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BERWICK, Pa.— One person has died and another 17 people were injured after a vehicle struck a crowd gathered at a Pennsylvania bar on Saturday for an event to raise money for victims of a house fire that killed 10 earlier this month, authorities said.
WNEP-TV said the crash occurred outside the Intoxicology Department bar in Berwick at about 6:15 p.m. It said police and emergency medical personnel were on the scene attending to multiple injured people.
The Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement that a male suspect is in custody awaiting criminal charges.
The bar was holding a fundraiser for those touched by an Aug. 5 blaze that killed seven adults and three children in nearby Nescopeck, the station reported.
The circumstances surrounding Saturday evening's crash were not immediately clear, including whether there was any connection to the Nescopeck fire or the fundraising effort.
The first funerals for victims of the fire were held Friday, and more were scheduled for Sunday and Monday. Authorities have said the fire's cause remains under investigation.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/one-dead-17-hurt-in-crash-outside-pennsylvania-bar | 2022-08-14T12:35:59Z |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi energy company Aramco said Sunday its profits jumped 90% in the second quarter compared to the same time last year, helping its half-year earnings reach nearly $88 billion.
The increase is a boon for the kingdom and the crown prince's spending power as people around the world pay higher gas prices at the pump while energy companies rake in top earnings.
Aramco's net profits were helped by strong second-quarter earnings ending in June that hit $48.4 billion — a figure higher than all of the first six months of 2021, when profits reached just $47 billion. It sets a new quarterly earnings record for Aramco since it first floated around 5% of the company on the Saudi stock market in late 2019.
Its earnings for just this past quarter are roughly what Aramco's full-year profits were in 2020, when demand for oil crashed during pandemic lockdowns. Its half-year earnings of $87.9 billion put Aramco on track to far surpass the full-year earnings of 2019, prior to the pandemic, when profits hit $88 billion.
The company credited the jump to higher crude oil prices and volumes sold, as well as higher refining margins. Saudi Arabia's vast oil reserves are among the cheapest to produce in the world.
Aramco's finances are crucial to the kingdom's stability; when its margins are high, Saudi Arabia's economic growth reflects that. As countries around the world grapple with inflation and recession, the International Monetary Fund projects the Saudi economy will grow by more than 7.6% this year, the highest globally.
Despite years of efforts by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the economy, and some success in increasing non-oil revenue, Saudi Arabia continues to rely heavily on crude exports that pay for public sector salaries, generous benefits to citizens and defense spending. Aramco's earnings also help the prince carry out his Vision 2030 infrastructure goals.
The company will pay a dividend of $18.8 billion for the second quarter to shareholders, as it has promised to do since its debut on the stock market. The higher profits bode well for the Saudi government, which is the main shareholder of Aramco.
Aramco is seen as the key to overhauling the Saudi economy. Its proceeds from the IPO were transferred to the country's sovereign wealth fund to invest in projects to spur new sectors and generate new jobs for Saudi youth.
Brent crude has been trading at around $100 a barrel, even as OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, have been steadily increasing production levels that had been cut during the height of the pandemic. The price of oil rose sharply after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Prices have dipped below the $100 mark in past weeks amid slowed-down economic growth in China and the U.S.
Aramco President CEO Amin Nasser said he expects oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite current downward economic pressures. OPEC has said it expects world oil demand to rise by around 3 million barrels per day this year with total oil demand to average 100 million barrels a day.
Nasser said Aramco's financial results so far this year reflect this increased demand for oil, even as countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia, pledge to cut their carbon emissions to avert catastrophic global warming levels.
"The world is calling out for affordable, reliable energy and we are answering that call," he said, urging greater investments in oil and gas.
"At a time when the world is worrying about energy security, you are investing in the future of our business. Our customers know that whatever happens, Aramco will always deliver," Nasser said in a short video released with the financial results.
Saudi Arabia is currently producing around 10.5 million barrels per day, with much of that exported to Asia and its largest customer, China. The crown prince has said the kingdom's maximum production capacity is 13 million barrels per day. Aramco says it is working to one day reach that ceiling.
Aramco produces all of Saudi Arabia's oil and gas with its production limits dictated by the energy ministry.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/your-price-at-the-pump-went-up-so-did-saudi-aramcos-profits-to-a-new-record | 2022-08-14T12:36:05Z |
SUNDAY
Unexpected Company Senior Theatre meets: 1 p.m., Alice Hardie Stevens Center. Agenda includes planning for a fall production. Anyone age 50 and older is invited to participate on or off stage.
New Life Church Back2School Giveaway: 3-6 p.m., Albany County Fairgrounds. Free school supplies and shoes, while supplies last.
Laramie Connections free Meet and Eat dinner and faith gathering: 4:30 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1517 E. Canby St.
Al-Anon Family Group meets: 6:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian church, 215 S. 11th St. For relatives and friends of alcoholics. For information, call Jane at 307-760-4683 or Mark at 307-760-4716.
MONDAY
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
TUESDAY
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
WEDNESDAY
UW Board of Trustees meets: 7:30 a.m., via teleconference. On the agenda is consideration of the University of Wyoming’s supplemental budget request for the 2023 legislative session and begins with an executive session. The public part of the meeting will begin after, about 8:30 a.m. and livestreamed at wyolinks.uwyo.edu/trusteesaugust/.
Laramie Tai Chi and Tea meets: 1:30 p.m. at outdoors Harbon Park, North 14th and Gibbon streets. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
Unexpected Company Senior Theatre auditions for “Six Stages of Life”: 2 p.m., Alice Hardie Stevens Center, 603 E. Ivinson Ave. Participants must be at least 50 years old, no experience necessary.
Ivinson’s women’s health team hosts prenatal education: 5:30 p.m. in the Summit conference room. For more information and registration, visit ivinsonhospital.org/childbirth.
Laramie Chamber Business Alliance Business After Hours: 5:30-7 p.m., hosted by ANB Bank, 3908 Grand Ave. Members can enjoy a pig roast and games at this family friendly event.
THURSDAY
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Al-Anon Family Group meets: 5:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian church, 215 S. 11th St. For relatives and friends of alcoholics. For information, call Jane at 307-760-4683 or Mark at 307-760-4716.
FRIDAY
Open house for renovated LFD training facility: 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Laramie Fire Department drill grounds, 2451 County Shop Road.
Downtown Laramie Farmers Market: 3-7 p.m., parking lot north of Depot Park on South 1st Street.
SATURDAY
‘The Legacy of Wyoming’ performed by Buffalo Bill and Dr. Jo: 5-8 p.m., Wyoming Territorial Prison. For tickets, call 307-745-6161.
Revive the Wyo fundraiser: 5-9 p.m., historic train depot in downtown Laramie. Enjoy a cajun-themed meal and entertainment. Cost $35 a person. For tickets, visit https://htru.io/Ssrf.
Aug. 21
Walk with a Doc: 1:30-2:30 p.m. at the Washington Park west shelter No. 3. Bring walking shoes and a friend. For more information, email questions@ivinsonhospital.org.
Laramie Connections free Meet and Eat dinner and faith gathering: 4:30 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1517 E. Canby St.
Al-Anon Family Group meets: 6:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian church, 215 S. 11th St. For relatives and friends of alcoholics. For information, call Jane at 307-760-4683 or Mark at 307-760-4716.
Aug. 22
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
Aug. 23
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Aug. 24
Laramie Tai Chi and Tea meets: 1:30 p.m. at outdoors Harbon Park, North 14th and Gibbon streets. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org.
Aug. 25
Caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s/dementia: 3 p.m., meet for coffee, pie, understanding and comradeship at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery, 204 S. 30th St. For more information, call 307-745-6451.
Al-Anon Family Group meets: 5:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian church, 215 S. 11th St. For relatives and friends of alcoholics. For information, call Jane at 307-760-4683 or Mark at 307-760-4716.
Aug. 26
Downtown Laramie Farmers Market: 3-7 p.m., parking lot north of Depot Park on South 1st Street.
Aug. 27
Thrown-Out Bones performs: 5:30-7p.m., Washington Park band shell, 18th and Sheridan streets. Popcorn, pretzels and beer.
UW Planetarium presents “Back to the Moon For Good”: 8 p.m., UW Planetarium. What’s up in the sky around Wyoming.
Aug. 28
Laramie Connections free Meet and Eat dinner and faith gathering: 4:30 p.m., First Baptist Church, 1517 E. Canby St.
Al-Anon Family Group meets: 6:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian church, 215 S. 11th St. For relatives and friends of alcoholics. For information, call Jane at 307-760-4683 or Mark at 307-760-4716.
Aug. 29
Alcoholics Anonymous meets: Daily at various times in person or on Zoom. For more information, call 307-399-0590 or visit area76aawyoming.org or aa.org.
Survivors of Suicide Support Group: Meets from 5:30-6:45 p.m. at Hospice of Laramie House, 1754 Centennial Drive.
Women for Sobriety meet: 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. For meeting details, email 1093@womenforsobriety.org.
Aug. 30
Prayers & Squares Quilting Group meets: 9 a.m., Room 1 of Hunter Hall at St. Matthews Cathedral.
Aug. 31
Laramie Tai Chi and Tea meets: 1:30 p.m. at outdoors Harbon Park, North 14th and Gibbon streets. For more information, visit laramietaichiandtea.org. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/announcements/whats-happening-aug-14-2022/article_cd7ca458-78ce-593b-89e7-a43d83b13b8d.html | 2022-08-14T12:52:36Z |
...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING...
* WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall will be
possible.
* WHERE...Portions of south central Wyoming and southeast Wyoming,
including the following areas, in south central Wyoming, Shirley
Basin. In southeast Wyoming, Central Laramie County, Central
Laramie Range and Southwest Platte County, East Platte County,
Laramie Valley, North Laramie Range, South Laramie Range and South
Laramie Range Foothills.
* WHEN...Through Sunday evening.
* IMPACTS...Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas.
Low-water crossings may be flooded.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...
- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action
should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.
&&
1 of 4
Sara Bursac treats a patient with the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association protocol, which uses up to five needles to relieve stress through an ear acupuncture treatment. People are invited to attend free weekly acupuncture clinics at the Albany County Public Library.
Sara Bursac prepares a table for patients attending the Free Stress Relief Clinic at the Laramie branch of the Albany County Public Library on July 21, 2022.
This patient with five points of acupuncture in her ear while undergoing a treatment during a free weekly stress relief clinic last month at the Albany County Public Library.
In collaboration with the Wyoming Free Stress Relief Clinic, the Albany County Public Library's location on 8th Street provides acupuncture treatment for addiction and mental health issues. These two issues are some of the most common concerns of Laramie residents based on a survey from Ivinson Memorial Hospital.
Sara Bursac prepares a table for patients attending the Free Stress Relief Clinic at the Laramie branch of the Albany County Public Library on July 21, 2022.
In collaboration with the Wyoming Free Stress Relief Clinic, the Albany County Public Library's location on 8th Street provides acupuncture treatment for addiction and mental health issues. These two issues are some of the most common concerns of Laramie residents based on a survey from Ivinson Memorial Hospital.
Research-based substance withdrawal treatments offered at Albany County Public Library provide an important option for people seeking relief from anxiety and depression.
The library hosts a weekly ear acupuncture clinic that relieves stress and supports dealing with addiction. Each Thursday, Wyoming Free Stress Relief Clinics brings equipment and volunteers to offer a group acupuncture session. The National Acupuncture Detoxification Association Protocol is research-based with evidence that it can assist in reducing substance withdrawal symptoms.
“The history of this protocol is really quite tremendous and varied, and it comes out of public movement,” said Sara Bursac, a licensed social worker and former NADA executive director. “It has always been, I think, kind of revolutionary.”
Bursac said the protocol requires acupuncturists administer up to five “points” in each ear. A point is an area where a needle is placed, and in the practice of acupuncture these points are considered to be connected to particular conditions of a person’s body or mind. It typically takes less than 15 minutes for people to feel the effects.
While the program is technically aimed at withdrawal relief, Bursac says it has other commonly reported benefits for people dealing with any form of stress.
“There is an assumption of what’s called a depletion of yin — or a depletion of your internal support and foundation — that we consider everyone having to some degree,” Bursac said.
As a result, the NADA protocol understands all people to be experiencing a similar problem and treats them, typically in group settings, to provide relief.
Mental health and substance abuse issues are no stranger to most people. As both a college town and a growing city, Laramie is certainly no exception. As the city of Laramie works to address mental health, other local organizations have partnered to offer free support to anyone willing to block out an hour in their schedules. NADA’s main goal in using this protocol is to help supplement or completely eliminate the need for medications in treating withdrawal.
Bursac said that offering it at libraries and other easy-access points is a crucial part of providing meaningful, community-wide stress and withdrawal relief. As the clinic is offered each week, those benefiting from the program can find more relief each week.
“Anybody can come, it’s not exclusionary in any way — economically, culturally, etc.,” Bursac said of the library environment and the non-verbal nature of the protocol.
In addition to being free and easy to access for those living near the library, it also doesn’t require the same emotional work from participants as therapy, which may ask a person to open up about painful subjects.
While those recovering from addiction may attend other support groups and regularly be expected to discuss the damage caused by their addiction and identify themselves as someone with substance abuse issues, these clinics don’t require any form of disclosure. Since the library advertises them specifically as stress relief, there is less shame for those seeking the protocol for addiction issues.
In Ivinson Memorial Hospital’s 2020 Community Health Needs Assessment, survey respondents said mental health was their top health need, with substance abuse support the fifth-most frequently referenced need in Laramie.
With these issues often being expensive to treat, the same report labeled financial literacy and affordable health care as the second-most commonly referenced need. Free stress relief clinics through the two organizations may offer a way to address mental health and addiction without financial barriers. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/library-offers-acupuncture-based-stress-relief/article_a96ae587-adc3-5f45-ab9a-a469d5bcf367.html | 2022-08-14T12:52:42Z |
It appears the Republican primary election contest for Wyoming’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives is a two-candidate race between incumbent Liz Cheney and top challenger Harriet Hageman. According to recent polling data, the race is likely Hageman’s to lose.
Hageman, a water and natural resources attorney, had a mid-July 22-point lead in a Casper Star-Tribune poll of likely voters, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy.
Yet, Cheney seems oddly unconcerned about the polls, investing more in ads featuring her conservative supporters — including her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney — than doing appearances.
Meanwhile, Hageman refuses to slow her exhausting roll across the Cowboy State to make in-person appearances despite the lead.
Both candidates claim to be proven conservatives, and many of their platform planks are similar. Where they obviously part ways is their support for former President Donald Trump. Hageman is backed by Trump and has embraced his insistence the 2020 election was stolen.
“There’s all kinds of things that I think that we have the right to get to the bottom of and to find out what impact [Democrats] had in the four years of screaming ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ at the top of [their] lungs,” she said last week in an interview with the Tribune.
Hageman said she still has questions about the 2020 vote in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, “and what we saw in Georgia,” she said.
She claims “the video that we saw in Georgia has never been explained,” despite the fact both Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, and Gabriel Sterling, Raffensperger’s deputy — both Republicans — have defended their process and have said publicly that all claims of fraud had been investigated and found to be baseless. Still, Hageman isn’t convinced.
Cheney fell out of favor with the right wing of the Republican Party after voting to impeach Trump and accepting the role as vice-chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“You can either defend the Constitution and make sure people know the truth about Donald Trump. Or you can lie in order to make sure that you can continue your political representation of people in Wyoming,” Cheney said. “I have to choose the Constitution and the truth. I believe the people of Wyoming fundamentally believe in the Constitution and the truth. But there are too many politicians today who put their own political survival ahead of their obligation and their duty. And, I won’t do that.”
Cheney also said her opponents are simply using talking points about the election to ignite their base. “There are people that I’m running against in my race who are lying about the election — who know [the election] wasn’t stolen, but tell people that it is.”
She said her mission has been to make sure people understand that Donald Trump has “absolutely betrayed and lied to people.”
“He’s trying to prey on their patriotism,” she insists.
Neither of the candidates has spent much time in Powell. Hageman has been making more in-person appearances in the county, frequenting Cody more often than Powell. She made an appearance in Cody in early July. And she was in Powell in April, one of 160 campaign stops she has made over the past months.
She said Cheney has never been keen on meeting voters in the state.
“[Cheney] uses Wyoming’s seat to further her own agenda. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m running. She doesn’t come to Wyoming. She really never did. Wyoming isn’t her home state. Wyoming was a means to an end.”
Cheney’s last visit near Powell was just over a week ago at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center for the groundbreaking of the new Mineta-Simpson Institute. It wasn’t a campaign event.
She hasn’t been in Powell during the current campaign, and it has been years since last visiting, according to Tribune records. Yet, she remains popular with some voters — even in a county that “fired” her over her continuing attacks on Trump.
Leaders of the Park County Republican Party voted overwhelmingly to “fire” U.S. Rep. Cheney a year ago, telling her in a letter that they will no longer recognize her as the official Republican Congressional representative.
At Heart Mountain, Cheney was driven to tears by an extended standing ovation which included her father and ardent supporter, former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson.
“It’s very humbling to have that kind of an outpouring from people,” she said after the event.
She attributed her emotions to her father being in the audience, as well as family friends (including the families of Simpson and former Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta who died earlier this year), as well as many others at the event who were incarcerated at the confinement facility during WWII.
Simpson said despite what happens in the primary, Liz Cheney isn’t through with politics.
“Whatever happens on Election Day, it won’t have a thing to do with the future of Liz Cheney,” he said of the congresswoman’s prospects.
“As an American citizen, she’s loaded for bear and it will continue on into the night. The purpose of that will be to bring down the charlatan, the emperor without any clothing whatsoever,” he said, adding “he probably won’t look quite as good in the nude.”
While Cheney may have fallen out of favor with many voters in Wyoming, her exposure on the select committee has raised her profile with others nationally, some suggesting she should run for president.
Hageman’s largest national exposure came May 28 as Trump held a rally in support of her candidacy in Casper.
“Liz Cheney hates the voters of the Republican Party, and she has for longer than you would know,” Trump told thousands of supporters at the Ford Wyoming Center. “Wyoming deserves a congresswoman who stands up for you and your values, not one who spends all of her time putting you down and going after your president in the most vicious way possible.”
But Hageman also made national news last week when, for the first time, she said the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Locally, Park County state sen. Tim French thinks it’s time to move on from Cheney and is supporting Hageman. “With [Hageman’s] legal background, she’s going to be a real fighter for the state. And I think she’ll be excellent,” he said on Aug. 4. “I think the state of Wyoming has moved on past Liz. They’re looking for something new. And Harriet can bring that to the table.”
Hageman said, “We need to take back our government. We need to make clear to the government that it does belong to us,” she told a small, but lively crowd at the Big Horn County Fair. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/the-showdown-tuesdays-election-will-have-national-ramifications/article_098124ad-5933-524f-a207-e784513f19a7.html | 2022-08-14T12:52:48Z |
...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING...
* WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall will be
possible.
* WHERE...Portions of south central Wyoming and southeast Wyoming,
including the following areas, in south central Wyoming, Shirley
Basin. In southeast Wyoming, Central Laramie County, Central
Laramie Range and Southwest Platte County, East Platte County,
Laramie Valley, North Laramie Range, South Laramie Range and South
Laramie Range Foothills.
* WHEN...Through Sunday evening.
* IMPACTS...Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas.
Low-water crossings may be flooded.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...
- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action
should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.
&&
1 of 4
Laura Zorch McDermit, executive director of Laramie Public Arts Coalition, introduces Ashley Quick and her mural on the Visit Laramie building during a Thursday grand opening party.
Laramie’s Visitor Center hosted a grand reopening ceremony last week to show off its new space on 3rd Street, including a mural by local artist Ashley Quick.
Area business owners, neighbors and local nonprofits turned out Thursday to support the Laramie Visitor Center and it's new ground zero of operations. Attendees played yard games, enjoyed free drinks and food and learned about the agency and Laramie Public Art Coalition, which helped select the artist.
“When we moved in, (we saw) that wall is perfect for a mural. It’s vibrant and it’s colorful. We worked with LPAC to select the artist,” said Scott Larson, executive director of Visit Laramie. “It’s another one of those things that, as you’re driving by, it catches your eye and pulls you into the building.”
The mural, which features a variety of elements, is along the south wall of the center. Like other murals in Laramie’s public spaces, it radically changes the atmosphere of the neighborhood.
“I wanted to include a lot of different things that I think are personally very important in Laramie, and also what I think is important to other people as well,” said Quick about the colorful, playful work. “There’s a lot of flora and fauna and geological formations, but also the music and culture and things I tend to make in my other artwork.”
Quick expressed gratitude at the chance to celebrate her art at the visitor center and said the grand opening was a much bigger event than some of LPAC’s other artist celebrations. The unveiling also included a raffle.
“We used to be in this building, but it’s been a much better space for them. They are just way more visible, and it’s just been really great to celebrate with them,” said Joe Marr, operations and membership director for the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance.
The project to make the former office into a space for Visit Laramie began a year ago with the help of Elk Ridge Builders and LPAC. Thanks to the efforts of both organizations, the visitor center is much more obvious when driving along 3rd Street through town.
“Elk Ridge (Builders) have been a great partner in all of this,” Marr said. “This was their project and we’re really excited with how they stayed in budget and everything they were able to within the budget.”
The new building is located at 800 S. 3rd St. and operates from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/visit-laramie-reveals-new-mural-office/article_3425b0ea-10a2-5682-8cb8-5919c673f43c.html | 2022-08-14T12:52:54Z |
CHEYENNE – The owners of newly rebranded and relocated Funky Monkey Rescued Treasures thrift store are planning to go the extra mile when it comes to their local impact.
Five months ago, co-owner Lowell Harp was climbing a stepladder to trim the canopy shrouding the roof of Collectible and Thrift, the original thrift store location on Cleveland Avenue that he ran with partner Tori Wilder. The space was too small, too obscure, and when the opportunity arose to open a warehouse of antiques in May, they seized the moment.
They went from 3,500 square feet, to about 9,000 square feet on 3151 Nationway Suite A1 – and the space is quickly filling up.
“Our vision down the road is a local Goodwill on steroids,” Harp said.
Right now, the warehouse is filled with a random array of items, from high-priced European furniture to chipped dining tables, sporting equipment, old movies and books, knives in a display case, lawn items and entire living room sets.
In a two-month turnaround, it’s one of the biggest antique stores here. Harp and Wilder still have three storage lockers to unload from items they collected while operating a junk removal and estate cleaning service.
“I would probably say 90% of the store came out of junk jobs and estate clean-outs,” Harp said. “Throughout everything in here, I don’t think we spent more $1,000 on anything.”
This is where the “steroids” enter the idea.
For years, Wilder operated a junk removal business, emptying out vacated home and apartments, disposing of many items. Slowly, he and Wilder began to collect anything that caught their eye until, years later, they realized they were sitting on eight storage lockers full of antiques worth reselling.
Funky Monkey will continue this junk removal service for a flat fee, something that, to their knowledge, no other nearby businesses offer. In turn for helping people clean out their homes, they get first pick from the haul.
They also accept in-store donations. (Call ahead.)
“I’ve wanted a nonprofit junk service for years, where people can, instead of complaining about what they’re doing, you’re at least making some sort of a help and an effort towards a cause,” Harp said.
More in store
There’s more to Funky Monkey. This place is going to be fairly unique once they’re done unloading all their supplies, if things progress according to plan.
In the entryway, the owners will erect a coffee bar featuring brews from local roasters, as well as locally baked pastries and snacks for purchase. In the back, past the cash register, they’re in the process of setting up a local art gallery where work will be displayed for purchase.
The same room also has tables set up to host events. It could be an arts and craft class, a meeting or lunch space, youth classes or monthly vendor flea markets and farmers markets. They say these are the type of community events the east side rarely has the opportunity to enjoy.
Their end goal is to create a one-stop location for community involvement, particularly with the elderly and special needs client bases. With three special needs children of their own, they understand the demand for such a service.
A distant goal for Wilder is to actually operate a special needs program known as a “dayhab,” where special needs community members are provided activities on a daily basis. It could be a trip to the movies, an art class, a day in nature or a job working around the antique store.
The nonprofit program would be held out of a different location, funded through Funky Monkey.
“We’ll start small, and if we can get the right clients, we’ll just start out renting a house or renting an apartment or anywhere where somebody can be there with (clients) at any given time,” Harp said. “So it might be small, but we’ve been approached by 27 families over the last two and a half years to try to help because all the programs in town have been so concentrated.”
They also plan to host similar programs for the elderly.
Funky Monkey Rescued Treasures is open Mondays, noon-5:30 p.m.; Tuesdays, noon-5 p.m., and Wednesdays-Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/funky-monkey-aims-to-be-more-than-another-antique-store/article_7e61c062-aac8-5d71-a866-8a2047330463.html | 2022-08-14T12:53:00Z |
CHEYENNE – Gasoline prices are falling nationwide, prices at gas stations across the state draw closer to the U.S. average, and experts say prices in many places may decline further still.
Frequent drivers also are starting to notice, according to two driving professionals with whom the Wyoming Tribune Eagle spoke by phone Saturday. They, too, were hopeful that what they pay for a gallon of gas locally will continue to fall.
Among reasons for the nationwide trend is wholesale prices for oil are falling. At the same time, motorists seem to be changing their driving habits, experts at the AAA auto association and elsewhere point out.
In Wyoming, prices are sliding so much they are on track, if the pace continues, to soon be at parity with the national average – or perhaps to even fall below it. That would conform with expectations of experts the WTE spoke with a few weeks ago. At that time, the national average retail price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas was 27 cents higher than in Wyoming.
As of Saturday, the difference was only 9 cents, with motorists elsewhere in the country on the whole still paying less, according to the GasBuddy price reporting service. In Cheyenne, the gap was just 5 cents, with prices locally averaging $3.98.
“Gas prices are dropping at varying speeds across the states,” wrote GasBuddy spokesperson Nicole Peter-sen in a Friday email to the WTE. “We’re estimating the national average will continue to drop over the next 5-10 days, and most states will continue to drop as well.”
As experts and motorists have observed in recent days, gas here and many other cities is now below the $4 a gallon threshold.
However, across Wyoming as a whole, it still is running just a tad above that at $4.02 for a gallon. In Casper, GasBuddy reports a gallon goes for just $3.39 on average.
Taxis
For the driving pros whose jobs are to both transport people and run their own small taxi businesses, relief via the price readouts at the gas pump is welcome. They hope for even further declines.
Donna Marihart owns All in One Shuttle LLC. She said that in the previous six years, she never had to raise her regular rates for local trips.
In the past year, she did boost what she charges, by about 50% to about $15. That’s for a one-way, one-stop trip in the central area of town less than about 5 miles.
“It’s nice it is coming down,” Marihart said of gas costs. “It does help. And I hope it comes down a lot more.”
She described herself as having “made it through” the previous period of significantly elevated prices. “They are still high, of course,” she said of gas prices.
Locally, gas in Cheyenne hit a record of $4.70 a gallon on June 26.
Savings
Savings will add up.
GasBuddy estimates $400 million is being “saved collectively by Americans per day,” compared with where prices were just one month ago, the spokesperson wrote in her email Friday.
Her colleague, head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan, had a note of caution. As he pointed out this past week, “while the recent drop in gas prices has been most welcomed, the issues that led to skyrocketing prices aren’t completely put to bed, and still could lead prices to eventually climb back up, should something unexpected develop.”
During this “record-breaking year at the pump,” most motorists saw price thresholds of $3, $4 and $5 broken, De Haan wrote. “Beginning in March, gas prices in the U.S. rose above $4 per gallon for the first time since 2008, as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. Global supply began to tighten, with demand also rising into the summer.”
The previous record of $4.10 was “broken in April,” the analyst continued. “Gas prices soared to a new all-time high average of $5.03 per gallon in June.”
Like many drivers, Marihart shops around for the lowest prices. In Wyoming, showing that prices here used to be less than some national averages, the record was $4.90, reached July 1, AAA reports.
Marihart is a member of Sam’s Club, so she sometimes goes there for gas.
“I just find the cheapest in town, usually, and get my gas there,” she said. “But when the pries were getting up to $5, the prices weren’t much less than anybody else,” at whatever gas station she patronized.
On Saturday at Sam’s Club in Cheyenne, according to its website, the cost was $3.69. Safeway, another place where Marihart said she sometimes puts gas in her tank, listed a price of $3.98. That’s before applying any frequent-shopper points, which could reduce the cost.
A co-owner of Capitol City Shuttle, a new cab service in Cheyenne, estimated he and his co-owner and wife use 100 or more gallons of gas a month for their two vehicles. That meant an increase of several hundred dollars when gas was even more expensive, he estimated.
Jeff, who asked that his last name not be used because of concerns about local and national competition, said the company never had to raise fares to offset higher prices. Instead, it relied on what he called “the honor system with our clients.”
“Many of the people perceived that the costs are higher, and people were paying us a little bit more, maybe another dollar or two, so to speak, in a tip,” the driver said. Thanks to this generosity, “we never got to the point where we were losing money.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/gas-prices-down-may-fall-more-and-drivers-starting-to-notice/article_b339a7a1-b706-57fb-857e-46d1b503ec6b.html | 2022-08-14T12:53:07Z |
...FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING...
* WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall will be
possible.
* WHERE...Portions of south central Wyoming and southeast Wyoming,
including the following areas, in south central Wyoming, Shirley
Basin. In southeast Wyoming, Central Laramie County, Central
Laramie Range and Southwest Platte County, East Platte County,
Laramie Valley, North Laramie Range, South Laramie Range and South
Laramie Range Foothills.
* WHEN...Through Sunday evening.
* IMPACTS...Flooding may occur in poor drainage and urban areas.
Low-water crossings may be flooded.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...
- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action
should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.
&&
Burns High School valedictorian Isaac Bloom speaks during his graduation ceremony Sunday, May 22, 2022, at the Archer Complex. This year's group of 57 graduates was the largest BHS class ever. Michael Smith/For the Wyoming Tribune Eagle
CHEYENNE – Students originally from Cheyenne have recently earned honors from their colleges and universities across the country, according to recent announcements sent to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Dillen Phillips of Cheyenne was named to the president's list at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan for the winter 2022 semester. To make the list, students must be enrolled full-time and earn at 4.0 grade point average.
Lindsay Weekly of Cheyenne graduated cum laude from Missouri State University with a bachelor's degree in May.
Also from Cheyenne, Valerie Marie Aguilera Nelson, Parker Anderson, Kaleb Blackmore, Courtney Darlene Carrothers, Chance Crosier, Danielle Holloway and Victoria Kerns were named to the dean's list at the University of Maryland Global Campus. To make the list, students must take at least six credits and maintain both a semester and cumulative GPA of at least 3.5.
Noelle Lowry and Katie Overstreet, both of Cheyenne, earned spots on the dean's honor roll at the University of Northern Colorado. Students on the dean's honor roll must have a combined GPA of between 3.5 and 3.74 during two semesters and have completed at least 24 credit hours.
Also at UNC and from Cheyenne, Blake Danni, Zach Dillingham, Kelsey Erickson, Frank Gase, Trinity Johnson, Ciana Konyha and Kylie Ross earned spots of the dean's list of academic distinction at the university. Students on the list must have a combined GPA of at least 3.75 during two semesters and have completed at least 24 credit hours. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/students-from-cheyenne-get-college-honors/article_429423f1-fdf6-5d0b-8477-0a64b3c2c30e.html | 2022-08-14T12:53:13Z |
University of Wyoming redshirt junior wide receiver Gunner Gentry, right, missed the entirety of last season after tearing the patellar tendon in his left knee. Associated Press
LARAMIE – It’s been a long road to recovery for Gunner Gentry, but the redshirt junior receiver’s return to the field has almost arrived.
Gentry was expected to be a key factor in the University of Wyoming’s passing attack last season. However, a torn patellar tendon in his left knee that he suffered in the spring of 2021 put those plans on hold.
There have been some moments of uncertainty in terms of when and how much he would be able to contribute this fall after missing all of last year. With the season opener at Illinois just under two weeks away, though, UW coach Craig Bohl is confident Gentry will make a significant impact in 2022.
“Gentry had come back from an injury, and in the middle of the summer I had some real concerns if he would be up to speed,” Bohl said. “Even a week before fall camp, you started to wonder. Our sports medicine head trainer said, ‘I think he’ll be there, (but) it’s going to take a little bit.’ He’s a little bit ahead of schedule, so he’s a guy that’s really capable of making some plays.”
Gentry hauled in the Cowboys’ only touchdown catch of the 2020 season, a 22-yard reception against Nevada, and recorded six catches for 130 yards in 2019. This year, he’ll be looking to provide a boost for a position group that lost 77.7% of its receiving production from last season.
Sophomore receiver Alex Brown believes Gentry will do just that.
“That’s huge for us,” Brown said. “For me personally, Gunner was kind of the upperclassman who took me under his wing, him and Ayden (Eberhardt). Just being out there with him gives all of us a feel-good side, just seeing him out there and being able to make plays. It’s really good for him, and really good for our receiving corps and offense as a whole.”
Potential starters emerge
The Cowboys have yet to release a depth chart for the upcoming season, but with the final 30 minutes of Friday’s practice being open to the media, there were some indications on who might start on offense.
Utah State transfer Andrew Peasley was leading the first-team offense at quarterback during this half-hour stretch, while redshirt freshmen Emmanuel Pregnon and Jack Walsh received action with the starters at the guard spots.
Cox out with hip injury
While Bohl is pleased with where his team is at from a health standpoint, the Pokes did suffer one notable loss recently. Bohl noted after Friday’s practice that defensive end Keelan Cox will likely miss at least two months with a hip injury.
Sabastian Harsh and DeVonne Harris appear set to start on the edge for UW, but Cox – who is listed at 6-foot-5, 240 pounds – was expected to provide size to a smaller defensive end group after transferring in from Alabama this off-season. Regardless, Harris says the growth of redshirt freshmen Braden Siders and Oluwaseyi Omotosho is a point of optimism at the position heading into the season.
“They’re miles from (where they were) in the spring and last year,” Harris said. “They’ve been playing their keys. Olu, instead of being a pass rusher, he’s getting there to (where he is) an every down player that can stop the run on first and second down, and go get a sack on third down.”
Josh Criswell covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at jcriswell@wyosports.net or 307-755-3325. Follow him on Twitter at @criswell_sports. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyosports/university_of_wyoming/gentry-ahead-of-schedule-with-season-approaching/article_6659a436-0389-538f-8c63-52843ac044f1.html | 2022-08-14T12:53:19Z |
Kangaroos are on the loose in Ohio
BREWSTER, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - Police say they have found “at least one” of the kangaroos spotted in Brewster, Ohio, WOIO reported.
A person stopped at the police station Thursday morning claiming that they had spotted a baby kangaroo near Millersburg Road in Stark County, Ohio.
Warning: This story contains video with profanity that has been bleeped.
Officials say the department was shown a video that showed another kangaroo crossing State Route 93 Saturday morning around 2:00 a.m.
Police searched the area and say they found the kangaroo in the woods.
Chief Nathan Taylor says the department was not able to capture the animal because the officers were “unsure what to do.”
The department is making plans to safely capture the animal.
“Never in my 25 years have I run into this,” Taylor said.
Officials have not said how the kangaroos escaped or where they escaped from. No zoos have reported any missing kangaroos.
Police have requested people not attempt to approach or hunt the kangaroos. Anyone missing the animals has been asked to contact the police immediately.
Copyright 2022 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/kangaroos-are-loose-ohio/ | 2022-08-14T12:55:02Z |
More US lawmakers visiting Taiwan 12 days after Pelosi trip
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A delegation of American lawmakers is visiting Taiwan just 12 days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered China.
The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet senior leaders to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade, investment and other issues, the American Institute in Taiwan said. The institute represents the U.S. government, which does not have official ties with Taiwan.
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, responded to Pelosi’s Aug. 2 visit by sending missiles, warships and warplanes into the seas and skies around Taiwan for several days afterward. The Chinese government objects to Taiwan having any official contact with foreign governments, particularly with a high-ranking congressional leader like Pelosi.
A Taiwanese broadcaster showed video of a U.S. government plane landing about 7 p.m. Sunday at Songshan Airport in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital. While it wasn’t confirmed who was on board, the American Institute issued a brief statement soon after announcing the delegation would be in Taiwan on Sunday and Monday as part of a trip to Asia.
The other members of the delegation are Republican Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, and Democratic House members John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal from California and Don Beyer from Virginia.
Chinese warplanes have been crossing the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait on a daily basis even after the conclusion of the military exercises, with at least 10 doing so on Sunday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said.
The 10 fighter jets were among 22 Chinese military aircraft and six naval ships detected in the area around Taiwan by 5 p.m. on Sunday, the ministry said on its Twitter account.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/more-us-lawmakers-visiting-taiwan-12-days-after-pelosi-trip/ | 2022-08-14T12:55:08Z |
Shelling kills 1 in Ukraine; Russia wants nuke plant pledges
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces on Sunday fired rockets on the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, killing at least one person, and a Russian diplomat called on Ukraine to offer security assurances so that international inspectors could visit a nuclear power station that has come under fire.
The Mykolaiv region is just to the north of the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces have vowed to retake. The Ukrainian emergency service said one person was killed in shelling early Sunday of the Mykolaiv region settlement of Bereznehuvate.
As fighting steps up in southern Ukraine as Russia’s war closes in on six months, concern has grown sharply about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is held by Russian forces and has been hit by sporadic shelling. Both Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the shelling, which officials say has damaged monitoring equipment and could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.
The Zaporizhzhia facility is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Russia’s envoy to international organizations based in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, called on Ukraine to stop attacking the plant in order to allow an inspection mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“It is important that the Ukrainians stop their shelling of the station and provide security guarantees to members of the mission. An international team cannot be sent to work under continuous artillery shelling,” he was quoted as saying Sunday by Russian state news agency Tass.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/shelling-kills-1-ukraine-russia-wants-nuke-plant-pledges/ | 2022-08-14T12:55:15Z |
In light of recent deadly floods in Seoul, South Korea, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Eric Chu, assistant professor at University of California, Davis, how climate change is affecting cities.
Copyright 2022 NPR
In light of recent deadly floods in Seoul, South Korea, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Eric Chu, assistant professor at University of California, Davis, how climate change is affecting cities.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/how-cities-around-the-world-are-planning-for-climate-change | 2022-08-14T13:19:21Z |
The DOJ is investigating Southern Baptists for mishandling sex abuse allegations Published August 14, 2022 at 8:13 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 4:10 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Downen about the federal investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/the-doj-is-investigating-southern-baptists-for-mishandling-sex-abuse-allegations | 2022-08-14T13:19:27Z |
Mara Liasson is a national political correspondent for NPR. Her reports can be heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Liasson provides extensive coverage of politics and policy from Washington, DC — focusing on the White House and Congress — and also reports on political trends beyond the Beltway. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/the-inflation-reduction-act-becomes-law | 2022-08-14T13:19:33Z |
The IRS is about to get a big infusion of cash.
As part of the massive climate and health care bill passed by the House on Friday, the tax collection agency is set to receive $80 billion over the next decade.
Some of that money will go to update decades-old computer systems at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And some is for improving customer service, including a taxpayer phone line where nine out of 10 calls go unanswered.
Most of the money, though, is for stepped-up enforcement — to help the IRS collect more of the estimated $600 billion in taxes that go unpaid every year, much of it owed by rich people who under-report their income.
"By beefing up the IRS's capacity to go after wealthy tax cheats, you're going to be able to collect at least $400 billion of that over the course of the next ten years, and I suspect substantially more," said Natasha Sarin, a counselor for tax policy and implementation at the Treasury Department.
But there is bitter opposition from Republicans. The IRS funding passed Congress along strict party lines, like the rest of the Inflation Reduction Act.
"Imagine IRS agents descending upon America like a swarm of locusts," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned in an interview with Fox Business. "And by the way, these IRS agents aren't there to go after billionaires. They're there to go after you. They're there to go after your small business. They're there to go after your family."
Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig – who was appointed by former President Trump – insist the additional enforcement efforts will target the wealthy, not middle-class taxpayers.
"Let's be very clear about what these resources are and are not doing," Sarin said. "These resources are not raising audits on any small business or any household that makes under $400,000 a year."
The IRS had lacked financial resources
The new money will help to reverse more than a decade of under-funding at the IRS. The agency's enforcement ranks have shrunk by 30% since 2010.
As experienced auditors have left, the IRS has increasingly focused on simpler audits involving lower-income families — even though they account for a small share of unpaid taxes.
Researchers at Syracuse University found that 46% of IRS audits in the most recent fiscal year were aimed at people who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit — a tax break designed to supplement the income of low-wage workers.
People who receive the tax credit were more than three times as likely to be audited as taxpayers overall, even though they account for a small share of unpaid taxes.
"They're easy marks," said Susan Long, who has been monitoring IRS audits for decades as co-founder of TRAC, a non-profit research center at Syracuse. "Enforcement levels have really dropped, except for these poor, lowest-income group where you can just send a letter in the mail."
Millionaires have largely avoided tax audits
At the same time, Long said, the IRS audited just 2.2% of millionaires' tax returns last year – a steep decline from 2015.
"Most millionaires, they don't even look at their returns, even though all the studies show that that's where the money is," Long said.
The vast majority of ordinary wage earners already pay the taxes they owe. They don't have much choice, since their income is reported directly to the IRS.
Wealthy people have more opportunities to avoid taxes. Their income sources are often less transparent. And they can hire lawyers and accountants to sidestep the IRS, which is frequently outgunned.
"This has been a David and Goliath battle for far too long," Sarin said. "We're finally giving the IRS the tools it needs to be able to meaningfully police [tax] evasion at the top of the [income] distribution."
Sarin argued that stepped-up enforcement will not only enable the IRS to collect more money for the government, but also make for a fairer tax system.
"This is about bringing to an end to a two-tiered tax system, where certain taxpayers have the opportunity to evade, and other taxpayers are making good on their obligations and are fully voluntarily compliant — which is the vast majority of taxpayers," she said.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/the-irs-just-got-80-billion-to-beef-up-a-big-goal-going-after-rich-tax-dodgers | 2022-08-14T13:19:39Z |
Why China is reasserting its right of control over Taiwan Published August 14, 2022 at 8:10 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:35 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Jessica Drun of the Atlantic Council Global China Hub about China's newly aggressive posture towards Taiwan. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/why-china-is-reasserting-its-right-of-control-over-taiwan | 2022-08-14T13:19:46Z |
Kangaroos are on the loose in Ohio
BREWSTER, Ohio (WOIO/Gray News) - Police say they have found “at least one” of the kangaroos spotted in Brewster, Ohio, WOIO reported.
A person stopped at the police station Thursday morning claiming that they had spotted a baby kangaroo near Millersburg Road in Stark County, Ohio.
Warning: This story contains video with profanity that has been bleeped.
Officials say the department was shown a video that showed another kangaroo crossing State Route 93 Saturday morning around 2:00 a.m.
Police searched the area and say they found the kangaroo in the woods.
Chief Nathan Taylor says the department was not able to capture the animal because the officers were “unsure what to do.”
The department is making plans to safely capture the animal.
“Never in my 25 years have I run into this,” Taylor said.
Officials have not said how the kangaroos escaped or where they escaped from. No zoos have reported any missing kangaroos.
Police have requested people not attempt to approach or hunt the kangaroos. Anyone missing the animals has been asked to contact the police immediately.
Copyright 2022 WOIO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/kangaroos-are-loose-ohio/ | 2022-08-14T13:42:17Z |
More US lawmakers visiting Taiwan 12 days after Pelosi trip
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A delegation of American lawmakers is visiting Taiwan just 12 days after a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that angered China.
The five-member delegation, led by Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, will meet senior leaders to discuss U.S.-Taiwan relations, regional security, trade, investment and other issues, the American Institute in Taiwan said. The institute represents the U.S. government, which does not have official ties with Taiwan.
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, responded to Pelosi’s Aug. 2 visit by sending missiles, warships and warplanes into the seas and skies around Taiwan for several days afterward. The Chinese government objects to Taiwan having any official contact with foreign governments, particularly with a high-ranking congressional leader like Pelosi.
A Taiwanese broadcaster showed video of a U.S. government plane landing about 7 p.m. Sunday at Songshan Airport in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital. While it wasn’t confirmed who was on board, the American Institute issued a brief statement soon after announcing the delegation would be in Taiwan on Sunday and Monday as part of a trip to Asia.
The other members of the delegation are Republican Rep. Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, a delegate from American Samoa, and Democratic House members John Garamendi and Alan Lowenthal from California and Don Beyer from Virginia.
Chinese warplanes have been crossing the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait on a daily basis even after the conclusion of the military exercises, with at least 10 doing so on Sunday, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said.
The 10 fighter jets were among 22 Chinese military aircraft and six naval ships detected in the area around Taiwan by 5 p.m. on Sunday, the ministry said on its Twitter account.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/more-us-lawmakers-visiting-taiwan-12-days-after-pelosi-trip/ | 2022-08-14T13:42:23Z |
Shelling kills 1 in Ukraine; Russia wants nuke plant pledges
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces on Sunday fired rockets on the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine, killing at least one person, and a Russian diplomat called on Ukraine to offer security assurances so that international inspectors could visit a nuclear power station that has come under fire.
The Mykolaiv region is just to the north of the Russian-occupied city of Kherson, which Ukrainian forces have vowed to retake. The Ukrainian emergency service said one person was killed in shelling early Sunday of the Mykolaiv region settlement of Bereznehuvate.
As fighting steps up in southern Ukraine as Russia’s war closes in on six months, concern has grown sharply about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is held by Russian forces and has been hit by sporadic shelling. Both Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the shelling, which officials say has damaged monitoring equipment and could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.
The Zaporizhzhia facility is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
Russia’s envoy to international organizations based in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, called on Ukraine to stop attacking the plant in order to allow an inspection mission from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“It is important that the Ukrainians stop their shelling of the station and provide security guarantees to members of the mission. An international team cannot be sent to work under continuous artillery shelling,” he was quoted as saying Sunday by Russian state news agency Tass.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/shelling-kills-1-ukraine-russia-wants-nuke-plant-pledges/ | 2022-08-14T13:42:29Z |
Top lawyers hired by those linked to Georgia election probe
ATLANTA (AP) — In the state investigation spurred by then-President Donald Trump’s call to Georgia’s top election official, people who have been called to testify — or who might be — about potential interference in the 2020 presidential contest are turning to high-profile lawyers.
It was Trump’s conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, that was the catalyst for the state inquiry, and now Trump has hired Drew Findling, one of Atlanta’s most prominent criminal defense attorneys who is perhaps best known for representing rap stars.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has brought on Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn, who was in federal court in Atlanta last week as part of a legal team fighting a subpoena for Graham.
No one has been charged with a crime in the investigation and both Trump and Graham have denied any wrongdoing, but the moves come at a particularly precarious legal moment for Trump.
FBI agents conducted an unprecedented search of his Florida estate on Monday in an unrelated investigation into whether Trump removed sensitive information from the White House. He also invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination on Wednesday as he testified under oath in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings.
But the attorney hires in Atlanta suggest Trump and his allies are paying especially close attention to the investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“You’re not going to go and hire an expensive lawyer unless either you want to send a message that, ‘You guys better come correct or my fancy lawyer will blow you out of the water,’ or you actually are worried,” said Caren Morrison, a Georgia State University law professor and former federal prosecutor.
Legal experts nonetheless warn that the hires alone don’t suggest that someone is the subject or target of an investigation.
“I don’t think that’s any indication that anybody’s about to be charged or these folks necessarily are concerned that they’re going to jail. It’s just what a smart person would do,” said Page Pate, an Atlanta defense lawyer who is not involved in the case.
Willis began the investigation early last year. A special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request and began hearing from witnesses in June. Though the panel’s proceedings are secret, related public court filings have given some insight into where the investigation might be headed.
Willis last month filed paperwork seeking to compel testimony from seven Trump advisers and associates, including Graham and former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. Graham is awaiting a federal judge’s ruling on his challenge to his subpoena, while Giuliani has been instructed to appear before the special grand jury on Wednesday.
Willis has confirmed since the beginning that she’s interested in the January 2021 phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, which came four days before the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House victory that was interrupted by the riot at the U.S. Capitol. During that conversation, Trump suggested the secretary of state could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Recent court filings have made clear that Willis is also interested in other calls made by Trump and his associates to officials in Georgia, false statements about the election made during Georgia legislative committee hearings and the submission of a fake slate of Republican electors to Congress and the National Archives. In several filings, she specifically alleged that there was “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Willis has said that she is considering subpoenaing Trump, a step that would surely kick off a legal battle.
Trump has hired Findling and former prosecutor Jennifer Little, with attorney Dwight Thomas serving as a consultant on matters related to special grand jury proceedings.
A lot has been made of past social media postings by Findling that suggest he’s no fan of the former president, whom he called “racist” and “pathetic” in one August 2018 tweet.
Andrew Fleischman, an appellate attorney in Atlanta who’s not connected to the case, said being a defense attorney “doesn’t necessarily mean believing your client is innocent or likeable, but it does mean taking a close look at the law and making sure the state has checked all the boxes.”
“We defend the process,” Fleischman said. “And if they’re convicting the president, you want the process to be damn near perfect.”
Findling is a well-respected and media savvy lawyer. That second point is crucial when there’s so much attention on a case and can present challenges with a client like Trump who’s so accustomed to speaking for himself without a filter, Pate said.
“You want to respect the fact that (the client) needs in many cases to make statements to the media, but at the same time, you don’t want to jeopardize your case,” he said.
Perhaps the most important reason to have a lawyer at this stage of the investigation is to have a channel of communication with prosecutors, Pate said.
“They have a way of getting you to make admissions about something you think may be completely harmless which actually fills a piece of their case,” he said of prosecutors. “So you don’t want to be on a call or a meeting with the government yourself when your statements can be used against you.”
A lawyer can also negotiate dates for an eventual appearance if a subpoena is issued and review any documents that may be requested before they’re handed over. And a lawyer can reach out to other witnesses who have appeared before the special grand jury to see if they’re willing to talk about what was asked.
Steven Frey has worked with Findling on several cases, including the successful defense of a sheriff who was facing 27 felony charges in an indictment that accused him of using his office for personal gain. He called Findling “one of the finest lawyers I’ve ever dealt with.”
McGahn also garners high praise. When he left that post in 2018, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “I’ve known every White House Counsel since I arrived in Washington. Even in such impressive company, Don is a cut above.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/top-lawyers-hired-by-those-linked-georgia-election-probe/ | 2022-08-14T13:42:35Z |
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- xTool, an up-and-running laser engraving machine brand, partner with Pencils of Promise for back-to-school season. Pencils of Promise (PoP) builds safe and healthy public primary school environments, with well-trained and supported teachers, where students can thrive. In this campaign, $1 will be donated by xTool when every xTool user shares their back-to-school content on social media, such as Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/xToolOfficial), while $10 will be donated when every machine is sold during Aug.15th to 31st on www.xtool.com. It is estimated that xTool will donate at least $10,000 to Pencils of Promise.
Why a laser engraving machine brand pays attention to Public Welfare and Education?
xTool noticed that many tools are developed to spark people's creativity in the digital world. For instance, Facebook came up with the concept of "Meta". The development of tools used in the physical world, however, lags behind. That is why Makeblock, the parent company of xTool, launched xTool, and carries out a reversed Meta journey.
xTool also wants to contribute to education even though it focuses more on the laser industry while the product line of stem toys dedicated to the education industry.
Meet xTool ——The new star in laser engraving/cutting
The data from Google Trends in the past year worldwide shows that the search interest of xTool has been on the rise and has overtaken the industry leader in some periods.
xTool D1 received great praise once it appeared on the market.
Later, xTool D1 Pro, the upgraded version of D1, launched in July 2022, also attracted a lot of attention. 400+ units were achieved during the Launch Live.
xTool M1 was awarded the German Red Dot. Its exquisite appearance makes it the priority choice for home use.
xTool is devoted to enriching the cutting and engraving materials to ensure more usage scenarios. Hence, it builds an ecology, selects various types of high-quality engraving and cutting materials, and categorizes them based on different usages.
xTool has recently landed Europe sites (eu.xtool.com) and Japan site (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0B3R1SD38?ref=myi_title_dp) to facilitate users in different regions to create better service.
Now xTool is looking for more cooperation with different area.
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SOURCE xTool | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/14/xtool-famous-laser-engraving-brand-builds-school-kids-during-back-to-school-season/ | 2022-08-14T13:42:42Z |
Partnership with media startup will enable readers to access paywalled McClatchy content
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- McClatchy announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Zette, an online subscription platform that enables consumers to access premium content from participating news publishers. Through this agreement, Zette subscribers will have access to paywalled McClatchy content on an article-by-article basis.
Zette, a media startup founded in 2020, enables readers to easily pay for the articles they want. Each month, Zette subscribers pay $9.99 and receive 30 article credits, which they can spend through Zette's downloadable browser extension. Readers browse the news normally until a paywall appears, at which point they can spend an article credit for Zette to unlock the paywall.
Following McClatchy's partnership with Zette, the platform now boasts access to over 80 premium newspapers, most of which are local, community-focused publications.
"We are thrilled to be among the early adopters of this exciting and potentially game-changing platform," said McClatchy Chief Revenue Officer Tony Berg. "By offering article-level access to our paywalled content, we will have the opportunity—and the ability—to offer readers the exact news experience that they want, across all of our publications."
"Zette's mission is to democratize access to high quality journalism, and McClatchy offers some of the best local reporting in the country," said Zette Founder and CEO Yehong Zhu. "From the Miami Herald to the Sacramento Bee, we're bringing the value of local news to Americans everywhere. It's an honor to work with McClatchy's Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists."
Zette is a venture-backed media startup that gives readers pay-per-article access to paywalled publications, all while sharing revenue with newsrooms. Download the Zette browser extension to open, read, and share quality journalism behind paywalls; a single $9.99 subscription unlocks 30 paywalled articles each month. Zette was founded in 2020 by 26-year-old Yehong Zhu, a former Forbes journalist, Twitter product manager, and Harvard philosophy graduate. Learn more at zette.com.
We help people and communities thrive. Through our deeply-rooted commitment to the role of local journalism, McClatchy is a catalyst for informed engagement, greater understanding, and deeper community connections. We ensure delivery of news and information essential to enhancing individual lives and improving the 30 distinct communities that are home to our journalists and iconic brands, including the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, The Sacramento Bee, The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News and Observer, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. We extend our unique local and regional reach, relevance and resources to our advertising partners through fully-integrated marketing solutions.
Zette Contact:
Yehong Zhu
y@zette.com
McClatchy Contact:
Susan Firey
sfirey@mcclatchy.com
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SOURCE Zette | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/14/zette-enters-content-access-agreement-with-mcclatchy/ | 2022-08-14T13:42:49Z |
KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban security forces opened fire over the heads of women who staged a rare protest in Kabul on Saturday — a violent crackdown coming just two days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the group sweeping to power in Afghanistan.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
About two dozen women marched down a main street of Kabul chanting "bread, work, freedom," "we want political participation" and "no to enslavement."
The protesters unfurled a large banner announcing the anniversary of the Taliban's resumption of power as a day of solidarity with Afghan women. They also demanded the international community step up to help them.
"It was important because it's nearly the first anniversary of the Taliban rule and we wanted to say that we don't consent to this government," said one young woman who spoke to NPR after the protest. She requested anonymity so she couldn't be identified by Taliban authorities.
"After a year of this government, there is no change in the situation. We are showing that we won't stay silent," she said. "It's important to show the world that Afghans don't accept this. We will stand against injustice."
As the women marched, Taliban security forces began grabbing the phones and cameras of Afghan journalists and male international correspondents. They grabbed the phone of a boy on a bicycle who tried to take a photo.
Then, in what appeared to be a coordinated move, they opened fire in the air above the protesters, quickly dispersing them. Taliban security forces have used live fire to disperse protests in the past. But the fire this time was unusually intense: Multiple gunmen fired rapidly in the air, leaving bullet casings strewn across the street.
Several reporters were detained, and at least three remain in custody.
The return of the Taliban to power ended four decades of conflict and has largely made the country secure. But they have dramatically curbed women's rights, preventing most girls from attending secondary school, banning women from traveling alone and making it difficult for them to work.
They've also cracked down on those criticizing their rule, which has chiefly been women demanding their equal rights.
Meanwhile, sanctions have paralyzed the economy and plunged the country into a major humanitarian crisis with many Afghans going hungry. Major aid groups and human rights organizations have pleaded with the international community not to forget the plight of ordinary Afghans, and to allow commerce and trade to continue.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-13/women-march-in-a-rare-protest-in-kabuls-streets-and-face-violence-from-the-taliban | 2022-08-14T14:09:11Z |
Updated August 14, 2022 at 9:17 AM ET
CAIRO — A fire ripped through a church in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Sunday sending huge amounts of thick black smoke into the air as congregants worshipped, killing at least 41 and injuring 14, the Coptic Church said.
The cause of the blaze in the Abu Sefein church in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not immediately known. An initial investigation pointed to an electrical short-circuit, according to a police statement.
The country's health minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as people attempted to flee the fire for causing the fatalities. It was one of the worst fire tragedies in Egypt in recent years.
Footage circulated online showed burned furniture, including wooden tables and chairs. Firefighters were seen putting out the blaze while others carried victims to ambulances.
The Coptic Church cited health officials in reporting the casualty toll. It said the fire broke out while a service was underway.
Fifteen firefighting vehicles were dispatched to the scene to put out the flames while ambulances ferried casualties to nearby hospitals, officials said.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by phone with the Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to offer his condolences, the president's office said.
"I am closely following the developments of the tragic accident," el-Sissi wrote on Facebook. "I directed all concerned state agencies and institutions to take all necessary measures, and immediately to deal with this accident and its effects."
Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar said in a statement that two of the injured were discharged from a hospital while 12 others were still being treated.
The Interior Ministry said it received a report on the fire at 9 a.m. local time, and that they found that the blaze broke out in an air conditioner in the building's second floor.
The ministry, which oversees police and firefighters, blamed an electrical short-circuit for the fire, which produced huge amounts of smoke.
The country's chief prosecutor, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a team of prosecutors were dispatched to the church.
Egypt's Christians account for some 10% of the nation's more than 103 million people and have long complained of discrimination by the nation's Muslim majority.
Sunday's blaze was one of the worst fire tragedies in recent years in Egypt, where safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced. In March last year, a fire at a garment factory near Cairo killed at least 20 people and injured 24 more.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/a-fire-at-a-church-in-cairo-kills-41-people-and-hurts-14-others | 2022-08-14T14:09:17Z |
New York City desperately needs it workers to return to the office. Its economy depends on it.
But it's facing a particularly tricky problem: After several horrific attacks in the city's subway system this year, workers are telling their employers they are afraid to come back to work.
In two meetings this year, some of the city's most powerful CEOs confronted Mayor Eric Adams, demanding answers, according to Kathryn Wylde, the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, who arranged the meetings.
"The executives came out very strong, saying, 'We can't in conscience bring our people back to work, encourage them to ride the subways, unless we see tangible evidence that you are doing something about this,'" she recalls.
What the numbers show
The CEOs mobilized after a series of high-profile attacks on commuters.
In a killing that shocked the city, Michelle Go, a 40-year-old consultant for Deloitte, was pushed in front of an oncoming train in the Times Square subway station.
In April, a gunman fired 33 rounds at commuters during rush hour. In May, Daniel Enriquez, a Goldman Sachs executive, was shot dead by a fellow passenger.
The killings put the city on edge, and that wasn't lost on Adams, who addressed reporters right after Go's killing.
"To lose a New Yorker in this fashion would only continue to elevate the fears of individuals not using our subway system," Adams said at the time.
So far this year, the number of complaints in the transit system, including assaults and harassment, is almost the same as it was at this point in 2019, according to data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
But subway ridership is still nowhere near where it was before the pandemic. It's roughly 60% of what it was in 2019.
The subway attacks are contributing to a perception crime is on the rise in the city.
Police statistics show that there have been fewer murders at this point than last year, when the country was emerging from the lockdowns that characterized much of 2020. Still, the number of murders is sharply higher than at the same time in 2019, before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the number of felony assaults is up year to date compared to both 2021 and 2019.
And although New York City's crime numbers are still historically low, almost half of registered voters who responded to a recent Quinnipiac poll said crime is "the most urgent issue facing New York City today."
Wall Street executives are also worried
The killings of Go and Enriquez have also shaken Wall Street, because they both worked for big financial institutions.
Financial firms have also been prominent in pushing workers to return to their offices.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is sensitive to the fears about crime.
"We have to have a safe environment for people," he told NPR in a recent interview. "I think public safety is just paramount for the vitality of cities, and the vitality of cities is paramount for economic activity in our country."
Solomon, who grew up in the suburbs outside of New York City, said crime was higher when he was a kid in the 1970s and 1980s. He remembered there were strict rules about where he could go, and how late he could stay out.
Solomon also said that, when he raised his children in the city decades later, it was "extraordinarily" safe.
"The city is certainly less safe," he said, talking about the present. "I would say it's a little grittier and a little dirtier," he said.
New York City is not alone in dealing with public safety issues.
Billionaire Ken Griffin recently decided to move Citadel's headquarters from Chicago to Miami, citing the city's longstanding problems with crime.
In a statement to NPR, the hedge fund said it was having a hard time "recruiting top talent from across the world to Chicago given the rising and senseless violence in the city."
The worries about the city's future
Of course, everyone's sense of safety is different.
What worries Wylde, of the Partnership for New York City, is how this will affect young people, with polls showing they feel more apprehensive about riding the subway and crime more generally.
When Wall Street executives talk about return-to-office plans, they often emphasize how important it is for young people to get back to the office so they don't miss out on mentoring and other career opportunities.
Wylde, who lived in New York since the late 1960s, remembers when crime rates were much higher than they are today, but she notes that many of today's residents came at a time when the city was safer.
"A whole generation of New Yorkers never gave a thought to their personal safety and security because we were the safest big city in America, perhaps the world," says Wylde.
And executives like Wylde worry that New York City could lose some of its appeal to companies and workers if the worries about safety continue to take hold.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/a-spate-of-horrific-attacks-in-new-york-has-people-fearful-of-returning-to-work | 2022-08-14T14:09:23Z |
Emmy Award-winning actor Anne Heche has died. Her family took her off life support in a Los Angeles hospital following a car crash that left her in a coma. She was 53.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Emmy Award-winning actor Anne Heche has died. Her family took her off life support in a Los Angeles hospital following a car crash that left her in a coma. She was 53.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/anne-heche-is-dead-at-53-following-a-car-crash | 2022-08-14T14:09:29Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe is talking with members of the civil rights generation including Fred Gray, the legal icon who once represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe is talking with members of the civil rights generation including Fred Gray, the legal icon who once represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/attorney-fred-gray-became-the-civil-rights-movements-chief-counsel | 2022-08-14T14:09:35Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin McDugle why he thinks death row inmate Richard Glossip is innocent and deserves a new trial.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin McDugle why he thinks death row inmate Richard Glossip is innocent and deserves a new trial.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/death-row-inmate-richard-glossip-facing-fourth-execution-date | 2022-08-14T14:09:41Z |
Georgia is known as the Peach State but warming winters means fewer chill hours needed for fruit. Growers and horticulturists are now experimenting with new varieties.
Copyright 2022 90.1 WABE
Georgia is known as the Peach State but warming winters means fewer chill hours needed for fruit. Growers and horticulturists are now experimenting with new varieties.
Copyright 2022 90.1 WABE | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/encore-rising-temperatures-could-threaten-georgia-peaches | 2022-08-14T14:09:47Z |
Ex-besties feud over a messy wedding in 'You're Invited' NPR Published August 14, 2022 at 7:37 AM MDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Flipboard Listen • 7:57 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to author Amanda Jayatissa about her new thriller, "You're Invited." Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/ex-besties-feud-over-a-messy-wedding-in-youre-invited | 2022-08-14T14:09:53Z |
When the Postal Service asked Rafael López to design a commemorative stamp representing Latin American culture in the United States, he knew exactly what to show: a mariachi band.
And he knew just one stamp was not going to be enough.
"The contribution of mariachi music is huge. We cannot just recognize it with one stamp. We need to create at least a series of five," the Mexican American artist told NPR at the launch this month in the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.
"So I went back to the director and I said, what if we actually have five different musicians? You can't fit five of them in one little step. I don't think that's enough honor, you know, to mariachi music."
It's the first time a mariachi band is featured on U.S. stamps, according to the Postal Museum. And for some in the Latino community, it's recognition of how their heritage and culture are part of the American fabric. López himself splits his time between San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and San Diego, California.
He used his upbringing in Mexico City as part of the inspiration for the stamps, especially the band members and the vibrant colors that fill the stamps, which have an initial print of 18 million sets.
López said he wanted to put the focus on the features of the characters depicted on the stamps, leaving a non-descript background with the pastel-colored homes of Mexican antiquity.
"The background is very simple. It just resembles some kind of a Mexican town," he said. "But if you see it very closely, it's just like color shapes. And I wanted to pay focus on the actual expression of the singers."
The features López focused on were more passionate expressions made by those musicians at the height of their harmony. The faces of the band members compete for space on the stamps with their uniforms and instruments.
"They're beautiful uniforms, those Charro outfits," López said.
The centerpiece is the leader of the group, a violinist holding her instrument in her left hand and her sombrero in the right as she belts out her operatic ballads. López set that up by design.
"I love when a female mariachi singers are out there. I also wanted it to be center stage, and I just wanted also to have a little bit of variety, you know, that you can tell that not only is she very talented with the violin, but she can also put it down and just belt away a great song."
The creative process was not quick
It took two years of development before the set launched. Each stamp is priced at 60 cents and will carry on a cultural legacy forever.
The depictions of the band members comes from a long list of approved models, images and illustrations provided by the Postal Service.
But when one of the models became unavailable, López used his nephew's face to create the musician holding the vihuela — a stringed instrument that resembles a guitar.
"I said, ask your brother to take photos of different angles of your face and you pretend to be playing the violin," López said. "And after about 30 or 40 photos, I picked the best one."
Mariachi comes to life at the museum
López was not the only artist at the launch event.
Cañas y su Mariachi de Oro filled the museum's halls with music, entertaining visitors and volunteers. The five-piece band, based in Northern Virginia, played favorite pieces like Cielito Lindo and El Mariachi Loco Quiere Bailar, but the crowd of mostly families were wowed when the Pajaritos a Bailar slowly transitioned to a rendition of Baby Shark.
José Cañas, the guitarist and lead singer of the group, told NPR he's happy to see a band like his on U.S. stamps.
"Es un honor para nosotros," he said. It's an honor for us.
López said rhythms and beats of the music — playing in an institution of American history — are key to a great mariachi sound anyone can enjoy, regardless of whether they understand Spanish.
"Before you know it, everybody's celebrating life and patting each other in the back. So there's that universal quality that the mariachi music has that you just can't help but feel."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/for-the-first-time-the-postal-service-features-mariachi-musicians-on-stamps | 2022-08-14T14:09:59Z |
In light of recent deadly floods in Seoul, South Korea, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Eric Chu, assistant professor at University of California, Davis, how climate change is affecting cities.
Copyright 2022 NPR
In light of recent deadly floods in Seoul, South Korea, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Eric Chu, assistant professor at University of California, Davis, how climate change is affecting cities.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/how-cities-around-the-world-are-planning-for-climate-change | 2022-08-14T14:10:05Z |
MELBOURNE, Fla. — For most of his 15 years, Levi Draheim led a beachy life on a barrier island on Florida's east coast, swimming, surfing and sailing in the nearshore waves. He dreamed of someday becoming a marine biologist. But Levi's world is changing.
Warming temperatures led to widespread Sargassum seaweed and harmful algae blooms in the Atlantic Ocean and 156-mile Indian River Lagoon, which together encircle the island. The seaweed and algae blooms have left beaches stinking with rotting seaweed and dead marine life. In the Indian River Lagoon, the algae blooms have killed seagrass, leading to an unprecedented die-off of manatees that consume the marine plants. On some days, Levi wore a mask at the beach to guard against the smell.
Warming temperatures also have contributed to more frequent and damaging storms, and in 2017 a series of storms including Hurricane Irma, which wrought billions of dollars in damage across the state, caused floodwaters to rise 18 inches in Levi's front yard. His family had to fortify the home with sandbags to prevent further damage. After Levi's mother became pregnant with his half-sister Juniper, a curious 2-year-old with sparse blond hair and big brown eyes, the family decided to abandon the island and move to the mainland.
"It's kind of disappointing not being able to live on the barrier island anymore, because there's so much fun stuff that I could do. Most of my friends, they live on the barrier island," says Levi, now in Melbourne, Fla. "It's a mix of disappointment and also frustration, frustration with leaders."
Earlier this year, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried announced a plan to put the state on a path toward cleaner energy, cutting the emissions Florida contributes to the climate disruptions that are already battering it. Behind the plan was a focused campaign by some 200 young Floridians all under the age of 25. Levi was the youngest.
Young Floridians filed a petition
The young Floridians had found something in state statutes, with help from Our Children's Trust, an advocacy group, that Florida leaders, including Fried, apparently had overlooked: that Fried's department is mandated to set goals for enhancing renewable energy use in the state. In Florida, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services oversees the state's Office of Energy.
The young Floridians filed a petition for rulemaking in January admonishing the state leaders and especially Fried for ignoring the statutory mandate. The petition called on the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Fried to set goals for moving Florida toward 100% clean energy by 2050. Levi felt proud of holding elected leaders accountable but felt they were capable of more.
"I'm glad that they're doing something instead of not doing anything. But still, I feel like they could have done better," Levi says about the rule, which was finalized on Aug. 9. "Like with a parent, that they know that their kid just ran this race and placed fairly decently. They placed third. But they knew that their kid has the potential to do more. I guess it's, in some ways, it's sort of like that. Because I know that there's more that they can do. But I'm glad that they did their best, and I'm glad they did something."
Florida's new goals call for 100% renewable energy by 2050
Nearly half of states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, have goals for moving toward 100% clean energy by midcentury, a benchmark scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. The Biden administration is aiming for 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035.
Florida is among the states most vulnerable to climate change and yet until now has lacked any real plan to address the main cause behind warming temperatures and wean the state from fossil fuels.
Most of Florida's electricity comes from natural gas plants. Republicans who control the state have been hostile to such goals, leaving some local governments to step in with goals of their own. In 2021, the Republican-controlled state Legislature struck back with a measure effectively banning most local goals.
Agriculture Commissioner Fried, a Democrat, is running in the state primary Aug. 23 to ultimately take on Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in this year's gubernatorial race, and she has railed against the governor for his inaction on the issue. DeSantis has focused instead on resilience projects, saying he is "not a global warming person."
Florida's new goals call on utilities to move toward 40% clean energy by 2030, 63% by 2035, 82% by 2040 and 100% by 2050. The goals are the same as those proposed by the young Floridians in their petition and are based on a study by Evolved Energy Research, a consulting firm that did similar studies for other states.
The young Floridians' 121-page petition relies on state policy dating back some 15 years to when former Gov. Charlie Crist, then a Republican, was in office. Crist, now a Democratic congressman representing the Tampa area, is running against Fried this month in the Florida Democratic primary.
"We read the law, literally," says Andrea Rodgers, senior litigation attorney at Our Children's Trust, about the Crist-era statute. The group filed the petition on behalf of the young Floridians, including Levi. "When we saw that, that was a mandatory duty that had not been fulfilled, that's when we came up with a strategy to file the petition for rulemaking."
The Crist administration's clean energy goals effectively were abandoned in 2011 when his successor — former Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and now U.S. senator — took office.
Since DeSantis took office in 2019, he has strived to make some environmental issues administration priorities. The governor, a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, has put millions of dollars toward the Everglades and other treasured but troubled waterways. But he has faced criticism for doing little about Florida's biggest environmental threat: climate change.
"I have a light inside me"
Now on the mainland, Levi lives with his mother, stepfather, half-sister Juniper and dog Basil, a Staffordshire terrier and treeing Walker coonhound mix with one brown eye and one blue eye. His mom, Leigh-Ann Draheim, raises Juniper, home-schools Levi and works at the family's church, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard in West Melbourne.
Stepdad James Kilby is a professional photographer and tends the family's elaborate home garden, aimed at protecting fragile local waters from harmful lawn fertilizers and also sustaining the family. At the moment he is raising fruits, vegetables and herbs, with plans for more.
Levi is an affable teen with a bright smile and hair that usually he wears in a "giant Afro," which he describes as a "big part of who I am," although when we meet his hair is closely shorn. He is an accomplished unicycler and spends his spare time sailing in the Indian River Lagoon and also volunteering at the Brevard Zoo. He now dreams of becoming a search-and-rescue dog handler, because he loves animals and loves helping people.
"My mom says that, I don't know how she usually describes it, that I have a light inside me," he says with his mom beside him at the kitchen table. Works of art adorn the walls throughout the home, colorful eclectic paintings from local artists. Many, like one of a fish skeleton and blue-and-green Earth, share a common theme of the environment..
"I don't know what that means exactly," Levi continued about the light inside him, "but my mom says I have a light inside of me that helps me be a better person."
Leigh-Ann Draheim stepped in to help clarify. "He's always had this really good energy about him that people are drawn to," she says. "Even when he was very little, people would talk to him at the grocery store or at the library or whatever. He just had this sort of energy about him. So I think when he fell into this role I think it was a good thing for him, because people are, for whatever reason, interested in Levi."
Levi got involved with Our Children's Trust through his church. In 2015, he was among 21 young plaintiffs from across the country to file a lawsuit against the Obama administration and later, the Trump administration, challenging the federal government's development of fossil fuels. At 8 years old Levi was the youngest. The plaintiffs contended that the system violated their constitutional rights to freedom, life and property. In 2020, an appeals court judge threw out the case.
Levi attended all the court hearings in Eugene, Ore., and traveled to Washington, D.C., to talk with congressional leaders about the lawsuit. His mom chaperoned. The other plaintiffs became like siblings for Levi, but the hardest part was sitting still through the hearings and meetings, his mom recalled.
"He would sit there frustrated going, 'Don't you see what's happening? There's hurricanes. We've had to evacuate my house,'" she says. "He didn't understand all the legal stuff. He just understood that his environment was being affected, and that's what he cared about."
In 2018, Levi joined another lawsuit with other young Floridians against the Scott administration challenging the state's energy system. In 2021, an appeals court dismissed that case, too. But the young Floridians were not ready to give up. The attorneys went back to the statutes and discovered the mandate involving the Department of Agriculture and renewable energy goals.
For Florida, climate change means hotter temperatures, rising seas and more frequent and damaging storms. By 2045, the DeSantis administration predicts some $26 billion in residential property statewide will face chronic flooding.
Levi has found his involvement in the litigation rewarding but also frustrating, in a Republican-led state that has taken almost no action on climate change for about a decade. Most of his friends have been supportive of his activism, but a few do not get it, he says. One friend asked why not speak up about "bigger" issues, like racism and homophobia.
Levi says he feels a unique responsibility about climate change as a person of color. He points out low-income communities and communities of color often are more vulnerable to impacts.
"African-American people sometimes, most of the time we don't live in as safe, or as strong a neighborhood," Levi says. "Or if we do, then it's in the area that is more greatly affected than some other people that may have better opportunities."
After spending half of his life involved in climate litigation aimed at holding federal and state leaders accountable on fossil fuels, Levi says he wouldn't have it any other way.
"If you were given an opportunity to stop an explosion that would kill everyone, and you're given that opportunity to stop it. If you don't take that opportunity and you survive, that's something that will always be there, that you'll always know that you didn't do something that you could've done," he says. "So I think that if you think about it that way, that if I didn't, if I don't take action, then that will be something that will hang with me, that I'll know that I didn't do something that I could have done."
This story was produced in partnership with Inside Climate News.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/meet-the-teenager-who-helped-push-florida-toward-cleaner-energy | 2022-08-14T14:10:11Z |
"Tell me about it, stud." There are plenty of catchier, more profound quotables in the history of cinema, but I'll always love this one for how perfectly embarrassing it is.
On its surface, Olivia Newton-John's smoldering come-on in the finale of Grease introduces her character Sandy's transformation from prim prude to red-lipped sexpot, in an O. Henry-like twist where she and John Travolta's Danny each adopt new identities to appease the other. But with only a little imagination, you can picture her frantic preparation for this moment, practicing that line thousands of times in the mirror, rolling the dice that Danny will say something to which "Tell me about it, stud" is an appropriate response. The best part is, he doesn't: All he does is gawk and say, "Sandy?" It's a total non-sequitur, delivered before the same cliquish classmates who have mocked and dismissed her for an entire school year, and in spite of its awkwardness, it lands. Maybe they're all too distracted by her new look to notice. Or maybe they simply know what we know — that Sandy, like the woman playing her, is a first-class dork even at her absolute sexiest.
I've spent the past week reading tributes to Newton-John, who died Monday at 73 after a 30-year battle with breast cancer, and seen the same few words recur over and over: "Beautiful." "Angelic." "Sensual." "Classy." "Soft rock." All of which certainly apply to the British-Australian singer and actress, who broke through in the mid-'70s with country-pop ballads like "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow" (her first two of five U.S. No. 1 hits), and became a superstar in 1978 as Grease's quintessential girl next door. Along with her fervent advocacy for health and humanitarian causes, these descriptions make her seem almost untouchable, too pure for this world.
But to me — a very young girl at the time of her rise, a precocious only child from a progressive family with an early interest in politics and feminism, swept up in questions of what being a woman even meant — it was her accessibility and playfulness that cast their warm spell on my growing heart. I was in love with Sandy from the second she arrived at Rydell High: Apart from the fact that I couldn't take my eyes off her, I deeply related to her desire to do everything the right way, while still being intrigued by the determination of her new friends Rizzo, Marty and Frenchy to do everything their own way. When "Bad Sandy" awakened, so did my understanding that the two aren't exclusive: You can be true to yourself, and also decide what that means from one day to the next.
I've come to love the perennial ice-breaker "What was your first concert?" because I have deep, unironic pride in my answer. It was the day before my sixth birthday in 1982, a gift from my mom, who had watched in amusement as I named all of my dolls and stuffed animals of any species "Olivia." We were in the highest reaches of the San Diego Sports Arena, the stage so far away that it could have been anyone performing. But I knew it wasn't just anyone: It was the star of Grease and the critically panned disco fantasy Xanadu, films that had no business being worshipped by a kindergartener, but were anyway because of her. I was the world's youngest Gene Kelly superfan, because he'd danced with her onscreen. When Cheers debuted two years after Xanadu, I tuned in genuinely hoping to see the further adventures of the film's main character Sonny Malone, having missed that Ted Danson's charismatic barkeep was actually named Sam. (Though I quickly learned that the show did not feature any ancient Greek muses on roller skates, I did keep watching. Shelly Long's Diane was a new geek goddess in my burgeoning pantheon, another principled good girl who was also the smartest person in the room.)
I can still feel what it was like to hear "Physical" and be moved to dance without a trace of self-consciousness — why should I have any when she didn't? I knew the song was about sex, but while radio stations were banning it, I wasn't blushing. The video was so camp, the Jazzercise double entendre so obvious. Just like Sandy, Newton-John was winkingly cosplaying hypersexuality, because she didn't need it to get what she wanted. I knew this instinctively, just as I knew a year later that despite playing a felon in Two of a Kind, her reunion film with John Travolta, there was no question she'd end up doing the right thing and falling in love in the process — though not before having a little dangerous fun and charting a new hit single in "Twist of Fate."
As the '80s and '90s wore on, she remained at the center of my self-conception, if not my evolving playlist. But one evening in college, she caught me off guard by appearing alongside my newest role model — Candice Bergen's Murphy Brown, a brilliant journalist who held herself to the highest standards while also breaking a lot of rules. In a 1997 cameo on the CBS sitcom, Newton-John appeared as herself, facing off against Murphy in a charity auction for the chance to conduct a symphony orchestra for a day. Murphy is determined to win because she's been diagnosed with breast cancer and wants to make the most of her remaining days. Olivia, now five years into her own real-life diagnosis, presumably wants the same and bids viciously. But when Murphy pulls out a victory, Olivia slyly and sweetly reveals the truth: She's there on behalf of the charity, who recruited her to drive up Murphy's bid.
Among all the compulsive listening and rewatching I've done since hearing about Newton-John's death, these few minutes make me cry the hardest. Embedded in her brief meta-performance is a decision to face her circumstances with a wink and a smile — helping Murphy, and any survivors watching at home, to do the same. Seeing her that way takes me back to why I loved her so instantly as a child: She embodied a fundamental goodness, but reveled in playing near the edge to keep everyone on their toes. May we all make our own rules with such heart.
Evie Nagy is a business and culture writer and the author of the 33 1/3 series book Devo's Freedom of Choice. She currently works in tech.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/olivia-newton-john-a-sexy-nerd-for-the-rest-of-us | 2022-08-14T14:10:17Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Rachelle Seguin of Doctors Without Borders about conditions in Haiti now, a year after a devastating earthquake.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Rachelle Seguin of Doctors Without Borders about conditions in Haiti now, a year after a devastating earthquake.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/one-year-after-an-earthquake-haitis-recovery-efforts-have-stalled | 2022-08-14T14:10:24Z |
JERUSALEM — A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem's Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in an attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, tweeted that there were American citizens among the wounded. An embassy spokesperson disclosed no other information or details.
The shooting happened as the bus waited in a parking lot near the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Israeli media identified the suspected attacker as a 26-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem.
Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to investigate. Israeli security forces also pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.
Later on Sunday, police said the suspected attacker turned himself in. Speaking at a meeting of his Cabinet Sunday, Israeli Prime Mnister Yair Lapid said the suspected attacker was a resident of Jerusalem who was operating alone during the shooting and who had previously been arrested by Israel.
The attack in Jerusalem followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Last weekend, Israeli aircraft unleashed an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting. Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up to avenge the airstrikes, which killed two of its commanders and other militants. Israel said the attack was meant to thwart threats from the group to respond to the arrest of one of its officials in the occupied West Bank.
Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, were killed, and several hundred were injured in the fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.
A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/palestinian-gunman-wounds-8-in-late-night-jerusalem-shooting | 2022-08-14T14:10:30Z |
On-air challenge: I'm going to give you two four-letter words. Add the same two letters at the front of each of them to complete two common six-letter words.
Ex. MIRE / VISE — ADmire and ADvise
1. DISH / PIER
2. BILE / ROSE
3. RINK / TICK
4. LOON / TIRE
5. ORAL / ASHY
6. EASY / OUCH
Special guest player: Felix Contreras
Challenge:
We're in the middle of a two-week creative challenge. The object is to write a sentence using only the letters of any particular U.S. state. You can pick the state and repeat letters as often as necessary. For example:
OREGON --> Roger, go gorge on green eggnog.
NEBRASKA --> Sen. Ben Sasse's sneakers reek. [Note: Ben Sasse is a U.S. senator from Nebraska]
Entries will be judged on originality, sense, naturalness of syntax, humor, and overall elegance. *No more than three sentences per entry, please.*
If you know the answer to the two-week challenge, submit it here by Wednesday, August 17 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/sunday-puzzle-this-is-how-it-begins | 2022-08-14T14:10:36Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Downen about the federal investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Houston Chronicle reporter Robert Downen about the federal investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/the-doj-is-investigating-southern-baptists-for-mishandling-sex-abuse-allegations | 2022-08-14T14:10:42Z |
Dick Heller would like to be known as the "Gun Dude."
For the self-described octogenarian who still works as a special police officer in the federal prison system, it's a moniker that acknowledges the key role he has played in how the Second Amendment is interpreted today.
An individual right to own a gun for personal protection is an idea that is deeply rooted in American culture. But for most of U.S. history, there was little actual legal framework to support any such interpretation of the Second Amendment. It wasn't until a relatively recent Supreme Court decision that this all changed.
Heller was at the center of it. In 2003, he was one of six individuals who sued the District of Columbia over its restrictive gun laws and won. As the case made its way through the courts, Heller became the sole plaintiff.
The Second Amendment states that "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
While Heller may not be a household name, the case that bears his name redefined gun ownership, as it marked the first time the Supreme Court affirmed an individual right to gun ownership that was separate from the "militia clause" in the Second Amendment.
"The Heller case is clearly one of the most important Second Amendment cases in American history, if not the most important," says Adam Winkler, a professor at the UCLA School of Law.
Darrell Miller, a professor of law at Duke University who has written extensively on gun-rights issues, simply calls it "a watershed."
Heller has been involved in gun-rights advocacy ever since, including an ongoing debate in Washington, D.C., where he lives, over "ghost guns" — homemade polymer guns that don't contain a serial number.
And a line can be traced from the Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision to the high court's recent ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen. That 6-3 decision reinforced the previous stance in Heller, holding that a New York state law that required a person to "demonstrate a special need for self-protection" in order to carry a gun outside the home was unconstitutional. The majority opinion said that the law violated the 14th Amendment by "preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public."
The lawsuit was two decades in the making
Heller says his "figurative gunfight" started in 1976, when he purchased a firearm in Maryland — a revolver with a "sculptured grip" that was "a work of art" — and brought it back to D.C., where he lived and worked as a local police officer.
Three months later, the District passed a law making it a crime to carry unregistered firearms and prohibiting the registration of handguns — effectively banning them. It required other firearms to be stored unloaded or locked.
"In the capital of the freest country on the planet ... you could not own a firearm," Heller says.
For the next 20 years, he basically stewed about the restrictions. Eventually, Heller found his way to the libertarian CATO Institute, and a court challenge to the D.C. law began to take shape.
Writing for the majority in the 5-4 decision, Justice Antonin Scalia, now deceased, said that the Second Amendment "protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home."
Referring to the so-called militia clause, Scalia added that it "announces a purpose, but does not limit or expand the scope" of individual ownership.
Duke University's Miller says that Justice Scalia's opinion was "essentially reaching back and saying those 200 years of history where it's all about the militia clause, those are all wrong."
"So now, you don't have to show that you're a member of the National Guard to have a pistol in your home for purposes of self-defense," he says.
Prior to Heller, "you didn't have any kind of federal Second Amendment rights that were unrelated to one's membership in a militia," Miller says.
"There was pretty consistent agreement among courts, and really scholars," says Alex McCourt, director of legal research at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They believed, he said, "that the Second Amendment did not confer an individual right."
McCourt, who studies firearms policy, says the 2008 decision was the first time that the Supreme Court recognized the individual right over the collective rights theory, as embraced by the older view of the militia clause that had previously prevailed.
To be sure, long before the Heller case, the NRA and other gun-rights advocates had pushed the idea that the Second Amendment conferred just such an individual right. It's a view that former Chief Justice Warren Burger, speaking in a 1991 interview, forcefully rebuffed, calling it "one of the greatest pieces of fraud, I repeat the word fraud, on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime."
To understand what an important departure the Heller case was, you need to step back to a 1934 case involving bank robbers and a sawed-off shotgun. In United States v. Miller, Jack Miller and Frank Layton were charged with violating the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934 by transporting the weapon across state lines. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision with eight justices presiding, affirmed the charges against the two men. The high court overturned a lower court ruling dismissing the case against the two men on the grounds that the NFA violates the Second Amendment.
In essence, the Supreme Court said, "this case just doesn't give rise to a Second Amendment problem at all because the sawed-off shotgun has no relationship to a well-regulated militia," says Eric Ruben, an assistant professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.
"Most people if they're anti-guns, they say ... the militia, that's the National Guard," says Heller, who rejects that notion. "Everybody understands the phrase 'shall not be infringed' ... It means what it says."
The Heller case underscores the challenge facing gun-control advocates
Scalia's opinion opened the door to eliminating some public carry regulations and bans, but it did not immediately strike down many longstanding prohibitions on firearms. Ruben says that the vast majority of challenges to gun regulations in years subsequent to Heller actually failed.
UCLA's Winkler, who specializes in constitutional law, agrees with that assessment. The reason, he says, is that "America does not have very strict gun laws to strike down."
"Even in states like California or New York that have the strictest gun laws in the nation, the laws are very permissive," he says. "So there aren't that many really restrictive laws to strike down in the name of the Second Amendment."
Although Second Amendment cases since Heller have been rare, the increasingly conservative Supreme Court has signaled a much fuller embrace of individual gun rights.
Winkler is among the legal scholars who see this summer's Bruen case on a par with the 2008 Heller decision.
The Bruen decision, he says, "expands Heller considerably" by extending the federal right to bear arms outside the home and extending it "to the public streets."
In it, the Supreme Court also "articulated a new test for courts to apply in Second Amendment challenges, and that test is going to be harder for state and local governments to meet in trying to defend their gun laws," Winkler says.
Heller says gun laws should be even more relaxed
Heller says he's still not satisfied with the state of gun rights in the U.S. Stand-Your-Ground laws in nearly two dozen states, for example, have too many loopholes, he says. And he fears the gains made nearly 15 years ago in the case that bears his name, and in more recent cases like Bruen, could still be reversed.
One imagined scenario that concerns him is a future constitutional convention that could threaten the Second Amendment, he says.
"Freedom and justice are the operative words here," Heller says. "Fifty years from now, things could change."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/the-gun-dude-and-a-supreme-court-case-that-changed-who-can-own-firearms-in-the-u-s | 2022-08-14T14:10:48Z |
Mara Liasson is a national political correspondent for NPR. Her reports can be heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazine programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Liasson provides extensive coverage of politics and policy from Washington, DC — focusing on the White House and Congress — and also reports on political trends beyond the Beltway. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/the-inflation-reduction-act-becomes-law | 2022-08-14T14:10:54Z |
The IRS is about to get a big infusion of cash.
As part of the massive climate and health care bill passed by the House on Friday, the tax collection agency is set to receive $80 billion over the next decade.
Some of that money will go to update decades-old computer systems at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And some is for improving customer service, including a taxpayer phone line where nine out of 10 calls go unanswered.
Most of the money, though, is for stepped-up enforcement — to help the IRS collect more of the estimated $600 billion in taxes that go unpaid every year, much of it owed by rich people who under-report their income.
"By beefing up the IRS's capacity to go after wealthy tax cheats, you're going to be able to collect at least $400 billion of that over the course of the next ten years, and I suspect substantially more," said Natasha Sarin, a counselor for tax policy and implementation at the Treasury Department.
But there is bitter opposition from Republicans. The IRS funding passed Congress along strict party lines, like the rest of the Inflation Reduction Act.
"Imagine IRS agents descending upon America like a swarm of locusts," Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, warned in an interview with Fox Business. "And by the way, these IRS agents aren't there to go after billionaires. They're there to go after you. They're there to go after your small business. They're there to go after your family."
Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig – who was appointed by former President Trump – insist the additional enforcement efforts will target the wealthy, not middle-class taxpayers.
"Let's be very clear about what these resources are and are not doing," Sarin said. "These resources are not raising audits on any small business or any household that makes under $400,000 a year."
The IRS had lacked financial resources
The new money will help to reverse more than a decade of under-funding at the IRS. The agency's enforcement ranks have shrunk by 30% since 2010.
As experienced auditors have left, the IRS has increasingly focused on simpler audits involving lower-income families — even though they account for a small share of unpaid taxes.
Researchers at Syracuse University found that 46% of IRS audits in the most recent fiscal year were aimed at people who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit — a tax break designed to supplement the income of low-wage workers.
People who receive the tax credit were more than three times as likely to be audited as taxpayers overall, even though they account for a small share of unpaid taxes.
"They're easy marks," said Susan Long, who has been monitoring IRS audits for decades as co-founder of TRAC, a non-profit research center at Syracuse. "Enforcement levels have really dropped, except for these poor, lowest-income group where you can just send a letter in the mail."
Millionaires have largely avoided tax audits
At the same time, Long said, the IRS audited just 2.2% of millionaires' tax returns last year – a steep decline from 2015.
"Most millionaires, they don't even look at their returns, even though all the studies show that that's where the money is," Long said.
The vast majority of ordinary wage earners already pay the taxes they owe. They don't have much choice, since their income is reported directly to the IRS.
Wealthy people have more opportunities to avoid taxes. Their income sources are often less transparent. And they can hire lawyers and accountants to sidestep the IRS, which is frequently outgunned.
"This has been a David and Goliath battle for far too long," Sarin said. "We're finally giving the IRS the tools it needs to be able to meaningfully police [tax] evasion at the top of the [income] distribution."
Sarin argued that stepped-up enforcement will not only enable the IRS to collect more money for the government, but also make for a fairer tax system.
"This is about bringing to an end to a two-tiered tax system, where certain taxpayers have the opportunity to evade, and other taxpayers are making good on their obligations and are fully voluntarily compliant — which is the vast majority of taxpayers," she said.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/the-irs-just-got-80-billion-to-beef-up-a-big-goal-going-after-rich-tax-dodgers | 2022-08-14T14:11:00Z |
Psychologists play a critical role in K-12 schools and there's a clear mismatch between the demographics of school psychologists and the student populations they serve.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Psychologists play a critical role in K-12 schools and there's a clear mismatch between the demographics of school psychologists and the student populations they serve.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/theres-a-nationwide-shortage-of-black-male-school-psychologists | 2022-08-14T14:11:06Z |
One year ago this August, the Taliban raised their white flag over Afghanistan's capital for the second time, pulling down the tricolor flag of the republic that had endured for the two decades between.
Their victory gave the radical religious movement supreme power over a country with a median age of 18 — which means most citizens weren't alive for the Taliban's violent years in power from 1996-2001. The young people on the left of this photo above had never seen such a change of power. On the right, 62-year-old carpet seller Ahmed Shah Kashefi says he's lived through many upheavals and it's always hard.
The self-proclaimed Islamic emirate now controls government compounds, universities and other institutions surrounded by blast walls — concrete structures once built to keep out the Taliban, along with bombers from other extremist groups.
The Taliban also control rural villages, like this one in Wardak Province. Its few remaining residents say the old government bulldozed mud-walled homes as part of their ongoing battle with the Taliban for control of nearby Highway One.
Their single biggest prize is Kabul, a growing city in a mountain valley, where neighborhoods climb up the slopes on all sides.
At this used furniture store, Wahid Kashafi (left) and Abdul Kahar give a snapshot of life in the capital. Few people have money to buy furniture, but many are selling — as they prepare to leave the country, or to buy food.
Kabul's population is 4.5 million, about twice its population when the Taliban last ruled. In their previous reign there were almost no phones — and no television, except what residents watched on smuggled DVD's. Now the city is in instant communication with the world.
Kabul's economy is less connected. Taliban leaders face global economic sanctions. The U.S. froze the assets of the central bank, and other Afghan banks were unable to do business with the world.
Credit cards ceased to function; it even became hard for Afghans abroad to send money home.
At the airport, at taxi stands, and at bread shops it's not hard to find children seeking a handout.
Shop owners we met said business was bad, though some were philosophical and said it's always like this when the government changes.
So who is included in the Taliban's Afghanistan? The free media are still allowed to function. Some, such as TOLOnews, have endured the hard times, the loss of staff, and periodic Taliban demands to leave out inconvenient facts.
The role of women and girls is ambiguous at best. Younger girls are in school while those of junior high and high school age are not.
Some women are still working, while others are not. Muzhda Noor says that one year ago she was a university dean overseeing 19 male professors. After the takeover, a new chancellor ordered new restrictions on women, and told Noor she should no longer attend faculty meetings with men. She sought a transfer but eventually was dismissed from the university.
The political opposition has no formal space of its own. Gulalai Mohammadi was a member of the Afghan parliament that the Taliban declared defunct. She says she's now at home, with no way to exercise a cause she supported in the assembly — women's rights.
A former president, Hamid Karzai, remains in Kabul and is able to speak freely, as in a recent NPR interview, but has not been allowed to leave Afghanistan.
Many of the men who brought the Taliban to power have returned to their homes. They include these men in the Tangi Valley in rural Wardak Province. The fighters we met said they were pleased to live under their version of Islamic rule, but as we left the valley we also heard that residents wished their girls could return to school.
And it doesn't take long for a visitor to begin seeing the vast number of people in society who are obliged under the new rules to go unseen.
How do the Taliban mean to answer the uncertainties of their rule? Analyst Abdul Jabar Baheer was present this summer when Taliban leaders held a mass meeting, but reached no decisions on major policies or a permanent form of government. Hibatullah Akhundzada, described as the emir of Afghanistan, said he would not obey the West, but said little about what he intended to do.
We sought clarity at a famous compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It's the compound of Mullah Omar, who led the Taliban during their first rule. The U.S. and its Afghan allies later turned it into a base, and it's strewn with military equipment.
The compound is now home to Mullah Omar's son, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, who has become defense minister in the Taliban's interim government.
Yaqoob said the Taliban take "seriously" the question of girls in school, and that he hopes for further announcements. He also said it's a "necessity" to adopt a formal constitution.
The Taliban said there will be no room in their system for democracy — and they have for the moment eliminated elections, elected offices and a formal opposition.
Yet they've inherited a complex society that now faces an economic crisis. Through the media, the few remaining independent political figures, and the demands of the people, they face democratic calls to govern effectively and inclusively.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/these-photos-show-who-is-and-isnt-included-in-the-talibans-afghanistan | 2022-08-14T14:11:12Z |
This Tuesday brings another round of important primaries for Congress and statewide office and the likelihood that big-name candidates will go down to defeat.
But the news next week will not focus on those household-familiar names or what their losses mean for their states. It will focus on what those outcomes may mean for Donald Trump.
That is all the more remarkable considering that these could be the last bids for seats in Congress for two of the best-known women in American politics — Republican icons Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Sarah Palin of Alaska.
Cheney is vice chair of the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and has often been the sharp point of the spear for that probe. Until she voted to impeach Trump in January 2021, she was on track to someday be the first Republican woman to be speaker of the House. She may also be a candidate for president in 2024.
Cheney is, of course, also the daughter of former Vice President Richard B. Cheney, who served two terms in the White House (2001-2009) and was often described as the most powerful No. 2 executive in U.S. history. The former vice president has released an ad and a video in which he appears in a cowboy hat and growls out his support for his daughter and dismisses Trump's claims about the 2020 election. The tag line is: "Only a coward would lie to his own supporters."
Sarah Palin is, of course, Sarah Palin
Palin was the first woman to be on the national ticket of either of the two major parties, chosen for the vice-presidential slot by GOP nominee John McCain in 2008. She delivered one of the most memorable speeches in recent history at the party's St. Paul convention that summer and headlined packed rallies that autumn that in many ways anticipated Trump's own.
Before that she was the governor of Alaska and since then she has been a TV reality star, though far less successful in that career than Trump. She has also been a Fox News contributor prior to her current campaign and a contestant on "The Masked Singer."
She is running now for the seat held for 49 years by the late Rep. Don Young, the longest serving Republican member of Congress in history. If she wins the special election Tuesday, she will complete his term, and a primary vote on the same ballot would nominate her for a full term starting in 2023.
Just over a year ago, the prospect of Cheney and Palin both serving in the same chamber of Congress at once would have been enough to draw media attention of all kinds at all levels of sophistication.
With first names that easily fit in headlines and last names sure to be click-bait, the two could have driven traffic for years. That would have been especially true had one or the other or both run for president in 2024 or thereafter. And even if neither did, either would be an automatic mention for vice president in 2024 or thereafter.
It is still possible, but developments in both their states and nationally have made it increasingly unlikely that either will be on the House floor next year.
A loss for Liz or a launch?
In another time — say one cycle ago — Cheney would be breezing to another GOP nod for the seat she first won in 2016 and has held since. In November she would expect to win with more than two-thirds of the vote, as she has three times.
But this time, she is expected to lose badly to state legislator Harriet Hageman, who has been leading in the polls – including a University of Wyoming poll published Aug. 12 showing Hageman ahead 30 points.
Trump endorsed Hageman the day she announced way back in September 2021, a swift move that helped to freeze out other Republican rivals who might have divided the anti-Cheney vote.
"We love President Trump here," Hageman says, thanking him for also coming to the state for her. Trump has made good on his vow to oppose the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him in January 2021 (two have survived their primaries, three have lost and four others did not seek re-election).
Hageman was a strong supporter of the presidential aspirations of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in 2016, at the time dismissing Trump as "racist and xenophobic." She now says she was the victim of lies about Trump told by Democrats and Liz Cheney at that time, but now regards him "as the greatest president of my lifetime."
In interviews, Cheney has strongly suggested she has already accepted the verdict of the Wyoming voters but is not ready to end her career. After completing her current term, observers have suggested, she could be the anti-Trump campaigner in a 2024 field of pro-Trump Republicans – quite possibly including Trump himself.
While no data exist to suggest Cheney could still win on Tuesday, her candidacy has prompted an unprecedented outpouring of support from outside the state and from longtime adversaries as well. Led by former Gov. Mike Sullivan, many Wyoming Democrats are expected to switch their party registration (as state law permits on primary day) so as to vote for Cheney. But it's highly unlikely there would be enough of these to make the difference.
There may have been some erosion of Trump support in Wyoming, where he got 70% of the vote twice. But that slippage probably ended when the FBI searched his home at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. Republicans in Wyoming, as elsewhere, closed ranks behind the former president this past week and denounced the search as politically motivated.
After that FBI search, the blood is up in Trump states.
Stymied by a voting system
But even this latest rallying around Trump might not be enough to save Palin.
She has his endorsement, and he dialed in for one of her rallies as recently as the day his home was searched. What's stopping Palin is not her relationship with the former president, it's a voting system.
Alaska has an open primary that lists all candidates together regardless of party. In the first round of the vote there this spring, there were 48 candidates on the ballot. Palin, no surprise, came in first with 27% of the total. She has often complained that she "got the most votes" and should not be subjected to a second round of voter assessment.
But under Alaska's system, Palin must face a second round of voting that includes the top four finishers from the first round. One of the top four in the June vote has dropped out, but Palin is still battling two second-round rivals on Tuesday, including another Republican. He is Nick Begich III, the grandson of the last person to hold this seat before Young. His grandfather was a Democrat who was lost in a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness in 1972; his uncle Mark, also a Democrat, was a one-term U.S. senator.
The third candidate this Tuesday is Mary Peltola, a former state legislator who is a daughter of a Yup'ik Eskimo. A Democrat who has emerged as a factor in her own right, she could even win a plurality of first-place votes on Tuesday. But that would not be the end of the story, because a first-place plurality is not enough.
Alaska has just installed a new ranked-choice system, like the one used in Maine and New York City and elsewhere. It allows each voter to vote for more than one candidate, ranking them by order of preference.
If no one gets over 50% on first count, the two with the most first-place votes proceed to an "instant runoff" — a tally of their respective second-place votes. If a candidate has enough of an advantage in the second tally it can overcome a deficit in the first.
Because third-place votes at this point are be the kiss of death, the contest becomes less a popularity contest than an unpopularity contest. The candidate liked best by some but liked least by too many others is not going to win.
Negatives can weigh heavily
One of the arguments for the ranked-choice system has been that it encourages candidates to be more congenial and supposedly discourages negative campaigning.
But Begich's ads have been tough on Palin. One says "she left Alaska to be a celebrity." A voice in another says "vote smart, not Sarah." It was widely noted that she missed a candidate debate this summer for a fundraiser in Minnesota.
And while she was a charismatic force in the 2008 presidential campaign, she has not faced any voters since quitting midway through her one term as governor in 2009. Some Republicans have still not forgotten how she won that term, challenging an incumbent Republican. A recent poll by Alaska Survey Research showed her to be viewed unfavorably by 60% of Alaskans, far more than either Begich or Peltola.
Surveys have shown voters in other places have found the system reasonably easy to use and like the chance to make more than one choice. Trump, for his part, has weighed in calling the system "crap."
He might be even less enamored of it after it frustrates Palin on Tuesday. She was among the first famous Republicans to support him in his presidential quest, and he was pleased to return the favor.
But he will likely console himself by thinking about Wyoming.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/trumps-name-is-not-on-the-ballot-tuesday-but-his-thumb-rests-heavily-on-the-scale | 2022-08-14T14:11:18Z |
The Taliban now guard Afghanistan's national museum. The group has a poor record of preserving cultural artifacts and parts of the museum's collection are no longer on display.
Copyright 2022 NPR
The Taliban now guard Afghanistan's national museum. The group has a poor record of preserving cultural artifacts and parts of the museum's collection are no longer on display.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/under-taliban-guard-afghanistans-national-museum-has-reopened | 2022-08-14T14:11:24Z |
Until 1974, presidents could take documents with them when they left office. Now every presidential document, from notebook doodles to top-secret security plans, belongs to the National Archives.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Until 1974, presidents could take documents with them when they left office. Now every presidential document, from notebook doodles to top-secret security plans, belongs to the National Archives.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/watergate-changed-the-rules-surrounding-presidential-records | 2022-08-14T14:11:30Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Jessica Drun of the Atlantic Council Global China Hub about China's newly aggressive posture towards Taiwan.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Jessica Drun of the Atlantic Council Global China Hub about China's newly aggressive posture towards Taiwan.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/why-china-is-reasserting-its-right-of-control-over-taiwan | 2022-08-14T14:11:37Z |
Police: Man killed himself after ramming US Capitol barrier
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man drove his car into a barricade near the U.S. Capitol early Sunday and then began firing gunshots in the air from the burning car before fatally shooting himself, police said.
The incident happened just before 4 a.m. at a vehicle barricade set at East Capitol Street and 2nd Street in Washington.
It comes at a time when law enforcement authorities across the country are facing an increasing number of threats and federal officials have warned about the potential of violent attacks on government buildings in the days since the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The attack is reminiscent of an incident when a man drove a vehicle into two Capitol Police officers at a checkpoint in April 2021, killing an 18-year veteran of the force. And many on Capitol Hill remain on edge after supporters of the then-president stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Authorities said the man, whose identity has not been released, crashed into the barricade and that as he was getting out of the car, the vehicle became engulfed in flames. The man then opened fire, firing several shots into the air as police approached.
Capitol Police said the man shot himself as the officers neared. He was later pronounced dead.
Police said “it does not appear the man was targeting any member of Congress” and that investigators are examining the man’s background as they work to try to discern a motive. Both the House and Senate are in recess and very few staff members work in the Capitol complex at that hour.
Authorities said no other injuries were reported and police do not believe any officers returned fire.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/police-man-killed-himself-after-ramming-us-capitol-barrier/ | 2022-08-14T14:34:01Z |
Top lawyers hired by those linked to Georgia election probe
ATLANTA (AP) — In the state investigation spurred by then-President Donald Trump’s call to Georgia’s top election official, people who have been called to testify — or who might be — about potential interference in the 2020 presidential contest are turning to high-profile lawyers.
It was Trump’s conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, that was the catalyst for the state inquiry, and now Trump has hired Drew Findling, one of Atlanta’s most prominent criminal defense attorneys who is perhaps best known for representing rap stars.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has brought on Trump’s former White House counsel Don McGahn, who was in federal court in Atlanta last week as part of a legal team fighting a subpoena for Graham.
No one has been charged with a crime in the investigation and both Trump and Graham have denied any wrongdoing, but the moves come at a particularly precarious legal moment for Trump.
FBI agents conducted an unprecedented search of his Florida estate on Monday in an unrelated investigation into whether Trump removed sensitive information from the White House. He also invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination on Wednesday as he testified under oath in the New York attorney general’s long-running civil investigation into his business dealings.
But the attorney hires in Atlanta suggest Trump and his allies are paying especially close attention to the investigation led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“You’re not going to go and hire an expensive lawyer unless either you want to send a message that, ‘You guys better come correct or my fancy lawyer will blow you out of the water,’ or you actually are worried,” said Caren Morrison, a Georgia State University law professor and former federal prosecutor.
Legal experts nonetheless warn that the hires alone don’t suggest that someone is the subject or target of an investigation.
“I don’t think that’s any indication that anybody’s about to be charged or these folks necessarily are concerned that they’re going to jail. It’s just what a smart person would do,” said Page Pate, an Atlanta defense lawyer who is not involved in the case.
Willis began the investigation early last year. A special grand jury with subpoena power was seated in May at her request and began hearing from witnesses in June. Though the panel’s proceedings are secret, related public court filings have given some insight into where the investigation might be headed.
Willis last month filed paperwork seeking to compel testimony from seven Trump advisers and associates, including Graham and former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. Graham is awaiting a federal judge’s ruling on his challenge to his subpoena, while Giuliani has been instructed to appear before the special grand jury on Wednesday.
Willis has confirmed since the beginning that she’s interested in the January 2021 phone call between Trump and Raffensperger, which came four days before the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House victory that was interrupted by the riot at the U.S. Capitol. During that conversation, Trump suggested the secretary of state could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Recent court filings have made clear that Willis is also interested in other calls made by Trump and his associates to officials in Georgia, false statements about the election made during Georgia legislative committee hearings and the submission of a fake slate of Republican electors to Congress and the National Archives. In several filings, she specifically alleged that there was “a multi-state, coordinated plan by the Trump Campaign to influence the results of the November 2020 election in Georgia and elsewhere.”
Willis has said that she is considering subpoenaing Trump, a step that would surely kick off a legal battle.
Trump has hired Findling and former prosecutor Jennifer Little, with attorney Dwight Thomas serving as a consultant on matters related to special grand jury proceedings.
A lot has been made of past social media postings by Findling that suggest he’s no fan of the former president, whom he called “racist” and “pathetic” in one August 2018 tweet.
Andrew Fleischman, an appellate attorney in Atlanta who’s not connected to the case, said being a defense attorney “doesn’t necessarily mean believing your client is innocent or likeable, but it does mean taking a close look at the law and making sure the state has checked all the boxes.”
“We defend the process,” Fleischman said. “And if they’re convicting the president, you want the process to be damn near perfect.”
Findling is a well-respected and media savvy lawyer. That second point is crucial when there’s so much attention on a case and can present challenges with a client like Trump who’s so accustomed to speaking for himself without a filter, Pate said.
“You want to respect the fact that (the client) needs in many cases to make statements to the media, but at the same time, you don’t want to jeopardize your case,” he said.
Perhaps the most important reason to have a lawyer at this stage of the investigation is to have a channel of communication with prosecutors, Pate said.
“They have a way of getting you to make admissions about something you think may be completely harmless which actually fills a piece of their case,” he said of prosecutors. “So you don’t want to be on a call or a meeting with the government yourself when your statements can be used against you.”
A lawyer can also negotiate dates for an eventual appearance if a subpoena is issued and review any documents that may be requested before they’re handed over. And a lawyer can reach out to other witnesses who have appeared before the special grand jury to see if they’re willing to talk about what was asked.
Steven Frey has worked with Findling on several cases, including the successful defense of a sheriff who was facing 27 felony charges in an indictment that accused him of using his office for personal gain. He called Findling “one of the finest lawyers I’ve ever dealt with.”
McGahn also garners high praise. When he left that post in 2018, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “I’ve known every White House Counsel since I arrived in Washington. Even in such impressive company, Don is a cut above.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/top-lawyers-hired-by-those-linked-georgia-election-probe/ | 2022-08-14T14:34:08Z |
A sustainable seafood alternative: lab-grown fish sticks Published August 14, 2022 at 9:02 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 3:59 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Bluu Seafood COO Chris Dammann about the company's new cultivated cell fish products - fish sticks and fish balls. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/a-sustainable-seafood-alternative-lab-grown-fish-sticks | 2022-08-14T14:50:20Z |
Anne Heche is dead at 53 following a car crash By Chloe Veltman Published August 14, 2022 at 8:31 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 1:45 Emmy Award-winning actor Anne Heche has died. Her family took her off life support in a Los Angeles hospital following a car crash that left her in a coma. She was 53. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/anne-heche-is-dead-at-53-following-a-car-crash | 2022-08-14T14:50:26Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe is talking with members of the civil rights generation including Fred Gray, the legal icon who once represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe is talking with members of the civil rights generation including Fred Gray, the legal icon who once represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/attorney-fred-gray-became-the-civil-rights-movements-chief-counsel | 2022-08-14T14:50:32Z |
Death row inmate Richard Glossip facing fourth execution date Published August 14, 2022 at 8:49 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 5:57 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Oklahoma state Rep. Kevin McDugle why he thinks death row inmate Richard Glossip is innocent and deserves a new trial. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/death-row-inmate-richard-glossip-facing-fourth-execution-date | 2022-08-14T14:50:38Z |
Georgia is known as the Peach State but warming winters means fewer chill hours needed for fruit. Growers and horticulturists are now experimenting with new varieties.
Copyright 2022 90.1 WABE
Georgia is known as the Peach State but warming winters means fewer chill hours needed for fruit. Growers and horticulturists are now experimenting with new varieties.
Copyright 2022 90.1 WABE | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/encore-rising-temperatures-could-threaten-georgia-peaches | 2022-08-14T14:50:44Z |
Ex-besties feud over a messy wedding in 'You're Invited' Published August 14, 2022 at 8:37 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 7:57 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to author Amanda Jayatissa about her new thriller, "You're Invited." Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/ex-besties-feud-over-a-messy-wedding-in-youre-invited | 2022-08-14T14:50:50Z |
"Bullet Train" star Hiroyuki Sanada talks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about improvising lines with Brad Pitt in their new action-comedy, looking cool with a sword, and his desire to be in a rom-com.
Copyright 2022 NPR
"Bullet Train" star Hiroyuki Sanada talks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about improvising lines with Brad Pitt in their new action-comedy, looking cool with a sword, and his desire to be in a rom-com.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/hiroyuki-sanada-talks-swordplay-and-improv-in-action-comedy-bullet-train | 2022-08-14T14:50:56Z |
One year after a devastating earthquake, Haiti's recovery efforts have stalled Published August 14, 2022 at 8:23 AM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 3:37 NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Rachelle Seguin of Doctors Without Borders about conditions in Haiti now, a year after a devastating earthquake. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/one-year-after-a-devastating-earthquake-haitis-recovery-efforts-have-stalled | 2022-08-14T14:51:02Z |
On-air challenge: I'm going to give you two four-letter words. Add the same two letters at the front of each of them to complete two common six-letter words.
Ex. MIRE / VISE — ADmire and ADvise
1. DISH / PIER
2. BILE / ROSE
3. RINK / TICK
4. LOON / TIRE
5. ORAL / ASHY
6. EASY / OUCH
Special guest player: Felix Contreras
Challenge:
We're in the middle of a two-week creative challenge. The object is to write a sentence using only the letters of any particular U.S. state. You can pick the state and repeat letters as often as necessary. For example:
OREGON --> Roger, go gorge on green eggnog.
NEBRASKA --> Sen. Ben Sasse's sneakers reek. [Note: Ben Sasse is a U.S. senator from Nebraska]
Entries will be judged on originality, sense, naturalness of syntax, humor, and overall elegance. *No more than three sentences per entry, please.*
If you know the answer to the two-week challenge, submit it here by Wednesday, August 17 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/sunday-puzzle-this-is-how-it-begins | 2022-08-14T14:51:08Z |
Psychologists play a critical role in K-12 schools and there's a clear mismatch between the demographics of school psychologists and the student populations they serve.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Psychologists play a critical role in K-12 schools and there's a clear mismatch between the demographics of school psychologists and the student populations they serve.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/theres-a-nationwide-shortage-of-black-male-school-psychologists | 2022-08-14T14:51:15Z |
The Taliban now guard Afghanistan's national museum. The group has a poor record of preserving cultural artifacts and parts of the museum's collection are no longer on display.
Copyright 2022 NPR
The Taliban now guard Afghanistan's national museum. The group has a poor record of preserving cultural artifacts and parts of the museum's collection are no longer on display.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/under-taliban-guard-afghanistans-national-museum-has-reopened | 2022-08-14T14:51:21Z |
Until 1974, presidents could take documents with them when they left office. Now every presidential document, from notebook doodles to top-secret security plans, belongs to the National Archives.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Until 1974, presidents could take documents with them when they left office. Now every presidential document, from notebook doodles to top-secret security plans, belongs to the National Archives.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-14/watergate-changed-the-rules-surrounding-presidential-records | 2022-08-14T14:51:27Z |
Officials: Fire at Coptic church in Cairo kills 41, hurts 14
CAIRO (AP) — A fire ripped through a packed church during morning services in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, killing at least 41 worshippers and injuring 14.
The church quickly filled with thick black smoke, and witnesses said several trapped congregants jumped from upper floors to escape. “Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” said a distraught witness, who only gave a partial name, Abu Bishoy.
The cause of the blaze in the Abu Sefein church in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not immediately known. An initial investigation pointed to an electrical short-circuit, according to a police statement.
Footage from the scene circulated online showed burned furniture, including wooden tables and chairs. Firefighters were seen putting out the blaze while others carried victims to ambulances. Families waited for word on relatives who were inside the church.
Witnesses said there were many children inside the building when the fire broke out.
“There are children we didn’t know how to get to them,” said Abu Bishoy. “And we don’t know whose son this is, or whose daughter that is. Is this possible?”
The country’s health minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as people attempted to flee the fire for causing the fatalities. It was one of the worst fire tragedies in Egypt in recent years.
Witness Emad Hanna said the church includes two places used as a daycare for children, and that a church worker managed to get many children out.
“We went upstairs and found people dead. And we started to see from outside that the smoke was getting bigger, and people want to jump from the upper floor. ... We found the children.”
Egypt’s Coptic Church and the country’s health ministry reported the casualty toll. The church said the fire broke out while a service was underway. The church is located in a narrow street in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Cairo.
Fifteen firefighting vehicles were dispatched to the scene to put out the flames while ambulances ferried casualties to nearby hospitals, officials said.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by phone with the Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to offer his condolences, the president’s office said. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, also offered his condolences to the head of the Coptic church.
“I am closely following the developments of the tragic accident,” el-Sissi wrote on Facebook. “I directed all concerned state agencies and institutions to take all necessary measures, and immediately to deal with this accident and its effects.”
Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar said in a statement that two of the injured were discharged from a hospital while 12 others were still being treated.
The Interior Ministry said it received a report on the fire at 9 a.m. local time, and that they found that the blaze broke out in an air conditioner in the building’s second floor.
The ministry, which oversees police and firefighters, blamed an electrical short-circuit for the fire, which produced huge amounts of smoke. Meanwhile, the country’s chief prosecutor, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a team of prosecutors were dispatched to the church.
Later on Sunday, emergency services said they managed to put out the blaze and the prime minister and other senior government officials arrived to inspect the site.
Egypt’s Christians account for some 10% of the nation’s more than 103 million people and have long complained of discrimination by the nation’s Muslim majority.
Sunday’s blaze was one of the worst fire tragedies in recent years in Egypt, where safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced. In March last year, a fire at a garment factory near Cairo killed at least 20 people and injured 24 more.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/officials-fire-coptic-church-cairo-kills-41-hurts-14/ | 2022-08-14T15:16:39Z |
Police: Man killed himself after ramming US Capitol barrier
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man drove his car into a barricade near the U.S. Capitol early Sunday and then began firing gunshots in the air from the burning car before fatally shooting himself, police said.
The incident happened just before 4 a.m. at a vehicle barricade set at East Capitol Street and 2nd Street in Washington.
It comes at a time when law enforcement authorities across the country are facing an increasing number of threats and federal officials have warned about the potential of violent attacks on government buildings in the days since the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
The attack is reminiscent of an incident when a man drove a vehicle into two Capitol Police officers at a checkpoint in April 2021, killing an 18-year veteran of the force. And many on Capitol Hill remain on edge after supporters of the then-president stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Authorities said the man, whose identity has not been released, crashed into the barricade and that as he was getting out of the car, the vehicle became engulfed in flames. The man then opened fire, firing several shots into the air as police approached.
Capitol Police said the man shot himself as the officers neared. He was later pronounced dead.
Police said “it does not appear the man was targeting any member of Congress” and that investigators are examining the man’s background as they work to try to discern a motive. Both the House and Senate are in recess and very few staff members work in the Capitol complex at that hour.
Authorities said no other injuries were reported and police do not believe any officers returned fire.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/police-man-killed-himself-after-ramming-us-capitol-barrier/ | 2022-08-14T15:16:44Z |
School shooter’s brain exams to be subject of court hearing
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A defense mental health expert in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz can pinpoint when he realized the 23-year-old mass murderer still has “irrational thoughts” — the two were making small talk when Cruz began describing plans for an eventual life outside prison.
Wesley Center, a Texas counselor, said that happened last year at the Broward County jail as he fitted Cruz’s scalp with probes for a scan to map his brain. The defense at hearings this week will try to convince Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that Center and other experts should be allowed to testify at Cruz’s ongoing trial about what their tests showed, something the prosecution wants barred.
“He had some sort of epiphany while he was in (jail) that would focus his thoughts on being able to help people,” transcripts show Center told prosecutors during a pretrial interview this year. “His life’s purpose was to be helping others.”
Cruz, of course, will never be free. Since his arrest about an hour after he murdered 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, there has never been any doubt his remaining years would be behind bars, sentenced to death or life without parole. Surveillance video shows him mowing down his victims with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and he confessed, eventually pleading guilty in October.
Prosecutors made their argument for death to the seven-man, five-woman jury and 10 alternates over three weeks, resting their case Aug. 4 after the panel toured the still-bloodstained, bullet-pocked classroom building where the massacre happened.
The jurors also watched graphic surveillance videos; saw gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos; received emotional testimony from teachers and students who witnessed others die; and heard from tearful and angry parents, spouses and other family members about the victims and how their loved one’s death impacted their lives. They watched video of the former Stoneman Douglas student calmly ordering an Icee minutes after the shooting and, nine months later, attacking a jail guard.
Soon, it will be Cruz’s attorneys arguing why he should be spared, hoping to convince at least one juror their mitigating factors outweigh the prosecution’s aggravating circumstances — a death sentence must be unanimous.
But first, the trial took last week off to accommodate some jurors’ requests to deal with personal matters. The jury will also be absent this week as the sides argue before Scherer, who will decide whether brain scans, tests and other evidence the defense wants to present starting Aug. 22 is scientifically valid or junk, as the prosecution contends.
Center’s test and its findings will be subject to contentious debate. Called a “quantitative electroencephalogram” or “qEEG,” its backers say it provides useful support to such diagnoses as fetal alcohol syndrome, which Cruz’s attorneys contend created his lifelong mental and emotional problems.
EEGs have been common in medicine for a century, measuring brainwaves to help doctors diagnose epilepsy and other brain ailments. But the qEEG analysis, which has been around since the 1970s, goes a step farther — a patient’s EEG results are compared to a database of brainwaves taken from normal or “neurotypical” people. While qEEG findings cannot be used to make a diagnosis, they can support findings based on the patient’s history, examination, behavior and other tests, supporters contend.
A “qEEG can confirm what you already know, but you can’t create new knowledge,” Center told prosecutors in his interview.
Dr. Charles Epstein, an Emory University neurology professor, reviewed Center’s findings for the prosecution. In a written statement to Scherer, he said EEGs using only external scalp probes like the one given Cruz are imprecise, making Center’s qEEG results worthless.
“Garbage in, garbage out,” he wrote.
Florida judges have given mixed rulings about allowing qEEGs since 2010, when the test helped a Miami-area man escape a death sentence for fatally stabbing his wife and severely wounding her mentally disabled 11-year-old daughter. Some judges have since allowed their admission, while others barred them. Scherer, who is overseeing her first death penalty trial, has never had a case where the defense tried to present a qEEG report.
Even if Scherer bars the test, lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team still have evidence that Cruz’s brain likely suffered damage in the womb, including statements by his late birth mother that she abused alcohol and cocaine during pregnancy.
They also have reports giving circumstantial evidence of his mental illness. Cruz got kicked out of preschool for hurting other children. During his years in public school, he spent significant time at a center for students with emotional issues. He also received years of mental health treatment.
Then there are his life circumstances. Cruz’s adoptive father died in front of him when he was 5; he was bullied by his younger brother and his brother’s friends; he was allegedly abused sexually by a “trusted peer;” he cut himself and abused animals; and his adoptive mother died less than four months before the shooting.
His youth will also be an issue — he was 19 when the shooting happened.
Attorneys not involved in the case say if Scherer wants to avoid having a possible death sentence overturned on appeal, she should give the defense wide latitude on what it presents so jurors can fully assess his life and mental health.
“If it’s a close call, I think she is going to bend to the defense — and the prosecution is not going to be happy,” said David S. Weinstein, a Miami criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/school-shooters-brain-exams-be-subject-court-hearing/ | 2022-08-14T15:16:45Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Bluu Seafood COO Chris Dammann about the company's new cultivated cell fish products - fish sticks and fish balls.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe talks with Bluu Seafood COO Chris Dammann about the company's new cultivated cell fish products - fish sticks and fish balls.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/a-sustainable-seafood-alternative-lab-grown-fish-sticks | 2022-08-14T15:38:30Z |
MAYVILLE, N.Y. — Salman Rushdie is "on the road to recovery," his agent confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of "The Satanic Verses" suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York.
The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk and joke. Literary agent Andrew Wylie cautioned that although Rushdie's "condition is headed in the right direction," his recovery would be a long process. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, Wylie had previously said, and was likely to lose the injured eye.
"Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact," Rushdie's son Zafar Rushdie said in a Sunday statement that stressed the author remained in critical condition. The statement on behalf of the family also expressed gratitude for the "audience members who bravely leapt to his defence," as well as police, doctors and "the outpouring of love and support from around the world."
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called "a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack" at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center.
The attack was met with global shock and outrage, along with praise for the man who, for more than three decades, has weathered death threats and a $3 million bounty on his head for "The Satanic Verses." Rushdie even spent nine years in hiding under a British government protection program.
Authors, activists and government officials cited Rushdie's bravery and longtime championing of free speech in the face of such intimidation. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan labeled Rushdie "an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists" and actor-author Kal Penn called him a role model "for an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora."
"Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a Saturday statement. "Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear."
Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family and has lived in Britain and the U.S., is known for his surreal and satirical prose, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel "Midnight's Children," in which he sharply criticized India's then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi.
Infused with magical realism, 1988's "The Satanic Verses" drew ire from some Muslims who regarded elements of the novel as blasphemy.
They believed Rushdie insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming a character Mahound, a medieval corruption of "Muhammad." The character was a prophet in a city called Jahilia, which in Arabic refers to the time before the advent of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence has prostitutes that share names with some of Muhammad's nine wives. The novel also implies that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the Quran's real author.
The book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere when Iran's Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie's death in 1989. Khomeini died that same year, but the fatwa remains in effect — though Iran, in recent years, hadn't focused on Rushdie.
Iran's state-run newspaper, Iran Daily, praised the attack as an "implementation of divine decree" Sunday. Another hardline newspaper, Kayhan, termed it "divine revenge" that would partially calm the anger of Muslims.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect, born nearly a decade after the novel's publication, acted alone. A prosecutor alluded to the standing fatwa as a potential motive in arguing against bail.
"His resources don't matter to me. We understand that the agenda that was carried out yesterday is something that was adopted and it's sanctioned by larger groups and organizations well beyond the jurisdictional borders of Chautauqua County," District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
Schmidt said Matar got an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arrived a day early bearing a fake ID. The judge ordered Matar held without bail.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge while leaving him "hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks" and stressed that Matar had the right to presumed innocence.
Barone said after the hearing that Matar has been communicating openly with him and that he would spend the coming weeks trying to learn about his client, including whether he has psychological or addiction issues.
Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, village mayor Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press. Flags of the Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, were visible across Yaroun before journalists visiting Saturday were asked to leave.
Hezbollah spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP praised the attack on an author they believe tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate their country.
Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered a facial injury and was released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for artists in exile.
A state trooper and a county sheriff's deputy were assigned to Rushdie's lecture, and police said the trooper made the arrest. But afterward, some longtime visitors to the bucolic vacation colony questioned why there wasn't tighter security given the history of threats against Rushdie.
On Friday, an AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times.
News about the stabbing has led to renewed interest in "The Satanic Verses," which topped bestseller lists after the fatwa was issued in 1989. As of Sunday morning, the novel ranked No. 11 on Amazon.com's list.
One of Rushdie's ex-wives, the author and television host Padma Lakshmi, tweeted Sunday that she was "relieved" by Rushdie's prognosis.
"Worried and wordless, can finally exhale," she wrote. "Now hoping for swift healing."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/after-a-stabbing-attack-salman-rushdie-can-talk-and-joke | 2022-08-14T15:38:36Z |
"Bullet Train" star Hiroyuki Sanada talks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about improvising lines with Brad Pitt in their new action-comedy, looking cool with a sword, and his desire to be in a rom-com.
Copyright 2022 NPR
"Bullet Train" star Hiroyuki Sanada talks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about improvising lines with Brad Pitt in their new action-comedy, looking cool with a sword, and his desire to be in a rom-com.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/hiroyuki-sanada-talks-swordplay-and-improv-in-action-comedy-bullet-train | 2022-08-14T15:38:42Z |
Updated August 14, 2022 at 10:29 AM ET
BERWICK, Pa.— One person has died and another 17 people were injured after a vehicle struck a crowd gathered at a Pennsylvania bar on Saturday for an event to raise money for victims of a house fire that killed 10 earlier this month, authorities said.
WNEP-TV said the crash occurred outside the Intoxicology Department bar in Berwick at about 6:15 p.m. It said police and emergency medical personnel were on the scene attending to multiple injured people.
The Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement that a male suspect is in custody awaiting criminal charges.
The bar was holding a fundraiser for those touched by an Aug. 5 blaze that killed seven adults and three children in nearby Nescopeck, the station reported.
The circumstances surrounding Saturday evening's crash were not immediately clear, including whether there was any connection to the Nescopeck fire or the fundraising effort.
The first funerals for victims of the fire were held Friday, and more were scheduled for Sunday and Monday. Authorities have said the fire's cause remains under investigation.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/one-person-died-and-17-others-were-injured-when-a-car-struck-a-crowd-at-a-fundraiser | 2022-08-14T15:38:49Z |
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Rachelle Seguin of Doctors Without Borders about conditions in Haiti now, a year after a devastating earthquake.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ayesha Rascoe asks Rachelle Seguin of Doctors Without Borders about conditions in Haiti now, a year after a devastating earthquake.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/one-year-after-a-devastating-earthquake-haitis-recovery-efforts-have-stalled | 2022-08-14T15:38:55Z |
Updated August 14, 2022 at 10:15 AM ET
Police are investigating an early Sunday morning incident in which a man crashed his car near the U.S. Capitol and fired multiple gunshots before killing himself.
The man did not appear to be targeting any members of Congress, the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. No one else was injured.
The incident began around 4:00 a.m. as the man drove his car into a barricade about one block east of the Capitol.
As he exited the car, the vehicle "became engulfed in flames," the police statement said. The man then fired several gunshots, apparently into the air.
"When our officers heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately responded and were approaching the man when he shot himself," Capitol Police said. The agency said it did "not appear" that any officers fired their weapons.
Congress is currently on recess until after Labor Day.
Roads near the Capitol were closed as law enforcement investigates.
This is a breaking news story. Some things reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/police-investigate-an-incident-with-a-car-crash-and-gunfire-near-the-u-s-capitol | 2022-08-14T15:39:02Z |
EMS responds to overturned UTV in Mercer County
Published: Aug. 14, 2022 at 11:56 AM EDT|Updated: 13 minutes ago
MERCER COUNTY, W.Va. (WVVA) - One person was transported to a hospital on Saturday following an incident involving an overturned UTV in Mercer County. Mercer County Dispatch confirmed the incident on Sunday.
According to dispatch, a call came in around 7:20 p.m. on Saturday to report the overturned UTV, around 1/4 of a mile off of Trail 94 of the Hatfield-McCoy ATV trail system.
Bluefield, W.Va. Fire Dept., Montcalm Fire Dept., Bluefield Rescue Squad and W.Va.’s Dept. of Natural Resources all responded to the scene.
According to dispatch, it appeared there were injuries along with one hospital transport. No word on the number of people involved. WVVA will continue to follow updates on this incident.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/ems-responds-overturned-utv-mercer-county/ | 2022-08-14T16:12:22Z |
Officials: Fire at Coptic church in Cairo kills 41, hurts 14
CAIRO (AP) — A fire ripped through a packed Coptic Orthodox church during morning services in Egypt’s capital on Sunday, quickly filling it with thick black smoke and killing 41 worshippers, including at least 10 children. Fourteen people were injured.
Several trapped congregants jumped from upper floors of the Martyr Abu Sefein church to try to escape the intense flames, witnesses said. “Suffocation, suffocation, all of them dead,” said a distraught witness, who only gave a partial name, Abu Bishoy.
The cause of the blaze at the church in the working-class neighborhood of Imbaba was not immediately known. An initial investigation pointed to an electrical short-circuit, according to a police statement.
Footage from the scene circulated online showed burned furniture, including wooden tables and chairs. Firefighters were seen putting out the blaze while others carried victims to ambulances. Weeping families waited outside for word on relatives still inside the church and at nearby hospitals where the victims were taken.
Witnesses said there were many children inside the four-story building when the fire broke out.
“There are children, we didn’t know how to get to them,” said Abu Bishoy. “And we don’t know whose son this is, or whose daughter that is. Is this possible?”
A hospital document obtained by The Associated Press said the Imbaba public hospital received 20 bodies, including 10 children. Three were siblings, twins aged 5 and a 3-year-old, it said. The church bishop, Abdul Masih Bakhit, was also among those at the hospital morgue.
Twenty-one bodies were taken to other hospitals. It was not immediately known if children were among them.
The country’s health minister blamed the smoke and a stampede as people attempted to flee the fire for causing the fatalities. It was one of the worst fire tragedies in Egypt in recent years.
Witness Emad Hanna said the church includes two places used as a daycare for children, and that a church worker managed to get some children out.
“We went upstairs and found people dead. And we started to see from outside that the smoke was getting bigger, and people want to jump from the upper floor,” Hanna said.
“We found the children,” some dead, some alive, he said.
Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church and the country’s health ministry reported the casualty toll.
The church is located in a narrow street in one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Cairo. Sunday is the first working day of the week, and traffic jams clog the streets in Imbama and surrounding areas in the morning.
Some relatives criticized what they said were delays in the arrival of ambulance and firefighters. “They came after people died … They came after the church burned down,” shouted one woman while standing outside the burned church.
Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghafar countered that the first ambulance arrived at the site two minutes after the fire was reported.
Fifteen firefighting vehicles were dispatched to the scene to put out the flames while ambulances ferried casualties to nearby hospitals, officials said.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi spoke by phone with the Coptic Christian Pope Tawadros II to offer his condolences, the president’s office said. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, and other government officials also offered his condolences to the head of the Coptic church.
“I am closely following the developments of the tragic accident,” el-Sissi wrote on Facebook. “I directed all concerned state agencies and institutions to take all necessary measures, and immediately to deal with this accident and its effects.”
Abdel-Ghafar, the health minister, said in a statement that two of the injured were discharged from a hospital while 12 others were still being treated.
The Interior Ministry said it received a report of the fire at 9 a.m. local time, and first responders found that the blaze had broken out in an air conditioner on the building’s second floor.
The ministry, which oversees police and firefighters, blamed an electrical short-circuit for the fire, which produced huge amounts of smoke. Meanwhile, the country’s chief prosecutor, Hamada el-Sawy, ordered an investigation and a team of prosecutors were dispatched to the church.
Later on Sunday, emergency services said they managed to put out the blaze and the prime minister and other senior government officials arrived to inspect the site. Premier Mustafa Madbouly said surviving victims and families of the dead will receive payments as compensations and that the government would rebuild the church as soon as possible.
Egypt’s Christians account for some 10% of the nation’s more than 103 million people and have long complained of discrimination by the nation’s Muslim majority.
Sunday’s blaze was one of the worst fire tragedies in recent years in Egypt, where safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced. In March last year, a fire at a garment factory near Cairo killed at least 20 people and injured 24 more.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/officials-fire-coptic-church-cairo-kills-41-hurts-14/ | 2022-08-14T16:12:28Z |
Salman Rushdie ‘on the road to recovery,’ agent says
MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verses” suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York.
The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk and joke. Literary agent Andrew Wylie cautioned that although Rushdie’s “condition is headed in the right direction,” his recovery would be a long process. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, Wylie had previously said, and was likely to lose the injured eye.
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact,” Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a Sunday statement that stressed the author remained in critical condition. The statement on behalf of the family also expressed gratitude for the “audience members who bravely leapt to his defence,” as well as police, doctors and “the outpouring of love and support from around the world.”
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called “a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack” at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center.
The attack was met with global shock and outrage, along with praise for the man who, for more than three decades, has weathered death threats and a $3 million bounty on his head for “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie even spent nine years in hiding under a British government protection program.
Authors, activists and government officials cited Rushdie’s bravery and longtime championing of free speech in the face of such intimidation. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan labeled Rushdie “an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists” and actor-author Kal Penn called him a role model “for an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora.”
“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a Saturday statement. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear.”
Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family and has lived in Britain and the U.S., is known for his surreal and satirical prose, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized India’s then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi.
Infused with magical realism, 1988′s “The Satanic Verses” drew ire from some Muslims who regarded elements of the novel as blasphemy.
They believed Rushdie insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming a character Mahound, a medieval corruption of “Muhammad.” The character was a prophet in a city called Jahilia, which in Arabic refers to the time before the advent of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence has prostitutes that share names with some of Muhammad’s nine wives. The novel also implies that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the Quran’s real author.
The book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere when Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989. Khomeini died that same year, but the fatwa remains in effect — though Iran, in recent years, hadn’t focused on Rushdie.
Iran’s state-run newspaper, Iran Daily, praised the attack as an “implementation of divine decree” Sunday. Another hardline newspaper, Kayhan, termed it “divine revenge” that would partially calm the anger of Muslims.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect, born nearly a decade after the novel’s publication, acted alone. A prosecutor alluded to the standing fatwa as a potential motive in arguing against bail.
“His resources don’t matter to me. We understand that the agenda that was carried out yesterday is something that was adopted and it’s sanctioned by larger groups and organizations well beyond the jurisdictional borders of Chautauqua County,” District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
Schmidt said Matar got an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arrived a day early bearing a fake ID. The judge ordered Matar held without bail.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge while leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks” and stressed that Matar had the right to presumed innocence.
Barone said after the hearing that Matar has been communicating openly with him and that he would spend the coming weeks trying to learn about his client, including whether he has psychological or addiction issues.
Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, village mayor Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press. Flags of the Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, were visible across Yaroun before journalists visiting Saturday were asked to leave.
Hezbollah spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP praised the attack on an author they believe tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate their country.
Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered a facial injury and was released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for artists in exile.
A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and police said the trooper made the arrest. But afterward, some longtime visitors to the bucolic vacation colony questioned why there wasn’t tighter security given the history of threats against Rushdie.
On Friday, an AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times.
News about the stabbing has led to renewed interest in “The Satanic Verses,” which topped bestseller lists after the fatwa was issued in 1989. As of Sunday morning, the novel ranked No. 11 on Amazon.com’s list.
One of Rushdie’s ex-wives, the author and television host Padma Lakshmi, tweeted Sunday that she was “relieved” by Rushdie’s prognosis.
“Worried and wordless, can finally exhale,” she wrote. “Now hoping for swift healing.”
___
Italie reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/salman-rushdie-road-recovery-agent-says/ | 2022-08-14T16:12:34Z |
School shooter’s brain exams to be subject of court hearing
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A defense mental health expert in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz can pinpoint when he realized the 23-year-old mass murderer still has “irrational thoughts” — the two were making small talk when Cruz began describing plans for an eventual life outside prison.
Wesley Center, a Texas counselor, said that happened last year at the Broward County jail as he fitted Cruz’s scalp with probes for a scan to map his brain. The defense at hearings this week will try to convince Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that Center and other experts should be allowed to testify at Cruz’s ongoing trial about what their tests showed, something the prosecution wants barred.
“He had some sort of epiphany while he was in (jail) that would focus his thoughts on being able to help people,” transcripts show Center told prosecutors during a pretrial interview this year. “His life’s purpose was to be helping others.”
Cruz, of course, will never be free. Since his arrest about an hour after he murdered 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, there has never been any doubt his remaining years would be behind bars, sentenced to death or life without parole. Surveillance video shows him mowing down his victims with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and he confessed, eventually pleading guilty in October.
Prosecutors made their argument for death to the seven-man, five-woman jury and 10 alternates over three weeks, resting their case Aug. 4 after the panel toured the still-bloodstained, bullet-pocked classroom building where the massacre happened.
The jurors also watched graphic surveillance videos; saw gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos; received emotional testimony from teachers and students who witnessed others die; and heard from tearful and angry parents, spouses and other family members about the victims and how their loved one’s death impacted their lives. They watched video of the former Stoneman Douglas student calmly ordering an Icee minutes after the shooting and, nine months later, attacking a jail guard.
Soon, it will be Cruz’s attorneys arguing why he should be spared, hoping to convince at least one juror their mitigating factors outweigh the prosecution’s aggravating circumstances — a death sentence must be unanimous.
But first, the trial took last week off to accommodate some jurors’ requests to deal with personal matters. The jury will also be absent this week as the sides argue before Scherer, who will decide whether brain scans, tests and other evidence the defense wants to present starting Aug. 22 is scientifically valid or junk, as the prosecution contends.
Center’s test and its findings will be subject to contentious debate. Called a “quantitative electroencephalogram” or “qEEG,” its backers say it provides useful support to such diagnoses as fetal alcohol syndrome, which Cruz’s attorneys contend created his lifelong mental and emotional problems.
EEGs have been common in medicine for a century, measuring brainwaves to help doctors diagnose epilepsy and other brain ailments. But the qEEG analysis, which has been around since the 1970s, goes a step farther — a patient’s EEG results are compared to a database of brainwaves taken from normal or “neurotypical” people. While qEEG findings cannot be used to make a diagnosis, they can support findings based on the patient’s history, examination, behavior and other tests, supporters contend.
A “qEEG can confirm what you already know, but you can’t create new knowledge,” Center told prosecutors in his interview.
Dr. Charles Epstein, an Emory University neurology professor, reviewed Center’s findings for the prosecution. In a written statement to Scherer, he said EEGs using only external scalp probes like the one given Cruz are imprecise, making Center’s qEEG results worthless.
“Garbage in, garbage out,” he wrote.
Florida judges have given mixed rulings about allowing qEEGs since 2010, when the test helped a Miami-area man escape a death sentence for fatally stabbing his wife and severely wounding her mentally disabled 11-year-old daughter. Some judges have since allowed their admission, while others barred them. Scherer, who is overseeing her first death penalty trial, has never had a case where the defense tried to present a qEEG report.
Even if Scherer bars the test, lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team still have evidence that Cruz’s brain likely suffered damage in the womb, including statements by his late birth mother that she abused alcohol and cocaine during pregnancy.
They also have reports giving circumstantial evidence of his mental illness. Cruz got kicked out of preschool for hurting other children. During his years in public school, he spent significant time at a center for students with emotional issues. He also received years of mental health treatment.
Then there are his life circumstances. Cruz’s adoptive father died in front of him when he was 5; he was bullied by his younger brother and his brother’s friends; he was allegedly abused sexually by a “trusted peer;” he cut himself and abused animals; and his adoptive mother died less than four months before the shooting.
His youth will also be an issue — he was 19 when the shooting happened.
Attorneys not involved in the case say if Scherer wants to avoid having a possible death sentence overturned on appeal, she should give the defense wide latitude on what it presents so jurors can fully assess his life and mental health.
“If it’s a close call, I think she is going to bend to the defense — and the prosecution is not going to be happy,” said David S. Weinstein, a Miami criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/school-shooters-brain-exams-be-subject-court-hearing/ | 2022-08-14T16:12:41Z |
Bee and butterfly populations threaten food supply, scientists say
Published: Aug. 14, 2022 at 12:31 PM EDT|Updated: 13 minutes ago
(CNN) – A third of the food we eat is at risk because of the climate crisis endangering butterflies and bees.
International scientists recently announced the monarch butterfly is dangerously close to extinction.
Some wildlife experts said losing pollinators, including butterflies, would affect about 30% of the food supply.
The Food and Drug Administration said apples, melons, cranberries, broccoli and almonds are among the foods most susceptible to the pollinator decline.
Scientists said you can help pollinators rebound by planting gardens with native wildlife and using less pesticide and other chemicals around your home.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/bee-butterfly-populations-threaten-food-supply-scientists-say/ | 2022-08-14T16:45:42Z |
Salman Rushdie ‘on the road to recovery,’ agent says
MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verses” suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York.
The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk and joke. Literary agent Andrew Wylie cautioned that although Rushdie’s “condition is headed in the right direction,” his recovery would be a long process. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, Wylie had previously said, and was likely to lose the injured eye.
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact,” Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a Sunday statement that stressed the author remained in critical condition. The statement on behalf of the family also expressed gratitude for the “audience members who bravely leapt to his defence,” as well as police, doctors and “the outpouring of love and support from around the world.”
Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called “a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack” at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center.
The attack was met with global shock and outrage, along with praise for the man who, for more than three decades, has weathered death threats and a $3 million bounty on his head for “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie even spent nine years in hiding under a British government protection program.
Authors, activists and government officials cited Rushdie’s bravery and longtime championing of free speech in the face of such intimidation. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan labeled Rushdie “an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists” and actor-author Kal Penn called him a role model “for an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora.”
“Salman Rushdie — with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a Saturday statement. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear.”
Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family and has lived in Britain and the U.S., is known for his surreal and satirical prose, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized India’s then-prime minister, Indira Gandhi.
Infused with magical realism, 1988′s “The Satanic Verses” drew ire from some Muslims who regarded elements of the novel as blasphemy.
They believed Rushdie insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming a character Mahound, a medieval corruption of “Muhammad.” The character was a prophet in a city called Jahilia, which in Arabic refers to the time before the advent of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence has prostitutes that share names with some of Muhammad’s nine wives. The novel also implies that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the Quran’s real author.
The book had already been banned and burned in India, Pakistan and elsewhere when Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989. Khomeini died that same year, but the fatwa remains in effect — though Iran, in recent years, hadn’t focused on Rushdie.
Iran’s state-run newspaper, Iran Daily, praised the attack as an “implementation of divine decree” Sunday. Another hardline newspaper, Kayhan, termed it “divine revenge” that would partially calm the anger of Muslims.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the suspect, born nearly a decade after the novel’s publication, acted alone. A prosecutor alluded to the standing fatwa as a potential motive in arguing against bail.
“His resources don’t matter to me. We understand that the agenda that was carried out yesterday is something that was adopted and it’s sanctioned by larger groups and organizations well beyond the jurisdictional borders of Chautauqua County,” District Attorney Jason Schmidt said.
Schmidt said Matar got an advance pass to the event where the author was speaking and arrived a day early bearing a fake ID. The judge ordered Matar held without bail.
Public defender Nathaniel Barone complained that authorities had taken too long to get Matar in front of a judge while leaving him “hooked up to a bench at the state police barracks” and stressed that Matar had the right to presumed innocence.
Barone said after the hearing that Matar has been communicating openly with him and that he would spend the coming weeks trying to learn about his client, including whether he has psychological or addiction issues.
Matar was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon, village mayor Ali Tehfe told The Associated Press. Flags of the Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, were visible across Yaroun before journalists visiting Saturday were asked to leave.
Hezbollah spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
In Tehran, some Iranians interviewed by the AP praised the attack on an author they believe tarnished the Islamic faith, while others worried it would further isolate their country.
Event moderator Henry Reese, 73, suffered a facial injury and was released from a hospital, police said. He and Rushdie had planned to discuss the United States as a refuge for artists in exile.
A state trooper and a county sheriff’s deputy were assigned to Rushdie’s lecture, and police said the trooper made the arrest. But afterward, some longtime visitors to the bucolic vacation colony questioned why there wasn’t tighter security given the history of threats against Rushdie.
On Friday, an AP reporter witnessed the attacker stab or punch Rushdie about 10 or 15 times.
News about the stabbing has led to renewed interest in “The Satanic Verses,” which topped bestseller lists after the fatwa was issued in 1989. As of Sunday morning, the novel ranked No. 11 on Amazon.com’s list.
One of Rushdie’s ex-wives, the author and television host Padma Lakshmi, tweeted Sunday that she was “relieved” by Rushdie’s prognosis.
“Worried and wordless, can finally exhale,” she wrote. “Now hoping for swift healing.”
___
Italie reported from New York. Associated Press journalists Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/salman-rushdie-road-recovery-agent-says/ | 2022-08-14T16:45:48Z |
Updated August 14, 2022 at 12:33 PM ET
Police are investigating an early Sunday morning incident in which a man crashed his car near the U.S. Capitol and fired multiple gunshots before killing himself.
The man did not appear to be targeting any members of Congress, the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. No one else was injured.
The incident began around 4:00 a.m. as the man drove his car into a barricade about one block east of the Capitol.
As he exited the car, the vehicle "became engulfed in flames," the police statement said. The man then fired several gunshots, apparently into the air.
"When our officers heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately responded and were approaching the man when he shot himself," Capitol Police said. The agency said it did "not appear" that any officers fired their weapons.
Congress is currently on recess until after Labor Day.
Roads near the Capitol were closed as law enforcement investigates.
This is a breaking news story. Some things reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/a-man-crashed-his-car-and-killed-himself-near-the-u-s-capitol-police-say | 2022-08-14T17:08:47Z |
Average US gasoline price falls 45 cents to $4.10 per gallon
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline plummeted 45 cents over the past two weeks to $4.10 per gallon.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the continued decline comes as crude oil costs also remain low.
“The drop of a dollar per gallon has not been enough to restore motorist demand, which is in retreat due to sustained high price levels,” Lundberg said in a statement.
The average price at the pump is down a dollar over the past nine weeks, but it’s 85 cents higher than it was one year ago.
Nationwide, the highest average price for regular-grade gas was in the San Francisco Bay Area, at $5.36 per gallon. The lowest average was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at $3.38 per gallon.
According to the survey, the average price of diesel plunged 37 cents over three weeks to $5.17 a gallon.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/average-us-gasoline-price-falls-45-cents-410-per-gallon/ | 2022-08-14T17:47:21Z |
Bee and butterfly populations threaten food supply, scientists say
Published: Aug. 14, 2022 at 12:31 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
(CNN) – A third of the food we eat is at risk because of the climate crisis endangering butterflies and bees.
International scientists recently announced the monarch butterfly is dangerously close to extinction.
Some wildlife experts said losing pollinators, including butterflies, would affect about 30% of the food supply.
The Food and Drug Administration said apples, melons, cranberries, broccoli and almonds are among the foods most susceptible to the pollinator decline.
Scientists said you can help pollinators rebound by planting gardens with native wildlife and using less pesticide and other chemicals around your home.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/bee-butterfly-populations-threaten-food-supply-scientists-say/ | 2022-08-14T17:47:27Z |
Palestinian gunman wounds 8 in late-night Jerusalem shooting
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in an attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, tweeted that there were American citizens among the wounded. An embassy spokesperson disclosed no other information or details.
The shooting happened as the bus waited in a parking lot near David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, just outside the Old City walls. Israeli media identified the suspected attacker as a 26-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem.
Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to investigate. Israeli security forces also pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.
Later on Sunday, police said the suspected attacker turned himself in. Speaking at a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Mnister Yair Lapid said the suspected attacker was a resident of Jerusalem who was operating alone during the shooting and who had previously been arrested by Israel.
The attack in Jerusalem followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Last weekend, Israeli aircraft unleashed an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting. Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up to avenge the airstrikes, which killed two of its commanders and other militants. Israel said the attack was meant to thwart threats from the group to respond to the arrest of one of its officials in the occupied West Bank.
Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, were killed, and several hundred were injured in the fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.
A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/palestinian-gunman-wounds-8-late-night-jerusalem-shooting/ | 2022-08-14T17:47:34Z |
PUKALANI, Maui (KITV4) - According to the National Weather Service in Honolulu, moderate trade winds will prevail through the remainder of the weekend. Showers will remain focused over windward areas, and aside from afternoon showers over the Kona slopes of the Big Island, leeward areas will be rather dry.
Trades will ease Monday through Wednesday, allowing daytime sea breezes to produce afternoon clouds and isolated showers over leeward terrain.
Trade winds will strengthen late Wednesday and Thursday and will likely become breezy Friday into next weekend.
High temperatures are expected in the mid to upper 80's.
Winds are forecasted out of the east around 10-20 mph.
SURF
North: 0-2'
West: 0-2'
South: 2-4'
East: 1-3'
Also, we wanted to welcome a new face to our KITV4 Island Weather team! Congratulations Carly Yoshida for joining us in the weather center to deliver weather updates and news to Hawaii. Here is her first time on-air!
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
Weekend Meteorologist and Maui County correspondent
Malika has been at KITV since July 2020. She graduated from the University of Hawaii and attended Mississippi State University for her certification in Broadcast Meteorology. Malika started her career in the Hawaii news industry in 2007. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/sunday-morning-forecast-moderate-winds-hot-temperatures-small-surf/article_a4f43ef6-1be5-11ed-960d-ffdd253fe9a7.html | 2022-08-14T18:12:33Z |
Average US gasoline price falls 45 cents to $4.10 per gallon
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline plummeted 45 cents over the past two weeks to $4.10 per gallon.
Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the continued decline comes as crude oil costs also remain low.
“The drop of a dollar per gallon has not been enough to restore motorist demand, which is in retreat due to sustained high price levels,” Lundberg said in a statement.
The average price at the pump is down a dollar over the past nine weeks, but it’s 85 cents higher than it was one year ago.
Nationwide, the highest average price for regular-grade gas was in the San Francisco Bay Area, at $5.36 per gallon. The lowest average was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at $3.38 per gallon.
According to the survey, the average price of diesel plunged 37 cents over three weeks to $5.17 a gallon.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/average-us-gasoline-price-falls-45-cents-410-per-gallon/ | 2022-08-14T18:20:47Z |
More rain on the way
Scattered showers arrive late Sunday as our next system approaches
SUNDAY: Cloudy for the afternoon with scattered showers. Warm and still comfortable with highs in the mid to upper 70s. Cloudy for the evening as scattered showers continue to move in and coverage and intensity of rain increases. Mild for the evening with temperatures falling into the 60s. Comfortable overnight with scattered showers and lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
MONDAY: Cloudy to start the day and mild with temperatures in the 60s. Scattered showers throughout the day and cloudy as the day will be a washout. Warm but highs only in the upper 60s to low 70s. Most areas will remain in the 60s if there is more rain. Mild for the evening with temperatures falling into the 60s as scattered showers will continue for the evening and overnight. Mild overnight with lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
TUESDAY: Cloudy to start the day with scattered showers and mild. Temperatures staying in the 60s throughout the day. Scattered showers will continue on/off throughout the day. Remaining in the 60s for the evening with scattered showers beginning to taper. Only an isolated shower after sunset. Mostly cloudy overnight and pleasant with lows in the mid to upper 50s.
WEDNESDAY: A mix of sun and clouds start the day and mild with temperatures rising into the 60s. Some clouds throughout the day, warm, and comfortable. An isolated shower cannot be ruled out throughout the day, especially in the afternoon. Highs in the low to mid 70s. Evening temperatures falling into the 60s with some clouds for the evening. Skies turning mostly clear for the overnight. Pleasant with lows in the mid to upper 50s.
THURSDAY: Plenty of sunshine to start the day with a few clouds and mild. Temperatures rising into the 60s. Partly to mostly cloudy for the afternoon, warm, and comfortable with highs in the mid to upper 70s. A warm evening with temperatures remaining in the 70s. Some clouds for the evening and overnight. Mild and comfortable overnight with lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
FRIDAY: A mix of sun and clouds to start the day and mild with temperatures in the 60s. Partly to mostly cloudy for the afternoon and comfortable. Very warm as highs will be in the upper 70s to low 80s. Mild overnight with lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
SATURDAY: More clouds than sun to start the day and warm with temperatures rising into the 70s. Mostly cloudy throughout the day and very warm. Highs in the upper 70s to low 80s.
As always, you can get the latest updates by downloading and checking the WHSV Weather App.
Copyright 2021 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/more-rain-way/ | 2022-08-14T18:20:51Z |
Palestinian gunman wounds 8 in late-night Jerusalem shooting
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in an attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, tweeted that there were American citizens among the wounded. An embassy spokesperson disclosed no other information or details.
The shooting happened as the bus waited in a parking lot near David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, just outside the Old City walls. Israeli media identified the suspected attacker as a 26-year-old Palestinian from east Jerusalem.
Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to investigate. Israeli security forces also pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.
Later on Sunday, police said the suspected attacker turned himself in. Speaking at a meeting of his Cabinet on Sunday, Israeli Prime Mnister Yair Lapid said the suspected attacker was a resident of Jerusalem who was operating alone during the shooting and who had previously been arrested by Israel.
The attack in Jerusalem followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Last weekend, Israeli aircraft unleashed an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting. Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up to avenge the airstrikes, which killed two of its commanders and other militants. Israel said the attack was meant to thwart threats from the group to respond to the arrest of one of its officials in the occupied West Bank.
Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, were killed, and several hundred were injured in the fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.
A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/palestinian-gunman-wounds-8-late-night-jerusalem-shooting/ | 2022-08-14T18:20:53Z |
Tennessee police dispel rumors of active serial killer after posts spread on social media
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) – Police in Tennessee have spoken out against social media posts claiming a serial killer was active in a Nashville suburb.
A post which claimed a serial killer or abductor was operating in Mount Joliet, a suburb of Nashville, made the rounds on some local Facebook pages and groups.
“There’s a serial killer or abductor who is currently hunting in Mount Juliet, my friend was almost taken by him,” the post reads. “He drives a truck with LED lights and hits cars of women alone, and once they pull over, he takes them. Multiple disappearances. If you are in the area and you are hit by a truck with LED lights, keep driving and call the cops. Stay safe.”
The Mount Joliet Police Department posted a message on social media responding to the claims, saying the claims were false.
They also said similar posts have been made nationwide targeting different city names.
Copyright 2022 WSMV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/tennessee-police-dispel-rumors-active-serial-killer-after-posts-spread-social-media/ | 2022-08-14T18:20:59Z |
When the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline launched last month, many mental health providers, researchers and advocates celebrated. Although a national suicide hotline had existed for years, finally there was an easy-to-remember three-digit number for people to call, they said. The shorter number would serve as an alternative to 911 for mental health emergencies.
But not everyone felt the same way. Some advocates and people who had experiences with the mental health system took to social media to voice concerns about 988 and warn people not to call it.
One Instagram post said, "988 is not friendly. Don't call it, don't post it, don't share it, without knowing the risks." The post, which had garnered nearly a quarter of a million likes as of early August, went on to list the risks as police involvement, involuntary treatment at emergency rooms or psychiatric hospitals, and the emotional and financial toll of those experiences.
Other posts on Instagram and Twitter conveyed similar concerns, saying that the hotline sends law enforcement officers to check on people at risk of suicide without their consent and that people, especially from LGBTQ+ communities and communities of color, may be forced into treatment.
So is 988 a critical mental health resource or a cause for concern? We decided to dig into these questions, figure out how 988 works, and explain what you need to know before dialing.
Why are some people saying not to call 988?
We reached out to the creators of some of the social media posts to ask them directly.
Liz Winston, who authored the Instagram post calling 988 "not friendly," said she wanted people to understand all the potential outcomes of calling so they wouldn't be blindsided by the "traumatizing system" that she experienced.
Last summer, Winston was having suicidal thoughts and visited a hospital in New York. She hoped to speak with a psychiatrist but instead was involuntarily detained in the psychiatric wing of the emergency room. She said that she did not receive any counseling during the 24 hours she spent there and that the experience was "extremely traumatic."
Winston hadn't called the hotline, but she said those who do can end up in a similar situation. It's true that when police respond to calls about people in mental health crises, they often take them to an emergency room or psychiatric hospital.
"I realize there is an urge to rescue people in crisis, but the reality is the services that exist make the problem much, much worse," said Winston, who works in mental health peer support and has started an online support group for people recovering from involuntary treatment.
Research shows suicide rates increase drastically in the months after people are discharged from psychiatric hospitals. Those who were sent involuntarily are more likely to attempt suicide than those who chose to go, and involuntary commitments can make young people less likely to disclose their suicidal feelings in the future. Some people also get stuck with large bills for treatment they didn't want.
Emily Krebs, a suicide researcher and assistant professor joining Fordham University this fall, said that involuntary treatment is viewed as a necessary part of suicide prevention in the U.S., but that other countries don't see it that way. The United Nations has called forced mental health treatment a human rights abuse and asked countries to ban it.
Like Winston, Krebs wanted people to be fully informed before deciding to call 988. That's why she wrote on Twitter that 988 can and will "send police if they deem it necessary."
That can be dangerous, she said, given that 1 in 5 fatal police shootings in 2019 involved a person with mental illness. Some years, the share has been even higher.
What does 988 say about how it handles crisis situations?
Officials from 988 say they recognize the risks of having law enforcement officers involved in mental health emergencies. That's why 988 was created as an alternative to 911, said John Draper, executive director of the hotline and a vice president at Vibrant Emotional Health, the company tasked with administering it.
"We know the best way for a person to remain safe from harm is for them to be empowered and to choose to be safe from harm," Draper said. Dispatching police is a last resort, he said.
Counselors who answer the phones or respond to texts and online chats for 988 are supposed to be trained to actively listen, discuss the callers' concerns and wishes, and collaborate with them to find solutions. Most calls about suicide are de-escalated without law enforcement, Draper said. Instead, counselors talk through people's reasons for dying and reasons for living; have callers connect with supportive family, friends, religious leaders or others in their community; refer callers to outpatient treatment; or set up follow-up calls with 988.
Only when the caller cannot or will not collaborate on a safety plan and the counselor feels the caller will harm themselves imminently should emergency services be called, according to the hotline's policy.
At that point, Draper said, "we have the choice of just letting [harm] happen or doing whatever we can to keep them safe."
In previous years, before the 988 number launched, emergency services were dispatched in 2% of the hotline's interactions, the service reported. With about 2.4 million calls a year, that means emergency services were initiated for roughly 48,000 calls. Those services can be mobile crisis teams, consisting of people trained in mental health and de-escalation, but in many rural and suburban communities, it is often police.
Contrary to some information circulating on social media, 988 cannot geolocate callers, Draper said. When emergency services are called, 988 call centers share with 911 operators information they have about the location of the person who contacted the hotline — typically a caller's phone number, with area code, or a chat user's IP address — to help first responders find the individual.
Starting this fall, Draper said, 988 will update its policies to require supervisors to review all calls that result in the use of emergency services. Counselors for 988 nationwide will also receive additional training on the alternatives to involving law enforcement and the consequences callers can face when police respond.
So should I use 988 or not?
We know it's not satisfying, but the honest answer is: It depends.
The 988 hotline is the nation's most comprehensive mental health crisis service and can provide crucial help to those in emotional distress. If you're thinking about suicide but not taking steps to act on it, 988 is unlikely to call law enforcement without your consent. Instead, 988 counselors can provide resources, referrals and a kind ear. However, if you're at imminent risk and could act on a plan to kill yourself, police may be called, and you could be taken to a hospital involuntarily.
Sonyia Richardson, a licensed clinical social worker who owns a counseling agency that serves mostly Black and brown clients in Charlotte, N.C., said she didn't immediately tell her clients about 988 when it launched. Even though she's a member of her state's 988 planning committee, she said she needed time to develop trust in the service herself. When she learned at a recent committee meeting that fewer than 5% of 988 calls in North Carolina led to a law enforcement response, she felt reassured.
"There are going to be issues perhaps with 988, but it might be one of the safer options for us," Richardson said. With suicide rates increasing among Black Americans, the community needs more ways to save lives, she added.
If I don't want to call 988, do I have other options?
Although the U.S. doesn't have a national, government-run mental health hotline that pledges not to call police without callers' consent, several alternatives that are smaller than 988 aim to decrease law enforcement involvement.
"Warm" lines are one option. They're typically staffed by "peers," people who have experienced mental health challenges. They focus less on crisis intervention and more on emotional support to prevent crises. You can find a directory of warm lines by state here.
Below are other hotlines and resources. This is not a comprehensive list, and some resources may limit their services geographically.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. It is an editorially independent operating program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).
Copyright 2022 Kaiser Health News. To see more, visit Kaiser Health News. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-11/social-media-posts-warn-people-not-to-call-988-heres-what-you-need-to-know | 2022-08-14T19:13:52Z |
Police: Hitchhiker stabs, kills man who picked him up at a Taco Bell
TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - Police in Texas have arrested and charged a hitchhiker with murder after they say he killed a man who picked him up at a Taco Bell.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by KWTX, 31-year-old Justin Glen Boswell has been charged with the murder of 25-year-old Rowdy Mays.
Police in Temple, Texas, responded to the Taco Bell on July 28, where they said they found Mays with stab wounds in the neck and body. Paramedics took the victim to a hospital where he later died.
Police said a witness at the scene told them she stopped to help after she noticed the wounded Mays walk into the roadway. Mays reportedly told the witness he was stabbed by a hitchhiker he picked up and that the attacker took his truck.
The witness reportedly saw the hitchhiker fleeing the scene in the truck and described the suspect to police as a white man with reddish blonde hair and facial hair.
Mays’ mother would later provide insurance documents to police, and they were able to get the make, model, and license plate of the victim’s pickup truck.
Police also obtained bank records that revealed Mays last used his debit card at a Temple Taco Bell. Surveillance footage from the Taco Bell shows Mays allowing a man to get into the bed of his pickup while Mays was in the drive-thru.
After leaving the drive-thru area, Mays is seen in the footage parking his pickup and allowing the man to get into the front passenger seat, according to the affidavit. The man who entered Mays’ pickup was also seen in surveillance footage buying a drink inside the Taco Bell earlier in the day, the affidavit states.
The document further states police began receiving reports of a man displaying erratic behavior in the area. A woman who allowed the man to use her phone to call a family member was among those who contacted police.
Using the information provided by the woman, police contacted the person the man called and confirmed his identity as Boswell, the affidavit states.
At the Taco Bell, an employee was shown a photo of Boswell and five other individuals with similar physical characteristics and “positively identified the suspect (Boswell) as the individual in the (surveillance) video,” the arrest affidavit states.
Police then spoke with a man in Cameron, Texas, who said he spoke with Boswell at the fuel pumps at a gas station. The man told police Boswell was acting strangely and he decided to write down the license plate number of the truck Boswell was driving. The license plate number matched that of Mays’ stolen pickup.
According to the affidavit, investigators claim Boswell is the man seen in the Taco Bell footage entering Mays’ truck and also the man seen with the stolen truck in the Cameron gas station footage.
Mays’ pickup was eventually found abandoned in Rockdale, Texas.
Boswell is being held at the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond.
Copyright 2022 KWTX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/police-hitchhiker-stabs-kills-man-who-picked-him-up-taco-bell/ | 2022-08-14T19:22:41Z |
Tennessee police dispel rumors of active serial killer after posts spread on social media
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV/Gray News) – Police in Tennessee have spoken out against social media posts claiming a serial killer was active in a Nashville suburb.
A post which claimed a serial killer or abductor was operating in Mount Juliet, a suburb of Nashville, made the rounds on some local Facebook pages and groups.
“There’s a serial killer or abductor who is currently hunting in Mount Juliet, my friend was almost taken by him,” the post reads. “He drives a truck with LED lights and hits cars of women alone, and once they pull over, he takes them. Multiple disappearances. If you are in the area and you are hit by a truck with LED lights, keep driving and call the cops. Stay safe.”
The Mount Juliet Police Department posted a message on social media responding to the claims, saying the claims were false.
They also said similar posts have been made nationwide targeting different city names.
Copyright 2022 WSMV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/tennessee-police-dispel-rumors-active-serial-killer-after-posts-spread-social-media/ | 2022-08-14T19:22:48Z |
Police: Hitchhiker stabs, kills man who picked him up at a Taco Bell
TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - Police in Texas have arrested and charged a hitchhiker with murder after they say he killed a man who picked him up at a Taco Bell.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by KWTX, 31-year-old Justin Glen Boswell has been charged with the murder of 25-year-old Rowdy Mays.
Police in Temple, Texas, responded to the Taco Bell on July 28, where they said they found Mays with stab wounds in the neck and body. Paramedics took the victim to a hospital where he later died.
Police said a witness at the scene told them she stopped to help after she noticed the wounded Mays walk into the roadway. Mays reportedly told the witness he was stabbed by a hitchhiker he picked up and that the attacker took his truck.
The witness reportedly saw the hitchhiker fleeing the scene in the truck and described the suspect to police as a white man with reddish blonde hair and facial hair.
Mays’ mother would later provide insurance documents to police, and they were able to get the make, model, and license plate of the victim’s pickup truck.
Police also obtained bank records that revealed Mays last used his debit card at a Temple Taco Bell. Surveillance footage from the Taco Bell shows Mays allowing a man to get into the bed of his pickup while Mays was in the drive-thru.
After leaving the drive-thru area, Mays is seen in the footage parking his pickup and allowing the man to get into the front passenger seat, according to the affidavit. The man who entered Mays’ pickup was also seen in surveillance footage buying a drink inside the Taco Bell earlier in the day, the affidavit states.
The document further states police began receiving reports of a man displaying erratic behavior in the area. A woman who allowed the man to use her phone to call a family member was among those who contacted police.
Using the information provided by the woman, police contacted the person the man called and confirmed his identity as Boswell, the affidavit states.
At the Taco Bell, an employee was shown a photo of Boswell and five other individuals with similar physical characteristics and “positively identified the suspect (Boswell) as the individual in the (surveillance) video,” the arrest affidavit states.
Police then spoke with a man in Cameron, Texas, who said he spoke with Boswell at the fuel pumps at a gas station. The man told police Boswell was acting strangely and he decided to write down the license plate number of the truck Boswell was driving. The license plate number matched that of Mays’ stolen pickup.
According to the affidavit, investigators claim Boswell is the man seen in the Taco Bell footage entering Mays’ truck and also the man seen with the stolen truck in the Cameron gas station footage.
Mays’ pickup was eventually found abandoned in Rockdale, Texas.
Boswell is being held at the Bell County Jail on a $1 million bond.
Copyright 2022 KWTX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/police-hitchhiker-stabs-kills-man-who-picked-him-up-taco-bell/ | 2022-08-14T19:49:30Z |
SEOUL, South Korea and LOS ANGELES, Aug. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - A new, five-month undercover investigation by Los Angeles-based Last Chance for Animals (LCA) and Seoul-based Animal Liberation Wave (ALW) has revealed stunning atrocities resulting from South Korea's continued dog meat trade.
LCA's and ALW's investigation, which concluded in June 2022, focused on South Korea's Seongnam Moran Market, known as the mecca of dog meat. Investigators uncovered the brazen work of "middle merchants" that travel by truck across South Korea, buying pet dogs from households, churches, and factories to be sold at auction houses. LCA and ALW investigations have proven dogs sold as carcasses in the Moran Market are being killed by electrocution, beating, and hanging, which is animal cruelty prohibited by South Korea's Animal Protection Act.
"The cruelty that these dogs continue to suffer is harrowing and heartbreaking," said Chris DeRose, President and Founder of LCA. "Drone footage captured slaughterers stabbing dogs repeatedly with electric prods. These dogs need our help. They need action. Seongnam City needs to take a decisive step toward preventing these heinous deaths by ending the sale of dog meat from Moran Market once and for all. Continued inaction is not acceptable."
LCA's and ALW's drone footage captured trucks delivering dogs to the Ansan slaughterhouse. Stuffed in small wire cages, dogs suffer from injuries, shortness of breath, and sudden changes in body temperature during transport. Through its investigation, LCA and ALW also confirmed there are 10 shops in Moran Market that sell "dog meat" or "Bosintang," which is dog meat soup. Behind the scenes, there is still a nationwide network of middle merchants, as well as illegal slaughterhouses, auction houses, and farms.
"Dogs bred on meat farms, and pet dogs all meet the same fate," said Jiyen Lee, Founder of ALW. "They are electrocuted. They are beaten. They are tortured. The world is now calling on South Korea to shut down these illegal slaughterhouses and the industry that perpetuates deplorable acts of violence on man's best friend. Our leaders must heed this call."
This 2022 LCA and ALW investigation followed a previous eight-month undercover investigation in 2021 that resulted in lawsuits filed against two slaughterhouses and an auction house in Yeoju in Gyeonggi Province. The slaughterhouses were shut down. The auction house owner was fined a meager $4,000 but continues to operate due to inaction by Yeoju City officials. Investigations have demonstrated that facilities involved in the dog meat industry can easily continue operating as their annual revenue far exceeds the fines they are charged when caught violating the law.
LCA and ALW are asking concerned citizens in the U.S. and abroad to sign a petition demanding an end to this brutality and calling on Shin Sang-jin, the Mayor of Seongnam City in South Korea, to permanently stop the sale of dog meat in the Seongnam Moran Market. The petition can be found by visiting: https://chng.it/zwSnrXkZHK
The undercover investigation video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/iReegl91COI
Founded in 1984, Last Chance for Animals is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating animal exploitation through education, investigations, legislation, and media attention. LCA believes that animals are highly sentient creatures who exist for their own reasons independent of their service to humans; they should not be made to suffer for the latter. LCA opposes the use of animals in food and clothing production, scientific experimentation, and entertainment and promotes a cruelty-free lifestyle and the ascription of rights to non-human beings.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Last Chance For Animals | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/14/last-chance-animals-animal-liberation-wave-undercover-investigation-unveils-more-atrocities-south-korean-dog-meat-trade/ | 2022-08-14T19:49:36Z |
Updated August 14, 2022 at 2:36 PM ET
BERLIN — Authorities in Norway have euthanized a walrus that had drawn crowds of spectators in the Oslo Fjord after concluding that it posed a risk to humans.
The 600-kilogram (1,320-pound) female walrus, known affectionately as Freya, became a popular attraction in Norway in recent weeks, despite warnings from officials that people should refrain from getting close and posing for pictures with the massive marine mammal. Freya liked to clamber on small boats, causing damage to them.
Walruses are protected and as recently as last month officials said they hoped Freya would leave of her own accord and that euthanasia would be a last resort.
Norway's Directorate of Fisheries said Freya was put down early Sunday "based on an overall assessment of the continued threat to human safety."
"Through on-site observations the past week, it was made clear that the public has disregarded the current recommendation to keep a clear distance to the walrus," it said. "Therefore, the Directorate has concluded, the possibility for potential harm to people was high and animal welfare was not being maintained."
The head of the directorate, Frank Bakke-Jensen, said other options — including moving the animal elsewhere — were considered. But authorities concluded it wasn't a viable option.
"We have sympathies for the fact that the decision can cause a reaction from the public, but I am firm that this was the right call," Bakke-Jensen said. "We have great regard for animal welfare, but human life and safety must take precedence."
Atlantic walruses normally live in the Arctic. It is unusual but not unheard of for them to travel into the North and Baltic Seas. Another walrus, nicknamed Wally, was seen last year on beaches and even a lifeboat dock in Wales and elsewhere.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/freya-the-walrus-drew-crowds-of-fans-and-thats-why-norway-decided-to-euthanize-her | 2022-08-14T20:13:03Z |
Updated August 14, 2022 at 3:43 PM ET
Police are investigating an early Sunday morning incident in which a man crashed his car near the U.S. Capitol and fired multiple gunshots before killing himself.
Authorities identified the man as Richard A. York III, a 29-year-old from Delaware.
The reasons why he chose to drive to the Capitol were unclear, though he did not appear to be targeting any members of Congress, the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. No one else was injured.
The incident began around 4:00 a.m. as York drove his car into a barricade about one block east of the Capitol.
As he exited the car, the vehicle "became engulfed in flames," the police statement said. York then fired several gunshots, apparently into the air.
"When our officers heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately responded and were approaching the man when he shot himself," Capitol Police said. The agency said it did "not appear" that any officers fired their weapons.
Congress is currently on recess until after Labor Day.
This is a breaking news story. Some things reported by the media will later turn out to be wrong. We will focus on reports from officials and other authorities, credible news outlets and reporters who are at the scene. We will update as the situation develops.
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/police-name-the-man-they-say-crashed-his-car-and-killed-himself-near-the-u-s-capitol | 2022-08-14T20:13:10Z |
Byron Allen began his career as a standup comic and is now a media tycoon who owns dozens of outlets including the Weather Channel. He has recently added another network to his portfolio — the Black News Channel.
Allen is acquiring the assets of the Black News Channel after a bankruptcy court approved his $11 million purchase. Within 10 minutes of wiring the money, Allen said he changed the name of the station to theGrio — a West African term for a storyteller.
Allen, who owns 36 TV stations and 12 cable networks, wanted the channel to be a lot more inclusive, including its name.
"I never really quite thought it was a good idea, the Black News Channel," Allen said. "I don't think we need the Black News Channel. I think we need a good news channel."
The network has been a small startup that never ranked high in ratings, CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stelter said on "Reliable Sources" Sunday, but it was "producing some great work."
Allen said the revived channel will focus on lifestyle, entertainment, news and sports. The channel will work with Historically Black Colleges and Universities to license more than 2,000 of their sporting events that will air on theGrio.
"That's going to help us to amplify the sporting events," Allen said. "And to help educate these kids at those schools."
Allen stressed there isn't enough diversity of ownership in the media industry — and it isn't just the Black community that's underrepresented.
"Women don't own these networks and they don't control their image and their likeness and how they're produced and depicted," Allen said. "Asian people are pretty much nonexistent in the media landscape in terms of how we're depicting them or even seeing. A lot of the Spanish language networks are owned by people who don't even speak Spanish."
And we can't ensure a "true democracy" until all of these communities have their voices heard, Allen said.
He added that startups like the Black News Channel need more support from Corporate America. Although major networks often take in more than a billion dollars a year from cable subscription fees, the Black News Channel received zero. Allen also said the channel's advertising revenue was less than $2 million.
"That means the chairman and CEO of every Fortune 500 company, their personal compensation, was more than all of the advertising on the Black News Channel," Allen said. | https://www.kitv.com/black-entertainment-mogul-calls-for-more-inclusion-in-news-and-media/article_5e9f1696-4338-508a-89af-5d801955a130.html | 2022-08-14T20:25:57Z |
Off and on rain through the rest of the day. Tomorrow will be a bit more stormy
Temperatures tonight will be in the low 60s
We’re going to be seeing more showers and thunderstorms throughout the evening tonight. Temperatures overnight tonight will be dropping into the low 60s. We could see some pockets of heavier rainfall with some of these storms the rest of the evening,
Tomorrow we will be pretty stormy throughout the day. Temperatures will be starting off in the low 60s, but we will be a little cooler today with temperatures only reaching into the low to mid 70s. Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible all day, likely peaking around lunchtime. Once again, we could see some pockets of heavier rainfall.
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, things will remain pretty wet. A smaller chance of rain arrives by the middle of the week, keeping us on our toes with isolated showers. Temperatures all this week will be on the cool side, sitting in the low 70s. Some might not even get above 70 on Tuesday. Overnight temps will be sitting in the 50s.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/off-rain-through-rest-day-tomorrow-will-be-bit-more-stormy/ | 2022-08-14T20:53:20Z |
Reports: Anne Heche to be taken off life support
(Gray News/AP) - Anne Heche, who was declared brain-dead after suffering extensive injuries in a car crash, will reportedly be taken off life support Sunday.
CNN reports a representative for Heche’s family said the actor will be taken off life support after being matched with an organ recipient.
NBC News reports that Heche will be taken off life support after organ recipients were identified, according to a spokesperson for the actor, who added that surgeons are ready to perform the implants once Heche is taken off life support.
A representative for Heche said Friday that she remained on life support and under evaluation for organ donation after the car crash that led to her brain death.
Under current California law, death can be determined by the loss of all brain function and in accordance with accepted medical standards.
While Heche is legally dead, she’s on life support and “her heart is still beating” so that the nonprofit organization OneLegacy can determine if she can be a donor, spokeswoman Holly Baird said in a statement Friday.
The process, which involves assessing which organs are viable and finding an appropriate recipient, could take from one day to several days, Baird told The Associated Press.
In the U.S., most organ transplants are done after the donor has been declared brain-dead.
The actor suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury,” caused by a lack of oxygen, when her car crashed into a Los Angeles area home Aug. 5 and fire erupted, according to a statement released Thursday that said she wasn’t expected to survive.
She’s been hospitalized at a Los Angeles burn center.
“This is a sad day. I’m sending Anne’s children, family and friends all of my love,” Ellen DeGeneres said Friday on Twitter amid reports of Heche’s dire condition. They were a couple from 1997 to 2000.
Detectives investigating the crash said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Heche, though toxicology tests still had to be performed to differentiate them from drugs she was given for her injuries, Los Angeles police said.
The Los Angeles Police Department on Friday announced it had ended its investigation into Heche’s car accident.
“As of today, there will be no further investigative efforts made in this case,” the department announced Friday. “Any information or records that have been requested prior to this turn of events will still be collected as they arrive as a matter of formalities and included in the overall case. When a person suspected of a crime expires, we do not present for filing consideration.”
A native of Ohio, Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” from 1987 to 1991. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role of twins Marley and Vicky.
In the late 1990s she became one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. In 1997 alone, she played opposite Johnny Depp as his wife in “Donnie Brasco” and Tommy Lee Jones in “Volcano” and was part of the ensemble cast in the original “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
The following year, she starred with Harrison Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights” and appeared with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in “Return to Paradise.”
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/reports-anne-heche-be-taken-off-life-support/ | 2022-08-14T20:53:26Z |
Teen dies, 14-year-old brother missing after being swept out to sea off Hawaii shore
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow/Gray News) - A 16-year-old boy is dead and his 14-year-old brother is missing after they were swept out to sea off a remote Hawaii beach on Thursday afternoon, emergency responders said.
HawaiiNewsNow reports the search for the 14-year-old continues.
Officials responded to a report of multiple swimmers in distress around 3:20 p.m. Thursday in waters off Shipman or Haena Beach in the Puna district.
According to response crews, a father, his two sons and another adult were swimming when they were swept out by the current and high surf.
Investigators said the two adults and the 16-year-old were pulled from the water by helicopter.
Emergency medics said they immediately began CPR on the 16-year-old, as they began transporting him to the Hilo Medical Center. Life-saving measures continued at the hospital, but were unsuccessful. The victim was pronounced dead just before 5 p.m.
Police said an autopsy has been ordered to determine the exact cause of death.
A missing person case has been initiated for the 14-year-old boy, authorities said.
Firefighters said the beach is in an isolated area and that the group had hiked from Hawaiian Paradise Park.
Copyright 2022 KHNL/KGMB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/14/teen-dies-14-year-old-brother-missing-after-being-swept-out-sea-off-hawaii-shore/ | 2022-08-14T20:53:33Z |
Rain to start out the week
Scattered showers will be with us Monday and Tuesday
SUNDAY: Cloudy for the evening as scattered showers continue to move in and coverage and intensity of rain increases. Mild for the evening with temperatures falling into the 60s. Comfortable overnight with scattered showers and lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
MONDAY: Cloudy to start the day and mild with temperatures in the 60s. Scattered showers on and off throughout the day and cloudy as the day will be a washout. Staying mild with highs in the mid to upper 60s. Mild for the evening with temperatures in the 60s as scattered showers will continue for the evening and overnight. Mild overnight with lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
TUESDAY: Cloudy to start the day with scattered showers and mild. Temperatures staying in the 60s throughout the day. Scattered showers will continue for a majority of the day. Drying out some by the late afternoon and early evening. Remaining in the 60s for the evening with plenty of clouds. Mostly cloudy overnight and pleasant with lows in the mid to upper 50s.
WEDNESDAY: A mix of sun and clouds to start the day and mild with temperatures rising into the 60s. Some clouds throughout the day. An isolated shower cannot be ruled out for the afternoon. Highs in the low to mid 70s. Evening temperatures falling into the 60s with some clouds for the evening. Partly cloudy for the overnight. Pleasant with lows in the mid to upper 50s.
THURSDAY: A mix of sun and clouds to start the day and mild. Temperatures rising into the 60s. Some clouds for the afternoon. Warm and comfortable with highs in the mid to upper 70s. A warm evening with temperatures remaining in the 70s. Some clouds for the evening and overnight. Pleasant overnight with lows in the mid to upper 50s.
FRIDAY: A mix of sun and clouds to start the day and warm with temperatures quickly rising into the 60s. Adding more clouds for the afternoon and comfortable. Very warm as highs will be in the upper 70s to low 80s. Mild overnight with lows in the upper 50s to low 60s.
SATURDAY: More clouds than sun to start the day and warm with temperatures in the 60s. Mostly cloudy throughout the day and very warm. Highs in the upper 70s to low 80s. Watching another system that will look to bring scattered showers and storms for the day Saturday. Overnight lows in the low to mid 60s.
As always, you can get the latest updates by downloading and checking the WHSV Weather App.
Copyright 2021 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/rain-start-out-week/ | 2022-08-14T21:19:53Z |
Reports: Anne Heche to be taken off life support
(Gray News/AP) - Anne Heche, who was declared brain-dead after suffering extensive injuries in a car crash, will reportedly be taken off life support Sunday.
CNN reports a representative for Heche’s family said the actor will be taken off life support after being matched with an organ recipient.
NBC News reports that Heche will be taken off life support after organ recipients were identified, according to a spokesperson for the actor, who added that surgeons are ready to perform the implants once Heche is taken off life support.
A representative for Heche said Friday that she remained on life support and under evaluation for organ donation after the car crash that led to her brain death.
Under current California law, death can be determined by the loss of all brain function and in accordance with accepted medical standards.
While Heche is legally dead, she’s on life support and “her heart is still beating” so that the nonprofit organization OneLegacy can determine if she can be a donor, spokeswoman Holly Baird said in a statement Friday.
The process, which involves assessing which organs are viable and finding an appropriate recipient, could take from one day to several days, Baird told The Associated Press.
In the U.S., most organ transplants are done after the donor has been declared brain-dead.
The actor suffered a “severe anoxic brain injury,” caused by a lack of oxygen, when her car crashed into a Los Angeles area home Aug. 5 and fire erupted, according to a statement released Thursday that said she wasn’t expected to survive.
She’s been hospitalized at a Los Angeles burn center.
“This is a sad day. I’m sending Anne’s children, family and friends all of my love,” Ellen DeGeneres said Friday on Twitter amid reports of Heche’s dire condition. They were a couple from 1997 to 2000.
Detectives investigating the crash said narcotics were found in a blood sample taken from Heche, though toxicology tests still had to be performed to differentiate them from drugs she was given for her injuries, Los Angeles police said.
The Los Angeles Police Department on Friday announced it had ended its investigation into Heche’s car accident.
“As of today, there will be no further investigative efforts made in this case,” the department announced Friday. “Any information or records that have been requested prior to this turn of events will still be collected as they arrive as a matter of formalities and included in the overall case. When a person suspected of a crime expires, we do not present for filing consideration.”
A native of Ohio, Heche first came to prominence on the NBC soap opera “Another World” from 1987 to 1991. She won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role of twins Marley and Vicky.
In the late 1990s she became one of the hottest actors in Hollywood, a constant on magazine covers and in big-budget films. In 1997 alone, she played opposite Johnny Depp as his wife in “Donnie Brasco” and Tommy Lee Jones in “Volcano” and was part of the ensemble cast in the original “I Know What You Did Last Summer.”
The following year, she starred with Harrison Ford in “Six Days, Seven Nights” and appeared with Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in “Return to Paradise.”
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/14/reports-anne-heche-be-taken-off-life-support/ | 2022-08-14T21:20:00Z |
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