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By MATT O’BRIEN, KELVIN CHAN and TOM KRISHER
AP Business Writers
Millions of Twitter users asked Elon Musk to step down as the head of Twitter in a poll the billionaire created and promised to abide by. But by Monday afternoon there was no word on whether Musk would step aside or who the new leader might be.
Twitter has grown more chaotic and confusing under Musk’s leadership with rapidly vacillating policies that are issued, then withdrawn or changed.
Among those voting with the “go” camp almost certainly were Tesla investors who have grown tired of the 24/7 Twitter chaos that they say has distracted the eccentric CEO from the electric car company, his main source of wealth.
Musk also used his Tesla stock to partially fund the acquisition of Twitter.
Shares of Tesla are down 35% since Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 27, costing investors billions. Tesla’s market value was over $1.1 trillion on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed he was buying up Twitter shares. The company has since lost 58% of its value, at a time when rival auto makers are cutting in on Tesla’s dominant share of electric vehicle sales.
“This has been a black eye moment for Musk and been a major overhang on Tesla’s stock, which continues to suffer in a brutal way since the Twitter soap opera began,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote Monday.
If Musk’s tenure ends, it would be a major positive for Tesla stock and a sign that Musk is “finally reading the room that has been growing frustration around this Twitter nightmare,” Ives wrote.
Musk attended the World Cup final Sunday in Qatar, where he opened the poll. Since the poll closed early Monday, Musk has been uncharacteristically silent on Twitter as he appeared to be flying back to the U.S.
Musk has taken a number of unscientific polls on substantial issues facing the social media platform, including whether to reinstate journalists that he had suspended from Twitter, which was broadly criticized in and out of media circles.
The polls have only added to a growing sense of tumult on Twitter since Musk bought the company for $44 billion, potentially leaving the future direction of the company in the hands of its users.
Among those users are people recently reinstated on the platform under Musk, people who had been banned for racist and toxic posts, or who had spread misinformation.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has presided over a dizzying series of changes that have unnerved advertisers and turned off users. He’s laid off half of the workforce, axed contract content moderators and disbanded a council of trust and safety advisors. He has dropped enforcement of COVID-19 misinformation rules and called for criminal charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert.
Musk clashed with some users on multiple fronts and on Sunday, he asked Twitter users to decide if he should remain in charge, acknowledging he made a mistake in launching new restrictions that banned the mention of rival social media websites.
The results of the online survey, which lasted 12 hours, showed that 57.5% of the 17.5 million respondents wanted him to leave, while 42.5% wanted him to stay.
The poll followed just the latest significant policy change since Musk acquired Twitter in October. Twitter had announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms targeted for “prohibition.”
Early Monday, the tweets from Twitter’s ‘Support’ account and the Twitter blog announcing the “prohibitions” disappeared without explanation. Twitter no longer has a press office so it was not possible to ask why.
That decision had generated immediate blowback, including criticism from past defenders of Twitter’s new owner. Musk then promised that he would not make any more major policy changes to Twitter without an online survey of users.
The action to block competitors was Musk’s latest attempt to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet.
The banned platforms included mainstream websites such as Facebook and Instagram, and rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social.
A growing number of Twitter users have left under Musk, or created alternative accounts on rival platforms and included those addresses in their Twitter profiles.
Musk has advocated for free speech on Twitter, but shut down the jet-tracking account, calling it a security risk. He used that to justify the decision last week to suspend the accounts of numerous journalists who cover Twitter and Musk, among them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. Many of those accounts were restored following an online poll by Musk.
The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz was suspended over the weekend after requesting an interview with Musk in a tweet tagged to the Twitter owner.
Sally Buzbee, The Washington Post’s executive editor, called it an “arbitrary suspension of another Post journalist” that further undermined Musk’s promise to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.
“Again, the suspension occurred with no warning, process or explanation — this time as our reporter merely sought comment from Musk for a story,” Buzbee said. By midday Sunday, Lorenz’s account was restored, as was the tweet she thought had triggered her suspension.
Musk was questioned in court on Nov. 16 about how he splits his time among Tesla and his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter. He had to testify in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over a shareholder’s challenge to Musk’s potentially $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company.
Musk said he never wanted to be a CEO of any company, preferring to see himself as an engineer.
In public banter with Twitter followers Sunday, Musk expressed pessimism about the prospects for a new CEO, saying that person “must like pain a lot” to run a company that “has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy.”
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Musk tweeted.
——
O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island, while Chan reported from Whalley, England, and Krisher reported from Detroit. AP writer Brian P. D. Hannon contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/elon-musk-twitter-poll-ends-with-users-seeking-his-departure-7/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:10 | en | 0.969603 |
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MDOT suspends work, offers tips for holiday travel
JACKSON, Miss. (WTOK) - The Mississippi Department of Transportation said it’s suspending all interstate and four-lane highway construction during peak Christmas and New Year’s travel times to limit travel delays caused by highway construction. All road construction requiring lane closures will stop Dec. 24 and resume Jan. 2.
“Although no highway construction work will occur across the state, motorists should be aware that some lane closures will remain in place,” said Brad White, MDOT executive director. “These lane closures are there to protect motorists, and MDOT urges drivers to always treat these areas as active work zones, even though workers may not be present.”
For the most current travel and traffic information, visit MDOTTraffic.com.
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
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By The Associated Press
The maker of the popular Fortnite video game will pay $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and its payment methods that tricked players into making unintended purchases, U.S. federal regulators said Monday.
The Federal Trade Commission reached the settlements to resolve two cases against Epic Games Inc., which has parlayed Fortnite’s success in the past five years to become a video game powerhouse.
The $520 million covered in the settlement consists of $245 million in customer refunds and a $275 million fine for collecting personal information on Fortnite players under the age of 13 without informing their parents or getting their consent. It’s the biggest penalty ever imposed for breaking an FTC rule.
“Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement.
Even before the settlement was announced, Epic said in a statement it had already rolled out a series of changes “to ensure our ecosystem meets the expectations of our players and regulators, which we hope will be a helpful guide for others in our industry.” The Cary, North Carolina, company also asserted that it no longer engages in the practices flagged by the FTC.
The $245 million in customer refunds will go to players who fell victim to so-called “dark patterns” and billing practices. Dark patterns are deceptive online techniques used to nudge users into doing things they didn’t intend to do.
In this case, “Fortnite’s counterintuitive, inconsistent, and confusing button configuration led players to incur unwanted charges based on the press of a single button,” the FTC said.
Players could, for example, be charged while trying to wake the game from sleep mode, while the game was in a loading screen, or by pressing a nearby button when simply trying to preview an item, it said.
“These tactics led to hundreds of millions of dollars in unauthorized charges for consumers,” the FTC said.
Epic said it agreed to the FTC settlement because it wants “to be at the forefront of consumer protection and provide the best experience for our players.”
“No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here,” Epic said.
During the past two years, Epic also has been locked in a high-profile legal battle with Apple in an attempt to dismantle the barriers protecting the iPhone app store, which has emerged as one of the world’s biggest e-commerce hubs during the past 14 years. After Epic introduced a different payment system within its Fortnite app in August 2020, Apple ousted the video from the app store, triggering a lawsuit that went to trial last year.
A federal judge ruled largely in Apple’s favor, partly because she embraced the iPhone maker’s contention that its exclusive control of the app store helped protect the security and privacy of consumers. The ruling is currently under appeal, with a decision expected at some point next year.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/fortnite-maker-to-pay-520m-for-privacy-e-commerce-abuses-3/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:17 | en | 0.962758 |
Verdict reached at Harvey Weinstein’s 2nd rape trial
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors reached a verdict Monday at the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein and lawyers for both sides are headed to the courtroom, where the verdict will be read.
Jurors got the case Dec. 2 and deliberated for nine days over a span of more than two weeks. After a monthlong trial, they had to make decisions on two rape counts and five other sexual assault counts against the 70-year-old former movie mogul.
The allegations involved four women and dated from 2005 to 2013.
If convicted on all counts, Weinstein could get a sentence of 60 years to life in prison.
Whatever the result, he won’t be walking free. He still has more than 20 years left on a New York prison sentence after a rape and sexual assault conviction there.
Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the accounts of the four women, each of whom gave dramatic and emotional testimony about the allegations.
Weinstein’s attorneys emphasized the shortage of physical evidence in the case, and asked jurors to set aside the emotional impact of the testimony to focus on the changes several of the women’s stories had gone through in their conversations with authorities.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty and denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.
The trial came just after the fifth anniversary of the blockbuster stories about Weinstein that made him a lightning rod for the #MeToo movement.
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
___
For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein(AP) -
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/12/19/verdict-reached-harvey-weinsteins-2nd-rape-trial/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:20 | en | 0.940384 |
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Associated Press
Sam Bankman-Fried may be ready to come to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX following a chaotic court appearance in the Bahamas on Monday.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying Monday that the disgraced FTX founder has agreed to be extradited to the United States. A court hearing was stopped earlier in the day when his attorneys said it was premature for him to stand before the court.
Jerone Roberts, a local defense attorney for Bankman-Fried, told The New York Times that lawyers will prepare the necessary documents. It was not immediately clear when extradition could occur.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Sam Bankman-Fried was headed back to jail Monday after a Bahamian judge cut short a hearing where the disgraced FTX founder was expected to drop his fight against extradition to the U.S.
Local news outlets reported that Bankman-Fried’s attorney requested the adjournment because he hadn’t been properly consulted about the proceedings.
Bankman-Fried was expected to tell Judge Shaka Servillea that he will not fight extradition to the U.S., where he faces multiple criminal and civil charges related to FTX’s collapse.
Instead, Eye Witness News Bahamas is reported that Bankman-Fried is headed back to jail, with prosecutors and Servillea calling the hearing a waste of time.
The court appearance came just a week after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had initially said that they planned to fight extradition. An extradition hearing had been scheduled for Feb. 8. The reversal could speed up the timetable for him to be sent to the U.S.
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried last Monday at the request of the U.S. government. U.S. prosecutors allege he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried illegally used investors’ money to buy real estate on behalf of himself and his family. The 30-year-old could potentially spend the rest of his life in jail.
Bankman-Fried arrived at the courthouse in a black van marked Corrections, which was escorted by a SWAT vehicle and a police vehicle. Police quickly whisked him into an entrance at the back of the courthouse.
Earlier, a handful of people who said they were either crypto enthusiasts or FTX customers that lost money came to court to witness the proceedings. One man called out “Sam’s a fraud,” as he entered the courthouse.
If he is brought to New York, Bankman-Fried will likely be held, at least temporarily, in a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Other famous prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center in recent years have included the sexually-abusive singer R. Kelly, the pharmaceutical company executive Martin Shkrelli and the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse children.
During her time at the MDC, which houses around 1,600 prisoners, Maxwell’s lawyers repeatedly complained to a judge that it was unsanitary, plagued by cockroaches and rodents. In recent years, three guards there have been convicted of sexually abusing inmates. In 2019, a power failure left inmates shivering for a week in the dead of winter.
Once he’s back in the U.S., Bankman-Fried’s attorney will be able to request that he be released on bail. A separate judge in the Bahamas denied Bankman-Fried’s request for bail last week on the grounds he was a flight risk.
Bankman-Fried’s downfall, from crypto evangelist to pariah, occurred with stunning speed. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11 when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before the bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried was considered by many in Washington and on Wall Street as a wunderkind of digital currencies, someone who could help take them mainstream, in part by working with policymakers to bring more oversight and trust to the industry.
Bankman-Fried had been worth tens of billions of dollars — at least on paper — and was able to attract celebrities like Tom Brady or former politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to his conferences at luxury resorts in the Bahamas. One prominent Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capital, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX.
The new CEO of FTX, John Ray III, told a congressional committee on Tuesday that there was nothing sophisticated about what Bankman-Fried was up to.
“This is just old fashion embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/ftx-founder-agrees-to-extradition-to-us-attorney-says-2/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:25 | en | 0.969037 |
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Associated Press
Sam Bankman-Fried may be ready to come to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX following a chaotic court appearance in the Bahamas.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying Monday the disgraced FTX founder has agreed to be extradited to the United States. A court hearing was stopped earlier in the day when his attorneys said it was premature for him to stand before the court.
Jerone Roberts, a local defense attorney for Bankman-Fried, told The New York Times that lawyers will prepare the necessary documents for extradition. “Mr. Bankman-Fried wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision,” the Times quoted Roberts telling reporters.
It was not immediately clear when extradition could occur.
The court appearance came just a week after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had initially said that they planned to fight extradition. An extradition hearing had been scheduled for Feb. 8. The reversal could speed up the timetable for him to be sent to the U.S.
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried last Monday at the request of the U.S. government. U.S. prosecutors allege he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried illegally used investors’ money to buy real estate on behalf of himself and his family. The 30-year-old could potentially spend the rest of his life in jail.
Bankman-Fried arrived at the courthouse in a black van marked Corrections, which was escorted by a SWAT vehicle and a police vehicle. Police quickly whisked him into an entrance at the back of the courthouse.
A handful of people who said they were either crypto enthusiasts or FTX customers came to the courthouse to witness the proceedings.
“We want him to feel the weight of what he’s done,” said Ben Armstrong, the founder of the BitBoy Crypto website. Armstrong said he’d come to the courthouse with a dozen people, some of whom had lost their money with FTX.
If he is brought to New York, Bankman-Fried will likely be held, at least temporarily, in a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Other famous prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center in recent years have included the sexually-abusive singer R. Kelly, the pharmaceutical company executive Martin Shkrelli and the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse children.
During her time at the MDC, which houses around 1,600 prisoners, Maxwell’s lawyers repeatedly complained to a judge that it was unsanitary, plagued by cockroaches and rodents. In recent years, three guards there have been convicted of sexually abusing inmates. In 2019, a power failure left inmates shivering for a week in the dead of winter.
Once he’s back in the U.S., Bankman-Fried’s attorney will be able to request that he be released on bail. A separate judge in the Bahamas denied Bankman-Fried’s request for bail last week on the grounds he was a flight risk.
Bankman-Fried’s downfall, from crypto evangelist to pariah, occurred with stunning speed. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11 when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before the bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried was considered by many in Washington and on Wall Street as a wunderkind of digital currencies, someone who could help take them mainstream, in part by working with policymakers to bring more oversight and trust to the industry.
Bankman-Fried had been worth tens of billions of dollars — at least on paper — and was able to attract celebrities like Tom Brady or former politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to his conferences at luxury resorts in the Bahamas. One prominent Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capital, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX.
The new CEO of FTX, John Ray III, told a congressional committee on Tuesday that there was nothing sophisticated about what Bankman-Fried was up to.
“This is just old fashion embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/ftx-founder-agrees-to-extradition-to-us-attorney-says-3/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:32 | en | 0.971892 |
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Associated Press
Sam Bankman-Fried may be ready to come to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX following a chaotic court appearance in the Bahamas.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying Monday the disgraced FTX founder has agreed to be extradited to the United States. A court hearing was stopped earlier in the day when his attorneys said it was premature for him to stand before the court.
Jerone Roberts, a local defense attorney for Bankman-Fried, told The New York Times that lawyers will prepare the necessary documents for extradition. “Mr. Bankman-Fried wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision,” the Times quoted Roberts telling reporters.
It was not immediately clear when extradition could occur.
The court appearance came just a week after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had initially said that they planned to fight extradition. An extradition hearing had been scheduled for Feb. 8. The reversal could speed up the timetable for him to be sent to the U.S.
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried last Monday at the request of the U.S. government. U.S. prosecutors allege he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried illegally used investors’ money to buy real estate on behalf of himself and his family. The 30-year-old could potentially spend the rest of his life in jail.
Bankman-Fried arrived at the courthouse in a black van marked Corrections, which was escorted by a SWAT vehicle and a police vehicle. Police quickly whisked him into an entrance at the back of the courthouse.
A handful of people who said they were either crypto enthusiasts or FTX customers came to the courthouse to witness the proceedings.
“We want him to feel the weight of what he’s done,” said Ben Armstrong, the founder of the BitBoy Crypto website. Armstrong said he’d come to the courthouse with a dozen people, some of whom had lost their money with FTX.
If he is brought to New York, Bankman-Fried will likely be held, at least temporarily, in a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Other famous prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center in recent years have included the sexually-abusive singer R. Kelly, the pharmaceutical company executive Martin Shkrelli and the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse children.
During her time at the MDC, which houses around 1,600 prisoners, Maxwell’s lawyers repeatedly complained to a judge that it was unsanitary, plagued by cockroaches and rodents. In recent years, three guards there have been convicted of sexually abusing inmates. In 2019, a power failure left inmates shivering for a week in the dead of winter.
Once he’s back in the U.S., Bankman-Fried’s attorney will be able to request that he be released on bail. A separate judge in the Bahamas denied Bankman-Fried’s request for bail last week on the grounds he was a flight risk.
Bankman-Fried’s downfall, from crypto evangelist to pariah, occurred with stunning speed. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11 when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before the bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried was considered by many in Washington and on Wall Street as a wunderkind of digital currencies, someone who could help take them mainstream, in part by working with policymakers to bring more oversight and trust to the industry.
Bankman-Fried had been worth tens of billions of dollars — at least on paper — and was able to attract celebrities like Tom Brady or former politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to his conferences at luxury resorts in the Bahamas. One prominent Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capital, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX.
The new CEO of FTX, John Ray III, told a congressional committee on Tuesday that there was nothing sophisticated about what Bankman-Fried was up to.
“This is just old fashion embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/ftx-founder-agrees-to-extradition-to-us-attorney-says-4/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:39 | en | 0.971892 |
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Associated Press
Sam Bankman-Fried may be ready to come to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX following a chaotic court appearance in the Bahamas on Monday.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying Monday that the disgraced FTX founder has agreed to be extradited to the United States. A court hearing was stopped earlier in the day when his attorneys said it was premature for him to stand before the court.
Jerone Roberts, a local defense attorney for Bankman-Fried, told The New York Times that lawyers will prepare the necessary documents. It was not immediately clear when extradition could occur.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
Sam Bankman-Fried was headed back to jail Monday after a Bahamian judge cut short a hearing where the disgraced FTX founder was expected to drop his fight against extradition to the U.S.
Local news outlets reported that Bankman-Fried’s attorney requested the adjournment because he hadn’t been properly consulted about the proceedings.
Bankman-Fried was expected to tell Judge Shaka Servillea that he will not fight extradition to the U.S., where he faces multiple criminal and civil charges related to FTX’s collapse.
Instead, Eye Witness News Bahamas is reported that Bankman-Fried is headed back to jail, with prosecutors and Servillea calling the hearing a waste of time.
The court appearance came just a week after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had initially said that they planned to fight extradition. An extradition hearing had been scheduled for Feb. 8. The reversal could speed up the timetable for him to be sent to the U.S.
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried last Monday at the request of the U.S. government. U.S. prosecutors allege he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried illegally used investors’ money to buy real estate on behalf of himself and his family. The 30-year-old could potentially spend the rest of his life in jail.
Bankman-Fried arrived at the courthouse in a black van marked Corrections, which was escorted by a SWAT vehicle and a police vehicle. Police quickly whisked him into an entrance at the back of the courthouse.
Earlier, a handful of people who said they were either crypto enthusiasts or FTX customers that lost money came to court to witness the proceedings. One man called out “Sam’s a fraud,” as he entered the courthouse.
If he is brought to New York, Bankman-Fried will likely be held, at least temporarily, in a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Other famous prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center in recent years have included the sexually-abusive singer R. Kelly, the pharmaceutical company executive Martin Shkrelli and the socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping the millionaire Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse children.
During her time at the MDC, which houses around 1,600 prisoners, Maxwell’s lawyers repeatedly complained to a judge that it was unsanitary, plagued by cockroaches and rodents. In recent years, three guards there have been convicted of sexually abusing inmates. In 2019, a power failure left inmates shivering for a week in the dead of winter.
Once he’s back in the U.S., Bankman-Fried’s attorney will be able to request that he be released on bail. A separate judge in the Bahamas denied Bankman-Fried’s request for bail last week on the grounds he was a flight risk.
Bankman-Fried’s downfall, from crypto evangelist to pariah, occurred with stunning speed. FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11 when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before the bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried was considered by many in Washington and on Wall Street as a wunderkind of digital currencies, someone who could help take them mainstream, in part by working with policymakers to bring more oversight and trust to the industry.
Bankman-Fried had been worth tens of billions of dollars — at least on paper — and was able to attract celebrities like Tom Brady or former politicians like Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to his conferences at luxury resorts in the Bahamas. One prominent Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capital, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX.
The new CEO of FTX, John Ray III, told a congressional committee on Tuesday that there was nothing sophisticated about what Bankman-Fried was up to.
“This is just old fashion embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes,” he said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/ftx-founder-agrees-to-extradition-to-us-attorney-says/ | 2022-12-19T23:22:47 | en | 0.969037 |
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By MARY CLARE JALONICK, ERIC TUCKER and FARNOUSH AMIRI
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee urged the Justice Department on Monday to bring criminal charges against Donald Trump for the violent 2021 Capitol insurrection, calling for accountability for the former president and “a time of reflection and reckoning.”
After one of the most exhaustive and aggressive congressional probes in memory, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are recommending criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a wide-ranging pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss. The panel also released a lengthy summary of its final report, with findings that Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to thwart the will of voters.
At a final meeting Monday, the committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Trump, in both the run-up to the riot and during the insurrection itself, as it recommended the former president for prosecution to the Justice Department. Among the charges they recommend for prosecution is aiding an insurrection — an effort to hold him directly accountable for his supporters who stormed the Capitol that day.
The committee also voted to refer conservative lawyer John Eastman, who devised dubious legal maneuvers aimed at keeping Trump in power, for prosecution on two of the same statutes as Trump: conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstructing an official proceeding.
While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Trump or others, it is a decisive end to a probe that had an almost singular focus from the start.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Trump “broke the faith” that people have when they cast ballots in a democracy and that the criminal referrals could provide a “roadmap to justice” by using the committee’s work.
“I believe nearly two years later, this is still a time of reflection and reckoning,” Thompson said. “If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again.”
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chairwoman, said in her opening remarks that every president in American history has defended the orderly transfer of power, “except one.”
The committee also voted 9-0 to approve its final report, which will include findings, interview transcripts and legislative recommendations. The full report is expected to be released on Wednesday.
The report’s 154-page summary, made public as the hearing ended, found that Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the election. While the majority of the report’s main findings are not new, it altogether represents one of the most damning portraits of an American president in recent history, laying out in great detail Trump’s broad effort to overturn his own defeat and what the lawmakers say is his direct responsibility for the insurrection of his supporters.
The panel, which will dissolve on Jan. 3 with the new Republican-led House, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, held 10 well-watched public hearings and collected more than a million documents since it launched in July 2021. As it has gathered the massive trove of evidence, the members have become emboldened in declaring that Trump, a Republican, is to blame for the violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters almost two years ago.
After beating their way past police, injuring many of them, the Jan. 6 rioters stormed the Capitol and interrupted the certification of Biden’s presidential election win, echoing Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud and sending lawmakers and others running for their lives.
The attack came after weeks of Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat — a campaign that was extensively detailed by the committee in its multiple public hearings, and laid out again by lawmakers on the panel at Monday’s meeting. Many of Trump’s former aides testified about his unprecedented pressure on states, on federal officials and Pence to object to Biden’s win. The committee has also described in great detail how Trump riled up the crowd at a rally that morning and then did little to stop his supporters for several hours as he watched the violence unfold on television.
The panel aired some new evidence at the meeting, including a recent interview with longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks. Describing a conversation she had with Trump around that time, she said he told her that no one would care about his legacy if he lost the election.
Hicks told the committee that Trump told her, “The only thing that matters is winning.”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the former president slammed members of the committee Sunday as “thugs and scoundrels” as he has continued to falsely dispute his 2020 loss.
While a so-called criminal referral has no real legal standing, it is a forceful statement by the committee and adds to political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel Jack Smith, who is conducting an investigation into Jan. 6 and Trump’s actions.
On the recommendation to charge Trump on aiding an insurrection, the committee said in the report’s summary that the former president “was directly responsible for summoning what became a violent mob” and refused repeated entreaties from his aides to condemn the rioters or to encourage them to leave.
For obstructing an official proceeding, the committee cites Trump’s relentless badgering of Vice President Mike Pence and others to prevent the certification of the election results on Jan. 6. And his repeated lies about the election and efforts to undo the results open him up to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States, the panel said.
The final charge recommended by the panel is conspiracy to make a false statement, citing the scheme by Trump and his allies to put forward slates of fake electors in battleground states won by President Joe Biden.
Among the other charges contemplated, but not approved, by the committee was seditious conspiracy, the same allegation Justice Department prosecutors have used to target a subset of rioters belonging to far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys.
Thompson said after the hearing that the seditious conspiracy charge is “something that the committee didn’t come to agreement on.”
The panel was formed in the summer of 2021 after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of what would have been a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurrection. When that effort failed, the Democratic-controlled House formed an investigative committee of its own.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a Trump ally, decided not to participate after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his appointments. That left an opening for two anti-Trump Republicans in the House — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — to join seven Democrats, launching an unusually unified panel in the divided Congress.
McCarthy was one of four House Republicans who ignored congressional subpoenas from the panel and were referred to the House Ethics Committee on Monday for their non-compliance.
The Republican leader, who is hoping to become speaker of the House when his party takes the majority in January, has acknowledged he spoke with Trump on Jan. 6. The committee also referred Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona, all of whom were in touch with Trump or the White House in the weeks leading up to the attack.
While the committee’s mission was to take a comprehensive accounting of the insurrection and educate the public about what happened, they’ve also aimed their work at an audience of one: the attorney general. Lawmakers on the panel have openly pressured Garland to investigate Trump’s actions, and last month he appointed a special counsel, Smith, to oversee two probes related to Trump, including those related to the insurrection and the presence of classified documents at Trump’s Florida estate.
The committee members said that full accountability can only be found in the criminal justice system.
“No one should get a pass,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Jill Colvin and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
___
For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege.
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By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — To get a sense of Janelle Monáe’s powers of transformation, look no further than her Instagram photos of past Halloweens. Monáe doesn’t just throw something on. When she turns into the White Rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland” or Diva Plavalaguna from “The Fifth Element,” Monáe looks legitimately ready to step onto a movie set.
“I am indeed a self-proclaimed transformer,” Monáe says, smiling. “I love going outside of what I think I know about me.”
Monáe, who grew up in a working-class Baptist family in the Quindaro neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, first remade herself in music as a retro-styled dynamo. Performing in a tuxedo and a vintage pompadour, she fashioned herself as a time-traveling android alter-ego named Cindi Mayweather. Acting was probably inevitable for Monáe, who studied musical theater at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy before dedicating herself to music.
“It is that character building that I love,” Monáe said in a recent interview. “I love just getting my body into discovering a new way to talk and to breathe, and, hopefully, being a reflection for other folks. Go outside of who you think you are every day.”
But as much as Monáe has been a natural, full-body entertainer and a red-carpet head-turner – a self-evident movie star — it has sometimes seemed since her two 2016 big-screen debuts in “Hidden Figures” and “Moonlight” that Hollywood hasn’t known quite how to fully harness the wide-ranging talents of such a self-propelled, mold-breaking Black female artist.
But in Rian Johnson’s whodunit sequel“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” which debuts Friday on Netflix, Monáe may have found a film to suit her proclivity for shape shifting. In Johnson’s puzzle box of a movie, Monáe’s character is the most mysterious and enigmatic of a colorful ensemble. If “Knives Out” gave Ana de Armas a chance to shine, “Glass Onion” is a revelation of Monáe’s many layers.
“It’s been an incredibly transformative experience for me as an actor,” Monáe says. “I got an opportunity to show range. This character goes from comedy to the deep emotional, heavy-lifting dramatic scenes all the way to action, where I found myself working with a stunt coordinator at five, six in the morning in Greece after eating baclava.”
The less said about exactly how Monáe fits into “Glass Onion,” the better. In Johnson’s film, which had a one-week theatrical run in late November, Edward Norton plays a tech billionaire, Miles Bron, who invites friends to his private Greek island. Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is on hand for a murder mystery that spins out of control and a plot that, in dredging up Bron’s past, skewers a social media mogul not so unlike some of today’s real-world tech tycoons.
“I got an opportunity to honor those women who are the minority in the majority in those spaces, who have their ideas taken from them, who are not given credit for their work, who have to deal with these alligators, deal with these tech bros, deal with these geniuses who in fact haven’t done anything except for cause confusion,” says Monáe.
Monáe is something of a futurist, herself. Earlier this year she published a collection of sci-fi stories titled “The Memory Librarian,” adapted from elements in her 2018 album, “Dirty Computer.” In it, Monáe depicts a future world where human desires are controlled by an organization called New Dawn and the identities of LGBTQ people can be wiped by a drug called Nevermind.
Monáe earlier this year said on “Red Table Talk” that she identifies as non-binary. Her pronouns, she has said, are her/she, they/them and “free-ass motherf—–.” The film industry, especially this time of year when awards are given to actors and actresses, can be more codified in its classifications. Monáe, herself, was named best supporting actress for her performance in “Glass Onion” by the National Board of Review.
The multidimensional characters of “Glass Onion,” Monáe says, has given her more hope that she can find films that authentically connect with her. “I just want to tip my hat off to those writers and directors who are thinking about dynamism when they’re writing these characters,” she says. That includes Johnson, who she’s been a fan of since seeing his 2012 science-fiction film “Looper.” Says Monáe: “I was like: Who is this guy who likes time travel as much as me?”
Johnson, for his part, felt he was working with “a true artist.”
“It’s not like she has a tremendous artifice to her, but I’ve never met her where she doesn’t look better than I will ever look in my life,” he says, laughing. “She’s an entertainer but she’s also an artist. It’s not a facade that she just puts on for attention. All the stuff that she does comes from a place that’s really close to her heart.”
Through her Paisley Park-like creative hub Wondaland in Atlanta, Monáe is trying, she says, to “tell radical, rebellious, smart stories.” With A24, she’s developing a TV series on Josephine Baker, the French dancer and WWII resistance fighter. She’s eager for more.
“As timeless as I like to think I am, time waits for nobody,” Monáe says.
But regardless of future roles, for Monáe metamorphosis is more of a habit. On a weekend during shooting, Johnson sent out hand-written invitations to the cast to gather for their own murder mystery. Monáe arrived decked out as Sherlock Holmes, complete with top hat, beard, mustache, cane and cape. Or as Monáe says, “Ready to play.”
___
Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/12/19/janelle-monae-the-not-so-secret-weapon-of-glass-onion-3/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:02 | en | 0.96481 |
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By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Actors Johnny Depp and Amber Heard have settled their defamation lawsuits following a high-profile trial earlier this year in which the former couple accused each other of physical and verbal abuse.
Heard announced the settlement Monday on social media. Both sides had filed appeals of various aspects of the jury’s verdicts in June. The seven-person civil jury had awarded Depp $10 million in damages, but also awarded $2 million to Heard.
Depp’s camp said the deal includes a $1 million payment from her to him to settle all financial claims.
Depp’s lawyers said he will donate that money to charity.
“We are pleased to formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr. Depp, who made clear throughout this process that his priority was about bringing the truth to light. The jury’s unanimous decision and the resulting judgement in Mr. Depp’s favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place,” Depp’s lawyers, Benjamin Chew and Camille Vazquez, said.
Both sides argued to a jury in Fairfax County Circuit Court that the other had defamed them. Depp said he was libeled by Heard when she wrote a 2018 op-ed piece in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
Depp’s lawyers said he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name because, they argued, it clearly referenced abuse allegations Heard had made against Depp during divorce proceedings.
Heard, on the other hand, said she was defamed by Depp when one of his lawyers called her abuse allegations a “hoax.”
In a post Monday on Instagram, Heard said the decision to settle was difficult.
“I never chose this,” she wrote. “I defended my truth and in doing so my life as I knew it was destroyed. The vilification I have faced on social media is an amplified version of the ways in which women are re-victimised when they come forward.”
The trial stretched over several months and became something of a cultural phenomenon as millions of Americans watched the televised proceedings. Ostensibly a defamation case, the trial frequently devolved into ugly mudslinging as both Depp and Heard took the stand over multiple days denying each other’s abuse allegations and accusing each other of horrible behavior during their brief marriage.
At the courthouse and across the country, Depp’s supporters backed him fervently, and Heard was routinely mocked as she detailed allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
The ruling at the Virginia court in Depp’s favor came after a judge in the United Kingdom ruled against Depp in a libel suit he brought there against a British tabloid. The judge in that 2020 case concluded that Heard had indeed been subject to abuse at Depp’s hands on multiple occasions.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/12/19/johnny-depp-amber-heard-settle-defamation-appeals-3/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:09 | en | 0.983739 |
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By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jury selection in the seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and four others charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol began Monday after the judge denied defense attorneys’ last-minute bid to delay the trial over action by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Defense attorneys pushed to postpone jury selection in the high-profile case until after the new year, citing concerns that media coverage of the Jan. 6 panel could taint the jury pool. A defense attorney told the judge it’s also impossible to know what evidence related to the Proud Boys might be released by the committee, which urged the Justice Department Monday to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
“We don’t want to be picking the jury in this highly confusing and combustible environment,” attorney Norm Pattis, who is representing Proud Boy organizer Joseph Biggs, told the judge.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said they would push ahead despite the committee’s work and told defense attorneys he would remind jurors to avoid media coverage related to Jan. 6.
“The former president is not on trial here today,” the judge said before the first group of potential jurors were called into the courtroom.
Tarrio is perhaps the highest-profile defendant to face jurors yet in the attack that halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s win, left dozens of police officers injured and led to nearly 1,000 arrests. Tarrio, of Miami, and the others — Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Biggs — are charged with several other crimes in addition to sedition.
They will face jurors just weeks after two leaders of another extremist group, the Oath Keepers, were convicted of seditious conspiracy in a major victory for the Justice Department. If convicted of sedition, the Proud Boys could face up to 20 years in prison. The trial is expected to last at least six weeks.
Jury selection began hours before the Jan. 6 House committee held its final public meeting and recommended criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Defense attorneys for the Proud Boys and other Jan. 6 defendants have said there’s no way they can get an unbiased jury in Washington, where the federal court sits less than a mile from the Capitol. But judges have repeatedly denied requests to move the cases out of the nation’s capital, saying fair jurors can be found under the right questioning.
The first potential juror questioned Monday said he once worked as an aide in the Supreme Court and has a brother who is a White House lawyer. The judge disqualified him.
The judge also dismissed a woman who was working for Congressional Quarterly on Jan. 6 and had several co-workers who were trapped in the building that day. The woman also said it would be difficult for her to set aside her opinions about the Proud Boys, whom she described as having a “delusional superhero complex.”
Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6 because he had been arrested two days earlier on charges that he vandalized a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. But prosecutors say he was the leader of a conspiracy to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden.
Days before the riot, Tarrio posted on social media about “revolution,” according to court papers. Citing what they alleged was an encrypted message group created by Tarrio, authorities say members discussed attacking the Capitol. One message said: “Time to stack those bodies in front of Capitol Hill.”
Prosecutors allege that even after his arrest, Tarrio kept command over the Proud Boys who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 and cheered on their actions from afar. As rioters stormed the building, he posted “don’t (expletive) leave” on social media, and then later “We did this…”
Nordean, Pezzola, Biggs and Rehl were part of the first wave of rioters to push onto Capitol grounds and charge past police barricades toward the building, according to prosecutors. Pezzola used a riot shield he stole from a Capitol police officer to break a window, allowing the first rioters to enter the building, prosecutors allege.
Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president; Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organizer; Rehl was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; and Dominic Pezzola was a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York.
Defense attorneys have denied that the Proud Boys leaders planned or led an attack on the Capitol.
Tarrio’s lawyers say he didn’t instruct or encourage anyone to go into the Capitol or engage in violent or destructive behavior. Nordean’s attorney accused the Justice Department of selective prosecution and targeting him based on his political associations and beliefs. Rehl’s lawyer asked the judge to toss the indictment on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the case rested solely on Rehl’s political views and free speech.
Last month’s guilty verdicts for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Florida chapter leader Kelly Meggs were the first seditious conspiracy trial convictions in decades. Jurors acquitted three other Oath Keeper defendants of seditious conspiracy, although they were convicted of other crimes. Four others associated with the Oath Keepers are also currently standing trial for seditious conspiracy.
___
Richer reported from Boston.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the Capitol riot at: https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/jury-selection-begins-in-major-1-6-proud-boys-sedition-trial/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:15 | en | 0.965873 |
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Several of Indiana’s major employers want their local utilities to make it easier for them to buy power generated by wind and solar farms so they can move closer to their renewable energy goals.
Cummins, Salesforce, Roche and other companies recently joined with the cities of Indianapolis and Bloomington in signing a letter that asks Duke Energy and AES Indiana to offer more options for large customers to source their electricity through renewable energy.
They want what’s often called a Green Tariff, which would allow the cities and companies to buy locally produced renewable energy, The Indianapolis Star reported.
The companies, including Walmart and Rivian, penned the letter in conjunction with the Advanced Energy Economy Indiana — the local chapter of a national association of businesses working to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
Caryl Auslander, executive director of Advanced Energy Economy Indiana, said large customers “want to choose renewable energy, and we’re asking Duke and AES to give them more options.”
All green tariff programs would need to be approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, the state’s utility regulator.
Todd Marty, senior director of sustainability at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated — the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the U.S. — said it’s hopeful “Indiana utilities can offer more options to purchase our electricity from more sustainable sources of energy, like wind and solar.”
Coca-Cola has committed to reducing carbon emissions 25% by 2030, and one of its bottlers signed onto the letter to Duke and AES.
The two utilities currently offer green pricing programs for residential and business customers under which they pay a premium as an extra charge on their electricity bill to be put toward renewable energy sources in the Midwest.
But green tariff programs are what the large companies and municipalities want. Instead of paying on top of their current bill, those programs would let the companies and cities lock in a new rate that pays directly for the cost of electricity from wind or solar farms.
Both AES and Duke said they are exploring ideas about other renewable offerings that go beyond the existing green power options available to their customers.
“We are glad to talk with these companies and municipalities,” said Duke spokeswoman Angeline Protogere. “We can discuss with these organizations different approaches they are interested in.”
AES Indiana, meanwhile, said it similarly “stands ready to partner with our customers and communities to help create Indiana’s economy for the future.”
For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Indianapolis Star. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/large-indiana-employers-asking-utilities-for-green-tariffs/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:23 | en | 0.95505 |
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Since Elon Musk took control of Twitter in late October, confusion over what is, and what is not allowed on the platform, even what a verified account is, has run rampant. Rules and policies can change daily, or even hourly. Little of what’s transpired at Twitter in almost two months under Musk’s leadership has anything to do with what was originally his biggest complaint about the platform: the scourge of bots, or spam accounts.
Here’s a rundown of some of the events, policy changes and confusion that has been a hallmark of Musk’s Twitter.
Oct. 27: Musk takes control of Twitter and fires the CEO, chief financial officer and the company’s top attorney.
Oct. 28: Some accounts recirculate long-debunked conspiracy theories in an attempt to “test” whether Twitter’s policies on misinformation were still being enforced.
Oct. 30: Musk tweets a link to an unfounded rumor about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband. He later deleted the tweet.
Oct. 31: Musk fires Twitter’s board of directors and makes himself the board’s sole member.
Nov. 3: General Mills and Audi pause ads on Twitter. Other advertisers express concerns about content moderation under Musk and whether staying on Twitter might tarnish their brands.
Nov. 5: Twitter announces a $7.99 per-month subscription service that includes a blue check just ahead of U.S. midterm elections, previously given only to verified accounts.
Nov. 6: After a raft of bogus “verified” accounts begin posting on the platform, Musk says Twitter will suspend any impersonation account that fails to make clear it’s a parody account.
Nov. 7: Musk urges “independent-minded voters” to vote Republican in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.
Nov. 9: Musk seeks to reassure big companies that advertise on Twitter that his chaotic takeover of the social media platform won’t harm their brands, acknowledging that some “dumb things” might happen in the short term. Musk creates an “official” label for high-profile Twitter accounts, and abolishes it hours later.
Nov. 10: The Center for Countering Digital Hate found that the number of tweets containing one of several different racial slurs soared in the week after Musk bought Twitter.
Nov. 11: Twitter’s relaunched blue-check “verification” labels for anyone willing to pay $8 a month was flooded by a wave of imposter accounts Twitter had approved, including a bogus Eli Lilly & Co. account that tweeted that insulin was free. Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, Musk’s own companies Tesla and SpaceX were also impersonated, as well as the accounts of various professional sports and political figures.
Nov. 13: Musk further guts the teams that battle misinformation on Twitter as outsourced moderators are let go.
Nov. 17: Democratic senators ask federal regulators to investigate any possible violations by Twitter of consumer-protection laws or of its data-security commitments.
Nov. 19: Donald Trump’s account is reinstated, reversing a ban that has kept the former president off the social media site since a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The decision was based on the results of a poll Musk tweeted to followers.
Nov. 21: Twitter reinstates the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which was banned in January for violating the platform’s COVID-19 misinformation policies.
Nov. 25: Twitter announces plans to revamp its premium service with different colored check marks, including gold for companies, gray for government accounts, and blue for anyone who will pay for it.
Nov. 28: Twitter ceases enforcement of its policy against COVID-19 misinformation on the platform.
Nov. 30: A top European Union official warns Musk that Twitter needs to beef up measures to protect users from hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content to avoid fines or even a ban in the 27-nation bloc.
Dec. 10: Twitter again attempts to launch its premium service for $8 per month for web users, but it’s now $11 per month for iPhone and iPad users.
Dec. 12: Twitter dissolves its Trust and Safety Council, the advisory group of around 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.
Dec. 14: Twitter suspends an account that used publicly available flight data to track Elon Musk’s private jet, despite a pledge by the social media platform’s new owner to keep it up because of his free speech principles. The account is restored hours later with rules that impose new conditions on all users about sharing anyone’s current location, and then the account is suspended again.
Dec. 15: The accounts of journalists who cover Musk are suspended, among them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. The accounts are restored a day later after a Twitter poll.
Dec. 19: More than half of 17.5 million users who responded to a Twitter poll created by Musk over whether he should step down as head of the company voted yes by the time the poll closed. There was no immediate announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether he would resign, though Musk said that he would abide by the results.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/musks-twitter-rules-a-dizzying-whiplash-inducing-timeline/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:30 | en | 0.944346 |
Hollywood Minute: 'Avatar' sequel's big debut
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By STEVE MEGARGEE
AP Sports Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers have released veteran wide receiver Sammy Watkins in advance of their Monday night game with the Los Angeles Rams. Watkins had 13 receptions for 206 yards and no touchdowns in his lone season with the Packers. The 29-year-old Watkins caught three passes for 93 yards in a Sept. 18 victory over the Chicago Bears. But he missed the Packers’ next four games with a hamstring injury and hasn’t been productive since coming back. He hadn’t caught a single pass since getting three receptions in a Nov. 13 overtime win over the Dallas Cowboys.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/packers-release-veteran-wide-receiver-sammy-watkins/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:38 | en | 0.949768 |
Benoit Blanc is back in 'Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'
Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, and Kate Hudson join Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson's new murder mystery. David Daniel reports.
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This survival game pits players against an evil Thomas the Train-like monster | https://www.cnn.com/videos/entertainment/2022/12/19/hollywood-movies-netflix-streaming-glass-onion-knives-out.cnn | 2022-12-19T23:23:41 | en | 0.909605 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/mlb/texas-rangers/articles/41927080 | 2022-12-19T23:23:41 | en | 0.738227 |
By DAVE SKRETTA
AP Basketball Writer
Purdue maintained its grasp on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday.
Another unbeaten is closing the gap, though.
The Boilermakers received 40 of the 60 first-place votes from a national media panel after knocking off Davidson in their only game last week, allowing them to hold the top spot for a second consecutive week. But after then-No. 2 Virginia lost to Houston, Connecticut leaped into second place and scooped up the remaining 20 first-place votes.
It’s the highest the Huskies, unranked in the preseason, have been in the AP poll since they were No. 1 on March 2, 2009.
“We just have to stick to our identity,” said UConn star Adama Sanogo, who had 27 points and 14 rebounds in a 68-48 romp at Butler on Saturday. “No pressure, just play the way I’ve been playing.”
The Cougars’ 69-61 road win over the Cavaliers, along with an earlier win over North Carolina A&T, allowed them to climb two spots to No. 3. Kansas moved up four spots after blowing out then-No. 14 Indiana at Allen Fieldhouse, while Arizona rounded out the top five after knocking off then-No. 6 Tennessee.
“For us to get a gritty ‘W’ against a team like Tennessee, it was a great night,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said.
Virginia dropped to sixth while Texas, which played its first game without suspended coach Chris Beard, remained at No. 7 following a win over Stanford. The Volunteers fell to eighth to begin a run of Southeastern Conference teams with Alabama falling to ninth after a loss to Gonzaga and Arkansas holding onto 10th for the second straight week.
The Bulldogs, who also beat Northern Illinois before their 100-90 road victory over the Crimson Tide, came in at No. 11 while UCLA climbed four spots to No. 12 after arguably the most impressive week of anyone. The Bruins won 87-60 at then-No. 20 Maryland before beating then-No. 13 Kentucky at Madison Square Garden.
“Long week,” said UCLA coach Mick Cronin, whose team has followed back-to-back losses with seven straight wins. “We know what we’re capable of if we defend and play with the toughness we played with this week.”
Baylor checked in at No. 13 ahead of Duke, the only Top 25 team that did not play last week, while Mississippi State — one of five unbeatens left in men’s Division I basketball — came in at No. 15.
Illinois began a run for the Big Ten at No. 16 with Wisconsin and Indiana right behind it. Kentucky tumbled six spots to No. 19 after its third loss in its first 10 games, while TCU rounded out the top 20 after its win over Mississippi Valley State.
Virginia Tech, Miami, Marquette, Auburn and Arizona State rounded out the poll.
RISING AND FALLING
Wisconsin made the biggest move in the poll, climbing five spots following its win over Lehigh. But that victory came on the heels of more impressive wins over Maryland and in overtime at Iowa the previous week to open Big Ten play.
Kentucky took the biggest fall after its 63-53 loss to the Bruins. The Wildcats’ other two losses are to Michigan State and Gonzaga, and they are just 1-3 in games played at Rupp Arena this season.
IN AND OUT
Marquette moved into the poll at No. 23 for the first time this season after beating Creighton to open Big East play, while Arizona State entered in the final slot after its own win over the Bluejays and another over San Diego.
Maryland fell out after its loss to UCLA. So did Ohio State, which lost in overtime to North Carolina in New York.
CONFERENCE WATCH
Seven different leagues fill up the first eight spots in the Top 25, though the SEC has the most teams in the poll with six this week. The Big Ten, American Athletic and Big 12 conferences have four apiece.
___
AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
___
This story has been updated to correct Sanogo’s first name to Adama.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/12/19/purdue-holds-top-spot-in-ap-poll-as-uconn-climbs-to-no-2-2/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:45 | en | 0.96156 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/charlotte-hornets/articles/41927399 | 2022-12-19T23:23:47 | en | 0.738227 |
By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — R. Kelly’s onetime manager was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threat that halted a screening of a damning documentary about the R&B star.
The punishment won’t add to the time ex-manager Donnell Russell is already set to serve for a different effort to squelch sexual abuse claims against Kelly.
Russell told a Manhattan federal judge Monday that he had “made bad judgments” while briefly working with the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer.
“I’m not a horrible person,” Russell said.
Russell said he reconnected with Kelly, a fellow Chicagoan he’d met decades earlier, as the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was facing a growing series of accusations that eventually fueled Kelly’s sex trafficking and racketeering conviction last year. Russell said he set out to help Kelly with intellectual property matters that he thought could yield the performer money to pay legal bills.
But prosecutors said Russell also worked on something else: trying to suppress the abuse allegations. He tried to intimidate at least one accuser, threatened to sue over Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” series and eventually phoned in the warning that shut down the documentary’s 2018 Manhattan premiere, according to prosecutors.
The series spotlighted allegations that Kelly had sexually abused women and girls. Some accusers were set to speak at a panel discussion after the premiere.
The phone call claimed that someone at the event had a gun and intended to fire. The screening was canceled and the theater evacuated.
“I was happy that it ended. I didn’t question how it ended,” Russell said in court Monday, adding that he recognizes that people have “a moral obligation” to make sure that things they get involved in are proper.
Prosecutors linked Russell to the episode through phone records and a text he sent about police potentially arriving at the venue. At trial, his defense argued that there were lots of phone calls to the theater that day and that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he committed a crime.
A jury convicted Russell in July of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, while acquitting him of conspiracy.
Days after the verdict, Russell pleaded guilty to an interstate stalking charge involving one of Kelly’s sexual abuse accusers. A Brooklyn federal judge sentenced Russell last month to 20 months in prison for conduct that included sending threatening messages to the woman and later publishing explicit photos of her online.
Russell, 47, is due to turn himself in next year to serve his sentences in both cases simultaneously.
At Monday’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe said Russell had engaged in “serious criminal conduct” in “a misguided attempt to protect someone who was a prolific abuser.”
Kelly was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison in his sex trafficking and racketeering case in Brooklyn federal court.
In September, a Chicago federal jury convicted him of producing child pornography and enticing girls for sex, though jurors cleared him of a charge of rigging his state-level child pornography trial in 2008. He is set to be sentenced Feb. 23 in that case.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/12/19/r-kelly-manager-gets-a-year-in-prison-for-theater-threat-2/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:52 | en | 0.972767 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/charlotte-hornets/articles/41927826 | 2022-12-19T23:23:53 | en | 0.738227 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/charlotte-hornets/articles/41928108 | 2022-12-19T23:23:59 | en | 0.738227 |
By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — R. Kelly’s onetime manager was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threat that halted a screening of a damning documentary about the R&B star.
The punishment won’t add to the time ex-manager Donnell Russell is already set to serve for a different effort to squelch sexual abuse claims against Kelly.
Russell told a Manhattan federal judge Monday that he had “made bad judgments” while briefly working with the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer.
“I’m not a horrible person,” Russell said.
Russell said he reconnected with Kelly, a fellow Chicagoan he’d met decades earlier, as the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was facing a growing series of accusations that eventually fueled Kelly’s sex trafficking and racketeering conviction last year. Russell said he set out to help Kelly with intellectual property matters that he thought could yield the performer money to pay legal bills.
But prosecutors said Russell also worked on something else: trying to suppress the abuse allegations. He tried to intimidate at least one accuser, threatened to sue over Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” series and eventually phoned in the warning that shut down the documentary’s 2018 Manhattan premiere, according to prosecutors.
The series spotlighted allegations that Kelly had sexually abused women and girls. Some accusers were set to speak at a panel discussion after the premiere.
The phone call claimed that someone at the event had a gun and intended to fire. The screening was canceled and the theater evacuated.
“I was happy that it ended. I didn’t question how it ended,” Russell said in court Monday, adding that he recognizes that people have “a moral obligation” to make sure that things they get involved in are proper.
Prosecutors linked Russell to the episode through phone records and a text he sent about police potentially arriving at the venue. At trial, his defense argued that there were lots of phone calls to the theater that day and that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he committed a crime.
A jury convicted Russell in July of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, while acquitting him of conspiracy.
Days after the verdict, Russell pleaded guilty to an interstate stalking charge involving one of Kelly’s sexual abuse accusers. A Brooklyn federal judge sentenced Russell last month to 20 months in prison for conduct that included sending threatening messages to the woman and later publishing explicit photos of her online.
Russell, 47, is due to turn himself in next year to serve his sentences in both cases simultaneously.
At Monday’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe said Russell had engaged in “serious criminal conduct” in “a misguided attempt to protect someone who was a prolific abuser.”
Kelly was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison in his sex trafficking and racketeering case in Brooklyn federal court.
In September, a Chicago federal jury convicted him of producing child pornography and enticing girls for sex, though jurors cleared him of a charge of rigging his state-level child pornography trial in 2008. He is set to be sentenced Feb. 23 in that case.
Kelly also faces state-level charges in Chicago and in Minnesota related to sexual misconduct allegations. He has pleaded not guilty in Chicago. The singer has yet to be brought to Minnesota’s Hennepin County to answer the charges there, but one of his lawyers called the case “beyond absurd” when it was announced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/r-kelly-manager-gets-a-year-in-prison-for-theater-threat-3/ | 2022-12-19T23:23:59 | en | 0.974348 |
By JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — R. Kelly’s onetime manager was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threat that halted a screening of a damning documentary about the R&B star.
The punishment won’t add to the time ex-manager Donnell Russell is already set to serve for a different effort to squelch sexual abuse claims against Kelly.
Russell told a Manhattan federal judge Monday that he had “made bad judgments” while briefly working with the Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling singer.
“I’m not a horrible person,” Russell said.
Russell said he reconnected with Kelly, a fellow Chicagoan he’d met decades earlier, as the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was facing a growing series of accusations that eventually fueled Kelly’s sex trafficking and racketeering conviction last year. Russell said he set out to help Kelly with intellectual property matters that he thought could yield the performer money to pay legal bills.
But prosecutors said Russell also worked on something else: trying to suppress the abuse allegations. He tried to intimidate at least one accuser, threatened to sue over Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” series and eventually phoned in the warning that shut down the documentary’s 2018 Manhattan premiere, according to prosecutors.
The series spotlighted allegations that Kelly had sexually abused women and girls. Some accusers were set to speak at a panel discussion after the premiere.
The phone call claimed that someone at the event had a gun and intended to fire. The screening was canceled and the theater evacuated.
“I was happy that it ended. I didn’t question how it ended,” Russell said in court Monday, adding that he recognizes that people have “a moral obligation” to make sure that things they get involved in are proper.
Prosecutors linked Russell to the episode through phone records and a text he sent about police potentially arriving at the venue. At trial, his defense argued that there were lots of phone calls to the theater that day and that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he committed a crime.
A jury convicted Russell in July of threatening physical harm through interstate communication, while acquitting him of conspiracy.
Days after the verdict, Russell pleaded guilty to an interstate stalking charge involving one of Kelly’s sexual abuse accusers. A Brooklyn federal judge sentenced Russell last month to 20 months in prison for conduct that included sending threatening messages to the woman and later publishing explicit photos of her online.
Russell, 47, is due to turn himself in next year to serve his sentences in both cases simultaneously.
At Monday’s sentencing, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe said Russell had engaged in “serious criminal conduct” in “a misguided attempt to protect someone who was a prolific abuser.”
Kelly was sentenced in June to 30 years in prison in his sex trafficking and racketeering case in Brooklyn federal court.
In September, a Chicago federal jury convicted him of producing child pornography and enticing girls for sex, though jurors cleared him of a charge of rigging his state-level child pornography trial in 2008. He is set to be sentenced Feb. 23 in that case.
Kelly also faces state-level charges in Chicago and in Minnesota related to sexual misconduct allegations. He has pleaded not guilty in Chicago. The singer has yet to be brought to Minnesota’s Hennepin County to answer the charges there, but one of his lawyers called the case “beyond absurd” when it was announced.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/12/19/r-kelly-manager-gets-a-year-in-prison-for-theater-threat-4/ | 2022-12-19T23:24:07 | en | 0.974348 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/houston-rockets/articles/41928137 | 2022-12-19T23:24:11 | en | 0.738227 |
By HILLEL ITALIE
AP National Writer
Shirley Ann Watts, a former art student and prominent breeder of Arabian horses who met drummer Charlie Watts well before he joined the Rolling Stones and with him formed one of rock’s most enduring marriages, has died. She was 84.
“Shirley died peacefully on Friday 16th December in Devon after a short illness surrounded by her family,” her family announced Monday. The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood was among those mourning her.
“We will miss you so much, but take comfort that you are reunited with your beloved Charlie,” Wood wrote on Facebook.
While Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards all have had multiple wives and girlfriends, Charlie and Shirley Watts remained together for more than 50 years, until Charlie died in 2021. Their only known crisis happened in the mid-1980s, when Charlie Watts struggled with heroin addiction, a time he would later say nearly cost him his marriage. He was otherwise regarded as so devoted to his wife, and daughter Seraphina, that journalists essentially left him alone.
“I’ve always wanted to be a drummer (and) as long as it’s comfortable with my wife, I’ll continue to do it,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996.
When Charlie wasn’t touring or recording, he and his family lived on a 600-acre, 16th century estate in Devon, where they were better known for their Polish Arabian horses and for rescuing animals than for the drummer’s singular place in rock history. Stories about the Watts were as likely to appear in Arabian Horse World as they were in a music publication.
According to Charlie, his wife had warm relations with Jagger and Richards and, unlike him, would play the Stones’ music around the house. But Shirley herself expressed ambivalent feelings, telling Vanity Fair in 1989 that the band’s drug use affected her life “very, very deeply” and that she otherwise had little use for the rock star world.
“It was quite appalling being pitched into the life of the Rolling Stones,” she said. “I really got lost for about 25 years and I’ve never been able to cope with it. There’s been lots of anger, much of it very, very deep. I like the people in the group — up to a point. But I’ve always hated the way rock music and its world treat women and particularly the Rolling Stones’ attitude. There is no respect.”
Shirley Ann Shepherd was born in London in 1938 and was studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art in the early ’60s when she first saw her future husband, who at the time was part of the emerging blues and jazz scene in England that also included Jagger and Richards. They were already dating when Watts joined the Stones early in 1963, and married the following year, just as the band had established itself as second only to the Beatles in local popularity.
“She was so funny and clever, and she had the most infectious laugh you’d ever heard,” Charlie Watts said of her when interviewed by The Guardian in 2000. “And I loved the world she was in, the world of art and sculpting. I just admired Shirley very, very much.”
The biggest scandal about their marriage was their decision to get married. Rock star weddings were considered bad business at the time, a turnoff to young female fans — the Beatles’ John Lennon was among those who hedged when reporters asked him about his domestic life.
Without informing the other Stones, the Watts married in Bradford and had a quiet lunch at a nearby pub. According to Paul Sexton’s “Charlie’s Good Tonight,” a 2022 biography of the late drummer written with his family’s cooperation, Charlie Watts initially denied reports that he was married, telling the Daily Express that “it would do a great deal of harm to my career if the story got around.” But Shirley happily confirmed the news, saying they could not “bear to live separately any longer.”
Neither Charlie nor Shirley liked drawing attention to themselves, but at times they did so anyway. Shirley Watts was arrested at the Nice airport in 1971 for attacking customs officials after they had reportedly singled out her husband for attention. In 2016, she threatened to sue Polish government officials over the alleged mistreatment of two Arabian mares at a state-run farm.
Shirley Watts also endured a battle with alcoholism, one she helped overcome by hours of sculpting horses and dogs. The Watts’ shared interest in horses grew from collecting figurines to raising hundreds of Arab horses, a passion that began after Charlie purchased a part-bred stallion for his wife.
“I much prefer my life here with the horses. I love the hunt. The sense of power one gets on a horse,” she told Vanity Fair. “It’s a very primeval instinct. When you hear the hounds — they call it the music — when you hear the hounds’ music, it’s bloodcurdling it’s so thrilling. And it affects both you and the horse. There’s nothing like it. It’s dangerous. It’s exciting.”
She added, with a laugh, “It sounds rather like a rock ‘n’ roll concert.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/12/19/shirley-watts-widow-of-drummer-charlie-watts-dies-at-84-2/ | 2022-12-19T23:24:13 | en | 0.984927 |
By REBECCA SANTANA
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative states pushing to keep limits on asylum-seekers put in place during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort before the limits are set to expire.
But with the immigration restrictions going away on Wednesday it’s unclear if the Supreme Court will intervene. The nineteen states Monday asked the court for an emergency stay that would keep Title 42 in place.
“This Court’s review is warranted given the enormous national importance of this case. It is not reasonably contestable that the failure to grant a stay will cause an unprecedented calamity at the southern border,” the states wrote in their request.
The immigration restrictions, often referred to as Title 42, were put in place under then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 and have prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. in recent years. But as they’re set to expire thousands more migrants are packed in shelters on Mexico’s border with the U.S.
Immigration advocates sued to stop the use of Title 42 to limit who can apply for asylum, saying that the policy goes against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution. And they’ve argued that things like vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus have made the policy outdated.
Conservative-leaning states have argued that lifting of Title 42 will lead to a surge of migrants into their states and take a toll on government services like health care or law enforcement. They also charge that the federal government has no plan to deal with an increase in migrants. With a Republican-controlled House set to take charge in early January, the imminent lifting of the pandemic-era restrictions has become a hot-button political issue.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected efforts by 19 conservative-leaning states late Friday to intervene in the case, saying they’d waited too long, leading the states to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/states-appeal-to-supreme-court-to-keep-immigration-limits/ | 2022-12-19T23:24:20 | en | 0.962152 |
By BEN FINLEY and AUDREY McAVOY
Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) — Tiffany Reyes had just gotten back to her seat from the bathroom and was about to buckle her safety belt when Hawaiian Airlines Flight 35 dipped.
In an instant, Reyes found herself on the aisle floor, staring up at caved-in ceiling panels and a cracked bathroom sign that was hanging.
“I asked everyone around me, ’Was that me?” Reyes said. “They said I had apparently flown into the ceiling and slammed into the ground.”
Reyes, 40, was among 20 people on the flight — passengers and crew — taken to hospitals after turbulence struck their plane flying from Phoenix to Honolulu without warning Sunday.
Eleven people were in serious condition. In all, 36 people received medical treatment for bumps, bruises, cuts and nausea, said Jim Ireland, director of Honolulu Emergency Medical Services.
Reyes was heading home after picking up her daughter Kaylee from college. She initially thought something had hit the plane and that it was crashing. She briefly thought they were going to die because she had never encountered anything so violent on a flight before.
“That’s the most terrifying experience I’ve been through in my whole 40 years of life,” Reyes said.
Reyes wasn’t bleeding. And the adrenaline surging through her dulled the pain that would eventually come. She crawled back into her seat. And her daughter, who was buckled up and escaped injury, “just held me the whole time.”
Others had it much worse, Reyes said. She saw a woman walk off the plane with gashes in her head and blood on her face and clothes.
An ambulance took Reyes to an emergency room where she received X-rays, had her blood taken and various other screenings. After five hours there, she and her family – her daughter, son and husband – went home to decompress.
She had a headache which began to fade Sunday night. But the left side of her body started to ache.
“I can’t even move around in bed,” Reyes said Monday. “So I have to sleep right on my back without even moving.”
The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday it is investigating the incident.
The full flight had nearly 300 people aboard and carried many passengers traveling to Hawaii for the holidays, like Jacie Hayata Ano, who was heading home.
“It was just rocky,” she told KHON-TV. “And then, it quickly just escalated to the point where we’re shaking so much that we were pretty much like floating off of our chairs.”
Hawaiian Airlines Chief Operating Officer Jon Snook said such turbulence is isolated and unusual, noting the airline had not experienced anything like it in recent history. Three flight attendants were among the injured, he said.
Jazmin Bitanga, who was also traveling home for the holidays, said there were two drops in altitude, including one that was so strong it sent her boyfriend’s water bottle into the plane’s ceiling.
“Just all around me, there were people crying,” she told Hawaii News Now.
There was some internal damage to the aircraft during the turbulence, Snook said. The fasten-seat belts sign was on at the time, though some of those injured were not wearing them, he said.
The airline was aware of the forecast for thunderstorms and unstable air and weather conditions, but had no warning that the particular patch of air where the turbulence occurred “was in any way dangerous,” Snook said.
He did not know how much altitude the plane lost during the turbulence, saying that would be part of an investigation involving the National Transportation Safety Board. The plane’s flight data recorder would provide those details, he said.
The investigation would also address precisely what the passengers and crew were doing at the time, he said.
The Airbus A330-200 began its descent immediately after the turbulence, Snook said. The crew declared an emergency because of the number of injuries on board and air traffic controllers gave the flight priority to land.
The aircraft will undergo a thorough inspection and maintenance, mostly to fix components in the cabin, Snook said.
Snook said he could only speculate whether some passengers hit their heads, but that was likely based on the injuries and the damage to cabin paneling.
“If you don’t have your seat belt on, you stay where you are as the aircraft goes down, and that’s how those injuries occur,” Snook said.
The investigation will examine what other measures were taken, aside from turning on the fasten seat belt sign, to ensure passengers were buckled in, he said.
A high wind warning and flood watch were in effect Monday for Hawaii as a strong front moves across the islands, according to the National Weather Service.
On Monday, severe turbulence hit a United Airlines flight traveling from Rio de Janeiro to Houston. The airline said two passengers and three crew members suffered “minor injuries” and were taken to a hospital shortly after the flight landed at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The airline did not describe the nature of the injuries.
In 2019, 37 passengers and flight crew members were injured when an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Sydney hit intense turbulence about two hours past Hawaii. The Boeing 777-200 was diverted to Honolulu, where the injured received treatment. Thirty people were taken to hospitals and nine had serious injuries.
Over the Atlantic, a 2017 American Airlines flight from Athens hit severe turbulence along the New York coastline. Seven crew members and three passengers were injured.
Most people associate turbulence with heavy storms. But the most dangerous type is so-called clear-air turbulence. The wind-shear phenomenon can occur in wispy cirrus clouds or even clear air near thunderstorms, as differences in temperature and pressure create powerful currents of fast-moving air.
Planes can sail into clear-air turbulence without warning.
___
Finely reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, and Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2022/12/19/terrifying-air-passenger-recounts-crashing-into-ceiling/ | 2022-12-19T23:24:27 | en | 0.984582 |
By DAMIAN J. TROISE and ALEX VEIGA
AP Business Writers
Wall Street started off the week with more losses for stocks Monday, as investors brace for higher interest rates from central banks to fight inflation.
The S&P 500 fell 0.9%, with most of the sectors in the benchmark index closing in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% at the Nasdaq composite lost 1.5%. Small company stocks also fell, pulling the Russell 2000 1.3% lower.
The latest wave of selling extends the major indexes’ losing streak to a fifth day. Each index posted a weekly loss the past two weeks.
Markets have been slumping as hopes for a gentler Federal Reserve vanish amid stubbornly hot inflation. The central bank last week raised its forecast of how long interest rates have to stay elevated to cool inflation that has been hurting businesses and threatening spending. The European Central Bank also warned that more rate hikes are coming.
Communications services stocks, technology companies and retailers were among the biggest losers Monday. Disney slid 4.8%, Microsoft fell 1.7% and Home Depot dropped 1.9% lower.
Facebook’s parent company fell 4.1% after the European Union accused the company of breaching antitrust rules by distorting competition in the online classified ads business.
U.S. crude oil prices rose 1.2%. That helped boost some energy stocks. Marathon Petroleum gained 1.2%.
All told, the S&P 500 fell 34.70 points to 3,817.66. The index is down about 20% this year with less than two weeks left in 2022.
The Dow dropped 162.92 points to 32,757.54, while the Nasdaq fell 159.38 points to 10,546.03. The Russell 2000 gave up 1.4%.
European markets mostly rose, while Asian markets closed lower overnight.
Treasury yields gained ground. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which influences mortgage rates, rose to 3.59% from 3.49% late Friday.
Investors have several economic reports to review this week as they try to determine the continuing path of inflation.
The National Association of Realtors delivers its November tally of U.S. home sales Wednesday. Home sales have been falling, but prices in the housing market have remained strong.
The Conference Board will release its consumer confidence report for December on Wednesday. Consumer confidence and spending has been another strong area of the economy, but inflation is starting to put a tighter squeeze on consumers.
The government will release a closely watched monthly snapshot of consumer spending on Friday, the personal consumption expenditure price index for November. The report is monitored by the Fed as a barometer of inflation.
The Fed ended its final meeting of the year last week by raising its short-term interest rate by half a percentage point, its seventh straight increase this year. More importantly, it signaled that it may have to maintain high interest rates longer than Wall Street had been anticipating in order to tame inflation.
The federal funds rate stands at a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, the highest level in 15 years. Fed policymakers forecast that the central bank’s rate will reach a range of 5% to 5.25% by the end of 2023. Their forecast doesn’t call for a rate cut before 2024.
Inflation is showing signs of easing, but at a relatively slow pace. The Fed’s aggressive policy risks hitting the brakes on the economy too hard, while at the same time economic growth is already slowing because of pressure from inflation. That could result in a recession, which analysts expect in some form within 2023, though the severity and duration is difficult to forecast.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/12/19/wall-street-loses-more-ground-extending-a-losing-streak/ | 2022-12-19T23:24:33 | en | 0.954933 |
NEW YORK (AP) — A suspected serial burglar was caught Monday while attempting to poach Christmas presents from actor Robert De Niro’s Manhattan home, police said.
Officers had been tracking the real-life Grinch amid a string of recent robberies and saw her bust into “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas” star’s townhouse around 2:45 a.m. Monday, police said.
Inside, they found a 30-year-old woman in the living room “attempting to remove property” and arrested her, police said. Police have not publicly identified her by name.
De Niro, who had been upstairs, came down to the living room as the woman was being arrested.
A spokesperson for the 79-year-old actor said he wouldn’t be making statements about the attempted robbery.
The incident happened at a townhouse on East 65th Street in Manhattan. The basement door that the woman used to enter the townhome had signs of forced entry, police said.
De Niro’s spokesperson said it was a temporary rental home being used by the actor.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/12/19/woman-caught-stealing-christmas-presents-from-de-niro-home-2/ | 2022-12-19T23:24:40 | en | 0.967361 |
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Elon Musk Twitter poll ends with users seeking his departure
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Millions of Twitter users asked Elon Musk to step down as head of Twitter in a poll the billionaire created and promised to abide by. But by Monday afternoon there was no word from Musk on whether he’ll step aside or who a new leader might be. Twitter has grown more chaotic and confusing under Musk’s leadership with rapidly vacillating policies that are withdrawn or altered. Many of the votes for Musk to step down likely came from Tesla investors, who have grown tired of the 24/7 Twitter chaos, which they say has distracted the eccentric CEO from the electric car company, his main source of wealth.
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FTX founder agrees to extradition to US, attorney says
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried may be ready to come to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX following a chaotic court appearance in the Bahamas. A lawyer for Bankman-Fried was quoted as saying Monday that the disgraced FTX founder has agreed to be extradited to the United States. A court hearing was stopped earlier in the day when his attorneys said it was premature for him to stand before the court. Jerone Roberts, a local defense attorney for Bankman-Fried, told The New York Times that lawyers will prepare the necessary documents for extradition. It was not immediately clear when extradition could occur.
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EU accuses Meta of antitrust breaches with classified ads
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has accused Facebook parent Meta of breaching the bloc’s antitrust rules by distorting competition in the online classified ads business. The bloc’s executive commission said Monday that it “takes issue” with the tech company tying its online classified ad business, Facebook Marketplace, to Facebook. The European Commission says that means Facebook users automatically have access to Marketplace “whether they want it or not.” The commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, said Meta also imposes unfair trading conditions on competing online classified ad companies that advertise their services on Facebook or Instagram. Companies that breach EU antitrust rules can be hit with fines worth up to 10% of their annual global revenue.
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Christmas tree demand remains high despite inflation
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Americans are cutting back on spending in some areas this holiday season. But they’re not scrimping on Christmas trees. Retailers from Home Depot and Lowes to mom and pop operations raised their prices — but people are still buying them. The National Christmas Tree Association projects that nearly 21 million live Christmas trees will be sold by the time consumers wrap up purchases over the days leading up to Christmas Day.
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Fortnite maker to pay $520M for privacy, e-commerce abuses
WASHINGTON (AP) — The maker of the popular Fortnite video game will pay $520 million in penalties and refunds to settle complaints revolving around children’s privacy and its payment methods that tricked players into making unintended purchases. The Federal Trade Commission reached the settlements to resolve two cases against Epic Games Inc., which has parlayed Fortnite’s success in the past five years to become a video game powerhouse. The settlement consists of $245 million in customer refunds and a $275 million fine for collecting personal information on Fortnite players under the age of 13 without parental consent. It’s the biggest penalty ever imposed for breaking an FTC rule.
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Wall Street loses more ground, extending a losing streak
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed lower on Wall Street as investors brace for higher interest rates from central banks to fight inflation. The S&P 500 lost 0.9% Monday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite lost 1.5% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%. Major indexes are coming off two weeks of losses. Facebook’s parent company sank after the European Union accused the company of breaching antitrust rules by distorting competition in online classified ads. Treasury yields moved higher and crude oil prices rose. Investors are awaiting several key economic reports this week on the housing market and consumer spending.
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Not just for kids: Toymakers aim more products at grown-ups
NEW YORK (AP) — Long before the pandemic, many adults turned to toys from Legos to collectible items to tap into their inner childhood for comfort. But all the stresses from the health crisis, which forced many people to isolate for months, accelerated the trend, Industry experts and toy makers from Mattel’s American Girl and Build-a-Bear see the behavior as long-lasting and are creating new products, services and websites aimed for the adult audience. Starting early this year, Mattel’s American Girl Cafe added more more adult fare like beet and goat cheese salads and cocktails like apple spritzes and Bloody Mary’s. Last year, Build-a-Bear launched a site called Bear Cave aimed at the 18-year-old and older.
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Third air bag death confirmed, owners urged to get repairs
DETROIT (AP) — Stellantis and U.S. safety regulators have confirmed that an exploding Takata air bag inflator has killed another driver. The company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reiterated warnings to owners of 274,000 older Dodge and Chrysler vehicles to stop driving them until faulty inflators are replaced. Stellantis announced two deaths in November caused by the air bags and said it suspected an inflator caused another. The company formerly known as Fiat Chrysler confirmed the third death early Monday. Stellantis is urging people to stop driving Dodge Magnum wagons, Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and Chrysler 300 sedans from the 2005 through 2010 model years. Since 2009, the exploding air bags have killed at least 33 people worldwide.
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The S&P 500 dropped 34.70 points, or 0.9%, to 3,817.66. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 162.92 points, or 0.5%, to 32,757.54. The Nasdaq tumbled 159.38 points, or 1.5%, to 10,546.03. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 24.84 points, or 1.4%, to 1,738.58. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/business/article/Business-Highlights-Musk-s-Twitter-exit-poll-17665069.php | 2022-12-19T23:25:36 | en | 0.948937 |
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors reached a verdict Monday at the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein and lawyers for both sides are headed to the courtroom, where the verdict will be read.
Jurors got the case Dec. 2 and deliberated for nine days over a span of more than two weeks. After a monthlong trial, they had to make decisions on two rape counts and five other sexual assault counts against the 70-year-old former movie mogul.
The allegations involved four women and dated from 2005 to 2013.
If convicted on all counts, Weinstein could get a sentence of 60 years to life in prison.
Whatever the result, he won't be walking free. He still has more than 20 years left on a New York prison sentence after a rape and sexual assault conviction there.
Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the accounts of the four women, each of whom gave dramatic and emotional testimony about the allegations.
Weinstein's attorneys emphasized the shortage of physical evidence in the case, and asked jurors to set aside the emotional impact of the testimony to focus on the changes several of the women's stories had gone through in their conversations with authorities.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty and denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.
The trial came just after the fifth anniversary of the blockbuster stories about Weinstein that made him a lightning rod for the #MeToo movement.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
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For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/entertainment/article/Verdict-reached-at-Harvey-Weinstein-s-2nd-rape-17665185.php | 2022-12-19T23:25:42 | en | 0.946833 |
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SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — For all the worries about inflation and the economy, Americans aren’t scrimping on a centerpiece of many celebrations this holiday season: the Christmas tree.
Retailers from Home Depot and Lowes to mom and pop operations raised their prices on trees — but people are still buying them.
Some Christmas tree growers fretted over external factors — high fuel, fertilizer and labor costs — only to rediscover that holiday greenery is largely inflation-proof, even as Americans cut back on retail spending last month.
The cost of an average-size tree from the local Rotary Club’s Christmas trees in South Portland, Maine, is $70 — $5 more than last year.
A survey of 55 of the nation’s largest Christmas tree wholesalers indicated virtually all of them intended to raise prices, with most wholesale cost increases in the 5% to 15% range — but with some increases reaching 21% or more, according to the Real Christmas Tree Board in Howell, Michigan, which conducts marketing and research for the industry.
But another survey indicated 85% of people feel Christmas trees are worth it despite price increases, the board said.
That suggests a tree — whether real or artificial — remains a requisite part of the holiday tradition, along with Christmas toys, cards and carols, and ugly sweaters.
Like individual traditions, the types of trees and local market conditions can vary.
In the end, nearly 21 million live Christmas trees will be sold by the time consumers wrap up purchases over the final days leading up to Christmas Day, putting sales on par with last year’s strong performance, according to Jill Sidebottom of the National Christmas Tree Association.
“It wouldn’t really be Christmas without a tree,” said Susan Adams, of South Portland, who’s making do with a smaller tree this year — for the same cost as last year’s bigger tree.
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Follow David Sharp on Twitter @David_Sharp_AP | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/living/article/Christmas-tree-demand-remains-high-despite-17663851.php | 2022-12-19T23:25:48 | en | 0.919183 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court temporarily blocks order ending asylum restrictions, leaves open prospect for lifting them by Wednesday.
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- Police, fire and other public safety reports from Jacksonville and the surrounding area. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Alert-Supreme-Court-temporarily-blocks-order-17665123.php | 2022-12-19T23:25:55 | en | 0.916683 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House's Truman balcony. Staying in on Friday nights. Being first to say “I love you.”
President Joe Biden is married to a longtime teacher but he came up short on a five-question pop quiz about her. He guessed just three correct answers about first lady Jill Biden during a joint interview with talk-show host Drew Barrymore that aired Monday.
“The Final Five” is a game that Barrymore plays with her guests and said is her favorite. In a special White House edition of the game, the first lady knew the questions “so the question is, is Mr. President going to get the answers correct?" Barrymore said on the broadcast.
Biden was correct in guessing that the Truman balcony, which is part of the private residence, is his wife's favorite place in the White House, that she'd now prefer to stay in on a free Friday night and that he was the first one in their relationship to say “I love you.”
“Oh, that's easy. Me. I said it first,” Biden said. “I said it first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth.” She agreed to marry him after his fifth ask.
But he flunked on questions about what the longtime community college professor snacks on from the White House kitchen when she's starving and wants to be naughty, and the habit of his that she'd like to change.
“Probably something with avocado in it,” the president answered. French fries was the correct answer.
He said he thought she'd want him to “not talk to everybody I see” but the first lady said her husband of 45 years “leaves his reading light on at night” and she'd like him to start a new habit by turning it off.
The Bidens taped the interview on Dec. 9, according to the White House. Asked if the president is a good “gift giver," the first lady confirmed that he is.
“One thing that Joe gives me every year is a poem,” she said. “He has a book that he bought for me and every year he writes a poem.”
For a birthday, he gave her a rose garden. “A full rose garden. I loved that gift,” she said.
Biden said he feels good about her Christmas present this year, but obviously couldn't reveal what it is.
“He pretty much gets it right,” Jill Biden said. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Biden-comes-up-short-on-guessing-game-about-his-17665084.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:01 | en | 0.987722 |
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NEW YORK (AP) — At a small patch of Central Park flanking the city's Harlem neighborhood, scores came Monday to remember the injustice that imprisoned five Black and Latino teenagers after they were wrongly accused and convicted of the 1989 rape of a white jogger.
They arrived in the chill of a late fall morning, some singing hymns, to dedicate a park entry to the men once known as the Central Park Five, but now remembered as the Exonerated Five.
The entryway, located on the northern perimeter of the park between Fifth Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard, will be known as the “Gate of the Exonerated." It commemorates the miscarriage of justice that not only befell the five men, organizers say, but the unknown others who might have been wrongly imprisoned.
"This is a moment. This is legacy time,” said one of the men, Yusef Salaam.
“We are here because we persevere,” he said to a cheering crowd.
Monday was the first time Raymond Santana, another of the men, now deep in his 40s, has returned to Central Park since that fateful day 33 years ago.
“We were babies, who had no dealing with the law. Never knew what Miranda was,” said Santana, as he recounted a time of confusion when police rustled him up and began interrogating him.
Santana was 14 and Salaam was 16 when they and three others — Kevin Richardson, 14; Korey Wise, 16; and Antron McCray, 15 — were wrongly tried for the rape of a 28-year-old woman, whose brutal attack left with her with permanent injuries and no memory of the assault. The high-profile incident prompted police to round up Black and Brown men and boys in connection with the rape.
Matias Reyes, a murderer and serial rapist already in prison, would later confess to the crime.
Soon after, the convictions of the Central Park Five were thrown out in 2002 after the men served six to 13 years in prison.
“It needs to be known what we went through. We went to hell and back," said Richardson. “We have these scars that nobody sees.”
The three men — Wise and McCray could not attend — spoke about how the criminal justice system is stacked against people of color.
The gate, they said, would stand as reminder of the injustice of the past but also of those still being committed today.
“This is an important time right here — the Gate of the Exonerated, this is for everybody,” Richardson said. “Everybody that’s been wronged by cops.”
The modest remembrance — words etched in stone on a waist-high wall — was years in the making.
Other entrances to the park have been labeled to reflect groups of people who live and work in the city, with names like Artisans’ Gate, Scholars’ Gate and Strangers’ Gate.
Mayor Eric Adams, who was just starting his career as a New York City police officer during the 1989 incident, arrived to the ceremony to pay tribute to the men.
“To these soldiers here, you personify the black male experience,” the mayor said, addressing the men.
Alvin Bragg, who now leads the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, apologized for the men's ordeal.
“The truth is we shouldn’t be here today," he said, alluding to past mistakes. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Central-Park-entry-gate-commemorates-the-17665055.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:07 | en | 0.981731 |
Caring for sick children has become extra stressful recently for many U.S. parents due to shortages of Children’s Tylenol and other medicines.
Doctors and other experts say the problem could persist through the winter cold-and-flu season but should not last as long as other recent shortages of baby formula or prescription drugs.
They also say parents have alternatives if they encounter empty store shelves.
Here’s a closer look:
WHAT’S HAPPENING
An unusually fast start to the annual U.S. flu season, plus a spike in other respiratory illnesses, created a surge in demand for fever relievers and other products people can buy without a prescription.
“There are more sick kids at this time of year than we have seen in the past couple years,” said Dr. Shannon Dillon, a pediatrician at Riley Children’s Health in Indianapolis.
Experts say that’s the main factor behind the shortages, which vary around the country and even within communities.
“At this point, it’s more like toilet paper at the beginning of the (COVID-19) pandemic,” Dillon said “You just have to look in the right place at the right time.”
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson says it is not experiencing widespread shortages of Children’s Tylenol, but the product may be “less readily available” at some stores. The company said it is running its production lines around the clock.
In the meantime, CVS Health has placed a two-product limit on all children’s pain relief products bought through its pharmacies or online.
Walgreens is limiting customers online to six purchases of children’s over-the-counter fever reducing products. That limit doesn’t apply in stores.
Aside from over-the-counter products, the prescription antibiotic amoxicillin also is in short supply due to increased demand, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The drug is often used to treat nose and throat infections in children.
WHAT TO DO
Check first for alternatives in the store if some products aren’t available. Generic versions of brand-name products are “perfectly safe and often a much more affordable option,” Dillon said.
Other stores nearby also may have better options. Manufacturers say there are no widespread national shortages of these medications, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.
A family doctor may know which stores have decent supplies.
A doctor also may be able to tell parents whether they can try alternatives like crushing the proper dose of a pill version and mixing it with food or chocolate syrup. Doctors say parents or caregivers should not try this on their own, because determining proper doses for children can be tricky.
“You don’t need to experiment at home,” said Dr. Sarah Nosal, a South Bronx family physician. “Your family doctor wants to talk to you and see you.”
GOING WITHOUT
Doctors also caution that fevers don’t always have to be treated. They are a body’s natural defense against infection, and they make it hard for a virus to replicate.
Dillon noted, for instance, that a fever may not be intrinsically harmful to older children. However, parents should take a newborn under 2 months old to the doctor if the child has a fever of 100.4 degrees or more. And doctors say any child with a fever should be monitored for behavior changes.
Instead of medicine, consider giving the child a bath in lukewarm water. Cold water makes the body shiver, which can actually raise the temperature.
Put fans in the child’s room or set up a cool mist humidifier to help their lungs.
Nosal also said two teaspoons of honey can help control coughs in children older than a year. Avoid using honey for young children because it carries a risk of infant botulism.
WHEN WILL SUPPLIES GET BETTER?
Shortages might last in some communities until early next year.
Resolving them can depend on whether there are enough workers at warehouses and stores to deliver the product and stock the shelves, noted Erin Fox. She researches drug shortages and is the senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, which runs five hospitals.
Fox said there are no problems at factories or a lack of ingredients contributing to current shortages. Those obstacles can lead to long supply disruptions.
“I don’t expect this to last a year or more like some of our other shortages do,” she said.
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AP Health Writer Matthew Perrone in Washington contributed to this story. Murphy reported from Indianapolis. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Children-s-medicine-shortage-hits-as-flu-season-17665089.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:13 | en | 0.954293 |
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Stefanie Lindquist, Arizona State University
(THE CONVERSATION) The criminal referral of Donald Trump to the Department of Justice by a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack is largely symbolic – the panel itself has no power to prosecute any individual.
Nonetheless, the recommendation that Trump be investigated for four potential crimes – obstructing an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting, assisting or aiding or comforting an insurrection – raises the prospect of an indictment, or even a conviction, of the former president.
It also poses serious ethical questions, given that Trump has already announced a 2024 run for the presidency, especially in regards to the referral over his alleged inciting or assisting an insurrection. Indeed, a Department of Justice investigation over Trump’s activities during the insurrection is already under way.
But would an indictment – or even a felony conviction – prevent a presidential candidate from running or serving in office?
The short answer is no. Here’s why:
The U.S. Constitution specifies in clear language the qualifications required to hold the office of the presidency. In Section 1, Clause 5 of Article II, it states: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
These three requirements – natural-born citizenship, age and residency – are the only specifications set forth in the United States’ founding document.
Congress has ‘no power to alter’
Furthermore, the Supreme Court has made clear that constitutionally prescribed qualifications to hold federal office may not be altered or supplemented by either the U.S. Congress or any of the states.
Justices clarified the court’s position in their 1969 Powell v. McCormack ruling. The case followed the adoption of a resolution by the House of Representatives barring pastor and New York politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. from taking his seat in the 90th Congress.
The resolution was not based on Powell’s failure to meet the age, citizenship and residency requirements for House members set forth in the Constitution. Rather, the House found that Powell had diverted congressional funds and made false reports about certain currency transactions.
When Powell sued to take his seat, the Supreme Court invalidated the House’s resolution on grounds that it added to the constitutionally specified qualifications for Powell to hold office. In the majority opinion, the court held that: “Congress has no power to alter the qualifications in the text of the Constitution.”
For the same reason, no limitation could now be placed on Trump’s candidacy. Nor could he be barred from taking office if he were to be indicted or even convicted.
But in case of insurrection …
The Constitution includes no qualification regarding those conditions – with one significant exception. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies any person from holding federal office “who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The reason why this matters is the Department of Justice is currently investigating Trump for his activities related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. And one of the four criminal referrals made by the Jan. 6 House committee was over Trump’s alleged role in inciting, assisting or aiding and comforting an insurrection.
Under the provisions of the 14th Amendment, Congress is authorized to pass laws to enforce its provisions. And in February 2021, one Democratic Congressman proposed House Bill 1405, providing for a “cause of action to remove and bar from holding office certain individuals who engage in insurrection or rebellion against the United States.”
Even in the event of Trump being found to have participated “in insurrection or rebellion,” he might conceivably argue that he is exempt from Section 3 for a number of reasons. The 14th Amendment does not specifically refer to the presidency and it is not “self-executing” – that is, it needs subsequent legislation to enforce it. Trump could also point to the fact that Congress enacted an Amnesty Act in 1872 that lifted the ban on office holding for officials from many former Confederate states.
He might also argue that his activities on and before Jan. 6 did not constitute an “insurrection” as it is understood by the wording of the amendment. There are few judicial precedents that interpret Section 3, and as such its application in modern times remains unclear. So even if House Bill 1405 were adopted, it is not clear whether it would be enough to disqualify Trump from serving as president again.
Running from behind bars
Even in the case of conviction and incarceration, a presidential candidate would not be prevented from continuing their campaign – even if, as a felon, they might not be able to vote for themselves.
History is dotted with instances of candidates for federal office running – and even being elected – while in prison. As early as 1798 – some 79 years before the 14th Amendment – House member Matthew Lyon was elected to Congress from a prison cell, where he was serving a sentence for sedition for speaking out against the Federalist Adams administration.
Eugene Debs, founder of the Socialist Party of America, ran for president in 1920 while serving a prison sentence for sedition. Although he lost the election, he nevertheless won 913,693 votes. Debs promised to pardon himself if he were elected.
And controversial politician and conspiracy theorist Lyndon Larouche also ran for president from a jail cell in 1992.
A prison cell as the Oval Office?
Several provisions within the Constitution offer alternatives that could be used to disqualify a president under indictment or in prison.
The 25th Amendment allows the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to suspend the president from office if they conclude that the president is incapable of fulfilling his duties.
The amendment states that the removal process may be invoked “if the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
It was proposed and ratified to address what would happen should a president be incapacitated due to health issues. But the language is broad and some legal scholars believe it could be invoked if someone is deemed incapacitated or incapable for other reasons, such as incarceration.
To be sure, a president behind bars could challenge the conclusion that he or she was incapable from discharging the duties simply because they were in prison.
But ultimately the amendment leaves any such dispute to Congress to decide, and it may suspend the President from office by a two-thirds vote.
Indeed, it is not clear that a president could not effectively execute the duties of office from prison, since the Constitution imposes no requirements that the executive appear in any specific location. The jail cell could, theoretically, serve as the new Oval Office. Of course, managing a presidency from a prison cell would in itself raise myriad issues in regards the handling of sensitive or classified documents.
Finally, if Trump were convicted and yet prevail in his quest for the presidency in 2024, Congress might choose to impeach him and remove him from office. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution allows impeachment for “treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Whether that language would apply to Trump for indictments or convictions arising from his previous term or business dealings outside of office would be a question for Congress to decide. The precise meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors” is unclear, and the courts are unlikely to second-guess the House in bringing an impeachment proceeding. For sure, impeachment would remain an option – but it might be an unlikely one if Republicans maintained their majority in the House in 2024 and 2026.
Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article originally published on Nov. 16, 2022.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/even-if-jan-6-referrals-turn-into-criminal-charges-or-convictions-trump-will-still-be-able-to-run-in-2024-and-serve-as-president-if-elected-196851. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Even-if-Jan-6-referrals-turn-into-criminal-17665057.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:26 | en | 0.963376 |
Pennsylvania’s former top law enforcement officer, who once served jail time for leaking secret investigative files and lying about it, was acquitted Monday of drunken driving.
A Lackawanna County judge acquitted former Attorney General Kathleen Kane of drunken driving and careless driving after a one-day bench trial in Scranton.
Kane, 56, was charged by Scranton police after she got into a minor car crash March 12.
Police said Kane told officers she was a designated driver, but surveillance video showed Kane herself had been drinking alcohol at a Scranton restaurant shortly before the crash, according to a police affidavit. Officers asserted Kane had watery, bloodshot eyes, slurred her words and failed a field sobriety test.
Kane’s lawyer, Jason Mattioli, said police body camera footage showed her entering and exiting a vehicle without difficulty. He added that officers made her take the field sobriety test on a snow- and ice-covered parking lot in driving wind.
“She was set up to fail,” he said in a phone interview after the verdict.
Kane was taken to a DUI processing center, where other law enforcement officers and staff said they did not smell alcohol on her or detect impairment, Mattioli said.
Police said Kane refused a blood test.
Lackawanna County District Attorney Mark Powell said he was disappointed in the judge's decision.
“Given the strength of the evidence we presented, I struggle to understand how the judge could find her not guilty," he said via email.
Once a rising star in Pennsylvania politics, Kane was the first woman and first Democrat elected as the state’s top prosecutor. She resigned after being convicted in 2016 of perjury, obstruction and other counts for leaking secret investigative files to embarrass a rival prosecutor.
Kane served eight months of a 10-to-23 month sentence. She was was released in 2019.
Kane entered treatment three days after the car crash, then reported to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility outside Philadelphia on April 29.
Kane appeared in Montgomery County Court last May and admitted she violated her probation when she was arrested for drunken driving. She was sentenced to two months to a year of jail, but was given credit for time already served. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Ex-attorney-general-acquitted-in-drunken-driving-17665209.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:32 | en | 0.983809 |
ROME (AP) — A ship operated by a German charity was sailing on Monday toward a northern Italian port with 108 migrants aboard after rescuing them in recent days from two unseaworthy vessels in the central Mediterranean.
The charity Sea-Eye said its ship, Sea-Eye 4, plucked up 68 migrants from a foundering smugglers' vessel last week, then sailed Saturday toward another vessel in distress. The second rescue, of 45 migrants aboard a plastic vessel, was carried out Sunday night in waters within Malta's search-and-rescue area, the charity said in a statement.
Malta didn't aid in the second rescue, and Italy ordered Sea-Eye 4 to head immediately to its northern port of Livorno without taking on additional migrants, the charity said.
But because "were no other rescue vessels in the immediate vicinity, the SEA-EYE 4 remained in operation and continued to search for the people missing,” it added. During the 35 hours it took Sea-Eye 4 to get to the second vessel, it said it was in contact with two merchant ships in the Maltese search-and-rescue zone that agreed to help. Eventually, one of the two merchant ships reached the plastic boat first and aided in the rescue, according to Sea-Eye.
It wasn't clear when Sea-Eye 4 would reach Livorno, the port assigned by Italian authorities for disembarkation.
Of the second rescue, Sea-Eye said, nearly all aboard were traumatized by their ordeal and migrants had burns from fuel spills. It added that “in total, the people were out at sea for six days and had to fear for their lives."
Human smugglers, many of them based in Libya, launch flimsy rubber or plastic dinghies and rickety fishing boats toward Italian shores, typically after charging the migrants thousands of dollars for the dangerous sea passage.
Most of those migrants who make it to Italy are fleeing poverty, not war or persecution, and thus risk having their asylum requests denied by Italian authorities.
Italy's two-month-old government, headed by far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni, has said it wants to discourage charity rescue missions, contending that those operations essentially help facilitate the smugglers' business.
For years, Italy has argued — generally without much success — that because many of the migrants hope to obtain work in northern Europe, other European Union nations should host a large number of the rescued migrants who reach Italian shores.
By assigning ports on the Italian mainland, instead of in Sicily, hundreds of kilometers (miles) closer to the scenes of rescue, Italian authorities essentially force the charity boats to spend more days to reach the mainland docks — and thus have fewer days to spend at sea aiding migrants.
A key partner in Meloni's coalition is the right-wing League, a party headed by anti-migrant leader Matteo Salvini.
—-
Follow AP’s coverage of global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/German-charity-ship-taking-108-rescued-migrants-17665203.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:38 | en | 0.970378 |
WHL Scoring Leaders
- Routt mourning loss of high school junior after car accident
- Police beat for Monday, Dec. 19
- Jacksonville grade school teacher dismissed over 'inappropriate'...
- The school that calls police on students every other day
- Camri Anderson sharing the magic at Dollywood, and part of the screen...
- Home invasion shooting leaves Jacksonville woman in critical condition
- Opponents say Illinois gun-ban bill misses target
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Most Popular
- The Illinois Commerce Commission has approved plans for safety upgrades to a railroad crossing at...
- The Beardstown Grand Opera House has kicked off a year of events to mark its 150th anniversary.
- Several Meredosia residents are complaining about a $130 reconnection fee and $50 deposit to...
- Police, fire and other public safety reports from Jacksonville and the surrounding area. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/HKO-WHL-Scoring-Ldrs-17665065.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:44 | en | 0.911314 |
WHL
All Times Local
Eastern Conference
Central Division
East Division
Western Conference
B.C. Division
U.S. Division
Note: Two points for a team winning in overtime or shootout; the team losing in overtime or shootout receives one which is registered in the OTL or SOL columns.
Friday's results
Winnipeg at Brandon, 7 p.m.
Saskatoon 8 Spokane 5
Moose Jaw 6 Regina 2
Red Deer 6 Medicine Hat 4
Kelowna 6 Lethbridge 0
Swift Current 8 Edmonton 4
Kamloops 6 Prince George 5 (OT)
Victoria 7 Tri-City 6 (SO)
Seattle 4 Everett 1
Portland 2 Vancouver 1
Saturday's results
Saskatoon 6 Regina 1
Prince Albert 5 Spokane 3
Winnipeg 4 Brandon 3 (OT)
Swift Current 4 Red Deer 1
Kamloops 4 Prince George 3 (OT)
Portland 5 Vancouver 4 (OT)
Medicine Hat 4 Kelowna 1
Calgary 7 Lethbridge 2
Seattle 5 Everett 1
Victoria 6 Tri-City 5
Sunday's results
Calgary 5 Edmonton 0 | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/HKO-WHL-Standings-17665066.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:50 | en | 0.743619 |
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gov. Andy Beshear reported six flu-related pediatric deaths Monday as health officials warn that Kentucky is on pace for its worst influenza season in at least a decade.
Beshear encouraged Kentuckians to get vaccinated against the flu. None of the children who died in the current influenza season received a flu shot, according to the Department for Public Health.
The flu-related pediatric deaths included three in the past week, Beshear's office said in a news release. The death toll already meets Kentucky's prior record for the highest number of pediatric influenza deaths in a single flu season, it said. The prior record was established during the 2019-2020 flu season, when six children died of influenza, it said.
“This is a milestone we did not want to cross, and our prayers are with each of these families as they mourn the loss of their loved one,” Beshear said.
Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Department for Public Health, said the current flu season is on track to be Kentucky's worst in at least 10 years.
“The flu vaccine is the single best way to protect you and your loved ones against the flu and reduces the risk of becoming dangerously ill or spreading disease,” he said. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Kentucky-on-track-for-worst-flu-season-in-at-17665134.php | 2022-12-19T23:26:56 | en | 0.981548 |
CARROLLTON, Miss. (AP) — The owner of five now-deceased pit bulls has been arrested after the dogs mauled a Mississippi man, who had to be airlifted to the hospital for severe injuries.
Police in Caroll County, located in the Mississippi Delta, charged the 44-year-old man on Saturday with five counts of simple assault by negligence and five counts of violating the county’s pit bull ordinance. He owned a pack of pit bulls that attacked Ivan Bubba Rawles III, a lineman for Delta Electric, after the electrician finished a service call.
Rawles suffered deep lacerations and lost a large amount of blood, police said. He was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson by helicopter and underwent “several hours of surgery.” He is expected to make a full recovery, WLBT-TV reported.
Rawles encountered the dogs after his vehicle became stuck as he attempted to leave a house where he had been working. He exited his vehicle and was walking back toward the home when the pit bulls attacked him. A man inside the home shot and killed one of the dogs in an attempt to scare away the rest.
The owner of the dogs later had the four remaining dogs put down. He was released after posting $5,000 bail, the news station reported. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Mississippi-man-arrested-after-pit-bulls-maul-17665060.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:02 | en | 0.986999 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three suicides by sailors assigned to a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, which set off alarms about conditions on and around the ship, were not connected, but the poor quality of life onboard was a “contributing factor” in one of the deaths, according to a Navy report released Monday.
The suicides, which happened while the USS George Washington was docked at the shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, between April 9-15, triggered questions about whether the sailors knew each other or if something similar, associated with their jobs or the ship, had caused them. The report concludes that while all three were assigned to the ship, which was undergoing extensive maintenance, they had no social or working relationships with each other.
It found, however, that the shipyard environment may have added to the stress of one sailor, but was not a “root cause” of the suicides. Instead, the report lays out an array of deeply personal and unique factors, including alcohol use, that apparently led to the sailors taking their own lives.
“Based on my review, I conclude these three suicides were independent events and that there was no direct correlation between these three deaths,” said Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command.
___
Editor’s note: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a trained listener, call 988. Service members and veterans can call 988 and then press “1”. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
___
Rear Adm. John F. Meier, commander of Naval Air Force Atlantic, conducted the investigation and concluded that two of the three deaths “appear unrelated to life onboard the ship,” but one sailor was affected by the conditions on the ship and “lack of shipboard amenities."
He also suggested that Navy leaders should have done more.
The report said leaders failed to properly document and address problems with one sailor that could have led to suspending his ability to carry a gun. Meier noted that Navy enlisted leaders knew that the sailor was sleeping in his car due to noise on the ship and they counseled him on the matter, but “there is no evidence of any follow through to understand the root cause for his decision making. More senior sailors or an assigned mentor should have been there to support him and help him make decisions that were in his best interests. This was a time for intrusive leadership.”
The report was limited to determining if the three suicides were connected. A second investigation into broader Navy issues, including command climate, available resources, training and other factors, is ongoing and expected to be completed next spring.
All together, there were seven deaths of service members assigned to the George Washington over a 12-month period ending in April. Of those, several were health-related or accidental. Four were suicides, including the three within the one week.
“The loss of these three Sailors and the impact their deaths had on their shipmates, family and friends is nothing that can ever be measured,” said Caudle. “We can, however, investigate why they did what they did, learn from it, and use that information to prevent it from happening again. We owe that to every Sailor to keep them physically and mentally safe.”
The deaths triggered a number of changes, including increased training and improved working conditions. The Navy increased staffing for mental health assistance, made televisits with mental health providers available, provided other off-ship housing and better parking, and scheduled smaller meetings with sailors to better understand their concerns. There also are efforts to improve shipboard amenities such as improved wireless internet and other recreation programs.
Just last month, the Navy grappled with another similar suicide spike. Four sailors died by suicide between Oct. 30 and Nov. 26 at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in Norfolk. The Navy is also looking into whether those four were connected.
All four of the service members were assigned to limited duty at the shore command for various medical-related reasons, according to Navy officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.
So far this year, 63 active-duty sailors and seven in the Reserves died by suicide year as of Dec. 6, according to Navy statistics. That is an increase over the total for last year, which was 59, and nearly as many as the 65 in 2020. One reservist and eight of the active-duty suicides in 2022 were in November. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Navy-finds-no-link-in-series-of-suicides-by-17665135.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:09 | en | 0.987279 |
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey lawmakers gave final approval Monday to legislation overhauling rules to get a firearm carry permit after this summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanded gun rights.
The Democrat-led Senate passed the measure in what is scheduled to be the last voting session of the year, sending the legislation to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. He has said he planned to sign it into law.
Republicans opposed the measure, raising questions about its constitutionality and gun rights advocates predicted it wouldn't pass constitutional muster.
“The 2nd Amendment cannot be ignored because New Jersey's majority party does not like it,” GOP state Sen. Ed Durr said during a debate on the chamber's floor. No Democrats spoke in favor of the measure on Monday, but earlier they said they believed the measure is constitutional.
The legislation scraps New Jersey's current requirement that those seeking a permit to carry a firearm show “justifiable need” and be of “good character" to reflect the Supreme Court's June ruling.
Other changes in the legislation include disqualifications for those who've been confined over their mental health, people who have had restraining orders as any “fugitive from justice.”
The measure calls for the end of a paper permitting system that used quadruplicate documents to register applicants. It also would establish a yet-to-be created online gun sales portal.
It increases from three to four the number of endorsements from non-family members in order to get a permit. They would also have to be interviewed by law enforcement officials as well.
The measure also boosts training requirements, calling for online, in-person classroom and target shooting instruction. And it would require permit carriers to carry liability insurance.
It bars people from carrying in many public places, including state buildings, schools, polling places, child-care facilities, publicly owned parks and beaches, as wells concert venues and bars.
New Jersey requires permits to both purchase as well as carry firearms. Purchase permits for handguns would go from $2 to $25 under the measure. For other firearms, the rate goes from $5 to $50. The measure calls for a $200 fee for a carrier's permits. Current applications list a $50 fee. The increased fee would permit local governments to keep $150 for the cost of processing, with the remainder slated for the state's office of crime victim's compensation.
Scott Bach, the head of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs, predicted Monday the bill would “go down in flames" and amounted to a “big middle finger” to the Supreme Court. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/New-Jersey-lawmakers-pass-gun-carry-legislation-17665133.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:15 | en | 0.968861 |
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and others are suing the city of Albuquerque to stop officials in the state’s largest city from destroying homeless encampments and jailing and fining people who are living on the street.
The lawsuit filed Monday accuses the city of violating the civil rights of what advocates describe as Albuquerque’s most vulnerable population.
Lawyers for the ACLU, the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and a group of homeless plaintiffs contend that Albuquerque has initiated a campaign in which city personnel is hounding and harassing the homeless.
The complaint blames the city's own policies for causing a housing shortage, along with escalating home prices that have put ownership out of reach and have resulted in more pressure on the rental market. They also point to the trend of institutional investors buying single-family homes and renting them at sky-high rates.
“The lack of affordable housing and adequately paid employment in Albuquerque has not only caused precariously housed individuals and families to lose their housing, but it has also presented a barrier for currently unhoused people to exit homelessness," the lawsuit states.
The lawyers also acknowledge that mental illness, disabilities or substance abuse can be contributing factors to some people’s homelessness, but that the city simply doesn't have enough beds or shelters to accommodate the growing population.
Democratic Mayor Tim Keller's office did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit.
The ACLU is fighting similar actions in Arizona, where a federal judge last week temporarily halted Phoenix from conducting sweeps of a huge homeless encampment downtown.
In Albuquerque, the mayor's office has struggled to address the complaints of residents about homeless encampments taking over public parks and about aggressive panhandling. The city plans to develop a multimillion-dollar center on Albuquerque's south side where the homeless can seek services but the number of beds will meet only a fraction of the need.
Those without a place to go also have complained that the city's emergency housing shelter in a remote area west of Albuquerque is dangerous, unsanitary and infested with black mold.
According to the lawsuit, the shelter — which is able to house as many as 450 people — lacks working fire hydrants, does not meet fire safety and building codes, and has no means of sanitizing sheets, blankets or bedding to rid them of bed bugs and parasites.
Many of those at the shelter also have mental illness and behavioral health disabilities, and the advocates say mental health therapy is not provided there.
The lawsuit also detailed a homeless community of about 120 people that set up camp in Coronado Park, a city park north of downtown along a busy interstate. City workers began clearing the park of tents and belongings earlier this summer, making for what the plaintiffs described as a chaotic scene.
“Because the city lacks adequate shelter space and because even the available shelter space is not a viable option for some people, the people evicted from Coronado Park had nowhere to go," the lawsuit states. “People have looked for other locations, but the city continues to sweep unhoused people from wherever they land, making it impossible for people to settle anywhere.”
The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness estimates the number of New Mexicans experiencing homelessness statewide is between 15,000 and 20,000. That includes those staying in shelters or outdoors and those who are temporarily living with others, living in unsafe housing conditions, sleeping in cars or staying in motels.
Maria Martinez Sanchez, legal director at ACLU-NM, said laws that criminalize people experiencing homelessness make it harder for them to find housing and jobs because even misdemeanor convictions can make someone ineligible for subsidized housing.
“Criminalizing homelessness does nothing to address its root causes. In fact, it exacerbates the problem," she said. "We know the solution — affordable housing. The city just needs to find the will and the courage to make it happen.” | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/New-Mexico-city-sued-for-hounding-harassing-the-17665173.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:16 | en | 0.965217 |
Eight people were killed and three injured Monday in an attack by gunmen on an Iraqi village previously held by the Islamic State extremist group, officials said.
The attack took place in the village of Albu Bali northwest of Fallujah in Iraq.
Uday al-Khadran, commissioner of the al-Khalis district where the attack occurred said “a group of terrorists riding motorcycles” had attacked the village at around 8:30 p.m. and that dozens of residents, some of them unarmed, had rushed to confront the attackers, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.
Security forces are searching for those responsible, he said.
The violence came a day after an explosive device went off in northern Iraq, killing at least nine members of the Iraqi federal police force who were on patrol. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the village of Ali al-Sultan in the Riyadh district of the province of Kirkuk.
On Wednesday, three Iraqi soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded during a security operation in the Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad. Among the dead was the commander of the 59th Infantry Brigade.
No one claimed responsibility for that attack either, but remnants of the militant Islamic State group are active in the area and have claimed similar attacks in Iraq in the past. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Official-8-killed-in-attack-by-gunmen-on-an-17665091.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:23 | en | 0.983809 |
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police say a 22-year-old man forced his way into his ex-girlfriend's home in Des Moines and shot and killed her and her mother before shooting himself.
Des Moines Police said the man called police shortly before 3 a.m. Monday to report that he had shot the two women and was walking to a nearby park where he planned to kill himself.
Investigators believe the man forced his way into the home before he shot and killed a 20-year-old woman and her 47-year-old mother. Their names were not immediately released.
Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said officers found the man in a park about a block from the home with a gunshot wound, but he was still alive. Paramedics took him to a hospital, and he remained in critical condition Monday afternoon. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Police-man-kills-woman-and-mother-before-17665208.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:29 | en | 0.994561 |
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Shirley Ann Watts, a former art student and prominent breeder of Arabian horses who met drummer Charlie Watts well before he joined the Rolling Stones and with him formed one of rock's most enduring marriages, has died. She was 84.
"Shirley died peacefully on Friday 16th December in Devon after a short illness surrounded by her family," her family announced Monday. The Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood was among those mourning her.
“We will miss you so much, but take comfort that you are reunited with your beloved Charlie,” Wood wrote on Facebook.
While Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards all have had multiple wives and girlfriends, Charlie and Shirley Watts remained together for more than 50 years, until Charlie died in 2021. Their only known crisis happened in the mid-1980s, when Charlie Watts struggled with heroin addiction, a time he would later say nearly cost him his marriage. He was otherwise regarded as so devoted to his wife, and daughter Seraphina, that journalists essentially left him alone.
“I’ve always wanted to be a drummer (and) as long as it’s comfortable with my wife, I’ll continue to do it,” he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1996.
When Charlie wasn't touring or recording, he and his family lived on a 600-acre, 16th century estate in Devon, where they were better known for their Polish Arabian horses and for rescuing animals than for the drummer's singular place in rock history. Stories about the Watts were as likely to appear in Arabian Horse World as they were in a music publication.
According to Charlie, his wife had warm relations with Jagger and Richards and, unlike him, would play the Stones' music around the house. But Shirley herself expressed ambivalent feelings, telling Vanity Fair in 1989 that the band's drug use affected her life “very, very deeply” and that she otherwise had little use for the rock star world.
“It was quite appalling being pitched into the life of the Rolling Stones,” she said. “I really got lost for about 25 years and I’ve never been able to cope with it. There’s been lots of anger, much of it very, very deep. I like the people in the group — up to a point. But I’ve always hated the way rock music and its world treat women and particularly the Rolling Stones’ attitude. There is no respect.”
Shirley Ann Shepherd was born in London in 1938 and was studying sculpture at the Royal College of Art in the early '60s when she first saw her future husband, who at the time was part of the emerging blues and jazz scene in England that also included Jagger and Richards. They were already dating when Watts joined the Stones early in 1963, and married the following year, just as the band had established itself as second only to the Beatles in local popularity.
“She was so funny and clever, and she had the most infectious laugh you’d ever heard,” Charlie Watts said of her when interviewed by The Guardian in 2000. “And I loved the world she was in, the world of art and sculpting. I just admired Shirley very, very much.”
The biggest scandal about their marriage was their decision to get married. Rock star weddings were considered bad business at the time, a turnoff to young female fans — the Beatles' John Lennon was among those who hedged when reporters asked him about his domestic life.
Without informing the other Stones, the Watts married in Bradford and had a quiet lunch at a nearby pub. According to Paul Sexton's “Charlie's Good Tonight,” a 2022 biography of the late drummer written with his family's cooperation, Charlie Watts initially denied reports that he was married, telling the Daily Express that “it would do a great deal of harm to my career if the story got around.” But Shirley happily confirmed the news, saying they could not “bear to live separately any longer.”
Neither Charlie nor Shirley liked drawing attention to themselves, but at times they did so anyway. Shirley Watts was arrested at the Nice airport in 1971 for attacking customs officials after they had reportedly singled out her husband for attention. In 2016, she threatened to sue Polish government officials over the alleged mistreatment of two Arabian mares at a state-run farm.
Shirley Watts also endured a battle with alcoholism, one she helped overcome by hours of sculpting horses and dogs. The Watts’ shared interest in horses grew from collecting figurines to raising hundreds of Arab horses, a passion that began after Charlie purchased a part-bred stallion for his wife.
“I much prefer my life here with the horses. I love the hunt. The sense of power one gets on a horse," she told Vanity Fair. "It’s a very primeval instinct. When you hear the hounds — they call it the music — when you hear the hounds’ music, it’s bloodcurdling it’s so thrilling. And it affects both you and the horse. There’s nothing like it. It’s dangerous. It’s exciting.”
She added, with a laugh, “It sounds rather like a rock ‘n’ roll concert.” | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Shirley-Watts-widow-of-drummer-Charlie-Watts-17664728.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:35 | en | 0.987669 |
Two soldiers were injured by Israeli airstrikes in the vicinity of the Syrian capital of Damascus early Tuesday, the first such attack in more than a month, a Syrian military statement reported.
In addition to the injuries, the strikes caused some “material losses,” the statement said without elaboration, noting that Syrian air defenses had intercepted and shot down a number of missiles.
The last reported Israeli attack in Syria was on Nov. 13 and killed two Syrian soldiers and wounded three others when airstrikes hit an airbase in the province of Homs.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses specific operations.
Israeli leaders have in the past acknowledged striking targets in Syria and elsewhere in what it says is a campaign to thwart Iranian attempts to smuggle weapons to proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group or to destroy weapons caches
Last week, Israel’s military chief of staff strongly suggested that Israel was behind a Nov. 8 strike on a truck convoy in Syria. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Syria-reports-two-soldiers-injured-in-Israeli-17665153.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:36 | en | 0.966424 |
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Margaret M. Russell, Santa Clara University
(THE CONVERSATION) After 18 months investigating, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol held its final public meeting on Dec. 19, 2022. The panel recommended that the U.S. Department of Justice bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
The House committee recommended that the Justice Department pursue four main charges against Trump – obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to make a false statement and inciting or assisting an insurrection. The committee also recommended that the House Ethics Committee sanction four Republican members of Congress who refused the committee’s subpoena requests to provide information about the events of Jan. 6.
But what does that all mean? The Conversation asked Margaret Russell, professor of constitutional law at Santa Clara University, to help explain why these recommended charges are important, where they fall short – and what could come next.
1. What are the biggest takeaways from these referrals?
People have wondered whether the proceedings would have any strong result. Now it is clear that the committee does not see these proceedings as primarily about making a historical record. They have done more than that.
One big takeaway is that Trump is at the top of the pile. When the proceedings began it was not clear – though many people suspected and alleged – how much he knew, when he knew it, what he said before Jan. 6, what he knew and said before the election’s certification, and whether he knew he really had not won the election. It is now clear Trump was the architect of most of this conspiracy – and the committee is urging specific accountability for him and other people who played a part in it.
It is also interesting to think about the committee urging criminal prosecution. It really means it reached the brink. This bipartisan committee, which comprised seven Democrats and two Republicans, decided unanimously that backing away from criminal charges would be a dereliction of its duty to recommend, based on what it has found. Committee members are not telling the Department of Justice what it has to do – they can’t. But in their investigatory role they concluded that in order for there to be accountability, they needed to recommend charges.
2. Do these referrals have any legal teeth?
The magnitude of these recommended charges, particularly the insurrection one, is unprecedented. Rather than saying they don’t have legal teeth, I think they certainly have very strong teeth in the sense of urging the Department of Justice to make sure that there is accountability. Accountability is a word that jumped out to me in committee members’ statements on Dec. 19 – there must be accountability, even though this committee, of course, cannot force the Department of Justice to do anything.
The charges, of trying to overthrow the government, essentially, go right to the heart of the Constitution. There is no historical precedent for this. The Justice Department’s determination to pursue the referrals would depend on the validity of the House commitee’s findings. And since the department has been doing its own investigation of Trump, it wouldn’t be starting from ground zero. The committee’s work could be added to what it has.
3. Will the new GOP Congress have any say in these referrals?
Now that the report has been handed over and the referrals made, I would imagine the Department of Justice will start considering it. And, so, when there is a difference in leadership of the House there won’t be any way to undo it. The House can conduct its own investigations, but it cannot stop the Department of Justice and it cannot undo this report and its recommendations. Attorney General Merrick Garland has clearly sent a message that the department he runs is not influenced by outside factors. And he has tried to insulate any prosecutions from accusations of political influence by appointing a special counsel to oversee the Trump investigations.
4. Were lawmakers who ignored the subpoenas legally required to obey the committee’s request for testimony?
I think the answer is yes. The Constitution (Article I, Section 5) states that each chamber makes its own rules that bind its members. The Supreme Court has underscored this constitutional power as well as the legal legitimacy of the congressional subpoena. The consequences of ignoring a congressional subpoena might ultimately wind up within the purview of the Ethics Committee, but there are consequences.
5. Does the House committee’s report increase the likelihood that Trump will be charged?
I think it makes a strong argument in the public sphere for the prosecution of Trump, which is what a lot of people have been waiting for. It doesn’t guarantee a prosecution, but it spells out, I think meticulously, why Trump is included in this and at the forefront.
The House committee’s message of accountability – that if the nation is to consider itself to be a democracy that works there must be accountability for Trump and others – was made very powerfully. As committee member Adam Schiff said on Dec. 19, “I think the day we start giving passes to presidents or former presidents or people of power or influence is the day we can say that this was the beginning of the end of our democracy.”
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/what-the-criminal-referral-of-trump-means-a-constitutional-law-expert-explains-the-jan-6-committee-action-196841. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/What-the-criminal-referral-of-Trump-means-a-17665056.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:43 | en | 0.966546 |
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday touted the year-end deal on an omnibus spending package as a victory for Republicans because it will boost defense spending above the rate of inflation and increase nondefense spending at a lower rate than inflation, effectively resulting in a cut.
McConnell cast the result as the mirror image of what President Biden requested when he sent his budget request to Congress.
“The administration wanted to cut funding for our armed forces after inflation while massively increasing spending on nondefense. Republicans have taken the president’s bizarre position and flipped it on its head,” he said on the Senate floor.
McConnell said the bill, which will be released to the public on Monday afternoon, “provides a substantial real-dollar increase to the defense baseline and a substantial real-dollar cut to the nondefense, non-veterans baseline.”
Republican sources say the boost in defense-related spending compared to what they’re calling the “real-dollar cut” to nondefense spending is more dramatic when the generous increase in spending on military veterans, which is classified on the nondefense side of the spending ledger, is factored in.
McConnell also highlighted the fact that the omnibus is expected to exclude what he called “left-wing goodies,” such as the Safe Banking Act, which would prohibit federal regulators from penalizing financial institutions that do business with legitimate cannabis-related businesses.
“The bipartisan bill that our colleagues have negotiated equips our armed forces with the resources they need while cutting nondefense, non-veterans spending in real dollars,” he said. “This is a strong outcome for Republicans, and much more importantly, it’s the outcome that our nation’s security.”
The consumer price index, which measures inflation, rose by 7.1 percent over the past 12 months, which by McConnell’s account means the omnibus will increase defense spending by more than 7.1 percent while increasing nondefense spending by a smaller percentage.
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) expressed disappointment on Monday afternoon that nondefense social spending programs will receive a smaller increase than defense programs but he noted that Democrats didn’t have much leverage to insist on parity.
McConnell is “in a bargaining position,” Durbin said, and “taking advantage of his leverage.”
“I don’t like it but we’re in a pretty desperate situation,” Durbin added, referring to the Democrats’ loss of the House majority in the midterm elections.
Democrats were eager to strike a deal with McConnell and Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, before Republicans take control of the House in January. | https://www.fox44news.com/hill-politics/mcconnell-omnibus-boosts-defense-spending-cuts-non-defense-spending/ | 2022-12-19T23:27:48 | en | 0.944104 |
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Former NFL linebacker Willie McGinest Jr. was arrested Monday in connection with an assault at a Southern California nightclub, authorities said.
The incident occurred Dec. 9 at a West Hollywood club and witnesses identified McGinest as one of the people who were involved, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
McGinest was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon after coming to the West Hollywood sheriff’s station to give a statement about the incident.
He posted bond and was released, the sheriff’s statement said. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney to comment on the allegation.
McGinest spent 15 years in the NFL with New England and Cleveland after playing college ball at the University of Southern California. | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/article/Willie-McGinest-Jr-arrested-in-alleged-assault-in-17665141.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:49 | en | 0.979135 |
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday issued a terse response to the House Jan. 6 select committee’s decision to refer criminal charges against former President Trump to the Justice Department.
“The entire nation knows who is responsible for that day. Beyond that, I don’t have any immediate observations,” McConnell said in a statement reacting to the House panel voting to refer four criminal charges against Trump to prosecutors in connection to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, recommended the Justice Department investigate Trump for inciting insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to make a false statement.
The panel also recommended a formal ethics investigation of the role that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and several allies — Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — played on Jan. 6 and in the days before.
McConnell’s statement responding to the action on the other side of the Capitol was bolder than those from some members of his leadership team.
Retiring Senate Republican Policy Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (Mo.) said he “had no idea” of the details of the referral.
Incoming Senate Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said, “I never heard of Congress instructing [the Justice Department] in that way.”
She said the committee’s work was “obviously politicized.”
McConnell denounced Trump on the Senate floor in February 2021 after the former president was acquitted on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection.
“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” McConnell said, after voting to acquit the president on the technical grounds that he no longer held the office.
Since then, McConnell has regularly declined to comment when asked what responsibility Trump bore for spreading the unsubstantiated belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. | https://www.fox44news.com/hill-politics/mcconnell-on-jan-6-criminal-referral-of-trump-entire-nation-knows-who-is-responsible-for-that-day/ | 2022-12-19T23:27:54 | en | 0.966696 |
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts suffered a sprained right shoulder and his status for Philadelphia's game at Dallas is uncertain, a person with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press on Monday.
Hurts was injured Sunday during a win over Chicago, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team hadn't announced the injury.
Hurts has led the Eagles to a 13-1 mark and the best record in the NFL. The 24-year-old morphed into a serious NFL MVP candidate in his second season as a starter.
Hurts has thrown 22 touchdowns and has 3,472 yards passing, and he has rushed for 747 yards and 13 touchdowns.
He took several big hits against the Bears and landed hard on his shoulder when he was tackled by defensive tackle Travis Gipson. Hurts did not seem to be in any pain when he talked to the media after the game and brushed off questions about being slow to get up from some tackles.
“Feel good, listening to my Anita Baker, gave me some sweets on the plane ride home, watch the tape, learn from it and move forward,” he said. “It wasn’t the first time I’ve been slow, won’t be the last. I didn’t play a really physical game.”
The Eagles need one more win to clinch the NFC East and secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They would turn to backup QB Gardner Minshew to start Saturday's game against the Cowboys. The fourth-year QB has seen limited action in garbage time this season but started two games for the Eagles last year and threw four touchdowns and had 439 yards passing.
Philadelphia's sensational season means the Eagles can play it safe and rest Hurts so he is ready for the playoffs. Hurts had been an MVP front-runner on most betting sites, but he plummeted to 7-1 on Monday, per FanDuel SportsBook. Also per FanDuel, the Cowboys are now a 6-point favorite to beat the Eagles.
After Dallas, the Eagles close the season with home games against New Orleans and the New York Giants. Should they earn the No. 1 seed in the conference, the Eagles could play up to two home games at Lincoln Financial Field in the playoffs.
Hurts recently celebrated two years since he was promoted to starter at the end of the 2020 season over the ineffective Carson Wentz. The Eagles' decision at the time to draft Hurts in the second round with the 53rd overall pick in 2020, when the Eagles had far more pressing needs, was a puzzler. But Wentz was traded to Indianapolis and the Eagles stuck with the 2019 Heisman Trophy runner-up and watched him blossom into one of the best QBs in the NFL.
Hurts' 35 total touchdowns this season tied the franchise record set by Randall Cunningham in 1990. He threw two interceptions against the Bears after throwing only three total all season. But he rushed for three touchdowns for the second time in his career. He went 22-of-37 passing for 315 yards in Sunday's 25-21 win.
“When things are looking a certain way on the field or maybe it’s not what we want it to be, we stay together and we find a way to fix it,” Hurts said.
Now the Eagles likely will have to do the same as they prepare to play without Hurts.
___
AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed to this report.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/AP-source-Eagles-QB-Hurts-suffers-sprained-right-17665054.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:55 | en | 0.977748 |
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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — In Josh they trust, or so the saying goes among Bills fans and players in regards to their beloved quarterback.
In five short seasons, Josh Allen has transformed a franchise that had lost much of its relevance since the Jim Kelly era in the early 1990s, into an offensive dynamo and AFC power. Yet another reminder of the integral role the 26-year-old from Firebaugh, California, has played in the Bills' emergence was on display in the snow Saturday night.
With the AFC East race on the line, and Buffalo one win short of clinching its fourth consecutive playoff berth, Allen showcased his dual-threat skillset and fearless competitive drive to put the offense on his back in rallying the Bills from an 8-point fourth-quarter deficit to a 32-29 victory over the Miami Dolphins.
The outing was far from perfect, especially given how the offense opened the second half slumbering through a five-series stretch, beginning with four punts and ending with Allen losing a fumble, which the Dolphins converted into a field goal.
And yet, Allen regained his poise to oversee Buffalo close the game with consecutive scoring drives covering a combined 161 yards on 22 plays, and capped by Tyler Bass hitting a 25-yard field goal as time expired.
Allen’s fingerprints — and footprints — were all over Buffalo’s fourth win this season decided with a score in the final 64 seconds.
Allen’s 44-yard scamper fueled the tying drive in which the quarterback capped with a 5-yard pass to Dawson Knox and then used every inch of his 6-foot-5 frame to leap over the pile and nudge the ball over the goal line for a 2-point conversion. On the next drive, Allen converted three third-down situations, the last giving Buffalo the ball at Miami’s 13 after Kader Kohou was flagged for pass interference on Isaiah McKenzie.
Allen didn’t back down when being shoved out of bounds on a late hit from linebacker Elandon Roberts. And he made sure to take a jab at the warm-weather Dolphins in his postgame interview by saying he wished it were colder, repeating the words printed on a shirt Miami coach Mike McDaniel wore during practice earlier in the week.
Allen’s combination of being playful and possessed is not lost on his teammates.
“There’s Josh being Josh,” Knox said. “He’s the best quarterback in the league, the best football player in the league. So any time you got him on your team, you got a chance to win.”
At 11-3, the Bills are enjoying their fourth-straight season with 10 or more wins, tying the franchise record run set from 1990-93. They’re on the cusp of winning their third straight AFC East title, and have the inside track to finish first in the AFC.
In going 25 of 40 for 304 yards, Allen produced his 20th 300-yard outing, and ninth with four TDs passing, in just his 50th start. And he increased his career touchdown total to 171 (133 passing, 37 rushing and one receiving) to tie Dan Marino for most by an NFL player in his first five seasons.
Perhaps Allen’s most compelling play came on a 4-yard touchdown pass to James Cook to close the first half.
With no timeouts and facing first-and-goal with 8 seconds left, Allen let the clock expire as he scrambled right and was two steps from the sideline before hitting Cook in the back of the end zone.
“Yeah, it’s either a really good play or a really stupid play,” Allen said.
Coach Sean McDermott smiled when reminded of what happened.
“He’s lucky he threw a touchdown pass right there,” McDermott said. “Or else I would have probably flattened his tires.”
No need to worry. Allen’s tires remain pumped.
WHAT’S WORKING
Red-zone offense. In 13 drives inside an opponent’s 20 over the past four games, Buffalo has scored 11 TDs and a game-winning field goal, along with an Allen interception.
WHAT NEEDS HELP
Opening-drive production. The Bills have combined to score 3 points on the opening drive in each of their past nine outings.
STOCK UP
Knox. With Miami focused on limiting Stefon Diggs, Knox had six catches for a season-best 98 yards and a touchdown.
STOCK DOWN
DB Cam Lewis drew an unnecessary roughness penalty for a late hit on punter Thomas Morstead to extend Miami's drive after a three-and-out at midfield, which led to Tyreek Hill’s 20-yard touchdown catch to put the Dolphins up 26-21 late in the third quarter.
INJURIES
C Mitch Morse sustained the sixth documented concussion of his career. ... DE Boogie Basham is nursing a calf injury. ... OL Ike Boettger, sidelined since tearing his Achilles tendon last year, was activated from the reserve/physically unable to perform list on Monday.
KEY NUMBER
6-3 — The Bills' record this season in games decided by 8 or fewer points. Buffalo was 0-6 (including playoffs) last year.
NEXT STEPS
Buffalo is 2-1 against NFC North teams this year, in traveling to play the Chicago Bears on Saturday.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/Allen-s-dominance-delivers-in-Bills-17665207.php | 2022-12-19T23:27:56 | en | 0.975697 |
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NOLANVILLE, Texas (FOX 44) – Multiple fire departments were dispatched to a Nolanville house fire on Monday morning.
Central Bell County Fire and Rescue, the Belton Fire Department and the Temple Fire Department responded to the incident around 6:54 a.m. The Bell County Fire Marshal’s Office also assisted.
The fire was started by a lightning strike to the home. A Belton Fire Chief reported heavy smoke coming from the the residence. Central Bell County Fire and Rescue put two units on scene. Suppression efforts limited the fire in the attic space and in part of the kitchen.
No injuries have been reported, and there was minimal property damage reported. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/local-news/bell-county/lightning-strike-causes-nolanville-house-fire/ | 2022-12-19T23:28:00 | en | 0.952298 |
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NEW YORK (WPIX) – A Brooklyn bishop who was once robbed mid-sermon was arrested Monday morning for allegedly defrauding a parishioner out of retirement savings, officials said.
Lamor Whitehead, 45, has also been accused of trying to extort and defraud a businessman and lying to the FBI. He has been charged with two counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“As we allege today, Lamor Whitehead abused the trust placed in him by a parishioner, bullied a businessman for $5,000, then tried to defraud him of far more than that, and lied to federal agents,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “His campaign of fraud and deceit stops now.”
Whitehead allegedly “induced” a parishioner to invest about $90,000 of her retirement savings with him, according to an indictment. He’s accused of spending that money on luxury goods and other personal purposes.
The Brooklyn bishop was also charged with extortion, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of making material false statements, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
“Lamor Whitehead is not guilty of these charges,” his lawyer said in a statement to Nexstar’s WPIX. “He will be vigorously defending these allegations. He feels that he is being targeted and being turned into a villain from a victim.”
Whitehead formed Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in 2013, after serving a five-year prison sentence for identity theft and grand larceny. Whitehead claims he was illegally convicted.
Whitehead and his wife were robbed mid-sermon in July after three male suspects stormed in and held them at gunpoint, police said in July. Whitehead and his wife told police the men made off with over $1 million in jewelry, including rings, watches, and chains. One of the suspects allegedly pointed a gun in the face of Whitehead’s 8-month-old child, he said in a Facebook post.
Two suspects were arrested in September for the incident, which was caught on a since-deleted church live stream.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/brooklyn-bishop-robbed-mid-sermon-arrested-for-allegedly-defrauding-a-parishioner/ | 2022-12-19T23:28:07 | en | 0.986058 |
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Even before an epic final won by Lionel Messi and Argentina, FIFA president Gianni Infantino was calling it “the best World Cup ever” in Qatar.
There was clear self-interest to declare the success of a tournament that was politically fraught for most of the 12 years since the wealthy emirate was picked as host by a previous FIFA leadership broadly tainted by corruption allegations.
FIFA's fundamental role is to oversee global soccer's rules and make sure World Cups happen on schedule: Goal achieved, billions of dollars duly earned.
As ever with arguably world sport's most colorful governing body, there was much else going on.
ON THE FIELD
When the games begin focus shifts to the field, and FIFA got that early on day three when Messi and Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia 2-1 in an upset for the ages.
One day later, Germany lost to Japan and then Brazil delighted the world in its first game against Serbia. Morocco picked up the baton and was the first African or Arab nation to still be playing on the last weekend of a World Cup.
Games were consistently compelling if not the best quality. These were not vintage Spain or Netherlands teams, and not even Brazil by the time of its quarterfinals exit.
The drama rose with simultaneous group-stage games that carried Japan, South Korea and Croatia to the round of 16 and sent Germany and Belgium home.
All continents got teams into the knockout rounds, letting Infantino repeat his claim of soccer “becoming truly global for the first time.”
When the final was a true classic on Sunday, Argentina winning on penalties after a 3-3 draw, it left everyone except France feeling like they won.
POLITICS
It was a most political World Cup. Before a game was played there was scrutiny of Qatar for its human rights record, employment practices and a years-long boycott by neighboring states in which FIFA pushed for the Gulf region to share the tournament.
In the final weeks of preparation, Qatar pushed back more confidently against its critics – a process FIFA joined after teams and media arrived on site.
Infantino’s infamous “I feel gay, I feel a migrant worker” speech on Nov. 19 hit many of the host nation’s talking points that alleged western hypocrisy and racism.
FIFA gave assurances in private — to European teams about captains wearing anti-discrimination armbands; to fans about wearing rainbow symbols; to World Cup sponsor AB InBev about selling Budweiser beer with alcohol at stadiums – that started to collapse. Bonds of trust were severely strained.
Pre-tournament talk of being open to supporting a compensation fund and better resources for migrant workers in Qatar was mostly shut down.
Qatar’s World Cup was a state-run project and it seemed clear who was in charge.
When European women lawmakers came to games wearing the “One Love” armband, Middle East officials started sporting a Palestinian armband.
When an Italian field invader displayed European activist messages, days later a Tunisian man did the same with a Palestinian flag.
During the tournament, basic operational detail was hard to get and most requests were ignored. Routine briefings and news conferences at past World Cups, including Russia in 2018, did not happen.
A guiding principle seemed to be “never complain, never explain” for World Cup organizers.
FANS
The FIFA president is traditionally jeered at World Cup finals. It happened again on Sunday when Infantino was introduced for the trophy presentations.
Infantino also was booed when the TV broadcast showed him sitting in VVIP seats during the England-Wales game. Both countries had armband and rainbow issues with FIFA, while British media extensively covered migrant labor issues.
Though Argentina and Morocco fans traveled in big numbers, fewer than expected Europeans came to Qatar. The pre-tournament target was 1.2 million international visitors but the official total was less than 800,000 entering the final week.
Yet, when thousands of Morocco fans tried to arrive for an unexpected semifinal against France last Wednesday, several flights into Doha were canceled to limit numbers.
High-priced accommodation like tents and cabins also seemed to put off visiting fans.
Empty seats at kickoff for most games would steadily fill by halftime. There was evidence and anecdotes of residents in Qatar being taken to games and offered free tickets, and the host nation’s loudest cheer squad was fans brought from Lebanon and Syria.
When tournament attendance topped 3.4 million, it was unclear and went unanswered if the total included all the volunteers, catering and security staff who clocked in to work in stadiums.
MORE MONEY
This was a clear win for FIFA, despite a likely breach of contract issue to resolve with AB InBev.
FIFA reported higher than expected revenue of $7.5 billion for the four-year commercial cycle tied to Qatar’s World Cup.
The World Cup was a tougher sell in the past decade when new sponsors came only from Russia and Qatar — two often problematic host nations — and China while prosecutors in the United States, Switzerland and France ran corruption investigations targeting soccer officials.
A late run of sponsor signings for this World Cup included tourism in Saudi Arabia and Las Vegas, plus companies in the online gambling, cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors.
Most deals now expire and FIFA plans to cash in from staging a bigger 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, by offering sponsors huge local markets and more games being played mostly in high-yield NFL stadiums.
Infantino said on Friday that FIFA’s four-year forecast is for $11 billion through 2026. All 211 member federations will be getting millions more dollars from Zurich.
HIGH LIFE
FIFA leaders could stay in opulent Qatari hotels that opened just in time for the World Cup.
One base was the waterside Fairmont Hotel, nearly 40 stories high and shaped like a curved sword. It offered 18-karat gold tiles in the shower of some suites and a 56-meter (185-foot) high chandelier in the lobby.
Coupled with an unprecedented level of security at a World Cup, it added to the feel of FIFA isolating in an ivory tower.
While France’s President Emmanuel Macron went for a brief walkabout at the main market in Doha, Infantino almost never met ordinary fans.
One regular Infantino companion was a celebrity chef famed for painting gold leaf on steaks that costs hundreds of dollars at his restaurants.
The chef, known as Salt Bae, also seemed to breach World Cup protocol by holding the gold trophy when joining the Argentina players on the field on Sunday for post-game celebrations.
For veteran FIFA watchers, it was an apt final symbol for the World Cup in Qatar.
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/FIFA-mostly-wins-big-but-loses-some-trust-at-17665053.php | 2022-12-19T23:28:09 | en | 0.968526 |
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(WFLA) — CNN veteran journalist Drew Griffin died over the weekend at the age of 60, according to the news network.
CNN said Griffin, who worked as a senior investigative correspondent, died Saturday after battling cancer. However, the journalist kept his illness private and worked until the day he died.
“Drew’s death is a devastating loss to CNN and our entire profession,” CNN CEO Chris Licht said.
Griffin worked as an investigative reporter for CNN for 18 years, and his work won him numerous accolades such as Emmys, Peabody awards, and Murrow awards.
Prior to his time at CNN, the Chicago native spent time reporting at stations in Illinois, Florida, California, and other states.
He leaves behind his wife, Margot, and their three children and two grandchildren, according to CNN. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/cnn-journalist-drew-griffin-dead-at-60-after-cancer-battle-network-reports/ | 2022-12-19T23:28:13 | en | 0.991595 |
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(KTLA) – Former NFL star Willie McGinest was arrested in Los Angeles early Monday morning in connection with an assault, authorities have confirmed.
The alleged assault occurred at a nightclub earlier this month in West Hollywood, according to a media release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The former New England Patriots linebacker arrived at the West Hollywood Sheriff’s station Monday to provide a statement about the incident, authorities.
Following the interview, McGinest was taken into custody for assault with a deadly weapon. He posted the $30,000 bond and was released shortly before 10 a.m. local time.
Additional details about the incident haven’t been released. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s West Hollywood Detective Bureau continues to investigate the incident.
McGinest’s bail has been set for $30,000 and he is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning.
The Long Beach native was a first-round pick in the 1994 draft and spent 15 years in the league playing with the Patriots and Cleveland Browns. He won three Super Bowls with New England and made two Pro Bowls.
After his career on the field, McGinest worked as an analyst for ESPN, Fox Sports, and NFL Network. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/former-nfl-star-willie-mcginist-arrested-in-los-angeles/ | 2022-12-19T23:28:19 | en | 0.973808 |
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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — After searching for her dog for over a year, a West Sacramento woman is going to have him back home in time for Christmas.
After 14 months of looking for her dog, Sandra O’Neill received a call about the whereabouts of her beloved companion, who was found approximately 1,600 miles away.
“When they told me he was in Kansas, I was shocked,” O’Neill said.
Zeppelin, a German shepherd mix, went missing in October 2021.
A woman in the rural town of Louisburg, Kansas found Zeppelin on her property, took him in her home for the night and took him to a veterinarian’s office the next morning. It’s unknown how Zeppelin ended up in Kansas, but the veterinarian clinic discovered through his microchip that he was miles away from home.
Before he went missing, O’Neill said Zeppelin would go to an area near her house that was full of construction workers. Those workers would often give him food, water and treats. O’Neill said she would either pick up Zeppelin or he’d return home on his own. One day, Zeppelin was nowhere to be found.
The night before she got the call from the veterinarian’s office in Kansas, O’Neill said she drove by the area he was last seen, wishing for him to come home.
“I would always think about him and say something when I drive by there occasionally and say ‘I miss you Zeppelin, I hope you come home someday and I hope you’re happy, safe and healthy wherever you are,’” O’Neill said. “The next morning I got the call. I was very excited and really flabbergasted that he was found and very grateful and blessed to be getting the dog back.”
O’Neill owned Zeppelin for 18 months prior to him going missing. Zeppelin is about 3 years old. She named her beloved dog after the band Led Zeppelin.
Zeppelin began his trip back home from Kansas on Sunday. He is being driven back to West Sacramento by a woman named Mary Hastings, who volunteered to take him back home after she visited her daughter in Kansas.
Prior to finding a way for his return, there were discussions on different ways to get Zeppelin home. At one point, bringing Zeppelin home on a military airplane in coordination with Pilots N Paws was a possibility, O’Neill said.
The drive from Kansas to California is approximately a 23-hour drive and Zeppelin is expected to return home sometime this week, days before Christmas.
“We’re very blessed and thankful for all the people involved,” O’Neill said. “There’ve been numerous people working on this tirelessly, trying to get all the legs of the trip handled.”
“I’m just grateful for all the people that put time and energy into this and who have taken care of Zeppelin and loved him where he’s been,” O’Neill continued. | https://www.fox44news.com/news/national-world-news/missing-dog-found-1600-miles-away-from-california-home/ | 2022-12-19T23:28:27 | en | 0.987437 |
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Dec. 19, 2022 — Marshall 28, UConn 14
Dec. 20, 2021 — Tulsa 30, Old Dominion 17
Dec. 21, 2020 — Appalachian St. 56, North Texas 28
Dec. 19, 2022 — Marshall 28, UConn 14
Dec. 20, 2021 — Tulsa 30, Old Dominion 17
Dec. 21, 2020 — Appalachian St. 56, North Texas 28 | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/Myrtle-Beach-Bowl-Winners-17665192.php | 2022-12-19T23:28:41 | en | 0.728655 |
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GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — The Green Bay Packers have released veteran wide receiver Sammy Watkins in advance of their Monday night game with the Los Angeles Rams.
Watkins had 13 receptions for 206 yards and no touchdowns in his lone season with the Packers. He hadn’t caught a single pass since Nov. 13, when he had three receptions for 47 yards in a 31-28 overtime victory over the Dallas Cowboys.
Green Bay also signed running back Patrick Taylor to the active roster from their practice squad on Monday.
The Packers (5-8) signed Watkins in the offseason as they attempted to restock at the receiver position following the trade of two-time All-Pro wideout Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders. Watkins, the No. 4 overall pick in the 2014 draft, had played for the Los Angeles Rams in 2017 when Packers coach Matt LaFleur was that team’s offensive coordinator.
Watkins, 29, caught three passes for 93 yards in a Sept. 18 victory over the Chicago Bears. But he missed the Packers’ next four games with a hamstring injury and hasn’t been productive since coming back.
In seven games since his return, Watkins has totaled seven catches for 95 yards. He hadn’t caught any passes in Green Bay’s past three games and played a total of 11 snaps on offense over the Packers’ past two games.
Injuries have limited Watkins’ effectiveness since his career got off to a promising start.
Watkins caught 65 passes for 982 yards and six touchdowns as a rookie, and he followed that up with 60 receptions for 1,047 yards and nine touchdowns in 2015.
But he has exceeded 600 yards receiving just once in the seven seasons since. He hasn’t caught more than three touchdown passes in a season since 2017.
___
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/Packers-release-veteran-wide-receiver-Sammy-17665100.php | 2022-12-19T23:28:54 | en | 0.978997 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/chicago-bulls/articles/41927221 | 2022-12-19T23:28:57 | en | 0.738227 |
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Nick Patti's long journey at Pittsburgh could end with one more unlikely start. The senior quarterback is in the mix to play when the Panthers (8-4) take on No. 18 UCLA (9-3) in the Sun Bowl because Kedon Slovis entered the transfer portal.
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said Monday that he is holding an open competition between Patti and freshman Nate Yarnell, who started in a victory over Western Michigan in September when both Slovis and Patti were out with injuries.
“Based on today’s practice, they will do it daily, but Nick Patti was on fire today,” Narduzzi said. “So, off of today, it’s Nick Patti. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Patti started the Peach Bowl last year for Pitt after Heisman Trophy finalist Kenny Pickett opted out and completed 2 of 5 passes before leaving with a broken collarbone in the first quarter of what ended up being a loss to Michigan State.
Narduzzi did not go into details about the specifics around Slovis' departure. Slovis, a USC transfer, completed just 59% of his passes with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
Narduzzi said he didn't consider going away from Slovis, whose numbers dipped in the second half of the season as Pitt became a more run-first team behind running back Israel Abanikanda.
“I love Kedon,” Narduzzi said. "Kedon is a great kid and did a nice job for us. He helped us in winning eight football games. I believe that at that point he was the best quarterback to lead our 2022 season.”
Who will be the best quarterback to lead the Panthers in 2023 is uncertain. Pittsburgh native Phil Jurkovec is transferring back home after spending time at Notre Dame and Boston College. Christian Veilleux, a backup at Penn State, is also transferring to Pitt.
Narduzzi declined to answer questions about either player, citing NCAA rules that won't allow him to comment on incoming players until the signing period opens Wednesday.
___
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://apnews.com/cfbtop25 | https://www.myjournalcourier.com/sports/article/Patti-could-start-for-Pitt-in-Sun-Bowl-after-17665048.php | 2022-12-19T23:29:00 | en | 0.967349 |
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a temporary hold on the termination of an immigration policy known as title 42. The order was scheduled to expire on Dec. 21. The order will stay in place, for now.
States have pushed to keep limits on asylum-seekers, put in place during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The states are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort before the limits are set to expire.
The nineteen states Monday asked the court for an emergency stay that would keep Title 42 in place.
In the order from Roberts, he signaled that the court would try and act quickly. The Biden administration has been asked to respond by 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday to the emergency appeal, which was filed by a group of Republican-led states.
"This Court's review is warranted given the enormous national importance of this case. It is not reasonably contestable that the failure to grant a stay will cause an unprecedented calamity at the southern border," the states wrote in their request.
The immigration restrictions, often referred to as Title 42, were put in place under then-President Donald Trump in March 2020 and have prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S. in recent years. But as they're set to expire thousands more migrants are packed in shelters on Mexico's border with the U.S.
Immigration advocates sued to stop the use of Title 42 to limit who can apply for asylum, saying that the policy goes against American and international obligations to people fleeing to the U.S. to escape persecution. And they've argued that things like vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus have made the policy outdated.
Conservative-leaning states have argued that lifting of Title 42 will lead to a surge of migrants into their states and take a toll on government services like health care or law enforcement. They also charge that the federal government has no plan to deal with an increase in migrants. With a Republican-controlled House set to take charge in early January, the imminent lifting of the pandemic-era restrictions has become a hot-button political issue.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected efforts by 19 conservative-leaning states late Friday to intervene in the case, saying they'd waited too long, leading the states to appeal to the Supreme Court. | https://www.fox13now.com/news/national/title-42-temporarily-held-as-states-appeal-to-supreme-court-to-keep-immigration-limits | 2022-12-19T23:29:03 | en | 0.979508 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/chicago-bulls/articles/41927556 | 2022-12-19T23:29:03 | en | 0.738227 |
Newly appointed Executive Chef Patrick LeBeau is sharing details on his new fall menu at Bambara.
Honey from Hollow Tree Honey is used in a variety of dishes including the Carrot and Ginger Soup, the Pumpkin Seed Granola, Charcuterie board, desserts, etc.
Chef Patrick came on The PLACE and showed us how he makes his Carrot and Ginger Soup.
Carrot Ginger Soup
4 cups carrots peeled and sliced
¼ cup ginger, peeled and sliced
1 head garlic, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
¼ cup sauvignon blanc
1T honey
6 cups water
salt, to taste
1. in a heavy bottom pot heat olive oil over medium heat
2. add carrots and sweat for 5 minutes, getting some slight browning
3. add ginger, garlic and shallot, sweat another 5 minutes
4. deglaze with white wine and honey and reduce until dry
5. add water and salt and simmer over medium heat until carrots are tender
6. once carrots are tender blend soup and adjust seasoning with salt
7. garnish with granola and cilantro yogurt, if desired
Pumpkin Seed Granola
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups pumpkin seeds
¾ cup honey
2T grapeseed or neutral oil
1t cinnamon
½ t chili powder
salt, to taste
1. combine all ingredients in bowl and mix evenly
2. spread into thin layer on baking sheet lined with parchment paper
3. bake at 350 for 12 minutes
4. stir and bake another 10-12 minutes until golden brown
5. cool and store for later use
The honey used is from local honey company, Hollow Tree Honey.
Hotel Monaco also have a new hotel package called the “Bee Suite Package” which includes an overnight stay in a King Suite with a bottle of bubbly, a charcuterie board (with the honey), a $100 credit to Bambara, a Hollow Tree Honey gift pack with three varieties of honey, and late 2pm checkout. | https://www.fox13now.com/the-place/bambara-shows-us-their-new-fall-menu | 2022-12-19T23:29:09 | en | 0.887491 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/chicago-bulls/articles/41927586 | 2022-12-19T23:29:10 | en | 0.738227 |
They were the first permanent jeweler in Utah (est. 2019) and have now bonded hundreds of friends and families together forever.
"We wanted something that would signify our friendship and the bond that we have together," said Rachel, one of the founders of Bonded Bracelets.
The process only takes a few minutes.
Their bracelets, necklaces and anklets are permanently attached using a laser machine. Your clasps will never show again!
They offer a variety of styles in solid gold and sterling silver options, so the chain never tarnishes.
They recently released a unique and exclusive product: bonded bangles.
The women-owned business began with two sisters teaching themselves. They have been perfecting their craft for years and developed their own technique making their process unique.
They are rapidly expanding with locations opening all over the United States.
You can book an appointment or party at one of several locations throughout Utah on their website. | https://www.fox13now.com/the-place/bonded-together-forever-with-permeant-jewelry | 2022-12-19T23:29:15 | en | 0.976151 |
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