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A Russian mega-pop star’s criticism of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has set off intense reactions on social media, posing a critical question: Will the iconic singer’s disapproving Instagram post mark a turning point in Russian public opinion?
At the risk of being branded a traitor, Alla Pugacheva used her famous voice over the weekend to question the seven-month war, becoming the most prominent Russian celebrity to do so. Pugacheva’s post described the homeland that gave her its highest civilian honors as “a pariah” and said Russian soldiers were dying for “illusory goals.”
It was a watershed moment, one that knocked a hole in the Kremlin’s vigorously defended narrative about the reasons and goals of its Feb. 24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine, threatening to undo months of carefully crafted war propaganda.
The singer, who has been arguably Russia’s most popular performer for decades, shared her thoughts as Putin faces mounting pressure both militarily – Ukrainian forces are recapturing strategic areas from Russian troops – and diplomatically, with even key allies voicing concerns over the global fallout from the war.
At age 73, Pugacheva is as widely admired as when she burst onto Russia’s pop scene nearly a half-century ago. Older Russians who grew up listening to her music form Putin’s core base, remaining largely silent about the war.
The turning point for the singer apparently was the Russian Justice Ministry’s designation of Pugacheva’s husband, comedian and TV presenter Maxim Galkin, as a foreign agent Saturday for allegedly conducting political activities on behalf of Ukraine and receiving Ukrainian funding. Galkin had previously criticized the war.
In an Instagram post Sunday, Pugacheva told her 3.5 million followers and others who saw her comments elsewhere that she also wanted to be added to Russia’s foreign agents’ register, in solidarity with her husband, whom she called a “true and incorruptible patriot” who wants “the end of the deaths of our boys for illusory goals that make our country a pariah and weigh heavily on the lives of its citizens.”
While Russian public figures such as politicians, singers, actors and writers have spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite the Kremlin’s attempt to stifle dissent, Pugacheva is the biggest name so far to do so.
Her Instagram post was a major snub of a Kremlin and its predecessors that named Pugacheva as a People’s Artist of the USSR, awarded her the State Prize of the Russian Federation and decorated her as a Chevalier of the Order “for merit to the fatherland.” She was regularly featured and feted on state-run TV, for several generations of audiences, especially for nostalgic fans.
The Kremlin’s chief spokesman declined to comment Monday but Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian-language news site that Russia also has declared a foreign agent, published a roundup of reactions that included at least one official voice.
The deputy chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Pyotr Tolstoy, said Pugacheva “has lost touch with reality so much and is in solidarity with those who today wish Russia’s defeat.”
“She will no longer find support among decent Russian people,” predicted Tolstoy, a close Putin ally. He added, “We will win without her songs.”
Valery Fadeyev, the head of the Russian president’s Human Rights Council, accused Pugacheva of insincerely citing humanitarian concerns to justify her criticism of the nearly 7-month-old conflict. He predicted that popular artists like her would enjoy less public influence after the war.
“New faces – soldiers, doctors, military correspondents, volunteers – will be our elite,” Fadeyev wrote.
Veteran Russian opposition activist Lev Shlosberg said the scale of the responses shows that Pugacheva’s comments touched a nerve in Russian society.
“The reaction of sympathy and direct support shows in which direction public opinion will move,” Meduza quoted him as saying.
Veronika Belotserkovskaya, a Russian-language cookbook author and popular blogger who lives in France and has also questioned the war, thinks the singer’s criticism wasn’t meant for the masses but instead was “written for power.”
“This is a public slap in the face. … Everyone heard her. She speaks their language, destroying their narrative,” she said.
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, director of Moscow-based think tank National Strategy Institute, went so far as to proclaim Pugacheva “the de facto leader of the antiwar part of Russian society.”
It’s not clear what legal repercussions Pugacheva might face. Putin on March 4 signed legislation allowing for jail terms of up to 15 years for posting allegedly false information about the military.
If the Russian government grants her wish to declare her a foreign agent, the singer would have to include the label prominently on her social media content and be subject to other financial and bureaucratic requirements.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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https://www.ktalnews.com/entertainment-news/ap-russian-pop-stars-war-criticism-stirs-vigorous-debate/
| 2022-09-21T03:46:06Z
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U.S. Army Sgt. Vicki Golding, 257th Army Band, District of Columbia National Guard, sings the National Anthem at the Partnership for Public Service Awards Gala, Sept. 20th, 2022, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in D.C. The high-profile event featured presenters such as Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and highlighted individuals selected for honors by the Partnership, whose stated vision is “(A) dynamic and innovative federal government that effectively serves our diverse nation.” Golding has performed the Anthem at numerous D.C. events. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Andrew Enriquez)
This work, DC Guard vocalist performs Anthem at Partnership for Public Service Gala [Image 10 of 10], by TSgt Andrew Enriquez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore judge on Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial,” a true-crime series that transfixed listeners and revolutionized the genre.
At the behest of prosecutors who had uncovered new evidence, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated as she approved the release of the now-41-year-old who has spent more than two decades behind bars. There were gasps and applause in the crowded courtroom as the judge announced her decision.
Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share evidence that could have bolstered Syed’s defense. She ordered Syed to be placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring. The judge also said the state must decide whether to seek a new trial date or dismiss the case within 30 days.
“All right Mr. Syed, you’re free to join your family,” Phinn said as the hearing ended.
Minutes later, Syed emerged from the courthouse and flashed a smile as he was shepherded to a waiting SUV through a sea of cameras and a cheering crowd of supporters.
Syed did not speak during the hearing, nor did he address the reporters outside afterward. But after the hearing, his lawyer Erica Suter described his reaction to the decision, saying: “He said he couldn’t believe it’s real.”
Sara Patel, a friend of Syed’s, said “we’re very happy and relieved that he’s finally free. We’ve just been on pins and needles this whole time.”
Syed has always maintained his innocence. His case captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used, inspiring heated debates across dinner tables and water coolers about Syed’s innocence or guilt.
Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying a lengthy investigation conducted with the defense had uncovered new evidence that could undermine the conviction of Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend, in 2000.
“I understand how difficult this is, but we need to make sure we hold the correct person accountable,” assistant state’s attorney Becky Feldman told the judge as she described various details from the case that undermine the decades-old conviction, including other suspects, flawed cellphone data, unreliable witness testimony and a potentially biased detective.
After the hearing, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said investigators are waiting for the results of “DNA analysis” before determining whether to seek a new trial date or throw out the case against Syed and “certify his innocence.”
Syed was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park.
The investigation “revealed undisclosed and newly-developed information regarding two alternative suspects, as well as unreliable cell phone tower data,” Mosby’s office said in a news release last week. The other suspects were known persons at the time of the original investigation, but weren’t properly ruled out nor disclosed to the defense, said prosecutors, who declined to release information about the suspects, due to the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors said the failure to disclose the alternative suspects to defense attorneys amounted to what’s known as a Brady violation.
But Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, whose office represented the state during Syed’s appeals, issued a statement Monday evening saying “among the other serious problems with the motion to vacate, the allegations related to Brady violations are incorrect.”
“Neither State’s Attorney Mosby nor anyone from her office bothered to consult with either the Assistant State’s Attorney who prosecuted the case or with anyone in my office regarding these alleged violations,” Frosh said. “The file in this case was made available on several occasions to the defense.”
Prosecutors said they weren’t asserting that Syed is innocent, but they lacked confidence “in the integrity of the conviction” and recommended his release. The state’s attorney’s office had said if the motion were granted it would effectively put Syed in a new trial status, vacating his convictions, while the case remained active.
Syed was led into the crowded courtroom in handcuffs Monday. Wearing a white shirt with a tie, he sat next to his attorney. His mother and other family representatives were in the room, as was Mosby.
In 2016, a lower court ordered a retrial for Syed on the grounds that his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, didn’t contact an alibi witness and provided ineffective counsel.
But after a series of appeals, Maryland’s highest court in 2019 denied a new trial in a 4-3 opinion. The Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that Syed’s legal counsel was deficient in failing to investigate an alibi witness, but it disagreed that the deficiency prejudiced the case. The court said Syed waived his ineffective counsel claim.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Syed’s case in 2019.
The true-crime series was the brainchild of longtime radio producer and former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who spent more than a year digging into Syed’s case and reporting her findings in almost real-time in hour-long segments. The 12-episode podcast won a Peabody Award and was transformative in popularizing podcasts for a wide audience.
During the hearing, Hae Min Lee’s brother Young Lee spoke to the court, saying he feels betrayed by prosecutors, since he thought the case was settled.
“This is not a podcast for me. This is real life,” he said.
Speaking outside the courthouse after the ruling, Mosby expressed sympathy for Lee’s brother and said she understands why he feels betrayed.
“But I also understand the importance as the administer of the criminal justice system to ensure equality and justice and fairness. That is entitled to the defendant, as well,” she added.
___ Associated Press writers Mike Kunzelman and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T03:46:12Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Noble Savage has been a premier downtown spot since 1996 and is now set to reopen again this week. The legendary establishment under new ownership will have the same feel and new upgrades.
New owner and managing partner Elizabeth Walkoviak says although they are renovating it, and will still feel like legendary Noble Savage. Things will just be prettier and fresher.
It’s a place for music lovers, foodies, live performances, and activities like pool tables. Live performances will continue to be a big part of the establishment and the Dirty Redd jam sessions will now be on Wednesdays.
New executive chef Brandon Sooter, has created an enhanced menu that will appeal to the community’s hungry appetites. Lunch and dinner will be served and also after dinner hours, sharable snacks will be available.
From wild game menu specials to a perfectly made old-fashioned, and vast beer and quality liquor selection The Noble Savage has something for everyone that is searching for that new and different experience.
Come enjoy a delicious, quality meal paired perfectly with a one-of-a-kind specialty cocktail made with house-infused liquor. Then after dinner stay and enjoy the sounds of local musicians from inside and outside thanks to our large garage window and cozy sidewalk cafe. Come see what makes a place legendary at The Noble Savage!
The opening date for the legendary downtown hangout is set for Wednesday, September 21st. Noble Savage is located at 417 Texas Street between Edwards Street and Marshall Street.
For more information visit Noble Savage online
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https://www.ktalnews.com/entertainment-news/something_good_with_lynn-vance-show/noble-savage-a-downtown-favorite-returns/
| 2022-09-21T03:46:25Z
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(NBC) — The fall TV season gets underway on KTAL NBC 6 tonight with the premiere of “Quantum Leap” and the return of “The Voice.”
“The Voice” has added a new coach to the lineup this season, Camila Cabello. Cabello was an advisor to John Legend’s team last fall.
“It’s definitely more high stakes,” said Cabello. “Because as an advisor, you know, I’m just there having a great time.
“Whereas now, I’m like if I really want somebody on my team, I’m the newbie, I gotta show you why I would be a great coach for you.”
“She has to act like she cares,” added fellow “Voice” judge Blake Shelton.
Cabello cares enough to put a scare into her former advising buddy.
“She’s tough competition,” said Legend. “I feel like, I feel like, I may have made a mistake recommending her for the show.”
“Well, I’m glad you did,” Cabello responded.
The Cuban pop star’s arrival had Shelton comparing her to a past coach.
“Kelly Clarkson is, has been our grand national champion of talking without taking a breath,” said Shelton.
“I have great breath control,” said Cabello.
“She has a lot to say,” Shelton countered. “In fact, right now, I can’t believe I was able to complete my thought.”
But the red chair newbie has bonded with Shelton’s wife, Gwen Stefani, as “the Voice” coaches’ battle for artists is about to begin.
“The Voice” premieres Monday at 8 p.m., followed by the “Quantum Leap” series premiere at 10 p.m. on NBC.
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https://www.ktalnews.com/entertainment-news/the-voice-debuts-new-coach-camila-cabello-for-season-22/
| 2022-09-21T03:46:31Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases — including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year — are prompting U.S. health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts.
“It is imperative that we … work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the U.S.,” said Dr. Leandro Mena of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a speech Monday at a medical conference on sexually transmitted diseases.
Infections rates for some STDs, including gonorrhea and syphilis, have been rising for years. Last year the rate of syphilis cases reached its highest since 1991 and the total number of cases hit its highest since 1948. HIV cases are also on the rise, up 16% last year.
And an international outbreak of monkeypox, which is being spread mainly between men who have sex with other men, has further highlighted the nation’s worsening problem with diseases spread mostly through sex.
David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the situation “out of control.”
Officials are working on new approaches to the problem, such as home-test kits for some STDs that will make it easier for people to learn they are infected and to take steps to prevent spreading it to others, Mena said.
Another expert said a core part of any effort must work to increase the use of condoms.
“It’s pretty simple. More sexually transmitted infections occur when people are having more unprotected sex,” said Dr. Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Syphilis is a bacterial disease that surfaces as genital sores but can ultimately lead to severe symptoms and death if left untreated.
New syphilis infections plummeted in the U.S. starting in the 1940s when antibiotics became widely available. They fell to their lowest ever by 1998, when fewer than 7,000 new cases were reported nationwide. The CDC was so encouraged by the progress it launched a plan to eliminate syphilis in the U.S.
But by 2002 cases began rising again, largely among gay and bisexual men, and they kept going. In late 2013, CDC ended its elimination campaign in the face of limited funding and escalating cases, which that year surpassed 17,000.
By 2020 cases had reached nearly 41,700 and they spiked even further last year, to more than 52,000.
The rate of cases has been rising, too, hitting about 16 per 100,000 people last year. That’s the highest in three decades.
Rates are highest in men who have sex with men, and among Black and Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. While the rate for women is lower than it is for men, officials noted that it’s has been rising more dramatically — up about 50% last year.
That ties to another problem — the rise in congenital syphilis, in which infected moms pass the disease on to their babies, potentially leading to death of the child or health problems like deafness and blindness. Annual congenital syphilis cases numbered only about 300 a decade ago; they surged to nearly 2,700 last year. Of last year’s tally, 211 were stillbirths or infant deaths, Mena said.
The increases in syphilis and other STDs may have several causes, experts say. Testing and prevention efforts have been hobbled by years of inadequate funding, and spread may have gotten worse — especially during the pandemic — as a result of delayed diagnosis and treatment. Drug and alcohol use may have contributed to risky sexual behavior. Condom use has been declining.
And there may have been a surge in sexual activity as people emerged from COVID-19 lockdowns. “People are feeling liberated,” Saag said.
The arrival of monkeypox added a large additional burden. CDC recently sent a letter to state and local health departments saying that their HIV and STD resources could be used to fight the monkeypox outbreak. But some experts say the government needs to provide more funding for STD work, not divert it.
Harvey’s group and some other public health organizations are pushing a proposal for more federal funding, including at least $500 million for STD clinics.
Mena, who last year became director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, called for reducing stigma, broadening screening and treatment services, and supporting the development and accessibility of at-home testing. “I envision one day where getting tested (for STDs) can be as simple and as affordable as doing a home pregnancy test,” he said.
___
The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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https://www.ktalnews.com/health/ap-amid-out-of-control-std-epidemic-calls-for-changes/
| 2022-09-21T03:46:37Z
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With COVID-related school disruptions setting back children around the world, activists implored world leaders Monday to prioritize school systems and restore educational budgets slashed when the pandemic hit.
The summit on transforming education, held at the U.N. General Assembly ahead of the annual leaders’ meeting, called on the world’s nations to ensure that children everywhere from sub-Saharan Africa to the United States don’t fall too far behind.
“Seven years ago, I stood on this platform hoping that the voice of a teenage girl who took a bullet in standing up for her education would be heard,” said Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai, a U.N. messenger of peace. “On that day, countries, corporates, civil society, all of us committed to work together to see every child in schools by 2030. It is heartbreaking that halfway through that target date, we are facing an education emergency.”
Nigerian youth activist Karimot Odebode was more pointed. “We demand you take responsibility,” Odebode told the General Assembly. “We will not stop until every person in every village and every highland has access to an education.”
The percentage of 10-year-old children in poor and middle-income countries who cannot read a simple story increased to an estimated 70% — up 13 percentage points since before the pandemic shuttered classrooms, according to a report from the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and other aid organizations.
Will the world’s leaders do enough to help their youngest citizens learn to read and gain the other skills they need to thrive? It will require addressing systemic problems that existed before the pandemic, dignitaries and students say. Countries will need to increase spending, change policies to increase access for girls and disabled students, and modernize instruction to stress critical thinking rather than rote memorization.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to radically transform education,” U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told reporters ahead of the education summit at U.N. headquarters in New York. “We owe it to the coming generation if we don’t want to witness the emergence of a generation of misfits.”
A closing statement from the United Nations after the full-day meeting said 130 countries had committed to “rebooting their education systems” and taking action to end the learning crisis. It was unclear what that meant specifically. Countries were asked to commit to devoting at least 20% of their national budgets to education.
The education minister for the Central African Republic, Aboubakar Moukadas-Noure, said his country slashed education spending to 0.25 percent of the national budget during the pandemic to shift resources to the health crisis. He said the country has since increased education spending to 17% and will invest in teacher training with assistance from the World Bank and the French government.
When COVID-19 closed schools around the world in spring 2020, many children simply stopped learning — some for months, others for longer. For many, there was no such thing as remote learning. More than 800 million young people around the world lacked internet access at home, according to a study by UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union in December 2020.
More recent studies underscore the pandemic’s lasting effects. “The learning losses from COVID were enormous,” Mohammed said.
The amount of time school buildings were closed because of COVID-19 varied widely around the world. At the extreme, schools in parts of Latin America and South Asia were closed for 75 weeks or longer, according to UNESCO. In parts of the United States, including cities such as Chicago and Los Angeles, schools operated remotely from March 2020 through most of the 2020-2021 school year.
There also were huge variations in the availability and quality of remote learning. In some countries, students stuck at home had access to paper packets, or radio and television programs, or almost nothing at all. Others had access to the internet and video conferences with teachers.
The estimated learning delays on average ranged from over 12 months of school for students in South Asia to less than four for students in Europe and Central Asia, according to an analysis by consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Most of the world’s classrooms are now back open, but 244 million school-age children are still out of school, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said during the summit, citing data from the U.N. education agency. Most of those children — 98 million — live in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Central and Southern Asia, in a reminder of the deep inequalities that persist in access to education, she said.
In many places, money is the key ingredient for stemming the crisis, if not fully reaching the leaders’ lofty goal of “transforming education.”
“Instead of being the great enabler, education is fast becoming the great divider,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the General Assembly, calling on governments to make education financing a priority. “It is the single most important investment any country can make in its people and its future.”
On average wealthy countries invest $8,000 a year per school-aged child, compared to upper middle income countries, like some in Latin America, that invest $1,000 per year, according to a report from UNESCO and Global Education Monitoring. Lower income countries allot roughly $300 a year and some poor countries, just $50 a year per student.
Rich countries should also step up spending, said Guterres. In recent years, Germany, France and the United States have given the most international aid towards education in low-income countries, according to a 2021 Center for Global Development report. The United States invested more than $1.5 billion annually from 2017-2019, according to the report based on the most recent available data.
European Union countries will increase their international aid for education, said Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships for the European Commission. Plans include devoting 13% of the European Union’s partnership budget and 10% of its humanitarian budget to help low-income countries improve education quality, “empower” teachers and help develop relevant skills. Urpilainen didn’t specify exactly how much spending would increase.
As top dignitaries urged individual countries to prioritize their youngest citizens, it was some of the youngest attendees at the summit who aired the most skepticism towards any prospect of change. After all, the U.N. lacks any authority to force countries to spend more on schooling.
Yousafzai urged countries to devote 20% of their budgets toward education. “Most of you know what exactly needs to be done,” she said. “You must not make small, stingy and short-term pledges.”
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Follow Bianca Vázquez Toness on Twitter at http://twitter.com/biancavtoness and Jocelyn Gecker at http://twitter.com/jgecker
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https://www.ktalnews.com/health/ap-at-un-leaders-confront-covids-impact-on-global-education/
| 2022-09-21T03:46:44Z
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Conservative radio host and author Larry Elder said he’s considering a run for president in 2024 — even if former President Trump announces another bid.
Elder, a former California gubernatorial candidate, told Iowa’s Des Moines Register that if he chooses to seek the Republican nomination in 2024, he doesn’t “feel” like he’d be running against Trump, who has repeatedly floated a White House comeback.
“I’m running for president. And I’m not running against anybody on the Republican side,” Elder told the newspaper. “I’m running against Joe Biden if he runs, or Kamala Harris if she runs.”
Elder, 70, left his conservative radio program “The Larry Elder Show” in April after hosting the syndicate talk show on several stations since the early ’90s.
Last year, he sought to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) when the governor faced a recall election. Elder shot to the top of the field and was a front-runner in the recall effort, but Newsom ultimately prevailed against the vote.
In January, Elder launched a new PAC to support Republican candidates in federal and local races and has said he is working on another book about the California race.
The radio host told the Des Moines Register he is currently “kicking the tires” in Iowa.
But Elder gave a speech last Saturday at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a Christian nonprofit. The event was also attended by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R).
In an interview with In Depth last month, Elder said he was flying around the country to boost GOP candidates and help the Republican party take back control of Congress.
“I’m busier than ever before,” Elder said.
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https://www.ktalnews.com/hill-politics/gop-radio-host-larry-elder-weighing-white-house-bid-even-if-trump-runs/
| 2022-09-21T03:46:51Z
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Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), two members of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, introduced a bill on Monday to reform the Electoral College Act, offering a number of provisions to protect elections from interference by state and federal lawmakers.
The Presidential Election Reform Act would make clear that the role of the vice president in presiding over the counting of electoral votes is purely “ministerial.”
It also takes aim at potential action from the lawmakers’ colleagues to object to states’ electoral slates, requiring that a third of the members from both chambers must object to the certification, up from just one member for each chamber, while narrowing the grounds under which they can bring such an objection.
“If members of Congress have any right to object to electoral slates, the grounds for such objections should be narrow. Congress doesn’t sit as a court of last resort, capable of overruling state and federal judges to alter the electoral outcome,” the duo wrote in a Sunday night op-ed previewing the bill.
The bill also directly prohibits the fake elector scheme employed by the Trump campaign, which both submitted faux election certificates and pressured Republicans in various states to replace their electors with those who would vote for then-President Trump.
The legislation requires “a single, accurate certificate from each state,” according to a one-pager on the bill, and allows candidates to seek a court order if a state governor fails to transmit the electoral certificate. It also increases the penalty for neglecting that duty from $1,000 to $25,000.
The House Rules Committee is set to consider the Presidential Election Reform Act on Tuesday, clearing the way for the bill to make it to the House floor as soon as Wednesday.
The legislation comes amid progress on a similar Senate package introduced in July, with two House lawmakers introducing companion legislation last week.
The Cheney-Lofgren bill departs from the Senate’s Electoral Count Act in several ways, including by requiring a higher bar to object to elections — the Senate proposal requires one-fifth backing in each chamber to do so.
But the House bill also eyes other areas of election protection untouched by the Senate version, including a section designed to limit the ability to delay elections.
The legislation only allows for delays due to a “catastrophic event” such as a natural disaster affecting a substantial portion of the state from casting ballots, and would only permit an extension of the election in the affected areas.
“Federal law must make clear that the rules governing an election can’t change after the election has occurred. The Constitution assigns an important duty to state legislatures, to determine the manner in which the states appoint their electors. But this shouldn’t be misread to allow state legislators to change the election rules retroactively to alter the outcome,” Lofgren and Cheney wrote in the op-ed.
The bill is the first to come from the House committee’s members after they vowed to offer legislation to prevent the actions of Jan. 6 from happening again.
Committee member Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-Md.) has urged the panel to go further.
“Donald Trump didn’t set out to overthrow the Electoral Count Act, he set out to overthrow the election. And the election is far broader than just the Electoral Count Act,” Raskin said.
“We need to develop a comprehensive approach to guaranteeing voting rights and solidifying the electoral apparatus against coups and insurrections, political violence and electoral sabotage in the future,” he added.
“If all we did was to say that the vice president does not have the authority to nullify Electoral College votes, then we will not have lived up to this moment,” Raskin said.
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| 2022-09-21T03:46:59Z
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Former President Trump’s legal team on Monday night resisted a request to elaborate on his claims around declassifying the documents recovered last month from his Mar-a-Lago home.
In a filing to the court-appointed special master that Trump requested, his attorneys said the “time and place” for making such a disclosure would come in a motion in a criminal trial as an effort to recover his property.
“Otherwise, the Special Master process will have forced the Plaintiff to fully and specifically disclose a defense to the merits of any subsequent indictment without such a requirement being evident in the District Court’s order,” Trump’s legal team wrote.
The resistance comes after Trump’s attorneys insinuated the former president declassified the more than 300 documents recovered from his Florida home but stopped short of fully making the claim in court filings.
“The government’s stance assumes that if a document has a classification marking, it remains classified irrespective of any actions taken during President Trump’s term in office,” Trump’s legal team wrote in a filing last week.
“There is no legitimate contention that the chief executive’s declassification of documents requires approval of bureaucratic components of the executive branch,” they added.
The Justice Department’s legal team seized on the hinting from Trump’s lawyer in their next filing.
“Plaintiff principally seeks to raise questions about the classification status of the records and their categorization under the Presidential Records Act (‘PRA’). But plaintiff does not actually assert — much less provide any evidence — that any of the seized records bearing classification markings have been declassified,” the department wrote.
“Such possibilities should not be given weight absent plaintiff’s putting forward competent evidence,” it added.
Though presidents have broad power to declassify records, doing so sets off a chain of events, as the intelligence agencies that manage such records must take additional steps.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts on Monday filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the “standing” declassification order that Trump — outside of court filings — has pointed to in explaining the tranche of record in his home.
As Trump has fought to stop Justice Department from reviewing the classified records, the department has argued he could have no possible claim to the documents, saying their classification labels indicate they are government and not personal property and that Trump has no reason to stop the executive branch from reviewing them.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:07Z
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President Biden is enjoying what looks like an enduring bump in approval polls, a shift that is linked to a number of factors that could help Democrats in the midterm elections.
Here’s what’s behind it:
Legislative wins
Biden and his party’s ultra-narrow congressional majorities have notched a series of legislative successes over the past 18 months. First, there was the American Rescue Plan that pumped nearly $2 trillion into the economy to fight the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, there was the massive infrastructure bill last fall.
But it was the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed last month that has appeared to do the most for the president’s recent political comeback.
The law includes some of Biden and his party’s biggest policy priorities. It marks the United States’s largest-ever investment in the fight against climate change and raises taxes on corporations and wealthy investors. It also takes steps to reduce health care costs by extending federal health-insurance subsidies and allowing the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for seniors on Medicare.
Of course, the law has been targeted relentlessly by Republicans, who claim that it will raise taxes on Americans and worsen already-high inflation. Still, Democrats see the law as a lifeline heading into the midterms — one that shows the party’s voters that Democrats can deliver on their campaign promises.
“Things are a lot different today,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). “You need to look at the fact that, not only is the president’s legislative agenda very popular, but much of it has been delivered.”
Gas prices
Gas prices rose dramatically throughout 2021 and the first half of 2022, putting a strain on Americans’ pocketbooks and, consequently, on Biden’s approval numbers. The cost of fuel peaked in mid-June at more than $5 per gallon, according to AAA.
But drivers are breathing a little easier nowadays. As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of gasoline sits at just shy of $3.68 — down from about $3.72 a week ago and nearly $3.92 a month ago.
That’s still higher than it was at this time last year — about $0.48 cents higher. Still, it’s trending in the right direction, helping Biden’s approval rating claw its way back from the depths it reached over the summer.
Gas prices usually rise and fall with the cost of oil, meaning the president can only do so much to influence those prices. At the same time, U.S. oil production hasn’t fully hit pre-pandemic levels.
In March, Biden announced a plan to release 1 million barrels per day over six months from the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to bring down rising gas prices. And while there may be longer-term questions about what will happen when those releases end, the easing fuel prices have taken some political pressure off of Biden for now.
Trump
Former President Trump never really disappeared from the public eye; since leaving the White House last year, he’s issued endorsement after endorsement in GOP primary contests, held rallies for his preferred candidates and continued to publicly push his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
But he’s reemerged as a headline-grabbing figure in recent months, especially as investigations into a wide range of alleged wrongdoing have ramped up.
The most high-profile probe of the former president’s conduct broke out into the open last month when the FBI searched his private Palm Beach, Fla., residence as part of an investigation into his handling of classified documents. But he’s also facing legal jeopardy in Georgia, where a special grand jury is investigating whether Trump and his allies sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state.
Biden, meanwhile, has stepped up his criticism of Trump once again, casting him and his political movement as a threat to American democracy. An NBC News poll released on Sunday found Trump’s favorability rating sinking to one of the lowest points of his post-presidency.
While midterm elections tend to focus more on the current president and his party, Trump has proven to be an effective foil for Democrats in the past, and his recent tendency to grab headlines has helped reignite the energy that juiced support for Biden in 2020.
“Forget that he’s not the president anymore,” one Republican strategist said. “I think a lot of people are being reminded of Trump now, and it makes Biden look better in comparison.”
Abortion rights
Biden and his party have also seen a boost in the polls amid an effort to rally Americans against Republican efforts to curb abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The political impact of the decision has already been made clear: Kansas voters quashed a proposed amendment that would have stripped abortion protections from the state constitution, Democrats overperformed in a handful of hotly contested special elections, and polling shows the issue of reproductive rights taking on heightened importance in the midterm elections.
Poll after poll has made clear the support for abortion rights. A New York Times-Siena College Poll survey last week found that 62 percent of registered voters believe that abortion should remain legal, at least in most circumstances.
And it’s not just Democratic voters. Sixty-five percent of independents said that abortion should remain legal in most cases.
Consequently, Biden has ridden the same wave as other Democrats in the post-Roe political environment. In July, he signed an executive order that seeks to protect access to abortion medication and emergency contraception. He has also vowed to veto any legislative attempt to ban abortions nationwide.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:15Z
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HELL’S KITCHEN, Manhattan (PIX11) — Upcoming musical “Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat,” set to open during Hispanic Heritage Month, tells the true but little known story of the 17 Puerto Rican musician soldiers who joined one of the most celebrated regiments of the World War I.
They joined the all-Black 369th infantry, bringing together iconic musical artists, including James Reese Europe, Rafael Hernandez and Rafael Duchesne. The musical focuses on Europe, the first Black man to conduct at Carnegie Hall, and his quest to find the best musicians in Puerto Rico for his band in 1917.
“James Reese Europe lands in Puerto Rico, travels to recruit musicians for the 15th band,” Rosalbo Rolon, the director, said. “They were called the Hellfighters much later in France. Each segment of the band began to offer the best of what they had. The first beats of Latin jazz, the passion behind the jazz.”
This is also labor of love for the Puerto Rican musical director Desmar Guevara.
“The musicians who came before us paved the way for me to be here today,” Guevara, who was born in Puerto Rico, but has been living in New York City, told PIX11 News. “For me to be here directing, I am thankful to them.”
The lead actor playing the legendary James Reese Europe is also passionate about this production.
“It is a badge of honor to play a Black man who made such a significant contribution to music in our country,” Calvin Thompson, the actor playing James Reese Europe, told PIX11 News. “It’s beautiful to see how Black and brown people came together to create magic out of nothing.”
“Harlem Hellfighters on a Latin Beat” opens at Pregones Puerto Rican Traveling Theater on Oct. 6 and runs through the 23rd.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:23Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — The Arc Caddo-Bossier will hold the Great 5K & Paddlefest beginning at 8 a.m. Saturday at Fox Creek Farms in Shreveport.
The festivities will consist of a 5K run/walk, a two-mile paddle (life jackets required), and the “GREAT Post Race Party,” the event will feature local food from Sample Farm, prepared by Ki Mexico, and will include drinks, live entertainment by Haley Brooke Music and games for the kiddos.
The event is held biannually to benefit The Arc Caddo-Bossier’s GREAT Program, which does not receive any state or federal funding to continue “Building Unlimited Opportunities for People with Disabilities” through equine-assisted services.
GREAT provides equine-assisted services to adults and children with disabilities via group and private lessons and equine-assisted learning and inclusive summer camps for children with and without disabilities. Visit their website for more information on the event.
Sign up for the 5K, the paddle, or both, or simply buy a ticket to the party for $15. Attendees can register online ahead of time.
Paddle participants are asked to bring their own paddleboard, kayak, or canoe or come prepared to rent one onsite at the event for $20.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:30Z
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(Loving Living Local) – Service Experts specialize and full service in heating, air conditioning, and plumbing. Its mission is to make a difference in individuals’ lives by making homes and workplaces comfortable, healthy, and safe.
It’s National Tune-Up month, for every tune-up performed in September Service Experts will make a $5 contribution to Make-A-Wish®, up to $20,000, to help create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.
Tony Orlando, the owner of Service Experts, explains what a tune-up is. “It sounds like it’s not really all that important but really a tune up is really one of our individuals or any company that you use will go over the system thoroughly check all the components there, checking it for safety concerns or checking it for operation cleanliness, any kind of leaks, any kind of problems in looking for potential breakdowns so that they can save you time and money, ” stated Orlando.
Service Experts is a full-service in heating, air conditioning, and plumbing:
Heating and Cooling:
- Heating
- Cooling
- Other HVAC
Plumbing:
- Plumbing Services
- Drain Cleaning
- Faucet Repair and Installation
- Garbage Disposals
- Gas Lines
- Leak Detection and Repair
- Toilet Repair
- Water Filters
- Water Heaters
- Water and Sewer Line Services
- Water Softeners
Other Services:
Air conditioning and furnace tune-ups are recommended to be done twice a year: spring and fall time frame. Save more on HVAC and plumbing services with Service Expert’s multiple offers.
“So we like to think that we live up to that and we’ve got a real strong commitment to our employees to the community and to safety as well, “stated Orlando. They always give a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee on their services.
Service Experts Heating and Air Conditioning is located at 8932 Jewella Avenue, Suite B in Shreveport. For more information visit them online or call 318-588-8163.
Don’t forget to schedule your tune-up today to help children with critical illnesses and Make-A-Wish®.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:36Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Police are asking the public for any information that may help locate a Shreveport man missing since June.
Robert Jeffery Scaife was last seen on the 400 block of Pete Harris Dr. on June 30th. He is 5’9″ and weighs approximately 170 lbs. Scaife has long, curly brown hair and blue eyes. He has a mustache and a beard.
If anyone has seen Scaife or has information on where to contact him, call the Shreveport Police Department at (318) 673-7300 #3.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:42Z
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(NewsNation) — Many Americans have hit a brick wall post-graduation, struggling to find jobs, even with a college degree, while others are struggling financially due to student loan debt and looking for affordable rent. This has led to an increase in young people moving back home with their parents.
“It’s called a ‘boomerang kid’ — that’s someone who leaves home and then comes back,” Stacy Kaiser, a psychotherapist, explained. “I am seeing more of that than ever before.”
The start of the pandemic triggered a massive wave of boomerang kids, and now an estimated 67% of that group are still at home.
Zoe Czerenda is back in her childhood bedroom in Connecticut more than three years since graduating from college. Now, the 25-year-old regrets the bedroom color she picked as a teenager.
“It’s this God-awful blue that I decided to paint it when I was 13, 14 years old,” Czerenda recalled. “This pink carpet has been here since they moved here when I was in my mom’s stomach.”
Czerenda wasn’t planning on working remotely from her parent’s home, but she has student loan debt and makes less than $55,000 a year working for a pharmaceutical company.
According to Pew Research Center data, 25% of young adults between the ages of 25 and 34 are living back at home with family — a major shift from 9% in 1971.
“They say you’re supposed to make three times your rent to afford it. I don’t,” she said. “Most of the people who I graduated with live at home with their parents. A lot of them also work full time.”
Czerenda’s parents don’t blame her. They know it’s a different world now.
“When I got out of college, I was able to get a car, a job and an apartment, and it bothers me that it’s difficult for our children now to be able to do that,” said her dad, Mike Czerenda.
While this may be a necessity for some, ground rules should be set before a boomerang kid returns, Kaiser said.
“That might include things like paying rent or having to have a job, or making sure that you participate in chores so that you are a part of the community in the house and not just getting a meal ticket,” she said.
Zoe Czerenda hopes to be on her own again within a year, but her parents have no timeline.
“I’m not that mom that can just say, ‘Get out, you’re on your own, you can do this, bye!’ I can’t; I just can’t do that,” said her mom, Julie Czerenda.
“Everyone I know lives with someone or at home,” Zoe Czerenda said. “It’s weird that it’s the norm, but it’s also a very comforting thing to know that I had a family to come home to.”
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:48Z
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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group announced on Tuesday a $6.2 billion plan to eliminate fossil fuels and carbon emissions from its operations by the end of the decade.
The world’s fourth-largest iron ore producer expects to save $818 million a year from 2030 based on current prices of diesel, gas and carbon credits, said a Fortescue statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
Most of the spending is planned for 2024-28. It includes an additional 2-to-3 gigawatts of renewable energy generation and battery storage as well as a green mining fleet of trucks and trains.
The target by 2030 of “real zero terrestrial emissions” — no fossil fuels and with only temporary, if any, offsets — would prevent 3 million metric tons (3.3 million U.S. tons) of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions a year.
Fortescue is a member of the First Movers Coalition, a platform launched by the U.S. State Department and the World Economic Forum last year for companies to harness their buying power and supply chains to nurture early markets for innovative clean energy technologies.
Other big companies are also stepping up moves to cut their carbon emissions.
Last week, Samsung Electronics announced it was shifting away from fossil fuels and aiming to entirely power its global operations with clean electricity by 2050.
Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest said Fortescue, based in Perth, Western Australia state, was already benefiting financially from a decarbonization policy that began two years ago.
The new decarbonization strategy has “set an example that a post-fossil fuel era is good commercial common sense,” Forrest said in a statement.
“There’s no doubt that the energy landscape has changed dramatically over the past two years and this change has accelerated since Russia invaded Ukraine,” Forrest said.
“Consistent with Fortescue’s disciplined approach to capital allocation, this investment in renewable energy and decarbonization is expected to generate attractive economic returns for our shareholders through energy cost savings and a sharp reduction in carbon offset purchases, together with a lower risk-cost profile and improvement in the integrity of our assets,” Forrest added.
Australia’s new center-left Labor Party government has enacted a law setting a target to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 42% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.
Under the previous conservative government, Australia had been branded a laggard on climate action over its target to reduce emissions by only 26%-28% by 2030.
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| 2022-09-21T03:47:54Z
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteoroids striking the planet’s surface.
Scientists reported Monday that Mars InSigh t detected seismic and acoustic waves from a series of impacts in 2020 and 2021. A satellite orbiting the red planet confirmed the impact locations, as far as 180 miles (290 kilometers) from the lander.
Scientists are delighted by the detections — a first for another planet.
The first confirmed meteoroid exploded into at least three pieces, each leaving its own crater. An 11-second audio snippet of this strike includes three “bloops,” as NASA calls them, one of sounding like metal flapping loudly in the wind here on Earth.
“After three years of InSight waiting to detect an impact, those craters looked beautiful,” Brown University’s Ingrid Daubar, a co-author of the research paper in the journal Nature Geoscience, said in a statement.
The InSight team expected to pick up numerous meteoroid strikes, given Mars’ proximity to the asteroid belt and the planet’s thin atmosphere, which tends to keep entering space rocks from burning up. But the lander’s French-built seismometer may have missed impacts because of interfering noise from the Martian wind or seasonal changes in the atmosphere. Now scientists know what to look for, according to NASA, likely resulting in a surge of detections.
“Impacts are the clocks of the solar system,” French lead author Raphael Garcia said in a statement from the Higher Institute of Aeronautics and Space in Toulouse. “We need to know the impact rate today to estimate the age of different surfaces.”
Launched in 2018, InSight has already detected more than 1,300 marsquakes. The largest measured a magnitude 5 earlier this year. By comparison, the marsquakes generated by the meteoroid impacts registered no more than a magnitude 2.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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| 2022-09-21T03:48:00Z
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates will launch its first lunar rover in November, the mission manager said Monday.
Hamad Al Marzooqi told The National, a state-linked newspaper, that the “Rashid” rover, named for Dubai’s ruling family, would be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida sometime between Nov. 9 and Nov. 15. The exact date will be announced next month, he said.
The rover is to be launched aboard a Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket and deposited on the moon by a Japanese ispace lander sometime in March.
“We’ve finished with the testing of the rover and we are happy with the results,” Al Marzooqi was quoted as saying. “The rover has been integrated with the lander and it is ready for launch.”
The lunar mission is part of the UAE’s broader strategy to become a major player in the field of space exploration. If the moon mission succeeds, the UAE and Japan would join the ranks of only the U.S., Russia and China as nations that have put a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
Already, an Emirati satellite is orbiting Mars to study the red planet’s atmosphere. The UAE partnered with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to launch that probe, which swung into Mars’ orbit in February 2021.
The Rashid rover is expected to study the lunar surface, mobility on the moon’s surface and how different surfaces interact with lunar particles. The 10-kilogram (22-pound) rover will carry two high-resolution cameras, a microscopic camera, a thermal imagery camera, a probe and other devices.
The UAE has plans to develop the Middle East’s most advanced commercial satellite to produce high-resolution satellite imagery. It has also set the ambitious goal of building a human colony on Mars by 2117.
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| 2022-09-21T03:48:06Z
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The Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) carried out in 2021 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as part of the Global MICS Programme in Nigeria, and International Multi-Purpose Household Survey Programme for supporting countries in collecting data on children and women is practically expedient. MICS measures key indicators that allow countries to generate data for use in policies, programmes, national development plans, and to monitor progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) alongside other internationally approved obligations.
The technical support by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and governments’ funding alongside financial grants from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Gavi (The Vaccine Alliance) and UNICEF which facilitated the survey cannot be overemphasized. The pensiveness, teamwork is a profound one and demands sustainability considering the inestimable value of the task. For emphasis, children are the future of every society, and for any oversights on children today, the society is booked for grave consequences in tomorrows, for example the life-threatening mayhem, insecurity predominant in the country today.
On the other hand, women build the nation. Dr James Kwegyir-Aggrey, an intellectual and missionary said, “If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family, nation and society”. This measures the reasons UNICEF pays robust attention on girls’ welfare, prioritises girls’ education bearing in mind its impacts to the society at large. UNICEF upholds that when you have healthy, well-educated and emancipated women, these women in turn rear healthy, well-educated and emancipated children.
To summarise it, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan once said, “To educate girls is to reduce poverty”. Thus, across the world, girls’ wellbeing is a priority. Regrettably, child marriage poses a great threat to this popular demand in some climates including Nigeria.
In the MICS Phase 6 (2021) report released in August, 2022, a finding gloomily reveals that the percentage of girls that married before the age of 15 stands at 6.4% and 17.7% respectively in urban and rural areas with Northeast (21.2%) and Northwest (25.1%) leading. By state, Katsina tops with 34.2%, followed by Jigawa (33.3%), Bauchi (33.0%), Zamfara, (24.6%), and Kano (23.6%). Imo state grasps the least with 1.0%. However, at a media dialogue in Port Harcourt, Rivers State recently, the UNICEF ‘Chief of M4R’ (Measurement for Results), Claes Johanson firmly emphasized that UN target is to achieve a zero-child marriage far and wide.
Now, to meet the target, a legal reform is important as the major challenge to accomplishing the plan is subsistence of diverse legal regimes on ‘child marriage’ in the country thereby encouraging people to choose the one that suits their individual desires. For instance, while the Child Rights Act in Article 1 defines a child as a person below the age of 18, the Nigeria’s Criminal Code (Laws of the Federation, FRN) in Section 362 only proscribes abduction of girls under 16 arguably same as child marriage. Ditto to Section 218 of the Criminal Code which prohibits carnal ties with a girl of below 13 as unlawful.
Then again, the Penal Code applicable in Northern Nigeria in Section 282 (1) approves child marriage after age of 14. In fact, a sign of ‘puberty’ is the threshold in determining the capacity of a girl to marry in the north, and not age. To worsen the situation, no state in the federation is bound to adopt the CRA (Child Right Act) on account that an Act is a federal law, except the Federal Capital Territory alone, and therefore, states that have adopted it as their CRL (Child Rights Law) did so by discretion. Divergence in federal and state legislations on child marriage is a critical issue that must be addressed. The reason is that a child in the FCT remains a child in the north, south, everywhere, and should be treated alike. There’s a necessity for consensus, and therefore direly demands the attention of policymakers.
Unequivocally, marriage before the age of 18 is a violation of human rights, regardless it remains a reality for many children. The right to ‘free and full consent’ is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the understanding that a consent cannot be ‘free and full’ when one of the parties is a minor, and not sufficiently mature (lacks capacity) to make an informed decision about a life partner. In the SDGs, child marriage is notorious as a harmful practice which the world should aim to eliminate by the year 2030.
No doubt, underprivileged parents encourage the marriage of their daughters while they are still children hoping the marriage will bring fortunes and social benefits. But in actual fact, child marriage compromises the development of girls and often results in early pregnancy and social isolation, with little education and poor vocational training reinforcing the gendered nature of poverty. Obviously, child marriage does more harm than good to a life of a girl. Apart from exposing girls to health hazards, it robs them of the opportunity to gain education, ultimately renders them unemployable, and mostly enslaves them to become liabilities.
The benefits of good and sound education for girls cannot be overemphasised as it produces educated women who in turn ensure sound education for their children. Economic empowerment of girls/women makes them independent and confident, and positions them adequately to contribute to economic growth of a nation. Many female high-fliers around the world including Tolulope Sarah Arotile, the first-ever female combat helicopter pilot in the Nigerian Airforce who unfortunately died by a car accident on 14th July, 2020 at age 24 attests to this. What a great loss to the female world and society at large. May her soul rest in peace.
Suffice to say that through a quality education to girls, many would also turn out to become high achievers in diverse vocations the societies will be proud of. Furthermore, for a healthy life of a family, an educated woman understands the importance of hygiene, nutrition and health much more than uneducated women.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “education and poverty eradication are inextricably bound”. Thus, ensuring that girls complete primary and secondary education (likewise boys); a target of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a prerequisite for combating poverty, empowering women, economic growth, protecting children from hazardous and exploitative labour and sexual exploitation. Thus, a brainstorm to collectively, uniformly get rid of child marriage now is imperative as it has no justification.
- Umegboro, a public affairs analyst and social advocate writes via umegborocarl@gmail.com
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EDITORIAL: The Passing Of Queen Elizabeth II
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TUESDAY FLAT OUT: Queen Elizabeth II: Lessons From A Monarch
ASUU, FG must find middle ground to end strike ― Gbajabiamila
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MOSCOW (AP) — Valery Polyakov, the Soviet cosmonaut who set the record for the longest single stay in space, has died at age 80, Russia’s space agency announced Monday.
Polyakov’s record of 437 days in space began Jan. 8, 1994, when he and two others blasted off on a two-day flight to the Soviet space station Mir. While aboard Mir, he orbited the Earth more than 7,000 times, before returning March 22, 1995.
Upon landing, Polyakov declined to be carried out of the Soyuz capsule, as is common practice to allow readjustment to the pull of gravity. He was helped to climb out himself and he walked to a nearby transport vehicle. Polyakov had trained as a physician and wanted to demonstrate that the human body could endure extended periods in space.
Polyakov previously had spent 288 days in space on a mission in 1988-89.
The announcement by space agency Roscosmos did not state a cause of death.
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Varicose veins, popularly called spider veins, varicoses or varicosities is a condition that is extremely common in women and it refers to a situation where the veins become enlarged, dilated, and overfilled with blood and appear swollen with bluish-purple or red colour on the lower legs.
It is said that about 25 per cent of all adults have varicose veins and they are often painful. Simply put, varicose veins occur when veins aren’t functioning in the proper manner; veins are designed in a manner of one-way valves to prevent blood from flowing backward and when the valves fail, blood begins to collect in the veins rather than continuing toward the heart, causing pain and swelling.
Though many have varicose veins, some factors have been identified as likely causes. They include menopause, obesity, heredity, pregnancy, old age and standing for long periods of time among others.
The obvious symptoms of varicose veins are misshapen, swollen and coloured veins, usually on the legs associated with pain, heaviness and achiness around the enlarged veins. Atimes, the swelling comes with discoloration and in some cases, bleeding which leads to ulcers.
The treatment of varicose veins is usually conservative and commonly attached to lifestyle changes to manage the condition, rather than aggressive treatments that may have other hazardous effects. Changes that can be made to lifestyle include exercises that improve blood circulation, working to reduce weight, wearing compression socks to put pressure on legs so that blood can flow more easily to your heart and decrease swelling and avoiding situations where one stands for long periods of time.
In serious cases, when or if lifestyle changes fail, and varicose veins are causing a lot of damage to overall health, an invasive surgery; vein ligation and stripping may be recommended to remove varicose vein. Also, treatments like laser surgery that is, using light energy to block vein, endovenous ablation therapy, using heat and radiofrequency waves sclerotherapy, using liquid or foam chemical injection to block off a larger vein, endoscopic vein surgery, using a small lighted scope inserted through a small incision to block off a vein or microsclerotherapy, using a liquid chemical injection to block off smaller veins may be deployed.
Because varicose veins gets worse over time, it is important to maintain a healthy lifestyle so it doesn’t get worse because it cannot be prevented as it develops as a result of risk factors like being a woman, pregnancy, obesity, age, family history, hormonal replacement or contraception therapy. But while one cannot prevent varicose veins from forming, it can be prevented from getting worse.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL: The Passing Of Queen Elizabeth II
ASUU, FG must find middle ground to end strike ― Gbajabiamila
TUESDAY FLAT OUT: Queen Elizabeth II: Lessons From A Monarch
ASUU, FG must find middle ground to end strike ― Gbajabiamila
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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Kim K. Murphy, 57, of Baton Rouge, was sentenced to 14 years behind bars.
Murphy recently learned his fate in the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
Chief Judge Shelly D. Dick handed out the sentencing after a lengthy investigation by federal, state and local officials.
The Baton Rouge man pled guilty to conspiring “with his codefendant Travis James and others to obtain, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine.” according to the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
The nickname for the investigation was Operation Hidden Fee and it centered around what investigators believed was a local drug trafficking network.
Murphy was convicted “of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and
crack cocaine,” according to the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
During the investigation, DEA agents were able to legally tap phones belonging to Travis James.
“During those court-authorized wiretaps, Murphy brokered multi ounce transactions of cocaine and crack cocaine for customers,” according to the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
The subsequent meetings involving James and Murphy took place in Port Allen and or Baton Rouge.
James brought the cocaine to “either to waiting customers or to Murphy, who then supplied his buyers,” according to the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
James and Murphy were both stopped in transit to Baton Rouge on January 11, 2018.
Law enforcement performed traffic stops on each of them for traffic violations.
A subsequent search of the vehicle driven by Murphy uncovered “several vacuum sealed bags
containing suspected bricked cocaine,” according to the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
Murphy admitted that he owned the bag which contained the cocaine.
These organizations took part in the investigation:
- Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF)
- Internal Revenue Service
- East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office
- Baton Rouge City Police Department
- Louisiana State Police
After Murphy is done serving time in prison, the Baton Rouge man will have to remain under supervised release for three years.
“To date, nine members of this large-scale conspiracy have been prosecuted and convicted,” according to the United States District Court Middle District of Louisiana.
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TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares mostly declined Wednesday as investors looked ahead to a widely expected interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve as it works to squash the highest inflation in decades.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 dipped 1.4% in morning trading to 27,308.66. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.4% to 6,712.40. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.9% to 2,346.62. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 1.4% to 18,524.48, while the Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2% to 3,115.08.
Global tensions are adding to uncertainties. Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine have announced plans to start voting this week to become integral parts of Russia.
The Kremlin-backed efforts to swallow up four regions could set the stage for Moscow to escalate the war against Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently blasted what he described as U.S. efforts to preserve its global domination and ordered officials to boost weapons production.
“Asian equities traded in a defensive mode on Wednesday. There were some geopolitical tensions concerning Russia and Ukraine, where the separatists are to hold a referendum in some regions, and traders were expecting an update from Putin,” said Anderson Alves at ActivTrades.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 index fell 1.1% to 3,855.93, as more than 90% of stocks and every sector in the benchmark index lost ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1% to 30,706.23. The Nasdaq composite also fell 1%, to 11,425.05.
The selling came as traders waited to see how high the Fed will raise interest rates at its meeting that ends Wednesday.
“The market is certainly bracing for the worst and you’re seeing a little bit of selling pressure coming in,” said Paul Kim, CEO of Simplify ETFs.
Retailers, technology stocks, health care companies and banks were among the biggest weights on the market. Best Buy fell 4.1%, Microsoft slid 0.8%, Abbott Laboratories dropped 1.7% and JPMorgan Chase closed 2% lower. Exxon Mobil fell 0.8%.
Smaller company stocks fell more than the broader market. The Russell 2000 index gave up 1.4% to 1,787.50.
Bond yields mostly edged higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.56% from 3.52% from late Monday and is trading at its highest levels since 2011.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury, which tends to follow expectations for Fed action, held steady at 3.95%, hovering around its highest levels since 2007.
Stocks have been slumping and Treasury yields rising as the Fed raises the cost of borrowing money in hopes of slowing down the hottest inflation in four decades.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell bluntly warned in a speech last month that the rate hikes would “bring some pain.”
“He has done everything he possibly can to signal that it’s going to be another aggressive move,” said Liz Young, head of investment strategy at SoFi.
The Fed is expected to raise its key short-term rate by three-quarters of a point for the third time at its meeting on Wednesday. That would lift its benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level in 14 years, and up from zero at the start of the year.
Beyond that, investors will be focused on what Powell has to say, both in the Fed’s latest interest rate policy statement and during an afternoon press conference, for clues as to whether the central bank remains primarily focused on lowering inflation, or if there’s a hint the Fed is giving more consideration to the impact of higher rates on the economy.
Wall Street is worried that the rate hikes could go too far in slowing economic growth and push the economy into a recession.
Ford fell 12.3% for the biggest decline in the S&P 500 after slashing its third-quarter earnings forecast because a parts shortage will leave it with as many as 45,000 vehicles unfinished on its lots when the quarter ends Sept. 30. Last week, FedEx and General Electric warned investors about damage to their operations from inflation.
The U.S. isn’t alone in suffering from hot inflation or dealing with the impact of efforts to fight high prices.
The Bank of Japan began a two-day monetary policy meeting Wednesday, although analysts expect the central bank to stick to its easy monetary policy. Rate decisions from Norway, Switzerland and the Bank of England are next.
In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude rose 15 cents to $84.09 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 1.5% Tuesday, weighing down energy stocks. Brent crude, the international standard, added 22 cents to $90.84 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar inched up to 143.81 Japanese yen from 143.74 yen. The euro fell to 99.64 cents from 99.73 cents.
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AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed to this report.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — An executive of a vegan food products company has been charged with felony battery and making a terroristic threat after a fracas outside a football game in which he’s accused of biting a man’s nose, officials said.
Beyond Meat Chief Operations Officer Doug Ramsey has been accused of a road rage attack outside Saturday’s game between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Missouri State Bears in Fayetteville, Arkansas, according to Fayetteville television station KNWA.
A police report says the 53-year-old Fayetteville man attacked another man who tried to inch in front of him in a parking garage traffic lane and made contact with a wheel on Ramsey’s sport utility vehicle. A police officer responding to the reported disturbance arrived to find “two males with bloody faces,” the report states.
After speaking with Ramsey, the other man and a witness, the officer determined that Ramsey had gotten out of his SUV and “punched through the back windshield” of the other car. The driver of the other vehicle said he emerged from his car and Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body” and also “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose,” the officer reported.
That man and the witness also reported hearing Ramsey “threaten to kill” the man.
Beyond Meat has not responded to messages from the station and The Associated Press seeking comment.
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| 2022-09-21T03:48:43Z
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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Israel and Cyprus said Monday that they have made “significant” headway in resolving a long-running dispute over an offshore natural gas deposit and say they are committed to quickly reaching a deal as Europe looks for new energy sources.
Cyprus Energy Minister Natasa Pilides and her Israeli counterpart, Karine Elharrar, held talks in the Cypriot capital, pledging to press toward a “fair and swift resolution.”
Israel claims that a portion of Cyprus’ Aphrodite deposit estimated to hold some 4.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas falls inside its nearby Ishai field, along an offshore demarcation line that separates the two countries’ exclusive economic zones.
Negotiations have stretched for several years, but Europe’s need to wean itself off Russian energy sources since the war in Ukraine appears to have added a new sense of urgency to the talks. Russia has cut back natural gas supplies to Europe, driving up prices.
“In light of the global energy crisis and the growing need for natural gas in Europe, I believe it is in our best interest that both parties should expedite a swift, transparent and fair settlement,” Elharrar said in a joint statement. “The trust between us and the continuation of fruitful cooperation in the various fields are very important for both parties.”
Pilides said the sides have made “significant progress” in fleshing out a roadmap that an expert appointed by both countries will follow to hammer out a compromise deal, adding that discussions will continue in the following weeks.
“Cyprus and Israel share a common vision for fully unlocking the potential of Eastern Mediterranean gas resources, thereby diversifying energy sources and routes to Europe,” Pilides said.
Chevron and partners Shell and Israeli NewMed Energy own the drilling rights to the Aphrodite field and have said that a plan to develop the deposit will be ready by the end of the year. Another well will be drilled in the coming months to gather additional information about the deposit’s size.
Pilides said last month that processing extracted gas at facilities in Idku, Egypt, is among the four development options being studied.
Prospects for the Aphrodite field as well as other gas deposits discovered off Cyprus received a boost after the European Union confirmed that natural gas could act as a bridge fuel until 2050 as part of the bloc’s transition to cleaner energy. Environmental groups have begun legal challenges, accusing the EU of derailing its commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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| 2022-09-21T03:48:59Z
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BRUSSELS (AP) — A dozen environmental groups are starting legal challenges against the European Union’s executive branch in a bid to stop the inclusion of natural gas and nuclear power generation in the bloc’s list of sustainable activities.
European Union lawmakers in July voted to add natural gas and nuclear to the list, backing a proposal from the European Commission that has been drawing fierce criticism and accusations of greenwashing.
ClientEarth, WWF’s European Policy Office, Transport & Environment (T&E), and BUND said on Monday that they have asked for an internal review of the decision to include gas. The European Commission has up to 22 weeks to reply and the groups say they will take the action to the Court of Justice of the EU if the executive arm refuses to reconsider its move.
They said that “gas is a potent fossil fuel that threatens European energy security and has led to sky-high energy prices across Europe.”
The groups argue that giving gas a sustainable label clashes with other EU laws and does not respect the EU’s commitments and obligations under the 2015 Paris accord’s target for limiting global warming.
Separately, eight Greenpeace organizations in Europe have taken action over the inclusion in the so-called taxonomy delegated act of both fossil gas and nuclear energy. They, too, have sent a request for internal review to the Commission, arguing that their inclusion is a breach of the taxonomy regulation.
The green labeling system from the European Commission defines what qualifies as an investment in sustainable energy. The EU’s executive arm did not initially include gas and nuclear and created divisions among member countries when it proposed their addition earlier this year.
The question of nuclear power has divided environmentalists, energy experts and governments for years, with some arguing it’s an important source of energy because it’s produced with no emissions and thus “clean,” while others say the risks of nuclear reactions are too great and infrastructure is slow and costly to build. Liquid natural gas, clearly a fossil fuel, is roundly criticized in environmental circles.
Under certain conditions, gas and nuclear energy will now be part of the mix, making it easier for private investors to inject money into both.
With the EU aiming to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, the commission says the classification system is crucial to direct investments into sustainable energy. It estimates that about 350 billion euros of investment per year will be needed to meet the 2030 targets.
“This fake green label is incompatible with EU environment and climate laws. Gas is a leading cause of climate and economic chaos, while there is still no solution to the problem of nuclear radioactive waste and the risk of nuclear accidents is far too significant to ignore,” said Greenpeace EU sustainable finance campaigner Ariadna Rodrigo.
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Follow AP’s climate coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/climate
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| 2022-09-21T03:49:06Z
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Federal officials have rejected a request by a regional airline facing a pilot shortage to hire co-pilots with half the usual minimum amount of flying experience, saying it would reduce safety.
Republic Airways asked for permission to hire pilots with at least 750 hours of flying time if they complete the airline’s training program. However, the Federal Aviation Administration said that it was in the public interest to maintain current standards, which generally require 1,500 flight hours for a co-pilot.
Smaller carriers called regional airlines were once allowed to hire co-pilots, who are called first officers, with as few as 250 hours of flying experience. But the minimum was increased after a 2009 Colgan Air plane flying for Continental Airlines crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 people on board and one on the ground.
While the minimum is 1,500 hours, pilots with military experience or a degree from an approved university program can qualify with less experience. Republic argued that its program, run by a wholly owned subsidiary, would be comparable to military flight training.
“After full consideration of Republic’s petition for exemption and the public comments, the FAA has determined that the relief requested is not in the public interest and would adversely affect safety,” the FAA said. The FAA also said that Republic’s curriculum and training is not comparable to that of the military.
Republic CEO Bryan Bedford said he was disappointed but not surprised by the FAA’s decision. He said the agency didn’t give the airline’s request the review that it deserved.
“Despite the rhetoric to the contrary, our proposal would enhance safety by providing students a highly structured, mission-specific training approach,” Bedford said in a statement. He said Republic’s approach would increase the number of pilots and help counter shrinking air service in small and mid-sized communities.
Republic and other regional carriers argue that the FAA must consider new standards for licensing pilots — beyond counting up their flying hours — because of the difficulty and expense of accumulating 1,500 hours in the air. Republic estimated the cost of flight training and tuition leading to a degree at a public university at about $171,000, compared with $75,000 at its academy.
However, the FAA said it is “overly simplistic” to think that granting Republic’s request would address “a perceived pilot shortage.”
The nation’s largest pilots’ union disputes the notion that there is a shortage, saying there are enough qualified pilots if airlines did a better job of retaining pilots, and if regional airlines boost pay and ease grueling work schedules. The union praised the FAA’s rejection of the Republic request.
“This decision is a huge win for aviation safety and for the flying public,” said Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association. He vowed that the union would oppose “any other efforts that seek to evade, undermine, weaken, or repeal first officer qualification, experience, and training requirements.”
The FAA received nearly 100 comments on Republic’s request, divided between supporting it and opposing it.
Republic uses smaller planes to operate mostly shorter routes for big airlines under the Delta Connection, American Eagle and United Express brands. The airline is based in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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CAMBRIDGE, Md.-A man has died in an apparent shooting according to Cambridge Police.
Police say it happened around 3 p.m. Tuesday. Officers arrived at the area near Fairmount Avenue for a report of shots fired. They then found a man lying near a wooded area of the 500 block of Edgewood Avenue with reported gunshot wounds. They determined he was dead.
Maryland State Police is investigating the incident.
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GEORGETOWN, Del-WBOC has confirmed that a plane landed Tuesday night at the airport in Georgetown. However, no migrants were on that plane.
There was a large amount of anticipation that a plane filled with migrants would be landing in Sussex County.
Republicans had said they were going to send migrants to Rehoboth Beach-where President Biden has a vacation home.
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| 2022-09-21T03:49:31Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell bluntly warned in a speech last month that the Fed’s drive to curb inflation by aggressively raising interest rates would “bring some pain.” On Wednesday, Americans may get a better sense of how much pain could be in store.
The Fed is expected at its latest meeting to raise its key short-term rate by a substantial three-quarters of a point for the third consecutive time. Another hike that large would lift its benchmark rate — which affects many consumer and business loans — to a range of 3% to 3.25%, the highest level in 14 years.
In a further sign of the Fed’s deepening concern about inflation, it will also likely signal that it plans to raise rates much higher by year’s end than it had forecast three months ago — and to keep them higher for a longer period.
Economists expect Fed officials to forecast that their key rate could go as high as 4% by the end of this year. They’re also likely to signal additional increases in 2023, perhaps to as high as roughly 4.5%.
Short-term rates at that level would make a recession likelier next year by sharply raising the cost of mortgages, car loans and business loans. The Fed intends those higher borrowing costs to slow growth by cooling off a still-robust job market to cap wage growth and other inflation pressures. Yet the risk is growing that the Fed may weaken the economy so much as to cause a downturn that would produce job losses.
The U.S. economy hasn’t seen rates as high as the Fed is projecting since before the 2008 financial crisis. Last week, the average fixed mortgage rate topped 6%, its highest point in 14 years. Credit card borrowing costs have reached their highest level since 1996, according to Bankrate.com.
Powell and other Fed officials still say the Fed’s goal is to achieve a so-called “soft landing,” by which they would slow growth enough to tame inflation but not so much as to trigger a recession.
By last week, though, that goal appeared further out of reach after the government reported that inflation over the past year was a painful 8.3%. Even worse, so-called core prices, which exclude the volatile food and energy categories, rose much faster than expected.
The inflation report also documented just how broadly inflation has spread through the economy, complicating the the Fed’s anti-inflation efforts. Inflation now appears increasingly fueled by higher wages and by consumers’ steady desire to spend and less by the supply shortages that had bedeviled the economy during the pandemic recession.
“They’re going try to avoid recession,” said William Dudley, formerly the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “They’re going to try to achieve a soft landing. The problem is that the room to do that is virtually non-existent at this point.”
At a news conference he will give Wednesday after the Fed meeting ends, Powell isn’t likely to drop any hints that the central bank will ease up on its credit tightening campaign. Most economists expect the Fed to stop raising rates in early 2023. But for now, they expect Powell to reinforce his hard-line anti-inflation stance.
“It’s going to end up being a hard landing,” said Kathy Bostjancic, an economist at Oxford Economics.
“He’s not going to say that,” Bostjancic said. But, referring to the most recent Fed meeting in July, when Powell raised hopes for an eventual pullback on rate hikes, she added: “He also wants to make sure that the markets don’t come away and rally. That’s what happened last time.”
Indeed, investors responded then by bidding up stock prices and buying bonds, which lowered rates on securities like the benchmark the 10-year Treasury. Higher stock prices and lower bond yields generally boost the economy — the opposite of what the Fed wants.
At a previous news conference in June, Powell had noted that a three-quarter-point rate hike was “an unusually large one” and suggested that “I do not expect moves of this size to be common.” Yet after the alarming August inflation report, the Fed now seems all but sure to announce its third consecutive such increase. A fourth such hike is possible, too, if future measures of inflation don’t improve.
The central bank has already engaged in the fastest series of interest rate hikes since the early 1980s. Yet some economists — and some Fed officials — argue that they have yet to raise rates to a level that would actually restrict borrowing and spending and slow growth.
Loretta Mester, president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank, and one of the 12 officials who will vote on the Fed’s decision this week, said she thinks it will be necessary to raise the Fed’s rate to “somewhat above 4% by early next year and hold it there.”
“I do not anticipate the Fed cutting” rates next year, Mester added, dispelling the expectations of many investors on Wall Street who had hoped for such a reversal. Comments like Mester’s contributed to a sharp fall in stock prices last month that began after Powell’s stern anti-inflation speech at an economic conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“Our responsibility to deliver price stability is unconditional,” Powell said then — a remark widely interpreted to mean that the Fed will fight inflation even if it requires deep job losses and a recession.
Many economists sound convinced that a recession and widespread layoffs will be necessary to slow rising prices. Research published earlier this month under the auspices of the Brookings Institution concluded that unemployment might have to go as high as 7.5% to get inflation back to the Fed’s 2% target.
Only a downturn that harsh would reduce wage growth and consumer spending enough to cool inflation, according to the a paper by Johns Hopkins University economist Laurence Ball and two economists at the International Monetary Fund.
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NEW YORK (AP) — When President Joe Biden announced a plan to forgive student loan debt, many borrowers who kept making payments during the pandemic wondered if they’d made the right choice.
Borrowers who paid down their debt during a pandemic freeze that started in March 2020 can in fact get a refund — and then apply for forgiveness – but the process for doing that hasn’t always been clear.
If you think you’re eligible, here’s what you need to know:
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WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR A REFUND?
Borrowers who hold eligible federal student loans and have made voluntary payments since March 13, 2020, can get a refund, according to the Department of Education.
For some people, that refund will be automatic. You can get a refund without applying if your payments brought your loan balance below the maximum debt relief amount: $10,000 for all borrowers, and $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers can check their balance in their studentaid.gov account.
For example, if a borrower paid $100 a month for 10 months of the pandemic and their balance is now $8,000, that $1,000 will automatically be refunded. Then they can apply to get the rest of their debt forgiven.
But if a borrower paid throughout the pandemic and still owes $14,000, they won’t get an automatic refund. They can, however, apply to have $10,000 of that debt erased.
Another group of people that has to apply for a refund is those who completely paid off their loan balance during the pandemic. If that’s you, you’re eligible for loan forgiveness, but you’ll have to request a refund prior to applying for debt relief. Borrowers should confirm their eligibility for the loan forgiveness program prior to requesting a refund.
For example, if a borrower had $5,000 in debt at the start of the pandemic and paid it all back during the freeze, but is eligible for up to $10,000 in forgiveness, they would apply for a $5,000 refund, then apply to have their debt forgiven.
“Borrowers who paid off their loans during the pause will need to request a refund first, then request cancellation,” said a spokesperson from the Department
of Education.
The refund is not available for private student loans.
Eligible federal student loans:
—Direct Loans (defaulted and non defaulted)
—Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans held by ED (defaulted and non defaulted)
—Federal Perkins Loans held by ED (defaulted and non defaulted)
—Defaulted FFEL Program loans not held by ED
—Defaulted HEAL loans
If you are not sure which loan you have, visit your dashboard at studentaid.gov and find the “my loan servicers” section. If you can’t access your dashboard, you can call the Federal Student Aid office at 1-800-433-3243 to ask for loan servicer information.
HOW CAN I APPLY FOR A REFUND?
Borrowers who want a specific amount refunded can apply by calling their loan service provider. Right now, refunds are only being done via phone and not through any website or email.
When the Biden Administration announced the forgiveness, loan servicers found themselves inundated with calls. But many borrowers now say they’re not waiting long when calling.
“I was on hold for about five minutes,” said Megan McParland, of New Jersey, who graduated in 2018 and made several payments during the payment freeze.
McParland requested a refund the first week of September. At first, she felt the servicer tried to dissuade her from making the request. But after confirming that she wanted to proceed, she was told that she would see her refund in about a month.
Sierra Tibbs, a 47-year-old resident of Casselberry, Florida, had a similar experience. The entire phone call with her loan servicer took around 20 minutes.
Tibbs applied for a refund after seeing a video online informing her that she could get back money she paid during the pandemic.
If you are unsure who services your loan, or if the servicer changed during the pandemic, visit your student aid account dashboard and scroll to “my loan servicers” or call 1-800-433-3243.
Before calling your loan provider to request your refund, you need to know your account number and the amount you want refunded.
—Loan servicers’ phone numbers:
FedLoan Servicing: 1-800-699-2908
Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.: 1-800-236-4300
Edfinancial: 1-855-337-6884
MOHELA: 1-888-866-4352
Aidvantage: 1-800-722-1300
Nelnet: 1-888-486-4722
OSLA Servicing: 1-866-264-9762
ECSI: 1-866-313-3797
Default Resolution Group: 1-800-621-3115 (1-877-825-9923 for the deaf or hard of hearing)
HOW WILL THE REFUND WORK — AND WHEN WILL MY LOANS BE FORGIVEN?
When you request a refund, the amount that you have paid during the payment freeze will be added back to your student loan balance, said Katherine Welbeck, Civil Rights Counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center.
That amount is still eligible for cancellation and can be eliminated after you apply for forgiveness.
You’re eligible for debt relief if you had an annual federal income below $125,000 individually or $250,000 if you’re married or head of household in 2020 or 2021. The application is expected to open in early October and you can apply until Dec. 31, 2023.
It is unclear when borrowers will see debt relief. So far, the plan only mentions borrowers will be notified by their loan servicer when their debt is forgiven. There is also a possibility that forgiveness could be delayed if the Biden administration faces legal challenges.
Laura Baum, a 30-year-old resident of Chicago, paid $5,000 during the payment freeze toward her $15,000 remaining debt. She is eligible to have $20,000 canceled since she was a Pell grant recipient when she was an undergraduate. At the beginning of September, Baum called her loan servicer and asked for a refund.
But because of the uncertainty, she is planning to save that money until the Department of Education confirms her debt has been canceled.
“I’m going to hold on to that refund until I absolutely see $0 in my student loans,” Baum said.
WHEN IS THE DEADLINE TO APPLY?
The deadline to apply for a refund is December 31, 2023. However, Welbeck recommends that you apply for a refund before you apply for debt forgiveness.
“If you apply first, you can process the refund to get your money back, and then that balance in your account is canceled,” Welbeck said.
The application process for loan forgiveness is expected to take four to six weeks.
The Department of Education is offering a subscription page where you can sign up to be notified when the application is open.
HOW MUCH CAN I GET REFUNDED?
You can get a refund for the entire amount you paid during the payment freeze, according to the Department of Education. However, you can choose a lower amount.
You might pick this option if, during the pandemic, you paid enough to get your debt below the maximum amount of forgiveness. You could get a partial refund, then apply to have your remaining debt wiped out.
Say you had $15,000 worth of debt remaining at the beginning of the payment freeze and have since paid $8,000, but qualify for $10,000 in debt relief. You might decide to ask for a refund of just $3,000. Then, your debt balance will be exactly $10,000, and you can apply for maximum loan forgiveness.
WHEN WILL I GET MY REFUND?
Borrowers should expect to receive their refund six to 12 weeks after requesting it, according to the Department of Education. But you might want to double-check with your loan servicer.
McParland’s loan servicer told her that she should see her refunded amount in 30 to 45 business days, but Baum was told that it would take 60 to 70 business days to see her money back in her bank account.
IS THE REFUND TAXABLE INCOME?
It is not yet clear if the refunded money will be considered taxable income. Welbeck recommends borrowers check with financial advisers from their own state.
Some states, such as Indiana, have already said they will tax debt relief for people who have their student loans canceled. Policies vary from state to state.
DOES THE REFUND AFFECT MY CREDIT SCORE?
Since the Department of Education has not yet announced how the cancellation or refunds will be reported to the credit bureaus, it is still uncertain if these amounts will affect borrowers’ credit scores, said Welbeck.
SHOULD I START PAYING AGAIN WHEN THE PAYMENT FREEZE ENDS?
The pandemic payment freeze is set to end Dec. 31. If you have not seen debt relief by then, you are still expected to start making payments. Welbeck recommends that borrowers enroll in income-driven repayment plans before the end of the payment freeze.
Income-driven repayment plans allow you to set an affordable payment amount based on income and family size.
You can find more information about the four types of income-driven repayment plans here.
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You can find all of AP’s financial wellness coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/financial-wellness.
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The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — In movie theatres and pubs, on giant screens and smartphones, people watched and pundits droned on as Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London flooded the airwaves live across time zones and continents.
On the other side of the English Channel in staunchly republican France, broadcasters scrapped normal programming to carry up to 12 hours of live footage Monday.
In central Paris, locals mingled with British tourists at The Cricketer pub to catch the ceremony on screens more accustomed to sports coverage.
“It’s a historical moment … and I didn’t want to miss it,” said Manchester area resident Natalie Dotson. “So we found an English pub on Google. And then we’ve just come in today to watch (the funeral).”
Sipping her drink, Parisian Martine Paranthoen said she had “a little bit of a tight heart … because for me the queen was immortal.”
In Britain, 125 movie theaters opened their doors to broadcast Monday’s funeral live.
South Africa’s national television broadcaster SABC carried the funeral live as its headline story, even amid rolling electricity cuts across the country that have dominated the news for days. Radio stations also led with news of the procession.
Some of the coverage was accompanied, however, by discussions on the legacy of British colonialism and how — or even whether — the queen’s life should be celebrated in a former British colony like South Africa.
In Germany, public broadcasters ARD and ZDF dedicated hours of detailed live coverage and commentary, as did private all-news channels — though at least one of those later switched to a live shot of the hearse on one side of the screen while business as usual resumed on the rest of it.
Spanish national public broadcaster RTVE offered almost minute-by-minute coverage. But what grabbed viewers’ attention was an issue of domestic concern — the sight of former King Juan Carlos and his wife, former Queen Sofía, sitting in the church next to Spain’s current king and queen, their son Felipe and his wife Letizia.
The four had not been seen together since before Juan Carlos unexpectedly left Spain in 2020 amid financial scandals. Since then, the royal family has made obvious efforts to distance themselves from his legacy.
In former British colony of Hong Kong, many among the hundreds of mourners who gathered with candles and flowers outside the British Consulate on Monday night watched the live broadcast on shared devices.
Tom Fell, a 42-year-old British citizen living in Hong Kong for the past three years, said it was “so hard” to be away for the funeral.
“I remember I was at Princess Diana’s funeral. I was at the Queen Mother’s funeral. To feel the level of grief and loss, but not to be able to be part of it, makes it harder,” he said.
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AP reporters across the world contributed.
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Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — JBS has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a lawsuit with consumers that accused the giant meat producer of conspiring with other meat companies to inflate the price of pork.
The latest meat-industry settlement will likely reinforce concerns that the White House, members of Congress and trade groups have raised about how the lack of competition in the industry affects prices.
A federal judge in Minnesota approved the settlement of the price-fixing lawsuit last week. But the judge also ruled that nearly $7 million of the settlement will go to the plaintiffs’ lawyers for their work in the case.
The pork lawsuit is one of several price-fixing lawsuits making their way through the courts. Meat producers have also been accused of inflating beef and chicken prices, and several multimillion-dollar settlements have been announced in those cases.
Previously, JBS agreed to pay restaurants and caterers $12.75 million as part of a different settlement in this pork lawsuit, and Smithfield Foods agreed to pay two different groups of pork purchasers $83 million and $42 million in two different settlements in the case.
Despite the settlements, meat companies have defended their pricing practices.
Officials at the Brazilian company’s U.S. headquarters in Greeley, Colorado, didn’t immediately respond to questions about the latest settlement on Monday, but JBS didn’t admit any wrongdoing as part of the deal.
The lead attorneys for the plaintiffs said it’s not clear how much individual consumers who bought pork between 2009 and last year might receive, partly because money from additional settlements may be added to the fund before any payments are sent out. More details about the settlement are available online.
The pork lawsuit remains pending against other major producers including Hormel, Tyson Foods and the Agri Stats database company they allegedly used to share confidential information about price, capacity and demand. JBS agreed to cooperate with the case against those other companies as part of the settlement.
The lawsuit accuses the major meat processors, who together control more than 70% of pork production nationwide, of working cooperatively to limit the supply of hogs and inflate prices.
The White House, several agricultural trade groups and a number of prominent members of Congress have all questioned the industry’s pricing practices although the meat producers argue that supply and demand factors, not anticompetitive behavior, drive prices.
The Justice Department has been looking into allegations of price fixing in the industry at least since 2020, but it hasn’t provided updates on its investigation.
The Biden administration has announced several efforts to increase competition in the meat industry to help reduce prices including a $1 billion program to help establish and expand independent slaughterhouses. And the White House has tweaked administrative rules to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to report concerns or sue over anticompetitive behavior.
The judge who approved the settlement last Wednesday said awarding the lawyers involved 33% of the proceeds, as he did here, was in line with other similar class action lawsuits.
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ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Visitors to the new terminal at Orlando International Airport may want to wear sunscreen, shades and a floppy hat.
Sun rays beaming through the windows of its soaring ceilings don’t just peck at the passing passengers — they practically smooch them as if they were spending a day at the beach.
Accompanied by realistic-looking fake indoor palm trees, gigantic LED screens depicting underwater springs and skylight views of blue skies and billowing clouds, Terminal C lets passengers know they have arrived in Florida. And that’s the point, as the world’s seventh-busiest airport makes a $2.8 billion bet when the 1.8 million-square-foot (167,225-square-meter) terminal opens to the public this week that Florida’s tourism is moving well beyond the pandemic slowdown and has a bright future.
“They get to see the sunshine so they really know they are in the Sunshine State,” Kevin Thibault, CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, said of passengers arriving in the terminal. “It really is a facility for generations to come.”
With 40.3 million passengers last year, Orlando International Airport was the busiest airport in Florida, according to Airports Council International. However, that figure was still a fifth below the number of passengers in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic. For 2022, the airport had a rolling 12-month total at the end of June of 47 million passengers, just shy of the 50.6 million who came in 2019.
The addition of Terminal C gives the airport the ability to handle 12 million more passengers at the terminal’s 15 new gates in a first phase, increasing the airport’s capacity by a quarter. Airport officials say it will ease some of the crowding that had grown in the decade before the start of the pandemic at the airport’s other two terminals as central Florida became the most visited destination in the U.S.
The Orlando area had 59.3 million visitors last year, up two-thirds from 35.3 million in 2020, when central Florida’s theme parks shut down for several months and international travel was limited in an attempt to stop the virus’ spread. However, last year’s Orlando area visitor numbers still fell short of the pre-pandemic high of 75.8 million in 2019.
Like Orlando, the state of Florida this year is on pace to match its pre-pandemic tourism figures now that restrictions on international travel have been lifted. Florida had 122 million visitors last year, still short of the 131 million in 2019. But the first two quarters of this year put Florida’s 2022 visitor numbers on pace to match those from three years ago.
Officials at Orlando International Airport said the new terminal is one of the most technologically advanced in the U.S.
Suitcases and other baggage at Terminal C will be deposited in large, chip-embedded tubs that are tracked through radio frequency technology. The tubs reduce opportunities for wheels or straps to cause jams in the maze of conveyor belts that move luggage, and the system allows bags to always be tracked. The goal at the Orlando airport, which gets the most strollers and golf clubs of any in the U.S., is to move bags from a gate to the baggage carousel within five minutes, airport officials said.
“We don’t have to track the bag anymore. We are tracking the transport device,” said Scott Goodwin, assistant director of airport operations.
Passengers on international flights who have opted in can match their passport photos with facial scans at departure gates, speeding up the boarding process. At security checkpoints leading to gates, passengers will be able to place their carry-on bags in bins on automated conveyor belts rather than pushing them along tables until they reach the X-ray machines, speeding up the screening process by allowing travelers to bypass slowpokes in line.
“You can move ahead, grab a bin and you won’t seem impolite to anyone,” said Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.
Terminal C is located across from a newly-built train station that will serve Brightline, a higher-speed line that is starting runs between South Florida and Orlando early next year. Airport officials believe that will open up Orlando International Airport to Europe-bound passengers from South Florida who may have previously used Miami International Airport.
Thibault said Orlando International Airport officials currently are in conversations about having seamless ticketing between Brightline and the terminal’s airlines, which include Aer Lingus, British Airways, Emirates, JetBlue and Lufthansa.
More than 90% of the terminal’s restaurants and stores, which include mandatory shops from Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld Orlando, are past security checkpoints in an effort to give departing passengers time to shop and eat once they are past security screening.
Arriving passengers will be flooded by sunlight since they will be on the upper-most level of skylighted Terminal C, a flip from the traditional design of having arrivals on the lower level and departures on the upper level.
“We want them to feel the sunshine. We want them to feel them palm trees, the flora and fauna,” said Curtis Fentress, whose firm was the terminal’s design architect. “It brings light into the building in a way that sort of dapples, like the light that used to stream through the orange orchards, historically.”
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Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
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NEW YORK (AP) — Nikola Corp.’s top executive testified at the trial of the truckmaker’s founder on Monday, saying he repeatedly tried without success to rein in a man prone to exaggeration and misstating facts while trying to elevate his company’s share price with promises he couldn’t keep.
Chief Executive Officer Mark Russell told jurors in federal court in Manhattan that Nikola founder Trevor Milton had “extraordinary control” at Nikola as the company’s chief executive and largest shareholder, as it tried to create zero-emission trucks that run on electricity or hydrogen fuel cells.
Milton, 40, has pleaded not guilty to securities and wire fraud charges two years after resigning from the company. His lawyers insist at a trial entering its second week that their client never intended to defraud or deceive anyone. Milton is charged with whipping up an investor frenzy for the startup company with false claims about its production capabilities.
Nikola, which continues to operate from an Arizona headquarters, didn’t admit any wrongdoing last year when it paid $125 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission claims.
Russell, summoned to the witness stand by prosecutors, seemed to support their contention that Milton cheated investors before and after the company’s shares became publicly traded in 2020.
Russell said he insisted Milton agree he’d become chief executive officer once Nikola was publicly traded before joining Nikola’s executive team, after leaving a company in 2018 that had provided Nikola with early funding.
“It was the best business idea I’ve come across in my career,” he said.
Russell said he wanted to ensure Milton was no longer the company’s mouthpiece because he “was prone to exaggeration in making public statements.”
“He would sometimes exaggerate, sometimes misstate facts,” Russell said. “I explained to him that as top executive, anything he says in public would be the equivalent of a press release or a securities filing.”
But he said Milton continued his ways, including going on “what you’d call a blitz” of public appearances and social media postings after the company went public.
Milton also remained in control of the company by becoming an “executive board member” after Russell became CEO, meaning Russell would still report to Milton.
The board, meanwhile, had members including Milton’s father and lacked anyone with public company experience, Russell said.
When the company’s share price rose dramatically, Milton became “very excited” and claimed his publicity efforts reached small retail investors, Russell said.
“I’d say I don’t really want them,” Russell said, explaining that he sought steady, large institutional investors instead.
In one meeting in late 2019 or early 2020, a team of Nikola executives were using a deck of slides to explain the company’s plans to a prospective institutional investor when Milton began “selling” rather than using the slides — to the surprise of executives and bankers who were there, he said.
After the meeting, Russell said he told Milton it would be better if he didn’t attend meetings with prospective investors anymore.
When the company announced in March 2020 that it was going to be listed on the NASDAQ exchange, it valued itself in a press release at $3.3 billion or $10 per share, citing 14,000 in “preorders” it claimed represented over $10 billion in potential revenue. But Russell testified that the interest companies had shown in buying its products were not actual orders.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia’s war against Ukraine, the lingering coronavirus pandemic and the damage of climate change are putting intense pressure on the world’s poorest, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Monday.
The Paris-based OECD reported that 60 states, territories and locations fell last year into the category of “fragile contexts” — meaning they were exposed to economic, environmental, social and political risks that they didn’t have the capacity to absorb. And that was before Russia invaded Ukraine and intensified their burdens.
Monday’s report designated the most places in such dire straits since the OECD began issuing its States of Fragility report in 2015. The 60 account for 24% of the world’s population, 73% of those living in extreme poverty, 80% of those who died in conflicts and the vast majority of the world’s “hunger hotspots.” And they are home to 95% of the record 274 million people the United Nations says need humanitarian assistance.
“We are in an era defined by multiple crises, shocks and uncertainty,” the OECD said.
Only one in three people in fragile places have received COVID vaccines, compared with three of four in the relatively wealthy 38 OECD countries.
The organization noted that the 60 fragile states account for just 4% of global emissions but “are feeling the brunt of climate-related natural disasters.
The OECD said the five most fragile countries last year were Somalia, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Yemen and the Central African Republic. And three countries — Benin, Timor-Leste and Turkmenistan — were newly added to the list of fragile states last year; none were removed.
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DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — A parts shortage that has thousands of Ford’s most-profitable vehicles sitting on lots waiting to be fully assembled has forced the automaker to slash its third-quarter earnings forecast.
Ford said Monday that it expects to have 40,000 to 45,000 unfinished vehicles on its hands when the quarter ends Sept. 30. Most of those are SUVs and popular truck models, which are some of Ford’s biggest money makers.
The company based in Dearborn, Michigan, now expects its third-quarter earnings before interest and taxes to be between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion. It reported adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $3.7 billion in the second quarter.
Its stock fell almost 5% in after-hours trading Monday.
The company did, however, say it expected the vehicles that it couldn’t fully assemble in the third quarter to be completed and sold to dealers in the final three months of the year. As a result, it reaffirmed its full-year 2022 profit forecast of $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion.
A global shortage of computer chips has hobbled automakers’ ability to fully assemble vehicles and meet high buyer demand. General Motors said in July that shortages of chips and other parts forced it to build 95,000 vehicles without one part or another. It also said that its incomplete vehicles are expected to be finished and sold by the end of the year.
Ford also said Monday that its inflation-related supplier costs for the third quarter were about $1 billion above what it had been planning for.
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DOVER, Del. (AP) — The company that privatized operations at the port of Wilmington several years ago owes more than $21 million in damages for breaching an agreement to buy the port’s former stevedoring firm, a Delaware judge ruled Monday.
Vice Chancellor Lori Will also found GT USA Wilmington in contempt for violating a court confidentiality order by using materials it obtained in defending itself in a 2018 lawsuit filed by Murphy Marine Services to negotiate a deal with one of Murphy Marine’s largest customers.
Monday’s ruling came more than a year after a different Chancery Court judge ruled that GT was bound by the terms of a 2018 letter agreement regarding the purchase and sale of 100% of the equity interest of Murphy Marine.
Will ruled Monday that GT violated the binding letter agreement by refusing to negotiate a definitive purchase agreement with Murphy Marine. She also said GT improperly used information obtained from Murphy Marine during the lawsuit to negotiate its own stevedoring contract with Dole Fresh Fruit Company.
Officials with GT USA Wilmington did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
GT USA Wilmington is a subsidiary of port management company Gulftainer, which is based in the United Arab Emirates. In 2018, it obtained the rights to operate the Wilmington port for 50 years in exchange for agreeing to make significant upgrades and to pay the state at least $3 million annually in concession fees.
Murphy Marine is a family-owned business that was purchased in 2006 by a former longshoreman and three of his cousins through trusts, which are the company’s stockholders.
Will awarded the trusts more than $21.4 million direct damages for the loss of fair market value that GT agreed to pay for Murphy Marine’s stock. She also said the plaintiffs are entitled to pre- and post-judgment interest at a rate of 7.5%, compounded quarterly, from September 2018 to the date of payment.
Will also ordered GT to pay the legal fees and expenses incurred by Murphy Marine regarding its motion to find GT in contempt for violating a confidentiality order governing the exchange of documents in the lawsuit. According to the ruling, GT used revenue and financial information for various Murphy Marine customers to negotiate its own stevedoring contract with Dole, which had been a customer of Murphy Marine.
“That violation was not a technical one,” the judge wrote. “Rather, it is more likely than not that GT used a competitor’s obviously confidential information to negotiate with a then-current Murphy Marine customer against Murphy Marine.”
Under a privatization deal signed with Gov. John Carney’s administration in 2018, Gulftainer agreed to take over operations at the port for 50 years and invest almost $600 million in port upgrades and a new container-handling terminal at Edgemoor.
State officials did not require GT to buy Murphy Marine, but both companies have said they felt “pressure” from the state to make a deal. The companies finalized the letter agreement in April 2018 and agreed shortly thereafter that KPMG would conduct a valuation analysis of Murphy Marine.
KPMG estimated Murphy Marine’s equity value to be between $21.5 million and $26.1 million.
GT officials were not happy with those numbers and asked KPMG to “fix its analysis,” according to court records. A key concern for GT was that the effect of the port privatization was not included in KPMG’s valuation, even though the parties agreed that privatization would not be considered.
Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III noted in a ruling last year that, if GT did not acquire Murphy Marine, its privatization of the port would have a “drastically detrimental effect” on Murphy Marine’s value.
“GT, which is the largest privately-owned port operator in the world, could have started its own stevedoring business and shuttered Murphy Marine’s business entirely by denying it access to the port,” he noted.
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| 2022-09-21T03:50:30Z
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GENEVA (AP) — Swiss officials on Monday formally signed a procurement contract to acquire three dozen F-35 fighter jets from the United States as part of a planned refurbishment of Switzerland’s air force that has run afoul of critics of the big defense purchase, the government said.
The head of Switzerland’s armaments service and F-35A program director inked the procurement deal that is to cost just over 6 billion Swiss francs (dollars) for the planes that will be delivered between 2027 and 2030.
The planned purchase has already been signed by the United States, where manufacturer Lockheed Martin has its headquarters, the Swiss government said in a statement. The procurement cost will include mission-specific equipment, weapons and ammunition, as well as logistics, mission-planning and training support, it said.
Late last month, opponents succeeded in a petition drive to put the planned purchase to a referendum, but Swiss government officials have argued that voters had already agreed to it and the contract was already set to be signed, so any timetable for a referendum would be too late.
Opponents say the planes are too expensive, would tie Swiss security too closely to the United States and are ill-suited for the needs of Switzerland. The Swiss air force mostly uses such fighters for air patrols in its European skies and not in conflicts abroad.
The Swiss constitution holds that Switzerland is a neutral country, curtailing its ability to take part in foreign conflicts.
Canada, Finland and Germany are among other Western countries that have also opted for the F-35. The Swiss government chose the fighters in June in a competition against Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet, France’s Rafale and the Eurofighter. The new jets are to replace the country’s aging fleet of F/A-18 Hornets and F-5 Tigers.
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| 2022-09-21T03:50:37Z
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Germany remains committed to phasing out coal as a source of power by 2030 even as it reactivates coal-fired power plants, the country’s climate envoy said Monday. Germany says it took the step to get through the coming winter amid energy shortages as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“We are at a crossroads right now,” Jennifer Morgan said, adding that the war in Ukraine shows how interlinked energy security and independence are with climate security and peace. Morgan spoke with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The U.S.-born former international head of Greenpeace stepped into the role of Germany’s special envoy for international climate action in March. Now a German citizen, she is also state secretary.
Ten months ago, in her role at Greenpeace, she chastised world leaders for being “weak” on phasing down coal rather than phasing it out altogether. More circumspect as a government official, she now says the dirty fuel is bitter medicine that her country is forced to take this winter, echoing the sentiment of the country’s Green party.
“We are in the middle a Russian war of aggression,” she said. “We need to assure that our citizens have enough heat for the winter.”
She said the decision to burn more coal is “a hard pill to swallow.” She did, however, emphasize that the war in Ukraine “has made it ever more clear why we have to phase out fossil fuels.”
European Union countries are spending billions this year on fossil fuel subsidies to offset high prices. The bloc has drawn fierce criticism for including natural gas, a fossil fuel, and nuclear power in a list of sustainable activities. The bloc also signed a deal this year with Egypt and Israel to help with new gas exploration.
Morgan said Germany’s first priority remains renewable energy and energy efficiency, with a target to reach carbon neutrality by 2045. The second priority, she said, is replacing Russian gas, oil and coal.
In a signal of its intention to do this, Berlin announced last week that it seized Russian state-controlled company Rosneft’s stakes in refineries in Germany under a law allowing the seizure of assets deemed key to national energy supply that are owned by potentially hostile foreign entities, according to risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
Germany had previously seized assets of Russian state-controlled gas firm Gazprom, which has disrupted natural gas deliveries to Germany due to what it says are technical problems — an explanation German officials reject as political maneuvering.
Because of the war in Ukraine, Germany has halted dialogue with Russia and is not having climate conversations with the major energy producer, which is among the five top greenhouse gas emitters.
Historically, the United States, China and the European Union — of which Germany is a weighty member — have emitted 53% of the carbon dioxide in the air since 1959. That greenhouse gas stays in the atmosphere for 100 years, according to the Global Carbon Project, a group of international scientists who track carbon emissions.
In contrast, all of Africa and South America have each emitted just 3% of CO2 in the atmosphere over the same period of time.
Recent devastating flooding in Pakistan and drought in the Horn of Africa, including looming famine in Somalia, have been blamed in part on climate change.
As international executive director of Greenpeace, Morgan had called on holding major greenhouse gas emitting nations to account, and compelling them to foot the bill for the energy transition under the “polluter pays principle.”
In her new role as Germany’s climate envoy, she said the country has been listening to the most vulnerable countries and supports climate financing to assist communities around the world that are grappling with the affects of climate change.
“The world is literally on fire,” she said. “We need to take this very seriously.”
___
Dubai-based AP correspondent Aya Batrawy is on assignment covering the U.N. General Assembly. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ayaelb
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| 2022-09-21T03:50:44Z
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DETROIT (AP) — The number of people killed on U.S. roadways fell slightly from April through June, the first decline in two years as pandemic-era reckless driving appeared to ease. But the government says the number of deaths remains at a crisis level.
Estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that 20,175 people died in crashes from January through June, a 0.5% increase over the same period last year.
Yet the second-quarter decline ended a string of seven straight quarterly increases that began in the summer of 2020 with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The agency estimated that 10,590 people died this year on roadways from April to June, nearly 5% fewer than the same period a year ago.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said while deaths may be declining, they are still at levels that require urgent action. “These deaths are preventable, not inevitable, and we should act accordingly,” he said in a statement.
NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson told a group of state safety officials Monday that she hopes the recent decline is the beginning of a downward trend, but that the number of deaths remains unacceptable. “That is not the new normal we want,” she told the Governors Highway Safety Association.
Fatalities began to rise two years ago when roads were largely empty due to stay-at-home orders in many states. With less traffic, speeds increased as did reckless and impaired driving, leading to a record spike in deaths last year. Many people weren’t wearing seat belts, the government said.
Carlson said that because the estimates for this year are early, the agency doesn’t have specifics about why fatalities dropped. Agency estimates are typically close to actual numbers, which won’t be released until later in the year.
There also was a small second-quarter drop in the traffic death rate per 100 million miles driven, from 1.34 in the second quarter of 2021, to 1.27 this year, Carlson said.
Auto safety advocates welcomed the dip but said there is more the Biden administration can be doing to reduce traffic fatalities.
For many months now, crashes have declined even as deaths have surged, suggesting reckless driving that could now be declining as offices reopen and more cars return to the road, said Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety.
“What it may be is that we’re seeing an easing of some of the issues that were caused by the pandemic — speeding, open roads, risky driving issues,” Brooks said. “Traffic is returning to normal, the roads aren’t as empty as they were.”
“The fact is the fatality rate is still very, very high,” he said. “There is a lot that remains to be done.”
Buttigieg earlier this year unveiled a national strategy aimed at reversing the trend of rising deaths, including new federal guidance and billions in grants under President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law over the next two years to spur states and localities to lower speed limits and embrace safer road design. But auto safety groups say the Biden administration has remained slow to act in other areas, such as rulemaking to mandate automatic emergency braking in all passenger vehicles as required under the 2021 infrastructure law.
“I think it’s premature to be hopeful about the slight dip in fatalities especially considering the tremendous loss that we’ve experienced over the last couple years,” said Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.
“We do know good safety systems, if implemented, will prevent many crashes,” she said.
Nearly 43,000 people were killed on U.S. roads last year, the highest number in 16 years as Americans returned to the roads. The 10.5% jump over 2020 numbers was the largest percentage increase since NHTSA began its fatality data collection system in 1975.
____
Yen reported from Washington.
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| 2022-09-21T03:50:52Z
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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen has set the price range for the multibillion-euro sale of a minority stake in luxury brand Porsche as it prepares an initial public offering to fund VW’s investments in new technologies and businesses including electric cars, software and services.
The German automaker said it aims for a listing on the Frankfurt stock exchange on Sept. 29 after it places up to 25% of non-voting preferred shares in Porsche AG, maker of the 911 sports car and Cayenne SUV, with investors.
The Qatar Investment Authority has committed to acquire 4.99%, with smaller stakes going to Norges Bank Investment, T. Rowe Price and ADQ.
The price range per preferred share was set at 76.50 euros (dollars) to 82.50 euros, which translates to 8.71 billion to 9.39 billion euros. Porsche’s share capital has been split into 50% preferred and 50% ordinary shares, so that the IPO stake represents 12.5% of the company.
The deal also includes the sale of 25% plus one share of ordinary shares at a 7.5% premium to Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Volkswagen’s controlling shareholder representing the Porsche and Piech families.
Under the maximum price, the total reaped by the sale of both preferred and ordinary shares would be 19.5 billion euros, 49% of which would be paid out as a dividend to shareholders while the rest would be available for the company’s investment objectives.
Volkswagen has launched a major push into electric vehicles and says future profits will increasingly come from investments in electric cars, software and services as traditional internal combustion cars take a smaller share of the market.
The automaker says the deal will give Porsche more “entrepreneurial autonomy” but that it will continue to fully include Porsche in its financial statements. VW added that existing industrial cooperation between Volkswagen and Porsche would be “comprehensively continued.”
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| 2022-09-21T03:50:59Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Shreveport police are on the scene of a shooting that took place in the Southwood neighborhood Monday.
Officers were called to an address on Salem Dr. just after 7:30 p.m. where they found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
During the investigation, police found a crime scene at the parking lot of the Dollar General on the 8900 block of Walker Dr. Authorities believe the man was inside the car found at the scene at one time, but they are still investigating to determine how the events unfolded.
Officials say the man’s wounds are considered life-threatening. There is no information yet on if there is a suspect, but police say they have several leads they’re investigating.
This is a developing story. More information will be provided as it becomes available.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:07Z
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NEW BOSTON, Texas (KTAL/KMSS) – Wade Griffin‘s mother says there were red flags early on in the relationship between her son and Taylor Parker, the woman on trial for capital murder and kidnapping in the death of 21-year-old Reagan Simmons Hancock and her unborn baby.
Connie Griffin testified Monday that she tried to talk to her son about the possibility that Taylor might not be pregnant.
“But he didn’t want to listen,” Connie Griffin said.
“This whole thing has been a nightmare,” First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said, prompting Griffin to respond, “It’s ruined my life.”
Connie Griffin says Wade seemed to believe Taylor was pregnant, even though he did ask her if Taylor was not showing as much because she had a “tummy tuck.” She says she told her son that was not the reason.
“‘Cause he doesn’t know about pregnancy, I tried to talk to him, but he was convinced. I think when he would go to work, his boss would really come down on him really hard if he questioned and made him feel pretty foolish.”
Connie says she thought Taylor was very personable when she first met her on the day she brought a casserole to her house because she knew she worked long hours and cared for her elderly parents. The whole family was growing to love her, and at first, she thought Taylor was someone Wade would enjoy being with.
“She just kind of drew you in,” Wade’s mother said on the stand.
But as time went on, Connie recalls that Taylor and Wade did not seem to be on the same page.
“She seemed to want a close relationship. I could not tell if he wanted that or was standing back. There were some red flags. One was that she didn’t have custody of her son.”
And then there were all the issues with Taylor not being able to access her money. Connie Griffin says the talk of royalties, oil, etc. “started pretty early on.” Taylor told them her grandfather had some oil wells, and she was to inherit millions at some point.
In reality, those wells only generate a few hundred dollars a month, and Parker’s grandfather was no millionaire. But Connie Griffin would not learn that until after Parker’s arrest.
Over nearly three hours of testimony, Connie recalled how Taylor quickly moved into Wade’s life, managing his finances and his home. There was the multi-million-dollar Pecan Point deal that had Wade over the moon with pride, excitement, and dollar signs in his eyes. The couple excitedly announced the news at the big family Christmas get-together by handing out cards with pecans stuck on them to the fellow avid duck hunters in the family, telling them they would never have to worry about finding a hunting lease again.
It was such a big moment, Connie got video of it on her cell phone. The jurors watched it in court and heard Taylor detailing the terms of the deal with the doctor who owned it and agreed to the sale only if they promised to use the property to its fullest potential. She told Wade’s relatives she had formed an LLC and had already changed the name to Pecan Bend. There were hugs of congratulations.
The Pecan Point deal dragged on for months before it ultimately fell apart. Connie says it was not until she learned that the car Taylor “bought” for her as a surprise was never paid for that she realized something wasn’t right.
Connie was shocked but excited about the metallic gray Nissan Altima Platinum at first. It was the exact color, make, and model she had been looking for. But she only had it a few weeks before Taylor called Wade and told him to have her bring it over to his place immediately and leave it in the driveway because there had been a recall on the brake pedal. The dealership was going to pick it up.“In my mind, I’m thinking dealerships don’t come to your home and pick up a vehicle on a recall. It just doesn’t happen.”
But she got in the car and headed over.
“I’m telling you, we’ll never see this car again,” Connie recalled saying to her son on the way. “‘He said, ‘You don’t know that.’ I said, ‘Yeah I know it. I do know that. Dealerships don’t pick up vehicles on a recall. It just didn’t make any sense.'”
Two to three weeks later, after nobody had contacted Connie about the car, she reached out to the dealership. They told her the money never came through for it.
“That’s when I realized there was something seriously wrong,” Connie testified.
Taylor had also promised to build Wade’s father a whole new barn to replace one that had previously burned to the ground. That never materialized because, as jurors heard last week, Parker was not a millionaire heiress. She did not have the money for Pecan Point, the car for Connie, or any of the other high-ticket items the couple bought, including a custom side-by-side, a new truck for Wade, and about 20 head of cattle Wade picked up at a special sale in Sulphur Springs. His mother says he expected to have room for them on the ranch they were buying and figured he could afford it.
When the Pecan Point deal fell through, Taylor blamed her mother for locking her out of the family funds and orchestrating issues with the banks and wire transfers.
Griffin was testifying about trouble that arose when she got caught in the middle of one of Taylor’s lies over who was paying Wade’s bills when one of the jurors fell ill and had to be assisted out of the courtroom. After a brief break, Judge John Tidwell recessed the trial until Tuesday morning. If the juror is still sick, an alternate will take their place.
Earlier in the morning, jurors heard from Cody Ott, a former co-worker and friend who also says he tried to tell Wade something wasn’t right about Taylor’s pregnancy. Ott and his wife went on double dates with Wade and Taylor. They hunted together and were close friends. Ott says he believed Taylor was pregnant at first, and that she really had all that money. But when checks Wade was writing didn’t go through for the car Parker bought for his mother or his big new truck, and especially when Wade started talking about quitting his job at the roofing company, Ott tried to say something.
Ott believes Wade must have taken at least some of those questions home because Wade started getting threatening emails from “Mandy Body,” a shadow email account Wade was led to believe was Taylor’s mother, Shona. Prosecutors say Taylor fabricated “Mandy Body” to feed Wade information that seemed to back her claims and create a common enemy in Shona that served to unite them as a couple. The emails offered all the answers Wade needed to dismiss the warnings from his friend.
“He was buying it,” Ott said. “She was good, for sure. She was a good manipulator.”
It all came to a head in mid-April, less than a month after the gender reveal party the Otts hosted for the couple in spite of their growing suspicions. Ott says they finally reached out to too many people, family members, and exes. And even though they were not the only ones by that point who had expressed doubts and concerns, Wade was still taking Taylor’s word for it.
Ott says the couple distanced themselves after that and the friendship is still strained to this day.
A former co-worker at the Northeast Texas Women’s Health Clinic in Mount Pleasant, where Parker had previously been a patient also took the stand Monday morning. Suzie Ramirez testified that Parker showed up not long after announcing her pregnancy. She wanted a copy of her medical records, telling Ramirez she had a mass in her abdomen that had a heartbeat and her doctor wanted to do a biopsy to determine whether it was viable.
Ramirez testified that she knew that was impossible. But she says she did not question her and instead just listened to her story. Ramirez said Parker was particularly interested in an ultrasound image from her last pregnancy in 2013 and explained her daughter needed it for a school project. The clinic did not have a copy of that sonogram, however.
Ramirez says clinic staff continued to monitor Parker’s ongoing social media, where she shared updates about the baby she had already named “Clancy Gaile,” pre-natal check-ups, and health scares. Parker blocked everyone who questioned her pregnancy on social media, except for Ramirez, who found a way to save screenshots of her Snapchat messages without the app alerting the original poster as it is designed to do.
Ramirez believes that’s why she was the only one from the clinic to be invited to the gender reveal party, but she did not go because she did not want to give the appearance of validating Parker’s pregnancy claim. She was especially glad she didn’t go after she found out Parker had been dropping her name in her stories about pre-natal checkups that never happened.
Ramirez says Parker knew no one at the clinic would be able to out her because of patient privacy laws. Not even to Wade Griffin, who believed he was the father of Parker’s baby and who called the clinic more than once looking for information. With the COVID pandemic just emerging at the time, patients could not bring anyone with them into the clinic.
Instead, the clinic warned the hospital. Still, Ramirez says she and others at the clinic thought it was more likely to end the way they had seen other fake pregnancies end: with a fake miscarriage.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:13Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – A man led deputies and police from several organizations on a chase through multiple East Texas counties into Louisiana Sunday.
Deputies with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office say around 8:33 p.m., they tried to stop a vehicle stolen from Dallas on I-20, near mile marker 601. The driver refused to stop and began a multi-agency chase. The car drove west into Gregg and Smith counties before turning back eastbound. Smith and Gregg County deputies and police from Longview, Hallsville, and Waskom joined in the pursuit.
Officials say, as the driver crossed into Louisiana, Greenwood police managed to use spike strips to bring the vehicle to a stop near the Louisiana Visitor Center.
HSCO says the driver, Reginald Sanders, and his passenger Shauntavia Newsom ran on foot and were arrested shortly after. Both suspects were booked into the Caddo Correctional Center pending charges in Texas.
Sanders is wanted out of multiple agencies in the DFW area related to numerous robbery investigations.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:19Z
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Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Shreveport police say a tip led to the Monday arrest of a Shreveport man for multiple sex crimes.
Nicholas Bovay, 41, was arrested following an investigation, which began after receiving reports of an alleged sexual assault of a small child.
Sunday morning, Shreveport Police received reports of an alleged sexual assault of a child. SPD detectives in the department’s Sex Crimes Unit immediately and the investigation led to Bovay’s arrest one count of pornography involving juveniles.
Further investigation into the case revealed multiple alleged crimes involving Bovay, leading to an additional two counts of first-degree rape and two counts of molestation of a juvenile under the age of 13.
Police say Bonvey was arrested with the assistance of the Gingerbread house.
Conviction on these charges carries up to a life sentence. The investigation is ongoing.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:25Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Shreveport Police are searching for a suspect or suspects in a late-Saturday night shooting that left one woman dead.
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 30-year-old Latoya Kellum, who was rushed to Ochsner LSU Heath Hospital but died less than an hour later.
Police say just before midnight Saturday, patrol officers responded to a shooting in the 4300 block of Illinois Avenue. When they arrived, they found Kellum sitting inside an SUV that crashed into a tree at Illinois Street and Kennedy Avenue.
Kellum was suffering from one gunshot wound to the head.
Investigators with the Violent Crimes and Crime Scene Units were summoned to the scene. CSIU collected items of evidence and investigators canvassed the neighborhood searching for witnesses and video. This investigation is ongoing.
If you have information that you believe could be helpful in solving this case, please contact Shreveport Police at 318-673-7300 #3. If you would like to supply information and stay anonymous contact Caddo Crime Stoppers at 318-673-7373. Remember Crime Stoppers only wants your information, not your name.
This is the 38th Homicide in Shreveport in 2022.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:31Z
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(The Hill) — The entire island of Puerto Rico lost power Sunday as Hurricane Fiona hit the U.S. territory with dangerous winds and flash flood conditions.
The Category 1 storm knocked out Puerto Rico’s power grid when it swept through the southwest coast, affecting the entire island.
The island has been under a hurricane warning since Saturday, when the National Hurricane Center alerted that Fiona could cause “life-threatening flooding and mudslides” as it ripped along the island’s coast.
The hurricane warning continued through the weekend and was replaced by a tropical storm warning Monday.
Early Monday, the eye of the hurricane was on the move past the island, but heavy rainfall, flash flooding and other dangerous tropical storm conditions are still impacting the island as the storm passes by, according to the National Weather Service at San Juan.
As much as 25 inches of rainfall has accumulated in some areas of the island over the last two days, according to the weather service, and power is still out for most of the island.
The outages at one point impacted all of the nearly 1.5 million customers tracked on the island by the site PowerOutage.US. Gov. Pedro Pierluisi confirmed in an update Sunday that the island’s full electrical system was down, impacting Puerto Rico’s full 3.2 million population, according to translations.
LUMA Energy, which services the island, reported Monday that power had been restored for about 100,000 customers.
LUMA says full power restoration could be days away, as the dangerous conditions are preventing damage assessment and response.
Puerto Rico’s National Guard, its emergency management department and first responders are running rescue missions across the island, according to a Tweet from Pierluisi.
President Joe Biden on Sunday declared an emergency and authorized the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency to help coordinate disaster relief.
Fiona comes five years after Hurricane Maria devastated the territory.
The storm is now approaching the neighboring island of the Dominican Republic.
“The center of Fiona will persist over eastern Dominican Republic into this afternoon… These rainfall amounts will continue to produce life-threatening and catastrophic flooding along with mudslides and landslides across Puerto Rico,” the National Hurricane Center in a new advisory warns.
Similarly dangerous conditions are expected as Fiona moves over the Dominican Republic.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:37Z
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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The Louisiana Highway Safety Commission (LHSC) says that an increase in impaired driving, aggressive driving, and pedestrian fatalities caused the number of car crash-related deaths to rise for the first time in 14 years.
More Louisianians have been killed in car crashes last year than the highest number in 2007 as data shows 972 people were killed in 2021. LHSC says the fatalities inflated due to a pandemic-related rise in distracted driving.
In East Baton Rouge, the coroner’s office investigated 88 motor vehicle deaths in 2020 and 78 motor vehicle deaths in 2021. LHSC reported that 89 people died in the 82 crashes in EBR that were reported in 2020 and 104 people were killed in the 99 car crashes reported in 2021.
A total of 9,908 people were injured in the 6,085 car crashes in the parish alone in 2021, according to LHSC. So far in 2022, according to LHSC, 47 people have been killed in the 51 car crashes that were reported.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 42,915 people were killed on U.S. roadways in 2021.
“Driver behavior certainly changed during COVID-19,” Dr. Helmut Schneider, executive director of the Center for Analytics and Research in Transportation Safety at LSU told LHSC. “Drivers might change their behavior to be more risk-averse but that is likely a slow process. It will take a while.”
Across the state, Schneider said 174 people were killed in interstate crashes last year — a 49% increase in deaths since 2020. Pedestrian fatalities increased by almost 27% since 2020, 185 people were killed last year.
Schneider also found that in 2021:
- Crashes that caused moderate or severe injuries increased by 17%
- There was a 4.9% increase in motorcycle deaths
- Bike fatalities increased by 2.9%
LHSC Executive Director Lisa Freeman said the pandemic affected federally funded laws such as the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Campaign.
“When our law enforcement officers have all the tools they need, and we can amplify their efforts through public messaging, we will see those numbers go down,” Freeman said. “This is a pandemic-driven, national issue that virtually every state is facing.”
Freeman said drivers should assume personal responsibility when operating a vehicle.
“In the end, it all comes down to the choice you make,” Freeman said. “Never drink and drive, put away all distractions, obey the rules of the road, and always wear your seat belt.”
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:45Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — In celebration of National Queso Day on Moe’s Southwest Grill will offer free queso.
Moe’s Southwest Grill on Youree Dr. in Shreveport is offering free sides of their 3-cheese queso with diced jalapenos to all guests on Tuesday, Sept. 20.
The southwest-inspired restaurant will also reveal the limited-edition “Queso Incognito,” a portable speaker-shaped container that keeps queso undetectable from potential cheese dip thieves, such as siblings, co-workers, or even spouses. Moe’s Rewards Members can enter to win this and other prizes.
No purchase is necessary to enjoy free queso on Tuesday at any of Moe’s 650+ locations nationwide.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:51Z
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MANHATTAN, N.Y. (WPIX) — A man accused of swinging an ax around inside a New York City McDonald’s was released on his own recognizance after his arraignment, court officials said Sunday.
Michael Palacios allegedly got into a fight with three men in a Manhattan McDonald’s early Friday, police said. He is accused of pulling an ax out during the fight. No injuries were reported.
Palacios allegedly struck two tables and two pieces of glass with the ax, according to the criminal complaint. The tables and glass broke and shattered. Video of the fight has been viewed more than 24 million times on Twitter. The video also shows Palacios being repeatedly punched.
“Bro, please, back up,” someone in the video said when the ax was pulled out.
His release without bail was slammed by Rep. Lee Zeldin, who’s also running as the Republican candidate for governor in New York.
“This guy hacked up tables and walls at a McDonald’s, swung his hatchet wildly at customers, and got released before his fries got cold,” Zeldin said. “Cashless bail in New York must be repealed ASAP!”
Bail law in New York eliminates money bail for most misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of New York (NYCLU).
“Those accused of these crimes are either freed without restrictions while their case plays out, or released under certain conditions like electronic monitoring,” stated the NYCLU.
Police took Palacios into custody. They also found a knife in his backpack, officials said.
Palacios was charged with one count of criminal mischief in the fourth degree and a count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree.
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| 2022-09-21T03:51:57Z
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A food company executive was arrested on a pair of charges after reportedly biting a man’s nose in a parking garage in Fayetteville on Saturday night.
Doug Ramsey, 53, of Fayetteville, was arrested on September 17 on charges of terroristic threatening and third-degree battery. According to a preliminary report, the incident happened at a parking garage near Razorback Stadium following Arkansas’ victory over Missouri State.
Just after 10 p.m., an officer was dispatched to Gate 15 for “a disturbance that had previously occurred in the Stadium Drive Parking Garage (SDPG).” The responding officer found “two males with bloody faces” at the scene.
The officer spoke with both parties and a witness and determined that Ramsey was allegedly in the traffic lane of the structure, attempting to leave, when a Subaru “inched his way” in front of Ramsey’s Bronco, making contact with the front passenger’s side tire. Ramsey got out of his vehicle and allegedly “punched through the back windshield of the Subaru,” according to the report.
The owner of the Subaru then got out and he stated that Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body.” According to the report, Ramsey also “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose.”
The victim and the witness also reported hearing Ramsey “threaten to kill” the owner of the Subaru. Occupants of both vehicles got out and helped separate the parties.
Ramsey was arrested at 10:27 p.m. and booked into the Washington County jail.
Ramsey was named the COO of Beyond Meat in December 2021. KNWA/FOX24 reached out to Beyond Meat for comment on Ramsey’s arrest and have not received a response.
According to the Tyson Foods website, Ramsey had been a member of Tyson Foods’ poultry business since 1992 and was named president of global McDonald’s business in 2019. The site also states that “Doug [was] a champion of team member safety and sits on the company’s Executive Safety Council.”
A Tyson spokesperson said that Ramsey left the company last year on his own accord, unrelated to this arrest.
He has an appearance in Fayetteville District Court scheduled for October 19.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:03Z
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LOGAN, Ohio (WCMH) – Two Ohio parents face arrest warrants and a grandmother is in custody after deputies in Ohio found a 3-year-old in a cage and a 2-year-old holding a drug pipe Sunday during a search of a house, according to the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office.
HCSO says they conducted a search warrant at a residence during an investigation into sexual assault.
When authorities arrived at the home, they say they found a 3-year-old locked in a cage that was secured with zip ties and had bugs inside. A 2-year-old was then seen walking inside the house holding a meth pipe, law enforcement said.
Both children were taken into emergency custody.
The parents of the infants fled the residence due to their involvement with the sexual assault investigation, according to the sheriff’s office. The grandmother of the infants, 61-year-old Ella Webb, was arrested and charged with endangering children. Her cash surety bond set at $200,000 after pleading not guilty.
Felony charges for endangering children were filed against the parents, Franklin “TJ” Varney, 38, and Megan Smith, 25. Nationwide arrest warrants were requested from the court.
“I very, very strongly encourage Mr. Varney and Ms. Smith to immediately surrender themselves to law enforcement. If they choose to run from their responsibilities, as they did tonight, the Hocking County Sheriff’s Office will tirelessly leverage every local, State, and Federal resource available to bring these two to justice,” said Hocking County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Caleb J. Moritz in a release.
Anyone with information on Varney or Smith is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 740-385-2131.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:09Z
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BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore judge on Monday ordered the release of Adnan Syed after overturning Syed’s conviction for the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee — a case that was chronicled in the hit podcast “Serial.”
At the behest of prosecutors, Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn ordered that Syed’s conviction be vacated and she approved the release of the now-41-year-old who has spent more than two decades behind bars.
Phinn ruled that the state violated its legal obligation to share exculpatory evidence with Syed’s defense. She ordered him released from custody and placed on home detention with GPS location monitoring. She also ordered the state to decide whether to seek a new trial date or dismiss the case within 30 days.
Syed, who has always maintained his innocence, received widespread attention in 2014 when the debut season of “Serial” focused on Lee’s killing and raised doubts about some of the evidence prosecutors had used, inspiring countless dinner table debates about Syed’s innocence or guilt.
Last week, prosecutors filed a motion saying that a lengthy investigation conducted with the defense had uncovered new evidence that could undermine the 2000 conviction of Syed, Lee’s ex-boyfriend.
Syed was serving a life sentence after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Lee, whose body was found buried in a Baltimore park.
The investigation “revealed undisclosed and newly-developed information regarding two alternative suspects, as well as unreliable cell phone tower data,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office said in a news release last week. The suspects were known persons at the time of the original investigation, but weren’t properly ruled out nor disclosed to the defense, said prosecutors, who declined to release information about the suspects, due to the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors said they weren’t asserting that Syed is innocent, but they lacked confidence “in the integrity of the conviction” and recommended he be released on his own recognizance or bail. The state’s attorney’s office had said if the motion were granted it would effectively put Syed in a new trial status, vacating his convictions, while the case remained active.
Syed was led into the crowded courtroom in handcuffs Monday. Wearing a white shirt with a tie, he sat next to his attorney. His mother and other family representatives were in the room, as was Mosby.
In 2016, a lower court ordered a retrial for Syed on grounds that his attorney, Cristina Gutierrez, who died in 2004, didn’t contact an alibi witness and provided ineffective counsel.
But after a series of appeals, Maryland’s highest court in 2019 denied a new trial in a 4-3 opinion. The Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that Syed’s legal counsel was deficient in failing to investigate an alibi witness, but it disagreed that the deficiency prejudiced the case. The court said Syed waived his ineffective counsel claim.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review Syed’s case in 2019.
The true-crime series was the brainchild of longtime radio producer and former Baltimore Sun reporter Sarah Koenig, who spent more than a year digging into Syed’s case and reporting her findings in almost real-time in hour-long segments. The 12-episode podcast won a Peabody Award and was transformative in popularizing podcasts for a wide audience.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:15Z
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(The Hill) – President Biden is drawing criticism from lawmakers and public health experts who warn his assertion that the COVID-19 pandemic is over could undermine the administration’s rollout of new booster shots, as well as efforts to secure more funding from Congress.
“The pandemic is over,” Biden told “60 Minutes” in an interview that ran Sunday.
“We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. It’s — but the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing. And I think this [the Detroit Auto Show resuming] is a perfect example of it,” Biden said during a trip to Detroit last week in an interview with Scott Pelley.
Biden’s comments reflect the administration’s efforts to signal a return to normalcy and show progress in efforts to control the pandemic. The administration has focused its recent messaging on the importance of getting vaccinated and receiving booster shots to increase immunity, as well as the wide availability of antiviral pills and other forms of treatment for those who contract the virus.
But the remarks also contradict some of the White House’s top advisers.
“The pandemic isn’t over. And we will remain vigilant, and of course, we continue to look for and prepare for unforeseen twists and turns,” Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, told reporters on Sept. 6.
The virus is still killing about 400 people per day, a number that is “far too high for a vaccine-preventable disease,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said recently.
The White House declined to comment.
Biden’s remarks are also likely to complicate efforts to convince lawmakers to include in a must-pass government spending bill a $22.4 billion request for additional vaccines and treatments.
“One can imagine that by saying the pandemic is over now, you know, the small window of opportunity or the possibility that there might be additional COVID funding becomes almost impossible at this point,” said Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Federal health officials said the funding is crucial to help meet immediate short-term domestic needs, like testing and research and development of next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. It also would help to prepare for future variants.
Republicans have been unwilling to provide the administration with billions of dollars in new money, and some immediately seized on Biden’s remarks.
“Now that the President has finally acknowledged the pandemic is over, he should immediately begin to unwind the public health emergency (PHE) so our country can get back to normal,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said in a statement Monday.
“Instead of clinging to his emergency powers and asking for $22 billion in more COVID-19 spending, President Biden should get to work and take seriously the need to rebuild trust and confidence in America’s public health agencies,” she added.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the public health emergency is not being lifted.
“The COVID Public Health Emergency remains in effect & HHS will provide a 60-day notice to states before any possible termination or expiration. As we’ve done previously, we’ll continue to lean on the science to determine the length of the PHE,” tweeted Sarah Lovenheim, spokeswoman for HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Health experts warn prematurely declaring the pandemic over could also undermine the administration’s rollout of an updated booster shot.
Administration officials say the new vaccines will be key to controlling a potential fall surge, and 100 million Americans could be infected without additional funding. “The overall framing of the pandemic being over doesn’t add to the urgent messaging coming from other parts of the administration saying that it’s absolutely critical for people to get their booster shot,” Michaud said.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:21Z
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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — New Orleans rapper Mystikal pled not guilty to charges in an Ascension Parish rape case at his Monday morning arraignment.
Mystikal, whose real name is Michael Tyler, 51, was arrested on charges including first-degree rape after allegedly raping and choking a woman at his home on Saturday, July 30. Tyler was booked into the parish jail on charges of first-degree rape, simple robbery, damage to property, domestic abuse battery, strangulation, false imprisonment, and four counts of drug possession.
A spokesperson from the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office said the victim was “distraught” and sustained “obvious physical injuries” in the attack.
This isn’t the first time Tyler has been accused of sexual assault. The Associated Press reported Tyler’s kidnapping charges from an alleged sexual assault at a Shreveport casino in 2016 were dropped in 2020. In 2003, Tyler served six years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual battery.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:27Z
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NEW ORLEANS, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Earnestine Gray, retired Louisiana juvenile court judge was recently named chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Judicial Division.
The Division’s members include judges, lawyers, tribal members, court administrators, academics, and students interested in the courts and the justice system.
Gray has announced that her theme for the upcoming year is, “For Our Children: A Justice System that Protects, Corrects, and Prepares.”
The goal is to bring attention to the impact of courts on the lives of children and families while maintaining the Division’s focus on the rule of law, diversity in the profession and the security of judges.
After serving 36 years on the juvenile court bench, Gray became the first Louisiana recipient to earn the prestigious ABA Mark Hardin Award for Child Welfare Legal Scholarship and Systems Change earlier this year.
In giving the award, Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Piper D. Griffin expressed, “…retired Judge Ernestine S. Gray has devoted her judicial career to serving children, youth and families. Through her intellectual courage, Judge Gray has pushed all members of our children’s law community to think deeper and harder about the legal work we do in Louisiana and the citizens we serve.”
In 2020, Gray was honored with the Charles R. English Award for a lifetime of service from the ABA Criminal Justice Section. A past president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, National Court Appointed Special Advocates, and the local YMCA, YWCA, and Volunteers of America, Gray developed innovative programs and is a recognized leader in the legal community.
Gray received her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College in 1970 and her Juris Doctor degree from the Louisiana State University School of Law in 1976. She was employed by the Baton Rouge Legal Aid Society, the Attorney General of the State of Louisiana, and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a trial attorney.
In 1984, Gray was elected to the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court bench to fill an unexpired term. She was reelected five times before retiring in 2020.
She and her husband, James Austin Gray II, also an attorney, are parents of two children, former State Sen. Cheryl Gray Evans, an attorney; and James Austin Gray III, a chemical engineer and attorney.
The Grays are grandparents to four grandchildren.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:33Z
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BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Discussions are already beginning on how Louisiana’s tax structure can be changed and how to avoid a future fiscal cliff.
A recent study group was formed to look at ways to eliminate income tax. During the first meeting, lawmakers brought up other tax reforms like lowering the sales tax, raising property tax, or reducing the number of credits and exemptions.
“I think actually the process of going through reviewing the tax code with the goal of eliminating income tax, I think that might be able to lead to several reforms even if it doesn’t get rid of the income tax in and of itself,” said Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council.
Procopio said many agree the tax structure isn’t beneficial in many ways but it is difficult politically to change. While there is consensus change needs to be made, those who want their corner of the tax structure to stay the same dig their heels in. Tax bills require a two-thirds vote in support in both the House and Senate.
“I don’t think anyone has a general sense that our tax system is great or, honestly, even good. Most people can sit back and say this isn’t great but ‘I do like my little part, don’t change that’ that’s where we run into the problem. So I think there are a lot of things we can do on just about any kind of tax,” Procopio said.
When a tax revenue stream is removed or reduced, there has to either be cuts or an increase somewhere to fill the money gap. In 2025, the temporary half-cent sales tax will roll off or be extended. Procopio said there needs to be a plan in place on how to handle that loss of money should it be allowed to sunset.
“I think there’s a tension between people that want to renew the sales tax. But most of those people aren’t in the legislature. I don’t think there’s anywhere near a majority for that. I think it’s going to roll off. The key is, how are we just going to get to the date and just drop off, or do we have some sort of glide path? It seemed like we had a ton of money,” Procopio said.
In the last few years, the state has had billions of dollars flowing from the federal government for pandemic and hurricane aid. That money has now dried up, so making the budget will be a tighter process, especially with tax reform. Economists have also been predicting for months that the growth coming out of the pandemic will greatly slow down, leading to less extra money as seen in the last couple fiscal years.
“We had billions of dollars. Next year we’re going to be back in a posture which is ‘Oh, wow, we don’t have enough money for everything.’ But that’s because we spent that money properly; paying down debt on short-term things like infrastructure, on water resources, on all the things that we needed to spend it on,” Procopio said.
He also points out the state is in a better posture to handle this slow down unlike after the aid ran out following Hurricane Katrina. The spending of those federal dollars was sequestered to one-time expenses rather than recurring expenditures.
With the next session being a fiscal year, legislation that changes revenue can be proposed. For now, studies are being done to reach the goal of some kind of reform. There are no definitive proposals yet and if there will be legislation on tax reform it will be rolled out in the new year.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:39Z
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SABINE PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – The Sabine Parish Sheriff’s Office says a crash involving a log truck and a tractor killed one person Monday afternoon.
According to officials, just after 1:00 p.m., 68-year-old Edwin G. Procell was driving a Kubota tractor north on US Hwy 171 north of Noble, La. As Procell merged from the right-hand lane into the left lane he was struck by a loaded log truck.
Officials say the 2021 Peterbilt was attempting to pass the tractor in the inside travel lane, placing the tractor in the direct path of the Peterbilt.
Procell died at the scene. Officials say the truck driver was restrained and did not suffer injuries in the crash.
Routine toxicology samples were sent for analysis. The crash remains under investigation by Louisiana State Police Troop E.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:45Z
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AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Governor Greg Abbott’s move to bus migrants from the border to cities east and northeast hit a new level this past week. The state-funded program sent busloads of migrants to be dropped off outside the Washington, DC home of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The move comes after Harris claimed that the border is secure during an interview last Sunday on NBC’s Meet The Press.
“The Biden-Harris Administration continues ignoring and denying the historic crisis at our southern border, which has endangered and overwhelmed Texas communities for almost two years,” Governor Abbott said in a press release.
“Our supposed Border Czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, has yet to even visit the border to see firsthand the impact of the open border policies she has helped implement,” Abbott added. He vowed to continue sending migrants to Washington, DC.
In the past month, Abbott has ramped up efforts to bus migrants to cities led by Democrats. This, as the number of migrants crossing the border has hit record numbers, straining resources in Texas cities near the border.
Critics have called Abbott’s move a political stunt. But new polling shows a majority of Texas voters approve of the Governor’s move.
“Republicans are wildly in favor of it. Independents mostly like it, most Democrats really don’t like it,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. The project’s new statewide poll asked voters whether they supported or opposed Texas paying to bus foreign migrants awaiting asylum hearings to other parts of the country.
“Overall, 52% supported it, 35% opposed, 80% of Republicans supported it and about half of independents,” Henson said. “In an election environment. That’s pretty good for Greg Abbott,” he added.
The poll showed Abbott holding a 5% lead over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in the race for governor. O’Rourke has campaigned across Texas, making an effort to win over independent voters and disenchanted Republicans. The poll suggests that will be a tough task.
“Among independents, Greg Abbott is 37% favorable, 43% unfavorable,” Henson said. “Doesn’t seem that great until you look at Beto O’Rourke’s independent ratings. He’s 23% favorable, 63% unfavorable,” he added.
The poll asked voters what they saw as the most important issue facing the state. Immigration and border security topped the list, with 26% of voters ranking them as the most important. For Republicans, 40% ranked it as the top issue.
The economy ranked second with 13% of Texans calling that the most important issue facing the state. Abortion and Gun Violence ranked third and fourth in the poll.
The poll asked voters to score whether elected officials in Texas have done enough to prevent mass shootings. Overall, 57% said officials have done too little, but there’s a strong partisan divide.
“That changes across the parties,” Henson noted. “Only 32% of Republicans said too little, 86% of Democrats said too little.”
Henson said the response to a question about whether same-sex marriage should be legal in Texas surprised him. Just over half of voters who responded, 53%, said it should be legal. Almost a third, 32% said not legal. Exactly 50% of Texas Republicans in the poll said that gay marriage should be illegal.
“For a lot of people this feels like a settled issue,” Henson said. But he said the poll results suggest there could be battles ahead.
“I think that that kind of tells us something about what’s going on beneath the surface. Not so much in the discussion of same-sex marriage, but in some of these other issues that have been bubbling up like you know, public education, the content of school libraries,” Henson said.
“I think there’s still a kind of resentment that’s out there in the wake of the cultural changes that have felt to many of us like they were set but may not be as set as we thought,” he concluded.
Medical debt lawsuits hit Texas hospital patients
An anonymous tip led KXAN investigators to discover hundreds of medical debt lawsuits piling up in one Central Texas court filed on behalf of one local hospital. While its collection methods are legal, what’s most important to convey is the impact they have on patients. Our resulting investigation aims to show you what can happen financially when you face medical debt, how you can avoid it and why Texas leaders may soon take a closer look at the state’s debt collection system.
Those who feel a debt collection is improper under the Texas Debt Collection Act can file a complaint with the Office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Thousands of Texans have done so in the past several years for various debt-related issues.
The state’s debt collection act protects consumers from abusive collection tactics like harassment or threats of arrest or seizing assets without proper court proceedings. Debt collectors cannot take a person’s wages or home in Texas if it is declared a homestead.
Paxton’s office can investigate and punish violators of the act, but that rarely happens, according to records KXAN obtained through the Texas Public Information Act.
From January 2019 through March 2022, Paxton’s office received over 4,300 debt collection complaints. At least 410 – roughly 10% – were related to medical debt, according to complaint records.
As all those complaints came in, Paxton’s office took enforcement action only once for a violation related to the act since 2019, and it wasn’t related to medical debt.
A spokesperson for Paxton’s office said the debt collection act is one of “dozens and dozens” of consumer protection statutes the agency enforces, and it has hundreds of active investigations for consumer statutory violations. Paxton’s office also touted its successes in consumer protection cases against opioid manufacturers and other companies that have netted millions of dollars for the state.
In Texas, there are nearly 2,400 companies registered with the state that can buy and collect debt, according to Secretary of State records. Any one of those could be suing individuals for medical debt, but it would be difficult to distinguish because a hospital that originally owned the debt wouldn’t be a party in the case.
Enforcement is typically sparked by a complaint. Both the federal and state governments receive complaints and can enforce the state’s debt collection law. Violators can face criminal and civil penalties, including fines and injunctions.
On the federal level, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau keeps a complaint database. The CFPB received more than 3,200 medical debt collection complaints from Texas since 2019. Those complaints identify over 300 different companies.
Nearly every one of those is a third-party debt collector, meaning they typically buy debt for a fraction of its initial value and then try to recoup as much of the original amount as possible.
Texas lawmaker to review state’s debt collection act
State legislators have been working to improve Texas’ Debt Collection Act. The last update came in 2019 through the “Fair Consumer Debt Collection Act” authored by Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth.
Collier’s bill tightened consumer protections by barring third-party debt collectors from trying to collect on debts that are beyond the statute of limitations. The bill also required debt collectors to explicitly disclose if a debt is beyond the statute of limitations.
Collier was spurred to file the bill after learning collections lawsuits were rising, she said.
The term “zombie debt” was coined because debt collectors were able to revive debt that was beyond the statute of limitations by contacting debtors, having them acknowledge the debt and agree to pay it.
But Collier’s bill applies to entities that have bought debt, or represent a debt buyer, not the original creditor, such as a hospital that has an unpaid medical bill.
Collier said she is open to improving the act in the future, and she would look at KXAN’s findings.
“I want people to get medical help. If they are facing a healthcare challenge, if they’re having a healthcare crisis or issue, I want them to go to the doctor. I want them to go to the hospital,” Collier said. “I don’t want them to think, ‘Oh, I’m going to have a high bill. I might get sued.’ That’s the last thing we want to see happen.”
Explore the full investigation:
- Medical debt lawsuits hit hundreds of Central Texas patients, prompt lawmaker questions
- How a Texas hospital’s debt lawsuits launched a statewide investigation
- GET HELP: What to do if your hospital sues you for medical debt
- LISTEN: Health costs expert discusses tips to avoid debt lawsuits, navigate system
“It is unacceptable,” Texas maternal mortality report delayed
The Texas Department of State Health Services announced this month the State’s Maternal Mortality report won’t be released this year. In fact, they revealed it won’t be released until after the next legislative session.
DSHS Commissioner John Hellerstedt said the agency wanted to better align the methodology in the report with other states. Staffing and budget issues at DSHS were also blamed for delaying the report.
Members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus called the data “integral” for legislators seeking to understand the scope of maternal mortality in Texas.
“It is unacceptable for this data to be delayed until next summer,” State Rep. Nicole Collier was quoted as saying in a statement released Thursday. Collier chairs the caucus. She noted that Texas has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
State Rep. Shawn Thierry (R-Houston), also a member of the caucus, pointed out that the issue is of particular importance to Black women.
“Black women are dying in childbirth at three times the rates of all other women,” Thierry said in a statement. “The delay by DSHS to publicly release the report from the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee is beyond troubling,” she added, pointing out the data was required by law to be released on September 1.
According to data from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, from 2018 to 2020, Texas had a maternal mortality rate of 22.9 per 100,000 births. The national average for that time period was 20.4. No state had more deaths, but 14 states had a higher rate than Texas.
Our Mothers Erased investigation looked closer at previous problems with maternal mortality information. The reports looked at how the exact number of women who had recently given birth and died in Texas is not clear, due to mistakes with data collection.
State Rep. Collier emphasized the importance of having the data now, before the start of the legislative session.
“We need a better understanding of the underlying issues facing women during pregnancy in Texas to tackle this problem with urgency,” Collier said.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:51Z
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(The Hill) – Bexar County, Texas, Sheriff Javier Salazar opened an investigation on Monday into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) controversial transport of approximately 50 migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
“We are opening up a case, an investigation, with regard to the suspected activities involving the 48 migrants from Venezuela,” Salazar said in a news briefing.
The sheriff said that the group of Venezuelan migrants were “lured” from a migrant resource center into traveling to Martha’s Vineyard “under false pretenses.”
According to Salazar, one Venezuelan migrant was paid to recruit the others, who were allegedly promised work and other benefits, before the group was flown first to Florida and then to Massachusetts.
“They were taken to Martha’s Vineyard for, from what we can gather, for little more than a photo op, video op and then they were unceremoniously stranded in Martha’s Vineyard,” he said.
DeSantis flew the group of migrants north on Wednesday in an effort to draw attention to immigration policies.
Democrats and immigration advocates had called for a probe into DeSantis’ actions, saying he may have broken laws regarding fraud or human trafficking.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had previously sent busloads of migrants to Democratic-run cities including Washington, New York and Chicago, claiming that Democratic leaders support immigration laws that hurt border states without experiencing their negative repercussions.
Two buses of migrants last week arrived in front of the Naval Observatory, the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, after being sent by Abbott.
“VP Harris claims our border is ‘secure’ & denies the crisis,” said Abbott in a statement about the transported migrants. “We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border.”
Both Abbott and DeSantis are up for reelection this year, and are said to be eyeing potential 2024 White House bids.
Salazar said on Monday that the migrants from San Antonio were “exploited and hoodwinked into making this trip to Florida and then onward to Martha’s Vineyard for what I believe to be nothing more than political posturing to make a point.”
“What infuriates me the most about this case is that here we have 48 people that are already on hard times, they are here legally in our country at that point, they have every right to be where they are, and I believe that they were preyed upon,” he said.
The Hill has reached out to Salazar for further comment on the investigation.
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| 2022-09-21T03:52:57Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Video game producer Rockstar Games said Monday that early development footage from the next version of its popular title Grand Theft Auto was stolen in the hack of its network.
Someone claiming to be the hacker, posting on Telegram, dumped 90 video clips from the theft online on Sunday and claimed also to have source code, which they were seeking to sell for a minimum of $10,000.
The Associated Press downloaded and viewed the development footage to confirm its authenticity.
In a statement on Twitter, the company said it did not anticipate any disruption in live game services or any impact on ongoing projects. A spokesperson for its New York-based parent company, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., declined to answer questions from the AP about when it learned of the breach, whether source code was indeed stolen and whether the hacker had tried to extort the company.
The hacker claimed to have been involved in the recent hack of Uber but provided no evidence.
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| 2022-09-21T03:53:10Z
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MADRID (AP) — A six-kilometer black lava scar crossing Spain’s La Palma island remains as testimony to the three-month-long volcano eruption that may have left no casualties but did wreak havoc in the lives of many.
As officials held ceremonies Monday to commemorate the first anniversary of the start of what was one of the most televised volcanic eruptions of the century in Europe, the Spanish island located in the Canary Islands archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa is not the same, geologically, economically, or socially.
Under the thick molten rock slab — still slowly cooling down from the initial 1,140 degrees Celsius (2,084 degrees Fahrenheit) — some 3,000 buildings were buried along with many banana plantations, roads and irrigation systems.
Alongside agriculture, tourism is critical to the island’s economy. But half of the 8,000 registered places of accommodation remain closed due to the presence of poisonous gases — the same reason that keeps around 170 local people still living in hotel rooms.
The former touristic spot of Puerto Naos is described by local newspapers as a ghost town. The lava didn’t reach the town, but the high concentration of CO2 gases forced the evacuation of its 1,000 residents. Most are staying with relatives, and all continue to wonder when they will be allowed back home.
La Palma — population 84,790 — has become the focus of many politicians and dignitaries. Cabinet members including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have visited the island 60 times, mostly to announce new aid packages. Queen Letizia recently chose La Palma for her yearly visit to a school at the beginning of the academic year.
Public funds to aid reconstruction totaling 566 million euros ($564 million) have been delivered by the government.
Yet a grouping of those affected by the volcano plans to mark the anniversary Monday with a protest over what they consider bad management of the funds.
Others resent the fact that when the roar of the volcano died down after 85 days, solidarity disappeared.
“Politicians don’t really care about us,” said banana farmer Juan Carlos Rodríguez. He said the subsidies were insufficient.
However, some entrepreneurs are finding ways to reshape their businesses and exploit the eruption.
AstroLaPalma used to offer nighttime stargazing programs under the clear Canary Island sky. Now, owner Ana García guides amazed visitors through the volcanic ashes.
The volcano didn’t really have a name before it erupted, though it was popularly known as Cumbre Vieja — the name of the surrounding national park. This summer, island residents voted to call it Tajogaite — the name of the area in the ancient Guanche language.
It’s the first year of a new era for the volcanic islands, and locals are also determined to thrive.
Just two months ago, the islanders were able to claim a minor victory over the volcano with the opening of a new road built over the lava rock to connect the sides of the Aridane Valley that was split in two by the eruption.
The road takes two hours off the drive to reach isolated houses, shortens kids’ school routes and allows access to the surviving banana plantations in the valley.
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| 2022-09-21T03:53:16Z
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania closed their borders Monday to most Russian citizens in response to the wide domestic support in Russia for the war in Ukraine.
Under the coordinated travel ban, Russians wishing to travel to the Baltic countries as tourists or for business, sports or cultural purposes will not be allowed in even if they hold valid visas for the European Union’s checks-free Schengen Area.
The prime ministers of the three Baltic nations and Poland agreed earlier this month to stop admitting Russian citizens, saying the move would protect the security of the four European Union member nations.
“Russia is an unpredictable and aggressive state. Three-quarters of its citizens support the war. It is unacceptable that people who support the war can freely travel around the world, into Lithuania, the EU,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said Monday.
“Such support for hostilities can pose threats to the security of our country and the EU as a whole,” she added.
The ban includes exceptions for humanitarian reasons, family members of EU citizens, Russian dissidents, serving diplomats, transportation employees and Russians with residence permits or long-stay national visas from the 26 Schengen countries.
Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, signed regulations Monday that will put the central European nation’s war-related ban on Russian travelers into effect on Sept. 26. Poland, which borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, still has tight restrictions on foreign visitors remaining from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the eastern Polish city of Bialystok, a member of the Russian Culture and Education Association in Poland said a new ban would have hit much harder if the pandemic restrictions had not already largely limited travel with Russia.
“After more than two years of restrictions, we see no prospects for an improvement, and that is the worst part,” Andrzej Romanczuk, a Polish citizen, told The Associated Press.
He said regions on both sides of Poland’s border with Kaliningrad will be hit economically because border traffic there drives local trade. Russians also shop in Polish cities like Warsaw or Krakow.
Over 65,000 Russians have crossed into Poland this year, similar to the same period last year but 10 times smaller than before the pandemic.
The Lithuanian Interior Ministry said 11 Russian citizens were stopped from entering that country starting at midnight. Most were trying to enter by land from Kaliningrad or from Belarus. No incidents were reported.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu told the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that Russian travels posed security concerns because “we know that Russian spies have used fake IDs and carried out various activities in Europe using tourist visas.”
Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million, has registered hundreds of thousands of border crossings by Russian citizens since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
The Baltic countries cannot, however, stop Russian citizens from entering via another Schengen nation. They want similar travel restrictions to be taken by all 27 EU member states.
The EU already has banned air travel from Russia after it invaded Ukraine. But before the ban, Russians could still travel by land to Estonia and apparently were then taking flights to other European destinations.
At a EU summit last month, the bloc’s 27 members were divided over whether to slap a broad visa ban on Russian citizens, torn between a desire to ramp up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and concerns about punishing ordinary Russians who may not even support his war on Ukraine.
The EU already tightened visa restrictions on Russian officials and businesspeople in May, but Poland and the Baltic countries have called for a broader ban on tourists. Germany and France are leading a push to tighten visa restrictions on Russians rather than impose an outright ban.
Czechia, which does not share a border with Russia, was one of the first EU countries to stop issuing visas to Russian citizens, approving the measure the day after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The three Baltic states were once republics in the Soviet Union, while Poland and Czechia — then part of Czechoslovakia — were Moscow’s satellites. That and earlier history makes them especially sensitive to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.
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Follow all AP stories on developments related to the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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AP writers Jan Olsen in Copenhagen, Liudas Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, Jari Tanner in Tallinn, Estonia, and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The leader of Sweden’s third largest party — the center-right Moderates — on Monday was formally asked to attempt to form a government that could include the populist Sweden Democrats, either inside a governing coalition or outside to secure a majority.
In Sweden’s Sept. 11 election, the country’s four center-right parties won 176 seats while the center-left coalition that included the ruling Social Democrats got 173 seats. Following that, Andreas Norlen, the speaker of the 349-seat Swedish parliament, the Riksdagen, asked Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the Moderates, to see if he can form a governing coalition.
Norlen who has held talks with all party leaders about who could try to form a governing coalition, said he didn’t name a date before which Kristersson should come back with an answer because that could take time.
“My message to the speaker has been that everything is going well,” Kristersson told reporters after meeting with Norlen. “I want to form a government that unites, not divides.”
The leader of the Sweden Democrats, Jimmie Akesson, said after meeting Norlen on Monday added that “it would suit Sweden to have with a majority government. That is my take.”
The question is now what coalition can reach a majority. One of the center-right parties has said it does not want to be in a coalition with the right-wing Sweden Democrats, a party founded in the 1980s by far-right extremists that now is the country’s second-largest in parliament.
Different center-right constellations are possible but it seems clear that the Sweden Democrats will have significant leverage in any center-right government.
The populist party has tried to move toward the mainstream in recent years, standing this year on a platform of cracking down on crime and strictly limiting immigration.
Sweden in recent years has seen an increase in gang violence and this year there have been 273 shootings, 47 of them fatal, according to police statistics. The shootings also wounded 74 people, including innocent bystanders.
Last week, Sweden’s Social Democratic Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson acknowledged losing the election. She will continue in a caretaking capacity until a new government is formed.
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| 2022-09-21T03:53:28Z
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities in Alaska were making contact Monday with some of the most remote villages in the United States to determine their food and water needs, as well as assess the damage after a massive storm flooded communities on the state’s vast western coast this weekend.
No one was reported injured or killed during the massive storm — the remnants of Typhoon Merbok — as it traveled north through the Bering Strait over the weekend. However, damage to homes, roads and other infrastructure is only starting to be revealed as floodwaters recede.
About 21,000 residents living in the small communities dotting a 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) stretch of Alaska’s western coastline — a distance longer than the entire length of California’s coast — were impacted by the storm.
Many homes throughout the region were flooded, and some were knocked off their foundations by the rushing waters propelled by strong winds. Officials were starting the process of determining damage to roads, ports, seawalls and water and sewage systems.
The state transportation department said most airports in the area were open, and officials were making either temporary or permanent repairs to the runways that still have issues, said Jeremy Zidek, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The storm remained stalled Monday in the Chukchi Sea near northwest Alaska, but it was rapidly weakening after at its most powerful stage influencing weather patterns as far away as California.
Coastal flood warnings were extended for an area north of the Bering Strait since water will be slow to recede in towns like Kotzebue, Kivalina and Shishmaref, National Weather Service meteorologist Kaitlyn Lardeo said.
Shishmaref had seen water surges 5.5 feet (1.68 meters) above the normal tide level, while Kotzebue and Kivalina had smaller surges, but were both still without power Monday, she said.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Sunday identified five communities — Hooper Bay, Scammon Bay, Golovin, Newtok and Nome — as being greatly impacted by a combination of high water, flooding, erosion and electrical issues. Nome, where one home floated down a river until it was caught by a bridge, was among the many reporting road damage after recording tidal surges 11.1 feet (3.38 meters) above normal.
Zidek said state officials were looking closely at those five, but also reaching out to every community in the region because of the numerous reports of damage.
“While the needs may be greater in some, we don’t want to neglect those other communities that have minor issues that still need to be resolved,” he said. However, efforts to reach some communities has been difficult due to downed communication lines.
The state’s emergency operations center is fully staffed with military, state agencies and volunteer organizations to address the aftermath of the storm.
Alaska National Guard members in the western half of the nation’s largest state have been activated to help, either in the communities where they live or elsewhere along the coast, he said.
The American Red Cross has 50 volunteers ready to help and will be sent to communities that are in most need.
Most support personnel will have to be flown to these communities since there are few roads in western Alaska. Providing air support will be the Alaska National Guard, small commuter airlines that routinely fly between these small villages and possibly bush pilots.
Weather always adversely impacts flights in rural Alaska, but Zidek said the forecast seems favorable to conduct the response operations.
“Three may be another smaller weather front coming in, but it’s nothing unusual for this time of the year,” he said.
Dunleavy said he would request a federal disaster declaration as soon as agencies gather necessary information about the damage. If approved, the governor said the Federal Emergency Management Agency would cover at least 75% of eligible disaster costs, while the state would pick up the tab for the rest.
On Sunday, Dunleavy said time was of the essence because freeze-up, meaning the start of winter, can happen as early as October.
“We just have to impress upon our federal friends that it’s not a Florida situation where we’ve got months to work on this,” he said. “We’ve got several weeks.”
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| 2022-09-21T03:53:34Z
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Developers and city officials pushed back on family members’ expectations during a meeting held Monday to discuss a memorial for 98 people who died last year when a beachfront Florida condominium building collapsed.
Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger hosted representatives from DAMAC Properties and people whose loved ones died when the Champlain Towers South building fell on June 24, 2021.
“We all would have loved to build something, a park or something,” Danzinger said of the site. “But by order of the judge, it was sold. It’s now private property.”
Dubai-based DAMAC purchased the 1.8-acre (1-hectare) beachside site for $120 million earlier this year. It’s not clear yet what structure will rise on the site, but DAMAC’s business focuses on luxury residential, commercial and leisure properties.
The town of Surfside has already set aside space for a memorial near the collapse site, but family members are hoping to have some kind of memorial on the site itself.
Danzinger suggested working with the town to adjust some easements to accommodate a memorial near the edge of the lot.
Martin Langesfeld, who lost his sister and brother-in-law in the collapse, said he would like the memorial to mark where the victims actually died.
“We do want to work around the area where a majority of the people and most of the blood was,” Langesfeld said.
The problem for developers is that most of the people died in the buildable portion of the lot.
“When you start asking for 50 feet or 70 feet into the site, because that’s where the building was, that becomes something which is very difficult for us to be able to look at and say we can give up a third or a half of the development,” DAMAC representative Jeff Rossely said.
A Miami-Dade County circuit judge approved a settlement for the victims and property owners in June that totaled $1.1 billion, which includes the sale of the lot. The settlement money also comes from dozens of other sources, including insurance companies, engineering firms and a luxury condominium building whose recent construction next door is suspected of contributing to structural damage. None of the parties admit any wrongdoing.
A final conclusion on the cause of the collapse is likely years away. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is overseeing the investigation.
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| 2022-09-21T03:53:40Z
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Republican governors have been sending more migrants released at the U.S. border with Mexico to Democratic strongholds, raising questions about their legal status, how they are lured on board buses and planes and the cost to taxpayers.
Florida’s Ron DeSantis flew about 50 Venezuelans last week to the small, upscale island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. During the weekend, Texas’ Greg Abbott bused more migrants to Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington home.
U.S. authorities are grappling with unusually large numbers of migrants crossing the border from Mexico amid rapidly changing demographics. The administration said Monday that people from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua accounted for more than one of three migrants stopped at the border in August. Authorities stopped migrants 2.15 million times from October through August, the first time above 2 million during the government’s fiscal year.
Since April, Texas has bused about 8,000 migrants to Washington, 2,200 to New York and 300 to Chicago. Arizona bused more than 1,800 to Washington since May, while the city of El Paso, Texas, bused more than 1,100 to New York since Aug. 23.
Here are some questions and answers:
ARE MIGRANTS LEGALLY IN THE UNITED STATES?
Yes, temporarily. Tens of thousands of migrants who cross the border illegally from Mexico are released in the United States each month with notices to appear in immigration court to pursue asylum or on humanitarian parole with requirements to report regularly to immigration authorities. Migrants may seek asylum if they enter the country illegally under U.S. and international law, and U.S. authorities have broad authority to grant parole based on individual circumstances.
Migrants must keep a current address with authorities, who schedule appointments in a city with the nearest court or immigration office. They must apply separately for permission to work.
Last year, it took an average of nearly four years for asylum cases to be decided in immigration court, according to the Biden administration, leaving migrants in a legal purgatory that shields them from deportation. The backlog in immigration courts has mushroomed to more than 1.9 million cases, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
To avoid massive overcrowding in detention facilities, the administration began releasing many migrants on humanitarian parole. The Border Patrol paroled nearly 250,000 migrants from August through June, including 40,151 in June, the latest figures released. In the previous seven months, it paroled only 11 migrants.
ARE THESE MIGRANTS KIDNAPPED?
Kidnapping is a high legal threshold, but migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard say they were taken there on false pretenses. Migrants sign waivers that the transportation is free and voluntary.
DeSantis used a state program in which migrants deemed “unauthorized aliens” can be moved “from Florida,” though the governor has acknowledged the flights originated in Texas.
They stopped first in Florida, before going to Martha’s Vineyard, but DeSantis has not emphasized that. Instead, he maintains that the two flights were a legitimate use of funds because the migrants otherwise would have aimed to go to Florida, though he offered no evidence of that and did not say how migrants might have been vetted.
Migrants who boarded the flights told The Associated Press that a woman who approached them at a San Antonio shelter promised jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
On Monday, Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, opened an investigation into the flights, but the elected Democrat didn’t say what laws may have been broken. Other Democrats have urged the U.S. Justice Department to investigate, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio.
DOESN’T THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION BUS AND FLY MIGRANTS AROUND THE COUNTRY?
Yes, but under different circumstances. Like earlier administrations, it transports migrants between detention facilities, often on their way to being removed from the country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had more than 4,800 domestic flights in the last year, including 434 in August, according to Witness to the Border, a group that criticizes U.S. enforcement. The top five destinations from March to August were: Alexandria, Louisiana; Laredo, Texas; Phoenix; and Harlingen and El Paso in Texas. ICE also buses many migrants.
The Department of Health and Human Services transports unaccompanied children to “sponsors,” who are often family, or child-only detention facilities.
DID ANYONE ASK FOR THIS?
Republican-led states say they are sending migrants to “sanctuary” cities that welcome immigrants. While the definition of a sanctuary city is slippery, a sudden influx of migrants can test attitudes and limits of generosity.
Chicago’s “Welcoming City Ordinance” prohibits asking people about their immigration status, denying services based on immigration status and disclosing information to federal immigration authorities.
New York limits cooperation with U.S. immigration authorities, partly by prohibiting police officers from participating in joint enforcement or by letting immigration agents work in city jails.
In Martha’s Vineyard, the six towns that make up the island south of Boston haven’t issued any “sanctuary” declarations.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for restrictions, keeps an extensive list of “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which, by its definition, limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. They include Boston and seven other Massachusetts cities. None of the towns in Martha’s Vineyard are on the list.
WHO’S PAYING AND HOW MUCH?
Texas has committed billions of dollars to Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star,” an unprecedented move into border security that includes the bus trips, prosecuting border crossers for trespassing and massive presence of state troopers and National Guard.
The Florida Legislature allocated $12 million for its program for the current budget year.
The city of El Paso, which last week contracted a private bus company at a cost of up to $2 million, plans to seek reimbursement from the federal government.
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Associated Press reporters Don Babwin in Chicago, Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, and Sophia Tulp and Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — How high are the barriers to entry at the U.N. General Assembly? Less than 4 feet (1.2 meters), technically.
While the barricades encircling the perimeter of the United Nations headquarters in New York are scarcely hip-level, the sea of gray grilles makes it clear that — with scores of world leaders and other high-profile figures slated to descend — security is intended to be more than just theater.
Patrick Freaney, special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s New York field office, called the U.N. General Assembly both “one of the highest-profile events in the world” and “the largest protective event for the Secret Service on an annual basis.”
U.N. staff and visitors must clear multiple checkpoints. Accredited media, for instance, flash badges at an NYPD and U.N. police checkpoints before going through an airport-style security screening that prologues the long (but scenic) trek to the international press corral in the U.N. Secretariat Building.
There are myriad types of U.N. badges, each adorned with a colored symbol. Woe betide the grounds passholder who shows up at the “wrong” entrance; you may be made to walk several blocks, though several on Monday attempted to argue with U.N. police.
Security is a joint effort mounted by U.N., federal, state and local law enforcement. NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey told news outlets that preparation for this year’s General Assembly began shortly after last year’s hybrid meeting, which saw far fewer world leaders attend. The 2020 meeting, at the height of the early pandemic, was entirely virtual.
While there were no specific threats to the General Assembly or the city, Corey said, one can’t too careful: “There’s always a certain amount of disharmony in the world.”
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Follow Mallika Sen at https://twitter.com/mallikavsen. For more coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly.
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A top state lawyer derided arguments that Indiana’s new abortion ban violates the state constitution, saying Monday that opponents of the ban are trying to invent a state right to privacy.
A judge heard arguments for about an hour in a Bloomington courtroom on a request from abortion clinic operators to block the Indiana abortion ban that went into effect on Thursday.
Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon, who is the special judge in the case, didn’t make an immediate decision but said she would issue a ruling “expeditiously.”
State Solicitor General Thomas Fisher told the judge that “too many leaps” were needed in legal arguments that abortion was protected under an Indiana constitutional right to privacy when that word isn’t mentioned in the document. He argued that a ban was in place when the constitution was drafted in 1851.
The abortion clinics are pushing “a novel, unwritten, historically unsupported right to abortion,” said Fisher, a top deputy to Republican state Attorney General Todd Rokita.
The ban, which includes limited exceptions, was approved by the state’s Republican-dominated Legislature on Aug. 5 and signed by GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb. That made Indiana the first state to enact tighter abortion restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade in June.
Judge Hanlon turned down without explanation a request last week from the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the abortion clinics, to prevent the ban from going into effect.
Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director, pointed to the state constitution’s declaration of rights including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in arguing that included a right to privacy and to make decisions on whether to have children.
Falk asked the judge to restore the state’s previous abortion laws, which generally prohibited abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and tightly restricted it after the 13th week.
“We’re not asking the court to write to rewrite the legislation,” Falk said. “We’re asking the court to recognize the Legislature’s gone too far.”
The Indiana ban includes exceptions allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest before the 10th week of pregnancy; to protect the mother’s life and physical health; and if the fetus is diagnosed with a lethal anomaly.
Under the new law, abortions can be performed only in hospitals or outpatient centers owned by hospitals, with the state’s seven abortion clinics losing their licenses for the procedure. Any doctors found to have performed an illegal abortion would be stripped of their medical license and could face felony charges punishable by up to six years in prison.
Fisher said questions on whether any abortions should be allowed in the state ought to be decided by the elected members of the Legislature.
“Unborn children will literally die if this law does not go into effect,” Fisher said. “The public interest favors saving the lives of unborn citizens of Indiana.”
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LONDON (AP) — I couldn’t see the lone piper. But it didn’t matter.
As the sounds of the Scottish lament, “Sleep, Dearie, Sleep,” faded into the silence of Westminster Abbey, it finally struck me that Queen Elizabeth II was really gone.
The queen loved bagpipes so much that she had a piper play under her window for 15 minutes every morning, so those notes disappearing into the ether had a sense of finality, in a grand, show-stopping way.
Monday’s state funeral was filled with those kinds of moments as Britain said good-bye to its longest-serving monarch with all the pageantry the nation is known for.
The black-clad mourners included the royal family, seven British prime ministers and hundreds of dignitaries from around the world, including U.S. President Joe Biden.
But it was the colors that caught my eye.
The dark clothing was just a backdrop for decorations of all kinds. Military medals gleamed from the chests of old soldiers, and civilians sported ribbons denoting civilian honors bestowed by the queen.
There were Knights of the Garter in blue velvet capes. Trumpeters with long silver instruments festooned with banners. Soldiers in gleaming plumed-helmets and the army veterans known as Chelsea Pensioners, resplendent in their traditional scarlet tunics.
“It was like something out of a fairy tale,” said Bertram Leon, who was recently awarded a British Empire Medal for service to the St. Lucian community. “You know, it was amazing, beautifully well done — orchestrated, which is what you expected.”
I witnessed the spectacle from a seat in the abbey’s north transept, my view obstructed by a great stone pillar. That’s partly why I couldn’t see the piper.
But so what? It didn’t matter. It was enough to be part of the crowd.
Watching the world leaders file in, I wished I had a scorecard with little photographs to figure out who was who. There were so many of them — who could keep track?
Then came the royals, led by King Charles III in full military uniform, a sword on his hip.
But behind the pomp and circumstance, this was about honoring the late queen and her lifetime of service to Britain and the Commonwealth.
And it was the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who captured that better than any parade or procession.
Welby reminded the congregation of the queen’s speech during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic — when frightened Britons were stuck in their homes unable to see friends and family.
Elizabeth, a symbol of stability for 70 years, echoed the words of a World War II-era song by Vera Lynn — and assured the nation that “We will meet again.”
Welby’s words reminded me of the night I listened to that speech, and wondered what the future would hold. I was frightened too — wasn’t everyone?
So somehow this immense state funeral service suddenly became very personal. Amid all the pomp and pageantry, we were all invited to think about that night— about what the queen meant to us in that awful, pandemic time.
So whatever it was, the words or the guardsmen or the choristers, I can tell you one thing: At the end of the service, the congregation stood and sang “God Save the King’’ with such gusto that it almost felt as if the abbey walls were shaking. If nothing else, the nation’s long-time leader was leaving center stage.
I can’t say for sure, of course. But I think it will take this country some time to remember that the first line of the national anthem is no longer “God Save our gracious Queen.’’
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Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The judge overseeing the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz refused to step down Monday, rejecting a motion by his attorneys who accused her of being biased against their client and prejudicing the jurors who will decide if he should die for murdering 17 people four years ago.
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the motion, saying only it was legally insufficient. Scherer last week chewed out lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team outside the jury’s presence, accusing them of being “unprofessional” when they unexpectedly rested their case after only about 25 of the 80 witnesses they had told her and prosecutors they intended to testify had been called.
The defense said in court documents filed last week that those comments and ones the judge later made to the jury were “the zenith of the cumulative disdain” they allege Scherer has shown throughout the case toward Cruz and themselves. The defense had no obligation to call all its proposed witnesses or notify the judge or prosecution when they planned to rest, legal observers have said.
Prosecutors argued in court documents that Scherer’s comments didn’t rise to the level of demonstrating bias against Cruz. They cited a 1994 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says a judge’s “expressions of impatience, dissatisfaction, annoyance and even anger” against the defense are not grounds for stepping down.
If Scherer had stepped down, a mistrial would have been declared. The new judge would have required months of preparation before a new trial could be held.
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last October to murdering 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. His trial, which began with jury selection in April and testimony in July, is only to determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. For him to receive a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous.
Two attorneys who have monitored the trial said the defense team had no expectation that Scherer would step down — they just want her performance to be part of their appeal if Cruz receives a death sentence. To do that, they had to object now.
There was “absolutely no chance” Scherer would quit the case, said Bob Jarvis, a professor at Nova Southeastern University’s law school.
“If she did, she would be admitting that she’s done a terrible job,” Jarvis said. Scherer, a former prosecutor, had never overseen a first-degree murder trial before being assigned the Cruz case.
David S. Weinstein, a Miami defense attorney and former prosecutor, said the defense is also hoping the motion “tempers the way (Scherer) speaks to both sides in open court.”
Starting with pretrial hearings that began more than three years ago, Scherer and McNeill have frequently sniped at each other over the judge’s denials of defense motions and objections.
That sniping turned to shouting on Wednesday when, at the beginning of the court day, McNeill suddenly announced the defense was resting. The prosecution, having expected the defense case to last much longer, wasn’t prepared to begin its rebuttal case.
That necessitated a two-week hiatus in the trial, causing Scherer to berate McNeill and her team.
“This is the most uncalled for, unprofessional way to try a case,” Scherer said. “I have never experienced a level of unprofessionalism in my career. It is unbelievable.”
When McNeill accused Scherer of insulting her in front of her client, Scherer shot back, “You have been insulting me the entire trial,” followed by a list of grievances.
The jury was then brought into the courtroom and told of the defense decision.
“If I would have known earlier this was going to be happening, I would not have dragged you in here,” Scherer told the jurors. She then backtracked, telling jurors they should blame her for any delays.
Too late, the defense said in its motion — Scherer had already told the panel any frustrations they felt should be directed at them.
Scherer’s courtroom statements revealed her “animosity toward (McNeill) is long held and has infected this entire trial,” the defense argued unsuccessfully.
Before resting, McNeill and her team called teachers, counselors, doctors, family friends and experts in an attempt to demonstrate how his late birth mother’s alcohol abuse during pregnancy put Cruz onto a lifelong path of erratic, bizarre and often violent behavior that culminated in the shootings. They also tried to show that his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, became overwhelmed after her husband died when Cruz was 5.
The defense is trying to overcome the prosecution’s case, which focused on Cruz’s massacre as he stalked a three-story classroom building for seven minutes with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Lead prosecutor Mike Satz played security videos of the shooting and showed the rifle Cruz used. Teachers and students testified about watching others die.
Satz showed graphic autopsy and crime scene photos and took jurors to the fenced-off building, which remains blood-stained and bullet-pocked. Parents and spouses gave tearful and angry statements about their loss.
The trial is now scheduled to resume Sept. 27 and conclude the week of Oct. 10.
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DENVER (AP) — A mentally ill man charged with killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015 because it offered abortion services can be forcibly medicated to try to make him competent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The prosecution of Robert Dear, 64, has stalled because he has been repeatedly found mentally incompetent since his arrest and he has refused to take anti-psychotic medication for delusional disorder.
During a three-day hearing this summer, prosecutors argued that medication had a substantial likelihood, based on research and the experience of government experts, to make Dear well enough to meet the legal standard for mental competency — being able to understand proceedings and assist in his defense.
Dear’s lawyers and experts, however, said the government’s plan did not take into account Dear’s age and his health problems, including untreated high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which could be worsened as a result of the medication’s side effects.
U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ruled that involuntary medication was the only realistic approach with a substantial chance of making Dear competent to stand trial and was also in the best interest of his overall health, both mental and physical.
“Under the proposed treatment plan, and again based on clear and convincing evidence, involuntary medication of Mr. Dear is not substantially likely to engender dangerous and unmanageable side effects,” he said.
Dear is represented by federal public defenders who do not comment on cases.
Dear, who has called himself a “warrior for the babies,” intended to wage “war” against the clinic because it offered abortion services, arming himself with four semi-automatic rifles, five handguns, two other rifles, a shotgun, propane tanks and 500 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors have alleged. He began shooting outside the clinic before getting inside by shooting his way through a door, according to his federal indictment.
According to experts who testified and Dear’s lawyers, Dear has persecutory delusions that cause him to believe that the FBI is following him because he called a radio show in 1993 to criticize the agency over the law enforcement siege against the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. He also believes his lawyers are working for the FBI and the judge is also in on the arrangement.
Dear mentioned the radio call in one of many outbursts during the recent hearing, where he also claimed the shooting was a “success” and told the judge to go to hell because he did not get to testify. He largely remained quiet after Blackburn warned him that he would not tolerate any more disturbances. The judge said he concluded the outbursts were not the result of Dear’s mental illness but of “selfish, childish and disaffected arrogance.”
After Dear’s prosecution bogged down in state court over the competency issue, Dear was charged in federal court in 2019 under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Federal prosecutors have said they would not seek the death penalty against him if he is convicted, but life in prison instead.
Two of the people killed in the attack were accompanying friends to the clinic — Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and was a father of two, and Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who grew up in Oahu, Hawaii. The third person killed was a campus police officer at a nearby college, Garrett Swasey, who responded to the clinic after hearing there was an active shooter.
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| 2022-09-21T03:54:28Z
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A man who broke windows and security cameras at a Planned Parenthood clinic in southwestern Oregon because he opposed abortion has pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Devin Kruse, 27, of Grants Pass, Oregon, pleaded guilty Monday, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Kruse admitted he broke five security cameras, a window and a sign at the Grants Pass clinic on Nov. 23, according to his plea agreement. He also said he returned several days later and threw a concrete block through a window, tore down an intercom system and broke lightbulbs, documents said.
He told officers who arrested him that all Planned Parenthood facilities needed to be shut down, according to the agreement.
“The First Amendment does not allow individuals to violate the civil rights of others. In this case, Mr. Kruse’s destructive and intimidating acts prevented women from accessing vital reproductive and pregnancy health services,” Natalie Wight, Oregon’s U.S. attorney, said in a statement.
At a sentencing set for early next year, prosecutors will recommend that he face two years of probation, one for each count. He has also agreed to pay restitution to Planned Parenthood in an amount to be determined.
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| 2022-09-21T03:54:34Z
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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Seven Midwestern states are teaming up to accelerate the development of hydrogen as a clean-energy alternative for automobiles and factories that rely largely on climate-warming fossil fuels, governors said Monday.
The partnership includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, whose economies are dominated by agriculture and heavy industry such as steel and automobile manufacturing.
“The Midwest will continue leading the future of mobility and energy innovation and has enormous potential for transformative hydrogen investments,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said.
Hydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas that already powers some cars, trucks, buses and trains. But a shortage of fueling stations limits their appeal. Some environmentalists are skeptical because most commercially produced hydrogen in the U.S. comes from natural gas, which emits greenhouse pollutants carbon dioxide and methane.
But hydrogen can be derived using electric currents from wind, solar or other means that produce few if any emissions contributing to global warming. Such “clean hydrogen” releases only water as a byproduct when used in a fuel cell.
“We don’t have to choose between clean energy and clean air and creating good-paying jobs and a strong economy — we can do both,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said.
The federal infrastructure law enacted last year included $8 billion for the U.S. Department of Energy to fund regional “hubs” that would step up clean hydrogen production and distribution.
Climate legislation that President Joe Biden signed last month offers a tax credit intended to make clean hydrogen more competitive.
Those measures “made it almost certain that clean hydrogen development will become a major alternative for producing energy both in the Midwest and nationally,” said Zachary Kolodin, Michigan’s chief infrastructure officer.
States in the Rocky Mountains and the Deep South announced regional associations earlier this year. Another was proposed for the Los Angeles Basin in California.
The Midwestern Hydrogen Coalition hasn’t committed to joint pursuit of federal funding, although smaller groups of states or industries might seek grants.
Instead, the seven-state partnership will focus on boosting development, markets, supply chains and a work force for clean hydrogen, according to a joint statement.
It will take advantage of assets such as the region’s pipelines and tanks for distributing and storing ammonia, which consists largely of hydrogen and is a key ingredient in fertilizer.
Hydrogen “could help us end the use of fossil fuels, and it could be especially helpful for industry, which is the hardest to decarbonize,” said Charlotte Jameson, chief policy officer with the Michigan Environmental Council. “But not all hydrogen is clean.”
Midwest states should focus on hydrogen made from renewables and should not use their coalition to “delay moving our power systems to renewable energy and electrifying our buildings and transportation,” Jameson said. “We have the solutions and the momentum to do that now.”
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HELENA, Mont. (AP) — After months of defiance, Montana’s health department said Monday it will follow a judge’s ruling and temporarily allow transgender people to change the gender on their birth certificates.
The judge issued a scathing order Monday morning saying health officials made “calculated violations” of his order, which had told them to temporarily stop enforcing a law blocking transgender people from changing their gender on their birth certificates unless they had undergone surgery.
District Court Judge Michael Moses said Monday he would promptly consider motions for contempt based on continued violations of his April order, which he clarified in a verbal order at a hearing on Thursday. Just hours after that hearing, the Republican-run state said it would defy the order and keep in place a rule that disallowed any changes to birth certificates unless they were due to a clerical error.
On Monday afternoon, the Department of Public Health and Human Services issued a statement saying it would comply with the order, despite disagreeing with it.
During Thursday’s hearing, attorneys for the state had argued that blocking the law did not prevent the health department from promulgating new administrative rules.
The state, Moses wrote, engaged “in needless legal gymnastics to attempt to rationalize their actions and their calculated violations of the order.” He called the state’s interpretation of his earlier order “demonstrably ridiculous.”
“The department stands by its actions and analysis concerning the April 2022 preliminary injunction decision, as set forth in its rulemaking that addressed critical regulatory gaps left by the court,” said Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the health department. The agency is considering its next steps in the litigation, the statement said.
“It’s unfortunate that it has taken two very clear court orders and many months to comply with the law,” said Alex Rate, an attorney with the ACLU of Montana. The ACLU represents the plaintiffs, two transgender people who want to change their birth certificates.
“But from the perspective of transgender Montanans who are seeking to obtain accurate identity documents, today’s announcement is certainly progress,” Rate said.
Ebelt did not respond to an email asking when the state might start processing applications. Rate did not know how many people have sought to correct their birth certificate in recent months, but he was aware of people who had contacted the court after the April injunction and up through Monday.
In April, Moses temporarily blocked a law passed by the Republican-controlled 2021 Legislature that would require transgender residents to undergo a surgical procedure and obtain a court order before being able to change the sex on their birth certificate. He said the law was unconstitutionally vague because it did not specify what kind of surgery would be required.
Rather than returning to a 2017 rule that allowed transgender residents to file an affidavit with the health department to correct the gender on their birth certificate, the state instead issued a rule saying a person’s sex could not be changed, even after having surgery.
The health department “refused to issue corrections to birth certificates for weeks in violation of the order,” Moses wrote. The state did not appeal Moses’ ruling either.
The ACLU of Montana had requested the judicial clarification due to the state’s inaction.
Moses’ order on Monday included a copy of the 2017 rules.
“If defendants requires further clarification, they are welcome to request it from the court rather than engage in activities that constitute unlawful violations of the order,” Moses wrote.
Such open defiance of a judge’s order is very unusual from a government agency, said Carl Tobias, a former University of Montana Law School professor now at the University of Richmond. When officials disagree with a ruling, the typical response is to appeal to a higher court, he said.
“Appeal is what you contemplate — not that you can nullify a judge’s orders. Otherwise, people just wouldn’t obey the law,” Tobias said Thursday. “The system can’t work that way.”′
The legal dispute comes as conservative lawmakers in numerous states including Montana have sought to restrict transgender rights, including banning transgender girls from competing in girls school sports. A different Montana judge last week determined a law passed by state lawmakers seeking to ban transgender women from participating on female collegiate sports teams was unconstitutional.
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Associated Press reporter Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this story.
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RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) — An eastern Indiana police officer who was shot in the head during a traffic stop in August has died more than two weeks after she was removed from life support, authorities said.
Richmond Police Department Officer Seara Burton died Sunday night at a Reid Health facility surrounded by her family, the department said in a statement posted to Facebook.
“We would sincerely like to thank the Richmond community, and those who have supported Seara, her family, and the department from near and far,” the statement from several officials said.
Burton was critically wounded in the shooting Aug. 10. The 28-year-old officer was moved to hospice care, two days after she was removed from life support on Sept. 1 at a hospital in Dayton, Ohio.
Burton’s remains were escorted by Richmond police and other agencies from the Dayton area to a Richmond funeral home Monday afternoon, WISH-TV reported.
Burton was a four-year veteran of the department in Richmond, about 65 miles (105 kilometers) east of Indianapolis.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said he and his wife, Janet, are mourning with Burton’s family, colleagues and the Richmond community, saying in a statement that “our hearts are heavy.”
“Janet and I send our condolences to Officer Burton’s family and loved ones as they search for peace and strength from a power greater than all we can muster,” he said.
Prosecutors have charged Phillip Matthew Lee, 47, with three counts of attempted murder, three drug possession counts for methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin and possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon. He has pleaded not guilty.
A message seeking comment on whether Lee was now expected to face a murder charge was left Monday morning for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office by The Associated Press.
Authorities have said officers stopped Lee and called Burton to assist with her police dog. The dog indicated the possible presence of narcotics. Court documents say that while officers were speaking with the rider, he pulled out a gun and opened fire toward the officers, shooting Burton. Other officers returned fire and he ran away. Lee was apprehended following a brief foot chase.
No other officers were shot.
Lee was treated for gunshot wounds, police said.
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The story has been updated to correct that the statement said Burton died at a Reid Health facility, not a specific location.
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NEW YORK (AP) — The United Nations will be judged by how it addresses China’s persecution of ethnic minorities, diplomats and human rights advocates charged Monday on the sidelines of the body’s General Assembly, calling for forceful action after a report raised the specter of “crimes against humanity.”
For years, rights watchdogs and journalists have exposed brutal treatment of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the far western region of Xinjiang, where China is accused of a ruthless campaign of torture, sexual assault and ethnic cleansing. Those accusations have been widely accepted in the West, but were given a new imprimatur with the landmark report released last month by the U.N. human rights office.
“Inaction is no longer possible,” Fernand de Varennes, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on minority rights said at a forum sponsored by the Atlantic Council and Human Rights Watch as world leaders descend on New York. “If we allow this to go unpunished, what kind of message is being propagated?”
Jeffrey Prescott, a deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, suggested the integrity of the institution was at stake in its response to China.
“How these atrocities are addressed goes ultimately to the credibility of that system, to the credibility of our international system itself,” he said. “It’s deeply disheartening to see a country that has been so central to the creation of the modern U.N. system, and enjoys its status as a permanent member of the Security Council, so profoundly violating its commitments.”
The U.N. report on China’s alleged abuses was released in the final minutes of the last day in office of Michele Bachelet, now the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Its release was believed to have been long delayed. Bachelet never explained the timing.
China responded to its release with fury, calling it “a patchwork of false information” and portraying it as a fabrication cooked up by Western nations. It issued a lengthy rebuttal and vowed to stop cooperating with the U.N.’s human rights office, and Chinese diplomats are now lobbying others to thwart the possibility of further scrutiny of its campaign in Xinjiang.
Rob Roe, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, called China’s reaction unsurprising and said new action was merited.
“We need to deal with this question. We need to deal with the question of what further sanctions will be required. We need to deal with the question of what further steps could be taken to respond to the extent of this crisis,” he said.
The U.N.’s report was drawn, in part, from interviews from more than two dozen former detainees and others familiar with conditions at eight detention centers who described being beaten, prevented from praying and forced to perform sex acts on guards. It said the evidence could constitute “crimes against humanity” but made no mention of genocide, which the United States and other countries have accused China of committing.
Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the immediate predecessor to Bachelet as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his successor deserved credit for publishing the report, but said it was a “shortcoming” not to refer to the abuses as genocide. Likewise, he criticized it for not calling for the establishment of a formal U.N. commission of inquiry.
“To be silent is to be an accomplice,” he said.
Rayhan Asat, a Uyghur lawyer who works for the Atlantic Council and whose brother is imprisoned in Xinjiang, urged the world to insist that action be taken, not just against China, but companies who profit off its abuses.
“We should not let the Chinese government off the hook by normalizing what the state did,” she said, “because at the end of the day, this is state violence.”
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AP National Writer Matt Sedensky can be reached at msedensky@ap.org and https://twitter.com/sedensky. For more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A former Kansas police detective accused of preying on Black women and girls for decades will be released from jail pending his trial on charges involving two accusers who say he repeatedly sexually abused them, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S Magistrate Judge Rachel Schwartz acknowledged the allegations against Roger Golubski represented “reprehensible conduct” and the underlying facts were “shocking,” but said he is not as much of risk as he would have been when the alleged crimes occurred. Prosecutors had also argued that he might try to flee, but Schwartz said his serious medical issues tie him to the community.
Golubski, 69, was arrested and charged Thursday on six counts of civil rights violations alleging that as an officer with the Kansas City, Kansas, police department, he sexually abused a Black woman and a teenager more than two decades ago. Five counts allege that Golubski kidnapped or tried to kidnap the victims.
Schwartz ordered Golubski to remain at home except for religious services and medical care, to be monitored around the clock, and to have no contact with possible victims or potential witnesses.
Prosecutors filed a motion Friday that included graphic details of his encounters with the two accusers and that added complaints from seven other females who say Golubski harassed and abused them.
Golubski has not been charged in those seven cases, but prosecutors argued they provided more evidence that he is dangerous and has shown “nothing but utter contempt for the law.”
Several women who say they or their relatives were victimized by Golubski attended Monday’s hearing.
Golubski, who retired in 2010, has pleaded not guilty. He faces a possible life sentence on each of the six counts.
The case is being tried in federal court, rather than state court, because federal law does not have a statute of limitations for civil rights violations, former U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.
At the time of the alleged crimes, Kansas had a five-year statute of limitations for rape and aggravated sodomy. Kansas no longer has a statute of limitations for rape, but that doesn’t apply retroactively, McCallister said.
Golubski’s attorney, Tom Lemon, said Golubski needs medical care for diabetes and to recover from quintuple bypass heart surgery. He also said it would be difficult to provide an adequate defense if Golubski remains jailed. The case requires “intensive” work because it appears prosecutors have no physical evidence, just victim statements, Lemon said.
“Now that he is sick and infirm, now the claim is that he is dangerous,” Lemon said. “I don’t see how he is a danger to anyone.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hunting argued that Golubski’s medical care could be worked out.
“Mr.Golubski has terrorized a community for a long, long time,” Hunting said.
The motion filed Friday alleges Golubski displayed his gun while demanding sex and told the victims he would have them or their relatives imprisoned or killed if they ever told anyone what he did, prosecutors said.
The charges accuse Golubski of sexually assaulting a girl more than 10 times over about three years. He repeatedly told the girl, who was 13 when the abuse allegedly began, that he would kill her or her grandmother. He told her he would throw her in a river and sang a version of childhood song with the phrase, “where they won’t find her until she stank,” according to the motion.
The other victim in the charged case, Ophelia Williams, was raped and sexually assaulted several times over two or three years, according to the motion. He initially abused Williams shortly after her two sons were arrested, prosecutors said.
The Associated Press generally does not name alleged victims of sexual assault, but Williams has told her story publicly.
The seven other victims were abused or threatened by Golubski between 1980s and 2004, prosecutors said.
One woman said she called the Kansas City, Kansas, police internal affairs department to report her encounter with Golubski but was told “there was nothing they could do because it was (her) word against the defendant’s,” prosecutors wrote.
The police department said Monday that Chief Karl Oakman would not have any comment on the motion. Mayor Tyrone Garner has said he is committed to pushing for improvements in police-community relations to restore trust.
Another victim said Golubski sexually assaulted and raped her periodically between the mid-1990s and 2004 while threatening to take away her children, prosecutors said. In 2016, the woman was in the hospital when Golubski showed up and said, “Long time no see,” according to the indictment, prompting her to change hospitals, according to the motion.
Civil rights groups for years sought an investigation into Golubski. The allegations gained attention after Lamonte McIntyre, who spent 23 years in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit, sued Golubski and other Kansas City, Kansas, officers. McIntyre and his mother, Rose McIntyre, alleged that Golubski framed Lamont in 1994 because she refused the detective’s sexual demands.
The local government agreed in June to settle the lawsuit for $12.5 million.
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Stafford reported from Liberty, Mo.
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WINDSOR, England — Queen Elizabeth II’s beloved dogs and one of her favorite ponies greeted the late monarch’s coffin when it was brought to Windsor Castle.
Corgis Muick and Sandy were brought into the castle’s quadrangle for the coffin’s arrival following the queen’s funeral at Westminster Abbey and a drive through London and on to Windsor.
Emma, a black fell pony the queen owned for 26 years, stood on the grass with a groom at the side of the Long Walk in front of the castle as the coffin procession marched past before a committal service at St. George’s Chapel.
The queen’s affection for her dogs and her horses was well known. She owned more than 30 corgis during her lifetime. Muick and Sandy have been rehomed with her son, Prince Andrew.
___
KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
— Britain and the world to lay Queen Elizabeth II to rest
— Queen to be reunited with Philip and her parents in Windsor
— ‘I didn’t want to miss it’: Royal funeral on global live TV
— Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is huge security challenge
— AP Photos: Tearful crowds mourn Queen Elizabeth II
— World leaders head to London for Queen Elizabeth II funeral
— Queen paved the way for transition to Charles in final years
— Find more AP coverage here
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
WINDSOR, England — Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin has been lowered into the royal vault at St. George’s Chapel, in Windsor Castle, at the conclusion of her committal service.
The Lord Chamberlain, the most senior official in the British royal household, broke a rod known as the “wand of office” as the royal family and hundreds of mourners bid a final farewell to the late monarch.
Andrew Parker, who is the former head of Britain’s domestic secret service MI5, broke the white rod and placed it on the queen’s coffin. The ritual symbolizes the end of his service to the monarch.
Earlier David Conner, the Dean of Windsor, paid tribute to the queen, telling 800 mourners gathered at the chapel about the queen as “someone whose uncomplicated yet profound Christian faith bore so much fruit.”
He said: “In the midst of our rapidly changing and frequently troubled world, her calm and dignified presence has given us confidence to face the future, as she did, with courage and with hope.”
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WINDSOR, England — The order of service for Queen Elizabeth II’s committal service at Windsor Castle was planned by the late monarch for many years.
She chose all the hymns except for the very last one, which was selected by her son and heir King Charles III.
Most of the music played during the service was composed by Sir William Harris, who was an organist at the chapel for much of the queen’s childhood.
As a child, Elizabeth was often seen visiting the organ loft to watch the composer play, especially during Christmas.
Later Monday, a private ceremony was to be held by members of the royal family before the queen is laid to rest, next to her late husband Prince Philip.
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WINDSOR, England — A procession carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin has entered St. George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle for the late monarch’s committal service.
Eight hundred guests are attending the service, including prime ministers from Commonwealth countries and many staff who worked with the queen or on her royal estates.
Most of those attending the chapel service did not attend the state funeral held at Westminster Abbey in London earlier Monday.
During the service, the Imperial State Crown and the sovereign’s orb and sceptre are removed from the top of the queen’s coffin and placed on an altar, separating the queen from her crown for the last time.
The Dean of Windsor reads a psalm and the queen’s coffin is lowered into the chapel’s royal vault.
Later Monday, the royals will hold a private service at the chapel, when the queen will be interred together with her late husband Prince Philip, who died last year at 99.
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WINDSOR, England — The state hearse carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin has arrived at Windsor Castle for the final stretch of a long procession that ends at St. George’s Chapel, where the late monarch will be laid to rest.
Thousands of people lined both sides of the Long Walk in front of the castle as a military procession escorted the coffin in slow procession.
Silence fell among the sea of mourners as the sound of drummers grew louder, and many at the back of the crowd raised their phones high in the air to try to get a glimpse of the scene.
The ceremonies in Windsor are the final events capping 10 days of national mourning since Elizabeth died in Scotland on Sept. 8 aged 96.
Earlier Monday, hundreds of world leaders and dignitaries bid a final farewell to the monarch at a grand state funeral in London’s Westminster Abbey, before the coffin was carried by gun carriage through central London.
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LONDON — The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II has competed a procession at walking pace through central London and is bound in a hearse for her final resting place at Windsor Castle.
After being pulled more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from Westminster Abbey on a gun carriage by 142 Royal Navy sailors, the coffin was transferred to a hearse at Wellington Arch, near Buckingham Palace.
Dozens of Buckingham Place staff stood in a neat line in the palace courtyard, and many bowed or curtseyed as the procession passed by.
The monarch’s coffin will go by car the 20 miles (32 kilometers) to Windsor Castle, where she will be interred later Monday alongside her husband Prince Philip, who died last year.
Dense crowds packed the route through the heart of ceremonial London – and thousands more people are lining the more workaday suburban roads the hearse will take on its journey to Windsor.
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TOKYO — In Japan, several people sipped beer at The Aldgate British pub in Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya district, where Queen Elizabeth II’s London funeral was streaming live on several screens where soccer games are usually shown.
“Her death had such impact,” said Tomotaka Hosokawa, a dentist, who has been to Britain twice and feels Japanese and British culture have much in common.
“This is all happening abroad, but it is also important for us,” he said Monday, as bagpipes blared and choruses sang from the screens. A portrait of the queen stood on the pub’s counter.
In Japan, state funerals are generally reserved for the emperor, who was attending the queen’s funeral, given the close relations between the royal and imperial families.
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LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin is being taken on a gun carriage from Westminster Abbey for a last procession through the heart of London.
The coffin is being transported to Windsor, outside the British capital, where the former monarch will be laid to rest later Monday.
King Charles III and other senior royals are marching behind the coffin to Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner. Tens of thousands of people are lining the route.
Gun salutes are being fired in nearby Hyde Park, and Big Ben is tolling at one-minute intervals during the procession.
The coffin is to be taken by hearse to Windsor, where the queen will be interred alongside her late husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.
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LONDON — A two-minute silence has been observed across the United Kingdom in memory of Queen Elizabeth II as the late monarch’s state funeral service drew to a close in Westminster Abbey.
Britain’s royal family, along with hundreds of world leaders and dignitaries gathered at the Gothic abbey in London for the service Monday, lowered their heads as Household Cavalry trumpeters played “The Last Post.”
The congregation then observed a two-minute silence before singing the national anthem.
A lament, played by the Queen’s Piper, brought the service to a close.
After the service, the queen’s coffin was to be laid to rest at Windsor Castle .
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LONDON — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has said “few leaders receive the outpouring of love we have seen” for Queen Elizabeth II.
In a sermon at the monarch’s funeral in Westminster Abbey, the leader of the Church of England said the queen “was joyful, present to so many, touching a multitude of lives.”
Recalling the queen’s promise on her 21st birthday that “her whole life would be dedicated to serving the nation and the Commonwealth,” Welby said: “Rarely has such a promise been so well kept.”
The funeral service includes readings and hymns of significance to the queen, including the hymn “The Lord’s My Shepherd,” which was sung at her wedding to Prince Philip in the same abbey in 1947.
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LONDON — The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II is underway at Westminster Abbey, where 2,000 mourners are gathered to say goodbye to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
The queen’s coffin sits at the center of the abbey after being borne Monday by pallbearers and accompanied by her son King Charles III, and other members of the royal family.
They included Prince William, his wife Kate and their two elder children George, 9 and Charlotte, 7. Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, also walked behind the coffin.
Dean of Westminster David Hoyle opened the service in the ancient abbey, where Elizabeth was married and crowned.
He said: “We gather from across the nation, from the Commonwealth, and from the nations of the world, to mourn our loss, to remember her long life of selfless service, and in sure confidence to commit her to the mercy of God our maker and redeemer.”
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LONDON — Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral procession has arrived at the West Gate of Westminster Abbey for a state funeral service.
Pallbearers have lifted the coffin from the state gun carriage and carried it inside the Gothic medieval abbey where 2,000 mourners stood as it entered Monday.
Crowds lined the route of the procession through London. Bagpipes played as soldiers in bear skin hats and 142 sailors escorted the coffin from Westminster Hall, where the queen lay in state for four full days for the public to pay their respects ahead of her funeral.
The queen’s coffin is draped with the royal standard and a wreath of flowers including blooms and foliage cut from the gardens of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House at Charles’s request.
They include rosemary for remembrance, and myrtle cut from a plant that was grown from a sprig of myrtle in the queen’s wedding bouquet in 1947.
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LONDON — Pallbearers formed by members of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards have taken Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin from Westminster Hall for a solemn procession to nearby Westminster Abbey, where her state funeral service is to be held.
The late monarch’s coffin has been lying in state in Westminster Hall for four days. Hundreds of thousands of people have filed past to pay their last respects.
On Monday morning the coffin was placed on a state gun carriage, to be drawn by 142 Royal Navy service personnel to the nearby abbey past crowds of mourners lining the route.
The gun carriage was also used for the funerals of Edward VII, George V, George VI and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
King Charles III and other members of the royal family, members of the King’s Household and the Household of the Prince of Wales are following the coffin.
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LONDON — U.S. President Joe Biden and his wife Jill have arrived at Westminster Abbey for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The American leader is among hundreds of heads of state and political leaders from around the world attending the funeral service in London.
Throngs of people were lined up, six people deep along the route of the funeral procession after the service. Many held up their cellphones to grab images of the day’s events.
Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in the city for the ceremonies.
After the funeral the queen’s coffin will be taken to Windsor Castle to be laid to rest.
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LONDON — A bell at Westminster Abbey has begun tolling 96 times, once for each year of Queen Elizabeth II’s life.
The abbey’s Tenor Bell struck at 9:24 a.m. Monday and was due to toll once a minute until the queen’s funeral service begins at 11 a.m.
Hundreds of mourners have already arrived at the Gothic cathedral for the service. They will be joined by royalty, heads of state and political leaders from around the world.
Others drawn from members of the public include long-serving nurse Nancy O’Neill, recognized for her efforts in the fight against Covid-19, and Pranav Bhanot, who helped deliver 1,200 free meals during the pandemic.
Afterward, a funeral procession will wind through city streets with the coffin carried on the state gun carriage as it makes its way to Windsor Castle to be laid to rest.
London authorities said almost three hours before the procession that all public viewing areas were already full.
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LONDON — Mourners are arriving at Westminster Abbey to take their seats for Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral service.
Guests began entering the Gothic medieval abbey shortly after 8 a.m. (0700 GMT; 3 a.m. EDT) on Monday.
Dignitaries were arriving later, with many heads of state gathering at a nearby hospital to be driven by bus to the abbey.
Westminster Abbey is where Elizabeth was married in 1947 and crowned in 1953.
A day packed with funeral events in London and Windsor began early when the doors of 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed in front of her coffin since Sept 14.
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CANBERRA, Australia — Around 300 people are expected to watch a broadcast of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral at an official Australian residence where during her final visit to the country the late monarch was woken in the mornings by shrieking sulfur-crested cockatoos.
The doors of Government House, the residence in the Australian capital Canberra of the British monarch’s representative Governor-General David Hurley, will be open to registered members of the public for the funeral.
Hurley is attending the London funeral in person. The queen spent several nights in Government House during her last Australian visit in 2011 and remarked at the time on the noise that the large white parrots made at dawn.
The public offer of an opportunity to watch the funeral at the 19th century mansion set on 54 hectares (130 acres) of parkland populated by kangaroos and other native wildlife was overwhelmed. Registration closed on Tuesday last week, a Government House official said.
The queen visited Canberra during 14 of her 16 Australian visits, beginning in 1954.
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PARIS — The Paris Metro has renamed one of its stations after Queen Elizabeth II to honor the British monarch on the day of her state funeral.
The Metro company tweeted that the George V station, which serves the French capital’s famed Champs-Elysees boulevard, has been renamed Elizabeth II station for the day on Monday.
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LONDON — The last member of the public to view Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin as it lay in state at the Houses of Parliament was Chrissy Heerey, a serving member of the Royal Air Force from Melton Mowbray.
Heerey says “it felt like a real privilege to do that.”
She said Monday she went through Westminster Hall twice — the first time in the early hours of the morning and then again just before its doors closed to mourners at 6:30 a.m. (0530GMT).
She says the experience was, “one of the highlights of my life and I feel very privileged to be here.”
As the end of more than four days of the queen’s lying-in-state drew to a close, the stream of mourners slowed to a trickle. After Heerey bowed her head toward the coffin and moved away, parliamentary officials paid their last respects before leaving the queen’s coffin in the 900-year-old hall ringed by four candles and military guards in ceremonial uniforms.
Her coffin was being taken later Monday morning to Westminster Abbey for a state funeral attended by 2,000 people.
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LONDON — Prince William and his wife Catherine’s 9-year-old son Prince George and 7-year-old daughter Princess Charlotte will attend Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral.
George, who is now second in line to the throne, and his sister will walk through Westminster Abbey with the royal family in procession behind the queen’s coffin as it is carried by pallbearers Monday.
The funeral’s order of service showed that George and Charlotte will walk together behind their parents. They will be followed by Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and other royal family members.
The royal children’s 4-year-old brother, Prince Louis, is not expected to be present at the funeral, which will be attended by some 2,000 people.
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| 2022-09-21T03:55:17Z
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LONDON (AP) — After the pomp and pageantry of a grand state funeral, Queen Elizabeth II will be laid to rest in an intimate ceremony away from prying cameras in Windsor, where she will be reunited with her late husband and her parents.
King Charles III and senior royal family members will gather later Monday for the interment ceremony at St. George’s Chapel, a gothic church on the grounds of Windsor Castle that has hosted royal weddings, christenings and burials since the 15th century.
The chapel is the resting place of 10 former British monarchs, including Henry VIII and the beheaded Charles I. Elizabeth II’s parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, were interred there along with the ashes of Princess Margaret, the late monarch’s younger sister who died in 2002.
The chapel is also the home of the Order of the Garter, an ancient order of chivalry founded by King Edward III in 1348.
On Monday, 800 mourners, many of them the queen’s staff, joined royal family members in the chapel for a committal service — the last public ceremony capping 10 days of national mourning.
Later Monday the queen’s coffin will be interred together with Prince Philip’s remains at the King George VI memorial chapel, an annex within St. George’s. That event, which royal officials described as a “deeply personal family occasion,” will not be televised.
Last year the queen bid farewell to her beloved husband, 99-year-old Philip, at St. George’s in a “COVID-secure” funeral. The ceremony to mark the death of Philip, the queen’s husband of 73 years, was muted because of strict pandemic restrictions, and only 30 mourners were allowed inside the chapel at the time.
St. George’s and Windsor featured prominently throughout the queen’s life. The chapel was where she marked many a Christmas and Easter, and where she celebrated the weddings of three of her grandchildren: Prince Harry married Meghan Markle there in 2018, as did Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank. Peter Philips, the queen’s oldest grandchild, married Autumn Kelly there in 2008.
The queen spent most of her weekends in Windsor, a quiet and more private retreat away from the bustle of Buckingham Palace in central London.
The castle — believed to be the largest occupied castle in the world — was also where young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret were sent to live during World War II while their parents were busy with the war effort.
In recent years the queen made Windsor Castle her main residence, having moved there in early 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Follow all AP stories on the death of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.
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TOKYO (AP) — A tropical storm that dumped heavy rain as it cut across Japan moved into the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday after killing two and injuring more than 100, paralyzing traffic and leaving thousands of homes without power.
New damage was reported in southern Japan, where Typhoon Nanmadol hit over the weekend before weakening as it moved north.
On Tanegashima island, south of Kyushu island, a wall was damaged at a Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency’s space center, the Economy and Industry Ministry said. The extent of damage to the building used for rocket assembly was being assessed.
Two deaths were reported in Miyazaki prefecture on Japan’s southern main island of Kyushu on Monday, when the storm was more powerful, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. One was a man was found in a car sunk in a flooded farm in Miyakonojo town, and another was found underneath a landslide in Mimata.
One person was missing in the western prefecture of Hiroshima, and 115 others were injured across western Japan, the agency said. Most of injuries were minor, with people falling down in the rainstorm, hit by shards of broken windows or flying objects.
More than 130,000 homes, most of them in the Kyushu region, were still without power Tuesday morning, according to the Economy and Industry Ministry. Many convenience stores were at one point closed and some distribution of supplies has been delayed.
Most transportation returned to normal on Tuesday when commuters returned to work after a three-day weekend. Bullet trains and most ground transportation resumed operation, but dozens of flights were grounded in northeastern Japan.
The tropical storm has headed out to the Pacific Ocean off northern Japanese coast, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Tuesday.
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CAYEY, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety.
The storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital island, on Tuesday morning after the government imposed a curfew and urged people to flee flood-prone areas. Storm surge could raise water levels there by as much as 5 to 8 feet above normal, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
While the storm was still lashing the archipelago late Tuesday, officials reported only a handful of downed trees and electric posts and no deaths. However, they noted that telecommunications on Grand Turk were severely affected.
“Fiona definitely has battled us over the last few hours, and we’re not out of the thick of it yet,” said Akierra Missick, minister of physical planning and infrastructure development.
Late Tuesday night, the storm was centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of North Caicos Island, with hurricane-force winds extending up to 30 miles (45 kilometers) from the center.
Premier Washington Misick had urged people to evacuate. “Storms are unpredictable,” he said in a statement from London, where he had attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Fiona had maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 kph) and was moving north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph), according to the Hurricane Center, which said the storm was likely to strengthen into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Bermuda on Friday.
Rain was still lashing parts of Puerto Rico Tuesday, where the sounds of people scraping, sweeping and spraying their homes and streets echoed across rural areas as historic floodwaters began to recede.
In the central mountain town of Cayey, where the Plato River burst its banks and the brown torrent of water consumed cars and homes, overturned dressers, beds and large refrigerators lay strewn in people’s yards Tuesday.
“Puerto Rico is not prepared for this, or for anything,” said Mariangy Hernández, a 48-year-old housewife, who said she doubted the government would help her community of some 300 in the long term, despite ongoing efforts to clear the streets and restore power. “This is only for a couple of days and later they forget about us.”
She and her husband were stuck in line waiting for the National Guard to clear a landslide in their hilly neighborhood.
“Is it open? Is it open?” one driver asked, worried that the road might have been completely closed.
Other drivers asked the National Guard if they could swing by their homes to help cut trees or clear clumps of mud and debris.
The cleanup efforts occurred on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which hit as a Category 4 storm in 2017 and knocked out power for a year in parts of Cayey.
Jeannette Soto, a 34-year-old manicurist, worried it would take a long time for crews to restore power because a landslide swept away the neighborhood’s main light post.
“It’s the first time this happens,” she said of the landslides. “We didn’t think the magnitude of the rain was going to be so great.”
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi requested a major disaster declaration on Tuesday and said it would be at least a week before authorities have an estimate of the damage that Fiona caused.
He said the damage caused by the rain was “catastrophic,” especially in the island’s central, south and southeast regions.
“The impact caused by the hurricane has been devastating for many people,” he said.
The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency traveled to Puerto Rico on Tuesday as the agency announced it was sending hundreds of additional personnel to boost local response efforts.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared a public health emergency on the island and deployed a couple of teams to the U.S. territory.
The broad storm kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio.
Another death was linked to a power blackout — a 70-year-old man was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.
Parts of the island had received more than 25 inches (64 centimeters) of rain and more was falling Tuesday.
National Guard Brig. Gen. Narciso Cruz described the flooding as historic.
“There were communities that flooded in the storm that didn’t flood under Maria,” he said, referring to the 2017 hurricane that caused nearly 3,000 deaths. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Cruz said 670 people have been rescued in Puerto Rico, including 19 people at a retirement home in Cayey that was in danger of collapsing.
“The rivers broke their banks and blanketed communities,” he said.
Some people were rescued via kayaks and boats while others nestled into the massive shovel of a digger and were lifted to higher ground.
He lamented that some people initially refused to leave their homes, adding that he understood why.
“It’s human nature,” he said. “But when they saw their lives were in danger, they agreed to leave.”
The blow from Fiona was made more devastating because Puerto Rico has yet to recover from Hurricane Maria, which destroyed the power grid in 2017. Five years later, more than 3,000 homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday he would push for the federal government to cover 100% of disaster response costs — instead of the usual 75% — as part of an emergency disaster declaration.
“We need to make sure this time, Puerto Rico has absolutely everything it needs, as soon as possible, for as long as they need it,” he said.
Authorities said Tuesday that at least 1,220 people and more than 70 pets remained in shelters across the island.
Fiona triggered a blackout when it hit Puerto Rico’s southwest corner on Sunday, the anniversary of Hurricane Hugo, which slammed into the island in 1989 as a Category 3 storm.
By Tuesday morning, authorities said they had restored power to nearly 300,000 of the island’s 1.47 million customers. Puerto Rico’s governor warned it could take days before everyone has electricity.
Water service was cut to more than 760,000 customers — two thirds of the total on the island — because of turbid water at filtration plants or lack of power, officials said.
Fiona was forecast to weaken before running into easternmost Canada over the weekend. It was not expected to threaten the U.S. mainland.
In the Dominican Republic, authorities reported two deaths: a 68-year-old man hit by a falling tree and an 18-year-old girl who was struck by a falling electrical post while riding a motorcycle. The storm forced more than 1,550 people to seek safety in government shelters and left more than 406,500 homes without power.
The hurricane left several highways blocked, and a tourist pier in the town of Miches was badly damaged by high waves. At least four international airports were closed, officials said.
The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said authorities would need several days to assess the storm’s effects.
Fiona previously battered the eastern Caribbean, killing one man in the French territory of Guadeloupe when floodwaters washed his home away, officials said.
___
Associated Press reporters Martín Adames in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Maricarmen Rivera Sánchez in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed.
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| 2022-09-21T03:55:41Z
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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico’s central Pacific coast on Monday, killing at least one person and setting off a seismic alarm in the rattled capital on the anniversary of two earlier devastating quakes.
There were at least some early reports of damage to buildings from the quake, which hit at 1:05 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey, which had initially put the magnitude at 7.5.
It said the quake was centered 37 kilometers (23 miles) southeast of Aquila near the boundary of Colima and Michoacan states and at a depth of 15.1 kilometers (9.4 miles).
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said via Twitter that the secretary of the navy told him one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima when a wall at a mall collapsed.
In Coalcoman, Michoacan, near the quake’s epicenter, buildings were damaged, but there were not immediate reports of injuries.
“It started slowly and then was really strong and continued and continued until it started to relent,” said 16-year-old Carla Cárdenas, a resident of Coalcoman. Cárdenas ran out of her family’s hotel and waited with neighbors.
She said the hotel and some homes along the street displayed cracks in walls and segments of facades and roofs had broken off.
“In the hotel, the roof of the parking area boomed and fell to the ground, and there are cracks in the walls on the second floor,” Cárdenas said.
She said the town’s hospital was seriously damaged, but she had so far not heard of anyone injured.
Mexico’s National Civil Defense agency said that based on historic data of tsunamis in Mexico, variations of as much as 32 inches (82 cm) were possible in coastal water levels near the epicenter. The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center said that hazardous tsunami waves were possible for coasts within 186 miles (300 kilometers) of the epicenter.
Irlanda Villa, of coastal Coahuayana, Michoacan near the border with Colima, said some walls had fallen, but the big fear was that a tsunami would follow. “We were afraid the sea would go out, but in the end everything is fine.”
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum tweeted that there were no reports of damage in the capital
Alarms for the new quake came less than an hour after a quake alarms warbled in a nationwide earthquake simulation marking major quakes that struck on the same date in 1985 and 2017. The magnitude 8.0 quake centered near the coast of Guerrero state in 1985 killed at least 9,500 people. More than 360 people died in the magnitude 7.1 quake that struck in 2017.
“This is a coincidence,” that this is the third Sept. 19 earthquake, said U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Paul Earle. “There’s no physical reason or statistical bias toward earthquakes in any given month in Mexico.”
Nor is there a season or month for big earthquakes anywhere on the globe, Earle said. But there is a predictable thing: People seek and sometimes find coincidences that look like patterns.
“We knew we’d get this question as soon as it happened,” Earle said. “Sometimes there are just coincidences.”
The quake was not related to or caused by the drill an hour or so earlier, nor was it connected to a damaging temblor in Taiwan the day before, Earle said.
Humberto Garza stood outside a restaurant in Mexico City’s Roma neighborhood holding his 3-year son. Like many milling about outside after the earthquake, Garza said the earthquake alarm sounded so soon after the annual simulation that he was not sure it was real.
“I heard the alarm, but it sounded really far away,” he said.
Outside the city’s environmental ombudsman’s office, dozens of employees waited. Some appeared visibly shaken.
Power was out in parts of the city, including stoplights, snarling the capital’s already notorious traffic.
__
AP writers Christopher Sherman in Mexico City and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T03:55:47Z
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ISLAMABAD (AP) — A senior Taliban detainee held for years at Guantanamo Bay said Monday he was released and handed over earlier in the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in exchange for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan.
Bashir Noorzai, a notorious drug lord and member of the Taliban, told reporters in Kabul that he spent 17 years and six months in the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and that he was the last Taliban prisoner there.
The Taliban-appointed Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also spoke at the press conference alongside Noorzai and welcomed the exchange, saying it marked the start of a “new era” in U.S.-Taliban relations.
Muttaqi said the released American was Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran and civilian contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, 2020. He was last seen in a video earlier this year, pleading for his release so that he can be reunited with his family, according to a recording posted by The New Yorker magazine at the time. In the video, Frerichs says it was filmed last November.
Frerichs, of Lombard, Illinois, was believed to be held by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, and U.S. officials across two presidential administrations have tried unsuccessfully to get him home.
There was no independent confirmation or word from Washington on Frerichs’ release.
Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban have demanded the United States release Noorzai in exchange for Frerichs amid expectations of such exchanges for U.S. citizens held in Afghanistan.
However, Washington has not moved forward on any sort of prisoner trade or exchange.
The Taliban posted a brief video Monday on social media showing Noorzai’s arrival at the Kabul airport where he was welcomed by top Taliban officials, including Muttaqi.
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| 2022-09-21T03:55:53Z
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas sheriff on Monday opened an investigation into two flights of migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but did not say what laws may have been broken in putting 48 Venezuelans on private planes last week from San Antonio.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, an elected Democrat, railed against the flights that took off in his city as political posturing. But he said investigators had so far only spoken to attorneys representing some of the migrants and did not name any potential suspects who might face charges.
He also did not mention DeSantis in a news conference that appeared to mark the first time a law enforcement official has said they would look into the flights.
“I believe there is some criminal activity involved here,” Salazar said. “But at present we are trying to keep an open mind and we are going to investigate to find out what exact laws were broken if that does turn out to be the case.”
DeSantis’ office responded with a statement that said the migrants had been given more options to succeed in Massachusetts.
“Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and ‘left to fend for themselves,’” DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske said. “Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected.”
The Venezuelan migrants who were flown to the wealthy Massachusetts island from San Antonio on Wednesday said they were told they were going to Boston. Julio Henriquez, an attorney who met with several migrants, said they “had no idea of where they were going or where they were.”
He said a Latina woman approached migrants at a city-run shelter in San Antonio and put them up at a nearby La Quinta Inn, where she visited daily with food and gift cards. She promised jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, according to Henriquez.
Salazar said the migrants had been “preyed upon” and “hoodwinked.”
Some Democrats have urged the Justice Department to investigate the flights, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio.
A federal investigation might be complicated, however. It’s not clear whether anyone boarded buses or planes unwillingly, or that their civil rights were violated. The rights of asylum seekers arriving to the U.S. are also more limited because they are not citizens. The constitution, though, does protect them from discrimination based on race or national origin and from improper treatment by the government.
___
Associated Press reporters Acacia Coronado and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T03:55:59Z
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile blasted a crater close to a nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Monday, damaging nearby industrial equipment but not hitting its three reactors. Ukrainian authorities denounced the move as an act of “nuclear terrorism.”
The missile struck within 300 meters (328 yards) of the reactors at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk in Mykolaiv province, leaving a hole 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) deep and 4 meters (13 feet) wide, according to Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom.
The reactors were operating normally and no employees were injured, it said. But the proximity of the strike renewed fears that Russia’s nearly 7-month-long war in Ukraine might produce a radiation disaster.
This nuclear power station is Ukraine’s second-largest after the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has repeatedly come under fire.
Following recent battlefield setbacks, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened last week to step up Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Throughout the war, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s electricity generation and transmission equipment, causing blackouts and endangering the safety systems of the country’s nuclear power plants.
The industrial complex that includes the South Ukraine plant sits along the Southern Bug River about 300 kilometers (190 miles) south of the capital, Kyiv. The attack caused the temporary shutdown of a nearby hydroelectric power plant and shattered more than 100 windows at the complex, Ukrainian authorities said. The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency said three power lines were knocked offline but later reconnected.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released a black-and-white video showing two large fireballs erupting one after the other in the dark, followed by incandescent showers of sparks, at 19 minutes after midnight. The ministry and Energoatom called the strike “nuclear terrorism.”
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately comment on the attack.
Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, since early after the invasion. Shelling has cut off the plant’s transmission lines, forcing operators to shut down its six reactors to avoid a radiation disaster. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the strikes.
The IAEA, which has stationed monitors at the Zaporizhzhia plant, said a main transmission line was reconnected Friday, providing the electricity it needs to cool its reactors.
But the mayor of Enerhodar, where the Zaporizhzhia plant is located, reported more Russian shelling Monday in the city’s industrial zone.
While warning Friday of a possible ramp-up of strikes, Putin claimed his forces had so far acted with restraint but warned “if the situation develops this way, our response will be more serious.”
“Just recently, the Russian armed forces have delivered a couple of impactful strikes,” he said. ”Let’s consider those as warning strikes.”
The latest Russian shelling killed at least eight civilians and wounded 22, Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday. The governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region, now largely back in Ukrainian hands, said Russian shelling killed four medical workers trying to evacuate patients from a psychiatric hospital and wounded two patients.
The mayor of the Russian-occupied eastern city of Donetsk, meanwhile, said Ukrainian shelling had killed 13 civilians and wounded eight there.
Patricia Lewis, the international security research director at the Chatham House think-tank in London, said attacks at the Zaporizhzhia plant and Monday’s strike on the South Ukraine plant indicated that the Russian military was attempting to knock Ukrainian nuclear plants offline before winter.
“It’s a very, very dangerous and illegal act to be targeting a nuclear station,” Lewis told The Associated Press. “Only the generals will know the intent, but there’s clearly a pattern.”
“What they seem to be doing each time is to try to cut off the power to the reactor,” she said. “It’s a very clumsy way to do it, because how accurate are these missiles?”
Power is needed to run pumps that circulate cooling water to the reactors, preventing overheating and — in a worst-case scenario — a radiation-spewing nuclear fuel meltdown.
Other recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure have targeted power plants in the north and a dam in the south. They came in response to a sweeping Ukrainian counterattack in the country’s east that reclaimed Russia-occupied territory in the Kharkiv region.
Analysts have noted that beyond recapturing territory, challenges remain in holding it. In a video address Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy said cryptically of that effort, “I cannot reveal all the details, but thanks to the Security Service of Ukraine, we are now confident that the occupiers will not have any foothold on Ukrainian soil.”
The Ukrainian successes in Kharkiv — Russia’s biggest defeat since its forces were repelled from around Kyiv in the invasion’s opening stage — have fueled rare public criticism in Russia and added to the military and diplomatic pressure on Putin. The Kremlin’s nationalist critics have questioned why Moscow has failed to plunge Ukraine into darkness yet by hitting all of its major nuclear power plants.
In other developments:
— A governor said Ukraine had recaptured the village of Bilogorivka in the Russian-occupied eastern region of Luhansk. Russia didn’t acknowledge the claim.
— The Russian-installed leaders of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson regions reiterated calls Monday for referendums to be held to tie their areas formally to Russia. These officials have discussed such plans before but the referendums have been repeatedly delayed, possibly because of insufficient popular support.
— The Supreme Court in the Russian-occupied region of Luhansk convicted a former interpreter for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and another person whose duties were not specified of high treason Monday. Both were sentenced to 13 years in prison.
—The Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania closed their borders Monday to most Russian citizens in response to domestic support in Russia for the war in Ukraine. Poland will join the ban on Sept. 26.
— Mega-pop star Alla Pugacheva became the most prominent Russian celebrity to criticize the war, describing Russia in an Instagram post Sunday as “a pariah” and saying its soldiers were dying for “illusory goals.” Valery Fadeyev, the head of the Russian president’s Human Rights Council, accused Pugacheva of insincerely citing humanitarian concerns to justify her criticism and predicted that popular artists like her would enjoy less public influence after the war.
___
AP journalist John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed.
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Follow AP war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:05Z
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The world’s problems seized the spotlight Tuesday as the U.N. General Assembly’s yearly meeting of world leaders opened with dire assessments of a planet beset by escalating crises and conflicts that an aging international order seems increasingly ill-equipped to tackle.
After two years when many leaders weighed in by video because of the coronavirus pandemic, now presidents, premiers, monarchs and foreign ministers have gathered almost entirely in person for diplomacy’s premier global event.
But the tone is far from celebratory. Instead, it’s the blare of a tense and worried world.
“We are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that “our world is in peril — and paralyzed.”
He and others pointed to conflicts ranging from Russia’s six-month-old war in Ukraine to the decades-long dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Speakers worried about a changing climate, spiking fuel prices, food shortages, economic inequality, migration, disinformation, discrimination, hate speech, public health and more.
Priorities varied, as did prescriptions for curing the humanity’s ills. But in a forum dedicated to the idea of bringing the world together, many leaders sounded a common theme: The globe needs cooperation, dialogue and trust, now more than ever.
“We live in an era of uncertainty and shocks,” Chilean President Gabriel Boric said. “It is clear nowadays that no country, large or small, humble or powerful, can save itself on its own.”
Or, as Guterres put it, “Let’s work as one, as a coalition of the world, as united nations.”
It’s rarely that easy. As Guterres himself noted, geopolitical divisions are undermining the work of the U.N. Security Council, international law, people’s trust in democratic institutions, and most forms of international cooperation.
“The divergence between developed and developing countries, between North and South, between the privileged and the rest, is becoming more dangerous by the day,” the secretary-general said. “It is at the root of the geopolitical tensions and lack of trust that poison every area of global cooperation, from vaccines to sanctions to trade.”
While appeals to preserve large-scale international cooperation — or multilateralism, in diplomatic parlance — abound, so do different ideas about the balance between working together and standing up for oneself, and about whether an “international order” set up after World War II needs reordering.
“We want a multilateralism that is open and respectful of our differences,” Senegalese President Macky Sall said. He added that the U.N. can win all countries’ support only “on the basis of shared ideals, and not local values erected as universal norms.”
After the pandemic forced an entirely virtual meeting in 2020 and a hybrid one last year, delegates reflecting the world’s countries and cultures are once again filling the halls of the United Nations headquarters this week. Before the meeting began, leaders and ministers wearing masks wandered the assembly hall, chatting individually and in groups.
It was a sign that that despite the fragmented state of the international community, the United Nations remains the key gathering place for global leaders. Nearly 150 heads of state and government have signed on to speak during the nearly weeklong “General Debate,” a high number that illustrates the gathering’s distinction as a place to deliver their views and meet privately to discuss various challenges — and, they hope, make some progress.
Guterres made sure to start out by sounding a note of hope. He showed a photo of the first U.N.-chartered ship carrying grain from Ukraine — part of a deal between Ukraine and Russia that the U.N. and Turkey helped broker — to the Horn of Africa, where millions of people are on the edge of famine It is, he said, an example of promise “in a world teeming with turmoil.”
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine topped the agenda for many speakers.
The conflict has become the largest war in Europe since World War II and has opened fissures among major powers in a way not seen since the Cold War. It also has raised fears of a nuclear catastrophe at a large power plant in Ukraine’s now Russia-occupied southeast.
Meanwhile, the loss of important grain and fertilizer exports from Ukraine and Russia has triggered a food crisis, especially in developing countries, and inflation and a rising cost of living in many nations.
As Jordan’s King Abdullah II noted, well-off countries that are having unfamiliar experiences of scarcity “are discovering a truth that people in developing countries have known for a long time: For countries to thrive, affordable food must get to every family’s table.”
Leaders in many countries are trying to prevent a wider war and restore peace in Europe. Diplomats, though, aren’t expecting any breakthroughs this week.
In an impassioned speech to the assembly, French President Emmanuel Macron said no country can stand on the sidelines in the face of Russia’s aggression. He accused those who remain silent of being “in a way complicit with a new cause of imperialism” that is trampling on the current world order and is making peace impossible.
Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova’s country has long depended on Russia for oil and gas. But Slovakia has provided military aid to neighbor Ukraine, she noted.
“We, the members of the U.N., need to clearly side with victim over aggressor,” she said.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, protection of civilians and “the maintenance of all channels of dialogue between the parties.” But he opposed what he called “one-sided or unilateral” Western sanctions, saying they have harmed economic recovery and have threatened human rights of vulnerable populations.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia has yet had its turn to speak. The assembly has agreed to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to speak by video, over objections from Russia and a few of its allies.
Zelenskyy’s speech is expected Wednesday, as is an in-person address from U.S. President Joe Biden. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to take the rostrum Saturday.
___
Edith M. Lederer, chief U.N. correspondent for The Associated Press, contributed to this report. For more AP coverage of the U.N. General Assembly, visit https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations-general-assembly
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:11Z
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MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge in Miami has awarded $73 million in damages to the family of a prominent opponent of Venezuela’s socialist government who died while in custody in what he described as a “murder for hire” carried out by a criminal enterprise led by President Nicolás Maduro.
Fernando Albán was arrested in 2018 upon arrival to the international airport in Caracas from New York, where he was part of a delegation that had denounced Maduro’s government on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. He died three days later in what authorities initially described as a suicide jump from the 10th floor of a building belonging to Venezuela’s intelligence services.
Albán’s death provoked international outrage and condemnation from the U.S. Last year, his widow and two children sued Maduro and several high-ranking members of his government for carrying out the kidnapping, torture and murder of the one-time Caracas councilman.
The family accused the men of belonging to the “Cartel of the Suns,” a purported drug-smuggling ring involving top Venezuelan officials and guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — a designated terrorist group — that allegedly sends 200 metric tons of cocaine from Venezuela into the U.S. each year.
Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued a default judgment against the cartel for failing to respond to the lawsuit in a previously unreported ruling last week. In it, the court found that what it calls the “Maduro criminal enterprise” is liable for federal racketeering offenses in Albán’s death because its entire purpose is to “exercise unlawful authoritarian control over Venezuela” through narcotics trafficking, acts of terrorism and human rights violations.
Adopting the earlier findings of a magistrate judge, the court said operatives for the Maduro government tailed Albán while he was still in New York, taking surveillance photos and sending information back to Venezuela that facilitated his kidnapping and murder upon his return home.
“Mr. Albán’s murder was a murder for hire because members of the Maduro Criminal Enterprise who committed the murder received payment (in the form of salaries) from the Maduro regime,” the court said.
The court found that the Cartel must pay $73 million to Albán’s estate for the pain and suffering caused by his death.
However, it’s unclear how the survivors will collect such a large reward. While Maduro and other defendants named in the original complaint — including his Defense Minister and the head of Venezuela’s supreme court — have been criminally charged in the U.S. with narco-terrorism and corruption, they’re under little pressure from Albán’s former cohorts in the opposition to abandon power.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has shown a willingness to ease sanctions on the oil-rich OPEC nation in exchange for progress in talks with the opposition aimed at fostering a more democratic environment for the 2024 presidential election.
Additionally, the only alleged cartel ringleader who is in U.S. custody, retired Army Gen. Cliver Alcala, is represented by a court-appointed legal team after claiming he was unable to pay for his defense.
A lawyer for Albán’s family declined to comment.
Albán’s case has also been denounced at the International Criminal Court, which is investigating allegations of torture and killings by Maduro’s security forces. In late 2021, Attorney General Tarek William Saab announced that two members of the feared SEBIN intelligence service had been sentenced to nearly six years in prison for negligence in connection to Alban’s death while in their custody.
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Follow Goodman on Twitter: @APJoshGoodman
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:17Z
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SAN DIEGO (AP) — The number of Venezuelans taken into custody at the U.S. border with Mexico soared in August, while fewer migrants from Mexico and some Central American countries were stopped, officials said Monday.
Venezuelans surpassed Guatemalans and Hondurans to become the second-largest nationality after Mexicans among migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally. U.S. authorities stopped Venezuelans 25,349 times in August, up 43% from 17,652 times in July and four times the 6,301 stops recorded in August 2021.
At the same time, it was the third straight month that fewer immigrants from Mexico and Central America’s Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Those nationalities have dominated the mix for decades.
Overall, U.S. authorities stopped migrants 203,598 times in August, up 1.8% from 199,976 times in July but down 4.7% from 213,593 times in August 2021.
Authorities stopped migrants 2.15 million times from October through August, the first time that measure topped 2 million during the government’s fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. It was a 39% increase from 1.54 million stops the same period a year earlier.
Border crossings have been fueled partly by repeat crossers because there are no legal consequences for getting expelled under a pandemic-era rule that denies a right to seek asylum. Even so, the numbers are extraordinarily high.
Migration from Cuba and Nicaragua remained high, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. Cubans were stopped 19,057 times in August, down from 20,096 times in July but up from 4,496 in August 2021. Nicaraguans were stopped 11,742 times, down from 12,075 in July but up from 9,979 in August 2021.
It’s the latest sign of rapidly changing migration flows as U.S. authorities wrestle with unusually large influxes overall.
While no single reason can be pinpointed, it is extremely challenging for the U.S. to expel migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba under the pandemic rule known as Title 42, which U.S. officials invoke to deny people a chance at seeking asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. U.S. relations with all three countries are strained, making it difficult to send them home.
“Failing communist regimes in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba are driving a new wave of migration across the Western Hemisphere, including the recent increase in encounters at the southwest U.S. border,” said Chris Magnus, commissioner of CBP, which oversees the Border Patrol.
Mexico accepts migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, in addition to Mexico. While the pandemic rule applies to all nationalities in theory, people from those four countries are most affected.
The Biden administration is leaning on other countries in the Americas to absorb more people fleeing their homes.
About 6.8 million Venezuelans have left their homeland since an economic crisis took hold in earnest in 2014 for the country of 28 million people. Most have gone to nearby nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, including more than 2.4 million who are in neighboring Colombia.
Venezuelan migration to the U.S. plummeted early this year after Mexico introduced restrictions on air travel but has increased in recent months as more come over land through the notoriously dangerous Darien Gap in Panama.
Nearly 7 of every 10 stops of Venezuelans crossing illegally during August occurred in the Border Patrol’s Del Rio, Texas, sector, making it the busiest of the agency’s nine sectors on the Mexican border. Migrants were stopped more than 52,000 times in the Del Rio sector, many of them around the city of Eagle Pass, with El Paso, Texas, a distant second with about 29,000 stops.
The trend of more Venezuelans is reflected in daily headlines. Roughly 50 migrants that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard were all Venezuelan, as were five of the six people whom U.S. authorities found drowned in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass in early September. The sixth was from Nicaragua.
Title 42 encourages repeat attempts because there are no legal consequences for getting caught. In August, 157,921 migrants crossed at least once, with 55,333 from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua and 56,979 from Mexico or the Northern Triangle countries.
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This story has been clarified to reflect that the figures from the U.S. government show fewer Cubans and Nicaraguans were stopped in August than July, but that migration from those countries is still much higher than last year.
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:23Z
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BANGKOK (AP) — Government helicopters have attacked a school and village in north-central Myanmar, killing at least 13 people including seven children, a school administrator and an aid worker said Monday.
Civilian casualties often occur in attacks by the military government on pro-democracy insurgents and their allies. However, the number of children killed in the air attack last Friday in Tabayin township in Sagaing region appeared to be the highest since the army seized power in February last year, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The army’s takeover triggered mass nonviolent protests nationwide. The military and police responded with deadly force, resulting in the spread of armed resistance in the cities and countryside. Fighting has been especially fierce in Sagaing, where the military has launched several offensives, in some cases burning villages, which displaced more than half a million people, according to a report issued by UNICEF this month.
Friday’s attack occurred in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin, also known as Depayin, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) northwest of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.
School administrator Mar Mar said she was trying to get students to safe hiding places in ground-floor classrooms when two of four Mi-35 helicopters hovering north of the village began attacking, firing machine guns and heavier weapons at the school, which is in the compound of the village’s Buddhist monastery.
Mar Mar works at the school with 20 volunteers who teach 240 students from kindergarten to eighth grade. She has been hiding in the village with her three children since fleeing for safety to avoid the government crackdown after participating last year in a civil disobedience movement against the military takeover. She uses the pseudonym Mar Mar to protect herself and relatives from the military.
She said she had not expected trouble since the aircraft had been over the village before without any incident.
“Since the students had done nothing wrong, I never thought that they would be brutally shot by machine guns,” Mar Mar told The Associated Press by phone on Monday.
By the time she and the students and teachers were able to take shelter in the classrooms, one teacher and a 7-year-old student had already been shot in the neck and head and Mar Mar had to use pieces of clothing to try to stanch the bleeding.
“They kept shooting into the compound from the air for an hour,” Mar Mar said. ”They didn’t stop even for one minute. All we could do at that time was chant Buddhist mantras.”
When the air attack stopped, about 80 soldiers entered the monastery compound, firing their guns at the buildings.
The soldiers then ordered everyone in the compound to come out of the buildings. Mar Mar said she saw about 30 students with wounds on their backs, thighs, faces and other parts of the bodies. Some students had lost limbs.
“The children told me that their friends were dying,” she said. “I also heard a student yelling, ’It hurts so much. I can’t take it anymore. Kill me, please.’ This voice still echoes in my ears,” Mar Mar said.
She said at least six students were killed in the school and a 13-year-old boy working at a fishery in a nearby village was also fatally shot. At least six adults were also killed in the air attack in other parts of the village, she said. The bodies of the dead children were taken away by the soldiers.
More than 20 people, including nine wounded children and three teachers, were also taken by the soldiers, she said. Two of those captured were accused of being members of the anti-government People’s Defense Force, the armed wing of the resistance to the military.
Security forces also burned down a house in the village, causing residents to flee.
A volunteer in Tabayin assisting displaced people who asked not to be identified because of fear of government reprisals said the bodies of the dead children were cremated by the soldiers in nearby Ye U township.
“I am now telling the international community about this because I want redress for our children,” Mar Mar said. “Instead of humanitarian aid, what we really need is genuine democracy and human rights.”
Myanmar Now, an online news service, and other independent Myanmar media also reported the attack and the students’ deaths.
A day after the attack, the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported that security forces had gone to check the village after receiving information that the members of the People’s Defense Force were hiding there.
The report said members of the People’s Defense Force and their allies from the Kachin Independence Army, an ethnic rebel group, were hiding inside houses and the monastery and started shooting at the security forces, causing deaths and injuries among village residents. It said the injured were taken to hospitals, but did not mention the situation of the students.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors human rights in Myanmar, at least 2,298 civilians have been killed by the security forces since the army seized power last year.
The U.N. has documented 260 attacks on schools and education personnel since the coup, the U.N. Child Rights Committee said in June.
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:29Z
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A food company executive was arrested on a pair of charges after allegedly biting a man’s nose in a parking garage in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Saturday night.
Doug Ramsey, 53, of Fayetteville, was arrested on September 17 on charges of terroristic threatening and third-degree battery. According to a preliminary report, the incident happened at a parking garage near Razorback Stadium following the University of Arkansas’ victory over Missouri State.
Just after 10 p.m. local time, an officer was dispatched to Gate 15 for “a disturbance that had previously occurred in the Stadium Drive Parking Garage (SDPG).” The responding officer found “two males with bloody faces” at the scene.
The officer spoke with both parties and a witness before determining Ramsey had allegedly been in the traffic lane of the structure, attempting to leave, when a Subaru “inched his way” in front of Ramsey’s Bronco, making contact with the front passenger side tire. Ramsey allegedly got out of his vehicle and “punched through the back windshield of the Subaru.”
The owner of the Subaru then allegedly got out and stated Ramsey “pulled him in close and started punching his body.” According to the report, Ramsey also “bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose.”
The victim and the witness reported hearing Ramsey “threaten to kill” the owner of the Subaru. Occupants of both vehicles got out and helped separate the parties.
Ramsey was arrested and booked into the Washington County jail.
According to the Tyson Foods website, Ramsey had been a member of Tyson Foods’ poultry business since 1992 and was named president of global McDonald’s business in 2019. The site also states that “Doug [was] a champion of team member safety and sits on the company’s Executive Safety Council.”
A Tyson spokesperson said that Ramsey left the company several months ago of his own accord, unrelated to this arrest. Ramsey was named the COO of Beyond Meat in December 2021.
Nexstar’s KNWA reached out to Beyond Meat for comment on Ramsey’s arrest and has not received a response.
He is scheduled to appear in Fayetteville District Court on October 19.
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https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/beyond-meat-coo-arrested-accused-of-biting-mans-nose-after-college-football-game/
| 2022-09-21T03:56:35Z
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LONDON (AP) — American presidents usually make a splash when they travel abroad, holding the spotlight and quickly becoming the center of attention.
Not this time.
For U.S. President Joe Biden and other presidents, prime ministers and dignitaries, there were no red-carpet arrivals, no big speeches and no news conferences as they gathered for Monday’s state funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. Instead, world leaders used to people hanging on their every word checked their egos in the service of honoring the queen, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, who died earlier this month at age 96 after 70 years on the throne.
“They know that they are there to honor the passing, honor the individual,” said Capricia Marshall, who was the U.S. State Department’s protocol chief for a period during Barack Obama’s administration. “They also are aware that they’re representing their country.”
The protocol office is a key player in U.S. foreign policy and diplomatic affairs, working to make sure U.S. officials don’t say or do anything that will offend a foreign visitor or host.
The president and first lady are among some 2,000 people attending the funeral at Westminster Abbey. They arrived late Saturday and paid respects to the queen on Sunday, viewing her coffin at Westminster Hall, signing condolence books at Lancaster House and attending a Buckingham Palace reception for funeral guests hosted by King Charles III.
But the president’s public appearances in London have been limited and controlled, part of the choreography around the elaborate farewell to the only monarch most Britons have ever known. He spoke only for just a few minutes Sunday about the queen, as he recalled how the woman he said reminded him of his mother kept feeding him crumpets when they had tea together last year at Windsor Castle.
When Biden spoke to the BBC, the only outlet broadcasting live as he signed the condolence book, the network kept up a split screen with Sir David Manning, a former British ambassador to the U.S., and did not air Biden’s comments live.
Most other leaders in town have kept similarly low profiles, appearing only to sign the official book of condolence and silently pay respects at the queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall.
A few have given interviews to share memories of Elizabeth, including New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who told the BBC about the advice the queen gave her on balancing work and motherhood: “I remember she just said, ‘Well, you just get on with it,’ and that was actually probably the best and most I think factual advice I could have.”
Leaders like Ardern and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have batted away questions about whether their countries are likely to become republics, saying now is not the time to discuss it. Both countries have the queen as their monarch.
An exception was Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for reelection and delivered an open-air campaign speech Sunday outside his country’s embassy in London. Bolsonaro, who trails former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in opinion polls, insisted to about 200 supporters that the polls were wrong and that he could avoid entering a runoff on Oct. 2.
Biden and new U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss scrapped a weekend meeting in favor of a more robust sit-down next week during the U.N. General Assembly, and the White House didn’t even announce news of the meeting until after British officials had.
One senior U.S. official said Biden’s lower profile was less about protocol and more about the fact that “it’s not our show. It’s the Brits’ show.” The U.S. has to be sensitive to that, said the official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Peter Selfridge, another former U.S. official, said Biden is in London “to grieve” and likely does not care that he has largely been out of the spotlight. Selfridge noted the president’s history of personal loss, including the death of his first wife and infant daughter and, later, an adult son.
“As a matter of fact, that’s probably the way he wants it,” said Selfridge, the U.S. chief of protocol during Obama’s second term.
Then again, some people’s wiring doesn’t allow them to avoid making a beeline for the first camera they see, said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis management expert.
But Dezenhall said in an email that the “good news is that most American presidents … understand that humility is called for at certain times.”
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:43Z
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LONDON (AP) — Events surrounding Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral on Monday cap 10 days of national mourning and are expected to be watched by hundreds of thousands of people packed onto the streets of London and millions around the world. Those are just a few of the staggering array of numbers generated by the death of the 96-year-old monarch after a 70-year-reign.
Here are some figures that have swirled around London and the rest of the United Kingdom in the aftermath of her death on Sept. 8 at her summer retreat in Scotland of the only monarch most Britons have ever known.
— 2,000: Dignitaries and guests in Westminster Abbey for the the state funeral, ranging from King Charles III and other royals to world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden to members of the British public who helped battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
— 800: Guests at a committal service later in the day at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
— 5,949: Military personnel deployed throughout the meticulously choreographed operation that began with the queen’s death on Sept. 8 at her Balmoral Estate in the Scottish Highlands. That number comprises 4,416 from the army, 847 from the navy and 686 from the air force. In addition, around 175 armed forces personnel from Commonwealth nations have been involved.
— 1,650: At least that number of military personnel will be involved in the pomp-filled procession of the queen’s coffin from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch after her funeral. A further 1,000 will line the streets along the procession route When the coffin reaches Windsor, 410 military personnel will take part in the procession, 480 will line streets, 150 will be in a guard of honor and line steps and 130 more will fulfil other ceremonial duties.
— 142: Royal Navy ratings who will pull the state gun carriage carrying the queen’s coffin on Monday when it leaves the Houses of Parliament for her funeral.
— More than 10,000: Police officers. Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy said the “hugely complex” policing operation is the biggest in the London force’s history, surpassing the London 2012 Olympics which saw up to 10,000 police officers on duty per day.
— 22: Miles (36 kilometers) of barriers erected in central London alone to control crowds and keep key areas around the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace secure.
— 1 million: The number of people London transport authorities expect to visit the capital on Monday. Around 250 extra rail services will run to move people in and out of the city.
— 5: Miles (8 kilometers) of people lining up to file past the queen’s coffin in Westminster Hall. The mammoth queue stretched back from the Houses of Parliament along the south bank of the River Thames to Southwark Park. The number of people who viewed the coffin over four days is not yet known.
— 125: Movie theaters that will open their doors to broadcast Monday’s funeral live.
— 2,868: Diamonds, along with 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls, and 4 rubies, sparkle in the Imperial State Crown that rested on the queen’s coffin as it lay in state.
— 2: Minutes of silence at the end of the funeral at Westminster Abbey.
— 1: Coffin. The silent eye in the days-long storm of pomp, pageantry and protection is a single, flag-draped oak coffin carrying the only monarch most Britons have ever known.
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:51Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — An American contractor held hostage in Afghanistan for more than two years by the Taliban has been released, his family said Monday, as a Taliban drug lord jailed by the United States was also freed and returned to Kabul.
Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran who had spent more than a decade in Afghanistan as a civilian contractor, was abducted in January 2020 and was believed to have been held since then by the Taliban-linked Haqqani network.
Negotiations for his release had centered on a deal that would also involve the release of Bashir Noorzai, a notorious drug lord and member of the Taliban who told reporters in Kabul on Monday that he had spent 17 years and six months in U.S. captivity before being released.
The exchange is one of the most significant prisoner swaps to take place under the Biden administration, coming five months after a separate deal with Russia that resulted in the release of Marine veteran Trevor Reed. It took place despite concerns from his family and other advocates that the U.S. military departure from Afghanistan, and the collapse of the government there, could make it harder to bring him home and could deflect attention away from his imprisonment.
President Joe Biden, who is in the U.K. to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, called Frerichs’s family on Monday morning to share the “good news” that his administration was able to secure his release, according to a senior administration official.
The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, called the decision to grant Noorzai clemency a “difficult decision” but necessary in order to reunite a U.S. citizen with his family.
A sister of Frerichs, who is from Lombard, Illinois, thanked U.S. government officials who helped secure her brother’s release.
“I am so happy to hear that my brother is safe and on his way home to us. Our family has prayed for this each day of the more than 31 months he has been a hostage. We never gave up hope that he would survive and come home safely to us,” said a statement from the sister, Charlene Cakora.
In Afghanistan, Noorzai told reporters at a press conference that he had been released from an unspecified U.S. prison and handed over earlier in the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in exchange for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan whom he did not identify. Frerichs’ family subsequently confirmed that it was him.
Frerichs, 60, had been working on civil engineering projects at the time of his Jan. 31, 2020 abduction in Kabul. He was last seen in a video posted last spring by The New Yorker i n which he appeared in traditional Afghan clothing and pleaded for his release. The publication said it obtained the clip from an unidentified individual in Afghanistan.
Until Monday, U.S. officials across two presidential administrations had tried unsuccessfully to get him home. Even before their takeover of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban had demanded the U.S. release Noorzai in exchange for Frerichs. But there had been no public sign of Washington proceeding with any sort of trade or exchange along those lines.
Eric Lebson, a former U.S. government national security official who had been advising Frerichs’ family, said in a statement that “everything about this case has been an uphill fight.” He criticized the Trump administration for having given away “our leverage to get Mark home quickly by signing a peace accord with the Taliban without ever having asked them to return Mark first.
“Mark’s family then had to navigate two Administrations, where many people viewed Mark’s safe return as an impediment to their plans for Afghanistan,” the statement said.
The collapse of the Western-backed Afghan government and takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, raised additional concern that any progress in negotiations could be undone or that Frerichs could be forgotten.
But his name surfaced last month when President Joe Biden, who had publicly called for Frerichs’ release, was said by his advisers to have pressed officials to consider any risk posed to Frerichs by the drone strike in Afghanistan that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri.
The Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also spoke at the Kabul press conference alongside Noorzai and welcomed the exchange, saying it marked the start of a “new era” in U.S.-Taliban relations.
“This can be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the United States, this can open a new door for talks between both countries,” Muttaqi said at the presser.
“This act shows us that all problems can be solved through talks and I thank both sides’ teams who worked so hard for this to happen,” he added.
The Taliban also posted a brief video Monday on social media showing Noorzai’s arrival at the Kabul airport where he was welcomed by top Taliban officials, including Muttaqi.
At the press conference, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a reference to the Taliban — in Kabul.
“I pray for more success of the Taliban,” he added. “I hope this exchange can lead to peace between Afghanistan and America, because an American was released and I am also free now.”
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| 2022-09-21T03:56:58Z
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MAJURO, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Gate.io, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency exchanges, has revealed two new mascots, Gatsby and Blocky, to enhance its brand perception. The characters will be featured throughout the Gate.io platform and incorporate familiar and relatable themes.
"A lot has changed in crypto since Gate.io was founded in 2013. Whether it's our products, security, or branding, we're always evolving to meet users' needs, strengthen connections with the greater crypto community, and provide the best user experience in crypto trading," said Tom Yang, EVP at Gate.io.
Coinciding with the launch are activities and giveaways on social media and the Gate.io platform, providing users opportunities to earn free crypto and become familiar with Gatsby and Blocky. And, as if free crypto giveaways aren't enough, Gate.io also announced zero fees on most trading pairs in the spot, contract, and options markets, making it the most affordable crypto exchange.
New yet familiar faces
Gate.io's philosophies of safety first, user-centricity, insightfulness, integrity, and cooperation are interwoven with the new brand mascots. In addition, a sense of familiarity will be felt as Gate.io's logo is a core stylistic theme of the character's design.
The characters have some interesting background stories that users can relate to. For example, Gatsby represents overcoming the challenges faced by users around safety and transparency. At the same time, Blocky embodies community connectedness and creativity. United with Gate.io, the mascots will collaborate to provide secure, reliable, and next-gen digital asset services.
The fun and the relatable duo will be found across the platform and in various brand and media visuals and animations, on social media, products, swag, and even as a custom emoji. Also, Gate.io will feature the pair in surprise releases related to new tech developments.
Refreshed, reworked, and reinvigorated brand
So far this year, Gate.io has undergone an entire overhaul of its branding, aiming to connect with a broader and more global audience. And as Gate.io accelerates global expansion, a meaningful and universally understood brand is crucial to forming connections with users worldwide.
Activities and giveaways
To celebrate this new reveal, Gate.io has kicked off activities for the community to earn free crypto. Follow @Gate_io on Twitter and check out the official announcement to participate!
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Gate.io
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https://www.witn.com/prnewswire/2022/09/21/gateio-group-unveils-new-brand-mascots-furthering/
| 2022-09-21T03:57:03Z
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PADUCAH, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who killed three students and injured five more in a school shooting a quarter century ago has a chance at parole this week.
Michael Carneal was a 14-year-old freshman in 1997 when he fired a stolen pistol at a before-school prayer group in the lobby of Heath High School, near Paducah, Kentucky. He received a life sentence with the opportunity for parole after 25 years, the maximum allowed at the time for someone his age.
The hearing that began on Monday is his first opportunity for parole and could also be his last. The parole board has discretion to release him, to defer the decision, or order him to spend the rest of his life in prison without further hope of release.
Monday was dedicated to testimony from the injured and the close relatives of those who were killed in a shooting that still reverberates in this small community, where everyone seems to have a connection to the tragedy and several of the victims considered Carneal, now 39, a friend.
Gwen Hadley, mother of Nicole Hadley, who was 14 when she was murdered on Dec. 1, 1997, expressed a sentiment that was often repeated on Monday, referring to Carneal only as “the shooter.”
“We — the families, the survivors, and people that were at the school, and the whole community — were given a life sentence by the shooter and didn’t have the opportunity to get a second chance, a reduced sentence,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “The life sentence the shooter has given us — I have made the choice not to be angry and to find joy in life. But I still really miss my daughter. And I don’t like that I don’t get to see her.”
Nicole’s sister, Christina Hadley Ellegood, just a year older than Nicole, was in school at the time of the shooting and found her sister in the lobby with a bullet hole in her head. She does not believe Carneal shot at random that day, she said. Nicole was the first person killed and she had recently turned Carneal down for a date.
“Michael was not a kid who did not have friends, as he’s led people to believe,” she said. “Nicole did not agree with how Michael treated people and the things that he did, but because she was so kindhearted, she was friends with him.”
Although Ellegood acknowledged that a child of 14 years old doesn’t have a fully developed brain and may not fully understand the consequences of his actions, she said, “I believe that Michael knew what he was doing the day of the shooting. …He fired eight shots and hit eight different people, which in my eyes is a very difficult task.”
Also killed that day were 17-year-old Jessica James and 15-year-old Kayce Steger.
Hollan Holm, who was wounded that day, recalled lying on the floor of the high school lobby, bleeding from his head and believing he was going to die. “Almost 25 years later, I still have trouble being in crowds of people,” he said. “I get agitated and scan for sources of danger and exit routes. I get anxious when I am seated in a restaurant with my back to the door.”
But Holm also remembers Carneal as a kid he rode the bus with every day and who he ate lunch with every day in third grade. Now that he is 40, he realizes just how immature they all were at 14, Holm said.
“I have to think that after 25 years, he’s a different person than he was that day, as we are all different people today than we were 25 years ago,” Holm said, adding that he would support supervised release if mental health experts think Carneal can be successful outside of prison.
Missy Jenkins Smith, who was paralyzed by one of Carneal’s bullets and uses a wheelchair, said it is too risky to let Carneal out. He has said he was suffering from delusions and paranoia at the time of the shooting, and she worries what would happen if he stopped taking his medications.
Jenkins Smith was in the band with Carneal and had considered him a friend. She even visited him in prison once. She has said she has forgiven him, but she does not think it would be fair for him to be set free.
“I could speak for hours about what my life has been like every minute of every day the last quarter century, without the use of my legs,” she said. “I’ve been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole — after living the consequence of Michael Carneal’s decision — to not be able to walk. I will continue to serve out that consequence. Michael’s decision for me will be my entire life.”
On Tuesday, Carneal will make his case for release from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange. A two-person panel of the full parole board is hearing Carneal’s appeal. They have the option to release him or defer his next opportunity for parole for up to five years. If the two cannot agree on those options, they can send the case to a meeting of the full board next Monday. Only the full board has the power to deny Carneal any chance of parole, forcing him to stay in prison for the rest of his life.
The parole hearing, which took place by videoconference, was broadcast on local television in Paducah and on YouTube. There was also a public showing at a local community college where a handful of community members gathered to watch. They included Tommy Fletcher, a teacher who witnessed the aftermath of the shooting, entering the lobby just seconds after it was over.
In an interview after the hearing, Fletcher remembered the pain of that day when he stayed beside one of the students who died, but also the resilience of his community. On Dec. 2, 1997, school was open and students gathered for their prayer circle in the same lobby where their classmates had been shot the previous day.
“It was so empowering to see how everybody handled it,” Fletcher said. “It really brought us together.”
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https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/kentucky-school-shooter-seeks-parole-25-years-after-killing-3-wounding-5/
| 2022-09-21T03:57:07Z
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LONDON (AP) — Britain and the world said a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral Monday that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds who thronged the streets of London to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age.
In a country known for pomp and pageantry, the first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s was filled with spectacle: Ahead of the service, a bell tolled 96 times — once a minute for each year of Elizabeth’s life. Then, 142 Royal Navy sailors used ropes to draw the gun carriage carrying her flag-draped coffin to Westminster Abbey before pallbearers bore it inside the church, where around 2,000 people ranging from world leaders to health care workers gathered to mourn her.
The trappings of state and monarchy abounded: The coffin was draped with the Royal Standard and atop it sat the Imperial State Crown, sparkling with almost 3,000 diamonds, and the sovereign’s orb and scepter.
But the personal was also present: The coffin was followed into the church by generations of Elizabeth’s descendants, including King Charles III, heir to the throne Prince William and 9-year-old George, who is second in line. On a wreath atop the coffin, a handwritten note read, “In loving and devoted memory,” and was signed Charles R — for Rex, or king.
“Here, where Queen Elizabeth was married and crowned, we gather from across the nation, from the Commonwealth, and from the nations of the world, to mourn our loss, to remember her long life of selfless service, and in sure confidence to commit her to the mercy of God our maker and redeemer,” the dean of the medieval abbey, David Hoyle, told the mourners, as the funeral opened.
The service drew to a close with two minutes of silence observed across the United Kingdom, after which the attendees sang the national anthem, now titled “God Save the King.”
The day began early when the doors of Parliament’s 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed in front of her coffin.
Monday was declared a public holiday in honor of Elizabeth, who died Sept. 8 — and hundreds of thousands of people descended on central London to partake in the historic moment. They jammed the sidewalks to watch the coffin wend its way through the streets of the capital after the service. As the procession passed Buckingham Palace, the queen’s official residence in the city, staff stood outside, some bowing and curtseying.
Mark Elliott, a 53-year-old who traveled to London from the Lake District in northern England with his wife and two children to watch the procession, got up at 1:30 a.m. to stake out a good viewing location near the palace.
“I know we don’t know the queen, but she’s been our head of state for 70 years, you feel as though you know her, you feel as though she’s part of the family. It is kind of moving,” he said.
More people lined the route the hearse took from the capital to Windsor Castle, and many threw flowers at the convoy as it passed, some of which rested on top of the vehicle. Millions more people tuned into the funeral live on television, and crowds flocked to parks and public spaces across the U.K. to watch it on screens. Even the Google doodle turned a respectful black for the day.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said in his sermon at the funeral that “few leaders receive the outpouring of love we have seen” for Elizabeth.
Later, during the committal ceremony in St. George’s Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle, the Imperial State Crown and the sovereign’s orb and scepter were removed from the coffin and placed on the altar — separating the queen from her crown for the last time. Her coffin was then lowered into the royal vault through an opening in the chapel’s floor.
She will later be laid to rest with her husband, Prince Philip, at a private family service.
U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, all of the living former British prime ministers as well as European royalty attended the the funeral.
In Japan, whose Emperor Naruhito also attended, several people sipped beer and watched the service at The Aldgate British pub in Tokyo’s fashionable Shibuya district.
“The queen had an especially long history in a country that boasts a long history, and so she deserves deep respect,” said dentist Tomotaka Hosokawa.
On the evening before the funeral, Charles issued a message of thanks to people in the U.K. and around the world, saying he and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, have been “moved beyond measure” by the large numbers of people who have turned out to pay their respects to the queen.
Jilly Fitzgerald, who was in Windsor, said there was a sense of community among the mourners as they prepared to wait hours to see procession carrying the queen’s coffin.
“It’s good to be with all the people who are all feeling the same. It’s like a big family because everyone feels that … the queen was part of their family,” she said.
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Civil rights attorneys are calling the relocation of migrants from Texas last week to Massachusets a “shameless political stunt,” but the strategy of governors relocating migrants to the homes of their political enemies is not new.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis organized the two flights with nearly 50 migrants that landed in Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. He has been sending migrants to “sanctuary” cities or states, which limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The migrants sent to Martha’s Vinyard have since been moved to Joint Base Cape Cod.
The ploy is similar to the so-called “Reverse Freedom Rides” orchestrated by segregationists in the south in the early 1960s in response to the Freedom Rides that challenged Jim Crow laws and pressured the federal government and local leaders to end segregation in interstate transportation facilities.
“To embarrass Northern liberals and humiliate Black people, southern White Citizens Councils started their so-called ‘Reverse Freedom Rides,’ giving Black people one-way tickets to northern cities with false promises of jobs, housing, and better lives,” the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library tweeted on Friday with a link to a historic article from their archives about the bussing of a Black Shreveport family from Shreveport to New Jersey in 1963.
Charles Barnett, president of the White Citizens’ Council of Louisiana, put Alan Gilmore, his wife, and eight children on a bus in Shreveport with $75 and “a dozen cans of sardines to snack upon” during the journey, according to the article. Gilmore had worked as a yard man and in a bakery and a grocery store in Shreveport and said he had no job preference in Trenton.
“I can’t find any work here. I hope I can find something there. I appreciate your sending me on this trip. Thank you very much,” he reportedly told the White Citizens’ Council.
But the Council was not simply being kind. Gilmore’s family was unknowingly being used to send a message directly to Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach, who had previously led marshalls in the desegregation of the University of Mississippi.
The Gilmore family and all their belongings were packed in two boxes, a laundry bag, and a footlocker, and sent on their way to an address in Trenton, where Barnett believed Katzenbach’s elderly mother lived at the time. It turned out the Trenton address was where Katzenbach’s aunt lived, but the point was made, nonetheless. Their luggage was marked “Remember Mississippi.”
According to the article, other Black families were sent to Plainfield, New Jersey, New Richmond, Wisconsin, and Santa Rosa, California, where other top leadership of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division lived.
The summer family home of President John F. Kennedy, Hyannis Port, Massachusets, was also a strategic target of the White Citizens Councils’ Reverse Freedom Rides.
Amos Guthridge, an Arkansas lawyer who helped spearhead the Reverse Freedom Rides, distributed posters meant to attract Black families, particularly those with single mothers and many children, with the message, “President Kennedy’s brother assures you a grand reception to Massachusetts. Good jobs, housing, etc. are promised.”
George Singleman of the Greater New Orleans Citizens’ Council distributed handbills throughout southeastern Louisiana that offered “Free Transportation plus $5.00 for Expenses to any Negro Man or Woman, or Family (No limit to size) who desire to migrate to the Nation’s Capital or any city in the north of their choosing.”
On the back of the handbills was a list of the addresses and phone numbers for welfare departments, the NAACP, and Urban League offices in Washington and four other Northern cities. Once Reverse Freedom Riders were recruited, they were given one-way tickets to strategic locations, often unaware they were being used as political pawns.
Sixty years later, Republican governors in Texas and Florida appear to be taking a page out of the same playbook.
Busloads of mostly Venezuelan immigrants were dropped Thursday near Vice President Kamala Harris’ home in Washington, D.C., holding their belongings in clear plastic bags. They had been promised jobs, food, housing, and support for their immigration cases. Texas Governor Greg Abbott was quick to claim responsibility.
“This morning, two Texas busses of migrants arrived at the Naval Observatory in DC. VP Harris claims our border is “secure” & denies the crisis. We’re sending migrants to her backyard to call on the Biden Administration to do its job & secure the border,” Abbott tweeted.
“The fact that Fox News, and not the Department of Homeland Security, the City, or local engineers, were alerted about a plan to leave migrants, including children, on the side of a busy D.C. street makes clear that this is just a cruel, premeditated political stunt,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“Texas will continue sending migrants to sanctuary cities like Washington, D.C. until President Biden and Border Czar Harris step up and do their jobs to secure the border,” Abbott said in a statement that included a demand that the Biden administration allocates resources that include acquiring 1,700 unused steel panels to build the border wall in Texas.
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| 2022-09-21T03:57:22Z
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