to ensure they are never repeated in the future," the statement said.
"We recognize our reform efforts are not finished. In fact, those efforts are continuing this very moment as the recently announced Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force begins its work and as each entity has strengthened its efforts to protect against abuse," the statement said.
CNN reached out to the Middle District of Tennessee US Attorney's Office and was told via email "we cannot confirm or deny the existence of an investigation."
The SBC is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
In June, the SBC approved two reform measures to address how it deals with sexual abuse allegations within its churches.
One created a "Ministry Check" website, which would maintain a record of SBC "pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees, and volunteers who have at any time been credibly accused of sexual abuse," according to the Baptist Press, the SBC's news service.
The measure defines "credibly accused" as a "pastor, denominational worker, or ministry employee or volunteer ... who has confessed to sexual abuse in a non-privileged setting, who has been convicted in a court of law, or who has had a civil judgment rendered against them," the news service reported.
Under another measure, an Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force would be created to examine SBC's response to sexual abuse allegations and "serve as a resource in abuse prevention, crisis response, and survivor care."
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/southern-baptist-convention-says-it-faces-a-doj-investigation-after-outside-report-finds-leaders-mishandled/article_7b1163c4-ea71-5278-8f3b-a6f25ba9ca2f.html | 2022-08-13T05:06:55Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/southern-baptist-convention-says-it-faces-a-doj-investigation-after-outside-report-finds-leaders-mishandled/article_7b1163c4-ea71-5278-8f3b-a6f25ba9ca2f.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Suspect in 4 New Mexico killings left trail of violence
Published: Aug. 12, 2022 at 11:28 PM CDT|Updated: 36 minutes ago
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Police and court records show the main suspect in the slaying of four Muslim men in Albuquerque has committed regular acts of violence in the six years since he resettled in the United States.
Police believe 51-year-old Afghan refugee Muhammad Syed tracked the movements of his victims before ambushing them late at night, motivated seemingly by interpersonal conflicts.
He is charged in the deaths of two men and is the primary suspect in the slayings of two others. Syed has denied involvement in the killings.
Members of Albuquerque’s small, close-knit Muslim community are coming to terms with the idea that maybe they never really knew Syed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbko.com/2022/08/13/suspect-4-new-mexico-killings-left-trail-violence/ | 2022-08-13T05:07:08Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/2022/08/13/suspect-4-new-mexico-killings-left-trail-violence/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
When the owners of 9Bar HNL in Kakaako saw the bacon in their breakfast bowls triple in price, they decided it was time to cut their menu.
"So imagine all the food that we used to have that increased costs -- triple for everything," said Tracey Seta, who runs the cafe with her husband. "It was just too much to handle."
That's when they got rid of most of their food items -- with the exception of baked goods that go along with their coffees and other drinks.
"We were forced to cut food out -- the hot food completely," she said. "All restaurants are forced to cut costs to survive. ... It's just what you have to do right now."
They're among a growing number of restauranteurs trying to find ways to stay in business as sales drop and the cost of products continue to skyrocket.
"The reason they've reduced it is the increased cost of protein, especially the meat, the pork and the chicken," said Sheryl Matsuoka, executive director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association. "So instead of having 30 items on the menu they may cut it down to, let's say 20."
Besides inflation, eateries are still struggling with workforce shortages and the lack of tourists from Asia that once frequented their establishments. And many locals don't have the same disposable income with fewer of them eating out.
"We definitely are seeing a dip in sales compared to July 2019," Matsuoka said. "Some of them have now really looked at their wallets and looked at their bank accounts."
Whether it's cutting the menu or closing early -- restaurants are holding out hope that things will soon get better.
"So community please visit your favorite restaurants because they really need it," she added.
Kristen joined KITV4 in March 2021 after working for the past two decades as a newspaper reporter. Kristen's goal is to produce meaningful journalism that educates, enlightens and inspires to affect positive change in society. | https://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii-restaurants-trimming-down-menus-as-costs-continue-to-skyrocket/article_909ae8d4-1ab8-11ed-a811-2f31e1dea327.html | 2022-08-13T05:08:47Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii-restaurants-trimming-down-menus-as-costs-continue-to-skyrocket/article_909ae8d4-1ab8-11ed-a811-2f31e1dea327.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (KITV4) - Many bicyclists are voicing their concerns about the growing number of accidents involving bikers in Honolulu.
“I am very worried that I now limit my rides to the daytime. I am a BIKI subscriber and those bikes do have lights and reflexives but I cannot rely on those," said Rebecca Rupley.
The Honolulu Police Department (HPD) reported 30 traffic fatalities so far in 2022, with four of those involving bike riders. This is up from 2021 with only one bicyclist fatality at this time in 2021.
Some riders said they feel more comfortable riding in areas where there is bike friendly infrastructure.
”Honolulu is really good with having bike lanes but there aren’t bike lanes everywhere and you never know when you’re going to run out of a bike lane. You’ll be on one and then poof no more bike lane so it is tough sometimes,” said Lee Ennis, daily bicyclist.
Officials at said the are many more people on bikes now as we are getting out of the pandemic. They said educating the public that bikes are considered vehicles on the road and entitled to the same amount of space as any car is critical right now.
”We absolutely want to see more bike infrastructure, things like protective bike lanes and buffer bike lanes. They are great ways to get people on the road that maybe don’t feel comfortable riding next to cars. As a reminder, cyclists can use a lane of traffic even if there isn’t a bike lane there or any share markings that say share the road,” said Malia Harunaga, director of Adult Education and Hawaii Bicycling League.
Harunaga recommends drivers to actively look for bicyclists and pedestrians when making any turn – that it is the responsibility of both the driver and bicyclist to improve safety on the street. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/bike-riders-are-worried-as-accidents-involving-bicyclists-go-up/article_fdd88f3a-1ab0-11ed-92dc-4fb9605c23a0.html | 2022-08-13T05:08:53Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/bike-riders-are-worried-as-accidents-involving-bicyclists-go-up/article_fdd88f3a-1ab0-11ed-92dc-4fb9605c23a0.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- Honolulu Little League is going to the Little League Baseball World Series!
The boys from Oahu beat Sidewinder Little League of Arizona 9-2 in Friday's championship game of the Little League West Region tournament in San Bernardino, California.
Honolulu Little League will head to Williamsport, Pennsylvania to play in the World Series, which starts on August 17 and runs through August 28.
Honolulu Little League is set to play its first game of the 2022 LLB World Series at Lamade Stadium on August 17 at 1 p.m. Hawaii time. It will be televised on ESPN.
As the West Region champs, Honolulu will play the winner of the Northwest Region tournament, which is Bonney Lake-Sumner Little League of Washington.
Honolulu Little League is made up of 14 players who either live or attend school in the Honolulu district, and they are all 12 years old.
The team is managed by Gerald Oda, the same coach of the Little League World Series champs from Honolulu in 2018.
Honolulu Little League also went to the World Series last year and finished in 3rd place, however, there were only teams from the US because of the pandemic.
The 2020 LLB World Series was cancelled because of the pandemic.
In 2019, the team from Central East Maui went to the World Series and finished in 4th place.
This year's World Series will have US and international teams for the first time since 2019.
Hawaii has a history of Little League World Series wins. Before 2018, the team from Waipio won the title in 2008, and the team from Ewa Beach came home as Little League World Series champs in 2005.
Marisa Yamane joined KITV4 in January 2022 as an anchor and executive producer. She is an award-winning veteran journalist, who’s spent most of her career in Hawaii. She’s a proud graduate of Iolani School and UCLA. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/honolulu-little-league-heads-to-the-world-series-after-beating-arizona-9-2/article_ed7bea2a-1ab4-11ed-b314-874e934da21f.html | 2022-08-13T05:08:59Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/honolulu-little-league-heads-to-the-world-series-after-beating-arizona-9-2/article_ed7bea2a-1ab4-11ed-b314-874e934da21f.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A FedEx truck is inspected outside of the front gate of the FBI's Cincinnati Field Office on August 11. The FBI is investigating an "unprecedented" number of threats against bureau personnel and property.
The FBI is investigating an "unprecedented" number of threats against bureau personnel and property in the wake of the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, including some against agents listed in court records as being involved in the recent search, a law enforcement source tells CNN.
On Friday, the names of the two agents who signed the search warrant paperwork circulated online. The names had been included in a version of the search warrant that was leaked prior to the official unsealing of the documents. The version released by the court redacted the agents' names.
The heightened level of threats follows a high-profile week for the bureau in which agents executed a search warrant at Trump's Palm Beach property as part of an evidence-gathering step in a national security investigation about presidential records, including classified documents, taken to Florida. The warrant, which was unsealed and released by a federal judge on Friday, revealed the Justice Department is looking into possible violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records, as part of its investigation.
In the days following the search, violent threats surfaced online, with posters writing, "Garland needs to be assassinated" -- referencing Attorney General Merrick Garland, who "personally approved" the decision to seek a warrant -- and "kill all feds." Additionally, the biography and contact information of the federal magistrate judge who signed the search warrant was wiped from a Florida court's website after he too became the target of violent threats.
In a separate incident Thursday, a man who was believed to be armed with an AR-15 rifle and a nail gun tried to breach the FBI's Cincinnati field office. He was killed hours later after a stand-off with authorities. Although the suspect's motive has not yet been identified, he had been known to the FBI because he had an unspecified connection to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol, and because he had associates within a far-right extremist group, two law enforcement sources told CNN Friday.
FBI Director Chris Wray addressed bureau employees' safety in a memo distributed this week.
"Let me also assure you that your safety and security are my primary concern right now. Security Division is working across the agency as we continue to stay vigilant and adjust our security posture accordingly," Wray said in the statement reviewed by CNN.
The FBI Security Division in Washington has notified the bureau's more than 38,000 employees nationwide to remain vigilant when operating in and around bureau facilities, two federal law enforcement sources told CNN.
The FBI declined to comment on any specific threats against bureau employees but told CNN in a statement that the bureau "is always concerned about violence and threats of violence to law enforcement, including the men and women of the FBI."
"We work closely with our law enforcement partners to assess and respond to such threats, which are reprehensible and dangerous," the statement said. "As always, we would like to remind members of the public that if they observe anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately." | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/fbi-investigating-unprecedented-number-of-threats-against-bureau-in-wake-of-mar-a-lago-search/article_e9673538-dd06-575d-8f80-6f6fcc391879.html | 2022-08-13T05:09:05Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/fbi-investigating-unprecedented-number-of-threats-against-bureau-in-wake-of-mar-a-lago-search/article_e9673538-dd06-575d-8f80-6f6fcc391879.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Town of Newfane has been taking measures to respond to complaints made over the past several months regarding refuse collection by Modern Disposal Services.
In the town’s August newsletter, Newfane Supervisor John Syracuse wrote that the town officials were aware of complaints made by residents about missed or incomplete garbage pickup, broken totes and trash strewn around yards. In the same newsletter, Syracuse also clarified some of the frequently asked questions on refuse collection as well.
“Some of these complaints have been continual,” he said. “Since I’ve been in the administration, we’ve been logging them, and trying to determine the ultimate cause of some of them.”
While the town was able to determine the causes of some of these issues like parked cars obstructing garbage collection, Syracuse went on a ride-along with a representative from Modern to determine how some of the other problems might be occurring. Syracuse said that during the ride-along, they found that several locations in the town didn’t have current information reflected in Modern’s index.
“It drilled down to Modern just having different names and addresses for certain properties,” he said. “They had an address off of Route 18 as Lake Road, but they could never find Lake Road because it was labeled as Fire Lane E back to Outing Park. Now they’re aware of that, so they’re going to make that correction to their records.”
Another issue Syracuse pointed out was how Maple Avenue had split services, where only half of the street would have its waste collected on one day, and the other half would get collected on another day. He said Modern was also rectifying this as well.
Modern Vice President Julie Berrigan acknowledged the complaints from Newfane in a statement sent to the Lockport Journal, and indicated that many of the problems with refuse collection are being solved now that the problems have been identified.
“We acknowledge that a few residents felt there were glitches in recent collections, and we’ve moved quickly to adjust and successfully remedy those issues,” Berrigan stated. “Any calls the town has received from residents for servicing have reduced drastically. Modern is dedicated to a thorough collection effort and will make any necessary adjustments to consistently meet our own high standards.”
Several other municipal leaders in the area who also contract their refuse collection with Modern have said that most of the complaints they’ve received were earlier this year, and brought on by the labor shortage. Wilson Supervisor Doyle Phillips mentioned that a large amount of complaints were received six months ago. During this period, experienced workers were leaving Modern, and the newer ones were still learning the routes, but since then things have improved.
Hartland Supervisor Ross Annable said that while there might be occasional issues with refuse pickup such as postponed collections, no major complaints have been reported there. He even said that sometimes six months can go by without receiving a single complaint.
Paul Oats, the Lockport City Clerk said that some issues that lead to complaints within the City may even be as a result of an inattentive customer.
“City residents can place one large item at the curb, once per month during bulk week,” Oats said. “If six bulk items are put out, the resident will call to complain that Modern didn’t pick up. Or, a recycling cart has garbage in it. Or, an old TV is placed at the curb instead of being taken to one of the city’s electronic waste events, and is not picked up. All of these can also generate unwarranted complaints.”
Oats also pointed out that brochures detailing Modern’s schedule and guidelines can be found at the City Clerk’s Office, and that general information on refuse collection can be found on the “refuse and recycling” tab on the City website.
Most municipality websites have sections where refuse collection policies are clarified, if one needs to find something out, before they throw something out. | https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/local_news/newfane-addresses-trash-troubles-with-modern/article_d709c4cc-1a89-11ed-a391-8bc522abddf4.html | 2022-08-13T05:12:12Z | lockportjournal.com | control | https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/local_news/newfane-addresses-trash-troubles-with-modern/article_d709c4cc-1a89-11ed-a391-8bc522abddf4.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
In the wake of a continuing rent strike at Ridgeview Manufactured Homes Park, a mobile home park in Newfane, elected officials have lent their ear to the continuing concerns faced by residents there and in other nearby manufactured home parks.
In the meantime, though, Sharon Ruth, president of Ridgeview’s home association, said she and residents are “treading water and reaching out to anyone and everyone.”
As a fully formed home association with an attorney, Ruth and others have been documenting grievances against Cook Properties, New York state’s largest manufactured home park owner. Currently a class action is being discussed, as well as encouraging more Cook-owned parks to join the rent-strike, which began in May – a second time after alleged sore points were not fixed.
With the various obstacles of being directed office to office, mailing letters and calling to complain but not getting anywhere, Ruth did not expect that the Niagara County of Department of Health would come calling.
Paul Dicky, director of the environmental division at the Niagara County Department of Health, told the US&J they responded to complaints at Ridgeview on Tuesday and Wednesday and tested the water quality from six locations in the park. The verdict was the water was of “passing” quality and there were no standing water or sewage issues on the property.
Health workers, however, did find electrical boards in a disarray and many potholes, both which needed to be fixed and filled by the management of the park. Water pressure was also passing, though 20 psi (pound per square inch) does feel low to most people, Dicky said.
Dicky said the department did not check for potentially dead or dangerous trees.
{p class=”p1”}To this news, Ruth said she wasn’t trying to pick a fight with the Department of Health, but she would like to see an “advanced” test done by an independent lab of the water.
“We had two residents with medical records of being sick from water-based bacteria, one of whom passed away,” she said. “And three more with symptoms. Somebody has to stand up and say something, because we’re living like this. In fear of bacteria, in fear of a tree falling on their head, fear of the transmission falling out in a pothole!”
The fear is felt in other parks, as well. Mike Papa, a long time resident and critic of the management in The Woodlands MHP in the Town of Lockport, also reached out to 14th District Legislator Shawn Foti.
“We are also dealing with a big corporation raising lot rent every year and cutting services,” Papa wrote Foti.
Papa also showed the US&J bills documenting the increases to the rent of his lot property. After moving in September 1, 2019 the rent was about $595, but by January 1, 2020, the rent was increased to approximately $605. Papa said that the rent continued to rise to its current price of about $655 a-month.
This is also in addition to paying a mortgage of $450 a-month, Papa said. With the prices of everything – even food – going up, supporting a family of four is hard work and he is “struggling to cover the cost.”
Foti responded that he understood and that this issue was nationwide.
“Myself and the other county legislators will stand behind you and all other park residents to fight this issue,” he said.
State Assemblyman Mike Norris also responded to questions regarding the plight that some of his constituents were facing.
“Unfortunately, this issue has become a more common problem in our manufacture home communities statewide,” he replied in a statement. “Like any other tenant in New York State, residents of manufacture home communities should expect open dialogue from park owners, transparency on rate increases and good faith efforts to maintain and improve the property’s infrastructure and aesthetics.”
Norris co-sponsored two bills which passed both houses and is waiting for them to be delivered to Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk after she “calls” for them later in the year. Hochul works with attorneys to find the constitutional status of each passed bill and “calls” for them as they’re OK’d by attorneys to either sign or veto.
The bills requires that manufactured home park owners to provide a written justification for rent increases, and secondly, gives residents “the right of first refusal” meaning residents are given the chance to purchase the property if the park is to be sold before any other offer is accepted.
State Sen. Rob Ortt’s office also reported it was aware of the position that Ridgeview residents have been put into, and have been connecting them to the proper state agency, in this case the Division of Homes and Community Renewal (HCR).
“The HCR is responsible for tenants rights,” Andrew Dugan, district director for Senator Ortt’s office, said. “So, we connected them to there. Also, we followed up with HRC to say, ‘We sent the Ridgeview residents to you,’ just to make sure their concerns were highlighted and to know they could be calling.”
Supervisor of Newfane John Syracuse said that since attorneys were involved, his role is to follow the rules in the proceeding and listen to the town’s attorney.
Syracuse also said that he saw the process begin when Ridgeview residents voted to form an association last year and again when they agreed to release the rent after their first rent strike in March. At the time, he thought Cook Properties would make good on its promises to improve the park.
“I feel they’re asking for reasonable improvements and have been over an extended period of time,” Syracuse said.
As for Foti, he said that he is looking to bring a resolution to the County Legislature, but wants to do more than just bring awareness to the issue and vote for something that would really help the residents of the parks.
“No legislation at this second,” he said. “We’re looking for what we can do that isn’t just a ‘feel good’ resolution.” | https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/local_news/ridgeview-rent-strike-turns-elected-officials-heads/article_8f66a688-19b9-11ed-ab0b-6727df2e0ffb.html | 2022-08-13T05:12:18Z | lockportjournal.com | control | https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/local_news/ridgeview-rent-strike-turns-elected-officials-heads/article_8f66a688-19b9-11ed-ab0b-6727df2e0ffb.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Democrats in Congress achieved one of the most monumental climate, energy, health care and tax packages in history when they passed the Inflation Reduction Act with their 50 plus one majority in the Senate.
There was no small amount of compromise by progressives in the party who initially supported President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion package last year in favor of the $700 billion package that passed the Senate.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, says he was disappointed by the smaller bill. But he and other progressives realize Democrats had to support what could pass in a 50-50 Senate with unanimous Republican opposition.
Progressive leader Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington told The New York Times: “You have to acknowledge that this is a huge step forward and this is a huge progressive win.”
The measure invests $430 million over 10 years, the biggest ever investment, in climate change and energy proposals. Progressives should like that and can be credited with pushing it.
It sets a minimum corporate tax of 15% for companies making over $1 billion and paying less than the lowest 21% corporate tax rate. And while hedge fund managers slipped out of paying the level of tax most workers pay, with the help of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, there will be a 1% tax on company stock buy backs.
Both provisions are compromises but significant. Americans by and large support tax fairness and for corporations paying their fair share.
The tax credit on buying electric vehicles is $7,500 for new vehicles, and they must be made in the U.S., another kind of policy that has broad support among Americans.
It also continues subsidies to buy insurance through Affordable Care Act marketplaces and exchanges for three years. Again, small businesses and the self employed benefit from this, and it has support across party lines.
The most significant policy change may be the provision that will allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies and cap out-of-pocket prescriptions costs at $2,000 a year.
Prescription drug provisions are expected to save the government about $280 billion over 10 years.
Both parties have tried to pass the prescription legislation for decades with ex-president Donald Trump also campaigning but not doing much on the issue. Even former President Barack Obama had to concede this provision in the Affordable Care Act to get drug company support.
Again, this is a slam dunk for support of a broad cross section of the American people. GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell could only mount a feeble defense for drug companies, saying the provision will cause them to raise prices.
But that’s the point. If they raise prices, Medicare can negotiate from a position of strength.
Overall, the $700 billion plan invests about $430 million in climate change provisions raises $300 billion in taxes and reduces the deficit by about $290 billion over 10 years.
Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is a big win for Democrats — and a big win for all Americans. | https://www.lockportjournal.com/opinion/democrats-americans-win-with-inflation-reduction-act/article_998c8292-1a61-11ed-85f4-0b5423943648.html | 2022-08-13T05:12:25Z | lockportjournal.com | control | https://www.lockportjournal.com/opinion/democrats-americans-win-with-inflation-reduction-act/article_998c8292-1a61-11ed-85f4-0b5423943648.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
“My opponent,” fulminated the candidate, “and those who endorse him continue to focus on the extreme and unconstitutional notion that we can overturn the 2020 election.”
No, that was not said by a Democrat, but by Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin legislature, who was facing, and defeating, a primary challenger endorsed by Donald Trump. Still, Vos did use the word that has become the keynote, the clarion call of the Democrats’ fall campaign: extreme.
Leftists of the Bernie Sanders stripe fantasize that this is a liberal country; it’s not, but it is not a hard-right nation, either. Our center of political gravity is close, well, to the center, perhaps tilting slightly to the right. So when Republicans pick candidates who espouse views outside the mainstream, they set themselves up for defeat.
The political world has been focusing on Kansas, where voters crushed an attempt to roll back constitutional protections for abortion rights. But that result comes in a context of outlandish lies about the 2020 election and the lingering stench of Trump’s crazed and chaotic presidency. It’s taken together that these elements give Democrats an opening to label Republicans as dangerously unsafe and unstable.
“The only thing that might save Democrats is Republicans, and they’re trying their damnedest to do it,” David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s chief political adviser, told The New York Times.
The Democrats remain in deep trouble. In the latest ABC poll, 69% of voters said the economy is getting worse, and a paltry 29% think President Biden is handling inflation well. No wonder his personal approval rating is stuck below 40%.
But as Axelrod points out, Republicans keep giving the Democrats an opportunity to mitigate the effects of Biden’s unpopularity. By relitigating the 2020 election and restricting abortion rights, they shift attention away from the economy and toward issues where they are out of step with public opinion.
The campaign in Kansas is a prime example of this misguided strategy. Trump carried the state by almost 15 points, yet the referendum lost 59% to 41%. Nate Cohn of the Times estimates that nationwide, 65% of voters would reject a similar proposition. That squares with a CNN poll that reports that 63% of voters oppose the Supreme Court’s decision canceling a constitutional right to abortion.
Opponents include 7 of 10 independents and 55% of moderate Republicans — and the key word here is “moderate.” MAGA nation remains strongly behind Trump and his acolytes, but it was pragmatic voters, especially well-educated women living in the suburbs, who roared their disapproval of the Kansas initiative.
The court decision triggered an upsurge in voter registration; an estimated 70% of the newly energized voters were women, and their impact was clearly felt in places like Leavenworth County, a suburban area outside of Kansas City with an Army post and federal penitentiary. The county supported Trump by more than 20 points in 2020, but voters there rebuffed the amendment by 59.3% to 40.7%.
It wasn’t just the suburbs, however. Pro-abortion rights forces cleverly adopted the language of traditional conservatives, stressing individual rights and running ads urging voters to “say no to more government control.” That worked in places like Lyon County, a rural area that hasn’t backed a Democrat for president in half a century but voted almost 2 to 1 to retain abortion rights in the constitution.
As Kansans were expressing their mainstream impulses, Republican primary voters in Arizona doubled down on their self-destructive tendencies, nominating hard-core election deniers and anti-abortion militants for four statewide offices, including governor and senator.
Democrats still seem doomed to lose the House, but the Senate is another matter. Republican-controlled state legislatures over many years have produced maps that protect many GOP House seats, but since Senate races are statewide, they cannot be gerrymandered, and the playing field is more level.
Arizona is only one of several states — add Pennsylvania, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina and Nevada — where Republicans have nominated weak Senate candidates who can be branded as in over their heads or outside the lines. That’s why the website FiveThirtyEight now makes Democrats a slight favorite to control the Senate, and that would be a critical outcome.
Sure, Biden’s legislative agenda would be stalled by a Republican-controlled House, but the most lasting legacy of any president is often judicial appointments. As long as Democrats retain the Senate, Biden could use his next two years to stack the federal bench with progressive appointments. If that happens, extreme Republicans will bear much of the blame.
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com. | https://www.lockportjournal.com/opinion/in-a-word-extreme/article_9bee95a8-1911-11ed-9b44-0fc36e83e128.html | 2022-08-13T05:12:31Z | lockportjournal.com | control | https://www.lockportjournal.com/opinion/in-a-word-extreme/article_9bee95a8-1911-11ed-9b44-0fc36e83e128.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Neighbours on a Coxheath estate have come up with a genius way to save on heating bills this winter by planning their very own 'Come Dine With Me' evenings. Mum-of-three Rebekah Allen said the idea 'started as a joke' but the families quickly realised that actually it could be a good way of saving some money.
As the cost of living continues to rise most people have one thing on their minds and that is, just how bad is it going to get? Families are already seeing an increase in the weekly food shop and petrol prices, with some no longer filling up their tank, rather opting for £10 or £20 at a time, to make the hit seem more bearable.
Other people who have never used foodbanks before are finding that it is now their only option, in order for them to keep their heads above water and their children fed. And these effects are all being felt even before we factor in the impact of sky rocketing winter bills.
Read more: DWP's complete list of cost-of-living benefits as energy prices predicted to reach £4,200 a year
At the moment warm days and lighter nights, as lovely as they are, feel as though they might be lulling us into a false sense of security, and the worst is very much set to come. Recent reports say that the average energy bill in the UK, is expected to be £4,266 a year, leaving many families with some difficult choices to make, and others simply unable to pay.
Single mum Rebekah Allen lives with her children, Beth, Thomas and Lottie, all who are under 3 years old. She lives on the on the Violet Fields estate in Coxheath, and along with her neighbours have already started to think of ways they can come together and help each other save money on bills, by hosting 'Come Dine With Me' style evenings.
'A good idea to save some cash'
She said: "It started out as a bit of a joke at first, but then we realised that it might be a good idea to save some cash. We are a very close community and all of our kids play together. We have organised events before for the kids at Christmas and Easter and everyone always gets involved.
"The idea is that we can all huddle round one house and it will save having to put the heating on in each house every night. Where we will batch cook something like a spaghetti bolognaise or chilli."
"We are planning to do our first one in the winter half-term holidays when the kids are not at school, it is not going to be a cooking competition, we are just doing it so we do not have to heat all of our homes every night. Hopefully it will save some money, even if it just helps a little bit."
Rebekah does not work due to not being able to afford childcare for her three children. She is also benefit capped and therefore not eligible to get any of the extra universal credit payments.
She said: "You just have to make the best of the situation, when I made enquiries about seeing if the cap on my benefit could be raised, I was just told there was nothing they could do and I would have to speak to my MP.
"I have spoken to the jobs teams, but unless I am self employed they have said they cannot help me either. There is nothing I am currently spending money on that I can cut back on, by the time I have paid my bills, rent and life insurance, whatever is left over goes towards food.
"I do not have any luxuries like Netflix, and I don't want to cut out paying for my life insurance as that is for my kids future."
Rebekah says that she feels very lucky to live within such a supportive community. "We have a residents Facebook group and everyone always looks out for each other, if anyone needs a hand, someone is always there to help out.
"This is just another way of doing that really, helping each other out and all pulling together and a good for the social aspect too, for the parents and kids, especially when the nights get darker."
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A passport is the most vital thing you need while on holiday. While it is a nightmare to forget it on the way to the airport, what do you do if you lose abroad?
You're packing up your suitcase, making sure you add all your souvenirs and anything else you might have picked up on your travels. You're soon to be flying back into Gatwick or Heathrow but, then you realise to your horror that your passport is nowhere to be found.
Last year more than 20,000 British passports were reported lost or stolen. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many British nationals were hit by pickpockets.
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James Duddridge, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, said: "Holidays are a great time of enjoyment with friends and family, but if you do end up a victim of theft, or simply lose your passport, then your trip could be ruined. Criminals operate all over the world, so travellers need to keep their wits about them and take care of their passports or risk losing valuable holiday time and money applying for an emergency travel document.
"Passports are essential for smooth and safe travelling, so follow our top tips to avoid getting hustled for your passport. To avoid being a star of your own passport hustle, stay smart overseas."
Sometimes you may need to take your passport with you out of your hotel or wherever else you're staying as proof of ID or to hire a car. But what should you do if you realised it is lost or stolen?
Try not to panic
It may be a serious situation but there are steps you can take to resolve it. Try to remain calm and think logically as to where it could be.
Try to retrace your steps to the last place you remember seeing or using it. Very often it might just have fallen behind a table etc in your hotel room itself.
You can also ask the hotel lobby to see if anyone has handed it in at the desk. Or even just double-check you haven't forgotten that you stashed the passport in your bag for safekeeping. If you realise it is well and truly lost, you can still potentially retrieve it.
Go to the police
Find the local station and report to them that you've lost your passport. They can give you a police report which you will need for insurance purposes and to obtain a replacement passport or travel document.
Some police authorities will not issue a report for lost passports. but you should still go to demonstrate to the authorities that you've tried to report the loss.
Contact the nearest British Embassy, High Commission or Consulate
You will be asked to complete an LS01 form in order for your passport to be cancelled. Because of the risk of identity theft, you should do this as soon as you're aware your passport is lost. You don't need to wait until you apply for a new passport.
Apply for emergency travel documents
Make sure you apply for an emergency travel document during office hours. You will be required to pay a fee for this.
Don't lose it in the first place
If you don't need to take your passport with you for any reason then the best thing you can do is leave it at your holiday home or hotel. If possible, you should try and keep it locked away in a drawer or safe like any other valuable item.
But if you must travel with your passport on your person then you should be aware of your surroundings and be wary of strangers who take an unusual amount of interest in you. Your passport is also unusable if it is damaged so keep it safe and don't take it for granted.
You can also make two copies of your passport and leave one with your friends or family and take a second with you or store an electronic copy securely. Where permitted use your photocopy as an alternative ID for example if going out at night.
James Freedman, stealth crime expert, said: "Pickpockets and thieves constantly evolve their techniques and tactics. These videos show just a handful of ways that a pickpocket might attempt to steal from you, so remember some basic advice to stay safe.
"If you don’t need to take your passport with you, leave it in your hotel safe instead. Only carry what you need and keep valuables in a secure pocket.
"If you have a bag or case, never let it out of your sight. Be more alert in crowds and wary of anyone getting too close.
"Finally, try not to advertise the location of prized possessions by patting your pockets or bags. That’s why you’ll often find pickpockets near the 'Beware Pickpockets' sign!"
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In recent weeks the Food Standards Agency have issued a number of warnings urging supermarket customers to check their cupboards for recalled products. Food from the likes of Tesco , Asda , Morrisons , Sainsbury's and Co-op have been removed due to potential health risks.
Affected products listed on the Food Standards Agency website have included Linda McCartney sausages, Hovis pancakes, Asda chicken and bacon pasta bake, Dolmio pasta sauces, an Alpro Rice drink, Sainsbury's cooked prawns, Ben & Jerry’s Moo-phoria Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream, and Co-op Chilli & Lime Protein Crunch.
Affected customers are warned not to eat these products as some contain allergy ingredients such as soya, gluten and milk which are not mentioned on the label. Others may be undercooked or contain foreign objects such as glass. Instead, they are advised to return them to the store in exchange for a full refund.
Read more: Tesco under fire for 'shrinking' ready meal sizes despite hiking the price
These are the warnings still ongoing for anyone who has purchased the products:
Linda McCartney 2 vegetarian 1/4lb burgers
Linda McCartney is issuing alerts for their pack of 2 vegetarian 1/4lb burgers. Retailers including Tesco and Ocado are recalling the product because it contains milk that is not mentioned on the label.
This means the product is a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents. The product details:
Linda McCartney 2 vegetarian 1/4lb burgers
Pack size: 227g
Best before: January 2024
The FSA said: "If you have bought the above product and have an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents do not eat it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund. Consumers can also contact Linda McCartney Consumer Care on 0800 0014409."
Asda Italian Inspired Chicken and Bacon Pasta Bake
Asda is recalling it's own-brand Italian Inspired chicken and bacon pasta bake due to undeclared mustard. The supermarket is removing the product as mustard was not mentioned on the label and this may pose a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to mustard.
The product details are:
Pack size: 400g and 800g
Best before: 29 July 2022 and 30 July 2022
The FSA said: " If you have bought the above product and have an allergy to mustard, do not eat it. Instead return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund."
Dolmio pasta sauces
Dolmio carbonara pasta sauce pouch and Dolmio carbonara pasta sauce stir-in are continuing to be recalled by various retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Iceland, Ocado and Amazon because they contain soya which is not mentioned on the label.
This means the products are a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to soya. The product details are:
Dolmio Carbonara Pasta Sauce Pouch
Pack size: 150g
Best before: 28 February 2023
Dolmio Carbonara Pasta Sauce Pouch
Pack size: 150g
Best before: 01 March 2023
Dolmio Carbonara Pasta Sauce Stir-in
Pack size: 150g
Best before: 26 April 2023
Dolmio Carbonara Pasta Sauce Stir-in
Pack size: 150g
Best before: 27 April 2023
The FSA said: "If you have bought the above products and have an allergy to soya, do not eat them. Instead, please contact the Dolmio customer care line on 0800 952 1234 (UK) or 1890 812 315 (Northern Ireland) for a full refund or alternatively return to store for a full refund."
Alpro Rice drink
Alpro UK Limited is recalling part of a batch of Alpro Rice drink because it contains oats (gluten), which is not mentioned on the label. This means the product, sold at Morrisons and Sainsbury's is a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy or intolerance to oats or gluten.
The product details are:
Alpro Rice Drink
Pack size: 1 litre
Batch code: L 090 2 (the affected batch was manufactured between 15:07 and 18:24)
Best before: 31 December 2022
The FSA said: "If you have bought the above product and have an allergy or intolerance to oats or gluten, do not drink it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund. If you have any queries, please contact the Alpro Careline team on 0333 300 0900 or at https://www.alpro.com/uk/contact."
Cooked and Peeled Frozen Large King Prawns
Sainsbury’s is also continuing to recall 'by Cooked and Peeled Frozen Large King Prawns' because of possible presence of undercooked prawns. The possible presence of undercooked prawns may make this product unsafe to eat.
The product details are:
by Sainsbury’s Cooked and Peeled Frozen Large King Prawns
Pack size: 180g
Best before: May 2023, June 2023, July 2023, August 2023, September 2023, and October 2023
by Sainsbury’s Cooked and Peeled Frozen Large King Prawns
Pack size: 400g
Best before: May 2023, June 2023, July 2023, August 2023, September 2023, and October 2023
The FSA said: "If you have bought any of the above products do not eat them. Instead, return them to the store from where they were bought for a full refund. If you have any questions or concerns, please visit Sainsbury’s website at Sainsburys.co.uk/help or contact their careline on 0800636262."
Ben & Jerry’s Moo-phoria Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Ben & Jerry’s Moo-phoria Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Ice Cream sold at Sainsbury’s continues to be recalled as a result of a packaging error. The FSA said it has the incorrect lid of Ben & Jerry’s Salted Caramel Brownie Ice Cream resulting in peanuts not being mentioned on the lid.
This means the product is a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy to peanuts.
The product details are:
Ben & Jerry’s Moo-phoria Peanut Butter Cookie Dough
Pack size: 465ml
Batch code: L1278
Best before: April 2023
The FSA said: "If you have bought the above product and have an allergy to peanuts do not eat it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund. Alternatively you may wish to contact the Unilever UK Careline on 0800 146252 or email them at ukicare@unilever.com."
Chilli & Lime Protein Crunch
Recall alerts are continuing for Co-op Chilli & Lime Protein Crunch because the product contains milk which is not mentioned on the label. This means the product is a possible health risk for anyone with an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents.
The product details are:
Co-op Chilli & Lime Protein Crunch
Pack size: 120g
Best before: 15 August 2022, 5 September 2022 and 26 September 2022
The FSA said: "If you have bought the above product and have an allergy or intolerance to milk or milk constituents, do not eat it. Instead, return it to the store from where it was bought for a full refund.
"Consumers can also contact Co-op’s Customer Careline on 0800 0686 727 or email customer.careline@coop.co.uk.
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There are not a lot of details available from BlackRock as yet. A statement from the firm:
“Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients in how to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets using our technology and product capabilities”
BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with circa US$9.5 trillion in assets under management.
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Data from China on Friday on financing. New loans slumped, even as money supply (M2 +11%) grew strongly - i.e. plenty of cash sloshing about but its not in demand:
The chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics says such a combination of data is a “classic sign of a liquidity trap ” .
“Liquidity is ample, but no one wants it.” The remarks come via a Bloomberg piece (gated, but an ungated one can be found here ):
The mismatch between liquidity
Liquidity
Liquidity refers to the extent of a financial instrument’s ability to be bought or sold without causing price fluctuations. Thus, if an asset is extremely liquid, it means one can trade that asset in the knowledge that one’s specific dealing won’t create significant movements in the market.This is because there exists such a large number of traders going both long and short, generating huge volume for that particular asset. Liquidity in the FX MarketTake the example of the foreign exchange market – it is the world’s most liquid market, since numerous banks, hedge funds and individual traders partake in the buying and selling of vast cumulative amounts currencies every single day. In fact, over $5 trillion is exchanged daily, as mentioned by the Bank of International Settlements. If a trader wants to go long on the currency pair EUR/USD, they will have no trouble in finding traders wanting to go the opposite way, due to such ample liquidity. The EUR/USD is the world’s most liquid trading instrument, in any market. It is extremely easily bought or sold, with an immense quantity of trading activity for the pair. Liquidity reflects the quantity and the frequency of the asset that’s being traded, i.e. the more an asset is traded, the more liquid that asset is, making it virtually effortless for the asset to be bought and sold.Likewise, the less an asset is traded, generally the less liquid the asset is, making it more difficult for that asset to be bought or sold. It goes without saying that liquidity is one of the key attributes a trader looks for, when deciding on whether to pursue trading an instrument, since it tells the trader how stable a market is despite masses of trades being undertaken. This is exactly why the forex market is so enticing, since its liquid environment allows massive trading volumes to occur without much effect on the currency pairs’ exchange rates.
Liquidity refers to the extent of a financial instrument’s ability to be bought or sold without causing price fluctuations. Thus, if an asset is extremely liquid, it means one can trade that asset in the knowledge that one’s specific dealing won’t create significant movements in the market.This is because there exists such a large number of traders going both long and short, generating huge volume for that particular asset. Liquidity in the FX MarketTake the example of the foreign exchange market – it is the world’s most liquid market, since numerous banks, hedge funds and individual traders partake in the buying and selling of vast cumulative amounts currencies every single day. In fact, over $5 trillion is exchanged daily, as mentioned by the Bank of International Settlements. If a trader wants to go long on the currency pair EUR/USD, they will have no trouble in finding traders wanting to go the opposite way, due to such ample liquidity. The EUR/USD is the world’s most liquid trading instrument, in any market. It is extremely easily bought or sold, with an immense quantity of trading activity for the pair. Liquidity reflects the quantity and the frequency of the asset that’s being traded, i.e. the more an asset is traded, the more liquid that asset is, making it virtually effortless for the asset to be bought and sold.Likewise, the less an asset is traded, generally the less liquid the asset is, making it more difficult for that asset to be bought or sold. It goes without saying that liquidity is one of the key attributes a trader looks for, when deciding on whether to pursue trading an instrument, since it tells the trader how stable a market is despite masses of trades being undertaken. This is exactly why the forex market is so enticing, since its liquid environment allows massive trading volumes to occur without much effect on the currency pairs’ exchange rates.
Read this Term and bank lending is also raising financial risks as market interest rates drop well below policy rates set by the central bank. “Liquidity is piling up in the interbank market and there’s even a risk of money being directed out of the real economy and into markets,” said Ming Ming, chief economist at Citic Securities Co. --
Risk of money being directed into markets could very well translate to a bullish input for Chinese stocks.
ps. Coming up on Monday is a maturing MLF. A majority of analysts expect the PBOC to not fully roll the amount maturing (that is, a net withdrawal of cash). On the 20th we get the monthly loan prime rate setting from the PBOC (preview here ).
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An acceleration of coronavirus cases late in the week has plunged more areas in China into tighter restrictions and complete lockdown.
Including:
In the southern province of Hainan two cities (total population just under 1 million), Dongfang and Chengmai, extended the lockdowns currently in place. The 3 data lockdown are now for around a week, so far anyway. Further cases will of course raise the probability of restrictions extending in time, and area.
Also in Hainan, provincial capital Haikou locked down its 2.9mn people, between 0700-1800 local time.
Tibet's biggest city Lhasa told residents not to go out unless they have special and urgent matters to attend to between Friday and Monday.
Korla city in western Xinjiang imposed lockdowns (ps. you'll see the newish term “static management” for lockdowns in China now) starting Saturday for at least five to seven days.
There are more, but you get the idea.
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Of course, its up to each country to decide its own health policy and we wish the people impacted well. China is of particular interest for its role in the global economy. Domestically, activity is being hit by the debt-fuelled implosion and contagion sweeping the property sector. Lockdowns don't help economic activity. If there is bright spot its that critical hubs such as Shanghai are not locked down at present. | https://www.forexlive.com/news/more-cities-in-china-sent-into-covid-lockdown-as-cases-mount-20220813/ | 2022-08-13T05:28:46Z | forexlive.com | control | https://www.forexlive.com/news/more-cities-in-china-sent-into-covid-lockdown-as-cases-mount-20220813/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Overdue improvement for St. Louis’ vacancy scourge could also bring payday for derelict property owners
Set on St. Louis’ neglect-scarred north side, 3211 Blair Avenue barely stands out. With shards of rotting wood serving as the only reminder of a front porch, and windows shrouded in graying plywood, it’s one of more than 10,000 vacant buildings in the city.
Some of the city’s skeletal structures have burned-out, caved-in roofs. Others are wall-less. One rained red bricks onto the adjacent sidewalk, rerouting pedestrians into the street.
Neighbors have complained to the city that 3211 Blair Ave. is collapsing, posing a hazard to residents. Its owner owes hundreds of thousands in unpaid property taxes and has faced court judgments over this and other dilapidated properties
Nearby, a three-bed, two-bath fixer-upper in the 3500 block of Blair Ave. sat similarly unloved until neighbors took the owners to court. The neighbors won and were able to acquire the deed. The renovated property sold in mid-March for more than $90,000, according to the rehabber
Both buildings are in a part of St. Louis now flagged for major reinvestment. At least $37 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding, sent from the feds to combat the disastrous impacts of COVID 19 — and potentially $150 million more — is expected to flow into north St. Louis neighborhoods, according to the city’s mayor and an official with St. Louis Development Corporation, the city’s development arm.
Mayor Tishaura Jones, the city’s first Black woman mayor, has called the cash influx a “once in a lifetime opportunity” for the city’s north side, which also is the future home ofthe $1.7 billion western headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. That campus, called Next NGA West, is under construction in the St. Louis Place neighborhood of north St. Louis, and is expected to open to workers in 2026.
City officials have said residents of the six neighborhoods nearest the NGA campus will benefit from the planned investment, through a focused effort called Project Connect.
It is a moment decades in the making. Many residents see the federal funds, commitment from the Jones administration, and recent successes in the courts as a planetary alignment with the potential to finally bring about actual change.
Yet there is skepticism. Some long-time residents wonder aloud why the problem has persisted across multiple city administrations and question whether city leaders have done enough over the years to hold negligent property owners accountable. The residents fear that as government funds begin to flow, lax owners will cash in, selling their properties to the highest bidder and reaping a reward after years of dereliction
Few stand to gain as much as developer Paul McKee, whose company, NorthSide Regeneration, inked a deal with the city in 2009 to help redevelop a two-square-mile section of north St. Louis that includes parts of the Project Connect neighborhoods — including all of Carr Square and parts of JeffVanderLou, St. Louis Place, Columbus Square and Old North St. Louis.
NorthSide still foresees a “large-scale and holistic transformation” of the area, according to its website. But city officials and neighbors have complained that progress has moved at a glacial pace, with only a few structures actually completed.
As of this spring, NorthSide Regeneration owned more than 1,600 vacant parcels in the city, mostly in the Project Connect area. That includes nearly 230 vacant buildings, according to data compiled by the St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative, a coalition of community members, private and nonprofit organizations, and local government agencies working to reduce the negative effect of vacant property in St. Louis.
That's nearly half — 46% — of the vacant buildings owned by the top 10 private owners listed by the Collaborative.
A list of resident concerns in 2021 included nearly three dozen “building collapsed” complaints in the Project Connect neighborhoods. Seven reported properties were listed as being owned by NorthSide Regeneration, the most for any one property owner.
The city issued “structural condemnation notices to six of the properties, including NorthSide Regeneration's vacant property at 3211 Blair, which was condemned in June 2013, according to the Vacancy Collaborative. A condemnation notice means the property is not safe for habitation. The building owner has 30 days from the notice date to make progress — obtain a building permit to demolish or repair — and 10 days to file an appeal, according to the city’s Building Division.
Most of the buildings, including 3211 Blair, were still standing as of mid-June, according to an inspection by The St. Louis American and Type Investigations.
An official with the city's Building Division said photos of 3211 Blair on file in the department "don't show that it poses an imminent danger to the public, therefore the City of St. Louis funds will be used for more urgent [collapsing structures] in the ward." She added that the case has been "referred to court."
In the JeffVanderLou neighborhood, as of this spring, nearly 60 NorthSide properties were condemned, according to the Vacancy Collaborative.
Darryl Piggee, McKee’s attorney, did not respond to questions about specific properties, so it’s impossible to determine whether NorthSide took action.
In an emailed response to questions from The American and Type Investigations, Piggee instead focused on the significance of McKee’s decision to invest in the area. “Mr. McKee decided to invest where no one — not third parties or even the city’s development agencies — were willing to go for almost six decades,” he wrote. “Since making that decision, Mr. McKee has expended more than $8 million toward real estate taxes, grass cutting, demolition and maintenance charges.
“We challenge you to find anyone whose financial commitment to North St. Louis approaches that level, or who has expended these kinds of sums on vacant lots and abandoned property in the long-ignored North side, the City included,” he said.
As part of Project Connect, city officials have embarked on a listening tour of the six neighborhoods — Hyde Park, St. Louis Place, JeffVanderLou, Old North St. Louis, Carr Square and Columbus Square — seeking resident input on how the federal rescue funds should be spent.
In a survey the city released in June, 2,108 respondents who live in St. Louis selected "addressing vacancy" as a top priority, one of the highest tallies for any specific category.
That concern was echoed by nearly a dozen community leaders and neighborhood advocates contacted by The American as part of a months-long reporting project with Type Investigations
“Vacant, uncared-for property and land, it's just not appealing,” said Andre Logan, pastor of the Thessalonian Missionary Baptist Church, a predominantly Black congregation in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood. “It's not desirable to the community, especially when it's next to a homeowner’s house. I mean, it's just not good. Some of the properties are dangerous. Some of them have fallen down.”
“Why has it been allowed to happen?” he asked. “Why is a very good question; that I don't know. That’s the million-dollar question.”
While politicians for years have promised to address the vacancy problem, the push took on new urgency earlier this year when St. Louis Firefighter Ben Polson was killed fighting a fire in a vacant home in north St. Louis. The roof collapsed as Polson was checking to make certain no one was trapped inside
An estimated 40% of calls answered by the St. Louis Fire Department are to vacant structures, according to Fire Captain Garon Mosby.
Beyond the fire danger, the vacant properties can drain city resources
As of mid-July, Northside Regeneration owed at least $320,000 in property taxes on its vacant buildings alone, not counting taxes owed on hundreds of empty lots, city records show.
As of July, the Vacancy Collaborative reported that citywide, property owners owed $4.9 million in unpaid property taxes; $7.6 million in billed forestry maintenance fees; and $3.5 in unpaid vacant building fees and fines for a total of $16 million.
The site does not break down the fees by property owner.
Asked about the unpaid taxes, Piggee did not comment on specific properties but said, “We pay our taxes.”
When asked if property owners behind in taxes and fees would be required to pay up before participating in the coming development, a spokesman for the mayor’s office directed the question to the Development Corporation, which did not respond.
The idea of neglectful property owners cashing in doesn’t sit well with homeowners like G. Fatimah Muhammad, who, along with husband Donald Harden, chose to move to the north side’s Hyde Park neighborhood about 20 years ago
“These properties have sat vacant for years,” she said. “Some of the owners opted [for] paying citations and continuing to let the building remain in disrepair and [be] a continuous eyesore and danger to the community. Others let the citation fees and back taxes accumulate and still did nothing to eliminate the nuisances, waiting for a real estate payday.
Decades of disinvestment
St. Louis’ vacancy problem has unfolded over decades and stood at 24,923 vacant parcels in total as of July, according to the estimate from the Collaborative’s website. The highest concentration of vacancies is in the city’s northern stretches — occupied largely by low-income, people of color.
That citywide tally includes an estimated 10,579 vacant buildings and 14,344 vacant lots, according to the Collaborative, which draws its data from the St. Louis Building Division, the Assessor's Office, the Division of Forestry, and the Citizens' Service Bureau.
When looking at “concentrated” vacancies, such as those found on the north side of the city, St. Louis is one of the most vacancy-plagued cities in the nation, according to the Vacancy Collaborative
California-based ATTOM Data publishes a quarterly vacant property report. Of the 100 U.S. zipcodes with the highest percentage of vacant properties this winter, five of them were in St. Louis, more than in almost any other U.S. city.
The blame for the city’s gap-toothed visage lies with many of the usual suspects: lackluster regional growth, racism, and chronic disinvestment, according to residents and the countless news articles that have been written on the vacancy problem
St. Louis city has seen a significant drop in population — down 6% from 2010 to 301,578, according to the 2020 Census
At the same time, the number of Black and mixed-race Black city residents dropped by 15% to 137,059, according to data from Census.gov. Many left north St. Louis for the suburbs in north St. Louis County, while some moved into the city's revitalized central corridor and near south side neighborhoods, according to Glenn Burleigh, community engagement specialist for St. Louis’ Equal Housing & Opportunity Council
In some cases, Burleigh said, that left behind vacant homes, including in the Project Connect neighborhoods.
Of the 10 neighborhoods with the most vacant lots and buildings, according to the Collaborative, three are in the Project Connect area — JeffVanderLou, St. Louis Place and Hyde Park.
Beyond population drops, Burleigh sees another culprit behind the bumper crop of vacancies: redlining. That federal government-backed value-killer dates back decades, and has pummeled many major urban areas including St. Louis.
“You’ve got to remember that … what society has done, has essentially made it virtually impossible for homeowners in majority-Black neighborhoods to keep up their homes,” Burleigh said, noting the inability of homeowners in those areas to tap into home equity loans at the same rate as homeowners in white areas.
“If you're not able to access the mainstream banking and finance things, [as] the majority white areas are, you can't do things that are just considered normal as far as using equity to finance repairs and maintenance and stuff on your home.
St. Louis suffered from the same pernicious policies, in effect at the federal level from the 1930 to the 1960s, that blocked the Federal Housing Administration and later the Veterans Administration from insuring loans in predominantly Black areas, according to Next City, which covers solutions to urban issues.
Insufficient funds for upkeep, titles with expensive liens, and owners who die without a will have forced some families to walk away from properties that otherwise could have been used to provide generational wealth.
For some developers, it represented the perfect buying opportunity
‘Comprehensive regeneration
The plan was impressive.
NorthSide Regeneration would spend $8 billion over 23 years to replace a decaying city core with a brand spanking new one complete with 10,000 homes, parks, schools and churches. Also on the drawing board was 3 million square feet of office space, 2 million square feet for retail, 1 million square feet for tech, a primary care hospital and three major employment centers, according to the NorthSide website. NextSTL, a website that covers St. Louis development issues, noted plans for 240 hotel rooms, a $35 million recycling center along with thousands of market-rate residences
NorthSide Regeneration owned 1,999 properties at peak ownership, according to St. Louis Public Radio.
“Today, the area is on the cusp of a remarkable and comprehensive regeneration that would mean jobs, opportunity, economic self-sustenance and minority wealth creation,” according to the NorthSide Regeneration website.
Buying into the vision, and with a dearth of competing ideas on how to revitalize the area, St. Louis agreed in 2009 to let the company develop the area through a $390 million tax increment financing district, according to a 2018 letter from the city. In the TIF district, taxes on future gains in property values would be used to help pay for improvements in the area.
NorthSide also received $43 million in tax credits, according to the city letter. The credits were offered through a law that a member of McKee’s legal team helped write.
Piggee, McKee’s attorney, said “nearly a decade before Mr. McKee got involved,” a report on the city’s 5th Ward, which is on the north side, noted that the area could not expect meaningful progress without the incentives ultimately awarded to Mr. McKee and the large scale site control and planning he proposed.”
A 2018 letter from NorthSide to the city called McKee’s plan for the neglected area “unprecedented risk taking.” It cites a brief submitted by the Board of Aldermen’s attorneys stating that by the fall of 2009, “Northside had borrowed $27.6 million which was invested in the redevelopment effort, all of which was guaranteed by McKee personally.”
McKee sold the city more than 330 parcels, needed to make room for the Defense Department’s NGA project, according to a settlement statement. Piggee described it as 56 of the nearly 100 acres the city needed for the NGA.
In time, though, the city became concerned.
Despite the grand promises, lots remained vacant and untended. Property taxes went unpaid. No major developments opened before 2019 – nearly 10 years after the initial pact was signed. So the city terminated the agreement.
In the city’s 2018 letter, signed by then-City Counselor Julian L. Bush, the city declared that NorthSide was in default on the development agreement adding, “It is time to face facts. After a decade, the promised redevelopment has not come, nor is there any indication that it will … Land lies fallow … Vacant buildings remain dangerous and unsecured.”
As of 2018, the city said in its letter, NorthSide owned at least 205 buildings that had been cited for building code violations.
In its rebuttal to the city, NorthSide accused the city of getting in the way of development in the area stating: “The City Parties have failed to cooperate — and, in fact, have actively worked to undermine — NSR’s development of projects in the vicinity of the NGA Site.”
“Mr. McKee invested even though he faced inexplicable interference by the City, and a series of legal challenges, all of which unnecessarily delayed progress and required the use of valuable resources to litigate and negotiate with the City and third parties,” said Piggee.
And he disputed that progress was slow, adding, “We had satisfied all of our development obligations under our redevelopment agreement when the City terminated our development rights. … We believe that the termination was completely unwarranted and unlawful.”
Bank of Washington, a major lender for the NorthSide project, filed suit in 2018 against the city’s Land Clearance For Redevelopment Authority — which oversees many aspects of public and private real estate development in St. Louis — accusing the city, in part, of unfairly pulling out of the project.
A June entry in the court file noted that both sides reported that attempts at mediation were “unsuccessful,” The case is headed to a jury trial next year, according to the file.
The city’s withdrawal came even as NorthSide moved forward on plans for the first two major projects in the area: a ZOOM gas station and a 20,000-square-foot grocery store called GreenLeaf in Columbus Square, both of which opened in 2019.
McKee has acknowledged that some citizens, as well as city officials, have expressed concern.
“Usually when we get complaints, we beg the people to call us direct, but they call the city because they think they’re getting us in trouble,” McKee told St. Louis Public Radio in 2018. “No matter how hard we work to get them to call us direct,” people keep calling inspectors and the Citizens' Service Bureau, he said.
Patricia Dees, chair of the St. Louis Place Community Association, said she and her neighbors have reached out to NorthSide, adding, “we were not always met with the best responses.
Standing in a vacant lot listed as being owned by Northside, she said now residents keep detailed records on all attempts to get something done, and pass that information on to the city via a Neighborhood Improvement Specialist for Ward
Many residents found it easier to take action themselves and were actually mowing and cleaning the NorthSide lots, she said.
And, increasingly, residents began to turn to the court
Legal aid
Muhammad, of the Hyde Park association, said she and husband,Donald Harden, were excited about buying one of the “beautiful vacant homes” in the Hyde Park area two decades ago.
In 2002, the couple paid $1,500 for a 3,000 square-foot property in the inventory of the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, the owner of last resort after properties don’t sell at tax sales.
The 140-year-old four-bedroom, five-bath property would become their retirement home, but it needed work, she said. Unable to secure a rehabilitation loan, the couple funded the rehab with money from their own pockets
In 2017, Muhammad came out of retirement to found the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association of North St. Louis, in part to deal with the vacancy curse.
“I have come out of retirement to do the work that is needed in our community,” she said. “I do it with love for my people, the community and the betterment of all. No one heard the voices of the community until now, that's why I do it.”
To help spur progress, the neighborhood association turned to Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, Inc., which in 2018 brought to St. Louis the Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative, a spinoff of a similar program born in Kansas City that uses the courts to help break up the logjam that keeps vacant, decaying properties from being sold to would-be developers
Between 2018 and 2022, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association filed at least a dozen lawsuits against neighborhood property owners, according to a search of filings in Missouri Courts. It’s been among the most active neighborhood groups in taking negligent property owners to court.
Its lawsuit list includes the case against the former “absentee” owner of 3519 Blair Ave.
“I definitely remember this being one of the worst houses I have ever seen,” said Peter Hoffman, managing attorney for the Neighborhood Vacancy Initiative of the Legal Services group, describing it as “terrible, owners long deceased, heirs unknown ... If the neighborhood hadn't intervened, this house may very well not be standing anymore.”
At Hoffman’s urging, developer and real estate broker Tenesia Looney-Brown looked at more than a dozen properties in north St. Louis, several of them owned by NorthSide Regeneration and many of them she felt “needed to be torn down.”
The property on Blair was “horrible too,” but she felt, “this is the lesser of all the evils … Altogether, I probably spent about $160,000 on it and I sold it for” $93,000, she said. “Our main focus everywhere we go is the urban core and revitalizing it.”
At 1514 Mallinckrodt Street, a former multi-family home built in 1892, “the entire rear of the building had fallen to the ground,” Muhammad said. The Vacancy Collaborative listed eight “major” city code violations at the property before it was demolished in recent years.
The new owner of the land, the St. Louis-based nonprofit Dream Builders 4 Equity, plans to use the property as the site of its first ground-up build. The organization, co-founded by Michael Woods, aims to rehab at least 25 vacant properties to be sold to first-time homeowners, and provide free home renovations worth up to $10,000 for 25 seniors
“I wanted [Dream Builders] to be the change … to be that first investment or to be that person or a part of some group that inspires other people to really see and understand that this is needed, like it has to be done,” said Woods.
He’s currently rehabbing 1522-24 Mallinckrodt Street, “one of the oldest properties in St. Louis,” according to Preservation Research Office. The 1850s era structure was badly damaged by fire in 2005.
Muhammad cited progress at the two Mallinckrodt addresses as court-aided wins for the community.
Partnering with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri allowed Muhammad to find rehab partners able to restore historic homes in the neighborhood. “Now, these properties are being rehabbed into affordable beautiful homes,” she said.
“These are the real stories. ... the successes, the wins,” she added. “The community has been so excited about the processes as we work, block by block, to bring about change in our community.”
In an area where residents often are portrayed as victims, Muhammad sees the legal strategy as evidence of residents' collective agency.
“Residents are joining together, taking back their power,” she said. “Working and collaborating with city departments, neighborhoods, other organizations and businesses. Working as a unit with transparency has been our focus.”
But there is still much work to do. And that raises questions about current north side revitalization plans.
At least 30 vacant properties in Hyde Park are owned by NorthSide Regeneration, McKee’s company, according to the Vacancy Collaborative database.
A city database reviewed by The American and Type Investigations showed that NorthSide Regeneration still owed 2020 and 2021 taxes for at least 222 of the company’s vacant buildings in the Project Connect neighborhoods, as of mid-July. That’s not counting taxes owed on vacant lots.
As recently as March, it also owed property taxes for 2019 for most of its vacant parcels, including the Blair property, according to data from the Collaborative. Under state law, tax collectors can start procedures to collect delinquent taxes within one year, but the city typically files suit to collect taxes after a property has been three years behind on taxes, according to the St. Louis Collector of Revenue. Some owners, like NorthSide, seem to pay just one year’s derelict taxes at the last minute, to avoid legal action.
Piggee, McKee’s attorney, did not respond to questions about unpaid taxes at specific properties.
City officials did not respond to questions regarding property owners who still owe taxes for 2020 and 2021. We also asked what neighbors are wondering — whether these same owners will be allowed to profit from the revitalization. The city did not respond.
None of the dozen lawsuits filed by the Hyde Park Association was against NorthSide. Muhammad did not say why.
But the city’s Department of Public Safety, which contains the Building Division, has taken the developer to court at least six times since 2018, securing judgments totaling more than $4,500.The amount of delinquent tax, penalties and fees due on a piece of property at the time of a court judgment is included in that judgment, according to Tom Vollmer, a deputy with the Collector of Revenue department.
Hoffman, of Legal Services’ neighborhood vacancy initiative and the lead attorney in many of the court cases, declined to discuss specific cases. But he, like the residents interviewed, expressed hope that the city might be moving toward substantive change. “I believe there's a commitment from this current mayor, to try to make a dent in this problem,” Hoffman said.
In her first State of the City Address in April, Mayor Tishaura Jones — who describes herself as the “first mayor in over 20 years to be born, raised and still live in north St. Louis” — said she would like to see $150 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding spent on the north side of the city. That’s beyond the $37 million in ARPA money already committed to the area.
The aim is to bring about change.
“This change looks like fewer boarded-up buildings and crumbling vacant [structures] on our blocks,” she said. “We must stabilize or renovate vacant buildings and make them neighborhood assets instead of deadly risks to our residents and our firefighters.”
She told The American and Type Investigations that “is accurate” to note the city has not done enough in the past, but the city was now determined to “hold neglectful property owners like Northside Regeneration accountable.”
Still, she said, progress may be slower than some would like.
“Fixing a decades old issue won’t happen in a day, or even a year, but we have started making a concerted effort to reverse these historic wrongs,” she said in an email to The American. “In this year’s budget we’ve included $6 million to help address vacant buildings, including rehabilitation or demolition. This is in addition to funding and support from the state and private organizations.
Jones divided her proposed $150 million spending plan — which must be approved by the Board of Aldermen and the Board of Estimate & Apportionment — into three categories, including one labeled “neighborhood transformation.”
That includes “capacity building, vacancy [abatement]... environmental justice” and improving housing accessibility. That category would get up to $70 million — nearly half of the $150 million Jones is pushing for.
Hoffman called the vacancy issue “an enormous problem,” adding, “it's going to take years to fix. You know, it's been 50 years in the making. It's not going to be something that's going to go away overnight. But hopefully, the thing that I think that maybe people are more optimistic about, I know I’m optimistic about, is that there are federal funds that are now available.”
He said the problems in the Project Connect neighborhoods won’t be solved by investment alone.
“In most city neighborhoods, the owners of vacant nuisance properties are varied,” he said. “Many of the blighted properties around the NGA site are due in large part to one particular bad actor. The key to addressing those [resides] in addressing that particular owner.”
Asked if he was referring to McKee, Hoffman said, “Yes. I think anyone reading this will know who I'm referring to.”
For residents like Dees, of the St Louis Place Community Association, the thought that negligent property owners might be in line for hefty profits brings with it “a sense of frustration.”
“It's derelict properties around that nobody is taking care of,” she said. “And all of a sudden, the properties will get sold at this astronomical amount. And then here I have been, cutting your grass or cleaning up trash or whatever else to keep my property from looking a mess. So, you know, there is a lot of animosity.”
Without commenting on specific properties, Piggee said, the company has “had to devote precious resources to defending frivolous litigation and inexplicable in-fighting with the City. We are making every effort to ensure that demolition proceeds where necessary to protect the public.”
Dr. Annessa Blackmun, who opened a business in the Old North neighborhood in 2013, thinks the focus on McKee has taken the spotlight off of the city and its responsibility to address the problem
“I really want to take the focus off of Mr. McKee and put it back on the city and what kinds of plans or resources or incentives are there to get these parcels not to be vacant. You know what I mean? Because at some point, it's like this big circle and it all goes back to this supposedly horrible bad guy and I don't know if that's good enough anymore for me.”
So far, officials have yet to articulate a specific plan. Leaders in the city’s development corporation say they plan to address multiple issues in north St. Louis, from development to the threat of gentrification.
Many of the specifics, however, have yet to be determined. Listening to residents and crafting a plan is expected to take two years, according to Lance Knuckles, who last fall joined the St. Louis Development Corporation as director ofstrategic growth and development.
He did not have a total figure for how much will be spent in the Project Connect area but outlined some funding sources.
The city is planning on using $20 million in ARPA funds to support affordable housing in north St. Louis and $5 million for grants to small businesses negatively affected by COVID, he said.
Another $2.5 million will go to small business lending for community development corporations and neighborhood organizations across north St. Louis.
Meanwhile, residents like Dees see in the concurrent activity of the SLDC, the Vacancy Collaborative, Legal Aid, and others, as threads which — if taken together — could form a lifeline
I've got all these people woven and braided together in this rope,” said Dees.
“And I'm holding on to this rope … by a thread, praying that they are going to do what they promise us that they're going to do.”
This story was reported in partnership with Type Investigations, where Karen Robinson-Jacobs is an Alfred Knobler fellow.
Research assistance by Paco Alvarez and Nina Zweig of Type Investigations. Produced with support from Report For America. Logo by Kyle Alcott | https://www.stlamerican.com/millions-of-dollars-are-set-to-pour-into-st-louis-north-side/article_94e55bb4-1aa8-11ed-8614-7380b048de6b.html | 2022-08-13T05:36:26Z | stlamerican.com | control | https://www.stlamerican.com/millions-of-dollars-are-set-to-pour-into-st-louis-north-side/article_94e55bb4-1aa8-11ed-8614-7380b048de6b.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Standout football player Miles McVay of East St. Louis Senior High has given a commitment to perennial national powerhouse Alabama.
The four-star offensive tackle made his announcement at a special ceremony on Thursday night at the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club, where he started his football career.
The 6’7” 345-pound McVay is listed as one of the top prospects in the state of Illinois and one of the most coveted offensive tackle prospects in the country. He had more than 40 scholarship offers, but he ended up choosing the Crimson Tide over Missouri, Michigan State, Oregon, Texas A&M and Jackson State.
With a big group of family and friends in attendance, McVay picked up the Alabama baseball cap off the table while his mother, Renita Harvey, revealed an array of balloons with the Alabama logo on it to celebrate the big announcement. While this was going on, McVay’s commitment video was playing on a television behind him.
“It just felt like home,” McVay said. “It was where I felt I belonged. It’s where I come from. It’s what I love. I watched them practice and the intensity level is what I fell in love with. It just reminded me of being at East Side my freshman year. It was just like being at home and it made me comfortable and that is why I chose them.”
“Miles has wanted to be great from the moment he walked into our weight room as an eighth grader,” said East St. Louis head coach Darren Sunkett. “It’s always a great occasion when you see a young man able to accomplish a dream that he set out at a young age. I’ve never seen a kid with a greater work ethic.” | https://www.stlamerican.com/sports/local_sports/miles-mcvay-commits-to-alabama/article_7941ecae-1a9b-11ed-a38a-d748110807a6.html | 2022-08-13T05:36:32Z | stlamerican.com | control | https://www.stlamerican.com/sports/local_sports/miles-mcvay-commits-to-alabama/article_7941ecae-1a9b-11ed-a38a-d748110807a6.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ANAHEIM — The Angels’ three-game winning streak came to an end because of another disappointing night at the plate.
The Angels had just four hits in a 4-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on Friday night, the 11th time this season that they have been shut out.
The Angels, who rank 25th in the majors in runs, couldn’t muster much offense against Twins right-hander Tyler Mahle, an Orange County product who enjoyed his first time pitching at Angel Stadium in three years.
Mahle, 27, was the seventh-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds out of Westminster High in 2013. In his only previous game in Anaheim, in 2019, he gave up four runs in a five-inning start with the Reds.
He got a shot to return when the Reds traded him to the Twins earlier this month, and he made the most of it.
The Angels went quietly for the first five innings, with just two singles and a walk. They did not get a runner into scoring position until the sixth, when they were down 3-0.
Steven Duggar walked and went to third on Luis Rengifo’s two-out double. Taylor Ward threatened to tie the score, but his drive to right field was caught at the warning track.
“He got a pitch to drive,” Manager Phil Nevin said. “Hit it on the screws. Just right at ’em. That’s a couple degrees higher there, it’s a tie game.”
The lackluster offense provided no support for Patrick Sandoval, who had a typical outing.
Although he allowed only two runs – on a two-run homer by Gilberto Celestino in the second inning – he was not efficient with his pitches and he could not get through innings cleanly.
“I’m not happy with the way I threw the ball today,” Sandoval said. “Four walks is embarrassing. It’s unacceptable.”
Sandoval walked four and gave up five hits in five innings, throwing 95 pitches. He threw 55 strikes and 40 balls.
“He kind of teetered there, walking the No. 9 hitter twice,” Nevin said. “He was behind in the count a lot. The pitch count rose, but he got through five in a 2-0 game. We still had a chance to win the ballgame there if we can get something going offensively. We just didn’t.”
Sandoval has a 3.42 ERA this season, which would be perfectly acceptable, but he’s walked 4.4 batters per nine innings, which has contributed to his inability to get deep into games. Sandoval has completed six innings in just seven of his 19 starts, including just once in his last eight starts.
“The season has been pretty frustrating for me, pitching-wise,” Sandoval said. “I lose it in an inning or a couple at-bats in a row and it spirals. I have been able to limit damage this year, which is a positive, but I’ve got to pitch better. … The walks have been atrocious. It’s something I need to work on.”
The Twins then doubled their lead after Mike Mayers entered. He gave up a homer to Gio Urshela in the sixth and a run-scoring single to Luis Arraez in the eighth.
Mayers has allowed just those two runs in 7-1/3 innings of relief since coming back from the minor leagues.
The only positive on the night for the Angels was a throw from Jo Adell, whose defense has been an issue throughout his brief major league career.
Adell made a perfect throw from left field to the plate, all the way in the air, to nail Twins catcher Sandy Leon as he tried to score from second on a single in the third inning.
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BEIJING, Aug. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 2, the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) Sports Services Section press briefing was held in the morning in Beijing. As one of the nine major industry thematic sections of 2022 CIFTIS, the Sports Services Section will be held in Beijing Shougang Park in early September.
Chen Jie, deputy director-general and spokesperson of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, introduced that the 2022 CIFTIS Sports Services Section Fair will be hosted by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports and organized by ADG Exhibition. With "Sports Invigorate the City" as its theme and "International, Professional, Market-oriented, and Technology-driven" as its highlights, the event aims to "promote the networking and partnership in sports services and establish a bridge for communication in the international sports industry. It is consisted of exhibitions, forums, matchmaking, and supporting events.
8 Extraordinary Exhibition Areas
According to Mr. Chen Jie, the exhibition area of 2022 CIFTIS Sports Services Section will cover an area of 22,200 square meters, the largest among all dedicated thematic exhibitions. The total thematic exhibition area covers 13,200 square meters indoor and 9,000 square meters outdoor. The Sports Services Exhibition is divided into 8 sub-exhibits: International Sports Services Exhibition, Olympic Achievements Promotion Services Exhibition, Sports Event Services Exhibition, Sports Consumption Services Exhibition, Smart Sports Services Exhibition, Sports Integration Services Exhibition, National Fitness Services Exhibition, and Outdoor Lifestyle Services Exhibition, comprehensively covering 9 major categories of the sports services. 121 enterprises and institutions have confirmed their participation in the offline exhibition, which amounts to a 100% exhibition recruitment rate. 67% of the offline exhibitors are international companies and organizations. The proportion of specially designed booths has reached 97%. And among all offline exhibitors, 35% are leading enterprises in the industry.
Diversified Forums and Events
Mr. Chen Jie also shared that there will be ten forums and supporting events in the Sports Services Section. Four forums and conferences have been confirmed, including the International Sports Services Development Conference, the Digital Sports Development Forum, the International Sports Culture and Tourism Industry Development Forum, and the International Ice and Snow Industry Development Forum. Officials from governments and international sports organizations, management of internationally renowned enterprises, specialists, and scholars at home and abroad, as well as experts closely connected with the sports industry will attend and deliver speeches, sharing their inspiring opinions and insights with the audiences.
In the meanwhile, a number of supporting events will be held in the exhibition and conference space of the Sports Services Section, such as industry networking sessions, the Sports Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Competition, Industry Top Brands Competition, Sports Marketplace for Consumers, industry reports and achievements release conference, ice and snow outdoor fashion show, to name but a few. It aims to provide a stage in the "Post-Winter-Olympics Era" for the development of the sports industry, bring in-depth participation experience for exhibitors and audiences, and further promote the mutual benefit and interoperability of global sports services.
Multiple Industry Reports and Achievements to Be Released
At the press conference, Ms. Zhang Li, executive vice president of ADG and president of ADG Exhibition,announced that several latest research reports will be released during the 2022 CIFTIS Sports Services Section, namely Research Report on the Development of China's Trade in Sports Services 2022, Research Report on the Development of Digital Sports 2022, Research Report on the Development of China's Sports Culture and Tourism Industry 2022, and Research Reports on China's Ice and Snow Industry 2022.
In addition, many sports services projects from the exhibitors of the Sports Services Section, with great prospects and role-model quality, will also make their debut in CIFTIS Achievements Hall and the industry reports and achievements release conference of the Sports Services Section.
Strive to Reach a New High of the Contract Value
The offline exhibition area of the Sports Services Section will set up dedicated space for on-site networking and negotiation to facilitate matchmaking among participating parties. At present, several projects in the fields of sports culture and tourism, event IP, training services, have already confirmed to sign at the CIFTIS Sports Services Sections. The contract value has reached 5.35 billion RMB, of which 3.1 billion RMB will be executed within a year. During the 2022 CIFTIS Sports Services Section, the total contract value is estimated to exceed 10 billion RMB, of which 4 billion is expected to be executed within a year. A new high is to be strived for.
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SOURCE Asia Digital Group | https://www.wave3.com/prnewswire/2022/08/13/with-8-exhibition-areas-10-forums-2022-china-international-fair-trade-services-sports-services-section-be-unveiled-early-september/ | 2022-08-13T06:04:23Z | wave3.com | control | https://www.wave3.com/prnewswire/2022/08/13/with-8-exhibition-areas-10-forums-2022-china-international-fair-trade-services-sports-services-section-be-unveiled-early-september/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to 2nd Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division/ROK-US Combined Division participate in a guided tour highlighting the Cheonan Sinking of a Republic of Korea naval vessel in South Korea, Aug. 9, 2022. In 2010, North Korea sank a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, killing more than forty sailors. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Evan Cooper)
This work, Guided Tour #3 [Image 9 of 9], by SGT Evan Cooper, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7367964/guided-tour-3 | 2022-08-13T06:39:00Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7367964/guided-tour-3 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
U.S. Army Soldiers competing in the U.S. Army Forces Command Best Squad Competition receive instructions before entering Abrams Gym at Fort Hood, Texas August 12, 2022. These Soldiers represent the best in the U.S. Army Forces Command. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Andre Taylor)
This work, FORSCOM Best Squad Competition Competitiors Arrrive at Fort Hood [Image 6 of 6], by SGT Andre Taylor, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7367986/forscom-best-squad-competition-competitiors-arrrive-fort-hood | 2022-08-13T06:40:20Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7367986/forscom-best-squad-competition-competitiors-arrrive-fort-hood | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Jeffrey A. Cook, 62 Aug 12, 2022 1 hr ago 0 Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Jeffrey Alan Cook, 62, of Prosser died Wednesday, Aug. 10, at home.Arrangements are by Prosser Funeral Home and Crematory, 509-786-3642. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save × Add your entry Posting As Emoticons [smile] [beam] [wink] [sad] [cool] [innocent] [rolleyes] [whistling] [lol] [huh] [tongue] [love] [sleeping] [yawn] [unsure] [angry] [blink] [crying] [ohmy] [scared] [sleep] [sneaky] [tongue_smile] [thumbdown] [thumbup] [censored] [happybirthday] [ban] [spam] [offtopic] [batman] [ninja] [pirate] [alien] Comment Text CAPTCHA × Your entry has been submitted. Guest × Report ×Reported ×There was a problem reporting this. × Watch the guestbook. Stop watching this guestbook. Watch this discussion Get an email notification whenever someone signs the guestbook. Notifications from this guestbook will end. (0) entries Sign the guestbook Log in Add your entry Submit An ObituaryFuneral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form LOCAL FLORISTS John Gasperetti's Floral Design Findery Floral Jenny's Floral & Gifts Blossom Shop Flrsts Amy's Wapato Florist FUNERAL HOMES AND SERVICES Brookside Funeral Home Colonial Funeral Home Keith & Keith Funeral Home Langevin - El Paraíso Funeral Home Merritt Funeral Home Midstate Monuments Prosser Funeral Home Rainier Memorial Shaw & Sons Funeral Home Smith Funeral Homes & Crematory Steward & Williams Tribute & Cremation Center Terrace Heights Memorial Park Valley Hills Funeral Home West Hills Memorial Park
Submit An ObituaryFuneral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form | https://www.yakimaherald.com/obituaries/death_notices/jeffrey-a-cook-62/article_c1ccd332-1a71-11ed-9e6d-87e17c700e2e.html | 2022-08-13T06:40:21Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/obituaries/death_notices/jeffrey-a-cook-62/article_c1ccd332-1a71-11ed-9e6d-87e17c700e2e.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Michael J. Moriarty, 78 Aug 12, 2022 1 hr ago 0 Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Michael Joseph Moriarty, 78, of Yakima died Monday, Aug. 8.Arrangements are by Brookside Funeral Home and Crematory, Moxee, 509-457-1232. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save × Add your entry Posting As Emoticons [smile] [beam] [wink] [sad] [cool] [innocent] [rolleyes] [whistling] [lol] [huh] [tongue] [love] [sleeping] [yawn] [unsure] [angry] [blink] [crying] [ohmy] [scared] [sleep] [sneaky] [tongue_smile] [thumbdown] [thumbup] [censored] [happybirthday] [ban] [spam] [offtopic] [batman] [ninja] [pirate] [alien] Comment Text CAPTCHA × Your entry has been submitted. Guest × Report ×Reported ×There was a problem reporting this. × Watch the guestbook. Stop watching this guestbook. Watch this discussion Get an email notification whenever someone signs the guestbook. Notifications from this guestbook will end. (0) entries Sign the guestbook Log in Add your entry Submit An ObituaryFuneral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form LOCAL FLORISTS John Gasperetti's Floral Design Findery Floral Jenny's Floral & Gifts Blossom Shop Flrsts Amy's Wapato Florist FUNERAL HOMES AND SERVICES Brookside Funeral Home Colonial Funeral Home Keith & Keith Funeral Home Langevin - El Paraíso Funeral Home Merritt Funeral Home Midstate Monuments Prosser Funeral Home Rainier Memorial Shaw & Sons Funeral Home Smith Funeral Homes & Crematory Steward & Williams Tribute & Cremation Center Terrace Heights Memorial Park Valley Hills Funeral Home West Hills Memorial Park
Submit An ObituaryFuneral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Go to form | https://www.yakimaherald.com/obituaries/death_notices/michael-j-moriarty-78/article_5cfc9c26-1a71-11ed-8844-573506a6292f.html | 2022-08-13T06:40:33Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/obituaries/death_notices/michael-j-moriarty-78/article_5cfc9c26-1a71-11ed-8844-573506a6292f.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Alexander City Middle School teacher Latecha Graham has taught more than 485 children during her 20 years as an educator.
Last week, hundreds of her former students cheered her on as she was named Alexander City Schools Teacher of the Year for the 2021-2022 school year.
School leaders surprised Graham with the honor during a school district-wide convocation on Friday, Aug. 5. An award ceremony followed in which the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce presented Graham with a plaque for her more than two decades of service.
Graham was initially selected by her peers as the Teacher of the Year for ACMS, but after an extensive interview process she was then nominated as the district-wide Teacher of the Year.
Graham described the moment as a shock, adding she had been completely unaware of the nomination.
“I was surprised because you never expect to win,” Graham said. “I've been here for more than 20 years, and I know I do a good job as a teacher, but you don't go into this wanting to win teacher of the year. You do it for the joy of teaching.”
Although humbled, Graham said she had never envisioned herself as a teacher growing up. She had initially planned on becoming a lawyer when she first enrolled in Tuskegee University as a student.
That all changed in 1996 during her senior year in college, when Graham became a youth counselor.
“I was going everyday to tutor at-risk children, and once I started working with those children and helping them with their challenges and struggles in the classroom, I fell in love with working with the children,” Graham said.
After graduating college, Graham searched for a pathway into education. She eventually enrolled into Alabama State University, and in 2004 earned a degree in secondary education.
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Graham then moved back to her hometown of Alexander City, and became a teacher with ACMS where she has worked ever since.
Over the years, she has taught a variety of subjects ranging from English, to computer science and career preparedness. During her career, Graham has most enjoyed building connections with students.
“I feel like all children are amazing. They have their own special talents and unique abilities. One of the things that I look forward to every year is meeting those new students and for that time we become like a family,” she said.
However, Graham noted that teaching is not without its challenges.
“Sometimes you question yourself and ask, am I doing a good job? Am I reaching somebody? But that award made me realize that my work here does not go unnoticed, by not only my peers, but my students,” Graham said.
Graham's students made sure to express their appreciation as hundreds of her former pupils rallied in support of her achievement, with many sending her congratulatory notes.
“When I posted it on social media, I had a lot of my former students that shared the post. Many said I was their favorite teacher, and they started talking about these different memories,” Graham said. “As I read, I remembered those kids, and I was like wow this is so amazing.”
Graham added that she cherishes those memories, and still remembers her very first day as a teacher even all these years later.
“I remember exactly what outfit I had on and how my hair was. I remember how my children were, and I remember closing the door, and the speech that I gave,” she said. “It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had in my life.” | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/news/joy-of-teaching-latecha-graham-named-alexander-city-schools-teacher-of-the-year/article_e60c1d06-1a72-11ed-aed7-3f9a659e3cbe.html | 2022-08-13T06:45:38Z | alexcityoutlook.com | control | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/news/joy-of-teaching-latecha-graham-named-alexander-city-schools-teacher-of-the-year/article_e60c1d06-1a72-11ed-aed7-3f9a659e3cbe.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The 1962 Governor’s Race was between George Wallace, James “Big Jim” Folsom, and newcomer Ryan DeGraffenreid, a state senator from Tuscaloosa. Television had become the new medium. Therefore, Wallace, Folsom, and DeGraffenreid had all bought 30-minute, live television shows the night before the election.
George Wallace came on first at 7 p.m. He did pretty well, not great, but he did not hurt himself.
Ryan DeGraffenreid came on at 7:30 p.m. He was magnificent. He helped himself immensely. He was telegenic and took to television like a duck to water. He was a hit and picked up some votes.
Big Jim came on last at 8:00 p.m. That was probably too late for Big Jim. They had him sitting on a sofa that was too small for him. His knees jutted up almost to his chest. Television advisors will tell you to look squarely into the camera. Obviously, the last thing Big Jim had been told before he went on the air was to look right into the camera. He hunkered down like he was staring a hole in the viewer the way he stared at the camera. Unfortunately, the advisor had forgotten to tell Big Jim to comb his hair. He had a wayward strand of hair hanging right down in his face.
His first words portended what was to come. His speech was slurred, and he was clearly drunk. After his opening statement of about four minutes, even though I was only 11, I could tell Big Jim seemed impaired. I walked back to my mama’s bedroom door where she was reading and I said, “Mama, you need to come in the living room and see Big Jim on TV. I believe he is drunk.” She walked in, glanced at him and assured me that was just Big Jim’s personality. She said he was putting on a show for the television audience. I think she was taking up for him because she was for him. So, I settled back in for the remainder of the show.
Big Jim had several children, so they were going to have him introduce his children one-by-one. Little Jim came out first and he did pretty well with him, “This is my little boy, Jim.” Although he did tousle his hair pretty badly. The second son, Jack, came out and Big Jim said, “This is my boy...” He stammered around trying to think of his name. Finally, he blurted out, “Boy what is your name?” The television folks dropped the idea of trying to introduce the rest of Big Jim’s family after that.
They let him start talking again. He was weaving back and forth. The long strand of hair was hanging right over his nose. He was now pontificating on the virtues of progressivism, free textbooks and Farm-to-Market roads. I called mama in again to view the spectacle. She stood there for a full two minutes with her mouth open and finally said, “Son, I believe you’re right. Big Jim is drunk.”
He finished by getting mad at George Wallace and calling him a cuckoo bird for trying to steal his platform. He waved his arms wildly for three solid minutes on statewide television mimicking a cuckoo bird.
Folks around the state had heard tales and rumors about Big Jim’s drinking for years. They had dismissed it as political talk. However, seeing Big Jim live and drunk on statewide television was an eyeopener. He never recovered. He failed to make the runoff the next day. Wallace led the ticket and DeGraffenreid edged Big Jim out of the runoff. Wallace beat DeGraffenreid in the runoff.
Later, Big Jim said Wallace’s people drugged him. This story is not likely. Big Jim had pretty much succumbed to alcohol by this time in his life. The night Big Jim came on television drunk was the end of his political career but it was a heck of a show.
Some old time political observers contend Big Jim would have won that 1962 race had he not come on television drunk the night before the election. I disagree. George Wallace was going to win that year because he had captured the race issue and exploited and demagogued it to get to the governor’s office, which he aspired to more than life itself. Big Jim would have finished second but Wallace would have pounded Big Jim in the runoff. Big Jim was soft on the race issue. He was a true progressive.
See you next week. | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/opinion/big-jim-s-show-in-1962-governor-s-race/article_bc45dc80-1989-11ed-bfb5-77dd96c9f528.html | 2022-08-13T06:45:44Z | alexcityoutlook.com | control | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/opinion/big-jim-s-show-in-1962-governor-s-race/article_bc45dc80-1989-11ed-bfb5-77dd96c9f528.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Benjamin Russell’s first football game under the guidance of Smitty Grider concluded in a win for the Wildcats, but it wasn’t a flawless victory.
“I am proud of the plays we made,” Grider said. “We grew up in some spots. Like I have said before, you make your biggest improvements between your first game and your second. All around, good job getting it done.”
Corri Milliner got the night started on Benjamin Russell’s third drive of the night, high-stepping past his defender for a 40-plus yard score.
The first quarter started off on the wrong foot for the Wildcats before Milliner’s touchdown catch.
Chris Foster dropped a ball across the middle on the second play of the game that looked to have been a breakaway score. The next drive, La’Bronski McKinney fumbled right outside of the end zone, giving the ball away to Madison Academy.
However, junior quarterback Gabe Benton kept his composure and found Milliner on the third drive. Benjamin Russell never surrendered the lead after that.
Defense was the story for the home team in the second quarter.
The stifling secondary for the Wildcats found themselves with two interceptions, the latter of which set up Malcom Simmons for a rushing score.
Defensive back Chris Wyckoff tipped a deep ball on the opposing sideline that Simmons scooped up and returned for a chunk.
Senior Ty Williams saw what his counterpart Wyckoff did on the previous drive, and decided to get in on the action. Williams high pointed a ball and simply out-jumped his receiver, and came down with the ball.
Williams may only be 5’8, but showed his vertical capabilities with the snag.
After the Williams interception, the Wildcat offense stalled around mid-field. On fourth and short, Grider and company elected to go for the first down.
Special teams were no contact for the preseason game, and with the assumed punt team running out on the field, Madison Academy was unprepared for what was to come.
Simmons, who doubles as the team’s punter, lined up behind the center and instead of punting, took the ball and ran.
He reversed field twice, before finally finding the end zone on another 40-plus yard touchdown.
The touchdown was sneaky, but Simmons certainly did not mind.
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“It was awesome,” Simmons said. “I was coming into this game thinking I was going to get a pick-six. I didn’t get it today but I still got a touchdown. I knew I was going to cut right and bounce it back to the other side of the field. And that is what I did and I went and scored.”
Madison Academy was able to fit a safety in before the first half ended, to get the visiting team on the board.
Three straight penalties committed by the offensive line for Benjamin Russell had Benton backed up for a second-and-40, with the quarterback standing in the middle of his end zone.
The protection collapsed, much to the chagrin of offensive line coach Connor Smith, and Madison Academy got on the board with two points.
The first half ended 14-2. While not a dominant showing by the Benjamin Russell starters against the visiting 3A Mustangs, Grider saw much that he and his team can build off of.
“I am happy that we won,” Grider said. “I am proud of the effort today. We can make some improvements before next week and we will be better.”
Second stringers started and finished the game for both teams.
The Mustangs got the ball to start and earned a field goal after starting quarterback Carson Creehan came in for a play and scampered for 42 yards.
The Wildcats followed that up with a 75 yard score from Cedarian Morgan, who broke about five tackles before rumbling into the end zone.
Morgan also caught another ball from backup quarterback Alijah Johnson for 20 yards, pushing his total to almost 100 yards receiving in his first high school game.
Johnson looked solid in relief, and was able to move all around the field. He clearly liked throwing to the 6’4 freshman Morgan, who certainly looks to be running with the first team soon.
“I am just happy I am getting experience with high school ball as a freshman and actually playing,” Morgan said. “I am happy I was making plays for my team when it was needed.”
Johnson tossed another touchdown, this time for 31 yards, to sophomore receiver Micah Murphree, who plucked the ball right off the top of his defender's helmet. The score opened up the fourth quarter, pushing the score to 27-5.
A third touchdown sling for Johnson got the Wildcats up to the final score of 33-5.
“I am really proud of the way we finished the game — the way it was supposed to be finished,” said offensive coordinator Greg Crager.
The real season begins next week, as Benjamin Russell travels to nearby Sylacauga on August 19. | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/sports/benjamin-russell-uses-chunk-plays-to-win-preseason-game-over-madison-academy/article_ca758e1a-1ab3-11ed-9d54-7b045fc83389.html | 2022-08-13T06:45:50Z | alexcityoutlook.com | control | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/sports/benjamin-russell-uses-chunk-plays-to-win-preseason-game-over-madison-academy/article_ca758e1a-1ab3-11ed-9d54-7b045fc83389.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Social media star AJ Greene will be attending the Reeltown at Tallassee game on Thursday, August 18. Greene will be at the game, filming for his show “Life Of” which appears on Snapchat.
Greene is a professional content creator, with over one million followers on TikTok and 300,000 followers on Instagram. The star played college football at New Haven, in West Haven, Connecticut.
After college, Greene’s name was thrown around as one of the top wide receivers in the 2020 NFL Draft. During the draft process, Greene made a video about his travels and his journey to the draft. The video went viral and Greene became an overnight phenomenon. His video of his pre-draft process got 1.6 million likes on TikTok.
His NFL career never came to fruition, largely due to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which catapulted him into a full time career as a content creator.
Recently, Greene has appeared in ads for Gatorade, Manscaped, Crocs and Raising Canes. He is also a brand ambassador for Miami Dolphins’ wide receiver Tyreek Hill’s clothing brand, Soul Runner.
Using his platform on social media, Greene has used his up and down story to inspire youth who are also facing difficult challenges in their lives.
Greene is not entirely done playing football, as he has received interest from the XFL and has played alongside NFL legend Mike Vick in a celebrity game, catching four touchdowns from Vick.
Reeltown at Tallassee is Greene’s first of eight stops across the country, showcasing some of the best games the 2022 season has to offer.
Henry Zimmer is sports editor for The Outlook and Dadeville Record. He may be contacted via email at henry.zimmer@alexcityoutlook.com.
Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reporting—but good journalism isn’t free.
Please support our tireless efforts to gather and report your local news by subscribing or making a contribution. | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/sports/social-media-star-aj-greene-to-film-show-during-reeltown-at-tallassee-game/article_3febad7e-1a77-11ed-99f8-63818d34474b.html | 2022-08-13T06:45:56Z | alexcityoutlook.com | control | https://www.alexcityoutlook.com/sports/social-media-star-aj-greene-to-film-show-during-reeltown-at-tallassee-game/article_3febad7e-1a77-11ed-99f8-63818d34474b.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
I have noticed that my body reacts badly to some food items such as Rice, Fresh Milk and Fish including sea food. Kindly let me know what causes allergy and what I can do about it.
Chinwe (by SMS)
An allergic reaction is a reaction to a substance that is typically harmless to most other people. Allergies happen when a person’s immune system overreacts to a substance that the person has breathed in, touched, or eaten. Allergens—the antigens that bring on an allergic reaction—may be foods, medications, plants or animals, chemicals, dust, or molds. Just as you stated, common food allergy triggers are the proteins in cow’s milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, and tree nuts. Although there are some anti- allergy medications, the best way to avoid allergy is to avoid whatever may trigger the allergy.
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- Forex Crisis: Fresh Facts Reveal NNPC’s $2.7bn Remittance To Its CBN Accounts In 6 Months | https://tribuneonlineng.com/allergic-to-rice-milk-and-fish/ | 2022-08-13T06:46:48Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/allergic-to-rice-milk-and-fish/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
We continue from the last week’s story about Lola… The lady on the phone then responded and introduced herself as a receptionist at the hospital where “your mom” was brought for the treatment she said.
Curious Lola couldn’t suppress her curiosity as she was swift to ask “what happened?” “what happened to her?” “What happened to my mom?” “Is she better now?” The receptionist then responded that Lola’s mom is better than they brought her. She added, that as for what happened, Lola will have to visit the hospital to see the doctor for more details.
The following morning, Lola was set to move to go see her sick mom. On her way to the airport, she was disturbed by the news she had received about her mom being hospitalized amongst other things bothering her.
Upon her arrival at the hospital, she met with the doctor who then explained Mrs. Ifelaja’s case to be an issue of severe headache as well as she was diagnosed with difficulty in breathing. The doctor then added that these were signs of high blood pressure. And that Mrs. Ifelaja will have to adhere strictly to the medications she was given and also exercise often. “She will also need to steer clear of any strenuous task, to aid faster recovery”, he added.
Mrs. Ifelaja was discharged from the hospital that evening. That she was happy to see Lola boosted her mood, that they soon began to gossip.
Three days after Lola’s stay at her mom’s she was already set to go back to Lagos, and then unwind as she had originally planned.
As she got to the airport that evening while she was scrolling mindlessly on her phone and waiting for her flight to be announced, a voice whispered a “good evening” from behind, and when she turned, she could not believe her eyes.
“You, again,” she said as she exchanged pleasantries with Craig. “What are you doing here?” Lola asked as though the response to the question was what she has been waiting for all evening. And just as anticipated, “work” Craig responded. And asked almost immediately, “what’s your schedule like for this weekend? Are you free?” Lola stuttered as responded “yes! Yes, I am free this weekend. Why did you ask?” “Awesome!” he said out of excitement. “I was hoping we could hang out together.” He added, smiling as though he’d won a jackpot. “I’ll sleep over it, and revert,” Lola responded. “That’s ok. Please, take your time” Craig mumbled.
Lola could literally feel butterflies in her tummy. She whispered to herself, “if this is a dream then I have to wake up or never again.”
Lola couldn’t get what happened earlier, out of her head. She was overly excited that she could barely wait until noon to break the news to Craig, that she’ll be hanging out with him. And of course, Craig was glad to receive the news, and didn’t hesitate to send the address of the venue to Lola.
They agreed to meet at 7pm at the location. Meanwhile, Craig made it to the venue, fifteen minutes before time, as it was his culture and habit to be punctual at any meeting whatsoever.
Soon after they ordered what they were going to have for dinner, the reoccurring noise of “say yes! say yes!” soon covered the eatery. There was a young man at the restaurant who took to his knee to propose marriage to his girlfriend. She refused his proposal because the guy is not in her “league.” “I can’t keep footing the bills because you’re broke and do not have a job, I am a woman. I should be taken care of,” she added.
Literally, everyone who heard and saw what had happened went cold and quiet, and felt sorry for the guy, as they encouraged him to “be a man.”
Lola quickly turned to Craig, “what do you think of feminists and feminism?”
Craig giggled as he responded “ironically, we live in a society where a good number of men view most, if not all women as persons who have or are suffering from some sort of a disorder due to their personality.
“Women whose relationships with men have been pathologised, fail to see the difference between male authority and competence, and male tyrannical power because all they see is oppressive males. Their experiences may have hurt so badly that differentiation may never occur, but they need to have experiences with good men too for them to see the difference.”
To be continued…
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
- ASUU Extends Strike By 4 Weeks
- Forex Crisis: Fresh Facts Reveal NNPC’s $2.7bn Remittance To Its CBN Accounts In 6 Months | https://tribuneonlineng.com/i-cant-keep-footing-the-bills-because-youre-broke-and-do-not-have-a-job-i-am-a-woman/ | 2022-08-13T06:47:08Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/i-cant-keep-footing-the-bills-because-youre-broke-and-do-not-have-a-job-i-am-a-woman/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HAWAII (KITVB)- Metal theft is a big problem some O'ahu and Maui homeowners are experiencing. One woman says her entire quonset home frame was stolen this week. She says the total weight of what's stolen is nearly 8,000 lbs. The theft is also weighing heavy on her mind as she's searching for answers and leads while she contemplates the future of her new home.
"I didn't think anybody could take anything that big that fast," said Nina Cherry. She is missing the more than 1.5 ton frame of her quonset home and a quonset garage. She ordered the metalwork from a company in Canada. But when it arrived there was a problem. She didn't have the right forklift to get the metal crates with the frame onto her private property along Lower Kula Road on Maui.
"I just said to put it on the side of the road across the street across from where they're supposed to go. Then I would get the right forklift, the piggyback forklift that goes down dirt roads," said Cherry.
That was monday morning at 9 AM, by Tuesday at sunset the frames were gone. A friend called saying the spot is now empty. "This is my future home, and in one fell swoop it's gone. Afterwards I could see so many things I should have done, but I didn't do them because I didn't know to do them," said Cherry.
"The criminals are definitely going to put in a lot of effort. They're going to utilize heavy equipment, forklifts, and maybe even a flatbed truck. If the place isn't well travelled, they basically have all the time in the world to steal," said Honolulu Crimestoppers PIO Sgt. Chris Kim.
Honolulu Crimestoppers says they've seen this type of big metal theft in their area as well. Picking an isolated location for storage is not necessarily a good idea.
"If you are building something make sure it's secured in some way. Maybe set up surveillance cameras. Maybe consider hiring a guard. But in some way, some how, you need to secure your property. If you are able to rent chain link fences or keep the area enclosed," said Sgt. Kim.
The 2 crates stolen from Cherry's home have metal siding on them. Each crate is 10 feet in length by 2 feet wide, and 4 feet tall. The metal arches inside have a white reflective paint on them. She's asking people to call the police if they've seen it, her future home depends on it. "This is a crisis for me. This is like my future home," said Cherry.
Law enforcement reminds people if they store metal to take pictures of items. If you saw anything or know anything about the quonset theft, please contact the Maui Police Department.
Jefferson Tyler joined KITV after a lengthy stint in Reno, Nev. where he covered a variety of subjects. From wildfires to presidential elections, Jefferson takes pride in creating balanced stories that keep viewers’ attentions. | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/woman-has-crates-stolen-with-frame-from-her-home/article_987e5132-1aca-11ed-872d-d7cc946288c3.html | 2022-08-13T06:49:03Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/woman-has-crates-stolen-with-frame-from-her-home/article_987e5132-1aca-11ed-872d-d7cc946288c3.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Following what has been a particularly harsh summer, the impact of the lengthy spells of dry weather and high temperatures on Kent has become all too apparent. All you have to do is take a trip to any of your local green spaces and see how the extreme weather has drained the vibrancy from these areas, leaving behind a sea of yellow, dry grass - a stark contrast to the landscapes we associate with Kent.
On a recent journey from Reculver Towers to Herne Bay, this change to the Kent scenery became all too apparent to me on the three and a half mile walk. While still an excellent opportunity to take in some of the striking imagery of the Kent coastline, seeing the rolling hills that our county is so well known for so dried up and cracked did put into perspective just how extreme the weather has been this summer.
In fact, it has been confirmed that this past July is the driest that England has faced since 1935, so it makes sense Kent is now facing a hosepipe ban. Pair that with the above average temperatures we have seen throughout and a rather clear picture is created as to why the face of Kent has changed so drastically over the last weeks and months.
Read more: I visited Emmetts Garden in Sevenoaks and was in a world of my own
On my travels between the two points, I took in some truly interesting sights and saw exactly how Kent has changed this summer. So, here is my journey from Reculver Towers to Herne Bay, and the observations I made along the way.
Setting off
Beginning at the historic Reculver Towers, it took no time at all to notice this summer’s impact on the ground around me. Once I had reached the Bishopstone Cliffs I was greeted with a sea of yellow grass and cracked earth, a sight that is all too common across Kent currently.
I also happened to be travelling on a particularly hot day, and the 30C highs that had been forecast were becoming pretty noticeable the further I walked. Seeing so much of the dried up wilderness, it really did become quite clear as to why we’ve been seeing so many wildfires since the summer began.
In fact, the Kent Fire and Rescue Service recently confirmed that in July alone, they attended 399 grass fires across the county, a radical increase from the 44 they attended in July 2021. With apt kindling for such fires sprawling as far as the eye could see on my travels, it really is no wonder they have become so commonplace this year.
On a more positive note however, from my vantage atop the cliff face, I could take in some spectacular views of our east coast. I tell you, as the hot summer sun beat down on me from above, a dip into the sea never seemed so appealing, although I didn’t quite fancy the drop from the cliffside to do so.
Down onto the shore
My walk that was now beginning to feel as though I’d embarked on some Lord of the Rings level quest eventually took me down from the cliffs onto the shoreline. Now, the dry grass and scarred earth were replaced with up-close views of the sea and welcoming pebble beaches.
What I was most relieved to feel however, was the gentle sea breeze that accompanied my new surroundings that gave some much needed relief from the heat. Slowly but surely I could see the town of Herne Bay emerging in the distance but I knew I still very much had a ways to go just yet.
Getting to take in some of the gorgeous scenery of our coastline really made this stretch of the walk that bit better. Turning back, I could also now see Reculver Towers once again, however this time they were dwarfed to a small dot on the horizon.
An unexpected discovery
The vast majority of my walk along the coastline remained rather uneventful, that was until I stumbled upon a truly fascinating landmark. An open air art exhibition sitting just off of the beach, and still a fair way away from the main town centre of Herne Bay.
A handy placard told me that the exhibit is titled ‘@blackwhite.gold’ by Liz Gregg, and features striking images of her three dogs; Dolly, Elsa and Jeanine. The pieces themselves are simultaneously incredible to look at and undeniably adorable.
From the information presented alongside the striking images, it was revealed that all of the pieces were inspired by a photo commission that Liz had shot for Cosmopolitan magazine called ‘How to Make Your Instafamous’. All of the images were captured in and around Herne Bay, and I was very glad to have found this exhibit on my journey, as it gave a great opportunity to rest a moment and appreciate some amazing artwork.
Arriving in Herne Bay
Soon after my brief arty pitstop, I found myself in the heart of Herne Bay, and was more than relieved to find a nearby bench to park myself on for a moment. Looking back, I could now only just make out the vague shape of Reculver Towers in the distance and the sheer length of my journey become rather apparent.
Even within the coastal town I could spy dried out grass patches and cracked walkways, this summer season had really taken its toll everywhere. I was glad to have taken on the journey, seeing Kent in a very different light to what you would typically expect and spotting some amazing sights along the way.
It goes to show that even in the most extreme of weather conditions, the beauty of Kent shines through. But, if you really want to see Kent at its best, maybe wait until it’s rained a bit before taking on any cross-country adventures.
READ NEXT: | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/walked-reculver-towers-herne-bay-7456348 | 2022-08-13T06:50:12Z | kentlive.news | control | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/walked-reculver-towers-herne-bay-7456348 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
An entry-level salesperson working in corporate America could see through the strategy the Giants employed Thursday with wide receiver Darius Slayton.
After practicing almost exclusively with the second-and third-team offenses during training camp, Slayton was targeted with two passes and took an end-around handoff on his five snaps with the starters in the preseason opener against the Patriots. He gained 19 yards from scrimmage.
Sales lesson No. 1: Create a market. And it sure seemed as if the Giants were featuring Slayton to drum up potential trade interest.
“There were plays I wanted to see him on,” head coach Brian Daboll said. “The last 3-4 days, he’s earned that opportunity. Something we talk about with our guys is draft status, how you got here [is irrelevant]. If you are competing and doing well in practice, our job is to give you opportunities.”
The best value pick of former general manager Dave Gettleman’s four-year tenure, Slayton has 13 touchdowns in 43 career games (29 starts) as a 2019 fifth-round pick out of Auburn.
But the Giants are heavily invested in Kenny Golladay, Kadarius Toney and Wan’Dale Robinson as their top three receivers — with injured veteran Sterling Shepard waiting in the wings — and dumping nearly all of Slayton’s $2.58 million salary-cap hit would provide needed breathing room for day-to-day maneuvering.
The Giants couldn’t fully showcase Slayton because he “tightened up a little bit” after the first two offensive series. The hope is that he can practice Sunday.
“It would’ve been easy this offseason to be really discouraged,” Slayton told The Post earlier in camp, “but I think I had a strong offseason. I look at it as [a turning point]. I have a better understanding of football and my body and how I need to move to be efficient.”
Any potential roster move at receiver comes with a “Seller Beware” warning, however, because relying on Toney’s availability is tricky. After he missed seven games as a rookie and sat out practices in the spring due to a wide variety of injuries, Toney did not play Thursday after tweaking his leg Tuesday in practice.
“He worked really hard in the offseason to get to where he’s at right now,” Daboll said. “Things happen in practice. If he was ready to go, he would be out there. We thought it would be in our best interest and his best interest not to play this game relative to his injury. Hopefully, these next few days will calm it down, and he’ll be ready to go again.” | https://nypost.com/2022/08/13/giants-show-off-receiver-darius-slayton-for-trade-market/ | 2022-08-13T06:52:16Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/13/giants-show-off-receiver-darius-slayton-for-trade-market/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Vaccine maker Moderna (MRNA) has seen its stock rise recently due to the broader market’s rally and stellar quarterly results that came in better than expected. Despite canceled orders from COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access), Moderna stands by its original vaccine sales guidance. Vaccine demand could persist as new variants may pose a threat to the public, going forward. Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has been tough, but it’s not gone yet. Even when COVID-19 ends, Moderna could still thrive.
Regarding COVID-19, the rapid rate of mutation and seasonal surges could pave the way for many years worth of vaccine demand. That’s good news for Moderna’s business. However, COVID-19 remains the company’s single source of failure. This begs the question: what happens to Moderna once COVID-19 does end?
Moderna has an extensive non-COVID-related mRNA pipeline. Indeed, there’s a lot of promise in mRNA’s treatment of other diseases, including cancer.
Personalized cancer vaccines could show tremendous promise. However, such vaccines are still in the earlier trials and may be years away from full approval. While I wouldn’t discount the potential blockbusters in the Moderna pipeline, it’s hard to gauge what will hit and will miss.
Indeed, the biotechnology industry is full of hits and misses. In any case, I expect Moderna to continue to put its COVID-19 cash flows to good use while they last. Given so many uncertainties, I remain neutral on the stock.
Moderna Stock: Too Much Post-COVID-19 Risk Baked In?
I have no idea when COVID-19 vaccine demand will plunge to zero. Given the likelihood that this pandemic could persist for some time, there’s a real chance that Moderna’s COVID-19 cash cow may not be so quick to disappear. Currently, the 5.3x trailing earnings multiple suggests Moderna over-earned in the past and could be in a tough spot once COVID-19 vaccine demand gradually falls.
Unlike the more-diversified Pfizer (PFE), Moderna faces considerable downside if the pandemic ends and COVID-19 vaccine demand falls to zero. Moderna’s cash flow stream may be overly dependent on COVID-19. However, the pipeline is diversified and could start yielding intriguing products gradually over the coming years.
Further, like Pfizer, Moderna has been reinvesting heavily in its business to focus on the next big drug or treatment. With such expertise in mRNA technology, Moderna has the capacity to create even more revolutionary products to help combat various diseases. The timeline of when pipeline products will launch remains quite hazy. In an era of rising rates, investor patience for forward-looking growth stocks is at a low point.
In any case, I think COVID-19 boosters can hold up the fort until Moderna pulls the curtain on its next significant innovation. Make no mistake – Moderna is innovating at a rapid pace. It’s hard to gauge the magnitude of future cash flows at this juncture, given the nature of the industry and the fact that many of us haven’t heard of the company in the years leading up to 2020.
With around 29 mRNA clinical study candidates in development, the odds of something major coming from the pipeline over the next 10 years are high. At current valuations, such developments seem discounted by the market, with too much emphasis on the deterioration of the COVID-19 business.
Preparing for an Omicron Variant Surge
Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants are spreading and may be the source of a fall-season outbreak. Moderna is ready, with bivalent booster shots that show a superior antibody response against omicron variants. Come fall 2022, demand for such boosters could surge sharply depending on the severity of the next wave.
With new regulations allowing for younger people — Health Canada gave the green light for those between the ages of six and 11 to be vaccinated — to get boosters, the next wave could propel COVID-19 vaccine sales numbers at a higher-than-expected rate.
Indeed, Moderna remains upbeat on COVID-19 vaccine demand, and it may still be conservative by standing by its original full-year sales guidance of $21 billion.
Though more people may be willing to get the jab come fall and winter of 2022, other COVID-19 vaccine makers could begin to take share. Vaccine maker Novavax (NVAX) is an intriguing rival that could surprise to the upside, with the bar now lowered following the firm’s 50% haircut to its original revenue guidance. Further, Pfizer is gearing up for the next seasonal surge of COVID-19, with omicron-adapted deliveries coming in October.
Is MRNA Stock a Good Buy? Analysts Weigh In
Turning to Wall Street, MRNA stock comes in as a Moderate Buy. Out of 10 analyst ratings, there are four Buys, five Holds, and one Sell. The average Moderna price target is $217.89, implying upside potential of 27.3%. Analyst price targets range from a low of $74.00 per share to a high of $506.00 per share.
Conclusion: There’s Value for Long-Term Investors
Moderna stock looks to be stabilizing, with a recent 47% surge off its bottom in June. Though COVID-19 will continue to be a make or break for the stock, I think there’s value for long-term investors in looking to the firm’s innovative mRNA pipeline. It’s full of potential and could kick in well before the COVID-19 business sees sales fall to zero.
Given the nature of this pandemic, I don’t think the COVID-19 business will ever fall to zero. The world may have to live with the disease, with people having to roll up their sleeves every autumn. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/moderna-stock-ready-for-a-post-covid-environment/ | 2022-08-13T07:00:35Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/moderna-stock-ready-for-a-post-covid-environment/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Social media platform Snap (SNAP) continued its run of posting nightmarish earnings with its most recent Q2 results. The weak economy, cut-throat competition, and privacy changes from Apple (AAPL) have stopped it in its tracks. As a result, SNAP stock has shed a whopping 85% of its value in the past year and now trades at a more attractive multiple. Despite its troubles, it has an excellent growth runway ahead, which investors should ignore. Hence, we are bullish on SNAP stock over the long haul.
Most investors have abandoned SNAP after another disappointing quarter. Its growth rates have normalized, and those hoping for the lofty growth rates it achieved in the past are likely to be disappointed.
On the flip side, there are positives from its recent performances, which point to the depth of its business. Its stock will likely pull back some more, considering a weak outlook in the interim. However, it might be an interesting time to pick up the stock at multi-year lows.
The Good
It’s not all gloom and doom with Snap’s quarterly results. Though its results mostly came in weaker than expected, plenty of bright spots point to a strong growth runway. Some of these areas include its growing daily active user (DAU) base, sound financial positioning, and opportunities in the Rest of World (ROW) region.
During the second quarter, Snap’s DAUs grew by 18% from the prior-year period to 347 million. Moreover, the number came in 1% higher than the market consensus of 343 million. Also, the company expects DAUs to come in at 360 million for the upcoming quarter, representing a healthy 18% bump on a year-over-year basis.
Snap’s management stated that the “overall time spent watching content globally grew” during the second quarter. Particularly, its latest TikTok-like feature, Spotlight, saw time spent on the platform increasing by 59% on a year-over-year basis in Q2.
The key growth driver was Snap’s ROW region, which saw a healthy 35% year-over-year increase in DAUs to 162 million. It shows that SNAP is succeeding in overseas markets. Moreover, it has the opportunity to expand its user base in non-U.S. markets.
Furthermore, Snap currently has a tremendous $2.3 billion in cash and another $2.57 billion in investments, comfortably covering its long-term debt of $3.74 billion. Hence, its liquidity requirements are effectively covered by its cash base. Fundamentally, Snap is a relatively sound company with positive free cash flow.
The Bad – Why Has Snap Stock Crashed?
Now, onto the bad, and there’s much to cover here. Snap’s revenues grew modestly compared to past quarters and came in well below estimates. Moreover, Apple’s privacy changes have weighed on Snap’s operating results.
Secon-quarter sales rose 12% to $1.11 billion, falling short of estimates of $1.14 billion. On top of that, it reported an adjusted EBITDA of just $7 million compared to $117 million in the prior-year period. Moreover, its net loss widened to $422 million, compared to a net loss of $151.6 million.
CEO Evan Spiegel states that the results hardly reflect the company’s ambitions. It’s looking to foster new revenue sources to diversify its top line. It will take time for the management’s plans to come to fruition, though.
In tackling Apple’s recent changes, Snap has implemented three main strategies to improve the advertiser experience. These measures involve improving privacy-preserving first-party (1P) measurement tools and ensuring Snap’s performance is represented well in third-party (3P) measurement solutions.
Again, it will take time to see the results of these measures, but Snap must take action, as it generates the bulk of its sales from advertising. However, bloggers like my TipRanks colleague Joey Frenette feel that ad fears have been overblown.
Furthermore, it doesn’t help that Snap is more leveraged than ever before. Its $3.7 billion in debt is well over its five-year average debt level of $1.2 billion. Consequently, its debt to equity ratio has risen over to 122%, significantly higher than its historical averages.
Is Snap Stock a Buy or Hold? Analysts Weigh In
Turning to Wall Street, SNAP stock maintains a Hold consensus rating. Out of 36 total analyst ratings, 10 Buys, 22 Holds, and four Sell ratings were assigned over the past three months.
The average SNAP price target is $14.93, implying 28.5% upside potential. Analyst price targets range from a low of $8 per share to a high of $35 per share.
Conclusion: Look Past Snap’s Near-Term Headwinds
Snap and its shares have taken a beating over the past several months. Its operating performance has been underwhelming, while its stock price has dropped at an alarming pace. However, if we look past its near-term headwinds and consider its strong future outlook and attractive price point, SNAP stock seems like an interesting Buy at this stage.
Overall, the business is financially sound, although it is not yet profitable on the earnings side. Its debt situation is well under control and shouldn’t pose much of a problem, at least in the near term. Growth prospects aren’t comparable to the past four years but remain relatively stable amid a challenging business outlook.
Perhaps the most attractive aspect of SNAP is its attractive share price. Its stock has been torn to shreds and trades at 4.2x forward 2022 sales. Its five-year average is at over 18x forward sales, representing a steep drop in value for SNAP stock. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/snap-stock-remains-a-buy-for-the-long-haul/ | 2022-08-13T07:00:41Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/snap-stock-remains-a-buy-for-the-long-haul/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
RICHLAND, Wash. - One car rammed into a transformer around Leslie Road and Mountain View Lane around 8:30 p.m. on August 12, causing a power outage in the area, according to Michael Van Veek, Benton County Fire District 4 Battalion Chief.
At this time, Leslie Road is closed from Mountain View Lane to Canyon Street. Van Beek says they hope to reopen the road before midnight.
The City of Richland is working to restore power as soon as possible, but there is no current estimate for when it will be back.
No injuries have been reported. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/car-collides-with-transformer-causes-power-outage/article_20dfaf5c-1ac7-11ed-8fb9-07deb8c5fb00.html | 2022-08-13T07:06:48Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/car-collides-with-transformer-causes-power-outage/article_20dfaf5c-1ac7-11ed-8fb9-07deb8c5fb00.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Yakima School District (YSD) is giving school supplies to all 16,000 students again this year so families don't have that burden. That decision is now weighing more on teachers and school budgets, said Adams Elementary School assistant principal, Jose Contreras.
"We're wanting to partner with the community and support our teachers so they don't have to dig into their pockets as much," said Contreras.
Adams Elementary School spent about 20,000 dollars to get all 700 students the supplies they needed last year.
With school supplies being top priority in the budget, after-school activities will be the first to go if need be, said Contreras.
The Senior Harman Center is hosting a school supply drive until Sept. 30th. All donations go to YSD students. New and unused backpacks, notebooks and pencils are most needed, said the center's recreational program supervisor, Leslie Richards.
"It's just important to know that we care and that we are helping and looking out for our students' education," said Richards.
The need for free school supplies is huge in the district, especially with many low-income and migrant families, said Contreras.
"Without those barriers it's really neat because we are able to focus on the education and not what they're missing," said Contreras.
He said he hopes to have enough school supplies at the beginning of the school year to last all the way through.
"I think the community would be surprised how much, how many school supplies we go through, it's quite a bit," said Contreras.
Contreras said he appreciates such a caring community.
"It's neat to see the community donate to [students] and give to them and we're hoping that in the future, they will do the same," said Contreras.
The Senior Harman Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Fridays and from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/yakima/teachers-and-school-budgets-stretched-as-the-yakima-school-district-provides-school-supplies-to-all/article_6d2f1bb4-1ac6-11ed-b545-c39c5ad08597.html | 2022-08-13T07:06:49Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/yakima/teachers-and-school-budgets-stretched-as-the-yakima-school-district-provides-school-supplies-to-all/article_6d2f1bb4-1ac6-11ed-b545-c39c5ad08597.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan who have been making headlines for the past couple of months, announced they were heading to Barcelona, where they plan to spend a couple of days holidaying.
Vignesh himself posted a picture of the duo on a flight.
“After a continuous streak of work work work ! Here we take sometime for ourselves ! Barcelona, here we come!!,” he wrote. In another picture, he wrote, “Enroute Barcelona, with my wifey!”
Nayanthara looks adorable in the pictures. In one of the pictures, she can be seen sitting on Vignesh's lap. In another picture, Vignesh can be seen kissing his lady love's hand.
The duo had spent their honeymoon in Thailand, a few days after their wedding on June 9. The couple had also arrived in Kerala to visit Nayanthara's ailing mother as she could not make it to their wedding in Mahabalipuram. After heading back to Chennai, the two got busy working on their pending projects. Netflix had recently released the teaser of the wedding documentary, directed by Gautham Menon. The documentary has been titled 'Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale'.
Nayanthara will be seen in Alphone Puthren's 'Gold' which is slated to be an Onam release. She has signed up for a new project on her 75th film, which has been tentatively titled 'Lady Superstar 75'. Actor Jai and veteran Sathyaraj will also be seen in the movie. | https://www.onmanorama.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/2022/08/13/nayanthara-vignesh-shivan-holiday-pictures-spain-travel-destination.amp.html | 2022-08-13T07:32:10Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/2022/08/13/nayanthara-vignesh-shivan-holiday-pictures-spain-travel-destination.amp.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Chennai: If rumours doing the rounds are to be believed, actor Vadivelu will be reprising his immensely popular character, Murugesan, from director P Vasu's blockbuster 'Chandramukhi', in the upcoming horror comedy 'Chandramukhi 2' as well.
The first part of 'Chandramukhi', which was produced by Sivaji Productions as its 50th film in 2005, had Rajinikanth, Prabhu, Jyothika, Nayanthara, Nasser and Vadivelu among others.
A remake of Malayalam super hit 'Manichitrathazhu', it had gone on to emerge as a phenomenal success. Murugesan, the character that comedian Vadivelu played in the first part, in particular, became very popular.
Now, director P. Vasu, who directed the first part, is making 'Chandramukhi 2', featuring actor Raghava Lawrence in the lead.
Rumours doing the rounds in the industry suggest that although 'Chandramukhi 2' will be a different story and will not be a continuation of the first part, the makers will retain Vadivelu's character only.
The unit of 'Chandramukhi 2' recently wrapped up the first schedule of shooting. Sources close to the unit said that the first schedule was shot in Mysuru and was wrapped up on Tuesday. The film has music by M.M. Keeravaani, cinematography by R.D. Rajasekar and art direction by Thotta Tharani. | https://www.onmanorama.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/2022/08/13/vadivelu-murugesan-chandramukhi-2-movie-p-vasu.amp.html | 2022-08-13T07:32:22Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/2022/08/13/vadivelu-murugesan-chandramukhi-2-movie-p-vasu.amp.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
FORT HOOD, Texas - B-roll of U.S. Army Forces Command Best Squad competitors arriving in Fort Hood, Texas, Aug. 12, 2022. The Best Squad Competition promotes esprit-de-corps and recognizes Soldiers who demonstrate commitment to Army Values and embody the Warrior Ethos. (U.S. Army video by Sgt. James Liker)
This work, U.S. Army Forces Command Best Squads Arrives to Fort Hood 2022, by SPC James Liker and SGT Andre Taylor, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/video/854087/us-army-forces-command-best-squads-arrives-fort-hood-2022 | 2022-08-13T07:39:37Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/video/854087/us-army-forces-command-best-squads-arrives-fort-hood-2022 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NBA
Just call Shaquille O’Neal “the big chair breaker.”
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NFL
The Jets left Lincoln Financial Field on Friday night with their fingers crossed.
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Back the deeper roster in this NFL preseason battle
August 12, 2022 | 3:00pmThe Browns have the benefit of a deeper roster, giving them an edge in this preseason bet. | https://nypost.com/nfl/ | 2022-08-13T07:40:09Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/nfl/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NHL
Set to run until Aug. 20, the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship features 10 teams, with seven Rangers prospects sprinkled throughout.
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August 2, 2022 | 8:20amThe numbers say Kaapo Kakko regressed last season. Whether he can rebound depends on just what sort of player he wants to be. | https://nypost.com/nhl/ | 2022-08-13T07:40:15Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/nhl/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
San Bernardino County’s top law enforcement officials Tuesday, Aug. 9, ticked off a list of reasons to support a ballot measure meant to grant the Board of Supervisors authority to go after the county’s “fair share” of state and federal resources — up to and including seceding from California.
At the board meeting Tuesday, Sheriff Shannon Dicus and District Attorney Jason Anderson both said the state is starving the county of needed resources, leading to reduced services for residents, especially with unfunded mandates where the county is required to perform a service the state does not provide funds to do.
“The issue isn’t have resources been neglected, it’s how long they’ve been neglected,” Anderson told the board.
This November, voters will consider an advisory measure that asks whether the Board of Supervisors should “study and advocate for all options to obtain the county’s fair share of State funding up to and including secession from the State of California.” It’s one of two measures the board reaffirmed at its meeting Tuesday. The second would override voter-backed limits on salaries and terms for board members.
According to Anderson and Dicus, the state has put a strain on the county law enforcement.
“The sheriff is mandated to provide security to all of our courts and all of our judges,” Dicus said. But paying for that security has meant leaving a dozen open positions vacant to pay for it.
County efforts to battle mental illness among the homeless is due in part to 2011’s prison realignment law, which shifted prisoners from overwhelmed state prisoners back to county jails, in order to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order, has also taxed county resources.
“This was a state responsibility,” Dicus said.
Anderson agreed the state has been shortchanging San Bernardino County residents, citing an Aug. 1 report by the Judicial Council of California that shows the county has 15 judicial vacancies, the same number as Los Angeles County, which has more than four times as many residents.
Supervisors on Tuesday confirmed their support for placing the advisory measure on the Nov. 8 ballot but emphasized they are not necessarily endorsing the most attention-grabbing aspect — possible secession from the state.
“I’m not favor of secession, but we do have some challenges in this community,” Fifth District Supervisor Joe Baca Jr. said. “Clearly we need resources, and I’m in favor of continuing to fight for those resources.”
Board Chairman Curt Hagman criticized the “sensationalism” of focusing on the secession language in the measure.
“What we’ve authorized is a study,” he said.
If voters support the “fair share” measure and if, after the county completes its study, the Board of Supervisors were to decide secession is the best option, both the California Legislature and Congress would need to approve of the move. Those restrictions were put into place after residents of North Carolina (now part of eastern Tennessee) in 1784 tried to split off and form their own state of Franklin, possibly joining the Spanish Empire.
Also Tuesday, the board confirmed its referral of Nov. 8 ballot measure that would would set term limits and salary caps for supervisors, though less restrictive than what voters approved by a 2-to-1 margin in 2020, when they overwhelmingly approved Measure K. The new measure also seeks to require a 4-1 vote of the board to put a tax increase on the ballot rather than a 3-2 vote.
“This measure should really be labeled ‘The Scheme to Repeal Measure K,’” Tom Murphy, president of the Red Brennan Group, which promoted Measure K, told the board.
The new measure would limit supervisors to three four-year terms. Measure K, approved by 66.84% of the voters in 2020, limits supervisors to a single term. The county sued to block Measure K from going into effect, but on July 12, the 4th District Court of Appeals in Riverside tentatively ruled against the county and Board of Supervisors, clearing the way for the salary cap and single-term limit to kick in if the court agrees in its final ruling.
The new measure also raises the salary cap set by Measure K, setting it equal to 80% of the base salary for San Bernardino County Superior Court judges, or about $180,059 in compensation per supervisor, less than the $250,106.55 in salary and benefits they received in 2021.
“The skeptical eye would find this charter amendment entirely benefits supervisors,” Murphy said, calling the measure “an attempt to gaslight voters.”
Former county CEO Greg Devereaux spoke in favor of the measure Tuesday.
“If the prior measure stands, it is almost certain it will turn control of our government over to unelected staff,” he told the board. “Keep government in the hands of the people.”
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Maybe the NFL officials who threw penalty flags on Giants cornerback Aaron Robinson just wanted in on the party started by Patriots quarterback Brian Hoyer.
Sometimes, preseason games are about creating misdirection. Other times, what happens in August is a precursor of what is in store once the games count.
And there was an ominous feeling Thursday that Hoyer throwing with repeat success at Robinson on five of the nine snaps he dropped into coverage was a taste of how opposing offenses view the Giants secondary: No need to target Adoree’ Jackson until Robinson proves himself.
“There’s some good things that he had, and some things we can get better at,” head coach Brian Daboll said one day after the Giants opened with a 23-21 win against the Patriots. “Aaron has had a good camp, and it’s a good competitive situation. Corners are going to get beat once in a while, and it’s how you respond the next play, the next game. I have a lot of confidence in A-Rob.”
It was a small sampling, but Robinson looked the part of a second-year pro whose rookie season was a wash because he missed eight games and played a different position (slot) in a different scheme when on the field.
With the head coach (Joe Judge) who drafted him on the opposing sideline working with quarterbacks, Robinson allowed three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown. Robinson was flagged for a ticky-tack taunting penalty after an incompletion and a holding penalty (declined for the touchdown), which has been an issue throughout his handsy training camp.
“I’m expecting that,” Robinson told reporters in the locker room. “You’ve got to embrace it. That’s part of the game. With that comes plays being made.”
The hard truth is that the Giants are in a roster position where they must ask too much too soon of too many young players and live with the results. Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale uses a blitz-heavy plan that leaves cornerbacks in press man-to-man coverage.
“You expect [Robinson] to make a jump and rise to the occasion of being a starter,” defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson said last week. “He’s got a great demeanor. Even though he doesn’t say much vocally, his play says a lot — and the way he cares speaks volumes to me.”
For all the new around the Giants, Robinson’s debut felt eerily familiar to the crowd which recognizes No. 2 cornerback as an old black hole. He was beat with first steps and playing catch-up.
In 2019, preseason starter Antonio Hamilton was benched after one regular-season game. In 2020, Corey Ballentine lasted two starts in the job and later was cut during Week 10. After going all-in to fix the problem by signing Jackson to pair with James Bradberry in 2021, the Giants might again be in a spot where offenses can attack one side of the field because they weren’t able to replace Bradberry when he became a salary-cap casualty.
“Every team has their own philosophy offensively. I don’t want to speak for other teams,” Daboll said when asked if that is the strategy he expects. “I think we have to be ready to defend all areas of the field.”
Robinson might get a longer leash than some of his predecessors. Martindale implied last week that there is a thick line of demarcation between the starters and backups.
“I love our first group of secondary players,” he said, “and now we’ve just got to keep building on depth of that secondary.”
Rookie Cor’dale Flott — a second-teamer — was injured in the opener, and the Giants have not acted in free agency this offseason like a tape-and-glue team looking to take reps away from young players.
“We played a lot of man-to-man coverage, so it was a good evaluation,” Daboll said. “Made some good plays, and then we have to do a good job of finding the ball and locating it in the deep part of the field. I thought those guys competed, tackled fairly well, tight in coverage. We’ve got to keep working on making plays on the ball.”
The work starts with the new starter. | https://nypost.com/2022/08/13/aaron-robinsons-struggles-source-of-concern-for-giants/ | 2022-08-13T08:06:01Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/13/aaron-robinsons-struggles-source-of-concern-for-giants/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The venue where renowned author Salman Rushdie was stabbed Friday had rejected previous recommendations to toughen security measures, two sources told CNN.
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed at least twice on stage at the Chautauqua Institution before he was slated to give a lecture, New York state police said Friday. He was airlifted to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania and underwent surgery, a Pennsylvania police official said.
Later in the day, Rushdie was put on a ventilator and was unable to speak, his agent, Andrew Wylie, told The New York Times. He will likely lose an eye, Wylie said. "The nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged. The news is not good."
A suspect was taken into custody shortly afterward, and authorities are working to determine the motive and the charges, state police said.
Following the attack, questions were raised about the security precautions -- or lack thereof -- at the host institution, which sits in a rural lake resort about 70 miles south of Buffalo, New York.
The institution's leadership had rejected recommendations for basic security measures, including bag checks and metal detectors, fearing that would create a divide between speakers and the audience, according to two sources who spoke with CNN. The leadership also feared that it would change the culture at the institution, the sources said.
The two sources have direct knowledge of the security situation at the Chautauqua Institution and past recommendations and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It's unclear whether the recommended measures would have prevented the attack on Rushdie based on the information released about the incident as of Friday evening. Authorities have not disclosed the type of weapon that was used in the attack.
There were no security searches or metal detectors at the event, a person who witnessed the attack told CNN. The witness is not being identified because they expressed concerns for their personal safety.
CNN reached out to the Chautauqua Institution and its leadership for comment but did not receive a response Friday.
Institution president Michael Hill defended his organization's security plans when asked during a news conference Friday whether there would be more precautions at future events.
"We assess for every event what we think the appropriate security level is, and this one was certainly one that we thought was important which is why we had a State Trooper and Sheriff presence there," Hill said. "We will assess for each of the events at the Institution what we think the appropriate level of security is and that's an ongoing process that we work in concert with local law enforcement on."
Also injured Friday was Henry Reese, co-founder of the Pittsburgh nonprofit City of Asylum, who was scheduled to join Rushdie in a discussion, police said. He was taken to a hospital and treated for a facial injury and released.
Rushdie's writings have garnered several literary prizes, including the Booker Prize for his 1981 book, Midnight's Children. But it was his fourth novel "The Satanic Verses," that drew the greatest scrutiny as some Muslims found the book to be sacrilegious, and its publication in 1988 sparked public demonstrations.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who described the book as an insult to Islam and Prophet Mohammed, issued a religious decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie's death in 1989.
Authorities were at New Jersey home connected to suspect
The suspect in the attack was identified as Hadi Matar from Fairview, New Jersey, New York State Troop Commander Major Eugene J. Staniszewski said Friday evening during a news conference.
The attack occurred around 10:45 a.m. as Rushdie was being introduced, a witness told CNN. A man in a black shirt appeared to be "punching" the author. The witness, who was about 75 feet from the stage, did not hear the attacker say anything or see a weapon.
Another witness, Joyce Lussier, was sitting in the second row when she saw a man who "lurched across the stage and got right to Mr. Rushdie.
"He came in the left side and leapt across the stage and just lunged at him. In, I don't know, two seconds he was across that stage," Lussier said. She heard people screaming and crying and saw people from the audience rushing up to the stage, she said.
Matar, 24, allegedly stabbed Rushdie at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen, state police said. Staff and audience members rushed to the attacker and put him on the ground before a state trooper took him into custody, police said.
On Friday evening, police had blocked off the street to the New Jersey home believed connected to the suspect.
Iran's bounty was never lifted
Rushdie, the son of a successful Muslim businessman in India, was educated in England, first at Rugby School and later at the University of Cambridge where he received a master's degree in history.
After college, he began working as an advertising copywriter in London, before publishing his first novel, "Grimus" in 1975.
In 1989, as a result of the fatwa, Rushdie began a decade under British protection.
Rushdie told CNN in 1999 that the experience taught him "to value even more ... intensely the things that I valued before, such as the art of literature and the freedom of expression and the right to say things that other people don't like.
"It may have been an unpleasant decade, but it was the right fight, you know. It was fighting for the things that I most believe in against things I most dislike, which are bigotry and fanaticism and censorship."
The bounty against Rushdie has never been lifted, though in 1998 the Iranian government sought to distance itself from the fatwa by pledging not to seek to carry it out.
Despite that, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently reaffirmed the religious edict.
In February 2017, on Khamenei's official website, the supreme leader was asked if the "fatwa against Rushdie was still in effect," to which Khamenei confirmed it was, saying, "The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued."
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/venue-where-salman-rushdie-was-stabbed-rejected-past-recommendations-to-improve-security-measures-sources-tell/article_c2ed0d59-074d-594a-a57c-df4ef21c6b76.html | 2022-08-13T08:11:24Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/venue-where-salman-rushdie-was-stabbed-rejected-past-recommendations-to-improve-security-measures-sources-tell/article_c2ed0d59-074d-594a-a57c-df4ef21c6b76.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s top public health agency on Thursday relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said people no longer need to stay at least 6 feet away from others.
The changes are driven by a recognition that — more than 2 1/2 years since the start of the pandemic — an estimated 95% of Americans 16 and older have acquired some level of immunity, either from being vaccinated or infected, agency officials said.
“The current conditions of this pandemic are very different from those of the last two years,” said the CDC’s Greta Massetti, an author of the guidelines.
The CDC recommendations apply to everyone in the U.S., but the changes could be particularly important for schools, which resume classes this month in many parts of the country.
Perhaps the biggest education-related change is the end of the recommendation that schools do routine daily testing, although that practice can be reinstated in certain situations during a surge in infections, officials said.
The CDC also dropped a “test-to-stay” recommendation, which said students exposed to COVID-19 could regularly test — instead of quarantining at home — to keep attending school. With no quarantine recommendation anymore, the testing option disappeared too.
Masks continue to be recommended only in areas where community transmission is deemed high, or if a person is considered at high risk of severe illness.
School districts across the U.S. have been scaling back their COVID-19 precautions in recent weeks even before the CDC relaxed its guidance. Masks will be optional in most school districts when classes resume this fall, and some of the nation’s largest districts have dialed back or eliminated COVID-19 testing requirements.
Some have also been moving away from test-to-stay programs that became unmanageable during surges of the omicron variant last school year. With so many new infections among students and staff, many schools struggled to track and test their close contacts, leading to a temporary return to remote classes in some places.
The average numbers of reported COVID-19 cases and deaths have been relatively flat this summer, at around 100,000 cases a day and 300 to 400 deaths.
The CDC previously said that if people who are not up to date on their COVID-19 vaccinations come into close contact with a person who tests positive, they should stay home for at least five days. Now the agency says quarantining at home is not necessary, but it urges those people to wear a high-quality mask for 10 days and get tested after five.
The agency continues to say that people who test positive should isolate from others for at least five days, regardless of whether they were vaccinated. CDC officials advise that people can end isolation if they are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of medication and they are without symptoms or the symptoms are improving. | https://www.wspa.com/news/cdc-drops-quarantine-screening-recommendations-for-covid-19/ | 2022-08-13T08:13:22Z | wspa.com | control | https://www.wspa.com/news/cdc-drops-quarantine-screening-recommendations-for-covid-19/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
New York: The 24-year-old man detained in connection with the stabbing of Mumbai-born controversial author Salman Rushdie was sympathetic to 'Shia extremism' and the causes of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a media report.
Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing "The Satanic Verses", was stabbed on stage on Friday while he was being introduced at the event of the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York.
The New York State Police identified the suspect as Hadi Matar from Fairview, New Jersey while the motive behind the act is still unknown.
The suspect ran up onto the stage prior to a speaking event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua and attacked 75-year-old Rushdie.
According to the law enforcement authorities, the author was stabbed "at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen.
Rushdie was rushed to a nearby local hospital where he underwent surgery, while the attacker was taken into the New York State Police custody. The interviewer with Rushdie was also attacked during the incident and he suffered a minor head injury, the police said.
Authorities were still looking into Matar's nationality and his criminal records, if any.
A preliminary review of Matar's social media accounts by law enforcement showed him to be sympathetic to Shia extremism and the causes of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a law enforcement person with direct knowledge of the investigation told NBC News.
Though there are no direct links between Matar and the IRGC, law enforcement officers reportedly found images of slain commander Qassem Solemani and an Iraqi extremist sympathetic to the Iranian regime in a cell phone messaging app belonging to Matar, according to NBC News.
Soleimani was a senior Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. From 1998 until his assassination in 2020.
Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988, as many Muslims consider it offensive to Islam.
The author spent about 10 years under police protection in the United Kingdom, living in hiding after Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's execution.
A bounty of over USD 3 million has been offered for anyone who kills Rushdie, who has been a prominent spokesman for free expression and liberal causes.
Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States.
Rushdie was being introduced at about 10:45 am when the assault happened, CNN quoted a witness as saying
The witness said he heard shouting from the audience.
He said a man in a black shirt appeared to be "punching" the author. The witness, who was 75 feet from the stage, did not hear the attacker say anything or see a weapon.
Some people in the audience ran to render aid while others went after the attacker, the witness said. State police said a doctor who was in the audience during the event rendered aid to Rushdie until emergency responders arrived.
New York Gov Kathy Hochul told reporters Friday a state trooper "stood up and saved (Rushdie's) life and protected him as well as the moderator who was attacked as well."
One witness of the attack told CNN there were no security searches or metal detectors at the event.
The suspect in Friday's attack had a "pass to access the grounds," Dr Michael E Hill, president of the Chautauqua Institution, said in the news conference. Guests can purchase passes to attend programs, Hill said.
Hill defended the institution's measures, saying, "We assess for every event what we think the appropriate security level is, and this one was certainly one that we thought was important which is why we had a State Trooper and Sheriff presence there," he said.
Staniszewski said there was no indication of any threat to the event and the state trooper was there because the event was a mass gathering and because of a request by the institution.
Joyce Lussier, 83, who was in the second row of the amphitheater during the attack, said Rushdie had taken a seat on the right-hand side of the stage when suddenly, a man who appeared to be in all black "lurched across the stage and got right to Rushdie."
"They caught him right away, he did not get off the stage at all," Lussier said of the suspect. "Shortly after, the crowd was asked to evacuate, " she added.
Another witness, a longtime Chautauqua resident who asked not to be identified, recalled a commotion on stage and a man making about seven to 10 stabbing motions in the direction of the author, who was in a half-standing position. She said she fled the open-air amphitheater "shaking like a leaf" in fear. | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/world/2022/08/13/salman-rushdie-hadi-matar-attack-stabbing-iran-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps.amp.html | 2022-08-13T08:24:31Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/world/2022/08/13/salman-rushdie-hadi-matar-attack-stabbing-iran-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps.amp.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
It’s hard to say who’s worse, the woman who needs a man to come to her defense every time someone offends her, or the spineless sap who sprints to her side every time she rings the bell.
Now, Will Smith insisted last week that his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, had nothing to do with him slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars back in March.
But what is he supposed to say?
Some Smith supporters said he was right to stick up for his wife after Rock embarrassed her on national TV with a bad joke about her bald head.
But what if it was something less important than Jada’s honor at stake?
What if it were something really trivial, like a bag of potato chips or cold fries from McDonald’s?
There are two men in New York City who would still be alive right now if two women had kept their phones in their pockets.
It’s not a certainty that Brooklyn mom Lisa Fulmore, 40, sicced her son on the mean McDonald’s workers who sold her cold fries last week and allegedly laughed when she tried to exchange them for the ones with the steam rising from them like you see in the commercials.
But she did FaceTime her son during her visit, and before you could say “quarter pounder with cheese,” Michael Morgan was by his mother’s side defending her french fry honor.
Cops said Morgan, 20, got into a scuffle with fast-food worker Matthew Webb, 23, that spilled outside the Bedford-Stuyvesant restaurant.
The fight — which Morgan was already winning — ended when he pulled a gun and shot Webb in the neck after punching him in the face and knocking him to the ground, authorities said.
Webb died several days later.
French fries.
The incident was eerily similar to one last month involving a Harlem bodega worker who clashed with a customer over a bag of potato chips.
Cops said the offended customer speed-dialed her boyfriend, Austin Simon, 34, who went behind the store counter to confront the worker, pushing him around and grabbing him by the throat.
But that senseless saga ended differently when the worker, Jose Alba, 61, grabbed a hidden knife and stabbed his attacker to death.
Without a doubt, it’s the men — and some boys, even — behind this crazy spate of violence. Their testosterone, their bravado and their need to belong to something have been responsible for the deaths of innocent neighbors, children and grandmothers throughout the city.
But c’mon, women. Some of you are really not helping.
If you stash your boyfriend’s gun after he shoots someone in the face, you’re not helping.
If your idea of conflict resolution is, “My man’s comin’ over here, and he’s gonna mess you up,” you’re not helping.
Morgan, it turns out, was a suspect in another murder to which cops said he confessed. So his mother really didn’t do him any favors with that FaceTime call.
Those calls aren’t good for anybody, not the victim, not the attacker, not the people who have to wash the blood off the sidewalk.
People died after senseless calls about french fries and potato chips.
It could have been worse. They could have dialed 911. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/opinion/column-hey-men-stop-fighting-your-women-s-trivial-battles/article_6b18e97c-192c-11ed-a0dd-73bb2e63d2c9.html | 2022-08-13T08:29:41Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/opinion/column-hey-men-stop-fighting-your-women-s-trivial-battles/article_6b18e97c-192c-11ed-a0dd-73bb2e63d2c9.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Here we go again.
Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Maria Cantwell of Washington, at the behest of FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel — all Democrats — are again introducing a bill to order the internet (broadband) to be called an “essential service” and therefore placed under the 1934 Telecom Act, a massive set of rules that has absolutely nothing to do with the internet but everything about government control.
Rather than bore you with the many self-serving agendas in play for this bill, absolutely none of the things they are claiming the bill will do or prevent are even justified, or has ever happened in the past 30 years of the internet.
And what is throwing the words “Broadband Justice” in the title even mean? Is that to make it sound cooler for the kids or make it a John Oliver feature? It’s meant to steal our industry and force us to be telephone companies, and government agency-run systems. You know how well those two have done.
I’ll put it in another way: Imagine your business is suddenly legally deemed “essential?” So the government starts with fruit, putting all farmers, production and distribution under direct government control. Or grocery stores having to report who their customers are, or the power company, or any TV or radio group. All products important to our daily lives, but not stolen by statute like this bill does?
While blame for needing it is on big social media and monopoly telephone companies, those industries favor it as their hostile takeover of a privately funded industry, stealing our investment into every community.
This bill will slow the growth of the internet, designate community internet companies as non-providers and discourage investment.
It’s anti-small business, and your lifelong business investment could be next! It’s already starting with the FCC adding a mandatory report called the “BDC” that will cost us $10,000 in new “professional” fees and research twice a year, that no one will read. As the government is publicly telling us to make the internet cost less to our customers, they add ridiculous unsubstantiated costs that will drive up the subscription price just to justify their political agendas.
This is about control, not service. Stop it now or these D.C. bubble agencies will go on a fee feeding frenzy! As choice drops, the government will step in and take it over. The freedom that made the internet will be muzzled.
Call your Congress member, tell them you don’t want the FCC to control your internet or how you use it. Kill the Net Neutrality Act. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/opinion/saturday-soapbox-net-neutrality-legislation-is-about-control-not-service/article_a9ffe36e-185c-11ed-a61e-6bc5ef5461b9.html | 2022-08-13T08:29:47Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/opinion/saturday-soapbox-net-neutrality-legislation-is-about-control-not-service/article_a9ffe36e-185c-11ed-a61e-6bc5ef5461b9.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In the six years since he resettled in the United States from Afghanistan, the primary suspect in the slayings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque has been arrested several times for domestic violence and captured on camera slashing the tires of a woman's car, according to police and court records.
The lengthy pattern of violence — which began not long after Muhammad Syed arrived in the states — has shocked members of the city's small, close-knit Muslim community, some of whom knew him from the local mosque and who initially had assumed the killer was an outsider with a bias against the Islamic religion. Now, they are coming to terms with the idea that they never really understood the man.
"I think based on knowing his history now — and we didn't before — he's obviously a disturbed individual. He obviously has a violent tendency," said Ahmad Assed, president of the Islamic Center of New Mexico.
Police say Syed, 51, was acquainted with his victims and was likely motivated by "interpersonal conflicts."
He was arrested Monday night and remains in custody. Prosecutors say he is a dangerous man and plan to ask a judge next week to keep him locked up pending trial on murder charges in connection with two of the shooting deaths. Syed is also the primary suspect in the other two homicides, but police say they will not rush to charge him in those cases as long as he remains in jail and doesn't pose a threat to the community. The married father of six has denied involvement in the killings; his defense attorneys have declined to comment.
Few details have emerged publicly about Syed's life before he and his family came to America in 2016, but a U.S. government document obtained by The Associated Press says he graduated from Rehman Baba High School in western Kabul in 1990. Between 2010 and 2012, he worked as a cook for the Al Bashar Jala Construction Company.
In December 2012, Syed fled Afghanistan with his wife and children, the report states. The family made its way to Pakistan, where Syed sought work as a refrigerator technician. A native Pashto speaker who was also fluent in Dari, he was admitted to the United States in 2016 as a refugee.
The very next year, according to court records, a boyfriend of Syed's daughter alleged that Syed, his wife and one of Syed's sons pulled him out of a car and punched and kicked him before driving away. The boyfriend, who was found with a bloody nose, scratches and bruises, told police he was attacked because Syed, a Sunni Muslim, did not want his daughter in a relationship with a Shiite man.
In 2018, Syed was taken into custody after a fight with his wife about her driving. Syed told police that his wife had slapped him in the car, but she said he pulled her by the hair, threw her to the ground and made her walk two hours to their destination.
Months later, Syed allegedly beat his wife and attacked one of his sons with a large slotted metal spoon that left his hair blood-soaked, according to court documents. Syed's wife told police everything was fine. But the son, who was the one who called them, told officers that Syed routinely beat him and his mother.
Two of the cases were dismissed after the wife and boyfriend declined to press charges. The third was dismissed after Syed completed a pretrial intervention program. In 2020, Syed was arrested after he allegedly refused to pull over for police after running a traffic light, but that case was also eventually dismissed.
"If you're trying to understand how violence in a particular person evolves, you just have to know that he didn't wake up last year and become a serial killer," said former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. "He had experience with violence. And that's the challenge of law enforcement ... to identify what is your experience with violence and when did it start?"
Syed told detectives that he'd served with the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command, a small, elite group of Afghan soldiers who fought the Taliban. He said he likes the AK-47-style weapon police found at his house because he'd used one in Afghanistan.
Yet the U.S. government profile the AP reviewed did not list any military experience, and Syed turned 40 the year the elite force was formed in 2011 — likely too old to be selected for combat in the heaviest fighting.
"That sounds a little fishy," said Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, who served two tours in Afghanistan and is a senior fellow and military expert at the Defense Priorities think tank. He said while Syed may have been a soldier, "special forces guys are usually 22, 25 years old, maybe 30, because it is so physically demanding."
The Syed family lives in a small duplex on the city's south side, a working-class part of town where many of the older homes and apartments have security bars affixed to their doors and windows. The area has become a magnet for Afghan refugees and other immigrants looking to make a new home in New Mexico's largest city.
The killings set off fear in Albuquerque's Muslim community of about 4,500
The slayings of the four men — the first in November and the other three occurring in rapid succession over a period of less than two weeks in July and the first week of August — set off ripples of terror in Albuquerque's Muslim community of about 4,500. Residents were afraid to go out of their homes — to the point where city officials offered to deliver meals — and some considered leaving town.
That was what Syed told investigators he was doing when he left in his Volkswagen Jetta on Sunday: heading out of state to find a safer place for his frightened family.
Police say he was, in fact, skipping town after killing Naeem Hussain just days before.
Syed is the primary suspect — but hasn't been charged — in the death of Hussain, a 25-year-old man from Pakistan who was fatally shot on Aug. 5 in the parking lot of a refugee resettlement agency in southeast Albuquerque; and the slaying of Muhammad Zahir Ahmadi, a 62-year-old Afghan immigrant who was fatally shot in the head last November behind the market he owned in the city.
Ahmadi is the brother-in-law of the woman whose tires Syed slashed in 2020, while Syed and Hussain had known each other since 2016, police said.
Syed has been charged with murder in the deaths of Aftab Hussein and Muhammad Afzaal Hussain. Hussein, 41, was slain on the night of July 26 after parking his car in the usual spot near his home. Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who had worked on the campaign of a New Mexico congresswoman, was gunned down on the night of Aug. 1 while taking his evening walk.
While Syed told police he recognized Hussein from parties in the community, it was unclear how he knew Afzaal Hussain.
Despite the violence he allegedly inflicted on his wife and children, Syed's family is standing by him.
"My father is not a person who can kill somebody," his daughter recently told CNN, which did not disclose her identity to protect her safety. "My father has always talked about peace. That's why we are here in the United States. We came from Afghanistan, from fighting, from shooting."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.klcc.org/npr-news/2022-08-13/the-suspect-in-the-killings-of-4-muslim-men-in-new-mexico-left-a-trail-of-violence | 2022-08-13T08:50:23Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-news/2022-08-13/the-suspect-in-the-killings-of-4-muslim-men-in-new-mexico-left-a-trail-of-violence | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
North Tonawanda police are investigating a death on the railroad bridge at Sweeney and Oliver streets Friday night.
Police officials said they were called to the area about 8:30 p.m. for a report of a woman that had fallen from an unknown height, landed on the railroad bridge deck and may have been struck by a train.
Train traffic was halted in the area while police, members of the NT Fire Department and Twin City Ambulance worked to recover the body of the 37-year-old woman. Police said she had suffered multiple blunt force injuries but it did not appear sh had been struck by a train.
Police said numerous witnesses were brought to police headquarters to provide statements on the incident and what may have led to the woman falling.
The investigation is ongoing and police are asking anyone with security cameras in the area or that may have witnesses something to contact detectives at 716-692-4312. | https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/crime/nt-police-investigating-womans-death-on-railroad-bridge/article_379f124c-1ac6-11ed-bedb-ffd5fdc69c8c.html | 2022-08-13T08:57:58Z | lockportjournal.com | control | https://www.lockportjournal.com/news/crime/nt-police-investigating-womans-death-on-railroad-bridge/article_379f124c-1ac6-11ed-bedb-ffd5fdc69c8c.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Dough
2 Cups lukewarm water
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup butter, softened
6 ½ to 7 cups all purpose flour, divided
2 packages dry yeast
2 eggs
2 teaspoon salt
Filling
2 cups brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, softened
Frosting
1/3 cup melted vanilla ice cream
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp maple flavoring
2 cups sugar
To make the dough, use 2 cups water add 1 tbsp sugar, yeast, and 2 ½ cups of flour. Mix well and let stand 20 minutes. In a separate bowl, beat eggs, sugar, butter and salt. Stir into yeast mixture and gradually add flour until it forms a stiff dough. Oil top of dough ball, cover and let rise until double in size. Roll dough into a ½” thick, 12”x24” rectangle. Spread evenly with 1/3 cup softened butter, sprinkle 2 cups of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon over butter. Roll prepared dough with filling on the inside and cut into 12 even slices. Place slices on well-greased 12”x15” pan. Press down evenly. Cover and let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 for 18 minutes or until nicely browned. While the rolls are baking, mix 1/3 cup of melted vanilla ice cream with ½ tsp vanilla, ½ tsp maple flavor, 2 cups powdered sugar. Glaze rolls while still hot. | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/blue-ribbon-cinnamon-rolls/article_b335b7ba-0f65-11ed-9c70-2bfc67043a8e.html | 2022-08-13T09:16:27Z | timescitizen.com | control | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/blue-ribbon-cinnamon-rolls/article_b335b7ba-0f65-11ed-9c70-2bfc67043a8e.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups sugar, divided
3 teaspoons vanilla, divided
1 teaspoon lemon zest
¼ teaspoon plus pinch salt, divided
1 large egg
3 cup plus 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
¼ cup orange marmalade
2 ¾ cups unsweetened shredded coconut*
6 large egg whites
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream
Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer on medium 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, the lemon zest and a pinch salt. Add egg; beat until combined. Stir in 3 cups flour, mixing until dough comes together. Pat dough into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of prepared pan. Prick dough all over with a fork. Chill 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400°. Cover dough with foil; fill foil with pie weights or dried beans. Bake 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights. Return pan to oven and bake until lightly browned and set, about 10 minutes more. Remove from oven; let cool on a wire rack.
Reduce oven temperature to 300°. Spread orange marmalade over baked crust.
For coconut filling, in a metal bowl, combine coconut; the remaining 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon salt; and the egg whites. Set bowl over a saucepan filled with simmering water. Stir constantly until mixture is hot to the touch (120° to 130°), about 4 minutes. Remove bowl from heat; stir in the remaining 6 tablespoons flour. Spread coconut filling over marmalade. Bake until filling is puffed and golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For ganache, place chocolate chips in a small bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a simmer over medium; pour over chocolate chips. Let stand 5 minutes; whisk until smooth. Pour ganache over coconut filling and spread evenly. Let cool to room temperature, then chill until chocolate is set, at least 2 hours. Cut into small squares. (Chocolate will lose its glossiness in the refrigerator but regain it as the bars return to room temperature.) | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/coconut-chocolate-squares/article_4a7c574c-0f65-11ed-a187-27083d1531a1.html | 2022-08-13T09:16:33Z | timescitizen.com | control | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/coconut-chocolate-squares/article_4a7c574c-0f65-11ed-a187-27083d1531a1.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The great Iowa State Fair started on August 11th. One of the best parts about the fair is of course the food. Not only the food served by the concession stands, but the award-winning recipes from entrants all around the state. This week’s recipes include some of those winning recipes. A special thanks to local Grace Hornung for providing the recipe for her Blue Ribbon Cinnamon Rolls.
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accounts, the history behind an article. | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/cooks-corner/article_1b7dde84-0f65-11ed-b93d-5b867880396a.html | 2022-08-13T09:16:39Z | timescitizen.com | control | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/cooks-corner/article_1b7dde84-0f65-11ed-b93d-5b867880396a.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Ingredients
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups peeled and chopped Granny Smith apples
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup chopped pecans, toasted
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons water
1 ½ tablespoons quick-cooking rolled oats
Preheat oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, combine 2 cups flour, the baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. In a large bowl, beat softened butter with a mixer on medium 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture, beating until just combined. Stir in apples and coarsely chopped pecans. Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake until golden and set in the center, 50 to 60 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, toasted pecans, melted butter, the remaining 2 tablespoons flour, the water and oats. Sprinkle over hot bars. Bake 5 minutes more. Cool completely on wire rack. If desired, use parchment paper to lift bars out of pan. Place on a cutting board to cut into bars. | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/harvest-apple-bars/article_db025942-0f65-11ed-ac7a-5be7057be6d4.html | 2022-08-13T09:16:45Z | timescitizen.com | control | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/harvest-apple-bars/article_db025942-0f65-11ed-ac7a-5be7057be6d4.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
- 2 cups Mashed Potatoes
- 2 cups Leftover Roast Beef with Gravy warmed
- 1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- 4 Cherry Tomatoes
Into four individual bowls, spoon a 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes into the bottom. Top mashed potatoes with a 1/2 cup heated leftover roast beef with gravy. To finish top each "sundae" with 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese, and a cherry tomato. | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/iowa-state-fair-hot-beef-sundae/article_700794ae-0f65-11ed-8c89-db536136a720.html | 2022-08-13T09:16:51Z | timescitizen.com | control | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/iowa-state-fair-hot-beef-sundae/article_700794ae-0f65-11ed-8c89-db536136a720.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
• 1 large egg
• 4 to 5 tablespoons ice water, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon white vinegar
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup cold lard
• 1-1/4 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
• 3 cups sliced fresh or frozen rhubarb, thawed
• 3 cups halved fresh strawberries
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon 2% milk
• Coarse sugar
In a small bowl, whisk egg, 4 tablespoons ice water and vinegar until blended. In a large bowl, mix flour and salt; cut in lard until crumbly. Gradually add egg mixture, tossing with a fork, until dough holds together when pressed. If mixture is too dry, slowly add additional ice water, 1 teaspoon at a time, just until dough comes together. Divide dough in half. Shape each into a disk; wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight. Preheat oven to 400°. In a large bowl, mix sugar and tapioca. Add rhubarb and strawberries; toss to coat evenly. Let stand 15 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle; transfer to a 9-in. pie plate. Trim crust even with rim. Add filling; dot with butter. Roll remaining dough to a 1/8-in.-thick circle. Place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edge. Cut slits in top. Brush milk over top crust; sprinkle with coarse sugar. Place pie on a baking sheet; bake 20 minutes. Reduce oven setting to 350°. Bake 45-55 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool pie on a wire rack. | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/winning-rhubarb-strawberry-pie/article_8e6de880-0f65-11ed-b60c-9b7562396456.html | 2022-08-13T09:16:57Z | timescitizen.com | control | http://www.timescitizen.com/kifg/cooks_corner/winning-rhubarb-strawberry-pie/article_8e6de880-0f65-11ed-b60c-9b7562396456.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Palakkad: The promised financial aid for organ recipients has not been disbursed in Kerala for the last five months. This year a total of 37 persons have undergone transplantation so far.
The assistance is given through the Social Security Mission for persons in the Below Poverty Line category.
Financial help is provided to dialysis patients, persons who underwent kidney and liver transplantation, and sickle cell disease patients.
The dialysis patients get Rs 1,100, and others get Rs 1,000 per month for up to five years.
A total of 983 persons got a new lease of life since the scheme, named Mritasanjeevani, was launched in 2012. The organs of 343 persons were transplanted to help the needy ones.
'Mritasanjeevani' is coordinated by the Kerala Network for Organ Sharing (KNOS) and being implemented with the support of private partnership under the strict monitoring of government. | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2022/08/13/organ-recipients-monthly-aid-not-disbursed.amp.html | 2022-08-13T09:38:36Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2022/08/13/organ-recipients-monthly-aid-not-disbursed.amp.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Kochi: The Kerala Government has moved the High Court seeking urgent hearing on the case registered over the murder bid on former State Minister EP Jayarajan on a train 27 years ago.
The action is apparently aimed at cornering K Sudhakaran, MP, who is also the chief of the Congress party in Kerala.
Jayarajan, who is currently the convenor of the Left Democratic Front and a member of the CPM central committee, was shot on his throat while he was travelling by train. The firing took place somewhere in Ongole in Andhra Pradesh.
The incident occurred when Jayarajan was returning to Kerala along with other CPM leaders after attending the Party Congress held in Chandigarh on April 12, 1995.
The police had initially submitted a chargesheet before the trial court against Sudhakaran and other accused in the case. But Sudhakaran pleaded that he was innocent and the attempt to murder charge slapped on him should be dropped. But the magistrate court rejected the plea.
Sudhakaran then approached the High Court with the plea to drop the case. The High Court then stayed the trial proceedings scheduled in the Sessions Court in Thiruvananthapuram in 2016.
Recently, the Special Government Pleader moved the High Court with the plea that the case should be taken up for urgent hearing.
Justice Ziyad Rahman posted the case for final hearing on August 25. | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2022/08/13/sudhakaran-govt-target-1995-train-firing-jayarajan.amp.html | 2022-08-13T09:38:49Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/kerala/2022/08/13/sudhakaran-govt-target-1995-train-firing-jayarajan.amp.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Happy Saturday! Temperatures will start in the 60s before reaching the mid-80s with a mix of sun and clouds. A few light rain showers will be possible along the TN/NC line and in Cherokee County. Skies will clear out tonight as lows drop back into the 60s. You could not ask for a better mid-August day!
Sunday and Monday will likely be the warmest days over the next week as highs reach 90 degrees. Conditions will remain on the dry side other than a slim chance of a shower on Monday.
Tuesday through Friday will feature unseasonably cool temperatures as highs reach the low to mid-80s each afternoon. Humidity levels will be manageable, with dew points in the 60s throughout the week. Tuesday will be mainly dry, but daily rain chances will increase Wednesday through the end of the week.
For the latest, download the Local 3 Weather app. | https://www.local3news.com/local-weather/a-pleasant-weekend-in-store-for-the-tn-valley/article_a5a1cf36-1ae5-11ed-8b7a-733cd85c7cad.html | 2022-08-13T09:39:57Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/local-weather/a-pleasant-weekend-in-store-for-the-tn-valley/article_a5a1cf36-1ae5-11ed-8b7a-733cd85c7cad.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Have you ever stepped into an Abercrombie, Victoria's Secret, Vitamin Shoppe or another store and wondered: "What's that smell?"
Scent is a subtle, often underrated, component of companies' attempts to entice customers and get them to linger around longer. These retail chains and other companies, including restaurants, fast-food chains, airlines, and hotels have put a lot of effort (and smelling tests) into perfecting their signature aromas.
Most retailers' marketing tactics target our vision -- think logos, commercials and other symbols. Brands also try to stimulate us with upbeat music or relaxing sounds.
But targeting our noses can be an even more powerful tool for brands, say marketing gurus. An entire industry, known as scent marketing or olfactory branding, is dedicated to developing custom fragrances.
ScentAir, for example, is one of the largest sellers of diffusers to leading brands. The company designs nine "fragrance experiences" ranging from "lux and sophisticated" to "passionate and sensual." On the flip side, companies also try to mask and neutralize foul stenches from bathrooms, kitchens, animals, sweat and other odors.
Caroline Fabrigas, the CEO of Scent Marketing, creates and maintains scents for companies such as North Face, Aeropostale and others. She conducts "sniffing sessions" with company representatives to find the right notes for their environments.
"We try to create identifiable scents specific to the brands," she said.
The power of smell
Our sense of smell runs straight to our limbic system, the region in our brain that regulates emotions and memory.
Deploying a pleasant fragrance in stores can help a brand stand out in a crowded market and influence customers' feelings about it, said Laurence Minsky, a professor in the communication department at Columbia College Chicago who studies branding. It can also cue up childhood memories.
"Retailers are selling an experience. They're sending signals or cues about how they want to be perceived," Minsky said. "It's limited to do it just on visuals."
The presence of a pleasant scent in stores resulted in a 3% sales increase compared to stores without one, found a study published in the Journal of Marketing in 2019.
And beyond just being pleasant, the specifics of scent matter. Another study published in the Journal of Retailing in 2013 found that consumers spent more and purchased more items in stores with a simple orange or lemon scent than in stores with complex scents -- lemon-basil or basil-orange with green tea -- as well as stores with no scent at all.
The opportunity to create an ambiance while increasing sales has led retailers and other businesses to experiment with different scents and create their own singular olfactory experiences.
Signature scents
Brands such as Play-Doh and Johnson & Johnson baby powder were some of the first to use scent as a marketing tool. Play-Doh even successfully trademarked its signature musky, vanilla-like fragrance in 2018.
At Abercrombie, the smell you're familiar with is now a "white bergamot" fragrance, which replaced the brand's trademark "Fierce" musky scent a few years ago.
Victoria's Secret, which has had its own signature fragrance line for decades, changes its store scent when one of its new fragrances launches, a spokesperson said. Right now, Victoria's Secret's recently-launched "Bare" fragrance, a woody floral scent with notes of Australian sandalwood, fills the air.
At Vitamin Shoppe, a lavender scent wafts through the air. Stores use air diffusers to pump out lavender essential oils, the company's top-selling essential oil that promotes "calm and relaxation," said a spokesperson. During the holidays, stores switch to a peppermint essential oil.
Meanwhile, Yankee Candle uses several forms of scents in different areas of the store, including candles, wax melts, and air fresheners to get customers to explore various sections, according to James Jordan, a senior manager of home fragrance global training at Newell Brands, which owns the brand.
Since the 1990s, Singapore Airlines has also been using its own fragrance. Flight attendants wear it as perfume, it's blended into hot towels served before takeoff and it wafts through the cabin during the flight. Hotels such as Hyatt, Westin and others pump smells and aromas into their lobbies, while many supermarkets moved their bakeries from the back of the store to the front, said Martin Lindstrom, a consumer branding expert.
Then there are food chains that have used smells to try to make customers hungrier, nudging them to buy more.
Cinnabon places ovens filled with warm cinnamon rolls near the front of its stores. Panera Bread used to make its bread in the evening but shifted to daytime so that its stores smell more like bakeries, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
But stores must strike a delicate balance when they engineer their smells to avoid overwhelming customers. Subway, for example, has been criticized by some customers for an unpleasant bread smell in stores.
When Starbucks introduced breakfast sandwiches in 2008, it found the smell of sandwiches cooking in the oven was overpowering stores' coffee aroma.
And Abercrombie was perhaps best known for spraying its Fierce cologne around stores in the mid-2000s. But the company dialed back its signature scent as its stores struggled to attract customers and eventually replaced it entirely. One study found that Abercrombie's scent was making customers anxious.
Scent is most effective when it's subliminal, Lindstrom said. "When smells scream at you, it doesn't work."
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/how-abercrombie-victorias-secret-and-vitamin-shoppe-use-smell-to-get-you-to-spend-more/article_903c5af7-239f-5f7d-a318-6065cfbc6f77.html | 2022-08-13T09:40:03Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/how-abercrombie-victorias-secret-and-vitamin-shoppe-use-smell-to-get-you-to-spend-more/article_903c5af7-239f-5f7d-a318-6065cfbc6f77.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The venue where renowned author Salman Rushdie -- whose controversial work has triggered death threats -- was stabbed Friday had rejected previous recommendations to toughen security measures, two sources told CNN.
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed at least twice on stage at the Chautauqua Institution before he was slated to give a lecture, New York state police said Friday. He was airlifted to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania and underwent surgery, a Pennsylvania police official said.
Later in the day, Rushdie was put on a ventilator and was unable to speak, his agent, Andrew Wylie, told The New York Times. He will likely lose an eye, Wylie said. "The nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged. The news is not good."
A suspect was taken into custody shortly afterward, and authorities are working to determine the motive and the charges, state police said.
Following the attack, questions were raised about the security precautions -- or lack thereof -- at the host institution, which sits in a rural lake resort about 70 miles south of Buffalo, New York.
The institution's leadership had rejected recommendations for basic security measures, including bag checks and metal detectors, fearing that would create a divide between speakers and the audience, according to two sources who spoke with CNN. The leadership also feared that it would change the culture at the institution, the sources said.
The two sources have direct knowledge of the security situation at the Chautauqua Institution and past recommendations and spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
It's unclear whether the recommended measures would have prevented the attack on Rushdie based on the information released about the incident as of Friday evening. Authorities have not disclosed the type of weapon that was used in the attack.
There were no security searches or metal detectors at the event, a person who witnessed the attack told CNN. The witness is not being identified because they expressed concerns for their personal safety.
CNN reached out to the Chautauqua Institution and its leadership for comment but did not receive a response Friday.
Institution president Michael Hill defended his organization's security plans when asked during a news conference Friday whether there would be more precautions at future events.
"We assess for every event what we think the appropriate security level is, and this one was certainly one that we thought was important which is why we had a State Trooper and Sheriff presence there," Hill said. "We will assess for each of the events at the Institution what we think the appropriate level of security is and that's an ongoing process that we work in concert with local law enforcement on."
Also injured Friday was Henry Reese, co-founder of the Pittsburgh nonprofit City of Asylum, who was scheduled to join Rushdie in a discussion, police said. He was taken to a hospital and treated for a facial injury and released.
Rushdie's writings have garnered several literary prizes, including the Booker Prize for his 1981 book, Midnight's Children. But it was his fourth novel "The Satanic Verses," that drew the greatest scrutiny as some Muslims found the book to be sacrilegious, and its publication in 1988 sparked public demonstrations.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who described the book as an insult to Islam and Prophet Mohammed, issued a religious decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie's death in 1989.
Authorities were at New Jersey home connected to suspect
The suspect in the attack was identified as Hadi Matar from Fairview, New Jersey, New York State Troop Commander Major Eugene J. Staniszewski said Friday evening during a news conference.
The attack occurred around 10:45 a.m. as Rushdie was being introduced, a witness told CNN. A man in a black shirt appeared to be "punching" the author. The witness, who was about 75 feet from the stage, did not hear the attacker say anything or see a weapon.
Another witness, Joyce Lussier, was sitting in the second row when she saw a man who "lurched across the stage and got right to Mr. Rushdie.
"He came in the left side and leapt across the stage and just lunged at him. In, I don't know, two seconds he was across that stage," Lussier said. She heard people screaming and crying and saw people from the audience rushing up to the stage, she said.
Matar, 24, allegedly stabbed Rushdie at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen, state police said. Staff and audience members rushed to the attacker and put him on the ground before a state trooper took him into custody, police said.
On Friday evening, police had blocked off the street to the New Jersey home believed connected to the suspect.
Iran's bounty was never lifted
Rushdie, the son of a successful Muslim businessman in India, was educated in England, first at Rugby School and later at the University of Cambridge where he received a master's degree in history.
After college, he began working as an advertising copywriter in London, before publishing his first novel, "Grimus" in 1975.
In 1989, as a result of the fatwa, Rushdie began a decade under British protection.
Rushdie told CNN in 1999 that the experience taught him "to value even more ... intensely the things that I valued before, such as the art of literature and the freedom of expression and the right to say things that other people don't like.
"It may have been an unpleasant decade, but it was the right fight, you know. It was fighting for the things that I most believe in against things I most dislike, which are bigotry and fanaticism and censorship."
The bounty against Rushdie has never been lifted, though in 1998 the Iranian government sought to distance itself from the fatwa by pledging not to seek to carry it out.
Despite that, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently reaffirmed the religious edict.
In February 2017, on Khamenei's official website, the supreme leader was asked if the "fatwa against Rushdie was still in effect," to which Khamenei confirmed it was, saying, "The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued."
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/salman-rushdie-remains-hospitalized-after-stabbing-attack-as-venue-faces-scrutiny-over-security/article_c2ed0d59-074d-594a-a57c-df4ef21c6b76.html | 2022-08-13T09:40:09Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/salman-rushdie-remains-hospitalized-after-stabbing-attack-as-venue-faces-scrutiny-over-security/article_c2ed0d59-074d-594a-a57c-df4ef21c6b76.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ABDUCTORS of passengers of the ill-fated Abuja Kaduna train successfully deceived the presidency into releasing the pregnant wife of their commander, a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, has said. Shehu, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity to the President, made the revelation on Friday while speaking with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service.
The revelation came a few hours after President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, met with the families of the freed abducted train passengers at the Aso Villa, Abuja.
The terrorists’ leader had demanded the release of his pregnant wife in exchange for the kidnapped passengers, but after the woman was released and even taken to the hospital for safe delivery, the terrorists refused to release the hostages.
Shehu said the commander of the terrorist group had requested the Federal Government to release his pregnant wife who was in its custody as part of the agreement to release the abducted passengers. However, according to the presidential spokesman, immediately the terrorists’ demand was met, they did not fulfill their promise, which was to release the hostages, and instead made some other outrageous demands.
Shehu said: “The commander of the terrorist group requested that the government should release his pregnant wife, which was done.
“The government even took her to the hospital for safe delivery and she delivered twins.
“The government went further to show him his wife and the twins so that he would believe and see that the mother and the babies were in good condition.
“We then handed over his family to his parents. Unfortunately, after all this, he failed to honour the agreement reached. We were deceived.”
BBC Hausa Service reported that this was not the first time the terrorists had failed to honour such agreements but it was the first time the Federal Government had come out to tell the world the demands of the terrorists.
During his meeting with the families of the abducted passengers, President Buhari had told them that he did not want to use force and put the lives of the abductees in jeopardy in securing their freedom. About 31 passengers are still in the custody of the terrorists.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed regret that the challenges of insurgency, banditry and kidnapping faced by the country have stretched the utilisation of security agencies and other resources.
Speaking at the launch of the National Crisis Management Doctrine (NCMD) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday, the president explained that due to the challenges, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) revised the National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) which he endorsed in August 2016.
The newly launched management doctrine is aimed at bridging the gap created by extensive deployment of security services through fostering collaboration among ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
The NCMD, which was developed by the ONSA, in coordination with relevant MDAs, would ensure greater successes in tackling national crises. The president commended the efforts of the National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno (retd), his staff and members of the working group from various responder MDAs for the remarkable work in developing the doctrine.
Buhari described the feat as a significant milestone in recognition of the need for collective efforts towards achieving coordinated, effective and efficient national crisis management.
A statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, quoted him as saying: “This shows the renewed promise and commitment of this administration to managing crisis in the country.”
President Buhari urged the ONSA to continue to play its coordinating role among crisis response stakeholders to achieve greater successes. He also thanked the British government for its collaboration in the development of the doctrine as well as the United States government for its support, urging them to sustain the relationship.
The president recalled that at the inception of the administration, Nigeria was faced with multiple security challenges ranging from terrorism and kidnapping to armed banditry, ethnic militia attacks, oil theft, rape, gun running and various acts emanating from violent extremism.
He said: “The emergence of the Boko Haram terrorist group, as well as bandits and kidnappers in Nigeria, considerably changed the country’s security situation leaving panic in the minds of the populace.
“These and other security challenges confronting the nation tend to stretch the deployment of our security agencies, resources and national security apparatus.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
“Owing to the dynamics of these crises, the Office of the National Security Adviser revised the National Counter Terrorism Strategy (NACTEST) which I endorsed in August 2016.
“Within this strategy are certain works streams which include the Prepare and Implement strands that seek to mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks by building resilience and redundancies to ensure continuity of business; and a framework for the mobilisation of coordinated cross-government efforts respectively.
“I am glad that the Office of the National Security Adviser has not relented in its efforts to implement the NACTEST by coordinating relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies to develop the National Crisis Management Doctrine.”
In his remarks, the NSA explained that work on the doctrine started in 2014 but was given impetus after the president endorsed the revised NACTEST, which has five work streams, namely, ‘Forestall’, ‘Secure’, ‘Identify’, ‘Prepare’ and ‘Implement’. Monguno said the NCMD, which is a subset of the NACTEST, fulfills the work streams to ‘Prepare’ and to ‘Implement.’
He said: “The doctrine provides a detailed methodology for national crises response, outlining how the various relevant MDAs should interact at the strategic, operational and tactical levels.
“It is to be noted that the NCMD can be used to manage both malicious threats and civil emergencies owing to the general principles set out within it.” | https://tribuneonlineng.com/kaduna-train-attack-how-leader-of-terrorists-deceived-us-to-release-his-wife-kids-presidency/ | 2022-08-13T09:50:09Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/kaduna-train-attack-how-leader-of-terrorists-deceived-us-to-release-his-wife-kids-presidency/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A man has been charged after a crash in Ramsgate left two dead and caused a child to be seriously injured. Nitesh Bissendary, 30, was arrested a short while after the collision and has since been charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
He has also been charged with two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, failing to stop at the scene of a road traffic collision, drink driving and failing to provide a sample for analysis. He has been remanded in custody and will appear at Margate Magistrates' Court today (August 13).
The incident occurred on Wednesday (August 10) outside the multi-storey car park in Leopold Street at around 9.35pm. A black Alfa Romeo collided with five pedestrians, who were all members of the same family.
READ MORE: Pair killed in Ramsgate horror crash named as Cambridge physicist and her elderly dad
Noga Sella, a Cambridge physicist, and her dad Yoram Hirshfeld sadly died a short while after the collision. A girl of primary school age was taken to hospital in London with serious injuries and she remains in a serious but stable condition.
A man in his 40s and a primary school aged boy also sustained minor injuries in the crash. Flowers have been left at the scene in memory of Noga and Yoram.
As well as Bissendary, of Highlands Glade, Manston, a 58-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman were also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender and possession with intent to supply class A drugs. Both have since been released on bail until September 8 pending further enquiries.
Enquiries into the incident are being carried out by officers from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit who remain keen to hear from any witnesses, local businesses with CCTV evidence or drivers with relevant dashcam footage. Please call the appeal line on 01622 798538 quoting reference DS/DGC/090/22.
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Huge police presence in Gravesend after teenager, 17, stabbed | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/ramsgate-fatal-crash-man-charged-7459835 | 2022-08-13T09:53:27Z | kentlive.news | control | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/ramsgate-fatal-crash-man-charged-7459835 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
BALTIMORE (AP) - A judge held Baltimore’s top prosecutor in contempt of court on Friday, finding that she willfully violated a gag order with an Instagram comment about a high-profile murder case involving a defendant set to be tried a fifth time.
Circuit Judge John Nugent fined city State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby $1,500, but ruled that she can avoid paying the fine by following an even more restrictive gag order about the case for the next 90 days, The Daily Record reported.
The case involves the 2015 shooting death of Kevin Jones, a security guard at Pimlico race track. Prosecutors have unsuccessfully tried Keith Davis Jr., 31, for murder four times. Two of Davis’ trials ended in mistrials. He was convicted in two other trials, but both convictions were overturned. Davis’ case has been the focus of social justice advocates who fault Mosby for continuing to prosecute Davis. He maintains his innocence.
After an Instagram account posted a video asserting Davis’s innocence and a user commented that Mosby had lost her vote in the July 19 Democratic primary for Baltimore state’s attorney, Mosby responded: “You really shouldn’t believe everything you read.”
In commenting on the post, Nugent said, “I cannot see the social media comments on Instagram as anything but a willful violation of this court’s gag order.”
Mosby was present for the hearing, but wasn’t required to testify. Chief Counsel Erin Murphy, who represented the State’s Attorney’s Office, acknowledged that the comment was “an unwise choice” saying it was intended as a response to the user saying Mosby had lost her vote.
Mosby was defeated in a Democratic primary by defense attorney Ivan Bates. Baltimore is heavily Democratic, and no Republican is running in November though one unaffiliated candidate filed for the upcoming general election.
Bates has said he believes the charges against Davis should be dismissed. If elected, Bates would be in office by the time Davis’ fifth trial is scheduled to begin. | https://www.wboc.com/news/judge-baltimore-prosecutor-mosby-violated-gag-order-with-online-post/article_8f0ba4b0-1ae3-11ed-a322-4fa08bf24e4e.html | 2022-08-13T09:57:18Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/judge-baltimore-prosecutor-mosby-violated-gag-order-with-online-post/article_8f0ba4b0-1ae3-11ed-a322-4fa08bf24e4e.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
DELMARVA FORECAST
Saturday: Mostly sunny and pleasant, with low humidity. Afternoon highs in the low to mid 80s. A northerly breeze could be gusty at times at the beaches.
Sunday: Mostly sunny and continued pleasant. Highs in the low to mid 80s.
Monday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs around 80. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Tuesday: Scattered showers and thunderstorms, especially in the morning. Highs near 80°F. Chance of rain 50 percent.
Wednesday: A few lingering showers, then becoming mostly sunny. Highs in the low 80s. Chance of rain 20 percent.
Thursday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the low to mid 80s
Friday: Mostly sunny, but turning more humid. Highs in the mid 80s.
FORECAST DISCUSSION
For the first time in quite a while, we're getting back into a more comfortable temperature regime with low humidity and temperatures slightly below normal!
High pressure will build in to the Mid-Atlantic from the north, meaning mostly sunny skies and temperatures slightly below normal, in the low to mid 80s Saturday afternoon. Couple that with relatively low humidity, and the weather will be great for outdoor activities on both days this weekend!
Our next round of showers and thunderstorms arrives on Monday as a shortwave approaches from the northwest. At this time the chance of severe weather is low, but we can't rule out at least some gusty downpours in some embedded thunderstorms. Any rain with non-severe storms will be welcome, as the latest drought monitor is indicating that some drought conditions are persisting in eastern Sussex County, and abnormally dry conditions are developing in Kent County, Del.
The shortwave won't move quickly, so scattered showers and thunder are likely to continue Monday night through at least midday Tuesday.
A few showers could linger into early Wednesday.
Then late next week, we'll enter a drier period once again with humidity slowly on the rise into next weekend. At this time, though, temperatures should remain reasonable, in the low to mid 80s.
In the tropics, a disturbance off the Louisiana coast has a low chance of developing into a tropical system, but at this time it looks like it will only bring some periods of heavy rain to coastal Louisiana and Texas. | https://www.wboc.com/weather/comfortable-weekend-rain-returns-monday/article_d7e31534-1ae2-11ed-b440-7f7246080eeb.html | 2022-08-13T09:57:25Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/weather/comfortable-weekend-rain-returns-monday/article_d7e31534-1ae2-11ed-b440-7f7246080eeb.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Bibb Sheriff’s Office: Warner Robins woman dies after crash on Hawkinsville Road
One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash on Hawkinsville Road Friday night.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash on Hawkinsville Road Friday night.
It happened just before 5:30 near Hawkinsville Road’s intersection with Rex Elder Boulevard.
Witnesses told deputies a car was traveling south on Hawkinsville Road when the driver lost control and crossed over into the northbound lanes and collided with a panel truck. Macon-Bibb Coroner pronounced the driver of the car, 39-year-old Leighanne Hise Of Warner Robins, dead at the scene.
Paramedics treated the driver of the panel truck at the scene.
Anyone with information about the collision should call the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at (478) 751-7500 and ask to speak with a fatality investigator. | https://www.41nbc.com/bibb-sheriffs-office-warner-robins-woman-dies-crash-hawkinsville-road/ | 2022-08-13T10:33:50Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/bibb-sheriffs-office-warner-robins-woman-dies-crash-hawkinsville-road/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Bibb Sheriff’s Office: Warner Robins woman dies after crash on Hawkinsville Road
One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash on Hawkinsville Road Friday night.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – One person is dead after a two-vehicle crash on Hawkinsville Road Friday night.
It happened just before 5:30 near Hawkinsville Road’s intersection with Rex Elder Boulevard.
Witnesses told deputies a car was traveling south on Hawkinsville Road when the driver lost control and crossed over into the northbound lanes and collided with a panel truck. Macon-Bibb Coroner pronounced the driver of the car, 39-year-old Leighanne Hise Of Warner Robins, dead at the scene.
Paramedics treated the driver of the panel truck at the scene.
Anyone with information about the collision should call the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at (478) 751-7500 and ask to speak with a fatality investigator. | https://www.41nbc.com/bibb-sheriffs-office-warner-robins-woman-dies-crash-hawkinsville-road/ | 2022-08-13T10:33:50Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/bibb-sheriffs-office-warner-robins-woman-dies-crash-hawkinsville-road/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | null |
City of Perry launches new podcast
You can learn about all the inner workings of the city by listening to the podcast.
PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — There’s a new way to learn about how the City of Perry works.
The city started a podcast called “Inside Perry.”
Tabitha Clark, Senior Communications Manager with the city, says her office came up with the idea to go along with the city’s Strategic Plan, which includes finding different ways to get residents to engage with the city.
You can learn about all the inner workings of the city by listening to the podcast.
“What people can expect are a wide variety of topics that pertain to local government,” she said. “We’re going to talk about simple things such as code compliance. We’re also going to talk about the major projects we have going on in the future.”
Five episodes of the “Inside Perry” podcast are available right now. You can listen to it on the city’s website, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio. | https://www.41nbc.com/city-of-perry-launches-new-podcast/ | 2022-08-13T10:33:56Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/city-of-perry-launches-new-podcast/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
City of Perry launches new podcast
You can learn about all the inner workings of the city by listening to the podcast.
PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — There’s a new way to learn about how the City of Perry works.
The city started a podcast called “Inside Perry.”
Tabitha Clark, Senior Communications Manager with the city, says her office came up with the idea to go along with the city’s Strategic Plan, which includes finding different ways to get residents to engage with the city.
You can learn about all the inner workings of the city by listening to the podcast.
“What people can expect are a wide variety of topics that pertain to local government,” she said. “We’re going to talk about simple things such as code compliance. We’re also going to talk about the major projects we have going on in the future.”
Five episodes of the “Inside Perry” podcast are available right now. You can listen to it on the city’s website, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio. | https://www.41nbc.com/city-of-perry-launches-new-podcast/ | 2022-08-13T10:33:56Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/city-of-perry-launches-new-podcast/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Dry air returns for the weekend
There is an end to the stormy days in sight as a cold front moves through by Saturday afternoon. Lower humidity keeps rain chances low Sunday
We are once again dealing with a stormy evening in Middle Georgia, but we are so close to some dry weather.
A cold front is dropping into the area tonight, bringing drier air with it for the weekend.
Still expect to see some fog and clouds to start Saturday as well as an isolated shower.
As the front slowly pushes south, we will start to see dry air move in and allow our lows to drop to the 60s by Sunday morning.
Although the front will move through on Saturday it will still take a little while to see the relief from the humidity.
By Sunday afternoon it should be feeling pretty comfortable (humidity-wise) across the area.
This will keep our rain chances very low on Sunday.
High temps will still be in the upper 80s and low 90s.
As we head into next week we will see a return of the humidity as well as increased rain chances.
A cold front will be dropping into the area, keeping an unsettled weather pattern for the week.
Although there are still some questions about how much rain we will get, it looks like a good bet to keep the umbrella around for the week.
One positive of the continued rain…cooler high temps for most of the week.
Highs for much of next week will be limited to the mid 80s with off and on rain throughout the week.
Hoping that some of this can clear out before we have our first high school football games of the season. | https://www.41nbc.com/dry-air-returns-for-the-weekend/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:02Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/dry-air-returns-for-the-weekend/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Dry air returns for the weekend
There is an end to the stormy days in sight as a cold front moves through by Saturday afternoon. Lower humidity keeps rain chances low Sunday
We are once again dealing with a stormy evening in Middle Georgia, but we are so close to some dry weather.
A cold front is dropping into the area tonight, bringing drier air with it for the weekend.
Still expect to see some fog and clouds to start Saturday as well as an isolated shower.
As the front slowly pushes south, we will start to see dry air move in and allow our lows to drop to the 60s by Sunday morning.
Although the front will move through on Saturday it will still take a little while to see the relief from the humidity.
By Sunday afternoon it should be feeling pretty comfortable (humidity-wise) across the area.
This will keep our rain chances very low on Sunday.
High temps will still be in the upper 80s and low 90s.
As we head into next week we will see a return of the humidity as well as increased rain chances.
A cold front will be dropping into the area, keeping an unsettled weather pattern for the week.
Although there are still some questions about how much rain we will get, it looks like a good bet to keep the umbrella around for the week.
One positive of the continued rain…cooler high temps for most of the week.
Highs for much of next week will be limited to the mid 80s with off and on rain throughout the week.
Hoping that some of this can clear out before we have our first high school football games of the season. | https://www.41nbc.com/dry-air-returns-for-the-weekend/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:02Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/dry-air-returns-for-the-weekend/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Houston Hardware celebrates 40th anniversary
The store offers hardware and gardening supplies and has a large nursery and porch area that specializes in fertilizers, feeds and other outdoor supplies.
BONAIRE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Houston Hardware and Garden Center is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The store, located at 602 GA Highway 247, opened on July 19, 1982. It was housed in a small building built in 1911 but has since expanded into its current size.
The store offers hardware and gardening supplies and has a large nursery and porch area that specializes in fertilizers, feeds and other outdoor supplies.
Current owner Tom Williams recalls getting the establishment from its previous owner.
“He told me that he had a business he wanted me to look at,” he said. “He said, ‘You would fit it perfectly,’ and I asked him, ‘What kind of business?’ And he threw his hands up, and I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’ and he said, ‘Nope.'”
Williams says that in the early days his big selling point was installing sprinkler systems in yards and teaching people how to do use them. Since then, the store has grown and given back to the community.
Williams used to host an annual turkey cookout the day before Thanksgiving. One particular year, he learned of a little girl who had cancer. He says her family needed financial help, so he used the turkey cookout as a fundraiser.
“In about three hours, we had raised about $17,000 to give to this family,” he said. “And those things is what I try to do for our community here.”
Houston Hardware also gives back by hiring high school students to help give them experience. Chris Tapia, who has worked for the store for five years, says he has gained a lot of experience from working in the nursery.
“I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about plants, more say than I would have probably learned on my own, and thanks to Tom and the store, I feel like I have the correct knowledge to give out to customers for their landscaping,” he said. | https://www.41nbc.com/houston-hardware-celebrates-40th-anniversary/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:08Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/houston-hardware-celebrates-40th-anniversary/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Houston Hardware celebrates 40th anniversary
The store offers hardware and gardening supplies and has a large nursery and porch area that specializes in fertilizers, feeds and other outdoor supplies.
BONAIRE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Houston Hardware and Garden Center is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The store, located at 602 GA Highway 247, opened on July 19, 1982. It was housed in a small building built in 1911 but has since expanded into its current size.
The store offers hardware and gardening supplies and has a large nursery and porch area that specializes in fertilizers, feeds and other outdoor supplies.
Current owner Tom Williams recalls getting the establishment from its previous owner.
“He told me that he had a business he wanted me to look at,” he said. “He said, ‘You would fit it perfectly,’ and I asked him, ‘What kind of business?’ And he threw his hands up, and I said, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’ and he said, ‘Nope.'”
Williams says that in the early days his big selling point was installing sprinkler systems in yards and teaching people how to do use them. Since then, the store has grown and given back to the community.
Williams used to host an annual turkey cookout the day before Thanksgiving. One particular year, he learned of a little girl who had cancer. He says her family needed financial help, so he used the turkey cookout as a fundraiser.
“In about three hours, we had raised about $17,000 to give to this family,” he said. “And those things is what I try to do for our community here.”
Houston Hardware also gives back by hiring high school students to help give them experience. Chris Tapia, who has worked for the store for five years, says he has gained a lot of experience from working in the nursery.
“I’ve gained a lot of knowledge about plants, more say than I would have probably learned on my own, and thanks to Tom and the store, I feel like I have the correct knowledge to give out to customers for their landscaping,” he said. | https://www.41nbc.com/houston-hardware-celebrates-40th-anniversary/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:08Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/houston-hardware-celebrates-40th-anniversary/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
ICYMI: Stories you may have missed today on 41NBC News
Top stories from August 12, 2022
-
Bibb Sheriff’s Office: Warner Robins woman dies after crash on Hawkinsville Road
-
New safety measures in place for Jones County football games
- For other stories you may have missed today on 41NBC News, click here. | https://www.41nbc.com/icymi-stories-you-may-have-missed-today-on-41nbc-news-123/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:15Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/icymi-stories-you-may-have-missed-today-on-41nbc-news-123/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ICYMI: Stories you may have missed today on 41NBC News
Top stories from August 12, 2022
-
Bibb Sheriff’s Office: Warner Robins woman dies after crash on Hawkinsville Road
-
New safety measures in place for Jones County football games
- For other stories you may have missed today on 41NBC News, click here. | https://www.41nbc.com/icymi-stories-you-may-have-missed-today-on-41nbc-news-123/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:15Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/icymi-stories-you-may-have-missed-today-on-41nbc-news-123/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Mercer women’s basketball coach shares her book with Bibb County first graders
Mercer women's basketball coach Susie Gardner wrote a book with the hope of sparking a love of reading in children. Bibb County first graders will all get a copy of it.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — It was Dr. Seuss who once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Mercer women’s basketball coach Susie Gardner wrote a book with the hope of sparking a love of reading in children.
“I want kids to want to learn to read, to love to hold their very own book, but also hopefully the book tells a message too,” Gardner said.
Gardner’s book, called One, Two, Three, Team!, follows a child named Zoey who learns the value of teamwork. Gardner says even though the book focuses on a child in a sports environment, she hopes the message will expand beyond that.
“Team sports is very critical, but not just as a sport, as a human being, as you grow and develop as a person,” she said. “No matter what you decide to do with your life, you need to be a teammate. You can’t just be selfish.”
First grade students at Hartley Elementary got to hear Coach Gardner read her book Friday and also got to take home a copy of it.
Hartley Elementary School Principal Dr. Carmalita Dillard says the theme of the book matches the school’s vision for its students.
“That’s to build proficient readers and leaders,” Dr. Dillard said. “As our students learn to read, but also as they embrace the concept of being a great team member, a great citizen, they build leadership skills.”
Coach Gardner says even though she wrote the book six years ago, it’s a dream come true to finally be able to share it with the community.
“I like the interaction, I like when they yell ‘Team!’ That tells me that they’re paying attention,” she said. “But the best part of the day was as they were walking out that door getting their very own book.”
Each first grader in the Bibb County School District will get a free copy of One, Two, Three, Team! If your child is not in first grade but you want to get them a copy of the book, you can purchase it online from the Mercer University Press website. | https://www.41nbc.com/mercer-womens-basketball-coach-shares-book-with-first-graders/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:21Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/mercer-womens-basketball-coach-shares-book-with-first-graders/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Mercer women’s basketball coach shares her book with Bibb County first graders
Mercer women's basketball coach Susie Gardner wrote a book with the hope of sparking a love of reading in children. Bibb County first graders will all get a copy of it.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — It was Dr. Seuss who once said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
Mercer women’s basketball coach Susie Gardner wrote a book with the hope of sparking a love of reading in children.
“I want kids to want to learn to read, to love to hold their very own book, but also hopefully the book tells a message too,” Gardner said.
Gardner’s book, called One, Two, Three, Team!, follows a child named Zoey who learns the value of teamwork. Gardner says even though the book focuses on a child in a sports environment, she hopes the message will expand beyond that.
“Team sports is very critical, but not just as a sport, as a human being, as you grow and develop as a person,” she said. “No matter what you decide to do with your life, you need to be a teammate. You can’t just be selfish.”
First grade students at Hartley Elementary got to hear Coach Gardner read her book Friday and also got to take home a copy of it.
Hartley Elementary School Principal Dr. Carmalita Dillard says the theme of the book matches the school’s vision for its students.
“That’s to build proficient readers and leaders,” Dr. Dillard said. “As our students learn to read, but also as they embrace the concept of being a great team member, a great citizen, they build leadership skills.”
Coach Gardner says even though she wrote the book six years ago, it’s a dream come true to finally be able to share it with the community.
“I like the interaction, I like when they yell ‘Team!’ That tells me that they’re paying attention,” she said. “But the best part of the day was as they were walking out that door getting their very own book.”
Each first grader in the Bibb County School District will get a free copy of One, Two, Three, Team! If your child is not in first grade but you want to get them a copy of the book, you can purchase it online from the Mercer University Press website. | https://www.41nbc.com/mercer-womens-basketball-coach-shares-book-with-first-graders/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:21Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/mercer-womens-basketball-coach-shares-book-with-first-graders/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
New safety measures in place for Jones County football games
Fans who attend football games at Jones County High School will notice changes this season.
GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Fans who attend football games at Jones County High School will notice changes this season.
The Board of Education created more safety measures in an effort to keep fans safe in the stands.
Jones County High Principal Lance Rackley says one of the most noticeable changes for fans will be metal detectors at all entrances.
“We just ask for fans to bear with us if there’s a slight delay beyond what there accustomed to,” he said. “As many as we’re gonna have out there, we don’t think there will be much of a delay at all. We just want to ensure student safety, fan safety and also for everyone to have a great time, to feel secure while they’re out here just enjoying a great football game.”
The Jones County Sheriff’s Office has worked closely with the school district to institute the metal detectors. Captain Travis Douglas says they’re prepared to keep games safe.
“There’s open dialogue between us and the school system making sure that we’re prepared for anything that may occur and making sure of students and the citizens are our top priority,” he said.
Jones County Superintendent Charles Lundy also commented on the new safety measures.
“We appreciate everyone understanding and working with us to keep all our fans, players, and staff members safe,” he said.
The Jones County Sheriff’s Office is also asking fans to bring clear bags and arrive early if they can to make the entry process easier. | https://www.41nbc.com/new-safety-measures-in-place-for-jones-county-football-games/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:27Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/new-safety-measures-in-place-for-jones-county-football-games/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
New safety measures in place for Jones County football games
Fans who attend football games at Jones County High School will notice changes this season.
GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Fans who attend football games at Jones County High School will notice changes this season.
The Board of Education created more safety measures in an effort to keep fans safe in the stands.
Jones County High Principal Lance Rackley says one of the most noticeable changes for fans will be metal detectors at all entrances.
“We just ask for fans to bear with us if there’s a slight delay beyond what there accustomed to,” he said. “As many as we’re gonna have out there, we don’t think there will be much of a delay at all. We just want to ensure student safety, fan safety and also for everyone to have a great time, to feel secure while they’re out here just enjoying a great football game.”
The Jones County Sheriff’s Office has worked closely with the school district to institute the metal detectors. Captain Travis Douglas says they’re prepared to keep games safe.
“There’s open dialogue between us and the school system making sure that we’re prepared for anything that may occur and making sure of students and the citizens are our top priority,” he said.
Jones County Superintendent Charles Lundy also commented on the new safety measures.
“We appreciate everyone understanding and working with us to keep all our fans, players, and staff members safe,” he said.
The Jones County Sheriff’s Office is also asking fans to bring clear bags and arrive early if they can to make the entry process easier. | https://www.41nbc.com/new-safety-measures-in-place-for-jones-county-football-games/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:27Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/new-safety-measures-in-place-for-jones-county-football-games/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Northeast vs Westside and Rutland vs Howard scrimmage highlights
The first game of the regular season is Rutland hosting Towers on August 18.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — With high school football’s regular season a week away, several teams were in action today getting some final gameplay reps.
The Northeast Raiders took on the Westside Seminoles while the Rutland Hurricanes faced the Howard Huskies. Highlights are above.
The Hurricanes begin the 2022 regular season by hosting Towers on Thursday, August 18.
The Seminoles face Central on the road, and the Huskies host Southwest on Friday, August 19.
The Raiders round-up week one action against Mary Persons on Saturday, August 20. | https://www.41nbc.com/northeast-vs-westside-and-rutland-vs-howard-scrimmage-highlights/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:33Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/northeast-vs-westside-and-rutland-vs-howard-scrimmage-highlights/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Northeast vs Westside and Rutland vs Howard scrimmage highlights
The first game of the regular season is Rutland hosting Towers on August 18.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — With high school football’s regular season a week away, several teams were in action today getting some final gameplay reps.
The Northeast Raiders took on the Westside Seminoles while the Rutland Hurricanes faced the Howard Huskies. Highlights are above.
The Hurricanes begin the 2022 regular season by hosting Towers on Thursday, August 18.
The Seminoles face Central on the road, and the Huskies host Southwest on Friday, August 19.
The Raiders round-up week one action against Mary Persons on Saturday, August 20. | https://www.41nbc.com/northeast-vs-westside-and-rutland-vs-howard-scrimmage-highlights/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:33Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/northeast-vs-westside-and-rutland-vs-howard-scrimmage-highlights/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Georgia National Fairgrounds hosting consignment sale through Sunday
The Tykes, Tots & Teens consignment sale is back at the Georgia National Fairgrounds from August 11-14.
PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Tykes, Tots & Teens consignment sale is back at the Georgia National Fairgrounds from August 11-14.
Local vendors are selling children’s goods from clothes to toys to school supplies. Prices are set individually by the vendors, and anyone can come to buy.
The last day of the sale, on Sunday, will be “Discount Day.” Any item with a star on the sticker is 50% off. “Dollar Dash” will be held later that day. Anything with a bold letter “D” on it is just $1.
The sale helps thousands of people, and the amount of vendors grows each year.
This particular sale has 800 vendors. One of those vendors is Melody Green.
“Financially right now it’s hard, and so I think it makes it nice that we have this opportunity to come to this kind of a place where you get to see just amazing amounts of not only clothing but shoes, toys, pretty much anything that you can think of is here that you might need,” she said.
If you would like to learn more about the sale, click here. | https://www.41nbc.com/perry-fairgrounds-holding-consignment-sale/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:39Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/perry-fairgrounds-holding-consignment-sale/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Georgia National Fairgrounds hosting consignment sale through Sunday
The Tykes, Tots & Teens consignment sale is back at the Georgia National Fairgrounds from August 11-14.
PERRY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Tykes, Tots & Teens consignment sale is back at the Georgia National Fairgrounds from August 11-14.
Local vendors are selling children’s goods from clothes to toys to school supplies. Prices are set individually by the vendors, and anyone can come to buy.
The last day of the sale, on Sunday, will be “Discount Day.” Any item with a star on the sticker is 50% off. “Dollar Dash” will be held later that day. Anything with a bold letter “D” on it is just $1.
The sale helps thousands of people, and the amount of vendors grows each year.
This particular sale has 800 vendors. One of those vendors is Melody Green.
“Financially right now it’s hard, and so I think it makes it nice that we have this opportunity to come to this kind of a place where you get to see just amazing amounts of not only clothing but shoes, toys, pretty much anything that you can think of is here that you might need,” she said.
If you would like to learn more about the sale, click here. | https://www.41nbc.com/perry-fairgrounds-holding-consignment-sale/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:39Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/perry-fairgrounds-holding-consignment-sale/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Wesleyan College welcomes new students
Wesleyan College is welcoming a new group of students to its campus.
MACON, Georgia(41NBC/WMGT) – Wesleyan College is welcoming a new group of students to its campus.
The school held its official induction ceremony Friday morning to welcome its new students.
The college says its focus is teaching women to become leaders and giving them opportunities to follow their dreams.
President of Wesleyan College, Megan Blight, says she’s exited to take on her new role as president.
“It’s not the same until the students and faculty arrive and our residence (halls) are full and our classrooms are full, so today marks a very exciting journey for us,” she said.
Wesleyan students return to class on Tuesday, August 16. | https://www.41nbc.com/wesleyan-college-welcomes-new-students/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:45Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/wesleyan-college-welcomes-new-students/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Wesleyan College welcomes new students
Wesleyan College is welcoming a new group of students to its campus.
MACON, Georgia(41NBC/WMGT) – Wesleyan College is welcoming a new group of students to its campus.
The school held its official induction ceremony Friday morning to welcome its new students.
The college says its focus is teaching women to become leaders and giving them opportunities to follow their dreams.
President of Wesleyan College, Megan Blight, says she’s exited to take on her new role as president.
“It’s not the same until the students and faculty arrive and our residence (halls) are full and our classrooms are full, so today marks a very exciting journey for us,” she said.
Wesleyan students return to class on Tuesday, August 16. | https://www.41nbc.com/wesleyan-college-welcomes-new-students/ | 2022-08-13T10:34:45Z | nbc.com | treatment | https://www.41nbc.com/wesleyan-college-welcomes-new-students/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | null |
This is a long story about the lack of prenatal and obstetric care in West Texas. It’s mostly set in Alpine, Presidio, and Big Bend, which are the “big cities” in the area that actually have doctors and medical facilities in them. The one hospital in the area is in Big Bend, and its labor and delivery unit is now closed much of the time, for a variety of reasons. This is a small taste of what it’s like to be pregnant in this part of the state.
Big Bend is the only hospital in a 12,000-square-mile area that delivers babies. If Billings’s patient goes into labor when the maternity ward is closed, she’ll have to make a difficult choice. She can drive to the next nearest hospital, in Fort Stockton, yet another hour away. Or, if her labor is too far along and she’s unlikely to make it, she can deliver in Big Bend’s emergency room. But the ER doesn’t have a fetal heart monitor or nurses who know how to use one. It also doesn’t keep patients overnight. When a woman gives birth there, she’s either transferred to Fort Stockton—enduring the long drive after having just had a baby—or discharged and sent home.
This situation is stressful and dangerous for pregnant women. Uterine hemorrhages, postpartum preeclampsia (a potentially deadly spike in blood pressure), and other life-threatening complications are most likely to occur in the first few days after childbirth. This is why hospitals usually keep new mothers under observation for 24 hours to 48 hours. “This is not the ‘standard of care’ that women should receive,” Billings says. “You’re not supposed to discharge patients and leave it up to chance.”
Big Bend doesn’t really have a choice. In the past two years, almost all its labor and delivery nurses quit. The hospital has tried to replace them, but the national nursing shortage caused by the pandemic has made that impossible. When Big Bend is too short-staffed to deliver a baby safely, its labor and delivery unit has to close.
[…]
Medicaid pays for 42 percent of all hospital births, but it doesn’t reimburse hospitals for the full cost of care. (In most states it pays between 50 cents and 70 cents on the dollar, which means a hospital loses money when it cares for someone on the program.) To offset its losses, a hospital often charges its privately insured patients significantly higher fees. But if it’s in a poor neighborhood and doesn’t have enough privately insured patients, it can’t recoup the money. So most pre-pandemic maternity ward closures were in low-income areas and disproportionately affected pregnant women of color. Pandemic-related nursing shortages have only made the situation worse. Nowhere is this problem more evident than in Texas.
The state is the national leader in maternity ward closures. In the past decade, more than twenty rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies. More than half the state’s rural counties don’t even have a gynecologist. Texas has some of the lowest income eligibility limits for Medicaid and has declined to expand them, as allowed by the Affordable Care Act. (Childless adults don’t qualify for the program unless they’re disabled.) As a result, more than 18 percent of Texans don’t have health insurance, the highest percentage of uninsured residents in the U.S. Income eligibility limits jump for pregnant women—$36,200 for single mothers, $45,600 for married ones—but the application process takes at least a month. According to the March of Dimes, a fifth of all pregnant women in Texas don’t get prenatal care until they’re five months along. In other words, when a poor woman gets pregnant in Texas, it’s hard for her to find a doctor or even a hospital.
“What we’re seeing in terms of health outcomes, it’s not good,” says John Henderson, chief executive officer and president of the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals. “We have lower birth weights, more preterm births. When it comes to caring for pregnant women and their babies, Texas does not compare favorably to other states.”
Like I said, this is a long story and it’s worth your time to read. I’m old enough to remember when tort “reform”, in particular putting a cap on damage awards that can be given in medical malpractice lawsuits, was supposed to usher in a new era of doctor abundance in Texas. I don’t think that has worked out in the way we were promised. Towards the end, one of the doctors the author spoke to for the story notes that since abortion was already impossible to get in their region, the new state ban on abortion likely won’t result in more babies being born there. These docs will still deal with miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies and other life-threatening situations – they tell some amazing stories – despite the threat to their own safety. Click over and read on for more. | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106524 | 2022-08-13T10:35:15Z | offthekuff.com | control | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106524 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Chron gets on the story.
Texans who use a phone should expect to pay more for that service, thanks to a startling rate increase adopted by the Public Utility Commission of Texas last month.
Commissioners in July voted to increase a longstanding surcharge assessed on telecommunications providers’ receipts for voice services to 24 percent from 3.3 percent. The new rate, which took effect Aug. 1, will add couple of dollars a month for a consumer with a typical individual cell phone plan, and potentially several times that for customers with family plans, or those who pay for calls on a per-minute basis.
“It’s unprecedented,” said Rusty Moore, COO of BBT Telecom, a provider headquartered in Alpine, and board president of the Texas Telephone Association.
[…]
The PUC, in a statement, said the increased fees were imposed on the telecom companies, and they “are not required” to pass on the costs onto residential and business customers. But in practice, telecommunications providers typically choose to do so, the agency explains in a separate Universal Service Fund fact sheet.
T-Mobile, for example, has begun notifying customers that increased fees will show up on their bills starting this month. The exact increase will depend on the customer’s plan.
The change will remain in effect for months, if not longer. Rich Parsons, the agency’s spokesman, said the PUC plans to reduce the fee in about a year as the fund is replenished. But, he added, the rate may not drop back to its previous level of 3.3 percent unless the commissioners vote accordingly.
“It is too soon to know how much the rate will be reduced,” he said.
While the Texas Telephone Association heralded the initial court victory, Moore explained that the PUC’s approach to covering the gap is really not what the organization had in mind, or considers best. In 2021, TTA had backed legislation that would have extended the universal service fee to voice over internet protocol service providers — which allow users to make phone calls over the internet —as well as traditional providers. The bill passed the Texas Legislature with overwhelming support but was vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott.
It would be better, Moore argued, to have “a much longer glide path” to restoring the funding with more modest rate increases over a longer period..
“This is not what we advocated for in any way, shape, or form,” he said.
Moore’s company, BBT, reckons higher cost residential consumers approximately $4.61 per month, and business customers $6.21.
See here for the background. This story puts some actual numbers on the increase – as noted, how much your bill will go up depends on your carrier and your plan – but just implies the connection to Greg Abbott. At least now this is known to more people. Feel free to help them understand where it came from. | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106526 | 2022-08-13T10:35:23Z | offthekuff.com | control | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106526 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Not a new poll, but a closer look at the June UT/Texas Politics Project poll, with a longer look back at over a decade’s worth of polling data.
Under current Texas law, abortion is prohibited even in cases of rape or incest. But polling shows Texans overwhelmingly support exceptions for rape and incest — only 13% and 11%, respectively, said pregnant people should not be able to obtain abortions in those cases.
Renée Cross, senior director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, is not involved with the Texas Politics Project but has also conducted polling on abortion policy.
“More helpful polling questions are those that try to get to the nuance, rather than do you support or oppose this one option,” she said.
To that end, the latest Texas Politics Project poll asked registered voters to consider how far along in pregnancy a person should be allowed to obtain an abortion when accounting for different circumstances, including when the person’s health was endangered, the pregnancy was a result of rape or the family could not afford any more children. This is the first time pollsters asked these questions of respondents.
While most Texans support exceptions for rape and incest, some still want to see limitations based on how far along a person is in their pregnancy. Nearly a quarter of respondents want abortions in cases of rape or incest limited to the first six weeks of pregnancy, a point at which many people do not know they are pregnant. Last September, 10 months before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Texas banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, with no exception for cases of rape or incest.
Poll respondents supported more restrictions when asked about abortion in cases where the family is low income, or the pregnant person either doesn’t want to marry or is married and doesn’t want more children. Over 30% of voters said abortion should not be allowed in those cases.
These numbers are mostly consistent over time. The Texas Politics Project started polling registered voters about abortion availability in 2009. A historical look shows voters’ opinions on abortion have not changed much in over a decade.
One thing that has changed is people’s views on whether Texas’ existing laws about abortion should be made more strict, less strict, or left about the same. As Texas’ laws have gotten increasingly strict, the “abortion laws should be made less strict” group has grown from 26% in 2013 to 43% as of this June. The “more strict” group – one wonders what could possibly sate them, then one decides it probably isn’t worth asking that question – has gone from 38% to 23% in that same time span, while the “leave it as is” crowd has been basically static, from 20% to 23%.
It’s worth looking at the polling project’s post about their June numbers and scroll down to the section on abortion, where they asked questions about at what stage of a woman’s pregnancy would you support her being able to get an abortion under various circumstances. The choices for “when” are Never, up to 6 weeks, up to 12 weeks, up to 24 weeks, up to 36 weeks, and Any Time. The first four question are about circumstances where things are bad: The woman’s health in in danger, the woman was a victim of rape, the women was a victim of incest, and there is a strong chance of a serious birth defect. In all of those cases, support for allowing an abortion is high, though a significant portion of that support is often for just the first six weeks, while the support for “Never” ranges from 8 to 19 percent. If you group the “through 12 weeks” responses with the increasingly liberal ones, all of those positions get a majority, ranging from 53 to 62 percent. “Never” and “up to 6 weeks” add up to at most 35% for those items.
That’s the good news. The less good news is that for questions about discretionary abortions – the woman’s family is poor and they can’t afford a child, the woman is unmarried and doesn’t want to get married, the woman is married and doesn’t want another child – the Never group is the biggest at 34 to 36 percent, with the Any Time group at half that level. There’s still more support for the “up to 12 weeks” and more liberal groups than Never (41 to 45%), but Never plus “up to 6 weeks” is a slight plurality in all three cases.
In other words, this all only goes so far. That may yet change over time – this is June data we’re talking about, we’re still figuring things out in this post-Dobbs world – but we’re a long way from the state being a basically pro-choice place. It’s more pro-choice than what the Legislature allows – much more so in some cases – but there are definite limits.
One more thing:
Jim Henson, director of the project, said that in the years the poll has been conducted, people haven’t had many reasons to shift their viewpoints on abortion.
“Abortion has been a present enough issue that I think most people who have an attitude on abortion have thought on it enough to be pretty fixed on their attitude,” he said.
[Joshua Blank, research director for the project notes that these attitudes were all developed under Roe v. Wade. Now that it’s overturned, people will be forced to ask themselves new questions about where exactly they stand on the issue of abortion.
“That was all under the framework of Roe v. Wade, which allowed people to develop attitudes,” he said. “The fact that there were clear guardrails around what was and was not allowable in terms of restrictions helped enforce the rigidity of peoples’ attitudes because there was a backstop either way about what the courts would presumably accept.”
[…]
The Hobby School of Public Affairs also recently polled registered Texas voters on abortion availability and policy. [Renée Cross, senior director of the Hobby School] said the polls focus on proposed laws after the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
“So rather than focusing primarily on ‘do you support abortion rights,’ we went a step further saying ‘this is the law of the land now, so now what do you support.’”
The Hobby School’s poll asked voters to assess potential policies such as whether abortion should be considered a homicide and whether it should be legal for Texans to take abortion-inducing pills obtained out of state. Around 60% of respondents oppose both classifying abortion as a homicide and making it a felony to take abortion-inducing pills from out of state. Around 30% support those classifications, while around 10% said they don’t know.
What that suggests to me is that for now, the best approach is probably to try to draw a line in the sand and say “no more restrictions”, talk a lot about how women are being endangered right now because they can’t get treated for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies because of our “no exceptions” law, and emphasize that what Republicans want is to punish people for abortion. That’s where the vast majority of the support is. We’re going to have to do a lot more work to move things beyond that, but for the purposes of the November election, vowing to protect the rights of women that have been taken away by SCOTUS and the Legislature is the best bet. | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106552 | 2022-08-13T10:35:30Z | offthekuff.com | control | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106552 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Okay, but I hope the plan to deal with an active shooter has more than this in it.
Houston ISD trustees Thursday evening approved a measure to buy 200 rifles, ammunition and 200 ballistic shields for the district’s police department, which Superintendent Millard House II said last week was not prepared with its current equipment to stop an active shooter.
Trustees voted 6-3 on the purchase after spending roughly an hour in closed executive session discussing the item and about 20 minutes of intense discussion from the dais. Trustee Dani Hernandez proposed postponing the measure by a week because she was “not willing” to proceed without more specific information. That effort, however, failed with a 3-6 vote.
Earlier in the meeting, about a dozen speakers urged the board to delay the vote or to vote no.
“I need more information about the broader safety plan for the district in general. At this time, I don’t believe I have all the information I need,” Hernandez said before the vote. “I don’t think that we have explored all options at this point — safety is essential for HISD.”
HISD Police Chief Pete Lopez told the board last week he was confident in the training the police department had received but he did “not have a lot of confidence in preparing our officers to encounter a suspect without the proper equipment.” The equipment to be purchased would be used to help with scenario-based training to learn how to respond to such a threat.
“My officers are dedicated to our students and to our staff and regardless if we have the equipment or not, we are still going to respond,” Lopez said after the vote. “This act tonight will allow us to respond in a safer manner.”
The police gear will be for specific situations, not items that police will walk around with, House said.
“The bigger issue here is ensuring that they have all the tools possible so that they can be as safe as possible,” House said, “and provide the kind of safety that we want to provide on campuses.”
See here for the background. While in general I tend to think that most police departments have (and spend money on) too much stuff, I don’t have an opinion on this particular purchase. I’ll accept that they need it in the absence of any evidence to the contrary. I will just say again that all the manpower and equipment added up to diddly squat in Uvalde, so what I want – what I would think we would all want – is to know that there’s a plan in place for this kind of horrific scenario, and training in place to back it up. I still haven’t seen any talk about that, and that concerns me. Buying stuff is the easy part. Please reassure all of us that you’re at least working on the hard part, HISD. | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106572 | 2022-08-13T10:35:38Z | offthekuff.com | control | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106572 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
AGAWAM, Mass. (WWLP) – Local law enforcement officers are taking part in the “Tip a Cop” fundraiser at the Kaptain Jimmy’s in Agawam on Saturday.
Police officers from Agawam and West Springfield will be working alongside the servers at Kaptain Jimmy’s located on 916 Suffield Street in Agawam, collecting tips for the Special Olympics and the Law Enforcement Torch Run of Massachusetts.
Local athletes will also be door greeters welcoming patrons to the restaurant. The fundraiser event starts at 5 p.m. and runs through 9 p.m. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/tip-a-cop-fundraising-event-being-held-at-kaptain-jimmys/ | 2022-08-13T10:48:53Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/local-news/tip-a-cop-fundraising-event-being-held-at-kaptain-jimmys/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU-- The one time Sheraton Makaha Valley resort was torn down in 2014.
Since then, ruins remain at the now overgrown resort and golf club. The previous owner, Pacific Links, also acquired the Makaha Valley Country club. Nowadays, both sites are occupied by chickens, cats and the occasional mongoose. But its the future occupants that are the big concern.
"You gotta respect Hawaiians and their land cuz they already taking everything yeah?," a Makaha Valley local named Nikki told KITV.
Locals and elected officials want to know how a big development would bring changes here.
"From Ewa Beach to Makaha, prices are being pushed so high. Our residents gotta live with each other. They ain't gonna be able to afford it. Right now in Ewa Beach its 1.5 million," Senator Kurt Favella told KITV.
A high-end resort, Favella says, could price out homeowners quickly and exacerbate houselessness.
One local who used to bar tend at the old Sheraton told KITV he can see the possibilities, "If the people can use it then it's not too bad. And if local people work there, it's not too bad either. Economically or what not, it would be pretty good," he considered.
With few details of the new ownership's plans, elected official have more questions than answers.
"A lot of us miss the Makaha resort. I had my wedding there. My cousin was the head of housekeeping therefor many years. When they shut down it was really sad to see those jobs go. And to see a beloved resort go. There were so many great events there," Senator Maile Shimabukuro said.
It has been a roller coaster with previous developers, none getting very far with big plans, she added.
Rep. Cedric Gates added, "And I have heard people in the community say that before the old one closed down it was an economic driver for an impoverished community like Makaha. We are also looking for ways for people to create more opportunities for people to work and live and play in Waianae, and not have to jump on H1 and H2, which a majority of our residents have to do right now."
"There's no road, no sidewalks, the roads are falling apart," Favella said.
He says he'd like to see legislators take a stand, and ensure any development comes with a community package.
"High end to us is no locals. So if they gonna be all high end we don't want it. My family is not gonna be able to live here any more. Where we going? There's no Hawaiians, there's no Aloha," he told KITV, "We gotta make sure that we take care of our local people first, that's the bottom line."
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
Jeremy Lee joined KITV after over a decade & a half in broadcast news from coast to coast on the mainland. Jeremy most recently traveled the country documenting protests & civil unrest. | https://www.kitv.com/news/south-korean-company-buys-644-acres-in-makaha-valley/article_16d26e44-1ae2-11ed-b3f5-bf85a693c419.html | 2022-08-13T11:09:32Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/south-korean-company-buys-644-acres-in-makaha-valley/article_16d26e44-1ae2-11ed-b3f5-bf85a693c419.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A yellow weather warning has been issued over Kent. The thunderstorm warning is the latest in a series of weather warnings that have been placed over the county in recent months.
"Torrential downpours" are being forecast with the Met Office issuing the weather warning accordingly. It will come into force at 10am on Monday morning (August 15) and will last until 11:59pm the same day likely bringing rain to particularly parched areas in the county.
The "hit-and-miss" thunderstorms are likely to cause some disruption to everyday lives. Potential for sudden flooding may cause difficulty for those who are driving whilst other everyday activities may be affected.
READ MORE:Sewage warning issued for Folkestone beach as swimmers urged to stay away
There may be damage to homes and businesses as a result of flooding, lightning strikes and strong winds. Flooding and lightning strikes may also result in delays or cancellations to trains and bus services.
Met Office forecasters have also said there is a chance that the storms may result in power cuts and other services to homes and businesses may be lost. People are urged to take care in the event of thunder and lightning.
In their weather warning, the Met Office has said: "Already some showers to start the day, but these likely to become more widespread and heavier through the late morning and afternoon, lasting into the evening in places. Some counties are likely to miss the worst of these storms but where they do occur, slow-moving torrential downpours could produce 20-30 mm inside an hour, with 40-50 mm falling in around 2-3 hours in a few spots. Hail and frequent lightning could pose additional hazards for some."
Get more weather news from KentLive straight to your inbox for free HERE .
Read next:
Kent weather: Drought officially declared for Kent following weeks of dry conditions
Armed police called to Staplehurst after person seen with a weapon
Police name man charged after Ramsgate crash that killed two and injured others
Hosepipe ban: Folkestone fountains switched off as Kent enters 'the first stage of a drought'
Everything you need to know about the hosepipe ban affecting Kent | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/met-office-weather-warning-thunderstorms-7460150 | 2022-08-13T11:24:25Z | kentlive.news | control | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/met-office-weather-warning-thunderstorms-7460150 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Sloane Nguyen of the Kent Gardens Dolphins and Max Thompson of the Shouse Village Sharks were the two double-race winners from local pools at the recent season-ending Northern Virginia Swimming League’s individual all-star meet.
Other standouts were Emma Maher of the Chesterbrook Tiger Sharks, Bennett Steele of the Hamlet Green Feet and Owen Dyson of the Lakevale Estates Dolphins, as each won a race and finished second in another.
Nguyen won the girls 8-under freestyle (15.94) and butterfly (17.42) races, as did Thompson in the boys 11-12 age division (26.74 free and 27.97 fly, in a new league record).
Thompson’s record was the only one set at the meet.
Maher won the girls 8-under backstroke (18.53) and was second in the 8-under free. Steele was first in the boys 11-12 breaststroke (36.26) and second in the 11-12 individual medley. Dyson won the boys 15-18 back (26.71) and was second in the 15-18 free.
A number of top swimmers from local pools did not participate in the NVSL all-star meet because they were competing at the junior national championships on the same day.
Other local single-race winners were Kent Gardens’ Sophie Fredericks with a first in the girls 13-14 fly (29.19) and a third in the 13-14 back; Chesterbrook’s Matthew Rose in the boys 13-14 IM (1:02.06); from the Hunter Mill Sharks, Sydney DeLacy won the girls 13-14 free (28.26) and Regan Hau was first in the girls 15-18 breast (38.85); Hamlet’s Kennedy Masten won the girls 9-10 back (34.72) and was third in the 9-10 fly; the Oakton Otters’ Laura Roth was first in the girls 11-12 breast (37.36); the Tuckahoe Tigers’ Daniel Klett won the boys 8-under breast (22.95) and Grant Nielsen was first in the boys 9-10 fly (15.33) and third in the 9-10 back; and the Langley Wildthings’ Felix Yu won the boys 8-under IM (1:19.66).
Local swimmers who placed second in two races were Alexandra Dicks of Hunter Mill (girls 15-18 free and back) and Hamlet’s Morgan Kass (girls 13-14 free and back) and Erin Kass (girls 11-12 fly and IM).
With one runner-up finish each were Mary Tolar of the Highlands Whomping Turtles (girls 9-10 back), Maxwell Hollis of the Cardinal Hill Cardinals (15-18 boys fly) and Chesterbrook’s McKenzie Cory (girls 11-12 back).
For Tuckahoe, Vittoria Passos-Androvic was third in the girls 8-under free, and back and Emanuel Rouvelas was third in the boys 15-18 fly and back. | https://www.insidenova.com/sports/local-swimmers-place-high-at-nvsl-all-star-meet/article_02674508-1af9-11ed-9048-e3c2c1f7a512.html | 2022-08-13T11:34:57Z | insidenova.com | control | https://www.insidenova.com/sports/local-swimmers-place-high-at-nvsl-all-star-meet/article_02674508-1af9-11ed-9048-e3c2c1f7a512.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
For the Yorktown Patriots, the 2021-22 high-school sports season was historic, being the most accomplished ever for the Arlington school in state-tournament competitions.
As a result of three Yorktown teams winning state championships and two others placing second, the school placed second with 410 points overall in the Virginia High School League’s final Class 6 standings in the competition to finish the highest in the annual National Guard Cup trophy. The award is presented by the Virginia Army National Guard for year-long athletic success.
Battlefield finished first with 505 points. Robinson was a distant third with 295.
A point system determines the winners based on overall performance in VHSL state-championship team events. Points are awarded on the following basis: first place, 50 points; second place, 45; third place, 40; fourth place, 35; fifth place, 30; sixth place, 25; seventh place, 20; and eighth place, 15.
Yorktown teams won three state titles, the first by the undefeated girls field hockey during the fall, then the other two by the girls soccer and girls lacrosse this past spring. The girls lacrosse team defeated Battlefield in the state title match.
The Yorktown boys cross country team during the fall and girls swim and dive squad in the winter each finished second in the state. The boys swim and dive team finished third in the state meet this past winter season, as did the girls outdoor track and field team during the spring.
The girls indoor track and field team placed fifth during the winter and the boys indoor track and field squad was 10th. The boys lacrosse team lost in the state-tournament semifinals this past spring and the golf team placed sixth in the state last fall.
So much success kept coming for the Yorktown teams, especially during the spring, members of the school’s activities office said it became a challenge to keep track of all the goings on and keeping the sports Twitter page accurately updated. | https://www.insidenova.com/sports/yorktown-finishes-second-in-national-guard-cup/article_52efc5b8-1af9-11ed-818f-375b277d5484.html | 2022-08-13T11:35:03Z | insidenova.com | control | https://www.insidenova.com/sports/yorktown-finishes-second-in-national-guard-cup/article_52efc5b8-1af9-11ed-818f-375b277d5484.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
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