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HOUSTON — Protestors returned to Downtown Houston for day two of the NRA convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Law enforcement broke up multiple arguments between opposing sides, including members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys.
Members of the Proud Boys, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, clashed with gun control advocates across the street from the convention at Discovery Green.
The convention itself brought gun owners together from all over, each with their own reasons to bear arms.
"I was a latecomer to the gun world, probably 45 before I ever bought a gun, engineered by training," said one convention goer.
"I would rather have a gun in my home versus not. If somebody tries to come in, I can at least defend my family, my kids," said another.
Texas Senate Democrats have called on Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session over gun control in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 dead. Some people at the convention weighed in on the topic.
"You can't solve the problem with guns, you can't solve the problem with legislation," said one person.
Protestors are calling on Gov. Abbott and Texas lawmakers to introduce new legislation increasing the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21, require universal background checks and introduce a red flag law that would temporarily remove firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or to others.
"It breaks my heart. Just the thought makes me want to cry," one person said, referring to the tragedy in Uvalde. "But like I said, it’s not the gun that kills people, it's people that kill people with knives or cars or alcohol. It's not guns killing them, it's the people."
Many community members protesting in favor of a special session say Gov. Abbott needs to do more in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Uvalde.
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https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
| 2022-05-28T23:36:43
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https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
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In a preschool classroom at Annie W. Kellond Elementary, a group of 4- and 5-year-olds sits on carpet squares and goes through the sounds of the alphabet.
After the class finishes with “Z is for zipper,” the children’s faces light up as teacher Holly Davis reminds them that after this week, they’ll go on to become kindergarteners. It’s the last week of school and the preschoolers have been preparing for the next step all year.
For Clare Bohme, the past year’s learning experience made her 5-year-old son, David Hubbard IV, more than ready to take on kindergarten.
The class of about a dozen attends the preschool class for free through the Pima County Early Education Program Scholarships, or PEEPS, which provides preschool funding to low-income families.
“I'm an hourly employee, so it didn't make sense to pay for daycare, it made more sense for me to stay home. I would essentially only be working to pay for child care, and it just didn't make any sense,” Bohme said. “(The PEEPS program) did give me the opportunity to go back into the work force. I wouldn't have had that opportunity if David was here with me.”
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David has learned his ABCs and the colors in both sign language and Spanish in his first year of school.
“He really has done amazing in that class and learned so, so much. It's definitely a huge advantage to get into kindergarten,” Bohme said.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to begin the early education program in May 2021 with the goal of increasing the number of 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in early childhood programs while creating more quality preschools for them to attend.
Market rates for a full-day preschool tuition average between $7,920 and $9,240 a year in the region, according to the county. Although research shows attending preschool often results in long-term benefits for a child, the high cost can pose a significant barrier.
The PEEPS initiative started with a $10 million investment of general fund dollars to pay for new preschool classes for the first school year in August 2021. After receipt of American Rescue Plan dollars, the board decided to devote $30.2 million of the federal funding to run the program for three years.
The program has also seen investment from local jurisdictions sponsoring classes within their school districts. The city of Tucson has put $1 million into the program for one year, Marana has contributed $274,345 for two years and Oro Valley has contributed $100,00 for three years of the program.
The county’s PEEPS program provides early education in a variety of ways, including funding preschool classes at local school districts and further subsidizing existing early childcare programs.
The program served 685 children across the county as of its latest quarterly report analyzing results up to March 31. The county plans to reimburse about $6.2 million to childcare providers for the first year of operations.
To qualify for a PEEPS scholarship, a family must receive an income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, which is currently $53,000 for a family of four.
While the pandemic has exacerbated staffing issues, and subsequently enrollment in the program’s first year of implementation, plans are in the works to use federal dollars, and eventually property taxes, to grow access to early child care programs long term.
“It's been a great experience, and they learned a lot in the short amount of time that we've had them,” Davis, the PEEPS preschool teacher at Kellond Elementary said. “Some parents, their kids wouldn't have been able to go to preschool without this opportunity.”
PEEPS' first year
Early childhood education advocates have long pushed for lowering barriers to preschool education in Pima County.
In 2017, advocates put forth a funding plan that would have increased the city’s sales tax by a half-cent to pay for preschool subsidies, but Tucson voters turned down the ballot initiative called Strong Start Tucson.
“Almost everyone said, ‘Yes, we think this is an important thing to do, but we don't like that particular arrangement,’” said Penelope Jacks, who was part of the coalition pushing for the ballot measure.
Jacks, co-chair of Preschool Promise, a coalition of Pima County residents calling for more high-quality preschool classes across the region, said the group continued advocating with the county to get their mission “across the finish line.”
“We are totally advocates for the (PEEPS) program,” she said. “We are thrilled with the public schools having stepped up and lots of kids are attending.”
In its first year, the PEEPS program has funded 11 preschool classes across six local school districts. The program paid $6,600 per child.
The starting goal of the PEEPS program was to serve 1,200 children in year one, but low staffing and pandemic-induced classroom closures stymied that goal.
The average preschool teacher in Arizona made an average wage of $14 per hour, or a yearly salary of $32,930 as of May 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The low salary issue has been an issue for a long time prior to COVID. For decades this has been an underfunded industry,” said Nicole Fyffe, the assistant to the county administrator who has worked on the program since its inception. “But with COVID, it became even worse because teachers are being underpaid. Why on earth would they want to go into the classroom during that time?”
The program saw several classroom closures in January and February as the Omicron variant spread, and the 3- to 5-year-old children attending PEEPS classes aren’t eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
"Some (child-care providers) spent more time closing in January of this year than they did the year and a half prior because Omicron really caused havoc for them,” Fyffe said. “We just need to get back up to where we were prior to COVID before we can start this large expansion.”
The Tucson Unified School District planned to open eight PEEPS classrooms at the beginning of the school year, but only opened three due to the “nationwide employment crisis,” according to Reem Kievit, TUSD’s director of community schools and preschool programs.
The impact of those three classrooms, however, has not gone unnoticed.
“It has been a huge blessing to reach those families who otherwise would not have access,” Kievit said. “I think every kid that ends up getting into one of these programs, whether it's within our district or somewhere else in Pima County, is really something to celebrate.”
The county’s tackling the staffing issue by increasing reimbursement rates for districts' PEEPS classes and requiring them to put the extra funding into teacher compensation. Fyffe said the districts will come back with a report on how they plan to use the funds to increase staff recruitment and retention.
The county plans to increase its per-child reimbursement rates for school districts to $8,641, a nearly 30% increase from the current rate. According to Kievit, TUSD plans to provide its PEEPS teachers’ retention bonuses for continuing into the next school year.
While demand for the PEEPS program slowed during the pandemic, Fyffe said enrollment is starting to ramp up for next school year.
TUSD is seeing plenty of applications for the four more PEEPS classrooms it plans to open next year, Kievit said. And through a pilot program of a sliding scale for scholarships, she hopes more interested families who don’t fully meet the program’s guidelines will be able to participate.
“We are seeing lots and lots of applications. However, believe it or not, a lot of those applications are families who don't qualify and want to pay tuition,” she said.
At TUSD’s Schumaker Infant and Early Learning Center, 12 students are enrolled in the PEEPS class, but 19 who don’t financially qualify are on a waitlist, according to Kievit. Next year, the county’s starting a program with TUSD where those who make more than 200% of the national poverty level will pay tuition based on the percentage of their income above that amount.
The Board of Supervisors is set to approve TUSD’s new PEEPS contract on June 7, which allows families with income levels up to 300% of the federal poverty level to qualify for the program.
Expanding access
Local school districts aren’t the only way the PEEPS program provides preschool education. It also puts funds toward Head Start, a federal program that provides free early education programs for families with low incomes.
The county anticipates spending $1.1 million on extending half-day Head Start classes to full-day programs as it wraps up its first year. According to Erin Lyons, the CEO of the organization that runs Head Start, Child-Parent Centers, 205 children across 11 classrooms have benefitted from the extended day classes in Pima County.
“This is something that parents have expressed a need for. Instead of a half-day, to go to a longer day just for their own schedules,” Lyons said. “Based on research, it’s in the best interest of children to have a little bit longer than just four hours just for more in-depth curriculum work.”
The eligibility criteria for Head Start are more stringent than the PEEPS program, as qualifying families must make 100% or below of the federal poverty level.
“The county wants to make sure that families are accessing the program that they're most eligible for. In other words, if they're eligible for Head Start, that they're taking advantage of that Head Start slot and not a PEEPS slot, so the PEEPS slot is open for another family,” Lyons said.
PEEPS also awarded 380 preschool scholarships at $7,300 each to different providers through First Things First, a statewide agency that provides childcare grants to low-income families. The program is funded through a tobacco tax and has a limited number of scholarships statewide, but the county has sponsored more to increase quality preschools in the region.
While increasing the number of children in high-quality programs is a key goal of the PEEPS program, it can’t be fulfilled without enough qualified centers for children to attend.
“With the money that we had, we probably could have funded maybe 1,200 kids,” Jacks from Preschool Promise said. “But because of the pandemic, so many childcare centers closed that there aren't seats for all those children. So our focus is slightly switched to increasing capacity, making sure there are more high-quality seats for more children to attend.”
First Things First also rates preschools through its Quality First program based on key factors such as learning environments and teacher-child interactions.
The program coaches providers to help increase their quality ratings. As of the last PEEPS report, the program cleared the list of preschools waiting to receive a rating and added 15 high-quality learning programs to the county.
Providing additional funding for First Things First scholarships has allowed PEEPS to fund a mixed delivery system of preschools, which can include family home care providers and childcare centers in addition to public schools.
“A lot of those non-school district-based programs are open at alternative hours. So for parents who are working full days or working evenings, it's unlikely that school district-based preschools are going to be able to serve those needs,” Fyffe said.
Long-term plans
As the first year of the PEEPS program subsides, county officials are planning ways to sustain the program over time.
While the county earmarked $30.2 million to run the program for three years using federal American Rescue Plan dollars, it’s planning to use property taxes to continue the program when those funds run out.
This year’s recommended county budget proposes a one-cent increase in secondary library property taxes to begin collecting a reserve to pay for PEEPS.
The county’s also hoping Tucson will help pay for its portion of the PEEPS classes in city limits. City Council is considering dedicating another $1 million as it budgets for the next fiscal year.
“Our budgets are moral documents and investing in our children’s future is a value we all share,” Mayor Regina Romero said in an email. “These resources expanded numerous high quality early education programs across three of our local school districts. I am recommending we continue to invest $1 million of our city’s budget to keep this momentum going.”
As participants look back at the first year of PEEPS, the resounding message is the impact the funding has made.
“I just want the world to know how important these programs are, how valuable they are, and how appreciative we are as a district for the funding,” Kievit said. “It’s so critical and crucial in order to provide that quality programming.”
Contact reporter Nicole Ludden at nludden@tucson.com
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https://tucson.com/news/local/subscriber/pima-countys-early-education-program-hoping-to-expand-enrollment-as-first-year-ends/article_d80a70c6-d78e-11ec-9306-07e13e3fd8bd.html
| 2022-05-28T23:39:29
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https://tucson.com/news/local/subscriber/pima-countys-early-education-program-hoping-to-expand-enrollment-as-first-year-ends/article_d80a70c6-d78e-11ec-9306-07e13e3fd8bd.html
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With its vineyard-adjacent setting, Williams-Sonoma-sponsored culinary stage, and what can only be described as tech-bro-turned-sommelier clientele, BottleRock Napa Valley seems like it could be, perhaps, the least metal of the major music festivals.
But don’t tell that to the Metallica Family.
The band’s fans, complete with wraparound sunglasses and foot-long beards, poured into wine country on Friday for the first day of the festival to see the heavy metal headliners.
Throughout the day, bands such as Scottish indie pop group CHVRCHES and Austin-based art rock band Spoon seemed like more natural fits to the BottleRock mold. But there was no question who the main attraction was, with Metallica shirts outnumbering any other band's by a factor of at least ten to one.
Many members of the audience that I spoke with had seen the Bay Area rockers, who just began their fifth decade of making music together, over 20 times in concert.
One woman standing next to me was a relative novice, having only gone to four shows before this one, but she had gotten to see the band in its ‘80s heyday.
Despite being in their late 50s, Metallica's members can still shred and headbang with the best of them.
Frontman James Hetfield came out bare-chested wearing only an open denim vest, but was able to pull off the look despite being old enough to be many of his fellow BottleRock performer’s father (or grandfather). Meanwhile, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett’s iconic shoulder-length hair looks fuller and healthier than most guys half his age.
Metallica opened with “Hardwired” and the band was so in-sync with the audience that Hetfield could step away from the microphone for minutes at a time while the crowd belted the lyrics.
With all the Metallica fans, the audience did skew a little older than for many of the rest of the performers — especially compared to the crowd at Norwegian DJ Kygo, who was playing at the same time on a different stage.
One middle-aged fan I spoke with said this would be his 21st concert and that he wouldn’t have considered going to BottleRock — which includes a spa, wine-tasting booth, and silent disco on the festival grounds — had Metallica not been playing.
Another Metallica fan who had been to over 20 shows told me, “it’s kind of insane how good of musicians they are.”
But it wasn’t all hardened Metallica veterans. A young couple I spoke with said they’d driven over eight hours from San Diego to see the band for the first time.
“We are here only for Metallica,” they told me confidently.
The adoration went both ways, with Hetfield telling the crowd, who he referred to as the Metallica Family, how he’s “extremely grateful to be here after 41 years.” He noted that even after all this time, it still “blows my mind” that fans want to hear the band play.
Playing for just under two hours, Metallica ran through a setlist made up almost entirely of their greatest hits from the ’80s and ’90s. The band flexed its metal bona fides on songs like "Seek & Destroy," managing to convey both the rage and charisma needed to pull off lyrics as harsh as:
Our brains are on fire with the feeling to kill
And it will not go away until our dreams are fulfilled
But they also showed they aren't one-note, with Hetfield and Hammett breaking out acoustic guitars for the more contemplative "The Unforgiven." They also didn't shy away from the over indulgence that comes with being a headliner, playing "Master of Puppets" in its nearly 10-minute entirety.
Metallica closed with its two biggest songs, co-mega hits off their 1991 self-titled album (“Nothing Else Matters,” “Enter Sandman”) which fans sang along to, their voices already horse from two hours of screaming.
As the Metallica fans filed out, passing by stations serving sparkling rosé and Tomales Bay oysters, one got the sense that many might not be back for days two and three of the festival.
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https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Metallica-napa-bottlerock-review-17205704.php
| 2022-05-28T23:49:29
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https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Metallica-napa-bottlerock-review-17205704.php
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LACROSSE — When the 28 graduates of LaCrosse High School left the gym following graduation Friday, they weren’t just starting another chapter in their lives. They were marking the closing chapter in a local landmark.
“It’s an honor because it’s history,” said Jonah Sievers, a graduating senior who joins the Navy in July. “I hope the next generation carries on the legacy of this building to the next one.”
LaCrosse High School officially closed following graduation. Built in 1915, it is believed to be the oldest high school building in Indiana still functioning as a high school.
The gym, the school’s newer part, was built in 1950.
As part of a reorganization plan, Wanatah Public School, the school district’s only other school, is adding five classrooms for the high school.
Wanatah currently houses pre-K through eighth grade. The Tri-Township Consolidated School Corp. has 320 students. High school enrollment is 108.
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“It’s so small and compact,” Sievers said of the building. “It’s a family."
As LHS Principal Brian McMahan explained, the school district is transitioning to one building at Wanatah. The new school names are Tri-Township Jr./Sr. High School and Tri-Township Elementary School.
A 2001 LHS graduate, McMahan is finishing his 16th year in the school system, fourth as principal.
For McMahan and others, the move is bittersweet.
“I loved teaching in this building, and I have a lot of memories here,” the principal said. “Now, with the move, we’ll be able to expand and grow the curriculum.”
When McMahan attended LaCrosse, the building housed grades K-5 and 9-12, with middle grades taught at Wanatah. Tri-Township was a trustee-run school district until 2012, with the corporation taking in Prairie, Cass and Dewey townships.
“This has been 10 years in the making,” McMahan said.
With a small school system, the principal said, some students are headed for college, while others have jobs, will enter the military or attend trade schools.
Tri-Township School Superintendent Kelly Shepherd said he’s “really excited about the opportunities all in one campus” with the move eight miles north to Wanatah. With additional empty classrooms available there, Shepherd sees the potential for new programs, including cadet teaching, at the new site.
Shepherd is also hopeful that the move closer to Valparaiso may attract families to the area and increase enrollment.
The superintendent added that no definite plans have been made about the 107-year-old school building. The gym will still be used for interscholastic sports, including basketball and volleyball.
Standing in the gym, awaiting the arrival of graduates, was guest speaker Harold Welter, longtime sports announcer with radio station WKVI in Knox. Looking at the gym floor, which is 10 feet shorter than regulation courts, Welter noted, “It’s just an old-fashioned gym that takes you back to the heyday of Indiana basketball.”
Among those in the audience was Mike Koselke, a 1992 LHS graduate who was there for his nephew, Ian Doms. “I have a lot of very good memories about this school and my classmates,” Koselke said. “I wouldn’t change a thing about this place.”
Koselke’s son Kade just completed his freshman year in the old building and is now headed for the newer facility.
“It’s definitely going to be different,” Kade Koselke said. “I’ve been in the new part, and it’s cool. The old building is also cool and it’s historic.”
In his address, Welter charged the graduates, “You have been chosen for greatness,” adding that the challenge is defining greatness.
A veteran of 57 years of broadcasting, Welter said the greatest people he’s ever encountered put others before themselves and found greatness in helping others.
Kyle Gorski, an honors graduate headed for Purdue University to study agribusiness, called high school a “launching point” for students’ futures.
“There’s a lot of history here,” Gorski said of the old school. “It’s small, so everyone knows everyone. There’s a special one-on-one connection.”
Jasmine Johnson, another graduating senior, said she’ll miss her teachers, some of whom were working that evening prior to graduation, cleaning out their former classrooms.
As is usually the case at graduations, some students decorated their mortarboards. In a tribute to the famous artist, Jersie Bartels put “Here I Gogh” on her graduation gear.
“I like art and painting, and I thought this would be fun,” she said.
After graduating, Bartels said she’ll miss “how close everyone was, and how everyone had everybody’s back.”
Ian Zrodlowski brought a stuffed dog for classmates to sign. He said he’ll miss the closeness within the school and “the luxury of knowing I didn’t have to go to work.”
Keegan McArdle called high school “an unforgettable journey that has prepared us for the future.”
Brendan Tarter plans to study automotives at Ivy Tech Community College in Lafayette. Citing the people and memories made at LaCrosse, he added, “It’s kinda surreal, to be the last class.”
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte/final-graduation-in-historic-lacrosse-high-school/article_12111f84-c25a-5b2c-8ade-589c933ce377.html
| 2022-05-28T23:57:29
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/laporte/final-graduation-in-historic-lacrosse-high-school/article_12111f84-c25a-5b2c-8ade-589c933ce377.html
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One additional death was reported as a result of COVID-19 in Lake County in the past seven-day period, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
Porter, LaPorte, Newton and Jasper counties did not report any new coronavirus-attributed deaths in the last week.
In total, the pandemic has accounted for 1,758 deaths in Lake County; 540 in Porter County; 362 in LaPorte County; 66 in Newton County; and 142 in Jasper County.
Infection numbers have continued to climb in the last week. State health records indicate the statewide seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases totaled 1,238 per week, up from 1,108 the previous week.
Lake County leads as the Indiana county with the second-highest amount of reported COVID-19 cases since the pandemic's start, with a total of 110,443. Marion County, home of the state capitol, leads with 229,756 cases.
Over the state border, 7,136 cases in total have been reported in Lansing since the pandemic's start. The number is currently at 8,196 in Calumet City.
Anna Ortiz is the breaking news/crime reporter for The Times, covering crime, politics, courts and investigative news. She is a graduate of Ball State University with a major in journalism and minor in anthropology. 219-933-4194, anna.ortiz@nwi.com
Pastor John Lowe II got a standing ovation initially after saying he had sinned and committed “adultery.” Then a woman walked up to the microphone and said she was 16 at the time. A prosecutor is investigating.
"David (Dalton) stated multiple times that he was going to do whatever to help his son, who just got jumped by the large group of juveniles," according to Chesterton police.
"This is a very tragic crash scene," Crown Point Chief of Police Pete Land said. "Our crash reconstruction team will be continuing the investigation to determine every aspect of the accident."
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call detectives at the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit at 219-755-3855. To remain anonymous, call 866-CRIME-GP.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/one-new-covid-19-death-reported-in-lake-county-data-shows/article_c8b0a55e-6ae8-508a-8e4e-f3860ced797f.html
| 2022-05-28T23:57:35
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/one-new-covid-19-death-reported-in-lake-county-data-shows/article_c8b0a55e-6ae8-508a-8e4e-f3860ced797f.html
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/delaware-braces-for-memorial-day-crowds-with-some-changes/3254931/
| 2022-05-29T00:04:09
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/delaware-braces-for-memorial-day-crowds-with-some-changes/3254931/
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A 4-year-old girl was hospitalized after she accidentally shot herself inside a car in Haverford North section Saturday afternoon.
The shooting occurred inside a car on the 4200 block of Fairmount Avenue around 6:07 p.m. Saturday.
Police said the child was holding a gun when she accidentally shot herself on the left hand.
The girl was transported to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia by a private vehicle where she was listed in stable condition. A gun was recovered inside the car. No arrests were announced.
There are additional resources for people or communities that have endured gun violence in Philadelphia. Further information can be found here.
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/girl-4-accidentally-shoots-herself-with-gun-found-in-car/3254951/
| 2022-05-29T00:04:16
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/girl-4-accidentally-shoots-herself-with-gun-found-in-car/3254951/
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Pennsylvanians may spend more on electricity this summer as the weather warms up and utilities contend with a surge in energy costs stemming from rising oil and gas prices.
Energy supply costs, which account for about half of a typical residential electric bill, will increase between 6% and 45% across the state depending on the supplier beginning June 1, according to the state’s Public Utility Commission.
If you're a West Penn Power customer, for example, your electricity charge is going up 44.6%.
In Philadelphia, the average PECO customer will see an 8.1% increase in their electric charge from 7.07 cents per kWh to 7.64 cents, the smallest increase in the state
Customers of PPL Electric, which serves Lehigh Valley, parts of Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties, can expect to pay 38% more.
Here's the full list:
- Citizens’ Electric, up from 7.3995 cents to 9.3667 cents per kWh (26.6%);
- Met-Ed, up from 6.832 cents to 7.936 cents per kWh (16.1%);
- Penelec, up from 6.232 cents to 8.443 cents per kWh (35.4%);
- Penn Power, up from 7.082 cents to 8.694 cents per kWh (22.7%);
- PPL, up from 8.941 cents to 12.366 cents per kWh (38.3%);
- Wellsboro Electric, up from 7.7569 cents to 9.592 cents per kWh (23.7%); and
- West Penn Power, up from 5.667 cents to 8.198 cents per kWh (44.6%);
How can I save money?
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
There are several ways to conserve energy and shave a few bucks off your electric bill. One option consumers may want to explore is their utility’s voluntary Standard Offer Program.
The option gives customers the ability to receive electricity from a competitive supplier at a fixed price of 7% below the utility’s current price to compare.
The discount is locked through 12 billing cycles but heads up, there may not be participating suppliers in all areas.
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/pa-electricity-rates-to-rise-by-up-to-46-heres-how-it-could-affect-you/3254847/
| 2022-05-29T00:04:22
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/pa-electricity-rates-to-rise-by-up-to-46-heres-how-it-could-affect-you/3254847/
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Longtime Nebraska prosecutor Steven Russell has been named the acting U.S. Attorney to take over following the retirement of interim U.S. Attorney Jan Sharp.
Russell’s appointment will be effective Saturday.
A 1982 graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law, he has been with the U.S. Attorney’s Office since 1985. Prior to joining the Attorney’s Office, Russell worked in private practice and as a Deputy Hall County Attorney.
Russell is originally from Indiana. During his tenure with the Department of Justice, Russell has handled a wide variety of cases, both civil and criminal, and currently serves as the District of Nebraska’s first assistant U.S. Attorney.
Russell will serve until a new U.S. Attorney is appointed by President Biden.
Sharp served as a prosecutor in Nebraska for 40 years, taking over as interim Nebraska U.S. Attorney in 2021 following the resignation of Joe Kelly.
Top Journal Star photos for May
Yuliia Iziumova (left) hugs her mother Oksana Iziumova Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the Lincoln Airport. It was the first time they'd been together in more than three years. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Lincoln High's Javon Leuty celebrates his win in the Class A boys 110-meter hurdles Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Fans run to catch a foul ball during a baseball game between Nebraska and Michigan State on Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Haymarket Park. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Lincoln High's Landon Kruse competes in the wheelchair Class A boys 800-meter race at the state track and field meet Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS Journal Star
Elkhorn North celebrates on the field after defeating Waverly in the Class B baseball championship game Friday, May 20, 2022, at Tal Anderson Field in Omaha. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Autumn LaDeaux-Baxter (left) ties poles together while saying a prayer as leaders of the Niskíthe prayer group work to assemble a tipi during a protest outside City Hall on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. The group wants legal protections of a Native sweat lodge, which is on about 2 acres of private land surrounded by Wilderness Park and across the street from the planned Wilderness Crossing development near First Street and Pioneers Boulevard. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Fremont's Braden Taylor celebrates winning the Class A boys 3,200-meter relay at the state track and field meet Wednesday, May 18, 202, at Omaha Burke Stadium. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS Journal Star
Lincoln Public Schools Superintendent Steve Joel plays a game of spike ball with eighth graders Hayden Tenopir (left) and Drew Van Dyke on Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at Mickle Middle School. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Nebraska’s Jackson Brockett pitches against a Michigan State batter Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Haymarket Park. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Josh Vinson Jr. runs with a pool noodle during the second annual Josh Fight Saturday, May 21, 2022, at Bowling Lake Park. Vinson Jr. remains the reigning champion, winning the crown for a second year. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Lincoln Southwest's Jaida Rowe carries the team trophy after Southwest won the Class A girls team race at the state track and field meet Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Millard West's Dylan Driessen collides into Millard South's Camden Kozeal while stealing second base in the first inning during the Class A championship, Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Tal Anderson Field in Omaha. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Bloomfield's Alexandra Eisenhauer (left) reacts after finishing ahead of North Platte's Hayley Miles in the Class D girls 100-meter dash at the state track and field meet on Saturday, May 21, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Teacher Maria Ramos pours milk as children aged 18 months to 3 years eat lunch at The Children's Place child care center Tuesday, May 17, 2022. According to a report from the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, 87% of providers received some kind of COVID-19 relief funding in the last year. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS Journal Star
Lincoln East's Garrett Springer celebrates after hitting a double against Millard West during a Class A state baseball game Thursday, May 19, 2022, at Tal Anderson Field in Omaha. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Photographer Michael Farrell gets ready to take a group photo as members prepare to tear down the Niskíthe Prayer Camp on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Lincoln East's Belinda Rademacher reacts after defeating Lincoln Southeast's Camilla Ibrahimova (not pictured) in the No. 1 singles championship at the Class A girls state tennis meet Friday, May 20, 2022, at Koch Tennis Center in Omaha. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
The boys Class B 3,200-meter race enters its third lap at the state track and field meet Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Bishop Neumann's Kamdyn Swartz reacts after winning the Class C boys 300-meter hurdles during the state track and field meet, Saturday, May 21, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Axtell's Calvin Johnson (left) looks as he passes Falls City Sacred Heart's Jakob Jordan to win the Class D boys 3,200-meter relay at the state track and field meet Friday, May 20, 2022, at Omaha Burke Stadium. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Part of Reception and Treatment Center's expansion project includes 384 new beds seen on Wednesday, May 18, 2022. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Lincoln Southeast’s Corynne Olsen (2) (from left) Maggie Hayes (0) and Sidney Wettlaufer (21) hold each other after placing second in the girls Class A state championship game Monday, May 16, 2022, between Lincoln Southeast and Gretna at Morrison Stadium. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Omaha Skutt Catholic celebrates their state championship win over Norris in the girls class B state championship game on Monday, May 16, 2022, at Morrison Stadium. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Nebraska softball players take a selfie during the Nebraska women’s softball watch party of the NCAA tournament selection show on Sunday, May 15, 2022, at Bowlin Stadium. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Lincoln’s Hunter Clanin (14) misses the diving catch during a game on Sunday, May 15, 2022, between Sioux Falls and Lincoln Saltdogs at Haymarket Park. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Omaha Skutt Catholic's Dylan Toth (right) reacts to a Skutt goal as Waverly’s Austin Neddenriep watches the ball hit the back of the net during the Class B boys state soccer semifinals game on Saturday, May 14, 2022, at Morrison Stadium. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Waverly's Eli Russell (second right) and Wyatt Fanning (second right) leap on to pitcher Payton Engle (first left) as they celebrate with their team after an upset win over Norris during a boys Class B first-round game at Warner Park on Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Papillion. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Norris base runner Kale Fountain celebrates as he reaches home plate to score in the fourth inning against Waverly during a boys Class B first-round game at Warner Park on Saturday, May 14, 2022, in Papillion. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Soon-to-be graduates walk through Creighton's campus outside of a girls class A semifinal game at Morrison Stadium on Friday, May 13, 2022, in Omaha. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
A bicyclist rides toward downtown on the 13th Street bike lane on Friday, May 13, 2022. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
Goldenrod Pastries owner Angela Garbacz (left) talks with Molly Ebbers of Lincoln on Thursday, May 12, 2022. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Dee and Ronald Baddorf (from left) scratch Lucy, their mini-pig, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. The Baddorfs are hoping the Lincoln City Council will approve a waiver so they can keep Lucy at their Lincoln home. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Lincoln Southwest’s Alex Kosmicki (23) dribbles to the goal as Papillion-La Vista South’s Jenasy Schultz (1) goes for the save during the girls A-4 district championship game Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at Seacrest Field. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
The Husker dugout erupts in cheers as Sydney Gray (bottom) reaches home plate after scoring the second solo home run of the fifth inning against Indiana, Sunday, May 8, 2022, at Bowlin Stadium. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Exterior of a Ford TRIPI-Motor 5-AT, seen on Thursday, May 5, 2022. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
The Omaha Bryan boys soccer team celebrates its District A-7 boys championship win over Lincoln Southeast, Thursday, May 5, 2022, at Omaha Bryan High School. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Runners make their way through the final stretch of the 2022 Lincoln Marathon Sunday, May 1, 2022. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Lincoln Southwest players celebrate the goal by Jillian Lane (third from left) with Lincoln East's Page Monson reacting in the background during the second half of a Class A girls state soccer first-round match, Monday, May 9, 2022, at Morrison Stadium in Omaha. JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Lincoln East's Jesse Chartier (left) embraces with teammate Kayma Carpenter after losing to Lincoln Southwest in a Class A girls state soccer first-round match, Monday, May 9, 2022, at Morrison Stadium in Omaha.
JUSTIN WAN Journal Star
Supporters of Donald Trump blow kisses, give cheers and vie for position as Trump takes the stage during a Trump rally for Charles Herbster at the I-80 Speedway on Sunday, May 1, 2022, near Greenwood. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Lincoln Southeast's Lilly Talley (left) and doubles partner Lily Rippeteau celebrate a point in the No. 2 doubles finals of the Heartland Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at Woods Tennis Center. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS Journal Star
Lincoln East's Elijah Jobst (8) blocks a shot by Lincoln Southwest's Lane Kruse (16) during a Class A boys state soccer first-round match Tuesday, May 10, 2022, at Morrison Stadium in Omaha. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS Journal Star
Juju Tyner (center, in green) holds a sign in support of Roe vs. Wade as she joined others in a pro-abortion rights rally on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, on the north steps of the Capitol. GWYNETH ROBERTS, Journal Star
GWYNETH ROBERTS Journal Star
Midland’s Matt Ross dives but misses the ball hit by a Doane hitter during a GPAC Tournament game Friday, May 6, 2022, in Crete. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
A crowd of supporters cheer on Jim Pillen as he takes the stage during an election night party at the Embassy Suites, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in Lincoln. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Tim Brox fills out his voting ballot at the Redeemer Lutheran Church offices, Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in Lincoln. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Lincoln East players celebrate as they see the district championship plaque after defeating Omaha Westside during the District A-4 baseball final at Den Hartog Field, Saturday, May 7, 2022. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
Lincoln East’s Paige Poppe (13) and Columbus’ Liberty Larsen battle to head the ball during the girls A-5 district championship game, Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at Seacrest Field. JAIDEN TRIPI, Journal Star
JAIDEN TRIPI Journal Star
Crete players celebrate after a goal in the 20th minute by Osvin Garcia Velasquez (second from left) during the B-5 district championship Saturday, May 7, 2022, in Waverly. KENNETH FERRIERA, Journal Star
KENNETH FERRIERA Journal Star
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/career-prosecutor-appointed-acting-us-attorney-for-nebraska/article_dfcd909b-cff5-5de0-b550-ef86cac5b84f.html
| 2022-05-29T00:10:17
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/career-prosecutor-appointed-acting-us-attorney-for-nebraska/article_dfcd909b-cff5-5de0-b550-ef86cac5b84f.html
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After offering a safe place for police to take intoxicated people to sober up for nearly 40 years, a nonprofit agency known as The Bridge will no longer contract with local law enforcement agencies for the service.
The decision not to renew the contracts with Lincoln police and other area law enforcement agencies for what’s called “civil protective custody” — once known as detox — is driven largely by staffing issues caused by a serious nursing shortage, a situation that came to a head last fall.
And it means city and county officials — worried about the impact on county corrections — are looking for other placements for people intoxicated on drugs or alcohol who police believe are a danger to themselves or others, but don’t need to be in jail.
The Bridge will continue to offer its other services, including a voluntary detox program, a respite program and a 24-bed men’s residential treatment program.
In fact, the impact the nursing shortage has had on the voluntary detox program — because of the protective custody unit — played into the agency’s decision last month not to renew the law enforcement contracts, said Tammy Stevenson, executive director of The Bridge Behavioral Health.
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It also played a part in the agency’s decision to temporarily close the protective custody unit last fall until it could deal with the staffing problems, a decision it changed course on after Stevenson said she was pressured by city and county officials to keep it open.
Initially, she said, she’d hoped to temporarily close the protective custody unit and keep the voluntary program open.
“The reason why was, if I had to temporarily close one program or significantly reduce beds I was going to keep the program operating that is accredited, uses evidence-based practices and has the best outcomes,” Stevenson said.
But that decision caused confusion and apparently some miscommunication.
The Bridge — like hospitals and other health-related businesses — has struggled to find enough nurses. Since July 2019, it has experienced a 209% turnover in nursing staff — about 20 people, Stevenson said.
In October, when two nurses quit with other positions still open, the problem became unmanageable and the agency’s board voted to temporarily close the protective custody unit.
Stevenson said she notified law enforcement departments and other affected agencies Oct. 12 that The Bridge would need to temporarily close the unit Nov. 1, and county and city officials stepped up to try to help find nurses, though that effort wasn’t successful.
About a week later, Stevenson said, an official she believes was relaying a message from city and county officials told her if she closed the unit, she would be in breach of contract and could face legal action.
After that, she said, she decided to shift nursing staff from the voluntary detox program to the protective custody unit, reducing the number of people The Bridge could serve.
In the months since that happened, it has had to turn more than 400 people away from the voluntary detox program, she said.
To reduce capacity in the voluntary program, she had to get permission from Region V Services, which provides state funding for low-income clients. Region V officials agreed to let her reduce the number of people she served without penalty because they understood it was a staffing issue, she said.
The voluntary detox program is paid for by client fees: Medicaid, state Region V funding and some private insurance.
The protective custody program is funded through a $407,000 contract with the Lincoln Police Department, a $232,000 grant from the city/county joint budget committee that helps pay staff, as well as smaller per-admission contracts with the Nebraska State Patrol, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and seven area counties.
Lincoln police bring about 85% of the admissions to the protective custody unit.
Jennifer Williams, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the city’s focus has been and still is on ensuring service to those who need civil protective custody, but she says officials didn't tell The Bridge it would be in breach of contract or possibly subject to legal action if it closed.
County Board Chairman Deb Schorr, however, said the county board did make it clear Stevenson needed to fulfill the contract because it was too short of notice to find alternatives.
Both Schorr and County Commissioner Sean Flowerday said they were under the impression that The Bridge didn’t intend to continue the protective custody service long-term. Flowerday said because of that, county officials set aside $2 million in federal relief funds to deal with the situation if the contracts ended.
Stevenson said it was never The Bridge’s intent to close permanently last fall — and the agency spent $500,000 on promotion, incentives, wage increases and hiring bonuses in an attempt to address staffing issues.
But she acknowledged the confusion could have arisen because of the agency’s long-term goal of transitioning away from protective custody, which was part of the agency’s strategic plan.
That goal stems back to 2018 — about the time Stevenson came on board as head of the agency — when she said Medicaid stopped funding the program because it wasn’t accredited and state officials deemed the program incarceration, not behavioral health.
A director with the accrediting agency visited the protective custody unit and told Stevenson it wouldn’t be able to get accredited without major remodeling to remove the locked rooms and changes to the program, including no longer admitting aggressive or violent clients.
The protective custody unit has nine locked rooms — two “padded” rooms with nothing inside but a floor grate to use as a restroom, and two others with just a toilet. Larger rooms can house more than one person. People admitted by police are monitored and get a mat to sleep on and a wool blanket, and they’re always behind a heavy, locked door.
The voluntary treatment program has dormitory-style rooms, eating areas, common lounge areas. People who come voluntarily generally stay 3-5 days and are medically monitored during withdrawal from alcohol, opioids, benzos or meth, receive therapy and help deciding their next steps. Many spend a few extra days in respite care before moving on to treatment.
Although a grant from the city/county joint budget committee helped fill the gap left by the Medicaid funding loss, the challenges of getting accredited — and following what the industry considers best practices — prompted discussions with then-Police Chief Jeff Bliemeister and then-Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Duncan about finding alternative placements for people.
Those discussions stopped when the pandemic hit, and when Bliemeister left and Teresa Ewins was hired as chief, those discussions never resumed, Stevenson said. Then the nursing shortage happened, which forced the issue.
The protective custody unit began in 1983, and was initially called Cornhusker Detox. The program moved from the north side of town to the current location near Seventh and K streets in 1985 and began adding programming, including the voluntary detox program. In 2016, The Bridge remodeled the facility and changed its name.
Stevenson said she thinks there are better alternatives for the 1,487 people admitted to protective custody last year — a total of 2,236 admissions (some more than once).
In the years since the program began, behavioral health experts have learned more, and many people who are intoxicated have suffered trauma, and being in a locked cell isn’t the best place for them, she said.
About 30% of those admitted are released to friends and family and 4% choose to go to the voluntary detox program.
About a third of the people admitted have been cited for DUI, she said, another third struggle with homelessness and the remaining third are there for various reasons — intoxicated after the bars close, or other events such as football games or concerts, some have mental health issues but come to the protective custody unit rather than the crisis center because they’re intoxicated.
One of the big concerns of county officials is the impact on the jail, which is already overcrowded, a fact exacerbated by the pandemic, which requires separating inmates who test positive for COVID-19.
“It’s very concerning to me,” said Lancaster County Corrections Director Brad Johnson. “Without The Bridge or a similar facility willing to take those individuals, the concern is the only option left is to bring them to our facility.”
The only way to handle that, he said, would be to expand the jail infirmary.
County officials are determined not to let that happen and The Bridge, hospital, city and county officials are meeting to try to find other solutions, including what's known as a "low-barrier" shelter that would accept intoxicated people.
LPD is discussing different ways to handle suspected drunk drivers now taken to protective custody.
Sara Hoyle, Lincoln-Lancaster County Human Services Director who is coordinating meetings to look for alternative placements, said they’re early on in the process of finding alternatives, but she’s hoping they can find an innovative, research-based solution.
“The hopeful thing is we know we have a long history of this community collaborating. That’s the light at the end of this tunnel,” she said.
The LPD contract ends Sept. 30, the smaller contracts in June.
Stevenson said she wants The Bridge to be part of the solution, and to collaborate with other agencies. If police would broach the subject of voluntary detox to people when they first contact them — and offer to drive them there — they might be more apt to take that option, she said.
“None of us want people to be in jail,” she said. “Our primary goal is to keep people safe. Safe doesn’t always mean custody. ... The key is we are learning in these situations it's not a one size-fits-all solution. ... I think we can do better. I think this community can do better.”
Reach the writer at 402-473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @LJSreist
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/protective-custody-unit-for-intoxicated-people-will-no-longer-contract-with-law-enforcement/article_dbef5871-d921-5e26-8159-8b9483bd0fb1.html
| 2022-05-29T00:10:23
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/protective-custody-unit-for-intoxicated-people-will-no-longer-contract-with-law-enforcement/article_dbef5871-d921-5e26-8159-8b9483bd0fb1.html
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Project SEARCH helps young adults with developmental disabilities transition to work
Friends, families and co-workers filled an event room at the Glendale Renaissance Hotel in support of the 24 graduates of this year's Project SEARCH transition-to-work program.
Project SEARCH is an international program that provides young adults with developmental disabilities with skills and experience to transition from high school to work and the rest of adult life.
Graduates waved to loved ones and excitedly pumped their fists in the air as they crossed the room to receive their completion certificates. Job coaches and supervisors placed graduate cords around the necks of each intern and handed them pins that signify their West-Mec alumni status.
Shelly Thome, director of exceptional student services at West-Mec, said in her opening remarks at the graduation ceremony that she hopes each intern "can transfer all the things they learn with us into their next phase of life."
Project SEARCH is a partner of West-Mec, a public school district in west Maricopa County that provides career and technical education programs to high school students.
The program is open to recent high school graduates and gives applicants the option to spend a school year at one of three internship programs: at Sanmar distribution center, Luke Air Force Base or the Glendale Renaissance Hotel.
Applications for Project SEARCH internships are completed through West-Mec in the spring school semester ahead of the program's start each fall. After submitting the application, interns complete interviews where they are matched with the program location that best suits them.
These three organizations became Project SEARCH internships because of "their willingness to give us space and to integrate us," Thome said.
"Our interns are treated just like their staff, and we want to make sure that they're willing to do that and allow us to move seamlessly amongst their staff and their clientele," Thome said.
Alicia Livingston, a job coach at the Sanmar program, said the goal of her colleagues and herself is to coach each intern on appropriate work and social behaviors.
"Their growth from the beginning of the year to now is huge," Livingston said. "We've got interns who barely speak at the beginning of the program. And by the end of the program, they're starting conversations with people and being social."
Transitioning to work
Studies show that adults with developmental disabilities are disproportionately unemployed or underemployed.
Denise Resnik is the founder and CEO of First Place Phoenix, a housing complex for adults with autism. She is also the mother of an adult son with autism.
"I remember when he was graduating, what we experienced as a family was the fear of how we were going to fill 168 hours every week with meaningful, productive activity when he left all the support and structure of high school," Resnik said. "And we definitely did not want him graduating from Chaparral High School to a couch."
Transition to work programs for adults with developmental disabilities exist across the U.S. However, some have been criticized for further separating those with disabilities from the rest of the world by only offering designated "simple" tasks for little to no pay, similar to institutionalization.
Project SEARCH stands out as it provides an integrated approach, in which interns work right alongside coworkers already employed in each of their jobs.
"It's helping to create a generation of people without autism who better understand their friends with autism, and the special abilities that they have, so that their friends are not introduced based on their disability or deficits, but based on the fact that they're friends, and they have value and strengths," Resnik said.
No two people's personal experiences with disabilities are alike, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach to providing appropriate resources. Rather, some people with disabilities can benefit from integrated programs while others might prefer separate work, which is why it's crucial for both types of programs to exist across the U.S., Resnik said.
Programs like Project SEARCH and others are especially important because they focus on adults, while many resources for those with disabilities, such as special education programs, are only available for those in elementary to high school.
"So much money, time and heart is invested in early diagnosis, early intervention, early education, but they spend the majority of their lives in adulthood," Resnik said.
Graduates, families thankful for Project SEARCH
Mya Moreno excitedly introduces her friends and job coaches to her loved ones who came to support her at the graduation ceremony for Project SEARCH interns.
Moreno just completed her school-year-long internship at the Renaissance hotel, and within a few days of graduation has started a new job at a Funko warehouse closer to her home.
"(I've learned) how to get out of my comfort zone a lot, and how to communicate more," Moreno said about her experience with Project SEARCH.
Moreno said her favorite part of the experience was the opportunity to interact with other employees at the hotel, some of whom she developed close friendships with.
Carrie Atkeson, whom Moreno lives with, heard about Project SEARCH due to her own experience as a special education teacher in Buckeye. She said she was worried about Moreno as she neared her high school graduation and was not quite ready to enter the workforce.
Now, however, Atkeson is confident that Moreno will succeed in her new job because of the tremendous growth she has made since the start of the program.
"She has gained so much more confidence," Atkeson said. "The fact that she's over there, allowing them to take a picture of her, is huge."
Patrick Clawson, a professional development specialist for West-Mec, attended the graduation ceremony in support of his niece, Lexi, who completed her internship at the Luke Air Force Base program.
"I certainly have noticed that, from when she graduated high school to now, her level of maturity has increased, and I think that that has to do with her sense of duty and her sense of purpose," Clawson said. "She feels like she's wanted and appreciated for being a hard worker and having a good attitude."
Clawson's niece has also landed a post-Project SEARCH job thanks to the skills she gained during the program.
"I've watched her grow into this capable, self sufficient young woman who has now got a job at Fry's and is just excelling in life," Clawson said.
Reach the reporter at endia.fontanez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @EndiaRain.
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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2022/05/28/project-search-helps-young-adults-disabilities-transition-work/9813652002/
| 2022-05-29T00:10:27
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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2022/05/28/project-search-helps-young-adults-disabilities-transition-work/9813652002/
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BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) – It’s opening weekend for many pools across our region, but just a few weeks ago there were some issues when it came to staffing lifeguards.
“It’s been a really weird opening season, opening week, opening couple of weeks, just due to really the unknowns of how many are we going to have? Taylor Harmon, Recreation Programmer, with Bristol Tennessee Parks and Recreation.
At Bristol’s Haynesfield pool, they’ve struggled to find enough lifeguards and because they still don’t have quite enough, half of the pool is still closed, including the diving well. Also, new this year, they’re implementing a 30-minute swim break so lifeguards are able to take lunch.
“When I was in high school, it was a cool thing to be a lifeguard,” Harmon said. “It’s almost like that pendulum has swung to different areas. So now, it’s really hard to get 16, 17, 18-year-old kids to commit to a summer job.”
17-year-old Brent Justice is one of six who did commit to a summer job as a lifeguard in Bristol.
“I wanted to make sure the community was safe, help kids in any way that I can, better the community,” Justice said. “It’s fun to come outside, get tan.”
Meanwhile over in Johnson City, Legion Street pool officials said luckily, they’re fully staffed this season.
Staffing isn’t the only challenge though. This year, pools are dealing with inflated prices for chlorine. Bristol Tennessee has switched to a new sanitizing system to combat that.
“We went from chlorine sticks to liquid bleach, and so that is something that’s completely different this year for us,” Harmon said. “It’s more cost-efficient, and it’s a little more easy for my guards to handle.”
Despite this season’s struggles, pools around the region are ready to accommodate the season’s eager swimmers. 10-year-old Ania Shell is one of dozens of kids that braved less than ideal weather Saturday to take a dip.
“It was a nice day outside,” Shell said. “Cold.”
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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/despite-challenges-local-pools-open-for-first-weekend-of-the-year/
| 2022-05-29T00:14:15
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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/despite-challenges-local-pools-open-for-first-weekend-of-the-year/
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AUSTIN, Texas — With strokes being the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States, one Austinite is hoping to spread the word of common symptoms.
Nurse and cardiovascular disease and stroke community educator Maricela Wilson created the mnemonic device "AHORA," meaning "now," to help Spanish speakers easily remember stroke warning signs.
"'Andar' means to walk," said Wilson. "So, a lot of times they start walking, like if they were drunk, you know, just because one of their legs is weak. The 'H' is for 'hablar' [talk], so they could be talking and all of a sudden they start to stutter and they talk like this," Wilson said while slurring her words. "'O' is 'ojos' [eyes] because a stroke will affect one side of your body. That one side either you see double vision, blurred vision, or you can't see anything out of your eye."
"'R' is for 'rostro' [face] because the face tends to droop. 'A' is for arms and legs because of the difficulty to lift them."
This idea was inspired by "BE FAST," the mnemonic device for English speakers, to help them remember signs of a stroke.
Wilson's husband, David Wilson, is proud of how quickly his wife's mnemonic device has spread.
"It's been exciting to sit back," said David. "You can, you know, pull up on the internet and see which communities have already adopted it and kind of how it's spreading across the country at this point."
They hope more people continue to adopt it because knowing what signs to look out for can save a life.
"Getting the education out there and recognizing it as a stroke, instead of saying go, go take a nap," said Wilson.
Wilson stresses that during a stroke it's important to seek medical attention immediately. If it isn't caught early, the person can sustain significant brain damage.
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austinite-mnemonic-latinos-stroke-signs/269-567ee7b9-d14f-4c51-b75f-04eb96fd4187
| 2022-05-29T00:27:10
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austinite-mnemonic-latinos-stroke-signs/269-567ee7b9-d14f-4c51-b75f-04eb96fd4187
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GAS TRACKER: Prices have increased by 40 cents in past month, most counties around $4.30 per gallon May 27, 2022 May 27, 2022 Updated 19 hrs ago 0 Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save Here's the latest as of May 27. Gas prices IA/MN Infogram Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Save More From KIMT News 3 Local Rochester woman, 30, arrested after allegedly breaking into apartment, stabbing a man Updated Dec 9, 2021 Cerro Gordo County Accused North Iowa catalytic converter thief to stand trial Updated Dec 9, 2021 News Britt man sent to prison for selling meth out of his home Mar 15, 2022 Cerro Gordo County Austin woman arrested in Cerro Gordo Co. for repeatedly changing bar codes at Walmart Updated Dec 9, 2021 Iowa Sen. Grassley visits with North Iowa constituents Updated Jan 28, 2022 News Will Rochester receive Ukrainian refugees? Updated Mar 28, 2022 Recommended for you
Local Rochester woman, 30, arrested after allegedly breaking into apartment, stabbing a man Updated Dec 9, 2021
Cerro Gordo County Austin woman arrested in Cerro Gordo Co. for repeatedly changing bar codes at Walmart Updated Dec 9, 2021
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https://www.kimt.com/news/local/gas-tracker-prices-have-increased-by-40-cents-in-past-month-most-counties-around-4/article_378acd86-b6a4-11ec-b417-27b35e070ff8.html
| 2022-05-29T00:32:30
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https://www.kimt.com/news/local/gas-tracker-prices-have-increased-by-40-cents-in-past-month-most-counties-around-4/article_378acd86-b6a4-11ec-b417-27b35e070ff8.html
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ROCHESTER, Minn. - Students at a local high school honored a classmate who is no longer with them during their graduation ceremony.
Graduations are a time when students are able to celebrate what they've accomplished, and what's to come in the years ahead. But at Kasson-Mantorville High School, members of the Class of 2022 made sure to remember a teen who they feel should have been standing alongside them as they received their diplomas Friday evening.
17-year-old Aidan Hegge, who was a student at KMHS, tragically took his own life in July of 2020. Nearly two years later as his classmates gathered for graduation, several students wore a suicide awareness ribbon bearing Aidan's name, and placed stickers on the tops of their mortar board reading "don't forget your light."
The mantra references a poem Aidan wrote for a close friend, titled "The Light Inside." The Hegge family has since started a charity named "Aidan's Light," spreading awareness about mental health and suicide prevention, especially among youth.
"Our hearts are so broken that Aidan can't physically be with his classmates but we know he will be there in spirit," Aidan's Mother Jennifer Hegge said ahead of Friday's graduation ceremony.
On June 11th, Aidan's Light will make a $10,000 donation to the National Alliance on Mental Illness at Target Field before the Twins game that day. The charity will also be hosting its second annual Aidan Hegge Memorial Golf Tournament on June 25th in Adams, Minnesota.
Proceeds from the event will go toward scholarships, as well as organizations addressing suicide and mental health.
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https://www.kimt.com/news/local/kasson-mantorville-high-school-graduates-remember-lost-classmate/article_8e3f98aa-de36-11ec-8b4b-17d40b49568e.html
| 2022-05-29T00:32:36
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https://www.kimt.com/news/local/kasson-mantorville-high-school-graduates-remember-lost-classmate/article_8e3f98aa-de36-11ec-8b4b-17d40b49568e.html
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HOUSTON — Protestors returned to Downtown Houston for day two of the NRA convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Law enforcement broke up multiple arguments between opposing sides, including members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys.
Members of the Proud Boys, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, clashed with gun control advocates across the street from the convention at Discovery Green.
The convention itself brought gun owners together from all over, each with their own reasons to bear arms.
"I was a latecomer to the gun world, probably 45 before I ever bought a gun, engineered by training," said one convention goer.
"I would rather have a gun in my home versus not. If somebody tries to come in, I can at least defend my family, my kids," said another.
Texas Senate Democrats have called on Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session over gun control in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 dead. Some people at the convention weighed in on the topic.
"You can't solve the problem with guns, you can't solve the problem with legislation," said one person.
Protestors are calling on Gov. Abbott and Texas lawmakers to introduce new legislation increasing the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21, require universal background checks and introduce a red flag law that would temporarily remove firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or to others.
"It breaks my heart. Just the thought makes me want to cry," one person said, referring to the tragedy in Uvalde. "But like I said, it’s not the gun that kills people, it's people that kill people with knives or cars or alcohol. It's not guns killing them, it's the people."
Many community members protesting in favor of a special session say Gov. Abbott needs to do more in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Uvalde.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
| 2022-05-29T00:49:11
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/texas/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
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Former Health Department chief Alexander-Scott speaks at Brown University
PROVIDENCE – Family, faith and lessons from her mother – who rose to leadership in health care despite obstacles including racism – were among the factors sustaining Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott during the nearly two years she led the Rhode Island Department of Health through the COVID-19 pandemic, she said on Saturday.
Appearing for the first time on a Rhode Island stage since she resigned in late January, Alexander-Scott, speaking at a forum during Brown University’s commencement weekend, said:
“You cannot survive if you are not on solid ground, whether it is decision-making regarding vaccination or some other form of leadership that just requires integrity and the ability to be able to stand comfortably on a decision that is not always an easy one. So I certainly build that out of a core that is centered around family and faith as a starting point.”
More:With COVID cases rising, CDC issues new guidance. What Rhode Islanders need to know.
Alexander-Scott credited former Gov. Gina Raimondo and her staff with successfully managing a crisis that punished other states more severely than Rhode Island, as devastating as coronavirus disease has been to the state, especially in the early days, before vaccines had been developed.
“I will always honor and appreciate Gov. Gina Raimondo,” Alexander-Scott said, “her brilliance, her tenacity, her endless energy and ability to really put all those qualities into play. She was almost born for the moment.
“Being able to be on the same team with her and the colleagues that she attracted definitely gave us the encouragements to know that even if we didn’t know what was happening or why we had the tools and the ingredients and the heart to help make sure that we did the best we could with what we had in the decision-making. That was always an encouragement to me.”
The former director did not discuss her relationship with Gov. Dan McKee, who succeeded Raimondo when she left for Washington to become U.S. Commerce Secretary, nor did she relate her reasons for resigning and she declined to discuss them when asked.
More:Central Falls schools bring back mask mandate as COVID cases rise again
Since resigning, Alexander-Scott has served as a consultant to the state, a position that ends on Tuesday. Asked about her future, she told The Journal that she will be a senior executive for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents the public health agencies of every state, the District of Columbia and the five U.S. territories.
Alexander-Scott spoke Saturday during an hour-long forum, “Leadership in a Crisis: Beyond and Through the Pandemic,” which was moderated by Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and academic dean of Brown University's School of Public Health.
Ranney described working closely with Alexander-Scott before and during the pandemic, and initiated a discussion about health equity, a hallmark of her tenure, which began in April 2015.
“I have taken to heart the opportunity to be the voice for those that may not have a voice for themselves, the most vulnerable populations, those who are overlooked or disregarded,” Alexander-Scott said.
Ranney also asked the former health department director to spell out the non-pandemic challenges facing Rhode Island, to which Alexander-Scott replied: “Because we so necessarily had to put so much emphasis on COVID for particularly that first year before we had vaccines, we see a lot of folks who are struggling in other ways, whether the decrease in pediatric regular vaccinations of kids, the decrease in other types of preventive care, the skyrocketing rates of opioid overdose.”
Speaking in general of public health, Alexander-Scott said “I truly have seen how necessary it is to have strong leadership across the board at the state level for you to achieve what is needed. At the individual, national and local level, leadership [must] understand the importance of what is done with public health, with public service, with data, with science, with the common good.”
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/05/28/former-health-department-chief-nicole-alexander-scott-brown-university-commencement/9966163002/
| 2022-05-29T00:57:44
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https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/local/2022/05/28/former-health-department-chief-nicole-alexander-scott-brown-university-commencement/9966163002/
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EAST POINT, Ga. — The Grant's World Youth Job Resource Center in East Point is a dream Donese Gordon has worked toward for years, but she tells 11Alive it almost didn't happen.
"I almost gave up. It was hard dealing with grief and a traumatic experience from losing Grant," she said.
Gordon's son, Grant, was murdered four years ago. It was three weeks after he had gotten his first job working at Chick-Fil-A. Before that, she remembered helping him fill out applications, similar to how she counseled adults in similar positions.
She hopes the center will prevent other young people from being hurt the same way her son was.
"I hope to see kids get their dream job and also to find their purpose in life. I want them to start believing in themselves and to be you know, to believe that they can be who they were created to be," Gordon said
Saturday, one day before the fourth anniversary of Grant's death, Gordon held a job fair attended by employers like Bank of America and Waffle House. The idea is that having a job will keep kids out of the path of potential problem behaviors.
"We're just trying to give back to the youth, do our part in, you know, do the most positive thing and give the most positive and just try to get the kids a better outlook or another outlook or another way to earn an income or just point them in the right direction", career coach Gary Reed said.
Reed added that kids won't just learn how to interview, they will also have access to clothing once donations make their way in. The process is designed to ensure career success.
"We're trying to give them opportunities so they won't be out here running around, getting into no trouble or just having idle time to get into trouble," he said
Plans are in the works to host recruiter fairs every Friday with employers to give people a better chance at getting a job.
More information about Grant's World Youth Job Resource Center can be found here.
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https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/new-east-point-job-center-aims-to-combat-gun-violence/85-a43bb673-76d5-4da2-89f8-67c883643eba
| 2022-05-29T01:07:05
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https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/new-east-point-job-center-aims-to-combat-gun-violence/85-a43bb673-76d5-4da2-89f8-67c883643eba
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The Orlando Police Department is investigating an officer-related shooting at an Olive Garden on Conroy Road.
Police said there are no threats to the public and the roads in the area are shut down. Motorists are advised to use alternate routes.
Check back with ClickOrlando.com for updates to this developing story.
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https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/05/29/police-investigating-officer-related-shooting-at-an-olive-garden-in-orlando/
| 2022-05-29T01:34:54
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https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2022/05/29/police-investigating-officer-related-shooting-at-an-olive-garden-in-orlando/
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MICHIGAN CITY — Multiple arrests, including a juvenile carrying gun, were made this past week in the continued violent crime reduction patrols in Michigan City.
At 7 p.m. Thursday police responded to a report of three juveniles wearing ski masks and displaying firearms in the area of West Seventh Avenue, said Michigan City Police Department Sgt. Steve Forker.
While working the violent crime reduction patrols, Sgt. Mike Oberle found the group and found that a 16-year-old had a 9 mm handgun. The teen was arrested and booked into the LaPorte Juvenile Services Center on a charge of possession of a handgun without a permit.
The violent crime reduction patrols also resulted in the arrest of LaPorte resident Lavelle Bert, 30, who had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in Porter County.
Bryan Razor, 38, of LaPorte, was arrested on charges of failure to return to a lawful detention and possession of methamphetamine following a traffic stop at Michigan Boulevard and Woodrow Avenue.
A traffic stop at Coolspring Avenue and Woodrow Avenue resulted in the arrest of Michigan City resident Ronald Mashburn, 48, who had a warrant for driving while suspended.
In addition, a handgun was confiscated after officers searched a vehicle in the area of Michigan Boulevard and School Street. The driver, Joshua Cain, 23, of Michigan City, was charged with carrying a handgun without a permit, police said.
"Chief Dion Campbell would like to assure the public that MCPD is going to take any and all necessary steps to curb the outbreak in violence in Michigan City," Forker said. "These extra patrols will be used to combat any outbreak of violence and maintain peace in our city."
Information on illegal activities can be provided to the Michigan City Police Department Crime Tip Hotline at 219-873-1488 or by messaging the departmental Facebook page. If individuals call the WeTip Hotline for General Crime at 800-78-CRIME, they could receive an award upon an arrest and conviction. Tipsters can request to be anonymous.
Gallery: Recent arrests booked into LaPorte County Jail
Anna Ortiz is the breaking news/crime reporter for The Times, covering crime, politics, courts and investigative news. She is a graduate of Ball State University with a major in journalism and minor in anthropology. 219-933-4194, anna.ortiz@nwi.com
Pastor John Lowe II got a standing ovation initially after saying he had sinned and committed “adultery.” Then a woman walked up to the microphone and said she was 16 at the time. A prosecutor is investigating.
"David (Dalton) stated multiple times that he was going to do whatever to help his son, who just got jumped by the large group of juveniles," according to Chesterton police.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call detectives at the Lake County/Gary Metro Homicide Unit at 219-755-3855. To remain anonymous, call 866-CRIME-GP.
A federal appeals court has declined to disturb an Indiana Supreme Court ruling declaring the shoreline of Lake Michigan is, and always has been, owned by the state for the enjoyment of all Hoosiers.
A custodial worker told police he only knew the defendant from passing at work and wasn't sure why the defendant stabbed him multiple times in a locker room.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/violent-crime-patrol-nets-several-arrests-firearm-confiscations-police-say/article_5c370d4e-bc57-58ab-a320-51689776d9f2.html
| 2022-05-29T01:35:32
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/violent-crime-patrol-nets-several-arrests-firearm-confiscations-police-say/article_5c370d4e-bc57-58ab-a320-51689776d9f2.html
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CORDOVA, Ala. (WIAT) — A small plane made an emergency landing on the off ramp to exit 72 on Interstate 22 in Cordova Saturday.
No one on board was injured. The cause for the landing is still under investigation.
The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office and Cordova Police Department were all on the scene.
No other information is available at this time.
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/plane-makes-emergency-landing-in-cordova/
| 2022-05-29T01:45:28
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https://www.cbs42.com/news/local/plane-makes-emergency-landing-in-cordova/
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FORT WORTH, Texas — They meet every Monday night like clockwork: 7:30 p.m. on the dot.
And sometimes they leave without you if you arrive at 7:31.
“In four years I think we’ve canceled one ride,” said cyclist Abbey Robinson.
They call themselves “Smash Bros Plus One.”
Abbey is the only woman – so she’s the plus one.
They ride around Fort Worth once a week, every week. It’s rare to ride twice, but last week they did.
“We didn’t have anything going on so it’s just like, let’s ride to Dallas and back,” Chris Williamson said.
They were about 30 miles into their 80-mile round trip when they got to a bridge over a drainage ditch.
Robinson said when they crossed it, “this woman had stopped her car and she keeps yelling, there’s a dog there’s a dog.”
On a concrete beam just below the road but 15 to 20 feet above the ground precariously sat a dog.
“There’s no way she could have gotten there herself and there’s no way she could have gotten out herself,” Robinson said. They believe the dog was most likely dumped there.
“The look on her face was despair,” Robinson said.
The cyclists stopped and out of nowhere a handyman van did too.
Within moments, Williamson had grabbed a ladder off the van and was climbing down.
He spent at least 15 minutes perched on that narrow beam, face to face with a frightened pup.
Cell phone pictures and videos show Williamson talking to her, laying with her, calming her down and eventually winning her over.
“As soon as I got over there and grabbed a hold of her, we were golden,” Williamson said
He picked her up and carefully lifted her up.
The rest of the cyclists reached down.
“Three of us bent over the side of the rail and cradled her like a baby and sat her down next to use,” Robinson said. “It was just relief.”
They nicknamed her “Mo,” short for Moriah, in honor of Moriah Wilson, an elite pro cyclist who was recently murdered in Austin.
Mo is now with a foster family and Saving Hope Rescue out of Fort Worth is raising money to cover the cost of her care.
“I mean it needed to be done, and who else is gonna do it if you don’t just jump in and do it?” Williamson said.
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https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/dog-rescue-fort-worth-texas-cyclists/287-1d171454-ac84-4859-af61-3ba86b027440
| 2022-05-29T01:49:07
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https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/dog-rescue-fort-worth-texas-cyclists/287-1d171454-ac84-4859-af61-3ba86b027440
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SAN ANTONIO — On a bright cloudless day in Uvalde, you could hear what sounded like the rumble of thunder. It was not incoming weather, but around 100 motorcyclists from San Antonio who came to the memorial at Robb Elementary.
“It’s close to home. This is right at our backdoor,” said Michael Campa, one of the motorcyclists. “You would figure it would never happen here.”
“That could have been our children, but it is one of our children because it’s one of our sons and daughters from the community,” said Arturo Garcia, one of the motorcyclists.
Most visiting the memorial walked up but this group rode right in. They brought an orange flower arrangement. It is one that is difficult to see among all the other flowers, stuffed animals, and crosses. One rider said it is meant to show support for longer than just today.
“If we get together in a sad time like this, we should be doing it all the time,” said John Vasquez, one of the motorcyclists.
There were prayers and tears during their turn at the memorial.
“They just touch everybody’s hearts,” said Becky Velasquez, who delivered the flowers ahead of the arrival of the larger group on bikes. “It was the right thing to do, come and give our respects.”
Their holiday weekend plans changed quickly when they knew they would need to make a stop at the memorial. For some riders who are former Marines, this Memorial Day holiday is not only about fallen military members, but all the fallen including the 21 who died.
“As a country, we all remember all of the fallen whether they lose their life on the battlefield or whether they lose their lives in the streets of America. We honor all of them,” said Garcia.
They want the community to know that no matter how tough moving forward will be, they will never ride through this life by themselves.
“There are a lot of people who love them and they are not standing alone,” Garcia said.
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https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/san-antonio-motorcyclists-ride-to-uvalde-memorial-shooting-texas/273-eac357da-f501-4bfb-951a-84e16a7dbcd0
| 2022-05-29T01:49:13
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https://www.kens5.com/article/news/local/texas/san-antonio-motorcyclists-ride-to-uvalde-memorial-shooting-texas/273-eac357da-f501-4bfb-951a-84e16a7dbcd0
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LINDA, California — A Costco Wholesale is expected to be coming to Linda, but an exact date is not known at this time.
According to Yuba County Supervisor Andy Vasquez, over 1,000 residents signed a petition to support the project.
"They said it couldn’t be done. They said we were crazy," Vasquez said in a post on his website and Facebook page. "I am beyond thrilled to announce that we did it! It’s official! Costco is coming to Linda!"
🎉IT'S OFFICAL -- COSTCO IS COMING TO LINDA🎉
They said it couldn’t be done. They said we were crazy.
Well today I am beyond thrilled to announce that we did it! It’s official! Costco is coming to Linda!
THANK YOU to each one of the 1200 local residents who signed my petition to support this project. Thank you for your faith and support.
Thank you to the developer for your perseverance, and thank you to our Yuba County staff for their fantastic customer service and their YES to business positive attitude.
I am Andy Vasquez, and it’s a true honor to serve as your Yuba County Supervisor.
I strive every day to make Linda bigger and better, and we sure did it today!
Spread the word, Costco is coming to Linda!
www.andyvasquez.com
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/coscto-linda-uba-county-supervisor-andy-vasquez/103-7904d37a-26ba-4c8d-9da3-6016b60b2f38
| 2022-05-29T02:28:47
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/california/coscto-linda-uba-county-supervisor-andy-vasquez/103-7904d37a-26ba-4c8d-9da3-6016b60b2f38
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HOUSTON — Protestors returned to Downtown Houston for day two of the NRA convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Law enforcement broke up multiple arguments between opposing sides, including members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys.
Members of the Proud Boys, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, clashed with gun control advocates across the street from the convention at Discovery Green.
The convention itself brought gun owners together from all over, each with their own reasons to bear arms.
"I was a latecomer to the gun world, probably 45 before I ever bought a gun, engineered by training," said one convention goer.
"I would rather have a gun in my home versus not. If somebody tries to come in, I can at least defend my family, my kids," said another.
Texas Senate Democrats have called on Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session over gun control in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 dead. Some people at the convention weighed in on the topic.
“I understand that in the state of Texas guns are very, very protected and very worshiped and valued," said protestor Aaliya Pozo. "And I can respect and I can understand that but at the same time can acknowledge that there is a desperate need for gun control and reform.”
Across the street, NRA convention attendees place the blame on individuals rather than guns themselves.
“I told my wife, I said I’m sure there will be protestors. But people want to blame the NRA for gun problems - gun violence,” said convention attendee Ron Starnes.
"You can't solve the problem with guns, you can't solve the problem with legislation," said another attendee.
Protestors are calling on Gov. Abbott and Texas lawmakers to introduce new legislation increasing the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21, require universal background checks and introduce a red flag law that would temporarily remove firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or to others.
"It breaks my heart. Just the thought makes me want to cry," one person said, referring to the tragedy in Uvalde. "But like I said, it’s not the gun that kills people, it's people that kill people with knives or cars or alcohol. It's not guns killing them, it's the people."
Many community members protesting in favor of a special session say Gov. Abbott needs to do more in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Uvalde.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
| 2022-05-29T02:28:53
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
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SAN JUAN COUNTY, Wash. — Editor's note: The above video on the process to remove a derogatory word from Washington sites originally aired April 7, 2022.
A proposal to rename a channel in San Juan Islands after one of the first Indigenous elected officials in Washington state was approved for final consideration by a state committee.
The proposed name change would rename Harney Channel, which runs between Shaw Island and Orcas Island, to Cayou Channel.
The proposed name, Cayou Channel, would honor Lummi Nation man, Henry Cayou.
Cayou lived his whole life in the San Juan Islands until his death in 1959. He was a successful commercial fisherman and was one of the first Indigenous elected officials in Washington state, according to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Cayou served for 29 years as the San Juan Island County commissioner.
Harney Channel was named after notorious American General William Selby Harney in the 1800s. Harney led the U.S. Army’s Department of Oregon from 1858 to 1860 and has a storied history of killing indigenous people throughout the midwest and western territories, and narrowly avoided war with Great Britain, which led to the occupation of the San Juan Islands, according to the Oregon Historical Society.
The proposal, first submitted in early 2021, was approved for final consideration by the Washington State Committee on Geographic Names in April. The proposal is awaiting opinions from many San Juan County organizations including the San Juan County Council and from the Washington State Historical Society.
The proposal will need to be approved at the federal level.
Download our free KING 5 app to stay up-to-date on news stories from across western Washington.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/rename-san-juan-islands-channel-indigenous/281-d46300a6-2c7a-4599-99db-88618d822b0b
| 2022-05-29T02:28:59
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/rename-san-juan-islands-channel-indigenous/281-d46300a6-2c7a-4599-99db-88618d822b0b
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BIG STONE GAP, Va. (WJHL) – Bluegrass fans gathered in Big Stone Gap for the ‘Gathering in the Gap’ music festival on Saturday.
This was the 14th year of the festival which celebrates old-time Americana and Bluegrass music.
Guests were able to enjoy food, crafts, and a performance from Grammy award-winning musician Crystal Gale.
In addition, the event held music competitions and a quilt show, showcasing Southwest Virginia’s history and culture.
“This is really just a celebration of old-time, bluegrass, country, and Americana music and what that means to us here in Southwest Virginia and throughout the Appalachian region really,” said Park Manager at the SWVA Museum Historical State Park, Gretchen Cope.
The festival also served as an opportunity for up-and-coming musicians to show off their talents.
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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/gathering-in-the-gap-music-festival-held-in-big-stone-gap/
| 2022-05-29T02:29:02
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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/gathering-in-the-gap-music-festival-held-in-big-stone-gap/
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ABINGDON, Va. (WJHL) – Plumb Alley Day returned to Abingdon after being canceled for the past two years.
The event took place in Abingdon’s historic district in the alley that runs between Main and Valley Street, located behind the Barter Theatre.
The event kicked off with the Appalachian Highlands Pipes and Drums band marching down the alley and featured more than 50 vendors, a putting challenge, corn hole, inflatable obstacle course, chalk drawing contest and more.
In addition, guests were able to enjoy live entertainment and learn more about history from the Men from the Overmountain Victory Trail Association.
“The purpose of Plumb Alley Day is to have a fun community festival that raises money for children’s organizations in our area,” said J.W. Hornsby, Kiwanis event chairman. “Every nickel we raise is donated to kids’ programs in Abingdon and Washington County, so it’s all for a wonderful cause.”
Food City was also an entertainment sponsor and donated gift cards that were given away in drawings throughout the event.
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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/plumb-alley-day-returns-to-abingdons-historical-district/
| 2022-05-29T02:29:08
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https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/plumb-alley-day-returns-to-abingdons-historical-district/
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ABC10's Photojournalist Weston Battagliese visited the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery and spoke with those there about the meaning of Memorial Day.
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https://www.abc10.com/video/news/local/sacramento/remembering-the-meaning-of-memorial-day/103-c3b7c7fc-0e45-4eb1-a175-dbcb87c806f2
| 2022-05-29T02:29:23
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https://www.abc10.com/video/news/local/sacramento/remembering-the-meaning-of-memorial-day/103-c3b7c7fc-0e45-4eb1-a175-dbcb87c806f2
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — It might not look or feel like it outside, but the unofficial start of summer is here. And with that, the lifeguards are back at Glenn Otto Park in Troutdale.
They warn that even if the weather gets warmer, you should be extremely careful when you get into the cold water.
“The river is dangerous here because of the cold temperatures. Today it’s running about 45 degrees. That can cause cold shock as well as swift currents. Furthermore the rivers change everyday and there’s always new hazards,” said AMR River Rescue Technician Colby Woodworth.
The lifeguards also remind you to never swim alone and make sure to use a life jacket.
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/lifeguards-return-to-glenn-otto-park-in-troutdale/
| 2022-05-29T02:30:58
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https://www.koin.com/local/multnomah-county/lifeguards-return-to-glenn-otto-park-in-troutdale/
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Congressman Chris Jacobs (R-NY), who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2020, said he would support a ban on assault weapons following two horrific mass shootings at a grocery store in New York and an elementary school in Texas.
Jacobs made the remarks — a contradiction to the Republican party's staunch stance on gun laws — during a news conference on Friday.
“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it,” he said, according to The Buffalo News. “So I want to be clear: I would vote for it.”
Jacobs, a Republican from New York who was endorsed by the NRA in 2020, also said he is in favor of raising the age for some gun purchases to 21.
Read the full story at NBCNews.com
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/gop-congressman-former-nra-endorsee-says-he-would-support-ban-on-assault-weapons-in-aftermath-of-buffalo-uvalde/3710847/
| 2022-05-29T02:35:29
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https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/gop-congressman-former-nra-endorsee-says-he-would-support-ban-on-assault-weapons-in-aftermath-of-buffalo-uvalde/3710847/
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Saturday,the first day of the weekend considered to be the unofficial start of summer, carried a weighty weather burden. And in that role as the opening day of Memorial Day weekend, Saturday seemed to give a splendid performance.
It suggested that summer in Washington did not have to be all stickiness and 90-degree temperatures.
Confining ourselves to the parameters measured by the thermometer, Saturday certainly seemed to hit its marks.
In Washington, as of 5 p.m., the mercury reached a high of 80 degrees. That is the average high temperature in Washington on May 28.
True, the morning’s low temperature did not match the average low for the date.
But it was close.
At 5:12 a.m. Saturday, the mercury showed a morning low of 63 degrees. The average low for the date was one degree lower, at 62.
It is possible, of course, that on some future May 28 in Washington, both high and low will duplicate the averages perfectly. Until such a day, Saturday seemed almost beyond challenge as informal gatekeeper to summertime.
In addition, Saturday seemed to score well when judged against standards other than the purely numerical and statistical.
It appeared to represent what in both meteorology and dispute resolution is called a clearing of the air.
If only by contrast with stormy, windy, rainy Friday and its weather watches and warnings, Saturday seemed benign, pleasurable, beguiling and inviting.
Bring us more such days, many might have asked, silently or aloud, of the rulers of summer.
Saturday had many periods of bright sunshine, with plenty of blue sky above us.
Clouds did appear in profusion. Very often they were spanking white, the sort that serve as perfect complements to the blue heavens.
Some clouds did also seem gray. Occasionally they covered the sun and a sudden coolness, and shadow seemed to steal over the city. But it did not seem too cool, nor did Saturday’s shadows seem too deep or dark.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/saturday-unofficially-started-summer-and-did-its-job/2022/05/28/0eb65982-ded8-11ec-a744-f4da26d516e8_story.html
| 2022-05-29T02:40:52
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/saturday-unofficially-started-summer-and-did-its-job/2022/05/28/0eb65982-ded8-11ec-a744-f4da26d516e8_story.html
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FORT SMITH, Ark. — The Fort Smith Police Department (FSPD) responded to a mental crisis call at Olive Garden Saturday, May 28 at 2:23 p.m.
According to police, an individual in distress entered Olive Garden expressing his fears of being followed and saying someone was coming in to "shoot up the place." This caused the people at the restaurant to flee in fear. Police were able to determine there was no threat and took the individual to the Crisis Stabilization Unit.
Officials say this was an isolated incident and the Crisis Intervention Team will follow up to ensure the individual receives the help that he needs.
FSPD says if you have a friend, acquaintance, or family member, that you believe is experiencing a mental health crisis or mental health issues call 479-709-5100 or 911 for emergencies.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/fort-smith-police-respond-mental-crisis-call-olive-garden-rogers-avenue/527-1a32d8f7-1514-44a6-b855-a672c0dcec69
| 2022-05-29T02:42:36
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/fort-smith-police-respond-mental-crisis-call-olive-garden-rogers-avenue/527-1a32d8f7-1514-44a6-b855-a672c0dcec69
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WALDRON, Ark. — A man is dead and two others are injured after a crash that took place on Highway 71 in Waldron.
According to the Arkansas State Police crash report, it happened Friday, May 27, afternoon just before 5:30 p.m.
Adrian Crawford from Shreveport, Louisiana was killed after crossing the center line near Freedom Road.
His Mercedes hit a Chevrolet in the opposite lane head-on.
According to the report, Robert Jones and Cody Jones of Waldron were both taken to Mercy Fort Smith.
There are no further details on the extent of their injuries.
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/one-dead-two-injured-after-crash-waldron-freedom-road/527-8a972761-b641-4b8e-8a70-3799561f8293
| 2022-05-29T02:42:42
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https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/local/one-dead-two-injured-after-crash-waldron-freedom-road/527-8a972761-b641-4b8e-8a70-3799561f8293
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BOISE — When the dust settled after the May 17 primary election, a stunning 11 members of the 20-member Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, the powerful joint committee that sets state agency budgets, weren’t due to be back come January.
That’s not all because of the election results. Three JFAC members, including the House co-chair and vice chair, already were planning to retire. A fourth, Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, left the Legislature to run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor.
But instead of a four-member shift, seven primary election losses, all in the GOP primary, mean a majority of JFAC will turn over in 2023, and that’s having implications for everything from the summer legislative schedule to the race for speaker of the House.
Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, is a former JFAC vice-chair who takes a lead role in crafting the huge K-12 public schools budget each year. She ran for speaker unsuccessfully in 2020 and lost her vice-chairmanship as a result. But she’s now the most-senior member of the House half of JFAC. She also had been widely expected to run for speaker again — and the speaker’s seat will be open next year because current Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, is running for lieutenant governor instead, and won the GOP primary.
“People are reaching out to me and expressing interest in me being JFAC co-chair, and learning about the committee and what we do, and I’m enjoying those conversations that I’m having with both veterans and freshmen alike,” Horman said in an interview. “At this point, I am just telling people I am considering running for speaker again, but also would love to be JFAC co-chair.”
Meanwhile, House Assistant Majority Leader Jason Monks, R-Meridian, announced a week ago on “Idaho Reports” on Idaho Public Television that he’s running for speaker.
Current House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star, who’s been in the No. 2 leadership spot since 2008, confirmed to the Idaho Press late last week that he, too, is running for speaker.
Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, who also ran unsuccessfully for speaker in the past and currently chairs the House State Affairs Committee, said he hasn’t yet decided whether to run for speaker. “I have had several people ask me … and I am praying about it,” he said by text.
The state of flux on JFAC also has impacted the Legislature’s summer interim schedule; the joint committee had been scheduled to hold a summer tour in north-central Idaho June 7-10, starting with a bus trip up from Boise and including three days of meetings and discussions, including visits to the University of Idaho, Lewis-Clark State College, the Lewiston state veterans home, juvenile corrections and prison facilities, the Port of Lewiston, Dworshak Dam, State Hospital North, Hells Gate State Park and more.
JFAC usually holds interim meetings and tours in the spring and fall, but hasn’t done so for two years due to the pandemic. Outgoing House Co-Chair Rep. Rick Youngblood, R-Nampa, said, “We used to always schedule those to go to different parts of the state, talk to agencies, get prepared for their budgets.”
That includes receiving reports on funding the joint committee already has allocated, and meeting with agencies about proposed funding plans.
But organizing efforts for the trip kept running up against members’ vacation plans and other conflicts, and those only increased as more and more members found out they weren’t returning. “There’s going to be huge turnover in JFAC,” Youngblood said.
Both he and House JFAC Vice Chair Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Genesee, are retiring from the Legislature after this year; late last week, the University of Idaho announced that it’s hiring Troy as its governmental affairs chief and she’ll start the new post July 1, replacing former state Sen. Joe Stegner, who’s retiring after more than 10 years in the post. Troy plans to name a substitute to complete her House term, which runs through the end of the year.
Senate Co-Chair Sen. Jeff Agenbroad, R-Nampa, and Vice Chair Carl Crabtree, R-Grangeville, both were defeated in the GOP primary.
“It’s a huge turnover,” Youngblood reiterated. “They’re just going to have to rely on whatever senior members we have left.”
He noted that Horman, as the most-senior continuing House member on the panel, is a “natural candidate for chair.”
Rather than the spring tour to north-central Idaho, Youngblood and Legislative Budget Director Keith Bybee said the joint committee is now looking at organizing an interim meeting in the fall. Youngblood said he’s been meeting with several other lawmakers on plans for big new wastewater and drinking water upgrade funding that JFAC appropriated to the state Department of Environmental Quality this year; that was among the topics to be explored at the canceled meeting, but less formal, smaller working meetings on it will continue, he said.
“We’ll just keep moving forward. It will be a challenge,” Youngblood said. “It just wasn’t feasible for us to go on this trip.”
Horman compared it to her first year on the joint committee, when several freshmen were appointed to the key panel. However, she also noted that at least two former JFAC members who won primary races could potentially be returning to the panel, and both have some seniority: Former Reps. Steve Miller, R-Fairfield; and Britt Raybould, R-Rexburg.
“Steve Miller had six years of service on JFAC,” Horman said. “He was a hard worker, and great with education budgets.” And Raybould served two years on the joint committee, during which she won respect as an engaged, detail-oriented panel member.
Agenbroad said, “We know that there’s going to be big committee turnover, but we don’t know what the new committee’s even going to look like. So from my standpoint as co-chair, it’s my commitment to leave anything I get involved in, I want to leave it better than I found it.”
“We lose a lot of institutional knowledge,” he said. “The Legislature has two constitutional duties: Fund education, and set a balanced budget.”
MORRISON SWITCHES TO CRAPO’S OFFICE
Marissa Morrison, who has been Gov. Brad Little’s press secretary since he first was elected in 2018, started a new position as press secretary for U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo in his Boise office last week, replacing longtime Crapo press spokesman Lindsay Nothern, who retired.
Morrison, like Nothern, will be based in Crapo’s Boise office.
Prior to joining Little’s staff, Morrison, a Pocatello native, was a broadcast journalist with KIVI Six on Your Side in Nampa and KPVI News 6 in Pocatello. She holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting and electronic media studies from Gonzaga University.
HARDY JOINS LITTLE’S OFFICE
Also last week, Little’s new press secretary, former KIVI-TV reporter Madison Hardy, started her new job, replacing Morrison.
Emily Callihan, Little’s communications director, said Hardy was selected from among more than a dozen applicants for the position. A University of Idaho graduate in broadcast journalism and digital media, she worked as a reporter for the Coeur d’Alene Press prior to joining KIVI-TV in January as a multimedia journalist for Idaho News 6. Hardy also served as a McClure Center intern covering the Idaho Legislature while she was a UI student in 2020, “so she covered Statehouse politics during the pandemic,” Callihan said.
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https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/eye-on-boise-big-jfac-changes-and-a-race-for-speaker/article_0f8cfeaf-f346-5ad4-91dc-66094c00e83c.html
| 2022-05-29T03:01:34
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https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/eye-on-boise-big-jfac-changes-and-a-race-for-speaker/article_0f8cfeaf-f346-5ad4-91dc-66094c00e83c.html
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BOISE — After all the calculations were made by each county last week to reflect election-day voter registrations, statewide voter turnout in the May 17 primary election came in almost exactly where it did four years earlier: 32.4% of registered voters cast ballots, compared to 32.6% in the 2018 primary.
In some ways, that indicates a strong turnout this year — because in 2018, there were hotly contested races for governor on both the Democratic and Republican primary ballots. “The governor’s race normally drives the turnout,” said former longtime Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa.
“If you get a third, 33%, that’d be a great turnout. That’s a sad commentary on our process,” Ysursa said, “especially when the whole ballgame’s in the primary.”
That’s largely because in recent years, Idaho’s primary elections, particularly in the majority GOP primary, have been much more competitive than its general election races, with more hotly contested races and more contested races total.
But Idaho’s primary election voter turnout has been stagnant or declining for years, after a since-unmatched high in 1972 — the first year those age 18-20 were allowed to vote — when 58.3% of registered voters cast ballots in the Idaho primary.
“That was a big deal,” said Andy Brunelle, a retired Forest Service employee who worked for the state and tracked voter turnout as an editor for the Idaho Blue Book for many years, starting in the late 1970s. “It was the highest ever for where I have data.”
The next big year was 1980, when primary turnout hit 41.34% of registered voters — and 30.94% of the voting-age population, a figure not matched since. Idaho’s primary turnout as a percentage of the voting-age population hasn’t topped 26% since 1984, according to records tallied by the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office; it hit a low of 14.69% of the voting-age population in 2016.
In the 1980 election, Brunelle recalled, “There were huge voter-registration drives,” mainly driven by the Symms and Church campaigns. That was the year that then-GOP Congressman Steve Symms narrowly defeated longtime Democratic Idaho Sen. Frank Church. “The Church campaign and the Symms campaign were already in full swing, even though they had no opponents in the primary,” Brunelle said.
There also were plenty of contests on that year’s Idaho primary ballot, including a hot race between Larry Craig and Wayne Kidwell in the GOP primary for the 1st Congressional District seat. Craig was a state senator at the time and Kidwell was a former Idaho attorney general; Craig won, and went on to a long career in both the U.S. House and Senate before his career ended in scandal in 2009, after his 2007 arrest in a sex sting at the Minneapolis airport. There was a similarly close race between Glenn Nichols and Terry McKay on the Democratic side; the 2nd Congressional District also had a big primary that year between Republicans Jim Jones and incumbent George Hansen, who pulled out the win.
That November, Idaho’s voter turnout in the general election was 80.1% of registered voters, but that figure was pushed down some by the big upswell in the number of registered voters. The 1980 general election turnout was 69.05% of the voting-age population.
Idaho’s general-election turnout rates have generally remained high over the years. The 2020 November general election saw 81.16% of registered voters cast ballots, and 65.62% of the voting-age population. But primary election turnout has continued to lag.
One exception to that trend came in the very unusual 2020 May primary, which took place all by mail during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every registered voter in the state was mailed a postcard notifying them the election was coming, and then another card they could send back to request an absentee ballot. As a result, primary turnout in that election hit 38.1% of registered voters, but only about 25% of the voting-age population. That same year’s presidential primary, which took place in March before the pandemic had hit Idaho, saw just 17.34% of the voting-age population cast ballots.
This year’s May primary, based on estimates of the voting-age population extrapolated from the last federal estimate tallied in July of 2021, saw roughly 22% of Idaho’s voting-age population participate.
As a percentage of registered voters, turnout varied widely among Idaho counties, but it followed roughly the same patterns it did four years ago. The highest turnouts — 54.7% and 53.8% — came in tiny Camas and Clark counties in eastern Idaho. North Idaho saw relatively high turnout, with 34.6% of registered voters participating in Kootenai County, 43.8% in Bonner County and 47% in Boundary County. In 2018, Kootenai County’s turnout was just under 30% of registered voters, while Bonner tallied 44.5% and Boundary, 40.4%.
Ada County’s turnout for the May 17 primary was 31.5% of registered voters; Canyon’s was 27.5%. Both are down just a couple of points from 2018 levels.
Phil McGrane, the current Ada County clerk who won the GOP primary for Idaho secretary of state and will face Democrat Shawn Keenan for the post in November, said, “In addition to seeing kind of a steady decline in voter turnout over the past 40 years, one of the other things we also see is a steady decline in voter registration. … So less of the population is registered today than it used to be, say in 1980.”
“I was happy to see that turnout was high for this election, and when I say that it’s relative to primaries in the recent past,” McGrane said. “But it’s still only 32%. Which means the vast majority of Idahoans did not participate. If a republic is based on the people selecting the people who are going to represent them, we do our very best when everyone feels represented by those who are elected.”
“We always see higher turnout in general elections,” he noted, “even though so much is going to be determined in these primary elections here in the state.”
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https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/turnout-in-may-primary-roughly-matched-2018-level/article_3a13385c-6d98-5cfb-8656-43d0ecadede7.html
| 2022-05-29T03:01:40
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https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/turnout-in-may-primary-roughly-matched-2018-level/article_3a13385c-6d98-5cfb-8656-43d0ecadede7.html
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BOISE, Idaho — 119 cadets walked across the stage Friday as the Idaho Youth ChalleNGe Academy (IDYCA) celebrated its commencement at Calvary Chapel in Boise.
The 22-week volunteer program gives students who are on the verge of dropping out of high school, or already have, a second chance. Friday's graduation marked the academy's 17th class.
"I've never really accomplished anything in my life. I never really went start to finish in about anything," IDYCA Staff Sergeant Henneman said. "So, to me and my family, this means more than the world."
The Idaho Youth ChalleNGe Academy holds two classes per year and around 350 teens between the age of 16 and 18 apply for each class.
IDYCA Commandant, Guy Bonner, said the organization is a quasi-military residential high school academy. Since the program began in January 2014, 1,701 cadets have graduated from IDYCA.
"They're here because they're typically behind on credits, things of that nature," Bonner said. "They're just trying to catch back up and recover lost ground and some of them recover lost ground and actually get ahead. It's a pretty neat thing."
According to IDYCA's website, the program utilizes, "discipline and structure, to ensure a productive learning environment." IDYCA is a division of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program
The graduating cadets will now go back to finish high school or start their careers. A few of the cadets even said they plan to join the Air Force.
"This program has helped me prepare for the future by showing me how I can be successful and teaching me grit and maturity," Michael Ryan Woods said.
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho-youth-challenge-academy-graduation/277-ce15630c-e7fe-4ec4-9376-e115e2aac11b
| 2022-05-29T03:01:46
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho-youth-challenge-academy-graduation/277-ce15630c-e7fe-4ec4-9376-e115e2aac11b
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Southside businesses can expect to see over $350,000 less in annual consumer spending after the Lone Tree Overpass is constructed, according to the economic impact study (EIS) presented to Flagstaff City Council Tuesday night.
Council directed city staff to conduct an EIS after traffic modeling showed that the Lone Tree Overpass project could reduce traffic flows on South San Francisco and Beaver Street by 70%. The EIS was conducted by WSP, the engineering firm partnered with the city on the project, and presented to Council by Jason Carlaftes of WSP.
The EIS evaluated two commercials district, the “Beaver/San Francisco (BSF) District” (Southside) that encompasses those streets south of the tracks, and the “Lone Tree/Butler District” in southeast Flagstaff, an area locally known as “Little Scottsdale.” Findings from the EIS show that new traffic flows created by the Lone Tree Overpass would result in $351,100 less annual consumer spending in the Southside and $232,000 more annual spending in Little Scottsdale. By 2040, that change in spending will total $5.2 million less spending in BSF, and $3.4 million more spending in Little Scottsdale, a net decrease of $1.8 million across both districts.
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Impacts will vary by business type, Carlaftes said. Businesses in the Southside that rely on passerby “opportunity” sales will be more heavily impacted by the reduction of traffic than businesses that rely on “destination” sales — where a customer travels specifically to visit a business. Examples of “opportunity” businesses can include coffee shops, retail and grocers to some extent.
This shift would put a pressure on businesses to make “natural adjustments,” Carlaftes said, adding that the decrease in vehicle traffic could open up Southside for improved multi-modal traffic infrastructure, which could help lessen the impact on businesses.
“If the city were to designate bike corridors on Beaver and San Francisco, that might help accelerate that type of traffic,” Carlaftes said.
“I’m all for bike infrastructure,” said Brandon Cox, general manager of Macy’s European Coffeehouse and Bakery on Beaver Street. Cox added that a shift in traffic accompanied by improved multi-modal access would allow Macy’s to re-connect with the local customer base.
“A lot of locals love to bike,” Cox said. “It’s what we do.”
Despite being a business that would theoretically be impacted by a decrease in opportunity sales, Cox estimated that a significant portion of his customers come to Macy’s as a destination. In some cases a little less traffic might be a good thing.
“I know I've lost customers over the years because we're so busy all the time with the tourists,” Cox said. “I would love to cater more to the community.”
Having to adjust to less opportunity sales is “not ideal” said Lizzie Simpkins, owner of Zani Cards and Gifts.
Her bright blue storefront “fortunately” faces one way traffic on Beaver Street, and while decreased vehicle traffic could mean less stop-ins, she’s not opposed to seeing fewer cars on the street.
“There’s a lot of traffic in this part of town,” Simpkins said. She said she sees “almost accidents” on a daily basis.
“I don't think it'd be terrible to have more access for bikes and pedestrians to actually get around safely,” Simpkins said.
In her estimation, Flagstaff is such a “destination” town to begin with, that many tourists are likely to find her shop even if there is reduced vehicle traffic.
“If your goal is to see downtown, you’re going to make it here one way or another,” Simpkins said.
A public meeting to discuss the Lone Tree Overpass EIS is being scheduled for the third week of July. That same meeting will also address intersection design, public art and beautification efforts associated with the overpass.
After hearing the EIS during Tuesday’s meeting, city council also gave direction for the project to proceed without the “Elden Corridor” roadway beneath the overpass. This roadway was part of the original planning and designed to connect parcels east and west of the overpass, but favor has shifted toward honoring the Southside Community Plan, which advocated for using the narrow space for FUTS trail and park amenities.
“It seems like we can’t have both the park amenities and the corridor in that space,” said Councilmember Austin Aslan. "I have to prioritize the park amenities. They’re long overdue for the [Southside] neighborhood.”
The decision to move forward without the Elden corridor roadway was unanimous. Councilmembers noted that choosing a trail system over a roadway would also help save cost on a project that was already “over budget.”
Council will further address of the Lone Tree Overpass intersection design during the regularly scheduled work session on June 7.
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/lone-tree-overpass-expected-to-reduce-spending-in-flagstaff-s-southside-businesses/article_021a1234-dc87-11ec-93f7-7f06ea72fc4a.html
| 2022-05-29T03:10:17
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https://azdailysun.com/news/local/lone-tree-overpass-expected-to-reduce-spending-in-flagstaff-s-southside-businesses/article_021a1234-dc87-11ec-93f7-7f06ea72fc4a.html
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Northern Arizona track and field advanced three men to the NCAA championship meet during final day of the NCAA West Regional in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Friday.
George Kusche (3:38.75) started the day for the Lumberjacks with a third-place finish in the men's 1,500-meter race. David Dunlap (20.40) showed out in the men's 200m dash, placing fourth in the region to keep his season alive.
Later, Nico Young signed off on the night with a third-place finish in the 5000m race to punch his ticket to the national championships. Drew Bosley (13:42.32), Brodey Hasty (13:42.28) and Jack Shea (13:44.57) placed 16th, 30th and 41st, respectively.
Meanwhile, in the triple jump, Mitchell Effing (14.86m), Jack Normand (14.86m), and Sirr Butler (14.04m) respectively finished 38th, 42nd and 44th.
Abdihamid Nur had already reached nationals with a 10K with a time of 28:45.90 on Wednesday.
The Lumberjacks women were set to conclude their competition on Saturday.
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The NCAA Outdoor National Championships will begin June 8 in Eugene, Oregon.
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nau-roundup-three-more-advance-out-of-ncaa-west-regional/article_82c0d756-dead-11ec-aff7-d73b2cc310b4.html
| 2022-05-29T03:10:23
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https://azdailysun.com/sports/local/nau-roundup-three-more-advance-out-of-ncaa-west-regional/article_82c0d756-dead-11ec-aff7-d73b2cc310b4.html
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Black Pilots of America (BPA) is an organization with 18 chapters across the country.
Since 1997, members have been gathering here in Pine Bluff for a family-fun event called 'Operation Skyhook' which organizers hope will inspire kids to become future pilots one day.
It's never too early to start thinking about what you want to do in life.
For Eric Burdette, a member of Black Pilots of Americans, he knew when he was 5 years old.
"Seeing all the airplanes flying around here sparked my interest in aviation," Burdette said.
His career more or less started on the tarmac at Grider Field Airport in Pine Bluff.
His frequent visits to the airport eventually lead to his first flight in 1989.
"I was too excited to be nervous at the time," Burdette said.
Fast forward to now with the help of a family friend and Eric has been a commercial pilot for more than a decade.
"A boost to my aviation career was actually being able to have someone to mentor me," Burdette said.
His mentor was Ken Johnson, coordinator for the BPA event.
"I just really get a big kick out of not only teaching, but also taking up kids on their first ride in an airplane," Johnson said.
He's been apart of the event for more than two decades.
The event was paused because of the pandemic, but organizers are happy to be back this year.
"We [are] all excited now to have everybody back here and matter of fact, this is why you [could] possibly see record attendance, because we came back out," Johnson said.
Pilots from around the country come to Pine Bluff and are ready to compete in several contests throughout the Memorial Day weekend.
For Johnson, he just wants future pilots to have an early start to their career.
That is something that he said he missed out on when he was a child.
"I was some 20 years old before I had an opportunity to go up. I wanted to do it early, but it wasn't possible," Johnson said.
It's a commitment to the youth that's shared by everyone out there. Years later and Burdette continues to come back with hopes of returning the favor.
"You just can't get to a point and not continue to pull people up behind you." Burdette said.
Organizers said this is their largest event.
They'll also be hosting a summer flight academy for young children in July.
For those interested, you can find a full list of the events for Black Pilots of America's here.
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/operation-skyhook-future-arkansas-black-pilots/91-19343b9f-0381-4ba0-8431-6d6dde6daa05
| 2022-05-29T03:16:37
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https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/operation-skyhook-future-arkansas-black-pilots/91-19343b9f-0381-4ba0-8431-6d6dde6daa05
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PORTLAND, Ore. — The long-delayed return of TEDxPortland debuted at the Moda Center on Saturday, the 10th year of the event and the first time it's been held since 2019. But the audience became vocally involved when host David Rae introduced a surprise guest, unaffiliated candidate for Oregon governor Betsy Johnson.
The event, which KGW was a media partner for, was advertised to include 15 speakers and six performers. Johnson was not among the previously announced participants.
After the first few questions from Rae, several members of the audience began calling out for her to address her stances on guns. In the audience was a KGW reporter, who began taking video as the clamoring grew.
Johnson, a former Democratic state lawmaker, described her views on gun control in detail when KGW spoke to her, Democratic candidate Tina Kotek and Republican candidate Christine Drazan on Thursday in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas shooting.
Unlike many of her former Democratic colleagues, Johnson has largely opposed additional gun control measures in Oregon, and she received an A rating from the NRA in 2018.
As audience shouts continued during the TEDx interview, Rae stopped and gave Johnson the floor to deliver a reply. She reiterated many of the same points that she has outlined previously, describing the gun debate as an ideological morass, before pivoting to the topic of mental health.
"I think we have so divided this debate on gun, no gun, that we're losing track of some of that stuff in the middle ground," Johnson said. "And that stuff in the middle ground is — we have, by any definition, a sh**ty mental health system."
Johnson was met by cheers and applause after that statement. But members of the audience almost immediately became restless again when Johnson went on to say that local parents and communities should decide how to make schools safe for children, as opposed to the legislature. She returned to the topic of mental health amid a smattering of applause and cheers, but her subsequent comments on guns brought a chorus of boos from parts of the audience.
"People in this country are going to own guns," Johnson continued. "The style of the gun doesn't dictate the lethality."
Rae broke in to settle the topic by saying that he did not understand the U.S. gun problem by virtue of being Canadian, but offered praises of Johnson's character. At that point, someone in the audience yelled, "don't take sides."
"It's not a campaign," Rae replied. "Look, we get asked all the time at TEDxPortland, why don't you get involved in public service? We are so scared, because you get eviscerated in public. I'm happy to talk to Tina, happy to talk to Tobias — we don't have two hours to do a debate, and this isn't KGW."
Rae said that he knew Tobias Read, who lost the Democratic nomination to Kotek, from his days at Nike.
Despite running without party backing, Johnson has amassed millions of dollars in her campaign war chest. Her latest cash balance of more than $5 million dwarfs those of Kotek and Drazan, both of whom are at a relative low point after winning their respective primaries. Nike co-founder Phil Knight has been one major financial backer of Johnson's campaign.
After a request for comment, Johnson's campaign issued a statement to KGW, which read in part:
"While the vast majority of people were supportive, a few folks tried to shut down productive dialogue. That’s unfortunate, but I remain undaunted. To keep this country from coming apart at the seams, we must seek to understand those we disagree with. Forcing your views on others destroys trust and any sense of community.”
A TEDxPortland spokesperson also released a statement, apologizing for the decision to have Johnson appear as a surprise guest:
“Having a potential political candidate for public office on our stage this morning was not the right decision. We apologize for the error in judgment and the distraction this moment created in what was otherwise an engaging and celebratory day for ten years of TEDxPortland.
"Our mission is to provide a forum for thoughtful conversation, welcoming people from every discipline and culture. Every guest on our stage has a unique perspective and our intention for the day was to encourage discussion on a wide range of topics and current issues that matter to the City of Portland and beyond.
"We remain committed to this mission and have learned from this mistake today.”
After the tension of Johnson's appearance on Saturday, the TEDxPortland event soon moved on to speaker Vince Kadlubek of Meowulf, who briefly mentioned the gun debate to a more positive response before beginning his presentation.
This week, KGW spoke to Rukaiyah Adams, the chief investment officer at Meyer Memorial Trust who was a scheduled speaker at TEDxPortland. She described her talk as a combination call-to-action and love letter to Portland. Brenda Braxton also carpooled with stripper, musician, mom, cancer survivor and TEDx speaker Viva Las Vegas.
The University of Oregon was the presenting sponsor of TEDxPortland this year. Platinum sponsors of the event include Nike, Enjoy the Weather, Lane Powell, the Oregon Community Foundation, Premier, Victory, Umpqua Bank, MeyerPro and RoseQuarter.
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/betsy-johnson-tedxportland-gun-control-debate/283-a72d88fb-0948-466a-a796-7fab73897888
| 2022-05-29T03:55:50
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https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/betsy-johnson-tedxportland-gun-control-debate/283-a72d88fb-0948-466a-a796-7fab73897888
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/memorial-day-launches-summer-travel-spike-amid-record-gas-prices/3255020/
| 2022-05-29T03:59:16
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/police-father-charged-after-4-year-old-shoots-self-inside-car/3255011/
| 2022-05-29T03:59:23
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/police-father-charged-after-4-year-old-shoots-self-inside-car/3255011/
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/summertime-events-return-to-the-waterfront-after-2-years-of-pandemic/3255012/
| 2022-05-29T03:59:30
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/summertime-events-return-to-the-waterfront-after-2-years-of-pandemic/3255012/
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14-year-old boy hospitalized after near-drowning at Embassy Suites pool
Haleigh Kochanski
Arizona Republic
Phoenix Fire Department says a 14-year-old boy is in extremely critical condition after a near drowning in a pool at an Embassy Suites hotel near Thomas Road and 24th Street on Saturday.
When crews arrived on the scene, they found bystanders performing CPR on a 14-year-old boy.
It is unclear how long the teen was under water in the pool, said Phoenix Fire Department in a statement.
Firefighters immediately started "advanced life saving procedures" on the boy and took him to a local hospital.
The scene was turned over to Phoenix Police Department.
Reach breaking news reporter Haleigh Kochanski at hkochanski@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @HaleighKochans.
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.
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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2022/05/28/14-year-old-boy-hospital-after-near-drowning-embassy-suites-pool/9983284002/
| 2022-05-29T04:01:19
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AUSTIN, Texas — Faith leaders of different religions and community members gathered at the Oswaldo Pan-American Neighborhood Park on Saturday evening to grieve and remember the lives lost and many others affected by the Uvalde shooting.
The event began at 7 p.m. with a prayer procession led by Father Guillermo from Cristo Rey Church.
The prayer vigil was held to honor the community of Uvalde where 19 children and 2 teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.
Interfaith leaders and East Austin community members came together to pray for the children, teachers and families of Uvalde.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING:
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-interfaith-vigil-21-victims-uvalde-school-shooting/269-3bcdcc91-eddf-4c85-9e33-c0a8f00f3dbb
| 2022-05-29T04:39:00
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-interfaith-vigil-21-victims-uvalde-school-shooting/269-3bcdcc91-eddf-4c85-9e33-c0a8f00f3dbb
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SAN ANTONIO — Bus drivers from Northside Independent School District paid tribute to Uvalde CISD Saturday morning by making a heart formation with their busses and physically gathering to spell out 'Uvalde'.
Leroy Montalvo, NISD's Culebra Transportation bus driver, organized the event with his colleagues, NISD Transportation Director Tesilia Garza said.
Station managers from four other stations helped spread the word and invited other transportation employees. In all, employees from five stations gathered in the color Maroon, which is the school color of Robb Elementary, to show their support UCISD.
Garza said UCISD's transportation director and his team were touched by the gesture.
On Tuesday, a gunman walked into Robb Elementary and opened fire in a classroom killing 19 students and two teachers.
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/nisd-bus-drivers-pay-tribute-to-uvalde-cisd-texas/273-63ff6053-52b2-44ad-b393-0a36e0c0fae2
| 2022-05-29T04:39:06
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/nisd-bus-drivers-pay-tribute-to-uvalde-cisd-texas/273-63ff6053-52b2-44ad-b393-0a36e0c0fae2
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HOUSTON — Protestors returned to Downtown Houston for day two of the NRA convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Law enforcement broke up multiple arguments between opposing sides, including members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys.
Members of the Proud Boys, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, clashed with gun control advocates across the street from the convention at Discovery Green.
The convention itself brought gun owners together from all over, each with their own reasons to bear arms.
"I was a latecomer to the gun world, probably 45 before I ever bought a gun, engineered by training," said one convention goer.
"I would rather have a gun in my home versus not. If somebody tries to come in, I can at least defend my family, my kids," said another.
Texas Senate Democrats have called on Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special legislative session over gun control in the wake of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 dead. Some people at the convention weighed in on the topic.
“I understand that in the state of Texas guns are very, very protected and very worshiped and valued," said protestor Aaliya Pozo. "And I can respect and I can understand that but at the same time can acknowledge that there is a desperate need for gun control and reform.”
Across the street, NRA convention attendees place the blame on individuals rather than guns themselves.
“I told my wife, I said I’m sure there will be protestors. But people want to blame the NRA for gun problems - gun violence,” said convention attendee Ron Starnes.
"You can't solve the problem with guns, you can't solve the problem with legislation," said another attendee.
Protestors are calling on Gov. Abbott and Texas lawmakers to introduce new legislation increasing the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21, require universal background checks and introduce a red flag law that would temporarily remove firearms from those who are a danger to themselves or to others.
"It breaks my heart. Just the thought makes me want to cry," one person said, referring to the tragedy in Uvalde. "But like I said, it’s not the gun that kills people, it's people that kill people with knives or cars or alcohol. It's not guns killing them, it's the people."
Many community members protesting in favor of a special session say Gov. Abbott needs to do more in the aftermath of the mass shooting in Uvalde.
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
| 2022-05-29T04:39:13
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https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/texas/houston-nra-convention-gun-debate-protestors/285-e5c1894a-c04f-4c82-9f4e-51ded9af56dc
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Arizona lottery numbers, May 28
Associated Press
These Arizona lotteries were drawn Saturday:
Pick 3
4-8-6
Fantasy 5
21-28-30-32-39
Estimated jackpot: $301,000
The Pick
11-15-23-28-35-42
Estimated jackpot: $1.3 million
Triple Twist
06-07-09-13-26-31
Estimated jackpot: $315,000
Mega Millions
Estimated jackpot: $170 million
Powerball
02-39-50-61-66, Powerball: 15, Power Play: 2
Estimated jackpot: $150 million
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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2022/05/28/arizona-lottery-numbers-may-28/9984190002/
| 2022-05-29T04:44:51
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https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona/2022/05/28/arizona-lottery-numbers-may-28/9984190002/
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SENECA — Over a dozen people were sent to area hospitals late Saturday afternoon as a result of a boat fire in LaSalle County.
The Illinois State Police, Seneca Police Department and Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police responded to the incident at about 4:26 p.m. at Spring Brook Marina, along the Illinois River in Seneca, according to a news release from ISP.
Of the boat's 17 occupants, 13 were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, and one was life flighted to an area hospital with serious injuries. One marina employee was also taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The IDNR Conservation Police are leading the investigation.
No further information was available Saturday night.
Photos: Heart of Illinois Cluster Dog Show in Bloomington
Memorial Day weekend ceremonies began Saturday morning with the honoring of a late United States Army veteran at East Lawn Memorial Gardens in Bloomington.
The Heart of Illinois Cluster Dog Show returned to Bloomington this weekend with over 100 dog breeds from across the globe gathering at the Interstate Center.
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https://pantagraph.com/news/local/15-injured-in-boat-fire-saturday-in-lasalle-county/article_f7230dc4-defa-11ec-ae2f-67835781366c.html
| 2022-05-29T04:59:15
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https://pantagraph.com/news/local/15-injured-in-boat-fire-saturday-in-lasalle-county/article_f7230dc4-defa-11ec-ae2f-67835781366c.html
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It's not every day that a prosecutor joins in a defense motion for a new trial.
This year, it happened not once, but twice, in Lancaster County District Court in the cases of two people convicted and sentenced on unrelated drug charges later discovered potentially to have been tainted by an evidence breach at the Nebraska State Patrol.
In a rare twist — despite both sides being in agreement that the convictions should be undone and the cases dismissed — a District Court judge denied the move.
Now, both cases are on appeal.
It started back in November, when the attorneys for Samantha Blocher and Gabriel Muratella received an email from the Lancaster County Attorney's Office with a letter attached, disclosing that their clients' cases had been identified as part of a State Patrol drug-related investigation that resulted in a conviction and sentence.
The letter said: "You are advised that it is possible that during the time any drug-related evidence in this case was in the custody of NSP, it may have been directly or indirectly maintained by or otherwise subject to the oversight of the former evidence technician," referring to Anna Idigima, who now is facing federal charges for allegedly conspiring to sell drugs taken from the State Patrol's evidence room.
Blocher's case, which was over a Nov. 6, 2018, traffic stop on Interstate 80 near Lincoln that turned up two baggies totaling about 20 grams of methamphetamine and a digital scale, had been on the docket at the Nebraska Court of Appeals.
She had been found guilty at the end of a two-day jury trial in July 2021, had gotten probation and appealed.
But with the news of the evidence breach, her attorney, Matt Catlett, withdrew the appeal so the case could go back to district court, where the County Attorney's Office agreed to join in his request for a motion for a new trial "and thereafter motion the court to dismiss the case with prejudice," the deputy county attorney wrote in a letter.
A joint motion and stipulation for new trial followed, citing newly discovered evidence.
In an order last month, Lancaster County District Judge Lori Maret overruled the motion, pointing to the Nebraska Supreme Court's two-prong test requiring a defendant to show that the evidence couldn't have been discovered earlier with reasonable diligence and probably would have led to a different verdict if known at trial.
"The defendant and the county attorney argue that the court must grant the defendant a new trial because they have stipulated to one," she wrote. "It is well-established, however, that parties cannot stipulate to legal conclusions."
Maret said Catlett and Deputy County Attorney Morgan Smith hadn't stipulated to any facts concerning Idigima's alleged misconduct. Had they, she said, she could have decided whether the facts showed it couldn't have been discovered before trial "and whether the evidence was so substantial that a different verdict would probably have been reached."
Under well-established precedents, their stipulation must be disregarded, she said.
Maret said she believed it was significant that Blocher had been convicted after a jury trial, that 12 people had spent time away from their families, jobs and whatever else is important to them to decide the charge.
"Now, without any apparent investigation into whether Idigima's misconduct actually involved the evidence in the defendant's case, the parties are willing to stipulate that the conviction should be tossed," she wrote.
Maret said it wasn't clear why the defense attorney and county attorney haven't tried to determine the facts, but the jurors' time and efforts shouldn't be flippantly disregarded.
Smith, the prosecutor, had argued in his brief that had the NSP misconduct been known at Blocher's trial, the state couldn't have laid the foundation necessary to admit the results of the lab test that confirmed it was meth, because the woman accused would have asserted her right to remain silent.
But Maret said even if the laboratory results weren't allowed to go before the jury, Blocher still could've been found guilty based on her statement to the trooper that she knew there was meth in the vehicle.
"The outcome in this matter may be frustrating for the defendant, but it is the result of her own impatience or strategic miscalculation," the judge said.
Blocher has asked for the Court of Appeals to review the decision.
“My client is disappointed, but looks forward to an appeal,” Catlett said.
Maret issued a similar order in Muratella's case.
His attorney at the time, Matt Kosmicki, argued that Muratella wouldn't have pleaded no contest to attempted possession with intent to deliver, a charge for which he's now serving an eight- to 12-year sentence, if he'd known of the misconduct.
His case involved an employee at a UPS shipping facility in Lincoln in 2018 finding an earbud case containing about 18 grams of meth on the floor and Muratella returning for it.
According to Maret's order, Muratella cannot ask for a new trial under Nebraska law because he didn't have a trial, he pleaded no contest. She said the Constitution doesn't require the government to disclose material impeachment evidence prior to a plea agreement, like it does prior to a trial.
"Thus, even if the defendant could move to withdraw his plea, he has not shown that his constitutional rights were violated," the judge said.
In October, Idigima and George Weaver Jr. were indicted for conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, a detectable amount of fentanyl and marijuana.
Both have entered not guilty pleas but haven't yet been set for trial because of the complexity of the case.
At a hearing Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sara Fullerton said an expert currently is reviewing a number of overdose cases to provide her medical opinion on the possible causes.
If convicted, Idigima and Weaver would face 10 years to life in prison.
In August, Lincoln Police and the State Patrol announced the pair's arrest and the theft of more than $1.2 million worth of narcotics from the patrol's evidence facility, including $329,800 worth of cocaine.
Police said 45-year-old Rodney Badberg punched the man three times and kicked him once before fleeing the area on foot, leaving the man bleeding on the sidewalk.
The 15-year-old shot into a car outside the stadium, causing a grazing gunshot wound to the left side of the 17-year-old victim's face, police said in court records. The feud stemmed from a stolen vape cartridge.
The charge stems from April 14, when the 22-year-old reported he heard sawing noises in his driveway and saw three men underneath his car, according to police.
Prosecutors formally charged a 32-year-old man and 31-year-old woman with manslaughter and first-degree assault on Monday, four days after they allegedly confronted and killed a 57-year-old in a property dispute, police said in court records.
The visual records created by body-worn cameras have largely remained inaccessible to the public — a reality that calls into question the effectiveness of body cameras as a tool for police accountability in Nebraska.
The 29-year-old was arrested on suspicion of burglary after surveillance video showed him entering the business after hours and leaving with $2,234 in cash, according to police.
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/judge-denies-joint-motions-by-defense-and-prosecution-to-undo-convictions-in-nsp-related-drug/article_a752cc6e-3f8e-5f60-be8b-82fbdc25f51f.html
| 2022-05-29T05:01:18
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https://journalstar.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/judge-denies-joint-motions-by-defense-and-prosecution-to-undo-convictions-in-nsp-related-drug/article_a752cc6e-3f8e-5f60-be8b-82fbdc25f51f.html
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A Lincoln man suffered stab wounds early Saturday morning that left him hospitalized in serious condition, Lincoln police said.
Officers responded to the 1700 block of Prospect Street at about 2:40 a.m. LPD Capt. Duane Winkler said the victim, who was stabbed twice, had no memory of what happened.
Winkler said he does not believe there is a threat to public safety.
Memorial Day: Remembering Nebraskans loved and lost
Gaylord L. Blanc
Gaylord L. Blanc, 17th Airborne, 82nd Airborne, WWII European Theater. Passed 12-16-1996.
Courtesy photo
Edward E. Kimm
GySgt. Edward E. Kimm died alongside of 241 fellow brothers in Beirut, Lebanon, on Oct. 23, 1983.
Shelly Kulhanek
William E. Phalen
William E. Phalen served in World War II. He passed away in 2001.
Courtesy photo
Kenneth H. Carnicle
Kenneth H. Carnicle served in World War II. He was killed in action on May 4, 1945.
Courtesy photo
Richard L. Monnier
Richard L. Monnier served in the Korean War. He passed away on June 28, 2017.
Courtesy photo
Veteran
Victoria Ayotte Brown
PFC Franklin W. Ritter
PFC Franklin W. Ritter, U.S. Army, Neligh, NE. KIA Luzon, Philippines, January 26, 1945. Buried in Manila American Cemetery, Philippines.
Courtesy photo
Pvt. James Svec
Pvt. James Svec, U.S. Army, Milligan, NE. KIA France September 29, 1918. Buried in Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, France. Pictured in 2005 with his niece, then 100-year old Marie Sysel.
Courtesy photo
Fritz Grant Minder
Fritz Grant Minder
Courtesy photo
William G. Rockel
William G. Rockel fought in World War II. He passed away on April 16, 2017.
Courtesy photo
Leslie Clymer and Milton Clymer
Leslie Clymer of Lincoln served in World War I and Milton Clymer of Lincoln served in World War II.
Courtesy photo
Lt. James Edwin Kelley
Lt. James Edwin Kelley, Beatrice, graduated from Marianna Army Air Field in Florida. On April 14, 1944, he was the co-pilot on a B-25C (S/N: 42-64559) on a mission to the Viterbo Airdrome in Italy. The plane was hit by flak and went into a steep dive, then leveled off, then flew inverted and finally crashed. He was killed.
Courtesy photo
Jeffrey Alan Alexander
Jeffrey Alan Alexander, who served two tours in Iraq.
Courtesy photo
Robert Schenaman
Robert Schenaman of the 143rd 155th fighter, bomber wing. Member of the Hustlin Huskers. Photo was taken at Dow AFB in Bangor Maine.
Courtesy photo
E.W. Stevens
World War II pic of E.W. Stevens CAG-80 ARM 2nd Class USN - Round Trip
Courtesy photo
Cory R. Mracek
KIA Iskandaryiah, Iraq 1/27/04
Courtesy photo
Frank Stuart Lomax
Courtesy photo
Harry Perkinton
SSGT Henry C. Perkinton, Nebraska 134th, WWII veteran
Courtesy photo
Claude A. Fiedler
Courtesy photo
Mike Doheny
This is (former) Marine Staff Sgt Michael Doheny of Broken Bow. He was killed by an IED in Iraq in December 2007. He was a civilian security contractor at the time of his death.
Courtesy photo
Lawrence Wilcox
Lawrence Wilcox, KIA
Courtesy photo
Wilfred M. Schutz
Wilfred M. Schutz served in Korea in the Special Category Army with the Air Force (SCARWAF), a unit of the 934th Engineering Aviation Group attached to the 8th Air Force Fighter Bomber Wing in 1952-1953.
Courtesy photo
E.W. Stevens
E.W. Stevens ARM 2nd Class CAG-80 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga CV-14 WWII, 1944–1945.
Courtesy photo
Joseph A. Gilmore
Joseph A Gilmore was born and raised in Omaha. He retired as a sergeant major after serving in Korea, Vietnam and Europe primarily in Airborne Infantry units. He retired after more than 20 years of service. He passed away on Oct. 22, 2014.
Courtesy photo
Melvin Leroy Fertig
Melvin Leroy Fertig, U.S. Air Force 1952 Korean War veteran.
Courtesy photo
Jay Dana Morse
Jay Dana Morse served in the Civil War as a Private in the 2nd Vermont Light Artillery Battery. He saw action at the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana. He was discharged in 1865 for injuries received in that battle. He settled in Holbrooke and passed away in 1925.
Courtesy photo
Harvey Hubka
Harvey Hubka
Hank Krass
Hank Krass, left, served as a technical sergeant in the 445th Bomb Squadron in the U.S. Army.
Clair Geiger
Clair Geiger died while serving on the USS De Haven, which was sunk on February 1, 1943.
Sgt. Jed Marsh
Sgt. Jed Marsh served in Afghanistan in 2010 with the Air Force and Marine Corps. Marsh is a 1993 Lincoln High School graduate.
Chuck van Rossum
Charles F. van Rossum, captain, U.S. Air Force (retired).
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Kenneth W. Wright
Kenneth W. Wright was a first sergeant in the 110th Field Signal Battalion, 35th Infantry Division, in France in World War 1.
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Miguel Beltran
Miguel Beltran, U.S. Marine.
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Dean Wright
Dean Wright served as a sergeant in the 28th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division, during the Cold War in Germany.
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Staff Sgt. Patrick Hamburger
Staff Sgt. Patrick Hamburger with his daughter, Payton. Hamburger was killed in action on Aug. 6, 2011.
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Sgt. Jason T. Palmerton
Sgt. Jason T. Palmerton
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Pauley, Betty J.
Betty J. Pauley
Thompson, William Bill
William Bill Thompson
Rollin Fritch
Rollin Fritch
Wittrock, Raymond R. "Red" "Woody"
Raymond R. Red Woody Wittrock
Bopp, Walter D.
Walter D. Bopp
Blum, Harry J.
Harry J. Blum
Benjamin G. Prange
Staff Sgt. Benjamin G. Prange
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Robert Woody
Myron Woody carries this portrait, a photo of a painting of his father, Robert Woody, in his wallet.
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Donald K Schwab
1st Lt. Donald K. Schwab.
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Wachtel, C.L. "Vern"
C.L. Vern Wachtel
Rex Fuller
Rex Fuller, a veteran airman of World War II and the Korean War, poses beside a Boeing Stearman he flew. Fuller died in 2013.
Kevin Abourezk
Jess Hartsell
Jess Hartsell flew his first combat mission in November 1943, then 68 more with the 449th Bomb Squadron, 322nd Bombardment Group, nicknamed the “Annihilators.” This picture was taken when he was in Myrtle Beach, S.C., for armament training before the war.
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Martin, Eugene R.
Eugene R. Martin
Gayle Eyler
Omaha contractor and World World II veteran Gayle Eyler may have been the reason Nebraska's largest city had a D-Day invasion beach named after it.
Mark Andersen
Sage brothers
Sage brothers of Niobrara who lost their lives during the Vietnam War when the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans was struck and cut in two by an Australian aircraft carrier in a 1969 training exercise in the South China Sea.
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Hoppe, Frank Henry
Frank Henry Hoppe
Doran, Ivan E.
Ivan E. Doran
Jack Allsman
Karen Allsman is reflected in the glass frame of a portrait of her husband Jack, who was a combat soldier in the European theater during World War II.
ERIC GREGORY/Lincoln Journal Star
Hunter Hogan
Lance Cpl. Hunter Hogan died June 23 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. (United States Marine Corps photo)
'Searching for Stanley'
Stanley Dwyer's B-17 was shot down on May 10, 1944, in a forest near Vostenhof, near Neunkirchen, Austria. (Courtesy Kay Hughes)
Photo courtesy Kay Hughes
Linda Tarango-Griess
Sgt. 1st Class Linda Tarango-Griess.
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Staff Sgt. Lillian Clamens
This undated handout provided by the family shows Army Staff Sgt. Lillian Clamens, 35, of Lawton, Okla. Clamens died Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, in wounds suffered from rockets fired on Camp Victory in Baghdad. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Family)
HO
Special Agent Nathan J. Schuldheiss
Special Agent Nathan J. Schuldheiss, 27, of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations died Nov. 1, 2007, of wounds from an improvised explosive near Balad Air Base. He was assigned to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and and was a civilian counterintelligence specialist from Newport, R.I
Todd Henrichs
Spc. Nathaniel A. Caldwell
Spc. Nathaniel A. Caldwell, 27, of Omaha, was killed May 21, 2003, when his vehicle rolled over in Baghdad. He was a tank mechanic assigned to the Army's 404th Air Support Battalion, 4th Infantry Division. Caldwell was born in Germany but had made his home in Nebraska. He got married just six months before his death and had a son and a daughter.
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Pfc. Eric Paul Woods
U.S. Army Pfc. Eric Paul Woods, 26, of Omaha was killed by an explosion on July 9, 2005, in Iraq when he stopped to help a wounded soldier on the side of a road. Woods was a medic assigned to G Troop, 2nd Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based out of Fort Carson, Colo. Woods graduated from Urbandale (Iowa) High School in 1997 and had a 3-year-old son.
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Staff Sgt. Jason Fegler
Army Staff Sgt. Jason Fegler, 24, of Harrison, was killed Nov. 4, 2005, while serving with the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Ky. He was a 1999 graduate of Banner County High School, where he excelled in basketball and was remembered an amazing soldier who loved to make people laugh.
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Spc. Dustin L. Workman II
Spc. Dustin L. Workman II, 19, of Greenwood, was one of five soldiers from his unit killed by improvised explosive devices in Baghdad on June 28, 2007. He man was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division based at Fort Carson, Colo. Workman graduated from Ashland-Greenwood High in 2005 and was described as creative and a rebel with a zest for life.
Courtesy phtoo
Capt. Matthew Nielson
Army Capt. Matthew Nielson, 27, of Jefferson, Iowa, died June 29, 2011, in Badrah, Iraq, during a fire attack by insurgents. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Hood, Texas. Nielson was born in Omaha and lived in Lincoln before moving with his family to Iowa. He graduated from the University of Northern Iowa and was one of seven children.
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Capt. Travis A. Ford
Marine Capt. Travis A. Ford
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Petty Officer 3rd Class David J. Moreno
Petty Officer 3rd Class David J. Moreno, 26, of Gering, formerly of Lincoln, died July 17, 2003, in Al Hamishiyah, Iraq, from an accidental gunshot wound. He was a Navy medic assigned to the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, 4th Marine Division Detachment. Moreno went by the nickname D.J. and was a 1995 graduate of Lincoln Southeast High School.
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Staff Sgt. Christopher W. Swisher
Staff Sgt. Christopher W. Swisher, 26, of Lincoln, was one of two soldiers killed when their patrol was ambushed and hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades on Oct. 9, 2003, in Baghdad. He was assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Division, based in Fort Polk, La. Swisher graduated from Lincoln Northeast High School in 1995 and loved the military so much he dressed in camouflage most of his senior year.
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Staff Sgt. Daniel Bader
Staff Sgt. Daniel Bader, 28, of York, was one of 15 U.S. soldiers killed Nov. 2, 2003, in a missile attack on a CH-47 Chinook helicopter near Fallujah, Iraq. He was assigned to Tiger Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Carson. Bader joined grew up in York and had one daughter. He was remembered as an All-American good kid.
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Spc. James R. Wolf
Spc. James R. Wolf, 21, of Scottsbluff, was killed Nov. 6, 2003, when a homemade bomb exploded near his convoy in Mosul, Iraq. He was an engineer assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the 52nd Engineer Battalion of the 43rd Area Support Group, based in Fort Carson. Wolf had already committed himself to serving his country when he graduated from Scottsbluff High School in 2000.
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Sgt. Dennis A. Corral
Sgt. Dennis A. Corral, 33, of Kearney, died Jan. 1, 2004, when the his vehicle traveling in a convoy to Baghdad International Airport rolled over. He was assigned to Company C, 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Riley. Born in San Diego, Corral moved to Kearney in 1994 and joined the Army for the second time in 1997.
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Sgt. Cory Mracek
Sgt. Cory R. Mracek, 26, of Hay Springs, was killed Jan. 27, 2004, when a roadside bomb exploded near Iskandariyah, Iraq. He was a paratrooper assigned to 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery, Fort Bragg. Mracek was born in Chadron and grew up in Hay Springs. He had been in Iraq just eight days.
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Pvt. Noah Lee Boye
Pvt. Noah Lee Boye, 21, of Grand Island, was killed April 13, 2004, when his Marine unit came under fire near Fallujah, Iraq. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton. A graduate of Grand Island Senior High School, Boye was remembered as the life of the party.
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Spc. Dennis Morgan
Spc. Dennis Morgan, 22, of Valentine, was killed April 17, 2004, when a roadside bomb exploded south of Baghdad. He was a member of the 153rd Engineer Battalion of Winner, S.D. Morgan was a 2000 graduate of Winner High School and was the first casualty of he war involving the South Dakota National Guard.
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Matthew Henderson
Marine Cpl. Matthew Henderson
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Lance Cpl. Kyle Codner
Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Codner, 19, of Shelton, was killed along with two other Marines in Iraq's Al Anbar province on May 26, 2004, while conducting security and stability operations. He was in the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton. Codner graduated from Shelton High School in 2003 and was remembered for his smile, humor and selflessness.
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Sgt. Jeremy Fischer
Sgt. Jeremy Fischer, 26, of Lincoln, was killed July 11, 2004, when a roadside bomb exploded in Iraq. He was a mechanic with the Nebraska National Guard's 267th Ordnance Company based in Lincoln. Fischer was a 1996 graduate of Harvard High School, joined the guard in 1999 and was remembered as a great soldier.
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Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric L. Knott
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric L. Knott, 21, Grand Island, died Sept. 4, 2004, in an attack in Iraq. He was assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4, Port Hueneme, Calif. He was on the Navy's construction force and was building a gate at the time of the attack. Friends remembered Knott as a bright spot in sometimes dark times. He was a 2001 graduate of Grand Island Senior High School.
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1st Lt. Edward Iwan
Army 1st Lt. Edward D. Iwan, 28, Albion, died Nov. 12, 2004, in Fallujah when a grenade hit his vehicle. He was assigned to the Army's 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Vilseck, Germany. Iwan joined the Army after graduating from high school in 1994 and served three years as an enlisted man and then studied criminal justice at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He rejoined the Army in December 2001 as a second lieutenant.
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Lance Cpl. Shane E. Kielion
Marine Lance Cpl. Shane E. Kielion, 23, of La Vista, died Nov. 15, 2004, in action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. He was assigned to the 1st Marine Division based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. Kielion was the starting quarterback at Omaha South High School and attended Peru State College for a short time on a football scholarship. He died not knowing that his son had been born just hours before.
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Sgt. Nicholas Nolte
Marine Sgt. Nick Nolte, 25, a native of Falls City, died Nov. 24, 2004, at National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., from injuries received when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Baghdad on Nov. 9. He served with the 2nd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, under Marine Air Control Group 28, part of the 2nd Marine Air Wing. Nolte enlisted in the Marines after graduating from Falls City Sacred Heart in 1998 and re-enlisted following his original four-year commitment. He had a 3-year-old daughter.
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Staff Sgt. Tricia L. Jameson
Staff Sgt. Tricia L. Jameson, 34, of Omaha was killed July 14, 2005, near Trebil, Iraq, when a roadside bomb exploded near her ambulance as it approached wounded Marines. Jameson, a member of the 313th Medical Company of Lincoln, had been in Iraq for just three weeks. She was a 1989 graduate of Millard South High School and attended Central Community College in Columbus.
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Spc. Darren Howe
Army Spc. Darren Howe, 21, of Beatrice died at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, on Nov. 3, 2005, from injuries he suffered when a roadside bomb exploded in Iraq on Oct. 17. Howe joined the Army Reserve during his junior year of high school, days before the Sept. 11 attacks, and wanted to make a career of the military. He graduated from Beatrice High School in May 2003 and had two small children.
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Capt. Joel Cahill
Army Capt. Joel Cahill, 34, of La Vista, was serving his third stint in Iraq when he was killed by a roadside bomb Nov. 6, 2005. He was a member of the 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry from Fort Benning, Ga., and a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Creighton University and Papillion-La Vista High School. He was the father of two daughters.
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1st Lt. Garrison Avery
Army 1st Lt. Garrison Avery, 23, of Lincoln was killed in Iraq on Feb. 1, 2006, when a roadside bomb exploded. He was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Ky., deployed in October and stationed south of Baghdad. Avery was a 2004 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of Lincoln High School. He was remembered as a person with an analytical mind who was devoted to the military but sometimes frustrated by its procedures.
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Sgt. Lonnie Calvin Allen Jr.
Army Sgt. Lonnie Calvin Allen, 26, of Bellevue was killed May 16, 2006, when his vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb near Baghdad. The 1998 Bellevue East graduate was serving with the Army's 10th Mountain Division. He was remembered as a compassionate and courageous person who was lovable and gentle.
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Lance Cpl. Brent Zoucha
Marine Lance Cpl. Brent Zoucha, 19, of Clarks, died June 9, 2006, after an explosion in Anbar province. He was an infantryman with 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, and worked with mortars. Zoucha graduated from High Plains Community High School in 2005; his brother Dyrek was serving with the same unit when the land mine exploded.
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Pfc. Benjamin Slaven
Army Reserve Pfc. Benjamin Slaven, 22, of Plymouth was killed by a roadside bomb June 9, 2006, near Kirkuk. He was serving with the 308th Transportation Company of Lincoln and had been with the Reserves for 17 months. He had earned his GED and worked at a lawn mower factory in Beatrice. Slaven was remembered as a jokester who was generous and caring.
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Spc. Jeremy Jones
Army Spc. Jeremy Jones, 25, of Omaha was killed in Iraq on June 27, 2006, by a roadside bomb. He was serving in Iskandariyah with the 1st Battalion of the 67th Armor Regiment based in Fort Hood, Texas, and had been in Iraq since November after re-enlisting in April. Jones graduated from Millard West High School in 1999 and was the father of two.
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Spc. Joshua Ford
Spc. Joshua Ford, 20, of Pender died July 31, 2006, near An Numaniyah in south-central Iraq. He was a member of Nebraska Army National Guard's 189th Transportation Company. Ford graduated in 2004 from Pender High School, joined the Nebraska National Guard as a heavy-vehicle driver while still in high school and finished basic training between his junior and senior years.
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Staff Sgt. Jeffrey J. Hansen
Staff Sgt. Jeffrey J. Hansen, 31, of Cairo, died Aug. 27, 2006, from wounds suffered during a Humvee accident near Balad, Iraq, on Aug. 21, 2006. He was a member of the Fremont-based portion of Troop B, 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry Regiment. Hansen graduated from high school in 1993, earned a bachelor's degree in athletic training from the University of Nebraska at Kearney in 1997 and was an an officer in the Kearney Police Department, 2001-03.
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Spc. Germaine Debro
Army National Guard Spc. Germaine Debro, 33, of Omaha, was killed in a roadside bombing near Tikrit, Iraq, Sept. 4, 2006. He was serving with the 1st Squadron, 167th Cavalry. Debro attended Benson High School for a year and graduated from high school in Arkansas in 1991. He joined the Army in 1994.
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Staff Sgt. Scott E. Nisely
Staff Sgt. Scott E. Nisely, 48, of Marshalltown, Iowa, formerly of Syracuse, was killed Sept. 30, 2006, in a firefight while providing convoy security west of Baghdad. Nisely was a 1976 graduate of Syracuse High School and a former U.S. Postal Service employee. He was in the Marines for 22 years before joining the Iowa National Guard and was a member of the Iowa Falls-based Company C, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry.
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Lance Cpl. Michael Scholl
Marine Lance Cpl. Mike Scholl, 21, of Lincoln, died Nov. 14, 2006, from injuries he suffered when a roadside bomb exploded in Al Anbar province in Iraq. Scholl was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii. He was a 2002 graduate of Lincoln High School and had a lifetime goal of becoming a Marine. He had an infant daughter.
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Staff Sgt. Jeremy W. Mulhair
Army Staff Sgt. Jeremy W. Mulhair, 35, of Omaha, died Nov. 30, 2006, when a roadside bomb hit his vehicle in Taji, Iraq. He was a member of A Troop, 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood. Mulhair was born in Michigan but raised through high school in northwest Omaha. He had three children.
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1st Lt. Jacob Fritz
Army 1st Lt. Jacob Fritz, 25, of Verdon, died Jan. 20, 2007, in combat operations in Iraq. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Fort Richardson, Alaska. Fritz was a 2000 graduate of Dawson-Verdon High School and a 2005 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. In high school, he was a three-sport athlete, baritone player in the honor band and active in anti-drug-abuse organizations.
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Sgt. Randy Matheny
Army National Guard Sgt. Randy J. Matheny, 20, of McCook died Feb. 4, 2007, from wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device was detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 1074th Transportation Company based out of Sidney. Matheny graduated from high school in 2004 and was known as a mischievous, but trustworthy, friend.
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Sgt. Wayne R. Cornell
Army Sgt. Wayne Cornell, 26, formerly of Holstein, died in Baghdad on March 19, 2007. He was based at Fort Riley, Kan., and was a member of the 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry, 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division. Cornell graduated from Silver Lake High School in Roseland in 1999 and was the father of two children.
U.S. Army
Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Adam McSween
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Adam McSween, 26, of Valdosta, Ga., died April 6, 2007, near Kirkuk in northern Iraq when a rocket hit his vehicle. He was assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit 11 based at Whidbey Island. McSween graduated in 2001 from York College, where he met his wife. He was buried in York.
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1st Lt. Kevin Gaspers
Army 1st Lt. Kevin Gaspers, 26, of Hastings, died in Iraq on April 23, 2007. He served with the 82nd Airborne Division and was stationed at Fort Bragg. He graduated from St. Cecilia Catholic High School in Hastings in 2000, and later attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He was remembered as a humble man who had a great love for his country and the Army.
U.S. Army
Sgt. Kenneth E. Locker Jr.
Army Staff Sgt. Ken Locker Jr., 28, of Burwell, died in Iraq on April 23, 2007. He was with the 82nd Airborne Division and was stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C. He graduated from Burwell High School and enlisted in the Army while still in high school. He was injured by a land mine several months before his death and was awarded a Purple Heart.
U.S. Army
Cpl. Matthew Alexander
Cpl. Matthew Alexander, 21, of Gretna, died in Iraq on May 6, 2007, with five other soldiers. He had been serving with the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, based in Fort Lewis, Wash. Alexander enlisted in the Army after graduating in 2004 from Gretna High School, where he a percussion section leader in the band. His family said he was proud of his military service.
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Spc. William Bailey III
Spc. William Bailey III, 29, of Bellevue, died May 25, 2007, near Taji, Iraq. He had been serving with the 755th Chemical Company based in O'Neill and was providing security for a military convoy when a roadside bomb struck his vehicle. Bailey was a former firefighter who loved being a soldier and was a family man, with five children.
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Spc. Adam G. Herold
Army Spc. Adam Herold, 23, of Omaha, died in Iraq on June 10, 2007, in an explosion. Herold enlisted in the Army in 2005. He attended Roncalli High School and was in the Job Corps in Utah learning a construction trade before enlisting in the Army in February 2005. Friends and family said he was known as a peacemaker.
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Spc. Val John Borm
Spc. Val John Borm, 21, of Sidney, died in an explosion in Iraq during the week of June 10, 2007. Borm was serving as an infantryman in the Army's B Company, 2nd Battalion with the 35th Infantry based at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. Borm graduated from Sidney High in 2005 and enlisted in the Army a few months later. His father said Borm enjoyed his Army service.
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Spc. Josiah W. Hollopeter
Spc. Josiah W. Hollopeter, 27, formerly of rural Valentine, died June 14, 2007, in Balad, Iraq, after his four-man sniper team was attacked in Al Muqdidiyah. He was part of the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division based in Fort Hood, Texas. Hollopeter graduated from Valentine Rural High School in 1998 and was described as a rebel with a willingness to mix it up but very loyal to his friends.
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Sgt. Jacob Schmuecker
Sgt. Jacob Schmuecker, 27, of Norfolk, died July 21, 2007, in a roadside bomb explosion in Balad, Iraq. He was 10 months into his first tour of duty with the National Guard's 755th Chemical Company based in O'Neill and graduated from West Holt High School in Atkinson in 1999. The father of three enjoyed hunting and fishing and was called an inspiration to others.
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Sgt. Justin Duffy
Sgt. Justin Duffy, 31, of Cozad, died June 2, 2009, in Baghdad when an improvised explosive device detonated near the Humvee in which he was riding. He was serving with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army based in Fort Bragg, N.C. Family members said Duffy was "full of blarney" but kind and gentle. He was a Moline, Ill., native and his family moved to Cozad when he was in sixth grade.
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Pfc. Michael Jarrett
Pfc. Michael Jarrett, 20, of North Platte, died Jan. 6, 2010, in Balad, Iraq, as a result of injuries suffered in a noncombat incident. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation Regiment, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, based in Illesheim, Germany. Jarrett joined the Army in 2008 and repaired helicopters. He received posthumous awards including the Army Commendation medal and Good Conduct medal, as well as an Army Service Ribbon and the Basic Aviation Badge.
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John Douangdara
Master at Arms, Class 1 John Douangdara, 26, of South Sioux City was among 30 American soldiers killed when a military helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on Aug. 6, 2011. Douangdara, a 2003 graduate of South Sioux City High School, was a Navy SEAL and was known back home as a jokester who was always laughing and always put his family and friends first.
IMAGE SERVICES
Jeffrey Chaney
Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Jeffrey L. Chaney, 35, of Bellevue was killed by a roadside bomb July 17, 2007, in Iraq's Salah Ad Din Province.
Todd Henrichs
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| 2022-05-29T05:01:24
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SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — This week's school shooting in Texas shined a light on the importance of a quick police response, but law enforcement can't respond quickly if their vehicles break down.
The City of South Fulton Council approved millions of dollars in funding to purchase dozens of police vehicles. They said the new vehicles are desperately needed, and 11Alive News even saw a South Fulton police officer waiting with his broken-down vehicle while working on this story.
We also saw a Crown Victoria with a busted headlight and another police car with a crooked bull bar in the precinct on Old National Highway.
“We just wanted to make sure our officers had good, working cars," City of South Fulton Mayor khalid said.
On Saturday evening, a City of South Fulton Police officer had to wait for a tow truck to give him a jump when the older vehicle broke down.
“We’ve inherited cars and fire engines, million-dollar fire engines, that are 10, 12 years old," khalid said.
The City of South Fulton was founded in 2017 and got its emergency equipment from Fulton County.
“Usually these cars run for about five years, seven years, so they’ve run well past their lifetimes," the mayor added.
That's why he and city council this week approved $2.1 million in funding to purchase 30 new police vehicles.
“They’re running a lot of equipment," Mayor khalid said. "There’s computers and all kinds of systems in there. We just wanted to make sure our officers had everything they need to respond to our citizens’ concerns.”
“By updating our fleet and increasing our assigned vehicles to officers, we anticipate lowering our maintenance costs and enhance accountability of vehicle damage. We would also be able to keep a good inventory of rotation vehicles in the event of repairs or accidents," City of South Fulton Police Chief Keith Meadows said.
New 2020 Ford Explorer pursuit utility vehicles will have the latest computers, cameras, and lights. The city will replace some of the old fleet in an effort to avoid having police vehicles breaking down.
“Our cars will be outfitted with the latest technology to really help our officers not only respond to crime, but also prevent crimes and reduce crime," khalid added.
As of now though, there's no word on when the new vehicles will come in.
The City of South Fulton is rapidly growing and is now Metro Atlanta's second-most populated municipality with more than 108,000 residents.
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https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/new-south-fulton-police-vehicles/85-292b31ff-449e-4d89-be41-e6fb30578afe
| 2022-05-29T05:02:37
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https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/new-south-fulton-police-vehicles/85-292b31ff-449e-4d89-be41-e6fb30578afe
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SAN DIEGO — Excited for a beach family day, Kyle Dickson, his wife and three small children from Utah couldn't wait to play in the sand.
"We want to get as much beach time in as possible, and build as big of a Sandcastle as we can, and get some boogie boarding in,” said Dickson, who drove 11 hours with his family from Utah.
At La Jolla Shores, the Dickson family is enjoying the great outdoors and not worried about an uptick in San Diego County COVID cases.
"Here at the beach not really, when we are going into enclosed spaces, we still try to be COVID cautious and make sure we are respecting everyone's boundaries,” Dickson said.
Despite water temperatures being in the low to mid 60s, lifeguards say rip current activity is up, and so are their rescues.
"Your lifeguards are staffed up, and you'll also see lots of police officers around to keep people safe this weekend. There is still some beach space, but we do anticipate the crowds to increase through Monday,” said San Diego Lifeguards Lt. Lonnie Stephens.
Beyond the beach, San Diegans also flocked to movie theaters. Many came to see Top Gun.
"This was the best movie I've ever seen, it was definitely the best movie I've ever seen, and by the way, I am almost 51, so that’s a lot of movies,” said moviegoer Edgar Reese.
Tom Cruise fan Allen Reyes saw the film twice.
“It was really good. I saw the first one back in 86, and it was really good, so it brought back memories. And I named my dog Maverick,” said Reyes with a picture of his pug.
Even with the IMAX theater being packed at Edwards Cinemas in Mira Mesa, Edgar Reese said some moviegoers wore masks inside, but many did not.
“Yeah, nope, I was not concerned at all, and in fact, I had my little mask here in my pocket and it stayed in my pocket the whole time,” Reese said.
Despite Covid fatigue setting in for many over this holiday weekend, the county's deputy public health officer says all should remain vigilant as the risk of infection level increased from low to medium.
"In fact, they're probably even higher than we think they are based on what we're seeing from waste water and so many people are testing from home,” said Cameron Kaiser, San Diego County Deputy Public Health Officer.
Outdoor activities continue to be the most popular and safest way to celebrate the weekend.
"We have faith you know in the vaccine and everything, and I feel like we have gone through a pandemic before in 1918, and I’m sure we can come through stronger like last time. Hope we can all come together and fight this thing,” said beachgoer John Latendresse with his family at La Jolla Shores.
WATCH RELATED: Boy and Girl Scouts pay respect to fallen heroes (May 2022).
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/growing-concern-of-covid-spreading-among-large-crowds/509-2bb8532a-79dc-4d45-89ed-42fdc8568a97
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SAN ANTONIO — On a bright cloudless day in Uvalde, you could hear what sounded like the rumble of thunder. It was not incoming weather, but around 100 motorcyclists from San Antonio who came to the memorial at Robb Elementary.
“It’s close to home. This is right at our backdoor,” said Michael Campa, one of the motorcyclists. “You would figure it would never happen here.”
“That could have been our children, but it is one of our children because it’s one of our sons and daughters from the community,” said Arturo Garcia, one of the motorcyclists.
Most visiting the memorial walked up but this group rode right in. They brought an orange flower arrangement. It is one that is difficult to see among all the other flowers, stuffed animals, and crosses. One rider said it is meant to show support for longer than just today.
“If we get together in a sad time like this, we should be doing it all the time,” said John Vasquez, one of the motorcyclists.
There were prayers and tears during their turn at the memorial.
“They just touch everybody’s hearts,” said Becky Velasquez, who delivered the flowers ahead of the arrival of the larger group on bikes. “It was the right thing to do, come and give our respects.”
Their holiday weekend plans changed quickly when they knew they would need to make a stop at the memorial. For some riders who are former Marines, this Memorial Day holiday is not only about fallen military members, but all the fallen including the 21 who died.
“As a country, we all remember all of the fallen whether they lose their life on the battlefield or whether they lose their lives in the streets of America. We honor all of them,” said Garcia.
They want the community to know that no matter how tough moving forward will be, they will never ride through this life by themselves.
“There are a lot of people who love them and they are not standing alone,” Garcia said.
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/san-antonio-motorcyclists-ride-to-uvalde-memorial-shooting-texas/273-eac357da-f501-4bfb-951a-84e16a7dbcd0
| 2022-05-29T05:39:31
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/san-antonio-motorcyclists-ride-to-uvalde-memorial-shooting-texas/273-eac357da-f501-4bfb-951a-84e16a7dbcd0
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SAN DIEGO — "Its been overwhelming to be honest. Its been very difficult," said San Diego native and SDSU graduate Melissa Abeyta.
Abeyta was in shock to find out her 9-year-old cousin Kendall was inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas when a gunman rushed in killing 19 students and two teachers.
"My phone was going off. I was getting a lot of messages actually from San Diego and that’s when we realized my cousin was at the school the shooting was at. She already was en route for surgery," said Abeyta.
Kendall survived.
Luckily, Abeyta now only lives just hours away in Texas. Saturday, she drove to visit Kendall in the hospital.
"She was shot in her arm. The bullet ricocheted to different parts of her body. She has wounds in her buttocks' and in her leg," said Abeyta.
Abeyta said she brought Kendall get well cards from her daughter’s classmates.
"She was in the classroom where she lost her teachers and friends and I want her to know she’s not alone and we're rooting for her," said Abeyta. "Its incredibly sad and to process that as a 9-year-old, I could imagine."
Kendall has a long recovery road ahead of her that could last several months or longer. She has had two surgeries and is expected to have another surgery this weekend. You can donate to her GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses.
WATCH RELATED: California laws that could have made a difference in Texas mass shooting, expert says (May 2022).
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/san-diego-natives-cousin-survives-texas-shooting/509-eea54eaf-4dff-4bc5-aaae-1f45d5c336d4
| 2022-05-29T05:39:37
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https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/san-diego-natives-cousin-survives-texas-shooting/509-eea54eaf-4dff-4bc5-aaae-1f45d5c336d4
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Veterans seeking to help fellow veterans ease their PTSD symptoms have long known that time on a motorcycle -- and the brotherhood and sisterhood that comes with it -- can be a successful treatment method.
Now, researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington are working to prove how it really works.
"I love this bike. You can get on it and ride for miles," Don Nguyen said of his 2016 Harley Road Glide. The Marine veteran, and one of the founding members of the One Tribe Foundation in Dallas, says motorcycles have been a part of his life since he was 13 years old.
"You know I'll tell you why I ride a bike," he said when asked about why he loves it so much. "It's because I enjoy it."
"You drove your car here this morning. I rode my bike here this morning. I had fun. Did you have fun," he asked me.
"Dude, I'm driving a Ford Escape," I said of the company car I'd driven to meet him in a UT Arlington parking lot.
"You look like a cool dude and all," he said as we both laughed. "But I'm just saying I had a good time riding my bike here this morning."
That's why the One Tribe Foundation, which helps military veterans with issues like PTSD, includes a "wind therapy" program.
Originally known as 22 Kill and dedicated to help end the plague of veteran suicides, the Carry the Load partner organization found that if veterans on motorcycles can focus their attention on the road ahead that they can't dwell as much on the demons that might be chasing them.
The bond created with other veterans has proven a successful coping mechanism, as well.
"It just kind of helps them be in the moment," said One Tribe Foundation member Jodie Yblood. "All the problems and things get left behind for a little bit while you're riding."
"I believe that riding a motorcycle is essential for many people's healing process and how they cope with mental health and stress in general,": she added.
And now the scientists would like to prove why.
"What I got a lot was this just interest in caring for one another," UT Arlington graduate assistant Latisha Thomas said, alongside research partner Christine Highfill, of the initial survey results of veteran motorcycle riders.
The three-phase project, surveying veteran and non-veteran riders and eventually measuring the physiological effects of motorcycle riding, looks to "better understand the experiences of individuals who participate in an experience sometimes referred to as wind therapy."
Lead researcher Dr. Donna Schuman says they hope to study heart rate variability as a measure of stress and resilience
"What we're hoping that we find is that riding actually increases the veteran rider's resilience and their ability to manage stress," said Schuman, assistant professor in the School of Social Work at UTA.
But while the UT Arlington researchers hope to quantify and promote the positive effects of wind therapy, veterans like Nguyen will tell you he just knows that it works.
"You have to find those moments that remind you that you're still alive," he said of his time on a motorcycle.
And keeping veterans alive is, after all, the overriding goal.
If you'd like to find out more about the UT Arlington study, or would consider being a participant, you can find more information here.
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ut-arlington-one-tribe-foundation-study-wind-therapy-treatment-ptsd/287-fdd73c0b-858c-43ea-8a11-a337d8d83d3b
| 2022-05-29T05:40:00
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https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ut-arlington-one-tribe-foundation-study-wind-therapy-treatment-ptsd/287-fdd73c0b-858c-43ea-8a11-a337d8d83d3b
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Anthony (Tony) Papantonis
January 5, 1933-May 19, 2022
Anthony (Tony) Papantonis, 89, passed away at his residence in Colorado Springs on May 19th, 2022. Anthony was born on January 5th, 1933, in Mason City, Iowa to Voula and Paul Papantonis.
He graduated from Mason City High School in 1951 and went on to Iowa State University, graduating in 1956. Anthony was a member of the Phi Psi Fraternity.
Following graduation from ROTC at Iowa State University, Anthony moved to El Paso, Texas and was assigned to the Air Defense School at Fort Bliss. He received his commission as a first lieutenant in the US Army in 1958. He left the military in February 1960 to rejoin his father, Paul Papantonis, his uncle Basil, and his cousin Richard in the management of The Green Mill restaurant in Mason City, Iowa. Much of the success of The Green Mill can be attributed to Anthony's friendly and caring management style and work ethic. Anthony would greet his guests at the door, stop by their tables to talk and make sure they were happy. He worked many long hours to ensure that The Green Mill was a wonderful place to dine. The Green Mill closed in 1975 and enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the people of Mason City for 55 years. After the closing of The Dolphin in the mid 80's, Anthony sold real estate and enjoyed helping some of the same patrons he served.
Anthony retired, and he and his wife, Judy, moved to Westcliffe, Colorado. He developed a love for making pottery, and this hobby benefited friends, family, and the Westcliffe community. He would sell his work at local events and was also involved with Westcliffe Public Library fundraiser, donating his proceeds. Anthony was an accomplished cook and baker. He loved to make Tony's Little Cookies (TLC), Greek koulouria, giving them to family and friends. Anthony considered himself a numismatist, a coin collector throughout his life.
Tony became a vital part of the Westcliffe community. He was a member of the Rotary Club in Westcliffe, volunteering his time and was a past President. He also loved playing Santa Claus during the holidays, both in Mason City and in Westcliffe. Anthony was a special man with a huge heart who always found the good in people. He was often heard describing people and circumstances as “fantastic!” Anthony and Judy moved to Colorado Springs in 2019 where they resided until his passing.
The most important thing to Anthony was his family. Anthony was preceded in death by his parents, Voula and Paul Papantonis. He is survived by his wife, Judy of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and sister, Kalliope Jolas of Clear Lake, Iowa, his two daughters, Christie Waggoner (Karl) of Scottsdale, Arizona and Jodie Rasicot of Mound, Minnesota. Anthony was grandfather to Austin Chase (Joan) of Lander, Wyoming, Jamie Ziegler (Alex) and her two children, Brooke and Tucker of Mayer, Minnesota and Kendall Waggoner of Austin, Texas. He is also survived by three stepchildren, David Page (Mecca), Debbie Delzer (Darryl) and Patrick Page (Cindy), 4 grandchildren, Nathaniel Anderson, Sena Gilbert (Scott), John (Desiree) Page, and Sarah Page, and 7 step great-grandchildren. In addition, he was close to his niece, Stephanie Durkin (Mike) and nephews Van Jolas (Leigh) and Paul Jolas, and their families.
Tony lived a fulfilling life. He will be remembered as one “fantastic” man who never met a stranger.
Anthony was a former member of the Greek Orthodox Church of Transfiguration, in Mason City and Community United Methodist Church, in Westcliffe, CO.
A private family service will be held at a later date in Westcliffe, Colorado.
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/anthony-tony-papantonis/article_189f4007-bc06-5f94-a046-45b86c62b8a4.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:05
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/anthony-tony-papantonis/article_189f4007-bc06-5f94-a046-45b86c62b8a4.html
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Calvin R. Bruggeman
May 27, 2022
KLEMME-Calvin R. Bruggeman, 72, a lifelong resident and farmer in Klemme, IA, died, Friday, May 27, 2022, at the Hancock County Memorial Hospital, Britt, IA, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Public visitation with viewing will be Tuesday, May 31, 2022, from 4-7 PM, at the Klemme United Methodist Church. Interment will be in the Ell Township cemetery, Klemme. Funeral service will be 130 PM, Wednesday June 1, 2022, at the Klemme United Methodist Church. There will be no viewing at the church on Wednesday. Andrews Funeral Home, Klemme, IA, is handling funeral arrangements.
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/calvin-r-bruggeman/article_e1ca794a-2bf1-5737-a208-025c90800c4f.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:11
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/calvin-r-bruggeman/article_e1ca794a-2bf1-5737-a208-025c90800c4f.html
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Earl Mason
February 6, 1929-May 21, 2022
MASON CITY-Earl Mason, 93, of Mason City, passed away Saturday, May 21, 2022 at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.
Visitation with viewing will be held Wednesday, June 1, at Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd St NE, Mason City, from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm.
A graveside service will be held 10:30 am Thursday, June 2, 2022 at Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City, with Rev. C.A. Kress of First United Methodist Church officiating. Military honors will be conducted by the Mason City Veterans.
The firstborn son of J.E. and Neva (Darnell) Mason, Earl was born on February 6, 1929 in Algona. Thirteen months later his younger brother, Bob, was born and the two were raised in Algona before the family moved to Mason City when Earl was six years old. He attended Mason City High School and graduated in 1947.
While attending Upper Iowa University, Earl returned to Mason City for the summer where he met Helen Rollefson. The couple quickly became neighborhood sweethearts and were united in marriage at Trinity Lutheran Church in 1951.
In 1953 the young couple moved to Baltimore while Earl served in the United States Army. Earl honorably served in the Army from 1953 until 1955. Following his discharge the family returned to Iowa.
Earl taught English for a few years before furthering his education at the University of Iowa where he earned his Master's Degree in school administration. He worked in the public school system before he and Helen purchased a property in Waverly and converted the building into apartments. They managed those apartments for many years before moving to Keller, TX where he worked as a mortgage broker.
Eventually Earl and Helen returned to Mason City and opened a mortgage company which he owned and operated until his retirement at the age of 67. Throughout the years the family worked and lived in Plymouthennett, Mason City, Forest City, Northwood, Eldora, Dysart, Toledo-Tama, Springville, Waverly, and Keller, TX.
Following his retirement Earl stayed busy lending countless hours to Habitat for Humanity, Iowa Renewable Energy, and the North Iowa Humane Society. He received an award from Habitat for Humanity building the most energy efficient home in the nation.
Earl is survived by his wife, Helen, of Mason City; son, Greg Mason, Garrison, IA; brother, Bob Mason; and his extended family and friends.
He is preceded in death by his parents; son, Rod Mason; and grandson, Chris Mason.
Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd St. NE, Mason City. (641)423-2372. ColonialChapels.com
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/earl-mason/article_5e80fb1c-3186-5e9d-a502-079e0362c117.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:17
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/earl-mason/article_5e80fb1c-3186-5e9d-a502-079e0362c117.html
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Gregory Moeller
February 25, 2022
MASON CITY-Gregory Moeller, 51, formerly of Mason City, passed away on Friday, February 25, 2022. A memorial service will be held at 11 am on Saturday, June 4, 2022, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 213 N Pennsylvania Ave.
Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service time. To any and all who loved Greg and wish to remember him, the family asks you to please support your local animal rescue programs and shelters. Online condolences may be left for the family at www.majorericksonfuneralhome.com
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/gregory-moeller/article_c7bea6fa-8867-5c25-ba10-8099c95e8d10.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:24
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/gregory-moeller/article_c7bea6fa-8867-5c25-ba10-8099c95e8d10.html
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John C. Whipple
MASON CITY-John C. Whipple, 63, of Mason City, passed away Saturday, May 21, 2022 at Select Specialty Hospital in Davenport.
A Memorial Service will be held 10:00 am Friday, June 3, 2022 at Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd St NE, Mason City. For those unable to join, a livestream of John's service will be available through Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapel's Facebook page.
Military honors will be provided by members of the Mason City Veterans Honor Guard.
Condolences may be left to John's family in care of the funeral home.
Hogan Bremer Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd St NE, Mason City. (641)423-2372. ColonialChapels.com
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/john-c-whipple/article_b6f6ea50-8401-5691-9179-62944f6a96fb.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:30
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/john-c-whipple/article_b6f6ea50-8401-5691-9179-62944f6a96fb.html
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Margaret A. Fisher
February 15, 1936-May 26, 2022
MASON CITY-Margaret A. Fisher, 86, of Mason City, Iowa, passed away May 26, 2022 at MercyOne Hospice in Mason City.
A Memorial Service will be held 1:30 p.m. Wednesday June 1, 2022 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 213 N Pennsylvania Ave, Mason City, IA 50401, with Rev. Dan Gerrietts officiating.
Inurnment will be held at Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City.
Margaret's family will greet relatives and friends one hour prior to the service at the church.
She was born Margaret A. Bonker, February 15, 1936, west of Manly on a farm, the daughter of Ernest and Gertie (Gottschalk) Bonker. She attended Country School, west of Manly and graduated from Manly High School. After high school, she worked at Manly State Bank and later at American State Bank in Mason City. On July 28, 1968 she was united in marriage to Richard R. Fisher at Bethany Lutheran Church in Kensett. She enjoyed find-a -word puzzle books and embroidery work. She and Richard traveled a lot. They visited most of the United States.
She was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church and the Elizabeth Circle
She is survived by her sister Pearl (Leland) Buechele.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard, November 20, 2018; parents, Ernest and Gertie; and in-laws, Reinhardt and Nellie Fisher.
Hogan-Bremer-Moore Colonial Chapel. 126 3rd St. NE, Mason City, IA 50401. 641-423-2372. ColonialChapels.com
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/margaret-a-fisher/article_176d58f1-fb91-5e15-acc0-529d4ac3cd0b.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:36
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/margaret-a-fisher/article_176d58f1-fb91-5e15-acc0-529d4ac3cd0b.html
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Rachel Ann Enright
February 2, 1999-May 25, 2022
GARNER-Rachel Ann Enright, 23, of Garner, IA, died unexpectedly of natural causes on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
A Memorial Service will be held at 1:00pm Thursday, June 2, 2022 at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel 310 1st Ave N, Clear Lake, IA with Pastor Robert Dodge officiating.
Visitation will be from 5:00pm to 7:00pm Wednesday, June 1, 2022 at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel 310 1st Ave N, Clear Lake, IA.
In honor of Rachel who often helped her dad at the Britt food bank, the family asks that donations be made to God's Pantry in Garner, IA or any local food bank.
Rachel was born on February 2, 1999, in Mason City, IA, the daughter of Ed and Janet (Leonard) Enright. Rachel grew up in Britt, until the third grade. The family then moved to Garner where she graduated from Garner-Hayfield-Ventura High School in 2017. During High School she played golf and was a part of three Conference Championship teams. She attended the University of Iowa for two years and then transferred to Mercy College of Health Sciences in Des Moines, graduating with Summa Cum Laude honors in December 2020, with a degree in Bachelor of Science Nursing. She went to work for Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.
In her free time she enjoyed fishing with her fiancé, Brennon Harkin, golfing with her dad, and reading for fun. Nursing was her passion, she cared deeply for her patients. Her feline friend Lily is going to miss her company dearly.
Those left to cherish memories of Rachel are her parents, Ed and Janet Enright; the love of her life, fiancé, Brennon Harkin of Boone, IA; brother, John (Kim) Enright of Buffalo Center, IA; and his daughters, Kaitlyn (Jacob) Grobe and Chloe Enright; nieces and nephew, Elizabeth, Hailee, and Tyler Enright; aunts and uncles, Al (Paulette) Enright of Ankeny, IA, Yvonne (Sam) Downs of South Sioux City, NE, Sharleen (Ken) Harris of Milwaukee, WI, Randy (Lisa) Leonard of Spencer, IA, Brad Leonard of Scottsdale, AZ, Denny Leonard of Holstein, IA, and Keith (Francene) Leonard of Holstein, IA; as well as numerous Leonard family cousins and friends.
Rachel is preceded in death by her brother, Mark Enright; paternal and maternal grandparents; and special cousins, Courtney Leonard and Mason Leonard.
For those not able to attend, the service will be livestreamed on the Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel Facebook page at the time of the service.
Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel 310 1st Ave N Clear Lake 641-357-2193 ColonialChapels.com
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/rachel-ann-enright/article_f1f36204-08aa-5cc7-b48d-e2465404995d.html
| 2022-05-29T06:19:42
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https://globegazette.com/news/local/obituaries/rachel-ann-enright/article_f1f36204-08aa-5cc7-b48d-e2465404995d.html
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BOISE, Idaho — Athletes of various abilities are learning how to mountain bike using specialized equipment and training, courtesy of the Challenged Athletes Foundation of Idaho.
CAF Idaho is hosting a mountain bike clinic for adaptive athletes at the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation Bike Park this weekend.
The clinic is in partnership with Higher Ground, National Ability Center and Wasatch Adaptive, who also donated some of the equipment.
14-year-old Liem Kaplan likes to stay active, but his mother, Nancy Kaplan, said some sports and activities are harder for him to get involved in because he has bilateral radial dysplasia.
"He has different hands. He needs a bike adapted so that he can break and he can steer," Nancy said. "Imagine being 14 and not having a bike that works for you. So you can't go out with your friends. You can't ride your bike into town or on a trail."
Dozens of participants, including Liem, were able to learn how to ride an off-road bike with gears, brakes and other designs customized to their ability level. Attendees also got coaching and mentoring from members of the National Ability Center.
"I've been bawling. I'm just so happy. I mean, this really is a lifetime dream," Nancy said.
Whatever ability level or physical challenge some may have, CAF Idaho is there to show these athletes anything is possible.
"It's that light bulb moment," Chief Programs Officer, Jennifer Skeesick said.
Skeesick said it's not always a possibility for athletes to take part in physical activities like mountain biking or skiing, because specialized equipment can be costly. She said a handcycle can cost anywhere between $18,000 and $20,000.
Through their program, partnerships and grants, Skeesick said CAF Idaho is able to help athletes pay for equipment, training and other sporting expenses.
"We are trying to really make sure that people have what they need and that they can go ride in their communities, with their friends and their family as much as they like to," Skeesick said.
Wilson Dippo, an associate manager of CAF Idaho, said the strides the adaptive athlete community has made in the last few decades have been remarkable. He added that 20 years ago, he doesn't even believe adaptive mountain biking was even an activity to take part in.
"Just showing everyone that this exists as an option is crucial," Dippo said. "It's crucial for the athletes and it's also crucial for the community as well."
The Kaplans said they are grateful for the opportunities CAF Idaho gives them, especially because of the people they have met along the way.
"I think what's different about CAF Idaho is they take the time to get to know the individuals; the individual kids and adults and figure out what they need," Nancy said. "They figure out their personality and get them excited."
Skeesick said this past year, CAF Idaho has been able to give 118 grants to Idahoans, totaling more than $300,000. She said CAF Idaho is able to help get the grant program going thanks to donations by community members.
For more information, click HERE.
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho-adaptive-athletes-learning-to-mountain-bike/277-b995398f-81e5-404c-b9ea-153ec90ad13f
| 2022-05-29T06:20:47
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho-adaptive-athletes-learning-to-mountain-bike/277-b995398f-81e5-404c-b9ea-153ec90ad13f
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BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
After all the calculations were made by each county last week to reflect election-day voter registrations, statewide voter turnout in the May 17 primary election came in almost exactly where it did four years earlier: 32.4% of registered voters cast ballots, compared to 32.6% in the 2018 primary.
In some ways, that indicates a strong turnout this year — because in 2018, there were hotly contested races for governor on both the Democratic and Republican primary ballots. “The governor’s race normally drives the turnout,” said former longtime Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa.
“If you get a third, 33%, that’d be a great turnout. That’s a sad commentary on our process,” Ysursa said, “especially when the whole ballgame’s in the primary.”
That’s largely because in recent years, Idaho’s primary elections, particularly in the majority GOP primary, have been much more competitive than its general election races, with more hotly contested races and more contested races total.
But Idaho’s primary election voter turnout has been stagnant or declining for years, after a since-unmatched high in 1972 — the first year those age 18-20 were allowed to vote — when 58.3% of registered voters cast ballots in the Idaho primary.
“That was a big deal,” said Andy Brunelle, a retired Forest Service employee who worked for the state and tracked voter turnout as an editor for the Idaho Blue Book for many years, starting in the late 1970s. “It was the highest ever for where I have data.”
The next big year was 1980, when primary turnout hit 41.34% of registered voters — and 30.94% of the voting-age population, a figure not matched since. Idaho’s primary turnout as a percentage of the voting-age population hasn’t topped 26% since 1984, according to records tallied by the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office; it hit a low of 14.69% of the voting-age population in 2016.
In the 1980 election, Brunelle recalled, “There were huge voter-registration drives,” mainly driven by the Symms and Church campaigns. That was the year that then-GOP Congressman Steve Symms narrowly defeated longtime Democratic Idaho Sen. Frank Church. “The Church campaign and the Symms campaign were already in full swing, even though they had no opponents in the primary,” Brunelle said.
There also were plenty of contests on that year’s Idaho primary ballot, including a hot race between Larry Craig and Wayne Kidwell in the GOP primary for the 1st Congressional District seat. Craig was a state senator at the time and Kidwell was a former Idaho attorney general; Craig won, and went on to a long career in both the U.S. House and Senate before his career ended in scandal in 2009, after his 2007 arrest in a sex sting at the Minneapolis airport. There was a similarly close race between Glenn Nichols and Terry McKay on the Democratic side; the 2nd Congressional District also had a big primary that year between Republicans Jim Jones and incumbent George Hansen, who pulled out the win.
That November, Idaho’s voter turnout in the general election was 80.1% of registered voters, but that figure was pushed down some by the big upswell in the number of registered voters. The 1980 general election turnout was 69.05% of the voting-age population.
Idaho’s general-election turnout rates have generally remained high over the years. The 2020 November general election saw 81.16% of registered voters cast ballots, and 65.62% of the voting-age population. But primary election turnout has continued to lag.
One exception to that trend came in the very unusual 2020 May primary, which took place all by mail during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Every registered voter in the state was mailed a postcard notifying them the election was coming, and then another card they could send back to request an absentee ballot. As a result, primary turnout in that election hit 38.1% of registered voters, but only about 25% of the voting-age population. That same year’s presidential primary, which took place in March before the pandemic had hit Idaho, saw just 17.34% of the voting-age population cast ballots.
This year’s May primary, based on estimates of the voting-age population extrapolated from the last federal estimate tallied in July of 2021, saw roughly 22% of Idaho’s voting-age population participate.
As a percentage of registered voters, turnout varied widely among Idaho counties, but it followed roughly the same patterns it did four years ago. The highest turnouts — 54.7% and 53.8% — came in tiny Camas and Clark counties in eastern Idaho. North Idaho saw relatively high turnout, with 34.6% of registered voters participating in Kootenai County, 43.8% in Bonner County and 47% in Boundary County. In 2018, Kootenai County’s turnout was just under 30% of registered voters, while Bonner tallied 44.5% and Boundary, 40.4%.
Ada County’s turnout for the May 17 primary was 31.5% of registered voters; Canyon’s was 27.5%. Both are down just a couple of points from 2018 levels.
Phil McGrane, the current Ada County clerk who won the GOP primary for Idaho secretary of state and will face Democrat Shawn Keenan for the post in November, said, “In addition to seeing kind of a steady decline in voter turnout over the past 40 years, one of the other things we also see is a steady decline in voter registration. … So less of the population is registered today than it used to be, say in 1980.”
“I was happy to see that turnout was high for this election, and when I say that it’s relative to primaries in the recent past,” McGrane said. “But it’s still only 32%. Which means the vast majority of Idahoans did not participate. If a republic is based on the people selecting the people who are going to represent them, we do our very best when everyone feels represented by those who are elected.”
“We always see higher turnout in general elections,” he noted, “even though so much is going to be determined in these primary elections here in the state.”
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/idaho-press/may-primary-roughly-matched-2018-level/277-8bea02e2-07d8-481e-b272-7a6f6679d3e2
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BOISE, Idaho — An Army veteran and author is taking on a 10,000-mile journey across the United States.
Jake Sansing is walking from Oregon to Maine to raise money for veterans with PTSD. Right now, Sansing is making his way through the Gem State.
The idea for the cross-country adventure began after Sansing left the Army. He was experiencing homelessness and started walking from town-to-town looking for a job.
During the time between cities, Sansing realized the walking helped him with his PTSD. Then, he decided to walk across America, but said he was "alone and unsupported."
Sansing began the first journey in Tennessee and walked to Delaware. He then walked from Delaware to California, to Florida, to Alaska and back to Florida, before ending in California once again.
Following his time traveling from state-to-state, Sansing wrote a book about his experiences, titled "Walking America: A 10,000 Mile Journey of Self-Healing."
Despite the accomplishment, Sansing decided to share his experiences and journey again. The author is now walking from Oregon to Maine to promote his book and support other veterans with PTSD.
The Goal of 'Jake Walks America' is to raise enough money through book sales to purchase land in Oregon. Sansing hopes to use the land to create a free campground for veterans with PTSD.
Sansing said Idahoans have been kind to him as he makes his way east. One family let him stay with them in Parma and a few Caldwell residents helped fix the front wheel of his cart.
The nationwide walk is expected to take a year, Sansing said.
If you would like to support 'Jake Walks America,' you can purchase his book or donate to the campaign by clicking here.
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https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/man-walking-across-america-for-veterans-in-idaho/277-3c0d1724-43f8-47c8-838b-6fe27dd6b280
| 2022-05-29T06:20:59
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Oct. 13, 1933 - Dec. 31, 2021
MUNSTER/DYER - Anita Nondorf Gross, 88, peacefully passed from natural causes on December 31, 2021. She was surrounded in her last days by her sister, Patty; daughters; her niece; as well as video visits with additional family. Ongoing care from friends, the beloved Ridge-Foothill caregivers were supported by Inspiration Hospice team. Thank you to everyone who walked this journey with us all.
Anita remained sweet, curious and attentive to the end in preparation for yet another New Year's Eve celebration.
Born on Friday the 13th (she considered it lucky for her) in NW Indiana and being the 7th of 12 children, Anita enjoyed the "Irish lively conversations" with her musical parents; many siblings; in-laws; out-laws; nieces; nephews; and cousins. Her early childhood radio performance included singing "I'm an ol' cowhand" as part of the Nondorf Kiddies. Anita's nursing career began her life's adventure with Dr. Joe Gross, raising their family of four in Munster and Dyer, with time in Heidelberg, Germany. Together 'Nita and Joe found many ways to explore the globe. Anita was a member of the Pi Sigma Phi sorority - Upsilon chapter as were many of her family.
While Mary Beth; David; Jennifer (Robert); and Joel (Leslie) spread out raising their families, Anita earned fly miles connecting with her nine grandchildren and five great-grandchildren (and counting).
Despite memory loss, she retained her lifelong love of music/songs, movies/tv, Cubs baseball (including 2016 world series win) and of course, Notre Dame football.
Retired years were spent in Michigan City overlooking the beach, and volunteer nursing at Share Foundation Camp. She always enjoyed sharing her eye for beauty in trees with Joe and her large circle of family, friends.
Ever the caregiver, Anita supported Alzheimer's research with brain donation through Columbia University LOAD study.
As 'Nita and Joe were quite the hosts of countless gatherings through the decades, we can only imagine their theme party going on now. We commit to continuing their reputation. We will always toast to Anita and Joe on New Year's Eve.
Anita is survived by her siblings: Bill and Patty; as well as three of her children/families: Mary Beth, Jennifer, Joel and family of David.
She is preceded in death by her husband, Joseph; and son, David; and parents: Al and Wilda; as well as several siblings.
As a COVID survivor and always the nurse, Anita respectfully wishes for vaccines and masks to keep yourselves, families, and friends safe when gathering in her honor, as conditions dictate.
There will be a funeral mass on June 11, 2022, at 10:30 a.m. at St Joseph Church in Dyer, IN. Graveside burial at Chapel Lawn Cemetery , Schererville, followed by a catered luncheon at St. John Township Community Center in St. John, IN.
In lieu of flowers, may we suggest a donation to the Alzheimer's Association, The NW Indiana Share Foundation or The Ridge Foothill Senior Living, Salt Lake City: their nursing scholarship fund.
"Back Home In Indiana!"
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/anita-nondorf-gross/article_6ce3a785-bca6-5ac4-887b-e93428e6cd41.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:07
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5/30/1923 - 7/29/2007
Happpy Birthday Sweet Mother!
Many loving and happy memories come to mind today. You always gave so much of yourself. What a wonderful mother we had. Wishing you were here and missing you dearly.
Loving You Always, Your Girls and Entire Family
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/beatrice-bea-bickerstaff/article_c794cdd8-8452-5912-86c2-27702ff155cd.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:13
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Oct. 4, 1926 - May 25, 2022
CROWN POINT, IN - Catherine "Millie" Kunas (nee Orgon), age 95, of Crown Point, IN, passed away on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. She was born on October 4, 1926 to John and Mary (nee Martin) Orgon. She married Andrew E. Kunas at Holy Trinity Church in Gary, IN on July 2, 1949.
Catherine was preceded in death by her husband, Andrew; and infant daughter; parents, John and Mary; and siblings: Edward, Irine, and Stephen.
Catherine is survived by her sister, Emma (Bob) Defenser; and her four children: Geralyn Farley of Schererville, IN, Dr. Robert (Jill) Kunas of Tolono, IL, Richard (Sharon) Kunas of Denver, NC, and Andrea (Bob) Martin of Crown Point, IN; 11 grandchildren; Thomas (Jamie) Farley, Gregory (Sharon) Farley, Jill Farley, Eric (Kristen) Kunas, Emilee (Victor) Kunas, Madeline Kunas, Trenton Kunas, Drew Kunas, Dr. Grace (Uddit) Patel, Madeline Martin, Rachel Martin; and seven great-grandchildren: Reese Farley, Nicholas Farley, Taeo Farley, Tobi Farley, Taso Farley, Harlow Kunas and Owen Kunas.
Catherine graduated from Emerson High School and worked at U.S. Steel's Sheet & Tin Mill during World War II. She earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Indiana University Northwest, and subsequently taught grade school in the Lake Ridge School system for over 22 years.
Catherine was an officer of First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association Branch 289 and a member of St. Mary's Rosary Altar Society. She was also a volunteer contributor to the NIH Women's Health Initiative clinical trials for over three decades. Her hobbies and interests included travel, knitting, genealogy, cooking, and maintaining cherished friendships.
Friends may visit with the family on Friday, June 3, 2022, at GEISEN FUNERAL, CREMATION & RECEPTION CENTRE, 606 E. 113th Ave., Crown Point, IN 46307 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m..
Prayers will be said at 9:15 a.m. at the Funeral Home on Saturday, June 4, 2022. Funeral Mass to follow at 10:00 AM at St. Mary Catholic Church, 321 E. Joliet St., Crown Point, IN 46307.
Interment to follow at Calumet Park Cemetery in Merrillville, IN.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be given in Catherine's name to the Share Foundation www.sharefoundation.org.
Visit Catherine's online guestbook at www.GeisenFuneralHome.com 219-663-2500.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/catherine-millie-kunas-nee-orgon/article_b59121be-de64-5e6e-b071-0760a8b84fac.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:19
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April 1, 1942 - May 19, 2022
ANTHEM, AZ - Charles E. Winkler of Anthem Arizona, 80 years of age, passed away at the Hospice of the Valley on May 19, 2022. He was a former resident of Schererville, Indiana and owner of Professional Cleaning Services. He served in the US Army and is survived by his wife, Nancy (Kasprzyk); sister, Ann Marie Wheeler; brother, David; and three nieces and two nephews. Services will be held at the military cemetery Cave Creek, Arizona. He will be greatly missed on the golf course and in the hearts of his family and friends.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/charles-e-winkler/article_6a80747c-6e77-5946-901f-09cf3544ad88.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:25
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April 14, 1921 - May 22, 2022
SCHERERVILLE, IN - Clelia A. Ginay, 101, passed away May 22, 2022, in Schererville, Indiana. She was born Clelia Baldassari, daughter of Giuseppe Bladassari and Henrietta Barilari, in New York City on April 14, 1921. Her mother passed away when Clelia was four years of age. She earned her Registered Nurse certification at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she lived with her father and brother. She joined the Navy as a nurse, shortly after the start of World War Two. While working in a Naval Hospital on Long Island, she treated a patient, John J. Ginay, a Naval officer, whom she married while they were both in the Navy. After the war, they moved to East Chicago, IN, where she worked as an RN at Saint Catherine's Hospital, and later at the Hammond Clinic. She specialized in emergency room and intensive care nursing, as well as care of burn patients. She also did private duty nursing. Her husband, John, taught math and science, as well as doing some coaching, at East Chicago Roosevelt High School, and also served as Vice Principal at East Chicago Washington High School. In addition, he did guidance work for the school system. Upon his retirement, they wintered in Arizona, then finally settling in Schererville, IN. John passed away December 7, 2004. Although legally blind in her seventies, mom kept up with current events, loved to weave on her loom, listen to books, and to talk about her days as an RN. She was highly spirited, loved lasagna, and never gained an ounce.
She is survived by son, John C. Ginay and daughter-in-law, Rebecca J Norman, residing in Chicago; and son, Thomas M Ginay, residing in Muncie, IN; as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Services will be private.
Donations may be made to Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital, at stjude.org or by phone at 800 805 5856
LINCOLN RIDGE FUNERAL HOME Schererville, IN.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/clelia-a-ginay/article_efc00bce-555e-5099-b658-89f6f49c06da.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:31
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Dec. 9, 1935 - May 14, 2022
VALPARAISO - We celebrate the life of Donald ("Don") Joseph Strimbu Sr., who passed away on Saturday, May 14, 2022, while in hospice care.
Don lived in Valparaiso, Indiana and Scottsdale, Arizona. He was born in Gary, Indiana, and attended Lew Wallace High School.
He was a Purdue University graduate, holding a doctorate in Pharmacy. He worked his way through college as a caddy at Gary Country Club (now Innsbrook Country Club) in Merrillville, Indiana.
He founded and ran Center Drugs, Inc. in Lake Station (formerly East Gary), Indiana for thirty-seven years. Don always put his customers first and was highly dedicated to their health and well-being.
In his retirement, Don enjoyed traveling across the country by car and train. He also performed as a Eucharistic Minister at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Winfield, Indiana, and was active in the Holy Spirit Church food pantry (a St. Vincent DePaul Society affiliate).
Don was preceded in death by his mother, Emily Strimbu (nee Magda), his father, Thomas Strimbu Sr.; and his brother, Thomas Strimbu Jr.
He is survived by his high-school sweetheart and wife of 65 years, Helene (nee Petro); his daughter, Laura Ann (Mark) Pfledderer of Valparaiso; his son, Don Jr. of Novato, California; his "adopted" daughter, Barbara Jean Owens; and his grandchildren: Lauren Ashley (Clayton Knight) Strimbu of Elburn, Illinois, Alan Strimbu of Bartlett, Illinois, Lindsey Pfledderer of Indianapolis, Indiana and Collette Pfledderer of Valparaiso.
Don was quick witted and had an incredible sense of humor and made friends with everyone he met. His passion for life and love of learning was an inspiration to everyone who knew him.
A memorial visitation will be held on Thursday, June 2, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Burns Funeral Home & Crematory, 10101 Broadway, Crown Point, IN. The memorial service will take place on Friday, June 3, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. at Burns Funeral Home, Crown Point. Rev. Thomas Mischler officiating.
In lieu of flowers, we ask for donations to St. Jude Children's Hospital in Don's name. www.burnsfuneral.com
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/donald-j-strimbu-sr/article_9251db39-e76c-533b-a29a-41a51c42985e.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:38
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Jan. 26, 1941 - May 26, 2022
VALPARAISO, IN - Fontelle Marilyn Lemon, 81, of Valparaiso, passed away Thursday, May 26, 2022. She was born January 26, 1941, in Utica, MO to the late Herbert and Caroline Walz along with an eager family of three sisters, and a brother. She was born an aunt to whom she shared many childhood memories. Fontelle graduated from Chillicothe High School in Missouri and made her career as a secretary to the president and loan officers with Citizen's Bank in Chillicothe. She had been a member of the First United Methodist Church in Valparaiso, and took great pride in serving the community through fundraising events and many community organizations including: Delta Theta Tau as past President, PEO chapter J President, United Methodist Children's Ministry, Cub Scout leader, Brownie leader, Northview PTO, VHS band association, Garden club, Bridge club, Potluck Group, Jimmy's Breakfast girls.
On April 21, 1962, Fontelle married her high school sweetheart, James Dell Lemon, who survives, along with their children: Lance & Kim Lemon of Alto, MI and Whitney & Brent Winkel of Valparaiso, IN; incredibly loved grandchildren: Kathryn Dell Lemon, Treston James and Fontelle "Elle" Katherine Winkel; and many admired nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her sisters: Madeline (Howard) Hawkins, Carolyn (Ellis) Rawlins, Charlene (Bill) Coleman; brother, Robert Walz; and loving family pets: Frisky, Onyx, Avalon, Buckwheat, and Mouse.
A visitation will be held on Friday, June 3, 2022 from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at MOELLER FUNERAL HOME, 104 Roosevelt Rd., Valparaiso, with the funeral service beginning at 1:00 p.m. Burial will follow at Angelcrest Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Multiple System Atrophy Coalition, 7918 Jones Branch Dr. Suite 300, McLean, VA 22102.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/fontelle-marilyn-lemon/article_c557e221-0fa4-5248-8487-1f5de404a867.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:44
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March 12, 1941 - May 23, 2022
CROWN POINT - George Nissan, age 81, of Crown Point, passed away on May 23, 2022. He was born in Bagdad, Iraq in 1941.
George owned several businesses in Northwest Indiana. He loved bird watching and traveling. He was a member of the Lions & Rotary Clubs.
George is preceded in death by his parents: George and Daisy; and his stepson, Michael Paris.
He is survived by his loving wife, Antoinette Nissan; two children: Michael (Kelli) Nissan, Kelly (Ken) Budge; stepsons: Victor (Christina) Paris, Richard (Camilo Perez) Paris, Rocco (Yumi) Paris; brother, Paul, sisters: Mona (John) Huston, Vivian Donoho, and Tammy Huston; 15 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at a later date per George's request. Burns Funeral Home & Crematory, Crown Point entrusted with arrangements.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/george-nissan/article_d7af12e6-f06d-5f68-a4d6-790c13f69bb2.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:50
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April 15, 1927 - May 22, 2022
HIGHLAND, IN - Irene Holinga of Highland, Indiana passed away peacefully on May 22, 2022 at the age of 95. She was surrounded by her loving daughter, son, and grandchildren in her final days.
She was born on April 15, 1927 in Czechoslovakia to Joseph and Mary Marcinov. After spending her early childhood years in Czechoslovakia she immigrated to the United States at the age of 4 after a long, transatlantic voyage to Ellis Island with her mother and sister. They reunited with her father who was working at Inland Steel Mill in East Chicago, IN.
Shortly after high school she married World War II Navy war veteran, Andrew Holinga, with whom she had three children. She spent a lifetime in business and public service.
She worked during the Korean War as a class "A" welder at Cast Armor Steel division of American Steel Foundries during the early 1950s.
After having her two youngest children, Irene became a stay-at-home mother until she became the Co-Manager of the Highland License Bureau.
Fulfilling her lifelong dream, she then established Andrene's Fashion Salon in January, 1972. It became the place to go for upscale women's apparel in the Highland, Munster, and Hammond area over the nearly two decades that followed.
She became active in public service when she had to unexpectedly serve her late husband's remaining term as Lake County Treasurer after his untimely death in 1977.
She then became the first woman to be elected to a countywide office in Lake County where she served four nonconsecutive terms as Lake County Treasurer over the course of 19 years.
Some of her memorable political accomplishments include serving as a delegate at the National Democratic Convention for multiple presidential primaries as well as being an attendee of the inaugural balls of President John F. Kennedy and President Bill Clinton.
Irene will be dearly missed by not only her friends and family, but also by the hundreds of people she had helped while serving in public office.
She is survived by her daughter, Peggy Katona (Tom); son, George Holinga (Karen); granddaughters: Dr. Julie Holinga (Dr. Brian Hamburg) and Dr. Andrea Holinga (Dr. Mike Vennemeyer); and grandson, Dr. George Holinga, Jr. (Dr. Kristina Hsieh); and great-granddaughters: Caroline, Madeleine and Alexandra Hamburg.
Irene was preceded in death by her parents, Mary and Joseph Marcinov; sister, Anna Hronkin; and her brother, Joseph Marcinov, Jr; and by her husband, Andrew G. Holinga; and son Andrew G. Holinga, Jr.
Visitation hours will be held at HILLSIDE FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATION CENTER, 8941 Kleinman Road, Highland, Indiana on Thursday, June 2, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m..
Funeral services will be held at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church where she was a lifelong member at 3025 Highway, Highland, Indiana on Friday, June 3, 2022, at 10:30 a.m..
For additional information, please contact Hillside Funeral Home & Cremation Center, Konnie Kuiper-Kevin Nordyke-Michael Kuiper-Vass by calling us at 219-838-0800 or visiting us at www.hillsidefhcares.com
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/irene-holinga/article_4370dc16-cc79-5926-b4ee-decffc855174.html
| 2022-05-29T06:21:56
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Feb. 5, 1956 - May 24, 2022
GRAYSLAKE, IL. - James M. Syler, 66, a resident of Grayslake, IL, peacefully passed away May 24, 2022, at home surrounded by loved ones. He was born February 5, 1956, in Chicago, IL to James and Arlene Syler.
Jim along with his dad, "JR" owned and operated Mohave Trucking in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jim's greatest passion was fishing and cheering on the Chicago White Sox and Blackhawks, although nothing outweighed the passion and love that he had for his family.
Jim is survived by his wife, Kim; his mother, Arlene; sister, Jill; and niece, Leah. He is also survived by his children: Jacob (Nicole), Jordyn, Lesley (Zach), Michael (Heather), and Kelly. He was Papa to: Riley and Alexis; Papaw to his Sox loving buddy, Clayton; and grandpa Jim to Beatrix "B.B."
He was preceded in death by his father, James Richard.
A memorial with immediate family will be held at a later date. Arrangements were entrusted to Strang Funeral Chapel, 410 E. Belvidere Road, Grayslake, IL 60030.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Lambs Farm: lambsfarm.org, Advocate Hospice: advocategiving.org, or American Cancer Society: cancer.org.
For more information, please call (847) 223-8122 or visit www.StrangFuneral.org.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/james-m-syler/article_792601f8-3235-5ef1-9bb7-b1741437bf7b.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:02
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June 20, 1953 - May 25, 2022
HAMMOND - Janet Tabaczynski (nee: Hojnacki), age 68, of Hammond, passed away peacefully at home while surrounded by her family on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.
She is survived by her loving husband, Martin Tabaczynski; two daughters: Tracy and Audrey Tabaczynski; grandson, Gannon Tabaczynski; siblings: Debbie (Glenn) Benetich, Michael and Mark Hojnacki; numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.
Preceded in death by her parents, Raymond and Dorothy Hojnacki; siblings: Kathy Coots, Ellen McGann and Martin Hojnacki.
Friends are invited to meet with the family for a time of Visitation on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at BOCKEN FUNERAL HOME, 7042 Kennedy Ave., Hammond (Hessville). A Funeral Service will take place on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Cremation to follow.
Janet had a great sense of humor and "you just liked when she was around". Her home was her favorite place to be and where she loved to make memories with her family. She was married to her husband for 42 years. She had two daughters who she loved more than anything. However the person who brought her the most joy in this world was her grandson, Gannon. The two of them had an extremely special bond. Gannon loved his Eggo. In lieu of flowers donations to American Red Cross Blood Bank would be appreciated.
For further information on arrangements please call Bocken Funeral Home at 219-844-1600 or visit us at www.bockenfunerals.com
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/janet-tabaczynski/article_43273063-4af2-58ec-9287-9e4882b0213c.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:08
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Sept. 26, 1936 - May 21, 2022
VALPARAISO - Jo Ellen Mills, age 85, passed away on May 21, 2022. Born in Gary on September 26, 1936, to the late Joseph and Rose (nee Gottschling) Serbin.
Jo Ellen was a member of the American Legion Post 94 and an avid bowler.
Survived by daughters: Laura (David) Brubaker and Linda Gast; step-children: Diane (Bob) DeMeyer, Andy (Lisa) Mills, Betty (Leonard) Sales; 12 grandchildren; 15 great-grandchildren; siblings: Tom (Cheri) Serbin, Rich (Debbie) Serbin, Carole (Mary Reedy) Carlson, Donna (Mark) Hanchar; sister-in-law, Betty (Rich) Hocker.
Preceded in death by husband, James M. Mills in 2014; sons: Kenneth A. Scobey and David Scobey; granddaughter, Ashley; and parents.
Friends may call on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Dykes Funeral Home, 2305 N. Campbell St., Valparaiso, IN. Funeral service at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at Dykes Funeral Home with Pastor Deb Rousselle officiating. Entombment, Graceland Cemetery, Valparaiso, IN.
Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society and VNA Hospice.
Arrangements by Dykes Funeral Home, Inc., Valparaiso, IN (219) 462-3125.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/jo-ellen-nee-serbin-mills/article_e86a7bc1-e510-58ac-aa9c-9ede7e16dbac.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:15
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/jo-ellen-nee-serbin-mills/article_e86a7bc1-e510-58ac-aa9c-9ede7e16dbac.html
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HERMITAGE, TN - Karl J. Nemeth, Sr., age 76, passed away on May 18, 2022.
He proudly fought in the Vietnam War and served in the Army. He enjoyed drag racing, fishing, camping, Lionel train collecting, and especially loved his family. Karl was a jokester and brought joy and laughter to those around him.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Martin (Jean) Nemeth; two sisters: Diane, (Raymond) Pisowicz, Mary, (Harold) Ware; and brother, Martin A. (Bernadine) Nemeth.
He is survived by his loving wife, Susan Nemeth; three sisters: Joyce, (Jerry) Scherer, Kathi (David) Trotman, Jacqueline, (Richard) Dawson; and James Nemeth; sons: Karl (April) Nemeth. Jr., Stephen Nemeth; and grandchildren: Jacob, Payton, and Karson.
A Celebration of Life ceremony will be held for Karl J. Nemeth on June 4, 2022, at 3:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. at the Fraternal Order of Eagles, 805 Elm St., Valparaiso, IN 46383.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/karl-j-nemeth-sr/article_3538104b-c19f-5bd6-9154-9203eb475b31.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:21
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Feb. 9, 1926 - May 23, 2022
MUNSTER - Lois A. Schoon, age 96, of Munster, IN, passed away on Monday, May 23, 2022, after a brief
illness. She is survived by her younger brother, John (Marlene) D. Schoon; nephews: Tom (Jan)
Schoon, Jeff Adams, Craig (Sue) Schoon, Mike Schoon, Randy (Ashley) Schoon; and nieces: Gwen (Mike) Klein, Cathy (Glenn) Forstberg, and Kim (Fernando) Ruiz; along with a number of great nephews and nieces. She was preceded in death by her parents: Cornelius and Cora Schoon; brother, Norm (Martha) Schoon; sister, Ellen (Norbert) Adams; and nephew, Guy (Joanne) Schoon.
Lois enjoyed caring for her home and yard for many years. Prior to that she also cared for her mother, she served as clerk treasurer for the town of Munster, IN. She also worked as a school bus driver, and worked for glass, feed and seed, and automotive companies. Early in her life Lois became a member of the First Christian Reformed Church of Lansing and maintained membership as it transitioned to New Hope Church. She enjoyed dining out with friends, traveling with family, and attending family gatherings. She enjoyed good practical jokes and listening to talk radio (but not the news!). There are many memories of Sunday lunches, and 4th of July celebrations, along with Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings. We will miss her sharing concerns, her voice of reason and of laughter until we are reunited in heavenly glory.
She has been entrusted to SCHROEDER-LAUER FUNERAL HOME, 3227 Ridge Road, Lansing, IL, where services will be held on Tuesday, May 31.2022. Visitation will be held from 10:00 AM until 12:00 PM, with a service and committal immediately following, with Pastor Tom Swieringa officiating. Burial will be private. Lois will be laid to rest at Oak Ridge Cemetery, Lansing, IL. Lois was often a very private person but was loved by those that knew her and will be truly missed. www.schroederlauer.com
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/lois-a-schoon/article_ed85764e-8ddf-5b2a-a6aa-1c007e90de3f.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:27
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Aug. 14, 1951 - May 22, 2022
CHESTERTON - Marsha Elizabeth Gilroy Gough, age 70, of Chesterton, passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 22, 2022, surrounded by her family and best friend. She was born in Miller Beach, Gary, IN on August 14, 1951, to Jack and Mary Edna Gilroy.
Marsha graduated from Wirt High School in Indiana in 1969 and was a member of Marquette United Methodist Church. After graduation, she did clerical work until she moved to Chesterton, where she began her career at Bethlehem Steel. She worked there for 10 years and then changed her career path. She finished her profession with the Crisis Center of Miller after 30 years working in payroll/bookkeeping.
After retiring from the Crisis Center, she was an amazing care giver to her mother, Edna, for a number of years. During this time, Marsha took a part-time job working at Hallmark of Chesterton, where she was able to see many of her friends. The Hallmark Ladies (Doug) gave her so much joy and laughter.
Marsha excelled at bowling and pitching horseshoes. Upon receiving the Chesterton Tribune, you instantly knew that her picture would be in the sports section for high score/series. She was highly recognized by people that didn't know her, mainly for her bowling skills. But the main reason she excelled is because she loved spending time with many of her closest friends, her daughters, hence "The Gough Girls", and her grandchildren that she cherished. She was an avid fan of Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and numerous sporting events including Cubs games, high school sporting events, Clarion sporting events and dinners with the "Clarion Parents", and sharing the bleachers with many other "bleacher bums".
Marsha is survived by her daughters: Kelly (Justin) Newcom, Amanda Gough; her grandchildren: Mattilyn Gough (Shorty), Ronan Chavez; cousins: Hilda (Wil) Courter and Linda Lorbacher; second cousins: Joe (Julie), John (Kristen), and David (Jennifer) Moore; and many special friends that we are so thankful for.
Marsha was preceded in death by her mother, Edna Gilroy Smith; her father, Jack Gilroy; her step-father, Bill Smith; and her uncle, Thomas Duncan Gaddy.
Visitation for Marsha will be held on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. -7:00 p.m., at Burns Funeral Home, 701 East 7th Street, Hobart, IN 46342.
Funeral service will be held on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at Burns (Hobart), Pastor Tom Shanahan officiating. Interment at Calumet Park Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the family, Marquette Park UMC, 215 North Grand Boulevard, Gary, IN 46403 and/or Dunes Hospice, 4711 Evans Ave, Valparaiso, IN 46383.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/marsha-elizabeth-gilroy-gough/article_5ea2a8db-b3c3-5112-991f-d0423a250275.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:33
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/marsha-elizabeth-gilroy-gough/article_5ea2a8db-b3c3-5112-991f-d0423a250275.html
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August 19, 1943 - May 1, 2022
PORTAGE - Mary "Dolly" L. Schroeder, age 78, of Portage, passed away Sunday, May 1, 2022. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 19, 1943, to the late Charles and Irene (nee Langbeen) Hudson. Mary was a devoted member of Trinity Lutheran Church where she was past chairman of the Mother's Circle, helped with funeral luncheons, and was president of the Local Thrivent Chapter. She worked as a proof operator for Mid America, Gainer, National Bank, then Bank One. Mary enjoyed reading. She will be remembered as a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, sister, and friend.
Mary is survived by her husband of 56 years, Arnold "Arnie" Schroeder; children: Amy (Bradley) Kunas, Arnie (Sharon) Schroeder, Jr., Stephen (Karen) Schroeder, Emily (Bradley) Salmon; grandchildren, Melvin "Gus" (Linda) Chaney III, Aubrey Schroeder, Jake Kunas, Makena Kunas, Greta Salmon, Tate Salmon, Charlotte Salmon; great grandchild: Ashton Chaney; and brothers: George, Michael, and Jake Hudson.
Memorial contributions may be given to Dunes Hospice, 4711 Evans Ave, Valparaiso, IN 46383 or Trinity Lutheran Church, 900 Luther Drive, Hobart, IN 46342.
Mary's family would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the various caregivers, companions, and staff at Dunes Hospice, especially Amber and Maggie, who cared for Mary.
A memorial service will take place Saturday, June 4, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. with Pastor Nathan Kramer officiating at Trinity Lutheran Church, 900 Luther Dr., Hobart, IN 46342. Visitation will take place prior to the service from 10:00-11:00 a.m. Cremation has been entrusted to REES FUNERAL HOME, Hobart Chapel. 219-942-2109. Online condolences may be shared with the family at www.reesfuneralhomes.com.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/mary-dolly-l-schroeder/article_7c53d64b-d25f-558c-9c54-cdcb212b1580.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:39
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March 31, 1941 - May 27, 2022
VALPARAISO, IN - Phyllis Ann Phillips, 81, of Valparaiso, passed away Friday, May 27, 2022. She was born March 31, 1941, in East Chicago, IN, the daughter of Michael and Dorothy (Sabol) Hanchar. On April 20, 1963, Phyllis married her first husband, Ronald Spencer, who preceded her in death. On April 22, 1978, she married Robert Wayne Phillips, who survives in Valparaiso. Also surviving are her children: Ronald M. (Julie) Spencer of Valparaiso, Tom (Susan) Spencer of Syracuse, IN and Kevin Lee (Erin) Spencer of Valparaiso; five grandchildren: Clayton, Delaney, Connor, Avery and Quincy; her sister, Cynthia Hanchar of Valparaiso; and brothers: Bruce (Karen) Hanchar, Keith Hanchar and David Hanchar, all of Valparaiso. She was preceded in death by her parents and two brothers, Greg and Mike. Funeral services will be 11:00 AM on Thursday, June 2nd at BARTHOLOMEW FUNERAL HOME in Valparaiso. Visitation will be on Wednesday from 4:00 -8:00 PM at the funeral home. Burial will be in Graceland Cemetery. Memorials can be made to the VNA Hospice in Valparaiso.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/phyllis-ann-phillips/article_cc0d79bb-d018-54a6-9e92-99689fa6a4e9.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:46
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Oct. 29, 1949 - May 27, 2022
PORTAGE, IN - Ronald "Ron" Smith, 72, of Portage, passed away Friday, May 27, 2022. He was born October 29, 1949 in Hopkinsville, KY to Kenneth and Juanita (Armstrong) Smith. Ron graduated from Lew Wallace High School in 1969 and made his career as a Welder with ArcelorMittal/Inland Steel. He was an avid bowler who participated in many leagues and while chasing a perfect score, reached a game high of 299. Ron enjoyed playing poker and trips to the boats, showing his nieces and nephews up in chess, and spending time with his family over holiday dinners. He loved to make people laugh and will be remembered as a great friend who was generous with his time and resources. Ron will be dearly missed by all who knew him.
Ron is survived by his daughter, Andrea (Matthew) Darrol of Valparaiso; grandchildren: Carter, Maija, Delilah; close friends: Debbie & Les Gabel; brother, Robert (Rita) Smith of Valparaiso; nephews: Jonathan and Michael Smith; niece, Julia Smith; aunt, Dixie Armstrong; and cousins: Melissa, Sharon, and Tammy Armstrong, Don (Sharon) Wallace, and Steven Wallace. He was preceded in death by his father and stepmother, Kenneth and Bea Smith; and mother and step-father, Juanita and Pete DeMers.
A visitation will be held on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. at Moeller Funeral Home, 104 Roosevelt Rd., Valparaiso. Memorial donations may be made in Ron's name to the Alzheimer's Association.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/ronald-ron-smith/article_7012bb29-58cd-5db1-b707-4f2a0946155d.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:52
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July 5, 1949 - May 23, 2022
SPRINGFIELD, IL - Theresa Rose Eschenbach Roller Dederer, age 72, passed away peacefully on May 23, 2022, at 12:46 p.m. at Memorial Hospital in Springfield, IL, surrounded by many family members. She was born July 5, 1949, in East Chicago, IN, to Robert Leo Eschenbach and Virgina Schuchman Eschenbach, who preceded her in death.
Teri grew up in Munster, IN, went to St. Thomas More and Munster High School, and attended Indiana University where she earned her bachelor's degree in English. She taught 5th grade in Grand Forks, ND, in 1971, followed by an impactful 37-year career with the Illinois Department of Human Services. In 1988, she wrote a grant that secured funding for the state of Illinois through newly passed federal legislation. The program was one of the first nine in the nation to be funded and for more than thirty years has successfully empowered individuals with disabilities to have more choices and increased independence using assistive technologies. IATP was the proudest achievement of her career.
Family gatherings and celebrations brought her the greatest joy. Congregating around the table sharing stories, jokes, and the tales of life have created many precious memories. Those times filled the house with laughter, which sometimes turned into crying, because everyone would be laughing so hard. When it wasn't filled with laughter, it was filled with singing.
Teri was an accomplished musician who loved sharing the gift of music. She was an excellent pianist, and the family would gather around the piano, especially during Christmas holidays to sing (even in 4-part harmony). She loved nature and animals and her home always had multiple pets to love and snuggle with.
Teri was affectionately known as TT. One night the family was all packed into a van, and it was very loud. When trying to get her attention from the back seat, Beccah yelled, "Theresa Rose Mary." To which Teri responded, "Did you call me Tree Trunk Mary?" After uproarious laughter, she was forever nicknamed "Tree Trunk Mary," which was later shortened to TT.
She is survived by her wife, Wilhelmina Gunther and their children: Rebeccah Catherine Roller Rich (Daren), Erika Elise Roller Raymond (Christopher), Robert Max Michael Roller (Meghan), Jacqueline Rose and Halley Rose Gunther; and by her sister, Elisabeth Andrea Eschenbach Cosby (Terry) and their children: Colleen Erin Cosby Abston (companion Rodney Jensen) and Cary Andrew Cosby; and by her grandkids: Mackenzie Elise and Landon Joseph Raymond, Jordan Elizabeth and Alexa Madison Roller, Daren Christopher Rich II; and six great nieces and a nephew: Victoria Elisabeth and Taylor Erin Abston, Gianna Faustina, Gracie Jaye, Sebastian Santino and Charlotte Olivia Cosby; She is also survived by her sister-in-law, MaryEffie Gunther and her daughter, Abigail Rose Gunther; brother-in-law, John Joseph Gunther (Patricia) and their children, Megan Patricia Wentzel (Michael), Madeleine Mary O'Gara (Adam), and John Joseph Gunther IV.
The visitation will be held at STAAB FUNERAL HOME located at 1109 S 5th St., Springfield, IL 62703, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, you may donate to Teri's passion project: The Illinois Assistive Technology Program (IATP) at 1020 S. Spring, Springfield, IL 62704.
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https://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/obituaries/theresa-rose-eschenbach-roller-dederer/article_7bca9e26-f44a-5a32-9911-fbffe3f78478.html
| 2022-05-29T06:22:58
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SALEM, Ore. (KOIN) — The B-17 Alliance Foundation in Salem is dedicated to restoring one of the namesake aircraft, a B-17G Flying Fortress.
On Saturday, a fundraiser for this rare and historic aircraft was held to help the current restoration project underway at the Salem airport.
Aviation historians will say the wings of a B-17 held the promise of freedom for both the pilots of World War 2 and the entire country.
The B-17 Alliance Foundation in Salem is sharing our country’s history through the metal of a B-17 that was once perched atop a gas station in Milwaukie — the Lacey Lady.
Volunteers on the restoration project connect the fabric of aviation history and one day the pieces will come together and fly again.
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https://www.koin.com/local/marion-county/b-17g-flying-fortress-restoration-project-continues/
| 2022-05-29T07:10:10
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https://www.koin.com/local/marion-county/b-17g-flying-fortress-restoration-project-continues/
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The nearly century-old concrete bridge in the peaceful community of Lower Mount Bethel Township carries close to 7,000 vehicles and drivers each day. That includes close to 1,000 trucks daily, according to Samantha Burns, a township supervisor.
The bridge, which was built in 1926, takes motorists to the community’s only stoplight, where drivers can either turn left to continue south onto Route 611 toward Easton, or venture on one of two township roads, Front Street or Main Street. It is one of many transportation lifelines in the Slate Belt and key to the community.
Despite PennDOT’s assurances to the contrary, Burns said the Route 611 bridge has become a concern for residents. She said the span has been drawing increased truck traffic from warehouses in adjacent communities. She sees potentially more large vehicles using the bridge as new distribution or industrial sites are built, including north of Lower Mount Bethel at the proposed River Pointe Commerce Park in neighboring Upper Mount Bethel Township.
“It scares all of us who live here,” she said, noting concerned residents heading into the Martins Creek village at Route 611 won’t stop on the bridge if the traffic light is red, preferring to wait off its deck if a tractor-trailer or several dump trucks are ahead of the motorists.
In a way, the Lower Mount Bethel community is fortunate. At the bridge’s most recent inspection in July, inspectors gave it an overall rating of “Fair”, though the last inspection showed it to include a grade of “Scour Critical.” Scour is the undermining of a bridge’s piers caused by the force of water over time.
Some of the data related to the Lower Mount Bethel bridge — memos from independent inspectors hired by PennDOT — is among thousands of notes accompanying reviews of more than 20,000 bridges statewide. Many of the bridges in the inspection reports are rated “Poor”; 101 of those spans are in the Lehigh Valley, PennDOT spokesperson Ron Young said. That is out of 778 bridges combined in Lehigh and Northampton counties that are either owned by the state or communities, Young said.
Data held back
The database of inspectors’ reports was taken down in the wake of the collapse of Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge in January that injured nine people and crushed a bus and five other vehicles. No one was killed.
PennDOT removed its database on bridge inspections, citing security concerns, after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obtained it during its investigation on the condition of the Fern Hollow Bridge.
At a time when such information is concealed — including the inspection reports for Fern Hollow — the disclosures offer a rare glimpse into area spans that are badly in need of repair or replacement, and in some cases, not getting immediate help despite cautionary remarks by inspectors.
[ How safe are the Lehigh Valley’s bridges? Here’s what the most recent inspections found ]
Young, who handles media requests for the state district that includes the Lehigh Valley, said the agency offers a public website regarding current bridge conditions, without the technical inspection reports.
Young said the state performs about 18,000 inspections per year on average, with every bridge checked at least once every two years. Some are inspected more frequently, depending on conditions, but in general, a hole in a deck or a misaligned culvert joint should not mean concern.
“Any bridge that is not safe-rated on inspections, we close [it],” Young said.
What notes say about some bridges
Among examples of Lehigh Valley’s “Poor” bridges in the now-secret database, the following had the most noted or obvious issues, according to a review by The Morning Call and information provided by Young.
- A state-owned bridge along heavily used Route 22 over Mickley Road in Whitehall Township had a litany of problems when inspectors visited in June, which made it clear why it is due for renovations later this year: “There was an increase in deterioration of the approach roadways. There are several new spalls with exposed rebar in the approach slabs. . . . The joint is not watertight. There was an increase in section loss to Beam 12 at the near abutment with web crippling beyond the centerline of bearing.” The bridge is undergoing deck and joint repairs as part of a Route 22 renovation. It also will have substructure work in a separate Lehigh Valley bridge contract being placed out for bids in summer.
- A bridge on Route 512 over Monocracy Creek in East Allen Township has had an exposed foundation and timber debris, leading to a poor substructure. It is inspected every 18 months, with the last inspection Sept. 16. Average daily traffic: nearly 13,000 vehicles. “Based on the condition of the substructure (4-Poor), the bridge is considered structurally deficient,” an inspector notes. The bridge is scheduled to be rehabilitated or replaced, with a contract expected to be placed out for bids in late 2025.
- A bridge on Weilers Road over Schaefer Run in Upper Macungie Township features a misalignment of culverts used for waterflow and instances of cracking, according to a July report. It has average daily traffic of more than 5,200 vehicles, has no weight or other restrictions, is scheduled for routine maintenance, and is on an annual inspection cycle.
The Morning Call asked several people with knowledge about bridges if they believe the data should be public information. Most said it should not be available to the public, or they declined to comment.
“I trust PennDOT and its process, and how it is doing things,” said John Caperilla, a civil engineer and president of the Reading branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. “It has a regular inspection schedule that it follows.”
The society every four years ranks the state’s bridges; Pennsylvania scored a D+ on its most recent rating in 2018, according to Caperilla. But he said agencies such as PennDOT try to identify troubles on roads and bridges and attempt to come up with solutions that help alleviate infrastructure issues.
More funding would also help, he said.
“As as far as the public being concerned, for them to worry about bridges falling down en masse, it is something that is not going to happen,” he said.
David Mante, an assistant professor in Lafayette College’s civil and environmental engineering program, said details from inspection reports might be misinterpreted by lay readers. “For instance,” he said, “terms like ‘structurally deficient’ — while sounding alarming — merely indicate that the bridge is no longer able to support its prior capacity due to deteriorations, cracks, or other flaws.
“As long as a structurally deficient bridge is properly posted and traffic restricted accordingly, it poses no life safety hazard to the public,” said Mante, who teaches about highway bridge design and structural load testing. “If, and only if, a bridge cannot provide a minimal service duty, it is closed to the public.”
Rick Molchany, Lehigh County’s director of general services, whose role includes overseeing 46 bridges throughout the county, said the public should have access to the PennDOT data. “I don’t believe it is healthy to do that,” he said, in reference to keeping information from the public.
Tempering his comment, Molchany also said, “For me that tool is important, especially as we educate the community on why it’s important to maintain the grid,” Molchany said. “But there has to be a context that I believe is very important.”
For example, he cited Allentown’s Wire Mill Bridge, which the county owns and which carries nearly 14,000 vehicles daily along Route 145 South and toward Lehigh Street. It has been in need of replacement for years, and work has begun on the span, which crosses the Little Lehigh Creek, and is expected to wrap up in early December.
Molchany said Lehigh County wanted to replace the bridge, which has a “Poor” rating, several years ago, but it had been placed on a detour list of alternate routes while major work was undertaken to the Eighth Street Bridge, also in Allentown. The Wire Mill Bridge had previously closed for $300,000 in repairs in late 2017 to help it withstand wear-and-tear before being replaced.
‘It should be public record’
In Lower Mount Bethel, Burns, who had compiled a list of comparative ratings for the bridge from other PennDOT data that is online, said she had never known of the now-secret database released revealed by the Post-Gazette.
“It should be public record,” she said. “These are roads and bridges we use, and we should be able to know if they’re safe. If it was our bridge, a township bridge, we would give [residents] that information. We wouldn’t keep it from them, saying that we’re keeping them safe by not giving it to them.
“And if there isn’t anything wrong with the bridges, then why can’t we see it?”
Burns said, based on the PennDOT records she has compiled, the bridge is showing signs of crumbling, in her view. Reports done by independent inspectors for PennDOT state that its conditions are improving but with discrepancies in various rating descriptions, she said.
For example, inspection reports from 2015, which lists the bridge railing as “intolerable” and requiring replacement, was elevated in later inspections to “basically intolerable” and requiring action.
“Sometimes they don’t jibe,” Burns said.
Young said the bridge railing, or “guiderail” will be replaced under the estimated $500,000 worth of repairs to be performed in 2024. He said the repairs would expand the bridge’s life until a replacement for it can be programmed into the region’s transportation improvement program.
First Call
Burns said PennDOT’s plans to repair — instead of replace — the more than 200-foot span, was a surprise to her and many others in the township. But an engineer’s preliminary estimate regarding repair also put the cost of replacing the bridge at $6 million, which according to Young, is money not automatically earmarked for the bridge.
Young said the bridge has no weight restrictions, meaning it can carry up to 80,000 pounds, or a tractor-trailer load.
He said other work to be performed will include deck patching, and work on the deck overlay and repairing one of the piers damaged by the scouring. He said the pier has not deteriorated to the point that makes the bridge unsafe to cross.
Morning Call journalist Anthony Salamone can be reached at 610-820-6694 or asalamone@mcall.com.
Morning Call reporter Graysen Golter can be reached at ggolter@mcall.com.
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https://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-nws-lehigh-valley-bridges-20220529-qsagtxdufnejvhujmu6acj3ine-story.html
| 2022-05-29T08:14:43
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The shooting incident that left 19 students dead last week may have happened 1,300 miles away in Texas, but local mental health experts said feelings of fear and helplessness should be expected locally.
Nineteen children and two teachers were gunned down at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas last week. Jeremiah Schumm, an associate professor at Wright State University’s School of Professional Psychology, said Texas is far away but the feelings of anxiety here are very real.
“It’s just such a horrific type of trauma that is not supposed to happen,” Schumm said. “We have this idea in our minds that children are not supposed to be killed, parents are not supposed to outlive their children. So that sort of expectation of how life should happen makes traumas like this especially difficult to understand and to accept when they happen.”
On Tuesday, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face at their Uvalde home, stole her truck and headed for the school. He opened fire on the students and their teachers around 11:30 a.m. with an AR-15-style rifle. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference Wednesday the gunman posted on Facebook shortly before the shooting: “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”
Dr. Paul Crosby, president and CEO of the Lindner Center of Hope in Warren County, said both strong feelings or even a “deadened response” are expected.
“It’s completely normal, conversely it also can be normal to have a deadened response to it, to have that reaction that, ‘Hey that’s far away, it’s a different community, that sort of stuff happens there, not here.’ That’s our brains protecting us from something that’s incomprehensible and it’s something we can’t have a lot of control over,” Crosby said.
“Anxiety thrives on uncertainty and lack of control and this has both elements of that. While it happened far away in a different town, I think a lot people can identify with having young children who are supposed to be safely learning in the elementary school. I think it hits close to home for a lot of people because of that.”
It’s even closer to home with the mass shootings in the past few years, first in 2016 when a 15-year-old opened fire in the cafeteria at Madison Jr./Sr. High School and wounded three fellow students in Butler County. More recently, the community was reeling after Connor Betts slayed nine when he opened fire in the Oregon District of Dayton on Aug. 4, 2019.
Explaining violence to children
Carrie Kunzelman, a supervisor for the mental health outpatient program with Community First Solutions in Butler County, said parents should be careful how they are reacting to these mass murders because their kids can sense something is wrong if they don’t already know about it, which is unlikely.
“While the kids maybe didn’t hear about it, they know that their parents are reacting differently than they normally do. So even though it happened hundreds of miles away it still impacts the kids,” Kunzelman said.
Crosby said many parents’ first instinct is to shield their kids from events like this, but that that doesn’t help them because “people’s imaginations can kind of go from there.” Talk to your kids, he recommends, but “keep it to simple, concrete explanations.”
“Don’t be afraid to talk about it and say something really bad happened. It’s not only OK, but actually really important for parents to display emotions around things like this. Kids need to see that there’s a language and an expression for the feelings that we’re having inside and that those are okay,” Crosby said.
“Being a parent is tough, and it’s hard to know what to do, so sometimes it can be reassuring to hear, ‘It’s okay to talk about it.’ You’re not going to keep your kid from hearing it, so go ahead and talk about it, because then you get to choose what to say and how they hear it. And also it’s OK to have some tears or to talk about how it makes you angry.”
Dr. Courtney Cinko, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and medical director of emergency psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s, agreed parents need to talk to their kids about this and “parents need to be direct and honest” because their kids will know if they’re not.
She said parents should “center themselves” first, open the conversation with a statement about the shooting and ask them how they are feeling about it. Then they will instinctively know how to proceed, Cinko said.
“The kids that are really upset and scared, the first thing you do is validate that. You say it is scary, it’s confusing, it’s a horrible thing that happened, it shouldn’t have happened. But then the next step is to say, ‘We’re going to keep you safe, it is my job as your parent, as your caregiver to keep you safe,’” she said. “So you validate their feelings and then reassure them that this isn’t going to happen to them.
“Even if on the inside you’re thinking I don’t know that because you’re very anxious, don’t tell the kids that.”
How long can trauma persist?
If children are still experiencing anxiety, seem not like themselves or symptoms worsen after a few weeks, parents should ask their pediatrician if they should seek counseling, Cinko said. Many experts are reporting that children are fearful of going to school. Cinko said that feeling should wane.
“Kids are very resilient, and I think baring any more tragedies over the summer — we can’t be certain of any of this anymore — but I think most kids will be doing better and bounce back by the time school starts again,” she said. “They’ll have a lot of time to process it, digest it, they’ve had lots of months of safety under their belts to reassure them.”
People who experienced the mass shooting in Dayton, and the Madison Schools shooting could also be having their own difficulties with this tragedy, commonly known as post traumatic stress syndrome, or PTSD.
“There’s going to be some flashbacks and even some really intense memories that folks are going have,” said Julie Manuel, a licensed professional clinical counselor with Kettering Health. “Feeling some intense memories of what the aftermath felt like for them. They’re going to be kind of walking in their shoes, oh gosh I remember what that felt like and maybe feel sad and angry and feel helpless in the next couple days and weeks.”
If the symptoms persist, she said, they might want to seek help. Schumm said people might want to avoid dealing with their emotions but that is not a good strategy. Calling a mental health hotline is a good first step.
“Having good social support systems for those that start to develop symptoms and have symptoms that become impairing having good mental health treatment,” Schumm said. “What’s amazing about human beings and children included of course, is that people are surprisingly and amazingly resilient following trauma, even horrific trauma.”
Not all mass murderers are mentally ill
Ramos, the shooter was killed during the attack on Robb Elementary School, was a high school dropout who had no known criminal record or history of mental health problems, according to Texas officials. When mass shootings occur, the first thing people assume is the person is mentally ill, but experts say that is not always true.
According to mentalhealth.gov, “Most people with mental illness are not violent and only 3%–5% of violent acts can be attributed to individuals living with a serious mental illness. In fact, people with severe mental illnesses are over 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crime than the general population.”
Manuel said she has been treating people with mental illness her entire career and violent tendencies are not the norm.
“There’s only about a handful of cases where I felt threatened or there was violence, or that the person committed some type of violence,” Manuel said. “Because oftentimes they don’t want to hurt other people, it has nothing to do with other people, it’s about themselves.”
Rhonda Benson, executive director for the Butler County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said incidents like these increase the stigma around mental illness.
“Most of these crimes are committed by people who are not necessarily mentally ill — I mean horrendous crimes,” Benson said. “Television plays up mental illness and makes people think anyone who does these things has got to be mentally ill, but some of these folks are just as sane as you or me ... they’re just evil.”
In the half-hour before the school killings, Ramos posted to Facebook that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had done so and that he was going to shoot up an unspecified elementary school, officials said.
Manuel said behaviors that should raise red flags include someone socially distancing themselves at school or work, failing grades or problems at home, a sense of hopelessness or helplessness, posting violent videos or quotes on social media or abnormal irritability. But she’s also not sure people would report this to anyone.
“I don’t know that people right now, in the way that our world has been going for several years, would reach out and say, ‘Hey, this is a red flag,’” Manuel said. “Because I think people are still anxious, depressed, feeling isolated from COVID and just really fearful of kind of what’s happening in the world.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
How to seek help
For people who are coping after a traumatic experience, a good first step is to call a local crisis hotline. Trained professionals are available around the clock to talk with you.
Butler County: Call 1-844-4CRISIS; bcmhars.org
Montgomery County: Call 1-833-580-CALL (2255); mcadamhs.org
Warren and Clinton counties: 877.695.NEED (6333); mhrbwcc.org
About the Author
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento police announced late Saturday night that Mtula Payton — an alleged suspect in the K Street shootout has been arrested.
"Through their relentless investigation, our detectives developed information that Payton was residing at an apartment complex located in Las Vegas, Nevada," Sacramento police wrote in a press release. "Our detectives relayed this information to Las Vegas Metro Police Department in an effort to apprehend Payton."
Saturday, May 28, law enforcement in Las Vegas was able to find and arrest Payton at a residence.
"Payton will be booked into a custodial facility in Nevada and later transported to Sacramento where he will be booked at the Sacramento County Main Jail," police said.
WHO HAS BEEN CONNECTED TO THE SHOOTING?
Officials say at least five people opened fire. Six people were killed in the bloodshed, including three alleged gang members who were involved in the shootout. A dozen more people were wounded — two of whom are also alleged gang members and are now charged in the violence.
Dandrae Martin, 26, has been identified by police as a shooter. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. On May 3 he was charged with murder.
Smiley Martin, 27, was seriously injured in the shooting. He was later arrested at a hospital on suspicion of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of a machine gun. On May 3 he was charged with murder.
► RELATED: Who is Smiley Martin? The 2nd suspect arrested in connection to Sacramento's deadly mass shooting
Both brothers have felony criminal records that include convictions for violent attacks on women they encouraged to work as prostitutes, according to prosecutors and court records.
Smiley Martin was released from prison under supervision of probation officers in February after serving less than half his 10-year sentence because of voter-approved changes to state law that lessened the punishment for some felonies and provided a chance for earlier release.
A chance at freedom even sooner was rejected in May 2021 after prosecutors wrote to the Parole Board citing Martin's lengthy rap sheet and said he “clearly has little regard for human life and the law.”
On April 12th, Sacramento police said evidence gathered so far indicates that Mtula Payton, 27, was among the suspected shooters. It was announced on May 28 that Payton was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The defendants were charged with the slayings of Johntaya Alexander, Yamile Martinez-Andrade and Melinda Davis — three women who prosecutors say were innocent bystanders during the shootout that occurred as patrons of bars and nightclubs emptied out onto the streets in downtown Sacramento.
The three men killed in the bloodshed were Devazia Turner, Sergio Harris and Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi.
A 31-year-old man was arrested near the scene of the shootout with a gun that police do not think was fired during the melee.
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE SHOOTING?
Police have yet to reveal what led to the shootout, but a 15-minute video posted live on Facebook earlier in the night by Smiley Martin showed him brandishing a large handgun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The video posted about four hours before the shooting was believed to be shot in a parking lot in north Sacramento.
Smiley and Dandrae Martin were in the video, along with Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, one of the men who died in the shooting, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
Investigators believe some of the men involved in the shooting were members of the Crips street gang, the official said. At least one of the victims had been linked by law enforcement to the Bloods gang, according to the official.
In the video, Smiley Martin repeatedly waved a handgun at the camera, saying at one point he was going to a club but didn’t have identification, the official said. He also spoke of an affiliation with a street gang and Hoye-Lucchesi could be heard making veiled threats against someone else, according to the official.
At other points in the video, it appeared the handgun was tucked in Martin’s waistband, the official said.
The video also showed local police officers drive nearby and call out to the group to ask if they had seen a child nearby, the official said. The men responded they hadn’t before the officer drove off.
Sacramento police spokesman Chad Lewis said officers were aware of video that included three of the people involved in the shooting. He said the video showed people waving guns and, at some point, a police cruiser rolled up.
WHAT TYPE OF GUNS WERE FIRED?
Police have yet to reveal what type of weapons were used in the shooting, but they have said more than 100 rounds were fired, which is based on the number of shell casings recovered.
Witnesses provided more than 200 videos and photos and tips that have helped investigators, police said. The explosion of gunfire heard on videos posted online had the ring of semi-automatic or automatic weapons.
A stolen handgun found at the scene had been converted to a weapon capable of automatic gunfire. Police were trying to determine if it was used in the shootout.
Smiley Martin faces a charge of possessing a machine gun, though police have said nothing about whether that weapon was used in the shooting.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said police were trying to figure out if the gun Martin was seen sporting in the video was used in the attack.
Police also seized a handgun during a search of three homes after the shooting.
WHO ARE THE VICTIMS?
They were three fathers raising their young children, a sister driving downtown to pick up her older sibling from a night out, a landscaper saving her pay for concert tickets and a woman living on the streets in search of housing.
The Sacramento County coroner identified them as: Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21; Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and De’vazia Turner, 29.
Documents filed April 15 by Sacramento County District Attorney’s office show that Hoye-Lucchesi, Harris, and Turner were affiliated with gangs.
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Priest, educator 'Father Lew' Gaetano to retire July 1
CANTON – Maybe it's the booming laugh.
When you're a kid, a tall man who's happy to see you is like a human Jungle Gym.
When Monsignor Lewis F. Gaetano walks into a classroom at Our Lady of Peace School, children flock to him as though he was Justin Bieber.
More:https://www.cantonrep.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2019/08/24/it-s-mission-school/4386238007/
On July 1, the popular pastor at Christ the Servant Catholic Church and principal of Our Lady of Peace School will retire from active priesthood.
He celebrated the 49th anniversary of his ordination on May 15.
"I was ready to retire," said Gaetano, who turns 76 on Sept. 18. "I feel like it's time to let go. I've been here 12 years, plus two at St. Paul's."
An educator at heart, Gaetano has served at Christ the Servant, a merger of Our Lady of Peace and the former St. Paul parish, and has taught at the high school and college levels, and also started the master's in theology program at Walsh University.
He also has held several leadership and administrative positions within the diocese, including president of the Stark County Deanery.
'Birth of a dream'
Recently retired Walsh professors Jean DeFazio and Betty Marko are two Gaetano friends who have collaborated with him since 2008 to create educational programs such as the Walsh Servant Teaching Teaching Corps, a lab at OLOP for graduate students in education, and a Hispanic outreach that sends instructors to immigrants' places of work to tutor them.
Walsh recently renamed its Teaching Corps endowment the Monsignor Lewis F. Gaetano
More:Walsh set to make an 'Impact' at OLOP
"I met him when he first came to Walsh," said DeFazio, former chair of Walsh's Department of Education. "In 2008, he asked if he could come to one of our education meetings. He just had these ideas. His ideas have never, ever stopped."
Marko, a former associate professor of education and a liaison and coordinator of for Walsh's teaching department, calls Gaetano a "servant leader" and "pied piper."
"He's just a magnet; people just follow him," she said, adding that the St. Paul Hispanic Outreach and Servant Teacher Corps enabled her students to get good field experience. "His mantra, 'Birth of a dream,' is what St. Paul became."
Marko noted that Gaetano came up with the name "Christ the Servant" when Our Lady of Peace and St. Paul's in Canton merged in 2011.
"He truly is a servant," DeFazio said. "He does not stop giving. He's accepting of everyone."
The eldest of three brothers, Gaetano's late father, Anthony, owned a commercial construction company. His mother Gloria was a homemaker. The family lived on Frazer Avenue NW, just blocks from the church.
Middle brother Dan lives in Henderson, Nevada. Youngest brother John, born on Gaetano's birthday when was 18, is a vice president at Beaver Excavating and lives in Uniontown.
"One of the biggest projects he did was he and Paul David built all the Camelot Music stores all over the country," he said.
Though his father hoped he would become an architect, Gaetano said with a laugh that helping his dad on construction projects convinced him to head in another direction.
Baptized at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, Gaetano said he first became interested in the priesthood as a third-grader after transferring from the nearby Frazer School to the then-new OLOP, and had to sit next to the desk of the priest teaching religion whenever he misbehaved.
"I remember looking up at him and thinking I want to be a priest like him. I always remembered that," he said. "But I was signed up for pre-med at John Carroll (University) in high school."
His parents, he said, didn't push one way or the other.
"I think my parents looked on cautiously. But especially on my dad's side, which was Italian, and me being the oldest, there was a question of where grandchildren were coming from," he said with a laugh. "I think they all wondered until my ordination. I think they were proud, but they worried who was going to take care of me when I got older."
'You can go to Central, or you can go to Central'
Complicating matters was a girlfriend who attended Glenwood High School.
"I wasn't allowed to take her to the dances at Central," Gaetano said. "I asked my dad if I could transfer to Glenwood and he said, 'You have two choices. You can go to Central, or you can go to Central.' I asked her if she was willing to wait a year if I went to seminary."
After graduating high school, Gaetano entered the pre-med program at John Carroll University outside Cleveland.
"I remember talking to my spiritual director and he said, 'Either way, whether you go into medicine or you become priest, you're going to be a wounded healer," he said. "If you're going to be compassionate as a doctor or priest, you have to recognize the woundedness in others and in yourself."
He enrolled in Mount St. Mary Seminary in Cincinnati. After graduating, he took a one-year sabbatical, then became a teacher in 1968 at Steubenville Central Catholic High School, a mission diocese at the time.
"I wasn't sure what I wanted to do," he said. "I also thought about being a missionary. I talked to the Maryknoll fathers, and the Jesuits."
Following Gaetano's ordination by Bishop John King Mussio in 1973, he was sent to teach at a high school seminary in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Following was overseeing a lay ministry and the diaconate program at Bethany College in Wheeling.
In 1987, he was assigned to Mingo Junction, where he consolidated four small parishes into St. Agnes, a single church.
After his mother suffered a severe stroke in 1995, Gaetano reached out to Walsh President Ken Hamilton to secure an adjunct teaching position. His mother died in 1999.
After completing his doctorate in 2003 from St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, Gaetano was tapped to create Walsh's graduate theology program. In 2005, he became the department' s chair and campus chaplain.
Gaetano said he was planning to retire in 2010, but took on the pulpit at Christ the Servant at the request of the late Bishop George Murry, whom he names as one of his role models in the priesthood. Others include the late Bishop Joseph Hodges in Wheeling and the late Rev. Conrad Gromada.
"I absolutely loved Bishop Murry," he said. "He asked me to take it on an interim basis, and I told him I'd take it if it was on a permanent basis. This is where I grew up. Being able to come back here was wonderful. My proudest role is being an educator and working with others who serve."
Today, the parish has 850 families. Gaetano said he has always embraced the Second Vatican Council's emphasis on "full participation" in the liturgy.
"Liturgically, we're pretty progressive here," he said. "We have an organ, but it only gets played on Good Fridays. I was always kind of outside the box."
OLOP has 211 students, and 65% are Black, 20% are Latino, and 20% are white. Only 30% are Catholic.
"In school, the first thing you build is relationships," he said. "Our mission is to evangelize, not indoctrinate. I've been told we have one of the most diverse teaching staffs in the city. I grew up in a bubble. I never knew anything below 30th Street."
A shepherd's heart
Gaetano said diversity is reflective of God's kingdom.
"I just want our kids to recognize that they are God's beloved, and that each one of them is cherished by God ... I want (the students) to see this world as a good world, that God is right here with us; that God never abandons any one of God's children. I want kids to know they have a place to come back to."
OLOP teacher Dilafruz Samadova said Gaetano has been supportive and encouraging.
More:https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/canton/2019/12/13/she-escaped-arranged-marriage
"Father Lew is a personable person and the person I can rely on," she said. "He always supports my ideas and projects as a teacher and always looks for ways to help or improve the lives of our students. The mission of OLOP resonates with my goals, and here at OLOP, thanks to Father Lew, I found that teaching in the mission school is my vocation, and I love every moment of it."
On May 22, Bishop David Bonnar, head of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, delivered the homily at a special Mass at Christ the Servant.
"Monsignor Gaetano has devoted his life to the priesthood by pastoring with a shepherd's heart, and teaching just as Jesus did," Bonnar said. "He has done so much here for his flock at Christ the Servant."
Bonnar said that prior to the Mass, a proud Gaetano took him on a tour of OLOP.
"He really is so alive and so young, even as he faces retirement," he said. "Any time there is someone so dynamic, so committed and so much a part of our family and there's a departure, we can't help but feel uneasy and unsettled. But Jesus speaks to our heart."
Longtime friend and parishioner Dan Toussant said Gaetano has devoted his life to serving God and people.
"One other thing that comes to mind, he helps people celebrate the lives of their loved ones," he said. "So, funerals, always a touching and inspirational experience; he loves to celebrate birthdays, young kids and older people too. And he does a nice job, as people like to say, when it comes to weddings, raising the bar of purposefulness in the wedding Mass."
The Rev. Scott Kopp will succeed Gaetano at Christ the Servant. Gaetano taught Kopp at Walsh. Kopp will remain the diocese's director of seminaries.
"I told him 'You don't have to fill my shoes; fill your own shoes,'" Gaetano said.
Peter Schafer will serve as OLOP's principal.
On June 23, Gaetano will receive ABCD's Lifetime Achievement Award at its 48th annual meeting and dinner.
Gaetano said he plans to stay involved in community. He also is thinking about visiting Tanzania, where there is a contingent of Walsh alumni, and returning to Italy and El Salvador.
"I would like to be be involved in the city, especially in southeast and northeast Canton," he said. "I never know what the next path is going to be. It's been a rich experience."
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP.
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TUPELO • Of the 16 counties in Northeast Mississippi, only four — Calhoun, Pontotoc, Tippah and Union — took advantage of the state’s provision allowing municipalities to opt out of permitting medical cannabis facilities to operate within their borders.
Statewide, officials in 19 counties voted to opt out of allowing medicinal pot facilities within their borders by the May 3 deadline.
Union County Administrator Terry Johnson said the board of supervisors voted to opt out of medical cannabis because it believed the state’s regulations were lacking. He noted that during the county’s public hearing on the program, county officials received nothing but opposition to the industry.
“They opted out mainly because they didn’t know the rules,” Johnson said of Union County officials. “You can always opt back in, but if you missed the deadline, you could never opt out. Another board could come in and change that in the future.
“They weren’t against medical marijuana; they wanted it to be more regulated,” he added.
Municipalities in Northeast Mississippi were more divided on the issue. Fulton Mayor Emily Quinn said her city’s board of aldermen was undecided when the discussion began, but it ultimately believed permitting medical marijuana facilities to operate within the city would benefit the community.
“We decided that, as regulated as it is going to be, it was not going to be that bad of a thing,” Quinn said.
Quinn said that, as of Thursday, two individuals have approached the city about potentially starting a medical marijuana business. She also said the town was working on additional regulations for medical marijuana businesses, not unlike those adopted by the city of Tupelo, noting that they would be based closely on the city’s current rules for alcohol. She said hours of operation for these businesses would likely follow those of pharmacies.
If implemented based on the city’s alcohol guidelines, Fulton would prohibit facilities from establishing within 1,000 feet of churches, daycares and schools. Quinn said businesses separated by a public road from protected places could establish within the buffer zone.
“Fulton is pretty small,” she said. “We have a church on every corner.”
Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill said none of the city’s board of aldermen entertained the idea of disallowing medical marijuana facilities. Like Tupelo and Fulton, officials in Oxford have been working on specific ordinances to further regulate the industry, in addition to the state-provided rules.
“There are a lot of moving parts,” Tannehill said. “It is new, and we are going to make the best decisions we can with what information we have. I believe more than 70% of Lafayette voted to support (medical cannabis). Our community clearly wants it.”
The Fulton City Council and the Oxford board of Aldermen are both scheduled to vote on the regulations during its next meeting on June 7.
Meanwhile, a host of cities moved to reject dispensaries, cultivation and processing within their limits, including Amory, Ashland, Booneville, Ecru, Falkner, New Albany, Pontotoc, Sherman and Walnut.
Pontotoc’s board of Aldermen opted out in a split 3-2 vote in April. Aldermen against the industry said state lawmakers had not done enough to flesh out their guidelines for the program.
“The thing we were most concerned about is that the final regulations had not been written, and we were very concerned how those were going to turn,” Pontotoc Mayor Bob Peeples said. “There are a lot of variables. They thought it was in the best interest of the city to opt out. ”
Peeples said the board was open to bringing up the issue again once the state’s program was off the ground.
Residents of any county or municipality that opted out of the industry may trigger a referendum vote by petition. The number of signatures needed is dependent on the size of the county or city in question.
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Dighton opens cannabis dispensary; B-P grad off to the Ivy League: Top stories
Before we begin the new week in earnest, we're taking a look back at the week that was, and the stories that led the news with Taunton Daily Gazette readers.
Our top story of the past week was about 1 Connection, Dighton's first cannabis dispensary, which is now open for business.
Other top stories included:
A case manager for the Samaritan House homeless shelter resigning his position. Paul McCarty said he resigned because the admission of intoxicated people into Samaritan House's limited space prevented more sober homeless people from staying at the facility and receiving guidance about employment or housing. Catholic Social Services CEO Susan Mazzarella said the Samaritan House must accept intoxicated people because it's defined as an emergency shelter under state law. Taunton Gazette Reporter Ed Baker has the story here.
Taunton making plans for the future we are all facing with climate change and its effects. The potential problems the city could face are being taken seriously, and over the last few years Taunton has been working on two separate emergency management assessments, for purposes of planning for the worst.
With Memorial Day approaching on Monday, the Greater Taunton area has observances, ceremonies and parades planned to honor those in the armed forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Here's a look at how Greater Taunton is planning to honor the fallen.
These were the top stories of the past week, according to Gazette readers:
Dighton opens first cannabis dispensary
Dighton's first cannabis dispensary, 1 Connection, is officially open for business.
Right now, the products on offer are for recreational use, but there are plans in the works for a cultivation and manufacturing facility. Selling cannabis for medical use can't start at 1 Connection until the grow facility and kitchen are operational.
For the team at 1 Connection, their top priority is in the name of their business: forging a connection with their customers.
Take a tour of the facility and get to know the team behind 1 Connection.
'A great asset for the town':Dighton's first cannabis dispensary 1 Connection opens
From Bristol-Plymouth to the Ivy League
Landon Him of Berkley may not have had a swim team at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School, but he was still recruited to join the Big Green at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire this fall.
He committed early to Dartmouth; he'll be double majoring in engineering and economics during his time there.
He's been swimming since he was 8, when he started taking lessons at the Old Colony YMCA and Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro South in Taunton.
Dive into his journey from the YMCA to Dartmouth College, here.
On to Division 1:Meet Landon Him, Bristol-Plymouth's only 2022 graduate headed to an Ivy League university
Downtown seating plaza: Good or bad for business?
A new, temporary outdoor seating plaza opened last weekend on Taunton Green, coinciding with the second annual Downtown Art Jam.
Mayor Shaunna O'Connell said the city created the space to strengthen businesses and give people a place to relax.
The installation has caused some, including nearby business owners, to raise parking and safety concerns.
Read all about it, right here.
A place to sit downtown:Taunton seating plaza is supposed to be good for business — some aren't so sure
A trip through Taunton's past and present
As much as some things can change in a city of Taunton’s size over time, it’s remarkable how much can also remain the same.
Though industry has transformed the face of our city many times over, there are still traces of what came before.
On the other hand, some places in Taunton have stood the test of time.
Let’s see what’s changed, and what hasn’t, as we take another tour through Taunton, Then and Now.
Taunton Then and Now:Some of the city's past still visible in the 21st century
Taunton-area tribute band pays homage to Tom Petty
The Breakers, a Tom Petty tribute band of local musicians, will be performing at the Cape Cod Melody Tent on June 11.
It wasn't exactly a free fallin' effort (c'mon, we had to say it), but once the band got together, they were ready to make some music and honor the late Petty.
The Breakers:You got lucky with this Taunton-area tribute band if you love Tom Petty
See how they got this show on the road.
Taunton Daily Gazette/Herald News copy editor and digital producer Kristina Fontes can be reached at kfontes@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News and Taunton Daily Gazette today.
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/fiery-crash-on-lincoln-drive-kills-1-injures-another/3255119/
| 2022-05-29T12:15:56
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https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/fiery-crash-on-lincoln-drive-kills-1-injures-another/3255119/
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Hunter's Restaurant, DeLand's oldest eatery, closes its doors after owner sells business
DELAND — Every Sunday for the past five years, Steve Jones has come to Hunter's Restaurant with his wife for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and sourdough toast with tomatoes.
And while the food is good, it's the people behind the city's oldest restaurant who have kept customers like Jones and countless others coming in weekly, sometimes multiple times per week, for several years or, for some patrons, decades.
"That's the reason I decided to do this," Jones, 68, said holding up his restaurant punch card that he asked Hunter's crew members to sign. "It's going to be sorely missed in DeLand."
The crew at Hunter's Sunday will dish up breakfast and lunch one last time.
A post on the restaurant's Facebook page broke the news and subsequently the hearts of countless customers on May 15.
It read, in part: "It is with a sad heart and mixed emotions to inform DeLand that we have sold Hunter’s and will be closing our doors on Sunday, May 29th. After 73 years proudly serving DeLand and West Volusia, our owner has decided to retire. We would like to thank all of our loyal and devoted customers. Without you and the multi-generational families that have become part of our family, the last 73 years would not have been possible."
The post had nearly 200 comments as of Friday.
"You have served DeLand well," Kathy Grow Collums wrote. "Do not be sad or heavy hearted. Enjoy the next chapter of your lives."
Owner Mike Marlow said retiring from the restaurant business has been in the works for a while.
"It was time to sell it and get out while the getting’s good," Marlow, 57, said Thursday. "The only thing I’m going to miss is the customers because we’ve got some great customers."
A Vietnamese restaurant is set to take its place.
"I don't know who's going to cook me chicken and dumplings now," one woman said as she exited the restaurant after lunch.
While sitting next to his brother Kenny Marlow, 59, in a booth by the entrance of Hunter's, the brothers reflected on the family restaurant's history and place in the community over the past 73 years.
History of a classic
Since last September, Mike Marlow has been cooking up classic family recipes, such as chicken and dumplings, meatloaf and coconut crème pie, at 111 E. Rich Ave., previously home to Bellini's Deli.
But for most of its life, Hunter's served up breakfast favorites out of 202 N. Woodland Blvd., which now houses Pumpernickel Pops Smoke and Vape Shop.
Paul and Carolene Hunter entered the restaurant business in the late 1940s when they bought the Chat-N-Nibble at 210 N. Woodland Blvd. They sold the establishment to their son Paul Hunter Jr. the following year.
In 1959, Hunter Jr. moved his business to the southeast corner of North Woodland Boulevard and East Rich Avenue, currently Pioneer Park.
He ran a second location for several years in the late 1950s in downtown Daytona Beach. That location closed in 1961 due to a fire that nearly cost the restaurateur his life.
Twenty years later, Hunter Jr. lost his downtown DeLand location to, again, a fire.
PHOTOS:Murals in downtown DeLand
The popular comfort food spot moved to the intersection's northwest corner the following year.
Mike Marlow said his uncle only reopened the restaurant at the community's insistence.
In 1983, Hunter Jr. sold his business to a married couple, but got the restaurant back a decade later when the couple split up.
A few years ago, Marlow said he tried to sell the business, but his landlord blocked it.
Hunter's survived the pandemic in the 202 N. Woodland Blvd. location with help from federal COVID-19 relief, but Marlow decided to move down the street when the rent nearly doubled.
Marlow said it's their local customers they'll miss the most.
Over the years, the restaurant received visits from its share of notable figures such as Jimmy Carter during his presidential campaign, the late former attorney general Janet Reno, former congressman John Mica and Sen. Rick Scott.
Family ties
As children, the Marlow brothers ate breakfast at the restaurant, where mother Nancy Hunter worked as a server, and then walked to school.
"It was like a playground for us," Kenny said, adding that at least half of their family members worked there at one time or another over the years. "One aunt made pies, another aunt made cakes."
Their mother took the restaurant over from her brother in 1999.
She arrived at 4:30 every morning, spending the first hour, her favorite part of her 12-hour workday, doing the prep work for breakfast and lunch while listening to the radio.
In 2005 Kenny moved back to DeLand to help his mother with the eatery.
A carpenter by trade, Kenny said he never planned on getting into the restaurant business because he knew how time-consuming it was.
"If you ain’t doing something here or fixing something here, you’re going to the store to get something for here," Kenny said.
Mike moved back to DeLand in 2011 to help with the restaurant, mostly in the kitchen.
"He’s got more finesse on the meringue than I do," Kenny said.
But in her 70s, Nancy could still outcook her sons.
"It was just effortless," Mike said.
Kenny echoed that sentiment.
"What does the work of two men? One woman," Kenny said. "And that was our mom, she was a machine."
The brothers took over nearly a decade ago when Nancy retired.
Kenny retired last year but has still helped out his younger brother when needed.
The brothers, both of whom are moving to Waynesboro, Tennessee, agreed their favorite part of working in the business was helping carry on a legacy and spending time with their mother, who died in 2017 at 78 years old.
Mike's fiancée Erica Braddock, a longtime server at Hunter's, said she's received a number of friend requests on Facebook from patrons in their 70s and 80s since they announced the closure.
"I get close to the customers," Braddock said. "They know my life."
The past two weeks also saw a number of customers asking Mike if they could buy the old sign that survived the fire or other mementos from the restaurant.
For more than sentimental reasons, Mike is holding onto them.
"My cousin may one day step up, and Hunter's may rise out of the ashes."
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/05/29/hunters-restaurant-deland-closing-after-owner-sells-business/9909976002/
| 2022-05-29T12:27:25
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https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/local/volusia/2022/05/29/hunters-restaurant-deland-closing-after-owner-sells-business/9909976002/
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Which Black Diamond trekking poles are best?
If you’ve ever slipped and fallen while hiking, maybe you’ve wished you had trekking poles. I know I have. There’s nothing more inconvenient than having to unceremoniously hoist yourself up, backpack and all, after taking a tumble. No matter how sure-footed you may be, getting a pair of Black Diamond trekking poles is a great way to stay upright throughout the entirety of your next hike. If you’re looking for the best that Black Diamond has to offer, check out the Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork Trekking Poles in men’s and women’s styles.
What to know before you buy Black Diamond trekking poles
Construction and adjustability
Trekking poles come in three types of construction: one-piece, foldable and telescopic.
Telescopic is the most common and popular, as these one-size poles can be adjusted to your exact needs and packed down small.
One-piece trekking poles are the most durable, with the fewest pieces to break, but offer no adjustability, so you’ll need to pick the correct size.
Foldable is effectively the middle ground between one-piece and telescopic: It has some adjustability, but you’ll still need to pick the correct size. The foldability makes it easy to pack out of the way.
Pack weight
Depending on what kind of pack you’re carrying and how full it is, your trekking pole choice may not be as important. However, if you tend to carry a heavier pack, it’s much easier on your joints to have a strong set of trekking poles with you.
One vs. two trekking poles
While trekking poles usually come in pairs, it doesn’t mean you need to always use both. Some people prefer to take just one trekking pole. Unless your tent requires two trekking poles to set it up, there’s no reason you can’t try hiking with a single trekking pole.
What to look for in quality Black Diamond trekking poles
Handle materials
Trekking pole handles come in one of three materials: cork, rubber or ethylene-vinyl acetate foam.
Rubber is the cheapest but offers the least support and durability. You’ll probably want to avoid it.
EVA foam is cheaper than cork and more durable. Many hikers like foam handles for the price and comfort, but if you tend to sweat heavily when hiking, the foam may not be comfortable to hold onto.
Cork is generally considered the best material. It doesn’t hold any moisture, and it molds to your hand. It is, however, the priciest option.
Weight vs. strength
While Black Diamond offers some of the lightest selections on the market, they may not be the best for you. If you’re looking to move quickly across moderate terrain, you may prioritize weight. However, if you tend to hike more technical trails, you may find that ultra-light trekking poles don’t give you enough support. In that case, opt for one of Black Diamond’s heavier options.
Adjustable tips
You’ll notice multiple tips included when you receive your Black Diamond Trekking poles. The default tip is sharp and good for technical terrain, but you’ll want to use the rubber tips for the road or environments that are under protection.
How much you can expect to spend on Black Diamond trekking poles
Depending on how much you’re willing to spend, you can expect anything from $30-$200. Anywhere from $80-$140 will get you a good set, though.
Black Diamond trekking poles FAQ
Can I use trekking poles for both hiking and skiing?
A. The short answer is yes, but you’ll probably find that you’ll want separate, sport-specific poles.
Are one-piece trekking poles better?
A. This really depends on what you want. One-piece trekking poles are the most durable option, but they don’t have the same adjustability, so you’ll lose out on convenience.
What are the best Black Diamond trekking poles to buy?
Top Black Diamond trekking poles
Black Diamond Alpine Carbon Cork Trekking Poles
What you need to know: This is a lightweight, carbon telescopic trekking pole set with a comfortable cork handle.
What you’ll love: If you’re looking for a good tradeoff between weight and durability, this carbon trekking pole set will last many miles and weighs just over a pound. You’ll love this set if you want full-featured trekking poles and money isn’t an issue.
What you should consider: It is towards the top of the price spectrum.
Where to buy: Sold by Backcountry in men’s and women’s styles and Amazon in men’s and women’s styles.
Top Black Diamond trekking poles for the money
Black Diamond Trailback Trekking Poles
What you need to know: If you just need to get out on the trail without spending too much money, these will keep your joints happy.
What you’ll love: While there are cheaper options, as far as Black Diamond goes, these are budget-focused. As a telescopic pair, these pack down quite small and are easily stowed away when not in use.
What you should consider: Since they’re cheaper, they use rubber handles, which may be uncomfortable for those who go on longer hikes.
Where to buy: Sold by Backcountry and Amazon
Worth checking out
Black Diamond Distance FLZ Trekking Poles
What you need to know: If you want a high-quality pair but aren’t sold on the Alpine Carbon Corks, these are the next best thing.
What you’ll love: These have a middle-of-the-road price in terms of high-quality, fully-featured trekking poles. These poles come with EVA foam grips, full adjustability, and collapse into three pieces.
What you should consider: Users with larger hands may find the grips and wrist strap to be a bit small. These are not a one-size option.
Where to buy: Sold by Backcountry in men’s and women’s styles and Amazon in men’s and women’s styles.
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Joe Coleman writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/best-black-diamond-trekking-poles/
| 2022-05-29T12:51:45
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/best-black-diamond-trekking-poles/
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LONDON (AP) — Britain is getting ready for a party featuring mounted troops, solemn prayers — and a pack of dancing mechanical corgis.
The nation will celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne this week with four days of pomp and pageantry in central London. But behind the brass bands, street parties and a planned appearance by the aging queen on the balcony of Buckingham Palac e lies a drive to show that the royal family still remains relevant after seven decades of change.
“The monarchy is not elected, so the only way in which a monarch can demonstrate consent is not through the ballot box, but through people turning out on the streets,” said Robert Lacey, the historical adviser on “The Crown″ series. “And if the monarch turns up on the balcony and waves and there’s no one there, that’s a pretty definitive judgment on the monarchy.
“Well, when it comes to Elizabeth, the opposite has been the case. People can’t wait to mass and cheer together,” he added.
And the royals, sometimes criticized as out of touch with modern Britain, want to show that their support comes from all parts of a society that has become more multicultural amid immigration from the Caribbean, South Asia and Eastern Europe.
As part of the jubilee pageant, dancers from London’s African-Caribbean community will don costumes of giant flamingos, zebras and giraffes to re-imagine the moment in 1952 when Princess Elizabeth learned she had become queen while visiting a game park in Kenya. Another group will recall the queen’s 1947 marriage to Prince Philip and celebrate weddings around the Commonwealth with Bollywood-style dancing.
The jubilee is an opportunity for the royals to demonstrate their commitment to change and diversity, something the queen has embodied as she traveled the world over the last 70 years, said Emily Nash, royal editor of HELLO! magazine.
“She’s been everywhere and she has engaged with people from all walks of life, from all creeds and colors and faiths,” Nash said. “I think it’s easy to see, in the sort of pomp and pageantry, perhaps more of a lack of diversity. But if you look at what the royal family actually do, the people they engage with, the places they go to, I think it’s perhaps a little unfair to say that it’s not as diverse as it could be.”
If the depleted stock at the Cool Britannia gift shop is any indication, the jubilee has caught public attention. The shop around the corner from Buckingham Palace has run out of Platinum Jubilee tea towels. Spoons are sparse. Mugs are in short supply.
And it’s not just foreign tourists who are buying all things Elizabeth. Visitors from around the U.K. are also hunting for jubilee mementos, said Ismayil Ibrahim, the man behind the counter.
“It’s a very special year,” he said. “They’re celebrating it as a big event.”
The question for the House of Windsor is whether the public will transfer their love for the queen to her son and heir, Prince Charles, when the time comes.
It is a problem that stems, in part, from the queen’s unprecedented reign, the longest in British history. The only monarch most people have ever known, she has become synonymous with the monarchy itself.
Since assuming the throne after the death of her father on Feb. 6, 1952, Elizabeth has been a symbol of stability as the country negotiated the end of Empire, the birth of the computer age and the mass migration that transformed Britain into a multicultural society.
The shy woman with a small handbag, a trailing corgi and passion for horses presided over an era that spawned Monty Python, the Beatles and the Sex Pistols. People who thought they knew her thought wrong — as evidenced by her star turn as a Bond Girl at the 2012 London Olympics.
Yet through it all, the queen has built a bond with the nation through a seemingly endless series of public appearances as she opened libraries, dedicated hospitals and bestowed honors on deserving citizens.
Susan Duddridge feels that connection. The administrator from Somerset will dance in the Platinum Jubilee pageant, 69 years after her father marched in the queen’s coronation parade.
“I think it’s amazing that the country always comes together when there’s a wedding, a royal jubilee, whatever the royals are involved in,” she said. “We love the queen!’’
The past two years have highlighted t he monarchy’s strengths as the queen alternately consoled a nation isolated by COVID-19 and thanked doctors and nurses battling the disease.
But its frailties were also on display as the 96-year-old monarch buried her husband and was slowed by health problems that forced her to turn over important public duties to Charles. That came amid the all-too-public tensions with Prince Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex, who made allegations of racism and bullying in the royal household, and the sordid allegations about P rince Andrew’s links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Against this backdrop, the jubilee is also part of the effort to prepare the public for the day when Charles takes the throne. Now 73, Charles has spent much of his life preparing to be king and battling a somewhat stuffy image that wasn’t helped by his ugly divorce from the still-adored Princess Diana.
Charles reportedly may play a key role during the first event of the jubilee weekend, taking the salute of passing soldiers during the annual military review known as Trooping the Colour. The queen will attend the more than 400-year-old ceremony that marks her official birthday if she feels ok, but will decide on the day.
Elizabeth, who only recently recovered from COVID-19 and has begun using a walking stick, has given Charles an increasingly important role as the public face of the monarchy. Earlier this month, he stood in for his mother when what the palace describes as “episodic mobility problems” prevented her from presiding over the state opening of Parliament.
Still, in the days afterward, she t urned up at a horse show, opened a subway line and toured the Chelsea Flower Show in a chauffeur-driven royal buggy — a sort of luxurious golf cart.
“There is no blueprint for a reign of this length and, subsequently, I think the palace and courtiers are having to improvise all the time,” said Ed Owens, a royal historian and author of “The Family Firm: Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public 1932-1953.”
“In the case of Elizabeth II, we haven’t had a monarch this elderly who has reigned for so long and is so meaningful to so many people having to essentially transfer her role to the next in line.”
But don’t expect the queen to leave the scene any time soon.
Robert Hardman, biographer and author of “Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II’’ said he expects to see an even bigger party four years from now when Elizabeth turns 100.
“A 100th birthday raises the intriguing prospect: Will she send a card to herself?” Hardman mused, referencing the queen’s tradition of sending a personal birthday card to anyone who reaches that milestone. “I’m looking forward to that debate in 2026.”
___
Follow all AP stories about Britain’s royal family at https://apnews.com/hub/queen-elizabeth-ii.
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https://www.cbs42.com/local/uk-to-hold-days-long-bash-to-celebrate-queens-70-year-reign/
| 2022-05-29T12:51:52
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SOUTH CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — Crews battled a fire overnight in the 200 block of Allen Drive in South Charleston.
Metro 911 officials say this happened around 4 a.m. on May 29.
They say it was a single-story residential building.
There are no reports of any injuries.
The South Charleston Fire Department, Dunbar FD, South Charleston PD and Kanawha County Ambulance were all on the scene.
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https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/crews-battle-overnight-fire-in-south-charleston/
| 2022-05-29T13:22:06
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CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — A Dayton, Ohio man was arrested last night in Charleston after a multi-county pursuit.
According to the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, on May 28, Putnam County deputies tried to pull over someone due to speeding on I-64E in Putnam County. The driver did not stop and a pursuit ensued.
Kanawha County deputies say speeds reached more than 120 mph.
They say their deputies became involved once the pursuit crossed over into Cross Lanes. The driver started to weave in and out of traffic at speeds that exceeded 100 mph.
The car ran out of gas on I-77S near the Moose Lodge in Charleston. The driver did not listen to deputies when asked to get out of the vehicle.
A brief struggle happened before the driver was taken into custody.
The driver was later identified as Robert D. Allen, Jr., 40, of Dayton, Ohio.
Allen is being charged with fleeing with reckless indifference, according to deputies.
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https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/multi-county-pursuit-reaches-speeds-of-120-mph-one-in-custody/
| 2022-05-29T13:22:10
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https://www.wowktv.com/news/local/multi-county-pursuit-reaches-speeds-of-120-mph-one-in-custody/
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NORFOLK, Va. — May Wells’ heart sank as she watched her husband leave their Williamsburg home in the back of a police car. Her husband, Ray, suffered from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and his condition had deteriorated to the point that Wells called for help.
The police took Ray to the emergency room, which offered to refer him to a state-run psychiatric hospital in western Virginia. Wells said she had the resources to send Ray to a private memory care home — otherwise, he likely would have ended up in the state’s care.
“I don’t know what (else) people who don’t have the means to pay for it do,” she said.
The answer: Hundreds, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, end up every year in state-run psychiatric hospitals that aren’t equipped to care for them. Being there can not only worsen their conditions, leading to lengthy stays, it can leave the mentally ill languishing on waiting lists — and taking up space in city jails. The families of those dementia patients, however, often have no where else to turn, as professional at-home or residential memory care is costly and in short supply.
“State mental hospitals are restorative by nature; they’re trying to restore people to a positive mentally healthy state,” state Sen. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, said. “To send someone to a restorative environment, when they have a diagnosis like dementia and can’t be restored, it just doesn’t make any sense.”
And it’s getting worse. The state’s psychiatric hospitals cared for 505 and 493 patients with dementia in fiscal years 2019 and 2020, respectively, according to a recent report from a state dementia services workgroup. Those figures for 2017 and 2018 were 377 and 439, respectively.
Suzanne Mayo is the director of community integration for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, which oversees the state’s eight psychiatric hospitals. She said the hospitals are better equipped to treat mental health illnesses, such as depression or bipolar disorder — not those with dementia.
“Our hospitals really specialize in medication treatments,” she said, adding that non-pharmaceutical care, such as music or sensory therapy, is generally more effective at treating a dementia-related behavioral health crisis.
Emma Lowry, a clinical psychologist and the facility director of Piedmont Geriatric Hospital, a state-run psychiatric facility in Burkeville, said chaotic hospital settings can increase stress or depression in dementia patients, and cause their cognitive impairment to further decline.
“It can lead to longer stays in our settings because when they’re experiencing increased agitation, or confusion or behavioral issues, then discharge can become harder,” she said. “It becomes a vicious cycle where people can kind of get stuck in the system, which they never should have been in in the first place.”
Dementia patients, on average, stay about 229 days. That’s roughly 3 ½ times longer than someone with a mental illnesses, according to the workgroup, which convened last year to examine dementia-related hospitalizations at state facilities.
And the state’s psychiatric hospitals are already overcrowded, Mayo said: There’s no space to spare.
“Anytime we have a patient taking up a bed who could be better served elsewhere, that is a bed for someone else who may be waiting to get in,” she said.
While sending someone with dementia to a psychiatric hospital is problematic, the two preferred alternatives — keeping them at home or moving them into a residential memory care facility — both come with their own challenges.
Katie McDonough, director of programs for the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, said many families initially think a residential memory care home might be a good solution. Then they see the exorbitant costs — and learn they’ll have to pay out of pocket.
“The majority of Americans live their lives believing that there will be some government program that provides for their loved one when they are older,” she said. “Then they realize that health care and long-term memory care are two different things.”
But McDonough said caring for someone with dementia at home can be isolating and overwhelming.
“It’s not rare to see a caregiver die before their loved one living with Alzheimer’s because of the lack of ability and time to pay attention to their own needs,” she said.
Families hoping to hire part or full-time health care providers for assistance also run into roadblocks.
There are “huge shortages” of health workers, for example, who offer in-home services, said George Worthington, dementia services coordinator for the Virginia Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services.
The workgroup’s report offered a range of suggestions to help families provide care at home.
It advised the state to provide funding to expand educational and training programs for caregivers and others about how to prevent or deescalate a dementia-related crisis.
“Being a caregiver is a hard job; it’s definitely one of the hardest jobs out there,” said state Sen. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, a geriatric nurse practitioner. “I would love to see us put some policies in place so we can be more supportive.”
The workgroup also recommended developing partnerships with colleges and creating “workforce pipelines” in middle and high schools to help recruit future dementia care providers and alleviate the shortage.
Mason, who represents a district with a high senior population, said he’s pushing to create a high-level state position that solely focuses on addressing the rising rates of seniors, which is leading to more cases of dementia.
“By 2035, there will be more people over 65 than children under 18,” Mason said. “So when it comes to state government, when it comes to policy, when it comes to programs, we need to right now be working to address what will be an extraordinarily large segment of our population.”
Wells, whose husband died of Alzheimer’s last year, said she now advocates on behalf of other families battling dementia.
She shared her story with legislators — including Mason — to raise awareness about the disease. And she hopes lawmakers will work in coming years to support caregivers, especially those from low-income households.
“It’s emotionally devastating, it’s physically devastating, and for many people, it is financially devastating,” Wells said. “(This disease) completely destroys a human being and the burden is enormous for those trying to manage that person’s life.”
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hundreds-of-dementia-patients-sent-to-psychiatric-hospitals/2022/05/29/8b1510b4-df4f-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html
| 2022-05-29T13:26:01
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/hundreds-of-dementia-patients-sent-to-psychiatric-hospitals/2022/05/29/8b1510b4-df4f-11ec-ae64-6b23e5155b62_story.html
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