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SEATTLE (AP) — Classes will begin Wednesday in Seattle following a weeklong teachers strike that delayed the start of the new school year.
Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Education Association announced Monday night that they had reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, and after 5 p.m. Tuesday the district announced that classes would begin Wednesday morning.
The union’s membership voted earlier in the day to suspend the walkout pending ratification of the contract. It’s a three-year deal that will maintain ratios of special-education students to support staff, add baseline mental health staffing in all schools, and raise pay above inflation markers, the Seattle Education Association said, though the exact terms were not disclosed.
“We should be incredibly proud of what we accomplished together,” the union said on its Twitter feed. “We won a great tentative agreement and started an important conversation with our community about supporting our students.”
The strike began Sept. 7, which was supposed to be the first day for approximately 49,000 students in the district. While 95% of voting union members approved the strike, just 57% voted in favor of Tuesday’s resolution to suspend it, the union said.
Picketing teachers said their main concern was educational and emotional help for students, especially those with special needs or learning difficulties that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“This was an incredible effort by both sides, and we put the needs of our students first,” Superintendent Brent Jones said in a video message to families.
Teachers in the city have seen healthy raises since their last strike in 2015, with many making more than $100,000, thanks largely to a new state education funding model. The union had said it was primarily focused on winning raises for its lower-paid members, including instructional assistants and front office staff. Paraeducators in Seattle Public Schools start at $19 an hour — nowhere near enough to afford to live in the city, many say.
The district had sought to increase the amount of time disabled children spend in general education classrooms, and also to eliminate ratios dictating how many students may be assigned to each special education professional. The district said that would allow it to focus on student needs rather than fixed staffing ratios, but teachers worried it would mean less support, higher case-loads and less time to spend with each student.
Another issue for Seattle Public Schools is declining enrollment. Projections show Washington state’s largest school district losing several thousands students over the next few years, which officials say translates into significant budget deficits.
Districts around the country have faced labor challenges as the pandemic put extraordinary stress on teachers and students.
Teachers in Minneapolis, Chicago and Sacramento walked out earlier this year before securing new agreements.
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| 2022-09-21T09:36:42Z
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As Russian troops were retreating in northeastern Ukraine amid a fierce counteroffensive by Kyiv, Muscovites were celebrating the 875th anniversary of the city’s founding. Fireworks boomed and President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a huge Ferris wheel, a new transportation link and sports arena.
The Russian capital’s festive holiday weekend stood in stark contrast to the military debacle unfolding in Ukraine that seemed to catch the Kremlin by surprise in the nearly 7-month-old war.
The rapid and reportedly chaotic troop withdrawal in the Kharkiv region, in which some weapons and ammunition were left behind, was a huge blow to Russian prestige. It was its largest military defeat in Ukraine since Moscow pulled back its forces from areas near Kyiv after a botched attempt to capture the capital early in the invasion.
As he attended the holiday celebrations that included the inauguration of the Ferris wheel — bigger than the iconic London Eye and now Europe’s largest such amusement ride — Putin said nothing about the key moment in Ukraine.
Indeed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive appears to have left the Kremlin struggling for a response.
The Defense Ministry declared the troop pullback was intended to strengthen Russia’s forces in the Donbas, a somewhat weak excuse, given that Russia-held areas in the Kharkiv region provided a key vantage point for Moscow’s operations in the Donetsk region to the south.
The ministry hasn’t offered any specifics about the pullback, but it released a map Sunday showing the Russian troops that were pressed back along a narrow patch of land on the border with Russia — a tacit admission of big Ukrainian gains.
Russian state television and other government-controlled media followed suit, avoiding a direct mention of the retreat while extolling the performance by Russian forces in individual combat episodes.
A Defense Ministry video showed a Russian helicopter gunship attacking Ukrainian troops trying to cross the Oskil River in a previously quiet part the Kharkiv region, an acknowledgement of the broad scale of the ongoing Ukrainian attack.
Many in Russia blamed Western weapons and fighters for the setbacks. “It’s not Ukraine but all of NATO who is fighting us,” wrote Alexander Kots, a war correspondent for the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
The new Ukrainian blitz, which has boosted the country’s morale as the war passed 200 days on Sunday, could set the stage for further gains in the east and elsewhere.
But it also could potentially trigger an even more violent Moscow response, leading to a new and dangerous escalation of hostilities. On Sunday night, Russian missiles struck key Ukrainian infrastructure targets, knocking out power in several regions.
“The Kremlin seems stunned, and has not yet come up with a plan as to how to try and spin this, so to a large extent the media are ignoring the bad news until they get a directive,” said Mark Galeotti, a professor at University College, London, who specializes in Russian security affairs.
He described the situation a “sign that the state’s control over the narrative is cracking.”
In a stark reflection of internal tensions provoked by Kyiv’s successes, the Kremlin-backed regional leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, openly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for “mistakes” that made Ukrainian gains possible.
The criticism from Kadyrov, who has sent Chechen units to fight in Ukraine and repeatedly pushed for tougher action in bellicose language, has revealed new rifts over the course of action in Ukraine.
On another flank, liberal politician Boris Nadezhdin warned on broadcaster NTV that Russia won’t be able to defeat Ukraine, and he called for negotiations.
Nadezhdin’s statement, made during a carefully orchestrated talk show, appeared to reflect widening doubts in some quarters of Russian officialdom about the future of the Ukraine operation and could be part of efforts to float possible policy shifts.
The Ukrainian blitz and the Kremlin’s failure to mount a quick response has infuriated Russian nationalist commentators and military bloggers, who chastised Defense Ministry brass for failing to foresee and fend off the counteroffensive.
Igor Strelkov, a Russian officer who led Moscow-backed forces in the early months of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine after it erupted in 2014, denounced top Russian military officials as “morons” for underestimating Kyiv.
Strelkov pointed out that a sizable Russian force blunted Ukrainian attacks in late August and early September in the country’s south. But he said the number of troops in the Kharkiv region was woefully insufficient to handle a counteroffensive.
“It turned out that the enemy is capable of simultaneously mounting large-scale offensives at several fronts, including the one where we only had a thin chain of outposts lined up in one echelon with even tactical reserves missing,” Strelkov said.
He warned that Ukraine could launch a new offensive in the Donetsk region south to Mariupol. The city on the Sea of Azov fell in May after nearly three months of fierce battles, giving Russia a long-coveted land corridor from its border to the Crimea Peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
“Having the initiative, high combat spirits and powerful groups of strike forces, the enemy will be unlikely to give our troops time to regroup,” Strelkov said, noting Ukraine will try to take advantage of the few remaining weeks of good weather before autumn rains make it harder to maneuver.
Many military bloggers criticized the Kremlin for failing to take stronger action and stubbornly trying to win what Moscow calls a “special military operation” with a limited force smaller than Ukraine’s.
Ukraine has conducted a broad mobilization with a goal to reach an active military of 1 million fighters, but Russia has continued to rely on a limited contingent of volunteers, fearing that a mass mobilization could fuel broad discontent and cause political instability.
Russia has not said how many of its troops are involved in the war, but Western estimates at its start put the invading force at up to 200,000. Western observers said the recruitment of new volunteers and the use of private military contractors failed to compensate for the heavy losses.
While Moscow hasn’t reported its own losses since March when it said that 1,351 soldiers had been killed in the war’s first month, Western estimates put the toll as high as 25,000 dead, with the wounded, captured and deserters bringing overall Russian losses to more than 80,000.
Many pro-Moscow military bloggers also wondered why Russia has failed to destroy Ukrainian power plants, communications facilities and bridges on the Dnieper River that are a conduit for Western weapons, fuel and other supplies to the front line. They say Russian missile strikes on railway facilities and power plants have been sporadic and insufficient for inflicting lasting damage.
The Sunday night missile barrage on Ukrainian power plants seemed to respond to those questions in an apparent signal that Moscow could ramp up strikes on vital infrastructure. Ukrainian authorities said Monday that power was quickly restored to most areas.
Strelkov and other nationalist commentators are urging even stronger blows.
“It was necessary to strike Ukraine’s critical infrastructure from Day One of the operation,” Strelkov said on his messaging app channel. “Strikes on power plants will be quite useful for winning the war.”
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Follow AP war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:04Z
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NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — Pope Francis begged for an end to Russia’s “senseless and tragic war” in Ukraine as he arrived Tuesday in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan to join faith leaders from around the world in praying for peace.
Francis flew to the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan to meet with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for an official state visit portion of his three-day trip. On Wednesday and Thursday, he participates in a government-sponsored triennial interfaith meeting, which is gathering more than 100 delegations of Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto and other faith groups from 50 countries.
The 85-year-old Francis made the trip despite what appeared to be an aggravation of the strained knee ligaments that have greatly reduced his mobility all year. Francis struggled to walk through the aisle of the aircraft during the 6.5-hour flight from Rome, and he appeared tired and in pain as he limped heavily with his cane, ceding to a wheelchair for most events once in town. Doctors have told him that for the time being, any further travel — to Kyiv, for example — is out of the question.
Speaking upon his arrival to government authorities and diplomats gathered at the Qazaq concert hall, Francis praised Kazakhstan’s commitment to diversity and dialogue and its progress from decades of Stalinist repression, when Kazakhstan was the destination of hundreds of thousands of Soviet deportees.
Francis said the country, which borders Russia to the north and China to the east and is home to some 150 ethnic groups and 80 languages, now has a “fundamental role to play” in helping ease conflicts elsewhere.
Recalling that St. John Paul II visited Kazakhstan just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S., Francis said he was visiting “in the course of the senseless and tragic war that broke out with the invasion of Ukraine.”
“I have come to echo the plea of all those who cry out for peace, which is the essential path to development for our globalized world,” he said.
Directing himself at global superpowers, he said expanding efforts at diplomacy and dialogue were ever more important. “And those who hold greater power in the world have greater responsibility with regard to others, especially those countries most prone to unrest and conflict.”
“Now is the time to stop intensifying rivalries and reinforcing opposing blocs,” he said.
Tokayev didn’t mention Ukraine specifically in his prepared remarks to Francis. But speaking in English, he referred in general terms about humanity being on an “edge of an abyss as geopolitical tensions escalate, global economy suffers, and mushrooming religious and ethnic intolerance becomes the ‘new normal.’”
Kazakhstan has had to walk a thin line with the war. Tokayev has vowed to respect Western sanctions against Russia while trying to maintain close ties with Moscow, an important economic partner and ally. At the same time, Tokayev refused to recognize the Russia-backed separatist “people’s republics” in Ukraine which Moscow recognized days before invading Ukraine.
The most noteworthy aspects of Francis’ visit to Kazakhstan might boil down to the missed opportunities with both Russia and China: Francis was supposed to have met with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church on the sidelines of the conference. But Patriarch Kirill, who has supported the war in Ukraine, canceled his trip last month.
Francis is also going to be in the Kazakh capital at the same time as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is making his first foreign trip since early in the coronavirus pandemic.
The Vatican and China haven’t had diplomatic relations for a half century and the timing is somewhat tense, with the two sides finalizing the renewal of a controversial deal over the nominations of Catholic bishops in China.
The Vatican has said there were no current plans for any meeting between Xi and Francis while they were both in Kazakhstan and the Kazakh deputy foreign minister, Roman Vassilenko said he didn’t believe there was time in Xi’s schedule to meet with Francis.
Asked about the possibility en route to Nur-Sultan, Francis said: “I don’t have any news about this. But I am always ready to go to China.”
The interfaith congress, now in its seventh iteration, is a showpiece of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy and a reflection of its own multicultural and multiethnic population that has long been touted as a crossroads between East and West.
When St. John Paul II visited in 2001, 10 years after independence, he highlighted Kazakhstan’s diversity while recalling its dark past under Stalinist repression: Entire villages of ethnic Poles were deported en masse from western Ukraine to Kazakhstan beginning in 1936, and the Soviet government deported hundreds of thousands of ethnic Germans, Chechens and other accused Nazi collaborators to Kazakhstan during World War II. Many of the deportees’ descendants remained and some of them make up the country’s Catholic community, which only numbers about 125,000 in a country of nearly 19 million.
Sophia Gatovskaya, a parishioner at Our Lady Of Perpetual Help Cathedral in the capital, said she attended that first papal visit and that it has borne fruits to this day.
“It was actually amazing. And after this visit, we have peace and tolerance in our republic. We have a lot of nationalities in Kazakhstan, and we all live together. And we expect the same from this visit (of Pope Francis) that we will have peace in our republic. And we very much expect that the war in Ukraine will end.”
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:19Z
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea on Tuesday warned North Korea that using its nuclear weapons would put it on a “path of self-destruction,” in unusually harsh language that came days after North Korea legislated a new law that would allow it to use its nuclear weapons preemptively.
North Korea will likely be infuriated by the South Korean rhetoric as Seoul typically shuns such strong words to avoid raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Despite North Korea’s increasingly aggressive nuclear doctrine, some experts say the country — outgunned by more superior U.S. and South Korean forces — will still unlikely use its nuclear weapons first.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the legislation would only deepen North Korea’s isolation and prompt Seoul and Washington to “further strengthen their deterrence and reaction capacities.”
To deter North Korea from using its nuclear weapons, the ministry said South Korea will sharply boost its own preemptive attack plan, missile defense and massive retaliation capacities while seeking a greater U.S. security commitment to defend its ally with all available means, including nuclear one.
“We warn that the North Korean government would face the overwhelming response by the South Korea-U.S. military alliance and go on the path of self-destruction, if it attempts to use nuclear weapons,” Moon Hong Sik, an acting ministry spokesperson, told reporters.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre earlier said the United States “remains fully committed to the defense of (South Korea), using the full range of defense capabilities.” Jean-Pierre said the United States has no hostile intent toward North Korea and that it remains focused on pursuing close coordination with its allies to advance a shared objective of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Last week, North Korea’s rubber-stamp parliament adopted the legislation on the rules for the use of its nuclear arsenal. It would allow the use of nuclear weapons if its leadership faced an imminent attack or if it aims to prevent an unspecified “catastrophic crisis” to its people.
The loose wording raised concerns the rules are largely meant as a legal basis for a preemptive nuclear strike to intimidate rivals into making concessions amid long-stalled negotiations over its arsenal. Some experts say the North Korean move is also designed to strengthen the control of Kim Jong Un’s leadership in the face of hardships caused by the pandemic and border closures.
During the parliament’s meeting, Kim said in a speech that his country will never abandon its nuclear weapons to cope with U.S. threats. He accused the United States of pushing to weaken the North’s defenses and eventually collapse his government.
Earlier this year, Kim said his nuclear weapons would never be confined to the sole mission of war deterrent and could be used preemptively if his country’s national interests are threatened. North Korea later approved plans to assign new duties to front-line army units, sparking speculation it was a step toward deploying battlefield nuclear weapons along its border with South Korea.
This year, Kim has also dialed up weapons tests to a record pace by test-launching a slew of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles targeting both the U.S. mainland and South Korea. For months, U.S. and South Korean officials have said North Korea could carry out its first nuclear test in five years as well.
Since taking office in May, South Korea’s new conservative government, led by President Yoon Suk Yeol, has said it would take a tougher stance on North Korean provocation but also offered massive support plans if the North denuclearizes. North Korea has bluntly rejected that aid-for-disarmament offer and unleashed crude insults on the Yoon government.
Seoul’s use of words like “self-destruction” is unusual but it’s not the first time. When South Korea was governed by another conservative leader, Park Geun-hye, from 2013-2017, her government also warned North Korea would evaporate from Earth or self-destruct with its provocations, as the North conducted a slew of missile and nuclear tests.
Liberal President Moon Jae-in, who served from 2017 until this year, championed greater reconciliation between the Koreas. He was credited for arranging now-stalled nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington but also faced criticism that such a diplomacy only allowed Kim Jong Un to buy time to prefect weapons technology while enjoying an elevated standing on the world stage.
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:27Z
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MILAN (AP) — Migrants picked up at sea by a mercantile ship and brought to Italy by the coast guard have reported that six people died of thirst during the voyage, the U.N. refugee agency said Monday.
The Italian Coast Guard said it transported 26 migrants to the Sicilian port of Pozzallo who were among 28 people, mostly Syrians and Afghans, rescued in recent days from a small boat in distress off the coast of Libya by a mercantile ship flying the Liberian flag. A child with dehydration and his mother were transported to the Maltese capital of Valletta by helicopter from ship.
The migrants arriving in Italy told officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees that six people, including a small child and a 12-year-old, had died of dehydration while on board the ship and that their bodies had been left at sea. The victims appeared to have all been Syrians.
So far this year, more than 1,200 people have died or are missing at sea in the perilous central Mediterranean crossing from North Africa to Europe. The U.N. refugee agency said the route the small boat had taken and how many days it had been at sea was not clear.
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Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:34Z
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama could be ready to use a new, untried execution method called nitrogen hypoxia to carry out a death sentence as soon as next week, a state attorney told a federal judge Monday.
James Houts, a deputy state attorney general, told U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. that it is “very likely” the method could be available for the execution of Alan Eugene Miller, currently set for Sept. 22, if the judge blocks the use of lethal injection. Houts said the protocol “is there,” but said the final decision on when to use the new method is up to Corrections Commissioner John Hamm.
Nitrogen hypoxia, which is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen, has been authorized by Alabama and two other states for executions but has never used by a state.
The disclosure about the possibility of using the new method came during a court hearing on Miller’s request for a preliminary injunction to block his execution by lethal injection. Miller maintains prison staff lost paperwork he returned in 2018 that requested nitrogen as his execution method rather than lethal injection. The Alabama attorney general’s office argued there is no corroborating evidence that Miller returned the form.
Huffaker heard testimony and arguments during an evidentiary hearing in Montgomery federal court. He noted the “high stakes” involved with a looming execution date, but did not immediately rule on the request to block the lethal injection.
When Alabama approved nitrogen hypoxia as an alternative execution method in 2018, state law gave inmates a brief window to designate it as their execution method.
Wearing a maroon shirt and with his hands shackled in front of him, Miller testified that he returned a state form selecting nitrogen on the same day it was distributed to inmates by a prison worker.
“I remember the guy yelling he was going to put something in the door and would be back to pick them up,” Miller testified. He said he signed the form and placed it in the “bean hole” — the prison nickname for the cell door slot used to pass mail, food trays and paperwork — but he did not see who collected it. Miller said he yelled that he wanted the form copied and notarized, but he did not get that.
Miller described how he disliked needles because of painful attempts at drawing blood. He said nitrogen gas sounded like the nitrous oxide gas used at dentist offices, and that seemed better than lethal injection.
“I did not want to be stabbed with a needle,” Miller said.
Houts, attempting to cast doubt on the inmate’s story about the form, asked him if he could describe anything about the officer who distributed the paper, but Miller said he couldn’t.
“I think we are very much entitled to question his veracity,” Houts told the judge.
Alabama told a federal judge last year that it has finished construction of a “system” to put condemned inmates to death using nitrogen gas, but did not give an estimate of when it would be put to use.
Miller’s lawyer, Mara Klebaner, said the state had asked if Miller would waive his claims if nitrogen was ready, but she said they need more information about the nitrogen process. Miller’s lawyers don’t want him to be the test case for an untried execution method, she said.
Klebaner said the Alabama attorney general’s office recently withdrew an execution date request for another inmate after his lawyers provided proof that the inmate had selected nitrogen hypoxia. She said Miller should be treated the same.
The state argued Miller was trying to delay his execution. Houts told the judge the state had gone as far as to see if Miller would agree to be fitted with a mask for use of nitrogen, but the inmate declined. Miller’s attorney said the state presented the gas mask during a deposition and that Miller was understandably upset.
Miller, a delivery truck driver, was convicted in workplace shootings that killed Lee Holdbrooks, Scott Yancy and Terry Jarvis in suburban Birmingham. Miller shot Holdbrooks and Yancy at one business and then drove to another location to shoot Jarvis, evidence showed.
Miller was delusional and believed the men were spreading rumors about him, including that he was gay, testimony showed. A defense psychiatrist said Miller suffered from severe mental illness but his condition wasn’t bad enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense under state law.
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:42Z
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Everywhere, it seems, back-to-school has been shadowed by worries of a teacher shortage.
The U.S. education secretary has called for investment to keep teachers from quitting. A teachers union leader has described it as a five-alarm emergency. News coverage has warned of a crisis in teaching.
In reality, there is little evidence to suggest teacher turnover has increased nationwide or educators are leaving in droves.
Certainly, many schools have struggled to find enough educators. But the challenges are related more to hiring, especially for non-teaching staff positions. Schools flush with federal pandemic relief money are creating new positions and struggling to fill them at a time of low unemployment and stiff competition for workers of all kinds.
Since well before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have had difficulty recruiting enough teachers in some regions, particularly in parts of the South. Fields like special education and bilingual education also have been critically short on teachers nationwide.
For some districts, shortages have meant children have fewer or less qualified instructors.
In rural Alabama’s Black Belt, there were no certified math teachers last year in Bullock County’s public middle school.
“It really impacts the children because they’re not learning what they need to learn,” said Christopher Blair, the county’s former superintendent. “When you have these uncertified, emergency or inexperienced teachers, students are in classrooms where they’re not going to get the level of rigor and classroom experiences.”
While the nation lacks vacancy data in several states, national pain points are obvious.
For starters, the pandemic kicked off the largest drop in education employment ever. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people employed in public schools dropped from almost 8.1 million in March 2020 to 7.3 million in May. Employment has grown back to 7.7 million since then, but that still leaves schools short around 360,000 positions.
“We’re still trying to dig out of that hole,” said Chad Aldeman, policy director at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.
It’s unknown how many of those positions lost were teaching jobs, or other staff members like bus drivers — support positions that schools are having an especially hard time filling. A RAND survey of school leaders this year found that around three-fourths of school leaders say they are trying to hire more substitutes, 58% are trying to hire more bus drivers and 43% are trying to hire more tutors.
Still, the problems are not as tied to teachers quitting as many have suggested.
Teacher surveys have indicated many considered leaving their jobs. They’re under pressure to keep kids safe from guns, catch them up academically and deal with pandemic challenges with mental health and behavior.
National Education Association union leader Becky Pringle tweeted in April: “The educator shortage is a five-alarm crisis.” But a Brown University study found turnover largely unchanged among states that had data.
Quit rates in education rose slightly this year, but that’s true for the nation as a whole, and teachers remain far more likely to stay in their job than a typical worker.
Hiring has been so difficult largely because of an increase in the number of open positions. Many schools indicated plans to use federal relief money to create new jobs, in some cases looking to hire even more people than they had pre-pandemic. Some neighboring schools are competing for fewer applicants, as enrollment in teacher prep programs colleges has declined.
The Upper Darby School District in Pennsylvania has around 70 positions it is trying to fill, especially bus drivers, lunch aides and substitute teachers. But it cannot find enough applicants. The district has warned families it may have to cancel school or switch to remote learning on days when it lacks subs.
“It’s become a financial competition from district to district to do that, and that’s unfortunate for children in communities who deserve the same opportunities everywhere in the state,” Superintendent Daniel McGarry said.
The number of unfilled vacancies has led some states and school systems to ease credential requirements, in order to expand the pool of applicants. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week that creative approaches are needed to bring in more teachers, such as retired educators, but schools must not lower standards.
Schools in the South are more likely to struggle with teacher vacancies. A federal survey found an average of 3.4 teaching vacancies per school as of this summer; that number was lowest in the West, with 2.7 vacancies on average, and highest in the South, with 4.2 vacancies.
In Birmingham, the school district is struggling to fill around 50 teaching spots, including 15 in special education, despite $10,000 signing bonuses for special ed teachers. Jenikka Oglesby, a human resources officer for the district, says the problem owes in part to low salaries in the South that don’t always offset a lower cost of living.
The school system in Moss Point, a small town near the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, has increased wages to entice more applicants. But other districts nearby have done the same. Some teachers realized they could make $30,000 more by working 30 minutes away in Mobile, Alabama.
“I personally lost some really good teachers to Mobile County Schools,” said Tenesha Batiste, human resources director for the Moss Point district. And she also lost some not-so-great teachers, she added — people who broke their contracts and quit three days before the school year started.
“It’s the job that makes all others possible, yet they get paid once a month, and they can go to Chick-fil-A in some places and make more money,” Batiste said.
A bright spot for Moss Point this year is four student teachers from the University of Southern Mississippi. They will spend the school year working with children as part of a residency program for aspiring educators. The state has invested almost $10 million of federal relief money into residency programs, with the hope the residents will stay and become teachers in their assigned districts.
Michelle Dallas, a teacher resident in a Moss Point first-grade classroom, recently switched from a career in mental health and is confident she is meant to be a teacher.
“That’s why I’m here,” she said, “to fulfill my calling.”
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This story is part of an Associated Press collaboration with AL.com, The Christian Science Monitor, The Dallas Morning News, The Fresno Bee in California, The Hechinger Report, The Seattle Times and The Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Associated Press writers Brooke Schultz in Harrisburg, Pa., Collin Binkley in Washington, D.C., and Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, N.Y. contributed to this report. Rebecca Griesbach is a member of The Alabama Education Lab team at AL.com. She is supported through a partnership with Report for America. AP journalist Sharon Lurye reported from New Orleans. Schultz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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For more back-to-school coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/back-to-school
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:49Z
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BRUSSELS (AP) — More than six years after the deadliest peacetime attack on Belgian soil, the trial of 10 men accused over the suicide bombings at Brussels airport and an underground metro station opened Monday amid high security.
The only survivor among the Islamic State extremists who in 2015 struck the Bataclan theater in Paris, city cafes and France’s national stadium, Salah Abdeslam, is among the accused. In all 32 people were killed in the March 22, 2016 Brussels attacks. Around 900 people were hurt or suffered mental trauma.
The 10 face charges including murder, attempted murder and membership of, or participation in, the activities of “a terrorist group” over the morning rush hour attacks at Belgium’s main airport and on a central commuter line. If convicted, some of them could be sentenced to terms of up to 30 years in prison.
Abdeslam, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole over the atrocities in Paris, was at the Brussels court on Monday but refused to take part, saying it was “unfair” that he should have to watch proceedings from inside a reinforced glass cubicle.
Sebastien Courtoy, a lawyer for another suspect, Smail Farisi, also complained about conditions. He said his client was “put on display like an animal in a cage. I want — I demand — to see the sick person who designed these cages to ask what kind of pleasure that person gets from this.”
For those who were hurt or lost loved ones, the trial will revive painful memories, but it also offers an opportunity for them to take a fresh step in their long recovery.
“It was a long wait for the victims, six years is very long. I think that on March 22, 2016, a very dark page started and the chapter is not finished today. But this is an important step for their recovery,” said Guillaume Lys, a lawyer for the V-Europe association representing the victims.
No images of the defendants in Monday’s trial proceedings were made public. Even a sketch artist who was allowed into the court room to work was advised not to release his drawings after the accused and their lawyers said they did not want the images published.
The hearing in what is one of the biggest jury trials ever held in Belgium was chiefly aimed at resolving technical and practical issues.
The court — located at the former headquarters of NATO on the outskirts of the Belgian capital — is due to sit again on Oct. 10 to pick a jury, with the trial proper starting on Oct. 13. More than 300 witnesses could be heard during the trial, which is expected to run for six to nine months.
___
Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T09:37:57Z
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KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops expanded their territorial gains Monday, pushing all the way to the country’s northeastern border in places, and claimed to have captured a record number of Russian soldiers as part of the lightning advance that forced Moscow to make a hasty retreat.
A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as “they understand the hopelessness of their situation.” A Ukrainian presidential adviser said there were so many POWs that the country was running out of space to accommodate them.
Blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags fluttered over newly liberated towns across a wide swath of reclaimed land. The Ukrainian military said it had freed more than 20 settlements in 24 hours. In recent days, Kyiv’s forces have captured territory at least twice the size of greater London, according to the British Defense Ministry.
After months of little discernible movement on the battlefield, the momentum has lifted Ukrainian morale and provoked rare public criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
“In some areas of the front, our defenders reached the state border with the Russian Federation,” said Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the northeastern Kharkiv region.
The counteroffensive left the Kremlin struggling for a response to its largest military defeat in Ukraine since Russian forces pulled back from areas near Kyiv after a botched attempt to capture the capital early in the invasion.
The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged the setback in a map that showed its troops pressed back along a narrow patch of land on the border with Russia — a tacit admission of big Ukrainian gains.
Reports of chaos abounded as Russian troops pulled out.
“The Russians were here in the morning. Then at noon, they suddenly started shouting wildly and began to run away, charging off in tanks and armored vehicles,” Dmytro Hrushchenko, a resident of recently liberated Zaliznychne, a small town near the eastern front line, told Sky News.
Video taken by the Ukrainian military showed soldiers raising the Ukrainian flag over battle-damaged buildings. In one scene, a fighter wiped his boots on a Russian flag on the ground. Other videos showed Ukrainians inspecting the wreckage of Russian military vehicles, including tanks.
In his evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) in the east and the south since the beginning of September.
Now Ukrainian teams are disarming land mines and other unexploded weapons in the recaptured areas and searching for any remaining Russian troops, officials said.
It was not yet clear if the Ukrainian blitz could signal a turning point in the war. Momentum has switched back and forth before, but rarely with such a big and sudden swing.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich did not specify the number of Russian prisoners but said the POWs would be exchanged for Ukrainian service members held by Moscow. Military intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov said the captured troops included “significant” numbers of Russian officers.
Ukraine’s deputy interior minister accused fleeing Russian forces of burning official documents and concealing bodies in an attempt to cover up rights violations in the areas they controlled until last week.
The mood was jubilant across the country.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city and the capital of the region where the gains have been made, authorities hailed that power and water had been restored to about 80% of the region’s population following Russian attacks on infrastructure that knocked out electricity in many places across Ukraine.
“You are heroes!!!” Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram, referring to crews who restored utilities in Ukraine’s second-biggest city. “Thanks to everyone who did everything possible on this most difficult night for Kharkiv to normalize the life of the city as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile in Russia, signs of disarray emerged as Russian military bloggers and other commentators chastised the Kremlin for failing to mobilize more forces and take stronger action against Ukraine.
Russia has continuously stopped short of calling its invasion a war, instead describing it as a “special military operation” and relying on on a limited contingent of volunteers instead of a mass mobilization that could spur civil discontent and protest.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, publicly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for what he called “mistakes” that made the Ukrainian blitz possible.
Even more notable, such criticism seeped onto state-controlled Russian TV.
“People who convinced President Putin that the operation will be fast and effective … these people really set up all of us,” Boris Nadezhdin, a former parliament member, said on a talk show on NTV television. “We’re now at the point where we have to understand that it’s absolutely impossible to defeat Ukraine using these resources and colonial war methods.”
Some in Russia blamed Western weapons and fighters for the losses.
“It’s not Ukraine that attacked Izium, but NATO,” read a headline in the state-supported Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, referring to one of the areas where Russia said it has withdrawn troops.
Elsewhere, residents of a Russian village just across the border from Ukraine were evacuated after shelling by Ukrainian troops killed one person, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
The report cited the head of the local administration in Logachevka, who said Ukrainian troops opened fire at a border checkpoint.
Pro-Kremlin separatists reported that Ukrainian troops were approaching the town of Lyman, a rail hub captured by Russia in late May that offers access to bridges over the nearby Siversky Donets river.
Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, acknowledged that the situation was “difficult.”
Even amid Ukraine’s ebullience, the casualties kept mounting. Ukraine’s presidential office said Monday that at least four civilians were killed and 11 others wounded in a series of Russian attacks in nine regions of the country. The U.N. Human Rights Office said last week that 5,767 civilians have been killed so far.
Among Monday’s attacks were strikes on residential areas in Kharkiv that killed at least one civilian and set multiple fires, local officials said.
In a reminder of the war’s toll, a council member in Izium accused enemy forces of killing civilians and committing other atrocities. Maksym Strelnikov told reporters Monday in an online briefing that hundreds of people had died during the fighting and after Russia seized the town in March.
Many died from shelling and could not get a proper burial, he said. His claims could not be immediately verified, but similar scenes have played out in other places captured by Russian forces.
The Ukrainian military also claimed to have found more evidence of human rights violations by Russian occupiers. It did not elaborate.
Izium was a major base for Russian forces in the Kharkiv region. The first Ukrainian flag was raised over the city on Saturday, according to Strelnikov. Residents, some wrapped in the country’s flag, greeted Ukrainian forces and offered them food.
Ukraine said the Russians continued shelling Nikopol across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia power plant, damaging several buildings there and leaving Europe’s largest nuclear facility in a precarious position. The last operational reactor in that plant has been shut down in a bid to prevent a radiation disaster as fighting raged nearby.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Monday that Kyiv “will likely increasingly dictate the location and nature of the major fighting.”
The British Defense Ministry said the retreat would likely further deteriorate the trust Russian forces have in their commanders and put Moscow’s troops on the back foot.
___
Arhirova reported from Kyiv.
____
Follow AP war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T09:38:12Z
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GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. labor agency estimates that some 50 million people worldwide were living in “modern slavery” – either in forced labor or marriage – at the end of last year, marking a 25% jump from its previous report five years ago.
The International Labor Organization and partners point to worrying trends such as “commercial sexual exploitation” affecting nearly one in four people who are subject to forced labor and with the poor, women and children hardest hit.
ILO, along with the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration and the Walk Free foundation – a rights group that focuses on modern slavery – reported that 28 million people were in forced labor and 22 in forced marriages at the end of 2021.
The report released Monday said such figures marked an increase of 10 million people living in modern slavery since the last such report was published in 2017, based on figures a year earlier. Two-thirds of the increase pertained to forced marriages alone, it said.
Based on available data, ILO and partners found increases in child and forced marriages in countries like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Congo, Egypt, India, Uganda and Yemen. But the report said wealthier countries were “not immune” to the problem, with nearly one-in-four forced marriages taking place in high or upper middle-income countries.
Crises including the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and armed conflict have underpinned rises in extreme poverty, unsafe migration, and gender-based violence in recent years, raising the risk of all forms of modern slavery, it said.
All told, more than 2/3 of all forced marriages were found in the Asia-Pacific region – the world’s most populous region – but the highest number per capita came in Arab countries where nearly 5 in 1,000 people were in forced marriages.
Forced marriage, the report said, is closely tied to “long-established patriarchal attitudes and practices” – while 85 percent of cases were driven by “family pressure.” Regarding forced labor, about one in eight of those affected were children and half of those in commercial sexual exploitation.
“(Modern slavery) is a man-made problem, connected to both historical slavery and persisting structural inequality,” said Grace Forrest, founding director of Walk Free, in a statement, as the ILO chief urged a broader effort to fight it.
Director-General Guy Rider of the U.N labor agency, which brings together workers, businesses and governments, called for “an all-hands-on-deck approach” and said, “trade unions, employers’ groups, civil society and ordinary people all have critical roles to play.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:38:20Z
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BERLIN (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Monday that he has started consultations with Ukraine and Russia on his call for a “nuclear safety and security protection zone” around the Zaporizhzhia power plant, and the two sides appear to be interested.
Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made his proposal last week after leading a team of inspectors to the nuclear plant, Europe’s biggest with six reactors, but gave few details at the time.
“What we need here really is Ukraine and Russia to agree on a very simple principle of not attacking, or not shelling, at the plant,” Grossi told reporters at the agency’s Vienna headquarters. The IAEA has not assigned blame for recent shelling, for which Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other.
The plant has been occupied by Russian forces but operated by its Ukrainian employees since early in the war.
Pressed on whether his proposal includes demilitarization, Grossi said: “Basically, it’s a commitment that no military action will include or will imply aiming … at the plant, or a radius that could be affecting its normal operation.”
Grossi said of the two sides that he has “seen signs that they are interested in this agreement.” He added that technical details are being explored, including the radius that an accord would apply to and how IAEA experts would work. Two IAEA experts remain at the plant after the rest of Grossi’s team returned home.
“What I see … is two sides that are engaging with us, but that are asking questions, lots of questions,” he added. He said that “we try to keep it simple, we try to keep it practical, because we need it as soon as possible.”
The Zaporizhzhia plant was reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid at the weekend, allowing engineers to shut down its last operational reactor in an attempt to avoid disaster as fighting rages in the area.
The plant had lost its outside source of power after all its power lines were disconnected because of shelling. It operated in “island mode” for several days, generating electricity for crucial cooling systems from its only remaining operational reactor. That’s considered an unstable way of operating a nuclear plant.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T09:38:27Z
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STOCKHOLM (AP) — A populist anti-immigration party has surged to become Sweden’s second-largest political force after a national election dominated by fears of gang violence, which has given the once-safe Scandinavian country one of Europe’s highest levels of gun violence.
Overall, a conservative opposition bloc including the anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats, had an extremely narrow lead over the incumbent center-left with 94% of the votes counted.
Analysts expect the final tally will confirm a conservative bloc win, but the election was so close that electoral officials said they would not have the final result until outstanding postal votes and votes from abroad are counted.
With eight parties contending for seats in the 349-member Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, none can secure a majority of 175 seats, meaning that laws can only be passed with different parties working together. The parties campaigned under two general blocs, one conservative and the other a center-left group headed by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Sweden’s first female prime minister.
The not-yet-final count indicated that the conservative bloc would have 175 seats and the center-left would have 174.
“It is extremely close. Things can change, but I doubt it,” said Zeth Isaksson, a sociologist at Stockholm University, who added that votes from abroad are traditionally conservative. “As it is now, it is more likely that the right side will win.”
One certainty, however, is that the result marked a success for the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, which won its best result since entering parliament in 2010. The party’s founders in the 1980s had links to fascist and neo-Nazi movements but over the past two decades it has worked to move to the mainstream under its 43-year-old leader Jimmie Akesson.
Its transformation included changing its official logo from a torch to a flower and expelling the most radical members.
Those who support it like its tough vows to crack down on crime and strictly limit immigration, while opponents fear that its historic roots make it a threat to Sweden’s democratic identity.
Mark Johnson, a 50-year-old Swedish finance worker, said while the party’s strong showing was expected, it is still shocking for many Swedes because “it’s hard to understand that we would be taking such an obvious turn to the right, to the far-right even.”
The Sweden Democrats, which won 20.6% support in Sunday’s vote, according to preliminary figures, up from 17.5% four years ago, gained on the rising fears of crime in largely immigrant neighborhoods.
This year so far there have been 273 shootings, 47 of them fatal, according to police statistics. Those shootings also wounded 74 people, including innocent bystanders.
Andersson’s Social Democrats, who have been in power in Sweden since 2014, remain the largest party, even gaining slightly to take 30.5% of the vote Sunday, according to the incomplete results. Andersson said Sunday night it was obvious that the social democratic movement, which is based on ideals of creating an equal society and a strong welfare state, remains strong in Sweden.
The Sweden Democrats wants to be part of a government, but this is unlikely to happen because there are parties in the center-right bloc that oppose it, Isaksson said.
Richard Jomshof, the Sweden Democrats’ party secretary, said Monday: “It is clear that we must be able to discuss ministerial posts. It is clear that we must be able to talk about the position of prime minister, speaker of parliament and the presidium positions in the various Riksdag committees.”
But a senior member of the center-right Liberals told Swedish radio Monday that it cannot allow the Sweden Democrats to be part of a government.
Still, if the right prevails, the Sweden Democrats will have “very strong leverage” and will push for some of its issues, like tightening immigration laws, Isaksson said. He said a likely outcome could be for the Sweden Democrats to end up outside a government but as supporters of it.
In Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany party congratulated the Sweden Democrats on “their sensational success in the parliamentary elections.” France’s far-right leader Marine Pen also tweeted her congratulations to the “patriotic” Swedish party, saying: “Everywhere in Europe, people aspire to take their destiny back into their own hands!”
Isaksson also ruled out a governing coalition combining the center-right Moderates, which have been leading the center-right bloc, and the Social Democrats. Such a coalition has not occurred since World War II.
The Moderates dropped to become Sweden’s third-largest party and won 19% support, based on the incomplete vote tally. However, party leader Ulf Kristersson on Monday appeared to be the most likely candidate to be the next prime minister. He told his supporters that he stands ready to try to create a stable and effective government.
Andersson, a 55-year-old economist, became Sweden’s first female prime minister less than a year ago and led Sweden’s historic bid to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
___ Olsen reported from Copenhagen, Denmark. Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.
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| 2022-09-21T09:38:35Z
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NEW BOSTON, Texas (AP) — A Texas woman accused of killing a woman to steal her unborn baby to present as her own went on trial for capital murder Monday.
Taylor Rene Parker has pleaded not guilty to capital murder and kidnapping in the October 2020 deaths of 21-year-old Regan Michelle Simmons-Hancock and the daughter who died after being cut from her mother’s womb. Authorities say Simmons-Hancock was stabbed and cut more than 100 times and had her skull crushed with a hammer in her New Boston, Texas, home before a scalpel was used to remove her unborn baby. She is also charged with non-capital murder in connection with the baby’s death.
Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told the Bowie County jury Monday that Parker, 29, acted not because she wanted a baby but to keep from losing her boyfriend. Crisp said Parker disguised herself to make her look pregnant for nearly 10 months, faked ultrasounds, had a gender-reveal party and posted about her fake pregnancy on social media while searching for a possible victim, Crisp said.
“How did we get here?” Crisp asked the jury. “How did it get this far? She is an actress, an actress of the highest order. The lies and fraud go on and on; the layers of fraud are staggering. You are going to have to understand the fraud to understand what happened on Oct. 9. This started months and months ahead of time until it passed the point of no return, and it ended up in homicide.”
Leaving the victim’s 3-year-old daughter alone with her dying mother, Parker then drove with the baby in her lap when a state trooper stopped the car and sent the child to a hospital in nearby Idabel, Oklahoma, authorities say. The child later died.
Witnesses said Parker, who could not conceive after a hysterectomy, had offered $100,000 for a surrogate mother and told her boyfriend that she would have an induced delivery the day of the killing.
Defense attorney Jeff Harrelson asked the six male and six female jurors not to fall prey to their emotions and to keep an open mind.
“It’s a complicated case, factually and emotionally,” he said. “The law is the lens and filter you must view these facts through. Sometimes it’s not black and white but a shade of gray.”
Parker could get the death penalty or life in prison without parole if convicted of capital murder. Attorneys estimated they would present at least two weeks of testimony.
New Boston is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) west of Texarkana, Texas.
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| 2022-09-21T09:38:42Z
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A rape victim whose DNA from her sexual assault case was used by San Francisco police to arrest her in an unrelated property crime on Monday filed a lawsuit against the city.
During a search of a San Francisco Police Department crime lab database, the woman’s DNA was tied to a burglary in late 2021. Her DNA had been collected and stored in the system as part of a 2016 domestic violence and sexual assault case, then-District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in February in a shocking revelation that raised privacy concerns.
“This is government overreach of the highest order, using the most unique and personal thing we have – our genetic code – without our knowledge to try and connect us to crime,” the woman’s attorney, Adante Pointer, said in a statement.
The revelation prompted a national outcry from advocates, law enforcement, legal experts and lawmakers. Advocates said the practice could affect victims’ willingness to come forward to law enforcement authorities.
Federal law already prohibits the inclusion of victims’ DNA in the national Combined DNA Index System. There is no corresponding law in California to prohibit local law enforcement databases from retaining victims’ profiles and searching them years later for entirely different purposes.
California lawmakers last month approved a bill that would prohibit using the DNA profiles collected by police from sexual assault survivors and other victims for any purpose other than aiding in identifying the perpetrator. Local law enforcement agencies would also be prohibited from retaining and then searching victim DNA to incriminate them in unrelated crimes under the legislation, which is pending before Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Boudin said the report was found among hundreds of pages of evidence against a woman who had been recently charged with a felony property crime. After learning the source of the DNA evidence, Boudin dropped the felony property crime charges against the woman.
The police department’s crime lab stopped the practice shortly after receiving a complaint from the district attorney’s office and formally changed its operating procedure to prevent the misuse of DNA collected from sexual assault victims, Police Chief Bill Scott said.
Scott said at a police commission meeting in March that he had discovered 17 crime victim profiles, 11 of them from rape kits, that were matched as potential suspects using a crime victims database during unrelated investigations. Scott said he believes the only person arrested was the woman who filed the lawsuit Monday.
The woman filed the lawsuit under the alias of Jane Doe to protect her privacy, Pointer said The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they choose to be named.
California allows local law enforcement crime labs to operate their own forensic databases that are separate from federal and state databases. The law also lets municipal labs perform forensic analysis, including DNA profiling, and use those databases — without regulation by the state or others.
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SEATTLE (AP) — The wreckage of a floatplane that crashed into the waters of Washington state’s Puget Sound last week has been found on the sea floor, The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.
The NTSB said the depth and motion of the water hid the wreckage for several days, The Seattle Times reported.
Sonar located a “large section” similar in length and width to the plane about 190 feet (58 meters) below the surface of Puget Sound near Whidbey Island, according to spokesperson Jennifer Gabris.
Investigators, the National Oceanic at Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory scoured a 1.75-by-0.75-mile (2.8-by-1.2 kilometer) area where witnesses said the plane had crashed.
Because of the depth and 3-5 knot currents, the NTSB is seeking a remotely operated vehicle to recover the wreckage. The NTSB had said that crash details, including the cause of the crash, couldn’t be determined until more of the wreckage was found.
Ten people were on the Sunday flight from Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands to the Seattle suburb of Renton when it crashed on Sept. 4. The only body that has been found was identified last week as Gabby Hanna of Seattle.
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| 2022-09-21T09:38:57Z
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(The Hill) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning for doctors and patients on Thursday after it received reports of people with breast implants being diagnosed with multiple types of cancer.
Binita Ashar, the director of the Office of Surgical and Infection Control Devices in the agency’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a release that the FDA received reports of squamous cell carcinoma and various lymphomas in the capsule or scar tissue near the implants.
Ashar said the FDA reviewed the reports and determined that such occurrences are rare, but the agency wanted to provide “clear and understandable information” to the public as soon as possible.
Some of those who reported having cancer had symptoms of swelling, pain, lumps or skin changes, Ashar said.
She said these reports are separate from breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, which the FDA started warning about more than 10 years ago.
Ashar said the agency does not have enough information to conclude if the implants cause certain cancers or if some implants pose a higher risk than others. Any instances of squamous cell carcinoma, lymphoma or any cancer near the scar tissue around breast implants should be reported to the FDA as a result.
“Our collective understanding has advanced significantly because of the efforts to study, communicate and act when needed,” she said. “As the agency moves further into adopting modernized approaches to our regulatory responsibilities to promote faster science-based decision-making, accurate data is crucial.”
Ashar said the FDA will conduct a literature review and continue its partnership with the American Society of Plastic Surgeons to identify ways to collect more detailed information about these cases.
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| 2022-09-21T09:39:11Z
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(KTLA) — A man in California is without a bicycle after another man took the bike he claimed was his in a violent altercation Sunday.
In video shared with KTLA, one man can be seen riding a bike around midday and pulling a cart loaded down with luggage in an alley in Venice.
As the cyclist hears another man yell, “Give me my bike!” he slows down and stops to refute the other man’s assertion.
As the cyclist begins to make his case, the other man, who is armed with what appears to be a stick or pipe, strikes the luggage with his weapon.
As the armed man repeatedly shouts “Give me my bike!” along with profanities, he grabs at the bike’s handlebars, causing the cyclist to fall to the ground.
The man with the weapon then pulls the bike away from the cyclist and begins to walk away with it as passersby try to intervene on behalf of the man on the ground.
As the confrontation exits the screen, the cyclist remains lying on the ground, appearing confused.
It remains unclear if the cyclist got the bicycle back or if the second man was correct in asserting that the bike was his.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not have any information to share on the incident.
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| 2022-09-21T09:39:19Z
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (WXIN) — If you got a HelloFresh meal kit in July, the ground beef may have been contaminated with E. coli.
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert for the beef, but there isn’t a recall because the products are no longer available for purchase.
The ground beef was distributed in the meal kits from July 2 through July 21. The USDA said an investigation into an E.coli outbreak identified that many “case-patients” received the ground beef distributed by HelloFresh.
The FSIS said subject to the public health alert are 10-ounce plastic vacuum-packed packages containing “Ground Beef 85% Lean/15% Fat” with codes “EST#46841 L1 22 155” or “EST#46841 L5 22 155” on the side of the packaging.
The FSIS is concerned that some of the ground beef may be in people’s freezers. Anyone with the ground beef is urged not to consume them and to throw it away instead.
Anyone with questions regarding the public health alert can contact hello@hellofresh.com.
The FSIS advises consumers to only eat ground beef that has been cooked to a temperature of 160 Fahrenheit and to use a food thermometer to make sure that it is cooked properly.
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| 2022-09-21T09:39:26Z
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(NewsNation) — After working at McDonald’s since he was 14, Nimi Rama says he has “ketchup in (his) veins.”
Now 35 and a director of operations for McDonald’s franchises in Florence, South Carolina, Rama worked his way up to his current position by starting as a teenage crew member at a McDonald’s in Jefferson, Wisconsin.
“Twenty-two years in, and ‘I’m lovin it,'” he said, quoting the McDonald’s slogan.
After being a crew member, he became a shift manager, then assistant manager. From there, Rama got the chance to hold a number of other leadership positions as McDonald’s sent him across the country, from Chicago to Miami, where he was made a general manager. In Miami, Rama even won the Ray Kroc award, which is given to the top 1% of McDonald’s general managers worldwide.
Through his time in so many places, Rama says he was able to build a lot of relationships and explore other places — something he’s always wanted to do.
“I worked my butt off, did a lot of hours, and really embraced McDonald’s at that point,” he said.
Rama is no stranger to working at a restaurant. His father owned a family-style restaurant in Jefferson where his mother also worked. At 7 years old, Rama said, he was doing dishes there.
When a teenage Rama told his dad he took a job at the Golden Arches, though, his father didn’t mind the move to a big company.
“He’s like, ’Yeah, do it. Have fun,’” Rama recalled.
Rama attributes his passion for the restaurant industry to his father, who came to America from what was then called Yugoslavia (now Albania) with nothing.
“He was always a tough guy,” Rama said of his father, who died in February. “He just pushed (my brother and me) every day to be better than yesterday.”
“The fire is lit from my dad, my mom really,” he added.
It was that drive that helped Rama on his journey through the McDonald’s ranks.
As a 14-year-old, Rama said, all he wanted was enough money to buy his own Nokia phone. As he progressed, though, he started to really want to impact people.
“I use McDonald’s as a platform, and understanding leadership has been a big passion of mine, understanding how you can be a servant-leader, and understanding being empathetic,” Rama said. “It’s all about leadership. It’s all about community involvement. It’s getting to know your employees and its people-first culture.”
Even when things were stressful, especially through the COVID-19 pandemic, Rama focused on turning a negative situation into a positive one.
“I consider my employees customers,” he said. “I want them to go home and be like, ‘Hey I had a good day at work.’”
Everyone has a different experience and perspective, Rama said, and it’s his job to understand that.
“As I progressed from a crew member to where I am today, because I’ve taken that journey, I can understand what that crew member’s going through, because I had to deal with it,” Rama said.
Looking back on his career, Rama says, he wouldn’t change a thing.
“I’ve been so blessed to see so many different markets and work with some really great people,” he said. “If you stay dedicated, and you really are focused on what your goal at the end of the day is, that can definitely happen.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:39:34Z
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LONDON — Officials in charge of the park outside Buckingham Palace have told people to stop leaving marmalade sandwiches as a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II because of the “negative impact on the park’s wildlife.”
Some mourners have left the snacks alongside floral tributes at Buckingham Palace and neighboring Green Park. The sandwiches are a reference to a comedy sketch featuring the queen and an animated Paddington Bear filmed for the late monarch’s Platinum Jubilee earlier this year.
In the video, the queen said that like Paddington Bear she also favors marmalade sandwiches and hides them in her purse “for later.”
The Royal Parks organization said Monday people should not leave the snacks but could leave teddy bears and other items if they wished.
Meanwhile, St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh has opened to members of the public who wish to pay their last respects to Queen Elizabeth II, whose coffin is lying at rest inside.
The Scottish government is warning that the line, and waiting times, are expected to be long, with perhaps hours of standing. Visitors can leave the line to use toilet facilities.
Authorities have introduced airport-style security, banning people from taking inside the cathedral any large bags, sharp items, or food or liquids.
Similar crowds are expected in London, where the coffin can be visited from Wednesday.
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| 2022-09-21T09:39:50Z
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INVERNESS, Ill. (WGN) — A suburban Illinois father allegedly poisoned his children before he died by suicide, killing his son and putting his daughter in critical condition, police say.
Inverness officers were called to a home in Inverness at around 4:20 p.m. Sunday for a well-being check.
Inside, a father and his son, 10-year-old Austin Chang, were found dead. The father has been identified as Woo Chang, 41.
The boy’s 6-year-old sister was located inside and transported to a hospital in critical condition. Police said the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning due to a generator.
Police met with the children’s mother, who told them the children did not return at the scheduled time with her estranged husband. She was the one who found her children inside the home.
Autopsies are scheduled for Monday.
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| 2022-09-21T09:39:58Z
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LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II’s grandson Prince Harry hailed her Monday as a “guiding compass” and praised her “unwavering grace and dignity,” as members of the public were to get the chance to pay their respects to the monarch when her coffin lies at rest at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.
The personal statement, posted on Harry and his wife Meghan’s Archwell website, said he cherished their times together “from my earliest childhood memories with you, to meeting you for the first time as my Commander-in-Chief, to the first moment you met my darling wife and hugged your beloved greatgrandchildren.”
Amid acrimony in the House of Windsor, Harry quit as a senior royal and moved to the U.S. two years ago. On Saturday, there was a possible sign of a reconciliation as Harry and Meghan joined his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Catherine in meeting mourners outside Windsor Castle.
Harry’s statement came at the start of another day steeped in the historic pageantry and pomp that follows the death of a British sovereign.
King Charles III was starting the day speaking to lawmakers at Parliament in London before flying to Scotland.
Hundreds of lawmakers crowded into the 1,000-year-old Westminster Hall at the Houses of Parliament for a service in which Parliament will offer its condolences to the king, and he will reply.
A trumpet fanfare greeted the king and his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, as they entered the hall, which was packed with hundreds of legislators.
The Speakers of the House of Commons and House of Lords were offering condolences on the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and Charles will make a speech in reply.
The hall, with its magnificent hammer-beam roof, is the oldest part of the parliamentary complex — a remnant of the medieval Palace of Westminster that once stood on the site.
The ceremony was being held in Westminster Hall because monarchs are not allowed inside the House of Commons. That rule dates from the 17th century, when King Charles I tried to enter and arrest lawmakers. That confrontation between crown and Parliament led to a civil war which ended with the king being beheaded in 1649.
On Sunday, thousands of people lined streets and roadsides as the oak coffin was borne from the late queen’s beloved Balmoral Castle summer retreat, where she died on Thursday, to Edinburgh.
The new king will fly to Edingburgh later and will walk behind his mother’s coffin as it is slowly transported from Holyroodhouse to St. Giles’ Cathedral, where the crown of Scotland will be placed on the coffin ahead of a service of prayer and reflection on the life and 70-year reign of the widely cherished monarch.
The queen’s coffin will lie at the cathedral for 24 hours, giving members of the public a chance to file past and pay their respects. On Tuesday, it will be flown to London where the coffin will lie in state at the Houses of Parliament Palace from Wednesday afternoon until the morning of the funeral on Sept. 19.
Authorities already have issued rules and guidelines for people wanting to pay their respects in London, with a long queue expected.
After visiting Scotland, Charles embarks on a tour of the other nations that make up the United Kingdom — he visits the Northern Ireland capital, Belfast, on Tuesday and Wales on Friday.
Harry’s statement ended on a poignant note alluding to the death last year of his grandfather, Prince Philip, saying that “We, too, smile knowing that you and grandpa are reunited now, and both together in peace.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:40:05Z
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Everywhere, it seems, back-to-school has been shadowed by worries of a teacher shortage.
The U.S. education secretary has called for investment to keep teachers from quitting. A teachers union leader has described it as a five-alarm emergency. News coverage has warned of a crisis in teaching.
In reality, there is little evidence to suggest teacher turnover has increased nationwide or educators are leaving in droves.
Certainly, many schools have struggled to find enough educators. But the challenges are related more to hiring, especially for non-teaching staff positions. Schools flush with federal pandemic relief money are creating new positions and struggling to fill them at a time of low unemployment and stiff competition for workers of all kinds.
Since well before the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have had difficulty recruiting enough teachers in some regions, particularly in parts of the South. Fields like special education and bilingual education also have been critically short on teachers nationwide.
For some districts, shortages have meant children have fewer or less qualified instructors.
In rural Alabama’s Black Belt, there were no certified math teachers last year in Bullock County’s public middle school.
“It really impacts the children because they’re not learning what they need to learn,” said Christopher Blair, the county’s former superintendent. “When you have these uncertified, emergency or inexperienced teachers, students are in classrooms where they’re not going to get the level of rigor and classroom experiences.”
While the nation lacks vacancy data in several states, national pain points are obvious.
For starters, the pandemic kicked off the largest drop in education employment ever. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people employed in public schools dropped from almost 8.1 million in March 2020 to 7.3 million in May. Employment has grown back to 7.7 million since then, but that still leaves schools short around 360,000 positions.
“We’re still trying to dig out of that hole,” said Chad Aldeman, policy director at the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.
It’s unknown how many of those positions lost were teaching jobs, or other staff members like bus drivers — support positions that schools are having an especially hard time filling. A RAND survey of school leaders this year found that around three-fourths of school leaders say they are trying to hire more substitutes, 58% are trying to hire more bus drivers and 43% are trying to hire more tutors.
Still, the problems are not as tied to teachers quitting as many have suggested.
Teacher surveys have indicated many considered leaving their jobs. They’re under pressure to keep kids safe from guns, catch them up academically and deal with pandemic challenges with mental health and behavior.
National Education Association union leader Becky Pringle tweeted in April: “The educator shortage is a five-alarm crisis.” But a Brown University study found turnover largely unchanged among states that had data.
Quit rates in education rose slightly this year, but that’s true for the nation as a whole, and teachers remain far more likely to stay in their job than a typical worker.
Hiring has been so difficult largely because of an increase in the number of open positions. Many schools indicated plans to use federal relief money to create new jobs, in some cases looking to hire even more people than they had pre-pandemic. Some neighboring schools are competing for fewer applicants, as enrollment in teacher prep programs colleges has declined.
The Upper Darby School District in Pennsylvania has around 70 positions it is trying to fill, especially bus drivers, lunch aides and substitute teachers. But it cannot find enough applicants. The district has warned families it may have to cancel school or switch to remote learning on days when it lacks subs.
“It’s become a financial competition from district to district to do that, and that’s unfortunate for children in communities who deserve the same opportunities everywhere in the state,” Superintendent Daniel McGarry said.
The number of unfilled vacancies has led some states and school systems to ease credential requirements, in order to expand the pool of applicants. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told reporters last week that creative approaches are needed to bring in more teachers, such as retired educators, but schools must not lower standards.
Schools in the South are more likely to struggle with teacher vacancies. A federal survey found an average of 3.4 teaching vacancies per school as of this summer; that number was lowest in the West, with 2.7 vacancies on average, and highest in the South, with 4.2 vacancies.
In Birmingham, the school district is struggling to fill around 50 teaching spots, including 15 in special education, despite $10,000 signing bonuses for special ed teachers. Jenikka Oglesby, a human resources officer for the district, says the problem owes in part to low salaries in the South that don’t always offset a lower cost of living.
The school system in Moss Point, a small town near the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, has increased wages to entice more applicants. But other districts nearby have done the same. Some teachers realized they could make $30,000 more by working 30 minutes away in Mobile, Alabama.
“I personally lost some really good teachers to Mobile County Schools,” said Tenesha Batiste, human resources director for the Moss Point district. And she also lost some not-so-great teachers, she added — people who broke their contracts and quit three days before the school year started.
“It’s the job that makes all others possible, yet they get paid once a month, and they can go to Chick-fil-A in some places and make more money,” Batiste said.
A bright spot for Moss Point this year is four student teachers from the University of Southern Mississippi. They will spend the school year working with children as part of a residency program for aspiring educators. The state has invested almost $10 million of federal relief money into residency programs, with the hope the residents will stay and become teachers in their assigned districts.
Michelle Dallas, a teacher resident in a Moss Point first-grade classroom, recently switched from a career in mental health and is confident she is meant to be a teacher.
“That’s why I’m here,” she said, “to fulfill my calling.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:40:27Z
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CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) – One of the founding members of the country band Alabama was arrested on drug charges on Monday, according to Alabama court records.
Teddy Gentry, 70, of Fort Payne, Alabama, was arrested for misdemeanor second-degree unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
Sheriff Jeff Shaver told local news outlet AL.com that Gentry was arrested during a traffic stop.
According to the Cherokee County Jail log, Gentry was booked at 10:38 a.m. and released at 11:06 a.m. A bond amount was not listed.
A spokesman for the band told the Associated Press he was aware of the incident but had no immediate comment.
Additional details have not yet been released.
The band Alabama was formed in Fort Payne by Gentry, Randy Owen and Jeff Cook — all cousins — in 1969.
By the 1980s, they had become one of the most successful bands in country music with multiple hits and platinum albums. The band is known for popular songs, “Dixieland Delight” and “Song of the South,” among many others.
Though Alabama said they were retiring from performing and held a farewell tour in 2007, the group has returned to performing. They are currently scheduled to perform again on September 23 in Denver, according to Ticketmaster.
It’s unclear if this show and other scheduled appearances will be impacted by Gentry’s arrest.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T09:40:35Z
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LAKE WALES, Fla. (WFLA) — A World War II veteran celebrated two special occasions in Florida on Saturday: his 95th birthday and his 50th skydive.
Hector Hita Sr. served as a pilot in the U.S. Army’s 11th Airborne Division from 1945-1947, but he wasn’t finished flying yet. His son, Vince Hita, said that when he surprised his father with a trip to Lake Wales, Florida, for his landmark 50th jump, his father had tears in his eyes.
“I told him this past Monday, and as I told him about it, his head and shoulders dropped then he looked at me teary-eyed,” Vince Hita told WFLA. “I remember that feeling when in September 2016, he told me I was going with him and other Elks Club members to Pearl Harbor for the 75th anniversary of the attack.”
The older Hita suited up in his American flag shirt and harness and took flight.
On the flight up before the jump, the flight instructor asked him, “Guess what? Only halfway up right now! Still wanna do it?”
Hita Sr. responded, “Yes!”
Video shows the 95-year-old with a huge smile on his face as he and the flight instructor floated through the sky during the tandem skydive (when two people strapped to each other jump out of a plane together).
And of course, his family was on the ground cheering him on as he stuck the landing.
“Would you do it again?” The fight instructor asked after they made it back to the ground.
Hita Sr. just laughed and said, “Yeah! Okay!”
Then the flight instructor asked him what was the most exciting part of skydiving, to which he answered, “That was very good. You’re a good driver!”
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| 2022-09-21T09:40:42Z
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LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Remnants of a hurricane caused waterfalls to form in the nation’s hottest and driest national park over the weekend.
The National Park Service shared a stunning video of the waterfalls in Death Valley saying they were due to recent rain from the remnants of Hurricane Kay, which made landfall in Mexico last week.
The temporary waterfalls were spotted just south of Natural Bridge on Badwater Road Sunday afternoon. Flooding in that area caused CA Highway 190 west of Stovepipe Wells and Badwater Road to be completely closed for cleaning.
Many roads in Death Valley remain closed as of Monday, according to the National Park Service. Flooding earlier this year closed a number of other roads as well, many of which are still inaccessible.
Roughly 40 vehicles were blocked by flooding in the Death Valley area Saturday, NPS reports. At one point, a tour bus became stuck in soft sand and blocked traffic for about an hour.
People are being reminded that there is still an active monsoon season and that people should watch for water and debris and not enter canyons during storms.
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| 2022-09-21T09:40:49Z
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(The Hill) — Meteorologists have predicted that a “triple-dip” La Niña is expected to occur through the remainder of 2022 and possibly into early 2023.
In an update on Thursday, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported a 91 percent chance of La Niña conditions in the months of September and November, decreasing to 54 percent through January and March of 2023.
According to the Word Meteorological Organization (WMO), La Niña is a climate pattern caused by large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
The current La Niña has spanned three consecutive northern hemisphere winters starting in September 2020, making this the century’s first “triple-dip“ La Niña, WMO said.
La Niña is also the opposite of the widely-known El Niño, which only occurs when the Pacific Ocean water is higher than normal.
The weather conditions will mean less rain and drier conditions this fall for most of the U.S.
WMO’s Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas said the weather event is slowing the rise in temperatures around the globe, “but it will not halt or reverse the long-term warming trend.”
Every state in the U.S., apart from those closer to the Canadian border, are expecting to see above-average temperatures forecast through the fall season.
Another season of La Niña could spell trouble for California, which has suffered through intense, prolonged drought seasons in the past few years.
States such as New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Colorado are also expected to see hotter than usual temperatures during the fall season.
According to ABC News, La Niña has had a devastating impact outside the U.S., causing droughts in South America and eastern parts of Africa and floods in Asia.
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| 2022-09-21T09:40:57Z
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(NEXSTAR) – Starting Monday, you can teach your old iPhone a few new tricks.
Updating the phone’s software to the latest version, iOS 16, will unlock a load of new features, from the ability to edit text messages after they’re sent, to new filters meant to help you focus.
Here are a few of the highlights:
Text message editing
If you make a typo while texting, you’ll have 15 minutes to correct yourself, thanks to an update to Messages. You can make edits to a message up to five times, Apple says.
If you sent something to the wrong person, you can also “undo” a send for two minutes after the text is fired off.
Another update to Messages allows you to mark a text as unread so that if you don’t have time to respond in the moment, you’ll have a reminder to check back on it later.
Customize your Lock Screen
iOS16 includes a ton of new ways to customize your iPhone’s screen saver. You can pick new fonts and colors for the time, create a gallery of photos that cycle through, and customize which widgets you want to see on the screen. The software can also suggest which photos already saved on your phone would look good as a Lock Screen.
You can also add certain “Live Activities” to the Lock Screen, allowing you to check on sports scores or other live events without unlocking your phone.
You also have the option to make multiple custom lock screens that are easy to switch between – that way you don’t have to just pick one favorite to look at.
Focus better
The new software allows you to set up different states of “Focus” (like a “Personal Focus” or “Work Focus” setting). From there, you can really get into the nitty gritty of what shows up on your phone during focus time.
For example, you can set up “Work Focus” to show all your upcoming calendar events on the Lock Screen, but silence incoming calls and texts. You could set up a “Personal Focus” setting that allows all those texts and calls to come through, but blocks your work email. You could even have different photos on your Lock Screen depending on which mode is enabled.
Talk-to-text improvements
Your phone’s dictation ability should improve with this software update, Apple says. Punctuation should insert itself into the dictated text automatically, and you’ll also be able to insert emojis while dictating.
Email tweaks
A few changes to the Mail app are coming with iOS 16, including the option to undo send before your recipient gets the email. The app may also warn you if it thinks you’ve forgotten to add an attachment, and it’s supposed to include improvements that will making searching for a specific email easier.
Map your way around
A few updates to Apple’s Maps app allow you to add multiple stops to a journey. You can also check transit fares before you head out. Maps now syncs across your Apple devices, so the company says you can plan your route on your computer, for example, and then see it on your phone to help with navigation.
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You may be prompted it’s time for the update in the coming days, but you can also install iOS 16 sooner by going into your phone’s settings, tapping “General” and then “Software Update.” Apple says the update will be available on Monday, Sept. 12, though it’s not clear what time it will be pushed out to devices.
iOS 16 is compatible with the iPhone 8 models, and every model released after that, as well as the second generation iPhone SE and later.
Apple has a detailed description of all the new iOS16 features on its website.
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:04Z
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STATHAM, Ga. (AP) — Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday that he wants Georgia to provide grants to school districts to help students catch up on what they might have missed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, expand the number of school counselors, encourage teacher aides to become full-fledged teachers and pass a law requiring school lockdown drills.
Kemp unveiled a relatively modest set of K-12 education proposals as part of his second-term reelection effort at an elementary school in Oconee County, the same school where one of his daughters was a teacher last year.
“We have more work to do to address pandemic learning loss, bring more educators and counselors into our schools, and keep our students and staff safe,” Kemp said at Dove Creek Elementary School in Statham, just outside Athens.
Kemp made a $5,000 pay raise for teachers a centerpiece of his agenda when he was running in 2018 and delivered the final chunk of the money this year, but he didn’t propose a pay raise for his second term on Monday, although in response to reporter questions, he said he would “continue to work support all state employees to make the pay scale competitive in the future.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is running against Kemp again after losing narrowly to him in 2018, has proposed boosting average teacher pay over four years to $75,000, and guaranteeing a starting salary of $50,000. The plan would cost $1.65 billion in new spending over four years, Abrams has said.
Alex Floyd, a spokesperson for Abrams, attacked the governor’s failure to propose an additional pay raise for teachers.
“With Georgia stuck at 21st in the nation in teacher pay, Kemp is declaring mission accomplished as our state struggles to recruit and retain the best and the brightest educators to serve our students,” Floyd said.
Kemp again attacked Abrams’ spending proposals.
“I have news for people back home, she can only do that if she raises your taxes,” the Republican said Monday.
Kemp has made few promises thus far for what he would do in a second term. His biggest proposal has been a pledge to use $2 billion in surplus state money to provide $1 billion in state income tax rebates and $1 billion in property tax relief. Abrams has proposed a much more ambitious plan, including expanding Medicaid, promoting affordable housing, expanding college financial aid, tightening gun laws and blocking further restrictions on abortion.
Kemp said he would propose to lawmakers that the state should offer $25 million in grants to school districts using state money to provide additional tutoring, nontraditional staff, or boost existing services.
During the 2021-2022 school year, 64% of third graders read at grade level or above, according to results from Georgia’s standardized tests, while 73% of third graders read at or above grade level during the 2018-2019 school year. Officials attribute the drop to pandemic-related disruptions.
“By working with our local school systems and providing targeted funding to bring these kids back up to grade level, I am confident we can lend a helping hand to the students who need it most,” Kemp said.
However, the $25 million pales in comparison to the $6 billion in federal aid that Georgia’s 181 public school districts have gotten during the pandemic. School districts must spend more than $750 million of that money improving academic performance. Kemp said his program would be targeted only to 44,000 fourth-graders who are reading below grade level.
Kemp also said he would recommend giving districts another $25 million to recruit more counselors statewide. Right now, the state funding formula mandates funding for one counselor for every 450 students, but it has never been fully funded. The governor also proposed spending $15 million to give $3,000 to teacher aides who already have four-year degrees to become certified as teachers.
Kemp said he would seek to enhance school safety by passing a law requiring schools to offer “intruder alert drills” once each August and September, with a requirement to report drills to the state. Some fear such drills traumatize students, but Kemp said his proposal would allow parents to opt students out of the drills.
Kemp said he would also propose letting teachers take school safety and anti-gang training, require that school security plans, already legally mandated, be submitted to the state, and recommend continuing education for school resource officers.
___
Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:11Z
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BOSTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday said if Democrats lose Congress after the upcoming midterm elections, it’s going to be a “difficult two years,” and he’s going to be spending a lot of time “with the veto pen.”
Biden was speaking at a Democratic National Committee reception in a swanky Boston apartment following his speech about his administration’s efforts at ending cancer “as we know it.”
In the starkest terms yet, the president laid out how important the upcoming November midterm elections are. The U.S. Senate right now is split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaker. The House is 219-211 in favor of Democrats.
“If we lose the House and we lose the Senate it’s going to be a really difficult two years,” he told a crowd of about 30 donors and guests. “I’ll be spending more time with the veto pen than getting anything done.”
Republican National Committee Ronna McDaniel said Biden remained focused on “an out-of-touch and divisive agenda, one that benefits the wealthy, while struggling Americans pay more.”
In his remarks, the president also took aim at the “ MAGA Republicans,” continuing his sharp attacks against former Republican President Donald Trump and his supporters, an effort that has emboldened Democrats across the country ahead of the election.
He questioned the Republican platform and touted his own achievements but came back to how the Democrats couldn’t “afford to lose this off-year election.”
Monday’s gathering raised about $2 million. The DNC said it has so far raised more than $255 million this cycle and more than $92 million so far this year, the most at this point in any year.
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:19Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is launching a new initiative to encourage biotech production and research in the U.S., the latest move by the White House to boost domestic industry.
Biden on Monday signed an executive order implementing the initiative and later, in remarks at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, will address how biotech can help fight cancer. On Wednesday, the Democratic president’s administration will host a summit and announce new investments from several federal agencies, according to a White House fact sheet.
The initiative will seek to boost biomanufacturing in pharmaceuticals but also in other industries such as agriculture, plastics and energy. A senior administration official wouldn’t say how much funding will be announced Wednesday.
Biomanufacturing processes can program microbes to make specialty chemicals and compounds, the fact sheet said. Biomanufacturing can be used to make alternatives to oil-based chemicals, plastics and textiles.
The executive order follows bipartisan legislation Biden signed last month that provided $52 billion to subsidize the production of semiconductors, construction of new chip plants and research and development in the United States.
That legislation was intended to reduce the U.S. economy’s reliance on semiconductors made overseas, particularly in Taiwan, and to respond to greater efforts by China to develop its own chip industry.
Biden touted the benefits of the semiconductor law on Friday, in a stop in Columbus, Ohio, where chip giant Intel has broken ground on a new $20 billion factory.
The administration official, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and insisted on anonymity, said the White House wants to support manufacturing biotech products that are developed in the U.S., rather than seeing American innovations produced abroad.
The official said that the administration was aiming to expand domestic biomanufacturing capacity and that other countries, especially China, have been aggressively investing in the sector, posing risks to U.S. leadership and competitiveness.
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:26Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has stopped talking so much about inflation worries.
His remarks in Columbus, Ohio, in suburban Washington at a Democratic fundraiser, at a Cabinet meeting and in Labor Day speeches in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh were all missing a once-common refrain about families at the kitchen table straining under the rising costs of food and gasoline.
It’s a self-edit ahead of the midterm elections in November, prompted in part by the easing of inflationary pressures. But Biden is also attempting to shift the spotlight to his legislative wins, the loss of abortion protections and the threats he says are posed to democracy by the many Republican leaders still under the sway of former President Donald Trump.
When Biden did address inflation in a Monday speech at Boston’s airport, he stressed progress, rather than financial pain on what he says is his top economic priority. Biden has largely put the blame for inflation on global forces such as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February invasion of Ukraine, even as he says his own policies are reducing the burdens of higher prices.
“We’re on the right track,” the president said Monday, noting the lower gas costs but adding the caveat: “There’s more to do, a lot more to do.”
Prices at the pump are averaging $3.72 a gallon, after having crested above $5 a gallon in mid-June, and the president’s approval ratings have recovered somewhat. Yet inflation still remains a challenge.
The government on Tuesday will release its consumer prices report for August, with economists surveyed by FactSet expecting annual inflation to be at 8.1%. That’s down from the 40-year peak of 9.1% in June, but it’s well above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
“The most public price — gasoline — has been falling significantly,” said Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist and former Obama White House aide. “In that kind of environment, other concerns tend to move up on people’s lists. That could certainly change if the inflation numbers start getting worse.”
A senior White House official, insisting on anonymity on a Thursday call with reporters, said recent trends in inflation have given the administration some guarded optimism. The White House is banking on the possibility that interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve will lead inflation down to pre-pandemic levels without sacrificing the job gains of the past 18 months.
“The Fed is going to need great skill and also some good luck to achieve what we sometimes call a soft landing,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday on CNN. “I believe there is a path to accomplishing that.”
Still, many leading economists, including researchers who presented this week at the Brookings Institution, warn that bringing down inflation will likely mean layoffs and a drastic rise in the unemployment rate despite Biden’s hopes.
There is a risk for Biden in pivoting away from discussing inflation, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist who has advised Republican campaigns and is now president of the center-right American Action Forum. Holtz-Eakin noted that oil prices have largely fallen as demand from China has waned, something that could reverse in October if that country lifts it coronavirus lockdowns.
He said that Democratic fortunes could ultimately rest on the movements of global energy markets with their mix of geopolitics, corporate profits and financial speculation.
“They do this at their peril,” Holtz-Eakin said about the change in messaging. “When you look at the numbers, there really has not been great progress on inflation. Everything they’ve gotten on inflation has been driven by international conditions and global oil prices.”
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are trying to keep voters focused on the GOP version. They say Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and resistance to oil drilling leases has led to inflation, although prices are rising worldwide because of the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and troubled supply chains.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell noted the financial pain being felt by manufacturers, farmers and construction firms in his home state of Kentucky.
“Washington Democrats have spent nearly two years borrowing, printing, and spending our economy into turmoil,” McConnell said in a Wednesday speech to the Senate. “Since President Biden took office, prices in (Kentucky) have spiked by 13%.”
That figure cited by McConnell comes from Republicans on Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. It’s higher than the inflation numbers seen by most Americans because it’s over the span of Biden’s presidency, rather than the annual rate that commonly gets cited.
White House officials still describe inflation as Biden’s top economic priority. The administration released a 58-page economic blueprint last Friday that details its work on infrastructure, climate change, computer chip production and other policies.The blueprint said that going forward, “The president’s near-term priority when it comes to the labor market is bringing down inflation without giving up the substantial progress we’ve made for American workers.”
But the president has also gone on the political offensive regarding inflation, noting that the GOP opposed the law he signed last month that limits prescription drug prices, funds climate-related investments, raises corporate taxes and reduces the federal budget deficit.
Biden says the measure, which Democrats call the “Inflation Reduction Act,” will help to lower prices, although outside analyses suggest the impact could be negligible.
“You think if they really cared about inflation — reducing it — they would have voted for the Inflation Reduction Act,” Biden said in his Thursday speech at a Democratic fundraiser. “Every Republican in the House, every Republican in the Senate, they voted against it. Everyone.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:33Z
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OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — The crowd hung on his every word, cheering him on and booing his opponents. At one point, emotions ran high enough that someone in the crowd bellowed “Lock him up!”
This was no Donald Trump rally featuring the former president vowing to use prison to settle political scores. This cry came as President Joe Biden addressed top Democratic leaders at a riverside resort outside Washington, warning about “Trumpers” attempting to destroy U.S. democracy.
And, rather than urge bipartisan civility, Biden didn’t miss a beat.
“We have to win this off-year election,” the president said, “for more reasons than just being able to move our agenda forward.”
The boisterous mood of the Democratic National Committee’s recent summer gathering at National Harbor, just across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, follows a new, sharper tone from Biden as he warns that the GOP’s Trump wing is a threat to core American values. The atmosphere signaled an emboldened party less than two months from Election Day, sensing that a year of political liabilities ranging from the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan to rising inflation is finally easing.
The Supreme Court’s decision invalidating a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade may prove to be a turning point that energizes Democratic voters in November, the party argues. Since then, Republican Kansas rejected a statewide abortion ban, and Democrats notched notable victories in special House elections in New York and Alaska.
“There’s a real sense that Republicans kicked the bee hive,” said Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, which wants to flip a Senate seat held by Republican Ron Johnson while retaining the governorship.
But as the party navigates an unexpected sense of momentum, it risks tapping into the same divisiveness Trump and his supporters relish — and that Democrats have said is undermining democratic norms. Democrats, however, insist that they must be clear about the stakes of the campaign.
“Republicans use fear as a tactic,” said Democratic Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly. “It seems like, a lot of times, that we might have to do a little bit of that, too.”
Biden, who rarely referred to his predecessor during the opening phase of his presidency, is increasingly vocal about the need to confront Trump. “This guy never stops and we’ll never stop, either,” he told the DNC.
Vice President Kamala Harris told the conference, “We refuse to let extremist so-called leaders dismantle our democracy.”
“Democrats, we, here, rise to meet this moment,” Harris said.
Making his own rounds at the DNC, Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, used sarcasm to slam even more moderate Republicans who have dared break with Trump on key issues like denouncing year’s deadly mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“We’ve got some Republicans who are saying the right things on say, I don’t know, treason? Like, as if pushing back on treason is somehow, you should be honored,” Emhoff told the DNC’s Midwestern conference to hoots of laughter and cheers. “That was in the oath of office that we all took. That’s the job.”
Trump rose to power with a divisive approach to politics. He encouraged violence against protestors at his rallies during the 2016 campaign and branded the media the “enemy of the people.” As president, he said several liberal congresswomen of color should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from, ignoring the fact that all are American citizens and three were born in the U.S. The final days of his administration were consumed by efforts to remain in office, including Trump’s personal role in sparking the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Republicans who were largely silent then are now blasting Biden and Democrats for picking political fights.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has called the president “the divider-in-chief” and dismissed “the current state of the Democrat Party: one of divisiveness, disgust, and hostility towards half the country.”
While Democrats are increasingly optimistic about their prospects, there’s still plenty of reason for caution. The party’s grip on Congress is already tenuous and many of the races that could determine control on Capitol Hill may be decided by narrow margins. Democrats have also missed signs of strong GOP turnout in the past several elections — leading to surprise setbacks in places like South Florida.
More fundamentally, the party that wins the presidency almost always loses congressional seats the next cycle, and inflation remains at near-record highs despite some recent indications it might be cooling. Biden’s approval ratings, while improving, remain low.
Ken Martin, chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and DNC vice chair, suggested that the key to midterm gains doesn’t have to be confrontational and can just mean trumpeting the accomplishments of Washington under Democratic control.
“Everywhere I go, I see Democrats hanging their head, wringing their hands, wondering, ‘Well, What are we going to do to win?’ You know what you need to do to make sure we win? Tell the story,” Martin said of promoting the party’s achievements. “President Joe Biden has led the way, delivered on almost every single promise.”
But Martin also suggested that simply staying positive may not be enough, adding that Democrats must “be willing to fight for our president” and “fight for our party.”
Wikler, the Wisconsin state Democratic chairman, said his party turned the GOP playbook back on Republicans to boost turnout in local elections throughout the state.
Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin’s harnessing parental frustration over schools that were closed during the pandemic helped key his upset win of the state’s governorship last year. Wikler said Democrats successfully argued in the latest round of local elections that so-called parental activism was actually built on conservative attacks on teacher authority, transgender students and how history is taught — with the ultimate goal of shifting taxpayer funding away from public schools.
“Explaining why the other side is doing what they’re doing can take the sting out of it,” Wikler said.
DNC Chair Jamie Harrison suggested his party has regained some of its political swagger nationally, calling the coming election “Roe-vember” as a way of predicting that support for abortion rights will lift Democrats.
But, as he traveled around the conference meeting with smaller caucus groups, Harrison also reminded them that Democratic leaders in critical swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan helped safeguard the electoral system from Trump’s lies about widespread fraud that did not occur in 2020. He said winning key races in such states this year is the best way to ensure the system holds after 2024’s presidential race results are in.
“If we are not successful in those elections,” Harrison said, “God help us all.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:41Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Monday cautioned that courts look political and forfeit legitimacy when they needlessly overturn precedent and decide more than they have to.
Speaking less than three months after a five-justice conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade’s constitutional guarantee of abortion access, Kagan said the public’s view of the court can be damaged especially when changes in its membership lead to big changes in the law.
She stressed that she was not talking about any particular decision or even a string of rulings with which she disagreed.
Still, her remarks were similar to points made in dissenting opinions she wrote or contributed to in recent months, including in the abortion case.
“Judges create legitimacy problems for themselves … when they instead stray into places where it looks like they’re an extension of the political process or when they’re imposing their own personal preferences,” Kagan said at Temple Emanu-El in New York. The event was livestreamed.
The 62-year-old New Yorker struck a different tone from Chief Justice John Roberts, who spoke to a gathering of judges and lawyers in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last week.
“Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court,” Roberts said.
The chief justice has been a consistent defender of the court’s legitimacy against complaints that the court is not much different from the political branches of the government.
But Kagan said the court risks damaging its own legitimacy when big changes in the law follow changes in the court’s membership.
The public has a right to expect, she said, “that changes in personnel don’t send the entire legal system up for grabs.” Kagan joined the court in 2010, an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Three of the justices who are part of the court’s conservative majority were appointed by President Donald Trump. They voted to overturn Roe, and also imposed limits on the Biden administration’s efforts to fight climate change, expanded gun rights and weakened the separation between church and state.
In the court term that begins next month, the court will take up a challenge to the use of race in college admissions, just six years after the court reaffirmed affirmative action in higher education.
Kagan also briefly addressed the unprecedented leak of the draft opinion in the abortion case, saying it makes the justices’ jobs much harder “when you might wake up tomorrow morning and there’s an opinion on the front page of the newspapers.”
She said she does not know if the investigation Roberts ordered in May has determined the source of the leak.
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:49Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Mohegan Chief Marilynn “Lynn” Malerba was sworn in Monday as the Treasurer of the United States, the first Native American to hold that office.
Her signature will now appear along with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on U.S. currency.
Yellen hailed the appointment at the Treasury Department ceremony as a sign of the Biden administration’s “respect for, and commitment toward, our nation-to-nation relationship, trust and treaty responsibilities, and Tribal sovereignty and self-determination.”
“For all our progress — there is more work to do to strengthen our nation-to-nation relationship with Tribal governments,” Yellen said in prepared remarks.
They were joined by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead that department, and members of Treasury’s Tribal Advisory Committee.
Malerba, who will remain lifetime chief of the Mohegan Indian Tribe which is made up of roughly 2,400 people, previously worked as a registered nurse, and has served in various tribal government roles.
Biden appointed her U.S. treasurer in June and as overseer of a new Office of Tribal and Native Affairs at the Treasury Department.
She is tasked with finding new ways to help tribes develop their economies to overcome challenges that are unique to tribal lands, among other responsibilities.
As part of the ceremony, Malerba signed a book presented by Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Len Olijar, who will engrave her signature. Her official signature will appear as “Lynn Roberge Malerba” in honor of her maiden name.
A Treasury official said her name will appear on currency in the coming months.
“We all know that, historically, many promises have not been kept to the indigenous peoples of this nation. But we can and will do better,” said Malerba, who wore a red and black tribal ensemble and matching headdress. “My appointment is a promise kept.”
“When barriers to economic development are eliminated, tribal communities will thrive and prosper,” she said. “We know, when there is robust tribal economic development, our local and state communities prosper as well.”
She added that the moment made her think deeply of her parents. “My name will be on currency, when it was so difficult for them to get money in their lifetime,” she said during the ceremony.
For Malerba, she said she hopes her presence at Treasury will help other Americans feel pride in honoring their culture.
“Katantuoot, wuyunomsh United States qa wuyunomsh kiyawin,” she said. “Great spirit bless these United States and bless us all.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:41:56Z
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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc won New Hampshire’s Senate Republican primary on Wednesday and will face potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan in November — setting up another test of whether a fierce conservative can appeal to more moderate general election voters.
Bolduc wasn’t formally endorsed by former President Donald Trump but has said he believes Trump won the 2020 election and has espoused conspiracy theories about vaccines. The former president called him a “strong guy, tough guy.”
Two other pro-Trump candidates won their U.S. House primaries in New Hampshire — Karoline Leavitt in the 1st Congressional District and Bob Burns in the 2nd Congressional District — leaving some in the party questioning whether they will be able to broaden their appeal beyond the GOP base in November.
“Nice! The “Trumpiest” people ALL won in New Hampshire last night. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
Primaries in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware on Tuesday capped the nation’s primary season just eight weeks before Election Day, when majorities in both chambers of Congress, key governorships and scores of important state offices will be up for grabs.
Dozens of candidates around the country who were openly championed by Trump — or at least hewed closely to his brand — helped extend his hold on the national GOP. They notched primary wins up and down the ballot from Maryland to Arizona, Florida to Michigan. Some defeated Republican incumbents who had been open Trump antagonists.
The former president and the larger movement of Trumpism, which President Joe Biden and other top Democrats have decried as presenting a major threat to American democracy, didn’t win every major race of the primary cycle. But those candidates who used the former president’s support to win GOP nominations now will likely have to prove they can appeal to a broader swath of the electorate in general elections, where larger numbers of voters tend to be more moderate than those who turn out for primaries.
The results of Tuesday’s primaries mean the general election for Senate in New Hampshire should provide another such test. Biden carried the state by more than 7 percentage points. Republican primary voters also picked conservative candidates this year in moderate or Democratic-leaning states including Massachusetts, potentially putting competitive races out of the party’s reach.
Bolduc’s victory likely reignites disappointment among some in the national party that Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, a relatively popular moderate who might have posed more of a threat to Hassan, chose instead to run for reelection. In his primary, Bolduc defeated New Hampshire state Senate President Chuck Morse, a mainstream Republican endorsed by Sununu, who called Morse “the candidate to beat Sen. Hassan this November and the candidate Sen. Hassan is most afraid to face.”
By contrast, Sununu called Bolduc a conspiracy theorist and suggested he would have a tougher time in the general election. Bolduc wasn’t bothered by Sununu’s criticism, calling the governor “a Chinese communist sympathizer.”
Some Democratic groups, meanwhile, sponsored primary ads promoting Bolduc, predicting he’d make an easier opponent for Hassan. That’s consistent with Democratic-aligned organizations backing pro-Trump candidates in key races around the country — a strategy some have criticized, arguing that it could backfire if those candidates go on to win their general elections.
“Our campaign overcame the odds and millions of dollars in spending from outside special interest groups because we built a true bottom-up grassroots campaign,” Bolduc tweeted in the wee hours of Wednesday. “Throughout the primary, I have felt the concerns of the voters, and heard time and again we need to send an outsider to Washington.”
New Hampshire, known for kicking off the primary season during presidential campaigns, instead concluded the nominating process for this year’s midterms. The races were less high profile in Rhode Island and Delaware, where Biden traveled late Tuesday to cast his ballot.
The final primary contests unfolded at a dramatic moment in the midterm campaign. Republicans have spent much of the year building their election year message around Biden and his management of the economy, particularly soaring prices. But Democrats are now entering the final stretch with a sense of cautious optimism as Biden’s approval rating steadies and inflation has slowed for the second straight month, even as it remains high.
The Supreme Court’s decision overturning a constitutional right to an abortion may provide Democrats with the energy they need to turn back the defeats that historically accompany a new president’s first midterms.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the challenge last month, saying his party may be more likely to end Democrats’ narrow control of the House than the Senate. He bemoaned “candidate quality” as a factor that could sway some outcomes in his chamber.
Many of the same dynamics swirling around the former president were also at work Tuesday in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District, where Leavitt, who worked in the Trump White House’s press office, topped some more experienced Republicans with ties to the former president. She’ll square off against Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in another November contest that could be close.
Leavitt, who just turned 25 and could be among the first members of Gen Z in Congress, said she was “sending a strong and clear message to the Washington, D.C., establishment, and our Democratic opponent that our votes cannot be bought, our conservative voices can not be silenced.” She also laced into Pappas, saying he “has campaigned his entire political career as a moderate, bipartisan voice for our district. But he has voted as a far left socialist Democrat.”
Pappas also wasted little time going on the offensive against Leavitt, saying, “I will fight with everything I’ve got to stop extreme politicians like Karoline from hijacking our democracy.”
In New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District, the pro-Trump Burns won the Republican nomination to face five-term incumbent Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster in a general election race the GOP sees as potentially very competitive.
___
Weissert reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:04Z
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee eked out a victory in his Democratic primary on Tuesday, beating back strong challenges from a pair of opponents as he seeks his first full term in office.
McKee, the former lieutenant governor who became the state’s chief executive a year and a half ago when two-term Gov. Gina Raimondo was tapped as U.S. commerce secretary, will be the heavy favorite in the liberal state in November against Republican Ashley Kalus, a business owner and political novice.
McKee edged out former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, who saw a late surge in the polls and won a last-minute endorsement from The Boston Globe’s editorial board. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea, who was seeking to become the first Latina governor in New England, finished a close third.
“I’m proud to be here,” the 71-year-old governor said in his victory speech. “Because Rhode Island is positioned in a way where we’ve never had this momentum before and we’re going to take full advantage of it.”
In an awkward moment, a phone was handed toward McKee during the speech. When he was told it was Foulkes, McKee said, “No, that’s not going to happen.” As the crowd chanted “four more years,” McKee said, “Hang up on them, hang up on them.”
Foulkes told her supporters she was unhappy McKee wouldn’t answer her call.
In the last primaries before the November general election, voters in Rhode Island were choosing nominees for statewide offices, U.S. House, the state Legislature and local positions. New Hampshire and Delaware also held primaries on Tuesday.
With his victory, McKee avoided becoming the first governor to lose his primary since 2018, when Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer narrowly lost the Republican nomination to Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who went on to lose the general election to Democrat Laura Kelly. Like McKee, Colyer took over when the sitting governor resigned for another job.
In his campaign, McKee touted his leadership in navigating the state’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic after he was sworn in as governor in March 2021. Foulkes said she would work to find new ways for companies to invest in Rhode Island and help existing companies find new markets. Gorbea argued the state needed better leadership on issues like housing, education and climate change.
Besides McKee, Foulkes and Gorbea, two other Democrats were also seeking the nomination: former Secretary of State Matt Brown, a progressive; and community activist Dr. Luis Daniel Muñoz.
Kalus easily defeated her lone Republican rival, Jonathan Riccitelli, whom the Globe reported had been arrested dozens of times since 2000 under a different name, on charges ranging from obstructing police officers to assault, according to court records.
Kalus, who owns a COVID-19 testing company that’s in a dispute with the state over a canceled contract, moved to Rhode Island last year from Illinois and previously worked for former Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner. She said Rhode Island needs a fighter like her, now more than ever, because every day gets harder for working families.
In another top race on Tuesday, voters were choosing nominees in the 2nd Congressional District for the seat being vacated by Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin, who is retiring after more than 20 years representing the district. Langevin was the first quadriplegic to serve in Congress.
State Treasurer Seth Magaziner, who was endorsed by Langevin, won the crowded Democratic primary. Republican Allan Fung, the former mayor of Cranston, was unopposed in his bid for the Republican nomination. National Republican leaders think this is their best chance to flip the seat in more than three decades. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy visited Rhode Island in August to raise money for Fung.
Magaziner had been running for governor but switched races after Langevin’s announcement to try to keep the seat in Democratic control. Magaziner told supporters Tuesday night that the election is about values and preserving democracy for the next generation.
In the 1st Congressional District, Democratic U.S. Rep. David Cicilline will face Republican Allen Waters in November. Both were unopposed Tuesday. Cicilline is seeking his seventh term.
But the top race in Rhode Island on Tuesday was the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Both McKee and Gorbea benefited from the base of support and name recognition they have gotten since both were elected to statewide office in 2014. Foulkes proved to be an adept fundraiser and spent heavily on the race in her first bid for public office.
Late in the primary, Gorbea’s campaign aired an attack ad to criticize McKee over the awarding of a controversial state contract that the FBI is now investigating. It had to pull the ad because of errors in it, including featuring an article by a conservative commentator who was criticizing McKee on another issue. McKee’s campaign said the governor would continue to rise above dirty politics and false attacks, and show “leadership when it matters most.”
McKee was endorsed by a host of large unions, including those representing teachers, firefighters, building trades and auto workers. He highlighted his efforts to help the state’s economy recover from COVID-19, the gun control bills he signed into law and his efforts to protect access to abortion care.
He had a memorable ad of his own, called “motha,” featuring his 94-year-old mother. As he plays cards with her, he discusses the state’s economic recovery from COVID-19, eliminating the state’s car tax, creating affordable housing and passing gun safety laws to keep families safe.
“Not bad for a year and a half,” the governor says.
His mother, Willa, replies, “Not bad for a governor that lives with his motha.”
During his victory speech, McKee ticked off his accomplishments and asked the crowd, “Are you ready?” He said, “Not bad for 18 months.” Laughing, some of his supporters said Willa’s line, “Not bad for a governor that lives with his mother.”
___
Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap_politics.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:11Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Monday that it was willing to accept one of Donald Trump’s picks for an independent arbiter to review documents seized during an FBI search of the former president’s Florida home last month.
The accommodation could help accelerate the selection process and shorten any delays caused by the appointment of the so-called special master. The judge in the case, granting a request from the Trump team, said last week that she would appoint a neutral arbiter to go through the records and weed out any that may be covered by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
Department lawyers said in a filing Monday night that, in addition to the two retired judges whom they earlier recommended, they would also be satisfied with one of the Trump team selections — Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court in the Eastern District of New York. He is currently on senior active status, and the department said he had indicated he was available and “could perform the work expeditiously” if appointed.
It was not immediately clear whether U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon would name Dearie or someone else. The Trump team said earlier Monday that it opposed both Justice Department selections.
The back-and-forth over the special master came as Trump’s lawyers in a 21-page filing Monday dismissed the former president’s retention of top-secret documents at Mar-a-Lago as a “storage dispute” and urged Cannon to keep in place a directive that temporarily halted key aspects of the Justice Department’s criminal probe. The Trump team referred to the documents that were seized as “purported ‘classified records,’” saying the Justice Department had not proven that the materials taken by the FBI during its Aug. 8 search were classified or remain so now.
The filing underscores the significant factual and legal disagreements between lawyers for Trump and the U.S. government as the Justice Department looks to move forward with its criminal investigation into the retention of national defense information at Mar-a-Lago. Department lawyers in their own filings have rejected the idea that the documents, many of them classified at the top-secret level, belonged to Trump or that Mar-a-Lago was a permissible place to store them.
“This investigation of the 45th President of the United States is both unprecedented and misguided,” they wrote. “In what at its core is a document storage dispute that has spiraled out of control, the Government wrongfully seeks to criminalize the possession by the 45th President of his own Presidential and personal records.”
The investigation hit a roadblock last week when Cannon granted the Trump team’s request for a special master and prohibited the department, for now, from examining the documents for investigative purposes.
The Justice Department has asked the judge to lift that hold and said it would contest her ruling to a federal appeals court. The department said its investigation risked being harmed beyond repair if that order remained in place, noting that confusion about its scope had already led the intelligence community to pause a separate risk assessment.
But Trump’s lawyers said in their own motion Monday that Cannon should not permit the FBI to resume its review of classified records. It said the government had unilaterally determined the records to be classified but had not yet proven that they remain so.
“In opposing any neutral review of the seized materials, the Government seeks to block a reasonable first step towards restoring order from chaos and increasing public confidence in the integrity of the process,” the lawyers wrote.
Both sides on Friday night proposed different names of candidates who could serve as special master, though they disagreed on the scope of duties the person should have. Cannon has said the yet-to-be-named arbiter would be tasked with reviewing the documents and segregating out any that could be covered by claims of either executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
The Justice Department recommended either Barbara Jones, a retired judge in Manhattan who has served as special master in prior high-profile investigations, or Thomas Griffith, a retired federal appeals court jurist in the District of Columbia who was appointed to the bench by former President George W. Bush. The department said in its proposal that the special master should not have access to classified documents, or be empowered to consider claims of executive privilege.
On Monday, the Trump team told the judge it was objecting to both those candidates but was not prepared to say why publicly at the moment.
Trump’s lawyers proposed either Dearie, a senior judge on active status in the federal court in Brooklyn who also previously served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or Florida lawyer Paul Huck Jr. They have have said the arbiter should have access to the entire tranche of documents and should be able to evaluate executive privilege claims.
The Justice Department said it was willing to support Dearie’s selection but it opposed the selection of Huck because of what it said was a lack of relevant experience.
In its filing Monday, the Trump team again voiced a broad view of presidential power, asserting that a president has an “unfettered right of access” to his presidential records and absolute authority to declassify any information without the “approval of bureaucratic components of the executive branch” — though it did not say, as Trump has maintained, that he had actually declassified them.
The Justice Department has said Trump had no right to hold onto the presidential documents. And the criminal statutes the department has used as the basis of its investigation, including one criminalizing the willful retention of national defense information, do not require that the records be classified.
In any event, the Justice Department says more than 100 documents with classification markings were found in last month’s search.
Trump, who often spends time at his various properties, was at his Virginia golf club Monday.
____
Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
Follow AP’s coverage of Donald Trump-related investigations at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:19Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Sitting on top of more than $115 million across several political committees, Donald Trump has positioned himself as a uniquely indomitable force in the GOP who would almost certainly have the resources to swamp his rivals if he launched another presidential campaign.
But that massive pile of money is also emerging as a potential vulnerability. His chief fundraising vehicle, Save America PAC, is under new legal scrutiny after the Justice Department issued a round of grand jury subpoenas that sought information about the political action committee’s fundraising practices.
The scope of the probe is unclear. Grand jury subpoenas and search warrants issued by the Justice Department in recent days were related to numerous topics, including Trump’s PAC, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The subpoenas seek records as well as testimony and ask at least some of the recipients about their knowledge of efforts to engage in election fraud, according to one of the people.
The subpoenas also ask for records of communication with Trump-allied lawyers who supported efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and plotted to line up fake electors in battleground states. A particular area of focus appears to be on the “Save America Rally” that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the person said.
The investigation is one of several criminal probes Trump currently faces, including scrutiny of how documents with classified markings wound up at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Regardless of Save America’s ultimate role in the investigations, the flurry of developments has drawn attention to the PAC’s management, how it has raised money and where those funds have been directed.
Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich slammed the subpoenas, saying a “weaponized and politicized Justice Department” was “casting a blind net to intimidate and silence Republicans who are fighting for his America First agenda.” Representatives for the Justice Department have declined to comment.
While Trump has more than $115 million held across various committees, the vast majority of it is stored at Save America. The PAC ended July with more than $99 million cash-on-hand, according to fundraising records — more than the Republican and Democratic national campaign committees combined.
Trump has continued to shovel up small-dollar donations in the months since, frustrating other Republicans who have been struggling to raise money ahead of the November midterm elections.
Save America is set up as a “leadership PAC” designed to allow political figures to fundraise for other campaigns. But the groups are often used by would-be candidates to fund political travel, polling and staff as they “test the waters” ahead of potential presidential runs. The accounts can also be used to contribute money to other candidates and party organizations, helping would-be candidates build political capital.
Much of the money Trump has amassed was raised in the days and weeks after the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. That’s when Trump supporters were bombarded with a nonstop stream of emails and texts, many containing all-caps lettering and blatant lies about a stolen 2020 election, soliciting cash for an “election defense fund.”
But no such fund ever existed. Instead, Trump has dedicated the money to other uses. He’s financed dozens of rallies, paid staff and used the money to travel as he’s teased an expected 2024 presidential run.
Other expenses have been more unusual. There was the $1 million donated last year to the Conservative Partnership Institute, a nonprofit that employs Cleta Mitchell and former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, both of whom encouraged Trump’s failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
There was the $650,000 “charitable contribution” in July to the Smithsonian Institution to help fund portraits of Trump and the former first lady that will one day hang in the National Portrait Gallery, according to the Smithsonian spokesperson Linda St. Thomas.
Much of the money has also funded a different sort of defense fund — one that has paid the legal expenses of Trump confidants and aides who have been called to testify before the Jan. 6 committee.
Overall, Trump’s sprawling political operation has spent at least $8 million on “legal consulting” and “legal expenses” to at least 40 law firms since the insurrection, according to an analysis of campaign finance disclosures.
It’s unclear how much of that money went to legal fees for staffers after a congressional committee started investigating the origins of the attack. But at least $1.1 million has been paid to Elections LLC, a firm started by former Trump White House ethics lawyer Stefan Passantino, according to campaign finance and business records. An additional $1 million was paid to a legal trust housed at the same address as Passantino’s firm. Passantino did not respond to a request for comment Monday night. Payments have also been made to firms that specialize in environmental regulation and real estate matters.
As of July, only about $750,000 had been doled out to candidates for Congress, with an additional $150,000 given to candidates for state office, records show. Trump is expected to ramp up his political spending now that the general election season has entered full swing, though it remains unclear how much the notoriously thrifty former president will ultimately agree to spend.
Trump has long played coy about his 2024 plans, saying a formal announcement would trigger campaign finance rules that would, in part, force him to create a new campaign committee that would be bound by strict fundraising limits.
In the meantime, Trump aides have been discussing the prospect of creating a new super PAC or repurposing one that already exists as gets he closer to an expected announcement. While Trump could not use Save America to fund campaign activity after launching a run, aides have discussed the possibility of moving at least some of that money into a super PAC, according to people familiar with the talks who insisted on anonymity to discuss private plans.
Campaign finance experts are mixed on the legality of such a move. Some, like Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School and an expert in campaign finance, said he didn’t see a problem.
“There may be some hoops he has to jump through,” he said. But “I don’t see a problem with it going from one PAC to another … I don’t see what would block it.”
Others disagree.
“It is illegal for a candidate to transfer a significant amount of money from a leadership PAC to a super PAC. You certainly can’t do $100 million,” said Adav Noti, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who now works for the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based government watchdog group focused on money and politics.
And whether or not Trump would face any consequences is a different matter.
For years, the FEC, which polices campaign finance laws, has been gridlocked. The commission is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, and a majority vote is needed to take any enforcement action against a candidate.
Indeed, legal experts say Trump has repeatedly flouted campaign finance law since launching his 2016 White House run, with no consequence.
More than 50 complaints involving Trump and his various campaign committees have been filed with the FEC. In roughly half of those instances, FEC lawyers have concluded that there was reason to believe that he or his committees may have broken campaign finance law. But the commission, which now includes three Trump-appointed Republicans, has repeatedly deadlocked.
The list of dismissed complaints against Trump is extensive. In 2021, Republicans on the commission rejected the claim, supported by the FEC’s staff attorneys, that a Trump orchestrated hush-money payment by his former lawyer to pornographic film star Stormy Daniels amounted to an unreported in-kind contribution. In May, the commission similarly deadlocked over whether his campaign broke the law by hiding how it was spending cash during the 2020 campaign.
And over the summer, the commission rejected complaints stemming from Trump’s threat to withhold $391 million in aid for the Ukraine unless the Ukrainian officials opened an investigation into the relationship President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden had with a Ukrainian gas company called Burisma, which the FEC’s attorney’s determined was a potential violation of campaign finance law.
“There is no legal basis whatsoever for believing that Congress intended the FEC to police official acts of the government that may be intended to assist an officeholder’s reelection,” the commission’s three Republicans said in a written statement late last month.
That means any enforcement action would likely have to come from the Justice Department.
“He has nothing to fear from the Federal Election Commission until either its structure is changed or there is turnover among the FEC Commissioners,” said Brett G. Kappel, a longtime campaign finance attorney who works at the Washington-based firm Harmon Curran and has represented both Republicans and Democrats. “That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything to fear from the Justice Department, which is already apparently investigating Save America. From what I can see, there are multiple wire fraud allegations that could be the subject of a Justice Department investigation.”
In the meantime, Trump and Save America continue to rake in contributions from grassroots supporters, blasting out fundraising solicitations with aggressive demands like “this needs to be taken care of NOW” and threatening donors that their “Voter Verification” canvass surveys are “OUT OF DATE,” even as some of the Republican Senate contenders Trump endorsed and helped drag across the finish line in primaries are struggling to raise cash.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has urged those candidates to ask Trump for money, which the former president has so far proven reluctant to provide. That has left the candidates, some of whom presented themselves as McConnell antagonists during their primaries, to grovel to McConnell and the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC he controls and has $100 million in reserve.
It also strengthens McConnell’s hand in his long-simmering feud with Trump, who has urged GOP senators to oust the Kentucky Republican. Some close to Trump acknowledge the candidates could use the money, but said he doesn’t see it as his responsibility to fill the void.
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Colvin reported from New York.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:26Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. leaders from President Joe Biden on down are being careful not to declare a premature victory after a Ukrainian offensive forced Russian troops into a messy retreat in the north. Instead, military officials are looking toward the fights yet to come and laying out plans to provide Ukraine more weapons and expand training, while warily awaiting Russia’s response to the sudden, stunning battlefield losses.
Although there was widespread celebration of Ukraine’s gains over the weekend, U.S. officials know Russian President Vladimir Putin still has troops and resources to tap, and his forces still control large swaths of the east and south.
“I agree there should be no spiking of the ball because Russia still has cards it can play,” said Philip Breedlove, a retired U.S. Air Force general who was NATO’s top commander from 2013 to 2016. “Ukraine is now clearly making durable changes in its east and north and I believe that if the West properly equips Ukraine, they’ll be able to hold on to their gains.”
Lawmakers particularly pointed to the precision weapons and rocket systems that the U.S. and Western nations have provided to Ukraine as key to the dramatic shift in momentum, including the precision-guided High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, and the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile, or HARM, which is designed to target and destroy radar-equipped air defense systems.
“They’re there, they’re in theater, and they’re making the difference,” Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the hands of highly motivated Ukrainian fighters who are making the most of weapons ranging from off-the-shelf drones and abandoned Russian arms to advanced weapons from the West, the HIMARS are enabling Ukrainians “to turn the tide, dramatically,” Coons said.
Meanwhile, a senior defense official said the U.S. is looking at future needs, including discussions about providing more intensive combat training for larger Ukraine units, a change from current training focused on smaller teams learning to handle specific weapons. It is also considering sending additional air defense systems, as well as lethal strike drones and more surveillance drones. The official was one of two who briefed reporters Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss planning details.
Ukraine’s launch in recent days of a much-anticipated counteroffensive — in a different part of the country from where Russian troops occupying Ukraine had massed strength to meet it — has brought on the biggest territorial changes in months in the 200-day war, launched when Putin rolled Russian forces into the neighboring country, targeting its Western-oriented government.
The U.S. officials acknowledged that the U.S. provided information to help the Ukrainian counteroffensive, but declined to say how much or if Western officials helped strategize the idea to throw Russian forces off guard by calling attention to attack plans in the south, while actually plotting a more formidable campaign in the east.
The U.S provided information “on conditions” in the country, said one of the officials, but “in the end, this was the Ukrainian choice. The Ukrainian military and the Ukrainian political leadership made the decisions on how to conduct this counteroffensive.”
Ukrainian forces claimed Monday to have retaken a wide band of territory and more than 20 Ukrainian settlements from Russia, pushing all the way back to the two countries’ northeastern border. Russian soldiers were surrendering in such numbers that Ukraine was having difficulty making room for them, Ukrainian military officials said.
Ukrainians have pounded 400 targets in all with the HIMARS since the U.S. began supplying them, using them “with devastating effect,” Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters late last week as Ukraine’s counteroffensive was getting underway.
The truck-mounted, GPS-guided systems fire faster, farther and more precisely than the Soviet-designed rocket launchers otherwise used by both Russia and Ukraine. They can hit targets up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. Ukrainian forces have used the 16 HIMARS and several similar systems to strike supply lines, ammunition depots and other key Russian targets.
The Ukrainians “believe that this has happened because of the new technology equipment and weapons that we’ve sent them. They … said well, if you would have sent them six months ago,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat. “We didn’t have them six months ago, but you know, we had to build the weaponry, and train their people on it, takes time.”
Still, Ukrainian leaders are still pressing for more — including fighter jets and the longer-range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, a surface-to-surface missile that the U.S. has so far declined to send.
A key question going forward will be how much more Congress and the American public are willing to spend on the war in Ukraine, which the U.S. and the West say also represents a significant threat to Europe.
It’s unclear if, or how, Ukraine fighters’ successes in recent day will affect the ongoing debate. The White House has asked Congress to greenlight an additional $11.7 billion in aid as part of an overall government funding measure that lawmakers must approve before the end of the month.
“I haven’t seen any lack of appetite so far” for continuing funding for Ukraine, said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. “I think to see the ability to take the help that they’ve been given and then be clearly successful in some of their efforts is an encouragement to want to do more of that.”
The U.S. — the lead contributor to Ukraine’s war effort among NATO members — has poured more than $15 billion in weapons and other military support into Ukraine since January.
Biden acknowledged the battlefield gains for Ukraine over the weekend but refused to say more. “I’m not going to speak to that now because things are in process,” he told reporters.
Breedlove noted that despite the recent battle losses, Putin still has “a lot of tanks and a lot of trucks and a lot of people that he can still throw at this problem. They’re just not his best tanks, his best trucks or his best people.”
But he warned that winter may bring the most daunting challenge. Putin’s moves to shut down fuel supplies to Europe, which is expected to increase prices, are likely aimed at turning public opinion across the region.
“Even though Mr. Putin’s military has taken a beating on the military front, his big card, yet probably to play is how well does Europe hold together through a winter that Mr. Putin is going to make completely miserable for the European people,” Breedlove said. “I think Mr. Putin is desperately trying to hang on to winter because his big hope now is to separate the European people from their European political leadership.”
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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Lisa Mascaro and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:34Z
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WASHINGTON (AP) — With only three months left in the year, the House Jan. 6 committee is eyeing a close to its work and a final report laying out its findings about the U.S. Capitol insurrection. But the investigation is not over.
The committee has already revealed much of its work at eight hearings over the summer, showing in detail how former President Donald Trump ignored many of his closest advisers and amplified his false claims of election fraud after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Witnesses interviewed by the panel — some of them Trump’s closest allies — recounted in videotaped testimony how the former president declined to act when hundreds of his supporters violently attacked the Capitol as Congress certified Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
Lawmakers say there is more to come. The nine-member panel — seven Democrats and two Republicans — interviewed witnesses through all of August, and they are hoping to have at least one hearing by the end of the month. Members met Tuesday to discuss the panel’s next steps.
Because the Jan. 6 panel is a temporary, or “select,” committee, it expires at the end of the current Congress. If Republicans take the majority in November’s elections, as they are favored to do, they are expected to dissolve the committee in January. So the panel is planning to issue a final report by the end of December.
What’s left for the committee in 2022:
HEARINGS
The panel’s Democratic chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, said after the private members’ meeting Tuesday in the Capitol that the committee’s goal is to hold a hearing Sept. 28, but that members were still discussing whether it would happen at all.
“We’ll we’re still in the process of talking,” Thompson said. “If it happens, it will be that date. We’re not sure at this point.”
Members of the committee had promised more hearings in September as they wrapped up the series of summer hearings. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chairwoman, said the committee “has far more evidence to share with the American people and more to gather.”
“Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break,” Cheney said at a July 21 hearing that was held in prime time and watched by 17.7 million people. “We have considerably more to do.”
It’s unclear if the hearing would provide a general overview of what the panel has learned or if they would be focused on new information and evidence. The committee conducted several interviews at the end of July and into August with Trump’s Cabinet secretaries, some of whom had discussed invoking the constitutional process in the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office after the insurrection.
WITNESSES
The panel has already interviewed more than 1,000 people, but lawmakers and staff are still pursuing new threads. The committee recently spoke to several of the Cabinet secretaries, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in July and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in August.
The committee also wants to get to the bottom of missing Secret Service texts from Jan. 5-6, 2021, which could shed further light on Trump’s actions during the insurrection, particularly after earlier testimony about his confrontation with security as he tried to join supporters at the Capitol. Thompson said Tuesday that the committee has recently obtained “thousands” of documents from the Secret Service.
The committee has also pursued an interview with conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, who’s married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Lawmakers want to know more about her role in trying to help Trump overturn the election. She contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin as part of that effort.
TRUMP AND PENCE
Members of the committee are still debating how aggressively to pursue testimony from Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Some have have questioned whether the committee needs to call Pence, who resisted Trump’s pressure to try and block Biden’s certification on Jan. 6. Many of his closest aides have already testified, including Greg Jacob, his top lawyer at the White House who was with him during the insurrection as they hid from rioters who were threatening the vice president’s life. Jacobs characterized much of Pence’s thought process during the time when Trump was pressuring him.
The panel has been in discussions with Pence’s lawyers for months, without any discernible progress. Still, the committee could invite Pence for closed-door testimony or ask him to answer written questions.
The calculation is different for the former president. Members have debated whether they should call Trump, who is the focus of their probe but also a witness who has fought against the investigation in court, denied much of the evidence and floated the idea of presidential pardons for Jan. 6 rioters. Trump is also facing scrutiny in several other investigations, including at the Justice Department and over the classified documents he took to his private club.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS
Another bit of unfinished business is the committee’s subpoenas to five House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.
In May the panel subpoenaed McCarthy, R-Calif., and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama. The panel has investigated McCarthy’s conversations with Trump the day of the attack and meetings the four other lawmakers had with the White House beforehand as Trump and some of his allies worked to overturn his election defeat.
The five Republicans, all of whom have repeatedly downplayed the investigation’s legitimacy, have simply ignored the request to testify. But the Jan. 6 committee seems unlikely to meet their defiance with contempt charges, as they have with other witnesses, in the weeks before the November elections. Not only would it be a politically risky move, but it is unclear what eventual recourse the panel would have against its own colleagues.
FINAL REPORT
The committee must shut down within a month after issuing a final report, per its rules. But lawmakers could issue some smaller reports before then, perhaps even before the November elections. Thompson said earlier this summer that there may be an interim report in the fall.
The release of the final report will likely come close to the end of the year so the panel can maximize its time. While much of the findings will already be known, the report is expected to thread the story together in a definitive way that lays out the committee’s conclusions for history.
LEGISLATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS
The committee is expected to weigh in on possible legislative changes to the Electoral Count Act, which governs how a presidential election is certified by Congress.
A bipartisan group of senators released proposed changes over the summer that would clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes. Trump and his allies tried to find loopholes in that law ahead of Jan. 6 as the former president worked to overturn his defeat to Biden and unsuccessfully pressured Pence to go along.
The Jan. 6 panel’s final report is expected to include a larger swath of legislative recommendations.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:41Z
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A former Trump White House lawyer says he thinks there is a “very high” chance that former President Trump will face an indictment.
Ty Cobb, who represented the White House during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign’s contacts with Russia, told CBS News’s “The Takeout” podcast that he believes the former president is likely to face legal consequences for actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
“I think the president is in serious legal water,” Cobb said in the podcast, released on Friday. “Not so much because of the [Mar-a-Lago] search, but because of the obstructive activity he took in connection with the Jan. 6 proceeding and the attempts to interfere in the election count in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and perhaps Michigan.”
Cobb also told CBS News that he suspects the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago last month — during which the agency says it recovered numerous classified documents — is related to the Justice Department’s larger investigation into Trump’s actions related to the Jan. 6 attack.
“It is about the bigger picture, the Jan. 6 issues, the fake electors, the whole scam with regard to the ‘big lie’ and the attempts to … cling to the presidency in a desperate fashion,” Cobb said.
The former White House lawyer noted that the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago seemed “unusually large and broad” and was “very comprehensive in terms of the types of documents that the government could take.”
The Justice Department and Trump are currently locked in a legal battle over the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, with a judge earlier this week granting Trump’s request for a special master to review the materials recovered during the search. The Justice Department has since appealed that ruling.
A Friday filing also revealed disagreements between the two parties over how a special master should function in the case, including over which documents should be reviewed and whether executive privilege claims should be considered.
That investigation comes as both the Justice Department and a House select committee are investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack and a Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury is probing Trump’s alleged interference into the 2020 election. The former president is also facing separate investigations involving his businesses and tax returns.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:49Z
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Top news and notes from around Northern Virginia and beyond.
5. Washington Monument vandalized
U.S. Park Police say a man is in custody after the base of the Washington Monument was vandalized with red paint Tuesday night.
4. Independent Hill project
A mixed-use complex that includes nearly 200 new homes in Independent Hill has been approved.
3. Sunny day
It will be a mostly sunny day with a high near 85 degrees. Click here for a detailed forecast by ZIP code.
2. Shelter celebration
The long-awaited new Prince William County Animal Shelter celebrated its grand opening Saturday with a ribbon cutting and more than 40 pets finding their forever homes.
1. No more bidding wars
As home-sellers continue trying to gauge how much buyers will pay, fewer across the region are seeing contracts come in higher than listing price.
InsideOut
The annual National Museum of Americans in Wartime "Tank Farm" open house in Nokesville returns Sept. 24-25 with more than 50 tanks and other military vehicles on display. Click here for details.
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| 2022-09-21T09:42:56Z
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WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – There aren’t enough teachers to fill America’s classrooms — and the Biden administration wants to help fix the problem.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona visited schools in Tennessee and North Carolina on Monday to talk about the teacher shortage and how to fix it. They highlighted federal efforts to launch apprenticeship programs and push for higher teacher pay.
“Recruit. Respect. Retain,” Dr. Biden said “If we want educators to be able to do what they do best, we have to give them the support that they deserve.”
Teachers union advocates welcome those steps at the federal level. Mary Kusler with the National Education Association says local leaders need to do more too.
“The majority of these decisions are being made at the local level. So we need to see communities who are stepping up and standing by their educators,” Kusler said.
She says that means efforts to improve work environments for teachers and bump up their pay.
“We keep expecting more and more from our educators and not necessarily giving them a living wage to even live in the communities that they teach,” Kusler said.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten agrees. She adds investing in teachers now is critical for education’s long-term future.
“To send a message to young people that we want you in the profession. That you’re going to be valued,” Weingarten said.
Both advocates say leaders need to show more respect for teachers.
“We need help from politicians, not smearing and jeering,” Weingarten said.
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As home-sellers continue trying to gauge how much buyers will pay, fewer across the region are seeing contracts come in higher than listing price.
None of the six major jurisdictions in the Northern Virginia suburbs saw an average sales price of 100 percent or more of listing price in August, and five of them saw declines in the percentage received compared to a year ago.
That’s according to data reported Sept. 12 by MarketStats by ShowingTime, based on listing data from Bright MLS, as analyzed by the Sun Gazette. Prince William County saw the highest ratio of sales price to listing price – 99.09 percent – in August, but also saw one of the biggest year-over-year declines, dipping 2.1 percent.
Only Loudoun County saw a bigger year-over-year drop, with its ratio of 97.88 percent down 3.2 percent.
Falls Church, by contrast, saw its ratio rise 0.9 percent to 98.91 percent, the only gainer among the crowd.
Also on the list, buyers of Fairfax County homes paid an average 98.44 percent of listing price, down 1.6 percent; purchasers in Alexandria plunked down 98.71 percent, down 0.3 percent; and those buying homes in Arlington paid 97.69 percent, down 1.3 percent.
What does it mean? That’s open to interpretation.
Certainly the feeding frenzy that ran from the summer of 2020 to early spring 2022 is over for now. And while the percentage of listing price is now under 100 percent, those homes in general are going to contract for more than they did a year before. So it’s likely that the normalcy of pre-COVID times is returning, and with it sellers who are no longer throwing cash at any pretty thing that catches their fancy, but holding out for what they perceive to be a fair deal.
Of all of the portion of Virginia covered by Bright MLS, only one locality – Culpeper County – saw contract prices averaging more than 100 percent in August, and only by the slimmest of margins (100.09%).
Across the Mid-Atlantic, the nearly 25,000 home sales in August averaged 99.55 percent of listing price, down from 100.8 percent a year before. Somerset County, N.J., topped the list, with August average sales prices running at 103.79 percent of average listing prices.
Figures represent most, but not all, homes on the market. All August 2022 figures are preliminary and are subject to revision.
[https://sungazette.news provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.]
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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Firefighters used a ladder truck to rescue dogs from the roof of a downtown kennel on Monday after chemical fumes from work on a floor forced an evacuation.
Two workers and several animals at Dog Days of Birmingham began having what appeared to be breathing difficulties after a contractor put new sealant on a concrete floor that was being refinished, said Jay Barrett, a spokesperson for the company.
Small dogs that were kept on the ground floor were taken out the front door to safety, he said, but 13 larger dogs that were housed on the second floor were taken to a rooftop play area to get out of the fumes.
Firefighters used a ladder truck parked beside the building to carry the animals off the roof. Firefighters handed down one animal from a fire truck to kennel workers waiting on the ground.
Four people and 26 animals were inside the business when the smell became too strong to remain, he said.
“The humans are all fine. We did take five dogs to the vets as a precaution,” said Barrett. “All were cleared and returned to their owners.”
Capt. Orlando Reynolds of the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service said crews were trying to clear the building of the fumes before staff returned inside.
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| 2022-09-21T09:43:03Z
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With a 12-0 overall record, including 11 victories by shutouts, the Bishop O’Connell Knights had the best overall record of the four varsity girls high-school volleyball teams in Arlington when the week began.
O’Connell had a 3-0 mark in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference.
The Knights went 5-0 on Sept. 17 at the Endless Summer Tournament in Virginia Beach, winning each match by 2-0 scores. O’Connell was the only team in its Division II group that finished 5-0.
Some of O’Connell’s top players are Grace Maria, Erin Debiec, Emily Reyburn and Madison Bowser. Maria is the lone senior on the team.
O’Connell is the defending WCAC tournament champion, finished second last fall to Flint Hill in the Division I private-school state tournament and compiled a 32-4 overall record.
The Washington-Liberty Generals began the week with a 5-3 overall record, which includes a 3-1 win over the Yorktown Patriots.
Also with a winning record are the Wakefield Warriors with a 6-2 mark. The Warriors have defeated W-L, 3-1, and lost to Yorktown, 3-1.
Seniors for Wakefield are Rawan Abdel-Ghaffar, Rachel Chapuis, Mikayla David, Chelsea Rios and Sofia Woods.
Yorktown stood 2-4 overall, which included a 3-0 loss to the first-place Langley Saxons on Sept. 15 in a Liberty District match. Yorktown’s other victory was over McLean.
Some top players for Yorktown are Megan Smythers, Elizabeth Schwab, Audrey Shiplett, Fiona Birnie, Charlotte Hans and Lanie Dando.
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Former Attorney General William Barr has emerged as one of the most prominent conservatives to suggest former President Trump may be in serious legal jeopardy over his handling of sensitive materials, underscoring the growing divide between the former president and his onetime staunch ally.
Barr has become a regular presence on Fox News over the past few weeks, weighing in on the FBI search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and subsequent court battles over what the Department of Justice (DOJ) can do with what it found.
It’s not the first time Barr, a frequent target of criticism from Democrats as attorney general, has broken with Trump. Nor is he the first former Trump Cabinet member to become critical of the former president.
But he has stood out recently for his willingness to undercut not just Trump’s own defense but the preferred narrative of Trump’s allies and wide swaths of the Republican Party.
“Bill Barr has been a real law and order kind of guy and has been strongly protective of national security interests and Department of Justice interests,” said Alan Morrison, a law professor at George Washington University.
“And I think he’s always seen himself as being on that side: Tough on people who violate criminal laws, and I think his remarks here are in keeping with that. He’s trying to protect the Justice Department, which he headed not once but twice,” Morrison said.
Barr has in fact just done that, offering defenses of the Justice Department and the legitimacy of its investigation into Trump in a series of Fox News appearances over the past two weeks.
The former attorney general earlier in the month pushed back on various defenses Trump and his team have offered in response to the FBI raid, telling Fox News he was skeptical that Trump had declassified everything he took to Mar-a-Lago as the former president had claimed.
“Let me just say, I think the driver on this from the beginning was loads of classified information sitting in Mar-a-Lago. People say this [raid] was unprecedented — well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, okay,” Barr said.
Barr has also been critical of Trump’s push for a special master to review the documents taken by the FBI. The former attorney general called the legal strategy a “red herring” since federal authorities likely had already sifted through most of the seized materials.
Barr urged the Justice Department this week to appeal Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling in favor of appointing a special master, calling the decision “deeply flawed in a number of ways.”
In an appearance on Fox on Thursday, Barr said he believes the Justice Department is “getting very close” to the point where they could indict someone in the case, including potentially Trump.
The comments were notable coming from a man who Democrats and some legal experts criticized throughout his latest tenure as attorney general, accusing him of viewing himself as the president’s lawyer rather than the country’s.
“I think it’s partially a repudiation of Trump but it’s much more in wearing his law and order hat than a repudiation of Trump,” Morrison said.
Barr’s Fox News appearances undercutting Trump are the latest example of what has been a steadily growing divide between the two men.
One former Trump administration official said there is no love lost between Trump and Barr, and the relationship had been steadily deteriorating since the 2020 election, when Trump was irked that his attorney general publicly said he hadn’t found evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Barr was a key witness for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, with recordings of his closed-door depositions featuring prominently in the panel’s public hearings.
Barr told the panel he believed Trump’s claims about election fraud were “bullshit,” “nonsense” and “idiotic.” One hearing featured video of Barr saying he worried Trump had become “detached from reality” as he raised the false premise that voting machines were designed to rig the election.
Trump, who has frequently derided his former attorney general as a “RINO,” or “Republican in Name Only,” used the same insult in response to Barr’s commentary on Fox in which he said authorities likely had good evidence to pursue its search of Trump’s home.
“Bill Barr had ‘no guts,’ and got ‘no glory,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. “He was a weak and pathetic RINO [Republican in name only], who was so afraid of being Impeached that he became a captive to the Radical Left Democrats.”
While the vast majority of conservatives have lined up behind Trump to offer shifting defenses of the former president and criticize the Justice Department as politicized, a few conservatives and former Trump officials have joined Barr in publicly recognizing the seriousness of the matter.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who is viewed as laying the groundwork for a 2024 bid, said in New Hampshire late last month that he was “deeply troubled” by the search but added the public needs to “let the facts play out” and condemned attacks on law enforcement.
Ty Cobb, who served as a lawyer in Trump’s White House during the Russia investigation, told CBS News on Friday he believes Trump is “in serious legal water,” not just because of the ongoing investigation into his handling of classified documents, but because of efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
Like Barr, Cobb told the news outlet he believes the possibility of Trump being indicted is “very high.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:43:09Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz’s U.S. Open championship moved him to No. 1 on Monday at age 19, making him the youngest man to lead the ATP computerized rankings since they began in 1973.
“It’s a dream. At the moment, I can’t believe I reached No. 1. It’s going to take time to understand it,” Alcaraz said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I have to move on and find new goals. I have to keep at this level, at No. 1, for many years. That’s my goal — and, of course, to get more Grand Slams.”
The Spaniard’s victory by a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3 score over Casper Ruud in Sunday’s final allowed Alcaraz to win his first major title and to replace 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev atop the rankings.
Alcaraz’s three-spot jump from No. 4 ties the mark for biggest move up to No. 1.
Ruud, a 23-year-old from Norway, went from No. 7 to No. 2 after reaching his second major final of the season. He was the runner-up to Rafael Nadal at the French Open in June.
Sunday’s matchup was the first Grand Slam final featuring two men both trying to win a first Slam trophy and with No. 1 on the line, too.
“He’s riding that wave. At the moment, he’s the best player in the world, in my eyes. He deserves that spot,” Ruud said. “I’m happy that we played each other in the final and that we played for the title and the world No. 1 spot.”
Nadal also entered the U.S. Open with a chance to move back up to No. 1, but he stayed at No. 3 after losing in the fourth round to Frances Tiafoe, who wound up being the first American man in the semifinals at Flushing Meadows in 16 years and going from No. 26 to a career-high No. 19.
Medvedev dropped to No. 4, and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev went from No. 2 to No. 5 after sitting out the U.S. Open because of torn ligaments in his right ankle.
Novak Djokovic missed his second Grand Slam tournament this season because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and slid one place down to No. 7.
Iga Swiatek’s third major title, and first in New York, kept her at No. 1 in the WTA rankings and left the 21-year-old from Poland with more than twice as many points as the new No. 2, Ons Jabeur, who was the runner-up Saturday.
Swiatek also won the French Open and is the first woman in six years to claim two Slams in one season.
Anett Kontaveit slipped one spot to No. 3 after losing in the second round of the U.S. Open to Serena Williams.
Two American players are in the top 10 in career-best positions after reaching the quarterfinals: Jessica Pegula at No. 5 and Coco Gauff at No. 8.
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More AP coverage of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:43:16Z
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CLEVELAND (AP) — Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout homered in his seventh consecutive game Monday night, one shy of the major league record.
The three-time AL MVP hit a two-run drive off Cleveland’s Konnor Pilkington in the fifth inning. Trout’s 35th homer of the season traveled 422 feet to dead center at Progressive Field.
Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly and Dale Long share the major league record of eight straight games with a home run.
Trout can tie the mark Tuesday night when the Angels continue their series with the Guardians.
Trout is the first AL player with a seven-game home run streak since Kendrys Morales of Toronto in 2018. Cincinnati’s Joey Votto homered in seven straight last season from July 24-30.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:43:24Z
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Atlanta finally passed the New York Mets — then the Braves ran into their mirror image from the American League.
That would be the Seattle Mariners, who took two of three from the Braves and are 50-22 in their last 72 games. Atlanta has played at an even better clip, going 64-26 since the start of June. That helped the Braves erase a 10 1/2-game deficit in the NL East, even though the first-place Mets never played all that badly.
Atlanta moved a half-game ahead of New York when it won the opener of its series in Seattle on Friday night, but now the Braves trail by 1 1/2 games after a wild finish Sunday. Atlanta scored five runs in the top of the ninth to take a one-run lead, only for Julio Rodriguez and Eugenio Suarez to hit solo homers in the bottom half for an 8-7 Seattle victory.
The Mariners are closing in on their first postseason appearance since 2001. The Braves are trying to defend the World Series title they won last year. The race atop the NL East is starting to resemble another famous one involving Atlanta — from the NL West in 1993.
That year, San Francisco was 10 games ahead of the Braves in late July, then went 38-27 the rest of the way. It somehow wasn’t enough. Atlanta closed on a 49-16 tear to win the division, 104 victories to 103.
That was the final postseason before wild cards, so the Giants were left out of the playoffs entirely. The Mets and Braves don’t have to worry about that this year, barring a massive collapse. But the winner in this NL East chase — in which both teams are on pace for at least 100 wins — would probably end up with a bye into the Division Series. That’s no small thing.
The Mets now hold an unusual distinction as the team that posted the best record while blowing a double-digit lead in their division, according to Sportradar. New York led by 10 1/2 games at the start of June, then went 51-34 — for a .600 winning percentage — before being caught by the Braves for the first time last Tuesday.
In 1993, the Giants built their 10-game lead and then went 24-20 (.545) before the Braves first caught up to them.
THAT TIME OF YEAR
The Los Angeles Dodgers, who are an incredible 59-20 in their last 79 games, didn’t quite clinch a postseason berth on Sunday as thought; their clubhouse celebration was a bit premature. They could become the first team in the majors to officially seal a postseason spot with a win Monday night at Arizona. Their magic number to wrap up the NL West is down to two.
The next-lowest magic number to win a division belongs to Houston at 11 in the AL West. But as well as Seattle is playing, that could still take a little while.
TRIVIA TIME
In 1993, Atlanta and San Francisco had a combined four 20-game winners. Who were they?
LINE OF THE WEEK
There’s a bit more separation in the American League wild-card race now. Toronto saw to that by taking three of four at Baltimore. The Blue Jays now lead the Orioles by 5 1/2 games for the third wild card.
Toronto started that series with a doubleheader sweep Monday, and Bo Bichette homered three times in the second game. He had six hits and seven RBIs in the doubleheader.
COMEBACK OF THE WEEK
The St. Louis Cardinals scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat Washington 6-5 on Wednesday night. The winning hit came with two out when Tommy Edman’s drive to left field bounced off outfielder Alex Call’s glove, allowing both runners on base to score.
It was the first time this season a team won after trailing by four or more runs entering the ninth. While the Nationals were batting in the top of the ninth, the St. Louis win probability dipped to 1.1%, according to Baseball Savant.
Honorable Mention: The Cardinals weren’t done with big comebacks. On Sunday, they scored four in the ninth to erase a two-run deficit and went on to beat Pittsburgh 4-3. Albert Pujols put St. Louis ahead to stay with a two-run homer — the 697th of his career, moving him past Alex Rodriguez and into sole possession of fourth place on the career list.
On Tuesday night, Colorado came back from a 6-1 deficit and beat Milwaukee 10-7 in 10 innings.
TRIVIA ANSWER
Tom Glavine (22-6) and Greg Maddux (20-10) for the Braves, and John Burkett (22-7) and Bill Swift (21-8) for the Giants.
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Follow Noah Trister at https://twitter.com/noahtrister
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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PHOENIX (AP) — Leave the math to everyone else. The Los Angeles Dodgers know how to win baseball games.
Mookie Betts hit a three-run homer, Cody Bellinger added a two-run double and the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-0 on Monday night behind Tyler Anderson, becoming the first major league team to clinch a playoff spot this season.
For real, this time.
The Dodgers thought they had secured a playoff berth Sunday after beating the Padres, celebrating with a postgame toast and distributing caps with the postseason logo on them. After further review, the math didn’t quite add up, and the Dodgers were just short.
So for the second straight day, the Dodgers celebrated a trip to the postseason.
“I don’t know if that’s ever been done,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said with a grin. “But it feels good.”
The Dodgers could make it three celebrations in three days on Tuesday, when a win would allow them to clinch the NL West. The Dodgers won their 97th game of the season Monday and are 54 games over .500.
Anderson (15-3) and Diamondbacks rookie Ryne Nelson engaged in an impressive pitching duel for the first six innings.
The Dodgers broke through against the D-backs’ bullpen in the seventh, loading the bases with no outs. Trayce Thompson snapped the scoreless tie with a sacrifice fly off Kevin Ginkel and then Bellinger pushed the Dodgers ahead 3-0 with a double into the right-center gap.
It was a good moment for Bellinger, who was the 2019 NL MVP but hasn’t come close to reaching that level of production since. He came into the game with a .200 batting average, 17 homers and 55 RBIs.
“Belly will be Belly, he’ll be fine,” Betts said. “He always finds ways. He competes. He plays a Gold Glove center field, which is huge. For some odd reason, he comes through in those clutch situations. We always know he’ll be there, be a fierce competitor and be ready when the lights turn on.”
Betts crushed a three-run shot to left in the ninth, giving the Dodgers a six-run cushion. It was his 34th homer of the season, a career high.
Anderson went seven innings, giving up five hits, walking two and striking out two.
“I didn’t think he had his best stuff, to be honest,” Roberts said. “But it just kind of shows his compete and his will. He made pitches when he needed to, got groundballs, fielded his position and got outs.”
Nelson threw six shutout innings in his second major league start, extending his scoreless streak to 13 innings since he was called up to the big leagues last week.
The 24-year-old threw seven shutout innings against the Padres in his debut on Sept. 5.
“He’s been fantastic,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “He fills up the strike zone, he’s got three pitches he can mix in and he does a great job of following the game plan.”
Nelson didn’t have much trouble with the Dodgers’ potent lineup, giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out six. He allowed a two-out triple to Trea Turner in the sixth and then intentionally walked Freddie Freeman, but retired Will Smith on a liner to center that ended the inning.
WEB GEMS
Betts made a nice play for the Dodgers while getting a rare start at second base.
Speedy D-backs outfielder Alex Thomas hit a grounder that deflected off Anderson’s glove, which made Betts readjust his path as he charged in to field the ball. Betts then flipped the ball with his glove hand to Freeman, beating Thomas by a split second.
Betts is usually the team’s right fielder but made his fifth start of the season at second, subbing for injured Gavin Lux. Betts came to the big leagues as an infielder before switching to the outfield.
Betts’ infield cameo isn’t expected to be a long-term arrangement, but he does give the Dodgers options.
“It makes me miss being in there,” Betts said of playing second. “But they pay me pretty good to be in right field, so I’ll go back out there.”
MAKING MOVES
Diamondbacks: Called up OF Jordan Luplow from Triple-A Reno. Designated INF Wilmer Difo for assignment.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: Roberts told reporters that INF Gavin Lux (neck) continues to improve, was doing “all baseball activities” and could be put on the active roster this weekend. … Tony Gonsolin (right forearm strain) threw a bullpen Sunday and Roberts said the All-Star right-hander came out feeling “OK.” Roberts is still confident Gonsolin can return to the rotation by the end of the season but acknowledged that time is running short.
UP NEXT
The teams play again on Tuesday. Arizona sends RHP Merrill Kelly (12-5, 2.94 ERA) to the mound against LHP Clayton Kershaw (7-3, 2.62).
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:43:39Z
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PHOENIX (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers, it turns out, aren’t definitely in the playoffs quite yet.
Despite a postgame clinching toast by manager Dave Roberts in the clubhouse Sunday, the celebration was a bit premature. The math didn’t add up, the Dodgers were still short.
MLB took blame for the mistake. Roberts said he found out this morning when he was watching TV.
“I’ve got no problem taking blame, but all the information I got from yesterday was that if we win, we clinch a berth,” Roberts said. “I really don’t care. We’re going to do it at some point in time. There won’t be any other acknowledgment. It is what it is.”
Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers could become the first team in the majors to officially seal a postseason spot with a win Monday night at Arizona.
The Dodgers own the best record in baseball at 96-43. They held a 20-game lead over San Diego in the NL West and had a magic number of two for clinching their ninth division title in 10 years.
Los Angeles has reached the postseason in 10 straight seasons.
“It’s not a rite of passage, it’s hard to win the division,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers thought their 11-2 win at San Diego on Sunday put them in the playoffs. Roberts led a toast with sparkling wine and the players and staff were given caps with the postseason logo.
Instead, with a new playoff system in place this season, there remained a multi-team tiebreaker scenario that mathematically would exclude them — they would have to go 0-23 and Milwaukee would need to finish 21-0 to put that possibility in play.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:43:46Z
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Denny Hamlin the driver finds himself in the most enviable of positions heading into Saturday night’s race at Bristol, his second-place run at Kansas Speedway over the weekend nearly ensuring his spot in the next round of the playoffs.
Denny Hamlin the owner? He’s feeling even better.
The car he was chasing down in the waning laps of Sunday’s race happened to be the No. 45 driven by Bubba Wallace for 23XI Racing, which is owned by Hamlin and Hall of Fame basketball star Michael Jordan. The victory pushed the team into the next round in the race for the owner’s championship, the somewhat lesser-known NASCAR Cup Series title.
“I couldn’t imagine a team that started from scratch — literally from scratch, we had nothing two years ago — to now have three race wins,” said Hamlin, whose team got its first with Wallace in a rain-shortened race last year at Talladega, the second when Kurt Busch piloted the No. 45 to victory lane in the spring race at Kansas.
“I can’t tell you how hard it is to win in this series,” Hamlin said. “And with this five-year plan to get to a championship-contending organization, I’m the realist in the group, knowing we have a ton of ground to cover, but we’re starting to get the results. This hard work is paying off. And in a few years, hopefully, you’ll talk about us winning on a more regular basis.”
Well, folks are certainly talking about the team this week.
Wallace narrowly missed out on competing for the mainstream driver’s championship in the No. 23 car, finishing second in the Daytona 500 and again at Michigan, when a victory at either would have guaranteed his spot in the 16-driver field.
Busch got in with his victory at Kansas, but a crash during qualifying at Pocono in July left him feeling long-term effects of a concussion. He decided to bow out of playoff consideration before the final regular-season race, but with the car still eligible for the owner’s title, Hamlin and the 23XI team decided to move Wallace into the No. 45 seat.
The move looked like genius on Sunday.
Wallace, who has a penchant for getting flustered come crunch time, remained calm and cool while cruising around Kansas Speedway with a comfortable lead. And even when Hamlin began to nip tenths of a second off it down the stretch, Wallace kept making solid laps, keeping his boss at bay and ultimately taking the checkered flag.
In a matter of seconds, Busch was already tweeting Wallace and the No. 45 team his congratulations.
“Hate the scenario we’re in with him,” Wallace said, “but he’s been nothing but an advocate and leader for us. When we get back to Monday morning meetings, he’s giving us insight in how to be better, and I appreciate him for that. It’s taught me to be better on the racetrack, let alone off the track. He’s talked about believing in self and he’s always believed in me.”
When Hamlin and Jordan expanded 23XI Racing from a single car last year to two, their intent was to create an organization with multiple cars acting in concert, rather than a team where each crew blazed its own trail. And that shop synergy is a big reason why Wallace has been able to step so seamlessly into the No. 45 car.
He finished ninth in the postseason opener at Darlington before his winning ride at Kansas.
“We were trying to mesh this into where we can switch pit crew guys at any moment. When one team wins, the other crew gets bonuses as well,” Hamlin said. “We’re trying to instill a very positive, one-team mentality. Having that and having the eligibility in the owner’s championship, we were able to pick apart and put the best pieces in our race team to go out and compete at our best. Bubba was an easy choice for us, especially given his results the last few months.”
Wallace has certainly had detractors over the years, though, and he threw a little shade at them when he hopped out of his car on the front stretch Sunday. But it’s going to be hard to find any detractors when it comes to 23XI Racing, which at least for now is looking over its shoulder at powerful Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Team Penske.
“We know how good we are. We knew,” said Wallace’s crew chief, Bootie Barker. “And I knew how good Bubba was, how good he was all year. So I feel very happy for him, and the fact that we took it to ’em. What are you going to say now? What can you throw rocks at us about this time? I’m just happy for our whole organization.”
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:01Z
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LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said he expects the team’s fans to show “the right respect” when a period of silence is held before the Champions League match against Ajax at Anfield on Tuesday in honor of Queen Elizabeth II.
Liverpool supporters booed the national anthem — which was formerly “God Save the Queen” — when it was played ahead of the FA Cup final in May and the Community Shield in July because of what is perceived to be a long-held opposition toward the establishment.
There have been periods of silence before sporting fixtures and events around the country since the death of the queen at the age of 96 on Thursday, and UEFA on Monday granted a request by Liverpool for one to take place before the Ajax game. It will be Liverpool’s first game since the queen’s death, with the team’s home match against Wolverhampton on Saturday having been called off as a market of respect.
Klopp said it would be “the right thing to do” for Liverpool to make the tribute and referred to how his club’s fans conducted themselves during a Premier League match against fierce rival Manchester United in April, which took place a day after the death of one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s new-born twins.
There was a show of support from both teams’ fans for Ronaldo, with Liverpool’s supporters making a brief rendition of their club anthem — “You’ll Never Walk Alone” — amid applause around Anfield.
“I don’t think our people need any advice from me for showing respect,” Klopp said. “There are plenty of examples where people show exactly the right respect.
“One, surprisingly, and I was really proud of that moment, was when we played Man United after a very sad situation in Cristiano Ronaldo’s family. That is what I expect. For me, it is clear it is what we have to do.”
Liverpool fans booed the national anthem in the 1980s and during what some refer to as the “managed decline” of the city during the tenure of the Conservative Party-led government. Deepening those feelings was the failing of the government following the Hillsborough Stadium disaster and many from the left-leaning city continue to feel let down by the state.
Liverpool fans jeered the national anthem and the introduction of Prince William, the queen’s grandson, before the FA Cup final against Chelsea.
Klopp was asked how he felt when he heard about the death of the queen.
“I’m 55 years old and she’s the only queen I ever knew,” the German coach said. “As far as I know — I don’t know her — but the things we have seen of her, she was a really warm, nice, beloved lady. That’s all I need to know.
“Because of my personal experience — and it’s not what I think, it’s what people think who are much closer to her — I respect their grief a lot and that’s why I will show my respect tomorrow night.”
The Liverpool and Ajax players will wear black armbands for the match and flags at Anfield have been lowered to half-staff. The club crests on all social media platforms have changed to black and white, representing the colors of the mourning period in Britain.
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:09Z
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SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Seahawks safety Jamal Adams suffered a left knee injury in the second quarter of Monday night’s season opener against the Denver Broncos.
Adams was injured on a play where he blitzed and put pressure on Denver quarterback Russell Wilson. Adams didn’t get a sack but forced an incompletion. He limped off the field and after being examined on the sideline was taken via a cart back to the locker room.
The Seahawks said Adams was doubtful to return.
Adams is in his third season in Seattle but his time with the Seahawks has been partly defined by injuries. He was limited to 12 games in each of the past two seasons because of shoulder, hand and finger injuries.
Adams signed a four-year extension worth up to $70 million with Seattle before the 2021 season.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:23Z
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SEATTLE (AP) — It was a familiar scene in Seattle: Russell Wilson leading his team downfield for a game-winning score late in the fourth quarter.
This time, he wasn’t given a chance by his new coach in Denver, pulled off the field in exchange for a 64-yard field goal attempt that left plenty of confusion and the Seattle Seahawks celebrating an unexpected season-opening, 17-16 victory over the Broncos on Monday night.
With the Broncos facing fourth-and-5 in Seahawks territory with a minute remaining and all their timeouts, coach Nathaniel Hackett opted to let the clock run down to 20 seconds before sending out Brandon McManus to try the low-percentage kick.
“I don’t think it was the wrong decision. I think he could make it,” Wilson said after his return to the city where he played his first 10 seasons. “Obviously in hindsight, we didn’t make it, but if we were in that situation again, I wouldn’t doubt whatever he decided.”
Geno Smith threw two first-half touchdown passes as the Seahawks’ offense started brilliantly in the post-Wilson era. Denver had plenty of chances after halftime but fumbled twice at the 1-yard line.
Then came the final minute, which raised plenty of questions about Hackett’s clock management and decision-making in his debut as a head coach. NFL kickers are 2 for 35 on attempts of 64 yards or more since 1991, according to Sportradar, and McManus’ career long is 61 yards.
The kick missed wide left, and instead of Wilson leading the 36th career fourth-quarter or overtime comeback of his career, the Seahawks celebrated to chants of “Geno! Geno!”
“I was surprised that they took Russ out there,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said.
Denver faced fourth-and-5 at the Seattle 46 after Wilson hit Javonte Williams for a 9-yard gain. McManus said that was the exact spot on the field the offense needed to reach to give him a shot at the kick.
“I wish we would have gotten a lot closer, but it put us in that weird spot there because we were in field-goal range, but we were on that fourth-down situation,” Hackett said. “I didn’t think we were gonna get that many yards. … We just made our decision and wanted to take our shot there.”
Hackett then used his timeouts while the Seahawks kneeled down, elongating the Seattle celebration.
Smith and the Seahawks did very little offensively in the second half but their first half was good enough. Smith threw a touchdown pass of 38 yards to Will Dissly on the first possession of the season and hit Colby Parkinson for a 25-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Smith finished 23 of 28 for 195 yards, but was 17 of 18 for 164 yards in the first half.
“For him to go out there and get a win like that shows the confidence we have in him,” Seattle wide receiver DK Metcalf said.
Wilson was 29 of 42 for 340 yards and a touchdown. But Denver couldn’t overcome its red-zone inefficiency with both Melvin Gordon III and Williams fumbling on plays snapped at Seattle 1-yard line.
“We can run the ball. We can pass the ball. We just have to be sound in the red zone. That’s been our issue,” Gordon said.
The Seahawks moved into first place in the NFC West after Arizona, San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams all lost on Sunday.
Wilson went from being a disputed third-round pick to a franchise cornerstone that helped Seattle to its only Super Bowl title. But his departure this past offseason in a trade to Denver was a messy conclusion to a mostly sparkling career with the Seahawks.
And Seattle fans were ready to let Wilson find out just what it was like to be an opposing QB at the stadium where he enjoyed so many triumphs.
“Just going out there and seeing him in a Broncos jersey was shocking to me,” Metcalf said.
Wilson was greeted with lustful, guttural boos every time he stepped on the field from a crowd notorious for making noise. They started in pregame warmups and didn’t decrease in volume throughout the victory.
Some signs in the stadium compared Wilson to Alex Rodriguez, who infamously left for a massive contract in Texas early in his baseball career. Others switched around the words from a catchphrase during his time in Seattle, urging the Seahawks, “Let’s Cook Russ.”
“Tonight was special, just on the other side than I’m used to. But it was still a special environment in a place that I’ve always loved,” Wilson said.
Wilson and the Broncos had plenty of chances to silence the crowd.
Denver ran eight plays inside the Seattle 12 in the third quarter and came away with zero points after the two fumbles.
The Broncos had three more plays inside the Seattle 10 midway through the fourth quarter and still couldn’t find the end zone. Denver reached the 3-yard-line but its third false start of the game moved Wilson back to the 8 and he was incomplete on his next two throws. McManus’ 26-yard field goal with 6:13 left pulled the Broncos within 17-16.
INJURIES
Seattle safety Jamal Adams suffered what Carroll said after the game was a serious injury to his left quadriceps tendon. Adams limped off the field after nearly sacking Wilson in the first quarter and eventually was driven away on a cart.
Denver lost right guard Quinn Meinerz to a hamstring injury in the first half and cornerback K’Waun Williams to a hand injury in the fourth quarter.
UP NEXT
Broncos: Host Houston on Sunday.
Seahawks: At San Francisco on Sunday.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:31Z
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Three English Premier League games scheduled for this weekend were called off on Monday on safety grounds while authorities make preparations for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
Manchester United’s home game against Leeds and Liverpool’s match at Chelsea, both set to take place on Sunday, were postponed. Brighton’s home game against Crystal Palace will remain postponed, having initially been called off because of a rail strike that will now not happen.
It reduces the next round of the league to a seven-game program. All 10 games in the most recent round — from Saturday to Monday — were postponed as a mark of respect following the death of the queen on Thursday.
Otherwise, soccer was resuming in Britain from Monday after a nationwide pause from Friday to Sunday — from the professional game down to the grassroots. The Premier League game between Leeds and Nottingham Forest, scheduled for Monday night to finish off the eighth round, remained off.
The English Football League — which runs the three divisions below the Premier League — said tributes will be paid to the queen at grounds across the country when games in the second-division Championship as well as League One and League Two resume from Tuesday.
A minute’s silence will be held before matches, with black armbands to be worn by players, flags to be flown at half-staff and the national anthem — “God Save the King” — to be played in stadiums.
The Premier League is still not back up to full swing, though, as authorities weigh up the logistical issues of staging a state funeral that will be attended by heads of state and royalty from around the world next Monday, and the policing of high-profile soccer matches in the preceding days.
“Following extensive consultation with clubs, police, local safety advisory groups and other relevant authorities, there was no other option but to postpone the three fixtures,” the Premier League said.
The league said the postponements were made “due to events surrounding the queen’s funeral.”
The monarch’s coffin will be flown on Tuesday to London, where it will lie in state at the Houses of Parliament from Wednesday until the morning of her funeral. The buildup to the funeral requires a vast police and security operation, with forces pulled from cities outside London.
“With a national policing plan now in operation,” the EFL said, “the league and clubs will continue to work with forces in respect of any challenges that may emerge regarding policing of specific fixtures.”
The EFL said it will work on a “case-by-case basis.”
Some Premier League teams will back in action in European competition from Tuesday to Thursday — Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham in the Champions League, plus Manchester United in the Europa League and West Ham in the Europa Conference League — ahead of the partial resumption of the top division.
Arsenal’s Europa League home game against PSV Eindhoven in London on Thursday was postponed by UEFA because of what the governing body said was the “severe limitations on police resources and organizational issues.”
UEFA and Arsenal face challenges in rescheduling the game amid the congestion caused by the World Cup in November and December in Qatar. Arsenal has no clear midweek dates before the Europa League groups are scheduled to finish on Nov. 3, with the round of 16 draw scheduled for Nov. 7.
It’s a similar case for Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United, Leeds, Brighton and Palace, who have two league games to rearrange. They will likely be played in the new year.
In Scotland, the Champions League game between Rangers and Napoli in Glasgow had already been pushed back one day to Wednesday because of policing issues.
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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:38Z
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Connecticut Sun might be down one game in the WNBA Finals after losing their first series opener of the postseason, but they haven’t lost confidence thanks to a stringent defensive effort in Game 1.
The Sun did what they hoped to do, holding the league’s No. 1 offense well below its season average. The top-seeded Las Vegas Aces averaged 90.4 points per game during the regular season and were scoring a playoff-best 92.3 per contest heading into the championship round.
On Sunday, the Sun held Las Vegas to its lowest point total of the postseason in the 67-64 loss, and Connecticut took confidence from that performance as it prepares for Tuesday’s Game 2.
“I mean, after this game, we have to have a lot of confidence,” forward Alyssa Thomas said. “I mean, this is a three-point game and we had a chance to tie. I think we are very confident and we know that all you need is one, and then there’s two games at our place. So yeah, there’s some things we can clean up. Of course, we can make more shots, but overall we played a hard game.”
Hard enough that Las Vegas shot just 39.7% from the floor, including 20.8% rom 3-point range — both playoff lows.
In fact, the 67 points were the fewest Las Vegas scored all season, while there were only four other times the Aces shot worse from the floor, and one other time their long-range shooting was worse.
“They play so hard the entire game,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “That team is relentless, and so you can never let your foot off the gas.”
Which is what the Aces learned after building their biggest lead of the game in the first quarter, a 21-9 advantage that they slowly squandered as Connecticut turned the pace in its favor.
The Sun imposed their defensive will in the second quarter, opening the period on a 13-4 run to take a 30-29 lead while frustrating Las Vegas by blocking passing lanes, limiting space for league MVP A’ja Wilson and keeping the Aces away from the glass.
“As the game settled in, we found rhythms to get consecutive stops,” Connecticut coach Curt Miller said. “Our defense settled in and got to our pillars, got to the game plan, and started to get the type of game that we feel we need in order to be successful.”
The problem for the Sun was they weren’t able to convert on several possessions, missing ample opportunities with shots they might normally make and that would have allowed them to create some separation going into halftime, rather than a four-point lead that could have easily been double digits.
“We came out, we played hard, and unfortunately they hit more shots than us and we didn’t get stops in a timely manner,” Thomas said. “But there’s a Game 2, and we will watch the video and be prepared for the next game.”
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More WNBA playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-playoffs and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:46Z
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CLEVELAND (AP) — Angels star Mike Trout homered in his seventh consecutive game, one shy of the major league record, but the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians beat Los Angeles 5-4 on Monday night.
Trout’s 35th homer of the season came in the fifth inning. The three-time AL MVP connected off Konnor Pilkington for a two-run, 422-foot drive to dead center at Progressive Field.
Pittsburgh’s Dale Long established the MLB record of eight straight games with a home run in 1956. Don Mattingly of the Yankees matched it in 1987, as did Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr. in 1993.
“That’s good company to be in,” Trout said. “I’m just putting a good swing on the ball and they’re going out.”
Trout can match the mark on Tuesday night when the Angels continue their series with the Guardians. He said he isn’t worried about Cleveland pitching around him.
“I’m going up there ready to hit and whatever happens, happens,” Trout said. “I’ll come in tomorrow and do the same thing because it’s working for me.”
Trout is the first AL player with a seven-game home run streak since Kendrys Morales of Toronto in 2018. Cincinnati’s Joey Votto homered in seven straight last season from July 24-30.
Amed Rosario doubled home Steven Kwan with the go-ahead run in the seventh for Cleveland, which increased its advantage to three games over the Chicago White Sox and five games over third-place Minnesota.
“We’ve got some work to do to clinch the thing, but I think we’ve been working the right way all season,” said Guardians catcher Austin Hedges, who hit a two-run double. “We’re a team that does get the big hit.”
The game featured a strange sequence in the seventh when Cleveland manager Terry Francona and Angels interim manager Phil Nevin were both ejected without a pitch being thrown in-between.
Things got heated in the seventh when Francona argued that Andrés Giménez was hit by a pitch from Ryan Tepera. Francona got ejected by umpire crew chief Ron Kulpa, and when Tepera was denied warmup throws following the delay, Nevin got tossed.
“Truth be told, I don’t know what was going through my mind, and I don’t like that,” Francona said.
Nevin agreed that Francona signaled for a replay challenge in time, but Kulpa didn’t see the gesture. Tepera said both he and Kulpa apologized for their disagreement between innings.
“To me, that was a player safety issue, not allowing Ryan any warmup pitches,” Nevin said. “And I didn’t understand it.”
Kulpa also exited with two outs and two strikes in the ninth after being struck on the mask by a foul ball hit by Matt Thaiss. Second base umpire Carlos Torres replaced him behind the plate.
We weren’t aware that (Francona) was holding for us to look at a hit by pitch,” first base umpire John Tumpane said in a pool report. “By our protocol, if the pitcher is on the rubber and the batter is in the box, we’re moving onto the next pitch.”
“Obviously, player safety is paramount, and looking back at it, yes, we would have given (Tepera) some warmup pitches so his safety was not at risk,” he said.
Enyel De Los Santos (4-0) worked a scoreless seventh for the win and Emmanuel Clase pitched a perfect ninth for his MLB-best 34th save. Aaron Loup (0-5) surrendered Rosario’s RBI double.
The Guardians took a 4-0 lead in the second off Reid Detmers, highlighted by Hedges’ two-run double. Tyler Freeman and his fellow rookie, Kwan, had RBI singles.
Pilkington allowed four runs over five innings on his 25th birthday. The left-hander also was touched for a two-run homer by Matt Duffy in the fourth.
Reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani went 1 for 3 for the Angels, who are 1-19 on the road against Cleveland since 2015.
ARMS RACE
The Guardians are in the midst of playing 18 games in a 17-day span, forcing them to adjust their rotation on the fly. Pilkington made his first start since July 23, while they haven’t decided who will work the series finale Wednesday.
Right-hander Cal Quantrill, who has a team-best 12 victories, would remain on regular rest if he pitches against the Angels. Cleveland has a makeup game Thursday at home against the White Sox.
“If Cal had his druthers, he’d stay on his fifth day,” Francona said.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Angels: 2B David Fletcher (right hand bruise), who was hurt Saturday at Houston, was held out of the lineup for the second day in a row. Fletcher did fielding drills before the game and was available to pinch-hit.
Guardians: RHP Aaron Civale (right forearm inflammation) threw a bullpen session for pitching coach Carl Willis earlier in the day. Francona is unsure if Civale will require a rehab assignment before being activated.
UP NEXT
Angels: LHP José Suarez (6-6, 3.77 ERA) has won back-to-back starts and is 5-2 with a 1.76 ERA over his last seven outings. Suarez is 0-2 with an 11.57 ERA in two career appearances against Cleveland.
Guardians: RHP Cody Morris (0-1, 3.00 ERA) makes his third appearance in the majors. Morris has totaled six innings in two starts, striking out five with three walks, since debuting Sept. 2 against Seattle.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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| 2022-09-21T09:44:53Z
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FRISCO, TX (Silver Star Nation) – Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott had surgery on Monday afternoon to repair a broken bone in his throwing hand.
Sources close to the team say the surgery went well after Prescott told reporters that the break was “very clean.”
No word on how long Dak Prescott’s recovery will be, but even Dak suggested that he will miss several weeks of the new NFL season.
Head Coach Mike McCarthy said Prescott will be a key part of daily activities for the Cowboys, advising backup quarterback Cooper Rush to start with.
In his news conference Monday afternoon, McCarthy said Cowboys ownership is considering adding a veteran quarterback to help fill the void while Prescott recovers from the hand injury.
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| 2022-09-21T09:45:07Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — A multiple-vehicle crash caused Caddo Parish Sheriff’s deputies to close Ellerbe Road Monday afternoon.
According to reports, three vehicles were involved in a crash that happened at 3:15 pm. Caddo Fire District was called to the scene, and one person was taken to the hospital.
According to CPSO, the closure begins at Ellerbe Road and continues from Nightingale to Jennifer Lane. CPSO is asking drivers to avoid the area.
The investigation is ongoing.
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| 2022-09-21T09:45:13Z
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – We will begin the week with mild and dry air taking over behind a cold front that passed through late Sunday. Mornings will be cool and afternoons warm for the next 5 to 7 days.
Low humidity and pleasant weather today: You are in for a treat this morning and temperatures have cooled into the 50s and 60s. The coolest air will be located north of I-30 through McCurtain, Little River, Sevier, Howard, Hempstead, and Nevada counties where we will be in the low 50s before sunrise. You may want to grab a jacket or something with long sleeves in these areas prior to 9 a.m.
Our wind has turned to the north, pushing dry air into the ArkLaTex this morning. Humidity levels have dropped significantly in the past 24 hours. After highs made it into the low 90s this weekend, the new airmass will be welcomed with highs in the mid-80s this afternoon.
Dry weather expected throughout the week: With high pressure taking over the daily rains we have experienced over the last month will dry up. Expect sunny skies throughout the day, the wind will be light and out of the north at 5 to 10 miles per hour through the afternoon.
The coolest air since Spring will settle in tonight: The pleasant nights and mornings will settle in throughout the week. With the low humidity, our low temperatures will dip into the 50s overnight. We will have many 50 and 60-degree nights throughout the week.
Warm air builds for the remainder of the week: The mostly sunny and dry weather is expected to stick around through at least Friday. High temperatures will make it to near 90 again tomorrow, and settle into the low and mid-90s throughout the week. We will feel some humidity come back, but it should remain relatively low through at least Thursday.
The 6 to 10-day outlook from the Climate Prediction Center shows drier than average conditions over the next week and a half.
Get exclusive severe weather details on storms as they approach your area by downloading the Arklatex Weather Authority app, now available in the App Store and Google Play
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| 2022-09-21T09:45:20Z
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Much drier air has invaded the ArkLaTex to begin the week. This will allow temperatures to dip to levels not seen since the end of May. The dry weather will continue this week and most of next week with a warming trend.
Nice taste of fall: Temperatures Monday afternoon have warmed into the middle 80s over most of the ArkLaTex after a mild start in the low to middle 60s. Dry air continues to filter into the area. That dry air will combine with light wind and a clear sky to allow temperatures Monday night to dip into the 50s and low 60s. The northern edge of the area could fall as low as the lower 50s. While dry air allows temperatures at night to cool more efficiently, it also allows daytime temperatures to heat up a bit more. Consequently, highs Tuesday will likely soar into the upper 80s to lower 90s.
Dry weather is here to stay: It’s no surprise that with an abundant supply of dry air that rain will be hard to come by. Futurecast shows that we will see a clear sky over the ArkLaTex Monday night. Expect a mostly sunny sky Tuesday and a clear sky once again Tuesday night. Wednesday will also be another dry day under a mostly sunny sky. Eventually, the wind will shift around to the southeast and the humidity will gradually return. At the same time, upper-level high pressure will establish itself over the southeastern half of the country later this week. This will put a cap on any rain that may try to develop with the return of the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. It’s looking promising that the vast majority of the ArkLaTex will stay dry through this week and all of next week.
Summer heat to return: While the fall-like temperatures will be nice for the next few mornings, we shouldn’t get too used to it. We will see a very slow warming trend that will last into next week. By the middle of next week, highs will be above normal in the middle 90s. Overnight lows will also be above normal in the low to middle 70s. Summer is not quite done yet!
Get daily forecasts and exclusive severe weather details on storms as they approach your area by downloading the Arklatex Weather Authority app now available in the App Store and Google Play
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| 2022-09-21T09:45:28Z
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The crisis bedevilling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken a new turn as the group backing Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers has piled more pressure on the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, to resign.
The group rose from a meeting in Port Harcourt on Tuesday night rejecting their inclusion in the PDP Presidential Campaign (PCO) on account of the embattled Party chairman’s refusal to step aside.
Former National Deputy Chairman (South) of the party, Chief Bode George, read a communique issued at the end of meeting attended by Wike, his Oyo State colleague, Seyi Makinde; former governors, governorship candidates and other senior stakeholders, which affirmed that their position in the campaign council is untenable with Ayu refusing to resign.
The resolution maintained that the party boss must go to allow an acting National chairman of southern extraction to emerge and lead the party on a the campaign.
“Consequently, we resolved not to participate in the council in whatever capacity until the resignation of Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, ” George read..
More details to come later….
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| 2022-09-21T09:46:06Z
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(iSeeCars) – Inventory constraints due to the microchip shortage have driven used car prices to record highs. That means your own used car, which is typically a depreciating asset, could be worth more than, or close to, what you originally paid for it. Or, at the very least, it’s worth considerably more than it would be in a stable used car market. If you’re thinking of selling your car or trading it in for a new one, it’s important to know the value of your vehicle. This guide will give you all the information you need to price your vehicle, either for a sale or to help you get a fair price as part of the trade-in process.
What’s My Car Worth? How to Calculate the Market Value of Your Car
A car’s market value is the amount you would receive for your car if you were to sell it to a private buyer. How do you determine this value? There are helpful online tools like the iSeeCars Price My Car Tool, which provide a detailed pricing report to help calculate your used car’s value. Simply enter your vehicle’s VIN or provide its make, model, year, trim, style, and mileage.
The Price My Car tool will then provide a used car valuation with a suggested range of prices to list it at, depending on how quickly you’re looking to sell.
How Do I Find My Car’s VIN?
Your vehicle’s VIN (vehicle identification number) is most commonly located on the dashboard on the driver’s side of the car, but can also be found inside the door jamb on the driver’s side door. You can learn more about what your car’s VIN can tell you with the iSeeCars free VIN check tool.
Understand What Your Car’s Valuation Really Means
Your vehicle’s market price is calculated by analyzing the prices of similar cars for sale in the same local market. The calculation takes into account many considerations, including price, mileage, vehicle condition, trim level, and features. The pricing information also factors in outside market conditions like supply and demand.
There are a few different values for your vehicle, and it’s important to understand the differences among them. Here are some additional terms you’re likely to hear if you’re selling or buying a vehicle:
Understanding Car Values: Market Value Vs. Car Trade-In Value Vs. Retail Value
Market value is different from trade-in value, although the two terms are often used interchangeably. A car’s trade-in value is the amount of money a car dealer will offer you for your vehicle, whereas market value, also referred to as private party value, is the amount of money you would get selling your car directly to a buyer. Because dealerships handle the complex process of selling the vehicle, they offer a lower trade-in value to ensure they make a profit when they sell the car. Keep in mind, dealers have to cover the overhead costs associated with the transaction, like inspecting, reconditioning and transferring ownership. Another pricing term is retail value, which is what a buyer can expect to pay for a used car at a dealership versus buying from a private individual. Retail value will likely be the highest figure, as it covers overhead and helps dealers make a profit.
Using Market Value to Sell Your Used Car
Once you have your car’s market value, you can price your car accordingly. If you want to sell your car quickly, you can price it below market value. If you aren’t in a rush to sell and want to leave room for negotiation, you can price your car closer to or above market value.
Many pricing tools like the iSeeCars Price My Car Tool will give you a range of prices to consider based on similar listings in your local market. If you want to sell your car quickly, you can choose the lowest or best price, while the highest price will give you the most money but will likely take longer to sell. The price in the middle is the closest to current market value, which means a price that is less than some similar listings but more than others.
Once you’ve determined your asking price, you can use the free iSeeCars Sell My Car Tool to list your vehicle.
Is It a Good Time to Sell Your Car?
Certain times of the year can be better than others when it comes to selling your car. For example, you can get more than $385 on average in April when selling SUVs and sedans, while May will get you the most money for selling your pickup truck. Generally, February through July is when you will get the most money for your vehicle. If you aren’t in a rush to sell your car, you can put your car on the market when it’s expected to bring you the greatest profit.
What If I Decide to Trade In My Car?
While selling your car privately will yield you a bigger profit than trading it into a dealer, some car buyers find that it isn’t worth the added hassle. Trading your car to a dealership means that you don’t have to show your car to prospective buyers and go through the trouble of transferring your car title. It can also make your car transaction easier, as your trade-in value will go towards your new car payment. If you trade in your car, get a few quotes from multiple local and online dealers to see who will give you the best price. You can choose to sell your car to Carvana or Carmax, and they will provide you with an instant offer that is good for seven days. You can also use those prices to negotiate your trade in value with the car dealer you’re purchasing from.
Using Market Value to Buy a Car
Market Value also plays a role in buying a car. By understanding a car’s market value, you’ll know if a car is priced fairly by a dealer or a private seller.
The Depreciation Factor
The average new car loses nearly half its value after five years. However, some cars hold their value better than others. Along with keeping your car’s condition as pristine as possible, buying a car that retains its value will help you command a higher car price when it comes time to sell or trade-in your vehicle. Keep in mind that optional equipment and special packages typically don’t aid in resale value.
Trucks and truck-based SUVs retain their value better than average, while luxury vehicles depreciate more than average. Reliable vehicles, like Toyotas and Hondas, also tend to have high resale value because of their durability and lower-than-average maintenance costs. Understanding a car’s depreciation can help car shoppers make a smart car buying decision, especially if you plan on trading it in after a few years.
Additional Used Car Buying Resources
Here are some additional resources to determine if you are paying a fair price for your used car:
- Kelley Blue Book (KBB): KBB is a trusted resource to help you determine the price of your used car, so much so that “blue book value” has become synonymous with a used car’s value. The Kelley Blue Book Trade In Range shows a range of prices that consumers can expect to receive when trading it in at a dealership. The Kelley Blue Book Private Party Value provides a fair price for a used car from an individual seller. KBB also gives an Instant Cash Offer based on its trade-in value, which is valid for seven days. Consumers can take that offer and bring it to a participating dealer for cash or a credit towards a new vehicle.
- NADAGuides: Designed for dealer members of the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), the NADA pricing guides use retail sales data to determine the sale prices for used vehicles. The main difference between the NADA and KBB is that KBB focuses on condition, mileage, demand, and features, while NADA looks at a car’s wholesale price.
- CarFax: CarFax provides the value of a used car based on its miles, condition, location, make and model, trim, and other factors. Carfax focuses on the individual vehicle and history rather than external factors such as market conditions and seasonality. You can enter your vehicle’s VIN or license plate number/
- TrueCar: Data aggregation company, TrueCar, has a network of dealers across the United States that provides the company with car sales data. TrueCar provides an estimated value based on questions about the vehicle’s specs and condition. It then provides you with a TrueCar cash offer and connects you with a certified dealer who will deliver a check for the vehicle’s value.
Bottom Line:
Getting an accurate price for your used vehicle can help you decide if you want to sell it. If you decide to sell your vehicle, you’ll have the information necessary to determine the right price for your car. You’ll also likely need to buy a replacement vehicle, and having the right tools to determine a car’s market value can help you determine if you’re getting a good deal.
More from iSeeCars.com:
If you’re interested in a new or a used car to replace the vehicle you’re trading in or selling, be sure to check out iSeeCars’ award-winning car search engine. It uses advanced algorithms to help shoppers find the best car deals across all vehicle types and provides key insights and valuable resources, like the iSeeCars free VIN check report and Best Cars rankings. Filter by make, model, price, and special features to find the best deal on your next vehicle.
This article, How Much is My Car Worth?, originally appeared on iSeeCars.com.
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| 2022-09-21T09:46:54Z
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The Nissan Leaf will finally get bidirectional charging in the United States, and it won’t affect the EV’s warranty, Nissan confirmed this past week.
Leaf models have for years had the hardware for bidirectional charging, which allows electric cars to discharge stored energy from their battery packs. And while Nissan has allowed and enabled the capability in some other markets, it hasn’t officially enabled the feature for the U.S. market until now.
For now, Nissan is only allowing bidirectional charging with the Fermata Energy FE-15 charger, which meets the UL 9741 standard. This was the first charger to comply with UL 9741, back in 2020, Fermata claims.
Fermata also has an energy-management app that monitors energy use by buildings, and can draw power from EVs during high-demand periods to lessen stress on the grid, Nissan says.
The automaker claims the Leaf is the only all-electric passenger vehicle in the U.S. market currently able to supply power to the grid. Ford beat Nissan to the market, however, with a factory-approved system for the F-150 Lightning, with inverter, disconnect switch, and a battery pack, to disconnect during brownouts and back up the home—and it’s studying grid-buffering capability. Hyundai has advertised vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability for vehicles based on its E-GMP platform, allowing them to power tools or other electronic devices; a more comprehensive home system from Hyundai is on the way.
This capability has been a long time coming.
The Leaf’s CHAdeMO standard enabled bidirectional charging essentially from the start (although Nissan appears to say that it’s been enabled in U.S. models from 2013 on). Nissan revealed its Leaf-To-Home charging station for other markets in 2012.
So although you’ll need to invest in a new charger, you might not need a new EV, or even a nearly new one, to take advantage of this flexibility.
In the interim, Wallbox has advertised what appeared to be the first Leaf-compatible bidirectional home charging station for the U.S. since 2020. In a response to Green Car Reports, Nissan verified that it is not yet approved in the same way and couldn’t yet comment on that approval status.
—
with reporting by Bengt Halvorson
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| 2022-09-21T09:46:55Z
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(iSeeCars) – The moment your teen gets their driver’s license can be bittersweet. While it’s exciting to be officially relieved of chauffeur duties, it’s also frightening handing the keys over to a newly-minted driver. And for parents who choose to help their teen with the car search financially, it can be difficult to find a safe and reliable car that falls within budget, especially in the current used car market.
To help parents find peace of mind, iSeeCars determined the safest and most reliable cars for teens across multiple vehicle categories for under $25,000. These cars achieved a score of 8.5 or above (out of 10) on an iSeeCars quality analysis that takes into account long-term reliability and the average safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). While standard and available advanced safety features vary across models, the cars on this list have basic safety features like electronic stability control and front airbags. Additionally, the vehicles on this list have a combined MPG of over 20 to help minimize the amount of money new drivers will need to spend on gas.
Here are the best cars for teens by vehicle category:
Best Small Car for Teens
Honda Civic (Coupe)
2017 iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.6
Average Used Car Price: $22,785
Although the Honda Civic’s coupe body style was discontinued for the 2021 model year, drivers who want the sportiest version of the vehicle will be able to find it used. Civics from the 2017 model year come standard with a rearview camera, and a suite of advanced safety features that include forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist. Automatic high-beam headlights are also available.
Best Luxury Small Car for Teens
2017 Volvo S60
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.4
Average Used Car Price: $23,135
The Volvo S60 proves it’s possible to have a safe and reliable luxury car for under $25,000. The 2017 Volvo S60 comes standard with the Volvo City Safety feature, which activates emergency braking if a low-speed collision is imminent. A suite of active safety features are also available such as automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning, active lane control, and automatic high beam headlights. Front-wheel drive comes standard, and all-wheel drive is also available. The 2017 Volvo S60 also earns the highest award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which is the Top Safety Pick+ designation.
Best Midsize Car for Teens
2017 Honda Accord (Sedan)
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.5
Average Used Car Price: $21,851
The Honda Accord is the best midsize sedan for teens. The Accord is praised for its sporty handling while offering more passenger room than most of its competitors. The Accord’s base engine gets an EPA-estimated 27 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway, which are excellent ratings for its class. It comes with active safety features including forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and automatic high-beam headlights. The 2017 Honda Accord earned a Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS.
Best Luxury Midsize Car for Teens
2015 Lexus ES 350
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.5
Average Used Car Price: $24,252
The Lexus ES 350 has a spacious and luxurious interior as well as a long list of standard safety features, including forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, road sign detection, and automatic high-beam headlights. All-wheel drive is available when paired with its four-cylinder engine option.
Best Large Car for Teens
2015 Toyota Avalon
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.9
Average Used Car Price: $21,107
The Toyota Avalon is the best large car for teens. The Avalon has ample passenger and cargo space, and an interior full of high-end materials, including synthetic leather upholstery. The 2015 Avalon comes standard with a rearview camera, and adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert are available on higher trims.
Best Luxury Large Car for Teens
2015 Acura RLX
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 8.9
Average Used Car Price: $22,682
The 2015 Acura RLX large luxury sedan boasts stellar safety scores and below-average cost of ownership. It comes standard with a rearview camera, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning.
Best Small SUV for Teens
2017 Subaru Outback
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.2
Average Used Car Price: $24,894
The Subaru Outback’s ambiguity as a wagon-like SUV offers the smooth driving dynamics of a car and the utility of an SUV. The 2017 Outback was awarded the Top Safety Pick+ safety designation from IIHS. Available safety features include blind spot monitoring, forward and rear collision warning, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, and steering-responsive automatic headlights.
Best Luxury Small SUV for Teens
2015 Acura RDX
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.1
Average Used Car Price: $20,749
The 2015 Acura RDX has above average cargo space for a small SUV and excellent safety ratings. However, the 2015 RDX lacks active safety features beyond a backup camera.
Best Midsize SUV for Teens
2015 Honda Pilot
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.3
Average Used Car Price: $21,060
Earring the spot as the best midsize SUV for teens is the 2015 Honda Pilot. The Honda Pilot offers a smooth ride and above-average gas mileage for its class. The Pilot comes standard with a rearview camera, and front and rear parking sensors are available on the top trim. The redesigned 2016 Pilot adds more standard and available active safety features, but will cost more on the used market.
Best Luxury Midsize SUV for Teens
2015 Acura MDX
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 9.0
Average Used Car Price: $23,924
The 2015 Acura MDX is the luxury version of the Honda Pilot. The MDX comes standard with a rearview camera, while forward collision warning, blind spot monitoring, front and rear parking sensors, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, and adaptive cruise control are available. The 2015 MDX was awarded the Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS.
Best Minivan for Teens
2015 Honda Odyssey
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 8.7
Average Used Car Price: $21,889
While minivans may not be a popular vehicle choice for teens, they might come in handy for teens who want a lot of cargo space. The Honda Odyssey comes standard with a rearview camera, and forward collision warning, lane departure warning, and Honda’s LaneWatch blind spot camera system are available on upper trims.
Best Hatchback/Wagon for Teens
2019 Subaru Impreza
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 8.5
Average Used Car Price: $23,784
The Subaru Impreza offers standard all-wheel drive, which is rare for its class. Not only is it one of the best AWD cars on the market because of its quality and value, it’s also fuel efficient, with a combined mpg of 31. The reliable and safe Impreza comes standard with a rearview camera, and driver assistance features like adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, forward collision warning, and automatic emergency braking are available. The Impreza earned a IIHS Top Safety Pick+ designation for its 2019 model.
Best Luxury Wagon for Teens
2015 Volvo V60 Wagon
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 8.8
Average Used Car Price: $18,252
The 2015 Volvo V60 luxury wagon meets our safety and reliability criteria and has a used car price of $18,252. The V60 offers 24 cubic feet of cargo space behind its rear seat, making it a more spacious alternative to a standard sedan. The 2015 Volvo V60 earns the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ designation and comes standard with Volvo’s City Safety system, which can automatically apply the brakes in an emergency if the car is traveling at speeds of 31 mph or below. Available safety features include front and rear parking sensors, blind spot monitoring, adaptive headlights with automatic high beams, a driver drowsiness monitor, road sign detection, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control.
Best Hybrid Car for Teens
2017 Toyota Prius
iSeeCars Safety and Reliability Score: 8.8
Average Used Car Price: $24,967
The Toyota Prius hatchback offers plenty of passenger and cargo room, plus a suite of standard safety features including a rearview camera, forward collision warning, pedestrian detection, lane keep assist, and adaptive cruise control. Available safety features include blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert, adaptive headlights, traffic sign recognition, and automatic emergency braking. The 2017 Prius also earned the IIHS Top Safety Pick+ designation.
Best Luxury Hybrid Car for Teens
2015 Lexus ES 350h
iSeeCars Quality Score: 9.3
Average Used Car Price: $24,052
The 2015 Lexus ES 350h is a reliable and safe used car for under $25,000. The ES 300h has excellent fuel economy with an estimated 40 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway. The Lexus ES 350h comes standard with a rearview camera and available safety features include lane departure warning, park assist, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, and rear cross traffic alert.
Important Safety Features to Protect Teen Drivers
When choosing a car for your teen driver, it’s important to consider a vehicle’s driver assistance features. Newer vehicles are more likely to have these advanced driver assistance features, but there are other safety features that are commonly found on older model vehicles. Here are the most important safety features to consider:
- Electronic stability control (ESC): Electronic stability control automatically applies the brakes when a vehicle skids or slides on slippery surfaces or curvy roads. This safety technology is so important that it has been required in most vehicles since 2012.
- Backup/Rear cameras: Backup/Rear cameras have been mandatory in new vehicles as of May 2018. However, this technology is common in older vehicles.
- Forward-collision warning with automatic braking: This technology uses sensors to detect what’s in front of your car while monitoring your car’s speed. If a crash is imminent, it will give a warning. If you don’t stop on your own, the system will automatically apply the brakes.
- Blind spot threat detection. Blind spot detection uses sensors to alert drivers to vehicles that are not yet visible but are in adjacent lanes.
Bottom Line:
Having a teen driver can be worrisome, but the car buying experience doesn’t have to be. Whatever your vehicle preference, there is a high-quality used vehicle to suit your needs for under $25,000. Making a good choice for a teen’s first vehicle purchase can provide much-needed peace-of-mind.
More from iSeeCars.com:
Methodology:
iSeeCars analyzed over 1.7 million used cars sold between May and July 2022 to find cars with an average price under $25,000. It then combined this pricing information with reliability and safety scores from its Best Cars Rankings, along with the latest mpg values, to determine the best cars for teens. Cars were required to have a minimum mpg of 20 and a combined reliability and safety score of at least 8.5 out of 10 to be included.
About iSeeCars.com
iSeeCars.com is a car search engine that helps shoppers find the best car deals by providing key insights and valuable resources, like the iSeeCars free VIN check reports and Best Cars rankings. iSeeCars.com has saved users over $343 million so far by applying big data analytics powered by over 25 billion (and growing) data points and using proprietary algorithms to objectively analyze, score and rank millions of new cars and used cars.
This article, Safest and Most Reliable Cars for Teens Under $25,000, originally appeared on iSeeCars.com.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — How ironic is it that the “City of Brotherly Love” has topped the list of rudest cities? Even a city in the Volunteer State made the top three.
A survey conducted by the e-learning platform Preply asked more than 1,500 residents of the 30 largest metropolitan areas to rate the rudeness of the average resident in their city on a scale of 1 to 10.
Philadelphia was No. 1 on the list, scoring 6.43 on the rudeness scale. With its residents slow to embrace outsiders, locals tend to point to a “feeling of insularity” to explain their behavior, according to the survey.
“Many residents have learned to keep to themselves while growing up in a busy city,” the survey stated.
Memphis, Tennessee, scored 6.05, making it the second rudest city in the U.S.
The study showed that more than any other city, Memphis also ranked highest in common rude behaviors seen throughout the country.
“In Memphis, be prepared to have difficulty merging into traffic and brace yourself for city residents who are likely to be quite noisy in public,” said Preply.
Third in the lineup of rude cities was New York (6.0), where the most common rude behavior in the U.S. is most prominent: being absorbed by a phone in public. The city also ranked high for closed-off body language.
“When we consider a behavior rude, it’s likely because it’s either confrontational or inconsiderate toward others,” according to the survey. “However, in major metropolitan cities, where we interact with many more people on a daily basis, what appears to be confrontation or insensitivity may be a form of self-preservation.”
Here are the top five rudest cities in America:
- Philadelphia (6.43)
- Memphis, Tennessee (6.05)
- New York (6.00)
- Las Vegas (5.98)
- Boston (5.90)
In contrast, the survey found that the most polite cities appear to be in the South, Midwest and West.
Austin, Texas, with a score of 3.91, was the least rude city, with its “laid-back, friendly city atmosphere,” according to the survey. San Diego (4.17) and Fort Worth, Texas, (4.20) rounded out the top three.
“In general, the state of Texas has a reputation for politeness and friendliness, along with the rest of the South, underscoring the stereotype of Southern hospitality,” the survey stated.
Here are the top five most polite cities in America:
- Austin, Texas (3.91)
- San Diego (4.17)
- Fort Worth, Texas (4.20)
- Nashville, Tennessee (4.33)
- Indianapolis (4.47)
To view the full survey, click here.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The horror film “Barbarian” won the weekend by bringing in $10 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, as the late-summer doldrums at the box office continued.
Director Zach Cregger’s debut from Disney’s 20th Century Studios premiered at San Diego Comic-Con in July and opened Friday on 2,340 screens.
“Barbarian” tells the story of a young woman (Georgina Campbell) who finds her Airbnb-rented house weirdly occupied by a stranger (Bill Skarsgård) in a half-ruined section of Detroit. It goes on to subvert several horror conventions.
The hardly head-turning numbers were expected in a nearly always slow September, with the bigger movies of fall and the holiday season many weeks away. “Barbarian” nearly earned back its $10.5 million budget in its first weekend, and accounted for nearly a quarter of the entirety of theatrical earnings.
“In a weekend where the overall box office is quite low, the top number of $10 million is a really solid number for this marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “Horror movies are always an accountant’s dream, and this is why.”
Coming in a distant second, but playing on just 810 screens, was “Brahmāstra: Part One: Shiva,” an Indian, Hindi-language fantasy epic from Star Studios, another subsidiary of Disney.
The film written and directed by Ayan Mukerji, about a DJ named Shiva who discovers a connection with the element of fire and an ability to awaken a supernatural super-powerful weapon, earned $4.4 million in its first weekend in North America.
Long-running Hollywood fare, “Bullet Train” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” occupied the three and four spots.
“Bullet Train” has brought in $92.5 million in six weeks and “Top Gun: Maverick” has earned $705.7 million in 16 weeks. It now stands as the fifth highest-grossing domestic film of all time, just behind “Avatar” and just ahead of “Black Panther,” and is the biggest North American earner ever that is not part of a sci-fi or superhero franchise.
“This movie is putting down superhero numbers,” Dergarabedian said.
More quiet weeks likely lie ahead before a surge of expected big earners, including “Halloween Ends” and “Black Adam,” arrive in October.
Soon after that, the sequel “ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ” kicks off the holiday box office season and an even bigger round of expectations.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Barbarian,” $10 million.
2. “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva,” $ 4.4 million.
3. “Bullet Train,” $3.25 million.
4. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $3.2 million.
5. “DC League of Super-Pets,” $2.8 million.
6. “The Invitation,” $2.6 million.
7. “Lifemark,” $2.2 million.
8. “Beast,” $1.8 million.
9. “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” $1.65 million.
10. “Spider Man: No Way Home,” $1.3 million.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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LONDON (AP) — For many people around the world, the word corgi is forever linked to Queen Elizabeth II.
Princess Diana once called them a “moving carpet” always by her mother-in-law’s side. Stubby, fluffy little dogs with a high-pitched bark, corgis were the late queen’s constant companions since she was a child. She owned nearly 30 throughout her life, and they enjoyed a life of privilege fit for a royal pet.
Elizabeth’s death last week has raised public concerns over who will care for her beloved dogs. But Sky News reported Sunday, according to a palace spokesman, the corgis will go live with Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
“One of the intriguing things people are wondering about at the funeral is whether a corgi is going to be present,” said Robert Lacey, royal historian and author of “Majesty: Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor.” “The queen’s best friends were corgis, these short-legged, ill tempered beasts with a yap that doesn’t appeal to many people in Britain, but was absolutely crucial to the Queen.”
Elizabeth’s love for corgis began in 1933 when her father, King George VI, brought home a Pembroke Welsh corgi they named Dookie. Images of a young Elizabeth walking the dog outside their lavish London home would be the first among many to come over the decades.
When she was 18 she was given another and named it Susan, the first in a long line of corgis to come. Later there were dorgis — a dachshund and corgi crossbreed — owned by the queen. Eventually they came to accompany her in public appearances, and became part of her persona.
Throughout Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne, the corgis were by her side, accompanying her on official tours, reportedly sleeping in their own room at Buckingham Palace with daily sheet changes, and occasionally nipping the ankles of the odd visitor or royal family member.
Three of them even appeared alongside the queen as she climbed into James Bond’s waiting helicopter in the spoof video that opened the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
British author Penny Junor documented their feisty lives in a 2018 biography “All the Queen’s Corgis.”
She writes that Elizabeth walked and fed the dogs, chose their names and when they died, buried them with individual plaques. Care for the corgis had fallen largely on the queen’s trusted dressmaker and assistant Angela Kelly and her page Paul Whybrew.
The corgis were also present when the queen welcomed visitors at the palace, including distinguished statesmen and officials. When the conversation lulled, Elizabeth would often turn her attention to her dogs to fill the silence.
“She was also concerned about what would happen to her dogs when she is no longer around,” Junor wrote, noting that some royal family members did not share her fondness for the corgis.
After the death of her corgi Willow in 2018, it was reported that the queen would not be getting any more dogs.
But that changed during the illness of her late husband, Prince Philip, who died in 2021 at age 99. She turned once again to her beloved corgis for comfort. On what would have been Philip’s 100th birthday last year, the queen was reportedly given another dog.
In addition to her human family, Elizabeth is survived by two corgis, a dorgi, and a cocker spaniel.
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This story corrects what would have been Prince Philip’s 100th birthday to 2021, not this year.
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Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed.
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Follow all AP stories on the death of Queen Elizabeth II and Britain’s royal family at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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TORONTO (AP) — Three years after premiering “Knives Out” at the Toronto International Film Festival, Rian Johnson returned to the scene of the crime to debut his much-anticipated whodunit sequel, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”
When Johnson introduced the film to the eager Princess of Wales Theatre audience on Saturday night, he didn’t calmly stroll out on the stage with a polite wave to the crowd. He sprinted.
“Are you guys ready to have a good time?” yelled Johnson. “Are you ready for a fun whodunit?”
The roar of the crowd made it clear that, yes, they, too, could hardly wait. The “Knives Out” films almost perfectly bookend the last three pandemic years; the original “Knives Out” had premiered in the same theatre almost exactly three years prior, where Johnson’s modern spin on a retro genre more or less blew the roof off.
“It’s surreal,” said Johnson, the 48-year-old director of “The Last Jedi” and “Looper,” in an interview ahead of the premiere of “Glass Onion.” “It’s so strange thinking of the 30 years that have gone by in the three years since we played a movie at Toronto.”
If “Knives Out” bridged a long-ago movie world — a cocktail of eccentric murder suspects hounded by a colorful sleuth — with contemporary issues of class and ethnicity, “Glass Onion” had the task of collapsing pre-pandemic moviegoing with today’s still unfolding recovery. The film, set in early 2020, starts with characters in masks and Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc in lockdown — soaking in his bathtub, mostly — and hungry for a new case.
“Part of the real pleasure of it for me is having a whodunit that’s not a period piece but set in modern America and that fully engages with whatever’s on people’s minds at the time — hopefully in a way that’s still completely encased within an entertainment,” said Johnson. “I hope we pulled that off again.”
The boisterous audience response and glowing reviews out of Toronto suggested that Johnson, who also wrote the film, did just that. While the less said the better about the many-layered plot of “Glass Onion,” it revolves around tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton), who invites a small group of friends to his private island (much of the film was shot in Greece) for a murder mystery party. The cast includes a standout Janelle Monáe, Dave Bautista, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick and Leslie Odom Jr.
Johnson juggles themes of truth and stupidity with echoes of today’s American politics, and also takes a satirical approach to tech moguls. In the film, Bron considers his inner circle a gang of “disrupters.”
That will strike many viewers as either fitting or ironic considering that “Glass Onion,” unlike “Knives Out,” is a movie for Netflix, a self-styled Hollywood disrupter that over the past decade has radically altered the movie business. After “Knives Out” became one of 2019’s biggest hits, grossing $311 million worldwide against a $40 million budget, Netflix swooped in to pay $450 million for two sequels.
That’s put particular focus on the release of “Glass Onion,” a likely box-office success if it were released widely in theaters, at a time when the film industry is grappling with the equilibrium between streaming and theaters. While Netflix often gives its most prominent films several weeks in select theaters before streaming, the streamer and exhibitors discussed a wider release for “Glass Onion.” Currently, that’s not expected; Netflix will stream the film beginning Dec. 23 after a theatrical run beginning in November.
“This movie, above everything else, is designed to be a good time with a big crowd of folks in a theater,” said Johnson.
As far as the specific theatrical rollout, Johnson said it’s still being worked out. “To be decided,” he said.
“I want as many people to see the movie in theaters as possible,” said Johnson. “Having said that, I know a lot of people discovered ‘Knives Out’ with their families at home once it was streaming. But this movie is so designed to be seen with a crowd in a theater. It’s less like ‘Top Gun’ where it’s about the big experience of the screen and the sound, and it’s more about being surrounded by people who are going to be having as much fun as you.”
“My goal is to hopefully have it be so if you want to see it in a theater, you can,” added Johnson. “But we’re still TBA.”
Johnson, who emerged with the 2005 neo-noir “Brick,” with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, said he’s not so far removed from his independent roots that he isn’t happy with simply having the backing of a major distributor.
“As a form of self-defense, I have a serenity that if you make a good movie, you put it out there and people will find it,” said Johnson. “At the end of the day, you just have to reach a place of Zen because everything is changing so quickly.”
Johnson has again picked a movie title that relates not just to the storyline of his movie but that corresponds with a notable rock song. (Radiohead has their own “Knives Out.”)
“I honestly just searched through my music library for songs having to do with glass,” said Johnson, chuckling. “With apologies to Blonde, this was my favorite glass-centric song. The title has an oddness to it that reminds me of ’70s paperbacks or even some Agatha Christie titles. There’s a pleasant oddball-ness to calling a big movie ‘Glass Onion.’”
In a parallel universe, Johnson might have spent the last seven years working on “Star Wars.” Around the release of “The Last Jedi” — which remains a groundbreaking if contentious entry in the “Star Wars” canon — Johnson was tapped to develop a trilogy. Though there has yet to be any publicly announced plans for that, Johnson said that door hasn’t necessarily closed.
But he’s also having an awful lot of fun making “Knives Out” mysteries. There will be at least one more. At the premiere, Craig said: “I’d work with this man for the rest of my life.”
“I had the best experience of my life making ‘The Last Jedi.’ I don’t know if I’ll ever top it professionally. And I really hope that I get to do it again. I hope to come back and do more ‘Star Wars’ at some point,” said Johnson. “But it’s pretty fun having something that’s entirely our sandbox.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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HELSINKI (AP) — Scaled-down celebrations took place Sunday in Denmark marking 50 years on the throne by Queen Margrethe, whose reign is now Europe’s longest following the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Dampened celebrations were ordered Friday by the 82-year-old Margrethe — now also the only female monarch in the world — in respect for Britain’s late queen, who died Thursday at 96.
Margrethe asked her court to adjust Saturday’s and Sunday’s anniversary program at a short notice, cancelling — among other things — her appearance on the Amalienborg Palace balcony to greet throngs of well-wishers as well as a ride through the Danish capital of Copenhagen in a horse-drawn carriage.
Sunday’s events included a church service and a lunch hosted by Margrethe on board the Danish royal ship Dannebrog for the royal couples and presidents from the fellow Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
A music and theater gala honoring the Danish monarch took place on Saturday evening and a gala dinner at Christiansborg Palace — the seat of the Danish Parliament — was taking place late Sunday.
Margrethe was proclaimed queen on Jan. 15, 1972, a day after her father King Frederik IX, died following a short illness.
The 50th anniversary jubilee for the Danish queen was initially scheduled for January but most events were canceled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Follow AP coverage of Queen Elizabeth II at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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MADRID (AP) — Javier Marías, Spain’s most prestigious novelist of the past half century, has died, his publisher said Sunday. He was 70.
Spanish news agency EFE reported that Marías passed away in a hospital after not recovering from a lung infection.
Marías was the author of 15 novels, translations and collections of his weekly newspaper columns. His best known novels include “Corazón tan blanco” (“Heart So White”), “Todas las almas” (“All Souls), and “Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí” (“Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me”). Many of his works have been translated into English and other languages.
He was considered for years to be the leading Spanish candidate to win the Nobel Prize for Literature since Camilo José Cela was awarded the honor in 1989.
“(This is) a sad day for Spanish literature,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted. “Javier Marías, one of the greatest writers of our age, has left us. His immense and talented body of work will be fundamental for Spanish literature. My condolences for his family and friends in these difficult moments.”
Marías was elected to Spain’s Royal Academy, the nation’s highest literary and linguistic authority, in 2006. Winner of several international fiction prizes, he was professor of Spanish literature and translation at Oxford and at Wellesley College in Massachusetts in the 1980s.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Succession” and “Ted Lasso” topped the Emmy Awards on Monday, in a ceremony that touted the influence of TV and extended honors to global sensation “Squid Game” and winners who delivered messages of empowerment.
The evening’s uplifting tone, as voiced especially by Zendaya, Lizzo and Sheryl Lee Ralph, was in contrast to the darkness that pervaded the storytelling of best drama series winner “Succession” and even comedy series victor “Ted Lasso.”
“Thanks for making such a safe space to make this very difficult show,” said Zendaya, claiming her second best drama actress award for “Euphoria,” about a group of teens’ tough coming-of-age.
“My greatest wish for “Euphoria’ was that it could help heal people. Thank you for everyone who has shared your story with me. I carry them with me, and I carry them with” Rue, her character, Zendaya said.
“Succession,” about a media empire run by a grasping and cutthroat family, split drama series honors with “Squid Game,” the bold South Korean-set drama about the idle rich turning the poor into entertainment fodder.
Lee Jung-jae of “Squid Game,” who played the show’s moral center, became the first Asian to win the Emmy for best drama series actor.
“Thank you for making realistic problems we all face come to life so creatively on the screen,” Lee said to “Squid Game” creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, who earned the Emmy for best drama series directing. In Korean, Lee thanked the audience in his native country for watching.
Backstage, Hwang said this was “a major moment for us,” and Lee said he expected the awards to open doors for other Asian actors.
Jason Sudeikis and Jean Smart collected back-to-back acting trophies, but several new Emmy winners were minted, with Lizzo and Quinta Brunson and Sheryl Lee Ralph of “Abbott Elementary” collecting trophies.
Brunson, who created and stars in the freshman series, won the Emmy for comedy series writing. ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” also nominated for best comedy, is a rare bright spot for network broadcasting in the age of streaming and cable dominance.
Sudeikis won his second consecutive trophy for playing the unlikely U.S. coach of a British soccer team in the comedy “Ted Lasso,” with Smart matching that haul for her role as a veteran comedian in “Hacks.”
Sudeikis gave a rare awards show shoutout to TV consumers: “Thanks to the people who watch this show and dig it as much as we dig making it.”
There was a ripple of reaction in the theater when “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong mentioned Britain’s new king, Charles III, in accepting the show’s trophy, the cast standing alongside him.
“Big week for successions, new king in the U.K., this for us. Evidently a little bit more voting involved in our winning than Prince Charles,” Armstrong said. “I’m not saying we’re more legitimate in our position than he is. We’ll leave that up to other people.”
Ralph stopped the Emmy Awards show by accepting the best supporting actress comedy award for “Abbott Elementary” with a brief but rousing song of affirmation.
“I am an endangered species, but I sing no victim song. I am a woman, I am an artist and I know where my voice belongs,” she belted out. She then encouraged anyone doubting their dream “I am here to tell you this is what believing looks like.”
The audience, including Lizzo and many of television’s biggest stars, leapt to their feet to cheer on Ralph.
When Lizzo herself accepted the award for best-competition series trophy for “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” she offered another emotional pep talk.
“When I was a little girl, all I wanted to see was me in the media. Someone fat like me, Black like me, beautiful like me,” the music artist said.
There were also cheers for presenter Selma Blair, who has discussed her multiple sclerosis diagnosis publicly and who used a cane on stage.
“Ted Lasso” co-star Brett Goldstein, won comedy supporting actors, while Matthew Macfadyen of “Succession” and Julia Garner of “Ozark” earned drama series supporting actor honors.
“It’s such a a pleasure and privilege for me to play this bonkers gift of a role in this wonderful show,” Macfadyen said in accepting the trophy for his role as a scheming member of a media empire family.
Garner was among the winners who took advantage of covering all bases by thanking her husband and others in an on-screen message.
“The White Lotus” collected several honors, including best limited or anthology series.
The achievements of “Squid Game,” “Abbott Elementary” and a few other shows didn’t change the relative lack of diversity in this year’s nominations, which included significantly fewer people of color than in 2021.
Host Kenan Thompson kicked off the Emmys with a tribute to TV, dismissing Tik-Tok as “tiny vertical television,” and a musical number saluting series’ theme songs from “Friends” to “The Brady Bunch” to “Game of Thrones.”
Once the music stopped, Thompson provided a mic drop moment — announcing Oprah Winfrey as the first presenter. Winfrey strutted onto the stage holding an Emmy statuette, declaring the night “a party!” The night’s first award went to Michael Keaton for his role in “Dopesick.” Winfrey and Keaton hugged before she handed him his trophy.
“It means something,” Keaton said of the award for playing a caring doctor ensnared with his patients by addiction. He went on to recall the “magic” of being introduced to TV when his dad won a set at a raffle and thanked his parents for not mocking his youthful attempts at acting.
Amanda Seyfried earned the limited-series lead actress trophy for “The Dropout,” in which she played ill-fated Silicon Valley whiz kid Elizabeth Holmes. She thanked a list of family and colleagues and even her dog, Finn.
Murray Bartlett won the best supporting actor award for “The White Lotus,” a tragicomedy set in a Hawaii resort. Jennifer Coolidge, who won best supporting actress honors for the show, delighted the audience by shimmying to the music intended to cut off her acceptance speech.
The award for best variety talk show went to “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” with stand-up special “Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel” winning for best writing for a comedy special.
“Good night, everybody. I’ma go home. I’m not like a sore winner, but I’m going to go home because I can’t top this right now,” an overcome Carmichael told the audience.
Glamour was back with some metallic sparkle and lots of bright color as an otherworldly Britt Lower, Old Hollywood Elle Fanning and their fellow stars posed for photographers.
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AP Writers Beth Harris and Jonathan Landrum Jr. contributed to this report.
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For more on this year’s Emmy Awards, visit: www.apnews.com/EmmyAwards
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TORONTO (AP) — Steven Spielberg premiered his much-anticipated “The Fabelmans” to thunderous applause at the Toronto International Film Festival, debuting his most autobiographical film and one the 75-year-old filmmaker said he’s been building toward his whole life.
“The Fabelmans,” which Spielberg wrote with Tony Kushner, draws extensively from the director’s own childhood — from his parents, played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano in the film, and from his early formation as a filmmaker. The film opens with a timid young boy outside a cinema going to see his first movie (“The Greatest Show on Earth”). His mother encourages him: “Movies are dreams, doll.”
“It’s something obviously I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Spielberg said on stage after the screening late Saturday. “I didn’t really know when I was going to get around to this. It is not because I decided to retire and this is my swan song. Don’t believe any of that.”
Spielberg said he first talked about what would become “The Fabelmans” with Kushner during the making of “Lincoln.” The playwright, Spielberg said, played the role of therapist as Spielberg unloaded his memories. But it wasn’t until the pandemic that the director resolved to tell, for the first time, his own story.
“As things got worse and worse, I felt if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack?” said Spielberg.
Spielberg, whose three sisters were in the audience, later added: “This film is for me a way of bringing my mom and dad back. And it also brought my sisters — Annie and Sue and Nancy — closer to me than I ever thought possible. And that was worth making the film for.”
Universal Pictures will release “The Fabelmans” on Nov. 11 in New York and Los Angeles before expanding it nationwide Nov. 23. Its world premiere at Toronto — which happened to immediately follow Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” at the Princess of Wales Theatre — was a major event, and an unusual one. It was Spielberg’s first film at TIFF, and he said while introducing the film that it was his first time ever in a film festival’s official lineup.
The two-and-a-half hour film was immediately received as a grand and personal opus for Spielberg, all but certain to play a staring role at the Academy Awards. Aside from Williams, who is pregnant with her third child, and Dano, the cast includes Seth Rogen as a close family friend, a brief standout performance from Judd Hirsch, Jeannie Berlin and newcomer Gabriel LaBelle who plays Sammy Fabelman, the fictionalized young Spielberg.
“Steven was generous about letting us into his life,” said Dano, who said he had access to Spielberg’s old photographs, home movies and lengthy conversations over Zoom with the director. “The goal was to capture a life lived.”
While there are vividly drawn moments of movies transporting Sammy, “Fabelmans” may surprise some for how complexly it weaves filmmaking and family life. Cinema in Spielberg’s film is both a transformative power and something dangerous; a way to express genuine emotion and to hide from it. Kushner, a frequently collaborator with Spielberg, said the film demonstrates how “film is an unreliable friend.”
“It will take you to into a place of safety and right through safety is something unexpected and scary,” said Kushner. “It happens over and over again in the movie.”
“The Fabelmans” is populated by early experiments with 8-millimeter cameras, little movies made with family members and increasingly ambitious short films. All mirror Spielberg’s own first forays into filmmaking, though there are some differences.
“I made all the behind-the-scenes stuff in this movie much better than the actual films I made when I was Sammy’s age,” Spielberg said with a smile. “It was a great do-over.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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| 2022-09-21T09:48:17Z
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In the spring of 2012, portrait artist Ralph Heimans stood on the Cosmati pavement of Westminster Abbey and awaited the subject of his latest commission, Queen Elizabeth II. When she approached, he says, it was an extraordinary moment.
“She was wearing her Robe of State, with four footmen holding it, and as she came down the long corridor it was a very theatrical kind of entrance,” Heimans said soon after he had learned that the queen had died Thursday at age 96.
After spending an hour the queen, “discussing niceties,” he came away with “a sense of how thoughtful she was, almost a sense of shyness, an introspective quality.” In his oil painting, which hangs in Westminster, he drew her as a solitary, even brooding figure, her eyes cast down, with the vastness of Westminster behind her like so much weight from the past — and present.
“I wanted to show her in this private moment, with a certain gravity about her,” he says.
Over the past 70 years, authors, filmmakers, playwrights, songwriters and painters have responded to the queen as both symbol and human being, whether commenting on the heights of her position or attempting to tease out the inner life of a woman who spoke infrequently in public and avoided personal revelations. The dual qualities, majesty and mystery, found her imagined in settings ranging from the sobriety of royal art to the rage of punk music to the varied characterizations of film and television.
“I think because she was a constant presence who didn’t say very much, it allowed people to project on her in different ways,” says Elizabeth Holmes, whose “HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style” was published in 2020. “Also, you can very easily make people look like the Queen. You can take that as a starting point and run.”
On film, the queen has been fictionalized in everything from Helen Mirren’s Oscar-winning portrayal in “The Queen” to the farcical “Naked Gun” movies and the grim “Spencer,” with Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana and Stella Gonet as Elizabeth. But she has been dramatized most fully in the Emmy-winning Netflix series “The Crown,” which follows her life from the beginning of her reign to recent times — and whose production was suspended Friday after her death.
When played by Claire Foy as a young and glamorous monarch, she is seen as finding her way in her new life, trying to maintain a happy relationship with her husband, Prince Philip. while approaching her royal duties with the sobriety of someone years older. Olivia Colman takes over as Elizabeth ages and becomes more mature and prickly, and flawed, failing initially to travel to the scene of a devastating mining tragedy in Wales and comfort the townspeople, and proving unsympathetic to Diana’s troubles with her son Prince Charles.
“I emote. The queen is not meant to,” Colman told Vanity Fair in 2018. “She’s got to be a rock for everyone, and has been trained not to (emote).”
The queen herself didn’t comment on works about her or always seem aware of cultural trends: Greeting Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page at a 2005 palace reception, she seemed unsure of who he was and what instrument he played. But she sensed her place in world and had enough savvy to appear with Daniel Craig, in character as James Bond, for a 2012 Olympics video, and enough good humor to allow herself to be pictured as parachuting from a helicopter with him (the former was really her, the latter a stunt double).
Fiction writers enjoyed setting the queen off on unusual adventures. In Emma Tennant’s “The Autobiography of the Queen,” the monarch flees to St. Lucia in the Caribbean. S.J. Bennett worked from the premise “What if the queen solved crimes?” in writing the mystery novels “The Windsor Knot” and “A Three Dog Problem.”
“She had such a unique perspective on the world. She was always looking out when everyone else was looking at her, so she must see a lot of things the rest of us don’t see,” Bennett, the daughter of a military veteran who had met the Queen, told The Associated Press.
“It was her character that fascinated me, not her position as a symbol,” she added. “She was intelligent, frequently underestimated because she wasn’t traditionally educated, and endlessly curious about people. In the books I have her eagerly looking out of the windows of Buckingham Palace while being painted for a portrait, to see what was going on outside, because that’s what she really did. She had a very wry sense of humor and a huge instinct for fun, but equally an almost supernatural instinct for diplomacy, and a world-class sense of duty.”
Musicians have paid tribute, condemned her and invoked her name for a quick laugh.
For punk and New Wave artists, she was a monument to be torn down. The Smiths’ “The Queen Is Dead” mocks the royal family and the succession to power: “I say, Charles, don’t you ever crave/To appear on the front of the Daily Mail/Dressed in your Mother’s bridal veil?” The Sex Pistols helped define the punk movement in 1976 with ”God Save the Queen,” in which Johnny Rotten (now Lydon) declares “No future” as he snarls out some of the most scathing, nihilistic lyrics ever to top the British charts:
God save the queen
The fascist regime
They made you a moron
A potential H bomb
God save the queen
She’s not a human being …
Songwriters otherwise responded with affection. Duke Ellington met her in the late 1950s and found her “so inspiring” he soon collaborated with Billy Strayhorn on the pensive “The Queen’s Suite,” for which he arranged a single gold pressing just for her. In the late 1960s, Paul McCartney dashed off the acoustic, 23-second “Her Majesty,” with its cheeky refrain, “Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl/But she doesn’t have a lot to say,” and the Beatles tacked it onto the end of “Abbey Road.”
As he explained in “Paul McCartney: The Lyrics,” published in 2021, he wrote the song in part because the queen really didn’t offer many public statements, beyond her annual Christmas address and the opening of Parliament. McCartney would meet the queen numerous times, as a Beatle and a solo performer, and even played the song for her. But, he reaffirmed in his book: “She didn’t have a lot to say.”
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AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to this report.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Tourists and New Yorkers alike crowded around the Rockefeller Center roller skating rink on Saturday trying to catch a glimpse of the vibrant statement knits on display at Victor Glemaud’s latest New York Fashion Week show.
For the Haitian American designer, who grew up in New York, the show held a sentimental meaning but served also as a marker in his career as his brand continues to grow. He launched his label in 2006 and has since collaborated on a collection with Target and forayed into home goods with Schumacher.
Glemaud’s show opened with roller skaters wearing his signature knits, bursting onto Flipper’s Roller Boogie Palace rink, laughing and dancing as guests looked on. It continued with models displaying sheer looks, eye-catching cutouts, a few capes and a new collection of eyewear.
Glemaud drew inspiration for his contemporary sportswear looks from a recent trip to Harbour Island in the Bahamas. Glemaud said he wanted his collection to feel effortless, joyful and “something you want to wear in the summer.” Models strutted around the rink in skin-baring crocheted cover-ups looking like they’d just come from an ocean resort.
Glemaud’s brand was one of a record-breaking 28 Black-owned brands on display this New York Fashion Week.
“We have strived, and we love this industry,” Glemaud said of his fellow Black designers. “And, you know, our businesses for the majority are independently owned and self-financed. Fashion week means a lot. So, the more the merrier.”
During the pandemic, the designer founded “IN THE BLK,” a nonprofit collective to support Black creators in the fashion industry.
“It’s about bringing collective creative entrepreneurs together, not just fashion designers,” he said.
Glemaud’s show brought out a handful of TikTok celebrities, among them fashion influencer Brittany Xavier.
“I love that his collection is so inspired by summer and being together,” she said. “The kind of energy that we’ve been missing for the past two years.”
While Glemaud relied on a minimalist color palette and one animal print, that didn’t stop the youthfulness of his designs from shining through with his playful cut-outs. They elevated his dresses with a subtle sensuality and gave a stylish update to swimsuits.
The capes emblazoned with the letter “V” and form-fitting leopard prints would have been considered showstoppers of the night, had it not been for one moment that stood out from the rest: As the show wrapped, Glemaud’s mother, Julie, began to tear up with pride.
“The vibration, the love, the joy, she said. “It is always fun with Victor.”
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Fans of Lea Michele hoping to finally see her singing and dancing in “Funny Girl” on Broadway will have to be patient.
The “Glee” actor has tested positive for COVID-19 — missing Saturday’s matinee and evening performance — and must now quarantine, slated to return to the show on Tuesday, Sept. 20. She only started on Tuesday.
The bittersweet comedy tells the tale of Fanny Brice, a Jewish girl from New York in the 1920s who went from burlesque to Broadway stages despite criticism that she wasn’t conventionally beautiful.
“Funny Girl” is a musical that celebrates the oddballs, the kooky and the misfits, with Jule Styne-penned gems of songs like “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” “I’m the Greatest Star” and “People.” Barbra Streisand played her on stage and on film.
Julie Benko, who had been slated to play Fanny on Thursdays in the revival, will be performing the role now until Michele is back. Michele took over from Beanie Feldstein and said the role was a lifetime goal.
“We are so thankful to the entire ‘Funny Girl’ company, including our standbys, understudies, swings and everyone working on the production for their remarkable commitment to keeping the show going and ensuring audiences have a great experience at every performance,” the show said in a statement.
Starting in July, vaccine requirements for Broadway audience members were lifted and theatergoers had the option to wear a mask in all 41 of New York’s Broadway theaters.
One production, “The Kite Runner,” pushed back, asking audiences at Wednesday matinees and Friday night to mask up.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has lifted her state’s mandatory mask rules in schools and the subway. Face coverings are merely encouraged on buses and trains.
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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| 2022-09-21T09:48:40Z
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(NEXSTAR) — The government isn’t the only one trying to combat inflation. As part of an “inflation relief deal,” pizza giant Dominos is giving customers 20% off through October 16. But there are some specifications.
Dominos said Tuesday its stores nationwide will cut 20% off all menu-priced items that are ordered online — the deal applies to both carryout and delivery orders.
“It’s no surprise that prices are up on nearly everything, from milk to eggs, gas, and even delivery services,” said Joe Jordan, Domino’s president of U.S. and global services. “Nobody has been spared from inflation, including restaurants. We want to give customers a break, as they’ve been emptying their pockets all summer long but shouldn’t have to for delicious pizza.”
Dominos is also offering several other promotions, though these might not be applicable to be combined with the 20% deal.
You can find more information on Domino’s 20% off deal on Domino’s website and in the app.
If you prefer pizza elsewhere, Pizza Hut is currently offering 2 Pizzas for $6.99, among other deals. Orders must be carryout and are good for two medium pizzas with single toppings. Meanwhile, the Pizza! Pizza! place, Little Caesars, is now offering NFL Meal Deals in anticipation of football season.
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| 2022-09-21T09:48:47Z
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NEW YORK (AP) — Inflation isn’t only costing small businesses money. It’s costing them customers as well.
At the Bushwick Grind Cafe in Brooklyn, New York, Kymme Williams-Davis has raised prices and switched to different types of goods to keep up with the rising costs of milk, coffee, paper goods, and plastic, as well as shortages of items such as paper cups and plastic lids. She hasn’t experienced anything like this since opening in 2015.
Williams-Davis says she has lost nearly half of her regular customers. Some have traded down and are buying coffee for $1 at the McDonald’s or bodega on either side of the café instead of paying the $3 she charges.
“If (customers) can get it for a dollar for not that notable of a difference, they’re going next door.”
One customer who had been coming in for years stopped in to tell Williams-Davis he bought himself a coffeemaker.
“He said I’m going to start making coffee at home, I need to budget, so I won’t be coming in here every day,” she said. “I feel like I’ve been on a goodbye campaign.”
Inflation has been rising at nearly the fastest pace in 40 years, driven by strong consumer spending and higher costs for food, rent, medical care, and other necessities.
On Tuesday, the government is expected to report that price increases slowed in August compared with a year ago, largely because of a steady drop in the cost of gas. Prices for other items, particularly food, are likely to keep rising quickly. Overall, economists forecast consumer prices rose 8.1% in August, compared with a year ago, down from 8.5% in July, according to data provider FactSet.
For much of the pandemic, small business customers were largely tolerant of price increases and kept on spending. But now owners say they’re seeing some pushback.
Ninety-seven percent of small business owners say inflationary pressure is the same or worse than it was three months ago, according to a survey of more than 1,500 small businesses by Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Voices. Sixty-five percent have raised prices to offset higher costs. And 38% say they’ve seen a decline in customer demand due to price increases.
Nicole Miskelley, who manages PMR, an auto and diesel repair shop in Marion, Illinois, said she has seen customers delay repairs that aren’t urgent such as scheduled maintenance or getting new tires.
At the beginning of the year, Miskelley’s labor costs rose 12%, and the cost of towing cars to the shop went up due to higher gas prices. Parts are more expensive too. Last year, an air conditioner processor would cost her $200, but this year she can’t find one for under $400. So, she’s had to raise her average price for a repair by 30% to 40%.
Her customers have noticed.
“Typically, I am able to joke about how drastically different things are now, and most agree with me,” she said. “On occasion, I deal with push back,” including the rare bout of yelling or cursing by a customer.
“Among a lot of my older customers, who are on restricted income like Social Security, they say they have to cut back,” she said. “They say, ‘I know I need these tires, but I need to make a couple more rounds (of Social Security) to save up.’”
She says she’s a little worried but hopes people can adjust to inflation.
“Right now, it kind of sucks because costs increased faster than I could catch up with. In time, I hope people budget better, and their incomes change to reflect the economy.”
The pullback is more dramatic among consumers with less discretionary income. Walmart says its customers, who tend to have lower incomes, are spending more on food and less on other items. Small business owners are seeing much of the same.
Kim Shanahan operates the online store Gifts Fulfilled in Berlin, Maryland, which sells gift baskets and care packages and employs people with disabilities.
“Last year has been challenging to say the least,” she said. “All prices across the board have gone up.” Everything from cardboard, containers, and the food that she includes in the baskets have become more expensive.
She implemented a 5% increase to cover some costs. After she raised the price of her most popular get-well gift basket called “One Tough Cookie” from $27.50 to $28.95, sales went down, she said.
Less expensive baskets, such as those with gifts and candy that sell for $25 and under, have been the most affected, with unit sales down about 50% in 2022 compared with last year. “The whole segment of the market is gone for us,” she said.
“We are a ‘want to-’ not ‘have to-’ have item in our primary categories,” Shanahan said. “What we sort of see is people maybe buying a $50 gift dropping down to $35. And the whole lower tier aren’t even buying at all, they don’t have the discretionary funds.”
Schuyler Northstrom of Uinta Mattress, a mattress maker in Salt Lake City, Utah, says he’s raised his prices by 15% since 2020. A mattress that used to sell for $289 wholesale is now $330.
The increase doesn’t fully cover Uinta’s higher costs. Raw materials such as springs and foam have increased by 40%. But Northstrom fears that raising prices any higher could cause his customers to drop him.
“The pushback from retailers is pretty strong there,” he said. His retail partners include John Paras mattress stores and 2Brothers Mattress, both in Utah. “Sometimes we’re displaced by some of the larger guys with a lower cost product because of their volume.”
To adapt, Northstrom is redesigning the mattress to cut down on costs and taking less profit, which isn’t sustainable in the long term, he said. He’s also focusing more on the higher end, mattresses that cost up to $1,200, which haven’t been hit as hard.
“We’re feeling it, we’re not a necessary purchase. People buy food and gas,” he said.
___
This story has been edited to correct the name of the survey group to Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Voices, not Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses.
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AP Business Writer Christopher Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.
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| 2022-09-21T09:48:54Z
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BEIJING (AP) — Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher on Tuesday ahead of data traders hope will show surging U.S. inflation eased in August, reducing pressure for more interest rate hikes.
Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney advanced. Oil prices edged lower.
Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index gained 1.1% on Monday for its fourth daily rise.
Investors were waiting for U.S. government data they hope would say inflation peaked at a four-decade high of 9.1% in June and has fallen further after declining to 8.5% in July.
Such a decline might help the Federal Reserve avoid having to raise interest rates further to a level that might tip the U.S. economy into recession.
The report “will likely show pricing pressure relief but will not change the Fed from maintaining an aggressive stance,” Edward Moya of Oanda said in a report.
The Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.4% to 23,274.57 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.2% to 28,589.11. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.7% to 19,489.43.
The Kospi in Seoul soared 2.6% to 2,445.99 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 rose 0.6% to 7,002.00.
New Zealand declined while Southeast Asian markets gained.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose to 4,110.41. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.7% to 32,381.34. The Nasdaq composite rallied 1.3% to 12,266.41.
On Wednesday, the U.S. government is due to report August inflation at the wholesale level.
Fed officials have affirmed support for substantial rate hikes and to keep borrowing costs elevated for long enough to make sure inflation is extinguished.
Investors hope receding inflation pressures might prompt the Fed to back off. Similar hopes earlier were dashed when chair Jerome Powell said in August that rates would stay high.
Surveys show traders expect the Fed this month to raise rates for the fifth time this year and by 0.75 percentage points, three times its usual margin. Then, traders expect the U.S. central bank to hold rates steady through the first half of 2023.
In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude lost 7 cents to $87.71 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 99 cents to $87.78 on Monday. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, shed 12 cents to $93.88 per barrel in London. It gained $1.16 the previous session to $94.
The dollar eased to 142.45 yen from Monday’s 142.73 yen. The euro rose to $1.0130 from $1.0117.
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| 2022-09-21T09:49:02Z
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Europe’s largest nuclear plant has been reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid, allowing engineers to shut down its last operational reactor in an attempt to avoid a radiation disaster as fighting rages in the area.
The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant lost its outside source of power a week ago after all its power lines were disconnected because of shelling. It was operating in “island mode” for several days, generating electricity for crucial cooling systems from its only remaining operational reactor.
That’s considered an unstable way of operating a nuclear plant, which could lead to damage to key equipment including turbines and pumps.
Nuclear operator Energoatom said one of the power lines was restored “to its operational capacity” late Saturday, making it possible to run the plant’s safety and other systems on electricity from the power system of Ukraine.
“Therefore, a decision was made to shut down power unit No. 6 and transfer it to the safest state – cold shutdown,” the company said Sunday in a statement.
Energoatom said the risk remains high that outside power is cut again, in which case the plant would have to fire up emergency diesel generators to keep the reactors cool and prevent a nuclear meltdown. The company’s chief told The Associated Press on Thursday that the plant only has diesel fuel for 10 days.
The plant, one of the 10 biggest atomic power stations in the world, has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war, which marked its 200th day on Sunday. Ukraine and Russia have blamed each other for shelling around the plant that has damaged the power lines connecting it to the grid.
Energoatom renewed its appeal for Russian forces to leave the Zaporizhzhia plant and allow for the creation of a “demilitarized zone” around it.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog that has two experts at the plant, confirmed that external power has been restored there.
However, IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said he remains “gravely concerned about the situation at the plant, which remains in danger as long as any shelling continues.”
He added that “consultations have begun on the urgent need to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone” at the plant.
The IAEA said it would take 30 hours to bring the sixth reactor to a “cold shutdown state,” but it will still require electricity for its safety systems after that. The agency said work is under way to restore other power lines at the plant, which remains occupied by Russian forces but run by Ukrainian engineers.
Also on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops and weapons from the plant and ensure its safety and security in line with IAEA recommendations.
Macron reminded Putin in a phone conversation that the “Russian occupation of the nuclear plant was the cause for concern over its integrity,” according to a statement from the French presidency.
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Jon Gambrell and Hanna Ahrirova contributed.
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Follow AP coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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| 2022-09-21T09:49:32Z
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STOCKHOLM (AP) — Near final results in Sweden’s election Sunday show that a bloc of right-wing parties was expected to defeat a left-wing bloc headed by Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. The conservative group includes a populist anti-immigration party that made its best ever showing.
However, the result was so close that the election authority said it would not be known before Wednesday when some uncounted votes, including those cast abroad, have been tallied.
According to the early count, Andersson’s ruling left-wing Social Democrats won 30.5% of the vote, more than any other party. However a bloc of four left-wing parties appeared to fall short as a whole of winning a majority of votes in the 349-seat parliament, or Riksdag.
Exit polls had initially predicted a narrow victory for Andersson’s camp but as the evening wore on, and the vote count supplanted the exit poll, the results tipped in favor of the conservatives.
Early Monday, the conservatives appeared to have 176 seats to 173 for the center-left.
In a speech to her supporters, Andersson said that while the results were unclear, it was obvious that the social democratic movement, which is based on ideals of creating an equal society and a strong welfare state, remains strong in Sweden.
The biggest winner of the evening was the populist anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats, which had a strong showing of nearly 21%, its best result ever. The party gained on promises to crack down on shootings and other gang violence that have shaken a sense of security for many in Sweden.
The party has its roots in the white nationalist movement but years ago began expelling extremists. Despite its rebranding, voters long viewed it as unacceptable and other parties shunned it. But that has been changing, and its result in this election show just how far it come in gaining acceptance.
“We are now the second biggest party in Sweden and it looks it’s going to stay that way,” party leader Jimmie Akesson told his supporters.
“We know now that if there’s going to be a shift in power, we will be having a central role in that,” he said. “Our ambition is to be in the government.”
The conservative bloc was led during the campaign by the center-right Moderates, which won 19%. It was previously the country’s second largest party.
Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson told his supports that he stands ready to try to create a stable and effective government.
Regardless of the election outcome, Sweden is likely to face a lengthy process to form a government, as it did after the 2018 election.
Andersson, a 55-year-old economist, became Sweden’s first female prime minister less than a year ago and led Sweden’s historic bid to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
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Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Finland, and James Brooks in Stockholm contributed reporting.
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This version corrects the percentage that the Sweden Democrats won in 2018. It was 17.5% of the vote. They won 13% in 2014.
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| 2022-09-21T09:49:40Z
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As the war in Ukraine marked 200 days on Sunday, the country has reclaimed broad swaths of the south and east in a long-anticipated counteroffensive that has dealt a heavy blow to Russia.
The counterattack began in the final days of August and at first focused on the southern region of Kherson, which was swept by Russian forces in the opening days of the invasion. But just as Moscow redirected attention and troops there, Ukraine launched another, highly effective offensive in the northeast, near Kharkiv.
Facing the prospect of a large group of its forces becoming surrounded, Moscow pulled back its troops from Kharkiv in a dramatic shift in the state of play that posed the biggest challenge to the Kremlin since it launched the invasion Feb. 24.
“The Ukrainian army has taken advantage of the relocation of the bulk of the Russian forces to the south and is trying to direct the course of the war, excelling in maneuver and showing great ingenuity,” said Mykola Sunhurovskyi, a military expert with the Razumkov Centre, a Kyiv-based think tank. Ukraine’s quick gains, he added, are “important both for seizing initiative and raising troops’ spirit.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the military in a video address Saturday night, saying it has reclaimed about 2,000 square kilometers (over 770 square miles) of territory so far this month. He also taunted Moscow over its withdrawal, saying the Russian army was “demonstrating the best it can do — showing its back” and “they made a good choice to run.”
The Russian military debacle has provoked outrage among Russian military bloggers and patriotic commentators, who chastised the Kremlin for failing to mobilize more forces and take stronger action against Ukraine. Even Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed leader of the Russian region of Chechnya, publicly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for what he called “mistakes” that made the Ukrainian blitz possible.
Both sides have suffered heavy losses in Europe’s largest conflict since World War II. Ukraine’s military chief said last month that nearly 9,000 of its soldiers have been killed in action. And while Moscow hasn’t reported its own losses since March, Western estimates put the toll as high as 25,000 dead, with the wounded, captured and deserters bringing the overall Russian losses to more than 80,000.
Ukraine has sought to mobilize the population to reach an active military of 1 million people, while Russia, in contrast, has continued to rely on a limited contingent of volunteers for fear that a mass mobilization could fuel discontent and upset internal stability.
As the war slogs on, a growing flow of Western weapons over the summer is playing a key role in the counteroffensive, helping Ukraine significantly boost its precision strike capability.
Since the counteroffensive began, Ukraine said, its forces have reclaimed more than 30 settlements in the Kharkiv region.
In the Kherson region, troops sought to drive Russian forces from their foothold on the west bank of the Dnieper River, a potential vantage point for a push deeper into Ukraine by Moscow.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces had also left several settlements in the region but did not identify the towns.
The city of Kherson, an economic hub at the confluence of the Dnieper and the Black Sea with a prewar population of about 300,000, was the first major population center to fall in the war.
Russian forces also have made inroads into the Zaporizhzhia region farther north, where they seized Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. The last of its six reactors was shut down Sunday after operating in a risky “island mode” for several days to generate electricity for the plant’s crucial cooling systems after one of the power lines was restored.
Moscow has installed puppet administrations in occupied areas, introduced its currency, handed out Russian passports and prepared for local plebiscites to pave the way for annexation. But the counteroffensive has derailed those plans, with a top Moscow-backed official in Kherson saying the vote there needs to be put off.
The counterattack followed methodical strikes on Russian infrastructure and supply lines. Ukrainian forces have used U.S.-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers to pound the two bridges on the Dnieper, forcing Russian troops in the Kherson region to rely on pontoon crossings that also have faced daily strikes.
Last month, a series of explosions also hit airbases and a munitions depot in Crimea, underlining the vulnerability of the peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014 and has been crucial for its southern operations. Ukrainian authorities initially refrained from claiming responsibility, but the country’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyy, acknowledged in recent days that his forces hit them with rockets.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Kyiv “has used the tactics of methodically exhausting the Russian army, weakening it and depriving it of a possibility to regularly beef up its forces.”
Unlike in the south, where Ukraine’s counteroffensive proceeded more slowly on the barren steppes of Kherson that left troops vulnerable to Russian artillery, the Kharkiv region’s forests offered natural cover that allowed for lightning-fast surprise attacks from multiple directions.
“Swiftness and surprise have become key components of the Ukrainian army action in the Kharkiv region after Russian forces deployed there had been relocated to the south,” Zhdanov said.
Michael Kofman, an expert on the Russian military at the Virginia-based think tank CNA, said the counteroffensive “has proven a very significant victory for Ukraine.”
“Russian forces appear to have been spread thinly, and military leadership unprepared despite earlier evidence of Ukrainian buildup,” Kofman wrote. “I think it’s fair to assess that Russia was caught by surprise with little in the way of reserves locally available.”
After capturing the town of Balakliia, about 55 kilometers (about 34 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukrainian forces quickly pressed their offensive farther east to Kupiansk, a rail hub vital for sustaining Russian operations in the region.
They claimed control of the strategic city Saturday, cutting supply lines to a big group of Russian forces around Izyum to the south. To prevent their complete encirclement, Moscow ordered the hasty retreat, claiming they were relocating to focus on the neighboring Donetsk region.
Zhdanov noted that a successful counteroffensive is key to persuading allies to further increase supplies of weapons to Ukraine, something that was discussed Thursday at a NATO meeting in Germany.
“The events in the south and in the Kharkiv region must show to the West that the Ukrainian military knows how to handle the weapons and needs to develop their success,” Zhdanov said.
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Yuras Karmanau in Kyiv contributed.
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| 2022-09-21T09:49:47Z
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops on Sunday successfully pressed their swift counteroffensive in the northeastern part of the country, even as a nuclear power plant in the Russia-occupied south completely shut down in a bid to prevent a radiation disaster as fighting raged nearby.
Kyiv’s action to reclaim Russia-occupied areas in the Kharkiv region forced Moscow to withdraw its troops to prevent them from being surrounded, leaving behind significant numbers of weapons and munitions in a hasty retreat as the war marked its 200th day on Sunday.
A jubilant Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mocked the Russians in a video address Saturday night, saying that “the Russian army in these days is demonstrating the best that it can do — showing its back.”
He posted a video of Ukrainian soldiers hoisting the national flag over Chkalovske, another town reclaimed in the counteroffensive.
While most attention was focused on the counteroffensive, Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, was reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid, allowing engineers to shut down its last operational reactor to safeguard the plant amid the fighting.
The plant, one of the 10 biggest atomic power stations in the world, has been occupied by Russian forces since the early days of the war. Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for shelling around it.
Since a Sept. 5 fire caused by shelling knocked the plant off transmission lines, the reactor was powering crucial safety equipment in so-called “island mode” — an unreliable regime that left the plant increasingly vulnerable to a potential nuclear accident.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation at the plant in a call Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron, the Kremlin said.
Ukraine’s military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyy, announced that its forces had recaptured about 3,000 square kilometers (about 1,160 square miles) since the counteroffensive began in early September. He noted that Ukrainian troops are only 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) from the border with Russia.
Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said Ukrainian troops have reclaimed control of more than 40 settlements in the Kharkiv region, noting he couldn’t give a precise number because the operation is still unfolding.
Defense Minister Anna Malyar said Ukrainian forces are firing shells containing propaganda into areas where they seek to advance.
”One of the ways of informational work with the enemy in areas where there is no Internet is launching propaganda shells,” she wrote on Facebook. “Before moving forward, our defenders say hello to the Russian invaders and give them the last opportunity to surrender. Otherwise, only death awaits them on Ukrainian soil.”
The Russian pullback marked the biggest battlefield success for Ukrainian forces since they thwarted a Russian attempt to seize the capital, Kyiv, at the start of the nearly seven-month war. The Kharkiv campaign came as a surprise for Moscow, which had relocated many of its troops from the region to the south in expectation of a counteroffensive there.
In an awkward attempt to save face, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday the troops’ withdrawal from Izyum and other areas was intended to strengthen Moscow’s forces in the neighboring Donetsk region to the south.
The explanation sounded similar to the justification Russia gave for pulling back from the Kyiv region earlier this year when they failed to take the capital.
The Russian forces around Izyum have been key for Moscow’s effort to capture the Donetsk region, and their pullback will dramatically weaken its capability to press its offensive on Ukrainian strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk to the south.
A map released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday showed its forces retreating to a narrow patch of land along the border.
Igor Strelkov, who led Russia-backed forces when the separatist conflict in the Donbas erupted in 2014, mocked the Russian Defense Ministry’s explanation of the retreat, suggesting that handing over Russia’s own territory near the border was a “contribution to a Ukrainian settlement.”
The retreat drew an angry response from Russian military bloggers and nationalist commentators, who bemoaned it as a major defeat and urged the Kremlin to step up its war efforts. Many scathingly criticized Russian authorities for continuing with fireworks and other lavish festivities in Moscow that marked a city holiday on Saturday despite the debacle in Ukraine.
Just as the Russian forces were hastily pulling back from Izyum under Ukrainian fire on Saturday, Putin attended the opening of a huge Ferris wheel at a Moscow park, although it reportedly closed for repairs soon thereafter. He also inaugurated a new transport link and a sports arena.
The action underlined the Kremlin’s narrative that the war it calls a “special military operation” was going according to plan without affecting Russians’ everyday lives.
Pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov criticized the Moscow festivities as a grave mistake.
“The fireworks in Moscow on a tragic day of Russia’s military defeat will have extremely serious political consequences,” Markov wrote on his messaging app channel. “Authorities mustn’t celebrate when people are mourning.”
In a sign of a potential rift in the Russian leadership, Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed head of Chechnya, said the retreat resulted from blunders by the Russian military leadership.
“They have made mistakes and I think they will draw the necessary conclusions,” Kadyrov said. “If they don’t make changes in the strategy of conducting the special military operation in the next day or two, I will be forced to contact the leadership of the Defense Ministry and the leadership of the country to explain the real situation on the ground.”
Despite Ukraine’s gains, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the head of NATO warned Friday the war would likely drag on for months. Blinken said the conflict was entering a critical period and urged the West to keep supporting Ukraine through what could be a difficult winter.
The U.S. and its NATO allies have been working to make sure that Ukrainian forces have “the things that they most need right on the moment,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“And we are seeing the Ukrainians with a tremendous patriotic resolve — but also after eight years of joint training with the U.S. military, going back to 2014 with the Crimea invasion — we’re seeing the combined effect of collaborative training and resources that are right on time right at the moment, showing that Vladimir Putin’s grandiose dissolutions about what he might do in Ukraine are hollow and they’re failing,” he told CNN.
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Associated Press writer Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The heads of the nation’s two largest rail unions said Sunday that the freight railroads’ move to begin delaying some shipments ahead of this week’s looming strike deadline is only an attempt to get shippers to increase the pressure on Congress to intervene and block a work stoppage by imposing a contract on workers.
The heads of the unions that represent engineers and conductors — the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers — Transportation Division union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union — issued a joint statement blasting the move, which the railroads announced late Friday. A strike or lockout won’t be allowed until this coming Friday, but the railroads appear to be bracing for one by saying they would begin curtailing shipments of hazardous materials and other chemicals on Monday to ensure carloads of those dangerous products won’t be stranded along the tracks if the trains stop moving.
“The railroads are using shippers, consumers, and the supply chain of our nation as pawns in an effort to get our unions to cave into their contract demands knowing that our members would never accept them. Our unions will not cave into these scare tactics, and Congress must not cave into what can only be described as corporate terrorism,” said Jeremy Fergunson with SMART-TD and Dennis Pierce with the BLET union.
Those two unions have been demanding that CSX, Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern and the other railroads go beyond the proposed deal recommended by a group of arbitrators President Joe Biden appointed. They want them to address concerns about strict attendance policies that they say make it hard to take any time off and increasing workloads after the railroads cut nearly one-third of their workforces in recent years.
The railroad trade group has said there’s no way trucks can pick up the slack if the railroads stop moving because roughly 467,000 additional trucks a day would be needed to handle all the cargo trains haul and there is already a shortage of truck drivers.
Five of the 12 railroad unions that together represent 115,000 workers had already reached tentative agreements based on the Presidential Emergency Board’s recommendations that will deliver 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses over a five-year contract that’s retroactive to 2020. The coalition negotiating on behalf of the railroads announced three more tentative agreements Sunday, so deals covering roughly 45,000 workers have now been announced. Members of the unions with tentative deals still have to vote on them.
If the two sides can’t agree on a deal by the end of the week, Congress is expected to step in to block a strike because of the dire economic consequences if a strike happens because so many businesses rely on railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products. The Association of American Railroads trade group put out a report last week estimating that the economy would take a $2 billion a day hit if the trains stop moving and passenger traffic would be disrupted nationwide because Amtrak and many commuter railroads use tracks owned by the freight railroads.
A spokeswoman for the trade group said Sunday that railroads had to take action to prepare for the possibility of a work stoppage because the deadline is so close, but the industry remains committed to trying to negotiate agreements with its unions.
“Operational changes required to prepare for a safe, orderly suspension were delayed as long as possible. With less than a week away from a potential service interruption, carriers are obligated to take appropriate actions to prepare, which include making plans for handling HAZMAT shipments, as well as other freight that may be impacted if service must be reduced or stopped,” the AAR spokeswoman said.
Already, a number of trade groups representing railroad shippers have urged lawmakers to be prepared to block a strike. A coalition of 31 agricultural groups sent a letter to Congress last week, and the Fertilizer Institute trade group joined the chorus of concerned shippers Saturday because shipments of ammonia and other fertilizers will be delayed.
“Supply chains are already strained and there is currently zero elasticity in rail transportation,” TFI President and CEO Corey Rosenbusch said. “This situation will get exponentially worse every day there is no resolution.”
He said more than half of all fertilizer is hauled by railroads. More than 75% of all finished vehicles are taken from factories to dealerships by train, and countless other products move by rail.
The railroad trade group said that a single railcar can carry up to 2,000 UPS packages, or enough plastic pellets to make some two million two-liter bottles.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:02Z
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COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — A visiting U.S. diplomat on Sunday urged Sri Lankan authorities to tackle corruption and introduce governance reforms alongside efforts to uplift the country’s economy as a way out of its worst crisis in recent memory.
USAID Administrator Samantha Power told reporters that such moves will increase international and local trust in the government’s intentions.
“Assistance alone would not put an end to this country’s woes,” Power said. “I stressed to the Sri Lankan president in my meeting earlier today that political reforms and political accountability must go hand in hand with economic reforms and economic accountability.”
She said that international investor confidence will increase as the government tackles corruption and proceeds with long sought governance reforms. “As citizens see the government visibly following through on the commitment to bring about meaningful change, that in turn increases societal support for the tough economic reforms ahead,” she said.
During her two-day visit, Power announced a total of $60 million in aid to Sri Lanka. After meetings with farmers’ representatives at a rice field in Ja-Ela, outside of the capital Colombo on Saturday, she announced $40 million to buy agrochemicals in time for the next cultivation season.
Agricultural yields dropped by more than half for the past two cultivation seasons because authorities had banned the imports of chemical fertilizers ostensibly to promote organic farming. She said that according to the World Food Program, more than 6 million people — nearly 30% of Sri Lanka’s population — are currently facing food insecurity and require humanitarian assistance.
On Sunday, she said an additional $20 million will be given to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to vulnerable families.
Sri Lanka has faced its worst crisis after it defaulted on foreign loans, causing shortages of essentials like fuel, medicines and some food items.
It has reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a $2.9 billion package to be disbursed over four years. However, the program hinges on Sri Lanka’s international creditors giving assurances on loan restructuring. Sri Lanka’s total foreign debt is more than $51 billion of which $28 billion must be repaid by 2027.
Power said that the U.S. stands ready to assist with debt restructuring and reiterated that it is imperative that China, one of the island nation’s bigger creditors, cooperate in this endeavor.
Infrastructure like a seaport, airport and a network of highways built with Chinese funding did not earn revenue and are partly blamed for the country’s woes.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:09Z
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HARRISON Co., Texas (KTAL/KMSS) – The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of an Avinger man found dead Saturday night in the roadway as a homicide.
According to HCSO, deputies responding to a call reporting an unresponsive man in the roadway found the body of Blake Edward Reddock.
The sheriff’s office has not released how Reddock appeared to have been killed, but they say how he was found confirmed his death to be the result of a homicide.
The sheriff’s office says more information will be released at an appropriate time.
Anyone with information related to this investigation is asked to contact the HCSO Criminal Investigation Division at 903-923-4020. Those who wish to remain anonymous can contact Marshall/Harrison County Crime Stoppers at 903-935-9969 or use the P3 App.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:32Z
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Josh Duggar’s deadline to file an appeal brief following his child pornography conviction has been delayed for the third time.
On September 8, Duggar’s defense team submitted an unopposed motion for an extension of time to file its opening brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The filing deadline for that brief has been extended twice already, on August 19 and July 28.
Duggar, 34, the former reality TV star, initially filed an appeal on June 6. The defense has maintained his innocence throughout the trial, sentencing and appeal process.
The filing stated that “Duggar respectfully requests an additional 21 days within which to file his opening brief.” Defense attorney Justin Gelfand also noted that he was finally able to meet with his client in Texas “after significant coordination with the Bureau of Prisons.”
“A substantive meeting with Duggar was a necessary prerequisite to finalizing Duggar’s opening brief so as to protect Duggar’s rights,” the motion stated. Gelfand added that this third request was “not intended to hinder or delay the proceedings.”
The defense also cited the length of the trial transcript and the complexity of the possible issues on appeal as relevant factors, as they have done in their previous extension requests.
“Duggar does not anticipate any further requests for additional time to file his opening brief,” the motion said.
The court granted the request on September 9, pushing the filing deadline back to October 3. The most recent deadline was September 12.
Duggar was unanimously found guilty on a pair of child pornography charges in the Western District of Arkansas Federal Court in Fayetteville in December 2021. He is currently serving a 151-month federal prison sentence at FCI Seagoville outside of Dallas.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:40Z
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GILMER, Texas (KETK) – In a statement released Saturday, 60-year-old Jerald Dean Fowler II, of Gilmer, was charged with DWI misdemeanor B following an accident Friday night.
The statement reported that at approximately 10 p.m. on Friday, Upshur County Deputies and DPS Troopers responded to a motor vehicle accident on Hwy 154, east of Gilmer.
According to investigators, Judge Fowler was charged and booked into the Upshur County Jail. Judge Lyle Potter, Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, arraigned Fowler and set a bond at $1500.00.
Fowler, who serves as Judge of the 115th District Court, posted bond and was released from jail, according to the official statement.
No further information was given on the nature of the vehicle accident.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:46Z
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(NEXSTAR) – Lots of Americans leave college wishing they could have a do-over, a nationwide survey found.
It’s not just the heavy drinking on game days or all-nighter study sessions people regret, the Federal Reserve Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking found. Many people end up regretting their choice in college major.
The Washington Post’s Department of Data analyzed the findings of the Federal Reserve survey and found nearly 50% of people who studied humanities or the arts eventually regretted that choice. Not far behind, about 45% of people surveyed who studied social and behavioral sciences also wished they’d picked something different.
More than a third of people who studied education, business, law and life sciences also regretted their choice. Over 40% of people who went to vocational school reported regrets, as well.
According to the newspaper’s analysis, the amount of student loans people had didn’t seem to affect whether or not they had regrets.
Perhaps hoping to avoid such regrets (or massive student loans), fewer people enrolled in college in 2020 when compared to ten years prior. In 2020, 19.4 million students were enrolled in college or university courses, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). That figure was down 10% from 2010. The COVID-19 pandemic likely also played a role in declining enrollment that year, as many college campuses shut down and temporarily switched to distance learning.
The major people were least likely to regret, the Federal Reserve survey found, was engineering. Despite that popularity, engineering is still a far less common choice than other majors, NCES says. Three times as many people graduate with a degree in business than with a degree in engineering. However, the data shows it is a growing field of study from year to year.
And even though it ranked lowest when it came to regrets, about a quarter of engineering students still wished they’d done things differently, the Washington Post reported.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:53Z
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MAGNOLIA, Ark. – More good news about enrollment numbers in Arkansas higher education, this time for a university in south Arkansas.
Southern Arkansas University reported Friday that it had 5,094 students enrolled for its fall 2022 semester, the school’s largest-ever enrollment. This was a 15% increase for the school, the university reported.
“We feel so completely fortunate to reach this historic level in our enrollment. So many people in our SAU community worked tirelessly and built strong relationships with our student body and their families to make this milestone happen,” Trey Berry, SAU president, said.
Undergraduate levels for the SAU fall 2022 semester were 3,148 students, with the freshman class showing a 10% jump from a year earlier. This marks a retention rate up 7% from the previous 2021 fall semester.
Transfer student enrollment for SAU’s fall 2022 was also up by 54%. Graduate students are up 53%.
Arkansas universities have been reporting increasing enrollment and especially freshman class numbers for the fall 2022 semester.
Tuesday, UA Little Rock reported its freshman class was up 29% for the fall 2022 semester. Earlier, Harding University reports a 6.9% increase, while Henderson University saw a 5% increase for the semester.
UA Pine Bluff reported a 12% increase in student retention to 77% for fall 2022.
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| 2022-09-21T09:50:59Z
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(The Hill) – The nation’s supply of food could take a hit if railroad workers go on strike, driving up prices at the grocery store and limiting U.S. grain exports to countries facing famine.
As soon as next week, 115,000 freight rail workers could walk out if they cannot reach a new contract with railroads, potentially shutting down the national rail network that transports 20 percent of all grain shipments.
While unions say they want to avert a strike, and Congress has the power to block it, the U.S. food sector is rattled by the prospect of a national railroad shutdown in the middle of peak harvest season.
A ‘devastating ripple effect’
Even a short-lived interruption “would create a devastating ripple effect” on the nation’s fragile supply chains, said Lee Sanders, senior vice president of government relations and public affairs at the American Bakers Association.
“Rail-dependent facilities would be unable to receive materials and ingredients, and millions of Americans a day would be unable to receive the baked goods they rely on to feed themselves, their families, and communities,” she said.
A railroad shutdown in mid-September would quickly overwhelm grain storage facilities, leaving farmers with few options to store their crops and boosting the chance of spoilage. Many grain processors would shut down, raising the price of bread and other common items, while farmers would be saddled with huge crop quantities and lower commodity prices.
“It’s kind of a double whammy when you hit both the beginning and the end of the supply chain,” said Max Fisher, chief economist at the National Grain and Feed Association.
Freight railroads also carry roughly half of fertilizer, and farmers can’t afford delays, according to a Wednesday letter to congressional leaders from The Fertilizer Institute.
“If farmers do not receive fertilizer, it results in lower crop yields, higher food prices, and more inflation for consumers,” Corey Rosenbusch, the group’s CEO, told lawmakers.
Soaring food costs — which agricultural groups blame partially on existing railroad disruptions — have hit American families particularly hard. Grocery prices rose 13.1 percent over the last year ending in July, the largest annual increase in more than four decades, according to Labor Department data.
There typically isn’t a backup plan for crops that are transported by rail, particularly when the trucking industry is already struggling to keep pace with demand. The same goes for coal, crude oil, steel, lumber, car parts and other items frequently loaded onto freight trains.
A nationwide railroad work stoppage would cost the U.S. economy more than $2 billion per day and cause shipping containers to stack up at ports, according to estimates from the Association of American Railroads.
Grain exports and global food security
Because roughly one-third of U.S. grain exports travel by rail, a work stoppage would also cut down on America’s ability to ship food to foreign nations, particularly those in East Africa and the Middle East that face a risk of famine following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A coalition of food and agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation, urged lawmakers on Thursday to block a freight rail strike, warning that it would have “devastating consequences” for global food security.
“Congress must be willing to act to ensure our farmers and ranchers can continue to help feed the world,” the groups wrote in a letter to the top lawmakers on transportation committees.
The United Nations estimates that the number of people facing acute food insecurity has risen from 145 million to 345 million since 2019, and 50 million people in 45 countries are nearing famine.
Russia blocked off Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea at the onset of the invasion, cutting off nations that rely on Ukraine to provide large shipments of grain and cooking oil.
The warring countries signed a deal to open up Black Sea shipments in July, but Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday criticized the agreement, prompting fears that he could abandon it entirely.
What lies ahead
U.S. rail workers could legally strike as soon as Sept. 16 after the White House-appointed Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) released recommendations last month meant to bring railroads and unions closer to a deal.
Five unions have reached tentative agreements with railroads on a new contract based on the PEB recommendations, which call for 24 percent raises over five years and back pay but don’t address workers’ concerns about grueling hours and limited time off.
The bulk of rail workers belong to unions that haven’t struck a deal. And a recent online survey from grassroots group Railroad Workers United found that more than 9 in 10 railroad workers would vote to reject the PEB recommendations and go on strike.
If workers vote for a strike, Congress would likely intervene to block it. They could then vote to fast-track a new contract. Railroads, retailers, growers and other industries are largely urging lawmakers to simply implement the terms laid out by the PEB.
Still, some business groups are worried about the prospect of a slow congressional response to a rail walkout, driven either by lawmakers’ inexperience with the issue or political games ahead of the midterms.
The Biden administration, eager to avoid more economic disruption just before November, is pushing unions and railroads to secure an agreement before the issue comes before Congress. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh joined a negotiation session Wednesday before the National Mediation Board.
“We are confident the parties will make every effort to negotiate in good faith toward a mutually acceptable solution, and we urge both sides to do so promptly,” a White House official said in an email.
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LONDON (AP) — When the hearse carrying Queen Elizabeth II’s body pulled out of the gates of Balmoral Castle on Sunday, it marked the monarch’s final departure from a personal sanctuary where she could shed the straitjacket of protocol and ceremony for a few weeks every year.
The sprawling estate in the Scottish Highlands west of Aberdeen was a place where Elizabeth rode her beloved horses, picnicked, and pushed her children around the grounds on tricycles and wagons, setting aside the formality of Buckingham Palace.
“When … she goes through those (Balmoral) gates, I believe the royal part of her stays mostly outside,’’ said the Rev. David Barr of Glenmuick Church in nearby Ballater. “And as she goes in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran, and then later on a loving great gran — and aunty — and be normal.’’
It was a transformation that took place every summer when the royal family would spend much of August and September at the estate that has been a royal bolt-hole since 1852 when Prince Albert bought it for his wife, Queen Victoria.
Balmoral is the family’s “private wilderness,” where a fleet of immaculate Land Rovers would pick up guests each morning during the shooting and stalking season, Jonathan Dimbleby wrote in his 1994 biography of Prince Charles, who became King Charles III upon his mother’s death.
But there were other attractions, too.
“In the stables, the Queen’s horses were again at the ready, coats groomed, saddles and bridles soaped and stirrups polished,’’ Dimbleby wrote. “The household servants, trained in discretion, appeared only when required, aware that to be seen or heard without a purpose would be to intrude.”
At Balmoral, a woman most remembered for being clad in robes and crowns or grandmotherly dresses and wide-brimmed hats could tie a scarf around her head, snuggle into a warm jacket and tug on a pair of boots to explore a domain covered with heather and pine forests and populated by deer, bees and butterflies.
That sense of informality could bring out the queen’s mischievous side.
A former royal protection officer, Richard Griffin, remembered accompanying the queen on a picnic when they met two American hikers. The tourists didn’t recognize Elizabeth and asked how long she had been visiting the area. When she replied “over 80 years,” they asked if she had ever met the queen.
“As quick as a flash, she says, ‘Well, I haven’t, but Dickie here meets her regularly,’” Griffin told Sky News earlier this year during events marking the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.
One of the hikers then turned to Griffin and asked what the queen was like. He replied: “She can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humor.”
After posing for a picture with the queen, the unsuspecting hikers waved goodbye, and they continued their trek.
“And then Her Majesty said to me, ‘I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he shows those photographs to friends in America. Hopefully, someone tells him who I am,’” Griffin recalled.
The queen’s love of Balmoral underscored the royal family’s close links to Scotland, which began with her great, great-grandmother Queen Victoria, who began the royal tradition of wearing the tartan.
During the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, the queen was said to be hoping for a “no” vote, though she couldn’t express her view publicly. Former Prime Minister David Cameron later confirmed this, telling how her husband, the late Prince Philip, sought to keep the peace at Balmoral by trying to hide the morning papers on the day a poll was published suggesting the Scots might vote in favor of leaving the U.K.
“But, of course, when she got the result, he said that she purred like a cat with satisfaction when she heard her United Kingdom was going to remain united,” royal historian Robert Lacey told the BBC on Friday.
But at its heart, Balmoral was a family home for the queen.
Freed temporarily from the affairs of state, Elizabeth and Philip spent more time with their children while at Balmoral.
Home movies shared with the BBC for a documentary on the queen’s 90th birthday showed the couple playing with Charles and his sister, Anne, on the lawn outside Balmoral Castle, with Philip careening down a grassy slope on a little red wagon before toppling over, his kilt flying in the breeze.
In later years, Charles played ping-pong and football in the yard and was even allowed to cycle to the village shop by himself, albeit with a police officer trailing behind, Dimbleby wrote.
It’s “very significant” that the queen died in Scotland, Lacey told The Associated Press.
“Because apart from her love of that particular country, it was the countryside, the way it brought her into contact with nature,” he said.
___
For more AP coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and Britain’s royal family: https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii
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ARLINGTON, TX (Silver Star Nation) – As if Sunday night’s embarrassing 19-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wasn’t bad enough, now comes word that the Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback is about to miss time with the team.
According to reports first released by ESPN, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told some media members after the game that Dak Prescott will need hand surgery to repair a 4th quarter injury.
Prescott came out of Sunday’s home opener with about five minutes left in the game after twice hitting his throwing hand on the hand or arm of a Tampa Bay defensive player.
In obvious pain on the sidelines, Prescott mouthed the words “it’s broken” when talking to the trainer.
Cowboys backup quarterback Cooper Rush finished the game but was ineffective against the Tampa Bay defense. Prescott’s injury could leave the Cowboys looking for a veteran quarterback to fill in until Dak can rejoin the team.
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METAIRIE, La – My key to the game is defend Atlanta Falcons tight end, Kyle Pitts.
He draws a lot of coverage on corners and he’s an excellent pass catcher.
Defensive backs who primarily play cornerback like PJ Williams, Bradley Roby, Marshon Lattimore and Paulson Adebo will need to be ready.
Neutralizing Pitts will be imperative on Sunday at Mercedes Benz Stadium.
Please click the video provided for Keys to the Game.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Americans remembered 9/11 on Sunday with tear-choked tributes and pleas to “never forget,” 21 years after the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.
The loss still felt immediate to Bonita Mentis, who wore a necklace with a photo of her slain sister, Shevonne Mentis.
“It’s been 21 years, but it’s not 21 years for us. It seems like just yesterday,” she said before reading victims’ names at the World Trade Center to a crowd that included Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff.
At the Pentagon, which also was targeted on 9/11, President Joe Biden vowed that the U.S. would continue working to root out terrorist plots and called on Americans to stand up for “the very democracy that guarantees the right to freedom that those terrorists on 9/11 sought to bury in the burning fire, smoke, and ash.” First lady Jill Biden spoke at the third attack site, a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
On Sept. 11, 2001, conspirators from the al-Qaida Muslim militant group seized control of jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles, hitting the trade center’s twin towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane was headed for Washington but crashed near Shanksville after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, reconfigured national security policy, and spurred a U.S. “war on terror” worldwide. Sunday’s observances came little more than a month after a U.S. drone strike killed a key al-Qaida figure who helped plot 9/11, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Pierre Roldan, who lost his cousin Carlos Lillo, a paramedic, said “we had some form of justice” when a U.S. raid killed Osama bin Laden in 2011.
“Now that al-Zawahri is gone, at least we’re continuing to get that justice,” Roldan said.
The self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, still awaits a long-postponed military tribunal. An attorney for one of Mohammed’s co-defendants this week confirmed ongoing negotiations toward a potential agreement to avoid a trial and impose lesser but still lengthy sentences.
The Sept. 11 attacks stirred — for a time — a sense of national pride and unity for many while also subjecting Muslim Americans to years of suspicion and bigotry and engendering debate over the balance between safety and civil liberties. In ways both subtle and plain, the aftermath of 9/11 ripples through American politics and public life to this day.
But like some other victims’ relatives, Jay Saloman fears that Americans’ consciousness of 9/11 is receding.
“It was a terrorist attack against our country that day. And theoretically, everybody should remember it and, you know, take precautions and watch out,” said Saloman, who lost his brother, Wayne Saloman.
By tradition, no political figures speak at the ground zero ceremony. The observance centers, instead, on relatives reading aloud the names of the dead.
Like a growing number of readers, Brooke Walsh-DiMarzio wasn’t born yet when her relative died. But she took the podium to honor her grandmother, Barbara Walsh.
“I’m here today to represent generation 9/12, those who never experienced 9/11 but still suffer the aftermath of it,” Walsh-DiMarzio said. “We will never, ever forget.”
Nikita Shah wore a T-shirt that bore the de facto epigraph of the annual commemoration — “never forget” — and the name of her father, Jayesh Shah. She was 10 when he was killed.
The family later moved to Houston but often returns to New York for the anniversary to be “around people who kind of experienced the same type of grief and the same feelings after 9/11,” said Shah.
Readers often add personal remarks that form an alloy of American sentiments about Sept. 11 — grief, anger, toughness, appreciation for first responders and the military, appeals to patriotism, hopes for peace, occasional political barbs, and a poignant accounting of the graduations, weddings, births and daily lives that victims have missed. A few readers note recent events this year, ranging from the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Some relatives also lament that a nation that came together — to some extent — after the attacks has since splintered apart. Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, which were reshaped to focus on international terrorism after 9/11, now see the threat of domestic violent extremism as equally urgent.
“It took a tragedy to unite us. It should not take another tragedy to unite us again,” said Andrew Colabella, whose cousin, John DiGiovanni, died in the 1993 bombing World Trade Center bombing that presaged 9/11.
Communities around the country marked the day with candlelight vigils, interfaith services, and other commemorations, and some Americans joined in volunteer projects. Others observed the anniversary with their own reflections.
More than 70 of Sekou Siby’s co-workers perished at Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the trade center’s north tower. He had the day off because another cook asked him to switch shifts.
“Every 9/11 is a reminder of what I lost that I can never recover,” says Siby, now president of ROC United, a restaurant workers’ advocacy group. He said ahead of the anniversary that the attacks made him wary of becoming attached to people when “you have no control over what’s going to happen to them next.”
Ginny Barnett volunteered at the Shanksville site after the attacks and struggled for years to come to terms with the tragedy. She gradually found hope by volunteering for the memorial there now.
“I have seen firsthand the evil that man can do, but I have also seen the good that man can do,” Barnett said Sunday. “With God’s help, we can focus on and foster good, rather than let hate and anger consume us.”
___
Associated Press journalists Colleen Long in Washington, Ron Todt in Philadelphia, and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed.
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AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The race for Texas Governor is hitting a high gear. You’ve probably noticed more ads on air and online, as well as more phone calls and texts from the campaigns.
For Beto O’Rourke, the campaign has new urgency. A poll released last week from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University shows him behind Governor Greg Abbott. In the poll, Abbott has support from 49% of likely Texas voters. O’Rourke trails with 42% support.
O’Rourke faced an uphill battle from the start, like any Democrat running statewide. It has been nearly three decades since a Democrat last won a statewide election in Texas.
But no Democrat in recent years has campaigned like O’Rourke. In his 2018 bid for U.S. Senate against Republican Ted Cruz, O’Rourke traveled to every county in Texas. O’Rourke lost to Cruz. The margin of victory was 2.6%, the closest U.S. Senate race in Texas since 1978.
O’Rourke is taking a similar approach in his campaign for Governor. He just wrapped up a 7-week long “Drive for Texas” that included stops in big cities friendly to Democrats and rural communities in Republican-dominated areas of the state.
He’s faced hecklers at many stops. But O’Rourke says it’s important to bring his message to all Texans, even those who may not support him.
“When we show up and talk about the things that we’re going to do to make Texas better for all of us, we win votes. But you’ve got to show up,” O’Rourke said.
Along the way, O’Rourke has built up a network of volunteers. Now, he’s relying on them to mobilize untapped votes in every pocket of the state.
“The only way we will win is you. It’s not me,” O’Rourke told a crowd at a rally in Lockhart.
He’s tapping volunteers like Alice Wilson to help get Democratic-leaning voters to the polls, who may have stayed home in previous elections in a red state like Texas.
“This state has been Republican for so long that people don’t feel like their vote matters,” Wilson said at the Lockhart rally. “But this year, we know it does,” she added.
O’Rourke echoed that hope in an interview after the rally.
“The very people who’ve been drawn out of our democracy will provide the margin of victory on election night,” O’Rourke said.
In the interview following the Lockhart rally, O’Rourke made the case that many Texans support the ideas he’s touting on the campaign trail.
“People want to make sure we restore protections for every Texas woman to make her own decisions about her own body. That’s about as universal as we get,” O’Rourke said. He has released campaign ads critical of Gov. Abbott’s work to ban abortions in Texas, with no exception for cases of rape or incest.
O’Rourke says his positions reflect what he’s hearing from Texans as he campaigns around the state.
“Voters want to make sure that we prioritize the lives of our kids in our classrooms, they know that we can do better on reducing gun violence in Texas,” he said, highlighting an issue that became a key part of his campaign in the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting.
O’Rourke said education is also on the minds of the people he’s spoken with in his travels across Texas.
“Other common issues I hear are investing in our public schools, stopping Greg Abbott’s effort to turn our tax dollars into vouchers and destroy public education in Texas,” O’Rourke said.
He added that health care is a big concern he’s hearing from voters.
“They want us to expand Medicaid, so more people can fill a prescription, go to a mental health care provider be healthy enough well enough to live to their full potential,” O’Rourke said. He believes these issues cut across party lines.
“There may be some things that we argue on, but on this much, there’s common ground. And as governor, that’s what I’m going to pursue,” O’Rourke said near the end of the interview.
Nexstar extended the same interview opportunity to Gov. Abbott. His office sent a written statement.
The contrast in this race couldn’t be clearer. More Texans are working today than ever before. Gov. Abbott is running for re-election to secure the future of Texas through increased job creation and economic opportunity for all Texans. Expand energy production to lower gas prices, cut property taxes, secure the border and keep our communities safe by fully funding Texas law enforcement. In contrast, Beto O’Rourke supports open borders, defunding the police, raising property taxes and extreme energy policies.
Gov. Abbott’s office statement
Active shooter policy changed in wake of Uvalde, according to DPS emails
Emails from the Texas Department of Public Safety director show the agency has changed its active shooter policy following the school shooting in Uvalde where 19 kids and two teachers were murdered.
Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, provided the emails to KXAN after they were released in a public records request he filed.
In a July 20 email, DPS Director Steve McCraw said the agency’s officers will be “authorized to overcome any delay to neutralizing an attacker.”
The director went on to say DPS officers must treat the matter as an active shooter situation when a subject fires a weapon at a school — until the person is detained or killed.
In July, DPS said an internal committee would review the actions of every trooper, special agent and Texas Ranger who responded to Robb Elementary to determine if officers violated policy or their rapid response training, according to the same email.
Already, five DPS law enforcement officers have been referred to the Office of Inspector General where a formal investigation into their actions that day will take place. Two of those five officers have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the OIG investigation.
Officers waited more than an hour before entering the classroom where the 18-year-old shooter killed 21 people. 376 law enforcement officers, including 91 DPS officers, from across the state arrived on scene during that time, according to a report from a Texas House Committee.
The only other agency that had more officers respond to the school was U.S. Border Patrol, which had 149 officers show up during the shooting.
“Although I remain highly critical of the decision to treat the incident as a barricaded subject by the ranking Consolidated Independent School District police official at the scene, DPS and other agencies must also be held accountable for their actions or inactions,” McCraw said in the email.
Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo was first in command in the case of an active shooter situation at any of the schools, according to the district safety plan.
Arredondo drew criticism from McCraw in the weeks following the shooting for treating the scene as a response to a barricaded subject, instead of an active shooter.
An active shooter distinction would have required officers to enter the classroom and stop the shooter immediately.
Arredondo said previously he did not know he was the commanding officer during the shooting. The school board has since fired him from his position as police chief.
The review of DPS officers is being conducted by an internal committee led by the Deputy Director of Law Enforcement Services Jeoff Williams. The committee also includes members of the Office of the Inspector General, according to the email.
McCraw said the ongoing Texas Rangers criminal investigation is also looking into the actions of officers who responded to the elementary school.
Screaming for help; river risk rises for migrants trying to reach south Texas
A group of migrants screamed and flailed as a woman nearly went under as she tried to cross the swollen Rio Grande from Piedras Negras, Mexico, into Eagle Pass, Texas on Sunday night, in an area where nine migrants died just days before.
Border Report witnessed as one woman hung onto a concrete pillar under the international bridge for about 20 minutes as the sun was setting. She screamed in Spanish that she could not hang on and was held upright by flimsy yellow arm floaties.
She had been part of a group of migrants that had been waiting for over six hours to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into Eagle Pass, a popular area for migrant crossings, a Maverick County constable told Border Report.
A migrant woman holds onto the base of a concrete pillar several yards from the U.S. side in the Rio Grande on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022, as she tried to cross with a group from Piedras Negras, Mexico, into Eagle Pass, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
The group of over 20 migrants included mostly Cubans and Venezuelans who had waited at the water’s edge. As the sun began to set around 7 p.m., Mexican police moved toward them, leaving them few choices: Surrender and face deportation or try to cross the swirling river.
They chose to swim.
But the current was so swift that they were immediately carried downstream as soon as they entered the water.
Border agents recover 3 bodies from Rio Grande in a 4-hour span
They tried to lift the children above their heads but most appeared to be just bobbing heads, kept barely above water, as their bodies were engulfed in the brown, murky water.
The group tried to stick together. But bit by bit they broke apart.
They swirled downstream as tiny dots in the river.
Two men stand on a concrete pillar underneath an international bridge in the middle of the Rio Grande on Sept 4, 2022, as they tried to cross into Eagle Pass, Texas, from Piedras Negras. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
Two young men also were stranded at the bridge pillar, but they were able to quickly hoist themselves up and watched the water below. After they caught their breath, they swam for the U.S. shore and were safe.
The stranded woman, however, had a far more difficult time.
She held on and twirled helplessly at the base of the bridge as darkness moved over the region.
Screams pierced the air as children and other migrants on the embankment yelled, “ayuda!” for U.S. and Mexican officials to
Mexicans gathered on the grassy banks across the river watched the scenario play out.
Mexicans watch from the banks of Piedras Negras, Mexico, as a group of migrants float together downstream on Sept. 4, 2022, underneath the international bridge near Eagle Pass, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
On the U.S. side, passersby recorded on cellphones, while Texas National Guard stationed on the banks watched the scene unfold.
A boat came and tried to get close to her, but its wake caused the water to rise and she went under for a second.
More screams from children pierced the air.
Finally, someone provided the migrants with a red round flotation device and they tied long ropes together and formed a human chain and waded back into the water and were able to get the ring to the woman who was dragged to safety.
Cheers and high-fives penetrated the night air as the migrants hugged one another and smiled and threw fists into the air.
Migrants cheered after a woman was rescued in the Rio Grande on Sept. 4, 2022, and safely entered Eagle Pass, Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
Tori Rogers, a Marine and aspiring documentarian from Dublin, Georgia, watched horrified as the woman struggled. And she smiled with relief when she was pulled to shore.
Tori Rogers is a Marine from Dublin, Georgia, who came to Eagle Pass this week to witness migration on the Southwest border. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
“We’ve seen a lot of celebrations when people make it across but what we just witnessed with her almost drowning is sad and that people are willing to risk their lives to come here. I feel like there needs to be a better way,” said Rogers, 44.
“She is very lucky because the water is very high right now. It’s just so sad,” she said.
After a summer of extreme drought, the Rio Grande is now up 5 feet, according to the National Weather Service.
More rains are expected in the next three days for the area that is soaked from nearly 5 inches in the past three days.
But more troubling, according to the National Weather Service, is the heavy rains in West Texas that are sending large amounts of water this way. Six to 8 inches of rainfall has struck West Texas over the last 10 days.
A group of 20 migrants, left, prepare to cross from Piedras Negras, Mexico, on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022, despite the high waters of the Rio Grande. Moments later they broke apart and were floating downstream, right. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Jason Owens, of the Del Rio Sector, this weekend issued an urgent warning for migrants not to try to cross.
Migrant rescues multiply as unauthorized migration flows hit 2.2 million
“This is a warning of extreme importance; the currents of the Rio Grande have become more dangerous due to recent and continuing rainfall and more rain is forecasted for the coming week. Despite these adverse conditions, U.S. Border Patrol, Del Rio Sector continues to encounter large groups of more than 100+, 200+ attempting to cross the Rio Grande daily,” Owens said.
“In an effort to prevent further loss of life, we are asking everyone to please avoid crossing illegally,” Owens said.
Two men consider the swift currents of the Rio Grande on Sept. 4, 2022, from Piedras Negras, Mexico. The river is up 5 feet due to heavy rains in West Texas. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
That didn’t stop 21-year-old Gabriel Andreas Rodriguez Sanchez and Jose Rojas Contreras, 38, of Venezuela who waded across Monday morning.
Both said in unison the river was “fuerte” (strong) and they said it was fierce.
But they said it was worth the risk.
“We want a better future,” Rodriguez Sanchez said as he sat shirtless and with soaking shorts on the muddy banks.
“There is nothing for us in our country,” Rojas Contreras said just moments before the pair were put into a Border Patrol vehicle and taken away.
At the southern border, Title 42 remains in place, preventing migrants from crossing and claiming asylum. However, migrant advocates tell Border Report that those from countries to which the United States is unable to repatriate them back, such as Cuba and Venezuela, typically are released by the Department of Homeland Security, and that is what prompts them to continue to come.
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber says his deputies work double assisting federal and state authorities with migrants who enter the country illegally, as well as keeping his South Texas community safe.
“My deputies are working to stop vehicles with smuggling of aliens, they’re picking up aliens, immigrants. It’s a double job. It’s a lot of stress on my deputies,” Schmerber told Border Report.
Schmerber sat down with Border Report on Tuesday at his office in Eagle Pass, Texas. The area is part of the Del Rio Sector, which in July surpassed the Rio Grande Valley Sector for having the most migrant encounters in a single month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported.
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, of South Texas, says seeing dead migrants in the Rio Grande is affecting his deputies. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
The sheriff reflected on the toll that the recent drowning of nine migrants has had on his deputies, as well as all of the rescues and body recoveries they have done for the past six weeks.
“It’s really very hard on my deputies,” said Schmerber, 70, a former Border Patrol watch commander.
“We’ve seen a lot of what we call ‘floaters’ — people who drown and they float in the river. One time we found eight individuals floating in the river. They drowned upriver and end up floating down to the port of entry here,” he said.
Schmerber is halfway through his third, four-year term, and although he is at retirement age, he says he plans to run for “one more term.” He says he just can’t leave his force right now as illegal migration has surged here this past year.
WATCH: ‘Fierce’ Rio Grande nearly swallows migrants trying to cross at Eagle Pass
“We’re supposed to be taking care, my priority, is the criminal element — that security for the county,” he said. “But now we’re doing two jobs. We’re doing what we’re supposed to do to secure the county and we have the immigration problem now.”
He says he believes he is uniquely qualified to lead his troops, having worked for Border Patrol for 26 years, many in Presidio, Texas, and many here in his hometown of Eagle Pass.
Ten additional deputies have been added to the Maverick County Sheriff’s department through Texas state funding from Operation Lone Star. (Sandra Sanchez/Border Report)
Through grants from Operation Lone Star — the Texas state-funded immigration initiative — he says he has been able to hire 10 additional deputies, including one more deputy constable for each of the county’s four constables.
His department also gets federal funds from Operation Stonegarden, which pays overtime and helps with equipment and fuel costs for local law enforcement to help Border Patrol patrol the riverbanks.
South Texas county gets record $3 million to help fight border crime through Operation Stonegarden
But he says it isn’t enough.
With 74 miles of riverfront border in Maverick County, he says his deputies are stretched thin. If they encounter a migrant it takes them away from policing the vast region, he said.
Nearly 30,000 residents live in Eagle Pass; the remaining 28,000 live in the vast county that borders Piedras Negras, Mexico.
Plus, he said there is an emotional toll they are suffering from so many recent drownings and near-drownings.
In mid-August, his deputies came upon the body of a dead 3-year-old whose uncle slipped while carrying him and his 4-year-old brother across the Rio Grande here, he said.
CBP reported that Aug. 17, three bodies were recovered from the river here in a span of four hours.
“It’s hard when they saw that little baby, just 3 years old and he drowned. They tried to give him CPR and he died,” Schmerber said. “The uncle was carrying two babies. He stumbled and he let loose of the kids. One drowned and the other made it. He was in critical condition in San Antonio, but he made it. But it’s those things that really have an effect on the individual deputies. They’re human beings. They’re family men. It affects them — maybe not right away but later on.”
The solution, the sheriff says, is for lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to enact a “zero-tolerance policy.”
“They can wait in their own countries,” Schmerber said.
SNAP benefits backlog continues; state workers say they need help too
Miki Spurlock had grabbed her groceries.
She was checking out when her Lone Star Card declined. She said she was supposed to have gotten food benefits already.
“Luckily, I was with my mom, and she paid for all of my groceries so I could feed me and my kids,” explained Spurlock.
Four months later, she said she was still waiting.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP food benefits.
The agency said an increase in applications and staffing shortages has made the backlog even more challenging.
“I had all of my paperwork that they requested turned into them prior to the expiration date. So, they had plenty of time to review my case, contact me for an interview, and I’ve heard nothing from them,” said Spurlock.
Some state workers processing applications tell KXAN investigators, “We are working diligently to get these apps [applications] processed ASAP.”
Worried about losing their jobs, the employees asked to remain anonymous but explained that there have been no pay increases for those who have worked with the state for years.
“We, ourselves, are having to go to pantries or the food bank to put some kind of meal on our own tables by the end of the month,” said one employee. “The cost of living is going up higher these days, and our state isn’t even considering giving us a raise or merit to help its employees out.”
HHSC said it’s committed to increasing capacity and retaining staff so that applications can be processed as quickly as possible.
“HHSC has reduced eligibility advisor vacancies from 18.72% in January 2022 to 13.28% to date,” said Tiffany Young, Assistant Press Officer with HHSC.
Last month, Young explained that the state increased base salaries for clerks, eligibility advisors and supervisors.
The agency said it has also implemented workforce initiatives to improve retention and increase hiring, including exploring the hiring of part-time employees who have previous eligibility experience and working with The Office of Veteran Affairs Services Coordinators to recruit military spouses.
The state said it held 70 job fairs between December through July trying to recruit more staff.
“HHSC participates in federally led workgroups and forums where states share best practices and strategies on mitigating workload challenges during the public health emergency,” said Young.
HHSC is also helping some employees with a newly created Grab and Go market.
Young said it’s for staff at the Austin State Supported Living Center, a facility for medically fragile people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral problems.
The state has partnered with a nonprofit to create the mobile food pantry for its lowest-paid employees and to help offset the rising cost of groceries.
The Grab and Go Market opened in May, and since then, the state explained that staff had visited the pantry 1,755 times.
Young said the food provided has a shelf life, cannot be sold in stores and would otherwise go to waste.
“Our staff work in a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week facility serving adults with disabilities. Staff are often working more than 40 hours a week to ensure our most vulnerable individuals are fed, cleaned, and cared for, and the food pantry is one way we show our appreciation for their dedication,” said Young.
KXAN investigators asked if other state employees could access the Grab and Go Market, but the spokesperson explained that it’s only available to those workers on the Austin State Supported Living Center campus.
KXAN also asked if HHSC is considering offering something similar to other employees who also make lower wages, but no response was provided.
Spurlock said she understands that even state workers are struggling. She added that she’s trying to be patient, but it’s been tough to go months without being able to buy food for her family.
The state explained that currently, 71% of SNAP applications are processed within 30 days from receipt of the application.
As of Aug. 29, 2022, Young said there is an estimated total of 198,025 SNAP applications waiting to be processed.
Spurlock said she’s never experienced this type of delay with her benefits.
“They’ve escalated my account – my benefits twice. I have spoken with their special resolution or escalation department,” said Spurlock. “I don’t even know if I’ll get my benefits next month or not yet.”
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| 2022-09-21T09:51:41Z
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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Rail advocates are dusting off a proposal for passenger train service between Montreal and Boston, riding a renewed interest in train travel to bolster a concept that has been around for more than a decade.
“It’s not a hard sell at all. A lot of people want this,” said Francois Rebello, a former national assembly member in Quebec and a consultant on the project.
Hundreds of travelers would ride a privately operated, overnight train each day if obstacles can be overcome to make the service a reality in coming years, according to a ridership study.
It wouldn’t be a high-speed affair. Promoters envision a different experience — a relaxed ride with a meal and sleep before arriving bright-eyed at the destination. The 14-hour ride would travel through Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Quebec.
The proposal comes against a backdrop of a rail revival, and more than $100 billion in railway infrastructure funding approved by Congress.
Maine State Sen. Richard Bennett, a Republican who lives in a district where the train would pass, said there’s much work to be done.
“I’m both excited and skeptical,” he said. “I certainly support the concept and I think it has a lot of promise. I think this can be done.”
A market study suggests about 4,000 people travel daily between Montreal and Boston, and about 1,000 of them would opt for rail service if it’s available, Rebello said. The service would be profitable with only 200 riders, he said.
But the proposal is in the early stages and the obstacles are many.
The track on the Canadian side of the border requires more than $100 million in upgrades and repairs. The track is in good shape through northern New England but the speed is limited to about 35 mph (56 kph) for a long stretch, and there’s little hope of securing additional funding to boost the speed.
Operators would have to negotiate agreements with several private owners of the rail — the Saint Lawrence and Atlantic, CSX and others — and there could be multiple crews required for the train. Then there’s the question of clearing customs with people coming and going at multiple train stops, and finding scarce equipment.
The idea for restoring Montreal-to-Boston passenger rail service for the first time since the 1960s has been bounced around for more than a decade, and several different rail routes have been floated over the years.
This time, the proposed route would follow Canadian Pacific Railway track from Montreal to Sherbrooke, Quebec, and then the St. Lawrence and Atlantic across Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, where a CSX-owned rail passes through Old Orchard Beach, a popular Maine tourist destination for Canadians. The final stretch is operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority.
Carl Fowler, a member of the Vermont Rail Advisory Council, is a rail advocate who likes the idea of expanded passenger rail service. But he said people have to be realistic about the proposal’s challenges.
“There are a lot of loose ends to be resolved,” he said.
Proponents have engaged with the Canadian Pacific Railway and the corporate parent of St. Lawrence and Atlantic, and the Canadian government already has considered investing in railway upgrades, Rebello said. Montreal real estate entrepreneur Nikolai Ray has signed on an investor.
About 60 rail advocates, legislators, tourism officials and others gathered recently in Coaticook, Quebec, to discuss the vision promoted by Montreal-based Fondation Trains De Nuit, or Night Train Foundation, and view a proposed map. Notably absent were state transportation officials from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
But the project won’t start anytime soon. The most optimistic view is that the project would need at least two years to become a reality, he said. However, it could take longer to secure funding and rail agreements.
A motorist could get from Boston to Montreal twice as fast but rail advocates say riders would get there in style. People could have dinner, be entertained and sleep in a comfortable bed, proponents say. They’d also be spared the cost of a hotel fee, since they’d be sleeping and showering on the train, supporters said.
The project holds appeal both for older riders who are nostalgic about trains and a younger generation that’s less enthralled with cars, Rebello said.
Rail enthusiast Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer, who lives outside Boston and doesn’t drive, said she “wholeheartedly” embraces mass transit that would allow her to visit family and friends in Canada several times a year.
“I love train travel. I lived in Japan for many years. It was absolutely the best way to get around,” she said.
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https://www.ktalnews.com/news/u-s-world/advocates-push-for-montreal-to-boston-passenger-rail/
| 2022-09-21T09:51:49Z
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