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US resumes limited visa processing in Cuba after 4 years
Published: May. 4, 2022 at 7:11 PM EDT
HAVANA (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Havana has resumed processing visas for Cubans, though on a limited basis, more than four years after stopping consular services on the island amid a hardening of relations.
The resumption comes as the number of Cubans trying to emigrate illegally to United States surges.
A State Department official said that for the time being U.S. officials in Havana will only process visa requests from Cubans who are the parents of U.S. citizens, under a category known as IR-5, and that the Biden administration in the future will evaluate expanding the services to others.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/04/us-resumes-limited-visa-processing-cuba-after-4-years/ | 2022-05-06T17:37:12Z |
VIDEO: Deputy watches Baby Shark with toddler while waiting for family to pick her up
DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio (Gray News) – A deputy in Ohio is getting praise for the way he comforted a toddler after her grandparents were arrested.
The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said a 16-month-old girl had to wait for her great-grandparents to pick her up after her grandparents were arrested on outstanding warrants.
While waiting for her family, Deputy Carey took the child into his patrol car and turned Baby Shark on his phone for her to watch.
Carey’s body cam video also shows him joke and play with the child and even wipe away her tears.
“The good news is that this sweet baby girl has many family members who love her,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “Even more endearing is that Deputy Carey is not a father (yet), but he showed extreme care and sensitivity to the child, just as any parent/guardian would have wanted.”
The sheriff’s office said Carey stayed with the child for about 20 minutes before she was picked up by her family.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/04/video-deputy-watches-baby-shark-with-toddler-while-waiting-family-pick-her-up/ | 2022-05-06T17:37:22Z |
VIDEO: Hundreds of homes demolished after destructive tornado sweeps through city
Published: May. 4, 2022 at 5:43 PM EDT
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH/Gray News) - A destructive tornado was caught on camera last week in Kansas.
The City of Andover shared the tornado video from April 29 as the cyclone formed in southern Sedgwick County and then moved into the city.
KWCH reports the twister destroyed hundreds of homes in Sedgwick County and the City of Andover. Officials said less than ten people were injured, but one woman remained hospitalized with a back injury.
Luckily, officials reported no immediate deaths in the area.
Copyright 2022 KWCH via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/04/video-hundreds-homes-demolished-after-destructive-tornado-sweeps-through-city/ | 2022-05-06T17:37:33Z |
We’ll be warm and mainly dry Thursday; storms return Friday
A frontal system moves in at the end of the week
We’ll be mainly dry overnight tonight, with a light NW breeze keeping us company. Lows tonight will be cooler than last night, but still seasonable, in the upper mid-40s-low 50s.
Thursday will bring warmer weather, with highs in the 70s and low 80s for most. We’ll actually feel a bit muggy tomorrow afternoon, and a few stray showers could pop up, but most will stay dry. We’ll see increasing clouds and mild low temps in the 50s Thursday night.
A strong frontal system will then push in at the end of the workweek. We’ll see some showers and a few t-storms Friday morning as a warm front pushes into the region. Highs will still be warm, in the low 70s for many, but we’ll remain unsettled. More rounds of wider-spread showers and thunderstorms look possible late Friday afternoon and into Friday night.
A few storms Friday could be strong to severe, with gusty winds, heavy rain, and even some hail as the cold front part of the system heads in. We’ll see some lingering rain into Saturday as well, but should be drier and seasonable (but cooler) with highs in the 60s on Saturday and Sunday.
Next week at a glance looks warm and dry for a while...stay tuned!
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) -
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/04/well-be-warm-mainly-dry-thursday-storms-return-friday/ | 2022-05-06T17:37:39Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/advocates-worry-other-rights-risk-if-scotus-overturns-roe-v-wade/ | 2022-05-06T17:37:46Z |
Bluefield, Shady Spring & Midland Trail among Wednesday softball winners
WVSSAC Sectional Softball
Published: May. 5, 2022 at 3:00 AM EDT
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) - Softball sectionals continue in West Virginia. Here’s a look at Wednesday final scores:
CLASS AA: R3S1
Bluefield 16 - Westside 2
CLASS AA: R3S2
Shady Spring 1 - Independence 0
CLASS AAA: R3S2
Princeton 7 - Oak Hill 5
Greenbrier East 4 - Beckley 0
CLASS A: R3S2
Midland Trail 8 - Greenbrier West 0
CLASS A: R3S1
James Monroe 9 - River View 1
Montcalm 6 - Mount View 3
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/05/bluefield-shady-spring-midland-trail-among-wednesday-softball-winners/ | 2022-05-06T17:37:53Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/boy-with-cancer-empowered-by-familys-superhero-costumes/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:03Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/dem-flips-michigan-seat-after-gop-candidates-rape-comments/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:10Z |
Deputies: 2 men drive body to hospital in attempt to hide marijuana grow operation
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. (WSAZ/Gray News) - Police in West Virginia are investigating an unusual situation where they say a man died at a home but was dumped at a hospital by two men trying to conceal a marijuana grow operation.
WSAZ reports Cabell County Sheriff’s deputies were notified on Tuesday of a body, later identified as Eric Williams, that was found at St. Mary’s Medical Center wrapped in a carpet.
Josh Daniel and Ryan Fitzsimmons are accused of dumping Williams’ body at the medical center, according to the sheriff’s office. The two were questioned about the body, and after changing their stories, they eventually told officers Williams died at home.
According to the criminal complaint, when authorities asked why they didn’t call 911 in the beginning, Daniel told them there was marijuana growth inside the house.
The sheriff’s office said Williams’ body was sent to the medical examiner’s office, which determined the cause of death was likely a heroin/fentanyl overdose.
Officers said Daniel and Fitzsimmons are facing charges of concealment of a dead body, and they may end up facing further charges in connection with the marijuana grow operation
Currently, both men are being held in the Western Regional Jail on an $80,000 bond.
Copyright 2022 WSAZ via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/05/deputies-2-men-drive-body-hospital-attempt-hide-marijuana-grow-operation/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:17Z |
‘Her laughter is irresistible’: Gerber announces baby Isa as 2022 Gerber Spokesbaby
(Gray News) - Gerber officially announced the winner of its 12th annual photo search for its 2022 Gerber Spokesbaby.
On Wednesday, Gerber announced Isa Slish, of Oklahoma, will fill the important and adorable honorary role on the company’s executive committee as “Chief Growing Officer.”
The early childhood nutrition company said baby Isa captivated judges with her overwhelming happiness, bright and shining personality.
“Gerber’s photo search is an opportunity to celebrate the joy that babies bring. We’re thrilled to welcome Isa to the Gerber family as this year’s Spokesbaby and Chief Growing Officer,” said Tarun Malkani, Gerber president and CEO.
As part of being the 2022 Spokesbaby, Gerber said Isa will work to help the next generation of babies grow and thrive through reviewing new baby food while giving the team “advice” when it comes to what babies need for the future.
“Isa is a strong, amazing little girl. Her smile lights up the room and her laughter is irresistible,” said Meredith Slish, Isa’s mother. “Isa was born without a femur or a fibula in her right leg. We hope Isa’s story can bring more awareness to limb differences and create greater inclusion for children like her.”
Gerber said Isa loves spending her days babbling to her older sister and enjoying the breeze outside in the evening with her dad. Her favorite foods include Gerber Sweet Potato Puffs and Gerber 1st Foods Butternut Squash.
Company representatives said Isa and her family were awarded a $25,000 cash prize, free Gerber products for up to one year and more for “winning” the role.
Gerber’s photo search was launched more than a decade ago and the company said it was inspired by the photos that were sent in by their parents with the Gerber logo.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/05/her-laughter-is-irresistible-gerber-announces-baby-isa-2022-gerber-spokesbaby/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:24Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/la-hospital-sued-racism-death-black-mother/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:30Z |
Man charged after trying to set 1-year-old on fire, sheriff says
SENECA COUNTY, N.Y. (WHAM/WSTM) - Authorities in New York arrested a man who allegedly attempted to set a 1-year-old child on fire. During the investigation, officers found another child injured at the scene.
Jamie Avery Jr., a 28-year-old truck driver from Florida, is charged with attempted murder, arson and more. The victims in the case are a 1-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy.
“We definitely are touched by these types of cases, and it definitely hits home for those that have children,” said Lt. Timothy Thompson of the Seneca County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators say Avery and a second suspect tried to set the 1-year-old on fire Tuesday morning at a truck stop just off the thruway in Tyre, New York. They allegedly poured a flammable liquid on the child.
“Luckily, the two were unsuccessful,” said Seneca County Sheriff W. Timothy Luce.
Deputies later found the 4-year-old with head injuries in the cab of Avery’s tractor-trailer. He was taken to the hospital.
Both children are expected to make full recoveries.
A suspicious device was also discovered in a bathroom, prompting the bomb squad to respond. The device turned out to be a replica, not a real explosive.
Many questions remain in the case, including motive and the relationship between Avery and the children.
“We believe there is a parental relationship, but we haven’t fully determined that yet,” said Seneca County District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz.
It is anticipated the second suspect will face charges in the near future. Additional charges for both suspects could come from further investigation.
Copyright 2022 WHAM, WSTM via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/05/man-charged-after-trying-set-1-year-old-fire-sheriff-says/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:37Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/man-filmed-co-workers-going-bathroom-with-hidden-camera-police-say/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:44Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/man-warns-others-after-solar-panels-almost-burn-his-house-down/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:52Z |
Passengers say more than 100 people test positive for COVID on cruise ship
SEATTLE (KING) – Passengers on a Carnival cruise ship that docked in Seattle on Tuesday say more than 100 people tested positive for COVID-19 on the ship. They also say the outbreak was mishandled.
Darren Sieferston is one passenger who contracted COVID-19 on the trip from Miami to Seattle.
“As soon as I got diagnosed with COVID, I did not feel safe,” he said. “They didn’t have enough staff to handle the emergency that was happening, period.”
Sieferston is currently at a hotel quarantining after he tested positive aboard the ship.
“I’m super tired. I’m a little bit out of breath,” he said.
Sieferston, along with numerous others, tested positive during the 16-day voyage. He said the response from Carnival was chaotic.
“They were overwhelmed, and they didn’t have a backup course in how to handle about 200 people affected with COVID,” he said.
The passengers all waited hours for meals and weren’t properly isolated.
A photo shared by a passenger shows an open door to the quarantine area, and the passengers say they couldn’t get ahold of medical staff.
“We couldn’t call anybody,” Sieferston said. “There was nobody that we could call. We basically sat in the room, you would call and it would ring, ring, ring and ring all day long.”
Sieferston took a picture of a piece of paper including the names of all of those who tested positive. He said it was hung outside the elevator on his floor for all passengers to see.
“It’s just unacceptable. The ship is so poorly managed,” he said. “I’m fearful for the people that are going up to Alaska.”
The ship deboarded Tuesday morning and is already on its next voyage.
Carnival wouldn’t comment if further protection would be taken on this cruise.
“What about the next cruise? What about people that are sick? Something needs to be done, this has to be stopped,” Sieferston said.
According to Carnival, passengers are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID and tested before trips.
The company said the cruise has no serious health issues and it’s splitting some of the hotel quarantine costs with passengers.
“Our protocols are designed to flex up as needed and additional measures were implemented during the voyage, including mask requirements for guests,” Carnival Cruise Line said in a statement. “In addition, all guests who were scheduled to continue on with the ship’s next cruise to Alaska were tested and any guests who tested positive were disembarked. Carnival provided transportation and lodging support for guests who needed to quarantine per CDC guidelines. The ship departed on its next cruise on Tuesday afternoon as scheduled.
“We are committed to protecting the health and safety of our guests, crew and the communities we visit, including preparing the ship for its next voyage with thorough and effective sanitation measures.”
Copyright 2022 KING via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/05/more-than-100-passengers-test-positive-covid-cruise-ship/ | 2022-05-06T17:38:59Z |
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.wvva.com/2022/05/05/queen-miss-traditional-royal-garden-party-season/ | 2022-05-06T17:39:07Z |
Rescuers: Man pulled to safety after trapped in grain bin for hours
STURGIS, Ky. (WFIE/Gray News) - Rescuers were dealing with a person stuck in a grain bin in Kentucky for several hours on Wednesday.
WFIE reports fire officials said a man, later identified as Doug Omer, became trapped in one of his own farm bins at around noon.
Officials said he hit a hot spot, a pocket of air under the grain that can suck a person down, when he was inside.
Crews said they were initially planning to cut a hole in the bin, but instead, they used a vacuum to get the grain out from around Omer and eventually rescued him at about 4:30 p.m.
Omer’s daughter said her dad was conscious and breathing while crews worked to get him free. Omer was transported to a local hospital by a medical helicopter after the rescue.
Officials said another person was also briefly trapped up to his knees while trying to help Omer, but he had to be rescued as crews worked to get Omer.
Rescuers did not immediately share what injuries, if any, Omer suffered in Wednesday’s incident.
Copyright 2022 WFIE via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/05/05/rescuers-man-pulled-safety-after-trapped-grain-bin-hours/ | 2022-05-06T17:39:13Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* 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) - Mostly cloudy and windy with showers likely in the morning. Scattered afternoon showers. Highs 79 to 84. Trades 15 to 30 mph.
Tonight, Mostly cloudy and breezy. Scattered windward and mauka showers, isolated showers leeward. Lows 68 to 73. Trades 15 to 25 mph.
Partly cloudy conditions with breezy trades and scattered showers continue through Mother's Day weekend. Highs 81 to 86. Lows 68 to 73. Trades 15 to 25 mph.
High pressure sliding by to the north and northeast of the state will keep breezy trade winds in place through late next week, with the strongest trades expected today through Saturday. Clouds and showers will favor windward and mauka areas, but will occasionally reach leeward areas. An upper level low west of the state will bring considerable high cloud cover across the eastern half of the state into Saturday. A period of wet trades may move through Monday night and Tuesday as some old frontal remnants swing through the island chain. A return to typical trade wind weather is expected to resume from mid to late next week.
Surf along south facing shores will hold near the advisory level today, then slowly ease over the weekend as the large south swell begins to move out. Surf along east facing shores will remain rough through next week due to the strong trades in place. Surf along exposed north and west facing shores will fade today as a late-season northwest swell moves out. With the exception of the east facing shores, small surf is expected next week.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/aloha-friday-weather-cloudy-conditions-with-breezy-trades-and-trade-showers/article_d78f7b68-cd49-11ec-abad-df3fddde10c5.html | 2022-05-06T17:59:48Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 05: People walk by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 05, 2022 in New York City. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 1000 points as inflation fears continue to worry investors. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(CNN) -- Stocks sank again in early trading Friday morning. A solid jobs report was not enough to convince investors to look for bargains following Thursday's more-than-1,000-point plunge.
The Dow was down more than 100 points in late-morning trading, after plummeting more than 500 points shortly after the opening bell. Nike was the biggest drag on the blue chips, falling nearly 5%. Nike rival Adidas issued a lousy earnings report Friday because of weakness in China.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also tumbled again Friday, falling 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. All three indexes are down for the week.
The Dow is on pace for its sixth consecutive weekly loss, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen for the past five. The stock market is now at its lowest point for the year.
"It's a crazy time," said Scott Lepene, co-chair of Thompson Hine. "The market is reacting as if we are in a recession. We may not have bottomed out just yet." | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/dow-falls-again-as-wall-street-rout-continues/article_beaf67b4-cd50-11ec-bbc9-07cf6f282fe2.html | 2022-05-06T17:59:54Z |
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People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/explosion-damages-hotel-in-cuban-capital-8-deaths-reported/article_cff25232-cd61-11ec-a8fb-9f0073854dcd.html | 2022-05-06T18:00:01Z |
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United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/one-person-in-critical-condition-after-assault-in-waikiki-suspect-arrested/article_2a04f7c2-cd4c-11ec-8b92-bfee8d4fbf12.html | 2022-05-06T18:00:07Z |
(CNN) -- Alina Kabaeva, a woman who has been romantically linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is included in the sixth proposed package of European Union sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, according to two European diplomatic sources.
At this stage, names can be taken off or added at member states' discretion and is expected to be a point of negotiation when any new sanctions package is proposed, an EU Commission source told CNN.
The EU has not officially signed off on the draft proposal.
"Discussions are going on. It's not a piece of cake, but we have to wait and see," one of the diplomatic sources told CNN on Friday morning.
CNN has reached out to Russia's National Media Group, of which Kabaeva is head, for comment on the proposed sanctions.
Kabaeva, who was born in 1983, was first linked to Putin more than a decade ago, while she was a medal-winning gymnast. Putin, who is divorced, has denied a relationship with her.
In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that US officials had been debating whether or not to place sanctions on Kabaeva, with concerns that such a move might increase tensions further because it could be an extreme personal blow to Putin.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is also among the individuals who are included in the proposed sixth round of EU sanctions, according to two sources who have seen the full documents.
The proposed sanctions are out of touch with "common sense," Russian Orthodox Church spokesperson Vladimir Legoida said Wednesday, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
"The more indiscriminate (these) sanctions become, the more they lose touch with common sense and the harder it becomes to reach peace, which is what the Russian Orthodox Church prays for at every service with the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch," Legoida said in a Telegram post.
"Only those completely ignorant of the history of our Church can seek to intimidate its clergy and believers by compiling some lists," Legoida said.
The EU has been ratcheting up its economic action against Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine. Most recently, the bloc has proposed a ban on Russian oil imports, something that would have a major impact on Russia's economy, though Hungary, an EU member state with close links to Putin, is likely to scupper any such plans.
Who is Alina Kabaeva?
Kabaeva and Putin reportedly met when she was a young gymnast, who won multiple medals domestically, at European competitions and at the Olympic Games. She was awarded the gold medal for rhythmic gymnastics at the Athens Games in 2004.
Widely known in her home country, she was chosen as one of the torch bearers when Russia hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia in 2014, an event that took place shortly before Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
Kabaeva has made public statements in support of the Russian military since the start of the war in Ukraine, most recently calling on Russian citizens to rally behind the war effort.
At a recent gymnastics event, she said: "Every family has a history of war, and we shouldn't forget about it. We should hand it over from generation to generation."
According to the Wall Street Journal, US officials say she and her family have become wealthy due to her proximity to Putin, though the Kremlin continues to deny any relationship between the two. The US Treasury department has refused to comment on the case.
Regardless of her actual relationship with the Russian President, if her name does appear on the final list of EU sanctions, Kabaeva -- still relatively unknown outside Russia -- and her finances will come under huge international scrutiny.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/putins-reputed-girlfriend-alina-kabaeva-included-in-proposed-eu-sanctions-list-sources-say/article_ddbb6350-cd56-11ec-b67a-b3b5b5009fda.html | 2022-05-06T18:00:13Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
Advocates and survivors call for more to be done to prevent sex trafficking in Waikiki.
WAIKIKI-- A coalition of supporters gathered in Waikiki Thursday to call attention to the "National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women."
Advocates and state lawmakers rallied near the HPD Waikiki Substation, calling for more to be done to end sex tourism in Hawaii. Many wore red dresses, or a red lei, as a symbol of missing indigenous persons nationwide.
"Honestly this whole industry they see us something that's lifeless, that's nothing more ornamental than the lei that we are wearing today," one speaker recounting working luaus as a minor, "They would literally ask how much. And if I declined and told them no they would ask me to refer them to someone else."
Khara Jabola Carolus says reports made on the DHS hotline point to a crisis in Hawaii.
"Some of the data points that are really shocking are that 37 per cent of child sex trafficking victims that have ben reported recently are native Hawaiian children," she said.
In 2 studies conducted with Arizona State University, findings indicated Hawaiian women effected disproportionately-- with 64 to 77 percent of survivors of sex trafficking being Native Hawaiian.
"Women, girls and Mahu. Because we have not been recognized in regards to violence, mistreatment. When someone goes missing it is not handled in the same way our white counterparts can be," Dayna Schultz told KITV 4.
Advocates called today historic with federal and state recognition of 'Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl's Day.'
"When I had my experience of domestic violence 20 years ago, there was nothing like this around. I didn't have any advocates or anyone from my culture that could hold me when I was most vulnerable," Schultz added.
The state legislature has taken some steps by creating a task force to investigate missing and murdered Native Hawaiian women and children, but advocates say more can be done.
Khara Jabola Carolus added, "I hope that we can pass really strong legislation that begins to dismantle the sex industry here. I think its uncomfortable topic here but- No sex buyers, no sex trafficking. It's that simple."
Jeremy Lee joined KITV after over a decade & a half in broadcast news from coast to coast on the mainland. Jeremy most recently traveled the country documenting protests & civil unrest. | https://www.kitv.com/news/missing-murdered-indigenous-women-honored-in-waikiki/article_409e3e08-cd15-11ec-9b7d-a36959630f80.html | 2022-05-06T18:00:19Z |
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United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary
People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/authorities-looking-for-woman-last-seen-in-cheyenne/article_7e9ce75c-2e8a-59c6-b533-a6998e2ccc9c.html | 2022-05-06T18:56:18Z |
Recently arrested by the Cheyenne Police Department:
Carla M. Salyards, 41, of Atlantic Drive for misdemeanor false reporting of a crime at 7:21 p.m. Wednesday at her residence.
Stephen Q. Ashley, 45, of Dell Range Boulevard for misdemeanor domestic battery at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday at his residence.
Ricky J. Dougherty, 42, transient, on a misdemeanor warrant out of Natrona County for failure to appear at 1:40 p.m. Wednesday in the 3200 block of Frontier Street.
Michelle L. Peoples, 41, transient, for felony motor vehicle theft (greater than $1,000) and on a felony warrant for failure to appear at 1:15 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Frontier Street and Ridge Road.
Jonathan E. Barnett, 37, of Desmet Drive on a misdemeanor probation/ISP violation and/or sanction at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Cheyenne-Laramie County Probation and Parole Office, 1934 Wyott Drive.
Nicole L. Wurtz, 36, of East 17th Street on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday in the 1900 block of East Lincolnway.
Joseph E. Cromwell, 60, of Albin Lane on a felony warrant out of Laramie County District Court for failure to appear, and on two misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear at 6 a.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of East 23rd Street.
Kelly A. Chavez, 50, transient, for misdemeanor unlawful entry onto property at 3:56 a.m. Wednesday in the 3300 block of West College Drive.
Ivan A. Fischer, 47, of East Gopp Court for misdemeanor public intoxication and refusing to obey, and on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to pay at 2 a.m. Wednesday in the 1600 block of East 19th Street.
Yvonne L. Kilroy, 51, of Jackson Street for misdemeanor resisting arrest and public intoxication at 9:40 p.m. Tuesday in the 2000 block of East Dell Range Boulevard.
Malinda S. Cruz, 35, of Dell Range Boulevard on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in the 1100 block of West Lincolnway.
Leslie E. Whiteface, 36, of Pershing Boulevard for misdemeanor domestic battery at 1:40 p.m. Tuesday in the 4100 block of East Pershing Boulevard; and by the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office on a misdemeanor warrant for probation violation at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday at the Laramie County jail, 1910 Pioneer Ave.
Peter S. Leslie, 39, of Iron Mountain Road for misdemeanor driving under the influence (controlled substance, first in 10 years), possession/use of methamphetamine, resisting arrest, giving false identity and refusing to obey at 3:49 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Gordon Road and North Avenue C-4.
Amanda L. Joy, 46, of Ridge Road on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to pay at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Logan Avenue and East 13th Street.
Nigel D. Latham, 38, of Capitol Avenue for misdemeanor interference with a peace officer without injury and possession of marijuana, and on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the 3600 block of Dell Range Boulevard.
Sebastian M. Moore, 23, of Taft Avenue for misdemeanor domestic battery, interference with an emergency call and false imprisonment at 6 p.m. Monday at his residence; and by the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office on a misdemeanor warrant for probation violation at 10:15 a.m. Wednesday at the Laramie County jail.
Brandon J. Bond, 28, transient, for misdemeanor resisting arrest and public intoxication at 12:10 a.m. Monday in the 1900 block of Logan Avenue.
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Recently arrested by the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office:
Dino B.R. Zumbo, 31, of McCann Avenue for misdemeanor violation of a protection order at 1:24 p.m. Wednesday at his residence.
Eric D. Breazeale, 49, of Madison Avenue on a misdemeanor court order and a misdemeanor warrant for violation of a protection order at 12:50 p.m. Wednesday at the Laramie County Governmental Complex, 309 W. 20th St.
William C. Davis, 66, of Mesa Trail South on a misdemeanor warrant for property destruction (less than $1,000) at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Laramie County Governmental Complex.
Daniel A. Shinost, 27, of Cribbon Avenue on a misdemeanor warrant out of Hot Springs County for failure to appear at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of East Fox Farm Road.
Hunter G. Munson, 18, transient, on a misdemeanor city court order at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Laramie County jail.
Lance L. Gibson, 40, of Terry Road on a felony probation/parole violator arrest without a warrant at 9:25 a.m. Tuesday at the Cheyenne-Laramie County Probation and Parole Office.
Jedaiah W. Sneed, 41, of East First Avenue on a misdemeanor warrant for probation violation at 2 p.m. Monday at the Laramie County Governmental Complex.
Victoria L. Reynolds, 24, of Converse Avenue on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear at 7:50 a.m. Monday at the Laramie County jail.
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Recently arrested by Wyoming Highway Patrol:
Marvin M. Jackson, 41, of Utah Street for misdemeanor DUI with child passenger at 4:56 p.m. Wednesday at his residence.
Sunshine N. Yang, 33, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for felony possession of a controlled substance (plant form) and felony possession of a Schedule I controlled substance with intent to deliver at 8 a.m. Wednesday at mile marker 349 on eastbound Interstate 80.
Patrick Q. Phasakda, 35, potentially of Fresno, California, for felony possession of a controlled substance (plant form), felony possession of a Schedule I controlled substance with intent to deliver and misdemeanor speeding (12 mph over) at 8 a.m. Wednesday at mile marker 349 on eastbound Interstate 80.
Brock C. Harter, 21, of Ooltewah, Tennessee, for felony possession of a controlled substance (plant form) and felony possession of a Schedule I controlled substance with intent to deliver at 9:17 a.m. Tuesday at mile marker 363 on eastbound I-80.
Avdelkareem F. Alaraj, 20, of Cleveland, Tennessee, for felony possession of a controlled substance (plant form) and felony possession of a schedule I controlled substance with intent to deliver at 9:05 a.m. Tuesday at mile marker 363 on eastbound I-80.
Michael Rubino, 67, of Road 238 on a misdemeanor DUI (alcohol), lane violation, open container violation (first offense) and failure to report crash at 5:43 p.m. Monday at mile marker 39 on northbound Interstate 25.
Angelo I. Monroe, 30, of Terry Road for felony possession of marijuana, felony possession of methamphetamine, felony possession of fentanyl (pill form) and misdemeanor interference with a peace officer at 7:14 a.m. Monday at mile marker 7 on Wyoming Highway 212.
Dylan L. Kramer, 29, potentially of Loveland, Colorado, for felony possession of a stolen vehicle, and for misdemeanor speeding, reckless driving, eluding, interference with a peace officer, driving with a suspended license, possession of marijuana, possession of fentanyl (pill form) and possession of methamphetamine at 7:14 a.m. Monday at mile marker 7 on Wyoming Highway 212.
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Recently arrested by the Pine Bluffs Police Department:
Nicole R. Patterson, 30, of Pine Bluffs for misdemeanor hit and run (property damage) and DUI with child passenger at 12:46 p.m. Monday at her residence. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/police_blotter/police-blotter-5-6-22/article_cbd24215-411a-5b94-80dd-7dfb447ff6ea.html | 2022-05-06T18:56:25Z |
GREEN RIVER -- Sweetwater County Treasurer Joe M Barbuto would like to inform citizens that a property tax refund program is available through the Wyoming Department of Revenue.
To qualify, a person must own and reside in their home, have paid all of their 2021 property tax, and have been a state resident for at least five years. Additionally, an individual's assets cannot have a value of more than $133,651, not including the home's value, one vehicle per adult, retirement accounts, cash value of life insurance policies, or medical savings accounts. Finally, to be eligible, an annual household income cannot exceed $53,610, which is 3/4 of the median household income for Sweetwater County. In no case will the available refund exceed 1/2 of a person's 2021 property tax bill or 1/2 of the median residential property tax liability for Sweetwater County.
The maximum refund amount available is $712.27.
To apply, visit and pick up an application in the County Treasurer's Office at 80 W Flaming Gorge Way in Green River, call the Wyoming Department of Revenue at (307) 777-7320, or apply online at wptrs.wyo.gov.
In addition to the application, a person must provide copies of their 2021 tax bill, receipts for 2021 property tax payments, and income verification for each household member.
Applications must be submitted by June 6, 2022. The Wyoming Department of Revenue will issue refund checks beginning in July of this year through September.
Visit the Sweetwater County Treasurer's Office or call us at 307-872-3720 for more information and assistance in applying. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/property-tax-refund-available-to-sweetwater-county-taxpayers/article_82c2722f-816b-5170-a9b0-993e09c905c5.html | 2022-05-06T18:56:31Z |
SWEETWATER COUNTY -- As technology evolves, so do the many methods used to exploit technology for criminal purposes.
Nearly all crime that once was committed by person, by mail, or over the telephone can be committed over the Internet. Unfortunately, cybercrime can be particularly difficult to investigate and prosecute because it often crosses legal jurisdictions and even international boundaries. The good news is that federal, state and local law enforcement authorities are becoming more sophisticated about cybercrime and are devoting more resources to responding to these threats.
In the last five years, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has investigated over 2.2 million complaints of email, ransomware, and tech support fraud.
Email fraud is a sophisticated scam that targets both businesses and individuals performing transfers of funds. Ransomware is a type of malicious software, or malware, that encrypts data on a computer making it unusable while a malicious cybercriminal holds the data hostage until a demanded ransom is paid. Tech support fraud involves a criminal claiming to provide customer, security, or technical support or service to defraud unwitting individuals.
Obviously if someone has fallen victim to one of these scams by accidentally providing or exchanging important personal or financial information to these criminals, it is imperative that they make a formal report with their local police department or sheriff's office as a first step in bringing these criminals to justice.
But, if there is someone who has been the target of one of these scams and were not victimized because they recognized it as a scam and did not provide or exchange any important personal or financial information, they should know that they can still file a complaint online with the IC3, which will thoroughly review and evaluate your complaint and refer it, if necessary, to the appropriate federal, state, local, or international law enforcement or regulatory agency that has jurisdiction over the matter.
To learn more about today's crime and trends in the digital age, or to report one of these scams, please visit the IC3's website at http://www.ic3.gov. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/sheriffs-office-encourages-the-public-to-report-cybercrime-to-the-internet-crime-complaint-center/article_b4818e6f-b36c-59c0-9985-a49bfddf9a3f.html | 2022-05-06T18:56:37Z |
CDC probing 109 liver illnesses in kids, including 5 deaths
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials are looking into more than 100 possible cases of a mysterious and severe liver disease in children, including five deaths.
About two dozen states reported suspected cases after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a call for doctors to be on the lookout for surprising cases of hepatitis. The cases date back to late October in children under 10. So far, only nine cases in Alabama have been confirmed.
“We are casting a wide net to broaden our understanding,” the CDC’s Dr. Jay Butler said Friday.
What’s causing the illnesses isn’t clear. Adenovirus was detected in half the children, “but we do not know if it is the cause,” he said.
There are dozens of adenoviruses, many of them associated with coldlike symptoms, fever, sore throat and pink eye. But some versions can trigger other problems, including inflammation in the stomach and intestines. Officials are exploring a link to one particular version that’s normally associated with gut inflammation.
U.S. health officials haven’t seen evidence of an unusually large wave of adenovirus infections, although many doctors don’t usually test for it.
This week, the World Health Organization officials said they had reports of almost 300 probable cases in 20 countries.
In the U.S., most of the children were toddlers, nearly all were hospitalized and eight received liver transplants
“It’s still a very rare occurrence,” Butler said. “A majority of these cases have recovered and recovered fully.”
The mystery goes back to November, when Alabama health officials began looking into the first of nine cases of severe hepatitis in children in that state. None tested positive for the viruses that commonly cause hepatitis. However, testing was positive for adenovirus.
Butler said none of the Alabama children were vaccinated against COVID-19. That has been ruled out as a possible cause, “and we hope this information helps clarify some of the speculation circulating online.”
Symptoms of hepatitis, or inflammation of the liver, include fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, dark urine, light-colored stools, joint pain and jaundice.
In addition to Alabama, the states reporting suspected cases: California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin. Puerto Rico also reported at least one case.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/cdc-probing-109-liver-illnesses-kids-including-5-deaths/ | 2022-05-06T20:29:28Z |
Daunte Wright’s mother briefly detained after recording traffic stop
BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) — The mother of Daunte Wright, who was fatally shot by a suburban Minneapolis police officer, said she was injured while she was briefly detained by one of the same department’s officers after she stopped to record an arrest of a person during a traffic stop.
Katie Wright said Thursday she was worried about what the Brooklyn Center officers might do to the person being handcuffed when she pulled over on Wednesday night. In April 2021, her 20-year-old son, who was Black, was killed during a traffic stop by Kim Potter, a white officer who said she confused her handgun for her Taser.
“All I was doing was my civic duty to pull over and make sure that those babies got home safe to their families because I don’t want what happened to me to happen to any other families,” Wright said.
The Associated Press left a message Friday asking whether the officer involved would face discipline.
Brooklyn Center police released body camera video that shows an officer crossing several lanes of traffic on Highway 252 and asking Wright for her driver’s license. Wright refused, telling the officer she didn’t need to show him her license because she hadn’t been pulled over.
The officer then pulled her out of her vehicle, took her phone and placed it on the roof of her car before leading her toward a grassy median while holding her arm behind her back. Wright said the officer grabbed her so forcefully that he injured her wrist.
Wright told him her name and said “you guys killed my son. I’m going to videotape them,’’ gesturing to the other officers. The officer told Wright he would send her a ticket in the mail and both returned to their vehicles.
Brooklyn Center police union President Chuck Valleau praised the officer for what he called a “professional response and restraint during the incident.”
Along with the video, the Brooklyn Center police department released a statement that said the footage was released “in an effort to promote public safety and dispel widespread rumor or unrest.”
Potter shot Daunte Wright as former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin ‘s trial was getting underway last year in the killing of George Floyd and tensions were high in the area. Wright’s death sparked several nights of protests in Brooklyn Center and revived painful memories of the sometimes violent unrest that erupted after Floyd’s death in May 2020.
Potter, who resigned following the shooting, was convicted in December of manslaughter and sentenced this year to two years in prison.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/daunte-wrights-mother-briefly-detained-after-recording-traffic-stop/ | 2022-05-06T20:29:35Z |
Dog found tied to fire hydrant with backpack full of toys, heartbreaking note from owner
GREEN BAY, Wis. (Gray News) - A dog was found tied to a fire hydrant in a neighborhood in Green Bay earlier this week, and the situation has since went viral.
But the Wisconsin Humane Society showed compassion to the dog’s owner, who they say very clearly loved the dog.
The 6-year-old mixed breed named Baby Girl was left tied to a fire hydrant with a backpack full of her favorite toys and a heartbreaking note from her owner, citing struggles with medical complications and being unable to care for the dog.
The humane society said the way the leash was secured was so the dog wouldn’t be hit by a car, and the owner leaving her in a populated neighborhood ensured that she would be found quickly.
A post from the shelter reads, “We are so sorry you had to part with your best friend. It’s evident just how much you loved her and we can see you did your best while struggling with your own medical complications and challenges of life. We see your love in the bag you carefully packed with all of her favorite things ... We see your love in how happy and healthy Baby Girl looks. And we see your love in the note you left, pleading for someone to help her when you no longer could.”
Baby Girl will be up for adoption soon, but for now, she’s getting lots of attention and love from the people at the humane society.
While giving up a pet can be traumatic, the humane society wants people to know they can bring an animal to the shelter directly if they need to say goodbye and find them a new forever home.
Copyright 2022 Gray News, Inc. All rights reserved. CNN Newsource contributed to this report. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/dog-found-tied-fire-hydrant-with-backpack-full-toys-heartbreaking-note-owner/ | 2022-05-06T20:29:42Z |
Dog gets 2nd chance at adoption after family saves him from meat market
ST. LOUIS (Gray News) - An animal shelter in Missouri shared a special story this week during an annual fundraising day in the St. Louis area.
The Five Acres Animal Shelter introduced its audience to Tayo, one of their latest dogs brought to their no-kill animal shelter.
Representatives with the shelter said Tayo was found by a military family stationed in South Korea. The family told them they first spotted him at a pet store and asked what happened to him after noticing he was not in the window anymore.
The pet store reportedly told the family that the dog was no longer available for adoption because he was sold to a meat market. So, the family took matters into their own hands and rescued the animal.
Tayo got his vaccines, other medical attention needed, and the family brought the little guy to the states.
The animal shelter named him Tayo after a Korean cartoon that means “little bus” as he might be little but he is not lacking energy.
During the Give STL Day fundraising event, Five Acres said the money raised would go to helping more animals like Tayo.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/dog-gets-2nd-chance-adoption-after-family-saves-him-meat-market/ | 2022-05-06T20:29:49Z |
Driver charged after crashing into Harrisonburg Subway
Published: May. 6, 2022 at 3:35 PM EDT|Updated: 53 minutes ago
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - The driver of a van is charged with reckless driving after crashing into a Subway location along South Carlton Street on Friday afternoon.
According to Sgt. Wayne Westfall, the driver was in the neighboring McDonald’s parking lot, accelerated forward, lost control and rammed into the Subway location.
No injuries were reported.
Westfall said the Subway will be closed for awhile.
Stay with WHSV News for updates.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/driver-charged-after-crashing-into-harrisonburg-subway/ | 2022-05-06T20:29:56Z |
Goodwill find in Texas turns out to be ancient Roman bust
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A marble bust that a Texas woman bought for about $35 from a Goodwill store is temporarily on display at a San Antonio museum after experts determined it was a centuries-old sculpture missing from Germany since World War II.
The bust, which art collector Laura Young found at Goodwill in 2018, once belonged in the collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, according to the San Antonio Museum of Art, which is temporarily displaying the piece until it is returned to Germany next year.
The ancient Roman bust dates to the first century B.C. or first century A.D. and historians believe it may depict a son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in civil war by Julius Caesar, the museum said. The sculpture was last seen in Aschaffenburg, Germany, and experts believe a soldier took the sculpture and brought it to the United States, the museum said.
A Sotheby’s consultant identified the work and it was further authenticated, the museum said.
“We are very pleased that a piece of Bavarian history that we thought was lost has reappeared and will soon be able to return to its rightful location,” said Bernd Schreiber, president of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens, and Lakes.
Young said there were a few months of “intense excitement” after learning the history behind the piece, which she found on the floor beneath a table at a Goodwill in Austin, Texas.
Young reached a deal to return the bust to Germany with the help of an attorney who specializes in international art law, Austin radio station KUT reported. Terms of that deal were confidential.
“But it was bittersweet since I knew I couldn’t keep or sell the (bust),” she said. “Either way, I’m glad I got to be a small part of (its) long and complicated history, and he looked great in the house while I had him.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/goodwill-find-texas-turns-out-be-ancient-roman-bust/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:02Z |
Home’s hidden room has big reveal on video
RENO, Nev. (KOLO/Gray News) - Justine Sidie went to visit her parents in Reno. They had just bought a new house, and her dad noticed what he thought was a fake wall in the garage.
“If you look at the window, there’s only a two-inch gap between the window and the wall and then on the outside there was like a 5-foot gap,” said Sidie.
So her dad grabbed a saw, creating a small hole in the wall. Sidie filmed the whole thing, posting what they found on TikTok.
“We cut a little hole in the wall, and I stuck my phone through the hole and we saw all these shelves,” she said.
Sidie’s TikTok went viral, and millions of people wanted to know what they found in the hidden room.
“Thousands of likes and comments and questions, and everybody was demanding for a part two,” Sidie said.
When Sidie and her dad crawled through the hole, they saw what they thought was a door.
“When we were inside, we found where there would have been a door,” she said. “You can’t see it from the garage because there’s a shelf built into the wall to block it, so it just looks like a shelf.”
Once you get inside, the space is about 5-feet wide, and six shelving units run the length of the garage. Most of the shelves were stacked high with boxes, full of food, medical supplies and survival kits.
After reaching out to a former owner of the house, Sidie’s parents guess that the room was created and stocked in the early 2000′s.
While they didn’t find anything of significant value, Sidie is ready to go back and keep searching.
“A lot of the comments were, you know, check for a shelter underground or buried stuff throughout the property,” Sidie said.
Copyright 2022 KOLO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/homes-hidden-room-has-big-reveal-video/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:13Z |
Judge: Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified for reelection
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge in Georgia on Friday found that U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for reelection, concluding that a group of voters who had challenged her eligibility failed to prove she engaged in insurrection after taking office. But the decision will ultimately be up to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Before reaching his decision, state Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot held a daylong hearing in April that included arguments from lawyers for the voters and for Greene, as well as extensive questioning of Greene herself. He also received extensive briefing from both sides.
State law says Beaudrot must submit his findings to Raffensperger, who has to decide whether Greene should be removed from the ballot.
Raffensperger is being challenged by a Trump-backed candidate in this month’s GOP primary and would likely face huge blowback from right-wing voters if he was to disagree with Beaudrot’s finding.
A Raffensperger spokesperson said in an email that the secretary of state had received Beaudrot’s recommendation and “will release his final decision soon.”
The challenge to Greene’s eligibility was filed by voters who allege the GOP congresswoman played a significant role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that disrupted Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory. That puts her in violation of a seldom-invoked part of the 14th Amendment having to do with insurrection and makes her ineligible to run for reelection, they argue.
During the April 22 hearing on the challenge, Ron Fein, a lawyer for the voters who filed the challenge, noted that in a TV interview the day before the attack at the U.S. Capitol, Greene said the next day would be “our 1776 moment.” Lawyers for the voters said some supporters of then-President Donald Trump used that reference to the American Revolution as a call to violence.
“In fact, it turned out to be an 1861 moment,” Fein said, alluding to the start of the Civil War.
Greene is a conservative firebrand and Trump ally who has become one of the GOP’s biggest fundraisers in Congress by stirring controversy and pushing baseless conspiracy theories. During the recent hearing, Greene was questioned under oath. She repeated the unfounded claim that widespread fraud led to Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, said she didn’t recall various incendiary statements and social media posts attributed to her and denied ever supporting violence.
Greene acknowledged encouraging a rally to support Trump but she said she wasn’t aware of plans to storm the Capitol or to disrupt the electoral count using violence. Greene said she feared for her safety during the riot and used social media posts to encourage people to be safe and to remain calm.
The challenge to her eligibility is based on a section of the 14th Amendment that says no one can serve in Congress “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” Ratified shortly after the Civil War, it was meant in part to keep representatives who had fought for the Confederacy from returning to Congress.
Greene “urged, encouraged and helped facilitate violent resistance to our own government, our democracy and our Constitution,” Fein said, concluding: “She engaged in insurrection.”
James Bopp, a lawyer for Greene, argued that his client engaged in protected political speech and was, herself, a victim of the attack on the Capitol, not a participant.
Beaudrot wrote that there’s no evidence that Greene participated in the attack on the Capitol or that she communicated with or gave directives to people who were involved.
“Whatever the exact parameters of the meaning of ‘engage’ as used in the 14th Amendment, and assuming for these purposes that the Invasion was an insurrection, Challengers have produced insufficient evidence to show that Rep. Greene ‘engaged’ in that insurrection after she took the oath of office on January 3, 2021,” he wrote.
Greene’s “public statements and heated rhetoric” may have contributed to the environment that led to the attack, Beaudrot wrote, but her statements are protected by the First Amendment right to free speech and expressing such political views, “no matter how aberrant they may be” before she was sworn in as a member of Congress does not amount to insurrection.
The challenge to Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection was filed by five voters who live in her district, and the procedure for such a challenge is outlined in Georgia law. Beaudrot’s decision is not binding on Raffensperger, who must determine if Green is qualified to run for reelection.
Once Raffensperger makes his decision, either side has 10 days to appeal it in Fulton County Superior Court. Raffensperger is facing a primary challenge on the May 24 ballot after he refused to bend to pressure from Trump to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. Raffensperger has decried the Capitol attack, writing in his book that he found it “highly objectionable” that “people are now trying to minimize what happened on January 6.”
The Georgia complaint was filed by Free Speech for People, a national election and campaign finance reform group, on behalf of the five voters. The group filed similar challenges in Arizona and North Carolina.
Greene has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of the law that the voters are using to try to keep her off the ballot. That suit is pending.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/judge-marjorie-taylor-greene-is-qualified-reelection/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:20Z |
Man charged in Dave Chappelle attack pleads not guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man charged in an attack on comedian Dave Chappelle during a performance at the Hollywood Bowl pleaded not guilty Friday to four misdemeanors.
Isaiah Lee, 23, entered the not guilty pleas in a Los Angeles courtroom to charges of battery, possessing a deadly weapon with intent to assault unlawfully crossing from a spectator area onto a stage at a theatrical event and interfering with or delaying such an event with unlawful conduct.
Lee, who remains jailed, was ordered to stay at least 100 yards (91 meters) from Chappelle, whose lawyer called in to the hearing to request the protective order.
Authorities say Lee was arrested Tuesday night after rushing the stage during Chappelle’s set in the last of a four-night stint at the Hollywood Bowl that was part of the “Netflix Is a Joke” comedy festival.
He was carrying a replica handgun with a large blade that folded out of it similar to a pocket knife, according to police, who released a photo of the weapon.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office determined that he had not committed any felonies and referred the case to the LA city attorney’s office, which charged him with the four misdemeanors.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/man-charged-dave-chappelle-attack-pleads-not-guilty/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:28Z |
Man who stormed Capitol in caveman costume gets prison
(AP) – A New York City judge’s son who stormed the U.S. Capitol wearing a furry “caveman” costume was sentenced on Friday to eight months in prison.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Aaron Mostofsky was “literally on the front lines” of the mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
“What you and others did on that day imposed an indelible stain on how our nation is perceived, both at home and abroad, and that can’t be undone,” the judge told Mostofsky, 35.
Boasberg also sentenced Mostofsky to one year of supervised release and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $2,000 in restitution.
Mostofsky had asked the judge for mercy, saying he was ashamed of his “contribution to the chaos of that day.”
“I feel sorry for the officers that had to deal with that chaos,” said Mostofsky, who must report to prison on or after June 5.
Also on Friday, a federal judge agreed to postpone a trial in July for members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group charged with conspiring to forcefully halt the peaceful transfer of power after President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
A first jury trial for five of nine Oath Keepers members charged with seditious conspiracy is now scheduled to start on Sept. 26. A second trial for the other four defendants is scheduled to start on Nov. 29.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed to give defense lawyers more time to prepare for trial but indicated that he isn’t inclined to grant another delay. A few defense attorneys expressed concern about the possible impact if a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot releases its report around the same time as the first trial. Mehta said that wouldn’t be a reason for another delay, “even if 435 members of Congress start reading from the report on the courthouse steps.”
More than 780 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 280 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. More than 160 defendants have been sentenced, including over 60 who have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 14 days to five years and three months.
In Mostofsky’s case, federal sentencing guidelines recommended a prison sentence ranging from 10 months to 16 months. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Mostofsky was one of the first rioters to enter the restricted area around the Capitol and among the first to breach the building itself, through the Senate Wing doors, according to prosecutors. He pushed against a police barrier that officers were trying to move and stole a Capitol Police bulletproof vest and riot shield, prosecutors said.
“Mostofsky cheered on other rioters as they clashed with police outside the Capitol building, even celebrating with a fist-bump to one of his fellow rioters,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Inside the building, Mostofsky followed rioters who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up a staircase toward the Senate chambers. He took the police vest and shield with him when he left the Capitol, about 20 minutes after entering.
Mostofsky was carrying a walking stick and dressed in a furry costume. He told a friend that the costume expressed his belief that “even a caveman” would know that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Mostofsky frequently wears costumes at events, according to his lawyers.
“To put the matter with understatement, the New Yorker is quirky even by the standards of his home city,” they wrote.
A New York Post reporter interviewed him inside the Capitol during the riot. He told the reporter that he stormed the Capitol because “the election was stolen.”
Mostofsky has worked as an assistant architect in New York. His father, Steven Mostofsky, is a state court judge in Brooklyn.
“The fact that his father is a judge means that he should have been better able than other defendants to understand why the claims of election fraud were false,” said Justice Department prosecutor Michael Romano.
Boasberg said none of the supportive letters submitted by Mostofsky’s family and friends explain how he “went down this rabbit hole of election fantasy.”
“I hope at this point you understand that your indulgence in that fantasy has led to this tragic situation,” the judge added.
Aaron Mostofsky pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of civil disorder and misdemeanor charges of theft of government property and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds. Mostofsky was the first Capitol rioter to be sentenced for a civil disorder conviction.
Mostofsky’s lawyers asked for a sentence of home confinement, probation and community service. Defense attorney Nicholas Smith described Mostofsky as a “spectator” who “drifted with the crowd” and didn’t go to the Capitol to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.
“He did things he should not have done,” Smith said. “But there’s a big difference between an ideologue who is motivated to commit violence and someone who ends up doing bad things when they find” themselves in a crowd.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/man-who-stormed-capitol-caveman-costume-gets-prison/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:38Z |
Meet Zeus, the world’s tallest living dog
(CNN) - This Great Dane may only be two years old, but he’s already breaking world records.
Zeus from Bedford, Texas is now the world’s tallest living dog, according to Guinness World Records. He stands at more than 3 feet and 5 inches tall.
Zeus’ owner got him when he was an 8-week-old puppy, and she said he was even big as a puppy.
He eats 12 cups of dog food daily and an occasional fried egg.
The tallest dog ever recorded was also a Great Dane named Zeus, who died in 2014. He measured at a whopping 3 feet and 10 inches tall.
According to the American Kennel Club, due to their large size, Great Danes are prone to a series of health conditions and typically have a shorter life span than other dogs.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/meet-zeus-worlds-tallest-living-dog/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:46Z |
Meth dealer in Mount Jackson to serve time in federal prison
MOUNT JACKSON, Va. (WHSV) - A man from Mount Jackson was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison to be followed by five years of supervised release.
It comes after a three-day jury trial where they found 53-year-old Merle Brook Stephens guilty of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, carrying a firearm in relation to drug trafficking, and possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon.
According to evidence shown during the trial, Stephens had more than 323 grams of meth on him and $3,637 in cash when he was arrested Dec. 7, 2018.
The Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office, the Mount Jackson Police Department, the Woodstock Police Department, the Timberville Police Department and the Shenandoah County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office helped with the investigation of this case.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/meth-dealer-mount-jackson-serve-time-federal-prison/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:52Z |
Mother turns to social media as baby formula shortage grows
PHOENIX (Arizona’s Family/Gray News) - One mother has discovered that finding the specific type of formula she needs for her infant son is becoming increasingly more difficult amid supply chain issues.
Arizona’s Family reports Jessica Contreras’ son Hartford, who is 6 months old, is dealing with medical issues that limit the type of formula he can use. Hartford has severe allergies and battles moderate eczema.
“Our routine consists of steroids twice a day, pretty much throughout his body,” Contreras said. “Two different types of steroids, moisturizing ointment a few times a day, daily allergy medicine, probiotics and bleach baths three to four times a week.”
The skin conditions have left Hartford with scabs, cuts and bruises all over his skin.
“We found out he was allergic to eggs and casein, which is a protein found in most mammals’ milk, cow’s milk and goat’s milk, so that was helpful because we found out the formula he was using had casein, which most formulas do,” Contreras said.
Contreras can’t breastfeed Hartford, so she turned to social media for help finding the right formula for her child.
“It was beyond what I ever imagined when I posted on Facebook. I really thought I was just asking my friends and family to keep an eye out when they went to the store,” Contreras said. “Within days, I had moms not only in Arizona but throughout the country offering to help me.”
Hartford now has enough formula for a few months, and Contreras acknowledges she is lucky.
“I purchased some formula on OfferUp, and I sent money to women throughout the country, and thankfully they returned formula, but that’s not always the case,” she said.
Contreras now hopes to pay it forward, already sending formula she will not be using to other moms in need.
Copyright 2022 Arizona’s Family via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/mother-turns-social-media-baby-formula-shortage-grows/ | 2022-05-06T20:30:58Z |
Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative prepares for incoming storms
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - With severe weather approaching our area and more storms to come with warmer weather, Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative is gearing up for potential power outages.
SVEC said that while severe weather can vary in frequency, they never take a break from being prepared to help serve the community.
“For us preparing for a storm, it kind of happens all year round,” said Preston Knight, public relations coordinator for SVEC. “It’s not something in the moment or when a bad forecast is in the horizon you suddenly get ready for it. It’s really a year-round job for us.”
Knight adds that while their preparation for thunderstorms isn’t as visible to the public as it is for snowstorms, they always have trucks and crew on standby.
If you experience a power outage during this weekend’s storms or any other storms in the future, you can report it by calling 1-800-234-7832 or by going to their website.
For Dominion Energy customers, you can report an outage by calling 1-866-366-4357 or by visiting their website.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/shenandoah-valley-electric-cooperative-prepares-incoming-storms/ | 2022-05-06T20:31:07Z |
Should we stop changing the clock? Lawmakers debate making daylight saving time permanent
The ‘Sunshine Protection Act’ has passed the U.S. Senate to make daylight saving time permanent. Sleep experts express that permanent change could have pro’s and con’s.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are spending time on a bill to stop the changing of the clock. Yet some sleep experts believe the idea of making daylight saving time permanent could have its pro’s and con’s.
Senate lawmakers passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March. The bill is still awaiting action in the House.
The bipartisan bill is driven by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and has the backing of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). Markey’s office believes most people in America want to stop changing the clocks. His office also believes it will help the economy and the climate as more people are encouraged to spend time outside.
“Daylight savings time in the evening just makes it possible for people to be walking on sunshine,” said Markey, “...it makes it more likely that they’re going to go out and exercise, go shopping, and so it’s something that people want to have happen in our country.”
Dr. Erin Flynn-Evans, a contractor for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, believes it is wise to stop changing the clock.
“We know that changing the clocks is not helpful in general for us as a society. We see all these negative health effects that pop up right after the time change especially in the spring when we lose an hour of sleep. And so, we are all for abandoning these time changes” said Flynn-Evans.
Flynn-Evans said the time can change contribute to low productivity, increased car accidents, and negative health effects such as heart attacks.
However, Flynn-Evans said the American Academy of Sleep Medicine endorses a permanent standard time over daylight saving. She said standard time is better aligned with our bodies and the sun.
“We don’t actually get any more light during daylight saving time. In the summer, we just have more light in general because of the way that the earth is tilted. And so, in daylight saving time the big consequence that nobody talks about is that in the winter we would just shift the timing of when we have to wake up and so sunrise would happen really late. And, that’s where we get negative mood effects,” she said.
Flynn-Evans added young people such as teenagers, who have to wake up early for school, could feel the most negative effects of a permanent daylight saving time.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio spoke on the floor of the Senate following the passage of the Sunshine Protection Act in March. In part, he outlined benefits of daylight saving time. He said in part, “for example, reduced crime as there’s light later in the day. We’ve seen decreases in child obesity. A decrease in seasonal depression that many feel during standard time. And then the practical one, one that I’ve witnessed with my own eyes…. We’re a country [in which] we desperately want our kids to be outside, to be playing, to be doing sports, not just to be sitting in front of a TV or a computer terminal or playing video games all day.”
If the House takes action on the bill and approves it, permanent daylight saving would begin next year across the country.
In 2018, Rubio’s office said Florida legislature enacted year-round daylight saving time. Yet that legislation cannot apply without a change in the federal statute.
His office said “nineteen other states — Alabama, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — have passed similar laws, resolutions, or voter initiatives, and dozens more are looking to do so. If passed by the House and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the Sunshine Protection Act would apply to those states that currently participate in DST, which most states observe for eight months out of the year. States and territories that currently remain on Standard Time year-around would continue to do so.”
Learn more information about the bill here.
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/should-we-stop-changing-clock-lawmakers-debate-making-daylight-saving-time-permanent/ | 2022-05-06T20:31:13Z |
Student admits to fatally stabbing classmate inside high school bathroom, affidavit says
BELTON, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) – A high school student in Texas admitted to detectives he stabbed and killed his classmate inside a school bathroom, according to an arrest affidavit.
The affidavit shows Caysen Tyler Allison, 18, waived his rights against self-incrimination and admitted to killing Jose Luis Ramirez Jr., 18.
The stabbing happened Tuesday at Belton High School, about 70 miles northeast of Austin. Belton police arrived at the school and said they found Ramirez with “large puncture wounds to his chest.”
Ramirez was transported to the hospital in critical condition where he was later pronounced dead. At the hospital, officers said they learned Ramirez sustained “multiple stab and slashes injuries along his chest, back, legs and arm.”
Witnesses at the scene identified the student who stabbed Ramirez as Allison, who allegedly fled from the campus.
The affidavit states police also obtained video that shows Allison brandishing a knife and stabbing Ramirez during a fight in the school bathroom.
“Allison was later arrested and transported to the Belton Police Department where he provided police with a sworn statement he provided after being informed of his rights and waiving them,” the affidavit states.
In the statement to police, Allison allegedly admitted he “stabbed Ramirez Jr. once during a fight between them.”
Police were able to obtain a search warrant to search Allison’s home where they said they recovered a “folding knife covered in what they suspected was blood.”
Allison was booked into the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond.
A GoFundMe page has been created to help Ramirez’s family cover his funeral expenses.
Copyright 2022 KWTX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/student-admits-fatally-stabbing-classmate-inside-high-school-bathroom-affidavit-says/ | 2022-05-06T20:31:24Z |
WATCH: Man cuts grass before stealing lawn mower, police say
Published: May. 6, 2022 at 3:32 PM EDT|Updated: 58 minutes ago
PORT ARTHUR, Tx. (Gray News) – A man in Texas is accused of stealing a lawn mower but made sure to cut the homeowner’s grass before he left.
The Port Arthur Police Department posted security video of the man taking the lawn mower.
The video shows him cutting the homeowner’s front and back yard before running away when officers arrived.
Police say he dragged the lawn mower as he ran and ultimately left it in an alley to evade an arrest.
Officers are looking for the man for an outstanding warrant for burglary of a building.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/watch-man-cuts-grass-before-stealing-lawn-mower-police-say/ | 2022-05-06T20:31:31Z |
What a Roe v. Wade reversal could mean for abortion access across America
(Stacker) - A leaked Supreme Court draft ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade, dated in February and published May 2 by Politico, was confirmed as authentic by Chief Justice John Roberts on May 3.
Votes can change between initial drafts and final rulings, and abortion is still legal in all 50 states and Washington D.C. Still, the leaked document sparked shock, outrage, and protests among those who see the document as a harbinger of what’s to come when the final ruling is announced in June or early July. The publication of the court’s initial draft is unprecedented in history and has been compared by some to the release of the Pentagon Papers.
To explore what overturning Roe v. Wade might mean for abortion access across the United States, Stacker analyzed data from the Guttmacher Institute’s driving distance dataset that aggregates population data at a geographic unit between 600 and 3,000 people. This dataset further determines the median distance from abortion clinics for women of reproductive age—defined in this analysis between the ages of 15 and 49—across 26 states likely to ban or severely restrict abortion access should Roe be overturned. Although Guttmacher’s data relies on census data, which collects gender data as binary, abortion access impacts people beyond those who identify as women.
The landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision put federal protections for abortion rights in place for the first time in U.S. history, marking a major victory for reproductive freedom. But the integrity of Roe eroded over the last few decades. Particularly in recent years, states like Mississippi and Texas have brought legal challenges to the decision by imposing increasingly restrictive abortion laws. These challenges coincide with a new, 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court.
Between 2012 and 2017 alone, at least 276,000 people received abortions outside their home states. And while restrictive bans are still unenforceable right now, some legal experts warn conservative states may next attempt to criminalize traveling to other states for abortion services should Roe be overturned.
An estimated 26 states would certainly or likely move to ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute. This would disproportionately impact abortion access for those with limited financial resources. The most commonly cited reason for seeking an abortion was “socioeconomic concerns,” according to a 2017 study of people who got abortions across 14 countries, including the U.S. Abortions in the U.S. can cost up to $750, depending on the state, clinic, and health insurance coverage, a number that does not include the additional costs associated with crossing state lines, including travel and lodging.
Christie Citranglo contributed reporting for this story.
Current bans limit abortion access and set precedent for more barriers
Until a decision is reached by the Supreme Court this summer, abortion will remain legal in all 50 states and Washington D.C. Overturning Roe v. Wade would not immediately outlaw abortion across the U.S., but it would give states the right to determine the legality of the procedure.
Under current conditions, at what stage and under what circumstances abortions can be performed varies from state to state. In those with the tightest restrictions, multiple bans exist to limit access now and potentially in the future should Roe fall. Bans on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy are enacted in 13 states and are among the most restrictive laws on the books.
Thirteen states have trigger bans that effectively signal intent and establish preemptive legislation to ban abortion in the event that Roe is overturned. If a reversal ruling is reached—acting as the trigger—then the proactive laws established in these states would take effect almost immediately.
Near-total bans include laws that restrict all abortions with certain exceptions like saving the life of the parent or cases of rape.
Some states had abortion bans in place prior to the Roe decision, which became unenforceable after 1973. If Roe falls, these states could seek to reinforce these bans assuming they were never declared unconstitutional.
Four state constitutions have amendments that declare they are not obligated to protect a right to abortion.
Travel distance for abortion access could increase by hundreds of miles
A person seeking a legal abortion in the U.S. travels on average 25 miles to reach a clinic. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, that average distance could increase to 125 miles as clinics in states with abortion bans would likely be forced to close, according to the Myers Abortion Facility Database.
This travel burden becomes more severe in regions experiencing disproportionately low access to reproductive health care and states with restrictive anti-abortion legislation. The north-to-south corridor between North Dakota and Texas, for example, has a high concentration of counties already traveling roughly 250 miles to reach an abortion provider. Some even travel up to 350 miles.
Disparities in abortion access similarly exist in the southern U.S. In the possible reversal of Roe, travel distances in Louisiana could increase from 37 miles, or around half an hour of driving time, to 666 miles just one way—representing more than 11 hours of nonstop driving, and the largest increase in distance of any state.
Residents could have to travel as far as Maryland for legal abortions, according to Michelle Erenberg, director at reproductive health advocacy group Lift Louisiana, in an email interview with Stacker.
“Lawmakers have become much more radicalized in their views on abortion,” Erenberg said, “which has led to more radical policies.” She pointed to new legislation up for review in her home state, HB813, or “The Abolition of Abortion in Louisiana Act of 2022.”
“Under this law, Louisiana can refuse to comply with decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court,” Erenberg said. “Abortion would be considered a homicide, and attempting to get an abortion could be prosecuted as attempted murder or criminal battery.”
Increased travel distances bring increased travel costs, potentially longer wait times to receive care, and time away from work and familial responsibilities. These barriers will disproportionately affect low-income Americans’ access to safe and legal abortions.
A 2021 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that increases in distance to the nearest abortion care facility were associated with significant reductions in legal abortion rates. Conversely, when travel distances were reduced, legal abortion rates increased. Researchers estimate there would be more than 70,000 additional legal abortions each year if disparities in travel distances were eliminated.
It should be noted determining the exact number of illegal abortions and pregnancies reluctantly carried to term due to a lack of care is difficult to quantify as this data on this is often not reported or logged.
Clinic states brace for an influx of abortion patients
About 100,000 people seeking abortions will be unable to access a provider within the first year of a Roe reversal. As a result, 75,000 of them will likely give birth, according to predictions released on May 6, 2022, by Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College and co-Director of MiddData. Myers’ predictions are based on state policy changes made within the last month.
These predictions also assume that the people from ban states seeking an abortion are able to get an appointment with remaining providers, which Myers notes may not be possible due to high demand and long wait times.
The influx of abortion seekers to so-called clinic states—or states that have legal protections for abortion in place—is predicted to be large should Roe v. Wade be overturned. Projecting which states will see the largest increases has everything to do with geography.
A large influx of abortion-seekers is projected to look for services in North Carolina due to its proximity to many southeastern states where abortion is certain or likely to be banned if Roe is overturned. But unlike Illinois, the legal status of abortion in North Carolina is tenuous and highly dependent on whether anti-abortion candidates are successful in the state’s midterm elections over the coming months. The debate over abortion rights in North Carolina will likely be decided, at least for the time being, in 2023.
Clinics in North Carolina have already seen an increase over the past year of out-of-state abortion seekers, with some coming from as far as Texas in search of services, according to Amber Gavin, the vice president of Advocacy and Operations at A Woman’s Choice, a group of North Carolina and Florida-based abortion clinics. And if Roe is overturned, Gavin expects those numbers will keep climbing.
“I do think we’re going to see probably well over 50% to 80% [more] patients than what we’re currently seeing,” she told Stacker in an interview.
Gavin also said A Woman’s Choice clinics are considering hiring more staff and physicians to accommodate the influx. “We’re working really hard with our staff, with abortion funds, with advocates on the ground to make sure that people who need and want that care are able to get it,” she said.
Illinois has long been a reproductive care hub for Midwesterners. Out-of-state patients seeking abortions rose from 2,970 in 2014 to 9,686 in 2020, according to Illinois Department of Public Health data. These numbers are projected to continue to rise as people come from Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, and even some Southern states. To increase access, two Planned Parenthood clinics have opened in recent years along the Illinois border. The state is one of the few in the Midwest where the right to abortion is certain to be protected long-term.
Many clinic states have made moves since 2019 to fund abortion services and codify abortion. Vermont, for instance, passed Act 47, which preserves the right to reproductive choice, including abortion, in the year following the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Several other states followed suit, including California, Connecticut, Oregon, Maine, and Illinois. The subsequent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020 cemented the court’s conservative supermajority and encouraged legal challenges to Roe v. Wade in 2021.
Some states have already taken steps to ensure access to safe abortions for people crossing state lines.
In 2019, New York funded the New York Abortion Access Fund, intended to help low-income abortion seekers from other states travel to New York for services. In March 2022, California passed SB 245, an act that eliminates out-of-pocket costs for abortions for those who have private insurance, as well as those on California’s Medicaid. In Oregon, legislators passed the Reproductive Health Equity Fund, which allocates $15 million to expand abortion services, including helping to cover expenses of those traveling to Oregon for abortions. And Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont is planning to sign a bill that would shield Connecticut abortion providers and out-of-state patients from being sued by states where abortion—even outside the state—is illegal.
Copyright 2022 Stacker via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/what-roe-v-wade-reversal-could-mean-abortion-access-across-america/ | 2022-05-06T20:31:41Z |
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The US Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday that it is limiting the emergency use authorization of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen Covid-19 vaccine to people 18 and older for whom other vaccines aren't appropriate or accessible and those who opt for J&J because they wouldn't otherwise get vaccinated.
The FDA said in a statement that the change is being made because of the risk of a rare and dangerous clotting condition called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after receiving the vaccine.
"We've been closely monitoring the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and occurrence of TTS following its administration and have used updated information from our safety surveillance systems to revise the EUA," Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the statement. "We recognize that the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine still has a role in the current pandemic response in the United States and across the global community. ... Today's action demonstrates the robustness of our safety surveillance systems and our commitment to ensuring that science and data guide our actions."
The agency confirmed to CNN that the updated authorization also applies to booster doses.
The FDA says it has determined that the benefits of the J&J vaccine outweigh the risks for certain people. Examples of people who may still get the vaccine include:
- Those who had a severe allergic reaction to an mRNA vaccine such as those from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna
- Those with personal concerns about the mRNA vaccines who would remain unvaccinated without the J&J vaccine
- Those with limited access to mRNA Covid-19 vaccines
As of Thursday, more than 18.7 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those who are considered fully vaccinated, 7.7% got this vaccine.
After a meeting in December, the CDC's vaccine advisory committee issued an updated recommendation on Johnson & Johnson's vaccine, saying it makes a "preferential recommendation for the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines over the Janssen adenoviral-vectored COVID-19 vaccine in all persons aged ≥18 years in the United States."
The committee cited the same concerns over TTS.
Both the CDC and the FDA previously recommended a pause in the use of this vaccine over reports of TTS. The pause was lifted, but that move came with a warning over the rare clotting events.
Johnson & Johnson said in a statement at the time, "The safety and well-being of the people who use our products is our number one priority. We are aware of an extremely rare disorder involving people with blood clots in combination with low platelets in a small number of individuals who have received our COVID-19 vaccine. ... We have been working closely with medical experts and health authorities, and we strongly support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public."
In an updated fact sheet on the vaccine, the FDA says that 15% of TTS cases have been fatal.
The agency's updated analysis of the vaccine includes cases reported to its Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) database through March 18. The FDA says it has confirmed 60 cases of TTS, including nine deaths.
Overall, the risk of TTS is extremely rare: about three cases for every million doses of vaccine administered. The highest rate of TTS has been in women 30 to 49 years of age. About eight cases per 1 million doses of vaccine administered have been in women in this age group.
Cases of TTS typically begin one or two weeks after vaccination. Symptoms include shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling, persistent abdominal pain, neurological symptoms like headaches or blurred vision, or red spots just under the skin called petechiae beyond the site of vaccination.
The new warning on the vaccine's fact sheet says "The Janssen Covid-19 vaccine can cause thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) which may be life-threatening."
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/coronavirus/fda-puts-strict-limits-on-johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine/article_48cfe7ba-29c8-5202-b8c1-3422e18e5917.html | 2022-05-06T21:06:18Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
Advocates and survivors call for more to be done to prevent sex trafficking in Waikiki.
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- A coalition of supporters gathered in Waikiki on Thursday to call attention to the "National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women."
Advocates and state lawmakers rallied near the HPD Waikiki Substation, calling for more to be done to end sex tourism in Hawaii. Many wore red dresses, or a red lei, as a symbol of missing indigenous persons nationwide.
"Honestly this whole industry they see us something that's lifeless, that's nothing more ornamental than the lei that we are wearing today," one speaker recounted working luaus as a minor. "They would literally ask how much. And if I declined and told them "no," they would ask me to refer them to someone else."
Khara Jabola Carolus says reports made on the DHS hotline point to a crisis in Hawaii.
"Some of the data points that are really shocking are that 37% of child sex trafficking victims that have ben reported recently are native Hawaiian children," she said.
In two studies conducted with Arizona State University, findings indicated Hawaiian women are affected disproportionately -- with 64% to 77% of survivors of sex trafficking being Native Hawaiian.
"Women, girls and Mahu. Because we have not been recognized in regards to violence, mistreatment. When someone goes missing it is not handled in the same way our white counterparts can be," Dayna Schultz told KITV4.
Advocates called Thursday's rally "historic" with federal and state recognition of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl's Day.
"When I had my experience of domestic violence 20 years ago, there was nothing like this around. I didn't have any advocates or anyone from my culture that could hold me when I was most vulnerable," Schultz added.
The Hawaii legislature has taken some steps by creating a task force to investigate missing and murdered Native Hawaiian women and children, but advocates say more can be done.
"I hope that we can pass really strong legislation that begins to dismantle the sex industry here. I think its uncomfortable topic here but- No sex buyers, no sex trafficking. It's that simple," Carolus added.
Jeremy Lee joined KITV after over a decade & a half in broadcast news from coast to coast on the mainland. Jeremy most recently traveled the country documenting protests & civil unrest. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/advocates-seek-to-call-attention-to-sex-tourism-in-hawaii-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women/article_409e3e08-cd15-11ec-9b7d-a36959630f80.html | 2022-05-06T21:06:24Z |
(CNN) -- An opposition group that is actively campaigning against Rep. Madison Cawthorn has released a video clip appearing to show the North Carolina Republican naked in bed and, as Cawthorn described it, "being crass with a friend" and "acting foolish."
After the video appeared on social media, Cawthorn tweeted, "A new hit against me just dropped. Years ago, in this video, I was being crass with a friend, trying to be funny. We were acting foolish, and joking. That's it. I'm NOT backing down. I told you there would be a drip drip campaign. Blackmail won't win. We will."
CNN has not been able to independently confirm the video. CNN has reached out to Cawthorn for comment.
It's the latest controversy for the 26-year-old, who is running for reelection with early voting already underway. The primary will be held on May 17.
The freshman Republican has angered and annoyed a number of his colleagues with a string of antics. Cawthorn became a national figure in 2020 when he beat then-President Donald Trump's endorsed candidate in the primary to replace then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in Congress. But he has caused a number of distractions for House Republicans, who are trying to win the majority in November.
Late last month, Cawthorn was cited for bringing a loaded handgun through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at the Charlotte airport. And in February 2021, agents at the Asheville Regional Airport found an unloaded gun and a loaded magazine in Cawthorn's carry-on bag. A Cawthorn spokesman told the Asheville Citizen-Times when the paper published a story about the incident in July 2021 that the congressman had had brought the gun "by mistake." Cawthorn was not charged.
In March, Cawthorn sparked an uproar after claiming on a podcast that people in Washington have invited him to participate in orgies and used cocaine in front of him. The episode prompted members of his own party to consider endorsing one of his primary opponents, according to multiple sources familiar with the discussions at the time, amid growing concerns that the North Carolina Republican was dragging down the party with his problematic behavior. Sen. Thom Tillis has thrown his weight behind state Sen. Chuck Edwards in his primary against Cawthorn.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, amid complaints from members following Cawthorn's allegations, told the freshman lawmaker he needed to get his act together or else he could face internal consequences, saying also that Cawthorn admitted the allegations were untrue.
"He's got to turn himself around," McCarthy told reporters at the time. "I just told him he's lost my trust, and he's going to have to earn it back. I laid out everything I find that's unbecoming. ... He's got a lot of members upset. You can't just make statements out there."
CNN reported that same month that Cawthorn was facing charges of driving with a revoked driver's license -- the second time in the last five years he had faced that charge.
He also drew negative headlines when a video surfaced in which he referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "thug" and said that the Ukrainian government was "incredibly evil."
In 2021, CNN reported on a series of allegations of sexual misconduct made against Cawthorn by women who said he behaved inappropriately toward them during his college years. Cawthorn has denied any wrongdoing.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/cawthorn-addresses-video-released-by-opposition-group-showing-him-naked-in-bed-being-crass/article_00233eac-cd72-11ec-909f-ab1f7c933ee0.html | 2022-05-06T21:06:30Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* 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 Thursday, May 5, 2022, along with today's weather.
HPD investigating shooting threat made against Ewa Beach middle school.
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.
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.
Kalihi Kai business owner says burglaries have become weekly nuisance.
E-Opala, a computer recycling center in Kalihi Kai, has become a hot spot for thieves. Owner Jason Gruver said people rummage around the property about once or twice a week over the past six months.
Stolen Stuff Hawaii launches petition urging Gov. Ige to veto the bail reform bill.
An anti-crime social media group is fighting back against a bill that would let people accused of non-violent crimes be released without having to post bail -- essentially a "get out of jail free" card. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/icymi-4-stories-you-need-to-know-from-kitv4-may-5-2022/article_5901e0a8-cd6a-11ec-90da-2f92051a7311.html | 2022-05-06T21:06:36Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* 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) -- One woman was arrested after allegedly attacking another woman with a baseball bat following an argument early Friday morning in Waikiki.
The incident happened in the 2400 block of Koa Avenue around 2 a.m.
According to the Honolulu Police Department (HPD), the incident between the suspect and victim started as a verbal argument and escalated from there, with the suspect allegedly hitting the victim with a baseball bat.
About a dozen Honolulu Police vehicles were spotted at the scene. KITV4 cameras were rolling as police arrested the suspect around 2:40 a.m. She has only been identified as a 36-year-old woman.
The victim, a 29-year-old woman, was taken from the scene to a local hospital in serious condition.
Police did not say what the two women were arguing over or if they knew each other prior to the incident – which is classified as a second-degree assault investigation.
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/local/suspect-arrested-in-alleged-baseball-bat-beating-in-waikiki-update/article_2a04f7c2-cd4c-11ec-8b92-bfee8d4fbf12.html | 2022-05-06T21:06:42Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
Two-year old Zeus from Bedford, Texas stands at a whopping 1.046 meters (3 feet, 5.18 inches), making him the tallest dog in the world.
He officially received the paw-some plaudit on March 22, after his height was measured and confirmed by his vet.
Owner Brittany Davis said she always dreamed of having a Great Dane named Zeus and was over the moon when her brother gave her the pup when he was just eight weeks old. Although she was initially nervous about his vast size, she soon fell in love with him.
Davis told Guinness World Records: "He's been a big dog since we got him, even for a puppy. He had huge paws."
Zeus' Olympian diet includes 12 cups of "Gentle Giants" dog food every day, as well as the occasional fried egg and bully sticks. His all-time favorite treat is ice cubes, Davis said.
The brown and gray colossus now is a local celebrity, showered with attention and treats when he and his human visit the Dallas Farmer's Market.
"The comment that we hear most often is 'Wow, that's a horse!,' 'Can I ride him?' or 'Does he have a saddle?'" Davis said. "The answer to all those questions is 'no.'"
According to the American Kennel Club, Great Danes descend from hunting dogs from the Middle Ages. While they are known for towering over other breeds, they are prone to quite a few health conditions and tend to have a shorter life span than other dogs.
Last year, Freddy, a Great Dane once celebrated by Guinness World Records as the tallest dog in the world, died aged 8.
The pooch, who lived in Essex, England, measured 3 feet, 4 inches (103.5 centimeters) from foot to withers. When standing on his hind legs, he towered over people at a lofty 7 feet, 5.5 inches (226 centimeters).
The tallest dog ever recorded was also a Great Dane named Zeus, according to Guinness. He stood at 3 feet, 10 inches (111.8 centimeters). | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/zeus-a-great-dane-from-texas-is-the-worlds-tallest-dog/article_a7501606-3674-5677-8a34-cb2ec4743ae0.html | 2022-05-06T21:06:48Z |
Casper Star-Tribune
CASPER – Wyoming’s most populous county moved a step closer Thursday to losing nearly all of its delegates to the Wyoming Republican Party convention.
The state GOP’s credentials committee recommended the Laramie County Republican Party lose most of its delegates over a rules violation. The vote was 15-8.
At the same time, the committee rejected attempts to punish four other counties for minor rule-breaking, raising questions again of selective enforcement.
The credential committee’s decision is only a recommendation, and the full body will vote on the matter Saturday morning before the main business of the convention kicks off.
If the body votes in favor of the recommendation, Laramie County will have its delegates reduced from 36 to the minimum three.
Thursday’s vote is the latest episode in a broader battle between traditional and hard-line elements within Wyoming’s Republican Party.
The number of delegates each county is afforded is based on population. Laramie County is the most populous in the state, but would have four fewer delegates than the smallest county in the state; Niobrara has seven delegates to the convention.
The size of a county’s delegation can affect its influence in the broader policy discussions held at the convention, which include votes on party platforms, resolutions and rules.
The decisions made and adopted at the convention can influence the state’s politics – including which bills are brought to the Wyoming Legislature.
Laramie County is in the crosshairs because the party admittedly broke a rule at its county convention. Critics of punishing Laramie say that the infraction did not affect the business of the convention. Some have suggested Laramie County’s clashes with the party’s hard-line leadership is motivating Thursday’s action.
In the case of Laramie County, the state GOP’s executive committee received a complaint that alleged the delegate and alternate delegate selection that took place at that party’s GOP convention violated party bylaws.
Specifically, Laramie County did not accept nominations from the floor or use secret ballots.
“The county chair is going to have to go back to her own voters and explain why she disenfranchised them,” said Susan Porden, Sheridan County GOP credentials chairwoman, who voted in favor of cutting Laramie’s delegates. “We did not. She did.”
The motions on seating Laramie County’s delegates sparked a debate over the philosophies of the Republican Party.
“I feel that, as a Republican, that we want local rule and county rule,” said Mary Martin, chairwoman of the Teton County GOP, speaking in opposition to removing Laramie County’s delegates.
Those in favor of cutting the delegates argued that it was under the purview of the state party, while those against it argued the contrary. Minor breaches in rules have not been scrutinized in the past, but this year there’s been a new emphasis put on it among the state and county-level Republican parties.
“I think we’re trying to kill a fly with a sledge hammer,” said Michael Madden, a Johnson County Republican and former state lawmaker.
At a Wyoming GOP executive committee meeting in early April, the panel unanimously passed a motion that stated that the party will “vigorously support and enforce all state and county bylaws at the 2022 State Convention.”
The focus on rule-following and enforcement on the Laramie County GOP spurred a call for state party officials to treat all counties equally when it comes to punishment.
“We really need to be careful,” said Jeb Hanson, a Niobrara Republican delegate. “We could be opening the door to allow any faction of the party to target any county that they don’t like. And it is not viable to audit each and every county. This is cherry picking.”
When it became clear last week that Laramie County was at risk of losing its delegates, Gail Symons, a Sheridan Republican, filed a complaint with the state party alleging that Sheridan, Sublette, Albany and Crook County Republican parties also broke minor rules.
At the credentials committee meeting Thursday immediately following the vote on Laramie County, Elizabeth Bingham, chairwoman of the Sweetwater County GOP and a Laramie ally, made a motion to not have Albany, Crook or Sublette’s County’s delegates sat.
“I’ve been quietly sitting back and watching how we cherry pick,” Bingham said. Bingham told the Star-Tribune that she didn’t want to be making such motions, but after the Laramie vote she was spurred to speak up.
“I think this is all utter nonsense and we should be working together,” she said.
Olsen agreed.
“I do absolutely believe that every delegate should be seated,” Olsen said following the Albany County vote. “However, a precedent has been set.”
Only Laramie County allies voted in favor of Albany and Crook counties losing their delegates: Bingham, Laramie GOP Chairwoman Dani Olsen and Natrona County Republican Party Secretary Lesley Hendry.
The Sublette County matter was a voice vote, but also failed.
Olsen said the Sublette County result “shows obvious bias” against Laramie County because its offenses were similar.
Natrona County, the second most populous in Wyoming, has already lost most of its delegates to the convention over a lack of dues payments. That county has also clashed with Wyoming Republican Party leadership. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/from_the_wire/laramie-county-still-on-track-to-lose-most-gop-delegates/article_0fec6f67-89ed-5da3-9eaf-18870b6c70b9.html | 2022-05-06T22:37:59Z |
CASPER, Wyo. (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit over online harassment filed against actor Alec Baldwin by the family of a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan, saying the Wyoming court did not have jurisdiction over the case.
An attorney for the family said the case would be refiled elsewhere, the Casper Star-Tribune reported Wednesday.
The sisters and widow of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum alleged Baldwin subjected them to online harassment after he posted and commented on a photo shared online by one of McCollum’s sisters, Roice McCollum, who had been in Washington during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.
Baldwin had donated $5,000 to the family after learning of the death of Rylee McCollum in a bombing at the airport in Kabul in August 2021, just weeks before his daughter was born. Baldwin had contacted Roice McCollum via Instagram, according to the lawsuit.
In January 2022, Baldwin saw that Roice McCollum posted a nearly year-old picture of demonstrators from former President Donald Trump’s rally taken on the day Congress counted the Electoral College votes from the 2020 presidential election, the complaint stated.
Baldwin sent her a private message and confirmed she had organized the fundraiser for her brother, the lawsuit said. She responded that her participation in the protest was “perfectly legal,” according to court documents.
Baldwin told Roice McCollum he would share her photo with his 2.4 million Instagram followers and wrote: “Good luck,” according to the lawsuit.
Roice McCollum said in the lawsuit that she received hundreds of hateful messages in response to his post. The complaint, which also names her sister Cheyenne McCollum and Rylee’s wife, Jiennah McCollum, as plaintiffs, sought $25 million in damages.
Baldwin asked for the case to be dismissed, saying he was expressing his political opinion, that he had not been in Wyoming and that claims by Cheyenne and Jiennah McCollum should be dismissed because he did not make any statements about them.
U.S. District Judge Nancy Freudenthal said Wednesday that the case could not be brought in Wyoming because Baldwin made the posts from New York and because they were not directed specifically at a Wyoming audience. Her decision did not address the veracity of the allegations in the complaint.
“We are pleased with this victory,” said Baldwin’s attorney Luke Nikas. “This is a significant step toward the complete dismissal of the lawsuit, which seeks to punish Mr. Baldwin for expressing his political opinion.”
Dennis Postiglione, an attorney for the McCollums, said that the case would probably be refiled in New York, where Baldwin lives, or in California, where he works. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/from_the_wire/wyoming-defamation-lawsuit-against-alec-baldwin-is-dismissed/article_0652e048-fd23-5176-8be7-146b52e9529b.html | 2022-05-06T22:38:05Z |
Police vehicles sit in the basement garage on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019 at the Cheyenne Police Department in downtown Cheyenne. Michael Cummo/Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE – A juvenile suspect has been arrested after he allegedly stabbed someone Thursday night in a south Cheyenne bar.
At about 11 p.m. Thursday, officers with the Cheyenne Police Department were dispatched to the Lamp Lounge, 101 West Sixth St., for a report of an aggravated assault with a knife, according to a Friday afternoon news release.
Responding officers located an adult male victim with a stab wound at the scene. The man was transported by ambulance to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and remains in serious condition.
A preliminary investigation shows the juvenile suspect, a 17-year-old male from Cheyenne, arrived at the bar in a dark-colored SUV and initiated a verbal altercation with the victim. The victim went into the bar, and the suspect parked his vehicle and followed him. Once inside, the suspect confronted the victim, stabbed him with a knife and fled the scene, according to CPD.
At about 2 a.m. Friday morning, CPD detectives located the suspect's vehicle outside of a residence. Detectives received verbal consent to enter the residence and located the suspect. He was taken into custody and transported to the Juvenile Detention Center without further incident.
The juvenile suspect was arrested on aggravated assault and second-degree attempted murder charges.
This case remains under investigation by CPD detectives. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/cpd-juvenile-arrested-following-thursday-night-stabbing/article_97bde762-b516-5555-8a0e-8ea7e893957b.html | 2022-05-06T22:38:11Z |
CHEYENNE – State legislative consideration is moving ahead for a renewed attempt to help ensure there is sufficient electricity and at low rates for virtual currency miners that some want to attract to Wyoming.
Following an April 25 hearing in Casper of a committee of senators and representatives at which testimony was heard about deregulated power zones, the process has begun to start stakeholder discussions through an informal sub-panel of legislators. Such an outcome was presaged at the hearing and in interviews afterward.
Members of the working group, which could be upgraded to a subcommittee, come from both legislative chambers and both political parties, noted Rep. Mike Greear, R-Worland. According to legislators, including Greear, those participating are Rep. Chuck Gray, R-Casper; Rep. Danny Eyre, R-Lyman; Sen. Chris Rothfuss, D-Laramie; and Sen. Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester.
Greear is the chair of the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, and helped oversee the hearing last month of the Joint Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. At that hearing, and during the work ahead, stakeholders will be discussing how to advance or refine the proposals in Senate File 71, which died in the Senate Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee during the Legislature’s budget session earlier this year.
The goal of the new informal group is to try to break a stalemate between those who want to allow the establishment of such deregulated zones, and electricity providers and their allies who fear that carving out such a market for any company to serve could undermine stability in the state's power market, possibly raising prices for retail customers. An initial action item in this process is to hold a sort of technical meeting of stakeholders before the joint legislative committee next holds a hearing, which currently is scheduled for June 27-28.
Such a subcommittee can "hash out some of the issues" and, based on his previous experience, "it seems to work pretty good," Greear said by phone Thursday night.
If "they come up with a good solution on it, we’ll push it forward," he said of the crypto energy group and how the Minerals Committee could advance any proposals, perhaps into legislation. "They need to find a way to make it work."
The state Public Service Commission is helping to try to coordinate this initial meeting of the technical working group, according to lawmakers. Everyone could meet in May, perhaps at the end of this month, although details do not appear to have been finalized, legislators said.
The meeting will have a way for the public to participate remotely, according to PSC General Counsel John Burbridge, who is helping to arrange things. "We're happy to be hosting it," he said Friday. "We offered it up ... to at least provide the venue by which people can talk about it."
"My understanding is it's a public meeting," Greear said of his expectations for when the PSC does convene the gathering. It's "designed to have a conversation around the issues."
In order to get the participating legislators' expenses compensated and them paid for the day at the PSC, Greear said that the virtual currency energy group members could wind up being considered a subcommittee of sorts, perhaps under the aegis of the Legislature's Minerals Committee. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/crypto-power-issue-gets-informal-panel/article_94b42429-27d9-5366-9b70-e3087dd63a68.html | 2022-05-06T22:38:17Z |
BUFFALO — On Johnson County's most remote stretches of land, across the sagebrush sea, Greater Sage-Grouse finish the most consequential part of their day before most humans have had their coffee. As the day's first light breaks, the male bird, with its distinctive tail feathers and puffed-out white chest with two yellow air sacs, is working to attract a female grouse for mating.
To make the characteristic call that can only be described as the sound of an object hitting water, the male grouse fills his air sacs, so they rise near his head, and then they deflate and fall toward his feet. Over and over again.
"That water-drop sound, it does carry," said Bill Ostheimer, supervisory natural resource specialist for the Bureau of Land Management's Buffalo Field Office, from the driver's seat of his government-issued vehicle. "You're supposed to be able to hear it from a mile away."
And Ostheimer would know.
He's been an audience to this song and dance for 18 years. Each year, in March and April, he and other BLM employees and sage-grouse stakeholders wake up in the early morning hours to count males on active leks (breeding locations) in northeastern Wyoming, under the direction of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
The goal is to avoid disturbing the high-strung bird, which means parking the car at least a dozen yards away. Ostheimer is aided by binoculars and experience, counting what could look to the untrained eye like blobs in the still-dark morning.
Ostheimer said that after moving into a supervisory role, he gave up most of his field work. But he's held onto his lek counts. To generate the most accurate count, Ostheimer will visit the same leks three different times, at least a week apart.
The two rituals — male birds strutting and singing to capture the attention of females and Ostheimer visiting the site to count them — are both tied to the bird's survival.
When Ostheimer started his career as a wildlife biologist 30 years ago, he was a “large carnivore guy.”
In his experience, the species most closely related to sage-grouse, as far as management needs go, is the grizzly bear.
“They both kind of need the same thing, which is big, wild country, and they need us to leave them and their habitats alone,” he said. “If we could do that, then both of those species are just fine.”
The Endangered Species Act gives the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service the ability to examine species and categorize them as threatened or endangered, which then brings certain protections and requires that the federal government make plans for their recovery.
Sage-grouse have been petitioned for listing under the ESA at least 52 times since 1983, according to Fish and Wildlife, though a provision in the federal budget prevents the agency from doing so. U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, previously told the Bulletin that the rider is in place to allow state management plans, such as those in Wyoming, to succeed without the influence of the federal government.
Their populations are cyclical, rising and falling, though scientists believe weather and climate play a role.
Advocates for the species' conservation attribute this loss to decimation of sagebrush habitat due to energy development and wildfires.
Still, landowners who care about the bird can and have employed best management practices. Ostheimer pointed out some of those en route to a lek, including reflectors on fences so the birds don't fly into them. And because so many people care about this bird and its survival, experts count them.
Cheyenne Stewart is Game and Fish's Sheridan Region wildlife management coordinator and a member of the Northeast Wyoming Sage-Grouse Local Working Group. Game and Fish monitors a lot of animal populations, including both game and nongame species, using survey designs based on the biology and behavior of each species.
Sage-grouse lek counts have been part of Game and Fish attempts to monitor the species since the 1940s, said Nyssa Whitford, the agency's wildlife geographic information system analyst. The methods the department uses today date back to the late 1990s.
The method used for counting sage-grouse, Stewart said, is unique. That's because the bird's behavior is unique. Sage-grouse have high site fidelity, meaning they are very likely to return to the lek they attended the previous year. These leks are also in roughly the same location each spring. Both of these factors make it possible for those monitoring the species to take an accurate census, Stewart said.
Like the once-every-decade U.S. Census that counts the country's human population, a wildlife census means counting each animal present. This method isn't used much, Stewart said, because it only works for species with high site fidelity, such as sage-grouse.
Wyoming has roughly 1,700 occupied leks, and 335 of those are in northeast Wyoming, Whitford said.
“State partners, federal partners, NGOs, private citizens, consultants and different companies all work together to monitor sage-grouse leks in the spring," she said. "It's a monumental effort with that many leks.”
Game and Fish has a handbook of biological techniques. It advises that participants visit the lek in April and May, during peak breeding season, between 30 minutes before sunrise and an hour after. Those who count are asked to visit the same lek three times, roughly a week apart.
Western states that monitor and manage sage-grouse have mostly similar counting methods, Whitford said, though Wyoming's wildlife managers are adamant about visiting leks at least three times. Other jurisdictions might not have the staffing for that to happen, she said.
There are a few reasons that Game and Fish continues to monitor sage-grouse in this way, Stewart said. Because researchers have been visiting leks year after year, multiple times, the agency has been able to build an impressive data set that shows long-term trends.
"That's also pretty unique to sage-grouse,” Stewart said. “There are a lot of species that we don't have that ability to have long-term trends, where the methods stay consistent.”
Monitoring sage-grouse during lekking is also the option that is least likely to disturb the bird, she said. It's not on the winter range, where they might be stressed, nor is it interrupting nesting or brood rearing.
Lek data are used to assess population trends, changing habitat conditions and impacts of disturbance, according to the Game and Fish handbook. Lek locations are also incorporated into GIS layers to guide future development and habitat management decisions.
The sage-grouse counting process purposely leaves out a party vital to the mating ritual: the female.
The object of the male bird's attention is not counted as part of the official Game and Fish count. Part of that, Ostheimer said, is because the males, with their bravado and bright white chests and large feathers, are easier to see. Females are smaller than their male counterparts, and they blend into the sagebrush steppe.
Game and Fish, in its sage-grouse counting handbook, says that females are difficult to accurately count because of their “secretive nature and cryptic appearance.”
Stakeholders have been debating the state of sage-grouse for a long time. Studies show that its populations are cyclical, so downswings are normal, though advocates for the species worry that there haven't been many upswings.
For Ostheimer, in his 18th season visiting leks, the decline is apparent.
He knows that it was 18 years ago, because his wife, in the passenger seat, was pregnant with his now 17-year-old daughter.
Sitting over the ridge in their Jeep, Ostheimer saw and heard the dances and songs of 75 male sage-grouse accompanied by 15 females.
On that same lek, “my high count was eight last year,” he said.
People often accuse him of overstating the loss, he said.
"All I can tell you is what I've seen,” Ostheimer said. “That is a precipitous loss of sage-grouse out here.”
But, there is still hope.
“If we can keep them here and take the impacts away, get the energy infrastructure out, get our busy selves off the landscape, and if there's still birds out here, then we have a chance because we've got a stock of animals that can repopulate the landscape,” Ostheimer said. “If they go away completely, we can't get them back."
This story was posted on May 5, 2022 | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/agribusiness/birds-dance-humans-count-in-hopes-of-saving-iconic-sage-grouse/article_f714b010-cd86-11ec-9399-0b77362b3d0c.html | 2022-05-06T22:38:23Z |
CHEYENNE – Both of Wyoming's U.S. senators were joined by other Republican colleagues from nearby states in sponsoring new legislation that would bar the use of federal funds to establish a Disinformation Governance Board.
The board, which is hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has taken heat in recent days for the possibility that it could end up encroaching on citizens' First Amendment and other rights. DHS has also attracted scrutiny for not being more transparent about what the board is up to.
On Wednesday, the office of U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said she was joined by 17 other Republican colleagues in introducing the new legislation to crack down on the board. On Thursday, a spokesperson for Lummis wrote the Wyoming Tribune Eagle to share the names of other senators who are backing the bill, S-4124.
Wyoming's other senator, GOP member John Barrasso, is among the co-sponsors, according to Lummis' spokesperson. And other supporters of the bill come from nearby states. They include Idaho's James Risch and Mike Crapo, as well as Mike Lee from Utah.
DHS officials, in testimony to Congress and in other settings, have said they will keep citizens' privacy in mind and that they will report on the actives of the Disinformation Governance Board. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/government_and_politics/dhs-disinformation-board-opposed-by-senators-from-wyo-nearby-states/article_e42e89e4-cd86-11ec-8ca9-c33cb63160eb.html | 2022-05-06T22:38:30Z |
CASPER — Wyoming’s most populous county moved a step closer Thursday to losing nearly all of its delegates to the Wyoming Republican Party convention.
The state GOP’s credentials committee recommended the Laramie County Republican Party lose most of its delegates over a rules violation. The vote was 15-8.
At the same time, the committee rejected attempts to punish four other counties for minor rule-breaking, raising questions again of selective enforcement.
The credential committee’s decision is only a recommendation, and the full body will vote on the matter Saturday morning before the main business of the convention kicks off.
If the body votes in favor of the recommendation, Laramie will have its delegates reduced from 36 to the minimum three.
Thursday’s vote is the latest episode in a broader battle between traditional and hard-line elements within Wyoming’s Republican Party.
The number of delegates each county is afforded is based on population. Laramie is the most populous in the state, but would have four fewer delegates than the smallest county in the state; Niobrara has seven delegates to the convention.
The size of a county’s delegation can affect its influence in the broader policy discussions held at the convention, which include votes on party platforms, resolutions and rules.
The decisions made and adopted at the convention can influence the state’s politics — including which bills are brought to the Wyoming Legislature.
Laramie County is in the crosshairs because the party admittedly broke a rule at its county convention. Critics of punishing Laramie say that the infraction did not affect the business of the convention. Some have suggested Laramie County’s clashes with the party’s hard-line leadership is motivating Thursday’s action.
In the case of Laramie County, the state GOP’s executive committee received a complaint that alleged the delegate and alternate delegate selection that took place at that party’s GOP convention violated party bylaws.
Specifically, Laramie County did not accept nominations from the floor or use secret ballots.
“The county chair is going to have to go back to her own voters and explain why she disenfranchised them,” said Susan Porden, Sheridan County GOP credentials chairwoman, who voted in favor of cutting Laramie’s delegates. “We did not. She did.”
The motions on seating Laramie County’s delegates sparked a debate over the philosophies of the Republican Party.
“I feel that, as a Republican, that we want local rule and county rule,” said Mary Martin,
chairwoman of the Teton County GOP, speaking in opposition to removing Laramie County’s delegates.
Those in favor of cutting the delegates argued that it was under the purview of the state party, while those against it argued the contrary. Minor breaches in rules have not been scrutinized in the past, but this year there’s been a new emphasis put on it among the state and county-level Republican parties.
“I think we’re trying to kill a fly with a sledge hammer,” said Michael Madden, a Johnson County Republican and former state lawmaker.
At a Wyoming GOP executive committee meeting in early April, the panel unanimously passed a motion that stated that the party will “vigorously support and enforce all state and county bylaws at the 2022 State Convention.”
The focus on rule-following and enforcement on the Laramie County GOP spurred a call for state party officials to treat all counties equally when it comes to punishment.
“We really need to be careful,” said Jeb Hanson, a Niobrara Republican delegate. “We could be opening the door to allow any faction of the party to target any county that they don’t like. And it is not viable to audit each and every county. This is cherry picking.”
When it became clear last week that Laramie County was at risk of losing its delegates, Gail Symons, a Sheridan Republican, filed a complaint with the state party alleging that Sheridan, Sublette, Albany and Crook County Republican parties also broke minor rules.
At the credentials committee meeting Thursday immediately following the vote on Laramie County, Elizabeth Bingham, chairwoman of the Sweetwater County GOP and a Laramie ally, made a motion to not have Albany, Crook or Sublette’s County’s delegates sat.
“I’ve been quietly sitting back and watching how we cherry pick,” Bingham said. Bingham told the Star-Tribune that she didn’t want to be making such motions, but after the Laramie vote she was spurred to speak up.
“I think this is all utter nonsense and we should be working together,” she said.
Olsen agreed.
“I do absolutely believe that every delegate should be seated,” Olsen said following the Albany County vote. “However, a precedent has been set.”
Only Laramie County allies voted in favor of Albany and Crook counties losing their delegates: Bingham, Laramie GOP Chairwoman Dani Olsen and Natrona County Republican Party Secretary Lesley Hendry.
The Sublette County matter was a voice vote, but also failed.
Olsen said the Sublette County result “shows obvious bias” against Laramie County because its offenses were similar.
Natrona County, the second most populous in Wyoming, has already lost most of its delegates to the convention over a lack of dues payments. That county has also clashed with Wyoming Republican Party leadership.
This story was published on May 6, 2022. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/government_and_politics/laramie-county-could-lose-most-delegates/article_086caa02-cd87-11ec-ac13-4bd9b403bb4b.html | 2022-05-06T22:38:36Z |
11-year-old sends elementary school assistant principal to hospital following argument, police say
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) – An elementary school assistant principal in South Carolina was sent to the hospital after she was assaulted by an 11-year-old student, police said.
According to the Charleston Police Department, officers responded to Drayton Hall Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon.
At the scene, the assistant principal told officers that she pulled the 11-year-old student out of class to have him clean up a mess he made in the boy’s bathroom. This led to an argument, and the student cursed at her, then struck her in the face, according to an incident report.
The assistant principal said the student started to kick and punch her torso while she was attempting to stop him. Eventually, the two parties were separated, and the student was brought to the principal’s office.
Investigators said they saw a red marking across the victim’s eye where she was struck. She was taken to the hospital following the incident for evaluation.
Later, police talked to the student about the incident.
The student claimed he did not make the mess in the boy’s bathroom and that he was tired of the victim telling him what to do. After striking her, the student says he attempted to leave, but the victim stopped him, and he continued to strike her in the face and curse at her.
Police asked if the student felt the assistant principal deserved it; the student reportedly said she did and that he did not feel bad about it.
Another staff member at the school told officers that she had been assaulted by the same student recently. Bruising was seen on the staff members’ arms from the alleged incident, the report stated.
No arrests have been made because of the student’s age.
Police said they are working with the assistant principal to figure out whether any charges will be filed.
Copyright 2022 WCSC via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/11-year-old-sends-elementary-school-assistant-principal-hospital-following-argument-police-say/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:10Z |
Autopsy: Patrick Lyoya killed by cop’s shot to the head
Published: May. 6, 2022 at 6:17 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — An official autopsy has concluded that Patrick Lyoya, a Black man who was killed by a Michigan police officer, died from a gunshot to the back of his head.
The finding matches the conclusion of an expert hired by Lyoya’s family.
The report from the Kent County medical examiner also says Patrick Lyoya’s blood-alcohol level was 0.29, more than three times over the legal limit for driving, when his car was stopped in Grand Rapids on April 4.
The Detroit Free Press reported the autopsy results Friday.
Lyoya was a 26-year-old refugee from Congo.
He was killed during a physical struggle with Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/autopsy-patrick-lyoya-killed-by-cops-shot-head/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:17Z |
EMU awarded No.1 RN to BSN program
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Friday is National Nurses Day which kicks off National Nurses Week.
Over the past two years, nurses have been on the frontlines fighting the pandemic.
As graduation approaches for colleges and universities in the next few weeks, what hospitals are looking for from recent grads has changed since the pandemic began.
“We’ve noticed with our newer generations coming out and something that we are hoping that our new grads have as far as characteristics is really being resilient because of all the changes we are facing in healthcare,” Jill Delawder DNP, RN, APRN-CNS, ACCNS-AG, CCRN-CSC Director, Nursing Excellence & Magnet Program said.
Graduation Day for Eastern Mennonite University is Sunday, and many EMU nursing students are already on the job hunt.
EMU is helping its students advance into the workforce successfully. The school’s RN to BSN program was just awarded the No.1 program in Virginia.
“We develop personal relationships with the students and have been very flexible always and in particular during the COVID pandemic we’ve been able to be flexible with students as they progress through the program,” Dr. Melody Cash, nursing department chair at EMU, said.
Dr. Melody Cash said the flexibility of the program, especially during the pandemic, is what set EMU apart from other programs.
”We want students to recognize that trust and that relationship and that sacred experience that students have with patients in a very vulnerable time is very vital and important to our program,” Dr. Cash said.
Delawder’s best advice to the EMU nursing students graduating along with any others is to find a job where you best fit into their culture.
”People who really look forward to becoming encultured in our community engagement initiative and people who are interested in evidence-based practice because we want to provide the best care to our patients,” Delawder said.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/emu-awarded-no1-rn-bsn-program/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:24Z |
Gov. Justice declares State of Preparedness for all 55 counties
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Gov. Jim Justice has declared a State of Preparedness for all 55 counties throughout West Virginia due to the threat of flooding this weekend.
The main threat will be possible isolated flash flooding due to heavy downpours or steady rain, with storms forecast for much of the state today and throughout the weekend.
The Governor’s declaration directs the State Emergency Operations Center and its partner agencies to prepare to respond ahead of this significant rainfall event, posturing personnel and resources to mobilize a response to any emergency that may develop.
Coordinating agencies are being placed on standby to report to the State Emergency Operations Center at the West Virginia Emergency Management Division (WVEMD) should the need arise.
Through the storm’s duration, the National Weather Service will hold daily briefings for state agencies and local partners. WVEMD liaisons will provide updates from each county.
Gov. Justice and the WVEMD ask all West Virginians to remain attentive to weather conditions through local media reports and follow any instructions issued by emergency officials.
Keep checking the WSAZ app for the latest information.
Copyright 2022 WSAZ. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/gov-justice-declares-state-preparedness-all-55-counties/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:31Z |
Grayson County deputy delivers baby boy
Published: May. 6, 2022 at 1:03 PM EDT|Updated: 6 hours ago
GRAYSON COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) - A Grayson County Sheriff’s deputy took part in what he called “the most stressful 23 minutes of my law enforcement career,” delivering a baby.
Corporal Jason Horner responded at 3:00 a.m. to Wolf Snare Lane in Fries to assist a pregnant woman; when Horner arrived the baby was already crowning, according to the sheriff’s office.
Horner was able to deliver the baby, clear his airway, and tend to the mother and baby until emergency services arrived.
The baby was flown to a hospital in Roanoke, where he remains in the ICU.
Copyright 2022 WDBJ. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/grayson-county-deputy-delivers-baby-boy/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:38Z |
‘It is heartbreaking’: Tony Dow, ‘Leave It to Beaver’ actor, announces cancer diagnosis
(Gray News) - Actor Tony Dow shared this week on his social media page that he has once again been diagnosed with cancer.
Dow, known for his role as Wally Cleaver on “Leave It To Beaver,” shared the cancer diagnosis on Thursday.
The 77-year-old actor and his wife, Lauren Shulkind, shared a joint statement on the actor’s Facebook page:
“Dear Friends & Fans of Tony Dow, I have some very sad news to share with you. Unfortunately, Tony has once again been diagnosed with cancer. He is approaching this reality so bravely, but it is truly heartbreaking.”
The couple didn’t share any further immediate details, but they thanked everyone already for their caring thoughts.
As of Friday afternoon, Dow’s social media post had over 14,000 comments from fans sending him well wishes and more than 2,000 shares.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/it-is-heartbreaking-tony-dow-leave-it-beaver-actor-announces-cancer-diagnosis/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:44Z |
New details released in Lily Peters homicide case
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU/Gray News) - New details about the homicide investigation into the death of a 10-year-old Chippewa Falls girl were released Friday.
A 14-year-old boy is facing charges of 1st-degree intentional homicide, 1st-degree sexual assault resulting in great bodily harm and 1st-degree sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 in the death of 10-year-old Iliana “Lily” Peters. Two of the three charges carry a maximum lifetime sentence in prison.
After Chippewa County Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Lane said during Thursday’s review hearing that the redacted criminal complaint for the case could be unsealed, the document was made available publicly on Friday.
WARNING: Some of the details about the case that follow are graphic in nature.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, the Chippewa Falls Police Department was notified about a missing 10-year-old girl, Lily, at 9 p.m. on April 24, 2022. Lily’s father said that she did not come back from her aunt’s house.
At 11 p.m., Lily’s father went to look for her and found her bike near the Duncan Creek Trail in Chippewa Falls near the Leinie’s Lodge. A search that evening with law enforcement turned up empty.
At 8:54 a.m. on April 25, Lily’s body was found by someone who knew her not far from where her bicycle was located, nearly 12 hours after she had been reported missing. Investigators said that Lily had blunt-force trauma injuries to her head and some of her clothes were missing.
A preliminary autopsy was given to investigators with the Chippewa County Sheriff’s Office. According to the autopsy, there was evidence of sexual assault. The autopsy also confirmed the blunt-force trauma to Lily’s face.
According to the complaint, the charged suspect in the case told investigators on April 26 that he helped Lily get her bike at a home in Chippewa Falls and that while she rode her bike, he rode his hoverboard. The suspect also told investigators it was his intention to rape and kill Lily.
He told investigators that he asked Lily to leave the trail and go into the woods, where he then physically and sexually assaulted her. At some point, the suspect said he became scared and went home to shower and wash his clothes. When he heard that Lily was missing, he decided he needed to hide her body better, so he returned to move her body and cover it with leaves.
Other documents in the case subject to open records laws, including search warrants, will remain sealed until all parties have had time to review their contents. Chippewa County District Attorney Wade Newell said that those documents contain identifying information and that some of the warrants are part of an active investigation.
A status conference in the case will be held on June 24 at 9:30 a.m. in Chippewa County Circuit Court. The conference will be conducted with the defendant and his new representation, Michael Cohen, appearing virtually.
The conference is being set to establish future court dates in the case. The date was picked to allow time for Newell to deliver materials to the defendant and his representation and for the defense to review all of the case materials.
Newell said in court Thursday that he expects to have all of the materials ready by the end of next week. Cohen said that he has not received much information about the case or had time to review anything beyond the criminal complaint.
The status conference will set future dates for hearings and allow time for all parties, including victims and witnesses, to make arrangements to be in court.
The suspect is being held at the Northwest Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Eau Claire awaiting his next court appearance. Cash bond has been set at $1 million for the suspect.
Copyright 2022 WEAU via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/new-details-released-lily-peters-homicide-case/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:51Z |
Officer returns to work to save life of 2-year-old child, officials say
Published: May. 6, 2022 at 6:53 PM EDT|Updated: 40 minutes ago
WOODSTOCK, Ga. (Gray News) - Officials in Georgia are praising the work of a local officer who helped save the life of a child Thursday night.
The Woodstock Police Department reports officer B. Dixon was on his way home when a call came in regarding a 2-year-old child not breathing.
A department spokesperson said instead of continuing home, Dixon was close by and took the call to be first at the scene.
The officer immediately began performing CPR and was able to resuscitate the child. Woodstock police said the boy was taken to a local hospital and doing well after the incident.
The department thanked Dixon for being a hero to the family and for representing the agency and city well.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/officer-returns-work-save-life-2-year-old-child-officials-say/ | 2022-05-06T23:33:59Z |
Police seize nearly 150 pounds of marijuana after pursuit ends in crash
LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD/Gray News) - Authorities in Texas are investigating an incident from earlier this week that ended in an arrest and them finding several pounds of drugs.
KCBD reports troopers attempted to stop an SUV on Thursday afternoon for a traffic violation on a highway in Lubbock, Texas. The vehicle initially stopped, but officials said when a trooper approached, it took off.
Law enforcement agencies followed the vehicle until it crashed into a Jeep at a local intersection. Troopers said three people then jumped out of the car, but they were able to arrest one of the occupants.
Authorities said they found nearly 150 pounds of marijuana connected to the incident.
Texas troopers, Lubbock police and Lubbock County sheriff’s deputies report they continue to search for the two other people who left the scene.
Copyright 2022 KCBD via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/police-seize-nearly-150-pounds-marijuana-after-pursuit-ends-crash/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:06Z |
Some Massanutten residents dealing with flying squirrel problem
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Airborne critters are causing problems for some residents on Massanutten Mountain. A local animal control service has dealt with a number of calls recently to deal with flying squirrels in homes on the mountain.
“They’re extremely small, they’re small animals so they can get in a small hole. A lot of times just looking at a house with your eyes you may not see it you have to take a pair of binoculars outside to find the hole that they’re utilizing,” said Dustin Campbell, operations manager for D & S Nusicane Animal Control.
D & S recently removed 24 flying squirrels from a single home on the mountain. In addition to leaving droppings and sometimes being noisy, the squirrels can cause a number of problems.
“They do damage to the insulation inside the house. Also, they chew holes, you think maybe I’ll just put a piece of wire over it and that will take care of it but then they’ll go chew another hole and you end up with holes all over your house,” said Campbell.
Sometimes when the squirrels are in the attic of a home, people may not even realize they are there.
“A lot of people think maybe it’s a mouse. ‘Hey I’m hearing a mouse in my attic’ or that type of deal and it ends up being flying squirrels. So it takes time a lot of times you don’t see them because they’re nocturnal so you don’t see them outside the house running around or anything like that,” said Campbell.
Campbell said flying squirrels are more common in the Valley than people think, especially in wooded areas of high elevation. The squirrels also breed twice a year in the winter and again in the summer. With litters ranging in size from one to six babies, the squirrels can repopulate quickly.
“Anytime that you have something going on in the attic it’s not a bad idea to at least have an inspection, have someone come out and look at it and see what’s going on. Just to make sure that it doesn’t turn into 24 flying squirrels in your attic and not being able to get any sleep because they’re having a party all night long while you’re trying to rest,” he said.
Campbell added that flying squirrels are more intelligent than most rodents, including regular squirrels, which can make them more difficult to trap.
“Because of the weight of them and that they’re smart animals a lot of times if you catch one you won’t catch another one in the same manner or in the same trap because they see their family member in there and won’t go near them,” he said.
There are two types of flying squirrels found in the Valley that can be distinguished by their size.
The Southern Flying Squirrel is more common and is smaller, usually around 8 to 9 inches in size, while the Northern Flying Squirrel is less common and larger usually around 10 inches to a foot in size.
The Northern Flying Squirrel is also protected by law and can’t be trapped.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/some-massanutten-residents-dealing-with-flying-squirrel-problem/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:13Z |
South River Medical Clinic in Grottoes closes after 10 years
GROTTOES, Va. (WHSV) - The Town of Grottoes is losing its only medical facility. South River Medical Clinic is closing after 10 years of providing medical services to the town’s residents.
The clinic opened its doors to patients for the final time on Friday. It will remain open for the next few weeks to allow patients to obtain their medical records and pick up any remaining prescriptions.
“They have just inundated me with well wishes and they’re gonna miss me. It’s really nice to know that you did make an impact on their life,” said Mary Koogler, the owner of the clinic and a nurse practitioner.
Koogler worked in the ER and in orthopedics for over three decades before having a major stroke in 2010. Two years later in 2012, she opened up South River Medical Clinic and has provided an invaluable resource to Grottoes and the surrounding community.
“She had this big stroke and couldn’t use one side, couldn’t speak, and to see what she’s done and the people she’s taken care of since then, it’s just been really exciting to be a part of that,” said Jennifer Hanger, a registered nurse who has worked at the clinic since it opened.
After 10 years, 77-year-old Koogler is retiring to spend more time with her family.
“My husband got sick this year and he had some surgery and I decided that here I am taking care of other people, I need to take care of my own. So I got to thinking about it and decided there’s no time but now,” said Koogler.
Koogler knows that there is a huge need for the clinic in Grottoes and had been trying to find someone to take it over, but had no luck.
“People don’t want to go to family practices anymore, people want to go to the big institutions where they can make big money. You don’t make big money in a small practice like this. This is a blue-collar town, a lot of my patients have no insurance,” she said.
The clinic has been busy throughout the years and its regular customers are sad to see it go.
“It’s meant a great deal. I mean I can’t tell you how many patients have come in saying ‘can’t somebody take it over?’ and I’m gonna miss them, it’s been special,” said Brandi West, the clinic’s X-Ray technician who was worked there since it opened.
Over the years Koogler and her staff have provided a variety of medical services like x-rays, vaccinations, lab tests, and various treatments.
“It’s personal care. I’m more than a number I’m a person and she’s always treated me well. She knows me by my first name we know each other’s families, it’s just hometown comfort,” said Angie Harpine, who’s been a patient of the clinic for 10 years.
Harpine said she adores Koogler and the rest of the staff and will greatly miss the clinic.
“She’s done a great service to the medical community in Harrisonburg, Augusta County, and Rockingham County for a long time from being an ER nurse to now. I just wish her well, I feel like I’m losing a friend,” said Harpine.
Brandi West and Jennifer Hanger said the staff has been like a family and they’re both grateful for all they’ve learned from Koogler.
“I have an ER and a critical care background and I’ve learned so much from family care that I wouldn’t have thought possible,” said Hanger. “I’ve learned so much I never knew anything about medications, nothing besides x-rays and now I feel like I have a big knowledge to go elsewhere and share,” added West.
As Koogler retires to spend more time with her family, she says she will miss the people she served most of all, some of whom she’s watched grow up over the last decade.
“Seeing different family members and taking care of their needs. You know it’s always gratifying when you can help somebody and know that you did something good for them,” she said.
Grottoes Town Manager Stephanie McAllister told WHSV that the town is sad to see South River Medical Clinic close and hopes to attract another clinic to the town in the future.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/south-river-medical-clinic-grottoes-closes-after-10-years/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:19Z |
Stocks end rocky week with their 5th straight weekly decline
NEW YORK (AP) — A turbulent week on Wall Street ended Friday with more losses and the stock market’s fifth straight weekly decline.
The latest pullback came as investors balanced a strong U.S. jobs report against worries the Federal Reserve may cause a recession in its drive to halt inflation.
The S&P 500 ended with a loss of 0.6%, having come back partway from a bigger loss of 1.9%. Roughly 70% of the companies in the benchmark index fell. Technology stocks weighed down the index the most.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, while the Nasdaq slid 1.4%. Both indexes also pared some of their losses from earlier in the day.
Investors focused on new data Friday showing U.S. employers continue to hire rapidly, and workers are getting relatively big raises, though short of inflation. The market’s reaction reflects concerns among investors that the strong numbers would keep the Fed on track for sharp and steady increases in interest rates to corral inflation, analysts said.
The S&P 500 fell 23.53 points to 4,123.34. The Dow dropped 98.60 points to 32,899.37. The Nasdaq fell 173.03 points to 12,144.66.
Smaller companies fell more than the broader market. The Russel 2000 slid 31.58 points, or 1.7%, to 1,839.56.
Friday’s choppy trading followed even wilder gyrations earlier this week, as all kinds of markets, from bonds to cryptocurrencies, grapple with a new market order where the Federal Reserve is aggressively moving to yank supports for the economy put in place through the pandemic.
The Fed is hoping to raise rates and slow the economy enough to snuff out the highest inflation in four decades, but it risks choking off growth if it goes too far or too quickly. The Fed raised its key short-term interest rate this week by a half a percentage point, the largest such increase since 2000. It also said more increases that size are likely on the way.
Not only do higher interest rates tap the brakes on the economy by making it more expensive to borrow, they also put downward pressure on prices of all kinds of investments. Beyond interest rates and inflation, the war in Ukraine and the continuing COVID-19 pandemic are also weighing on markets.
Stocks nevertheless zoomed higher Wednesday afternoon, after latching onto a sliver of hope from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s comments following the latest rate increase. He said the Fed was not “actively considering” an even bigger jump of 0.75 percentage points at its next meeting, something markets had seen as a near certainty.
Jubilance was the market’s instant reaction, with the S&P 500 soaring 3% for its best day in nearly two years. It sobered up the next day, though, amid recognition that the Fed is still set to raise rates aggressively in its battle against inflation. The S&P 500 on Thursday lost all its prior day’s gains, plus a bit more, in one of its worst days since the early 2020 slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
That may be why stocks faltered Friday, after data showed hiring is still strong and pressure remains high on companies to raise pay for workers.
“These data do not change the outlook for Fed policy; the rates trajectory remains upward in the near term,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note.
Many of the factors driving inflation higher could linger well into 2022, said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. The latest swings in the markets could mean investors are getting closer to better adjusting for the Fed’s aggressive policy shift, Samana said.
“Powell’s conference didn’t change anything; there’s still plenty of inflation,” he said. “You’re probably getting to point where the Fed at least won’t be as much of a market driver.”
Treasury yields also swung sharply following the release of the jobs report.
The yield on the two-year Treasury, which moves with expectations for Fed policy, initially shot as high as as 2.77% earlier in the morning. But it then slipped to 2.70%, down from 2.71% late Thursday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury leaped toward 3.13% shortly after the data’s release, slipped a bit then climbed to 3.14% by late afternoon. That’s still close to its highest level since 2018 and more than double where it started 2022, at just 1.51%.
The swings came as economists pointed to some possible signs of peaking within the jobs market, which may be an early signal inflation is set to moderate. That could ultimately mean less pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise rates so forcefully.
While workers’ wages were 5.5% higher in April than a year earlier, in line with economists’ expectations, the growth in average hourly pay from March levels was slightly below forecasts. Slower wage gains are discouraging for workers, but investors see them meaning less upward pressure on inflation.
BlackRock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, Rick Rieder, pointed to surveys showing companies’ ability to hire becoming easier and other signs that some slack may be building in the red-hot job market.
“That raises the question of whether the Fed may slow its tightening process at some point over the coming months as a result of these expected trends, but while that’s possible recent data won’t provide markets much comfort of that happening anytime soon,” Rieder said in a report.
For now, expectations of rising interest rates have been hitting high-growth stocks in particular.
Much of that is because many of them are seen as the most expensive following years of leading the market. Many tech-oriented stocks have been among the market’s biggest losers this year, including Netflix, Nvidia and Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms.
Nearly half the Nasdaq stocks were recently down by at least 50% from their 52-week highs, according to a BofA Global Research report from chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett.
___
AP Business Writers Joe McDonald and Damian J. Troise contributed. Veiga reported from Los Angeles.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/stocks-end-rocky-week-with-their-5th-straight-weekly-decline/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:25Z |
UVA Health expert lends insight to Johnson & Johnson vaccine restriction
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) -
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has put a limit on the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Now, only certain people can get it.
You can only get the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine if you are 18 or older and unable to get Pfizer or Moderna’s mRNA shots.
The FDA is restricting its use due to a rare but serious risk of blood clots after vaccination. This problem first came up last Spring.
One UVA Health doctor says the Johnson & Johnson shot is still a useful tool to have.
Doctor Bill Petri has been studying the Coronavirus with UVA Health since the beginning of the pandemic. He says this restriction is a sign of how carefully they are following the safety of these vaccines.
“This is the kind of complication you only see after the vaccine has been approved, because clinical trials were 50,000 people, not 50 million people that would have required,” Dr. Petri said.
This side effect could have been only predicted through clinical trials with millions of people in the study.
He emphasizes this is a rare side effect, with two cases for about every three million to get the vaccine.
While Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are more effective and do not have this complication, Dr. Petri says that is not a reason to ditch J&J entirely.
“The rare person has an allergic reaction to the Pfizer Moderna, it’s nice to have J&J in your back pocket so that you can use it in that situation,” Dr. Petri said.
The Blue Ridge Health District no longer offers the Johnson & Johnson shot. Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital says it never offered this vaccine. According to UVA Health’s website it is still currently offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“It may come to the point where J&J stops offering it at all, I hope that’s not the case because there are going to be rare people who can’t tolerate the mRNA vaccines and then this is still a very safe vaccine,” Dr. Petri said.
Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/uva-health-expert-lends-insight-johnson-johnson-vaccine-restriction/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:33Z |
Virginia DOC reacts to nationwide manhunt for Vicky White and Casey White
RICHMOND, Va. (WHSV) - The manhunt for Vicky White and Casey White, a corrections officer and escaped inmate from Alabama, continues.
It has been one week since the corrections officer helped the inmate escape. The Virginia Department of Corrections weighed in Friday.
”The situation in Alabama is a reminder to corrections agencies throughout the country the danger and risk to public safety illicit staff and inmate relationships pose,” Benjamin Jarvela, communications director for Virginia DOC, said in a statement.
Jarvela said the DOC cannot comment on which safety protocols are put in place because that would hinder the protection of staff and inmates, however, employees in Virginia state prisons do follow regular training about the dangers of employee and inmate relationships.
“All staff at the Virginia Department of Corrections receive regular training about the danger and illegality of such behavior and the career-ending consequences it can have,” Jarvela said in a statement.
Jarvela said they take the risk of something similar to this case happening in the Commonwealth very seriously.
“VA DOC is committed to vigilance and security at all of our facilities and we take the risk of similar situations extremely seriously,” Jarvela said in a statement.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/virginia-doc-reacts-nationwide-manhunt-vicky-white-casey-white/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:39Z |
Sponsored - The following content is created on behalf of Western State Hospital and does not reflect the opinions of Gray Media or its editorial staff. To learn more about Western State Hospital, visit wsh.dbhds.virginia.gov.
We all know how hard the past couple of years has been working in healthcare, and this week at Western State Hospital, we’re celebrating the backbone of our hospital, the nurses! National Nurses Week is May 6-12, 2022.
In many areas, the week-long celebration has expanded to the entire month of May and is an opportunity to celebrate and show gratitude for the tremendous care nurses provide to patients and families.
Nursing as we know it today is credited to Florence Nightingale, laying the groundwork for professional nursing during her work during and after the Crimean War.
The International Council of Nurses established May 12 as International Nurses Day in 1974, coinciding with Nightingale’s birthday of May 12. The American Nursing Association officially designated May 6-12 as National Nurses Week in the United States in 1994, and it’s been recognized annually since.
Today, nurses are licensed healthcare professionals who not only assist doctors during treatments and surgeries, but also perform vital tests, make care decisions, provide support and educate patients about their health.
Want to thank a nurse you know? Treat them to a nice meal or get them a certificate for a massage. Put together a self-care package with relaxing bath products and candles. Even just sending heartfelt notes can show your acknowledgement and appreciation for everything nurses do. | https://www.whsv.com/sponsored/western-state-hospital/celebrating-national-nurses-week/ | 2022-05-06T23:34:46Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* 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) -- Lieutenant Governor, Josh Green's, run for the governor's seat is now official.
Accompanied by wife Jamie Green, and a handful of supporters, the official papers were filed this morning at the Office of Elections.
Under oath-- Green swore to continuously support and defend the constitutional rights of Hawaii residents.
He says, In building his campaign on the same methodic principals which guided him as a leader throughout the pandemic, he is not only willing but able to fulfill the duties as Hawaii's next Governor.
"The experience of dealing with that crisis has really prepared our team to lead Hawaii forward. And so that I'm grateful for." Green explained. "Our next governor is going to have to rebuild Hawaii, so all of the lessons I learned being there meeting after meeting on the ground as a physician in the ER will help me to really translate our needs into action."
Green says his top priorities, if elected, are to tackle the the state's critical housing crisis, address homelessness, and increase access to health services.
Erin found her passion in journalism from a young age, watching her dad on the news. He taught her the importance of meeting, learning, and sharing people's stories. | https://www.kitv.com/news/dr-josh-greens-run-for-the-governors-seat-now-official/article_24e7e04c-cd88-11ec-acd7-bb1b1d1198fe.html | 2022-05-06T23:53:24Z |
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People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/its-national-small-business-week/article_c79bf05c-cd75-11ec-ac44-9beaf2926b78.html | 2022-05-06T23:53:36Z |
(CNN) -- The escape vehicle used by Vicky White and Casey White, the missing former Alabama corrections officer and inmate, was found in Tennessee -- and authorities are trying to determine whether the pair may now have another car.
The orange 2007 Ford Edge SUV was in a tow lot in Williamson County, Tennessee, about two hours north of Florence, Alabama, where the fugitive investigation began, the US Marshals Service said Friday.
It was taken there last Friday, when Williamson County Sheriff's Office authorities responded to an abandoned vehicle and found the car locked, with no tags and no identifying information, sheriff's office spokesperson Sharon Puckett told CNN.
The tow truck driver who picked up the Ford vehicle remembered it when he saw a local TV story this week about the missing officer and inmate and alerted his boss, who contacted authorities.
Latest updates on Vicky White and Casey White
The new information means the couple likely abandoned their vehicle less than four hours after they left Florence on April 29, perhaps due to mechanical problems, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton said during a news conference Friday.
But now authorities are back to "square one" when it comes to what the pair may have done next, and are working to determine whether the pair stole another vehicle or got a ride with someone else, the sheriff said.
"It really doesn't leave us a lot, we just know what direction they were headed, they headed north from here," the sheriff said. "After Friday afternoon, when they abandoned that car, which direction they went from there, we don't know."
Investigators also know Vicky White had money with her when they disappeared, and are working to find out more details, Singleton added. She may also be using different aliases and identities, the sheriff said.
The sheriff said Vicky White's handcuffs, jail keys and radio were found in the car. There had also appeared to be an attempt to spray paint the vehicle, the sheriff said.
The officer and the inmate, who may have had a romantic relationship, have been on the run since they left the Lauderdale County Detention Center on April 29.
There is an active warrant out for the officer's arrest on charges of permitting or facilitating escape in the first degree. She is also no longer employed as assistant director of corrections by the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Office, the office said in a statement Wednesday. While she was set to retire April 29, her papers were never finalized, he said.
Authorities release photos and rendering
A day earlier, authorities released more information that could help the public identify the pair. Image renderings by the Marshals Service showed Vicky White, 56, who was blonde when she disappeared, would look like if she altered her appearance to have darker and shorter hair.
Other photos show inmate Casey White's distinctive tattoos; he is 38. The two are not related.
To help the public identify the pair, the Marshals Service also released an image showing the height difference between the two, as well as their height compared to the Ford Edge SUV.
The "subjects should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns and a shotgun," the agency said Thursday, adding there is a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the location of the officer and $10,000 for information leading to the capture of the inmate. On Friday, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey also announced rewards of $5,000 each for information leading up to the capture and arrest of the inmate and the officer, saying they pose a "major threat" to the public.
Casey White in 2015 threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and her sister and said he wanted police to kill him, the Marshals Service said. Authorities have advised his "potential targets" about his escape and the threats against them and have taken "appropriate protective actions," the agency said.
Casey White should be considered extremely dangerous, authorities have said. He was in the Lauderdale County jail awaiting trial for the capital murder charges against him and was also serving a 75-year sentence for a series of crimes committed in 2015.
More than 200 tips have come into the Marshals Service since Tuesday from across the country, said Chad Hunt, commander of its Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force.
"We're seeing stuff coming in from the Northwest down to the Southwest to the Northeast and everything in between ... and we have to look at every single one," Hunt told CNN Thursday.
Investigators are "following up on (tips) as aggressively as we can," Singleton told CNN on Thursday. "Some of them do look promising, but it takes a time to follow through on those things. We're hoping that one of them will pan out for us, and we'll be able to locate them."
Not 'the Vicky White we know,' sheriff says
Singleton has described the officer as an "exemplary employee" who had the respect of her colleagues and "an unblemished record." The sheriff could not provide a reason why the officer allegedly aided the escape, saying the behavior isn't "the Vicky White we know."
The officer had made some significant financial decisions leading up to April 29, including selling her home for well under market value. The house sold for $95,550, documents show, but county records list the current total parcel value of the property at $235,600.
Vicky White and Casey White's relationship can be traced to 2020, when the inmate was taken to Lauderdale County for arraignment on murder charges, according to the sheriff.
The pair had a "special relationship" that was confirmed, in part, by other inmates who told authorities Casey White "was getting extra food on his trays" and "was getting privileges no one else got. And this was all coming from her," Singleton said.
The pair kept communicating after Casey White was transferred back to the state prison, the sheriff said. Casey White returned to the Lauderdale County Detention Facility in February to attend court hearings in his capital murder case.
Vicky White stayed at a Quality Inn hotel in Florence on Thursday night, the night before the two disappeared, Singleton said. Investigators saw her on video at the hotel that evening, the sheriff added. Quality Inn had no comment when reached by CNN for comment.
Then, on the morning of April 29, authorities say Vicky White asked that Casey White be prepared for transport. She said she would take him to the courthouse by herself, which was a violation of the department's policy requiring inmates be accompanied by two sworn deputies at all times, Singleton said.
Investigators have determined the two then drove to a shopping center parking lot, ditched the officer's patrol car and drove off in the orange Ford SUV. Investigators believe Vicky White purchased the escape vehicle in Rogersville, in Lauderdale County, and staged it in the parking lot the night before the pair fled, according to Singleton.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/missing-alabama-inmate-and-corrections-officer-abandoned-their-vehicle-last-week-officials-are-investigating-whether/article_d087cb8e-cd87-11ec-9af2-9f07f763eb4b.html | 2022-05-06T23:53:42Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* 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) -- Tanioka’s Charity Foundation, a Honolulu-based charity organization, has been selected as a finalist for the State Farm Neighborhood Assist Top 200.
If selected, Tanioka’s would receive a $25,000 grant from State Farm. Tanioka’s says, if selected, it has designated the funds to Pali Momi Medical Center – which offers medical services to patients regardless of their ability to pay.
“We would like to partner with our local hospital, Pali Momi Medical Center, to support patients in financial need with assistance for medication, medical equipment, and transportation,” reads Tanioka’s submission post, in part, on State Farm’s Neighborhood Assist site.
Friday, May 6, is the last day to vote. Voting will run until 5:59 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time. Tap here to cast your vote.
Tanioka’s focus is aimed at partnering with other local charities to help “with underfunded and unmet needs of the community.” The money would go to Pali Momi Medical Center’s Ohana Fund for patient assistance.
In the past, approximately 200 people have utilized the Ohana Fund with the average benefit just over $100, according to Tanioka’s entry.
“This grant would provide a safety net for the many in our community with illnesses and injuries who have exhausted all other options | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/tanioka-s-charity-foundation-in-honolulu-a-finalist-for-state-farm-neighborhood-assist-top-200/article_608314bc-cd85-11ec-b486-a349e8009692.html | 2022-05-06T23:53:48Z |
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM HST SATURDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 20 to 25 kt. Seas 6 to 9 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 Saturday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
Mike Hagerty, seen here attending a screening of HBO's "Somebody Somewhere" on February 23, has died, according to his co-star.
Mike Hagerty, a character actor known for his roles in shows like "Friends" and films like "Overboard," has passed away, Bridget Everett, his costar in HBO's "Somebody Somewhere," said in an Instagram post.
"With great sadness, the family of Michael G. Hagerty announced his death yesterday in Los Angeles. A beloved character actor, his love of his hometown of Chicago and his family were the cornerstones of his life," the statement said.
Hagerty played Everett's father on the HBO series.
"I loved Mike the instant I met him," Everett added in another post. "He was so special. Warm, funny, never met a stranger. We are devastated he has passed."
Through the years the actor amassed a long list of TV guest roles, primarily in comedies, but also in dramas like "ER" and "Deadwood."
In addition to "Friends," where he played the building super Mr. Treeger, he appeared in a memorable episode of "Seinfeld" as a clothing-store owner and had recurring roles in the comedies "Lucky Louie" (starring Louis C.K.), "The George Carlin Show" and more recently "Brooklyn Nine-Nine."
Actor and director Jay Duplass added in a Tweet: "Mike Hagerty was a great actor and a great man. I'm going to miss him. He lives forever in our hearts."
Hagerty is survived by his wife Mary Kathryn, his sister Mary Ann Hagerty, her wife Kathleen O'Rourke, and their daughter Meg, according to Everett's post. | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/mike-hagerty-friends-and-somebody-somewhere-actor-has-died/article_c5027244-6342-53a3-a0d6-e2571aa5013a.html | 2022-05-06T23:53:54Z |
“Jubal! Jubal! Jubal!”
The 2-year-old, who nearly lost his life less than three months ago, looked up at the crowded stands in the Brixner Junior High School gymnasium and gave students a quick smile before hiding his face on his mother’s shoulder.
The students then stood, clapping their hands and stomping their feet.
Brixner students in March adopted Jubal as a Sparrow Club “sparrow,” and in one month, performed more than 400 hours of community service to help support the family financially as the toddler recovered from his injuries. Sparrow Club sponsors donated money to the family for the community service hours Brixner students logged in Jubal’s name.
Students met Jubal for the first time Tuesday during a celebratory event at the school.
Fighting tears, Jubal’s mother, Sarah Hirengen, addressed the students, thanking them for their support of a boy they had never met. Jubal spent nine weeks in hospitals in Portland before returning home to his family.
“I want to let you know how much you mean to us,” she said. “What you did was not only work your tails off to help earn money to take care of Jubal, but more importantly, we got your notes that told us why you were doing it, and we got updates about what you were doing. What you did is you brought home to us … We heard your voices, we saw your words, we felt your prayers … The money is fantastic, your hard work is amazing, but I want you to know that it is your passion, your commitment, your prayers and your words and your thoughts that meant even more to us.”
Jubal was critically injured in an accident Feb. 16, the day before his second birthday. Paramedics from Klamath County Fire District No. 1 responded, providing life-saving care before rushing the toddler to the hospital. He was life-flighted to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland and spent four weeks on life support before being transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility. Among his injuries were major head trauma and a fractured arm.
Today, the 2-year-old is back home with his seven siblings and parents. He still has partial paralysis on his right side, is fully blind in his left eye and partially blind in his right eye. But his speech has returned and is now better than it was before accident. His personality is back and though he has a wheelchair, he is walking and standing, his mother says.
The paramedics who responded to the scene and the Klamath County 911 dispatcher who took the emergency call were invited to Tuesday’s celebration at Brixner Junior High School.
“We came to meet Jubal and see how well he is recovering,” said Klamath County Fire District No. 1 Captain Steve Lewis after the paramedics and dispatcher gathered for a photo with the toddler and his mother. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years and it’s rare to get wins like this.”
Brixner teacher and Sparrow Club advisor Kjaersti Roberts teared up during the emotional event, telling students that being able to meet Jubal in person is “a miracle that you get to be a part of.”
“I hope that you take this experience with you, knowing that you can go out in the community and you can make a difference,” she told the students. “You can do so much more than you thought you were capable of.” | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/brixner-junior-high-students-complete-community-service-meet-their-2-year-old-sparrow/article_0ca2fb1b-2093-5783-9557-96d945a9c544.html | 2022-05-06T23:59:44Z |
CORVALLIS, Ore. — Oregon farm regulators might decide to take over fresh produce safety inspections from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration next year.
The FDA began performing inspections in Oregon in 2019 to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, a federal statute intended to prevent foodborne illness.
Since then, the state Department of Agriculture has focused on providing education and technical assistance to fresh produce growers rather than directly conducting on-farm inspections.
However, some farmers have told ODA that they’d prefer to be overseen by state inspectors who are more familiar with local crops, said Susanna Pearlstein, the agency’s produce safety program manager.
“They want Oregon people to regulate Oregon agriculture,” she said.
Currently, Oregon is one of just four states that allow FDA to perform on-farm inspections rather than hiring their own inspectors, she said May 5 at the state Board of Agriculture meeting in Corvallis.
“The majority of states have taken on regulatory programs,” Pearlstein said.
Farmers are currently inspected by 25 investigators from FDA who may not be acquainted with the processes and equipment used for the state’s niche crops, she said.
Some of them may prefer to working with ODA inspectors who are more knowledgable about their specific circumstances, said Lauren Henderson, ODA’s deputy director.
Those state inspectors would be credentialed by the FDA and operate under its authority.
The Oregon Farm Bureau has urged the ODA to take on the additional inspection role, citing “significant regulatory hurdles for producers” who’ve found “federal inspectors to be overreaching and difficult to work with.”
Support for switching to ODA inspectors is not universal among the state’s farmers, though, and agency officials plan to seek more input before they have to make a decision.
“We want to have additional stakeholder outreach, meetings and conversations,” said Alexis Taylor, the agency’s director, noting that ODA will also ask the state Board of Agriculture to weigh in on the choice.
“It’s going to be an additional workload,” she said.
The ODA is approved for $630,000 in federal funds to provide assistance and education during the FDA’s 2021-2026 grant cycle. If it decides to directly perform inspections, the federal government may provide another $500,000 in funding.
The state agency must decide by a March 2023 deadline to qualify for that funding during the current 5-year grant cycle.
While it’s estimated those funds would cover the ODA’s costs of implementing the program, it’s unknown whether the agency can count on continued federal support in future cycles, said Henderson.
The FDA reduced its education and outreach funding by $100,000 in 2021-2026 compared to the previous grant cycle, for example.
In the past, the federal government has helped state agencies get started with funding for programs but eventually ended that support, he said.
That raises the possibility that on-farm inspectors would eventually be paid for with fees from produce growers, which may discourage some from supporting direct ODA oversight.
“Once you commit yourself to do something, it’s hard to un-commit yourself,” Henderson said. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/oregon-weighs-direct-on-farm-food-safety-inspections/article_71aa38cd-f85a-5ce8-8ef7-aed4706b34b5.html | 2022-05-06T23:59:50Z |
Last year, the Klamath Tribal Council approved a resolution, declaring May 5 as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Day.
Events in both Chiloquin and Klamath Falls were held Thursday to honor those who have been lost, going from Sugarman’s Corner to the Klamath Tribes Fitness Center, and finally ending the day at the Tayas Yawks building, where most of the events were held.
Many of the events gave a safe platform for people to talk about missing or murdered loved ones, being able to bring them up in prayer, or when gathered around the table.
This was a time to reflect and not forget about the lost loved ones.
Christy David, the executive director of the Klamath Advocacy Center, expressed the importance of this event for many Indigenous people.
“It is imperative to bring a safe space to talk about our loved ones,” David said. "We just want justice and want more support from law officials.”
Many people, like David, expressed the frustration of many cases of loved ones going cold and not ultimately knowing what happened to their friends and family.
“It is hard to get help for us, I call, and no one comes, I don’t know what I am supposed to do,” said Kelli Campagna, Healing Winds advocate.
While the frustration is there, for these individuals it all comes from a dark place where they just want to know what ultimately happened to their friends and family who are gone.
“We need to work together and build together,” Campagna added.
Aryel Harrington, social services director for the Klamath Tribes, intends to build more support with local law enforcement.
“We want to work with local agencies on these cases,” Harrington said, “We want to gain more federal funding to create a coordinator position to focus on the issue and bring more collaboration with the law agencies and the tribe.”
While the frustration and emotions came out over what happened to their friends and family, the most important aspect of this event came to life when the candles were lit and many of those affected were able to reflect on the loved ones who are gone.
Many members of the community shared their stories and moments of silence were held for all of those who have gone missing or were murdered and events like these will show us that they will never be forgotten. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/tribes-remember-those-gone-missing/article_898b6d88-6996-5cca-9c8f-43d7ec414379.html | 2022-05-06T23:59:56Z |
Connor Fox thinks higher interest rates might be just what the housing market needs.
“I think that is exactly what we need. We need that market stabilization,” said Fox, who is president of the Rock-Green Realtors Association in southern Wisconsin. Fox is also a real estate agent with Century 21 Affiliated in Janesville.
The Federal Reserve Bank announced a half point hike to federal funds rate Wednesday as the U.S. economy wrestles with an 8.5% inflation rate — the highest in more than 40 years. It comes after a quarter-point interest rate hike in March. More Fed rate hikes are expected this year to help ease burdensome inflation hitting consumers and businesses.
The rate hikes have resulted in higher mortgage interest rates. A 30-year mortgage had an average interest rate of 5.27% as of May 5, according to Freddie Mac. Those are the highest since 2009, according to Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist Sam Khater.
Fox sees the housing market glass half-full with more expensive mortgages.
Fox said higher interest rates can potentially help alleviate some of the inventory pressures confronting home buyers in Wisconsin and throughout the country. Tight supplies and low mortgage interest rates have spurred significant demand for homes.
“We are still seeing people offer $20,000 to $30,000 over asking price. People get very discouraged. It’s a very frustrating market right now,” said Fox.
Fox said he’s been in the real estate industry for six years and has never seen mortgage rates above 4.5 %. He expects to see continued demand as long as mortgage interest rates stay below 6%.
“People who want to buy a house are still going to buy a house,” Fox said.
Home prices across the country have jumped during the coronavirus pandemic while inventories have been constrained — including by supply chain and labor shortages.
The median home price in Wisconsin was $254,000 in March 2022, according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association. That is up from $189,900 in February 2020 before the pandemic — a 34% jump.
In south central Wisconsin, the median home sale price in March was $317,000 up from $235,000 before the pandemic in early 2020, according to the real estate group. That translates into a 35% price gain regionally.
Winter coming for housing boom?
Higher interest rates will price out some potential entry level buyers — who have driven home sales in growth markets such as Florida, Arizona and Texas. Higher rates, along with inflation also adversely impact consumers.
“Mortgages now compared to just a few months ago are costing more money for home buyers,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors at May 4 forum in Maryland. “For a median-priced home, the price difference is $300 to $400 more per month, which is a hefty toll for a working family.”
NAR estimates a home purchase is now 55% more expensive than a year ago. Yun said inflation, which has seen significant rises in grocery and fuel prices, is also hitting the economy and workers.
“Wages have risen by 6% from one year ago and that's good news,” Yun said “But inflation is at 8.5%.”
Fox is optimistic that higher mortgage rates will help balance supply and demand for homes without adversely impacting the overall housing market. "I think there is a little bit of wiggle room," Fox said of how high mortgage rates can go before overly subduing demand. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/nation_world/could-higher-interest-rates-help-the-housing-market/article_8b88d499-9d22-5dcc-a91d-fedd049990c0.html | 2022-05-07T00:00:03Z |
CHEYENNE – With spring upon us, roads that were closed for the winter are gradually reopening in Wyoming. Yellowstone National Park is no exception.
So if all goes according to plan, including with the cooperation of Mother Nature, the east entrance road at Yellowstone is expected to open to traffic on Friday. As an announcement Wednesday noted, "conditions in Yellowstone can change quickly, especially during spring and fall, and roads can temporarily close due to poor driving conditions."
Spring also brings with it the annual start of roadwork. And the national park is no exception to this fact of vehicular life, either.
The park warned to "expect up to 20-minute delays east of the park's East Entrance due to road construction." For updates on this project, the park advised visiting the Wyoming Department of Transportation travel information map, which is available online.
That map showed, at U.S. Highways 14, 16 and 20 mileposts 0 to 10.249, the potential for 20-minute delays. It said there is "bituminous pavement surfacing, traffic control, milling plant mix and miscellaneous work on approximately 10.20 miles" of that road between Yellowstone National Park and Cody. The scheduled completion date is Oct. 31.
Conditions permitting, the park also noted Wednesday, these roads will open May 13 at 8 a.m.: South entrance to West Thumb; Lake Village to West Thumb; West Thumb to Old Faithful (Craig Pass); and Tower Junction to Tower Fall.
You can check current road status on the park's website or by calling 307-344-2117. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/east-entrance-road-to-yellowstone-opens-friday/article_4b0f3610-7908-5501-ac37-47bcb4f97012.html | 2022-05-07T00:22:18Z |
CHEYENNE — Late Friday afternoon, Wyoming State Treasurer Curt Meier formally announced by email that he is seeking re-election to the office he won four years ago.
The former Republican lawmaker said he is seeking a second term because he is committed to implementing an unprecedented level of financial expertise and professionalism in the State Treasurer’s Office for the people of Wyoming.
“It has been an honor to serve the citizens of our great state as Wyoming’s Treasurer, and it is my desire to continue providing effective leadership, solid returns and excellent service in managing the people’s investments,” Meier said.
Meier won election to his current post in November 2018 after serving 24 years in the Wyoming State Senate, and was sworn in as Wyoming’s 31st state treasurer on Jan. 7, 2019.
In the first three years of his term, the office’s investments grew from $20.12 billion to more than $25.05 billion. Those accounts provided hundred of millions of dollars each year to Wyoming’s general fund to address both essential and special interest needs of Wyoming taxpayers, while also bolstering the state’s education and workers’ compensation funds, according to the release.
“My goal has always been to keep government taxation and spending at its lowest possible level so that the private sector can thrive without needless government interference or burdensome taxes,” Meier said.
Under his management the State Treasurer’s Office has achieved great success in safeguarding taxpayer money and growing the state’s assets. He is also leading a modernization of the office’s accounting and administrative functions to create efficiencies and limit expenses in an effort to produce a higher level of fiscal accountability in state government.
“Over the past two years, the investment team at the State Treasurer’s Office has repeatedly beaten their investment benchmarks, and it appears likely that they are about to do so for a third straight year,” Meier said. “I think that is really impressive when you consider that over 80% of investment professionals fail this level of achievement for just one year, let alone three.”
Meier is also proud to report that the Peterson Institute for International Economics has examined the Wyoming State Treasurer’s Office in the areas of governance, transparency, accountability, structure, and behavior and found that Wyoming is now the #1 rated sovereign wealth fund in the United States, and #3 in the world behind only Norway and New Zealand.
Additionally, the Unclaimed Property Division of the State Treasurer’s Office continues to set new records for both the total number of recipients who have benefitted from their efforts, and the amount of dollars and stocks returned to the lawful owners of the claimed property. Last year alone Meier’s team issued 5,487 checks, and more than $7.42 Million was paid back to rightful owners.
Meier credited the team he has built since taking office a little over three years ago with these successes — and others — and said he is excited to see how much more they can accomplish in a second term.
“Our dedicated employees are the heart and soul of the Treasurer’s Office and I am proud of the work we have done together. There are just so many things that are going right in our office, and what is really rewarding to the people working there is that they get to make a difference in people’s lives. We’ve improved the lives of every person in Wyoming in some way,” he said.
The achievements of the State Treasurer’s Office under Meier’s leadership represent a continuation of nearly three decades of public service to the State of Wyoming and its people.
Prior to winning election to statewide office in 2018, Meier served on the State Treasurer Advisory Committee during the terms of former Treasurers Cynthia Lummis and Joe Meyer. During his legislative career, he served on the Select Committee on Capital Financing and Investments, and was the Legislative Liaison to the State Retirement Board. He was a member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, and also served as Chairman of both the Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Committee and the Transportation, Highway and Military Affairs Committee. Before joining the legislature, he was appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor Mike Sullivan.
Meier has been recognized by numerous organizations for the work he has done for the citizens of Wyoming, and is especially proud of the distinguished Patrick Henry Award from the Wyoming National Guard Association for his “outstanding and exceptional service to the armed forces.”
A graduate of the University of Wyoming, Meier holds a bachelor’s degree in animal science, and is a successful businessman. He operates a farm and ranch in his hometown of La Grange, and formerly owned and operated an irrigation business. His wife, Charlene, was a dedicated elementary school teacher until she retired in 2019 after serving the children of Goshen County for 45 years.
“I’ve spent my entire adult life working hard to keep Wyoming the best place in the world to live, work, play, raise a family, and start a business, and I would be honored to continue serving the people of this great state for four more years as your State Treasurer,” Meier said. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/state-treasurer-curt-meier-announces-he-will-seek-re-election/article_fd6a85c1-b009-5265-8d85-acb5413a33fe.html | 2022-05-07T00:22:24Z |
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As reported April 29, while performing routine checks on service lines, a dye test revealed the possibility of seepage from the North Side Lift Station force main under the river. This underground line from the lift station near the Union Pacific Railroad ties in near the horse corrals and then flows to the treatment plant. The leak appeared to be on the southside of the river and seemed to occur following a back-flow scenario after the wet well had been pumped.
Green River Public Works Department acted quickly to be able to isolate the area. They contracted with a tank and container solution company that placed three large containers at the northside lift station to be used for extra surge capacity. The Department was able to use the lift station pumps to pump into the containers where our vacuum trucks, with the assistance of a local contractor, were able to haul the waste to be put into the treatment facility. This allowed the force main line to be shut down and allowed for the inspection of the pipe. They were then able to work with a local construction contractor to build a coffer dam utilizing two large trench boxes. Once these were in place and the pipe exposed, two areas of repair were found and repair bands have been applied to control the situation. The force main line was then placed back into service.
City Administrator Reed Clevenger said that the work has gone quickly and he is impressed and proud of how the Green River City employees have been able to work together in a team effort with the contractors to reenergize the system with no impact to the residents and users of the system. He says the public works department will monitor the work that was done over the weekend and will be working on a long term solution for this aging line. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/townnews/building_industry/utilities-department-follows-up-on-leak/article_e61b8bbc-1893-5530-b136-7e9178346c9e.html | 2022-05-07T00:22:37Z |
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CHEYENNE – The owner of the Hynds Building in downtown Cheyenne is frustrated his property was included in an Urban Renewal Authority plan for blighted buildings without him first being notified, he said in a Thursday email to the Cheyenne mayor and City Council.
David Hatch, a local developer and owner of the Hynds, said he learned following a recent phone call between his Realtor and Mayor Patrick Collins that the city had incorporated it into this URA plan. Hatch contends that, in effect, the city wants him to sell to the Downtown Development Authority at “a much reduced” offer price or face eminent domain “via condemnation,” he said in a Friday interview.
Collins on Friday disputed this. The mayor said the purpose of the April 28 phone call was to inform Hatch and his Realtor, Jim Weaver, that the city's URA had expanded a plan to include the Hynds Building, located on the northwest corner of Capitol Avenue and West Lincolnway.
This plan must be approved by the city’s Planning Commission and the City Council. It would likely be finalized by the council in mid-June.
Collins told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that the city is not currently in a position to invoke eminent domain. However, the URA has approved moving a plan forward that includes the Hynds Building and would allow it “to use the tools of the (URA) to help get those areas redeveloped and brought to life,” Collins said.
One of the powers the city is asking for through the URA, Collins said, is the power to acquire property. One way it could ultimately acquire property is through eminent domain, the mayor said.
Hatch said in his email, forwarded to the WTE Friday, that “utilizing the (URA) designation to promote the agenda of the city in acquiring the Hynds from me is inappropriate, misleading and a clear departure from (the) publicly promoted purpose of an URA.”
Collins said the city just wants to see the Hynds revitalized – whether that means a sale by Hatch to another developer, to the DDA or an eventual acquisition by the city.
The mayor said the city continues to bring potential buyers to Hatch, calling the city its “biggest cheerleader.” He said he was meeting Friday afternoon with another developer interested in purchasing the Hynds.
Hatch has owned the Hynds since May 2016, when he bought it from an investment company in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
The property has been largely empty for four decades, the mayor said.
Hatch said in an interview that the first floor of the building is fully occupied by 10 artists. It is “sort of like an artist co-op,” he said, one that has been there for years.
The developer said the second floor and basement are leased occasionally to photography studios.
Blight
Hatch disputes that his building is blighted and says the city has incorrectly lumped the Hynds Building and the “Hole” together. The Hole, located next to the building at 206 W. Lincolnway, is the product of a fire that destroyed Mary’s Bake Shoppe in 2004.
In his email, Hatch says the Hynds and the Hole "are two very distinct properties, and lumping them together is a power grab by the city."
Collins responded that the two are "inextricably connected," adding that he doesn't think the Hynds can be developed without at least part of the Hole.
"To me, it's like we have this beautiful lady who's smiling downtown, and her two front teeth are out," he said. "That's how I look at the Hynds and the Hole. I think at some point we've just got to say, 'Something's got to be different.'"
Hatch said the blight report for what the city calls the "Hynds/Hole Blight" is "farcical," and the examples of blight are almost all attributable to the Hole.
As for the Hynds Building, "There are, at best, small code violations that can be found on virtually every building downtown," he wrote.
DDA offer
Hatch wrote that, on March 16, he received an offer of $2.5 million for the Hynds from the DDA. It would have included $1.5 million cash, and a $1 million note that he would carry.
"This offer was acceptable, except that I wrote back to say that I needed different terms on the note," Hatch wrote to the mayor and council. "Since then, I have heard nothing except about a call from the mayor to my Realtor, Jim Weaver, on Thursday, April 28, to say that if I didn’t accept city terms, the city would take my private property via eminent domain. The mayor continued to tell Jim that he didn’t see the city offering more than $1.5 million in total, and it could even be less."
Collins confirmed Friday that the call took place, but he disputed the offer amount. Collins explained that the DDA offered Hatch $1.3 million cash, and if the DDA sold the building within a year of the closing date, Hatch would get an additional $1 million. For each year the building didn't sell, the amount would go down $200,000. After five years, Hatch would get nothing in addition to the original $1.3 million.
During an interview Friday, Hatch said the mayor’s characterization of the offer was correct.
Hatch made a counteroffer, he said, because he believed the amount should increase each year, not diminish. He said he wanted $2.6 million total: $1.3 million cash, and a $1.3 million deferred payment, interest-free for the first year, or with 7.5% annual interest over seven years.
Hatch said that, after his counteroffer, the next contact he had with the city about the Hynds was Collins' call to Weaver this past week.
The city has continued to try to bring interested buyers to Hatch, Collins said, adding that he’s still hopeful they’ll be able to get a deal done.
The Hynds is currently listed by Weaver at $2.7 million, Hatch said.
Eminent domain
Hatch, in his email, called the city's potential use of eminent domain "an illegal taking of private property by the government."
"Every other businessperson in town should be really nervous about that, because if they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody," Hatch said.
Collins said it would not be illegal, as the URA can be empowered to do so by state law.
"If the URA and the city decided to exercise those powers, we would do that. And it's not like we get to take the building away – we have to have it appraised, and we have to pay what (the building is) worth," Collins said.
If Hatch does not sell and the URA eventually invokes eminent domain, Hatch's email makes clear he doesn't intend to let go of the building easily.
"If the city would, in fact, want to continue down the road of the taking of my property, I'm prepared for that long fight in the courts, attorney fees, and a huge amount of bad publicity in the media about how the government has overreached and made up facts about how the Hynds is 'blighted,'" he wrote.
In his email, Hatch suggested continuing negotiations "with the goal of consummating a fair and equitable sale of the building to the city or a developer selected by the city, and then work together to revitalize the Hynds." | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/city-developer-spar-over-hynds-building/article_1153f8f1-614b-5496-a627-0fde2b305570.html | 2022-05-07T02:06:43Z |
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CHEYENNE – The Adventure West Council, Boy Scouts of America hosted its annual Cheyenne Distinguished Citizen Dinner, on April 28, recognizing Gary E. Crum with the Frontier District Distinguished Citizen Award.
The Frontier District Distinguished Citizen Award is given to an individual or individuals who embody the high ideals of Scouting, civic pride, leadership and high integrity, and are dedicated to improving the community and making it a better place, according to a news release.
Crum served as the president and CEO of Western States Bank, helped start Wyoming State Bank in Laramie, and oversaw its growth from $6 million in assets and one office to more than $560 million in assets with 11 offices. He has served as a past Council President of the Longs Peak Council, Area 2 President, Western Region President and currently serves as the National Chair of the 16 National Service territories of the Boy Scouts of America National Organization.
While serving at the regional and national levels of the Boy Scouts of America, Crum has maintained a relationship with his local Scouts BSA Troop 136 in Laramie, serving as Scoutmaster. He has volunteered at several National BSA Scout Jamborees, and is slated to be the Chief of Staff of the 2023 National Scout Jamboree at the Bechtel Summit Reserve in Beckley, West Virginia.
Crum played college football at the University of Wyoming, where he was all-conference and team captain, before a stint with the Miami Dolphins. He won a national championship in what was formerly called Division I-AA as an offensive line coach at Montana State University before embarking on a 20-year career as a college football referee. He also previously served for 15 years as a local high school football and basketball games official.
This year’s dinner is close to achieving its objective, raising just over $53,000 to benefit the Adventure West Council. The event was held at The Metropolitan in downtown Cheyenne, with approximately 80 guests in attendance. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/gary-crum-honored-by-area-boys-scouts-of-america-council/article_46410301-9284-5e53-899c-e1f596ce3f38.html | 2022-05-07T02:06:55Z |
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Celebrating Mother’s Day with a loved one with memory loss
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Sunday is Mother’s Day, and for families honoring loved ones who suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s, the holiday comes with challenges.
Nearly two-thirds of the more than six million Americans living with the disease are women, and women are more likely to be caregivers of those with Alzheimer’s.
“It’s about adapting. It can be overwhelming, but at the end of the day when you still have that support and you have that space, it’s so fulfilling and you’ll be happy you went through with it,” said Sydney Swartz, Program Manager for the Central and Western Virginia Office of The Alzheimer’s Association.
Swartz said making plans with loved ones with memory loss is about adapting, and she highlights the importance of maintaining some normalcy.
“It doesn’t need to take the fun out of things, it doesn’t need to change everything you have going on,” said Swartz.
She said you should make sure your plans make them feel safe.
“Being aware of what’s overwhelming for them, keeping the group small if possible, letting the celebration come to your home space if possible, going with their routine instead of disrupting it, anything to make them feel more comfortable in the space,” she said.
She said you should also be intentional with gifts. Think of things that are useful and safe.
As you consider your loved ones on Sunday, remember to think of the caretakers in your life -- whether that’s you or someone else.
“It’s easy to say no I got it, but you really need to think about yourself, especially your loved one that you’re caring for,” she said.
Even though Mother’s Day can be hard, spending time with family is worth all the challenges.
“If this is your first Mother’s Day with a loved one with a new diagnosis, it will be a little bit intimidating, but filling yourself and surrounding yourself with love so important. It’s definitely worth it. Once you get the first one done, the first one’s the hardest one,” Swartz said.
Swartz said one of the most valuable tools for caretakers is to build a support group, and the Alzheimer’s Association has information about that on their website.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/celebrating-mothers-day-with-loved-one-with-memory-loss/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:06Z |
Driver pleads guilty in crash that killed Nicki Minaj’s father
NEW YORK (AP) — A hit-and-run driver pleaded guilty Friday in a suburban New York crash that killed the father of Nicki Minaj and was promised a year or less in jail, disappointing prosecutors and the hip hop star’s mother.
In state court in Long Island’s Nassau County, businessman Charles Polevich admitted leaving the scene of the February 2021 accident that fatally injured Robert Maraj as he walked along a road in Mineola.
Polevich initially got out of his car and looked at the injured man on the ground, but then drove off, didn’t call 911, garaged his car and covered it with a tarp, authorities said. Polevich pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence by concealing the car.
Maraj, 64, died at a hospital the next day.
Judge Howard Sturim said Polevich would get “no more than one year in jail,” along with community service and a suspended license. The 71-year-old is due to be sentenced Aug. 3.
The victim’s widow, Carol Maraj, told reporters she was “not happy” with the planned sentence. The widow, who is suing Polevich, said seeing him in court left her shaking at the memory of her husband fighting for his life in the hospital.
Prosecutors, who sought a one-to-three-year prison sentence, also took issue with the planned penalty.
“Given the severity of the defendant’s conduct, we disagree with the sentencing commitment from the court,” Nassau County District Attorney’s office spokesperson Brendan Brosh said in a statement.
Polevich’s lawyer, Marc Gann, called the hit-and-run “completely out of character” for his client, who hails from Long Island but has a drilling and water purification business in Guam.
“He does feel tremendous empathy for Mr. Maraj’s family and tremendous remorse for any role he played in his death,” Gann said by phone after court. He suggested that Polevich might have had a medical problem that made him not “fully aware of what he was doing,” while noting that it wasn’t a legal justification.
Messages were sent to representatives for Nicki Minaj, who called her father’s death “the most devastating loss of my life” in a post on her website last year.
The platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated rapper — known for tracks including “Anaconda,” “Starships” and “Super Bass” — was born Onika Tanya Maraj.
In interviews years ago, she described a troubled relationship with her father. But she later said he had changed.
After his death, she wrote about wishing she could pick up the phone and talk to him.
“He was very loved & will be very missed,” she wrote.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/driver-pleads-guilty-crash-that-killed-nicki-minajs-father/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:12Z |
Emergency SNAP benefits continue in May
Published: May. 6, 2022 at 8:58 AM EDT|Updated: 13 hours ago
RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Virginia’s SNAP program will once again release emergency allotments of benefits to eligible households in May.
Funds will be automatically loaded onto SNAP EBT cards on Monday, May 16.
For more information on the assistance amount, click here.
Copyright 2022 WWBT. All rights reserved.
Want NBC12’s top stories in your inbox each morning? Subscribe here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/emergency-snap-benefits-continue-may/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:19Z |
Pure fentanyl likely involved in Harrisonburg overdose death
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Pure fentanyl was likely involved in a suspected overdose death in Harrisonburg on Friday, according to the Harrisonburg Police Department.
The agency warned the drug is extremely dangerous and present in the community.
Fentanyl, frequently mixed with or mistaken for other drugs, can be absorbed through the skin.
In a press release, Dr. Kent Folsom, a board-certified physician in emergency medicine and member of the Harrisonburg Police Auxiliary, explained that pure fentanyl would have “nearly immediate and severe effects on the respiratory system, which would be rapidly fatal and difficult to stop even if the overdose were witnessed. It is dangerous even in small amounts and there is no practical way of knowing the potency of any amount that a person might have in their possession. Often, the only indication of the potency is sudden death.”
While police have not identified the victim, foul play is not suspected.
Anybody with information about this case is asked to call Detective Wetherell at 540-432-7788 or email her at leslie.wetherell@harrisonburgva.gov. Anonymous tips related to this incident, or any crime can be sent to Crime Solvers at (540) 574-5050 or by texting “HPD” plus their tip to CRIMES (274637).
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/pure-fentanyl-likely-involved-harrisonburg-overdose-death/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:25Z |
UVA grad students push administration on 3 requests
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - UVA graduate students say the university is not treating them fairly and are demanding change. The gathered on UVA Grounds Friday, May 6, to make their voices heard.
“The union is hoping to kind of level that playing field to get us the best working conditions possible,” Kelsey Huelsman, a graduate worker, said.
The UVA United Campus Workers Union has three demands: Fair and clear terms of employment, good health care, and a living wage.
“We really just have not been seeing progress. As people said, the cost of living is rising, inflation is rising, and so the situation is really getting more and more dire,” union member Doctor Phoebe Cook said. “Even though I TA and teach courses, I’ve never signed a clear contract that defines the number of hours I’ll work and what happens if someone tries to, you know, overwork me.”
Grad students spoke about why they need these changes. Huelsman says one reason is to improve undergraduate education.
“The more free time that we have and the more financial stability we have to be well, means that we can provide our undergraduate students the best learning environment and mentorship environment possible, but when we’re spread too thin, working too hard. We can’t do that,” she said.
The union was create almost two years ago, fueled by the coronavirus pandemic.
“I joined early on during the pandemic, when graduate students were being asked to do an enormous amount of work transferring courses from being in-person to hybrid under a huge amount of stress and uncertainty,” Dr. Cook said.
Graduate students say they recently have received a $2,000 increase in their stipend.
In a statement to NBC29, a UVA spokesperson said: “The University of Virginia recognizes and appreciates the many contributions made by graduate students to the teaching and research missions of the University. With rising inflation, cost of living increases and the COVID-19 pandemic still in our view, the University continues its effort to improve compensation and support for graduate students, as evidenced by a recent stipend increase for doctoral students in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. The University will continue its efforts to maintain and improve upon the support offered to all our Graduate Assistants.”
Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/uva-grad-students-push-administration-3-requests/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:31Z |
Waynesboro suspending bulk pickup
WAYNESBORO, Va. (WVIR) - The City of Waynesboro says staffing shortages are forcing it to temporarily suspend its bulk trash collection.
Waynesboro Public Works is currently prioritizing weekly trash pick up. If you have bulk items, you can request service on the city’s website. This will add you to the list for when service is resumed.
“We felt like we needed to do to make sure that we are collecting folks’ trash every every week, and so that’s the number one service that we’re committed to providing to our customers,” Trafford McCrae with WPW said.
The city is looking to fill empty positions.
If you have a CDL, you’re encouraged to apply for a position on Waynesboro’s website.
Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/waynesboro-suspending-bulk-pickup/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:37Z |
Youngkin wants state workers back in offices by July
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia state employees will be expected to return to in-person work this summer unless they have been granted an exception for telework under a new policy announced by GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Some state employees have been reporting to their physical workspace throughout the pandemic, but others were granted flexibility to work remotely.
The new policy plainly says employees are expected back in their physical workspace by July 5. They have the option to apply to work remotely, but approvals must be granted by senior administration officials.
Youngkin announced the change Thursday and applications for teleworking opened Friday.
Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/05/06/youngkin-wants-state-workers-back-offices-by-july/ | 2022-05-07T02:16:43Z |
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