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https://sportspyder.com/nfl/las-vegas-raiders/articles/39734348
| 2022-06-08T11:26:37
|
en
| 0.738227
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ST. ALBANS, England (AP) — The stars of the new Saudi-funded golf league tried to fend off concerns on Tuesday about human rights abuses and signing up to accept hundreds of millions of dollars despite the risk of being banned from long-standing events.
After announcing he quit the PGA Tour to join the LIV Golf series, Dustin Johnson evaded questioning about the source of the $25 million prize fund for each event flowing from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. The first LIV Golf Invitational is taking place outside London from Thursday.
Another former major winner — Graeme McDowell — was left at a news conference trying to publicly reconcile causing fractures in golf by signing for the rebel series that appears to be part of Saudi Arabia’s attempt to reshape its image as a backer of lavish sports events rather than one associated with human rights abuses.
The Northern Irish golfer, who won the U.S. Open and Ryder Cup in 2010, did bring up the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul as a legitimate area of concern of joining a series he accepts is “incredibly polarizing” for the sport.
“Take the Khashoggi situation,” he said. “We all agree that’s reprehensible. Nobody is going to argue that fact.”
U.S. intelligence services said they believe the killing of the U.S.-based Saudi journalist came at the orders of the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who heads the Public Investment Fund. The prince denies wrongdoing.
The fund is providing the hundreds of millions of dollars in sign-on fees and prize money that is enticing players away from the established tours and jeopardizing their participation in the majors and Ryder Cup.
Human rights groups describe Saudi Arabia’s efforts as “sportswashing” its image.
McDowell tried to avoid discussing the specifics of the country he is effectively working for.
“I really feel like golf is a force of good in the world — I just try to be a great role model to kids,” he said. “We are not politicians. I know you guys hate that expression, but we are really not, unfortunately. We are professional golfers.
“If Saudi Arabia wanted to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be and they have the resources to accelerate that experience, I think we are proud to help them on that journey using the game of golf and the abilities that we have to help grow the sport and take them to where they want to be.”
How, though, McDowell was asked, is that journey helping women who are oppressed in Saudi Arabia, the LGBTQ individuals whose rights to live freely are criminalized, the migrant workers whose rights are violated, the victims of the Saudi-led bombing of Yemen, or the 81 men who were executed by the kingdom in March?
“I wish I had the ability to be able to have that conversation with you,” McDowell said. “As golfers, if we tried to cure geopolitical situations in every country in the world that we play golf in, we wouldn’t play a lot of golf. It’s a really hard question to answer.
“We’re just here to focus on the golf and kind of what it does globally for the role models that these guys are.”
McDowell did most of the talking on Saudi rights issues, with two-time major winner Johnson responding earlier: “I would pretty much say the exact same thing. I’d agree with what Graeme said.”
The series is being overseen by Greg Norman with 54-hole tournaments and a shotgun start that sees every group start at the same time on different holes. The winner gets $4 million, while last place gets $120,000.
The golfers are taking more heat than some other athletes who have competed in Saudi Arabia. While sports, including golf, soccer and Formula One, have chosen to take events to Saudi Arabia without the stars having a say, LIV is a case of the players opting out of existing structures to go all-in on the kingdom’s project. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy are among the players to reject an approach from LIV.
“An opportunity like this comes along,” the 42-year-old McDowell said, “where you can play the last three or four years of your career, in a very financially lucrative environment. It would be crazy to walk away from that as a businessman.”
Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary in George W. Bush’s presidency, was the tournament organizer’s host of the two news conferences involving players Tuesday. He posed questions to the golfers before the media had the opportunity.
Fleischer was asked about a tweet he posted in 2011 that talked about Saudi Arabia and implied that the king was willing to “spend hundreds of billions so he won’t be overthrown.” He said that comment was made “a long, long time ago.”
___
More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/golfers-put-aside-reprehensible-saudi-moves-to-join-series/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:37
|
en
| 0.974488
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SALEM, Mass. (AP) — In the wiggle of a nose, a man partially covered the “Bewitched” statue in Salem with red paint, police said.
Witnesses called police at about 5 p.m. Monday to report someone spray painting the bronze statue, Capt. John Burke said Tuesday. The statue depicts actor Elizabeth Montgomery — as lead character Samantha Stephens in the 1960s sitcom — sitting on a broomstick in front of a crescent moon.
An officer in the area spotted a man fitting witness descriptions of the vandal and after a brief chase arrested a 32-year-old city resident on charges of defacing property, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, Burke said.
The suspect, who was “going through a rough time and wanted to do something to get arrested” according to a prosecutor, was held on $500 bail at Tuesday’s arraignment. His attorney said he has been living in a shelter for two weeks since his marriage ended, and has been looking for a new job.
“In between meetings, was disappointed to hear the Bewitched Samantha statute downtown was vandalized,” Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll tweeted Monday night. “I’m grateful to (Salem police) for their quick work apprehending the individual responsible. We’ll work to get the statue cleaned, as fast as a twitch of Samantha’s nose.”
Red paint on the upper half of the statue has already been cleaned off, Burke said.
The statue was erected in the city famous for the 1692 witch trials in 2005, despite protests from some who said it trivializes the tragedy of the trials.
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https://cw39.com/strange-news/ap-strange-news/bewitched-statue-in-salem-vandalized-with-red-paint/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:44
|
en
| 0.979117
|
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A passenger train traveling through eastern Iran struck an excavator and derailed nearly half its cars before dawn Wednesday, killing at least 21 people and injuring another 47, officials said.
The train derailment near the desert city of Tabas was the latest disaster to strike the Islamic Republic in recent weeks as Tehran struggles under U.S. sanctions and any return to its nuclear deal with world powers remains in doubt.
The train operated by the state-run Islamic Republic Railway carried some 350 people as it traveled from Tabas, some 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Tehran, to the city of Yazd. The route had began as an overnight train out of Iran’s holy city of Mashhad.
Based on images after the crash, it appeared the train’s locomotive passed the excavator and the later cars somehow hit the digger and caused the derailment, though authorities did not immediately explain how the disaster happened in the rural scrubland near a railway bridge.
“Passengers were bouncing in the car like balls in the air,” one unnamed injured passenger told Iranian state television.
The state-run IRNA news agency gave the casualty figures, citing emergency officials.
Rescue teams with ambulances and helicopters arrived in the remote area where communication is poor. Over a dozen people suffered critical injuries, with some transferred to local hospitals, officials said.
Aerial footage of the desert site of the disaster showed train cars on their side, with some rescuers running at the scene as they tried to care for those injured.
State TV later aired images from a hospital where the injured received treatment. One of those injured told the broadcaster they felt the train suddenly brake and then slow before the derailment.
The incident happened some 50 kilometers (30 miles) outside of Tabas.
The report said the crash is under investigation. Initial reports suggested the train collided with an excavator near the track, though it wasn’t immediately clear why an excavator would have been close to the train track in the dark. One official suggest it could have been part of a repair project.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi offered condolences over the crash and announced an investigation would be undertaken into its causes.
Iran’s worst train disaster came in 2004, when a runaway train loaded with gasoline, fertilizer, sulfur and cotton crashed near the historic city of Neyshabur, killing some 320 people, injuring 460 others and damaging five villages. In 2016, a train collision in northern Iran killed at least 43 people and injured about 100.
Iran has some 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) of railway lines throughout a country about two and a half times the size of Texas. Its rail system sends both people and goods across the country, particularly in rural areas.
Iran also has some 17,000 annual deaths on its highways, one of the world’s worst traffic safety records. The high toll is blamed on wide disregard for traffic laws, unsafe vehicles and inadequate emergency services.
Iran, already straining under U.S. sanctions over its collapsed nuclear deal, has been mourning the deaths of at least 41 people killed in a building collapse in the country’s southwest.
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https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/10-killed-50-more-injured-in-train-derailment-in-iran/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:50
|
en
| 0.970647
|
The iPad is less and less a meta ‘tablet’ and more an alternative to any computer that is worth It is no longer just that they have begun to be equipped with the same processors as Macs, but that they are already prepared for office tasks thanks to their compatibility with external keyboards and mice.
But there was, however, a certain feeling that their operating system, iPadOS, had stopped evolving at the same rate as your hardware. However, just a few days ago, rumors began to spread that the announcement of an iPadOS 16 at WWDC 2022 was going to include a good handful of revolutionary novelties under the arm that would forever change our concept of the iPad.
Floating windows and multiple monitors
Basically, two elements were discussed: the improvement of multitasking and the ability to resize and move windows at will. And it is that for years the iPad allows us to have two applications open at the same time, but subjected to an unthinkable rigidity in macOS or Windows.
Finally, iPadOS 16 introduces a new multitasking experience thanks to Stage Managera window manager that allows you to resize, auto-arrange, and switch between them by overlaying, dragging, and dropping them to predefined areas of the screen: a leading text space and a kind of ‘taskbar’ on the left side of the screen screen.
“For the first time on iPad, users can create overlapping windows of different sizes in a single view, drag and drop windows from the side, or open apps from the Dock to create app groups for faster, more flexible multitasking.”
But the best thing about Stage Manager is something the rumors hadn’t anticipated: the unlocking of full external display supportenabling the use of resolutions up to 6K, and allowing us to work with up to four applications on the iPad and another four on the external screen.
Big improvements in collaborative documents
Introduces the ability to share a document (Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari, as well as third-party apps) with a workgroup directly from the share button, allowing collaborative editinginstead of just sending a copy of the document.
When users send an invitation to collaborate through Messages, all users in the thread are automatically added to the document or projectand each change made to the shared file can be viewed by other users at the top of the thread.
In addition, users will be able to easily jump from the document to the associated conversation or just tap to start a FaceTime call with your co-workers.
At the end of the year… collaborative whiteboards
That is joined (or rather, will be joined by the end of the year) by a new app: Freeform, a collaborative whiteboard that allows you to share files (documents and multimedia), notes, mental maps, links… as well as drawing and writing ‘by hand’ (with full support for Apple Pencil) on a canvas with real-time editing that frees us from having to consider layouts and page sizes.
As in the case of the documents cited above, users will be able to start collaborating on the same canvas by starting a session from FaceTime, as well as see each other’s updates directly in the Messages thread.
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https://thenewstrace.com/ipados-16-blurs-the-line-between-ipad-and-computer-by-introducing-floating-windows-and-improved-support-for-external-monitors/235070/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:57
|
en
| 0.953636
|
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia denied again Tuesday that it will allow any Chinese military presence at a port where it and China are beginning an expansion this week that has prompted concern in the United States and elsewhere that it will be used by Beijing as a naval outpost on the Gulf of Thailand.
Chief government spokesman Phay Siphan described the expansion of the Ream Naval Base as “cooperation between China and Cambodia” and said the Chinese ambassador to Cambodia will preside over the groundbreaking on Wednesday along with Cambodia’s defense minister and other senior military officials.
He denied, however, a report in the Washington Post newspaper citing an anonymous Chinese official that the facility on the northern side of the Cambodian base would be used in part by the Chinese military.
Siphan said it would be a violation of Cambodia’s Constitution to host a foreign military power, and that there had been no change in the terms of his country’s agreement with China on constructing the facility.
“I think that’s a strong accusation,” he said in a telephone interview.
He would not comment on the extent of the Chinese involvement and said the project involved constructing a facility for repairing ships.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Tuesday said the work would be a “renovation” of the base which “aims to strengthen the Cambodian navy’s capability to maintain maritime territorial integrity and combat maritime crime.”
Ream faces the Gulf of Thailand, adjacent to the South China Sea, where China has aggressively asserted its claim to virtually the entire strategic waterway. The U.S. has refused to recognize China’s sweeping claim and routinely conducts military maneuvers there to reinforce that they are international waters.
A Chinese base in Cambodia could become a chokepoint in the Gulf of Thailand close to the strategically important Malacca Strait.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that allegations China intends to establish a military presence at the Ream base are “consistent with credible reporting we’ve seen from the PRC (People’s Republic of China) that the PRC is engaged in a significant ongoing construction project at Ream Naval Base.”
“As we’ve said, an exclusive PRC military presence at Ream could threaten Cambodia’s autonomy and undermine regional security as well,” he said.
China recently signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands that the U.S. and others worry could lead to a military presence there, and Price noted that Beijing has also reached out to a number of other South Pacific islands.
“We have seen the PRC attempt to put forward a series of shadowy, opaque deals that they would like to see signed in the dead of night with no input or transparency,” he said. “This has been a pattern on the part of the PRC.”
The U.S. itself has more foreign military bases than any other country, including multiple facilities in the Asia-Pacific region.
At a regular Foreign Ministry briefing, Zhao accused the U.S. of “bullying” Cambodia and ignoring its denials that Ream would be used for Chinese military purposes, while noting Washington’s own network of bases around the world.
“China and Cambodia are comprehensive strategic partners, and our cooperation in various fields is open, transparent, reasonable and legitimate, which benefits the two countries,” he said.
China so far operates just one acknowledged foreign military base, in the impoverished but strategically important Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti. Many believe that China’s People’s Liberation Army is busy establishing an overseas military network, even if they don’t use the term “base.”
Cambodia’s authoritarian leader, Hun Sen, has long cultivated relations with China, and reportedly signed a secret agreement in 2019 allowing the Chinese to establish a base at Ream.
Though Hun Sen has strongly denied that Cambodia would allow China to set up a military outpost at Ream, China has already been dredging the harbor to allow larger ships to dock, and is building new infrastructure to replace a U.S.-built naval tactical headquarters.
Hun Sen suggested last month that the water would still be too shallow for any warships to dock, and reiterated that it would be a violation of Cambodia’s Constitution to host a Chinese military facility.
“Why would we need foreign forces, for what?” he said. “What Cambodia really needs at the moment is foreign investment, not foreign forces.”
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, established by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, posted satellite images in January of two “clamshell” dredgers at work in the harbor, and said while the extent of the dredging is unknown, it could mark a “significant upgrade” to the base.
“The shallow waters around Ream mean it is currently only able to host small patrol vessels,” it said. “A deep-water port would make it far more useful to both the Cambodian and Chinese navies.”
Newer images from April analyzed by The Associated Press show the dredgers still on site and at work.
___
Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Matthew Lee in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
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https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/china-cambodia-breaking-ground-on-joint-port-project/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:57
|
en
| 0.960244
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Dmitry Glukhovsky has repeatedly called for an end to his country’s aggression against the Ukrainian “brothers”.
Since this Tuesday Dmitry Glukhovsky, the writer behind the science fiction novel Metro 2033 adapted to a video game by 4A Games, has been wanted by Russia accused of spreading false information about the “special military operation” undertaken by the government of Vladimir Putin in Ukraine several months ago.
Apparently, explains himself in a message shared with his followers on Telegram, Russia accuses Glukhovsky of discrediting the armed forces of the Eurasian country in an Instagram post that the journalist also does not regret. “This war against our Ukrainian brothers is unjust and predatory. It was started by a crazy tyrant, but we all must repent“He uploaded on the social network.
Glukhovsky takes advantage of his arrest warrant to once again ask the Russian president for a ceasefire: “admit that this is a war against an entire nation.”
In Reuters they give more information, assuring that the website of the Ministry of the Interior listed Glukhovsky as wanted under an unspecified article of the criminal code. As the news agency recalls, Russia has already taken action against opposition figures and journalists with a law that can impose prison sentences of up to 15 years for those who spread “false news”.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is also making itself felt in video games, where several Ukrainian studios have had to change their plans on the fly, such as Frogwares, presenting a less ambitious video game than they had planned.
In addition to Metro 2033, the post-apocalyptic work of Dmitry Glukhovsky has served 4A to develop two other video games: Metro Last Light and Metro EXODUS.
More about: Dmitry Glukhovsky, Russia, Ukraine and Metro 2033.
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https://thenewstrace.com/russia-searches-for-and-captures-the-writer-of-metro-2033-critical-of-the-invasion-of-ukraine/235074/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:58
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en
| 0.973349
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Despite the late confirmation of the Capcom Showcase, it seems that we will still have more conferences.
Although the Summer Game Fest, as a brand that brings together some of the main players in the industry, has already started as such, it seems that the different conferences announced so far are not all that we will have. Just this week we have scheduled the Capcom Showcase and an extended version of the Xbox and Bethesda event, but there will be more.
in the account of Twitter The Summer Game Fest official review has been made of the different broadcasts that will be broadcast during these days, but they have added a small extra track: more events to be announced. From the organization they do not offer more details, but that alone has served to unleash speculation.
Confirmed events run from June 9 to 13What else can we have during these days? Although not listed among the official collaborators, Will Nintendo be encouraged to take part with a Direct? Not even Geoff Keighley, presenter and organizer of the Summer Game Fest, has left any more clues about it. Of course, the events confirmed so far go from the 9th to the 13th of June, so it is understood that they refer to conferences that we would have relatively ready.
While waiting for the corresponding announcements, we can only settle by reviewing the dates and times of all the events announced today, as well as starting to guess with the games that will probably be shown during the Summer Game Fest and, why not, also with many others that we would love to see.
3D Games Discord
More about: Summer Game Fest, Event, Conferences and Geoff Keighley.
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https://thenewstrace.com/the-summer-game-fest-reveals-that-there-are-still-more-events-to-be-announced-for-these-days/235068/
| 2022-06-08T11:26:59
|
en
| 0.982081
|
Since Pumas announced the departure of Alfredo Talaverathe fans encouraged Julio Gonzalez to be the titular goalkeeper of the National University Club. And it is that his skills in the goal have shown the quality of player that he is and what he can do within the squad auriazul.
One of the peculiarities of Julio José’s training as a goalkeeper lies in his relationship he has with Jorge Campos. The current goalkeeper of the College students is originally from Acapulco, just like the Brodybut his place of origin would not be the only closeness between both sports figures.
Julio González also went from forward to starting goalkeeper in professional football, according to what the keeper himself told ESPN. Although his potential as a goalscorer did not shine like he did the inmortal at the end of the eighties, he did have a stage in the lead and made some notesbut in the end he decided on goal.
When July was 12 years old noticed that he had skills to stop goal plays and that with it could become a professional footballerso he began to ask for a space as a goalkeeper in the team he played in Acapulco.
At a young age he began to practice football and normally went out as a striker, but on one occasion his team’s goalkeeper was injured, so the possibility arose for him to Julio Gonzalez came out as a keeper. The opportunity came when the man from Acapulco was in high school, and there he crossed paths with Ferdinand Navacoach who took him to Santos Laguna and from there to debut in the First Division of Mexico.
“Since training he wanted to put on, but once our goalkeeper was injured and he raised his hand and he stayed”, were the words with which Fernando Nava described Julio in an interview with ESPN.
His performance under the three sticks earned him to keep the position and begin to realize the dream of being a professional player. Two years later, when Julio was 14 years old, David Patino invited him to join the Santos Laguna team of the Second Divisionwho at that time managed the Comarca Lagunera group.
Although the current feline archer was still very young, he was encouraged to take on the challenge and left his family to migrate to Keep and integrate into the basic forces of the lagoons, similar scenario experienced by Jorge Campos when he traveled to the capital to get to Pumas.
Although he wanted to give up his dream of being a soccer player, he waited for the opportunity to debut with Santos, his inspiration was Jorge Campos, who is an icon in Acapulcan lands. It was until the August 2013 when he played with the first team in the Copa MXfor 2014 he had his first international match after playing the Copa Libertadores and it was until the Closing 2014 who had his first game in the First Division of Liga MX.
With Santos he became champion, although he was not the team’s starting goalkeeper, so he competed in other teams such as Veracruz y Tampico FC. competed in the Promotion alloy until he got to Pumas for the 2020 tournament.
Throughout his career he lived with goalkeepers as with Oswaldo Sanchez and later became close to him. Brody, with whom he maintains a friendly relationship. Now facing the Opening 2022 and after the departure of Talavera, Julio would have the first opportunity of his career to be the team’s starting goalkeeper.
KEEP READING:
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https://thenewstrace.com/what-relationship-does-julio-gonzalez-have-with-jorge-campos/235072/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:00
|
en
| 0.992857
|
HUIXTLA, Mexico (AP) — Several thousand migrants walked on through southern Mexico on Tuesday, covering ground while authorities showed no signs yet of trying to stop them.
The largest migrant caravan of the year provided a live illustration to regional leaders meeting in Los Angeles this week at the Summit of the Americas of the challenges governments face in managing immigration flows.
Mexico has dissolved smaller caravans this year through force, but more recently by offering them transportation to other cities farther north where they could legalize their status.
Luis García Villagrán, a migrant advocate traveling with the caravan, said negotiations for such a resolution were already taking place, but nothing had firmed up.
The caravan reached the town of Huixtla on Tuesday, about 25 miles from Tapachula, where they started Monday.
Eymar Hernández Benavides was a state police officer in Venezuela. In January, his extended family, divided between Tachira and Barquisimeto, began a group chat on a messaging platform. For three months they aired their grievances — product scarcity, high food prices, constant electrical blackouts — and planned their exit.
Hernández sold his car and other belongings to fund the two-week odyssey from Venezuela to Mexico, including through the harrowing jungle-clad Darien Gap that separates Colombia and Panama. That was hardest part for his wife, Jenny Villamizar. Not just the swollen rivers, rain, wildlife and thick vegetation, but watching their three children suffer.
More than 130,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in 2021. Since January, more than 34,000, including 18,000 Venezuelans, have crossed there, according to Panama’s National Migration Service.
On Tuesday, Hernández walked up a rural highway in southern Mexico with 17 relatives, including his wife and their children, the 3-year-old in a stroller.
“It’s not Venezuela, it is the president, Venezuela works, it is a paradise, we didn’t want to leave our country,” Hernández said, referring to President Nicolás Maduro, who was not invited to the summit.
He said they want the U.S. to help resolve the crisis in Venezuela so they can return, but in the meantime they want asylum in the United States. They did inquire about asylum in Mexico in Tapachula, but were given an appointment for July. Through odd jobs they earned enough money to rent just one room, so they decided to join the caravan instead.
Their goal for Tuesday was to make it to Huixtla, Chiapas, a town still more than 1,000 miles from the closest point on the U.S. border. Mexican National Guard and immigration agents were visible along the route, but had not made an effort to stop the migrants. They did make those who had gotten rides on truck trailers get off and walk, apparently hoping to tire them out.
María José Gómez, 24, and Roselys Gutierrez, 25, a couple also from Venezuela, said they had left Colombia after experiencing homophobia there and suffering physical attacks.
They arrived in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala a week ago and joined the caravan when it left Monday. Gómez was walking Tuesday with the rainbow flag and Gutierrez with that of Venezuela.
“We are very tired and want this torment to be over,” Gómez said. “We have walked a lot on the trip. We passed through the Darien jungle and have been in seven countries counting this one.”
Mexico has tried to contain migrants to the south, far from the U.S. border. But many have grown frustrated there by the slow bureaucratic process to regularize their status and the lack of job opportunities to provide for their families.
Mexico’s asylum agency has been overwhelmed with requests in recent years as policies leave migrants few other options than to request asylum so they can travel freely. Last year, Mexico received more than 130,000 asylum requests, more than triple the year before. This year, requests are already running 20% above last year.
The phenomenon of migrant caravans took off in 2018. Previously, smaller annual caravans moved through Mexico to highlight migrants’ plight, but without the stated goal of reaching the U.S. border.
But then several thousand migrants began walking together, betting on safety in numbers and a greater likelihood that government officials would not try to stop them. It worked at first, but more recently the Guatemalan and Mexican governments have been far more aggressive in moving to dissolve the caravans before they can build momentum.
While the caravans have garnered media attention, the migrants traveling in them represent a small fraction of the migratory flow that carries people to the U.S. border every day, usually with the help of smugglers.
The Biden administration had hoped to hammer out a regional agreement on managing migrant flows at the summit, but the presidents of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are not attending, a notable absence of some of the leading migrant-sending and transit countries.
Keira Lara, a 30-year-old from El Salvador, trudged down the highway Tuesday with three of her four children. She had just arrived in Mexico a week earlier and only heard about the summit once she joined the caravan Monday. She said government officials had demanded money from her at every border they crossed.
Of the leaders meeting in Los Angeles this week she asked “that they let us pass, that there isn’t so much corruption in governments, because that’s why people migrate.”
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https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/migrant-caravan-on-the-move-in-southern-mexico/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:04
|
en
| 0.977316
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Migration has taken center stage at an assembly of Western Hemisphere leaders, reflecting its emergence as a top foreign policy issue amid red-carpet drama over who comes and who stays home.
The “Los Angeles Declaration,” to be announced while U.S. President Joe Biden meets with his counterparts from North, Central and South America Wednesday through Friday, is expected .to be a brief call to action that supporters hope will guide countries on hosting people fleeing violence and persecution and searching for more economic stability.
The United States has been the most popular destination for asylum-seekers since 2017, posing a challenge that has stumped Biden and his immediate predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
But the U.S. is far from alone. Colombia and neighboring South American countries host millions who have fled Venezuela. Mexico fielded more than 130,000 asylum applications last year, many of them Haitians, which was triple from 2020. Many Nicaraguans escape to Costa Rica, while displaced Venezuelans account for about one-sixth the population of tiny Aruba.
“Countries are already having to do this, so rather than each country trying to sort this out and figure it out for themselves, what we’re doing is saying, ‘Let’s come together in a coherent way and construct a framework so we can all work together to make this situation more humane and more manageable,’” said Brian Nichols, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.
Biden was scheduled to arrive at the summit Wednesday, trailed by questions about how much progress he can make on migration and other issues when some of his counterparts from the region — most notably Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — are boycotting the event.
The controversy has undermined the start of the summit, which is being hosted by the U.S. for the first time since the inaugural event in 1994, at a time when China has been trying to make inroads in the region.
Although Biden was heavily involved in Latin America while he was vice president, his focus has largely been elsewhere since taking office as president last year. He’s been trying to reorient U.S. foreign policy toward Asia while also rallying allies to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Some concrete measures may be announced, perhaps funding for development banks. Nichols said in an interview Monday that discussing any specific initiatives would be premature, but officials have made clear that the agreement will be largely aspirational.
There is widespread agreement that relief must target growth and stability for entire communities in which migrants live, not just migrants.
“If you only help the migrants and not the communities around them, that’s counterproductive,” Nichols said.
The agreement may call for more pathways to legal status, mechanisms to reunite families, more efficient and humane border controls and improved information sharing, according to experts who have seen early drafts.
Leaders of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — each critical to any regional migration strategy — are skipping the Summit of the Americas, depriving Biden of symbolic heft and unity amid the photo opportunities and pageantry starting with an inaugural ceremony Wednesday.
Mexico’s López Obrador said he delegated Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard because the U.S. excluded Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, all countries that send large numbers of migrants to the U.S. and neighboring countries.
Upon leaving for Los Angeles on Tuesday, Ebrard said Mexico’s close relationship with the United States was unchanged and noted that Lopez Obrador will visit Washington in July.
President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador said a migration accord would be an important recognition of what governments are facing.
“(When) you speak about problems and it becomes part of a declaration, a summit as important as this, obviously the problem exists, the problem enters the consciousness of those who should be part of the solution,” he told a group of civic activists in Los Angeles.
The migration accord took shape during discussions of top diplomats in Colombia in October and in Panama in April. Experts who have been consulted by governments say it is largely driven by the U.S. and other countries that take in lots of migrants, such as Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru and Panama.
The strategy appears to resemble a U.S.-only plan that Vice President Kamala Harris announced last July, calling for “secure and humane management of borders” and more paths to legal status.
So far, the Biden administration has little to show for it.
The meeting of regional leaders comes as several thousand migrants on Tuesday walked through southern Mexico — the largest migrant caravan of the year — with local authorities showing no signs yet of trying to stop them.
Mexico has tried to contain migrants to the south, far from the U.S. border. But many have grown frustrated there by the slow bureaucratic process to regularize their status and the lack of job opportunities to provide for their families.
U.S. authorities are stopping migrants crossing the Mexican border more often than at any time in about two decades. Under a pandemic-era rule aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19, many are quickly expelled without a chance to seek asylum. But Title 42 authority, which a federal judge in Louisiana has kept in place, is applied unevenly by nationality.
In Eagle Pass, Texas, one of the busiest spots for illegal crossings, Cubans freely wade through the Rio Grande and are released in the United States on humanitarian parole, aided by Cuba’s refusal to take them back. On the flip side, Mexico has agreed to take back migrants expelled from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as Mexico.
Cristian Salgado, of Honduras, hoped he would be treated as Cubans he saw when he crossed illegally with his wife and 5-year-old son about a month ago but U.S. authorities turned him back to the Mexican border city of Piedras Negras without allowing him to plead his case. He remembers a border agent saying, “There is no asylum for Honduras.”
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Associated Press writers Maria Verza in Mexico City, Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador, and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
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https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/migration-gets-top-billing-as-biden-hosts-hemisphere-leaders/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:10
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces battling Russian troops in a key eastern city appeared on the cusp of retreat Wednesday, though the regional governor insisted they are still fighting “for every centimeter” of the city.
The urban battle for Sievierodonetsk testified to the painstaking, inch-by-inch advance by Russian forces as they close in on control of the entire Luhansk region, one of two that make up the industrial heartland known as the Donbas.
After a bungled attempt to overrun Kyiv in the early days of the war, Russia shifted its focus to the region of coal mines and factories. The region has been partly controlled by Russia-backed separatists for years, making supply lines shorter and allowing Moscow to tap separatist forces to back its offensive. But Russia also faces Ukraine’s most battle-hardened troops, who have been fighting the separatists for eight years there.
The result is a slow slog with both sides exchanging artillery barrages that seemingly inflict heavy losses and neither appearing to have the clear momentum.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai acknowledged the difficulties in Sievierodonetsk on Wednesday, telling The Associated Press “maybe we will have to retreat, but right now battles are ongoing in the city.”
Earlier, on the Telegram messaging app, he said Ukrainian forces were fighting “for every centimeter of the city.”
He indicated they could pull back to positions that are easier to defend. The city across the river, Lysychansk, sits on higher ground.
Sievierodonetsk became the administrative capital of the region after the city of Luhansk was taken by separatists in 2014. Both it and Lysychansk are wedged between Russian forces to the east, north and south, and are among a few cities and towns in Luhansk still holding out.
The Kremlin has claimed its forces hold nearly all of the Luhansk region, and about half of Donetsk region that rounds out the Donbas.
Meanwhile, to the north, Russian shelling of the northern Kharkiv region killed five people and wounded 12 more over the past 24 hours, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said Wednesday.
The Russian military said Wednesday that Moscow used “air-launched, high-precision missiles” to hit an armor repair plant near Kharkiv. There was no confirmation from Ukrainian officials of such a plant being hit.
On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks Wednesday with Turkish officials on a plan that could allow Ukraine to export its grain through the Black Sea to global markets amid an escalating global food crisis.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow, endangering food supplies to many developing countries. Many of those ports are now also heavily mined.
An estimated 22 million tons of grains are sitting in silos in Ukraine.
Turkey is hoping to negotiate a secure corridor, possibly overseen by the U.N., for the shipment of Ukrainian grain — as well as Russian food and fertilizer.
Before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Ukrainian officials said Russia controlled some 7% of the country, including the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, and areas held by the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces held 20% of the country.
While Russia has superior firepower, the Ukrainian defenders are entrenched and have shown the ability to counterattack.
“The absolutely heroic defense of the Donbas continues,” Zelenskyy said late Tuesday in his nightly video address.
Speaking earlier to a Financial Times conference, Zelenskyy insisted on Ukraine’s need to defeat Russia on the battlefield but also said he is still open to peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking at a news conference after the talks with Lavrov, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country is “much more optimistic” that Russia and Ukraine can be persuaded to return to talks aimed at ending the war. Talks between the two sides hosted by Turkey earlier in the conflict yielded no progress.
But a former senior U.S. intelligence officer said the time isn’t right.
“You’re not going to get to the negotiating table until neither side feels they have an advantage that they could push,” said Andrea Kendall-Taylor of the Washington-based Center for a New American Security.
The Russians “think they will be able to take the whole of the Donbas and then might use that as the opportunity to call for negotiations,” Kendall-Taylor said at an online seminar organized by Columbia and New York universities.
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Associated Press journalists Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Kyiv; Yuras Karmanau in Lviv; and Andrew Katell in New York contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/russia-draws-closer-to-capture-of-ukraines-donbas-region/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:18
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| 0.961987
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MOSCOW (AP) — Veteran Russian cosmonaut Valery Ryumin, who set space endurance records on Soviet missions, then returned to orbit after a long absence to fly on a U.S. space shuttle, has died at the age of 82.
Ryumin went into space four times, including to the space stations Salyut-7 and Mir after becoming a cosmonaut in 1973. He logged a total of 371 days in space in two short missions and two record-setting long-duration flights.
“We have lost a comrade and a friend,” Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Roscosmos space agency, said in a statement. “This is an irreparable loss for all of us. I express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Valery Viktorovich. The memory of him will forever remain in our hearts.”
Ryumin, who was born Aug. 16, 1939, in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, made his last flight on a Soviet capsule in 1980, then returned to space 18 years later on the U.S. space shuttle Discovery when it docked with Mir.
“After my three flights in the eighties, I was thinking it would be nice to fly for the fourth time. I thought it would be very useful for a person who has very good flight and life experience, to visit the station,” Ryumin recalled in a NASA oral history quoted by the CollectSpace website. “I will be able to see more details and more things compared to young cosmonauts or crew members.”
Ryumin will be buried Thursday at a military cemetery outside Moscow, the state news agency Tass reported. He is survived by his wife and fellow cosmonaut Yelena Kondakova.
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https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/russian-cosmonaut-who-set-space-endurance-record-dies/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:25
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TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese economy contracted in the first quarter, but at a slower pace than earlier estimated, the government said Wednesday.
The world’s third-largest economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.5%, according to Cabinet Office data. That was smaller than the 1.0% contraction in the preliminary estimate for Japan’s real gross domestic product, or GDP, released in May.
The annual rate shows how the economy would have grown if the quarterly rate were to continue for a year. Japan’s economy contracted 0.1% in January-March from the previous quarter, better than the 0.2% quarter-on-quarter contraction in the preliminary data.
Consumer spending and other private demand was stronger than previously thought.
The upward revision was a pleasant surprise for analysts.
“Looking ahead, we expect GDP to rebound in 2Q mainly due to better private consumption, yet higher inflation on commodities will likely limit the gains in real terms,” Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacific at ING, said in a report.
The expected reopening of the country to tourists as limits imposed to curb COVID-19 infections are lifted, should also boost growth.
On the negative side, Japan, which imports almost all its oil, much of its food and various products, has been slammed by rising prices for energy and other commodities, partly because of the war in Ukraine.
Japan has for years been fending off deflation, or a spiraling down of prices. Low wage growth and an aging and shrinking population have slowed economic activity and discouraged corporate investment.
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda apologized Tuesday for recently referring to a “tolerance for higher prices” among Japanese people, a comment interpreted as welcoming higher prices. Kuroda was grilled in parliament, where he told legislators his comment was inappropriate.
Kuroda has championed a policy aimed at boosting near-zero inflation to around 2%, but progress was slow until global prices for oil and other commodities surged in recent months.
Some analysts say Japan has gradually lost its competitive edge because it hasn’t done enough to nurture innovation and free up new sources of growth bridled by old-time bureaucracies.
One source of worry is the diving value of the yen, now trading at a 20-year low of about 133 yen to the U.S. dollar.
Although a weak currency is a boon for Japanese exporters, boosting the value of overseas earnings, analysts say the weak yen also reflects a weak economy. Rising interest rates in the U.S. and other countries compared to Japan, where interest rates are at near zero, will likely keep the yen weak for some time.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is pushing what he calls “new capitalism.” He announced an outline of his strategy this week, aimed at jump-starting growth by pushing digitization, defense spending, start-up ventures and sustainable energy. He has also invited investments, declaring in English, “Invest in Kishida.”
Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest serving leader, pushed “Abenomics,” focused on super-easy lending that was meant to spark inflation and therefore promote growth. Some critics say Abenomics failed to build a strong economy and its pitfalls are part of the reason now behind the weak yen.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama
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https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/japans-economy-contracts-but-at-smaller-rate-than-thought/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:31
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| 0.968906
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WASHINGTON (AP) — State officials across the nation have taken on Big Tech companies in the courts and state legislatures, and federal regulators have nipped at Twitter over alleged violations of users’ data privacy.
Now, one state attorney general with an outsize personality and edge-skating stance nearly in the league of Elon Musk is striding into the maelstrom of Musk’s $44 billion now-tenuous bid for Twitter. He is launching an investigation of Twitter for “potential false reporting” of bots on its platform to bolster complaints Musk himself made this week in threatening to walk away from the deal.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his investigation of Twitter on Monday just hours after Musk, the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO, accused Twitter of refusing to disclose the extent of its spam bot and fake accounts.
The unexpected turn in the months-long drama of Musk and Twitter sent that company’s shares down 1.5%, likely angering shareholders who had filed suit against Musk last month, accusing him of deflating the stock price. Twitter’s shares have tumbled more than 20% in the last month. They closed at $40.13 Tuesday, up 57 cents.
Paxton’s unusual move struck observers as singular and possibly inappropriate, though he likely has the legal authority to pursue it. In launching his investigation, Paxton suggested that Twitter might have violated Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The state attorney general’s move against Twitter is far different from the growing legal actions taken by groups of states that have joined to target alleged anticompetitive practices by Google and Meta, for example, or to investigate TikTok and its possible harmful effects on young users’ mental health.
Individual state attorneys general don’t normally investigate a major publicly traded company over its regulatory filings. In Twitter’s case, the data it submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission involve complex federal law.
“The SEC has the resources and the expertise and the legal remedies for this, and I doubt that Texas has any of these,” Marc Fagel, a securities law expert who was the regional director of the SEC’s San Francisco office, said in an interview. “It’s a headline-based investigation as far as I can tell.”
Johnny Koremenos, a spokesman for the Republican Attorneys General Association, told The Associated Press that he’s unaware of any other state attorney general who might be planning to launch a similar investigation into Twitter.
James Tierney, a former Maine attorney general who teaches at Harvard, was critical of Paxton’s probe, which he sees as aiding Musk, whose electric car maker Tesla recently opened a plant in Texas’ capital of Austin.
“Consumer laws exist to protect consumers from real harm,” Tierney said. “They do not exist to allow a government official to meddle in ongoing corporate transactions on behalf of a constituent.”
Paxton notes that Twitter had said in its filings with the SEC that fewer than 5% of all users are bots, when, Paxton asserts, “they may in fact comprise as much as 20% or more” of the 229 million total accounts. Musk contended in a May tweet, without providing evidence, that 20% or more are bogus.
Paxton demanded that Twitter turn over documents by June 27 to show how it calculates and manages its user data.
“The difference could dramatically affect the cost to Texas consumers and businesses who transact with Twitter,” such as advertisers, Paxton contended in his announcement. He asserted that the disparity may inflate the value of Twitter, now estimated at $30.5 billion, and raise the costs of doing business with it.
Twitter spokespeople declined comment Tuesday on Paxton’s announcement. The company said in a statement Monday that it has been cooperatively sharing information with Musk in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.
The Texas attorney general, who has long carved out a distinctive public persona, isn’t likely to mind any criticism. A Republican currently running for a third term as the state’s top lawyer, Paxton has yet to have his day in court after being indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, and his career has upended what it means to be a compromised officeholder in Texas.
His critics say Paxton has become an example of how powerful public figures can drag out even normally career-threatening criminal charges and defy predictions of their political demise.
Conservative Republicans, who accuse social media like Twitter of anti-conservative bias and censoring views of those opposed to abortion and others, have embraced Musk’s bid for Twitter because of his advocacy of free speech in place of the platform’s content moderation. Paxton’s fellow Texan U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has called Musk’s move “the biggest development for free speech in decades.”
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Associated Press writers Geoff Mulvihill in New Jersey and Acacia Coronado in Texas contributed to this report.
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Follow Marcy Gordon at https://twitter.com/mgordonap
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| 2022-06-08T11:27:38
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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. solar manufacturers say they are considering legal challenges after President Joe Biden declared a two-year pause for tariffs on solar imports from Southeast Asia.
Biden also invoked the Defense Production Act on Monday as the White House moved to jumpstart solar installations that have been slowed or abandoned amid a Commerce Department inquiry into possible trade violations involving Chinese products.
The White House said Biden’s actions would boost an industry crucial to his climate change-fighting goals while not interfering with or shutting down the Commerce investigation.
But some domestic producers, including a California company that filed a complaint with Commerce about unfair competition from Chinese imports, said Biden’s actions would help China’s state-subsidized solar companies at the expense of U.S. manufacturers.
“President Biden is significantly interfering in Commerce’s quasi-judicial process,” said Mamun Rashid, CEO of Auxin Solar, which filed the complain with Commerce earlier this year.
“By taking this unprecedented – and potentially illegal – action, (Biden) has opened the door wide for Chinese-funded special interests to defeat the fair application of U.S. trade law,” Rashid said in a statement.
Auxin was not consulted before the White House announcement, Rashid said, nor did the White House contact other U.S. producers. Auxin is currently “evaluating all of our legal options,” he said.
Timothy Brightbill, a lawyer who represents domestic solar manufacturers, said Tuesday that Biden was using the pretext of declaring a national emergency to negate an ongoing trade investigation.
“That is unprecedented, it is bad law and it is extremely bad, short-sighted policy, because it only makes us more dependent on Chinese-owned solar companies,” Brightbill said. The U.S. industry contends that China has essentially moved operations to four Southeast Asian countries — Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia — to skirt strict anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China.
“The White House’s failure to consult with any American solar manufacturing companies before taking this unprecedented action is telling and an embarrassment,” Brightbill said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Biden was responding to a legitimate emergency, “in this case the threat to the availability of sufficient electricity-generation capacity to meet expected customer demand.”
Biden’s actions “will help ensure that we have the solar capacity additions necessary to meet our electricity and generation needs,” she said, calling the actions ”particularly urgent given the impact of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine on the global energy supply,” as well as the intensifying impacts of climate change.
U.S. solar installers and environmental groups cheered Biden’s action, saying it would restore certainty and stimulate solar installations that have ground to a halt amid the Commerce inquiry, which includes potentially steep penalties that could be imposed retroactively.
Clean energy leaders have warned that the investigation — which could result in retroactive tariffs of up to 240% —imperiled up to 80% of planned solar projects around the country and could lead to thousands of layoffs.
Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said Biden’s actions would “protect existing solar jobs, lead to increased employment in the solar industry and foster a robust solar manufacturing base here at home.”
A Biden administration official, who asked not to be identified to discuss internal deliberations, said Biden’s decision was driven by White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy and climate envoy John Kerry, along with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. The officials all worried that the Commerce inquiry jeopardized Biden’s goal to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035. Solar power is a key part of that agenda.
At the same time, Biden did not want to interfere with or shut down the Commerce inquiry, the official said.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Biden’s action “ensures America’s families have access to reliable and clean electricity while also ensuring we have the ability to hold our trading partners accountable to their commitments.”
While Democrats mostly cheered the announcement, many Republicans slammed it as a gift to China.
Biden announcement “amounts to a two-year amnesty for the Chinese Communist Party for any violations of our trade laws relating to solar panel imports. This action will help China and harm American solar panel manufacturers and American workers,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Some Democrats agreed.
“Despite the U.S. leading the world in solar innovation, today 80% of the world’s solar panels are made in China — that has to change,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, whose state is home to the largest U.S. solar-panel manufacturer.
“We have not invested in building up American capacity the way we should, and we have not addressed China’s repeated cheating,” Brown said in a statement. ”On all these decisions, American solar manufacturers and their workers must be at the table.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, who has pushed Commerce to conclude its investigation, called Biden’s announcement a positive step that will save American solar jobs, including thousands in her state.
“The risk of additional tariffs on imported solar panels would have been devastating for American solar projects, the hundreds of thousands of jobs they support, and our nation’s clean energy and climate goals,” she said.
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https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/us-solar-companies-weigh-challenge-to-biden-pause-on-tariffs/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:45
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| 0.950622
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen acknowledged Tuesday that she and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell “could have used a better word” than “transitory” when describing the expected run of inflation in the U.S. economy. She added that she was hopeful it would soon be on the decline.
“I do expect inflation to remain high although I very much hope that it will be coming down now,” Yellen told the Senate Finance Committee during a hearing on the agency’s latest budget request. “I think that bringing inflation down should be our number one priority.”
The Federal Reserve and Treasury Department have been increasingly blamed by legislators and the public for allowing inflation to reach record highs — notably an 8.3% leap in consumer prices over the past year.
She told CNN last week that she did not fully understand the impact that unanticipated large shocks and supply bottlenecks would have on the economy.
“Look, I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” she said.
The hearing was an opportunity for lawmakers to press Yellen on the causes for inflation, when it may decline and the administration’s plans to reduce the pain on Americans.
“We now are entering a period of transition from one of historic recovery to one that can be marked by stable and steady growth,” she said. “Making this shift is a central piece of the president’s plan to get inflation under control without sacrificing the economic gains we’ve made.”
As for earlier pronouncements by Yellen and Powell that the U.S. inflation problem was transitory, Yellen allowed, “Both of us could have used a better word than transitory. There’s no question that we have huge inflation pressures. Inflation is really our top economic problem at this point.”
Inflation has shown signs of moderating but is likely to remain far above the Fed’s 2% target through the end of this year.
The Congressional Budget Office released an economic outlook this month saying high inflation will persist into next year, likely causing the federal government to pay higher interest rates on its debt.
The nonpartisan agency expects the consumer price index to rise 6.1% this year and 3.1% in 2023. This forecast suggests that inflation will slow from current annual levels of 8.3%, yet it would still be dramatically above a long-term baseline of 2.3%.
Yellen was asked about her support of last year’s American Rescue Plan relief package, also known as ARP, which has come under fire by some economists who claim the $1.9 trillion program has worsened price spikes.
Because inflation is high globally, Yellen said, it “can’t be the case” that ARP is largely to blame for the bulk of U.S. inflation.
Over the weekend, Yellen was forced to defend her support of ARP after Bloomberg wrote about an excerpt from an upcoming biography on the secretary that said she privately agreed with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers “that too much government money was flowing into the economy too quickly which is why she had sought without success to scale back the $1.9 trillion relief plan by a third early in 2021 before Congress passed the enormous program.”
Yellen said in a statement on Saturday that “I never urged adoption of a smaller American Rescue Plan package, and I believe that ARP played a central role in driving strong growth throughout 2021 and afterwards, with the United States real GDP growth outpacing other advanced economies and our labor market recovering faster relative to historical experience.”
Yellen said during the hearing that Congress also should have a role in bringing down prices through enacting legislation that increases taxes on high-wealth individuals — and by passing language for a global tax deal that has stalled in Congress, previously included in the now-dead Build Back Better plan.
The global tax deal is designed to subject large multinational firms to a 15% tax rate wherever they operate. It also would provide for taxing part of the profits of the largest global companies in countries where they do business online but may have no physical presence.
“As prospects of recession and stagflation rise, this is no time to consider raising taxes or resurrecting reckless spending from the House-passed Build Back Better plan,” Republican Sen. Mike Crapo said.
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https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/yellen-inflation-to-remain-high-hopes-its-coming-down/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:52
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NEW YORK (AP) — There is only one person who, in the middle of a massive dystopic dinosaur movie, can utter a line like “That’s bananas” with just the right timing and inflection.
For almost three decades, off and on, Jeff Goldblum has played Dr. Ian Malcolm with particular Goldblumian panache. As the stylish chaos theorist of the “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World” films, Goldblum is voice of reason and comedy relief in one, an auger of nature’s unpredictability who can’t help marveling at seeing his theories in action, even if that poses immediate danger to himself.
It’s one of the 69-year-old actor’s best-known characters. Yet in even big movies like “Jurassic Park” and “Independence Day,” Goldblum has such a singular manner and much-imitated tempo that he’s never been particularly defined by those roles. It’s more that Goldblum, in putting his own idiosyncratic spin on them, marks the characters, rather than the other way around. Life finds a way in “Jurassic Park,” and so does Goldblum.
In Colin Trevorrow’s “Jurassic World: Dominion, ” which opens in theaters Thursday, Goldblum — along with original cast members Laura Dern and Sam Neill — returns to close out the franchise’s second trilogy of films in a sprawling adventure set in a near future where dinosaurs have spread across the world, as has ecological imbalance and a plague of giant locusts.
For Goldblum, the son of a doctor and host of the Disney+ series “The World According to Jeff Goldblum,” the subjects and themes of the movie dovetail with some of his own curiosities and interests in how we might, he says, “upgrade our stewardship of the planet.” What does Goldblum, the movies’ resident chaotician, think of our increasingly tumultuous times?
“I don’t know anything about what I’m talking about. But let’s utter the word ‘entropy’ and ‘systems’ and how things break down,” Goldblum says, speaking from London. “Before the butterfly comes out of the chrysalis, the caterpillar has some convulsions, chaotic convulsions. But it’s not death, necessarily. It’s the onset of transformation.”
Satisfied that he’s perhaps arrived at a kernel of truth, Goldblum concludes, “Hey, what about that?”
Chaos and harmony feature prominently in most conversations with Goldblum, an ever-riffing, cosmically attuned raconteur. He tends to speak as if narrating his brain’s inner-workings in real time, arriving now and then at ideas worth pausing to savor and existential epiphanies that delight him.
One question, for example, about whether his sons’ names — River Joe and Charlie Ocean — suggest some ecological bent sends Goldblum on a jag about ocean environmental health, fundraising for Oceana, the song “Moon River” (which Goldblum, an accomplished pianist, says his band might soon record), Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run,” the movie “Working Girl,” Mark Harris’ Mike Nichols biography and a white-water rafting trip on the Kern River.
“Water is life, isn’t it?” says Goldblum. “If they ever wanted to drop the Goldblum and just go with River Joe, that sounds evocative to me, that sounds like a good character. Or Charlie Ocean. I like both of those. Nothing wrong with Goldblum, but if they want to change it, fine with me.”
Either through experience (Goldblum’s early films included two with the improvisational Robert Altman, “a dipsy doodle of an artist,” he says) or practice (Goldblum credits acting teacher Sandy Meisner with instilling in him “a continuity of digging”), Goldblum has arrived at his unique cadence and perpetual state of curiosity.
“At the beginning of the day, I remind myself: free association, stream of consciousness, perceptual readiness and then openness,” says Goldblum. “This whole business of acting and music seems to be, if nothing else, an invitation toward opening up. Opening yourself up in both directions. Not only to what’s around you in reception but then in your giving back, reacting and offering something.”
After co-starring in “Jurassic Park” and its 1997 sequel, “The Lost World,” Goldblum returned to Ian Malcolm in 2018’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” during which his character testifies to the U.S. Congress. Malcolm recommends letting the exploding volcano determine the fate of the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. Goldblum relished it.
“I was full of juice,” he says. “I was in this froth of fun, which I sometimes get in.”
Trevorrow, who has co-written the trilogy and directed the first and third installments, first worked with Goldblum on a “Jurassic World” Super Bowl ad for Jeep. Goldblum wasn’t what he expected.
“You think that he’s purely improvisational and maybe even a loose canon,” says Trevorrow. “But on this movie, I’d just see him walking out on the garden at the hotel we were staying in going over his lines again and again and coming in and delivering a very precise, considered performance.”
Production on “Jurassic World: Dominion” was halted in 2020 due to the pandemic. When shooting restarted, the studio rented out a hotel in England near Pinewood Studios for cast and crew. Goldblum would sometimes play the piano there with his castmates and Trevorrow — “musicales and hootenanny’s of one kind or another,” Goldblum says. Dern posted one video of her, Neill and Goldblum singing the Beatles’ “Blackbird.”
“He’s a beautiful man,” says Trevorrow. “We would have really thoughtful conversations about his perspective on where we’re at. There was a depth to it all, honestly, when it comes to the experience of making the film and going through pandemic together.”
For the “Jurassic World: Dominion” cast and filmmakers, making a movie about nature’s resistance to humankind’s meddling during the pandemic took on real-world resonance. As in the movie, the world might be ending but Goldblum is still there keeping the spirits up.
“What else can we do?” says Goldblum. “Being a Sandy Meisner devotee, I’m a romantic about the ensemble credo and synergy and, like this movie depicts, what educated, smart and deeply caring people can do — even a few of them — together at a crucial moment. They can even sometimes defeat the forces of ignorance, corruption and greed, and keep the homo sapiens ball moving along a little more. Maybe.”
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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/jeff-goldblum-takes-one-more-bite-out-of-jurassic-world/
| 2022-06-08T11:27:59
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NEW YORK (AP) — Jim Seals, who teamed with fellow musician “Dash” Crofts on such 1970s soft-rock hits as “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl” and “We May Never Pass This Way Again,” has died at age 80.
His death was announced Tuesday by several people including John Ford Coley, who had formed the ‘70s duo England Dan and John Ford Coley with Seals’ older brother Dan. Further details were not immediately available.
“This is a hard one on so many levels as this is a musical era passing for me,” Coley wrote. “And it will never pass this way again as his song said. He belonged to a group that was one of a kind.”
Seals and Darrell George “Dash” Crofts were Texas natives who had known each other since they were teenagers and had previously been in the Champs, which before they joined had a hit single with “Tequila,” and a group including Glen Campbell. They started Seals and Crofts in the late 1960s and over the next several years were among a wave of soft-rock groups that included America, Bread and England Dan and John Ford Coley.
Seals and Crofts had three top 10 hits: “”Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl” and “Get Closer.” Their other popular songs included “Hummingbird,” “You’re the Love” and “We May Never Pass This Way Again.” Seals and Crofts also released the controversial “Unborn Child,” an anti-abortion song that came out the year after the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and was banned by some radio stations.
They broke up in 1980, but reunited briefly in the early 1990s and again in 2004, when they released the album “Traces.” Seals also performed on occasion with his brother Dan, who died in 2009.
He is survived by his wife, Ruby, and their three children.
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/jim-seals-of-70s-group-seals-and-crofts-dies-at-age-80/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:06
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| 0.994528
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CONYERS, Ga. (AP) — A man accused of fatally shooting Atlanta rapper Trouble has been denied bond after a confrontation that investigators allege stemmed from jealousy over a woman.
A judge in Rockdale County on Tuesday denied bail to 33-year-old Jamichael Jones of Jonesboro, local news outlets report, after Jones turned himself in to Rockdale County deputies early Tuesday.
It’s unclear if Jones has a lawyer representing him. A judge set his next hearing on June 15.
Jones is charged with murder, aggravated assault, home invasion, and battery in the Sunday death of Trouble, whose legal name was Mariel Semonte Orr. The 34-year-old Trouble was found shot at an apartment complex in suburban Conyers before dawn Sunday. He died later at a hospital.
Trouble – who was also known as Skoob – had collaborated with artists including Drake, The Weeknd, Young Thug, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz in a career that began in 2011.
A warrant states that Jones arrived at an apartment to find Trouble asleep in bed with Jones’ ex-girlfriend, who woke to Jones punching her in the face. The woman told deputies that Jones and Trouble began fighting until Jones pulled a gun, shot Trouble in the chest and fled. Investigators have said Trouble and Jones hadn’t met before the shooting
Deputies found the woman with “visible injuries on her face,” WXIA-TV reports. The woman said she had broken up with Jones a week earlier after he hit her during an argument about “him not having a job and not helping her pay the bills.”
Deputies said the apartment door had been forced open and they viewed surveillance footage of Jones entering and leaving the apartment complex just seven minutes apart.
Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levette said investigators were visiting Jones’ mother when Jones called her. The mother connected Jones with deputies who persuaded Jones to turn himself in.
“His mother was a huge resource in helping us apprehend him,” WAGA-TV reports Levette said
The sheriff said Jones hasn’t shown any signs of remorse but does appear to be fearful.
Trouble released a debut mixtape in 2011 that included the song “Bussin,” a local hit that led to more work and two albums, 2018′s “Edgewood” and 2020′s “Thug Luv.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the children, loved ones, and fans of Trouble,” his record label, Def Jam, said in an Instagram post. “A true voice for his city and an inspiration to the community he proudly represented. RIP Skoob.”
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/man-arrested-in-shooting-death-of-atlanta-rapper-trouble/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:13
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| 0.979715
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey made an appearance at the White House Tuesday to call on Congress to “reach a higher ground” and pass gun control legislation in honor of the children and teachers killed in last month’s shooting rampage at an elementary school in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.
In a highly personal 22-minute speech, McConaughey exhorted a gridlocked Congress to pass gun reforms that can save lives without infringing on Second Amendment rights.
McConaughey, a gun owner himself, used his star power to make an argument for legislation in a fashion that the Biden administration has not been able to muster, offering a clear connection to the small Texas town and vividly detailing the sheer loss of the 19 children and two teachers in the second worst mass school shooting in U.S. history.
He specifically called on Congress to bolster background checks for gun purchases and raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15-style rifle to 21 from 18.
“We want secure and safe schools and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get the damn guns,” McConaughey said.
McConaughey, who earlier this year considered a run for governor of Texas before taking a pass, met briefly in private with President Joe Biden before addressing the White House press corps from the James Brady briefing room.
McConaughey has also met with key lawmakers this week, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that handles gun legislation, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and the panel’s ranking Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
Also Tuesday, the son of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old woman killed when a gunman opened fire in a racist attack on Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, last month, called on Congress to act against the “cancer of white supremacy” and the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.
“Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” Garnell Whitfield Jr. asked members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
McConaughey, who declined to take questions, spoke of his own connections to the town. He said his mother taught kindergarten less than a mile from Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, the site of the May 24 shooting. He also noted that Uvalde was the place where he was taught about responsibilities that come with gun ownership.
“Uvalde is where I was taught to revere the power and the capability of the tool that we call a gun,” he said.
McConaughey said he and his wife drove back to Uvalde on the day after the shooting and spent time with the families of some of the victims and others directly affected by the rampage.
He said every parent he spoke to expressed that “they want their children’s dreams to live on.”
“They want to make their loss of life matter,” McConaughey said.
He related the personal stories of a number of the victims.
He told the story of Maite Rodriguez, an aspiring marine biologist. McConaughey’s wife, Camila, sitting nearby, held Maite’s green Converse sneakers, which had a red heart on the right toe to represent her love of nature.
“These are the same green Converse, on her feet, that turned out to be the only clear evidence that could identify her after the shooting,” McConaughey said.
He held up artwork from Alithia Ramirez, who dreamed of attending art school in Paris. And then there was Eliahna “Ellie” Garcia, who loved dancing and church and already knew how to drive tractors. Ellie was looking forward to reading a Bible verse at an upcoming church service when she was killed.
McConaughey acknowledged that gun legislation would not end mass shootings but suggested that steps can be taken to lessen the chances of such tragedies happening so frequently.
“We need to invest in mental healthcare. We need safer schools. We need to restrain sensationalized media coverage. We need to restore our family values. We need to restore our American values and we need responsible gun ownership,” McConaughey said.
“Is this a cure-all? Hell no, but people are hurting.”
___
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/mcconaughey-calls-for-gun-control-action-at-white-house/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:20
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| 0.967625
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The organization behind the Oscars has named Bill Kramer as their new CEO.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Tuesday that Kramer, who currently presides over the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, will succeed Dawn Hudson in the role starting in July.
In his stead as CEO, Kramer will oversee the Oscars, the film academy’s membership, the organization’s education and mentorship initiatives as well as the museum and the collections housed in the Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive. He received unanimous support from the organization’s Board of Governors.
“It is the great honor of my career to take on the role as CEO of the Academy,” Kramer said in a statement. “I deeply believe in the power and artistry of cinema. I so look forward to galvanizing the unparalleled assets of the Academy — the Oscars, our global community of more than 10,000 Academy members, and our museum, library, and archive — to promote and elevate the arts and sciences of the movies and inspire the next generation of filmmakers.”
Kramer helped open the Academy Museum last September, which has sold over 550,000 tickets in its first nine months of operation.
Academy president David Rubin said that Kramer’s vision for the organization is “bold and inspiring, and our governors have agreed he is the ideal choice to lead at this pivotal moment for the organization. We believe Bill has the ability to bring together all corners of the motion picture community, and we’re thrilled to have him in this role to elevate the organization and unite our global membership.”
Hudson, who served as CEO of the Academy for 11 years, is remaining on with the organization in an advisory role during the transition.
“I’ve worked with Bill for close to a decade, and no executive is more innovative, more connected to artists, or more passionate about the opportunities that lie ahead than he is,” Hudson said. “The Academy and the Academy Museum are in the best of hands.”
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/oscars-organization-names-bill-kramer-as-new-ceo/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:27
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| 0.971683
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The widow and son of the man who wrote the 1983 article that inspired the original “Top Gun” are suing Paramount Pictures over its sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”
In a complaint filed in California federal court Monday, Shosh Yonay and Yuval Yonay claim that the rights to Ehud Yonay’s story reverted back to them on Jan. 24, 2020. The lawsuit contends that Paramount, which produced and distributed the sequel, did not reacquire those rights before releasing the film in May.
A spokesperson for Paramount Pictures said in a statement that the claims “are without merit, and we will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The lawsuit says that Paramount has been on notice since 2018 that the Yonays intended to recover the copyright under a provision that lets artists do so after 35 years. According to the suit, the Yonays sent a cease-and-desist letter in early May to which Paramount responded that the film had been sufficiently completed by Jan. 24, 2020, and was not derivative of Yonay’s article. The Yonays counter that the film is a derivative of the 1983 article and that “Top Gun: Maverick” didn’t wrap until May 2021, over a year after the rights expired.
Yonay’s original article about the Navy Fighter Weapons School training program and two pilots in the course, the hotshot “Yogi” and his friend “Possum,” was published in the May 1983 issue of California magazine. Soon after, Paramount Pictures acquired the exclusive motion picture rights. “Top Gun” was released in 1986 and went on to become the No. 1 film of the year.
The sequel has been in development for years and was originally set for a July 2019 release but was delayed many times —- first for normal reasons and then because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Top Gun: Maverick” finally opened in theaters on May 27, has spent two weeks atop the box office and has already made over $557 million in ticket sales worldwide.
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/paramount-sued-over-top-gun-copyright-claim/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:34
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. split from Great Britain is history, but the monarchy still has a hold on its former colony’s heart.
Two specials about Queen Elizabeth II and the celebration of her 70th year on the throne broke into last week’s top 20 highest-rated programs in prime time, according to Nielsen figures out Tuesday.
ABC’s “Party at the Palace,” a star-laden concert that included Elton John, Diana Ross and Queen with Adam Lambert, ranked No. 15. The CBS News documentary “Her Majesty the Queen,” hosted by Gayle King, came in at No. 18.
A skit of the queen taking tea with an animated Paddington Bear charmed the throng of spectators at the Platinum Jubilee pop concert outside Buckingham Palace. The pre-taped video also proved widely irresistible online.
The first two games of the Golden State Warriors-Boston Celtics NBA finals topped the ratings, but viewers also had time for a special prime-time episode of “The Price Is Right” honoring first responders.
Powered by basketball, ABC led the week in prime time, averaging 4.4 million viewers. CBS had 3.1 million, NBC had 2.5 million, Fox had 1.5 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 890,000 and Ion Television had 870,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news competition with an average of 7.2 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.1 million and the “CBS Evening News” tallied 4.3 million.
The weekly cable network averages were not available Tuesday.
For the week of May 30 to June 5, the 20 most-watched shows, their networks and viewerships:
1. NBA Finals Game 2: Boston at Golden State (Sunday), ABC, 11.9 million.
2. NBA Finals Game 1: Boston at Golden State, (Thursday), ABC, 11.4 million.
3. “60 Minutes Presents,” CBS, 6.8 million.
4. “America’s Got Talent, (Tuesday)” NBC, 6.3 million.
5. NBA Finals Post-Game 2, ABC, 6.27 million.
6. “FBI,” CBS, 4 million.
7. “The Price is Right,” CBS, 3.98 million.
8. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 3.9 million.
9. NBC Countdown Game 1, ABC, 3.8 million.
10. “Equalizer,” CBS, 3.6 million.
11. “Let’s Make a Deal,” CBS, 3.5 million.
12. “FBI: International,” CBS, 3.45 million.
13. “20-20 (Friday),” ABC, 3.44 million.
14. “Party at the Palace,” ABC, 3.44 million.
15. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 3.4 million.
16. “NCIS,” CBS, 3.2 million.
17. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 3.14 million.
18. “Her Majesty the Queen,” CBS, 3.13 million.
19. “United States of Al,” CBS, 3.12 million.
20. “Jimmy Kimmel Live: NBA Finals Game Night,” ABC, 3.11 million.
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/queen-elizabeths-jubilee-celebration-takes-a-ratings-bow/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:41
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| 0.93885
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NEW YORK (AP) — A specially commissioned, unburnable edition of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” has been auctioned for $130,000, Sotheby’s announced Tuesday.
Proceeds will be donated to PEN America, which advocates for free expression worldwide. The 384-page book consists mainly of Cinefoil, a specially treated aluminum product, and was announced last month at PEN’s annual fundraising gala. To help promote the initiative, Atwood agreed to be filmed attempting — unsuccessfully — to incinerate a prototype with a flame thrower.
“I’m very pleased that the one-of-a-kind Unburnable Book of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ has raised so much money for PEN America,” the Canadian author said in a statement. “Free speech issues are being hotly debated, and PEN is a sane voice amidst all the shouting. The video of the book being torched by me and refusing to burn has now had a potential 5 billion views. We hope it raises awareness and leads to reasoned discussion.”
The fireproof book was a joint project by PEN, Atwood, Penguin Random House and two companies based in Toronto, where Atwood is a longtime resident: the Rethink creative agency and The Gas Company Inc., a graphic arts and bookbinding specialty studio. “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a million seller first released in 1985, is a Dystopian novel about a cruel patriarchy known as the Republic of Gilead. It has been subject to various bannings since publication.
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https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/unburnable-copy-of-handmaids-tale-auctioned-for-130000/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:48
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| 0.966583
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/atlanta-braves/articles/39733961
| 2022-06-08T11:28:55
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| 0.738227
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American adults who haven’t yet gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 may soon get another choice, as advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday backed a more traditional type of shot.
Next, the FDA must decide whether to authorize the protein vaccine made by latecomer Novavax as the nation’s fourth coronavirus shot for adults. It’s made with more conventional technology than today’s dominant Pfizer and Moderna shots and the lesser-used Johnson & Johnson option.
N ovavax shots are already available in Australia, Canada, parts of Europe and multiple other countries, either for initial vaccinations or as mix-and-match boosters. But U.S. clearance is a key hurdle for the Maryland-based company.
FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said another choice in the U.S. may entice at least some vaccine holdouts — whatever their reason — to consider rolling up their sleeves.
“We do have a problem with vaccine uptake that is very serious in the United States,” Marks said. “Anything we can do to get people more comfortable to accept these potentially life-saving products is something that we feel we are compelled to do.”
A final FDA decision isn’t expected immediately, as the agency finishes combing through the data.
Nor is it clear how widely a Novavax vaccine would be used, at least right away. Only about 27 million U.S. adults remain unvaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eventually, Novavax hopes also to become a choice for the millions more who haven’t yet had a booster dose of today’s vaccines, regardless of which shot people got originally.
The FDA advisory panel voted that the benefits of two primary Novavax doses outweigh its risks — but they had a lot of questions about the shots’ role at this point in the pandemic.
“This vaccine does indeed fill some unmet needs,” such as an option for people with allergies to competing shots, said Dr. Michael Nelson of the University of Virginia.
But the FDA is considering two adult doses for now, when other COVID-19 vaccines have needed a third dose, he said.
And while “this vaccine has incredible potential,” there’s no clear evidence yet of how well it works against the more contagious omicron variant and its siblings, added fellow adviser Dr. Bruce Gellin of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Large studies in the U.S., Mexico and Britain found two doses of the Novavax vaccine were safe and about 90% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19. One complication: Those studies were done far earlier in the pandemic.
Novavax chief medical officer Dr. Filip Dubovsky said tests of a booster dose revved up virus-fighting antibodies that could tackle the omicron mutant, data that FDA will have to consider later.
This type of vaccine “we think generates a broad immune response against a broad array of variants,” he told the FDA advisory panel.
Trial participants generally experienced only mild reactions such as injection-site pain or fatigue, but the FDA did highlight a possible concern: six cases of heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, found among the 40,000 people who received the vaccine in studies.
COVID-19 vaccines are coming under close scrutiny for the possibility of heart inflammation after the Pfizer and Moderna shots were linked to that rare risk.
Novavax argued there were other potential causes for the reports. Other infections including COVID-19 also can cause heart inflammation. The company said more than 744,000 vaccinations in other countries so far support the shots’ safety.
Several of FDA’s advisers said the Novavax vaccine should come with a warning until more is known but cautioned against comparisons with the Pfizer and Moderna shots’ estimated rate of the rare side effect.
“I don’t want to stigmatize this vaccine inappropriately,” said Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University.
The Novavax vaccine is made of copies of the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, packaged into nanoparticles that to the immune system resemble a virus. Then an immune-boosting ingredient, or adjuvant, that’s made from the bark of a South American tree is added that acts as a red flag to ensure those particles look suspicious enough to spark a strong immune response.
Protein vaccines have been used for years to prevent hepatitis B, shingles and other diseases.
That’s very different than the vaccines currently used in the U.S. The most widely used Pfizer and Moderna vaccines deliver genetic instructions for the body to produce its own copies of the spike protein. J&J uses a cold virus to deliver those instructions.
Manufacturing problems held up Novavax’s vaccine but the company said those problems have been resolved. Novavax, a small biotech company, created the vaccine in its research lab. But the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, produces most of its shots including those slated for the U.S.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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https://cw39.com/news/health/ap-health/fda-advisers-back-novavax-covid-19-shots-as-new-us-option/
| 2022-06-08T11:28:55
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| 0.952636
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/penn-state-nittany-lions-football/articles/39733286
| 2022-06-08T11:29:01
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| 0.738227
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NEW YORK (AP) — Meltdowns in the cryptocurrency space are common, but the latest one really touched some nerves. Novice investors took to online forums to share tales of decimated fortunes and even suicidal despair. Experienced crypto supporters, including one prominent billionaire, were left feeling humbled.
When the stablecoin TerraUSD imploded last month, an estimated $40 billion in investor funds was erased — and so far there has been little or no accountability. Stablecoins are supposed to be less vulnerable to big swings — thus the name — but Terra suffered a spectacular collapse in a matter of days.
The Terra episode publicly exposed a truth long-known in the always-online crypto community: for every digital currency with staying power, like bitcoin, there have been hundreds of failed or worthless currencies in crypto’s short history. So Terra became just the latest “sh—coin” — the term used by the community to describe coins that faded into obscurity.
Terra’s quick collapse came just as bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, was in the midst of a decline that has wiped out nearly half of its value in a couple of months. The events have served as a vivid reminder that investors, both professionals and the mom and pop variety, can be rolling the dice when it comes to putting money into digital assets.
After being mostly hands-off toward crypto, it appears that Washington has had enough. On Tuesday, two senators — one Democrat and one Republican — proposed legislation that seeks to build a regulatory framework around the cryptocurrency industry; other members of Congress are considering more limited legislation.
What’s surprising, however, is that the cryptocurrency industry is signaling its cooperation. Politicians, crypto enthusiasts, and industry lobbyists all point to last month’s collapse of Terra and its token Luna as the possible end of the libertarian experiment in crypto.
Stablecoins are typically pegged to a traditional financial instrument, like the U.S. dollar, and are supposed to the cryptocurrency equivalent of investing in a conservative money market fund. But Terra was not backed by any hard assets. Instead, its founder Do Kwon promised that Terra’s proprietary algorithm would keep the coin’s value pegged to roughly $1.00. Critics of Terra would be attacked on social media by Kwon and his so-called army of “LUNAtics”
Kwon’s promise turned out to be worthless. A massive selling event caused Terra to “break the buck” and collapse in value. Reddit boards dedicated to Terra and Luna were dominated for days by posts referencing the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
Terra’s ascendance attracted not only retail investors but also better-known cryptocurrency experts. One notable “Lunatic” was billionaire Mike Novogratz, who tattooed his upper arm with the word Luna and a wolf howling at the moon. Novogratz told his followers that the tattoo “will be a constant reminder that venture investing requires humility.”
Michael Estrabillo entrusted his crypto investments to stablegains, an investment vehicle that he says had assured him and other investors that the funds were secured in USD Coin, one of the largest stablecoins. Then, on May 9, he said he was informed his money was locked up in Terra.
“Had I known I was involved in a currency that was backed by an algorithm, I would have never invested in that,” Estrabillo lamented.
Washington may also be waking up to the fact that what used to be niche part of the internet and finance has gone mainstream and can no longer be ignored.
The total value of crypto assets hit a peak of $2.8 trillion last November; it’s now below $1.3 trillion, according to CoinGecko. Surveys show that roughly 16% of adult Americans, or 40 million people, have invested in cryptocurrencies. Retirement account giant Fidelity Investments now offers crypto as a part of a 401(k) plan. Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, has repeatedly pointed out that crypto is particularly popular among Black Americans, a community long distrustful of Wall Street.
Further, crypto has permeated popular culture. Numerous Super Bowl ads touted crypto. Sports arenas are now named after crypto projects and the Washington Nationals baseball team took a sponsorship deal from Terra before it collapsed. Celebrities routinely shill crypto on social media, and YouTube personalities generate millions of views talking about the latest crypto idea.
Terra’s collapse was a bridge too far, it seems.
On Tuesday, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, proposed a framework to start regulating the industry, which would include giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission full regulatory jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and rewriting the tax code to include crypto. It would also fully regulate stablecoins for the first time ever.
This comes after the Biden administration’s working group on financial markets issued a 22-page report last November, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would regulate stablecoins. One recommendation includes a requirement that stablecoin issuers become banks that would hold sufficient cash reserves.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has also called for stablecoin regulation, saying “we really need a regulatory framework to guard against the risks,” during a House committee meeting in May.
Further, it appears that the cryptocurrency industry — with its libertarian leanings and deep skepticism of Washington — might also be on board.
“I do think this is a bit of a wake-up call. A lot of people were taken aback by Terra’s failure,” said Perianne Boring, founder of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, one of the top lobbyists for the cryptocurrency industry.
Other crypto lobby groups, like the Association for Digital Asset Markets, have announced support for the Lummis-Gillibrand bill.
One idea that Washington seems to be coalescing around is that entities that issue stablecoins — often used as a bridge between traditional finance and the crypto world — need to be transparent about the assets backing them and be as liquid as any other instrument playing a key role in finance.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pennsylvania, is circulating a separate bill that would require stablecoin providers to have a license to operate, restrict the types of assets they carry to back those stablecoins, as well as be subject to routine auditing to make sure they are complying.
Describing Terra as a “debacle,” Toomey said in an interview that Terra’s collapse made it even more important that Washington build some guardrails around stablecoins. Toomey is the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.
“It’s always difficult to get anything across the goal line in the Senate, but there’s nothing politically polarizing about creating a statutory regime for stablecoins,” Toomey said.
After Terra’s collapse there are two remaining big stablecoins: USD Coin issued by the company Circle, and Tether, created by the Hong Kong-based company Bitfinex. Both hold hard assets to back their value, but Bitfinex is less transparent about the assets it holds and is not audited. There are also a host of smaller stablecoin issuers, which in the world of crypto could become the latest hot item overnight.
“It’s not just urgent that Washington step in, it’s urgently urgent,” said Jeremy Allaire, founder and CEO of Circle, in an interview.
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Hussein reported from Washington. Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed.
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https://cw39.com/news/technology/ap-technology/crypto-meltdown-is-wake-up-call-for-many-including-congress/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:01
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| 0.963791
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/penn-state-nittany-lions-football/articles/39733902
| 2022-06-08T11:29:07
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| 0.738227
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A second person is in custody in connection with the gunfire that killed three people and wounded 11 in a Philadelphia entertainment district over the weekend, authorities said, but no charges have yet been filed in any of the deaths that stemmed from it.
Rashaan Vereen, 34, was arrested without incident in Philadelphia, the U.S. Marshals Service said Tuesday. He is charged with attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault, reckless endangering, conspiracy, and weapons crimes, as well as evidence tampering and obstruction of justice, marshals said.
One other man was previously charged in the Saturday night shootings, though not with the deaths of any victims, two of whom were believed to be bystanders. And police on Tuesday released a photo of a person wanted in connection with the shootings and said that person should be considered armed and dangerous.
Police also noted a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in a homicide, and an additional $10,000 reward per suspect offered by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Police officers patrolling the South Street area in central Philadelphia around 11:30 p.m. Saturday raced to the scene after hearing shots and found several people with gunshot wounds lying on the sidewalk and in the street.
Seeing a man on a corner firing a handgun at people about half a block away, one officer opened fire, and that man dropped his handgun onto the sidewalk and fled, authorities said.
Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore has said authorities have identified that man as Quran Garner, and he faces charges including aggravated assault and aggravated assault on law enforcement officers. Authorities had said earlier that an arrest warrant for attempted murder had been approved for another individual.
Authorities have said the gunfire started with a fight between two people who then began fired a total of 17 shots at each other.
One man, 34-year-old Gregory Jackson, was killed, and the other was wounded; no charges are planned against him since both men had permits to carry and that shooting is considered self-defense, authorities said.
Police said Garner began firing back at the area of the initial confrontation until he was wounded in the hand by fire from a police officer. He fled and surrendered to other police officers at the scene of an earlier shooting nearby.
Authorities have said that the other two people killed by the gunfire, 27-year-old Alexis Quinn and an unidentified 22-year-old man, as well as many of the other people wounded by gunfire — who ranged in age from 17 to 69 — are believed to have been innocent bystanders.
It’s unclear whether Vereen. who was arrested Monday night, or Garner have attorneys to speak on their behalf; a message could not be left Tuesday at a phone number listed for Vereen, and a listed number for Garner couldn’t be found.
South Street is known for its entertainment venues, bars, restaurants and nightlife. Surveillance video from businesses showed scores of people fleeing as the gunfire broke out. Police are also investigating several other nearby shootings, one fatal, to see whether they might be related, officials said.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/2nd-person-in-custody-in-deadly-weekend-philadelphia-gunfire/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:08
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| 0.98332
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You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
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https://sportspyder.com/cf/penn-state-nittany-lions-football/articles/39734347
| 2022-06-08T11:29:13
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PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix suburb is reviewing how it handles water rescues as video of three police officers standing nearby as a homeless man drowns sparks outcry.
The Tempe Police Department says the officers are on paid administrative leave after last month’s drowning in a city lake.
An uproar arose after Tempe police on Friday released edited footage from officers’ body cameras as well as a transcript of the May 28 incident.
The video shows Sean Bickings, 34, climb over a 4-foot (1.2-meter) fence along Tempe Town Lake. An officer tells him swimming is not permitted. Bickings then goes into the water and starts swimming. Another officer tells police to watch him while he goes to get a boat.
The video ends there. But the transcript shows two officers repeatedly tell Bickings to swim to a pylon and “hold on.” Bickings continuously says “I can’t” and pleads for help.
At one point, one of the officers says: “I’m not jumping in after you.”
Bickings swam in all for roughly 40 yards (37 meters) under a pedestrian bridge, city officials said.
The Tempe Officers Association said the public needs to understand officers are not trained for water rescues. These officers followed their training and went to get a boat.
In a news release Monday, the city said officials will reevaluate the protocols around water rescues. They will also look at where rescue equipment like life preservers should be placed relative to the lake or any body of water.
Police were originally responding to reports of a fight just after 5 a.m. between Bickings and a female companion. When questioned, both denied any physical altercation had taken place. But officers ran their names through a background check and found Bickings had three outstanding warrants.
Authorities say that is when Bickings climbed over the fence. According to the transcript, his companion, who said Bickings was her husband, tried to go after him but officers kept her back.
Firefighters recovered Bickings’ body and pronounced him dead.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety and police in the neighboring suburb of Scottsdale are investigating the police response.
Police Chief Jeff Glover met with Bickings’ mother last week. She had asked for any video to be released, the city said.
Tempe Town Lake is more than 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long and was built in 1999 by damming a portion of the Salt River. It is a popular spot for jogging, biking, kayaking and other recreational activities.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/arizona-officers-inaction-during-drowning-spurs-probe/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:15
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| 0.976819
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PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona prisoner made a last-minute request to the U.S. Supreme Court to delay his execution scheduled Wednesday for his murder conviction in the 1984 killing of an 8-year-old girl.
Frank Atwood made the request Tuesday after a lower court rejected his arguments that the execution should be called off because his degenerative spinal condition would make it excruciatingly painful for him to be strapped on his back to the gurney he will lie on during the lethal injection.
Atwood’s attorneys also told the Supreme Court in court filings that the aggravating factor that made his crime eligible for the death penalty was invalidly applied. He was convicted in 1975 in California for lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 14 and convicted of killing Vicki Hoskinson in 1987.
Atwood is scheduled to be lethally injected with pentobarbital Wednesday at the state prison in Florence, Arizona, for his conviction in the girl’s killing.
The execution would be Arizona’s second in less than a month, following an eight-year hiatus attributed to both on the difficulty of obtaining needed lethal injection drugs and criticism that a 2014 execution was botched.
Death penalty opponents worry that Arizona will now start executing a steady stream of prisoners who have languished on death row, but state officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on their future execution schedule and no more are currently scheduled. Arizona has 112 prisoners on death row, including Atwood.
Earlier on Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request to delay Atwood’s execution.
In addition to arguing that Atwood would suffer while strapped to the gurney, his lawyers questioned whether the state had met a requirement that the lethal injection drug’s expiration date falls after the execution date.
And even though he didn’t pick lethal gas as his execution method, his lawyers still challenged the state’s procedures protocol for gas chamber executions.
The appeals court in its ruling said it was deferring to a lower-court judge who concluded that accommodations made by the state — allowing a pillow and tilting feature on the gurney to be used to prop up Atwood to alleviate his pain — prevented a ruling that the lethal injection protocol creates a risk of severe pain.
The appeals court also concluded Atwood lacks legal standing to challenge the lethal gas protocol because he will be executed by lethal injection.
Prosecutors have said Atwood is trying to indefinitely postpone his execution through legal maneuvers.
Atwood’s lawyers said would suffer for an extended amount of time even before the lethal drug is injected.
In a statement, Atwood attorney Joseph Perkovich said the lethal injection procedure will “intentionally inflict extreme pain for what will likely be an hour before, in the best-case scenario, he succumbs to the execution chemicals.”
Authorities have said Atwood kidnapped Hoskinson, whose remains were discovered in the desert northwest of Tucson nearly seven months after her disappearance. Experts could not determine the cause of death from the remains, according to court records.
Atwood maintains that he is innocent.
Last month, Atwood declined to choose between lethal injection or the gas chamber, leaving him to be put to death by lethal injection, the state’s default execution method.
Even though he didn’t pick the gas chamber, Atwood challenged Arizona’s lethal gas procedures.
His lawyers said Atwood has a right to choose between methods of execution that are constitutional and suggested that the state switch its lethal gas from hydrogen cyanide gas to nitrogen gas because nitrogen would produce painless deaths. Arizona prosecutors say nitrogen executions are “untried and untested.”
Atwood’s attorneys said the state’s lethal gas protocol calling for the use of hydrogen cyanide gas — which was used in some past U.S. executions and by Nazis to kill 865,000 Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp alone — is unconstitutional and would produce agonizing levels of pain in executions.
Arizona, California, Missouri and Wyoming are the only states with decades-old lethal-gas execution laws still on the books. Arizona, which carried out the last gas chamber execution in the United States more than two decades ago, is the only state with a working gas chamber.
In recent years, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama have passed laws allowing executions with nitrogen gas, at least in some circumstances, though experts say it’s never been done and no state has established a protocol that would allow it.
On May 11, Arizona executed Clarence Dixon for his murder conviction in the 1978 killing of Deana Bowdoin, a 21-year-old Arizona State University student.
It was the first execution carried out in the state since the July 2014 execution of Joseph Wood, who was given 15 doses of a two-drug combination over nearly two hours.
Wood snorted repeatedly and gasped before he died. His attorney said the execution had been botched.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/arizona-prisoner-asks-supreme-court-to-delay-his-execution/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:22
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| 0.973071
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The FBI has seized the electronic data of a retired four-star general who authorities say made false statements and withheld “incriminating” documents about his role in an illegal foreign lobbying campaign on behalf of the wealthy Persian Gulf nation of Qatar.
New federal court filings obtained Tuesday outlined a potential criminal case against former Marine Gen. John R. Allen, who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan before being tapped in 2017 to lead the influential Brookings Institution think tank.
It’s part of an expanding investigation that has ensnared Richard G. Olson, a former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan who pleaded guilty to federal charges last week, and Imaad Zuberi, a prolific political donor now serving a 12-year prison sentence on corruption charges. Several members of Congress have been interviewed as part of the investigation.
The court filings detail Allen’s behind-the scenes efforts to help Qatar influence U.S. policy in 2017 when a diplomatic crisis erupted between the gas-rich Persian Gulf monarchy and its neighbors.
“There is substantial evidence that these FARA violations were willful,” FBI agent Babak Adib wrote in a search warrant application, referring to the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Allen also misrepresented his role in the lobbying campaign to U.S. officials, Adib wrote, and failed to disclose “that he was simultaneously pursuing multimillion-dollar business deals with the government of Qatar.”
The FBI says Allen gave a “false version of events” about his work for Qatar during a 2020 interview with law enforcement officials and failed to produce relevant email messages in response to an earlier grand jury subpoena.
The 77-page search warrant application appears to have been filed in error and was removed from the docket Tuesday after The Associated Press reached out to federal authorities about its contents.
Allen declined to comment on the new filings. He has previously denied ever working as a Qatari agent and said his efforts on Qatar in 2017 were motivated to prevent a war from breaking out in the Gulf that would put U.S. troops at risk.
Allen spokesperson Beau Phillips told AP last week that Allen “voluntarily cooperated with the government’s investigation into this matter.”
Allen, who was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution prior to becoming president, used his official email account at the think tank for some of his Qatar-related communications, the affidavit says.
Brookings did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Qatar has long been one of Brookings’ biggest financial backers, though the institution says it has recently stopped taking Qatari funding.
Olson was working with Zuberi on another matter involving Qatar in mid-2017 when Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf countries announced a blockade of Qatar over its alleged ties to terror groups and other issues.
Shortly after the blockade was announced, then-President Donald Trump appeared to side against Qatar.
The court papers say Allen played an important role in shifting the U.S.’s response. Specifically, authorities say Allen lobbied then-National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster to have the Trump administration adopt more Qatar-friendly tone.
In an email to McMaster, Allen said the Qataris wanted the White House or State Department to issue a statement with language calling on all sides of the Gulf diplomatic crisis to “act with restraint.”
Federal law enforcement officials say then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did just that two days later, issuing a statement that called on other Gulf countries to “ease the blockade against Qatar” and asked “that there be no further escalation by the parties in the region.”
The Qatar Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As part of the lobbying campaign, federal law enforcement authorities say, Olson and Allen traveled to Qatar to meet with the country’s ruling emir and other top officials.
At the meeting, Allen provided advice on how to influence U.S. policy and said the Qataris should “use the full spectrum” of information operations, including “black and white” operations, the affidavit says. “Black” operations are typically covert and sometimes illegal. Qatar has been accused of orchestrating hack-and-leak operations of its critics and rivals during the diplomatic crisis, including one targeting a UAE ambassador. Qatar has denied any wrongdoing.
Before they went to Doha, Allen wanted to “have a chat” with Olson and Zuberi about his compensation, the affidavit said. Allen suggested in an email that he be paid a $20,000 “speaker’s fee” for the weekend trip — even though he wasn’t giving a speech — and then later “work out a fuller arrangement of a longer-term relationship,” the affidavit says.
Zuberi paid Allen’s first-class airfare to Qatar, the affidavit said, but there’s no indication the speaker’s fee was paid. Allen’s spokesman said previously the general was never paid a fee. It’s unclear why. Some of Zuberi’s past business associates have accused him of not honoring his financial commitments.
Allen also had other financial incentives for helping the Qataris and maintaining strong ties to its top leaders, the FBI said.
“At the same time he was lobbying U.S. government officials on behalf of Qatar, Allen pursued at least one multimillion-dollar business deal with the Qatari government on behalf of a company on whose board of directors he served,” the affidavit says.
After returning from their trip to Qatar, Allen and Olson lobbied members of Congress, particularly those who supported a House resolution linking Qatar to terror financing, the FBI said.
Among them was Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat who told law enforcement officials he didn’t recall exactly what Allen said but that his impression was he was there “to support the Qatari officials and their position.”
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/
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Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia, Mustian from New Orleans.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/fbi-seizes-retired-generals-data-related-to-qatar-lobbying/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:29
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| 0.970551
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A man accused of fatally shooting a retired Wisconsin judge and who had a list that included prominent national political figures died in a hospital, a state official said Tuesday.
Douglas Uhde, 56, shot former Juneau County Circuit Judge John Roemer in Roemer’s home in New Lisbon on Friday before shooting himself, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital where he had been on life support.
Wisconsin Department of Justice spokeswoman Gillian Drummond confirmed Uhde’s death. The agency said that Uhde was declared brain-dead on Saturday morning and his body remained on life support until Tuesday morning to allow for organ donation.
Uhde had an extensive criminal and prison record dating back at least two decades, including a case when he was sentenced by Roemer to six years in prison on weapons charges. He was released from his last prison stint in April 2020.
Police found the 68-year-old Roemer zip-tied to a chair, an official told The Associated Press. The official could not discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Uhde had a list of potential targets in his vehicle that included Roemer, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Whitmer’s office and the law enforcement source said.
It’s unclear how Uhde obtained a gun. Drummond said the Wiscconsin Justice Department is still investigating that aspect of the case.
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Associated Press reporter Mike Balsamo contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/man-accused-of-killing-wisconsin-judge-dies-in-hospital/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:37
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| 0.975004
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UVALDE, Texas (AP) — The school district police chief criticized for waiting too long before ordering law enforcement to confront and kill the gunman during a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school did not appear at a City Council meeting in Uvalde on Tuesday, despite being newly elected to the panel.
Mayor Don McLaughlin said he was unable to explain why the district police Chief Pete Arredondo wasn’t at the brief meeting. Two weeks ago, 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Law enforcement and state officials have struggled to present an accurate timeline and details, and have stopped releasing information about the police response.
McLaughlin told reporters at the meeting that he was frustrated with the lack of information.
“We want facts and answers, just like everybody else,” the mayor said.
Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, has said Arredondo, who was in charge of the multi-agency response on May 24, made the “wrong decision” to not order officers to breach the classroom more quickly to confront the gunman.
As the mayor spoke in Uvalde on Tuesday, lawmakers in Washington heard testimony from the son of a woman who was killed in a recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, as lawmakers work toward a bipartisan agreement on gun safety measures. And at a White House press briefing, actor Matthew McConaughey, a Uvalde native, spoke with passion about his conversations with the families of the children who were killed and the need for more stringent gun control.
The gunman, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, spent roughly 80 minutes inside Robb Elementary, and more than an hour passed from when the first officers followed him into the building and when he was killed, according to an official timeline. In the meantime, parents outside begged police to rush in and panicked children called 911 from inside.
Arredondo has not responded to repeated interview requests and questions from The Associated Press.
After the City Council meeting, Alfred Garza III, whose 10-year-old daughter, Amerie Jo, was among the Uvalde students killed, told reporters that he attended the meeting to see what else he could learn about what happened that day.
“I have so many questions and not every one can be answered. They’re still collecting data, they’re still collecting information on what happened,” Garza said.
He said he had been curious as to whether Arredondo would attend the meeting, and said he had “mixed feelings” about the district police chief’s absence.
“He obviously didn’t show up for a reason,” Garza said, adding that he assumed Arredondo thought if he did appear he would get a lot of questions.
Garza said he doesn’t have “a lot of ill will” toward Arredondo, nor does he blame just one person for what happened, but he does think more could have been done that day.
“They did take a long time to get in there,” Garza said.
Since the shooting, there have been tensions between state and local authorities over how police handled the shooting and communicated what happened to the public.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has begun referring questions about the investigation to the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Mitchell Busbee. She hasn’t responded to repeated interview requests and questions from AP.
McLaughlin said he has asked officials for a briefing but “we’re not getting it.”
He said the city’s police chief was on vacation at the time of the shooting and that the acting city police commander was on the scene.
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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting
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Stengle reported from Dallas.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/school-police-chief-a-no-show-at-uvalde-city-council-meeting/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:43
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| 0.978215
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HOUSTON (AP) — Texas’ prison system has temporarily stopped transporting inmates as it investigates how a convicted murderer escaped from a bus last month and later killed a man and his four grandsons.
“The agency is conducting an internal Serious Incident Review and also intends to bring in an outside firm to conduct an independent review to identify factors that may have led to the escape of (Gonzalo) Lopez,” the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement Monday. No timeline was given for how long the internal review would take to complete.
The agency said if it must transport an inmate for an emergency medical appointment or for release, it will have more security.
Such additional security measures were in place when a van that was transporting an inmate from a hospital to a prison in East Texas collided with another vehicle early Tuesday on a freeway north of Houston, according to the prison agency. Three guards were injured but were expected to survive. The inmate was in stable condition.
On any given day, authorities move about 2,000 inmates for various reasons, said Jason Clark, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman. According to the agency’s Fiscal Year 2020 Statistical Report, the most recently available such report, there were about 121,000 individuals in prisons, state jails and other facilities run by the Department of Criminal Justice.
“We are reviewing our processes and determining how to reduce the need to move inmates,” Clark said in an email.
Lopez, who had killed on behalf of Mexican drug cartels, fled a prison bus on May 12 after breaking free from his restraints and from a caged area of the vehicle. Lopez stabbed and injured the bus driver before escaping into a wooded area near Centerville, which is between Dallas and Houston.
Authorities believe that on Thursday, Lopez killed 66-year-old Mark Collins, and his four grandsons, Waylon Collins, 18; Carson Collins, 16; Hudson Collins, 11; and Bryson Collins, 11. Waylon, Carson and Hudson were brothers and Bryson was their cousin. Investigators say Lopez stole an AR-15-style rifle and a pistol from the family’s ranch near Centerville, as well as a truck that he drove about 220 miles (350 kilometers) to Atascosa County, south of San Antonio, where officers fatally shot him late Thursday.
Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, who had called for a temporary halt in inmate transports, praised the prison agency’s change in policy.
“While the investigation continues into exactly what happened with the recent escape and tragic murder of 5 members of the Collins family, we must act swiftly to ensure no other Texan is in danger of losing their life or being harmed by an escaped inmate being transported on Texas roads,” Whitmire, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said in a written statement.
The committee will likely have a hearing sometime this summer to review what happened and prison system polices related to transporting inmates, said Lara Wendler, a spokeswoman for Whitmire.
The state senator has suggested the Department of Criminal Justice should keep violent offenders in prison units closer to medical facilities or should have medical teams visit the units.
Whitmire also called for additional security during inmate transports, including having another vehicle with armed officers follow close behind.
Funeral services for Mark Collins and his grandsons, who were from the Houston suburb of Tomball, were set for Saturday.
During a service Sunday at the family’s church in Houston, Glen Collins, Mark Collins’ brother, said his faith was helping him get through this difficult time.
“This is where I find solace and comfort. … There is a purpose in this, no doubt. … I lost my best friend. He kept me sharp. But there is a purpose,” Glen Collins said.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter at www.twitter.com/juanlozano70
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/texas-suspends-inmate-transports-after-escape-left-5-dead/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:50
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| 0.975076
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — An openly transgender cleric from San Francisco, who made history last year with an appointment as a bishop by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has resigned amid allegations of racism after firing the pastor of a predominantly Latino congregation.
The Rev. Megan Rohrer, who uses the pronoun “they,” led one of the church’s 65 synods, overseeing nearly 200 congregations in Northern California and northern Nevada. They were elected in May 2021 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod.
In a letter to the synod Saturday, Rohrer said they were resigning because of “the constant misinformation, bullying and harassment” they experienced after the synod voted to remove the pastor of Mision Latina Luterana on Dec. 12, the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a significant holiday for congregants of the Stockton, California, church.
Rohrer fired the Rev. Nelson Rabell-Gonzalez after an investigation by the church into verbal harassment and retaliation allegations against the pastor, all of which he has denied. The synod council voted on Dec. 11 to vacate Rabell-Gonzalez’s call as a mission developer and to terminate his employment after they said he refused to fulfill certain mandatory requirements.
Rohrer was not available to speak with The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying they were “trying to rest and be with my family.”
A spokeswoman for the ELCA declined further comment Tuesday.
After Rabell-Gonzalez’s removal upset members of the Mision Latina Luterana, the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, the denomination’s presiding bishop, appointed a three-person “listening panel” in March to review Rohrer’s actions.
That report released June 1 made several recommendations to the ELCA, including publicly apologizing to the Latino church community for the hurt caused, planning anti-racism training for churchwide staff and leaders, paying a “healing visit” to the community and creating a task force to review the church’s policies and procedures.
Church leaders initiated the process to discipline Rohrer on Sunday following their resignation on Saturday. Eaton posted on Twitter that the Conference of Bishops met Sunday, a meeting she said Rohrer “chose not to attend.”
“I shared that I am initiating the discipline process immediately including suspension of Bishop Rohrer, based on additional information that has come to light.”
She added that the process will take time and that she will continue “to provide updates as appropriate.”
On Twitter, Rohrer questioned the church’s move to continue with the disciplinary process following their resignation “without providing any specifics about what I allegedly did.”
“That appears to be in conflict with their own procedures,” Roher said.
Members of the listening panel reported that the Mision Latina Luterana congregation had no idea their pastor was fired on Dec. 12. The congregation comprising mostly Mexican immigrants had planned an elaborate program that day with mariachi singers, traditional dancers and performances by children, all led by their pastor.
A video, which one of the congregants recorded live, shows distraught congregants voicing their concerns. One woman said in Spanish: “Pastor Nelson has worked a lot for this day to happen. He has done a lot for our community. He has fought for our rights.”
Others said the move to fire him was “unfair” and “racist.” The report mentions other congregants asked if the complaints against Rabell-Gonzalez were sexual in nature and were further upset when they did not get a response from Rohrer or other leaders.
The report also said Rohrer threatened a child and her father with calling the police if they did not leave the sacristy – a threat that is viewed as racist by the immigrant community. Rohrer wore a bulletproof vest during the service, the report said, because they had “concerns about their safety and well-being.”
Eaton announced in a May 27 report to the church that she had requested Rohrer’s resignation from the synod.
“There are issues of broken trust at all levels, from individual members and communities to the broader church, which will need work to repair,” she said in that report.
She said she intends to act on and explore several of the listening team’s recommendations particularly the need for anti-racism and cultural sensitivity training.
The church’s Latino Ministries Association had strong words for Eaton in a May 28 statement criticizing her for not bringing disciplinary charges against the bishop for “racist actions” against the congregation.
The association’s leaders called Eaton’s statement “weak and compassionless” and framed racist actions as “unwise decisions” and “unfortunate events.” They also said her message ignored the suffering of an entire community and gave “a white aggressor the opportunity to decide their own fate – a decision deeply rooted in white supremacy and systemic racism.”
In a previous statement, the synod council said it decided to terminate Rabell-Gonzalez’s employment after “continual communications of verbal harassment and retaliatory actions from more than a dozen victims from 2019 to the present.” But church officials have not specifically stated what the pastor’s transgressions were.
Rabell-Gonzalez was one of the candidates in the election for bishop. After Rohrer’s appointment, church officials identified mandatory steps for Rabell-Gonzalez to take, which officials said he refused to comply with, on Dec. 9. The council’s action to vacate his call came two days later.
The decision to vacate the pastor’s call also cut off funding for the congregation, the report said, leaving the community without a pastor or a church building.
Rabell-Gonzalez, who spoke to the AP from his native Puerto Rico on Tuesday, said he is continuing to lead the congregation under a new name, Iglesia Luterana Santa Maria Peregrina, at the First Congregational Church in Stockton.
Rabell-Gonzalez said he never declined to follow the synod’s recommendations, and simply wants the opportunity to make his case.
“I have been taken off the roster without due process, without any disciplinary hearing and without being accused of anything,” he said.
Rohrer will now have the opportunity to mount a defense as part of a disciplinary process – an opportunity Rabell-Gonzalez says he has been denied. He also said he did not refuse the synod’s mandate to see a therapist. When Rohrer became bishop, Rabell-Gonzalez said he expected to get an ally.
“I got an oppressor instead,” he said.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/transgender-lutheran-bishop-resigns-over-racism-allegations/
| 2022-06-08T11:29:57
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| 0.976982
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NEW YORK (AP) — The trial of a Colorado businessman on charges that he ripped off thousands of donors who contributed $25 million to a campaign to build a wall along the southern U.S. border ended Tuesday in a mistrial after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict in a prosecution that once featured onetime presidential adviser Steve Bannon.
The mistrial in the prosecution of Timothy Shea was granted by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres after the jury reported for a third time that it could not reach a verdict on any count, saying the deadlock was “abundantly clear.” They said extended deliberations had left them “further entrenched in our opposing views.”
Turmoil during jury deliberations was revealed last week when 11 jurors sent a note to the judge to say one juror who complained about a “government witch hunt” had exhibited “political bias,” labeled the rest of them as liberals and complained that the trial should have occurred in a southern state.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that the mistrial “in no way lessens our resolve or believe in the powerful and compelling evidence that we strongly believe proves his guilt.”
He added: “We look forward to retrying this case as soon as possible.” A retrial, though, was unlikely to occur before the fall.
Shea and his lawyer did not comment as they left the courthouse.
After two previous notes last week pointed toward a deadlock, the judge had urged jurors to try again.
Shea was left to stand trial alone after Bannon, a onetime adviser to then-President Donald Trump, was pardoned. And two other defendants pleaded guilty. The case was prosecuted in New York after it was determined that donors to the fund were from everywhere in the country, including New York.
Conspiracy and falsification of records charges against Shea were filed after questions arose over how donations were spent from a “We Build The Wall” campaign that raised about $25 million for a wall. Only a few miles of wall were built.
Prosecutors said Shea and other fund organizers promised investors that all donations would fund a wall, but Shea and the others eventually pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves.
Shea’s lawyers contended that he acted honorably regarding the fundraising campaign and did not commit a crime.
Shea, of Castle Rock, Colorado, owns an energy drink company, Winning Energy, whose cans have featured a cartoon superhero image of Trump and claim to contain “12 oz. of liberal tears.”
Dissension among jurors was first revealed Thursday when 11 jurors said in their note to the judge that they were unanimously requesting that one juror be replaced by an alternate juror. They said the juror had expressed anti-government bias.
In response to the note, the judge questioned the juror in her robing room with lawyers on both sides present.
Among her questions, Torres asked him if he had any biases or personal views that prevent him from being a fair and impartial juror.
He said he did not. So she left him on the jury.
After twice requesting a mistrial on Thursday, defense attorney John Meringolo renewed his request in writing on Friday on many of the same grounds as he had the day before.
He said the jury had violated secrecy rules by revealing too much in its note seeking the disqualification of one juror, and he said the judge improperly referenced political views when she read them a so-called Allen charge intended to add new energy to deliberations.
Meringolo said those instructions in light of what had occurred earlier Thursday could only have been understood to be singling out the juror “and pressuring him to come to a verdict.”
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https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/we-build-the-wall-trial-ends-in-mistrial-jury-deadlocked/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:03
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| 0.986429
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Curbing abortion rights and expanding the right to be armed in public are long-sought goals of the conservative legal movement that the Supreme Court seems poised to deliver within the next month.
The justices also could ease the use of public funds for religious schooling and constrain Biden administration efforts to fight climate change.
These disputes are among 30 cases the court still has to resolve before it takes an extended summer break, typically around the end of June. That’s a large, though not unprecedented, haul for the court at this point in its term.
June typically is a tense time at the court, where justices are racing to put the final touches on the most controversial cases. But this year, the tension seems to be even greater, with a potentially historic abortion ruling and in the aftermath of a leaked draft opinion that seems to have led to discord inside the court and heightened security concerns.
At least one of the 30 remaining cases will be decided on Wednesday, the court indicated on its website.
___
SLOWER THAN USUAL
The pace of the court’s work has been slower than usual, and it’s unclear how much that has to do with a leaked draft opinion suggesting a conservative majority will overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights and for the first time strip away an individual constitutional right.
The leak occurred in early May and Justice Clarence Thomas has suggested the breach of the court’s confidential opinion-drafting process has done serious damage to the court. “You begin to look over your shoulder,” Thomas said last month at a conference in Dallas.
___
ABORTION AND GUNS
With three appointees of former President Donald Trump, the court now has a 6-3 conservative majority, and abortion opponents might consider anything less than the overruling of Roe and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that affirmed the right to end a pregnancy a bitter defeat.
But even short of explicitly jettisoning the abortion cases, the court is on the verge of dramatically weakening abortion rights. At issue in the case is a Mississippi law that bans abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy, far earlier than the court has previously indicated states can prohibit abortions.
Even before the leak of the draft opinion, the court seemed poised based on arguments in December to uphold the Mississippi law at the very least.
Arguments in November in a case over New York’s gun permit requirements also strongly suggested the court would make it easier to carry a gun in public, a decision that could affect many of the nation’s largest cities.
It’s not clear whether a series of mass shootings in recent weeks has had any effect on the court’s deliberations, or when to release the decision in the New York case.
___
RELIGION, ENVIRONMENT
Among the other significant cases awaiting decisions is a challenge from Republican-led states and coal companies that could hamstring the administration’s efforts to reduce climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. President Joe Biden has set an ambitious goal of slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and power plants account for roughly 30% of carbon dioxide output.
The justices also could rule any day in a lawsuit over a Maine program that offers tuition aid for private education, but excludes religious schools. The decision could ease religious organizations’ access to taxpayer money and fuel a renewed push for school choice programs in some of the 18 states that have so far have not directed taxpayer money to private, religious education.
___
LEAK INVESTIGATION
The court has been mum on the internal investigation Chief Justice John Roberts ordered the day after the leak and assigned to Gail Curley, the marshal of the court.
But CNN has reported that Curley is seeking affidavits and cellphone records from the justices’ law clerks. Competing theories on the left and right have suggested the leaker probably comes from among the 37 clerks, four for each justice plus one for the retired Anthony Kennedy.
The court could examine government-owned cellphones and email accounts, said lawyer Mark Zaid, who frequently represents government whistleblowers. But it couldn’t compel clerks to turn over personal devices or provide access to their own phones without a warrant, Zaid said.
But other lawyers have said the clerks, many who will become leaders in the legal profession, should willingly talk to the court’s investigators.
Zaid and others said clerks should talk to an attorney before agreeing to anything.
___
NO AUDIENCE, NO PERFORMANCE
Before COVID-19 changed things, the court would announce its opinions in public sessions in the courtroom that sometimes produced moments of high drama. In especially closely watched cases, justices on both sides would read summaries of their dueling opinions.
But the courthouse remains closed to the public and, since shortly after the draft abortion opinion appeared, the court has been ringed by an eight-foot barrier and the streets closest to the building also have been closed to vehicles.
Barring a change, the opinions in the abortion and guns cases will be posted online, giving the public quick access, but affording no chance to hear justices state their views.
___
DEADLINES
The justices like to get their work done by the end of June, though they issued their final opinions in early July the past two years. Summer teaching obligations often drive the need to get out of town. This year, it appears that only one justice has a teaching-related deadline. A George Mason University law school program in Padua, Italy, is advertising that Justice Neil Gorsuch will take part.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/30-cases-in-a-month-abortion-guns-top-justices-to-do-list/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:09
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| 0.964224
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) —
California Gov. Gavin Newsom cruised to an easy victory in Tuesday’s primary, advancing to the November general election where he will be an overwhelming favorite to win a second term barely a year after surviving a recall attempt.
Early returns Tuesday showed Newsom with 59%. The state Republican Party’s endorsed candidate, little-known state Sen. Brian Dahle, was far behind with 18%. If he maintains second place, Dahle will face Newsom in November.
In the U.S. Senate race, Democratic incumbent Alex Padilla had an equally easy time advancing to a November runoff. He was appointed to the seat by Newsom last year after Kamala Harris resigned to become vice president.
Padilla was on the ballot twice — once to complete the final few months of Harris’ term and another in a race for a full six-year term that begins in January.
Early vote totals showed Republican attorney Mark Meuser was second in both races. Meuser’s work with the right-leaning Dhillon Law Group has included 22 lawsuits against Newsom claiming he overstepped his authority in imposing coronavirus restrictions.
Turnout in the nation’s most populous state was light despite significant frustration by voters over record-high gas prices, rising crime and a homelessness crisis in cities large and small. But despite those problems Democrats are expected to maintain their stranglehold on state offices and in the Legislature.
Just one year ago, it looked as if Newsom could be on his way out as more than 1.7 million voters signed a petition to recall him from office. Dozens of Republicans lined up to challenge him in the 2021 recall election, eager to take down the Democratic governor of the nation’s most populous state ahead of the 2022 midterms.
Instead, Newsom defeated the recall in such a decisive way that none of the major contenders from last year filed to challenge him for reelection this year.
“This is almost the definition of a noncompetitive race,” said Jessica Levinson, a political commentator and election law professor at Loyola Marymount University.
Freed from the political pressure that typically accompanies governors during an election year, Newsom has sought to further establish California as the anchor of the nation’s left wing. He has vowed to make California a sanctuary for women seeking abortions should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. And he has pushed for a new law that would let private citizens enforce a ban on some assault weapons – similar to how Texas allows the public to sue people to enforce that state’s ban on most abortions.
Dahle, a farmer from the sparsely populated northeast corner of the state that borders Oregon and Nevada, has joined his Republican colleagues in blaming Newsom for the state’s record high gas prices, which hit a record high of $6.37 per gallon on Tuesday. He and other lawmakers – including some Democrats – have called on Newsom to temporarily suspend California’s gas tax, which at 51.1 cents per gallon is the second highest in the nation.
Newsom has rejected that in favor of a plan to send up to $800 to people who own cars, plus another $750 million to give people free rides on public transit for three months.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/californias-newsom-cruises-to-easy-primary-victory/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:16
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| 0.972439
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Eleven years after her own life was massively altered by gun violence, former congresswoman Gabby Giffords stood in front of the Washington Monument Tuesday and lobbied anew for stricter gun laws after yet another string of mass shootings in America.
“Stopping gun violence takes courage, the courage to do what’s right,” Giffords said, surrounded by more than 45,000 small vases of white and orange flowers representing each of the Americans killed by gun violence each year. “We must never stop fighting. Be bold. Be courageous. The nation is counting on you.”
Giffords, was shot in the head in 2011 while speaking to constituents in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people. Her injuries from the assassination attempt left her with difficulty walking and occasional difficulty speaking.
She has emerged as an advocate for nationwide gun control laws; the foundation she created placed the flowers around the Washington Monument.
Giffords’ long-standing cause has been given fresh momentum by a new string of mass shootings around the country, from an elementary school in Texas to a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and a medical clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The violence has spurred a flurry of activity in the nation’s capital, with Democrats in Congress pushing for sweeping reforms that include raising the national age limit to purchase a gun and banning automatic weapons. Families of the victims in the most recent mass shootings spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, with more hearings planned in advance of mass marches this weekend in Washington and other cities.
But whatever reform package passes the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives is in danger of being watered down by the Republicans in the Senate. Tuesday’s press conference was part of a campaign to build pressure on Congress and argue that American public opinion favors serious reform of gun laws at a national level.
“We know what the solutions are. We’ve seen them work in some states and we’ve certainly seen it in other countries,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Raising the national age limit to 21, “would be a major game changer in a lot of these shootings,” she said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, whose home state of Connecticut was the site of the murder of 20 schoolchildren at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago, is one of the leaders of bipartisan congressional negotiations seeking an acceptable deal.
Senators have been meeting privately in a small bipartisan group headed by Murphy, a Democrat, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn, trying to hash out a compromise that could actually become law.
But lawmakers have been here before — unable to pass any substantial gun safety laws in decades in the face of steep objections from Republicans in Congress, some conservative Democrats, and the fierce lobby of gun owners and the National Rifle Association. No major legislation has made it into law since the 1994 assault weapons ban, which has since expired.
On Tuesday, Murphy warned Senate Republicans that the time for symbolic gestures had passed and shifting American public opinion now favors serious nationwide gun control measures.
“We’re not going to settle for a piece of legislation that just checks a box,” he said. “We need to put pressure on the United States Senate to do the right thing.”
___
Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/former-rep-giffords-tells-congress-be-bold-on-gun-reform/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:23
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| 0.955435
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Brittney Griner is easily the most prominent American locked up by a foreign country. But the WNBA star’s case is tangled up with that of a lesser-known American also imprisoned in Russia.
Paul Whelan has been held in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges he and the U.S. government say are false. He was left out of a prisoner exchange in April that brought home yet another detainee, Marine veteran Trevor Reed. That has escalated pressure on the Biden administration to avoid another one-for-one swap that does not include Whelan — even as it presses for the release of Griner, an Olympic gold medalist whose case has drawn global attention.
For Griner and Whelan, the other’s case injects something of a wild card into their own, for better or worse.
The U.S. government may not agree to a deal in which just one of them is released, potentially complicating negotiations. But Whelan could also benefit from the attention given to Griner, which has cast a spotlight on his case. And though the U.S. may hesitate to give up a high-level Russian prisoner in exchange for Griner, who’s charged with a relatively minor drug offense, it’s possible it would be more inclined to do so if both she and Whelan were part of any deal.
The potential interplay between the cases is not lost on the families and supporters of Whelan and Griner.
“It’s still very raw,” Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, said of her brother being excluded from the Reed deal. “And to think we might have to go through that again if Brittney is brought home first is just terrible.”
But “what’s really bad” about feeling that way, she hastened to add, is that she and her family absolutely want Griner released, too. “It’s not like we don’t want her home,” she said. “We want everyone out of there, out of Russia and away from that situation.”
It all adds up to a “sticky wicket,” said Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in Russia and is advising the WNBA players’ association on Griner’s case.
If Griner, who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, were to leapfrog Whelan in coming home, the administration will face scrutiny from Whelan’s supporters. “And if Paul Whelan gets out first, you’re going to have questions about why isn’t Brittney out when Brittney hasn’t even been convicted yet,” she said.
U.S. officials have not said whether swaps are being discussed that could get Griner, Whelan or both home or whether they’d accept a deal that yields the release of one without the other. A spokesman for the State Department office that advocates for wrongfully detained Americans, the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, or SPEHA, declined to say how the cases might affect each other but said in a statement that the office remains committed to securing the release of both.
There’s no question that the February arrest of Griner — Russian authorities detained her at an airport after they said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis — has heightened public awareness around the dozens of Americans who, like Reed and Griner, are classified as wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
The seven-time WNBA All-Star is not only one of the most dominant figures in her sport but also a prominent gay, Black woman. That has prompted questions about the role race and sexual identity are playing in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LGBTQ community, and about whether her case would get more attention if it involved a white male athlete.
U.S. officials and Griner’s supporters initially said little publicly about her case, but that changed in May when the State Department designated her as wrongfully detained and transitioned her case to the SPEHA office.
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, urged the Biden administration in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” to do anything necessary to get Griner home, but also expressed empathy for Whelan. She said that even though there’s no connection between the two besides the fact they’re both in Russia, “I obviously want him back, too.”
Griner’s fame cuts both ways, said St. Julian-Varnon. If ever Russia wants to reestablish itself as a country hospitable to foreign athletes like Griner, the country would have significant incentive to release her. But given Griner’s “political value” to Russia, it may also make a huge demand for her release.
“This is the biggest chip that they have to play,” she said.
Tamryn Spruill, a freelance journalist and author who launched a Change.org petition demanding Griner’s freedom, said in an email that if her “case can be leveraged to simultaneously secure Whelan’s release — or vice versa — then it is my hope that the president will exploit all of those avenues.”
Unlike Griner, who is awaiting trial, Whelan has been convicted and sentenced.
A corporate security executive from Michigan who was arrested after traveling to Russia for a wedding, Whelan was found guilty in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He and his family have vigorously asserted his innocence. The U.S. government has denounced the charges as false.
Reed had also been sentenced well before the swap that freed him. He had been jailed over what Russian authorities say was a drunken physical encounter with police in Moscow and was freed in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was serving a 20-year sentence for drug trafficking conspiracy. U.S. officials cited in part Reed’s ailing health as justification for the trade.
It’s unclear which other Russians, if any, might be part of additional exchanges. Russian state media have for years floated the name of notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, though such a deal risks being seen as lending false equivalency between a Russian the U.S. government regards as properly convicted and Americans it considers unjustly detained.
Jonathan Franks, a consultant who worked on the Reed case, said it was hard to envision a Griner-Bout deal or a Griner deal that didn’t involve Whelan.
“I truly believe Brittney Griner’s fastest path out of Russia is on Air Whelan,” he said.
Elizabeth Whelan said the early morning call she had to make to her aging parents to tell them Reed was coming home but her brother was not is not an experience she wants to repeat. But she said her family does understand the possibility one prisoner could be freed without the other.
“We’re faced with a situation where these hostile foreign nations can assign different values to each person they’re holding, and can work separate deals. Whichever deal comes through first is often who comes home first,” she said, “and it’s not at all a tenable situation.”
___
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/griners-fate-tangled-up-with-other-american-held-in-russia/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:30
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| 0.976012
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden urged graduates of a Los Angeles community college on Tuesday to “never forget where you came from,” saying they can learn from their past without being defined by it.
The first lady, a community college English professor, singled out a few Los Angeles City College graduates in her brief remarks, including a 46-year-old woman who realized a childhood dream of becoming a teacher after losing her 25-year career as a graphic designer during the pandemic.
She also told the stories of a woman from the Ivory Coast who went into labor with her third child during her final exam, but still completed her test, and of the U.S. Marine diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after a tour in Afghanistan but found treatment and enrolled at LACC.
In her first address of the 2022 commencement season, Biden told the more than 1,000 graduates that “you astonish me with your grit and your determination and that is why I love teaching community college.”
As first lady, she continues to teach at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has taught since 2009.
“My charge to you is this: Never forget your path, the people who brought you here, or the lessons you’ve realized along the way,” she said. “Never forget where you came from. It doesn’t have to define you, but it will always have something to teach you.”
“Never forget what made you who you are, and then you will be ready for wherever you choose to go next,” she said.
Biden visited Los Angeles City College in 2016 to announce the start of the Los Angeles College Promise Program, which offers free tuition for all new, full-time students at the Los Angeles Community College District, including LACC, according to the school’s website.
Biden and her husband, President Joe Biden, pushed last year for a nationwide program that would provide two years of free community college, but Congress rejected the idea.
The first lady was in Los Angeles to help host, with President Biden, the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of leaders of democracies in the Western Hemisphere.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/jill-biden-to-l-a-college-grads-never-forget-your-path/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:37
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| 0.977555
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — As the nation awaits a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding a Mississippi law that calls for banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, LGBTQ advocates are pushing to codify protections for same-sex marriage in states throughout the country.
Since the leak of a draft opinion alluded to the court potentially overturning abortion rights, concerns have grown over whether justices could next move to reverse other decisions that rely on the “right to privacy” that the court outlined in the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide nearly 50 years ago.
The leaked opinion authored by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, explicitly says the decision concerns abortion and no other rights.
But legal experts have speculated that similar logic could be used to reverse other decisions, including Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case in which the court ruled same-sex marriage bans unconstitutional.
“We need states across this country to say, ‘We see you. You exist. You deserve respect. And you deserve protections, because your relationship is no different than any other,’” said Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff in the landmark case, who is now a Democratic candidate trying to become an Ohio state lawmaker.
Before the Supreme Court struck down bans and legalized same-sex marriage, 31 states had enacted laws banning same-sex couples from marrying. The laws have not been in effect since courts ruled them unconstitutional, but they remain on the books in most of those states.
For years they were considered defunct and attracted little attention, but the shifting composition of the Supreme Court has led several states to remove them from their statutes and constitutions. Virginia and Nevada repealed their defunct bans in 2020 and New Jersey codified marriage rights for same-sex couples in 2021.
“We should all be worried about our other fundamental rights that have been obtained through the courts over the last decade or so,” said Utah state Sen. Derek Kitchen, a Democrat and the state’s only LGBTQ lawmaker said on the steps of the statehouse on Tuesday.
Kitchen and New Jersey Assemblyman Don Guardian, a Republican, want more states to remove the same-sex marriage bans from their laws and codify rights for LGBTQ couples to prepare for a worst-case scenario in which the Supreme Court decides to overturn the 2015 same-sex marriage decision.
“I would very concerned for any state that doesn’t take up the same type of legislation now before the court rules (on abortion) so they can protect their LGBTQ+ residents that have gotten married,” said Guardian, who is gay.
Though the New Jersey law passed with bipartisan support, similar moves to codify same-sex marriage rights could face uphill battles in Republican-led legislatures that have begun to revisit LGBTQ issues with newfound zeal.
Some have moved to limit LGBTQ subject matter from school curriculums and regulate healthcare for transgender youth. At least a dozen, including Utah, have passed laws limiting participation in sports for transgender youth.
Kitchen likened the state same-sex marriage bans to “trigger laws” that many Republican-led states have enacted to prepare for a scenario in which Roe v. Wade is overturned and states can resume limiting abortions.
Kitchen hasn’t talked to the Republicans who lead the Utah Legislature, but said he’s optimistic same-sex marriage has been embraced widely enough in Utah that codifying protections for LGBTQ couples will win widespread support.
“Utah is a family friendly state. We support families we know how important it is to provide stable units for children to grow,” he said.
Kitchen added: “We have already decided as a community that marriage equality is a value that we care about. So yes, this is something that does have a chance of passing in Utah.”
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/same-sex-marriage-advocates-push-for-post-roe-protections/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:44
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| 0.96147
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The son of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old woman killed when a gunman opened fire in a racist attack on Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, challenged Congress Tuesday to act against the “cancer of white supremacy” and the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.
Garnell Whitfield Jr.’s emotional testimony comes as lawmakers are working furiously to strike a bipartisan agreement on gun safety measures in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings. Ten days after the shooting death of his mother and nine others in New York, another 18-year-old gunman with a semi-automatic rifle opened fire in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 school children and two teachers.
“What are you doing? You were elected to protect us,” Whitfield Jr. told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” he asked. “If there is nothing then, respectfully, senators … you should yield your positions of authority and influence to others that are willing to lead on this issue.”
The hearing is the first of two this week as families of the victims and survivors of the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde appear at public hearings and events on Capitol Hill to show the human toll of America’s gun violence and urge Congress to act.
Pressing for a deal, President Joe Biden met Tuesday with Sen. Chris Murphy, a key Democratic negotiator, who has worked most of his career trying to curb the nation’s mass-shooting scourge after the heartbreaking slaughter of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary in his home state of Connecticut a decade ago.
Murphy told reporters after the meeting that he was grateful to have an opportunity to update the president on the talks. “Obviously we’ve still got work to do in the Senate,” he said.
Murphy said his goal is to try to get an agreement this week, but he added that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been clear that “we need some extra time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s that will get it.”
Also Tuesday, actor Matthew McConaughey, who is from Uvalde, made the rounds of Senate offices before heading to the White House to open the daily briefing. McConaughey, who earlier this year considered a run for governor of Texas, gave a speech on the importance of taking legislative action “to make the loss of these lives matter.”
“We want secure and safe schools and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get the damn guns,” he said. The 52-year-old actor and his wife drove to Uvalde on the day after the shooting and spent time with some of the victims’ families.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee is expected to hear from more victims’ families and from fourth-grader Miah Cerrillo, who captured Americans’ attention after she described covering herself in her dead classmate’s blood and playing dead to survive the shooting rampage in Uvalde.
The Senate hearing Tuesday focused directly on the white supremacist ideology that authorities say led an 18-year-old gunman dressed in military gear to drive hours to a predominately Black neighborhood in Buffalo and live stream his violent rampage. The shooting left 10 people dead and several others wounded.
“My mother’s life mattered,” Whitfield said. “Your actions here will tell us if and how much it mattered to you.”
Shortly after the Buffalo massacre, a bill that would have bolstered federal resources to prevent domestic terrorism failed in the Senate at the hands of Republican opposition. Even at Tuesday’s hearing, Republican senators took the time to focus on the racial injustice protests that took place in the summer of 2020, citing those incidents as acts of domestic extremism.
Since the failed vote, senators have regrouped and began to meet privately in a small bipartisan group headed by Murphy and Republican Sen. John Cornyn, trying to hash out a compromise that could actually become law.
But lawmakers have been here before — unable to pass any substantial gun safety laws in decades in the face of steep objections from Republicans in Congress, some conservative Democrats, and the fierce lobbying of gun owners and the National Rifle Association. No major legislation has made it into law since the 1994 assault weapons ban, which has since expired.
The issue for Democrats is that a number of the topics with bipartisan support would likely not have stopped either the shooting in Buffalo or Uvalde. And the ones that gun safety advocates argue would have been met with a deep reluctance from Republicans. One such proposal would raise the age requirement for gun purchases from 18 to 21. Another popular measure among Democrats would have banned assault-style rifles altogether.
Instead, the senators are focusing on incremental policy changes through a system that would send funds and other incentives to the states to bolster security at school campuses, provide more mental health services to young people and possibly encourage states to pursue red-flag laws to keep firearms out of the hands of people who would do harm.
But one thing that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seem to agree on is that inaction is not an option.
“We know we won’t get it all done at once,” Schumer said Tuesday afternoon. “But the American people want us to get something done and they want to see Republicans do something.”
His counterpart across the aisle seemed to echo the sentiment. “Almost everybody would like to get an outcome,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. “I hope we’ll have one sooner rather than later.”
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Alan Fram and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/son-of-buffalo-victim-pushes-congress-what-are-you-doing/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:51
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| 0.969304
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has elevated her national prominence through a hands-off approach to pandemic restrictions, won the Republican primary on Tuesday against a former legislative leader who accused her of using the office to mount a 2024 White House bid.
All three Republican incumbents running for reelection to a statewide office — Noem, U.S. Sen. John Thune and U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson — held off primary challengers running to their right. Primary voters also soundly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have made it more difficult to pass citizen-initiated ballot measures that raise taxes or spend significant public funds.
The first-term governor’s primary win against former South Dakota House Speaker Steve Haugaard gives her a commanding advantage as she seeks another term in November against Democratic state Rep. Jamie Smith, who did not face a primary challenger.
In her speech at an election night party, Noem didn’t even mention her Democratic gubernatorial challenger’s name. Instead, she told the crowd, “we’re going to have the chance to go into a November election and make sure we’re pushing back on Joe Biden’s America.”
She then led them in booing and jeering the president’s policies as she drove a comparison between Biden and former President Donald Trump, whose attention she has courted.
“Today, I’m on defense,” she said. “Every time I turn around I’m fighting off Joe Biden and the damage he’s doing to the state of South Dakota.”
Noem has used this election fundraising cycle to collect a record amount of money for a South Dakota gubernatorial candidate — bringing in more than $15 million from a series of fundraisers all over the country.
“She was one of the only governors who stood firm in not using the pandemic to increase government intrusions in our lives,” said Kerry Larson, a Republican voter from Sioux Falls. “It says a lot about her and how she will govern under pressure.”
But Noem has also struggled to manage Statehouse politics at times, publicly clashing with Republican legislators with whom she disagrees.
Haugaard had attempted to turn the tables on Noem’s 2018 campaign promise to increase government transparency. He has pointed to ethics complaints she faces for using state-owned airplanes to attend political events and taking a hands-on role in a state agency while it was evaluating her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license.
Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, also won his primary against two challengers who joined the race after Thune drew Trump’s ire. Trump speculated the senator’s career was “over” after he made public statements dismissing the former president’s lies about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.
Neither of the challengers was well-funded or well-known in the state, and in a sign that Thune was positioned for victory, Trump steered clear of South Dakota.
Thune is a longtime fixture as the state GOP’s elder statesman, and if he wins reelection to a fourth term, he is a likely pick to succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate Republican leader. He will face Democrat Brian Bengs, an Air Force veteran and college professor, in November’s general election.
The senator alluded to his prominence in Washington in a statement celebrating the primary win, saying he would “continue putting South Dakota’s interests on the national agenda” and labeling Biden’s agenda as a “radical, left-wing crusade.”
Thune’s status in Washington factored into Republican Sandra Pay’s vote, saying it would be “crazy” to vote out someone with Thune’s Senate leadership post.
“He’s got power,” she said.
Republican Johnson defeated state lawmaker Taffy Howard in the Republican primary for the state’s lone House spot. The $300,000 Howard’s campaign raised was dwarfed by Johnson’s $1.8 million, but a number of national political action committees spent money in the race as it began to look competitive.
“It will not be deception and New Jersey attacks that carry the day,” Johnson said, referring to a political action committee called Drain The Swamp that spent $500,000 opposing Johnson. “It will be truth and South Dakota hard work.”
The congressman has taken a measured approach on most issues and has touted his work with a bipartisan group of lawmakers called the Problem Solvers Caucus. Howard has tried to challenge him from the right, creating a primary race that showed some momentum behind the more extreme wing of the Republican Party in South Dakota.
That intraparty conflict has been fought across a slate of legislative primary races where Republicans have launched attack ads against each other. Establishment Republicans are trying to weed out a group of contrarian lawmakers who have pushed the Legislature further right.
However, Republican voter Kim McKoy said Tuesday one thing was on her mind as she cast her vote: “Economy, economy, economy.”
She mostly voted against incumbents.
“I listen to these people talk and I’m like, ‘Do you care that people are struggling?’ I just don’t think they do,” she said. “I think they care about their causes and they’ve lost their minds.”
Primary voters defeated an amendment to the state constitution, proposed by Republican lawmakers, that would have placed a 60% vote threshold on ballot measures to raise taxes or spend more than $10 million within five years of enactment.
Democrat Joshua Matzner said he voted against the proposal because it would erode the power of citizens to change laws through the ballot.
“We prefer to be able to actually make a decision in our government,” he said.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/south-dakotas-noem-thune-repel-gop-challenges-from-right/
| 2022-06-08T11:30:58
|
en
| 0.976767
|
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Taiwanese F-16 fighter jet made an emergency landing at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Hawaii on Monday afternoon, and the U.S. Air Force pilot who was flying the aircraft was taken to the hospital for treatment, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
According to officials, the aircraft appeared to have problems with its landing gear and the pilot declared an in-flight emergency and landed. A netting barrier was used to slow and stop the plane, and the nose gear collapsed after contact with the net, officials said.
The pilot was not identified and was not seriously injured, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details prior to the completion of the investigation.
The U.S. routinely sells F-16s to Taiwan. Officials said the pilot took off from an Air Force base in the continental U.S., and was scheduled to stop in Hawaii en route to Taiwan.
The U.S. has programs to retrofit and upgrade older models of the F-16 for Taiwan, as well as plans to deliver new models of the aircraft. It wasn’t clear if the fighter jet was new or an older version.
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/taiwanese-f-16-fighter-makes-emergency-landing-in-hawaii/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:05
|
en
| 0.97996
|
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Liz Cheney has been thinking lately about her great-great-grandfather, a man who fought for the Union in the Civil War, as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurrection prepares to launch a prime-time hearing of its work.
The Wyoming congresswoman, a member of one of America’s famous political families, is one of just two Republicans on the 1/6 panel, and its vice chair. Cheney helped drive the committee’s investigation into Donald Trump’s relentless efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and has become one of the former president’s fiercest critics after a mob of his supporters laid siege to the Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory.
Thursday’s televised hearing could be a pivotal moment in her political legacy — elevating her ambitions as a post-Trump party leader or possibly costing Cheney her job.
“I have found myself, especially since January 6th, thinking often of my great-great-grandfather and of the Union he fought to defend,” Cheney said in a recent speech.
“The question for every one of us is, in this time of testing, will we do our duty?” she asked after receiving a 2022 Profile In Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston. “Or will we look away from danger, ignore the threat, embrace the lies?”
Cheney has not shied from tough battles since she was elected to the House in 2016, alongside Trump’s own election, a staunch conservative whose family settled in Wyoming generations ago and who easily won the Republican-heavy Western state’s lone congressional seat.
In one of her first news conferences with party leaders, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney unabashedly backed the enhanced interrogation techniques he helped champion in the post-9/11 era. Many others in Washington had said it was time to end the practice, regarding it as torture.
Known as an inside player with a famous family name, she is now thrust onto a national stage at a critical moment. Her singular mission to stop Trump from ever being president again after he spread false claims of voter fraud that spurred the attack on the Capitol may be among her last in Congress.
Barbara Comstock, a former Republican congresswoman in Virginia, said Cheney grew up steeped in principles and the belief that “this is why you’re in public service, to do the right thing.”
Comstock compared Cheney to Republican Margaret Chase Smith, the U.S. senator from Maine who stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the GOP over unproven allegations and smears against Americans whose lives were upended after being labeled as communists.
“History does have a way of sorting this out, and I think Liz understands that,” Comstock said.
Booted by Republicans from her No. 3 position in House GOP leadership for joining the 1/6 committee, Cheney now faces the full force of the Trump wing of the Republican Party apparatus trying to remove her from office by supporting a primary opponent. Wyoming tilts strongly Republican, almost guaranteeing the winner of the party’s August primary will win the general election in November.
Trump is campaigning against Cheney, as he has gone after the 10 House Republicans who joined Democrats in voting to impeach him over the insurrection — the only president to be twice impeached.
The former president recently arrived in Wyoming, filling the Casper event center to rally in support of Harriet Hageman, the fiery attorney and state party leader challenging Cheney.
“The people of Wyoming are going to vote dump this woman, Liz Cheney,” Trump predicted.
As Trump ran through a list of grievances about those disloyal to him, he said that worse than his Democratic political opponents are “the backstabbing RINO Republicans” — an acronym for “Republicans in Name Only” — and cited Cheney as among them.
Other Republicans have followed Trump’s lead. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who is laboring to stay close to Trump as Republicans try to wrest control of the House from Democrats in the midterm elections, has shunned the congressional tradition of backing incumbent colleagues and instead endorsed Hageman and sent campaign cash her way.
“You have a congresswoman who’s obsessed with attacking President Donald J. Trump,” said McCarthy, who hopes to become the next House speaker, in a video address to the rally crowd.
James King, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming, said has he has never seen a serious challenge to an incumbent member of Congress in the state in his 30 years observing local politics.
“It’s an unusual situation, but then the last year and a half has been an unusual situation,” King said.
He said he’s not sure the televised Jan. 6 hearings will hurt or help Cheney’s standing back home.
“I think most people will have made up their mind — they have either decided that Cheney is a traitor to what they voted for in 2020, or they are behind Cheney in searching for the truth behind the Jan. 6 events,” he said.
Still, other notable Republicans, including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, have quietly supported Cheney’s campaign.
Strategists see a path for Cheney’s reelection by drawing a coalition of moderate Republicans and crossover Democrats who are eligible to vote in the GOP primary after the state government bucked Trump’s push to tighten the rules.
The Republican Party in Wyoming has become more extreme, and its chairman, Frank Eathorne, was spotted in images of those outside the Capitol during the riot.
“We’re fed up with Liz Cheney,” Hageman said at the rally.
After the long assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, Congress reconvened that night to pick up where it had left off — certifying the election results submitted by the states.
Cheney said she walked through the building, into Statuary Hall, the historic space filled with law enforcement officers in tactical gear “sitting on the floor, leaning up against the statues, exhausted from the brutal hand-to-hand combat in which they had been engaged for hours.”
She made her way to the next room, the Capitol Rotunda, “watched over by statues of Washington and Jefferson, and Lincoln and Grant, and Eisenhower, and Ford and Reagan.”
Its giant paintings, she noted, included one that depicts George Washington resigning his military commission after the Revolutionary War — voluntarily relinquishing his command in a stunning act that set the stage for the future presidential tradition.
“And this sacred obligation to defend the peaceful transfer of power has been honored by every American president — except one,” she said.
Thinking about her great-great-grandfather Samuel Fletcher Cheney, she said it’s time for this generation to “set aside partisan battles and stand together to perpetuate and preserve our great republic.”
___
For full coverage of the Jan. 6 hearings, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
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https://cw39.com/politics/ap-politics/will-we-do-our-duty-cheney-lays-her-legacy-on-the-line/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:12
|
en
| 0.971564
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Achieving the best results with an eyelash curler
No matter what brand or quality of mascara you use, it can be difficult to add lift to your eyelashes. But curling your eyelashes makes them look thick and lush.
Eyelash curlers have been around for a long time. But there are some best practices and tips you can follow to ensure you’re using them effectively and getting the best results possible.
Types of eyelash curlers
Eyelash curlers look something like a pair of scissors. When you hold the curlers and squeeze the handles together, the movement operates the clamp mechanism. You curl your lashes by placing them between the clamp before squeezing the handles together. Beyond this basic shape, there are a few variations you can choose.
Metal
Most eyelash curlers are made from metal. There is rubber padding around the clamps, so the curler does not cut your eyelashes. However, if you’re allergic to metal, these types of eyelash curlers won’t be suitable.
Plastic
You can also get eyelash curlers made from plastic. They’re typically not as effective because the material isn’t as strong as metal eyelash curlers, but they are less expensive.
Heated
You can also use a heated eyelash curler to get a more dramatic effect. The battery-powered heater adds a moderate temperature to the clamps on the curler. Just like curling your hair, adding a bit of heat to your eyelash curler makes the curl last longer.
How to use your eyelash curler for the best results
Step 1: Prime your eyelashes
First, make sure your eyelids and eyelashes are clean. Use some eye makeup remover to remove any mascara or other product from the area.
Next, apply some eyelash primer. Eyelash primer is typically a serum or cream and comes with an application brush. Using a primer before you curl your lashes will help them hold the curl for longer.
Step 2: Prep your eyelash curler
It’s important to clean your eyelash curler before and after each use. Unsanitary tools during makeup application can result in an eye infection. Keep your eyelash curlers clean by dampening a makeup wipe or cotton wool dampened with a facial cleanser and running it over the rubber clamps.
If you are using a heated eyelash curler, turn it on and wait for it to warm up. You can also mimic a heated eyelash curler by holding a standard curler under a warm hairdryer for a few seconds before use.
Step 3: Apply the curler to your lashes
Make sure your eyes are fully open and look directly into a mirror. Pick up your eyelash curlers and hold them loosely so the clamps are completely open. Hold the curler against your eye. The eyelashes on top of your eyelid should sit between the top and bottom clamp.
Take a moment to make sure all your eyelashes are inside the two clamps. This placement ensures your lashes curl evenly. The clamps should be close to your eyelid at the base of your eyelashes. Be careful not to go too close, or you might accidentally pinch your eyelids with the clamps. Gently close the clamps to check the placement is correct.
Step 4: Curl your lashes
Once the placement is correct, use the handles to clamp down on the eyelashes fully. Hold the curler steady and firmly but be careful not to clamp too hard. This can accidentally break or damage your eyelashes. Squeeze the clamp gently and hold for about 10 seconds.
Step 5: Avoid a crimped look or sharp angle
After you set the initial curl at the baseline of your lashes, release the clamps. Move the curler clamps slightly further out along your lashes and repeat the curling process. Do this a couple more times along your lash line to achieve a natural-looking curl.
Step 6: Set the curl
While applying mascara after curling isn’t necessary, it does help to hold the curl in place for longer. You can use a light coating of clear mascara or add your favorite shade.
What you need to buy for eyelash curling
Urban Decay Subversion Eyelash Primer
This creamy primer adds lots of volume and length to your lashes. It also protects against breakage from the clamp or a heated curler.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Sephora
Tweezerman ProMaster Lash Curler
This durable lash curler is particularly effective for almond-shaped or deep-set eyes. It has a slightly elongated clamp, and the handles are comfortable to hold. The silicone clamp is hypoallergenic and hygienic, too.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Sephora
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Lauren Farrell writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/eye-makeup-br/how-to-use-an-eyelash-curler/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:19
|
en
| 0.925769
|
Which microwave stand is best?
The idea behind a separate stand for your microwave is to add storage space while freeing up valuable room on the counter. Most microwave stands are built to hold more than just your microwave, usually with shelves below; some of them come with wheels and are called microwave carts. If you’re looking for a really sturdy rack that holds more than 100 pounds of appliances and gear, take a look at the O&K Furniture Four-Tier Baker’s Rack.
What to know before you buy a microwave stand
The size of your microwave oven
The most important measurements to have when shopping for a microwave oven stand are the exterior dimensions of your microwave. Standard microwave ovens with 1 to 2 cubic feet of capacity are about 20 to 25 inches wide and 16 to 20 inches deep. Keep in mind that when the door is open, the depth doubles.
You want a stand slightly wider and deeper than your microwave so it is stable and the door opens and closes easily. You also need a stand sturdy enough to support the weight of your microwave oven. The lightest microwaves weigh about 30 pounds and the biggest weigh more than 80 pounds.
Where will you place your stand?
Stands usually are placed against an open wall. Make sure the one you choose fits in the space you have, and that your location is near an electrical outlet.
Use different search terms
When you look for microwave stands, look also for baker’s racks, storage racks and utility racks. All are four-legged storage shelves and most are taller than they are wide. If you choose a tall microwave stand, you will want to consider using hardware to attach it to your wall to prevent tipping over.
What to look for in a quality microwave stand
What else might you want to place on your microwave stand?
- Stands with multiple shelves let you maximize your storage space. The shelf for your microwave should be at a height convenient for users — typically 30 to 36 inches, about the height of your countertops. Shelves above and below are useful for storing other small appliances, such as air fryers, slow cookers, blenders, mixers, juicers and coffee makers.
- Tall racks can also be used to hang pots and pans above your microwave. You might also consider cabinetry with doors to keep your accessories out of sight.
Kitchen carts
Kitchen carts are another type of microwave stand, but are generally used as extra work surfaces, like a floating kitchen island you put wherever it’s needed most. Carts have limited utility as microwave stands because your power cord needs to stay plugged into an outlet to work. Some cooks do like microwave carts on wheels, though, because they are easily moved a few feet when sweeping and mopping the floor.
Avoid general-purpose kitchen carts with features that are unusable when holding your microwave. You will never use a butcher block top if your microwave is sitting on it and you will never use a cart that folds up, either.
Choose a style that suits you
- Open metal racks look good in modern and minimalist kitchens.
- Wooden cabinetry is a natural choice for farmhouse and rustic kitchens.
How much you can expect to spend on a microwave stand
Small, lightweight microwave stands can be found for as little as $40. Most stands cost from $60-$200, with commercial-quality and full-fashion stands costing $500 and more.
Microwave stand FAQ
How sturdy does a microwave stand need to be?
A. A safe stand is one that does not wobble, but stands firmly and solidly when you open and close the door. It is better to be safe than sorry, so look for a stand that’s solidly built and assembles with substantial hardware..
Will I need help assembling my stand when it arrives?
A. Most do-it-yourselfers have no difficulty assembling microwave stands that come with the needed tools. If you have any doubt, ask a friend to help you with assembly.
What’s the best microwave stand to buy?
Top microwave stand
O&K Furniture Four-Tier Baker’s Rack
What you need to know: This sturdy iron and wood rack has four shelves for your microwave and lots more.
What you’ll love: This sturdy powder-coated frame holds up to 110 pounds of kitchen appliances and accessories. The adjustable feet keep it level on uneven floors. The two lower shelves are 24 inches wide and 16 inches deep and the two upper shelves are equally wide but 5 and 10 inches deep. Instructions and necessary assembly tools are included.
What you should consider: Some customers reported missing pieces.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top microwave stand for the money
AZL 1 LIfe Concept Three-Tier Kitchen Microwave Cart
What you need to know: This moveable workstation has four wheels, two of which have step-on locks to keep it in place.
What you’ll love: The construction is solid and sturdy, with a metal frame and engineered wood shelves that resist scratches and high temperatures. Assembly is easy and the tools you need are included. It comes in walnut and white or brown and black.
What you should consider: It’s for microwaves that are less than 23 inches wide and weigh less than 55 pounds.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Hodedah Tall Standing Kitchen Cabinet with Large Open Space for Microwave
What you need to know: The enclosed top and bottom spaces on this 77-inch-tall cabinet give you plenty of room to store kitchen essentials, too.
What you’ll love: The microwave shelf is larger than most, at 31 inches wide and 17 inches deep. The upper cabinet has two interior shelves behind glass doors so you can see what’s inside. Storage below the microwave includes a full-width drawer and more storage space behind cabinet doors.
What you should consider: Some customers say assembly is difficult because all the pieces are not clearly labeled.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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David Van Allan writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/beauty-personal-care-br/storage-br/best-microwave-stand/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:26
|
en
| 0.943883
|
Top barware accessories on Uncommon Goods
Uncommon Goods is a popular online stop for those seeking unique, handcrafted products, offering home goods, kitchenware, jewelry and experiences. They carry a range of environmentally conscious gifts and accessories with both function and aesthetics in mind.
Notably, Uncommon Goods sells handy barware products to make preparing and enjoying any kind of drink more convenient and engaging. If you would like to impress your guests, here are the best barware products from Uncommon Goods.
Which Uncommon Goods barware is best?
This collection of dehydrated fruits and spices complements any home bar set up by enhancing your cocktails with a burst of flavor. There are five bottles in the set, including blueberry lavender, pineapple and strawberry jalapeno. They should last a long time as you only need to add a little to your drink to taste the difference.
Foghat Glass Topper Cocktail Smoker
Fine drinks and sophisticated cocktails are improved at home with this smoke infuser. It adds both an eye-catching aesthetic to the drink-making process as well as a smoky flavor to your beverage. This simple procedure livens up even the most mundane of drinks. The Foghat will last up to 100 burns.
For those who enjoy strong, cold coffee, this cold brew coffee maker provides an easy and tasty beverage whenever you want. The vessel boasts a 12-cup capacity and can be set up to steep coffee overnight, so it’s ready in the morning or afternoon. It also comes with a refill kit for extended use and cleaning tablets to maintain the coffee maker.
This etched rocks glass features a detailed map of your favorite big city, with choices including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Toronto and Vancouver, among others. While designed particularly for whiskey drinks, the glass can be used for any small cocktails or even juice or water. The glass is also dishwasher-safe.
This elaborate cocktail mixer set includes ingredients to make four to eight high-end drinks. You provide your base liquor of choice and choose the matching set, whether you want a seaweed infusion flavor for your rum cocktail or pear hibiscus syrup for a gin drink.
Most whiskey glasses are designed with aesthetics in mind, crafted to uniquely and proudly show off the golden hue of the beloved liquor. This tumbler features a mind-bending look achieved with a bit of preparation. An included triangular silicone mold lets you freeze an angled portion of the glass, creating a sloped block of ice. Once frozen, simply pour whiskey on top to create a visual illusion and enjoy a chilled drink.
Wine Chilling Coaster with Glasses
This inventive set of granite cooling coasters keeps your wine tumbler chilled so you can take time to enjoy it. The sturdy coasters perfectly fit the included stemless wine glasses, but they can also be used for cans, bottles and even rocks or highball glasses. Made from recycled countertops, each unique coaster is handcrafted in the U.S.
Four glass tumblers feature an etched drawing of your favorite dog breed in goofy and adorable poses. Choose from dachshund, beagle, boxer or poodle, among other popular choices. Each 14-ounce glass showcases a prominent breed personality trait accompanied by an endearing image. Made in the U.S., these glasses are dishwasher safe.
This set of four simple syrups includes cherry almond, grapefruit basil, pear rosemary and cucumber habanero to add to your drinks to make the most flavorful of cocktails. The small bottles pack a powerful punch, each making up to six cocktails.
This etched pint glass features a map of a famous marathon race route, providing a compelling design for your drink of choice. Over a dozen marathon maps from around the world are offered, including Tokyo, New York, the Marine Corps, Berlin and Honolulu, with each showing the start and end of the race. At 16 ounces, it holds a standard beer and is dishwasher safe.
Show off your beer can in style with a cute flannel koozie. While it comes in your choice of green or red, it is more than just appealing to the eyes. Two layers of insulation keep your hands warm while your drink stays cool.
For the bird enthusiast who enjoys coffee or tea, this punny ceramic mug boasts ‘fowl’ language, with the names of some curious feathered friends. These aren’t your popular birds, but ones with names that may elicit some chuckles or giggles from the crowd. The illustrated birds add some color to the mug that won’t fade as it’s safe for dishwasher and microwave use.
Bring the popular southern Italian summer drink to your home with this comprehensive limoncello kit. The chilled digestif can be made easily with the included infusion jar, stainless steel funnel and natural Manuka honey flavor. You just supply the alcohol, sugar and lemons.
This set of attractive hand-blown glass flutes comes at a good price point, leveling up your barware so you can enjoy sparkling wine and elegant cocktails. Each of the six flutes is made from recycled glass and is designed with a sturdy base. They’re easy to clean as well and are dishwasher safe.
Highball glasses can get crowded when mixing and serving cocktails, which is why this inventive cocktail spoon straw is so useful. The straw gives way to a spoon at the bottom so that stirring drinks and tasting can be done conveniently. They are made of stainless steel, so they are easy to wash and superior to disposable straws.
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Anthony Marcusa writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/bar-wine-br/the-best-uncommon-goods-barware/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:33
|
en
| 0.925737
|
Which KitchenAid cooktop is best?
When space concerns mean that a full-size range isn’t an option, many chefs turn to a cooktop. These function exactly like a range but don’t have the oven to install. This frees up valuable space under the counters.
KitchenAid’s Four-Burner 30-Inch Gas Downdraft Cooktop is sleek, compact and powerful — perfect for skilled home cooks who want a versatile, stylish appliance.
What to know before you buy a KitchenAid cooktop
Electric vs. gas vs. induction
If you’ve decided to install a wall oven and go for a KitchenAid cooktop, the first consideration is whether you want an electric, gas or induction cooktop.
- Gas: KitchenAid has distinct style options for gas cooktops. They have cast iron grates over a smooth glass surface. Some cooks find the smooth surface easier to clean, while others prefer a more traditional appliance. Gas cooktops can be some of the most expensive.
- Electric: This is not the electric you remember. KitchenAid electric cooktops cover the coils in a glass surface. No more digging out from underneath the burner for cleaning. These tend to be more affordable for cooks who want to upgrade on a budget.
- Induction: Induction burners use heated magnets under a glass surface. These are energy efficient and safe, but they can be hard to find. KitchenAid has many sizes to choose from, but finding them in stock can be difficult. Certain types of cookware will also not work on induction burners.
It’s also possible to install a KitchenAid cooktop over and under-counter oven. This gives you the freedom to mix-and-match appliances, choosing the one that works best for you.
Size
KitchenAid cooktops are available in 15, 30 or 36 inches, but commercial-grade versions are available in 48 inches, too. The size you select depends on your available counter space as well as the amount of cooking you intend to do. Larger cooktops have more burners with different power levels and features so you can create more in the kitchen at once.
Power
Power on cooktops is measured in watts for electric and induction burners and British Thermal Units (BTUs) for gas. Some KitchenAid electric and induction cooktops also have additional power in extra coils underneath the larger burners.
You’ll need a good mix of both to perform everything from searing at high heat to simmering or finishing delicate sauces.
What to look for in a quality KitchenAid cooktop
Downdraft
Downdraft KitchenAid cooktops do not require a stove hood. This means you can install them on a kitchen island or away from the wall to suit your kitchen layout.
Continuous burners
For all cooktops, a continuous burner means no lifting heavy pots to move from one side of the stove to the other. This reduces the possibility of spills or accidents as you cook.
Griddle included
For grilled sandwiches and pancake breakfasts, an included griddle is a lifesaver in the KitchenAid gas cooktops. Simply remove one section of the cast-iron grates and insert the griddle as needed.
Conversion to liquid petroleum
KitchenAid offers gas cooktops that can be converted to run on liquid petroleum (LP) for flexibility in your power source. Instead of plumbing directly to natural gas, these can be added to RVs or tiny homes without a dedicated gas line.
Easy cleanup
KitchenAid electric, induction and glass-on-gas cooktops can be easily cleaned with a specialized cleaner or a spray bottle filled with diluted white vinegar.
Stainless steel cooktops and cast iron grates are also easy to care for with a nonabrasive plastic scrubber and a mild abrasive.
How much you can expect to spend on a KitchenAid cooktop
The price varies depending on the size and type of cooktop. Expect to spend $1,000-$3,000.
KitchenAid cooktop FAQ
How challenging is it to install a cooktop?
A. When it comes to a KitchenAid gas cooktop, leave it to the professionals. A certified gas fitter is needed to make sure the connection is secure and safe.
Electric and induction cooktops are a much easier installation and can generally be completed by experienced DIYers. If you’re in doubt, check with the manufacturer for instructions.
Can gas cooktops be used when the power goes out?
A. Yes. Gas cooktops can be manually lit when power is not available. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your specific cooktop.
What’s the best KitchenAid cooktop to buy?
Top KitchenAid cooktop
Four-burner 30-inch Gas Downdraft Cooktop
What you need to know: For home cooks who aspire to restaurant-quality dishes, this cooktop can help.
What you’ll love: This stainless steel downdraft cooktop features four burners, one of which puts out 17,000 BTUs for powerful, professional cooking. The three-speed fan is effective at removing odors and smoke, and the cooktop can be converted to run on LP gas
What you should consider: Some users thought that the stainless steel knobs felt flimsy.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Top KitchenAid cooktop for the money
36-inch Radiant Electric Cooktop in Black With Five Elements
What you need to know: With four adaptable burners, this cooktop can handle the largest pots and the smallest pans.
What you’ll love: With two 10-inch and two 6-inch burners, this smooth surface cooktop features radiant coils that heat the glass for even cooking. The 12-inch, 9-inch and 6-inch burners have triple radiant coils for larger pots. Even-Heat technology means you can quickly boil a pot of water or slowly melt chocolate without scorching with two burners that have dedicated settings.
What you should consider: The burners are hard to see unless they are in use.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
Worth checking out
36-inch Gas Commercial Cooktop With Six Burners
What you need to know: When you’re ready to invest in a serious appliance, this commercial-grade cooktop is the way to go.
What you’ll love: It features two 20,000 BTU dual flame burners for precise temperature control. The convertible greats have removable inserts that can increase or decrease the heat as needed. Another three 15,000 BTU burners and a 5,000 BTU simmer burner complement the power of the larger flame.
What you should consider: Because of the knob placement, it’s easy to accidentally turn the burners on. This is not safe in a home with small children.
Where to buy: Sold by Home Depot
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Suzannah Kolbeck writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/kitchen-br/cookware-cooking-tools-br/best-kitchenaid-cooktop/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:40
|
en
| 0.922864
|
Which bike phone mount is best?
Whether you’re a casual rider or a dedicated cyclist, outdoor bike riding is pleasant. Listening to your favorite tunes or following a GPS route can enhance your experience, but what if you want to change songs or remap your ride as you’re pedaling?
Using your phone while bike riding can be dangerous, but you can safely access your phone if you have it on a phone bike mount. The best phone bike mounts, like the Roam Universal Premium Bike Phone Mount, let you use your phone as you ride without worrying about losing control.
What to know before you buy a bike phone mount
Strap vs. clamp mount
Strap mounts are usually silicone and wrap around the lower or upper corners of a phone to secure it, while clamp mounts have rigid plastic support and jaw-like mechanisms to lock phones into place. Strap mounts take up less space than clamp mounts and are excellent for road riding. However, clamp mounts have a robust design and are suitable for road and mountain riding.
Clamp size
It’s crucial to note that not every phone mount is compatible with every bike. For that reason, it’s best to measure your bike’s frame diameter before buying one. A mount’s clamp size can vary, but it must be ample enough to attach to your bike’s stem or handlebars without being too loose or to tight.
Phone size
The best bike phone mounts are designed to hold smartphones of various sizes securely, but some are made for small-to-medium phones. If you have a large phone such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, iPhone 13 Max Pro or OnePlus 8 Pro, you may have to look a little harder to find a mount that can accommodate it.
What to look for in a quality bike phone mount
Adjustability
Some mounts have a fixed position but having an adjustable one is convenient for tweaking your phone’s orientation without removing it from its secure placement. The best phone mounts rotate vertically and horizontally so riders can adjust their view according to their height.
Weather-resistance
Riding outdoors means you might find yourself in inclement weather from time to time. Your phone mount should be fixed appropriately on your bike’s frame so that wind can’t affect it. It should also be made with sturdy materials such as stainless steel or silicone straps.
If keeping your phone safe and dry is your top priority during bike riding, you can go with a frame bag mount. You won’t be able to use your phone’s screen, but it’s a safe place to store it during rainy weather.
Phone removal
Separating your phone from a bike mount can be awkward, especially if it’s securely immobilized. Strap mounts are particularly infamous for causing users headaches when trying to remove phones. Clamp mounts can be clumsy depending on the design, but the best ones have a button or twist knob for relaxing the tightening mechanisms that hold the phone in place.
How much you can expect to spend on a bike phone mount
Phone bike mounts are relatively cheap accessories. You can find a reliable one for $10-$20, but if you want something more versatile made with more durable materials, you can expect to spend $20-$30.
Bike phone mount FAQ
Can a bike phone mount be used on strollers?
A. Yes, most bike phone mounts can attach to the handlebars on a stroller, but check the product description first.
What if the bike phone mount I purchased isn’t waterproof?
A. If you plan on riding somewhere where it rains often, it’s best to exchange it for one made with weather-resistant materials. However you can purchase a waterproof cover for some models, but it’s best to check with the manufacturer to see if that’s an option.
What’s the best bike phone mount to buy?
Top bike phone mount
Roam Universal Premium Bike Phone Mount
What you need to know: This versatile mount is compatible with various phones and works with bicycles and motorcycles.
What you’ll love: It has an adjustable design for handlebars ranging between 7/8 and 1.25 inches and fits devices up to 3.5 inches wide. The plastic grip and silicone net are weather-resistant and safely keep phones in place, and customer support is available 24/7.
What you should consider: It doesn’t fit sport bikes with clip-on handlebars, and some customers report that the tilt lock loosens while riding.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top bike phone mount for the money
What you need to know: This lightweight mount has a distinctive band design that securely holds your phone in place as you ride.
What you’ll love: It’s compatible even with the largest phones, such as the iPhone 13 Pro Max and Google Pixel 5A. It has a durable silicone strap that fits most handlebars. The split design lets you access your phone’s screen, and the aluminum base can function as a bottle opener.
What you should consider: Although the split band lets you see the phone screen, a small part of it will naturally always be obscured.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This phone mount offers 360-degree rotation, making it excellent for GPS navigation.
What you’ll love: It’s great for both bicycles and motorcycles. It can securely hold phones up to 3.7 inches wide. The two rear metal bolts ensure that the mount stays in position. Riders always have access to the entire phone screen and the charging port or audio jack.
What you should consider: It’s not big enough to accommodate phones with thicker cases. Some users found it challenging to lock phones into place.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Kevin Luna writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/cycling-br/best-bike-phone-mount/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:47
|
en
| 0.935564
|
What is the best sports bra?
When you’re exercising, not just any bra can provide you with the level of support you need to stay comfortable. A quality sports bra is an essential. And unlike the bra you wear every day, most sports bras also feature moisture-wicking fabric to keep you dry.
Choosing the best one for you means first considering the intensity of the workout you have planned, the amount of support you need and your cup size. Here’s how to find the right one for your needs.
Sports bra style
There are three main types of sports bras.
- Compression: These are built for smaller cup sizes and are typically put on by pulling them over your head. They compress your breasts against your chest and minimize bounce during movement.
- Encapsulated: For a big chest or high-intensity workout, separate cups are created for each breast. They encircle the breast individually for support from all angles, securing them in place.
- Combo: You can use this bra style for a range of cup sizes and levels of workout. You can use a combo as your go-to sports bra since it will encapsulate and compress your chest, having you ready for any physical activity.
Strap design
Most quality sports bras will have adjustable straps, which are essential to ensure a good fit, but there is more to consider.
Wide vs. thin
Your strap thickness can make a difference in the comfort of your bra. Thicker straps are better for larger cup sizes because they cover more area and are sometimes padded for extra comfort. Thinner straps, however, can be more comfortable for smaller cup sizes. They can also be used for detailed strappy designs.
Strap style
- Racerback: Racerback (or cross-back) straps connect in the center of the back, providing you with even support. They are often put on by pulling them over the head and shoulders.
- Scoopback: This looks more like a regular bra from the back and sometimes connects similarly by clipping together. The straps follow the shoulder blades straight down to meet the rib band, creating a scoop look in the back.
Fasteners
- Clasp: Some sports bras have a clasp that clips together in the back, similar to everyday bras, and others come with clasps in the front for easier removal.
- Closure: Clasps close in a couple of ways. There is the hook-and-eye closure, or you can also find zipper closures.
- Pullover: If you don’t want to deal with a clasp, you can purchase low-impact sports bras that you can pull over your head.
Cups
Size
Fitting the size of your cup is essential to ensure you have proper support. Cups A to C can typically use low or moderate support. However, if you’re bigger than a 34 C, it’s recommended to use a high-impact bra for the best support. Proper support saves you back pain down the line.
Support
Not all sports bras work for every type of activity. They are designed for different levels of intensity and are often labeled accordingly.
- Low impact: This level is great for exercises like yoga or walking that don’t require quick movements.
- Moderate impact: Choose this level for weight training or cycling.
- High impact: Running, horseback riding or other exercises that involve bouncing require maximum support.
Structure
- Built-in: High-intensity sports bras will have built-in cups to ensure proper placement and great support.
- Removable: Some bras have pads or cups that you can take out and put back in to suit your comfort level.
- Non-padded: Low impact sports bras may not have padding and are intended for smaller cup sizes.
How to check the fit of your sports bra
If you’re trying on sports bras, there are a few ways you can check to see if it will work for you. The bra’s main components are the bands that support your breasts underneath and the panels which hold them in on the sides. You can grip the cups or the straps from either side to stretch them to ensure proper support.
Ultimately, when you try on your sports bra, there should be:
- No spillage
- No squeezing of the shoulders or ribs
- No band rolling up your breasts
- No puckering or wrinkled cups
Best sports bras
Under Armour Seamless Low-Impact Sports Bra
This adjustable cross-back design offers a comfortable fit for low-impact exercise. It fits best on smaller cup sizes and includes removable cups to improve shape and support.
Sold by Amazon
Nike Women’s Victory Compression Sports Bra
This sports bra offers medium support with a racerback strap design. It has sweat-wicking technology that pulls the moisture away from the skin into the material.
Sold by Amazon
This bra has built-in cups for maximum support. It encapsulates the breasts to support them from all sides for high-impact movement.
Sold by Amazon
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Erica Redding writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/fitness-gear-br/how-to-choose-the-best-sports-bra/
| 2022-06-08T11:31:54
|
en
| 0.937851
|
Callaway golf laser rangefinder review
A golf rangefinder is a useful tool that can help improve your game. The ideal model is quick and accurate, helping you to know which club to use and how hard to swing so you can play your best game. However, many models can have trouble with slopes, obstacles and accuracy, so they might not be as much of a benefit as you hoped.
Callaway’s 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder is a lightweight laser rangefinder that, according to the company, offers “superior accuracy” of plus or minus 1 yard for a range of 5-1,000 yards. The Callaway Rangefinder features Pin Acquisition Technology combined with Pulse Technology that can lock onto a flagstick or pin and deliver “a short vibrating ‘burst’ confirming the correct distance to the pin.” Additionally, this unit can account for elevation changes to ensure that you always obtain accurate distance measurements.
Callaway’s 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder sounded like a device that would take the guesswork out of estimating distances, allowing you to play a faster, more confident game while reducing your par. To see if this handheld rangefinder really could accurately judge distances, we tested it out. Here’s what we found.
Testing the Callaway Rangefinder
We had an experienced golfer check out the Callaway Rangefinder to get an overall first impression of appearance and functionality. Then, our tester thoroughly read the accompanying instructions before using the device on courses that had a variety of distances and slope inclines. Our tester took extensive notes regarding the product’s overall functioning, reliability and accuracy.
What is the Callaway Rangefinder?
The Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder uses a laser to accurately determine the distance from the golfer to the pin. Unlike a GPS rangefinder that utilizes signals from satellites to calculate that distance, the Callaway rangefinder uses a laser. To operate, the laser is aimed at a target and simply measures the amount of time it takes for that laser to be reflected back to the golfer to determine distance. While some find the GPS method to be faster, a laser rangefinder is more accurate. Beyond measuring distance, the Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder has a number of features that help the golfer get accurate readings under nearly any conditions.
How to use the Callaway Rangefinder
The Callaway Rangefinder is a sharply designed unit that features a splash of red to differentiate it from other models. Our first impression was that this rangefinder looks like a quality device. It has a compact size which allows it to comfortably fit in your hand, and the accompanying case zips up and has a clasp to give you peace of mind that the unit won’t fall out, even if it’s dangling from your bag on a bumpy cart.
The device only features two buttons, so it’s very simple to use. We set the rangefinder to the mode we preferred: Standard for large objects, P.A.T. for small objects such as a pin, Slope for inclines or declines or Scanning to measure distances of multiple objects. We recommend reading the concise and clear instructions before using so you not only understand the finer points of each of these modes, but also how to access them.
To take a measurement, the golfer powers on the device, makes sure it’s in the proper mode, looks through the eyepiece to zero in on a target and presses the power button to take a measurement. The distance immediately appears at the top of the eyepiece, while an adjusted number that represents slope can be found at the bottom of the eyepiece. We quickly learned that even with shaky hands, the Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder produced consistent, accurate readings.
Key features of the Callaway Rangefinder
Pin Acquisition Technology
When using a golf laser rangefinder, it’s important to have steady hands, or else the accuracy of your measurement may be compromised. The P.A.T. allows you to consistently lock onto a pin that’s up to 300 yards away, even if you’ve had three cups of coffee for breakfast. We found this feature worked exceptionally well.
Birdie Technology
To take full advantage of the P.A.T., you need to engage the Birdie Technology. This invaluable feature “chirps” when the laser locks onto a pin. The chirp gives you confidence that you have indeed locked onto the pin and are getting an accurate reading. If you don’t trust it, simply take a few readings in a row to verify consistency.
Slope technology
Slope changes the amount of power you need for a stroke: inclines require greater power, while declines necessitate the use of less force. This feature helps you understand exactly how far you need to hit the golf ball for any situation.
Superior accuracy
We weighed this device’s performance against a number of other models that used either GPS or laser technologies. We found the Callaway Rangefinder to not only be consistent with the measurements of other models — being in the same general ballpark — but it was also a little more precise with readings.
Range
This unit can measure in meters or yards and is advertised as having a maximum distance of 1,000 yards. We found the readings at the upper extremes of the range could be a little less accurate. However, the manufacturer notes that the accuracy of the maximum range will vary depending on a number of conditions as well as the size, color and finish of the object you’re targeting. For any reasonable golf shot, such as those under 550 yards, however, this unit performed impressively well.
Waterproof and fog-proof
The waterproof and fog-proof features are particularly handy when playing a long round in changing weather conditions.
Callaway Rangefinder price
While the Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder has a suggested manufacturer’s retail price of $250, most retailers offer this model at a discount. For example, you can currently find the Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder for as low as $183.
Where is Callaway Rangefinder sold?
The Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder is available at Amazon.
Callaway Rangefinder benefits
The Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder features a smooth startup and is ready to go straight out of the box. It’s comfortable to hold, simple to use, offers precise readings and has a long battery life. The variety of modes and features allow the golfer to fine-tune the device for their particular needs. You get a great value for the price when compared to other quality golf rangefinders. Throughout our entire testing period, we experienced no glitches.
Callaway Rangefinder drawbacks
When testing this rangefinder, we were unable to uncover a single flaw in the product. Other than a slight learning curve required to access the different modes, any negative reviews can often be chalked up to user error.
Should you get the Callaway Rangefinder?
The Callaway 300 Pro Laser Rangefinder is an invaluable device that can benefit both experienced golfers and beginners alike. The product does everything it claims to do and has a number of convenient features that enhance the user experience. If you have any interest at all in adding a rangefinder to your game, this Callaway model is the one to get.
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Allen Foster writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/golf-br/callaway-rangefinder-review-can-this-handheld-laser-rangefinder-improve-your-golf-game/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:01
|
en
| 0.935756
|
Which Under Armour sports bra is best?
Exercising is hard enough without the added discomfort from lack of suitable breast support. Not only do Under Armour sports bras provide you with much-needed support, but they also offer additional benefits, such as moisture-wicking fabric and a breathable design. And, when it comes to price, Under Armour sports bras are tough to beat for the level of quality they offer.
The best is the Under Armour Women’s HeatGear Armour Mid-Impact Crossback Sports Bra. It’s perfect for all but the most intense activities and is available in a wide range of sizes and colors.
What to know before you buy an Under Armour sports bra
Under Armour sports bra types
There are three types of Under Armour sports bras.
- Encapsulation bras use cups that cover the entirety of the breasts as well as tight bands, both of which restrict movement. They’re best for larger breasts.
- Compression bras use elastics to bind the breasts close to the chest. They’re best for smaller breasts.
- Mixed bras use both elements. They’re suitable for any size and shape of breast, depending on how far a given bra leans toward either style.
Under Armour sports bra styles
Three common styles of Under Armour sports bras are pullover, tank top and racerback.
- Pullover bras are the most common. They’re easy to put on and take off, but don’t provide as much support.
- Tank top bras have adjustable shoulder straps for a customized fit. They are also frequently padded for extra comfort.
- Racerback bras use a special design that connects the shoulder straps behind the shoulder blades. These sports bras allow the fullest range of motion.
What to look for in a quality Under Armour sports bra
Activity matching
A quality Under Armour sports bra matches the activity you plan to do. Most manufacturers use three categories for simplicity.
- Low-impact activities don’t cause much bounce and include walking, weight lifting and any kind of stretching, such as yoga.
- Medium-impact activities cause some bounce and include skiing and cycling. They mostly use compression.
- High-impact activities cause extreme bouncing and include any activity where you’re in constant, ever-changing motion. They encapsulate the breasts and keep them controlled with high compression.
Material
The best Under Armour sports bras use a mix of mesh paneling and moisture-wicking fabrics. Look for bras that use polyester, nylon or a mix of one of these synthetics with cotton.
How much you can expect to spend on an Under Armour sports bra
Under Armour sports bras typically cost $20-$60. Most of the brand’s sports bras cost $40 or less, while its more rugged bras meant for vigorous activity can cost up to $60.
Under Armour sports bra FAQ
What are the benefits of wearing a sports bra?
A. Sports bras provide several benefits.
- Bounce prevention: A proper sports bra will greatly cut the amount of bounce you experience. Limiting bounce doesn’t just make your workout experience more comfortable, it also prevents damage to your skin and ligaments that can cause stretching and sagging.
- Breathability: Sports bras greatly increase the breathability of your skin. They do this by covering only what needs to be covered and by using breathable materials.
How do I know if an Under Armour sports bra fits properly?
A. There are three areas to test when trying on an Under Armour sports bra.
- Band test: The bra’s band — the elastic underneath the breasts — should be tight for proper support. It’s too tight if it feels restrictive and especially if it makes it hard to breathe.
- Cup test: The cup should cover the entirety of the breast and be flush against the skin. If there’s spillage around the top and sides, it’s too small and can cause chafing. If it’s wrinkling, it’s too big and won’t provide enough support.
- Bounce test: This is the simplest test — just do some jumping jacks. If you don’t like the way it feels, find another bra.
What’s the best Under Armour sports bra to buy?
Top Under Armour sports bra
Under Armour Women’s HeatGear Armour Mid-Impact Crossback Sports Bra
What you need to know: This is the perfect all-around sports bra for the average person.
What you’ll love: It’s available in multiple sizes, including a range of plus-sizes, and in 40 designs. It uses polyester for breathability and machine-washability, plus some elastane for fit, support and ease of putting on and taking off. It has soft cups for extra coverage.
What you should consider: A few consumers found the elastane to restrict too much and cause the fit to be effectively smaller than the listed size.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top Under Armour sports bra for the money
Under Armour Women’s Armour Mid Keyhole Sports Bra
What you need to know: If you don’t work out frequently and only need one bra, make it this one.
What you’ll love: The keyhole opening in the center of the back makes this bra more breathable than others — it’s perfect for hot outdoor exercises such as running and cycling. The combined pullover and racerback stylings make it easy to put on and won’t restrict your range of motion.
What you should consider: Those with larger breasts reported this bra to not fit as well as it could. Others reported it to run small.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Worth checking out
Under Armour Women’s Warp Knit High-Impact Sports Bra
What you need to know: This is the sports bra for those who push themselves the hardest.
What you’ll love: The shoulder and back straps are fully adjustable. A gel-coated underwire adds extra support and comfort while a mesh lining and backside keyhole provide maximum breathability. Foam padded cups add extra coverage.
What you should consider: A few purchasers disliked the low-cut front and how it pushes the breasts up and outward. Others reported an odd chemical smell.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
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Jordan Woika writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/sports-apparel-br/best-under-armour-sports-bra/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:07
|
en
| 0.918981
|
Which spice drawer organizer is best?
People who keep their spices in drawers like them out of the way and out of sight, for a cleaner, less cluttered look to their kitchens. Drawer organizers allow you to keep every spice you need exactly where you need it to save you time while you cook.
If you’re looking for a chef-quality spice drawer organizer, take a look at the SpaceAid Four-Tier Spice Drawer Organizer With 28 Spice Jars and 386 Labels. The clear glass jars let you see what’s inside, and the airtight metal caps keep your spices fresher for longer.
What to know before you buy a spice drawer organizer
How much space you have
Measure the amount of interior space in the kitchen drawer where you want to keep your spices. Measure its width and depth, of course, but don’t forget to measure the height, too.
Layout
Most spice drawer organizers have the bottles lying flat. Some tilt the bottles and jars toward you to make the labels easier to see and the containers easier to grab. Slanted organizers need more height clearance than designs where the containers lay flat.
Material
Spice drawer organizers may be made of plastic, wood or metal. Bamboo is the most popular of the woods. Fiberboard is the cheapest and the least durable.
Number of spices
Count the number of spice jars you have and look for organizers made to hold that many or more.
What to look for in a quality spice drawer organizer
Jars
The clear, refillable jars that come with organizing systems are uniformly sized, the most efficient way to store your cooking and baking spices. Simple drawer spice racks can be used with spice jars just as they come from the store, but there are two drawbacks to this approach. Spice jars are not always the same size, and the labels may be cluttered with information and artwork that renders them difficult to read.
Labels
When you label your own spice jars, you are adding a nice personal touch. You also get a uniform look that is easy to read.
Expandable
Some spice drawer organizers are made in modules that can be connected to add additional rows of jars. This is especially helpful for newer cooks as their cooking skill increases and they try recipes that use more spices.
How much you can expect to spend on a spice drawer organizer
Simple spice drawer organizers are $10-$20, depending on their size and the materials they are made of. Spice drawer organizers that include jars and labels cost $40-$50.
Spice drawer organizer FAQ
What are the advantages to keeping my spices in a drawer?
A. The most obvious one is they are out of sight, giving your kitchen a cleaner look. Another is that your jars and bottles stay cleaner. An added bonus is that spices in a drawer are easier for shorter cooks to reach.
Will any size spice bottle or jar fit in my drawer organizer?
A. Most will, but not all. If you buy all your spices from the same company, such as McCormick, Spice Islands or your store’s brand, they will all fit neatly inside your drawer.
How do I keep my spice organizer from sliding around in the drawer?
A. The best way is to choose an organizer that fits snugly in your available space. You can also choose an organizer with a non-skid backing on the bottom.
What’s the best spice drawer organizer to buy?
Top spice drawer organizer
SpaceAid Four-Tier Spice Drawer Organizer
What you need to know: Create your own chef-level spice drawer with this large-capacity metal tray.
What you’ll love: You get 28 clear glass jars, 4.5 inches tall with airtight metal caps to keep your spices fresher for longer. (You can also choose a size that holds 24, 32 or 36 jars.) They come with 340 preprinted labels, and 46 blank ones with a chalk marker so you can make your own.
What you should consider: This organizer may be too much for the casual chef.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top spice drawer organizer for the money
mDesign Expandable Plastic Deluxe Spice Rack Drawer Organizer
What you need to know: The slim profile of this design fits most drawers, even smaller ones.
What you’ll love: The borderless design lets you use spice jars and cans of different sizes and shapes. The three-tiered slanted design tilts the jars toward you for easier reading. This organizer expands from 8 to 15 inches wide. No tools are needed and no assembly is required.
What you should consider: Its adjustability means this spice drawer organizer is less sturdy than ones with fixed widths.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
What you need to know: This cleverly designed organizer lets you create your own custom layout.
What you’ll love: It’s made of 10 feet of soft foam that you cut with scissors for a perfect fit. The foam is non-skid on the bottom and the design has molded channels for your spices and ridges between the channels, all of which keeps your spices from sliding or rolling.
What you should consider: This simple solution is not as sturdy as a wood, metal or plastic organizer.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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David Van Allan writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/br/tools-br/best-spice-drawer-organizer/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:15
|
en
| 0.939307
|
Is sugaring better than waxing?
Hair removal can be a complicated, time consuming and sometimes expensive process. Sugaring and waxing are two of the most popular hair removal methods. They can be done professionally in a salon or using at-home products.
While sugaring mixture is made from natural ingredients and used at room temperature, waxing ingredients often contain additives and the wax must be heated during use.
Sugaring
Sugaring is a hair removal method in which sugar, lemon juice, water and glycerin are heated together to create a candy-like paste. Once the paste cools, it is applied to the skin in the opposite direction of the hair’s growth. Without using any strips, the paste is then removed in the same direction as hair growth.
While many salons use the sugaring method, you can also create the mixture and perform the method at home. Buying the basic ingredients is very inexpensive, but you can also buy ready-made sugaring mixtures ranging from $20-$40.
Sugaring pros
Many people report that sugaring is less painful than waxing due to the way hair is pulled in the direction of growth rather than against it.
Sugaring is also far more gentle on the skin than waxing. The skin is pulled less and the paste is used at room temperature, resulting in less redness, irritation and ingrown hairs. Since the paste is all-natural, sugaring is more suitable for skin that is sensitive to artificial ingredients or for people with allergies.
You can also use the sugaring method on shorter hair. While you have to wait for a quarter- to a half-inch hair length for waxing, sugaring works on hair as short as six hundredths of an inch. Results can last anywhere from two to four weeks.
Sugaring cons
For those with thicker hair or hair that has grown out too long, sugaring may be less effective. The mixture may not achieve a strong enough hold to pull thick hair from the root. Sugaring can also take a lot longer than waxing because, since the mixture doesn’t stick as tightly to the hairs, you may need to go over the same area multiple times.
Best at-home sugaring products
This professional-grade paste is suitable for all skin types and hair types. It’s also suitable for use anywhere on the body and can provide up to four weeks of hair-free skin.
Sold by Amazon
If you have extra-sensitive skin, this contains chamomile and tea tree oil to soothe and moisturize.
Sold by Amazon
Waxing
Waxing is a hair removal method that uses either soft or hard wax (typically made from products such as beeswax and resin) applied directly to the skin to remove hair from the root. Depending on the type of wax, it can be used on its own or removed with strips laid on top of the wax.
Warm wax is laid onto the skin in the direction of hair growth. Once the wax cools enough, it is then removed in the opposite direction of hair growth.
Waxing pros
Waxing is overall more effective for hair removal, particularly if your hair is thick or has grown long before removal. Since the wax is stickier than sugaring paste, it is better able to grab onto hairs and pull them from the skin.
Depending on your skill level with either method, waxing is often much faster than sugaring.
Waxing cons
While wax grips onto hairs more effectively, this can also cause hair breakage and result in a less smooth finish. Hair breaking during waxing also increases the chances of ingrown hairs.
Wax is also more likely to cause irritation on the skin, such as redness and bumps. This is especially true of at-home waxing kits, since professionals use specific techniques to minimize these effects.
Best at-home waxing products
This handy kit contains everything you need for at-home waxing, including wax balls, a wax warmer and wax applicators. You even get a guidebook on professional tips for effective waxing.
Sold by Amazon
The wax in this kit works at a low temperature to help you avoid accidental burns. The wax does not need strips, making it easy to apply and remove, and it contains chamomile oil to soothe the skin.
Sold by Amazon
Should you use sugaring or waxing?
Both sugaring and waxing are effective hair removal methods with long lasting results. If you’re removing hair from a large area and want to do it faster, waxing is preferable. Similarly, waxing is more effective for thick and stubborn hair.
But if you’re removing fine to moderately strong hair or have sensitive skin and a low pain tolerance, sugaring is the hair removal treatment for you.
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Lauren Farrell writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://cw39.com/reviews/sugaring-vs-waxing-which-is-better/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:22
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| 0.955564
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JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) — A popular hiking trail to an oasis in Joshua Tree National Park has been temporarily closed so bighorn sheep can get undisturbed access to water.
“The park is under extreme drought conditions and herds in the area are increasingly reliant on the oasis spring to survive the hot summer months,” a park statement said.
The Fortynine Palms Oasis spring is surrounded by palms in mountains on the northern side of the park.
The closure started June 1 and will remain in effect until summer monsoon rains provide enough water for the bighorns.
An estimated 100 to 200 desert bighorn live in the park. They are among a population of about 13,000 in parts of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, according to the Joshua Tree website.
The current population is about 10% of what it was before the settlement of the western U.S., the website said.
Bighorns are very sensitive to disease, and research in Joshua Tree shows there has been a significant loss of water from springs and places where water seeps from the ground that has contributed to a significant loss of bighorn habitat.
The park also warned hikers that summer temperatures on trails can reach more than 120 degrees (49 Celsius). Hikes should begin before or at sunrise and be completed by 10 a.m., or not begin until after 4 p.m., to avoid risk of heat illness and death.
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https://cw39.com/science/ap-science/joshua-tree-park-closes-trail-so-bighorn-sheep-can-get-water/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:28
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| 0.958011
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Simone Biles, others seek $1B-plus from FBI over Nassar
DETROIT (AP) — Former Olympic gymnasts, including gold medalist Simone Biles, are among dozens of assault victims who are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop sports doctor Larry Nassar, lawyers said Wednesday.
There’s no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of molesting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year.
“It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” said Maggie Nichols, a national champion gymnast at Oklahoma in 2017-19.
Under federal law, a government agency has six months to respond to the tort claim. Lawsuits could follow, depending on the FBI’s response. The Justice Department said in May that it would not pursue criminal charges against former FBI agents who failed to quickly open an investigation.
The approximately 90 claimants include Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medalists, according to Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a California law firm.
“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy.
Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics told local FBI agents in 2015 that three gymnasts said they were assaulted by Nassar, a team doctor. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an internal watchdog.
Los Angeles FBI agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn’t alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.
Nassar wasn’t arrested until fall 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police. He was a doctor at Michigan State.
The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case. He is serving decades in prison.
The FBI declined to comment in April when a smaller batch of claims was filed, referring instead to Director Christopher Wray’s remarks to Congress in 2021.
“I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable,” Wray told victims at a Senate hearing.
Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.
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For more stories on Larry Nassar and the fallout from his years of sexual abusing young women and girls: https://www.apnews.com/LarryNassar
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.wlbt.com/2022/06/08/simone-biles-others-seek-1b-plus-fbi-over-nassar/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:35
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| 0.971008
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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels’ free fall from having one of the best records in the American League to a disastrous losing streak cost Joe Maddon his job Tuesday.
General manager Perry Minasian recommended making the move to owner Arte Moreno, then drove to Maddon’s house to give him the news.
Third base coach Phil Nevin will be the interim manager for the rest of the season. The Angels tied a club record with their 13th straight loss Tuesday night, falling 6-5 to the Boston Red Sox in 10 innings.
The Angels — who are 27-30 — lost 13 straight during the 1988-89 seasons. The defeat surpasses the 1988 mark for longest single-season skid in club history.
“Looking at the last couple of days is really when I started thinking about making a change. And I’m trying not to make emotional decisions. I’ll be honest, I’ve been emotional the past couple of days. There have been some really tough losses,” Minasian said.
The 68-year-old Maddon went 130-148 with the Angels, who hired him before the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season for his self-described dream job. Maddon spent three decades of his career as a player and coach for the Angels before going on to an impressive managerial career that has included three Manager of the Year awards.
The Angels were beaten 1-0 in Maddon’s final game by the Red Sox and journeyman starter Michael Wacha, who threw a three-hitter against the Halos’ star-studded lineup Monday night. Los Angeles closed a seven-game East road trip Sunday with a 9-7 loss in Philadelphia after rookie Bryson Stott hit a game-winning, three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning. The Angels were leading 6-2 in the eighth inning before Bryce Harper tied it on a grand slam.
“The last two weeks have been really tough. There hasn’t been one phase of the game where we’ve been good,” Minasian said.
The Angels are in a 3-17 skid overall since May 15, when they were 24-13 and tied for first place in the AL West.
Los Angeles’ offense, which was among the majors’ best in the first six weeks, has scored only 40 runs during its 13-game losing streak and been outscored by 44 runs. The Halos’ pitching staff has devolved into the ineffectiveness that has plagued the franchise’s last several seasons, posting an AL-worst 6.46 ERA during the streak.
AL MVPs Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani have struggled. Trout has only three hits in his last 30 at-bats while Ohtani is batting .186 (8 for 43) during the losing streak.
“It’s tough when you lose a manager or anyone in general who you build relationships with,” Trout said. “It ultimately comes down to, we have to go out there and play together. Everyone has to be held accountable, myself included. Players have to go out and perform.”
After finishing with losing records in Maddon’s first two seasons, the Angels were off to a strong 27-17 start this year before their current losing streak began. The slump has dropped them 9 1/2 games behind Houston for the AL West lead after being in first place on May 15.
“Obviously this is not all Joe’s fault. Players are, myself, in part to blame, because I was underperforming,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I just want to say thank you to Joe. I appreciate everything he’s done for me.”
Ohtani flourished under Maddon, who prioritized unleashing the Japanese two-way star’s talents on both sides of the ball. Maddon worked with Ohtani to figure out a workload that allowed him to shine as a hitter and a pitcher.
Moreno’s big-budget club has finished with six consecutive losing records in the longest active skid in the majors despite a roster headlined by Trout and Ohtani, who have both never won a playoff game.
The Angels’ seven-year playoff drought is also tied for the third-longest in baseball, yet they appeared to be well on their way to making the expanded field this fall before their confounding current skid.
Yet, Los Angeles still has a chance. It is only 2 1/2 games out of the final AL playoff spot.
The streak forced a dismal end to what Maddon hoped would be a storybook conclusion to his career back in the Pennsylvania native’s adopted home in Orange County. The genial, talkative bench boss excelled as a manager for nine seasons in Tampa Bay and five more with the Chicago Cubs, who famously ended their 108-year World Series championship drought during his tenure in 2016.
Maddon’s first season was only 60 games due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last year Trout played only 36 games before being sidelined in May with a season-ending calf injury.
Maddon is 1,382-1,216 in parts of 19 seasons as a manager.
Nevin is the Angels’ third manager in just over four seasons since Moreno cut ties with Mike Scioscia, who ran the Angels’ dugout for 19 years and won their only World Series championship. Maddon was Scioscia’s bench coach during that title season in 2002.
The Halos dismissed manager Brad Ausmus after just one terrible season in late 2019, and the move appeared to be made because Maddon had just come on the market after parting ways with the Cubs. Moreno then fired general manager Billy Eppler and hired Minasian after the 2020 season, but the first-time GM appeared to get along splendidly with Maddon.
The 51-year-old Nevin is the first Orange County native to manage the Angels. He played 12 major league seasons for six teams, including the Angels in 1998. He has never been a manager above the Triple-A level, but he spent four seasons as the New York Yankees’ third base coach before joining Maddon’s staff this season.
“I think he’ll do great,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “I think he’s such a great baseball guy. He’s certainly paid his dues. He’s been probably close to landing a job a few different times where he’s probably been that runner-up, but he’s poured a lot into this game.”
Nevin said he talked to Maddon earlier Tuesday, which helped put him at ease.
“Joe was great and told me to just take this and run with it and be the person I am, which I plan to do. That made it easier on me because it has been an emotional day,” Nevin said. “There’s ups and downs compounded with how the last 12 days have gone.
“There is some excitement, but I know what today’s narrative looks like. But this is about that group in that room.”
Maddon is the second manager to be fired this season. Philadelphia’s Joe Girardi was dismissed last week, and the Phillies promptly swept the Angels.
___
AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell contributed from Minneapolis.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/angels-fire-manager-joe-maddon-amid-12-game-losing-streak/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:35
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| 0.979714
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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout was removed from Tuesday night’s game against Boston with left groin tightness, but he isn’t concerned about possibly being sidelined.
The three-time MVP grimaced in the third inning while running to first base after hitting a double off Red Sox starter Garrett Whitlock. Trout easily reached second but not at full speed. He tried to stretch out the leg once he got there but came out of the game after talking with trainers.
“Coming out of the box, I didn’t feel it and then I felt like a little cramp. Then I got to second base and a little achy and tried to be smart about it. I’ll see how I feel tomorrow,” Trout said after the Angels lost 6-5 in 10 innings to tie a franchise record with 13 straight losses. “At least it isn’t nothing crazy.”
Trout was injured hours after the Angels fired manager Joe Maddon with the club mired in a disastrous slump. Trout endured a career-worst 0-for-26 drought during that skid but ended the slump with a single Monday night.
Trout hit a two-run homer to center in the first inning Tuesday. It was the first time he had multiple hits in a game since May 28 at home against Toronto. He is batting .284 and is tied for third in the American League with 14 home runs.
Trout missed the final 119 games of last season with a left calf strain. When fans saw Trout struggling with the leg, it brought up those memories.
There was no scan or MRI done after Trout left the game. Interim manager Phil Nevin remains cautiously optimistic.
“It was an easy decision to get him out of the game. He had two great at-bats. It was good to see him swing the bat like that and hopefully this isn’t anything too serious,” Nevin said. “We’ve got to reevaluate tomorrow because these things can act funny right away. Tomorrow is really the gauge for us.”
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/angels-mike-trout-leaves-game-with-left-groin-tightness/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:42
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| 0.975256
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A woman played the National Anthem on a saw during a baseball game Published June 8, 2022 at 6:11 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 0:29 Caroline McCaskey used a violin bow to bend the saw blade and produce different notes. Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-06-08/a-woman-played-the-national-anthem-on-a-saw-during-a-baseball-game
| 2022-06-08T11:32:54
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| 0.932056
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NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Liberty are a work in progress. When coach Sandy Brondello took over the team this year she knew it would take time for the players to gel on the court.
With players showing up late for training camp because of overseas commitments and others dealing with injuries and the coronavirus, the process has gotten off to a slower start than expected.
“It’s getting healthy players back that will help,” Brondello said. ”The players that are out are impact players that will make a change. We’ll have to find ways to deal with not having Betnijah.”
New York will be missing guard/forward Betnijah Laney for approximately the next two months after she had knee surgery last week.
The Liberty have won two of three games since it was announced that Laney would be out.
Stefanie Dolson, who came home to New York in the offseason, was on the champion Chicago Sky last season. That team started out 2-7 before getting on a roll.
“We have a lot of people injured. Training camp we had people in and out with COVID. A lot of people don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors,” Dolson said. “We haven’t had an entire roster this whole time. I think it’s something we’re trying to fight through and figure out how to play with each other. I see similarities between last year and this year. There’s still a lot of basketball to play through.”
The Liberty sit near the bottom of the AP WNBA power poll.
POWER POLL
This week’s WNBA poll:
1. Las Vegas (10-2): Kelsey Plum stepped her game up with Jackie Young sidelined due to an ankle injury. Plum matched her career-high with 32 points in the team’s win over Dallas on Sunday.
2. Connecticut (9-3): Jonquel Jones had a strong week, averaging 19.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists as the Sun went 3-1. A return to her MVP form would be huge for the Sun, who are rolling after a strong trip out west. .
3. Chicago (7-3): The Sky had their best week of the season, winning all three games. They are one of the most balanced teams in the league on offense with eight players averaging more than seven points a game.
4. Washington (7-5): The Mystics should have Elena Delle Donne back in the lineup when they face Chicago on Wednesday. The 2019 MVP missed Sunday’s matchup due to load management. The team has been cautious with her playing time since she’s returned this year after two back surgeries.
5. Atlanta (7-4): The Dream are starting to get contributions from other players besides rookie Rhyne Howard and are probably the biggest surprise in the early part of the season. Nia Coffey had a double-double in the team’s last game and Erica Wheeler has been playing well also.
6. Dallas (6-5): The Wings will host Seattle for a pair of games a week after holding the Storm to just 51 points in a win. Dallas has only played three games at home this season — tied for the fewest in the league.
7. Seattle (5-5): The Storm are finally at full strength with Sue Bird and Ezi Magbegor back in the lineup following COVID-19 protocols and Mercedes Russell returning from an undisclosed injury. The Storm play Atlanta next and then two games in Dallas.
8. Los Angeles (5-7): After finally having some time at home following a brutal start to the season on the road, the Sparks can focus on improving their defense. Los Angeles is giving up 87.2 points a game; only Indiana gives up more.
9. Minnesota (3-8): The Lynx have had success against New York with two of their three wins coming against the Liberty. They’ll need to figure out ways to beat other teams to turn around the rough start.
10. Phoenix (3-8): The Mercury snapped a seven-game losing streak on Sunday, but now will try to find some consistency on offense. Phoenix hopes to have Tina Charles back this week when it faces Atlanta and Washington. Charles has missed the last few games with a shoulder injury.
11. New York (3-8): Sabrina Ionescu lately has been a bright spot, averaging 26 points in the past three games. The Liberty will need to find consistent scoring options to help her out on offense.
12. Indiana (3-10): It was a rough offensive week for the Fever, who averaged just 71.6 points in three losses. Coach Carloes Knox needs to find another consistent scorer to complement Kelsey Mitchell.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Kelsey Plum of Las Vegas was voted the AP Player of the Week after averaging 24.3 points 6.7 assists and 4.0 rebounds to help the Aces win two of three games last week. Ionescu of New York, Alyssa Thomas and Jonquel Jones of Connecticut also received votes.
GAME OF THE WEEK:
Aces at Sparks, Saturday. Liz Cambage will face her former team for the second time this season. Cambage had just 10 points in the first meeting on May 23 that Las Vegas won by 28 points. The Sparks survived a grueling start to their season when they played nine of their first 12 games away from home by going 5-7.
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More AP women’s basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/liberty-battling-through-injuries-covd-look-to-get-on-roll/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:56
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| 0.972185
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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning delivered on a promise to play with a greater sense of urgency, storming back in the Eastern Conference finals against the New York Rangers and keeping their bid for a third straight Stanley Cup title alive.
Nikita Kucherov scored on a breakaway and Andrei Vasilevskiy had 33 saves Tuesday night, helping the two-time defending NHL champions shut down the Rangers 4-1 and even the best-of-seven series at two games apiece.
“We’ve got ourselves squared up in this series. It’s great, much better than the position we were in a couple days ago. But this is where it gets down to the really tough stuff,” Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said.
“These next couple of games, we have to go on the road and we have to find a way to win a game in their barn,” Stamkos added. “We’re looking forward to that challenge, but I really like where our game is now compared to where it was a couple days ago.”
Kucherov took a pass from Ondrej Palat in the middle of the ice and skated in on goaltender Igor Shesterkin to give the Lightning a two-goal lead just over 13 minutes into the second period.
With Vasilevskiy back on his game following a slow start to the series, that turned out to be more than enough offensive support to hold off a Rangers team that’s suddenly found it difficult to score.
“They did a great job in the neutral zone. They collapsed pretty good in the ‘D’ zone. They blocked a lot of shots. They did the right things to win a hockey game,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said of the Lightning.
Stamkos, Palat and Pat Maroon had goals for Tampa Bay, which has rebounded from losing the first two games of the series on the road to bolster its chances of becoming the first team in nearly 40 years to win three consecutive Stanley Cup championships.
Game 5 is Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, where the Rangers won Games 1 and 2 and are 8-1 this postseason.
“We’ve done a good job at home. I think if you look around the league a lot of teams play better in their home building,” Gallant said.
“I’m disappointed tonight. I’m sure (the players) are,” the coach added. “But it’s a best two out of three, we still have the home-ice advantage, so we have to make sure we’re ready for the next game. The next one is big.”
Vasilevskiy stopped 28 of 30 shots to win Game 3 and was even better Tuesday night, when he extended a stretch in which he did not give up a goal to nearly 67 minutes before New York’s Artemi Panarin scored on the power play at 16:27 of the third period.
Until Vasilevskiy’s bid for a shutout ended, the Rangers hadn’t scored since Chris Kreider’s power-play goal put them up 2-0 at 9:44 of the second period in Game 3.
It has been all Tampa Bay since then, with Kucherov and Stamkos scoring to wipe out the Game 3 deficit before Palat won it in the final minute.
The defending champs started faster Tuesday night, scoring on Maroon’s rebound just 2:38 into the game.
It was the third goal of the playoffs for Maroon, a 34-year-old, fourth-line forward who’s chasing a fourth consecutive Stanley Cup title after winning with St. Louis in 2019 and signing with Tampa Bay before the following season.
Stamkos’ goal built the lead to 3-0 early in the third period. Palat added an empty-netter with 8.7 seconds remaining, finishing with a goal and two assists.
Shesterkin, who faced 51 shots in Game 3, stopped 27 of 30 shots Tuesday night.
“We’ve progressively gotten better, and I think we took some more positive steps tonight,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We had a bit of a layoff, and I think now we’re starting to find our game. Now, we just have to keep this going in New York.”
NOTES: The Rangers played without forward Ryan Strome (lower body), who was scratched after skating in pregame warmups. He was injured Sunday, when he exited in the second period after only playing a little over seven minutes. … New York forward Filip Chytil left just past the midpoint of the second period after a hit by Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman. He missed the rest of the game with an upper-body injury. … The Lightning played for the seventh straight game without forward Brayden Point, who has been out of the lineup since suffering a lower-body injury during Game 7 of Tampa Bay’s first-round victory over Toronto.
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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/lightning-beat-rangers-4-1-in-game-4-to-even-east-final/
| 2022-06-08T11:32:59
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| 0.969961
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At the Supreme Court, nothing is as usual this term after the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion in the biggest abortion case in nearly a half-century.
Normally at this time of year, the justices would be exchanging hundreds of pages of draft opinions and working with each other to resolve differences and reach consensus in the most challenging cases of the term. Instead, the court is riven with distrust among the law clerks, staff and, most of all, the justices themselves.
The atmosphere behind the scenes is so ugly that, as one source put it, "the place sounds like it's imploding." To cite just one public example, Justice Clarence Thomas in a speech a few weeks ago seemed to say he no longer trusts his colleagues.
"When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I'm in, it changes the institution fundamentally," he told a conservative group. "You begin to look over your shoulder. It's like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it but you can't undo it."
Specifically, he implied that he doesn't trust Chief Justice John Roberts.
"The court that was together 11 year[s] was a fabulous court. It was one you look forward to being a part of," he said.
Those 11 years were when the chief justice was William Rehnquist, who died in 2005 and was succeeded by Roberts, who, ironically, had been one of Rehnquist's clerks many years earlier.
The root of the current antipathy is not definitely known. What is known is that Roberts infuriated some of the conservatives on the court 10 years ago when he changed his mind and voted to uphold key provisions of the Affordable Care Act. These switches are rare, but they do happen; justices change their minds, and in good faith. But that switch so angered some of the court's conservatives that it leaked, obviously from someone connected to a conservative justice, who aimed to embarrass Roberts.
A much bigger leak — and problem
Now, there is a much bigger and, in fact, unprecedented leak to deal with — an actual draft opinion reversing a half-century of abortion precedents. The chief justice called the leak "a betrayal" and ordered the Supreme Court marshal to conduct an internal investigation. But the investigation may only be adding to problems at the court.
To begin with, the Supreme Court marshal overseeing the probe has no experience as an investigator; nor do the Supreme Court police. Their job is to protect the justices. And people who do have experience as investigators say that leak inquiries are, in the words of several, "nightmares."
Glenn Fine, a former inspector general for the Justice Department and then the Defense Department in both Democratic and Republican administrations, conducted and supervised lots of these investigations.
Typically, he wrote, in the beginning "we would be told that the only a few people had access to the material that had been leaked. Only a few individuals were at the key meeting or worked on the document."
But, he said, "invariably when we probed the universe of people who had access," the number expanded "exponentially." Instead of a discrete few, the number included "additional co-workers, office staff, computer administrative staff, family and friends of those working on the matter, even people who passed through the office," and in the pandemic era, one might assume, the homes of the justices and others working from home. Fine said that even if there was some evidence of contact with a reporter, "we were usually unable to prove that the contact led to the leak." Therefore, most of the time, all the investigators ended up with were theories and speculation.
The internal investigation
Now, turning to this leak, CNN has reported that the court "has taken steps to" ask the clerks to sign sworn affidavits and to essentially dump their cellphones.
"Taken steps to" doesn't mean that anything has actually happened. But if the clerks have been asked to sign an affidavit, it is unknown what is in the affidavit or will be in the affidavit. And while the leak of a draft opinion is in fact a huge ethical breach, the draft is not classified, so the leak is not a crime. That said, lying in a sworn affidavit is.
So, imagine you swear under oath that you didn't have anything to do with the leak, and it turns out that your former college classmate is a reporter, and you had dinner with him in April prior to the leak; you could be in a heap of trouble. So, indications are that some law clerks are lawyering up. And some justices may forbid cooperation with a probe they see as a witch hunt.
Not to mention that if the court can dump information from a clerk's cellphone without a warrant, that directly contradicts the Supreme Court's own ruling eight years ago when it said that police could not search a suspected gang member's phone without a warrant after he was pulled over in a traffic stop.
Roberts wrote the court's unanimous opinion saying that modern cellphones are not just another technological convenience. They are a compendium of everything in a person's life — your political preferences, interests, hobbies, medical records, where you have been and with whom.
"Allowing a warrantless search of all this information is not just an incidental intrusion like a peek into a cigarette pack," he said in summarizing the opinion from the bench. "It is a significant invasion of privacy."
The Fourth Amendment, he noted, was the Founders' response to the reviled "general warrants" of the colonial era, which allowed British officers "to rummage through homes in an unrestrained search for evidence of criminal activity."
A cellphone search, without a warrant, the court concluded, is no different.
A court in turmoil
Now, however, the court may be doing just that, and the terrified law clerks have been calling law firms, wondering whether they need legal representation. All of this presents its own ethical problems, since these law firms do have cases in front of the Supreme Court.
As for the court itself, it is not in a good place.
"I don't know how on earth the court is going to finish up its work this term," said a source close to the justices. The clerks, he explained, are sort of "the court's diplomatic corps." Especially at this time of year, they talk to each other, with the approval of their bosses, to find out how far the envelope can be pushed in this case or that one — or conversely, how can we soften language to get five justices on board. But at the moment, he noted, the clerks are terrified that their whole professional lives could be blown up, so they aren't able to do that. In short, it's a very perilous time for the Supreme Court.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-06-08/after-the-leak-the-supreme-court-seethes-with-resentment-and-fear-behind-the-scenes
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SAN DIEGO (AP) — New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso left Tuesday night’s game against the San Diego Padres after getting hit by a pitch and falling awkwardly leading off the second inning.
The pitch from Yu Darvish hit Alonso on the right hand. Alonso appeared to swing, but the Mets challenged and it was ruled a hit by pitch and Alonso was awarded first base. He had headed to the clubhouse by then and was replaced by pinch-runner J.D. Davis.
When the Mets went back in the field, Davis took over for Alonso at first base.
The Mets said X-rays on Alonso’s hand were negative and he would have further tests.
Alonso came into the game tied with Mookie Betts of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL lead with 16 home runs. The two-time Home Run Derby champion leads the majors with 54 RBIs and is tied for 10th in Mets history with 122 career homers.
Alonso, the 2019 NL Rookie of the Year, hit safely in his previous four games, going 6 for 18 with eight runs, a double, three homers, seven RBIs, eight runs, a walk and a 1.257 OPS.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/mets-slugger-alonso-leaves-game-after-getting-hit-by-pitch/
| 2022-06-08T11:33:05
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The Mars Perseverance Rover has a pet rock Published June 8, 2022 at 6:11 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email A few months ago, a rock the size of a potato got stuck in the Rover's front left wheel and has been along for the ride for more than five miles. Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-06-08/the-mars-perseverance-rover-has-a-pet-rock
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen faces judgement over inflation By Scott Horsley Published June 8, 2022 at 6:11 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 2:22 NPR's Scott Horsley reports on criticism directed at Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen over the highest inflation rates in over 40 years. Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-06-08/treasury-secretary-janet-yellen-faces-judgement-over-inflation
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Tiger Woods withdrew from the U.S. Open on Tuesday, saying that his damaged right leg needs more time to get stronger to contend in the majors.
Woods made a surprise return at the Masters, just 14 months after he broke bones in his right leg and ankle in a February 2021 car crash outside Los Angeles. He made the cut at Augusta National, then played the PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
Even though he made another cut, Woods was limping badly on Saturday and withdrew after the third round, the first time he had withdrawn on the weekend at a major.
Woods posted Tuesday on social media, “My body needs more time to get stronger for major championship golf.”
He said he hopes to be ready to play in a charity pro-am event in Ireland ahead of the British Open at St. Andrews, where he won two of his three claret jugs.
This will be the sixth time in the last 12 years Woods does not play the U.S. Open, which he has won three times, most recently at Torrey Pines in 2008 when he had a double stress fracture in his left leg and shredded knee ligaments that required reconstructive surgery when the event was over.
He last played in 2020 at Winged Foot and missed the cut.
Before the previous two majors, Woods sent the internet buzzing, with private plane tracking sites indicating he was at Augusta National and Southern Hills a week or so early for a scouting trip, a clear sign he was thinking about playing.
There was no such flight to Boston this time. Woods last competed at The Country Club at Brookline in 1999, when he won his singles match against Andrew Coltart as part of an amazing American rally to win the Ryder Cup.
“We’re disappointed we won’t see him in Boston,” said Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA. “But personally, I’m happy for him that he’s looking after his health. I’d rather see Tiger long-term than just in the 2022 U.S. Open.”
Woods always had his sights on St. Andrews, even after he played in the Masters. He said after the Masters he wasn’t sure whether he could play in the PGA Championship or the U.S. Open, but he would be at the British Open.
The Old Course is relatively flat, the easiest of the four majors to walk.
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/tiger-woods-says-his-leg-not-ready-and-he-wont-play-us-open/
| 2022-06-08T11:33:12
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NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Matt Bennett, co-founder of center-left think tank Third Way, about what the results from California's primary mean for the Democratic party nationwide.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Matt Bennett, co-founder of center-left think tank Third Way, about what the results from California's primary mean for the Democratic party nationwide.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-06-08/what-california-district-attorney-chesa-boudins-recall-means-for-democrats
| 2022-06-08T11:33:19
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Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are welcome to play the U.S. Open next week under a USGA decision announced Tuesday that puts the open nature of the championship over a player’s decision to play in a Saudi-funded rival league.
Mickelson and Johnson are among a dozen players in the LIV Golf Invitational this week who are exempt for the U.S. Open on June 16-19 at The Country Club outside Boston. Both have said they plan to play the third major of the year.
Among other U.S. Open players who signed up for the new league are Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Kevin Na.
“Regarding players who may choose to play in London this week, we simply asked ourselves this question — should a player who had earned his way into the 2022 U.S. Open, via our published field criteria, be pulled out of the field as a result of his decision to play in another event? And we ultimately decided that they should not,” the USGA said.
That the U.S. Open chose not to deny entry was not surprising. The second-oldest championship in golf takes pride in the open nature of its 156-man field. None of the other four majors has criteria in place that forces roughly 50% of the field to go through 36-hole qualifying.
“It’s one of the things that separates our Open from everybody else. And if you don’t believe that, watch what happened yesterday,” Mike Whan, the CEO of the USGA, said in a telephone interview.
He was referring to 36-hole qualifiers for 49 spots that were held in eight American cities and one in Canada. Three others were held previously in Texas, Japan and England.
Criticism of the new league headed by Greg Norman starts with the primary source of funding, the sovereign wealth fund in Saudi Arabia, a country with an abysmal record on human rights, most notably the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I realize people have strong points of view and think perhaps there should be some morality clause,” Whan said. “As I said to our team last night, with more than 9,300 entrants for the U.S. Open, if we decide what’s on their sleeve or their bag or what tour they’re playing, what we think is OK and not OK, I’m not sure that circle ever stops.
“We don’t track personal beliefs and who funds them,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we don’t care.”
The USGA said in its statement that who plays next week at Brookline should not suggest the organization supports an alternative tour or the actions and comments of a player.
“Rather, it is simply a response to whether or not the USGA views playing in an alternative event, without the consent of their home tour, an offense that should disqualify them for the US Open.”
Johnson earned a 10-year exemption from his 2016 U.S. Open victory. Mickelson has a five-year exemption from winning the PGA Championship last year. Others, such as Na and Talor Gooch, were among the top 60 in the world.
Johnson and Oosthuizen are among those who have resigned their PGA Tour memberships. Mickelson could face discipline from the tour because it did not authorize releases to play the LIV Golf Invitational. Releases are required under PGA Tour regulations.
If players are suspended by the PGA Tour, it does not affect their standing in the U.S. Open, which is run exclusively by the USGA. Whan said that doesn’t change the relationship it has with the largest tour in the world.
“We value their position as the strongest and most influential tour in the world,” he said. “Look who gets in the U.S. Open. They (PGA Tour players) are the strongest representation and should be. This isn’t about the PGA Tour. We have no illusion how strong they are, and the field criteria reflects that.”
Whether criteria changes for the 2023 U.S. Open and beyond is to be determined. Whan said the U.S. Open exempt criteria is under constant review, and there is no telling what the LIV Golf Invitational series will look like next year or down the road.
“What this thing is now is different than it was four months ago and what it will be eight months from now,” Whan said. “It’s a bit of a moving target. It would be inconsistent of us to decide now what next year’s criteria looks like.”
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More AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/us-open-to-accept-mickelson-and-all-eligible-players/
| 2022-06-08T11:33:19
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California's primary is today, and onlookers are paying close attention to the results of the recall of San Francisco's District Attorney Chesa Boudin, in addition to Los Angeles' mayoral race.
Copyright 2022 NPR
California's primary is today, and onlookers are paying close attention to the results of the recall of San Francisco's District Attorney Chesa Boudin, in addition to Los Angeles' mayoral race.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/2022-06-08/what-to-look-out-for-during-californias-primary
| 2022-06-08T11:33:25
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NPR National News A deadly church shooting exposes the complexities of Taiwanese and Chinese identities By Emily Feng Published June 8, 2022 at 3:54 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 3:49 A deadly shooting at a Taiwanese church in California exposes rising tensions between Taiwan and China. Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-06-08/a-deadly-church-shooting-exposes-the-complexities-of-taiwanese-and-chinese-identities
| 2022-06-08T11:33:31
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The Waltons, heirs to the Walmart fortune and America’s richest family, have won the bidding to purchase the Denver Broncos in the most expensive deal for a sports franchise anywhere in the world.
The Broncos announced late Tuesday night they had entered into a sale agreement with the Walton-Penner ownership group led by Rob Walton, his daughter, Carrie Walton Penner, and her husband, Greg Penner.
Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed, but KUSA-TV in Denver reported it was for $4.65 billion.
The price tag far surpasses the $3.1 billion sale last month of Chelsea, one of European soccer’s blue ribbon teams, to an American-led consortium fronted by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly.
Boehly reportedly was among the investors with one of the five finalists who were invited to make bids for the Broncos by Monday’s deadline.
The agreement for the Walmart-Penner group to buy the franchise from the Pat Bowlen Trust must be approved by the NFL, but that is considered a formality.
“While this purchase and sale agreement is pending approval from the NFL’s finance committee and league ownership, today marks a significant step on the path to an exciting new chapter in Broncos history,” team president and CEO Joe Ellis said in a statement.
“I have enjoyed getting to know Rob Walton, Carrie Walton Penner and Greg Penner throughout this process,” Ellis said. “Learning more about their background and vision for the Denver Broncos, I am confident that their leadership and support will help this team achieve great things on and off the field.”
Rob Walton said in a statement, “We are thrilled to be selected to move forward with the purchase of the Denver Broncos! Carrie, Greg and I are inspired by the opportunity to steward this great organization in a vibrant community full of opportunity and passionate fans.
“Having lived and worked in Colorado, we’ve always admired the Broncos. Our enthusiasm has only grown as we’ve learned more about the team, staff and Broncos Country over the last few months,” Walton added.
Walton said Mellody Hobson, co-CEO of Ariel Investments and chairwoman of Starbucks, has agreed to join the ownership group.
Hobson is Black. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has made minority ownership a point of emphasis in the league.
“Mellody currently serves as Chair of the Board of Starbucks Corporation and is also a director of JPMorgan Chase. We know she will bring her strategic acumen and leadership perspective to our team,” Walton said.
“We look forward to earning the confidence and support of the NFL as we take the next step in this process. When the necessary approval procedures are met, our family is excited to share more with Broncos fans, the organization and the community.”
Walton, 77, was chairman of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, from 1992-2015, when he retired. He is the eldest son of founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton and has an estimated net worth of nearly $60 billion.
First-year coach Nathaniel Hackett demurred when asked Monday during offseason workouts if he’s kept up with the sale process.
“My job is to get the team ready and teach systems and teach them to come together as a team and get them better at football,” Hackett said. “I know that’s obviously a huge, huge deal. But for us it’s about winning no matter who is going to own the team, so I’m excited.”
After a first round of bids, five finalists were invited to tour the team’s facilities and take a deeper dive into the franchise’s finances. Hackett said he met with most of the billionaire bidders.
“After talking with everybody, I think they all have an amazing passion and want to be part of this league, and they want to be part of a team — and I think that’s something that’s really beautiful,” Hackett said.
“They want to come to win, and they want to do something great here. And so wherever it is, I think we’re going to be very grateful.”
The Pat Bowlen Trust has run the franchise for several years and last year put the club up for sale after Hall of Famer Pat Bowlen’s children couldn’t concur on a successor to their father.
Bowlen died in 2019, a month shy of his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://apnews.com/hub/pro-32 and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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https://cw39.com/sports/ap-sports/walmart-heir-rob-walton-agrees-to-buy-broncos-in-record-deal/
| 2022-06-08T11:33:33
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The Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommends the agency authorize another COVID-19 vaccine in the hopes it might entice more people to get vaccinated.
Copyright 2022 NPR
The Food and Drug Administration advisory committee recommends the agency authorize another COVID-19 vaccine in the hopes it might entice more people to get vaccinated.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-06-08/fda-advisors-recommend-the-novavax-covid-vaccine
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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A courthouse in upstate New York was closed for fumigation Tuesday after hundreds of cockroaches were released during an altercation that broke out at an arraignment, according to court officials.
The clash broke out during proceedings in Albany City Court for four people for an arrest at the state Capitol. A defendant who started to film the courtroom proceedings was told to stop. In the altercation that followed, hundreds of cockroaches brought into the courthouse in plastic containers were released, according to the state court system.
The bug release was being investigated while the courthouse was closed for the rest of the day for fumigation.
Court officers arrested a 34-year-old woman in the audience for charges related to the altercation, including disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and tampering with physical evidence.
She was released, and it was not immediately clear whether she had an attorney to speak on her behalf.
“What transpired is not advocacy or activism, it is criminal behavior with the intent to disrupt a proceeding and cause damage,” read a statement from the Office of Court Administration.
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https://cw39.com/strange-news/ap-strange-news/disorder-in-the-court-cockroaches-released-during-hearing/
| 2022-06-08T11:33:39
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What impact would bipartisan proposals for gun reform have on law enforcement? NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Art Acevedo, a former police chief of Austin, Houston and Miami.
Copyright 2022 NPR
What impact would bipartisan proposals for gun reform have on law enforcement? NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Art Acevedo, a former police chief of Austin, Houston and Miami.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-06-08/how-law-enforcement-could-be-affected-by-bipartisan-gun-reform-laws
| 2022-06-08T11:33:43
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Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson is facing one of the most high profile moments in a political career spanning more than 50 years — leading this month's hearings intended to show Americans what fueled the violence of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Some who tune in to Thursday's prime-time hearing will encounter for the first time the chairman, a political leader from rural Mississippi with deep roots in civil rights activism.
"I'm a passionate believer that, in a democracy you have to follow the rule of law," Thompson told NPR. "It has nothing to do with individuals, it has nothing to do with wealth. It has nothing to do with status in the community. It's the law. The law is colorblind."
That personal history, said Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, made Thompson the perfect fit to chair the select committee investigating the insurrection.
"We have so many people over here who are much more interested in the headline than they are in making headway," Clyburn recently told NPR. "Bennie is not interested in making the headlines."
While Thompson's work as a small town leader taught him how to listen, a skill critical for getting to the bottom of the insurrection, Clyburn said the most important quality he brings to his role leading the committee is his search for a more perfect union.
"Here he is, growing up, under the imperfections of this country — being affected adversely by this country's imperfections. Yet he is one being looked to now to do what is necessary to preserve it," Clyburn said.
From segregation to rising through the ranks to Congress
The Mississippi town where Thompson grew up, Bolton, had a whites-only pool and park. As a teen, he traveled 51 miles past two schools for whites to attend one for Black students.
"I never saw my hometown of Bolton when I was in high school during the day, because I caught the bus at night. It was so early in the morning, I got back so late, it was dark," he told a national civil rights symposium in 1989 as he was fighting for equal access for Black people in education and at the ballot box.
By then, Thompson had defied racial barriers to become an alderman in that same town, followed by roles as a mayor and then county supervisor.
In 1993, he won a special election to represent his majority African American district in Congress, which is anchored by the state capital in Jackson. Three years ago, he became chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
"It's kind of interesting that somebody like Bennie Thompson, with the experiences he had growing up in Mississippi, would be the one that was out there trying to keep this democracy on track," said Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who is a bit of a kindred spirit and is often seen having extended conversations with him during hours long floor votes.
When House Democrats moved last year to create the select committee to investigate how the deadly siege on the Capitol originated and transpired, Clyburn saw Thompson as a perfect fit to lead it. He made the case to Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Thompson's civil rights work and unflappable nature positioned him to face off against powerful opponents, including former President Trump and a vast share of the Republican Party.
Pelosi appeared to agree, selecting him as chairman after the panel was created.
"Chairman Thompson is the chair of one of the committees of jurisdiction, Homeland Security, and this was an assault on our homeland security and he commands a great deal of respect in our caucus and I'm very proud of what he is doing," Pelosi told NPR.
Managing the committee fairly while learning the truth
Now, Thompson is readying his committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans for hearings starting Thursday. The hearings draw from interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses and more than 100,000 pieces of evidence.
The committee's makeup has brought about new connections with Republicans for the lifelong Democrat.
The committee's vice chair, Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, said she did not really know him before the committee was formed a year ago.
She's been watching how he manages the committee and the issues and she's been "really impressed with him," particularly as Thompson steers clear of partisan arguments and debate that could slow down the committee's work, Cheney said.
"He's very focused always on the substance and on the facts," she said.
Thompson says he's calling it as he sees it on the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack that was intended to keep Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results. And he says he's gained a new education about the danger the country faced that day, which he aims to share through the hearings.
For Thompson, preserving democracy today means telling the full story of the attack on the Capitol and ensuring its moment in history is one that Americans never forget.
"I have learned a lot about how perilously close we came on January 6 to losing this democracy as a lot of us have come to know and love it."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-06-08/jan-6-committee-chair-bennie-thompson-says-the-u-s-came-close-to-losing-democracy
| 2022-06-08T11:33:49
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An FBI probe into illegal foreign lobbying has reportedly targeted a retired four-star general who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and is now president of a Washington think tank.
Copyright 2022 NPR
An FBI probe into illegal foreign lobbying has reportedly targeted a retired four-star general who led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and is now president of a Washington think tank.
Copyright 2022 NPR
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-06-08/retired-general-investigated-in-illegal-foreign-lobbying-investigation
| 2022-06-08T11:33:56
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About a year ago, some friends asked Tatyana Neustroyeva and Pyotr Kolyadin that fateful couple question: Would they get married? In unison, they gave their replies: He said yes — and she said no.
The two hadn't discussed it. At 40, they'd known each other half their lives and been together almost two years, living in St. Petersburg, Russia. Tatyana viewed marriage a bit of an archaic convention; Pyotr was into it, but wanted the time to be right.
Then, on Feb. 24, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. The couple felt they couldn't breathe, floating in a fog, with one clarity: They should get married, now.
"To me, we are facing a world apocalypse," Pyotr says, "and this is sort of like an anchor that you throw forward and maybe somehow it will pull you out. It's kind of an island of order in a world of chaos."
Soon, they began noticing — on social media, on local news — lots of other couples holding rushed, quick ceremonies. In St. Petersburg, articles noted long lines for fast-track registration. In Moscow, some 9,000 couples married in April in a 12-year record.
Uncertainty and fear spur a search for closure
"The more people think that whatever is coming could seriously upend their life, the more likely they are to make relationship decisions," says William Hiebert, a marriage counselor in Illinois and general secretary of the International Family Therapy Association.
Hiebert points out other big disasters had spurred waves of weddings, such as the much-studied 1989 Hurricane Hugo, the 2011 tsunami in Japan and the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Psychologists explain that when uncertainty meets fear in a way that's too big to grasp, people crave closure — in this case by defining and sealing their love.
"It's sort of trying to grab time and put it to a standstill," Hiebert says, "an attempt to control what little you can control."
In fact, for Russian couples, the war in Ukraine became a marriage catalyst for reasons both psychological and practical.
Pragmatic reasons are different now
After about two years of dating, Kirill Gorodnii and his now-wife Katya were looking for a shared apartment in Moscow when Russia invaded Ukraine, the birthplace of Kirill's father.
"The first day of the war, we were shocked," says Kirill, 27. "The second day of the war, we were scared. The third day of the war, we decided that we have to move elsewhere."
To this day, the Kremlin insists its attacks on Ukraine are a "special military operation," with new laws threatening a decade in prison for protests that call it a war. At one point, Kirill and Katya found themselves finally discussing marriage — in case one of them got arrested.
"So the spouse can get visits," Kirill explains. It was a grim joke, he says, except not really a joke.
Other couples mention rumors that Russia's military could mobilize all men in a nationwide draft. Wives get more access than girlfriends to hospital visitation, military hotlines, financial support — and to morgues, as Tatyana noted in passing.
Leaning on love amid disorder
Kirill and Katya joined tens of thousands of Russians who fled to neighboring Armenia and Georgia. Then, Katya's international employer shuttered its Russian office and offered her a new job in Dubai. Kirill could reside there only as her husband.
The two rushed to marry in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. On the way to register, by pure chance, they ran into some friends, who got recruited as witnesses. Six guests joined for dinner to toast their unexpected matrimony. Given the circumstances, Kirill says, it was a perfect wedding.
Tatyana and Pyotr, too, did not plan to invite anyone to their surprise wedding. But, as these things go, friends found out and the event, as Pyotr put it, began sprouting its usual accouterments of bouquets and champagne bottles.
On a city portal, the couple picked an available location for their Tuesday evening registration: incidentally, St. Petersburg's most historic, palatial marriage hall. They wed under its soaring ornate ceilings, surrounded by ancient marble and a handful of closest friends, Tatyana in white linen, Pyotr in jeans, giggling.
"I guess we're coping with the help of love," Tatyana says. Amid despair, disorder and discord, "at least we'll know that we are a family."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/npr-national-news/npr-national-news/2022-06-08/these-russian-couples-didnt-plan-to-get-married-the-ukraine-war-changed-their-minds
| 2022-06-08T11:34:02
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Simone Biles, others seek $1B-plus from FBI over Nassar
DETROIT (AP) — Former Olympic gymnasts, including gold medalist Simone Biles, are among dozens of assault victims who are seeking more than $1 billion from the FBI for failing to stop sports doctor Larry Nassar, lawyers said Wednesday.
There’s no dispute that FBI agents in 2015 knew that Nassar was accused of molesting gymnasts, but they failed to act, leaving him free to continue to target young women and girls for more than a year.
“It is time for the FBI to be held accountable,” said Maggie Nichols, a national champion gymnast at Oklahoma in 2017-19.
Under federal law, a government agency has six months to respond to the tort claim. Lawsuits could follow, depending on the FBI’s response. The Justice Department said in May that it would not pursue criminal charges against former FBI agents who failed to quickly open an investigation.
The approximately 90 claimants include Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney, all Olympic gold medalists, according to Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, a California law firm.
“If the FBI had simply done its job, Nassar would have been stopped before he ever had the chance to abuse hundreds of girls, including me,” said former University of Michigan gymnast Samantha Roy.
Indianapolis-based USA Gymnastics told local FBI agents in 2015 that three gymnasts said they were assaulted by Nassar, a team doctor. But the FBI did not open a formal investigation or inform federal or state authorities in Michigan, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general, an internal watchdog.
Los Angeles FBI agents in 2016 began a sexual tourism investigation against Nassar and interviewed several victims but also didn’t alert Michigan authorities, the inspector general said.
Nassar wasn’t arrested until fall 2016 during an investigation by Michigan State University police. He was a doctor at Michigan State.
The Michigan attorney general’s office ultimately handled the assault charges against Nassar, while federal prosecutors in Grand Rapids, Michigan, filed a child pornography case. He is serving decades in prison.
The FBI declined to comment in April when a smaller batch of claims was filed, referring instead to Director Christopher Wray’s remarks to Congress in 2021.
“I’m especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that’s inexcusable,” Wray told victims at a Senate hearing.
Michigan State University, which was also accused of missing chances over many years to stop Nassar, agreed to pay $500 million to more than 300 women and girls who were assaulted. USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee made a $380 million settlement.
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For more stories on Larry Nassar and the fallout from his years of sexual abusing young women and girls: https://www.apnews.com/LarryNassar
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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https://www.ktre.com/2022/06/08/simone-biles-others-seek-1b-plus-fbi-over-nassar/
| 2022-06-08T11:34:34
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en
| 0.971008
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Wednesday’s Weather: Hot and muggy today
EAST TEXAS (KLTV/KTRE) - Here is a look at the weather where you live: Good morning, East Texas! It will be quite the hot and muggy Wednesday as temperatures are set to remain well above average throughout the day. We’re waking up to some muggy lower 70s with partly cloudy skies. Cloud cover will disperse some as we get closer to the lunch time hour, and temperatures are really going to climb. Highs for today will range in the lower to middle 90s, and a few hot spots will likely climb up to the 95/96-degree range. There will be some thunderstorms in southern Oklahoma that just might make it south of the Red River by late morning/early afternoon. If these storms are able to hold together long enough to make it into East Texas, then some areas north of I-20 just may get a brief downpour and some gusty winds. This rain is not guaranteed, but is worth mentioning as rain chances are quite sparse over the next several days. Temperatures will steadily climb over the remainder of the week, with some areas potentially climbing upwards of 97 degrees for Thursday and Friday with sunshine and continued south winds. Even hotter by the weekend as afternoon temperatures will likely range in the middle to upper 90s, but heat index values will easily exceed the 100 degree mark, so please be safe and stay hydrated while out in the heat. For now, it does not look like much relief from this hot weather is in the near future, as highs will remain in the middle to upper 90s for the start of next week as well. Folks, remember how hot car interiors can get. ALWAYS look behind you and check the back seat before you leave your vehicle. It never hurts to be safe. It just might save a life.
Copyright 2022 KLTV/KTRE. All rights reserved.
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https://www.ktre.com/2022/06/08/wednesdays-weather-hot-muggy-today/
| 2022-06-08T11:34:40
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| 0.961468
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HOUSTON (AP) — Justin Verlander struck out a season-high 12 in seven sparkling innings, Yordan Alvarez hit a two-run homer and the Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners 4-1 on Tuesday night.
There was no trouble between the teams one night after beanballs led to a bench-clearing scuffle. Houston bench coach Joe Espada filled in for manager Dusty Baker, who served a one-game suspension after he and reliever Héctor Neris were ejected from Monday’s game.
Baker was also fined an undisclosed amount.
Verlander (7-2) yielded one run on six hits and improved to 3-1 with a 2.93 ERA in four starts against the Mariners this season.
“Obviously, every strikeout is one less ball in play, so chances are better to have success,” Verlander said. “I don’t go out hunting for strikeouts really ever. They just kind of happen. It was nice to see some of the adjustments I made I think carried over into my start, and I was able to have a little more swing-and-miss stuff.”
Verlander was tagged for six runs and four homers in his last outing against the Mariners on May 27.
“I think it was more execution than anything,” Verlander said. “I’ve been a bit off recently executing quite a few pitches. Particularly last time I played these guys they took advantage of some of those mistakes. Today, I was able to locate all my stuff better and made some adjustments between starts mechanics-wise to hopefully be a bit more consistent, and I felt like I was able to do that.”
The right-hander now has 3,086 career strikeouts, moving past Max Scherzer (3,079) and John Smoltz (3,084) for 17th place. The win was the 233rd of Verlander’s career, tying Charlie Buffinton for 62nd all-time.
“He’s just got this extra gear that not a lot of pitchers have,” Espada said. “He gets in trouble, and he knows how to use his weapons. He knows when to reach back and make pitches. That’s a gift that not a lot of pitchers have. He showed that again today.”
Rafael Montero walked the bases loaded with one out in the eighth but induced an inning-ending double play from Abraham Toro.
Ryan Pressly pitched the ninth for his 11th save.
Alvarez hit his 17th home run in the eighth, just getting it over the right field fence and the outstretched glove of Taylor Trammell to extend Houston’s lead to three.
After Toro gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the fourth on an RBI groundout, the Astros responded with RBI singles from Kyle Tucker and Jeremy Peña in the bottom half.
“We had some traffic,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “We had some chances. Tonight was that ultimate — we need that big hit. Certainly in the eighth inning there, I thought we had a really good shot against Montero to at least tie the game, but he didn’t find a hole.”
Chris Flexen (2-7) allowed two runs and five hits in 6 2/3 innings. Flexen, who dropped to 1-3 against Houston this season, has permitted three runs or fewer in each of his four starts versus the Astros.
“I thought Flex did a great job,” Servais said. “He kept them off balance all night long. He had that one little hiccup there where he gave up a couple runs early in the ballgame, but Verlander was on top of his game. He certainly made quite a few adjustments from the last time we faced him, which we expected him to do. That’s why he’s one of the better pitchers in the game.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: 1B Evan White (sports hernia) was pulled off his rehabilitation assignment after reaggravating his groin or hip issue that was causing the discomfort. … OF Kyle Lewis (concussion) has begun cardiovascular activities but not baseball activities yet, Servais said.
Astros: RHP Lance McCullers Jr. (right forearm strain) threw a 25-pitch bullpen. … RHP Jake Odorizzi (lower left leg) threw a bullpen as well and is expected to do some field work on Wednesday, Baker said. … LHP Blake Taylor has left elbow inflammation, general manager James Click said. Baker would not give a timetable for when Taylor could return, but said it would be “a while.” … LHP Parker Mushinski was placed on the 15-day injured list with left elbow discomfort. The Astros recalled RHP Brandon Bielak from Triple-A Sugar Land.
NERIS SUSPENDED
Neris was suspended four games by MLB after he hit one batter and nearly drilled another in the head Monday. Neris was also fined an undisclosed amount, but he appealed the suspension and was available Tuesday.
UP NEXT
Houston RHP José Urquidy (5-2, 4.76 ERA) will start the series finale Wednesday opposite RHP Logan Gilbert (5-2, 2.22).
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https://cw39.com/sports/astros/verlander-strikes-out-12-as-astros-top-mariners-4-1/
| 2022-06-08T11:35:39
|
en
| 0.980904
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Is anyone in your family planning to move this summer? If so, you need to hear a new warning from the Better Business Bureau, which is receiving a record number of mover complaints in 2022.
Audrey Coaston-Shelton is among those filing complaints. She is finally unpacking in her new apartment, which is something she worried wasn't going to happen.
She paid a moving company a $100 deposit but says the movers never showed up multiple times, causing her hours of stress and frustration, and the loss of several vacation days.
The first date, when the movers said they would arrive by 2 p.m., she says, "the moving company said none of our trucks are back, and we can't give you a timeline, so call us back later."
So she called and rescheduled, but says they never showed on the second date or the third date. Each time, they claimed an early-morning move took longer than expected.
"Every time," she said. "they said it was too late. OSHA says we are over on hours, so you are not moving today."
She finally got some neighbors to help move her belongings and told the company to refund her deposit.
Complaints soar during the summer months
May through August is the peak season for moving, as well as for mover scams according to the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB says it received over 1,000 complaints in 2021 nationwide, up 200 percent from the year before.
Jocile Ehrlich of the BBB says top complaints include:
- No-show movers.
- Damaged items that are not fully covered for reimbursement.
- Movers hold your goods hostage until you pay more.
She explained how that common scam works.
"Be careful of low ballers, those people who come in and give you a very low quote that sounds great," she said.
"They pick up your belongings, move them, but when it's time to pick them up they say wait a minute, we have all these additional fees that we didn't tell you about. They hold your goods hostage until you pay more."
Ehrlich says to protect yourself:
- Get quotes from three moving companies.
- Get a signed, binding estimate.
- If they won't offer a binding quote, then get an estimate that says the maximum you will have to pay.
- Read reviews of the company on the Better Business Bureau's website, www.bbb.org.
- Request a morning move, not an afternoon move when their crews may be tired or running late.
Audrey Coaston-Shelton finally got her $100 deposit back. But she says next move she'll do a lot more research.
"Moving is traumatic on its own, but to be pushed back three times is much worse," she said.
So make sure you look for reviews and complaints about any moving company, and that way you don't waste your money.
______________________
Don't Waste Your Money" is a registered trademark of Scripps Media, Inc. ("Scripps").
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For more consumer news and money saving advice, go to www.dontwasteyourmoney.com
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https://www.wsfltv.com/money/consumer/dont-waste-your-money/warnings-go-out-about-summer-surge-in-moving-scams
| 2022-06-08T11:36:56
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en
| 0.974534
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/los-angeles-clippers/articles/39732384
| 2022-06-08T11:37:38
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en
| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/atlanta-hawks/articles/39732015
| 2022-06-08T11:37:38
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/atlanta-hawks/articles/39734477
| 2022-06-08T11:37:41
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| 0.738227
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You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/atlanta-hawks/articles/39734518
| 2022-06-08T11:37:45
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en
| 0.738227
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You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/39734048
| 2022-06-08T11:37:45
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| 0.738227
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You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/39734147
| 2022-06-08T11:37:58
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/39734187
| 2022-06-08T11:38:04
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en
| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/39734189
| 2022-06-08T11:38:10
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/39734361
| 2022-06-08T11:38:16
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/39734539
| 2022-06-08T11:38:22
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| 0.738227
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/39733992
| 2022-06-08T11:38:28
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/39734000
| 2022-06-08T11:38:34
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https://sportspyder.com/nba/boston-celtics/articles/39734063
| 2022-06-08T11:38:40
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| 0.738227
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