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The NHL has pushed back a scheduled matchup between the Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets as a winter storm sweeps through southern Manitoba. Environment Canada is warning people in Winnipeg to prepare for hazardous winter conditions beginning overnight Tuesday, including nearly 20 inches of snow and winds gusting up to 40 mph, creating zero visibility at times. The NHL says the game, originally scheduled for Wednesday, will instead be played at 1 p.m. Central time on May 1. The league says the storm would not only force the cancellation of the game, but prevent “timely and necessary postgame travel.” The Jets are set to face the Panthers in Florida on Friday. Winnipeg kept its faint playoff hopes alive Monday with a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. The Kraken have been eliminated from postseason contention in their inaugural season. ___ More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports	https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Wednesday-s-Kraken-Jets-game-postponed-because-of-17075914.php	2022-04-12T19:32:49Z	https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Wednesday-s-Kraken-Jets-game-postponed-because-of-17075914.php	true
My account My Account Notifications Log In QQQ – –% DIA – –% SPY – –% TLT – –% GLD – –% BTC/USD – –% Data & APIs Events Marketfy Premarket Contribute Sign in News Earnings Guidance Dividends M&A Buybacks Legal Interviews Management Retail Sales Offerings IPOs Insider Trades Biotech/FDA Freight Politics Government Healthcare Markets Pre-Market After Hours Movers ETFs Forex Cannabis Commodities Options Binary Options Bonds Futures CME Group Global Economics Previews Reviews Small-Cap Cryptocurrency Penny Stocks Digital Securities Ratings Analyst Color Downgrades Upgrades Initiations Price Target Ideas Trade Ideas Long Ideas Short Ideas Technicals From The Press Jim Cramer Rumors Best Stocks & ETFs Best Penny Stocks Best S&P 500 ETFs Best Swing Trade Stocks Best Blue Chip Stocks Best High-Volume Penny Stocks Best Small Cap ETFs Fintech News Podcast Events Newsletter Personal Finance Compare Online Brokers Stock Brokers Forex Brokers Futures Brokers Crypto Brokers Options Brokers ETF Brokers Mutual Fund Brokers Index Fund Brokers Bond Brokers Short Selling Brokers Stock Apps All Broker Reviews Insurance Auto Home Medicare Life Vision Dental Business Pet Health Motorcycle Renters Workers Comp Top Stocks Penny Stocks Stocks Under $5 Stocks Under $10 Stocks Under $20 Stocks Under $50 Stocks Under $100 Alternative Investing Invest in Art Invest in Land Invest in Real Estate Invest in Wine Invest in Gold Mortgages Refinance Purchase Find a Mortgage Broker Crypto Get Started Is Bitcoin a Good Investment? Is Ethereum a Good Investment? What is Blockchain Best Altcoins How to Buy Cryptocurrency? DeFi Crypto and DeFi 101 What is DeFi? Decentralized Exchanges Best DeFi Yield Farms Digital Securities NFTs NFT Release Calendar What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)? How to Buy Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) CryptoPunks Watchlist Are NFTs a Scam or a Digital Bubble? Best In Crypto Best Crypto Apps Best Crypto Portfolio Trackers Best Crypto Day Trading Strategies Best Crypto IRA Best Cryptocurrency Scanners Best Business Crypto Accounts Best Crypto Screeners Cannabis News Earnings Interviews Deals Regulations Psychedelics TV YouTube Video Podcasts Trading School Personal Finance Compare Online Brokers Stock Brokers Forex Brokers Futures Brokers Crypto Brokers Options Brokers ETF Brokers Mutual Fund Brokers Index Fund Brokers Bond Brokers Short Selling Brokers Stock Apps All Broker Reviews Insurance Auto Home Medicare Life Vision Dental Business Pet Health Motorcycle Renters Workers Comp Top Stocks Penny Stocks Stocks Under $5 Stocks Under $10 Stocks Under $20 Stocks Under $50 Stocks Under $100 Alternative Investing Invest in Art Invest in Land Invest in Real Estate Invest in Wine Invest in Gold Mortgages Refinance Purchase Find a Mortgage Broker Crypto Get Started Is Bitcoin a Good Investment? Is Ethereum a Good Investment? What is Blockchain Best Altcoins How to Buy Cryptocurrency? DeFi Crypto and DeFi 101 What is DeFi? Decentralized Exchanges Best DeFi Yield Farms Digital Securities NFTs NFT Release Calendar What is a Non-Fungible Token (NFT)? How to Buy Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) CryptoPunks Watchlist Are NFTs a Scam or a Digital Bubble? Best In Crypto Best Crypto Apps Best Crypto Portfolio Trackers Best Crypto Day Trading Strategies Best Crypto IRA Best Cryptocurrency Scanners Best Business Crypto Accounts Best Crypto Screeners Cannabis News Earnings Interviews Deals Regulations Psychedelics TV YouTube Video Podcasts Trading School My Stocks Tools Calendars Analyst Ratings Calendar Dividend Calendar Conference Call Calendar Earnings Calendar Economic Calendar FDA Calendar Guidance Calendar IPO Calendar M&A Calendar Retail Sales Calendar SPAC Calendar Stock Split Calendar Trade Ideas Insider Trades Trade Idea Feed Analyst Ratings Unusual Options Activity Short Interest Most Shorted Largest Increase Largest Decrease Calculators Margin Calculator Premium QQQ – –% DIA – –% SPY – –% TLT – –% GLD – –% BTC/USD – –% Sprinklr, Inc. Annual Report (Form10) Accepted: Form Type: 10-K Accession Number: 0001569345-22-000006	https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/04/26563413/sprinklr-inc-annual-report-form10	2022-04-12T19:33:18Z	https://www.benzinga.com/secfilings/22/04/26563413/sprinklr-inc-annual-report-form10	true
MEMPHIS, TENN. (WREG) — A report from the Nashville Humane Association shows the director of a Tennessee animal shelter admitted to shooting animals instead of putting them down with drugs. In the report from January, Terry Kissell, of the Lauderdale County Animal Shelter, told a Humane Association employee that he had been shooting animals to euthanize them because their paperwork had issues and their euthanasia solution was expired. A detective with the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department said he began investigating the shelter in Ripley, Tennessee, in March after he received a complaint about six dogs being shot at the facility. However, he could not find any evidence, and charges were never filed. Detective Micah Middlebrook said that Kissell admitted to shooting and killing one dog but said he did it because the dog was aggressive and charged him. At least two rescue groups said the husky was very friendly and not vicious. “It was not aggressive. It was Snowball,” said Amber Reynolds with Halfway Home Animal Rescue. “I have pictures of him hugging me, loving on me.” The Lauderdale Animal Shelter was temporarily closed in 2015, and a part-time employee was suspended after a local rescue group found a live puppy in a freezer. Debbie Flowers with Ripley Animal Rescue said she came to the shelter to take pictures of puppies and heard several had been euthanized. Flowers said she checked the freezer and noticed one still had a pulse. Reynolds said last week, she found one dead puppy and two live puppies in a dark, cold closet at the Lauderdale County Shelter and was told the dead puppy was put in the closet because it was dying. “It was colder than it was outside,” said Reynolds. “The puppies didn’t have a blanket. They were just lying on the plastic crate floor.” Lauderdale County Mayor Maurice Gaines said he didn’t know about any puppies being left in a closet and said 99% of the claims made against the shelter were false. “I think there was an issue where a vicious dog was put down,” said Gaines. “He was investigated. Everything was dropped.” Rescue workers said they found out dogs were being shot after Kissell was suspended and said an employee who shared pictures of Kissell with the dog and gun was fired. The mayor would not say if Kissell had been temporarily removed from his job. In the report, the Humane Association employee said all of the dogs in the shelter appeared to be in good health. However, she said the kennels and dogs were wet, and the shelter had no medical records to prove the dogs had been vaccinated or de-wormed. CASA Transport and Halfway Home both rescue dogs regularly and say the kennels are sprayed down with water while the dogs are inside them and that some dogs have not been out of their cages in several months. “Things we see are urine burns on the dogs that we pull because there aren’t beds. They are lying on the wet floor in their own feces and urine most of the time,” said Brittnie Battle with CASA Transport. Battle said she has tried to rescue as many dogs as possible but says she has been banned from the shelter since posting a Tik Tok video asking the community to support their local shelter. “We are pulling dogs every week. So unless we are able to do that, those dogs stay there,” said Battle. “Him shutting us out is a death sentence for the rest of the animals coming in.” Requests for comment from the mayor about the report from the Nashville Humane Association have not immediately been answered.	https://www.wane.com/news/tennessee-shelter-put-down-dogs-by-shooting-them-report-says/	2022-04-12T19:36:06Z	https://www.wane.com/news/tennessee-shelter-put-down-dogs-by-shooting-them-report-says/	true
(WGHP) — Cam Newton is raising some eyebrows after an appearance on a podcast. In the Sunday episode of the Barstool Sports Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, the quarterback talked about what he perceives as the role of women in society. “I had a perfect, a perfect example of what a man was in my life by my father. My parents have been together for 36, 37 years now and it’s a beautiful thing I grew up in a three-parent household: my mom, my father and my grandmother and I knew what a woman was, not a bad (expletive), a woman,” he said. He continued by explaining what he interprets the difference between a ‘bad (expletive)’ and a woman is. “A bad (expletive) is a person who is just, you know: ‘Girl, I’m a bad (expletive), I’m doing this, I’m doing that. I look the part but I don’t act that part.’ And there’s a lot of women who are bad (expletives), and I say (expletives) in a way not to degrade a woman, but just to go off the aesthetic of what they deem is a boss chick.” Newton went on to say that a “woman for me” is someone who “handles (her) own” but knows how to “cater to a man’s needs.” From there he continues. “And I think a lot of times when you get that aesthetic of: ‘I’m a boss (expletive), Imma this, Imma that.’ No, baby. But you can’t cook. You don’t know when to be quiet. You don’t know how to allow a man to lead.” While he said he didn’t want to sit behind the mic and criticize women, he wanted “men to start being men.”	https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/cam-newton-women-dont-know-when-to-be-quiet/	2022-04-12T19:45:26Z	https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/cam-newton-women-dont-know-when-to-be-quiet/	false
The Brooklyn Nets, led by Kevin Durant, face the Cleveland Cavaliers, led by guard Darius Garland, in an NBA Play-In Tournament game on Tuesday, April 12, 2022 (4/12/22) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Fans can watch the event for free via a trial of DirectTV Stream. The winner of the contest earns the 7th seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2022 NBA Playoffs. The loser will face the winner of the 9 and 10 seed game –– between the Charlotte Hornets and Atlanta Hawks –– on Friday to determine who the No. 8 seed is. Here is what you need to know: What: NBA Play-In Tournament Who: Nets vs. Cavaliers When: Tuesday, April 12, 2022 Where: Barclays Arena Time: 7 p.m. ET TV: TNT Channel finder: Verizon Fios, AT&T U-verse, Comcast Xfinity, Spectrum/Charter, Optimum/Altice, Cox, DIRECTV,Dish, Hulu, fuboTV, Sling. Live stream: DirectTV Stream (free trial) *** It lasted 174 days, required the usage of more players than any season in history primarily because of the ongoing challenge of playing through a pandemic, and saw playoff-positioning chases go all the way down to the final moments. Now, move over, regular season. The NBA’s postseason is finally here. Kyrie Irving can play at home again, a change-of-heart regarding vaccination rules that was made a few weeks ago by the city of New York in a move that will have immediate impact on the race to the NBA championship. Irving and the Brooklyn Nets held off the Indiana Pacers 134-126 on Sunday, and will play host to the first play-in game of this year’s tournament when they face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night. That matchup wasn’t set until Sunday, nor was the other Eastern Conference play-in matchup: No. 9 Atlanta will play host to No. 10 Charlotte on Wednesday night. The winner of that game will play the Nets-Cavaliers loser on Friday to determine who’ll face No. 1 Miami in an East first-round series. The Nets-Cavaliers winner will be seeded No. 7 and meet second-seeded Boston in the first round. The Celtics secured the No. 2 seed on Sunday night with a win in Memphis, combined with Milwaukee’s loss to Cleveland. Charlotte will be without forward Gordon Hayward, announcing Sunday that he’s “out indefinitely with continued discomfort in his left foot.” Hayward’s foot will be placed in a cast for at least two weeks, meaning if the Hornets win twice in the play-in tournament and get into the postseason, he’ll likely miss most of Round 1, at minimum, as well. OTHER MATCHUPS Defending NBA champion Milwaukee will be seeded No. 3 in the East and will play No. 6 Chicago in a first-round series. Fourth-seeded Philadelphia will face fifth-seeded Toronto in another East matchup. In the West, Golden State secured the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 Denver in Round 1. Dallas — which lost Luka Doncic to a calf strain Sunday — will play No. 5 Utah in another first-round series out West. SCORING TITLE Joel Embiid of Philadelphia is the league’s scoring champion, averaging 30.6 points. He was held out of the 76ers’ finale Sunday, not that he needed it for any statistical reasons. Embiid — who hails from Cameroon — becomes the first international player to win that title. Embiid is also the first center to win the scoring crown since Shaquille O’Neal in 1999-2000. ONE LAST ROUT The Los Angeles Clippers beat Oklahoma City 138-88 on Sunday. It was the fourth NBA game to be decided by at least 50 points this season — a new league record. RACE TO 82 Only five players were in position to play on Sunday and officially appear in all 82 regular-season games with their team this season: Phoenix’s Mikal Bridges, Detroit’s Saddiq Bey, Washington’s Deni Avdija, Dallas’ Dwight Powell and the Warriors’ Kevon Looney. They all appeared in games Sunday, completing the 82-game quest. Having only five players get to 82 marked the fewest number of players in NBA history to have appeared in every game for a full regular season. There were 11 players who appeared in all 72 games last season, which was shortened because of the pandemic. There were 14 every-game players in 2019-20, when teams played differing numbers of games, again because of the pandemic and then with not every team advancing to the restart bubble in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. (The Associated Press contributed to this report.) Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Ryan Novozinsky may be reached at rnovozinsky@njadvancemedia.com.	https://www.nj.com/sports-news/2022/04/brooklyn-nets-vs-cleveland-cavaliers-live-stream-41222-watch-nba-play-in-tournament-online-time-tv-channel.html	2022-04-12T19:45:53Z	https://www.nj.com/sports-news/2022/04/brooklyn-nets-vs-cleveland-cavaliers-live-stream-41222-watch-nba-play-in-tournament-online-time-tv-channel.html	false
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried dies after long illness, family says Advertisement Comedian Gilbert Gottfried dies after long illness, family says Comedian Gilbert Gottfried has died after a long illness, according to a statement from his family posted to his official Twitter page. He was 67."We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness," the post reads. "In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert's honor."This is a breaking story; check back for updates. Comedian Gilbert Gottfried has died after a long illness, according to a statement from his family posted to his official Twitter page. He was 67. "We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness," the post reads. "In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert's honor." Advertisement This is a breaking story; check back for updates.	https://www.4029tv.com/article/gilbert-gottfried-obit/39705508	2022-04-12T19:55:05Z	https://www.4029tv.com/article/gilbert-gottfried-obit/39705508	true
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Roman Catholic Church is asking the Idaho Supreme Court to let it intervene in a lawsuit over a new law banning nearly all abortions. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, which covers all of Idaho, filed the request to intervene in support of the abortion ban as a “friend of the court” on Monday. Idaho last month became the first state to enact legislation modeled after the Texas statute banning abortions after about six weeks. The law would allow the potential father, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles of the embryo or fetus to each sue an abortion provider for a minimum of $20,000 in damages within four years after the abortion. Rapists can’t file a lawsuit under the law, but a rapist’s relatives could. Planned Parenthood of Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky sued over the law, calling it unconstitutional, and last week the Idaho Supreme Court blocked the abortion ban from taking effect while the lawsuit is underway. In the request to intervene, attorneys for the Catholic church said the Diocese has “maintained a vested interest in the dignity and sanctity of all human life, including life of the unborn.” The bishop of the diocese, Bishop Peter Christensen, wrote in a legal filing that the church helped get the abortion ban through the Legislature. “The Diocese counseled and educated legislators regarding the same, and provided support during the legislative process to proponents of the bill,” Christensen wrote in the legal filing. The lawsuit is one of many legal fights going on nationwide over access to abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority signaled willingness in a Mississippi case to severely erode or even strike down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide until a baby can survive outside the womb. Numerous states with Republican majorities are poised to follow the strictest interpretation of the ruling.	https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Catholic-church-asks-to-intervene-in-Idaho-17075997.php	2022-04-12T19:58:16Z	https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Catholic-church-asks-to-intervene-in-Idaho-17075997.php	true
Dozens of riot police descend on southeast London funfair: One person is feared stabbed, three others are arrested and parents are told to take children away from the scene amid chaos - Arrests were made over possession of an offensive weapon and related offences - Officers were seen responding in Greenwich Park as helicopter hovers overhead - Local politicians told parents to make sure children return home immediately Dozens of riot police tonight descended on a southeast London funfair as three people were arrested amid fears of a stabbing. Parents around Greenwich Park and in the wider Blackheath area have been told to keep their children away from the scene after chaos began to erupt earlier this evening. Footage from the scene shows a line of police officers marching through the park as crowds disperse, while a helicopter hovers overhead. Officers and a number of police vans have also been spotted 'pushing kids down the street away from the heath', according to witnesses, with local politicians taking to social media to urge youngsters to avoid the area. The Met told MailOnline a stabbing has been reported amid calls of antisocial behaviour, though no injured victim has been found. Police chiefs added that three people have been arrested for possession of an offensive weapon and related offences. The disruption took place at the scene of Blackheath Bank Holiday Fun Fair, which has put on a range of rides and attractions during the Easter holidays. Organisers said on its Facebook page this evening that the festivities were closed 'due to unforeseen circumstances'. Police are dealing with reports of antisocial behaviour and a number of assaults at Greenwich Park (stock image) A Met spokesman said: 'Police are dealing with reports of antisocial behaviour and a number of assaults at Greenwich Park. 'A stabbing has also been reported; no victim has been found. 'A section 60 has been authorised and is in place until 07:00hrs on Wednesday, 13 April. 'Three people have been arrested for possession of an offensive weapon and related offences.' Matthew Pennycook, MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, tweeted: 'I’m aware of the large-scale disorder taking place on Circus Field, Blackheath. 'The police are deploying extra resource. Please avoid the area. If you believe your child is at the funfair or in the area, please ask them to return home immediately.' Greenwich Council leader Dan Thorpe added: 'We are aware of serious disorder on #blackheath and @Royal_Greenwich are liaising closely with @MPSGreenwich - there is significant disruption in the area and will continue to be for some time. Please avoid the area and keep checking our socials for updates. 'If your child is in the #blackheath area - or you don’t know where they are - please make urgent contact. Make sure they go home asap. This is an urgent message to parents & carers across @Royal_Greenwich - we appreciate your help. #greenwich'	https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10712443/Dozens-riot-police-descend-southeast-London-funfair.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490	2022-04-12T19:59:32Z	https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10712443/Dozens-riot-police-descend-southeast-London-funfair.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490	true
PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix-area man faces four years in prison after pleading guilty to falsely claiming non-existent employees and business revenues when applying for $3.5 million in federal pandemic relief loans in 2020. The sentence imposed Thursday on James Theodore Polzin, 48, of Gilbert included an order that Polzin pay over $2.2 million in restitution. According to federal officials, Polzin used a portion of the proceeds of the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster loans for his own personal benefit, “ which included purchasing a Porsche, a home, and stashing money offshore." “This defendant defrauded a program intended to assist hardworking Americans who have been unfairly impacted as a result of this unprecedented and challenging health crisis,” said Scott Brown, special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Polzin pleaded guilty last fall to wire fraud and transactional money laundering.	https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Arizona-man-gets-4-year-sentence-in-pandemic-loan-17075905.php	2022-04-12T20:00:33Z	https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Arizona-man-gets-4-year-sentence-in-pandemic-loan-17075905.php	true
Today is: National Licorice Day News-Messenger/News Journal USA Today Network National Licorice Day is observed next on Tuesday, April 12. It has been observed annually on April 12 since 2004. Licorice is an effective remedy for practically the treatment and prevention of some types of cancer. It can reduce stress, calm your mind and gives you energy. They say that drinking licorice infusions every day helps emotional well-being, combat migraines and reduce stress. Licorice is the common name of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavoring can be extracted. The liquorice plant is an herbaceous perennial legume native to Western Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe. Source: Checkiday.com.	https://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/2022/04/12/today-is-national-licorice-day/9469672002/	2022-04-12T20:05:17Z	https://www.thenews-messenger.com/story/news/2022/04/12/today-is-national-licorice-day/9469672002/	true
CM KCR dubs Centre 'insensitive', 'arrogant' & 'heartless' A day after Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao led a dharna in New Delhi by TRS demanding the Centre buy entire paddy produced in the State during rabi, he lashed out at the government for being ‘insensitive’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘heartless’. Hyderabad: A day after Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao led a dharna in New Delhi by TRS demanding the Centre buy entire paddy produced in the State during rabi, he lashed out at the government for being 'insensitive', 'arrogant' and 'heartless'. He said the arrogance shown by Union Minister for Civil Supplies and the Centre will cost them heavily. The Prime Minister brought farm laws which he finally had to withdraw following a year-long agitation by farmers and apologise to them. The BJP only knows to rake up communal feelings or go in for Pulwama or other such strikes whenever there are elections somewhere, he said. KCR said soon he would be holding a meeting with experts, including Ashok Gulati to prepare a new agriculture policy. If the government does not adopt it, he said, the next non-BJP government will take it up. He said many 'dacoits' evaded crores of bank loans and fled the country. "They are staying in London and other foreign countries. We will soon disclose details how economic offenders were protected by the Modi government which waived off Rs 10.5 lakh crore worth NPAs of corporates." "The BJP prepared a short-cut to lure voters in the poll-bound States by raising religious issues," he said and warned the country would go back to 100 years if religious hatred increased.	https://www.thehansindia.com/news/cities/hyderabad/cm-kcr-dubs-centre-insensitive-arrogant-heartless-737810	2022-04-12T20:12:35Z	https://www.thehansindia.com/news/cities/hyderabad/cm-kcr-dubs-centre-insensitive-arrogant-heartless-737810	false
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.	https://sportspyder.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/articles/39138960	2022-04-12T20:15:41Z	https://sportspyder.com/nfl/carolina-panthers/articles/39138960	true
On April 4, 2022, in Extendicare Lynde Creek Retirement Residence and United Food & Commercial Workers Canada, Local 175, Arbitrator Stephen Raymond upheld a retirement home's mandatory vaccination policy as a reasonable workplace rule consistent with the collective agreement, the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) and the Retirement Homes Act, 2010 (RHA). Notably, Arbitrator Raymond made this finding despite the government of Ontario's and other public health authorities' recent reduction or elimination of vaccination and other COVID-19-related requirements for staff, contractors, and visitors in retirement homes, long-term care homes, and other facilities and venues (Reductions and Eliminations). It is also notable that Arbitrator Raymond found it reasonable that the policy defines "full immunization/full vaccination" (Full Immunization) as requiring all booster vaccinations Health Canada recommends from time to time and in the future. Background The retirement home's vaccination policy was announced on August 26, 2021, and became effective on October 12, 2021. Subject to any accommodation requirements under the Human Rights Code, the policy requires: - All newly hired employees to be fully immunized/vaccinated as a condition of employment; and - All existing employees to be fully immunized/vaccinated from October 12, 2021. Pursuant to the policy, Full Immunization requires all booster vaccinations Health Canada recommends from time to time and in the future. Employees who are not fully vaccinated in compliance with the policy are placed on an unpaid leave of absence; if they persist in not being fully vaccinated, they "may be subject to additional corrective action up to and including termination of employment," which action was agreed by the parties to be subject to review under the collective agreement's just cause standard. As they desired an expedited decision, the parties asked the arbitrator to provide a "bottom line award." They also asked him to consider the policy in the context of Full Immunization. Award Arbitrator Raymond decided that the policy had been and remained a reasonable workplace rule, consistent with the collective agreement, the OHSA, the RHA and the related regulations and requirements, and the relevant authorities, even in the context of the Reductions and Eliminations, and "irrespective of whether or not the Employer is choosing at any given time to conduct rapid antigen or PCR testing." The arbitrator also determined that Full Immunization was and continued to be a reasonable workplace rule consistent with all collective agreement, statutory and other requirements. Finally, Arbitrator Raymond found that, as agreed by the parties, additional corrective action or termination of employment will be subject to review under the just cause standard. Bottom Line for Employers Extendicare is a significant award for the retirement home and long-term care sectors. It suggests that in the context of such homes where care is provided to the elderly and immunocompromised, and despite the Reductions and Eliminations, mandatory vaccination policies will be considered reasonable and consistent with requirements under the collective agreement and applicable statutes. The award confirms, however, that the initial consequence for an employee's non-compliance with such a policy should be placement on unpaid leave rather than termination of employment. Extendicare suggests that it is likely that the elimination or loosening of COVID restrictions will not create barriers to the implementation of vaccination policies more broadly than in retirement and long-term care homes, and that all employers will be considered to be acting reasonably should they require their employees to get all Health Canada recommended boosters, now and in the future. The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.	https://www.mondaq.com:443/canada/health-safety/1181900/mandatory-vaccination-policy-upheld-despite-government39s-reduction-of-covid19-restrictions	2022-04-12T20:37:31Z	https://www.mondaq.com:443/canada/health-safety/1181900/mandatory-vaccination-policy-upheld-despite-government39s-reduction-of-covid19-restrictions	false
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who is both the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has been detained in a special operation carried out by the country’s SBU secret service. Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s national security agency, said on the agency’s Telegram channel that Medvedchuk had been detained. The statement came shortly after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media a photo of Medvedchuk sitting in handcuffs and wearing a camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag patch. Medvedchuk was the former leader of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform – For Life. He was being held under house arrest before the war began and disappeared shortly after hostilities broke out. Putin is the godfather to Medvedchuk’s youngest daughter. ___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: — Ukraine probes claim poisonous substance dropped in Mariupol — A look at Russia’s military objectives and challenges it faces — ‘It’s not the end’: The children who survived Bucha’s horror — Russian war worsens fertilizer crunch, risking food supplies — Czechs provide free shooting training for local Ukrainians — Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Congress said the Biden administration and its allies will not stand by if chemical weapons were used in the Russian war with Ukraine. Lawmakers monitoring developments during a trip to Poland said Tuesday that the U.S. is investigating reports that a poisonous substance had been dropped in Mariupol. But they cautioned that determining the nature of the attack in the beleaguered port city could take time. “We’re taking those reports seriously and I know the United States government and others are trying to determine if that did indeed occur,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. Crow said the administration “has been very clear that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.” The Democratic lawmakers, all members of the House Intelligence Committee, are bracing for a potential long war in Ukraine. They said at a press briefing that Congress is looking at next steps in sending additional military and other aid to Ukraine. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed the reports coming from Mariupol. “We’re not in a position to confirm anything, I don’t think Ukrainians are either,” Blinken told reporters. “But let me say that we had credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, that would cause stronger symptoms to weaken, incapacitate … Ukrainian fighters and civilians, as part of the aggressive campaign” in Mariupol. “We share that information with … Ukraine and other partners,” Blinken said. “And we’re in direct conversation with partners to try to determine what what actually is happening.” ___ THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog says it is “concerned by the recent unconfirmed report of chemical weapons use in Mariupol” and is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine. The spokesperson for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says in a statement that the allegations follow “reports in the media over the past few weeks of shelling targeted at chemical plants located in Ukraine, together with accusations levelled by both sides around possible misuse of toxic chemicals.” The spokesperson said in Tuesday’s statement that the “use of chemical weapons anywhere by anyone under any circumstances is reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community against such use.” Both Russia and Ukraine are among the organization’s 193 member states. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization says that it “remains ready to assist any State Party upon its request, in case of use or threat of use of chemical weapons.” ___ WARSAW, Poland – Germany’s president has called on Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin to pull out his troops from Ukraine and stop the “barbarity” there as he stressed that Germany will not restore its previous ties with Russia as long as Putin is in power. Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Warsaw on Tuesday to talk with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda about supporting Ukraine’s fight and aiding millions of refugees fleeing the war. “This barbarity which we see every day must stop,” Steinmeier said at joint news conference. “This can only happen by President Putin ordering his army to stop and I believe that only then (armistice) talks can be successful,” Steinmeier said. “One thing is clear: a return to normal is not possible with Russia under Putin,” Steinmeier said, adding that war crimes in Ukraine must be investigated and “those who committed them and those who are politically responsible must be held accountable.” Steinmeier last week admitted mistakes in policy toward Russia in his previous high-ranking jobs, when Germany pursued dialogue with Putin and cultivated close energy ties. Steinmeier served as ex-Chancellors’ Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff and Angela Merkel’s foreign minister. Schroeder is now head of the board of directors of Russia’s state oil giant Rosneft. ___ VIENNA — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer pledged continued “political and humanitarian support” for Ukraine in a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, Nehammer said in a statement. The call came a day after Nehammer became the first European leader to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. “It’s important to me to immediately inform all key proponents in this conflict about my talks,” Nehammer said, according to the statement released Tuesday evening by the Austrian chancellery. Nehammer said he recounted his meeting in Moscow to Zelenskyy, telling the Ukrainian leader about the most important messages he relayed to Putin. Among those messages are that the war needs to stop, that those responsible for “serious war crimes” like those committed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha will be held to account, and that the European Union is “as united as it’s ever been” on maintaining its sanctions against Russia. He also told Zelenskyy he believes the continuation of talks in Istanbul are an important step toward bringing an end to the violence, and that Austria will “continue to support all ongoing efforts for peace.” ___ KYIV, Ukraine — An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has paid tribute to Ukrainian troops defending the besieged south-eastern port of Mariupol but acknowledged they are running low on supplies. Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter that “for more than 1.5 months our defenders protect the city from (Russian) troops, which are 10+ times larger. They’re fighting under the bombs for each meter of the city. They make (Russia) pay an exorbitant price.” Mariupol was a key target for Russian forces soon after the invasion began in late February. It has symbolic significance as one of the largest cities in eastern Ukraine. It is also strategically valuable as a major harbor and as part of a land corridor between territory held by Russia-backed separatists to the east and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. “Our soldiers remain blocked and have issues with supplies,” Podolyak wrote, adding that Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian general staff are working “to find a solution and help our guys.” He did not give details, citing operational reasons. ___ KYIV, Ukraine — The mayor of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where corpses of civilians with bound hands and gunshot wounds to the head were found after Russian forces pulled out, says 403 bodies have been found so far and that he fears the toll will rise. “Today, at 10 a.m. we started unearthing the second mass grave, there are 56 bodies there. Plus, there are four private graves. But I’d like to repeat that as of today, we have 403 bodies,” Anatoliy Fedoruk told reporters in Kyiv. “Taking into account that our armed forces, our minesweepers are working in the forests between villages and settlements in our territorial community, we hope that those who are missing are still alive but most probably we will find their bodies somewhere between the villages, in those forests.” Fedoruk also said 31 multi-story residential buildings had been destroyed or damaged beyond repair during the war, along with 243 private houses. ___ BERLIN — Germany’s president says his Polish counterpart suggested that they travel to Ukraine together with other leaders to show solidarity, but that proposed visit “apparently wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s comments Tuesday, during a visit to Poland, came after German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that he’s not welcome in Kyiv at the moment because he had close relations with Russia in the past. Steinmeier said Polish President Andrzej Duda had suggested that they travel to the Ukrainian capital with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send “a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine.” He said he had been prepared to do so. Steinmeier last week admitted mistakes in policy toward Russia in his previous job as foreign minister. Steinmeier served twice as ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign minister, most recently from 2013 to 2017, and before that as ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff. In that time, Germany pursued dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and cultivated close energy ties. ___ KHARKIV, Ukraine — A strike hit a what is believed to be a culinary school near the airport in Ukraine’s second-largest city on Tuesday, destroying the building and damaging others nearby, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene. It wasn’t clear what hit the building in Kharkiv, with witnesses describing a loud whoosh followed by an explosion. There were no immediate reports of fatalities. ___ BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis used a speech to his country’s delegation of Invictus Games participants on Tuesday to admonish Russian aggression in Ukraine. “The Russian Federation has been waging war against Ukraine for almost 50 days, and shocking evidence of atrocities and horrors is unimaginable day by day,” Iohannis told the wounded and injured military personnel, who will compete in the 2022 Invictus Games set to begin in the Netherlands on Saturday. “You know best what destruction and loss of life and the dramas of war mean, how much families and communities are affected forever,” he said. Iohannis said that Russia’s acts of “horrific, unjustified cruelty” must be punished by the international justice system. The Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded servicemen and women, was launched in London in 2014. ___ KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian prosecutors are expanding their war crimes investigations in northeastern suburbs of Kyiv after Russian forces withdrew. Reports of killings of civilians have primarily focused so far on the northwestern suburbs such as Bucha, but the Prosecutor-General’s Office said Tuesday it was also looking into events in the Brovary district, which lies to the northeast. Russian troops advanced into that area last month before retreating to focus on fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Prosecutor-General’s Office said the bodies of six civilians had been found with gunshot wounds in a basement in the village of Shevchenkove and that Russian forces were believed to be responsible. Prosecutors are also investigating an incident in which they allege Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians trying to leave by car from the village of Peremoha in the Brovary district, killing four people including a 13-year-old boy. In another incident near Bucha, five people were killed, including two children, when a car was fired upon, prosecutors said. Prosecutors did not say when they believed the incidents occurred. ___ MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says that Russians’ unity will only grow stronger in the face of Western sanctions and it will be the West that will face instability. Putin said during a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East on Tuesday that the West mistakenly expected its sanctions to undermine Russia’s stability. He said that “the Russian people always strengthen their unity in a difficult situation.” He insisted that it will be the West that will be shaken by growing instability, fueled by public dismay over galloping inflation. The Russian leader also lashed out at European leaders, describing them as Washington’s stooges and saying that they are conducting policies harmful to their nations. ___ MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says that Russia will press on with its military action in Ukraine until its goals are fulfilled. Putin said Tuesday that the campaign is going according to plan. He said it is not moving faster because Russia wants to minimize losses. He said during a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East that the “military operation will continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.” Putin claimed that Ukraine backtracked on proposals it made during talks with Russian negotiators in Istanbul, resulting in a deadlock in talks and leaving Moscow no other choice but to press on with its offensive. ___ MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian economy has successfully resisted new Western sanctions over Ukraine. Speaking Tuesday on a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East, Putin said that Russia’s economy and financial system withstood the impact of what he called the Western sanctions “blitz” and the ruble has recovered its losses. Putin argued that the sanctions will backfire against the West. For example, he said that Western restrictions on fertilizer exports from Russia and ally Belarus will drive up global fertilizer prices, eventually leading to food shortages and increased migration flows. Putin said that “common sense should prevail” and added that the West should “come back to reason and make well-balanced decisions without losing its face.” He contended that “they won’t be able to shut all the doors and windows.” He argued that new Western restrictions on high-tech exports will encourage Russia to move faster to develop new technologies, opening a “new window of opportunities.” ___ BOSTON — Ukrainian officials say a planned cyberattack by Russian military hackers on the country’s power grid has been foiled. They say the country’s computer emergency response thwarted an attack planned by hackers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that intended to knock electrical substations offline last Friday. The State Service of Special Communications said on its website that malware was discovered designed to destroy data on computers. There was no immediate explanation of how the attack was defeated, though the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine thanked Microsoft and the cybersecurity firm ESET in a separate bulletin. Nor was the scope immediately explained. GRU hackers twice successfully attacked Ukraine’s power grid, in the winters of 2015 and 2016. Russia’s use of cyberattacks against Ukrainian infrastructure has been limited compared to experts’ pre-war expectations. In the early hours of the war, however, an attack Ukraine blames on Russia knocked offline an important satellite communications link that also impacted tens of thousands of Europeans from France to Poland. ___ BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia’s government has approved increasing the number of troops in a multinational NATO battlegroup in the country from 2,100 to 3,000. The first 800 service members have already arrived in Slovakia. The Czech Republic took charge of the battlegroup, with the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia also contributing. Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad says the increase in the planned troop numbers is related to Patriot air defense systems that the United States, Germany and the Netherlands are deploying in Slovakia. The move should boost Slovakia’s defense capabilities after the country donated its Soviet-era S-300 air defense system to Ukraine last week. The alliance stationed troops in the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and Poland after the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula by Russia. After Russia attacked Ukraine, NATO decided to boost its presence along the entire eastern flank by deploying forces in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. ___ GENEVA — The World Trade Organization is predicting that trade in goods will grow much less than previously expected this year, saying prospects for the global economy have darkened since the onset of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Geneva-based WTO on Tuesday pointed to multiple uncertainties in its forecast over the next two years because Russian and Ukrainian exports of items like food, oil and fertilizers are under threat from the war. It also cited the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic –- notably from lockdowns in China. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala described a “double whammy” from the conflict and the coronavirus. She said the war has caused “immense human suffering” in the region and its effect has rippled around the world, notably in poorer countries. The WTO said its projections for world trade take into account factors like the impact of the war, sanctions on Russia, and lower demand around the world from lower business and consumer confidence. It said world merchandise trade volume is expected to grow 3% this year, down from a forecast of 4.7% before the war began. ___ MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has hit Ukrainian arsenals with long-range cruise missiles. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that the military used air- and sea-launched missiles to destroy an ammunition depot and a reinforced hangar for warplanes at Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region. Konashenkov said that another strike destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in Havrylivka, near Kyiv. ___ NICOSIA, Cyprus — The head of Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church is “unreservedly” condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying there’s “no justification” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “destroy a country, to raze it to kill.” Archbishop Chrysostomos II told state broadcaster CyBC Tuesday that the invasion is “an unacceptable situation” and that Putin’s actions have “no logic.” The archbishop said he’s distraught that people are being killed and questioned whether the Russian leader is “in his right mind.” The archbishop added that he’d be the “first to go and bless a defensive war,” but the “egotism, if not the stupidity” of the Russian leadership “knows no bounds.” Chrysostomos also questioned Putin’s embrace of Orthodox Christianity, including the sincerity of his travels to the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was baptized. ___ KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian police say they have launched a war crimes investigation after a 64-year-old man was killed by a mine left behind in an area from which Russian forces recently retreated. Police said the unidentified local man was driving Monday near the village of Krasne in northern Ukraine and had pulled over his car to greet acquaintances when he struck an anti-tank mine left at the side of the road. Ukrainian authorities have issued repeated warnings of mines and explosive traps left in areas where Russian troops have been operating. ___ BERLIN — German authorities say that over 330,000 refugees from Ukraine are known to have entered Germany so far. The Interior Ministry said Tuesday that German federal police have recorded 335,578 people entering since Russia’s invasion started on Feb. 24. Those who have arrived are overwhelmingly women and children. The true number of refugees in Germany could be higher, however, since there are no strict controls on the country’s eastern border and Ukrainian citizens can stay up to 90 days in the European Union without a visa. Officials say an unknown number also have moved on to other European countries. The U.N. refugee agency on Tuesday put the total number of people who have fled Ukraine at more than 4.6 million, over 2.6 million of whom fled at least initially to Poland.	https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/international/live-updates-separatists-deny-using-chemical-weapons/	2022-04-12T20:40:58Z	https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/international/live-updates-separatists-deny-using-chemical-weapons/	false
WASHINGTON — Legendary comedian and actor Gilbert Gottfried, known for his shrill-voice and crude humor, has died, his family announced on Tuesday afternoon. He was 67. On Gottfried's Twitter account, the comedian's family uploaded a message saying that Gottfried had been suffering from a "long illness." Glenn Schwartz, Gottfried's publicist and longtime friend, confirmed in a statement that the comedian had died from myotonic dystrophy type II, a rare genetic muscle disease that can trigger a dangerously abnormal heartbeat. "In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children," the statement read. "Although today is a sad day for us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert's honor." Besides his raunchy comedic style using an exaggerated, grated voice, Gottfried was also known for his numerous voice acting roles, including the sassy-mouthed parrot "Iago" in "Aladdin," and the iconic Aflac Duck for Aflac Insurance. Back in January, Gottfried shared a photo featuring himself and two other comedy legends who had recently passed away, Bob Saget and Louie Anderson. "This photo is very sad now. RIP Bob Saget and RIP Louie Anderson. Both good friends that will be missed.," Gottfried wrote at the time. Comedian and "Seinfeld" star Jason Alexander paid tribute to Gottfried in a tweet: "Gilbert Gottfried made me laugh at times when laughter did not come easily. What a gift. I did not know him well but I loved what he shared with me. My best wishes and sympathy to his family." New York Times writer Dave Itzkoff also paid tribute on Twitter, writing that despite his vulgar public persona, Gottfried was an "an unexpectedly gentle guy." The Associated Press contributed to this report.	https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/nation-world/gilbert-gottfried-dies-at-67/507-ecb87ac4-0b99-40d8-8097-8860989ac29a	2022-04-12T20:47:12Z	https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/nation-world/gilbert-gottfried-dies-at-67/507-ecb87ac4-0b99-40d8-8097-8860989ac29a	false
Authorities in four states responded to the scene of deadly shootings over the weekend that took the lives of multiple people. In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, police said two people died early Sunday morning when a shooting occurred inside a nightclub during a birthday party. Police arrested 32-year-old Timothy Ladell Rush on Monday in connection to the shooting. Police believe one of the victims was the target. The shooting left 10 people injured, and 25-year-old Michael Valentine and 35-year-old Nicole Owens were the victims killed. Police in Indianapolis said one man died after a fight occurred during a birthday party at a nightclub early Sunday morning. According to Scripps affiliate WRTV, 24-year-old Belansky Fanord was killed, and five others were injured. No arrests have been made. In Georgia, authorities said the Coweta County coroner arrived at a gun range owned by his family and discovered his father, mother, and son were shot to death on Friday, CBS News and NBC News reported. According to the Associated Press, 40 guns were stolen, and the surveillance camera was also taken from the Grantville business. No arrests have been made, and a $15,000 reward has been offered. In Willowbrook, California, police said a 17-year-old and a man were killed after gunfire erupted in a residential area around 4:30 p.m. Sunday, the Associated Press reported. Authorities said four men and a woman also suffered gunshot wounds. No arrests have been made.	https://www.3newsnow.com/news/national/multiple-people-killed-across-u-s-after-deadly-weekend-shootings	2022-04-12T20:48:47Z	https://www.3newsnow.com/news/national/multiple-people-killed-across-u-s-after-deadly-weekend-shootings	false
Employee Forum: salaries, job searches, more Delegates heard reports on salary banding and the University’s role in HR decisions, while telling campus leaders what may be hurting Carolina’s ability to attract job candidates. Stagnant pay, hiring challenges, salary ranges. Those words came up frequently during the April 6 Employee Forum virtual meeting as delegates talked with two University administrators about ways to retain staff and fill job openings with top-notch talent. Delegates also learned about the status of searches for several deans and senior-level positions, Carolina’s gender violence support, the Alert Carolina system, and Graduate and Professional Student Government. Human Resources update Becci Menghini, vice chancellor for human resources and equal opportunity and compliance, reported that: - Employees will soon receive notice about mandatory training on gender-based violence. - She is on a task force with the Office of State Human Resources (OSHR) that seeks flexibility in determining SHRA employee pay, particularly as a way to retain workers. The UNC Board of Governors is expected to (and on April 7 did) approve personnel rules to: - - - Authorize local boards of trustees to perform several hiring actions that previously required UNC System Office or BOG approval. - Remove salary history from consideration in determining EHRA promotional salary increases. Menghini said that Carolina is trying to effect a similar change for SHRA employees, which OSHR would review. - - - Many campus units have submitted Future of Work proposals. Requests for extensions will be reviewed weekly through June. Menghini then confirmed that OSHR is about 18 months away from implementing a new salary banding system. Carolina looks to hire at market rates, compared to some other system schools that cannot afford to do so now, she said. That “is a concern when it is time to adopt a new banding system. Are the salary ranges broad enough to address the needs of places like ours? Some of it is related to market, but some of it is also related to size and scope.” Roundtable with Provost Clemens Chris Clemens, provost and chief academic officer, gave updates on hiring, including completing the process for directors of the American Indian Center and the Women’s Center and continuing searches for a new Stone Center director, the head of UNC Libraries, deans for the College of Arts & Sciences and the schools of dentistry, government, nursing and public health, and interviewing nominees for academic lead of the School of Data Science and Society. Later, delegate Shayna Hill said that although candidate pools for leadership openings are strong, filling staff jobs has been challenging. “We can’t attract people, and a lot of us are trying to cobble together several jobs. We want to be able to support these great new leaders coming in, but we’re dying here. We have seen salaries stagnate. We’re happy that there was some movement from the legislature this time around, but benefits have been dwindling. We just don’t appear to be an employer of choice right now, and we’re struggling.” Clemens asked to dig into Hill’s statements to help him form action items that he could do in addition to what HR is doing. Delegates responded in the Zoom chat and the conversation, repeatedly referring to pay and benefits. Menghini said that the turnover rate and hiring challenges, particularly for EHRA employees, are related to Carolina having little authority and flexibility in setting salary ranges, something she said she hopes the OSHR task force can improve. Clemens said that he would find out what Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz is doing and try to help those efforts. “The more our senior leadership is backing Becci and her team in these advocacy efforts and saying what we need in order to effectuate our mission and the more voices we have saying what we need, that will put pressure on them to make a change sooner rather than later.” He also said: - His transition team is creating a reorganization plan and permanent ways for faculty and staff to communicate with his office. - He will soon seek approval for a position focused on faculty advancement and success, which will recruit faculty fellows and provide leadership training. - Tents on campus will be removed in May. - Tom Shanahan, chief administrative officer, will attend to legal and administrative matters such as delegated authorities, operating procedures and affiliation agreements between campus units and UNC Hospitals. Gender violence support and prevention Gender Violence Services Coordinator (GVSC) Holly Lovern reported on Carolina’s prevention and response to sexual assault and sexual harassment. Carolina’s two GVSCs offer advocacy and free, confidential support to anyone experiencing sexual violence, interpersonal violence, stalking, exploitation or sexual and gender-based harassment. They make no formal report to the University or law enforcement, unless required by law. Alert Carolina Clery Compliance Manager Jenn Scott and Director of Emergency Management Darrell Jeter presented on Carolina Alert system operations. There are four alerts: - Emergency notifications — significant or dangerous situations posing immediate threat to campus community. This is the only one broadcast via outdoor sirens. - Crime alerts — serious or continuing threats resulting from a Clery Actcrime occurring on University-owned or controlled property. - Adverse conditions — severe weather, major utility outages. - Informational — significant situations, but not emergency or crime. Scott said that Carolina cannot send notifications that compromise efforts to assist victims or investigate incidents or mitigate an incident’s danger. She stressed that anyone can receive notifications through the Carolina Ready Safety app. Asked about groups whose presence on campus might make some feel unsafe, Jeter said that, as a public institution, Carolina must be open to free expression. “But if there is an immediate threat, a significant ongoing threat or some public safety concern, we would definitely utilize our system to advise the campus community.” Amy Johnson, vice chancellor for student affairs, said that her office is working with Information Technology Services and Jeter to create an opt-in tool to send “a more discretionary notice” about groups that may be on campus. Other business included: - Approval of Resolution 22-03, “Concerning Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment,” and Resolution 22-02, “Addressing Serious Retention, Morale and Resource Problems in University Housekeeping Services.” - Jessica Pyjas, work/life and wellness program manager, recommending: - - Wellness Wednesday Webinars on topics such as financial planning and managing staff through stressful situations. - The Eat Smart, Move More, Weigh Less program. - Virtual Mindful Monday sessions. - - Graduate Professional Student Government’s Neel Swamy, immediate past president, and Theodore Nollert, new president, describing GPSG’s structure, recent accomplishments and goals.	https://thewell.unc.edu/2022/04/11/employee-forum-salaries-job-searches-more/	2022-04-12T20:51:58Z	https://thewell.unc.edu/2022/04/11/employee-forum-salaries-job-searches-more/	false
Hey everyone, guess what? I finally resorted to using my real legal name for the final issue as well as probably my last time writing for SIN. It has been a fantastic four years of hard work and creativity. I’m eagerly waiting to receive my degree and close a beautiful chapter of my life. I have recently evacuated my family from Ukraine and it has been such a heart-wrenching reunion. Just as I am writing this more photos of the destruction the Russian army had caused my country and my people in the Kyiv region are emerging. The war is far from over and Ukrainians are still suffering. I still have family in Ukraine but now it’s beyond worry for my family. I feel rage, a rage I’ve never felt before in my entire life. I have forever lost my sleep. Every time I close my eyes I hear the cries of children and people who are terrified and running for their lives. I see the dead in my dreams; the horrific pictures of our dead and the state that they were buried in haunt me. I have never hated anything in my life but now I truly know what hate is. I am disgusted with certain European leaders, notably in Germany and a few others who I feel put money and profit above human life and peace. Most of you can simply turn off your phone and hang out with your friends and family, and at least for a few moments forget about the war and live your lives the way you normally would. I don’t have that luxury. When I’m away from my phone I fear the news I’ll come back to. When I try to sleep I remember all the horrible things Russians have sent me or my friends and how they speak of my people in media and to their inner circles. I used to think that Putin was the problem, I no longer think that. My family are settling well in Ireland, I am happy I can provide them with the safety they need. I have started working as an interpreter for the UNHCR Ireland and spend a lot of time with the Ukrainian refugees from all over Ukraine. Has this taken a toll on my mental health? Yes, I now experience what I feel might be PTSD every time I hear an alarm, every time I hear the Russian language, and every time I hear my phone ring. I will never live my life as I did before. Every worry I had before February 24th now seems so meaningless to me. Believe it or not but I even had some people who actually thought it was appropriate to compare my reaction to the Will Smith situation to the way I react to the Russian invasion of my country. I’ve blocked and removed more people from my socials than I care to count. In this day and age, it surprises me that people still lack common sense and humanity. I hate to make my last entry so heavy and negative but unfortunately, this has not been a good year so far, and I pray that it gets better and that someday we will all meet in Kyiv, which will be fully rebuilt and flourishing. I hope we will meet in the beautiful city of Mariupol, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, and of course our heroic Bucha. Glory to Ukraine and its people and glory to all students of NUI Galway who have supported Ukraine and its people, who have donated to our army, who have shared information on their socials and helped Ukraine against Russia’s propaganda war. For those of you graduating, the very best of luck to you! To those who continue their studies, good luck in your upcoming exams and I wish you a flourishing student career filled with happiness and opportunity.	https://sin.ie/2022/04/12/ukrainian-student-diary/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ukrainian-student-diary	2022-04-12T20:57:45Z	https://sin.ie/2022/04/12/ukrainian-student-diary/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=ukrainian-student-diary	false
Russia-Ukraine war: What happened today (April 12) As Tuesday draws to a close in Kyiv and in Moscow, here are the key developments of the day: More than 1,800 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began on Feb. 24, according to the Office of the U.N High Commissioner for Human Rights. The group has also documented nearly 2,500 injured civilians, though it says actual figures for civilian casualties are likely to be "considerably higher." A Russian convoy continues moving south toward the town of Izium in eastern Ukraine, which has already been surrounded by heavy fighting, according to the Pentagon. The convoy is believed to be part of Russia's efforts to reposition troops in advance of a major offensive in eastern Ukraine in the coming days. This follows the retreat of Russian troops from Kyiv and other northern cities, leaving tens of thousands of mines in their wake, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukrainian authorities arrested fugitive oligarch and pro-Russian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Zelenskyy shared a photo of handcuffed Medvedchuk, who'd been under house arrest facing accusations of treason but escaped in February. Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his first extended remarks about Ukraine since Russian forces withdrew from northern Ukraine. He blamed Kyiv for derailing peace talks and said Russia would meet its "noble" and "necessary" objectives of protecting Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine as well Russians at home from a hostile West. Earlier, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer offered a pessimistic report from his meeting with Putin, saying he struggled to get the Russian leader to agree to guarantee humanitarian corridors, let alone a cease-fire. Western officials are calling for Russian authorities to release the detained opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza. The activist, who's been critical of the invasion of Ukraine, was arrested near his Moscow home and sentenced to 15 days in jail on the charge of disobeying a police order. Kara-Murza in 2015 and 2017 fell ill in incidents of suspected poisoning. He'd been close friends with murdered anti-Kremlin politician Boris Nemtsov. In-depth Meet the rescue team extracting people trapped in Kyiv suburbs under siege. The U.S. and India — democracies and friends — agree to disagree on the Ukraine war. Romania hasn't always seen itself as a safe haven. War in Ukraine has changed that. Holocaust museums in Canada, U.S., U.K. and South Africa have condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine. These intricately decorated eggs are raising money and good wishes for Ukraine. Earlier developments You can read more news from Tuesday here, and daily recaps here. For context and more in-depth stories, you can find NPR's full coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR's State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day. Loading...	https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092316260/russia-ukraine-war-what-happened-today-april-12	2022-04-12T21:08:27Z	https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092316260/russia-ukraine-war-what-happened-today-april-12	false
Storm Prediction Ctr, Norman, OK Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, April 12, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH OUTLINE UPDATE FOR WS 110 NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 323 PM CDT TUE APR 12 2022 SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 110 REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 900 PM CDT FOR THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS TX . TEXAS COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE BROWN CALLAHAN COLEMAN COMANCHE CONCHO EASTLAND ERATH HAMILTON HOOD JACK MCCULLOCH MASON MENARD MILLS PALO PINTO PARKER RUNNELS SAN SABA SHACKELFORD SOMERVELL STEPHENS TAYLOR THROCKMORTON WISE YOUNG ...THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR NORTHEASTERN COLEMAN COUNTY IS CANCELLED... The severe thunderstorm which prompted the warning has moved out of the warned area. Therefore, the warning has been cancelled. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 900 PM CDT for west central Texas. ...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 345 PM CDT FOR NORTHERN BROWN COUNTY... At 323 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located over Byrds, moving east at 30 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and nickel size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Expect damage to roofs, siding, and trees. This severe storm will be near... May around 340 PM CDT. Other locations impacted by this severe thunderstorm include Owens and Thrifty. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather	https://www.thehour.com/weather/article/TX-Storm-Prediction-Ctr-Norman-OK-Warnings-17076141.php	2022-04-12T21:08:35Z	https://www.thehour.com/weather/article/TX-Storm-Prediction-Ctr-Norman-OK-Warnings-17076141.php	true
WFO SAN ANGELO Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Tuesday, April 12, 2022 _____ SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING The National Weather Service in San Angelo has issued a * Severe Thunderstorm Warning for... Northern Brown County in west central Texas... Northeastern Coleman County in west central Texas... * Until 345 PM CDT. * At 238 PM CDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Echo, or 7 miles north of Coleman, moving east at 30 mph. HAZARD...60 mph wind gusts and half dollar size hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Hail damage to vehicles is expected. Expect wind damage to roofs, siding, and trees. * This severe thunderstorm will be near... Burkett around 300 PM CDT. Grosvenor and Cross Cut around 310 PM CDT. Lake Brownwood around 315 PM CDT. Byrds around 320 PM CDT. Lake Brownwood State Park around 325 PM CDT. May around 340 PM CDT. Other locations impacted by this severe thunderstorm include Echo, Owens and Thrifty. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building. _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather	https://www.myjournalcourier.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-SAN-ANGELO-Warnings-Watches-and-17076010.php	2022-04-12T21:09:02Z	https://www.myjournalcourier.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-SAN-ANGELO-Warnings-Watches-and-17076010.php	true
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) — Krispy Kreme announced Monday that it will deflate the price of an Original Glazed dozen donuts to the average price of a gallon of regular gas. “We know everyone could use a little doughnut deflation to sweeten the recent pain at the pump,” the company said on its website. “So for the next four Wednesdays, we are helping you fill your tank with Original Glazed ® Dozens by pricing them at the cost of the national average of 1 gallon of regular gas.” Krispy Kreme is running the promotion every Wednesday from April 13 through May 5. The price for April 13 is $4.11, but that will change week to week based on the national average price of a gallon of regular gas in the U.S. Krispy Kreme will announce the new price for the dozen donuts every Monday on its Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as on its website. The company said guests are limited to two Original Glazed dozens at participating shops. Purchases can be made in-store, via drive-thru or online.	https://www.yourbasin.com/news/krispy-kreme-matches-cost-of-dozen-doughnuts-to-us-average-gas-price/	2022-04-12T21:09:05Z	https://www.yourbasin.com/news/krispy-kreme-matches-cost-of-dozen-doughnuts-to-us-average-gas-price/	true
STARR COUNTY, Texas (Nexstar) — After charging a 26-year-old Texas woman for murder for an alleged ‘self-induced abortion’ that killed an individual last week, Starr County District Attorney Gocha Allen Ramirez announced Sunday the charges have been dropped. Officials with the Starr County Sheriff’s Office arrested Lizelle Herrera last week after the grand jury indictment came down. Now, DA Allen Ramirez said the woman “cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her” following review of relevant Texas law. “In reviewing this case, it is clear that the Starr County Sheriff’s Department did their duty in investigating the incident brought to their attention by the reporting hospital. To ignore the incident would have been a dereliction of their duty,” Ramirez said in a statement. “…Following that oath, the only correct outcome to this matter is to immediately dismiss the indictment.” His office said it would not be providing any more commentary about the situation on Monday. According to the indictment obtained by Nexstar, Herrera “knowingly cause[d] the death of an individual J.A.H by self-induced abortion.” What is still unclear is whether Hererra performed the abortion on herself or another individual. Starr County authorities have not disclosed who “J.A.H” is. If Herrera performed it on herself, the state could have hypothetically charged her with injury to a child. According to the definition in Texas code, an “individual” means a “human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth.” Federal precedent does not allow the state to punish women who seek and obtain abortions in any state. While Texas has various restrictions when it comes to providing an abortion, its state code specifically outlines if a pregnant woman performs a self-induced abortion, she cannot be held criminally liable. Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, said if Herrera was performing it on herself, that may explain why the charges were dropped. “The Texas laws make very clear that self-inducing an abortion — regardless of what the rules might say about when abortion is permissible and under what circumstances — it is not a crime. And it’s certainly not the crime of murder,” she said. Last week’s initial charges came as Texas has been in the national spotlight since Senate Bill 8 went into effect in September last year. That law allows private citizens to sue anyone who aids or abets an abortion beginning when cardiac activity is detected in the womb, which usually occurs around six weeks of pregnancy. Grossman hypothesized it could have been an error on the district attorney’s behalf misunderstanding how the new law affects abortion, because SB8 specifically delegates the enforcement power to private citizens through civil lawsuits. “SB8, remember, specifically does not allow the state to enforce that rule at all, not even in a civil context,” she said. “There’s no circumstance in which SB8 could have come into play here in any legitimate way.” Following passing of SB8, a study from the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Policy Evaluation Project found about 1,400 Texans each month were traveling to neighboring states for abortion services, including Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Oklahoma. “The issues surrounding this matter are clearly contentious, however based on Texas law and the facts presented, it is not a criminal matter,” Ramirez wrote. The Associated Press and KVEO contributed to this report.	https://www.krqe.com/news/national/were-the-charges-against-the-woman-in-self-induced-abortion-case-legal-its-complicated/	2022-04-12T21:09:43Z	https://www.krqe.com/news/national/were-the-charges-against-the-woman-in-self-induced-abortion-case-legal-its-complicated/	false
SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were: 8-8-0 (eight, eight, zero) SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were: 8-8-0 (eight, eight, zero)	https://www.mysanantonio.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-Midday-game-17076125.php	2022-04-12T21:10:15Z	https://www.mysanantonio.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-Midday-game-17076125.php	true
Russian military hackers attempted to knock out power to millions of Ukrainians last week in a long-planned attack but were foiled, Ukrainian government officials said Tuesday. At one targeted high-voltage power station, the hackers succeeded in penetrating and disrupting part of the industrial control system, but people defending the station were able to prevent electrical outages, the Ukrainians said. “The threat was serious, but it was prevented in a timely manner,” a top Ukrainian cybersecurity official, Victor Zhora, told reporters through an interpreter. “It looks that we were very lucky.” The hackers from Russia's GRU military intelligence agency used an upgraded version of malware first seen in its successful 2016 attack that caused blackouts in Kyiv, officials said, that was customized to target multiple substations. They simultaneously seeded malware designed to wipe out computer operating systems, hindering recovery. Authorities did not specify how many substations were targeted or their location, citing security concerns, but a deputy energy minister, Farid Safarov, said “2 million people would have been without electricity supply if it was successful.” Zhora, the deputy chair of the State Service of Special Communications, said the malware was programmed to knock out power on Friday evening just as people returned home from work and switched on news reports. U.S. & World He said that power grid networks were penetrated before the end of February, when Russia invaded, and that the attackers later uploaded the malware, dubbed Industroyer2. The malware succeeded in disrupting one component of the impacted power station's management systems, also known as SCADA systems. Zhora would not offer further details or explain how the attack was defeated or which partners may have assisted directly in defeating it. He did acknowledge the depth of international assistance Ukraine has received in identifying intrusions and the challenges of trying to rid government, power grid and telecommunications networks of attackers. The helpers include keyboard warriors from U.S. Cybercommand. Cybercom was asked if it assisted in the emergency response but did not immediately answer. The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine thanked Microsoft and the cybersecurity firm ESET for their assistance in dealing with the power grid attack in a bulletin posted online. Officials said the destructive attacks had been planned at least since March 23, and Zhora speculated it was timed by Russia to “invigorate” its soldiers after they took heavy losses in a failed bid to capture Kyiv, the capital. Zhora stressed that Russian cyberattacks have not successfully knocked out any power to Ukrainians since this invasion began. GRU hackers from a group that researchers call Sandworm twice successfully attacked Ukraine’s power grid — in the winters of 2015 and 2016. U.S. prosecutors indicted six GRU officials in 2020 for using a previous version of the Industroyer malware to attack Ukraine's power grid by gaining control of electrical substation switches and circuit breakers. In the 2016 attack, Sandworm hackers used Industroyer to turn circuit breakers on and off in a sequence designed to create a blackout, said Jean-Ian Boutin, director of threat research at ESET. “We know that Industroyer still has the capability to turn off circuit breakers,” he said. Working closely with Ukrainian responders, ESET also determined that the attackers had infected networks at the targeted plants with disk-wiping software. Successfully activating the malware would have rendered plant systems in operable, seriously hindering remediation and recovery and destroying the attackers' digital footprints, Boutin said. One of the destructive malware varieties used in the attack, dubbed CaddyWiper, was first discovered by ESET in mid-March being used against a Ukrainian bank, he said. Western prosecutors blame Sandworm for a series of high-profile cyberattacks including the most destructive, the 2017 NotPetya wiper virus that caused more than $10 billion in damage globally by destroying data on entire networks of computers of companies doing business in Ukraine including those belonging to the shipper Maersk and the pharmaceutical company Merck. Russia’s use of cyberattacks against Ukrainian infrastructure during its invasion has been limited compared with experts’ pre-war expectations. In the early hours of the war, however, an attack Ukraine blames on Russia knocked offline an important satellite communications link that also impacted tens of thousands of Europeans from France to Poland. In another serious cyberattack of the war, hackers knocked offline the internet and cellular service of a major telecommunications company that serves the military, Ukretelecom, for most of the day on March 28. Zhora said “the potential of Russian (state-backed) hackers has been overestimated” and cited a number of reasons why he believes cyberattacks have not played a major role in the conflict: — When the aggressor is pummeling civilian targets with bombs and rockets there is little need to hide behind covert cyberactivity. — Ukraine has significantly upped its cyber defenses with the help of volunteers from sympathetic countries. — Attacks as sophisticated as this effort to knock out power are complex and tend to require a lot of time. “This is not an easy thing to do,” Zhora said. Ukraine has been under steady Russian cyberattack for the past eight years, with Zhora noting that the attacks have tripled since the invasion when compared with the same period last year. Russia has said its invasion was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine, a false claim the U.S. had predicted Russia would make as a pretext for the invasion. Ukraine has called Russia's assault a “war of aggression,” saying it “will defend itself and will win.” ___ Associated Press writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.	https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/ukraine-says-potent-russian-hack-against-power-grid-thwarted/3642916/	2022-04-12T21:13:11Z	https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/national-international/ukraine-says-potent-russian-hack-against-power-grid-thwarted/3642916/	true
Last week I participated in an online forum called US CBDC—A Disaster in the making? It was hosted by Sustany Capital’s Christian Kameir, and we had a very productive discussion about the policy aspect of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). While our panelists agreed that there is very little chance the Fed will launch a fully functional CBDC in the next year or two, we did not necessarily agree on whether that was good or bad. I believe that the Fed should not launch a CBDC. Ever. And I think that Congress should amend the Federal Reserve Act, just to be on the safe side. (Kudos to Rep. Emmer (R-MN).) That position puts me at odds with the army of consultants who have been churning out papers and proclamations on CBDCs, most of whom seem only to question when the Fed will launch a CBDC. So, I was elated that our panel focused on the pure policy questions related to whether the Fed should launch a CBDC. And the experience only strengthened my resolve to keep writing about why the Fed should not. So, here goes. As a starting point, I want to distinguish between a wholesale CBDC and retail CBDC. With a wholesale CBDC, banks can electronically transact with each other using a liability of the central bank. Because that is essentially what banks do now, transact and settle (electronically) using reserve accounts held at the Fed, there aren’t very many new and interesting wholesale CBDC policy issues. (Basically, the Fed has had a wholesale CBDC for decades.) But retail CBDCs are another animal altogether. Retail CBDCs allow members of the general public to make electronic payments of all kinds with a liability of the central bank. As the Fed’s recent CBDC report states: While Americans have long held money predominantly in digital form—for example in bank accounts recorded as computer entries on commercial bank ledgers—a CBDC would differ from existing digital money available to the general public because a CBDC would be a liability of the Federal Reserve, not of a commercial bank. This feature–making electronic transactions using a liability of the Federal Reserve–is central to why Congress should make sure that the Fed never issues a retail CBDC. The problem is that the federal government, not privately owned commercial banks, would be responsible for issuing deposits. And while this fact might seem like a feature instead of bug, it’s a major problem for anything that resembles a free society. (Paper currency is also a liability of the Fed, but that fact means very little with freely circulating fiat money, especially when private banks issue deposits.) Some CBDC supporters argue that privately issued money can coexist with a CBDC, but this view is extremely short-sighted. Even most central banks fear that providing accounts directly to consumers risks disintermediating the financial system, a fear that surely helps explain Jay Powell’s public stance on retail CBDCs. It also helps explain the Fed’s fascination with an “intermediated” CBDC, whereby private banks have the privilege of servicing the consumers’ needs even though the liability remains with the central bank. Ultimately that system is no better. (At best, it would slow the disintermediation while entrenching a group of privileged firms). Regardless, the two forms of money cannot peacefully coexist unless the government hands out special privileges or subsidies. The two electronic mediums would be near perfect substitutes, and the main difference for consumers and merchants is that the Fed’s version would automatically come with zero credit or liquidity risk. Private firms can’t compete on that dimension, and they (unlike the Fed) have to recover their costs to stay in business. The Fed’s report even acknowledges this high degree of substitutability: Banks currently rely (in large part) on deposits to fund their loans. A widely available CBDC would serve as a close—or, in the case of an interest-bearing CBDC, near-perfect—substitute for commercial bank money. The only problem with this statement is that it says nothing about the degree of substitution between a non-interest bearing CBDC and commercial bank money. Commercial bank money that serves as a medium of exchange generally earns little to no interest, so even a non-interest-bearing CBDC is a near-perfect substitute for commercial bank money. Still, the interest-bearing version is particularly relevant to the policy discussion. The Fed’s current operating framework depends on paying interest to banks for their reserves. No version of reality exists without political pressure for the Fed to pay individual CBDC holders at least the same rate of interest as it pays banks on reserves, and even that level of payment increases the risk of disintermediation. Similarly, the political pressure will always be to expand the pool of people using the CBDC. While CBDC proponents currently speak of helping only the “unbanked” and the “underserved,” there is absolutely no chance that those groups won’t soon be more broadly defined. (Apparently, there’s also no chance that CBDC proponents will acknowledge that broader economic problems, not a lack of digital money, keep these folks out of the banking system. But that’s another column.) And the political reality is that CBDC advocates want to use public funds to provide something (money) at a lower cost than the private sector. Setting aside the incredibly rich irony that government rules and regulations are a primary driver of that cost in the first place, as well as the fiction that the government providing something means the cost is actually lower, this policy equates money with a public good. That is, CBDC advocates do not care if the private banking system is completely disintermediated–they want the government to provide money. But money itself is not a public good. The fact that its production has been increasingly encroached upon by the government is irrelevant. And the fact that something called a CBDC even exists is only due to payment innovations that occurred in the private market. The CBDC itself is mainly the government’s attempt to protect its privileged position and exert more control over money. The problem is that there is no limit to the level of control that the government could exert over people if money is purely electronic and provided directly by the government. A CBDC would give federal officials full control over the money going into–and coming out of–every person’s account. This level of government control is not compatible with economic or political freedom. If Congress really wants to provide more access to financial markets and ensure more innovation in financial services, members should support more private innovation and competition. They should work to lessen government monopoly and regulation while ensuring that the Fed cannot issue a CBDC.	https://www.forbes.com/sites/norbertmichel/2022/04/12/central-bank-digital-currencies-are-about-control--they-should-be-stopped/	2022-04-12T21:13:51Z	https://www.forbes.com/sites/norbertmichel/2022/04/12/central-bank-digital-currencies-are-about-control--they-should-be-stopped/	true
Newborn surrendered to hospital staff under ‘safe haven’ law GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina/Gray News) – A newborn was handed over to officials in South Carolina under protection of the state’s Safe Haven for Abandoned Babies Act. The Greenwood County Department of Social Services is caring for the baby, who was given to medical professionals at Self Regional Medical Center. According to social services, the baby boy was born April 8 weighing 6 pounds and 3 ounces. The child was turned over to hospital staff two days after he was born. Social services officials said the baby will be placed in a foster home. South Carolina’s Safe Haven for Abandoned Babies Act, also known as Daniel’s Law, allows a mother to surrender her unharmed newborn baby at a designated location without punishment. Babies up to 60 days old can be surrendered under this law. “Daniel’s Law is intended to save babies,” the website of the South Carolina Department of Social Services reads. “It is not intended to hurt or punish anyone. It provides a safe option for mother and baby.” Copyright 2022 WHNS via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.	https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/12/newborn-surrendered-hospital-staff-under-safe-haven-law/	2022-04-12T21:13:53Z	https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/12/newborn-surrendered-hospital-staff-under-safe-haven-law/	false
Topline Man-made climate change has caused hurricanes and tropical storms to drop more rain, according to an article published Tuesday by Nature Communications that analyzed data from the record-breaking 2020 North Atlantic hurricane season, when storms inflicted around $37 billion in damage across the United States. Key Facts During the 2020 hurricane season, man-made climate change caused three-hourly rainfall for the heaviest storms to increase by 10%, according to the article, which compared real-world data to simulations of weather patterns as they might occur without human impact. Hurricanes during the 2020 season were impacted more strongly by climate change than other storms that either reached tropical storm strength or fell within the 99th percentile for rainfall, with three-hourly rainfall amounts for hurricanes increasing by 11%, according to the study, which was authored by researchers at Stony Brook University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pennsylvania State University. Accumulated three-day rainfall amounts increased by 5% for the heaviest storms and by 8% for hurricanes, a change that researchers said will probably also occur for storms in ocean basins outside the North Atlantic. Greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to a sea surface temperature rise of about 0.14 degrees per decade since 1901, creating warm, moist atmospheric conditions that researchers said have fueled increasingly frequent and intense hurricanes. The Nature Communications article confirmed previous studies published in Nature and elsewhere indicating climate change could increase storm rainfall by between 2% and 20%. Key Background Precisely measuring the impact of warming seas on hurricanes and other storms is difficult due to the numerous overlapping climate and environmental factors that cause storms to form, according to the authors of the Nature Communications article. However, previous research has suggested a strong link between global warming and intense hurricanes. A 2021 study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found the probability of a hurricane reaching Category 3—with winds of at least 111 miles per hour—was increasing by about 8% per decade, driven mainly by climate change. As hurricanes and other storms have grown more intense and more frequent, they have also grown more deadly: In 2021, 114 people in the U.S. were killed by severe storms, up from an average of 45 per year for the prior 40 years, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. Crucial Quote “It isn’t this end-of-the-century problem that we have to figure out if we can mitigate or adapt to,” Stony Brook University weather researcher Kevin Reed, one of the authors of Tuesday’s study, told the New York Times. “It is impacting our weather and our extreme weather now.” Big Number $2.16 trillion. That’s about how much damage weather and climate disasters inflicted in the U.S. between 1980 and 2021, according to the Office for Coastal Management. Forbes “Yes, Global Warming Is Changing How Hurricanes Work” (Forbes)	https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/12/climate-change-made-hurricanes-more-intense-during-record-breaking-2020-season-study-says/	2022-04-12T21:14:28Z	https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/04/12/climate-change-made-hurricanes-more-intense-during-record-breaking-2020-season-study-says/	true
MENLO, Iowa — President Joe Biden for the first time referred to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine as a “genocide” Tuesday. Speaking in Iowa at an event about steps his administration is taking to staunch rising fuel costs because of the war, Biden termed the conflict, which has seen Russia carry out atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, as a “genocide.” Said Biden: “Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away.” Biden has previously stated that he did not believe Russia’s actions amounted to genocide, as Ukrainian government officials have argued, but rather were “war crimes.” ___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: — Ukraine probes claim poisonous substance dropped in Mariupol — A look at Russia’s military objectives and challenges it faces — ‘It’s not the end’: The children who survived Bucha’s horror — Russian war worsens fertilizer crunch, risking food supplies — Czechs provide free shooting training for local Ukrainians — Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for more coverage ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, who is both the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party and a close associate of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has been detained in a special operation carried out by the country’s SBU secret service. Ivan Bakanov, the head of Ukraine’s national security agency, said on the agency’s Telegram channel that Medvedchuk had been detained. The statement came shortly after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on social media a photo of Medvedchuk sitting in handcuffs and wearing a camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag patch. Medvedchuk was the former leader of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform – For Life. He was being held under house arrest before the war began and disappeared shortly after hostilities broke out. Putin is the godfather to Medvedchuk’s youngest daughter. ___ WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Congress said the Biden administration and its allies will not stand by if chemical weapons were used in the Russian war with Ukraine. Lawmakers monitoring developments during a trip to Poland said Tuesday that the U.S. is investigating reports that a poisonous substance had been dropped in Mariupol. But they cautioned that determining the nature of the attack in the beleaguered port city could take time. “We’re taking those reports seriously and I know the United States government and others are trying to determine if that did indeed occur,” said Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo. Crow said the administration “has been very clear that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated.” The Democratic lawmakers, all members of the House Intelligence Committee, are bracing for a potential long war in Ukraine. They said at a press briefing that Congress is looking at next steps in sending additional military and other aid to Ukraine. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also addressed the reports coming from Mariupol. “We’re not in a position to confirm anything, I don’t think Ukrainians are either,” Blinken told reporters. “But let me say that we had credible information that Russian forces may use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, that would cause stronger symptoms to weaken, incapacitate … Ukrainian fighters and civilians, as part of the aggressive campaign” in Mariupol. “We share that information with … Ukraine and other partners,” Blinken said. “And we’re in direct conversation with partners to try to determine what what actually is happening.” ___ THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The global chemical weapons watchdog says it is “concerned by the recent unconfirmed report of chemical weapons use in Mariupol” and is closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine. The spokesperson for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says in a statement that the allegations follow “reports in the media over the past few weeks of shelling targeted at chemical plants located in Ukraine, together with accusations levelled by both sides around possible misuse of toxic chemicals.” The spokesperson said in Tuesday’s statement that the “use of chemical weapons anywhere by anyone under any circumstances is reprehensible and wholly contrary to the legal norms established by the international community against such use.” Both Russia and Ukraine are among the organization’s 193 member states. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization says that it “remains ready to assist any State Party upon its request, in case of use or threat of use of chemical weapons.” ___ WARSAW, Poland – Germany’s president has called on Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin to pull out his troops from Ukraine and stop the “barbarity” there as he stressed that Germany will not restore its previous ties with Russia as long as Putin is in power. Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Warsaw on Tuesday to talk with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda about supporting Ukraine’s fight and aiding millions of refugees fleeing the war. “This barbarity which we see every day must stop,” Steinmeier said at joint news conference. “This can only happen by President Putin ordering his army to stop and I believe that only then (armistice) talks can be successful,” Steinmeier said. “One thing is clear: a return to normal is not possible with Russia under Putin,” Steinmeier said, adding that war crimes in Ukraine must be investigated and “those who committed them and those who are politically responsible must be held accountable.” Steinmeier last week admitted mistakes in policy toward Russia in his previous high-ranking jobs, when Germany pursued dialogue with Putin and cultivated close energy ties. Steinmeier served as ex-Chancellors’ Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff and Angela Merkel’s foreign minister. Schroeder is now head of the board of directors of Russia’s state oil giant Rosneft. ___ VIENNA — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer pledged continued “political and humanitarian support” for Ukraine in a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, Nehammer said in a statement. The call came a day after Nehammer became the first European leader to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. “It’s important to me to immediately inform all key proponents in this conflict about my talks,” Nehammer said, according to the statement released Tuesday evening by the Austrian chancellery. Nehammer said he recounted his meeting in Moscow to Zelenskyy, telling the Ukrainian leader about the most important messages he relayed to Putin. Among those messages are that the war needs to stop, that those responsible for “serious war crimes” like those committed in the Ukrainian city of Bucha will be held to account, and that the European Union is “as united as it’s ever been” on maintaining its sanctions against Russia. He also told Zelenskyy he believes the continuation of talks in Istanbul are an important step toward bringing an end to the violence, and that Austria will “continue to support all ongoing efforts for peace.” ___ KYIV, Ukraine — An adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has paid tribute to Ukrainian troops defending the besieged south-eastern port of Mariupol but acknowledged they are running low on supplies. Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter that “for more than 1.5 months our defenders protect the city from (Russian) troops, which are 10+ times larger. They’re fighting under the bombs for each meter of the city. They make (Russia) pay an exorbitant price.” Mariupol was a key target for Russian forces soon after the invasion began in late February. It has symbolic significance as one of the largest cities in eastern Ukraine. It is also strategically valuable as a major harbor and as part of a land corridor between territory held by Russia-backed separatists to the east and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. “Our soldiers remain blocked and have issues with supplies,” Podolyak wrote, adding that Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian general staff are working “to find a solution and help our guys.” He did not give details, citing operational reasons. ___ KYIV, Ukraine — The mayor of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where corpses of civilians with bound hands and gunshot wounds to the head were found after Russian forces pulled out, says 403 bodies have been found so far and that he fears the toll will rise. “Today, at 10 a.m. we started unearthing the second mass grave, there are 56 bodies there. Plus, there are four private graves. But I’d like to repeat that as of today, we have 403 bodies,” Anatoliy Fedoruk told reporters in Kyiv. “Taking into account that our armed forces, our minesweepers are working in the forests between villages and settlements in our territorial community, we hope that those who are missing are still alive but most probably we will find their bodies somewhere between the villages, in those forests.” Fedoruk also said 31 multi-story residential buildings had been destroyed or damaged beyond repair during the war, along with 243 private houses. ___ BERLIN — Germany’s president says his Polish counterpart suggested that they travel to Ukraine together with other leaders to show solidarity, but that proposed visit “apparently wasn’t wanted in Kyiv.” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s comments Tuesday, during a visit to Poland, came after German newspaper Bild quoted an unidentified Ukrainian diplomat as saying that he’s not welcome in Kyiv at the moment because he had close relations with Russia in the past. Steinmeier said Polish President Andrzej Duda had suggested that they travel to the Ukrainian capital with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to send “a strong signal of joint European solidarity with Ukraine.” He said he had been prepared to do so. Steinmeier last week admitted mistakes in policy toward Russia in his previous job as foreign minister. Steinmeier served twice as ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign minister, most recently from 2013 to 2017, and before that as ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s chief of staff. In that time, Germany pursued dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and cultivated close energy ties. ___ KHARKIV, Ukraine — A strike hit a what is believed to be a culinary school near the airport in Ukraine’s second-largest city on Tuesday, destroying the building and damaging others nearby, according to Associated Press journalists at the scene. It wasn’t clear what hit the building in Kharkiv, with witnesses describing a loud whoosh followed by an explosion. There were no immediate reports of fatalities. ___ BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis used a speech to his country’s delegation of Invictus Games participants on Tuesday to admonish Russian aggression in Ukraine. “The Russian Federation has been waging war against Ukraine for almost 50 days, and shocking evidence of atrocities and horrors is unimaginable day by day,” Iohannis told the wounded and injured military personnel, who will compete in the 2022 Invictus Games set to begin in the Netherlands on Saturday. “You know best what destruction and loss of life and the dramas of war mean, how much families and communities are affected forever,” he said. Iohannis said that Russia’s acts of “horrific, unjustified cruelty” must be punished by the international justice system. The Invictus Games, an international sporting event for wounded servicemen and women, was launched in London in 2014. ___ KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian prosecutors are expanding their war crimes investigations in northeastern suburbs of Kyiv after Russian forces withdrew. Reports of killings of civilians have primarily focused so far on the northwestern suburbs such as Bucha, but the Prosecutor-General’s Office said Tuesday it was also looking into events in the Brovary district, which lies to the northeast. Russian troops advanced into that area last month before retreating to focus on fighting in eastern Ukraine. The Prosecutor-General’s Office said the bodies of six civilians had been found with gunshot wounds in a basement in the village of Shevchenkove and that Russian forces were believed to be responsible. Prosecutors are also investigating an incident in which they allege Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilians trying to leave by car from the village of Peremoha in the Brovary district, killing four people including a 13-year-old boy. In another incident near Bucha, five people were killed, including two children, when a car was fired upon, prosecutors said. Prosecutors did not say when they believed the incidents occurred. ___ MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says that Russians’ unity will only grow stronger in the face of Western sanctions and it will be the West that will face instability. Putin said during a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East on Tuesday that the West mistakenly expected its sanctions to undermine Russia’s stability. He said that “the Russian people always strengthen their unity in a difficult situation.” He insisted that it will be the West that will be shaken by growing instability, fueled by public dismay over galloping inflation. The Russian leader also lashed out at European leaders, describing them as Washington’s stooges and saying that they are conducting policies harmful to their nations. ___ MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin says that Russia will press on with its military action in Ukraine until its goals are fulfilled. Putin said Tuesday that the campaign is going according to plan. He said it is not moving faster because Russia wants to minimize losses. He said during a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East that the “military operation will continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set.” Putin claimed that Ukraine backtracked on proposals it made during talks with Russian negotiators in Istanbul, resulting in a deadlock in talks and leaving Moscow no other choice but to press on with its offensive. ___ MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Russian economy has successfully resisted new Western sanctions over Ukraine. Speaking Tuesday on a visit to the Vostochny space launch facility in Russia’s Far East, Putin said that Russia’s economy and financial system withstood the impact of what he called the Western sanctions “blitz” and the ruble has recovered its losses. Putin argued that the sanctions will backfire against the West. For example, he said that Western restrictions on fertilizer exports from Russia and ally Belarus will drive up global fertilizer prices, eventually leading to food shortages and increased migration flows. Putin said that “common sense should prevail” and added that the West should “come back to reason and make well-balanced decisions without losing its face.” He contended that “they won’t be able to shut all the doors and windows.” He argued that new Western restrictions on high-tech exports will encourage Russia to move faster to develop new technologies, opening a “new window of opportunities.” ___ BOSTON — Ukrainian officials say a planned cyberattack by Russian military hackers on the country’s power grid has been foiled. They say the country’s computer emergency response thwarted an attack planned by hackers from Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that intended to knock electrical substations offline last Friday. The State Service of Special Communications said on its website that malware was discovered designed to destroy data on computers. There was no immediate explanation of how the attack was defeated, though the Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine thanked Microsoft and the cybersecurity firm ESET in a separate bulletin. Nor was the scope immediately explained. GRU hackers twice successfully attacked Ukraine’s power grid, in the winters of 2015 and 2016. Russia’s use of cyberattacks against Ukrainian infrastructure has been limited compared to experts’ pre-war expectations. In the early hours of the war, however, an attack Ukraine blames on Russia knocked offline an important satellite communications link that also impacted tens of thousands of Europeans from France to Poland. ___ BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia’s government has approved increasing the number of troops in a multinational NATO battlegroup in the country from 2,100 to 3,000. The first 800 service members have already arrived in Slovakia. The Czech Republic took charge of the battlegroup, with the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia also contributing. Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad says the increase in the planned troop numbers is related to Patriot air defense systems that the United States, Germany and the Netherlands are deploying in Slovakia. The move should boost Slovakia’s defense capabilities after the country donated its Soviet-era S-300 air defense system to Ukraine last week. The alliance stationed troops in the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and Poland after the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula by Russia. After Russia attacked Ukraine, NATO decided to boost its presence along the entire eastern flank by deploying forces in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. ___ GENEVA — The World Trade Organization is predicting that trade in goods will grow much less than previously expected this year, saying prospects for the global economy have darkened since the onset of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Geneva-based WTO on Tuesday pointed to multiple uncertainties in its forecast over the next two years because Russian and Ukrainian exports of items like food, oil and fertilizers are under threat from the war. It also cited the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic –- notably from lockdowns in China. Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala described a “double whammy” from the conflict and the coronavirus. She said the war has caused “immense human suffering” in the region and its effect has rippled around the world, notably in poorer countries. The WTO said its projections for world trade take into account factors like the impact of the war, sanctions on Russia, and lower demand around the world from lower business and consumer confidence. It said world merchandise trade volume is expected to grow 3% this year, down from a forecast of 4.7% before the war began. ___ MOSCOW — The Russian military says it has hit Ukrainian arsenals with long-range cruise missiles. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday that the military used air- and sea-launched missiles to destroy an ammunition depot and a reinforced hangar for warplanes at Starokostiantyniv in the Khmelnytskyi region. Konashenkov said that another strike destroyed a Ukrainian ammunition depot in Havrylivka, near Kyiv. ___ NICOSIA, Cyprus — The head of Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church is “unreservedly” condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying there’s “no justification” for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “destroy a country, to raze it to kill.” Archbishop Chrysostomos II told state broadcaster CyBC Tuesday that the invasion is “an unacceptable situation” and that Putin’s actions have “no logic.” The archbishop said he’s distraught that people are being killed and questioned whether the Russian leader is “in his right mind.” The archbishop added that he’d be the “first to go and bless a defensive war,” but the “egotism, if not the stupidity” of the Russian leadership “knows no bounds.” Chrysostomos also questioned Putin’s embrace of Orthodox Christianity, including the sincerity of his travels to the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was baptized. ___ KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian police say they have launched a war crimes investigation after a 64-year-old man was killed by a mine left behind in an area from which Russian forces recently retreated. Police said the unidentified local man was driving Monday near the village of Krasne in northern Ukraine and had pulled over his car to greet acquaintances when he struck an anti-tank mine left at the side of the road. Ukrainian authorities have issued repeated warnings of mines and explosive traps left in areas where Russian troops have been operating.	https://www.krqe.com/news/world/live-updates-separatists-deny-using-chemical-weapons/	2022-04-12T21:26:53Z	https://www.krqe.com/news/world/live-updates-separatists-deny-using-chemical-weapons/	false
VERNON, France (AP) — Far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Tuesday described France as a nation that would put its people’s voices at the center of the political process if she is elected president in 12 days. Le Pen, a solid nationalist, faces centrist President Emmanuel Macron in a presidential runoff on April 24. He placed first and Le Pen second in Sunday’s first-round presidential vote that eliminated 10 other candidates. Both Le Pen and Macron are now aggressively campaigning to win an election that could upend France’s system of governance and Europe’s dynamics should Le Pen be victorious. In a dramatic change, new laws could be passed or old laws modified in a referendum proposed by citizens, with conditions such as 500,000 signatures backing the proposal . Such a system was demanded two years ago by the sometimes violent yellow vest movement for social and economic justice that challenged Macron's government as being too business-friendly. In Sunday’s first round of voting for the country's next president, the far-right, including Le Pen and two other parties, together won 32% of the vote, compared to Macron’s 27.8% support, although he was the top individual candidate. Still, that means far-right voters can be expected to factor into France’s political future not just in the next two weeks, but for years, even if Le Pen loses. Le Pen also wants two-thirds of the 577 seats in France's lower house of parliament to be allotted by the proportional system to better reflect voters' choices. Her anti-immigration National Rally party currently holds 8 seats. Le Pen claimed that democracy would be the main beneficiary of these changes, giving citizens who represent what she calls “the France of the forgotten” a say in how they are governed. Having referendums can contribute to France's democratic culture, Le Pen said Tuesday at a news conference in the Normandy town of Vernon. A small crowd of local opponents cried “Facist!” while supporters shouted back “Marine, president!” as she left the hotel to meet the press. “During my mandate, I count on consulting the only expert that Emmanuel Macron never consulted —the people,” Le Pen said. Le Pen would also return the French presidency to a seven-year non-renewable mandate, instead of the current five-year term that can be renewed once. "I want to be the president who gives back the people their voice in their own country,” she said. The French Constitution would have to be revised to make possible the referendum concept possible, and vital subjects like nuclear power could not be put to a vote. Also needing a constitutional change would be Le Pen’s plan, if elected, to ban Islamic headscarves in French streets. That's a big step further than current laws, which ban headscarves in classrooms since 2004 and face-coverings in the streets since 2010. With an estimated 5 million Muslims in France, headscarves are commonly worn by many Muslim women. “We must leave no space, not a thumb space,” for Islamists, Le Pen said, adding that she wants to “liberate” French Muslim women from the yoke of radicals. France has faced several deadly attacks by Islamic extremists in the past decade, including the 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead. ___ Follow all AP stories on France's 2022 presidential election at https://apnews.com/french-election-2022.	https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Far-right-Le-Pen-campaigns-as-French-voice-of-17076088.php	2022-04-12T21:28:30Z	https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Far-right-Le-Pen-campaigns-as-French-voice-of-17076088.php	false
Jurgen Klopp has predicted that Arsenal target Darwin Nunez has a 'big career' ahead of him. The Uruguayan looks set to be one of the most sought-after names in world football this summer, with the likes of Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Barcelona all thought to be chasing his signature. Arsenal are tracking the Benfica striker ahead of a potential summer move, football.london understands. Gunners' technical director Edu is in contact with the representatives of Nunez and has shortlisted the forward as a possible summer signing. The Gunners are looking to add at least two strikers to their squad following Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's January exit. Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah are also likely to follow suit as their contracts run out at the end of June. READ MORE: Darwin Nunez transfer: £67m fee revealed, Arsenal 'meeting', Chelsea & Man Utd 'lead race' Now, Klopp - who is preparing his Liverpool side to face Benfica in the second leg of their quarter-final in the Champions League tomorrow (Wednesday) night - has suggested why he would be a good signing for any club. “He was calm for the finish [in the first leg]," he said, as cited by the Mirror. "He is good, really good. If he stays healthy, he has a big career ahead of him.” It looks as though Nunez will be available for a fee in the region of €80million (£66.8million) if the latest report from transfer guru Fabrizio Romano is to be believed. The Italian journalist wrote on Twitter: "Darwin Nunez will leave Benfica in the summer, fee around €80million. His new agent will now meet with many top clubs to explore opportunities. Man United already discussed his name internally - Arsenal wanted him last January as [did] West Ham but Darwin was not for sale." Whether Arsenal are ready to pay big money for the 22-year-old remains to be seen, but he'll certainly improve Mikel Arteta's squad moving forward. If they can creep into the Champions League places before the season is out, they may get the chance to secure his signature.	https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/jurgen-klopp-darwin-nunez-arsenal-23673770	2022-04-12T21:31:42Z	https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/jurgen-klopp-darwin-nunez-arsenal-23673770	false
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In a farewell appearance at the U.N. Security Council, Colombian President Ivan Duque on Tuesday touted his government’s accomplishments in building peace, including steps to reintegrate more than 12,800 former rebels into society, but he warned that drug trafficking remains the “greatest enemy” to achieving peace. Duque said over 8,600 of the rebels who were “on the wrong track with weapons” are now involved in individual or collective projects that generate income involving producing, selling and marketing and are building a better life for their families. He also cited new development plans for 14 territories that have led to more than $4 billion being invested in 70 municipalities encompassing more than 11,000 districts and millions of people, including 2 million who were victims of violence. Duque took office in August 2018, less than two years after the November 2016 signing of a peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. It ended more than 50 years of war in Colombia that caused over 220,000 deaths and displaced nearly 6 million people. An amnesty law was adopted covering most offenses committed by FARC fighters, but Duque said the constitution was reformed so drug trafficking and kidnapping connected to political crimes cannot be subject to an amnesty in the future. During his four-year presidency, Duque said, the aggregate rate of homicides and kidnappings was lowered and economic reparations were paid to almost 400,000 victims, which he said “is also an unprecedented milestone.” Speaking to the council ahead of Colombia's May 29 presidential election, he said Colombia will defeat violence with justice and adherence to the law. “It is also sad to see how the bloody hands of drug traffickers continue tearing apart some regions of Colombia,” Duque said. “Drug trafficking is a greatest enemy for peacebuilding in Colombia.” He said the government has made efforts to eradicate and substitute crops, and last year saw the highest number of drug seizures -- 670 tons. But he said drug production continues to increase, and if consuming countries don’t also share responsibility and adopt “more direct, clear public policies, it will continue to be a painful burden for the Colombian people.” Carlos Ruiz Massieu, the U.N. special envoy for Colombia, agreed that progress is being made on the long-term successful reintegration of former FARC combatants, including most recently on providing land and housing. “Nevertheless, the sustainability of the process is still contingent upon additional efforts, including to halt the violence that still jeopardizes former combatants’ plans to build a new life,” he said. Violence has also increased in neglected regions including northern Arauca, where more than a hundred people have been killed and thousands displaced this year, Ruiz said. “Violence is exacting a particularly high toll on Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities in the form of killings, displacement and the increasing recruitment of minors.” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia lashed out at Duque, accusing him of failing to restore peace in Colombia. The sharp criticism followed Colombia’s support for two U.N. General Assembly resolutions demanding an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine, withdrawal of all Russian troops from the country and protection for civilians. Colombia also supported a resolution last week suspending Russia from the U.N.’s leading human rights body, the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. Nebenzia said Russia’s concerns about implementing the 2016 peace agreement “are increasing each year.” Unfortunately, he said, national reconciliation hasn’t been attained, the government is unable to ensure the security of participants in the peace process and community leaders, and it hasn’t assumed authority in rural areas or successfully implemented agrarian reforms and crop substitution programs. Taking the floor again at the end of the meeting, Duque called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “simply insane” and “a genocide.” He urged the international community to condemn and isolate Russia and support the Ukrainian people. As for Nebenzia’s criticism, Duque said, “I think it’s important that those who are hurting a country don’t preach about peace to the world, while acts of fratricide are being committed, and that we are all rejecting.” Chris Lu, a U.S. deputy ambassador, echoed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ latest report saying Colombia continues to make “demonstrable progress” in efforts to implement the peace agreement, and he said the U.S. is encouraged that recent legislative elections took place with few disruptions. Deputy French ambassador Nathalie Broadhurst called Colombia an example for the international community “in a world shaken by conflicts.” “The peace agreement is gradually taking root and we hope that it will become irreversible,” she said. “Its full implementation is the best guarantee for this.”	https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Colombia-s-leader-touts-peace-efforts-says-drugs-17076210.php	2022-04-12T21:31:46Z	https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Colombia-s-leader-touts-peace-efforts-says-drugs-17076210.php	false
WFO NORMAN Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, April 13, 2022 _____ FIRE WEATHER WATCH URGENT - FIRE WEATHER MESSAGE National Weather Service Norman OK 302 PM CDT Tue Apr 12 2022 ...CRITICAL TO EXTREME FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS EXPECTED... ...RED FLAG WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 PM CDT THIS EVENING FOR STRONG WINDS, LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY, AND DRY FUEL CONDITIONS FOR PORTIONS OF WESTERN AND CENTRAL OKLAHOMA AND WESTERN NORTH TEXAS... ...FIRE WEATHER WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING FOR STRONG WINDS, LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY, AND DRY FUEL CONDITIONS FOR WESTERN AND CENTRAL OKLAHOMA AND WESTERN NORTH TEXAS... * TIMING...Through this evening, and again Wednesday afternoon. * WINDS...Southwest to west 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph today. Northwest 20 to 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. * RELATIVE HUMIDITY...As low as 9 percent. * TEMPERATURES...Highs in the lower and middle 90s Tuesday. Highs in the 60s and 70s on Wednesday. * FUELS: Dormant and extremely dry fuels will allow extreme fire behavior to develop. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... A Red Flag Warning means that critical fire weather conditions are expected. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures will contribute to extreme fire behavior. A Fire Weather Watch means that critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur. Listen for later forecasts and possible Red Flag Warnings. HUMIDITY, AND DRY FUEL CONDITIONS FOR WESTERN NORTH TEXAS... * TIMING...Wednesday afternoon and early evening. * WINDS...Northwest 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. * RELATIVE HUMIDITY...As low as 13 percent. * TEMPERATURES...Highs in the mid 70s. * FUELS...Dormant and extremely dry fuels will allow extreme fire behavior to develop. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Brown, northeastern McCulloch and northwestern San Saba Counties through 345 PM CDT... At 303 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over Hall, or near Placid, moving northeast at 30 mph. HAZARD...Winds in excess of 40 mph and half inch hail. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Locations impacted include... Richland Springs, Algerita, Skeeterville, Elm Grove, Placid, Mercury, Hall, Milburn, Locker, Spring Creek, Indian Creek and Us- 190 Near The Mcculloch-San Saba County Line. If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains in effect until 900 PM CDT for west central Texas. LAT...LON 3130 9859 3113 9910 3138 9924 3167 9880 3161 9878 3147 9900 3144 9896 3146 9894 3144 9893 3144 9887 3141 9884 3141 9878 3137 9876 3143 9873 3140 9869 3134 9871 3137 9866 3132 9865 3133 9859 TIME...MOT...LOC 2003Z 240DEG 24KT 3127 9909 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.50 IN MAX WIND GUST...40 MPH _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather	https://www.timesunion.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-NORMAN-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17076087.php	2022-04-12T21:35:01Z	https://www.timesunion.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-NORMAN-Warnings-Watches-and-Advisories-17076087.php	false
SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were: 8-8-0 (eight, eight, zero) SACRAMENTO (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the California Lottery's "Daily 3 Midday" game were: 8-8-0 (eight, eight, zero)	https://www.milfordmirror.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-Midday-game-17076125.php	2022-04-12T21:35:20Z	https://www.milfordmirror.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Daily-3-Midday-game-17076125.php	false
South Dakota attorney general impeached after killing pedestrian in 2020 crash The South Dakota House on Tuesday impeached state Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg over a 2020 car crash in which he killed a pedestrian but initially said he might have struck a deer or another large animal. Ravnsborg, a Republican, is the first official to be impeached in South Dakota history. He will at least temporarily be removed from office pending the historic Senate trial, where it takes a two-thirds majority to convict on impeachment charges. Ravnsborg pleaded no contest last year to a pair of traffic misdemeanors in the crash, including making an illegal lane change. He has cast Joseph Boever’s death as a tragic accident. In voting 36-31 to impeach Ranvsborg, the Republican-controlled House charged him with committing crimes that caused someone’s death, making "numerous misrepresentations" to law enforcement officers after the crash and using his office to navigate the criminal investigation. "When we're dealing with the life of one of your citizens, I think that weighed heavily on everyone," said Republican Rep. Will Mortenson, who introduced the articles of impeachment. A spokesman for Ravnsborg did not reply to a request for comment after the vote. Tim Bormann, the attorney general’s chief of staff, said his staff would "professionally dedicate ourselves" to their work while Ranvsborg is forced to take a leave. Ravnsborg, who took office in 2019, was returning home from a Republican dinner in September 2020 when he struck and killed Boever, who was walking along a rural highway. A sheriff who responded after Ravnsborg called 911 initially reported it as a collision with an animal. Ravnsborg has said he did not realize he hit a man until he returned the next day and found the body. The Highway Patrol concluded that Ravnsborg's car crossed completely onto the highway shoulder before hitting Boever, and criminal investigators said later that they didn’t believe some of Ravnsborg’s statements. The House rejected the recommendation of a GOP-backed majority report from a special investigative committee, which argued that anything wrong he did was not part of his official duties "in office." But even Republican lawmakers who argued his actions did not meet constitutional grounds for impeachment said Ravnsborg should resign. "He should have stepped down, should have done the honorable thing," said House Speaker Spencer Gosch, a Republican who oversaw the House investigation and voted against impeachment. All eight House Democrats voted for impeachment, while Republicans were split, with 28 voting for it and 31 against. One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Scott Odenbach, recused himself because he had given legal advice to the attorney general after the crash. Ravnsborg, who had been largely silent about the crash and was not present for the vote, sent lawmakers a pair of defiant letters Monday night urging them not to impeach him. "In a few hours, your vote will set a precedent for years to come," Ravnsborg wrote. "No state has ever impeached an elected official for a traffic accident." He also accused Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of interfering in the investigation and of supporting impeachment because of the attorney general's investigations into her behavior. A second letter from Ravnsborg’s spokesman delved into "evidence, allegations and misconceptions" about the case. After Ravnsborg fell out with the governor after the crash, he pushed a pair of ethics complaints against Noem to the state's Government Accountability Board. His office is also investigating whether an organization aligned with the governor broke campaign finance disclosure laws. Noem lauded the vote on Twitter, writing that the House "did the right thing for the people of South Dakota and for Joe Boever's family." For Boever's family, who held his wedding photo as they watched from the House gallery during the vote, the decision brought some relief. They have decried the criminal prosecution as a "slap on the wrist" for Ravnsborg. "We’re a step closer to justice. We're not done," said Boever's cousin, Nick Nemec. "Now we just need the Senate's help on this because these laws need to be changed badly," said Jennifer Boever, who was married to Boever. "People are getting hurt and killed, and the pedestrian has no self-defense against a 4,000-pound vehicle."	https://www.koat.com/article/south-dakota-attorney-general-impeached/39705887	2022-04-12T21:39:15Z	https://www.koat.com/article/south-dakota-attorney-general-impeached/39705887	true
Electoral guardians combat disinformation Millions of Australians use social media to stay informed and express their views, which means false claims can spread rapidly. The nation's electoral guardians are concerned that disinformation could undermine trust in how governments are elected, and have updated a toolkit designed to protect trust in the ballot. Evan Ekin-Smyth, director of digital engagement at the Australian Electoral Commission, told AAP it's been different in the lead up to May 21 election compared to past polls. There has always been robust political commentary associated with federal elections, which some people would characterise as attack ads or lies, he said. But the channels have changed, and it's becoming more prominent, he added. Some are picking up claims they've seen about the US election being "rigged" and attempting to apply those to Australia. "We're certainly seeing more commentary - including ill-informed commentary - regarding electoral processes than we have in previous electoral cycles leading up to a federal election," Mr Ekin-Smyth said. Misinformation is defined as the inadvertent, unknowing spreading of mistruths, while disinformation is deliberate. "We've chosen to use the terminology 'disinformation' more frequently as it's the more egregious behaviour," Mr Ekin-Smyth said. Research by Twitter shows more than a third of young Australians will get most of their political information from social media during the six-week election campaign. Politicians and their handlers also need to understand online etiquette. Some 80 per cent of young people would be turned off voting for a politician who spreads mis- or disinformation online, the survey shows. Twitter public policy director Kara Hinesley said other leading turn offs include participating in online arguments (53 per cent) and if a politician criticises their opponent on social media (30 per cent). Whether misinformation or disinformation, officials warn it's not limited to any one channel or type of channel. "Of course, we see more on the channels that we are particularly active on - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube," Mr Ekin-Smyth said. "But we also see it on the channels we monitor but are not on, such as Reddit, and from reports we receive about channels that we don't monitor, such as Telegram." Some social media giants, already under scrutiny by governments, are trying to clamp down after online campaigns to destabilise democracy in the US and Europe. TikTok, which has had a rapid rise in popularity particularly with Australia's 600,000 first-time voters, last month launched an in-app election guide with the AEC. The app's director of public policy Brent Thomas said user guidelines prohibit harmful posts, including content that misleads community members about elections "We will remove misinformation that causes significant harm to individuals, our community, or the larger public regardless of intent," he said. TikTok has also partnered with AAP FactCheck to examine election-related content. Users can report misleading content by selecting an election misinformation button that will trigger a referral to a team which review alerts and conduct a check. Every election, the poll is touted as the biggest peacetime operation in history. Many of Australia's 17 million voters know the electoral commission for its thousands of voting venues, millions of pencils, and 100,000-plus trusty polling staff. But there are also AEC data analysts who have a dedicated channel with TikTok, so they can quickly flag content they believe may breach electoral laws or guidelines. An operations room will be on watch through to polling day for digital and physical threats. The AEC is active across social media, and has 43,000 followers on Facebook, more than 40,000 on Twitter where it is known for its quirky dialogue with users, but less than 3000 on Instagram. The commission also releases short videos on YouTube and is publishing a detailed disinformation register online. The AEC will run a "stop and consider" campaign to remind voters to check the source of all political claims. There'll be further protections while officials complete the count and protect against any infiltration of the process - another aspect that has been ripe for disinformation and needing myth-busting. As Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said, they're not just providing the logistical operation required for a federal election but also informing citizens about the voting system and how to participate. Melbourne-based RMIT University's FactLab will be using digital analysis to detect and track election disinformation. FactLab uses data analytics and open source intelligence techniques pioneered by London think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue to tackle the spread of extremism and recruitment online. The AEC's Mr Ekin-Smyth warns that "mistruths" are not limited to social media platforms. "We often find incorrect misinformation in media reports, however this is far more often inadvertent rather than deliberate."	https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-10712723/Electoral-guardians-combat-disinformation.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490	2022-04-12T21:43:42Z	https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/aap/article-10712723/Electoral-guardians-combat-disinformation.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490	false
(The Hill) — Former President Trump is facing a dilemma: when — or even whether — to endorse the 2022 reelection bid of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of his biggest potential rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Since leaving Washington last year, Trump has issued a long, if not sporadic, list of endorsements that includes other prospective presidential hopefuls such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.). But absent from that list so far is DeSantis, a steadfast Trump ally and rising conservative political star who is seen as a front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nod, especially in the event that Trump decides against another run for the White House. It’s unclear exactly why Trump hasn’t issued an endorsement in his adopted home state’s gubernatorial race. One Republican donor suggested that the former president may be holding back because DeSantis hasn’t yet pledged to defer to Trump should he run again in 2024. “I think with the president, you don’t get anything for free,” one Republican donor said. “He wants DeSantis to come out and say that he won’t run if [Trump] runs. I think once he does that, an endorsement would probably come pretty quick.” Speculation has swirled for months that the once-close relationship between Trump and DeSantis has grown rocky amid the latter’s rise within conservative political circles and chatter that he may be eyeing the White House in 2024. Trump himself has floated the idea of launching another presidential run, and has repeatedly suggested that any potential rival should think twice before challenging him for the GOP nod. In an interview with The Washington Post last week, the former president waved off the possibility of DeSantis challenging him for the 2024 nomination, saying that he’s responsible for the Florida governor’s political success in the first place. “You know Ron was at 3 percent, and the day I endorsed him, he won the race,” Trump told the Post, referring to the 2018 race for Florida governor, when DeSantis was locked in a heated primary runoff against then-Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. “As soon as I endorsed him, the race was over,” he added. Both men have sought to dispel talk of tensions in their relationship. DeSantis has repeatedly said that he’s focused only on winning a second term in the governor’s mansion, while Trump has offered some public praise of DeSantis, telling the Post that he has been a good governor. “I have a good relationship with Ron, I have a good relationship with all the names you mentioned,” Trump told the Post. “Would they run against me? I doubt they would run against me. I doubt it.” Still, DeSantis’s growing influence within the GOP is clear and multiple Republican sources said they have little doubt that he has political ambitions beyond the Sunshine State. While early polling shows Trump as the heavy favorite among Republican voters for the 2024 presidential nomination, DeSantis routinely polls in second place among would-be GOP presidential hopefuls and gains significant ground when Trump is taken out of the running. That trend was made clear at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando in February, where a straw poll of attendees showed that 59 percent would support Trump for the 2024 nomination, while DeSantis finished in second place with 28 percent. Without Trump on the ballot, however, DeSantis is the clear favorite for the nomination. Sixty-one percent of CPAC attendees said they would back the Florida governor in Trump’s absence. There’s also DeSantis’s massive fundraising power to consider. The Florida governor raised more than $100 million last year, according to filings with the Florida secretary of state. That puts him in the same league as Trump, whose affiliated groups raised around $140 million in 2021. “Obviously, assuming Ron wins his reelection bid, which is a very good bet, we are looking at a Trump vs. DeSantis battle for the Republican nomination,” one Republican operative allied with Trump said. “Both men have the admiration of the rank-and-file voters in the Republican Party and they both have the two largest coffers.” “I think both of them recognize that the inevitable is that they’re going to face each other [in 2024],” the operative added. “So for Trump, he’s gotta ask, do you really want to elevate DeSantis even more when he’s already doing so well?” Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based Republican strategist and former congressional candidate, suggested a more mundane reason for why Trump hasn’t endorsed DeSantis’s reelection bid, noting that the state’s primaries are still more than four months away and the governor faces only nominal opposition for the GOP gubernatorial nomination. DeSantis also appears to be the heavy favorite in the general election. While the November election is still nearly seven months away, polling shows him leading his highest-profile Democratic rivals, including Rep. Charlie Crist (Fla.) and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried. “If DeSantis finds himself in trouble, I’m sure Trump will endorse him, and I would bet that he probably eventually will,” O’Connell said. “When you look at most of the races where Trump has endorsed, they’re competitive primaries and that’s where Trump has the most sway.” “I’m just not sure that Trump’s endorsement is a top priority [for DeSantis] right now,” O’Connell added. “That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t like Trump’s endorsement. Of course he would.”	https://www.wdtn.com/news/your-local-election-hq/trump-faces-tough-decision-on-desantis-endorsement/	2022-04-12T21:54:40Z	https://www.wdtn.com/news/your-local-election-hq/trump-faces-tough-decision-on-desantis-endorsement/	true
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KEARNEY - John P. Patsios, 63, of Kearney died Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at his home. Graveside services will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Kearney Cemetery. Father Christopher Morris will officiate. Visitation will be 5-7 p.m. Monday at Horner Lieske McBride & Kuhl Funeral Home. Memorials are suggested to the family to be designated later. Visit hlmkfuneral.com to leave condolences. Published by Kearney Hub on Jun. 25, 2021.	https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kearneyhub/name/john-patsios-obituary?id=33350460	2022-04-12T22:03:48Z	https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kearneyhub/name/john-patsios-obituary?id=33350460	false
St. Petersburg artist takes inspiration from childhood memories ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Andrea Pawlisz, a fine artist and graphic designer based in St. Petersburg, paints images from pop culture found anywhere through the last 70 years. She said the coolest stuff comes from those decades. "I would describe my fine art and painting as pop-realist," she said. Recurring themes in Pawlisz's work are the items of her childhood: Comics, toys, literature, and movies to name a few. "We start out as a blank palette. We don’t know who we are or what we are," she explained. "All the experiences that we have growing up, things we play with, our environments around us, really make us who we are." MORE: St. Pete company reimagines creativity with custom crayons, sidewalk chalk Pawlisz's studio is inside the ArtsXchange building in St. Petersburg. She has work available for purchase there, as well as on her website. Pawlisz's works are on commission as well, composing everything from paintings to business cards for clients. Advertisement "Having that interaction with people, there is nothing better," she said.	https://www.fox13news.com/news/st-petersburg-artist-takes-inspiration-from-childhood-memories	2022-04-12T22:13:43Z	https://www.fox13news.com/news/st-petersburg-artist-takes-inspiration-from-childhood-memories	true