text string | url string | crawl_date timestamp[ns, tz=UTC] | source_domain string | group string | id string | in_blocksbin int64 | in_noblocksbin int64 | tag string | minhash_count string |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
It was the perennial razor-close high-dollar swing district all last decade. Will Hurd won it three times, but never reached 50% in any of the three elections. It moved a few points towards the GOP in 2020 when Tony Gonzales won it, and redistricting made it a bit redder still, but it remains the closest Republican-held seat and may never fade as a perennial battleground. But that may depend on this year, when Gonzalez will have an easier time of it at least financially. I don’t know yet what I expect from that race.
Gonzales remains the favorite for a second term — given the new political makeup of the district and his stark financial advantage — but he said he is taking the race “extremely seriously” and treating it like he was still running under the famously competitive boundaries that were in effect before redistricting.
“The [elected officials] that don’t have to fight, that are just there as long as they want it — they’re like declawed indoor cats that get fancy meals when the bell rings out,” Gonzales said in an interview. “I think Texas [District] 23 — you’re like an alleycat that has to scrape and claw and fight for everything, and I think that just makes you just different. Like, you’re fighting for your life.”
This cycle, Gonzales said, he wants to “run up the score” and “take this seat off the table completely.”
A former Navy cryptologist, Gonzales won the seat in 2020 by 4 percentage points, a wide margin by the razor-thin standards of the 23rd District. He was the successor backed by U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, a moderate who had built his own reputation for breaking with his party, perhaps most notably opposing former President Donald Trump’s push for a border wall.
Trump carried the 23rd District by 2 points in 2020. But redistricting morphed it into a district that Trump would have won by 7 points, and in March, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee officially removed the seat from its list of targeted races.
[Democratic candidate John] Lira argued redistricting “didn’t do Gonzales that many favors,” noting the Cook Political Report, an election forecaster, only increased the Republican advantage of the district by 3 percentage points. And he said he is encouraged by the cracks in Gonzales’ Republican support, the political fallout from the Uvalde shooting and the strength of Beto O’Rourke’s gubernatorial campaign at the top of the ticket.
As for the case against Gonzales, Lira said, “he’s got Will Hurd’s playbook in his back pocket and he’s trying to see how he can play both sides.”
While national attention has faded from the race, Lira recently got the backing of O’Rourke, who rarely issues formal down-ballot endorsements. Lira also has the support of the political arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which endorsed him after the district was redrawn.
[…]
“I do think the district is going to be a little more competitive than most people anticipated — now how competitive, I don’t know,” said Jeff McManus, chair of the Bexar County GOP. “We sort of have a three-way race going,” with the independent challenger from the right.
McManus said he wishes Gonzales “were a stronger conservative.” The two were on opposite sides of the county party chair election in May, when Gonzales backed the incumbent, John Austin, that McManus defeated.
The independent candidate is Frank Lopez Jr., a former U.S. Border Patrol agent who had to give up his position as chair of the Val Verde County GOP to run. He and Gonzales are very familiar with one another: Lopez was the campaign manager for Raul Reyes, Gonzales’ bitter rival in the 2020 Republican primary runoff for the 23rd District.
Lopez said he ran as an independent, not in the GOP primary, after seeing “the way Raul lost” at the hands of the party’s establishment, which had coalesced behind Gonzales.
“Texans are tired of these dangerous Democrat policies,” Lopez said in an interview, “but they’re also tired of the pandering and games from the RINOs, establishment and globalists in the Republican Party. I had to give Texans a true choice.”
Lopez added that he sees a “perfect storm” for his candidacy, citing the recent intraparty blowback Gonzales has faced and Democrats he meets who say they are looking for a new political home.
Gonzales jokingly asked “Who?” when asked about Lopez in an interview. More seriously, he said the 23rd District has always had a third candidate in November who gets 3% to 5% of the vote and that he expected Lopez would be no different. Still, he said he is not taking Lopez for granted and that it “helps me stay sharp.”
Most of the rest of the story is about Gonzales’ votes in favor of the Cornyn gun control bill and the House bill to protect same-sex marriage, both of which has drawn him some criticism and two censure votes from aggrieved county GOPs (a third, in Bexar County, failed to pass). Good for him and all, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here for the numbers.
For what it’s worth, Trump carried CD23 by seven points in 2020. The next two closest districts are both Dem-held (CD15, Trump +3; CD28, Biden +7), and after that it’s all double digits, with CDs 24 (Trump +12), 03 (Trump +14), 22 (Trump +16), 26 (Trump +18), and 38 (Trump +18) next in line. The main difference between CD23 and these other districts is that the latter all moved strongly towards Dems since 2012, with Mitt Romney carrying them by 38 to 44 points. It would not shock me if Beto does about as well in CDs 03 and 24 as he does in CD23. I don’t think Gonzales is going to achieve his goal of taking CD23 off the table, but I could easily see him winning by 10-12 points and discouraging any serious competition in the near term future. I could also see him winning by about the seven points that Trump won it by and remaining in the same position. He has some big advantages, but this is officially a Very Weird Year, and I’m not making any predictions about it. Long term I think this district remains on the radar, but maybe not at the front of the pack. We’ll see. | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106748 | 2022-08-30T19:39:14Z | offthekuff.com | control | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106748 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
From the inbox:
Lesley Briones, candidate for Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 4, released the results of a new poll today that shows her in the lead: Briones 44% / Cagle 42%.
The poll was conducted August 9-13 by the national firm, Lake Research Partners, and surveyed 400 likely 2022 general election voters in Precinct 4.
Click here to read a summary memo prepared by the polling firm.
Among the key findings:
• Briones leads Cagle by a margin of 44% to 42%
• After positive information about both candidates was provided, Briones’ lead grew to 47% to 42%
• The new Precinct 4 has a 7-point Democratic advantage: 41% Democrats / 34% Republicans / 15% Independents
It’s an internal poll, so adjust your expectations accordingly. The only other Harris County data we have so far was that UH/Hobby poll that had Judge Hidalgo up by a point over Alexandra Mealer. We’re in a new Commissioners Court map, and Judge Hidalgo was an atypical candidate in 2018, with a lot of Dems crossing over to vote for then-Judge Ed Emmett, so I have no sense of the correlation between the two races at this time. Maybe one can win if the other loses, maybe not, I just don’t know. I will say I found this bit from the memo heartwarming:
Cagle is uniquely vulnerable to attacks on abortion and birth control. Of all the tested negatives against Cagle, his anti-choice views and extreme actions to deny women health care in the past generate the most serious doubts about him (39% serious doubts, 47% total doubts). Meanwhile, 41% of voters are very convinced, and 57% are convinced overall, to support Briones due to her commitment to fight to protect abortion access.
You know how I feel about this. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106777 | 2022-08-30T19:39:22Z | offthekuff.com | control | http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=106777 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
From the Record — Aug. 23 – 29, 2022
Motorcycle crash near Otter Tail Lake
The Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a female that was in a ditch following a motorcycle crash near the intersection of County Highway 72 and Segar Road just southwest of Otter Tail Lake on Aug. 27, at approximately 3:16 p.m. Upon arrival it was determined that a 63 year old Lake Park woman was driving the motorcycle and had been traveling on County Highway 72 and had fallen off. The woman, who was not wearing a helmet, sustained injuries to her neck and shoulder area. She was transported to Perham Health by Ringdahl Ambulance. The motorcycle was towed from the scene by a private party.
Stolen vehicle located at Fergus Falls truck stop
A vehicle reported stolen to the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 25, at approximately 5:48 a.m., from an address on County Highway 35, about five miles north of Dalton was recovered at the Big Chief Truck Stop on Aug. 27, at approximately 11:39 a.m. Deputies noted no damage to the vehicle and none of its contents were taken. However, the sheriff’s office was unable to identify the suspect who brought the vehicle to the truck stop.
In a related odd twist, an employee of the truck stop contacted the sheriff’s office at approximately 6:53 p.m. the same day to report that he had heard very limited third hand information about a stolen vehicle that law enforcement had been looking for and noticed someone getting into a similar vehicle and wanted to report the incident. A deputy confirmed that it was indeed the same vehicle and that the actual owner of the vehicle, just five minutes previously had picked up the keys for the recovered vehicle from the sheriff’s office and had pulled back into Big Chief which caused confusion for the employee.
Four issued citations for trespassing at former Regional Treatment Center
Fergus Falls police responded to a report of three or four people who were trespassing at the former Regional Treatment Center at 1400 North Union Avenue on Aug. 29 at 12:06 a.m. The suspects were described as being one female, two males wearing hooded sweatshirts and one other male wearing a baseball cap with a t-shirt and jeans. Police say all four individuals were issued trespass citations.
Man harasses hospital looking for narcotics
The house supervisor at Lake Region Healthcare contacted the Fergus Falls Police Department on Aug. 27, at approximately 3:32 p.m. to report that she had taken multiple phone calls throughout the day from a man who was demanding a refill of a narcotic prescription. The supervisor also reported that the man had been told several times that they would not fill it for him and that he was getting more agitated with each call. He had also been calling the walk in clinic trying to get narcotics from there. The supervisor wanted law enforcement to be aware of it in case the man showed up in person.
Bows stolen out of storage locker
A resident on State Highway 108 contacted the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 25, at approximately 6:10 p.m., to report that her storage unit was broken into and a crossbow and a compound bow had been stolen within the last month. The combined estimated value of the two bows was $1600. The sheriff’s office said that it appeared that the suspect accessed the property from an adjacent unit via a crawl space in the ceiling. There are no suspects at this time.
Window shot
A resident on the 43000 block of Mosquito Heights Road reported to the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 26, at approximately 10:53 a.m., that somebody had shot out a window of their house, but had just discovered it that day and was unsure when it had occurred. Responding deputies observed a single shot to a side window of the dwelling, but were unable to locate a BB shot. The damage was estimated at $1,000.
Woman loses $5,000 in Amazon scam
A woman on Walker Avenue in New York Mills reported to the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 24, at approximately 11:48 a.m., that she had taken cash out of an account at a local credit union and purchased gift cards to “protect her Amazon IP address” that had supposedly been compromised. The woman was in the process of getting a list together of the gift cards and amounts she purchased, but the total loss was estimated at $5000.
People lost at Inspiration Peak
The Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office was contacted on Aug. 24, at approximately 9:42 p.m., about a woman that was lost at Inspiration Peak. A deputy was able to provide directions to get back down from the peak to what turned out to be two individuals. Upon returning to the entrance, a female was evaluated and released without transport, while a male party did not need or request treatment.
Multiple farm animals loose on roadway
A person near the intersection of County Highway 50 and County Highway 75, southwest of Wadena on Aug. 28, at approximately 9:22 a.m., reported to the Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office that a black and white steer, a brown and white heifer and two goats were observed walking southbound towards Highway 210. The person making the report believed the animals probably belong to Amish farmers in the area and that he would check with them later in the day. | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/from-the-record-aug-23-29-2022/article_58af7916-287e-11ed-aa71-33e0ad5914dc.html | 2022-08-30T19:40:27Z | fergusfallsjournal.com | control | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/from-the-record-aug-23-29-2022/article_58af7916-287e-11ed-aa71-33e0ad5914dc.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Gov. Tim Walz focused on the Minnesota Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights, highlighted safety preparations, attended the Minnesota State Fair and authorized emergency assistance for eight Minnesota counties due to severe weather and flooding damage.
On Aug. 22, Walz announced that he would continue the Governor's Council on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. The council coordinates and executes observances of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's birthday at the state level in Minnesota and ensures that Dr. King’s memory and his mission are kept alive. The executive order will allow the Walz administration to appoint a rotating cabinet member to serve as chair of the council as well as fourteen additional members. For the coming year, Walz has appointed commissioner Steve Grove to serve as the chair.
“There is no place for hate or discrimination in Minnesota,” said Walz. “I am proud to continue supporting this council whose mission is to carry on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. by creating opportunities for Minnesotans to honor and remember Dr. King’s memory.”
Applications for the council are available on the Secretary of State’s website at commissionsandappointments.sos.state.mn.us/Agency/Details/66.
On Aug. 23, Walz highlighted safety preparations for the Minnesota State Fair, discussing the collaboration that has gone into ensuring the fair will be safe for all attendees. Walz was joined by Department of Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington, state fair general manager Jerry Hammer, state fair police chief Ron Knafla and the Minnesota State Patrol.
“The state fair is one of my favorite events of the year and we’re working collaboratively to make sure all 12 days are safe, fun and memorable for families across the state,” said Walz. “I am grateful for the hard work between the state fair leadership and law enforcement at the local, county and state level to make this a successful event.”
Over 200 police officers from 55 jurisdictions around the state will patrol the fairgrounds. Gate security will include metal detectors for the second year in a row, bag checks and vehicle restrictions. On Aug. 25, Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan joined thousands of Minnesotans at the opening of this year's State Fair. Along with Sen. Tina Smith, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Walz and Flanagan toured the fair's many offerings. The Minnesota State Fair is open to all and will run through Sep. 5.
On Aug. 24, the Minnesota State Board of Investment voted to select Jill Schurtz to serve as the board’s executive director and chief investment officer. The board oversees over $120 billion in state pension and other funds and is composed of Walz, State Auditor Julie Blaha, Secretary of State Steve Simon and Attorney General Keith Ellison. The board’s decision comes after Mansco Perry III announced his intention to retire from the position later this year. Perry has led the SBI since 2013 and has overseen extraordinary gains for the benefit of thousands of Minnesota employees and retirees. Schurtz has served as the chief investment officer and executive director of the St. Paul Teachers’ Retirement Fund Association since 2014.
On Aug. 26, Walz authorized emergency assistance for eight Minnesota counties due to severe weather and flooding damage sustained during four different weather events spanning between April 22 and July 5. Between April 22 and June 15, Becker County incurred eligible damages due to flooding caused by spring snowmelt and heavy rains. This flooding also caused damage that qualified for federal assistance for 15 other counties and four tribal nations. Between May 8-13, Benton, Lyon, McLeod and Murray counties experienced damages caused by severe thunderstorms with heavy rains, flash flooding, damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes. These storms also caused damage that qualified for federal assistance in 23 other counties.
On June 13, Cottonwood County experienced damages caused by a severe thunderstorm with heavy rains and flash flooding. On July 5, Cottonwood, Freeborn and Rock counties experienced eligible damages caused by severe thunderstorms with heavy rains and flooding.
The Department of Public Safety division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management will continue to work with the counties who were impacted by these severe weather events as directed by the Governor.
Also on Aug. 26, Walz and Flanagan unveiled the Minnesota Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights during an event on the Department of Natural Resources grounds at the Minnesota State Fair. The bill of rights affirms Minnesota’s commitment to creating equitable outdoor recreation experiences and opportunities to discover the natural environment for children and youth no matter where they live, learn, or play. | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/walz-weekly-roundup-aug-22-26-2022/article_80beded4-27a6-11ed-a001-cfbd8bd5bf48.html | 2022-08-30T19:40:33Z | fergusfallsjournal.com | control | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/walz-weekly-roundup-aug-22-26-2022/article_80beded4-27a6-11ed-a001-cfbd8bd5bf48.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Luella Meyer, 93, of Fergus Falls, died Monday, August 29, 2022, at PioneerCare in Fergus Falls.
Luella was born December 2, 1928, to Sofus and Alma (Evenson) Peterson in Pelican Rapids, MN.
In December 1945, Luella married Selvin Samuelson, to this union five children were born, Annette, Darlene, LeRoy, Gary, and Roger. Selvin passed away February 26, 1966.
Luella and Donald Meyer were united in marriage in August of 1967, a daughter Rachel was born to this union. They lived in Pelican Rapids until 1974 when they moved to the Meyer Farm, rural Campbell, MN. Donald passed away March 13, 2006, Luella then moved to Fergus Falls.
She retired in 1998 having been employed at West Central Turkey Plant in Pelican Rapids for 12 years, Red Owl and More-4 stores in Fergus Falls, and also as a cook at the WenDell in Wendell. Following retirement she started her flower garden, growing beautiful lilies and gladiolas. Her greatest enjoyment was having grandchildren come and stay at the farm enjoying farm life.
Luella was a member of Aastad Lutheran Church and transferred to Zion Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls. Taking part in mission quilting and prayer fellowship. She was also a member of the VFW Auxiliary. Luella volunteered at the Food Shelf and the Senior Center. She enjoyed playing whist.
Preceding her in death were her parents; both of her husbands; daughter, Darlene Pixley; grandsons, Eric Samuelson, Doug Pixley, and David Pixley; sisters, Alice (Oliver) Ruud, Lorraine (Carl) Swanson, Marlys (Percy) Olson, Elna (Lawrence) Larson, and Donna (Omar) Johnson; brothers, James (Ella) Peterson, Stanley (Hilda) Peterson, Harry (Rose) Peterson, Oscar (Pernell) Peterson, Wilhelm (Meranda) Peterson, and Donald Peterson; brothers-in-law, Ray (Mary) Meyer, Wallace (Mildred) Meyer, Selmer, Clarence, and Bennett Samuelson.
Luella is survived by her children, Annette (Rick) Westby of Pelican Rapids, LeRoy (Mary) Samuelson of Fargo, Gary (Sue) Samuelson of Underwood, Roger (fiancé Maren) Samuelson of Fargo, and Rachel (Jeff) Anderson of Erhard; son-in-law, Dale Pixley of Dent; 13 grandchildren, Darren, Daryl, Matthew, Michael, Jason, Daniel, Andrew, Jesse, Ashley, Luke, Chase, Brittany, and Megan; 29 great-grandchildren, Christopher, Jenna, Cody, Dalton, Cassie, Nicholas, Alyssa, Dakota, Mariah, Danielle, Daisha, Isabella, Alexandra, Leigha, Maggie, Robert, Sawyer, Bentley, Dawson, Maci, Eli, Griffin, Evan, Parker, Lexie, Myla, Crosby, Eilah, and Ethan; 9 great-great-grandchildren, Alexandrea, Izack, Eleanor, Kloe, Emilia, Kayson, Finnley, Clyde, and Evelyn; 3 step-grandchildren, Nicole, Ryan, and Joseph; 5 step-great-grandchildren, Shalynn, Matt Jr., Samantha, Robin, and Jameson, and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and good friends.
Visitation: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Friday, September 2, 2022 at Olson Funeral Home in Fergus Falls, with prayer service at 6:00 p.m. Visitation will resume one-hour prior to the service at the church.
Service: 11:00 a.m. Saturday, September 3, 2022 at Zion Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls.
Clergy: Reverend Salim Khaderbai
Interment: Bagstevold Cemetery, rural Erhard, MN
Arrangements are provided by Olson Funeral Home in Fergus Falls.
Online condolences may be sent to www.olsonfuneralhome.com. | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/obituaries/luella-meyer-1928-2022/article_7258555e-2883-11ed-a2a4-0f8a3bf84991.html | 2022-08-30T19:40:39Z | fergusfallsjournal.com | control | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/obituaries/luella-meyer-1928-2022/article_7258555e-2883-11ed-a2a4-0f8a3bf84991.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Pamela Carlson-Marstrand, 70, of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, passed away on August 28, 2022.
Pamela was born on September 26, 1951 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota to parents Clifford and Louise (Hanson) Erickson. She was baptized at Augustana Lutheran Church in Fergus Falls where she was later confirmed. She was very fond of walking her dog, Cookie, in her matching lime green raincoat, rainboots, and umbrella. Pamela attended Fergus Falls High School before going to college in Minneapolis. Pamela married John Carlson April 17, 1971, to this union two daughters were born: Jennifer Louise and Rebecca Joan. In 1987 Pamela and her daughters moved to Houston, Texas where she worked at Enron Energy Corporation. She later married Chuck Marstrand. After leaving Enron, she enjoyed working with Cornerstone Marketing and United American Insurance until her retirement.
Pamela had great leadership and people skills, she could make friends with anyone. She enjoyed traveling to places where her husband, Chuck, worked as a contract consultant. Pamela had a strong faith; she enjoyed reading her Bible and teaching Sunday school at Augustana. She loved animals, going on walks on gravel roads, crocheting, and sunbathing while the rest of the family fished at Dayton Hollow Dam. One of Pamela’s greatest joy’s in life was spending time with her family. She was happiest during the last few years of her life when she spent as much time as possible with her Mom and sister.
Pamela is preceded in death by her father Clifford Erickson; step-father Austin; husband Chuck Marstrand; and numerous uncles and aunt.
She is survived by her mother Louise Hokanson; sister Patty (John Gillund) Wilkinson; daughters Jennifer (Roger) French and Rebecca (Jay) Montgomery; grandchildren Emily (Dustin) Carlson, Sara Carlson, Austin Carlson, Rae Montgomery, Evan French, and John Montgomery; great-grandchildren Stella Rose and Violet Evelyn; favorite niece Sara (Kyle) Eide; favorite nephew Matt Wilkinson; great-nephews Andrew Johnson and Sam Lundeen; and numerous cousins.
Funeral to be held 2:00 PM Thursday, September 1, 2022 at Glende-Nilson Funeral Home in Fergus Falls, MN, with a visitation beginning an hour prior.
Interment at Knollwood Memorial Gardens following the funeral service.
Discuss the news on NABUR, a place to have local conversations The Neighborhood Alliance for Better Understanding and Respect ✔ A site just for our local community ✔ Focused on facts, not misinformation ✔ Free for everyone | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/obituaries/pamela-carlson-marstrand-1951-2022/article_767355aa-2886-11ed-99c7-57a96939d1f3.html | 2022-08-30T19:40:46Z | fergusfallsjournal.com | control | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/obituaries/pamela-carlson-marstrand-1951-2022/article_767355aa-2886-11ed-99c7-57a96939d1f3.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Theresa Halbakken, 77, of Rothsay, died Thursday, August 25, 2022, at Lake Region Healthcare in Fergus Falls.
Theresa V. Collins, was born November 8, 1944, to Phyllis Mae Jordan in Vancouver, British Columbia.
On January 18, 1983, Theresa married Wesley Halbakken in Ballard, WA.
She was the Co-Owner of McGrath’s Restaurant in Ballard, WA from 1982 to 2000 when she retired.
Theresa was a member of Pebble Lake Golf Course in Fergus Falls, MN and Jackson Park Golf Course in Seattle, WA. She was a Pebble Lake Golf Course Legend 2019. She organized numerous golf events at Pebble Lake Golf Course. She was the Annual Co-Chair for the Scramble for the Cure at Pebble Lake Golf Course, benefitting the Lake Region Healthcare Cancer Care and Research Center.
She was an avid golfer, scrapbooker, and loved to play Bingo.
Preceding her in death were her mother, Phyllis Mae Johnston and step-father, Donovan T. Johnston.
Theresa is survived by her husband, Wesley Halbakken of Rothsay; her children, Laura A. Walters of Seattle, WA, Bill (Wade Schwartz) Walters of Centralia, WA, and Terri (Tim) Gilbert of Lake Forest Park, WA; grandchildren, Jordan (Alexandra Kruize) Diel, Ivy (Phil) Merrell, June (Leah) Cronen-Meissner, Fiona Taylor, Olivia Taylor, Taylor (David) Gillespie, Elizabeth Gilbert, Tyner Gilbert, Emma Gilbert; great-grandchildren, Violet and Magnus Merrell, RiLynn Gilbert, and Trista and Samantha Gillespie; siblings, Tom (Barb) Collins, of Fort Worth, TX, Valorie Meadows of Renton, WA, Wanda Halbakken of Portland, OR, Sharon (Doug) Lange of Ballard, WA, Steve (Jan) Halbakken of Ballard, WA, Gary Halbakken of Arlington, WA, Terry (Lance) LaFave of Seattle, WA, and Renae (Al) Schultz of Las Vegas, NV, and several nieces and nephews.
The family wishes to thank all family, friends, and neighbors that have been a huge support during this time.
Visitation: 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, August 31, 2022, at New Life Lutheran Church in Rothsay, with prayer service at 6:30 p.m.
Clergy: Reverend Randy Whitehead
Interment: South Immanuel Cemetery, Rothsay, MN
Arrangements provided by Olson Funeral Home in Fergus Falls.
Discuss the news on NABUR, a place to have local conversations The Neighborhood Alliance for Better Understanding and Respect ✔ A site just for our local community ✔ Focused on facts, not misinformation ✔ Free for everyone | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/obituaries/theresa-halbakken-1944-2022/article_d5bdb6d6-2881-11ed-9566-6b7a5c81002e.html | 2022-08-30T19:40:52Z | fergusfallsjournal.com | control | https://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/obituaries/theresa-halbakken-1944-2022/article_d5bdb6d6-2881-11ed-9566-6b7a5c81002e.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Local Sports: Weather mars SMCC homecoming for Airport's Cepo
Goran Cepo didn't have time to reflect on the emotion of his return to Paul & Lynn Rosenbrook Field until after the game had ended.
The former St. Mary Catholic Central boys soccer coach was on the opposite side of his former home pitch. Cepo is in his first year coaching the varsity team at Airport.
"It didn't really kick in until after I left," Cepo said. "It was nice to be back for sure. There were a lot of friendly faces to see. Several of the boys came over and gave me a hug and said hello."
Cepo had extra time to think about the homecoming following SMCC's 2-1 victory over his Jets.
"I lost the convenience of my parking spot. There was an extra walk," Cepo joked. "When I coached there, I parked right behind the press box, so having to park in the parking lot and walk was odd."
The game itself had its own oddities.
Referees called off the remainder of the contest less than minute into the second half as worsening thunderstorms moved into the area.
With Airport trailing by a goal at the time, Cepo said the boys were disappointed to only play half a game and not have the chance to rally.
"If we don't get called 30 seconds into the second half because of weather, I think we push forward in the game and have a good result," Cepo said. "Me being a competitor, it's frustrating because I thought we played a better first half."
Cepo conceded that SMCC did better capitalizing on its chances.
Seth Hendrick opened the scoring for the Falcons with an unassisted goal early in the first half after a Jets' defensive miscue. Holden Kennedy later scored on a penalty kick with 5 minutes remaining to give SMCC a 2-1 lead.
"The soccer gods were looking out for us, having a PK awarded to us 5 minutes before the end of the half and then the lightning," SMCC coach Nathan Olson said. "Who know what would've happened in the next 39 minutes? It was a very competitive game. It was back and forth."
Isak DeSloover played well defensively and goalkeeper Trent Zachel made 5 saves to help SMCC earn its first win of the season (1-4-1). It was the Huron League opener for both teams.
"We learned we have to come out fast. We have to come out competitive," Olson said. "We have to take control of the game ourselves. We can't let other teams dictate the pace of the game. ... Airport was great competition. We look forward to playing them again."
Brandon McComas scored for Airport to tie the game at 1-1. He has recorded all but one of Airport's goals this season. Nolan Ortega, Skyyler Gonzalez, and Jordyn Nason also played well for Airport (2-2).
It was a big improvement for the Jets, who were mercied 8-0 by SMCC last season. But Cepo doesn't want his team finding any moral victories in those results.
"That's looking backward and we're looking forward as a program," he said. "... We fully expected to win yesterday. They didn't and they were disappointed. That's a good sign. It's in their heads every day and every drill to compete and succeed, and we're starting to turn a corner."
PREP SOCCER
Schmidtz nets five
BLISSFIELD − Evan Schmidtz scored five goals to lead Ida to a 9-1 victory over Blissfield Monday.
Dillion Holycross, Jaxon Bolster, Cameron Tross, and Caleb Mannor also scored for the 2-0 Blue Streaks. Bolster added two assists. Other assists also came from Dustin Holycross, Dillion Holycross, Ryan Horn, Donnie Lutz, Mason Reynolds, and Evan Tangler.
"Our team played well tonight and was able to move the ball very well," Ida coach Tim Allen said.
Huron blitzes Rams
FLAT ROCK – New Boston Huron defeated Flat Rock 8-0 Monday. It was the second straight win for Huron, which improved to 2-1-2 overall.
Grosse Ile nips Jefferson
Jefferson played strong defense in a close 2-0 loss to Grosse Ile Monday. Jaden Swan was strong in net for the 1-4 Bears. Gio Boudrie, Gabe Gelso, Eastin Kegley, and Joey Peer also stood out.
State Line falls
TEMPERANCE – State Line Christian dropped its first game of the season 3-1 to Faith Christian. Cooper Worley scored the lone goal for the Patriots (1-1) with an assist from Logan Vandergrift.
Faith Christian scored three goals in the second half to pull away.
JR Hobbins scored for State Line junior high in a 5-1 loss.
PREP GOLF
Bears second in league
Grosse Ile and Jefferson both separated from the pack Monday, but it was the Red Devils who ran away with the title at the first Huron League Jamboree at Green Meadows Golf Course.
Grosse Ile scored 334 to finishing in first with Jefferson runner-up with 406. New Boston Huron was third with 426, followed by St. Mary Catholic Central (438), Riverview (439), Airport (445), Flat Rock (507), and Milan (510).
Grosse Ile carded four of the top six scores led by Lily Bargamian as medalist with a 70.
Jefferson’s Callie Calvin recorded a 96 to place seventh. She was followed closely by teammates Rylee Dunn (98) and Kayce Maitland (99).
Huron’s AJ Skene had a 95 to place fifth, Alaina Wille paced SMCC with a 105, and Sophie Bucki led Airport with a 98.
CROSS COUNTRY
Eagles claim title
ADDISON − Erie Mason opened its season with a victory Friday at the Addison Kuenner Invitational. The boys took first place with 69 points.
Jackson Ansel led the Eagles, finishing second with a time of 17:17.23. Ryan Joyce (8th), Austin Sulier (13th), Parker Campbell (15th), and Parker Sorg (31st) also ran well.
Adrian Madison was second with 70 and Whiteford third with 82.
Mason's girls finished in seventh place, led by Bailey Meiring (19th), Elizabeth Lambert (32nd), and Mikaela Graves (37th).
ADULT SOCCER
Campbell keys comeback
Travis Campbell tallied two goals and Dennis Auten scored on a header to lead Team Krug to a come-from-behind 5-4 win over Deportivo on the final day of the Monroe Adult Coed Summer League at Munson Park Sunday.
Eduardo Aldana notched three goals and Felix Sanchez had one for Deportivo, which tied Krug for the regular season title. In the second game of a doubleheader, Campbell scored three goals and Sophie Mapes and Eric Wahoski each had two goals to lead Krug to a 10-7 victory over Team Drouillard. Jacob Revels, Tyler Begley and Habeeb Bello scored for Drouillard. | https://www.monroenews.com/story/sports/2022/08/30/local-sports-weather-mars-smcc-homecoming-for-airports-cepo/65463741007/ | 2022-08-30T19:45:03Z | monroenews.com | control | https://www.monroenews.com/story/sports/2022/08/30/local-sports-weather-mars-smcc-homecoming-for-airports-cepo/65463741007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Jordan Peele isn’t saying “Nope” to a sequel of the sci-fi thriller.
The director, 43, addressed fan theories regarding the mysterious character listed as “Nobody” on IMDb in an interview with the New York Times, hinting there might be a sequel on its way.
“The story of that character has yet to be told, I can tell you that. Which is another frustrating way of saying, I’m glad people are paying attention,” Peele said.
“I do think they will get more answers on some of these things in the future. We’re not over telling all of these stories,” he continued.
“Nobody” is played by Michael Busch, and while the character didn’t make the movie, he can be seen in the trailer.
Fans didn’t let the uncredited character go unnoticed and sparked a lot of online debate about what it could possibly mean.
“People are doing a lot of interesting detective work, is what’s going on,” the actor and director said of the fans’ speculations of the puzzling character.
Peele, who is known for films “Get Out” and “Us,” refuses to be named “the best horror director of all time” with his three feature films, despite being labeled as such by many.
“Nope” stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who try to capture footage of a UFO circling their family ranch.
The film — which opened in July — earned $44 million at the box office during its opening weekend, the best for an original film since Peele’s “Us” in 2019, according to Box Office Mojo.
It has made more than $115 million since its opening. | https://nypost.com/2022/08/30/jordan-peele-hints-at-nope-sequel-were-not-over-story/ | 2022-08-30T19:52:56Z | nypost.com | control | https://nypost.com/2022/08/30/jordan-peele-hints-at-nope-sequel-were-not-over-story/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Man charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing shots into Linden bar
LINDEN – An East Orange man has been charged in an East St. Georges Avenue bar shooting in which three people were injured.
Najir Paige, 27, was charged with attempted murder, a first-degree crime, aggravated assault and possession of a weapon, both second-degree crimes, and other associated crimes, police said. He was being held at the Essex County Jail pending a Superior Court appearance.
A second suspect, identified as Sharif Evans, 25, of East Orange, has also been charged in connection with the incident but remains at large, police said.
Police responded around 2 a.m. Aug. 6 to Menga Lounge, 1906 E. St. Georges Ave. on a report of a shooting. A police investigation indicates Paige was involved in an altercation at the bar and that following the altercation he left the bar, retrieved a handgun from a nearby vehicle, returned, and allegedly fired multiple shots through the bar's front door, police said.
'It will poison a lot of our children':Battle over marijuana heats up in Hunterdon County
Hit-and-runFamily of teen with autism killed in Route 35 hit-and-run pleads for justice
A 28-year-old man, and two women, ages 23 and 24, were injured during the shooting, police said.
Paige was arrested Aug. 24 after members of Union County SWAT, with assistance from the Linden Police Department, Union County Prosecutor’s Office, and Union County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Unit, executed a search warrant at his home.
“We welcome people from all over the area to come enjoy the many restaurants and businesses our city has to offer, but make no mistake; violent crime has no place in Linden and we will aggressively pursue those who disrupt the peace and safety that our community deserves,” said Police Chief David Hart. “I am very proud of the work that that our officers, detectives, and investigators do each and every day to keep violent offenders like this off our streets.”
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/2022/08/30/linden-nj-menga-lounge-shooting/65463562007/ | 2022-08-30T20:07:43Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/30/linden-nj-menga-lounge-shooting/65463562007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Rahway pedestrian killed in St. Georges Avenue hit-and-run
RAHWAY – Police are looking for the driver of a dark sedan with tinted windows in connection with an early Monday morning hit-and-run crash on St. Georges Avenue in which a pedestrian was killed.
The victim has not been identified by police.
Around 2:59 a.m. Monday, a vehicle struck a pedestrian at the intersection of St. Georges and West Inman avenues and then fled southbound toward Woodbridge, police said.
The first police officers on the scene rendered medical aid to the victim who died at the scene, police said.
According to police, the vehicle that struck the pedestrian is described as a dark sedan with tinted windows, believed to be a Nissan, with damage to the front driver's-side bumper and possibly a broken front driver's-side window.
Police had no further details.
Crime:Man charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing shots into Linden bar
The crash is under investigation by the Rahway Police Department Traffic Bureau. Anyone with information is urged to contact Traffic Investigator Nicholas Twerdak at 732-827-2073 (ntwerdak@rahwaypolice.com) or the Rahway Police Department main phone line at 732-388-1900. Anonymous tips are welcomed.
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/2022/08/30/rahway-nj-fatal-hit-and-run-monday/65463712007/ | 2022-08-30T20:07:49Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/30/rahway-nj-fatal-hit-and-run-monday/65463712007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Family of teen with autism killed in Route 35 hit-and-run pleads for justice
Aleeshia Cook can't understand how anyone could hit her teenage cousin on Route 35 in Sayreville in the middle of the night and keep driving, without stopping to check if he was OK, calling 911 or just holding his hand to reassure him help was on the way.
But a year after the death of Daniel Kreismer, 15, of North Carolina, the family's so-called "miracle baby," a child with autism who survived a lot of medical issues and was fatally struck by a vehicle on August 2021, Cook continues to seek answers.
"He needs to have justice. We need justice for Daniel and Maria both," said Cook, a Nebraska resident, about her cousin and his mother, Maria Kreismer, who died just weeks after her son was killed.
Police responded at 3:44 a.m. Aug. 15, 2021 to the area of northbound Route 35 near South Pine Avenue in Sayreville where they located Kreismer, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police believe the teen was struck by a 2013 to 2015 Honda Accord Touring model, but no color of the vehicle has been provided.
No one has been arrested and charged in Kreismer's hit-and-run death.
"It's been a year and nothing, nothing and no one has come forward. I find it hard to believe with as many Ring doorbells and cameras that people have on their homes that nobody knows anything," Cook said. "There is just a lot of stuff that doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office has no new developments in finding any suspects, but the case remains open, according to a spokesperson.
At the time of the crash, Kreismer and his younger sister were visiting their father's relatives in New Jersey. Their mother was home in North Carolina being treated for heart and other health issues and their father, a cross-country truck driver, was on a run to Chicago. Cook said the father's relatives had taken extra precautions, such as putting latches on the doors to keep Kreismer, who had a history of escaping, inside the home.
Cook said Kreismer also had a fascination with lights, which is why the family believes he headed toward the highway.
Earlier:Fund set up for family of teen killed in Sayreville hit-and-run whose mother died weeks later
Kreismer was born prematurely at about 25 weeks with many medical issues, which is why Cook said the family referred to him as their "miracle baby."
"They didn't expect Daniel to live or walk or even be able to communicate with anybody. So, he was our miracle baby. He didn't verbalize but anyone who had been around him since he was a child understood him," Cook said, adding that with his form of autism, you couldn't run up and hug and touch him; he had to know you and feel comfortable to engage in any kind of communication. He also was blind in one eye.
Cook described Kreismer as a great kid, who others might say was a simple-minded child. Regardless, she said he didn't deserve to die the way he did.
"If you knew Daniel, you knew Maria. Daniel was her life and Maria was Daniel's life. All I thought about when we first found out he had been killed was somebody left him there and I'm sure the only thing he was thinking about at that moment was where his mom was," Cook said.
Cook's son, Father Matthew Pius, a Cistercian Monk and Priest in Nebraska, said he can't think of a single person who didn't love Kreismer.
"Everyone knew that Daniel would always be childlike, and nothing was going to change that. We all accepted him for who he was. We loved him because he loved us in a way that really shows us what love is all about. It’s about the people, not the places or things," he said.
"Being one of the oldest in my generation of the family, I have had the privilege of watching all of my cousins, Daniel included, grow up from tiny babies to the beautiful and strong men and women they are today. When Daniel passed it hit all of us like a freight train. His mother Maria was already scheduled for major heart surgery when all this transpired. I can say without a doubt that Maria died from a broken heart," Pius said.
Cook agrees. She said Maria Kreismer had heart ailments but died of a broken heart after being told her son had died. She died on Nov. 20, 2021, and the family buried both mother and son just months apart.
"The family's had a real rough time," Cook said.
Cook pleaded with the hit-and-run driver to come forward.
"You gotta understand this has taken a toll on everyone in the family. He didn't deserve to die the way he did. How can you have no regard for a human being, let alone a child and run them over, hit them and just take off and not call 911, not see if he's OK, if he was breathing or give him the time of day?" Cook said through tears.
"To have no regard for a life, whether there is a child, an elderly person, a homeless person; it doesn't matter. They are still a human, they don't deserve to die alone," she said. "You don't leave them by themselves like they are a piece of garbage on the side of the road. Just come forward and do the right thing."
Anyone with information about the Aug. 15, 2021 fatal hit-and-run crash is asked to contact Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office Detective Jonathan Berman at 732-745-4328.
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/2022/08/30/sayreville-hit-and-run-daniel-kreismer-family-pleads-for-justice/65458939007/ | 2022-08-30T20:08:04Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/2022/08/30/sayreville-hit-and-run-daniel-kreismer-family-pleads-for-justice/65458939007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
'It will poison a lot of our children': Battle over marijuana heats up in Hunterdon County
LEBANON TOWNSHIP – The township Planning Board is scheduled on Tuesday to start hearing an application to build a marijuana grow facility on Anthony Road, perhaps the most controversial issue in the northern Hunterdon County municipality in recent years.
The application by The NAR Group, of Warren Township, to open a 20,000-square-foot medical marijuana cultivation facility at 62 Anthony Road, the former site of the Diamond Aerosol manufacturing facility, was originally scheduled to be heard on Aug. 16, but NAR requested a postponement until Aug. 30.
To accommodate the large number of residents interested in attending, the hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the gymnasium of Woodglen Elementary School on Bunnvale Road.
Though Planning Board Chairman Gary MacQueen's announcement on Aug. 16 that the hearing had been put off, for more than an hour residents asked the board about planning board procedures as defined in the state's Law Use Law.
"It's very important we do it the right way," MacQueen said. "If we do it the wrong way, we all are going to lose."
MacQueen also said he was "very impressed" with the number of residents who attended the meeting, saying there are many meetings where there are no residents in attendance.
ICYMI:North Hunterdon football dominates Hunterdon Central to open 2022 season
Despite warnings that they could not give opinions on the applications and only ask questions, residents clearly delivered the message the facility is not wanted.
"This is not a threat, but a fact," said Woodglen Road resident Glenn Baykowski. "If you as a board look at the crowd and don't stop this manufacturing marijuana industrial facility, you'll lose your people and our trust in you."
Baykowski said approval of the application would be "spit in our faces."
"This is a poisoned site," said Red Mill Road resident Michael Iannace. "It will poison a lot of our children."
NAR received state approval for the facility in October 2021.
The 40-acre site had been operated more than a decade ago as a research and development facility for internal coatings of aerosol cans, according to a 2011 Environmental Protection Agency report.
Before that it was used by the Diamond East Corporation to manufacture cosmetics and personal protection devices containing tear gas, pepper spray and other specialty chemical products, for about three decades.
In 2011, the EPA report said, the site contained an old stone barn which housed the original cosmetics business, a large stone house used as a residence, two warehouses and various out-buildings used for storage, offices and vehicles.
A Facebook page, Save Lebanon Township, has been posted to rally opposition to the proposal, telling residents to attend township meetings because no decision has been made on the facility.
Marijuana cultivation facilities has sparked opposition in Readington, Alexandria, Kingwood and most recently West Amwell.
The West Amwell Planning Board in July approved a proposal by Green Medicine NJ and GMNJ Properties to convert the former First Pentecostal Prayer of Faith Church into a cultivation facility.
An odor-control system has been put in place in the Verano Holdings growing facility in a former Walmart on Route 22 in Readington after the state Department of Environmental Protection issued fines.
In January, Alexandria rejected a proposal for a medical marijuana cultivation facility on Airport Road.
At an informal February public hearing in Kingwood, not a single resident spoke in favor of a cultivation facility.
In 2020, Lebanon Township voters approved the statewide referendum on the legalization of marijuana by a 2,630-to-1,504 margin.
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/hunterdon-county/2022/08/30/nj-marijuana-lebanon-hearing-on-cultivation-facility-tuesday/65461848007/ | 2022-08-30T20:08:05Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/hunterdon-county/2022/08/30/nj-marijuana-lebanon-hearing-on-cultivation-facility-tuesday/65461848007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
GMC girls soccer teams unite for charitable causes
Twenty-two Greater Middlesex Conference high school girls soccer teams are uniting to help pediatric cancer patients and other children in need through their participation in a fundraising event benefiting two New Jersey-based nonprofits.
In addition, the more than 400 players and coaches involved in the 2022 Soccer for a Cause Charity Festival will also be collecting nonperishable food items for REPLENISH, a regional food bank serving Middlesex County residents.
The second annual showcase will be held Sept. 24 at Metuchen High School with 11 games between evenly matched teams being contested across multiple fields at staggered times starting at 9 a.m.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation and Go4theGoal are once again the charity festival’s beneficiaries.
Last year’s inaugural event featured 14 participating teams and raised a total of nearly $17,000 for the two nonprofits while also generating 1,500 pounds of food for REPLENISH.
Since its inception five years ago, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has donated a quarter of a million dollars to assist pediatric patients and underserved children throughout the greater Middlesex County area.
Go4theGoal’s mission is to improve the lives of children battling cancer nationwide by providing financial support, developing and implementing unique hospital programs, funding innovative research, and granting personal wishes.
The event fittingly occurs in September, which is National Hunger Awareness Month and National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
'We are all proud of you'
The objective of the charity festival is to create a competitive environment and develop friendly rivalries among participating teams while emphasizing good sportsmanship, positive communication, mutual respect, and giving back to the community through a collaborative effort.
State Senator Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., whose legislative district encompasses seven Middlesex County towns, six of which will be represented in this year’s festival, praised the student-athletes and their coaches for participating in the event.
“I want to congratulate the 22 girls high school soccer teams,” said Diegnan, who also serves on The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
“I’ve always said that sports celebrate what’s good in young people, and you are proving that by participating in the fundraiser and the food drive. Keep up the good work. We are all proud of you.”
Friendly competition
In the weeks leading up to the showcase, the 22 participating teams will engage in a friendly competition off the field to raise money for the two charities.
North Brunswick, East Brunswick, Old Bridge, Monroe, Piscataway, South Brunswick, J.P. Stevens, Edison, Carteret, St. Thomas Aquinas and Perth Amboy will raise money for The Marisa Tufaro Foundation.
Metuchen, Colonia, Woodbridge, Sayreville, New Brunswick, North Plainfield, South Plainfield, J.F. Kennedy, Spotswood, Wardlaw-Hartridge and Middlesex will raise money for Go4theGoal.
The top fundraising teams for each charity will be publicly recognized during a special awards presentation on the day of the festival.
The late Ron Mazzola of Prestige Imaging in Old Bridge donated the plaque upon which the names of the top fundraising schools will be engraved. Colonia and Carteret were last year’s top fundraisers.
“It will be a great day watching teams from the Greater Middlesex Conference play against each other in competitive games,” said North Brunswick High School head coach Megan Carroll, one of the event’s organizers.
“The festival's goal is to raise donations for various charities in the Middlesex County area. This charity work brings teams together and exemplifies giving back to one's community. I look forward to a day of competition, giving back and comradery."
Fighting pediatric cancer
New Jersey residents Dr. Richard Stefanacci and his wife, Beth, founded Go4theGoal in 2006, soon after their oldest child was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
Go4theGoal’s Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer fundraising initiative was created in 2011 in response to New Jersey youth soccer teams that wanted to help make a difference, and now gives sports teams across the country an opportunity to raise awareness and much-needed support. All funds stay in the state they are raised to help local children battling cancer.
“On behalf of Go4theGoal, we are incredibly honored to be one of two beneficiaries for the Greater Middlesex Conference Charity Festival,” said Beth Stefanacci, Go4theGoal’s executive director.
“We have had the privilege of partnering with a number of girls soccer teams in the Greater Middlesex Conference through our Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer initiative over the past several years. We are truly grateful to all of the coaches for including us. It is only because of the efforts of teams like these that we are able to make a difference in the lives of kids battling cancer and their families in New Jersey.”
According to the American Cancer Society, this year about 10,500 children ages 1 to 14 in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer. Cancer will claim the lives of about 1,050 children under the age of 15 nationwide in 2022. Cancer is second only to accidents as the leading cause of death in children 14 and younger.
Childhood cancer rates have been rising slightly for the past few decades, but with major advances in treatment, 85% of children with cancer now survive five years or more, a significant increase from the mid-1970s when the five-year survival rate was less than 60% (survival rates vary greatly depending on myriad factors including the type of cancer with which a child is diagnosed).
Since 2007, Go4theGoal has funded more than $1 million in pediatric cancer research and works with nearly 200 hospitals across the country to provide assistance to patients and families.
Go4theGoal has annually been rated since 2011 as a top nonprofit by GreatNonprofits.com and has a Platinum Seal of Approval from Guidestar.
Helping children in need
Marisa Tufaro, who would have graduated last year from Edison High School, survived six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant before succumbing to a rare form of cancer (post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder) in 2017 following a valiant battle. She was just 13 years old.
Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctor’s appointments, Marisa was an honor roll student involved in multiple extracurricular activities who lived a vibrant life that inspired.
In addition to donating a quarter of a million dollars to fulfill its mission, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has also spearheaded multiple community initiatives resulting in the collection of thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter coats, baby supplies and other items for donation upon which it has placed no monetary value.
The foundation has also awarded $26,500 in college academic scholarships to 38 Middlesex County high school graduates, and an additional 13 scholarships for Middlesex County middle school and elementary school students to attend a weeklong summer art camp at Rutgers University’s Zimmerli Art Museum.
The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has benefited from dozens of fundraisers, ranging in size from individual events at Greater Middlesex Conference schools to conference-wide all-star games and tournaments featuring student-athletes from the entire league.
“The Greater Middlesex Conference has been our nonprofit’s biggest supporter,” said Cyndi Tufaro, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation’s executive director. “Words can never express our gratitude to all those throughout the conference who have selflessly worked together over the past five years to profoundly impact the lives of children in need. The Greater Middlesex Conference girls soccer community is continuing that tradition in exemplary fashion. We are honored to once again join Go4theGoal as a beneficiary of this amazing charity festival.”
Food for thought
For the second consecutive year, the Soccer for a Cause Charity Festival will also collect donations for REPLENISH, which serves a network of more than 140 local food pantries, soup kitchens and social service agencies.
Spectators attending the charity festival are encouraged to drop off nonperishable food items at Metuchen High School on the day of the event.
Canned chicken, cereal, macaroni and cheese, canned meats, pasta, vegetables (low sodium), fruits (low sugar), diapers, wipes, stew (low sodium), granola bars, rice, dry beans (red, black, pinto), paper products, soap, shampoo, and toothpaste are among the preferred items for donation. REPLENISH can only accept canned and packaged goods (no glass items).
According to the New Jersey Department of Health, 1 in 12 residents and 1 in 10 children statewide “live in homes without consistent access to adequate food for everyone to live healthy, active lives.”
On the heels of the pandemic, escalating fuel costs and rising inflation rates have exacerbated the issue, as nearly 800,000 state residents are currently food insecure.
“Lacking sufficient food presents many challenges for everyone, but the impacts on children are particularly devastating,” said Jennifer Apostol, director of REPLENISH, a regional food bank serving Middlesex County residents, including an estimated 30,000 children.
“Children who face hunger are more at risk for serious health conditions like anemia, asthma, diabetes, and obesity and are more likely to be hospitalized. Children dealing with food insecurity also face academic challenges. When a child is hungry, they have difficulty focusing on their classwork, and cannot retain the information and skills necessary to flourish.”
Regardless of the outcomes of the 11 games being contested at Metuchen High School on Sept. 24, pediatric cancer patients, children in need and food insecure families will all benefit from one common goal.
“In addition to showcasing (conference teams), the festival will be exposing athletes to the value of community service,” said Metuchen head coach Mike Knoth, another of the event’s organizers.
“The support from Greater Middlesex Conference coaches has been tremendous.” | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/outreach/caring-communities/2022/08/30/gmc-girls-soccer-teams-unite-for-charitable-causes/65464204007/ | 2022-08-30T20:08:06Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/local/outreach/caring-communities/2022/08/30/gmc-girls-soccer-teams-unite-for-charitable-causes/65464204007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Yankees’ top prospect Anthony Volpe silencing critics after slow start at Double-A
BRIDGEWATER – The conversation around Anthony Volpe has changed.
Social media, hardly a kind and understanding place, was quick to label him a “bust” early this season, saying he was overrated after he struggled to get out of the gate in Double-A with his hometown Somerset Patriots.
No longer.
During the team’s most recent media availability last week prior to heading into their road series with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies that’s set to start on Tuesday, the 21-year-old top prospect of the New York Yankees was asked how he felt about shutting down the early-season criticism.
“It’s a good feeling for me,” he said. “I obviously didn’t get off to the start that I wanted to, but it gave me a lot of confidence, knowing that mentally and physically, I could overcome that and could play the brand of baseball that I know I’m capable of playing. So, honestly, I think that’s been the biggest thing for me this entire year and what I’ll probably look back on this offseason and a lot of years to come, is just how much I learned about myself and what I can go through.”
Volpe is hitting .255 with 18 home runs and 60 RBI in his first 108 games this season, including a career-high 44 stolen bases.
Matt Sauer named Eastern League Pitcher of the Week
Somerset’s Matt Sauer was the obvious choice for the Eastern League Pitcher of the Week after his dazzling start on Thursday night, just his third at the Double-A level.
The 23-year-old righty struck out a stunning 17 batters – most of any pitcher in the minors or big leagues this season – through eight innings of work in what was a 4-3, extra-innings loss to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
A second-round pick of the Yankees out of high school in 2017, Sauer hasn’t moved perhaps as quickly as some might have expected, with injuries and the COVID-19 year stunting his development a bit. This past week, however, he showed he’s capable of finally putting it all together.
Matt SauerYankees 2017 second-round draft pick, gets long-awaited promotion to Somerset
“I just felt locked in from pitch one,” Sauer said. “The craziest part was (Rodolfo) Duran behind the plate, I didn’t shake him a single time (Thursday) night. I don’t think people are giving him enough credit for the game he called, it was incredible. Me and him were on the same page the entire game, and it was just awesome to be a part of.”
The story of Sauer’s outing went viral, with it being picked up by numerous national media outlets and, in showing the good of social media, getting shared seemingly constantly on multiple platforms that night.
“It was blowing up,” Sauer said of trying to keep up with the messages on his cellphone.
“I tried to just stay with close friends and family,” he said. “I talked to them (Thursday) night, and it was good to hear from them. Hearing my parents voice and how proud they were of me, that was awesome to hear, and then calling my wife and talking to her, that was really who I tried to talk to after the game.”
Will Warren sailing up the prospect rankings
You may have noticed that even before the bevy of trades that sent off a lot of the Yankees organization’s better prospect arms, Somerset starter Will Warren’s name was skyrocketing up the farm system’s rankings.
He’s noticed it, too.
While some largely ignore it, the 23-year-old first-year pro has taken a different approach.
“I don’t really block it (out), sometimes I really embrace it,” he said. “Sometimes, you want to see ‘Will Warren’s done this,’ or ‘Will Warren’s done that,’ and then sometimes you don’t want to see ‘Will Warren gave up three home runs the other night.’ It happens. But it’s not really a distraction. I use it. Like hey, I want to show these guys who I am, I want to show them who Will Warren is. I want to show everyone who Will Warren is.”
That’s been difficult at times, however. The former Southeastern Louisiana University standout is pitching deeper into a year than he ever has, but says it’ll ultimately benefit him down the road to learn how to pitch when he’s tired.
“I think it was two weeks ago, I hit the most innings that I’d ever thrown in college,” he said. “So definitely, you feel it at the back end of the season for sure. You start getting a little more fatigued, but you have to fall back on your routine a little more, because that’s what gets you back ready to go for the next game.”
Warren, who is 9-7 with a 3.44 ERA in 23 starts between High-A Hudson Valley and Somerset over a combined 117 2/3 innings, has still had to make some adjustments to try to finish the year strong.
“Maybe you’ll change a little bit here and there, less throwing, less in the weight room for your workload purposes,” he said. “But other than that, it’s falling back on your routine, that’s what’s given you success the entire year … you’re going to have the ebbs and flows (of a season), so if you can pitch in the bad times here and learn it early, then you don’t have the bad outings as much and you get more consistent with hey, I don’t have my stuff this day, but I’ve fallen back on this because I’ve done it before, and I can use this stuff to have success today.” | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sports/baseball/patriots/2022/08/30/anthony-volpe-yankees-prospect-somerset-patriots-stats/65462665007/ | 2022-08-30T20:08:23Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sports/baseball/patriots/2022/08/30/anthony-volpe-yankees-prospect-somerset-patriots-stats/65462665007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
South Brunswick High School inducting 10 into Athletics Hall of Fame
Pioneering athletics director Elaine McGrath headlines 10 individuals and one team that will be inducted into the South Brunswick High School Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Class of 2022 will be honored during a ceremony at halftime of South Brunswick’s Sept. 23 football game against Piscataway, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or at the ticket booth on gameday.
"We’re very excited to honor these inductees as they come back home to be recognized for their outstanding achievements at South Brunswick," said CJ Hendricks, who last year succeeded McGrath as the high school’s athletics director.
The induction class features highly respected coaches John Coppola (girls lacrosse) and Joe Dougherty (wrestling), as well as the state championship 1980 baseball team.
Prolific distance runners and track & field performers Cayla Del Piano, Sophia Ginez, and Indira Morton will be inducted, along with school record-holding gymnast Jessica (Macay) Diggory and South Brunswick’s all-time winningest wrestler Ryan Smith.
Talented multiple-sport performers Brendan Vercammen and Lindsay Carbone round out the impressive list of inductees.
The female athletes who are being inducted or played under Coppola owe a debt of gratitude to McGrath, who played a key role in the ascent of girls sports, which are celebrating their 50th anniversary under Title IX this year.
As a freshman at Governor Livingston in 1972, the same year Title IX became law and started to level the playing field for girls, McGrath played girls basketball, the first varsity sport offered for girls at the high school.
Governor Livingston added a new girls varsity sport each academic year thereafter with McGrath taking advantage of opportunities to letter in field hockey and softball on the way to becoming a three-sport athlete before graduating.
McGrath graduated from Kean College in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in physical education and a master’s degree in education before receiving her supervisor and principal’s certification.
After coaching basketball and softball at Immaculate Conception High School in Montclair (1980-90) and at Rutgers University-Newark (1990-93), McGrath was hired as an assistant principal and athletics director at Highland Park.
The headline in the Home News Tribune announcing McGrath’s hiring at Highland Park referenced her gender – “School board taps woman sports head” – and the lead to the story read “The Board of Education, in a first for the school, has approved a woman as the supervisor of athletics.”
McGrath was as an athletics director for nearly three decades, along the way becoming among the state’s most respected administrators. Toward the end of her distinguished career, McGrath served as NJSIAA president.
In 2017, McGrath became only the third woman in the 43-year history of the Directors of Athletics Association to be named its New Jersey’s Athletics Director of the Year. The organization has more than 440 members.
McGrath spent the bulk of her career as an administrator at South Brunswick, which has grown from a Group II school in the ‘80s to a Group V school.
Under McGrath, the Vikings made tremendous strides on the field, in the classroom and in the community.
Following are biographical sketches of South Brunswick’s other Class of 2022 inductees, listed in alphabetical order and based on information high school historian James Zinsmeister provided.
Lindsay Carbone (‘12), Gymnastics and Track & Field
The Greater Middlesex Conference all-around champion in 2011, Carbone enjoyed her most successful gymnastics campaign in 2009, finishing fourth at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions before earning first-team All-State honors all-around, on bars and on beam. She commenced that season with a Raider Invitational championship. The two-sport star excelled in track & field as a pole vaulter. Her vault of 11-feet in 2009 is the third best in school history. Carbone went on to win back-to-back Greater Middlesex Conference titles in the event.
John Coppola, Girls Lacrosse Coach
Coppola’s 101-30 career record (.770 winning percentage) included a 64-game winning streak against Greater Middlesex Conference opponents. From 2009-11, Coppola led the Vikings to a 50-7 overall mark while posting victories over several traditional state powers. His 2010 team’s 19-2 record remains the best single-season mark in program history. Coppola’s peers recognized him as Greater Middlesex Conference Coach of the Year four times during a five-year stretch from 2009-13.
Cayla Del Piano (‘12), Cross Country and Track & Field
The Greater Middlesex Conference cross country champion in 2010 (19:15) and 2011 (19:38), Del Piano was also part of South Brunswick school record-setting relay teams in the outdoor 4 X 400 (3:53.00), indoor 4 X 400 (3:56.73), indoor sprint medley (4:07.95) and indoor distance medley (12:10.83). Del Piano won the conference indoor 800 (2012), 1600 (2010-12) and 3200 (2009 and 2011) championships. She enjoyed similar success outdoors, winning conference titles in the 800 (2011), 1600 (2011-12) and 3200 (2012). At the NJSIAA Meet of Champions, Del Piano placed seventh in the 1600 in 2011 and fifth in the same event the following year. Del Piano was part of units that placed fourth indoors (4:07.95 in 2011) and sixth outdoors (4:05.04) in the New Balance Nationals. She also won the Eastern States Championship in the two-mile (11:18.72). Del Piano was named South Brunswick’s Most Valuable Performer in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track two times each.
Jessica (Macay) Diggory (’10), Gymnastics
As a senior, Diggory set school records on vault (9.725), beam (9.85) and floor (9.9). The latter was a state-best mark in 2009. Diggory’s all-around score of 38.625 also established a new South Brunswick standard. With Diggory leading the way, South Brunswick posted a team score of 114.175, the school’s best ever. The team’s Most Valuable Gymnast in 2008 and 2009, Diggory was named first-team All-State all-around and first-team All-State on vault, beam and floor as a senior. The 2009 Greater Middlesex Conference Gymnast of the Year, Diggory finished second that season at the prestigious NJSIAA Meet of Champions. She placed 15th in the Meet of Champions as a sophomore.
Joe Dougherty, Wrestling Coach
Dougherty led South Brunswick to four District 20 championships including a string of three consecutive district titles beginning in 1998. He also guided the Vikings to five straight Greater Middlesex Conference division crowns, winning the White Division championship from 1998-2000 and the Red Division title in 2001. Relying on Dougherty’s technical expertise and guidance, the program produced 56 District 20 champions, 13 Greater Middlesex Conference/Middlesex County Tournament champions, 12 Region V champions, and seven NJSIAA Tournament placewinners.
Sophia Ginez (‘10), Cross Country and Track & Field
Among the most prolific distance runners in school history, Ginez was named Most Valuable Performer for three consecutive seasons in cross country (2006-08) and indoor track (2007-10). She also earned the accolade for outdoor track in 2009. Ginez won the Greater Middlesex Conference cross country title (19:47) in 2007. She set outdoor school records in the 1600 (4:53.15) and 3200 (10:47.10) and an indoor school mark in the 3200M (10:59.59). Ginez was a three-time Greater Middlesex Conference indoor 1600 (2007-09) champion and two-time conference 800 indoor champion (2008-09). Outdoors, Ginez won the conference 1600 and 3200 titles four consecutive years. Ginez was the Central Group IV outdoor champion in the 1600 (4:58.43) in 2009 and won the 800 sectional title (2:14.64) the following season. Ginez placed in the NJSIAA Meet of Champions 1600 four straight years, finishing seventh in 2007, fourth in 2008, fifth in 2009 and sixth in 2010. She won three indoor sectional titles (800, 1600, 3200) in 2009. Ginez was also part of South Brunswick’s school record-setting indoor and outdoor distance medley and outdoor sprint medley relay teams.
Indira Morton (‘07), Cross Country and Track & Field
Among the most versatile track & field performers in school history, Morton’s throw of 139-4 in the javelin ranks third all-time among South Brunswick juniors. Her outdoor long jump of 18-6.25 is second all-time at South Brunswick, while her long jump of 17-7.5 at the Eastern Championships is fourth all-time. Morton was also part of a 4 X 100 relay team whose time is among the school’s 10 best. Morton won the Greater Middlesex Conference outdoor javelin title from 2005-07 and claimed the conference outdoor long jump championship in 2007. She was the Central Group IV long jump champion (18-6.25) and javelin champion (126-7) in 2007. Morton won the javelin title (129-7) the previous year. Morton went on to win the State Group IV javelin championship in 2006 (139-4) and 2007 (133-5) before placing second (127-11) and fourth (132-8) in respective years at the NJSIAA Meet of Champions. Morton was the cross country team’s Most Valuable Runner in 2010 and 2011. She was a two-time indoor and outdoor Most Valuable Performer. Morton also holds the school pentathlon (2,851 points) record.
Ryan Smith (‘08), Wrestling
The school’s career leader in victories (124), points (390) and pins (68), Smith ranks second all-time with an .810 winning percentage (124-29). After claiming his third consecutive District 20 championship in 2008, Smith went on to win the Region V title before placing fifth in the NJSIAA Tournament at 152 pounds. Smith commenced his senior campaign in stellar fashion, reaching the finals of the prestigious Beast of the East tournament.
Brendan Vercammen (‘10), Soccer, Wrestling and Track & Field
Owner of a 92-21 career record on the mat, Vercammen ranks sixth all-time with 92 wins and fifth all-time with 312 points. He is also 10th in school history with 44 pins. The four-year letterwinner placed fifth in the NJSIAA Tournament at 171 pounds in 2010. He also won a Greater Middlesex Conference title and a second straight District 20 championship that year. Vercammen’s ascent included a Region V title the previous season. On the pitch, Vercammen helped lead South Brunswick to the 2009 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final, scoring the game-winning goal in the quarterfinals against Piscataway and netting a key tally in a semifinal win over Woodbridge. A two-year letterwinner, Vercammen registered seven of his nine career goals and three of his five career assists as a senior. In track & field, Vercammen’s throw of 153-6 led South Brunswick to a Greater Middlesex Conference Relays championship in the javelin.
1980 Varsity Baseball Team
Under the tutelage of head coach Dennis Duttry, the Vikings culminated a 22-5 season in 1980 with a 3-1 victory over Garfield in the State Group II championship. The Star Ledger recognized the team’s accomplishment with a Top 10 final statewide ranking. Duttry, who coached the Vikings from 1970-86, compiled a 223-152-3 career mark. His finest season was the 1980 campaign, during which South Brunswick was crowned Bicentennial Athletic Conference champions and defeated Ridge 8-5 for the Central Group II title. | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/08/30/south-brunswick-high-school-inducting-10-into-athletics-hall-of-fame/65464224007/ | 2022-08-30T20:08:29Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/sports/high-school/2022/08/30/south-brunswick-high-school-inducting-10-into-athletics-hall-of-fame/65464224007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
'Everybody forgot about Henri': Monroe community finally gets flood money year after storm
MONROE – New Jersey lawmakers have allocated $1 million in the state budget for flood mitigation at the Rossmoor adult living community, which was hit especially hard by flooding during Tropical Storm Henri last year.
The funding will be provided to the Rossmoor Community Association during this budget year, which extends to June 30, 2023, Mayor Stephen Dalina said. It is not yet clear when the funding will arrive.
“This grant is a positive step forward, helping us make improvements to control flooding,” said Dan Jolly, president of Rossmoor Community Association. “On behalf of our residents, I would like to express my appreciation to Mayor Dalina, the 14th District legislators and Middlesex County for their steadfast commitment to the people of our community.”
Tropical Storm Henri swept through Middlesex County on Aug. 22, 2021, dumping as much as more than 8 inches of rain in some areas, leaving more than 170 township households flooded with the vast majority in Rossmoor.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency indicated that damage from Henri did not meet the monetary threshold necessary to qualify for federal disaster relief funding, according to the township.
Thomas Curry, general manager of the Rossmoor Community Association which oversees 18 independent sub-associations in the development, said the $1 million will be allocated to come up with plans to mitigate flooding in the Cedar Brook and Shallow Brook areas within Rossmoor.
"Rossmoor Community Association along with Monroe Township and both of their engineering firms will be meeting and working together to determine the best way to manage this problem," he said. "You can't resolve an 8-inch rainstorm, but you can certainly help to mitigate flooding in the future."
Curry explained Cedar Brook and the headwaters of Shallow Brook run through a portion of Rossmoor, which flooded over during the storm. The community of 2,303 residences saw 118 homes flooded, he said.
"There was an incredible downpour in a short period of time and the storm water systems were never designed to handle that," Curry said. "Rossmoor was designed in the 1970s before the idea of controlling how quickly the water made it to the stream and to the river was thought about. Most of the storm water pipes go directly to Cedar Brook.”
Curry said Henri was not Rossmoor's first flooding event.
"Some houses over the last 15 years located in the FEMA flood zone on Cedar Brook have flooded three times," he said "They weren't severely damaged by flooding each time, except in the case of Tropical Storm Henri, but there has been previous flooding."
He said a well was constructed at a retention basin on Applegarth Road prior to Henri, but more needs to be done.
In addition, Curry said, six buildings around Sudbury Lane were flooded in a flash flood on July 17, 2005, but that area is not in any designated FEMA flood zone.
The Shallow Brook section along Sudbury Way that leads to a retention basin by the New Jersey Turnpike is already being studied.
"The association has already hired an engineer," Curry said. "We've already done topographic studies and they are in the midst of coming up with a recommendation to correct that. It’s a small area and we should be able to help resolve the problem, but nothing is going to help an 8- or 9-inch rainfall."
During a tour of flooded homes last year with Gov. Phil Murphy, Mayor Dalina pledged to advocate for state funding that would be used for future flood mitigation. The mayor turned to the 14th District state legislators – Sen. Linda Greenstein and Assemblymen Wayne DeAngelo and Dan Benson – who advocated for Monroe during the state’s budget process this spring, the township said.
"I want to express my deepest appreciation to our state representatives on behalf of so many residents who were impacted," Dalina said.
He also thanked the Middlesex County Board of Commissioners, led by Commission Director Ronald G. Rios, who underscored the need for flood mitigation at Rossmoor.
Township response
The township provided resources and organizations to assist residents impacted by the flooding, setting up the Office of Emergency Management team’s command center in the Rossmoor clubhouse.
The mayor and council authorized the use of federal funds available through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to reimburse residential property owners up to $5,000 per household to replace or remediate heating units and thermostats; mold; insulation and drywall, and electrical panels, wiring and outlets.
This program, in which applications were accepted until Dec. 31, 2021, provided a total of $227,631 to 52 homeowners, according to the township.
In addition, the township approved 23 applications from flood victims for immediate repairs under the income-based Affordable Housing Rehabilitation Program, which was established under the larger Monroe Township Housing Element and the court-ordered Fair Share Plan to assist income eligible residents repair their homes to comply with current housing codes and safety standards. The program is funded by a state assessment on new construction.
The deadline for applications from Henri flooding victims has expired, however, the program for income-based qualifiers is ongoing.
Approved residents received funding that ranged from $33,000 to $87,000 for a total of $1,501,907 for Henri repairs, according to the township.
Under the Affordable Rehabilitation Program, participating residents who remain in their homes for 10 years have their loans forgiven. Residents who stay in their homes for eight years must pay back 50 percent of the loan, and residents who stay in their homes for six years must pay back 80 percent of the loan.
Curry said the homeowner's association had a flood insurance policy that helped residents located within the FEMA flood zone.
"However, not all of the houses that were flooded were in that zone," he said.
Another insurance policy was in place that covered the buildings.
"Those funds were used for remediation in homes after the flood," he said. "It basically paid to dry the houses out, remove the drywall and the rest was left to the individual owners to repair. That's because they live in condominiums where the inside walls are their responsibility."
Fundraisers were also held for residents, which distributed money, used furniture and other much-needed items to residents, Curry said.
Residents' response
Rossmoor resident Frank Waltzer, who lives on Sudbury Lane in a downstairs condo that flooded during Henri, was one of the luckier ones.
"I came out OK," he said. "I'm not happy this happened, and I didn't have flood insurance because I didn't think it was necessary because we're not in a designated flood zone. I'm pleased because I did receive money from a township program that helped me rebuild my house, and I also started a GoFundMe page for myself. I am encouraged that they are going to try to fix the cause of the problem. We know we can't stop a 100-year storm, but we at least want a fighting chance."
Waltzer said he does have flood insurance now.
Waltzer said his wife, Laurie, and their cat were rescued by boat from their home during the flooding.
Francesca Guida owns a condo on Sudbury Lane where her 79-year-old mother lives.
The morning of the storm, her mom called and said there was water everywhere and her Pomeranian was missing. She said there was water up to the mattress in her bedroom in her first-floor condo.
Her mom found her dog, and both were rescued by boat and taken to the clubhouse.
"She made it out with only the clothes on her back," Guida said. "She stayed with me for six months. She was lucky because she had a place to go, but her condo, furniture, appliances and all of her belongings were completely gone."
Guida said she didn't have flood insurance because she was told the condo was not in a flood zone, although she has later learned that the area flooded about 15 years before.
"Had I known maybe I wouldn't have bought in that area or I would have gotten flood insurance," she said.
Guida estimated that she spent between $50,000 and $60,000 to restore the home and replace the damaged items.
"I went to meetings," she said. "The association said they didn’t have enough money to help us, but we do pay a monthly maintenance fee. How is that possible?"
Guida said she did receive $5,000 from a township program and a $1,000 donation from a church.
"Everybody forgot about Henri," she said. "Everybody forgot about the victims. You're dealing with older seniors who had to dip into their life savings. People in other areas did receive Ida recovery money. I think the victims of Henri are entitled to reimbursement from somewhere."
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/weather/flooding/2022/08/30/monroe-nj-rossmoor-henri-flooding/65418075007/ | 2022-08-30T20:09:05Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/weather/flooding/2022/08/30/monroe-nj-rossmoor-henri-flooding/65418075007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
U.S. Army Cpl. Tiffanie Johnson participates in the 2022 Department of Defense Warrior Games at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, Aug. 28, 2022. Hosted by the U.S. Army at the Walt Disney World Resort, this year’s Warrior Games saw service members and veterans from across the DoD competing in a variety of adaptive sports alongside armed forces athletes from Canada and Ukraine. (U.S. Army video by Sgt. Quince Lanford)
This work, 2022 Warrior Games, by SGT Quince Lanford, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/video/855793/2022-warrior-games | 2022-08-30T20:11:14Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/video/855793/2022-warrior-games | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Airmen and families from Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, participate in the 23rd Annual Cattle Drive, Aug. 25, 2022. Leaders from the 97th Air Mobility Wing and local community drove more than 20 longhorn cattle through the base. (U.S. Air Force video by Airman 1st Class Trenton Jancze) | https://www.dvidshub.net/video/855797/aafb-23rd-annual-cattle-drive | 2022-08-30T20:11:27Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/video/855797/aafb-23rd-annual-cattle-drive | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Girl, 9, trapped under 1,000-lb. hay bale airlifted to children’s hospital, recovering
FOND DU LAC COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY/Gray News) – A 9-year-old girl who was trapped underneath a large bale of hale last week in Wisconsin, was expected to be released from the hospital Tuesday.
Savannah Grahl, 9, and her older sister were playing with new kittens in the calf barn on a family farm, their mother, Tara Grahl, told WBAY.
Grahl said she walked into the barn and found Savannah’s head and neck trapped between two bales of hay that were stacked on top of one another.
With the help of her sister-in-law, the two women were able to lift the 1,000-pound bale off the girl, freeing her.
They got the girl breathing again before first responders arrived. She was eventually flown to Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee in critical care.
She moved out of ICU on Saturday, and Grahl announced on Facebook Monday that Savannah would be released from the hospital Tuesday.
Grahl says her daughter will have to wear a neck brace for a few months and will need physical and occupational therapy to regain strength and mobility in her right arm and hand.
“She has the best attitude and has been the best little patient ever,” her mother said, thankful her daughter is alive.
Copyright 2022 WBAY Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wave3.com/2022/08/30/girl-9-trapped-under-1000-lb-hay-bale-airlifted-childrens-hospital-recovering/ | 2022-08-30T20:14:10Z | wave3.com | control | https://www.wave3.com/2022/08/30/girl-9-trapped-under-1000-lb-hay-bale-airlifted-childrens-hospital-recovering/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A malfunction caused the pressure to drop for a few minutes, and now all customers of the South Rayne Water Corporation are under a boil order until further notice.
Here's some advice from the CDC on boil orders:
Use bottled or boiled water for drinking, and to prepare and cook food.
If bottled water is not available, bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 minute (at elevations above 6,500 feet, boil for 3 minutes). After boiling, allow the water to cool before use.
Boil tap water even if it is filtered (for example, by a home water filter or a pitcher that filters water).
Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water line, such as ice and water from a refrigerator.
Breastfeeding is the best infant feeding option. If you formula feed your child, provide ready-to-use formula, if possible.
Handwashing
In many cases, you can use tap water and soap to wash hands during a boil water advisory. Follow the guidance from your local public health officials.
Be sure to scrub your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Then, rinse them well under running water.
If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
Bathing and showering
Be careful not to swallow any water when bathing or showering.
Use caution when bathing babies and young children. Consider giving them a sponge bath to reduce the chance of them swallowing water.
Brushing teeth
Brush teeth with boiled or bottled water. Do not use tap water that you have not boiled first.
Washing dishes
If possible, use disposable plates, cups, and utensils during a boil water advisory.
Household dishwashers generally are safe to use if:
The water reaches a final rinse temperature of at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit (66°Celsius), or
The dishwater has a sanitizing cycle.
Sanitize all baby bottles.
To wash dishes by hand:
Wash and rinse the dishes as you normally would using hot water.
In a separate basin, add 1 teaspoon of unscented household liquid bleach for each gallon of warm water.
Soak the rinsed dishes in the water for at least one minute.
Let the dishes air dry completely before using again.
Laundry
It is safe to wash clothes as usual.
Cleaning
Clean washable toys and surfaces with:
Bottled water,
Boiled water, or
Water that has been disinfected with bleach pdf icon[PDF – 1 page].
Caring for pets
Pets can get sick from some of the same germs as people or spread germs to people. Give pets bottled water or boiled water that has cooled.
If bottled water is not available, bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 minute (at elevations above 6,500 feet, boil for 3 minutes). After boiling, allow the water to cool before use.
Boil tap water even if it is filtered (for example, by a home water filter or a pitcher that filters water).
Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water line, such as ice and water from a refrigerator.
Caring for your garden and houseplants
You can use tap water for household plants and gardens. | https://www.katc.com/news/jeff-davis-parish/boil-order-issued-for-south-rayne-water-corporation | 2022-08-30T20:20:21Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/news/jeff-davis-parish/boil-order-issued-for-south-rayne-water-corporation | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Town of Welsh is currently under a boil advisory until further notice, officials say.
Here's some advice from the CDC on boil orders:
Use bottled or boiled water for drinking, and to prepare and cook food.
If bottled water is not available, bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 minute (at elevations above 6,500 feet, boil for 3 minutes). After boiling, allow the water to cool before use.
Boil tap water even if it is filtered (for example, by a home water filter or a pitcher that filters water).
Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water line, such as ice and water from a refrigerator.
Breastfeeding is the best infant feeding option. If you formula feed your child, provide ready-to-use formula, if possible.
Handwashing
In many cases, you can use tap water and soap to wash hands during a boil water advisory. Follow the guidance from your local public health officials.
Be sure to scrub your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Then, rinse them well under running water.
If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
Bathing and showering
Be careful not to swallow any water when bathing or showering.
Use caution when bathing babies and young children. Consider giving them a sponge bath to reduce the chance of them swallowing water.
Brushing teeth
Brush teeth with boiled or bottled water. Do not use tap water that you have not boiled first.
Washing dishes
If possible, use disposable plates, cups, and utensils during a boil water advisory.
Household dishwashers generally are safe to use if:
The water reaches a final rinse temperature of at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit (66°Celsius), or
The dishwater has a sanitizing cycle.
Sanitize all baby bottles.
To wash dishes by hand:
Wash and rinse the dishes as you normally would using hot water.
In a separate basin, add 1 teaspoon of unscented household liquid bleach for each gallon of warm water.
Soak the rinsed dishes in the water for at least one minute.
Let the dishes air dry completely before using again.
Laundry
It is safe to wash clothes as usual.
Cleaning
Clean washable toys and surfaces with:
Bottled water,
Boiled water, or
Water that has been disinfected with bleach pdf icon[PDF – 1 page].
Caring for pets
Pets can get sick from some of the same germs as people or spread germs to people. Give pets bottled water or boiled water that has cooled.
If bottled water is not available, bring water to a full rolling boil for 1 minute (at elevations above 6,500 feet, boil for 3 minutes). After boiling, allow the water to cool before use.
Boil tap water even if it is filtered (for example, by a home water filter or a pitcher that filters water).
Do not use water from any appliance connected to your water line, such as ice and water from a refrigerator.
Caring for your garden and houseplants
You can use tap water for household plants and gardens. | https://www.katc.com/news/jeff-davis-parish/boil-order-issued-for-town-of-welsh | 2022-08-30T20:20:28Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/news/jeff-davis-parish/boil-order-issued-for-town-of-welsh | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SAN DIEGO — A penguin at the San Diego Zoo is wearing his own custom footwear after being diagnosed with a degenerative foot condition.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the immediate change in Lucas after we fitted him with his new boots,” said Debbie Denton, senior wildlife care specialist at the San Diego Zoo. “Seeing him move about now gives us hope that he may be OK going forward and able to live a full life.”
The San Diego Wildlife Alliance said Lucas suffers from a chronic condition called bumblefoot, so recently, he was fitted with orthopedic shoes.
The group said the shoes were made possible with the help of the organization Thera-Paw, which designs and manufactures products for animals with special needs.
The shoes are made of neoprene and rubber, preventing pressure sores from developing on the 4-year-old penguin’s feet and ankle when he stands and walks.
"The boots should protect the lesions already present on his feet while minimizing the risk of him developing additional sores," the group said in a news release.
The group said if left untreated, the condition could lead to sepsis and death by secondary infection
According to the news release, Lucas' problems began more than three years ago after he developed a spinal infection.
As he recovered, the group said that he had to rest on areas of his ankles that would not normally touch the ground.
With sores forming on his foot and legs, the group reached out to Thera-Paw for help, the group said.
According to the group, African penguins are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature after suffering declining in population from an estimated 1 million to about 18,000 breeding pairs today. | https://www.katc.com/news/national/penguin-at-san-diego-zoo-fitted-with-custom-orthopedic-footwear | 2022-08-30T20:20:52Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/news/national/penguin-at-san-diego-zoo-fitted-with-custom-orthopedic-footwear | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
All across the country, local animal shelters are at or near capacity. Overall, the rate of owners relinquishing both dogs and cats is only slightly up, according to a report created by the organization, Shelter Animals Count.
Stephanie Filer, the executive director at Shelter Animals Count, says there are fewer animals leaving shelters. Filer says shelters are reporting the reasons people give for dropping off their pets include financial challenges, housing and food insecurity.
“We always have the shelter population that represents what’s going on in the community,” Filer said.
There are other shifts happening inside animal shelters. Prior to the pandemic, more cats were entering shelters and staying behind. Now, cats are surpassing dogs in adoptions.
Other factors are pushing shelters to the brink.
“Typical space is limited because we’re having a shortage of staff as well, in particular frontline animal care,” Filer said. “It’s a combination of factors between staffing shortages, veterinarian shortages, and too many animals coming in and not enough animals going out.”
The good news is adoptions are still higher than pre-pandemic. Many animal welfare organizations have also been transitioning to providing more support to families with pets. They are providing resources to help keep animals in homes like dog and cat food, temporary crisis fostering, routine care and emergency care.
So far this year, 6% more animals have entered shelters than have left. Shelter Animals Count is forecasting that without some big change, the animal population imbalance in shelters will reach 10% nationally by the end of the year. That’s the highest in four years. | https://www.katc.com/news/national/shelters-see-more-people-surrendering-pets-due-to-financial-hardships | 2022-08-30T20:21:04Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/news/national/shelters-see-more-people-surrendering-pets-due-to-financial-hardships | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Ghaziabad: The CBI has given a "clean chit", Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Tuesday after a team of the probe agency searched his bank locker for about two hours.
Sisodia and his wife were present as the four-member team, including a woman officer, conducted the search at a Punjab National Bank branch in Vasundhara, Ghaziabad, on the outskirts of the national capital.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader is among the 15 people and entities named in an FIR registered by the agency in connection with alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi government's Excise Policy 2021-22.
The CBI was acting under pressure, Sisodia told reporters after the search was over.
"Just like my home, they did not find anything in my lockers. Jewellery of about Rs 70,000-80,000 of my children, my wife...I am happy that I got a clean chit from the CBI in searches today. They have found nothing (incriminating) from searches of my locker or residence," Sisodia told reporters here.
The Delhi deputy chief minister said he was happy "the prime minister got my house searched but could not find anything".
"Today, he sent the CBI to get my locker searched but could not find anything. This is the proof that I and my family have come out clean in all the inquiries done by the prime minister. I have got a clean chit in all the probes done by the prime minister and not a single penny of questionable nature has been detected. I have full faith in my truth," Sisodia said.
He said all the CBI officers were cordial with him and his family.
"We also cooperated. Unofficially they (CBI) admit that there is nothing questionable but they are also under some sort of pressure to find something so that I can be put in jail for two to three months.
"There is pressure from the prime minister to put me behind bars for two to three months Truth shall triumph," a smiling Sisodia said.
In the morning, camera crews jostled with each other and curious crowds gathered as the Sisodias as well as CBI the team arrived at the bank.
"The CBI is welcome," Sisodia had said in a tweet on Monday. "Tomorrow, the CBI is coming to check our bank locker. They did not find anything during a 14-hour raid at my residence on August 19. They won't find anything in the locker too. My family and I will extend full cooperation in the probe."
On August 19, the federal probe agency raided 31 locations, including Sisodia's residence, over alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Delhi government's Excise Policy 2021-22.
Sisodia has been claiming that he has been "made an accused in a false case to stop the march of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal" who, he believes, has emerged as an alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
During a special session of the Delhi Assembly on Friday, the AAP leader had claimed that the BJP-led Centre is "acting like a serial killer" to eliminate state governments and described the CBI FIR against him as "false" and based on "mere sources". | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/india/2022/08/30/sisodia-claims-cbi-gave-him-clean-chit.html | 2022-08-30T20:26:36Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/news/india/2022/08/30/sisodia-claims-cbi-gave-him-clean-chit.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Team: Providence Friars
2021-22 Record: 27-6, 14-3 Big East
2021-22 Big East Finish: First, two games behind Villanova in the win column, but one ahead of them in the loss column and thus beating out the Wildcats by winning percentage even though VU beat them twice in a two week span after Valentine’s Day.
Final 2021-22 KenPom.com Ranking: #32
Postseason: After needing an 11-1 first half run to climb out of a 24-18 hole, Providence found themselves down 59-58 to to a Butler team that would end up firing their coach in the Big East quarterfinals with a minute to play. They somehow survived, because of course they did, because they did that kind of thing all season long, and then the Friars got absolutely waylaid by Creighton, 85-58, in the semifinals. They earned a #4 seed in the NCAA tournament, then beat South Dakota State and Richmond to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1997. They then ran into eventual national champion Kansas and lost, 66-61. No shame in that last part, that’s for sure.
Key Departures: The biggest departure for the Friars this offseason? Dunkin’ Donuts, which is no longer sponsoring the downtown arena in Providence. The naming rights deal expired at the end of June according to the Providence Journal, and it appears that Amica Mutual Insurance Company will be taking over as the sponsor. That’s still not finalized as of August 30th when I’m putting this part together, so we don’t actually know what the name of the building is now, other than it’s obvious that Dunkin’ is no longer involved.
Over/Under on me calling it The Dunk anyway this season? +/- 12.5 times.
As far as actual on the court departures, hooooooooboy are there a lot of notable names not putting on the black and white anymore. If you sort the team’s stats by total minutes played, all of their top four players from last season’s Big East championship squad are gone, and that extends out to five of the top six. To put it another way: Providence returns just one player who logged more than 500 minutes last season, and remember: In a 33 game season, 500 minutes is equivalent to just over 15 minutes a night.
Leading scorer Al Durham? Gone. Leading rebounder and top total minutes guy Noah Horchler? Gone. Noted major contributor but probably overrated relative to his teammates guy Nate Watson? Gone. Justin Minaya, a do it all guy logging over 33 minutes a night? Gone. That’s your top four minutes guys on the team, and they will also be without A.J. Reeves, who led the team in three-point attempts and sank over 37% of them.
In terms of pure continuity of “guys who were in practices last season,” Providence has lost nine of the 15 players listed on their roster a year ago.
Key Returners: We’ll dig into it a little bit more in a minute, but I think the best news for Providence is that they do return Jared Bynum. The 5’10” point guard from Maryland averaged 12.2 points per game last season, good enough for third best on the team, and added 2.9 rebounds and a team high 4.0 assists per game. Weirdly, even though he had a top 50 assist rate last season, Bynum came off the bench for all but three games after starting each of the first seven games and then missing four contests in early December. Hey, you gotta run your team however you gotta run your team, and Bynum still averaged 30 minutes a game after being shifted to a reserve role.
The bad news for Providence is that out of the other five guys back from last year’s team overall, only two of them had a rotation job last season. Both Ed Croswell and Alyn Breed played in all 33 games, so they’ve got that going for them. Croswell (5.3 points, 4.7 rebounds) came off the bench for all of them and had the much more reliable job of backing up Nate Watson and was good for double digit minutes in every game but one after December 1st. Breed (3.2 points, 1.2 rebounds) had a different sort of season, being a regular double digit minute contributor and starting eight times up through the game where Providence barely escaped with a win over Marquette at home. He started in that one, played just five minutes, and then broke the 10 minute mark in just seven of their remaining 13 contests. These guys are literally the second and third best returning players on the roster.
Key Additions: We’ll start with the incoming freshmen because it’ll be the quickest part of this. PC has two freshmen point guards coming in, only one of which is a top 200 prospect. That’s Jayden Pierre, who is listed as 6’2” and 170 pounds out of Elizabeth, New Jersey. 247 Sports slots him as the #135 prospect in the country. With Jared Bynum still existing, I don’t expect Pierre or even Quante Berry (ranked #244) to have much of an impact on the team this year.... but also Providence has to get to a seven man rotation at the very least somehow, so who knows? There’s also freshman forward Scott Morozov, who is coming in from Canada. He’s not listed by 247 Sports at all and in fact appears to be a preferred walk-on.
That brings us to the five transfers on the Providence roster for this winter. At a glance, it seems like Clifton Moore could have the biggest (literally) and most immediate impact on the roster. The 6’10” Pennsylvania native averaged 12.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per game at La Salle last season. It’s not that far of a jump from the A-10 to the Big East, and the Friars need someone to take up Nate Watson’s minutes. With that said, Moore did spend his first two years of college at Indiana and never managed to be a reliable option for Archie Miller there.
Noah Locke is the other grad transfer with only this year left available to him on the roster. He played his first three years of college hoops at Florida before spending last year at Louisville. Locke has averaged 10 points and 2.4 rebounds a game in his collegiate career and has knocked in over 38% of his three-point attempts. Worst case scenario for him here? Perfectly cromulent Big East starter.
Devin Carter (6’3”, 195 pounds) and Bryce Hopkins (6’7”, 220 pounds) are both second year players transferring in after spending their freshman campaigns elsewhere. Carter had a decent season at South Carolina, chipping in 9.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists, but I presume head coach Frank Martin being shown the door at the end of the season inspired the Florida native with Northeast ties by way of Brewster Academy to look elsewhere. Hopkins was a top 40 prospect coming out of high school in the Chicago area, but when you’re the least heralded freshman at Kentucky, the playing time’s just not gonna be there for you sometimes, and that’s what happened to him. He appeared in 28 games, but never made a big impact, and now he’s in Friartown.
Corey Floyd rounds out the group of transfers, and he might present the most interesting situation. He didn’t play at all at UConn last season after originally being a Class of 2022 prospect and then redshirting. Kind of a weird one, especially since Floyd was invited to USA Basketball’s U18 training camp back in May. If he turns into a competent Big East player at Providence, whether that’s this year or as his career progresses, that’s not going to look all that great for the Huskies in retrospect.
Coach: Ed Cooley, entering his 12th season at Providence and 17th overall as a Division 1 head coach. He has a record of 221-141 (106-92 Big East) at Providence and 313-210 overall.
Outlook: No matter what the roster looks like, the big question after the season ended for the Friars was “Where do we go from here?”
They just won their first Big East regular season conference title in program history, which doubles as the first regular season conference title at all since they weren’t in a league until the Big East formed. However, even the stoutest Providence homer would have to admit that yes, in fact, they won that title on a technicality by way of winning percentage, not actual record. The fact that they only played 17 games can not be ignored, nor can the fact that they missed out on a home date against a UConn team that was a #5 seed in the NCAA tournament along with road dates against Creighton (#9 seed) and Seton Hall (#8 seed). An optimistic version of that would be 2-1, and it’s entirely possible that they just lose all three. We also can’t ignore the fact that three of their final four wins of the regular season came by way of overtime….. against three teams that all finished outside the NCAA tournament field and won a collective 20 Big East games and two of them fired their coach when the season was over. Those games are, by definition, coin tosses that fell in their favor, and that goes triple for their three-overtime victory at home against Xavier.
The point is that Providence won that regular season title by the slimmest of margins according to the rules that everyone else was playing by in the first place, and then on top of that, they were the only team in the league that didn’t play at least 19 games…. And they only played 17 at that. It is reasonable if not completely fair and actually justified to look at that from the outside and just laugh at it.
They did win it, the banner flies forever, but the question of “Where do we go from here?” remains, because it would be there even if they brought everyone back. The question of “Can they win by the slimmest of margins again?” would still be there even if this was basically the exact same Providence roster. PC fans don’t want to hear it, but this team spent the majority of the year hovering somewhere in the 40s in the KenPom.com rankings and a lot of it in the 50s. Yeah, they eventually drifted up into the 30s to finish the year, but that’s not what they were all season long. It would be reasonable to think that Providence was in for some major regression in the 2022-23 campaign if Ed Cooley was running the same roster back………
…And he’s not, not even close.
The good news, in my view, is that Jared Bynum is back. You guys have heard me say a million times how much Ed Cooley’s best teams have been reliant on having a stellar point guard setting everyone else up. We can run through the list again, but y’all have heard it time and time again. Bynum is That Dude, and even though he mostly came off the bench last season, he was playing starter level minutes and the only reason that #42 assist rate ranking wasn’t higher is because Al Durham was helping out a pretty decent amount in the table setting department. For my money, Bynum was the most important player on PC’s roster last season, more so than Durham or Nate Watson (a fact that apparently made Nate Watson’s dad Mad Online when I said it), so to get another season of him running the show seems very good to me.
The problem is that I have absolutely no idea what else is going to happen with this team. If Ed Croswell takes a leap forward to be The Big Guy with Watson gone, then that’s good news. I don’t have a lot of faith in Alyn Breed, who spent a lot of time last season looking like he was saying “It’s Alyn Breed Time” while on the court with guys who were very clearly better options than him. Letting him run wild with his confidence level seems bad, and based on how his season ended up finishing, it would certainly look like Ed Cooley and his staff agree with that assessment.
That’s it for returning guys: A “Yup, we’re good,” a “he has the ability to do more, so we’ll see,” and a “man, I dunno, let’s cross our fingers it works out.” Cooley is going to have to figure out how to get at least four more rotation guys out of his newcomers. Clifton Moore can probably give you rotation minutes in the middle if not actually step in to play as the top big man. Noah Locke is probably a safe bet to be a contributor, but if he was going to be a star you can rely on, I feel like that would have happened for him already. If Devin Carter just has an average freshman to sophomore year improvement, that’s good enough to make him an every night contributor, and even if he doesn’t improve stats wise, that’s good enough, too. Is Corey Floyd ready to play in the Big East? Dan Hurley didn’t think so a year ago. Is this entire season hinging on Bryce Hopkins looking like a top 40 prospect who was just stuck behind better freshmen at his previous stop? That seems awfully risky.
At the end of the day, I like Ed Cooley as an on-the-court coach. This feels, even with all the obvious question marks, like a team that’s going to be struggling all over the place in November and December — no schedule for them yet, but we know they have Miami, TCU, and either Maryland or Saint Louis, none of which sounds easy for a team figuring themselves out, all before December 1st — but then we’ll look up on February 1st and they’ll be at least .500 in the Big East and competing for an NCAA bid. Competing for a Big East title? I don’t see it, not for a second straight year. | https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/8/30/23306877/big-east-mens-basketball-preview-providence-friars-cooley-bynum | 2022-08-30T20:28:12Z | anonymouseagle.com | control | https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/8/30/23306877/big-east-mens-basketball-preview-providence-friars-cooley-bynum | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Capt. Eliot Fletcher, commander of the 491st Medical Care Area Support (MCAS), discusses Tactical Operations Center (TOC) operations and medical management of radiological patients with his Executive Officer, 1st Lt. Bonita Rutkowski, and Platoon Leader, 1st Lt. Aaron Presley, during the "Guardian Response" exercise at Camp Atterbury, Ind., in April 2022.
This work, Army Reserve Officer presents “medical care in a radioactive environment” to NATO members [Image 4 of 4], by CPT Eliot Fletcher, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7394776/army-reserve-officer-presents-medical-care-radioactive-environment-nato-members | 2022-08-30T20:32:42Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7394776/army-reserve-officer-presents-medical-care-radioactive-environment-nato-members | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
DOVER, Del. - Delaware Gov. John Carney on Tuesday announced a career fair in Dover for youth and adults to explore careers in construction, health care, education, public service, and more.
The Governor’s Central Delaware Career Expo is a one-day event on Sept. 21 that will expose middle school students, and adults looking for a career change, to training programs and career paths in many high-demand industries. The Expo will be held at the Blue Hen Corporate Complex in Dover.
“We currently have more jobs available than we have people looking for work, and that’s a great outlook for folks looking for a career,” said Carney. “We hope the Central Delaware Career Expo will connect Delawareans with in-demand careers and training opportunities to strengthen Delaware’s workforce.”
This event will showcase a variety of central Delaware’s fastest growing industries to middle and high school students just beginning to explore local career opportunities, as well as adults looking to start a new career and/or re-enter the workforce.
The student portion of the event, held from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., will feature interactive presentations and activities geared towards giving students a first-hand experience of what they can expect from their fields of interest. The student portion of the expo is organized by school districts and charter schools, and is invitation only.
“As a local superintendent, I am excited to assist in planning the Governor’s Central Delaware Career Expo. We have designed a fun, interactive, and informative event to support our community’s workforce and employers across a range of career areas,” said Amelia E. Hodges, superintendent of the POLYTECH School District. “It will be a great opportunity for local students and adults to connect directly with central Delaware employers and workforce training options as they plan for a career or take the next step in their current career.”
The 3– 6 p.m. portion of the event will be open to everyone in the community, but with more of a focus on adults seeking career opportunities.
“As the executive Director of the Greater Kent Committee I am thrilled to be a partner organization of the Governor's Career Expo,” said Shelly Cecchett, executive director of the Greater Kent Committee. “The opportunity to connect young people with high demand careers and to connect adults with pathways to upskill their current profession is incredibly important to our business community as well as our workforce. This hands on event should truly showcase the workforce opportunities in Central Delaware.”
Featured industries include construction, health care, education, transportation, manufacturing, public service, and more. | https://www.wboc.com/news/central-delaware-career-expo-to-be-held-sept-21-in-dover/article_9d2f74a6-2892-11ed-ac50-5796e63ea0b9.html | 2022-08-30T20:32:53Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/central-delaware-career-expo-to-be-held-sept-21-in-dover/article_9d2f74a6-2892-11ed-ac50-5796e63ea0b9.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
OCEAN VIEW, Del. - A 29-year-old Ocean View woman is facing numerous drug charges following a police raid on her home.
Ocean View Police Chief Ken McLaughlin said that on Aug. 25, the department, along with the DEA (Dover) Task Force, raided a home located at 87 West Ave.
McLaughlin said reports of suspicious activity in the area resulted in police launching an investigation into drug sales several months ago.
During the search of the home, police seized 1,052 baggies of heroin, 368 suspected fentanyl pills and $45,237 in cash, according to McLaughlin.
Police charged Victoria Renee Kisner with five counts of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance Tier 3 quantity, five counts of possession of controlled substance Tier 3 quantity, possession of controlled substance Tier 1 quantity, possession of drug paraphernalia, and endangering the welfare of a child.
Kisner was arraigned by Justice of The Peace Court #2 and committed to the Sussex Correctional Institute on $302,200 cash bond. | https://www.wboc.com/news/ocean-view-woman-arrested-for-heroin-fentanyl-dealing-after-police-raid/article_27b5e0d6-289a-11ed-b3ac-479643dc795e.html | 2022-08-30T20:32:59Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/ocean-view-woman-arrested-for-heroin-fentanyl-dealing-after-police-raid/article_27b5e0d6-289a-11ed-b3ac-479643dc795e.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SNOW HILL, Md. - A 32-year-old Snow Hill man will spend the rest of his life behind bars following his conviction on multiple charges related to the continuous sexual abuse of a pre-teen child.
The Worcester County State's Attorney's Office said Tuesday that on Aug. 25, Cody Jolley was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences plus 75 years in the Division of Corrections for his conviction on the charges of four counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, sexual solicitation of a minor, two counts of third-degree sex offense, attempted rape, and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense.
Jolley was found guilty by a jury after trial in the Worcester County Circuit Court on May 18, 2022. The Honorable William Jones of the Dorchester County Circuit Court presided over the case and imposed the sentence, ordering Jolley to serve a total of 105 years of active incarceration, with 60 of those years as a mandatory minimum sentence with no parole eligibility.
If released, Jolley must register as a lifetime sex offender, have no contact with minor children, submit a DNA sample, and will be monitored by special offender supervision.
Prosecutors said the charges stem from a complaint of sexual abuse made by a third-grade student and reported to the Worcester County Sheriff's Office in May 2021. A forensic interview of the child was conducted by a social worker at the CRICKET Center, Worcester County’s Child Advocacy Center.
Further investigation by detectives revealed Jolley had abused the child for more a year and resulted in Jolley being placed under arrest and indicted on multiple sex offenses. | https://www.wboc.com/news/snow-hill-man-sentenced-to-four-life-sentences-on-child-sex-charges/article_3d44b6c0-2872-11ed-a874-2f3a31e7b67f.html | 2022-08-30T20:33:05Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/snow-hill-man-sentenced-to-four-life-sentences-on-child-sex-charges/article_3d44b6c0-2872-11ed-a874-2f3a31e7b67f.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Forecast updated on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, at 3:35 PM by WBOC Meteorologist Dan Satterfield (AMS-CBM).
DELMARVA FORECAST
Tonight: Mostly cloudy with showers and a passing thundershower possible. Rain chance 60%. Low 69°. Wind: W 3-9 mph.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny and not as hot. Noticeably less humid by afternoon. High 87-88° inland with temps. near 87° on the beaches. Wind: W 7-16 mph. Winds N 11-18 mph PM on the beaches.
Wednesday Night: Clear and cooler with lower humidity. Low 64-66°. Wind: NW 2-6 mph.
Thursday: Sunny and pleasantly warm with low humidity. High 86-87° inland with temps. near 87° on the beaches. Wind: W/NW 6-12 mph. Winds N 11-14 mph PM on the beaches PM.
Forecast Discussion:
Look for some passing showers or a thunderstorm, as a cold front passes. Winds will turn to the west overnight. Temperatures will drop to around 68-70 degrees by sunrise.
Wednesday will be sunny and it will still be warm, but the humidity will drop. Look for temps. to reach near 89 degrees in the afternoon, but dew points will drop into the 50's by later in the afternoon. Winds will be from the NW at 11-17 mph by afternoon. Wednesday night will be cooler with lows back to around 64 degrees. Meteorological summer ends at Midnight Wednesday night.
Thursday will be sunny and it will be a little cooler with much lower humidity. Look for temps. to reach near 86-87 degrees in the afternoon, but dew points will drop into the low 50's by later in the afternoon. Winds will be from the NW at 9-12 mph by afternoon. Wednesday night will be cooler with lows back to around 64 degrees.
In the long-range, it will be sunny and pleasant Friday as a dry early fall air mass settles over the area. Look for afternoon highs from 85-86° and lows will dip to the low 60's in the morning. The air will be dry with a fall feel to the air.
The weekend will be warmer with highs in the upper 80's but it will still not be that humid. Temperatures will generally be above normal from Saturday to Sunday with little or no rain expected. Monday will be warm and humid with scattered thudnershowers ahead of another cool front. Shower and clouds will linger into Tuesday with temps. in the mid 80's during the afternoon hours.
The average high for today is 84 degrees with an average low of 65 degrees. | https://www.wboc.com/weather/evening-rain-followed-by-less-humidity-wednesday/article_66ecf122-289a-11ed-a7f2-f7e455acb48f.html | 2022-08-30T20:33:12Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/weather/evening-rain-followed-by-less-humidity-wednesday/article_66ecf122-289a-11ed-a7f2-f7e455acb48f.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that it will discharge the remaining federal student loan balances for those who were enrolled at Westwood College.
To be eligible for the loan forgiveness program, the Department of Education says students must have been enrolled between 2002 and 2015.
The decision to discharge the loans comes after an investigation of the college's practices.
"The Department has analyzed the evidence related to Westwood and concluded that the school engaged in widespread misrepresentations about the value of its credentials for attendees' and graduates' employment prospects such that all borrowers who attended during the period described above are entitled to a full loan discharge," the department said in a statement.
The Department of Education says the action will result in $1.5 billion in discharges. It adds that 79,000 borrowers will benefit from the forgiveness program.
Last week, President Joe Biden announced that the federal government will forgive up to $10,000 worth of federal student loans for non-Pell Grant recipients and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. The relief is available for individuals making less than $125,000 per year. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/biden-administration-cancels-student-debt-for-those-who-attended-westwood-college | 2022-08-30T20:33:40Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/biden-administration-cancels-student-debt-for-those-who-attended-westwood-college | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NBA players who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 will have to be tested for the virus weekly, according to ESPN.
The network reports that there will be exceptions to the new policy, including for those who have recently recovered from the virus.
Vaccinated players will not have to test for COVID-19 unless "directed by their team physician or a league physician or government authority," the league said in a memo obtained by ESPN.
Face masks will also not be required for unvaccinated individuals in the upcoming season. However, ESPN reports they will be recommended inside in areas where COVID-19 transmission is considered "high."
The National Basketball Players Association reportedly agreed to the policy.
The NBA season begins on Oct. 19. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/nba-reportedly-lays-out-new-covid-19-policy | 2022-08-30T20:33:46Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/nba-reportedly-lays-out-new-covid-19-policy | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SAN DIEGO — A penguin at the San Diego Zoo is wearing his own custom footwear after being diagnosed with a degenerative foot condition.
“We were pleasantly surprised at the immediate change in Lucas after we fitted him with his new boots,” said Debbie Denton, senior wildlife care specialist at the San Diego Zoo. “Seeing him move about now gives us hope that he may be OK going forward and able to live a full life.”
The San Diego Wildlife Alliance said Lucas suffers from a chronic condition called bumblefoot, so recently, he was fitted with orthopedic shoes.
The group said the shoes were made possible with the help of the organization Thera-Paw, which designs and manufactures products for animals with special needs.
The shoes are made of neoprene and rubber, preventing pressure sores from developing on the 4-year-old penguin’s feet and ankle when he stands and walks.
"The boots should protect the lesions already present on his feet while minimizing the risk of him developing additional sores," the group said in a news release.
The group said if left untreated, the condition could lead to sepsis and death by secondary infection
According to the news release, Lucas' problems began more than three years ago after he developed a spinal infection.
As he recovered, the group said that he had to rest on areas of his ankles that would not normally touch the ground.
With sores forming on his foot and legs, the group reached out to Thera-Paw for help, the group said.
According to the group, African penguins are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature after suffering declining in population from an estimated 1 million to about 18,000 breeding pairs today. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/penguin-at-san-diego-zoo-fitted-with-custom-orthopedic-footwear | 2022-08-30T20:33:52Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/penguin-at-san-diego-zoo-fitted-with-custom-orthopedic-footwear | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
(e.g. yourname@email.com)
Remember me
Forgot Password?
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Air Force’s Joi Harvey attacks the ball during the first set of the Falcons’ 3-0 win over Texas A&M Commerce at the Academy’s Cadet East Gym on August 26, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Joshua Armstrong)
This work, USAFA Volleyball vs TAMU [Image 10 of 10], by Joshua Armstrong, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7394799/usafa-volleyball-vs-tamu | 2022-08-30T20:33:57Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7394799/usafa-volleyball-vs-tamu | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
As more states enact laws with tougher penalties for stealing packages, past research shows that might not be the best strategy.
Disabled Marine veteran Michelle Turner was home with her service dog when a thief made off with a package delivered to her front door. A security camera and sign in the yard didn’t deter the thief.
“Knowing that they’re just feet away from where I am, it’s just nerve-racking,” said Turner, who lives in Kentucky.
Kentucky just joined a handful of other states, like Texas and Georgia, that have recently passed or proposed new laws to increase the penalties for stealing a package. There’s also a federal bill proposed for a consistent set of penalties.
However, past research shows that increasing penalties does little to deter crime. Instead, research suggests the certainty of getting caught and the increased perception that criminals will get caught is more effective.
In another study reviewing home security videos of porch package thefts, interesting trends were highlighted. Nearly all the packages stolen were visible from the road. Most of the stolen packages were medium-sized and had brand names on the boxes. Fences, cameras, and vehicles in the driveway didn’t seem to deter criminals much.
Still, using a technique called situational crime prevention, it’s suggested that homeowners take basic steps to prevent their homes from being targeted for package thefts:
- Have the package delivered somewhere less visible
- Increase the effort it takes to steal the package by using something like a delivery box
- Increase the risk of getting caught by having a camera and alarm | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/porch-pirate-laws-may-not-be-that-effective-research-shows | 2022-08-30T20:33:58Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/porch-pirate-laws-may-not-be-that-effective-research-shows | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NORFOLK, Va. (Aug. 24, 2022) Rear Adm. Arturo García Fernández, Mexican Navy, chief of logistics section of the general staff of the Navy, and Rear Adm. Matthew Ott, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFFC), fleet supply officer, hold a gift exchange in the USFFC headquarters building. The group is
participating in a logistics subject matter expert exchange at USFFC. The logistics subject matter expert exchange provided an opportunity to share logistics knowledge and experience between both navies and seek future opportunities for cooperation and collaboration. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Theodore Green)
This work, Rear Adm. Arturo García Fernández, Mexican Navy, chief of logistics section of the general staff of the Navy, and Rear Adm. Matthew Ott, U.S. Fleet Forces Command (USFFC), fleet supply officer, hold a gift exchange in the USFFC headquarters building. [Image 4 of 4], by PO1 Theodore Green, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7394854/rear-adm-arturo-garcia-fernandez-mexican-navy-chief-logistics-section-general-staff-navy-and-rear | 2022-08-30T20:34:09Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7394854/rear-adm-arturo-garcia-fernandez-mexican-navy-chief-logistics-section-general-staff-navy-and-rear | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said officers seized 1,532.65 pounds of alleged cocaine on Friday in a shipment claiming to be baby wipes.
The seizure happened at the Laredo Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
Officers said they sent a truck into a secondary non-intrusive inspection as it crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. With the help of a canine officer, they made the seizure.
The manifest for the shipment claimed that it contained baby wipes. Inside there were 1,935 packages, with nearly 1,533 pounds of alleged narcotics, CBP said.
According to a release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency claimed the street value for the alleged narcotics is over $11 million. It's unclear how officers came to that estimated value. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/us-customs-seizes-nearly-1-533-lbs-of-alleged-cocaine-in-shipment-claiming-to-be-baby-wipes | 2022-08-30T20:34:10Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/us-customs-seizes-nearly-1-533-lbs-of-alleged-cocaine-in-shipment-claiming-to-be-baby-wipes | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Being a relatively close neighbor to the Milky Way at 32 million light-years away, M74, otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy, is a popular target for astronomers.
Using the new powerful Webb Space Telescope, NASA and the European Space Agency provided a stunning look into the galaxy’s heart.
The ESA said that the galaxy’s lack of gas in its nuclear region provided an unobscured view of the nuclear star cluster at the galaxy’s center. Images also showed filaments of dust and gas in spiral arms around the galaxy.
Previous estimates have said that the galaxy contains 100 billion stars. Because of its orientation and relatively close distance, it is a top galaxy for astronomers to examine.
Although it’s a great galaxy for professionals to study, its magnitude makes it challenging for amateur astronomers to view.
The latest image is among several released by NASA and the ESA since the Webb Telescope began operating earlier this summer. The telescope has allowed scientists to examine galaxies up to 13.1 billion light-years away. The telescope’s spectrograph permits NASA to explore galaxies’ chemical composition.
The Webb telescope is replacing the Hubble telescope as NASA’s primary view of deep space.
NASA released the first set of images from the telescope on July 12. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/webb-telescope-captures-details-of-phantom-galaxy-and-its-100-billion-stars | 2022-08-30T20:34:22Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/webb-telescope-captures-details-of-phantom-galaxy-and-its-100-billion-stars | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A woman in South Carolina who had been concerned about gunshots outside the home where her children were was hit by a stray bullet by a neighbor shooting at a target as she looked out her window.
42-year-old Kesha Luwan Lucille Tate reportedly heard multiple gunshots outside of her Gaffney, South Carolina home at around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, family members said, according to the Gaffney Ledger.
As she looked out her window, a bullet entered her home and struck her in the chest. Tate died inside her home with her children nearby but unhurt, the Associated Press reported.
A county coroner confirmed how Tate died by Tuesday. Tate's neighbor, 30-year-old Nicholas Skylar Lucas, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and shooting while under the influence, police said. Lucas remained in jail on Tuesday, and it was not immediately clear if he had retained a lawyer.
Family members said Tate had been worried about gunfire near her home for months.
Both lived in a neighborhood of about 30 homes which are located relatively nearby one another.
Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller said, “It is mind-blowing that a person thinks it’s alright to target practice or discharge a gun within close proximity of so many other homes in a neighborhood.” | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/woman-killed-by-intoxicated-neighbor-shooting-at-target-in-backyard-police-say | 2022-08-30T20:34:29Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/woman-killed-by-intoxicated-neighbor-shooting-at-target-in-backyard-police-say | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
(The Hill) — The Monkees singer Micky Dolenz is suing the FBI in an effort to “obtain any records” the agency has on the hit band and its members.
A lawsuit filed by Dolenz, the last surviving member of the band, noted the performer had “exhausted all necessary required administrative remedies” after submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to receive the files from the FBI.
Portions of an FBI file on the “I’m a Believer” singers were released in 2011 and included references to anti-Vietnam War rhetoric and “subliminal messages” depicted on a screen at a 1967 Monkees concert that an informant claimed featured “left wing innovations of a political nature.”
The FBI was known to keep tabs on several famous faces during the 1960s and 1970s under then-Director J. Edgar Hoover, including anti-war musicians such as John Lennon and John Denver, among others.
Dolenz’s attorney, Mark Zaid, told Rolling Stone that the 77-year-old entertainer and the last surviving member of the band had originally submitted a FOIA request in June to obtain the full file from the FBI. The lawsuit was brought after the FBI failed to follow through with the FOIA request within 20 working days, as is legally required, Zaid told the music publication.
Zaid wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he has been a Monkees fan since the early 1970s, calling it a “pleasure to be representing” Dolenz.
“Why was the FBI monitoring the band back in the late 1960s? We will find out!” Zaid said. | https://www.wpri.com/news/national/last-surviving-member-of-the-monkees-is-suing-fbi/ | 2022-08-30T20:34:56Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/national/last-surviving-member-of-the-monkees-is-suing-fbi/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
FLORIDA, Mass. (WWLP) – Police released sketches of a suspect in the 1982 disappearance of a woman who was last seen working at a store along Route 2 in Florida.
Eighteen-year-old Lynn Burdick has been missing for over 40 years. She was last seen working alone at the Barefoot Peddler’s Country Store on April 17, 1982, when she disappeared between 8 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.
Authorities released sketches of a man they believe was involved in a separate attempted abduction that occurred 45 minutes earlier, 13 miles away in Williamstown who could be involved in the disappearance of Lynn Burdick.
With the help of a forensic artist from the Lincoln Police Department, the images were generated based on recent case interviews. The Berkshire District Attorney’s Office and the Massachusetts State Police Berkshire Detective Unit released the following new forensic sketch and four age-progressed variations of a suspect in the 1982 disappearance of Lynn Burdick.
The suspect, who may have ties to Vermont, is being described as a white man, 5’7″ tall, and now approximately 70 years old.
If you can identify the suspect or have any information, you are asked to contact the Berkshire State Police Detective Unit at 413-499-1112 or email the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Case Unit at mspunresolved@pol.state.ma.us.
“I thank the witnesses and the entire Burdick family for their strength and dedication while continuing to work with investigators assigned to Lynn’s case. My office, the Berkshire State Police Detective Unit, and the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Case Unit remain steadfast in following up on every lead and bringing advanced resources to unresolved homicides,” District Attorney Andrea Harrington said.
“I also thank the Lincoln Police Department for providing us the specialized forensic sketching resources to further assist in this investigation. I ask the public to share these images and if anyone has information about this case to contact the Berkshire State Police Detective Unit or the Massachusetts State Police Unresolved Case Unit.”
NBC News says Lynn’s family believes she was abducted while working at her cousin’s shop when she disappeared. | https://www.wpri.com/news/northeast-news/sketches-of-suspect-released-in-1982-disappearance-of-massachusetts-teen/ | 2022-08-30T20:35:25Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/northeast-news/sketches-of-suspect-released-in-1982-disappearance-of-massachusetts-teen/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Gabriela Lena Frank: an exclusive interview with the American composer
Stories and notions of identity are at the heart of prize-winning composer’s Gabriela Lena Frank’s music. Born in Berkeley, California, she is currently composer-in-residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra, which performed her 2001 work Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout at the Edinburgh Festival in August
I was 16 when I took my first formal music composition programme. I was fortunate that my first teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory, Dan Becker, had a deep love both of classical music and of music from non-western cultures and popular idioms. This, combined with my lifelong enjoyment of music as a young piano student and improviser plus my exposure to South American folkloric styles, paved the way for me to choose composition the following year when I enrolled as a freshman at Rice University.
Imposter syndrome is real! It persisted until the last years of my doctoral studies when I began to travel in Peru, meeting my maternal family and internalising these travel/musical experiences. My music transformed and I found the start of a real ‘voice’.
I needed to write Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout. It’s an early work, the last of my student days, and such an honest piece, reflecting and refracting what I was hearing and seeing in Peru. Looking back, I see it as a kind of reconciliation of my exterior world with my interior questions about my identity and heritage. It’s been remarkable for me to see how often it is performed and in so many countries. I think it touched a nerve.
I no longer start with a blank page. After all these years, there is so much material on the cutting room floor from other pieces, often because I haven’t got the time to maximise an idea’s potential. So, I just save the good ideas for later. Often, the ideas are transformed beyond recognition in their new guises, but they have long roots in previous work.
I’ve just received the new scores to my first opera – El último sueño de Frida y Diego was co-commissioned by San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera. I’m taking a break after this massive project, and will then turn my attention to a 45-minute symphony for the Philadelphia Orchestra called Picaflor (Hummingbird), to be based on creation myths of Latin America.
Photo: Mariah Tauger courtesy La Jolla Music Society | https://www.classical-music.com/composers/gabriela-lena-frank/ | 2022-08-30T20:39:04Z | classical-music.com | control | https://www.classical-music.com/composers/gabriela-lena-frank/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Berlin Philharmonic appoints Esa-Pekka Salonen as Composer-in-Residence
The Finnish conductor and composer will take up the position for the orchestra's 2022-23 season
The Berlin Philharmonic has appointed Esa-Pekka Salonen as its new Composer-in-Residence. The Finnish conductor and composer will step into the role for the ensemble's 2022-23 season. During that season the orchestra will play a wide range of Salonen's music, from the colourful orchestral showpiece Helix (in late December) to the German premiere of his Organ Concerto (January 2023) and his michievous Dada-inspired piece for choir and orchestra Karawane (May 2023).
Salonen is currently Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, and Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia in London, having served as its Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor from 2008-2021. He is currently in the middle of Multiverse Esa-Pekka Salonen, a two-season residency as both composer and conductor, at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg.
As a composer he is known for writing music that manages to be at once playful and cerebral. And his output is widely varied, ranging from this 1988 piece Floof (which Salonen describes as ‘the ultimate product of the electro-troubadour, set to dodecaphonic rap music.’) to his 2004 work Wing on Wing, inspired by the architecture of the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall.
'I want music – and especially my music – to be part of society,' says Salonen in the Berlin Philharmonic's press release. 'What I can’t stand are people who take themselves too seriously. There always has to be room for irony and laughter, otherwise life would be unbearable.'
His first concert in his new role with the Berlin Philharmonic will take place on 21st December 2022.
Photo: Minna Hatinen/Finnish National Opera and Ballet
More classical music news
Princess Astrid International Music Competition announces its winnersNew Conductor-in-Residence scheme champions conductors from under-represented groups
Belfast Cathedral to replace professional choir with volunteers to cut costs
Authors
Hannah Nepilova is a regular contributor to BBC Music Magazine. She has also written for The Financial Times, The Times, The Strad, Gramophone, Opera Now, Opera, the BBC Proms and the Philharmonia, and runs The Cusp, an online magazine exploring the boundaries between art forms. Born to Czech parents, she has a strong interest in Czech music and culture. | https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/berlin-philharmonic-appoints-esa-pekka-salonen-as-composer-in-residence/ | 2022-08-30T20:39:05Z | classical-music.com | control | https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/berlin-philharmonic-appoints-esa-pekka-salonen-as-composer-in-residence/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Can wordless music ever really be funny?
Though several composers have made valiant attempts to integrate comedy into their wordless music, the joke is more often on us, observes Tom Service
Can music without words ever be funny? Joseph Haydn’s music suggests it can be. Haydn is the acme of the wittiness of late-18th-century music in the way he soothes and startles his audience from one moment to the next, as in the contrast between the nursery-rhyme banality of the tune that opens the slow movement of his Symphony No. 94, lulling the audience into a false sense of security before a fortissimo thwack shocks us out of
our reverie.
But all I’ve ever really heard that piece do to an audience – and it’s the same with the the stop-start ending of Haydn’s so-called ‘Joke’ Quartet – is produce a smattering of cleverer-than-thou tittering, as some people want to show the rest of us that they’re frightfully clever for getting an 18th-century gag. I’ve never actually heard Haydn reduce an audience to gales of laughter.
Yet if you listen to Donald Swann’s arrangement of Haydn’s ‘Surprise’ Symphony – complete with additional key changes, percussion and bi-tonal bizarreness – at one of Gerard Hoffnung’s concerts in 1956, Haydn really does reduce an audience to uncontrollable chuckling. The lesson of Swann’s way with Haydn seems to be that the more unpredictable you make a musical gag, the more you’ll tickle our funny bones.
But there are limits to how funny our brains find musical unpredictability. If a lack of perceptual connection between a sequence of sonic events is a sure-fire route to experiential hilarity – just to really pin the butterfly of this comedic point to the board! – then the funniest music ever composed ought to be the post-war modernisms of John Cage or Pierre Boulez. But pieces like Cage’s Music of Changes or Boulez’s Structures aren’t funny, and not only in intention, but in our listening practice. That’s because – paradoxically – if you create a context of constant unpredictability, you can’t create any real sense of surprise. You can’t make us laugh by upending conventions if it’s not clear to us listening what those conventions actually are.
So what’s left for composers trying to make us LOL? Carl Nielsen used the flatulent register of the bassoon for the final note and noise of his Sixth Symphony, a gesture that sounds like a raspberry to the whole piece. And while this bassoon solo might not make an audience laugh out loud, it creates an existential comedy on the edge of continuity and discontinuity, leaving us wondering: what was all that about?
And it’s that existential comedy that music without words really can create. Both music and comedy are species of purposeful purposelessness. Music, like laughter, is a joy that disappears in a breath, into the ether. That’s the ultimate punch-line of all music: it’s so significant for all of us, but so intangible, both present and absent. Music’s essential comedy is that it’s a revelation of the essentially fleeting condition of our lives. And that’s not a joke!
Authors
Tom Service is a familiar voice to BBC Radio 3 listeners, the station on which he has presented Music Matters since 2003 and his own programme The Listening Service, in which he breaks down how music works. He is also a monthly columnist for BBC Music Magazine. For many years, Service wrote for The Guardian, where he was chief classical music critic. | https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/can-wordless-music-ever-really-be-funny/ | 2022-08-30T20:39:06Z | classical-music.com | control | https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/can-wordless-music-ever-really-be-funny/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Intonation meaning: what it is and why Intonation is important in music
Discover the meaning of intonation in music.
]When we speak or sing, we use intonation (the rise and fall between higher and lower pitches) to generate different notes or convey different moods with our voice. However, if you’ve ever listened to someone singing or practising the violin and felt the need to stick your fingers in your ears, it’s likely due to poor intonation, leading to the music sounding out of tune.
Intonation is all to do with the frequency of sound – how flat or sharp a note is – and therefore relates to the accuracy of pitch. For vocalists and musical instruments that require tuning, each note has its own range of frequency that will create the optimal sound for that particular note. Therefore, musicians need to make sure they’re playing within that range, so the music doesn’t sound out of tune.
However, whether something sounds out of tune can depend on the circumstances. A soloist playing at one end of the frequency range by themselves will likely sound fine, but if they were playing with other musicians that had tuned their instruments to the other end of the range, it would result in a clashing effect, hence accurate intonation becomes even more important when performing in an orchestra or a choir, for example. | https://www.classical-music.com/features/musical-terms/intonation-meaning/ | 2022-08-30T20:39:06Z | classical-music.com | control | https://www.classical-music.com/features/musical-terms/intonation-meaning/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
According to the August 5th edition of Intermountain Farm and Ranch, this part of Idaho has a volunteer problem, too many of them. To understand why that’s a problem and what it has to do with the weather, first you have to know that to growers, a volunteer is a crop plant that grows where you didn’t plant it, at least not this season. So a volunteer potato is one that survived the winter underground and pops up its head in the spring.
Sounds like a good thing, free bonus potatoes, right? Well, not really. Volunteer potato plants, and the ones that survived the winter in cull piles and sprout there the next year invite pests, including blights, viruses, and the potentially devastating late blight fungus.
And what has this got to do with the weather? In short, everything. Volunteer potatoes only show up when winter soil temperatures don’t drop low enough to kill them. Jeff Miller, a potato scientist with Rupert-based Miller Research, says, “It does show our climate is changing because we never used to have volunteers, and yet it’s been more common in the last couple of years.”
To determine the risk of volunteer potatoes showing up, Phillip Warton, an Associate Professor at the University of Idaho, developed a plan. Soil temperatures are monitored at both 2 inches and 4 inches deep. If the temperature at both depths falls below 27 F for more than 120 hours during the winter, the risk of volunteer potatoes is low; they can’t survive that. If the temperature falls below that level at one depth but not the other, the risk of volunteers is moderate. And if the soil temperature fails to reach 27 degrees or lower at either depth for 120 hours combined between the beginning of November and the end of March, then the risk of volunteers is high.
By Warton’s method, Tetonia is among the areas at high risk for volunteers this season, along with Ririe, Osgood, Shelley, American Falls, Aberdeen, Golden Valley, Picabo, Twin Falls, and Fairfield. “There were very few instances where the soil temperature got below 27 degrees – maybe it did for one hour here and one hour there,” said Warton.
So does this mean the blight is on? Not necessarily. According to Jeff Miller, “We didn’t have any late blight in 2021 and it’s very, very likely that culls and volunteers will not be carrying the pathogen… If we had late blight show up one year I would want to use Warton’s tool to show what’s the likelihood of volunteers showing up.”
The last time late blight reached epidemic levels in these parts was in 2015 when the growing season remained relatively cool and wet, very different from this summer. Once again, weather may be the key factor that makes the difference between a potentially bad situation and an actual disaster.
Thanks to Intermountain Farm and Ranch, the University of Idaho, Miller Research, and to Sarah for calling my attention to this important impact of the weather on our local community. | https://www.tetonvalleynews.net/weatherblog/volunteers-not-needed/article_fdf7667c-267b-11ed-813c-43517605cfde.html | 2022-08-30T20:42:28Z | tetonvalleynews.net | control | https://www.tetonvalleynews.net/weatherblog/volunteers-not-needed/article_fdf7667c-267b-11ed-813c-43517605cfde.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The M20 has a closure in place tonight (Tuesday) after a crash involving a lorry. The incident was first reported at 6.16pm by Inrix traffic monitoring service.
The eastbound carriageway is now closed from J4 A228 Castle Way for Leybourne/Snodland) to M20 J5 for Aylesford. There is traffic trapped within the closure.
Slow traffic was building on the approach. All traffic is currently being diverted off at J4.
Never get stuck in a crash again with our FREE traffic and travel email for KentLive readers. Find out more here.
Follow our live blog for all the latest traffic information.
Key Events
One lane remains closed - Inrix
One lane closed and queueing traffic due to earlier accident and carriageway repairs on M20 Eastbound from J4 A228 Castle Way (Leybourne / Snodland) to M20 J5 (Aylesford). Note change of details.
Cameras show road has reopened to traffic, lane four (of four) remains closed for repairs.
Delays remain - Inrix
Queueing traffic due to earlier accident on M20 Eastbound from J4 A228 Castle Way (Leybourne / Snodland) to M20 J5 (Aylesford).
Cameras show road has reopened to traffic delays remain. S
Diversion route
Road users are advised to follow the hollow circle diversion symbol on road sign
- Exit the M20 at J4 then take the A228 (northbound) and follow until the M2 J2.
- Join the M2 coastbound and remain on the M2 until J5.
- Exit the M2 and join the A249 (southbound) at Stockbury.
- Remain on the A249 until the junction with the M20 and re-join at J7.
Delays are likely on approach to the closure and diversion routes.
If this closure impacts on your planned route, please allow extra journey time. Plan ahead, you may wish to re-route or even delay your journey.
Police are in attendance
This from National Highways:
The M20 is closed eastbound between Junction 4 (West Malling) and Junction 5 (Aylesford) due to a collision
Kent Police are in attendance
What's happened?
- M20 Eastbound closed
- Queueing traffic due to accident
- Lorry involved
- Closure from Junction 4 A228 Castle Way (Leybourne / Snodland) to M20 J5 (Aylesford) | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/m20-traffic-live-snodland-lorry-7527389 | 2022-08-30T20:45:36Z | kentlive.news | control | https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/m20-traffic-live-snodland-lorry-7527389 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
BROOKLYN, N.Y., Aug. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Etsy, Inc. (Nasdaq: ETSY), which operates two-sided online marketplaces that connect millions of passionate and creative buyers and sellers around the world, today announced that the following investor events will include webcast presentations by Etsy executives:
- Evercore ISI 2nd Annual Technology Conference
September 7, 2022 at 10:15 a.m. ET - Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference
September 14, 2022 at 10:45 a.m. PST / 1:45 p.m. ET
Live webcasts and replays of these sessions will be featured on Etsy's investor relations website at investors.etsy.com.
In addition, company executives will attend the Piper Sandler Growth Frontier Conference in Nashville, TN on September 13 and 14, 2022.
About Etsy
Etsy, Inc. operates two-sided online marketplaces that connect millions of passionate and creative buyers and sellers around the world. These marketplaces share a mission to "Keep Commerce Human," and we're committed to using the power of business and technology to strengthen communities and empower people. Our primary marketplace, Etsy.com, is the global destination for unique and creative goods. Buyers come to Etsy to be inspired and delighted by items that are crafted and curated by creative entrepreneurs. For sellers, we offer a range of tools and services that address key business needs.
Etsy, Inc.'s "House of Brands" portfolio also includes fashion resale marketplace Depop, musical instrument marketplace Reverb, and Brazil based handmade goods marketplace Elo7. Each Etsy, Inc. marketplace operates independently, while benefiting from shared expertise in product, marketing, technology, and customer support.
Etsy was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, New York.
Etsy has used, and intends to continue using, its Investor Relations website and the Etsy News Blog (etsy.com/news) to disclose material nonpublic information and to comply with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, you should monitor our investor relations website and the Etsy News Blog in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts.
Investor Relations Contact:
Deb Wasser, Vice President, Investor Relations & ESG Engagement
Jessica Schmidt, Sr. Director, Investor Relations
ir@etsy.com
Media Relations Contact:
Sarah Marx, Director, Corporate Communications
press@etsy.com
View original content:
SOURCE Etsy | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/08/30/etsy-participate-upcoming-investor-conferences/ | 2022-08-30T20:47:53Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/08/30/etsy-participate-upcoming-investor-conferences/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
FCC: Wireless carriers keeping track of your location, storing it for months
(CNN) - Your cellphone carrier might know more about your daily life than you realize.
According to carrier letters made public last week by the Federal Communications Commission, the country’s largest wireless carriers know where you are every time you make a phone call or use your data connection.
The companies routinely hold onto that location information for months and sometimes provide it to law enforcement.
The letters showed that smartphones constantly communicate with cell towers, giving carriers specific Global Positioning System coordinates.
Officials are calling on the FCC enforcement bureau to investigate whether wireless carriers are doing enough to tell customers how their information is handled.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.witn.com/2022/08/30/fcc-wireless-carriers-keeping-track-your-location-storing-it-months/ | 2022-08-30T20:48:23Z | witn.com | control | https://www.witn.com/2022/08/30/fcc-wireless-carriers-keeping-track-your-location-storing-it-months/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
BEIJING, Aug. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VNET Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: VNET) ("VNET" or the "Company"), a leading carrier- and cloud-neutral Internet data center services provider in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2022.
"We delivered solid results in the second quarter amid macro uncertainties and tightened restrictions to contain COVID resurgences," said Samuel Shen, Chief Executive Officer of VNET and Executive Chairman of VNET's Retail IDC. "Notably, our wholesale business continued making good progress. We extended our contract with a leading social platform in China in the second quarter, generating a capacity of approximately 14MW, and recently signed a new contract generating a capacity of 15MW with a leading cloud service provider in China. Our retail business also achieved impressive results driven by rising digital demand from various industries. With our strong operating capabilities, deep industry experience and proven technology expertise, we are confident our compelling value proposition will enable us to seize new growth opportunities and create additional value for all of our stakeholders."
Tim Chen, Chief Financial Officer of VNET, commented, "Fueled by our dual-core growth strategy, this quarter we delivered a robust financial performance with a year-over-year growth 15.2% and 14.5% in revenue and adjusted EBITDA, respectively. Our solid financial position provides a firm foundation from which to drive long-term, sustainable growth as we continue to leverage our scalable service offerings, build our customer base across a wider variety of industries and maximize the opportunities ahead."
Second Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights
- Net revenues increased by 15.2% to RMB1.72 billion (US$257.5 million) from RMB1.50 billion in the same period of 2021.
- Adjusted cash gross profit (non-GAAP) increased by 11.5% to RMB713.7 million (US$106.6 million) from RMB640.2 million in the same period of 2021. Adjusted cash gross margin (non-GAAP) was 41.4%, compared to 42.8% in the same period of 2021.
- Adjusted EBITDA (non-GAAP) increased by 14.5% to RMB486.9 million (US$72.7 million) from RMB425.1 million in the same period of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA margin (non-GAAP) was 28.2%, compared to 28.4% in the same period of 2021.
Second Quarter 2022 Operational Highlights
- Total cabinets under management increased by 1,867 in the second quarter of 2022 to reach 80,831 as of June 30, 2022, compared to 62,876 as of June 30, 2021.
- Cabinets utilized by customers increased by 1,468 in the second quarter of 2022 to reach 44,500 as of June 30, 2022, compared to 36,625 as of June 30, 2021.
- Overall utilization rate of cabinets[1] was 55.1% as of June 30, 2022, compared to 58.2% as of June 30, 2021.
- Retail IDC MRR[2] per cabinet reached RMB9,186 in the second quarter of 2022, compared to RMB9,015 in the second quarter of 2021.
Update on the Non-binding Acquisition Proposal
The Company has retained Citigroup Global Markets Asia Limited as its financial advisor and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP as its legal counsel to assist it in review and evaluation of the previously announced preliminary non-binding proposal letter dated April 6, 2022 to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares of the Company (the "Proposal") and any alternative strategic option that the Company may pursue.
The Board of Directors (the "Board") cautions the Company's shareholders and others considering trading the Company's securities that the Board has not made any decisions with respect to the Proposal or any alternative strategic option that the Company may pursue. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made, that any agreement will be executed or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consummated. The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.
Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results
NET REVENUES: Net revenues in the second quarter of 2022 were RMB1.72 billion (US$257.5 million), representing an increase of 15.2% from RMB1.50 billion in the same period of 2021. The year-over-year increase was mainly due to the increased demand from both wholesale and retail IDC customers, as well as the growth of revenue from cloud business.
GROSS PROFIT: Gross profit in the second quarter of 2022 was RMB357.8 million (US$53.4 million), compared with RMB359.5 million in the same period of 2021. Gross margin in the second quarter of 2022 was 20.7%, compared to 24.0% in the same period of 2021.
ADJUSTED CASH GROSS PROFIT, which excludes depreciation, amortization, and share-based compensation expenses, was RMB713.7 million (US$106.6 million) in the second quarter of 2022, compared to RMB640.2 million in the same period of 2021. Adjusted cash gross margin in the second quarter of 2022 was 41.4%, compared to 42.8% in the same period of 2021.
OPERATING EXPENSES: Total operating expenses in the second quarter of 2022 were RMB321.7 million (US$48.0 million), compared to RMB262.5 million in the same period of 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, total operating expenses in the second quarter of 2022 were 18.7%, compared to 17.5% in the same period of 2021.
Sales and marketing expenses in the second quarter of 2022 were RMB80.4 million (US$12.0 million), compared to RMB59.6 million in the same period of 2021.
Research and development expenses in the second quarter of 2022 were RMB76.7 million (US$11.5 million), compared to RMB38.3 million in the same period of 2021.
General and administrative expenses in the second quarter of 2022 were RMB167.0 million (US$24.9 million), compared to RMB154.2 million in the same period of 2021.
ADJUSTED OPERATING EXPENSES, which exclude share-based compensation expenses, compensation for postcombination employment in an acquisition and impairment of loan receivable to potential investee, were RMB250.7 million (US$37.4 million) in the second quarter of 2022, compared to RMB235.6 million in the same period of 2021. As a percentage of net revenues, adjusted operating expenses in the second quarter of 2022 were 14.5%, compared to 15.7% in the same period of 2021.
ADJUSTED EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2022 was RMB486.9 million (US$72.7 million), representing an increase of 14.5% from RMB425.1 million in the same period of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2022 excluded share-based compensation expenses of RMB47.5 million (US$7.1 million). Adjusted EBITDA margin in the second quarter of 2022 was 28.2%, compared to 28.4% in the same period of 2021.
NET PROFIT/LOSS: Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the second quarter of 2022 was RMB377.2 million (US$56.3 million), compared to a net profit of RMB455.9 million in the same period of 2021. Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders in the second quarter of 2022 included a foreign exchange loss of RMB319.9 million (US$47.8 million), compared to a foreign exchange gain of RMB78.0 million in the same period of 2021.
PROFIT/LOSS PER SHARE: Basic and diluted loss per share in the second quarter of 2022 were both RMB0.43 (US$0.06) which represented the equivalent of both RMB2.58 (US$0.36) per American depositary share ("ADS"). Each ADS represents six Class A ordinary shares. Diluted profit/loss per share is calculated using adjusted net profit/loss attributable to ordinary shareholders divided by the weighted average number of diluted shares outstanding.
As of June 30, 2022, the aggregate amount of the Company's cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash was RMB3.62 billion (US$539.9 million).
Net cash generated from operating activities, in the second quarter of 2022, was RMB942.7 million (US$140.7 million), compared to RMB314.8 million in the same period of 2021.
Business Outlook
In consideration of COVID-related disruptions in the second quarter 2022 and softer economic conditions, the Company currently expects net revenues for the full year of 2022 to be in the range of RMB7,250 million to RMB7,550 million, and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of RMB1,800 million to RMB1,950 million.
The forecast reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and its operational conditions, which does not factor in any of the potential future impacts caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and is subject to change.
Conference Call
The Company's management will host an earnings conference call at 9:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time on Tuesday, August 30, 2022, or 9:00 AM Beijing Time on Wednesday, August 31, 2022.
For participants who wish to join the call, please access the link provided below to complete the online registration process and dial in 5 minutes prior to the scheduled call start time.
Event Title: VNET Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call
Registration Link: https://register.vevent.com/register/BIe1ecf9e092d04400b0020b258448551c
Upon registration, each participant will receive a set of dial-in numbers by location, a personal PIN and an email with further detailed instructions, which will be used to join the conference call.
A simultaneous audio webcast and replay of the conference call will be accessible on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.vnet.com.
Non-GAAP Disclosure
In evaluating its business, VNET considers and uses the following non-GAAP measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a supplemental measure to review and assess its operating performance: adjusted cash gross profit, adjusted cash gross margin, adjusted operating expenses, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliations of GAAP and non-GAAP results" set forth at the end of this press release.
The non-GAAP financial measures are provided as additional information to help investors compare business trends among different reporting periods on a consistent basis and to enhance investors' overall understanding of the Company's current financial performance and prospects for the future. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to results prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP, but should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, U.S. GAAP results. In addition, the Company's calculation of the non-GAAP financial measures may be different from the calculation used by other companies, and therefore comparability may be limited.
Exchange Rate
This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("USD") at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from RMB to USD were made at the rate of RMB6.6981 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in effect on June 30, 2022, in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. The Company makes no representation that the RMB or USD amounts referred could be converted into USD or RMB, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all. For analytical presentation, all percentages are calculated using the numbers presented in the financial statements contained in this earnings release.
Statement Regarding Unaudited Condensed Financial Information
The unaudited financial information set forth above is preliminary and subject to potential adjustments. Adjustments to the consolidated financial statements may be identified when audit work has been performed for the Company's year-end audit, which could result in significant differences from this preliminary unaudited condensed financial information.
About VNET
VNET Group, Inc. is a leading carrier- and cloud-neutral Internet data center services provider in China. VNET provides hosting and related services, including IDC services, cloud services, and business VPN services to improve the reliability, security, and speed of its customers' internet infrastructure. Customers may locate their servers and equipment in VNET's data centers and connect to China's internet backbone. VNET operates in more than 30 cities throughout China, servicing a diversified and loyal base of over 6,500 hosting and related enterprise customers that span numerous industries ranging from internet companies to government entities and blue-chip enterprises to small- to mid-sized enterprises.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "target," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, quotations from management in this announcement as well as VNET's strategic and operational plans contain forward-looking statements. VNET may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about VNET's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: VNET's goals and strategies; VNET's expansion plans; the expected growth of the data center services market; expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, VNET's services; VNET's expectations regarding keeping and strengthening its relationships with customers; VNET's plans to invest in research and development to enhance its solution and service offerings; and general economic and business conditions in the regions where VNET provides solutions and services. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in VNET's reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and VNET undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
Investor Relations Contact:
Xinyuan Liu
Tel: +86 10 8456 2121
Email: ir@vnet.com
View original content:
SOURCE VNET Group, Inc. | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/08/30/vnet-reports-unaudited-second-quarter-2022-financial-results/ | 2022-08-30T20:49:12Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/08/30/vnet-reports-unaudited-second-quarter-2022-financial-results/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A coalition of counties and local health centers on Tuesday urged judges on the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals to review a lower court’s ruling that struck down state health regulations regarding the control of infectious diseases.
Attorneys for St. Louis County, Jackson County, the administrator of the Cooper County Public Health Center and board of trustees for the Livingston and Jefferson County Health Centers, made the case Tuesday that they should be allowed to intervene in the case after a previous motion to do so was denied.
What’s more, they would like to see the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals also review Cole County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Green’s November ruling that struck down certain state health regulations and declared health orders intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 that were issued unilaterally by local health officials “null and void.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office declined to appeal the ruling, and sent school districts and local public health departments letters that threatened legal action if they failed to comply. Health departments faced little clarity from the state health department and described being plunged into confusion in the months after the ruling was issued.
Departments rescinded aspects of their COVID mitigation measures and others questioned the extent to which they could curb the spread of other infectious diseases at all as a result.
Neal Perryman, an attorney for St. Louis County who argued Tuesday on behalf of the appellants, said “the order is not a model of clarity” and that it’s impacting local officials’ authority to curb the spread of contagious diseases in their communities.
“This is not about ruining democracy, or tyranny, or all these loaded vitriolic words that we’ve heard throughout the briefing,” Perryman said.
In an interview after Tuesday’s hearing, Melanie Hutton, the Cooper County Public Health Center administrator who is an appellant in the case, said the ruling “has struck fear in the hearts of all the administrators.”
The ambiguity the ruling has left on when tools like quarantines can be used and enforced has left health departments “having to put an attorney before any decisions that we make.
“And responding to diseases is in real time,” Hutton said.
Kimberley Mathis, an attorney representing a restaurant, church and St. Louis area resident that originally challenged the state health regulations, said in an interview after Tuesday’s arguments that she’s “unaware of any confusion that’s been created by anyone other than the plaintiffs in this case” and those claims being repeated to the press.
Mathis told the panel of judges that “this case is about procedure” and stressed that county health boards can still approve of mitigation measures.
“The only thing this decision did is strike a state regulation that unlawfully authorized bureaucratic lawmaking and took that decision out of the hands of the elected officials,” Mathis said.
Mathis and the attorney general’s office have both argued the counties and local health centers have no standing to intervene in the case, and last week Mathis also filed a motion to dismiss the appeal.
The local entities didn’t file to intervene and appeal until mid-December, three weeks after Green’s judgment was issued. It was a point the judges pressed Tuesday, with Judge Anthony Gabbert noting it “was a well-known, publicized issue.”
“What was gained by waiting?” Gabbert asked.
Perryman noted that state officials had largely left mitigation measures at the discretion of local officials as the pandemic unfolded, and said after Green’s November ruling, “we had heard through the grapevine that DHSS would appeal.
“Now all of a sudden they didn’t,” Perryman said.
The Department of Health and Senior Services did request the attorney general’s office to appeal the case, which Schmitt’s office declined to do.
Judge Gary Witt noted that prior to Green’s ruling there had been multiple cases where the attorney general’s office was bringing legal challenges against local COVID restrictions, and that based on those lawsuits, “there was some acknowledgement that the attorney general was pushing to restrict the ability of health departments to enact some of these regulations.”
Solicitor General John Sauer, who argued on behalf of the Department of Health and Senior Services Tuesday, said that while the attorney general’s office did “vigorously defend” against the judgment, that ultimately the attorney general has the authority whether to pursue appeals in cases where the state is a party.
But when asked by Witt if it was the attorney general’s position that local health boards could still enact health orders that medical directors for health departments no longer could, Sauer said “we have taken no position on the merits in this appeal.”
Perryman said that stance is “the problem,” noting that in Schmitt’s letters to school districts and local public health departments he threatened enforcement action if they failed to follow Green’s judgment by removing affected health orders.
“We’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater here,” Perryman said.
This story was originally published on the Missouri Independent. | https://www.kcur.org/health/2022-08-30/jackson-county-urges-missouri-appeals-court-to-revisit-ruling-that-banned-local-covid-orders | 2022-08-30T20:50:25Z | kcur.org | control | https://www.kcur.org/health/2022-08-30/jackson-county-urges-missouri-appeals-court-to-revisit-ruling-that-banned-local-covid-orders | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
PORTLAND, Ore. — The 20-year-old who opened fire in a Bend, Oregon, supermarket, killing two before he turned the gun on himself, was a loner who was passionate about mixed martial arts and was known for getting into fights at the high school where he graduated in 2020.
The shooter, identified Monday by police as Ethan Blair Miller, of Bend, “tried to fight quite literally everybody” at Mountain View High School, former classmate Isaac Thomas told The Associated Press. Thomas said the gunman once threatened to shoot him after a fight at their school.
Police confirmed Monday they are investigating the “shooter's writings” but declined to comment further on postings on several online platforms that appear to have been written by him in recent months.
In posts on several sites, someone who appears to be the gunman says he's struggled to recover from the isolation and loneliness of the pandemic, expresses hatred for himself and indicates he planned to attack his alma mater next week, but couldn't wait until then because “the Rage has become uncontrollable.”
Authorities sought a search warrant for digital devices found at the gunman's apartment and it will take several days to go through those materials and develop a clearer picture, said Police Chief Mike Krantz.
“We have that information. A lot of people sent us follow-up information about what has been posted on social media or other outlets and our investigators will sift through that information and make those connections — if it’s truly connected— and ensure that we have accurate information," he said.
Police have no evidence of prior contact with the gunman and he had no criminal record in the area, authorities said.
Federal officials were also trying to determine where the gunman got the AR-15-style weapon and shotgun he brought into the store, whether the guns were obtained legally and why he chose the supermarket for his deadly rampage. They found three Molotov cocktails in his car along with a sawed-off shotgun and more ammunition in his apartment, said Bend police spokeswoman Sheila Miller, who is not related to the shooter.
Thomas, the former classmate, said the shooter had worked at the Safeway and Thomas had run into him there two years ago.
Police credited a Safeway employee and 20-year U.S. Army veteran who was killed in the shooting with possibly forestalling a worse outcome and called the actions of 66-year-old Donald Ray Surrett Jr. heroic.
“Mr. Surrett engaged with the shooter, attempted to disarm him and may very well have prevented further deaths. Mr. Surrett acted heroically turning this terrible event,” the police spokeswoman said.
Customer Glenn Edward Bennett, 84, of Bend, was also killed Sunday evening, police said.
About 150 people gathered in a Bend park on Monday night for a vigil to remember the victims. A church choir sang and a pastor and city officials spoke as people laid flowers.
“I’m so angry that lives were needlessly lost, that terror was experienced in our community,” Bend City Councilor Melanie Kebler told the crowd, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Craig Van Bruggen attended the vigil and told the news outlet he was in the Safeway on the phone with his wife when the shooting began. He believes Surrett’s actions helped him escape without injury.
“Sounds like Donald potentially slowed down the shooter enough to save some lives, and he’s a hero,” Van Bruggen told OPB.
The gunman lived in an apartment complex behind The Forum Shopping Center. Witnesses said he began shooting Sunday evening as soon as he left the complex and continued firing as he entered the shopping complex's parking lot and then went into the Safeway.
Bennett was killed at the store's entrance, police said, and the shooter then moved through the aisles “spraying shots” from the assault rifle until Surrett confronted him. The entire incident — from the first 911 calls to officers discovering the suspect dead in the store — unfolded in four minutes, Miller said.
Police entered the supermarket from the front and rear as shots were still being fired.
Debora Jean Surrett, the ex-wife of the Safeway employee killed in the attack, told AP in a phone interview that Surrett served in the Army for 20 years as a combat engineer. He wasn’t deployed to active combat zones, but during the 20 years they were married from 1975 to 1995, they were stationed in Germany three times and lived on military bases across the U.S.
Bend Mayor Pro Tem Anthony Broadman said Americans “need to guard against the cynicism of thinking of these attacks on order and peace as regular, unavoidable things. I won’t accept that.”
“We know that in the face of the kind of chaos that we saw last night, we had brave first responders, brave citizens, people willing to stand up for their neighbors,” he added.
The shooter graduated from Mountain View High School in Bend in 2020, according to online records, and Thomas remembered him as an extremely combative person who had few friends.
Thomas said he was suspended for a week as a freshman for fighting with the gunman. The gunman held onto a grudge from that fight and once threatened to shoot him, Thomas told AP.
“At one point he said he was going to shoot me and I was like, ‘Get over yourself’ because I didn’t think he had a gun, but I guess I was wrong,” Thomas said.
Thomas recalled running into the shooter in 2020 in the parking lot of the Safeway, where the gunman was gathering up carts as part of his job. He recognized him and threatened him again although several years had gone by, Thomas said.
“It was kind of crazy when I heard about it,” he said of the shooting. “But it makes sense that he chose Safeway because he worked there and he knew the layout.”
Bend is a city of about 97,000 approximately 160 miles (257 kilometers) southeast of Portland, Oregon.
Associated Press reporters Claire Rush in Portland; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and AP Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed to this report. | https://www.krem.com/article/news/crime/safeway-gunman-described-as-angry-liked-to-fight/283-be21150b-ad3a-4d1d-8638-bb364fb90520 | 2022-08-30T20:50:41Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/news/crime/safeway-gunman-described-as-angry-liked-to-fight/283-be21150b-ad3a-4d1d-8638-bb364fb90520 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — County commissioners are expected to choose Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Barry McHugh’s replacement at a special meeting Wednesday.
McHugh will resign effective Sept. 30. He’s set to take the bench in January, replacing Judge Lansing Haynes, who retired in May, as reported by our news partners, the Coeur d'Alene Press.
Because McHugh is a Republican, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee will recommend to commissioners three potential candidates to replace him as prosecutor.
The finalists are county prosecutors Bryant Bushling and Stanley Mortensen, as well as attorney Donald Gary.
The other nominees, whose names will not be forwarded to the commissioners, were Chief Deputy Criminal Prosecutor Arthur Verharen and Sagle attorney Colton Boyles.
In Idaho, a county prosecuting attorney must be at least 21 years old, licensed to practice law in Idaho and a U.S. citizen.
According to an internet search, Gary, a former principal in the local firm of Winston & Cashatt, is a tax and business lawyer based in Post Falls. He previously worked in the Los Angeles area.
Gary sought to unseat McHugh in the 2012 Republican primary election. McHugh garnered 62% of the votes in the race.
Bushling faced criticism in 2016 after he commented on a Facebook meme that depicted a white police officer with the text: “If we really wanted you dead all we’d have to do is stop patrolling your neighborhoods… AND WAIT.”
Bushling originally replied: “Great point. Where the police are under attack from politicians, and the police become less aggressive, the murder rates go up. I say, let them have their neighborhoods. They will be like Rwanda in a matter of weeks.”
He later edited his comment to describe his time as a prosecuting attorney focused on gang activity in Los Angeles.
McHugh, Bushling's superior at the time, told The Press in 2016 that the matter called for education, not punishment.
"I know Mr. Bushling regrets the wording of the posts — we support law enforcement’s obligation to protect all citizens," McHugh said. "I take very seriously our duty to make decisions without reference to inappropriate bias. We have communicated that obligation to the deputy prosecutors."
McHugh also said in 2016 that he had discussed hundreds of cases with Bushling.
"Not once have I questioned his use of appropriate factors in making decisions. He is a rational, fair and highly ethical attorney with a distinguished career of over 30 years as a prosecuting attorney," McHugh said. "The posts will have no impact on his continuing ability to provide excellent service to Kootenai County."
Mortensen, of Post Falls, got his start as a detention deputy with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
While working for the sheriff's office, he graduated from North Idaho College and Lewis-Clark State College. He became a patrol deputy before leaving law enforcement to enter law school.
Mortensen ran unsuccessfully for a district judge position in May. He lost the nonpartisan election to sitting Judge Rich Christensen, who received about 61% of the votes.
At the time of judicial race, Mortensen had served in the prosecutor's office for nearly a decade.
At a meeting last week, Kootenai County GOP precinct committee members met to submit nominations and then vote to decide which candidates would go before commissioners.
GOP Chair Brent Regan said McHugh’s early notice of his intent to resign enabled the central committee to review some nominees in advance.
Regan said Bushling, Verharen and Mortensen filled out a questionnaire and were interviewed by a county GOP rating and vetting committee.
Because Gary and Boyles were not nominated until the night of the meeting, they did not go through the vetting process.
All five nominees had 10 minutes to address the committee and answer questions before two rounds of voting took place. The nominee with the fewest votes was eliminated after each round.
Regan told The Press that 45 precinct committeemen voted, following an executive session during which the committeemen discussed the candidates. Precinct committeeman is an office that may be held in Idaho by men or women.
When asked if he could share any information on the backgrounds of the three finalists or if there was any discussion about whether any of the potential finalists had ever prosecuted a hate crime, Regan said he could not discuss it.
"I am not at liberty to say what was or was not said during executive session," Regan said.
Commissioners will meet at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the county administration building. The meeting will also be streamed on the county’s YouTube channel.
The Coeur d'Alene Press is a KREM 2 news partner. For more from our partners, click here. | https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/idaho/north-idaho-commissioners-to-pick-new-prosecutor/293-e1c5fe5f-1f3e-4c75-8324-efb758b7c3f5 | 2022-08-30T20:50:47Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/news/local/idaho/north-idaho-commissioners-to-pick-new-prosecutor/293-e1c5fe5f-1f3e-4c75-8324-efb758b7c3f5 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Student loan borrowers who make less than $125,000 per year will be eligible to have between $10,000 and $20,000 of federal student loan debt forgiven, President Joe Biden announced on Aug. 24.
Even though the forgiveness plan may be a sigh of relief for many student loan borrowers, some GOP leaders, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) claimed this would have a negative impact on the average U.S. taxpayer.
“Let’s be clear - there is no way to ‘cancel’ student debt. This will cost every taxpayer an average of $2100 … This administration is exceeding its legal authority and illegally burdening hard-working Americans with debts they didn’t take on themselves,” a release from Cruz’s office said.
A VERIFY viewer also asked us on Instagram to find out if his taxes would go up because of the federal student loan forgiveness program.
THE QUESTION
Will the average taxpayer have to pay $2,100 to cover the cost of student loan forgiveness?
THE SOURCES
- Andrew Lautz, National Taxpayers Union Foundation's director of federal policy
- Dave Vasquez, press secretary for Sen. Ted Cruz
- Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax code
THE ANSWER
No, the average taxpayer will not have to pay $2,100 to cover the cost of student loan forgiveness. Individual taxes are not increasing at all due to the loan forgiveness plan.
The $2,100 cost estimate was based on a hypothetical scenario that divides the cost of the program by the number of taxpayers, which is not how income taxes are determined.
WHAT WE FOUND
For taxes to be raised to pay for the debt forgiveness package, Congress would have to pass a bill amending the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), the governing law of federal tax collection. That hasn’t happened nor has it been proposed.
Dave Vasquez, Cruz’s press secretary, told VERIFY the taxpayer estimate Cruz used in his statement condemning the student loan forgiveness plan came from a National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTU) blog penned by Andrew Lautz, NTU’s director of federal policy.
The NTU is a nonpartisan research and educational organization that shows Americans how taxes, government spending, and regulations affect them.
Lautz’s blog post was published on Aug. 23, prior to Biden announcing the student loan plan, with an estimate on the cost per taxpayer if the taxpayer were the only means of paying for this plan. But this is not how the funding for government programs work, and Lautz acknowledged this.
“Some on social media have misinterpreted our analysis to mean that their taxes are literally going up to pay for this,” Lautz told VERIFY.
But that’s not the case.
The NTU came up with that number by taking the total cost of the plan divided by the number of taxpayers in America, though that calculation doesn’t take into account differences in tax brackets, which would decrease the average for taxpayers with lower incomes.
“It's hard for anyone to conceptualize $400 billion, let alone $1 trillion, but plenty of people can conceptualize that the cost comes out to $2,500 for each one of the 158 million taxpayers in America,” Lautz told VERIFY.
The Aug. 23 blog post said the average taxpayer would pay $2,085.59 to pay for the plan. The figures used originally didn’t account for debt cancellation promised for up to 27 million Pell Grant recipients. The NTU published a later blog post on Aug. 25 with updated figures that brought the average cost to y $2,503.22 per taxpayer.
More from VERIFY: Yes, there is a way to check if you received a Pell Grant
It’s not unusual for different agencies to use models to describe the average cost of something federally funded based on the cost per taxpayer, Lautz said.
For example, Congress requires the Department of Defense to report on the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq each year based on the cost per taxpayer – in 2021, the wars cost the average taxpayer $184.
There are several organizations that keep track of the nation’s debt and divide that by the average taxpayer to show how much each person would have to pay. But these models don’t actually change the amount of income taxes people pay.
Policymakers still haven’t determined how they will pay for the cost of student debt cancellation, which could be done in the future with government spending cuts, tax increases, or more borrowing, or some combination thereof, Lautz told VERIFY. | https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/taxes-verify/fact-check-individual-taxes-are-not-increasing-to-pay-for-student-loan-forgiveness/536-01987cee-7b61-4c0d-b1d9-e69e7cc6b4d3 | 2022-08-30T20:51:06Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/taxes-verify/fact-check-individual-taxes-are-not-increasing-to-pay-for-student-loan-forgiveness/536-01987cee-7b61-4c0d-b1d9-e69e7cc6b4d3 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Jenifer Lewis has earned the title of “mother of Black Hollywood” due to her numerous roles as a family matriarch.
She was Tupac’s mom in “Poetic Justice,” Tina Turner’s mom in “What’s Love Got to do With It,” and the sassy Aunt Helen in the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.” More recently, Lewis played Ruby Johnson in “Black-ish,” which just ended after eight seasons.
In 2017, she released her first memoir detailing her rise in Hollywood and revealing her struggles with mental health and sex addiction. Now, she’s out with a new book called “Walking In My Joy: In These Streets” and it’s just as revealing.
Copyright 2022 WAMU 88.5 | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-29/jenifer-lewis-is-walking-in-her-joy | 2022-08-30T20:51:14Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-29/jenifer-lewis-is-walking-in-her-joy | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- Sears is closing its last remaining store in Hawaii.
An advertisement in a local newspaper says that the Sears Appliances & Mattresses store at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu is having a closing sale but has not yet released an exact closing date.
The store is located on the street level near Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5th along Kapiolani Boulevard.
A store associate with Sears’ Ala Moana Center store confirmed to KITV4 News that it still has a repair service in the Islands, and that customers who purchased appliances at the store may still receive service under existing warranties.
A spokeswoman for Ala Moana Center deferred comment to Sears.
Illinois-based Transformco, which acquired the Sears and Kmart brands several years ago, did not return multiple requests for comment from KITV4.
Sears filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
At one time, there were six Sears department stores in Hawaii, with the last remaining department store closing its doors on Maui at the Kaahumanu Center last year.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
Duane Shimogawa has more than 15 years of experience in the media industry with stints as a reporter/anchor at several TV and radio stations, as well as newspapers such as Pacific Business News, Hawaii News Now, KNDU/KNDO-TV, and more. | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/sears-closing-its-last-remaining-hawaii-store/article_59a51dfa-2895-11ed-8410-7fd184a87e4d.html | 2022-08-30T20:51:21Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/sears-closing-its-last-remaining-hawaii-store/article_59a51dfa-2895-11ed-8410-7fd184a87e4d.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A pumpkin spice latte, purchased at a Starbucks in Baltimore, is shown in September 2021. Not even Starbucks' Pumpkin Spice Latte is immune to inflation. The fall favorite, which returns August 30, is getting more expensive with a grande-sized hot PSL costing customers between $5.45 to $5.95 depending on location — a roughly 4% increase compared to 2021.
Christina Tkacik/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
The fall favorite, which returned today, is getting more expensive with a grande-sized hot PSL costing customers between $5.45 to $5.95 depending on location — a roughly 4% increase compared to 2021. That's in line with broader price hikes at Starbucks and other chains, which have all increased menu prices gradually over the past year because of inflationary pressures.
The PSL, as it's often referred to, has been a popular item on Starbucks' menu for nearly two decades, eliciting excitement among its loyal fan base. Starbucks has sold more than 600 million PSLs since the drink's introduction in 2003.
Also returning is Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, an iced-drink topped with pumpkin cream cold foam and a dusting of pumpkin spice that Starbucks launched in 2019.
Even with chillier weather approaching, cold drinks are popular with Starbucks customers, accounting for roughly 75% of Starbucks' total beverage US sales in its most recent quarter. Overall, sales at its US stores open at least 13 months jumped 9% in the quarter.
In addition to pumpkin flavors, Starbucks is bringing back its Apple Crisp Macchiato and its Apple Crisp Oatmilk Macchiato, the latter being a new tweak to the 1-year-old drink because it's now made with the dairy-alternative milk.
Starbucks is entering the PSL battle later than its rivals this year. Krispy Kreme brought back their fall drinks on August 8, its earliest return date ever, and Dunkin' added pumpkin-flavored drinks and snacks on August 18. Meanwhile, Panera is ditching pumpkin for cinnamon, focusing its fall efforts on a new Cinnamon Crunch Latte inspired by its popular bagel of the same flavor.
These seasonal items build hype and awareness for brands in the competitive fast-food space. In the past, Starbucks has said the pumpkin drinks were the "catalyst" for a record-breaking fourth-quarter performance in 2020. | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-is-coming-back-at-a-higher-price/article_50a5c721-ab0d-5db1-8dfb-2ce7dcff6e1d.html | 2022-08-30T20:51:27Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/starbucks-pumpkin-spice-latte-is-coming-back-at-a-higher-price/article_50a5c721-ab0d-5db1-8dfb-2ce7dcff6e1d.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
KONA, Hawaii (KITV4) -- Big Island police arrested three people on theft and drug complaints after responding to a grab-and-go robbery at a Kona business on Aug. 25.
According to investigators, Vice officers were conducting operations at a business in the 73-5000 block of Olowalu Street in the Kona area when they spotted several people leaving a business holding a bunch of high-value items in their arms.
Police said the people looked to be trying to quickly load the items into a car and leave.
The officers said when they approached the suspects’ car and identified themselves as police, the driver through the car in reverse in an attempt to flee. The officers ran after the car, which had stopped, in an attempt to make contact again. Investigators say as the officers tried to remove the four people from the vehicle, one of the officer’s guns went off. No one was injured.
All four people were arrested on suspicion of theft. During the course of the investigation, police said they learned that three of the four people in the car were responsible for stealing items from the business.
During a search of the suspects’ car, police said they recovered the stolen items as well as 14.4 grams of heroin and various drug paraphernalia.
On Saturday, Aug. 27, the three suspects were identified and charged with theft and drug complaints related to this incident. The fourth person who was arrested was later release pending further investigation, police said.
Those four people were identified and charged with the following:
William Kaipo Jr., 31, of Hilo, with one count each of second-degree theft and promoting a dangerous drug. His bail is set at $20,000.
Kylene Medeiros, 32, of Hilo, with one count of second-degree theft. Her bail is set at $2,000.
Javonne Pu‘u, 27, of Pāhoa, with one count of second-degree theft. Her bail is set at $2,000.
This case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sheldon Nakamoto at 808-326-4646, ext. 228. You can also call the Hawaii Police Department’s non-emergency number at 808-935-3311.
Matthew has been the digital content manager for KITV4 since September 2021. Matthew is a prolific writer, editor, and self-described "newsie" who's worked in television markets in Oklahoma, California, and Hawaii. | https://www.kitv.com/news/crime/3-arrested-in-kona-for-theft-drug-complaints-after-officers-thwart-alleged-grab-and-go/article_8061428e-289a-11ed-9eaa-e74ca04360c3.html | 2022-08-30T20:51:33Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/crime/3-arrested-in-kona-for-theft-drug-complaints-after-officers-thwart-alleged-grab-and-go/article_8061428e-289a-11ed-9eaa-e74ca04360c3.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks to Sarhang Hamasaeed, director of Middle East programs for the United States Institute of Peace, about popular Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's resignation.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ailsa Chang talks to Sarhang Hamasaeed, director of Middle East programs for the United States Institute of Peace, about popular Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's resignation.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-30/what-the-resignation-of-popular-iraqi-cleric-muqtada-al-sadr-means-in-the-middle-east | 2022-08-30T20:51:45Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/2022-08-30/what-the-resignation-of-popular-iraqi-cleric-muqtada-al-sadr-means-in-the-middle-east | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
M74 shines at its brightest in this combined optical/mid-infrared image, featuring data from both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Stunning new images produced by the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Telescope showcase the Phantom Galaxy, a spiral of solar systems 32 million light-years away from Earth.
The galaxy is located in the constellation Pisces, according to the European Space Agency, which collaborates with NASA on both the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Telescope.
The Phantom Galaxy, formally known as M74, is a kind of spiral galaxy known as a "grand design spiral." This means that it has well-defined spiral arms, visibly winding out from the center in the newly released images.
The images were created using data from both the Hubble Telescope and the Webb Telescope. Webb detected "delicate filaments of gas and dust" in the galaxy's spiral arms, according to ESA. The images also provide a clear look at the nuclear star cluster at the galaxy's center, unclouded by gas.
The Webb telescope also used its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) to examine the Phantom Galaxy as part of a project to understand the earliest phases of star formation, ESA noted.
While Webb is best at observing infrared wavelengths of light, Hubble has particularly sharp vision at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, according to the agency. This allowed it to reveal particularly bright areas of star formation, known as HII regions, in the Phantom Galaxy images.
The combination of data from both telescopes allowed scientists to gain an even deeper understanding of the Phantom Galaxy -- and to create spectacular images of the cosmos.
NASA released Webb's first high-resolution images just weeks ago in July. Bigger than Hubble, the telescope is capable of observing extremely distant galaxies, allowing scientists to learn about early star formation. Hubble orbits Earth, but Webb orbits the sun, around 1 million miles away from Earth. | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/nasa-releases-stunning-new-image-of-the-phantom-galaxy/article_546ad837-90a0-5244-933f-e4de9ffde863.html | 2022-08-30T20:51:51Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/nasa-releases-stunning-new-image-of-the-phantom-galaxy/article_546ad837-90a0-5244-933f-e4de9ffde863.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Eater reporter Bettina Makalintal about her recent piece, "Why Do So Many Recipes Call for So Little Garlic?"
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with Eater reporter Bettina Makalintal about her recent piece, "Why Do So Many Recipes Call for So Little Garlic?"
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.klcc.org/npr-food/2022-08-30/it-seems-like-everyone-loves-garlic-eater-looks-at-why-do-recipes-use-so-little | 2022-08-30T20:52:16Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-food/2022-08-30/it-seems-like-everyone-loves-garlic-eater-looks-at-why-do-recipes-use-so-little | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A federal program to forgive loans for many Black farmers was ensnared in lawsuits. It speaks to the Biden Administration's challenges in pursuing racial equity through federal policy.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A federal program to forgive loans for many Black farmers was ensnared in lawsuits. It speaks to the Biden Administration's challenges in pursuing racial equity through federal policy.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.klcc.org/npr-politics/2022-08-30/debt-relief-for-black-farmers-shows-challenges-of-pursuing-racial-equity-with-policy | 2022-08-30T20:52:28Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-politics/2022-08-30/debt-relief-for-black-farmers-shows-challenges-of-pursuing-racial-equity-with-policy | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former pro tennis player and Tennis Channel commentator Chanda Rubin about Serena Williams' legacy on and off the court.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former pro tennis player and Tennis Channel commentator Chanda Rubin about Serena Williams' legacy on and off the court.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.klcc.org/npr-sports/2022-08-30/serena-williams-legacy-as-told-by-one-of-the-few-players-to-beat-her-chanda-rubin | 2022-08-30T20:52:47Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-sports/2022-08-30/serena-williams-legacy-as-told-by-one-of-the-few-players-to-beat-her-chanda-rubin | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Jackson, Miss., is without clean drinking water as its water system is near collapse. Officials are scrambling to distribute fresh water and devise a plan to repair the neglected treatment system.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Jackson, Miss., is without clean drinking water as its water system is near collapse. Officials are scrambling to distribute fresh water and devise a plan to repair the neglected treatment system.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.klcc.org/npr-top-stories/2022-08-30/jackson-miss-is-in-a-water-emergency-and-residents-dont-have-clean-drinking-water | 2022-08-30T20:52:59Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-top-stories/2022-08-30/jackson-miss-is-in-a-water-emergency-and-residents-dont-have-clean-drinking-water | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ARCADIA — The Westfield Santa Anita mall has sold for $537.5 million, part of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s continued unloading of assets in the United States — and in Southern California — in a deal that is the largest for a mall in the U.S. since 2018, according to URW.
The company did not disclose who bought the property, but officials said it was an “established commercial real estate investor who owns other retail assets in Southern California.”
The property — at 400 S. Baldwin Ave. — is huge, described as 1.48 million square feet, and nearly 100% leased.
French-based URW said its consultants deemed the sell the largest mall transaction in the States since 2018.
The company — which acquired the Santa Anita mall in 2018 as part of its $15.7 billion acquisition of Australia-based Westfield, which had owned and operated the mall since 2007 — has been making headlines of late as it unloads big-name mall properties in Southern California. Part of its divestiture of “non-core” assets in the U.S, along with Westfield Santa Anita, the “deleveraging” includes the former Promenade Mall in the west San Fernando Valley, and the Palisade building in San Diego.
The San Fernando Valley property sold for $150 million. Billionaire Stanley Kroenke, owner of the L.A. Rams, bought the empty Woodland Hills property.
But the Arcadia site was anything but languishing.
Prior to the pandemic, the Arcadia mall has been known to be bucking a trend of dying malls across the country — its success fueled by the growing force of Asian retails intent on catering to a community of Asian-American consumers in and around the San Gabriel Valley.
The mall appears to be revving up as a buzzing retail hub again after more than two years of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, IKEA Arcadia will open its doors at the mall, bring a smaller version of IKEA to mall customers with its design studio concept.
URW announced the sale of Westfield Arcadia on Aug. 25.
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/arcadias-westfield-santa-anita-sells-for-537-5-million-as-french-company-unloads-big-name-malls/ | 2022-08-30T20:55:20Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/arcadias-westfield-santa-anita-sells-for-537-5-million-as-french-company-unloads-big-name-malls/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
By Dusan Stojanovic | Associated Press
PRAHOVO, Serbia — The worst drought in Europe in decades hasn’t only scorched farmland and hampered river traffic, it also has exposed a part of almost forgotten World War II history: The hulks of dozens of World War II German battleships have emerged from the Danube River as its water levels have dropped.
In the middle of the mighty river separating Serbia and Romania near the Serbian port of Prahovo, a rusty hull, a broken mast where the swastika flag used to fly, an upper deck where a command bridge used to be, a barrel that could have been holding fuel — or even explosive materials — lean on a pebblestone dune that has emerged from the water.
The ships, some still laden with munition, belonged to Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet that was deliberately sunk by the Germans as they retreated from Romania as Soviet forces advanced.
Historians say up to 200 German warships were scuttled in September 1944 near Prahovo in the Danube gorge known as The Iron Gate on the orders of the fleet’s commander as they came under heavy fire from the Soviets. The idea behind the deliberate sinking was to at least slow down the Soviet advance in the Balkans. But it didn’t help as Nazi Germany surrendered months later, in May 1945.
The unusually hot weather across Europe this summer was linked by scientists to global warming and other factors. The dropping water levels created dangerous conditions for shipping on many rivers on the continent, including the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river that flows through 10 nations. Authorities in Serbia have used dredging to keep vessels moving.
The wrecks appearing from the depths are an impressive sight, but they have caused decades of trouble for those using the river, and now the Serbian government, with European Union support, is planning to do something about them.
Some of the wrecks were removed from the river by the Communist Yugoslav authorities right after the war. But most of them remained, hampering shipping, especially in summer when water levels are low. For years there were plans to take the ships out of the muddy waters, but the operation was considered too risky because of the explosives they carried and there were no funds to do it until recently.
Now, the European Union and the European Investment Bank have agreed to provide loans and grants to finance the operation to remove some of the vessels near Prahovo in order to improve the traffic capacity of the Danube. The total cost of the operation is estimated at 30 million euros ($30 million), of which about 16 million are grants.
“These vessels have been sunk and they have been lying on the river bed ever since,” the EU ambassador to Serbia, Emanuele Giaufret, said during a recent trip to the wreckage site. “And this is a problem. It’s a problem for the traffic on the Danube, it restricts the capacity to move, it’s a hazard because certain vessels still contain unexploded ordnance.”
Accompanying Giaufret was Alessandro Bragonzi, the head of the European Investment Bank in the Western Balkans. He said the project consists of the removal of 21 sunken vessels.
“It has been estimated that more vessels are underwater, up to 40, but those that are currently impeding the fairway conditions of the Danube, especially during periods of low water level, are 21,” Bragonzi said.
Experts say the salvage operation will consist of removing the explosive materials from the sunken vessels and then destroying the wrecks, rather than dragging the ships out of the river.
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/as-drought-shrinks-the-danube-wwii-relics-are-revealed/ | 2022-08-30T20:55:21Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/as-drought-shrinks-the-danube-wwii-relics-are-revealed/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A year has now passed since the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from decades of war and occupation in Afghanistan.
With the Taliban functionally in charge, the country faces a deteriorating humanitarian crisis and economic collapse. But instead of taking action to promote stability and reinvigorate the economy, the U.S. has made it worse and penalized innocent, ordinary Afghans.
According to the United Nations, the current situation in Afghanistan is “unparalleled.” Over 24 million people require humanitarian assistance to survive, and approximately 95 percent of the country’s population has insufficient food. Malnutrition is on the rise, with many Afghans resorting to selling body parts to feed their families.
The situation was already dire in Afghanistan before the Taliban seized power. Most Afghans lived on less than $2 a day. The country had endured protracted violence, mass displacement, a drought, and multiple waves of COVID-19.
But when the Taliban returned to power, international donors responded by immediately suspending billions of dollars in aid. The result? Near-total economic and governmental collapse. “No country in the world could withstand a sharp cutoff of that aid,” said William Byrd of the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Additionally, the U.S. and European governments have blocked Afghanistan’s Central Bank, known as DAB, from accessing nearly $9 billion of the country’s own foreign currency reserves, $7 billion of which is held in the New York Federal Reserve.
This has left the country incapable of addressing its serious economic problems or engaging in international trade. Inflation has skyrocketed, sending the Afghan currency to record low values. And with the currency shortage in commercial banks, Afghans can’t even access their own bank accounts.
These actions were taken under the auspices of keeping these funds out of the Taliban’s hands. But in practice, as over 70 economists have pointed out, they’re collectively punishing all Afghans — including victims of the Taliban.
In February, President Biden doubled down on the seizure of DAB reserves by setting aside $3.5 billion to settle legal claims by some of the families of 9/11 victims. His executive order committed the remaining $3.5 billion for the purported “benefit of the Afghan people,” yet his administration has so far withheld this amount as well.
These reserves don’t belong to the United States to determine how they’re used. They legally belong to Afghanistan and are owned by the state, not its government or the current regime in Kabul.
Furthermore, the people of Afghanistan are not morally or legally responsible for the deplorable 9/11 attacks. Many families of 9/11 victims agree. Nearly 80 families have written to Biden, calling the seizure “morally wrong” and saying the last thing they want is to “take money away from starving Afghans.”
By targeting the Afghan people in this way, the U.S. has ignored its moral obligation to ameliorate the humanitarian and economic crises caused by its military intervention and failed policies. The Taliban’s rule is undoubtedly brutal, but this is no reason for the U.S. and other countries to make matters worse. The Afghan people’s continued suffering benefits no one.
After decades of war, violence, and instability, Afghanistan needs both immediate action and long-term solutions so that its people can live, dream, and rebuild. The first step, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remarked, “must be to halt the death spiral of the Afghan economy.”
President Biden should immediately reverse his executive order. With millions of Afghans impoverished and starving, the U.S. must return to the Afghan people what is rightfully theirs.
Farrah Hasten is a writer, policy analyst, and adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/end-the-collective-punishment-of-afghans/ | 2022-08-30T20:55:24Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/end-the-collective-punishment-of-afghans/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Gulch Fire burning in the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa was 25% contained as of Tuesday morning.
The fire near Morris Dam has consumed 110 acres. Two firefighters had minor injuries on Monday and were treated at the scene, Dana Dierkes, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service, said.
“One was a laceration from a rock. The other was a heat-related illness,” she added.
The fire has not damaged a structure and is not threatening any structures at this time.
“Warm and dry conditions can be expected across the incident today with gusts pushing the fire northwest,” Dierkes said.
Authorities are investigating how the blaze started. It began at 11:26 a.m. on Monday in the San Gabriel Canyon and is burning upslope west and northwest, she said.
https://t.co/uOWIZl7v5p pic.twitter.com/sVcSZK1DR3
— Angeles National Forest (@Angeles_NF) August 30, 2022
The Gulch Fire was the second fire to break out in the forest in less than a week.
The East Fire, which started near East Fork Road on Thursday, is expected to be contained Tuesday night. By Monday afternoon, it had burned 150 acres and was 93% contained. The U.S. Forest Service did not have updated figures Tuesday morning.
The cause of the East Fire is also under investigation.
Due to both fires, there is no access to San Gabriel Canyon.
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/gulch-fire-above-azusa-25-contained/ | 2022-08-30T20:55:25Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/gulch-fire-above-azusa-25-contained/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors directed its staff on Tuesday, Aug. 30, to identify resources that could be offered to assist operators of hundreds of food trucks or other mobile-food facilities who had their personal information erroneously published on a county website.
The county Department of Public Health announced last week that some operators whose food businesses underwent health inspections over the past two years had their personal information erroneously posted on the agency’s website.
The information — including names, driver’s license numbers and possibly dates of birth — has since been removed from the Environmental Health Division’s website, but county officials said they have been working to contact people who were affected.
It was not immediately clear when the information was posted or how long it was publicly accessible online, but county officials said the release affected operators of 806 facilities that underwent environmental health inspections between July 1, 2020, and July 29, 2022.
The county Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday, with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl absent, in support of a motion by Supervisor Kathryn Barger calling for a report within 30 days on what resources the county can provide to affected business operators.
“The threat of identity theft and its consequences are real,” Barger said in a statement after the vote. “I wrote this motion because the county has a duty to help any mobile food operators and permittees who are now at a heightened risk since their personal information was mistakenly shared. I want business owners to feel supported. The best way to do that right now is to identify tailored and responsive resources that can help.”
In her motion, Barger wrote that the county “must do more to correct and address any potential deficiencies within our own processes to prevent any such similar situations from occurring again.”
Anyone who believes their information may have been compromised was urged to call the county at 888-700-9995 to determine if they were impacted by the inappropriate posting.
County officials said last week the health agency has retrained its workforce “on the relevant policies and procedures and provided additional trainings to prevent future incidents.”
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/la-county-supervisors-move-to-help-business-owners-hit-by-data-leak/ | 2022-08-30T20:55:26Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/la-county-supervisors-move-to-help-business-owners-hit-by-data-leak/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
LOS ANGELES —The UCLA football program completely overhauled its defense, spending the offseason replacing four coaches and nine starters.
Coach Chip Kelly, who signed a contract extension in January, hired Bill McGovern as the Bruins’ new defensive coordinator and former standout Ken Norton Jr. as inside linebackers coach.
Both coaches were working in the NFL last season before joining Kelly’s staff.
Chad Kauha’aha’a (defensive line) and Ikaika Malloe (outside linebackers / special teams coordinator) also joined the staff and previously coached at other Pac-12 schools.
Assistant head coach and secondary coach Brian Norwood is the only returning defensive position coach.
Safety Stephan Blaylock and outside linebacker Bo Calvert are the only full-time starters returning from last season. They are also the only two of the Bruins’ top eight leading tacklers returning.
McGovern acknowledged that the season-opener against Bowling Green will allow for several players, beyond those listed on the two-deep depth chart, to play Saturday.
“We are looking to see who shows up when the lights are on,” McGovern said. “It’s going to be a hot day and we are going to play a lot of people. It will sort itself out and guys will find their spots.”
The defensive coordinator admitted that the coaches are “anxious” to see how the players execute in live action for the first time.
“It’s a relationship sport and everyone is different,” McGovern said. “Everyone learns differently, everyone reacts differently to different feedback.
“It’s getting to know your players and just getting to talk to them so they understand what you want and how you want it.”
McGovern and his staff have expressed the need to create turnovers since spring and to get the UCLA offense back on the field as soon as possible.
“(We want) to get off the field,” Blaylock said. “We don’t want to keep our offense cold and we want to get our playmakers out there and put points up on the board.”
LINEBACKERS
Hawai’i transfer Darius Muasau came in this spring and worked his way into a starting role at linebacker for the Bruins. He has recorded 100 tackles in each of his last two seasons at Hawai’i and tied for second in the nation with five forced fumbles in 2021.
JonJon Vaughns and Kain Medrano were also listed as starting linebackers for the Bruins. Both players were recruited at different positions by UCLA before they were converted to linebackers.
Medrano, a former receiver, has not started a game for the Bruins during his first three seasons with the program but has contributed on special teams. Vaughns has played as a defensive back and inside linebacker for the Bruins, earning one start in the seven games he played in during the 2020 pandemic season.
DEFENSIVE LINE
The addition of the Murphy Twins through the transfer portal helped fill the void and experience of Mitchell Agude (Miami) and Myles Jackson (Indiana), who left the program during the offseason.
Gabriel Murphy is listed ahead of Grayson Murphy at one of two outside linebackers spots but both players are expected to have an immediate impact this season. The duo combined for 15.5 sacks, 26.5 tackles for a loss, four forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries during the 2021 season at North Texas.
Calvert will start at the other outside linebacker spot, with Carl Jones listed behind him. Calvert, a redshirt senior, has played both as an inside and outside linebacker for the Bruins, starting 19 games over the last four seasons.
Martin Andrus Jr. and Jay Toia are penciled in as the defensive tackles for the season-opener. Andrus played in just two games last season, after missing the last two years with injuries. Toia is coming off his first full offseason with the program, after coming in as a late arrival last fall. The sophomore played in all 12 games last season as a reserve.
SECONDARY
The secondary was one of the program’s most experienced position groups in each of the last two seasons. Blaylock is the only defensive back returning of the five starters in the secondary from last season.
Blaylock has started 31 consecutive games for the Bruins, dating back to 2019. The redshirt senior has finished among the team’s top five tacklers in each of the last three seasons.
Sixth-year senior Mo Osling III will get his opportunity as a full-time starter as the other safety.
Sophomore Devin Kirkwood steps into a starting role, after playing in all 12 games as a reserve cornerback and special teams player. Azizi Hearn, who started 28 games in three seasons at Wyoming, will take over at cornerback on the opposite side from Kirkwood.
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/ucla-football-anxious-to-see-revamped-defense-in-action/ | 2022-08-30T20:55:46Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/ucla-football-anxious-to-see-revamped-defense-in-action/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Wingstop is coming out with a chicken sandwich that is a lot like the others in the chicken sandwich wars, but with a big difference. The Texas-based chain’s sandwich is available with 12 different kinds of chicken, like its wings.
Flavors are sauces or dry rubs that range from low-heat Lemon Pepper to high-heat Atomic.
All the sandwiches are made with toasted buns and topped with pickle chips, according to a news release. They come with a choice of ranch, honey mustard or blue cheese dip. Combos include a choice of fries or veggie sticks and a 20-ounce soft drink.
To make it clear that Wingstop wants to compete in the chicken sandwich wars, the launch includes a promotion called the Chicken Sandwich Split. The first 100,000 customers to visit chickensandwichsplit.com and sign a breakup letter to their favorite brand of chicken sandwich can receive a code for a free sandwich, according to the news release.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is also courting customers. On Monday, it announced a limited time deal of a 2-Piece Drum & Thigh Combo Meal for $6.
Information: wingstop.com, kfc.com
Join the Conversation
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/2022/08/30/wingstop-debuts-12-chicken-sandwiches-at-once/ | 2022-08-30T20:56:04Z | pasadenastarnews.com | control | https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2022/08/30/wingstop-debuts-12-chicken-sandwiches-at-once/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK – When Serena Williams double-faulted twice and dropped her first service game, the far-from-impartial crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium moved quickly into sympathy mode. This US Open is reportedly her last singles event and the first-round match against Danka Kovinic might well have been her last.
And then, it happened.
US Open: Scores | Order of play | Draw
Williams gradually began to play herself into being, well, Serena. She finished in a flurry, winning in straight sets, striking nine aces, a number of them at critical moments. This wasn’t the same 40-year-old who lost three of four matches at Wimbledon, Toronto and Cincinnati.
“I do feel different,” she said in a post-match press conference. “I think I was really emotional in Toronto and Cincinnati. “It’s extremely difficult still because I absolutely love being out there.
“The more tournaments I play, I feel like the more I can belong out there. That’s a tough feeling to have, and to leave knowing the more you do it, the more you can shine.”
Vintage Serena 🤩 pic.twitter.com/ytZkglejpi
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 29, 2022
This comes from an athlete who really, really likes to shine. She may be the shiniest women’s player ever. After the pomp and circumstance of that well-deserved victory lap you get the idea that it’s suddenly occurred to Williams that she’s playing in an actual tournament – not just playing a part in a made-for-television movie.
When that happens, history says – look out!
Of course, it’s not possible for a woman who turns 41 in four weeks, to win another Grand Slam title. But considering it would be a record-tying 24th, it suddenly seems slightly more plausible. After seeing her come to life against Kovinic, saving eight of 10 break points, are you ready to write her off? She’s certainly not.
This is the challenge for Wednesday’s second-round opponent Anett Kontaveit – the No.2-ranked player in the world.
“I’m really excited,” Kontaveit said after a 6-3, 6-0 over Jaqueline Cristian. “I was really rooting for her to win today. I’ve never played against her. I mean, this is the last chance. Better late than never.”
Be careful what you wish for. A free-swinging Serena is a lot to process.
“At this point, honestly, everything is a bonus for me I feel,” she said. “I think every opponent is very difficult. I’ve seen that over the summer. The next one is even more difficult. It’s good that I was able to get this under my belt.
“I’m just not even thinking about that. I’m just thinking about just this moment. I think it’s good for me just to live in the moment now.”
It’s a great moment for tennis, too. Although she said she didn’t want to make a fuss over her retirement, she actually seemed to enjoy Monday night’s post-match festivities. No one is better at playing her way into fine form from a dead stop. In 2017, she split two matches in Auckland, New Zealand – then ran the table at the Australian Open for the last of her Open Era-record major titles. Two decades ago, she beat sister Venus in the Wimbledon final, played only three matches in a span of seven weeks and beat Venus in the US Open final. After several major sabbaticals, Serena made comebacks an art form.
Serena's been collecting #USOpen dubs for a long time 😤 pic.twitter.com/qEsGxNTzaK
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 30, 2022
So now, the speculation begins. The morning after, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith – the Human Hot Take – was prematurely pontificating about whether Serena could win the US Open. Since the last one in Melbourne, she’s had four real opportunities to match Margaret Court’s overall major record. She lost in all four finals – most recently to Bianca Andreescu in the 2019 US Open final.
While only Iga Swiatek is ranked ahead of Kontaveit, the 26-year-old from Estonia hasn’t been tearing it up of late. She’s won four of seven summer hard court matches, losing to No.59 Anastasia Potapova, No.21 Jil Teichmann and No.44 Zhang Shuai. Technically, Serena is at No.605, but that’s just a number. Consider this: Williams has won 23 of the 78 Grand Slam singles events she’s played, a remarkable winning percentage of nearly 30 percent.
It may well come down to how Kontaveit meets this charged moment. Five of the eight questions in Kontaveit’s post-match press conference were regarding Serena.
Kontaveit knows the Arthur Ashe crowd will not be her friend, that she will be fighting all kinds of swirling atmospheric conditions.
“I don’t feel like there is any pressure on me on the results or anything,” she told reporters. “I’m just going to take it as a real unique experience. I’m not sure if I’ll ever experience something like this again. I think it’s a special moment for her.”
How special? We shall see. Serena Williams might hate losing more than any player the game has seen. Which explains why she’s such a winner.
“It’s so important to give your all no matter what you do, no matter how many obstacles you face,” she said. “I’ve been down and out so many times in the public eye. I’ve had to come back.
"You just never give up. It sounds cliché, but that really means something.” | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2769088/us-open-day-3-preview-serena-williams-faces-no-2-kontaveit | 2022-08-30T20:58:19Z | wtatennis.com | control | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2769088/us-open-day-3-preview-serena-williams-faces-no-2-kontaveit | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK -- In one single match, Ukraine's Daria Snigur crossed off at least three major milestones. Ranked No.124, the 20-year-old qualifier came into the US Open having never played a Slam main draw, never won a tour-level WTA match, and never faced, let alone defeated, a Top 20 player.
Snigur proceeded to pull off the shock of the first round, knocking out World No.7 and Toronto champion Simona Halep 6-2, 0-6, 6-4. No one was more stunned than Snigur, who confessed she just hoped to win a few games.
"I just wanted to enjoy this match," Snigur told WTA Insider. "I was playing Simona Halep, ex-No.1 in the world. My father told me to enjoy it, have fun. I tried to do it and fight for every ball. I was playing Simona so I was trying to do my best. Now, this was the best match of my career."
First appearance in a Grand Slam main draw sealed with an upset 🤩
— wta (@WTA) August 29, 2022
Qualifier Daria Snigur takes out No.7 seed Halep.#USOpenpic.twitter.com/4eaHSzpXlA
Here are five things to know about Snigur:
She's coached by a former WTA player
Snigur has been coached by Larisa Neiland (née Savchenko) for the last five years. Neiland was a premier doubles player on the tour, rising to No.1 in doubles in 1992 and winning Roland Garros 1989 and Wimbledon 1991, both with Natasha Zvereva. In singles, she reached No.13 and made a pair of Grand Slam quarterfinals at the 1988 US Open and Wimbledon 1994.
"Before the war, Larisa taught me in Kyiv," Snigur said. "Now she lives in the U.S. and she was in Riga before the US Open. I practiced with her for a few days and I tried to keep as much information. I think it's good."
Her forehand sets her apart from the pack
Snigur credits Neiland for her unorthodox forehand technique, which allows her to hit flat and fool her opponents with direction.
"I played flat but Larisa gave me this technique," Snigur said. "I think it's very good because many players cannot understand how I play. It's not an ordinary shot."
Her father wanted her to be a professional tennis player
Snigur started playing tennis when she was seven. Unbeknownst to her at the time, her father already had aspirations for his daughter to play on the Hologic WTA Tour.
"When I started I didn't understand what my father wanted," Snigur said. "But after I had some victories in Ukrainian tournaments I thought I could play professionally, first in juniors and then the tour."
The rise of Daria Snigur 🇺🇦📈
— ITF (@ITFTennis) August 29, 2022
2019 ➡️ Girls’ singles champion at @Wimbledon
2021 ➡️ W100+H Dubai champion. Biggest of six ITF World Tennis Tour titles 💯
2022 ➡️ Earns her first Grand Slam win, edging past No. 7 Simona Halep at the #USOpen pic.twitter.com/LuowJpouD4
Snigur counts her flat game and adaptability as her biggest strengths.
"I can play fast, I can play slow, I can play near slow, and near fast," she said. "I can change. I can play against a player who pushes the ball, and players who don't push the ball."
The war has upended her career
When Snigur is asked what her goals for the season were, she makes a distinction between the hopes for her burgeoning career before Russia's invasion of Ukraine and after.
"Before the war, I had plans to play main draw of the Slams, stay in the Top 100," Snigur said. "But since the war, the plans changed because I had a base in Kyiv. I lived in Kyiv before the war.
"After the war, I tried to just stay in my position, 120, and play maybe qualies at the Grand Slams and win one or two games."
Snigur's training base in Kyiv was destroyed when the war began, displacing the 20-year-old and her family to Poland.
"It's very difficult now because I don't have a base," Snigur said. "I live in Warsaw and my coach lives in the U.S. But I don't want to live in the USA because Poland is next to Ukraine. Europe is better for me.
"But who knows. If I need Larisa I will go to U.S. to practice with her. But if she comes to Europe I will practice with her all the time."
She dedicated her victory to the Ukrainian people
Before the tournament, Snigur took part in the Tennis Plays for Peace exhibition event at the US Open. Along with fellow Ukrainians Dayana Yastremska and Katerina Zavatska, the event saw Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Rafael Nadal and others join together to raise $1.2 million for Ukrainian relief.
After finally converting on her third match point to close out Halep, Snigur wept as she saluted the crowd, making a heart around her Ukrainian ribbon.
"Everyone is different after the war," Snigur said. "I sit here and it's very good because I won this match. I tried to play for Ukraine, for Ukrainian people, I want to live in this country when the war is finished."
Last week - qualifying & Tennis Plays for Peace 🇺🇦
— Eurosport (@eurosport) August 30, 2022
This week - Beating former world no1 Halep 💪
Is it any wonder that Daria Snigur can’t quite believe what she’s achieved?! #USOpen pic.twitter.com/nYE4wyPC3F | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2769151/getting-to-know-daria-snigur-halep-s-us-open-conqueror | 2022-08-30T20:58:25Z | wtatennis.com | control | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2769151/getting-to-know-daria-snigur-halep-s-us-open-conqueror | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The top half of the 2022 US Open draw kicked off their campaigns on Day 2 of the tournament, and World No.1 Iga Swiatek was among the Top 10 players in action. Here's how they fared:
[1] Iga Swiatek (POL) d. Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 6-3, 6-0
Swiatek has played down expectations ahead of the fourth major of the year. Since her 37-match winning streak, the longest of this century, was ended by Alizé Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon, the Pole won just four out of seven matches before the US Open. In the run-up, she was open about her dislike of the balls used at Flushing Meadows.
But this emphatic 67-minute win was a reminder that, even out of her comfort zone, the 21-year-old can still be a destructive force. Swiatek smacked 14 winners to Paolini's five, and was ruthless in converting seven of nine break points.
The No.56-ranked Italian battled hard, breaking back twice in the first set and then winning the point of the match in the second with a backhand winner after going to to toe with Swiatek for 27 shots. But it wasn't enough to halt Swiatek's momentum as the World No.1 powered to her 18th bagel set of the year.
"I think just we did huge work before the tournament to work properly, but on the other hand also chill out and find a proper balance," Swiatek said, after her win.
Swiatek will next face 2017 champion Sloane Stephens, who overcame Greet Minnen 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. Swiatek and Stephens squared off for the first time this month in Cincinnati, where Swiatek won 6-4, 7-5.
[9] Garbiñe Muguruza (ESP) def. Clara Tauson (DEN) 6-3, 7-6(5)
Muguruza has won two Grand Slam titles, but the US Open has been the major where she has had the least success. The 2016 Roland Garros and 2017 Wimbledon champion was only 10-9 at Flushing Meadows coming into her first-round battle against up-and-coming teen Tauson.
But Muguruza was able to prevail over the 19-year-old Dane in a hair over two hours, which could help to turn around a below-par 2022 for the former World No.1. Even with Tuesday’s win, Muguruza is still just 10-14 for the season.
"I'm pleased with this match," Muguruza said afterward. "Obviously I'm not taking any win for granted, especially this year. It's been a year where I haven't had many wins. So very happy to get this first round here in US Open. I've had some early exits here, so it was very important for me to go through this first challenge."
Behind heavy shots, Muguruza swept to a set-and-a-break lead at 3-2 in the second set. But Tauson, who won two WTA singles titles during her breakthrough 2021 before her 2022 has been marred by back injuries, used big serves and deft passes to fight back, eventually holding three set points at 5-4 0-40.
However, Muguruza refused to yield, fending off each of those chances to hold on and keep the second set going. A similar scenario occurred in the tiebreak, where Muguruza found sturdy serves and drew errors from her younger opponent to come back from 1-4 down, grabbing the topsy-turvy set for the win.
An even younger foe awaits Muguruza in the second round: 17-year-old qualifier Linda Fruhvirtova, who beat Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-4.
[8] Jessica Pegula (USA) d. [Q] Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2
American No.1 Pegula's relentless consistency has been the key to establishing herself in the Top 10 this year. She has not lost her opener at any tournament since Indian Wells in March, and enters the US Open fresh off a semifinal run in Toronto and a quarterfinal in Cincinnati.
Pegula delivered another rock-solid performance against the finesse of former World No.35 Golubic. She conceded just four points behind her first serve, and lost her serve only once. Pegula was also effective at taking the net away from her opponent, winning eight out of 11 points in the forecourt.
"Always a little nerves, I feel like, going out there for your first match," Pegula said. "I thought I did a pretty good job of handling it, got through rather quickly, which I feel could have been a very, very tricky opponent, especially somebody who qualified and has a lot of confidence on the courts."
Next up for Pegula will be Aliaksandra Sasnovich, fresh off a run to the Cleveland final last week. Sasnovich defeated qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-2, 6-4.
[6] Aryna Sabalenka d. [Q] Catherine Harrison (USA) 6-1, 6-3
Last year's semifinalist Sabalenka has endured a somewhat torrid 2022, with her trademark power hindered at times by large batches of double faults. The latter had a lesser presence as she raced past No.243-ranked Harrison, though -- Sabalenka committed only four en route to a 1-hour, 28-minute victory.
Sabalenka's control over her heavy hitting was also impressive as she posted 28 winners to 13 unforced errors. UCLA alumna Harrison is having a career-best year after qualifying for her first two Grand Slam main draws here and at Wimbledon, but despite scoring a break back in each set, was unable to halt Sabalenka's momentum.
Sabalenka now has a tough second-round match lined up against upset artist Kaia Kanepi, who just missed the seedings this fortnight. Kanepi has beaten Sabalenka both times they have met, including at this year's Australian Open.
More to come... | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2769211/us-open-day-2-photos-swiatek-leads-top-10-squad-into-second-round | 2022-08-30T20:58:31Z | wtatennis.com | control | https://www.wtatennis.com/news/2769211/us-open-day-2-photos-swiatek-leads-top-10-squad-into-second-round | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
'Fund the police': Biden outlines crime plan, pushes assault weapons ban
President Joe Biden talked up his crime prevention plans during a visit to Pennsylvania, where Democrats and Republicans are looking for ways to gain leverage on the issue ahead of November's midterm elections.
"Fund the police," he said in front of a crowd at Wilkes-Barre.
Biden says part of his plan is to recruit, hire and train 150,000 additional officers, saying it's the best way to fight crime.
The president also touched upon the broken trust between the public and law enforcement, hoping to fix that.
Part of his plan also includes banning assault weapons, saying he is "determined" to see it through.
It was Biden’s first of three trips in the coming week, underscoring the state’s role as a key political battleground, and it comes days before former President Donald Trump hosts his own rally there on Saturday.
The White House said Biden will use his Tuesday visit to call out Republicans for opposing his proposal to restore a ban on assault-style weapons.
Both parties worked together in a rare effort to pass bipartisan gun safety legislation earlier this year after massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, but Biden has repeatedly said more needs to be done.
As a U.S. senator, Biden played a leading role in temporarily banning assault-style weapons, including firearms similar to the AR-15 that have exploded in popularity in recent years, and he wants to put the law back into place.
"A majority of Americans support this ... the NRA opposes it," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. "So we're going to hear from the president about the importance of making sure we protect our communities."
RELATED: Gun laws across the U.S.
Biden's speech at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre comes as Democrats try to blunt Republican efforts to use concern about crime to their advantage in the midterms.
It's a particularly fraught issue in Pennsylvania, a key swing state where a U.S. Senate seat and the governor's office are up for grabs.
The Republican candidate for governor, Doug Mastriano, accuses Democrat Josh Shapiro of being soft on crime as the state’s twice-elected attorney general, saying at one recent event that crime has gone up on his opponent's watch and that Shapiro "stands aside" as homicides rise across Pennsylvania.
Homicides have been increasing in Pennsylvania, but overall crime seems to have fallen over the last year, according to state statistics.
As attorney general since 2017, Shapiro has toured the state discussing the need to crack down on gun trafficking and ghost guns, and to recruit more police officers. Last December, he said that state agents and Philadelphia police officers working together had reduced the number of shootings in areas that were confronting gun violence related to drug trafficking.
Shapiro plans to attend Tuesday's event with Biden.
The Republican U.S. Senate nominee, heart surgeon turned television celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz, has tried to portray the Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, as extreme and reckless on crime policy.
Fetterman has endorsed recommendations that more geriatric and rehabilitated prisoners can be released from state prisons without harming public safety. Oz and Republicans have distorted that into the claim that Fetterman wants to release "dangerous criminals" from prisons or that he’s in favor of "emptying prisons."
Fetterman does not plan to be in Wilkes-Barre with Biden, but he's expected to march in Pittsburgh's Labor Day parade when the president visits Monday. Biden also will be in Pennsylvania on Thursday for a prime-time speech that the White House said will address "the continued battle for the soul of the nation" and defending democracy.
RELATED: Most in US want stricter gun laws, AP-NORC poll finds
It's unclear whether crime will end up as a pivotal issue in November.
Only 11% of U.S. adults named crime or violence as one of the top five issues they consider most important for the government to work on in the next year, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in June. That's unchanged since December, and it's well below the percentage naming many of the other top issues for Americans.
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks to members of the press prior to a Marine One departure from the White House to Maryland on Aug. 26, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Biden has tried to balance his approach to crime by acknowledging voters' fears and praising law enforcement, but also urging more accountability for officers.
He's rejected the activist slogan "defund the police," which Republicans have used as a cudgel against Democrats in general, by calling for more money for cops.
Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden will speak in Wilkes-Barre about the "simple basic notion that when it comes to public safety in this nation, the answer isn’t to defund the police, but to fund the police."
Biden also plans to talk about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the role that law enforcement played in defending Congress. He previously focused on that issue in a virtual address to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives on July 25.
"The police were heroes that day," he said. "Donald Trump lacked the courage to act. The brave women and men in blue all across this nation should never forget that. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop."
Biden's trip to Wilkes-Barre was originally scheduled for July 21 but was cancelled when the president contracted COVID-19 and went into isolation while he was contagious.
Biden has laid out a $37 billion plan for addressing crime and boosting law enforcement resources. He wants Congress to spend $13 billion to help communities hire and train 100,000 police officers over five years. Another $3 billion would go to clearing court backlogs and resolving cases involving murders and guns, and $5 billion more would go to support programs that could help stop violence before it occurs.
In addition, Biden is looking for $15 billion to provide grants to initiatives for preventing violent crime or creating public health responses to nonviolent incidents.
___
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pa. Associated Press writer Emily Swanson contributed to this report. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/biden-pennsylvania-crime-gun-laws-august-30-2022 | 2022-08-30T21:01:21Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/biden-pennsylvania-crime-gun-laws-august-30-2022 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Day after scathing report, Chicago's top cop announces changes aimed at giving police officers more time off
CHICAGO - Chicago’s top cop on Tuesday announced changes aimed at cutting back on the controversial practice of canceling days off, a day after the city’s watchdog issued a scathing report showing the police department scheduled nearly 12,000 officers to work at least 11 straight days earlier this year.
Long decried by overworked officers, the department’s reliance on cutting time off faced intense scrutiny after three officer suicides rocked the force in July. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown had downplayed the scope and impact of the practice but have since taken more sympathetic stances.
"While our officers work to safeguard this city, we must also put safeguards in place to protect our officers," Brown said in a statement announcing the changes. "The health and well-being of our officers is a top priority, and we have taken steps to ensure they have time to rest and re-energize."
Under the new directive, effective immediately, most officers can’t have more than one off day canceled each week, Brown said. But they can still have two off days canceled during certain periods, including the historically violent Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day holidays.
Those officers will also be guaranteed two consecutive days off in each of the department’s 13 "police periods" spread throughout the year, the superintendent said.
These provisions don’t apply to certain officers, including those on tactical teams and other specialized units. All officers will, however, be given a minimum of nine hours between shifts, Brown said.
"The physical and emotional well-being of our officers remains the top priority of our department," he said.
SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 32 CHICAGO ON YOUTUBE
The new policy comes a day after newly appointed Inspector General Deborah Witzburg released an analysis showing at least 1,190 Chicago police officers were scheduled to work at least 11 straight days during April and May.
The analysis was painstakingly conducted by manually reviewing attendance, assignment and overtime records. Witzburg said CPD record-keeping is so inadequate, it was impossible to gauge the precise number.
She urged the Chicago Police Department to decide "how much is too much when it comes to consecutive days and lack of rest," and said there "needs to be a reckoning about how we store this information so that the department is well-positioned to make thoughtful, well-informed management decisions about how it staffs the police department."
On Tuesday, Witzburg refused to say whether Brown’s new policy was "good enough" to give officers who have endured a relentless string of canceled days off— in a department with nearly 2,000 police vacancies — the time off they need to unwind, decompress and spend time with their families.
She would only say she was "heartened to see the department tending to this … really critical issue" after 10 police suicides since 2018, three of them in July alone.
"I take the superintendent’s statement to be an acknowledgment of the seriousness of the problem and how important it is to find the right solution," Witzburg said. "Every time we lose a CPD member to suicide, we ought to understand that to be a further call to action to attend to the safety and the well-being of CPD’s members."
In a letter attached to Witzburg’s analysis, Brown had argued that certain "circumstances" were missing from the IG’s report. He noted that, over Memorial Day weekend, Chicago was "fully open for the first time" since the pandemic and "more than 40 special events" and "hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors" needed to be protected.
The superintendent also pointed out that the 1,190 officers identified as having been scheduled to work at least 11 consecutive days represented just "10 percent" of the total number of sworn officers.
Witzburg noted that the policy Brown announced Tuesday has many exceptions.
But she added, "The superintendent in his response to our report talked about the need to balance public safety priorities and officer wellness. It sounds to me as though this approach is an attempt to balance those interests. Whether this is the right balance is not a determination for us to make. That’s a determination for the city and department leadership to make."
Alderpersons Matt O’Shea (19th) and Anthony Napolitano (41st), whose Far Southwest and Northwest wards are home to scores of Chicago police officers, could not be reached for comment on the new policy. Both have introduced their own ordinances aimed at giving officers the time off they need.
Two months ago, the mayor denied that Chicago police officers were being driven to the breaking point with a relentless string of canceled days off.
Lightfoot argued then that the amount of "respite baked into" the police contract — and the advance notice officers "never used to get" before days off were canceled — made Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara’s "narrative" about cops being worked "like mules" false.
The mayor’s argument has been ridiculed by scores of police officers on social media. Catanzara joined the chorus against his political nemesis in a YouTube video message to the rank and file.
Just last week, Lightfoot’s new deputy mayor for public safety, Elena Gottreich, told City Council members that the mayor’s office was trying to "do better than the one day a week" of rest time demanded by O’Shea’s ordinance. But she said a long-term solution would have to wait until an independent arbitrator rules on the police union’s proposal for guaranteed time off.
"It’s not as simple as the superintendent being able to, with a stroke of a pen, grant that day off because, like it or not, the union put forth a proposal. You proposed your ordinance. And there were other ordinances, too. They’re very good. But once the union has its own proposal, that has to be arbitrated," Gottreich told O’Shea.
"At this point, it goes into [the category of unfair] labor practices for the superintendent to interfere with that before the collective bargaining is over," she said. "Do we want people to have one day off a week? Absolutely. I don’t think the superintendent would disagree with that … But the collective bargaining process has to happen." | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/day-after-scathing-report-chicagos-top-cop-announces-changes-aimed-at-giving-police-officers-more-time-off | 2022-08-30T21:01:27Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/day-after-scathing-report-chicagos-top-cop-announces-changes-aimed-at-giving-police-officers-more-time-off | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
EMT charged for what he allegedly did in back of ambulance with 'semi-conscious' woman
PHILADELPHIA - Pennsylvania police announced on Monday that an EMT is facing charges after allegedly exposing a "semi-conscious" woman under his care in the back of an ambulance and snapping photos of her breasts.
Kevin Hakeem Pressley, 24, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was taken into custody on Saturday and is charged with indecent assault, invasion of privacy and related charges.
The Brookhaven Borough Police Department said it initiated an investigation Friday into an alleged assault that occurred the day prior.
SUBSCRIBE TO FOX 32 CHICAGO ON YOUTUBE
The victim reported that she was being treated at a medical facility in Brookhaven when she became "semi-conscious."
An ambulance arrived, and during transport, Pressley — while caring for the victim in the back of the ambulance — reportedly exposed the woman’s breasts and took photos of her while she was in a "semi-conscious state."
Kevin Hakeem Pressley, a 24-year-old EMT working in the Philadelphia area, is being held on $100,000 bail after allegedly snapping pics of a semi-conscious woman's breasts in the back of an ambulance. (Brookhaven Borough Police Department)
Pressley was employed as an EMT by the Brookhavan Fire Company Ambulance at the time of the alleged incident. He has since been arraigned, and his bail is set at $100,000 cash.
Pressley was remanded to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility.
Investigators received information that he previously worked for other medical providers, and Brookhaven police are now asking any other potential victims to contact their department with the information. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/emt-charged-for-what-he-allegedly-did-in-back-of-ambulance-with-semi-conscious-woman | 2022-08-30T21:01:34Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/emt-charged-for-what-he-allegedly-did-in-back-of-ambulance-with-semi-conscious-woman | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Lunchables wants to pay you $2,000 to let your kids play with their food
Normally, kids are encouraged by their parents not to play with their food but a new contest from Kraft Heinz is giving them the chance to get creative with the goodies on their plate.
Last week, the company announced the launch of "Lunchabuild This," a creative contest where kids can build something unique using food.
There are over 25 different Lunchabuilds including a helicopter and dinosaur and these designs along with instructions to build them are available at Lunchables.com.
RELATED: Lunchables mixing it up with new 'Brunchables' breakfast line
Participants can post their Lunchabuild creation on Instagram and a brief message explaining what inspired them to build their design and how they would spend the $2,000 for a unique experience.
The new Lunchabuild This contest lets participants create unique designs using food with a chance to win $2,000. (Photo courtesy of Kraft Heinz)
The contest started on Aug. 23 and runs through 11:59 p.m. ET on Sept. 4. Twenty-five prize winners will be randomly selected on Sept. 7.
Winners will receive a $2,000 check to go towards an educational experience of their choice that’s inspired by their Lunchables build.
"Lunchables is committed to fueling kids’ creativity and inspiring them to explore the limits of their imaginations," Samantha Mills, associate director of Brand Communications, said in a statement. "Through the new Lunchables.com Order This Build eCommerce experience and the Lunchabuild This sweepstakes, we aim to jumpstart imaginations, discover inspiration at lunchtime and help turn dreams into reality for our fans."
This story was reported from Washington, D.C. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/lunchables-contest-kids-play-with-food | 2022-08-30T21:01:40Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/lunchables-contest-kids-play-with-food | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Wingstop giving away free chicken sandwiches; here’s how to get one
Wingstop wants to help you leave your relationship...with your current go-to chicken sandwich.
The popular wing restaurant announced the addition of its new chicken sandwich to the Wingstop menu on Tuesday. The sandwich will have 12 different flavor offerings which include Lemon Pepper punch, OG Hot kick, Mango Habanero heat, Hickory Smoked BBQ and many more.
Wingstop will offer 100,000 of their new chicken sandwiches for free to fans "who split from their current chicken sandwich and commit to finding a new favorite," according to a company news release.
To get a free sandwich, visit www.chickensandwichsplit.com and click the giant "Breakup" button in the center of the screen. You will then be prompted to type in your name, ZIP code and phone number.
A code will be sent via text to the number provided and a prewritten breakup letter will appear. There will be a drop-down menu option in the spot where you will insert your current favorite chicken sandwich.
Wingstop will send a redemption code that will allow one free chicken sandwich at any of its restaurants. The offer is first come first serve and "breakups" will only be accepted until Sept. 5, according to the website.
"The nationwide launch of the Wingstop Chicken Sandwich is an opportunity to bring new guests to the brand by proving our position as The Flavor Experts, and reward our existing fanbase by putting menu innovation on center stage," said Stacy Peterson, Wingstop's Chief Revenue and Technology Officer. "The Wingstop Chicken Sandwich doesn't just come in one flavor – fans can choose from our 12 bold, signature flavors. We're so confident in the product that we're incentivizing fans to split from their current chicken contender and find a new favorite chicken sandwich at Wingstop."
The sandwich alone with dipping sauce will cost $5.49 and a combo order which includes the sandwich and dip alongside hand-cut fries and a drink will cost $7.99.
RELATED: Starbucks pulls new chicken sandwich from menu due to ‘quality standard’ concerns
Wingstop’s newest sandwich will join the list of other huge fast-food franchises that made similar announcements in 2021 to compete with the wildly popular Popeyes’ chicken sandwich which debuted in 2019.
This story was reported from Los Angeles. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/wingstop-giving-away-free-chicken-sandwiches-heres-how-to-get-one | 2022-08-30T21:01:58Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/wingstop-giving-away-free-chicken-sandwiches-heres-how-to-get-one | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
CNS calls for enhanced inter-agency collaboration among stakeholders in nation’s territorial waters
The Chief of Navy Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, has stated that there must be an enhanced inter-agency collaboration among all stakeholders in the nation’s territorial waters for proper management of the maritime domain and to strengthen governance at the local level.
Speaking at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Plateau State during the ongoing Security Study Week for participants of the Senior Executive Course, SEC 44, the CNS also sought the official launch of the National Maritime Strategy by the federal government saying such would strengthen relevant agencies to do more.
He lamented the existing gaps in maritime domain awareness capacity, difficult operating environment, weak legislative and legal regimes as well as limitations in the fleet support capability among others as factors challenging the effective management of the nation’s maritime domain.
The Chief of Naval Staff who spoke on the topic: “Management of Nigeria’s Maritime Domain: Implication for strengthening local government in Nigeria,” Gambo, represented by Rear Admiral Saidu Suleiman stressed that local government has remained a veritable tool for rural development in Nigeria and the role of the Nigerian Navy also influences government activities in that level.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
His words, “There are issues and challenges associated with the management of Nigeria’s maritime domain. The existing gaps in maritime domain awareness capacity, difficult operating environment, weak legislative and legal regimes, limitations in the fleet support capability.
“Inadequate special operations capability inactivated MoUs on maritime collaboration, non- operationalisation of the National Maritime Strategy.
“The NN does not have any standard base in the entire Niger Delta where many of the challenges of local governance are prevalent. Thus, NN operates from bases that are inadequately equipped and located far inland away from the creeks.
“While the Nigerian Navy and Maritime Law Enforcement Agencies (MLEAs) have made a commendable effort in the arrest and prosecution of maritime offenders, loopholes in the nation’s judicial processes have often been exploited by these criminals.
“Collaboration between the NIWA and the NN Hydrography Department facilitated by the Sea-Link Project has culminated in the ongoing survey of the lower River Niger which connects several local communities from Lokoja down to the Atlantic Ocean. On completion, the project has the potential of transforming transportation, economic activities as well as local governance in affected communities.”
EDITORIAL: NPF-PSC’s Endless Clashes
CNS calls for enhanced inter-agency collaboration among stakeholders in nation’s territorial waters | https://tribuneonlineng.com/cns-calls-for-enhanced-inter-agency-collaboration-among-stakeholders-in-nations-territorial-waters/ | 2022-08-30T21:07:51Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/cns-calls-for-enhanced-inter-agency-collaboration-among-stakeholders-in-nations-territorial-waters/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has promised to consider forming a government of national unity if elected in next year.
He said this will douse the temperature, unite Nigerians and pave the way for improved security.
In a statement issued in Kano on Tuesday, he also explained that such government will Improved security allows for investments and, therefore, an improved economy.
He said: “Also is the consideration of a government of national unity that will douse the temperature, unite Nigerians and pave the way for improved security. Improved security allows for investments and, therefore, an improved economy.
“Also targeted tax rebates to attract foreign and local investments, amongst other proactive measures to attract investments to grow the economy.”
The former vice president of Nigeria kicked against the penchant of the present administration to borrow money saying: “We need to bake a bigger cake and not bigger debts.”
While recalling that last week, the National Bureau of Statistics released the GDP figures for Q2 2022, he said the government has been unreasonably upbeat about the reported growth rate of 3.4%.
The presidential candidate stated: “The plain truth is that the economy is in deeper trouble than the APC-led government is willing to admit.
“The citizens’ level of misery hasn’t changed, and the reasons are obvious: first, the key sectors of the economy, notably agriculture, oil and gas (the country’s cash cow) and manufacturing (that contributes to jobs), are either growing slowly or declining.
“Second, unabated are rising commodity prices occasioned by high energy and transportation costs (and aggravated by the disorderliness in the forex market).
“Also, debt levels continue to rise while the fiscal capacity to service its debts is declining. All these are enough to erase the perceived gains from output growth.
“Having run out of ideas, it appears that our unprecedented level of indebtedness is whetting the government’s appetite for more debt. This is a recipe for macroeconomic instability.
“We challenge the National Bureau of Statistics to share with the public their recent statistics on poverty, unemployment and commodity prices — the reality of which will leave no hope for the common man.
“Like I have said before, increasing debts will never be a solution to our indebtedness. My government, if elected, will halt the rate of debt accumulation and instead focus on private-public partnerships in financing development.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE | https://tribuneonlineng.com/ill-consider-government-of-national-unity-if-elected-%E2%80%95-atiku/ | 2022-08-30T21:08:11Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/ill-consider-government-of-national-unity-if-elected-%E2%80%95-atiku/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Mimiko urges Kumuyi to intensify prayer for good leader, improved security, successful transition
Former Governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on Tuesday, appealed to the General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor Williams Kumuyi, to pray for Nigeria for improved security and successful transition in 2023.
Mimiko who made this appeal during the ongoing Global Crusade with the theme Triumphant Power in Ondo town specifically called on Kumuyi and other men of God to help pray for the nation for the emergence of a righteous leader in 2023.
The former governor said that Nigeria as a nation needs prayers for God to positively turn things around for the overall good and development of the country, noting that the myriads of problems confronting the nation require prayers to be surmounted.
Mimiko said the nation is heavily engrossed in iniquity and would have gone into extinction but for the prayers of true men of God like Pastor Kumuyi.
He expressed optimism and hope that God will, through the intercession of religious leaders, grant the nation much-needed peace and unity, urging clergymen not to relent in praying for the success of the next year’s election.
“Nigeria had on several occasions got to the precipice of collapse but always get delivered at that brink, which of course is a function of your prayers and true men of God like you,” Mimiko said.
He compared Nigeria’s situation to that of Sodom and Gomorrah where sin and crime overwhelmed the nation.
According to him, Nigeria is again at the crossroad with the 2023 elections and pleaded for earnest supplications from the man of God for Nigeria to make headway.
He called on other religious leaders in different denominations in the country to also organise special prayer sessions for God to intervene in the affairs of the nation.
Mimiko described Pastor Kumuyi as God’s General of Generals and a great blessing to this generation and mankind, urging him not to relent in praying for Nigeria, saying the prayers have gone a long way in keeping the country united.
He commended Kumuyi for his selflessness and sacrifice for the Nigerian nation, particularly for the Global Crusade which has been brought to Ondo State.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE | https://tribuneonlineng.com/mimiko-urges-kumuyi-to-intensify-prayer-for-good-leader-improved-security-successful-transition/ | 2022-08-30T21:08:18Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/mimiko-urges-kumuyi-to-intensify-prayer-for-good-leader-improved-security-successful-transition/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The All Progressives Congress National Working Committee (APC NWC) has denied speculation of a frosty relationship between its presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the party national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu over the composition of the campaign council.
The party clarification is on the heels of a media report that the ruling party has been unable to unveil the full list of members of the Presidential Campaign Council as a result of a power tussle between the duo.
Tribune Online checks revealed that the Tinubu team recently announced Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong and Minister of State, Labour and Employment Festus Keyamo as Director General and spokesman of the Presidential Campaign Council.
A party source however revealed that the APC NWC was taken into confidence before the formal announcement.
Speaking with newsmen on Tuesday, the APC Deputy National Organising Secretary, Honourable Nze Chidi Duru dismissed the insinuation that both Tinubu and the APC National Chairman, Senator Adamu have been working at cross purposes.
Honourable Duru who confirmed that the announcement of Governor Lalong and Honourable Keyamo enjoyed the buy-in of the party national secretariat further maintained that both the Tinubu team and the party national secretariat are working together and would unveil the full list of members of the campaign council before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the flag off for campaigns.
He said: “There is no power tussle over positions. None of such has happened and the party and the candidate are working together. But it is important to say that we agreed on DG and spokesman.
“The governors will control the structures at the zones. The party can’t be excluded and it won’t even exclude anybody. We will have an embracing and all-inclusive campaign council. There is no discord anywhere. More importantly, the party chairman agreed on the issue of DG and spokesman.
“Before the INEC flag on September 28, all other positions will be unveiled. The chairman is leading the conversation.”
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE | https://tribuneonlineng.com/no-cold-war-between-tinubu-adamu-over-composition-of-presidential-campaign-council-%E2%80%95-apc-nwc/ | 2022-08-30T21:08:24Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/no-cold-war-between-tinubu-adamu-over-composition-of-presidential-campaign-council-%E2%80%95-apc-nwc/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The importance of sexual satisfaction in a healthy and happy relationship cannot be over-emphasized. Countless relationships and marriages have ended simply due to the inability of a man to sexually satisfy his partner because of premature ejaculation.
Stress, anxiety, depression, lack of confidence, ill-health and so on can result in premature ejaculation.
While premature ejaculation is frequently addressed with medication, there are natural alternative ways to improve your sexual function without resorting to medical treatment.
In this article, we will take a look at some of the natural ways you can get rid of premature ejaculation, last longer in bed and satisfy your partner’s sexual desire.
1. Engage in foreplay
One of the natural ways to last longer in bed is to prepare your body for sex through foreplay. Pre-penetration foreplay can help increase your partner’s enjoyment while delaying your own gratification. Some of the ideal foreplay examples include massaging, cuddling, petting, kissing, and engaging in oral sex.
2. Eat naturally sex-enhancing foods.
Eating certain kinds of foods can help to increase your sexual performance and make you last longer in bed. Natural foods like bananas, watermelon, spinach, avocado, red grapes, nuts are considered aphrodisiacs in nature, which make them enhance sexual performance.
3. Exercise
Keeping a healthy weight and exercising frequently can enhance your sexual performance. You could improve your cardiovascular fitness and increase your stamina in the bedroom. Engage yourself in some exercises that help work on your pelvic muscles, which include yoga, kegels, and pilates.
4. Change positions during sex
Having sex in a particular position during sex can increase your chances of premature ejaculation. To last longer in bed, learn how to switch things up a little bit and try different sex positions. If you start feeling close to ejaculation, stop and switch to another sex position.
5. Cut down on smoking
If you are a chronic smoker, this may be the time to say goodbye to it if you are intentional about improving your sexual performance. Smoking can reduce blood flow to the penis, increase your risk of premature ejaculation, and reduce the quantity and viability of your sperm.
6. Cut down on alcohol intake
Too much of alcohol does not encourage sexual longevity as it is widely presumed, rather, it can cause premature ejaculation and other performance problems. Being drunk makes you exhausted and reduces your chances of lasting in bed. It can also kill the sex drive and longevity in the long run.
7. Stop and start method
This is done by stimulating your penis until you feel like having an orgasm. Then you stop the arousal for about 30 seconds, or until the sensation goes away. Restart the stimulation and repeat three or four times more before ejaculating.
This method will assist you in discovering your limitations and the maximum amount you are capable of pushing yourself. Knowing your limitations will help you maintain self-control before you reach a point where you can’t stop but ejaculate.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE | https://tribuneonlineng.com/seven-natural-ways-to-last-longer-in-bed/ | 2022-08-30T21:08:38Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/seven-natural-ways-to-last-longer-in-bed/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
You will be amazed that there are about 48 African countries you can travel to without a visa or even with an e-visa or visa on arrival as a Nigerian.
Do you know that Senegal is a visa free country for Nigerians? Yes, you read that right. You don’t need a visa to travel to Senegal. All you need is your passport.
Senegal is a country located in the western region of Africa whose capital is Darkar. It is popularly known as the ‘Gateway to Africa’. Senegal is a country with an average population of 17.14 million as of 2022.
The people of Senegal are usually referred to as Senegalese. There are about seven main ethnic groups—Wolof, Tukulor, Serer, Malinke, Diola and Soninke. The country is majorly dominated by the Wolof ethnic group. They make up about half of the population.
This African country speaks 39 languages, with French as its main official language. Wolof is the most popular and widely spoken language in Senegal. Only a few Senegalese speak French. If you have plans to visit or relocate to Senegal, you must be able to speak French or Wolof fluently. This will save you from communication problems, especially if you will be staying there for a long time.
Senegal has mostly Muslims. This religion is practiced through the involvement of groups which is usually referred to as brotherhood. The Qadiri, the Tijani, and the Mourides are the three brotherhoods in Senegal. Christianity is also practiced but by a small population.
Senegal is a member of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States). As a result of this membership, 14 other member states are permitted to visit without a visa. This means all you need to travel to Senegal is your passport. You must also ensure that your passport is valid for at least six months before entering the country. All European Union countries can also visit without a visa, but there is a time duration for them. They can only visit for just 90 days.
However, visitors who wish to stay beyond 90 days are expected to apply to the immigration department in Senegal for an extension.
For foreigners who want to relocate to Senegal, you need to get a resident card to live as an expatriate for more than three months (90 days). This card must be renewed every year. This is what entitles you to an identity card, which is only valid for five years.
1. Economy
Senegal’s economy is more dependent on mining, construction, tourism, fishery and agriculture. These are the main sources of employment in the rural areas if you intend to stay in the rural part of Senegal. These also serve as bases for their export industry.
2. Attractions
Senegal is known to be one of the most visited countries in West Africa. There are a lot of attractions and tourist centers. It provides many amazing sights for tourists and visitors. According to crazytourist.com, the following are the top attractions in Senegal.
Dakar
Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal. It is in a strategic location in the east and coastal area of Senegal. This country has many museums that display African art and other beautiful buildings for sightseeing.
Senegal River
This is one of the special and attractive rivers in Senegal, which stretches far into West Africa. It forms the border between Senegal and Mauritania. It has great views, contains aquatic and marine life, and also has an amazing history. It has been a huge help to regions like the Sahel in times of drought and poverty.
Saint Louis
Saint Louis is known for its various attractions, and this brings a lot of tourists. It is also referred to as Ndar.
It is located in the northwest area of Senegal, almost at the edge of the Senegal River. The natural sites in Saint-Louis include:
- Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary
- National Park of the Langue de Barbarie
- Fauna Reserve of Guembeul
This town has a lot of economic industries, like a commercial centre, a centre for tourism, fishing and sugar production.
Ziguinchor
This is the capital of the Ziguinchor region, which is a chief town in Senegal which lies along the Casamance River.
It has a popular market known as Marche Saint Maur des Fosses and an artisan center that attracts a lot of visitors. It also has amazing and spacious hotels.
Touba
This is the second largest urban city in Senegal after Dakar. One of the greatest mosques in Senegal is located in this city.
It is regarded as the most holy city dominated by Muslim practices in Senegal. It is the land of pilgrimage for the Mourides. This annual pilgrimage is referred to as the Grand Magal.
It also has the largest market, referred to as the Okass market.
Tombacounda
This city is also one of the largest in eastern Senegal. It is the centre for agricultural processing.
In this city lies the world’s most popular park, known as the Niokolo-Kaba National Park.
Mboro
Mboro is a half hour located on the northern coast of Senegal. It has a small cathedral and three large mosques that decorate the corners of the town.
Job Availability
The country’s economy is dependent on food processing, mining, cement, artificial fertilizer, chemicals, textiles, refining imported petroleum, and tourism. Jobs are open to foreigners.
You can also get English teaching jobs, especially if you are a native English speaker. There is a high demand for native English-speaking teachers abroad. Other job opportunities are also available in different fields depending on your career. According to visahunter.com, there are sites you can visit to submit your CV or applications for job opportunities as a foreigner.
According to careersinafrica.com, it is advisable that you get a job before applying for a job permit. This is because getting a job will help your employer sponsor your application.
3. Minimum Wage
The average wage in Senegal is 275,000 CFA.
4. Crime Rate and Security
Senegal is considered a secure country, but a very consistent crime is pickpocketing and street crime, especially in Dakar. Terrorism can also not be ruled out in this country. There are some routes you should take with caution while living in Senegal.
5. Average Cost of Living
The cost of living in Senegal is quite higher than in Nigeria. According to numbeo.com ‘Cost of living in Senegal is, on average, 37.57% higher than in Nigeria. Rent in Senegal is, on average, 42.19% lower than in Nigeria’.
6. Feeding
Senegal is one of the African countries that is known for its delicious meals. The country has an exceptional culinary skill inspired by French and North African ancient traditions. Their meals vary from spicy meals, exotic juice, and many other amazing Senegalese meals that leave your taste buds asking for more.
Rice and fish referred to as thieboudienne, is the most popular meal eaten by most families in Senegal. Others include peanut stew, which is referred to as maffe, and chicken, also known as yassa. They also have snacks like fried spring rolls, which is also referred to as “nem,” and a refreshing juice made from hibiscus, which is called bissap.
According to numbeo.com certain groceries in Senegal cost the following:
- Milk (regular), (1 liter) 1,120.00CFA
- Loaf of Fresh White Bread (500g) 241.67CFA
- Rice (white), (1kg) 500.00CFA
- Eggs (regular) (12) 1,252.00CFA
- Local Cheese (1kg) 6,500.00CFA
- Chicken Fillets (1kg) 6,151.11CFA
- Beef Round (1kg) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) 5,150.00CFA
- Apples (1kg) 1,255.56CFA
- Banana (1kg) 785.71CFA
- Oranges (1kg) 1,050.00CFA
- Tomato (1kg) 716.67CFA
- Potato (1kg) 600.00CFA
- Onion (1kg) 511.11CFA
- Lettuce (1 head) 700.00CFA
- Water (1.5 liter bottle) 493.75CFA
- Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range) 5,250.00CFA
- Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle) 668.75CFA
- Imported Beer (0.33 liter bottle) 1,256.25CFA
- Cigarettes 20 Pack (Marlboro) 800.00CFA
7. Rent
An apartment in the city costs 394,200 CFA, outside the center, it costs 350,833 CFA. A 3 bedroom apartment in the city costs 771,428 CFA and costs 560, 714 CFA outside the center.
8. Transportation
In Senegal, transportation is not quite expensive. Local bus costs 600CFA while a taxi ride costs 1600 CFA. This is just an idea of what the transportation prices could be. Your transportation cost is based on your mode or style. It also varies by the distance of the route and the type of the transportation used.
According to numbeo.com transportation in Senegal costs the following.
- Gasoline (1 liter) 811.01CFA
- One-way Ticket (Local Transport) 250.00CFA
- Monthly Pass (Regular Price) 10,869.57CFA
- Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) 1,500.00CFA
- Taxi 1km (Normal Tariff) 1,000.00CFA
- Taxi 1hour Waiting (Normal Tariff) 6,500.00CF
9. Utilities
Basic utilities like electricity, heating, cooling, water, and garbage costs about 58,727.88CFA monthly which is equivalent to 38,000 in Nigerian naira. Their prepaid mobile tariff is 95.00 CFA per minute. They also charge almost 32,271CFA for unlimited data per month.
10. Leisure
- Fitness Club, Monthly Fee for 1 Adult 42,428.57CFA
- Tennis Court Rent (1 Hour on Weekend) 5,000.00CFA
- Cinema, International Release, 1 Seat 4,000.00CFA
11. Childcare
An average cost for a kindergarten’s education is about 105,555.56CFA monthly per child. While primary school education cost about 6million CFA which is equivalent to Nigeria’s 4million naira.
“You will need a VISA to work in Senegal unless you are a citizen of an ECOWAS nation. It is recommended to obtain employment there before applying, as your new employer can often sponsor your application. You can”
12. Travel Cost
The average travel cost from Lagos to Dakar starts from 273, 265NGN
13. Average Hotel Cost
An average hotel in Senegal ranges from 17,000XOF to 45,000XOF.
14. Currency Spent
The currency spent in Senegal is referred to as CFA Franc issued by the West African Bank.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE | https://tribuneonlineng.com/what-you-need-to-know-before-relocating-to-senegal/ | 2022-08-30T21:08:45Z | tribuneonlineng.com | control | https://tribuneonlineng.com/what-you-need-to-know-before-relocating-to-senegal/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Nvidia’s (NVDA) second-quarter earnings results for the three-month period ended July 31, 2022, show concerning revenue declines, inventory write-offs, poor cash flow generation, and a glaring incidence of potential earnings management – a controversial and unsustainable corporate practice that may artificially prop up NVDA stock price in the short term.
I’m going neutral on NVDA stock. The computing graphics chip manufacturing giant was in worse trouble than depicted in recent earnings results. Potential management shenanigans during the last quarter might have helped avoid a jittery market reaction to a potentially worse earnings outcome, but the company may not be out of the woods yet.
Nvidia’s Q2 Earnings Report: Manipulated?
Nvidia reported second-quarter revenue of $6.7 billion, down 19% sequentially but showing a respectable 3% year-over-year growth. The 3% annual growth rate still paints NVDA as a growth stock, and justifiably so. However, the company “desperately” accelerated more than a quarter of a billion dollars of sales from a later financial period into the quarter.
It appears like Nvidia’s management potentially propped up an otherwise negative-growth quarter through revenue smoothening – a strategy that artificially distributes revenue and earnings between quarters to dampen out acute declines so that stock investors do not freak out.
In a commentary accompanying second quarter results, Nvidia’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Colette Kress revealed some eye-opening details concerning the company’s potentially worse revenue decline during the second quarter.
“Data Center revenue included $287 million for orders originally scheduled for delivery primarily in the third quarter that were converted to second-quarter delivery…”
In other words, the company negotiated for earlier than scheduled delivery of orders worth more than a quarter of a billion dollars so that it could maintain a positive year-over-year growth trend for the last quarter.
Customer Incentives Abound During Desperate Times
To induce customer buy-in, the accelerated orders cited above had relaxed credit terms to sweeten the deal(s). Nvidia’s $287 million in accelerated sales came with “extended payment terms,” and this has some implications for cash flow generation.
If we take out the $287 million accelerated revenue, “typical” sales for the second quarter will drop to $6.4 billion to print a 22.6% decline quarter-over-quarter and a 1.4% sales contraction year-over-year.
Things could have been worse, and the company is struggling with a growing inventory problem.
NVDA Faces a Growing Inventory Problem
Faced with a cooled-off gaming and graphics cards market, the company is struggling to push inventory out directly to customers, and channel partners are reducing inventory levels. Nvidia has written off $1.22 billion in inventory and still carries more unsold merchandise volumes on its books. Inventory write-offs and price concessions reduced second-quarter gross margins to 43.5%, down from 65.5% a year ago.
Inventory on hand was $3.89 billion by July 31, 2022, up from $2.11 billion a year ago. Despite a significant inventory charge during the quarter, the company’s inventory represented 93 days of sales, up from 84 days a year ago. Although the Days of Sales in Inventory (DSI) metric (the average time it takes for a firm to sell its inventory) showed a slight sequential improvement from 101 days a quarter ago, the improvement could be a result of the inventory write-down during the quarter.
The company’s DSI could have been worse without a heavy inventory charge levied at the quarter end. The write-down was “based on revised expectations of future demand, primarily relating to Data Center and Gaming.”
The business is struggling to maintain sales growth momentum in a tough global macroeconomic environment. It’s extending more credit to customers and growing inventory, and obsolescence is a significant problem. More inventory charges may be expected in the coming quarters.
Weak Cash Flow Generation Capacity as NVDA Endures Stress
Although Nvidia’s aggressive revenue generation, price concessions, and extended payment terms help the company move inventory and partially save it the agony of reporting worse revenue declines, investors will notice the negative impact the tactics have on cash flow generation efficiency and balance sheet quality.
A lot more money is now tied into unpaid customer invoices. For example, accounts receivables at the end of the second quarter were $5.32 billion, up from $3.59 billion a year ago. As measured by the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a ratio that compares receivables to sales, NVDA’s latest receivables represented 72 days of sales, up from 50 days a year ago and 60 days a quarter ago.
Combined with the growing inventory problem described above, operating cash flow generation capacity has suffered, and free cash flow has taken a significant knock.
Cash flow from operations declined to $1.27 billion during the second quarter, down from $2.68 billion a year ago and $1.73 billion in Q1. Free cash flow to the firm of $824 million declined from $2.48 billion a year ago and $1.35 billion during the previous quarter.
Poor cash flow generation, if sustained at recent levels, may have a significant negative impact on shareholder returns.
Can Nvidia Keep Up Its Buybacks and Dividends?
The company returned $3.44 billion to shareholders in share repurchases and cash dividends during the past quarter and $5.54 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year, which ends in January 2023. It has $11.93 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization through December 2023. Although management plans to continue repurchasing shares this fiscal year, declining sales and a reduced free cash flow generating capacity limit Nvidia’s efforts to sustain this.
Management may not fully utilize the full repurchase authorization limit if cash flow generation remains subdued during the second half of the year.
To the extent that share repurchases prop up NVDA stock valuation, shares may fail to generate exciting shareholder returns in the near term.
Is NVDA Stock a Buy or Sell Right Now?
Wall Street is currently very bullish on Nvidia stock and assigns it a Strong Buy consensus analyst rating based on 23 Buys and seven Hold ratings from 30 analysts. The average NVDA stock price target of $215.80 per share implies more than 39.1% upside potential over the next 12 months.
Nvidia stock has declined by about 47% so far this year. If the depressed sales environment persists for much longer, the company may fail to justify its growth stock label and maintain the lofty valuation multiples on its shares, characterized by a price-to-earnings (PE) multiple of 50x. NVDA may experience more downside because of this.
That said, investors who foresee sustained explosive growth in the Data Center segment and believe the current macroeconomic headwinds in the Gaming segment will subside soon may confidently buy the dips on NVDA stock right now for sizeable recovery returns.
Conclusion: Declining Sales Can Hurt NVDA Further
Nvidia is a tech growth stock that’s faced a storm this year. Its third-quarter revenue guidance of $5.9 billion reflects an expected 17% year-over-year decline in quarterly sales. Shrinking sales may continue to strain the tech giant during the remainder of this year. Until signs of recovery in Gaming resurface, I may remain neutral on NVDA stock.
The company is extending credit terms and giving customers more time to pay outstanding invoices to induce sales during a tight and declining market. Resultantly, low free cash flow generation may negatively impact future growth capital spending plans, stock repurchases, and acquisition financing capacity – thus stalling growth efforts.
Aggressive revenue recognition tactics may not be a sustainable long-term survival and growth strategy if the business environment remains subdued, especially as the company suffers a growing inventory curse. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/investor-alert-did-nvidia-nasdaqnvda-manipulate-its-q2-results | 2022-08-30T21:11:47Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/investor-alert-did-nvidia-nasdaqnvda-manipulate-its-q2-results | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
CrowdStrike (CRWD) recently reported earnings for its second quarter of Fiscal Year 2023. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.36, which beat analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.28 per CRWD share. In the past nine quarters, the company has beaten estimates nine times.
In addition, sales increased 58% year-over-year, with revenue hitting $535.2 million compared to $337.7 million. This was higher than the $516.4 million that analysts were looking for. This can be attributed to the company’s subscription revenue, which grew by 60% and made up the bulk of total revenue.
Furthermore, gross profits increased by 59.6%, which means that the company demonstrated operating leverage since it increased more than revenue. Indeed, the gross margin expanded from 73.2% to 73.7%.
Looking ahead, CrowdStrike raised its guidance for Fiscal Year 2023. Management expects revenue in the range of $2,223 – $2,232 million and adjusted earnings per share between $1.31 – $1.33.
Investor Sentiment for CRWD Stock is Currently Negative
The sentiment among TipRanks investors is currently negative. Out of the 729,068 portfolios tracked by TipRanks, 2.8% hold CRWD stock. In addition, the average portfolio weighting allocated towards CRWD among those who do have a position is 4.7%. This suggests that investors of the company are confident about its future.
However, in the last 30 days, 0.4% of those holding the stock decreased their positions. As a result, the stock’s sentiment is below the sector average, as demonstrated in the following image:
What is the Target Price for CRWD Stock?
CrowdStrike has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 20 Buys assigned in the past three months. The average CRWD stock price target of $233.30 implies 20.7% upside potential.
Takeaway – CrowdStrike’s Business Remains Resilient Despite Macroeconomic Headwinds
CrowdStrike saw another strong quarter, as revenue increased substantially while adjusted earnings came in better than expected. Although many companies began struggling this year, CrowdStrike is not one of them. The company has demonstrated that it has a very resilient business. In addition, management expects CrowdStrike to continue performing well, as evidenced by its higher outlook for Fiscal Year 2023. | https://www.tipranks.com/news/crowdstrike-reports-q2-earnings-here-are-the-results | 2022-08-30T21:11:53Z | tipranks.com | control | https://www.tipranks.com/news/crowdstrike-reports-q2-earnings-here-are-the-results | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
There are times when I want to kick myself for not planting garlic. Grocery store garlic is not expensive but many times I have torn apart a bulb to only find most cloves dried out and absent of “garlicky goodness”. For larger bulbs, garlic should be planted now to enjoy next summer.
Garlic (Allium sativum) has been grown for thousands of years for its culinary and medicinal properties.
Garlic comes in two forms: Hardneck garlic is the hardiest form producing cloves around a woody stem that send up a curly flower stalks. This is the most cold hardy of the garlics with a milder flavor. Softneck garlic forms cloves around a soft neck or stem, which braids easily. Softneck garlic is most commonly found in supermarkets due to a longer storage life. Another favorite is Elephant garlic that produces larger cloves with a mild taste.
Garlic requires full sun (at least six hours per day). It is best started by direct seed garlic that can be purchased through garden centers, catalogs, and online websites. There are many publications that encourage planting garlic bulbs purchased at the grocery store but due to the likelihood of diseases being present on the bulb it is not encouraged by more reliable sources.
Plant garlic in early to mid-fall. Pick the largest bulbs you can find – the size of the cloves you plant will determine whether you get big or small heads when you harvest. Soil should be loose with compost worked in to support root growth. Mulch can be used to protect plants from cold damage during the winter and to prevent weeds. Spread 3-4 inches of mulch over the planting area. Large cloves that are clean, injury-free, and dry should be planted so the tops are 2 inches below the soil line. Break open the bulbs and plant the cloves flat side down and pointed-side up. Plant 4 to 6 inches apart in rows that are spaced 12-14 inches apart. Do not worry if sprouts come up prior to cold weather as they will go dormant.
Planting areas should be kept free of weeds and plant debris. Rotation of plantings on a three-year basis will reduce the probability of diseases and pests. Do not plant onions in the same area as garlic as they are susceptible to many of the same diseases and pests.
When spring growth begins, water to keep the soil slightly moist and fertilize with a high nitro-gen fertilizer applied every two weeks until bulbs start to form. Cut off any curly flowering stems (or scapes) at the top leaf to redirect energy to the bulb. If you harvest your scapes young and tender, you can chop them into salads or use them as a topping, like scallions.
Stop watering when the tops of the plants begin to fall over and dry up, about 2-4 weeks before harvest, usually late June to mid-July. Many gardeners wait to harvest until about half the leafy growth has turned brown – usually August or September.
Garlic is more susceptible to diseases such as rust, mold, and mildew than to pests.
Do not damage bulbs during harvest, as this will cause deterioration during storage. Remove any soil from the bulb and roots gently. Place the garlic with tops intact in a dry, cool, well-ventilated place to cure. Remove stems and store in mesh bags or braid and hang in bunches. After 3-4 weeks the garlic will be cured and will keep for up to 6 months if stored at lower than 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Garlic can be used raw and crushed in dressings, salsa and butters, etc. Whole bulbs or individual cloves can be roasted to serve with roast meat or can be fried to use as the base for sauces, casseroles, and soups. Another trick is to put a few pealed cloves in a jar with oil, such as olive oil, grapeseed oil, etc and place in the refrigerator. This will allow you to use the garlic flavored oils in cooking. And remember, it is always important to enjoy the “fruits of your labor” – this time in culinary delights. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/master-gardeners-it-s-time-to-plant-garlic/article_763af490-28a3-11ed-bb15-57b66ddef282.html | 2022-08-30T21:12:06Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/master-gardeners-it-s-time-to-plant-garlic/article_763af490-28a3-11ed-bb15-57b66ddef282.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Traditionally seen as the last weekend of summer, the upcoming Labor Day weekend is expected to feature warm and dry weather, traffic congestion on highways and crowds at campgrounds across the state.
The state’s Department of Transportation and other agencies expect the number of travelers in Washington to approach pre-pandemic levels for Labor Day, and encourage travelers to plan ahead to avoid the heaviest travel times.
WSDOT has posted travel charts of anticipated highway use on its website, and encourages drivers to travel when traffic volumes are predicted to be less.
The heaviest traffic is predicted to be West Side drivers heading over the Cascades and back. In other words, Yakima Valley travelers planning to spend the holiday weekend on the West Side should avoid the worst of the congestion.
The Interstate 90 travel chart between North Bend and Cle Elum predicts the heaviest eastbound traffic and congestion between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2, and between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3.
Traveling westbound on I-90, the heaviest and most-congested traffic is predicted between noon and 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, and between 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 5.
No construction or lane closures are planned on I-90, including Snoqualmie Pass, from Friday, Sept. 2, through Tuesday, Sept. 6, WSDOT reports. Travelers may receive text message alerts about significant traffic congestion and delays on the pass by texting the number 468311 with the words "WSDOT Snoqualmie."
Other online tools for travelers include the WSDOT mobile app, traffic cameras and email alerts. The state agency also suggests the following travel tips for the holiday weekend:
• Have a backup outdoor destination if your first choice is full. If parking lots are full, find an alternative site and never park along road shoulders, as this is unsafe for everyone on the roadway.
• Allow extra time for travel to avoid rushing or distraction.
• Carry extra food and water as an added precaution for emergencies or unexpected stops.
Camping tips
The Labor Day weekend is traditionally one of the busiest camping times of the year, and officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Washington State Parks suggest checking on availability and making reservations if you haven’t already done so.
BLM campsites along the Yakima River Canyon include Umtanum, Lmuma Creek, Big Pines and Roza. Reservations are required through Sept. 30 at these sites; for availability, check blm.gov/visit/Yakima-river-canyon or call 509-655-2100.
The Yakima Sportsman State Park offers campsites just east of the Yakima River, with access via University Parkway in Terrace Heights. The site also includes a playground, hiking trail, picnic area and access to fishing (a recreational fishing license is required).
More information about the campsites is available by calling the Washington State Parks reservation hotline at 888-226-7688.
Wood and charcoal campfires are not allowed on U.S. Forest Service, State Parks and BLM land right now in Central Washington because of fire danger, even in developed campgrounds. Gas and propane self-contained camping stoves are allowed.
Weather outlook
Finally, the holiday weekend weather outlook is good both in the Yakima Valley and other portions of the state.
In Yakima, the National Weather Service predicts sunny skies throughout the weekend, with the hot temperatures of this week abating a bit. A high of 98 degrees is expected on Friday, with high temperatures in the low 90s for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
On the west side of the state, partly to mostly sunny skies are predicted through Labor Day, with high temperatures in the 80s on Friday and the mid- to upper-70s Saturday through Monday, the National Weather Service reports. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/heavy-highway-traffic-predicted-on-i-90-for-labor-day/article_bf1a3084-288c-11ed-a8c5-7fd253fc139b.html | 2022-08-30T21:12:12Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/heavy-highway-traffic-predicted-on-i-90-for-labor-day/article_bf1a3084-288c-11ed-a8c5-7fd253fc139b.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The month of August is almost gone, and even though it is still mid-summer hot out there during the days, hopefully soon September will bring us some cooler temperatures, and even some rain.
It for sure will be bringing us some more opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.
Three new hunting seasons open up on Thursday.
The early archery deer hunting season opens Thursday and bowhunters will be headed to the hills in search of a mule deer in our area, white-tailed deer farther east, or blacktail deer on the west side of the Cascades. The hot temps will definitely be a hindrance on our side of the mountains, but those hunting early and late in the day can avoid the heat and possibly find a buck.
The archery elk season also opens in September. However the early elk season doesn’t get going until the 10th.
Bird hunters have some opportunities, too, Thursday and through the Labor Day weekend, to get out to hunt. It used to be both the dove and grouse hunting seasons opened on the first, but a couple of years ago the regulations changed and now only doves will open Thursday.
Forest grouse will open on Sept. 15.
During the past several years hunters have found plenty of doves in and around the grain fields of the Yakima Valley, and in other agricultural regions of Eastern Washington. This year should be no different.
Unfortunately, no official surveys are done on the dove populations in the area, but anecdotally, there seems to be plenty of mourning doves around. Hunters who have done some preseason scouting and have located a harvested grain field where the birds are coming to feed should find enough doves to get some shooting come first light Thursday.
The limit for mourning doves is 15 per hunter per day. And as a bonus, there is no limit at all on Eurasian collared doves. The Eurasian doves, which are slightly larger and lighter in color than mourning doves, are recognizable by the black band on the back of their neck.
Collared doves are an invasive species and state officials are happy for hunters to take as many as they can.
Some of the best dove hunting can be found in the Lower Valley, on the Yakama Reservation.
Unless the fields are marked “Feel Free To Hunt”, hunters are reminded they need to get permission to hunt on privately owned lands. In addition to a state hunting license and state migratory bird stamp, hunters will also need a Yakama Nation hunting permit to hunt on the reservation.
There are other options for hunters wanting to chase doves in the Lower Valley. The fast-flying birds can be found in the grain fields near Zillah, Sunnyside, Grandview and Prosser.
If you are wanting a little bit bigger bird in the bag, another season that opens on the first in some parts of Eastern Washington is fall turkey season. The liberal fall season offers hunters a chance to take up to four turkeys, including two beardless and two either sex birds in some game management units in the northeastern part of the state.
In other game management units, hunters can take one either sex turkey when the season opens Thursday.
This is the time of the year when the turkeys are starting to flock up a bit, with the toms gathering together in flocks, and hens and young of the year in flocks of their own.
During the fall the turkeys are tough to call, so hunters need to find birds and either stalk them or try to ambush them.
Hunters are encouraged to check the regulations and know what areas are open for the fall turkey season. No fall seasons are open in game management units in Central Washington.
The cooler temperatures of September, when they come, will help with fishing in the region, too. Already good numbers of fall chinook salmon are making their way up the Columbia River, but warm water temperatures have had the big fish in a non-biting mood at times.
Cooler waters at Drano Lake and at the mouth of the Klickitat River have been the most popular spots to fish in recent days.
Once the fish get farther upriver into the Hanford Reach above the Tri-Cities later in September, the fishing will get going there as well.
Fall fishing for walleye should also pick up a bit in the days ahead. The best fishing will be found in the Columbia below McNary Dam and at some reservoirs such as Potholes and Banks Lake.
The calendar rolls over Thursday, and with September’s arrival comes some new hunting opportunities. With the three-day weekend ahead, it should be a great time to be outdoors. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/sports/outdoors/rob-phillips-first-of-september-means-start-of-turkey-dove-and-archery-deer-hunting-seasons/article_13010346-289a-11ed-b637-07aa109b292b.html | 2022-08-30T21:12:18Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/sports/outdoors/rob-phillips-first-of-september-means-start-of-turkey-dove-and-archery-deer-hunting-seasons/article_13010346-289a-11ed-b637-07aa109b292b.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team Uncases Colors in Poland
Story by Staff Sgt. Charles Porter, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs
DRAWSKO POMORSKIE, Poland - U.S. Soldiers assigned to the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division gathered for an uncasing of colors ceremony at Drawsko Pomorskie Training Area, Poland, Aug. 29, 2022, to signify the start of the brigade’s deployment officially.
The GREYWOLF Brigade originally cased its colors on May 29, 2022, during a ceremony at Fort Hood, Texas. The casing protected the colors as the 3ABCT made its way from the U.S. to Poland. Having arrived, the uncasing of colors ceremony, a traditional U.S. Army ceremony, honored the unit's arrival to its new location.
“The unfurling of our colors here today signifies the official start of our mission and serves as a tangible reminder of our commitment to Poland and the NATO alliance,” said U.S. Army Col. John Gilliam, commander of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. “We are thrilled to be here and look forward to serving with you.”
The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team is among other units assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, proudly working alongside NATO allies and regional security partners to provide combat-credible forces to V Corps, America’s forward-deployed corps in Europe.
Before the brigade's colors were uncased, the unit began the "Ready to Fight " exercise. This exercise ensures readiness by testing all the equipment and weapon systems within the unit to ensure everything is fully mission capable.
With over 4,000 troopers and the most modernized equipment, the GREYWOLF Brigade will ensure the consistent availability of combat-credible U.S. Army forces in support of our allies and partners for Europe's overall stability and security.
Soldiers and leaders of the Greywolf Team, our mission is clear: build readiness, increase lethality, and stand with our Polish and NATO partners in deterring any would be adversaries,” said Gilliam.
This work, GREYWOLF Uncases Colors in Poland, by SSG Charles Porter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/news/428339/greywolf-uncases-colors-poland | 2022-08-30T21:12:39Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/news/428339/greywolf-uncases-colors-poland | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
QUEENSBURY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – This month, sparks will fly in Jenkinsville. Magic will be in the air with good and enchanting reason, as the first annual Queensbury Wizard Fest is held at the neighborhood park.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 18, magical youngsters of all creeds can gather at Ridge/Jenkinsville Park in Queensbury for real-life games of Quidditch – also known as Quadball – based on the broomstick sport from the “Harry Potter” books and movies. There’s no flying brooms in the real version, but there is plenty of fun to be had. The real-life version of the sport is described as a combination of rugby, handball, water polo and dodgeball.
The day will feature Quidditch Quadball games inviting players from colleges around the region. Teams from the University of Rochester, Cornell University, Vassar College and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute will be playing on the Jenkinsville field. In addition, a “kidditch” clinic will be offered, where young players can learn how to play Harry Potter’s favorite sport.
Vendors selling wizard-themed wares will also be onsite throughout the day. Businesses are invited to sign up and enjoy the fun, and can do so through an online form with an application deadline of Tuesday, Sept. 6.
The Queensbury Wizard Fest is organized by the Queensbury Roundtable, comprised of town officials and business owners; as well as the Lake George Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau. The organizations hope to bring more traffic to the region during a time of year when tourism traffic tends to slow down. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/new-england/quidditch-coming-to-queensbury-wizard-fest/ | 2022-08-30T21:17:45Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/new-england/quidditch-coming-to-queensbury-wizard-fest/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Biden says he is "determined" to ban assault weapons during crime prevention speech
President Biden said Tuesday that he is "determined" to ban assault weapons nationwide during a speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where he laid out his crime prevention plan.
Driving the news: "We took on the NRA. We're gonna take them on again, and we won, and we will win again, but we're not stopping here. I'm determined to ban assault weapons in this country. Determined. I did it once before and I'll do it again," Biden said.
- "It's time to hold every elected official's feet to the fire and ask them, 'Are you for banning assault weapons? Yes or no?' Ask them. And if the answer is no, vote against them," he said.
Catch up quick: Biden in June urged Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban, which was passed in 1994 and expired under President George W. Bush in 2004, Axios' Herb Scribner reports.
What he's saying: Biden said that his public safety plan, called "Safer America Plan," is based on a "simple notion," adding, "When it comes to public safety in this nation, the answer is not defund the police, it's fund the police."
- "We expect [police] to do everything. We expect them to protect us, to be psychologist to be sociologists," he said.
- He said that his crime plan is to recruit, hire and train more than 100,000 additional police officers nationwide for community policing.
- "As we've seen too often, public trust is frayed, it is broken, and it undermines public safety when it gets frayed," Biden said.
- "When it comes to fighting crime, we know what works," he continued. "Officers on the street who know the neighborhood."
- Biden also condemned attacks against the FBI in the wake of the search warrant at former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, saying the attacks are "sickening."
- "There's no place in this country, no place, for endangering the lives of law enforcement," he said.
The big picture: Biden in June signed a bipartisan gun safety bill into law, the most significant federal gun legislation in nearly three decades, which bolstered background checks and clarification on the "boyfriend loophole," among other provisions.
- Wilkes-Barre, in northeastern Pennsylvania, is near Biden's hometown of Scranton, a onetime Democratic stronghold that has become more Republican, Axios' Josh Kraushaar reports.
What to watch: Biden has at least two other visits planned in the battleground state over the next week. He is scheduled to speak in Philadelphia on Thursday and he'll travel to Pittsburgh on Monday for a Labor Day celebration.
- Former President Trump is also holding a visit near Wilkes-Barre on Saturday, signaling the region's national political significance, Kraushaar notes.
Go deeper... Pennsylvania split screen: Biden v. Trump | https://www.axios.com/2022/08/30/biden-speech-wilkes-barre-pennsylvania-midterms | 2022-08-30T21:18:12Z | axios.com | control | https://www.axios.com/2022/08/30/biden-speech-wilkes-barre-pennsylvania-midterms | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Updated 8 mins ago - World
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev dies
Mikhail Gorbachev, who attempted bold reforms upon assuming leadership of the Soviet Union in 1985 and oversaw its dissolution in 1991, died at 91 on Tuesday, according to Russian state media.
The big picture: Gorbachev sought to modernize the economy and liberalize society through his trademark policies of perestroika and glasnost. He also improved relations with the West and signed arms control agreements with the U.S. But it was under his tenure that the Eastern Bloc, and later the USSR itself, collapsed.
- Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 and is often seen as an admirable or even heroic figure in the West, in large part because he allowed the Soviet sphere to break apart peacefully.
- But in Russia his legacy is more complex, particularly for those like President Vladimir Putin who view the USSR's collapse as a profound tragedy. Gorbachev ran for president in 1996 and won less than 1% of the vote.
- Gorbachev had no idea that the events he helped set in motion would end with the superpower he led ceasing to exist. Still, he is often described as one of the most significant political leaders of the second half of the 20th century.
The latest: Russian state media quoted the Central Clinical Hospital as saying that Gorbachev "died this evening after a serious and long illness."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. | https://www.axios.com/2022/08/30/former-soviet-leader-mikhail-gorbachev-dies-ussr | 2022-08-30T21:18:18Z | axios.com | control | https://www.axios.com/2022/08/30/former-soviet-leader-mikhail-gorbachev-dies-ussr | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
QUITE A CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR WHERE YOU CAME IN AS THE FAVORITE WITH ALL OF YOUR WINS AND PLAYOFF POINTS. WHAT’S IT LIKE JUST BEING IN A POSITION NOW WHERE YOU’RE BACK TO BEING THE ‘HUNTER’ AND TRYING TO DEFEND THIS CHAMPIONSHIP?
“I don’t know.. I haven’t put much thought into that. Obviously when you look at the points; I think last year, we had 40-something, maybe closer to 50 playoff points, as we headed into the playoffs. This year, I think we only have 19. It already adds a little bit more pressure on each race knowing that you need to go get stage points, stages wins, race wins, all of that, to help out your post-regular season.
This first round sets up really nice for us and our team. There are three really great tracks for us, so I think it’s a good opportunity for us to have a good few showings; get some playoff points and try to put ourselves in a better spot as we approach the next couple of rounds.”
LAST YEAR WAS REALLY THE FIRST YEAR THAT YOU HAD A DEEP PLAYOFF RUN, WHERE YOU WENT THROUGH EACH OF THE ROUNDS AND YOU GOT TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE FOR THE FIRST TIME. HOW VALUABLE WAS THAT EXPERIENCE TO REALLY SEE IT FIRST-HAND ON HOW THE ROUNDS WORK; WHAT IT TAKES, THE VALUE OF PLAYOFF POINTS AND SO FORTH TO GET TO PHOENIX?
“Yeah, I think only one other time maybe in my career that I made it to the Round of Eight. I believe anyways.. I might not have, but I think I did one other time. That experience would have probably taught me more and prepared me more for this year’s playoffs. Like last year, I feel like it’s not often that a driver has that many points - I know (Kevin) Harvick has done it in the past - but where you have a lot of points and you can rely on those points and not go into each race with some stress of crashing or having something bad happen. And if it does, you’re still not in terrible shape. I think the second round last year, we had a bad Talladega; we had an alternator issue at the ROVAL and I was stressed out. Where I would have been really stressed out if we had the bad race at Talladega with just that one itself.
I don’t know.. just go out there, execute and try to run upfront all race long. That should hopefully put you in an OK spot.”
YOUR FIRST FULL-TIME CUP SEASON WAS 2014, SO THE ONLY ERA OF CUP RACING YOU’VE EVER KNOWN WAS THE ‘WIN AND YOUR IN’ FORMAT. IT’S NOT TRADITIONAL RACING, IT’S NOT POINTS RACING. DO YOU ENJOY GETTING TO SEPTEMBER AND THE INTENSITY OF THIS FORMAT? AS A RACER, DO YOU ENJOY THAT PRESSURE ENVIRONMENT?
“Like you said, I don’t have experience the other way, so this is all I’ve known and it’s the only way of racing in the playoffs. I don’t know if the regular season was that way back then when I was running. The playoffs being like this is the only way I’ve known, so it just kind of is what it is to me. I think if I had raced another way, how it was before, maybe I would have a different opinion. But I don’t know anything different, so it’s just the way it’s always been.
I think having an emphasis on winning is exciting for the fans. Having the elimination stuff is stressful and that makes things exciting to watch on TV and the storylines developing throughout each race. Hopefully we can win some races and just advance that way. That would make things nice.”
WE HEAR ALL OF THE TIME THAT WINNING IS PARAMOUNT. THERE’S NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT IN THE CUP SERIES THAN WINNING. AND YET, WE GET TO THE PLAYOFFS IN SEPTEMBER, AND ALL OF A SUDDEN WE’RE COUNTING POINTS.. SO IT’S NOT LIKE WINNING IS STILL THE ONLY THING. WHAT IS THE BALANCE WITH YOUR TEAM, IN TERMS OF TRYING TO PUT YOURSELF IN POSITION TO WIN, BUT ALSO COLLECTING MAXIMUM POINTS IN EACH STAGE?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I feel like in the road courses - and maybe superspeedways a little bit - but mostly the road courses where you have to sacrifice stages for the finishing position. We’ve only got one road course in the playoffs, so aside from that, I think you’re always going to go for the stage points and the race win hopefully comes along with that. Obviously, there are cautions that fall at a certain point at the end of a stage and you have to sacrifice the points for tires and fuel. Then I don’t know.. I think it all kind of depends on where you’re at in the points at that moment.
But yes, I think everybody always wants to just straight-up go for stage points and the race win.”
WHAT IS IT ABOUT DARLINGTON RACEWAY THAT SETS UP WELL FOR YOU? DID YOU LIKE THE TRACK FROM THE FIRST TIME YOU DROVE IT OR DID YOU HAVE TO GET SOME LAPS IN BEFORE YOU REALLY FOUND YOUR GROOVE THERE?
“I think most of the races I’ve been in at Darlington (Raceway) have been really good. Maybe if I had some bad results it’s because I got into the wall or something like that. But before getting into the wall, I always remember being competitive, having fun and running up front. I have yet to get a win there, but I feel like it’s in my top three or four for best tracks on the circuit, as far as average running position throughout the race and stuff like that. It just seems to fit my racing style. It’s really technical. You have to move your line around a little bit and be patient.
It’s just fun. I really enjoy it. It gets slick and hot.. it’s just a very demanding race track. I think the more demanding, it sometimes seems to be better suited for me. Hopefully this weekend we can go there, have a really good run and finally crack out a win there.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR REGULAR SEASON WENT? DO YOU FEEL AS PREPARED AS YOU CAN BE FOR THIS PLAYOFF RUN?
“Well I think our regular season didn’t go very well, to our standards, but I don’t really know if it did for anybody. Even for Chase (Elliott), like I don’t even know if his regular season was up to their standards. There was just a lot of inconsistency this year throughout the regular season. We had three blown engines now in the regular season, so DNF’s with that. But also mistakes on my part or bad pit stops. Yes, we got a couple wins, which was nice.. but we also probably gave away a couple, as well.
I would say no, it wasn’t good. But I do still feel like we are prepared for the playoffs. I feel like here lately, our pit crew has been performing well. Our cars have been fast all year long. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) and our guys have been making good calls on top of the box. I’m doing a little bit better job of taking what I can get out of the race car and not overstepping things. So I feel like we’re prepared. We just have to hope that everything comes together and this is the time of the year for that.
I know we have a championship caliber team. We proved that last year and we just have to do it again.”
YOU MENTIONED THE INCONSISTENCIES WE’VE SEEN THIS SEASON. IT’S KIND OF BIZARRE FOR YOU TO HAVE SIX DNF’S, AS YOU MENTIONED. WHEN YOU LOOK AT THESE INCONSISTENCIES, HOW MUCH OF IT IS THE NEW CAR? IT’S REALLY CHANGED THE DYNAMIC IN A LOT OF THESE RACES AND THERE ARE A LOT OF FIRST TIME GUYS THAT ARE GOING TO THE POST-SEASON.
“Yeah, it’s hard to say that it’s not a factor with the unique set of drivers in the playoffs. I don’t know what it is about it.. I think just the cars are more similar than they’ve ever been to one another. There are more things that can go wrong in a race that could take you out of it and put others in contention.
I don’t know.. I think there is a long list of things that can factor into why it is what it is. But I think it’s cool for the race fans to see a different group of drivers up front all year long; a different group than we’re maybe used to seeing in the playoffs. I think it’s added some storylines for the commentators and for you guys, and I think those are all good things.”
COULD THERE BE SOME BIG UNKNOWN THAT NONE OF US ARE EXPECTING THAT POPS UP, SAY IN THE ROUND OF EIGHT EVEN?
“I don’t know.. I don’t know. I think we just have to kind of wait and see how things play out because it is an unknown. I don’t even know what is an unknown because we don’t know what the unknown is.
I don’t know. I can’t answer that for you, I’m not really sure.”
YOU DON’T REALLY FEEL LIKE THERE IS A CLEAR CUT FAVORITE RIGHT NOW GOING INTO THE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE?
“I definitely think there are favorites, but there is a lot of craziness that has happened all year long. So even though I have favorites; I’m not confident in anything, just because of how wild and inconsistent the season has been for so many people. I think you can look at us as being one of the favorites. I think you can look at Chase (Elliott), obviously; and in my opinion, Ross Chastain. I would say us three probably, and definitely the Gibbs guys that are in the playoffs. There are a lot of tracks in the playoffs that I think suit their cars and setups very well. Honestly, I would probably look at them as probably being the ones that could go out there and win. I think there are other teams that can do a better job of executing, but the Gibbs guys probably have the fastest and best handling cars to go out there and really win to advance that way.”
WITH YOUR PLAYOFF HISTORY, THERE WAS ONLY ONE OTHER TIME WHERE YOU WERE ABLE TO GET INTO THE ROUND OF EIGHT BEFORE THE RUN YOU WENT ON LAST SEASON. WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE BIGGEST LESSONS ARE THAT YOU’VE LEARNED THROUGHOUT YOUR PLAYOFF HISTORY THAT YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN CARRY INTO THIS YEAR?
“If you win, that’s great.. but if you’re not going to win, you just need to maximize your day and make sure you’re finishing the races. I think finishing is the most important thing. If you can finish in the top-10 or 12 every week until you at least get to the Round of Eight, I feel like that should be enough to get you in.. as long as you’re getting stage points, too. Stage points are really important, as well.
If you get one finish outside the top-20, then I feel like you’ve got reasons to stress. Just not taking yourself out of it has been the biggest thing that I’ve learned over my career of being in the playoffs. I think when you’re young; you think ‘OK, it’s the final 10 weeks and I need to go out there and win’ every week or win at least once a round. That’s not necessarily the case. I think as long as you can just be consistent and finish, let the other guys make those mistakes.”
HOMESTEAD IS ALSO BACK IN THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR. IS THAT ONE THAT YOU HAVE CIRCLED ON YOUR CALENDAR, AS FAR AS BEING HOPEFUL TO GET BACK TO VICTORY LANE?
“Yeah, I really like Homestead. It suits me well, being able to run the top and search for different lanes of grip. I do feel like though, with the Next Gen car, it seems to be a lot easier to run inches off the wall. So I’m a little bit worried that the whole field will be running up there and it will be really hard to pass, but we’ll see. It’s going to be great no matter what. Homestead is awesome all of the time. I’m just saying, I think compared to other Homestead races; maybe it won’t be as exciting and as good of racing, just because it could be harder to pass. Just have to wait and see until we get there.
But I love Homestead and no matter what package that we’ve ran there, I’ve always seemed to love it and run well. I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t be able to go there and contend for a win.”
IS THERE ANY NERVOUSNESS GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR MECHANICAL FAILURES GIVEN THAT YOU GUYS DID HAVE THREE, UNCHARACTERISTIC ENGINE FAILURES DURING THE REGULAR SEASON?
“I have not really thought about that until we blew up last weekend (at Daytona). Our other two engine failures were early on in the year, so I thought we had it all cured and stuff. Having another issue pop up this weekend - which I think was a totally different issue than I had in the other two – yes, it’s on your mind. But that’s not something you should worry about when you’re on the track. There’s nothing I can do from my position to limit things from happening under the hood.
I’m confident in Hendrick Motorsports and the engine shop. They are the best in the business and they are going to continue to learn why stuff has happened and make it better for the future. My confidence in them has not gone down at all. I’m still confident that we’re going to have great power and great reliability.
But yes, it’s more on my mind now than it was, just because it happened the week before the playoffs start.”
WHAT TRACK OR TRACKS PERSONALLY GIVE YOU THE MOST CAUSE FOR CONCERN IN THE PLAYOFFS?
“Obviously I think Talladega. I think the ROVAL is in that same round. So I think that’s the round, where us being a dominant team last year, it almost took us out. That’s the sketchiest round for me.
As far as a track that I don’t do very well at, I would say Martinsville in that final round is a tricky one for me. But I think it’s also Las Vegas and Homestead, maybe, in that round. Those are two really good tracks for me, so hopefully if I do make it to the Round of Eight, we can have a great Vegas and Homestead and find ourselves in a little bit of a better spot once we get to Martinsville. I think still, to me, that second round is the sketchiest.”
EARLIER, YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT SEVERAL GUYS BEING IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME. DOES IT WORRY YOU THAT SOME OF THESE GUYS – PARTICULARLY GUYS THAT HAVE BEEN PRONE TO CAUSE ISSUES IN THE REGULAR SEASON – DOES IT CONCERN YOU WITH SOME OF THESE GUYS BEING IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME, THAT THEY MIGHT KIND OF DRIVER OVER THEIR HEADS A LITTLE BIT?
“No, not really. I don’t think about that at all. You’re going to be racing with them anyways, whether they’re in the playoffs or not, and they’re still going to be hungry for wins no matter what. I don’t think it changes much. Maybe if they’re in a must-win situation to advance to the next round, that’s when you get a little bit more nervous. But your awareness is going to be high for anybody in a must-win situation.
Honestly, to me, it doesn’t change my mindset at all. I’d be curious what other drivers would have to say. I don’t think it would change their opinions either. I don’t really think too much into it.”
GM PR | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/72448-chevrolet-ncs-at-darlington-kyle-larson-teleconference-transcript | 2022-08-30T21:18:37Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/72448-chevrolet-ncs-at-darlington-kyle-larson-teleconference-transcript | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NASCAR Cup Series -- Race No. 27 – 367 laps / 501.3 miles
Darlington Raceway (1.366-mile oval) – Darlington, S.C.
Fast Facts for September 3-4, 2022
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 18-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Cup: 1 set for practice, 1 set for qualifying and 13 sets for the race
(12 race sets plus 1 set transferred from qualifying)
Tire Codes: Left-side -- D-5168; Right-side -- D-5122
Tire Circumference: Left-side -- 2,254 mm (88.74 in.); Right-side -- 2,280 mm (89.76 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front -- 20 psi; Left Rear – 22 psi;
Right Front -- 48 psi; Right Rear -- 44 psi
Storyline – NASCAR Cup teams will be worn out after playoff opener at Darlington: Due to the length of this weekend’s race and the abrasiveness of the track surface at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR Cup teams will have one of the largest allotments of tires available to them this season. Cup teams are allowed 13 sets of Goodyear Eagles for the 367-lap, 501-mile race (one set for every 28.23 laps), and they will likely use all of them. Teams will take four tires at most every opportunity, even if that comes after just a handful of laps. In addition to tire management being important for the drivers, the Southern 500 also highlights the team aspect of the sport. With up to 13 four-tire pit stops in store, teams can gain or lose valuable track position based on the length of their pit stops.
“We’ve had a great 26 races in the regular season, and now we kick off the Cup playoffs at Darlington this weekend,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “This race is one of the biggest challenges for both teams and tires on the whole schedule. Running 500 miles on such a narrow track is tough, but then teams have to deal with the abrasive track surface that wears tires like none other. We expect to see more than two seconds of fall-off a lap over the course of a fuel run, so drivers who manage their tires will benefit on long runs. With 13 sets for the race, pit road will be a very busy and important place as teams take four tires every chance they get.”
Notes – Cup cars on same tire set-up as spring Darlington race: Having moved to an 18-inch bead diameter tire for 2022, NASCAR Cup teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Xfinity Series at Darlington this weekend . . . this is the same tire set-up Cup teams ran at Darlington in May . . . these teams have also run this right-side tire code at Fontana, Las Vegas, Kansas, Texas and Nashville earlier this season . . . they are scheduled to run this same combination of left- and right-side tires on the Charlotte oval next month . . . with this 18-inch tire, and its lower profile sidewall, NASCAR Cup cars will not run inner liners in any of their tires in 2022..
Follow us on Twitter: @GoodyearRacing.
GOODYEAR TIRE NOTES
NASCAR Xfinity Series -- Race No. 24 -- 147 laps / 201 miles
Darlington Raceway (1.366-mile oval) – Darlington, S.C.
Fast Facts for September 3, 2022
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits: Xfinity: 6 sets for the event
Tire Codes: Left-side -- D-6106; Right-side -- D-6130
Tire Circumference: Left-side -- 2,225 mm (87.60 in.); Right-side -- 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation: Left Front -- 18 psi; Left Rear – 18 psi;
Right Front -- 48 psi; Right Rear -- 44 psi
Notes – No changes to tire set-up for Xfinity teams at Darlington: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, these teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Darlington this week . . . this is the same combination of left- and right-side tires Xfinity teams ran at Darlington in May . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run inner liners in all four tire positions at Darlington . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
Follow us on Twitter: @GoodyearRacing. | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/72456-goodyear-fast-facts-darlington | 2022-08-30T21:18:56Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/72456-goodyear-fast-facts-darlington | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
import * \n as tg \"mo/graphics\";\ndeclare -f cairoRenderCallback tRender _rCairoDrawGl #define RenderFunc cairoRenderFunc _pFunc static\n -- -- _pDrawData ClipStateType CullBackType _dFill \n class \n tca::render_function \"function name (func.main) (for The Vineyard's Ginny Mellish takes first UMF women'y record for Collette Bisson in her special to 310-3 over St Thomas last Tuesadverary 4 to 7 .\nthe VUIIARY MAGA WO-YOGII I II GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A West Michigan man is on day 43 of a hunger strike as he tries to find lawmakers willing to assist in getting his family to the United States from Iran.
Raymond Reish was born in Afghanistan in 1984. Soon after, his family fled their home and wound up in Iran.
When the family received a letter from an uncle that people were trying to take over their home and property in Afghanistan, one of his brothers, Ali, decided to go back to fend them off.
Ali would be shot in the leg during his efforts. Reish says he would be killed by poisoning while trying to receive treatment at a hospital.
His oldest brother, Pahlavan, had been killed in 1980 in Afghanistan while standing atop their family home.
In 2003, another of Reish's brothers, Mohammad, was killed in Iran.
This pushed Reish to leave Iran for Hong Kong, and eventually to the United States.
He came here permanently with his wife in 2015, now a full citizen.
"I have family here. I have wife, I have kids, I have mortgage," he told FOX 17.
"I live paycheck to paycheck. I'm a semi driver. I work everyday 12 to 14 hours, six days a week, to make a living in this country and support my family back in Iran."
After Reish left for the United States, his father decided to head back home to Afghanistan alone, amidst daily violence in the area.
Another brother, and a sister, of Reish eventually joined their father there, trying to keep him safe.
His father would be shot and killed there, with his brother and sister left to flee back to Iran in 2021 when the United States pulled it's military out of Afghanistan.
About 8 months ago, he launched a letter writing campaign at first, sending letters to multiple addresses for each lawmaker he wrote.
"In hopes of they give me a response, what they want to do for my family after they pull out from Afghanistan. But, none of them responded to me.”
It was on July 18 that he began his hunger strike, subsisting on just water.
“I already lost almost 25 pounds, but I will stay here because I have goals,” he said.
Reish is situated under a small tent on the sidewalk near the federal building in Grand Rapids, where lawmakers have offices.
“I will stay here even if I die… I need to rescue my family,” he said.
As of Tuesday, he has been out there for 43 days.
He says he will remain in that spot, living only on water, until he gets a lawmaker to assist him in getting his loved ones to the United States to begin a better life. | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/i-will-stay-here-even-if-i-die-west-michigan-man-on-day-43-of-hunger-strike-to-bring-family-to-u-s | 2022-08-30T21:19:14Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/i-will-stay-here-even-if-i-die-west-michigan-man-on-day-43-of-hunger-strike-to-bring-family-to-u-s | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The seventh annual World Short Track Championship goes green at The Dirt Track at Charlotte, Oct. 27-29, now boasting a record 10 divisions of racing over three days.
In addition to the nine divisions that competed last year, the Mid-East Motorsports Thunder Bombers have joined the card, accompanying their Crate Modifieds that have traditionally helped form the Hoosier Racing Tire DIRTcar Pro Modified division. These Street Stock-like cars, typically found racing around the weekly tracks of the Southeast, are abundant in numbers and are expected to bring several new competitors to the event.
SRI Performance has also renewed its partnership with the event, joining as title sponsor to complete the formation of the SRI Performance Thunder Bomber division.
Competing Divisions
FOX Factory Pro/604 Late Models
Chevrolet Performance 602 Late Models
Summit Racing Equipment UMP Modifieds
Hoosier Racing Tire Pro/Crate Modifieds
COMP Cams Monster Mini-Stocks
DIRTVision Sport Compacts/Hornets
VP Racing Fuels Sportsman Modifieds
SRI Performance Thunder Bombers
Street Stocks
DIRTcar Pro Stocks
The revamped event format unveiled last year returns for 2022, featuring Championship Qualifier Features on Thursday night for the DIRTcar Pro Late Models, UMP Modifieds, Sportsman Modifieds and Pro Stocks. Then, Heat Races, Last Chance Showdowns and the first round of Hornet Features completes Friday night’s program, while the remaining Last Chance races and Features for all divisions closes out the event on Saturday night.
The Driver Appreciation Pit Party also returns to the schedule on Friday night after racing concludes, featuring music and a bonfire to complete the evening.
Pre-registration is now open for all divisions through Tuesday, Oct. 25. Every driver who pre-registers, regardless of division, will receive one additional entry into the drawing for a brand-new Chevy Performance 604 Crate engine at Saturday’s drivers meeting.
Rules and procedures for all divisions, purses, a complete event schedule, ticket/pit pass/camping prices, and other various event information is now available in the competitor guide, linked below.
DIRTVision will broadcast all the action at The Dirt Track at Charlotte– one week before the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, CASE Construction Equipment Late Models and Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds take over the facility for the championship determining World of Outlaws World Finals, Nov. 2-5.
DIRTcar Series PR | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/racing-news/72449-world-short-track-championship-registration-competitor-guide-available | 2022-08-30T21:19:21Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/racing-news/72449-world-short-track-championship-registration-competitor-guide-available | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — Grand Haven Area Public Schools has announced that it will cover fees for K-6 students in the district to take online elective classes. This includes students who are full-time GHAPS students, attend a private school, or are homeschooled.
The online electives are divided into two different categories. One is project-based courses. These topics include art, music, and physical education. The courses are offered by local community partners including Armory 2 Art Studio, Avalon School of the Arts, and Lake Michigan Dance Academy. Students will also work one-on-one virtually with a GHAPS teacher to design a research project about their experience.
The other type of online electives are additional courses. The courses are described as highly dynamic and experiential. However, they do not include project-based learning framework. Examples of additional courses include a nature conversation class from the Outdoor Discovery Center, a robotics class with hands-on building kits, and Spanish classes for grades 3-6.
“We’re committed to success for all and that’s not limited to students in our buildings. Private and homeschooled students can also benefit from these high quality, engaging online experiences,” said Mary Jane Evink, Grand Haven Area Public Schools Executive Director of Instructional Services. “Our goal is to offer experiences that reflect the variety of educational philosophies in our community. This is one exciting way to create those connections and a sense of belonging for all.” | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/lakeshore/ottawa/grand-haven-area-public-schools-announces-free-online-electives-for-k-6-students | 2022-08-30T21:19:32Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/lakeshore/ottawa/grand-haven-area-public-schools-announces-free-online-electives-for-k-6-students | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.