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Adrian and Vernon Vito Bracy have been named the 2022 chairs for United Way’s Charmaine Chapman Society [CCS], which has raised $59 million for the United Way’s Community Campaign since its inception in 1994.
“Vernon and I are so excited to be a part of this year’s United Way campaign to help inspire philanthropy and community with other Black leaders,” said Adrian Bracy.
“The Charmaine Chapman Society has long been an important component of United Way’s work in uplifting our St. Louis community and, as a former leader of one of United Way’s partner agencies, I’ve seen firsthand how critical United Way’s support is for its entire network of safety net partners.”
The Society is named after Charmaine Chapman, the first woman and first African American to head United Way of Greater St. Louis as its president and chief executive officer.
In 1994, Charmaine and St. Louis American publisher Dr. Donald M. Suggs launched the Society to bring Black leaders together through philanthropy and recognize their commitment and passion for the St. Louis region.
“We are honored to have Adrian and Vernon leading our Charmaine Chapman Society as they have been longtime supporters and members with deep understanding of the impact United Way has in our community,” said Michelle Tucker, president and CEO of United Way of Greater St. Louis. “Garnering support for this Society is key to helping people throughout our region live here and thrive.”
Adrian Bracy is an author, business and personal coach, consultant, and motivational speaker. She spent 18 years in the National Football League working in financial management. Following her career in the NFL, Bracy transitioned to the nonprofit sector and served as chief executive officer of YWCA Metro St. Louis for nearly 12 years. She currently serves as the executive director of The Steward Trust.
Vernon Vito Bracy is the chief executive officer/president of a unified communications company called Renaissance Voice Communications (RVC). Prior to launching RVC, he held several other executive level roles in sales, finance, and data breach protection over the course of nearly 20 years.
The United Way has also launched its 2022 Community Campaign, celebrating the organization’s 100-year anniversary of helping the St. Louis region.
Its campaign co-chairs are Penny Pennington, managing partner of Edward Jones, and Rusty Keeley, CEO of Keeley Companies. Arica Harris, director of banking and payment operation at Edward Jones, is vice chair.
“United Way once again stepped up to serve as a critical leader as many in our region faced devastating and difficult impacts from flooding,” said Harris.
“This is an example of why having a strong United Way in our region is important. Because of its 100-year existence, it has the infrastructure, knowledge, and partnerships to quickly mobilize and coordinate support, so response and relief efforts are available and efficient. A gift to United Way means that this support stands ready when there is a disaster like this.”
The annual fall fundraising campaign officially began Sept. 14, 2022 and runs through November. United Way of Greater St. Louis invests in more than 160 local nonprofits that create a solid foundation for our region through early childhood and youth success, jobs and financial mobility, health and wellbeing, essential needs, and community and crisis response.
During the past century, United Way of Greater St. Louis has raised nearly $3 billion to invest into the community, impacting millions of people.
“We are proud of how our community comes together during this special time of year and lends their generous support to helps those throughout our region who need it most,” said Tucker.
“We look forward to the support of our local businesses, partners, labor unions and individuals whose generosity will enable us to continue to support the St. Louis region into the next 100 years.”
Individuals can make a gift online or learn more about United Way’s impact at HelpingPeople.org/Give. | https://www.stlamerican.com/business/business_news/adrian-vernon-bracy-named-charmaine-chapman-co-chairs/article_575fb81c-3555-11ed-b135-73c320795a5a.html | 2022-09-16T22:07:48Z | stlamerican.com | control | https://www.stlamerican.com/business/business_news/adrian-vernon-bracy-named-charmaine-chapman-co-chairs/article_575fb81c-3555-11ed-b135-73c320795a5a.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The FINA committee banned the caps for not following "the natural form of the head" for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The ruling meant the caps were not eligible or certified for international competition.
After more than a year following their rejection of Soul Caps in July 2021, the caps are now approved.
The U.S. team has only two black female swimmers, Simone Manuel and Natalie Hinds.
Manuel said she was disappointed with the ruling of banning caps from a Black-owned business concerned with Black needs.
"It doesn't do the best for inclusivity in the sport," Manuel said.
"Knowing that it is acceptable to compete in this sport at the highest level of sport sends a message that hair should not be a barrier which stops people from participating," said British swimmer Alice Dearing, the first Black swimmer to represent Great Britain at the Olympic level.
Afro hair is naturally drier and more sensitive than other hair types because of fewer cell layers, so the sodium hypochlorite, chlorine, and bleach are damaging.
"Due to the discriminatory and segregated past of swimming, Black families have been taught to fear swimming," said Shontel Cargill, a former competitive swimmer.
Soul Cap makes specialized coverings for textured hairstyles such as weaves, braids, etc.
"Perpetuating the racist assumption that Black athletes don't belong in the sport of swimming," said Claire Sisco King, an associate professor of communication studies at Vanderbilt University, on FINA's initial ruling.
FINA apologized for their rejection and asked Soul Cap to re-apply.
"There's still huge progress to be made for diversity in aquatics," Soul Cap co-founder Michael Chapman said. "Some of these other barriers include people being priced out of swimming, the lack of swim education in schools, pool closures and cultural stereotypes such as, "Black people don't swim.”
"We've seen what community and collective energy can achieve, so we're hoping to keep knocking down more of these barriers," Co-founder of Soul Cap Toks Ahmed. "As a new father and someone who didn't learn to swim growing up, creating access for the next generation feels even closer to home." | https://www.stlamerican.com/sports/local_sports/the-international-swimming-federation-finally-approves-protective-black-hair-swim-cap/article_b6d5dd32-3553-11ed-80cb-9f2206fdb51a.html | 2022-09-16T22:07:52Z | stlamerican.com | control | https://www.stlamerican.com/sports/local_sports/the-international-swimming-federation-finally-approves-protective-black-hair-swim-cap/article_b6d5dd32-3553-11ed-80cb-9f2206fdb51a.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
President Joe Biden plans to meet today with the families of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
The announcement has fueled speculation that the Biden administration may have reached a deal to bring Griner and Whelan home or be closing in on securing their freedom.
Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson traveled to Moscow this week to discuss Griner and Whelan’s release.
However, the Democrat did so against the wishes of the White House, which had earlier successfully discouraged former NBA star Dennis Rodman from taking the trip.
Cherelle Griner told reporters that the family asked for Richardson’s assistance.
“We asked Gov. Richardson and the Richardson Center to help us, and have been working with them for a while,” Cherelle Griner said during a television interview.
Earlier this year, the former governor helped the negotiations between America and Russia that led to the freedom of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed.
“We are encouraged to hear that they are having meetings in Moscow,” Griner stated.
The White House didn’t want news of the planned meeting to give false hope of the detainees’ release.
“One of the things that the President wanted to make clear is, and one of the reasons he’s meeting with the families, is that he wanted to let them know that they remain front of mind and that his team is working on this every day, on making sure that Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House Press Secretary Jean-Pierre said.
“One family member was already scheduled to be in town, and the President wanted to meet with both of the families on the same day.” | https://www.stlamerican.com/sports/national_sports/president-biden-to-meet-with-family-of-brittney-griner/article_33f32ae4-35eb-11ed-a54b-ff46dad12374.html | 2022-09-16T22:07:53Z | stlamerican.com | control | https://www.stlamerican.com/sports/national_sports/president-biden-to-meet-with-family-of-brittney-griner/article_33f32ae4-35eb-11ed-a54b-ff46dad12374.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
'I'm a big boy': Edison schools superintendent leaving for another district. Here's why
EDISON – Superintendent of Schools Bernard Bragen Jr. will be leaving the position he has held since 2019 before his contract expires to take a job as superintendent in another district.
During Thursday's Board of Education caucus meeting, Bragen described his decision as a "fait accompli."
Bragen said he was offered job security somewhere else but didn't specify for where or when he would be leaving Edison.
The announcement came as part of an effort by some board members to arrange to discuss Bragen's contract during next week's regular Board of Education meeting. The motion, made by board member Xiaohan Shannon Peng, however, failed to gain enough votes to pass.
"If the board can't take action or didn't want to, that's fine. I'm not angry, I'm not upset. I'm a big boy. I will pull up my big boy pants and I will go somewhere else," Bragen said. "I wish it would have worked out. But as far as I'm concerned it's a fait accompli already."
Bragen, who formerly served as an assistant principal, principal and district supervisor in Edison, and as Hazlet schools superintendent for 10 years, explained his contract ends in a year and 10 months. When he started as district superintendent in 2019, his plan was to stay for 12 years, until he was 67 years old, and do what he could for the district.
"And I think in the short time I've been here, I've done that," Bragen said.
Some board members and a resident praised his accomplishments, such as of two years with no increase in school taxes, implementing full-day kindergarten and expanding Lincoln Elementary School.
Bragen said he had approached the board earlier this year about extending his contract but was told it was not the right time for the discussion. Bragen, however, said it is the right time for him and his family. He said superintendents do not get tenure and he wanted job security.
"That security is important to me and my family. The winds of change come with different (school board) elections and different leadership. If I can't get that security here, I would seek it elsewhere and I've been offered it elsewhere," Bragen said. "I was offered that security somewhere else, and I shared that with the board today."
There are 12 candidates running for three seats on the Edison Board of Education this year.
Peng and board member Mohin Patel argued the inaction by the school board's leadership is leaving the district without a superintendent for 2,700 employees and 17,000 students in 19 schools.
"For any district to succeed you need a leader," Patel said.
"He is choosing to take another job in another district, and he has the right to do it and I wish him well, " said board Vice President Shivi Prasad-Madhukar.
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/education/2022/09/16/edison-nj-superintendent-of-schools-bernard-bragen-leaving/69499244007/ | 2022-09-16T22:10:02Z | mycentraljersey.com | control | https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/education/2022/09/16/edison-nj-superintendent-of-schools-bernard-bragen-leaving/69499244007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Most Energetic Cat Breeds: 10 playful breeds of cat - including the bouncy Manx cat breed 🐱
These 10 beautiful cat breeds will love playtime with their owners.
A host of loved up cat owners will attest, once you have been in the company of these adorable creatures, it’s hard to understand why anyone wouldn’t be obsessed!
It is reported that the average cat owner actually own a minimum of two cats – though we are sure you may know some with many more.
And while it is indeed true – all cats are beautiful – if you are looking for a cat that will be energetic, playful and loving all at the same time, these 10 breeds of cat may just be your best bet.
So, if you are looking to add a new furry friend to your household, these are reported to be the most playful breeds of cat worldwide, that will enjoy chasing, hunting and entertaining daily.
*While cat breeds do share similar traits, we advise each cat do have their own personality and individual needs, which is of primary importance when taking a cat into your home. Please be aware of this if adopting a cat. | https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/family-and-parenting/most-energetic-cat-breeds-10-playful-breeds-of-cat-including-the-bouncy-manx-cat-breed-3749003 | 2022-09-16T22:11:54Z | scotsman.com | control | https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/family-and-parenting/most-energetic-cat-breeds-10-playful-breeds-of-cat-including-the-bouncy-manx-cat-breed-3749003 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Queen Elizabeth II death: Queen’s children surround her coffin in sombre vigil as queue wait to last 24 hours
It was a symbolic moment first enacted in the heart of Edinburgh at St Giles’ Cathedral – and last night, King Charles and his siblings were again united in their grief.
The King, the Princess Royal, Duke of York and the Earl of Wessex stood in silent contemplation from about 7:30pm as they guarded their mother’s coffin in Westminster Hall.
Dubbed the Vigil of the Princes, the quartet, dressed in military uniforms and with their hands clasped in front, surrounded their late mother's coffin.
An exception had been made for Andrew, who is no longer a working royal, to wear his military uniform as a “special mark of respect” for the Queen.
The siblings stood silent, motionless and with their heads bowed.
Other members of the royal family, including the Queen Consort, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence and the Countess of Wessex, along with four of the Queen’s grandchildren and their spouses – Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and Zara Tindall and Peter Phillips – looked on, observing the solemn moment.
Members of the public filed slowly past them.
And after 15 minutes, shrouded in silence, the vigil ended.
The King led his siblings out of Westminster Hall to a round of warm applause from those in the queue. The royal party left in the same order in which they had entered.
The late monarch has been lying in state in London since Wednesday and thousands of mourners have filed past to pay their final respects after queueing for hours.
Tonight the Queen’s grandchildren are going to participate in a vigil at her coffin, and the Duke of Sussex will join his brother the Prince of Wales in wearing uniform.
The number of people wanting to view the Queen’s coffin and say their goodbyes has pushed the waiting time past 24 hours.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) online tracker advised the expected wait time was more than 24 hours, warning of chilly temperatures as people queue from Southwark Park in south-east London to pay their respects to the Queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall, about five miles away.
Undeterred, a steady stream of people joined the queue yesterday evening, many wearing coats and jumpers.
Tatie Kirst, 38, of Canada Water in south-east London, a project manager who had just joined the queue in Southwark Park, said: “Well, it’s a journey right?
“I think I’m prepared, I brought my good coat, I have a stool if I need to sit, I’m getting food and water, and we’re going to walk the way.
“I think there is always a question, Is it worth it? Can I make it? And hopefully, yes.
“I wanted to be part of this, pay my respect to the Queen.”
The queue was earlier paused for 40 minutes when it reached capacity, and when it reopened mourners were urged by the DCMS not to join the line until at least 4pm.
Officials stopped people joining the queue entirely at around 11:35am at the entrance to Southwark Park due to overwhelming demand.
Downing Street said the queue system was going to plan.
James Birchall, 33, a trainee physiotherapist who travelled from Liverpool to pay his respects, was also queuing.
He said: “Now I just feel normal and unemotional, but as I get closer and closer [to the Queen’s coffin] I think I’ll start to become more emotional and maybe five minutes before I go in I’ll probably, even though I don’t look like the type of person, I’ll probably start crying.
“I absolutely loved the Queen, she was great, she had been there all my life, I have always had respect for her. She was great for our country, always did her duty right until she died.”
Former England footballer David Beckham waited 13 hours to pay his respects, after joining the queue just after 2am, and he appeared to wipe away a tear before nodding his head towards the Queen’s coffin
Before entering the hall, he said: “There should always be respect paid to our Queen in the country in this time of mourning.
“But speaking as an ex-football player and an ex-England captain I know what it meant for us to step out on that field to represent our Queen and our country and the Three Lions.”
Figures from the London Ambulance Service (LAS) showed 435 members of the public had been treated along the route of the queue to see the Queen lying in state and surrounding areas over the past two days.
Some 291 people along the route of the queue and nearby in London were given medical assistance on Wednesday, with 17 needing hospital treatment, the LAS said.
A further 144 people were treated on Thursday, with 25 people being taken to hospital.
The LAS said the majority of incidents attended were faints and collapses, resulting in head injuries.
Earlier the Prince of Wales told a serviceman his grandmother would be “looking down” on her funeral service and be interested in all the detail.
William and his wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, visited Army Training Centre Pirbright in Surrey on Friday, where they spoke to Commonwealth troops taking part in the funeral procession on Monday.
The prince was heard speaking to troops from the New Zealand Defence Force about how the Queen would be keeping an eye on Monday’s proceedings.
Greg Gifford, 31, said: “One of the key things I took away from what he said was how the Queen will definitely be looking down on the whole funeral service.
“He said she would be interested in the detail of the soldiers, how the drill is carried out, its precision, our dress, things like that.”
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article. | https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/queen-elizabeth-ii-death-queens-children-surround-her-coffin-in-sombre-vigil-as-queue-wait-to-last-24-hours-3846782 | 2022-09-16T22:12:13Z | scotsman.com | control | https://www.scotsman.com/news/people/queen-elizabeth-ii-death-queens-children-surround-her-coffin-in-sombre-vigil-as-queue-wait-to-last-24-hours-3846782 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Yakima police have released two suspects in the shooting death of a man Thursday outside a South Third Street bar.
YPD Lt. Chad Janis said evidence gathered so far in the case suggested the shooting was an act of self-defense, but police are continuing to investigate.
Janis said police are interested in any cellphone video of the incident involving the 26-year-old Yakima man.
Police responding to a call about a fight in the 1100 block of South Third Street around 11:15 p.m. Thursday found a man with gunshot wounds outside a bar, YPD spokesperson Yvette Inzunza said. The man was taken to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead, she said.
Following up on witness statements, police found two suspects and placed them under arrest, Inzunza said.
Janis said they were released after police reviewed the evidence and consulted with Yakima County prosecutors.
There are no indications that the shooting was gang-related, Janis said.
Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice said he is scheduling an autopsy.
Janis said police are withholding the man's name pending notification of his family.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact Yakima police at 509-575-6200. Tips may also be left with Yakima County Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or online at https://bit.ly/yccrimestoppers.
The man’s death is the 11th homicide in the city this year, and the 26th for the county.
This is story has been updated with new information from the Yakima Police Department. | https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/yakima-police-arrest-release-two-in-connection-with-thursday-homicide/article_d448a5ee-35e3-11ed-933d-27c5a812576c.html | 2022-09-16T22:13:17Z | yakimaherald.com | control | https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/crime_and_courts/yakima-police-arrest-release-two-in-connection-with-thursday-homicide/article_d448a5ee-35e3-11ed-933d-27c5a812576c.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Week 2 is here. Almost. This week has been brutal and full of nonsensical comments. Thankfully, the 49ers QB provided us with some light-hearted humor Thursday once a video surfaced of him...dancing, let’s say.
Here are our predictions.
Marc: 49ers 27-10
With the media lambasting Trey Lance for his support of scarlet-collar workers, the 49ers' offensive line will bounce back from their rough Week 1 showing and shield him from any more haters. Then, with his wallet empty and the pocket clean, Lance will rise to the occasion and pick apart the Seahawks' defensive backfield in the best NFL performance of his career.
Geno Smith was efficient in the first game of the season, but Seattle still only scored 17 points against a Broncos defense that is less talented than the 49ers. The Niners' defense was undisciplined and made too many mistakes against the Bears, but even then, they only allowed 19 points.
Rich: 49ers 28, Seahawks 17
The field might be wetter than normal, and the footing might be slicker than usual, with some tight competition in town, but Trey Lance should be able to pull this one out and get this team back on track. 49ers win this one with ease, 28-17, over a lackluster and dry Seahawks team still hungover from beating their former star quarterback. The Seahawks will also be without Jamal Adams. Easy money.
Kyle: 49ers 30, Seahawks 13
History suggests this will be a close game. There were different players on those previous Seahawks teams, though. I see two teams on the opposite end of the luck spectrum in Week 1, which’ll showcase itself Sunday.
Seattle has weapons on the perimeter that can threaten the 49ers secondary, but they can’t block the Niners' defensive line. Geno Smith will hit a big play or two but won’t have the luxury he had last week when there were nearly three seconds to sit in the pocket and throw.
The Hawks still haven’t figured out you can’t run the ball near D.J. Jones. The Niners were comfortable with Jones leaving, knowing they’d have a healthy Kinlaw, who played as well as he has as a pro in Week 1.
Seattle struggled to run the ball against Denver. They rushed for 76 yards on 18 attempts, but 26 of those came on one carry. A 25% success rate won’t get the job done against arguably the best run defense in the league.
On the other side of the ball, San Francisco’s speed should run wild through the Seahawks' secondary all game. I doubt the team that allowed the fourth-highest EPA per dropback in Week 1 and lost their star safety will slow down a team that hit multiple explosive passing plays in a monsoon.
Assuming the 49ers don’t turn the ball over on the one-yard line multiple times and have self-inflicted errors like last week, I struggle to see how this game is close. This is an excellent spot for Trey Lance to make it rain for the second Sunday in a row.
Rob: 49ers 20, Seahawks 17
Even with the Seahawks stripped of their chief 49ers’ tormentor, the idea that the Niners are just going to club the Seahawks over the head ignores what we’ve seen in this matchup over the last half-decade. San Francisco has averaged just 20.8 points per game against Pete Carroll in the Kyle Shanahan era, a fact which Russell Wilson had nothing to do with. Unless the defense forces Geno Smith to turn the ball over right into the lap of the offense, we shouldn’t be dancing in the streets just. This one will be closer than Vegas thinks.
Yinon: Niners 24 Seattle 14
The best athletes are able to put the past behind them, and we’ll see how Lance can brush that behind off. He’s learning that the NFL defenses are much more athletic than he’s ever faced in his football career, pressure implanting in his face faster than he could find his wallet.
But despite inclement weather leading to choppy waters, I have faith that Trey will motorboat along and ride the storm out while his teammates all step up. Aiyk has been looking but not touching the ball lately, and that changes at home on Sunday. Our pass rush will make Geno Smith look like Geno Smith while Charvarius Ward shuts DK down. Santa Clara rains are not nearly as bad as Midwestern monsoons, so I see the Niners and their young quarterback finishing with plenty of tips (on how to play winning football.
Jason: Niners 27, Seattle 17
While the forecast calls for more rain, I suspect it will pale in comparison to the constant rain/downpour in Chicago. Seattle’s matchup with Denver somewhat mirrored the 49ers' Week 1 game, minus the weather. Denver fumbled twice at the goal line, and Nathaniel Hackett had his late-game clock management error, which led to a Seattle victory.
The 49ers beat themselves, and you could argue Denver did the same. Credit to Geno Smith for his very efficient performance (23/28, 195 yards, 2 TD). Smith didn’t push the ball downfield much, and Mooney Ward against DK will make life hard for Geno. It doesn’t get much more simple than executing and staying disciplined for the 49ers to win. Seattle’s defense last season was excellent in the red zone, and the 49ers were first in red zone scoring percentage. This will be the key to victory for the 49ers as they will be able to move the ball on this defense. Expect a much better Kyle Shanahan and Trey Lance in week 2.
Xavier: Niners 30, Seattle 10
The saying “must-win game” is draining early in the season but prevalent when your schedule heats up in the back end. Plus, nothing feels better than beating your biggest rival. A lot of the 49er-Seahawk matchups came down to the final drive dating back to the Jim Harbaugh days when the rivalry was reignited. Draft Kings sports book has the Niners as an 8.5-point favorite which shows how Vegas feels about the talent disparity.
Seattle’s quarterback Geno Smith outdueled Russell Wilson in primetime without a ton of wow plays. Smith won the game with an average depth of target of five yards. Expect DeMeco Ryans’ defense to avoid penalties and play with better zone integrity to pitch a near shutout. Shanahan is expecting a better turnover on offense and that starts with better playing conditions. Trey Lance is 1-0 as a starter in Levi’s Stadium. If you ask me, the second-year prospect finds his footing in the NFL Sunday with an impactful performance. Cleaner decision-making will help Lance move the chains and get the Niners in the end zone. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/9/16/23355741/49ers-roundtable-which-version-of-the-niners-will-we-see-in-week-2 | 2022-09-16T22:13:30Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/9/16/23355741/49ers-roundtable-which-version-of-the-niners-will-we-see-in-week-2 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Kyle’s update, 1:46 PM PT: Shanahan confirmed Kittle is questionable for Sunday’s game after he was limited in practice. Daniel Brunskill was ruled out with a groin injury. It’ll be interesting to see how much the weather plays a factor in whether Kittle plays or not. Shanahan said Kittle “looked awesome,” if you’re curious whether he’ll suit up.
Shanahan also said he felt like the team was “half a block away” from getting explosive runs last week. He didn’t blame the weather, but added, “hopefully, we won’t have as many close ones against Seattle.”
Earlier on Friday morning, 49ers general manager John Lynch joined KNRB and said that George Kittle is improving: “With a player like George, you wait right up until game time. We’ll hold out hope that George is ready.”
Lynch said it was critical for Kittle to practice Friday. Well, sure enough, No. 85 was on the field for the afternoon’s practice:
George Kittle back at 49ers practice and moving well during warmups pic.twitter.com/Z3TltREKDm
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) September 16, 2022
This marks the first time Kittle has practiced since Monday, September 5, when he injured his groin.
For me, it’s pretty simple. If Kittle’s practicing, then he’s playing. Add in a rivalry game and the potential of falling 0-2 — which is all but a death knell to a team’s playoff hopes — the decision to play gets a bit easier, even if there is a risk of an injury.
We take for granted how dominant the 49ers are when Kittle is on the field. When he doesn’t play, the Niners are three games under .500 in 15 games. Kittle makes everyone else’s job on offense easier and gives Trey Lance another weapon at his disposal.
Shanahan is set to speak with the media after practice, which is about 1:30 PM PT. We’ll know more about Kittle’s status then. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/9/16/23357063/49ers-seahawks-george-kittle-injury-updates | 2022-09-16T22:13:37Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/9/16/23357063/49ers-seahawks-george-kittle-injury-updates | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
If you were looking to make Sunday’s game a little more interesting, Michelle Magdziuk and I packed today’s Gold Digger’s podcast with tons of gambling and fantasy advice. If you don’t know, Michelle is a researcher for the NFL Network and writes for NFL.com. Here are three of the best bets you can make in the 49ers game this week.
Trey Lance over 197.5 passing yards
Rain or not, Trey should easily throw for at least 200 yards in this game. The Seahawks have allowed the second most passing yards in the NFL since the start of the 2021 season. Over Seattle’s last 18 games, only one starting quarterback has thrown for fewer than 222 passing yards against them. That one quarterback was, you guessed it, Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 4 last year, and only played the first half due to injury. Davis Mills, Colt McCoy, Tim Boyle, Nick Foles, and Taylor Heinicke have all put up at least 200 passing yards against them. It’s your turn, Trey!
Deebo Samuel over 31.5 rushing yards
Even before Elijah Mitchell got hurt last week, Deebo was getting his touches out of the backfield. Now that Mitchell is injured, there’s even more opportunity to hit this over. Last year Deebo averaged 6 carries per game once he was regularly used as a running back. He also averaged 6.1 yards per carry in those games. Over that same stretch, Samuel failed to reach 32 rushing yards just two times. Even if he isn’t quite as successful as last year, he’ll get enough touches to hit this over.
Tyler Lockett under 3.5 receptions
For some reason, Lockett and Geno Smith just don’t connect that often. Surprisingly, Lockett has been under this number in three of Geno’s four starts with the Seahawks. Without Russell Wilson to move around and extend plays, much of Lockett’s effectiveness is taken away. Considering how good the 49ers’ pass rush looked last week and Smith’s considering difference in mobility from Justin Fields, it looks like it could be a long day for Tyler.
For more betting and fantasy advice, be sure to listen to The Gold Diggers podcast every Friday, and give the Niners Nation Podcast Network a follow while you’re at it. | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/9/16/23357092/the-3-best-prop-bets-for-49ers-seahawks-on-sunday | 2022-09-16T22:13:43Z | ninersnation.com | control | https://www.ninersnation.com/2022/9/16/23357092/the-3-best-prop-bets-for-49ers-seahawks-on-sunday | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
$9 million wrongful conviction payout for 1991 murder case tainted by CPD detective who is married to a judge
CHICAGO - Last year, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx recused her office from handling eight potentially explosive cases where defendants alleged they were framed by a Chicago police detective married to a criminal court judge.
Now one of those cases is about to cost Chicago taxpayers more than $9 million.
On Monday, the City Council’s Finance Committee will be asked to authorize the settlement to Patrick Prince. He is among a long line of defendants who have accused now-retired detective Kriston Kato of fabricating evidence and intimidating witnesses. Kato is married to Cook County Criminal Judge Mary Brosnahan.
In 1991, Prince and another man were charged with first-degree murder and attempted robbery in the shooting death of 37-year-old Edward Porter near the corner of Francisco Avenue and Flournoy Street on the West Side.
Chicago police officers claimed they were acting on an anonymous tip that Prince, then 19, had been robbing and shooting drug dealers and their customers on the West Side. The tipster supposedly said Porter was on the corner to make a drug buy, that Prince had attempted to rob him and shot him when Porter resisted.
Kato was one of several police detectives who started looking for Prince and found him living with a girlfriend near the murder scene. Kato testified that Prince willingly accompanied detectives to the police station and confessed to the murder the following day.
Kato also arrested another man, whom the detective claimed confessed to having given Prince the gun used in the murder.
But at a pre-trial hearing, Prince testified that a gun-wielding Kato had barged into his girlfriend’s apartment, dragged him out of bed and taken him to a police interrogation room where he was handcuffed to a wall and beaten.
Prince claimed he confessed to the murder only after being slapped in the face, kicked and punched. Kato denied the allegation of police abuse. A judge denied Prince’s motion to bar use of the confession at trial.
In August of 1994, Prince was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery after a bench trial that relied heavily on his confession. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
After a protracted legal odyssey that included several failed petitions for a new trial, attorneys for the University of Chicago Law School’s Exoneration Project took up the case in 2011.
Prince was granted a new trial after his new attorneys identified four witnesses who said they saw another man shoot Porter. Their petition also presented complaints from more than 30 other defendants who claimed to have been beaten during interrogations by Kato.
In one of those cases, Kato was accused of beating Carl Chatman, a mentally challenged man who was convicted of raping a courthouse aide in a Chicago courtroom.
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In May of 2017, one month after Prince was granted a new trial, the state’s attorney’s office dismissed the charges against Prince and granted his release. He subsequently received a certificate of innocence from the state and was awarded $225,506 in compensation.
Last year, Will County Judge David Carlson begrudgingly granted Foxx’s motion to recuse her office from handling the cases.
The eight cases, some dating to the 1980s, landed in Carlson’s courtroom in downtown Joliet after Judge Erica Reddick, chief judge of the criminal division, asked that she and all other Cook County judges be recused from the cases involving Kato.
In turn, Foxx asked that a special prosecutor take over the cases to prevent any appearance that Kato’s relationship to criminal court judges was influencing the handling of the case.
Despite qualms about elected prosecutors’ apparent broad latitude to step away from cases, Carlson noted that state law allows a state’s attorney to request a judge appoint a special prosecutor when there is a conflict for the office or "other reasons."
Assistant State’s Attorney Carole Rogala said that Foxx wanted a special prosecutor to take over the cases simply to avoid "the appearance of impropriety."
"There has been, unfortunately, a lot of media attention to Cook County prosecutions and how cases are handled in Cook County," Rogala said on that day.
Kato retired from CPD in 2006 and later worked for the Fraternal Order of Police, the union that represents the bulk of Chicago’s rank-and-file officers. As a union rep in 2014, Kato responded to the scene the night former CPD officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/9-million-wrongful-conviction-payout-for-1991-murder-case-tainted-by-cpd-detective-who-is-married-to-a-judge | 2022-09-16T22:16:29Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/9-million-wrongful-conviction-payout-for-1991-murder-case-tainted-by-cpd-detective-who-is-married-to-a-judge | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Barrington High School student in custody after allegedly bringing pellet gun to school
BARRINGTON, Ill. - A 16-year-old Barrington High School student was taken into police custody Friday after allegedly carrying a pellet gun underneath his clothing while on the school's campus.
Just before school began Friday, a group of students notified school administrators that they saw the teen boy carrying a gun in one of the bathrooms.
The building was then placed on immediate lockdown.
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A School Resource Officer responded and found that the student was carrying a pellet gun under his clothing. He was then taken into police custody.
No additional information was released by police. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/barrington-high-school-student-in-custody-after-allegedly-bring-pellet-gun-to-school | 2022-09-16T22:16:38Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/barrington-high-school-student-in-custody-after-allegedly-bring-pellet-gun-to-school | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Highland Park residents told to shelter in place due to police activity
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. - There was heavy police presence Friday afternoon around a home in north suburban Highland Park.
Police were focussed on one home in the 1300 block of St. John's Avenue, where officers blocked the street between Lincoln and Wade, and are re-directing traffic.
Residents who live on the block have not been able to drive to their homes.
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The City of Highland Park posted on Facebook around 1 p.m. asking residents in the area to stay indoors.
While the details about the incident are still unclear, officials said that the situation is contained to one residence.
A spokeswoman for the city told FOX 32 News she cannot provide any additional updates at this time.
FOX 32 News will continue to monitor this situation and bring you the latest updates as we receive them. | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/highland-park-residents-told-to-shelter-in-place-due-to-police-activity | 2022-09-16T22:16:57Z | fox32chicago.com | control | https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/highland-park-residents-told-to-shelter-in-place-due-to-police-activity | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
For the first time since the Nixon administration, the White House will hold a conference on hunger, nutrition and health, bringing together advocates, lawmakers and experts to come up with strategies to tackle food insecurity and diet-related health issues.
The conference comes after a spike in food insecurity rates across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among Black and Latino families. The aim of the conference is to come up with strategies to meet one huge goal: ending hunger and reducing diet-related diseases in the U.S. by 2030.
“This is a big deal,” said Dr. Sara Bleich, director of nutrition security and health equity at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, who is helping plan the event.
Details about the conference, scheduled by the Biden administration for Sept. 28, remain scarce. So far, the White House has only released a skeletal schedule, and many stakeholders are still waiting on their formal invitations.
According to Bleich, the conference will yield a national strategy, which “will really describe how the federal government is going to go about tackling the conference goals.”
If the 1969 hunger conference is any indicator, this event could have long-lasting implications for food and nutrition security policy in the U.S.
That original conference resulted in the creation and expansion of many federal nutrition aid programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP).
“Thinking about all that came out of that, it’s really encouraging to think what could come out of the conference there is today,” said Lyndi Buckingham-Schutt, assistant professor of community health and nutrition at Iowa State University.
The White House held a series of listening sessions over the past several months in preparation for the conference, and anti-hunger groups in the Midwest are among those who provided input during those sessions.
“Overall, our message is, we know what works and what has an impact. And our problem is we've never scaled it,” said Chris Bernard, executive director of Hunger Free Oklahoma.
Bernard says the pandemic has been a good trial run for expanding food benefit programs, like P-EBT, and he’d like to see the White House make them permanent.
“It's ultimately about giving folks the resources they need to purchase the food they want,” he said.
He also hopes the White House will commit to expanding child nutrition programs, like the federal school lunch and school breakfast programs, which he says helped keep many rural Oklahomans fed during the pandemic.
“As a state that has a ton of rural space, we've advocated for that for a long time,” he said. “Congregate feeding requirements don't make sense for summer meals and after school meals in rural environments.”
The White House has been sending out rolling invitations over the past week, but Bernard is still waiting to hear whether he’s on the guest list.
With the conference coming up so soon, the last-minute invitations could dictate who’s able to attend in person, said Buckingham-Schutt.
“Having to book a flight, having to change childcare plans, having to do any of that within two weeks, is kind of a privileged way of thinking about how we can do things, and really might take away from the different people that can be there to represent the different voices that need to be a part of this conversation,” she said.
The conference also will have a robust virtual component, according to the USDA’s Bleich.
“There's a very small in-person presence that will be convening in D.C.,” she said. “What the conference organizers are stressing is that we want people to watch all around the country and to put watch parties together and to have discussions about what folks are hearing.”
Ultimately, Bleich said, the conference serves to kick-start conversations that will span the next 10 years.
“It should be a launching pad to where we're headed as a country and how we can really tackle these important issues,” she said.
Follow Dana on Twitter @DanaHCronin
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues. Follow Harvest on Twitter: @HarvestPM. | https://www.kcur.org/2022-09-16/white-houses-upcoming-hunger-conference-could-have-huge-policy-implications-for-food-security | 2022-09-16T22:21:56Z | kcur.org | control | https://www.kcur.org/2022-09-16/white-houses-upcoming-hunger-conference-could-have-huge-policy-implications-for-food-security | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Just beyond one of the famous Shuttlecocks at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is a shining new sculpture. The reflective "Mirror Pavilion" is now a permanent display on the south lawn of the museum.
Kathleen Leighton joined Steve Kraske to discuss the work of art and other exhibits coming to the museum this fall.
- Kathleen Leighton, manager of media relations and video production, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art | https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2022-09-16/the-nelson-atkins-museum-of-art-has-a-new-mirrored-sculpture-on-its-lawn | 2022-09-16T22:21:57Z | kcur.org | control | https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date/2022-09-16/the-nelson-atkins-museum-of-art-has-a-new-mirrored-sculpture-on-its-lawn | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
DALLAS (AP) — A Dallas anesthesiologist was arrested on charges alleging that he injected nerve-blocking agents and other drugs into bags of intravenous fluids at the surgical center where he works, which led to the death of a co-worker and caused cardiac emergencies for several patients, authorities announced Thursday.
Dr. Raynaldo Rivera Ortiz Jr. was arrested Wednesday on a criminal complaint alleging that he tampered with a consumer product causing death and intentional drug adulteration, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office for the northern district of Texas. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Ortiz, 59, remained in the Dallas County jail without bond on Thursday. Records don’t list an attorney for him.
According to the criminal complaint, a 55-year-old female coworker of Ortiz experienced a medical emergency and died June 21 immediately after treating herself for dehydration with an IV bag of what she thought was saline taken from the surgical center. An autopsy found that she died from a lethal dose of bupivacaine, a nerve-blocking drug that is rarely abused but often is used when an anesthetic is given.
On Aug. 24, an 18-year-old male patient experienced a cardiac emergency during routine sinus surgery, was intubated and transferred to an intensive care unit. Chemical analysis of the fluid from a saline bag used during his surgery revealed the presence of bupivacaine, the stimulant epinephrine and the topical anesthetic lidocaine, drugs that could have caused the patient’s sudden symptoms, according to prosecutors.
The surgical center staff concluded that the incidents suggested a pattern of intentional adulteration of IV bags used at the center. They identified 10 additional unexpected cardiac emergencies that occurred during otherwise unremarkable surgeries between May and August, which was an exceptionally high rate of complications over such a short period, according to the complaint.
The incidents began two days after Ortiz was notified of a disciplinary inquiry of an incident during which he allegedly “deviated from the standard of care” during an anesthesia procedure when a patient experienced a medical emergency. Ortiz, who had a history of disciplinary actions against him, expressed concern to other physicians over the disciplinary action and complained that the center was trying to “crucify” him.
The complaint alleges that all of the incidents occurred around the time Ortiz performed services at the facility, but none happened while he was on vacation.
In one instance captured in the surveillance video, agents observed him walking quickly from an operating room to an IV bag warmer, placing a bag inside, visually scanning the empty hallway and walking quickly away. Just over an hour later, a 56-year-old woman suffered a cardiac emergency during a scheduled cosmetic surgery after a bag from the warmer was used during her procedure, according to the complaint.
In another instance recorded on video, agents saw Ortiz leave his operating room with an IV bag concealed in what appeared to be a paper folder, swap the bag with another from the warmer and walk away. Roughly half an hour later, a 54-year-old woman suffered a cardiac emergency during a scheduled cosmetic surgery after a bag from the warmer was used during her procedure. | https://www.wpri.com/health/ap-health/ap-doc-accused-of-injecting-drugs-into-iv-bags-causing-death/ | 2022-09-16T22:28:33Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/health/ap-health/ap-doc-accused-of-injecting-drugs-into-iv-bags-causing-death/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (AP) — While President Joe Biden was quick to hail Thursday’s strike-averting rail agreement as a win for America, it was also a big win for him politically, allowing Democrats to sidestep what could have been an economic debacle before November’s midterm elections.
Pressured to choose between labor and business, the president pushed hard for them to work together.
Prodded by a strategic late-night phone call from Biden — and fortified with Italian takeout — corporate and union negotiators spent 20 hours in intense talks at the Labor Department. They reached wee-hours common ground following an appeal to act in the shared interests of the nation, avoiding a strike that would have shut down railroads across the country.
By keeping the trains running, Biden overcame a major economic threat that doubled as a political risk. His fellow Democrats already face a difficult fight to maintain their narrow hold on power in Congress amid soaring inflation. Biden’s own approval rating, though improving, is still underwater.
The tentative deal, which still requires approval from a dozen unions, would raise members’ pay 24% over five years and improve work schedules and health care in a way that Biden said recognizes “the dignity of their work.” Railroad companies could continue vital operations and avoid a costly shutdown, while being in a better place to recruit and retain employees.
“This agreement allows us to continue to rebuild a better America with an economy that truly works for working people and their families,” Biden said Thursday in celebratory remarks in the Rose Garden. “Today is a win, I mean it sincerely, a win for America.”
Members of one union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 19, voted to reject the tentative agreement, but the IAM agreed to delay any strike by its members to allow more time for possible additional negotiations and for other unions to vote.
White House officials had worried that a rail shutdown, no matter how long, would have perilous economic consequences just as voters make up their minds ahead of the November elections. The settlement, instead, now provides Biden an opportunity to show his administration is delivering for voters, as dire news coverage yields to relief at the cost of only a few canceled Amtrak trains.
Through the talks, Biden managed to avoid the disruption without offending either labor or corporate constituencies. Biden, his advisers and Democrats across the country know the broadest possible coalition is needed to help candidates compete in midterms that have historically favored the party out of political power.
Biden intentionally chose not to dictate the terms of the agreement to either side, said Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.
“The president’s focus was making sure that a contract was done that is satisfactory to everybody — and also prevented a major disruption to our economy,” said Walsh, who moved the last six hours of negotiations into his office.
What initially appeared to be a worst-case scenario ultimately turned into a collective sigh of relief.
“This is the best outcome the Biden administration could have hoped for,” said Jake Rosenfeld, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis who has researched the labor movement. He noted that the unions’ requests for sick leave and reliable scheduling aligned with Biden’s own values.
“Unlike in past labor disputes involving the railroads, the administration never had to put real pressure on the unions, but instead could act like an honest broker looking for a compromise between management and union positions,” Rosenfeld said. “That keeps the administration in good graces with labor more broadly.”
Business interests also praised the administration’s efforts. John Drake, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president of transportation policy, said Walsh came to the table with a level of expertise and the trust of stakeholders. That made it easier to finalize a deal.
“The ramifications of a rail strike were so catastrophic that we couldn’t even begin to catalog it,” Drake said. “This is 100% a win.”
Not everyone celebrated. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had proposed a measure on Wednesday that would have forced the unions to accept a contract. He criticized Senate Democrats for blocking his proposal, only to have aides stay silent on Thursday when asked whether the agreement was good for the economy.
Biden has gone out of his way to champion organized labor, often having members of local unions introduce him for speeches across the country.
UAW Local 598’s Ryan Buchalski, introduced Biden on Wednesday at the Detroit auto show as “the most union- and labor-friendly president in American history” and someone who was “kickin’ ass for the working class.” Buchalski harked back to pivotal sitdown strikes by autoworkers in the 1930s.
In the speech that followed, Biden recognized that he wouldn’t be in the White House without the support of unions such as the UAW and the IBEW electrical workers, saying that autoworkers “brung me to the dance.”
About 16% of voters in the 2020 election came from union households, which backed Biden 56% to 42% in the narrowly decided race, according to AP VoteCast.
The president’s approval took a major hit starting last year because of inflation worsened by supply chain disruptions for autos, furniture and other basic goods coming out of the pandemic recession. The problems intensified this year with a baby formula shortage and diminished supplies worldwide of food, oil and natural gas after Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. Consumer inflation hit a 40-year high in June, only to start drifting down in the two months since.
Biden’s popularity has been regaining ground as gasoline costs have declined. A new poll by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows his approval improving from a low of 36% in July to 45% in the most recent survey.
Estimates put the daily cost of a railroad shutdown at $2 billion. A stoppage would have left stranded raw materials for factories, fuel and even the chemicals needed to treat wastewater. That would have been a potentially debilitating blow just eight weeks before Election Day, which could determine control of the House, Senate and state governments.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said the deal will ultimately have an impact on the midterm elections because workers want officials who will stand up for them. The mix of the pandemic, high prices and economic inequality has left many workers at the breaking point and they want a different social contract, she said.
“That’s what this election is all about — rewriting the rules of the economy,” Shuler said.
___
AP Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report. | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/ap-biden-dems-see-both-political-economic-wins-in-rail-deal/ | 2022-09-16T22:28:39Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/breaking-news/ap-top-news/ap-biden-dems-see-both-political-economic-wins-in-rail-deal/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Fort Smith attorney wants Confederate flag back up, city administrator charged
City argues there is no order in place to return the flag
Joey McCutchen, a Fort Smith attorney, has asked the Sebastian County prosecuting attorney to charge the Fort Smith city administrator with a misdemeanor for what he calls a violation of state law over the Confederate flag removal from a city park.
But a city attorney argues Fort Smith has not been ordered to return a Confederate flag to a pole at Riverfront Park, and no one in the city has broken any law.
The Arkansas History Commission recently ruled that the Confederate flag is historic and should be included in the "Flags Over Fort Smith" display in Fort Smith. The display was taken down at Riverfront Park in 2020, and the city has not restored the display, said Joey McCutchen, a Fort Smith attorney. The city had asked the history commission for a waiver from the state historic monument preservation law.
McCutchen wants to see City Administrator Carl Geffken charged with a misdemeanor because the flag has not been returned to the pole at the park that remains bare.
In a letter to Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue on Friday, McCutchen wrote.
"The City has made it clear that it refuses to reinstall this monument without a Court order despite the Arkansas History Commission rejecting its waiver request. This is a clear violation of the Historical Monument Protection Act, which expressly prohibits the removal, alteration, or rededication of historical monuments."
"I am asking that Fort Smith City Administrator Carl Geffken be charged with a Class-A misdemeanor for repeatedly violating the Historical Monument Protection Act and for refusing to reinstall this monument even after the Arkansas History Commission rejected his waiver."
McCutchen sued the city after officials removed the display that included seven flags of governments that governed Arkansas from 1699 to 2001. Those flags included the Confederate States of America flag.
The city responded in a letter to Shue Friday. The letter from Colby T. Roe, attorney for Fort Smith, states, "Mr. McCutchen's assertion that the circuit court found the city 'violated the Act by removing the flag display' could not be any further from the truth."
The letter states the city wanted the Arkansas History Commission to determine the disposition of the flag display.
As for Geffken being charged with a misdemeanor, Roe wrote, "Mr. McCutchen's current request that City Administrator Geffken be charged with a misdemeanor should be given short shrift."
The letter states Geffken has not violated any state law or act of the state.
More:Fort Smith and Van Buren Confederate Monuments April 2022
McCutchen has also been involved in efforts to keep the United Daughters of the Confederacy local chapter's Confederate soldier monument at the Sebastian County Courthouse.
More:State rules on Fort Smith Confederate flag at Riverfront Park | https://www.swtimes.com/story/news/2022/09/16/fort-smith-attorney-says-city-administrator-should-be-charged/69499561007/ | 2022-09-16T22:29:32Z | swtimes.com | control | https://www.swtimes.com/story/news/2022/09/16/fort-smith-attorney-says-city-administrator-should-be-charged/69499561007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
TORONTO (AP) — Yandy Díaz hit a three-run home run and the Tampa Bay Rays — starting an unprecedented nine Latin American players on Roberto Clemente Day — routed Toronto 11-0 on Thursday to pull within a half-game of the Blue Jays in the wild-card chase.
Clemente, the late Hall of Fame outfielder from Puerto Rico, was a two-time World Series winner and NL MVP who played 18 seasons with Pittsburgh. The Blue Jays’ Latin American starters are from five countries: Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.
“Very happy, especially on a day like today,” Díaz said. “I think the Latinos are really putting a stamp on the game of baseball.”
All nine Rays starters, as well as bases coaches Chris Prieto and Rodney Linares, wore No. 21 to honor Clemente. The nine starters posed for a photo on the field after the game.
Díaz said he hoped to put his jersey and a lineup card in a frame to remember the historic day.
Rays manager Kevin Cash said the lineup was based on the batters he wanted to face Toronto right-hander Kevin Gausman.
“Gausman we’ve got as a reverse-split guy, so load up the righties,” Cash said. “It just worked out that they were all the Latin background.”
Shane McClanahan returned from the injured list to pitch five shutout innings.
“I’ve been dying to get back and help this team any way I can,” McClanahan said.
Isaac Paredes hit a solo home run and added an RBI single as the Rays (80-63) won the fifth and final game of the series. Toronto (81-63) will play a four-game series at Tampa Bay, starting next Thursday.
Seattle (80-62), which holds one of the three AL wild-card spots, was idle Thursday, but moved percentage points ahead of Toronto.
Díaz homered in a four-run second inning, his ninth. Paredes made it 5-0 with a leadoff blast in the seventh, his 19th.
Randy Arozarena had three hits, including an RBI single in the ninth, and Manuel Margot added a three-run double later in the six-run frame as Tampa Bay piled on against right-handers Trevor Richards and David Phelps.
Activated off the injured list after missing 15 games because of a left shoulder impingement, McClanahan (12-5) allowed three hits, struck out five and walked one.
“We’re better with him than without him, no doubt about it,” Cash said. He’s such a talented pitcher.”
The left-hander pitched around a pair of singles in the first inning, then retired 14 of the final 16 batters he faced. He lowered his ERA to 2.13.
“Today he was so nasty,” Rays catcher René Pinto said. “We are not machines but he looks like one.”
JT Chargois got two outs in the sixth, Jason Adam worked 1 1/3 innings, Javy Guerra pitched the eighth and Kevin Herget finished the six-hitter, Tampa Bay’s 10th shutout.
Gausman (12-10) allowed five runs and six hits in seven innings, snapping a streak of four straight winning decisions. He struck out seven and walked one.
“Too many mistakes and mistakes magnified with guys on base,” Gausman said.
After Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette hit back-to-back singles in the first, the pair executed a double steal. McClanahan escaped by striking out Matt Chapman and getting Teoscar Hernández to fly out.
Bichette doubled off JT Chargois in the sixth and advanced on Chapman’s infield single but Hernández struck out before Adam came on to strike out pinch hitter Cavan Biggio.
HONORING CLEMENTE
Bichette, right-hander José Berríos, outfielder George Springer and third base coach Luis Rivera wore No. 21 for Toronto.
SWEET DEAL
Two fans from Toronto’s Korean community gave some treats to Rays slugger Ji-Man Choi during batting practice, including one labelled Choco Pie. Choi returned the favor with some signed baseballs.
ROSTER MOVES:
Tampa Bay optioned LHP Josh Fleming to Triple-A Durham to clear a roster spot for McClanahan.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: RHP Shane Baz (right elbow) has started throwing on flat ground but will not return this season, Cash said.
Blue Jays: C Alejandro Kirk (left hip) was not available. Kirk did not play Wednesday.
UP NEXT
Rays: RHP Corey Kluber (10-8, 4.36 ERA) starts Friday as the Rays return home to host Texas. LHP Martín Pérez (11-6, 2.77 ERA) goes for the Rangers.
Blue Jays: Toronto has not named a starter for Friday’s home game against Baltimore. RHP Jordan Lyles (10-10, 4.62 ERA) starts for the Orioles.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-rays-start-9-latin-american-position-players-rout-jays-11-0/ | 2022-09-16T22:30:37Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-rays-start-9-latin-american-position-players-rout-jays-11-0/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — A historic effort from Alyssa Thomas helped the Connecticut Sun stave off elimination again.
Thomas had the first triple-double in WNBA Finals history, and the Sun beat the Las Vegas Aces 105-76 in Game 3 on Thursday night.
She finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists for the Sun, who have now won all four of their elimination games in these playoffs, topping Dallas on the road in the first round and beating Chicago in Games 4 and 5 to close out that series.
“We’ve been struggling offensively and we finally got a game back at home and my teammates were hitting shots,” Thomas said. “None of this would have been possible without them.”
Las Vegas leads the best-of-five series 2-1 with Game 4 on Sunday in Connecticut.
The Aces got off to a fast start, scoring nine of the first 11 points and forcing Connecticut to call a timeout. That settled the Sun down and they took over, outscoring the Aces 32-10 the rest of the quarter, including 25 of the final 29 points. Connecticut made 14 of its 17 shots in the period and DeWanna Bonner was a big reason why.
Bonner struggled in the first two games of the series, scoring five points total while missing 16 of her 18 shots. She had seven points in the opening 8 minutes on Thursday night and finished with 18.
“She was huge. She’s been here before. She’s won it. So, we lean on her,” Thomas said. “And she’s been struggling offensively, but we had nothing but faith in her and she came out and did her thing tonight.”
Jonquel Jones led the Sun with 20 points.
Jones, Bonner and Thomas helped Connecticut dominate inside as the Sun set a Finals record with 64 points in the paint while holding Las Vegas to 26.
“That’s been the M.O. of the playoffs,” Jones said. “Even the Chicago series, the team that won the paint, won the game. That’s where it’s done. A long time ago, I talked to Lisa Leslie and she said to win a championship you have to win the paint. I see it now and feel it now. I can go back to that and see she was right.”
Connecticut used that advantage to lead 53-34 with 1:44 left in the second quarter before the Aces closed the period by scoring the final nine points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Kelsey Plum from just inside half-court.
The Sun seized momentum back to start the third quarter, scoring the first five points. Las Vegas couldn’t get closer than six the rest of the game.
“That’s a team that is very resilient. If you could encapsulate Connecticut it’s physical and very resilient,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “They are physical and resilient and we didn’t match that tonight in any category.”
Jackie Young scored 22 points and A’ja Wilson added 19 for the Aces.
Las Vegas was thwarted in its first attempt at winning the franchise’s inaugural WNBA championship. The team had been in the Finals twice before and got swept in 2008 and 2020.
SHE SAID IT
“I went to a UFC fight the other night. … I would not want to get in the cage with her.” — Hammon on Thomas’ toughness.
TRIPLE THREAT
Thomas now has three triple-doubles in her career — all this season. This was the third in WNBA playoff history. Chicago’s Courtney Vandersloot and Houston’s Sheryl Swoopes had the others.
TIP-INS
Former Aces president and coach Bill Laimbeer sat courtside. He took over the franchise when it moved to Las Vegas in 2018 before retiring at the end of last season. Laimbeer was instrumental in assembling the championship roster by drafting Wilson first in 2018 and getting Gray to come to the team last season as a free agent. … Aces owner Mark Davis sat on the baseline. … Had the Aces been able to complete the comeback, they would have broken the mark for biggest rally in WNBA Finals history. The New York Liberty came back from 18 down in 1999 against Houston when Teresa Weatherspoon hit a game-winning shot from half-court. Hammon played for the Liberty in that game.
HONORED
Wilson and Seattle’s Breanna Stewart were unanimous choices for the All-WNBA first team that was announced Thursday. Plum also was on the first team as well as Phoenix’s Skylar Diggins-Smith and Chicago’s Candace Parker. Thomas and Jones were on the second team along with New York’s Sabrina Ionescu, Los Angeles’s Nneka Ogwumike and Minnesota’s Sylvia Fowles.
___
More WNBA playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-playoffs and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-sun-stay-alive-beat-aces-105-76-in-game-3-of-wnba-finals/ | 2022-09-16T22:30:51Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-sun-stay-alive-beat-aces-105-76-in-game-3-of-wnba-finals/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Who better at the whodunit than Agatha Christie?
The prolific mystery writer authored 80 books, making her the most published author of all time behind only Shakespeare and the Bible. She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, “The Mousetrap,” which has been playing in London since 1952.
Christie’s stories have also been adapted many times for both TV and film. Her detectives, such as Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, are recognized even by those who have never opened one of her books.
Nearly 50 years after her death in 1976, Christie’s work continues to draw in new readers and viewers as well as inspire writers.
Yet adapting Agatha Christie as mass 21st-Century entertainment is not without its complications: they are products of the time they were written in, the mid-20th Century, and arguably reflect some unsavoury attitudes not least when it comes to racism, xenophobia and colonialism. The question is therefore: how do you translate and update Agatha Christie – or not – for the modern age?
On what would have been Agatha Christie’s 132nd birthday, the 1A Writer’s Room turns its attention to her long-lasting legacy.
We talk to three writers recently inspired by her work – one who turned their pen to non-fiction, one to short stories, and one to the screen. And, as always, you.
Copyright 2022 WAMU 88.5 | https://www.klcc.org/2022-09-13/the-writers-room-the-legacy-of-agatha-christie | 2022-09-16T22:31:53Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/2022-09-13/the-writers-room-the-legacy-of-agatha-christie | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The first Angel City FC and San Diego Wave FC game was played in front of sellout crowd at The Banc of California Stadium.
Thanks to Claire Emslie’s late goal, Angel City prevailed 2-1 in front of 22,000 fans on July 9
Saturday, if there any late-game heroics, it will be accomplished in front of the largest single-game crowd in NWSL history.
The game is the first for Wave FC in the new Snapdragon Stadium and the club has said they have sold 32,000 tickets, expected to smash the record of 25,218 set in 2019 by the Portland Thorns. A doubleheader with the OL Reign and Seattle Sounders last year drew 27,248
“I think it is going to be high tempo, high passion,” Angel City coach Freya Coombe said Wednesday. “I think the crowd is going to create an amazing atmosphere for the players to play in, which is what every player in this league deserves week in, week out. I think we can rise to that occasion. We will get rest and recovery now, but we are very much looking forward to the rivalry.”
Adding to the atmosphere will be that both teams are still trying to find solid footing in the playoff chase.
San Diego is tied for second (31 points), while Angel City is still on the outside looking in with 26 points in seventh place. To illustrate how tight the standings are, there are just seven points separating first-place Kansas City (32) from eighth-place North Carolina (25).
Saturday’s game will end a seven-day, three-city road trip for Angel City. So far, the club has only earned one point.
“We wanted to get a win against Houston and then beat North Carolina and go into Saturday up, which of course is going to be a very fun crazy game,” Angel City defender Ali Riley said. “We’re still positive that our (playoff) destiny is in our own hands. So if we can step it up one more level against San Diego, then we can we can still finish this week road trip on a high.
“(After the first game against San Diego), I was super happy because we won, but it’s a celebration of these two expansion teams who have created history, both with the records we’re breaking and also how well the teams have done and how many points, as expansion teams, these two teams have had. These are firsts so it’ll be a celebration.”
Following Saturday, Angel City will have three games remaining, including the last two home games against the Washington Spirit (Sept. 21) and Racing Louisville FC (Sept. 25). The regular season concludes Oct. 2 at the Chicago Red Stars.
Angel City FC at San Diego Wave FC
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Where: Snapdragon Stadium, San Diego
How to watch: Paramount+
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Amid falling COVID-19 numbers, Los Angeles County’s public health director expressed optimism on Friday, Sept. 16, that the region will avoid another winter surge like those that resulted in rampant infections and hospitalizations the past two years.
Pointing to the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine booster specifically engineered to attack the highly infectious BA.4 and BA.5 omicron variants of the virus, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer urged residents to take advantage of the shots.
“While it is humbling to look back over the past 2 1/2 years and be reminded of the enormity of the impact of COVID on our lives,” Ferrer said in a statement, I am also encouraged as we face our third winter with COVID because we are heading into the colder months with an updated fall booster that matches the variants currently circulating.
“This was not the case this past winter, when the highly infectious Omicron variant raged,” she added, “nor the winter of 2020/2021 when most of us were not yet vaccinated.”
The county has been reporting downward trends in local infection rates and in the number of people hospitalized with the virus.
This week, the county’s seven-day average new case rate was on the verge of falling below 100 per 100,000 residents, Ferrer said. When the county crosses that threshold, possibly by the end of the month, it will further relax its recommendation for indoor mask wearing.
Masks are currently “strongly recommended” in most indoor settings. But the falling case rate will change it to an “individual preference.”
Masks continue to be required in select settings, including health care facilities, correctional facilities and homeless shelters. Masks are currently still required aboard public transit vehicles such as buses and trains but, Ferrer said, that requirement could also end soon.
The county reported 1,944 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, raising the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 3,437,648.
The official number of new cases reported each day is believed to be an undercount of actual infections in the county because of the wide usage of at-home tests, the results of which are not generally reported to public health officials.
Another 16 virus-related deaths were reported Friday, giving the county an overall death toll of 33,447.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 5.2% as of Friday, roughly the same as the past week.
There were 669 COVID-19-positive patients hospitalized in the county as of Friday, down from 677 on Thursday. Of those patients, 92 were being treated in intensive care, up from 84 a day earlier.
The hospital numbers have been declining over the past month, corresponding with falling transmission rates. County officials have said about 43% of patients with COVID-19 were actually hospitalized because of virus-related illness, while the rest were admitted for other reasons, with some only learning they were infected when they were tested upon admission.
Despite these positive trends, Ferrer, in her statement, said it is crucial that folks have access to the new boosters as winter approaches.
“The work ahead is to be sure that access to the new vaccines is very easy,” Ferrer said, “and that everyone understands that the new Fall booster offers us our best opportunity to try and avert another terrible winter surge.”
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Casino Insider is a weekly newsletter with all the best bets for food, entertainment and fun at Southern California’s casinos. It’s delivered to your inbox on Thursdays. Subscribe now.
Agua Caliente Casino Palm Springs has debuted a new slot machine inspired by the iconic singer Frank Sinatra this week. The Sinatra Landmark 7000 Wheel is also expected to arrive at Agua Caliente’s sister properties later this year.
The Palm Springs location will also host a Sinatra-themed slot pull from 1:30-4:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16, for ACE club members who want to try their luck and test out the game’s features and music.
More casino news
- Lupillo Rivera will celebrate Mexican Independence Day with a free show at Spotlight 29 Casino this Friday
- Agua Caliente casino issues refunds for sold-out Enanitos Verdes show due to singer’s death
- Chris Young talks slot machines and roulette ahead of playing Fantasy Springs Resort Casino
Beyond Southern California
Now that football is in full swing, states with active sportsbooks are seeing an increase in traffic. The new sports season means more bets, but it also can be extra work for the casinos’ janitorial services. Bettors at Las Vegas casinos and sportsbooks are showing generosity to the staff that often deals with the clean-up and sharing tips for helping lighten their load. The Chicago-Sun Times has more.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed a package of environmental bills including SB 1137, closely watched by communities in Southern California who live near the region’s extensive oil well fields. The new law prohibits new oil and gas wells, or major retrofitting of existing wells, within a new buffer zone of 3,200 feet between the wells and homes, schools, nursing homes and hospitals.
SB 1137 also requires companies to monitor leaks and emissions and install alarms.
Food & Water Watch California Organizing Manager Tomás Rebecchi recently called SB 1137 “the most meaningful piece of climate legislation passed” by California lawmakers this session.
Just days before the governor’s signing, Ashley Hernandez, a community organizer for the nonprofit Communities for a Better Environment in Wilmington, said she hoped Newsom would back the bill to address the “traumatic impact of the oil and gas industry.”
“We are tired of our community being disregarded,” Hernandez told the Daily News. “This is such a sweet moment. … It’s transformational for all of us.”
Newsom recently put his power behind the bill, including it this summer in his mix of proposed bills to fight climate change. An effort in 2019 by South Bay Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, died in Sacramento while several other states went the other direction and created buffer safety zones in recent years.
The governor signed SB 1137 at a ceremony in Solano County where he also signed three other climate-related bills involving the state electric grid, carbon neutrality, and the capture and reuse of carbon emissions.
As in 2019, the proposed buffer zone legislation this year was fought hard by the oil and gas industry, some major business groups such as the state Chamber of Commerce, and powerful trade unions who called it a job killer.
More than 2.7 million Californians live within the 3,200 feet buffer zone in California, and 70% of them are people of color.
In Los Angeles County nearly 1.89 million residents live near oil and gas operations — one of several California countries that produce large volumes of oil. The other impacted counties include Kern, Ventura, Orange, and Santa Barbara, according to an analysis by the non-profit FracTracker Alliance.
Kobi Naseck, of Voices in Solidarity Against Oil in Neighborhoods, recently told the Daily News, “We have the data and we have the science and we’re going to take action on that science to protect our people from the big oil.”
The bill impacts not just new, but existing wells, Naseck said, prohibiting oil companies from seeking permits to make existing wells deeper to extract more oil, a procedure oil companies perform every few years.
The new law does not create any restrictions at the Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility near Porter Ranch, which released about 105,000 metric tons of methane during the 2015 Southern California Gas leak disaster that drove thousands of residents from their homes.
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To “own the libs,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have been busy bussing and flying migrants to blue states.
Most recently, Abbott sent busloads of migrants to Washington, D.C., while DeSantis sent two planes packed with migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, the wealthy liberal enclave in Massachusetts.
The migrants Abbott sent included many from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Likewise, most of those flown to Martha’s Vineyard are from Venezuela.
Victims of socialist tyranny, in other words, reduced to political pawns by Republicans who aren’t bright enough to embrace such people.
It wasn’t that long ago that Cubans benefited from the “wet foot, dry foot” policy which allowed Cuban migrants fleeing the Castro regime to stay in America.
It was a policy which allowed America to serve as a sanctuary for victims of socialism while benefiting from and maximizing the potential of Cubans in search of a better life. That policy was ended by President Barack Obama in 2017.
If anything, though, America should have an open borders policy for all people fleeing commie regimes — including Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
For decades, Cuban-Americans have politically benefited Republicans, especially in Florida.
Venezuelan-Americans have also been a politically competitive group, mindful of the horrors of the Maduro regime. They’re also a rapidly rising group. “From 2010 to 2019, the Venezuelan population in the U.S. increased 126% to 540,000, by far the fastest growth rate,” noted Pew Research Center.
Though a smaller group, the Miami Herald in 2020 reported that both the Biden and Trump campaigns specifically pushed to garner support from the Nicaraguan-American community in Florida. Nicaragua is currently being run into the ground by Daniel Ortega, who helped lead the socialist Sandinista revolution back in the 80s.
As someone who has traveled through Central and South America, I’ve encountered my share of both Nicaraguan and Venezuelan refugees in countries ranging from Costa Rica and Panama to Colombia and Peru.
Most didn’t really have a long-term idea of what they were going to do besides try to make a way to get by in their new home countries, but some indicated plans to try and get to the United States.
As I see it, there’s no reason for the United States not to have an easy, legal pathway for such people to come.
If we’re being purely practical, America needs the labor.
Birthrates are slipping; it’s kind of hard to maintain the ponzi scheme of Social Security when that’s happening.
America could also only benefit from people who have the sort of initiative to risk everything to come here. If they make it here, they’ve literally done more to deserve to be Americans than any native-born American.
These are people who understandably associate socialism with chaos and tyranny.
It’s in both America’s interests and even the GOP’s interest to counter the rising interest in socialism among America’s youth with people who actually know what socialism leads to.
In 2020, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation commissioned a survey whcih found that 49% of Gen Z’ers view “socialism” favorably. This is a bleak glimpse into the future of the country.
But now, dimwitted Republican governors Abbott and DeSantis are showing they don’t care about people fleeing the commies after all and are willing to use them as mere political props to be shipped around for media clips.
Hypocritically, just this year, DeSantis signed legislation establishing Nov. 7 as Victims of Communism Day.
“While it’s fashionable in some circles to whitewash the history of communism, Florida will stand for truth and remain as a beachhead for freedom,” DeSantis said at the time.
So much for that.
Of course, President Biden and the Democrats have been deplorable in their treatment of Venezuelan refugees as well.
In 2020, Biden felt perfectly comfortable condemning Trump for deporting Venezuelans, saying, “it’s abundantly clear he has no regard for the suffering of the Venezuelan people.” He was right about that. But Biden’s turned around and, as president, has done the same thing.
Victims of communist ideology deserve better than what Abbott, Biden and DeSantis have to offer.
Rather than using them as political pawns, America needs to be a sanctuary for victims of socialist tyranny. And yes, I define that broadly as anyone fleeing socialist-run countries whether they’re being directly persecuted by the government or not.
It’s in the interests of humanity and the American economy in the long-run to allow such people to put their skills to use here in America for the benefit of themselves and the American people rather than squander their abilities in their country of origin.
Open the borders to all fleeing the commies. Don’t support the terminally vacuous Abbott, Biden, DeSantis or Trump. America deserves better. They don’t care about victims of communism.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com
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Reports: ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway
NEW YORK (AP) — “The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, the biggest victim victim yet of the post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York.
The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts — will play its final performance on Broadway on Feb. 18, a spokesperson told The Associated Press on Friday. The closing will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary.
It is a costly musical to sustain, with elaborate sets and costumes as well as a large cast and orchestra. Box office grosses have fluctuated since the show reopened after the pandemic — going as high as over $1 million a week but also dropping to around $850,000. Last week, it hit $867,997 and producers may have seen the writing on the wall.
Based on a novel by Gaston Leroux, “Phantom” tells the story of a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lavish songs include “Masquerade,” ″Angel of Music,” ″All I Ask of You” and “The Music of the Night.”
The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities and performed in 17 languages over 70,000 performances. On Broadway alone, the musical has played more than 13,500 performances to 19 million people at The Majestic Theatre.
The closing of “Phantom” would mean the longest running show crown would go to “Chicago,” which started in 1996. “The Lion King” is next, having begun performances in 1997.
Broadway took a pounding during the pandemic, with all theaters closed for more than 18 months. Breaking even usually requires a steady stream of tourists, especially to “Phantom.”
The closure was first reported Friday by the New York Post.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbko.com/2022/09/16/reports-phantom-opera-close-broadway/ | 2022-09-16T22:35:25Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/2022/09/16/reports-phantom-opera-close-broadway/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The curtain will come down for the final time on Broadway's "The Phantom of the Opera."
The New York Times and Deadline report that the show will close in February 2023.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" is the longest-running show on Broadway. It made its debut in 1988 and won a Tony Award for Best Musical.
The Broadway show has been seen by nearly 20 million people and grossed more than $1 billion, according to The New York Times, which cited numbers
from Broadway League.
The show will still be in existence in other parts of the world. "The Phantom of the Opera" is still open in London, Japan, Australia, China, Finland and the Czech Republic. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/broadways-phantom-of-the-opera-to-reportedly-close-in-2023 | 2022-09-16T22:37:22Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/broadways-phantom-of-the-opera-to-reportedly-close-in-2023 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Popular east coast grocer Wegmans has announced that it will end the self-checkout app it once tried citing a spike in shoplifting.
The app allowed customers to scan items while shopping and then bag and pay for the items, skipping a human cashier and bagger entirely.
The grocery store said in a statement, "Unfortunately, the losses we are experiencing prevent us from continuing to make it available in its current state."
The statement said, "We've made the decision to turn off the app until we can make improvements that will meet the needs of our customers and business."
Wegmans did not provide further details on the loss numbers or what changes the grocery store plans to make with the app.
Its "scan-and-go" app was made available to customers as online retail giant Amazon started to increase the prominence of its cashier-free Amazon Go stores in multiple locations.
The in-store shopping feature began to be adopted more by customers during the pandemic as shoppers looked for ways to have less contact with the public around them to reduce the spread of COVID-19. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/east-coast-favorite-wegmans-ends-self-checkout-app-citing-spike-in-shoplifting | 2022-09-16T22:37:28Z | wtxl.com | control | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/east-coast-favorite-wegmans-ends-self-checkout-app-citing-spike-in-shoplifting | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Our Cause: In 2015 over two centuries old land is needed just three kilomete from the most significant cultural institution from Timuera Region “Monaco. (Fundamental building” is 4 m under grade.) It will create space to house contemporary Timuerer artifacts (dronamuseum.pl site & d.w.) at their true source/ place.\nFor all people that believe in this project there are several possibilities connected with project. They GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Is it art?
That's a question you might ask yourself after looking at Andrew Toppers ArtPrize entry, but it's one he doesn't mind hearing.
His piece, Nature through AI, is a manipulated, computer generated image based on photographs he's taken.
For Topper, this is a new way to experiment with an old hobby.
"I started taking photographs, probably 15 years ago, of nature," he said. "A couple of years ago, I learned about this process that allows digital images to be converted or transformed through AI into painting like objects."
The process is called neural style transfer. As a professor at Grand Valley State University with a computer science degree, Topper is very interested in that new kind of technology.
"I was a software engineer," he said. "That was my first career. I did that for a number of years. I understand the way things can work within software that gave me an inclination to try to find some of these things that were documented initially, and certainly in academic journals.”
All of the images you'll find in his collection are transformed from his photography portfolio, which means, no matter how you look at it, there's a great deal of artistic expression.
Still, Topper knows some people might look at his display and question its place in ArtPrize.
"I get it," he said. "I mean, there's fine art, and then there's art. Fine art is the kind of stuff that is very traditional. You spend years learning a painting technique, or learn how to sculpture. That is a kind of art that this isn't. But I also think there's art for what I would call the masses, which is, art that doesn't necessarily fit in that first category. It does show some creativity, some sense of the value of a beautiful thing. One of my favorite quotes is, 'Beautiful things don't ask for attention.' I think, one of the things I've tried to do is bring these to the forefront so other people can see them in a different way. The goal, obviously, is to increase concern and support for preserving and protecting nature. All the sales of my art will go towards organizations that do that.”
This is Topper's first time entering ArtPrize. He said he was shocked but honored to be included in the event.
You can find Topper's piece hanging up in the south lobby of Embassy Suites by Hilton on Monroe Ave. in downtown Grand Rapids. | https://www.fox17online.com/fox-17-unfiltered/exploring-an-artprize-piece-created-by-artificial-intelligence | 2022-09-16T22:39:34Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/fox-17-unfiltered/exploring-an-artprize-piece-created-by-artificial-intelligence | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
German racing team ByKolles has provided a first look at its new hypercar derived from the Le Mans Hypercar race car it is expected to enter the 2023 World Endurance Championship.
This week the hypercar started testing near ByKolles’ headquarters in Greding, Germany, where these photos were taken.
ByKolles plans to enter its LMH race car in the Hypercars class of the WEC under the branding of historic British racing team Vanwall, though it isn’t entirely certain whether the car will actually race under that name, especially as there’s a separate effort in the U.K. to revive the Vanwall name.
The original Vanwall was a British racing team that counted the likes of Stirling Moss and Lotus founder Colin Chapman among its drivers, and was the winner of the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship in 1958.
Despite the ambiguity of the use of the Vanwall name, ByKolles is pushing ahead with the development of its LMH race car under Vanwall branding. The car is officially known as the Vanwall Vandervell LMH. The road-going version goes by the name Vanwall Vandervell 1000, the number signifying a targeted 1,000-hp output.
ByKolles hasn’t provided any information alongside the photos of the Vanwall Vandervell 1000 posted to social model. The team has previously announced plans to launch a version of its LMH race car for track enthusiasts, and another for road use. The track car was previously announced to run the same engine as the race car, a Gibson V-8, and it was also said to be coming with a weight of just 2,094 lb due to a lack of ballast the race car would need to carry under Balance of Performance rules. The road car was said to be coming with a V-8 augmented by a hybrid system to generate a total 1,000 hp.
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- Watch Max Verstappen drive the 2023 Honda Civic Type R in new ad | https://www.wwlp.com/automotive/internet-brands/le-mans-hypercar-derived-vanwall-vandervell-1000-starts-testing/ | 2022-09-16T22:40:12Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/automotive/internet-brands/le-mans-hypercar-derived-vanwall-vandervell-1000-starts-testing/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Nissan Titan and Nissan Frontier pickup trucks equipped with a 9-speed automatic transmission are being recalled because the trucks can slip out of “Park” and roll away, the NHTSA disclosed this week. This is an expansion of a previous recall.
An issue with the transmission can prevent the parking pawl from being engaged, so when a driver shifts the truck into Park it may not actually be in Park. If the driver doesn’t engage the emergency parking brake, the truck could roll away without warning.
The issue affects more than 203,000 newer Nissan trucks. The bulk of the recall encompasses more than 92,000 units of the redesigned Nissan Frontier mid-size pickup truck from the 2022-2023 model years. Yet its predecessor from the 2020-2021 model years is also included because Nissan put the new engine in its old truck. Nearly 59,000 Nissan Titan full-size pickup trucks have been recalled from the 2020-2023 model year.
Most of the affected trucks had been recalled in June, but that recall had been limited to models produced from late 2019 to June 14, 2022. After that fix, Nissan uncovered another issue of the trucks not engaging in Park, and expanded the recall under “an abundance of caution,” Nissan explained in paperwork filed with the NHTSA. During the expanded investigation, Nissan also scrutinized the 2023 Nissan Z sports coupe, but it has not been included in the current, expanded recall.
Other Nissan and Infiniti vehicles equipped with the widespread 9-speed automatic transmission could be affected, with Nissan admitting the ongoing investigation does not have a remedy at the moment. In the meantime, Nissan will advise owners to engage the emergency parking brake until a fix is finalized.
Owners can expect notification by mail as early as Nov. 1. For more info, call Nissan’s customer service at 1-800-867-7669 or visit the brand’s dedicated recall hub.
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- 2023 Nissan Kicks increases $300 to start at $21,585
- Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator recalled for fires under the glovebox | https://www.wwlp.com/automotive/internet-brands/nissan-expands-recall-to-203000-trucks-for-rollaway-risk/ | 2022-09-16T22:40:32Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/automotive/internet-brands/nissan-expands-recall-to-203000-trucks-for-rollaway-risk/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK (AP) — Craig Newmark twists a “Batman” quote to jokingly refer to himself as “not the nerd you want, but maybe now and then I’m the nerd you need.”
Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, has since retired from the pioneering website that made him ultra-rich by expanding the world of classified ads onto the internet. But the 69-year-old self-proclaimed nerd says he’s now busier than ever as a philanthropist, with what he calls his particular skills — nurturing talent, directing people toward a goal, synthesizing expert knowledge — in high demand.
Through Craig Newmark Philanthropies, he launched the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York and has donated to numerous charities that support trustworthy journalism, voter protection, veterans and their families and encouragement for girls to seek careers in technology.
And in April, he committed $50 million in donations to the Cyber Civil Defense initiative. It is intended to help protect Americans from escalating cybersecurity threats.
Newmark sees the bulk of his philanthropic work as a way to help protect democracy, a cause to which he has already donated more than $250 million. That includes his latest donation — funding the Newmark Civic Life Series of Recanati-Kaplan Talks and an initiative of the 92NY Belfer Center for Innovation & Social Impact, which runs through the end of the year in New York City.
Topics include “The Big Truth: Upholding Democracy in the Age of ‘The Big Lie’,” moderated by CBS News anchor John Dickerson on Sept. 18, and future events including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, New York Times reporter and author Maggie Haberman and the founders of Axios.
The Associated Press spoke recently with Newmark about the lecture series and why he believes democracy is in danger. The interview was edited for clarity and length.
——
Q: Why did you want to sponsor this series?
A: Basically, our country and our democracy are under threat. And a guy like me, who doesn’t know a lot, figures, “I can work with other people to stand up and defend the country.” I’m doing that in a number of ways. One way is to work with 92NY. They get people who really know their stuff and who talk for the country. I’m not the right guy. It takes a kind of savvy that as a nerd, I lack.
Q: How does gathering people with varying viewpoints help solidify democracy?
A: Well, democracy is about getting people with different viewpoints to work together and get along. The deal is that some people will have strengths, where others have weaknesses and vice versa. There’s always a lot to learn. I’m trying to learn how to counter disinformation, and that’s a theme of these talks. But the more I learned, the more I realized that my confronting a disinformation professional makes me the person bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Q: How do you cut through the disinformation, especially as we approach the midterm elections?
A: I don’t know how to cut through it, but I can speak simple truths. Like the argument that things are thoroughly corrupt. You could show people that’s false. And generally speaking, the corruption argument comes from people pushing the message that says, “Abandon all hope.” If you abandon hope, you’ve lost. There’s still a lot of time to support democracy. It won’t be easy. My contribution will be to support people who are good at it. Like I’m hearing that pre-bunking, inoculating people against disinformation might be really helpful, along with flooding the zone with facts. There’s a lot more good actors than bad actors. The 92NY programs are about telling people who are potentially good actors that it’s time to stand up.
Q: And what do “good actors” need to do?
A: You have to find people willing to take a good honest look at what’s going on and challenge their own assumptions. And then act on that. It’s tough, because we all have confirmation bias. I have confirmation bias. I’ve learned through the decades that I’ve been very wrong at times. That’s why I act in a pretty restrained way. There’s a lot of good people doing a lot of this work. They need to talk to each other. They need to work with each other. Then, effectiveness is amplified. When people work together like that, people are also safer. If they work together en masse, creating a such a target-rich environment, it’s much more difficult for very bad actors to target them.
Q: Does that idea of collaboration extend to your philanthropy?
A: I have the disadvantage of being an amateur in philanthropy. But my biggest advantage is that I am an amateur in philanthropy. I’m not constrained by annual budget cycles and so on, although I have to deal with things like adjusting my burn rate because the biggest single area of expenditures is in supporting democracy. I’m trying to lead by example. And all I know is how to lead from the grassroots and the very bottom up. I have no skills for top-down leadership. I’m a black hole of charisma, you know; I absorb it without emitting any. So all I know is to stand up for things and nudge people to do so relentlessly.
____
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. | https://www.wwlp.com/business/ap-business/ap-qa-craig-newmark-aims-to-defend-democracy-via-philanthropy/ | 2022-09-16T22:42:06Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/business/ap-business/ap-qa-craig-newmark-aims-to-defend-democracy-via-philanthropy/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
CANTIANO, Italy (AP) — Flash floods swept through several towns Friday in hilly central Italy after hours of exceptionally heavy rain, leaving 10 people dead and at least four missing. Dozens of survivors scrambled onto rooftops or up into trees to await rescue.
Floods invaded garages and basements and knocked down doors. In one town, the powerful rush of water pushed a car onto a second-story balcony, while elsewhere parked vehicles were crumpled on top of each other in the streets. Some farm fields near the sea were meters (yards) under water.
“It wasn’t a water bomb, it was a tsunami,” Riccardo Pasqualini, the mayor of Barbara, told Italian state radio about the sudden downpour Thursday evening that devastated his town in the Marche region near the Adriatic Sea.
He said the overnight flooding left the town’s 1,300 residents without drinking water. A mother and her young daughter were missing after trying to escape the floods, Pasqualini told the Italian news agency ANSA. Elsewhere in town, a boy was swept away from the arms of his mother, who was rescued.
Premier Mario Draghi told a news conference in Rome that 10 people were dead and four were missing in the flash floods. He thanked rescuers “for their professionalism, dedication and courage.” Officials said some 50 people were treated at hospitals for injuries.
Draghi, who is serving in a caretaker role ahead of Italy’s Sept. 25 national election, planned to tour some devastated towns later Friday and his government announced 5 million euros (dollars) in aid to the region.
“It was an extreme event, more than an exceptional one,″ climatologist Massimiliano Fazzini told Italian state TV. He said, based on his calculations, the amount of rain that fell, concentrated over four hours that included an especially heavy 15-minute period, was the most in hundreds of years.
In a space of a few hours, the region was deluged with the amount of rainfall it usually receives in six months, state TV said. A summer of virtually no rain meant hillsides were unusually hard and dry, so the water ran faster down the slopes, increasing its impact.
The fire department tweeted that dozens of people trapped in cars or who had climbed up to rooftops or trees to escape rising floodwaters had been rescued. Police in the town of Sassoferrato, unable to reach a man trapped in a car, extending a long tree branch to him and pulled him to safety.
Helicopter crews rescued seven people in remote towns of the Apennine Mountains.
Hundreds of firefighters struggled Friday to remove toppled tree trunks and branches amid thick mud as they searched for people who could have been buried by debris. They waded through waist-high water in flooded streets, while others paddled in rubber dinghies to scoop up survivors.
In the town of Ostra, a father and his adult son were found dead in their building’s flooded garage where they had gone to try to get their car out, and another man who tried to remove his motorcycle from a garage also perished, state TV said. Elsewhere, a man was found dead in his car.
“As it (the flood) played out, it was far, far worse than forecast,” said Civil Protection chief Fabrizio Curcio. A bad weather watch had been issued on Thursday, but not at the highest level.
Hundreds of people fled or were evacuated from their homes until the premises could be checked for safety and mountains of mud cleared away.
Some of the worst flooding hit the town of Senigallia, where the River Misa overflowed its banks. Hamlets in the hills near the Renaissance tourist town of Urbino were also inundated when fast-moving rivers of water, mud and debris rushed through the streets.
In the town of Cantiano, people shoveled mud from stores and homes and an excavating machine was deployed to clear the town square.
“I was lucky because I live in a house up on a slope, so basically, the water didn’t reach the point of covering it,” said Mirco Santarelli, a Cantiano resident. “But all around here, with the people living in the valley area, it became a bowl (of water). It was panic.”
“You could see cars in the middle of the road that drifted away in the flood, debris everywhere, screams. It was chaos,” Santarelli told The Associated Press.
___
Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-international-news/ap-floods-in-italy-kill-at-least-10-rescues-from-roofs-trees/ | 2022-09-16T22:42:43Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-international-news/ap-floods-in-italy-kill-at-least-10-rescues-from-roofs-trees/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
LONDON (AP) — A foreign correspondent, a consultant, a businessman, a retired accountant and his wife stand in a line for nearly eight hours.
That is how this story begins, once I claim my spot among a growing queue of mourners coming from all corners of the United Kingdom and the world to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth II in England’s capital.
It ends when the five of us exit the majestic hall — each in awe, in our own individual way, of the forces of change that swirl around us.
One step into the line, a volunteer named Kofi jots down my number; a wristband later confirms I am No. 3,017 in the queue.
I look back, and the chain of people has already grown by a dozen. It will stretch for miles along the south bank of the River Thames toward Westminster Hall, where the late queen is lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday.
We were told to expect this. Long waiting times, potentially for 30 hours, in lines that could stretch more than five miles.
A single-zip backpack was all we were allowed to bring; food and drink would be tossed before entering the hall. I packed as I would for a hostile assignment: Layers and waterproofs to account for the notoriously moody weather. Protein bars and a fully charged power bank. An obscene number of pens. And good shoes.
___
The first challenge is finding the end of the ever-moving queue. I start from the beginning, near the Albert Embankment, and work my way through the sea of humans from all walks of life who are lined up in single file.
My fellow queuers and I assess each other silently. There is Ramakant and his wife Usha, a retired pair with a passion for mountains. Daniel, a jolly businessman from Essex, specializes in office refurbishment. There is a consultant whose identity I’ve sworn to secrecy because she was skipping work to stand in line.
In the course of our normal lives, we are unlikely to ever cross paths. But the forces of history have somehow bound us together, at least for these next few hours. Quietly, not explicitly, a sense of community has mysteriously formed between us.
We have different reasons for coming. Ramakant and Usha adored the queen. Daniel admired her dedication. For the unnamed consultant, saying goodbye to the queen was something she had to do “for myself.”
Me? I was curious. Death has been on my mind lately.
A week prior, I had been in southern Iraq to witness thousands of pilgrims make their way to the holy city of Karbala to mark the Shiite religious observance of Arbaeen — a 40-day mourning period to commemorate the death of Imam Hussein, Prophet Mohammed’s grandson.
I watched an endless procession of pious Iraqis recreate scenes from seventh-century Islam under the scorching 105-degree (40 degrees Celsius) sun. Men rode camels in Hejazi regalia and black-clad youth waved religious flags. Food stalls that dotted the many miles to the shrine gave out rice and beans.
Now I am witness to a dramatically different queue of mourners, there to mark the passing of a monarch whose 70-year reign encompassed the end of an empire. Unlike in the parched terrain of Iraq, people here are fearful it may rain.
___
The queue, observed: Readers engrossed in thick novels. Groups of friends chatting and sharing large bottles of champagne. A woman practicing tai chi.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Ramakant says.
Usha marvels at how Elizabeth worked up until hours before she died, handling the transition of power from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss two days before her demise.
“Imagine all the things she has done behind the scenes, in the background, none of us know anything about,” she says.
They can’t believe Elizabeth is dead, despite the fact they knew she could not live forever. “Did you notice her fingertips?” Daniel says of Elizabeth’s last appearance two days before her death. “They were see-through almost, weren’t they?”
We are silent, listening to the gentle soundtrack of the Thames.
It’s a good thing, he adds, that she died soon after Prince Philip, her husband of 74 years. It had been the same with his parents; they died within two weeks of each other. “It’s the best death, really.”
The consultant ducks to avoid a TV crew. Later she scrolls social media, hoping not to find herself on international news broadcasts. A colleague calls, and she tells them she is just “getting lunch.”
I ask: Why not just tell them you are here?
“It’s just one of those things I want to do for myself, and not have to explain.” ___
Suddenly, the line is moving. The queen’s coffin has arrived in the Hall.
Everything that follows is the epitome of order. The line snakes quickly around the bank, down to the embankment, where we watch boats cruise by. Before us, in the late-afternoon sun, the gothic complex of Westminster glimmers.
Ramakant was an accountant and has spent his retirement years traveling the world with his wife. From Niagara Falls to Mt. Kilimanjaro, they have been everywhere. “The key,” says Usha, “is not to wait until tomorrow.”
“You might be dead,” Ramakant says. To our left is the National COVID Memorial Wall, with one heart for each life lived and lost.
The consultant has to use the bathroom, but the line is now moving rapidly. So we share our location with her and, moments later, wave when we are many yards ahead and are reunited.
At the final stretch, we eye the security check just before the hall entrance. We are surprised by how fast the line has moved. A woman behind me complains to the volunteers who come to take away drinks: “I’ve got 30 hours’ worth of alcohol in here!”
Ramakant is stopped from taking off his shoes before the X-ray. “This isn’t like Gatwick!” jokes one policeman, invoking the name of one of London’s airports.
Inside the hall, all falls silent and still. We look up at the lofty wood-beam ceilings. We look down, and there it is — the queen’s coffin on a raised platform, surrounded by honor guards. On top, the imperial state crown glitters with its 3,000 diamonds.
The line divides in two, and each of us is given three seconds to pay last respects. A man in a tartan kilt and with a walking stick salutes. An elderly woman rises from her wheelchair and makes the sign of the cross. Daniel gets on one knee. Ramakant and Usha bow their heads. Then it is my turn. Outside, the sun is setting.
“We probably would never have met if it weren’t for this,” Daniel says afterward. Everyone exchanges numbers. “Even in death, she’s still doing her work.”
Total time elapsed: Just over 7½ hours.
Ramakant turns to me. “So,” he says. “What will you write about us?”
___
Samya Kullab, Iraq correspondent for The Associated Press, is on assignment in London covering the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/samya_kullab | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-international-news/ap-london-diary-reflections-from-the-queue-to-mourn-the-queen/ | 2022-09-16T22:43:19Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-international-news/ap-london-diary-reflections-from-the-queue-to-mourn-the-queen/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to allow Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to deliver a pre-recorded address to next week’s gathering of world leaders because of his need to deal with the war following Russia’s invasion, making an exception to its requirement that all leaders speak in person.
The 193-member world body approved Zelenskky’s virtual address by a vote of 101-7 with 19 abstentions.
The assembly first voted on an amendment put forward by Belarus, a close ally of Russia, that would have allowed any leader facing exceptional difficulties and unable to attend to deliver a pre-recorded address. It was defeated by a vote of 23-67 with 27 abstentions.
The document that was approved expresses concern that leaders of “peace-loving“ U.N. sovereign nations can’t participate in person “for reasons beyond their control owing to ongoing foreign invasion, aggression, military hostilities that do not allow safe departure from and return to their countries, or the need to discharge their national defense and security duties and functions.”
The document, which had more than 50 co-sponsors, permits Zelenskyy to submit a pre-recorded statement to be played in the General Assembly hall. It stresses that this will not set a precedent for future high-level assembly meetings.
The document refers to the General Assembly resolution adopted at an emergency special session on March 2 — six days after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine — demanding an immediate halt to Moscow’s offensive and withdrawal of all Russian troops. The vote on the resolution, titled “Aggression against Ukraine,” was 141-5 with 35 abstentions.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual meeting of world leaders at the General Assembly was all virtual in 2020 and hybrid in 2021. But this year the assembly decided that all speeches must be in person.
The proposal to let Zelenskyy pre-record his statement required a majority vote in the assembly. On the latest speakers list, Zelenskyy is to deliver his address to the assembly on the afternoon of Sept. 21, but that could change. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-international-news/ap-un-votes-to-allow-ukraines-zelenskyy-to-give-virtual-speech/ | 2022-09-16T22:44:19Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-international-news/ap-un-votes-to-allow-ukraines-zelenskyy-to-give-virtual-speech/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago police officers face felony charges for allegedly shooting and seriously wounding an unarmed man during a July shootout on the city’s southwest side that also wounded a second man, authorities said Friday.
Sgt. Christopher Liakopoulos, 43, and Officer Ruben Reynoso, 42, have been charged with one count each of aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and official misconduct, said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Foxx said the officers were relieved of their police powers on Thursday before they turned themselves in to authorities.
Foxx said both officers “are being charged with having fired their shots” that wounded an unarmed 23-year-old man — identified separately Friday through a civil court filing as Miguel Medina — on July 22 in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. That man has since recovered and is cooperating with the investigation, she said.
“The victim who was shot and injured in this incident was not in possession of a weapon, nor did he fire a weapon at these two officers,” Foxx said during a news conference.
After the shooting, police said in a statement that two officers who had observed four people loitering in front of a closed store stopped to investigate and identified themselves as police.
Police said one of the four in the group then displayed a handgun and an exchange of gunfire ensued in which Medina suffered gunshot wounds and was transported to a hospital in serious condition.
Foxx said that based on a review of the evidence, including video surveillance footage, prosecutors believe “the officers involved in this incident did not have provocation or justification to shoot the unarmed” Medina.
“The evidence does not support the use of deadly force related to the shooting of the unarmed victim, and was not lawful,” Foxx said.
Assistant State’s Attorney Alyssa Janicki said Friday at the officers’ bond hearing that a juvenile and Medina initially approached the unmarked police vehicle when questioned by the officers.
The juvenile ran, but Medina showed both hands to the officers as Reynoso and Liakopoulos both pointed their guns out the vehicle’s passenger window and started shooting. Medina was shot in the back and leg.
The juvenile, who Janicki said had a gun in a satchel across his chest, kept running before turning and firing shots at the officers who shot back. A pedestrian near the juvenile suffered a grazing wound.
The officers were heading to a morning training course and were in plain clothes at the time of the shooting. Neither had on their police body cameras because they were going to training, Janicki said.
Prosecutors later obtained surveillance video from the area.
After the shooting, Foxx said, the two officers “made representations to legal authorities, including the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, that was directly contradicted by the videotaped evidence.”
Brian Sexton, Reynoso’s attorney, said during Friday’s hearing that his client was focused on the 17-year-old with the gun and never shot in the direction of Medina.
Sexton said that after Reynoso watched a surveillance video of the shooting, he told the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the state’s attorney’s office that he “just didn’t remember” the shooting.
Tim Grace, Liakopoulos’ attorney, told the judge that the officers were confronted “by an armed assailant who points a gun at them and eventually fires at them.”
“We are supposed to see if the police officer’s actions were objectively reasonable,” Grace said. “We don’t use 20/20 hindsight. We don’t second-guess. We don’t slow down video like the state’s attorney’s office does.”
Medina filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against Liakopoulos and the city accusing the officer of using excessive force and battery during their interaction and falsely arresting him afterward.
Medina alleges that he and others were walking when the officers drove up in police vehicle and started questioning the group. Medina says he showed his hands and began walking away when Liakopoulos fired shots at him from the vehicle, striking him several times.
Medina was treated at a hospital for his wounds and then held for several hours at a police station, though he was never charged, according to the lawsuit, which doesn’t say how much Medina is seeking and requests a jury trial.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting and has a deadline of Sept. 22 to release materials related to the shooting, including videos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-2-chicago-cops-charged-in-shooting-that-wounded-unarmed-man/ | 2022-09-16T22:44:33Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-2-chicago-cops-charged-in-shooting-that-wounded-unarmed-man/ | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 20 |
CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago police officers face felony charges for allegedly shooting and seriously wounding an unarmed man during a July shootout on the city’s southwest side that also wounded a second man, authorities said Friday.
Sgt. Christopher Liakopoulos, 43, and Officer Ruben Reynoso, 42, have been charged with one count each of aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm and official misconduct, said Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.
Foxx said the officers were relieved of their police powers on Thursday before they turned themselves in to authorities.
Foxx said both officers “are being charged with having fired their shots” that wounded an unarmed 23-year-old man — identified separately Friday through a civil court filing as Miguel Medina — on July 22 in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. That man has since recovered and is cooperating with the investigation, she said.
“The victim who was shot and injured in this incident was not in possession of a weapon, nor did he fire a weapon at these two officers,” Foxx said during a news conference.
After the shooting, police said in a statement that two officers who had observed four people loitering in front of a closed store stopped to investigate and identified themselves as police.
Police said one of the four in the group then displayed a handgun and an exchange of gunfire ensued in which Medina suffered gunshot wounds and was transported to a hospital in serious condition.
Foxx said that based on a review of the evidence, including video surveillance footage, prosecutors believe “the officers involved in this incident did not have provocation or justification to shoot the unarmed” Medina.
“The evidence does not support the use of deadly force related to the shooting of the unarmed victim, and was not lawful,” Foxx said.
Assistant State’s Attorney Alyssa Janicki said Friday at the officers’ bond hearing that a juvenile and Medina initially approached the unmarked police vehicle when questioned by the officers.
The juvenile ran, but Medina showed both hands to the officers as Reynoso and Liakopoulos both pointed their guns out the vehicle’s passenger window and started shooting. Medina was shot in the back and leg.
The juvenile, who Janicki said had a gun in a satchel across his chest, kept running before turning and firing shots at the officers who shot back. A pedestrian near the juvenile suffered a grazing wound.
The officers were heading to a morning training course and were in plain clothes at the time of the shooting. Neither had on their police body cameras because they were going to training, Janicki said.
Prosecutors later obtained surveillance video from the area.
After the shooting, Foxx said, the two officers “made representations to legal authorities, including the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, that was directly contradicted by the videotaped evidence.”
Brian Sexton, Reynoso’s attorney, said during Friday’s hearing that his client was focused on the 17-year-old with the gun and never shot in the direction of Medina.
Sexton said that after Reynoso watched a surveillance video of the shooting, he told the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the state’s attorney’s office that he “just didn’t remember” the shooting.
Tim Grace, Liakopoulos’ attorney, told the judge that the officers were confronted “by an armed assailant who points a gun at them and eventually fires at them.”
“We are supposed to see if the police officer’s actions were objectively reasonable,” Grace said. “We don’t use 20/20 hindsight. We don’t second-guess. We don’t slow down video like the state’s attorney’s office does.”
Medina filed a federal lawsuit on Friday against Liakopoulos and the city accusing the officer of using excessive force and battery during their interaction and falsely arresting him afterward.
Medina alleges that he and others were walking when the officers drove up in police vehicle and started questioning the group. Medina says he showed his hands and began walking away when Liakopoulos fired shots at him from the vehicle, striking him several times.
Medina was treated at a hospital for his wounds and then held for several hours at a police station, though he was never charged, according to the lawsuit, which doesn’t say how much Medina is seeking and requests a jury trial.
The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is investigating the shooting and has a deadline of Sept. 22 to release materials related to the shooting, including videos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-2-chicago-cops-charged-in-shooting-that-wounded-unarmed-man/ | 2022-09-16T22:44:33Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-2-chicago-cops-charged-in-shooting-that-wounded-unarmed-man/ | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 20 |
The Kerala Women's League that has witnessed a flurry of goals had a rare goalless draw on Friday.
The match between Don Bosco Football Academy and Luca Soccer Club ended 0-0 at the Maharaja's College Stadium in Ernakulam.
Luca's goalkeeper Varsha EM was adjuged the player of the match. | https://www.onmanorama.com/sports/football/2022/09/16/kerala-womens-league-don-bosco-luca-soccer-club.html | 2022-09-16T22:44:44Z | onmanorama.com | control | https://www.onmanorama.com/sports/football/2022/09/16/kerala-womens-league-don-bosco-luca-soccer-club.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem faced a Friday deadline to appeal a state ethics board’s finding that there was evidence she improperly intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license.
The Government Accountability Board voted unanimously last month that there was enough evidence to believe the Republican governor had committed malfeasance and engaged in a conflict of interest.
Noem has maintained she did nothing wrong, but so far the process has been conducted in private. Neither her office nor her reelection campaign answered questions Friday on whether she would proceed to a contested case hearing that would give her a chance to make her case publicly.
The board took unspecified “action” against the governor, and board member Gene Kean said last month that Friday would be the deadline for Noem to respond.
If there is no public hearing, it’s not clear whether the board will release details of the action it took. The board closed the complaint last month but suggested it could be reopened.
A lawyer who has represented the governor before the board also did not respond to questions.
The Associated Press first reported that shortly after a state agency moved in July 2020 to deny Noem’s daughter, Kassidy Peters, an appraiser license, the governor held a meeting with Peters and key decision-makers in her licensure. Days after the meeting, Peters signed an agreement that gave her another opportunity to meet the licensing requirements. The South Dakota Legislature’s audit committee, controlled by Republicans, unanimously approved a report in May that found Noem’s daughter got preferential treatment.
Noem previously requested the ethics complaint be dismissed without a hearing by arguing that the person who brought it, former Republican Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg, was out for revenge after she successfully pushed for his impeachment and removal from office for his conduct in a 2020 fatal car crash.
In that April motion to the board, Noem’s attorneys also said she could counter the accusations against her. Her campaign spokesman, Ian Fury, on Friday referred a reporter to an August statement that branded the board’s action as “illegal.”
But declining to fight the evidence in a contested case hearing would allow the board’s “action” against her while potentially avoiding further public scrutiny.
The Government Accountability Board, which has never handled such a high-profile case since its inception in 2017, has not publicly said what action it has taken. It has deliberated over the complaints for nearly a year in a series of closed-door meetings, navigating untested laws.
Board member David Gienapp, at the board’s August meeting, verbally moved to invoke a statute — SDCL 3-24-7 — that states the board “shall” hold a contested case hearing “to afford the accused person the opportunity to respond to the allegation.” But the board’s draft minutes, posted two days later, make no mention of that statute. Instead, the draft minutes state that the board acted to “make an initial determination” that the complaint “alleges facts” that the governor engaged in misconduct.
The board’s minutes state that it took “appropriate action,” but the board has kept that action a secret so far. The board is allowed under state law to issue a private reprimand. But the statute says it may take that action at the conclusion of a contested case hearing and after it has determined, by a majority vote, that there has been misconduct.
“Their official actions, whatever they may be, should be a public record,” said David Bordewyk, who directs the South Dakota Newspaper Association and advocates for open records and meeting laws.
“Given the nature of this board, which is to hold public officials accountable, the public has a right to know what those accountability measures are, regardless of the official.”
Board members this week either declined to comment or did not return a request for comment. An attorney hired by the board, Mark Haigh, has previously said it “fully complied” with all the requirements in the laws governing it. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-gov-kristi-noem-silent-on-possible-appeal-of-ethics-board/ | 2022-09-16T22:44:45Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-gov-kristi-noem-silent-on-possible-appeal-of-ethics-board/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) — The chief executive of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services was wrapping up work when she looked outside to see 48 strangers at her office with luggage, backpacks and red folders that included brochures for her organization.
The Venezuelan migrants who were flown to the wealthy Massachusetts island from San Antonio on Wednesday by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said they were told they were going to Boston.
DeSantis took from the playbook of a fellow Republican, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, by surprising Democratic strongholds with large influxes of migrants and providing little or no information.
“They were told that they would have a job and they would have housing,” said Elizabeth Folcarelli, who leads Martha’s Vineyard Community Services and described the scramble for shelter as a “huge challenge.”
Julio Henriquez, an attorney who met with several migrants, said they “had no idea of where they were going or where they were.”
Two flights to Martha’s Vineyard stopped in the Florida Panhandle, Henriquez said. While on board, migrants got brochures and maps of Massachusetts.
An unsigned letter told migrants to notify U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of address changes, though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is actually responsible for tracking migrants, Henriquez said. “This is terrible advice,” he said.
Many immigrants have appointments with ICE on Monday in San Antonio. Others were ordered to report to immigration authorities in two weeks to three months in cities including Philadelphia and Washington.
U.S. officials told immigration attorneys that required check-ins would be postponed, Henriquez said. Homeland Security officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
In San Antonio, a Latina woman approached migrants at a city-run shelter and put them up at a nearby La Quinta Inn, where she visited daily with food and gift cards, Henriquez said. She promised jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
The woman, who introduced herself to migrants as Perla, promised jobs, housing and support for their immigration cases, said Oren Sellstrom of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which offered free consultations.
The city of San Antonio was unaware of the flights, said Maria Villagomez, deputy city manager.
Pedro Luis Torrelaba, 36, said he was promised work, food and housing. He thought he was going to New York.
“I am not a victim,” he said Friday, expressing gratitude to residents of Martha’s Vineyard for their hospitality. “I simply feel misled because they told a lie and it has come to nothing.”
The migrants were being moved voluntarily Friday to a military base on nearby Cape Cod. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker said he would activate up to 125 National Guard members to assist the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
DeSantis said Friday that most migrants intended to come to Florida and that the trip to Martha’s Vineyard was voluntary. He did not address the migrants’ claims that they were told they were going elsewhere.
Florida’s governor defended picking up migrants in Texas and vowed to continue transportation to immigrant-friendly “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
“Our view is that you’ve got to deal with it at the source, and if they’re intending to come to Florida or many of them are intending to come to Florida, that’s our best way to make sure they end up in a sanctuary,” he said.
Texas has bused about 8,000 migrants to Washington since April, including more than 100 Thursday to Vice President Kamala Harris’ home. It also has bused about 2,200 to New York and 300 to Chicago.
Arizona has bused more than 1,800 migrants to Washington since May, but has kept officials on the receiving end informed of the plans. The city of El Paso, Texas, has sent at least 1,135 migrants on 28 buses to New York since Aug. 23 and, like Arizona, shares passenger rosters and other information.
Last week, a 2-year-old who arrived in New York from Texas was hospitalized for dehydration and a pregnant woman on the same bus was in severe pain, according to advocates and city officials.
Volunteer groups often wait hours for buses arriving from Texas in a designated space of Manhattan’s Port of Authority Bus Terminal. They rely on tipsters for help.
“It’s a problem because we don’t know when the buses are coming, how many buses are coming, if anyone on these buses has medical conditions that they will need help with, if they need a wheelchair,” said Manuel Castro, commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs. “We at least want to know that so that we can best help people as they arrive.”
A contractor that Texas hired to bus migrants signed an agreement that prohibits them from talking to New York officials, Castro said.
Some fathers have arrived in New York while their spouses and children were sent to Washington, said Ilze Thielmann, a volunteer director with TLC NYC, a group working to reunite them.
Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker said his administration has reached out to Texas but gets no information. The first migrants arrived at Chicago’s Union Station from Texas on Aug. 31.
Abbott’s office dismissed complaints about lack of coordination and keeping cities guessing about the governor’s next moves as he tries to stoke opposition to President Joe Biden’s border policies.
“Instead of complaining about fulfilling their sanctuary city promises, these Democrat hypocrites should call on President Biden to do his job and secure the border — something the president continues failing to do,” spokeswoman Renae Eze said Thursday.
Arizona has been working since May through the Regional Center for Border Health, which runs clinics for low-income patients in Yuma. Several days a week, a bus heads east from a clinic office in suburban Somerton.
Amanda Aguirre, the health care provider’s CEO, said she told Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s staff that she wouldn’t participate without close coordination. Arizona established information-sharing protocols from the start with Carecen, a nonprofit group that assists migrants in Washington, Aguirre said.
“I will never allow people just being dropped in the street because that’s what I’m trying to prevent here in Yuma, being just dropped in the street,” Aguirre said.
Some migrants seem unaffected by the chaos.
Cleiver Rodriguez of Venezuela said he appreciated the free ride from Texas to New York, where he came looking for work.
“I don’t have any kind of opinion because at least they helped me get here,” Rodriguez, 24, said as he left a shelter.
___
Salomon reported from Miami and Torrens from New York. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Elliot Spagat in Somerton, Arizona; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-to-be-moved-to-mainland/ | 2022-09-16T22:44:53Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/ap-national-news/ap-migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-to-be-moved-to-mainland/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ATLANTA (AP) — Sensitive voting system passwords posted online. Copies of confidential voting software available for download. Ballot-counting machines inspected by people not supposed to have access.
The list of suspected security breaches at local election offices since the 2020 election keeps growing, with investigations underway in at least three states — Colorado, Georgia and Michigan. The stakes appeared to rise this week when the existence of a federal probe came to light involving a prominent loyalist to former President Donald Trump who has been promoting voting machine conspiracy theories across the country.
While much remains unknown about the investigations, one of the most pressing questions is what it all could mean for security of voting machines with the midterm elections less than two months away.
Election security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November voting. Election officials already assume hostile foreign governments might have the sensitive data, and so they take precautions to protect their voting systems.
The more immediate concern is the possibility that rogue election workers, including those sympathetic to lies about the 2020 presidential election, might use their access to election equipment and the knowledge gained through the breaches to launch an attack from within. That could be intended to gain an advantage for their desired candidate or party, or to introduce system problems that would sow further distrust in the election results.
In some of the suspected security breaches, authorities are investigating whether local officials provided unauthorized access to people who copied software and hard drive data, and in several cases shared it publicly.
After the Georgia breach, a group of election security experts said the unauthorized copying and sharing of election data from rural Coffee County presented “serious threats” to the November election. They urged the state election board to replace the touchscreen devices used throughout the state and use only hand-marked paper ballots.
Harri Hursti, a leading expert in voting security, said he is concerned about another use of the breached data. Access to the voting equipment data or software can be used to develop a realistic looking video in which someone claims to have manipulated a voting system, he said.
Such a fake video posted online or to social media on or after Election Day could create chaos for an election office and cause voters to challenge the accuracy of the results.
“If you have those rogue images, now you can start manufacturing false, compelling evidence — false evidence of wrongdoing that never happened,” Hursti said. “You can start creating very compelling imaginary evidence.”
There has been no evidence that voting machines have been manipulated, either during the 2020 election or in this year’s primaries. But conspiracy theories widely promoted among some conservatives have led to calls for replacing the machines with hand-marked and hand-counted ballots and raised concerns that they could be targeted by people working inside election offices or at polling places.
The suspected breaches appear to be orchestrated or encouraged by people who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. In several of the cases, employees of local election offices or election boards gave access to voting systems to people who were not authorized to have it. The incidents emerged into public view after the voting system passwords for Mesa County, Colorado, were posted online, prompting a local investigationand a successful effort to replace the county clerk from overseeing elections.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has organized or attended forums around the U.S. peddling conspiracy theories about voting machines, said this week that he had received a subpoena from a federal grand jury investigating the breach in Colorado and was ordered to hand over his cellphone to FBI agents who approached him at a fast-food restaurant in Minnesota.
“And they told me not to tell anybody,” Lindell said in a video afterward. “OK, I won’t. But I am.”
Lindell and others have been traveling the country over the past year, holding events where attendees are told that voting machines have been corrupted, that officials are “selected” rather than elected and that widespread fraud cost Trump the 2020 election.
In an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Lindell said FBI agents questioned him about the Colorado breach and Dominion Voting Systems. The company provides voting equipment used in about 30 states and has had its machines targeted in the Colorado, Georgia and Michigan breaches.
When agents asked him why he flies between different states, Linden told them, “I’m going to attorney generals and politicians, and I’m trying to get them to get rid of these voting machines in our country.”
The Justice Department did not respond when asked for details about its investigation.
Dominion has sued Lindell and others, accusing them of defamation. In a statement this week, the company said it would not comment about ongoing investigations but said its systems are secure. It noted that no credible evidence has been provided to show that its machines “did anything other than count votes accurately and reliably in all states.”
The scope of the federal grand jury probe in Colorado isn’t known, but local authorities have charged Mesa County clerk Tina Peters in what they described as a “deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people.”
Peters has pleaded not guilty and said she had the authority to investigate concerns that the voting equipment had been manipulated. She has appeared at numerous events with Lindell over the past year, including Lindell’s “cybersymposium” last August in which a digital copy of Mesa County’s election management system was distributed.
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who now leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, notes the irony of those who raise alarms about voting equipment being involved in allegations of breaches of the same systems.
“The people who have been attacking the integrity of elections are destroying the actual integrity of elections,” he said.
___
Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s voting coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/voting | https://www.wwlp.com/news/political-news/ap-politics/ap-breaches-of-voting-machine-data-raise-worries-for-midterms/ | 2022-09-16T22:45:44Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/political-news/ap-politics/ap-breaches-of-voting-machine-data-raise-worries-for-midterms/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (AP) — When a government document mysteriously appeared earlier this week in the highest profile case in the federal court system, it had the hallmarks of another explosive storyline in the Justice Department’s investigation into classified records stored at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
The document purported to be from the U.S. Treasury Department, claimed that the agency had seized sensitive documents related to last month’s search at Mar-a-Lago and included a warrant ordering CNN to preserve “leaked tax records.”
The document remained late Thursday on the court docket, but it is a clear fabrication. A review of dozens of court records and interviews by The Associated Press suggest the document originated with a serial forger behind bars at a federal prison complex in North Carolina.
The incident also suggests that the court clerk was easily tricked into believing it was real, landing the document on the public docket in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant case. It also highlights the vulnerability of the U.S. court system and raises questions about the court’s vetting of documents that purport to be official records.
The document first appeared on the court’s docket late Monday afternoon and was marked as a “MOTION to Intervene by U.S. Department of the Treasury.”
The document, sprinkled with spelling and syntax errors, read, “The U.S. Department of Treasury through the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals Service have arrested Seized Federal Securities containing sensitive documents which are subject to the Defendant Sealed Search Warrant by the F.B.I. arrest.”
It cited a federal statute for collecting financial records in federal investigations. The document also included the two supposed warrants, one that claimed to be sent to CNN in Atlanta and another to a towing company in Michigan.
Those supposed warrants, though, are identical to paperwork filed in another case in federal court in Georgia brought by an inmate at the prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina. The case was thrown out, as were the array of other frivolous lawsuits the man has filed from his prison cell.
The man has been in custody for several years since he was found not competent to stand trial after an arrest for planting a fake explosive outside the Guardian Building, a skyscraper in Detroit. Since his incarceration, he has filed a range of lawsuits and has impersonated the Treasury Department, claimed to be a federal trustee and claimed to be a lawyer for the Justice Department, a review of court records shows.
In the Georgia case, the man alleged that Trump and others had “acquired ‘millions of un- redacted classified tax returns and other sensitive financial data, bank records and accounts of banking and tax transactions of several million’ Americans and federal government agencies,” court documents say.
The judge in that case called his suit “fanatic” and “delusional,” saying there was no way to “discern any cognizable claim” from the incoherent filings.
The man has repeatedly impersonated federal officials in court records and has placed tax liens on judges using his false paperwork, two people familiar with the matter told the AP. Because of his history as a forger, his mail is supposed to be subjected to additional scrutiny from the Bureau of Prisons.
It’s unclear how the documents — the fake motion and the phony warrants — ended up at the court clerk’s office at the courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida.
A photocopy of an envelope, included in the filing, shows it was sent to the court with a printed return address of the Treasury Department’s headquarters in Washington. But a postmark shows a Michigan ZIP code, and a tracking number on the envelope shows it was mailed Sept. 9 from Clinton Township, Michigan, the inmate’s hometown.
The AP is not identifying the inmate by name because he has a documented history of mental illness and has not been charged with a crime related to the filing.
“There is simply nothing indicating that he has any authorization to act on behalf of the United States,” the judge in the Georgia case wrote.
But despite the clear warning signs — including a stamp noting the Georgia case number on the phony warrants — the filing still made its way onto the docket.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Treasury Department would not comment. They declined to answer on the record when asked if the document was false and why the government had not addressed it.
Representatives in the court clerk’s office and the magistrate judge overseeing the search warrant case did not respond to requests for comment.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Fatima Hussein in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/political-news/ap-politics/ap-phony-document-lands-on-court-docket-in-trump-search-case/ | 2022-09-16T22:45:52Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/political-news/ap-politics/ap-phony-document-lands-on-court-docket-in-trump-search-case/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden praised South Africa as a vital voice on the global stage as he hosted President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday at the White House for talks that were expected to touch on the two nations’ differences on Russia’s war in Ukraine and more.
In a brief appearance before the media at the start of their meeting, Biden made no direct mention that Ramaphosa is among African leaders who have maintained a neutral stance in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. South Africa abstained from a United Nations vote condemning Russia’s actions and calling for a mediated settlement.
But the president seemed to offer a subtle recognition that the two countries have their differences.
“We really need to make sure we fully understand one another,” said Biden, who heaped praise on Ramaphosa for his country’s leadership on fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of climate change and other issues.
Ahead of the meeting, South Africa’s international relations minister, Naledi Pandor, said Ramaphosa would emphasize the need for dialogue to find an end to the conflict during his meeting with Biden and in separate talks with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Pandor added that the issue will be South Africa’s focus when it participates in the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly next week.
“We would want a process of diplomacy to be initiated between the two parties and we believe the U.N. must lead, the U.N secretary-general in particular,” Pandor said.
The White House meeting comes on the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Africa last month, in which he said the Biden administration sees Africa’s 54 nations as “equal partners” in tackling global problems.
But the administration has been disappointed that South Africa and much of the continent have declined to follow the U.S. in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
During the Blinken visit, Pandor accused the U.S. and other Western powers of focusing on the Ukraine conflict to the detriment of crises around the globe.
“We should be equally concerned at what is happening to the people of Palestine, as we are with what is happening to the people of Ukraine,” she said.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has sought to underscore that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has led to scarcities in grain, cooking oil and fertilizer — resulting in disproportionate impact on Africans.
South Africa’s neutral position is largely because of the support the Soviet Union gave during the Cold War era to Ramaphosa’s African National Congress in its fight to end apartheid, South Africa’s regime of repression against the Black majority that ended in 1994. South Africa is seen as a leader of the several African countries that will not side against Russia.
Despite the differences on the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration recognizes the importance of strengthening relations in Africa as China has spent decades entrenching itself in the continent’s natural resources markets. Improving relations with South Africa — one of the continent’s biggest economies — is central to the U.S. effort.
John Stremlau, an international relations expert at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the talks underscore that the U.S. sees South Africa as having the “potential to lead Africa in a constructive way” on trade and other issues.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the two leaders would also discuss climate change and opportunities to increase trade and investment. The vice president’s office in a statement said that Harris and Ramaphosa discussed global health security, space cooperation, climate change, women’s empowerment and other matters, as they met over breakfast at the vice president’s residence.
In a brief exchange with reporters before his meeting with Harris, Ramaphosa said he would like to see the relationship between the two countries strengthened.
South Africa’s ambitious efforts to transition from coal to cleaner energy are expected to be discussed during the leaders’ talks. The U.S., Britain, France and Germany announced a plan last year to provid e $8.5 billion in loans and grants over five years to help South Africa phase out coal.
Ramaphosa could also raise with Biden the failure of the United States and other wealthier nations to make good on a more than decades-old pledge — first made in 2009 and reaffirmed at the 2015 Paris climate talks — to spend $100 billion to help developing nations deal with climate change.
Harris in comments to reporters praised South Africa’s leadership in the midst of “the challenges that we each face with the climate crisis and the work that we will do together to address that crisis.”
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Magome reported from Johannesburg. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-biden-s-african-leader-to-discuss-ukraine-trade-climate/ | 2022-09-16T22:46:07Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-biden-s-african-leader-to-discuss-ukraine-trade-climate/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows.
On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the “storm” refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television.
As Trump contemplates another run for the presidency and has become increasingly assertive in the Republican primary process during the midterm elections, his actions show that far from distancing himself from the political fringe, he is welcoming it.
He’s published dozens of recent Q-related posts, in contrast to 2020, when he claimed that while he didn’t know much about QAnon, he couldn’t disprove its conspiracy theory.
Pressed on QAnon theories that Trump allegedly is saving the nation from a satanic cult of child sex traffickers, he claimed ignorance but asked, “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?”
“If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it,” Trump said.
Trump’s recent postings have included images referring to himself as a martyr fighting criminals, psychopaths and the so-called deep state. In one now-deleted post from late August, he reposted a “q drop,” one of the cryptic message board postings that QAnon supporters claim come from an anonymous government worker with top secret clearance.
A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Even when his posts haven’t referred to the conspiracy theory directly, Trump has amplified users who do. An Associated Press analysis found that of nearly 75 accounts Trump has reposted on his Truth Social profile in the past month, more than a third of them have promoted QAnon by sharing the movement’s slogans, videos or imagery. About 1 in 10 include QAnon language or links in their profile bios.
Earlier this month, Trump chose a QAnon song to close out a rally in Pennsylvania. The same song appears in one of his recent campaign videos and is titled “WWG1WGA,” an acronym used as a rallying cry for Q adherents that stands for “Where we go one, we go all.”
Online, Q adherents basked in Trump’s attention.
“Yup, haters!” wrote one commenter on an anonymous QAnon message board. “Trump re-truthed Q memes. And he’ll do it again, more and more of them, over and OVER, until (asterisk)everyone(asterisk) finally gets it. Make fun of us all you want, whatever! Soon Q will be everywhere!”
“Trump Sending a Clear Message Patriots,” a QAnon-linked account on Truth Social wrote. “He Re-Truthed This for a Reason.”
The former president may be seeking solidarity with his most loyal supporters at a time when he faces escalating investigations and potential challengers within his own party, according to Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State University who has studied QAnon and recently wrote a book about the group.
“These are people who have elevated Trump to messiah-like status, where only he can stop this cabal,” Bloom told the AP on Thursday. “That’s why you see so many images (in online QAnon spaces) of Trump as Jesus.”
On Truth Social, QAnon-affiliated accounts hail Trump as a hero and savior and vilify President Joe Biden by comparing him to Adolf Hitler or the devil. When Trump shares the content, they congratulate each other. Some accounts proudly display how many times Trump has “re-truthed” them in their bios.
By using their own language to directly address QAnon supporters, Trump is telling them that they’ve been right all along and that he shares their secret mission, according to Janet McIntosh, an anthropologist at Brandeis University who has studied QAnon’s use of language and symbols.
It also allows Trump to endorse their beliefs and their hope for a violent uprising without expressly saying so, she said, citing his recent post about “the storm” as a particularly frightening example.
“The ‘storm is coming’ is shorthand for something really dark that he’s not saying out loud,” McIntosh said. “This is a way for him to point to violence without explicitly calling for it. He is the prince of plausible deniability.”
Bloom predicted that Trump may later attempt to market Q-related merchandise or perhaps ask QAnon followers to donate to his legal defense.
Regardless of motive, Bloom said, it’s a reckless move that feeds a dangerous movement.
A growing list of criminal episodes has been linked to people who had expressed support for the conspiracy theory, which U.S. intelligence officials have warned could trigger more violence.
QAnon supporters were among those who violently stormed the Capitol during the failed Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
In November 2020, two men drove to a vote-counting site in Philadelphia in a Hummer adorned with QAnon stickers and loaded with a rifle, 100 rounds of ammunition and other weapons. Prosecutors alleged they were trying to interfere with the election.
Last year, a California man who told authorities he had been enlightened by QAnon was accused of killing his two children because he believed they had serpent DNA.
Last month, a Colorado woman was found guilty of attempting to kidnap her son from foster care after her daughter said she began associating with QAnon supporters. Other adherents have been accused of environmental vandalism, firing paintballs at military reservists, abducting a child in France and even killing a New York City mob boss.
On Sunday, police fatally shot a Michigan man who they say had killed his wife and severely injured his daughter. A surviving daughter told The Detroit News that she believes her father was motivated by QAnon.
“I think that he was always prone to (mental issues), but it really brought him down when he was reading all those weird things on the internet,” she told the newspaper.
The same weekend a Pennsylvania man who had reposted QAnon content on Facebook was arrested after he allegedly charged into a Dairy Queen with a gun, saying he wanted to kill all Democrats and restore Trump to power.
Major social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have banned content associated with QAnon and have suspended or blocked accounts that seek to spread it. That’s forced much of the group’s activities onto platforms that have less moderation, including Telegram, Gab and Trump’s struggling platform, Truth Social. | https://www.wwlp.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-trump-openly-embraces-amplifies-qanon-conspiracy-theories/ | 2022-09-16T22:46:42Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-trump-openly-embraces-amplifies-qanon-conspiracy-theories/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Floodwaters are receding in Pakistan’s worst-hit southern Sindh province, officials said Friday, a potentially bright sign in an ongoing crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of people homeless in the impoverished South Asian country.
The Indus River, which remained swollen until earlier this month, was now rushing at “normal” levels towards the Arabian Sea, according to Mohammad Irfan, an irrigation official in hard-hit Sindh. The water level in the past 48 hours receded as much as three feet in some of the inundated areas nearby, including the Khairpur and Johi towns, where waist-high water damaged crops and homes earlier this month.
A day earlier, engineers had opened a key highway in the southwestern Baluchistan province, allowing rescue workers to speed aid to those suffering in a race against the spread of waterborne diseases and dengue fever.
Still, hundreds of thousands of people in Sindh are living in makeshift homes and tents. Authorities say it will take months to completely drain the water in Sindh.
Nationwide, floods have damaged 1.8 million homes, washed away roads and destroyed nearly 400 bridges, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. The deluge has killed 1,508 people since mid-June, inundated millions of acres of land and affected 33 million people. More than half a million people have been left homeless. At one point, nearly a third of the impoverished country was underwater. Several economists say the cost of the disaster may reach $30 billion.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has urged developed countries, especially those behind climate change, to scale up aid to his country. Sharif on Friday met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Uzbekistan on the sidelines of a summit of a security group and thanked him for sending aid, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.
The previous day, scientists and experts in the latest study about ongoing floods in Pakistan said that the country’s overall vulnerability, including people living in harm’s way, was the chief factor in the disaster. But “climate change” also played a role in causing heavy rains, which triggered flooding in the country.
August rainfall in the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces — together nearly the size of Spain — was at least seven times normal amounts, while the country as a whole had more than triple its normal rainfall. That’s according to the report by World Weather Attribution, a collection of mostly volunteer scientists from around the world who do real-time studies of extreme weather to look for evidence of climate change.
In Pakistan, the country’s minister for climate change, Sherry Rehman, was the first to publicly blame the developed world for causing climate-induced unusually heavy monsoon rains, which started in June and are expected to continue this month.
“Pakistan, at least in the south, is totally inundated. Outside of Karachi, go a little further up in Sindh and you will see an ocean of water, with no break,” she tweeted recently. “Where to place the tents, where to find dry ground? How to feed 33 million people plus? How to get them healthcare? Help us.” | https://www.wwlp.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-water-begins-receding-in-pakistans-worst-flood-hit-south/ | 2022-09-16T22:46:57Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/news/top-stories/ap-top-headlines/ap-water-begins-receding-in-pakistans-worst-flood-hit-south/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
What’s the best antivirus software?
It’s a gross misconception that only Windows-based computers can get a virus or be infected with malware. However, most infections are on computers using Microsoft’s Windows operating system.
It’s a simple economy of scale and how Apple built the macOS system. There are far more Windows computers than MacBooks or iMacs, and the operating system is easier to break into. That’s because Apple strictly enforces which apps you can install.
But no matter your operating system, you must get excellent antivirus to protect your personal information and files. One of the best is Norton 360 Deluxe, which offers real-time protection and works on multiple devices.
What to know before you buy antivirus software
It’s not a silver bullet
Criminals can hack almost any device that connects to the internet and continually update their hacking tools to make detection harder. Antivirus makers protect you from all known threats, but some will slip through the cracks as new ones are developed.
It’s essentially a cat-and-mouse game between cyberattacks and preventing them from happening. Even if you have the latest version, updated with a list of the most recent threats, there is no guarantee that you’ll always be protected. However, installing an antivirus dramatically reduces the chances of malware making it onto your computer.
It can be complex
Antivirus software can be relatively complex depending on your technical knowledge and understanding of cyber threats. You’ll have to get to grips with industry jargon and different processes and methods for scanning your computer.
For example, one antivirus blocks all internet traffic when installed, so you can’t browse or check your emails. It’s only after turning on a specific setting that you can access the internet again. And not a lot of users know where to find that configuration.
Free antivirus is never really free
There are several free antivirus applications, but that isn’t a risk you should consider. For the most part, they deliver on their promises, but it often comes with a caveat. For example, the free version might only protect you from certain threats, and you must pay for additional protection.
And since the software is free, others serve you with advertising, either through the computer program or directly on your desktop with pop-ups. Many users see this as an invasion of privacy or unsolicited marketing.
What to look for in quality antivirus software
Devices you want to protect
Whether you have a Windows or Apple computer, you should consider the devices you want to protect. The initial purchase of most antivirus programs includes a license for one device. However, a good-quality antivirus protects multiple devices using the same license key. This often includes one program for your PC and access to one mobile app for your phone.
Built-in virtual private network
When you want to browse the internet with full anonymity, you must use a VPN. The technology obscures your geographical location, letting you access websites which might be unavailable in your region.
It also adds another layer of security. A VPN makes it much harder for cybercriminals and hackers to locate your computer’s address, preventing them from breaching your system and stealing your files. So look for a good-quality antivirus that provides a VPN.
Personal information monitoring
You might have your life stored on a computer, but much of your information is also online. Every website or service you sign up for has your name, email address and telephone number. If it’s a paid service, you’ve likely provided your credit card information, too.
If hackers breach the service’s data center, your information could be sold on the notorious dark web. However, while a good-quality antivirus can’t prevent that, it can monitor the dark web and alert you to any personal information it finds.
How much you can expect to spend on antivirus software
The price depends on the developer, the level of protection and how many devices it covers. For basic protection, one device costs $15-$20 a year, but multiple devices with full-featured antivirus costs $30-$40 a year.
Antivirus software FAQ
Is there an upfront cost?
A. Antivirus works on the software-as-a-service model, where you must pay a monthly or annual subscription fee. There are rare cases where you can buy the software for a one-time fee, but it’s a monthly charge for the most part. Some developers do offer a discount if you pay for an annual subscription rather than monthly.
How do you update the software?
A. That depends on the software, as it can be set up to update automatically or to notify you every time an update or new software version is available.
What’s the best antivirus software to buy?
Top antivirus software
Norton 360 Deluxe 2022 Antivirus for 5 Devices
What you need to know: This bundle protects up to five Windows computers, mobile phones and Apple products.
What you’ll love: The antivirus scans your computer in real time to block any incoming threats. It has a built-in VPN to keep you safe and monitors the dark web for personal information. It comes with 50 gigabytes of cloud storage to secure backups.
What you should consider: It comes with LifeLock Select, which only monitors one credit bureau instead of all three.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Staples
Top antivirus software for the money
Trend Micro Maximum Security 2022
What you need to know: A three-year subscription to protect three devices is all that you need.
What you’ll love: In addition to the typical virus and malware protection, it also ensures that you are on legitimate websites when making purchases. It has a kid-friendly setting, so kids can only browse the internet on approved sites.
What you should consider: Some users said setup can be tricky.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Bitdefender Total Security 2022
What you need to know: This bundle lets you install malware and virus protection on up to five devices for two years.
What you’ll love: This antivirus software has a built-in secure browser for online banking and comes with a built-in VPN. It offers real-time protection against malware, ransomware, social media threats and identity fraud.
What you should consider: It only lets you use 200 megabytes of data for the VPN.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Staples
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.wwlp.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/computer-accessories-peripherals-br/best-antivirus-software/ | 2022-09-16T22:47:12Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/computer-accessories-peripherals-br/best-antivirus-software/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The U.S. Border Patrol says agents patrolling the Otay Mountain Wilderness area southeast of Downtown San Diego encountered three men who said they were shot before they crossed the border Thursday morning.
According to a Border Patrol news release, the three victims were from Mexico and told agents they encountered armed bandits south of the border and were subsequently shot.
The migrants claimed they were able to continue north despite their wounds, and they crossed the border illegally.
Agents reportedly provided emergency medical services to the migrants who were transported to local hospitals for further medical treatment.
“Those seeking to enter the U.S. through this mountainous terrain are putting themselves in dangerous situations as armed thieves and kidnappers use these remote locations to victimize them,” said U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Aaron M. Heitke. “Thankfully, our agents were able to get these migrants the care they needed. People should not put their trust in smugglers who have no interest in their welfare and instruct them to cross through areas where these violent criminals prey.”
The Border Patrol says their Mexican counterparts responded to the location where the shooting reportedly took place and began searching the area for the armed suspects.
Mexican law enforcement is said to have discovered a man who had died after being shot.
Two of the three men who made it north of the border remain hospitalized; the third is now in U.S. Border Patrol custody.
Border Patrol is reporting the San Diego Sector has seen an increase in “border bandit” activity during the past few months.
CBP is also reporting that previous patrols conducted by the San Diego Sector Foreign Operation Branch and the government of Mexico have resulted in the arrest of other armed bandits and the seizure of weapons, ammo, and other paraphernalia. | https://www.wwlp.com/border-report-tour/border-bandits-shoot-3-migrants-in-mexico-before-agents-rescue-them-on-u-s-side-cbp-says/ | 2022-09-16T22:48:20Z | wwlp.com | control | https://www.wwlp.com/border-report-tour/border-bandits-shoot-3-migrants-in-mexico-before-agents-rescue-them-on-u-s-side-cbp-says/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — A two-day German-themed celebration starts today in downtown Coeur d'Alene.
Oktoberfest runs 4 to 9 p.m. today and noon to 9 Saturday.
There will be more than 30 types of beers and ciders, live music, along with German food from special Oktoberfest menus, as reported by our news partners, the Coeur d'Alene Press.
A stein-holding contest and costume contest will be part of the festivities.
Emily Boyd, executive director of the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Association, said it should be a great weekend.
The annual event is expected to attract a few thousand people.
"We're really excited," she said.
The STCU stage with music will be in the corner lot at Second and Sherman. The tapping of the keg presented by Crown and Thistle will be there at 6.
Another stage will be set up in the breezeway between The Coeur d'Alene Resort and The Plaza Shops.
Stein-holding contests (hold a heavy, full beer stein straight out without bending your elbow as long as you can) will be at 1, 3 and 5 p.m., while a costume contest (wear your lederhosen or Boyd suggests, "dress like a pretzel") is set for 4 p.m.
A beer garden will be set up inside The Plaza Shops.
Most downtown restaurants will be offering a special menu of German foods.
Downtown beer stations will be at All Things Irish, Best Life Coeur d'Alene, Coeur d'Alene Fresh, Gelato by the Lake, Magpie, Migliore Olive Oil, Mix It Up and Woops!
Tickets start at $28 and include a commemorative glass, eight 4-ounce tastings or two full beers and access to entertainment. Extra tastings will be available for purchase.
Ticket sales begin at 3 p.m. today and 11 a.m. Saturday in The Resort Plaza Shops.
The Coeur d'Alene Press is a KREM 2 news partner. For more from our partners, click here.
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com. | https://www.krem.com/article/entertainment/events/coeur-d-alene-oktoberfest/293-6a78c71c-9b18-4195-bdb3-e94a4ff42221 | 2022-09-16T22:48:26Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/entertainment/events/coeur-d-alene-oktoberfest/293-6a78c71c-9b18-4195-bdb3-e94a4ff42221 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
SPOKANE COUNTY, Wash. — Mark your calendar to attend one of the many fun events taking place in Spokane this week.
The air quality continues improving across the Inland Northwest this week, with moderate and good air quality expected for this weekend. Temperatures will be in the 60s.
This week, take your loved ones to celebrate the beginning of National Hispanic Heritage Month and attend the Mexican Independence Day celebration at downtown Riverfront Park, or go to the MAC to decorate and paint your own papier-mâché mask.
Other events taking place this week include the Spokane County Interstate Fair, Spokane Valley Farmers Market Halloween Spooktacular, a Mexican mask exhibition, the flea market, a comedy club show and a Spokane Symphony concert at The Fox Theater.
Here is a list of events taking place around Spokane this weekend:
Celebrate Mexican Independence Day
Join Latinos en Spokane to celebrate Mexican Independence Day on Friday, Sept. 16, with cultural activities, history and regional dress presentations.
During the event, people will also enjoy Folkloric Mexican dance and live music including a mariachi band, DJ music and other groups.
The event is free and will take place downtown in Riverfront Park from 5 p.m.-11 p.m.
Mexican Independence Day celebrates Mexico's declaration of independence from Spain in 1810. This holiday is celebrated across Mexico with national pride, colorful parades, mariachi concerts and food.
Take your loved ones to the Spokane County Interstate Fair and Expo Center this week for fun and live entertainment.
Friday, Sept. 16 – Washington Lottery Day
Washington Lottery Day includes Open Class Beef Judging at 10 a.m., Youth Llama Judging at 11 a.m. and a Mixed Media Painting Demo by Robyn Smith at 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 17 – BECU Day
BECU Day includes a Model T Club Car Show at 10 a.m., a Pumpkin Carving Activity sponsored by Mark and Mary Jepsen at 11 a.m. and Youth Horse English then Western Judging at noon.
Sunday, Sept. 18 – STCU Free Admission for all School Employees Day (Coats 4 Kids)
This day includes a Wood Stove Cooking Demonstration at 10 a.m., a Corn Hole Tournament at 1 p.m., a Dairy Goat Costume Class at 2 p.m. and a Demolition Derby at 4 p.m.
During the 10-day fair, people can watch live entertainment shows, eat at local food vendors and ride the Butler Amusement thrill rides.
Opening times will vary, but all fair outdoor booths and barns will close at 10 p.m.
The Spokane County Fair and Expo Center is located in Spokane Valley at 404 N Havana Street. Fairgoers can ride the Spokane Transit Authority (STA) fair shuttle bus Route 342 at the Spokane Community College (SCC) Transit Center. The Bus Day Pass for the fair cost $2.
The 'Dancing With Life: Mexican Mask' exhibit at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) is the featured exhibit starting this month through April 16, 2023.
The mask exhibit, with a regional focus in Michoacán, Mexico, presents a selection of 54 dance masks from the MAC collection and contemporary Mexican artists. It will also include dance regalia and video presentations featuring the artists, dancers, and performances of the danzas.
Mask-making is a vibrant and playful art form with roots in the celebration of religious holidays across Mexico. The masks are worn by dancers in rollicking performances known as danzas. The masks depict devils and holy men, celebrities and other known well-known individuals who personify sinners and false idols.
The MAC is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is located at 2316 West First Avenue in Spokane. Click here for more information about the times and entrance cost.
El Mercadito at the MAC
Latinos en Spokane in collaboration with the Museum of Art and Culture come together to celebrate the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month.
On Saturday, Sept. 17, browse and shop in a festive community at 'El Mercadito,' Latino Farmer’s Market from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC).
El Mercadito is hosted by local Latino and immigrant business owners and vendors outdoors on the museum’s lawn. During the event, people will be able to listen to music provided by a local DJ and watch Hispanic folk dancers' performance.
During the event, people will be able to decorate and paint their own papier-mâché mask, led by internationally respected Purepecha mask-making artist Felipe Horta. Kids' coloring activities will be also available.
Spokane Valley Farmers Market: Halloween Spooktacular
Attend the Spokane Valley Market annual Halloween Spooktacular on Friday, Sept. 16.
The market takes place at 2426 N Discovery PI. in Spokane Valley. Shop from more than 40 local vendors offering fresh products, fresh cut flowers, baked goods, crafts, cider, honey and more.
This Friday, enjoy from the market's live music by Logee, Maleficent & Cruelle Deville characters for photo ops, face painting, trick-or-treating, balloon art, kids activities and food trucks.
Attend The Great Northwest Flea Market this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Spokane Valley.
The market is located at 206 E Trent Ave, and people will enjoy from 150 indoor vendors and 25 outdoor vendors selling vintage items, handmade items, furniture, rustic decor, candles, plants and thousands of other treasures.
Concerts and shows
- Mike Cronin: Mike Cronin will be at the Comedy Club this weekend. Cronin's film work includes three award-winning 48 Hour Film Festival projects and co-writing, directing and starring in a music video for 'The Hipster Song,' which has more than 800,000 views on YouTube. Shows days are Friday, Saturday and Sunday and ticket prices range from $20 to $28. They are available here.
- Spokane Symphony at The The Fox Theater: Enjoy three spectacular masterpieces in one night. 'Masterworks Fantastique' takes you on a musical journey through Beethoven, Berlioz and acclaimed composer Jessie Montgomery. Shows at The Fox Theater are Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 18 at 3 p.m. Visit the Spokane Symphony website for ticket prices an more information.
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ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
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To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com. | https://www.krem.com/article/entertainment/events/things-to-do-in-spokane/293-5702a045-35be-4751-ad06-cf9f3b82f3d3 | 2022-09-16T22:48:27Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/entertainment/events/things-to-do-in-spokane/293-5702a045-35be-4751-ad06-cf9f3b82f3d3 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NEW YORK — “The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, the biggest victim yet of the post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York.
The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts — will play its final performance on Broadway on Feb. 18, a spokesperson told The Associated Press on Friday. The closing will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.
It is a costly musical to sustain, with elaborate sets and costumes as well as a large cast and orchestra. Box office grosses have fluctuated since the show reopened after the pandemic — going as high as over $1 million a week but also dropping to around $850,000. Last week, it hit $867,997 and producers may have seen the writing on the wall.
Based on a novel by Gaston Leroux, “Phantom” tells the story of a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lavish songs include “Masquerade,” ″Angel of Music,” ″All I Ask of You” and “The Music of the Night.”
“As a producer you dream that a show will run forever. Indeed, my production of Andrew’s ‘Cats’ proudly declared for decades ‘Now and Forever.’ Yet ‘Phantom’ has surpassed that show’s extraordinary Broadway run. But all shows do finally close,” producer Cameron Mackintosh said in a statement.
The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities and performed in 17 languages over 70,000 performances. On Broadway alone, the musical has played more than 13,500 performances to 19 million people at The Majestic Theatre.
The closing of “Phantom” would mean the longest running show crown would go to “Chicago,” which started in 1996. “The Lion King” is next, having begun performances in 1997.
Broadway took a pounding during the pandemic, with all theaters closed for more than 18 months. Some of the most popular shows — “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” — have rebounded well, but other shows have struggled. Breaking even usually requires a steady stream of tourists, especially for “Phantom” and visitors to the city haven't returned to pre-pandemic levels. | https://www.krem.com/article/news/entertainment-news/reports-the-phantom-of-the-opera-to-close-in-2023/507-5a8f2a3c-5ad3-47f5-ab68-7f3e9872923b | 2022-09-16T22:48:28Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/news/entertainment-news/reports-the-phantom-of-the-opera-to-close-in-2023/507-5a8f2a3c-5ad3-47f5-ab68-7f3e9872923b | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
In Do Revenge, a deliciously dark comedy now streaming on Netflix, Maya Hawke’s Eleanor declares herself “a disciple of the ‘90s teen movie.” The same could be said for director and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who tonally and visually pays homage to a number of that era’s movies in her own sophomore directorial effort.
The spiky misadventures of Eleanor and Camila Mendes’s Drea at preppy Rosehill Country Day evoke shades of Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Jawbreaker, and Cruel Intentions, among other titles. “If you put all of those things in a boiling pot and created a soup, I would hope that Do Revenge would emerge from the soup,” Robinson tells Vanity Fair during a recent Zoom. “I wanted to make a campy popcorn movie that does not live in reality. Do Revenge is a world unto itself.”
To craft an aesthetic that would appeal to varied audiences and blend Y2K sensibilities with Gen Z touchstones, complete with Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish needle drops, Robinson enlisted costume designer Alana Morshead and production designer Hillary Gurtler. “All three of us really immersed ourselves in all of these films,” she says. “We each brought something different to the table from rewatching and spending time in the worlds that we were pulling inspiration from.” In revisiting the films, Robinson says she was struck by how expertly shot they were. “As a kid, you’re experiencing something and you just love it. And that’s not to say that they weren’t always well-made,” she explains. “I feel like coming back to them as a filmmaker, I was just really taken aback about how beautiful these films are.”
Although Robinson teases that there are roughly “30 to 40 Easter eggs” scattered throughout Do Revenge for eagle-eyed watchers to find, here VF highlights homages to five classic teen movies in the new comedy.
Clueless
References to Amy Heckerling’s 1995 blockbuster are sprinkled throughout the film—from characters’ berets à la Alicia Silverstone’s Cher to Maude Latour’s cover of Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America,” which plays over Clueless's opening shots. A more obscure shoutout: Rosehill’s Horowitz Hall, an homage to Cher’s last name. And if you thought we didn’t notice the school landmark labeled J.K. Robinson Library, in honor of Do Revenge’s director and co-writer? As if! | https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/09/do-revenge-nineties-teen-movie-easter-eggs | 2022-09-16T22:48:35Z | vanityfair.com | control | https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/09/do-revenge-nineties-teen-movie-easter-eggs | 0 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
In Do Revenge, a deliciously dark comedy now streaming on Netflix, Maya Hawke’s Eleanor declares herself “a disciple of the ‘90s teen movie.” The same could be said for director and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who tonally and visually pays homage to a number of that era’s movies in her own sophomore directorial effort.
The spiky misadventures of Eleanor and Camila Mendes’s Drea at preppy Rosehill Country Day evoke shades of Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Jawbreaker, and Cruel Intentions, among other titles. “If you put all of those things in a boiling pot and created a soup, I would hope that Do Revenge would emerge from the soup,” Robinson tells Vanity Fair during a recent Zoom. “I wanted to make a campy popcorn movie that does not live in reality. Do Revenge is a world unto itself.”
To craft an aesthetic that would appeal to varied audiences and blend Y2K sensibilities with Gen Z touchstones, complete with Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish needle drops, Robinson enlisted costume designer Alana Morshead and production designer Hillary Gurtler. “All three of us really immersed ourselves in all of these films,” she says. “We each brought something different to the table from rewatching and spending time in the worlds that we were pulling inspiration from.” In revisiting the films, Robinson says she was struck by how expertly shot they were. “As a kid, you’re experiencing something and you just love it. And that’s not to say that they weren’t always well-made,” she explains. “I feel like coming back to them as a filmmaker, I was just really taken aback about how beautiful these films are.”
Although Robinson teases that there are roughly “30 to 40 Easter eggs” scattered throughout Do Revenge for eagle-eyed watchers to find, here VF highlights homages to five classic teen movies in the new comedy.
Clueless
References to Amy Heckerling’s 1995 blockbuster are sprinkled throughout the film—from characters’ berets à la Alicia Silverstone’s Cher to Maude Latour’s cover of Kim Wilde’s “Kids in America,” which plays over Clueless's opening shots. A more obscure shoutout: Rosehill’s Horowitz Hall, an homage to Cher’s last name. And if you thought we didn’t notice the school landmark labeled J.K. Robinson Library, in honor of Do Revenge’s director and co-writer? As if! | https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/09/do-revenge-nineties-teen-movie-easter-eggs | 2022-09-16T22:48:35Z | vanityfair.com | control | https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/09/do-revenge-nineties-teen-movie-easter-eggs | 1 | 0 | green-iguana-35 | 1 |
Remember 2008? George W. Bush was finishing up his last year in office, Beyoncé and Jay-Z got married, Britney Spears made her big comeback after a tumultuous public breakdown, and the companies that made point-and-shoot cameras had a banner year in sales, hawking more than 110 million consumer cameras that year. Fast-forward to today, and Bey and Jay-Z are still married (phew!), Britney is making yet another comeback, and the same companies that make point-and-shoot cameras have seen their sales utterly decimated. According to Nikkei, last year the makers of point-and-shoot cameras sold just 3 million cameras. That’s a 97% drop in sales—97%!—in just over a decade.
It’s no mystery what happened, and how. The answer to who and what annihilated the consumer photo business is sitting right in your pocket: the iPhone. But the point-and-shoot camera industry was only one tiny slither of the world that was set to be changed by the iPhone.
Remember the Filofax? Yeah, it’s dead now. Physical maps that your car’s glove box used to eat for sustenance? Gone. The way of the dodo. One-hour photo drop-offs? The few that are left are on life support and gasping for air. The fax machine, landline telephones, pay phones—remember them?—all relics of a not-too-distant bygone era that now seem as ancient as switchboard operators and milkmen. MP3 players, Walkmans, CD players, even Apple’s own iPod, are all dead, dead, dead and dead, thanks to the serial killer known as the iPhone.
For some companies and industries, the demise was as sudden as cyanide (Blackberry, Nokia, and Motorola) and for others, it took a bit longer, like a slow-killing cancer. For example, it took five years after the iPhone debuted for most companies that made camcorders to discontinue these useless contraptions, and for some to even file for bankruptcy. Then there’s the other industries that were transformed by apps that weren’t built by Apple but still changed the entire business landscape: Uber and Lyft apps, which nearly killed the taxi industry; DoorDash, Caviar, and ChowNow, which upended restaurant delivery (and even restaurants themselves), and Redfin and Zillow, which changed the housing industry—just to name a small few.
In recent years, it has started to feel as if there were not many more industries that the smartphone, or the iPhone specifically, could kill or even disrupt. That was, until Apple announced the iPhone 14 Pro last week, and the death knell was rung once again for several companies and even possibly a few industries.
Before we get into which business categories are now going to meet their maker thanks to the latest iPhone, let’s just get the obvious out of the way. The new iPhone 14 does not look new. In fact, it looks so much like the iPhone 13 that you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart in a lineup from a few inches away. This is obviously a bit of a trend: We all know that the iPhone 13 looked pretty much exactly like the iPhone 12, which was only slightly different in design from the iPhone 11. Even Steve Jobs’s daughter, Eve Jobs, made fun of the latest iPhone “design” when she posted a popular meme of an old man wearing a maroon striped shirt who is holding up a gift he just opened of the exact same maroon striped shirt. Next to the meme is the bold statement: “Me upgrading from iPhone 13 to iPhone 14 after Apple's announcement today.” But while the outside might look like a photocopy of its predecessor, it’s what’s on the inside that some companies should be extremely worried about.
For the purposes of this column, the fact that the new iPhone looks like its siblings is actually helpful. Because at this point, the design, look, feel, colors, shapes, and sizes don’t matter. It’s what’s inside that counts. Right now it looks like the guts of the new iPhone are about to try to finish off the camera industry once and for all. For example, the new sensors in the iPhone Pro 14 can shoot raw images up to 48 megapixels. That’s four times larger than the last iPhone could capture. To put that into context, a new Leica Q2, which also has a 48-megapixel sensor, costs $5,795. Sony’s A1 camera with similar specs is $6,500, and Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm and other mid-level camera makers sell cameras that are all several thousand dollars, which doesn’t even include lenses, which can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars more.
There are several reasons Apple is going after this market. One is likely how big it is: According to the Camera and Imaging Products Association, which tracks camera sales, more than 8.3 million cameras were shipped to electronics sellers in 2021, along with more than 5.4 million lenses. The new iPhone essentially comes with four lenses, with an ultrawide and two telephoto features. Given that the iPhone Pro now costs $1,500 fully loaded, it’s tough to justify the cost of an iPhone over an Android, which comes with equally impressive stats, and some of them, such as the Google Pixel 6a and the Samsung Galaxy S22 start at around $300—and while the cameras are good at that price point, you will likely find yourself buying a phone and a camera. For Apple, convincing consumers to skip the camera and the Android, and buy one single product, means more iPhone sales, and more of the most expensive iPhone—especially for customers who wouldn’t usually even think about using the iPhone as a camera because they work in an industry that requires better quality cameras. After all, you have to have some pretty astounding features to justify selling a phone for $1,500.
The same is true for the video specs on the latest iPhone. The new iPhone can record in 4K at 24 frames a second, with astounding image stabilization that not only rids the need for an expensive gimbal (yeah, those $500 contraptions are going to be joining the dodo soon, too) but at a quality that is nearing the quality of video cameras used by filmmakers, who shoot on systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars. The quality of the video is pretty astounding for such a small device (especially in the new “Action Mode,” where you can run and film someone and it looks as if you shot it using an expensive crane and camera crew). While it doesn’t seem as if the new Jurassic Park will be filmed using an iPhone, it’s clear Apple is gunning for that market, too. And for smaller productions, it might just make the cut.
It isn’t just Hollywood and the photography industry that should be worried about the latest announcements by Apple. The company clearly pointed to the fact that it’s still aiming to disrupt the biggest industry of all: health care. The iPhone, the latest iOS software, and the new Apple Watches all have upgrades that are related to consumers’ health. The new Apple Watch, for example, has two new temperature sensors that monitor health (which can detect minor changes in fluctuation as small as .1 degree), crash detection on both devices (which can detect if you’ve been in a massive car crash and automatically call 911 if you can’t); there are new exercise features, sleep detection software and hardware features, and even more monitors and sensors. (Apple crashed a bunch of cars with test dummies wearing Apple Watches to build this feature.) In fact, the marketing page for the new Apple Watch mentions the word “health” 18 times. A decade ago, the company would have touted the word “design” that much with its marketing jargon.
Going after health care makes sense. Not only is it an astounding $10 trillion industry, but it’s also largely a broken one in which customers don’t own the data about themselves and—not to be a Debbie Downer here—but it doesn’t appear the health insurance industry wants to avoid people getting sick, whereas companies in Silicon Valley are trying to make a business model out of people avoiding getting sick. Apple, having long been rumored to see health care as the ultimate industry it wants to disrupt, wants to take that different approach. According to a report last year by The Wall Street Journal, the company has plans to offer “its own primary-care medical service with Apple-employed doctors at its own clinics.” You can imagine a scenario in which your Apple Watch and iPhone know you’re sick before you do, using all the sensors and software and gizmos on your Apple devices, and perhaps dispatches a health care provider to wherever you are. According to the Journal report, Apple’s chief operating officer, Jeff Williams, who oversees the health team, had said that Apple should disrupt the “363” and “break fix” model of health care in the United States—where people only really see doctors when they are sick, two days out of the year, and don’t see them the other 363 days. In other words, Apple wants you to pay it to help you avoid getting sick, rather than pay when you are sick.
Which of course leads us back to 2008. Back then, as the iPhone was turning one, Apple was worth just $75 billion. Today, Apple is currently worth $2.43 trillion. Apple alone makes up almost 6% of the value of all U.S. stocks today. As such, the question many investors keep asking is, how can the biggest company in the world continue to grow—especially given that the company hasn’t released any new hardware categories in several years. Some Wall Street analysts have even warned that the growth opportunities for Apple are slim and that the company is going to face some serious headwinds in the company years. But when you look at this past week’s latest announcements, it feels like the possibilities for which industries Apple can not only disrupt but also kill are endless—even if the company makes an iPhone that looks exactly like the one it released a year ago, which looks like the one the year before that, which also looks a lot like the one the year before that, and so on.
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White House officials are reportedly discussing “litigation options” in response to reports that Florida governor Ron DeSantis might have lured dozens of South American migrants onto chartered flights bound for Martha’s Vineyard as part of an anti-immigrant political action. According to Axios, administration officials discussed the matter Friday, the day after White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the move as “illegal” and “cruel.” Roughly 50 migrants had boarded two planes Wednesday in San Antonio after being falsely promised expedited work papers in Boston, NPR reports, leading to speculation that DeSantis might have violated federal or state human trafficking laws. (DeSantis asserted Friday that the relocation was aboveboard and that all the migrants knowingly flew to the island—a claim that differs from the accounts of some migrants.)
President Joe Biden also condemned Republicans for “playing politics with human beings, using them as props,” in Thursday night remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s annual gala. “What they’re doing is simply wrong. It’s un-American, it’s reckless, and we have a process in place to manage migrants at the border,” he added. “We’re working to make sure it’s safe and orderly and humane. Republican officials should not interfere with that process by waging these political stunts.”
The Axios report noted that the administration’s Friday meeting—reportedly set to involve high-level members of the White House and a range of Cabinet secretaries —was scheduled before DeSantis’s plan unfolded. “This should not be about political stunts,” one unnamed administration official told the outlet, expressing concern about the uptick in border crossings. “It should be about how the whole of government gets the 8,500 encounters a day down.”
DeSantis, a 2024 shadow candidate who reportedly informed GOP donors of the idea in advance, said the move was part of a deterrence strategy aimed at “dramatically” lowering the odds of migrants coming to Florida. However, the legality of the plan is now under heavy public scrutiny. Additionally, according to The Washington Post, the $12 million state program that DeSantis used to pay for the flights might have been funded by interest earnings on federal COVID aid. DeSantis’s office did not respond to the Post’s questions regarding the state program’s funding and whether the COVID aid interest had been used for the flights; a spokesperson said the program had been executed “consistent with federal law.” (Florida lawmakers did approve budget language this year allowing the governor to “transport unauthorized aliens from this state,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.) DeSantis’s office has declined to offer many details to the press.
The Martha’s Vineyard incident follows a monthslong trend in which GOP governors, including Greg Abbott of Texas, Doug Ducey of Arizona, and now DeSantis, have turned unsuspecting migrants into political pawns by offloading them to Democrat-led cities, including Washington, DC, New York, and Chicago. On Thursday, more than 100 migrants were dropped off just outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris after being bused to Washington at the behest of Abbott.
The Biden administration has taken specific issue with the fact that authorities who planned the action chose to notify the media of the group’s arrival in DC, but left local and federal officials in the dark. “The fact that Fox News and not the Department of Homeland Security, the city, or local [nongovernmental organizations] were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children, on the side of a busy DC street makes clear that this is just a cruel, premeditated political stunt,” said Jean-Pierre.
On Fox News, DeSantis and Abbott have been met with an unsurprising chorus of praise. Host Brian Kilmeade described their strategy as a “genius” way to bring attention to “these illegals” on Friday, adding that the previous day had been “epic.” During a Thursday segment of his top-rated cable show, Tucker Carlson launched a particularly racist diatribe, saying that he hoped the residents of Martha’s Vineyard could experience the “gift of illegal immigration,” before describing South American migrants as “armed robbers and subway rapists.” Meanwhile, Sean Hannity seemingly projected his own fears onto the Massachusetts locale, insisting that the “residents of Martha’s Vineyard are freaking out over 50 illegal immigrants.” In fact, many people on the island quickly came to the migrants’ aid, offering them food, legal assistance, clothing, and shelter in a local church, according to The New York Times.
On Friday, Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker announced that the migrants would be sent to a joint base in Cape Cod, where members of the Massachusetts National Guard would assist in the effort to provide them with “shelter and humanitarian support.”
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Listen to VF’s Still Watching Podcast for Ongoing Analysis of House of the Dragon | https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/biden-officials-legal-ron-desantis-stunt | 2022-09-16T22:48:38Z | vanityfair.com | control | https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/biden-officials-legal-ron-desantis-stunt | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Is Donald Trump ever going to be brought to justice for his decades of shady, unethical, seemingly criminal activity? On the one hand, the fact that he’s evaded legal repercussions for this long suggests he made a deal with a witch allowing him to get away with anything and everything in exchange for his brain. On the other, the Georgia prosecutor investigating Team Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election is literally out here talking about potential prison sentences. So, there’s that!
In an interview with The Washington Post published Thursday, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis revealed her office has been on the receiving end of credible allegations that major crimes were committed, and that “if indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences.” She also said that an official decision on whether to call Trump before a special grand jury will likely be made “late this fall.”
Thus far, the Post notes, those identified as criminal targets of the Georgia probe include former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and more than a dozen individuals who “created unofficial documents proclaiming Trump as the winner of Georgia’s electoral votes, even though he lost the state.” When it was revealed last month that the former New York City mayor turned ex-Trump attorney was a target of the investigation, attorney Norman Eisen told The New York Times: “There is no way Giuliani is a target of the DA’s investigation and Trump does not end up as one. They are simply too entangled factually and legally in the attempt to use fake electors and other means to overturn the Georgia election results.” (Both Giuliani and the fake electors have denied wrongdoing.) In an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Trump said he has yet to receive any letters informing him he is a target of a criminal investigation; he also denied taking part in a multistate plot to send fake electors to Washington, and falsely claimed that alternate elector slates are “common.”
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In addition to the elector scheme, Willis’s office is examining possible criminal wrongdoing in false statements Giuliani and others made to lawmakers, harassment of election officials, tampering of election systems, and calls made by Trump and his allies to pressure Georgia officials to overturn the election results in the state. On January 2, 2021, Trump phoned up Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and demanded that Raffensperger “find” him the number of votes necessary to beat Joe Biden in Georgia, saying, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” before threatening the local official for refusing his request. Raffensperger has also said that during a November 2020 call with Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina asked him if he had the power to throw out mail-in ballots from certain counties. According to the Post, Willis recently began seeking detailed information about the threats made against Fulton County elections worker Ruby Freeman, who said during one of the January 6 committee’s hearings in June that she became the target of terrifying abuse, spearheaded by the ex-president and his allies. “I’ve lost my name, and I’ve lost my reputation,” Freeman said in a taped deposition. “I’ve lost my sense of security all because a group of people, starting with number 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, Shaye [Moss]. To push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.” While Willis declined to comment on recent court filings regarding the alleged harassment, she told the Post: “I hate a bully. Obviously, I think we would find it offensive to bully an election official to influence an election.”
Apart from Trump and Giuliani, Willis’s office is also scrutinizing onetime Trump attorney Sidney Powell. Per the Post: | https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/donald-trump-fani-willis-fulton-county-georgia-criminal-investigation-prison | 2022-09-16T22:48:38Z | vanityfair.com | control | https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/donald-trump-fani-willis-fulton-county-georgia-criminal-investigation-prison | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Late last month, Marcus Mumford, the 35-year-old frontman of the British folk-pop band Mumford & Sons, was in Los Angeles coming to terms with a little dilemma. Over the last year and a half, he recorded a solo album, out this week and appropriately called (Self-Titled), and had assembled a band to go on a solo tour across America, Ireland, and the UK. But he hadn’t yet figured out how they were going to translate the spacious, moody music into a live show.
For a musician who got his start by putting his live performances first, it was a daunting task, but he was also looking on the bright side. “The band that I’ve assembled are a bunch of absolute genius musicians,” Mumford said in an interview. “That’s really exciting to me.”
The 10-week tour will be his first big outing since the pandemic. He spent the early phase of lockdown at his home in Devon with his wife of 10 years, the actor Carey Mulligan, and their two children, Evelyn Grace and Wilfred. Writing a solo album wasn’t always in the cards for Mumford, but during his time at home he wrote “Cannibal,” a song about an experience he hadn’t really told anyone about, being sexually abused as a child. It happened when he was six, but last month he told GQ that he didn’t actually even tell his mother until she heard the song for the first time.
Mumford said that the song came at the end of a much longer healing practice, and it is definitely explicit. He showed “Cannibal” to the prolific songwriter and producer Blake Mills, and they started working to shape an album unlike anything he had done before. He also brought on a huge slate of high-profile collaborators, including Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Monica Martin, and Clairo. The album is dedicated to Mulligan, and he said that he really relished the opportunity to collaborate creatively with women and have more women on his team.
Mumford connected with Vanity Fair over Zoom to discuss changing his creative process, learning to open up about his feelings, and the great advice he got inside of Neil Young’s Pono-equipped Cadillac.
Vanity Fair: I know the record got its start during the pandemic. I’ve spoken to so many touring musicians who said the pandemic was one of the first times they’d ever gotten to be in one place for so long. What was it like for you?
Marcus Mumford: Our last show as a band was March 8th, 2020. We toured right up until everything closed down. And then suddenly by March 12th, we were kind of shut up stuck at home, in Devon. It was the longest period of time I’ve ever had at home since high school, and the first time I’ve had a real sense of home associated with a place, not a group of people, which it usually is for me. There were elements of that that I tried to embrace and see as an opportunity to get some structure. Then I did a bunch of work. I did the music for two seasons of Ted Lasso mostly during COVID, and then I started to write my record.
You’ve been writing songs for such a long time—have you always considered yourself a “songwriter” in addition to being a member of the band?
I think it took me a really long time. And in some ways, it has been up until now. Being a band member, I was a band member first, really, in my head, and a songwriter second. Whereas on this, I had to be a songwriter first. Jonathan Dickins, who manages Adele, is a friend of mine. He sat me down and he said, “Look, dude, you’re procrastinating and your songwriting muscles are probably going into atrophy at this point. You’ve just got to write fucking songs. Everything else in your working life will come from the songs you write. So, just write for the sake of writing and just follow the songs. Just follow the creative process wherever it leads.” Which was really invaluable advice to me. That would have been January, ’21.
The music really is so different, but how long did it take you to realize that you wanted to work with Blake and release it under your own name? When did you say “Oh, this is a solo thing”? | https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/09/marcus-mumford-solo-album-interview | 2022-09-16T22:48:45Z | vanityfair.com | control | https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/09/marcus-mumford-solo-album-interview | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A few days after Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, the Daily Mail published an article with the headline: “Royal beekeeper has informed the Queen's bees that the Queen has died and King Charles is their new boss in bizarre tradition dating back centuries.”
In response to the story, one person on Twitter said they had to check if a parody account posted the article, “because this is just sensational stuff.” Another Twitter user referred to the practice as an example of “hysteria” over the monarch’s passing.
THE QUESTION
Is “telling the bees” a real tradition?
THE SOURCES
- JSTOR Daily, which uses research from JSTOR’s academic journal database to provide context for current events
- Debra Shutika, Ph.D, folklorist and beekeeper
- Mark Norman, folklore author and researcher
- Floyd Shockley, Ph.D, entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History
THE ANSWER
Yes, “telling the bees” is a real tradition, and it’s not reserved just for news about monarchs or death.
WHAT WE FOUND
The practice of “telling the bees” is a tradition in which a beekeeper notifies their honey bees of major events in the beekeeper’s life, such as a death or marriage. It has historically been most common in the U.S. and western Europe.
“It's certainly not a royal tradition,” Mark Norman, a folklore author and researcher, said. “It's not something that would only be done by beekeepers who were keeping swarms for the royal family or other members of that household.”
Instead, Norman said, this is a very old custom that has been practiced by common people who kept bees for their own purposes.
“The idea here is that when there's important news, both good and bad, whether someone is dying or moving away, or if there are babies being born, etc., that you share the news with the bees because they are part of your family and community,” said Debra Shutika, a folklorist and beekeeper.
The news shared by beekeepers who practice this tradition varies from place to place, but informing bees of a notable death is common everywhere it's practiced, says a 2018 article in JSTOR Daily, which uses research from its academic journal database to provide context for current events.
Some beekeepers will knock on their hives and tell the bees the news, Shutika said, while other beekeepers might just simply walk up to the hives and talk to them.
Norman said there was a version of the tradition in New Hampshire where beekeepers would have to sing to the bees the news in rhyming verses.
In the case of a death, the tradition typically calls for the beekeeper to tie a black cloth around the hives or to shroud the bees in some kind of black material. Photos in the Daily Mail article show the royal beekeeper tied a black cloth around the queen’s beehives.
More from VERIFY: No, Prince Philip’s body was not stored in a ‘fancy refrigerator’
Both Norman and Floyd Shockley, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History, said the tradition likely traces back to ancient Celtic mythology, although its exact origins aren't known for certain.
But the practice became most common in the 18th and 19th centuries, when it was believed that keeping the bees out of the loop would invite ill fortune, Norman said.
“If you didn't do this the bees would become possibly very ill and stop producing honey, or they would vacate the hives completely because they hadn't been informed,” Norman said. “This obviously comes from a time when superstition was much stronger than it is now, because without the scientific evidence behind it, people looked for obvious reasons why bad things would happen, and then would try to avoid them in the future so that crops didn't fail, so that animals were not sick, and so on.”
Shockley said, perhaps unsurprisingly, there is no scientific evidence bees actually react to what they’re being told. But he suggested that beekeepers might still be capable of communicating information to their bees when they’re telling them the family news.
“Bees and many other social insects do react to tone, volume of sound,” Shockley said. “Many of the times that people are telling the bees they're whispering to the bees because if you are overly aggressive, the bees will respond to tone, volume, perhaps even scent — because your physiology changes when you're angry or sad.”
Shutika said she thinks it’s likely that past royal beekeepers have told the bees about the passing of previous monarchs whenever that’s happened because “generally, this is what a beekeeper will do.”
“These are living creatures, and we've decided to be responsible for them,” Shutika said of beekeepers. “So I think that it's a very common thing for a human, when you're spending so much time taking care of, in this case, an insect or a colony of insects, that you do grow great affection for them. And it would make sense in those contexts to actually share your life with them, particularly important news.” | https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/world-verify/telling-bees-real-beekeeping-tradition-not-exclusive-to-royalty/536-e5c571c1-4142-446a-9fa2-89b432c660c5 | 2022-09-16T22:48:46Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/news/verify/world-verify/telling-bees-real-beekeeping-tradition-not-exclusive-to-royalty/536-e5c571c1-4142-446a-9fa2-89b432c660c5 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
In the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s death last week, Buckingham Palace announced that only working royals would wear military uniforms during the series of official memorial services, meaning that Prince Harry, who served in the Army, and Prince Andrew, who served in the Navy, would not appear in military dress. On Wednesday, both Harry and Andrew wore plain morning suits when they joined King Charles III and other family members at the procession conveying the queen’s coffin from Buckingham Palace. On Saturday, Harry, Prince William, and the queen’s six other grandchildren will guard the queen’s coffin in a vigil at the Palace of Westminster, and Harry will be allowed to wear his uniform during this ceremony.
According to a palace source who spoke to People, Harry will wear the uniform “at the King's request,” and that Harry did not request for the change to be made. In a previous statement, Harry’s spokesperson said that he was prepared to wear the morning suit for all events honoring the queen. “His decade of military service is not determined by the uniform he wears, and we respectfully ask that focus remain on the life and legacy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” the spokesperson added.
During the Saturday service, the eight grandchildren—William, Harry, Peter Phillips, Zara Tindall, Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Lady Louise Windsor, and James, Viscount Severn—will stand guard by the coffin as their parents did in Scotland on Tuesday and again at the Palace of Westminster on Friday. Traditionally known as the Vigil of the Princes, the ceremony had previously not included female members of the family, but this year, Princess Anne joined her brothers. The palace source who spoke to People said that William, who was named the Prince of Wales last week, would stand at the head of the coffin, Harry would stand opposition, and their cousins will be spaced along the middle. A palace spokesperson told Reuters that the grandchildren's spouses, including Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton, will not be present.
Despite the controversy over his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew was also given permission to wear his military uniform to the Friday ceremony. Marianne Wang, a lawyer who represented a dozen victims of Jeffrey Epstein, told the Guardian that she thought it was “beyond shameful to see Andrew being granted any form of state-sponsored honor or privilege, given his past affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein."
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SEATTLE — Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith won the heart of fans immediately in the aftermath of Seattle's victory over Russell Wilson's Denver Broncos.
"They wrote me off," Smith said following the Seahawks' 17-16 upset victory on Monday night. "I ain't write back though."
Smith's viral postgame remark epitomized the story of the 2022 Seahawks, a football team widely expected to be one of the league's worst.
Instead, for one night at least, the Seahawks bested its former franchise quarterback that once defined its most successful run in team history.
Smith, too, has faced a similar pathway full of naysayers. He was once a young quarterback prospect with an opportunity to lead the New York Jets. He failed after two years. It took him six entire seasons of toiling away as a backup quarterback just to get another shot at redemption.
Now the unlikely pairing hopes to continue thumbing their noses at the people that wrote them off – one game at a time.
Let's get to the Seahawks' game this weekend against the San Francisco 49ers.
Game info
- Matchup: Seahawks (1-0) at 49ers (0-1)
- Time: Sunday, 1:05 p.m.
- Location: Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California
- Key Seahawks: Geno Smith (QB), DK Metcalf (WR), Jordyn Brooks (LB)
- Key 49ers: Trey Lance (QB), Deebo Samuel (WR), Nick Bosa (DE)
No. 1 in the division (for now)
I'll take "things you didn't think would happen in real life" for $500, Alex. It probably won't last long given the collective strength of the NFC West, but the Seahawks are the top team in the division with a pristine 1-0 record.
Now the question, of course, is whether the Seahawks can move past an emotionally draining Monday night victory and re-position its focus to a division rival just six days later.
If the Seahawks can steal another game as big underdogs, the possibility for a 3-0 or 4-0 start to the season is suddenly a real possibility. A home game against the Falcons and a road meeting against the Lions are next.
Geno Smith, the game manager
The Seahawks threw on nearly 60% of its plays in the season opener, a surprising figure considering the Seahawks were leading for most of the game.
The higher pass rate, however, didn't really mean the Seahawks were expanding their offense.
The average depth of target on Geno Smith's 28 throws was just 5.1 yards, meaning the Seahawks were focusing on short-yardage pass concepts.
Smith finished the game with 195 passing yards, two touchdowns and a pedestrian 7.0 yards per attempt – right in line with his career mark. He was respectable and good enough to capitalize on a Broncos team that seemed content to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Can this model be sustainable for winning football? It would take an elite defense and excellent coaching to consistently win this way.
This conservative approach particularly hurt DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, who combined for just 64 yards on 10 catches.
The good news for Metcalf at least: He was targeted on 25% of his pass routes run in the opening game, which is still an elite figure and in line with his efficiency when Russell Wilson was his quarterback.
Lockett was targeted on just 15% of his 27 routes run, however, and he struggled with the quarterback change. He was earning a target on over 20% of his routes run under Wilson for the past three seasons, according to Player Profiler.
Kenneth Walker III's debut
Coach Pete Carroll said Walker III will play in Week 2 after he missed the season opener with a hernia injury sustained in the preseason.
Rashaad Penny led the backfield last week, playing 38 of 54 snaps (70%) and running 19 routes, according to Pro Football Focus. Travis Homer ran the other third of the Seahawks' routes as a pass-catcher.
Now Walker III, the second running back selected in the 2022 NFL Draft, will throw a wrench into the Seahawks' running back hierarchy.
The Michigan State product may require a slow ramp-up in his first game from injury and play fewer snaps as a result. But his claim to Penny's lead role is undeniably a priority for the Seahawks in their long-term plans.
How the Seahawks divvy up the running back snaps will be a key area to watch Sunday afternoon.
Injury report
The biggest injury to monitor is 49ers tight end George Kittle, who missed the season opener with a groin injury. At this moment, the 49ers said Kittle will be a "game-time decision."
Kittle practiced for the first time Friday, after starting the week with several DNPs.
When healthy, Kittle is one of the few tight ends in the league that can alter entire game plans.
Kittle caught nine passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns in the 49ers' last meeting against the Seahawks in 2021.
Game prediction
49ers 24, Seahawks 17. | https://www.krem.com/article/sports/nfl/seahawks/seahawks-week-2-preview-san-francisco-49ers/281-81ef81c9-903a-44f2-b7a7-8504e5f9fc59 | 2022-09-16T22:48:58Z | krem.com | control | https://www.krem.com/article/sports/nfl/seahawks/seahawks-week-2-preview-san-francisco-49ers/281-81ef81c9-903a-44f2-b7a7-8504e5f9fc59 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
A little more than a year after their initial separation, Scooter Braun and Yael Cohen have come to an agreement on the terms of their divorce.
According to the former couple’s divorce settlement, obtained by People, the music executive known for representing pop stars like Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande will pay his ex-wife $20 million. The couple did have a prenuptial agreement in place; however, this settlement is reportedly meant to cover Cohen’s split of their joint property value and will act as a spousal-support buyout. People reports that Braun will also pay $60,000 a month in child support to cover the expenses of raising their three children, seven-year-old Jagger Joseph, five-year-old Levi Magnus, and three-year-old Hart Violet. Cohen will also reportedly be allowed to retain the family’s $30 million Brentwood home, as well as a 2021 Land Rover Defender, and several pieces of high-priced art.
As for Braun, he will be keeping the $65 million Los Angeles mansion he bought in September of last year in the midst of this divorce, as well as several other properties. He will also be keeping a 2018 Porsche Cayenne GTS, a 2019 Tesla Model X, as well as a number of golf carts, an electric scooter, and a private jet, according to People. Bieber’s manager will also walk away with more than 100 works by artists including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jasper Johns. Braun and Cohen have also agreed to joint custody over their three children. Cohen, who founded the charity Fuck Cancer, had originally requested that her ex-husband pay her attorney’s fees as well, per People, but they ultimately agreed to pay their own lawyers separately.
In July of last year, outlets first began reporting that the couple had broken up after seven years of marriage. A source confirmed to People at the time, “Their friendship is the best it’s ever been but they’re taking some time apart to sort things out. So many couples went through this during the pandemic. They love each other and just need some time apart and will hopefully bounce back for their kids.” Days later, Braun officially filed for divorce.
On an episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast the month before filing for divorce, Braun revealed that shortly before his and Cohen’s separation he’d gone on a retreat after experiencing the “darkest” thoughts of his life. “My wife and I began to hear all kinds of rumors, like ‘[Scooter] has gone crazy.’ But it wasn’t that. It was just feeling like I wasn’t present in my life, and feeling like the people around me who loved me, I felt their hurt,” he explained. “Because one, we’re all coming in with our own trauma, and weirdly our trauma was matching up, and I couldn’t fix it. I’m a fixer. Since I was a kid, I’m [the guy who’s] going to make it be okay for everybody. And I just couldn’t fix things in this moment in time.”
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Listen to VF’s Still Watching Podcast for Ongoing Analysis of House of the Dragon | https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/09/scooter-braun-yael-cohen-divorce-settlement-20-million-child-support-keeping-private-jet | 2022-09-16T22:49:01Z | vanityfair.com | control | https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/09/scooter-braun-yael-cohen-divorce-settlement-20-million-child-support-keeping-private-jet | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Fort Collins SWAT arrests burglary suspect to end overnight standoff
An overnight standoff involving a burglary suspect barricaded in an east Fort Collins apartment ended early Friday when police entered the apartment and forcibly arrested the man.
The nine-hour standoff began late Thursday when police say the suspect attempted to evade officers responding to a reported break-in at an unoccupied apartment on the 1300 block of Kirkwood Drive. The man, identified by police as 33-year-old Justin Hall, ran from officers, broke into an occupied apartment and refused to come out, according to a Fort Collins Police Services news release.
The occupants of the apartment were able to escape without injury, police said.
With Hall barricaded in the apartment shortly after 10:40 p.m., the Fort Collins SWAT team, K9 team, drone team and crisis negotiators came to assist officers on scene, with Larimer County Sheriff's Office All Hazards/Crisis Response Team adding to the substantial police presence.
Hours after negotiation efforts and less-lethal tools failed to extract Hall from the apartment, SWAT members entered about 7:40 a.m. Friday and arrested Hall, who was taken to an area hospital for treatment of minor injuries sustained during the standoff, police said. No community members or officers were injured during the standoff, they said.
Hall was later booked into the Larimer County Jail on suspicion of a felony burglary charge, five misdemeanor charges and on two existing misdemeanor warrants.
"Our officers kept safety at the forefront of their decision making and gave the suspect every opportunity to come out," FCPS Assistant Chief John Feyen said in the police release. "I'm proud of the skill and professionalism they showed throughout this very lengthy incident."
Police ask that anyone with information who has not spoken to them about the incident call Detective Bryan Vogel at 970-416-2392, or contact Crime Stoppers of Larimer County at 970-221-6868, where they can remain anonymous.
All charges are simply an accusation by law enforcement, and all parties are be presumed innocent until proven guilty in court. | https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2022/09/16/fort-collins-swat-arrests-burglary-suspect-to-end-overnight-standoff/69500156007/ | 2022-09-16T22:49:18Z | coloradoan.com | control | https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2022/09/16/fort-collins-swat-arrests-burglary-suspect-to-end-overnight-standoff/69500156007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
You're invited to a conversation about housing affordability in Fort Collins
If you're a Coloradoan Conversations participant, you know the Coloradoan has been experimenting with our commenting forum and opinion offerings. We've also been working as a founding member of the Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project to experiment with different ways of having conversations about complex topics.
Now we'd like to invite you to an in-person conversation around the challenges of housing in Fort Collins at the inaugural "The Scoop: NoCo Community Conversations."
The event is from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 21 at the Old Town Library, 201 Peterson St., in large meeting room 1.
Hosted by the Poudre River Public Library District as part of the Deliberative Journalism Project, the event is open to discussion on things like:
- whether home prices are pricing you or your loved ones out of Fort Collins
- whether U+2 needs to be changed
- if proposed rental regulations will help
- what changes or ideas you think could help with housing affordability in Fort Collins
To attend, RSVP via the online calendar, located within the events button at poudrelibraries.org, to receive a few reading materials to inform you prior to the conversation.
The Scoop will be a monthly event with different topics each time focused on local happenings, community dynamics and the day-to-day occurrences that affect our lives. We'll discuss local news pieces and the sentiments around issues, and you'll hear from local leaders, journalists and community influencers. These discussions aim to showcase different viewpoints to keep our community in touch with the diverse backgrounds, positions and opinions that make us great.
The Northern Colorado Deliberative Journalism Project was created by a collaboration among the CSU Center for Deliberation, the Coloradoan, the CSU Department of Journalism, Fort Collins Public Media and Poudre Libraries.
Take a look back at some of the Coloradoan Conversations on the topic of housing here:
- Coloradoan Conversations: With home prices still rising, do you have a future in Northern Colorado?
- Coloradoan Conversations: If you could, would you change Fort Collins” U+2 rental occupancy policy?
- Coloradoan Conversations: What should Northern Colorado employers do to deal with the region’s high housing costs? | https://www.coloradoan.com/story/opinion/2022/09/16/fort-collins-housing-affordability-is-up-for-discussion-at-event/69497855007/ | 2022-09-16T22:49:24Z | coloradoan.com | control | https://www.coloradoan.com/story/opinion/2022/09/16/fort-collins-housing-affordability-is-up-for-discussion-at-event/69497855007/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
PITTSVILLE, Md. - In late summer, it's a sad, but terribly unusual sight to see dead deer near ponds and lakes.
"They get a really high temperature," said Jonathan Trudeau with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, describing the illness that these deer are getting. "So that's why you find them near water a lot of the time, because their temperature's spiking and they're trying to cool off."
These deer are victims of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or "EHD." EHD is caused by a deadly virus transmitted by small biting flies.
In a typical year, outbreaks of EHD are isolated in area, affecting only small numbers of deer, and are not a cause for alarm.
This year isn't a typical year, though.
"It didn't raise red flags to me until about three weeks ago when I really started getting deep into the properties and I am now over fifty deer dead just on a few properties," said Christopher Bowden of Pittsville, Md.
Bowden owns Muddy Bottom Outfitters, which organizes deer hunting tours on several properties in Wicomico and Worcester Counties.
"I raise these deer, I feed these deer year round, I plant food plots for these deer, and they're gone," Bowden lamented.
Bowden is blaming long stretches of hot, dry weather for the increased die-off this year.
Many streams on his properties have dried up, leaving behind only small puddles, which are breeding grounds for the biting flies that transmit the virus to the deer.
The decrease in deer population is causing problems for his business, as some of his customers have already cancelled their tours.
There are no management strategies for EHD, as the disease is not normally a serious threat to the deer population at large, or for other species.
But Bowden wants to see communities more effectively come together to fight the disease when it does become are more serious problem.
"This is a matter that we need to work together to create a management plan as far as to get our herd back to what we're used to hunting and having," Bowden said.
EHD does not affect people, cats, or dogs, and is normally only a minor threat to livestock.
If you see a deer that may have died of EHD (they are often found in or near ponds), report it to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Wildlife and Heritage Service Field Office:
Bel Air (410) 836-4552
Annapolis (410) 260-8540
Cumberland (301) 777-2136
Wye Mills 410-827-8612. | https://www.wboc.com/news/disease-causing-deer-die-off-in-wicomico-worcester-counties/article_e5388380-3604-11ed-b34c-33b7a0cd0d03.html | 2022-09-16T22:56:45Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/disease-causing-deer-die-off-in-wicomico-worcester-counties/article_e5388380-3604-11ed-b34c-33b7a0cd0d03.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
ELDERSBURG, Md. (AP) - A Maryland school bus driver was arrested after state police said she showed signs of impairment at the scene of a crash Thursday afternoon.
Maryland State Police troopers were called to state Route 32 in the Eldersburg area around 2:15 p.m. for a report of a crash involving a school bus, officials said in a news release. Troopers’ investigation found that the bus was traveling southbound when, for unknown reasons, the bus went off the road and hit multiple telephone poles, police said. No students were aboard the bus when the crash occurred.
As troopers spoke to the driver, they observed signs of impairment and she was arrested, police said. Charges are pending results of a blood analysis.
The road was closed until late Thursday while the electric lines were repaired. | https://www.wboc.com/news/school-bus-driver-arrested-after-signs-of-impairment/article_13cc1860-3605-11ed-8d4b-3bbf7d388e70.html | 2022-09-16T22:56:51Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/school-bus-driver-arrested-after-signs-of-impairment/article_13cc1860-3605-11ed-8d4b-3bbf7d388e70.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A Virginia judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed on behalf of 13 young people who claim that the state's permitting of fossil fuel projects is exacerbating climate change and violating their constitutional rights.
The lawsuit filed by Our Children's Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit public interest law firm, asked the court to declare portions of the Virginia Gas and Oil Act unconstitutional. It also seeks to find the state's reliance on and promotion of fossil fuels violates the rights of the plaintiffs, ages 10 to 19.
But Richmond Circuit Court Judge Clarence Jenkins Jr. granted the state's request to dismiss the lawsuit, finding that the complaint is barred by sovereign immunity. That's a legal doctrine that says a state cannot be sued without its consent. The state argued that sovereign immunity prohibited the plaintiffs’ claims because they sought to restrain the state from issuing permits for fossil fuel infrastructure and to interfere with governmental functions.
The lawsuit is one of five filed by Our Children’s Trust in states around the country. Lawsuits in Hawaii and Utah are in the early stages, while a lawsuit it Montana is expected to go to trial next year. A federal lawsuit filed in Oregon in 2015 remains in litigation after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiffs last year. They have since asked to file a more narrow amended complaint and are awaiting a decision.
Jenkins ruled from the bench and dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled again in the same court. Their attorney, Nathan Bellinger, said they will likely appeal the ruling to the state Court of Appeals.
Ten of the plaintiffs - accompanied by their parents - listened in court as Bellinger said the state is knowingly contributing to the climate crisis by continuing to rely on fossil fuels as its main energy sources and polluting the atmosphere with greenhouse gas emissions. He asked the judge to allow the case to proceed to trial.
The lawsuit alleges that climate change has contributed to health problems experienced by the plaintiffs, including asthma and heat exhaustion. Four of the plaintiffs have become ill after being bitten by ticks, a population that has increased due to climate change, Bellinger said.
It also claims that Virginia has violated the public trust doctrine, which says that the state has a duty to hold certain natural resources in trust.
“These courageous Virginia youths ... are turning to the judiciary to protect their fundamental rights,” Bellinger argued in court.
Bellinger said the Virginia lawsuit is the first to leave out a request for an injunction to require the state to take certain actions or to submit a remedial plan. Instead, it asked only for a declaration that the continued permitting of fossil fuel projects violated the plaintiffs' rights.
But attorneys for the state argued that the plaintiffs are attempting to usurp the role of the state legislature and impose their preferred energy and environmental policies on the state.
“Simply put, this action belongs two blocks over at the General Assembly and not before this court,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Sanford. | https://www.wboc.com/news/virginia-judge-dismisses-youth-climate-change-lawsuit/article_a85a7bd0-3604-11ed-b532-5f14c8bf64b6.html | 2022-09-16T22:56:57Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/virginia-judge-dismisses-youth-climate-change-lawsuit/article_a85a7bd0-3604-11ed-b532-5f14c8bf64b6.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
LEWES, De. -- The well water for some people in the Beachwoods neighborhood in Lewes is no longer useable. The water has filled with sediment and has turned brown. Neighbors say the issues began about a year ago, right around the time a dewatering project, started by DNREC, began.
Dewatering is the removal of ground water from one area for use in another area. In this case, the water is being pulled from the Beachwoods neighborhood and is being used for the construction of the Welches Pond Development.
Susan Anderson has lived in her home in the Beachwoods neighborhood for the past 30 years, and she says she can't remember a time that their water was this bad. Her toilet tank is filled with brown water, and the water that pours into her tub is a brownish-orange. Her tap water? Undrinkable, according to Anderson.
"It's the same color as what you're seeing in the tubs, so, you don't want to drink it," said Anderson.
Anderson has a blue water jug that she uses for drinking water, and does laundry and showers at a friends house. Her neighbors are experiencing the same hurdles.
"In the last year, especially, I've noticed increased sediment in the tank of my commodes," said Eileen Kane. "I can't even see through the bottom of one of my commodes when I lift the tank off."
Kane has also noticed issues with her water pressure.
"The water pressure is decreasing both inside the house and outside the house," said Kane. "I've had to stop maintaining my lawn, and depending just on rain to keep my landscape healthy."
Linda Wildasin has replaced her toilet twice in the past two months, with little success of seeing cleaner water in her tank. She has also spent thousands for a new water filtration system.
"I had to have a new water filtration system put in because the water smelled and tasted so bad that you couldn't even use it," said Wildasin.
We reached out to DNREC for comment on this issue. They did not want to do an interview, but did provide WBOC with a statement that says 'DNREC is working with neighboring homeowners in the area to determine if they have experienced environmental impacts from construction activities at the Welches Pond development.'
At this point, Anderson and her neighbors are just hoping they get their clean well water back soon.
"I'd like to be able to make sure that we get some clean water, drinking water, water to do wash, water to cook with," said Wildasin.
Kane agrees.
"I would like to have water coming into my house and be able to shower and be able to clean my house and not worry if I'm going to suck my well dry if I water my plants," said Kane.
But, optimism, much like the water in the Beachwoods neighborhood, is running dry. | https://www.wboc.com/news/well-water-struggles/article_4fd38332-3607-11ed-8394-272add01b379.html | 2022-09-16T22:57:03Z | wboc.com | control | https://www.wboc.com/news/well-water-struggles/article_4fd38332-3607-11ed-8394-272add01b379.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – THIS WILL BE YOUR 500TH CUP START. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE THAT MANY AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE RACE? “Some days it feels like it’s been a long 500 starts and others it feels like it goes by really quickly and kind of think it’s like probably having kids. Sometimes the days are long, but the years are short and it’s probably similar in this sport. It goes by in a blink of an eye at times and you kind of go back and it’s easy to kind of reminisce in the past a little bit and think about your first start in Loudon or that first pole here in Bristol and those type things and fast forward 14 years or so and here I am making my 500th start. I remember watching Truex and Kenseth and those guys start their 500th start and thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s a lot of starts. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that far into it.’ Now it feels like it really didn’t take that long. It’s a great accomplishment to say that you’ve had that many starts and it’s special, but it’s still always about the wins to me. I want to win a lot, but to be able to accomplish 500 starts at 32 years old is pretty cool.”
ANY GOAL FOR STARTS, LIKE 1000? “I’m already losing my hair. I don’t know if I’ll make it. I don’t have a start goal. I’ve looked into the Iron Man award. It’s definitely possible for me if I can keep consistently making the starts that I’ve been able to do. I’m probably one of the only ones that can really achieve that, so it’s there. I don’t know how much that means to me. I know where I am for the foreseeable future right now and I’m happy where I’m at. I just re-signed with Penske and Shell and I’m obviously in a great spot there, but you fast forward a few years down the road and who knows? You can’t call life. You don’t know where you’re gonna be and how competitive you’ll be. I know one thing, if I can’t win and I feel like I am holding back a race team, I probably don’t belong there anymore. When I feel like I’m not contributing to performance in our race team, that’s gonna be my cue. But right now, obviously, I still can and I have no thoughts of retirement anytime soon, so we’ll see. As we get closer, if I’m a year away maybe I’ll do it, I don’t know. It depends on life – your family and all that too.”
WHY DO YOU THINK WE’VE SEEN A RASH OF DRIVER SIGNINGS RECENTLY? “Look at who has signed. Kyle Larson is a great race car driver. I think Rick is gonna be smart enough to try and lock him in as long as he can. If it’s something that’s working, you want to just continue to do it. I can’t speak for other race teams besides our own and that was part of my decision-making process as well and Roger’s as well. We’re in a great spot. We can win races. We can contend for championships every year. We’ve got a great partner in Shell that’s been on this race car for a long, long time and the partnership works on both sides. It’s just a perfect fit, so you don’t want to change it. I don’t want to start all over and go again. Now, if it wasn’t going great, then you’d probably start to look around or shop around, but I think when you look at the guys that are out there winning right now, it’s hard to just jump ship if everything is going well. If you’re able to compete for wins and championships, it’s really hard to just start all over. If you feel like your car is not as good as your talent, then you’re probably starting to look around because you want to win. So it probably just depends on a lot of things, but I think the ones that are re-signing right now are obvious deals that owners and drivers would want to have as a long-term contract.”
AFTER THE TRUCK RACE LAST NIGHT IS THERE ANY CONCERN OF A MARTINSVILLE REPEAT OR ARE OTHER VARIABLES AT HAND? “There are plenty of variables left in the situation right now. We’ve seen this happen before at Bristol. They put the PJ1 on the bottom. If it’s sprayed no a little too thick, it just becomes the dominant lane. If it’s cool out, it doesn’t really chunk up and take a bunch of rubber down there, which kind of takes the advantage away from the bottom, which forces you to move up and makes the top lane work and then you get a couple lanes working. So it wasn’t quite hot enough to really chunk the rubber up on the bottom. I think it’s kind of hard to say how our race is gonna be yet, especially until we get out there and get a lot of laps going. We have a wider tire than we’ve ever had here at Bristol. We run 500 laps pounding that rubber into the racetrack. I think it’s gonna chunk up eventually and you’re gonna be forced to move up the racetrack. I’m pretty certain about that at some point during the race. It might be 100 laps in. It might be 50 laps in. It might be 300 laps. I don’t know because we haven’t been here with this car yet and to know how it’s gonna be, but I think once you get an Xfinity race out there tonight, I think eventually it’s gonna move up, probably start to touch the top a little bit is my guess. That’s kind of how it’s been in the past. I’m not saying the bottom won’t be the preferred lane, but eventually that PJ1 wears off or it chunks up with rubber and it forces guys to move around. That’s probably what’s gonna happen.”
DO ALL THE QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS CAR AT THIS TRACK MAKE YOUR PREVIOUS SUCCESS HERE A MOOT POINT? “I don’t know. Bristol is Bristol. Once you have an idea of what it takes to go around this place at least you kind of know the feel and the way the race typically goes and trends that you may see throughout the race. I think a lot of those things will be similar. Now, with the Next Gen car, there are differences – maybe different lines on restarts, maybe the way your balance goes throughout a run. Those things can be different, so it is a bit of a new game. I’ve been saying it all year long. If you’re gonna be a rookie, this is the year to be a rookie because the guys with experience it’s not as big of an advantage as it has been in the past. I’d say continuing that theme will be like that, but it’s still 500 laps and experience helps you run 500 laps. You kind of know how long it can be and what you need to get out of it, but there are a lot of questions that will be answered here once practice starts as well.”
WHAT DO YOU KNOW FOR SURE ABOUT BRISTOL? “I can’t tell you at all. Like I said, you know it’s gonna be a tough, grueling race. You know there’s gonna be strategy that comes into play at some point if cautions kind of stack on top of each other. You know the rubber build up is gonna be different, whether you have 75-lap green flag runs or 30-lap green flag runs and trying to adjust to that or at least knowing where the track is gonna be. I think that stuff will continue to stay the same.”
PJ1 WAS APPLIED YESTERDAY. IS THERE SMI STILL NEEDS TO DO TO EACH TRACK BECAUSE IT DOESN’T SEEM TO WORK MORE OFTEN THAN NOT? “I don’t know if I would be so quick to say it doesn’t work more often that not. I don’t believe Bristol needs it, but everyone has a different opinion of what good racing is at Bristol. I thought Bristol was great before it ground the top. I thought it was great racing and everybody thought Bristol was great before they reconfigured it years back when everybody was stuck on the bottom and rooting everyone out of the way. That’s what they did with the PJ1is try to get it to where the only way you can pass someone is rooting them out of the way. Is that good racing? I don’t know. Everyone’s got an opinion and I don’t know who is right, but I think having options to race in different lanes is a good thing, especially with this car. I think that’s a good thing and I’m not sure that the PJ on the bottom really does that and, like I said, the other piece is how wide it is. Is it four feet wide or is it six feet wide? That seems to be a pretty big difference on how dominant the bottom lane is, which is pretty wide out there. You see a whole car is in the PJ, so it’s definitely spread pretty wide right now.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK TYLER REDDICK IS GOING THROUGH AND ARE YOU AWARE OF HIS SITUATION WHEN YOU’RE ON THE TRACK AND WHO HE MIGHT WORK WITH? “I think with Tyler it’s kind of obvious as far as who he is helping or not. He pushed Austin to a win in Daytona, so he was a great teammate there. I’m also very aware of where he’s going next and he’s got more teammates than anybody out there right now, so he’s in a unique situation for sure. I don’t know. He’s got to make his own decisions out there on what to do, but I’m sure it’s a little awkward for him. Who knows, I guess it will be awkward for next year too. I don’t know how that is all supposed to work, but, like I said, I’ve got to focus on my own stuff this weekend. We’ve got to get our 22 car through, but it’s definitely some interesting silly season type stuff going on out there.”
DOES STRATEGY CHANGE FOR THE GUYS IN THE PLAYOFFS KNOWING THAT THERE MIGHT BE BETTER CHANCES FOR NON-PLAYOFF GUYS TO WIN? “It definitely is. Imagine if the playoffs started a couple weeks later. Holy cow. What a crazy year, which is what we expected. We expected this year to just be very unpredictable and no one really being able to figure this car out, and it really seems like there are still so many questions and as we come to Bristol for the first time on concrete there is a lot of questions again, so can there be another first time winner? Absolutely. There are a couple drivers that are expected to win every year that haven’t won yet, so you’ve got to think that they’re probably gonna bust off a win at some point, but you just don’t know. I don’t know if it changes the way you go through the playoffs. You’re still focused in on just maximizing the day. If that’s a win or if that’s a fifth, you just have to get the most points you can possibly get and I don’t think that changes from year to year.”
HAS THE NEW CAR MADE IT HARDER TO PEAK LIKE GUYS NORMALLY USED TO DO THE LAST 10 RACES? “There are only certain areas you can develop and it’s not really many parts on the race car, so it’s smaller and it comes down to setups. We’re all playing with the same deck of cards when we start and it’s just how you play that hand. It varies from track to track and especially coming to Bristol for the first time someone can hit it that’s not really expected to. It’s hard to have just a clear advantage going in to where you can miss your setup a little bit and still be pretty good. That’s how it’s been in the past. If someone just has better cars, more capability in their car, they can miss the setup and still run fifth to 10th. Now, if you miss your setup, you’re probably running 15th to 20th, which it’s just a lot different now and because of that you have different winners because there are more capable cars out there and no one has a clear advantage in a lot of different ways. There are some tracks that certain manufacturers may have advantages over others, but it’s not huge like it used to be. There are teams that might have a little bit of an advantage here and there because they figured something out for a little bit. It just keeps changing. Everyone is trying to figure out not only the setups, but where is the low hanging fruit on this car when you’re developing it at the wind tunnel and those type of things. What can and can’t you do. The rules change as it goes along too here, so it definitely, like I said this before, you used to have teams that were strong for three to four months at a time. Now, it’s three to four weeks at a time, so it seems like that cycle just happens a lot quicker now.”
WAS KANSAS AN EXAMPLE OF THAT FOR YOU? “I think so. Yeah. Exactly, especially there because that’s one of those racetracks where a fast car goes fast. It’s really hard to make up for not having a fast car at a track like that.”
YOUR NEXT WIN WILL BE NO. 30. DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE THAT MANY AT THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “It depends on when you asked me that. My rookie year, I would say I’d have a lot more. By the end of my rookie year I was just hoping I’d have a job. It has changed. You asked me when I first started at Penske that we’d win a championship four or five years later, I probably didn’t see that coming at the time and now I look at it and go, ‘Man, there was a lot of missed opportunities out there.’ There have been some great wins in those 500 starts. There has been a Daytona 500. There have been championships. The Dirt Race here. There have been some cool moments that don’t count as those 29 wins – the Clash and those type of things – but when you hear it like 29 out of 500, it’s kind of like I want a lot more than that. But when you look at the all-time win list, you’re kind of in contention with a lot of others that have been great in this sport. It’s just hard to win. It’s hard to stack up five or six wins every single year. Not many have done it, so it’s just a tough sport. It’s tough to have multiple wins in a season more than two or three every year. It’s really tough to get that many. You’ve got to have a really strong team to accomplish that.”
HOW MUCH WILL THE ALL-STAR RACE AT TEXAS HELP YOU WHEN YOU GO BACK THERE NEXT WEEK? “Better than not at all, but it’s gonna be the same for everyone. Everyone had the opportunity to go to Texas. Also, things have changed since we’ve been there as the car has developed and changed all those things. It’s gonna be different than where we were last time. Weather will be different. Resin and how it’s applied – those type of things – will be different. Indy Car has raced there since we’ve been there, so there is a lot of change that can happen, but this next round is a pretty tough one. When you think of Texas being maybe the most normal race and then you have the Roval and Talladega on top of that, it’s definitely gonna be a unique round for sure as it always has been.”
DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE A BETTER RACE AT TEXAS AS OPPOSED TO AN ALL-STAR RACE THIS TIME AROUND? “Maybe. Like I said, a lot depends on the track temperature it seems like a lot of times and what kind of fall off is in the car. Is the bottom lane worked on in one and two to where you can go down there and make passes or not? That will be one of the trickier things to kind of see when we get there. I can’t call the future on that one. I’m not sure.”
THERE IS ALWAYS SO MUCH BUILDUP FOR THIS RACE. IS THIS A DRAMA-FILLED RACE OR WILL IT BE MORE CONSERVATIVE? “What are people expecting? You look at Bristol the last few years it has been wild finishes and there is a lot on the line and there’s a lot of points and things like that where drivers have to be pretty smart, but I think maybe the expectations for Bristol is different than other racetracks. I think Bristol has the most entertaining racing of any track we go to, period. I don’t think there’s a track better than this one, but I also think everyone’s expectations are unrealistic of what things you can possibly get out of it. Whether it’s dirt or concrete, it’s been pretty intense lately and the end of the races have ended in fireworks in a lot of them. So, I don’t know what you would be expecting anything different than that. It’s been great.”
IS IT DUE TO THE BUILDUP? “Yeah, I think it might be unrealistic or people were expecting something different, but this is the best racetrack we come to.”
Ford Performance PR | https://speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73047-ford-performance-nascar-joey-logano-talks-bristol-night-race | 2022-09-16T23:01:01Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73047-ford-performance-nascar-joey-logano-talks-bristol-night-race | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WITH NORTH WILKESBORO COMING BACK NEXT YEAR FOR THE ALL-STAR RACE, YOU’RE THE ONLY ACTIVE DRIVER WITH A WIN THERE. GRANTED IT WAS ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO IN A LATE MODEL, BUT WHAT MEMORY DO YOU HAVE FROM THAT TRACK?
“Yeah, I remember going up there. I remember a lot about it. I remember thinking how cool it was at the time; being able to do the victory lane thing on the lift and all that stuff. It was a trip down a memory lane that I didn’t remember… that I wasn’t around for. Like I don’t remember any racing there, watching.
So for me, it was just this place that was kind of larger than life, in a way. You just hear all these great things; how historic the race track is. Watch videos of all these cool traditions and what not up there.
It was a great time. Fortunately, we were able to get the win and enjoy some of those traditions first-hand. But like you said, it’s been quite a while. I think that was in 2010 or 2011, so it’s been a few years, for sure. I remember a lot about it. I’m sure it’s probably changed some and some things probably haven’t. But looking forward to going back.”
IS ANY EXPERIENCE AT THE TRACK BETTER THAN NO EXPERIENCE?
“Winning anywhere is always a good thing. And at the time, it was a really big deal because they brought the track back and there was a lot of hype around the event. Not as much hype as there is right now, but there was a lot of hype around the event for that time period and what was going on. It was just fun to get the win and kind of be a part of some of those moments in bringing a racetrack back to life. In 2010 or 2011 – whatever year it was – it had been dormant for awhile then, too. Kind of similar, but just not quite as much hype around it. But it was still a big deal to me.”
NASCAR PUT OUT THE SCHEDULE ON WEDNESDAY AND YOU RETWEETED THEIR SCHEDULE TWEET AND SAID ‘LESS IS MORE’ AND THAT YOU LIKED NIGHT RACES. CAN YOU EXPAND ON BOTH OF THOSE?
“I think a more compact schedule, in my opinion. But look, I don’t make the rules and nobody asks my opinion that does. And that’s completely fine, I’m not asking for that job. I don’t want that job. But I’m a firm believer that less is more, in the sense of the timing of a schedule and when we could end our season to make the most for TV ratings and things of that nature. I think we could do better, personally.
And then as far as the night races go; there are a lot of Sunday afternoons that we spend in some really hot environments. Which is fine, I’m good with that. But if I was a fan sitting in the bleachers, I wouldn’t be. For 3 ½ hours in August, I would much rather do it at night and enjoy a night race, which number one I think is really cool. The environment is really neat. This is the best race of the year; here under the lights. I also understand that it’s cool because we don’t do it much. But I just think you see a lot of short tracks in places that run Saturday night shows and I think during the summer months, it’s something we should consider doing more of. That’s my opinion, but again, I don’t get asked. I don’t want to get asked and I don’t want that role. Just my humble opinion and that’s really about it.”
IS THERE AN IDEAL NUMBER OF NIGHT RACES OR A TRACK WE SHOULD HAVE ONE?
“I haven’t put that much thought into it. Just in general, I like them and I like the idea of them; when it’s hot for the spectators to have a more enjoyable environment to watch in.”
36 RACES, BUT WHAT WOULD BE THE TIME WHERE YOU’D WANT TO END? WOULD YOU WANT TO END IN SEPTEMBER OR AUGUST?
“36.. 45.. 50 – I don’t think it matters how many races we have. But I don’t see any reason in competing against NFL football when that starts. In my opinion, that’s not a battle we’re ever going to win. I think we should be smart about that.”
THIS IS A MUCH DIFFERENT TRACK THAN MARTINSVILLE, BUT IS THERE ANY APPREHENSION OF HOW THIS TRACK WILL RACE WITH THIS CAR COMPARED TO HOW IT HAS IN THE PAST?
“I honestly don’t know, I really don’t. I would say most people don’t. I think there’s been a handful of guys who have tested and maybe done a tire test here and things. I haven’t been on the track in this configuration this year in this car. I think there’s some challenges ahead today that’s going to make for a battle tomorrow night. Not even against your competitors.. I think it’s going to be a pretty big battle against yourself in just having your car balance close, being able to match the two ends, the shifting. There’s a lot of RPM difference between running the bottom lane versus running the top. So how they have the drop gear setup; how is that going to impact fourth and fifth gear. The chip can only be set at one location.
Just a lot of super interesting things that are normal for Bristol, but I think are going to be unique to this car. The bump off of turn two comes to mind. A very unique bump in turn one that I’m not sure we’ve really had this year. This place has a lot of vertical load and that bump over there is pretty aggressive. But a lot of times, you don’t see that until later in the event when it gets cool and you really start running the top part. Just a lot of challenges I think I could see on the horizon of just wanting to make sure you have your ducks in a row, personally, before you even start racing other people.”
YOU’RE UP 28-POINTS FROM THE CUTLINE. YOU’RE COMING TO BRISTOL WHERE YOU HAVE THREE TOP-FIVES AND FIVE TOP-10S. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE AT IN UNDERSTANDING BRISTOL?
“I would have to imagine not much has changed, unless for some reason some type of damage or bumps were done to the track with bulldozers getting the dirt on and off the race track. Which I kind of doubt that much has changed, but that would be the only thing unique to anything we’ve seen here in the past. And then obviously the way that they apply the grippy stuff there on the bottom; it looks wider to me this year than it has been in years past. I don’t know that, but just watching the Truck race last night, it seemed like the last couple of trips, it was a more narrow line around the bottom. Maybe somebody in here can tell me yes or no, but it looked like a pretty narrow line in the past where really only your left-side tires could be in it. You might get a little bit of your rights in it, but it was mainly your lefts kind of pulling you around. Now they have it sprayed so wide that your right-side tires are in it. That’s going to extend the life of that stuff because you have two different tire tracks to work in it, rather than one. That’s going to impact the lanes quite a bit. I don’t know if it will double it, just because it’s double the width. But it’s certainly going to make a big difference.”
WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT BRISTOL AND WHAT ARE YOU STILL SCRATCHING YOUR HEAD ABOUT AS A RACE CAR DRIVER?
“Yeah, I think Bristol is the one that kind of has that asterisk next to it for me, just because the environment here is so cool. This fall race, at night, 500-laps; this was one of the events that when I was a kid, it was larger than life. You couldn’t get a ticket for this thing for five years. It was just one of those events that everyone wanted to be at and if you weren’t there or you weren’t talking about it in the early 2000’s, you weren’t living is how I thought it was. I really think that was reality. When I look back at this event and what I remember of it; this was one of the races that made me want to be a race car driver, honestly. The environment here is unmatched and this event is special. I don’t see another date or track on our schedule that can rival what this environment is on Saturday night in August or September.”
YOU’RE WELL ABOVE THE CUTLINE, BUT IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO FALL OUT. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING INTO TOMORROW RACE? ALSO, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN HERE?
“I think even with what I just said, it would mean a lot. I think you look at this race and the spectacle that it is; that adds an element of the event that I think makes it really cool. So, yeah it would certainly mean a lot. This is a race that I certainly want to have checked off whenever I get done or get told I’m done. I think this is a special place.
As far as the cutline goes.. nobody is safe. The only guy safe I guess is whoever has locked themselves through. The No. 20 (Christopher Bell) locked himself in last week, so outside of him, nobody is. There’s some very capable guys that have had bad weeks over the last couple of weeks that could win here this weekend and that changes everything, as we all know.
I feel like racing yourself and making sure you have your own ducks in a row before you start racing other people is going to be vital to a successful 500 laps here tomorrow night.”
ARE YOU IN FAVOR OF THEM PUTTING PJ-1 DOWN HERE?
“Yeah, I think it’s been really nice in the past. The width of it here this weekend might be a tall tale on maybe what too much might be, not enough, or if it even matters. But I do think it’s been a good thing because it’s given an option. Here in the past, the top had become super dominate. It seems to me that it’s worked out more times than not over the last two or three years that we’ve come here, between the course of the three events throughout the weekend. I feel like 100 or 200 laps into the Cup race, we start having these two lanes magically and it’s worked out really nice. I don’t know if that was scienced out, if it was just luck or whatever, but it’s created a really nice event. It’s also created a dynamic in the event that something changes; a lane deteriorates and you have to search and get somewhere else to find something new. And then once you run off the top, there might be a little grip left on the bottom that you can go back down there and find it. I like that dynamic and I think it’s a good thing for this particular racetrack. I’m not sure that it’s good for all of them, but I think for here, it’s been a really good fit. It’s just a matter of how much and whether or not we’re going to wear this out this weekend. We’ll see.. it may not matter.”
DO DRIVER GIVE FEEDBACK OR ARE YOU GUYS CONSULTED ON HOW MUCH TO PUT DOWN OR ANYTHING; OR IS THAT STRICTLY A TRACK DECISION?
“I don’t go there.”
GM PR | https://speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73048-chevrolet-ncs-at-bristol-chase-elliott-press-conference-transcript | 2022-09-16T23:01:07Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73048-chevrolet-ncs-at-bristol-chase-elliott-press-conference-transcript | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HAVE YOU TALKED TO TYLER REDDICK AT ALL SINCE THE DRIVER ANNOUNCEMENT?
“Tyler’s a beast, man. He puts in a ton of work during the week. I know he’s super-focused on this race, just like myself. He does a really good job of tuning stuff out and just going to work. You can’t deny Tyler Reddick’s speed each and every weekend this year. I’m sure he’s going to fast today and he’ll be just fine. I talked to him. We were at the Catwalk for a Cause together so we had a little bit of fun there, and it was for a great cause. Now it’s time to qualify and practice. For us and the 3 team, we gotta gain as many points as possible this weekend to put us in a good position at the end of this race. So today’s very important when it comes to qualifying.”
YOUR GRANDFATHER SAID YOU WERE THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED YOU HIRE KYLE BUSCH. WHAT DID THAT CONVERSATION ENTAIL?
“After the Tyler announcement, it was about what’s the future of the RCR look and where to go from here. In my mind, there was one guy in free agency who anyone who would love to have when it comes to a driver standpoint. It’s something he can bring and elevate your competition side right off the bat. And he moves the needle when it comes to marketing. He really does. He has a huge fanbase. So for me, it was just talking to my grandfather and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think about Kyle?’ He came back with if he would want to drive for us. I was like, why not because we have fast cars and good equipment. Truthfully when it comes to Kyle, he wants to go fast and win races. So he said to let him think about it, and about 30 minutes later. So I texted Kyle and then gave him a call and we talked. It was the same kind of conversation with Kyle… ‘Do you really think he wants me to drive for him?’ And I was like, yeah that’s what I called. It’s a great opportunity for both of them. For me, especially as a teammate, I get to learn a lot from him. The people in our shop are really excited to have a guy with his kind of experience… a two-time champion with over 200 wins. It’s awesome and it’s great for RCR. In the end, that’s what makes me happy. We want to make the Welcome North Carolina race team compete at the top each week and be looked at as a competitor. We’re on an upward trajectory, so we need to keep that going.”
HAVE YOU REACHED A POINT WHERE YOU’RE EXPECTED TO HAVE MAJOR INPUT INTO DECISIONS LIKE THIS THAT CAN HELP RCR MOVE FORWARD?
“I was born across those railroad tracks, so I feel like it’s all I ever know. To me, everybody who works at RCR and all the faces that I see on a weekly basis… those decisions that my grandfather made for so many years, I’ve seen him have sleepless nights because he wants his people and his company to survive and do well. For me, it’s the same thing. I want the people at RCR to be happy and have jobs for a really long time. When it comes to helping him to make good decisions for the future, I think he takes my opinion. That’s cool, and I think I deserve that too from a competition standpoint, just being in this garage for a long time, seeing a lot and seeing how things work.”
THIS IS YOUR FIFTH APPEARANCE IN THE PLAYOFFS. IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
“The biggest thing is that the first two races were races that we really could have really capitalized on. We haven’t had the pace we needed to do that, but we’ve survived. So for this race, I’m really hoping we unload right here in practice and have a strong car. I think we’ve done a good job of finishing the first two first races but we need to get some stage points and put ourselves in a little better position come Saturday. We’ve been in this survive-and-advance point, but this is the advance point. We have to step it up another notch than what we’ve had these first two races. I think we’re capable of that. I love that this is a long race, and a lot of things can happen during that timeframe. It would sure be nice to qualify up front, run up front and put the pressure on the guys that are around us.”
ALTHOUGH THE NEXT-GEN CAR HASN’T BEEN TO TEXAS, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN AT THE MILE-AND-A-HALFS AND HOW THAT MAY TRANSLATE?
“The All-Star race was there earlier this season. It was surprisingly a pretty decent race. Texas has struggled a little bit from my standpoint since we’ve paved it. It seems like it’s getting a little bit better and getting a little racier. I saw some good racing since I was watching that one. I think every race we go to next year with this Next-Gen car, anything can happen. We’ve had 18 winners and that’s been special, so you might see a new winner.”
THIS IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT WITH THIS BEING THE FIRST RACE HERE WITH THE NEXT-GEN CAR. DO YOU BELIEVE IT’LL BE SUCH A DIFFERENT RACE THAT THINGS WILL GET SHAKEN UP?
“Bristol is a place where if your car does certain things well, you can make up ground and be a hero. It rewards you for being able to drive hard for a long period of time. If your car is bouncing all over the place and struggling, it’s a tough night and you kind of have to survive. I’m confident in the work that we’ve put in during the week that we can have a fast car this weekend. When we get it right, I’ve been good here before so I’m pretty confident when it comes to that.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE RACE TO BE LIKE WITH PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING GIVEN THAT WE HAVE A NEW CAR, OR WILL YOU GUYS FIGURE IT OUT BY THEN?
“I really don’t know the practice will give us a tell-tale sign about what we’re going to have. I didn’t get to do the test. Speaking to some of guys about the test, the track is pretty rough from the removal of the dirt and it’s a little different. In the simulator, it’s not that bad. It’ll be interesting to see what the difference is when we get out there and move around.”
THEY ARE DIFFERENT SPORTS BUT ARE THERE THINGS YOU CAN CARRY OVER FROM THE MANAGEMENT VIEW OF RCR AND PBR?
“For sure. The adrenaline-junky side of the athlete from both sides is very similar. On the team aspect, you can relate it to the pit crews and keeping the pit crews together. That’s another part of that. I don’t know if we announced it, but we signed our pit crew on the 3 team to a five-year deal – all of our guys. So they’ve signed up for the next five years. That’s really cool. They’ve been one of the best-performing pit crews on pit road. I’ll give credit to our pit coach for being forward-thinking on the youth that we have on that team and helping Andy Petree and myself getting into the boss man. For him, that’s a new way of thinking. He was receptive of that, and it’s important. It’s a culture-builder. That’s what we want to do at RCR, and that’s build the culture up.”
YOU SAID TUESDAY THAT YOU TOLD KYLE THAT THERE WON’T BE ANOTHER TEAM WHO WILL FIGHT FOR YOU. DOES THAT START WITH RICHARD CHILDRESS OR IS THAT BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO HIRE?
“It’s a little bit of the short-track mentality of bringing your friends to the track. In Welcome, we’re away from everyone in Mooresville by a bit. That makes us different because there is mostly a drive from people coming to Mooresville or that live around there. We’re kind of our team, and I like it down there. I feel like we’re in a different state than everyone else in Mooresville. I like it that way, and I think Kyle will too. He’s that type of guy that is a fiery competition, and I think that gets along with what RC has built.”
AS FAR AS THE POINTS SPREAD TOMORROW, HOW WILL THAT AFFECT THE WAY GUYS APPROACH THE RACE GIVEN THIS IS A SHORT TRACK?
“It’s just a rough grind of a track and race. You don’t know the performance of the tire, either. There are a lot of things that can happen here in a very short period of time. First thing’s first and that’s qualify; qualify up front, try and get stage points and try to win the race, but don’t take yourself out of the race. A lot of things are going to happen. It’s very easy with this car to take yourself out of the race because you’re on edge very often. It’s very easy to get a little too much and put yourself in a bad situation. The moment you take yourself out of the fight, you’re probably out when it comes to points.”
GM PR | https://speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73050-chevrolet-ncs-at-bristol-austin-dillon-press-conference-transcript | 2022-09-16T23:01:13Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73050-chevrolet-ncs-at-bristol-austin-dillon-press-conference-transcript | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy Facebook page shared this photo on Sept. 9, 2020, with the caption: “Cadets have been busy and focused on completing classes and setting up a plan for their futures. Recently, they virtually met with military recruiters and Job Corps representatives to explore just a couple of the options they have once they graduate from WCCA. It’s great seeing the cadets show their Courage to Change!”
The Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy Facebook page shared this photo on Sept. 9, 2020, with the caption: “Cadets have been busy and focused on completing classes and setting up a plan for their futures. Recently, they virtually met with military recruiters and Job Corps representatives to explore just a couple of the options they have once they graduate from WCCA. It’s great seeing the cadets show their Courage to Change!”
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Pritchett is pictured in this previously taken photo that was provided Thursday by the Wyoming Military Department.
CHEYENNE – A quasi-military academy in Guernsey is closing and may not soon reopen, officials indicated Thursday. Officials with the Wyoming National Guard will look to move the facility elsewhere in the state, with the goal of possibly reopening in a few years.
According to a two-page news release emailed Wednesday evening by the Wyoming Military Department after the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s inquiries, the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy “will shut down for an indefinite amount of time based on the inability to recruit and retain staff.” The release said “shutdown procedures are underway” and indicated the organization has operated for almost 20 years.
It was so difficult to hire civilians to work at the academy, the government has been using several members of the military who stepped forward to work at the facility. Even with their help, it still was a few people short of having all of the allocated staff. The positions of the almost 40 current civilian employees are fully funded through this year, and after that, they may need to look for work elsewhere, officials told the WTE Thursday.
Most immediately, the closure will affect the current cadet class of about 60 participants, who are 16 to 18 years old. Those students can choose to go to other states’ similar academies, they can continue their studies remotely once the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy ceases in-person learning at month’s end, or they can simply go back home on Oct. 1. This is according to U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David Pritchett, who helps to oversee the academy, among other duties, as director of the Wyoming Military Department’s joint staff.
“The first piece of this is we are trying to place all these cadets” at other academies, Pritchett said by phone. And then officials will assess “when can we, with some degree of confidence, start the program back” up, he added. “We can’t sustain it here, so we are not going to come back in two years and try to do it here.”
Those who might have applied to the program for future sessions – there were two, five-and-a-half month classes held annually – can instead go to other states’ programs. There is a special arrangement with Nevada’s academy, so that Wyomingites aren’t completely left in the lurch.
Filled a gap
Politicians and other stakeholders, who shared their reaction to the news, said they are sad the facility will close. (Their comments will be included in a follow-up news article.) The academy’s Facebook page also saw an outpouring of disappointment over the action.
“The decision to close the Wyoming Challenge Academy was not made lightly, and (was) made in consultation with” Gov. Mark Gordon, his spokesman, Michael Pearlman, wrote in an email to the WTE. “It is directly related to the inability to staff the facility in a manner that ensures a safe environment for the cadets that attend. The health and safety of those cadets and its staff are the governor’s number one priority.” Pearlman said “staff attrition that occurred since the current cohort of cadets started has exacerbated a challenging staffing situation.”
Stakeholders all agreed the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy met an important need to provide a different kind of eduction to teenagers who experienced difficulties at home and/or at traditional high schools. They said that given its remote location and the difficulty employers here and across the U.S. are experiencing in being fully staffed, continuing to operate with fill-in military employees was not a viable long-term option.
“We will likely look at where (there) are some larger areas, if you will, that have a little bit more of a talent base to draw from,” Pritchett predicted. He said it’s possible the new location could be at a mothballed school, which would then be retrofit with barracks and dining and other facilities.
Such a search process could start soon, and might take a few years. Hopefully, everything could be in place in time to have a class of cadets who would start in July 2025, the officer said. “I think that is a realistic timeline.”
Cost
The federal government paid the bulk of the cost for Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy, officials said. For 2022 and 2023, there was $5.2 million budgeted from the feds, with another $2.3 million from the state, Pritchett said.
According to the announcement of the closure, the current cadet class has almost 60 members, and almost 1,500 have graduated from the program through the years.
“We understand the hardship this places on families and cadets, but we simply cannot sustain our current program, given our staffing issues,” said Maj. Gen. Gregory Porter, the adjutant general of the Wyoming National Guard, in the prepared statement. “We are committed to helping the cadets achieve their educational and individual goals, and will work with them to find alternate means to meet them.”
Following the residential academy, there is a year-long “mentorship program, designed to provide structure, instill discipline, and help young men and women recognize and achieve their potential in a quasi-military training environment,” the release said. “All cadets volunteer to take part in the program.” The goal is for “nontraditional learners” to “improve their educational level and employment potential and become responsible productive citizens of” Wyoming.
The mentorship meant adult volunteers would check in with their mentees, according to those who have been involved with the process. They credited the program with helping participants get their necessary high school credits or certificate, so they could either go on to community or other colleges or enter the workforce.
Jonathan Make is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s assistant managing editor and editor of the Wyoming Business Report. He can be reached at jmake@wyomingnews.com or 307-633-3129. Follow him on Twitter @makejdm. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/economy_and_labor/wyo-military-academy-may-stay-shut-for-a-while-reopen-in-new-place/article_75560f28-360a-11ed-8f4a-9b1b4c4db721.html | 2022-09-16T23:02:58Z | wyomingnews.com | control | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/economy_and_labor/wyo-military-academy-may-stay-shut-for-a-while-reopen-in-new-place/article_75560f28-360a-11ed-8f4a-9b1b4c4db721.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Mark Stege, vice president of Wyoming operations for Black Hills Energy/Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Co., speaks earlier in 2022 at the Public Service Commission. Jonathan Make/Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Transmission lines are seen in a photo on the website for Black Hills Energy's Ready Wyoming project. Taken via screenshot on April 5, 2022.
Paul H. Trantow
Mark Stege, vice president of Wyoming operations for Black Hills Energy/Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Co., speaks earlier in 2022 at the Public Service Commission. Jonathan Make/Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE – The local natural gas provider plans to emit, on a net basis, no greenhouse gas emissions from such operations by 2035, it was just announced.
On Thursday, the utility, Black Hills Energy unveiled what it described as "an updated clean energy target to further reduce methane emissions associated with its natural gas utility system." The company is also the primary electricity provider in this geographic area.
The new target of "Net Zero by 2035” doubles the business' previous commitment of halving greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) intensity for mains and services by 2035, according to a news release. It "expands the scope of the goal to include all sources of methane emissions in the company’s distribution system."
Meanwhile, "on the electric side of our business, we have already achieved over a one-third reduction in GHG intensity since 2005, reaching a nearly 10% reduction across our multi-state electric utility system since announcing our goal in 2020,” said Mark Stege, Black Hills Energy’s vice president of operations in Wyoming. His comments came in a written statement that was distributed via email.
Stege continued that “we have plans in place today, without reliance on future technologies, to achieve our corporate climate goals calling for a 40% reduction in GHG intensity from our electric utility operations by 2030 and 70% by 2040.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/energy_production/black-hills-energy-eyes-natural-gas-net-zero-by-2035/article_8a333f56-360a-11ed-aa3d-cf1bcdb464de.html | 2022-09-16T23:03:04Z | wyomingnews.com | control | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/energy_production/black-hills-energy-eyes-natural-gas-net-zero-by-2035/article_8a333f56-360a-11ed-aa3d-cf1bcdb464de.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
As part of a TSA PreCheck enrollment roadshow, mobile enrollment trucks will be on the move this fall in an effort to help travelers complete their in-person interviews and fingerprinting for their TSA PreCheck applications—without the hassle of heading to the airport.
In order to enroll in TSA PreCheck, a security screening expediting program, you first need to fill out the online application and then schedule an in-person interview at an enrollment center, many of which are located at the country’s airports.
But now, IdentoGO mobile enrollment trucks are fanning out across the U.S. so that travelers who have filled out their online application can either make an appointment or head to one of the mobile RV sites during operating hours to complete their interview and fingerprinting process on a walk-in basis. The IdentoGO enrollment trucks are managed by security services provider Idemia, which operates the country’s TSA PreCheck centers.
The stepped-up effort to help travelers enroll in TSA PreCheck comes as passengers have reported long lines at the country’s airports this year with travel experiencing a robust rebound following the pandemic slowdown. Now, more than ever, travelers are likely to appreciate the ability to speed through TSA security screening lines more quickly and without having to remove their laptops and shoes while normal TSA screening lines often snake through the terminal.
It also comes just as processing times for Global Entry applications—a sister trusted traveler program that includes TSA PreCheck and helps move international arrivals through customs more quickly—have been lagging (though we recently reported on some ways to speed up the Global Entry process). With wait times for Global Entry currently ranging between 6 and 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security is encouraging fliers who predominantly travel domestically to go ahead and get TSA PreCheck first.
“If you do not travel multiple times per year internationally, we recommend applying for the TSA PreCheck Program,” DHS shared on its website. “Most TSA PreCheck applicants can schedule an appointment in less than two weeks and, if approved, can receive a Known Traveler Number (KTN) in about 3 to 5 days after the appointment.”
A five-year Global Entry membership costs $100 and includes TSA PreCheck. TSA PreCheck on its own costs $85 for a five-year membership. (As of October 1, 2021, the price for renewing TSA PreCheck membership online dropped from $85 to $70.)
Where are the TSA PreCheck mobile enrollment centers?
Thus far, IdentoGO has released its schedule of locations for the next several weeks. You can check the website for updates beyond October as to where the mobile trucks will be heading next. Here is the current schedule:
- Farmingdale, New York: through September 16
- Birmingham, Michigan: through September 16
- Evergreen Park, Illinois: through September 16
- Topeka, Kansas: through September 16
- Edmond, Oklahoma: September 16–23
- Macomb, Michigan: September 19–23
- Garden City, New York: September 19–23
- Orland Park, Illinois: September 19–22
- Vernon Hills, Illinois: September 26–30
- Lansing, Michigan, September 26–30
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: September 26–30
- Allentown, Pennsylvania: September 26–October 7
- Middletown, Pennsylvania: October 3–7
- Newport, Kentucky: October 3–7
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: October 3–7
- Lexington, Kentucky: October 10–14
- Norman, Oklahoma: October 10–14
- Midlothian, Virginia: October 10–21
- Dacula, Georgia: October 17–21
- Tulsa, Oklahoma: October 17–28
The precise address and hours for each location is available on the IdentoGO website, which also provides a link to a search tool to help users find the nearest permanent TSA PreCheck enrollment centers, in case the mobile locations, dates, or times don’t work with your schedule. Additionally, the mobile RVs are not wheelchair accessible. So, the permanent enrollment center locator tool can also be used for those who would like to find a nearby location that is ADA compliant. | https://www.afar.com/magazine/mobile-tsa-precheck-enrollment-centers-are-coming-to-these-u-s-cities | 2022-09-16T23:04:02Z | afar.com | control | https://www.afar.com/magazine/mobile-tsa-precheck-enrollment-centers-are-coming-to-these-u-s-cities | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Governor Phil Murphy signed a bill into law on September 7 that grants the New Jersey Historical Commission $1 million to be used toward the creation of a Black Heritage Trail.
With the development of the new trail, New Jersey hopes to better honor the history and resiliency of Black New Jerseyans, past and present. The route will feature commemorative plaques at sites of historical significance, including historical landmarks and museums.
The trail “will highlight Black abolitionists, veterans, artists, entertainers, and other leaders who have made their indelible marks on New Jersey’s history,” according to the governor’s office.
Some of the sites currently being considered for the New Jersey Black Heritage Trail include:
- A museum in Cape May focused on abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who rescued enslaved people through the Underground Railroad
- Perth Amboy, the city where the first free Black man, Thomas Mundy Peterson, voted in 1870
- Hinchliffe Stadium, one of the last still-standing Negro League venues
- Red Bank, the city where musician Count Basie grew up
New Jersey Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson noted that Black history has gone unrecognized in New Jersey “despite the rich influence the African-American community has had on New Jersey.”
Her hope is that the Black Heritage Trail will help to shine a spotlight on important historical landmarks throughout the state and on the “people who helped shape our nation,” Reynolds-Jackson said in a statement.
Exactly where and when the markers will be placed has yet to be announced. However, the state launched a virtual Black Heritage Trail in 2021, which provides people with curated three-day itineraries. The itineraries are organized by region and also include information about Black-owned stores and restaurants to visit en route. | https://www.afar.com/magazine/new-jersey-to-launch-black-heritage-trail | 2022-09-16T23:04:08Z | afar.com | control | https://www.afar.com/magazine/new-jersey-to-launch-black-heritage-trail | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Tribal leaders from across California and the United States gathered with state tourism officials in Palm Springs on Wednesday to announce a landmark initiative for the state—the launch of Visit Native California. Created in partnership with Visit California, the state’s tourism marketing agency, the new effort aims to directly connect travelers with native-led and -designed programs across the Golden State. The ultimate goal is to encourage visitors to explore California’s Indigenous cultures with purposeful trips and experiences that go beyond Native-owned resorts and casinos.
California boasts a rich Indigenous history and there are currently 109 federally recognized tribes throughout the state, representing about 720,000 people—the highest Native American population of any state in the country. The sizes of tribes varies greatly; the Yurok community of Northern California, one of the few tribes to have never been removed from their ancestral homelands, have around 6,300 enrolled members, while the Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians have the smallest population, with just 11 registered members. Though some languages have been lost, California was once home to 64 distinct Native languages.
While many tribes have promoted their tourism experiences locally, prior to the launch of Visit Native California, there wasn’t a state-level agency focused on promoting and marketing Native-led travel experiences, such as Montana’s Tribal Tourism Development Project or North Dakota’s Native Tourism Alliance (which date back to 2017 and 2016, respectively). The new initiative aims to become the go-to resource for information about Native cultural tourism opportunities and hopes to help tribes across the state carve out a space for themselves in California’s lucrative tourism market.
Funding for the project comes from a $1 million federal grant from the American Rescue Plan Act, legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021 that seeks to relieve economic and public health impacts of the pandemic. In the project’s initial stages, money will be put toward building Visit Native California’s online platform as well as promoting curated itineraries, museums, restaurants, outdoor activities, and cultural centers through social media and online influencers. This “first wave” of content is set to debut in March 2023. In its later phases, funding will be put toward helping tribes design more experiences—although there’s already existing culture programming throughout California, including redwood dugout canoe adventure tours of the Klamath River hosted by the Yurok people and guided walking tours with the Me-Wuk tribe in Tuolumne County.
“As the state with the highest population of Native Americans, and one of the nation’s leading tourism destinations, California is poised to drastically boost national Native tourism promotion and interest with this undertaking,” Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association, stated in a release. Rupert was also in attendance at the Visit Native California launch. “We’ve seen the economic benefits that come from uniting under a common banner, but more importantly we see the power of cultural tourism to support preservation and perpetuation of our culture.”
The headquarters of the operation will be in Palm Springs at the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza, set to officially debut next spring. Spanning six acres in the city’s downtown, the new facility will be home to a museum dedicated to the history and culture of the Agua Caliente people, extensive gardens, and the “Spa at Séc-he,” where visitors can enjoy such therapeutic treatments as massages and halotherapy. The Agua Caliente people have lived in the Palm Springs region for thousands of years—there are about 500 members today.
“This project and this site gives my tribe the opportunity, the ability to share our culture,” said Reid D. Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, at the press conference. “This is us.”
The Visit Native California launch comes during a time of healing and recovery for California’s tourism industry due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020 alone, California was projected to have lost $72.8 billion in tourism spending. Tribal communities were among the hardest hit in the state both economically and in regard to public health. The new initiative promises to be a way for tribes to not only financially benefit but also help share their cultures with new audiences who are eager to have deeper and more meaningful connections when they travel.
“When we share our culture, we help preserve it,” said Milanovich. | https://www.afar.com/magazine/visit-native-california-program-seeks-to-promote-indigenous-cultures | 2022-09-16T23:04:14Z | afar.com | control | https://www.afar.com/magazine/visit-native-california-program-seeks-to-promote-indigenous-cultures | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Oren Sellstrom, litigation director at Lawyers for Civil Rights, about what's next for the nearly 50 migrants that were flown to Martha's Vineyard from Texas.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Juana Summers talks with Oren Sellstrom, litigation director at Lawyers for Civil Rights, about what's next for the nearly 50 migrants that were flown to Martha's Vineyard from Texas.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.klcc.org/npr-top-stories/npr-top-stories/2022-09-16/the-migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-have-left-but-their-stories-continue | 2022-09-16T23:06:47Z | klcc.org | control | https://www.klcc.org/npr-top-stories/npr-top-stories/2022-09-16/the-migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-have-left-but-their-stories-continue | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Time is running out for Congress to approve a government funding measure and avoid a shutdown.
Lawmakers have until Sept. 30 to either pass a full annual budget or a short-term funding bill, called a continuing resolution, or CR.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is advocating for a clean CR, which would only extend the current funding levels until lawmakers can agree on the larger budget.
“I would prefer it just to be a clean CR. Let’s just fund government,” Kaine said.
But in order to get the Inflation Reduction Act passed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to pass a plan that includes expediting permits for energy projects.
“The permitting agreement is part of the IRA agreement. I’m going to add it to the CR and it will pass,” Schumer said.
Not everyone likes the idea of adding the permitting plan to the CR.
“I think that should be done separately,” Kaine said.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., also wants to see a clean CR. He says adding extra pieces to the bill risks a government shutdown.
“The Democrats will decide whether we shut down government or not. I don’t believe we ought to be shutting down government. I think we ought to have a clean CR,” Scott said. “And any issues that we want to talk about we ought to have a separate vote on those.”
Sen. Kaine is optimistic Congress will find a way to get it done.
“Will it have the permitting reform in or out or how much of it will be in or out? That’s still TBD. But I’m not worried about government shutdown right now,” Kaine said.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., wants to see Congress move quickly on it.
“I’m hopeful that we can do it sooner rather than later and don’t have some Sept. 30 crisis that we seem to always create,” Hoyer said. | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/washington/washington-dc/government-shutdown-looms-lawmakers-face-down-deadline-for-funding/ | 2022-09-16T23:07:11Z | siouxlandproud.com | control | https://www.siouxlandproud.com/washington/washington-dc/government-shutdown-looms-lawmakers-face-down-deadline-for-funding/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HAVE YOU TALKED TO TYLER REDDICK AT ALL SINCE THE DRIVER ANNOUNCEMENT?
“Tyler’s a beast, man. He puts in a ton of work during the week. I know he’s super-focused on this race, just like myself. He does a really good job of tuning stuff out and just going to work. You can’t deny Tyler Reddick’s speed each and every weekend this year. I’m sure he’s going to fast today and he’ll be just fine. I talked to him. We were at the Catwalk for a Cause together so we had a little bit of fun there, and it was for a great cause. Now it’s time to qualify and practice. For us and the 3 team, we gotta gain as many points as possible this weekend to put us in a good position at the end of this race. So today’s very important when it comes to qualifying.”
YOUR GRANDFATHER SAID YOU WERE THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED YOU HIRE KYLE BUSCH. WHAT DID THAT CONVERSATION ENTAIL?
“After the Tyler announcement, it was about what’s the future of the RCR look and where to go from here. In my mind, there was one guy in free agency who anyone who would love to have when it comes to a driver standpoint. It’s something he can bring and elevate your competition side right off the bat. And he moves the needle when it comes to marketing. He really does. He has a huge fanbase. So for me, it was just talking to my grandfather and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think about Kyle?’ He came back with if he would want to drive for us. I was like, why not because we have fast cars and good equipment. Truthfully when it comes to Kyle, he wants to go fast and win races. So he said to let him think about it, and about 30 minutes later. So I texted Kyle and then gave him a call and we talked. It was the same kind of conversation with Kyle… ‘Do you really think he wants me to drive for him?’ And I was like, yeah that’s what I called. It’s a great opportunity for both of them. For me, especially as a teammate, I get to learn a lot from him. The people in our shop are really excited to have a guy with his kind of experience… a two-time champion with over 200 wins. It’s awesome and it’s great for RCR. In the end, that’s what makes me happy. We want to make the Welcome North Carolina race team compete at the top each week and be looked at as a competitor. We’re on an upward trajectory, so we need to keep that going.”
HAVE YOU REACHED A POINT WHERE YOU’RE EXPECTED TO HAVE MAJOR INPUT INTO DECISIONS LIKE THIS THAT CAN HELP RCR MOVE FORWARD?
“I was born across those railroad tracks, so I feel like it’s all I ever know. To me, everybody who works at RCR and all the faces that I see on a weekly basis… those decisions that my grandfather made for so many years, I’ve seen him have sleepless nights because he wants his people and his company to survive and do well. For me, it’s the same thing. I want the people at RCR to be happy and have jobs for a really long time. When it comes to helping him to make good decisions for the future, I think he takes my opinion. That’s cool, and I think I deserve that too from a competition standpoint, just being in this garage for a long time, seeing a lot and seeing how things work.”
THIS IS YOUR FIFTH APPEARANCE IN THE PLAYOFFS. IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
“The biggest thing is that the first two races were races that we really could have really capitalized on. We haven’t had the pace we needed to do that, but we’ve survived. So for this race, I’m really hoping we unload right here in practice and have a strong car. I think we’ve done a good job of finishing the first two first races but we need to get some stage points and put ourselves in a little better position come Saturday. We’ve been in this survive-and-advance point, but this is the advance point. We have to step it up another notch than what we’ve had these first two races. I think we’re capable of that. I love that this is a long race, and a lot of things can happen during that timeframe. It would sure be nice to qualify up front, run up front and put the pressure on the guys that are around us.”
ALTHOUGH THE NEXT-GEN CAR HASN’T BEEN TO TEXAS, WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN AT THE MILE-AND-A-HALFS AND HOW THAT MAY TRANSLATE?
“The All-Star race was there earlier this season. It was surprisingly a pretty decent race. Texas has struggled a little bit from my standpoint since we’ve paved it. It seems like it’s getting a little bit better and getting a little racier. I saw some good racing since I was watching that one. I think every race we go to next year with this Next-Gen car, anything can happen. We’ve had 18 winners and that’s been special, so you might see a new winner.”
THIS IS GOING TO BE DIFFERENT WITH THIS BEING THE FIRST RACE HERE WITH THE NEXT-GEN CAR. DO YOU BELIEVE IT’LL BE SUCH A DIFFERENT RACE THAT THINGS WILL GET SHAKEN UP?
“Bristol is a place where if your car does certain things well, you can make up ground and be a hero. It rewards you for being able to drive hard for a long period of time. If your car is bouncing all over the place and struggling, it’s a tough night and you kind of have to survive. I’m confident in the work that we’ve put in during the week that we can have a fast car this weekend. When we get it right, I’ve been good here before so I’m pretty confident when it comes to that.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE RACE TO BE LIKE WITH PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING GIVEN THAT WE HAVE A NEW CAR, OR WILL YOU GUYS FIGURE IT OUT BY THEN?
“I really don’t know the practice will give us a tell-tale sign about what we’re going to have. I didn’t get to do the test. Speaking to some of guys about the test, the track is pretty rough from the removal of the dirt and it’s a little different. In the simulator, it’s not that bad. It’ll be interesting to see what the difference is when we get out there and move around.”
THEY ARE DIFFERENT SPORTS BUT ARE THERE THINGS YOU CAN CARRY OVER FROM THE MANAGEMENT VIEW OF RCR AND PBR?
“For sure. The adrenaline-junky side of the athlete from both sides is very similar. On the team aspect, you can relate it to the pit crews and keeping the pit crews together. That’s another part of that. I don’t know if we announced it, but we signed our pit crew on the 3 team to a five-year deal – all of our guys. So they’ve signed up for the next five years. That’s really cool. They’ve been one of the best-performing pit crews on pit road. I’ll give credit to our pit coach for being forward-thinking on the youth that we have on that team and helping Andy Petree and myself getting into the boss man. For him, that’s a new way of thinking. He was receptive of that, and it’s important. It’s a culture-builder. That’s what we want to do at RCR, and that’s build the culture up.”
YOU SAID TUESDAY THAT YOU TOLD KYLE THAT THERE WON’T BE ANOTHER TEAM WHO WILL FIGHT FOR YOU. DOES THAT START WITH RICHARD CHILDRESS OR IS THAT BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO HIRE?
“It’s a little bit of the short-track mentality of bringing your friends to the track. In Welcome, we’re away from everyone in Mooresville by a bit. That makes us different because there is mostly a drive from people coming to Mooresville or that live around there. We’re kind of our team, and I like it down there. I feel like we’re in a different state than everyone else in Mooresville. I like it that way, and I think Kyle will too. He’s that type of guy that is a fiery competition, and I think that gets along with what RC has built.”
AS FAR AS THE POINTS SPREAD TOMORROW, HOW WILL THAT AFFECT THE WAY GUYS APPROACH THE RACE GIVEN THIS IS A SHORT TRACK?
“It’s just a rough grind of a track and race. You don’t know the performance of the tire, either. There are a lot of things that can happen here in a very short period of time. First thing’s first and that’s qualify; qualify up front, try and get stage points and try to win the race, but don’t take yourself out of the race. A lot of things are going to happen. It’s very easy with this car to take yourself out of the race because you’re on edge very often. It’s very easy to get a little too much and put yourself in a bad situation. The moment you take yourself out of the fight, you’re probably out when it comes to points.”
GM PR | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73050-chevrolet-ncs-at-bristol-austin-dillon-press-conference-transcript | 2022-09-16T23:09:49Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/nascar-cup-series-news/73050-chevrolet-ncs-at-bristol-austin-dillon-press-conference-transcript | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
After four weeks off, the Ontario, California-based Flowdynamics Sprint Car team, which is comprised of Matt McCarthy and Logan Williams, will return to action in Saturday’s 14th Annual Glenn Howard Memorial at Perris Auto Speedway. The competition will be the first for the two veteran drivers since the California Racer’s Hall of Fame Night at Perris on August 20th. Spectator gates at the famous Riverside County half-mile clay oval will open at 5:00 p.m. and racing will commence at 7:00.
The team returns to the track that is located about 75 miles east of Los Angeles after having mixed results there at the last race. To start off the night, McCarthy, who makes his home in Riverside, California, set the fastest time in qualifying with a sizzling 16.845. It was his first ever fast time and it could not have come on a better night. The California Racer’s Hall of Fame Night features a lot of extra money up for grabs. McCarthy grabbed some of it when he pocketed $1000.00 for the Billy Wilkerson Fast Time Award. If that was not enough, a few minutes later he won the Junior Kurtz/Bill Simpson Trophy Dash. That dash was comprised of four separate three-lap races with the four fastest qualifiers. When the checkered flag waved over the last one, McCarthy had scored more points than his three foes and took the win that paid $2000.00.
For the main event, McCarthy started seventh. In storybook fashion, he would have won the main event as well, but that did not happen. Early in the race, he was battling to get into the top five when contact was made with another car and he stopped on the track. He had to go to the back for the restart and ended up 13th.
Williams night ended just after it started with a violent crash in turn four in qualifying. The Yorba Linda, California racer walked away from the incident uninjured, but his car suffered heavy damage and it was through for the night.
Each Flowdynamics driver has started four of the five A main events at Perris this year and each has two top 10 finishes. Williams recorded his best Perris finish when he placed fifth on June 25th. McCarthy’s best finish this year at the team’s home track was a 7th at the March 26th season opener. That is his overall best finish of the year (all tracks combined). Williams best overall finish came at the Bakersfield Speedway when he placed fourth on May 14th.
Despite his qualifying tumble, Williams remained fifth in the series championship standings. McCarthy is currently 10th.
The two teammates will get one week off before returning to Perris on October 1st. From there it will be on to Arizona’s Mohave Valley Raceway on October 8th. After that, there will be a total of five dates left in the year. They start with two nights of action at the 55th Annual Western World Championships at the Cocopah Speedway on October 28th and 29th. The following weekend they will return to Perris to wrap up the season at the 26th Heimark Anheuser Busch/Budweiser Oval Nationals on November 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Both of those events will pay full points for the USAC/CRA and USAC National Sprint Cars each night.
After Saturday’s race ends, be sure to head down to the pits to meet the Flowdynamics drivers and pick up their team racing shirts.
Adult tickets to see the Flowdynamics drivers in action on Saturday are $30.00. Seniors 65 and over get in for $25.00. For kids 6 to 12, it is just $5.00. Children 5 and under are admitted free. There will be plenty of tickets available for everyone at the ticket window on Saturday, this event will not sell out. For those who wish to purchase advance tickets, they are available 24 hours a day online at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/pas/7/event/1256365 or by calling 1-800-595-4849. Perris Auto Speedway is located on the Lake Perris Fairgrounds at 18700 Lake Perris Drive in the city of Paris (91767). The track website is http://www.perrisautospeedway.com/ and the office phone number is (951) 940-0134. The fairgrounds charges $10 for parking.
For fans who come east on the 91 Freeway to get to The PAS, the eastbound lanes will be shut down all weekend in Corona. Fans can take the 91 east to either the 605 or the 57 north to the 60 Freeway east.
McCarthy and Williams would like to thank the following sponsors for making the 2021 season possible. Flowdynamics Inc., JFK Design Build, Cal Therm Mechanical Insulators, CRC Component Repair Co., Encore Gas and Supply, Drink-Pac, and Benic Enterprises. If you or your company would like to come on board and join up with one of the fastest rising sprint car teams west of the Mississippi, please contact John McCarthy at 909 930-5522 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Flowdynamics PR | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/racing-news/73049-matt-mccarthy-and-logan-williams-racing-in-glenn-howard-memorial-saturday | 2022-09-16T23:09:55Z | speedwaydigest.com | control | https://www.speedwaydigest.com/index.php/news/racing-news/73049-matt-mccarthy-and-logan-williams-racing-in-glenn-howard-memorial-saturday | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia's setbacks and stretched resources in Ukraine show its forces are incapable of achieving President Vladimir Putin's initial aims in invading the country as things stand now, the Pentagon's intelligence chief said Friday.
"We're coming to a point right now where I think Putin is going to have to revise what his objectives are for this operation," Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told an intelligence and national security conference outside Washington. "Because "it's pretty clear right now that he's ... not going to be able to do what he initially intended to do."
Putin sent troops into neighboring Ukraine in February with what U.S. officials say was the objective of unseating Ukraine's Western-friendly government. Ukrainian forces drove Russian fighters from their positions around Ukraine's capital earlier in the war. And Russia suffered another major setback last week, when a Ukrainian counteroffensive forced its troops back from large swaths of Ukraine's northeast.
"The Russians planned for an occupation, not necessarily an invasion, and that has set them back," Berrier said, citing Putin's reluctance so far to fully mobilize Russian forces to get more manpower into the fight.
President Joe Biden and other administration officials have taken care not to call Russia's latest retreat a Ukrainian victory or turning point in the war, and analysts caution it's impossible to assess what may lie ahead.
"He's coming to a decision" point," Berrier said of Putin. "What that decision will be we don't know. But that will largely drive how long this conflict lasts."
Berrier spoke at a panel with other senior officials at the intelligence community's Intelligence and National Security Summit at National Harbor in Maryland just outside Washington.
Asked about concerns that Putin could unleash weapons of mass destruction if he's thwarted on the battlefield by U.S. and NATO-backed Ukrainian forces, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said, "I don't think we should underestimate Putin's adherence to his original agenda, which was to control Ukraine. I don't think we've seen any reason to believe he has moved off that."
Nor should the U.S. underestimate Putin's "risk appetite," Cohen said. Putin and his officials early in the war made allusions to Russia's nuclear arsenal and to massive retaliation in warning NATO not to get involved in the conflict.
"That being said, we have not seen concrete evidence of planning for the use of WMD,'' Cohen said. The more likely form of any Russian retaliation against the United States would be more attempts at interfering with the U.S. political system, other security and intelligence officials said.
Separately, in a major regional summit in Uzbekistan on Friday, Putin vowed to press the attack on Ukraine and warned that Moscow could ramp up its strikes on the country's infrastructure if Ukrainian forces target facilities in Russia.
The conference included the leaders of China, India, Turkey and several other countries.
Putin said the "liberation" of Ukraine's entire eastern Donbas region was Russia's main military goal and that he saw no need to revise it.
"We aren't in a rush," the Russian leader said. | https://www.katc.com/news/national/military-intel-chief-says-putin-cant-achieve-ukraine-goal | 2022-09-16T23:10:16Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/news/national/military-intel-chief-says-putin-cant-achieve-ukraine-goal | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging the rampant sexual abuse of underage athletes at a competitive cheerleading gym in South Carolina has been amended to name six more coaches as defendants and three more accusers.
The accusers — now seven female and two male — say in the federal lawsuit amended Thursday that they were sexually abused by coaches at Rockstar Cheerleading and Dance in Greenville, which is in the northwestern corner of the state. The accusers' lawyers allege that sexual abuse at the gym could date back two decades and that there could be 100 more victims who haven't come forward.
One of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Bakari Sellers, likened the case to that of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor who is serving a minimum of 40 years in prison after admitting that he molested some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years.
None of the Rockstar coaches have been charged and The Associated Press is not naming them. State and federal law enforcement agencies are investigating the gym and other cheerleading outlets and have seized computers, cellphones and other evidence, one of the accusers’ lawyers, James Bannister, said earlier this month. He said the agencies asked lawyers not to identify them.
According to the lawsuit, the abuse ranged from rape and forced oral sex to molestation and pressuring children as young as 13 to send nude photos of themselves to coaches. The lawsuit also details instances in which coaches gave students alcohol and cannabis at their homes and in hotel rooms during cheerleading competitions.
The allegations first centered on the gym's founder, Scott Foster, who was found dead in his car on Aug. 22. The coroner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Kathy Foster, his widow, announced in earlier this month that Rockstar Cheerleading and Dance would close “indefinitely.”
“Although this was a difficult decision, I believe it is the best option under the circumstances," Foster said in a statement reported by local NBC affiliate WYFF. "Over the past 15 years, our incredible athletes have worked hard to build a winning legacy and I will always be extremely proud of each of them. I ask for privacy for my children and for those personally affected during this difficult time.”
The amended suit details several instances in which it alleges that athletes were abused outside of South Carolina at events sanctioned by Varsity Spirit, which runs competitions, and the U.S. All Star Federation, the country's cheerleading governing body.
Varsity Spirit President Bill Seely said in a Sept. 1 statement that the accusations detailed “abhorrent criminal, predatory conduct” and were “devastating to hear.” In an Aug. 30 statement, USASF said the organization was “devastated to learn of allegations about potential abuse.” The statement declined to comment on developments while law enforcement investigations are underway and reiterated that members should report any allegations.
The plaintiffs' attorneys said they expect to file more lawsuits naming other perpetrators at other gyms around the country.
“We’re talking about serious repeated abuse that was reported to everyone including the Greenville County Sheriff’s Department,” attorney Bakari Sellers said in a statement. “For Varsity Spirit, the USASF and Bain Capital, these survivors didn’t matter. Their checks did. They did nothing to stop this abuse then and they’re doing nothing now.” | https://www.katc.com/news/national/more-coaches-named-in-south-carolina-cheerleader-abuse-suit | 2022-09-16T23:10:22Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/news/national/more-coaches-named-in-south-carolina-cheerleader-abuse-suit | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
FORT WORTH, Texas – A dominant first set performance set the tone for the match as the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Volleyball team captured a straight sets sweep over Alabama (25-12, 25-19, 25-17) on Friday, September 16 to begin play in the Horned Frog Invitational at TCU’s Schollmaier Arena.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (5-3) stormed out to an 8-0 lead, were up by a dozen at 19-7 after back-to-back Kelsey Bennett kills and were never threatened in claiming the first set of the program’s first win over an SEC foe since the 2001 season (Mississippi State).
Louisiana calmly recovered after early deficits in the final two sets, then put the Crimson Tide (5-5) away in the late stages each time.
A 6-0 push ending with back-to-back combo blocks from Bennett and Kara Barnes put the Ragin’ Cajuns ahead 12-10 in the second set. A pair of Lauryn Hill kills ended back-and-forth play and gave Louisiana space at 17-14, then at 21-19 Barnes slammed home a kill to begin a 4-0 set-ending run that secured a commanding 2-0 match lead.
The Ragin’ Cajuns established control in the third set when a Cami Hicks ace put the squad up 11-10, completing the rally from a 10-7 deficit. The lead was upheld with the finishing touches coming during a stretch of four kills that stretched out a 19-15 advantage.
Louisiana put forth a decisively more efficient attack, finishing with a .286 hitting percentage (39 K, 11 E, 98 TA). The defense worked to limit Alabama to a .036 hitting percentage (28 K, 24 E, 110 TA).
LEADING THE RAGIN’ CAJUNS
Bennett (15) and Hill (12) sparked the offense with a combined 27 kills. It marked the seventh double-digit effort from Bennett and a season-high tally for Hill.
The Ragin’ Cajuns held an 11-7 edge in total blocks, paced by six from Hicks and five from Barnes. The match total pushed Barnes past 200 blocks in her career.
Four different players rounded up at least eight digs, spearheading a group effort that gave Louisiana a 47-41 edge in the match. Hill’s match-high 13 digs resulted in her recording her first collegiate double-double.
UP NEXT FOR LOUISIANA
Louisiana faces Abilene Christian on Saturday, September 17 to complete its stay in Fort Worth, Texas at TCU’s Horned Frog Invitational in Schollmaier Arena. The Ragin’ Cajuns and Wildcats and scheduled to meet at approximately 3:30 p.m.
Fans can track the match through the live stats link on the volleyball schedule page [ragincajuns.com] at RaginCajuns.com or with twitter updates on the team’s official account @RaginCajunsVB [twitter.com].
FOLLOW THE RAGIN' CAJUNS
Follow the Ragin' Cajuns on Twitter (@RaginCajunsVB [twitter.com]), Facebook (/RaginCajunsVB [facebook.com]) or Instagram (@RaginCajunsVB [instagram.com]) to stay up-to-date on all that is happening with Louisiana Volleyball.
Fans are also encouraged to stay engaged with the Ragin' Cajuns by downloading the #GeauxCajuns app. Click here [apps.apple.com] for iOS/Apple platforms and here [play.google.com] for Android platforms.
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Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox. Select from these options: Breaking News, Evening News Headlines, Latest COVID-19 Headlines, Morning News Headlines, Special Offers | https://www.katc.com/sports/ul-sports/louisiana-volleyball-sweeps-alabama-to-begin-weekend-in-fort-worth | 2022-09-16T23:10:34Z | katc.com | control | https://www.katc.com/sports/ul-sports/louisiana-volleyball-sweeps-alabama-to-begin-weekend-in-fort-worth | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
BERWYN, Pa., Sept. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- RM LAW, P.C. announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased Abbott Laboratories ("Abbott" or the "Company") (NYSE: ABT) securities during the period from February 19, 2021 through June 8, 2022, inclusive (the "Class Period").
Abbott shareholders may, no later than October 31, 2022, move the Court for appointment as a lead plaintiff of the Class. If you purchased shares of Abbott and would like to learn more about these claims or if you wish to discuss these matters and have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights, contact Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire toll-free at (844) 291-9299 or to sign up online, click here.
The lawsuit alleges that defendants put profitability ahead of children's safety. During the Class Period, Abbott Laboratories engaged in a scheme to maximize revenues and inflate its stock price while disregarding and then concealing lapses in safety protocols that ultimately were linked to serious infant illnesses and even deaths.
On February 17, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") announced that it was investigating four consumer complaints of infant illness related to powdered infant formula produced by Abbott Laboratories in Sturgis. The FDA stated that it had initiated an onsite inspection at the facility, and to date had found several positive contamination results from environmental samples for a bacteria, Cronobacter sakazakii ("Cronobacter"), linked to infant illnesses and death. On the same day, Abbott Laboratories issued a recall of certain infant formula products, including the popular brands Similac, Alimentum and EleCare, all manufactured in Sturgis. On this news, the price of Abbott Laboratories common stock declined by more than 3%.
Then, on March 22, 2022, the FDA released reports from its three inspections of the Sturgis facility conducted in September 2019, September 2021, and, most recently, between January 31, 2022 and March 18, 2022. The FDA stated that these reports "do not constitute final FDA determinations" of specific violations, but highlighted that during its most recent inspection that (a) Abbott failed to establish process controls "designed to ensure that infant formula does not become adulterated due to the presence of microorganisms in the formula or in the processing environment" and (b) Abbott failed to "ensure that all surfaces that contacted infant formula were maintained to protect infant formula from being contaminated by any source." On this news, Abbott Laboratories' stock price fell by an additional 4%.
On April 28, 2022, the FDA released a redacted copy of a whistleblower complaint sent to the FDA in October 2021, revealing that the issues disclosed in February and March 2022 were actually known to Abbott Laboratories' management far earlier. The whistleblower complaint identified numerous serious examples of misconduct by Abbott Laboratories management at Sturgis, including the falsification of testing records, the release of untested infant formula to the market, efforts to mislead the FDA during its 2019 inspection audit, the continuation of known deficient testing procedures, and an inability to trace products to properly implement recalls of affected pallets of formula. On this news, Abbott Laboratories' stock price fell nearly 4%.
Finally, on June 8, 2022, investors learned that Abbott Laboratories was aware of the whistleblower's formal allegations in early 2021, when it was reported that the FDA whistleblower had filed a complaint in February 2021 with the U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety & Health Administration ("OSHA"), and that OSHA delivered that complaint to Abbott Laboratories and the FDA during the same month. On this news, Abbott Laboratories' stock price fell by an additional 3.5%, further damaging investors.
If you are a member of the class, you may, no later than October 31, 2022, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff of the class. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain RM LAW, P.C. or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.
For more information regarding this, please contact RM LAW, P.C. (Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire) toll-free at (844) 291-9299 or by email at rm@maniskas.com or click here. For more information about class action cases in general or to learn more about RM LAW, P.C. please visit our website by clicking here.
RM LAW, P.C. is a national shareholder litigation firm. RM LAW, P.C. is devoted to protecting the interests of individual and institutional investors in shareholder actions in state and federal courts nationwide.
CONTACT:
RM LAW, P.C.
Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire
1055 Westlakes Dr., Ste. 300
Berwyn, PA 19312
484-324-6800
844-291-9299
rm@maniskas.com
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SOURCE RM LAW, P.C. | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/rm-law-announces-class-action-lawsuit-against-abbott-laboratories/ | 2022-09-16T23:11:25Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/rm-law-announces-class-action-lawsuit-against-abbott-laboratories/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
AP19 convenes leading national public health experts toward advancing policies for reducing alcohol-related deaths and consequences
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas's leading advocacy coalition working at the intersection of public health and underage alcohol and substance use prevention, Texans for Safe and Drug-Free Youth (TxSDY), presented as one of the leading organizations at this year's Alcohol Policy 19 (AP19) Conference. The event, held in Washington, D.C., is the nation's leading forum for public health experts to develop approaches for minimizing the risks associated with alcohol use. Marking its 40th year, the conference is hosted by the U.S Alcohol Policy Alliance (USAPA) and convened throughout the week.
TxSDY delivered presentations on the power of youth in shaping alcohol policy; utilizing the CART model of analysis to advance public health and safety; and leveraging online platforms for screening and brief intervention training programs. Nicole Holt, CEO of TxSDY who also serves as Immediate Past Chair of USAPA, also delivered introductory welcoming remarks. Throughout the conference, the organization spoke to the risks and consequences of alcohol use that are most specifically associated with youth and underage drinking, including alcohol-related vehicle crashes and deaths. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, 24% of all traffic deaths in Texas last year were caused by drunk driving.
"The importance – and impact – of collaborating with public health experts across such a diverse scope of expertise cannot be underestimated," said Nicole Holt, CEO of TxSDY. "More often than not, it is public health voices who are on the frontline of change and improving lives around the globe. And working together, I know we will drive meaningful results toward combatting one of our nation's top killers and greatest risks to youth."
Since 1981, the Alcohol Policy Conference has been a forum for researchers, community practitioners, and public officials to meet and exchange findings, explore evidence-based solutions, and consider adoption of policies aimed at minimizing risks associated with alcohol use. More information can be found at http:// https://www.alcoholpolicyconference.org/
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SOURCE Texans for Safe and Drug-Free Youth | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/texas-advocates-take-leading-role-national-conference-alcohol-policy-research/ | 2022-09-16T23:12:30Z | wbko.com | control | https://www.wbko.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/texas-advocates-take-leading-role-national-conference-alcohol-policy-research/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA is seeking proposals for sustainable lunar lander development and demonstration as the agency works toward a regular cadence of Moon landings. Through Artemis missions, NASA is preparing to return humans to the Moon, including the first woman and first person of color, for long-term scientific discovery and exploration.
Under the solicitation, Human Landing System Sustaining Lunar Development, NASA has provided requirements for companies interested in developing and demonstrating astronaut Moon landers. These efforts will pave the way for multiple companies to provide recurring Moon landing services beyond the Artemis III mission, which is planned for no earlier than 2025.
Companies selected under this contract will be required to perform one uncrewed and one crewed lunar landing demonstration. NASA will certify any lander system to meet its requirements prior to the crewed demonstration mission(s).
"Work done under this solicitation, in addition to current lander development and studies taking place, will help build the foundation for long-term deep space exploration," said Lisa Watson-Morgan, program manager for the Human Landing System Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "Partnering with American companies to do that work now allows us to leverage NASA's knowledge and expertise to encourage technological innovations for a sustained presence at the Moon."
The final call for proposals comes after NASA incorporated industry feedback on the draft solicitation, released March 31, encouraging companies to send comments to help shape a key component of the agency's human exploration Artemis architecture. NASA also hosted a virtual industry day in April to present an overview of the solicitation and to provide companies an opportunity to ask clarifying questions and provide comments.
NASA's existing contract with SpaceX includes both an uncrewed and a crewed lunar landing demonstration that is part of the Artemis III mission, marking humanity's first return to the Moon in more than 50 years. The agency plans to exercise an option under this contract, known as Option B, asking the company to evolve its current Artemis III Starship Human Landing System design to meet an extended set of requirements for sustaining missions at the Moon and conduct another crewed demonstration landing.
These concurrent sustaining lander development efforts will meet NASA's needs for recurring, long-term access to the lunar surface, such as the ability to dock with Gateway for crew transfer, accommodate an increased crew size, and deliver more mass to the surface.
NASA's Artemis efforts include sending a suite of new science instruments and technology demonstrations to study the Moon, landing the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, and more. The agency will leverage its Artemis experiences and technologies to prepare for the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.
Proposals for the sustainable lunar lander development and demonstration are due Nov. 15.
For more information about this procurement, visit:
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SOURCE NASA | https://www.wave3.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/nasa-pursues-astronaut-lunar-landers-future-artemis-moon-missions/ | 2022-09-16T23:14:59Z | wave3.com | control | https://www.wave3.com/prnewswire/2022/09/16/nasa-pursues-astronaut-lunar-landers-future-artemis-moon-missions/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Tucked away off a busy Warwick road sits a mansion belonging to a well-known Rhode Island family.
That family is the Slaters, and their home is now called the Clouds Hill Museum.
Anne Holst, museum curator and fourth-generation owner, tells 12 News the house is full of history.
Holst should know, as she’s the last living relative of the Slaters.
“I’m the only member of the family that spent their entire life in this house,” she explained. “It was a summer house until 1940.”
The house, located off of Post Road, was built 150 years ago as a wedding gift for William S. Slater’s daughter Elizabeth.
When asked whether everything inside the house was authentic, Holst said all of it is.
“[Everything] was either inherited or bought for the house,” she explained. “Some of the furniture was bought by family members.”
The Slaters are best known for their contributions in founding a nearby village, which eventually became known as Slatersville.
It’s a story that caught the eye of filmmaker Christian de Rezendes, who’s putting the finishing touches on a project 10 years in the making.
“I’m a lover of history and I wanted to [make] something along the lines of an historical documentary,” he explained. “This just kind of snowballed into a much bigger thing.”
de Rezendes decided to focus his project on the mark that the Slater family left on the textile industry.
The Slaters were also responsible for building a company store, a congregational church and a library in the village they founded.
It was a story that de Rezendes said was, at first, challenging to tell.
“I had to learn it backwards,” de Rezendes said. “The stuff that had to do with the 20th century, I had to film all of those people while they were still with us and get all of that side of it. Then you get the Slaters’ end of it in the 18th century, and you have three generations of that, and it goes back to England. You find out who the key characters are, the struggles they went through … I filmed about 140 people on camera and that I know of, about 26 have since passed away.”
“It’s very important to get their words, get their tone, get their voices and faces,” he continued. “That’s more important to me than just handing me a historical document and someone saying, ‘Here, write a script.'”
de Rezendes said an actor who voiced one of the characters in the film told him a saying that has stuck with him throughout the storytelling process.
“He said, ‘Christian, nobody cares about the nine months, they just want to see the baby,'” de Rezendes said. “It’s true. But the reality is, the only way I could show you a baby was by walking you through the nine months and that was a big lesson I learned.”
The first episode of de Rezendes’ documentary series, which is appropriately named “Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village,” premieres Friday at 7 p.m. on PBS. The first season consists of 12 episodes that will be released weekly.
de Rezendes tells 12 News he’s already working on a second season, adding that one just isn’t enough to do the Slaters’ legacy justice. | https://www.wpri.com/news/street-stories/filmmakers-new-docuseries-inspired-by-ri-familys-legacy/ | 2022-09-16T23:15:33Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/news/street-stories/filmmakers-new-docuseries-inspired-by-ri-familys-legacy/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The high school football season is back in action with teams across the state returning to the gridiron.
In this week’s Friday Night Blitz, 12 Sports’ Morey Hershgordon, Taylor Begley and Sam Knox will bring you high school football scores, highlights and more from around Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, including the Game of the Week: North Kingstown vs. Bishop Hendricken.
This season, Providence Journal sportswriter Eric Reub is joining the Friday Night Blitz as an analyst to breakdown the night’s games and highlight the state’s top talent.
Here’s a look at this week’s matchups:
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
Friday Night Blitz: Full high school football coverage »
More About Friday Night Blitz:
Friday Night Blitz is a weekly recap show with highlights from around Southern New England and score updates on WPRI.com.
The Blitz also showcases a Game of the Week and Band of the Week, and we’ll mic up one of the local coaches to take you inside the huddle.
The 12 Sports team will be roving the state each week to capture the action and storylines, bringing them to you on air, online and on social media.
- Scores, schedules and highlights: High School Football »
- Complete coverage on the go: Download the 12 News app »
Friday Night Blitz airs each Friday at 11:15 p.m. on WPRI 12. | https://www.wpri.com/sports/high-school-football/friday-night-blitz-regular-season-in-full-swing/ | 2022-09-16T23:15:39Z | wpri.com | control | https://www.wpri.com/sports/high-school-football/friday-night-blitz-regular-season-in-full-swing/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
(WWLP) — Batman Day is celebrated each year on the third Saturday in September: honoring the films, TV shows and comics in the Caped Crusader’s 83-year existence. This year, Cinemark theatres are showing three Bat-sterpieces in most U.S. states on Sept. 17.
Fire up the Batmobile and head to the theater!
The schedule for films are all in local time:
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) — 2:15 p.m. This big-screen extension of the beloved “Batman: The Animated Series,” finds Bruce Wayne/Batman taking on a new threat in Gotham — the mysterious and ghoulish Phantasm. Which of Bruce’s acquaintances hides behind the shroud and why are they targeting some of the city’s most powerful people? Did you know? “Mask of the Phantasm” was a commercial flop upon its release but has generated a fierce cult following in the following decades. Cinema news outlet ScreenRant named it the best animated Batman movie of all-time just this year.
- Batman (1989) — 4:30 p.m. It’s the live-action film that truly began Batman’s silver screen reign (though it’s not the first live action “Batman” movie). Director Tim Burton puts extra goth in Gotham all while centering Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) against his arch-nemesis, the Joker (played by a properly over-the-top Jack Nicholson). Some of the series’ most signature aesthetics originate with 1989’s “Batman,” as does a soundtrack by Prince. “Batdance,” anyone?
- Batman Returns (1992) — 7:25 p.m. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this triple-header of the Bat, the Bird and the Cat. In his second (and so far final) appearance, Keaton reprises his role as Batman and takes on not one but two villains, the nefarious mayoral candidate Penguin (Danny DeVito) and the mischievous bombshell Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). “Batman Returns” — sometimes cheekily considered a Christmas movie — is the final entry by Burton in the franchise.
These Batman Day special releases will be screened Sept. 17 in all states (and Puerto Rico) except Hawaii, Nebraska, Missouri, Vermont, and Wyoming. Washington D.C. residents will also have to wait for a chance to see Danny DeVito ride a giant rubber duck through the sewer.
Tickets are on sale now at participating theatres.
Batman in the movies
All-in-all there have been 15 major-release Batman films, in addition to at least 49 direct-to-video outings.
In a ranking based on critical reviews, 2008’s “The Dark Knight” is consider the “top” Batman film, with a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s followed by 2017’s animated “The Lego Batman Movie” (second), “The Dark Knight Rises” (third), “The Batman” (2022, fourth), and “Batman Begins” (fifth). Entertainment and gaming site IGN also ranked the Christopher Nolan-directed “Dark Knight” as the best batman movie this year. | https://www.wspa.com/news/national/batman-day-movies-return-to-theaters-nationwide-saturday/ | 2022-09-16T23:20:30Z | wspa.com | control | https://www.wspa.com/news/national/batman-day-movies-return-to-theaters-nationwide-saturday/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – The State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) on Friday released new details regarding a Charleston County detention deputy arrested for her role in the assault of an inmate.
Shannon Burden, 38, was fired by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office this week after an investigation revealed her involvement in the September 13th incident at the detention center.
An affidavit provided by SLED revealed that Burden remotely unlocked cell doors and allowed three inmates to enter the victim’s cell and assault him.
The victim, who has not been identified, was punched and kicked about the body during the beating, according to the affidavit. When the victim attempted to flee, documents show he was forced back inside by the attacking inmates.
Burden admitted to unlocking the cell and standing by while the victim was assaulted by the inmates. She also stated in a statement that the victim had upset her earlier and hoped the incident forced him to “behave himself.”
The incident was captured on surveillance video. The victim corroborated what happened.
An internal investigation is ongoing, according to the sheriff’s office. Burden was terminated and charged with misconduct in office. | https://www.wspa.com/news/state-news/affidavit-charleston-county-detention-deputy-let-inmates-assault-victim/ | 2022-09-16T23:20:42Z | wspa.com | control | https://www.wspa.com/news/state-news/affidavit-charleston-county-detention-deputy-let-inmates-assault-victim/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
NBA players' union head wants lifetime ban for Phoenix Suns owner
The executive director for the National Basketball Players Association — the NBA's labor union — called for a lifetime ban of Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver, who was recently suspended for one year over workplace misconduct.
The big picture: Executive Director Tamika Tremaglio told ESPN that she was speaking on behalf of players, some of whom have publicly disagreed with the NBA's punishment.
- Lakers star LeBron James and Suns point guard Chris Paul have criticized the one-year ban, with Paul saying that it fell short in addressing "atrocious behavior."
- "It is our players' desire that while we understand that there has been a thorough investigation...we also want to make it very clear that we do not want him to be back in a position where he will be impacting our players and those who serve our players on a daily basis," Tremaglio said.
Why it matters: An independent investigation found that Sarver, the owner of the Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, engaged in "inequitable conduct toward female employees."
- Sarver also "made many sex-related comments in the workplace" and "inappropriate comments on the physical appearance of female employees and other women," per the investigation.
- He also "engaged in inappropriate physical conduct toward male employees" on several occasions, the league said.
What they're saying: "We do not want him to be in a position where he is managing or engaging with individuals who are engaging with our players or the players themselves," Tremaglio said.
- "We are absolutely clear from the findings that are in the report that we do not want him to be in that position."
But NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Wednesday said that he felt the one-year suspension and the fine levied on Sarver were "severe."
- Silver recognized Sarver's conduct as indefensible but said he did not have the right to take a team away from its owner. | https://www.axios.com/2022/09/16/nbpa-executive-director-lifetime-ban-phoenix-suns-owner | 2022-09-16T23:23:09Z | axios.com | control | https://www.axios.com/2022/09/16/nbpa-executive-director-lifetime-ban-phoenix-suns-owner | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Country
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People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/honolululu-receives-850k-more-in-cares-act-funds-for-homeless-programs/article_0e39d39a-360c-11ed-83ed-67b25aca1ac0.html | 2022-09-16T23:23:45Z | kitv.com | control | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/honolululu-receives-850k-more-in-cares-act-funds-for-homeless-programs/article_0e39d39a-360c-11ed-83ed-67b25aca1ac0.html | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — How far would you go for a good cause?
Some people in Grand Rapids are paying good money to go over the edge, literally.
This includes our own Elliot Grandia who joined dozens of people Friday to rappel down the side of Bridgewater Place.
Easterseals Michigan hosts the “Over the Edge” fundraiser.
It not only helps people conquer their fears of heights and falling, but also supports the organization’s mission of serving people with special needs.
The fundraiser mirrors how people with disabilities are pushed beyond their comfort zones daily.
“Easterseals is an amazing cause. You know, they help a lot of people, a lot of underprivileged people and, you know, it’s just wanting to raise awareness, you know, for Easterseals, but also raise money,” Joe Harnish, Market Manager West Michigan at Flagstar Bank, explained.
“100 years ago, society took a different viewpoint on individuals with disabilities and now we live in an age where people are not, there’s not as much stigma,” added Craig Sharam, an Over the Edge participant. “So we thought, ‘well, let’s put ourselves in uncomfortable situations,’ and so we decided, ‘let’s go over the edge and kind of raise money and do something a little outside of the box.’”
Easterseals told FOX 17 they’ve already raised $110,000 or their $150,000 goal.
They added that the money does not leave the state. It provides mental health services right here in Michigan. | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/grand-rapids/over-the-edge-fundraiser-pushing-participants-out-of-comfort-zone | 2022-09-16T23:27:25Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/grand-rapids/over-the-edge-fundraiser-pushing-participants-out-of-comfort-zone | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
When Is In Vitro Fermentum Avum? New Edition\nPseudepikontos - I’nokontos is here for a free day - The epidoktone to - the pseudonym - “Anaplan” It might be one day! Now I have to say so that many users will notice the last update on Saturday, on some points, although many readers are concerned. “Aren’e not there”, I respond quickly! Now it Postgame notes – North Carolina 1 – West Virginia Mascot Wizard. North Western University Men and Boy'a.\nWe want those same memories as our legacy,” Paints said. Ahead (in the) game 🥴 #EEReadThePaint https:\\ucentricsitefiles.dmsysnc1v54nunndq/1nj8t0fh4z6ipr1bgg0l COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A lawsuit alleging the rampant sexual abuse of underage athletes at a competitive cheerleading gym in South Carolina has been amended to name six more coaches as defendants and three more accusers.
The accusers — now seven female and two male — say in the federal lawsuit amended Thursday that they were sexually abused by coaches at Rockstar Cheerleading and Dance in Greenville, which is in the northwestern corner of the state. The accusers' lawyers allege that sexual abuse at the gym could date back two decades and that there could be 100 more victims who haven't come forward.
One of the plaintiffs' lawyers, Bakari Sellers, likened the case to that of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor who is serving a minimum of 40 years in prison after admitting that he molested some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years.
None of the Rockstar coaches have been charged and The Associated Press is not naming them. State and federal law enforcement agencies are investigating the gym and other cheerleading outlets and have seized computers, cellphones and other evidence, one of the accusers’ lawyers, James Bannister, said earlier this month. He said the agencies asked lawyers not to identify them.
According to the lawsuit, the abuse ranged from rape and forced oral sex to molestation and pressuring children as young as 13 to send nude photos of themselves to coaches. The lawsuit also details instances in which coaches gave students alcohol and cannabis at their homes and in hotel rooms during cheerleading competitions.
The allegations first centered on the gym's founder, Scott Foster, who was found dead in his car on Aug. 22. The coroner determined he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Kathy Foster, his widow, announced in earlier this month that Rockstar Cheerleading and Dance would close “indefinitely.”
“Although this was a difficult decision, I believe it is the best option under the circumstances," Foster said in a statement reported by local NBC affiliate WYFF. "Over the past 15 years, our incredible athletes have worked hard to build a winning legacy and I will always be extremely proud of each of them. I ask for privacy for my children and for those personally affected during this difficult time.”
The amended suit details several instances in which it alleges that athletes were abused outside of South Carolina at events sanctioned by Varsity Spirit, which runs competitions, and the U.S. All Star Federation, the country's cheerleading governing body.
Varsity Spirit President Bill Seely said in a Sept. 1 statement that the accusations detailed “abhorrent criminal, predatory conduct” and were “devastating to hear.” In an Aug. 30 statement, USASF said the organization was “devastated to learn of allegations about potential abuse.” The statement declined to comment on developments while law enforcement investigations are underway and reiterated that members should report any allegations.
The plaintiffs' attorneys said they expect to file more lawsuits naming other perpetrators at other gyms around the country.
“We’re talking about serious repeated abuse that was reported to everyone including the Greenville County Sheriff’s Department,” attorney Bakari Sellers said in a statement. “For Varsity Spirit, the USASF and Bain Capital, these survivors didn’t matter. Their checks did. They did nothing to stop this abuse then and they’re doing nothing now.” | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/more-coaches-named-in-south-carolina-cheerleader-abuse-suit | 2022-09-16T23:27:31Z | fox17online.com | control | https://www.fox17online.com/news/national/more-coaches-named-in-south-carolina-cheerleader-abuse-suit | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
The 3rd Infantry Division Honor Guard present the National Colors at the Liberty County Chapter POW/MIA ceremony in Hinesville, Georgia Sept. 16, 2022. The event is held every year to honor all POW/MIAs across the service branches. (U.S. Army photos by Staff Sgt. Joel Salgado, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs)
This work, Liberty County POW/MIA ceremony [Image 5 of 5], by SSG Joel Salgado, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421655/liberty-county-pow-mia-ceremony | 2022-09-16T23:30:10Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421655/liberty-county-pow-mia-ceremony | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Command Sgt. Maj. Jonathan Saunders, senior enlisted advisor for 9th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, speaks to Veterans at the Liberty County Chapter POW/MIA ceremony in Hinesville, Georgia Sept. 16, 2022. The event is held every year to honor all POW/MIAs across the service branches. (U.S. Army photos by Staff Sgt. Joel Salgado, 3rd Division Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs)
This work, Liberty County POW/MIA ceremony [Image 5 of 5], by SSG Joel Salgado, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421663/liberty-county-pow-mia-ceremony | 2022-09-16T23:30:29Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421663/liberty-county-pow-mia-ceremony | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
U.S. Air Force Col. Scott Mills, 355th Wing commander, provides closing remarks during the POW/MIA Recognition Ceremony at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, Sept. 16, 2022. Established in 1979 and celebrated on the third Friday in September, POW/MIA Recognition Day honors those who were held captive and returned, as well as those who remain missing. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Nicholas Ross)
This work, POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony 2022 [Image 7 of 7], by SSgt Nicholas Ross, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421675/pow-mia-recognition-day-ceremony-2022 | 2022-09-16T23:30:54Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421675/pow-mia-recognition-day-ceremony-2022 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
George Tinseth, 355th Wing historian, talks to Harvey Horn, a WWII prisoner of war, during the POW/MIA Recognition Ceremony at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona, Sept. 16, 2022. Established in 1979 and celebrated on the third Friday in September, POW/MIA Recognition Day honors those who were held captive and returned, as well as those who remain missing. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Nicholas Ross)
This work, POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony 2022 [Image 7 of 7], by SSgt Nicholas Ross, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421677/pow-mia-recognition-day-ceremony-2022 | 2022-09-16T23:31:07Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421677/pow-mia-recognition-day-ceremony-2022 | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
HONOLULU (Sept. 16. 2022) Rear Adm. Blake Converse, deputy commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, renders honors after laying a wreath in honor of the missing during the National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) hosts the event every year on the third Friday of September, honoring prisoners of war and missing-in-action service members. DPAA’s mission is to achieve the fullest possible accounting for missing and unaccounted-for U.S. personnel to their families and our nation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jessica Pielop)
This work, DPAA Hosts National POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony In Hawaii [Image 2 of 2], by PO1 Jessica Pielop, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421685/dpaa-hosts-national-pow-mia-recognition-day-ceremony-hawaii | 2022-09-16T23:31:19Z | dvidshub.net | control | https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7421685/dpaa-hosts-national-pow-mia-recognition-day-ceremony-hawaii | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
13 Best Back Acne Treatments for Clearer Skin
Suds and spot treatments to help you banish bacne, stat.
Unfortunately, acne doesn't discriminate. Teenagers and adults alike are susceptible to the blemishes—and they can appear anywhere from the face, to the chest, to the back. The latter, often called bacne, is caused by a buildup of dirt, oil, dead skin cells, sweat, and debris in the pores of the skin, says Michele Green, a cosmetic dermatologist in New York City.
"The pores on the back are susceptible to acne because of the combination of sweat, friction, and heat that clog pores and trap bacteria," she explains. Like other forms of acne, family history, hormonal changes, diet, and stress can also play a role in back acne breakouts, she adds.
The difference, though? Back acne tends to be more inflammatory and severe because of the larger surface area of the back, says Green. "There is a greater chance of friction and sweat buildup from tight clothing, causing further irritation to existing acne breakouts." Plus, the skin on the back is typically thicker than the face, so the acne lesions are deeper underneath the skin and more difficult to get rid of, she adds.
Our Top Picks:
But that doesn't mean you're entirely out of luck. The right skincare products for acne-prone skin—including over-the-counter options—can help clear up these unsightly and often painful marks. "If you have mild back acne, the best treatment is a benzoyl peroxide body wash," says Corey Hartman, founder of Skin Wellness Dermatology in Birmingham, Alabama. Salicylic acid body washes and spot treatments can also help with back acne, as can retinol and leave-on treatments like a pimple patch if acne is not widespread. For more severe cases, try retinoids or prescribed oral medications like Spironolactone, he says. You should also make sure to avoid lifestyle habits that contribute to back acne—like sitting in sweaty workout clothes.
Ready to banish those bumps for good? Check out these at-home bacne treatments, all recommended by dermatologists. | https://www.oprahdaily.com/beauty/skin-makeup/g41201663/best-back-acne-treatments/ | 2022-09-16T23:31:25Z | oprahdaily.com | control | https://www.oprahdaily.com/beauty/skin-makeup/g41201663/best-back-acne-treatments/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
Not so long ago, sweatpants were pretty much synonymous with being lazy or sloppy. They were shapeless and unflattering, and usually reserved for sick days or cleaning the house. But not anymore! Brands like Nike, Champion, Lululemon, and more are offering a variety of options that you won’t be embarrassed to leave the house in. Details such as flattering seams, unexpected colors, and slimmer silhouettes make many of them downright stylish. In fact, with some creative styling, you can sport sweats out and about. Dress up a pair of tapered joggers with an oversize button-down, leather jacket, and ankle booties for an effortless brunch outfit. Need a comfortable getup for travel or running errands? Pair your sweatpants with a fitted sweatshirt, brightly colored sneakers, and a cute crossbody bag to nail the athleisure vibe.
Of course, the comfort factor is still the top draw for sweatpants. From soft fleece-lined to stretchy textiles to elastic waistbands and functional pockets, quality sweats are a versatile closet staple. Below, 25 cozy options to wear on your couch and beyond this winter. | https://www.oprahdaily.com/style/g29752080/cozy-sweatpants-women/ | 2022-09-16T23:31:35Z | oprahdaily.com | control | https://www.oprahdaily.com/style/g29752080/cozy-sweatpants-women/ | 1 | 1 | green-iguana-35 | null |
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