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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and Democratic challenger Rochelle Garza are almost tied ahead of this year’s midterms, a poll released Monday shows.
The Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll found Paxton leading Garza 34 to 32 percent among Texas voters, within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.
Paxton and Garza both garnered the bulk of their support from their own party, with 68 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans saying they’d back their party’s nominee in the race.
Slightly more Democrats would support Paxton (9 percent) than Republicans would support Garza (7 percent). Garza had a 5-point lead among independents.
Among those who support Garza, a former American Civil Liberties Union attorney, 13 percent reported what they most like about her is that she’s “not Paxton,” the second most popular reason after her party affiliation. The next-highest cited reason for supporting Garza was “honesty/trust,” at 12 percent, which was cited less often as a reason for supporting Paxton, at 6 percent.
The most-cited reason for supporting Paxton was his Republican affiliation, followed by “Good AG” and “conservative.”
Forty-one percent of Texas voters said they “approved” or “strongly approved” of Paxton’s job performance, while 40 percent said they “disapproved” or “strongly disapproved.”
Paxton has been embroiled in legal trouble in recent months.
He was sued by the Texas State Bar earlier this year for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. A district attorney in the state also said Paxton violated Texas open records law by not releasing certain communications related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Paxton and his wife reportedly attended a rally in support of former President Trump on Jan. 6.
Paxton was also indicted for securities fraud shortly after taking office, and investigated by the FBI over whether he abused his office to help a campaign donor. He’s denied the accusations.
Respondents were evenly split on whether they agreed or disagreed that, “in light of recent headline news” about Paxton, “he has the integrity to serve as attorney general,” at 34 percent each. Thirty-two percent of respondents reported being unsure.
Conducted Aug. 1 to Aug. 7, the poll surveyed 1,384 registered voters, of which 33 percent reported being Democrats and 40 percent reported being Republicans. Twenty-seven percent said they were affiliated with neither party. | https://www.wpri.com/hill-politics/texas-attorney-general-locked-in-close-race-with-democratic-challenger-poll/ | 2022-08-15T19:15:38Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/hill-politics/texas-attorney-general-locked-in-close-race-with-democratic-challenger-poll/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors in Atlanta on Monday told lawyers for Rudy Giuliani that he’s a target of their criminal investigation into possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia, one of Giuliani’s lawyers said Monday.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade alerted Giuliani’s local attorney in Atlanta that the former New York City mayor could face criminal charges, another Giuliani attorney, Bob Costello said. News of the disclosure was first reported by The New York Times.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation last year, and a special grand jury was seated in May at her request. County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, has instructed Giuliani to appear before the panel to testify on Wednesday.
Willis’s investigation was spurred by a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that January 2021 conversation, Trump suggested that Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
It has also become clear that the district attorney is interested in Georgia legislative committee hearings that were held in December 2020 where Giuliani appeared and spread false claims of election fraud in Atlanta’s Fulton County.
Willis last month filed petitions seeking to compel testimony from seven Trump associates and advisers. Because they don’t live in Georgia, she had to use a process that involves asking a judge in the states where they live to order them to appear.
In a petition seeking Giuliani’s testimony, Willis identified him as both a personal attorney for Trump and a lead attorney for his campaign. She wrote that he and others appeared at a state Senate committee meeting and presented a video that Giuliani said showed election workers producing “suitcases” of unlawful ballots from unknown sources, outside the view of election poll watchers.
Within 24 hours of that Dec. 3, 2020, hearing, Raffensperger’s office had debunked the video. But Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread voter fraud using the debunked video, Willis wrote.
Evidence shows that Giuliani’s hearing appearance and testimony “was part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition says.
Also Monday, a federal judge said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow 2020 general election loss in the state.
Attorneys for Graham, R-S.C., had argued that his position as a U.S. senator provided him immunity from having to appear before the investigative panel and asked the judge to quash his subpoena. But U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May wrote in an order Monday that immunities related to his role as a senator do not protect him from having to testify. Graham’s subpoena instructs him to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 23, but his office said Monday he plans to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prosecutors have indicated they want to ask Graham about phone calls they say he made to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks following Trump’s election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Graham had argued that a provision of the Constitution provides absolute protection against a senator being questioned about legislative acts. But the judge found there are “considerable areas of potential grand jury inquiry” that fall outside that provision’s scope. The judge also rejected Graham’s argument that the principle of “sovereign immunity” protects a senator from being summoned by a state prosecutor.
Graham also argued that Willis, a Democrat, had not demonstrated extraordinary circumstances necessary to compel testimony from a high-ranking official. But the judge disagreed, finding that Willis had shown “extraordinary circumstances and a special need” for Graham’s testimony on issues related to an alleged attempt to influence or disrupt the election in Georgia.
May, the judge, last month rejected a similar attempt by U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., to avoid testifying before the special grand jury. Former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had argued he couldn’t travel to Atlanta to testify because of health issues, but Fulton County Judge McBurney instructed him to appear on Wednesday.
Graham’s office said in a statement Monday that the senator disagrees with the judge’s interpretation of the provision of the Constitution he believes protects him from being questioned by a state official. His lawyers have said that he was making inquiries that were clearly part of his legislative duties, related to certification of the vote and to the proposal of election-related legislation.
But the judge wrote that that ignores “the fact that individuals on the calls have publicly suggested that Senator Graham was not simply engaged in legislative factfinding but was instead suggesting or implying that Georgia election officials change their processes or otherwise potentially alter the state’s results.”
In calls made shortly after the 2020 general election, Graham “questioned Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition.
Graham also “made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign,” she wrote.
Republican and Democratic state election officials across the country, courts and even Trump’s attorney general found there was no evidence of any voter fraud sufficient to affect the outcome of his 2020 presidential election loss.
Trump-allied lawmakers were planning to challenge the tallies from several battleground states when Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the results under the Electoral Count Act, but after the Capitol attack that day Georgia’s tally was never contested.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has described his call to Raffensperger as “perfect.”
___
Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Columbia, S.C., and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed reporting. | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/judge-sen-graham-must-testify-in-georgia-election-probe/ | 2022-08-15T19:16:14Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/judge-sen-graham-must-testify-in-georgia-election-probe/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing told a judge Monday that they have rejected plea deals that would have resulted in three-year sentences, setting the stage for trial in October.
Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. They and Thomas Lane were working with Derek Chauvin when he pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old Black man said he couldn’t breathe and eventually grew still.
The killing, captured on bystander video, sparked protests worldwide and a reckoning on racial injustice. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of second-degree murder last year and sentenced to 22 1/2 years on the state charge.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill had set a limited window for accepting a plea deal ahead of trial, and Monday’s brief hearing served to formalize the two ex-officers’ rejections of the state’s offers.
“It would be lying for me to accept any plea offer,” said Thou, who held back concerned bystanders as Chauvin pinned Floyd. Kueng did not give his reasons for rejecting the state’s offer.
Thao, Kueng and Lane were convicted in federal court in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Lane, who is white, held Floyd’s legs and twice asked if he should be turned on his side, and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years. Thao, who is Hmong American, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years. Kueng, who is Black, pinned Floyd’s back, and was sentenced to 3 years. Thao and Kueng are appealing their federal convictions.
In rejecting the plea agreements, Thao and Keung are risking state sentences that could be significantly longer than their federal sentences if they’re convicted on both counts. Assistant Attorney General Matt Frank pointed out in the hearing that the state’s sentencing guidelines recommend sentences of 12 1/2 years on the murder count and 4 years on the manslaughter count, but that prosecutors have already said they’ll seek longer sentences if they get convictions.
In Minnesota, assuming good behavior, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole.
Frank said plea negotiations began in earnest in May and continued into June. The offers would have dropped the most serious charge of aiding and abetting murder, and the officers’ state time would have run concurrently with the federal sentences. Both defendants confirmed that they understood that the state has now withdrawn its offers.
“It’s a standard best practice to make a record in court when the State offers a plea agreement, in order to ensure the defendant’s decision is freely and knowingly made,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement afterward. “The defendants have a right to decline the offer and proceed to trial. The State is ready for trial.”
During the hearing, Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, said that Ellison at one, unspecified point in the negotiations, offered Kueng a deal that would have resulted in 2 years in prison. Kueng confirmed that Plunkett had told him about the offer, and that they rejected it. Frank did not comment about the purported offer.
Thao’s attorney, Robert Paule, said that they, at an unspecified point, proposed a deal for 2 years, but that the state rejected it. Frank said that wasn’t how he recalled the discussions, and that his recollection was that Thao’s offer had included dropping the charges. Neither side elaborated on the discrepancies.
The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 24, with opening statements Nov. 7.
Lane avoided a state trial by pleading guilty in May to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in a deal that calls for a three-year sentence. His sentencing is Sept. 21.
Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years on the federal civil rights charge. He remains in the state’s maximum security prison at Oak Park Heights pending his transfer to federal prison. The other three remain free on bail.
___
Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed to this story.
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the killing of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/thao-kueng-say-they-rejected-plea-deal-in-floyd-killing/ | 2022-08-15T19:16:34Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/thao-kueng-say-they-rejected-plea-deal-in-floyd-killing/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A BRITISH ARMY BASE, England (AP) — A few weeks ago, Serhiy was a business analyst at an IT company. Zakhar was a civil engineer. Now they are soldiers, training to liberate Ukraine from Russia’s invasion — but doing it more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) away in Britain.
They are among several hundred Ukrainian recruits pounding through an intense form of infantry training at an army base in southeast England. One batch of the 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers that the British military has pledged to train within 120 days, they are spending several weeks learning skills including marksmanship, battlefield first aid and –- crucially for their country’s future — urban warfare.
As the Ukrainians practice house-clearing amid the rattle of gunfire and pall from smoke grenades on a mock-townscape where British soldiers once trained for operations in Northern Ireland, they think about driving Russian troops from the streets of their own cities..
“The most important part is urban training, because it’s the most dangerous combat, in cities,” said Serhiy, who like the other Ukrainians did not want his full named used because of security concerns. “The British instructors have a lot of experience, from Iraq, Afghanistan. We can adapt all this knowledge to the Ukrainian situation and use it to liberate our country from Russian invasion.”
British trainers are putting the Ukrainian troops through a condensed version of the British Army’s infantry training, covering weapons handling, first aid, patrol tactics and the law of conflict. The aim is to turn raw recruits into battle-ready soldiers in a matter of weeks. The first batch arrived last month and have already been sent back to replenish depleted Ukrainian units.
“We are running a basic infantry course, which takes Ukrainian recruits and teaches them to shoot well, to move and communicate well within any tactical environment, and to medicate well,” said Maj. Craig Hutton, a Scots Guards officer helping to oversee the training.
Hutton says many of the Ukrainian troops have little military experience but “they are so motivated. They have a fantastic will to learn, and they just want to practice, practice and practice more.”
More than 1,000 U.K. personnel are involved in the training mission, taking place at four bases around the U.K. Other countries are also sending trainers, including Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Nordic nations.
Britain is sending the Ukrainians home with new uniforms, body armor, helmets and other gear, part of 2.3 billion pounds’ ($2.8 billion) worth of U.K. military aid to the country that also includes anti-tank missiles and sophisticated rocket-launch systems.
Zakhar, the former engineer, said it was hard to be away from Ukraine as fighting rages in the eastern Donbas region and in the south.
“I left my parents. I left my brothers and sisters, my relatives, to gain knowledge and experience that will help me … free our territory from occupiers and invaders,” he said through an interpreter.
Serhiy, the onetime IT worker, has been in uniform for less than a month and is equally determined.
“I know that Ukrainian soldiers are dying to protect our homes right now. So it’s hard to know that I am not with them,” he said. “But the Ukrainian army needs only professional soldiers, so I am ready to train as hard as possible to be ready for the battle ahead.”
Brigadier Justin Stenhouse, who is in charge of the training as commander of the 11th Security Assistance Brigade, said seeing the motivation of the Ukrainians is “humbling.”
But he acknowledged that preparing for the chaos of urban combat is “almost impossible to do in training.” The goal of the mission, he said, is to “train them so they can adapt to survive in those early weeks of combat.”
“They will learn more in the first weeks of combat than we can possibly give them here,” he said.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/urban-combat-and-beyond-ukrainian-recruits-get-uk-training/ | 2022-08-15T19:16:41Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/urban-combat-and-beyond-ukrainian-recruits-get-uk-training/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Casino and resort giant Las Vegas Sands (LVS) appears to be in a pickle, being completely levered to its operations in Macau, a special administrative region of China. Unfortunately for the company, Macau is following China’s leadership when it comes to draconian COVID-19 mandates, thus devastating sales. While the situation doesn’t look pleasant now, patient investors may be rewarded for their commitment. I am neutral on LVS stock.
In March of 2021, Las Vegas Sands generated headlines when it announced that it would sell its geographical namesake properties for $6.25 billion. Vici Properties (VICI) paid $4 billion to buy out the real estate, while Apollo Global Management (APO) bought the operations for $2.25 billion.
Essentially, the sale represented a shot across the bow, with Las Vegas Sands doubling down on its investments in Asia. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the company’s eastern properties accounted for approximately 90% of its revenue.
At the moment, though, management may be regretting the decision. While Macau has an unorthodox relationship with Beijing, the gambling mecca of Asia has generally marched in lockstep with the mainland’s strict COVID-19 policies. Disappointing legions of gamblers, Macau-based casino sales tumbled, dropping from one low to another.
Curiously, though, LVS stock has held up relatively well. Shares are up about 3% on a year-to-date basis, and performing considerably better than Wynn Resorts (WYNN), which is down almost 20% during the same period. As well, MGM Resorts (MGM) is posting similar levels of underperformance to WYNN, shedding 21% YTD.
While the broader casino industry is fraught with risk, LVS stock is likely well-positioned for the long run.
Las Vegas Sands Stock Analysis
On TipRanks, LVS has a 7 out of 10 Smart Score rating. This indicates strong potential for the stock to outperform the broader market.
LVS Stock and the Culture Effect
In the movie Casino, Academy Award winner Robert De Niro played sports handicapper and Mafia associate Sam “Ace” Rothstein. Near the very end of the film, Rothstein provided a voiceover, bemoaning that Las Vegas would “never be the same.” A cultural shift occurred, forever changing the landscape of Sin City.
While Vegas will likely always be considered a gambling haven – along with providing a safe space for other vices – Rothstein complained that the big corporations essentially took over. Now, instead of big wigs coming over to play games of chance, the desert town is filled with pensioners and families with young children.
Put another way, Americans enjoy the experience of the casinos rather than the casinos themselves.
As I mentioned in my write-up for WYNN stock, in the first quarter of 2019, Wynn’s “casino revenue accounted for only about 28% of total revenue at Sin City. Further, in Q1 2022, this allocation was little changed at a bit over 28%. Indeed, for the latest quarter, Food and Beverage, along with Rooms, were the top revenue generators, confirming the De Niro character’s point.”
What makes this dynamic problematic for Wynn’s Vegas properties is that while casino-related sales can generate possibly tens of thousands of dollars per every hour, the other operating components represent one-off expenditures. “For instance, a lobster can only be eaten once, while a room can only be rented to a single guest or group at a time.”
On the flipside, in Wynn’s Macau properties, the casino-related operations are king, representing the bulk of total revenue. Basically, it comes down to a cultural difference between the gamblers. People go to Macau to wager on games of chance, not necessarily to be entertained.
Las Vegas Sands is All about the Gamblers
From a long-term time horizon, LVS stock is tied to the better-positioned business model. Back in Q2 2019, Las Vegas Sands’ casino-related sales from Macau properties combined for $1.7 billion, representing over 79% of total net revenue in its Asia segment. Fast forward to Q2 2022, casino sales at the Macau properties rang up $709 million. Although lower, the main takeaway is that casinos in Macau still represent the lion’s share of total net revenue (in this case, nearly 68%).
Admittedly, Las Vegas Sands’ decision to sell its Vegas properties doesn’t seem like a smart move today. Undoubtedly, the underlying business of LVS stock is hurting. With Beijing running a tight ship in the COVID-19 department, any further flareups from the SARS-CoV-2 virus could result in yet more problems for Las Vegas Sands. Still, when it comes to gambling, the future is in Asia.
Another factor to consider is that if the pent-up demand phenomenon that bolstered the retail and travel sectors in the U.S. plays out in China (and Asia more broadly), LVS stock could be a massive winner. It’s speculation, of course, but denial of opportunities only makes the hunger grow stronger.
Is LVS Stock a Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, LVS stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on eight Buys and one Sell assigned in the past three months. The average LVS price target is $47.78, implying 23.3% upside potential.
LVS Stock is an Investment for the ‘Visionary’
While LVS stock seems stuck in a rut because of its exclusive exposure to the Asian gambling market, once the COVID-19 crisis is fully placed in the rearview mirror, shares could eventually blossom. It does require significant patience and a commitment to the vision, so only hardened speculators should apply. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/las-vegas-sands-lvs-stock-made-mistake-losing-namesake-for-now | 2022-08-15T19:16:48Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/las-vegas-sands-lvs-stock-made-mistake-losing-namesake-for-now | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elections in Wyoming and Alaska on Tuesday could relaunch the political career of a former Republican star and effectively end the career of another — at least for now.
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney is the vice chair of a U.S. House committee seeking to expose the truth behind former President Donald Trump’s relentless efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Cheney’s determination to prevent Trump from ever again serving in the White House has left her fighting to hold on to the House seat she has held for three terms. Trump has made Cheney’s ouster a top priority, endorsing a challenger and traveling to Wyoming to try to seal the deal.
In Alaska, Sarah Palin jumped on a vacancy in the state’s congressional delegation as a potential springboard back into elected office. A victory in Tuesday’s special election to fill the remaining months of the late U.S. Rep. Don Young’s term could send her to Washington as soon as next month.
Palin, a former Alaska governor and the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, has been out of elected office for more than a decade but is betting her insurgent brand of conservativism can make her a hit again in the age of Trumpism.
What to watch:
WYOMING
Cheney’s work as vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee has won her bipartisan praise from those who see Trump as a threat to American democracy. But it has severely threatened her chances of prevailing in the Republican primary in deeply red Wyoming, where Trump notched one of his most lopsided 2020 victories, capturing 70% of the vote compared to Joe Biden’s 27%.
Set to deny Cheney a fourth term as Wyoming’s lone member of the House is Harriet Hageman, a Cheyenne ranching industry attorney who was little known outside the state before winning Trump’s endorsement last year.
Hageman finished in the middle of a five-way, 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary. She’s campaigned aggressively for Cheney’s House seat, appearing at county fairs, parades and rodeos. Making his first public political appearance in Wyoming, Trump drew a crowd of at least 10,000 to a Casper rally supporting Hageman in May.
A defeat for Cheney would cap a swift, once unthinkable political collapse in a state where her name recognition is nearly universal and her family’s political roots run deep. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, held the state’s House seat for 10 years until 1989.
Still, the primary comes after Republicans booted Cheney as the party’s No. 3 House leader and the Wyoming GOP censured her. Security threats have mostly prevented the congresswoman from attending public events and rallies as she campaigns.
Cheney has instead opted for private gatherings and endorsements from well-known, traditional Republicans like Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson. She also released an ad in which her father declares: “In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
Cheney’s best hope is that enough Wyoming Democrats will switch parties to vote for her instead of their own party’s three candidates — none of whom stands a chance in November’s general election. Even Cheney’s close allies say she might be putting principle above success in this race.
That has fueled speculation that Cheney is hoping for something bigger, and she’s refused to rule out a 2024 presidential run.
ALASKA
Palin is on the ballot twice in Alaska: once in a special election to complete Young’s term and another for a full two-year House term starting in January.
Voters approved an elections overhaul in 2020 ending party primaries and instituting ranked voting in general elections. Endorsed by Trump, Palin finished first among 48 candidates to qualify for a special election. They were seeking to replace Young, who died in March at age 88, after 49 years as Alaska’s lone House member.
Palin is now trying to secure the win against the No. 2 and 4 finishers, Republican Nick Begich and Democrat Mary Peltola. The third-place vote-getter pulled out of the race after the special primary.
In a recent address to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Palin decried the new voting system, saying, “It is bizarre, it’s convoluted, it’s complicated. And it results in voter suppression.”
Tuesday’s ballot also features a House primary race and one for the U.S. Senate in which Trump’s influence may not prove decisive. Alaskans pick one candidate in each race, with the top four vote-getters advancing to the general election, regardless of party affiliation.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski is seeking reelection to a seat she has held for nearly 20 years. She faces 18 opponents — the most prominent of which is Republican Kelly Tshibaka, who has been endorsed by Trump.
Murkowski, the state’s senior senator, is a Trump critic who voted to convict him at his impeachment trial following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The former president has railed against Murkowski, including at a rally with Tshibaka and Palin last month in Anchorage.
The House primary, meanwhile, has 22 candidates, including Palin, Begich and Peltola.
Begich has tried to cast Palin as a quitter because she resigned as governor partway through her term in 2009. Palin has referred to Begich, nephew of former Democratic Alaska Sen. Mark Begich and grandson of former Democratic Rep. Nick Begich, as her “fellow ‘Republican’” in the race. Begich counters that he’s always been a Republican, despite coming from a family of prominent Democrats.
___
Associated Press writers Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics. | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/what-to-watch-cheney-in-trouble-while-palin-eyes-comeback/ | 2022-08-15T19:16:48Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/what-to-watch-cheney-in-trouble-while-palin-eyes-comeback/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
There’s a new wrinkle today in the drama triangle between ironSource (IS), Unity Software (U), and AppLovin (APP). Reportedly, Unity turned down a high-dollar buyout bid from AppLovin. This might be disappointing for AppLovin’s shareholders, but Wall Street is evidently bullish today on ironSource in the wake of the AppLovin bid rejection. I am neutral on all three of these stocks.
As you might expect from the foregoing developments, AppLovin stock declined today while ironSource stock moved higher. IS stock is currently up 14%.
Unity Software provides a 3D content platform that’s often used to design video games and virtual reality experiences. Meanwhile, AppLovin’s business is to help mobile app developers market and monetize their apps. Israel-based ironSource has a similar business to AppLovin, as ironSource also offers a platform to help developers commercialize their apps.
All of this might sound like a soap opera, but it’s business as usual in the financial markets. At least for today, traders have chosen the winners and the losers among these three tech-focused names – and perhaps, there might be prime investment opportunities amid the ongoing drama.
AppLovin’s Unity Software Bid Makes the Headlines
Even highly successful businesses will inevitably face rejection from time to time. A case in point would be AppLovin. This company is an absolute monster in the mobile app industry. Just recently, AppLovin revealed that its second-quarter 2022 revenue grew 16% year-over-year to $776 million, driven to a large extent by a whopping 118% increase in Software Platform revenue.
So, AppLovin is doing fine financially and seems to envision rapid growth. AppLovin is currently “expanding the reach and use case of our Software Platform” and claims to own “the total mobile marketing experience.”
Yet, AppLovin’s business isn’t completely end-to-end in the app development life cycle. Surely, AppLovin would be glad to avail itself of Unity Software’s robust and popular 3D content platform. A business combination between AppLovin and Unity would create a redoubtable force in the broader mobile app market.
Thus, AppLovin took a big risk but undoubtedly envisioned high potential rewards when the company submitted a compelling, non-binding proposal to combine with Unity Software. This bid, while unsolicited, was a real headline grabber, as it would have had an estimated enterprise value of $20 billion.
The monetization potential could have been enormous. According to AppLovin’s estimates, the combined business could have targeted run-rate revenue exceeding $7 billion and run-rate adjusted EBITDA of more than $3 billion by the end of 2024. Furthermore, AppLovin envisioned synergies of over $700 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2025 (estimated), with a minimum of $500 million in 2024.
Consider what a game changer it would have been if Unity’s board of directors had approved the proposed merger with AppLovin. Unity Software’s shareholders would still probably have had to approve the business combination as well, but chances are, they would have voted “yes.”
Unity Software Announces Its Rejection of AppLovin’s Buyout Proposal
Just imagine the shock and the disappointment for AppLovin’s investors if the company’s buyout bid for Unity Software didn’t even get to the shareholder approval stage. This is what actually just happened, though, and it’s having an immediate impact on the share prices of all three businesses mentioned here.
In a fresh press release that just came out this morning, Unity Software disclosed that its board of directors “completed a thorough financial and strategic evaluation of the unsolicited proposal from AppLovin.” Notice that Unity took the time to mention that the takeover bid was unsolicited. You can probably almost feel the rejection coming by this point.
Thus, Unity Software’s board determined that AppLovin’s proposal wouldn’t be “in the best interests of Unity shareholders and would not reasonably be expected to result in a Superior Proposal.” Superior to what? The answer is: Unity’s management is clearly convinced that AppLovin’s takeover bid isn’t superior to what ironSource would bring to the table in a potential business combination.
In a move that might stun some onlookers, Unity’s board recommended against AppLovin’s proposal while reaffirming its recommendation to Unity Software’s shareholders to vote in favor of a previously announced potential deal with ironSource. Unity Software President and CEO John Riccitiello made no bones about his company’s intentions, declaring that Unity’s board “continues to believe that the ironSource transaction is compelling.”
While AppLovin envisioned monumental monetization possibilities for a deal with Unity Software, Unity came up with its own estimates for a would-be business combination with ironSource. In particular, Unity Software expects that a combined business with ironSource would generate a run rate of $1 billion in adjusted EBITDA by the end of 2024, along with $300 million in annual EBITDA synergies by year three.
How does ironSource’s management feel about all of this, though? It appears that for now, at least, the positive feelings are mutual between Unity Software and ironSource. It almost seemed as if ironSource reveled in the AppLovin rejection, with ironSource asserting, “Unity’s rejection of AppLovin’s unilateral bid confirms the superior strategic value of the merger with ironSource.”
Actually, ironSource even disclosed a possible timeline for a deal with Unity. ironSource, according to a press release, “remains committed to completing this strategically and financially compelling combination in the fourth quarter of this year.” So, keep your eyes peeled for further developments in this ongoing story.
Is ironSource Stock a Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, ironSource stock is a Moderate Buy based on five Buys and five Hold ratings. The average ironSource price target is $4.67, implying 2% upside potential.
Conclusion: Should You Consider ironSource Stock?
We can’t say that an agreement between Unity Software and ironSource is guaranteed to happen. Yet, the signs are definitely there, as both businesses have expressed interest while AppLovin is apparently out of the picture. Therefore, traders might consider taking a position in ironSource stock if they’re bullish on the prospect of a merger with Unity and on the fiscal synergy that could result if this business combination takes place. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/ironsource-stock-up-14-after-applovin-news-heres-why | 2022-08-15T19:17:01Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/ironsource-stock-up-14-after-applovin-news-heres-why | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal authorities on Monday arrested seven people including a union leader and various dock workers accused in a $1.2 million extortion scheme that targeted shipping companies.
U.S. Attorney Stephen Muldrow said the scheme began in 2005 and affected local and foreign commerce, including shipping between Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
He said suspects at three docks in the capital of San Juan are accused of illegally extorting small shipping companies and threatened to stop loading and unloading goods if a monthly fee wasn’t paid. The fee demanded varied by weight and sometimes ranged from $10,000 to $20,000 a month, Muldrow said.
The indictment states that the shipping companies were charged a monthly fee in exchange for supposedly being allowed to use longshore workers who were not unionized. However, there were no labor unions representing employees of shipping companies operating at the piers where the alleged extortions occurred, officials said.
The suspects face charges including conspiracy to violate the RICO Act, commit extortion and money laundering.
“Breaking the law cannot be the way to do business in Puerto Rico,” said Joseph González, FBI special agent in charge of the San Juan office.
Local and federal authorities were part of the five-year investigation, with some wearing shirts at a press conference that read “Pier Pressure” in reference to the operation. | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/7-accused-in-1-2m-extortion-scheme-at-puerto-rico-docks/ | 2022-08-15T19:17:17Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/7-accused-in-1-2m-extortion-scheme-at-puerto-rico-docks/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Bryce Dallas Howard Discusses Pay Disparities in the Jurassic World Films
The gender pay gap continues to be an issue in virtually every career field, including the entertainment industry. And while actors and filmmakers make significantly more money than the average person, it really doesn’t make sense for women to earn less than their male co-stars, especially when their characters have an equal amount of screen time. Such was the case with Bryce Dallas Howard on Universal’s Jurassic World trilogy. But in a new interview with Insider, Howard discussed how Chris Pratt helped her negotiate a better salary.
Reports about the disparity between Howard and Pratt’s Jurassic paydays initially surfaced in 2018. Around the time that Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom premiered, Howard was said to be making $8 million on the sequel, $2 million less than Pratt’s $10 million. But according to Howard herself, those figures were far from accurate.
“The reports were so interesting because I was paid so much less than the reports even said, so much less,” revealed Howard. “When I started negotiating for Jurassic, it was 2014, and it was a different world, and I was at a great disadvantage. And, unfortunately, you have to sign up for three movies, and so your deals are set.”
RELATED: Jeff Goldblum Takes His Family To Jurassic World Dominion’s Creature Workshop
Pratt and Howard’s deals on the films themselves may have been fixed. However, this is to say nothing of promotional tie-ins like theme park attractions and video games. And this is where Pratt went to bat for his co-star.
“What I will say is that Chris and I have discussed it,” continued Howard. “And whenever there was an opportunity to move the needle on stuff that hadn’t been already negotiated, like a game or a ride, he literally told me: ‘You guys don’t even have to do anything. I’m gonna do all the negotiating. We’re gonna be paid the same, and you don’t have to think about this, Bryce.’ And I love him so much for doing that. I really do, because I’ve been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie.”
Howard and Pratt’s latest film, Jurassic World Dominion, hits 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD tomorrow, August 16.
Are you happy to hear that Pratt was able to help Howard make more money from the franchise? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Jurassic Park: The Original Novel
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This affiliate advertising program also provides a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Also. However. Regardless. Additionally. Also. However. Regardless. Additionally. | https://www.superherohype.com/movies/517870-bryce-dallas-howard-discusses-pay-disparities-in-the-jurassic-world-films | 2022-08-15T19:17:28Z | superherohype.com | control | https://www.superherohype.com/movies/517870-bryce-dallas-howard-discusses-pay-disparities-in-the-jurassic-world-films | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are less concerned now about how climate change might impact them personally — and about how their personal choices affect the climate — than they were three years ago, a new poll shows, even as a wide majority still believe climate change is happening.
The June Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, which was conducted before Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday, shows majorities of U.S. adults think the government and corporations have a significant responsibility to address climate change. The new law will invest nearly $375 billion in climate strategies over the next decade.
Overall, 35% of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of climate change on them personally, down from 44% in August 2019. Another third say they are somewhat concerned. Only about half say their actions have an effect on climate change, compared with two-thirds in 2019.
Black and Hispanic Americans, women and Democrats are especially likely to be strongly concerned about the impact of climate change on them personally and about how their personal choices affect the climate.
Many climate scientists told The Associated Press that the shifts are concerning but not surprising given that individuals are feeling overwhelmed by a range of issues, now including an economy plagued by inflation after more than two years of a pandemic. In addition to being outpaced by other issues, climate change or the environment are mentioned as priorities by fewer Americans now than just a few years ago, according to the poll.
Diane Panicucci in West Warwick, Rhode Island, believes climate change is happening and that it needs to be addressed. But for her, it’s a lower priority compared with other issues, including inflation and food and drug costs.
“There’s so much unrest in this country right now,” the 62-year-old said. “People are suffering.”
Panicucci added solar panels to her house, and she’s cut back on driving. She thinks individuals should do what they’re told will help, but “it doesn’t start with little ol’ me. It has to be larger scale,” she said.
While the climate crisis will require an “all of the above approach,” it’s “reasonable” that individuals don’t feel they have the bandwidth to tackle climate action “on top of everything else,” said Kim Cobb, director of the Institute at Brown University for Environment and Society.
Roughly two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. federal government, developed countries abroad and corporations and industries have a large responsibility to address climate change. Fewer — 45% — say that of individual people.
Jack Hermanson, a 23-year-old software engineer, feels strongly that corporations are the “major culprits” of emissions and that the government is complicit in that behavior.
“I don’t know if that makes sense to say that individuals should have to work and fix the climate,” the Denver resident said. “I would say my individual actions hardly mean anything at all.”
U.S. household greenhouse gas emissions are not as much as those from cars, trucks and other transportation, electrical power generating and industry. A 2020 University of Michigan study of 93 million U.S. homes estimates that 20% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions comes from home energy use, with wealthier Americans’ per capita footprints about 25% higher than low-income residents.
But like many others that spoke to the AP, that difference hasn’t stopped Hermanson from trying. He’s been a vegetarian for four years, and he tries to bike or take public transportation, buy products with less packaging and recycle.
Among Americans who believe in climate change, 70% say it will be necessary for individuals to make major lifestyle changes to combat the issue. Most think individuals have at least some responsibility.
Individuals can believe they personally don’t have a direct impact while also recognizing that collective action is essential to combatting climate change, said Shahzeen Attari, who studies human behavior and climate change at Indiana University.
The poll shows about 6 in 10 Americans say they have reduced their driving, reduced their use of heat or air conditioning and bought used products instead of new ones. Nearly three-quarters are using energy efficient appliances. Among those who are taking those steps, most say the main reason is to save money, rather than to help the environment.
Fewer — roughly a quarter — say they use an electricity supplier that gets power from renewable sources, and only about 1 in 10 live in a home with solar panels or drive a hybrid or electric car.
Brad Machincia, a 38-year-old welder, said he wouldn’t switch from his gas car to an electric vehicle. While he said he grew up in a West Virginia household that used renewable energy sources, he hasn’t adopted those practices for his family in Christiansburg, Virginia. Climate change used to be a concern for him, but at this point, he feels like it’s “beating a dead horse.”
“There’s nothing we can do to fix it,” he said.
Individuals should feel empowered to make climate-driven decisions that not only help reduce emissions but also improve their lives, said Jonathan Foley, executive director at climate nonprofit Project Drawdown. Foley thinks the findings show that efforts to engage Americans need to shift away from doomsday scenarios, include diverse messengers and focus on the ways climate solutions can intersect with Americans’ other priorities.
Julio Carmona, a 37-year-old financial clerk, said he recently transitioned his home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to solar energy because the switch will help reduce his carbon footprint and his expenses, even if modestly.
“I thought that it was just something smart for us to do long term,” he said. “I just kind of wanted to do my part, whether or not it’s gonna make a difference.”
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AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.
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The poll of 1,053 adults was conducted June 23-27 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/ap-norc-poll-many-in-us-doubt-their-own-impact-on-climate/ | 2022-08-15T19:17:30Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/ap-norc-poll-many-in-us-doubt-their-own-impact-on-climate/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK (AP) — A once-prominent neurologist convicted last month of sexually abusing patients killed himself Monday at a New York City jail, two people familiar with the matter said.
Dr. Ricardo Cruciani, 68, was found unresponsive in a shower area at the Eric M. Taylor Center, a jail at the notorious Rikers Island complex, the people said. They were not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.
Cruciani’s lawyer, Frederick Sosinsky, confirmed in a statement that his client had died, but not the manner of death.
“Ricardo’s attorneys and family are shocked and saddened beyond belief to have learned of his violent death while in city custody this morning,” he said.
Sosinsky called for “an immediate and objective investigation” into the circumstances of Cruciani’s death, including whether jail officials complied with a court order, at the time of his conviction, to place him in protective custody and under suicide watch.
“Neither of these conditions were, to our knowledge, ever complied with,” Sosinsky said. “Had they been, we would not be having this terrible discussion.”
Cruciani died while awaiting sentencing next month in a New York state case in which he was convicted of 12 counts, including predatory sexual assault, rape and sex abuse, and acquitted on two other counts. He faced up to life in prison.
He was also scheduled to go on trial next January on federal charges accusing him of abusing multiple patients over 15 years at his offices in New York City, Philadelphia and Hopewell, New Jersey.
Prosecutors said Cruciani groomed vulnerable patients by overprescribing pain killers, sometimes to treat serious injuries from car wrecks and other accidents.
Six women testified the sexual abuse often occurred behind closed doors during appointments in 2013 at a Manhattan medical center, where the doctor would expose himself and demand sex.
“I take comfort knowing he now faces another judge,” said Terrie Phoenix, one of six women who testified against Cruciani at trial.
The AP does not typically identify people who say they are survivors of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Phoenix has done.
Cruciani denied abusing women. In court, his lawyer questioned the credibility of his accusers.
The fire department said it responded to a call of an inmate unconscious at the jail around 5:50 a.m. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate the inmate but were unable, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, the fire department said.
The city’s Department of Correction, which runs Rikers Island, confirmed that an inmate at the Eric M. Taylor Center died Monday, but did not release his name, citing pending family notification. The cause of death is under investigation, the Department of Correction said.
Jails commissioner Louis Molina said in a statement that he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the inmate’s death, and promised “a preliminary internal review to determine the circumstances surrounding his death.”
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his loved ones,” Molina said.
Cruciani is at least the 11th person to die in a city jail this year. Last year, 16 people died in city jails — the most since 2013.
The Daily News was first to report Cruciani’s death.
Messages seeking comment were left with lawyers for women who say they were abused by him. A message was also left with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case that ended in his July 29 conviction.
Cruciani was out on bail during the trial but was sent to Rikers Island after the verdict.
The complex, troubled by years of neglect, has spiraled into turmoil since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, with a spike in inmate deaths, violence, self-harm and staff absences. The city has said it will close Rikers Island by 2027, replacing it with four smaller jails located elsewhere.
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Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania. __
On Twitter, follow Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and Michael Rubinkam at twitter.com/michaelrubinkam | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/doctor-who-sexually-abused-patients-kills-himself-in-jail/ | 2022-08-15T19:17:38Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/doctor-who-sexually-abused-patients-kills-himself-in-jail/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WHITE OAK, Md. – It started with a piece here, a small part there.
But since its inception in the facility, additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, has evolved and blossomed at Arnold Engineering Development Complex Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel 9 in White Oak, Maryland. From plastic rigs to elements vital to tunnel operations, a multitude of components can now be fabricated in-house.
“The success of AM at Tunnel 9 is exciting to say the least,” said Tunnel 9 system and nitrogen supply engineer Samuel Gigioli. “The plastic prototyping is a growing interest here, as more and more people are coming to me with an interest or a need for 3D printing parts. We can spit out parts in a matter of hours rather than weeks. Whether it is a test fit piece or a prototype part, the process greater speeds up our operations and can greatly impact Tunnel 9’s mission success.”
And this may be just the beginning.
Around seven years ago, Tunnel 9 acquired its first 3D printer – a small filament-based device that could be used to quickly churn out some uncomplicated plastic parts. However, this “hobby” printer would soon find its way to storage as the prints coming from it were unsuccessful.
In 2019, during his first summer working at Tunnel 9, Gigioli was tasked with reviving the printer capabilities. This included ordering new parts, filament and materials for the apparatus. The second round with the printer proved to be more successful than the first. Following its reintroduction, AM at Tunnel 9 was used primarily to manufacture plastic mounting rigs, fixtures, gauges and things of that sort.
Spurred by this progress, Tunnel 9 subsequently acquired two additional 3D printers. One, a resin-based printer, is able to print small yet highly-detailed and strong parts. The other, a dual filament-based printer, is capable of consistently printing large and highly-detailed parts.
“There have been a few prototypes applied to the tunnel,” Gigioli said. “In fact, a very critical aero-optic part was prototyped with our resin printer, but most prints are rigs, test fit gauges or other miscellaneous parts.”
It wouldn’t be long before Gigioli, now regarded as the Tunnel 9 3D printing “guru,” took on a greater role in the AM efforts and projects themselves took on a greater level of importance.
In February 2020, a research and development project involving the additive manufacture of refractive metal hardware launched at Tunnel 9. Gigioli soon took charge of this effort, one that aimed to reduce lead time and manufacturing costs for some high-temperature parts used in Tunnel 9.
“These Tunnel 9 parts endure very cyclic, high-pressure and -temperature conditions, so the lifespan on these parts is significantly shorter than other parts in the tunnel,” Gigioli said. “These parts can experience up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why refractive metals are chosen, as they are metals that can withstand extreme heat with relatively little deformation.”
The ongoing AM research and development effort is led by Gigioli, who is responsible for the upkeep of AM materials, devices and printers, and Tunnel 9 Chief Facility Engineer Nicholas Fredrick. They work with a pair of contractor teams, one of which prints the parts and handles the entire manufacturing process from start to finish, and another which supplies the printing powder and analyzes material characteristics.
Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of the research and development program thus far has been the successful manufacture of a component known as the petal orifice liner. This device, integral to high Mach number tunnel runs, is situated between the two burst diaphragms that Tunnel 9 uses to act as a high-speed valve.
AM typically uses a computer, 3D modeling software, machine equipment and layering material. Once an item is designed using the software, the AM equipment then reads the data to fabricate a three-dimensional version of the object. Materials used in the process can include a variety filaments, polymers and metals. Through AM, layers of materials are joined or fused together to create the specified object.
In the case of a refractive metal part, AM is completed through a process known as laser-powder bed fusion. With this method, the metal begins as a highly-refined and -controlled metal powder. A high-powered laser is applied to this powder, and it essentially melts the metal particles layer-by-layer until the piece is formed according to specifications.
The AM liner, Gigioli said, has outperformed its wrought-built counterpart that has been used for decades in the facility.
“The part is cheaper to manufacture, quicker to manufacture and deliver, and is more resilient to the cyclic temperature loading,” Gigioli said. “The AM process creates very unique microstructures within the material and, as a result, the part’s structural and thermal properties are different than traditional wrought billets metal.”
Those involved in AM at Tunnel 9 have already begun work on the next 3D-printed part to be applied in high Mach number conditions. This component, a particle separator, would act to weed out any airborne particles in the gas flow without hindering any mass flow in the tunnel.
“We are still awaiting the component to be fully finished, but we hope to implement the component in a test program starting around September,” he said.
The success of the 3D printing program at Tunnel 9 has sparked conversations among team members about potential future AM projects.
“Myself and the people involved in this R&D project are excited for what the future holds for AM,” Gigioli said.
Their efforts to this point haven’t gone unnoticed. Part of the team’s research effort involves showcasing the potential of AM for the entire Department of Defense. Gigioli said personnel from various DOD components have already chimed in to compliment the Tunnel 9 team’s success and express their astonishment with the AM technology or extol its potential.
With the success of the AM petal orifice liner still on his mind, Gigioli said the possibilities for 3D printing could be boundless.
“Imagine if we scale this process up to multiple tunnel parts or even entire systems,” he said. “Now some DOD components are interested in printing test models or leading edge models.
“I hope to continue leading Tunnel 9 down this path and increase our success through this technology.”
This work, Building upon success, Tunnel 9 team looks to take 3D printing program to next dimension, by Bradley Hicks, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/news/427263/building-upon-success-tunnel-9-team-looks-take-3d-printing-program-next-dimension | 2022-08-15T19:17:39Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/news/427263/building-upon-success-tunnel-9-team-looks-take-3d-printing-program-next-dimension | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Five European citizens captured in eastern Ukraine went on trial Monday in a court administered by Kremlin-backed separatists in the city of Donetsk, Russian media reported.
The five — including Swede Matthias Gustafsson, Croat Vjekoslav Prebeg, and Britons John Harding, Andrew Hill and Dylan Healy — all pleaded not guilty to charges of mercenarism and “undergoing training to seize power by force,” according to Russian media.
They could face the death penalty under the laws of the self-proclaimed, unrecognized Donetsk People’s Republic.
The next court hearing in their case is scheduled for October, the Interfax news agency reported, citing a statement by the separatists’ court.
On June 9, the supreme court of the self-proclaimed republic sentenced two Britons and a Moroccan, all of whom were captured by pro-Russian forces in Ukraine’s industrial east, to death for being mercenaries. All three have appealed their verdicts.
Ukrainian social media has been abuzz with speculation that the Kremlin may seek to use the foreign fighters to extract concessions from Ukraine or swap them for Russian prisoners.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/five-europeans-go-on-trial-in-separatist-controlled-ukraine/ | 2022-08-15T19:17:44Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/five-europeans-go-on-trial-in-separatist-controlled-ukraine/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS), F/A-18 Integrated Weapon System Team and Fixed-Wing Contracts Team awarded the Boeing Company of St. Louis, Missouri, a five-year Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) valued at $3.1 Billion.
This award is a Strategic Sustainment Solution (S-3) contract vehicle aimed at maximizing end-to-end support of all supplies and services deemed sole source to the Boeing Company. It covers the acquisition of spares, repairs, overhaul, modification, and repair summary data analysis encompassing 358 total items (194 repairs and 164 spares) in support of F/A-18 A-D, F/A-18 E-F, and EA-18 G Flight Control Surfaces, Airframe Components, Refueling Systems, and Support Equipment for the U.S. Navy and Foreign Military Sales customers including Spain, Kuwait, Australia, Finland, Malaysia and Switzerland, in addition to, AV-8B/TAV8B support.
This contract also includes a contract line item for non-standard part number/vendor buys supporting the overall repair of the repairables.
This is the largest, most comprehensive BOA ever produced by NAVSUP WSS.
“The scope and size of this BOA is historic and will pave the way for future Strategic Sustainment Solutions,” said Cmdr. Joshua Hill, NAVSUP WSS, Director of Contracts. “This agreement was a combined effort between the NAVSUP WSS F/A-18 IWST and NAVSUP WSS Fixed-Wing Contracts Team, incorporating inputs from multiple stakeholders, working alongside a major strategic supplier for the Navy, all the way up to OPNAV and ASN’s office for approval.”
This BOA will have advantages for the Navy and an important mission partner.
“This is a mutually beneficial agreement for the government and the defense industrial base,” said Lt. Cmdr. Michael Marchese, NAVSUP WSS Director, Fixed Wing Contracts. “It is fully aligned with improving the Navy’s End-to-End Supply Chains for multiple aviation weapon systems under the broader Naval Sustainment System-Supply alongside one of the Navy’s most critical industry partners.”
NAVSUP WSS is one of 11 commands under Commander, NAVSUP. Headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, NAVSUP employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 22,500 military and civilian personnel. NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and Sailor and family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsupwss, and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.
This work, NAVSUP WSS awards largest, most comprehensive BOA, by Brian Jones, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/news/427275/navsup-wss-awards-largest-most-comprehensive-boa | 2022-08-15T19:17:58Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/news/427275/navsup-wss-awards-largest-most-comprehensive-boa | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WHANGANUI, New Zealand (AP) — Five years ago, the Whanganui River was recognized as a living person in a groundbreaking New Zealand law. For many who live along its banks, the official recognition validated the deep spiritual connection they feel with the river. They continue to feel the draw of its waters each day, whether it’s to fish, canoe or refresh their lives.
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Ngahuia Twomey-Waitai, 28, walks into the Whanganui River and reaches down to splash water over her head in an action reminiscent of a baptism. She says the river has been a big part of her life since she was born.
“I tend to come down here quite often to cleanse myself, especially when I’m going through some big, huge changes in my life, regardless of them being good or bad,” she says. “The river always makes things better for me.”
“Just being down here gives me a huge smile and brings me at peace with myself and my life.”
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Glenn Martin grew up in the little village of Piriaka and still lives there. These days he runs a business called Blazing Paddles, renting canoes to tourists.
The river is navigable for most — it’s grade one or two along this section. Martin’s customers paddle downstream and typically camp or stay in huts for one to five nights before he tows the canoes back by road.
“When you’re down here on the river, it just takes you to another place,” he says. “It’s relaxing. It’s soothing. It’s reinvigorating.”
Martin, 65, loves all the activities the river has to offer, especially the world-class trout fishing, and approves of it gaining personhood.
“I think people take more pride in it and definitely look after it a lot better because it’s just got that much more respect,” he says.
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Fantail birds tumble about Aunty Sugar’s feet as she walks across the small Māori marae, or meeting grounds, that she runs on the banks of the river in the town of Koriniti.
The 73-year-old’s real name is Jula Teki but locals know her as Aunty Sugar.
“They call us the river rats. And we are the river people, the people of the river,” she says. “When the river is flowing good, everything is okay. When it’s flooded, we just all hunker down and we know how the river’s going to react. The road’s probably going to close down, but that doesn’t mean anything to us.”
She says all the power schemes and farms along the banks have effectively turned the river upside-down. She says the river gaining personhood would make her ancestors proud.
“They would be astonished now, if they were alive,” she says. “They would be saying, ‘Wow. You did what we couldn’t do.’”
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Geoff Hipango says it’s going to take time — perhaps a generation or more — for the river’s health to be fully restored but it’s now on the right track.
Hipango, 55, grew up at the Te Ao Hou marae on the banks of the river in Whanganui. These days, he manages mental health and addiction services for a tribal provider.
He says the river’s status is a win not only for his tribe but for the wider community, which also want to see its health improved for future generations.
He says it has been a privilege to see the river gain personhood after all the hard work of his elders, who never surrendered their beliefs.
“Really it was only embodying what our people have always acknowledged and lived by,” he says. “It’s just that the law caught up.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/whanganui-river-always-makes-things-better-for-me/ | 2022-08-15T19:19:33Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/us-and-world/whanganui-river-always-makes-things-better-for-me/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Which fishing backpack is best?
Fishing can be therapeutic, whether you are waist-deep in fly-fishing waters or catching bass from a boat or the shore. But your peaceful activity can quickly turn for the worst if you don’t have the appropriate gear — or when you have the tools, but they’re out of reach.
A good-quality fishing backpack is the best way to ensure you are prepared for any situation. Not only does this let you move to a new fishing spot quickly, but anything you need to hook the big one is right on your back. The KastKing Bait Boss Fishing Tackle Backpack is an excellent choice as it has ample room in a sleek design.
What to know before you buy a fishing backpack
The bag’s size
You might want to travel light or pack all the gear you own for “what if” situations, but either isn’t always the most practical. To determine what backpack size is best for you, there are a few things you must consider.
The most important is what kind of fish you’re trying to catch and what gear you need to do so. This simple strategy is a quick way to figure out which lures, rods, fishing line or accessories you’ll need — and which ones can stay behind for a different trip.
With that said, the backpack should have a large enough capacity to store everything you’ll need according to the length of the trip.
Consider a backpack with rod holders
Depending on your style, you might have several fishing rods in the water. While that’s fine when you’re waiting for a bite, it becomes a bit tricky when you move to a different spot. You don’t want to hold on to all of them when changing locations, or maybe you just want to cast a feeler before settling down. So a backpack with built-in rod holders is invaluable, as you can easily strap them down before moving to the next spot.
Cooling compartments can be handy
It’s not something you’ll find in many fishing backpacks, but a cooling compartment can come in handy. The purpose of this compartment is to keep your food or bait cool, ensuring that it doesn’t spoil while you are in the sun. Putting an ice pack or two in there is a great way to keep your hydration cold.
What to look for in a quality fishing backpack
Plenty of pockets and compartments
The key to a good-quality fishing backpack is having plenty of pockets and compartments while staying organized. There should be several areas where you can store your bait away from other food or dedicated pockets for slightly larger items such as a knife or power bank. A space for a flat tackle box will go a long way in keeping everything organized.
Durable, comfortable materials
If the backpack’s straps bite your shoulders, you will not have a pleasant fishing experience. A good-quality backpack has thick padded straps and a waist belt to reduce tension on your back. It’s great if small pockets are on the waist belt, too, as this gives you quick access to smaller items.
Overall, the backpack must be able to withstand the relatively harsh conditions of sun exposure, moisture, dirt and wading through thick brush to get to your secret fishing spot. Zippers, latches and Velcro-like materials must grip or close properly without coming undone by themselves.
Waterproof
Besides having enough space for your tools, the most important aspect of a good-quality fishing backpack is being waterproof. You’d be highly disappointed if you spent some time reaching your location only to find that all your sensitive gear, food and bait are soaked.
How much you can expect to spend on a fishing backpack
The price depends on the brand, size and number of compartments. A small shoulder bag that can hold the basics costs $30-$40, while a full-size backpack with lots of compartments runs $200-$300.
Fishing backpack FAQ
Do fishing backpacks come with a manufacturer warranty?
A. It would be upsetting if any of the zippers fail and your gear falls out. Many backpacks carry a limited warranty to cover manufacturing defects, but it depends on the brand.
Is it necessary to have a waist strap?
A. While your shoulders carry the backpack’s weight, a waist strap reduces the strain on your back by lifting it slightly onto your hips. A waist strap is only necessary if your backpack is heavier than what is comfortable.
What’s the best fishing backpack to buy?
Top fishing backpack
KastKing Bait Boss Fishing Tackle Backpack
What you need to know: With ample pockets and packing space, this waterproof fishing backpack is a great choice.
What you’ll love: It has four zippered compartments on the sides and a separate pocket to protect your sunglasses. The zippered compartment at the bottom is large enough to store the four included tackle boxes. It has padded shoulder straps and two fishing rod holders.
What you should consider: The included tackle boxes are all the same inside, which can be a problem if you have a differently sized tackle or lures.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top fishing backpack for the money
Seaknight Fishing Tackle Backpack
What you need to know: Durable and water-resistant, this backpack will keep your essentials dry even in tough weather conditions.
What you’ll love: It is made from water-resistant polyester and has adjustable padded shoulder straps. It has a large storage space with a removable clapboard to divide the space to suit your preference.
What you should consider: Trays are not included in this model, but there are plenty of models to choose from.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Plano Atlas 3700 Tackle Fishing Backpack
What you need to know: With thick padded shoulder straps and extra cushioning for your back, this backpack is meant for a whole day of angling.
What you’ll love: This hard-sided backpack is covered with waterproof ethylene-vinyl acetate foam to keep your gear safe. There is a drop-down compartment on the front for quick access to important tools, two zippered compartments on the sides, and a water-resistant compartment on the top for your mobile phone. The hard-bottomed internal component is large enough to store the three included Plano StowAway tackle boxes.
What you should consider: Some users said the rod straps at the back are hard to reach.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wpri.com/reviews/br/camping-outdoors-br/fishing-br/best-fishing-backpack/ | 2022-08-15T19:20:07Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/reviews/br/camping-outdoors-br/fishing-br/best-fishing-backpack/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Essential school supplies for middle school students
If you are helping a middle-schooler prepare for the upcoming school year, you understand the challenges of assisting them as they shop for clothes, figure out their class schedule and prepare for more advanced courses. But don’t underestimate the importance of choosing the right school supplies to put in their backpack. Here are a few essentials you should pack in their backpack for a successful school year.
Packing a middle-schooler’s backpack
Some school supplies are universal across most grades, while others are especially useful for middle-school students. Many students are provided with a list of supplies they’ll need for the school year, which will guide you in selecting the essentials. Here are some categories to shop when choosing items for their backpacks.
Laptops and tech accessories
In today’s tech-driven world, most middle-schoolers need a laptop for classwork. Fortunately, affordable options that have useful features and are compact and easy to take to and from school are available. Most school backpacks have a compartment with protective padding that’s designed to carry a laptop. In addition, tech accessories such as a charger, portable battery pack and phone charger are also items middle-schoolers need in their packs.
Writing tools
Pencils, pens, markers and highlighters are essential for middle-school students. Those who take art classes may also need colored pencils. A pencil case will keep writing tools organized and easy to access. Many options have several compartments for separating different types of writing tools. Additionally, these small cases are easy to fit in a backpack.
Notebooks and binders
Standard notebooks and binders are items middle-schoolers will need to complete and protect assignments and projects. Both are available in several sizes and designs to match students’ coursework needs. Ideally, these essential school items will fit in the main compartment of a backpack along with school textbooks. Budget-friendly packs of multiple notebooks and binders are available and will save you a few dollars.
Calculators and measuring instruments
By middle school, most students are advancing in math and taking classes in geometry, algebra, biology and statistics. Tools for these classes include a scientific calculator and measuring instruments such as protractors, rulers, squares and compasses. While these instruments can be purchased separately, they are also available in sets.
Personal items
Not all items middle-school students need for their backpacks are for classwork. A few personal items will also come in handy throughout the school day. Gel hand sanitizer and hand wipes are necessary for killing germs and keeping hands clean. Tissues in small packs are easy to place in a backpack. Instead of disposable water bottles, a reusable water bottle is an eco-friendly choice. Many backpacks even have side pockets that are designed especially to accommodate water bottles.
Best items for a middle-schooler’s backpack
Before you buy backpack supplies, you’re middle-schooler will need a backpack with ample space for school gear. The Big Student has numerous roomy pockets plus a laptop compartment and water bottle pocket. It’s made of tough material that will hold up well to school life. Sold by Amazon and Kohl’s
Long battery life, a thin build and ample onboard storage make this laptop a good choice for middle-school students. The 15.6-inch size will fit the laptop compartment of most backpacks. Parents will also appreciate the budget-friendly price. Sold by Amazon
BIC Xtra-Smooth Mechanical Pencils
No sharpener is needed for these mechanical pencils that feature dark lead that moves smoothly across paper. Each pencil is topped with an eraser that does a good job removing mistakes. They are available in multipacks that will last throughout the school year. Sold by Amazon
Pencils, pens, markers and more — when writing tools are stored in a pencil case, they’ll be easy to find in a backpack. The two zippered compartments of this case will keep them organized too. Sold by Amazon
Mead 1-Subject Spiral Notebooks
Every student needs classic spiral notebooks like those in this pack of six. Each one is made for a single subject and has 70 sheets of wide-ruled paper for taking notes and completing assignments. Sold by Amazon
Texas Instruments TI-84 Graphics Calculator
Math gets more challenging in middle school, but a scientific calculator can help. The TI-84 is made by a top brand and offers the functions for solving equations in algebra, biology, statistics and more. It features a large, backlit screen that’s easy to read. Sold by Amazon
Kleenex Pocket Pack Facial Tissues
These small packets of tissues are just the right size for backpacks. They’ll come in handy when the cold season arrives. You’ll get 16 pocket packs, each containing 10 tissues. Sold by Amazon
Purell Advanced Hand Sanitizer Variety Pack
There’s no doubt that kids are exposed to germs at school, so keeping hand sanitizer readily available is a good plan. These 1-ounce bottles don’t take up much space in a backpack, but also have clips that can be attached to handles, straps or zippers. You’ll get eight bottles per purchase. Sold by Amazon
CamelBak Chute Mag Water Bottle
This reusable water bottle boasts a secure lid that will prevent liquid from leaking. It’s made of material that’s 50% recycled and free of BPA. You can choose from several sizes and colors. Sold by Amazon
Students in geometry class will need a variety of measurement instruments to make the grade. This comprehensive 15-piece set comes with the essentials, including protractors, compasses, a ruler and more. It’s an affordable choice that will save you a few dollars if you purchased each item separately. Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wpri.com/reviews/br/education-br/things-every-middle-schooler-needs-in-their-backpack-for-fall-2022/ | 2022-08-15T19:20:13Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/reviews/br/education-br/things-every-middle-schooler-needs-in-their-backpack-for-fall-2022/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
YAKIMA, Wash. - The Yakima Humane Society has been full of animals for the past three months.
This month since NBC Right Now has been participating in the Clear the Shelters Campaign, so far the Yakima Humane Society has had 12 adult dogs adopted, 18 puppies, and 22 kittens.
Having the recent adoptions is great but Haga told me typically when an animal goes out, two more come in.
Since the Yakima Humane Society has been full, Haga told me many staff members have been getting threats from the public because they can't take any animals in, and sometimes people have even threatened to harm the animals they are trying to bring in, even though the shelter doesn't have room.
"It's stressful," said Haga. "Like everybody else you know most of the time we're understaffed, it's stressful because we know there are animals out there we can't help and so the frontline staff they see it every day you know, we have people that get very upset with them because we are not taking animals in. 'well you are a humane society you have to take everything in' we have to emphasize the word in our title is humane and that means if we do not have a space for them we cannot provide humane care."
Haga told me the animals who she sees come in the door desperately want a home and from her experience are very loving.
Along with every kennel being full, the Yakima Humane Society is trying to avoid parvo spreading to all its dogs.
Canine parvovirus or parvo is a virus that mainly affects dogs and is highly contagious spreading through feces.
According to the American Kennel Club, parvo causes an illness in a dog's stomach. Symptoms include bloody diarrhea, vomiting, fever, weakness, and death.
Some dog breeds are more at risk of getting parvo like Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, German shepherds, and Labrador retrievers but all dogs can get parvo if exposed.
Right now the Yakima Humane Society is quarantining its small dog room for 14 days.
"Our small dog room right now is quarantined," said Haga. "So anything that is a puppy or small dog we can't bring in because A we don't have the space for it and B we can't subject them because we're assuming anything that comes through our door has not been vaccinated."
Parvo can withstand most household cleaning products but bleach and it can live in soil for up to 9 years.
The Yakima Humane Society still has plenty of cats and adult dogs that need adopting, you can see animals available HERE. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/clear_the_shelters/clear-the-shelters-yakima-humane-society/article_6b2b3d16-1ca6-11ed-9855-27c273b9579c.html | 2022-08-15T19:21:33Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/clear_the_shelters/clear-the-shelters-yakima-humane-society/article_6b2b3d16-1ca6-11ed-9855-27c273b9579c.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Hot today with a very slight breeze and no cloud coverage.
Highs will be in the mid to upper 90s for most of the region this afternoon.
Winds will stay around 5-10 mph today.
Fire danger remains very high as we begin this heatwave.
Temps will climb into the triple digits tomorrow and peak on Wednesday around 105.
A slow decline after that will lead to us keeping triple digits for the rest of the week, getting back to 100 this weekend.
Overnight lows will stay in the low 60s and upper 50s tonight but warm slightly over the next couple of days.
There is an excessive heat watch for Grant, Adams, Lincoln, Douglas and Chelan counties as well as Garfield, Asotin and the southern part of Whitman county that begins Wednesday at noon and is set to expire Friday at 11 p.m.
This could be extended through the weekend, increased to a warning and stretched out to cover more areas as our temps increase through the middle of the week.
Drink lots of water and stay cool when you can.
Avoid strenuous activity outside in the afternoons when it is hottest.
Mostly calm weather ahead with this ridge of high pressure over us. Any chance of a thunderstorm looks to be over the John Day highlands on Wednesday, but confidence remains low they will form.
We will keep an eye on this as the day gets closer. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/monday-august-15th-forecast/article_3a793b2a-1cb8-11ed-bd93-2360bdaf893c.html | 2022-08-15T19:21:39Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/monday-august-15th-forecast/article_3a793b2a-1cb8-11ed-bd93-2360bdaf893c.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
With two of the best players in the country leading the way — and a championship game loss as motivation — Alabama is No. 1 in The Associated Press preseason college football poll for the second straight season and ninth time overall.
Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young, national defensive player of year Will Anderson Jr. and the Crimson Tide received 54 of 63 first-place votes and 1,566 points in the Top 25 presented by Regions Bank released on Monday.
Ohio State is No. 2 with six first-place votes (1,506 points) from the media panel and defending national champion Georgia is third with three first-place votes (1,455 points). Clemson is No. 4. Notre Dame rounds out the top five, setting up a tantalizing opener at Ohio State on Sept. 3.
The Tide’s preseason No. 1 ranking is the seventh in 15 years under coach Nick Saban. Since the preseason rankings started in 1950, only Oklahoma with 10 has been No. 1 in the initial poll more often than Alabama.
The Crimson Tide started last season No. 1 and finished ranked No. 2 after losing the national championship game to the Southeastern Conference rival Bulldogs.
Alabama coach Nick Saban recently called 2021 a rebuilding season for his Tide dynasty, which has won six national titles over the last 13 years. He has a point.
Young was in his first season as a starter last year, playing behind an inexperienced offensive line. He was unfazed, throwing for 4,872 yards and 47 touchdowns.
Anderson was a force on the other side ball as Alabama broke in a back seven with mostly new starters. The sophomore led the nation in tackles for loss with 33 1/2, 11 1/2 more than No. 2 on the list.
Ohio State brings back a Heisman Trophy finalist at quarterback in C.J. Stroud while at Georgia, most of the key players from one of the best college defenses of the last 25 years are now in NFL. Still, quarterback Stetson Bennett and All-America tight end Brock Bowers return to a Bulldogs offense that could be even more explosive in 2022.
Texas A&M, which finished last season unranked despite handing Alabama its only regular-season loss, starts this season No. 6.
Defending Pac-12 champion Utah is seventh, the best preseason ranking in school history. Defending Big Ten champion Michigan is No. 8 after making the playoff for the first time last season.
No. 9 Oklahoma is the highest-ranked Big 12 school, one spot ahead of defending league champion Baylor.
POLL POINTS
Alabama has been in the preseason top five in each of last 14 seasons and in the preseason top three in 13 straight. The Tide’s 31st preseason top-five ranking this year matches Ohio State for the most in poll history.
Turning preseason No. 1 into a national championship has proved tricky throughout history, even for Alabama.
The Crimson Tide has gone on to win the national championship after starting No. 1 just once under Saban and twice overall.
Since the AP preseason began in 1950, there have been 11 preseason No. 1 teams that also finished the season top ranked. Alabama was the last to do it (2017).
RARITIES AND STREAKS
— No. 13 North Carolina State is ranked in the preseason for the first time since 2003. The Wolfpack matched their best preseason ranking. They were also 13th in 1975.
— No. 17 Pitt is in the preseason rankings for the first time since 2010.
— No. 20 Kentucky is making its first preseason poll appearance since 1978.
— No. 22 Wake Forest made the preseason rankings for the first time since 2008.
— Ohio State is ranked in the preseason for the 34th straight season, breaking a tie with Nebraska (1970-2002) and Penn State (1968-2000) for the longest such streak in poll history.
— Texas A&M has the second-best preseason ranking for a team that finished the previous season unranked. Ohio State was No. 3 in the 1972 preseason poll after being unranked at the end of the 1971 season and Notre Dame also started No. 6 in 1983 after finishing unranked in 1982.
How did the seasons work out of those teams? Ohio State went 9-2 and finished the season No. 9. The Irish went 7-5 and unranked again.
NOTABLE LEFTOUTS
— LSU with new coach Brian Kelly will start the season unranked for the first time 2000, Saban’s first of five seasons as coach of the Tigers.
— Florida and Florida State are both unranked to start the season, which has not happened since 1974.
NEWBIES
Five schools ranked in the preseason poll have head coaches starting their first full seasons leading their teams: Notre Dame (Marcus Freeman), Oklahoma (Brent Venables), No. 11 Oregon (Dan Lanning), No. 14 USC (Lincoln Riley) and No. 16 Miami (Mario Cristobal).
This is the second time in the last five seasons that five teams with new coaches were ranked in the preseason, according to research done by Sportradar. It also happened in 2018, but before that season that type of representation in the preseason poll for teams with new coaches was a rarity.
You have to go all the way back to 1990 when six schools with coaches entering their first full season appeared in the preseason Top 25, according to Sportradar. That list includes some notable names: Gary Moeller, Michigan; Ken Hatfield, Clemson; Gene Stallings, Alabama; Jack Crowe, Arkansas; Paul Hackett, Pittsburgh; and John Jenkins, Houston.
CONFERENCE CALL
For the fourth straight season, the Southeastern Conference has three teams in the top six.
The Atlantic Coast Conference matched its best showing in the preseason poll with five teams. The ACC has reached that number four previous times.
SEC – 6 (Nos. 1, 3, 6, 19, 20, 21).
ACC – 5 (Nos. 4, 13, 16, 17, 22).
Big Ten – 4 (Nos. 2, 8, 15, 18).
Big 12 – 3 (Nos. 9, 10, 12).
Pac-12 – 3 (Nos. 7, 11, 14).
American – 2 (Nos. 23, 24).
Independents – 2 (Nos. 5, 25).
___
Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and listen at http://www.appodcasts.com
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/no-1-alabama-tops-preseason-ap-top-25-ohio-st-dawgs-next/ | 2022-08-15T19:21:39Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/no-1-alabama-tops-preseason-ap-top-25-ohio-st-dawgs-next/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NACHES, Wash.-
Today the Naches Fire Department paid tribute to 25 firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The firefighters and their legacies were remembered in a ceremony with the Naches fire department.
...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM WEDNESDAY TO 11 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 103 expected. * WHERE...In Washington, Lower Columbia Basin of Washington and Foothills of the Blue Mountains of Washington. In Oregon, Lower Columbia Basin of Oregon, Foothills of the Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon, Foothills of the Southern Blue Mountains of Oregon, North Central Oregon and Central Oregon. * WHEN...From 11 AM Wednesday to 11 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
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NACHES, Wash.-
Today the Naches Fire Department paid tribute to 25 firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The firefighters and their legacies were remembered in a ceremony with the Naches fire department.
...HEAT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM WEDNESDAY TO 11 PM PDT FRIDAY... * WHAT...Temperatures up to 103 expected. * WHERE...In Washington, Lower Columbia Basin of Washington and Foothills of the Blue Mountains of Washington. In Oregon, Lower Columbia Basin of Oregon, Foothills of the Northern Blue Mountains of Oregon, Foothills of the Southern Blue Mountains of Oregon, North Central Oregon and Central Oregon. * WHEN...From 11 AM Wednesday to 11 PM PDT Friday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. &&
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Maybe Ralf Rangnick was right, after all.
Maybe Manchester United does require soccer’s equivalent of “open-heart surgery” to fix the glut of issues currently afflicting England’s biggest club.
That was the blunt assessment offered in April by Rangnick, United’s interim manager at the time, as he prepared to hand over the coaching reins to Erik ten Hag ahead of this season.
And it’s taken just two painful Premier League games for Ten Hag to understand quite the mess he has joined.
Underperforming and — in certain cases — unmotivated players. An imbalanced, poorly assembled squad. A faltering recruitment team unable to bring in its primary targets. American owners increasingly loathed by the fans.
Ten Hag, meanwhile, is adding to his own problems with some questionable decision-making in his first weeks in English soccer.
“Rubbish” was one of the words the Dutchman used to describe United’s abysmal performance in its 4-0 loss at Brentford on Saturday that marked a new low point in the club’s recent history.
Moments after the final whistle at Brentford Community Stadium, as the joyous home fans celebrated one of their team’s best ever results, Ten Hag was seen standing motionless on the touchline, both arms behind his back, unable to believe what had transpired.
Ten Hag didn’t flinch as a moody-looking Cristiano Ronaldo walked past, or as he was serenaded with chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” from Brentford supporters.
Sunday was supposed to be a day off for United’s players but Ten Hag insisted they come in for training, with British broadcaster Sky Sports reporting that the manager wanted to make his players run 13.8 kilometers, matching the difference in total distance the two teams ran during Saturday’s match.
These are still very early days in the Ten Hag era but the problems are mounting, some of them of the Dutchman’s making.
Why, for example, was Christian Eriksen — a midfield playmaker — deployed as a “false nine” in the 2-1 home loss to Brighton on the opening weekend, then as a deep-lying midfielder against Brentford?
Was Lisandro Martinez, a short center back in modern-day terms, the wisest purchase for nearly $58 million considering the renowned physicality of the Premier League? Exposed against Brentford, he didn’t make it out for the second half.
Why is Harry Maguire, clearly lacking in self-confidence on the field, still United’s captain when he shouldn’t really be assured of a starting spot?
Then again, Ten Hag hasn’t been helped by those above him. How has United gone into the new season without a new holding midfielder, a position the team has desperately needed to upgrade for years? United looks likely to miss out on Frenkie de Jong despite a summer-long pursuit of the Barcelona midfielder and still must rely on the underwhelming Fred and Scott McTominay.
Indeed, upgrades are needed all over the team, especially in attack with uncertainty still swirling around Ronaldo, who pushed for a move away during the offseason and — despite his renowned goalscoring prowess — doesn’t have the mobility to suit a typical Ten Hag-managed team.
With Anthony Martial injured, Ronaldo is United’s only out-and-out striker and played the full game against Brentford even though he cannot have been match-sharp. Tellingly, he left the field without even looking at Ten Hag.
Also notable Saturday were some of the banners held up by United supporters at Brentford calling for the departure of the Glazer family, the club’s owners. “Time 2 Go. Glazers Out” read one, and the atmosphere promises to be toxic when United returns to Old Trafford next week for its third match of the season.
That is on Monday against fierce rival Liverpool, which scored nine goals against United across two games last season in humiliatingly one-sided meetings. The previous season, a protest against the Glazer family forced the unprecedented postponement of the Premier League game against Liverpool at Old Trafford after the stadium was stormed and thousands more supporters blocked access into the venue as they demanded the Americans — buyers in 2005 in a leveraged takeover — sell the club.
Lose to Liverpool and that would mean United opening the season with three straight defeats. The last Ajax coach to join a Premier League team was Frank De Boer, who lost his first four matches in charge of Crystal Palace and was promptly fired after the team struggled to adapt to his tactics and demands.
The fear is that Ten Hag simply does not have the players to fit his style. Or, like in the case of Martinez, he has the wrong player in a crucial position.
Will United hold its nerve if the losing streak continues? Ten Hag surely deserves some time but the early signs are of a club already in a crisis.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/ten-hag-discovering-the-mess-he-has-inherited-at-man-united/ | 2022-08-15T19:21:47Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/ten-hag-discovering-the-mess-he-has-inherited-at-man-united/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
An early rough ride for a proposed surf park north of Moxee has reached calmer waters since Yakima County officials green-lighted the project following a long and contentious approval process earlier this year.
But that doesn’t mean Joey Lawrence and others developing Barreled on an 80-acre site near East Norman and St. Hilaire roads have slowed down their planning efforts.
Lawrence provided updates of the timeline, cost estimates and amenities planned for the surf park during Thursday’s Rotary Club of Yakima’s lunchtime meeting at the Yakima Convention and Event Center.
He said he is constantly asked how a facility hours away from the Pacific coast and more than 1,000 miles from Southern California, the symbolic home of surf culture, can be economically viable.
Surveys indicate that there are 220,000 surfers in the Pacific Northwest region, and they make roughly 1.3 million visits to the coast, Lawrence said. The finances work for Barreled if 6.3% of the existing market visits the Yakima County surf park, a figure that does not include potential new surfing enthusiasts Lawrence hopes will embrace the sport.
“There is a gap in the market for family outdoor recreation here, and we’re trying to fill it,” Lawrence said. “I think there is no reason (the Yakima Valley) should not be the central hub for outdoor recreation in our region.”
No appeal of Barreled decision
Hearing Examiner Patrick Spurgin approved the surf park’s construction in April with few changes from Yakima County’s original recommendation.
The decision comes with a list of 29 conditions the facility must meet within the next five years. Almost all of them were part of the county’s recommendation of approval, which was presented (and heavily debated by neighboring residents) at a March 17 public hearing.
The new conditions include Spurgin’s requirement that lighting meet dark sky lighting principles and that noise generated comply with county regulations.
Dozens of residents who live near the surf park site spoke in opposition to the facility during the March 17 public hearing before Spurgin, with more than 100 people jammed into two basement meeting rooms and an adjacent hallway in the Yakima County Courthouse.
Many supporters of the proposal also attended the hearing.
Although Spurgin’s decision could have been appealed in superior court under the Land Use Petition Act, no appeal was filed within the 30-day deadline, county officials said.
Residents in the area testified that the roads already struggle to handle existing traffic of cars, trucks and farm vehicles, and their wells struggle with groundwater depletion. They believe hundreds of additional vehicles driving to a surf park and its new water demands on an already-stressed aquifer could force them out of their homes.
In his decision, Spurgin noted the Washington Department of Ecology authorized the transfer of groundwater rights from the Roy Farms property immediately south of the surf park site.
Updated plans, schedule
Lawrence began his presentation to the Rotarians with a promotional video for the surf park, which is available on YouTube or at www.surfbarreled.com.
The video highlighted the Wavegarden Cove technology that will generate more than 600 waves per hour. The 5.5-acre surf park pool will be divided into two areas, with large, “premium” waves in the reef wave. The other half of the large pool will feature smaller, two-foot waves for beginners and less experienced surfers.
It will not be heated, meaning surfers will need wetsuits during the beginning and later parts of the surf park’s season of April through October.
Lawrence quickly amended the video’s closing line of “we hope to see you all there in spring 2024,” adding, “we might be sneaking into 2025” as funding and construction issues are addressed.
The surf park has a projected $50 million budget, and Lawrence estimates he still needs to raise about half of that. He is projecting 82,000 visitors will use the surf pools, and 130,000 annual visitors overall.
Plenty of amenities are planned for the non-surfing visitors, including a restaurant and bar, lounge pools, beach volleyball, playground and off-leash dog park. There also will be 21 RV spaces, 21 campsites and 23 cabins as lodging options.
With the “Barreled” name already paying tribute to the Yakima Valley’s beer and wine industries, the surf park’s décor will include a barn-styled entrance building and a roadside fruit stand look for the restaurant and bar, Lawrence said.
“We wanted to design the park for people who won’t be surfing … so they can enjoy some amenities and that million-dollar view,” he added.
Lawrence said throughout the planning process, he has tried to accommodate the area’s residents by keeping the park low-profile and providing plenty of buffer space between the park and its neighbors.
He recalled how his idea for the surf park took shape, and reiterated his arguments made during the approval process that the net amount of water coming out of the ground to support the wave pool is unchanged from the amount approved for use by neighboring Roy Farms.
Lessons, wetsuit and equipment rentals and meeting space also will be available at Barreled, Lawrence said.
He estimated a $90/hour price point for users of the surf pools, and noted that price will provide at least 12 chances to “catch an opportunity” for a premium wave.
Surfers who travel to the coast can spend eight hours in the ocean and only get five such opportunities, Lawrence added.
More information and updates on Barreled are available at the surf park’s website and Facebook page. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/business/barreled-developer-discusses-updated-plans-for-yakima-valley-surf-park/article_acd0c932-1a64-11ed-ae25-576163bbb7b7.html | 2022-08-15T19:21:49Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/business/barreled-developer-discusses-updated-plans-for-yakima-valley-surf-park/article_acd0c932-1a64-11ed-ae25-576163bbb7b7.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
PASCO, Wash.-
Three teens from the Tri-Cities are charged with murder in connection with a recent shooting.
The three 18 year-olds are suspected of being part of a shooting on August, 6th, in West Pasco, that killed a 20 year old man and left another wounded.
According to documents filed in Franklin County Superior Court, Osman Morales-Salto of Pasco, Angel Garcia of Kennewick, and Brian Panduro-Valenzuela, have all been charged with Murder in the 2nd Degree and Assault in the 1st Degree.
The maximum sentence for 2nd Degree Murder is life in prison. The three suspects are each being held on $250,000 bond.
Pasco Police responded to the 6000 block of Pimlico Drive on August, 6th, for a weapons complaint. On the way to the scene Officers received numerous reports of gunshots.
Upon arrival Police found two victims. Denali Anderson was pronounced dead on the scene from gunshot wounds, and Caiden Gawith had a gunshot wound to the chest and lower abdomen, near his right hip.
According to court documents the two victims approached a white Nissan Altima occupied by three males, a verbal argument ensued and a man exited the rear of the car and began firing.
Anderson reportedly returned fire before being killed.
Gawith positively identified the three teens arrested as the shooters.
The three suspects will appear at a preliminary hearing in Franklin County Superior Court at 1:30 p.m. today.
This is a developing story and we will work to provide updates as more information becomes available. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/3-tri-city-teens-arrested-on-murder-charges-in-spokane/article_c17543c8-1cb6-11ed-9ac1-7309ccfbd06b.html | 2022-08-15T19:21:51Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/3-tri-city-teens-arrested-on-murder-charges-in-spokane/article_c17543c8-1cb6-11ed-9ac1-7309ccfbd06b.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK (AP) — The World Series is scheduled to start on a Friday for the first time since 1915 and could end on Nov. 5 — its latest ever — because of the lockout that delayed opening day.
Major League Baseball said Monday its expanded postseason will begin with all four games in the new wild-card series on Oct. 7. The other games are Oct. 8 and 9, if necessary.
As part of this year’s schedule, off days will be skipped between Games 4 and 5 of the Division Series and Games 5 and 6 of the Championship Series, potentially taxing bullpens. The AL Division Series will have an unusual off day between Games 1 and 2.
The new format has 12 teams making the playoffs, up from the 10 in place from 2012-21, except the 16 used in the 2020 playoffs that followed a regular-season shortened to 60 games because of the coronavirus pandemic. The top two teams in each league get first-round byes, while the No. 3 seed faces No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5. The higher seed will be home in each best-of-three series.
In the best-of-five Division Series, the top seed plays the 3-vs.-6 winner and the No. 2 seed plays the 4-vs.-5 winner. The Division Series will have the familiar format of the higher seed home for Games 1 and 2, and, if necessary, Game 5. Both the AL Division Series and NL Division Series start Oct. 11.
The best-of-seven Championship Series starts Oct. 18 in the NL and Oct. 19 in the AL.
Opening day was delayed from March 31 to April 7 because of the 99-day lockout that ended on March 10, and the regular season was extended by three days to Oct. 5.
The World Series begins Oct. 28, matching its latest start, in 2009.
It will be its first Friday start since Oct. 8, 1915, at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, when the Phillies beat the Red Sox 3-1 before losing the next four games.
Since the start of playoffs, the Series had been scheduled to start on a Tuesday since 2014, in 1990 and from 1977-84, a Wednesday from 2007-13 and a Saturday from 1969-76, 1985-89 and 1991-2006.
The Series went into November for the first time in 2001, when the 9/11 terrorist attacks caused the regular season to end a week later than originally scheduled. The latest a Series game has been played is Nov. 4, in 2001 and again in 2009. Last year’s Series ended on Nov. 2 when the Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros in Game 6 for their first title since 1995.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/world-series-to-start-on-a-friday-could-see-latest-end-ever/ | 2022-08-15T19:21:54Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/world-series-to-start-on-a-friday-could-see-latest-end-ever/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
• David Lynx is executive director of the Larson Gallery at Yakima Valley College. He writes this weekly column for Explore. Learn more at www.larsongallery.org.
The Arts Scene:
- David Lynx Special to the Yakima Herald-Republic
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Shooter in Barge-Chestnut drive-by that paralyzed man pleads guilty to assault | https://www.yakimaherald.com/the-arts-scene/article_172147ea-1ccb-11ed-a5ab-eb054922ca60.html | 2022-08-15T19:21:55Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/the-arts-scene/article_172147ea-1ccb-11ed-a5ab-eb054922ca60.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
OLYMPIA, Wash.-
The Washington Department of Labor and Industries is considering making summer heat protections permanent.
With the recent heat waves emergency summer rules have been in effect, including mandatory breaks, and access to water and shade. The rules for heat apply to all outdoor occupations where employees are exposed to heat for more than 15 minutes in any given hour.
Current heat protections for outdoor workers are triggered when the temperature hits 89 degrees.
Under the new Labor and Industries proposal, heat precautions would take effect at 80 degrees and would be in effect year-round.
These proposals are not final and the Department of Labor and Industries is still seeking input from stakeholders. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/summer-heat-protections-for-workers-may-become-permanent/article_59332504-1cad-11ed-853c-efc7ac3e9e09.html | 2022-08-15T19:21:58Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/summer-heat-protections-for-workers-may-become-permanent/article_59332504-1cad-11ed-853c-efc7ac3e9e09.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
UMATILLA COUNTY, Ore. - A woman was seriously injured after an ATV rollover accident near Ukiah Friday.
The Umatilla County Sheriff's Office says around 9 a.m. August 12 the dispatch center received an emergency notification through Garmin Inreach of an ATV rollover with injuries in an area near Ukiah. Two passengers were reported injured, one with minor injuries, and an adult female with serious injuries to her legs and hips.
Umatilla County Search and Rescue found the woman on the Frazier Creek Trail within the Winom Frazier OHV Recreation Area. A six-person team carried her a little over one-half mile to get to a U.S. Forest Service Engine, which drove down an old logging spur to the Life Flight landing zone. No word on the current status of her injuries.
UCSO says multiple agencies were present to help including the U.S. Forest Service - Wallowa Whitman National Forest, Life Flight Network, U.S. Forest Service - Umatilla National Forest, Oregon State Police, Pendleton Fire & Ambulance and Umatilla County Search and Rescue. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/woman-taken-by-life-flight-after-atv-rollover-accident-near-ukiah/article_ffa5a96e-1cbe-11ed-9b4e-5fbd49ab7e2b.html | 2022-08-15T19:22:04Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/woman-taken-by-life-flight-after-atv-rollover-accident-near-ukiah/article_ffa5a96e-1cbe-11ed-9b4e-5fbd49ab7e2b.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SPOKANE, Wash. - Three Tri-Cities teens were arrested for murder in the Spokane area Friday.
Court documents identify the trio as Angel Isaiah Garcia, Brian Armando Panduro-Valenzuela, and Osman C. Morales Salto.
According to the charging documents, the three are suspected in the shooting of a 20-year-old in west Pasco on August 6. They are also suspects in a kinapping case in Benton County.
The group of 18-year-olds were booked into Franklin County Jail on second-degree murder charges. | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/three-teens-arrested-in-spokane-for-alleged-murder-of-20-year-old-in-pasco/article_8eb04e92-1cb6-11ed-89a9-9737f35c6bbe.html | 2022-08-15T19:22:10Z | nbcrightnow.com | control | https://www.nbcrightnow.com/three-teens-arrested-in-spokane-for-alleged-murder-of-20-year-old-in-pasco/article_8eb04e92-1cb6-11ed-89a9-9737f35c6bbe.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
KENT COUNTY, Mich. — Deputies say they’ve responded to five complaints regarding stolen vehicles in Kent County this weekend.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Office says thieves made off with four of those vehicles.
We’re told the Grand Rapids Police Department recovered a Hyundai that was reportedly stolen out of Gaines Township.
Another car was stolen from a construction site on the north side of the county, as was a motorcycle in a separate incident, deputies say.
“Overall this year for the Kent County Sheriff's Office, we've taken 217 stolen-vehicle complaints,” says Sgt. Eric Brunner. “The same time frame last year, we're up about 12% this year in our stolen vehicles overall.”
Roughly 100 of those stolen vehicles were Kias and Hyundais, Brunner adds.
When asked about why there is a surge in vehicular thefts, Brunner said it’s difficult to settle on a concrete answer.
“That's a complicated answer, as a lot of factors that go into that,” he explains. “Whether people talk about the pandemic, or overall the general trend in the rise of crime, that's a difficult thing. But we really need the community’s support in this because us, the government, the sheriff's office isn't going to solve the problem. So, communities make communities safe.”
Brunner says it helps to report anything suspicious, as it can be difficult to track down the culprit otherwise.
Additionally, Brunner recommends all motorists to lock their cars and park them in a closed garage or well-lit area when not in use to reduce the risk of theft. | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/kent/kent-county-deputies-address-surge-in-response-to-vehicle-thefts | 2022-08-15T19:29:18Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/kent/kent-county-deputies-address-surge-in-response-to-vehicle-thefts | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors in Atlanta on Monday told lawyers for Rudy Giuliani that he’s a target of their criminal investigation into possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia, one of Giuliani's lawyers said Monday.
Special prosecutor Nathan Wade alerted Giuliani's local attorney in Atlanta that the former New York City mayor could face criminal charges, another Giuliani attorney, Bob Costello said. News of the disclosure was first reported by The New York Times.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation last year, and a special grand jury was seated in May at her request. County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, has instructed Giuliani to appear before the panel to testify on Wednesday.
Willis’s investigation was spurred by a phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During that January 2021 conversation, Trump suggested that Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
It has also become clear that the district attorney is interested in Georgia legislative committee hearings that were held in December 2020 where Giuliani appeared and spread false claims of election fraud in Atlanta's Fulton County.
Willis last month filed petitions seeking to compel testimony from seven Trump associates and advisers. Because they don’t live in Georgia, she had to use a process that involves asking a judge in the states where they live to order them to appear.
In a petition seeking Giuliani’s testimony, Willis identified him as both a personal attorney for Trump and a lead attorney for his campaign. She wrote that he and others appeared at a state Senate committee meeting and presented a video that Giuliani said showed election workers producing “suitcases” of unlawful ballots from unknown sources, outside the view of election poll watchers.
Within 24 hours of that Dec. 3, 2020, hearing, Raffensperger’s office had debunked the video. But Giuliani continued to make statements to the public and in subsequent legislative hearings claiming widespread voter fraud using the debunked video, Willis wrote.
Evidence shows that Giuliani’s hearing appearance and testimony “was part of a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere,” the petition says.
Also Monday, a federal judge said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow 2020 general election loss in the state.
Attorneys for Graham, R-S.C., had argued that his position as a U.S. senator provided him immunity from having to appear before the investigative panel and asked the judge to quash his subpoena. But U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May wrote in an order Monday that immunities related to his role as a senator do not protect him from having to testify. Graham's subpoena instructs him to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 23, but his office said Monday he plans to appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Prosecutors have indicated they want to ask Graham about phone calls they say he made to Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger and his staff in the weeks following Trump's election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Graham had argued that a provision of the Constitution provides absolute protection against a senator being questioned about legislative acts. But the judge found there are “considerable areas of potential grand jury inquiry” that fall outside that provision’s scope. The judge also rejected Graham’s argument that the principle of “sovereign immunity” protects a senator from being summoned by a state prosecutor.
Graham also argued that Willis, a Democrat, had not demonstrated extraordinary circumstances necessary to compel testimony from a high-ranking official. But the judge disagreed, finding that Willis had shown “extraordinary circumstances and a special need” for Graham’s testimony on issues related to an alleged attempt to influence or disrupt the election in Georgia.
May, the judge, last month rejected a similar attempt by U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., to avoid testifying before the special grand jury. Former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani had argued he couldn't travel to Atlanta to testify because of health issues, but Fulton County Judge McBurney instructed him to appear on Wednesday.
Graham's office said in a statement Monday that the senator disagrees with the judge's interpretation of the provision of the Constitution he believes protects him from being questioned by a state official. His lawyers have said that he was making inquiries that were clearly part of his legislative duties, related to certification of the vote and to the proposal of election-related legislation.
But the judge wrote that that ignores "the fact that individuals on the calls have publicly suggested that Senator Graham was not simply engaged in legislative factfinding but was instead suggesting or implying that Georgia election officials change their processes or otherwise potentially alter the state’s results.”
In calls made shortly after the 2020 general election, Graham “questioned Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump,” Willis wrote in a petition.
Graham also “made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign,” she wrote.
Republican and Democratic state election officials across the country, courts and even Trump's attorney general found there was no evidence of any voter fraud sufficient to affect the outcome of his 2020 presidential election loss.
Trump-allied lawmakers were planning to challenge the tallies from several battleground states when Congress convened on Jan. 6, 2021, to certify the results under the Electoral Count Act, but after the Capitol attack that day Georgia’s tally was never contested.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has described his call to Raffensperger as “perfect.” | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/giuliani-is-target-of-election-probe-his-lawyers-are-told | 2022-08-15T19:29:24Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/giuliani-is-target-of-election-probe-his-lawyers-are-told | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A Delaware man is pretty lucky after winning the Maryland lottery twice in a month.
State lottery officials said Duane Ketterman recently won more than $30,000.
He won $18,000 in early July.
The 43-year-old powerline technician drives into Maryland for work and routinely buys lottery tickets, lottery officials said.
Officials said he stopped by a Racetrax convenience store last week as he and his family passed through Queen Anne’s County on a trip.
When they stopped a few hours later for breakfast, that's when he found out he'd won, according to a press release.
He told lottery officials he couldn't believe he had won the first time and he was "stunned" when he won the second time.
“I couldn’t believe I won the first time,” Ketterman told lottery officials. “So, when I saw this one, I was just stunned.”
Ketterman said he plans to save the money for a rainy day. | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/lucky-delaware-man-wins-maryland-lottery-twice-in-a-month | 2022-08-15T19:29:36Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/lucky-delaware-man-wins-maryland-lottery-twice-in-a-month | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
House-hunting is at the top of Boris and Carrie Johnson's agenda at the moment, as they are set to leave their flat above No 11 Downing Street in the coming weeks. The move comes after Mr Johnson resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister, following months of scandals surrounding everything from Partygate to harassment allegations made against his deputy chief whip, Chris Pincher.
The couple moved into the flat at the end of 2019, following Johnson's landslide victory in the December election. They are sure to miss it: not only did it cost a reported £200,000 to refurbish with the help of interior designer Lulu Lytle, but it is also where they welcomed both their children, two-year-old Wilfred and eight-month-old Romy. | https://www.tatler.com/article/are-boris-and-carrie-johnson-moving-to-dulwich-village | 2022-08-15T19:30:46Z | tatler.com | control | https://www.tatler.com/article/are-boris-and-carrie-johnson-moving-to-dulwich-village | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will visit the UK next month for the first time since Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June. The couple will travel to the country twice during early September, for two separate charity events, between which they will visit Germany for the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023 One Year to Go event.
The announcement comes just weeks after Prince Harry was granted permission to bring a High Court challenge against the Home Office, in what is thought to be the first time a Royal Family member has brought legal proceedings against the government. The duke has been allowed to pursue the ongoing battle over the decision not to allow him to pay for police protection when visiting the UK with his family from California.
The Duke of Sussex’s lawyers maintain he should be allowed to fund his own police protection when visiting the UK
The duke and duchess will travel to Manchester on 5 September for the One Young World Summit, a charity event dedicated to ‘connecting and promoting young leaders’. Meghan has long been involved with the organisation, becoming an ambassador for the project in 2014. She is now a One Young World counsellor, alongside Justin Trudeau, Sir Richard Branson, and Jamie Oliver, among others.
On 8 September the couple will attend the WellChild Awards, an event raising awareness for the UK’s seriously ill children and their carers. A spokesman for the couple reportedly said: 'Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are delighted to visit with several charities close to their hearts.' | https://www.tatler.com/article/harry-and-meghan-to-return-to-uk-for-first-time-since-platinum-jubilee | 2022-08-15T19:30:48Z | tatler.com | control | https://www.tatler.com/article/harry-and-meghan-to-return-to-uk-for-first-time-since-platinum-jubilee | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
She's the daughter of one of Europe's most revered royal style icons and ninth in line to the throne, so it's no surprise that excitement is high for the upcoming nuptials of Princess Maria Laura of Belgium.
Plans for the biggest royal wedding of the year are underway
The 33-year-old daughter of Princess Astrid of Belgium and Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este will marry her wealth manager partner, William Ivsy, on 10 September. The Roman Catholic ceremony will take place at the Cathedral of St Michel and St Gudula in Brussels, much like the weddings of her ancestors, including her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Due to her proximity to the crown, Princess Maria Laura had to seek the permission of her uncle, King Philippe, to marry. This was granted in January of this year.
Princess Maria Laura is one of five: she has one older brother, Prince Amadeo, a younger brother, Prince Joachim, and two younger sisters, Princesses Luisa and Laetitia. Despite being the eldest granddaughter of the former King Albert II and his wife Queen Paola, the princess has lived a relatively low-key life outside of the royal spotlight.
She attended the same school as her younger cousins, Princess Elisabeth and Prince Gabriel, Collège Saint-Jean-Berchmans in Brussels, before moving to London for university, studying at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). It was in the English capital that the princess met her beau. After school, she spent some time in China, before becoming a climate analyst at the NGO Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).
It will be the first major Belgian royal wedding in eight years. The last was that of Princess Maria Laura's older brother, Prince Amadeo, who wed Elisabetta Rosboch von Wolkenstein in Rome in 2014. The entire Belgian royal family is expected to be in attendance, as well as other European royals. | https://www.tatler.com/article/plans-for-the-biggest-royal-wedding-of-the-year-are-underway | 2022-08-15T19:30:50Z | tatler.com | control | https://www.tatler.com/article/plans-for-the-biggest-royal-wedding-of-the-year-are-underway | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are reportedly moving from their apartment in Kensington Palace, where they have lived since 2017, to Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor Estate in the coming weeks. Whilst the move from the capital to the Berkshire countryside will offer the Cambridges more privacy, it will also mean losing a mainstay of their family life, their Spanish nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo.
According to the Telegraph, Borrallo will not be living with the family in their four-bedroom cottage, but instead is expected to take up residence close by. The change will mean the children, Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, seven and Prince Louis, four, will be without a live-in nanny for the first time ever.
With reports that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will attend Lambrook School following the Cambridges’ predicted move to Windsor this summer, Tatler’s Education Editor, Tori Cadogan, considers Berkshire’s top runners and riders
Trained at the prestigious Norland College, ‘supernanny’ Borrallo has been with the family for just shy of eight years, after she was hired by the duke and duchess to help look after George when he was eight months old. Aside from everyday childcare, according to Hello!, Borrallo is trained in 'everything from defensive driving to security issues'. | https://www.tatler.com/article/the-duke-and-duchess-of-cambridge-to-lose-nanny-in-move-to-windsor | 2022-08-15T19:30:50Z | tatler.com | control | https://www.tatler.com/article/the-duke-and-duchess-of-cambridge-to-lose-nanny-in-move-to-windsor | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Honouring the enduring elegance of Princess Anne on her birthday
The second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Anne has witnessed the evolving monarchy first-hand. Born in 1950, the Princess Royal has remained a glimmering beacon of British style for over seven decades. A stalwart of tastefully tailored coat dresses, marvellous millinery and pastel hues, the princess's fashion hallmarks are those of championing local designers, injecting modernist riffs into heritage silhouettes and truly celebrating sovereign style as an art form.
From the satin A-line gowns of the Sixties, to the bohemian luxe of the Seventies, to the puff sleeves of Eighties, Princess Anne has always led the pack of fashion-informed royals while continuing to upkeep the standards of protocol. Present-day Anne is no exception either. Her outings to Ascot in the past few years have been nothing short of fabulous, donning decadent dresses in bold colours and her trusted angular sunglasses.
As she turns 72, Tatler revisits her greatest fashion hits. Long live the ever-chic Princess Royal and long may her glamorous style reign on! | https://www.tatler.com/gallery/princess-anne-best-style-moments | 2022-08-15T19:30:54Z | tatler.com | control | https://www.tatler.com/gallery/princess-anne-best-style-moments | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Bill for creation of Zazzau State, a lie — Senator Uba Sani
Senator Uba Sani, representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, has debunked the purported reports trending on social media that Senator Abdu Kwari and himself are sponsoring a bill for the creation of Zazzau state.
A statement issued by him on Monday which he personally signed described the reports as outrageous and patently false information.
Senator Sani who is also the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate for Kaduna said the fake news was the handiwork of mischief makers who wanted to destabilize their state.
“My attention has been drawn to a concocted, subversive, malicious and false information circulating on social media claiming that President Muhammadu Buhari has signed a bill for the creation of Zazzau State, which I allegedly co-sponsored in the Senate with Senator Sulaiman Abdu Kwari.
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“My immediate reaction to this outrageous and patently false piece of information is to wonder how mischievous elements can allow their imaginations to run riot, all in a bid to undermine their political opponent.
According to the lawmaker,” How can people go to the extent of planning to destabilize their own state and worsen the insecurity situation because Senator Uba Sani has gained the full support of the people and is the man to beat in the 2023 governorship elections in Kaduna State.
For the avoidance of doubt, “The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is on break. No such bill is before the Senate.
“Requests for the creation of states are normally tabled before the Committee for Constitutional Review. The story is therefore the handiwork of agents of destabilization and must be investigated by security agencies.
“Those behind this subversive act must be brought to book to serve as a deterrent to others.
“I am fully focused on putting finishing touches to fashioning effective strategies to ensure our success in the 2023 governorship elections. We have also been sharing our blueprint for Kaduna State with critical stakeholders in order to get their input.
“We are set for the commencement of campaigns in September 2022. No amount of evil machinations can distract us from our set goals.
“Their plans would continue to fail because our people are enlightened and understand the schemes of anti-development elements,” he declared. | https://tribuneonlineng.com/bill-for-creation-of-zazzau-state-a-lie-senator-uba-sani/ | 2022-08-15T19:38:42Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/bill-for-creation-of-zazzau-state-a-lie-senator-uba-sani/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The price of household cooking gas known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) rose by over 100 per cent year-on-year, the latest report from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed.
On a month-on-month basis, the average retail price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Cooking Gas) according to the report, increased by 7.57 per cent.
According to NBS price watch data for June 2022, the commodity’s price increased from N3,921.35 recorded in May 2022 to N4,218.38 in June 2022.
This implies a 103.93 per cent increase from June 2021 when a 5kg gas was sold for N2,069.
The report on state profile analysis said Adamawa recorded the highest average price for refilling a 5kg Cylinder of cooking gas with N4,650, followed by Gombe with N4,566 and Niger with N4,540.
On the other hand, Zamfara recorded the lowest average price with N3,700 during the period, while Yobe and Kano had N3,820 and N3,875 respectively.
“In addition, the North-Central recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of LPG with N4,378.95, followed by the North-East with N4,301.48, while the North-West recorded the lowest with N3,994.57,” the report added.
Similarly, the Bureau stated that the average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas rose by 8.70percent on a month-on-month basis from N8,726.30 in May 2022 to N9,485.91 in June 2022.
On a year-on-year basis, it said the price rose by 121.17percent from N4,289.05 in June 2021.
Energy expert, Mr Zaka Bala faulted claims that the hike in the price of petroleum products was due to the hostilities between Ukraine and Russia.
According to him, there was a need for the country to scale up efforts at revamping the refineries.
“Anytime we are discussing energy security, I feel very disappointed when I hear some people tying global shortages to Nigeria rather than explaining why Nigeria is using the wrong model leading to our inefficiencies.
“If you look at the hostilities between Ukraine and Russia, I feel surprised when people try to justify why Nigeria should be experiencing energy insecurity. This is supposed to be a boom time for all countries that have crude oil or gas. The nations that are suffering are those without crude oil or gas.
“Cooking gas is a product of crude oil, during crude oil refining one of the product to come out is LPG. In the case of Nigeria, we produce crude oil but we don’t refine it internally, even in a family, you must first of all be able to feed your family before you think of outsiders but in the case of Nigeria we cannot refine products internally and now that the price of crude oil is very expensive, they sell to refiners who will refine at higher prices, then Nigeria will go and buy at a higher price and when they bring here, we will be complaining. There is no reason why LPG, kerosene, PMS, or diesel should be expensive”
On his part, Chinedu Ukadike, Spokesperson of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) stated that the various initiatives of the government to deepen gas utilisation increased the demand for gas.
His words: “NNPC also came up with programmes to deepen gas utilisation, the autogas, LPG, etc so a lot of people converted to gas use including their generators so the demand for cooking gas became higher. On that ground what determines price is the factor of demand and supply.”
He urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on the refineries saying: “Short time solution is for FG to declare a state of emergency on our refineries and ensure that the refineries are working, fix pipeline refineries and also encourage modular refineries. Also, build new state-of-the-art refineries with modern technology.”
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The Federal Government (FG) on Monday decried the rate of rejection by some employers in the country.
This was even as it stressed the need for corps members to be given enabling environments in their place of primary assignments to contribute their quota to the socio-economic development of the country.
Chairman, National National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta stated this when the NYSC Director General, Brigadier General Muhammad Kaku Fadah paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.
He said the greatest disservice to any corps member is rejection.
Nta however appealed to State Governments to provide conducive Orientation Camps with modern facilities to train Corps Members who are deployed to their States in vocational skills that would make them employers of labour.
“Going towards the 2023 budget, all MDAs should be required to state in their budget what they are going to provide for NYSC so that it is statutory and the country can plan with that,” the Chairman advised.
He also condemned the under-utilization of Corps Members, adding that all employers of labour should adhere strictly to the posting policy of NYSC, which covers education, health, and infrastructure among others.
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The Chairman also described NYSC as one of the institutions that have continuously helped in uniting the nation through the deployment of Corps Members to the nooks and crannies of the country.
In his remarks, the NYSC DG thanked Nta and his team for assisting the Scheme especially in terms of the upward review of Corps Members’ monthly allowances.
He stressed the need for every stakeholder to nurture the youths very well and prepare them for higher responsibilities as good leaders.
He also promised a stronger collaboration between NYSC and the commission.
“The NYSC is a bridge between the youths and the larger society. We thank you most sincerely for what you have done,” General Fadah said. | https://tribuneonlineng.com/fg-decries-rejection-of-corps-members-by-employers/ | 2022-08-15T19:38:52Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/fg-decries-rejection-of-corps-members-by-employers/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
I can’t submit my resignation letter to David Mark ― Ayu
•Says he has 4-year mandate
The national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has dismissed reports of resignation from office, saying that should he decide to quit, he can only submit his letter to the deputy national (North) and not to the former Senate president, David Mark.
Reports had emerged Monday that Mark was in possession of a resignation letter written by Ayu as party supporters were allegedly pressing the former Senate president to speak on the matter.
But in a statement issued on Ayu’s behalf on Monday, his Special Adviser (Media & Communication), Simon Imobo-Tswam, described the claim as false, saying that it exists only in the imagination of those touting it.
According to the statement, if Ayu were to resign, he will submit his letter to the deputy national chairman from his geo-political zone as prescribed by the party’s constitution.
The statement affirmed that Ayu was elected for a four-year tenure with the mandate to lead the PDP to rescue Nigeria and is not contemplating resignation.
It read: “The attention of the PDP National Chairman has been drawn to sponsored stories in the news media today, including THISDAY newspaper and an electronic channel, TVC.
“The stories purport that the PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has resigned. They further add that his purported resignation letter is with ex-Senate President David Mark.
“Our reaction: We state, with all emphasis, that this story is, in its entirety, false, baseless, reckless, inaccurate, and a complete work of fiction. If there is such a resignation, it exists only in the imagination of those who have made themselves available for hatchet jobs.
“If Dr Ayu had resigned, he would give his resignation letter to the Deputy Chairman (North); not Sen. Mark.
“Section 45 (i and ii) of the party’s constitution is clear on this.
“So, where does Distinguished Sen. David Mark come in here, being that he is not even a member of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC)?
“It appears that those who have been procured to blackmail the national chairman out of office are not even aware of what the party’s constitution says about the matter.
“We are shocked that such reckless, vicious, mischievous and fabricated falsehood can find prime space in the mainstream media.
“But even more shocking is the fact that otherwise, respected media houses have made themselves easy platforms for unscrupulous people to peddle falsehood and run smear campaigns, once the fee is right.
“But the fact remains that those who have been procured to write falsehood against the national chairman and those sponsoring same are investing in expensive illusions.
“The national chairman is on a crucial assignment: to lead the PDP on a historic rescue mission, Come February 2023. And he will not be deterred or distracted by media terrorism or political blackmail.
“We restate, therefore, that the PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has not resigned and has no plan of resigning. For clarity and emphasis, he was elected for a tenure of four years.
“Sections 45 and 47 of the PDP constitution are clear on the removal and/or resignation of the national chairman. Those who don’t know this should get copies of the party’s constitution for more information on the matter.
“PDP members and the general public are advised to ignore any stories of such a phantom resignation.”
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Police rescue suspected terrorist who disguised as woman from angry mob in Lagos
There was confusion as residents of Ijora Badia area of Lagos State attempted to lynch a man, suspected to be a terrorist on Monday.
The police in the state confirmed rescuing a man who was allegedly dressed in a female attire but noted that investigation is still ongoing on the incident
The image-maker in charge of the state police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the rescue of the man to the Nigerian Tribune.
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Hundeyin identified the man as a 29-year-old northerner who gave his name as Sanni Gafar.
According to the police spokesperson, Gafar was about to be lynched when policemen rescued him.
The police image maker said: “Preliminary investigation shows that the male suspect, who many alleged disguised as a woman, is Sanni Gafar, aged 29.
“He was found with a bag containing three hammers, six screwdrivers, one pair of pliers, one chisel, five spanners, three rolls of black cellophane, cable wires, 20mm bending spring, a pair of black trousers, and a plastic box of clips.”
Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police also said: “Investigation is ongoing to ascertain his claim that he is an electrician.” | https://tribuneonlineng.com/police-rescue-suspected-terrorist-who-disguised-as-woman-from-angry-mob-in-lagos/ | 2022-08-15T19:39:22Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/police-rescue-suspected-terrorist-who-disguised-as-woman-from-angry-mob-in-lagos/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Police rescue suspected terrorist who disguised as woman from angry mob in Lagos
There was confusion as residents of Ijora Badia area of Lagos State attempted to lynch a man, suspected to be a terrorist on Monday.
The police in the state confirmed rescuing a man who was allegedly dressed in a female attire but noted that investigation is still ongoing on the incident
The image-maker in charge of the state police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the rescue of the man to the Nigerian Tribune.
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Hundeyin identified the man as a 29-year-old northerner who gave his name as Sanni Gafar.
According to the police spokesperson, Gafar was about to be lynched when policemen rescued him.
The police image maker said: “Preliminary investigation shows that the male suspect, who many alleged disguised as a woman, is Sanni Gafar, aged 29.
“He was found with a bag containing three hammers, six screwdrivers, one pair of pliers, one chisel, five spanners, three rolls of black cellophane, cable wires, 20mm bending spring, a pair of black trousers, and a plastic box of clips.”
Hundeyin, a Superintendent of Police also said: “Investigation is ongoing to ascertain his claim that he is an electrician.” | https://tribuneonlineng.com/police-rescue-suspected-terrorist-who-disguised-as-woman-from-angry-mob-in-lagos/ | 2022-08-15T19:39:22Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/police-rescue-suspected-terrorist-who-disguised-as-woman-from-angry-mob-in-lagos/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Popular Nigerian singer, Di’ja, and Hollywood actors, Jennifer Lawrence and Ben Afleck, and footballer, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, are among celebrities whose birthdays are today, August 15.
- Di’ja
Hadiza Blell, now Hadiza Blell-Olo, better known by her stage name Di’Ja, is a Nigerian singer. She is currently signed to Mavin Records. Moreover, she won the Best New Artist award at the 2008 Beat Music Awards. In 2014 she released her breakout hit “Awww”, followed by Mavin record hit singles Dorobucci, Adaobi and Looku Looku.
- Jennifer Lawrence
Born 15 August 1990, she is one of the extremely talented and successful actresses in Hollywood. Jennifer Lawrence is known for her performances in movies like Silver Linings Playbook, Hunger Games and Joy. The acclaimed actress, who supports numerous charitable causes, made her debut as a teenage actor in television and soon gained recognition with series, The Bill Engvall Show, and the movie, The Poker House.
- Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck(born 15 August 1972) is an American actor, Producer, Screenwriter and filmmaker. He started as a child actor and attained fame after winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing ‘Good Will Hunting’ in 1997. He has been involved in a number of successful and critically acclaimed films. He began his career as a child when he starred in the PBS educational series The Voyage of the Mimi. Affleck gained wider recognition in the war drama Pearl Harbor (2001), and the thrillers The Sum of All Fears and Changing Lanes (both 2002). He is now known for starring as Batman.
- Alex Oxlade Chamberlain
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a football player who represents the English national team and the Premier League club Liverpool. In 2012, he became the second-youngest player to play for England at the UEFA European Football Championship. He also represented his national team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He has featured for England 35 times scoring 7 goals. He has won numerous trophies including the Champions League and English Premier League, both with Liverpool.
- Anthony Anderson
Born 15 August 1970) of All About the Andersons fame gained fame as Andre in Black-ish and as Bryan Brown in The Bernie Mac Show. He has also hosted ‘To Tell the Truth’ and been a judge on Iron Chef America. He has featured in films such as Me, Myself and Irene, Kangaroo Jack, The departed, and Transformers.
- Joseph Adam Jonas
Born 15 August 1989, Jonas is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He rose to fame as a member of the pop rock band the Jonas Brothers, alongside his brothers Kevin and Nick. The group released their debut studio album It’s About Time through the Columbia label in 2006, which failed to achieve commercial success. After signing with Hollywood Records, the group released their self-titled second studio album in 2007, which became their breakthrough record.
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Following similar announcements in recent days by other cruise lines, Disney Cruise Line has updated its pre-cruise testing and vaccination protocols beginning September 2, 2022. This includes new age-based vaccination guidelines, as well as exceptions for embarkation day testing for vaccinated guests.
All previous vaccination and testing requirements remain in effect for sailings departing before September 2.
Younger Guests Do Not Need to Be Vaccinated
While Disney Cruise Line’s current protocols require that all guests age 5 and older be fully vaccinated before sailing, that age requirement will be changed for cruises departing September 2 and later. At that time, only guests age 12 and older must be fully vaccinated in order to sail.
The cruise line’s updated protocols do state, however, that “Disney Cruise Line highly recommends that Guests ages 11 and younger be fully vaccinated before sailing.”
Fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), means a complete series of primary vaccination doses (one or two doses, depending on the vaccine type) completed at least 14 days prior to embarkation. Booster shots are not required to be fully vaccinated.
Testing Changes
Guests who are fully vaccinated must present proof of that vaccination completed in the appropriate time frame prior to cruising before boarding a Disney cruise.
If fully vaccinated, guests may take a pre-cruise test 1-2 days prior to sailing on any Disney ship from a U.S. or Canadian homeport, and upload their negative test results to the Inspire Diagnostics Safe Passage website to record their documentation. Guests who do this will now be exempt from a second pre-cruise test at the terminal on embarkation day.
“Fully vaccinated Guests who do not upload test results by midnight prior to embarkation day must be tested at the terminal on embarkation day before boarding the ship and will be charged for the cost of the test,” the cruise line clarifies on its “Know Before You Go” website.
Initial antigen tests at the terminal on embarkation day are $74 (USD) per guest. If a guest receives a positive result, a second PCR test will be administered for $125. If that test confirms the positive result, the guest and their traveling party will not be permitted to board the ship.
For guests departing from Canadian homeports, the costs for testing at the terminal are $95 (CAD) for the initial antigen test, and $160 for a confirming PCR test, if necessary.
Testing for Unvaccinated Guests
Guests who are not vaccinated or who are unable to present appropriate COVID-19 vaccination records prior to embarkation day must take a NAAT or PCR test 1-3 days prior to embarkation. It must be noted that rapid antigen tests are not acceptable for that initial test.
Unvaccinated guests are required to be tested again at the cruise terminal. That test will be paid for by Disney Cruise Line. A second test will also be required if the first result is positive.
As with vaccinated guests, if that second test confirms a positive result, the impacted guest, their traveling party, and close contacts will not be permitted to board, and will be responsible to make their own travel arrangements to return home.
Additional Testing Requirements
Guests maximizing their magical cruise experience with back-to-back sailings must continue to test between voyages, regardless of age, vaccination status, or test results prior to the first cruise.
Read Also: Disney Reminds Guests That Future Cruise Credits Set to Expire
The cruise line also continues to accept documentation from recently recovered guests that may exempt them from pre-cruise testing, depending on when they last tested positive for COVID-19. Guests who find themselves in this situation should contact Disney Cruise Line for updates n the required documentation.
For all cruise lines, the testing and vaccination requirements remain subject to change. Guests booked on upcoming sailings, whether on Disney Cruise Line or any other line, should stay in contact with their cruise line for all updated information. | https://www.cruisehive.com/disney-cruise-line-updates-testing-and-vaccination-protocols/79054 | 2022-08-15T19:42:51Z | cruisehive.com | control | https://www.cruisehive.com/disney-cruise-line-updates-testing-and-vaccination-protocols/79054 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Following similar moves last week by sister cruise lines Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, and Princess Cruises, Holland America Line has announced a dramatic relaxation of its pre-cruise health and safety protocols, dropping pre-cruise testing for vaccinated passengers on a majority of sailings.
All these cruise lines are under the same corporate umbrella, Carnival Corporation & plc, so the similarity in their updated policies and the timing of their announcements is not surprising.
Most Testing Eliminated
As of September 6, 2022, vaccinated guests booked for Holland America Line cruises will no longer need to present a negative pre-cruise COVID-19 test in order to set sail. The new guidelines, while not quite universal, do make cruising much less complicated for most travelers.
“Our guests have been excited to return to cruising, and these changes will make it easier for more guests to explore the world in a safe and enjoyable environment,” said Gus Antorcha, president of Holland America Line. “The new, simplified protocols recognize the evolving nature of COVID-19 while still ensuring we protect the health of our guests, team members and the communities we visit.”
Until now, all guests age 2 and up were required to present a negative test result before sailing. The new guidelines, however, are not universal, and prospective guests should be careful to note whether or not their individual sailings still require a pre-cruise test.
Where Are Tests Still Required?
While this is welcome news indeed for test-weary travelers and those eagerly awaiting a greater return to normalcy in cruising, there are still itineraries that require pre-cruise testing.
At the moment, all cruises that visit Australia, Canada, and Greece must still have passengers test before setting sail.
In an abundance of caution, Holland America Line is also still requiring pre-cruise tests for all passengers on sailings of 16 nights or longer, as well as on select itineraries with more unique routes, such as Panama Canal transits or transatlantic crossings. As these cruises are generally longer than 16 nights already, guests booked on such extraordinary sailings must still take pre-cruise tests.
Unvaccinated Permitted to Sail
In another update to the health and safety protocols, guests who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical, religious, or other personal reasons may once again cruise with Holland America Line on sailings shorter than 16 nights.
Prior to this update, all guests age 12 and older were required to be fully vaccinated at least 14 days before sailing.
Unvaccinated guests, however, will still need to present a negative antigen or PCR test result before embarkation. Tests may be taken up to 72 hours before sailing.
Why So Many Changes?
It has been a tidal wave of changes from multiple cruise lines in recent days, as different cruise lines have been dropping testing and vaccination requirements ever since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ended the COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships in mid-July – less than one month ago.
Ending that program, coupled with the CDC further loosening guidelines for testing, quarantine, social distancing, and contact tracing on August 11, has permitted cruise lines to review their own health and safety protocols and make updates based on their own needs.
While all cruise lines strive to protect the health and safety of their passengers, crew members, and port communities, these are also businesses that need to safeguard their bottom line as well.
With so much frustration having built up since the industry first shut down in March 2020, removing further barriers imposed by testing and vaccination mandates opens up cruises to passengers who may not have been able or willing to set sail in more than 28 months.
All cruise passengers, however, should stay in close contact with their cruise line about updates to protocols as their sailing date approaches, as further changes, even reinstituting mandates, may occur with little advance notice if deemed necessary.
Furthermore, cruise lines must remain in compliance with guidelines from the ports they visit, and should there be regional changes, protocols will be updated once again. | https://www.cruisehive.com/holland-america-line-updates-requirements-for-most-cruises/78939 | 2022-08-15T19:42:52Z | cruisehive.com | control | https://www.cruisehive.com/holland-america-line-updates-requirements-for-most-cruises/78939 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean canceled their calls to Ensenada, Mexico, on Sunday after local unrest made it unsafe for passengers to disembark at the port.
With Mexican National Guard patrolling the city and much of Baja California locked down, the cruise lines had few options left.
The unrest was due to Mexican cartels shutting down much of the region on Friday. Government officials declared the assailants hijacked and burned at least two dozen vehicles, with many of the bars and restaurants closing down early.
Cruise Lines Forced To Cancel Ensenada
Cruise Lines are obligated to ensure the safety of the crew and passengers onboard. No surprise then that both Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Line canceled their port calls to Ensenada, Mexico, this weekend.
Carnival Radiance and Navigator of the Seas were due in Ensenada on Sunday, August 14. However, cartel-related unrest rocked the region on Friday, with most of the Baja California region shutting down for the weekend.
Carnival Cruise Line responded on its Twitter account, saying Carnival Radiance would not be visiting Ensenada: “Due to recent local unrest and issued guidance from the US State Department for its employees to shelter in place in Ensenada and the surrounding region, the Carnival Radiance will cancel the call in Ensenada.”
The State Department further advised those in the region and those with plans to visit to avoid the area to seek shelter, monitor local media, be aware of the surroundings, and notify friends and family of their safety.
The US State Department: “The U.S. Consulate General Tijuana is aware of reports of multiple vehicle fires, roadblocks, and heavy police activity in Tijuana, Mexicali, Rosarito, Ensenada, and Tecate. U.S. government employees have been instructed to shelter in place until further notice.”
Carnival Radiance and Navigator of the Seas have since returned to their homeport of Los Angeles.
Will Future Cruises Be Affected?
Both Carnival Radiance and Navigator of the Seas are scheduled to call in Ensenada in the coming weeks. Both ships run on similar itineraries, switching between three- and four-day cruises to the Mexican Baja Peninsula, including calls to Ensenada.
The outburst of unrest in the region is, rightly so, a situation that many guests will be worried about. For now, the US State Department has declared the situation in Ensenada is under control again and would be safe to travel to and visit.
Carnival Cruise Line has said that guests will receive a $50 onboard credit per person and a 50% future cruise credit to ease the pain of the canceled call. Should any unrest continue over the coming weeks, there will likely be changes to ports the ships call at.
There are several options in the area which cruise ships could use instead of Ensenada, including Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.
It is not likely that cruise lines will be affected by the Passenger Vessel Services Act. Although the law states that cruise ships sailing under a foreign flag from a US port must make a foreign call before returning, there are provisions in place for emergencies. | https://www.cruisehive.com/two-cruise-ship-calls-to-ensenada-canceled-due-to-local-unrest/79068 | 2022-08-15T19:42:54Z | cruisehive.com | control | https://www.cruisehive.com/two-cruise-ship-calls-to-ensenada-canceled-due-to-local-unrest/79068 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Woodbridge cops are behind the wheel of this new empanada food truck inside a school bus
After a long night enforcing the law, responding to emergencies and patrolling Woodbridge last week, township officers Perry Penna and George Beato didn’t head in for some shut-eye.
When their shifts ended at 4 a.m., they went to the kitchen.
“We got off work and then folded empanadas until 7 a.m.,” said Penna. “We took a nap, then got ready for the road.”
It wasn’t an unusual day for the officers, who became best friends when Beato joined the force three years ago. That’s because they’re now the owners of Bussin’ Empanadas, a food truck inside a converted yellow school bus that launched in June.
“It’s tough, but it’s fun,” Penna continued. “Right now we’re just doing events so we can work around our schedules.”
Bussin’ Empanadas can often be found at the Woodbridge Mayor’s Summer Concert Series, which runs at 7:30 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays and Sundays at various township locations. They also will be at the Hispanic Heritage Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17, at town hall.
Other events and locations Bussin’ Empanadas will be at can be found on Instagram. Down the road, the owners hope to have a permanent location.
But for now, they’re having a blast making “stuffed” chicken and beef empanadas, as well as corn, bean and cheese or shrimp empanadas for special events.
“You pay $4 to $5 for other empanadas and they’re small and you have to buy four to feel full,” Penna said. “With ours, which are also $4, you buy two and you’re full. They’re absolutely stuffed.”
The empanadas are available with a homemade hot sauce; the “Bussin’ green sauce,” which is a mild, creamy sauce made with cilantro and jalapenos; and a non-spicy traditional empanada sauce made with a blend of mayonnaise, ketchup and spices.
Beato, who was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the U.S. when he was 12, grew up watching his parents cook.
“Cooking takes me away from everything else – when I’m in the kitchen, I’m focused and I really get going,” he said. “I freestyle everything, but now we have our empanada recipe written down, of course.”
Penna is also a foodie, but prior to Bussin’ Empanadas, he was more on the receiving end of the kitchen. He used to order Uber Eats nearly every day – but now, he sometimes makes his own quesadillas.
“I introduced Perry to a lot of spices he didn’t know existed,” Beato said, laughing. “But now, Perry cooks just as well, if not better, than I do. He made the empanadas for our last two events, and they were on-point.”
Food news:Cinnaholic is celebrating its new Metuchen bakery with a 70% discount Friday
Beato’s empanadas were what launched Bussin’ Empanadas. He made them for Penna’s Cinco de Mayo party last year. Once the party ended – and over a few beers – they decided to start their own food truck.
“I told Perry I’ve always wanted to open a food truck and he said, ‘Are you serious? Me, too,’" Beato said. "The next day, Perry was asking me, ‘What do you think about this or that,’ and I realized he was actually serious.
"So I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ "
However, finding a reasonably-priced food truck wasn’t so simple. In December, they stumbled upon a school bus for sale on Facebook and bought it – inspiring their entire name and concept.
“We bought the truck and we didn’t have a name – we weren’t even formed as a company yet,” said Beato. “ ... We were brainstorming names and we figured it’s a younger crowd, ‘bussin’ means food that’s really good, and it’s also a bus, so let’s go with that.”
Middlesex County news:Train set created by Metuchen native is debuting at Liberty Science Center
The truck was far from ready when Bussin’ Empanadas headed to its first event in June – it didn’t have any letters or signage on it yet – but Penna didn’t want to miss the Iselin Volunteer Fire Company’s 100th anniversary celebration, as he volunteered with the company for a dozenyears.
Needless to say, the empanadas were a hit.
“People loved it," Penna said. "... That’s when we knew we were onto something.”
Go:instagram.com/bussinempanadas/
Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA Today Network New Jersey since 2014, after becoming a blogger-turned-reporter following the creation of her award-winning travel blog. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Contact: JIntersimone@Gannett.com or @JIntersimone. | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/entertainment/dining/2022/08/15/woodbridge-nj-bussin-empanadas-food-truck-is-run-by-police-officers/65398519007/ | 2022-08-15T19:43:51Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/entertainment/dining/2022/08/15/woodbridge-nj-bussin-empanadas-food-truck-is-run-by-police-officers/65398519007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Raritan Township fire leaves three townhomes uninhabitable
RARITAN TOWNSHIP – Residents of three Chelsea Circle townhomes are temporarily displaced after a garage fire Saturday spread to seven connecting units and left three units uninhabitable.
All the residents were able to escape, but one resident suffered a minor injury, police said. Two firefighters were taken to Hunterdon Medical Center for evaluation, according to a Facebook post by the Flemington-Raritan First Aid and Rescue Squad.
Hunterdon County Communications received a 911 call around 2 p.m. Saturday about smoke coming from an attached residential garage on Chelsea Circle at the Flemington South Estates complex, police said.
Raritan Township police and firefighters responded to the area where they found a fire inside the garage of one of the attached townhomes, police said.
Police said the fire spread throughout the unit and into connecting units, impacting seven different units. Firefighters worked to get the fire under control, but three units were left uninhabitable, police said.
The Raritan Township Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire, police said.
Also:Linden VFW building destroyed by fire
Email: srussell@gannettnj.com
Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/15/raritan-township-nj-flemington-south-estates-fire/65403896007/ | 2022-08-15T19:44:15Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/15/raritan-township-nj-flemington-south-estates-fire/65403896007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Edison Senior Center remains closed for safety issues
EDISON – The Edison Senior Center on Woodbridge Avenue has been closed for two weeks to in-person activities due to a building issue.
Chief of Staff Bob Diehl said the issue relates to the sprinkler system.
“While we were renovating the senior center bathrooms, it was determined we would put in a new sprinkler system,” Diehl said. “We are moving quickly to get it done as soon as possible and reopen the Senior Center.”
Councilman Richard Brescher, however, said a recent re-inspection by the Edison Fire Department also uncovered emergency lights that were not working, exit signs with issues related to whether they work, missing components on the fire alarm panel and the sprinkler system turned off.
In a video posted to Brescher's Facebook page Friday, he said the fire department deemed the senior center a hazard and the building, which also serves as a cooling center on hot days, was shut down. The closure was announced by the township on July 29.
At the last township council meeting, members tabled a resolution awarding an emergency contract and purchase order to Allied Fire & Safety for a fire suppression system replacement at the senior center at a cost of $115,000.
Brescher said a 2019 report noted a leak in the building's sprinkler system and an inspection of the piping system was recommended by the fire alarm company. The following year the fire department reviewed the building and noted there were no reports for the building’s fire sprinkler and fire panel, Brescher said.
"This is our life safety device right here, the ones that notify you there's a fire," Brescher said. "None of these items were taken care of in 2020."
Local:Edison fire chief suspended, township won’t comment
He said the same issues were noted in a 2021 report along with a recommendation that the piping be checked for leaks and sludge and that problem piping be treated or replaced.
Brescher said the fire department's 2021 report also noted emergency doors that were too hard for senior citizens to open in the event of a fire or other emergency as well as issues with whether the fire and smoke alarms and the sprinkler system were working.
The Edison Senior Center, located at 2963 Woodbridge Ave., is the only one in the township.
With the building's closure, senior transportation services have continued to be provided and some activities have been relocated.
For the week of Aug. 15, senior citizen activities will be held at the Woodbrook Elementary School, 15 Robin Road, township officials announced.
With the building closed, Jay Elliot, township director of health and human services, arranged to relocate staff to the William Toth Health Center on Idlewild Road. The township has plans to expand that facility by 2,000 square feet and rename it the Toth Health and Senior Center and provide programming similar to the activities at the Woodbridge Avenue senior center.
Elliot said phones were redirected and additional computer workstations were installed. In addition, arrangements were made to maintain transportation (medical, shopping, etc.) and home delivery of meals. Nutrition staff has offered home delivered meals to those that have been receiving in-person meals at the center, he said.
He said staff contacted club presidents and seniors scheduled to attend exercise and dance classes at the center. An Aug. 2 county sponsored art program was relocated to the health center.
Questions and updates about senior services can be obtained by calling 732-248-7345 and following Edison Township Government Facebook page.
Email: srussell@gannettnj.com
Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2022/08/15/edison-nj-senior-center-closed-safety/65401887007/ | 2022-08-15T19:44:27Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2022/08/15/edison-nj-senior-center-closed-safety/65401887007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Longtime nightclub, events venue on Route 35 in Sayreville eyed for redevelopment
SAYREVILLE – The Borough Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing and final vote Monday on an ordinance that would establish a redevelopment plan for the Club Pure site on Route 35 and amend the borough's general ordinances and zoning map.
The purpose of the proposed "1970 Route 35 Redevelopment Plan" is to permit the redevelopment of the Club Pure site into a self-storage facility.
"The traffic, noise and general activity impacts associated with the historic nightclub use of the property and potentially associated with other uses permitted by the current B-3 Zoning likely far exceed any potential impacts associated with a self-storage facility," the proposed redevelopment plan says. "Self-storage tends to be an excellent combination of commercial ratable with limited demand for municipal services and virtually no impacts on traffic patterns and neighboring properties."
The 138,000-square-foot parcel, located along the east side of Route 35, is developed with a single-story masonry building that housed Club Pure and several other structures at the north end of the property near the terminus of Olsen Street. The surrounding area is characterized by a mix of commercial uses along Route 35 and residential neighborhoods set just off the highway, the proposed plan says.
The proposed plan calls for Morgan Rescue Squad, which abuts the site at the north end, to continue to use and access overflow parking that has historically been available to its members.
But Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick said she and others have concerns.
"I do have some opposition when it comes to access and parking by the Morgan Rescue Squad and how the squad will function if they take a significant portion of the property away," the mayor said. "Any plans being developed there have to include the ability for our first aid squad to be able to access and use the property, like they have been doing for years. We need to have that confirmed. We have to support our first responders. Development is great and I'm glad that it's going to be utilized and bring in some revenue, but not to the detriment of our first responders and our community. We're expecting to get more detailed information about the proposed plan and layout at the site at Monday's Borough Council meeting."
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According to the proposed redevelopment plan, in October 2021, the Planning Board was directed to determine whether the site at 1970 Route 35 should be designated a non-condemnation area in need of redevelopment and appointed Michael P. Fowler Associates to perform a preliminary investigation.
The property has been used for decades as a nightclub and events venue. Most recently the property was the home of Pure, a club and event center. From 1992 to 2011, it was the home of Club Abyss, one of several nightclubs along Route 35, the proposed redevelopment plan says.
On Feb. 16, the Planning Board held a public hearing in which a report was presented by Michael Fowler that concluded the area met the statutory criteria to be designed an area in need of redevelopment. The board made a recommendation to the council concurring with Fowler's report and testimony.
On March 14, the Borough Council adopted a resolution designating the property as a non-condemnation area in need of redevelopment and authorized Heyer, Gruel & Associates of Red Bank, the borough's planner, to prepare the redevelopment plan.
The ordinance was introduced at the July 18 borough council meeting.
A public hearing and final vote are scheduled to be held at Monday's 7 p.m. borough council meeting, which will be held at the Municipal Building, 167 Main St.
According to the plan, a self-storage facility "will serve as a more appropriate transitional use between the residential neighborhoods to the east of the area and Route 35 than a nightclub event venue."
"The plan anticipates that the redevelopment of the area will benefit the borough and neighboring properties while limiting the negative externalities," the plan says.
The plan also includes an outline for the planning, development, redevelopment or rehabilitation of the project area.
The area would be developed in accordance with the standards detailed in the plan and will be coordinated through the Sayreville Economic Redevelopment Authority, which is responsible for redevelopment areas in the borough, the plan says.
In addition, to permitting self-storage facilities of one or more buildings providing enclosed storage units for lease by the public, the plan would also continue to allow certain uses permitted in the borough's B-3 Zone.
Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com
Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2022/08/15/sayreville-nj-route-35-club-pure-redevelopment/65400026007/ | 2022-08-15T19:44:33Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2022/08/15/sayreville-nj-route-35-club-pure-redevelopment/65400026007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
South Brunswick planners to consider two more warehouse projects
SOUTH BRUNSWICK – The Planning Board is set to hear two warehouse applications.
Kenneth and Rebecca Yeung, owners of the property, applied for site plan approval for a proposed warehouse/office addition with parking and other site improvements at 2344 Route 130, in the Dayton section of the township.
The existing warehouse is approximately 112,781 square feet. The proposed addition will include approximately 115,601 square feet of warehouse and office space for a total of approximately 228,382 square feet after construction.
The site, located in the I-3 (General Industrial) Zoning District, is about 14.61 acres. Route 130 is located north and northwest of the site along with industrial properties. To the northeast is Chris Court and additional industrial warehouses and commercial properties. The site has wooded and wetland areas along the perimeter and portions of the site, according to documents filed with the township.
The site is occupied by Prince of Peace, headquartered in California, which imports and distributes quality consumer packaged goods to over 100,000 retail outlets in the United States, according to its website.
Access to the site is provided with a right-in/right out driveway to the northbound lanes of Route 130 with a full movement driveway to Chris Court. Access to the site would not be changed although the internal driveway from Route 130 will be reoriented around the southern side of the proposed warehouse expansion.
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According to a traffic engineering evaluation, "the redevelopment of this project will have a minimal impact on the traffic operations of the studied intersections" and "the design of the development will adequately serve the needs of the facility's employees, visitors and delivery vehicles."
Elsewhere, Bridge Acquisition, of Parsippany, wants to construct a 291,758-square-foot warehouse and office building on a Superfund site.
Bridge Acquisition is seeking preliminary and final site plan approval to construct the building on a 26.10-acre lot at 999 Cranbury South River Road, which is situated in the JIS Landfill Redevelopment Zone.
The JIS Landfill Redevelopment Area is located on the west side of Cranbury-South River Road between Docks Corner Road and Ridge Road, east of the New Jersey Turnpike, according to the Redevelopment Plan for the JIS Landfill Redevelopment Area.
The site currently contains a vacant, single-story masonry building in the southeast corner, an adjacent concrete slab, a biosparge ground water remediation and various areas of pavement concrete and compacted gravel, the plan says. The western third of the site, roughly 9 acres, adjacent to the New Jersey Turnpike is the former landfill that has been capped, according to the redevelopment plan.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA placed the site on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List in September 1983. In December 1985, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey issued an order for the landfill to close.
Hearings on both applications are scheduled to be held at the 7 p.m. Aug. 17 planning board meeting.
Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com
Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com. To get unlimited access to her work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2022/08/15/south-brunswick-nj-warehouse-development/65397435007/ | 2022-08-15T19:44:39Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/middlesex-county/2022/08/15/south-brunswick-nj-warehouse-development/65397435007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Are upgrades to Branchburg natural gas compressor station beneficial or harmful?
BRANCHBURG – It's a debate for our time: are there inherent benefits to improving the country's infrastructure for delivering fossil fuels or are those improvements not necessary and will exacerbate the impacts of climate change and pose health risks?
That debate continued Thursday at Raritan Valley Community College at a state Department of Environmental Protection public hearing whether a permit should be granted to Williams-Transco to upgrade its natural gas compressor station on Case Road.
Compressor stations are placed along natural gas pipelines to maintain the pressure and flow of natural gas.
Most Branchburg residents are not aware there is a compressor station in the township. There's only a small sign on Case Road that's easily missed at the end of a long driveway with a secure gate and fence less than a mile from Neshanic Valley Golf Course.
Williams-Transco is seeking federal and state approval to upgrade the facility by replacing the compressor's old engines with gas-driven turbines which the company says are more efficient and will result in a 97% decrease in permitted air emissions.
The upgrade is part of the company's $800 million investment in its Regional Energy Access (REA) project in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which includes no new pipelines in New Jersey, a new compressor station in Gloucester County and upgrades to another compressor station in Old Bridge.
The company says the project supports Gov. Phil Murphy's goal of 100% clean energy by 2050 by supplying power during the transition.
The company also says the Branchburg portion of the project will provide 132 union jobs and $175,000 in additional property tax revenue.
But opponents said in a rally before the hearing and during the hearing that the project is not needed, presents unnecessary health risks and perpetuates the state's dependence on fossil fuels.
"This proposal to burn even more dirty fossil fuel is an unnecessary health and public safety risk to families and businesses in the surrounding communities, many of whom have already been forced to bear the brunt of climate change and pollution,” Ed Potosnak, executive director of New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said at the rally before the hearing. “This project would negatively affect communities throughout the state and drastically increase pollution. We can’t continue to rely on pipelines and compressor stations that maintain our dependence on dirty fossil fuels. Expansion isn’t appropriate to meet our needs today and into the future, and approval would be a step in the wrong direction when it comes to the future of the state’s energy economy. New Jersey must instead continue to transition to renewable energy.”
Also see:Feds give 2-year extension to build natural gas pipeline under Raritan Bay
Postonak said the project is "one major step backwards" and he commended the state Board of Public Utilities for finding that the project is not necessary.
"It's bad for Branchburg, it's bad for New Jersey and it's bad for the world's climate," he said.
Somerset County Commissioner Melonie Marano said she has "deep concerns" about the project, whether it's necessary and whether it will stress the resources of Branchburg's volunteer firefighters. Marano also said the company has a "spotty safety record."
There was a flash fire at the compressor station in May 2013 where two people were taken to the hospital with injuries.
Township resident Teresa Callahan said Williams-Transco has an "abysmal safety record" and the DEP should not grant the permit.
"It's not acceptable for the DEP to gamble with residents' health," she said.
But members of unions said the project was necessary, would improve the environment and provide jobs.
“The permit in front of the NJDEP regarding upgrades to existing Station 505 as part of Williams’ REA project will result in significant and meaningful emissions reductions,” said Greg Lalevee, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 825. “What we have with REA is a well-designed infrastructure modernization project that will create local, union jobs and increase the reliability of our energy supply while supporting the state’s aggressive climate goals. DEP should approve this permit.”
“The REA project is a smart investment that will nearly eliminate emissions at the existing facility and create local union jobs,” saidCiro Scalera, director of government relations of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA). “Williams has committed to using local, union labor to increase New Jersey’s energy supply and reduce emissions at the existing station by nearly 100%, without laying any new pipeline in the state."
But Matt Smith, New Jersey director of Food & Water Watch, said there were many jobs available in green energy and warned about the environmental consequences of fossil fuels.
"There are no jobs on a dead planet," he said.
Raymond Cantor, vice president of government affairs for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, said it would be "easy" for the DEP to grant the permit because the projects meet all regulatory standards. He also said the upgrade to the compressor station would reduce emissions by 95% and deliver more gas to New Jersey without new pipelines.
Cantor also said the project would generate "good union jobs."
Opinion:New Jersey already said no to a gas pipeline once. We must say no to NESE again
A coalition of environmental groups sent a letter with 75 signatures on Thursday to Gov. Murphy to reject the project, saying that overall, the project would lead to a 16% increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The letter also said the project would bring "irreparable" harm to local communities.
Williams-Transco filed its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the first quarter of 2021. FERC is scheduled to issue its decision in November.
If approvals are given by FERC and the DEP, Williams-Transco estimates construction could begin in July 2023 be completed by the winter 2024.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/somerset-county/2022/08/15/nj-dep-williams-transco-natural-gas-compressor-branchburg/65401496007/ | 2022-08-15T19:44:45Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/somerset-county/2022/08/15/nj-dep-williams-transco-natural-gas-compressor-branchburg/65401496007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Somerset County's new prosecutor outlines priorities and a new focus
SOMERVILLE – One of the top priorities for John McDonald, Somerset County's new prosecutor, is to get guns off the street.
It's part of the transition he envisions for the prosecutor's office by sharpening the focus on victim crimes, such as sexual assault, domestic violence and child pornography, and shifting away from drug possession cases, he said. The office's energy will be refocused on violent crimes and firearms.
In just his first weeks on the job, McDonald, who had served five years as a judge in the Family Division of Superior Court, has reached out to the community for help in the war against guns.
On National Night Out in Franklin, he met with the local members of Moms Demand Action, a national grassroots movement advocating public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence and educate people about gun safety.
"They're just wonderful people," he said to MyCentralJersey.com last week in his first interview since taking office.
McDonald said the Homeland Security slogan, "if you see something, say something," should also apply to those who know about illegal guns.
"We want to get the word out," he said, adding that getting guns off the streets can prevent "so much tragedy."
Earlier:John McDonald confirmed as new Somerset County prosecutor
Another one of McDonald's goals is establish trust between the county's growing Hispanic population and law enforcement.
The prosecutor, as Somerset County's top law enforcement official, has also met with all the county's police chiefs. He also said that he appreciates the support that the county commissioners have showed both to the prosecutor's office and the judiciary.
'We're lawyers first'
For more than three decades, McDonald said one of his jobs as a lawyer was to talk. But as a judge and now prosecutor he now listens and every day, he prays for the patience to listen to people
With McDonald becoming prosecutor, Michael Rogers, who retired from Superior Court this year, became executive chief assistant prosecutor. Together, they're a dynamic legal duo.
They met on their first day at Seton Hall Law School on Sept. 1, 1976, and they've been best friends ever since.
After law school, they started their own law firm in Somerville in 1980 and remained partners until 2017 when they were both nominated to the bench.
Universally respected both for their professionalism, both in their legal knowledge and their unstinting politeness and decency in dealing with attorneys and clients in both their private practice and their years on the bench, McDonald and Rogers approach their new roles with a simple philosophy.
"We're lawyers first," Rogers said.
And unlike many in their positions, at this point in their lives and careers, they have no egos to feed or other ambitions except to do their jobs as best as possible and make sure that Somerset County residents feel safe and secure.
That means they're not going to be racing to crime scenes, McDonald said, adding that he is confident that the office's professionals will do their jobs.
McDonald put Annemarie Mueller, the new first assistant prosecutor, in the spotlight last week at a press conference to announce the arrest of a Raritan Borough man for sexual assaults in parks in Bridgewater and Franklin.
One of McDonalds's first decisions was the appointment of Mueller who has been in the prosecutor's office for 11 years and has focused on seeking justice for the victims of sexual violence.
Mueller will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the office and will supervise 24 assistant prosecutors.
Decades in law
McDonald, who had a reputation as one of the state's top defense lawyers, said he is comfortable working with the assistant prosecutors who were once his adversaries in the courtroom, praising their professionalism and collegiality.
Born in the Bronx, McDonald has been a resident of Watchung since 1984. He has been married 46 years to Bernadette DeCastro, a Superior Court judge.
Rogers, who was born and raised in Newark, is a Hunterdon County resident where he and his wife of 47 years have a 17-acre farm. At a local farmers market, he said, "we sell what we don't eat."
McDonald replaces Michael Robertson who resigned near the end of his term in late January to become a partner in an Essex County law firm. Robertson is also serving as Bridgewater’s special counsel on police matters.
McDonald is a past president of the Somerset County Bar Association and served as president of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He served on the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee and was also a member of the District XIII Ethics Committee. McDonald has been active in the Seton Hall Law School Inn of Court. He also received the 2012 Somerset County Professional Lawyer of the Year Award.
In his five years on the Superior Court bench, Rogers served in the Civil, Family and Criminal divisions. Before becoming a judge, Rogers was also a defense lawyer and served as attorney for both the Somerville and Holland school boards.
Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com
Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/somerset-county/2022/08/15/somerset-county-nj-prosecutor-john-mcdonald-guns/65400157007/ | 2022-08-15T19:44:51Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/somerset-county/2022/08/15/somerset-county-nj-prosecutor-john-mcdonald-guns/65400157007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
While Virginia Beach Public Schools is removing several books from school libraries after objections over sexual content from some parents, Prince William County Public Schools has thus far declined to do the same with any books over parental concerns.
But the local school system is seeing an increase in challenges to library books, something that comes as conservative parents are promising to maintain the new scrutiny on school libraries.
The school system fielded six challenges to library books over the past school year, according to data obtained by InsideNoVa using a Freedom of Information Act request.
Lois Lowry’s “The Giver,” a Newbery Medal winner, was challenged for “infanticide and euthanasia.” Other books challenged were “Carlos Gomez Freestyles” by Chuck Gonzalez, “Cultivating Strong Girls” by Nancy Evans, “Julián is a Mermaid” by Jessica Love, “The Conscious Parent’s Guide to Gender Identity” by Darlene Tando, and “What Riley Wore” by Elana K. Arnold and Linda Davick. None has been removed from local schools’ libraries.
According to a school system spokesperson, new books are added to the library from recommendations “based on student input, staff input, community input, and professional journal lists of recommended text.” The recommendations are then vetted by professional librarians and presented to “supervising administrators for feedback and approval prior to purchase by the school bookkeeper.”
When a library book is challenged, it goes to a committee that reviews the material and makes a ruling. In Virginia Beach, committees ruled that two books: Alice Sebold’s “Lucky” and Ellen Hopkins’ “Triangles” will no longer be featured in school libraries after they were deemed “to no longer be age appropriate,” according to The Virginian-Pilot.
In Prince William, the simple mention of a same-sex relationship drew uproar from some parents last year, when the librarian at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School read “Prince & Knight” – a book about a prince who falls in love with a knight – during the school’s morning announcements.
After the incident, county Supervisor Yesli Vega (R-Coles) – her party’s nominee for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District seat this fall – said she was “assisting a Prince William resident and dealing privately with local government officials in regards to the availability of books to our children depicting graphic sexual acts inappropriate for young minds.”
The school system said the six challenges last year were more than are received during a typical year.
After a 2021-22 school year that saw increased community organizing along partisan lines toward the school system and the Prince William County School Board, conservative parents in the county are already organizing for the upcoming year. A Prince William chapter of the parents group Moms for Liberty is planning to kick off activities later this month.
Leaders of the new chapter did not respond to inquiries from InsideNoVa, but Moms for Liberty groups elsewhere, including in Fauquier County, have regularly challenged books in school libraries.
Most of Prince William’s book challenges were sent by Chris Fundeburg, a Nokesville resident who told InsideNoVa that he has children in the school division. Fundeburg has regularly used the School Board’s public comment period to rail against the division’s “trans agenda.” He graphically described the genitalia of some trans people at a School Board meeting in June, prompting dozens in attendance to walk out for the duration of his speech. | https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/parents-protesting-more-books-at-prince-william-school-libraries/article_369966c0-1cb7-11ed-89bf-635523369e14.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:38Z | insidenova.com | control | https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/parents-protesting-more-books-at-prince-william-school-libraries/article_369966c0-1cb7-11ed-89bf-635523369e14.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- A Kaimuki family's two daughters say they are traumatized after witnessing a man skinny dip at a Kahala beach.
Hawaii law says you can be topless, but not bottomless at state beaches. Honolulu Police say there are no fully-nude beaches on the island that are legal.
The sound of the surf and the beach are supposed to be peaceful, but not for two sisters coming to Kahala Beach near Kala Place.
“We're still scared. My sister is still very scared. And we don't plan on coming back to this beach,” said Megan Kapule.
Five months ago, warning bells went off when Megan and Kiana Kapule were heading toward the beach's entrance.
“This guy drove by and asked us if we needed a ride," Megan recalled.
The sisters, of course, said no. But when they got to the water, things got even worse.
“He approached us and asked us if it was a nude beach. We said no. Then he told us about himself and walked away,” Megan said.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, Megan says it happened again -- same person, same place, same scenario, but different ending.
“He asked us if it was a nude beach. This time he asked us if he could get in the water. We didn't expect anything of it until he took off his clothes,” Megan said.
Megan is 21, but her sister Kiana is only 15.
“In the corner of my eye, I saw him getting undressed. When he saw my sister put her phone to her ear, he asked if she was taking pictures of him," Kiana said.
“He smiled when she asked that, which is kind of odd,” said Megan.
“As he was naked he was trying to start a conversation with us. So my sister was looking at him, but trying to block his lower area,” Kiana said.
Honolulu CrimeStoppers says cases concerning nudity have their own specifics.
“In general, if you're out in public and you're in fully nude, you fall under the indecent exposure law. But if you're nude and conducting some kind of inappropriate behavior, it would fall under sex assault four. That’s in the event someone is alarmed or affronted by your actions,” said CrimeStoppers PIO Sgt. Chris Kim.
The Kapule sisters say when the man got in the water, they called their parents and immediately left the beach. But the open street didn't make them feel any safer.
“We saw him drive past us three times,” Kiana said.
The girls’ father says they did file a police report. HPD and CrimeStoppers haven't gotten back to KITV4 about this case, or said if there are any others like it.
The Kapule family just wants to get the word out. The two girls describe the man as having a greyish beard, being 5'6 to 5'8 tall, with a large tattoo on his chest, and tattoos on his arms near his shoulders.
If you have experienced anything like these sisters did, contact the police.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
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/crime/oahu-sisters-creeped-out-after-man-strips-naked-tries-to-strike-up-conversation-at-kahala/article_59a4ee4e-1c73-11ed-a5e9-df63aca571ac.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:42Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/crime/oahu-sisters-creeped-out-after-man-strips-naked-tries-to-strike-up-conversation-at-kahala/article_59a4ee4e-1c73-11ed-a5e9-df63aca571ac.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
“Aside from [being] friends, we’re very different people, which makes it work well,” Axe Addicts Co-Founder Sean Love said. The mobile axe throwing company out of Gainesville has been around for a year, a passion project of a group of friends with very different expertise.
Sean brings business development and marketing skills to the table as head of the business but jokes that he doesn’t have any other redeeming qualities. Sean has known Chris Goetz for decades and calls him a money wizard. Chris knows how to manage small businesses and work with the county. Dan Glicoes is the engineering mastermind behind their rigs.
Where the story starts
To understand what brings these guys together, we must return to early 2021. Around that time, Chris took his family to a local axe throwing venue. He enjoyed it and suggested the activity to the guys. He also wanted to join an axe throwing league, so they all tried it out and immediately slipped into a league–where their now-Operations Lead Tyler Roby was their coach.
Tyler wound up as a coach after a DC bar he applied to around 2018 asked if he was interested in managing their axe throwing venue.
“I didn’t even know that was a thing at the time,” Tyler said. “I got a chance to check it out and here we are today.”
What makes Axe Addicts different
They all know that axe throwing has been on the scene for years, but it became mainstream within the last decade.
“I was with Toby probably every day for two months. It was a complete obsession,” Sean said.
As they became friends with Tyler, they asked him if he considered branching out on his own. They talked about how it was expensive to do things as a family, and how there weren’t local mobile axe throwing businesses to bring the sport to social venues or events. The guys realized the difficulties–in affordably providing the activity for families and hurdles with insurance–but they each had solutions to offer… so Tyler bought a trailer.
Beginnings of a business
“We started building the business and realized pretty quickly we had no idea what we were doing… [and] that if we’re responsible for our money [then] we’re going to go broke quickly,” Sean chuckled. So they brought in Chris and Dan as the economics and engineering experts, respectively.
When hunting down insurance for a mobile axe throwing company, Chris said, “We worked with some of the lead national insurers to develop new programs.” Instead of omitting insurance or paying insane premiums, they established a reasonable mobile axe throwing rate with those companies.
They navigated permits, rules and regulations, and registration.
“We had no idea if this was going to be successful, we just wanted to do it. We figured worst case, we have a trailer we can practice throwing in on the weekends,” Sean said.
The Axe Addicts mission
“We wanted to make sure that we did two things when we started this business: make it accessible and fun. Our approach is to make sure that we’re spending the right amount of time with people to show them how to do things,” Sean explained. He wanted people to enjoy sticking their axe into the target and give kids the safety to join in.
“One of the other motives we had in getting started was to make this addiction that we’re so passionate about available to others… Being mobile and having lower overhead gives us the advantage of bringing this to people who might not otherwise be able to enjoy it,” Chris said.
Dan pointed out “the amount of visceral fun it is to throw something with a lot of heft to it and see it stick into a target,” saying, “There’s an element of stress relief there and I know that we all can use that.”
They launched at the Haymarket Day Parade in October 2021 and have been busy about every weekend since.
Everybody can stick it
“We haven’t had a single person come through our trailer who we haven’t been able to get to stick the board,” Sean stated–“Knock on wood,” Tyler interjected. They’ve had a myriad of people enter their trailer–kids, couples in their 70s.
“Anybody can throw an axe as long as someone shows you how to do it the right way,” Sean said.
They’ve brought axe throwing to bridal showers and had just been to an event with teachers when I caught up with them.
“We’ve been asked if we do funerals too,” Tyler said. Chris added, “We can do team-building events for corporate activities. We do birthday [and] retirement party activities.”
They have breweries where they regularly bring the fun, like Tin Cannon and Old Bust Head. Sean clarified that the venues have to have “good beer and good people” because they run the business in their free time outside of their full-time jobs.
Where it goes from here
They want to grow–their reach, opportunities, and availability. They imagine expanding to Winchester, establishing a brick-and-mortar shop, increasing their charity, and building more trailers. They refer to the in-progress third trailer as “Axezilla,” if that says anything. The idea for the new trailer has been on Dan’s mind since last Halloween.
The Axe Addicts experience
Their trailers are done up with hours of fun in mind, complete with safety measures like a slant between the back wall and ceiling that prevents ricocheting axes.
“It’s a dual target system, it has got lights… a cool LED system and even blacklights. Makes for a fun environment to put people at ease and let them enjoy the experience as much as possible,” Dan said.
When you throw with Axe Addicts, there’s always a coach on hand–to make sure you have fun, are safe, and to enjoy the experience with you.
“We’re doing this because we love it, that’s why the name is what it is,” Sean said. “This is a combination of meeting up with great friends, great timing, and a sport that’s coming into its own.”
For information, email either of these two addresses Info@axeaddicts.net and sean@axeaddicts.net, call (703) 232-9394, or visit Axe Addicts online at axeaddicts.net
This feature appears in the August 2022 issue of Haymarket-Gainesville Lifestyle Magazine. Pick up your copy here. | https://www.insidenova.com/lifestyles/throw-on-the-go-axe-throwing-made-mobile-by-a-group-of-friends/article_7c4700f4-1cb9-11ed-963e-0f085d763e6d.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:44Z | insidenova.com | control | https://www.insidenova.com/lifestyles/throw-on-the-go-axe-throwing-made-mobile-by-a-group-of-friends/article_7c4700f4-1cb9-11ed-963e-0f085d763e6d.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- A long night at the State Capitol, where the staff and volunteers pulled an overnighter. The night ran fairly smoothly, with minor delays.
The Senate Chamber served as the counting center for the state races and the county of Honolulu. As ballots came in in small batches from districts, staff and Official Observers processed them.
The state's Chief Election Officer Scott Nago says there were small delays. "Every election has hiccupcs, it's a matter of how you deal with it, like the line situation at the Maui Voter Service Center, or making sure we got equipment in on time," he notes, adding most of the problems were issues voters wouldn't necessarily see.
The Wailuku Voter Service Center he's referring to had a long line of people waiting to vote when voting ended at 7 p.m., but anyone in line by that time could vote. The first printout is never released until after all votes are cast, which delayed the first printout. It was a long night for staff. Nago showed up for work at 7 a.m. Saturday and expects to pull a 24-hour day.
This is first year the state is going with its new scanning machine vendor, Hart Intercivic. "So far so good," notes Nago, who says the machines processed the ballots quickly. "I'm happy with it."
Something he's less happy with is the low voter turnout. "Every election is different. This wasn't a presidential race. But voters need a reason to vote," he says.
The state sent out 730,000 ballots to active registered voters. As of Saturday night they'd received under 300,000. That's in the low 30%.
But despite the long hours and the abysmal voter turnout, Nago loves his job. He's been with the elections office since 1998, and the Chief Officer since 2010. "It's the thrill of election night that we get to do every two years," smiles Nago.
He probably hasn't gone to sleep by the time this story ran on our Sunday morning show. And he'll be doing it all over again in November for the general election.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
Diane is KITV4’s weekend evening anchor and weekday reporter. She hosts the Aging Well series on Tuesday evenings at 5, 6, and 10 p.m. She is a mother, a cat owner, and a yogi. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/elections-official-says-hawaii-primary-election-night-ran-fairly-smoothly/article_281bbeec-1bb6-11ed-b75f-838451bbf139.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:48Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/elections-official-says-hawaii-primary-election-night-ran-fairly-smoothly/article_281bbeec-1bb6-11ed-b75f-838451bbf139.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Interfaith congregations from throughout the region have joined together to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the historically black Shiloh Baptist Church at 8310 Turning Leaf Lane in McLean, with additional special activities on the way.
The religious center has supported area residents through times of segregation, women’s right to vote, political unrest and progress as Northern Virginia has grown.
“God has done so many great things throughout the life of this ministry; however, there’s so much more to be accomplished,” said the Rev. Dr. Robert F. Cheeks Jr., who is celebrating 15 years of leading the congregation. “At a time when many churches have closed, Shiloh still stands on solid ground.”
Shiloh Baptist Church was founded and organized in 1872 by Cyrus Franklin Carter, who also organized other historic churches like First Baptist Church of Vienna and First Baptist Church Chesterbrook.
Sesquicentennial events kicked off with food and fellowship at a picnic hosted by the church on July 16. Congregants from Lewinsville Presbyterian and First Baptist Church Chesterbrook attended the event.
“We are proud members of a church that has sustained and thrived worship and service in the community for 150 years,” said Michelle Spady, a Shiloh member and team lead of the anniversary celebration.
Like many religious institutions, Shiloh Baptist has had to adapt over the past two years during the COVID pandemic. The church currently live-streams all its Sunday services and also has resumed in-person gatherings the first and third Sundays of the month, with the second and fourth Sundays being virtual-only.
The celebration continues on Aug. 20 with “Spotlight on Shiloh,” to be held from 3 to 5 p.m. at the McLean Community Center.
The milestone anniversary’s festivities will culminate with a brunch cruise on Sept. 17, followed by a special service on Sept. 18, at which time the restored church bell will be ceremonially rung. The public is invited. For information on the church, see the Website at https://shilohbcva.nm-secure.com.
[https://sungazette.news provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.] | https://www.insidenova.com/mclean-church-marks-150-years-of-service-to-community/article_db82298c-1cc2-11ed-87cb-6b3396a20597.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:50Z | insidenova.com | control | https://www.insidenova.com/mclean-church-marks-150-years-of-service-to-community/article_db82298c-1cc2-11ed-87cb-6b3396a20597.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) beefed up the guidelines early this year, now making it harder to become a licensed commercial driver.
Officials said although this is to ensure safety on the roads, it can hurt the truck driver shortage even more.
”Before a student could just train with his uncle and if he could pass the test for the road test, he could get his CDL. Now a student has to receive training from a federally-approved training provider,” said Michael Scully, CDL coordinator at Leeward Community College.
Scully stresses that a truck driver shortage impacts other shortages we see at grocery stores. An empty shelf can mean there are not enough drivers to bring food and other items from the ports.
”Trucking is not an easy job. It can be dangerous and you spend a lot of time alone. It takes a certain person to want to drive a truck. Hopefully now, people will know how important truckers are to our local economy,” said Scully.
This shortage hit gas stations hard. Recently, some Hele gas stations in Oahu ran out of gas and closed temporarily.
Par Hawaii told KITV in a statement: "Finding drivers who can pass our rigorous on-road driving test and who make safety a priority has been a challenge for us and other companies. We have contracted third-party companies for drivers to serve as an extension of our own drivers, but these companies are faced with the same obstacles."
Instructors at Leeward Community College said they are offering more courses to get the number of certified drivers back up in Hawaii.
If you are interested in becoming a licensed commercial driver, go to www.ocewd.org or contact CDL coordinator Michael Scully director at mscully@hawaii.edu.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com | https://www.kitv.com/news/shortage-of-commercial-truck-drivers-hit-certain-industries-hard/article_0332db4a-1cd0-11ed-819b-3f7fa1df1598.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:54Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/shortage-of-commercial-truck-drivers-hit-certain-industries-hard/article_0332db4a-1cd0-11ed-819b-3f7fa1df1598.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Chelsea Hu, a Buteo Scholar as BASIS Independent McLean, recently was named one of “16 Under 16 in STEM” by The74, a news site covering education.
An independent panel of judges rated students on creativity, change-making and resilience. Hu was the only student from Virginia to be named to the list of the 16 most outstanding STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Math] students in the U.S.
Hu previously earned a third place Grand Award at the 2021 Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair in the earth-and-environment category, for her original research on the use of eastern skunk cabbages to combat soilbank erosion.
She also was a national finalist in the 2022 Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, as well as a recipient of the Young Women in Mathematics Award.
[https://sungazette.news provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.] | https://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax/mclean-student-named-one-of-the-nations-top-teens-in-stem/article_a05c0e00-1ca8-11ed-9902-7bdf506de1ed.html | 2022-08-15T19:48:57Z | insidenova.com | control | https://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax/mclean-student-named-one-of-the-nations-top-teens-in-stem/article_a05c0e00-1ca8-11ed-9902-7bdf506de1ed.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
CUTE! Zoo welcomes birth of southern pudu, world’s smallest species of deer
OAKLAND, Calif. (Gray News/TMX) – The Oakland Zoo welcomed a baby southern pudu, one of the world’s smallest species of deer.
A video shared by the zoo shows the young fawn exploring its habitat while staying close to its mother.
According to the zoo, southern pudus only reach to be about 33 inches long and stand about 24-29 inches tall. Male pudus will grow antlers about three inches long.
Northern pudus are a bit smaller and have darker fur.
Southern pudus are prey for the Chilean puma and make up about 50% of their diet.
According to the zoo, the small deer will bark to sound an alarm before running into underground tunnels they make to help escape threats.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. TMX contributed to this report. | https://www.wave3.com/2022/08/15/cute-zoo-welcomes-birth-sourthern-pudu-worlds-smallest-species-deer/ | 2022-08-15T19:50:28Z | wave3.com | control | https://www.wave3.com/2022/08/15/cute-zoo-welcomes-birth-sourthern-pudu-worlds-smallest-species-deer/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Their five-year-old collaboration with Timmy Trumpet has been blaring throughout Citi Field for a few seasons and blowing up virally for weeks, but Blasterjaxx is hoping to perform Edwin’s Diaz phenomenon of an entrance song live in Queens at some point this year.
The Dutch-based DJ duo — Thom Jongkind and Idir Makhlaf — clearly had a blast discussing Diaz’s usage of their song “Narco” during an appearance Monday on The Post’s “Amazin’ But True” podcast with Jake Brown and former Mets pitcher Nelson Figueroa. They confirmed they have been attempting to arrange Visa paperwork to travel from The Netherlands to New York later this season, perhaps in time for the playoffs or the World Series.
“There are talks about things. I have to be very careful with this. The point, as you may know, for Europeans and everyone non-U.S., working on your Visa, might take a while,” Jongkind said. “It’s a pretty bureaucratic procedure. So we are in the middle of that. We are still waiting for that.
“So hopefully when everything falls in place and might be a chance that something could happen. But like I said, it’s very premature right now.”
There was a report late last week that Timmy Trumpet and the Blasterjaxx duo could appear in Flushing as early as late August, but the Mets quickly shot down that possibility.
In the meantime, Jongkind and Makhlaf — who performed this weekend in Germany and Hungary — are enjoying the unexpected resurgence the 2017 song has made this year, including a top-five spot last week on the Spotify viral chart.
“It’s really out of this world basically, especially since it’s a track that’s been out for five years already,” Jongkind said. “Usually when you release a track…it needs like a half-year or year maximum. Now, after five years, it’s rising up again.
“It’s great and it’s especially great that the music is connecting with a different kind of people, not per se the people that would come to our shows or would listen to our music in the first place, but still get in touch with the song via sports. That’s a great thing. It’s pretty unreal the last two weeks, how this track is doing and how the interaction is going online.”
That interaction has included a couple of exchanged messages on social media with Diaz, who has reemerged as one of the dominant closers in baseball this season with 27 saves and a 1.33 ERA with 94 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings pitched over 47 relief appearances for the first-place Mets entering Monday’s series opener in Atlanta.
“A couple of DMs, vice versa, but through some reporters where we had interviews with, like some messages got transferred to one another. Old time. It’s pretty cool, old school,” Jongkind said. “I believe we made a video message when we were in Ibiza in Spain for him. He replied back with a video message that we found back on Twitter. So that’s how it goes at the moment. It has its charm actually. It’s pretty cool, I guess. So to meet him would be absolutely great.”
Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven and former Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius are among a handful of players born in The Netherlands to reach Major League Baseball, but Makhlaf acknowledged that the electro-house duo didn’t know much about baseball before their song’s recent explosion.
“We played it when we were young in school, just an hour a week or something like that. But basically that’s it,” Makhlaf said. “But nowadays I follow Edwin Diaz, I follow all baseball accounts and everything on Instagram, so I kind of get the feeling of how big it is. That’s actually really funny.”
As is the notion that “Narco” suddenly is being compared to other entrance songs by MLB closers, such as Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” for Mariano Rivera and AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” for Trevor Hoffman.
“That’s insane, absolutely, especially being named with the other welcome songs, that’s just crazy,” Makhlaf said. “I think we’ll only realize it once we’ve been in the stadium and seen the whole action live and the track being played out live, that’s the moment when we’ll definitely realize what’s happening.” | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/edwin-diaz-entrance-song-creators-blasterjaxx-eye-citi-field-trip/ | 2022-08-15T19:51:11Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/edwin-diaz-entrance-song-creators-blasterjaxx-eye-citi-field-trip/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Six Flags employees are taking to social media to demand the ouster of their CEO, who last week said the theme park has become a “cheap day care center for teenagers” as he revealed it has lost 2 million customers.
Two anonymous letters posted on Reddit — shortly before the Arlington, Texas-based company’s customer defections sent its stock tumbling more than 18% in a single day — portrayed Chief Executive Selim Bassoul as an axe-happy boss who is out of touch with the workings of the struggling theme park.
“Selim is the laughing stock of the entire company,” according to another anonymous employee’s letter with the title “Step Down Selim” that was posted Aug. 6 on Reddit. “None of us have an ounce of respect for him.”
On a Thursday conference call, Bassoul told Wall Street analysts he was raising prices at the parks in a bid to weed out “rowdy teenagers” and replace them with “middle class and even lower-middle class” families. He likened his plans to “migrating” toward Target customers and away from Walmart and Kmart.
Those comments come amid reports of violence at Six Flags — most recently this weekend, when three people were shot outside one of the company’s theme parks in Gurnee, Ill.
Nevertheless, Bassoul’s moves to raise prices outraged park goers, with some pledging to take their business elsewhere until the CEO left. The lengthy Reddit post last week portrays Bassoul as an intimidating boss bent on slashing expenses and freezing wages.
“I’m obviously posting this anonymously because Selim has the tendency to fire anyone and everyone,” the Reddit post began.
Customers are meanwhile getting a raw deal with dilapidated parks that are “embarrassing” as prices begin to approach those at Disney and Universal theme parks, according to a more recent Reddit post.
Problems referenced in the Reddit post include “food service locations that are overrun by rodents” and which have “no AC and 15 year-old equipment,” the post claimed.
“On every level, management included, us employees feel that he’s running this company into the ground to bankrupt it and sell off portions of it and run away back to his mansion with a check to retire on,” according to the post.
The author of the letter also claims to have called the the United Food and Commercial Workers union to “get information on unionizing. Hope they’re prepared for that.”
The Post could not immediately confirm whether the Reddit posts were made by current Six Flags employees.
The letters received more than 200 comments from customers and current and former employees, including Reddit user JersyBoy782nd, who said “I’m glad that I left! But I’m disgusted with that bozo and he’s pretty much destroying what made Six Flags great.”
Customers also weighed in with complaints of their own.
“I shouldn’t be told at the end of a 45 minute wait that I can’t have something with me, or my child is too small, of I’m too fat/tall/whatever to ride this ride,” one miffed customer wrote on Friday.
“How freaking hard is it to put misters, water coolers, and/or enclosed lines with AC into your park,” the customer added. “Maybe classier people would be willing to go if they didn’t have to swelter in the heat for hours.”
In July, a power outage at its Great Adventure park in New Jersey forced park goers to wait for more than 90 minutes in the scorching heat to enter the park.
Six Flags did not respond to requests for comment. | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/six-flags-workers-call-for-ceos-ouster-as-attendance-plunges/ | 2022-08-15T19:51:54Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/six-flags-workers-call-for-ceos-ouster-as-attendance-plunges/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The US Department of Labor proposed fines of almost $1.3 million for Dollar General after federal inspectors found workplace violations at three Georgia stores, the agency announced Monday.
The DOL said it visited stores earlier this year in Pembroke, Hogansville and Smyrna and saw blocked exit routes, dangerously stacked merchandise boxes and hard to access electrical panels.
The department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed more than $6.5 million in fines for Dollar General since 2017, saying the inspectors have frequently found "unsafe conditions that put workers at risk."
In Georgia, the inspectors said disorderly conditions could cause workers to slip, trip or be struck by objects.
"Dollar General continues to demonstrate a willful pattern of ignoring hazardous working conditions and a disregard for the well-being of its employees," said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker in a release. "Despite similar citations and sizable penalties in more than 70 inspections, the company refuses to change its business practices."
"Following these inspections, we took immediate action to address issues and reiterated our safety expectations with store teams," Dollar General said in a statement. "The safety of our employees and customers is of paramount importance to us, and we will continue to work cooperatively with OSHA."
The DOL scrutinized Dollar General locations in the Southeast as a part of previous investigations. In February, the department proposed more than $1 million in fines after similar hazards were found in Alabama and other Georgia locations. Another $321,827 in fines were proposed in December at a Mobile, Alabama, location.
Dollar General has 15 business days to comply, contest the violations or request an informal conference, the Department of Labor said.
Another one of the nation's largest discount retailers, Dollar Tree, which operates both Family Dollar and Dollar Tree, has faced more than $1.2 million in proposed workplace violation fines since 2017. The DOL said it has found more than 300 violations since that time.
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™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/local-news/dollar-general-hit-with-nearly-1-3-million-in-workplace-safety-fines/article_05ef6604-1cd1-11ed-b53a-4be661c9e491.html | 2022-08-15T19:52:43Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/local-news/dollar-general-hit-with-nearly-1-3-million-in-workplace-safety-fines/article_05ef6604-1cd1-11ed-b53a-4be661c9e491.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Students all across the Tennessee Valley are saying goodbye to summer break and heading back to school.
One local church says they are doing everything they can to prepare their students with filled backpacks to start the semester off right.
Photojournalist Ricco Holston shares the story. | https://www.local3news.com/local-news/local-church-helps-prepare-students-with-back-to-school-necessities/article_629fe6a0-1cca-11ed-92aa-cf0a5751e84f.html | 2022-08-15T19:52:49Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/local-news/local-church-helps-prepare-students-with-back-to-school-necessities/article_629fe6a0-1cca-11ed-92aa-cf0a5751e84f.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Pilot Program to Study Impact of Pre-paid Passes
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Metropolitan Transportation Commission — in conjunction with BART and all other transit agencies participating in the Clipper® fare payment system — today launched a two-year pilot program to study the impact of a single pass that will provide some 50,000 Bay Area residents free access to all bus, rail and ferry services in the nine-county region.
Known as the Clipper® BayPass, the new passes initially will be distributed to participating students at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, the University of California's Berkeley campus and Santa Rosa Junior College, and then expanded to include residents of select affordable housing communities managed by MidPen Housing. While the Clipper BayPass will be made available to all students at Santa Rosa Junior College, about a quarter of students at the other campuses will be invited to participate in the pilot. Other students will use another form of payment (such as a standard adult Clipper card; U.C. Berkeley's EasyPass for travel on AC Transit buses; or San Francisco State's Gator Pass for free travel on Muni and SamTrans and reduced fares on BART). This limited distribution, which will be based on random assignment, is designed to measure the impact on travel of an all-system pass when compared to students not using Clipper BayPass. All residents at participating MidPen Housing properties will be offered a Clipper BayPass.
"One of the big takeaways from the Blue Ribbon Transit Recovery Task Force convened early in the Covid-19 pandemic is the urgency of making Bay Area transit simpler and more seamless," explained MTC Chair and Napa County Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza. "Clipper BayPass is a great way to get real-world data on the role fare coordination can play in meeting those goals. We'll use the information collected to help shape the development, pricing and implementation of one or more new multi-agency passes or fare caps that eventually will be used by vastly more riders."
Pilot program participants will be able to use Clipper BayPass for unlimited travel on:
- BART
- SFMTA (Muni)
- AC Transit
- VTA
- Caltrain
- SamTrans
- Golden Gate Transit
- Golden Gate Ferry
- San Francisco Bay Ferry
- County Connection
- Dumbarton Express
- Fairfield and Suisun Transit (FAST)
- Marin Transit
- Petaluma Transit
- Santa Rosa CityBus
- SMART
- Soltrans
- Sonoma County Transit
- Tri Delta Transit
- Union City Transit
- Vacaville City Coach
- VINE
- WestCAT
- Wheels
"This pilot program is an exciting step toward fare coordination among transit agencies and toward making it easy for organizations to prioritize and promote transit as the preferred mode of transportation in the Bay Area," said BART Board President Rebecca Saltzman. "Studying a regional fare pass using students and residents of affordable housing communities makes clear our commitment to building a more equitable fare system."
Clipper BayPass is the first initiative to be implemented based on recommendations of the Coordination/Integration Study and Business Case, an 18-month study led by MTC and BART that focused on creating more customer-friendly transit fare system in the Bay Area and was conducted in partnership with all other Bay Area transit agencies.
MTC will provide funds to transit agencies to offset the revenue impacts of the Clipper BayPass pilot, which is expected to conclude at the end of 2024.
Participants in the BayPass program will continue to use their Clipper cards — either traditional plastic cards or Clipper cards on their smartphones or Apple Watch — to tag on (or off) at faregates, on buses, on rail platforms or at ferry ramps. Aside from traveling at no charge, the Clipper BayPass will function like any other Clipper card. The Clipper BayPass may not be shared with family or friends; it may be used only by participants selected for the pilot program, and any violators will be removed from the program.
MTC is the transportation planning, funding and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. MTC operates the Clipper system on behalf of the region's transit agencies.
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SOURCE Metropolitan Transportation Commission | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/08/15/clipper-baypass-sets-sail-with-unlimited-transit-access/ | 2022-08-15T19:52:54Z | witn.com | control | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/08/15/clipper-baypass-sets-sail-with-unlimited-transit-access/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The brother of former NFL player Aqib Talib surrendered to Texas cops Monday in connection to the shooting death of youth football coach.
Yaqub Salik Talib, 39, turned himself in after a murder warrant was issued for his arrest over Saturday’s fatal shooting in the Dallas-area city of Lancaster, police said.
Talib is accused of opening fire after a spat between opposing coaches and officiating crew turned physical at the youth game.
The slain victim was identified by police as Michael Hickmon — a grandfather and father of three.
“The altercation became physical, leading to the suspect pulling out a firearm and shooting Mr Hickmon multiple times,” the Lancaster Police Department said in a statement.
“After the shooting, the suspect fled the scene in an unidentified vehicle, taking the firearm wi“At this time no other injuries have been reported. After the shooting, the suspect fled the scene in an unidentified vehicle, taking the firearm with him.”
Talib’s brother, Aqib, is a five-time Pro Bowler who announced his retirement in 2020.
The brothers jointly coach a youth team for the North Dallas United Bobcats, WFAA reported.
Hickmon, the victim, was the coach of the D.E.A. Dragons.
Dragons president Mike Freeman said Saturday’s fatal dispute began when Hickmon went to pick up a football but someone kicked it away.
“I don’t know how to explain it to the kids. That’s the part that I’m stuck on right now. How do I explain it to them. Why?” Freeman said of the shooting. “This is something that these kids will remember for the rest of their life.”
With Post wires | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/brother-of-ex-nfl-player-aqib-talib-turns-himself-in-over-fatal-shooting/ | 2022-08-15T19:53:07Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/brother-of-ex-nfl-player-aqib-talib-turns-himself-in-over-fatal-shooting/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The suspect in a shooting that killed a 43-year-old coach during a weekend youth football game outside Dallas turned himself in Monday, police said.
Yaqub Salik Talib, 39, the brother of former NFL star and Super Bowl winner Aqib Talib, pulled out a gun after the opposing teams' coaching staffs had a disagreement over officiating during the game on Saturday in Lancaster, police said. Michael Hickmon, a grandfather and father of three from Lancaster, was killed.
"The altercation became physical, leading to the suspect pulling out a firearm and shooting Mr. Hickmon multiple times," the Lancaster Police Department said in a statement. "After the shooting, the suspect fled the scene in an unidentified vehicle, taking the firearm with him."
Authorities issued a warrant accusing Yaqub Talib of murder, a first-degree felony. The incident remains under investigation, police said.
Defense lawyer Clark Birdsall declined to discuss specifics, but asked if his client would claim self-defense, he replied, "There will be a defense issue."
"Mr. Talib regrets the tragic loss of life but turned himself into the law so he could tell his side of the story," the attorney said.
Though Birdsall said Aqib Talib was at Saturday's game, police have given no indication he was in any way involved in the shooting. A magistrate is expected to set bail for Yaqub Talib on Monday afternoon, Birdsall said.
Ciciely Hickmon told CNN that her brother was coaching his son's team when the gunfire erupted. He was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. He leaves behind a wife, two daughters, a son and three grandchildren, Ciciely Hickmon said.
"Mike was an amazing husband, son, father, grandfather, brother, friend and coach. Our family is grieving. Right now, we don't see an end to our grief," the family said in a statement. "We miss him immensely. We always will. We will love him forever."
Multiple 911 calls from Lancaster Community Park were received just before 9 p.m., police said. When authorities arrived at the scene, witnesses said the incident began with a disagreement between coaches and the officiating crew, according to a news release from Lancaster police.
"During the disagreement, the opposing coach staff were involved in a physical altercation and one of the individuals involved in the altercation discharged a firearm striking one adult male," the release said.
Yaqub Talib's alleged role in the altercation that preceded the shooting is unclear. There is an active warrant for his arrest, police said.
Video from the scene shows a man apparently arguing with referees when several people begin fighting on another section of the field. Five shots ring out, and the camera pans to the ground for about 40 seconds. In the video, it cannot be determined who fired the shots. Panicked screams can be heard off camera. When the camera refocuses upfield, people are seen tending to someone on the ground as others walk over. CNN continues to work to confirm the authenticity of the video.
The suspect's brother, Aqib Talib, is a five-time Pro Bowl defensive back who was part of the Denver Broncos team that won Super Bowl L in 2016.
The first-round pick for the Tampa Buccaneers in 2008, Aqib Talib at the time attributed his success, in part, to his brother's leadership. As kids, the pair split time between their father in New Jersey and their mother in Cleveland, Ohio, and Aqib said Yaqub, who was three grades ahead of his little brother, insisted they move to the football hotbed of Dallas with their mother before high school, according to a story on the draft pick produced by the Buccaneers.
"My brother would always pick me on his team. We would play outside, and I would play with all the older guys and he would pick me on the team first. He was a big influence on me, just playing with an older crowd all the time, so by the time I played with people my age, I was like, 'I am used to playing with guys older than you.' He played a real big part in my football career," the team quoted Aqib Talib as saying.
The future star added, "I don't know what would have happened if I would've stayed (in New Jersey). I don't know what situation I would have been in, so I'm definitely grateful ... that we made that move and went to Texas."
Aqib Talib retired after the 2019 season, following 12 years in the NFL, during which he played for four teams.
Lancaster is a city of almost 41,000 in Dallas County. It's a roughly 25-minute drive south of downtown Dallas.
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™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/suspect-accused-of-shooting-a-coach-during-a-dallas-area-youth-football-game-turns-himself/article_5177ccfd-8602-5b6f-8803-f22377e27671.html | 2022-08-15T19:53:44Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/suspect-accused-of-shooting-a-coach-during-a-dallas-area-youth-football-game-turns-himself/article_5177ccfd-8602-5b6f-8803-f22377e27671.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A luxury Manhattan hotel once touted as the “Lullabuy of Broadway” will soon be providing beddy-bye to hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants, The Post has learned.
Mayor Eric Adams plans to convert the Row NYC — formerly known as the Milford Plaza and located in pricey, tourist-packed Times Square — into an intake center and shelter for as many as 600 migrant families amid the city’s spiraling homelessness crisis, three sources familiar with the matter said.
“In a month or two, we’re about to open up for [the city Department of Homeless Services], for homeless,” a hotel staffer told The Post on Monday.
“They’re working on an agreement, a contract,” the worker said of the plan, which is designed to help handle homeless border-crossers bused to the city from Texas.
“It’ll be here at this hotel, but they’ll keep the DHS shelter on a certain floor. But that hasn’t started yet, they said a month or two.”
City Hall hasn’t said what the hotel plan will cost or provided any other details about it, including who exactly will run the operation.
The hotel plan was fast-tracked to try to help address the ongoing surge of asylum-seekers to the Big Apple, with the city striking the deal with the Row after DHS quietly issued a desperate request for proposals last week, sources said. The DHS’s move to try to snag a location more quickly was exclusively revealed by The Post.
“The population served by the selected vendor will be families with children, adult couples and individual adults,” according to the department’s Aug. 4 solicitation, which includes a request for bilingual staff.
Row NYC, at 700 Eighth Ave., is a 28-story, 1,300-room building located about three blocks north of the Port Authority Bus Terminal, where Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been sending busloads of migrants to protest what he calls President Biden’s “irresponsible open border policies.”
The migrants are being released into the US to seek asylum in immigration courts after being stopped by Border Patrol agents, either at established border crossings or after entering the country illegally.
Last month, Adams revealed that the city’s shelter system was being overwhelmed by migrants, some of whom The Post revealed were directed to New York by federal immigration officials despite having no relatives or other ties here.
When the hotel operated as the Milford Plaza, it made a name for itself during the 1980s with memorable local TV commercials that featured actors dressed as hotel workers who sang its praises to the tune of “Lullabuy of Broadway” while answering phones at the reception desk, carrying bags and presenting food flambé.
Its $43-a-night rate per person at the time included a cocktail, dinner and breakfast, according to a video recording posted on YouTube.
The bargain price led the hotel to use mock marquee lights to advertise itself as Broadway’s “LULLABUY” — and have the singers emphasize the final syllable to help drive home the point.
The hotel was sold for about $200 million in 2010 and reopened in 2014 as Row NYC but is apparently starved for business, with its website offering discounts of up to 30% off its regular rates.
Row NYC was used to house homeless people during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to City & State New York, which first reported it was under consideration as a shelter for migrants.
Hotel guest David Carpenter, 74, a tourist from Tennessee, told The Post on Monday, “I wouldn’t come back to this hotel if there were migrants staying here.
“If they secured the border like they should, the migrants wouldn’t be here in the first place,” he added.
Other guests said they weren’t troubled by the plan.
Tourist Jennifer Hacking, 39, of Reno, Nev., said the migrants have “been through a lot, need somewhere to stay, and I actually think it’s pretty decent of the Row.”
“I would gladly stay in the same hotel as new migrants,” Hacking said. “It’s my first time in New York but it won’t be my last.”
Flight attendant Tania Carrara, who was staying at the Row between assignments, also said, “It’s better that the migrants stay in a hotel than a homeless shelter.
“These people have a lot of problems, it’s good they will have somewhere comfortable,” Carrara said.
Neither City Hall nor a Row rep immediately returned requests for comment. | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/row-nyc-hotel-being-turned-into-migrant-shelter/ | 2022-08-15T19:53:50Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/15/row-nyc-hotel-being-turned-into-migrant-shelter/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, who pushed back on efforts by the former President and his allies to overturn the 2020 election, has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating the events surrounding January 6, 2021, a person familiar with the probe confirmed to CNN.
The subpoena seeking documents and testimony from Herschmann follows similar subpoenas in the federal criminal probe to other top Trump administration lawyers, Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, who worked in the White House counsel's office.
Herschmann worked as adviser to former President Donald Trump and attended at heated meetings where he objected to dubious legal theories put forward by Trump elections attorney John Eastman. As part of the criminal probe, investigators recently searched Eastman's cell phone.
Separately, Justice Department officials have been gearing up to try to access direct communications with Trump when he was in office. Herschmann's testimony also could be relevant to that executive privilege fight.
Politico first reported the Herschmann subpoena.
Herschmann -- a lower-profile adviser who joined the White House at the end of the administration -- became a memorable and important witness in this summer's public hearings for the January 6 investigation on Capitol Hill.
The House select committee probing the Capitol Hill insurrection captured Herschmann detailing how he dressed down Eastman after January 6, 2021.
"I said to him, 'Are you out of your f'ing mind?' Right? I said, 'I only want to hear two words coming out of your mouth from now on: 'orderly transition,'" Herschmann said as part of a taped deposition that was replayed during a hearing. "'Now I'm going to give you the best free legal advice you're ever getting in your life: Get a great f'ing criminal defense lawyer. You're gonna need it.'"
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™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/trump-white-house-lawyer-herschmann-subpoenaed-by-federal-grand-jury-investigating-january-6/article_c16961d0-ce7b-540f-bb42-c4832413e48a.html | 2022-08-15T19:53:50Z | local3news.com | control | https://www.local3news.com/regional-national/trump-white-house-lawyer-herschmann-subpoenaed-by-federal-grand-jury-investigating-january-6/article_c16961d0-ce7b-540f-bb42-c4832413e48a.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Motic Digital Pathology is thrilled to announce the release of its newest addition to the MoticEasyScan product line, the NEW Infinity—a high-throughput slide scanner with the ability to swiftly and efficiently scan 1,000+ glass slides per week. The MoticEasyScan NEW Infinity will be available worldwide this summer.
The NEW Infinity introduces a comprehensive redesign of high-volume slide handling, using intelligent automated quality control to eliminate the need for pre-scan setup! Along with faster loading and scanning capabilities, this most recent addition to the MoticEasyScan product line uses a groundbreaking, industry-first Smart Tray technology. The Smart Tray technology cuts down on technician work time and error rates by providing real-time tracking and identification of every slide scanned through the system. Combined with the new automatic image QC algorithm, scanning projects can be completed quickly, efficiently, and virtually click-free.
Adopting cutting-edge technology without having to bust your lab's budget had too often been an unattainable pipe dream for most pathologists until now, but Motic is finally breaking this paradigm by offering an affordable, tangible solution in the NEW Infinity scanner.
"We've long observed that high-volume slide scanners all have robotics that move glass slides back and forth from some sort of large, sophisticated onboard glass slide cabinet," notes Dan Walker, Product Manager at Motic Digital Pathology. "With the NEW Infinity, we've reimagined that workflow without the need for these expensive and hard-to-maintain components."
The solution is an instrument that is less than half of the size and cost than those of leading competitors, while still yielding high-quality slides at a comparable 1,000+ slides per week.
In contrast to traditional big-box scanners, which are designed to optimize hands-off time, the NEW Infinity is engineered to minimize hands-on time spent in the lab by researchers and technicians. Organizational efficiency, Motic believes, is the chief driver of throughput. The throughput of any lab can be compounded and supported by efficient slide organization, especially for high-volume labs managing multiple projects at once. A compact and powerful whole slide scanner designed to enhance organizational efficiency, the NEW Infinity reduces needless motion and optimizes the hands-on experience when scanning 1,000+ high-quality digital slides in a typical 40-hour work week.
For more information on MoticEasyScan NEW Infinity, visit the Motic website or contact mdpsales@moticusa.com
Motic Digital Pathology addresses the growing global pathology care gap by making digital medicine approachable for hospitals, laboratories, and doctors everywhere. We promote the adoption of telepathology through our innovative, cost-effective solutions developed directly in conjunction with partner pathologists. As the medical division of Motic, a leader in the field of optics since 1988, we are part of a global company innovating for a better tomorrow. Our whole slide scanning and image management systems have now been deployed for millions of cases worldwide, and our philanthropic initiatives leverage digital pathology technologies to solve today's most pressing and under-resourced health problems.
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SOURCE Motic Digital Pathology | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/08/15/motic-breaks-paradigm-high-volume-scanning-with-new-infinity-scanner/ | 2022-08-15T19:54:48Z | witn.com | control | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/08/15/motic-breaks-paradigm-high-volume-scanning-with-new-infinity-scanner/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Leading Legal Technology Services Organization Has Nearly Tripled in Size Since January 2022
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Redgrave Data, a full-service ALSP created to solve the most complicated and sophisticated data challenges, today announced it has seen enormous growth over the last six months, with a substantial increase in client business in the U.S. as well as new business prospects overseas since its launch at the start of 2022. The company has also added a number of highly accomplished legal and data science professionals to its team, and disclosed plans to establish a significant presence in Germany to serve current and future global clients by the close of 2022.
With highly customized and innovative services and solutions centered at the intersection of the law, technology, and science, Redgrave Data reimagines how data is analyzed and used to provide defensible technology strategies, insight, and solutions to clients facing challenges related to electronically stored information. The Redgrave Data team is co-founded and led by Mollie Nichols, who is joined by other co-founders Scott Culbertson, Dave Lewis, Mark Noel, and Lindsey Worth.
Redgrave Data's North American expansion has been propelled by several new anchor clients, which include some of the world's largest tech companies that increasingly require thorough and timely outcomes to data challenges associated with legal matters. Corporations faced with near impossible eDiscovery deadlines and millions of documents turn to Redgrave Data to fix technology and process issues, and to deploy sophisticated analytics and custom machine learning models.
"Since Redgrave Data launched this past January, the company has grown almost 200% as a result of an impressive crop of household name brands that turned to us for our expertise in the legal and technology fields," said Mollie Nichols, CEO of Redgrave Data. "Our growth is attributed to a sizable amount of work with tech giants. Redgrave Data's bespoke solutions development for clients is on track to outpace our original projections when we launched, and we are absolutely thrilled."
Redgrave Data Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Dave Lewis has been named an inaugural member of the AI Ethics Advisory Board (AIEB) organized by the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University. AIEB provides corporations with client-tailored AI ethics boards and expert independent guidance on responsible AI deployment. Their on-demand multidisciplinary teams avoid the need for enterprises to find, assess, and compensate an in-house AI ethics board while dealing with the ever-changing societal and regulatory landscape around artificial intelligence.
Lewis, who has over three decades of experience in artificial intelligence and statistics, supports Redgrave Data clients in implementing and defending processes that address complex information management issues in litigation, corporate investigations, and regulatory oversight. "I'm honored to join the Institute's distinguished scholars and thinkers and congratulate professors Ricardo Baeza-Yates and Cansu Canca on organizing this novel endeavor," said Lewis. "My involvement is a part of Redgrave Data providing its clientele with the latest thinking and guidance on ethically and responsibly deploying AI to achieve business outcomes, while protecting privacy and security."
For more information about Northeastern University's initiative, visit http://ms.spr.ly/6048jGIno.
Tara Emory, Redgrave Data's senior vice president of strategic operations and consulting, has been ranked for the last four years by Chambers USA nationwide Litigation Support Guide, rising through the Band rankings. In 2022, Tara emerged in Band 1 for USA Litigation Support - eDiscovery, one of only two people to do so.1 "What sets [Tara] apart is her ability to really listen to what the client needs and bring it to fruition," said Nichols. "She has a deep understanding of the challenges clients face not only from a technological perspective, but also from a legal perspective. That's a rare and valuable combination."
Redgrave Strategic Data Solutions, LLC (Redgrave Data) provides innovative and defensible technology strategies, insights, services, and solutions to clients who face electronically stored information challenges. The firm's expertise in the intersection of technology and the law, including its hands-on approach to client data, allow it to address the toughest challenges in litigation, investigations, information governance, data privacy, and other regulatory matters. Affiliated with Redgrave LLP, the leading law firm specializing in information law, Redgrave Data is operated by an executive team comprised of industry luminaries in data and information governance, privacy, analytics, litigation, and eDiscovery. To learn more about the company, please visit https://www.redgravedata.com/
1 https://chambers.com/legal-rankings/ediscovery-usa-nationwide-58:2817:12788:1
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SOURCE Redgrave Data | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/08/15/redgrave-data-announces-exceptional-market-momentum-with-new-professional-team-members-achievements-planned-european-expansion/ | 2022-08-15T19:55:28Z | witn.com | control | https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/08/15/redgrave-data-announces-exceptional-market-momentum-with-new-professional-team-members-achievements-planned-european-expansion/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to raise millions out of poverty and turn India into a developed country in the next quarter-century as he marked 75 years since independence from British rule.
Wearing a flowing, cream-colored turban printed with small stripes of orange, white and green, the colors of the country’s flag, Modi addressed the country Monday from New Delhi’s 17th-century Mughal-era Red Fort, saying the world was looking toward India to help resolve global issues.
Modi said the journey of the past 75 years had seen ups and downs with India battling against all odds with resilience and perseverance. He asked people to remove any trace of colonial mindset.
Modi said India will be guided by the ideals of self-reliance and the spirit of international partnership to attain excellence in science and technology, establish industries, and attain food and energy security. He said billions of dollars in investment were flowing into the country, turning it into a manufacturing hub.
India’s efforts have already launched the country of 1.4 billion people into the ranks of leading countries in information technology, pharmaceuticals, space science and civil nuclear energy.
Modi said millions of people across the country were commemorating the 75th anniversary of independence by hoisting national flags at their homes and businesses for three days as part of a government campaign “of awakening the spirit of patriotism in every heart.” India’s Parliament, the presidential palace, national monuments and other government offices blazed with multi-colored lighting.
The main opposition Congress party accused the Modi government of leaving opposition parties out of the celebrations.
“There were special functions in Parliament’s historic Central Hall to mark the 25th, 50th and 60th anniversary of India’s independence,” said Jairam Ramesh, an India National Congress party spokesperson. “Sadly, nothing like that has been organized for the 75th anniversary, which has been reduced to an occasion to glorify the Sarvagyaani,” a term meaning “a person who knows all” in reference to Modi.
U.S. President Joe Biden, in a statement celebrating Indian Independence Day, said the two countries are indispensable partners grounded in a shared commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity.
Biden said he was confident that “the two countries will continue to stand together to defend the rules-based order; foster greater peace, prosperity and security for our people; advance a free and open Indo-Pacific; and together address the challenges we face around the world.”
India and the United States have been expanding their security partnership, underscoring their mutual concerns over China’s growing influence in the region. They are both part of the regional Quad alliance that also includes Japan and Australia and focuses on China’s growing economic and military strength. China has called the Quad an attempt to contain its ambitions.
In his 80-minute speech, Modi made no reference to India’s tense ties with immediate neighbors Pakistan and China, or any steps to improve relations.
He called for unity to move forward but didn’t respond to experts and critics who say the country has been gradually departing from some commitments and argue the backsliding has accelerated since Modi came to power in 2014. They accuse his populist government of using unbridled political power to undermine democratic freedoms and preoccupying itself with pursuing a Hindu nationalist agenda.
Modi pledged to fight political corruption and nepotism, which he said were acting as termites eating away the gains of development. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/ap-top-headlines/pm-modi-pledges-to-make-india-developed-country-in-25-years/ | 2022-08-15T20:01:21Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/ap-top-headlines/pm-modi-pledges-to-make-india-developed-country-in-25-years/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing told a judge Monday that they have rejected plea deals that would have resulted in three-year sentences, setting the stage for trial in October.
Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng are charged with aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd’s death. They and Thomas Lane were working with Derek Chauvin when he pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old Black man said he couldn’t breathe and eventually grew still.
The killing, captured on bystander video, sparked protests worldwide and a reckoning on racial injustice. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of second-degree murder last year and sentenced to 22 1/2 years on the state charge.
Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill had set a limited window for accepting a plea deal ahead of trial, and Monday’s brief hearing served to formalize the two ex-officers’ rejections of the state’s offers.
“It would be lying for me to accept any plea offer,” said Thou, who held back concerned bystanders as Chauvin pinned Floyd. Kueng did not give his reasons for rejecting the state’s offer.
Thao, Kueng and Lane were convicted in federal court in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights. Lane, who is white, held Floyd’s legs and twice asked if he should be turned on his side, and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years. Thao, who is Hmong American, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years. Kueng, who is Black, pinned Floyd’s back, and was sentenced to 3 years. Thao and Kueng are appealing their federal convictions.
In rejecting the plea agreements, Thao and Keung are risking state sentences that could be significantly longer than their federal sentences if they’re convicted on both counts. Assistant Attorney General Matt Frank pointed out in the hearing that the state’s sentencing guidelines recommend sentences of 12 1/2 years on the murder count and 4 years on the manslaughter count, but that prosecutors have already said they’ll seek longer sentences if they get convictions.
In Minnesota, assuming good behavior, defendants typically serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on parole.
Frank said plea negotiations began in earnest in May and continued into June. The offers would have dropped the most serious charge of aiding and abetting murder, and the officers’ state time would have run concurrently with the federal sentences. Both defendants confirmed that they understood that the state has now withdrawn its offers.
“It’s a standard best practice to make a record in court when the State offers a plea agreement, in order to ensure the defendant’s decision is freely and knowingly made,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement afterward. “The defendants have a right to decline the offer and proceed to trial. The State is ready for trial.”
During the hearing, Kueng’s attorney, Thomas Plunkett, said that Ellison at one, unspecified point in the negotiations, offered Kueng a deal that would have resulted in 2 years in prison. Kueng confirmed that Plunkett had told him about the offer, and that they rejected it. Frank did not comment about the purported offer.
Thao’s attorney, Robert Paule, said that they, at an unspecified point, proposed a deal for 2 years, but that the state rejected it. Frank said that wasn’t how he recalled the discussions, and that his recollection was that Thao’s offer had included dropping the charges. Neither side elaborated on the discrepancies.
The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 24, with opening statements Nov. 7.
Lane avoided a state trial by pleading guilty in May to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in a deal that calls for a three-year sentence. His sentencing is Sept. 21.
Chauvin was sentenced to 21 years on the federal civil rights charge. He remains in the state’s maximum security prison at Oak Park Heights pending his transfer to federal prison. The other three remain free on bail.
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Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed to this story.
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Find AP’s full coverage of the killing of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/ap-top-headlines/thao-kueng-say-they-rejected-plea-deal-in-floyd-killing/ | 2022-08-15T20:01:42Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/ap-top-headlines/thao-kueng-say-they-rejected-plea-deal-in-floyd-killing/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
LONDON (AP) — British drug regulators have become the first in the world to authorize an updated version of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine that includes protection against the omicron variant, which the government said would be offered to people aged 50 and over starting in the fall.
In a statement on Monday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it had given the green light to Moderna’s combination “bivalent” vaccine, which will be used as an adult booster shot.
Each dose of the booster shot will target both the original COVID-19 virus that was first detected in 2020 and the omicron BA.1 variant that was first picked up in November. British regulators said the side effects were similar to those seen for Moderna’s original booster shot and were typically “mild and self-resolving.”
“What this (combination) vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve,” said Dr June Raine, the head of Britain’s health care and medicines regulator.
British health secretary Steve Barclay said the new shot will be part of the country’s booster program roll-out from September, based on advice from the government’s vaccine experts.
“This safe and effective vaccine will broaden immunity and potentially improve protections against some variants as we learn to live with this virus,” Barclay said.
Such an approach, combining protection against several strains of the same disease is used with flu shots, which are adjusted each year depending on the variants that are circulating and can protect against four influenza strains.
Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s Chief Executive, said in a statement that it was the first regulatory authorization for a vaccine aiming to fight the omicron variant, predicting the booster would have an “important role” to play in protecting people against COVID-19 in the winter.
On Friday, Germany’s health minister said the European Medicines Agency might clear tweaked COVID-19 boosters next month.
In June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told vaccine makers that any booster shots tweaked for the fall would have to include protection against the newest omicron variants, meaning BA.4 and BA.5, not the BA.1 subvariant included in Moderna’s latest shot.
Last month, the FDA said it was no longer considering authorizing a second COVID-19 booster for all adults but would instead focus on revamped vaccines for the autumn that target the newest viral subvariants.
Both Moderna and Pfizer are currently brewing updated versions of their vaccine to include BA.5 in addition to the original COVID-19 virus.
According to the World Health Organization, the latest global surge of COVID-19 has been driven by omicron subvariant BA.5, which is responsible about 70% of the virus samples shared with the world’s largest public virus database. The subvariant BA.5 is even more infectious than the original version of omicron and has some genetic differences that earlier vaccines might not address.
Scientists have warned that the continued genetic evolution of COVID-19 means drugmakers will likely be one step behind the virus in their efforts to tailor their vaccines.
“The virus is unlikely to stand still and Omicron-targeted immunity, might push the virus down other evolutionary paths,” warned Jonathan Ball, a professor of virology at Britain’s University of Nottingham. Still, he said the new Moderna vaccine would likely still be protective against severe disease.
Other experts said it was still unknown how effective the new combination vaccine would be.
Beate Kampmann, director of the Vaccine Centre at London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the shot would most likely only offer “partial protection” against the latest omicron variants including BA.5 since it was developed based on earlier versions of COVID-19.
“How much difference such (combination) vaccines can actually make remains to be seen,” she said, noting that the shots have not yet been widely tested in different populations.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
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AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington, D.C. contributed. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/health/british-regulator-authorize-modernas-updated-covid-booster/ | 2022-08-15T20:02:29Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/health/british-regulator-authorize-modernas-updated-covid-booster/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Greek police say they have found 38 migrants who had been reported stranded on an islet in the Evros River on the border between Greece and Turkey.
Police announced they found 22 men, 9 women and 7 children Monday at a site inside Greek territory, away from the river, 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) south of where the group had been reported to be stranded. One woman is pregnant.
A Greek police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about an ongoing case, told The Associated Press that police have not found a dead child, as had been reported last week by the aid charity Greek Council of Refugees. All 38 were in good health, the official said.
The group told police they are from Syria. Police have sent food and water to the migrants and will move them to a migrant reception center.
Police said last week that they had chased successive reports of migrants stranded on Evros islets, but found nobody. Greece had said last week the coordinates given to them placed the group in Turkey, not Greece.
The head of the Greek Council for Refugees, Vassilis Papadopoulos, said his group first heard about the migrants in mid-July. He said about 50 people had allegedly crossed to the Greek side but were then forced back to Turkey. Migrants also told his group that Turkish authorities allegedly returned them to one islet after another, until they ended up stuck on a Greek islet mid-river. Papadopoulos had claimed the migrants were staying on the islet because they feared physical abuse if they reentered Greece.
Thousands of migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa try to cross illegally into Greece from Turkey every year, hoping for a better life in Europe.
Greece has strongly denied persistent allegations that it commits pushbacks — sending asylum-seekers who reach its territory back to the country they entered from without being allowed to request asylum. That is illegal under international law.
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Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/international/greek-police-find-38-migrants-near-turkish-border/ | 2022-08-15T20:02:57Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/international/greek-police-find-38-migrants-near-turkish-border/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida renewed Japan’s no-war pledge at a somber ceremony Monday as his country marked the 77th anniversary of its World War II defeat, but he did not mention Japanese wartime aggression.
In his first address as prime minister since taking office in October, Kishida said Japan will “stick to our resolve to never repeat the tragedy of the war.”
Kishida did not mention Japanese aggression across Asia in the first half of the 20th century or the victims in the region. The omission was a precedent set by the assassinated former leader Shinzo Abe, who had pushed to whitewash Japan’s wartime brutality.
Kishida largely focused on the damages Japan suffered on its turf — the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, massive firebombings across Japan and the bloody ground battle on Okinawa. He said the peace and prosperity that the country enjoys today is built on the suffering and sacrifices of those who died in the war.
Beginning in 2013, Abe stopped acknowledging Japan’s wartime hostilities or apologizing in his Aug. 15 speeches, scrapping the tradition that began in 1995.
Emperor Naruhito repeated his “deep remorse” over Japan’s wartime actions in a nuanced phrase in his speech, like his father, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, who devoted his career to making amends for a war fought in the name of the wartime emperor, Hirohito, the current emperor’s grandfather.
Some 900 participants observed a minute of silence at noon during the ceremony held at the Budokan arena. The crowd was reduced from about 5,000 before the pandemic, participants were asked to wear masks, and there was no singing of the national anthem.
While Kishida on Monday stayed away from praying at the Yasukuni Shrine and sent a religious ornament instead, three of his Cabinet members visited — Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi and Disaster Reconstruction Minister Kenya Akiba earlier Monday and Trade and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Saturday.
“I paid respects to the spirits of those who sacrificed their lives for the national policy,” Takaichi told reporters, adding that she also prayed so that there will be no more war dead in Ukraine.
Victims of Japanese actions during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism because it honors convicted war criminals among about 2.5 million war dead.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, on Sunday after Nishimura’s visit, criticized it as “Japanese government’s erroneous attitude toward historical issues.”
Wang urged Japan to “deeply reflect on its history of aggression, properly handle relevant issues with a sense of responsibility and win the trust of its Asian neighbors and the larger international community through concrete actions.” | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/international/japan-marks-wwiis-end-kishida-doesnt-mention-aggression/ | 2022-08-15T20:03:10Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/international/japan-marks-wwiis-end-kishida-doesnt-mention-aggression/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Days of widespread drug cartel arson and shootings in four states last week have left Mexicans asking why the drug cartels exploded, and what do they want?
The attacks killed 11 people, including a young boy and four radio station employees who were randomly shot on the streets of the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas on Thursday.
Two days earlier, more than two dozen convenience stores owned by a well-known national chain were set ablaze in the northern state of Guanajuato. Cars and buses were commandeered and burned in neighboring Jalisco state. And two dozen vehicles were hijacked and set on fire in cities on the California border Friday.
The federal government deployed soldiers and National Guard troops to calm residents’ fears, but the outbursts of violence raised questions about President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s approach of putting all responsibility for security in the hands of the military rather than civilian police forces.
Some were quick to brand the arson and shooting attacks as terrorism. But it is not clear what the goal was.
“I think that the orders that were given to these gunmen was to cause chaos,” said Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope. “Generate chaos, generate uncertainty, generate fear, shoot at anything that moves. That is something that generates terror.”
“Terrorism implies a political goal. I don’t know what the political goal is in this case,” Hope said.
López Obrador suggested Monday the attacks were part of a political conspiracy against him by opponents he describes as “conservatives” and he claimed “there is no big problem” with security.
“I don’t know if there was a connection, a hidden hand, if this had been set up,” he said. “What I do know is that our opponents, the corrupt conservatives, help in the black propaganda.”
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval said later that the cartels had lashed out because they’ve been weakened. “They want to still feel like they’re strong and they generate violent situations where by way of publicity they send messages that they are still strong, when in reality there has been progress in eliminating the criminal structure,” he said.
Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero sounded very different when she issued a strange public appeal Friday to the cartels to stop targeting innocent civilians.
“Today we are saying to the organized crime groups that are committing these crimes, that Tijuana is going to remain open and take care of its citizens,” Caballero said in a video, “and we also ask them to settle their debts with those who didn’t pay what they owe, not with families and hard-working citizens.”
José Andrés Sumano Rodríguez, a professor and security specialist at the Northern Border College in Matamoros, said the decision of targeting civilians was a considered one. “They (the cartels) have learned that when they pressure on the side of generating terror and attacks on civilians, it gives them good results,” he said. “Often it is much more effective to do this than have direct confrontation with the armed forces, where they are almost always going to lose.”
For security analyst David Saucedo the attacks were “narco terrorism,” and he said the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was behind the violence in Guanajuato and Baja California.
Saucedo said there has been a change in Mexico’s drug policy since last year, when army troops sat at roadside bases and simply watched as cartels battled for control of the western Mexico state of Michoacan with bomb-dropping drones, IEDs and land mines.
Saucedo said the change may have angered the cartels.
Mexico has made more attempts to capture drug lords, something López Obrador previously said he wasn’t interested in. Mexican marines captured fugitive drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero in July after years on the run for the 1985 killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
And Mexico’s seizures of meth labs and the synthetic opioid fentanyl have risen sharply in recent months.
“There has been a change in the strategy in fighting drug cartels. Andrés Manuel (López Obrador) has been very much criticized recently for his ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy,” Saucedo said. “I think that due to pressure from Joe Biden, he is changing that and agreeing to capture high profile drug traffickers.”
The spark that set off the chaos in Jalisco and Guanajuato last week was apparently a military attempt to capture a boss from the Jalisco cartel.
“The narco terrorism of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel is a reaction to the president’s change in strategy,” Saucedo said. “If the Mexican president continues with this strategy of capturing high-ranking members of the Jalisco cartel, the Jalisco cartel is going to respond with acts of narcoterrorism in the states it controls as part of its vast empire.”
Sandoval, the defense secretary, took great pains to assure there was no change in strategy. “It’s not that we’re looking for the leader … it’s not that operations are centered on certain levels of the organization.”
There have been such terrorist acts before. In June of last year, a faction of the Gulf cartel entered the border city of Reynosa and killed 14 people authorities identified as “innocent citizens,” as part of a bid to unseat a rival faction that controlled Reynosa.
The only good news, if there is any, is that Saucedo says Jalisco usually tries to cause property damage rather than civilian deaths; he blamed the random killings in Ciudad Juarez on the Mexicles, a gang that works for Sinaloa cartel.
“There are differences between the two types of narco-terrorism,” he said.
Ana Vanessa Cardenas, coordinator of the international relations program at Anahuac Mayab University in Merida, said with any other president half the security cabinet would have been ousted, there would be consultations with international experts and work would be underway on new security strategy, but she expects no change from López Obrador who is in denial.
“We’ve seen a total militarization of security and of the country, which is the last rung,” she said. “If having already reached the last rung in security we have an increase in violence, in murders, in narco control, then where do we go?”
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AP reporter Christopher Sherman contributed to this report. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/international/mexicos-week-of-drug-violence-shakes-administration/ | 2022-08-15T20:03:51Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/news/international/mexicos-week-of-drug-violence-shakes-administration/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
By Sam Metz and Felicia Fonseca | Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY — Banks along parts of the Colorado River where water once streamed are now just caked mud and rock as climate change makes the Western U.S. hotter and drier.
More than two decades of drought have done little to deter the region from diverting more water than flows through it, depleting key reservoirs to levels that now jeopardize water delivery and hydropower production.
Cities and farms in seven U.S. states are bracing for cuts this week as officials stare down a deadline to propose unprecedented reductions to their use of the water, setting up what’s expected to be the most consequential week for Colorado River policy in years.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in June told the states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to determine how to use at least 15% less water next year, or have restrictions imposed on them. The bureau is also expected to publish hydrology projections that will trigger additional cuts already agreed to.
Northern California does not get water from the Colorado River.
“The challenges we are seeing today are unlike anything we have seen in our history,” Camille Touton, the bureau’s commissioner, said at a U.S. Senate hearing.
Tensions over the extent of the cuts and how to spread them equitably have flared, with states pointing fingers and stubbornly clinging to their water rights despite the looming crisis.
“It’s not fun sitting around a table figuring out who is going to sacrifice and how much,” said Bill Hasencamp, the Colorado River resources manager at Metropolitan Water District, which provides water to most of Southern California.
Representatives from the seven states convened in Denver last week for last minute negotiations behind closed doors. Officials party to discussions said the most likely targets for cuts are Arizona and California farmers. Agricultural districts in those states are asking to be paid generously to bear that burden.
But the tentative agreements fall short of what the Bureau of Reclamation has demanded and state officials say they hope for more time to negotiate details.
The Colorado River cascades from the Rocky Mountains into the arid deserts of the Southwest. It’s the primary water supply for 40 million people. About 70% of its water goes toward irrigation, sustaining a $15 billion-a-year agricultural industry that supplies 90% of the United States’ winter vegetables.
Water from the river is divided among Mexico and the seven U.S. states under a series of agreements that date back a century, to a time when more flowed.
But climate change has transformed the river’s hydrology, providing less snowmelt and causing hotter temperatures and more evaporation. As the river yielded less water, the states agreed to cuts tied to the levels of reservoirs that store its water.
Last year, federal officials for the first time declared a water shortage, triggering cuts to Nevada, Arizona and Mexico’s share of the river to help prevent the two largest reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — from dropping low enough to threaten hydropower production and stop water from flowing through their dams.
The proposals for supplemental cuts due this week have inflamed disagreement between upper basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and lower basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — over how to spread the pain.
The lower basin states use most of the water and have thus far shouldered most of the cuts. The upper basin states have historically not used their full allocations but want to maintain water rights to plan for population growth.
Gene Shawcroft, the chairman of Utah’s Colorado River Authority, believes the lower basin states should take most of the cuts because they use most of the water and their full allocations.He said it was his job to protect Utah’s allocation for growth projected for decades ahead: “The direction we’ve been given as water purveyors is to make sure we have water for the future.”
In a letter last month, representatives from the upper basin states proposed a five-point conservation plan they said would save water, but argued most cuts needed to come from the lower basin. The plan didn’t commit to any numbers.
“The focus is getting the tools in place and working with water users to get as much as we can rather than projecting a water number,” Chuck Cullom, the executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission, told The Associated Press.
That position, however, is unsatisfactory to many in lower basin states already facing cuts.
“It’s going to come to a head particularly if the upper basin states continue their negotiating position, saying, ‘We’re not making any cuts,’” said Bruce Babbitt, who served as Interior secretary from 2003-2011.
Lower basin states have yet to go public with plans to contribute, but officials said last week that the states’ tentative proposal under discussion fell slightly short of the federal government’s request to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet.
An acre-foot of water is enough to serve 2-3 households annually.
Hasencamp, the Metropolitan Water District’s Colorado River resource manager, said all the districts in California that draw from the river had agreed to contribute water or money to the plan, pending approval by their respective boards. Water districts, in particular Imperial Irrigation District, have been adamant that any voluntary cut must not curtail their high priority water rights.
Southern California cities will likely provide money that could fund fallowing farmland in places like Imperial County and water managers are considering leaving water they’ve stored in Lake Mead as part of their contribution.
Arizona will probably be hit hard with reductions. The state over the past few years shouldered many of the cuts. With its growing population and robust agricultural industry, it has less wiggle room than its neighbors to take on more, said Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke. Some Native American tribes in Arizona have also contributed to propping up Lake Mead in the past, and could play an outsized role in any new proposal.
Irrigators around Yuma, Arizona, have proposed taking 925,000 acre-feet less of Colorado River water in 2023 and leaving it in Lake Mead if they’re paid $1.4 billion, or $1,500 per acre-foot. The cost is far above the going rate, but irrigators defended their proposal as fair considering the cost to grow crops and get them to market.
Wade Noble, the coordinator for a coalition that represents Yuma water rights holders, said it was the only proposal put forth publicly that includes actual cuts, rather than theoretical cuts to what users are allocated on paper.
Some of the compensation-for-conservation funds could come from a $4 billion in drought funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act under consideration in Washington, U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told the AP.
Sinema acknowledged that paying farmers to conserve is not a long-term solution: “In the short-term, however, in order to meet our day-to-day needs and year-to-year needs, ensuring that we’re creating financial incentives for non-use will help us get through,” she said.
Babbitt agreed that money in the legislation will not “miraculously solve the problem” and said prices for water must be reasonable to avoid gouging because most water users will take be impacted.
“There’s no way that these cuts can all be paid for at a premium price for years and years,” he said.
Fonseca reported from Flagstaff, Arizona. Associated Press reporter Kathleen Ronayne contributed from Sacramento, California.
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The Comedy Central animated series “South Park” is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a free interactive exhibit from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 20 at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood.
The South Park: The 25th Anniversary Experience is a traveling exhibition housed in a shipping container with an Eric Cartman-inspired paint job on the exterior. It will showcase props, memorabilia, artwork, collectibles, never-before-seen scripts, storyboards, concept art and more. There will be other photo ops with additional characters and familiar landscapes on display as well.
“South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone performed with a number of special guests for two nights at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colo. last week to commemorate the milestone. As Parker and Stone voiced the beloved characters Kyle, Cartman, Stan and Kenny, they performed songs from the show along with members of Primus, Ween and Rush. Parker and Stone recently signed a $900 million deal to renew “South Park” for six more seasons and committed to 14 original made-for-streaming movies on Paramount+.
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We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions. | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/15/south-park-will-celebrate-its-25th-anniversary-with-a-free-exhibit-in-hollywood/ | 2022-08-15T20:04:43Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/15/south-park-will-celebrate-its-25th-anniversary-with-a-free-exhibit-in-hollywood/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
By Kim Chipman | Bloomberg
Tomatoes are getting squeezed.
California leads the world in production of processing tomatoes — the variety that gets canned and used in commercial kitchens to make some of the most popular foods. The problem is the worst drought in 1,200 years is forcing farmers to grapple with a water crisis that’s undermining the crop, threatening to further push up prices from salsa to spaghetti sauce.
“We desperately need rain,” Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association, said in an interview. “We are getting to a point where we don’t have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand.”
Lack of water is shrinking production in a region responsible for a quarter of the world’s output, which is having an impact on prices of tomato-based products. Gains in tomato sauce and ketchup are outpacing the rise in US food inflation, which is at its highest in 43 years, with drought and higher agricultural inputs to blame. With California climate-change forecasts calling for hotter and drier conditions, the outlook for farmers is uncertain.
“It’s real tough to grow a tomato crop right now,” Montna said. “On one side you have the drought impacting costs because you don’t have enough water to grow all your acres, and then you have the farm inflation side of it with fuel and fertilizer costs shooting up.”
California restrictions limiting groundwater use and soaring costs for labor, fuel and fertilizer have caused headaches for producers such as Woolf Farming. It costs the Fresno County-based grower and processor around $4,800 an acre to grow and harvest a tomato crop these days compared with $2,800 a decade ago, according to Rick Blankenship, vice president of farming operations. Most of the increases have been in the last two years. This season’s bounty costs more and delivers less.
“Yields are way off this year,” Blankenship said in an interview. “Coupled with drought, we’ve had high temperatures and that in itself creates an issue where the tomatoes are so hot that they just don’t size properly — so you have a lot of tomatoes on a plant, but they are smaller.”
Getting higher value for crops from the field is usually an incentive for farmers, yet this season’s negotiated rate of $105 a ton for the tomatoes — an all-time high — may not be enough to overcome the industry’s challenges.
“You would think that it was a home run for growers, but in reality the input costs have gone up so much that the potential profit was all gobbled up,” Blankenship said.
The water woes have led to crop shifting as growers try to gauge what commodity will bring the biggest returns. Bruce Rominger, a fifth-generation farmer, slashed rice sowing by 90% to make room for tomatoes. He hopes to turn a profit on the 800 acres of tomatoes he began harvesting in July—though it’s a gamble.
“It’s a high-risk crop and our yields so far are below average,” Rominger said, noting that excessive heat, lack of water and mid-April frost took its toll.
And it’s only getting worse. Higher temperatures will shrink supply of processing tomatoes in key regions in the next few decades, with the US, Italy and China expected to decline 6% by 2050, according to an academic study published in Nature Food. Increasing heat and water constraints may make it especially tough for California and Italy to maintain current production levels, the June report said.
The California crop has been below the recent production peak of 14.4 million tons in 2015 for the past six years, and 2022 is shaping up to continue the trend, according to US Department of Agriculture data. The industry expects this year’s harvest to fall below the USDA’s 11.7 million tons estimate.
“Despite low supply and a substantial increase in price, contracted production has dropped significantly compared to the beginning of 2022,” the USDA said in its May report on California’s processing tomato crop, noting that water availability is the main issue facing producers.
“There are simply not enough acres of processing tomatoes being planted this year to ensure that everybody gets their full supply,” said R. Greg Pruett, sales and energy manager for Ingomar Packing Co., one of the world’s biggest tomato processors. “The water is either too expensive or just not available at any cost.”
Such pressures are being reflected in Ingomar’s processed products. Tomato paste prices for clients of the company, which sells to some of the largest US food brands, are up as much as 80% from a year ago. With inventories dropping to critically low levels, though, supply isn’t available for everyone.
“If you are looking for a significant amount of tomato paste and you haven’t already contracted it then you aren’t going to get it no matter what the price is,” Pruett said in a phone interview. “It’s just not there.”
Since tomato-based products are hard to substitute, demand isn’t especially sensitive to price changes. Still, it’s an added cost for consumers. The price of tomato sauce in the four weeks ended July 10 is up 17% from a year ago, while ketchup is 23% higher, according to market research firm IRI.
“There is obviously a point where that relationship is going to break down if frozen pizzas and pasta sauce and other staple items get priced to the point where the average consumer wants to decide to do something else,” Pruett said.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
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Can a watch replace my wallet?
In some ways, devices and wearable technology have been too far ahead of the curve for people to realize all the benefits they may offer. As understanding catches up and these items become more commonplace than rare, we find that devices, such as an Apple Watch, can do some pretty remarkable things.
For instance, did you know with the right smartwatch, you don’t need to carry a wallet anymore? Besides storing everything you typically carry on your person for identification, you can use your watch to make payments, so you no longer need to carry physical credit and debit cards.
What is Google Wallet?
If you Google Google Wallet, you might get confused because even Google sends you to Google Pay. That’s because Google Wallet has come and gone and come back again.
To keep it brief, Google Wallet was replaced by Android Pay, which then merged with Google Wallet to become Google Pay. Then, last May, Google Wallet returned for Android and Wear OS (for most of the world) as the replacement for Google Pay.
Confusing? Well, the good news is, moving forward, Google Wallet is the only app you need. It gives you one convenient location to store debit cards, credit cards, flight passes, concert tickets, vaccination cards and more. Everything you typically carry in your physical wallet can be stored as a digital version in Google Wallet.
What is Wear OS?
Wear OS is simply Android OS tailored to wearable devices, such as smartwatches. Once installed, Wear OS lets you check texts, emails and phone calls without pulling out your phone. It helps you manage your schedule, gives you directions and plays your favorite music. Wear OS also helps you take control of your fitness, get help by asking Google and allows you to make payments using your smartwatch.
What do I need to make payments with my smartwatch?
While it is fairly easy to use your smartwatch and Google Wallet to make payments, there are a few things you’ll need to check.
Do you have a watch with NFC?
Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of protocols that enables very close wireless communication (less than 1.6 inches) between two electronic devices. If your watch does not have NFC, you cannot make contactless payments.
Are you running the right OS?
Google Wallet only runs on Wear OS 2 or newer. Make sure your watch is running the latest version of Wear OS before installing Google Wallet.
Is Google Wallet installed on your watch?
If your watch does not have Google Wallet installed, you cannot use it to make a contactless payment.
Is your payment method supported?
Currently, Google Watch on Wear OS supports 18 banks in the U.S.: AMEX, BAC, Barclays US, BBVA Compass, Capital One, Chase, CITI, Discover, Green Dot, HSBC, NFCU, PNC, Regions, Synchrony, Wise, USAA, US Bank and Wells Fargo. If you are not in the U.S., you will have to check which banks are supported.
Is Google Wallet on Wear OS supported in your region?
If you are not in the U.S., you will need to verify if Google Wallet on Wear OS is supported.
How do I pay with my smartwatch?
The purpose of Google Wallet is to streamline your life to make paying for things easier. To add a payment method to the app, all you have to do is open up Google Wallet on your watch and follow the on-screen prompts to add a credit or debit card. Because you have sensitive information on your device, setting up a screen lock is very important.
When paying in a store, you must open your Google Wallet app and hold your watch over the contactless payment reader until it makes a sound or you feel your watch vibrate.
7 smartwatches you can use with Google Wallet
Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
This is a classic-looking black watch packed with ability. It is the first smartwatch to offer body composition data. The watch also recognizes six popular activities, including running and swimming, so you can get the most out of your training. Sold by Amazon
The sleek design of this smartwatch makes it aesthetically appealing. It can track activity goals, steps, sleep and more. It runs Wear OS by Google and is compatible with phones with the latest Android or iOS. Sold by Amazon
Fossil makes high-quality, durable watches. This model has an always-on display with thousands of faces, so you can personalize its look. The new magnetic charger gets the watch up to 80% in just 30 minutes. The built-in Alexa adds convenience. Sold by Amazon and Macy’s
The C2Plus is an upgraded version of the C2. It has double the RAM and is compatible with iPhone and Android devices. The watch is suitable for swimming, and it has GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou built in for superior positioning. Sold by Amazon
Michael Kors Women’s MKGO Gen 5E
This watch by Michael Kors is a beautiful pink rose color with a stunningly elegant design. The magnetic charger snaps to a ring on the watch case back for ease of charging. You can use this watch to answer and make calls, even when your phone is not within reach. Sold by Amazon
Skagen Connected Falster 3 Gen 5
The smart battery mode on this watch lets you extend its life for multiple days. It has a built-in GPS for distance tracking, is swim-proof and has a speaker for audible alerts. There is 4GB of onboard storage for third-party apps. Sold by Amazon
This is a lower-priced version of the Samsung Classic watch. It offers all the same features but has a streamlined, minimalist design for a more modern look. If desired, the watch connects to live coaching sessions and dynamic group challenges you can complete with friends to help you stay motivated. Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/wearable-technology-br/how-these-7-smartwatches-can-use-google-wallet-to-replace-physical-credit-cards/ | 2022-08-15T20:06:47Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/wearable-technology-br/how-these-7-smartwatches-can-use-google-wallet-to-replace-physical-credit-cards/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Top greenhouse ideas
In most parts of the world, gardening is an activity for spring, summer and fall — but a well-designed greenhouse can give you four seasons of growing.
The keys to keeping your greenhouse healthy are heat, insulation, heat retention and light. While creating a healthy environment for crops can be intimidating, there are many affordable and easy ways to produce a healthy harvest through winter and get a jump on spring planting. And no matter the size of your greenhouse, there are many accessories to help your plants flourish.
Best winter greenhouses
If you don’t already have one, choosing a greenhouse designed for year-round growing is a crucial first step.
Top winter greenhouse
What you need to know: While it’s not much to look at, this simple, spacious greenhouse can withstand a few inches of snow.
What you’ll love: The sturdy, powder-coated steel frame holds up to wind, and at 10 feet by 10 feet, this is large for the price.
What you should consider: Putting the tarp over the frame can be challenging, and the opaque plastic doesn’t let a lot of light through.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Top winter greenhouse for the money
Gardman 4-Tier Mini Greenhouse
What you need to know: For indoor winter gardening, this is affordable and space-efficient. Just make sure you have a south-facing window nearby.
What you’ll love: Metal shelves come built-in, so all you really need are some pots and possibly some grow lights.
What you should consider: This is an indoor-only choice.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Best ways to heat a greenhouse
Your greenhouse should passively keep itself warm in the winter, but sometimes sunlight and insulation aren’t enough for extreme temperatures. That’s where a heater becomes a vital tool in four-season gardening.
Top way to heat a greenhouse
Biogreen Basic Electric Fan Heater
What you need to know: This 1,500-watt heater can easily keep most greenhouses warm during the coldest months.
What you’ll love: The IPX4 rating means this little heater can withstand the humidity of your greenhouse, but it can be used elsewhere in your home, too.
What you should consider: For greenhouses larger than 120 square feet, this model probably won’t be sufficient.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top way to heat a greenhouse for the money
Calm Life Unscented Soy Tea Light Candles
What you need to know: By propping a spare terra-cotta pot on some bricks and lighting these candles under it, you can heat a small space at an extremely low price.
What you’ll love: If you live in a generally warm region that occasionally has cold winter nights, this is simple, costs very little and can keep your plants safe from frost.
What you should consider: It’s best to use this system only when you can keep an eye on it. Light the candles when you’re working in your greenhouse, or when you’re nearby to keep watch, just as you would with normal candles.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Best greenhouse insulation
To reduce the amount of time you need to run a heater, invest in good insulation to keep that precious heat trapped, even at night.
Top greenhouse insulation
What you need to know: This common material acts as excellent insulation with its translucency and air pockets to trap heat.
What you’ll love: Insulating your greenhouse with bubble wrap is as simple as attaching it to the walls and ceiling for winter-ready protection.
What you should consider: You will most likely have to replace the bubble wrap after a season or two.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top greenhouse insulation for the money
Aviditi Corrugated Cardboard Sheets
What you need to know: Strategically placing cardboard along the bottoms of the walls in your greenhouse can keep cold from seeping in.
What you’ll love: It will take you under an hour to insulate your greenhouse with cardboard, and once it’s in place, it will probably be mostly hidden by your shelves.
What you should consider: Moisture will inevitably damage any cardboard used for insulation by the end of the season, but you can just chuck it in your compost pile.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Best heat retention ideas
Combining your heat system and insulation with materials that retain heat, such as stone or water, lets your greenhouse stay warm day and night.
Top heat retention idea
What you need to know: Laying a floor of stones collects heat from the ground and from sunlight during the day.
What you’ll love: This most basic heat retention system also serves as attractive flooring.
What you should consider: These granite cobbles are expensive as stone pavers go, and it will take some time and careful planning to lay them properly.
Where to buy: Sold by Wayfair
Top heat retention idea for the money
Mountain View 1-Gallon Plastic Jugs
What you need to know: Believe it or not, water retains heat well in cold environments. If you paint these jugs black, they attract heat in the day time and radiate heat at night.
What you’ll love: Using plastic jugs to warm your greenhouse is as simple as filling them with water, painting them black and placing them in your greenhouse, where they will catch sunlight and warm up in the daytime.
What you should consider: While this will keep your greenhouse fairly warm, you may need to add some form of insulation.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top greenhouse grow lights
If you live far from the equator, winter days may be quite short. That’s where grow lights can come in handy to give your plants as much light as they need.
Top greenhouse light
Spider Farmer SF4000 LED Grow Light
What you need to know: If gardening is a source of income for you, this commercial-grade grow light can support several plants.
What you’ll love: This energy-efficient choice shines brightly — and because it can run hot, you get the added bonus of extra heat.
What you should consider: The price tag may put this light out of reach for hobby gardeners, and it may take years to pay for itself.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top greenhouse light for the money
What you need to know: This full-spectrum light uses only 75 watts while offering enough light for smaller gardens.
What you’ll love: The price of this hanging LED array combined with its energy efficiency means you can light your greenhouse all winter at a very low cost.
What you should consider: The lights are on the dimmer side.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Peter McGuthrie writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/greenhouses-br/10-best-greenhouse-ideas-to-extend-your-grow-season/ | 2022-08-15T20:06:54Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/greenhouses-br/10-best-greenhouse-ideas-to-extend-your-grow-season/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Republicans stepped up calls for the release of an FBI affidavit showing the justification for its seizure of documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
Meanwhile, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have warned law enforcement agencies of increased threats following the search of Mar-a-Lago.
Here & Now‘s Celeste Headlee speaks with NPR’s Greg Myre to get the latest developments
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-15/republicans-want-to-know-why-trump-is-being-investigated-for-potential-violations-of-espionage-act | 2022-08-15T20:13:04Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-15/republicans-want-to-know-why-trump-is-being-investigated-for-potential-violations-of-espionage-act | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Do you assume your online messages are private? Well, don’t.
The parent company of Facebook gave law enforcement private messages between a mother and her 17-year-old daughter about getting abortion pills.
What does this tell us about tech companies and user privacy?
Here & Now‘s Scott Tong talks with Alexandra Givens, the president & CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-15/what-facebooks-abortion-case-should-tell-us-about-tech-companies-and-user-privacy | 2022-08-15T20:13:29Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-15/what-facebooks-abortion-case-should-tell-us-about-tech-companies-and-user-privacy | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
TANGI VALLEY, Afghanistan — One year after the Taliban captured Afghanistan, people see their new rulers one way in the city — and another way in the countryside.
The urban-rural divide was apparent during the war, when Kabul became a center of media, commerce, women's rights and education, while remote mountain valleys were the scene of brutal combat and attacks on civilians.
Today, many Afghans in Kabul face fear and uncertainty. The radical religious movement has abolished democracy but hasn't fully clarified the new rules of society. As an NPR team was leaving the country recently, a Kabul airport security officer learned we were bound for Washington, D.C., and said, "I wish I could come with you."
We heard a different perspective barely 50 miles outside the capital when we drove Highway 1 into Wardak province. It was one of the places we traveled to ask who's included in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The city's blast walls and crowded streets gave way to dry mountains and green valleys. The pavement itself was cratered from 20 years' worth of Taliban roadside bombs.
We traveled into the Tangi Valley, which is peaceful now. A river and irrigation ditches water crops of tomatoes, sunflowers, grapes and apricots. A closer look shows white Taliban flags marking graves in numerous cemeteries. For years this valley was a battlefield. Taliban forces resisted U.S. troops and their Afghan allies, once shooting down a U.S. helicopter with 38 people on board.
We met Taliban fighters in the breezy, open-windowed guest room of the home of a man named Mursalin Mohammadi. The valley has endured an ongoing drought, but Mohammadi is well off. He pumps water for himself and his neighbors using solar panels on the roof of his mud-walled home.
A poster on Mohammadi's wall showed photos of several Taliban commanders, all of them dead now. One of the commanders held something that, Mohammadi claimed, was the severed leg of an American soldier. It was impossible to verify that; U.S. troops try never to leave their dead on a battlefield — but there's no doubt that many Americans were killed here.
A surviving Taliban fighter showed us video of U.S. troops manning a base in the valley years ago, and seemingly firing indiscriminately at targets that are out of sight. Residents said they were less hostile to foreigners around the time that the U.S. installed a new government in 2001, but grew enraged at the U.S. and its allies in the following years for atrocities against civilians.
Hadiatullah Wahadat was the man with the video. "I did jihad against the U.S. forces," he said. "Five times, I was wounded during the fight."
Now 29, Wahadat said he began fighting when he was 16 years old. He said his side gained three things: "We expelled the foreigners. We triumphed. And we achieved an Islamic regime."
Asked whether the Americans left behind any positive legacy, he mentioned the billions of dollars of U.S.-made weapons and military equipment that remain in the country.
He drew a pistol from his loose clothing, with its maker stamped on the barrel: Smith & Wesson, Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
The fighters led us to a hilltop overlooking the Tangi Valley. White flags shuddered at a shrine to the dead. A mosque offered shade near the grave of a Taliban commander, Fazel Rabie.
Mohammadi, 34, said he lost two brothers in the war, one of whom is buried next to Rabie. As we stood by the graves we asked if the sacrifice was worth it. He didn't hesitate.
"Yes, why not?" he said. "Why not?"
He added, "We are Muslim. We are following an Islamic system of government. That has meaning for us."
The Americans who once roamed this valley said they were bringing democracy and freedom. Mohammadi dismissed their way of thinking. He said Islam was made by God, and democracy by humans. It was obvious to him which was better. The idea that the two were once compatible in the former Islamic Republic was not how he saw it.
Yet as we left the Tangi Valley, we heard hints of disappointment. Local journalist Hekmatullah Waqid, who helped us meet the Taliban fighters, said that residents celebrated victory one year ago, but now worry about the ruined economy. They also want all girls to return to school. The Taliban have yet to allow many junior high and high school age students to study, though leaders insist they're working toward it.
Farther south along Highway 1, we reached the village of Mali Khel, or what's left of it. Gunfire has stippled the mud-walled houses that remain. Residents said the old Afghan government bulldozed many homes to clear a line of fire to the highway, where the Taliban planted roadside bombs.
Eighteen-year-old Mohamed Yosad said most families in the village had to flee during the war. His family moved to Kabul. Now that the war is over they have returned to one of the homes that is still standing.
He held a math notebook and was studying for an exam. "I want to be a very big man in the future," he said.
Sherif Nazari, 55, told us he's glad for peace. But the former road engineer, who lives astride this bombed out highway, cannot find a job. He said the government should pay to rebuild the village.
In the past that demand would have gone to the United States or its Afghan allies. Now the only authority is the Taliban.
The old saying holds that to the victors go the spoils. And that may be true, though something else went to the victors in Afghanistan. They also face the expectations of the people and the responsibility of governing, if they can.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.klcc.org/npr-news/2022-08-15/afghans-in-a-battle-scarred-valley-welcomed-taliban-rule-but-expect-more | 2022-08-15T20:13:47Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-news/2022-08-15/afghans-in-a-battle-scarred-valley-welcomed-taliban-rule-but-expect-more | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The massive Inflation Reduction Act has equally massive consequences for farmers of color who were promised debt relief more than a year ago.
The legislation repeals and replaces a section of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), which provided funding to relieve the debt of farmers of color who have been discriminated against by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Since it passed in March 2021, the funding has fallen into legal limbo due to multiple lawsuits from banks and from white farmers alleging discrimination.
The Inflation Reduction Act passed the House last week and now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature. In its final form, the legislation repeals section 1005 of ARPA, which provided funding for “socially disadvantaged farmers,” defined in the act as farmers who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice. Instead, the IRA provides $3.1 billion for economically “distressed” farmers – of any race – “whose agricultural operations are at a financial risk.” It also includes $2.2 billion for farmers who have experienced discrimination and can prove it.
“By repealing all that, you're really going back on your word, and breaking the contract between Black and other farmers of color and USDA,” said John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association.
Many farmers have been waiting more than a year for the promised debt relief, unsure of the status of their loans. While farms are protected from foreclosure under a moratorium issued by the Biden administration during the pandemic, some farmers fear losing their farms once the moratorium is lifted.
“(Congress) basically conceded defeat,” said Ebony Woodruff, an agriculture and food attorney based in Louisiana.
Woodruff said vague language in the legislation will increase competition for the funding, and farmers of color might be deemed ineligible if they stopped making loan payments after receiving notice of relief under ARPA.
“They're really in limbo, she said. “We're not really sure what's going to happen.”
Boyd Jr. said debt relief, as it was originally promised, could have saved many Black-owned farms.
“Debt relief can provide a whole new start for a farmer who’s behind on his debts or owes USDA money or operation loans or equipment loans,” he said.
Instead, as it’s written, the act will lead to further loss of Black-owned farmland, Boyd Jr. said.
Black-owned farmland has already declined significantly over the past century. According to a recent study, discriminatory lending practices at the USDA has cost Black farmers about $326 billion worth of farmland, though researchers admit that’s likely a severe undercount. The American Rescue Plan Act aimed to reverse that trend.
“It was this administration’s attempt to rectify some of the past wrongs that Black farmers like myself faced through discrimination,” said Boyd, who farms in Virginia.
For now, Boyd said he hopes Biden will issue a farm foreclosure moratorium.
“That's the least he can do,” he said. “A farmer shouldn't be losing his farm.”
Follow Dana on Twitter @DanaHCronin
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues. Follow Harvest on Twitter: @HarvestPM. | https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-08-15/black-and-brown-farmers-say-inflation-reduction-act-breaks-promise-of-relief-for-past-wrongs | 2022-08-15T20:17:50Z | kcur.org | control | https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-08-15/black-and-brown-farmers-say-inflation-reduction-act-breaks-promise-of-relief-for-past-wrongs | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
In the early morning hours of July 15, Daniel Fox heard a loud noise coming from his neighbor’s house on 53rd and Rockhill Road. When he went outside to investigate, he discovered someone had kicked in the door.
Fearful for his family’s safety — he has two small children — Fox called the Kansas City Police Department. While waiting for the police, he looked over at his neighbor’s house and could see an intruder inside.
At 1:33 a.m., two officers responded. After talking with Fox, they left 10 minutes after they’d arrived. They never entered the neighbor’s house.
Alarmed, Fox called KCPD a few minutes after they left to ask why the neighbor’s house was still open and why the police had done nothing. One of the initial responding officers called him back and informed him that “their hands were tied.”
So Fox stayed awake the rest of the night on a couch, gun cradled in his lap, in case the intruder came to his house. The next morning he posted a video on Twitter recounting what happened and asking that the KCPD’s inaction be brought to the attention of the mayor’s office or the KCPD.
That evening, a captain at Metro Patrol left him a phone message. The captain, whom Fox later learned was James Gottstein, said that, since the DeValkenaere verdict, the police no longer searched abandoned houses without a search warrant.
Gottstein was referring to the conviction by a Jackson County judge last year of former KCPD Detective Eric DeValkanaere in the killing of Cameron Lamb, a Black man who was backing into his garage. The judge found DeValkenaere guilty of involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action and sentenced him to six years in prison.
DeValkenaere and his partner had entered Lamb’s property without a search warrant while investigating a high-speed car chase that had occurred earlier in the day.
“I’m sorry you had that experience,” Gottstein told Fox in his voicemail message, “but many citizens are going to have that same experience but it’s kind of out of the police’s hands until that judgment is overturned on appeal so that we can go back to our business to keep citizens safe, you take care, buh-bye.”
Just before 10 p.m. the same day Gottstein left that voicemail message, two KCPD officers showed up at Fox’s house. One of them wore a tactical chest vest adorned with weapons.
Fox’s wife answered the door. The officers told her they wanted to “stop by and talk to” Fox and left a business card. Later, Fox listened to Gottstein’s voicemail and was shocked at its tone, feeling it was meant to intimidate him.
Or as he alleges in a federal lawsuit he filed last week against the police department as well as Gottstein and the two officers who showed up at his door, Fox “felt afraid and believed the true intentions of KCPD and its officers were not to help him, but to intimidate and retaliate against him for his critical Twitter post.”
Fox’s lawsuit, from which the description of what happened was drawn, seeks unspecified damages for violations of the First Amendment and conspiracy to violate his constitutional rights. It also asks the court to rule that the KCPD's alleged policy of “hands-off policing” since the DeValkenaere verdict “is contrary to the public interest.”
“The balance of harms weighs heavily in favor of returning to the policy and practice of responding to reported crimes in place before the DeValkenaere ruling, where officers were not indiscriminately prohibited from entering personal residences with probable cause or exigent circumstances,” Fox’s lawsuit states.
Asked to comment on the lawsuit, police spokeswoman Donna Drake said in an email, "While we do not generally comment on or speak about details of pending civil litigation to ensure fairness for all sides involved, we want to assure the public that we take any complaints about our members very seriously. And we want the citizens of Kansas City to feel safe in bringing any concerns about an officer’s conduct to our attention, whether it is done through the Office of Community Complaints or brought directly to our department."
Drake also posted a link to the department's search and seizure procedures at Microsoft Word - Detaining & Questioning and Search and Seiz CLEAN COPY Redacted (kcpd.org).
Fox, a game designer, said this week in a phone interview that he felt unsafe and unprotected after the incidents in question.
“And I think I’m probably not the only person to feel this,” he said. “I’m sure that these things have happened too with other people in the community.”
Fox said he believed the police were clearly trying to intimidate him, “and I shudder to think if I was somebody who was marginalized what their response would have been instead.”
Sarah Duggan, Fox’s attorney and a former police officer herself with the Tonganoxie, Kansas, Police Department, said she thought Fox is one of many residents who have been victimized by KCPD's alleged unwillingness to take appropriate action when responding to residential calls.
“This leaves the community and its citizens at risk,” she said.
The lawsuit says that hands-off police “stems from a gross misinterpretation of the facts and ruling” in the DeValkenaere case.
In that case, Jackson County Circuit Judge Dale Youngs found that DeValkenaere had no probable cause to believe a crime had been committed by Lamb. Nor, Youngs ruled, were there exigent circumstances justifying DeValkenaere's presence on Lamb’s property.
Police are allowed to enter private property without a search warrant if people are in imminent danger, if it’s necessary to prevent physical harm to people or the police themselves, if relevant evidence is threatened with destruction or if a criminal suspect might escape.
“I don’t think I’m the only person who has experienced this with the Kansas City Police Department,” Fox said. “And if this [lawsuit] helps, and if other people are willing to speak out after hearing my story, then that’ would be great.” | https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-08-15/kansas-city-police-wont-respond-to-calls-as-retaliation-against-devalkenaere-verdict-lawsuit-says | 2022-08-15T20:17:56Z | kcur.org | control | https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-08-15/kansas-city-police-wont-respond-to-calls-as-retaliation-against-devalkenaere-verdict-lawsuit-says | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Capri Sun recalled for possibly containing cleaning solution
Kraft Heinz has issued a voluntary recall for the Capri Sun Wild Cherry Flavored Juice Drink due to the product possibly containing a diluted cleaning solution.
The company said on its website the solution used on food processing equipment was "inadvertently introduced into a production line at one of our factories."
Company leaders said the mistake was discovered after receiving multiple complaints from customers about the taste.
RELATED: DoorDash to deliver Facebook Marketplace purchases in US
Kraft Heinz said they’re working with retailers to remove potentially affected products from circulation.
The products affected have a "Best When Used By" date of June 25, 2023.
Kraft Heinz said any customers who purchased the items should not consume it and return it to the store for reimbursement.
This story was reported from Los Angeles. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/capri-sun-recalled-for-possibly-containing-cleaning-solution | 2022-08-15T20:21:04Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/capri-sun-recalled-for-possibly-containing-cleaning-solution | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
FBI: 84 minors, 141 adults rescued in national sex trafficking operation
WASHINGTON - More than 80 children were identified and located in a national sex trafficking ring this month in "Operation Cross Country," the FBI announced Monday.
The agency said the 84 minors were victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 37 of them were actively missing children. The average age of the victim was 15.5 years old with the youngest being 11, according to agents.
Investigators also located 141 adult victims of human trafficking.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, authorities identified or arrested 85 suspects accused of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking offenses.
RELATED: 70 missing children, including sex trafficking victims, found in Texas operation
"Human trafficking is among the most heinous crimes the FBI encounters," FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a news release. "Unfortunately, such crimes—against both adults and children—are far more common than most people realize. As we did in this operation, the FBI and our partners will continue to find and arrest traffickers, identify and help victims, and raise awareness of the exploitation our most vulnerable populations."
"The Justice Department is committed to doing everything in our power to combat the insidious crimes of human trafficking that devastate survivors and their families," Attorney General Merrick Garland added.
Operation Cross Country XII
The FBI said Operation Cross Country XII involved FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, victim specialists, and child adolescent forensic Interviewers. They worked in conjunction with 200 state, local, and federal partners and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to conduct 391 operations over a two-week period.
"The success of Operation Cross County reinforces what NCMEC sees every day. Children are being bought and sold for sex in communities across the country by traffickers, gangs and even family members," offered Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
The 2021 Federal Human Trafficking Report released in June showed that more than half of all trafficking victims in the U.S. were minors in federal prosecutions last year.
RELATED: Maryland GOP Senate candidate arrested for allegedly filing false child trafficking report
Of the nearly 450 human trafficking victims involved in new U.S. criminal cases in 2021, 57% were minors, according to the report from the Human Trafficking Institute (HTI).
Texas, Florida and Georgia charged the most criminal human trafficking suspects last year. Districts that charged the most defendants accused of trafficking minors for sex in 2021 were, in order: southern Texas, South Carolina, southern Florida, eastern New York, southern Illinois, middle Florida, eastern Arkansas, eastern Texas, Nebraska, eastern Michigan and northern Illinois.
Since 2000, 55% of sex trafficking victims have been recruited online, typically through social media platforms, online chat rooms, messaging apps, dating apps or advertisements, the human trafficking research organization said in its report.
FOX News contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/fbi-84-minors-141-adults-rescued-in-national-sex-trafficking-operation | 2022-08-15T20:21:10Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/fbi-84-minors-141-adults-rescued-in-national-sex-trafficking-operation | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
K-9 Deputy Tera joins the Lake County Sheriff’s Canine Unit
LAKE COUNTY, Ill. - The Lake County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday they are welcoming a new addition to their office’s Canine Unit.
Tera, a 1-and-a-half-year-old Labrador Retriever, has been trained to detect internal storage devices during child exploitation and human trafficking investigations, the sheriff’s office said.
She has been partnered with her handler, Detective Corey Kemp, who specializes in cases involving internet crimes against children, human trafficking and internet financial crimes, the sheriff's office said.
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Tera will assist Kemp while conducting search warrants by locating any hidden electronics including cell phones, tablets, computers, flash drives, and SD cards that may be hidden in a building or home.
(Lake County Sheriff's Office)
"When investigating child exploitation and human trafficking cases, it is not uncommon for the suspect to hide images and videos on electronic devices, and then hide those devices in a building or home," the sheriff's office said.
Kemp and Tera will work on sheriff's office cases while also assisting municipal police departments as needed.
"We are so grateful for the generous donation of Canine Tera. She will be a major asset in our fight against human trafficking and child exploitation. I know Canine Tera will do great things for Lake County, just as her seven sheriff’s office canine colleagues and their handlers have over the years," Sheriff John D. Idleburg said in a statement.
Tera becomes the eighth member of the Lake County Sheriff's Office canine unit. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/k-9-deputy-tera-joins-the-lake-county-sheriffs-canine-unit | 2022-08-15T20:21:16Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/k-9-deputy-tera-joins-the-lake-county-sheriffs-canine-unit | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Airmen of 944th Fighter Wing Security Forces conduct Tactical Combat Casualty Care [TCCC} training at Fightertown Paintball Park in El Mirage, Ariz., Aug. 12, 2022. TCCC is standardized training to equip every Airman with the basic skills to save lives in combat operations. The Airmen worked through various scenarios amidst simulated combat engagement with the goal to deliver care and or evacuation under fire or threat. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Tyler J. Bolken)
This work, Reserve Citizen Airmen of 944th FW Security Forces conduct life-saving training [Image 11 of 11], by SSgt Tyler J. Bolken, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7371098/reserve-citizen-airmen-944th-fw-security-forces-conduct-life-saving-training | 2022-08-15T20:23:59Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7371098/reserve-citizen-airmen-944th-fw-security-forces-conduct-life-saving-training | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
This entry is my official apocalypsis journal entry to add to Dryunya's original here to her surprise... I shall try my dead hardests (no doubt there' a couple out ther already) I shall only do it till this entry so my poor brainz iz to fried right now too try it once to my dead-hears! :> A big thankya' To Sleep to dream the darkest noona (who made iz look like i hav A man accused of killing one person and 17 others after driving through a crowd of people in Pennsylvania and then returned home and allegedly beat his mother to death has been charged with two counts of criminal homicide.
Pennsylvania State Police said 24-year-old Adrian Oswaldo Sura Reyes of Nescopeck was arraigned Sunday.
Police said a crowd had gathered for a community benefit event for a family involved in a deadly fire on Aug.5 when a car plowed into them.
According to police, 50-year-old Rebecca Reese was killed and 17 others were injured.
Police said five transported to Geisinger Medical Center remained in critical condition while two were listed in fair condition.
Five patients had been treated at hospitals and released, police said.
The Associated Press reported that Reyes told police that he initially drove past the gathering, but then turned around and headed back to the gathering “to drive through the crowd of people.”
After the crash, Reyes allegedly drove back home and confronted his mother, 56-year-old Rosa Reyes, who died after Sura Reyes reportedly struck her with a vehicle and then beat her in the head with a blunt object multiple times, police said.
Police said the 24-year-old was taken into custody by police once they got to the scene. | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/police-man-kills-woman-after-driving-into-fundraiser-crowd-then-kills-mother | 2022-08-15T20:24:11Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/police-man-kills-woman-after-driving-into-fundraiser-crowd-then-kills-mother | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The NFL rolled out its top players list ahead of the 2022 regular season, and a pair of 49er players were named. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk was No. 100, falling three spots from 2021:
No matter how much the offense evolves with Trey Lance under center, don’t expect Juszczyk to lose snaps. If he’s not lined up at fullback, he could easily line up at tight end. We’ve seen Juice as a receiving threat out of the backfield and down the field. That speaks to his versatility and is the primary reason he’s on the list.
We all know how many yards Juice missed out on last year due to errant throws. He still finished in the top-25 among all receiving backs in yards, despite having fewer targets than all but one of the backs ahead of him. Some of the routes we saw to Ross Dwelley Friday could go to Juszczyk during the season.
Jimmie Ward was the other Niner to land on the list. The video below is worth the watch:
#49ers Jimmie Ward lands on the #NFLTop100 for the first time in his career pic.twitter.com/s7904DosE9
— (@TheSFNiners) August 15, 2022
Ward has let his personality come out more and more over the past few seasons. He’s gone out of his way to share his dislike for the Rams as well as going toe-to-toe with DK Metcalf. But Ward backs it up with his play on the field, so the trash talk doesn’t feel out of place.
Ward lines up at free safety, in the box, slot, and will occasionally walk up on the defensive line. Ward reminded us of his special teams' value last season with a critical blocked kick in the playoffs. You name it; he’ll do it.
Ward allowed a completion percentage of 51% a year ago and caught the ball twice, which was his first time. Ward did drop an interception, but last year was a prime example of the ball finding him as a player.
Ward deserves to be acknowledged, and seeing his peers recognize what Ward brings to the table is nice. He’ll have to continue to grow as a leader, as this year could be a challenge with a new safety and slot cornerback.
Of course, this news couldn’t come at a worse time as Ward will miss a month, and potentially Week 1, with a hamstring injury. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/15/23306455/49ers-juszczyk-ward-nfl-top-100 | 2022-08-15T20:29:57Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/15/23306455/49ers-juszczyk-ward-nfl-top-100 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Freshly crowned Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and 2021 Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova were among the Grand Slam winners in action on Day 1 of the Western & Southern Open.
More results from major champions to be added as the day continues...
Elena Rybakina d. Mayar Sherif 6-3, 6-2
Rybakina continued to settle into her new status as Grand Slam titlist with an efficient and focused first-round win. Sherif, playing the second match of her comeback from a foot injury that had sidelined her for two months, proved intermittently dangerous. The No.58-ranked Egyptian struck her heavy forehand with relish and ultimately tallied some impressive stats, finding 11 winners to five unforced errors.
Indeed, Sherif led by a break at 3-2 in the first set. But from that point Rybakina settled into a groove on serve, backed up by several lethal backhands. The Kazakh saved all four further break points against her to reel off 10 of the next 12 games, and finished with 13 winners to 11 unforced errors.
Veronika Kudermetova d. Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 6-3
Only one place separates Krejcikova and Kudermetova in this week's rankings, with Krejcikova holding a mere two-point lead at No.19 to Kudermetova's No.20. But their momentum is carrying them in opposite directions, something that Kudermetova's 74-minute victory underlined.
The only previous time the two had met was a significant milestone for Krejcikova, who won 6-2, 6-2 in the final round of 2018 Roland Garros qualifying to make her Grand Slam main-draw debut. Three years later, she would be crowned singles champion in Paris.
But the Czech has struggled to regain that form since returning from an elbow injury two months ago. Her record since coming back is 5-7, and this result means that she is on a three-match losing streak.
Conversely, Kudermetova's 2022 has been highlighted by three finals, two further semifinals (including two weeks ago in San Jose), a maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros and a Top 20 debut last month. Her season record is now 29-15.
More to come... | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2745042/photos-contrasting-cincy-results-for-rybakina-krejcikova | 2022-08-15T20:29:57Z | wtatennis.com | control | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2745042/photos-contrasting-cincy-results-for-rybakina-krejcikova | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
MASON, Cincinnati -- You’d be hard-pressed to classify Iga Swiatek’s recent results as a slump, but the fact of the matter is she has now gone three straight events without a title.
And while in the bigger picture that doesn’t seem like reason for concern, consider this is a player who earlier this season rolled through six straight tournaments without as much as a single loss. Four of those titles came at WTA 1000 events, along with her run through the Roland Garros field, where she dropped only one set in seven matches.
Western & Southern Open: Scores | Draw | Order of play
A victim of her own success? Perhaps, but the larger answer is in Swiatek’s full-scale approach.
“I'm trying to look long term at whole process and maybe think [where I want to be] in the next season,” Swiatek said Monday during her pre-tournament press session at the Western & Southern Open. “It's more my team who is kind of like convincing me that I should think long term.”
But there is also the immediate matter at hand, which can’t be overlooked. In Cincinnati, Swiatek is looking to become the first player since Serena Williams nine years ago to win seven titles before this month’s US Open.
The bad news: In four main-draw appearances at the Western & Southern Open, Swiatek has never advanced past the Round of 32. The good news? The forecast.
Last week in Toronto, Swiatek fell to eventual runner-up Beatriz Haddad Maia. Afterward, Swiatek conceded the conditions were difficult to navigate.
“Especially, this was the first day that it was so windy,” she said to the press in Toronto. “So I didn't even know that it's going to be like that. And it was hard to even prepare, you know?”
To be fair, Swiatek credited her opponent for adjusting to the conditions better.
“When she was playing with the wind, she was playing really strong balls,” Swiatek said. “And sometimes I was late for them. And on the other hand she was able to put it in.”
This weather this week in Cincinnati looks nothing short of ideal, with temperatures hovering in the mid to high 70s and minimal wind.
“But I'm trying also to learn how to play in different conditions because it's so key, just when you're changing places every week,” Swiatek said. “I feel like first part of the season I was pretty lucky because there were some really windy days and I didn't play during these days.
“So right now I'm also trying to be prepared to anything.”
Speaking of preparing for anything ...
How about a showdown with Serena Williams?
"I would love to just to see how it is to see her on the other side of the net,” Swiatek said.
On Monday, Swiatek told the press she remembers watching Williams on TV growing up. That at the time, it was surreal to think about a future in which she and the 23-time Grand Slam champ would be at the same venue, never mind the same court.
Cincinnati draw: Raducanu faces Serena Williams in blockbuster opener
“Just seemed like a different world,” she said.
Swiatek and Williams have never played. And according to the top-ranked player, they’ve never met off the court.
“I have a hard time catching eye contact with Serena,” Swiatek said. “It’s tough because she always had so many people around her, and I'm pretty shy and when I look at her I kind of forget that I'm here as the World No.1.
“I feel like I'm the kid from kindergarten.”
Swiatek, who has an opening-round bye, and Williams are on opposite sides of the draw. | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2745323/swiatek-on-her-long-term-approach-dream-showdown-with-serena-and-more | 2022-08-15T20:30:03Z | wtatennis.com | control | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2745323/swiatek-on-her-long-term-approach-dream-showdown-with-serena-and-more | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
That didn’t take long. The 49ers gave quite the vote of confidence to Samuel Womack as they waived started slot cornerback Darqueze Dennard Monday. This may come as a mild surprise given Dennard’s recent praise from the coaching staff and how he “learned the playbook overnight,” but he struggled Friday.
In coverage, he was guarding grass. That’s a no-no. Also, if you’re going to play in the slot in this defense, you have to be a stout-run defender. That means you can’t get caught running seven yards upfield, as Dennard did below:
Dennard struggled Friday. He gets caught in no man’s land and doesn’t relate to any WR on the first 2 plays. Then he gets too far upfield and creates a running lane.
— KP (@KP_Show) August 15, 2022
Watch Womack trigger at the bottom of the screen on the last 2 plays. He’s a player. https://t.co/IOtFuVoJFp pic.twitter.com/cJ3E522bUZ
You can see the difference in Womack’s trigger and how he doesn’t overrun the running back on the last two plays. When the rookie is a better run defender, athlete and showed all game he’s better in coverage, there wasn’t much of a decision for the 49ers to make.
Ride the rookie, take the lumps that come with playing a young guy, and bet on the talent around him while he improves with more playing time.
Aside from Womack, Dontae Johnson, who has been playing safety, and Qwantrezz Knight and Deommodore Lenoir remain as potential slot options. But let’s not kid ourselves; Womack won the job Friday.
Fullback Josh Hokit, WR KeeSean Johnson, and DT Tomasi Kaulile were waived. The team could bring a player back later in this season. They did the same thing with Colton McKivitz last year. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/15/23306699/49ers-release-darqueze-dennard-waive-3-others | 2022-08-15T20:30:03Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/15/23306699/49ers-release-darqueze-dennard-waive-3-others | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
One of the most significant factors in the 49ers’ success this year is how quickly Trey Lance can get on the same page with the weapons around him. To dive into that subject, I sat down with someone who would know more about that than anyone on the planet: Jerry Rice. Jerry gave us a few minutes of his time on behalf of NFL Blitz Legends from Arcade1Up.com.
Jerry first mentioned that it doesn’t take Trey Lance long to get chemistry with anyone.
“I was doing a commercial with Trey Lance for GOAT Fuel, and I was out running routes with him. You could tell it didn’t take long for us to gel. He got used to my body language and how I was going to position myself coming out of the route, and the ball was already in the air. I think you’re seeing that with Brandon Aiyuk, but Deebo Samuel and George Kittle have to get on the same page [with Lance]. If they do that, all cylinders, man. It’s gonna be an open offense.”
I then asked Jerry to dive deeper into building that chemistry and how we can see it on the field.
“Practice is everything. Preparation. If you work together and you talk about different scenarios during practice, you watch the practice film together, and if you get on the same page, it’s almost like doing a dance, man. Seriously. You know that receiver is just like the quarterback on the field. He knows exactly where the open spot is, and then the receiver pretty much trusts that the quarterback is going to release the ball before he comes out of his route. Now he can catch the ball and get those YAC yards.”
Along the lines of building chemistry with people, I also asked Rice about Jimmy Garoppolo reportedly ghosting the team during the offseason. At first, Jerry thought it was only last year.
“It’s a big deal if you still wanted to be with the San Francisco 49ers,” Rice said, “Or if you wanted to come in and compete for that job. Maybe he just felt like it was time for him to move on. He felt like the Niners were moving on, so maybe that was the disconnect.”
Then I told Jerry that Garoppolo had been disappearing in the offseason almost every year since 2018.
“I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that. Yeah, that’s a problem, okay? It would [tick me off]. I didn’t realize it was going on that long. That’s a big problem. Maybe that’s the reason why the Niners are moving in a different direction now.
I think we needed to turn that page. I think Trey Lance is rearing to go. He’s showing great composure. He’s excited by his opportunity, and he’s gonna be able to extend plays with his legs. For defensive coordinators, they’re going to have to prepare for this guy running the ball, too.”
Download the podcast to hear the entire interview, which is only about 10 minutes long. It’s available everywhere podcasts are found. NFL Blitz Legends features great players like Jerry Rice, Cris Carter, Deion Sanders, and many more. Click here to order or for more information. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/15/23306765/jerry-rice-it-doesnt-take-trey-lance-long-to-build-chemistry-with-people | 2022-08-15T20:30:09Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/8/15/23306765/jerry-rice-it-doesnt-take-trey-lance-long-to-build-chemistry-with-people | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
‘It was kind of like a miracle’: Woman donates kidney to older brother in need
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) – An Arkansas woman showed how far she will go for her family when she found out she was a kidney match for her adopted brother.
Leslie George said she has always protected her brother, Craig Robinson, who is 14 months older.
Robinson is visually impaired and suffers from a rare genetic disorder, a situation that grew worse three years ago, causing kidney dysfunction.
“It wasn’t so much about the idea of donating a kidney, it was more about my brother was in trouble and he needed help,” George said.
It wasn’t until July 2021 that George discovered she and Robinson had matching blood types. She said that’s rare since they are not biological siblings.
“Immediately, I thought that’s my blood type,” George said. “So I reached out to mom and just said, ‘Well, now you know that I’m also B positive.’”
Both had a successful surgery in May of this year.
Their mother, Carol Robinson, called it a full-circle moment she will never forget.
“The idea that this was able to happen, lengthen his life, more than likely,” she said. “Leslie was all ready to do it. It just makes my heart explode.”
Craig Robinson said he never would have fathomed his sister would be the one to save his life. Now, a part of her will always live in him.
“It was kind of like a miracle, you know, because we were waiting so long and we didn’t know how long it was going to take to get a match for the kidney thing,” Craig Robinson said.
He experienced a few complications after surgery, but his health is almost back to full strength.
“People say you’re a hero, you know, you saved that day,” George said. “I don’t really look at it that way because there was just not really any other decision because it’s family, and there was no good reason not to.”
Copyright 2022 KATV via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbko.com/2022/08/15/it-was-kind-like-miracle-woman-donates-kidney-older-brother-need/ | 2022-08-15T20:31:50Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/2022/08/15/it-was-kind-like-miracle-woman-donates-kidney-older-brother-need/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
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