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CASPER — The leaked draft ruling showing that the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade is raising a lot of questions about what will happen to abortion in Wyoming, particularly following the state’s passage of an abortion trigger bill in March. The Supreme Court verified Tuesday that the leaked document is authentic.
The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito and published Monday night by Politico, is a strong rejection of the 1973 landmark case that made abortion a constitutional right in the U.S.
The draft’s implications are dramatic. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, that means it’ll be up to states to decide the legality of abortion within their borders.
Earlier this year, lawmakers passed House Bill 92, which would trigger a near-total ban on abortions in Wyoming if the Supreme Court does away with Roe. Some Wyoming legislators who were against House Bill 92 argued that it could cause mayhem for the state if the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe was ambiguous. But based on the current draft, it appears the Supreme Court’s decision would be pretty clear-cut.
“It looks like its on track for a rapid implementation,” Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, said in reference to Wyoming’s abortion trigger bill.
Case was one of a handful of legislators who were against the abortion trigger bill. His amendment on the bill, which ended up passing after a similar one by Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, failed, provides for exceptions to the potential abortion ban in cases where the mother’s life or physical health is in extreme danger, or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
“It seems pretty clear that we’re going to have many restrictions and maybe a complete reversal of Roe v. Wade,” Case said. “There are a lot of people who are on pins and needles about this.”
House Bill 92, the abortion trigger ban that legislators passed in March, would outlaw abortion in Wyoming except for a handful of circumstances including extreme physical danger to the mother or if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
Case said he thinks that “it would take a sea of change in political thinking” to reverse the bill.
David Adler, a professor of constitutional law and the director of the Alturas Institute, said it’s important to remember the leaked opinion is only a draft — the text of the opinion, or the actual vote itself, could still change.
But if it becomes final, Adler said Wyoming would likely see the ban in place within 35 days of the opinion. That’s the maximum time the law provides for a review by the state attorney general and certification from the governor.
Wyoming’s ban, while nearly total, is still more moderate than other states that have trigger laws in place that don’t allow abortions to be performed even in cases related to sexual assault or incest.
Cristina González, a nurse who works with Lander-based nonprofit Chelsea’s Fund, said it’s too early to tell what the opinion will mean for Wyomingites. The fund gives financial assistance to people ordering abortion pills through the mail, which can be obtained with a telemedicine referral. González said she’s not yet sure how that service will be affected, but that the fund’s board will be meeting to discuss a “game plan” in the event the opinion becomes final.
Abortion wouldn’t be illegal everywhere if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Roe v. Wade. A reversal of Roe v. Wade would give states the ability to decide on the legality of abortion.
Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, a pro-life legislator, told the Star-Tribune that it would be “nice to see the power going to states.”
“This is a pivotal time in our country’s history,” he said. “It’s also a pivotal in that this is an issue of states’ rights to rule.”
A return of power to states over abortion would likely make the practice illegal in about half the U.S., according to the New York Times.
The U.S. Senate could still vote to pass a bill — which has already made it through the House — to codify Roe v. Wade and make abortion legal on the federal level. But that would likely require some uncharacteristic votes from Republican senators, or a possible elimination of the filibuster to allow the bill to pass without bipartisan support.
“One of the first things that jumped to mind was how important this year’s elections are going to be,” said Sharon Breitweiser, the executive director of Pro-Choice Wyoming. She said the coming vote isn’t likely to change the Wyoming Legislature’s makeup enough to pave the way to repealing the trigger law “in the near future,” but her group hopes to “start moving in that direction.”
“I don’t want to be naive, but I don’t know what other hope we have.”
Overturning Roe v. Wade would essentially make the Mountain West an abortion desert. Abortions would, in most instances, be illegal in Wyoming. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Idaho and Nebraska would probably move to ban abortion. Utah enacted a trigger law in 2020. South Dakota and North Dakota also have trigger bans.
If Roe falls, Colorado and Montana would be the only two states neighboring Wyoming where abortion would be legal. Those states are gearing up to provide more services for people who live in states where abortion would be outlawed.
Abortions are already hard to get in Wyoming. There’s only one clinic — the Women’s Health and Family Care Center in Jackson — that currently offers abortion services. Founder of Wellspring Health Access Julie Burkhart said last month that she plans to open a clinic in Casper. Burkhart said in a statement Tuesday morning that she continues to move forward with those plans despite the revelations of the leaked opinion draft.
But Wyoming is a big state and essentially an abortion desert already. Not everyone can drive to a clinic to get an abortion.
To be clear, the leaked opinion is still a draft.
“We don’t know if a judge might change his or her mind,” Sen. Bear, the anti-abortion legislator from Gillette, said. “The impact right now with the leak is that there is a great deal more pressure on judges.”
ACLU spokesperson Janna Farley also emphasized that the decision isn’t set in stone.
“While it confirms our deepest fears about what the Supreme Court is ready to do, nothing is final,” she told the Star-Tribune on Tuesday.
The ACLU, which was heavily involved in debates on Wyoming’s abortion trigger ban, also said the decision could change.
“We are not conceding anything right now and we will not let the Court off the hook when a decision is finally published,” the statement said. “But if the Court does indeed overturn Roe, it would have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people — falling most quickly and heavily on the most marginalized people: people of color, those trying to make ends meet, young people, and undocumented immigrants,” the statement continued.
Michelle St. Louis, an anti-abortion Casper resident, said she’s “still somewhat skeptical” about the leaked opinion’s implications.
“We’ll see. I’m not ready to jump up and down in the streets yet,” she said. “I would like this to be a done deal.”
Another Casper resident opposing the city’s planned clinic, Ross Schriftman, said he thinks the leak is likely to divide people even more on the already contentious issue.
The Wyoming Democratic Party will “weigh (its) options” for potential legal action in response to the pending decision, said executive director Sarah Hunt.
“In the meantime, our mission is to elect policymakers who see this ruling for what it is: an attack on our freedom to make personal medical decisions, including when to start a family or choose reproductive healthcare options,” Hunt said.
The added public scrutiny, thanks to the leak, may also influence the Supreme Court’s final opinion, according to Adler. It’s also sparked a Supreme Court investigation into the leak, and drawn anger from many anti-abortion politicians.
“It will be interesting to see how the final opinion is different from this opinion,” Case, the Republican lawmaker from Lander, said.
The Supreme Court is likely to make a final decision on Roe v. Wade in June. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/wyoming-braces-for-roe-v-wade-impact/article_1753bc30-4599-5624-9a5a-f20b861a5cb1.html | 2022-05-05T13:36:42Z |
Despite what you might have learned in high school civics, the Supreme Court really only has one role in our system of government — to uphold Roe v. Wade.
That’s the animating sentiment behind the furor over the leak of a Supreme Court opinion drafted for a majority by Justice Samuel Alito overturning the abortion decision.
Left-wing commentators have hailed the shocking leak of the opinion and said that the Court deserves to be burned down and even ended altogether for the offense of finding no constitutional warrant for one of the court’s most controversial and consequential decisions of the last half-century.
The leak, assuming it’s legitimate (there’s little reason to doubt it) and assuming it came from someone on the left of the court (which seems most likely), is a brazen breach of the Court’s rules in an attempt to sabotage its deliberations.
The Court has been one of the few institutions in our national life that has managed to maintain a measure of self-respect and integrity. Its oral arguments aren’t televised, which always tempts people to play to the cameras. The arguments are invariably civil and substantive, even if intense — in contrast to what is heard on cable news, social media, or on the floor of Congress. The Court has honored confidentiality as it considers a case and justices write and share their opinions among one another.
The leaker, whether a justice, a clerk or a staffer, clearly intended to engender a huge reaction to try to intimidate a member of the majority into changing his or her mind.
This is how hardball politics works in Congress or in the executive branch, where strategic leaks are the norm and very often no one trusts nobody. It’s completely inimical to the spirit of the Supreme Court, which is supposed to decide its cases as a strict matter of law free of political influence.
Tellingly, almost no one on the left criticized the leak. Instead, many praised it as an act of brave defiance that reflects the gravity of the moment.
The is yet another sign of the hypocrisy of all the Trump-era lectures from progressives about the importance of norms and neutrally applied rules. As soon as a Supreme Court decision might go against them, they abandon all pretense of believing any of that and attempt to bludgeon the Court into submission.
The leak, in its own way, brings home how one of the key assumptions in the Court’s abortion jurisprudence has been wrong all along. It imagined itself settling once and for all a highly contested social issue. In reality, by attempting to take the issue out of politics, it made the fight over abortion even more divisive, while making itself a political football. Now, the issue that it sought to settle has blown back on the Court, perhaps changing how it operates forever.
The leak speaks of the desperation of pro-abortion forces to preserve Roe, and its guarantee of a radically pro-abortion regime everywhere in the United States. It doesn’t matter if it requires a breach of trust at the Supreme Court — indeed, for many of them, the Court as we know isn’t worth having if it doesn’t uphold Roe.
Never mind if, as Alito’s draft opinion devastatingly demonstrates, there’s no constitutional basis for Roe whatsoever.
The leak must fail. The Supreme Court justices in the prospective majority should get 24/7 security in case the intimidation campaign reaches another level. Alito’s opinion, assuming it’s final and speaks for a majority, should be released as soon as possible — to send a message that the Court isn’t going to bend to pressure. And everything possible should be done to ferret out and punish the leaker.
The Supreme Court’s loyalty isn’t to Roe, but to the Constitution, and it can show it by issuing the Alito opinion that its critics want to foil by any means necessary. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/opinion/guest_column/a-shocking-assault-on-the-supreme-court/article_0362a389-eb78-5c72-8f9e-31f08bafdf84.html | 2022-05-05T13:36:48Z |
A leaked draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito suggests the Supreme Court is on the brink of overturning two rulings, including Roe v. Wade, that guarantee the right to abortion in the U.S.
The Supreme Court confirmed that the document, obtained and first reported on by Politico, is real, but said “Although the document described in yesterday’s reports is authentic, it does not represent a decision by the court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”
The opinion is due to be issued later in the year. The leaked document indicates that a conservative majority in the court is on track to end a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, opening the door for states to enact bans.
Although a seismic development in the long-running legal battle and social debate over abortion rights, the development is not entirely unexpected. In recent years, pro-abortion rights advocates have been ringing alarm bells over threats to Roe. Legal scholars, health experts and sociologists have helped explain in The Conversation U.S. what is at stake and what it would mean for American women should the historic ruling be overturned.
1. How Roe changed women’s lives
A lot has changed in the nearly 50 years that separate the constitutional enshrining of the right to abortion in the U.S. to the brink of ending that right.
Constance Shehan, a sociologist at the University of Florida, provides a snapshot of life for women prior to the landmark case. In 1970, the “average age at first marriage for women in the U.S. was just under 21. Twenty-five percent of women high school graduates aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in college and about 8 percent of adult women had completed four years of college,” she notes. But today, she says, “roughly two generations after Roe v. Wade, women are postponing marriage, marrying for the first time at about age 27 on average. Seventeen percent over age 25 have never been married. Some estimates suggest that 25 percent of today’s young adults may never marry.”
How much of this change in the experiences of American women is due to Roe? And if it is overturned, will the trends be reversed? Such questions are difficult answer. But there is evidence that carrying through with an unwanted pregnancy may have a detrimental effect on a woman’s education — and that, in turn, has an impact on career opportunities and income, writes Shehan. “Two-thirds of families started by teens are poor, and nearly 1 in 4 will depend on welfare within three years of a child’s birth. Many children will not escape this cycle of poverty. Only about two-thirds of children born to teen mothers earn a high school diploma, compared to 81 percent of their peers with older parents.”
Medical abortion isn’t the only option for young women seeking abortion. As Shehan notes: “With the availability of a greater range of contraception and abortion drugs other than medical procedures available today, along with a strong demand for women’s labor in the U.S. economy, it seems unlikely that women’s status will ever go back to where it was before 1973. But Americans shouldn’t forget the role that Roe v. Wade played in advancing the lives of women.”
2. Who might be affected?
“One important group’s voice is often absent in this heated debate: the women who choose abortion,” writes Luu D. Ireland at UMass Chan Medical School. She notes that 1 in 4 American women have the procedure at some point in their life, yet because of the perceived stigma involved, their perspective is largely missing. As an obstetrician/gynecologist, Ireland does, however, hear on a daily basis stories from women who opt for an abortion.
She notes that while abortion is a routine part of reproductive health care for many, and women of all backgrounds choose to end their pregnancies, unintended pregnancies are more common in certain groups: poorer women, women of color and those with lower levels of formal education.
“Women living in poverty have a rate of unintended pregnancy five times higher than those with middle or high incomes. Black women are twice as likely to have an unintended pregnancy as white women,” she writes.
The reason women opt to terminate a pregnancy varies. The most common reason is that the timing is wrong — it would interfere with education, careers or caring for family members. The second most cited reason is financial — the women seeking an abortion just can’t afford the associated costs of raising a child at that time. One impact of abortion restrictions, research has shown, is that women unable to get one “are more likely live in poverty or depend on cash assistance, and less likely to work full-time,” Ireland writes.
More than just financial risks
Financial problems are one result of restricting safe, available access to abortions. Another is a jump in the cases of pregnancy-related deaths. Amanda Stevenson, a sociologist at University of Colorado Boulder, looked into what would happen should the U.S. ends all abortions nationwide.
To be clear, this is not what would happen should the Supreme Court overturn Roe — rather, it would allow states to implement bans based on the ending of a constitutionally guaranteed right to abortion. Nonetheless, Stevenson’s research gives context as to risks involved for women who may find themselves in states that do not allow abortion, and who lack the means to get to a state that does.
She notes that staying pregnant actually carries a greater risk of death than having an abortion.
“Abortion is incredibly safe for pregnant people in the U.S., with 0.44 deaths per 100,000 procedures from 2013 to 2017. In contrast, 20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births occurred in 2019,” she writes. Stevenson estimates that “the annual number of pregnancy-related deaths would increase by 21% overall, or 140 additional deaths, by the second year after a ban.” The jump in deaths would be even higher among non-Hispanic Black women. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/opinion/guest_column/what-s-at-stake-as-supreme-court-appears-intent-on-overturning-roe-v-wade/article_c7ff776e-ddb2-57e1-9909-18288b10babf.html | 2022-05-05T13:36:54Z |
University of Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the 70th overall pick in the third round of the NFL draft Friday night.
University of Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the 70th overall pick in the third round of the NFL draft Friday night.
Chad Muma became the latest University of Wyoming linebacker to be selected in the NFL draft Friday evening, as the Jacksonville Jaguars picked the 2021 Butkus Award finalist in the third round with the 70th overall pick.
The Jaguars were one of three teams, along with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, that hosted Muma for an in-person visit earlier this month.
In addition to being one of six finalists for the Butkus Award, which honors the top linebacker in college football, Muma was also an All-American and Chuck Bednarik Award semifinalist during his final season with the Cowboys. He secured his second consecutive first team All-Mountain West nod in 2021 after ranking third in the nation in solo tackles (6.5) and fourth in total tackles (10.9) per game.
Muma also returned two interceptions for touchdowns, which was tied for the second-most in the country. His 142 tackles marked the fourth-highest single-season total in UW history. He finished his Cowboys career with 266 total tackles, 147 solo stops, 5½ sacks, three interceptions, one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.
The Lone Tree, Colorado, product follows in the footsteps of former teammate Logan Wilson, who was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2020 draft and started for the team during this year’s run to the Super Bowl. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/muma-selected-by-jaguars-in-third-round-of-nfl-draft/article_b4fe0bd6-2c4a-5f15-92f6-551b3e4ebdfb.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:00Z |
CHEYENNE – The city on Wednesday presented an overview of its proposed $59.6 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2023, which begins July 1.
That amount is about $5.7 million more than the budget in fiscal year 2022, Mayor Patrick Collins said during a City Council work session. Of this, $4 million is related to payroll, City Treasurer Robin Lockman said.
Still, the proportions of what the city expects to spend are about the same as last year, Collins said.
The work session was the first in a series meant to lay out aspects of the city’s proposed budget. They continue each day at noon for the remainder of this week and next week.
After the series of work sessions concludes, the budget will be discussed for several weeks at City Council and Committee of the Whole meetings. A third and final budget hearing will take place during the council’s June 13 meeting.
The budget document can be found at cheyennecity.org/financialreports under the Adopted and Proposed Budgets tab.
“Together, we have faced a number of budgetary challenges and a fair amount of uncertainty,” Lockman said during the work session. “But, thankfully, the city of Cheyenne has persevered and is now in a much better financial condition than it was previously.”
However, both Lockman and Collins expressed concern over potential future economic factors throughout the U.S., including inflation and supply chain issues. Lockman said economic indicators she’s been following suggest a recession may take place in the next year or two.
“What we don’t know right now, however, is if the U.S. does fall into a recession, to what extent Cheyenne will be affected or even how long it will last,” the city treasurer said. “Because of these concerns, the mayor and I were very cautious when determining our sales tax revenue projections.”
Revenues
Sales and use taxes will continue to be the city’s largest revenue source in the upcoming fiscal year, estimated at 36.9% of the general fund budget.
“Inflation does cause hardships, but there is a silver lining,” Lockman said. “Inflation has also led to a significant increase in sales tax revenues – not only for Laramie County’s state sales tax, but also our fifth- and sixth-penny taxes over the past 12 to 15 months, which has led to substantial overages.”
The city budgeted $18.7 million in sales tax revenues for the current fiscal year, but is projected to end up with more than $24 million, she said, adding a “significant amount” to the city’s reserves over the last year.
Cheyenne went from having just 68 days of general fund operating reserves in June 2020 to 200 days at the end of April this year, Lockman said, thanks to “conservative revenue estimates and the hard work and sacrifice that departments have made over the past two years.”
Lockman emphasized that having reserves is “critical,” and that she would continue to push for the city to require 120 days of reserves, rather than the current 60.
For fiscal year 2023, the city budgeted sales tax revenue of $22 million. This is more than $2 million less than Lockman said she believes the city will receive, but she and the mayor wanted to be cautious, she said.
The largest increases in planned revenues are in sales and use taxes and electric and natural gas franchise fees, as well as payouts from historic horse racing, which added $626,000 to city revenues over the past year.
Two new data centers are expected to come online over the next fiscal year, which will have a “very positive impact” on revenues, Collins said.
City health insurance premiums also did not go up for second year in a row. And instead of the state cutting its direct appropriations to the city as planned, it increased them by $448,930.
Expenditures
Southeast Wyoming’s year-over-year inflation rate for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 10.2%, according to state data released April 22 – the highest it’s been in 40 years, Lockman said.
Collins added that inflation and action by the City Council over the past year caused the city’s expenses to exceed its predicted revenues by more than $2 million. However, revenues did increase enough to cover these expenses, he wrote in the budget document.
The increases included a significant rise in the cost of things like property liability insurance, fleet fuel and parts; the city’s electric and gas bill; pension rates; computer software maintenance; jail costs; and ammunition for police officers, which had increased in cost by 300%, Collins said.
Also contributing was the council’s decision to raise salaries for city positions – although the city is still struggling to fill many full-time positions, Lockman said, such as those that require a commercial driver’s license, attorneys, engineers and others.
The city’s Compliance Department also took over animal control services for the city and county Sept. 1.
The city reduced revenues by using lottery funds to pay for community recreation events, and it moved three positions from the city’s Operations and Maintenance Fund, where they had been temporarily, back to the general fund, the mayor said.
Contributing to costs, Collins said, was that the Cheyenne Police Department is currently “fully staffed for the first time in many years.”
Close to three-quarters of the general fund budget, 73.4%, is projected to be spent on payroll and benefits for city employees.
The mayor said it was “sobering” to realize through conversations with Lockman that the budget would not allow the city to add what he called “needed staff positions” in the upcoming year – one of Collins’ goals. Still, the city expects to restore some positions lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also expects to provide the police department with another records technician position in the coming year, he said.
And while Lockman and Collins worry about an economic slowdown nationwide, Collins said if this doesn’t come to pass, he’d like to have the city look at revenues mid-year and consider adding those needed staff positions and giving employees a 3% cost-of-living raise. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/city-proposes-59-6m-general-fund-budget-for-fiscal-year-2023/article_f0ad520d-4601-5150-bac0-931d48c27085.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:06Z |
CHEYENNE – The filing period for state, county and municipal office candidates starts a week from today.
This does not include any school, college and special district elections, which have a separate filing period in August.
Candidates seeking election must file with the respective state or local agency by 5 p.m. May 27 in order to be placed on the Aug. 16 primary election or Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Federal and statewide
There are a significant number of federal and statewide offices on the ballot for the 2022 election cycle.
Rep. Liz Cheney’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is up for re-election. Currently, there are five Republicans in the running against Cheney, and two independent candidates. Based solely on campaign donations, the frontrunners in the first quarter were Cheney and Trump-endorsed challenger Harriet Hageman.
The requirements for running for House include being over the age of 25, a U.S. citizen for more than seven years, a resident of Wyoming at the time of election and not claiming residency elsewhere while seeking election. Candidates must also file with the Federal Election Commission in regards to their campaign finances, as well as pay a $750 filing fee with the Wyoming Secretary of State.
Wyoming’s governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer and state superintendent of public instruction are nearing the end of their four-year terms, along with circuit court judges in the first through ninth districts. The district courts function on a six-year term, and judges in the first, third, sixth, eighth and ninth districts will stand for retention in November.
To run for governor, candidates must be at least 30 years old and have lived in the state for five years. Any other statewide office position has a 25-year-old age requirement, and they must live in the district from which they’re elected for at least a year preceding their election. The filing fee is $300.
Among lawmakers, every member of the Wyoming House is up for re-election for their two-year terms. Since the Wyoming Senate has four-year terms, only candidates in odd-numbered districts are running in 2022.
A state representative must be at least 21 years old and live in the district that elected them for at least a year in advance. This is the same for a state senator, but the age minimum is 25. The Wyoming Secretary of State requires a $100 filing fee and the creation of an online campaign finance account for two reports.
However, since it is a redistricting year, Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee said there are exceptions to residency rules in both legislative and municipal offices. To find out more about whether an individual qualifies, contact the relevant filing office.
“The requirements are less stringent during a redistricting year because the law recognizes that the lines may have been moved,” Lee said.
To file online for any of these offices and pay by credit card, visit https://sos.wyo.gov. Call 307-777-5860 for assistance.
Laramie County
The offices up for election in Laramie County include the coroner, district attorney, sheriff, clerk, treasurer, assessor and the clerk of the district court. Three of the five county commissioner seats are also up for election.
Besides paying a $100 filing fee, being a qualified elector, a U.S. citizen and also residing in the country during their term of office, the only offices with additional requirements are the county assessor and attorney, as well as the district attorney. The county assessor must own real property in the county in which they’re elected. The county attorney must be a member of the Wyoming State Bar, and the district attorney must be a licensed lawyer for at least four years and be a good-standing member of the Bar.
Applications can be filed online with the Laramie County Clerk’s Office and can be found at elections.laramiecountyclerk.com/candidates-corner/. Lee said there are other options for those without internet access.
“If they don’t have a computer and can’t print it off, they can come to our office and we will provide them with an application,” she said.
Similar to state offices, campaign finance reports must also be filed with the appropriate office. One is due seven days before the election, and another is due following the election. Both county and city candidates also have to file with the county clerk’s office if there is a campaign committee.
Lee said there will also be a candidate roster posted on at the end of each day of the filing period. And on the final day, there will be a list of statewide, legislative, county and municipal candidates posted.
Cheyenne
The only elections at the city level in Cheyenne are for one of the three City Council seats in each of the three wards. These are nonpartisan positions held for four-year terms.
Qualifications for the office of City Council include being a U.S. citizen, a resident of Wyoming and meeting the provisions of ward residency requirements.
Candidates must file an application for nomination in-person at the Cheyenne City Clerk’s Office and pay $25. The application and municipal election information are at cheyennecity.org/Your-Government/Departments/City-Clerk/Municipal-Elections. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/state-county-and-municipal-election-candidate-filing-period-approaches/article_f9d06f00-1011-5b30-aa83-406dc9d92387.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:13Z |
My neighbor is famous.
She has 50,000 followers on Facebook, and a recent post on her page there had 4,200 likes, 250 comments and 400 shares within a day. When you Google her, roughly 125 million results come up. Born in 1996, she has had 18 children, including quadruplets born in 2020. She is Bear 399, the most famous grizzly in the Northern Rockies.
I’ve seen videos of Bear 399 and her offspring, including one from a security camera at the police station in downtown Jackson, Wyoming, that showed five large bears strolling down a city street. But I’ve never seen the family in person. I’d like to, but part of me believes it’s my responsibility as a wildlife lover not to try to find her.
People were looking for her this spring. They knew where she’d denned, and so, when the famous five-some emerged in Grand Teton National Park, 15 to 20 cars were waiting. Word spread quickly, and soon roughly 100 vehicles lined the road to catch a glimpse of the group.
The bears are undeniably cute. They have a rolling, pigeon-toed gait that is amusing to watch. The cubs frolic around mama, while she continues on her way, ignoring their antics, but always watching to make sure they are near. Their faces are expressive, their bodies roly-poly and cuddly. They play like kids with a harried mother who is slightly overwhelmed by her disorderly brood.
But therein lies a problem. Wildlife biologists have chosen not to name animals they study, instead giving them numbers for identification, lest we anthropomorphize them. But that hasn’t worked for 399.
Her life story and personality has made her beloved by people all over the world, and especially in her home around Jackson Hole. She seems to be used to the human attention. We relate to her life, her children and her adventures, ignoring that she is a wild grizzly bear. We forget that she can be as dangerous to us as we are to her.
Hilary Cooley, the grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said at a meeting of state and federal wildlife and land managers last August, “The future’s not bright for these guys. They’ve been in a lot of trouble.”
During the quadruplets’ lives, they’ve gotten into livestock feed, human garbage and backyard beehives. In 2020, that happened five times. In 2021, it was 17 times, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. They’ve walked through neighborhoods, and they often cross highways. They’re around popular trails where people hike, bike and run.
399 had one encounter with a hiker in 2007 when the man — a friend of mine from Lander — stumbled upon her with her cubs feeding on an elk carcass. My friend doesn’t blame 399 for attacking him, which caused some nasty bites. Still, it was a scary experience, and that’s what seems to be missing in the media frenzy over 399.
She’s not a toy. She’s not a person. She’s an unpredictable, large, omnivorous, intelligent animal that has discovered she can find easy food near humans and continues to teach her children that skill.
We’ve probably all heard the expression, “A fed bear is a dead bear.” Studies show that eating human food or trash can turn a wild bear into a food-conditioned one. Suddenly the animal, which relies on a varied diet to maintain adequate weight for survival, has a new, easily accessible yummy food source: from a garbage can, a bird feeder or a beehive. These bears grow less wary of humans, and, over time, often become aggressive.
To its credit, Teton County, Wyoming, has updated its land-development regulations. Beginning in July, residents will be asked to bear-proof garbage containers, livestock feed, bird feeders, compost and beehives.
Still, Cooley, who works to save grizzlies, is not optimistic. She’s told reporters she thinks it’s likely one, two or all of the family will have serious conflicts with humans during their lifetimes, leaving wildlife managers with a narrow range of options. And, to compound the problem, the family has moved south out of the park, toward trouble.
People can do a lot to help prevent this. For me, it means remembering that 399 is wild. It means not hopping into my car to go join the bear jam. It means making sure my property or my campsite is bear-proof. It means carrying bear spray.
It means trying not to be part of the problem. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/guest_column/absolon-this-grizzly-family-comes-with-paparazzi/article_492d4ff3-10dc-5bb6-9b72-7f9b53829395.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:19Z |
The U.S. Supreme Court’s first major ruling on the meaning of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause was in Everson v. Board of Education, in 1947, when it upheld a state law that provided busing of students to parochial schools. The Court’s entry into this constitutional maze foreshadowed the controversy that surrounds to this day governmental acts and programs that promote religion.
At issue in Everson was a New Jersey statute that authorized local school boards to reimburse parents, including those whose children attended Catholic parochial schools, for the cost of bus transportation to and from school. Arch Everson, a local resident and taxpayer, contended this program violated the Establishment Clause, which provides: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
Justice Hugo Black delivered the Court’s 5-4 opinion, which began with a review of the history of the Establishment Clause and the contributions to it of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Justice Black said of the meaning of the Clause: “Neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions or prefer one religion over another. No tax in any amount, large or small, can be levied to support any religious activities or institutions, whatever they may be called, or whatever form they may adopt to teach and practice religion.”
And then, in words familiar to Americans across the land, Black added: “In the words of Jefferson, the clause against the establishment of religion by law was intended to erect ‘a wall of separation between church and State.’”
Justice Black’s review of the background to the Establishment Clause emphasized that American settlers believed that religious liberty could best be achieved by a government stripped of all power to tax, support or otherwise assist religion. For this conclusion, he relied on the writings, teachings and efforts of Jefferson and Madison who, in 1785-1786, led a successful fight against a tax to support Virginia’s established church.
Madison’s famous essay “Memorial and Remonstrance,” written in 1785, championed a complete separation of church and state, which he believed was the only guarantee of the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of religious liberty. Madison, who was the principal author of the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights, conceived of religious freedom as an “unalienable” right to be exercised solely on a voluntary basis. Religion, he asserted, should be exempt from the power of society, the legislature and the magistrate. A true religion, he contended, did not need the support of state tax dollars. It’s standing hinged on the support of its faithful.
Madison’s elaborate argument led to the rejection of the tax measure and to the enactment of Jefferson’s famous Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.
Justice Black’s historical review of the origins of the Establishment Clause seemed to point the way to a ruling that would declare the New Jersey law unconstitutional. To the surprise of his colleagues, however, he pivoted and upheld the law on grounds that the state assistance was a public safety measure enacted to protect students and not to be interpreted as aid to church-related schools.
Black introduced the “Neutral Benefit” principle and explained that the Establishment Clause requires the state to be neutral in its relations with believers and non-believers alike. The state, he said, should neither favor nor handicap religion. The state should not be an adversary of religion. The busing program, he asserted, provided no funds to parochial schools, but simply sought to assist parents in getting their children to school safely.
Drawing on Jefferson’s words, Black concluded that there was no violation of the Establishment Clause. “The First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state. The wall must be kept high and impregnable. We could not approve the slightest breach.”
Four justices dissented. They shared Black’s analysis of the historical origins of the Establishment Clause, yet believed he had erred in applying that history to the case at hand. In short, they thought he had missed the point.
Justice Robert Jackson wrote a dissent in which he declared that the “undertones” of Black’s opinion were at odds, indeed “utterly discordant,” with its conclusion. “The case which irresistibly comes to mind as the most fitting precedent,” he wrote, was Lord Byron’s epic poem, Don Juan, in which Julia, who “whispering ‘I will ne’er consent,’ consented.”
Justice Wiley Rutledge’s dissent characterized Everson as the Court’s first breach in the wall of separation between church and state and forecast a future in which additional breaches would occur: “Thus with time the most solid freedom steadily gives way before continuing corrosive decision.”
Whether subsequent church-state cases would constitute a breach of the wall would be the subject of considerable, often heated debate. Yet, as we shall see, the high, erect wall envisioned by Jefferson and Madison has become, through the Court’s interpretations, a winding, serpentine wall, leaving citizens in a state of confusion about the legal line separating church and state. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/guest_column/adler-the-supreme-court-and-religion-entering-the-maze/article_8a705dae-8b3a-5cd0-8baa-058545d6e3ed.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:25Z |
I’d like to respond to Mr. Melia’s April 24 letter, where he poses the question, “Why are we even talking to K-6 students about sex in the first place!?” My answer, supported by professional experiences and peer-reviewed research, is “Because it helps prevent abuse, encourages healthy relationships and can even save lives.”
I was previously a prevention specialist for an organization that serves survivors of domestic violence/sexual assault (DVSA). My role was to speak with K-12 students about consent, boundaries, anatomy and, yes, sex.
Interest in romantic and/or sexual relationships usually starts around ages 11-14. About one third of 13-year-olds in the U.S. has had a romantic, if not sexual, relationship. The average age for “sexual initiation” (aka, first sexual experiences) is roughly 16 years old for both males and females. Over half of teens in the U.S. have had sex by the time they are 18.
What this means is that by the time a student is in junior high, and certainly by the time they are in high school, they need to be educated on sex, sexuality and relationships. A failure to do so increases the likelihood of abusive relationships and sexually unsafe practices.
For even younger students, an understanding of sex and anatomy is crucial for the prevention of, and ability to report, sexual abuse. When children cannot name their own body parts, cannot understand consent and do not understand the concepts of sexual activity, their ability to recognize and report abusive situations is dramatically reduced.
Finally, these discussions do save lives. While Mr. Melia thinks that God doesn’t make any mistakes that require surgical or medical intervention, I wonder if he is equally philosophically opposed to eyeglasses or open-heart surgery, like the one that saved my life as a child. Frank discussions and treatments are equally lifesaving for both straight and queer youth. Kids have, in fact, died frequently in the last 10,000 years because we didn’t talk about sex at a young age, whether due to suicide or abuse.
I think an awkward conversation is worth it if it saves a young person’s life, don’t you? | https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/why-talk-to-kids-about-sex-it-helps-prevent-abuse-saves-lives/article_d3c91f54-806a-56c7-9ed8-43045847c656.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:31Z |
CHEYENNE – It wasn’t the wind but instead the rainy conditions that made things difficult on the pitch Wednesday evening at Riske Field.
Neither the Cheyenne Central nor Laramie boys could string together enough passes or find much of an attack throughout the match, leading to minimal chances to score.
Caden Smith made one of those opportunities count.
In the 65th minute, the junior midfielder gathered a ball 30 yards out on the right side of the field and sent a laser that made its way to the top left corner of the frame. The goal broke the scoreless tie and gave the Indians a 1-0 victory.
“I knew I made good contact. I was pretty confident, but I didn’t know it was going to drop until I heard everyone screaming,” Smith said. “It was really hard to clean our touches up in these conditions. But, after we started to get a feel for that, it was just trying to get shots on goal. We needed to get better looks and actually get shots off and once we did we started to get rolling.”
Although the action was limited in the first half, Central saw three consecutive corner kicks in the third minute, but they only led to one shot. The Indians finished with eight corner kicks to Laramie’s four.
Following that sequence, neither team found much momentum downfield. Laramie’s first shot of the match didn’t come until the 16th minute when a shot from senior midfielder Jackson Sweckard from left side of the penalty area was blocked by Central goalkeeper Jackson Cook.
The Plainsmen (12-2-0 overall, 10-1-0 Class 4A East Conference) only had two more shots – one on goal – in the first half and Central had just four. The fourth was a Christian Arbuckle shot from the top of the box that came after he sliced through a pair of Laramie defenders, but the wet turf didn’t allow for Arbuckle to get off a clean shot.
“The first half was played with a lot of discipline,” Central coach Tim Denisson said. “(Our defense) managed dangerous players on their team and when they did have an opportunity in the final third, our fullbacks had pretty much set the tone and created a picture that was not dangerous.”
Laramie senior midfielder Cameron Hoberg had an opportunity in the 54th to put the Plainsmen ahead when he beat the Central defenders on a bouncing goal kick, but sent the low shot just right of the frame. It was one of the rare breakaway opportunities in the match, as the possession was steady in the midfield.
“We had some opportunities, they had some opportunities. It wasn’t exactly pretty because of the conditions, but I thought both teams competed really well and it just came down to a really good shot,” Laramie coach Anne Moore said. “It was hard to possess the ball for both teams … it was just that last pass where you couldn’t get a touch.”
The Central back line remained stout after the Indians had taken the lead, with Laramie threatening to tie the match with a late flurry of shots, but the Indians (7-4-2, 6-2-2) prevailed to hand Laramie its first conference loss of the season.
“I thought we did quite well standing strong blocking a lot of shots that were trying to find the net in those last 15 minutes and Laramie was using what was effective for them,” Denisson said. “But hats off to the guys they played as a real team today.
CENTRAL 1, LARAMIE 0
Halftime: 0-0
Goals: Central, C. Smith (unassisted), 15.
Shots: Laramie 8, Central 7. Shots on goal: Laramie 4, Central 6. Saves: Laramie 5 (Ahern); Central 4 (Cook).
Corner kicks: Laramie 4, Central 8. Offsides: none. Fouls: Laramie 3, Central 6. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_central/indians-outlast-laramie-behind-second-half-goal/article_c650bd1f-4345-53bf-9e37-09684571268c.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:37Z |
LARAMIE – The defenses bent but didn’t break for nearly the entire soccer match in the late afternoon Wednesday when the visiting Cheyenne Central girls took on Laramie.
Overall shots, including those on goal, were far and few between on a soggy and chilly field for a 1-0 Laramie win during the Lady Plainsmen’s final home game of the season at Deti Stadium.
Laramie (11-3 overall, 8-3 Class 4A East Conference) finally broke the scoreless tie in the 71st minute when sophomore Mia Wallhead was in the right place at the right time. Her initial shot on goal was rejected by Central junior goalkeeper Gracie Osterland, but the rebound went right back to Wallhead, who made her second attempt count.
“Definitely a resilient performance (Wednesday) from the team,” Laramie coach Justine Tydings said. “We had some shakeups and some injuries that really could’ve affected us, but they didn’t let it stop them. There were not a ton of shots on goal, but we made one on frame count. We are happy we got out of it with a win.”
One of those shakeups in the lineup Tydings referred to was when sophomore Sienna Osborne entered the contest to replace starting keeper Mckenna Barham. Barham left the game after a collision in the 42nd minute and had an ice pack applied to her face shortly afterwards.
“I was nervous, but I need to do whatever I can to help my team,” said Osborne, who made Laramie’s only save late in the game to preserve the win. “If that’s being in goal, then you need to step up and do that. (The defense) really stepped up and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Osterland made five saves on Laramie’s six shots on frame, with four of those coming in the final 15 minutes.
The first half – played in a steady rain – featured two shots for Central (3-8-2, 3-6-2) and three for Laramie, with one of those on frame.
Neither team recorded a shot in the first 20 minutes of the second half. Central finished with four overall shots. Each team also only had one set play from the corner: Laramie in the first half; Central in the second.
“We’ve gotten better every game and progressed throughout the season,” Central coach Kaylin Olivas said. “We just continue to be better and (Wednesday) we worked on some things. Since we have regionals next week, we have to start making adjustments and recognize that we can be in certain situations at certain times.
“We played within what we needed and are trying to improve as a group and as a unit.”
LARAMIE 1, CENTRAL 0
Halftime: 0-0
Goals: Laramie; Wallhead (unassisted), 71
Shots: Central 4, Laramie 8. Shots on goal: Central 1, Laramie 6. Saves: Central 5 (Osterland), Laramie 1 (S. Osborne)
Corner kicks: Central 1, Laramie 1. Offsides: none. Fouls: Central 2, Laramie 2 | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_central/late-goal-lifts-lady-plainsmen-past-central/article_725101dd-fff0-5031-acab-73a71493a3f2.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:44Z |
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CHEYENNE – Cheyenne East spent much of the second half on Cheyenne South’s side of the field.
The result was more overall shots, more shots on goal and more goals during a 2-0 victory over the Bison on Wednesday night at a cold and soggy Okie Blanchard Stadium.
The Thunderbirds got 15 shots on the night, putting 12 of those on goal. They only took five shots during the first half, including four on frame.
“We needed to get in behind their defense by playing little through-balls through, and that helped us attack more,” said junior Brenden Bohlmann, whose marker in the 57th minute gave East some breathing room. “We did that pretty well and ended up getting two goals.”
Senior Brian Mead broke the ice for the T-Birds when he took a through-ball from classmate Carlos Moreno in the left side of the penalty area and sent a shot between South freshman goalkeeper Keegan Potter and the near upright in the 50th minute.
“We did a nice job of possessing the ball in the first half, but it never became dangerous,” East coach Ryan Cameron said. “We may have had a couple shots on goal, but we really emphasized finishing possessions with shots and finish with getting in behind.
“We had two seniors make a great soccer play to get our first goal. That was clinical and what we hope for the game to look like.”
East got consecutive corner kicks during the 57th minute. Moreno played a short corner out to junior Mason Richards instead of sending the second attempt directly from the corner into the penalty area in front of the goal. Richards took the ball near the top of the 18 and fired a pass into the mass of bodies in front of the frame. Bohlmann rose above the crowd and headed it into the goal for a 2-0 advantage.
“He played it right to my head and it was perfect,” Bohlmann said.
Going for the short corner was purely the players’ choice, Cameron said.
“They see it. I’m a fan of getting the ball into the play, but that was all them,” Cameron said. “(Richards) played a great ball in there just like he played great all day at that left back position. He did a good job of winning balls, getting forward and keeping possession when he could.
“That was a great goal and really cool to see.”
South narrowly missed a chance in the seventh minute when junior Jorge Guerrero’s shot went just wide of the left post after East senior goalkeeper Connor Fisbeck ran out to challenge him.
Potter also helped keep South in the match. In the 22nd minute, East ripped a shot from well out that Potter jumped up to save. The ball slipped through his hands, but he recovered, back-tracked and slapped the ball away just as it was about to cross the goal line.
In the 75th minute, Mead split two defenders with the ball and tried to flick a shot past Potter, who was able to make the stop. Potter finished with 10 saves.
The Bison got eight shots off, including four on goal. It was another strong effort without the result, first-year coach Joshua Eastman said.
“Regardless of what our record is, my boys show up every single day,” Eastman said. “It’s not easy to show up, show class and work as hard as these guys do when you haven’t won a game. It seems like every game we’re getting a little closer and a little closer, but we can’t quite get over the hurdle.
“We just had a couple plays where we let one get through and then didn’t mark hard. East deserves credit for showing more composure and focus. They have a winning tradition here that creates a psychological hurdle. We just have to overcome that.”
East plays at Laramie at 6 p.m. Friday, while South hosts Cheyenne Central at 6 p.m. Friday.
EAST 2, SOUTH 0
Halftime: 0-0.
Goals: CE, Mead (Moreno), 50. CE, Bohlmann (Richards), 57.
Shots: CS 8, CE 15. Shots on goal: CS 4, CE 12. Saves: CS 10 (Potter); CE 4 (Fisbeck 3, Wheeler 1).
Corner kicks: CS 2, CE 6. Offsides: CS 2, CE 3. Fouls: CS 3, CS 4. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_east/east-scores-twice-in-second-half-to-edge-south/article_a115e6b6-9ade-5e6e-aab2-a68ebcc03488.html | 2022-05-05T13:37:56Z |
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CHEYENNE – A chance encounter on a flight home from a national academic event helped Cheyenne South senior Allie Robért solidify her college choice.
Robért was weighing attending Vanderbilt or the University of Wyoming when she struck up a conversation with a woman who also was flying from Atlanta, where Robért had attended the national DECA competition.
“We talked the whole 3.5 hours about the pros and cons of each school and what I wanted from the school and when I graduate,” Robért said. “In the end, UW had everything I was looking for.”
That included a financial aid package that would allow her to graduate debt-free, the opportunity to study business and minor in music and a spot on the school’s cheerleading squad. Robért earned the latter through a tryout last month. She signed her letter of commitment to UW’s cheer program at a ceremony in South’s auditorium Tuesday evening.
“It was disappointing to leave Vanderbilt behind,” she said. “It’s been a dream I’ve been working toward since my freshman year, but I didn’t get much financial aid there, and would have had to take out $50,000 per year in student loans without much opportunity to get more scholarships or financial aid.”
Robért’s mother, Kim, was South’s cheer coach until she retired this spring. However, Allie had never given much thought to cheering in high school prior to the summer before her freshman year. Once she started cheering, Allie expected to leave her pompoms in high school. That changed in the summer before her junior year.
“I always told people college would be strictly academic, and maybe music, if I was lucky enough to study that further,” said Robért, who plays the violin in her school orchestra and with the Cheyenne Fiddle Orchestra. “During COVID, I did a lot of personal development, which included physical strength, mental wellness and also pushing myself to improve my tumbling skills.
“I learned it was a lot easier to do a back tuck than I thought it was. I started to work more on my running tumbling, my strength and standing tumbling. The idea of cheering in college became a lot more appealing and possible the harder I worked.”
Robért is considering a career in marketing or public relations.
Downham inks with Western Colorado
Darby Downham wasn’t sure she wanted to run in college, but the success and fun she had as part of South’s indoor track team during her junior year changed her mind. Visiting Western Colorado University’s Gunnison campus only solidified her change of heart.
“It’s in the mountains and close to some ski resorts, which is a bonus, because I love snowboarding,” Downham said. “I really liked the coach because she was super welcoming and will work with you on anything you need to do.
“She understood how tight money is and told us she’d help me find other scholarships if the athletic scholarship wasn’t enough.”
Downham will run hurdles for the NCAA Division II Mountaineers. It’s an event Western Colorado coach Lindsey Grasmick is quite familiar with.
“She was a hurdler, so having a coach who knows that event, what I’m doing and where I’m coming from will be really helpful,” Downham said.
Downham won the 400-meter dash title at this winter’s state indoor meet. She also placed sixth in the 55-meter hurdles.
Downham was part of a state championship-winning 4x400-meter relay squad that was 7 for 7 in races last spring. She also placed seventh in the 400 and qualified for the state meet in the 300 hurdles.
A stress fracture in her right foot has sidelined Downham for the remainder of this spring. It’s disappointing, but not heartbreaking, like it could have been.
“I understand why people say they’re sad for me, but I’ve become OK with it,” said Downham, who is leaning toward studying museum curation and art history. “Nothing is riding on me doing well this season. I know where I’m going, and I still have four more years to compete.”
Garcia signs with Lake Region State
Lake Region State College is a two-year school close to the Canadian border. Aubrianna Garcia knows it’s quite a distance from Cheyenne, but that doesn’t worry the softball standout.
“The girls there made it seem like a home away from home,” she said. “I felt like it was going to be really comfortable.”
Garcia – a catcher and third baseman – is the third Cheyenne product to ink with the Royals, joining Cheyenne Central’s Taylor Gebhart and Cheyenne East’s Ella Neider.
Garcia posted a .387 batting average to earn second team All-East Conference honors during her junior campaign. She is once again leading South with a .429 average (12 of 28) with four doubles, two triples and eight RBI.
Garcia expects to catch at Lake Region, which is the position she most enjoys.
“I like taking charge, and you’re the only person on the field who can see the whole field,” Garcia said. “I personally like the leadership role of it.”
Garcia will study psychology with the goal of becoming a youth or family counselor.
Lesh headed to Coffeyville
Kayla Lesh had a handful of scholarship opportunities she liked, but none stood out more than Coffeyville (Kansas) Community College.
“As soon as we toured the campus, met the coach and learned what the coach’s expectations were, I knew I wanted to be there,” said Lesh, who visited the school in February. “She told us about the atmosphere of the campus. I just felt like it was calling to me.”
Coffeyville is an 11-hour drive from Cheyenne, which Lesh also found appealing. Not because she’ll be far from her family, but because of the opportunities it affords her.
“Being that far away from family is going to be hard, but I’m very excited about meeting a bunch of new people and experiencing a lot of new things,” Lesh said. “I’m also really looking forward to competing at the next level.”
Lesh was a four-year varsity player for the Bison, and played all six rotations during three of those campaigns. She expects to play in the front row at Coffeyville.
“The coach said she reached out to me because she saw that I’m a very versatile, all-around player that could pass and hit in all positions,” said Lesh, who wants to become a dental hygienist. “I’m a left-hander, so playing right side fits me the best, but the coach told me I also could play outside or in the middle.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/high_school/cheyenne_south/souths-rob-rt-downham-garcia-and-lesh-sign-with-colleges/article_b0cdbb02-bcc0-5fcc-80ab-d951b7eb1955.html | 2022-05-05T13:38:08Z |
Cheerleading
East camp: The Cheyenne East spirit program will hold a youth cheerleading camp June 2-4.
The cost is $60 for athletes registered by May 27. The registration cost for each additional child from the same household is $45.
Participants will get a T-shirt and bow.
The camp runs 5:15-7:45 p.m. June 2, and 8:15-10:45 a.m. June 3 and 4. Campers will perform at 10 a.m. June 4 during halftime of the East football camp’s championship games.
The registration form can be found at https://bit.ly/EastCheerCamp. For more information, contact Emili Brooksmith at cheyenneehscheer@hotmail.com or 307-421-2385.
Cornhole
Superday tourney: The inaugural Superday cornhole tournament will be June 25 in the infield at the Dunbar Field softball field in Lions Park.
The registration fee is $25 for singles players and $35 for doubles teams.
Registration can be completed at the Kiwanis Community House, 4603 Lions Park Drive. Forms also can be downloaded at cheyennerec.org.
For more information, contact David Mullen at 307-773-1039 or dmullen@cheyennecity.org.
Football
Adult flag league: Registration for the city of Cheyenne’s 7-on-7 adult flag football league has started. It ends July 2. The league is for athletes 16 and older.
Games will be played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each team is guaranteed six games. The cost is $200 per team, and the season runs July 12 through Aug. 18.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Youth tackle league: Registration for the city of Cheyenne’s youth tackle football league end June 16.
The cost is $140 per player, with an equipment deposit of $150. Registration includes use of a helmet, shoulder pads, practice pants and jersey, team photos and a participation award.
Teams are based on school triads. Practices start Aug. 1, and games start Aug. 20.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Youth tackle officials training: Anyone who wants to officiate the city of Cheyenne’s youth tackle football league this fall can register for training starting May 23. Registration ends Aug. 2.
The training covers proper mechanics, positioning and how to approach the game. It runs 6-8 p.m. Aug. 3.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Golf
Cegelski McLeod tourney: The annual Val Cegelski McLeod Memorial Scholarship golf tournament will be held June 5 at Airport Golf Course in Cheyenne.
The 18-hole scramble for four-person teams will feature a shotgun start around 12:30 p.m.
The cost is $320 per team, which covers greens fees and cart. The deadline is June 1.
For more information, contact Geoff Reed at geoffrey.reed@laramie1.org.
South camp: The Cheyenne South golf program will hold two golf camps this summer.
The cost is $20 per camper for each camp. The camp is limited to children who will be in third through ninth grades this fall.
The first camp runs 1-3 p.m. June 7-10 at Little America Golf Course, 2800 W. Lincolnway. The second camp runs 1-3 p.m. June 13-17 at Little America.
Each camp is limited to 20 students.
The registration form can be found at https://bit.ly/SouthGolfCamp.
For more information, email South golf coach Michael Loveland at michael.loveland@laramie1.org.
Kickball
Adult co-rec league: Registration for the city of Cheyenne’s adult co-recreational kickball league ends June 9.
The cost is $150 per team. Each team is allowed up to 20 players on its roster. Players must be at least 16 years old on July 5.
The league runs July 5-Sept. 2. Teams are guaranteed six games, plus a single-elimination postseason tournament. Games will be played at David Romero Park, 1317 Parsley Blvd.
For more information, contact David Mullen at 307-773-1039 or dmullen@cheyennecity.org.
Softball
Soveroski Memorial tournament: Registration for the annual Lenny Soveroski Memorial slow-pitch softball tournament starts May 16.
The cost is $250 for USSSA-sanctioned teams and $300 for non-sanctioned teams. Proceeds benefit youth sports financial assistance programs.
The date for the tournament has not been determined.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Volleyball
South clinic: The Cheyenne South volleyball program will host a youth skills clinic from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 26.
The clinic is for 5- to 12-year-olds. The cost is $50, and includes a T-shirt, Gatorade and snack.
Payment can be made the day of the clinic with cash or check.
If you opt to pay the day of, email Cherisa Applehunt at coachapplehunt@gmail.com with participant name and T-shirt size.
Superday co-rec grass tourney: The annual Cheyenne Superday co-rec four-on-four grass volleyball tournament will be held Saturday, June 25, in the outfield grass at the Dunbar Field softball field in Lions Park.
Space is limited to the first 16 teams. The registration fee is $50. Registration ends June 9.
Registration can be completed at the Kiwanis Community House, 4603 Lions Park Drive. Forms also can be downloaded at cheyennerec.org.
For more information, contact David Mullen at 307-773-1039 or dmullen@cheyennecity.org.
Yoga
Chair classes: The city of Cheyenne is offering chair yoga classes at 9 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at the Youth Activity and Community Center at Romero Park, 1317 Parsley Blvd.
The classes last 40 minutes, and punch cards – which are required to participate – can be bought at the Kiwanis Community House, 4603 Lions Park Drive. The class is free to those who qualify for Silver Sneakers.
For more information, contact Lori DeVilbiss at 307-773-1044 or ldevilbiss@cheyennecity.org. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/other_sports/community/community-sports-bulletin-board-for-april-28-2022-copy/article_66346f06-540e-54c3-bd82-0c5d99f2cf7b.html | 2022-05-05T13:38:15Z |
LARAMIE – Several questions still lingered as the University of Wyoming wrapped up spring practice with last Saturday’s Brown and Gold game, but a few areas have started to come into focus.
Here’s a look at what we learned about the Cowboys over the past five weeks.
No drop-off for ground game
Any concerns about the UW run game taking a step back following the departure of Xazavian Valladay, a three-time All-Mountain West selection and the second-leading rusher in program history, should be quelled by the performance of the Pokes’ running backs this spring.
Titus Swen is ready to take the torch as Wyoming’s feature back after ranking second in the MW last season with 5.9 yards per carry, in addition to rushing for 785 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns. Swen appeared to be more explosive than Valladay in 2021, but still showed room for improvement in terms of being an all-around weapon in the backfield. He’s done just that this offseason, placing an emphasis on pass protection, trusting his blocks and the mental aspect of the position.
Swen did not see the field much during the spring game, allowing for an in-depth look at the Cowboys’ other backfield options. Dawaiian McNeely, Joseph Braasch and D.Q. James didn’t disappoint, combining for 256 yards and three touchdowns on 37 carries. McNeely and Braasch each had touchdown runs of more than 50 yards, while James averaged an impressive eight yards per carry.
Offensive line still coming together
As expected, the starting offensive line is still somewhat of a mystery at the conclusion of spring practice.
Veterans Eric Abojei and Frank Crum provide a wealth of experience at the tackle spots, but the interior offensive line is still a work in progress. Emmanuel Pregnon, Jack Walsh, Latrell Bible and Marco Machado joined Abojei and Crum on the Gold team – which featured the bulk of UW’s top offensive players – in the spring game, with Nofoafia Tulafono and Caden Barnett also expected to be in the mix.
Cobbs, tight ends poised to play big part
With Wyoming losing 67.6% of last year’s receiving production to graduation and the transfer portal, there has been no shortage of opportunities for Cowboys to step up in the passing game.
All signs point to Joshua Cobbs replacing Isaiah Neyor as the Pokes’ top receiving target. His 245 yards in 2021 is the most of any returner on the roster, with a six-catch, 76-yard, one-touchdown performance in a rout of MW champion Utah State spurring reason for optimism. Multiple players and coaches have made positive comments about Cobbs’ development this offseason, and he capped the spring by hauling in six catches for 58 yards in the Brown and Gold game.
There has also been an added emphasis on involving tight ends more in the passing game, something that was on display last Saturday. Jackson Marcotte had a 67-yard touchdown reception, the longest play of the spring game, while tight ends Colin O’Brien, John Michael Gyllenborg and Nick Miles accounted for five of the Brown team’s nine catches and 13 of its 24 targets.
Defensive line, secondary emerge as strengths
Ole Miss transfer Jakorey Hawkins was the Cowboys’ highest-rated portal addition this offseason, and he certainly lived up to the hype.
UW coach Craig Bohl praised Hawkins as much as any defensive player throughout the spring, with his athleticism, Power Five experience and relationship with defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel allowing him to step seamlessly into a pass defense that led the MW last season. He recorded four tackles, three solo stops, one pass breakup and one interception in the spring game, and was in position to make two more picks.
Sophomore cornerback Cameron Stone also excelled this spring, and helped on a pair of third-down stops in the Brown and Gold game. Sophomore safety Isaac White was held out last Saturday as he recovers from a hamstring injury, but the Pokes’ other likely starter at safety, senior Miles Williams, had an impressive outing. Williams finished with three tackles, all solo stops, and forced a fumble that led to the first score of the game.
The defensive line was another area frequently praised by Bohl – whether it be the experience provided inside by Cole Godbout and Jordan Bertagnole, or the athleticism and potential of a young defensive end group headlined by DeVonne Harris, Sabastian Harsh and Oluwaseyi Omotosho. The addition of 6-foot-5, 255-pound Alabama transfer Keelan Cox, who committed shortly after the spring game, will add some much-needed size on the edge.
Peasley the presumed leader in starting QB battle
The Cowboys declined to release a depth chart at the conclusion of spring practice, but anyone reading between the lines can see that Andrew Peasley is the clear favorite to take over the starting quarterback job.
Bohl commented on Peasley’s ability to grasp Wyoming’s pro-style offense almost every week during spring practice, with the progress becoming apparent throughout the Brown and Gold game. After a slow start, the Utah State transfer completed 9 of 14 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns over the final three quarters.
Obviously, the spring game is a vastly different setting than a regular-season matchup in the fall. However, it’s worth noting that Peasley’s 201 passing yards while splitting reps last Saturday is a mark that was only surpassed twice by UW quarterbacks in 13 games last year. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/university_of_wyoming/football/wyoming-spring-football-takeaways/article_df9453b0-87fe-5910-a133-3f6b946a3311.html | 2022-05-05T13:38:21Z |
Advocates worry other rights at risk if SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade
WASHINGTON (AP) - Little doubt remains about what the Supreme Court plans to do with Roe v. Wade. But uncertainty abounds about ripple effects as the court nears a final opinion expected to overturn the landmark 1973 case that created a nationwide right to abortion.
A leaked first draft of the majority opinion in the case, authenticated Tuesday by the Supreme Court, suggests that a majority of justices are poised to toss out Roe. The draft’s provocative rhetoric also is generating concern that LGTBQ advances and other matters based on the right to privacy could be vulnerable in a newly hostile political environment.
“This is about a lot more than abortion,” President Joe Biden warned Wednesday, saying the court’s draft opinion could jeopardize same-sex marriage, access to contraception and LGBTQ rights.
“What are the next things that are going to be attacked? Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history,” Biden said.
Court opinions can change in ways big and small throughout the drafting process. So while the eventual ruling in the abortion case appears all but assured, the written rationale — and its implications — may still be a hotly debated subject inside the court’s private chambers.
The draft’s potentially sweeping impact could be tempered by the other justices, or it could emerge largely unchanged — with what advocates and Biden say could bring even more severe consequences.
The draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, a member of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, argues that unenumerated constitutional rights — those not explicitly mentioned in the document — must be “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” And it says abortion doesn’t meet that standard.
Biden and others are sounding alarms that the same logic could be used to toss out other protections.
The president said he believed the conservative justices on today’s court would, like failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987, disagree with the court’s ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut, which said that a right to privacy exists that bars states from interfering in married couples’ right to buy and use contraceptives.
Cases like Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down sodomy laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized gay marriage, are based at least in part on that same right to privacy.
Alito, in the draft opinion, explicitly states that the court is only targeting the right to abortion, not those other matters.
“We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” the draft states. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”
Obergefell is different from Roe in that hundreds of thousands of same-sex couples have relied on it to wed and created legal bonds, like shared property, inheritance rights and “settled expectations about the future,” said Teresa Collett, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and director of its Prolife Center.
Courts are usually loath to undo that kind of precedent. It stands in contrast to abortion, which is usually “a response to unplanned circumstances,” Collett said.
Obergefell, moreover, relies on the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as well as the right to privacy.
The current Supreme Court abortion case specifically concerns a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks — before the “viability” standard set in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which itself moved beyond Roe’s initial trimester framework for regulating abortion.
At arguments in December, all six conservative justices signaled they would uphold the Mississippi law, and five asked questions suggesting they supported overturning the right to abortion nationwide, leaving the issue up to individual states.
Only Chief Justice John Roberts seemed prepared to take the smaller step of upholding the 15-week ban, in essence overturning the court’s ruling in Casey, while leaving in place the right to an abortion in Roe.
Until now, the court has allowed states to regulate but not ban abortion before the point of viability, around 24 weeks. The court’s three liberal justices appeared certain to be in dissent.
Still, the language and tone Alito uses overall could encourage more challenges, said Jason Pierceson, professor of political science at the University of Illinois, Springfield. “If the right to privacy is deconstructed or is hollowed out, or is minimized, then those cases in particular have less standing,” Pierceson said.
A challenge to same-sex marriage could come before the high court on religious liberty grounds, for example, such as someone arguing their religious faith prevents them from recognizing same-sex marriage. Cases along those lines have been mostly about exceptions to anti-discrimination laws so far, Pierceson said, “but one could see potentially a broadening of the argument to the fact that maybe same-sex marriage laws are unconstitutional in the first place.”
LGBTQ rights have made rapid progress over the past decade, and public opinion overall has become much more supportive. But especially over the past year there has been a wave of bills in state legislatures aimed at transgender youth sports and healthcare, as well as talking about LGBTQ issues in certain classrooms. Backers of those bills generally argue they’re needed to protect kids and the rights of parents.
Against that backdrop, the draft opinion, if finalized, could “send up a flare” to conservative activists, said Sharon McGowan, legal director at Lambda Legal.
“Overturning Roe will be most dangerous because of the signal it will send lower courts to disregard all the other precedents that exist,” she said.
“It’s starting with abortion. It’s not going to end with abortion,” said Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “So everyone needs to be very vigilant.”
Critics could also take a page from the anti-abortion playbook, which involved multiple measures over the decades that tackled the issue from different angles, imposed limits rather than sweeping prohibitions and employed unusual strategies like the civil-enforcement mechanism that’s already essentially allowed Texas to ban abortion, said Alison Gash, a professor at the University of Oregon.
“It opens the door for all sorts of stuff that I think we’re probably going to see now that we’ve got a court that seems willing to support that kind of creativity,” she said. “It’s all speculation, but it seems perfectly plausible for us to see Republican experimentation on a whole bunch of policies that could be affected by this.”
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that “what comes through loud and clear in the draft” is that the agenda “is not just to get rid of abortion but to ban contraception, to eliminate all the important progress that we’ve made about LGBTQ rights, about the rights of trans children, and also about racial equality.”
___
Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/advocates-worry-other-rights-risk-if-scotus-overturns-roe-v-wade/ | 2022-05-05T13:43:41Z |
Boy with cancer empowered by family’s superhero costumes
DALLAS (WFAA) - The family of a 3-year-old boy battling leukemia uses superhero costumes to give him courage as he deals with chemotherapy treatments.
Leone Hernandez, 3, has spent much of the last year fighting acute lymphocytic leukemia at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. His parents, Natalia and Dario Hernandez, say the place scared him at first, so to tap into courage Leone wasn’t sure he had, they dressed him up as Superman.
But they didn’t stop there: Leone’s parents decided to dress up, too.
From The Incredibles to Captain America, Batman to Spider-Man, the Hernandez family bought all the costumes. For every chemo visit and doctor’s appointment, the entire family – including Leone’s older brother, Emiliano – suits up to activate their superhuman strength.
“We believe we have the superpowers that we need to face this battle,” Natalia Hernandez said. “We have to make sure Leo feels that.”
Oncologists say mindset matters in a cancer battle, even for a patient still a few months shy of turning 4. Family support also matters.
“Their family has taken this with, ‘We’re family. We’re taking this, and we’re all going to do it together,” said Leone’s doctor, Dr. Laura Klesse.
Natalia Hernandez says Leone has inspired his whole family. Their love for each other is their superpower.
“It’s difficult to watch him battle,” she said, “but he has shown us everything is possible in life.”
Leukemia is the most common cancer in children, accounting for nearly 1 out of 3 cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease is highly treatable, but that treatment typically lasts two to three years.
Copyright 2022 WFAA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/boy-with-cancer-empowered-by-familys-superhero-costumes/ | 2022-05-05T13:43:48Z |
Dem flips Michigan seat after GOP candidate’s rape comments
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Democratic legislative candidate in Michigan won a special election for a heavily Republican seat over a GOP opponent who made controversial comments about rape, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other issues, narrowing Republicans’ state House majority.
Carol Glanville defeated Robert “RJ” Regan by 11 percentage points Tuesday in a Kent County district that her Republican predecessor carried by 26 points in 2020.
Regan had been denounced by GOP leaders since shortly after his upset victory in a four-person primary. In March, while advocating for decertifying the 2020 presidential election during a livestream hosted by a conservative group, Regan responded to a panelist who said it is too late to do anything that her attitude is like what he tells his three daughters: “Well if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it. That’s not how we roll. That’s not how I won this election. We go right at it.”
Regan said he regretted using the analogy but claimed it was taken out of context by members of his own party and reporters. He also had called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a “fake war just like the fake pandemic” and had shared antisemitic social media posts.
With Glanville’s win, Democrats shaved Republicans’ edge to 57-53.
Glanville, a Walker city commissioner, said voters “stood up against hate, conspiracies and Republican extremism, and stood up for our shared west Michigan values of decency, community and working together to solve problems.”
The House Republican Campaign Committee did not help Regan in the race, unlike its efforts in other special elections Tuesday. The Michigan Freedom Network, an independent political action committee with ties to the DeVos family, spent $3,500 supporting Republican write-in candidate Mike Milanowski.
Regan told a conservative talk radio host Wednesday that his loss was a “big, big win for... the RINO establishment who proved beyond a shadow of doubt that they would rather have a Democrat in office than an America First Republican candidate like me. ... It’s just despicable what they’re doing.”
Michigan Republican Party spokesperson Gustavo Portela responded that Regan was “possibly the worst candidate I’ve ever seen,” tweeting that he failed to coalesce his own party because of his “gaffes.” He said the GOP will win back the seat, which is changing under redistricting, in November.
___
Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/dem-flips-michigan-seat-after-gop-candidates-rape-comments/ | 2022-05-05T13:43:55Z |
LA hospital sued for racism in death of Black mother
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The husband of a Black woman who died hours after childbirth in 2016 sued Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Wednesday, saying she bled to death because of a culture of racism at the renowned Los Angeles hospital.
Charles Johnson IV said he discovered the disparity in care women of color receive at Cedars compared to white women during depositions in his wrongful death lawsuit that is scheduled to go to trial next week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that my wife would be here today and be here Sunday celebrating Mother’s Day with her boys if she was a Caucasian woman,” Johnson said at a news conference outside the hospital. “The reality is that on April 12, 2016, when we walked into Cedars-Sinai hospital for what we expected to be the happiest day of our lives, the greatest risk factor that Kira Dixon Johnson faced was racism.”
Johnson died about 12 hours after having a scheduled cesarean section that was performed in 17 minutes to deliver the couple’s second son, Langston.
“This is sloppy. It was butchery,” attorney Nicholas Rowley said. “It shocked everybody that we deposed, all the health care providers, even the head of (obstetrics) here, the head of labor and delivery, looked at it and said ‘No, I’ve never seen one done that fast.’”
Despite signs she was bleeding internally and over the desperate pleas of her husband, Kira Johnson languished for hours without being readmitted to the operating room until it was too late, the civil rights lawsuit said.
At one point, a nurse told Charles Johnson that his wife wasn’t a priority, according to the lawsuit.
She died from internal bleeding — nearly 90% of her blood was later found in her stomach, Rowley said. Her bladder had been lacerated and she hadn’t been sutured properly.
The hospital, which has fought the malpractice lawsuit, said in a statement that it was founded on principles of diversity and health care for all and it rejected “any mischaracterization of our culture and values.”
“We are actively working to eradicate unconscious bias in health care and advance equity in health care more broadly,” the statement said. “We commend Mr. Johnson for the attention he has brought to the important issue of racial disparities in maternal outcomes.”
Kira Johnson’s death led her husband on a crusade to advocate for reducing maternal mortality, which is especially high for Black women.
Before the pandemic, which increased deaths of women of color during childbirth, Black women died at 2.5 times the rate of white women, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
Charles Johnson has testified before Congress and at the state Capitol in Sacramento in support of a variety of bills, including a 2019 state law that requires doctors and nurses to identify implicit bias at work, and a recent bill that would lift the cap on medical malpractice awards.
Johnson would not benefit from a change in the malpractice law that currently caps awards at $250,000. The case is scheduled to go to trial May 11, though recent court filings indicated the two sides were close to reaching a settlement.
The civil rights case would give Johnson another avenue to collect damages and hold Cedars-Sinai accountable. He’s also seeking an injunction that would require the hospital to make changes to protect mothers and women of color.
But proving a civil rights violation in health care is difficult because most laws require showing discrimination was intentional, said Brietta Clark, a professor at Loyola Law School.
“Compared to when civil rights laws were enacted, a lot of the kind of unequal treatment that we see in health care today does not seem to be explicit,” Clark said. “It does not seem to be conscious.”
A judge had rejected Johnson’s effort to change the malpractice case to add the civil rights action, partly because deposition excerpts did not show the hospital racially discriminated in the treatment it provided.
Dr. Kimberly Gregory, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the hospital, testified that she lives with “structural racism” every day and it prevents Black patients from receiving the same care as whites, according to court papers. She also said Kira Johnson should have gone back to the operating room sooner.
Dr. Sarah Kilpatrick, chair of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, testified that she told Charles Johnson: “I’m sorry. We failed your family. ... This shouldn’t have happened.”
Angelique Washington, a Black surgical technologist, said “patient safety was out the door” when Kira Johnson came into the operating room.
Washington, who has more than 30 years of experience, said she routinely witnessed different treatment of Black women but was afraid to speak up.
“When I see my Black ... patients come in, I say an extra prayer,” Washington said. “I say a silent prayer that all goes well. Because you do have racism very much so in the operating room.”
Clark said the evidence identified by the judge as weak were more general statements and not specifically about discrimination by the provider. She said the key thing for Johnson’s legal team will be to show a pattern of discrimination.
Rowley said the effort to amend the case was a long shot. He has since gathered other evidence from additional depositions and will be able to seek data — such as the number of Black women that have died at Cedars — to support his claim in the new lawsuit.
“Kira died because she’s Black,” he said. “Women of color don’t get the same treatment as white women. That’s a fact.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/la-hospital-sued-racism-death-black-mother/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:01Z |
Man filmed co-workers going to bathroom with hidden camera, police say
DAPHNE, Ala. (WALA/Gray News) - Police say technology making it extremely easy for 28-year-old Gregory Turner from Mobile to secretly record his co-workers after they say he put a camera in a bathroom.
“We haven’t had anything with this specific type of camera, and I imagine this will happen more and more as technology gets more advanced,” said Sgt. Jason Vannoy with Daphne Police.
Daphne Police said Turner placed a pen camera right by a toilet in an employee-only bathroom at an unnamed Daphne store, where a fellow employee found it Monday morning.
“We were able to get it to play on a device, and that’s when we realized actually who put the camera out because he recorded himself setting the camera up. And then there were recordings of employees using the bathroom,” Vannoy said.
Investigators said the store’s employees were shocked to learn about the hidden camera.
Vannoy says when they arrested Turner, he admitted to the crime.
“When he gave us a statement, he indicated he had an OnlyFans account, and he intended to post videos of himself using the bathroom to his OnlyFans account,” he said.
There was concern the videos police found could have ended up on OnlyFans, but investigators said they do not believe that actually happened.
Now they are looking at some of his other electronic devices to see if there are more victims.
“We think there’s a possibility that there’s some other illegal content on some other devices that were in his vehicle,” Vannoy said. “There was an external hard drive, a laptop and a cell phone.”
Police said Turner is charged with four counts of aggravated criminal surveillance, one count for each victim.
He bonded out of jail Tuesday morning.
Copyright 2022 WALA via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/man-filmed-co-workers-going-bathroom-with-hidden-camera-police-say/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:11Z |
Man warns others after solar panels almost burn his house down
MELISSA, Texas (KTVT) - A Texas father is warning others about solar panels, saying there’s a rare possibility that they could catch fire, like his did.
Austin Nathaniel decided to get solar panels installed on his home a year after his neighbor did. He went with the same company his neighbor had used because the other man had a great experience.
At first, Nathaniel says his experience was also great. But about four months in, he got a call from a neighbor telling him to get home right away because some of his solar panels were on fire.
“They contacted another guy, who ran and cut the power off and jumped up on the roof with a hose and actually sprayed it out. My child sleeps right underneath that, which is terrifying,” Nathaniel said.
When firefighters arrived, they noted two of the panels had caught fire and said, “that if my neighbor hadn’t gotten to it when he did, my house would have burned down,” according to Nathaniel.
“They seemed to think it was pretty obvious,” he said.
Sherrie Wilson, Dallas’ first female firefighter who retired after decades of service, says cases like this one are incredibly rare. They occur in about 1 in every 10,000 cases, according to the National Fire Protection Association and other sources.
Wilson has some advice to trying to prevent this from occurring.
“I think using a reputable provider is going to be your first, most important thing. But you know, you can have power surges, overvoltage, faulty products,” she said.
As for Nathaniel, he’s still trying to work with the company that installed the panels and is waiting for the situation to be resolved.
“Even if they fix this problem, it’s still going to be difficult turning these panels back on,” he said.
Copyright 2022 KTVT via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/man-warns-others-after-solar-panels-almost-burn-his-house-down/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:17Z |
Multi-vehicle crash closes part of 340N in Augusta County
Motorists can expect delays in the vicinity of Purple Cow Rd. as all north and southbound lanes are currently closed.
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 7:23 AM EDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - According to VDOT, there is a multi-vehicle crash on US-340 in the County of Augusta, in the vicinity of Purple Cow Rd. Motorists can expect delays as all north and southbound lanes are currently closed.
Stay with WHSV for the latest updates.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/multi-vehicle-crash-closes-part-340n-augusta-county/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:23Z |
Musk gets $7 billion backing for Twitter bid from tech heavyweights
(AP) - Billionaire Elon Musk has strengthened the equity stake of his offer to buy Twitter with commitments of more than $7 billion from a range of investors, including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Other investors include Sequoia Capital Fund, which pledged $800 million, and VyCapital, which pledged $700 million, according to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. But Ellison, who is also a Tesla board member, is making the biggest contribution, pegged at $1 billion.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud has pledged 35 million in Twitter shares in support of Musk, according to the filing.
Musk in earlier regulatory filings revealed that he has sold roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase. Musk later tweeted that he doesn’t plan any further sales of the company’s shares, meaning he would need outside commitments to help fund the $44 billion deal.
Because of the new funding listed in the SEC filing Thursday, Musk will cut the $12.5 billion in margin loans he was leaning on in half, to $6.25 billion. The transaction is also now being funded by $27.25 billion in cash and equities, up from $21 billion.
The Thursday filing also said that Musk is in ongoing talks with other parties, including former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who is the second largest individual stakeholder in the company after Musk.
“This was a smart financial and strategic move by Musk that will be well received across the board and also shows the Twitter deal is now on a glide path to get done by the end of this year,” wrote analyst Dan Ives who follows Twitter for Wedbush.
Shares of Twitter Inc. have remained below the per-share offering bid by Musk of $54.20 because there are still doubts on Wall Street about whether the deal will go through.
Shares of the San Francisco social media platform rose 2% before the opening bell, to $50.10.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/musk-gets-7-billion-backing-twitter-bid-tech-heavyweights/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:30Z |
Queen to miss traditional royal garden party season
LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II will miss the traditional royal garden party season, where she would normally meet with hundreds of people on the grounds of her residences in London and Edinburgh, palace officials said Thursday.
The 96-year-old monarch will be represented instead by other members of her family, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Before the pandemic, the queen invited over 30,000 people each year to the gardens of Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The guests, who have all served their community in different ways, have the opportunity to speak with the queen and other royal family members at the parties.
The parties were set to return for the first time in three years starting next week.
The monarch has missed several major events this year and has been carrying out online engagements instead. She spent a night in the hospital in October and only conducted light duties for several months on her doctors’ orders.
In March the queen attended a service honoring the life of her late husband, Prince Philip.
She marked her Platinum Jubilee — 70 years on the throne — in February. Large-scale festivities to celebrate that milestone, including concerts and pageants, will take place later this month and in June.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/queen-miss-traditional-royal-garden-party-season/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:36Z |
OPEC+ opens oil taps gradually as Russian war roils markets
LONDON (AP) — OPEC and allied oil-producing countries decided Thursday to gradually increase the flows they send to the world, even as Europe’s plan to sanction Russian oil threatens to yank millions of barrels off a global market already thirsty for crude.
The cautious approach from the OPEC+ alliance — which includes non-member Russia — will exacerbate a global energy crunch, with prices expected to rise further for oil and the gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel made from it. Those higher prices will worsen global inflation, eating away at people’s ability to spend money that would otherwise support the economic recovery.
At an online meeting, OPEC+ stuck with its road map to gradually open the oil taps, agreeing to add 432,000 barrels per day in June. The plan is to make those regular increases to restore cuts made in 2020 during the worst of the pandemic recession.
Oil prices have risen — more than 40% this year — as the boost in production remains smaller than what the U.S. and other oil-consuming countries are pressing for to ease high prices at the pump.
Bigger surges in oil prices have been held back by COVID-19 lockdowns in China cutting demand and the U.S. and other member countries of the International Energy Agency releasing oil from strategic reserves.
Still, analysts from Rystad Energy foresee the global market potentially losing up to 2 million barrels within six months if the 27 European Union countries approve a proposal to sanction Russian oil. Moscow is expected to see production fall after losing its biggest oil customer — Europe.
OPEC has made it clear to European officials that the oil cartel is not going to increase production to compensate for lost Russian oil. Some OPEC members already can’t meet their oil production quotas.
Russia is the world’s largest oil exporter with some 12% of global supply, and fears its oil and natural gas could be cut off have kept energy prices high. Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russian sent around 3.8 million barrels of oil per day to the European Union, where refineries turn it into gasoline and diesel fuel.
If the EU carries through on its plans to phase out crude imports in six months, Russia could try to sell those barrels to countries in Asia that are not participating in the boycott. But it might not be able to find customers for all of the oil displaced from Europe, even at tempting knockdown prices.
For one reason, there is limited pipeline and rail capacity to Asia. While some oil could be redirected by sea, that will depend on the availability of oil tankers willing to deal with Russian crude, given the risk of sanctions. Banks and companies that insure tanker fleets may be reluctant to facilitate the sale of Russian oil.
“Higher prices could be around the corner,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets research at Rystad Energy. “The oil market has not fully priced in the potential of an EU oil embargo, so higher crude prices are to be expected in the summer months if it’s voted into law.”
U.S. oil prices rose Thursday, up 1.2% after the meeting to $109.01 per barrel, or 43% higher since the start of the year. International benchmark Brent crude rose 1.7%, to $111.81 per barrel.
The price of crude oil accounts for about 60% of the price at the pump in the United States. Average U.S. gasoline prices stood at $4.19 per gallon Wednesday, up $1.29 from a year ago.
Diesel for trucks and farm equipment has risen even more over a year ago, by $2.34, to $5.43 per gallon.
Drivers in Europe, where taxes make up a larger proportion of the price at the pump, are paying more, too. Gasoline prices are averaging 1.95 euros per liter in Germany, or the equivalent of $7.77 per gallon, while diesel has been at 2.02 euros per liter, or $8.05 per gallon.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/russian-war-china-lockdowns-roil-oil-markets-opec-meets/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:42Z |
Study: Majority of trans children who transition socially keep new identity
(CNN) - A new study has found that most transgender kids who go through a social transition tend to stick with it.
A social transition means when a child changes their name or pronoun or wear clothes aligned with their chosen gender identity.
The study followed 317 transgender youths, from the ages of 3 to 12. Five years after their initial transition, 94 percent were still living as transgender girls or boys.
A small percentage re-transitioned, either re-identifying as their birth sex or identifying as non-binary. Most often, that happened before the age of 10.
This is the first large-scale study focused on children transitioning more than once.
It was published Wednesday in the journal Pediatrics.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/study-majority-trans-children-who-transition-socially-keep-new-identity/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:49Z |
Mariupol steel mill battle rages as Ukraine repels attacks
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Heavy fighting raged Thursday at the besieged steel plant in Mariupol, as Russian forces attempted to finish off the city’s last-ditch defenders and complete the capture of the strategically vital port.
The bloody battle came amid growing suspicions that President Vladimir Putin wants to present the Russian people with a major battlefield success — or perhaps announce an escalation of the war — in time for Victory Day on Monday. That is the biggest patriotic holiday on the Russian calendar, marking the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany.
Ten weeks into a devastating war, Ukraine’s military claimed Thursday it recaptured some areas in the south and repelled other attacks in the east, further frustrating Putin’s ambitions.
Ukrainian and Russian forces are fighting village by village, as Moscow struggles to gain momentum in the eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. Russia switched its focus to that region — where Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for years — after a stiffer than expected resistance bogged its troops down and thwarted its initial goal of overrunning the capital.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said he hadn’t expected the Russian offensive to “drag on this way.” Some Russian troops used ally Belarus as a launch pad for the invasion on Feb. 24, and Lukashenko publicly supported the operation.
“But I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it,” the authoritarian leader said.
GRAPHIC WARNING: Videos may contain disturbing content.
In the most searing example of how Ukrainian forces have slowed Russia’s progress, Ukrainian fighters are holed up in the tunnels and bunkers under the sprawling Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol — the last pocket of resistance in a city that is otherwise controlled by Moscow’s forces. Civilians, believed to number around a few hundred, are also trapped inside the plant.
Ukraine said its fighters drove back a Russian assault into the giant mill, which was also being bombed from above. Videos shared online appeared to show the steel mill targeted by intense shelling at dawn Thursday.
“The Russian troops entered the territory of Azovstal, but were kicked out by our defenders,” Oleksiy Arestovych, a presidential adviser, said in remarks on Ukrainian television. “We can say that the fighting is ongoing.”
The Kremlin denied that there was any ground assault.
Mariupol’s fall would be a major battlefield success for Moscow, depriving Ukraine of a vital port and allowing Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and free up troops to fight elsewhere in the Donbas.
With his troops making slow progress elsewhere, Putin may be looking to declare a win at the plant in time for Victory Day. Some have also suggested he could use the celebrations to expand what he calls the “special military operation.”
A declaration of all-out war would allow the Russian leader to introduce martial law and mobilize reservists to make up for significant troop losses. The Kremlin has dismissed the speculation.
The city, and the plant in particular, have come to symbolize the misery inflicted by the war. The Russians have pulverized most of Mariupol in a two-month siege that has trapped civilians with little food, water, medicine or heat. Civilians sheltering inside the plant have perhaps suffered even more. About 100 of them were evacuated over the weekend — the first time some saw daylight in months.
A Ukrainian officer leading defenders at the last Mariupol bastion urged the global community to pressure Russia into allowing more civilians to be rescued along with wounded soldiers. It is unclear how many Ukrainian fighters are still inside the plant, but the Russians put the number at about 2,000 in recent weeks, and 500 were reported to be wounded.
“Wounded soldiers are dying in agony due to the lack of proper treatment,” Capt. Sviatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, said in a video statement.
The Russian government said it would open another evacuation corridor from the plant during certain hours on Thursday through Saturday. But there was no immediate confirmation of those arrangements from other parties, and many previous assurances from the Kremlin have fallen through, with the Ukrainians blaming continued fighting by the Russians.
It is unclear how many Ukrainian fighters are still inside the plant, but the Russians put the number at about 2,000 in recent weeks, and 500 were reported to be wounded.
As the battle raged in Mariupol, Russian forces shelled elsewhere in the Donbas and also kept up their bombardment of railroad stations and other supply-line targets across the country — part of an effort to disrupt the supply of Western arms, which have been critical to Ukraine’s defense.
Ukrainian forces said Thursday they made some gains on the border of the southern regions of Kherson and Mykolaiv and repelled 11 Russian attacks in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that make up the Donbas.
Five people were killed and at least 25 more wounded in shelling of cities in the Donbas over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian officials said. The attacks damaged houses and a school as well.
A day after Russian attacks were reported near Kyiv, the capital; in Cherkasy and Dnipro in central Ukraine; and in Zaporizhzhia in the southeast, air raid sirens sounded anew Thursday in the western city of Lviv, which has been a gateway for western arms and served as a relative safe haven for people fleeing fighting farther east.
An assessment by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Russian forces were struggling to gain traction.
“Ukrainian defenses have largely stalled Russian advances in eastern Ukraine,” it said late Wednesday.
“Russian forces intensified airstrikes against transportation infrastructure in western Ukraine (on Wednesday) but remain unable to interdict Western aid shipments to Ukraine,” it added.
The war has flattened swaths of cities and destroyed roads and bridges, and driven millions from their homes, including many who have crossed into other countries.
With the challenge of rebuilding and demining after the war in mind, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday announced the launch of a global fundraising digital platform called United24. At the same time, Poland hosted an international donor conference that raise $6.5 billion in humanitarian aid.
Meanwhile, Belarus announced the start of military exercises Wednesday. A top Ukrainian official said the country will be ready to act if Belarus joins the fighting.
The British Defense Ministry said it does not anticipate that the drills currently posed a threat to Ukraine, but that Moscow will likely use them “to fix Ukrainian forces in the north, preventing them from being committed to the battle for the Donbas.”
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Anna reported from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Yesica Fisch in Zaporizhzhia, Inna Varenytsia and David Keyton in Kyiv, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/ukraine-repels-some-attacks-combat-rages-steel-mill/ | 2022-05-05T13:44:55Z |
WHO: Nearly 15M deaths associated with COVID-19
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization estimates that nearly 15 million people were killed either by coronavirus or by its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million. Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.
In a report Thursday, the U.N. agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the figure as “sobering,” saying it should prompt countries to invest more in their capacities to quell future health emergencies.
Scientists tasked by WHO with calculating the actual number of COVID-19 deaths between January 2020 and the end of last year estimated there were between 13.3 million and 16.6 million deaths that were either caused directly by the coronavirus or were somehow attributed to the pandemic’s impact on health systems, like people with cancer unable to seek treatment when hospitals were full of COVID patients.
The figures are based on country-reported data and statistical modeling but only about half of the countries provided information. WHO said it wasn’t yet able to break down the figures to distinguish between direct deaths from COVID-19 and others caused by the pandemic, but said a future project examining death certificates would probe this.
“This may seem like just a bean-counting exercise, but having these WHO numbers is so critical to understanding how we should combat future pandemics and continue to respond to this one,” said Albert Ko, an infectious diseases specialist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not linked to the WHO research.
For example, Ko said, South Korea’s decision to invest heavily in public health after it suffered a severe outbreak of MERS allowed it to escape COVID-19 with a per-capita death rate around a 20th of that of the U.S.
Accurate numbers on COVID-19 deaths have been problematic throughout the pandemic, as the figures are only a fraction of the devastation wrought by the virus, largely because of limited testing and differences in how countries count COVID-19 deaths. According to government figures reported to WHO and to a separate count kept by Johns Hopkins University, there have been more than 6 million reported coronavirus deaths to date.
Scientists at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington guessed there were more than 18 million COVID deaths from January 2020 to December 2021 in a recent study published in the journal Lancet, and a team led by Canadian researchers estimated there were more than 3 million uncounted coronavirus deaths in India alone. WHO’s new analysis estimated there were more than 4 million missed deaths in India, ranging between 3.3 million to 6.5 million.
Some countries, including India, have disputed WHO’s methodology for calculating COVID deaths, resisting the idea that there were many more deaths than officially counted.
Earlier this week, the Indian government released new figures showing there were 474,806 more deaths in 2020 compared to the previous year, but did not say how many were tied to the pandemic. India did not release any death estimates for 2021, when the highly infectious delta variant swept through the country, killing many thousands.
Ko said better figures from WHO might also explain some lingering mysteries about the pandemic, like why Africa appears to have been one of the least affected by the virus, despite its low vaccination rates.
“Were the mortality rates so low because we couldn’t count the deaths or was there some other factor to explain that?” he said, adding that the crush of deaths in rich countries like Britain and the U.S. proved that resources alone were insufficient to contain a global outbreak.
Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a public health specialist at Britain’s University of Exeter, said the world may never get close to the true toll of COVID-19, particularly in poor countries.
“When you have a massive outbreak where people are dying in the streets because of a lack of oxygen, bodies were abandoned or people had to be cremated quickly because of cultural beliefs, we end up never knowing just how many people died,” he explained.
Although Pankhania said the estimated COVID-19 death toll still pales in comparison to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic — when experts estimate up to 100 million people died — he said the fact that so many people died despite the advances of modern medicine, including vaccines, is shameful.
He also warned the cost of COVID-19 could be far more damaging in the long term, given the increasing burden of caring for people with long COVID.
“With the Spanish flu, there was the flu and then there were some (lung) illnesses people suffered, but that was it,” he said. “There was not an enduring immunological condition that we’re seeing right now with COVID.”
“We do not know the extent to which people with long COVID will have their lives cut short and if they will have repeated infections that will cause them even more problems,” Pankhania said.
____
Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this report.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/who-nearly-15m-deaths-associated-with-covid-19/ | 2022-05-05T13:45:02Z |
With proxy voting set to expire, lawmakers split on its usefulness
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Voting by proxy is still an option for U.S. House members despite other COVID guidelines being dropped on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is allowing House members to vote by proxy at least through May 14. Proxy voting became an option for lawmakers in 2020 for public health reasons. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nevada) says it is a useful tool.
“They do it in other organizations you know. There’s such thing as sick leave,” said
Over 4,400 proxy voting letters have been filed over the past two years. Amodei accounts for 16 of them. Each one says, “I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency,” then lists another member he gives permission to vote in his place.
Amodei says it is helpful for those who have to fly long distances or tend to other matters that require them to miss votes.
“My mother passed away. I missed some votes. Or when I had to have retina surgery on my eye. I missed some votes,” said Amodei.
He says it is better to have someone cast a vote on behalf of the district than to miss a vote entirely. But some lawmakers, like Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) want to do away with proxy voting. He thinks it is having a negative impact on how the House operates.
“It doesn’t help forward the body. And, you know, we’re not the most respected body as it is, I actually think it further denigrates our standing in the community,” said Biggs.
Molly Reynolds is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution tracking proxy voting. She says a tool like voting by proxy is a positive adaptation to the pandemic. But Reynolds says some are abusing the option.
“Proxy voting was not designed to allow people to say, run for governor and continue to vote on the House floor,” said Reynolds.
Reynolds says some members are using proxy voting to stay home and campaign. She says misusing the system undermines trust and raises questions about the future of legitimate proxy voting.
“What’s the best way to balance these competing tradeoffs?” said Reynolds.
While proxy voting is set to end in 10 days, it is unclear if it will be extended once again with some areas of the country seeing a spike in COVID cases.
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/with-proxy-voting-set-expire-lawmakers-split-its-usefulness/ | 2022-05-05T13:45:09Z |
Community Resource Fair slated for May 13 at SC4
A community resource fair will be held May 13 at St. Clair County Community College.
The annual event is being hosted by the Housing and Support Workgroup of the St. Clair County Community Services Coordinated Body.
The event will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the SC4 parking lot at 323 Erie St., Port Huron.
"The fair is a one-day, one stop event designed to provide services and supports for individuals and families who are experiencing homelessness, at-risk of becoming homeless, or experiencing extreme financial difficulty," according to a press release from the St. Clair County Community Services Coordinated Body.
The fair will be a drive-thru event, featuring a mobile food pantry, personal care items, and resource bags filled with materials from local agencies.
Community First Health Centers will also be onsite to provide free COVID-19 vaccinations.
“We understand that many in our community are struggling to make ends meet. Due to the strains of COVID-19 and the overall increase in the price of goods, more people are seeking help. Our goal with the Community Resource Fair is to provide essentials like food and hygiene items while also connecting folks with local resources that can provide more long-term solutions,” Bonnie Dinardo, SC4's executive director of community and public relations, said in a statement.
For more information about the community resource fair visit www.CSCBinfo.org and follow it on Facebook @SCCCRF. | https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/2022/05/05/community-resource-fair-slated-may-13-sc-4/9657001002/ | 2022-05-05T15:06:39Z |
Hornberger co-sponsors bills over fathers' share of pregnancy, child's health care costs
A local Michigan lawmaker is co-sponsoring a pair of bills aiming to obligate fathers to pay for half of the medical costs for children born out of wedlock, as well as the mother’s pregnancy — particularly if those expenses are covered by state Medicaid funds.
The legislation, House Bills 5860 and 5861, appeared before the House judiciary committee this week, and state Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield, later said the biggest intent was simple: “Parent involvement and recouping money.”
HB 5860, also backed by state Rep. Mark Tisdel, amends the state’s Paternity Act to require biological fathers to pay at least 50% of a mother’s Monthly Medicaid allocation or private insurance contribution, starting with prenatal care through childbirth; whereas, HB 5861, backed by Hornberger, requires the same ration of the child’s monthly Medicaid allocation or private insurance covered by the child’s mother.
Both measures were introduced March 1.
“Why should a single mother bear the burden for the entire cost or the state bear the burden?” Hornberger said Tuesday afternoon. “… If you’re a young couple and you get married and have a baby and get divorced within, say a year or six months of the baby being born, which does happen, that father is on the hook for the rest of his life. As is the mother for financial responsibilities. So, why should it be any different for a parent of a child?”
Discussion about HB 5860 and 5861 comes amid a broader state and national conversation about rolling back abortion rights under Roe vs. Wade and addressing the needs of women without that access.
Hornberger has supported broader family-related measures — as well as pro-life legislation — in the past. But when asked about the timing, she said the pair had been on tap for discussion for weeks, re-emphasizing its narrower, more straightford scope.
How would it work as proposed?
At a hearing Tuesday morning, Tisdel, R-Rochester Hills, told the judiciary committee members that the measures were aimed to fall in line with priorities spelled out in existing state or federal statutes about responsibility of care of children.
But like Hornberger, he said it was also about the state recouping funds.
“You may be thinking how is this any of the state’s business? Well, the state has a direct financial interest in Medicaid expenditures,” Tisdel said. “In the coming fiscal year, Michigan’s Medicaid budget will be $22 billion. Take out all the one-time federal dollars, and Medicaid will be and has been for the past several years nearly one-third of the state’s entire budget.”
Additionally, Tisdel cited Medicaid expenditures “growing at an unsustainable rate” over the past two decades, as well as the rate of Michigan births paid for by Medicaid from 2008 to 2020.
“During that 13-year period, Medicaid has paid for nearly 633,000 births,” he said. “It’s very important to remember that each of those years represents between 41,000 and 54,000 children that may be enrolled in Medicaid for the next 18 years and possibly into adulthood.”
Hornberger said 5861 extends the father’s payment requirement through the child’s life. Currently, Michigan law can take that to 19 and a half years, she said. “But this bill will take it to 26, which would align with the ACA.”
According to the language of the legislation, individuals who fail to pay a court-ordered share of pregnancy expenses or child insurance premiums would be subject to income withholding under the Support and Parenting Time Enforcement Act.
Concerns left to address on bills for some lawmakers
Multiple organizations went on record with the House committee in opposition or in support of the measure.
On Tuesday, Rep. Kelly Breen, D-Novi, expressed concerns about the proposed legislation’s potential conflicts.
“There’s issues, such as surrogacy or IVF, where you might have an anonymous donor or you might even have a parent who is not a male, a responsible parent who could be female,” she said. “Then, there’s also a question of ability to pay, which is sort of contrary to established procedure and judicial discretion.”
However, citing her own experience in practicing family law in recalling “the struggle that parents face” without support from a partner or other parent, Breen lauded “the effort to ease that burden” and told Tisdel she was “absolutely willing to work with you to try to make the intention” come to fruition.
Tisdel said he thought other parent arrangements were covered by other contracts, adding, “There’s a very specific agreement that the parents, regardless of sex or gender, as you indicated, enter into.”
There was no decision to push the two House Bills on for recommendation this week. The measures were expected to return to committee.
Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Wayland, said he hoped the bills could promote having a mother and a father in a child’s life.
“And as we look at a lot of the issues out there, I think this legislation here, hopefully, is a first step to addressing some of these things,” he said. “... I think there may be some more work to be done on this legislation. But I think the overall intent is very good.”
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmtih@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith. | https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/2022/05/05/hornberger-co-sponsors-bills-over-fathers-share-pregnancy-childs-health-care-costs/9627006002/ | 2022-05-05T15:06:45Z |
Summerfest in Marysville to return in June with carnival, car show, concerts and fireworks
Summerfest in Marysville is returning to the city this June after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Set for June 16 through 19 at the Marysville Municipal Park, 801 East Huron Blvd., the festival includes a petting zoo, a carnival, a classic car show, a motorcycle show, free concerts and fireworks.
The festival runs from 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday, 4 to 11:30 p.m. Friday, noon to 11:30 p.m. Saturday and noon to 11 p.m. Sunday. Parking and admission is free, however there is a cost for carnival rides. For more information, visit https://summerfestinmarysville.com/info/.
Joe Nieporte, co-owner of Funfest Events, said there is something for the entire family, with activities for all ages.
"The number one goal is for everyone to have fun," Nieporte said.
The fireworks show, which is set for 10 p.m. Sunday, is usually the most well-attended event, he said.
"We're going out with a big bang," Nieporte said.
Headliners for the concerts include Grinder, Sponge, a Prince and Madonna tribute band and The Gobies. Concerts are free, however a VIP area ticket costs $20 per person.
Nieporte said other than the tribute bands, all bands are Michigan-based.
Jon Janssen, lead singer of The Gobies, said he is looking forward to returning to Marysville. The local band plays mostly 80s and 90s alternative rock and country.
"It's just fun to get out there and play for everybody," Janssen said.
He expects a large turnout for this year's event after it was canceled for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We anticipate because of the two-year absence everybody's going to just come out and support it because they missed it for a couple of years," Nieporte said.
Nieporte said St. Clair Riverfest is still canceled for this year. Funfest Events, the Mount Clemens-based special event and production company that oversees both festivals, uses its website and social media sites to cross-promote all its festivals.
Contact Laura Fitzgerald at (810) 941-7072 or lfitzgeral@gannett.com. | https://www.thetimesherald.com/story/news/2022/05/05/summerfest-marysville-return-after-two-year-hiatus/9613396002/ | 2022-05-05T15:06:51Z |
CHEYENNE — If you plan to travel on Interstate 80 near Vedauwoo, be prepared to experience some delays over the coming months, as the spring start to the annual period of time for road work is upon us here in Wyoming.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation warned Tuesday about the potential for delays for motorists due to crews with WYDOT, Simon Contractors and S&S Builders beginning bridge and paving work on I-80.
"Whenever they get an opening in the weather" is when the road crews will begin the work this week, wrote a WYDOT spokesperson in an email to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. The construction is expected to wrap up this fall, though predicting exactly when is not possible given how construction schedules are subject to change, she said.
"Starting this week, crews are scheduled to set traffic control, including lane closures, between mile markers 324 and 330" on I-80, the agency said. "The project will begin with bridge rehab work on the eastbound and westbound bridges at mile post 326.6, then move to the eastbound and westbound bridges at mile post 329.3."
Then, likely starting in July, what WYDOT described as pavement and surface work will begin on this section of the highway.
Truckers should beware that, during this project, there will be a 13-foot width restriction.
As always, drivers should follow construction-zone speed limits, which are often lower than what roads normally allow. "And stay alert for traffic shifts into and out of the crossover," WYDOT reminded.
As always, "adverse weather or material availability" could impact the schedule for this construction, the agency noted. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/wydot-announces-roadwork-on-i-80-near-vedauwoo/article_3067c72a-510c-58f2-acbc-3b09cac98f6f.html | 2022-05-05T16:29:39Z |
Students in Laramie County Community College’s nursing program receive direction from Cheyenne Regional Medical Center staff to assist with a 2021 surge of patients at the hospital. Courtesy
CHEYENNE – Wyoming is among 14 states taking part in a project to try to address health workforce challenges, Gov. Mark Gordon has announced.
The goal is "growing and strengthening the state’s health care workforce," according to a Tuesday news release from the governor's office. The U.S. and Wyoming are grappling with a shortage of workers, including in health care.
The project is called the Next Generation of the Healthcare Workforce Learning Collaborative. It is described as a six-month initiative being launched by the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices.
Participating governors’ offices and states' officials will work to "develop innovative and evidence-based policies, programs, and practices to strengthen an enduring health care workforce," the announcement said.
In Wyoming, this collaborative will include officials from the departments of Health, Workforce Services and Education, along with Gordon's office. The University of Wyoming and the state’s community colleges will also take part. This effort also reflects the priorities of the governor’s Wyoming Innovation Partnership.
“Wyoming is not unique in facing health care workforce shortages, an issue that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic,” Gordon said. “Long-term solutions will require a coordinated effort that will benefit from this collaborative approach.”
Gordon’s Health Task Force has been targeting nursing shortages through via utilizing traveling nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as by using federal money for recruitment and retention. And the Wyoming Legislature has approved funds for health workforce-related issues.
"During a series of virtual and in-person convenings in multiple states, Learning Collaborative participants will work together to assess their current operating environment; share successes and best practices; learn from national, state and local experts; exchange ideas with other states; and develop and execute an action plan to achieve program and policy change based on state-identified goals," the release said.
This collaborative aims to publish findings and recommendations later this year. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/wyoming-among-states-in-a-project-about-health-workforce-challenges/article_cd8c6436-d127-5b7f-a96e-152ca9c472c3.html | 2022-05-05T16:29:45Z |
SWEETWATER COUNTY -- According to the results of a recent survey done, there are 39% of Sweetwater County residents said that they would support a 1% increase to the sales and use tax without much detail; an additional 15% are undecided.
Additionally, 28% of them said that they were willing to pay an extra 1% sales/use tax for five years or less. An additional 10% supported the increase for up to 10 years and 17% were undecided.
Also, 35% of the Sweetwater County residents that are unwilling to pay an extra 1% sales/use tax for any amount of time.
The Sweetwater County Commission had a discussion concerning the next steps for the specific purpose tax initiative during the meeting on Tuesday, May 3.
This discussion was held following the end of a two-week community-wide survey.
The survey was launched on March 31 in order to “gather initial feedback from the community on a potential specific purpose tax.”
Around 900 people participated and 860 completed the survey during the two weeks the survey was up, March 31 - April 15, 2022.
Based on those who participated in the survey, 54% of those who responded have lived in Sweetwater County for 15 years or more and 84% of them voted in every recent, local election.
Concerning the results of the survey, Sweetwater County Commissioner Lauren Schoenfeld said that the survey was done with “minimal information on the projects.”
“We don’t even have a list of projects that we’re moving forward with yet. We haven’t made a decision around that.”
Survey participants got to see a full list that was put out but don’t have any details.
Filling out the survey included ranking the types of projects that should be prioritized.
The top three were maintenance and improvements to streets, sewer systems and water facilities. Wastewater facilities, dirt road paving, flood mitigation, sewer services to areas without and new equipment such as ambulances were some of the other priorities.
After looking at the results of the survey, Schoenfeld said that the committee looked at which type of projects should be included as well as a timeline for the tax.
“After reading through all of these, the committee looked at figuring out a way to streamline it and get rid of any projects that are not basic infrastructure projects in the communities,” Schoenfeld said. “We need to look at how we can keep it under five years.”
Schoenfeld added that the residents are not interested in considering quality of life projects after looking at the survey results.
All of the smaller communities in Sweetwater County have cut back on their individual lists of projects while still including their top priority infrastructure projects, according to Schoenfeld.
“The Sweetwater Events Complex has elected to withdraw all of their projects for the one waterline installation because they won’t be able to meet current fire code without that.”
Furthermore, Green River has cut all of its quality-of-life projects.
When looking at and considering a menu-style option on the ballot that lists the projects, Schoenfeld said that choosing that format could to the smaller communities in the county not getting enough votes in order to complete their projects.
Another public meeting will be held to discuss the specific purpose tax on Wednesday, May 11, from 6 - 7:30 p.m. It will be held at Western Wyoming Community College in Room 3650. Schoenfeld said that the meeting will be an open public forum to allow people to come and go. There will also be an option for people to attend the meeting through Zoom. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/in-favor-survey-shows-more-residents-favor-proposed-specific-purpose-tax-than-dont/article_9eea1e9c-fc81-594d-8cce-6ebfe5d2ffba.html | 2022-05-05T16:29:51Z |
Cheerleading
East camp: The Cheyenne East spirit program will hold a youth cheerleading camp June 2-4.
The cost is $60 for athletes registered by May 27. The registration cost for each additional child from the same household is $45.
Participants will get a T-shirt and bow.
The camp runs 5:15-7:45 p.m. June 2, and 8:15-10:45 a.m. June 3 and 4. Campers will perform at 10 a.m. June 4 during halftime of the East football camp’s championship games.
The registration form can be found at https://bit.ly/EastCheerCamp. For more information, contact Emili Brooksmith at cheyenneehscheer@hotmail.com or 307-421-2385.
Cornhole
Superday tourney: The inaugural Superday cornhole tournament will be June 25 in the infield at the Dunbar Field softball field in Lions Park.
The registration fee is $25 for singles players and $35 for doubles teams.
Registration can be completed at the Kiwanis Community House, 4603 Lions Park Drive. Forms also can be downloaded at cheyennerec.org.
For more information, contact David Mullen at 307-773-1039 or dmullen@cheyennecity.org.
Football
Adult flag league: Registration for the city of Cheyenne’s 7-on-7 adult flag football league has started. It ends July 2. The league is for athletes 16 and older.
Games will be played Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each team is guaranteed six games. The cost is $200 per team, and the season runs July 12 through Aug. 18.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Youth tackle league: Registration for the city of Cheyenne’s youth tackle football league end June 16.
The cost is $140 per player, with an equipment deposit of $150. Registration includes use of a helmet, shoulder pads, practice pants and jersey, team photos and a participation award.
Teams are based on school triads. Practices start Aug. 1, and games start Aug. 20.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Youth tackle officials training: Anyone who wants to officiate the city of Cheyenne’s youth tackle football league this fall can register for training starting May 23. Registration ends Aug. 2.
The training covers proper mechanics, positioning and how to approach the game. It runs 6-8 p.m. Aug. 3.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Golf
Cegelski McLeod tourney: The annual Val Cegelski McLeod Memorial Scholarship golf tournament will be held June 5 at Airport Golf Course in Cheyenne.
The 18-hole scramble for four-person teams will feature a shotgun start around 12:30 p.m.
The cost is $320 per team, which covers greens fees and cart. The deadline is June 1.
For more information, contact Geoff Reed at geoffrey.reed@laramie1.org.
South camp: The Cheyenne South golf program will hold two golf camps this summer.
The cost is $20 per camper for each camp. The camp is limited to children who will be in third through ninth grades this fall.
The first camp runs 1-3 p.m. June 7-10 at Little America Golf Course, 2800 W. Lincolnway. The second camp runs 1-3 p.m. June 13-17 at Little America.
Each camp is limited to 20 students.
The registration form can be found at https://bit.ly/SouthGolfCamp.
For more information, email South golf coach Michael Loveland at michael.loveland@laramie1.org.
Kickball
Adult co-rec league: Registration for the city of Cheyenne’s adult co-recreational kickball league ends June 9.
The cost is $150 per team. Each team is allowed up to 20 players on its roster. Players must be at least 16 years old on July 5.
The league runs July 5-Sept. 2. Teams are guaranteed six games, plus a single-elimination postseason tournament. Games will be played at David Romero Park, 1317 Parsley Blvd.
For more information, contact David Mullen at 307-773-1039 or dmullen@cheyennecity.org.
Softball
Soveroski Memorial tournament: Registration for the annual Lenny Soveroski Memorial slow-pitch softball tournament starts May 16.
The cost is $250 for USSSA-sanctioned teams and $300 for non-sanctioned teams. Proceeds benefit youth sports financial assistance programs.
The date for the tournament has not been determined.
For more information, contact David Contreras at 307-637-6425 or dcontreras@cheyennecity.org.
Volleyball
South clinic: The Cheyenne South volleyball program will host a youth skills clinic from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 26.
The clinic is for 5- to 12-year-olds. The cost is $50, and includes a T-shirt, Gatorade and snack.
Payment can be made the day of the clinic with cash or check.
If you opt to pay the day of, email Cherisa Applehunt at coachapplehunt@gmail.com with participant name and T-shirt size.
Superday co-rec grass tourney: The annual Cheyenne Superday co-rec four-on-four grass volleyball tournament will be held Saturday, June 25, in the outfield grass at the Dunbar Field softball field in Lions Park.
Space is limited to the first 16 teams. The registration fee is $50. Registration ends June 9.
Registration can be completed at the Kiwanis Community House, 4603 Lions Park Drive. Forms also can be downloaded at cheyennerec.org.
For more information, contact David Mullen at 307-773-1039 or dmullen@cheyennecity.org.
Yoga
Chair classes: The city of Cheyenne is offering chair yoga classes at 9 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at the Youth Activity and Community Center at Romero Park, 1317 Parsley Blvd.
The classes last 40 minutes, and punch cards – which are required to participate – can be bought at the Kiwanis Community House, 4603 Lions Park Drive. The class is free to those who qualify for Silver Sneakers.
For more information, contact Lori DeVilbiss at 307-773-1044 or ldevilbiss@cheyennecity.org. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/other_sports/community/community-sports-bulletin-board-for-may-5-2022/article_66346f06-540e-54c3-bd82-0c5d99f2cf7b.html | 2022-05-05T16:29:58Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
HONOLULU (KITV4) - Moderate to breezy trade winds continue on Thursday with a mix of sunshine and clouds. High clouds spread across the state from east to west. Scattered windward and mauka showers may drift leeward at times. Highs 80 to 87. East winds 15-25 mph.
A mid and upper level low west of the state will bring considerable high cloud cover to the islands today and Friday, with the high clouds thinning out Saturday and clearing out by Mother's Day on Sunday.
Fairly typical trade wind weather can be expected through the next 7 days, with showers favoring windward and mauka areas and a stray shower reaching leeward communities from time to time.
A High Surf Advisory for all south facing shores in effect until 6 pm this evening
Small Craft Advisory now in effect until 6 pm this evening
A large south swell will continue to generate advisory-level for exposed south facing shores today, before slowly easing into the weekend. Surf along exposed north and west facing shores will remain up today, then drop off Friday into the weekend as a late-season north-northwest swell moves out. Expect the summer-like trend up north to return for next week. Surf along east facing shores will remain rough through next week due to the strong trades.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/thursday-weather-breezy-trade-winds-scattered-showers-surf-still-up/article_19752cc2-cc81-11ec-b344-0fbfc4951545.html | 2022-05-05T16:56:08Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
FILE - The New York Stock Exchange logo adorn trading posts, on the floor, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. Stocks are opening lower on Wall Street Thursday, May 5, giving up some of the big gains they made a day earlier. Technology companies were leading the declines. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is shifting into reverse, giving up much of the big gains it made a day earlier on relief that the Federal Reserve wouldn't be as aggressive as some feared in raising interest rates to fight inflation.
The S&P 500 fell 2.6%. The index climbed 3% on Wednesday for its best day since May 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2% the Nasdaq fell 3.7%.
The reversal follows the Federal Reserve’s decision Wednesday to raise its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point as it tries to tackle persistently high inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 3.03% its highest since late 2018. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/wall-street-goes-into-reverse-erasing-much-of-its-big-rally/article_5dbab5c6-cc83-11ec-a79f-9725262be72e.html | 2022-05-05T16:56:14Z |
GREEN RIVER – Green River High School senior Megan Counts signed her national letter of intent to continue her basketball career at Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska, on Tuesday.
The Green River standout said that she is happy about her decision and excited that she decided on a place to further her education and continue playing basketball.
“I really liked the team there and the coach was super nice. It was just a really welcoming environment. It was a long process. I emailed a lot of schools and had interest in a few. I just thought that Chadron was the best place for me,” Counts said on her decision.
Over the years, Counts has led the Lady Wolves to state tournament appearances and developed her game along the way. She was the recipient of several accolades, including all-conference and all-state honors.
Admittedly, Counts said that her basketball game is still a work in progress as she makes the next step in her career. She is more than willing to put in the work to get there, though.
“I definitely need to learn how to play more of a guard position because that’s what I’m going to be playing. I have some experiences with that,” she said.
Counts is appreciative of her time at GRHS, complimenting the coaching and her teammates.
“The coaching staff was amazing. They just taught me how to work hard, how to be a teammate and be a team leader. My team has helped me grow. We all push each other to be better.” She said.
Rick Carroll, who was Counts head coach at Green River over the last four years, said that he’s proud of her growth and how the hard work she put in has led to a major milestone.
“I’m just really proud of Megan because she worked hard all four years. She spent time in the weight room. She did tons and tons of shooting. Every year she came back, she did something better than she did the year before. I think she has great ball handling skills. She’s got a great shooter. She has an inside game. I think Chadron is going to be really pleased with how she plays,” Carroll said.
“She’s probably as smooth as anybody that I’ve seen in Wyoming basketball as far as being smooth around the rim. She just has a lot of good moves. She does a great job.”
Carroll believes that Counts is ready to make in impact right away for Chadron State on the court.
“I really think her skills at that point right now and I think she’ll be able to play for them this next year,” he said. “I expect just to hear a lot of good stuff about how she’s doing. She’s one of those girls who is going to work hard in the weight room this summer and be ready to go for them when she gets there.”
Counts currently studies psychology, but wants to maybe transition to dental hygiene or sports training in college. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/counts-signs-nli-to-hoop-for-chadron-state-college/article_79bafce1-189f-5535-aa83-51c08768ac31.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:10Z |
On Monday, April 2, Rock Springs High School senior Quinten Gasaway signed his national letter of intent to continue his track career at Central Wyoming College in Riverton.
ROCK SPRINGS – On Monday, April 2, Rock Springs High School senior Quinten Gasaway signed his national letter of intent to continue his track career at Central Wyoming College in Riverton.
The long-distance runner for the Tigers said that he wasn’t expecting to go to college, let alone be a college athlete.
“It’s a really big shock to me because at the beginning of the year, I wasn’t thinking about college or anything like that. A lot of it is just luck,” Gasaway said.
He credits his coaches for pushing him to be the best runner he could be.
“Coach (Casey) Walker really pushes us to compete, Coach (Josue) Polacios really helps us on the technical side of running, and especially Coach (Mesa) Weidle. She really helped me to stay in the races. Some of them are really long and I zone out pretty easily so she helps me stay focused,” he said.
Gasaway has a lot of fond memories of being a student athlete at RSHS.
His favorite are the relationships he has built with teachers and friends he’s made over the years.
Gasaway wants to study health and science, working toward veterinary medicine. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/gasaway-runs-for-central-wyoming-after-signing-nli/article_73f426f3-09f2-52ff-8784-d49360a74242.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:16Z |
GREEN RIVER – Two-time state champion swimmer Hailey Uhrig is heading to the Sooner State.
On Tuesday, April 3, Uhrig signed her national letter of intent to continue her education and swimming career at Oklahoma Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
“I’m really excited. I’m excited to go swim and be part of a college team and just continue my swimming career and get out of Wyoming and get to another area,” she said.
“I went there on a visit a couple weeks ago and I liked the area and the campus itself. Coach (Josh) Davis reached out to me via email and messages. We talked about all of the basics. When I visited, we talked about the offer and the school itself. After that, I verbally committed.”
Uhrig helped lead the Lady Wolves to two straight state titles in 2020 and 2021, sharing the latter with Lander High School. In 2018 and 2019, the team took second at state. She said that sharing those memories with her teammates was the memorable of her time competing for Green River.
“Everyone on the team worked hard for it, especially this year because we had a lot more competition and we fought through it all the way to the end,” she said.
Her mother, Andrea Uhrig, is also excited for her daughter.
“It’s just amazing she’s going to go there and experience that. She’s put in a lot of time, a lot of effort and commitment and sacrifice,” she said.
Colleen Seiloff, head swimming coach at GRHS, is proud of her star breaststroker.
“I’m just really proud because she has been swimming for a long time and had a lot of goals of wanting to get to college and swim. All the hard work she has put in is paying off. I’m excited for her to just go to college and just get a positive experience,” Seiloff said.
The two state titles Uhrig and this senior class has been able to achieve will leaving a lasting legacy on the swimming program, she said.
“This hasn’t been done since the 1970s. Before the two state championships, she was part of two teams who reached second so she’s been on the most winningest team that has Green River ever had as far as girls swimming goes. She’s left quite the legacy. She’s a magnificent breaststroker. It’s a lot to live up to with this young lady leaving,” Seiloff said.
She hopes Uhrig has a great experience in college, ultimately.
“I just hope she’s successful and has a good, positive experience, goes to college and gets to enjoy all of the hard work she has put in. I hope she gets up there is competitive at an elite level. I know she can be. She can do amazing things. She has a one-of-a-kind breast stroke. It’s beautiful,” Seiloff said.
Uhrig plans on studying health science and minoring in business. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/uhrig-is-taking-her-breaststroke-to-the-sooner-state/article_dbbd0d79-7e53-5a3b-bdb6-591697b3a17d.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:22Z |
ROCK SPRINGS -- Western Wyoming Community College recognized the best of student art projects on April 29 at an awards ceremony held in the Art Gallery. Surrounded by their art pieces, three Western students were recognized for the pieces they had created over the academic year.
The ceremony showcased the very best of student artwork from this past year. The ceremony included drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, ceramics and sculpture selected from 32 course offerings taken by 275 Western students. Prizes for the best works were presented during the awards ceremony on April 29. The recipients were Brooklyn Ollis, “Cozad” and Zach Birch.
Ollis won first prize for their photograph titled, “To the Soul”. When describing the processes behind developing the winning photograph Ollis explained, “The original pictures were for the profile assignment. I was kind of experimenting with what I wanted to do for my final project. In both photographs I put tape over where the eyes would be. Without the eyes you only get the expression. People say the eyes are the gateway to the soul, so when you take that away you’re just left with, to the soul.”
Gallery director and Assistant Professor of Art Jacob Muldowney said, “I think I can speak for all the art faculty at Western when I say that we are very proud of the level of work that students have produced this year. It's an exceptional student exhibition. They've worked really hard to develop their technical skills, but they've also been open to experimenting and trying new things.
"I think that openness to experimentation is really exemplified by the variety of approaches and styles that you see in the student exhibition this year. Our students have a bright future ahead of them.”
Cozad won second place for their charcoal drawing, "Skylark." When asked about the name behind the piece Cozad explained that the drawing is of her cousin and, “...every time I text her, autocorrect changes her name to skylark, hence skylark.”
Birch’s oil still life, "Towering Still Life," won third place. These top pieces were a small fraction of the artistic talent on display with honorable mentions also presented on April 29.
Some of the art student's work will be up throughout the summer. Due to graduating students, the full collection will not be available. The Art Gallery hours are from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. The college is closed on Sundays. Summer hours may fluctuate.
For more information on the art program or courses, contact Jacob Muldowney at jmuldowney@westernwyoming.edu. To learn more about Western’s Art Program, visit westernwyoming.edu/art. Fall registration is open and classes fill fast. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/western-art-students-recognized-at-awards-ceremony/article_35491c9b-bdb5-5187-a300-57f8c34be257.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:28Z |
CHEYENNE – If you had a lower income or were a member of the military, and you used a certain type of paid TurboTax tax preparation for tax years 2016 through 2018, you may get a refund of $30 for every year you used the program.
This is according to a Wednesday announcement from Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill about a settlement that the tax software maker Intuit Inc. has entered into with every state and the District of Columbia. The multistate agreement calls for the company to pay $141 million in restitution to millions of consumers in the U.S. who should not have had to pay Intuit for the tax filing.
Hill said her office got $272,182 from the company for consumers in the state who apparently were deceived into paying to file their IRS tax return, when it should have been free. "Impacted consumers will automatically receive notices and a check by mail," said her office's announcement.
"The multistate investigation found that Intuit engaged in several deceptive and unfair trade practices that limited consumers’ participation in the IRS Free File Program," according to Hill's office. "Intuit must suspend TurboTax’s 'free, free, free' ad campaign that lured customers with promises of free tax preparation services, only to deceive them into paying for services."
"Intuit already adheres to most of these advertising practices and expects minimal impact to its business from implementing the remaining changes," the company wrote in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday. It "remains committed to providing Americans with free tax preparation offerings." Intuit did not comment further for this news report.
According to the state attorney general's office release, the company took other steps to potentially fool customers into paying for something that, for some, should have been offered at no charge. The IRS Free File Program is described as a public-private partnership with the IRS for taxpayers earning less than roughly $34,000 annually and for members of the military to file their taxes for free.
"Intuit bid on paid search advertisements to direct consumers who were looking for the IRS Free File product to the TurboTax 'freemium' product instead," Hill's office said. "Intuit also purposefully blocked its IRS Free File landing page from search engine results during the 2019 tax filing season." | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/banking_and_finance/intuit-to-give-money-back-from-turbotax-fees-in-pact-with-wyo-other-states/article_04832678-cc97-11ec-851f-a70723e67b32.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:35Z |
CHEYENNE – The city on Wednesday presented an overview of its proposed $59.6 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2023, which begins July 1.
That amount is about $5.7 million more than the budget in fiscal year 2022, Mayor Patrick Collins said during a City Council work session. Of this, $4 million is related to payroll, City Treasurer Robin Lockman said.
Still, the proportions of what the city expects to spend are about the same as last year, Collins said.
The work session was the first in a series meant to lay out aspects of the city’s proposed budget. They continue each day at noon for the remainder of this week and next week.
After the series of work sessions concludes, the budget will be discussed for several weeks at City Council and Committee of the Whole meetings. A third and final budget hearing will take place during the council’s June 13 meeting.
The budget document can be found at cheyennecity.org/financialreports under the Adopted and Proposed Budgets tab.
“Together, we have faced a number of budgetary challenges and a fair amount of uncertainty,” Lockman said during the work session. “But, thankfully, the city of Cheyenne has persevered and is now in a much better financial condition than it was previously.”
However, both Lockman and Collins expressed concern over potential future economic factors throughout the U.S., including inflation and supply chain issues. Lockman said economic indicators she’s been following suggest a recession may take place in the next year or two.
“What we don’t know right now, however, is if the U.S. does fall into a recession, to what extent Cheyenne will be affected or even how long it will last,” the city treasurer said. “Because of these concerns, the mayor and I were very cautious when determining our sales tax revenue projections.”
Revenues
Sales and use taxes will continue to be the city’s largest revenue source in the upcoming fiscal year, estimated at 36.9% of the general fund budget.
“Inflation does cause hardships, but there is a silver lining,” Lockman said. “Inflation has also led to a significant increase in sales tax revenues – not only for Laramie County’s state sales tax, but also our fifth- and sixth-penny taxes over the past 12 to 15 months, which has led to substantial overages.”
The city budgeted $18.7 million in sales tax revenues for the current fiscal year, but is projected to end up with more than $24 million, she said, adding a “significant amount” to the city’s reserves over the last year.
Cheyenne went from having just 68 days of general fund operating reserves in June 2020 to 200 days at the end of April this year, Lockman said, thanks to “conservative revenue estimates and the hard work and sacrifice that departments have made over the past two years.”
Lockman emphasized that having reserves is “critical,” and that she would continue to push for the city to require 120 days of reserves, rather than the current 60.
For fiscal year 2023, the city budgeted sales tax revenue of $22 million. This is more than $2 million less than Lockman said she believes the city will receive, but she and the mayor wanted to be cautious, she said.
The largest increases in planned revenues are in sales and use taxes and electric and natural gas franchise fees, as well as payouts from historic horse racing, which added $626,000 to city revenues over the past year.
Two new data centers are expected to come online over the next fiscal year, which will have a “very positive impact” on revenues, Collins said.
City health insurance premiums also did not go up for second year in a row. And instead of the state cutting its direct appropriations to the city as planned, it increased them by $448,930.
Expenditures
Southeast Wyoming’s year-over-year inflation rate for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 10.2%, according to state data released April 22 – the highest it’s been in 40 years, Lockman said.
Collins added that inflation and action by the City Council over the past year caused the city’s expenses to exceed its predicted revenues by more than $2 million. However, revenues did increase enough to cover these expenses, he wrote in the budget document.
The increases included a significant rise in the cost of things like property liability insurance, fleet fuel and parts; the city’s electric and gas bill; pension rates; computer software maintenance; jail costs; and ammunition for police officers, which had increased in cost by 300%, Collins said.
Also contributing was the council’s decision to raise salaries for city positions – although the city is still struggling to fill many full-time positions, Lockman said, such as those that require a commercial driver’s license, attorneys, engineers and others.
The city’s Compliance Department also took over animal control services for the city and county Sept. 1.
The city reduced revenues by using lottery funds to pay for community recreation events, and it moved three positions from the city’s Operations and Maintenance Fund, where they had been temporarily, back to the general fund, the mayor said.
Contributing to costs, Collins said, was that the Cheyenne Police Department is currently “fully staffed for the first time in many years.”
Close to three-quarters of the general fund budget, 73.4%, is projected to be spent on payroll and benefits for city employees.
The mayor said it was “sobering” to realize through conversations with Lockman that the budget would not allow the city to add what he called “needed staff positions” in the upcoming year – one of Collins’ goals. Still, the city expects to restore some positions lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also expects to provide the police department with another records technician position in the coming year, he said.
And while Lockman and Collins worry about an economic slowdown nationwide, Collins said if this doesn’t come to pass, he’d like to have the city look at revenues mid-year and consider adding those needed staff positions and giving employees a 3% cost-of-living raise. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/economy_and_labor/city-proposes-59-6m-general-fund-budget-for-fiscal-year-2023/article_46aa006c-cc97-11ec-a39e-b3bba3713985.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:41Z |
In another step in a yearslong battle over the proposed Rail Tie Wind Project, some area residents are making their case the Wyoming Supreme Court.
The Albany County District Court upheld an Albany County Commission on March 30 decision to grant a permit to ConnectGen, the company leading the project.
Known as a Wind Energy Conservation System (WECS) permit, the decision gives ConnectGen the go-ahead to move forward with its wind farm project, which is in planning and permitting stages with construction slated to begin in spring 2023.
About 45 people with interests against the wind farm have signed onto a second appeals process filed last week to the Wyoming Supreme Court. Monaghan Farms Inc. also filed its own separate appeal.
The 500-megawatt project calls for up to 149 turbines on 26,000 acres of public and private land south of Laramie near Tie Siding. It will tie into the Ault-Craig 345-kilovolt transmission line, which runs through the southern part of the project area.
Noise, light pollution and impacts to wildlife and the natural beauty of the area are among the concerns brought by opponents, many of whom own property near the proposed area for the wind farm, which will be located on private and state lands along Highway 287 south of Laramie near Tie Siding.
“Albany County residents felt strongly that their (county commissioners') decision was not based on protecting county residents or Albany County’s natural resources, but were rather motivated by quick tax revenue and political motives,” said Paul Montoya, who is part of the appeals process. “We feel confident the Wyoming Supreme Court will see the errors in the county's decision-making process and uphold our appeal."
The WECS permit includes nine conditions that are meant to address concerns for residents surrounding the wind farm, said Amanda Flores, manager for the project for ConnectGen. These include installing fire suppression systems on the turbines; increasing the distance between turbines, residences and public roads; and installing an aircraft detection lighting system to reduce light pollution.
The project has already received necessary state permits and has completed an environmental impact statement. Final engineering and pre-construction planning will continue throughout this year, with construction set to begin next spring. According to the schedule, the wind farm would be fully operational by the end of 2024.
The objections
“This isn’t about ‘not in our backyard,’ it's about respecting the safety of local residents,” said Tie Siding homeowner Andrew Grant. “We’re here, we’re paying our taxes. We expect to be looked after.”
Grant said that while he supports green energy, he has many concerns about the location of the wind project being in such close proximity to people who live nearby.
Living in the forest, Grant and other residents voiced concerns about increased fire danger and lighting strikes with the roughly 600-foot-tall turbines. While the turbines won’t be visible from many houses in the area, residents will be forced to drive past them along Cherokee Park Road, the main route in and out of the area.
“What they are trying to do is turn our trip to the grocery store into a game of Russian roulette, as far as we’re concerned,” Grant said of the risk of ice shards falling from turbines.
Modern wind turbines are equipped with an ice detection system that causes the turbines to stop spinning if ice build-up is detected on the blades, according to the ConnectGen website.
In addition to quality-of-life concerns, some residents cited concerns with what they considered to be an insufficient public input process from the Albany County Commission.
“It's been a frustrating experience to be given three minutes to verbally address something that’s a complicated process, and then have not any questions asked back,” said Al Minier, who owns a second home 8 miles south of Tie Siding. “Part of this fight is based on the fact that I think the scrutiny given to wind projects is really not adequate.”
Mitchell Edwards of Nicholas & Tangeman LLC is representing the opponents. He claims the county failed to follow its own regulations in gathering information on the Rail Tie project and didn't give adequate public notice before meetings in which the project was discussed.
“I can’t think of any point in this process where anyone from the project has reached out to me and asked for my concerns,” Minier said.
The Albany County Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the appeal by press time.
“We believe the District Court correctly concluded that the Albany County Commissioners properly granted the WECS permit in accordance with the applicable regulations and hope the Wyoming Supreme Court will reach the same conclusion,” Flores said.
The court will have 120-180 days to issue a written decision on the appeal after undergoing a multi-step process of hearing arguments from both sides. Typically, the appeals process takes between a year and 18 months, Edwards said. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/energy_production/turbine-turbulence-residents-continue-legal-battle-against-rail-tie-wind-project/article_61129fe0-cc97-11ec-8b97-c76438f21500.html | 2022-05-05T19:06:47Z |
(CNN) -- So much for the good feelings on Wall Street. US markets fell sharply Thursday, eviscerating all of the gains from Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's announcement of its plans to increase in its benchmark interest rate won over investors.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell helped reassure investors Wednesday afternoon, saying that future rate hikes larger than 50 basis points are "not something the [Fed] is actively considering," leading to a bullish surge in markets. The major indexes all grew by around 3%, and the S&P 500 and Dow had their best days in nearly two years.
But investors woke up with a binge-trading hangover Thursday, and markets catapulted into the red as they further digested the Fed news.
The Dow dropped 1,079 points or 3.2%, the S&P 500 fell 3.6% and the Nasdaq Composite tumbled 4.9% in midday trading.
"I've been in the markets for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for Quill Intelligence, a Wall Street and Federal Reserve research firm. "It's violent not just volatile."
DiMartino Booth thinks the massive drop only makes sense if you classify yesterday's surge as a melt-up "The markets were so poised to rally yesterday and there were probably a lot of people who were short and had to rush to cover, today is a backlash," she said.
Even without future interest rate hikes of 75 basis points, quantitative tightening presents a threat to economic growth and to markets that have become used to accommodating Fed policy. "There may be some pain associated with getting back to that, but the big pain is in not dealing with inflation and allowing it to become entrenched," Powell warned during his Wednesday afternoon press conference.
Market drops like today's are unusual and reminiscent of 2008 and 2009, said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at the Schwab Center for Financial Research. But economic conditions are much stronger than they were at the start of the Great Recession, leaving analysts scratching their heads searching for a catalyst, he said.
So what changed between last night and today to cause investors to flip 180 degrees? "The tea leaves are hard to read right now," Frederick said. "But this could be a sign of market capitulation, where investors are panicked to the point of throwing in the towel." Capitulation, he added, can also indicate that we've reached a market bottom.
Large tech stocks led losses Thursday. Big tech is particularly vulnerable to rising rates because their promise of future innovation and subsequent earnings are valuable to investors.
Facebook parent company Meta fell by nearly 6%, Amazon was down 6.4%, and Google parent company Alphabet toppled 5.3%.
"In all policy moves, however, there are negative consequences, which hopefully are muted, and are less impactful than the issue that is being addressed," wrote Rick Rieder, BlackRock's chief investment officer of global fixed income in a note Wednesday. "The consequences we risk in policy tightening are potential recession, potential lost jobs and wages, and clearly tighter financial conditions that will weigh on virtually all financial markets."
E-commerce stocks also dropped precipitously after reporting weak earnings for the first quarter of the year. Etsy fell by nearly 18% and eBay dropped by about 8%.
New economic data, meanwhile, showed that labor productivity dropped by 7.5% in the first quarter of 2022, its fastest decline since 1947.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/dow-plunges-1-000-points-wiping-out-wednesdays-surge/article_505b4082-cc95-11ec-b882-6fa611062d2b.html | 2022-05-05T19:07:33Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
A United Airlines plane seen at the gate at Chicago OHare International airport (ORD)on October 5, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Daniel SLIM / AFP) (Photo by DANIEL SLIM/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) -- A United Airlines passenger was taken into custody Thursday morning at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after opening an aircraft door and walking out onto the wing of the plane while it was taxiing.
"A male subject was onboard a plane that was approaching the gate when he pulled the emergency exit and walked out onto the wing of the plane," according to a statement from the Chicago Police Department.
"The subject then slid down the wing and onto the airfield," Chicago Police added.
The incident occurred on United Airlines flight 2478 coming from San Diego.
United Airlines said ground crew stopped the individual outside the aircraft. When the plane arrived at the gate, all passengers deplaned safely, according to a statement from the airline.
"CPD arrived and placed him into custody. Charges are pending," Chicago Police said. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/passenger-taken-into-custody-after-opening-emergency-exit-and-walking-on-wing-of-plane/article_d1c75904-cc94-11ec-8540-53a2ab7d317d.html | 2022-05-05T19:07:39Z |
So much for the good feelings on Wall Street. US markets fell sharply Thursday, marking their worst day of the year and eviscerating all of the gains from Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's announcement of its plans to increase in its benchmark interest rate won over investors.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell helped reassure investors Wednesday afternoon, saying that future rate hikes larger than 50 basis points are "not something the [Fed] is actively considering," leading to a bullish surge in markets. The major indexes all grew by around 3%, and the S&P 500 and Dow had their best days in nearly two years.
But investors woke up with a binge-trading hangover Thursday, and markets catapulted into the red as they further digested the Fed news.
All of yesterday's gains were erased by midday and markets only got worse from there.
The Dow dropped 1,120 points, or 3.3%, the S&P 500 fell 3.7%. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 5.2%, its worst day since 2020.
"I've been in the markets for 25 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Danielle DiMartino Booth, CEO and chief strategist for Quill Intelligence, a Wall Street and Federal Reserve research firm. "It's violent not just volatile."
DiMartino Booth thinks the massive drop only makes sense if you classify yesterday's surge as a melt-up "The markets were so poised to rally yesterday and there were probably a lot of people who were short and had to rush to cover, today is a backlash," she said.
The rapid market swings indicate that equities markets still haven't figured out what to do about the Fed, wrote John Lynch, chief investment officer for Comerica Wealth Management, in a note Thursday. The question they need to answer, he said, is not an easy one: "How could technology and growth sustainably lead the market higher with the Fed's acknowledgment of inflation and commitment to higher rates?"
Even without future interest rate hikes of 75 basis points, quantitative tightening presents a threat to economic growth and to markets that have become used to accommodating Fed policy. "There may be some pain associated with getting back to that, but the big pain is in not dealing with inflation and allowing it to become entrenched," Powell warned during his Wednesday afternoon press conference.
Market drops like today's are unusual and reminiscent of 2008 and 2009, said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives at the Schwab Center for Financial Research. But economic conditions are much stronger than they were at the start of the Great Recession, leaving analysts scratching their heads searching for a catalyst, he said.
So what changed between last night and today to cause investors to flip 180 degrees? "The tea leaves are hard to read right now," Frederick said. "But this could be a sign of market capitulation, where investors are panicked to the point of throwing in the towel." Capitulation, he added, can also indicate that we've reached a market bottom.
Large tech stocks led losses Thursday. Big tech is particularly vulnerable to rising rates because their promise of future innovation and subsequent earnings are valuable to investors.
Facebook parent company Meta fell by nearly 6.8%, Amazon was down 7.6%, and Google parent company Alphabet toppled 4.7%.
"In all policy moves, however, there are negative consequences, which hopefully are muted, and are less impactful than the issue that is being addressed," wrote Rick Rieder, BlackRock's chief investment officer of global fixed income in a note Wednesday. "The consequences we risk in policy tightening are potential recession, potential lost jobs and wages, and clearly tighter financial conditions that will weigh on virtually all financial markets."
E-commerce stocks also dropped precipitously after reporting weak earnings for the first quarter of the year. Etsy fell by nearly 17% and eBay dropped by about 12%.
New economic data, meanwhile, showed that labor productivity dropped by 7.5% in the first quarter of 2022, its fastest decline since 1947.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/dow-plunges-more-than-1-000-points-in-wall-streets-worst-day-of-the-year/article_4e28adbc-3536-5659-9a43-c4e469ace9d8.html | 2022-05-05T21:01:52Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- Honolulu Police (HPD) officers are investigating a school shooting threat made against an Ewa Beach middle school on Thursday.
The shooting threat was made against Honouliuli Middle School in a social media post, a school spokesperson told KITV4.
School officials have notified parents and guardians that they can pick up their children if they feel uncomfortable.
No other details have been released at this time.
The Hawaii Department of Education issued the following statement regarding this incident:
“The school is working with law enforcement to investigate an alleged threat to campus circulating on social media. Parents were notified of the situation earlier this morning and though there is no imminent threat to campus and school remains open, the school has decided to excuse absences for the day out of an abundance of caution should parents opt to keep their child home.”
This is a developing story. Keep checking with KITV4 for more information.
Matthew has been the digital content manager for KITV4 since September 2021. Matthew is a prolific writer, editor, and self-described "newsie" who's worked in television markets in Oklahoma, California, and Hawaii. | https://www.kitv.com/news/crime/hpd-investigating-shooting-threat-made-against-ewa-beach-middle-school/article_190f7234-ccad-11ec-87ac-0fb5cd92d880.html | 2022-05-05T21:01:58Z |
(CNN) -- About 14.9 million people around the world died as a direct or indirect result of Covid-19 in the period between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization -- nearly three times more deaths than were officially reported.
There were 5.4 million Covid-19 deaths reported to WHO during that timeframe, resulting in an excess mortality estimate of 9.5 million more deaths than what was reported.
"Excess mortality is the difference between the number of deaths that have been recorded and those that would be expected in the absence of the pandemic," said Samira Asma, assistant director-general for the Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact Division of WHO.
The 14.9 million deaths include "deaths directly attributed to Covid-19 that were reported to WHO, deaths directly attributed to Covid-19 that were not counted or reported ... deaths indirectly associated with the pandemic due to the wider impact on health systems and society," Asma explained. The figure also subtracts any deaths that were avoided due to changes in social behaviors, such as fewer fatalities from car wrecks because of lockdowns or travel restrictions.
The estimated range of excess deaths was 13.3 million to 16.6 million over the 24-month period, according to the methodology used in the WHO report.
In the United States, the number of excess deaths was 932,458 by December 31, 2021, according to WHO. The estimated number of deaths ranges from 886,917 to 978,225.
That's about 100,000 more people than the 824,338 deaths the United States reported on December 31, 2021, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
"Knowing how many people died due to the pandemic will help us to be better prepared for the next," Asma said at a news conference Thursday, adding, "We need to honor the lives tragically cut short, lives we lost, and we must hold ourselves and our policymakers accountable."
The metrics paint a fuller picture of the extent of the pandemic and can be used to guide and implement public health policies, according to Asma.
"When we underestimate, we may underinvest. And when we undercount, we may miss targeting the interventions where they are needed most, and this also deepens inequalities," she said.
William Msemburi, technical officer with WHO's Department of Data and Analytics, said that about 57% of the excess deaths were in men, and 82% were in people above the age of 60.
Nearly 70% of the excess deaths were concentrated in 10 countries, Msemburi said, listing them alphabetically: Brazil, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and the United States.
The Indian government Thursday raised multiple objections on the "validity and robustness" of the mathematical models used by WHO to calculate a new estimate of the Covid-19 death toll in India.
India reported 481,000 Covid-19 deaths over the 24-month period -- but WHO's methodology shows that there were nearly 10 times as many, estimating 4.74 million excess deaths, with a range of 3.3 million to 6.5 million excess deaths.
"Throughout the process of dialogue, engagement and communication with WHO, WHO has projected different excess mortality figures for India citing multiple models, which itself raises questions on the validity and robustness of the models used ... A modeling approach which provides mortality estimates on the basis of another estimate, while totally disregarding the actual data available within the Country exhibits lack of academic rigour," read a statement released by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
India has repeatedly dismissed reports of excess death or underreported Covid-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, especially during its devastating second wave in 2021.
According to the health ministry Thursday, the total number of Covid-19 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic stands at 43 million, with 523,975 deaths.
At a briefing Wednesday, Asma said WHO will continue to engage with India to come to a "mutual consensus with regard to the different estimates" in the data.
Somnath Chatterji, senior adviser with the Department of Data and Analytics, emphasized the importance of the excess mortality numbers in WHO's report.
"These are not numbers for the sake of numbers," Chatterji said, noting that in addition to the number of deaths directly attributable to Covid-19, the data "estimate the collateral damage that has happened because of Covid, because of disruptions in health services."
"So if these numbers were to be tracked in a timely manner, then actually, governments would have been able to drive interventions to the right people at the right time at the right place, right? Which has clearly not happened, and which is why we are seeing these excess deaths," he said.
"These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises, including stronger health information systems," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news release. "WHO is committed to working with all countries to strengthen their health information systems to generate better data for better decisions and better outcomes."
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/covid-19s-full-death-toll-is-nearly-three-times-higher-than-reported-who-data-suggests/article_b55b71dc-cca4-11ec-889f-6314d176084d.html | 2022-05-05T21:02:04Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
HONOLULU (KITV4) – The Hawaii Community Correctional Center (HCCC) has announced it will cancel all inmate visitation at their main facility on Punahele St. this weekend due, in part, to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Corrections officials say the increase in COVID-19 cases has resulted in the isolation and quarantine of the facility. The closure is scheduled for May 7 and 8.
Inmate visitation at the Hale Nani housing unit will resume as scheduled.
The Department of Public Safety (DPS) is encouraging everyone to continue to get tested and get vaccinated against COVID-19. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/hccc-cancels-inmate-visitation-this-weekend-due-to-active-covid-cases/article_99f92aac-ccb2-11ec-9502-77879f97918c.html | 2022-05-05T21:02:10Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
(KITV4) -- In Case You Missed It: Here are four stories from around Hawaii that you need to know about from Wednesday, May 4, 2022, along with today's weather.
Hundreds rescued in monster south shore swell on Oahu.
Hundreds of people were rescued over the last two days, as lifeguards expect to make many more in the largest swell in at least five years.
Tourists on a floatie told KITV4 today how they had decided to have fun in the breaking waves, but lifeguards raced to bring them them out of danger.
FBI: California murder suspect may be hiding out in Honolulu.
A murder suspect wanted in connection with a deadly shooting in California may be hiding out in Hawaii, FBI investigators said.
According to the FBI, 28-year-old Uatesoni Paasi has been seen in the Honolulu area as recently as April 2022. Paasi is accused of shooting and killing a man in San Jose, Calif. following an argument.
Moderate to breezy trade winds continue on Thursday with a mix of sunshine and clouds. High clouds spread across the state from east to west. Scattered windward and mauka showers may drift leeward at times. Highs 80 to 87. East winds 15-25 mph. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/icymi-4-stories-you-need-to-know-from-kitv4-may-4-2022/article_a127fdac-cc9f-11ec-8a0f-37509decf5f1.html | 2022-05-05T21:02:16Z |
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY FOR ALL SOUTH FACING SHORES...
.A large, early season, south swell will continue to generate
advisory-level surf for exposed south facing shores today, before
slowly easing into the weekend.
...HIGH SURF ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...Surf of 10 to 14 feet.
* WHERE...South facing shores of all islands.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Moderate. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break,
and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult
and dangerous. Some waves will break in exposed channels near
harbor entrances making navigation dangerous. Significant beach
erosion expected, with water sweeping across areas of the beach
that normally remain dry.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Beachgoers, swimmers, and surfers should heed all advice given by
ocean safety officials and exercise caution. Stay away from sea
walls and vulnerable coastal locations exposed to large breaking
waves.
&&
Weather Alert
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST THIS
EVENING...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 8 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Kauai Northwest Waters, Kauai Windward Waters, Kauai
Leeward Waters, Kauai Channel, Oahu Leeward Waters, Maui County
Leeward Waters, and Big Island Windward Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 PM HST this evening.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
FILE - White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre takes a question from a reporter during the press briefing at the White House in Washington, July 30, 2021. President Joe Biden on Thursday, May 5, 2022, named Karine Jean-Pierre to be the next White House press secretary, with incumbent Jen Psaki set to leave the role next week. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has named Karine Jean-Pierre to be the next White House press secretary, with incumbent Jen Psaki set to leave the role next week.
Biden is also bringing back longtime Democratic strategist Anita Dunn as his senior adviser. She had served in the Biden White House last year for several months after Biden was sworn-in to office.
Biden says Jean-Pierre “not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris administration.”
Jean-Pierre has served as Biden’s principal deputy press secretary since Inauguration Day. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/karine-jean-pierre-to-be-next-white-house-press-secretary/article_92547114-ccb0-11ec-99dc-affb2b659806.html | 2022-05-05T21:02:22Z |
Karine Jean-Pierre will become the new White House press secretary when Jen Psaki departs her role next week, President Joe Biden announced in a statement Thursday, becoming the first Black and out LGBTQ person to hold the position.
Jean-Pierre currently serves as the White House's principal deputy press secretary.
"Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people," Biden said in a statement, adding that "Jen Psaki has set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room."
Jean-Pierre will formally begin following Psaki's last day, which will be May 13. CNN reported in April that Psaki was planning on leaving her role for one at MSNBC.
Last May, Jean-Pierre became the second Black woman in history to hold the daily press briefing. She has served on the White House's senior communications team since Biden took office and before that was an adviser to his campaign and chief of staff to now-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jean-Pierre's family includes her partner, CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, and their daughter.
Jean-Pierre is familiar with her new role. She is often in the room when Psaki briefs reporters, has filled in for her for at the lectern and has also gaggled with reporters traveling with Biden on Air Force One. Recently, she replaced Psaki at the last minute for Biden's four-day trip to Europe amid the Russian invasion after Psaki tested positive for Covid-19 the day before Biden was scheduled to leave.
Psaki's departure is unsurprising, given she had been public about her plan to leave after one year on the job. Several names had been under consideration to replace her, including Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, who has become a visible face of the administration in briefings and on cable television since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Psaki on Twitter said she was "grateful" to Biden and first lady Jill Biden, and described Jean-Pierre as a "remarkable woman."
"Representation matters and she will give a voice to many, but also make many dream big about what is truly possible," Psaki wrote.
Psaki added, "I can't wait to see her shine as she brings her own style, brilliance and grace to the podium."
The staffing shakeup in the press office comes as the White House is making several other personnel moves in preparation for a potential Republican takeover on Capitol Hill in the midterm elections. One of Biden's closest advisers, Anita Dunn, will return to the West Wing as a senior adviser, as his team also shores up the White House counsel's office, given Republicans have promised to launch a slew of investigations if they retake the majority.
This story has been updated with additional developments on Thursday.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/karine-jean-pierre-to-become-white-house-press-secretary-the-first-black-and-out-lgbtq/article_b8b73c18-2e8b-5d34-b11d-052692c96306.html | 2022-05-05T21:02:28Z |
83-year-old abortion doctor says he’s focused on patients and his purpose
DENVER (KUSA) – Many eyes are on the Supreme Court after news broke that it could strike down Roe v. Wade, which would overturn the federal constitutional right to an abortion.
Dr. Warren Hern said he’s focused on his patients and his purpose. He worked at Colorado’s first abortion clinic in 1973 and continues to practice nearly 50 years later.
Despite threats made by those opposing abortions, Hern has continued in his profession and has shared many stories about his life calling.
“This is my work. This is what I do,” Hern said, adding he’s had stones thrown at him at the clinic.
He said he remembers threats made towards his clinic in Boulder, Colorado, in the 1980s and the five bullets fired through the front door.
Hern said he kept coming back so he could help his patients.
Before Roe v. Wade, he thought too many women were dying because of unsafe, illegal abortions, which is why he started his practice.
“I started performing abortions the safest way I could,” Hern explained.
He’s worried history will repeat itself and more women will die trying to get illegal abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
“I have always found this is an extremely important service, and there’s never been a time when it’s less important,” Hern said.
His clinic is a refuge for women who are seeking a procedure that may be banned in other states.
At 83 years old, Hern feels called to help more people.
“This is a major component and essential component of women’s healthcare. And it’s being threatened now,” Hern said.
The Supreme Court’s final opinion on Roe v. Wade hasn’t been formally released, and votes, along with language, can change before then.
Copyright 2022 KUSA via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/83-year-old-abortion-doctor-says-hes-focused-patients-his-purpose/ | 2022-05-05T21:07:45Z |
Students at Emory University told to shelter in place
ATLANTA (AP) — Emory University urged people on its main campus to shelter in place for several hours Thursday after a nearby high school was placed on lockdown “due to a report of an unsafe situation.”
The guidance followed some confusion about a potential threat on the school’s main campus in Atlanta. The university tweeted around 11:40 a.m. that an active shooter had been reported on the campus and that police were responding.
The university later deleted that tweet and sent out another shortly after noon saying that police were on the scene at nearby Druid Hills High School. The tweet said there was a “possible armed subject” but no active shooter on the Emory campus.
Throughout the early afternoon, the university periodically put out tweets advising people on campus to continue to shelter in place. The all-clear notification was finally issued around 2:20 p.m.
The incident comes just ahead of graduation weekend at the private university, which consistently ranks among the top schools of higher education in the Southeast. The main commencement ceremony, including a speech by entertainment mogul Tyler Perry, is Monday.
DeKalb County school system spokesman Donald Porter said in an email that the school was placed on lockdown around 10:40 a.m. “out of an abundance of caution due to a report of an unsafe situation.” He added that the lockdown “did not result from an active situation.”
School system and county police were onsite throughout the lockdown, which was lifted at around 12:10 p.m., Porter said. The investigation that led to the lockdown continues, he said.
Maia Higgins, 16, said that when the school went into lockdown she and other students had to stay in their classrooms. Principal Mark Joyner announced over the public address system that it was a “level 2″ lockdown, which Higgins took to mean there was some type of threat but no active shooter.
Higgins said a photo of a student with a handgun had circulated on social media. It was not known whether the photo was connected to the lockdown.
According to the local news blog Decaturish, Joyner also sent a notification to parents about the situation.
“We are currently under a Level 2 lockdown due to a report that an unauthorized individual was seen on campus,” Joyner wrote. “DeKalb Schools Public Safety Department is assisting to ensure that all individuals on campus are authorized to be here. All students and staff are safe at this time.”
For more than two hours after the lockdown at the high school was lifted, Emory continued to tell its students on the main campus to shelter in place, sending out repeated tweets to that effect into the afternoon.
Adam North, a graduate student at Emory’s law school, was among the students sheltering in place on the university campus Thursday afternoon. He said students had been receiving mixed messages about the situation, causing some confusion. Official communications were coming in from automated emails, text message alerts and Emory’s online learning portal, but individual professors and attorneys at the law school had been given differing information.
“Those messages haven’t really aligned with the Emory notifications,” North said in a text message from the law library, where he had been sheltering for about two hours.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/active-shooter-reported-emory-university/ | 2022-05-05T21:07:53Z |
Airbnb to crack down on parties following deaths of 2 teens
(CNN) - Airbnb is cracking down on parties.
The company announced Wednesday that it is putting strict new rules in place to limit unauthorized parties at rental properties over summer holidays, including Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekends.
Airbnb said users without a history of positive reviews will not be allowed to book a property for one night only.
Users will also have to confirm they understand Airbnb can take legal action against them if they break the rules.
The new rules come after two teenagers were killed in a shooting at a large party held last month at an Airbnb property in Pittsburgh. Eight others were injured. Police said more than 200 people were at the party – many of them minors – which violated Airbnb’s policy of limiting gatherings to 16 people.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/airbnb-crack-down-parties-following-deaths-2-teens/ | 2022-05-05T21:07:59Z |
Audio: McCarthy slams Trump after Jan. 6, expresses concern about transition
(CNN) - House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy railed against former President Donald Trump in a phone call two days after the Jan. 6 insurrection, calling Trump’s role “atrocious.”
In newly released details of that call, McCarthy is heard opposing using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office because it would take too long.
The audio reveals McCarthy wanted to reach out to then President-elect Joe Biden in the days after Jan. 6, in hopes of creating a smooth transition into the White House.
“What the president did is atrocious and totally wrong. I do think the impeachment divides the nation further,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said. “It continues to fight is greater, um, that’s why I want to reach out to Biden. I wanted the president to meet with Biden. If that’s not going to happen, I want to see about us meeting with Biden, sitting down, make a smooth transition to show that and continue to keep those statements going. Um, so hopefully I know he’s got to talk to Pelosi that he is going to. Hopefully he calls me today.”
During that call, McCarthy also appeared so concerned about Trump’s role in the Capitol attack that he wanted a faster way to get the former president out of office than invoking the 25th Amendment.
Invoking the 25th Amendment would have required then-Vice President Mike Pence and a majority of the cabinet to vote to remove Trump from office due to his inability to “discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
CNN has reached out to McCarthy office to request comment on the newly revealed audio.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/audio-mccarthy-slams-trump-after-jan-6-expresses-concern-about-transition/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:07Z |
Augusta County Sheriff’s Office makes arrest after low-speed pursuit
AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office said on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at 7:05 p.m., a deputy stopped a white 2018 Kia for a traffic infraction on Interstate 81 South.
After making contact with the lone occupant of the vehicle, 37-year-old Susan Martin Lam of Nelson County, the deputy returned to his car to run Lam’s information. A records check on Lam revealed that she was wanted for failure to appear in Waynesboro Court.
While the deputy was running her information, Lam reportedly fled the scene. Authorities said she exited the interstate into the City of Staunton on Richmond Road, at low speeds. As the pursuit entered Staunton City, Staunton Police Department was notified.
The deputy followed Lam, who refused to stop and continued to drive through the city at normal speeds. As Lam re-entered Augusta County on Barterbrook Road, multiple deputies engaged in the pursuit, and Lam still refused to stop.
Spike strips were successfully deployed near the intersection of Barterbrook Road and Tinkling Springs Road, however, Lam reportedly continued to travel towards Stuarts Draft at 35-40 miles per hour. At this point, Augusta County deputies were joined by troopers with the Virginia State Police.
The pursuit entered Stuarts Draft, and authorities say Lam turned into a shopping center at 2627 Stuarts Draft Highway, where she stopped her car and was taken into custody without incident.
In addition to her warrant for failure to appear, Lam was charged with 2 counts of possession of controlled substances, 2 counts of eluding, 2 counts of obstruction of justice, and numerous traffic offenses.
“Fleeing from law enforcement is extremely dangerous to the community, the suspect, and to law enforcement,” said Sheriff Donald L. Smith. “Regardless of the circumstances, it is in everyone’s best interest not to elude from the deputies.”
“Because of the inherent dangerousness involved in vehicle pursuits, it is the policy of my office to seek significant additional jail time for anyone who chooses to attempt to elude law enforcement,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Tim Martin. “It is better for everyone to pull over and not compound the situation by fleeing.”
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/augusta-county-sheriffs-office-makes-arrest-after-low-speed-pursuit/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:17Z |
Biden administration to crack down on polluters in poor, minority areas
WASHINGTON (AP) — Following through on a campaign promise, the Biden administration on Thursday announced a wide-ranging enforcement strategy aimed at holding industrial polluters accountable for damage done to poor and minority communities.
The strategy includes the creation of an Office of Environmental Justice within the Justice Department to focus on “fenceline communities” that have been exposed to air and water pollution from chemical plants, refineries and other industrial sites.
The plan also reinstates a dormant program that allowed fines paid by industry as part of a settlement to go to river cleanup, health clinics or other programs that benefit the environment or public health. The program was used by presidents from both parties before being eliminated in the Trump administration.
“Although violations of our environmental laws can happen anywhere, communities of color, indigenous communities and low-income communities often bear the brunt of the harm caused by environmental crime, pollution and climate change,’’ Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference.
“And for far too long, these communities have faced barriers to accessing the justice they deserve,’’ he said.
“No American should have to live, work or send their kids to school in a neighborhood that carries an unfair share of environmental hazards,’’ added Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
President Joe Biden had promised during the 2020 campaign that he would establish an environmental justice division within the Justice Department and elevate environmental justice issues in an all-of-government approach.
In a related development, the White House announced Thursday that advocate Jalonne White-Newsome will lead environmental justice efforts at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. White-Newsome succeeds Cecilia Martinez, who stepped down in January.
White-Newsome, of Michigan, is founder and CEO of Empowering a Green Environment and Economy, a consulting firm focused on climate change, public health and environmental and racial equity.
CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory called White-Newsome “a strong and effective champion for communities that have been overburdened by pollution and subjected to decades of environmental injustice.’’
On enforcement, the strategy unveiled Thursday is intended to guide the work of employees throughout the Justice Department, including U.S. attorneys across the country who will begin a renewed focus on environmental justice issues, Garland and Gupta said.
The new office “will prioritize meaningful and constructive engagement with the communities most affected by environmental crime and injustice,’’ Garland said. “Whenever possible, these efforts will respond directly to community needs and concerns.’’
Environmental Protection Agency head Michael Regan said the “partnership” between his agency and the Justice Department “has never been stronger” and will ensure that the federal government does all it can “to protect overburdened and underserved communities across America.’’
The strategy follows a series of enforcement actions announced by Regan in January to address air pollution, unsafe drinking water and other problems afflicting minority communities in three Gulf Coast states that Regan toured in November.
The plan includes unannounced inspections of chemical plants, refineries and other industrial sites and installation of air monitoring equipment in Louisiana’s “chemical corridor” to enhance enforcement at a series of chemical and plastics plants between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The region contains several hotspots where cancer risks are far above national levels.
EPA also issued a notice to the city of Jackson, Mississippi, saying its aging and overwhelmed drinking water system violates the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The agency also said it was moving forward on clean up creosote contamination from a site in Houston now owned by Union Pacific Railroad. The site has been linked to high cancer rates in the historically Black neighborhood in the city’s Fifth Ward.
Regan has made environmental justice a priority since taking the helm at EPA in March 2021. The weeklong “Journey to Justice” tour in November was intended to highlight areas in the American South that have long been marginalized and overburdened by pollution.
Biden requested $1.4 million for the environmental justice office in his budget proposal. Cynthia Ferguson, an attorney in the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, will serve as acting director. The office will support environmental justice investigations and litigation and work with communities across the country, the Justice Department said.
A rule being published in the Federal Register will restore the department’s ability to use Supplemental Environmental Projects, or SEPs, as part of settlements with industrial polluters. The projects are intended to bring environmental and public health benefits to communities directly affected by the underlying violations.
A 2007 settlement with Texas-based energy company Valero included a $4.25 million penalty and $232 million in pollution controls at refineries in Tennessee, Ohio and Texas. The company was required to spend at least $1 million to enhance efforts by a health center in Port Arthur, Texas, to diagnosis and treat asthma and other respiratory problems.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/biden-administration-crack-down-polluters-poor-minority-areas/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:23Z |
Bird flu takes unheard-of toll on bald eagles, other birds
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bird flu is killing an alarming number of bald eagles and other wild birds, with many sick birds arriving at rehabilitation centers unsteady on their talons and unable to fly.
“It’s quite a sight to see an eagle with a six-foot wingspan having uncontrollable seizures because of highly pathogenic avian influenza,” said Victoria Hall, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center. “At that point, they’re so far into the disease there’s no treatment options left.”
The latest outbreak of the highly contagious virus has led to the culling of about 37 million chickens and turkeys in U.S. farms since February, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed 956 cases of bird flu in wild birds, including at least 54 bald eagles. But the actual number is likely significantly higher because not every wild bird that dies is tested and the federal tally doesn’t include cases recorded by wildlife rehabilitation centers.
The latest reported toll is nearly 10 times higher than the 99 confirmed cases in wild birds during the last bird flu outbreak in 2015. This time, the virus has been detected in birds in 34 states, indicating it is far more widespread than seven years ago.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center also collects data from wildlife officials on suspected and confirmed bird flu deaths. It lists 8,536 recent wild bird deaths from avian influenza.
“This is definitely an unprecedented event,” said researcher Rebecca Poulson, who has been studying avian influenza for 15 years at the University of Georgia’s Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. “The number of birds and species and states already in which it has been detected is pretty alarming.”
Water fowl including ducks and geese, which typically carry the virus, and the raptors and scavengers that feed on them are the most commonly sickened birds, but cases have been confirmed in more than three dozen species. Ducks and geese are usually able to live with the virus without getting sick, but the latest variant is proving more contagious and more deadly.
“We are seeing a tremendous impact from this virus,” said Hall, whose Raptor Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, treats roughly 1,000 birds a year. “We are seeing birds coming in suffering from this virus every single day.”
Nearly 61% of the 188 birds the rehabilitation center has tested since late March have had bird flu and all but one of those died. Hall said the center had to set up an area where workers wearing protective gear test sick and injured birds for avian influenza and quarantine them before bringing them into the center, to avoid infecting other birds.
None of the 114 positive cases the center has recorded, including 28 bald eagles, are included in the USDA count, Hall said. She said a great horned owl recovered from the virus, giving her hope that some wild birds may be able to fight it off.
USDA officials haven’t responded to questions about why they are excluding the data from rehabilitation centers.
Scientists estimated in a study published three years ago that the number of wild birds in North America had fallen by nearly 3 billion since 1970 as humans continue to encroach on their habitat. But it’s too soon to know what impact the bird flu will have on bird populations because the outbreak is ongoing and there hasn’t been enough time to study it, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service veterinarian Samantha Gibbs, and other experts.
“We’re quite concerned. I think that we’re going to be watching very carefully what the mortality rates are throughout the spring and summer,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs and Poulson said they fear the virus could survive the summer, when it usually dies off, leading to fall infections when migratory birds return south. That happened in Europe, where the virus is circulating first.
Bald eagles — the U.S. national symbol since the 1700s — are among America’s most celebrated conservation success stories. With an estimated 300,000 bald eagles in the country today — a population that quadrupled between 2009 and 2021 — the bird was removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2007. Given that, experts believe the species should weather the impact of this virus.
State and federal officials will track the success of nesting eagles this spring and summer to gauge the impact of the virus.
In Georgia, where three bald eagles that died tested positive for bird flu, the state Department of Natural Resources has documented a sharp drop in bald eagle reproduction this year in six coastal counties where many migratory birds spend the winter. Fewer than half of the 73 nests found there produced offspring, while nests elsewhere in the state had a success rate close to the average of 78% recorded in recent years.
Some experts, including Hall, suggest that residential bird feeders should be removed to avoid further spread of the virus, but the USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service haven’t recommended that because bird flu isn’t common among the songbirds that frequent backyards. Still, they say it’s important to regularly clean bird feeders to help limit the spread of other diseases.
“Wild birds could use all the help they can get right now,” Hall said.
When the virus is found on poultry farms, officials slaughter entire flocks to curb the spread, even when most birds have no symptoms. So far, 37.36 million birds have been killed in 32 states.
USDA officials stress that bird flu doesn’t jeopardize food safety because infected birds aren’t allowed to enter the food supply, and properly cooking poultry and eggs to 165 degrees Fahrenheit will kill any viruses or bacteria.
Health officials also say bird flu doesn’t represent a significant health risk to people, even though one human case of the disease was confirmed in Colorado last month. Officials say people are unlikely to catch the virus unless they have prolonged direct exposure to infected birds.
___
Associated Press writers Carrie Antlfinger in Milwaukee and Doug Glass in Minneapolis contributed to this story.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/bird-flu-takes-unheard-of-toll-bald-eagles-other-birds/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:29Z |
Car hangs by bumpers after parking deck collapses onto underground garage
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) – The top level of an apartment complex parking deck in Cleveland collapsed onto the underground level of the garage just before midnight Tuesday, according to investigators.
A large portion of the parking deck could be seen resting on top of a car in a video shared by the Parma Fire Department.
According to WOIO, conditions made it difficult for firefighters to search for victims as busted water lines sprayed throughout the underground garage.
Authorities said no one was hurt during the collapse, and all residents and firefighters were accounted for.
“We were very fortunate that this incident did not result in any loss of life or injury,” Parma Fire Chief Michael Lasky said. “One of the residents whose vehicle was impacted had only recently returned to his residence where seconds later the parking deck collapsed.”
Nicholas Shultz was getting ready for bed when he heard noises outside that he could not place. Just as he went outside to investigate, the ground gave way.
“It was just shock and awe,” Schultz said.
His car was parked right where the ground gave out and was hanging, precariously, by its bumpers over the garage below.
Multiple callers to 911 worried that there were people in the garage or that the ground was unstable and that there was the potential for a further collapse or that the high rise was structurally damaged.
Firefighters said, however, the apartment complex itself was in no danger of collapsing, and engineers are working to ensure any additional collapse does not occur at the garage.
Copyright 2022 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/car-hangs-by-bumpers-after-parking-deck-collapses-onto-underground-garage/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:36Z |
CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Trooper uses car as barrier to stop suspected drunken driver
WAKE COUNTY, N.C. (WTVD) - Newly released police video shows a North Carolina trooper using his car as a barrier to stop a suspected drunken driver.
“Once I saw the vehicle, I just decided to stop the chase right there,” North Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper Cody Thao said.
Thao prevented the driver from doing any more damage as they drove the wrong way on the interstate in the early morning hours of April 9.
He said he didn’t think about how he could be seriously injured until afterward.
“I realize after the fact yes, but this is what we signed up to do, this is what we agreed to do,” Thao said.
After the video was released, Thao’s heroic actions are earning him praise even though he deflected.
“All the credit goes out to the other troopers who inspire me on a daily basis especially here in Wake county.”
Thao was working on April 8 when deputies in Johnston County chasing a car reported to nearby authorities what was happening.
Thao heard the whole thing on the radio and knew where they were going.
When he saw the blue lights after he got off the exit, he knew he only had a second to think about what to do.
“It could’ve turned into exactly the same type of collision that happened a little further east,” Thao said, referring to a similar crash that ended in three deaths.
That crash was also caused by a suspected drunken driver who had entered the highway going the wrong way, according to troopers.
Thao praised his training as the reason for his quick actions.
He hasn’t even been on the job for a year
“Before that, I actually worked at a Tractor Supply,” he said. “I don’t have any prior experience with law enforcement. I’ve always had a servant’s heart and I’ve always wanted to help people.”
The suspect, identified as 26-year-old Joshua Ray Bibey, is now facing DWI charges.
Copyright 2022 WTVD via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/caught-camera-trooper-uses-car-barrier-stop-suspected-drunken-driver/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:44Z |
Cause of death undetermined for “shopping cart killer” victims, medical examiner says
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - The Medical Examiner’s Office in Roanoke reported the cause of death of both Tonita Smith of Charlottesville and Elizabeth Redmon of Harrisonburg is homicidal violence of undetermined etiology and the manner of death is homicide.
35-year-old Anthony Robinson, named the “shopping cart killer” by law enforcement, was charged with killing Smith and Redmon. Police say the bodies of both women were discovered within a short distance of each other off of Linda Lane.
Investigators believe he is connected to the death of two other women as well.
Robinson is currently being held in Rockingham-Harrisonburg Regional Jail on account of four charges: two charges of murder and two counts of felony disposal of human remains. His court date was moved from May 9 to September.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/cause-death-undetermined-shopping-cart-killer-victims-medical-examiner-says/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:51Z |
Child critically injured after shooting himself in head with gun, police say
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 4:25 PM EDT|Updated: 43 minutes ago
ST. LOUIS (KMOV/Gray News) - Police in St. Louis are investigating a critical shooting that involved a child Wednesday afternoon.
KMOV reports a 3-year-old found a gun from a mattress and shot himself in the head while at a residence north of downtown, according to authorities.
Police said the child was taken to a local hospital and was listed in critical condition.
A 22-year-old man was later arrested in connection with the incident, and police said the child abuse unit was also investigating.
Copyright 2022 KMOV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/child-critically-injured-after-shooting-himself-head-with-gun-police-say/ | 2022-05-05T21:08:57Z |
More clouds Thursday, rain for Friday and Saturday
FIRST ALERT WEATHER DAY Friday and Saturday
THURSDAY: More clouds than sun as we head into the afternoon as temperatures climb into the low to mid 70s for highs.
A mild evening with temperatures falling into the 60s as plenty of clouds arrive for the night. A spotty shower after midnight but our next system may bring us a steadier rain to start as early as the overnight hours, or as late as early Friday morning. Pleasant overnight with lows in the low to mid 50s.
A FIRST ALERT WEATHER DAY FOR FRIDAY AND SATURDAY due to rain and the potential for localized flooding especially Friday night into Saturday along with a few strong to severe storms possible Friday evening.
FRIDAY: Cloudy to start the day with the first batch of scattered showers arriving for the morning. Temperatures rising into the 60s. Rain will be steady at times during the morning hours, and begin to taper some by around noon. There may be a few showers during the early afternoon, otherwise we will see a brief lull in activity. Breezy for the afternoon. Highs in the mid to upper 60s.
The second round of rain arrives after 2/3pm on Friday, likely including some storms. A warm front will lift into our area. If it happens sooner, better chance for a few strong to severe storms. If it happens later, there will be limited storm activity. If we were to see some strong to severe storms, damaging winds and hail would be the main threat. Severe storms will be more likely to the south of us.
Continuing to see scattered showers for Friday night as temperatures will start out in the 60s. Patchy fog overnight. Lows in the low 50s. Rainfall between Friday and Saturday 1-2″, with higher amounts in any thunderstorm.
SATURDAY: Cooler to start the day with temperatures in the 50s. Scattered showers on and off for the day. Areas of drizzle also. Cloudy and cool. Highs only in the mid to upper 50s. Breezy at times in the afternoon.
Showers start to taper off into the evening with temperatures into the 50s. Plenty of clouds will still be around during the overnight, along with patchy fog. Chilly overnight with lows in the low to mid 40s.
SUNDAY (Mother’s Day): A pleasantly cool start with temperatures rising into the 50s and more clouds than sun. Plenty of clouds for the day with peeks of sunshine, especially in the afternoon. Feeling cool but pleasant with highs in the mid to upper 50s. A pleasant evening with temperatures in the 50s and chilly overnight with lows in the low to mid 40s.
MONDAY: A chilly start with temperatures in the 40s but plenty of sunshine. Mainly sunny for the day and mild with highs in the mid to upper 60s. A comfortable evening in the 60s and chilly overnight with lows in the low to mid 40s.
TUESDAY: Another chilly start with temperatures rising into the 50s and sunshine. Warm for the day and mainly sunny with highs in the upper 60s to low 70s. A comfortable evening with temperatures in the 60s and pleasant overnight with lows in the low to mid 50s.
WEDNESDAY: A mix of sun and clouds to start the day and pleasant with temperatures quickly warming into the 60s. A beautiful day with high temperatures in the low to mid 70s with some clouds.
As always, you can get the latest updates by downloading and checking the WHSV Weather App.
**A reminder that spring wildfire season is still going on in West Virginia. No outdoor burning in West Virginia before 5pm through May 31.**
Copyright 2021 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/cooler-day-thursday-rain-friday-saturday/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:04Z |
Couple from Singers Glen delivers their third set of twins, ‘extremely grateful’ this Mother’s Day
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Twins occur naturally in about one in 250 pregnancies, and with in vitro fertilization treatment, chances increase. That’s according to reproductivefacts.org.
But what about having three sets of twins? A couple from Singers Glen, who are now parents of six, are very grateful for this Mother’s Day.
For Eric and Ashton Rawley though, starting a family had its challenges at first.
“We actually struggled with infertility and went through the IVF process to get pregnant with our first set of twins. And then the second pregnancy we put in one embryo and it split into identical twins, and then this third pregnancy was a complete spontaneous surprise pregnancy that we were not expecting,” Ashton Rawley said.
But the couple had a feeling.
“Honestly we were kind of expecting it, because she had kind of a rough pregnancy and we just knew for some reason,” Eric Rawley said.
5-year-old older sisters Amelia and Eloise, and 2-and-a-half-year-old older brothers Owen and Wyatt, were very excited to have more little feet in the house.
“We love holding the babies and we get to feed them too,” Amelia and Eloise said.
So this Mother’s Day for the Rawleys is one to remember.
“It used to be a really difficult day going through infertility and now I mean we’re so grateful that we have six kids that are happy and healthy at home because it was all we dreamed about for a long time,” Ashton Rawley said.
Newborn girls Rose and Violet spent three weeks at Roanoke Memorial Hospital after they were born on March 16 at Sentara RMH.
They say without the support from both family and complete strangers, their journey wouldn’t have gone as smoothly. To learn more about the Rawleys, click here.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/couple-singers-glen-delivers-their-third-set-twins-extremely-grateful-this-mothers-day/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:11Z |
COVID coverage for all dries up even as hospital costs rise
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, the U.S. came close to providing health care for all during the coronavirus pandemic — but for just one condition, COVID-19.
Now, things are reverting to the way they were as federal money for COVID care of the uninsured dries up, creating a potential barrier to timely access.
But the virus is not contained, even if it’s better controlled. And safety-net hospitals and clinics are seeing sharply higher costs for salaries and other basic operating expenses. They fear they won’t be prepared if there’s another surge and no backstop.
“We haven’t turned anybody away yet,” said Dr. Mark Loafman, chair of family and community medicine at Cook County Health in Chicago. “But I think it’s just a matter of time ... People don’t get cancer treatment or blood pressure treatment every day in America because they can’t afford it.”
A $20 billion government COVID program covered testing, treatment and vaccine costs for uninsured people. But that’s been shut down. Special Medicaid COVID coverage for the uninsured in more than a dozen states also likely faces its last months.
At Parkland Health, the frontline hospital system for Dallas, Dr. Fred Cerise questions the logic of dialing back federal dollars at a time when health officials have rolled out a new “test-to-treat” strategy. People with COVID-19 can now get antiviral pills to take at home, hopefully avoiding hospitalization. Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently tested positive but is back working at the White House, is an example.
“Test-to-treat will be very difficult for uninsured individuals,” predicted Cerise, president and CEO of the system. “If it’s a change in strategy on the large scale, and it’s coming without funding. People are going to be reluctant to adopt that.”
Officials at the federal Department of Health and Human Services say the new antiviral drugs like Paxlovid have been paid for by taxpayers, and are supposed to be free of charge to patients, even uninsured ones.
But they acknowledge that some uninsured people can’t afford the medical consultation needed to get a prescription. “We hear from state and local partners that the lack of funding for the Uninsured Program is creating challenges for individuals to access medications,” said Dr. Meg Sullivan, chief medical officer for the HHS preparedness and response division.
The nation has not pinched pennies on the pandemic before.
“We’re well short of universal health coverage in the U.S., but for a time, we had universal coverage for COVID,” said Larry Levitt, a health policy expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “It was extraordinary.”
Recently an urgent White House request for $22.5 billion for COVID priorities failed to advance in Congress. Even a pared-back version is stuck. Part of the Biden administration’s request involves $1.5 billion to replenish the Uninsured Program, which paid for testing, treatment and vaccine-related bills for uninsured patients. The program has now stopped accepting claims due to lack of money.
That program, along with a less known Medicaid option for states, allowed thousands of uninsured people to get care without worrying about costs. Bipartisan support has given way as congressional Republicans raise questions about pandemic spending.
The Uninsured Program was run by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an HHS agency. Medical providers seeing uninsured people could submit their bills for reimbursement. Over the last two years, more than 50,000 hospitals, clinics, and medical practices received payments. Officials say they can turn the program back on if Congress releases more money.
The Medicaid coverage option began under the Trump administration as a way to help states pay for testing uninsured people. President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief bill expanded it to treatment and vaccine costs as well. It’s like a limited insurance policy for COVID. The coverage can’t be used for other services, like a knee replacement. The federal government pays 100% of the cost.
Fifteen states, from deep blue California to bright red South Carolina, have taken advantage of the option, along with three U.S. territories. It will end once the federal coronavirus public health emergency is over, currently forecast for later this year.
New Hampshire Medicaid Director Henry Lipman said the coverage option allowed his state to sign up about 9,500 people for COVID care that includes the new antiviral drugs that can be taken at home.
“It’s really the safety net for people who don’t have any access to insurance,” said Lipman. “It’s a limited situation, but in the pandemic it’s a good back-up to have. It makes a lot of sense with such a communicable disease.”
With COVID cases now at relatively low levels, demand for testing, treatment and vaccination is down. But the urgency felt by hospitals and other medical service providers is driven by their own bottom lines.
In Missouri, Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare CEO Craig Thompson is worried to see federal funding evaporate just as operating costs are soaring. Staff have gotten raises, drug costs have risen by 20% and supply costs by 12%.
“We’ve now exited this pandemic ... into probably the highest inflationary environment that I’ve seen in my career,” Thompson said. The health system serves a largely rural area between Kansas City and Springfield.
In Kentucky, Family Health Centers of Louisville closed a testing service for uninsured people once federal funds dried up. The private company they were working with planned to charge $65 a test.
Things are manageable now because there’s little demand, said spokeswoman Melissa Mather, “but if we get hit with another omicron, it’s going to be very difficult.”
Floridian Debra McCoskey-Reisert is uninsured and lost her older brother to COVID-19 in the first wave two years ago. In one of their last conversations, he made her promise she wouldn’t catch the virus.
McCoskey-Reisert, who lives north of Tampa, has managed to avoid getting sick so far. But she’s overshadowed by fear of what could happen if she or her husband get infected.
“If either one of us get sick with COVID, we don’t have a way to pay for it,” she said. “It would likely bankrupt us if we can’t find some other help.”
Retrenchment on the uninsured mirrors some of the bigger problems of the U.S. health care system, said Chicago hospital physician Loafman.
“Quite frankly, we as a society take care of the uninsured for COVID because it’s affecting us,” he said. “You know, a gated community doesn’t keep a virus out ... that’s sort of the ugly truth of this, is that our altruism around this was really self-motivated.”
___
Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/covid-coverage-all-dries-up-even-hospital-costs-rise/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:17Z |
Deputy on beach patrol runs over woman lying in sand, sheriff’s office says
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 12:12 PM EDT|Updated: 4 hours ago
ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. (Gray News) – A deputy on beach patrol ran over a woman who was lying out on a Florida beach Wednesday afternoon, according to the sheriff’s department.
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said Deputy Todd Brien, who has been with the department for eight years, struck a 23-year-old beachgoer with his patrol vehicle in St. Pete Beach while she was lying on her back in the sand.
According to investigators, the front driver-side tire of Brien’s Chevy Tahoe drove over the victim’s right side and mid-to-upper back area.
The victim was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
No one else was injured, and officials are continuing to investigate.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/deputy-beach-patrol-runs-over-woman-lying-sand-sheriffs-office-says/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:25Z |
EMU Theater launches summer musical theater program for students grades 4-12
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Eastern Mennonite University Theater is launching a summer musical theater program for rising 4th through 12th graders.
“There’s a lot of really wonderful theater that happens in local middle schools and high schools. Giving students the opportunity to further their theater education is something that we figured would be a really valuable opportunity,” Joseph Seitz, a student counselor for the program, explained.
For those in grades 4-8, the focus will be on several performances.
“For the junior program, they will have a musical revue, a collaboration of different songs at the end of the three-week program that they will perform for the community and then for the senior program, they will put on a full-length musical at the end of the three weeks,” Anna Hoover, another student counselor for the program explained.
The senior program (9-12) will focus on performance and technical theater with a major production of Mamma Mia! on the main stage. This program requires an audition.
Students help out with the creation of costumes, sets and other props for the shows.
“When you look at middle school and high school programs they don’t always operate as a professional theater. Doing summer theater programs gives you a better view of what professional theater looks like,” Hoover added.
For the junior program, the cost is $1,000 and the cost for the senior program is $1,200. Poole says there will be a limited number of need-based scholarships offered.
Program leaders will also accept donations from the community and you can reach out to summermusical@emu.edu with any questions. For more information on the program, click here.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/emu-theater-launches-summer-musical-theater-program-students-grades-4-12/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:31Z |
Fraternity chapter president pleads no contest in VCU hazing death, avoids jail time
RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - One of the 11 men charged in the 2021 hazing death of VCU freshman Adam Oakes pleaded no contest on Thursday morning, but will avoid any additional time behind bars.
Jason Mulgrew had 12 months of jail time suspended and will have to complete a period of supervised probation.
He also has to have restorative justice conferencing with the Oakes family, one year of good behavior, 150 hours of community service, and hazing presentations with the Love Like Adam Foundation.
According to court records, Mulgrew was the chapter president of Delta Chi.
Oakes died of alcohol poisoning following an off-campus fraternity party.
According to prosecutors, Oakes and two other underground pledges were driven to a house on West Clay Street with “their heads down.”
At this location, prosecutors say Oakes was given a Solo cup with the fraternity’s “family drink,” which witnesses described as “unusually strong.” Prosecutors said Oakes was told to chug this and drink a handle of Jack Daniels with White.
Prosecutors said Oakes’ blood-alcohol content was .42%, which is five times the legal driving limit in Virginia.
Copyright 2022 WWBT. All rights reserved.
Want NBC12’s top stories in your inbox each morning? Subscribe here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/fraternity-chapter-president-pleads-no-contest-vcu-hazing-death-avoids-jail-time/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:37Z |
Harrisonburg Vice Mayor Sal Romero not seeking reelection
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - The Friendly City’s Vice Mayor Sal Romero has announced he will not run for reelection next year. He has been in the position since 2018.
He wrote the following message:
“Greetings members of our Harrisonburg community. It’s with great appreciation for the City of Harrisonburg and this amazing community that I’m writing to announce my recent decision not to seek reelection for Harrisonburg City Council after my current term ends this December, 2022. This decision has not been easy, as I have reflected on how best to balance my responsibilities to my city, my family, my work with Harrisonburg City Schools and my professional goals.
Family is certainly at the top of this list, and I realize that I have to make some changes to be more present as we continue to raise our children and provide them with the family experience that is so fundamental to my wife and I and to our culture. Being elected the first Hispanic city council member in Harrisonburg has been one of the most honored experiences of my life and having the opportunity to work with and learn from my fellow councilmen and women, as well as other amazing leaders in our city, has allowed me to gain knowledge, more awareness of how diversity makes us stronger, and an understanding of how leaders must work collaboratively toward the greater good as we seek to make decisions during a critical time in our city’s growth. Some of the work that I’m proud to have accomplished in my term includes:
- Supporting the building of our new high school which will create space for our student community to thrive
- Establishing a permanent funded program for interpretation services for City Council and Planning Commission meetings
- Working on the language access plan, now in its final draft, that will review existing support services for limited English proficient residents accessing City of Harrisonburg services and propose new policies and procedures to enhance these supports.
- Collaborating with the Human Resources Department to develop numerous action items to implement Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Belonging programs and strategies for Harrisonburg’s workforce.
- Working with fellow council members to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to support the acquisition of land for use as a permanent year-round low-barrier homeless shelter.
In conclusion, I want to thank everyone who showed their support for my candidacy and elected me. You gave me the opportunity to open a door for representation from the Latinx community and that door is open now to invite more of you to serve. Thank you.”
Romero’s term ends December 2022.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/harrisonburg-vice-mayor-sal-romero-not-seeking-reelection/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:46Z |
Heard takes stand, accuses Depp of violent sexual assault
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Actor Amber Heard tearfully told jurors Thursday that Johnny Depp sexually assaulted her with a liquor bottle in an alcohol-fueled rage.
The March 2015 incident in Australia, where Depp was filming the fifth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, is sharply disputed and has been a focal point of the four-week civil trial in Fairfax, Virginia.
The night ended with the tip of Depp’s middle finger cut off, and him writing vulgar messages in blood on the walls of the house. Depp denies assaulting her in any way and says his finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him; Heard said she’d taken sleeping pills after she was attacked and was not awake when the finger was severed.
The graphic description of the sexual assault left Heard fighting for her composure as she described it to jurors. She said Depp had been angry as soon as she arrived in Australia, roughly a month after the couple had married in February 2015.
He was accusing her of sleeping with co-stars in her movies, including Billy Bob Thornton and Eddie Redmayne, with whom she’d just shot the film “The Danish Girl” — accusations she denied.
GRAPHIC WARNING: Videos in this story may include graphic content.
The fight escalated to the point where he threw her into a ping-pong table, breaking it, Heard testified. He ripped off her nightgown, and Heard said she was naked and exposed as she was assaulted.
“I couldn’t get up. I thought he was punching me,” she said. “I could just feel this pressure on my pubic bone.”
She thought he was assaulting her with her fist, but later figured out that she was being assaulted with a bottle, and realized that there had been numerous bottles broken in the fight.
“I looked around and saw so much broken glass. I just remember thinking, ‘Please God, please don’t be broken,’” she said.
Heard described bizarre details in the aftermath of the attack, including seeing her shredded burgundy nightgown used to wrap a raw steak that had been left out. She said that when Depp’s security team finally arrived to tend to his severed finger, Depp was still trying to leave vulgar messages for her, but was trying to write them by urinating on the wall.
Much of the trial testimony has been repetitive of a civil suit Depp filed against a British newspaper. A judge there ruled against Depp in 2020, finding that Heard had in fact been assaulted multiple times by Depp. But the sexual assault allegations described by Heard on Thursday were not publicly aired in the U.K trial.
Depp is suing Heard in Virginia for libel over an op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” His lawyers say he was defamed by the 2018 article even though it never mentioned his name.
Earlier in her testimony Thursday, Heard testified that Depp surrounded himself with an entourage of enablers to shield him from the consequences of his drug and alcohol use.
She described an incident that has already come up at trial, a May 2014 plane ride from Boston to Los Angeles. According to Heard, Depp was jealous and irate that she was making a movie with actor James Franco that included a kissing scene.
“He hated, hated James Franco,” she said.
As soon as Depp stepped into the private plane, he began berating her, she said. She got up and walked away, but Depp followed her. At one point, he slapped her, Heard testified. Later, she said, he kicked her, and not one person on board intervened on her behalf.
“I felt this boot in my back,” she said. “I fell to the floor. And no one said anything. No one did anything. You could have heard a pin drop. I just remember feeling so embarrassed.”
Depp, who testified earlier in the trial, described the incident differently. He denied that he’d drank excessively before getting on the plane, and said Heard initiated an argument and pursued him until he felt compelled to hide in a bathroom.
But jurors heard a recording Heard made toward the end of the incident, in which it sounds like Depp is howling and babbling incoherently. And the jury has seen a text message Depp sent his friend Paul Bettany shortly after the flight, in which he says he’s going to “properly stop the booze thing” because the flight got “ugly.” He also texted Bettany saying, “I’m admittedly too f——- in the head to spray my rage at the one I love for little reason as well.”
Heard has testified that she was physically and sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by Depp, typically when he was drunk or high on drugs. Depp has denied ever hitting her, but Heard’s lawyers have said his denials lack credibility in part because he can’t remember what he’s done when he blacks out.
Depp has said Heard greatly exaggerates his drinking, and that he tolerates his liquor well. Friends, family and employees of Depp have taken the stand and backed up his contention.
But Heard said that’s part of the problem: She said Depp has a team around him that cleans him up when he gets sick, and enables him to go about his business without acknowledging the consequences of his drinking.
___
This story has been corrected. Heard testified that Depp kicked her, not that she kicked him.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/heard-depp-team-enablers-shielded-his-drug-alcohol-use/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:52Z |
JMU Nursing students working with HCPS to remind parents about immunizations for Fall 2022
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - As the school year winds down, parents are already being reminded about immunizations that are required for next fall.
The main message: Book your appointments now.
Students in the nursing program at James Madison University have been partnering with Harrisonburg City Public Schools for their senior project in order to get the word out.
One student in the program says this will help prevent students’ attendance from being delayed due to an expected rush of parents scheduling later in the summer for fewer appointment times.
“We’re really just worried about them missing school and missing that socialization with their peers and everything like that. Especially in a time like now where we’re coming out of something where everybody was so secluded for so long we feel like it’s really important to make sure those kids are getting back to as normal as they can,” nursing student Jessica Ball said.
The VDH website lists 11 total vaccines that are required for students of various ages. To learn more about those, and how to book an appointment, click here.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/jmu-nursing-students-working-with-hcps-remind-parents-about-immunizations-fall-2022/ | 2022-05-05T21:09:59Z |
Karine Jean-Pierre to be next White House press secretary
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday named Karine Jean-Pierre to be the next White House press secretary, the first black woman and openly LGBTQ person to serve in the role, with incumbent Jen Psaki set to leave the post next week.
Jean-Pierre takes on the role as the White House faces an uphill battle to help Democrats hold onto the House and Senate in this fall’s midterm elections, and as the administration struggles to address Americans’ concerns about soaring inflation and the state of the economy. She also comes into the job as Biden faces a daunting array of foreign policy challenges, including the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and North Korea’s escalating nuclear testing program. Biden is set to visit South Korea and Japan later this month and Europe in June.
Biden is also bringing back longtime Democratic strategist Anita Dunn as his senior adviser. She had served in the Biden White House last year for several months after Biden was sworn into office.
“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the American people,” Biden said in a statement praising Jean-Pierre, who has served as his principal deputy press secretary since Inauguration Day.
Psaki, who leaves the White House on May 13, praised her successor, noting the significance of the history-making appointment.
“Representation matters and she will give a voice to many, but also make many dream big about what is truly possible,” Psaki said.
She said Biden offered the job to Jean-Pierre Thursday in the Oval Office. White House staffers were gathered after the offer and greeted Jean-Pierre with applause, an official said. Two “warm bottles” of champagne was procured for a toast in paper White House cups, the official added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal gathering.
When Jean-Pierre delivered her first press briefing last year, she told reporters, “it’s a real honor to just be standing here today.”
“I appreciate the historic nature, I really do,” she said.
She had occasionally took the lectern in the press briefing room instead of Psaki and more frequently held of-camera “gaggles” with reporters when Biden was traveling on Air Force One. She traveled with Biden to Europe last fall in March instead of Psaki, who had tested positive for COVID-19 before both trips.
Before joining the Biden presidential campaign, Jean-Pierre was the chief public affairs officer of the progressive group MoveOn.org and a former political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. She also worked in political affairs in the Obama White House and on his reelection campaign.
The press secretary is responsible for holding daily briefings with the news media and leading a department of more than a dozen staffers who help address queries from the press.
When she took the job, Psaki, who has two young children, said publicly she aimed to remain in the job for about a year. She is expected to be joining MSNBC later this year.
Biden said Psaki “has set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House briefing room.”
“I want to say thank you to Jen for raising the bar, communicating directly and truthfully to the American people, and keeping her sense of humor while doing so,” Biden said. “I thank Jen for her service to the country, and wish her the very best as she moves forward.”
Dunn is a partner at the Democratic consulting firm SKDK, and was a senior adviser on Biden’s 2020 campaign and previously chief strategist and communications director for President Barack Obama. The White House said she is returning to “assist in advancing the President’s policy and communications objectives.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/karine-jean-pierre-be-next-white-house-press-secretary/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:05Z |
Lawyer charged with manslaughter for shooting man in the head outside practice, police say
LITCHFIELD, Conn. (WFSB/Gray News) – A Connecticut lawyer under investigation for a deadly shooting outside of his law practice last year is now facing a manslaughter charge.
According to Connecticut State Police, Robert Lownds Fisher, 75, turned himself in on Wednesday. An active warrant had been issued for Fisher’s arrest.
Fisher is accused of shooting Matthew Bromley, 39, in the head in the parking lot of the Cramer & Anderson Law Firm in Litchfield on June 7, 2021.
According to the warrant, Fisher called 911 after the shooting and reported that Bromley, whom he claimed he did not know, had assaulted him.
Fisher said that Bromley followed him to the parking lot, opened his car door, and punched him in the face. He said Bromley also threatened to kill the lawyer for “ruining his life.”
Fisher said he took out a gun and told Bromley to back off, but Bromley charged at him. That’s when Fisher said he fired.
Witnesses, however, said that Bromley actually appeared to back off at that point and did not charge at Fisher.
Fisher told the dispatcher that he was bleeding a little and had some bruising, but he was otherwise fine. He told the dispatcher the victim was lying on his back on the pavement.
According to the warrant, an employee of the law firm said Bromley was not a client. However, Bromley did once call the law firm to inquire about a foreclosure on his mother’s home and spoke to Fisher. Fisher told Bromley that he didn’t handle foreclosures. The back-and-forth was a bit elevated, the employee said.
However, the employee said that appeared to be the extent of the conversation and there was no other contact since.
Fisher is a certified pistol instructor with no criminal record.
He was charged with first-degree manslaughter with a firearm. He was released on a $50,000 bond.
Copyright 2022 WFSB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/lawyer-charged-with-manslaughter-shooting-man-head-outside-practice-police-say/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:12Z |
LinkedIn agrees to pay $1.8M in back wages to female workers after being accused of pay discrimination
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The career-networking service LinkedIn has agreed to pay $1.8 million in back wages to hundreds of female workers to settle a pay discrimination complaint brought by U.S. labor investigators.
The U.S. Labor Department announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement agreement with LinkedIn to resolve allegations of “systemic, gender-based pay discrimination” in which women were paid less than men in comparable job roles.
The settlement affects nearly 700 women who worked in engineering, product or marketing roles from 2015 to 2017 at the company’s offices in San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California. It includes the time before and after Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn in 2016.
LinkedIn said in a statement that “while we have agreed to settle this matter, we do not agree with the government’s claims; LinkedIn pays and has paid its employees fairly and equitably when comparing similar work.”
The settlement agreement says LinkedIn argued that its statistical models didn’t identify pay disparities. The government said its own analysis found significant pay disparities even after controlling for “legitimate explanatory factors.”
The agency said the case was sparked by a routine evaluation by its Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Federal laws ban discriminatory practices at companies that contract with the federal government.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/linkedin-agrees-pay-18m-back-wages-female-workers-after-being-accused-pay-discrimination/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:18Z |
Man arrested in Shenandoah County for child pornography
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 3:43 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - On May 5, 2022, the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant in Maurertown in reference to a child pornography investigation.
As a result of this search, James Clifford Hawkins was placed under arrest for the following charges: Two (2) counts of 18.2-374.1:1 - Knowingly possess child pornography and five (5) counts of 18.2-472.1 - fail to register, reregister, or verify registration information, or knowingly provide false information to the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry.
Hawkins is scheduled to appear in Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on June 16, 2022.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/man-arrested-shenandoah-county-child-pornography/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:24Z |
Man charged with sexual abuse after exposing himself to children, police say
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 3:32 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hours ago
GLASGOW, Ky. (Gray News) – Police in Kentucky have charged a man after they say he exposed himself to two children.
The Glasgow Police Department said they arrested Robert O. Grindle Wednesday after investigating a complaint made against him.
After the investigation, the department determined that Grindle had exposed himself to victims who were younger than 12 years old.
Police charged Grindle with two counts of first degree sexual abuse of a victim under the age of 12.
Police are continuing to investigate the case.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/man-charged-with-sexual-abuse-after-exposing-himself-children-police-say/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:30Z |
Mom finds boyfriend in bed with 7-year-old daughter, hits him with car when he ran, police say
LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD/Gray News) – A man in Texas was arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child after police said a 7-year-old’s mother found him naked in bed with the girl.
According to the police report, the woman called 911 around 1 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2021, when she found her boyfriend in the bed.
KCBD reports the man was identified in the police report as 29-year-old Delmer Orlando Ortiz Licona. In the Lubbock County Detention Center, his name is listed as Orlando Delmer-Ortiz.
When the woman called 911, she started yelling, “What are you doing to her?”
She then told the dispatch operator she needed an officer at her home.
“I just found my man, huh, whoever lives with me, naked in the bed with my daughter,” she said. “Please hurry. He’s running away. Please hurry.”
When the dispatcher asked, “And he’s your boyfriend?”
The woman responded, “He’s supposed to be, but you hurry up or I’m going to kill him. I’m going to f*****g kill him. Please hurry, please hurry. I’m fixing to kill him, hurry please, please hurry, please f*****g hurry. He’s jumping the fence. He’s f*****g jumping the fence. Hurry.”
The 911 call-taker heard the woman tell the child to get in the car. The dispatcher asked if the child was OK. The woman said, “Yes, I got home just on time.”
She told the 911 call-taker she was following the male, and “I’m not going to deal with it.”
Then the 911 call-taker heard a loud sound that sounded like something was hit and then a little girl started screaming and crying. The dispatcher heard someone say, “Please get an ambulance.”
The 911 call-taker asked, “Did you just hit him?”
The woman went on to explain that Licona jumped in front of her car, and she hit him. She said he was passed out drunk, but everyone was OK.
Investigators were assigned to the case in March, and the woman agreed to bring the child to be forensically interviewed for the assault case.
The child gave specific details about the assault.
In April, police attempted to interview Licona about the sexual abuse investigation, but police reports show he repeatedly refused to show up to scheduled meetings with the investigator.
The case was presented to the criminal district attorney’s office.
Copyright 2022 KCBD via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/mom-finds-boyfriend-bed-with-7-year-old-daughter-hits-him-with-car-when-he-ran-police-say/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:37Z |
No felony charge for man who tackled Dave Chappelle on stage
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man arrested on suspicion of tackling comedian Dave Chappelle during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl will not be charged with any felonies, the district attorney’s office said Thursday.
Isaiah Lee, 23, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, police said, after rushing the stage toward the end of Chappelle’s set in the last of a four-night stint at the outdoor amphitheater as part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” festival.
He was carrying a replica handgun with a large blade that folded out of it similar to a pocket knife, according to a photo released by police.
“After reviewing the evidence, prosecutors determined that while criminal conduct occurred, the evidence as presented did not constitute felony conduct,” the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said in a statement.
The case has been referred to the Los Angeles city attorney’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanors within the city. An email seeking comment from the office was not immediately returned.
Jail records showed Lee was still being held Thursday in lieu of $30,000 bail, Mendez said. It was not immediately known if he had retained a lawyer, and the motive for the attack was unclear.
People standing in the wings of the stage, including actor Jamie Foxx and rapper Busta Rhymes, rushed on to the stage to try to help Chappelle.
Security guards chased and overpowered Lee, who was taken away in an ambulance for treatment of an unspecified injury.
“The performances by Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl were epic and record-breaking and he refuses to allow last night’s incident to overshadow the magic of this historic moment,” Chappelle’s publicist Carla Sims said in a statement.
Chappelle was attacked as he was wrapping up a routine in which he talked about how comedians have to worry more about their personal security in the wake of this year’s Academy Awards ceremony where the Oscar-winning actor slapped Chris Rock on live television in reaction to a joke about his wife.
Rock was also in the wings of Chappelle’s show, He grabbed the mic and jokingly asked, “Was that Will Smith?”
___
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/no-felony-charge-man-who-tackled-dave-chappelle-stage/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:44Z |
President Biden heads to Cincinnati to tout manufacturing jobs
On Friday, President Biden is scheduled to visit United Performance Metals in Hamilton, Ohio, located north of Cincinnati.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - President Biden is calling on Congress to pass legislation to boost our nation’s productivity. On Friday, he’s heading to Cincinnati to discuss his plan on how to manufacture more in America.
”Cincinnati is a city of the future,” said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.
Pureval said his city has a booming manufacturing sector, but said it needs federal support to create more jobs including for battery and green energy production.
”We are home to the largest city-led solar farm in the country,” said Pureval. “In many ways, we’re leading the country in our green innovation.”
On Friday, President Biden is scheduled to visit United Performance Metals in Hamilton, Ohio, located north of Cincinnati.
A release from the White House states the president will discuss his plans to build on the 473,000 manufacturing jobs the White House said were created since Biden took office.
Another focus of the president is pressing leaders in Congress to work out their differences between the America Competes and U.S. Innovation and Competition Acts to pass legislation to boost America’s bottom line.
The President delivered these remarks to Congress in his State of the Union Speech in March.
”Let’s not wait any longer,” said Biden. “Send it to my desk. I’ll sign it.”
In a statement, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who represents Cincinnati said in part:
“We need more manufacturing jobs in Ohio, but we need a pro-growth tax code to build them. The Biden Administration’s tactic of taxing and punishing American manufacturers will only hurt our state and Ohio workers.”
This is the president’s second trip to Ohio in recent months. In February, President Biden visited Cleveland and Lorain to tout the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/president-biden-heads-cincinnati-tout-manufacturing-jobs/ | 2022-05-05T21:10:51Z |
Prosecutors want boy, 12, tried as an adult in S. Carolina school killing
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 3:21 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hours ago
GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Prosecutors say a 12-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting his classmate in a South Carolina middle school hallway should be tried as an adult on a murder charge.
Monday’s request by prosecutors to move the case out of Family Court did not include any explanation on why the boy should be charged as an adult.
Murder carries a sentence of 30 years to life in prison in South Carolina.
If he is convicted as a juvenile, he couldn’t be kept in jail after he turns 22.
Jamari Cortez Bonaparte Jackson was shot during a class change at Tanglewood Middle School in Greenville on March 31.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/prosecutors-want-boy-12-tried-an-adult-school-killing/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:00Z |
Senate to vote next week on protecting abortion rights
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate will vote next week on legislation that would codify abortion rights into federal law as Democrats mount their response to the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
The procedural vote, scheduled for Wednesday, will mostly be symbolic and once again show the limits of the Democratic majority in the 50-50 Senate. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., does not have the necessary 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster and move ahead with the bill, which means the effort is certain to fail. But he said members of both parties need to go on record about where they stand.
“Next week’s vote will be one of the most important we ever take,” Schumer said Thursday. “Because it deals with one of the most personal and difficult decisions a woman ever has to make in her life.”
He insisted that bringing the Women’s Health Protection Act back to the Senate floor after it failed in March is “not an abstract exercise.” The bill passed the House in September.
The Democratic leader is hoping to put every single member of his conference, as well as Republicans, on record on abortion rights as both parties deal with the political fallout from the leaked draft opinion that would overturn the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. A final ruling, in a case from Mississippi, is expected this summer.
Democratic leaders, lacking the support needed to change Senate rules and pass an abortion bill on a majority vote, have signaled they intend to take the fight to voters during the campaign leading to the November election. Schumer noted that Republicans have been working for decades to bring about the end of Roe v. Wade.
“Come next week, Senate Republicans will have to answer for everything they’ve done over the years to embolden the hard right’s hostility against a woman’s choice,” Schumer said. “The vote will tell next week, America will be watching.”
Republican lawmakers have long been laser-focused on the high court, installing conservative justices intent on revisiting abortion and other social issues, including three ushered to confirmation by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky during Donald Trump’s presidency to build the court’s solid 6-3 majority.
GOP lawmakers have focused their ire on the rare leak of the draft opinion, calling it a brazen attempt to pressure the justices into changing the ruling.
Urging the justices to stick to their process, McConnell promised that senators would “have their backs, no matter what.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/senate-vote-next-week-protecting-abortion-rights/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:07Z |
Sheriff: 66-year-old pastor arrested on child sexual abuse charges involving minor under 15
PITT COUNTY, N.C. (Gray News) - Authorities in North Carolina have arrested a pastor on several sex crime charges stemming from a joint investigation.
The Pitt County Sheriff’s Office reports their detectives, along with police from the Winterville Police Department, joined forces to investigate suspected child abuse involving 66-year-old John William Lovelace earlier this year.
On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office announced the arrest of Lovelace.
The pastor at Faith Baptist Church in Ayden, North Carolina, was charged by Winterville police with four counts of second-degree forcible sex and three counts of sexual battery.
According to the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office, Lovelace is also facing two counts of statutory sex offense with a child under the age of 15 and indecent liberties with a minor.
The 66-year-old was booked into the Pitt County Detention Center on a $12.4 million bond.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/sheriff-66-year-old-pastor-arrested-child-sexual-abuse-charges-involving-minor-under-15/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:14Z |
Some call for less flying hours for new pilots amid nationwide pilot shortage
(CNN) - A latest push by airlines to curb flight cancellations caused by a shortage of pilots is concerning for some people, including John and Marilyn Kausner.
Their daughter, Elly Kausner, was on board Colgan Air Flight 3407 on February 12, 2009, when it plunged into a Buffalo, New York, neighborhood.
She was among 45 passengers and four crew who were killed.
“I didn’t get the opportunity to walk my daughter down the aisle,” John Kausner said.
After the crash, the Kausners fought to mandate more pilot experience.
New airline pilots, once required to have 250 flying hours, now need 1,500 hours, but some airline executives say that requirement is contributing to the shortage.
“This is not a safety issue, and I think it’s important that some of the politicians start to act and take this up because, if they don’t, they’re putting the industry in jeopardy,” said Jonathan Ornstein, CEO of Mesa Airlines.
A change in regulations would be felt most at smaller, regional airlines contracted by major carriers. They operate short routes and make up 40% of all flights in the United States.
Regional Airline Association President Fay Malarkey Black supports substituting some flight time for classroom time.
“We should not be talking about roll back or repeal, but add and replace and enhance so that we can open up training pathways to people who have not had access,” Black said.
This week, an executive from JetBlue said pilots from other countries operate safely despite looser regulations.
The National Transportation Safety Board found pilots of Flight 3407 did not properly recognize an aerodynamic stall.
Elly Kausner’s family said that was due to lack of experience, something they insist regulators never forget.
“We put rules and regulations in place that have been preventing plane crashes, largely and that’s the legacy. Let’s not lower our safety standards,” her father said.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Transportation Secretary said the federal government is looking to fund workforce development grants aimed at increasing the number of pilots.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/some-call-less-flying-hours-new-pilots-amid-nationwide-pilot-shortage/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:23Z |
‘Special relationship’ between escaped Alabama inmate and corrections officer dates back to 2020, sheriff says
LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Ala. (WAFF/Gray News) - The “special relationship” between escaped inmate Casey White and assistant director of corrections at Lauderdale County Jail Vicky White traces back to 2020, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton says.
“As far as we know, that was the earliest physical contact they had,” Singleton said.
Casey White was first brought to Lauderdale County Jail in 2020 for an arraignment on murder charges related to the 2015 murder of 58-year-old Connie Ridgeway. He and Vicky White stayed in contact after he went back to state prison, WAFF reports.
Singleton confirmed Vicky White had phone contact with Casey White while he was in Donaldson Prison.
On Wednesday, Singleton confirmed that Vicky White has been terminated and will lose her state-funded pension contributions.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service released a bulletin on their website with information about the pair, calling them “dangerous.” Officials believe they may be armed with an AR-15 rifle and a shotgun, and warn the public not to approach them.
The bulletin also says the two may be driving a gold or copper-colored 2007 Ford Edge. There may be damage to the left rear bumper.
Singleton announced Monday at a press conference that an arrest warrant has been issued for Vicky White, an assistant director of corrections for the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office.
She is charged with permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree in connection with capital murder suspect Casey White. The maximum time in prison is 10 years with a $15,000 fine.
Lauderdale County District Attorney Chris Connolly said he is shocked and disappointed as more information develops about the incident.
“I would have trusted Vicky with my life. I really mean it,” Connolly said. “If we needed something from the jail, she was our go-to person, solid employee. That’s why it’s so shocking.”
Officials say that although Casey White was handcuffed and shackled when he left the jail, he is a free man and no longer restrained.
“We found her radio, sheriff’s department radio, and the leg shackles and handcuffs,” Singleton said.
Detectives also believe Vicky White has her phone, but it is turned off.
“It wasn’t left in the car. You know, we’ve attempted using technology. We haven’t had any success with it,” Singleton said.
Vicky White sold her home a month ago below market value, and authorities are looking through her finances to see if there is anything unusual.
“We’ve had the Secret Service helping us with some of that kind of stuff. They’re working on that angle of it.” Singleton said. “We’re assuming she’s got some cash.”
Vicky White and Casey White have been missing since Friday, which was Vicky White’s last day of work before she was set to retire. Vicky White said she was taking the inmate to a mental health evaluation. Singleton confirmed that no mental health evaluation existed. Investigators said there is no doubt that Vicky White aided and abetted Casey White with his escape.
Shortly before her disappearance, Vicky White said she had also planned to get medical care because she wasn’t feeling well, but she never arrived.
The vehicle in which the two departed Friday morning was found at a shopping center in Lauderdale County later that afternoon.
Authorities said Vicky White violated a policy that required more than one official to be involved in transporting inmates. The policy was put in place when Casey White was jailed two years ago and authorities believed he was planning to escape.
Casey White was serving 75 years for a series of crimes and was awaiting a capital murder trial in Alabama. He also faces a number of charges in Tennessee, including attempted first-degree murder.
Casey White is 6-feet, 9-inches tall and weighs about 330 pounds, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. He has brown hair and hazel eyes.
Vicky White is 5-feet, 5-inches tall and weighs 145 pounds. She has blonde hair and brown eyes, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. She may be using the aliases April Davis and Renee Marie Maxwell, according to Singleton.
The Marshals Service said people with information about Casey White’s location or Vicky White’s disappearance can call the service at 1-800-336-0102. Anonymous tips may also be submitted through the U.S. Marshals Tip App.
The U.S. Marshals Service is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest of Casey White and $5,000 for information leading to the arrest of Vicky White.
Authorities say they have received more than 100 tips about the pair.
Copyright 2022 WAFF via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/special-relationship-between-escaped-north-alabama-inmate-corrections-officer-dates-back-2020-sheriff-says/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:30Z |
Suspect accused of body-slamming man on concrete charged with attempted murder, police say
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB/Gray News) – A man in Louisiana was charged with attempted second-degree murder after authorities say he body-slammed another man on concrete, causing the victim to suffer a brain bleed.
Brody Hurst was arrested and booked in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on Tuesday.
According to arrest documents, on March 5, around 3 a.m., the victim stated Hurst showed up at an apartment complex. The victim reported that he encountered Hurst after entering the security gate of the complex and that the two were not on speaking terms.
A witness told police Hurst and the victim had agreed to meet up to resolve issues between them.
Once the victim entered the security gate, the witness says Hurst grabbed the victim and slammed him to the ground, knocking him unconscious. The witness went on to tell police Hurst began stomping the victim in the head and torso as he lay unconscious.
The witness also stated she had to pull Hurst off the victim with the help of another person. The witness reportedly told Hurst that she was calling police, causing Hurst to stop and flee the scene.
Cell phone footage captured some of the attack, police say.
Arrest documents detail the witness took the victim to a local hospital. A bone in the victim’s face got broken and he suffered bleeding on the brain, reports say.
Copyright 2022 WAFB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/suspect-accused-body-slamming-man-concrete-charged-with-attempted-murder-police-say/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:39Z |
Tornadoes strike Texas, Oklahoma; more storms in forecast
SEMINOLE, Okla. (AP) — A storm system spawned several tornadoes that whipped through areas of Texas and Oklahoma, causing damage to a school, a marijuana farm and other structures.
There were no reports of serious injuries following the Wednesday night tornadoes, but the system was causing flooding in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, and more stormy weather was expected Thursday.
Significant damage was reported in the Oklahoma city of Seminole, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Oklahoma City, where Gov. Kevin Stitt said damage assessments were underway after he toured the area Thursday.
“(We’re) getting all the resources and supplies that the city wants and needs,” including generators, Stitt said. “Thank the Lord that nobody was hurt” and no deaths have been reported.
Nearly 4,500 customers were without power early Thursday afternoon, according to Oklahoma Gas & Electric, 96% of the utility customers in the city.
The Academy of Seminole took a direct hit but no one was injured, the school said on Facebook.
Video footage from Oklahoma TV station KOCO showed a tornado hit a marijuana farm in the nearby town of Maud.
Several roads and highways were closed Thursday morning in parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas because of flash flooding.
In Texas, a “large and dangerous tornado” was spotted Wednesday in the rural community of Lockett, about 170 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of Dallas, said the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma.
There were no significant injuries or deaths to residents in Wilbarger County, Sheriff Brian Fritze told KAUZ-TV. He said several homes and barns appeared to sustain extensive damage.
The Wednesday storms were the latest in several rounds of severe weather in the central United States. Last week, a tornado damaged more than 1,000 buildings in the Wichita suburb of Andover, Kansas. Three University of Oklahoma meteorology students died in a car crash while returning from storm chasing.
More stormy weather was expected Thursday from Texas into parts of the South. The storms could bring more tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds, and the threat of severe weather will continue Friday in parts of the South and over the weekend in the central Plains and Midwest, the weather service said.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/tornadoes-strike-texas-oklahoma-more-storms-forecast/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:48Z |
US announces seizure of superyacht owned by Russian oligarch
WASHINGTON (AP) — A superyacht that American authorities say is owned by a Russian oligarch previously sanctioned for alleged money laundering has been seized by law enforcement in Fiji, the U.S. Justice Department announced Thursday.
A judge in Fiji earlier in the week permitted U.S. authorities to seize the yacht Amadea — worth $325 million — but also put his order temporarily on hold while defense lawyers mounted a challenge.
The Justice Department said authorities in Fiji, acting at the request of the United States, have now served a search warrant freezing the yacht, which had earlier been prevented from leaving the South Pacific nation.
American officials say the 348-foot vessel belongs to Suleiman Kerimov, an economist and former Russian politician who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 and has faced further censure from Canada, Europe, Britain and other nations after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Kerimov made a fortune investing in Russian gold producer Polyus, with Forbes magazine putting his net worth at $14.5 billion.
Defense lawyers had claimed the yacht actually belonged to another Russian oligarch.
In an application in support of the search warrant, an FBI agent wrote that there was probable cause to believe that Kerimov had owned the Amadea since 2021. The vessel, which is flagged in the Cayman Islands, had turned off its automated information system on Feb. 24, which is the day Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
The Justice Department said the seizure was coordinated by its KleptoCapture task force, which was created in March to seize assets belonging to sanctioned Russian oligarchs. In April, the Justice Department seized a 254-foot yacht in Spain owned by an oligarch, Viktor Vekselberg, with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the latest seizure “should make clear that there is no hiding place for the assets of individuals who violate U.S. laws. And there is no hiding place for the assets of criminals who enable the Russian regime.”
The Justice Department said the yacht is now in Lautoka, Fiji.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/us-announces-seizure-superyacht-owned-by-russian-oligarch/ | 2022-05-05T21:11:55Z |
VBL teams need host families
STAUNTON, Va. (WVIR) - Baseball teams in the Shenandoah Valley are preparing for the upcoming season, and many are still searching for housing for players.
“We need probably 25 more beds,” Chesley Mullins with the Charlottesville Tom Sox said.
“Probably need about 20 beds,” Lance Mauck with the Staunton Braves said.
The next generation of baseball talent comes to town from college all across the country every summer. Teams like Tom Sox and Braves rely on host families to make the season a success.
“We’re a nonprofit organization and we look for that to survive, and without it it’d be hard to survive,” Mauck said.
“These are nice, young men that come from all over the country. They’re driven and passionate about playing baseball, they’re well-vetted, there’s never any behavior issues,” Mullins said. “Just getting over that hump of having someone in your house, you know, feels intimidating to people but it’s really fun.”
All these players need is a bed, access to a kitchen, and laundry. The lifelong bond is an added bonus.
“Kids we’ve had from the first summer, you know, now are they’ve graduated college, they’ve gotten married,” Mullins said. “We’ve got one baby on the way for a former player.”
“I’d be willing to say about half of them probably end up going to the person’s wedding, because there’s nothing but good experiences that come from it,” Mauck said.
The season starts in June.
If you would like to host a Charlottesville Tom Sox player contact Chesley Mullins at hostfamily@tomsox.org.
If you would like to host a Staunton Braves player contact Lance Mauck at 443-250-2657.
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Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/vbl-teams-need-host-families/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:02Z |
Virginia COVID-19 cases rise by 2,529 Thursday
13,517,328 total PCR tests have been run for the virus in Virginia, with 1,712,801 positive cases.
Due to the number of vaccinations across our region, we will no longer be updating the COVID-19 hotline.
As of Thursday, May 5, Virginia has had 1,712,801 total cases of COVID-19, including confirmed lab tests and clinical diagnoses, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
The Virginia Department of Health reports a 10.6% 7-day positivity rate for total PCR testing encounters.
14 additional deaths were reported this Thursday, leaving the death toll at 20,270.
For a comprehensive summary of COVID-19 cases and testing in Virginia, you can visit the Virginia Department of Health’s website and view their COVID-19 dashboard.
On Sunday, April 18, 2021, vaccine eligibility expanded to all individuals in the Commonwealth age 16 and above.
On Thursday, April 22, 2021, former Governor Northam announced an ease in some of the COVID-19 restrictions for social gatherings that began on Saturday, May 15:
- Social gatherings: The maximum number of individuals permitted in a social gathering will increase to 100 people for indoor settings and 250 people for outdoor settings. Social gatherings are currently limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.
- Entertainment venues: Indoor entertainment and public amusement venues will be able to operate at 50 percent capacity or 1,000 people, up from 30 percent capacity or 500 people. Outdoor venues will be able to operate at 50 percent capacity — up from 30 percent — with no specific cap on the number of attendees.
- Recreational sporting events: The number of spectators allowed at indoor recreational sporting events will increase from 100 to 250 spectators or 50 percent capacity, whichever is less. Outdoor recreational sporting events will increase from 500 to 1,000 people or 50 percent capacity, whichever is less.
- Alcohol sales: Restaurants may return to selling alcohol after midnight, and dining room closures will no longer be required between midnight and 5:00 a.m.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Thursday, May 13, 2021, vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear a mask in most circumstances. On Friday, May 14, 2021, Former governor Ralph Northam announced the mask mandate in Virginia would be lifted, and capacity and social distancing restrictions will end on May 28.
Statewide case totals and testing numbers as of May 5
By May 5, the Virginia Department of Health had received reports of 1,228,738 confirmed cases and 484,063 probable cases of COVID-19 across the commonwealth.
Those positive test results are out of 13,517,328 total PCR tests administered in Virginia.
At this point, 50,193 Virginians have been hospitalized due to the disease caused by the virus, and at least 20,270 have died of causes related to the disease.
Where are our local cases?
Here’s a breakdown of cases for our region as of 10:00 a.m. May 5.
Central Shenandoah Health District: 67,844 total cases
Beginning March 10, 2022, the Locality dashboard is no longer being published. Cases by report date and cases by date of illness can be viewed by locality on the Cases dashboard.
Total PCR tests: 432,802
Lord Fairfax Health District: 54,916 total cases
Total PCR tests: 368,740
Northwest Total Outbreaks: 1,033 reported, including 334 in long term care facilities, 100 in K-12 settings, 74 in healthcare settings, 43 in correctional facilities, 331 in congregate settings, 66 in colleges/universities, and 85 in child care settings.
Note: VDH has changed the way it tracks outbreaks. They are now grouped by regions instead of health districts.
COVID-19 Vaccine in Virginia
The Virginia Department of Health has launched a data dashboard showcasing the number of COVID-19 vaccines that have been distributed and administered throughout the commonwealth.
According to the data dashboard, as of May 5, 7,037,445 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 6,299,829 people are fully vaccinated.
19,024,625 total vaccine doses have been distributed throughout the state.
Recovery
The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association’s online dashboard indicates that, as of May 5, at least 108,366 COVID-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital.
Unlike the VDH data that reports cumulative hospitalizations, their data on hospitalizations reflects hospitalized patients confirmed positive for COVID-19, and that number is 210.
West Virginia updates
Here at WHSV, we cover Grant County, Hardy County and Pendleton County. The below information is the most recent data from each counties’ health department. You can find West Virginia’s COVID-19 dashboard here.
There are 502,566 total cases in West Virginia as of May 5.
Grant County: 3,785 total COVID-19 cases
Hardy County: 4,192 total COVID-19 cases
Pendleton County: 1,977 total COVID-19 cases
For the latest factual information on COVID-19, you’re encouraged to check both the Virginia Department of Health and the CDC.
Copyright 2021 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/virginia-covid-19-cases-rise-by-2529-thursday/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:08Z |
Walgreens, Florida settle opioid costs lawsuit for $683M
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — The Walgreens pharmacy chain has reached a $683 million settlement with the state of Florida in a lawsuit accusing the company of improperly dispensing millions of painkillers that contributed to the opioid crisis, state officials said Thursday.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody said the deal was struck after four weeks of government evidence was presented at trial. Walgreens was the 12th and final defendant to settle with Florida, which will bring in more than $3 billion for the state to tackle opioid addiction and overdoses.
“We now go into battle armed and ready to fight back hard against this manmade crisis,” Moody said at a news conference in Tampa. “I am glad that we have been able to end this monumental litigation and move past the courtroom.”
Walgreens, based in Deerfield, Illinois, said in a statement the company did not admit wrongdoing in the deal, during which $620 million will be paid to the state over 18 years and a one-time sum of $63 million for attorney fees. Walgreens operates more than 9,000 stores in all 50 states, according to the company website. About 820 of those locations are in Florida.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has a tentative nationwide deal that includes $6 billion in cash from members of the Sackler family who own the company. In all, settlements, civil and criminal penalties around the country since 2007 have totaled over $45 billion, according to an Associated Press tally.
The Florida case hinged on accusations that as Walgreens dispensed more than 4.3 billion total opioid pills in Florida from May 2006 to June 2021, more than half contained one or more easily recognized red flags for abuse, fraud and addiction that the company should have noticed and acted upon.
The opioid epidemic has been linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades, counting those from prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and generic oxycodone as well as illicit drugs such as heroin and illegally produced fentanyl.
In the same case, CVS Health Corp. and CVS Pharmacy Inc. agreed to pay the state $484 million. Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. agreed to pay $195 million and Allergan PLC more than $134 million.
Florida has previously obtained millions of dollars in opioid settlements involving McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc., Johnson & Johnson Inc. and AmerisourceBergen Corp.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/walgreens-florida-settle-opioid-costs-lawsuit-683m/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:14Z |
Stocks slump 3% as worries grow over higher interest rates
NEW YORK (AP) — A sharp sell-off left the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 1,000 points lower Thursday, wiping out the gains from Wall Street’s biggest rally in two years, as worries grow that the higher interest rates the Federal Reserve is using in its fight against inflation will slow the economy.
The benchmark S&P 500 fell 3.6%, marking its biggest loss in nearly two years, a day after it posted its biggest gain since May 2020. The Nasdaq slumped 5%, its worst drop since June 2020. The losses by the Dow and the other indexes offset the gains from a day earlier.
“Yesterday’s sharp rally was not rooted in reality and today’s dramatic selloff is a reversal of that misplaced exuberance,” said Ben Kirby, co-head of investments at Thornburg Investment Management.
Wall Street’s breakneck day-to-day reversal reflects the degree of investors’ uncertainty and unease over the array of threats the economy is facing, starting with inflation running at the highest level in four decades, and how effective the Federal Reserve’s bid to tame higher prices by jacking up interest rates will be.
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve announced a widely expected half-percentage point increase in its short-term interest rate. Stocks bounced around following the move but then sharply rose as bond yields fell after Fed Chair Jerome Powell reassured investors by saying the central bank wasn’t considering shifting to more aggressive, three-quarters point rate hikes as the Fed continues with further rate increases in coming months.
But whatever relief Powell’s remarks gave stock investors vanished Thursday. Stocks slumped and bond yields climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.04%. Rising yields are sure to put upward pressure on mortgage rates, which are already at their highest level since 2009.
Investors remain uneasy about about whether the Fed can do enough to tame inflation without tipping the economy, which is already showing signs of slowing, into a recession. In addition to high inflation and rising interest rates, investors are grappling with uncertainty over lingering supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions.
“The biggest issue is there are just a lot of moving parts and the unanswered question is to what extent as the Fed attempts to tame inflation will that result in economic slowing, and perhaps, a recession,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
The S&P 500 fell 153.30 points to 4,146.87, while the Nasdaq slid 647.16 points to 12,317.69. The Dow briefly skidded 1,375 points before closing down 1,063.09 points, or 3.1%, to 32,997.97.
Smaller company stocks also fell sharply. The Russell 2000 fell 78.77 points, or 4%, to 1,871.15.
The Fed’s aggressive shift to raise interest rates has investors worrying about whether it can pull off the delicate dance to slow the economy enough to halt high inflation but not so much as to cause a downturn. The pace and size of interest rate increases is being scrutinized closely on Wall Street.
“Investors realized that by the Fed continuing to take a very measured approach, it could actually allow inflation to remain out of control,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.
The latest move by the Fed to raise interest rates by a half-percentage point had been widely expected. Markets steadied this week ahead of the policy update, but Wall Street was concerned the Fed might elect to raise rates by three-quarters of a percentage point at its next meeting. Powell eased those concerns, saying the central bank is “not actively considering” such an increase.
The central bank also announced that it will start reducing its huge $9 trillion balance sheet, which consists mainly of Treasury and mortgage bonds, starting June 1. Those large holdings are a policy tool the Fed uses to keep long-term interest rates, like those on mortgages, low.
When Powell said the Fed wasn’t considering a mammoth increase in short-term rates, that sent a signal to investors to send stock prices soaring and bond yields tumbling. A slower pace of interest-rate hikes would mean less risk of the economy tipping into recession, as well as less downward pressure on prices for all kinds of investments.
But diminishing the odds of a three-quarters point hike doesn’t mean the Fed is done raising rates steadily and sharply as it fights to tame inflation, not even close. Economists at BNP Paribas still expect the Fed to keep hiking the federal funds rate until it reaches a range of 3% to 3.25%, up from zero to 0.25% earlier this year.
“We do not think this was Chair Powell’s intention,” economists at BNP Paribas wrote in a report, citing the market’s jubilance on Wednesday, “and we reckon we could see coming ‘Fedspeak’ seek to re-tighten financial conditions.”
The Bank of England on Thursday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest level in 13 years, its fourth rate hike since December as U.K. inflation runs at 30-year highs.
Energy markets remain volatile as the conflict in Ukraine continues and demand remains high amid tight supplies of oil. European governments are trying to replace energy supplies from Russia and are considering an embargo. OPEC and allied oil-producing countries decided Thursday to gradually increase the flows of crude they send to the world.
Higher oil and gas prices have been contributing to the uncertainties weighing on investors as they try to assess how inflation will ultimately impact businesses, consumer activity and overall economic growth.
Homebuilders fell broadly as average long-term home loan rates climbed. D.R. Horton slid 5.8%.
The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 5.27% this week, its highest level since 2009, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. A year ago, it averaged 2.96%. Mortgage rates tend to follow moves in the 10-year Treasury yield. The sharp increase in mortgage rates has strained affordability for homebuyers after years of sharply rising prices.
___
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed. Veiga reported from Los Angeles.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/wall-street-slumps-erasing-big-rally-day-earlier/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:21Z |
Waynesboro PD investigating after vehicle strikes pedestrian
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 11:22 AM EDT|Updated: 5 hours ago
WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) - On May 3, 2022, Waynesboro Police officers responded to Lennox Place and Rosser Avenue regarding a pedestrian struck by a vehicle.
Before officers arrived on the scene, a 73-year-old male of Waynesboro was being transported to UVA hospital for further treatment.
Based on the Waynesboro officer’s preliminary investigation, the 73-year-old Waynesboro man was crossing Rosser Avenue from the Lucy Lane area when he was struck by a vehicle driven by a 27-year-old female driver of Stuarts Draft, traveling North on Rosser Avenue.
The man is in critical condition as of May 4, 2022. This traffic crash remains under investigation.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/waynesboro-pd-investigating-after-vehicle-strikes-pedestrian/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:28Z |
Woman accused of helping convicted murderer escape, court docs say
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA/Gray News) - A woman has been charged with helping a convicted murderer escape custody, according to court documents.
Susan Lemley, 40, has been charged with facilitating escape. Court documents state she helped David Kyle, 49, escape.
Kyle was being housed at the Red Eagle Work Center in Montgomery, Alabama, when he fled on April 23 from a job site where he was assigned, under supervision, to work, according to WSFA.
According to court documents, Lemley helped Kyle escape from the site at Riverwalk Stadium. She then took him to Tennessee.
Kyle was serving a 99-year sentence for a 2000 murder conviction when he escaped. He was also sentenced to eight years in prison for a separate arson conviction.
According to a 1999 article from the Associated Press, Kyle, then 27, was a known drug dealer who shot a man to death in 1998 and left his remains in the trunk of a burning vehicle. The article also indicates Kyle was serving a separate 8-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 1998 to burning the business of an employer who had recently fired him.
Kyle was taken into custody Monday morning by the U.S. Marshal Service, the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. Cherokee County Sheriff Jeff Shaver said Kyle was arrested in the Slackland community of his county.
Lemley is being held in the Montgomery County Detention Center with bail set at $5,000.
Copyright 2022 WSFA via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/woman-accused-helping-convicted-murderer-escape-court-docs-say/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:35Z |
Woman mistook body found floating in canal for manatee
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (WPBF) - A woman walking around her backyard was surprised to see something floating in the canal behind her house. She thought it was an animal, but it was actually a body.
Police are now trying to figure out what happened to him.
Maureen McGuire regularly takes a walk along the canal in the backyard of her Port St. Lucie home.
“I’m forever pulling weeds and checking back there. There’s a lot of wildlife back there. There’s alligators there,” McGuire said.
But it wasn’t an alligator she saw Wednesday morning.
“I saw it there and I thought it was a manatee,” McGuire said.
She thought the animal was either dead or in trouble. So, McGuire called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and they quickly figured out it was not a manatee.
“FWC responded and determined it was a human body,” St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said.
Mascara believes the body had been in the water for about a day and is calling it a suspicious death.
“That’s all we can really say right now until we get the body off-site to the medical examiner’s office,” Mascara said.
As the medical examiner determines how the man died, detectives will try to figure out how he wound up in the canal behind McGuire’s home.
“I guess it is scary, sure, to think that right in my own backyard something like that happened,” McGuire said. “I was shocked. But I guess these days and ages nothing shocks you really.”
Since the story first aired, WPBF learned the man has been identified as 32-year-old Daniel Pastor.
His mother reported him missing on Sunday.
Copyright 2022 WPBF via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/woman-mistook-body-found-floating-canal-manatee/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:43Z |
Women and people of color experience longer ER wait times than white men, study says
(CNN) – If you’ve been to the emergency room recently, what was it like?
For women and people of color, the experience is often different from what white men experience, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
The research is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of nearly 30 million people.
Researchers looked at people younger than 55 years of age who went to the ER for chest pain.
They discovered that patients who identified as people of color waited 10-15 minutes longer in the ER to receive care for chest pain compared to white adults.
They also found that women and people of color were less likely to get testing done and less likely to get medication for a heart attack.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/05/women-people-color-experience-longer-er-wait-times-than-white-men-study-says/ | 2022-05-05T21:12:50Z |
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