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By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt says he had his heart shocked into rhythm after going into atrial fibrillation this week, and he still plans to play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year tweeted Sunday, “I was just told somebody leaked some personal information about me and it’s going to be reported on today. I went into A-Fib on Wednesday, had my heart shocked back into rhythm on Thursday and I’m playing today. That’s it.” The Cardinals reported Watt did not practice on Wednesday and Thursday and was limited on Friday. He was listed as questionable due to a calf injury and an illness. Watt is a five-time All-Pro and the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year. ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/02/j-j-watt-says-hes-playing-4-days-after-atrial-fibrillation-2/	2022-10-02T18:40:07	en	0.975855
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MANCHESTER, England (AP) — So complete was the humiliation of Erik ten Hag’s first Manchester derby that he chose to protect Cristiano Ronaldo from enduring the shame of being associated with such a performance. A 6-3 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday flattered United, with substitute Anthony Martial firing twice late on to add a modicum of respectability to the score. But it could not disguise the total dominance of Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions, or Erling Haaland’s status as arguably the most fearsome forward in world football. What a contrast between the Norwegian — who scored his third hat trick of the season — and Ronaldo, who watched on from the sidelines. Ten Hag was scathing in his criticism of his team and revealed he opted against bringing on his 37-year-old striker in order to protect the player’s reputation. “I wouldn’t bring him in because we are 4-1 down,” said the United manager. “Out of respect for Cristiano, for his big career.” Ten Hag made no attempt to protect his other players, who were 4-0 down at halftime and trailing 6-1 before Martial’s late double, with Phil Foden also hitting a hat trick. “The plan was to show bravery and confidence, but we didn’t from the first minute,” Ten Hag said. “We left Haaland and we were not tight. “For the first goal we won the ball and could have created a great chance, but instead we gave it easily away and then it was like a pack of cards. “I criticized them, I told them. Me as well, because I didn’t get the message through. With this lack of confidence we cannot win games. I don’t think this attitude is Manchester United, we can act much more brave. “We are in the process and I knew before that big teams like City, when you are not good you get hammered and we were not good. We didn’t follow the rules and principles of the way we play and you get hammered." United fans began to leave at halftime to avoid witnessing further indignities after a traumatic first 45 minutes. Foden struck after just eight minutes and then again on the stroke of the interval, with Haaland scoring twice inbetween. Antony scored a wonderful goal from distance after 56 minutes but City was soon back on top, with Haaland completing his treble and then setting up Foden to do likewise. Martial’s goals — the second coming from the penalty spot — made it the highest-ever scoring game between the rivals. Guardiola, meanwhile, is running out of words to praise his unstoppable center forward, who now has 17 goals in 11 games for City – and scored his third hat trick in successive home league games. “Of course, the quality we have alongside him helps him to score goals,” Guardiola said. “But what he has done, I didn’t teach him once. “When the ball is right, and he attacks the box, how he moves behind the central defender away from the action, he has incredible instincts that the ball will arrive there and it comes from his mum and dad. He was born with that." But Guardiola warned the Norway international that there is still improvements to be made to his game. “He said, ‘I prefer to touch the ball five times and score five goals.’ I don’t like that,” said the City manager. “I want him to touch the ball more and more. “So he became a football player to score goals. I like that he’s more part of the situations, but don’t forget his biggest talent is to put the ball in the net.” DRAW FOR 10-MAN LEEDS Luis Sinisterra was sent off as 10-man Leeds held out for a 0-0 draw with Aston Villa. The Colombian was shown a red card by referee Stuart Attwell for a second bookable offence when failing to retreat 10 yards for a free kick just after halftime. Sinisterra had already been show a yellow card for a foul on John McGinn in the first half at Elland Road. But Leeds, which had manager Jesse Marsch watching from the stands as he observed a touchline ban for his own red card against Brentford last month, was able to secure a point against the visitors. Illan Meslier was twice called into action in the first half to deny Ollie Watkins and Leon Bailey. After Sinisterra’s red card, Philippe Coutinho hit the post with an acrobatic attempt. Leeds is in 12th place in the Premier League and Villa a point behind in 14th. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports	https://www.lakecountystar.com/sports/article/Ronaldo-spared-as-Man-United-humiliated-by-17481738.php	2022-10-02T18:40:07	en	0.98004
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By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt says he had his heart shocked into rhythm after going into atrial fibrillation this week, and he still plans to play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year tweeted Sunday, “I was just told somebody leaked some personal information about me and it’s going to be reported on today. I went into A-Fib on Wednesday, had my heart shocked back into rhythm on Thursday and I’m playing today. That’s it.” The Cardinals reported Watt did not practice on Wednesday and Thursday and was limited on Friday. He was listed as questionable due to a calf injury and an illness. The 33-year-old Watt is a five-time All-Pro and the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year. Atrial fibrillation is defined as a “an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots in the heart,” according to the Mayo Clinic. That can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications if not properly addressed. Watt is returning quickly from a health scare as the league faces critcism for the handling of concussed Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa over the past week. The NFL Players Association on Saturday fired the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant who cleared Tagovailoa to play after he slammed his head on the turf and stumbled trying to walk it off, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person confirmed the firing on condition of anonymity because a joint review by the NFL and its players’ union into Tagovailoa’s quick return to that game is ongoing. Watt had missed the first game of the year with his calf injury but has played in the last two games. He has Arizona’s only two sacks this season. Watt has 104 sacks during his NFL career. ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/02/j-j-watt-says-hes-playing-4-days-after-atrial-fibrillation-3/	2022-10-02T18:40:13	en	0.978145
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Violence, tear gas and a deadly crush that erupted following a domestic league soccer match Saturday night marked another tragedy in Indonesian football. Here’s a look at how the chaos occurred and what is being done to prevent future incidents: ___ HOW DID THE CHAOS OCCUR? Chaos broke out after Persebaya Surabaya defeated Arema Malang 3-2 in Saturday night’s match in East Java’s province Malang city. Police said there were some 42,000 spectators in the stadium, all of whom were Arema’s supporters because the organizer had banned Persebaya fans in an effort to avoid brawls. But a disappointing loss by Arema — the first match lost to Persebaya at its home stadium — prompted angry spectators to pour into the field after the match to demand answers. Fans threw bottles and other objects at players and soccer officials and violence spread outside the stadium, where at least five police cars were toppled and set ablaze and others damaged. Riot police responded with tear gas, which is banned at soccer stadiums by FIFA. But it sparked panic. Hundreds of spectators rushed to an exit gate to avoid the tear gas, resulting in a crush that trampled or suffocated 34 to death almost instantly, with many more deaths to follow due to injuries. ___ HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED? In one of the worst sports disasters, police said at least 125 people died, including children and two police officers, most of whom were trampled. More than 100 people were injured. Police said the death toll is likely to rise more with multiple people in critical condition. Data from an Indonesian football watchdog organization, Save Our Soccer, said that at least 86 soccer fans had died since 1995, most of them in fights. ___ WHY DOES SOCCER BEGET VIOLENCE? Football is the most popular sport in Indonesia and the domestic league is widely followed. Fans are strongly attached to their clubs, and such fanaticism often ends in violence and hooliganism. But it usually happens outside the stadium. The most well-known feud is between Persija Jakarta and Persib Bandung. Supporters of the two clubs have clashed in several matches that led to deaths. In 2018, a Persija Jakarta supporter was beaten to death by Persib Bandung rivals. Indonesian football has also been beset with trouble on the international stage. Brawls broke out between supporters of archrivals Indonesia and Malaysia in 2019 during qualifiers for this year’s FIFA World Cup. In September 2019, Malaysian fans were threatened and pelted with projectiles at a World Cup qualifier in Jakarta, and Malaysia’s visiting sports minister had to be evacuated from the stadium after violence broke out. Two months later, fans hurled flares and bottles at each other in another match in Kuala Lumpur. Also in 2019, after losing in the finals of the U-22 match to Vietnam in the Southeast Asian Games, Indonesian fans took to social media to insult, harass, and send death threats to Vietnamese players and even their families. In June, two Persib Bandung fans died while jostling to enter the stadium in Bandung to watch the 2022 President’s Cup. The angry supporters became aggressive because the officers on the field did not allow them to enter the already-full stadium. ___ WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT DOING ABOUT IT? Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed his deepest regret and ordered a thorough investigation into the deaths. He has also ordered the premier soccer league suspended until a safety reevaluation is carried out and tighter security put in place. Widodo said he hoped “this tragedy will be the last tragedy of football in Indonesia.” Indonesia’s soccer association has also banned Arema from hosting soccer matches for the remainder of the season. Rights group Amnesty International urged Indonesia to investigate the use of tear gas at the stadium and ensure that those found in violations are tried in open court.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-explainer-whats-behind-indonesias-deadly-soccer-match/	2022-10-02T18:40:12	en	0.971171
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate MADRID (AP) — A minute of silence was observed before soccer matches around the world on Sunday in honor of victims of the disaster at a stadium in Indonesia that claimed at least 125 lives, and top players, coaches and leagues sent condolences and messages of support. Most of the victims were trampled upon or suffocated as chaos erupted following a game between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya on Saturday night. Witnesses described police officers beating fans with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds to stop violence but instead triggering a deadly crush. Indonesia’s soccer association suspended the top-tier Liga 1 indefinitely and banned Arema from hosting soccer matches for the remainder of the season, after one of the biggest tragedies globally at a sporting event. Soccer leagues observing a minute of silence in honor of victims included Spain, Israel and the Netherlands. In England, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola talked about the disaster following the Manchester derby in England. “Terrible. Absolutely terrible. The world is crazy," he said. "The best thoughts for the family and everything.” Manchester United coach Ten Hag said it was “really a disaster ... We are sad about it and our thoughts are with all the persons and the families and people of Indonesia.” Some fans reacted to the news before kickoff in Manchester. “We’ve been going to games for 50-odd years," said Ray Booth, a Man City fan. "We don’t think about these things, but it could quite easily happen. You have a panic with thousands of people all together. It could happen. It is frightening to think about.” Both Manchester clubs said they were “deeply saddened” by the tragedy in Indonesia. “We send our sincere condolences to the victims, their families, and everyone affected,” Man United said. In Spain, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez called for a minute of silence during the club's general assembly. Barcelona said it was “pained by the tragic events” and rejected “all acts of violence both on and off the field.” Ajax said “there should never be violence at a football match.” Among the players who reacted was veteran PSG defender Sergio Ramos, who called the tragedy “heartbreaking.” “Our thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he said on Twitter. Soccer leagues also expressed their sadness, including the Premier League, the Italian league and the Spanish league. In a statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered condolences on behalf of the global soccer community, saying “the football world is in a state of shock.” FIFA did not mention in its statement the under-20 World Cup that Indonesia is set to host next year. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin spoke on behalf of European soccer. “I would like to express our profound shock and sadness at last night’s appalling events in East Java’s Kanjuruhan stadium,” he said. “Our community sends its sympathy and solidarity to everyone affected by this tragedy.” The president of the Asian soccer confederation, Shaikh Salman, said he was “deeply shocked and saddened to hear such tragic news coming out of football-loving Indonesia.” The Spanish soccer federation lamented the tragedy and said it "condemns any act of violence, especially those in a festive setting such as a football match. ___ AP Sports Writer James Robson in Manchester, England, contributed to this report. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports ___ Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni	https://www.lakecountystar.com/sports/article/Soccer-world-reacts-to-disaster-at-Indonesia-17481710.php	2022-10-02T18:40:14	en	0.963387
By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt says he had his heart shocked into rhythm after going into atrial fibrillation this week, and he still plans to play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year tweeted Sunday, “I was just told somebody leaked some personal information about me and it’s going to be reported on today. I went into A-Fib on Wednesday, had my heart shocked back into rhythm on Thursday and I’m playing today. That’s it.” The Cardinals reported Watt did not practice on Wednesday and Thursday and was limited on Friday. He was listed as questionable due to a calf injury and an illness. The 33-year-old Watt is a five-time All-Pro and the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year. Atrial fibrillation is defined as a “an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm that can lead to blood clots in the heart,” according to the Mayo Clinic. That can increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications if not properly addressed. Watt is returning quickly from a health scare as the league faces critcism for the handling of concussed Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa over the past week. The NFL Players Association on Saturday fired the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant who cleared Tagovailoa to play after he slammed his head on the turf and stumbled trying to walk it off, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person confirmed the firing on condition of anonymity because a joint review by the NFL and its players’ union into Tagovailoa’s quick return to that game is ongoing. Watt had missed the first game of the year with his calf injury but has played in the last two games. He has Arizona’s only two sacks this season. Watt has 104 sacks during his NFL career. ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/02/j-j-watt-says-hes-playing-4-days-after-atrial-fibrillation-4/	2022-10-02T18:40:19	en	0.978145
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A famed extreme skier from the United States who was killed after falling from one of the world’s tallest mountains was on Sunday given a traditional funeral at a Sherpa cremation ground as Buddhist monks officiated over a ceremony attended by family, friends and government officials. Hilaree Nelson, 49, fell off the 8,163-meter (26,775-foot) summit of the world’s eighth-highest mountain. Mount Manaslu, last week while skiing down with her partner, Jim Morrison. Nelson’s body was taken to the Sherpa cremation grounds in Kathmandu from a hospital morgue on the back of a open truck, which was decorated a poster of her and bedecked with garlands of flowers. Family, friends, mountaineers and government officials gathered at the funeral ground, offering flowers and scarfs that were place on her remains, which were then rested on a stack of wood. Buddhists monks lit the pyre as they played musical instruments and chanted prayers while mourners lit incense. Nelson’s family members had flown to Kathmandu for the funeral. She disappeared on Sept. 26 and rescuers searching by helicopter located her body two days later and it was flown to Kathmandu. Bad weather had hampered the initial search. Climbers om Mount Manaslu have been struggling with bad weather conditions and repeated avalanches. On the same day Nelson fell, an avalanche at a lower elevation on the same mountain killed a Nepalese man and injured several other climbers. Hundreds of climbers and their local guides have attempted to reach the mountain’s summit during Nepal’s autumn climbing season. Nelson, from Telluride, Colorado, and Morrison, from Tahoe, California, are extreme skiers who reached the summit of Mount Lhotse, the world’s fourth-highest mountain, in 2018. Nepal’s government has issued permits to 504 climbers during this year’s autumn climbing season. Most are climbing Mount Manaslu.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-famed-us-extreme-skier-gets-traditional-nepalese-funeral/	2022-10-02T18:40:19	en	0.971993
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate LONDON (AP) — Greg Joseph kicked a 47-yard field goal with 24 seconds left and the Minnesota Vikings hung on for a 28-25 win over New Orleans on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when the Saints' Wil Lutz’s 61-yard tying attempt hit the left upright and then the crossbar as time expired. Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson beat Marshon Lattimore on a 39-yard reception to set up Joseph's go-ahead kick — after the kicker had missed an extra point earlier in the quarter. The missed kick left the Vikings with a 25-22 lead. The Saints then had an eight-play drive and Lutz made a 60-yard field goal with 1:51 left to tie the game for the Saints (1-3), who have lost three straight games. But Lutz's next attempt was just a little bit off. Jefferson had 10 receptions for 147 yards and ran for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter for the Vikings (3-1). The Vikings squandered multiple scoring chances, settling for field goals — Joseph was 5 for 5 — but still held off a New Orleans team that played without key starters including quarterback Jameis Winston and running back Alvin Kamara. Kirk Cousins completed 25 of 38 passes for 273 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The Vikings under first-year coach Kevin O'Connell are off to their best start since going 4-0 in 2016. The Saints arrived early in the week to acclimate to the time difference, but in the end it didn't matter and their losing streak is now at three games under coach Dennis Allen. Down 16-7, Saints backup quarterback Andy Dalton led two scoring drives to help New Orleans take 22-19 lead. Saints tight end/quarterback Taysom Hill took a direct snap and ran it in from 2 yards for the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter and Dalton found a wide-open Jarvis Landry for the 2-point conversion to give the Saints a 22-19 lead. Dalton completed 20 of 28 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown. After the Saints rallied and cut Minnesota's lead to 16-14 on Latavius Murray's 1-yard run late in the third quarter, the Vikings drove again but an intentional grounding and false start pushed them back and Joseph made it 19-14 with a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. The Vikings led 13-7 and had first-and-goal on the 3 after Justin Jefferson's 41-yard reception in the third quarter, but were pushed back by a delay of game penalty. Cousins then threw short to Adam Thielen instead of going to a wide-open Jefferson in the back of the end zone. One play earlier, Cousins threw behind Jefferson in the end zone and the receiver couldn't hold on. The Vikings were in control early. Alexander Mattison weaved through traffic for a 15-yard touchdown reception on Minnesota's opening drive during which the Vikings were 3 for 3 on third down. The Saints had no first downs in the first quarter, but got help when safety Tyrann Mathieu intercepted a long pass intended for Irv Smith Jr. Dalton then drove the Saints 60 yards and found Chris Olave for a 4-yard touchdown pass — the rookie's first NFL touchdown — to make it 7-7 early in the second quarter. The Vikings squandered two good opportunities deep in Saints territory late in the second quarter. Tight end Johnny Mundt dropped a short pass on a third-and-1 from the 10 and Minnesota opted for a field goal instead of going for it. On the next possession, Dalton fumbled on a strip-sack by Za'Darius Smith and Dalvin Tomlinson. Harrison Phillips recovered to set up the Vikings from the Saints 20 with just under a minute in the half and three timeouts. After a completion for no gain, they didn't use a timeout, had an incompletion and then a false start penalty. Joseph then kicked a 36-yard field goal and the Vikings went into the half with a 13-7 lead. The Saints were also without wide receiver Michael Thomas. GOOD LUCK IN LONDON The Vikings improved to 3-0 in London games — with wins in three different stadiums. The Vikings beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-27 in 2013 at Wembley Stadium and topped the Cleveland Browns 33-16 four years later at Twickenham Stadium. Drew Brees led the Saints to two victories — in 2008 and 2017 — both at Wembley Stadium. This was the fifth NFL game at Tottenham, the Premier League club's stadium that cost more than $1 billion to build and opened in 2019. INJURIES Vikings rookie Lewis Cine was carted off the field with a leg injury late in the first quarter. He was blocking on a punt return when he sustained the injury. Cine clutched his left leg as he went down. The Vikings immediately ruled him out. ... DL Carl Granderson was ruled out at halftime. UP NEXT Vikings: Host NFC North-rival Chicago Bears next Sunday; their bye is in Week 7. Saints: Host the Seattle Seahawks in the first of back-to-back games at the Superdome. ___ More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL	https://www.lakecountystar.com/sports/article/Vikings-hang-on-for-28-25-win-over-Saints-in-17481703.php	2022-10-02T18:40:20	en	0.967145
By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt says he had his heart shocked into rhythm after going into atrial fibrillation this week, and he still plans to play Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. The three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year tweeted Sunday, “I was just told somebody leaked some personal information about me and it’s going to be reported on today. I went into A-Fib on Wednesday, had my heart shocked back into rhythm on Thursday and I’m playing today. That’s it.” The Cardinals reported Watt did not practice on Wednesday and Thursday and was limited on Friday. He was listed as questionable due to a calf injury and an illness. Watt is a five-time All-Pro and the 2017 Walter Payton Man of the Year. ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/j-j-watt-says-hes-playing-4-days-after-atrial-fibrillation/	2022-10-02T18:40:25	en	0.975855
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — A farm tractor pulling a wagon loaded with people overturned and fell into a pond in northern India, killing 26 people, most of them women and children, officials said Sunday. The wagon was carrying around 40 people returning from a ceremony at a nearby local Hindu temple Saturday night, said police Superintendent Tej Swaroop Singh. He said most of the deaths were due to drowning. At least 10 people were injured in the accident in Kanpur city’s Ghatampur area, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Uttar Pradesh state’s capital, Lucknow. The injured have been admitted to a hospital. The cause of the accident is under investigation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted condolences Saturday: “Distressed by the tractor-trolley mishap in Kanpur. My thoughts are with all those who have lost their near and dear ones. Prayers with the injured.” It is the second incident in the last three days when a tractor carrying people overturned, killing at least 12 people. Uttar Pradesh’s top elected official Yogi Adityanath discouraged the use of farm tractors for passenger transport. “A tractor-trolley should be used for agricultural work and to transfer goods, not to ferry people,” he said in a statement. India has some of the highest road death rates in the world, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and injured annually. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and aging vehicles.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-farm-vehicle-packed-with-people-overturns-in-india-26-dead/	2022-10-02T18:40:26	en	0.972625
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Rewards totaling $85,000 have been offered for information leading to an arrest in five fatal shootings since July in Stockton, California, that investigators believe are related, police said. After reviewing surveillance footage, detectives have located an unidentified “person of interest” in the killings, Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden wrote on the department’s Facebook page Saturday. Police released a grainy still image of a person filmed from behind, dressed all in black and wearing a black cap. The latest killing occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, when a 54-year-old man was shot in a residential area just north of downtown, McFadden said. Police said he was the fifth man fatally shot since July 8 within a radius of a few square miles. Detectives believe all five homicides are related “based on our investigation and the reports we are receiving,” McFadden said. Police said the victims were each walking alone when they were killed in the evening or early morning in the city of 320,000 residents about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the state capital, Sacramento. The ages of the victims range from 21 to 54; four of the men were Hispanic and one was white, McFadden said. “We are committed to protecting our community and solving these cases utilizing all the resources at our disposal including YOU. We need YOUR help!!!! If anyone, has information regarding these investigations, call us immediately. Please remember our victims have grieving family members who need resolution. If you know something, say something,” the chief wrote on Facebook. The city of Stockton put up a $75,000 reward, and Stockton Crime Stoppers offered an additional $10,000. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/killings-of-5-men-in-california-are-related-police-say/	2022-10-02T18:40:32	en	0.972633
PARIS (AP) — Thousands of people marched in Paris on Sunday to show their support for Iranian protesters standing up to their leadership over the death of a young woman in police custody. Several female demonstrators chopped off chunks of their hair and tossed them into the air as a gesture of liberation. Women of Iranian heritage, French feminist groups and leading politicians were among those who joined the gathering at Republique Plaza before marching through eastern Paris. “Woman, Life, Liberty!” the crowd chanted, undeterred by the rainy weather. Some banners read: “Freedom for Iranian women,” or “No to Obligatory Hijab” or just the young woman’s name: “#Mahsa Amini.” It was the latest and appeared to be the largest of several protests in France in support of the Iranian demonstrators. Iranians and others have also marched in cities around the world. Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by Iran’s morality police in the capital of Tehran for allegedly not adhering to Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. The protesters have vented their anger over the treatment of women and wider repression in the Islamic Republic, and the demonstrations escalated into calls for the overthrow of the clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since 1979. At the Paris protest, some chanted in Persian and French, “Khomenei get out!” — referring to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khomenei. Some women’s cheeks bore drawings of a red poppy, the symbol of a martyr in Iran. Iris Farkhondeh, a 40-year-old French scholar who came to France as a refugee when she was a toddler, said she worries about rising Islamist extremism and the risk of terrorist attacks in France by religious extremists. “The battle we fight in Iran is the same as that in France,” she said. Other protesters described anger at Iran’s dress codes and encroaching restrictions on women. Some were afraid to give their names out of concerns for repercussions for family members in Iran. Romane Ranjbaran, 28, came to protest with her mother and other family members. ”Iran is part and parcel of my history. My mom knew free Iran, when women were free,” she said. She said she was happy to see so many people at Sunday’s gathering. “It is an international fight. If we want the situation in Iran to improve, we need international support,” she said.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-french-march-rallies-support-for-iranian-demonstrators/	2022-10-02T18:40:33	en	0.976965
HELSINKI (AP) — Latvia’s ruling center-right party won the most votes in the country’s general election, centrist parties were the runners-up and pro-Moscow parties crashed in a vote that was shaped by Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to results published Sunday. With over 99% of the votes counted, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’ New Unity party had captured 19% support, while the opposition Greens and Farmers Union was second with 12.5% and the new centrist electoral alliance United List — made up of several regional parties — was third with 10.9%. Only eight parties or electoral alliances passed the 5% barrier and secured representation at the 100-seat Saeima legislature. The center-right National Alliance and the centrist Development/For!, which are both members in Karins’ current minority coalition government, are among them. None of the parties catering to Latvia’s ethnic Russian minority, which makes up more than 25% of the country’s 1.9 million people, managed to secure a seat in Parliament. Karins, a 57-year-old dual Latvian-U.S. citizen born in Wilmington, Delaware, told media outlets earlier that it would be easiest to continue with the same coalition government if his party won. Valdis Dombrovskis, the executive vice president of the European Commission and a former Latvian prime minister, said the Baltic country was currently “facing a very complicated geopolitical situation in a context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.” Latvia, which borders Russia, joined the European Union and NATO in 2004. “The victory of the prime minister’s party, New Unity, I think, means that people voted for experienced political force with a clear Euro-Atlantic course, which can deal and lead a country in this complicated situation,” Dombrovskis told New Unity supporters in the capital, Riga. Saturday’s election was a blow particularly for Harmony, a Moscow-friendly party that traditionally served as an umbrella for most of Latvia’s Russian-speaking voters, including Belarusians and Ukrainians. Harmony received a mere 4.8% of votes in comparison to the 2018 election, when it garnered almost 20% of the vote, the most of any single party, but was excluded by other parties from entering the government. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 had a substantial effect on voter attitudes, observers say, and resulted in a deep division between Russian-speakers opposing the war and those supporting it. Latvia’s economic situation, including soaring energy prices, was the main election issue. Initial voter turnout was 59.4%, the Central Election Committee said, higher than the 2018 election. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/10/02/latvian-premiers-center-right-party-wins-national-election/	2022-10-02T18:40:38	en	0.967786
MANAUS, Brazil (AP) — In most democracies, citizens go to the polls. But in Brazil’s sparsely populated Amazon region, the polls often go to the voters. Most people in the vast rainforest live in urban areas, but thousands reside in tiny villages several days from the nearest city by boat. Amazonas, Brazil’s biggest state, is triple the size of California yet has only about one-third the population of greater Los Angeles. More than half its cities can’t be reached at all by road, and some are hundreds of kilometers from the state capital, Manaus. Logistics pose a challenge even in Manaus, a sprawling municipality of 2.2 million people. On Saturday, The Associated Press accompanied election workers setting up a voting place in the Bela Vista do Jaraqui community, a three-hour boat trip from the city. “No candidate made an appearance here during this campaign,” João Moraes de Souza, a local fisherman and small farmer, told The Associated Press. “If nobody comes during the campaign, you can imagine afterward.” One of the election workers was Ana Lúcia Salazar de Souza. Due to the distance, her team, including police officers, would spend the night in makeshift lodging and return to Manaus on Sunday after voting ends in the afternoon. “There are many difficulties,” she said. “But participating in this process of citizenship makes all sacrifices worth it.” Collecting votes in Amazonas’ remote Javari Valley region is even more fraught – but less so in recent years thanks to the efforts of Bruno Pereira, the Indigenous expert slain this year alongside British journalist Dom Phillips. Until 2012, the region’s only voting centers were in the city of Atalaia do Norte. That year, a mayoral candidate distributed gasoline to about 1,200 Indigenous people from the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory so they could make the multiday trip downriver to vote. The candidate hadn’t provided enough fuel for their return trip, however. They were stranded on the riverbanks for weeks without proper sanitation, prompting a rotavirus outbreak. Five Kanamari babies died and some 100 people were hospitalized. At the time, Pereira led the local bureau of Brazil’s agency for Indigenous affairs. He provided them with food and water, and coordinated a quarantine to prevent the virus from reaching Indigenous villages. Later, he and local Indigenous leaders developed a plan for transporting electronic voting machines to remote villages. “Bruno wrote all the technical parts,” Jader Marubo, then-president of the local Indigenous association, told the AP. Villages in the Javari Valley territory received their first voting centers in 2014. To deliver a voting machine to the most distant village, Vida Nova, election officials usually fly in a small plane from Manaus to Cruzeiro do Sul, a city in Acre state. There, they board a helicopter for the final leg. It is a 1,000-mile round-trip voyage to reach a place with 327 voters, in a nation with an electorate of more than 150 million people. But in a democracy, every vote counts – underscored by latest opinion polls indicating former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva just might squeak out a first-round victory, without an Oct. 30 runoff against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. This year, the Javari Valley territory has seven voting centers, for 1,655 Indigenous voters. In August, the regional election authority building in Atalaia do Norte was renamed for Bruno Pereira. ___ Maisonnave reported from Rio de Janeiro. ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-in-brazilian-amazon-a-1000-mile-voyage-so-people-can-vote/	2022-10-02T18:40:40	en	0.951943
By SAM MEDNICK and ARSENE KABORE Associated Press OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso’s ousted coup leader has offered his resignation as long as his security and other conditions were met, and the new junta leader who overthrew him has accepted the deal, religious leaders mediating the West African nation’s latest political crisis said Sunday. A junta spokesman later announced on state television that their leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, officially has been named head of state following the Friday coup that ousted Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Their power grab marked Burkina Faso’s second military coup this year, deepening fears that the political chaos could divert attention from an Islamic insurgency whose violence has killed thousands and forced 2 million to flee their homes. It followed unrest in Ouagadougou, the capital, in which mobs on Saturday attacked the French embassy and other French-related sites, wrongly believing that they were sheltering Damiba. Along with agreeing not to harm or prosecute him, Damiba also asked Traore and the new junta leadership to respect the commitments already made to the West African regional bloc ECOWAS. Damiba, who came to power in a coup last January, had recently reached an agreement to hold an election by 2024. “President Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba proposed his own resignation in order to avoid clashes,” said Hamidou Yameogo, a spokesman for the mediation efforts. Traore accepted the conditions, religious leaders said, but there was no immediate confirmation by Damiba himself of an official resignation. His whereabouts have remained unknown since the Friday night coup. Amid the mediation, the new junta leadership also called for an end to the unrest. In a statement broadcast on state television, junta spokesman Capt. Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho called on people to “desist from any act of violence and vandalism” especially those against the French Embassy or the French military base. Anti-French sentiment rose sharply after the new junta alleged that interim president Damiba was sheltering at a French military base following his ouster. France vehemently denied the allegation, but soon protesters with torches thronged the perimeter of the French Embassy in Ouagadougou. Saturday’s violence was condemned by the French Foreign Ministry, which denied any involvement in the rapidly developing events. French Institutes in Ouagadougou and the country’s second-largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso, had also been targeted and French citizens were urged to be very cautious. “The situation is very volatile in Burkina Faso,” a French spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Sunday. Damiba came to power in January promising to secure the country from jihadi violence. However, the situation only deteriorated as jihadis imposed blockades on towns and have intensified attacks. Last week, at least 11 soldiers were killed and 50 civilians went missing after a supply convoy was attacked by gunmen in Gaskinde commune in the Sahel. The group of officers led by Traore said Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed. To some in Burkina Faso’s military, Damiba also was seen as too cozy with former colonizer France, which maintains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some who support the new coup leader, Traore, have called on Burkina Faso’s government to seek Russian support instead. Outside the state broadcaster on Sunday, supporters of Traore were seen cheering and waving Russian flags. In neighboring Mali, the coup leader has invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help with security, a move than has drawn global condemnation and accusations of human rights abuses. Conflict analysts say Damiba was probably too optimistic about what he could achieve in the short term but that a change at the top didn’t mean that the country’s security situation would improve. “The problems are too profound and the crisis is deeply rooted,” said Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, adding that “militant groups will most likely continue to exploit” the country’s political disarray. The international community widely condemned the ouster of Damiba, who himself overthrew the country’s democratically elected president in January. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States “is deeply concerned by events in Burkina Faso.” “We call on those responsible to de-escalate the situation, prevent harm to citizens and soldiers, and return to a constitutional order,” he said. The African Union and the West African region bloc known as ECOWAS also sharply criticized the developments, urging the military to “avoid escalation and in all circumstances to protect civilians.” ___ Mednick reported from Barcelona. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/mediator-ousted-burkina-faso-leader-offers-resignation-2/	2022-10-02T18:40:45	en	0.974373
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that protests over the death of a young woman in police custody could destabilize the country and urged security forces to deal harshly with those he claimed endanger public order, as countrywide unrest entered its third week. Scattered anti-government protests appeared to break out in Tehran and running clashes with security forces in other towns, social media reports showed on Sunday, even as the government has moved to block, partly or entirely, internet connectivity in Iran. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf told lawmakers that unlike the current protests, which he said aim to topple the government, previous demonstrations by teachers and retirees over pay were aimed at reforms, according to the legislative body’s website. “The important point of the (past) protests was that they were reform-seeking and not aimed at overthrowing” the system, said Qalibaf. “I ask all who have any (reasons to) protest not to allow their protest to turn into destabilizing and toppling” of institutions. Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by Iran’s morality police in the capital of Tehran for allegedly not adhering to Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. The protesters have vented their anger over the treatment of women and wider repression in the Islamic Republic. The nationwide demonstrations rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of the clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian state TV has reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested. Qalibaf, the parliamentary speaker, is a former influential commander in the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Along with the president and the head of the judiciary, he is one of three ranking officials who deal with all important issues of the nation. The three meet regularly and sometimes meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. Qalibaf said he believes many of those taking part in recent protests had no intention of seeking to overthrow the government in the beginning and claimed foreign-based opposition groups were fomenting protests aimed at tearing down the system. Iranian authorities have not presented evidence for their allegations of foreign involvement in the protests. “Creating chaos in the streets will weaken social integrity, jeopardizing the economy while increasing pressure and sanctions by the enemy,” he said, referring to longstanding crippling U.S. sanctions on Iran. Qalibaf promised to “amend the structures and methods of the morality police” to prevent a recurrence of what happened to Amini. The young woman died in the custody of the morality police. Her family alleged she was beaten, while officials claim she died of a heart attack. His remarks came after a closed meeting of Parliament and a brief rally by lawmakers to voice support for Khamenei and the police, chanting “death to hypocrites,” a reference to Iranian opposition groups. The statement by Qalibaf is seen as an appeal to Iranians to stop their protests while supporting police and the security apparatus. Meanwhile, the hard-line Kayhan daily said Sunday that knife-carrying protesters attacked the newspaper building Saturday and shattered windows with rocks. It said they left when Guard members were deployed to the site. On Saturday, protests continued on the Tehran University campus and in nearby neighborhoods and witnesses said they saw many young girls waving their head scarves above their heads in a gesture of defiance. Social media carried videos purportedly showing similar protests at the Mashhad and Shiraz universities but The Associated Press could not independently verify their authenticity. A protester near Tehran University, 19-year-old Fatemeh who only gave her first name for fear of repercussions, said she joined the demonstration “to stop this behavior by police against younger people especially girls.” Abdolali, a 63-year-old teacher who also declined to give his last name, said he was shot twice in the foot by police. He said: “I am here to accompany and support my daughter. I once participated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that promised justice and freedom; it is time to materialize them.” Protests resumed in several cities including Mashhad and Tehran’s Sharif Industrial University on Sunday, according to social media reports. Witnesses said security was tight in the areas nearby Tehran University and its neighborhoods downtown as hundreds of anti-riot police and plain clothes with their cars and motorbikes were stationed on junctions and squares. The AP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the reports. Also on Sunday, media outlets reported the death of another Revolutionary Guard member in the southeastern city of Zahedan. That brought to five the number of IRG members killed in an attack on a police station by gunmen that, according to state media, left 19 people dead. It wasn’t clear if the attack, which Iranian authorities said was carried out by separatists, was related to the anti-government protests. Local media said a police officer also had died in the Kurdish city of Marivan, following injuries during clashes with protesters. The protests have drawn supporters from various ethnic groups, including Kurdish opposition movements in the northwest of Iran that operate along the border with neighboring Iraq. 22-year-old Amini was an Iranian Kurd and the protests first erupted in Kurdish areas.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-iran-parliament-speaker-says-protests-could-weaken-society/	2022-10-02T18:40:47	en	0.977874
By SAM MEDNICK and ARSENE KABORE Associated Press OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Burkina Faso’s ousted coup leader has offered his resignation as long as his security and other conditions were met, and the new junta leader who overthrew him has accepted the deal, religious leaders mediating the West African nation’s latest political crisis said Sunday. A junta spokesman later announced on state television that their leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, officially has been named head of state following the Friday coup that ousted Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba. Their power grab marked Burkina Faso’s second military coup this year, deepening fears that the political chaos could divert attention from an Islamic insurgency whose violence has killed thousands and forced 2 million to flee their homes. It followed unrest in Ouagadougou, the capital, in which mobs on Saturday attacked the French embassy and other French-related sites, wrongly believing that they were sheltering Damiba. Along with agreeing not to harm or prosecute him, Damiba also asked Traore and the new junta leadership to respect the commitments already made to the West African regional bloc ECOWAS. Damiba, who came to power in a coup last January, had recently reached an agreement to hold an election by 2024. “President Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba proposed his own resignation in order to avoid clashes,” said Hamidou Yameogo, a spokesman for the mediation efforts. Traore accepted the conditions, religious leaders said, but there was no immediate confirmation by Damiba himself of an official resignation. His whereabouts have remained unknown since the Friday night coup. Amid the mediation, the new junta leadership also called for an end to the unrest. In a statement broadcast on state television, junta spokesman Capt. Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho called on people to “desist from any act of violence and vandalism” especially those against the French Embassy or the French military base. Anti-French sentiment rose sharply after the new junta alleged that interim president Damiba was sheltering at a French military base following his ouster. France vehemently denied the allegation, but soon protesters with torches thronged the perimeter of the French Embassy in Ouagadougou. Saturday’s violence was condemned by the French Foreign Ministry, which denied any involvement in the rapidly developing events. French Institutes in Ouagadougou and the country’s second-largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso, had also been targeted and French citizens were urged to be very cautious. “The situation is very volatile in Burkina Faso,” a French spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Sunday. Damiba came to power in January promising to secure the country from jihadi violence. However, the situation only deteriorated as jihadis imposed blockades on towns and have intensified attacks. Last week, at least 11 soldiers were killed and 50 civilians went missing after a supply convoy was attacked by gunmen in Gaskinde commune in the Sahel. The group of officers led by Traore said Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed. To some in Burkina Faso’s military, Damiba also was seen as too cozy with former colonizer France, which maintains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some who support the new coup leader, Traore, have called on Burkina Faso’s government to seek Russian support instead. Outside the state broadcaster on Sunday, supporters of Traore were seen cheering and waving Russian flags. In neighboring Mali, the coup leader has invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help with security, a move than has drawn global condemnation and accusations of human rights abuses. Conflict analysts say Damiba was probably too optimistic about what he could achieve in the short term but that a change at the top didn’t mean that the country’s security situation would improve. “The problems are too profound and the crisis is deeply rooted,” said Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, adding that “militant groups will most likely continue to exploit” the country’s political disarray. The international community widely condemned the ouster of Damiba, who himself overthrew the country’s democratically elected president in January. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States “is deeply concerned by events in Burkina Faso.” “We call on those responsible to de-escalate the situation, prevent harm to citizens and soldiers, and return to a constitutional order,” he said. The African Union and the West African region bloc known as ECOWAS also sharply criticized the developments, urging the military to “avoid escalation and in all circumstances to protect civilians.” ___ Mednick reported from Barcelona. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/mediator-ousted-burkina-faso-leader-offers-resignation/	2022-10-02T18:40:51	en	0.974373
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a cease-fire, imploring him to “stop this spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine and denouncing the “absurd” risk of the “uncontrollable” consequences of nuclear attack as tensions sharply escalate over the war. Francis uttered his strongest plea yet about the seventh-month-old conflict, which he denounced as an “error and a horror.” It was the first time in public that he cited Putin’s role in the war. The pontiff also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “be open” to serious peace proposals. Francis told the public, gathered in St. Peter’s Square, that he was abandoning his usual religious theme for his Sunday noon remarks to concentrate his reflection on Ukraine. “How the war is going in Ukraine has become so grave, devastating and threatening that it sparks great worry,” Francis said. “In fact, this terrible, inconceivable wound of humanity, instead of shrinking, continues to bleed even more, threatening to spread,” the pope said. “I deplore strongly the grave situation created in the last days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law,” Francis said, in a clear reference to Putin’s illegal annexation of a large swath of eastern Ukraine. ”It, in fact, increases the risk of a nuclear escalation, to the point of fearing uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences on the world level.” “Rivers of blood and tears spilled these months torment me,” the pope said. ”I am pained by the thousands of victims, in particular among the children, and by so much destruction, that leaves many persons and families homeless and threatens vast territories with cold and hunger,” he said. “Certain actions can never be justified, never,” the pope said. He didn’t elaborate. But Putin sought to justify launching the invasion saying he needed to protect his country from what he called “Nazi” elements in Ukraine. “It’s anguishing that the world is learning the geography of Ukraine through names like Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izium, Zaporizhizhia and other places, that have become places of indescribable sufferings and fears,” Francis said. “And what to say about the fact that humanity finds itself again faced with atomic threat? It’s absurd,” Francis said, who then called for an immediate cease-fire. “My appeal is directed above all to the president of the Russian Federation, imploring him to stop, also for the love of his people, this spiral of violence and death,” Francis said. ”On the other side, pained by the immense suffering of the Ukrainian people following the aggression undergone, I direct a similarly trusting appeal to the president of Ukraine to be open to serious proposals of peace,” Francis said. It is rare for the pope to single out leaders in his frequent appeals for an end to violent conflicts. In doing so, Francis signaled his extreme worry over the deteriorating situation. “May arms cease and conditions be searched for to start negotiations able to lead to solutions not imposed by force but agreed upon, just and stable,” Francis said. ”And they will be thus if they are based on respect for the sacrosanct value of human life, as well as on the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of every country, as well as the rights of minorities and of legitimate concerns.” Invoking God’s name and the “sense of humanity that lodges in every heart,” he renewed his many pleas for an immediate cease-fire. Without elaborating, Francis also called for the “recourse to all diplomatic instruments, including those so far possibly not utilized, to end this immense tragedy.” “The war itself is an error and a horror,” the pontiff lamented. Throughout the war, Francis has denounced the recourse to arms. But recently, he stressed Ukraine’s right to defend itself from aggression. Logistics complications have frustrated his oft-stated hope to make a pilgrimage to Ukraine to encourage peace efforts. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-pope-appeals-to-putin-to-end-spiral-of-violence-in-ukraine/	2022-10-02T18:40:53	en	0.961569
By JAMES ROBSON AP Sports Writer MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Erling Haaland and Phil Foden scored hat tricks Sunday as Erik ten Hag was humiliated in his first Manchester derby. Manchester City destroyed rival Manchester United 6-3 at the Etihad and moved to within a point of Premier League leader Arsenal. It was Haaland’s third hat trick of the season – and his third in successive home league games. Ten Hag becomes the sixth United manager since Alex Ferguson’s retirement to lose his first derby – but had a heavier defeat than either David Moyes or Ralf Rangnick, who both lost by margins of 4-1. The Dutchman came into the game having been named manager of the month in the Premier League but any celebrations were short-lived after a traumatic afternoon for United in the highest-ever scoring meeting between these teams. It was a case of damage limitation at the halftime interval after City raced to a 4-0 lead in an utterly dominant display. Pep Guardiola’s team controlled 62% of possession by the midway point and was ahead after just eight minutes through Foden. United had already survived one goal-mouth scramble in the opening moments by way of warning of what was to come. Haaland struck twice in the space of three minutes later in the half, and then set up Foden for the midfielder’s second just before halftime. A number of empty seats appeared in the away section of the crowd, with many United fans failing to show for the second half. Those that did stay witnessed United’s Antony score a wonderful goal from distance after 56 minutes. But City was soon dominating again, with Haaland completing his treble and then setting up Foden to do likewise. Substitute, Anthony Martial, scored twice in the last 10 minutes – the second from the penalty spot – but the humiliation had been complete long before. Guardiola hailed Haaland’s latest performance. “Of course, the quality we have alongside him helps him to score goals. But what he has done, I didn’t teach him once,” Guardiola said. “When the ball is right, and he attacks the box, how he moves behind the central defender away from the action, he has incredible instincts that the ball will arrive there and it comes from his mum and dad. He was born with that.” Ten Hag was heavily critical of his players, accusing them of lacking bravery. “Lack of belief. I’ve seen some highlights — it was obvious we are defending not on the front foot. We let them play,” Ten Hag said. “In possession we were not brave enough, made tactical mistakes, decisions, mistakes and then you get hammered.” Cristiano Ronaldo was an unused substitute, with Ten Hag saying the Portugal great did not deserve to be put through the humiliation of coming on in such a defeat. “I wouldn’t bring him in because out of respect for Cristiano, for his big career,” he said. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/02/reality-check-for-united-as-city-wins-manchester-derby-6-3/	2022-10-02T18:40:57	en	0.978379
MADRID (AP) — Spain´s marine rescue service said Sunday it picked up the bodies of four people from a rubber dinghy that was adrift in waters off northwest Africa and is believed to have been carrying more than 30 people. A merchant ship rescued one person after it spotted the boat Saturday about 280 kilometers (150 miles) south of the Canary Islands archipelago. The marine rescue service sent a helicopter to take the man from the ship to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, where he was treated in a hospital. Spanish state news agency Efe said the man, from the Ivory Coast, told rescue services that there had been 34 people on the boat when it set sail nine days ago. Thousands of migrants from northwest and sub-Saharan African countries try to reach Spain by boat each year. Many die in the attempt. The voyage across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands is one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, authorities and rights groups say, with trips in often overloaded boats taking more than a week to reach the islands and European soil. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-spain-4-bodies-retrieved-from-migrant-boat-1-man-rescued/	2022-10-02T18:41:00	en	0.965763
By BRIAN MELLEY Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Texas oil company was granted permission to repair an underwater pipeline that ruptured off the coast of Southern California a year ago, spilled tens of thousands of gallons of crude, and forced beaches and fisheries to close. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted the approval Friday to Amplify Energy Corp., clearing the way to rebuild the aging pipeline that burst months after it was apparently weakened when it was snagged by the anchors of ships adrift in a storm. The Oct. 1, 2021, rupture spilled about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of oil into the Pacific Ocean, closed miles of beaches for a week, shuttered fisheries for months and coated birds and wetlands in oil. The approval to rebuild the pipe running from an oil rig off Huntington Beach to tanks in Long Beach comes less than a month after Amplify pleaded guilty to federal charges of negligently discharging oil. The Houston-based company and two subsidiaries also agreed to plead no contest in state court to polluting water and killing birds. Amplify said the approval will allow it to remove and replace the damaged segments of pipe from the ocean floor. It estimated the work would take up to a month after a barge is in place. If it passes a series of safety tests after being fixed, the company said it expected to begin operating in the first quarter of 2023. Environmentalists who want the pipeline shut down criticized the permit approval and renewed calls to put an end to offshore oil operations. “The Biden administration just ramped up the risk of yet another ugly oil spill on California’s beautiful coast,” said Brady Bradshaw of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Unfortunately, people living near offshore drilling infrastructure are all too familiar with this abusive cycle of drill, spill, repeat.” On Wednesday, the environmental group sued the federal government for allowing the platform where the pipeline originated to operate under outdated plans that indicated the platform should have been decommissioned more than a decade ago. The lawsuit also said the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management failed to review and require plan revisions, despite the spill. Amplify contended that the spill wouldn’t have occurred if two ships hadn’t dragged their anchors across the pipeline and damaged it during a January 2021 storm. It said it wasn’t notified about the anchor snagging until after the spill. While the size of the spill was not as bad as initially feared, U.S. prosecutors said the company should have been able to turn off the damaged line much sooner had it recognized the gravity of a series of leak-detection alarms over a 13-hour period. The first alarm sounded late on the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2021, but workers misinterpreted the cause, according to the federal plea agreement. When the alarm sounded throughout the night, workers shut down the pipeline to investigate and then restarted it after deciding they were false alarms. That spewed more oil. It wasn’t until after daybreak that a boat identified the spill and the line was shut down. As part of a federal court agreement to pay a $7 million fine and nearly $6 million in expenses incurred by agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard, the company and subsidiaries agreed to install a new leak-detection system and train employees to identify and respond to potential leaks. The company agreed to plead no contest to six state misdemeanor charges and pay $4.9 million in penalties and fines as part of a settlement. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that the company agreed to plead no contest to state misdemeanor charges, instead of guilty. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/ruptured-oil-pipeline-off-california-approved-for-repairs-3/	2022-10-02T18:41:04	en	0.963439
BERLIN (AP) — Swiss police used rubber bullets to disperse protesters in front of the Iranian Embassy in Bern after two men climbed over the embassy’s fence and pulled down the Iranian flag from a flagpole in the yard. Police said late Saturday that nobody was injured and that the “large crowd” of protesters was dispersed after the use of rubber bullets. The two protesters who entered the embassy’s grounds were detained, according to police in the Swiss capital. Police said they used rubber bullets after several other protesters at the unauthorized demonstration tried following the two men who had first entered the embassy’s yard and also attempted to access the premises. It wasn’t immediately clear if more protesters were detained. Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks in protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the morality police in the capital, Tehran, for allegedly wearing her mandatory Islamic headscarf too loosely. Outside of Iran, thousands of protesters have also staged demonstrations in European countries and elsewhere over the death of Amini. They’ve also expressed anger over the treatment of women and wider repression in the Islamic Republic.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-swiss-police-violently-disperses-anti-iranian-protests/	2022-10-02T18:41:07	en	0.972644
By TALES AZZONI AP Sports Writer MADRID (AP) — A minute of silence was observed before soccer matches around the world on Sunday in honor of victims of the disaster at a stadium in Indonesia that claimed at least 125 lives, and top players, coaches and leagues sent condolences and messages of support. Most of the victims were trampled upon or suffocated as chaos erupted following a game between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya on Saturday night. Witnesses described police officers beating fans with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds to stop violence but instead triggering a deadly crush. Indonesia’s soccer association suspended the top-tier Liga 1 indefinitely and banned Arema from hosting soccer matches for the remainder of the season, after one of the biggest tragedies globally at a sporting event. Soccer leagues observing a minute of silence in honor of victims included Spain, Israel and the Netherlands. In England, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola talked about the disaster following the Manchester derby in England. “Terrible. Absolutely terrible. The world is crazy,” he said. “The best thoughts for the family and everything.” Manchester United coach Ten Hag said it was “really a disaster … We are sad about it and our thoughts are with all the persons and the families and people of Indonesia.” Some fans reacted to the news before kickoff in Manchester. “We’ve been going to games for 50-odd years,” said Ray Booth, a Man City fan. “We don’t think about these things, but it could quite easily happen. You have a panic with thousands of people all together. It could happen. It is frightening to think about.” Both Manchester clubs said they were “deeply saddened” by the tragedy in Indonesia. “We send our sincere condolences to the victims, their families, and everyone affected,” Man United said. In Spain, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez called for a minute of silence during the club’s general assembly. Barcelona said it was “pained by the tragic events” and rejected “all acts of violence both on and off the field.” Ajax said “there should never be violence at a football match.” Among the players who reacted was veteran PSG defender Sergio Ramos, who called the tragedy “heartbreaking.” “Our thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he said on Twitter. Soccer leagues also expressed their sadness, including the Premier League, the Italian league and the Spanish league. In a statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered condolences on behalf of the global soccer community, saying “the football world is in a state of shock.” FIFA did not mention in its statement the under-20 World Cup that Indonesia is set to host next year. UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin spoke on behalf of European soccer. “I would like to express our profound shock and sadness at last night’s appalling events in East Java’s Kanjuruhan stadium,” he said. “Our community sends its sympathy and solidarity to everyone affected by this tragedy.” The president of the Asian soccer confederation, Shaikh Salman, said he was “deeply shocked and saddened to hear such tragic news coming out of football-loving Indonesia.” The Spanish soccer federation lamented the tragedy and said it “condemns any act of violence, especially those in a festive setting such as a football match. ___ AP Sports Writer James Robson in Manchester, England, contributed to this report. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports ___ Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/02/soccer-world-reacts-to-disaster-at-indonesia-stadium/	2022-10-02T18:41:11	en	0.959223
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish warplanes “neutralized” 23 Kurdish militants in a raid 140 kilometers (90 miles) inside Iraq, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Sunday. The ministry usually refers to killed militants as “neutralized.” It said the number of casualties in the mission in the Asos region of northern Iraq, which is controlled by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government, was expected to rise. A video accompanying the ministry’s tweet showed F-16 fighters taking off and a number of explosions in a mountainous area. The ministry referred to a statement from Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Thursday in which he said airstrikes had hit 16 targets in the Asos region. Turkey has been conducting a series of operations in northern Iraq since 2019, saying the military is targeting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to prevent it from launching cross-border attacks on Turkey. In April, Operation Claw-Lock was launched, which involves ground and air forces. The PKK has waged an on-again, off-again insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. The group is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. The Defense Ministry later said seven “terrorists” had been neutralized in north Syria in response to the killing of a Turkish police officer in a missile attack on Sunday. The attack on a Turkish base near Al Bab was carried out by Kurdish militants from the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, according to official statements. The YPG, which helped in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group, is linked to the PKK but isn’t considered a terrorist group by the U.S. or the EU.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-turkey-says-23-kurdish-militants-killed-in-iraq-airstrikes/	2022-10-02T18:41:14	en	0.974107
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that protests over the death of a young woman in police custody could destabilize the country and urged security forces to deal harshly with those he claimed endanger public order, as countrywide unrest entered its third week. Scattered anti-government protests appeared to break out in Tehran and running clashes with security forces in other towns, social media reports showed on Sunday, even as the government has moved to block, partly or entirely, internet connectivity in Iran. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf told lawmakers that unlike the current protests, which he said aim to topple the government, previous demonstrations by teachers and retirees over pay were aimed at reforms, according to the legislative body’s website. “The important point of the (past) protests was that they were reform-seeking and not aimed at overthrowing” the system, said Qalibaf. “I ask all who have any (reasons to) protest not to allow their protest to turn into destabilizing and toppling” of institutions. Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets over the last two weeks to protest the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by Iran’s morality police in the capital of Tehran for allegedly not adhering to Iran’s strict Islamic dress code. The protesters have vented their anger over the treatment of women and wider repression in the Islamic Republic. The nationwide demonstrations rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of the clerical establishment that has ruled Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian state TV has reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17. An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested. Qalibaf, the parliamentary speaker, is a former influential commander in the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Along with the president and the head of the judiciary, he is one of three ranking officials who deal with all important issues of the nation. The three meet regularly and sometimes meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. Qalibaf said he believes many of those taking part in recent protests had no intention of seeking to overthrow the government in the beginning and claimed foreign-based opposition groups were fomenting protests aimed at tearing down the system. Iranian authorities have not presented evidence for their allegations of foreign involvement in the protests. “Creating chaos in the streets will weaken social integrity, jeopardizing the economy while increasing pressure and sanctions by the enemy,” he said, referring to longstanding crippling U.S. sanctions on Iran. Qalibaf promised to “amend the structures and methods of the morality police” to prevent a recurrence of what happened to Amini. The young woman died in the custody of the morality police. Her family alleged she was beaten, while officials claim she died of a heart attack. His remarks came after a closed meeting of Parliament and a brief rally by lawmakers to voice support for Khamenei and the police, chanting “death to hypocrites,” a reference to Iranian opposition groups. The statement by Qalibaf is seen as an appeal to Iranians to stop their protests while supporting police and the security apparatus. Meanwhile, the hard-line Kayhan daily said Sunday that knife-carrying protesters attacked the newspaper building Saturday and shattered windows with rocks. It said they left when Guard members were deployed to the site. On Saturday, protests continued on the Tehran University campus and in nearby neighborhoods and witnesses said they saw many young girls waving their head scarves above their heads in a gesture of defiance. Social media carried videos purportedly showing similar protests at the Mashhad and Shiraz universities but The Associated Press could not independently verify their authenticity. A protester near Tehran University, 19-year-old Fatemeh who only gave her first name for fear of repercussions, said she joined the demonstration “to stop this behavior by police against younger people especially girls.” Abdolali, a 63-year-old teacher who also declined to give his last name, said he was shot twice in the foot by police. He said: “I am here to accompany and support my daughter. I once participated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution that promised justice and freedom; it is time to materialize them.” Protests resumed in several cities including Mashhad and Tehran’s Sharif Industrial University on Sunday, according to social media reports. Witnesses said security was tight in the areas nearby Tehran University and its neighborhoods downtown as hundreds of anti-riot police and plain clothes with their cars and motorbikes were stationed on junctions and squares. The AP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the reports. Also on Sunday, media outlets reported the death of another Revolutionary Guard member in the southeastern city of Zahedan. That brought to five the number of IRG members killed in an attack on a police station by gunmen that, according to state media, left 19 people dead. It wasn’t clear if the attack, which Iranian authorities said was carried out by separatists, was related to the anti-government protests. Local media said a police officer also had died in the Kurdish city of Marivan, following injuries during clashes with protesters. The protests have drawn supporters from various ethnic groups, including Kurdish opposition movements in the northwest of Iran that operate along the border with neighboring Iraq. 22-year-old Amini was an Iranian Kurd and the protests first erupted in Kurdish areas. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/top-iran-official-warns-against-protests-amid-serious-unrest/	2022-10-02T18:41:17	en	0.976614
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation of Catholic Church archives on three continents to ascertain who knew what and when about sexual abuse by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor. The Vatican’s sex abuse office said last week that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020, forbidding him from having contact with minors or with East Timor, based on misconduct allegations that arrived in Rome in 2019. That was the year Francis approved a new church law that required all cases of predator prelates to be reported in-house and established a mechanism to investigate bishops, who had long escaped accountability for abuse or cover-up during the church’s decades-long scandal. But a brief statement by the Vatican, issued after Dutch magazine De Groen Amsterdammer exposed the Belo scandal by quoting two of his alleged victims, didn’t reveal what church officials might have known before 2019. Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict in their home country as it struggled to gain independence from Indonesia. He is revered in East Timor and was celebrated abroad for his bravery in calling out human rights abuses by Indonesian rulers despite threats against his life. But six years after winning the prize, in 2002, Belo suddenly retired as the head of the church in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. At 54, he was two decades shy of the normal retirement age for bishops, and he never held an episcopal appointment after that. He has said he retired for health reasons and because of stress and to give the newly independent East Timor different church leadership. But within a year of his retirement, Belo had been sent by the Vatican and his Salesian missionary order to another former Portuguese colony, Mozambique, to work as a missionary priest. There, he has said, he spent his time “teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people.” He is currently in Portugal, where the Salesians have said they took him in at the request of their superiors. His whereabouts are unclear, and he didn’t respond when contacted by Portuguese media. Advocates for survivors cite the in-house investigation that Francis authorized and published in 2020 into defrocked American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in calling for a similar forensic study of church archives for Belo. The McCarrick investigation, which began after new allegations surfaced in 2018 that McCarrick sexually abused a teenage altar boy, exposed how a series of bishops, cardinals and even popes over two decades dismissed or downplayed reports that he slept with his seminarians and allowed him to rise through the church hierarchy. There is no indication yet that Francis is prepared to authorize a similar investigation into Belo. There doesn’t appear to be any groundswell of indignation within East Timor’s Catholic community, as there was among U.S. Catholics over McCarrick. On the contrary, in the impoverished, overwhelmingly Catholic country, where the church holds enormous influence, many rallied behind Belo despite the allegations. Francis did meet Saturday with his ambassador to Portugal as well as the head of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, who himself is reportedly accused of covering up for other abuser priests. Anne Barrett-Doyle, of the online resource Bishop Accountability, called for Francis to order a “full and sweeping investigation of the Belo case including past and present church officials from all ranks and dicasteries and from every relevant region, from East Timor to Portugal to Rome to Mozambique.” She noted that Belo’s Salesian superiors as well as Vatican officials, up to and including even Pope John Paul II, would have been involved in his 2002 retirement and subsequent transfers. East Timor is and was then under the jurisdiction of the powerful Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which handles all church matters in mission territories in Africa, Asia and some other regions. But ultimately a pope decides when bishops retire and whether they are subject to any sanction. “The Vatican’s suggestion that it first learned of the allegations in the last few years doesn’t pass the smell test. It is wholly implausible,” Barrett-Doyle said in an email. “Signs point to the real possibility that Belo is another McCarrick – an acclaimed churchman whose predations were known to many church officials.” The United Nations’ spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, also backed a full investigation. “These allegations are truly shocking and need to be fully investigated,” he told The Associated Press. The United Nations organized a referendum on East Timor’s independence in 1999 and then provided a U.N. peacekeeping force to quell widespread violence that broke out until independence was finally declared in 2002. The main U.S.-based advocacy group for survivors of priestly sex abuse, SNAP, joined the call for a more thorough inquest, especially given that Belo was allowed to continue ministering to children while in Mozambique. “We learn from many allegations of sexual abuse against children that there are often more victims. In this tragedy, the Vatican set Belo free to have access to potentially more victims,” said SNAP communications manager, Mike McDonnell.	https://cw39.com/international/ap-international/ap-un-abuse-survivor-groups-seek-vatican-investigation-of-belo/	2022-10-02T18:41:21	en	0.977197
By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets Sunday with suicide drones, and Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war. Russia’s loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level. It also prompted Ukraine to formally apply for NATO membership, a bid that won backing Sunday from nine central and eastern European NATO members fearful that Russia’s aggression could eventually target them, too. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that his forces now control Lyman: “As of 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Lyman is cleared fully. Thank you to our militaries, our warriors,” he said in a video address. Russia’s military didn’t comment Sunday on Lyman, after announcing Saturday that it was withdrawing its forces there to more favorable positions. The British military described the recapture of Lyman as a “significant political setback” for Moscow, and Ukraine appeared to swiftly capitalize on its gains. Hours after Zelenskyy’s announcement, Ukrainian media shared an image of Ukrainian troops carrying the country’s yellow-and-blue flag in front of a statue marking the village of Torske, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Lyman and within sight of the Russian-held Luhansk region. Shortly later, a video posted online showed one Ukrainian soldier saying that Kyiv’s forces had begun to target the city of Kreminna, just across the border in Luhansk. Outgoing artillery could be heard in the background. Russian military correspondents also acknowledged Ukrainian attacks targeting Kreminna. In another online photo, an Ukrainian soldier stood before giant watermelon landmark just south of the village of Novovorontsovka on the banks of the Dnieper River, along the Russian-controlled province of Kherson’s northern edge. A Ukrainian flag flew above the statue as several apparently deactivated landmines lay beside it. While Ukrainian forces did not immediately acknowledge a breakthrough, writers close to the Russian military have described a new offensive by Kyiv in the Kherson region. In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown of Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that destroyed two stories of a school early Sunday, the regional governor said. The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defenses. A car carrying four men seeking to forage for mushrooms in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region struck a mine, killing all those inside, authorities said Sunday. Russian attacks also targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. And Ukraine’s military said Sunday it carried out strikes on multiple Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries. The reports of military activity couldn’t be immediately verified. Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks that has embarrassed the Kremlin and prompted rare domestic criticism of Putin’s war. Lyman, which Ukraine recaptured by encircling Russian troops, is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed Friday after forcing what was left of the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint. In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said: “Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.” In a daily intelligence briefing Sunday, the British Defense Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has “a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defenses.” The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic and a kindergarten. Recent developments have raised fears of all-out conflict between Russia and the West. Putin frames the recent Ukrainian gains as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia, and last week he heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date. The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement Sunday backing a path to NATO membership for Ukraine, and calling on all 30 members of the U.S.-led security bloc to ramp up military aid for Kyiv. Germany’s defense minister on Sunday announced the delivery of 16 wheeled armored howitzers produced in Slovakia to Ukraine next year. The weapons will be financed jointly with Denmark, Norway and Germany, Russia moved ahead Sunday with steps meant to make its land grab look like a legal process aimed at helping people allegedly persecuted by Kyiv, with rubber-stamp approval by the Constitutional Court and draft laws being pushed through the Kremlin-friendly parliament. Outside Russia, the Kremlin’s actions have been widely denounced as violating international law, with multiple EU countries summoning Russian ambassadors since Putin on Friday signed annexation treaties with Moscow-backed officials in southern and eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, international concerns are mounting about the fate of Europe’s largest nuclear plant after Russian forces detained its director for alleged questioning. The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday that its director-general, Rafael Grossi would visit Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Grossi is continuing to push for “a nuclear safety and security zone” around the site. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Zelenskyy, denouncing the detention of the plant’s director and saying the situation there “remained very worrying.” The Zaporizhzhia plant is in one of the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed on Friday, and repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians have continued running the power station after Russian troops seized it but its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure. Pope Francis on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats and appealed to Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.” ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/10/02/ukraine-presses-on-with-counteroffensive-russia-uses-drones-4/	2022-10-02T18:41:23	en	0.958015
FARMERSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A sweating Bart Barber trekked across a pasture in search of Bully Graham, the would-be patriarch of the rural pastor’s fledgling cattle herd. With the temperature in the mid-90s, the 52-year-old Texan found the bull — whose nickname reflects his owner’s affection for the late Rev. Billy Graham — and 11 heifers cooling under a canopy of trees. “Hey, baby girl,” Barber said as he patted a favorite cow he dubbed Lottie Moon after the namesake of his denomination’s international missions offering. For nearly a quarter-century, Barber enjoyed relative obscurity as a minister in this town 50 miles northeast of Dallas. That changed in June as delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, chose Barber to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a time of major crisis. The previous month a scathing, 288-page investigative report hit the denomination’s 13.7 million members. It laid out the findings of an independent probe detailing how Southern Baptist leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations. In August, SBC leaders revealed that the Department of Justice was investigating several of its major entities, giving few details but indicating that the inquiry concerned the sex abuse allegations. Barber’s background as a trusted, small-town preacher — not to mention his folksy sense of humor — helps explain why fellow Baptists picked him. “In this moment where I think there’s a lot of widespread distrust of these big institutions, I think a lot of people find it refreshing that the one leading us is an everyday pastor,” said Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. A staunch theological conservative, Barber touts biblical inerrancy, opposes women serving as pastors and supports abortion bans. In running for SBC president, he expressed a desire to be a peacemaker and a unifier. The SBC faces multiple challenges. Rank-and-file Baptists have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing sex abuse reforms, but the final outcome remains unclear. The denomination also has a problem with falling membership, which has slid 16% from its 2006 peak. Nathan Finn, a church historian and provost of North Greenville University in South Carolina, agreed that Barber’s small-town appeal is a big part of why Baptists turned to him. “Though he is a well-educated church historian and an expert on SBC history and polity, Bart is not an elitist,” Finn said via email. “He gives the impression that he would rather be working on his farm than hobnobbing with denominational leaders.” After recently appointing an abuse task force that will make recommendations at next year’s annual meeting in New Orleans, Barber said identifying solutions to the problem is his top priority. Barber grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Lake City, Arkansas. Baptized just before his sixth birthday, he felt God calling him to ministry at age 11 and preached his first sermon at 15. His late father, Jim, ran the home office for an Arkansas congressman, a Democrat named Bill Alexander. His stay-at-home mother, Carolyn, now 77, taught him to read by the time he entered kindergarten. Often his dad would bring politicians by the house, he recalled, and his mom would make chicken pot pie or smothered steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. “Here we were in very small-town Arkansas — not a lot of money, not a lot of fame or anything like that — and a gubernatorial candidate would stop by the house,” Barber said. He attended Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he met his future wife, Tracy, in a campus ministry. They have two children: Jim, 19, and Sarah, 16. He also earned a master’s in divinity and a doctorate in church history from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He pastored in Mill Creek, Oklahoma, and Royse City, Texas, before moving to Farmersville in 1999. “He has the heart of a pastor. He is someone who really cares about folks,” Tracy Barber said of her husband of 30 years. “The people in our church are our family.” Steve Speir, 74, is a 42-year member of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, which averages Sunday attendance of about 320. His wife, Linda, plays the church organ. Barber is “very organized,” Speir said. “He won’t keep anything hidden. Our entire church has full disclosure on all financial matters.” Another longtime member, Donna Armstrong, 75, said: “We never doubt whether he’s biblically based or loves the Lord.” On a recent Sunday, Barber got up at 4:30 a.m., attended a deacons meeting at 7 and preached at 8:30 and 11. After a nap, he drove to Dallas and flew to Nashville, Tennessee, for meetings at the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters. “It is stressful. It is time-consuming. I do enjoy it,” Barber said of his new job. Back home later in the week, he rose before the sun on Saturday to help his daughter load a 1,000-pound heifer named Iris into a cattle trailer. They drove a half-hour to a livestock show. There, Barber greeted special-needs children who came to see the animals, used clippers to help Sarah shave Iris and periodically shoveled manure into a garbage can. He also enjoyed a friendly chat with rancher Joni Brewer about her miniature Hereford cows. Brewer attends a Southern Baptist church, but she had no clue about Barber’s role with the SBC. “I live out in the country,” she said, “so you don’t always see all of those things.” But James Callagher, who knows Barber through 4-H Club activities, described his friend as perfect for the job. “The thing that sticks out to me is just authenticity,” said Callagher, who is Catholic. “He lives his faith, and as Christians we have a lot of common ground.” In addition to such in-person contacts, Barber maintains an active Twitter presence. Just in the last week, he posted pictures of his cows, debated biblical qualifications for church leaders and shared SBC plans for Hurricane Ian relief. Barber and his family live in a church-owned parsonage, but last year they bought 107 acres of land where they’re raising their Santa Gertrudis beef cattle. In a recent sermon, Barber joked that a boyhood job chopping cotton and hoeing soybeans was what inspired him to go into ministry. Asked on the drive back from the livestock show if he’s now enjoying life as a farm owner, Barber smiled. “Not only that, but I’m surviving everything else because of how I’m enjoying it,” he said. “It’s a great source of tranquility for me.” ___ 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.	https://cw39.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-amid-crises-rural-roots-anchor-southern-baptists-president-2/	2022-10-02T18:41:28	en	0.969583
By KEN MAGUIRE AP Sports Writer LONDON (AP) — Greg Joseph kicked a 47-yard field goal with 24 seconds left and the Minnesota Vikings hung on for a 28-25 win over New Orleans on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when the Saints’ Wil Lutz’s 61-yard tying attempt hit the left upright and then the crossbar as time expired. Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson beat Marshon Lattimore on a 39-yard reception to set up Joseph’s go-ahead kick — after the kicker had missed an extra point earlier in the quarter. The missed kick left the Vikings with a 25-22 lead. The Saints then had an eight-play drive and Lutz made a 60-yard field goal with 1:51 left to tie the game for the Saints (1-3), who have lost three straight games. But Lutz’s next attempt was just a little bit off. Jefferson had 10 receptions for 147 yards and ran for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter for the Vikings (3-1). The Vikings squandered multiple scoring chances, settling for field goals — Joseph was 5 for 5 — but still held off a New Orleans team that played without key starters including quarterback Jameis Winston and running back Alvin Kamara. Kirk Cousins completed 25 of 38 passes for 273 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The Vikings under first-year coach Kevin O’Connell are off to their best start since going 4-0 in 2016. The Saints arrived early in the week to acclimate to the time difference, but in the end it didn’t matter and their losing streak is now at three games under coach Dennis Allen. Down 16-7, Saints backup quarterback Andy Dalton led two scoring drives to help New Orleans take 22-19 lead. Saints tight end/quarterback Taysom Hill took a direct snap and ran it in from 2 yards for the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter and Dalton found a wide-open Jarvis Landry for the 2-point conversion to give the Saints a 22-19 lead. Dalton completed 20 of 28 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown. After the Saints rallied and cut Minnesota’s lead to 16-14 on Latavius Murray’s 1-yard run late in the third quarter, the Vikings drove again but an intentional grounding and false start pushed them back and Joseph made it 19-14 with a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. The Vikings led 13-7 and had first-and-goal on the 3 after Justin Jefferson’s 41-yard reception in the third quarter, but were pushed back by a delay of game penalty. Cousins then threw short to Adam Thielen instead of going to a wide-open Jefferson in the back of the end zone. One play earlier, Cousins threw behind Jefferson in the end zone and the receiver couldn’t hold on. The Vikings were in control early. Alexander Mattison weaved through traffic for a 15-yard touchdown reception on Minnesota’s opening drive during which the Vikings were 3 for 3 on third down. The Saints had no first downs in the first quarter, but got help when safety Tyrann Mathieu intercepted a long pass intended for Irv Smith Jr. Dalton then drove the Saints 60 yards and found Chris Olave for a 4-yard touchdown pass — the rookie’s first NFL touchdown — to make it 7-7 early in the second quarter. The Vikings squandered two good opportunities deep in Saints territory late in the second quarter. Tight end Johnny Mundt dropped a short pass on a third-and-1 from the 10 and Minnesota opted for a field goal instead of going for it. On the next possession, Dalton fumbled on a strip-sack by Za’Darius Smith and Dalvin Tomlinson. Harrison Phillips recovered to set up the Vikings from the Saints 20 with just under a minute in the half and three timeouts. After a completion for no gain, they didn’t use a timeout, had an incompletion and then a false start penalty. Joseph then kicked a 36-yard field goal and the Vikings went into the half with a 13-7 lead. The Saints were also without wide receiver Michael Thomas. GOOD LUCK IN LONDON The Vikings improved to 3-0 in London games — with wins in three different stadiums. The Vikings beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-27 in 2013 at Wembley Stadium and topped the Cleveland Browns 33-16 four years later at Twickenham Stadium. Drew Brees led the Saints to two victories — in 2008 and 2017 — both at Wembley Stadium. This was the fifth NFL game at Tottenham, the Premier League club’s stadium that cost more than $1 billion to build and opened in 2019. INJURIES Vikings rookie Lewis Cine was carted off the field with a leg injury late in the first quarter. He was blocking on a punt return when he sustained the injury. Cine clutched his left leg as he went down. The Vikings immediately ruled him out. … DL Carl Granderson was ruled out at halftime. UP NEXT Vikings: Host NFC North-rival Chicago Bears next Sunday; their bye is in Week 7. Saints: Host the Seattle Seahawks in the first of back-to-back games at the Superdome. ___ More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/02/vikings-hang-on-for-28-25-win-over-saints-in-london-2/	2022-10-02T18:41:31	en	0.961194
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean activists say they clashed with police while launching balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda materials across the North Korean border, ignoring their government’s plea to stop such activities since the North has threatened to respond with “deadly” retaliation. Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said he his group had launched about eight balloons from an area in the South Korean border town of Paju Saturday night when police officers arrived at the scene and prevented them from sending their 12 remaining balloons. Park said police confiscated some of their materials and detained him and three other members of his group over mild scuffles with officers before releasing them after questioning. Officials at the Paju police and the northern Gyeonggi provincial police agencies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday. The balloons flown toward North Korea carried masks, Tylenol and Vitamin C tablets along with propaganda materials, including booklets praising South Korea’s economic wealth and democratic society and hundreds of USB sticks containing videos of U.S. Congress members denouncing the North’s human rights record, Park said. One of the balloons carried a placard that read, “Entire humanity denounces Kim Jong Un who threatens to preemptively strike (South Korea) with nuclear missiles,” referring to the North Korean leader’s escalatory nuclear doctrine that’s raising tensions with neighbors. Saturday’s launch came weeks after South Korea’s government pleaded for activists to stop their balloon launches, citing concerns related to the safety of border area residents. Lee Hyo-jung, spokesperson of Seoul’s Unification Ministry, then said that the South would also “sternly respond” to any North Korean retaliation over the balloons. Animosity between the Koreas has worsened this year as North Korea ramped up its missile testing activity to record pace and punctuated those tests with warnings that it would preemptively use its nukes in a broad range of scenarios where it perceives its leadership has come under threat. North Korea is extremely sensitive to outside criticism about the Kim family’s authoritarian rule of its people, most of whom have little access to foreign news. It has berated South Korea’s current conservative government for letting South Korean civilian activists fly anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other “dirty waste” across the border by balloon, even dubiously claiming the items caused its COVID-19 outbreak. For years, Park has floated helium-filled balloons with leaflets and other propaganda material harshly criticizing the Kim family. He also began sending masks, medicine and vitamins following the emergence of COVID-19. Last year, South Korea, under its previous liberal government that sought to improve inter-Korean ties, enforced a contentious new law criminalizing civilian leafleting campaigns. Park still kept launching balloons, becoming the first person to be indicted over that law, but his trial has basically been put on hold since he filed a petition requesting the Constitutional Court to rule whether the new law is unconstitutional, according to his lawyer, Lee Hun. Opponents of the law say it’s sacrificing South Korea’s freedom of speech in attempting to improve ties with North Korea. Supporters say the law is aimed at avoiding unnecessarily provoking North Korea and promoting the safety of frontline South Korean residents. In 2014, North Korea fired at balloons flying toward its territory, and in 2020 it destroyed an empty South Korean-built liaison office in the North to express its anger over leafleting. In a failed assassination attempt in 2011, South Korean authorities captured a North Korean agent who tried to kill Park with a pen equipped with a poison needle.	https://cw39.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-s-korean-activists-clash-with-police-over-anti-kim-balloons/	2022-10-02T18:41:34	en	0.95819
By KEN MAGUIRE AP Sports Writer LONDON (AP) — Greg Joseph kicked a 47-yard field goal with 24 seconds left and the Minnesota Vikings hung on for a 28-25 win over New Orleans on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium when the Saints’ Wil Lutz’s 61-yard tying attempt hit the left upright and then the crossbar as time expired. Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson beat Marshon Lattimore on a 39-yard reception to set up Joseph’s go-ahead kick — after the kicker had missed an extra point earlier in the quarter. The missed kick left the Vikings with a 25-22 lead. The Saints then had an eight-play drive and Lutz made a 60-yard field goal with 1:51 left to tie the game for the Saints (1-3), who have lost three straight games. But Lutz’s next attempt was just a little bit off. Jefferson had 10 receptions for 147 yards and ran for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter for the Vikings (3-1). The Vikings squandered multiple scoring chances, settling for field goals — Joseph was 5 for 5 — but still held off a New Orleans team that played without key starters including quarterback Jameis Winston and running back Alvin Kamara. Kirk Cousins completed 25 of 38 passes for 273 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The Vikings under first-year coach Kevin O’Connell are off to their best start since going 4-0 in 2016. The Saints arrived early in the week to acclimate to the time difference, but in the end it didn’t matter and their losing streak is now at three games under coach Dennis Allen. Down 16-7, Saints backup quarterback Andy Dalton led two scoring drives to help New Orleans take 22-19 lead. Saints tight end/quarterback Taysom Hill took a direct snap and ran it in from 2 yards for the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter and Dalton found a wide-open Jarvis Landry for the 2-point conversion to give the Saints a 22-19 lead. Dalton completed 20 of 28 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown. After the Saints rallied and cut Minnesota’s lead to 16-14 on Latavius Murray’s 1-yard run late in the third quarter, the Vikings drove again but an intentional grounding and false start pushed them back and Joseph made it 19-14 with a 46-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. The Vikings led 13-7 and had first-and-goal on the 3 after Justin Jefferson’s 41-yard reception in the third quarter, but were pushed back by a delay of game penalty. Cousins then threw short to Adam Thielen instead of going to a wide-open Jefferson in the back of the end zone. One play earlier, Cousins threw behind Jefferson in the end zone and the receiver couldn’t hold on. The Vikings were in control early. Alexander Mattison weaved through traffic for a 15-yard touchdown reception on Minnesota’s opening drive during which the Vikings were 3 for 3 on third down. The Saints had no first downs in the first quarter, but got help when safety Tyrann Mathieu intercepted a long pass intended for Irv Smith Jr. Dalton then drove the Saints 60 yards and found Chris Olave for a 4-yard touchdown pass — the rookie’s first NFL touchdown — to make it 7-7 early in the second quarter. The Vikings squandered two good opportunities deep in Saints territory late in the second quarter. Tight end Johnny Mundt dropped a short pass on a third-and-1 from the 10 and Minnesota opted for a field goal instead of going for it. On the next possession, Dalton fumbled on a strip-sack by Za’Darius Smith and Dalvin Tomlinson. Harrison Phillips recovered to set up the Vikings from the Saints 20 with just under a minute in the half and three timeouts. After a completion for no gain, they didn’t use a timeout, had an incompletion and then a false start penalty. Joseph then kicked a 36-yard field goal and the Vikings went into the half with a 13-7 lead. The Saints were also without wide receiver Michael Thomas. GOOD LUCK IN LONDON The Vikings improved to 3-0 in London games — with wins in three different stadiums. The Vikings beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-27 in 2013 at Wembley Stadium and topped the Cleveland Browns 33-16 four years later at Twickenham Stadium. Drew Brees led the Saints to two victories — in 2008 and 2017 — both at Wembley Stadium. This was the fifth NFL game at Tottenham, the Premier League club’s stadium that cost more than $1 billion to build and opened in 2019. INJURIES Vikings rookie Lewis Cine was carted off the field with a leg injury late in the first quarter. He was blocking on a punt return when he sustained the injury. Cine clutched his left leg as he went down. The Vikings immediately ruled him out. … DL Carl Granderson was ruled out at halftime. UP NEXT Vikings: Host NFC North-rival Chicago Bears next Sunday; their bye is in Week 7. Saints: Host the Seattle Seahawks in the first of back-to-back games at the Superdome. ___ More AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.	https://wtmj.com/national/2022/10/02/vikings-hang-on-for-28-25-win-over-saints-in-london/	2022-10-02T18:41:37	en	0.961194
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, a self-described “car guy,” often promises to lead by example on climate change by moving swiftly to convert the sprawling U.S. government fleet to zero-emission electric vehicles. But efforts to eliminate gas-powered vehicles from the fleet have lagged. Biden last year directed the U.S. government to purchase only American-made, zero-emission passenger cars by 2027 and electric versions of other vehicles by 2035. “We’re going to harness the purchasing power of the federal government to buy clean, zero-emission vehicles,” the president said soon after his January 2021 inauguration. He has since used photo ops — taking a spin in Ford Motor Co.’s electric F-150 pickup truck, or driving GM’s Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV at the Detroit auto show — to promote their potential. Cabinet officials have hawked a first set of Ford Mustang Mach-E SUVs in use at the departments of Energy and Transportation. The White House frequently describes the 2027 timeline as on track. But the General Services Administration, the agency that purchases two-thirds of the 656,000-vehicle federal fleet, says there are no guarantees. Then there is the U.S. Postal Service, which owns the remaining one-third of the federal fleet. After initially balking and facing lawsuits, the agency now says that half of its initial purchase of 50,000 next-generation vehicles will be powered by electricity. The first set of postal vehicles will hit delivery routes late next year. Climate advocates say that agency can do even better. “USPS should now go all-electric or virtually all electric with its new vehicles,” said Luke Tonachel, senior director of clean vehicles and buildings at the Natural Resources Defense Council, citing an additional $3 billion in federal spending targeted for the postal fleet under the landmark climate law Biden signed last month. About 30% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector, making it the single largest source of planet-warming emissions in the country. Electrification of the federal fleet is a “cornerstone” of Biden’s efforts to decarbonize the federal government, said Andrew Mayock, chief federal sustainability officer for the White House. “The future is electric, and the federal government has built a strong foundation … that’s going to deliver on this journey we’re on over the next decade,″ he said in an interview. Excluding the Postal Service, about 13% of new light-duty vehicles purchased across the government this year, or about 3,550, were “zero emissions,” according to administration figures provided to The Associated Press. The government defines zero emissions as either electric or plug-in hybrid, which technically has a gas-burning engine. That compares with just under 2% in the 2021 budget year and less than 1% in 2020. Nationwide, about 6% of new car sales are electric. When it comes to vehicles actually on the road, the federal numbers are even smaller. Many of the purchases in recent months won’t be delivered for as long as a year due to supply chain problems. Currently just 1,799 of the 656,000-vehicle federal fleet are zero-emissions vehicles. At a rate of 35,000 to 50,000 GSA car purchases a year, it will take years, if not decades, to convert the entire fleet. “It hasn’t been exactly a fast start,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal mobility analyst for Guidehouse Insight. “It’s going to be challenging for them probably for at least the next year or two to really accelerate that pace.” Christina S. Kingsland, who directs the business management division for the federal fleet at GSA, said “the federal fleet is a working fleet.” The agency pointed to a limited EV supply from automakers with big upfront costs. In addition, it said the needs of agencies are often highly specialized, from Interior Department pickup trucks on large rural tribal reservations to hulking Department of Homeland Security SUVs along the U.S. border. Agencies also need easy access to public EV charging stations. The White House has acknowledged agencies are “way behind” on their own charging infrastructure, with roughly 600 charging stations and 2,000 total chargers nationwide. While Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law provides $7.5 billion to states to build out an EV charging network of up to 500,000 chargers over several years along interstate highways, no money from that law was earmarked for federal agencies’ specialized needs. Money for charging stations must be allocated in each department’s budget. Meeting Biden’s goal for the federal fleet is contingent on industry increasing production as predicted beginning in 2025 and 2026, analysts say. By that time, the effects of big federal investments to build public chargers and boost EV manufacturing in the U.S. will likely be felt alongside tougher rules for automakers to curtail tailpipe emissions. GM, for example, has set a target of 1 million EV annual production capacity worldwide by 2025, while Ford expects to make 2 million EVs globally by 2026. Stellantis also is cranking up production capacity and is getting ready to launch a whole slate of new EVs. The White House has declined to set a specific goal for EV purchases in 2023, but Mayock said he expects the number to be higher than 13%. While the Postal Service is an independent agency, it plays an essential role in fleet electrification, not only because it owns 234,000 vehicles in the federal fleet, but also because the familiar blue-and-white mail trucks are by far the most visible federal vehicle, rolling into neighborhoods across America each day. The agency plans to buy up to 165,000 of next-generation vehicles over a decade. The Postal Service remains “committed to reducing our carbon footprint in many areas of our operations and expanding the use of EVs in our fleet is a priority,” said spokesperson Kim Frum. White House officials say government EV purchases can only increase exponentially after a near-zero baseline a few years ago under President Donald Trump, who sought to loosen fuel economy requirements for gas-powered vehicles and proposed doing away with a federal tax credit for electric cars. At a recent EV demonstration at a Federal Law Enforcement Training Center outside Washington, officers test-drove EVs outfitted for police use, including the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Officers were impressed with the EV’s acceleration and “nimbleness,″ Mayock said, calling the test drives “a big change-management moment″ for the government. ___ Sharp reported from Portland, Maine. AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of electric vehicles at https://apnews.com/hub/electric-vehicles	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-biden-pledge-to-make-federal-fleet-electric-faces-slow-start/	2022-10-02T18:41:41	en	0.954533
HELSINKI (AP) — Authorities in Denmark said Sunday that the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipelines have also stopped leaking, a day after officials said that the ruptured Nord Stream 2 pipelines also appeared to stop leaking. The Nord Stream AG company informed the Danish Energy Agency that a stable pressure now appears to have been achieved on the Nord Stream 1 pipelines. “The Nord Stream AG company has informed the Danish Energy Agency that a stable pressure now appears to have been achieved on the two Nord Stream 1 pipelines. This indicates that the blowout of gas from the last two leaks has now also been completed,” the Danish agency tweeted Sunday. The Danish agency said Saturday the Nord Stream 2 ruptured natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea appears to have stopped leaking natural gas. Undersea blasts that damaged the Nord Stream I and 2 pipelines this week have led to huge methane leaks. Nordic investigators said the blasts have involved several hundred pounds of explosives. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday accused the West of sabotaging the Russia-built pipelines, a charge vehemently denied by the United States and its allies. The U.S.-Russia clashes continued later at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York called by Russia on the pipelines attacks and as Norwegian researchers published a map projecting that a huge plume of methane from the damaged pipelines will travel over large swaths of the Nordic region. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-denmark-says-nord-stream-1-pipelines-stop-leaking/	2022-10-02T18:41:48	en	0.959153
BERLIN (AP) — German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht on Sunday announced the delivery of 16 wheeled armored howitzers produced in Slovakia to Ukraine next year. The Zuzana systems would be produced in Slovakia and financed jointly with Denmark, Norway and Germany, the German minister told public broadcaster ARD after returning from her first trip to Ukraine since the start of the war there. The Zuzana howitzer is the flagship product of the Slovak defense industry and the only heavy weapon system produced in the country, dpa reported. According to the manufacturer, it can fire all types of NATO 155 millimeter caliber ammunition. The German ministry put the total value of the procurement at 92 million euros ($90 million), with the three countries financing it equally. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-germany-denmark-norway-to-deliver-16-howitzers-to-ukraine/	2022-10-02T18:41:55	en	0.948403
HELSINKI (AP) — Latvia’s ruling center-right party won the most votes in the country’s general election, centrist parties were the runners-up and pro-Moscow parties crashed in a vote that was shaped by Russia’s war in Ukraine, according to results published Sunday. With over 99% of the votes counted, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins’ New Unity party had captured 19% support, while the opposition Greens and Farmers Union was second with 12.5% and the new centrist electoral alliance United List — made up of several regional parties — was third with 10.9%. Only eight parties or electoral alliances passed the 5% barrier and secured representation at the 100-seat Saeima legislature. The center-right National Alliance and the centrist Development/For!, which are both members in Karins’ current minority coalition government, are among them. None of the parties catering to Latvia’s ethnic Russian minority, which makes up more than 25% of the country’s 1.9 million people, managed to secure a seat in Parliament. Karins, a 57-year-old dual Latvian-U.S. citizen born in Wilmington, Delaware, told media outlets earlier that it would be easiest to continue with the same coalition government if his party won. Valdis Dombrovskis, the executive vice president of the European Commission and a former Latvian prime minister, said the Baltic country was currently “facing a very complicated geopolitical situation in a context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.” Latvia, which borders Russia, joined the European Union and NATO in 2004. “The victory of the prime minister’s party, New Unity, I think, means that people voted for experienced political force with a clear Euro-Atlantic course, which can deal and lead a country in this complicated situation,” Dombrovskis told New Unity supporters in the capital, Riga. Saturday’s election was a blow particularly for Harmony, a Moscow-friendly party that traditionally served as an umbrella for most of Latvia’s Russian-speaking voters, including Belarusians and Ukrainians. Harmony received a mere 4.8% of votes in comparison to the 2018 election, when it garnered almost 20% of the vote, the most of any single party, but was excluded by other parties from entering the government. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 had a substantial effect on voter attitudes, observers say, and resulted in a deep division between Russian-speakers opposing the war and those supporting it. Latvia’s economic situation, including soaring energy prices, was the main election issue. Initial voter turnout was 59.4%, the Central Election Committee said, higher than the 2018 election. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-latvian-premiers-party-emerges-on-top-in-general-election/	2022-10-02T18:42:02	en	0.970752
When Jesse and Kathryn Mercer established Garden of the Pines Pet Cemetery on Salem Road in Virginia Beach in 1957, they instituted an enduring legacy that continues to compassionately serve grieving animal lovers today – in multiple ways. “Jesse and Kathryn Mercer are buried here,” said Mike Kane, the office manager at Garden of the Pines. “It’s very nice that they’re buried here. They loved this place.” A good number of people – at least their cremated remains – are buried with their beloved pet companions at Garden of the Pines. Often the ashes and interment boxes of humans are buried together in their pet’s plot. “We have approximately 8,000 to 9,000 animal graves out there. I’m just talking about plots. Some are doubled and tripled up,” said Kane. “People request at their deaths to be placed out here with their pets. People have it in their wills. It’s very much a big thing with people.” Garden of the Pines offers pet cremations and burials – mostly dogs and cats. The Pines facility limits their pet cremation service to animals of 200 pounds or less. That includes small farm animals such as pot-bellied pigs and goats. Horses are beyond their limits. “A lot of places don’t offer what we do. We can do a chapel viewing before a cremation,” said Kane. “Some folks actually like to see the animal actually go into the retort. Other places won’t offer that.” Many pet cremation businesses in the area advocate communal cremations in which a number of pets are cremated together. The Pines refrigerates and stores animal remains in order to schedule and facilitate pet burials and cremations. “Our biggest selling point with cremations is that we do individual cremations here – and we’re cheaper than most places,” said Mike Kane. “We try to keep it more charitable. We don’t force people into communal cremations,” he noted. “We also do pickups for pets and our rates are a lot cheaper than other places.” Kane uses his own vehicle for pickups since the Pines doesn’t have a dedicated vehicle for the task. He is reimbursed by the Pines for his gas and wear and tear on his vehicle. There is no charge for the intake of pet remains during business hours when the clients deliver their deceased pet to the Pines. After regular business hours, drop offs incur a $40 intake fee. There is a $60 home pickup fee. Mike Kane and the groundskeeper are the two paid employees. The groundskeeper digs the graves by hand – with a shovel. Kane and his groundskeeper [Eric] do the burials together. Weather is often the deciding factor when burial schedules are involved. Most folks who choose pet burials request chapel viewings. No embalming is done at the Pines. Pets are refrigerated or frozen depending on the amount of time that will elapse before the scheduled burial or cremation. Kane personally prepares the pet for viewing. He bathes the animal and makes it look – and smell – presentable. He’ll construct a casket and place the animal in it for viewing. The pet’s loved ones are invited to write goodbye messages on the casket – if they wish. They may add whatever they like to the contents of the pet’s coffin. “One woman put everything that belonged to her cat in the casket, even the drugs the vet gave her,” noted Kane. “All that was in the casket.” Garden of the Pines – under Mike Kane’s direction – is flexible in allowing clients to make choices in the services that they want – or don’t want. There is no time limit for pet owners who want to spend a little extra time in the chapel to say goodbye to a beloved pet. Clients may bring their own chaplain or use the Pines’ chaplain. If clients want to avoid the whole process – the body preparation and viewing – and just do a natural burial Kane can arrange that as well. “Sometimes people like to be involved. We let people be involved here. If they want to see what goes on here, I’ll allow them to see as much as they want,” said Kane. While Mike Kane is flexible and accommodating, there are some absolute limits. “We can not bury a human body here. We are not a human cemetery, but we can bury human cremains,” said Kane. “We have an entire section of the cemetery where we bury cremains only. Birds, ferrets, rats, snakes – and those types of things – are cremated and put in that section.” Clyde’s Critters - established by Clyde Miller – serves as a Potter’s Field for wildlife and domestic animals that are killed on area roads. Animals from the Norfolk Zoo – Teko the Tiger and Dandylion – are buried near the cemetery office. Police K9 dogs are also buried at the Pines. The site also serves as an animal refuge. Animal control officers frequently relocate wild animals – racoons and opossums – at the site. The Rev. Robert Carpenter, a recently retired Navy and Marine Corps chaplain, has joined the Garden of the Pines volunteer staff – as the chaplain. Thirteen years ago, Carpenter and his wife, a licensed veterinary technician, first heard about the Pines when their 19-year-old cat – Specs – died of cancer. The Carpenters now have eight cats interred at the Pines. “The Pines is a ministry to grieving families. I remember when we lost our cat Specs. We were in tears,” Carpenter said. “Clyde [Miller] was here. He provided a service, not only caring for Specs’ body but also administering to us,” he recalled. “I believe that the service Mike offers is a ministry to families who grieve deeply. It’s a comfort.” Carpenter, who is experienced in ministry and grief counseling, is pleased to assist at Garden of the Pines whenever he receives a request from Mike Kane for aid. “The Pines is a very important ministry for us – my wife and I. We love the Pines because a part of us is here,” he said. “I’ll tell you, every pet that we’ve lost has been a grieving process for us.” When the Carpenter’s pets Mocca and Butterball – mother and daughter – died three weeks apart, they were buried in the same casket. It was such a comfort for the Carpenters to see them together. “We will never forget what Mike’s mom did for us,” Carpenter said. “I see how Mike cares for his clients. Mike is excellent at what he does.” In addition to his ministry as the Pines chaplain, Carpenter and his wife frequently come out to the cemetery and tend the flower beds. They take care of their pets’ grave site. “We love it. It’s peaceful,” said Carpenter. “This is a very peaceful place for my wife and I.” Volunteers Pam and Raven Beard (mother and daughter) initially became connected to Garden of the Pines through the loss of a pet cat named Raven. Pam Beard currently serves on the Pines board of directors. Together Pam Beard and her daughter Raven are researching the history of the pet cemetery – with the notion of eventually applying for nonprofit status for the Pines. They have been compiling a scrapbook from documents, photographs, and newspaper clippings. When one of her daughter’s cats passed away unexpectedly, Beard began calling pet cremation places. She was getting answering machines and voice mail responses. She called at least eight places. Nobody would actually answer the phone. “Finally, I called the Garden of the Pines and Mike just picked right up. I told him what was going on,” said Beard. “He told me that they were not officially open and suggested that I store the cat and bring her in tomorrow. And he’d take care of her.” Virginia Beach Today Beard explained her situation. “I’m not rolling in money. I can’t afford four or five hundred dollars to take care of a kitty. He didn’t try to push anything on me. He was very kind,” said Beard. “He was very gentle handling the body of the kitty. Instantly, I liked how he handled everything. I knew nothing about this place before.” Beard has found inner peace at Garden of the Pines. “It gives you a sense of calm as soon as you come here,” she said. “Every animal that was buried here was loved by someone. Even if they were wildlife, someone cared enough to bury them and give them a resting place,” she said. “Everyone here is an animal lover.” For Raven Beard – and most pet owners – their deep affection for their cherished pets is a bond of unconditional love. It’s truly personal. The link is insoluble. “All my pets are like my children to me. They are my babies. They are everything to me. They’ve helped me through a lot of really hard times in my life,” said Raven Beard. “They’ve always been there for me. I’ve always loved animals. My pets have a special place in my heart. They’re my best friends.” While office hours at Garden of the Pines are limited, the cemetery itself is open to visitors from dawn to dusk. “People are not allowed to visit here after sundown. It’s too dangerous. There’s no lighting out here. You can’t see,” said Kane. “They are allowed to visit here all day from sunrise to sunset. If you want to come here at sunrise and visit, do that.” Garden of the Pines Pet Cemetery is located at 2685 Salem Road in Virginia Beach. Office hours are from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm, Tuesday -Saturday. For additional information call 757-427-1537.	https://www.pilotonline.com/cities/virginia-beach/vp-bc-garden-of-pines-pet-cemetery-1002-20221002-2fnbwyozknatflficwuao3kenq-story.html	2022-10-02T18:42:08	en	0.976207
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Tesla’s sales rose 35% in the July-September period compared to the second quarter as the company’s huge factory in China got past supply chain issues and pandemic restrictions. The electric vehicle and solar panel company said Sunday it sold 343,830 cars and SUVs in the third quarter compared with 254,695 deliveries made from April through June. But the delivery numbers still fell far short of Wall Street estimates. Analysts polled by data provider FactSet expected sales of 371,000 vehicles. Tesla said it’s becoming more challenging to find transportation capacity at a reasonable cost when it needs to move vehicles from its factories to its customers. Tesla said it had higher than usual numbers of vehicles in transit at the end of the quarter that will count as sales once they’re delivered to customers. Tesla said it produced 365,923 vehicles in the July-September period. So far this year, the company has delivered 908,573 vehicles, but it will need a strong finish to the year to hit its predictions of 50% annual sales growth for the next few years. Last year, the Austin, Texas, company delivered 936,172 vehicles. A 50% increase would be just over 1.4 million for this year. The third-quarter sales are a good indication of how the company’s earnings will go when it releases them after the market closes on Oct. 19. The rest of the auto industry reports September and third-quarter sales on Monday in a tough environment. Automakers, including Tesla, have reported difficulty getting computer chips and other parts needed to make vehicles. As a result, some factories are running way under capacity, and supplies of vehicles are low and prices are high. As the pandemic erupted in the U.S. in 2020, automakers had to shut factories for eight weeks to help stop the virus from spreading. Some parts companies canceled orders for semiconductors. At the same time, demand for laptops, tablets and gaming consoles skyrocketed as people stuck at home upgraded their devices. By the time auto production resumed, chip makers had shifted production to consumer goods, creating a shortage of weather-resistant automotive-grade chips. Although Tesla has fared better than other automakers, the industry still can’t get enough chips.	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-tesla-sales-bounce-back-in-q3-but-fall-short-of-estimates/	2022-10-02T18:42:08	en	0.96326
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets Sunday with suicide drones, and Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war. Russia’s loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level. It also prompted Ukraine to formally apply for NATO membership, a bid that won backing Sunday from nine central and eastern European NATO members fearful that Russia’s aggression could eventually target them, too. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that his forces now control Lyman: “As of 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Lyman is cleared fully. Thank you to our militaries, our warriors,” he said in a video address. Russia’s military didn’t comment Sunday on Lyman, after announcing Saturday that it was withdrawing its forces there to more favorable positions. The British military described the recapture of Lyman as a “significant political setback” for Moscow, and Ukraine appeared to swiftly capitalize on its gains. Hours after Zelenskyy’s announcement, Ukrainian media shared an image of Ukrainian troops carrying the country’s yellow-and-blue flag in front of a statue marking the village of Torske, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Lyman and within sight of the Russian-held Luhansk region. Shortly later, a video posted online showed one Ukrainian soldier saying that Kyiv’s forces had begun to target the city of Kreminna, just across the border in Luhansk. Outgoing artillery could be heard in the background. Russian military correspondents also acknowledged Ukrainian attacks targeting Kreminna. In another online photo, an Ukrainian soldier stood before giant watermelon landmark just south of the village of Novovorontsovka on the banks of the Dnieper River, along the Russian-controlled province of Kherson’s northern edge. A Ukrainian flag flew above the statue as several apparently deactivated landmines lay beside it. While Ukrainian forces did not immediately acknowledge a breakthrough, writers close to the Russian military have described a new offensive by Kyiv in the Kherson region. In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown of Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that destroyed two stories of a school early Sunday, the regional governor said. The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defenses. A car carrying four men seeking to forage for mushrooms in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region struck a mine, killing all those inside, authorities said Sunday. Russian attacks also targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. And Ukraine’s military said Sunday it carried out strikes on multiple Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries. The reports of military activity couldn’t be immediately verified. Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks that has embarrassed the Kremlin and prompted rare domestic criticism of Putin’s war. Lyman, which Ukraine recaptured by encircling Russian troops, is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed Friday after forcing what was left of the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint. In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said: “Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.” In a daily intelligence briefing Sunday, the British Defense Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has “a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defenses.” The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found. AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic and a kindergarten. Recent developments have raised fears of all-out conflict between Russia and the West. Putin frames the recent Ukrainian gains as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia, and last week he heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date. The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement Sunday backing a path to NATO membership for Ukraine, and calling on all 30 members of the U.S.-led security bloc to ramp up military aid for Kyiv. Germany’s defense minister on Sunday announced the delivery of 16 wheeled armored howitzers produced in Slovakia to Ukraine next year. The weapons will be financed jointly with Denmark, Norway and Germany, Russia moved ahead Sunday with steps meant to make its land grab look like a legal process aimed at helping people allegedly persecuted by Kyiv, with rubber-stamp approval by the Constitutional Court and draft laws being pushed through the Kremlin-friendly parliament. Outside Russia, the Kremlin’s actions have been widely denounced as violating international law, with multiple EU countries summoning Russian ambassadors since Putin on Friday signed annexation treaties with Moscow-backed officials in southern and eastern Ukraine. Meanwhile, international concerns are mounting about the fate of Europe’s largest nuclear plant after Russian forces detained its director for alleged questioning. The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday that its director-general, Rafael Grossi would visit Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Grossi is continuing to push for “a nuclear safety and security zone” around the site. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Zelenskyy, denouncing the detention of the plant’s director and saying the situation there “remained very worrying.” The Zaporizhzhia plant is in one of the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed on Friday, and repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians have continued running the power station after Russian troops seized it but its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure. Pope Francis on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats and appealed to Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.” ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-ukraine-presses-counteroffensive-after-russian-setback/	2022-10-02T18:42:15	en	0.959802
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Liz Truss said Sunday that she could have done a better job “laying the ground” for her package of unfunded tax cuts, but insisted she would push on with an economic plan that has caused turmoil on financial markets and weakened the country’s public finances. Truss acknowledged that the U.K. faces “a very turbulent and stormy time,” but said her policies would lead to a “high-growth, low-tax economy” in the longer term. The comments are unlikely to calm Truss’ Conservative Party, which opens its four-day annual conference on Sunday in the central England city of Birmingham amid plunging poll ratings and growing public discontent. Truss took office less than a month ago, promising to radically reshape Britain’s economy to end years of sluggish growth. But the government’s Sept. 23 announcement of a stimulus package that includes 45 billion pounds ($50 billion) in tax cuts, to be paid for by government borrowing, sent the pound tumbling to a record low against the dollar. The Bank of England was forced to intervene to prop up the bond market, and fears that the bank will soon hike interest rates caused mortgage lenders to withdraw their cheapest deals, causing turmoil for homebuyers. “I have learned from that,” Truss told the BBC. “I will make sure in future we do a better job of laying the ground.” Truss stuck to her insistence that Britain’s economic problems were part of a global spike in inflation and energy prices spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a bid to calm the market turmoil, Truss and her finance minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng, have said they will set out a medium-term fiscal plan on Nov. 23, alongside an economic forecast from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. Many economists, and many Conservatives, say that means weeks more economic turmoil are ahead. Michael Gove, who served as a senior minister in previous Conservative governments, said the announcement “will have to be brought forward” and some parts of the economic package will have to be dropped. Gove said there was “an inadequate realization at the top of government about the scale of change required.” Many Conservative lawmakers are worried that a leader chosen to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson for her boosterish promises of economic growth has set the party on course for defeat in the next general election, due by 2024. Opinion polls suggest the opposition Labour Party is opening up a substantial lead. Some delegates arriving for the conference in Birmingham were gloomy about the future of the party, which has been in power since 2010. “I think it’s going to be a rocky conference, definitely,” said Daniel Pitt, a party member from Erewash in central England. “The prime minister has to try and steady the ship.” Truss said she would “do what I can to win the hearts and minds of my colleagues across the Conservative Party” — but that doesn’t appear to include changing course. Truss said she wouldn’t ditch the most unpopular part of her economic package, a decision to scrap the top 45% rate of income tax paid on earnings above 150,000 pounds ($167,000) a year. And she wouldn’t say whether there will have to be cuts to welfare and public services to pay for lower taxes. Asked if the Cabinet as a whole had decided on the cut to the top tax rate, Truss said “no … It was a decision the chancellor made.” “I think there has been too much focus in politics on the optics or how things look,” Truss said. She said she was confident her policies would get the economy growing by 2.5% annually — a target the U.K. hasn’t hit for years. Labour Party economy spokeswoman Rachel Reeves accused the Conservative government of “doing some sort of mad experiment with the U.K. economy” and ignoring “the anxiety and fear” felt by millions of ordinary people. “The idea that trickle-down economics is somehow going to deliver the 2.5% growth we all want to see is for the birds,” Reeves told the BBC.	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-uks-truss-sticks-by-economic-plan-as-her-party-worries/	2022-10-02T18:42:22	en	0.975296
KIRTLAND, N.M. (AP) — The clamor of second graders breaking away from lessons to form lunch lines has gotten quieter in a rural New Mexico community, where families losing coal jobs have been forced to pack up and leave in search of work. At Judy Nelson Elementary, 1 in 4 students have left in an exodus spurred by decisions made five years ago to shutter a coal-fired power plant and mine that sit just up the road from the school in a largely Navajo community. The plant and mine had provided electricity to millions of people across the southwestern U.S. for nearly a half-century. The San Juan Generating Station burned its last bit of coal Thursday. The remaining workers will spend the coming weeks draining water from the plant, removing chemicals and preparing to tear down what has long been fixture on the high-desert horizon. It’s part of the latest wave of coal-burning units to be retired as New Mexico and other states try to fight climate change by requiring more carbon-free sources of electricity. President Joe Biden also has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Just weeks ago, Hawaii’s last coal-fired power plant closed after 30 years, and more retirements are scheduled around the U.S. over the next decade. Realities of shuttering the San Juan plant are setting in for surrounding communities, including the Navajo Nation, where poverty and joblessness already are exponentially higher than national averages. Hundreds of jobs are evaporating along with tens of millions of dollars in annual tax revenue used to fund schools and a community college. “A lot of the Native American families have multi-generations living in the home so it doesn’t just affect the husband and wife. It affects their children and their grandchildren,” said Arleen Franklin, who teaches second grade at Judy Nelson. Her husband purchases equipment for a coal mine that feeds another power plant scheduled to close in 2031. Denise Pierro, a reading teacher at Judy Nelson, said it’s stressful for parents to see a steady income erased. Pierro’s husband, who served as the general manager of the mine for the San Juan plant, is among those forced into early retirement. “They’ve taken the rug out from underneath our feet,” she said. Area power plants, mines and associated businesses represent 80% of property tax revenues that fund the Central Consolidated School District, which spans an area the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. Almost 93% of the students are Navajo. It’s rural and remote. Some students ride a school bus for three hours round trip, arriving home well after sunset. Internet service is spotty or nonexistent, and many homes don’t have electricity or indoor plumbing. The poverty rate within the district is four times the national level. The median annual household income is about $20,000, and the unemployment rate hovers around 70%. New Mexico’s Democratic leaders have celebrated the plant’s closure while touting a landmark 2019 law that pushes for a renewable energy economy. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who is running for reelection, has said the law represented a promise to future generations for a cleaner environment and new job opportunities. Environmentalists have said the closure will reduce air and water pollution in a region that some have described as an industrial sacrifice zone. They argue that power plant emissions and methane from the oilfields have caused health problems for residents. Joe Ramone, a 69-year-old pipe welder who worked at San Juan, lives in a Navajo community not far from the Four Corners plant. When the wind blows just right, he said his community is hit with ash and coal dust. Still, he said his priority is making sure Navajos have work. “I don’t want to see anybody unemployed and I am in no way in favor of these companies being shut down. But there’s room for improvement,” he said, suggesting more investments could have been made. The loss of the San Juan plant and the mine ripple through every facet of life, from fewer lunch orders at Kirtland’s café to a dwindling ash supply for concrete manufacturers. Meanwhile, prices have skyrocketed for everything from the Navajo staple of mutton to the woven baskets and other materials needed for healing ceremonies. Public Service Co. of New Mexico, which runs the plant, is providing $11 million in severance packages to help about 200 displaced workers. About 240 mine workers are getting severance payments worth $9 million. Another $3 million went to job training. A state fund established by the energy law also includes $12 million for affected workers. Solar and battery storage projects are meant to eventually replace the capacity lost with San Juan’s shutdown and provide jobs during construction. But some of those projects have been delayed due to supply chain problems, and others are on hold indefinitely amid historic inflation and other economic constraints. Fresh off a night shift as an electrician at the mine for the neighboring Four Corners Power Plant, Christine Aspaas, a Central Consolidated School Board member, said even if those “green” jobs existed now, they would be temporary. And to make up for lost property tax revenue, she said, some families will have to pay up to seven times more. It’s been heartbreaking for so many Navajos to consider leaving home, Aspaas said. “That’s what others don’t understand,” she said. “There’s culture, there’s traditions, and so it’s not easy.” Sharon Clahchischilliage, once a teacher and a former New Mexico lawmaker, said people in her Navajo community near Shiprock are angry. “One of them told me, ‘I don’t know who to be angry at for us having to do this. We don’t have a family anymore,'” she said, referring to bonds broken as Navajos search for jobs elsewhere. In the final days, the plant’s spinning turbine sent vibrations through layers of concrete and passing work boots. Heat emanated from the boilers below. In the dim control room, workers monitored screens displaying temperatures, pressure, turbine speeds and pollution control systems. Allen Palmer, 70, spent over half his life working his way up the ranks. “I hate to see it close,” he said. Workers knew for years that the plant would be shuttered. It became more real as coal piles shrank each day — until there was nothing left. As the finish line approached, the company served workers green chile cheeseburgers as a morale booster alongside a big projection screen that read: “Thank you to all employees at San Juan for your years of dedicated service!” The last few dozen employees will be laid off over the coming weeks. Some were ready to retire; in June, there were voluntary layoffs when the first of the last two generating units closed. “There’s lots of us who have worked 20-plus years and we all know each other and it’s our family,” said plant director Rodney Warner, who will oversee the decommissioning. “It’s who we are.” December would have marked 10 years at the plant for Steven Sorrow, 32. He and his coworkers know there’s a good chance they will have to uproot and possibly enter other fields. Some will head to Wyoming, Colorado or Utah, where there are other plants and mines. “It’s going to be an adjustment for sure,” he said. “I feel like I’ve tried to prepare over the five years when they told us what we had left. Hopefully I’ve prepared well enough.” Aspaas said officials need to find ways to keep the workforce in New Mexico. She said the foundation of economic development is education but without economic development, education suffers. “This whole transition, everything that’s happening, the closures, that’s what is threatening our ability to keep funding education,” she said. “When you go down to what it impacts, it is the education of our people, of the Navajo people, our students.”	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-us-shift-away-from-coal-hits-tribal-community-in-new-mexico/	2022-10-02T18:42:28	en	0.967684
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Polls opened Sunday in Bosnia for a general election that is unlikely to bring any substantial change despite palpable disappointment in the small, ethnically divided Balkan country with the long-established cast of sectarian political leaders. The election includes races for various levels of government that are part of one of the world’s most complicated institutional set-ups agreed upon in a U.S.-sponsored peace agreement, which ended more than 3½ years of bloodshed in the 1990s between Bosnia’s three main ethnic groups: Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. The peace agreement divided the country into two highly independent governing entities — one run by Serbs and the other shared by Bosniaks and Croats. The two have broad autonomy but are linked by shared, national institutions. All countrywide actions require consensus from all three ethnic groups. On Sunday, voters are choosing the three members of the shared Bosnian presidency — parliamentary deputies at the state, entity and regional levels; and the president of the country’s Serb-run part. Voting began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT; 1 a.m. EDT) and will continue until 7 p.m. (1700 GMT; 1 p.m. EDT). In the election, the traditional ruling class is being challenged by parties which, despite ideological differences and sometimes clashing agendas, share the campaign promise to eradicate the nationalists’ patronage networks and stop mismanagement of public resources and squandering of public funds. “My generation grew up in a country riddled with problems, I think the time is ripe for a positive change,” said 23-year-old Denis Paralovic after casting his ballot in Sarajevo. Mihajlo Vracic, a Sarajevo retiree, echoed the sentiment, using a local phrase referencing a good standard of living: “We finally have some honest candidates on the ballot, and I hope that the people will vote for them because, if they don’t, we can forget about eating with a golden spoon.” In Banja Luka, the de facto capital of the Serb-run part of the country, retiree Gordana Nagradic said she hoped the election will lay the groundwork for “the arrival of freedom, the rule of law and order, when the (government) institutions, and not specific people, will govern.” Bosnians of all ethnicities say they want representatives who will maintain peace and improve the economy and public services, but the sectarian post-war system of governance leaves pragmatic, reform-minded people in the country with little incentive to vote and the low turnout has historically benefited divisive tribal leaders. Turnout at midday on Sunday was 14% or three percentage points up from the 2018 general election. While candidates and parties running in this election on the promise to step up the fight against rampant corruption are likely to be competitive in some of the races, analysts predict the long-entrenched nationalists who have enriched cronies and ignored the needs of the people are likely to remain dominant after the vote. Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik is running for president of Bosnia’s Serb-run part and has used the election campaign to champion a secessionist agenda and Russia’s war in Ukraine. After one of his last preelection rallies, Dodik, who traveled to Moscow this month to secure the Russian president’s explicit endorsement, said the Serbs will “cooperate with leaders who respect international law, such as Vladimir Putin” and split from the rest of Bosnia taking with them “our 49% of the territory.” Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war — with a death toll of nearly 100,000 — started when Serbs who accounted for about a third of the population tried to dismember it and unite the territories they claimed for their own with neighboring Serbia. To lure voters and avoid uncomfortable questions about their records in office, the dominant Croat and Bosniak parties have also embraced in their campaigns Dodik’s saber-rattling strategy, with the former threatening to gridlock the country if their candidate for the Croat seat on the tripartite presidency doesn’t win the vote. Since the end of the conflict, Moscow has often been accused by the West of seeking to destabilize the country and the rest of the Balkans through its Serb allies in the region, and there are growing fears the Kremlin might attempt to reignite the conflict in Bosnia to deflect attention from its campaign in Ukraine.	https://cw39.com/news/business/ap-business/ap-voting-begins-in-bosnia-election-little-expected-to-change/	2022-10-02T18:42:35	en	0.953795
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PARIS (AP) — Valentino’s Paris fashion show on Sunday saw black cars snared for blocks dropping off battalions of celebrities who, amid the commotion, just couldn’t find the entrance. Seated VIP guests were sweatily crammed in together inside the Le Marais’ Carreau du Temple venue, waiting as the show started an hour late. Outside, screaming members of the public braved the rain for hours just for a glimpse of their favorite stars. Fever pitch like this at Paris ready-to-wear fashion shows is reminiscent of the French capital’s pre-pandemic fashion scene — and one more visible sign the industry is buoyant again after the devastation caused by the coronavirus. Here are some highlights of Sunday’s spring-summer 2023 collections in Paris: VALENTINO’S REVEAL “Cuts and transparencies reveal the persona,” the brand said of designer Pierpaolo Piccioli’s glitzy spring collection that mixed gimmicks with moments of thoughtful fashion skill. Models with faces and necks completely covered in disturbing interlocking “V” make-up began the show, introducing the theme of the reveal. The exploration of inside-out or back-to-front continued in a beautiful nude skin-like top with matching nude pants speckled sparingly with diaphanous plumes on model Anna Cleveland. A coat had ostrich feathers peaking out from inside through the hems. The sides of some dresses were scooped out, while a dazzling purple sequined floor-length gown revealed the model’s flesh only at the back. Yet at times it felt as if the lauded Italian designer may have tried to fit too much in. By outfit number 91, it also felt exhausting — with fashion insiders fidgeting for the show to wrap up. The Valentino finale was the true reveal of the show, which was livestreamed: The models did not even walk past seated guests as usual, but straight outside to the cheering general public. THE ART OF THE INVITATION The art of the chic invite is still very much a staple of the Paris luxury industry. The little works of art sometimes provide a hint as to what the collection has in store; other times, they are just plain wacky. Balenciaga’s spring invite was — unfathomably — a real used leather wallet containing real French franc notes, a health security card, a photo of a pet cat, and credit cards as well as other things spilling out. Countless videos appeared on social media of surprised guests opening their “invite.” One fashion inside exclaimed: “But how do you know how to get to the show?” Valentino’s invitation was a smooth black cube that opened to have nothing inside but a QR code. Chanel’s was a card of Kristen Stewart’s face that was so big it could not fit into letter boxes. BARBARA BUI IS SMART Low-key French designer Barbara Bui is a good example of how the pandemic affected the fashion industry — for better and for worse. Many houses went digital during the lockdowns, opting to show a fashion film instead of staging a show, which was for many months prohibited. In this spring Paris season — like in Milan’s — the industry seems to be very much back to pre-pandemic runways, yet Bui’s was one of a spattering of collections that continued with the fashion film format. It’s a smart move: Smaller houses like Bui’s have benefited from the new flexibility as runway collections are clearly much more expensive to produce. The collection’s spring video featured a couple of lovers in a French country house seeking each other out and seemingly wearing each other’s clothes — a good theme for a co-ed fashion show. The film’s use of light sat well with the fluidity of a loose white tuxedo suit on a bare chest, or a giant multicolored foulard thrown nonchalantly over the male model’s naked shoulder. A cobalt blue one-shoulder piece was set off by the male model’s long bright red and androgenous nail polish.	https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-glitzy-valentino-show-sees-paris-fashion-week-at-fever-pitch/	2022-10-02T18:42:42	en	0.956881
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Moviegoing audiences chose the horror movie over the romantic comedy to kick off the month of October. Paramount’s “ Smile ” topped the North American charts with $22 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, leaving Billy Eichner’s rom-com “Bros” in the dust. Universal’s “ Bros ” launched with an estimated $4.8 million to take fourth place behind “Don’t Worry Darling” ($7.3 million) and “The Woman King” ($7 million). But opening weekends likely aren’t the final word on either “Bros” or “Smile.” Horror movie audiences are generally front-loaded, dropping off steeply after the first weekend, while something like “Bros,” which got great reviews and an A CinemaScore, suggesting strong word-of-mouth potential, is a movie that could continue finding audiences through the fall. It is not unusual for R-rated comedies to open modestly and catch on later. “Everyone who sees it absolutely loves it,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “Billy Eichner, (director) Nick Stoller and Judd Apatow have created a movie that’s heartwarming and hysterically funny.” “Bros” is significant for being the first gay rom-com given a wide theatrical release by a major studio, as well as the first studio movie starring and co-written by an openly gay man. Since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, the film has gotten stellar reviews from critics and also been the target of “review bombs” on IMDB. The site last week removed removed hundreds of one-star reviews for “Bros” that were logged before the film was released. It’s also hard to compete with a new horror movie in October. “Smile,” written and directed by Parker Finn in his directorial debut, stars Sosie Bacon as a therapist haunted by smiling faces after a traumatic event. According to exit polls, 52% of the audience was male and 68% were ages 18-34 for the R-rated film. Playing in 3,645 locations, “Smile” started strong with $2 million from Thursday night previews, too, and had a 4% uptick Saturday, which is almost unheard of for genre films that usually decline after the first night. “Smile” also cost only $17 million to produce. “It’s remarkable, particularly when you take the budget into account. It’s just a terrific result and validated our thoughts about the movie as a whole,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s president of domestic distribution. “That Saturday uptick bodes well for the long-term playability.” The “Smile” marketing team last weekend planted smiling actors at baseball games around the country as a marketing stunt, which Aronson said helped push the movie over the top. “’Smile’ just shows once again that the horror genre should be put on a pedestal by theater owners,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. Second place went to “Don’t Worry Darling” in its second weekend in theaters, with $7.3 million, down 64% from its opening. The mid-century-styled psychological thriller starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles has earned $32.8 million domestically against a $35 million production budget. And “The Woman King” was close behind in third place in its third weekend, with an estimated $7 million, down only 36% from last weekend. The historical war epic directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood stars Viola Davis as an Agojie general and has made $46.7 million. Rounding out the top five was the re-release of “Avatar,” with $4.7 million from 1,860 locations. Notably, the film with the highest per-theater average was the Indian epic “Ponniyin Selvan: I,” which earned $4.1 million from just 510 theaters. It’s one of several Indian blockbusters to perform well in North America recently, including “RRR” and “Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva.” “It was a solid weekend,” Dergarabedian said. “We’re not going to get into the $100 million-plus weekends until ‘Black Adam,’ but audiences are getting a really diverse slate of movies to see on the big screen.” Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. 1. “Smile,” $22 million. 2. “Don’t Worry Darling,” $7.3 million. 3. “The Woman King,” $7 million. 4. “Bros,” $4.8 million. 5. “Avatar” (re-release), $4.7 million. 6. “Ponniyin Selvan: I,” $4.1 million. 7. “Barbarian,” $2.8 million. 8. “Bullet Train,” $1.4 million. 9. “DC League of Super-Pets,” $1.3 million. 10. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $1.2 million.	https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-horror-pic-smile-happy-at-no-1-bros-starts-in-4th/	2022-10-02T18:42:49	en	0.962498
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LONDON (AP) — King Charles III has decided not to attend the international climate change summit in Egypt next month, fueling speculation that the new monarch will have to rein in his environmental activism now that he has ascended the throne. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the decision came after Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss objected to Charles attending the conference, known as COP27, when she met with the king last month at Buckingham Palace. But a member of Truss’ Cabinet said the government and palace were in agreement about the decision. “That is a decision that has been made amicably, as far as I am aware, between the palace and the government,” Simon Clarke told Times Radio. “The suggestions this morning that he was ordered to stay away are simply not true.” Clarke also rejected suggestions that Truss didn’t want Charles to attend the summit because she intends to water down Britain’s climate goals. The government remains committed to the achieving its target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, he said. Under the rules that govern Britain’s constitutional monarchy, the king is barred from interfering in politics. By convention, all official overseas visits by members of the royal family are undertaken in accordance with advice from the government. Before becoming king when Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, there had been speculation Charles would travel to the summit in the role he then held as Prince of Wales. Charles attended the previous climate summit,COP26, last year in Glasgow, Scotland, but his attendance at this year’s conference was never confirmed. COP27 is taking place Nov. 16-18 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. When he was Prince of Wales, Charles was accused of meddling in government affairs, including allegations that he inappropriately lobbied government ministers. But Charles is now king, and he has acknowledged that he will have less freedom to speak out on public issues as monarch than he did as the heir to the throne. At the same time, his advisers would be looking for the right time and place for Charles’ first overseas trip as sovereign. “My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities,’’ Charles said in a televised address after his mother’s death. “It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.” ___ Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment. ___ Follow all AP stories on the British monarchy at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.	https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/ap-entertainment/ap-king-charles-iii-decides-not-to-attend-climate-summit/	2022-10-02T18:42:55	en	0.979814
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(KTLA) – The Disneyland Resort is filled with magic – including some that is hidden from guests. Parkgoers can walk through almost any part of the theme park during their visit, from Sleeping Beauty’s Castle to “The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness,” but some areas have a “restricted to the public” spell cast over them. Matterhorn Bobsleds Rumor has it that there is a basketball court in the famed alpine adventure ride. Walt Disney wanted the mountain to be a certain height, but the City of Anaheim had restrictions on a structure’s length unless it was a sports facility, according to Travel and Leisure. To bend that rule, Disney decided to build a basketball court in the attic of the ride to comply with the city’s guidance while also having the height reach his expectations. The mountain is 147 feet tall, according to the Disneyland website. The Disney Dream Suite/21 Royal Designed initially for Walt and Lillian Disney, the exclusive 2-bedroom apartment above the Pirates of the Caribbean attractions is available to parties of 12 for $15,000. Guests who reserve the suite will be escorted to the esteemed residence by cast members on the eve of their visit, according to the 21 Royal website. According to Family Vacation Guide, the reservation will also include park admission, valet parking service, a butler, and a seven-course meal. Lilly Belle Car Walt Disney loved trains during his lifetime, so much so that he even had one in his backyard. The Lilly Belle Car, named after his wife, Lillian, is a private car known to transport VIP guests around the park. The car received a little extra pixie dust since it’s decorated with “leather, velvet, mahogany, and glass, complete with armchairs and marble tables,” according to the Duchess of Disneyland. This car is the last remaining from opening day. A few guests may have the opportunity to ride in the historic train car if they get to the park at 7 a.m., which is an hour earlier than its scheduled opening at 8 a.m. According to Disney Dose, the first 14 people in line at the Main Street, U.S.A. Train Station may ride in the famed cart. The train conductor will share if the Lily Belle Car is available for the day. Disney used to offer a Grand Circle Tour that explained Walt Disney’s love of trains and concluded with a quick trip on the Lily Belle Car. However, that offering is temporarily unavailable, according to the Disneyland website. Walt Disney’s Apartment Anyone can see where Walt Disney’s apartment is, but only a few will be able to go inside It. The apartment, which is located right above the Disneyland Fire House station, can be identified by the lone lamplight shining through a window overlooking the park. According to Cheat Sheet, the lucky few to visit inside the iconic apartment have said it’s tiny, measuring about 500 feet. The apartment doesn’t have a bedroom but only a kitchen, bathroom, family room, and a wooden desk, which Walt used to complete his work. The apartment is also decorated to match the firehouse aesthetic and is decorated with antiques. The apartment balcony faces the Jungle Cruise ride. The Disneyland Resort used to host the “Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps” guided tour, which included a visit to the apartment but has temporarily stopped offering it.	https://cw39.com/news/entertainment/disneyland-secrets-areas-the-public-cant-go/	2022-10-02T18:43:02	en	0.970031
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The beginning of October means Nobel Prize season. Six days, six prizes, new faces from around the globe added to the world’s most elite roster of scientists, writers, economists and human rights leaders. This year’s Nobel season kicks off Monday with the medicine award, followed by daily announcements: physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 10. Here are five other things to know about the coveted prizes: WHO CREATED THE NOBEL PRIZES? The prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. The first awards were handed out in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death. Each prize is worth 10 million kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out with a diploma and gold medal on Dec. 10 — the date of Nobel’s death in 1896. The economics award — officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — wasn’t created by Nobel, but by Sweden’s central bank in 1968. Between 1901 and 2021, the Nobel Prizes and the prize in economic sciences have been awarded 609 times. WHO KNOWS WHO WILL WIN AND WHY? The Nobel statutes prohibit the judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. So it’s probably going to be a while before we know for sure how judges made their picks for 2022 and who was on their short lists. The judges try hard to avoid dropping hints about the winners before the announcements, but sometimes word gets out. Bookies in Europe sometimes offer odds on possible peace prize and literature Nobel winners. WHO CAN NOMINATE A CANDIDATE? Thousands of people around the world are eligible to submit nominations for the Nobel Prizes. They include university professors, lawmakers, previous Nobel laureates and the committee members themselves. Although the nominations are kept secret for 50 years, those who submit them sometimes announce their suggestions publicly, particularly for the Nobel Peace Prize. WHAT ABOUT THE NORWEGIAN CONNECTION? The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in Norway while the other awards are handed out in Sweden. That’s how Alfred Nobel wanted it. His exact reasons are unclear but during his lifetime Sweden and Norway were joined in a union, which was dissolved in 1905. Sometimes relations have been tense between the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, which manages the prize money, and the fiercely independent peace prize committee in Oslo. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN A NOBEL? Patience, for one. Scientists often have to wait decades to have their work recognized by the Nobel judges, who want to make sure that any breakthrough withstands the test of time. That’s a departure from Nobel’s will, which states that the awards should endow “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” The peace prize committee is the only one that regularly rewards achievements made in the previous year. According to Nobel’s wishes, that prize should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” ___ Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Peace Prize at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes	https://cw39.com/news/health/ap-health/ap-nobel-season-is-here-5-things-to-know-about-the-prizes/	2022-10-02T18:43:09	en	0.962678
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NYIRAGONGO, Congo (AP) — The last thing Pasika Bagerimana remembers before her sons died were their cries of hunger. But the 25-year-old mother had nothing to feed them. “’Mom, I need to eat. Can you give me food?’” they pleaded with her. Daniel, 2, and Bonane, 5, died just weeks apart in July after fleeing violence in their village in eastern Congo between M23 rebels and government forces. Bagerimana worries her remaining two children might be next. “Hunger is killing people,” she says, seated in a cramped room she now shares with dozens of other displaced people. Hunger is soaring across parts of Congo’s war-torn North Kivu province where the fighting between M23 rebels and government soldiers has been raging since November, according to aid workers, civilians and health workers. Despite being the most fertile region in eastern Congo, nearly 260,000 people are facing extreme food insecurity in Nyiragongo and Rutshuru territories, according to an internal draft assessment by aid groups seen by The Associated Press. Nyiragongo has the highest prevalence of hunger in the province and Rutshuru, where the fighting is concentrated also “remains a concern,” the report said. Congo is the No. 1 country in the world in need of food assistance, according to an unpublished draft food security report by aid agencies and the government seen by the AP. At least 26 million people — more than a quarter of the population — acutely face food insecurity in large part because of violence. Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine are also making things worse. Only 10% of those targeted by aid groups this year received the full recommended food assistance because of a lack of funds and security concerns restricting access. Humanitarians warn that if the fighting continues, millions of people could face severe hunger. “The situation was already dire and this conflict is just adding another layer and making everything worse,” said Marc Sekpon, head of Congo’s food security coordination body, a group of international aid agencies focused on food security strategy and intervention. “The majority of people in these territories either grow what they eat or get their food from the market,” he said. “The increase of food prices in the province and their reduced access to agricultural production seriously jeopardizes their ability to get food.” During trips to three towns in Rutshuru and Nyiragongo in September, where nearly 200,000 people have been displaced, people told the AP how violence had forced them from their farms, leaving recently harvested food behind to rot. Civilians said they had no land to cultivate, and they couldn’t earn enough money in town to buy food. Out of nearly 3,000 displaced families in Nyiragongo, 450 had received help, said Florence Biyoyiki the deputy president of a makeshift displacement site. Health staff at the main hospital in Nyiragongo said the number of severely malnourished children nearly tripled between April to July — 17 to 49. A 2-year-old boy died from malnutrition in July, said Marc Lukando, a nurse at the clinic. The hospital has nothing to feed malnourished children, he says. And when it is able to provide families with nutritional supplements, parents sometimes sell it and use the money to feed the whole family instead of giving it to their children, he said. While the M23 rebels had been largely dormant for nearly a decade, they’ve resurfaced demonstrating increased firepower and seizing chunks of territory and have been accused by rights groups and communities of killing civilians. One person living under M23 who didn’t want to be named for fear of his safety, told the AP that the group forces residents to pay a $5 tax each time they want to access their fields. M23 fighters recently told villagers they needed to bring the group bags of beans or be evicted, he said. Still, some people are so desperate for food they are risking their lives to return to towns under rebel control. Chantale Dusabe fled her village in June after husband was killed by a bomb that exploded in their compound. She returned days later in spite of the risk, but has been too terrified to go back. “I knew M23 was there, but the children were hungry,” said Dusabe, who managed to retrieve some bananas. In a written statement to the AP, the M23 political spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, said people are allowed to move freely and that the accusations of human rights abuses were baseless. The government is planning a counteroffensive to retake approximately 30% of territory that’s been captured by M23, said Luc Albert Bakole, the territorial administrator for Rutshuru. “We must do our best to take back all the territory under the enemy’s control, so that our people can return home and resume their lives normally,” he said. But while the government struggles to regain ground, people are starving. Doctors Without Borders said it’s seen a 50% increase in the admission of severely malnourished children in the hospital in Rutshuru town between January and July this year compared with the same period last year. In August, Rahabu Maombi brought her malnourished daughter to Rutshuru hospital after the 22-year-old mother fled fighting in a nearby village. Since being displaced, the family eats only once a day, she said. Cradling her 18-month-old as she feeds from a tube in her nose, Maombi says she can’t stop worrying that her daughter might die. “If there was no war, my baby wouldn’t be in this situation,” she said. “This war has destroyed so many things in our lives.”	https://cw39.com/news/health/ap-health/ap-rebel-violence-in-eastern-congo-causes-hunger-to-soar/	2022-10-02T18:43:16	en	0.98058
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(WSYR) — If the recent change from summer to fall is bringing you down, you’re not by yourself. As cooling temperatures and lessening daylight become more common, so does seasonal depression. But there are tips that can help people struggling with it. “Some people are prone to depression when there’s a lack of sunlight, and they start to feel down in the dumps,” says Dr. Rich O’Neill, professor of psychology at the State University of New York, Upstate. The most difficult months for people with seasonal depression — or seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — tend to be January and February, but it can start now — and more commonly in women than men. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, seasonal depression consists of mood changes during short periods when they feel sad or unlike themselves, typically brought on by the change in season. This is different from major depression, which is “more than feeling down or having a bad day,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Major depression, the CDC says, occurs when “a sad mood lasts for a long time and interferes with normal, everyday functioning.” The American Psychiatric Association says about 5% of U.S. adults experience seasonal depression, with symptoms similar to major depression. “It’s important not to think, ‘Oh this is a change in the season’ without getting properly diagnosed. So you want to work with some mental health professional to help you sort out what is the cause of this,” O’Neill said. There are many ways to treat seasonal depression, including methods that mimic sunlight. “Just take a little bit of time sitting in front of a light box every day, where you’re getting the same kind of light in your eyes and in your brain that you get from the sun,” O’Neill said, referring to a type of light therapy. Additionally, people with SAD can simply stand in front of a window when it’s light out or go outside to get more light. Vitamin D can also help, as well as getting more exercise. “Most people in the United States are exercise-deprived, and if you get moving again — which is hard to do in the winter time — you can get a boost in your mind,” O’Neill said. Medications and psychotherapy are other options when seasonal depression progresses beyond the winter blues. If you suffer from seasonal depression, the NIH suggests talking to your health care provider to find a treatment that’s right for you.	https://cw39.com/news/health/is-fall-bringing-you-down-heres-how-to-fight-seasonal-depression/	2022-10-02T18:43:23	en	0.958918
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MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Police firing tear gas after an Indonesian soccer match in an attempt to stop violence triggered a disastrous crush of fans making a panicked, chaotic run for the exits, leaving at least 125 people dead, most of them trampled upon or suffocated. Attention immediately focused on police crowd-control measures at Saturday night’s match between host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city and Persebaya Surabaya. Witnesses described officers beating them with sticks and shields before shooting tear gas canisters directly into the crowds. It was among the deadliest disasters ever at a sporting event. President Joko Widodo ordered an investigation of security procedures, and the president of FIFA called the deaths “a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension.” While FIFA has no control over domestic games, it has advised against the use of tear gas at soccer stadiums. Brawls are common among rival Indonesian soccer fans, so much so that the organizer had banned Persebaya supporters from Arema’s stadium. But violence still broke out when the home team lost 3-2 and some of the 42,000 Arema fans, known as “Aremania,” threw bottles and other objects at players and soccer officials. Witnesses said the fans flooded the Kanjuruhan Stadium pitch and demanded that Arema management explain why, after 23 years of undefeated home matches against Persebaya, this one ended in a defeat. At least five police vehicles were toppled and set ablaze outside the stadium. Riot police responded by firing tear gas, including toward the stadium’s stands, causing panic among the crowd. “The stadium turned into a smoke-filled battleground when police fired tear gas,” said Rizky, who goes by one name. He came with his cousin to watch the game. “I felt hot and stinging in my eyes, I couldn’t see clearly while my head was dizzy and everything went dark … I passed out,” he said. When he woke up, he was already in the emergency room. He said his cousin died because of head injuries. “We wanted to entertain ourselves by watching a football match, but we got disaster,” he said. Another spectator, Ahmad Fatoni, said police had started beating the fans with sticks and shields, and they fought back. “Officers fired tear gas directly at spectators in the stands, forcing us to run toward the exit,” he said. “Many victims fell because of shortness of breath and difficulty seeing due to tear gas and were trampled.” He said he climbed the roof of the stands and only came down when the situation calmed. Others suffocated and were trampled as hundreds of people ran to the exit to avoid the tear gas. In the chaos, 34 died at the stadium, including two officers, and some reports include children among the casualties. “Some were trampled, some fell down and some got hit,” Rian Dwi Cahyono told Sky News from the hospital, where he was being treated for an injured arm. Asked what triggered the panic, he replied: “Tear gas.” National Police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo said the death toll had been revised to 125 from 174, after authorities found some of the victims were counted twice. More than 100 were receiving intensive treatment in eight hospitals, 11 of them in critical condition. East Java police chief Nico Afinta defended the use of tear gas. “We have already done a preventive action before finally firing the tear gas as (fans) began to attack the police, acting anarchically and burning vehicles,” he told a news conference early Sunday. Indonesia’s soccer association, known as PSSI, suspended the premier soccer league Liga 1 indefinitely in light of the tragedy and banned Arema from hosting soccer matches for the remainder of the season. Grieving relatives waited for information about their loved ones at Malang’s Saiful Anwar General Hospital. Others tried to identify the bodies laid at a morgue while medical workers put identification tags on the bodies of the victims. “I deeply regret this tragedy and I hope this is the last soccer tragedy in this country, don’t let another human tragedy like this happen in the future,” Widodo said in a televised speech. “We must continue to maintain sportsmanship, humanity and a sense of brotherhood of the Indonesian nation.” He ordered the sports minister, the national police chief and the PSSI chair to conduct a thorough evaluation of the country’s soccer and its security procedure. Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali said the incident “has certainly injured our soccer image.” Indonesia is due to host the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup from May 20 to June 11, with 24 participating teams. As the host, the country automatically qualifies for the cup. In a statement, FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed condolences on behalf of the global football community, saying “the football world is in a state of shock.” The statement did not mention the use of tear gas. At the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for “all those who have lost their live and were injured in the clashes that erupted after a soccer game in Malang, Indonesia.” The restriction on Persebaya fans from entering the stadium was imposed after clashes between supporters of the two rival teams in East Java’s Blitar stadium in February 2020 caused 250 million rupiah ($18,000) in damage. Brawls were reported outside the stadium during and after the semifinals of the East Java Governor’s Cup, which ended with Persebaya beating Arema 4-2. Rights groups responded to the tragedy by blaming the use of tear gas in the stadium by police. Citing FIFA’s stadium safety guidelines against the use of “crowd control gas” by pitch side stewards or police, Amnesty International called on Indonesian authorities to conduct a swift investigation into the use of tear gas and ensure that those who are found to have committed violations are tried in open court and do not merely receive internal or administrative sanctions. Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, said tear gas should only be used to disperse crowds when widespread violence has occurred and other methods have failed. People must be warned that tear gas will be used and allowed to disperse. “No one should lose their lives at a football match,” Hamid said. Hundreds of soccer fans, mostly wearing black shirts, held a candlelight vigil on Sunday night at Gelora Bung Karno, Indonesia’s largest sport stadium in the capital, Jakarta, for the victims of the disaster. They sang songs they composed to lift the spirits of the grieving Aremanias. Despite Indonesia’s lack of international accolades in the sport, hooliganism is rife in the soccer-obsessed country where fanaticism often ends in violence, as in the 2018 death of a Persija Jakarta supporter who was killed by a mob of hardcore fans of rival club Persib Bandung in 2018. Data from Indonesia’s soccer watchdog, Save Our Soccer, showed 78 people have died in game-related incidents over the past 28 years. Saturday’s game is already among the world’s worst crowd disasters, including the 1996 World Cup qualifier between Guatemala and Costa Rica in Guatemala City where over 80 died and over 100 more were injured. In April 2001, more than 40 people are crushed to death during a soccer match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa.	https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/125-die-as-tear-gas-triggers-stampede-at-indonesia-soccer-match/	2022-10-02T18:43:29	en	0.972027
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The number of deaths following Hurricane Ian’s rampage in Florida continued to rise over the weekend. On Saturday evening, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced there have been 47 deaths attributed to the hurricane so far — mostly from drowning. The Associated Press reported that an additional four people in North Carolina and three in Cuba were also killed by the storm, bringing the death toll to 54. Among those killed were a 62-year-old woman who was hurt and drowned after a tree fell on her mobile home, a 54-year-old man who drowned after being trapped in a window, and a Lee County woman whose body was found tangled in wires under a home. A 71-year-old man also died after falling off his roof while installing rain shutters Wednesday. Another death was also reported in the Tampa Bay area after a 22-year-old woman died in an ATV crash caused by a road washout in Manatee County. FDEM Director Kevin Guthrie said there was also a case of human remains found in an underwater home in Lee County. “We do not know exactly how many were in the house,” he said Friday. “The water was up over the rooftop.” More deaths are expected to be discovered as floodwaters recede. According to Guthrie, the death toll may also go down at some points, because deaths can later be attributed to be non-storm-related causes. That’s why the totals are expected to change as information goes in. “People die in disasters that have nothing to do with the disaster,” he said. “The medical examiner is the one that makes that determination.”	https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/54-deaths-from-hurricane-ian-reported-as-recovery-efforts-continue-2/	2022-10-02T18:43:35	en	0.990736
President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan hit multiple road bumps this week, leading to the administration ultimately scaling back eligibility, excluding hundreds of thousands of borrowers from its relief plan. The administration was confronted with the first round of lawsuits against the program, as well as a tough score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that elevated concerns over its cost, both issues that the White House has downplayed in an attempt to keep voters enthusiastic about forgiveness. The applications for debt relief are expected to open this month under the program, which will forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 and up to $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants. An abrupt update on Thursday, however, said that borrowers with federal student loans not held by the Education Department are no longer eligible to obtain the relief, stirring up confusion. “There’s so much fear going on, so many borrowers are already calling, rushing to us, ‘What does this mean for me?’ It was very abrupt to have, ‘Today is the day we announce it and the day that is the last day to consolidate within minutes of lawsuits coming out,’” said Natalia Abrams, president of the Student Debt Crisis Center. One major legal challenge came from several Republican-led states, arguing that the plan is unlawful because there is no statute from Congress authorizing the cancellation of student loan debt. With the lawsuits in mind and potentially more to come, advocates warn the administration needs to not delay on giving out forgiveness in order to retain enthusiasm from voters about the program ahead of the midterms. “Every day that people go without having their debt canceled feels more bitter than sweet. To retain that sort of bump in polling that I think people sort of broadly agreed has occurred because of the announcement, to retain that favorability they need to actually cancel the debt,” said Braxton Brewington, spokesperson for the Debt Collective. “No one wants to go into November with no one’s debt having been canceled,” he said. Also this week, the CBO released its official estimate that the plan will cost about $400 billion. It also projected that 90 percent of income-eligible borrowers will apply for debt cancellation, which the White House pushed back on as too optimistic of a percentage based on participation in other government programs. When the president announced the plan in August, Republicans and even some moderate Democrats quickly criticized it for being too costly for taxpayers. “The announcement didn’t get the political praise they thought it would. When you look at the national reaction, it wasn’t as well received. So, you have that, and you have the legal challenges and the cost estimates coming out,” said Robert Moran, a former senior policy adviser in the Education Department under President George W. Bush. Others argued that issues such as scope and implementation won’t impact the enthusiasm level about the program from voters. “Failure to address the prominent campaign promise of student debt forgiveness would have been hard to overcome politically. A few initial bumps on the scope and implementation of the plan aren’t enough to walk back the enthusiasm for student loan forgiveness, particularly in the minds of younger voters,” said Debra Dixon, former chief of staff at the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the Education Department under President Obama. But Dixon warned that “legal limitations could be another story.” The other lawsuit this week came from public interest firm Pacific Legal Foundation, which challenged the plan through a plaintiff who is currently paying off loans. The plaintiff claimed he would be subject to an expensive tax in the event of debt relief because he lives in Indiana, which is one of several states that considers debt cancellation taxable income. “Looking at this whole situation at a very high level, the administration’s always been on somewhat shaky legal ground,” said Moran, a principal at Bose Public Affairs Group. “From a legal standpoint, observationally, this administration is using the Heroes Act, which has always kind of been controversial but everyone has used it, both Republican and Democratic administrations, for various purposes.” The Heroes Act allows the Education Department to waive or modify statutes or provisions related to student financial assistance programs during war or national emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The lawsuits this week are largely being attributed by observers to the timing of the update to exclude some borrowers. But the White House says it is simply trying to speed up effective action. “Our goal from day one has always been to deliver relief to as many borrowers as possible, as quickly as possible, and this change helps us achieve that,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Friday. The update says that only borrowers in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program whose loans are held by the federal government are eligible. The FFEL Program, which stopped issuing loans in 2010, was a student loan system that had private banks manage the loans, though they were guaranteed by the federal government. While the update was considered abrupt and sudden, a source familiar with the decision said the administration started conversations with the FFEL community shortly after the August announcement to gauge if lawsuits would stem from this exclusion. The end result on Thursday was that if a borrower with a FFEL loan was preemptively consolidating to prepare for cancellation ahead of the application period opening, they can still qualify to get cancelation. Many numbers have circulated over how many borrowers will now be excluded from the program, ranging between 700,000 to 5 million. The administration did not respond to a request for the exact number but Jean-Pierre said on Friday it is “much smaller” than the millions being reported. The update is worrying other borrowers into thinking they may be excluded, advocates said. “This is a very, very small group of borrowers, but then being reported out…to where people are thinking this is going to affect all borrowers or most of them,” Abrams said. Advocates and progressives had pushed for $50,000 per borrower in relief, before the administration announced up to $20,000 per borrower, and the decision to now exclude some borrowers is another issue for them. “I think it’s just as bittersweet as the announcement in a lot of ways because the relief that Biden announced was already skimpy,” Brewington said. “And so now it just feels, sort of throwing FFEL borrowers under the bus, feels like its skimping on the skimp.”	https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/lawsuits-shrunk-eligibility-take-the-shine-off-bidens-student-debt-relief/	2022-10-02T18:43:41	en	0.975838
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(The Hill) – President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan was abruptly updated on Thursday to exclude borrowers with privately held federal student loans, according to Education Department guidance. As of Thursday, borrowers with federal student loans not held by the Education Department are no longer eligible to obtain one-time debt relief by consolidating those loans into Direct Loans, the guidance said. The department said only borrowers in the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program whose loans are held by the federal government are eligible. The FFEL program, which stopped issuing loans in 2010, was a student loan system that had private banks manage the loans but were guaranteed by the federal government. Borrowers with privately-held FFEL Program loans and Perkins Loans who had applied to consolidate into the Direct Loan program before Thursday — when the administration abruptly updated its guidance — are still eligible for one-time debt relief through the Direct Loan program. The Education Department also said it is “assessing whether there are alternative pathways to provide relief to borrowers with federal student loans not held by ED, including FFEL Program loans and Perkins Loans, and is discussing this with private lenders.” Over 4 million student loan borrowers have privately-held FFEL loans, according to NPR. Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan is set to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 and $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants. Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that the plan will cost about $400 billion. It also projected that 90 percent of income-eligible borrowers will apply for debt cancellation. The White House pushed back on the report, saying it’s unlikely that 90 percent of eligible borrowers will take advantage of the program. Biden’s plan also faced the first of its legal challenges this week. Six Republican-led states filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the administration in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, arguing the proposal is unlawful because there is no statute from Congress authorizing the cancellation of student loan debt. Earlier this week, public interest firm Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) filed a lawsuit against the administration, challenging it through a plaintiff who is currently paying off loans and would be subject to an expensive tax in the event of debt relief because he lives in Indiana, one of several states that considers debt cancellation taxable income. The White House has cited the Heroes Act to justify the forgiveness program when pressed on how it will uphold in court against legal challenges. The act allows the Education Department to waive or modify statutes or provisions related to student financial assistance programs during war or national emergencies, with the COVID-19 pandemic being a justification for debt cancellation.	https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/these-loans-no-longer-qualify-for-bidens-student-loan-forgiveness-program/	2022-10-02T18:43:48	en	0.969105
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WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare softening of hostile relations, Venezuela freed on Saturday seven imprisoned Americans in exchange for the United States releasing two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions. The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, follows months of back channel diplomacy by senior U.S. officials — secretive talks with a major oil producer that took on greater urgency after sanctions on Russia put pressure on global energy prices. The deal amounts to an unusual gesture of goodwill by Maduro as the socialist leader looks to rebuild relations with the U.S. after vanquishing most of his domestic opponents. While the White House denied any change in policy toward Venezuela is afoot, the freeing of Americans could create political space for the Biden administration to ease crippling oil sanctions on Venezuela if Maduro shows progress in on-again, off-again talks with his opponents. “I can’t believe it,” Cristina Vadell, the daughter of Tomeu Vadell, one of the freed Americans, told The Associated Press on Saturday. Holding back tears of joy on her 31st birthday, she said: “This is the best birthday present ever. I’m just so happy.” The transfer took place Saturday in the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and Grenadines, which is ruled by an ally of Maduro, three people in Venezuela briefed on the matter told the AP on the condition of anonymity. The prisoners arrived from their respective locations in separate planes, the Biden administration said. “These individuals will soon be reunited with their families and back in the arms of their loved ones where they belong,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. Those freed include five employees of Houston-based Citgo — Vadell, Jose Luis Zambrano, Alirio Zambrano, Jorge Toledo and Jose Pereira — who were lured to Venezuela right before Thanksgiving in 2017 to attend a meeting at the headquarters of the company’s parent, state-run-oil giant PDVSA. Once there, they were hauled away by masked security agents who busted into a Caracas conference room. The men were convicted of embezzlement in 2020 in a trial marred by delays and irregularities and sentenced to between eight years and 13 years in prison for a never-executed proposal to refinance billions in the oil company’s bonds. Also released was Matthew Heath, a former U.S. Marine corporal from Tennessee who was arrested in 2020 at a roadblock in Venezuela, and a Florida man, Osman Khan, who was arrested in January. The State Department had regarded all the men as wrongfully detained. To facilitate a deal, Biden granted clemency for Franqui Flores and his cousin Efrain Campo, nephews of “First Combatant” Cilia Flores, as Maduro calls his wife. The men were arrested in Haiti in a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in 2015 and convicted the following year in New York in a highly charged case that cast a hard look at U.S. accusations of drug trafficking at the highest levels of Maduro’s administration. Referring to the men only as Venezuelans “unjustly imprisoned” in the U.S., the Maduro government in a statement said it “welcomes the outcome of these talks and hopes for the preservation of peace and harmony with all the nations of our region and the world.” The Biden administration has been under pressure to do more to bring home the roughly 60 Americans it believes are held hostage abroad or wrongfully detained by hostile foreign governments. While much of the focus is on Russia, where the U.S. has so far tried unsuccessfully to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, Venezuela has been holding the largest contingent of Americans suspected of being used as bargaining chips. At least four other Americans remain detained in Venezuela, including two former Green Berets — Luke Denman and Airan Berry — involved in a slapdash attempt to oust Maduro in 2019, and two other men — Eyvin Hernandez and Jerrel Kenemore — who, like Khan, were detained for allegedly entering the country illegally from neighboring Colombia. “To all the families who are still suffering and separated from their loved ones who are wrongfully detained — know that we remain dedicated to securing their release,” Biden said in his statement. Saturday’s swap came together quietly over several months of backchannel talks. Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, has made multiple visits to Venezuela over the last year to discuss potential deals and to meet with the detained Americans. In July, Maduro officials upped the ante in meetings in Caracas with Carstens and Ambassador James Story, who heads the Venezuela Affairs Unit in neighboring Colombia. It substitutes for the U.S. Embassy the Trump administration shuttered in 2019 to protest Maduro’s reelection in what was widely seen as a sham election. In exchange for freeing the nephews and insider businessman Alex Saab, Maduro was willing to release all Americans, a U.S. official briefed on the outreach told the AP. In the end, Saab — Venezuela considers him a diplomat and U.S. prosecutors a corrupt regime enabler — was never seriously considered, according to the U.S. official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the talks. Unlike the nephews, who were arrested as a result of a drug sting and are about halfway through 18-year sentences, Saab bitterly fought his extradition to the U.S. from Cape Verde, where he was arrested in 2020 during a stopover en route to Iran. He is now awaiting trial in Miami federal court on charges of siphoning off millions in state contracts. Still, it’s unclear if the prisoner release will lead to a broader thaw in relations. The Biden administration is constrained in its engagement with Maduro, especially in the battleground state of Florida, where Latino voters whose families fled authoritarian rule in Cuba and Venezuela hold major sway. “Another Biden appeasement that will result in more anti-U.S. dictators taking more innocent Americans hostage in the future,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on Twitter about Saturday’s exchange. Although the U.S. in the last six months has struck similar deals with Russia, and more recently with the Taliban, a senior Biden administration official downplayed any suggestion that it was caving to hostage-takers, saying such exchanges remain “extraordinarily rare.” The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the administration, also pointed to an executive order from this summe r that sought to impose new costs on countries that jail Americans without cause. Meanwhile, many Maduro supporters remain distrustful of the U.S. “Empire,” recalling the Trump administration’s decision to impose sanctions on a Venezuelan governor who brokered the release of another American, Joshua Holt, in 2018. However, some longtime Venezuela watchers say they’re hopeful this time will be different. A visit to Caracas in March by Juan Gonzalez, the top National Security Council adviser on Latin America, was itself a remarkable gesture toward a leader whom the U.S. considers illegitimate and has indicted on narco-terrorism charges. The Biden administration has also promised to review sanctions if Maduro can point to progress in talks with opponents that had been taking place in Mexico that are aimed at creating fairer conditions for 2024 presidential elections “President Biden did the right thing,” said Caleb McCarry, a former Republican staffer who met recently with Maduro in a bid to free Americans and improve bilateral relations. “This is serious diplomacy and can only help put the Mexico negotiations back on track. It’s a win for the families, the American people and the Venezuelan people.”	https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/venezuela-swaps-7-jailed-americans-for-maduro-relatives/	2022-10-02T18:43:54	en	0.966524
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A Salem woman called 911 Wednesday evening and secretly led Marion County officials to her and the man that allegedly kidnapped her. The situation began outside a gas station on Lancaster Drive Southeast near Macleay Road Southeast around 5 p.m. As the woman was trying to leave, she says a man hopped into her car and refused to get out. The woman quickly dialed 911 before stashing her phone in her purse and calling out street names she was driving by, according to Marion County Sheriff’s Office. The 911 operator reported hearing the woman tell someone in the background “get out of my car” and “don’t touch me.” Deputies responded to a Shari’s Restaurant off Lancaster Driver Southeast, where they found both the man and woman. The suspect, 40-year-old Danniel Anderson, was arrested and charged with first-degree kidnapping and harassment. MCSO said the woman was found uninjured and commended both the woman’s quick thinking and the dispatcher’s work that led deputies to her.	https://cw39.com/news/nationworld/woman-calls-911-hides-phone-leads-deputies-to-alleged-kidnapper/	2022-10-02T18:44:00	en	0.975116
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EDINBURG, Texas (KXAN) — The top two candidates for Texas governor volleyed in their first debate Friday night over questions about some of the most pressing issues for the state, with Gov. Greg Abbott aiming to maintain his polling lead and challenger Beto O’Rourke striving to shake up the race. During the hour-long debate at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus in Edinburg, the two men faced each other for the first time since O’Rourke interrupted Abbott’s Uvalde news conference in May following the deadly mass shooting there. A fiery exchange similar to that did not happen Friday, but their exchanges still led to some memorable moments that may impact the gubernatorial election. No more STAAR test? Both Abbott and O’Rourke received a question about how to retain qualified teachers in Texas classrooms. Both candidates promised to raise their pay, which is likely welcome news to educators statewide. However, the Democratic challenger went further while discussing other education reforms he’d like to enact if he unseats the incumbent in November. He said, if elected, he would end the STAAR test. That’s the state’s testing program focusing on the core subjects of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies. “I’m going to insure that you have more valuable classroom time to connect with those kids, so we’re going to stop the STAAR test,” O’Rourke said while addressing teachers, “and allow you to focus on drawing forth that lifelong love of learning from every child before you.” The Texas Education Agency paused students from taking the STAAR test in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year students had to take the test again, but not to hold schools accountable. The tests happened as usual this year, and they’ll be used as part of the state’s school accountability system. Schools that get a D or F will be instead listed as a “no rating.” STAAR scores for grades three through eight showed gains across the board in math and reading from the 2020-21 school year, TEA data shows. The gains in math, though, have still not reached pre-pandemic levels. Scores also showed the improvement stretch among special education students, economically disadvantaged students and across mastery levels in Texas, according to TEA data. O’Rourke also suggested he’d like to push for a cost of living adjustment for retired teachers every year. To raise teacher pay, he said he wanted to raise the state’s share of public school funding, which he argued would lower the tax burden on property owners. ‘I will never raise property taxes’ Speaking about property tax relief plans Friday, Abbott claimed O’Rourke voted three times while on the El Paso City Council to raise local tax rates and made a clear assertion if voters grant him a third term as governor. “I will never raise property taxes,” Abbott said. “The state of Texas does not levy property tax. That’s only done at the local level,” he added. “What the state of Texas has done — and we will continue to do — is to drive down the ability of the local governments from being able to raise taxes.” The governor shared another detail of his plan to cut property taxes in Texas, which polls have suggested is a top issue for many voters. “Because of our strong economy in Texas, we have a budget surplus of $27 billion,” Abbott said Friday. “I want to use at least half of that $27 billion to drive down property tax rates. It can be done in a long-term basis if we use that to lower the school property tax component.” During a later exchange, he also said his goal is to eliminate the school property tax imposed in Texas. For his part, O’Rourke laid out how he’d like to provide property tax relief, which included expanding Medicaid and legalizing marijuana to create a new stream of revenue for the state. “I’ll keep your lights on. I’ll make sure that I keep your kids safe,” O’Rourke said in his closing statement. “We’ll reduce property taxes, and we’ll prioritize the lives of each and every single Texan in this state.” Uvalde accountability The moderators peppered the candidates with a number of questions about accountability efforts following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two students. While Abbott said he would make school safety an emergency item for legislators to prioritize during the next legislative session, he addressed his claim that law enforcement misled him with the initial information they shared about the massacre, leading him to make that statement soon after the shooting that “it could have been worse.” “There needs to be accountability for law enforcement at every level for not following the Columbine protocol,” he said, pointing out investigations are underway right now for seven officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety. Two officers, he said, are currently suspended. Since the Columbine school massacre in 1999, many police departments have trained officers to make it the first priority to go after an attacker. However, O’Rourke claimed, “There is a complete failure to hold people responsible accountable. Those families still do not have justice. As governor, I will make it my priority.” He also said his criticisms of the governor’s response to the shooting means Abbott “has lost the right to serve this state in the most important position of public trust.” O’Rourke appeared in the afternoon before the debate with several families of the Uvalde shooting victims, and they called for Texas leaders to raise the age to 21 for people to buy a weapon like the AR-15. He said at the debate he would support legislation to do just that, while Abbott said recent court decisions would make that policy unconstitutional. No debate audience As the moderators moved from one topic to another in rapid pace Friday, neither candidate received any immediate feedback for their responses from an audience because the debate hall was empty. O’Rourke claimed in a tweet Friday afternoon that the empty seats are because “Abbott refuses to face those he’s failed these last 8 years.” However, both candidates and their campaigns agreed to the terms of the debate, which included a stipulation that no guests would be in the auditorium. O’Rourke also mentioned during the debate that the Uvalde victims’ families wanted to sit in the auditorium during the debate. Meanwhile, during the debate a group of voters gathered in Dallas to share their reactions in real time through the use of dial technology. A number of moments showed clear splits in opinion related to both candidates.	https://cw39.com/news/texas/4-texas-governors-debate-moments-everyone-will-be-talking-about/	2022-10-02T18:44:06	en	0.972651
Read Time:1 Minute, 35 Second ICYMI: Dancing With The Stars James Bond Night Routines - Fitness model and actor Joseph Baena and pro Alexis Warr (filling in for Daniella Karagach) will perform an Argentine Tango to “Writing’s On the Wall” by Sam Smith - Movie star Selma Blair and pro Sasha Farber will perform a Rumba to “For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton - Actor and singer Wayne Brady and pro Witney Carson will perform a Tango to “The Name’s Bond…James Bond” by David Arnold & Nicholas Dodd - Good Morning America contributor and WABC-TV New York’s weather anchor Sam Champion, and pro Cheryl Burke will perform a Samba to “Los Muertos Vivos Estan” by Thomas Newman ft. Tambuco - TikTok star Charli D’Amelio and pro Mark Ballas will perform a Rumba to “No Time To Die” by Billie Eilish - Heidi D’Amelio (The D’Amelio Show) and pro Artem Chigvintsev will perform an Argentine Tango to “Another Way to Die” by Jack White and Alicia Keys - Country star Jessie James Decker and pro Alan Bersten will perform a Rumba to “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey - TV star Trevor Donovan and pro Emma Slater will perform a Tango to “You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell - Daniel Durant (Oscar-winning “CODA”) and pro Britt Stewart will perform a Rumba to “The World Is Not Enough” by Garbage - Vinny Guadagnino (Jersey Shore) and pro Koko Iwasaki will perform a Rumba to “Thunderball” by Tom Jones - Charlie’s Angels star Cheryl Ladd and pro Louis van Amstel will perform a Rumba to “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey - Drag queen superstar Shangela and pro Gleb Savchenko will perform a Rumba to “Goldeneye” by Tina Turner - Platinum recording artist Jordin Sparks and pro Brandon Armstrong will perform a Rumba to “Licence To Kill” by Gladys Knight - Gabby Windey (The Bachelorette) and pro Val Chmerkovskiy will perform a Cha Cha to “Die Another Day” by Madonna	https://www.tvgrapevine.com/2022/10/icymi-dancing-with-the-stars-james-bond-night-routines/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=icymi-dancing-with-the-stars-james-bond-night-routines	2022-10-02T18:44:10	en	0.791794
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Hill) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke traded barbs and sought to paint each other as inherently out of touch with the state in their first and only televised debate on Friday evening. The debate — hosted by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill — gave the candidates an opportunity to stake out policy positions and address a range of issues from the Uvalde school shooting to teacher retention to border security. While the candidates touched on some policy stances, the one-hour debate was a mostly civil affair while the candidates did open old wounds and tried to paint each other as extremists. The debate comes at a crucial time for O’Rourke as recent polls show him trailing Abbott, offering him an important opportunity to reach voters in the final stretch of the race. At the same time, the hour discourse comes amid speculation that the Texas governor might seek a presidential bid in 2024. Here are five takeaways from the Texas gubernatorial debate. 1. Barbs fly but debate remains a subdued affair The hourlong debate was a mostly staid affair; there were no outbursts or raised voices. But that doesn’t mean that Abbott and O’Rourke didn’t take opportunities when they could to rehash the past and bring up each other’s shortcomings. “Gov. Abbott’s grid failure is part of a pattern over these last eight years. Warned about, for example, school violence and gun violence specifically against children, does nothing,” O’Rourke said. “Warned about problems within child protective services, our foster care program, does nothing, and it gets worse. Warned before February 2021 that we had problems in the grid, he did nothing.” At the same time, Abbott touched on the Democrat’s failed attempts at winning a Senate seat in 2018 and the White House two years later. He also argued that O’Rourke was inconsistent on his positions. “He’s flip-flopped on the border issue. He’s flip-flopped on the energy issue, such as energy jobs and the Green New Deal. He’s flip-flopped on defunding the police. Whether it’s one issue or another, he keeps changing positions,” Abbott said. 2. Candidates paint each other as extremists Both candidates sought to cast each other as extremists, albeit in different ways. One key policy area in which attacks were leveled was abortion. “Beto’s position is the most extreme because he not only supports abortion of a fully developed child to the very last second before birth, he’s even against providing medical care for a baby who survives an abortion. He is for unlimited abortion at taxpayer expense,” Abbott alleged. “That’s not true. It’s completely a lie,” O’Rourke rebutted. ”I never said that. And no one thinks that in the state of Texas. He’s saying this because he signed the most extreme abortion ban in America. No exception for rape, no exception for incest.” Both men also branded each other as wildly out of touch on issues like immigration. Abbott, for example, claimed that O’Rourke said he would decrease immigration enforcement and downplayed the situation at the border. 3. Biden emerges as GOP boogeyman Abbott took multiple opportunities to ding President Biden during the debate as he sought to tie O’Rourke to the president amid Biden’s lagging approval ratings. “We shouldn’t have to allocate any money for it because this is all because of Joe Biden’s failure to do the president’s job to secure the border,” the governor said in response to a question over whether more money should be given to Operation Lone Star, which was aimed at tackling border crossings between U.S. and Mexico. “We’re only having to do that because of Joe Biden’s failure and because it would be the same pathway that Beto would take us down,” he added. At one point during the debate, O’Rourke pushed back at Abbott’s assertions against the president, arguing that he was blaming people like Biden but that the “buck stops on your desk.” 4. No mention of Trump While Donald Trump and the multiple state and federal investigations he’s been embroiled in have consistently shadowed the midterm races, the former president was not mentioned once during the debate. Though references to Trump would likely rouse the GOP base in Texas, the absence of any mention of the former president allowed Abbott to focus on state-specific issues. And it suggested that O’Rourke too sees that the key to breaking through with Texas voters is to focus on core issues like immigration, abortion and gun violence — not the former occupant of the White House. The decision by O’Rourke to eschew mention of Trump also comes after criticism during the last election cycle that Democrats were focused too heavily on trying to tie Republicans to the former president. Likely not a game-changer Given the civil nature of the debate and the fact that neither candidate demonstrated much of a shift in rhetoric or policy stance, voters are unlikely to have come away from Friday night’s event with changed minds. That will likely be an asset to Abbott given that he’s currently leading in the polls, and it’s likely a setback for O’Rourke given there were no clear moments when he was able to successfully land a damaging blow against the governor. Instead, O’Rourke will have to trust that his casting himself as a foil to the two-term incumbent and a message of change will be enough to sway voters in November.	https://cw39.com/news/texas/5-takeaways-from-the-abbott-orourke-texas-governors-debate/	2022-10-02T18:44:13	en	0.971872
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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and challenger Beto O’Rourke (D) met at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg Friday night for their only scheduled televised debate. The pair answered questions on several issues that are close to home for Texans — gun legislation in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting, abortion and immigration. KXAN gathered political experts to discuss the crucial moments during the debate and how the candidates fared overall. The former communications director for Abbott, John Wittman, and Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo agreed there weren’t really any breakout moments during the debate. “In a debate like this, typically the challenger that is down really needs to have breakout moment. I didn’t see that tonight from Beto O’Rourke,” Wittman told KXAN’s Josh Hinkle. Naranjo agreed but said the voters have the power to hold Gov. Abbott accountable. Immigration During the debate, Abbott said border communities are being helped by his busing program, where migrants who cross into Texas can volunteer to be transported to cities like Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Naranjo said Abbott’s programs, including Operation Lone Star, which was launched in March 2021 to address smuggling concerns, have “yielded no results.” “This is not a Texas problem, it’s an international problem, it’s a humanitarian crisis, and if Gov. Abbott wanted to lead on issues like immigration, he would focus on bringing infrastructure down to the border patrol agents who need it as well as to the communities … instead of busing them to Chicago and Washington, D.C., for political ploy,” Naranjo said. Wittman, on the other hand, backed Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, saying it has resulted in tens of thousands of migrant arrests and fentanyl being confiscated. On the issue of immigration, O’Rourke said, “what we need is a safe, legal, orderly path for anyone who wants to come here to work, to join family or to seek asylum.” “It sounds to me like Beto O’Rourke wants to simply open the borders and let everyone in,” Wittman stated in response to that. Border Report Correspondent Sandra Sanchez said during the 12 minutes the candidates spent on the immigration topic, both candidates stayed within their narratives. But she said there were more factors about immigration to cover, aside from Operation Lone Star and the busing program. “Did both of the candidates explain everything they should have? No. I expected Gov. Abbott to talk more about the border wall — the state-funded border wall,” Sanchez said. “Why didn’t Congressman O’Rourke bring that up? Why didn’t he talk about how much money that cost the state and how long it’s taken to do it?” Sanchez continued. Abortion When asked if emergency contraception is a viable alternative to abortion for victims of rape and incest, Abbott responded, “the state of Texas pays for that, whether it be at a hospital, at a clinic, or someone who gets a prescription because of it. Not only should it be readily available, but the state of Texas is going to pay for it.” “I thank God that he is not an OBGYN, because he clearly does not know how Plan B works, as well as rape and/or being a victim of rape,” Naranjo said in response. “I think one of the most powerful moments of this debate regarding abortion tonight was actually when Gov. Abbott spoke about his daughter, and the adoption that they went through and the importance of protecting innocent human life,” Wittman said in return. Wittman went on to say O’Rourke “likes to throw around words like ‘extremism’ on this issue.” During the debate, O’Rourke said on the topic of abortion, “I will fight to make sure that every woman in Texas can make her own decisions about her own body, her own future and her own health care.” Guns “Beto talks a lot about all these things that he wants to do regarding guns, but he has to actually work within the confines of the legislature. The governor is not a king, the governor has to work with the legislature,” Wittman said of O’Rourke wanting to raise the minimum age to purchase AR-15s and wanting to enact red flag laws. Families affected by the Uvalde school shooting have voiced in the past they want to raise the age requirement on purchasing semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21. “When it comes to gun control, what voters in Texas have to decide is do they believe that Gov. Abbott is going to make it less safe or more safe for their children to be able to go to school … and what voters did not hear tonight was a solution,” Naranjo said, pointing to the permitless carry law that went into effect last year. The law, House Bill 1927, allows Texans 21 and older to carry a handgun in public in the state. There are exceptions for felons and those under 21, and buyers will still be required to pass a background check at a gun store. Power grid During the February 2021 winter storm, millions of Texans lost power in freezing temperatures and hundreds perished because of failures with the power grid, which is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. In response, Abbott helped pass legislation to overhaul and reform ERCOT, requiring weatherization for equipment and communication improvements during outages. “The reality is is that the grid held up this summer because of the laws that Greg Abbott signed during the regular legislative session,” Wittman said. However, Naranjo said, “no one’s been held accountable [for the grid].” “What we need is more debates and more discourse in this governor’s race, and we haven’t even talked about important issues like health care, and the fact that we have a crisis in a nursing shortage and a crisis in our schools,” Naranjo said.	https://cw39.com/news/texas/debate-analysis-political-experts-dig-into-abbott-orourke-answers-on-immigration-abortion/	2022-10-02T18:44:19	en	0.9704
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — After heavy rains and flooding across Florida, officials in Orange County shared photos of pets being rescued with their owners in high waters. "Pets are family. Period," Orange County Government wrote in a Facebook post. Orange County Fire Rescue, the Orange County Sheriff's Office, and the National Guard helped owners and their pets get to safety on Thursday. After battering Florida's southwest coast, Hurricane Ian continued on its path of destruction, bringing flooding and winds to central Florida. The city of Orlando experienced historic flooding with more than 14 inches of water in some places. Orlando Police were continuing to urge residents to stay off flooded streets on Thursday evening. The Orlo Vista neighborhood was particularly hard-hit. The Orange County Sheriff's Office used a high-water rescue vehicle to get to people there who needed help. The devastation inflicted on Florida began to come into focus a day after Ian struck as a monstrous Category 4 hurricane and one of the strongest storms ever to hit the U.S. It flooded homes on both the state's coasts, cut off the only bridge to a barrier island, destroyed a historic waterfront pier and knocked out electricity to 2.67 million Florida homes and businesses — nearly a quarter of utility customers.	https://www.kens5.com/article/life/animals/pets-rescued-hurricane-ian-orange-county/67-d1471a9a-815f-4ed0-8062-d6fccd6d17dd	2022-10-02T18:44:20	en	0.968371
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SAN ANGELO, Texas — The Cactus Hotel, previously known as the Hilton Hotel has a rich history dating back to the Great Depression and carries a haunted past that lingers to this day. Built in the late 1920s the Cactus Hotel is the tallest building in San Angelo reaching 165 feet, 14 stories high which can be seen from a distance of 15 miles in all directions. The building itself has been standing for 98 years and has experienced many transformations at one point in its history being host to a geriatric hospital. At its roots the building was designed by architect Anton Korn with a combination of Southwestern motifs and classical elements and built by the founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, Conrad Hilton. Be Theater Ghost Talks dove into the more haunted side of the history of the building discussing murders and mayhem that have plagued the hotel’s past. Some of these stories include the tales of a love-spurned photographer who murdered his model hiding her body in the basement and a man who jumped from the top of the building falling upon the buildings Spiers before hitting the ground below. The most terrifying tale however regards a spirit that is said to haunt the building called the “Straw Suit Man.” This entity is described as an older gentleman in a tweed jacket that leans on a cane. Suzy Roberts, Ghost Walks Co-Founder, recalls one of the more notable sightings of this entity from a business owner’s fiance who came across him in the basement believing he was lost. The man in the tweed coat disappeared at the bottom of the stairs. Retelling his story to his fiance she waved him off blaming a previous concussion he had endured, that is until the next morning when someone else encountered the entity. “They heard a bloodcurdling scream on the second floor,” Roberts said. “Another woman saw him, and the old man turned to look at her with dead eyes.” The man’s body contorted at impossible angles and is said to have crawled towards the woman at unbelievable speed before disappearing moments away from where she had stood. The Cactus Hotel currently hosts several businesses and restaurants even apartments and caters to special events such as birthdays, weddings, and meetings. For a more in-depth look at the building’s almost 100-year-old history watch the Cactus Hotels, “A Step Back In Time.” For more on this series follow the links below:	https://cw39.com/news/texas/haunted-history-the-cactus-hotels-straw-suit-man/	2022-10-02T18:44:25	en	0.9736
HERMANTOWN, Minn. — Three people died after a Cessna airplane crashed into a two-story home in Hermantown, Minnesota, local police say. According to the Hermantown Police Department, two men from Burnsville and a woman from St. Paul died in the crash overnight Saturday. All three were in their 30s, police say. Just before midnight Saturday, police say they were alerted by the control tower at Duluth International Airport that a Cessna 172 airplane dropped off the radar and was believed to have crashed. The control tower added that the plane's last known location was about a mile, a mile and a half south of the airport. Police say officers and fire crews responded to the scene of the plane crash on the 5100 block of Arrowhead Road. The plane crashed into the second floor of the house before coming to a stop in the backyard. No one in the house was injured, police say, but all three people who were in the Cessna died. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will continue to investigate the crash, Hermantown police say. Watch more local news: Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist:	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/3-dead-after-plane-crashes-minnesota-home-hermantown/89-3b6f3d3c-f6bb-42ff-a424-4c9db4bb9f01	2022-10-02T18:44:26	en	0.979229
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EDINBURG, Texas (Border Report) — Border security and immigration issues dominated the Texas gubernatorial debate on Friday night between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent former Congressman Beto O’Rourke that was held on the South Texas border. For 12 minutes, the candidates bantered on immigration topics ranging from busing migrants to northern cities, the deployment of the Texas National Guard along the Texas/Mexico border, crime on the border and even a Texas-based guest worker program, which O’Rourke proposed. For the most part, statements made by the candidates at the debate, held at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, remained consistent with those they have repeated in the past on the campaign trail. But they did fire up the lingo and inflict emotion as they head into the final six weeks of this campaign leading up to the Nov. 8 election. Abbott blamed the immigration “disaster” caused by the Biden administration’s “failed border policies.” O’Rourke blamed Abbott for spending $4 billion in Texas taxpayer funds on Operation Lone Star, his border security initiative, which he called “political theater” and said Abbott has caused “chaos” on the border. Abbott retorted: “We shouldn’t have to allocate any money but this is all because of Biden’s failure to do his job.” And he said Operation Lone Star, in which 10,000 National Guard troops are positioned along the 1,200-mile border with Mexico, are necessary for the safety of Texans, and the rest of the nation. He said “record” amounts of fentanyl and other illegal drugs have been seized on the border; drugs he said could and would have made it North had troops and law enforcement not stopped it. “Abbott remained on message more,” Natasha Altema McNeely, associate political science professor at UTRGV, told Border Report just moments after the hour-long debate ended. “Beto was very focused on pointing out Abbott’s failures across various contexts: immigration, gun control including response to Uvalde, failure to uphold reproductive rights,” she said. With regards to the positioning of National Guard troops, O’Rourke did not specify whether he would draw back troops but he threw out the idea of a “voluntary” service by Guard troops. He did not explain how many troops he thought should participate, or how that would work And another surprising moment came when Abbott said that New York Mayor Eric Adams had not contacted him regarding the busing of migrants from Texas. This conflicts with reports that Adams has said his office has called Abbott and requested information on when and where these migrants will be dropped off to coordinate and be prepared to support them. Friday evening, New York City mayor press secretary Fabien Levy tweeted a screenshot of an email the city’s director of federal affairs sent Aug. 1, 2022 to a member of Gov. Abbott’s staff and said “not only did our office call you about this, but we followed up via email. Always keep the receipts, folks!” After the debate, in an interview with NewsNation, O’Rourke once again mentioned the need for a Texas-based guest worker program. “Why not let Texas lead on this issue? We are a border state,” O’Rourke said. Abbott said if O’Rourke takes the helm, he would mirror Biden’s policies. “It is the same pathway that Beto would take us down,” he said.	https://cw39.com/news/texas/immigration-border-security-dominated-texas-governors-debate/	2022-10-02T18:44:31	en	0.968526
WEST ORANGE, Texas — Under the Friday night lights at the West Orange Stark High School football stadium, fans witnessed a unique friendship that was born from an unthinkable tragedy. Orange County Police Officer Jason Laughlin escorted Aamiyah Gradnigo during the West Orange Stark homecoming ceremony. She was honored as the West Orange Stark High School Cheer Sweetheart. The moment was emotional because Officer Laughlin was the lead investigator working to solve the murder of Aamiyah Gradnigo's sister, Aaliyah Gradnigo. Aaliyah Gradnigo was 18 years old when she and her boyfriend, Thalamus Livings, were shot to death in 2021. Loved ones described Aaliyah Gradnigo as calm and sweet and Livings as respectable and kind. Related: 'Quit being a coward': Orange double homicide victims' family pleas for murder suspect to confess "This is the first case I've ever worked that actually hit home, and maybe that was a turning point where it became close to my heart,” Officer Laughlin said. Manka Alonzo Melson, 25, of Vinton, was found guilty of murdering the couple and sentenced to life without parole in February of 2022. Just two years after the death of her sister brought them together, Aamiyah Gradnigo and Officer Laughlin laughed and smiled at the West Orange Stark High School homecoming ceremony. Aamiyah Gradnigo believes that along with the Officer Laughlin, her sister was with her as well. Related: Family of couple murdered in 2021 hold balloon release to mark 1 year anniversary of their deaths "She'll definitely be excited, and I know she's walking there with me," Aamiyah Gradnigo said. Aamiyah Gradnigo wanted to thank Officer Laughlin for bringing her sister's killer to justice. "I've always wanted to find something to show him that we appreciate him for everything that he's done,” Aamiyah Gradnigo said. “I felt like this would be perfect.” Officer Laughlin was honored to be asked to escort Aamiyah Gradnigo. "To be asked to escort Aamiyah tonight was actually a very high point in my career, and I'll never forget it," Laughlin said. Amanda Gradnigo is Aamiyah and Aaliyah’s mother. The family is still in the healing process. The mother believes Aamiyah Gradnigo's and Officer Laughlin's close friendship is something positive that bloomed from the tragedy. "Even though the tragedy's definitely been ... something positive has come out of it," Amanda Gradnigo said. Aamiyah Gradnigo said her special bond with Officer Laughlin inspired her to switch her career path to criminal justice. "I look forward to her graduating and seeing her go off to college,” Officer Laughlin said. They both hope to stay in each other lives for a lifetime. “He's definitely family to us now," Aamiyah Gradnigo said. "I hope to see him, like, every step I take, graduation to my wedding." Also on 12NewsNow.com ...	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/after-helping-get-justice-for-her-sister-officer-escorts-teenager-during-homecoming-ceremony/502-55cfeed7-2f56-40f5-a629-81d4dc1b3412	2022-10-02T18:44:32	en	0.981193
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AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Friday’s Texas Governor’s Debate came at a crucial time for Beto O’Rourke. With just five weeks to go before Election Day, polls show the Democratic challenger with a deficit in the high single digits to incumbent Governor Greg Abbott. Polling released earlier in the week by Emerson College Polling and The Hill showed Abbott with an 8-point lead over O’Rourke. The challenger faces the challenge of winning over a shrinking pool of undecided voters. The debate had few headline-making moments, which may have worked against O’Rourke. “It was actually a pretty non-dramatic debate, which I think is a really good thing for Greg Abbott,” said John Wittman, a consultant who previously worked as Abbott’s director of communications. “Typically, the challenger who is down really needs to have that breakout moment. I didn’t see that tonight from Beto O’Rourke,” Wittman added. Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo agreed there was no breakout moment in the debate, but she saw O’Rourke creating an opportunity by highlighting certain issues. “I think the reality is accountability has been established, the lack of accountability the Governor has…,” Naranjo said, referencing Abbott’s immigration policies and stance on gun regulations. “If you as a female voter, a mom sitting there listening myself, think holding people accountable that is a breakaway moment, then it gives voters the power to hold the Governor accountable,” Naranjo said. Access to abortion question highlights stark differences between Abbott and O’Rourke The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade helped make abortion a larger factor in the November election. Texas now has laws in place to ban abortion, with no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. A survey by Emerson College Polling and The Hill asked Texas voters whether the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would make them more or less likely to vote. The results showed 54% saying they would be more likely to vote in November. A significant minority, 41%, replied that the ruling made no difference in whether they would vote. During Friday night’s debate, Governor Abbott reiterated that the state should make sure that Plan B emergency contraception is available for victims of sexual assault. “Whether it be at a hospital, at a clinic, or for someone who gets a prescription because of it, not only should [Plan B] be readily available, but the state of Texas is going to pay for it to make sure that it is available for them,” Abbott said, in response to a debate question. O’Rourke said the state laws backed by Abbott go too far. “This election is about freedom,” he said on the debate stage and exhorted Texans to go to the polls. “If you care about this, you need to turn out and vote. I will fight to make sure every woman in Texas can make her own decision about her own body, her own future, her own healthcare,” O’Rourke vowed. State of Texas host Josh Hinkle spoke to two policy insiders about the statements on abortion from the candidates. John Wittman previously managed the communications team for Governor Abbott. He now is a founder of Wittman Public Affairs in Austin. Katie Naranjo is the chair of the Travis County Democratic Party. She’s a healthcare advocate and the CEO of a small business in Austin. What follows is a transcript of their discussion: Josh Hinkle: Katie, I want to start with you what we heard the governor saying focused a lot on emergency contraception and access to that. What did you think when you heard what he had to say? Katie Naranjo: I thank God that he is not an OBGYN, because he clearly does not know how Plan B works, as well as rate and or being a victim of rape. And while this is one facet of reproductive health care, there are many other issues that are at play here. We’re talking about constitutional rights. A person in Texas who is able to carry a child has less rights today than they did when Governor Abbott first went into office. And he has made it not only illegal to seek an abortion in the state of Texas, in terms of rape or incest, but also we have an attorney general fighting to make sure in the life of a mother that people are still prosecuted if they ain’t abandon abortion in Texas. Josh Hinkle: What do you think John? John Wittman: Well, I think one of the most powerful moments of this debate regarding abortion tonight was actually when Governor Abbott spoke about his daughter and the adoption that they went through and the importance of protecting innocent human life. And I think that was actually a really powerful moment that connected a lot with voters. You know, Beto likes throw around words like extremism on this issue. But the reality is, is that Beto doesn’t believe in any limits on abortion whatsoever. Up until 39 weeks, he refused to answer the question again, tonight. He is on the record saying that he doesn’t believe in any limits on abortion. So as much as he loves to throw around the word extremism, he’s got a real problem with that. Katie Naranjo: Do you know, anyone that’s actually ever had an abortion at 39 weeks? John Wittman: I’m sorry, why is that… Katie Naranjo: Exactly. Again, that’s using political ploys and talking extremes on reproductive issues… John Wittman: Then why is it so hard for Beto to say that you shouldn’t be able to have an abortion at 39 weeks? Katie Naranjo: Why does the Republican Party want to expand more rights while you know what’s going on in my body than protecting the innocent lives, as you so claim, when it comes to children in schools or in church? John Wittman: I don’t think there’s anything extremism without trying to protect innocent human life. And that’s what Governor Abbott is all about. Katie Naranjo: Except when it comes to gun control. That’s our issue here. We want to make sure that women are forced to give birth and then we don’t want to actually protect the children when they’re born. John Wittman: I still don’t know where Beto O’Rourke stands on the issue after tonight. Swayed by the message – voters react in real time to Abbott vs O’Rourke debate During Friday’s debate, Nexstar reporter Jackie Kingston observed as a panel of 20 voters watched the debate. Each member of the panel used a dial to register their reaction in real time to what the candidates said on stage. The dials captured a strong reaction to how the candidates spoke about actions taken after the school shooting in Uvalde. “This is going to be an emergency item,” Governor Abbott said, referencing how he planned to make school safety legislation one of his priorities for state lawmakers when they convene in January. “Over the summer, I requested special committees to be working already, so they will be ready when the session starts,” Abbott added. The Governor has faced criticism for deciding not to call lawmakers back for a special session to pass school safety legislation rapidly before next year. O’Rourke echoed that criticism on the debate stage. “Why not call a session right now? Why wait until next year?” O’Rourke asked. “Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children in this state. Why are you waiting to save lives?” The gun debate drew strong responses from members of the panel. A mother, who is also a teacher spoke out about how the Uvalde shooting resonates with her and others. “You don’t have to be somebody that’s in the classroom every day like me, you don’t have to be somebody who drops your kids off every day to understand and know the impact of Uvalde, ” she said. “Moving forward, you know, in the future, never letting anything like that ever happen again.” Another panelist noticed that there was no audience in the debate hall. The two campaigns agreed on rules for the debate, which included no live audience. But O’Rourke posted a picture of an empty debate hall on social media hours before the debate, blaming Governor Abbott for the rule. Abbott’s campaign denied the accusation. “That to me was very telling,” the panelist said in a live interview during Nexstar’s post-debate coverage. “I went in here undecided, open mind. But you know, reading that earlier today, definitely swayed me in a more negative way towards Mr. Abbott,” he explained. Before the debate, each panelist used the dial system to indicate whether they were leaning toward voting for Abbott, O’Rourke, or if they were undecided. Abbott had 40% support going in, O’Rourke 27%, with 33% undecided. After the debate, Kingston asked the panel to vote again, to indicate who they would support at the moment. The undecided numbers dropped significantly, shrinking from 33% to 7%. Governor Abbott’s support rose slightly, to 43%. Beto O’Rourke’s numbers shot up, rising to 50%. Now that you’ve heard the two candidates for governor in Texas debate the biggest issues of the 2022 campaign, we want to know who you think had the best showing. Did incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott do enough to win your support and hold onto his seat? Did Democrat Beto O’Rourke have the big night he hoped for to gain the support from enough voters to send him to Austin? We’re sharing the poll above across the state of Texas to see what debate watchers thought of Friday’s performance. Check back over the next few days to see the latest results from this unscientific debate poll. Guns and the Grid “Beto talks a lot about all these things that he wants to do regarding guns, but he has to actually work within the confines of the legislature. The governor is not a king, the governor has to work with the legislature,” Wittman said of O’Rourke wanting to raise the minimum age to purchase AR-15s and wanting to enact red flag laws. Families affected by the Uvalde school shooting have voiced in the past they want to raise the age requirement for purchasing semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21. “When it comes to gun control, what voters in Texas have to decide is do they believe that Gov. Abbott is going to make it less safe or more safe for their children to be able to go to school … and what voters did not hear tonight was a solution,” Naranjo said, pointing to the permitless carry law that went into effect last year. The law, House Bill 1927, allows Texans 21 and older to carry a handgun in public in the state. There are exceptions for felons and those under 21, and buyers will still be required to pass a background check at a gun store. During the February 2021 winter storm, millions of Texans lost power in freezing temperatures and hundreds perished because of failures with the power grid, which is managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. In response, Abbott helped pass legislation to overhaul and reform ERCOT, requiring weatherization for equipment and communication improvements during outages. “The reality is that the grid held up this summer because of the laws that Greg Abbott signed during the regular legislative session,” Wittman said. However, Naranjo said, “no one’s been held accountable [for the grid].” “What we need is more debates and more discourse in this governor’s race, and we haven’t even talked about important issues like health care, and the fact that we have a crisis in a nursing shortage and a crisis in our schools,” Naranjo said.	https://cw39.com/news/texas/state-of-texas-abbott-or-orourke-debate-helps-some-undecided-voters-choose/	2022-10-02T18:44:37	en	0.969497
WASHINGTON — A toddler was discovered from graze wounds from a bullet after DC police officers were responding to a crash in Southeast D.C. early Sunday morning. The crash took place at 25th Street and Q Street in Southeast D.C. around 12:24 a.m. When officers arrived at the scene, they found a driver in one of the vehicles along with a 2-year-old boy who was suffering from graze wounds, according to officials. Police say the driver of the vehicle was trying to take the child to a hospital when the accident occurred. The shooting originally took place in Prince George's County, according to authorities. Detectives with the Prince George's County Police Department are working with Metropolitan Police Department to determine exactly where and when the shooting took place. The child remains at a local hospital in D.C. Officials said his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening. This is a developing story. We are working to gather additional details. Stay with WUSA9 for the latest updates as they come in to our newsroom. READ NEXT	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/toddler-found-with-gunshot-wound-in-southeast-dc-crash/65-c2e85691-8934-4acb-9473-728a7a5e017c	2022-10-02T18:44:38	en	0.986938
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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Voters across the state of Texas are now weighing in on who they think should be the next governor following the only debate in the state this year that both candidates agreed to take part in. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D) squared off Friday night during Nexstar’s governor’s debate which covered topics such as abortion, gun control and the border. Before you cast your ballot, here are some comments made that needed more context, or were inaccurate. Is El Paso busing more migrants than Texas? In a particularly testy moment between the governor and O’Rourke, the two battled over the busing of migrants to Democrat-led cities. The heated back and forth concluded after O’Rourke suggested Abbott’s rhetoric was such that could encourage violence. Governor Abbott began sending busloads of migrants to East Coast sanctuary cities in April, saying it would ease the burden of immigration on Texas cities. Texas has spent more than $14 million doing so, according to records obtained by Nexstar. That program was brought up Friday during a discussion about the border. “The fact of the matter is, the El Paso mayor, a Democrat, the El Paso city council, Democrats, they are now busing more people than the state of Texas is busing,” Abbott said Friday night. “And he’s [O’Rourke’s] not calling them out.” A report published last week by El Paso Matters found more than 38,000 people have been released by the El Paso Border Patrol Sector into the region since July 1. The report — which cited Laura Cruz-Acosta, an El Paso city spokesperson — said roughly 6,300 of those people had been bused to other parts of the country by the City of El Paso in the same time period. El Paso Matters found despite early remarks from leaders that the bill for that transport would be covered by the federal government, local taxpayers could be out $4.2 million. Meanwhile, KXAN has previously reported that as of Aug. 18, the state had paid more than $14 million to Wynne Transportation to bus more than 8,000 migrants from the state of Texas to other areas. “It’s a completely different program, it is apples to oranges,” O’Rourke rebutted. “And I’ll tell ya, this hateful rhetoric, this treating human beings as political pawns, talking about invasions and Texans defending themselves, that’s how people get killed at the Walmart in El Paso.” Does O’Rourke want to defund the police? It’s a claim that’s become a central part of the governor’s campaign and is the topic of one of Abbott’s most prominent television advertisements: Does Beto O’Rourke want to defund police? “Of course, I don’t,” O’Rourke said when asked by moderators. “And no one does. But let’s look at my record.” The former El Paso city council member and congressman pointed to El Paso police getting a 12% salary bump during his time on the council. He also referenced legislation that pushed millions of additional dollars to police across the state of Texas. But Abbott, as he has done throughout his campaign, turned to remarks O’Rourke made on a podcast shortly after the murder of George Floyd, at the height of Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis: “I really love that Black Lives Matters and other protesters have put this front and center to defund these line items that have overmilitarized our police and instead invest that money in the human capital your community, make sure that you have the services, the help, the support, the health care necessary to be well and not require police intervention,” O’Rourke said in 2020. “And then also in some necessary cases, completely dismantling those police forces and rebuilding them.” “I want to fund law enforcement, fund training,” O’Rourke said Friday night. Can the governor raise property taxes? “There is only one person on this stage tonight who has ever raised property taxes, and that is Beto,” Abbott said during Friday’s debate. Taxes, of course, are a central talking point for conservative Texans. Is the governor’s statement true? Technically yes. But that’s also because O’Rourke has served in local government, the only level of government in the state of Texas that has direct control over property tax rates. That said, state policy and the amount of funding provided at the state level to local municipalities can impact how local lawmakers see property tax rates and the money they provide. O’Rourke pointed to that Friday saying the total property tax levy in Texas has gone up $20 billion with Abbott in the governor’s office. “You want more property taxes, elect Gov. Abbott,” he said. Are teachers making more money under Abbott? Abbott claimed during the debate that he’s been increasing pay for teachers across the State of Texas. O’Rourke didn’t agree and neither did the Texas State Teachers Association, which tweeted the following Friday night: “Greg Abbott is lying about his record on teacher pay. He only focused on public school finance after his slim margin victory in 2018. Teachers continue to fall behind the rest of the nation in teacher pay and have less buying power than they had in 2019.” A KXAN Investigation found a record number of teachers have resigned in Texas over the last year. “If we don’t make changes such that we get the salary schedule bumped up, moved up and started towards the place it ought to be just like before, we will lose more and more teachers, and the real victims in this is the students,” Rep. Dutton, D-Houston, told KXAN as a part of that KXAN report. Does Texas lead the nation in rape charges? In a now widely publicized remark made by Abbott, the governor said Texas’ decision not to allow abortion exceptions for rape or incest would be negated because Texas would eliminate rapes. That was brought up by O’Rourke Friday who said our state leads the nation in rape offenses. While technically true, that data doesn’t necessarily paint an accurate picture. FBI data does show Texas has more reported rapes than any other state at more than 13,500. That data is from 2020, the most recent the FBI has available. However, the data doesn’t factor in population, and Texas is a big state. If you adjust for population, it’s actually Alaska that has the most reported rapes per capita. Texas would fall to 15th in the nation, sitting at 46 reported rapes per 100,000 people.	https://cw39.com/news/texas/texas-governors-debate-fact-checking-abbott-orourke/	2022-10-02T18:44:43	en	0.971278
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. — There have been hundreds of rescues in the wake of Hurricane Ian, but perhaps none went more viral than this one. Mike Ross saving this terrified tabby cat at Bonita Beach Wednesday has been seen more than one million times on social media. Not long after Ross saved the frightened feline, the air conditioning unit it was perched on was washed into the ocean. The female cat is now living with Ross and his family while they try to find its owner. Because most veterinarians' offices are still closed, they haven't been able to see if the cat is micro-chipped. If it isn't, they will keep her and decided that Ian would be fitting name. But since she's a girl, maybe they'll call her Iana or Storm, instead. Learn more about KENS 5: Since going on the air in 1950, KENS 5 has strived to be the best, most trusted news and entertainment source for generations of San Antonians. KENS 5 has brought numerous firsts to South Texas television, including being the first local station with a helicopter, the first with its own Doppler radar and the first to air a local morning news program. Over the years, KENS 5 has worked to transform local news. Our cameras have been the lens bringing history into local viewers' homes. We're proud of our legacy as we serve San Antonians today. Today, KENS 5 continues to set the standard in local broadcasting and is recognized by its peers for excellence and innovation. The KENS 5 News team focuses on stories that really matter to our community. You can find KENS 5 in more places than ever before, including KENS5.com, the KENS 5 app, the KENS 5 YouTube channel, KENS 5's Roku and Fire TV apps, and across social media on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more! Want to get in touch with someone at KENS 5? You can send a message using our Contacts page or email one of our team members.	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/nation-world/florida-man-rescues-stranded-shivering-tabby-cat-during-hurricane-ian-feline-bonita-springs-rescue-pet-viral/273-92088b3b-f5a9-40bf-8cc3-d7c8a6ea7921	2022-10-02T18:44:45	en	0.970958
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FARMERSVILLE, Texas (AP) — On the first Saturday of fall, a sweating Bart Barber trekked across a weedy pasture in search of Bully Graham, the would-be patriarch of the rural Baptist pastor’s fledgling cattle herd. With the afternoon temperature in the mid-90s, the 52-year-old Texan found the bull — whose nickname reflects his owner’s deep affection for the late Rev. Billy Graham — and 11 heifers cooling under a canopy of trees. “Hey, baby girl,” Barber said as he patted one of the cows, a favorite he dubbed Lottie Moon after the namesake of his denomination’s international missions offering. For nearly a quarter-century, Barber enjoyed relative obscurity as a minister in this town of 3,600, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. That changed in June as delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, chose Barber to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a time of major crisis. The previous month a scathing, 288-page investigative report hit the denomination’s 13.7 million members. It laid out the findings of an independent probe detailing how Southern Baptist leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations. In August, SBC leaders revealed that the Department of Justice was investigating several of its major entities, giving few details but indicating that the inquiry concerned the sex abuse allegations. Barber’s background as a trusted, small-town preacher — not to mention his folksy sense of humor and self-deprecating style — helps explain why fellow Baptists picked him. “In this moment where I think there’s a lot of widespread distrust of these big institutions, I think a lot of people find it refreshing that the one leading us is an everyday pastor,” said Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. A staunch theological conservative, Barber touts biblical inerrancy, opposes women serving as pastors and supports abortion bans. In running for SBC president, he expressed a desire to be a peacemaker and a unifier. Emerging from a field of four candidates, he received 61% of votes in a run-off against Tom Ascol, a Florida pastor who vowed to take the denomination further right. The SBC faces multiple challenges. Rank-and-file Baptists have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing sex abuse reforms, but the final outcome remains unclear. The denomination also has a problem with falling membership, which has slid 16% from its 2006 peak. Annual baptisms last year were 154,701, down 63% from their 1999 high, according to SBC affiliate Lifeway Christian Resources. Nathan Finn, a church historian and provost of North Greenville University in South Carolina, agreed that Barber’s small-town appeal is a big part of why Baptists turned to him to lead the SBC through such troubled times. “To many Southern Baptists, Bart is an appealing president precisely because he does not pastor a suburban megachurch or lead a seminary,” Finn said via email. “He pastors a ‘normal’ Southern Baptist church and sounds like the pastor down the road. I think many find him to be a breath of fresh air as well as a thoughtful voice to represent Southern Baptists to the outside world. “Though he is a well-educated church historian and an expert on SBC history and polity, Bart is not an elitist,” Finn added. “He gives the impression that he would rather be working on his farm than hobnobbing with denominational leaders.” For his part, Barber said he ran for president because he prayed and concluded God was calling him to do it, not because of the sex abuse crisis. Still, after recently appointing an abuse task force that will make recommendations at next year’s annual meeting in New Orleans, he said Southern Baptists are determined that there must be reforms and identifying solutions to the problem is his top priority. “Look who all has been touched by this,” Barber said of sex abuse. “It’s in public schools. It’s in Scouting. It’s in the military. It’s in Hollywood. It’s in sports. It’s in USA Gymnastics. “And so if Southern Baptists, who also have problems in this area, can lead the way to real solutions … that would be a great shining victory for the SBC,” he added. “And what Hollywood and USA Gymnastics and the government and the military … don’t have is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the promise of God himself that he has built his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Barber grew up in a Southern Baptist family in Lake City, Arkansas. Baptized just before his sixth birthday, he felt God calling him to ministry at age 11 and preached his first sermon at 15. His late father, Jim, ran the home office for an Arkansas congressman, a Democrat named Bill Alexander. His stay-at-home mother, Carolyn, now 77, taught him to read by the time he entered kindergarten and made sure he paid attention in church. Often his dad would bring politicians by the house, he recalled, and his mom would make chicken pot pie or smothered steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. “It’s kind of weird,” Barber said. “Here we were in very small-town Arkansas — not a lot of money, not a lot of fame or anything like that — and a gubernatorial candidate would stop by the house. “Dad always had an interest in politics and current events,” he continued. “And from when I was young, I enjoyed sitting there listening to the adults talking about all this stuff.” Barber attended Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he met his future wife, Tracy, in a campus ministry. They have two children: Jim, 19, and Sarah, 16. He also earned a master’s in divinity and a doctorate in church history from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He pastored in Mill Creek, Oklahoma, and Royse City, Texas, before moving to Farmersville in 1999. “He has the heart of a pastor. He is someone who really cares about folks,” Tracy Barber said of her husband of 30 years. “The people in our church are our family, and Farmersville is a small town, so it lends itself to that.” Steve Speir, 74, is a 42-year member of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, which averages Sunday attendance of about 320. His wife, Linda, plays the church organ. Barber is “very organized,” Speir said. “He won’t keep anything hidden. Our entire church has full disclosure on all financial matters. They give an accounting for every check that gets written.” Another longtime member, Donna Armstrong, 75, voiced similar confidence in Barber: “We never doubt whether he’s biblically based or loves the Lord. He also just knows how to be human and relate with people.” On a recent Sunday, Barber got up at 4:30 a.m., attended a deacons meeting at 7 and preached at his congregation’s 8:30 and 11 worship assemblies. After a two-hour afternoon nap, he drove to Dallas and flew to Nashville, Tennessee, for meetings at the Southern Baptist Convention headquarters. After three nights there, he caught a ride to Louisville, Kentucky, where he stayed overnight Wednesday and spoke Thursday at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the oldest of the SBC’s six seminaries. A canceled flight kept him in Louisville an extra night before he returned home Friday. “It is stressful. It is time-consuming. I do enjoy it,” Barber said of his new job. Back home, he rose before the sun that Saturday to help his daughter load a 1,000-pound heifer named Iris into a cattle trailer. They drove a half-hour to a dirt-floor events center in McKinney, a Dallas suburb, for a livestock show organized by local chapters of the 4-H Club and the National FFA Organization. Barber greeted special-needs children who came to see the animals, used clippers to help Sarah shave Iris and periodically shoveled manure into a garbage can. He also enjoyed a friendly chat with rancher Joni Brewer about the miniature Hereford cows her family brought to the show. Brewer attends First Baptist Church of Trenton, about 20 miles north of Farmersville, but she had no clue that the man she was talking to was the new leader of the SBC. “I live out in the country,” she said, “so you don’t always see all of those things.” But James Callagher, who knows Barber through 4-H Club activities, described his friend as perfect for the job. “The thing that sticks out to me is just authenticity,” said Callagher, who is Catholic. “He lives his faith, and as Christians we have a lot of common ground.” In addition to such in-person contacts, Barber maintains an active presence on Twitter, where he has 20,000 followers and interacts with supporters and critics alike. Just in the last week, he posted pictures and videos of his cows, debated biblical qualifications for church leaders and shared SBC plans for Hurricane Ian relief. Barber and his family live in a church-owned parsonage, but last year they bought 107 acres of land where they’re raising their Santa Gertrudis beef cattle and where they intend to build a home when it becomes more affordable. “If something happened to me, my wife would not only lose her husband but she’d lose her house, because that house goes with my job,” he said of the parsonage. “So we started making a more permanent plan at this stage of our lives.” For now, they keep a recreational vehicle with a generator on the property, providing a convenient place for a cold drink or a hot shower. In a recent sermon, Barber joked that a boyhood job chopping cotton and hoeing soybeans was what inspired him to go into ministry. Asked on the drive back from the livestock show if he’s now enjoying life as a farm owner, Barber smiled and nodded. “Not only that, but I’m surviving everything else because of how I’m enjoying it,” he said. “It’s a great source of tranquility for me. “To watch a herd of cattle around sunset slowly graze their way across the pasture, it’s very difficult to be stressed watching that,” Barber continued. “I mean, I can spend 15 minutes on the tractor disking up an area … and everything that you need to rest from goes away.” ___ 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.	https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/ap-amid-crises-rural-roots-anchor-southern-baptists-president/	2022-10-02T18:44:49	en	0.972902
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Hundreds of hot air balloons lifted off Saturday morning, marking the start of an annual fiesta that has drawn pilots and spectators from across the globe to New Mexico’s high desert for 50 years now. As one of the most photographed events in the world, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has become an economic driver for the state’s largest city and a rare — and colorful — opportunity for enthusiasts to be within arm's reach as the giant balloons are unpacked and inflated. Three of the original pilots who participated in the first fiesta in 1972 and the family members of others are among this year’s attendees. That year, 13 balloons launched from an open lot near a shopping center on what was then the edge of Albuquerque. It has since grown into a multimillion-dollar production. Pilot Gene Dennis, 78, remembers the snow storm that almost caused him to miss that first fiesta. He had to rearrange his flight plans from Michigan so he could make it to Albuquerque in time. The weather was perfect when he got to New Mexico, said Dennis, who flew under the alias “Captain Phairweather.” He was quoted at the time as saying he had brought good weather with him. He was on the hook again, as pilots hope predictions for the rest of opening weekend are fair. “Ballooning is infectious,” Dennis said, describing being aloft like drifting in a dream, quietly observing the countryside below. This year will mark Roman Müller's first time flying in the fiesta. He's piloting a special-shaped balloon that was modeled after a chalet at the top of a famous Swiss bobsled run. One of his goals will be flying over the Rio Grande and getting low enough to dip the gondola into the river. “This is my plan,” he said, with a wide smile while acknowledging that it's not always easy to fly a balloon. One thing that helps, he said, is the phenomenon known as the Albuquerque box — when the wind blows in opposite directions at different elevations, allowing skillful pilots to bring a balloon back to near the point of takeoff. Dennis said it took a few years of holding the fiesta to realize the predictability of the wind patterns allowed for balloons to remain close to the launch field, giving spectators quite a show. Tens of thousands of people packed the field Saturday, wide-eyed with necks craned as they tried to soak in the spectacle. Denise Wiederkehr McDonald was a passenger in her father's balloon during the first fiesta. She made the trip from Colorado to participate in a re-enactment of that 1972 flight on Friday. Her father, Matt Wiederkehr, was one of the first 10 hot air balloon pilots in the U.S. and held numerous world records for distance and duration and built a successful advertising business with his fleet of balloons. Wiederkehr McDonald, who went on to set her own ballooning records before becoming a commercial airline pilot, was wearing one of her father's faded ballooning jackets and held a cardboard cutout of him as the balloon she was riding in lifted off. She recalled a childhood full of experiences centered on ballooning. “I remember the first time being down in the balloons with them all standing up and inflating and not being able to see the sky because it was all colored fabric. And then the other thing was the first balloon glow at night. Oh, my gosh,” she said. “There were a lot of firsts that I took for granted back then but really look back and appreciate so much now.” The fiesta has grown to include a cadre of European ballooning professionals. More than 20 countries are represented this year, including Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Taiwan and Ukraine. It also serves as the launching venue for the America's Challenge Gas Balloon Race, one of the world's premier distance races for gas balloons.	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/nation-world/hot-air-balloon-festival/507-011c66e5-2709-4a12-88be-6b3c05e4d0f2	2022-10-02T18:44:51	en	0.979443
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HARLEM HEIGHTS, Fla. (AP) — The Gladiolus Food Pantry usually hands out supplies on Wednesdays to about 240 families, so when Hurricane Ian swept through that day and canceled their distribution, it was left full of flats of canned black beans, bags of rice, meats, bread and produce — food that helps families struggling with rising rents and inflation make ends meet. By the weekend, much of that food was in the garbage, the floors were still wet and muddy from the floodwaters that had filled the room, and the pantry’s founder and director, Miriam Ortiz, was worried about what would become of her neighborhood as she worked to get the pantry she started nine years ago up and running again. “Right now I don’t know what we’re going to do because we’re going to need food, we’re going to need water, we’re going to need everything,” she said. “We got flooded and the water came through all the building.” Ortiz said the food pantry’s green building is the heart of the Harlem Heights neighborhood, a small, mostly Hispanic community of nearly 2,000 people near Fort Myers that was hammered by the Category 4 hurricane. A sign scrawled on a piece of roofing that had torn loose advertised free food, diapers, wipes, body wash and toothpaste. The wind, rain and storm surge that accompany hurricanes affect everyone in their path. But those combined effects are often more of a disaster for poor people living day to day, like many in Harlem Heights, where the median income is a little under $26,000, according to U.S. Census data. Many are hourly workers with little savings for things such as evacuation hotel stays or money to tide them over until their places of employment reopen. In a tourism heavy economy like South Florida’s, the wait for hotels to reopen and visitors — along with the jobs they bring — to return can be long and agonizing. Ortiz said many of the clients she was seeing every week before the hurricane were already hurting from the skyrocketing cost of food and housing. Rising rents had forced many young adults that had been living on their own to move back in with parents and grandparents, she said. Over the weekend, cars and trucks whizzed down the neighborhood’s main road, which was dry and had been swept free of tree limbs and palm fronds. That wasn’t the case on many side streets, many of which were still submerged in water as residents hauled waterlogged furniture to the curb. At Maria Galindo’s apartment, the water had risen to about hip height and the wind had ripped off part of her roof while she and her 9-year-old daughter, Gloria, were terrified inside. Her daughter said that during the storm, she kept thinking she wanted to return to her native Guatemala. “We did not know where to go, where to grab onto, whether here or there because of the rain, the wind, the water. … It was very difficult,” said Maria Galindo, speaking in Spanish. They and their neighbors were trying to salvage what they could and to push the water from their waterlogged apartments. Wet clothes hung from a clothes line outside, while inside a thin seam of light coming between the wall and ceiling showed where the roof had been lifted. Galindo works as a housekeeper at a local hotel, but it’s closed until further notice. She’s worried for her family and her daughter and wondering how she’ll make ends meet. “We are without a roof overhead. We need food. We need money to buy things,” she said. “We need help.” Back at the food pantry, people had been delivering donations of food, cleaning supplies and clothing throughout the day Saturday, and a volunteer had set up a tent and was cooking food for people. One of those who dropped by to deliver supplies was a frustrated Lisa Bertaux, who came with her friend. She ticked off the items that people needed: toothbrushes, deodorant, cleaning supplies, paper towels, children’s clothes and wipes. And the list went on. “There is so much need here. … There’s very little food coming in so far. There’s a great need,” she said. “It’s time for us to rebuild our community.” One of those coming by to pick up supplies was Keyondra Smith, who lives down the street in an apartment complex with her three kids. She had parked her car in a different area so that when the floodwaters came sweeping through, she didn’t lose it. Her neighbors weren’t so lucky, as cars floated through the parking lot during the worst of the flooding and the people who lived on the first floor — she’s on the second — were completely flooded out. Smith had been driving by the food pantry when she noticed it had supplies so she stopped to pick up some toilet paper, water and hot plates of food. Before that, her family had been eating raviolis out of a can, Vienna sausages and snacks from a local convenience store. “We don’t have any water. My food is spoiling in the refrigerator,” she said. Though she can drive to the few stores that are open, she said they are only taking cash and many of the ATMs aren’t working. “I have three kids so I have to get some supplies to feed them.” __ Follow Santana on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ruskygal	https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/ap-battered-by-flood-florida-neighborhood-tries-to-recover/	2022-10-02T18:44:56	en	0.988273
HARLEM HEIGHTS, Fla. — The Gladiolus Food Pantry usually hands out supplies on Wednesdays to about 240 families, so when Hurricane Ian swept through that day and canceled their distribution, it was left full of flats of canned black beans, bags of rice, meats, bread and produce — food that helps families struggling with rising rents and inflation make ends meet. By the weekend, much of that food was in the garbage, the floors were still wet and muddy from the floodwaters that had filled the room, and the pantry's founder and director, Miriam Ortiz, was worried about what would become of her neighborhood as she worked to get the pantry she started nine years ago up and running again. “Right now I don’t know what we’re going to do because we’re going to need food, we’re going to need water, we're going to need everything," she said. “We got flooded and the water came through all the building.” Ortiz said the food pantry's green building is the heart of the Harlem Heights neighborhood, a small, mostly Hispanic community of nearly 2,000 people near Fort Myers that was hammered by the Category 4 hurricane. A sign scrawled on a piece of roofing that had torn loose advertised free food, diapers, wipes, body wash and toothpaste. The wind, rain and storm surge that accompany hurricanes affect everyone in their path. But those combined effects are often more of a disaster for poor people living day to day, like many in Harlem Heights, where the median income is a little under $26,000, according to U.S. Census data. Many are hourly workers with little savings for things such as evacuation hotel stays or money to tide them over until their places of employment reopen. In a tourism heavy economy like South Florida's, the wait for hotels to reopen and visitors — along with the jobs they bring — to return can be long and agonizing. Ortiz said many of the clients she was seeing every week before the hurricane were already hurting from the skyrocketing cost of food and housing. Rising rents had forced many young adults that had been living on their own to move back in with parents and grandparents, she said. Over the weekend, cars and trucks whizzed down the neighborhood's main road, which was dry and had been swept free of tree limbs and palm fronds. That wasn't the case on many side streets, many of which were still submerged in water as residents hauled waterlogged furniture to the curb. At Maria Galindo's apartment, the water had risen to about hip height and the wind had ripped off part of her roof while she and her 9-year-old daughter, Gloria, were terrified inside. Her daughter said that during the storm, she kept thinking she wanted to return to her native Guatemala. “We did not know where to go, where to grab onto, whether here or there because of the rain, the wind, the water. ... It was very difficult," said Maria Galindo, speaking in Spanish. They and their neighbors were trying to salvage what they could and to push the water from their waterlogged apartments. Wet clothes hung from a clothes line outside, while inside a thin seam of light coming between the wall and ceiling showed where the roof had been lifted. Galindo works as a housekeeper at a local hotel, but it's closed until further notice. She's worried for her family and her daughter and wondering how she'll make ends meet. “We are without a roof overhead. We need food. We need money to buy things," she said. "We need help.” Back at the food pantry, people had been delivering donations of food, cleaning supplies and clothing throughout the day Saturday, and a volunteer had set up a tent and was cooking food for people. One of those who dropped by to deliver supplies was a frustrated Lisa Bertaux, who came with her friend. She ticked off the items that people needed: toothbrushes, deodorant, cleaning supplies, paper towels, children's clothes and wipes. And the list went on. “There is so much need here. ... There’s very little food coming in so far. There’s a great need," she said. “It’s time for us to rebuild our community.” One of those coming by to pick up supplies was Keyondra Smith, who lives down the street in an apartment complex with her three kids. She had parked her car in a different area so that when the floodwaters came sweeping through, she didn't lose it. Her neighbors weren't so lucky, as cars floated through the parking lot during the worst of the flooding and the people who lived on the first floor — she's on the second — were completely flooded out. Smith had been driving by the food pantry when she noticed it had supplies so she stopped to pick up some toilet paper, water and hot plates of food. Before that, her family had been eating raviolis out of a can, Vienna sausages and snacks from a local convenience store. “We don’t have any water. My food is spoiling in the refrigerator," she said. Though she can drive to the few stores that are open, she said they are only taking cash and many of the ATMs aren't working. “I have three kids so I have to get some supplies to feed them.”	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/nation-world/ian-harlem-heights/507-ae6c8f05-2176-418c-a91e-e3827b5f1dbc	2022-10-02T18:44:57	en	0.991398
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.	https://sportspyder.com/cf/indiana-hoosiers-football/articles/40976802	2022-10-02T18:45:00	en	0.738227
Darrell Brooks’ trial was never going to be easy for the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. Now it could hurt even more. Brooks plowed through the city’s Christmas parade in his Ford Escape last year, killing six people and injuring dozens more, prosecutors allege. His trial opens Monday with jury selection and is expected to last at least a month. Prosecutors have lined up hundreds of videos of the incident and dozens of eyewitnesses to testify, promising a case that legal experts have called overwhelming. But Brooks changed the playing field last week when Judge Jennifer Dorow ruled he could represent himself. Brooks, who has no legal training, has already shown himself to be disruptive and combative. What looked like a straightforward proceeding could quickly devolve into a painful slog for still-grieving witnesses, legal observers said. “It’s really going to be a challenging trial for the witnesses,” said Tom Grieve, a criminal defense attorney based in Madison. “You have a defendant who feels like he has nothing to lose. He’s going to try to make as big a mess as possible and force a fumble by the prosecutors or judge and try to force a mistrial or build an appeal.” According to a criminal complaint, Brooks, 40, got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend on Nov. 21, then sped off and drove onto the parade route despite police shouting at him to stop and shooting at him. Police officers described the SUV as moving side to side and running over people. The dead included 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, who was marching in the parade with his baseball team, and four members of a group calling itself the Dancing Grannies, a group of grandmothers who dance in parades. Police captured Brooks after he abandoned the SUV and tried to get into a nearby house, the complaint said. Brooks faces 77 charges, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and 61 counts of felony reckless endangerment. Each homicide count carries a mandatory life sentence. Prosecutors attached a using-a-dangerous-weapon penalty modifier to each endangerment count, bringing the total maximum sentence on each of those charges to 17 1/2 years. District Attorney Susan Opper has compiled more than 300 videos of the parade. Her witness list is 32 pages long; it includes Sparks’ parents, as well as dozens of police officers and FBI agents. “There’s going to be no question in this jury’s mind what happened, who was driving, how these people were injured or killed,” Opper told the judge in court last week. The process won’t assuage any of the grief that David Durand is suffering over the loss of his wife, Tamara, one of the Dancing Grannies who was killed. “The trial isn’t going to bring her back,” he said in a telephone interview. Paul Bucher, a former Waukesha County district attorney, said that Brooks’ failure to stop even as bodies were bouncing off his SUV will help Opper prove that Brooks intended to kill people, the key element in a first-degree intentional homicide count. Brooks initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease, which could have resulted in him being sentenced to a mental institution rather than prison. He withdrew that plea in September without explanation. Dorow said in court last week that psychologists found Brooks has a personality disorder but is mentally competent. Brooks moved last week to fire his public defenders and asked Dorow to let him represent himself. Dorow warned that without legal training he faces long odds against Opper and her assistants. But without a finding of mental incompetence, she said, she was legally bound to allow him to proceed. Brooks can be volatile in court. During a hearing in August, he fell asleep at the defense table, woke up, went on a tirade and scuffled with a bailiff. At last week’s hearing, he repeatedly interrupted Dorow as she spoke. Dorow became so frustrated she adjourned until the next day. Phil Turner, a Chicago-based defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, said that he expects Opper will call as many witnesses as she can to build an airtight case against Brooks. If Brooks gets so unruly that cross-examinations break down, Dorow could simply end the questioning, Turner said. That would give Brooks grounds for an appeal, he said, “but there’s going to be an appeal, no matter what.” Bucher, the former prosecutor, said he thinks Brooks knows he’s probably going to prison for the rest of his life and just wants to waste everyone’s time in court. He warned that the trial will become painful for victims and other witnesses who will have to interact with Brooks during cross-examination. “He’s playing games, and I think he enjoys it,” Bucher said. “It’s going to be terrible for the victims and the witnesses.”	https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/ap-defendant-to-represent-himself-in-wisconsin-parade-trial/	2022-10-02T18:45:03	en	0.98143
MCALLEN, Texas — For the first time ever, authorities made more than two million immigration arrests along the southern border in the fiscal year that just ended. In August alone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detained nearly 204,000 migrants crossing from Mexico. While Governor Greg Abbott says it’s a burden on state resources, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos says his city isn’t spending any extra dollars on the issue. “What is has changed for us, it’s kind of beneficial, a lot of the asylum seekers, the numbers have gone down drastically for us, from last year 1,500 a day to now maybe 100 plus. And that’s what we deal with. What we don’t deal with is the other immigrants that try to pass illegally. That’s what the border patrol and everybody else is dealing with,” the Mayor said on Inside Texas Politics. The Mayor says those crossing the border rarely intend to stay there, but will instead head north to find higher paying jobs in places like Houston, Dallas, New York and Chicago. And he says the border crossing issues they saw a year ago in McAllen, the southern tip of Texas, have shifted up towards Laredo and Eagle Pass. “So, is it a burden? It is a burden in a sense for us logistically because we have to utilize some of our manpower to assist the federal government with those issues. But right now, we’re fortunate that it’s not too bad,” he said. Governor Abbott’s plan to deal with illegal immigration has been Operation Lone Star, which has thousands of members of the Texas National Guard and state police patrolling the border. But The Texas Tribune recently reported that the number of migrant encounters at the Texas-Mexico border is higher today than it was before the Governor initiated his program. While Operation Lone Star has been controversial to some, according to our most recent poll “Texas Decides,” a joint effort between the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (THPF) and Tegna Texas stations WFAA, KHOU, KENS and KVUE, a majority of Texans support the extra manpower. 60% of likely Texas voters support the state deploying both the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to patrol the border. And 66% support the arrest of people who cross the border illegally. Villalobos, the first Republican mayor in McAllen in decades, says there’s been nothing controversial about the impact all of those extra bodies are having on the local community. “We’ve been doing great. We’re blessed. For example the hotels, they’re full,” Villalobos told us. “We were ranked the sixth safest city in the country, second best as far as violent crime in the state of Texas. I don’t know if that attributes anything to how we’re ranked. But we are a very good and safe place.”	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/mcallen-texas-tx-mayor-javier-villalobos-number-asylum-seekers-immigrants-migrants-drops-dramatically/287-cd79611c-af9b-4d39-bd09-3c3023adf35c	2022-10-02T18:45:03	en	0.955013
TEXAS, USA — With less than six weeks to go before the midterm election, Rochelle Garza says there’s still time for her to make a move in the race for Attorney General. The Democrat trails by 5% in the latest poll. But Garza says abortion, a central message of her campaign, is an issue that moves people and can help her close that gap. “They (Texans) do not want to see women relegated to second-class citizenship status. And they don’t want to see their daughters dying. So, it moves people,” Garza said on Inside Texas Politics. “With the fall of Roe and having this extreme view of restricting abortion that we’re seeing come out of Ken Paxton, Texans don’t want to put up with that anymore.” According to the most recent poll “Texas Decides,” a joint effort between the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (THPF) and Tegna Texas stations WFAA, KHOU, KENS and KVUE, Republican incumbent Ken Paxton leads Garza 47% - 42% among likely voters and by 7% among the most likely (almost certain) voters (49% - 42%). 3% of both likely and most likely (almost certain) voters intend to vote for Libertarian Mark Ash. Garza sees those numbers as an opportunity, as our poll shows her race is the closest of all statewide contests. And between now and election day, the Democrat says she’ll work on independent voters and try to get them to focus on Paxton’s legal troubles, including an ongoing FBI investigation over allegations of abuse of office and bribery. The Republican is also still facing felony securities fraud charges in a separate case from 2015. We sat down with Garza in Hunt County, a deeply red county to the northeast of Dallas. But it’s also indicative of her tactic to try to win over voters outside of Democrats. “It’s important to talk to voters everywhere and let them know that this campaign is for everyone. It’s not just about Democrat vs. Republican,” she said. “This is about the future of our state, because right now we have someone in office who puts politics over people, who puts political grandstanding over everyday folks and families.” In terms of immigration policy, a winning issue for Republicans, Garza points to her experience as an immigration attorney and her roots in Brownsville, the southern tip of Texas. “I know the complexities of immigration law. I know that we can combat human trafficking and gun trafficking and also treat people humanely,” said Garza. And when it comes to another hot topic on campaign trails across the state, Garza didn’t hesitate when telling us she thinks cannabis should be legal in Texas. “We need to make sure that we legalize it and capture those billions of dollars that will fund public schools and fund Medicaid expansion and all of the things that Texas families need,” the Democrat told us. We’ve invited Attorney General Ken Paxton to join us on Inside Texas Politics a number of times, but his office has not responded. The election will be held Nov. 8. Early voting starts Oct. 24.	https://www.kens5.com/article/news/politics/inside-politics/texas-politics/texas-ag-attorney-general-democratic-candidate-rochelle-garza-ken-paxton/287-48b365a9-c01c-4afd-a189-21b299ea7bd8	2022-10-02T18:45:10	en	0.963645
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A scheme to kidnap Michigan’s governor in 2020 will get yet another airing in a different court when three men face trial Monday, just weeks before voters consider whether to reelect Gretchen Whitmer to a second term. Fourteen men were arrested two years ago, disrupting what one participant said was a plan to incite a U.S. civil war known as the “boogaloo.” But not all were treated the same. Federal prosecutors focused on six who were considered to be key players, while Michigan authorities handled the rest. A look at the issues: WHAT HAPPENED IN 2020? The government said it broke up a plot to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat, from her vacation home in northern Michigan. For months, undercover FBI agents and informants were embedded among anti-government extremists who trained in Wisconsin and Michigan and made trips to scope out her property. Investigators secretly recorded hate-filled conversations about Whitmer and other public officials who were denounced as tyrants, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when businesses were shut down, people were ordered to stay home and schools were closed. Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks pleaded guilty in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and testified against four others. The alleged leaders, Barry Croft and Adam Fox, were convicted in August, while two more men were acquitted last spring. WHO’S FACING TRIAL NOW? Joe Morrison, father-in-law Pete Musico and Paul Bellar are charged in Jackson County, Michigan, with three crimes, including providing material support for terrorist acts, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. They’re accused of forming an alliance with Fox and others through their paramilitary group, the Wolverine Watchmen. Jackson County is where gun drills and other training with Fox occurred. “They didn’t go out and participate in a plan to kidnap the governor,” Assistant Attorney General Sunita Doddamani said in court in 2021. “Their group provided the motive, means and opportunity for those individuals that did do so.” Mark Chutkow, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit, said dividing the cases between state and federal authorities made sense. “The state attorney general has carved out a piece of the conspiracy where you have three people working in concert in Jackson County,” Chutkow told The Associated Press. “That’s a story that’s digestible, that a jury can get its arms around, and a story more easily translated than scooping everyone up” in federal court. WHAT IS THE DEFENSE? Lawyers for Morrison, Musico and Bellar say the men cut ties with Fox before the kidnapping plot accelerated in summer 2020; Bellar had moved to South Carolina. They plan to sharply question an important witness, Dan Chappel, an Army veteran who said he joined the Wolverine Watchmen to maintain his gun skills but was distressed over talk about attacking police. He agreed to stay in the group and become an FBI informant. The men claim they were entrapped by Chappel and his FBI handlers, though Garbin, another likely witness for prosecutors, will knock that down. Any weapons drills simply were to prepare for “potential civil unrest in the United States,” said Bellar’s lawyer, Andrew Kirkpatrick. But a judge who found enough evidence to send the men to trial likened the Wolverine Watchmen to a minor league baseball team where players are trained to join the “big leagues.” “Unfortunately, the big leagues was something extremely heinous and illegal,” Judge Michael Klaeren said last year. TRIAL AND POLITICS: The kidnapping plot hadn’t been mentioned much in Michigan’s gubernatorial race until Republican candidate Tudor Dixon seemed to make light of it during a Sept. 23 campaign appearance. “The sad thing is, Gretchen will tie your hands, put a gun to your head and ask if you’re ready to talk,” Dixon said, apparently a reference to Whitmer’s pandemic policies. “For someone so worried about being kidnapped, Gretchen Whitmer sure is good at taking business hostage and holding it for ransom.” The Whitmer campaign said threats of violence were “no laughing matter.” ___ Find the AP’s full coverage of the kidnapping plot cases: https://apnews.com/hub/whitmer-kidnap-plot-trial. Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez.	https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/ap-explainer-3-more-on-trial-in-michigan-governor-kidnap-plot/	2022-10-02T18:45:09	en	0.974654
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — Rewards totaling $85,000 have been offered for information leading to an arrest in five fatal shootings since July in Stockton, California, that investigators believe are related, police said. After reviewing surveillance footage, detectives have located an unidentified “person of interest” in the killings, Stockton Police Chief Stanley McFadden wrote on the department’s Facebook page Saturday. Police released a grainy still image of a person filmed from behind, dressed all in black and wearing a black cap. The latest killing occurred shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday, when a 54-year-old man was shot in a residential area just north of downtown, McFadden said. Police said he was the fifth man fatally shot since July 8 within a radius of a few square miles. Detectives believe all five homicides are related “based on our investigation and the reports we are receiving,” McFadden said. Police said the victims were each walking alone when they were killed in the evening or early morning in the city of 320,000 residents about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of the state capital, Sacramento. The ages of the victims range from 21 to 54; four of the men were Hispanic and one was white, McFadden said. “We are committed to protecting our community and solving these cases utilizing all the resources at our disposal including YOU. We need YOUR help!!!! If anyone, has information regarding these investigations, call us immediately. Please remember our victims have grieving family members who need resolution. If you know something, say something,” the chief wrote on Facebook. The city of Stockton put up a $75,000 reward, and Stockton Crime Stoppers offered an additional $10,000.	https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/ap-killings-of-5-men-in-california-are-related-police-say/	2022-10-02T18:45:16	en	0.977016
DALLAS (AP) — After Mary Brooks was found dead on the floor of her Dallas-area condo, grocery bags from a shopping trip still on her countertop, authorities decided the 87-year-old had died of natural causes. Even after her family discovered jewelry was missing — including a coral necklace she loved and diamond rings — it took an attack on another woman weeks later for police to reconsider. The next capital murder trial for Billy Chemirmir, 49, begins Monday in Dallas in the death of Brooks, one of 22 older women he is charged with killing. The charges against Chemirmir grew in the years following his 2018 arrest, as police across the Dallas area reexamined the deaths of older people that had been considered natural, even though families raised alarm bells about missing jewelry. Four indictments were added this summer. Chemirmir, who maintains his innocence, was convicted in April of capital murder in the smothering death of 81-year-old Lu Thi Harris and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He will receive the same punishment if convicted in Brooks’ death. His first trial in Harris’ death ended in a mistrial last November when the jury deadlocked. Loren Adair Smith, whose 91-year-old mother is among those Chemirmir is charged with killing, will be among the many relatives of victims attending the trial, which, she said, brings a “huge bag of mixed feelings.” “At the same time of having that dread feeling, we are really glad to go back and bring this chapter to a close,” Smith said. It was Mary Annis Bartel’s survival of a March 2018 attack that set Chemirmir’s arrest in motion. Bartel, 91 at the time, told police that a man had forced his way into her apartment at an independent living community for seniors, tried to smother her with a pillow and took her jewelry. Before Bartel died in 2020, she described the attack in a taped interview that was played at Chemirmir’s previous trials. She said the minute she opened her door and saw a man wearing green rubber gloves, she knew she was in “grave danger.” Police said they found Chemirmir the next day in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He was holding jewelry and cash, and had just thrown away a large red jewelry box. Documents in the box led them to the home of Harris, who was found dead in her bedroom, lipstick smeared on her pillow. At trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Harris and Chemirmir were checking out at the same time at a Walmart just hours before she was found dead. In a video interview with police, Chemirmir told a detective that he made money by buying and selling jewelry, and that he had also worked as a caregiver and a security guard. Most of Chemirmir’s alleged victims lived in apartments at independent living communities for older people. The women he’s accused of killing in private homes include the widow of a man he had cared for while working as an at-home caregiver. Brooks’ grandson, David Cuddihee, testified that he found her body on Jan. 31, 2018. He said she had sometimes used a cane but was still healthy and active. “She would walk to church, she would walk to the dentist down the street,” Cuddihee said. Police testified that grocery receipts showed Brooks was at Walmart the day before her body was found. Surveillance video from the store showed a vehicle matching the description of Chemirmir’s leaving just after Brooks, going in the same direction. Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, a Democrat, decided to seek life sentences rather than the death penalty when he tried Chemirmir on two of his 13 capital murder cases in the county. His Republican opponent has criticized that decision as he seeks reelection in the nation’s busiest death penalty state. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Creuzot said he’s not against the death penalty, but among things he considers when deciding whether to pursue it are the time it takes before someone is executed, the costs of appeals and whether the person would still be a danger to society behind bars. Chemirmir, he added, is “going to die in the penitentiary.” Prosecutors in neighboring Collin County haven’t said if they will try any of their nine capital murder cases against Chemirmir.	https://cw39.com/news/u-s-news/ap-us-news/ap-man-accused-of-killing-22-older-women-goes-on-trial-again/	2022-10-02T18:45:23	en	0.984719

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