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CHEYENNE – This Sunday, Aug. 21, is National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day, a day designated to recognize the dangers of fentanyl and how it affects Wyoming.
In 2020, 1,663 dosage units and 0.27 pounds of fentanyl were seized by law enforcement in Wyoming. That’s an increase of 3,876% from the previous year. In 2021, 11,135 dosage units and 64.83 pounds of fentanyl were seized by law enforcement in Wyoming, an increase of 10,539%.
More than 13,398 dosage units of fentanyl have already been seized by Wyoming law enforcement in 2022. Since 2018, there have been 334,476 dosage units of fentanyl seized by law enforcement in Wyoming.
The Wyoming Highway Patrol is warning the public that illicit fentanyl is prevalent in the United States and can cause sudden death.
Fentanyl is an opioid pain medication similar to morphine, but is 50-100 times more potent. When used correctly, it is a very effective pain reliever for cancer patients. However, illicit fentanyl is an illegal drug cut into other drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and counterfeit prescription pills.
Fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin or mucous membranes or accidentally inhaled. The effects of this drug are unpredictable, because it varies from person to person based on their size, weight, metabolism and whether they have taken other drugs before taking fentanyl.
If you suspect someone has taken fentanyl, call 911 immediately. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/national-fentanyl-prevention-and-awareness-day-is-this-sunday/article_f45a4cd8-1f5a-11ed-a2c2-83e9d85c140a.html | 2022-08-19T02:33:51Z |
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Holocaust survivor Sam Harris has told the story of how he survived the Holocaust hundreds of times.
He's talked about his experience in the Nazis' concentration camps with school groups and in videos for oral history archives. He even wrote a children's book.
But when he sat down to tell his story in Los Angeles a couple months ago, it was different.
In a Hollywood studio, surrounded by green screens, Harris answered questions for five or six hours a day. By the time it was all done, he'd answered nearly 2,000.
Sam Harris was getting made into a hologram.
"Oh my gosh, it's like being on the moon," Harris said. "I just looked at it and said, is that me?"
Creating Empathy
For decades, hearing firsthand accounts from survivors has been an integral part of learning about the Holocaust.
Every year, fewer survivors are alive to tell their stories, so the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is turning to holograms. It's part of their new exhibit called "Take a Stand."
"Nothing replaces the testimony of a survivor who is in front of an audience. It really creates this empathy that we don't see any other way," says Shoshanna Buchholz-Miller, the museum's vice president of education and exhibitions. "And we are so blessed that we have that opportunity now, but we're not going to have that opportunity forever."
Harris is one of 13 Holocaust survivors who will live on as holograms at the museum. Their stories reflect a range of experiences during the Holocaust — Harris was just 4 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and rode out the war hiding in two concentration camps, Deblin and Czestochowa. His parents were killed, leaving him orphaned when the war ended in 1945. When he arrived in the United States, he was 12 years old.
'You do it for a purpose'
When visitors enter the exhibit space, Harris appears on a stage in a room set up like a theater. He sits in a red chair, wearing a blue shirt and khakis. Visitors are free to ask him whatever they want.
What was life like before the war?
What was your first memory of arriving at Deblin?
Who in your family survived?
"When I sit on that stage and the real life comes out and you see me as a person, you cannot deny that what I am saying is the truth," he says.
For Harris, that made the hours he spent answering questions in Hollywood worth it — even though the process was often incredibly difficult.
"To answer a question, I always put myself in the position to where the answer was — like watching somebody being hanged," he says. "I'm really there watching it and I see it and I describe it. It's painful, and you begin to resent it. But what saves you is you do it for a purpose. You do it so 50 years from now, 100 years from now, people can look you in the face, ask you a question, and by god I give the answer."
Update at 5:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 20:
We should also note that the technology used in this exhibit, called New Dimensions in Testimony, was developed by the USC Shoah Foundation.
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is the first to permanently exhibit these survivor testimonies.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2017-12-19/illinois-holocaust-museum-preserves-survivors-stories-as-holograms | 2022-08-19T02:50:49Z |
Students at the Keller Independent School District outside Fort Worth, Texas, went back to school Wednesday. But instead of the focus being on their return, much of the attention has been heaped on an email that was sent out the day before, instructing school staff to pull all copies of a list of more than 40 books from classrooms and school libraries.
The books that were pulled include the graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank's diary, all versions of the Bible and numerous books with LGBTQ+ themes or characters. The School Board did not say why the Bible and the Anne Frank book were removed, but parents had objected to them, according to the list.
The books on the list have been challenged at the district in the past and while some have been reviewed and put back on shelves, they must all undergo another review under new criteria set by the school board, the school district said in a statement to NPR.
"Right now, Keller ISD's administration is asking our campus staff and librarians to review books that were challenged last year to determine if they meet the requirements of the new policy," it said.
"All of the books included in Tuesday's email have been included on Keller ISD's Book Challenge list over the past year. Books that meet the new guidelines will be returned to the libraries as soon as it is confirmed they comply with the new policy."
Some of the school board's new members were backed by Patriot Mobile Action, a conservative Christian political action committee, the PAC said in a news release.
How the new policy will work is not completely clear to parents, they told NPR. The Texas Tribune reports that the new Keller ISD policies are based on a model from the Texas Education Agency, and that, ultimately, school board members have the ability to accept or reject any material.
Some parents worry about banning books for everyone
Laney Hawes is a parent to four children in the district ranging from first to ninth grade. She said she understands and agrees with parents who don't want their children to read material that is inappropriate for their age. But she doesn't think this is the right way to go about it.
"All of our children are capable and able and ready for different materials," Hawes said. "Not everyone is ready for the same. I agree with that, and I think that those decisions should be made by parents for their own children specifically. I don't think that certain materials that you don't feel like are appropriate for your children should be withheld from my children, too."
Hawes is one of a group of parents who have become more involved with the district in recent years. Hawes and another parent, Gretchen Veling, both volunteered to be part of the group that reviewed books when they were challenged.
Some of the books were already reviewed and put back on shelves under the old policy
Hawes was involved in the review of Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, while Veling was in the group that reviewed Flamer, the semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Mike Curato.
Both books were discussed within the last year by parents, librarians and teachers who all chose to keep the books on the shelves. But with the books under review again, there are no guarantees they will made available to students.
Veling said she first got involved in the book review committee when she realized that many of the titles being challenged were LGBTQ+ books. She said both her sons are openly gay and when they want to read a book, she typically buys it for them. But her concern is for kids who might not have that same support at home.
"If they don't have access to a book that is reflective of who they are, does it just continue to make them feel like they're in a homophobic area? So I started speaking up because of that," Veling said. "It's to all the other kids that won't have access to it, who really do need access to it."
Keller ISD did not say if there was a timeline for when the book reviews would be completed. But in the meantime, Hawes said she thinks the school board will continue implementing conservative Christian policies.
"They really, really want to attack our curriculum and make sure that no social emotional learning ever enters our curriculum," Hawes said, adding that there are two other spots on the school board that will be up for election next May.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-18/the-bible-is-among-dozens-of-books-removed-from-this-texas-school-district | 2022-08-19T02:50:49Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Really early this morning, the Senate passed a sweeping overhaul of the nation's tax laws.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Yeah. The vote count was 51-48. All Republicans voted for this. All Democrats voted against it. Afterwards, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and several other Republican lawmakers praised the vote.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MITCH MCCONNELL: After eight straight years of slow growth and underperformance, America is ready to take off. Coupled with the regulatory reforms that have already been implemented by the administration, we now add comprehensive tax reform, major middle-class tax relief and making our businesses both large and small more competitive.
GREENE: Now Republicans are almost there, but not quite there yet. This still needs to head back to the House for a vote today.
MARTIN: All right, so to talk about the politics of how this came together and what this means for our near term and long term, we are joined by NPR White House reporter Scott Horsley - also, business editor for NPR Uri Berliner.
Hey, guys.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: All right, Scott, I'm going to start with you. Just walk us through why this procedural thing has happened, why the vote has to go back to the House now.
HORSLEY: Well, Rachel, the House and Senate are required to pass identical language. And after the House voted for the tax bill yesterday, the Senate parliamentarian ruled some of the provisions of the bill are out of order. They don't comply with the special Senate rules that Republicans are using to muscle this through with a simple majority and avoid a Democratic filibuster. So those provisions were stripped out of the bill that the Senate passed overnight. And now that stripped-down version has to go back to the House for a final vote. The - delays the final passage, but it's not expected to change the outcome.
MARTIN: So this was just a procedural thing, these provisions that were found to be in violation. This is not going to derail this.
HORSLEY: Correct. There were a number of provisions involved. One was championed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and it would've allowed parents to use tax-free college savings accounts to pay for K-12 educational expenses at private schools, parochial schools, even home schooling. I should say advocates for public schools really hated this provision.
They note that Republicans were limiting the deduction for state and local taxes that support the public schools while giving wealthy parents a chance to use tax-free money to pay for private schools. That provision's now gone. Another provision would've exempted one school in Kentucky from a new tax on college endowments. And Rachel, my favorite is that the name of the bill - Republicans have been calling this the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (ph). That was a little too sexy for the Senate parliamentarian.
MARTIN: Really?
HORSLEY: So henceforth, this will be known as an act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution of the budget for fiscal year 2018 - not...
MARTIN: Are you kidding? That can't even fit on a piece of paper.
HORSLEY: Or a bumper sticker.
MARTIN: Yeah (laughter). Oh, those parliamentarians. OK, so lastly, though, this was a party-line vote in the Senate, right? Although some Republicans voted no in the House.
HORSLEY: Yeah, there's still a beef about the state and local tax deduction. Republicans initially was going to make state and local taxes - take away that deduction altogether. In the end, they put in a deduction for $10,000 for a combination of property and income or sales taxes. But that doesn't go far enough for some Republicans who represent places with either high property values or relatively high state taxes.
MARTIN: All right, NPR's Scott Horsley breaking down the latest votes on the tax overhaul bill - the House to vote on it one more time, then it heads to the president's desk. Hey, Scott, thanks so much.
HORSLEY: You bet.
MARTIN: We're going to dig into the details of the legislation itself now with business editor Uri Berliner. So Uri, one of the ways that the Republicans sold this plan was to say that it was going to simplify a monstrously complicated tax code. We remember Paul Ryan holding up that, like, postcard. It was all going to fit on a postcard. Is that going to happen?
URI BERLINER, BYLINE: Well, the name isn't simple. We know that. Is this true simplification? No, it's not. Under current law, there are seven individual tax brackets. In the GOP plan, guess what? We still have seven tax brackets. That hasn't changed. And in some ways, the tax system is about to get way more complicated. You know, accountants and the IRS - they're going to have their hands full, especially dealing with changes in how businesses are taxed. There is at least one way filing taxes will get simpler. Fewer people are going to itemize. You know, that's where people take deductions for things like charitable contributions and mortgage interest.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BERLINER: About 30 percent of households do that now. That's expected to go down to 10 percent or even lower.
MARTIN: So those people could use, like, a smaller tax form, postcard style.
BERLINER: Yeah, they're going to use shorter forms. But we're not going to live in this - suddenly live in this world where doing your taxes is like filling out a postcard or where people suddenly understand this tax system that they pay into. That's not going to happen.
MARTIN: So when this bill becomes law, as it is going to do, what are the biggest changes? What are the main changes in store for us, for taxpayers?
BERLINER: For taxpayers, well, tax rates will go down, at least for the time being. There's going to be a larger standard deduction. That's the amount you can automatically take off your tax bill. But many people won't be able to pare down their tax bills by taking these significant deductions for state, local and property taxes.
MARTIN: Is it fair to say the big changes in the tax system are designed to help big businesses?
BERLINER: Well, the benefits are going to companies. The cuts for - the biggest benefits are for companies. The cuts for individuals are slated to end after 2025. The business tax cuts are meant to be permanent. And beyond that, the biggest share of these cuts go to corporations and other businesses.
MARTIN: So some Republicans, like Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, say that these tax cuts are basically going to pay for themselves, more or less. So which is it, more or less? Is that true that these things are going to pay for themselves?
BERLINER: Well, the evidence for that is very thin. Virtually all independent analysts say these tax cuts will increase the deficit, even if the economy grows a bit more strongly than predicted. So right now, you have this situation where Republicans - you know, they're supposed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Mostly, they've gone silent about the deficit, and Democrats are talking it up. They are bringing up the deficit all the time, which they haven't really done much in the past.
MARTIN: All right, NPR's Uri Berliner. He's NPR's business editor breaking down the meat and bones of the tax bill that is now very close to heading to the president's desk. The House of Representatives needs to vote on it one more time - one more procedural issue. Hey, Uri, thanks so much for waking up early and talking with us.
BERLINER: Sure thing. Thanks, Rachel.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: It has been exactly three months since Hurricane Maria ravaged the island of Puerto Rico.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The winds are ferocious right now, gusting above 120 miles per hour, severing the tops of the palm trees and ripping off the board...
GREENE: Yeah, in the three months since we heard that, the island has struggled to recover, and even now, many Puerto Ricans are still without power. Yesterday, some top federal officials visited, promising to speed up these recovery efforts.
MARTIN: We are joined now by Luis Trelles. He is an editor and producer for the program Radio Ambulante in San Juan.
Thanks so much for being with us.
LUIS TRELLES, BYLINE: Thank you.
MARTIN: The Department of Housing and Urban Development - the secretary for HUD, Ben Carson, was in Puerto Rico - also, the new secretary for Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen. So they were there on the ground trying to survey the recovery effort. How did they characterize what's going on?
TRELLES: Well, Secretary Nielsen acknowledged yesterday that the recovery effort wasn't going as fast as they would like. And what - the message she took back to Washington from Puerto Rican officials and from residents here is that the bureaucracy needs to be more flexible in order to get aid and help to people that still need it. Ben - Secretary Carson spoke about how impressed he was with the recovery because he was expecting an island where the sings of disaster were more visible and would be able to take that in.
MARTIN: Are they not visible anymore? I mean, just based on your own reporting, can you give us an idea of what - what is the situation right now?
TRELLES: Yes, the situation right now is of a recovery that seems to be progressing in two speeds. Most Puerto Ricans are extremely frustrated with the lack of progress, especially in getting power back to most homes and for most residential areas. Several people I spoke to told me that they still don't have electricity and that they don't expect it any time soon. And there are still a lot of people living in shelters, shelters that still don't have electricity. And for people like that, the recovery - there are still no signs of recovery.
MARTIN: The governor of Puerto Rico, I understand, has now requested an audit of the death toll from hurricane-related injuries. Is that something that had not been tallied before? What can you tell us about that?
TRELLES: Yes. The official death toll still stands at 64. This has been an issue that has been investigated by the Puerto Rico Center for Investigative Journalism. And most recently, the Demographic Registry here, which is the office for vital statistics, sent out a report that was picked up by several outlets in the national media, stating that the death toll could actually be more around a thousand. That's a thousand - well, more people died in the two months after Hurricane Maria than in the two years in that same time period in the two years before 2016, in 2015.
MARTIN: Because presumably, there are the direct deaths caused by the hurricane, but then indirectly, many people died, as well. Radio Ambulante's Luis Trelles reporting on the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria hit. Thanks so much.
TRELLES: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2017-12-20/news-brief-senate-passes-tax-plan-puerto-rico-update | 2022-08-19T02:50:55Z |
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It has been three months since Hurricane Maria ravaged the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: The winds are ferocious right now, gusting above 120 miles per hour, severing the tops of the palm trees and ripping off the...
MARTIN: The islands have struggled to recover, and many Puerto Ricans and U.S. Virgin Islanders are still without power. Yesterday, top federal officials visited Puerto Rico, promising to speed up recovery efforts there. We are joined now by Luis Trelles. He is an editor and producer for the program Radio Ambulante in San Juan. Thanks so much for being with us, Luis.
LUIS TRELLES, BYLINE: Thank you.
MARTIN: So the HUD secretary, Ben Carson, and the new Homeland Security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, were among this group of federal officials who were in Puerto Rico. How did they characterize the recovery efforts there?
TRELLES: Well, Secretary Nielsen acknowledged yesterday during her trip that the recovery efforts were, in fact, not going as fast as they would have hoped for. And one message she took back to Washington with her is the fact that local officials and residents are asking for more flexibility in how the Homeland - the Department of Homeland Security approaches the recovery effort here in the island. Ben Carson told staff members from FEMA that he was actually impressed with the way that the island had progressed since the hurricane and that he was expecting signs of worse damage on the ground.
MARTIN: Are there still signs of the damage? I mean, what have you seen? Can you give us an idea of what the situation is actually like there now?
TRELLES: Yes, I can tell you that most Puerto Ricans are very frustrated with the - how the recovery is developing. I have talked to several people who still don't have any power or those that have gotten their electricity back have family members living with them because their power is out in their homes. And there are dozens of people that are still in shelters that do not have electricity, that are living with backup generators. And that's taking its toll on people's lives. I talked to several people, and you can listen to them here.
WILLIE RODRIGUEZ: I have friends that live in Cupey Alto in San Juan, and they're not even thinking about having electricity anytime soon.
JOEL VILLEGAS: Right now, I'm still living as a refugee in the basement of a church, and my whole family's there.
TRELLES: That was Willie Rodriguez (ph), who works in a landscaping company in San Juan, and Joel Villegas (ph), a student in Puerto Rico's Sacred Heart University.
MARTIN: Voices of people you've spoken with who are still trying to cope in the aftermath of the storm. Before I let you go, Luis, I understand the governor of Puerto Rico is now requesting an audit of the death toll from hurricane-related injuries. What more can you tell us about that? Is that something that had not been tallied before?
TRELLES: Well, as of today, the death toll still stands at 64. But from the first weeks after the hurricane, several local outlets, including the Puerto Rico Center for Investigative Journalism, were pointing to the fact that hurricane - that deaths related to power outages in hospitals and retirement homes were probably much higher than the official death count. That has been borne out now by recent findings from the Office of Vital Statistics here in Puerto Rico, which point to the fact that the deaths by unrelated causes to the hurricane but caused by the disastrous effects of Maria could probably be more than a thousand.
MARTIN: Luis Trelles with Radio Ambulante in San Juan. Thanks so much for talking with us.
TRELLES: Thank you for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2017-12-20/puerto-ricos-slow-recovery | 2022-08-19T02:51:01Z |
On a Monday afternoon in October, a panel of Iowa state legislators gathered in the Statehouse to discuss the opioid epidemic.
Doctors, law enforcement officials and health insurers took turns at the lectern.
One of the witnesses was Deborah Thompson.
She had testified in front of state legislators plenty of times. As the legislative liaison for the Iowa Department of Public Health, she is often asked to give legislators a window into what the epidemic looks like in Iowa. The information can be wonky at times, like how many morphine-equivalent milligrams are prescribed each year, or can consist of cold facts, like that year's death toll.
Last year in Iowa, there were 180 opioid-related deaths. In 2017, there are projected to be 201.
This time, there was something else she wanted to share.
"Today would have been my seventh wedding anniversary," she told the panel. "My husband, Joe Thompson, passed away from an accidental heroin overdose last September. He left me and his 1-year-old son, Lincoln."
For years, Thompson had worked on policy related to the opioid crisis in Iowa while keeping her own family's struggle with addiction in the background. She had told a couple of state legislators with whom she had close relationships, but sharing her story in public was a big moment.
Thompson went back and forth about whether she could keep this to herself. She saw her role as the policy expert working in the background, not as a face of a national problem.
"I wasn't really sure I was going to, and I just couldn't shake the fact that it was our wedding anniversary, and that had to mean something," she tells NPR's Robert Siegel. "The coincidence was too great. Joe had always gravitated toward the helping professions, he wanted to be a nurse or a counselor or something like that, and it would be quite an anniversary gift to give him, to be able to maybe grant that wish through me, if it helped a lot of people. It was probably one of the better gifts I gave him. I was never very good at our anniversary gifts."
Joe Thompson's struggle with opioids started in 2004. After he was in a serious car accident, Thompson says her husband was likely overprescribed medication to treat the pain. He started going from doctor to doctor, a practice called doctor shopping, to get new prescriptions or refills. At his job as a package handler for UPS, he started swiping prescription drugs being shipped through the mail.
Joe tried to get help. He enrolled in an outpatient facility. Several times, he got sober, sometimes for several years at a time. He even went back to school and got his nursing degree. But then he would relapse again.
"I think it's hard to understand that," Deborah Thompson says. "I think logically your mind can get there, but your heart hurts ... the way the disease manifests itself, it's selfish, things are done to you, money was stolen from me, lies were told to me, and it's hard to wrap your mind around the idea that it's a disease causing this behavior while you're in it."
It took Thompson awhile to really grasp that her husband was sick — that his addiction was not just a bad habit he couldn't kick, but a disease that was really hard to climb out from.
"I just kind of equate it to, when my mother had brain cancer, we could see the tumor on the X-ray scans, we knew that something was growing and taking over her brain," she says. "I wish I'd known more about the science when we were in it. ... I felt like I was finally ready to deal with Joe's addiction, and then time ran out."
Joe Thompson died in September 2016 from a heroin overdose. He was 35.
Joe may not have beat his addiction, but Thompson is confident Iowa can.
She says new funding has helped as have changes in the law that gave states additional flexibility to respond to the crisis. One policy change that she says could help save lives right now is to require doctors in every state to check prescription monitoring databases, which would prevent doctors from prescribing or refilling opioids to people who don't actually need it or are dealing with an addiction. She says waiting for doctors to voluntarily adopt best practices simply isn't enough.
Deborah Thompson is also hoping her unique position at the crossroads of policy and personal experience can help move her state just a little bit closer to curbing the epidemic.
"Just looking at how many community partners that are involved, that run the gamut of law enforcement, the health care community, public health professionals, community agencies, coming together in Iowa to fight this, I can't imagine we'll lose," she says.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2017-12-29/opioid-policy-becomes-personal-for-one-health-official-after-husbands-death | 2022-08-19T02:51:08Z |
Fitbit murder case: Husband sentenced to 65 years in prison for murdering wife
VERNON, Conn. (WFSB/Gray News) - After nearly seven years of litigation, a Connecticut man has learned his fate.
On Thursday, Richard Dabate was sentenced to 65 years in prison for murdering his wife, Connie Dabate, back in 2015.
WFSB reports Richard Dabate was found guilty earlier this year in the killing that occurred a few days before Christmas.
Prosecutors argued that Richard Dabate’s story of a deadly home invasion didn’t add up when data from Connie Dabate’s Fitbit fitness tracking device showed the mother of two walking around after the time Richard Dabate claimed she was killed.
Experts said that data helped the jury reach its quick verdict in the trial.
Connie Dabate’s family said justice was served, but the case forced them to relive painful memories.
Richard Dabate was not only convicted of murder but also of tampering with evidence and lying to police.
Copyright 2022 WFSB via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/fitbit-murder-case-husband-sentenced-65-years-prison-murdering-wife/ | 2022-08-19T03:07:00Z |
Police: Pennsylvania man tried to buy stolen human remains
(AP) - A Pennsylvania man was charged with abuse of a corpse, receiving stolen property and other charges after police say he allegedly tried to buy stolen human remains from an Arkansas woman for possible resale on Facebook.
A spokeswoman for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock confirmed that the remains were to be donated to UAMS’s facility. UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said they were instead stolen from Arkansas Central Mortuary Services in Little Rock by a female mortuary employee and sold, adding that there is an open federal investigation.
“We are very respectful of those who donate their bodies, and we are appalled that such a thing could happen,” Taylor said.
A representative of the mortuary hung up on a reporter who reached out for comment Thursday.
FBI Little Rock spokesman Conor Hagan said the office was aware of the Pennsylvania incident “but will not comment on ongoing investigations.” No charges had been filed as of Thursday against the Arkansas woman.
East Pennsboro Township Police in Pennsylvania announced the arrest of and charges against 40-year-old Jeremy Lee Pauley, of Enola, Pennsylvania. Pauley had been arrested on July 22 and had an initial court appearance Thursday.
Calls to an attorney representing Pauley were not returned late Thursday. Pauley was released on $50,000 bond, according to court records.
On a Facebook page under his name, Pauley has posted pictures of bags and stacks of femurs, one captioned, “Picked up more medical bones to sort through.” The Facebook page he uses to market his body parts is called “The Grand Wunderkammer,” “Vendors of the odd and unusual, museum exhibits, guest lectures, live entertainment, and so much more! Strange, curious, and unique in every way possible!” It also provides a link to his website.
“I think I’ve seen it all, and then something like this comes around,” said Sean McCormack, district attorney for Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, where Pauley was charged. “The question we had to answer was, Is the sale of body parts or bones and remains illegal ... or legal? Some of it, to our surprise, was legal. And as the investigation went on, it became clear there was illegal activity going on as well.”
Pauley, who described himself as a collector of what he called “oddities,” including human body parts, said the remains were acquired legally when first contacted by police, according to a police affidavit. Police initially found what they described as older human remains including full skeletons that they determined were legally obtained.
However, after a second tip about newer remains in Pauley’s home, investigators returned to the house to find more recent purchases. Police found three five-gallon buckets containing assorted body parts— including of children— and federal and state law enforcement agents intercepted packages addressed to Pauley from the Arkansas woman that contained body parts.
Pauley told investigators that he intended to resell the body parts, according to the affidavit. Investigators allege that Pauley arranged to pay the Arkansas woman $4,000 for the body parts through Facebook Messenger.
Facebook did not respond to messages seeking comments on Pauley’s pages. However, its community standards prohibit human exploitation and explicitly prohibit selling body parts through its commercial policies and advertising policies.
___
Associated Press writer Kantele Franko of Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/police-pennsylvania-man-tried-buy-stolen-human-remains/ | 2022-08-19T03:07:07Z |
Taco Bell testing new vegan meat alternative
Published: Aug. 18, 2022 at 9:50 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
(CNN) - Taco Bell is testing a new plant-based meat alternative at some of its locations.
The fast-food chain announced it has debuted a new crispy melt taco at some restaurants in Alabama.
Unlike its other new items, this product is being tested with Taco Bell’s new proprietary plant-based protein.
According to the company, the product is a soy and pea protein blend inspired by classic Taco Bell flavors.
It says the American Vegetarian Association has certified the protein vegan, and it can be added to other menu options.
Testing the new product comes as Taco Bell partners with Beyond Meat for more vegetarian options.
Taco Bell said it plans to have those products available before the end of the year.
Copyright 2022 CNN. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/taco-bell-testing-new-vegan-meat-alternative/ | 2022-08-19T03:07:13Z |
"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash." Those words were uttered to wild applause in the cafeteria of Folsom Prison, a maximum security facility northeast of Sacramento, Calif. on Jan. 13, 1968.
Johnny Cash played a lot of prison concerts during his career, though he never did hard time himself. His daughter Tara Cash Schwoebel says her father's interest in prisons went back to his days serving in the U.S. Air Force in Germany in the early 1950s. That's when he saw the noir crime drama Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison.
"I think that's where all of this kind of grew from," Schwoebel says. "He was just moved by the film."
Cash wrote the song "Folsom Prison Blues" in 1955; it was his first big hit. But by 1968, he hadn't had a hit in several years. He'd become notorious for missing concert dates, and because of an addiction to prescription pills, he was usually out of it when he did show up.
When he arranged the date at Folsom, Cash at least knew he'd have a captive audience. "One thing he liked about playing prisons: If he did something the audience didn't like, they couldn't leave," W.S. "Fluke" Holland, Cash's drummer at the time, says. Holland didn't expect much would come of the two sessions the band played that day.
"I told everybody it won't sell enough to pay for the expense of going out with the recording equipment," Holland recalls. "That shows how wrong I was."
When the album At Folsom Prison was released the following May, it topped the Billboard country charts and Cash's career took off again. He recorded another best-selling album from San Quentin Prison in 1969. Schwoebel says her father continued to perform in prisons around the country and use his celebrity to speak out on behalf of prisoners.
"I think it really spoke to his rebellious side," Schwoebel explains. "He really had a passion for standing up for these people who were locked up, you know, and treated so poorly."
In 1972, Cash testified at a U.S. Senate subcommittee on prison reform. Among other proposals, he called for keeping minors out of jail and focusing on rehabilitating inmates.
"Between the attention that he created through his performances and being seated at the Senate, he created a lot more awareness," Schwoebel says.
Johnny Cash never saw the transformation he had hoped to see. He eventually refocused his energies on other causes, like helping the families of police officers who had been killed in the line of duty. In the 50 years since At Folsom Prison was recorded, the percentage of Californians in state prisons has nearly doubled.
Today, in the cafeteria at Folsom Prison, inmate Andrew Clayton plays guitar as part of a California prison program that provides training in music, painting and other creative pursuits: He's the lead guitarist with Blind Justice, one of the penitentiary's in-house bands. Country music isn't his thing, but he still finds Cash's connection with Folsom inspiring.
"Just the fact that he played here, and I'm playing here," Clayton says, "I feel like I'm part of something special."
Copyright 2018 KQED | https://www.keranews.org/2018-01-12/johnny-cash-takes-a-stand-looking-back-on-his-folsom-prison-performance | 2022-08-19T03:08:13Z |
The day was going to be perfect.
Alex figured he would wake up at 6:30 a.m., help get his little brothers up and off to school and catch the bus by 7. After school, the 14-year-old would do something he had been looking forward to for weeks — play in his first football game.
He would get to put on the team jersey — purple, with a camouflage print collar. And most importantly, his dad, Manuel, would be there, cheering from the sidelines.
Instead, Alex woke up to his mom screaming and crying outside his bedroom door.
By the time he got out of bed, it was too late. His dad was already gone — on his way to the county jail and then to immigration detention, where he would spend the next six months waiting to learn his future in the United States.
Manuel came to the United States from Mexico illegally two decades ago. He is one of the 143,470 immigrants arrested in the interior of the country last year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities. These kinds of arrests are up 25 percent compared with in 2016 — part of an effort by the Trump administration to fulfill a campaign promise to deport more immigrants who have come to the U.S. illegally.
Manuel's story points to a broader policy directive of President Trump's first year in office. At a time when arrests at the border are at a 46-year low, the federal government has begun to go after people who were not targets under the previous administration: those in the U.S. interior who have lived in the country for years and who often have committed no crimes. In 2017, arrests of undocumented immigrants with no criminal record increased by 42 percent compared with in 2016.
Manuel's case illustrates not only the giant, complicated bureaucracy involved in immigration enforcement but also the ripple effects one arrest can have on a family and a community.
NPR obtained Manuel's ICE file, which confirms the details of his history in the United States. At the family's request, NPR has obscured some family member's names and left other details vague because of their status in the country.
Anatomy of an apprehension
Manuel and his wife, V, grew up together in Sinaloa, Mexico. When they started dating as teenagers, V's family objected: Manuel was from a poor family, and V from a wealthy one with ties to the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
Manuel first crossed the border in 1995, when he was still a teen, after V's uncle tried to kill him by running him over with a car. Another time, the uncle put a gun to Manuel's head. When Manuel returned to Mexico in 1997 to marry V, her relatives beat him up.
Faced with near-constant threats, Manuel attempted to return to the U.S. in early 1998. That time, he was apprehended. He could have asked for asylum then, but he was 19 and didn't understand immigration law. He was sent back to Mexico. Three days later, he crossed the border again, this time successfully.
Now in his late 30s, Manuel was living quietly under the radar in the Pacific Northwest when immigration officials showed up that Monday morning in April.
It was 5:30 a.m. He was preparing to leave for the first of the three jobs he worked to support his family.
The agents said they came to investigate a report that Manuel was driving a stolen car. He had owned the car for years. When asked later, police couldn't produce any reports about the stolen car.
Then the agents asked Manuel for documents to prove his citizenship. He didn't say anything. They told him he had a deportation order from 1998.
The agents put Manuel in handcuffs. He asked the officers to let him say goodbye to his wife. He didn't get to say goodbye to his kids. Apart from his illegal entry into the United States, Manuel had not been charged with any crimes.
His son Alex didn't make it to school that day. He did go to his football game, but he couldn't stop thinking about his dad. Alex's head wasn't in the game. Eventually, the coach pulled him off the field. Within a few weeks, Alex's grades had dropped so much that he wasn't allowed to play at all.
Over the next few months, Manuel tries to talk to his sons — age 8 to 19 — on the phone every night from the detention center where he is being held.
"I tell them that they have to put a lot of effort into their schoolwork because they don't have to pay for my error," he says.
Manuel remains hopeful he'll get to go home. But he has also watched many of the friends he has made in detention get deported.
Executing the law 'across the board'
The Trump administration is looking to expand the government's capacity to detain immigrants in the country illegally. In May, the Department of Homeland Security asked Congress to fund 17,000 new beds in detention facilities — one-third more than the system's capacity at the end of the Obama administration.
That request comes at a time when the number of people crossing the border is lower than it was at the beginning of the Obama administration or during the George W. Bush and Clinton administrations. By the end of the Obama administration, the number of border crossers was actually dropping — and that trend has largely continued during the first year of the Trump presidency.
Decreased border crossings means more resources can be used to expand deportations in the country's interior.
Last January, ICE agents got a memo stating that "officers will take enforcement action against all removable aliens encountered in the course of their duties." That memo was written by Matt Albence, director of enforcement and removal operations at ICE. He has been at the agency for six years, and as he sees it, officers' hands were tied under the Obama administration.
"The laws that Congress has passed and that our offices are sworn to uphold, we are now executing them faithfully across the board," Albence told NPR in December.
To be clear, President Barack Obama deported thousands of people each year, too. But under a 2014 executive order, Obama directed immigration agents to focus on two groups for deportation: border crossers upon entry and illegal immigrants with criminal records. The government would not target noncriminals in the country's interior.
In 2016, the last year of the Obama administration, these types of arrests accounted for 2.1 percent of total removals. In 2017, that figure climbed to 6 percent.
Albence said that about 90 percent of the people arrested by ICE have had a prior run-in with the courts. That 90 percent includes people like Manuel, who had that deportation order for crossing the border 20 years ago.
Anyone in the country illegally should know they are subject to deportation, Albence says.
"There's certainly a humanitarian perspective where you can feel sympathy for the individual and their circumstances," he said. "But that does not mean we're not going to enforce the law."
Albence says anyone who is in the U.S. illegally should stop violating the law. And if there is no way for them to get legal status — through family or employment — he says self-deportation "is certainly an option."
For people who've grown roots in a community, and raised American kids, self-deportation doesn't feel like a possibility. And when one immigrant is locked up, that absence is felt acutely.
Manuel had been paying for his oldest son to attend college. That son now has to leave school so he can work as a firefighter to support the family.
The oldest son is what is known as a DREAMer, a child brought to the U.S. who has temporary permission to stay in the country under DACA, or Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals. That program could end in March unless Congress acts, so he fears for his own future as well as his father's.
Decision day arrives
At last in mid-September, after nearly half a year in detention, Manuel gets his day in court.
He has seen his kids once in all that time. The drive is far. But they make it this day.
If Manuel loses, the next time he leaves the detention center could be with a one-way ticket to Mexico.
The courtroom is cold and sterile. The judge tells Manuel she is denying his request to stay.
Visibly upset when the judge issues her ruling, Manuel is escorted out of the room. He is not able to see his kids.
"I'm angry, upset and confused mainly," the oldest son says right afterwards. "I couldn't even say bye. Especially after they told him, I couldn't even look at him in the face and say bye. That was pretty painful."
Manuel is not deported immediately. He has to decide whether he'll fight the ruling and stay behind bars — perhaps for months longer — or accept the judge's decision and try to make some money in Mexico to support his family back in the United States.
Manuel's oldest son isn't optimistic.
"He has the right to appeal, but it almost seems unnecessary, and also seems like no matter what he does, they're going to f****** reject him," he says. "I mean, I might as well leave, too. I might as well go back to a country I've never been to. This is the American dream, you know? We're living it."
In a moment of despair, Manuel calls V and tells her to send all his clothes back to Mexico, so he'll have something to wear if he is deported.
She empties his closets.
A legal Hail Mary
Manuel does have one thing going for him that most immigrants don't: a lawyer, Andrea Lino.
According to the American Immigration Council, 85 percent of people in immigration detention don't get a lawyer, in part because it can be hard to find one while behind bars, and detainees in immigration court aren't guaranteed one.
But having one makes a clear difference: Detainees with lawyers are released 44 percent of the time, compared with 11 percent for detainees without them.
While Manuel is deciding whether to appeal the ruling, his elderly mother gets a phone call at her home in Mexico. The menacing voice tells her that Manuel was deported and that members of the Sinaloa cartel kidnapped him at the border. The caller demands a ransom and threatens to kill her son.
She knows this is a bluff and that he is still locked up in the United States. But she also knows that the threat of violence is real. She has seen the cars circling the house, waiting for a sign that Manuel is back.
Manuel decides to keep fighting in court. His lawyer makes a Hail Mary legal filing and argues that the long history of death threats from his wife's relatives should be grounds for him to stay in the U.S. The chances it will work? Somewhere around 5 percent, Lino tells him.
In mid-October, the judge issues her order. It's one page.
It says her original decision overlooked the fact that Manuel was persecuted in Mexico because of his family relationships. The fact that those death threats came from family members gives him legal protection that he wouldn't have had if they had come from random strangers.
She rules that Manuel can remain in the United States.
It's called "withholding of removal." Not asylum, not a path to citizenship. There are lots of limitations — for instance, Manuel can't leave the country and must pay a yearly renewal fee.
But the upshot is: Manuel can go home, back to V and their children.
Their oldest son is in shock.
"It's just such a powerful feeling," he says. "It's powerful because of what you believed in came true, it's actually happening now. ... It was powerful because my birthday just passed and all I wanted was my dad."
A father comes home
Manuel's release comes a few days later.
He walks through a chain-link gate, over a railroad track and outside the detention center for the first time in months. He waits at the bus station for an overnight Greyhound ride home. V texts him the whole way. The two oldest sons are waiting in their car outside the bus station. They're shaking. And then, they see their dad.
"I just didn't know what to say," the oldest son says. "It was that kind of shock where you can't even let it come out. ... I couldn't decide if I wanted to be like, 'Hey Dad, what's up? It's been awhile.' Or it's like, 'Hey Dad, I missed you so much.' "
Manuel hugs his boys. They cry. Manuel says the 10-minute drive home from the station feels like forever. He walks through the gate to the yard of their modest single-story house, past the trampoline and dog toys lying in the fresh snow. The last time he walked through the gate, daffodils were blooming.
Manuel is home.
He is also the exception. For most immigrants who enter deportation proceedings, the ordeal ends with a flight to a different country. Last year, the United States deported 226,000 people.
If Manuel hadn't had a lawyer, or if the death threats were from random people, and not family members, he probably would have been deported.
But his family has not emerged from the experience unchanged. The last few months have left some scars.
Manuel says his younger boys still cling to him, afraid he'll have to leave again.
And several months after his release, Manuel says he still hasn't received the proper papers to work. As a result, the oldest son remains the family's biggest breadwinner, and his schooling is left on hold. Congress continues to debate the future of DACA, so his future remains hazy, too. And after negotiations to solve that issue crumbled in Washington last week, it doesn't appear that a solution will come soon.
Manuel says he knows that he broke the law and that his decision to come to the United States got his family into this mess. But he doesn't regret it either.
"I'd do anything for my family, and everything I've done until now has been for them," he says. "And I'm going to keep doing it, so they can be somebody in this life."
This story was produced for broadcast by Sam Gringlas and Christina Cala, with help from Ana Lucia Murillo and Matt Ozug. The story was edited for broadcast by Jolie Myers and for the Web by Maureen Pao.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-01-25/a-father-a-husband-an-immigrant-detained-and-facing-deportation | 2022-08-19T03:08:19Z |
Wednesday is Valentine's Day, and if you struggled to find just the right words to tell a special someone how you feel, you have options.
There are the classic options: Store-bought superhero valentines or sappy Hallmark cards. Or if you're into something sweet — boxes of pastel-colored candy hearts, emblazoned with messages like "BE MINE," "XOXO" and "HOT STUFF."
But if those candy greetings feel tired, or just aren't striking the right note, Colorado researcher Janelle Shane has some ideas.
Shane is a research scientist who works with neural networks. These are computer programs that learn by example — like facial recognition software or language translators. She gives a program a set of words, and it learns to generate more like it.
So Shane fed her program a data set containing all 360 candy heart messages she could find online.
The program spit out a list of a whole bunch more words, all short enough to fit on a candy heart.
"The neural network tried its best to imitate these candy heart messages, but the vocabulary was tough to learn," she says.
The results weren't exactly heartwarming.
The program suggested phrases like "LOVE BUN," "CUTE KISS" and "YOU ARE BABE." Some of those have potential, but others are downright strange, like "BEAR WIG," "STANK LOVE," "YOU ARE BAG," "SWEAT POO" and simply "FANG."
Shane has run algorithms on a bunch of other lists too, like guinea pigs' names and paint swatch colors.
The program was "not good at that either," Shane says.
So why do it?
"Part of my experiment is to poke at the edges of what they're good at and what they're not good at. How much do they really know about the problems they're trying to solve?"
As for those wacky candy heart messages, it's too late this year (unless you're really into DIY), but she's thinking about printing up some next year.
I want to "see what happens when I give someone a candy heart that says, 'LOVE 2,000 HOGS,' " she says.
Melissa Gray contributed to this report; April Fulton adapted it for the Web.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-02-13/candy-heart-messages-getting-stale-computer-generated-options-are-no-help | 2022-08-19T03:19:01Z |
When U.S. long track speedskaters Heather Bergsma, Brittany Bowe, Mia Manganello and Carlijn Schoutens won bronze Wednesday in the team pursuit event, they broke a Team USA drought. It was the first long track Olympic medal since the Vancouver Games of 2010.
U.S. speedskaters have always been a dominant force at competitions around the world, including the Olympics. But they performed poorly at the 2014 Sochi Games (some thought their suits might be partly to blame) — and got off to a slow start in Pyeongchang. With Wednesday's bronze, coming after short track skater John-Henry Krueger's silver in the 1,000-meter race on Saturday, hopes have grown for U.S. success at these games.
Before Pyeongchang, the U.S. earned a total of 67 Olympic long track speedskating medals, 29 of them gold. In fact, speedskating has produced more Olympic medals for the U.S. than any other winter sport. American speedskating legends include Eric Heiden, who took home five gold medals in 1980 alone; Bonnie Blair, who earned six medals over her Olympic career; and Dan Jansen, who had a dramatic gold medal victory in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.
U.S. successes continued through the early 2000s, as inline skaters came on the long track scene and brought home gold, silver and bronze. The drought began after Vancouver.
But perhaps the speedskaters have turned a corner. Here's a closer look at what it's like for U.S. athletes to compete in this uniquely demanding sport.
Crouching over while skating at 30 mph
Speedskaters have to learn to skate in a deep crouch, balancing their entire weight on a long metal blade that is just 1.1 millimeters thick — about 4/100 of an inch, the thinnest blade of all sports on ice.
The burning pain in the legs and lower back after skating even one lap is enough to dissuade many enthusiasts from trying this sport again, much less clocking in a lap at under 40 seconds.
"It does feel exactly like you're on fire," John Coyle, a short track speedskater who won silver in the 1994 Winter Games, told NPR.
Imagine doing 25 laps crouched over for the 10,000-meter event.
The suits aren't everything
Four years ago, in Sochi, U.S. speedskaters blamed their disappointing performance, in part, on their special skinsuits made by Under Armour. But those who watch the sport closely believe there were a number of other factors affecting performance, including the athletes' worldwide travel schedule to compete at events at various altitudes and their overall fatigue leading up to the Sochi Games.
As soon as the team returned from Sochi, the skaters went back to the drawing board with Under Armour to redesign a suit that would cut out the doubt and give them an edge to win more races.
Together, they came up with the most aerodynamic, lightest, thinnest, most flexible skintight suit they could think of. They tweaked, ran multiple wind tests and came up with a design everyone was happy with well before entering the 2017-2018 season. The skaters have been wearing the new and improved skin suits for the better part of one year (though the suits' crotch-highlighting design has raised eyebrows).
You can't practice at the local rink
To be competitive in long track speedskating at an international level, you have to skate on a 400-meter track every day for at least nine to 10 months out of the year. Building technique and endurance is not achievable by going to the neighborhood skating rink or a nearby frozen pond.
Short track skating opportunities abound in many cities, but there are just a handful of long track ovals in the entire U.S. Two are indoors and are open most of the year; the rest are outdoors and open only during the winter months. The small number of rinks limits the number of people who might want to give the sport a try, much less pursue it seriously.
And that's important, says former Olympic speedskater KC Boutiette, because "people don't know what they're good at until they've tried it."
In 1993, Boutiette moved to Milwaukee to try long track speedskating at the Pettit National Ice Center. Four months later, he earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for the 1994 Lillehammer Games, and he went on to compete in the next three Olympics.
Someone who is committed to becoming a U.S. speedskater and getting a chance to compete in the Olympics must do what Boutiette did — move to either Milwaukee or Salt Lake City. The outdoor rinks are in Butte, Mont.; Lake Placid, N.Y.; and Roseville, Minn., but they are not facilities that tend to attract elite skaters.
"That is the break in the system," says Patrick Quinn, a retired U.S. speedskater now with Chicago Sports and Entertainment, a consulting firm that also represents athletes.
A small talent pool
Since the last Winter Games, U.S. Speedskating adjusted its training strategy and travel schedule and invested in building state-of-the-art, data-driven training facilities in Salt Lake City and Milwaukee that closely monitor the athletes' performance and recovery.
In preparation for the Pyeongchang Games, the U.S. Speedskating governing body also moved Olympic trials from the Utah Olympic Oval to the Pettit Center — a strategy that would better prepare the skaters to compete at lower altitudes, mirroring the Gangneung Oval in South Korea.
"U.S. Speedskating is doing everything they can within their power to make these athletes succeed," says Boutiette. "Everyone is doing what they think is the right thing to do so they can be at their best."
Still, "the biggest challenge is lack of depth in the talent pool," says Quinn. "The limited resources at the grass-roots level limits the talent pool that can ultimately get to places where there are amazing facilities to become the best in the world."
To date, the most successful recruitment of U.S. speedskating talent has been among inline skaters. Team USA in Pyeongchang includes six world-class inline skaters turned speedskaters.
But there's starting to be a deficit in that talent pool, too.
"The majority of the new, young inline skaters who are crossing over to the ice have never been to an inline world championship or competed at an elite level," says Derek Parra, who earned multiple world titles as an inline skater before making the transition to ice — and winning silver and gold in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
He now serves as sports director at the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, where he is working closely with U.S. Speedskating on programs to help increase the talent pool with more elite inline skaters. But, he warns, with declining popularity, "the inline talent pool is starting to dry out." The U.S. did not win any medals at the world championship this past fall in Nanjing, China.
Limited public interest and sponsorship
In the U.S., public interest in long track speedskating tends to be at its highest every four years — during the Olympics. Usually, other sports like figure skating, snowboarding and short track speedskating, which are more exciting to watch, attract much more attention.
But indifference during the off years means it's harder to lure sponsors to provide financial support for speedskaters — unlike, say, in the Netherlands, where there are up to eight professional teams and four times as many 400-meter ovals as in the U.S. In Holland, some 80 speedskaters train full time.
"The saying goes, the Dutch get paid on their way to possibly earning a medal and a U.S. skater might get some endorsements after winning a medal," says Parra, who had to work at Home Depot part time to help fund his speedskating expenses while he was training for the Olympics.
"Top 10 is not a failure"
Despite the barriers of entry to the sport, limited funding and the small talent pool, "Our skaters routinely end up in the top 10, which is not bad, given the resources," says Boutiette. "Top 10 is not a failure."
The U.S. team has two long track events left in Pyeongchang. Shani Davis will compete Friday in the men's 1,000-meter race. And on Saturday, all eyes will be on world record holder Joey Mantia, who is set to compete in the Mass Start — a new Olympic event with two dozen speedskaters all pushing and jostling through 16 laps around the track. Mantia has described it as "NASCAR on ice."
Rolando Arrieta, a former inline skater turned long track speedskater, is NPR's news production and operations manager.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-02-21/after-long-drought-has-u-s-olympic-long-track-speedskating-turned-a-corner | 2022-08-19T03:19:07Z |
Amid the ongoing legislative movement to cap the number of tourists on Maui, isle lawmakers introduced a new resolution Thursday proposing to outlaw what is referred to as "mobile vacation dwellings," or vehicles that visitors are renting out to stay in.
Resolution 22-181 aims to define the car rentals as illegal, meaning by county code, advertising and operating the units would cost a $20,000 fine.
Another resolution, 22-70, proposes to limit the number of visitor accommodations on Maui -- and ban the mobile dwellings.
However, Maui County Councilmember Tamara Paltin, who wrote 22-181, clarified the latest resolution includes the penalty, "so it packs that punch."
Initially, 22-181 intended to roll out a permitting process for the rentals.
"It was a very limited number of mobile dwellings that we would have been permitting because we don't want them all over the island," Paltin said, adding the process would have overwhelmed the planning department.
There are concerns, however, over how the county would enforce the mandate.
"Looking at reviews online, people love it," said Thomas Croly, who testified on the measure during a council Planning and Sustainable Land Use Committee meeting Thursday.
"People are saying, 'hey, it's real easy to park on the side of the road, no problem whatsoever, I can park in the beach parks, yeah they lock you in at night but it's okay, they open the gate at 8 o'clock."
Scot Johnson, who rents out mobile dwellings, added, "I don't know how they (the county) would ever regulate this."
Johnson wishes the council would still consider issuing permits and suggests the county contract a third party group to oversee the process.
"People are going to continue to do this. You can outlaw it, but the internet will find a way," Johnson said.
Councilmembers hope the intentions of the resolution will be added to 22-70, which is expected to go before the Maui Planning Commission for further reading at the end of the next month.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
'A'ali'i is a reporter with KITV. He was born and raised on the island of Maui and graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. | https://www.kitv.com/news/council-reinforces-push-to-ban-rental-campers-on-maui/article_c92ce7ec-1f59-11ed-a7f4-5bf5e3d46f2b.html | 2022-08-19T03:22:23Z |
HAIKU, Maui (KITV4) -- A Haiku man is in police custody for multiple counts of attempted murder after firing multiple shots on a group of men and injuring one, according to police.
On Tuesday, August 16, around 4:55 a.m., police responded to the Maui Memorial Medical Center Emergency Room for an alleged assault.
According to reports, police found a 48-year-old Waikapu man who reported that at approximately 2:45 a.m., he and two others had been at a Haiku residence to retrieve some items from a friend, later identified as 36-year-old Brian McKeague of Haiku.
McKeague reportedly became upset that the three individuals were there. As the trio left the property, McKeague fired three shots, one striking the passenger side of a pickup truck and one going through the front passenger side windshield of a 2011 Mercedes sedan, striking the 48-year-old male in the arm.
No other injuries were reported from the incident.
Members of the Special Response Team and Drone Team conducted checks for McKeague at his residence, but he was not located.
At approximately 1:50 p.m., McKeague was located at the Kahului Airport, where he was arrested and transported to the Wailuku Police Station.
McKeague was charged with one count of first degree attempted murder, three counts of second degree attempted murder, one count of first degree criminal property damage, one count of ownership or possession prohibited and one count of use of firearm in the commission of a separate felony.
His bail is set at $4,031,000. McKeague remains in police custody.
Kathryn spent the last decade in the Bay Area working in nonprofits, education, and communications consulting. She has a B.A. in English from St. Mary's College of CA and an M.A. in Public Affairs and Politics from the University of San Francisco. | https://www.kitv.com/news/crime/maui-man-arrested-at-kahului-airport-after-allegedly-shooting-at-three-men-injuring-one/article_eeecf906-1f66-11ed-ad68-0702bfc71c47.html | 2022-08-19T03:22:30Z |
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VIDEO: Flash mob ransacks, vandalizes 7-Eleven after street takeover, police say
LOS ANGELES (Gray News) - Police in Los Angeles say a flash mob ransacked and looted a 7-Eleven convenience store earlier this week following a street takeover.
The Los Angeles Police Department shared surveillance video from the store located in South Los Angeles.
Police said the video shows several group members grabbing various items on Aug. 15 at about 12:40 a.m., including drinks, cigarettes, lottery tickets and other merchandise.
LAPD said members of the group were also throwing merchandise at store employees.
Afterward, the store was left in disarray, with authorities saying the group left before law enforcement arrived.
Police said before the incident within the store, the group held a street takeover at a nearby intersection that blocked traffic with vehicles performing “donuts” in the street.
The LAPD urged anyone with further information about this incident to contact South Traffic Division Detectives at 323-421-2500.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/video-flash-mob-ransacks-vandalizes-7-eleven-after-street-takeover-police-say/ | 2022-08-19T03:26:56Z |
The night before one of the biggest rallies in Washington, D.C., history, Sam Zeif is beat.
It's been a long day. It started with an early-morning hit on CNN, then another with ABC's Good Morning America, followed by an afternoon trip to MSNBC — not for the first time. Just two days earlier, he was in Los Angeles, filming a segment with Ellen DeGeneres.
Zeif, like a handful of other Marjory Stoneman Douglas students, has become a familiar face on Twitter and on television since a gunman killed 17 of his Parkland, Fla., classmates and teachers in February. The next day, he would sit on the stage of the "March for Our Lives," which attracted hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., and around the world.
He and his classmates have had a lot of long days like this one since the shooting. Their stories are fueling a renewed push for stricter gun regulation. And they say that activism won't end with Saturday's march.
At a White House listening session hosted by President Trump one week after the shooting, Zeif cried on live TV as he put his hand on the shoulder of the Sandy Hook mom seated beside him.
"How did we not stop this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook?" Zeif asked the president. "I'm sitting with a mother that lost her son, and it's still happening."
Over the past few weeks, Zeif has spent a lot of time trying to drive home a message about gun control — do something about the killing or get voted out. But at a window table inside a downtown Washington pizza joint, where he is squeezing in a few pieces of pizza before a hired car shuttles him back to MSNBC for a hit with Brian Williams just before midnight, Zeif isn't talking about organizing principles or NRA dollars or an assault weapons ban.
He is mostly talking about his friend Joaquin Oliver — known as "Guac." He was one of Zeif's best friends.
"Guac was unlike anyone else," Zeif says. "He's funny. Probably one of the most free-spirited people I know. He's just absolutely beautiful, like a beautiful face, like an angel."
They played on the basketball team together before Oliver was killed in his high school on Feb. 14.
"My favorite moments with him were in the car," Zeif says. "He would move as much as possible in a seat. I think even sometimes he would put his booty in the air."
Zeif and Oliver first met in middle school, but it took a few years before they got close. Zeif remembers thinking at a trip to the beach a few years later how cool Oliver was, and that he wanted to be friends with him.
These days, Zeif thinks a lot about their friendship.
"I remember Guac and I got into a fight, and it kind of just happened out of nowhere," he says. "When we were fighting, it was when he dyed his hair blond. I wanted to tell him how good it looked, but what am I going to do?"
"He eventually he just said to me, 'Yo we gotta talk soon,' " he says, "so I hit him up to talk and as soon as he said yes I drove right to his house. I don't make myself that vulnerable to people like that, but I really wanted him in my life."
And that's when in the middle of the pizza restaurant, Zeif starts to cry.
"I just wish I had more time with him," he says softly.
There's not much time for grieving. There's another TV hit on the schedule — hair and makeup, small talk with the anchor and the production staff.
And the pace keeps on going.
When Zeif comes down to the hotel lobby the morning of the march, there are already two camera crews waiting to chronicle his journey to the rally site on Pennsylvania Avenue, where he has a seat on the stage.
There, he meets one of his favorite rappers, Vic Mensa, who is performing alongside people like Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato. Toward the end of the program, Zeif holds up a T-shirt emblazoned with "Change the Ref" — the organization Oliver's father has founded in his son's memory. Zeif stretches it out wide right behind Jennifer Hudson as she sings " The Times They Are a-Changin' " backed by a choir and surrounded by Parkland students with their arms around each other.
Before the day is over, there's another roundtable on CNN, dinner with his parents, brothers and some friends near the hotel, and then, after a late night spent with friends in the hotel room, the big weekend is over.
"I don't want to get over it"
"Well, it's not over," Zeif says Sunday morning. "The whole thing is not over. This was just the start of it."
"Yeah, we finally did the march, and that's something we've all been anticipating for a month now. I don't know when or if or how I'll ever get over this," Zeif says of the shooting. "I don't want to get over it because I feel like getting over it is sort of forgetting."
In the fall, Zeif will head off to college at the school he was supposed to attend with Oliver.
"I still want to live the same life I planned before all this, going to college, traveling a lot and starting a family. But it's still going to be different. Everything's going to be different. Nothing's been even close to the same. When I'm in my house or at school or driving, everything's different."
Zeif turned 18 the day after the Parkland shooting.
When NPR first met him back in February, he told us it felt like he had turned 35.
He has had to do a lot of growing up in the past month.
In that time, he went to the funeral of one of his best friends. At the White House, he looked the president of the United States in the eyes and demanded he help make the killings stop.
He has been on TV, met Ellen and Vic Mensa and Vice President Pence; his Twitter following has reached nearly 20,000.
He is also still grieving.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-03-26/parkland-student-march-was-just-the-start | 2022-08-19T03:34:38Z |
2 Wendy’s employees shot in Cincinnati, one critically injured
Published: Aug. 18, 2022 at 11:24 PM EDT|Updated: 19 minutes ago
CINCINNATI (WXIX/Gray News) - Cincinnati police are investigating a shooting at a Wendy’s in Walnut Hills.
The shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. outside the location, when two people were shot, according to police. Both victims are employees of the restaurant.
EMS transported them to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where one of the victims is in critical condition. The other victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
There is no additional information on the suspect.
CPD District Four units are investigating the shooting.
Copyright 2022 WXIX via Gray Media Group. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/2-wendys-employees-shot-cincinnati-one-critically-injured/ | 2022-08-19T03:44:20Z |
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- To ease the rising electricity tension this summer, BLUETTI will have a Power Week from August 18 to August 28. Scroll down to learn more about them.
Not just a sidekick, but a hero on its own.
Not only as an expansion battery, B230 and B300 can be used as an independent power source since multiple outputs are built for versatile charging, including 1*18W USB-A QC3.0, 1*100W PD3.0 Type-C, and 1*12V/10A Cigarette Lighter.
The MPPT within B300 allows a 200W Max. solar input. While with the T500 adapter, no need to connect with AC200MAX and AC300 power stations, the B230 and B300 can reach up to 500W AC input rate.
The magic charging box - BLUETTI D050S (DC Charging Enhancer).
B230 and B300 are qualified as power sources. However, they can be leveraged to their full potential when teamed up with the D050S. It enables more recharging methods, like 12/24V car charging, Lead-acid battery, and even AC. It can boost a 1400W Max. solar input for AC200MAX.
Without the idle draw of the inverter, the discharge efficiency of such a Pure DC Solar Generator is expected to reach more than 95%. An excursionist doesn't have to carry a whole set of BLUETTI products because one battery pack is sufficient to power hungry devices on the road.
High Compatibility - Not just for the AC200MAX or AC300.
B230 and B300 were announced with AC200MAX and AC300, respectively. Yet they are also compatible with other units like AC200, AC200P, EB150, and EB240 while connecting with D050S. Increase the overall capacity anytime to survive blackouts and other emergencies.
LiFePO4 - The safest and most durable battery chemistry.
Safety and durability have been the top priorities to consider before purchasing a power station, so BLUETTI adopts the latest LiFePO4 technology while producing solar generators in recent years.
B230 and B300 provides better electrochemical performance, lower resistance, and more stable cathode materials compared to NCM chemistry in the market.
More Units and Combos to Recommend During BLUETTI Power Week 2022
Electricity, one of the most widely used forms of energy, soon became life's necessity once found. If there's a power cut, even a very brief one, the consequences can be catastrophic, especially while experiencing extreme heat on summer days.
About BLUETTI
With over 10 years of industry experience, BLUETTI has tried to stay true to a sustainable future through green energy storage solutions for both indoor and outdoor use while delivering an exceptional eco-friendly experience for everyone and the world. BLUETTI is making its presence in 70+ countries and is trusted by millions of customers across the globe. For more information, please visit BLUETTI online at https://www.bluettipower.com/.
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SOURCE BLUETTI POWER INC | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/bluetti-will-have-power-week-august-18-august-28/ | 2022-08-19T03:44:27Z |
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- VAVA announced its 720P Video Baby Monitor is available with a little more personality. In addition to white, parents can now purchase the monitor in calming hues of blue, pink, and green to match the backdrop of the child's nursery.
For any new parent, baby monitors are an important safety feature for a child's room because they allow moms and dads to monitor their children as they sleep. Outfitted with a large 5" HD display, the VAVA baby monitor offers peace of mind by allowing parents to monitor their child for sleep disruptions or health issues. The two-way talk system also makes it easy for moms and dads everywhere to hear when their child is crying or in need of attention.
With more color options to choose from, parents can complement the theme and design of their baby's nursery with the VAVA Baby Monitor. Available in white, pink, blue, and green, VAVA's latest Baby Monitor can match any nursery design – from pretty pink princesses to dinosaurs and race cars. The baby monitors also come with a variety of convenient features that make it easy to monitor your child from anywhere in the house.
The technology behind VAVA's Red Dot Award winning 720P Video Baby Monitor is truly remarkable and one of the reasons why it was recently listed as one of the Best Baby Monitors of 2022 on Tech Advisor and Babylist. The wireless connection makes it easy for parents to watch their children from anywhere in the home, and up to four cameras can be connected to a single monitor. For added convenience, when multiple cameras are connected to the VAVA monitor, parents can activate scan view mode. This function will automatically switch between visual input from all the cameras.
VAVA 720P Video Baby Monitors in white, green, blue, and pink are now available for purchase at the VAVA Official Store for $179.99.
VAVA Press
press@vava.com
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SOURCE VAVA | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/calming-colors-add-personality-vavas-award-winning-720p-video-baby-monitor/ | 2022-08-19T03:44:33Z |
TAIZHOU, China, Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jiangsu Recbio Technology Co., Ltd. (the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, the "Group") is pleased to announce that, the Company has completed the subject enrollment and dosing for the comparative Phase II clinical trial between its recombinant protein COVID-19 vaccine, ReCOV ("ReCOV") and Pfizer's mRNA vaccine COMIRNATY®. It has only taken around two weeks from the receipt of clinical trial approval to completion of the subject enrollment and dosing, which clearly demonstrates the high efficiency and execution capability of the clinical team of the Group.
A total of 600 subjects have been enrolled in this Phase II clinical trial. After completion of the booster vaccination, safety and immunogenicity follow-up will be conducted on all the subjects.
ReCOV is a recombinant COVID-19 vaccine being developed by the Company with its technology platforms including the novel adjuvant and protein engineering platforms, and the adjuvant used therein is the self-developed novel adjuvant BFA03. Based on the relevant studies conducted by the Company, ReCOV can induce high titers of neutralizing antibody and Th1 biased cellular immune response, and has shown favourable neutralizing effect and immune persistence against variants including Omicron variant and Delta variant. It has a variety of comprehensive advantages, including overall positive safety profile, potential growth in production scale, low production cost, preparation stability, and ability to be stored and transported at room temperature.
About Recbio
Founded in 2012, Recbio is an innovative vaccine company. With the vision of "Become the Leader of Innovative Vaccine in the Future," Recbio takes "Protect Human Health with Best-in-Class Vaccines" as its mission. It has established three major cutting-edge technology platforms including novel adjuvants platform, protein engineering platform, immunological evaluation platform and mRNA vaccine platform. Recbio has a high-value vaccine portfolio consisted of HPV vaccine candidates, COVID-19 vaccine candidates, shingles vaccine candidates, influenza vaccine candidates, adults TB vaccine candidates etc. The core management team has more than 20 years of experience in the development and commercialization of innovative vaccines. For more information, please visit https://www.recbio.cn/.
Forward-looking statements
This Press Release may contain projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, opinions, prospects, results, returns and forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, capital position, strategy and business of the Group which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "should", "expect", "anticipate", "project", "plan", "estimate", "seek", "intend", "target", "believe", "potential" and "reasonably possible" or the negatives thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including the strategic priorities, research and development projects, and any financial, investment and capital targets and any other targets, commitments and ambitions described in writing or verbally herein. Any such forward-looking statements are not a reliable indicator of future performance, as they may involve significant stated or implied assumptions and subjective judgements which may or may not prove to be correct, accurate or complete. There can be no assurance that any of the matters set out in the forward-looking statements are attainable, will actually occur or will be realised or are complete or accurate. The assumptions and judgments may prove to be incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies and other important actors, many of which are outside the control of the Group. There is also no assurance that the Group may develop or market its core products or other pipeline candidates successfully. Actual achievements, results, performance or other future events or conditions may differ materially from those stated, implied and/or reflected in any forward-looking statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors (including without limitation general market conditions, regulatory changes, geopolitical tensions or data limitations and changes). Any such forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, expectations and opinions of the Group at the date the statements are made, and the Group does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any obligation or duty to update, revise or supplement them if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change. For these reasons, you should not place reliance on, and are expressly cautioned about relying on, any forward-looking statements. No representations or warranties, expressed or implied, are given by or on behalf of the Group as to the achievement or reasonableness of any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, commitments, prospects or returns contained herein.
Please refer to the announcements published by the Company on the websites of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (www.hkexnew.hk) or of the Company (www.recbio.cn) for further details. If there is any inconsistency between this Presentation and the announcements, the announcements shall prevail.
Jiangsu Recbio Technology Co., Ltd.
Investor Inquiry:
Email: ir@recbio.cn
Tel: +86-0523-86818860
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Email: media@recbio.cn
Tel: +86-0523-86818860
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SOURCE Jiangsu Recbio Technology Co., Ltd. | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/completion-subject-enrollment-vaccination-comparative-study-between-recov-mrna-vaccines/ | 2022-08-19T03:44:40Z |
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FF Top Holding LLC (with its affiliates, "we" or "FF Top"), a significant stockholder of Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. ("Faraday Future" or the "Company"), announced today that it has filed a preliminary proxy statement (the "Preliminary Proxy Statement") in connection with a special meeting of stockholders (the "Special Meeting") called by the Company. The Special Meeting has been called in order to hold a stockholder vote on the removal of director and former chairman Brian Krolicki from the Company's board of directors (the "Board"). The Company announced the Special Meeting in its preliminary proxy statement, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on August 8, 2022. The date of the Special Meeting has not yet been announced.
In the Preliminary Proxy Statement, FF Top stated its belief that, despite Faraday Future's current financial and operational challenges, the Company is at an inflection point in the process of turning a promising concept into the mass production of a revolutionary electric vehicle, and that urgent changes are needed to deliver on this promise. FF Top further stated that it believes that these changes must begin with a Board that recognizes the magnitude and urgency of these challenges and is focused on developing a realistic and financially responsible plan to put the Company on a better path.
In the Preliminary Proxy Statement, FF Top stated its belief that, over the past year, Faraday Future's operational results have consistently fallen short of the goals the Company has set forth in its public filings, and that this situation is not improving. FF Top also stated its belief that this poor performance is due in significant part to the failings of Mr. Krolicki (who served as Board chairman until certain remedial measures were implemented in early 2022 as a result of an investigation carried out by a special committee of the Board), and the members of the Board with whom he has been aligned – Sue Swenson, Scott Vogel and Jordan Vogel. FF Top expressed its view that Mr. Krolicki has driven, supported or enabled Board decisions that evince poor leadership, disregard for the best interests of stockholders, failures of corporate governance, and a lack of financial prudence.
Additionally, FF Top expressed its view that Mr. Krolicki's prior experience in public finance and governmental relations is "out of step" with the Board's current need for directors that have the experience in private sector finance and complex legal and regulatory issues necessary to guide the Company forward.
FF Top requested that the Company call the Special Meeting to remove Mr. Krolicki pursuant to its rights under the Shareholder Agreement, entered into on July 21, 2021 between FF Top and the Company. The Shareholder Agreement provides FF Top with the right to nominate a specified number of directors to the Board (the "FF Top Designees"), the right to remove any FF Top Designee, and the exclusive right to nominate a replacement nominee to fill any vacancy arising from the removal or resignation of such FF Top Designee. The Shareholder Agreement further states that the Company must use its reasonable best efforts, to the fullest extent permitted by law, at any time and from time to time, to take all "Necessary Action" to facilitate the removal of such an FF Top Designee. Though Mr. Krolicki was appointed to the Board by FF Top as one of the initial "FF Top Designees" pursuant to the Shareholder Agreement, FF Top has since lost confidence in his ability to lead and grown increasingly concerned with his alignment with that subset of the Board it believes have driven the Company down its current failing path.
Faraday Future needs, and its stockholders deserve, a Board that is accountable, financially responsible, focused on the best interests of the Company and its stockholders, and that operates in accordance with corporate governance best practices.
Important Information
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, regarding, among other things, our plans to distribute a definitive proxy statement.
This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein in any state to any person. In addition, the discussions and opinions in this press release and the material contained herein are for general information only and are not intended to provide investment advice. All statements contained in this press release that are not clearly historical in nature or that necessarily depend on future events are "forward-looking statements," which are not guarantees of future performance or results, and the words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "potential," "could," "opportunity," "estimate," and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events except as otherwise required by law.
Additional Information and Where to Find It
This communication may be deemed to be solicitation material in respect of the proposed removal of Mr. Brian Krolicki from the Company's board of directors (the "Removal Proposal"). In connection with the Removal Proposal, we intend to file relevant materials with the SEC, including a definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A. STOCKHOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH THE SEC, INCLUDING THE COMPANY'S DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT AND FF TOP'S DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT (IN EACH CASE WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE), BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE REMOVAL PROPOSAL.
Investors and security holders will be able to obtain the documents free of charge at the SEC's web site, http://www.sec.gov.
Participants in the Solicitation
FF Global Partners LLC ("FF Global"), Pacific Technology Holding LLC ("Pacific Technology") and FF Top Holding LLC may be deemed to be participants (the "Participants") in the solicitation of proxies from the holders of the Company's common stock in respect of the Removal Proposal.
FF Global is owned by its 19 members, including current and former employees and executives of the Company and is governed by a board of six managers who we refer to as the FF Global Managers. The vote of a majority of the FF Global Managers presents at a meeting of the FF Global Executive Committee (assuming a quorum exists) is required to approve certain actions of FF Global, including the voting and disposition of shares of the Company's common stock owned directly or indirectly by FF Global, and the voting of shares owned by other stockholders with respect to which FF Top Holding LLC holds irrevocable proxies and voting control. FF Global is the managing member of Pacific Technology, and Pacific Technology is the manager and indirect sole owner of FF Top Holding LLC.
As of the date of this press release, the Participants beneficially own (within the meaning of Rule 13d-3 under the Exchange Act) an aggregate of 117,705,569 shares of the Company's common stock, comprised of 64,000,588 shares of Class B Common Stock held directly by FF Top Holding LLC, 1,180,689 shares of Class A Common Stock held directly by Pacific Technology, and 53,704,981 shares of Class A Common Stock held by certain other stockholders of the Company with respect to which FF Global exercises voting control. As of the date hereof, based on 327,913,934 shares of Common Stock outstanding (as disclosed by the Company in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, filed with the SEC on August 15, 2022), the Participants collectively beneficially own approximately 35.9% of the Company's outstanding common stock.
Investors may obtain additional information regarding the interests of the Participants by reading FF Top's filings with the SEC, including the Preliminary Proxy Statement and, when filed, our definitive proxy statement, and amendments thereto. The definitive proxy statement will be furnished to some or all of the Company's stockholders and will be, along with other relevant documents, available at no charge on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/.
Media Contact
info@ffglobalpartners.com
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SOURCE FF Top Holding LLC | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/ff-top-major-stockholder-faraday-future-files-preliminary-proxy-statement-special-meeting-stockholders-vote-removal-director-brian-krolicki/ | 2022-08-19T03:44:47Z |
SHANGHAI, Aug. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuance Pharma ("the Company") announces the Center for Drug Evaluation ("CDE") has approved its Investigational New Drug ("IND") application supporting its pivotal clinical trial of Ensifentrine for the maintenance treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ("COPD") in mainland China.
Ensifentrine is a first-in-class, dual inhibitor of the enzymes phosphodiesterase 3 and 4 ("PDE3" and "PDE4") combining bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory activities in one compound. This activity has the potential to alleviate respiratory symptoms such as breathlessness and cough, as well as providing anti-inflammatory benefits for those with COPD.
On August 9th, 2022, Verona Pharma announced its ENHANCE-2 Phase III trial evaluating nebulized Ensifentrine for the maintenance treatment of COPD met its primary endpoint, as well as secondary endpoints demonstrating improvements in lung function, and significantly reduced the rate and risk of COPD exacerbations. Verona Pharma expects to report top-line results from its ongoing ENHANCE-1 Phase III trial around the end of the 2022 and, if similarly positive, plans to submit a New Drug Application to the US Food and Drug Administration for Ensifentrine in 1H2023.
Under this Ensifentrine Chinese IND approval, conduction of both Phase I and Phase III studies in China are granted. According to Dr. Haijin Meng, CMO of Nuance Pharma, the company is planning to conduct a Phase I study to evaluate the detailed pharmacokinetic characteristics of Ensifentrine in healthy Chinese volunteers. Meanwhile, the pivotal Phase III study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Ensifentrine over 24 weeks in patients with moderate to severe COPD. "We are thrilled to introduce this first-in-class molecule to China and give our Chinese investigators and subjects the opportunity to participate in the global clinical development of this novel molecule and to evaluate how to apply it to Chinese COPD clinical setting properly," she said.
In 2021, Nuance Pharma entered into an agreement with Verona Pharma with a potential value of up to $219 million, granting Nuance Pharma exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Ensifentrine in Greater China (mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan). In return, Verona Pharma received an upfront payment of USD 25 million in cash and an equity interest valued at USD 15 million. Meanwhile, Verona Pharma is eligible to receive future milestone payments as well as double-digit royalties as a percentage of net sales in Greater China.
"This is a significant milestone for Nuance Pharma, and we are confident that we will achieve solid and inspiring progress for the development of Ensifentrine in China," commented Mark G. Lotter, CEO and Co-Founder of Nuance Pharma. "COPD is the fifth leading cause of death in China with a reported prevalence of 8.2% in the population aged 40 years and above. We strongly believe Ensifentrine will be an effective COPD therapy to address the unmet medical needs in mainland China."
"We are pleased our development partner, Nuance Pharma, has received IND approval to begin pivotal studies in COPD with Ensifentrine in mainland China," said David Zaccardelli, Pharm. D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Verona Pharma. "This is an important milestone and, based on our recent positive Phase 3 results from our ENHANCE-2 trial in COPD, we remain confident about the potential of Ensifentrine to address the urgent global need for a novel treatment for COPD."
About Ensifentrine
Ensifentrine (RPL554) is an investigational, first-in-class, dual inhibitor of the enzymes phosphodiesterase 3 and 4 ("PDE3" and "PDE4") that combines bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory activities in one compound. In Phase 2 clinical studies in COPD, Ensifentrine has shown significant and clinically meaningful improvements in lung function, symptoms and quality of life as a monotherapy or added onto a maintenance bronchodilator. In the Phase 3 ENHANCE-2 clinical trial, Ensifentrine showed significant and clinically meaningful improvements in lung function measures and reduced the rate of COPD exacerbations. Ensifentrine has been well tolerated in clinical trials involving more than 2,200 subjects to date.
About Nuance Pharma
Nuance Pharma is a patient-centric and innovation focused biopharmaceutical company, with both clinical and commercial stage assets. Founded by Mark Lotter in 2014, with the mission to address critical unmet medical needs in Greater China and Asia Pacific, Nuance's portfolio represents a differentiated combination of commercial stage and innovative pipeline assets across respiratory, pain management, emergency care and iron deficiency anemia. Focusing on specialty care, Nuance deploys the Dual Wheel model that incubates a late clinical stage innovative portfolio, while maintaining a self-sustainable commercial operation.
About Verona Pharma
Verona Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies for the treatment of respiratory diseases with significant unmet medical needs. If successfully developed and approved, Verona Pharma's product candidate, Ensifentrine, has the potential to be the first therapy for the treatment of respiratory diseases that combines bronchodilator and anti-inflammatory activities in one compound. The Company is evaluating nebulized ensifentrine in its Phase 3 clinical program ENHANCE ("Ensifentrine as a Novel inHAled Nebulized COPD thErapy") for COPD maintenance treatment. Ensifentrine met the primary endpoint in ENHANCE-2 demonstrating a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in lung function. In addition, Ensifentrine significantly reduced the rate of COPD exacerbations in the ENHANCE-2 trial. Two additional formulations of Ensifentrine are in Phase 2 development for the treatment of COPD: dry powder inhaler ("DPI") and pressurized metered-dose inhaler ("pMDI"). Ensifentrine also has potential applications in cystic fibrosis, asthma and other respiratory diseases. For more information, please visit www.veronapharma.com.
Forward-looking statements
This announcement includes forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning our plans, objectives, goals, future events, performance and/or other information that is not historical information. All such forward-looking statements are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements and any other cautionary statements which may accompany the forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date made, except as required by law.
Contacts
Nuance Pharma
Verona Pharma PLC.
Victoria Stewart, Director of Investor Relations and Communications, info@verona.com, Tel: +44 (0)203 283 4200
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SOURCE Nuance Pharma Limited | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/nuance-pharma-announces-clearance-ind-application-ensifentrine-pivotal-clinical-trials-copd-china/ | 2022-08-19T03:44:53Z |
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
A secret abortion clinic, hidden cash, police raids and Hollywood stars. At the center of it all, Inez Burns, who made a fortune performing illegal abortions. Chloe Veltman of member station KQED explores her life.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: For decades, Inez Burns lived in a jewel box mansion in San Francisco's Mission District. Jeff Cerf owns the house now. He likes to show off Burns' medical instruments, which were found after her death, including a pair of slender, Victorian-era forceps.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNIPPING FORCEPS)
VELTMAN: In the first half of the 20th century, Burns was one of California's most sought-after abortionists. She's said to have terminated 50,000 pregnancies during her long and lucrative career at a time when doing this could land you in prison. Cerf shows me nooks in his home where Burns stashed her money.
JEFF CERF: There's a part of the wall, you know, the baseboard opens up. So she had a little hiding spot there, but we haven't found any money.
VELTMAN: I'm in the home with author Stephen Bloom, who has a recent book, "The Audacity Of Inez Burns." Bloom tells me Burns was born in San Francisco to a poor German immigrant family in 1886. She learned her craft as a teenager, from her first lover, a prolific abortionist by the name of Eugene West.
STEPHEN BLOOM: Dr. West realized that Inez had the touch and really was able to perform the abortions as well as Dr. West.
VELTMAN: Word got around. She became much in demand. In 1927, Burns set up her own clinic. Local law enforcement took kickbacks and turned a blind eye as she and her staff operated on up to 20 women a day. Bloom says patients ranging from housewives to celebrities, like film star and Olympic skater Sonja Henie, came to Burns for help.
BLOOM: So she really was one of the worst-kept secrets in San Francisco.
VELTMAN: As we walked down the street from Burns' former clinic, Bloom tells me the abortionist's enormous fortune bought her friends in high places, including politicians and lawmakers. But she couldn't buy off ambitious district attorney Pat Brown, who ordered three raids on her clinic in 1945. The first two times, Burns was tipped off. The third time, she was arrested.
BLOOM: Police confiscated oxygen tanks, instruments, actual beds. They were all hauled over to the courthouse and were used as exhibits during the trial.
VELTMAN: Bloom says putting Inez Burns behind bars wasn't easy because some people saw what she did as a valuable service.
BLOOM: The grand jury met twice, and they found nothing wrong with what she was doing, or at least, there wasn't enough evidence to indict her.
VELTMAN: But the abortionist's luck finally ran out. At the age of 61, Burns began serving the first of two state sentences for performing illegal abortions. Bloom says there were federal convictions, too, for tax evasion.
BLOOM: The feds come with a vengeance and take away everything - her Persian carpets, her alabaster bust, all of her furs.
VELTMAN: Meanwhile, DA Pat Brown's quest against corruption and vice paid off. He was elected California attorney general and then governor. Bloom says Burns ended her days penniless and in pain.
BLOOM: She is broken at this point. She's racked with arthritis. She can't perform any more abortions. She wanted to, but her fingers were so riddled with arthritis that she wasn't able to perform them to her satisfaction.
VELTMAN: Inez Burns passed away in 1976 at the age of 89. Three years earlier, the Supreme Court legalized a woman's right to an abortion. For NPR News, I'm Chloe Veltman.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE STILL WATERS' "VARIATIONS ON BALKAN THEMES, OP. 60 - 3. ALLEGRO MA NON TROPPO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-04-22/inez-burns-abortion-clinic-was-one-of-san-franciscos-worst-kept-secrets | 2022-08-19T03:46:20Z |
SALEM — A coalition of 22 environmental, public health and animal welfare groups is petitioning Oregon regulators to adopt new rules targeting air pollution from large-scale dairies.
The petition, filed Aug. 17 with the state Environmental Quality Commission, seeks to create a dairy air emissions program that would apply to farms with 700 or more mature cows, which the federal Environmental Protection Agency defines as a "large" operation.
Under the program, proposed and existing dairies would be required to obtain an air quality permit and curb harmful emissions. They include ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide and particulate matter, among others.
Opponents argue the proposal is misleading, and would include family farms that can ill afford more costly regulations.
Emily Miller, staff attorney for Food and Water Watch, estimated the proposal would apply to 91 dairies in Oregon. That is 39% of all Grade A dairies and have 84% of all cows.
"For too long, the state has sat idly by while Oregon mega-dairies have been spewing toxic pollution into the air, wreaking havoc on our natural resources, climate and communities," said Miller, the petition's lead author. "This head-in-the-sand approach must change."
The commission has 90 days to respond.
Confined animal feeding operations such as dairies are jointly regulated by the state's Department of Agriculture and Department of Environmental Quality.
However, the agencies are only responsible for ensuring the manure handled by CAFOs does not contaminate surface or ground water.
As early as 2008, a state-convened Dairy Air Quality Task Force recommended a dairy air emissions program in its report to ODA. Fourteen years later, Miller said, almost nothing has been done.
"Meanwhile, these operations keep getting bigger and bigger, and keep emitting more pollution into Oregon's atmosphere," she said. "This program is long overdue."
Food and Water Watch's analysis of state and federal data shows dairies with more than 2,500 cows in Oregon collectively release more than 17 million kilograms of methane every year, equivalent to the emissions from 318,000 cars.
Miller said not only are methane emissions exacerbating climate change, but pollutants can also cause health problems for employees and nearby communities. She said more than one-third of all dairy cows in the state are in Umatilla and Morrow counties.
The largest dairy, at Threemile Canyon Farms, has 70,000 cows about 15 miles west of Boardman along the Columbia River.
Mary Anne Cooper, vice president of public policy for the Oregon Farm Bureau, said the petition is a new tactic from groups that have long opposed large dairies.
In 2017, legislation was introduced in the state Senate directing the EQC to establish a dairy air emissions program. That bill, SB 197, died in committee.
Cooper said dairies have already voluntarily adopted best management practices to minimize air emissions, such as a methane digester built at Threemile Canyon Farms, which is used to generate electricity and renewable natural gas.
The petition, Cooper said, claims to address so-called "mega-dairies," yet the threshold of 700 or more cows is "very much family-scale operations in this state."
"You cannot support a family on a couple hundred milk cows," she said. "Their costs already exceed what they're getting on the market for their product."
Between added costs due to inflation and the passage of a state law mandating farmworkers be paid overtime, Cooper said it has already been a difficult year for producers.
"This (air emissions program) will have a real impact on people and on families," she said. "We have an industry with such tight margins. They're already trying to figure out how to accommodate a number of new regulatory burdens this year alone." | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/groups-petition-oregon-to-regulate-dairy-air-emissions/article_0a54b3b4-aa1e-5ce3-b849-a4d030c6db6a.html | 2022-08-19T03:59:08Z |
Even in communities hardest hit by the effects of COVID-19, a constant safe haven exists. Seniors have continued to rely on pharmacists as a trusted source of care and support to manage their health. The pandemic exposed how fragile our healthcare system is and demonstrated how essential pharmacists are to bridging gaps in access for older Americans.
But those lessons are lost if we fail to ensure that older Americans have continued access to pharmacist services beyond COVID-19. Congress has the opportunity to ensure seniors maintain access to tests, vaccines and treatments from pharmacists now and in the future — something the overwhelming majority of older Americans agree needs to happen now.
The pandemic has taken the greatest toll on older adults. Those 65 and older account for 16% of the U.S. population but 80% of all COVID-19 deaths. Research had found that transportation barriers to health are significant for older adults and can prevent access to essential services, which was made more critical at the height of the pandemic when tests and then vaccines were made available to seniors in their communities.
Pharmacists have been essential in protecting seniors from COVID-19 at those moments and ensuring older Americans can manage their health during the pandemic, including the 85% of adults 65 and older who have at least one chronic condition such as diabetes, arthritis and hypertension.
Unfortunately, pharmacists are providing these services under temporary federal authorities that were implemented with the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. When the emergency declaration ends, seniors and other vulnerable communities could lose access to the essential services they rely on for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases like influenza and strep throat.
This March, Congress introduced federal legislation to smooth over a potential access gap for seniors and ensure Medicare beneficiaries maintain access to essential care and services provided by pharmacists. Championed by Reps. Ron Kind, D-Wis., David McKinley, R-W.Va., Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., and Buddy Carter, R-Ga., the bipartisan legislation that would create Medicare Part B reimbursement mechanisms for pharmacists’ services related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases, including flu, strep throat and RSV. The bill would also ensure pharmacists are compensated for these services after the Public Health Emergency ends and during future health emergencies.
There is overwhelming support for the legislation. According to a new national survey, more than 80% of older Americans — including more than 90% of Hispanic-Americans — agree that the government should reimburse pharmacists for testing, vaccination and treatment for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. The same survey shows that four in every five older Americans want access to testing, vaccination and treatment at the pharmacy, including nearly 60% of minority communities.
The 65-and-older population grew by more than a third during the past decade and is projected to nearly double from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060. Aging populations will continue to rely on pharmacists as an accessible source of care and support today and tomorrow. Older Americans — particularly those in rural and underserved communities — rely on pharmacists to access care and services where limited or no other options exist.
Congress should heed the call of Americans who agree that the government should preserve patient access to essential services provided by pharmacists. Congress should act on the legislation to ensure patients can continue to have access to essential services from pharmacists now and in the future.
Mark Gibbons is the president and CEO of RetireSafe. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/opinion-congress-must-act-to-ensure-vital-pharmacy-health-services-for-older-americans/article_5a8e43a1-0a13-5755-9065-ecf43ad8af95.html | 2022-08-19T03:59:14Z |
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...
To readers of a certain age who grew up watching cowboy movies on TV, that timeless phrase signals a major plot development. Maybe the scheming rancher with the mustache is ordering his henchmen to saddle up. Alternately, a hero in a white hat may be entering the fray.
Either way, somebody’s about to get a surprise.
Sometimes, politics works that way, too.
One year ago, I posted the following on my Facebook page: “Regarding Biden’s speech about the Afghan collapse: I haven’t seen such passionate unanimity among the DC commentariat since they went all-in on the absolute necessity of invading Iraq.”
Pretty much from that day, Joe Biden has been depicted in the national political press as the proverbial Dead Man Walking. “Sleepy Joe,” as Donald Trump dubbed him, was headed for a midterm shellacking.
Come Nov. 8, 2022, resurgent Republicans would take over both houses of Congress and spend the remaining two years of Biden’s futile presidency investigating his troubled son, Hunter.
Maybe Hillary Clinton, too.
In retrospect, the Afghan retreat wasn’t such a catastrophe after all. After Trump surrendered to the Taliban, agreeing to leave Afghanistan without consulting its U.S.-backed government, the die was cast. Biden either needed to re-escalate or get out fast. One thing you won’t hear today is anybody keen to go back in. It’s both unthinkable and unthought.
Then came sky-high gas prices and inflation, making the president’s political future look dim. No matter which channel you watched, every TV news broadcast featured somebody griping at a gas pump or squawking about expensive eggs. On supposedly liberal CNN, Wolf Blitzer practically snarled “inflation” at every Democrat he interviewed.
And it was all Biden’s fault, particularly the parts he had absolutely no control over, such as the worldwide price of crude oil.
Let’s Go, Brandon.
Back at the ranch, however, Brandon got going. Or something. Due to circumstances beyond the U.S. president’s control, such as China’s sputtering economy, oil prices began to drop, and with them the cost of gasoline. And largely due to actions by the Federal Reserve, also outside Biden’s jurisdiction, inflation began to level off.
Syndicated columnist Froma Harrop noticed the supposedly liberal New York Times – sometimes I think that should be the newspaper’s official name – giving the president grudging praise: “Slowing inflation gave Biden a reprieve but high prices remain a political problem.”
Still high, yes, but moving in the right direction.
Job growth, meanwhile, remained strong. Fully 500,000 Americans found new jobs last month. The news media started to notice that the national unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low. With gas prices dropping, how long before Americans notice that the U.S. economy is actually quite strong? In politics, momentum counts.
And then came the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, essentially ruling that citizens in different states have different constitutional rights, and that women have fewer of them than men. Kansas voters turned out in record numbers to show what middle America thought of that – an electoral thunderbolt that imperils far-right Republicans.
“The situation has changed with astonishing speed,” wrote New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait. “In the span of a few weeks, Biden’s presidency is back from the dead and looking something close to triumphant.”
Even before the Democrats’ recent extraordinary legislative achievements – the Inflation Reduction Act, enacting higher taxes on profitable corporations, enabling Medicare to bargain down drug costs, cutting drug prices, giving the IRS resources to pursue wealthy tax cheats, and boosting green energy while supporting fossil fuel production in the meantime – polls had begun to show a marked shift in the Democrats’ direction.
Yes, a lot of it’s due to Sen. Joe Manchin’s extraordinary change of heart, but it was old Sleepy Joe who urged Democrats to understand where the West Virginian was coming from. Many progressive Democrats wanted to purge him. Fat lot of good that would have done.
Democrats have even gained a half-point lead over Republicans nationwide in the so-called “generic ballot” that asks voters which party they’re inclined to support in congressional elections. As The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank points out, that’s “the first time in the modern era” that “momentum has shifted toward an incumbent president’s party at this point in a midterm election year.”
Of course, polls are only polls, and anything can happen between now and November. The Biden administration has also gotten a lot of help from Republicans. Whatever possessed GOP senators to vote against health care for veterans sickened by military “burn pits”? Or to kill legislation capping the price of insulin?
Then there’s Old Unreliable, Donald J. Trump, forcing himself into the spotlight again, the spittle-flecked face of Republican rage. So, what’ll it be, America? Steady Old Good-Government Joe or the Sideshow Ape Man, hooting and flinging feces – er, ketchup?
America made this choice once, and decisively.
Must we really do it again?
Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President” (St. Martin’s Press, 2000). You can email Lyons at eugenelyons2@yahoo.com. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/opinion-things-are-looking-up/article_85f80aa6-9730-50a7-91b9-873dd9913250.html | 2022-08-19T03:59:21Z |
Students hit the pickleball as it is lobbed over the net during the first pickleball camp sponsored by Klamath County School District and the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association.
Students hit the pickleball as it is lobbed over the net during the first pickleball camp sponsored by Klamath County School District and the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association.
Volunteers with the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association demonstrate the rules of serving to elementary school students attending the first pickleball camp this week at Henley and Mazama.
Students hit the pickleball as it is lobbed over the net during the first pickleball camp sponsored by Klamath County School District and the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association.
Marcia Schlottmann/Special to the Herald & News
Students hit the pickleball as it is lobbed over the net during the first pickleball camp sponsored by Klamath County School District and the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association.
Marcia Schlottmann/Special to the Herald & News
A volunteer with the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association shows a student how to serve the ball.
Marcia Schlottmann/Special to the Herald & News
Volunteers with the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association demonstrate the rules of serving to elementary school students attending the first pickleball camp this week at Henley and Mazama.
Violet Wyatt had never heard of pickleball before she showed up Monday for the first day of a week-long camp featuring the game.
Neither had Archer Fincher and Harper Balsz. But by the second day of camp, the three third-graders were volleying the plastic balls used in the game across nets, practicing serves, and grinning as they scrambled to hit the ball with their paddles.
“It’s fun,” Archer said. “I’m pretty good, too. I’m better at this than other sports.”
The Klamath County School District partnered with the Klamath Basin Pickleball Association this summer to purchase equipment and create pickleball courts on existing tennis courts at Mazama and Henley high schools. Local pickleball players then volunteered their expertise and time to coach students in a free week-long camp aimed at introducing youth to the game.
KCSD Superintendent Glen Szymoniak and KBPA member Cec Amuchastegui worked together to get the program off the ground. The district provided resources using federal ESSER funds and club members took the lead.
“The district is doing everything it can to reengage our students fully, and we are working with community partners to do so,” Szymoniak said. “The Klamath Basin Pickleball Association stepped up to make this happen, activating members to get the equipment, paint the lines, and volunteer as coaches.”
Amuchastegui said local club members are excited about growing the sport in Klamath Falls as well as connecting with youth and families. There are club members who represent three generations.
“It’s a lifelong sport that you can learn and play at any age,” she said. “Once you start playing, you just get hooked.”
Szymoniak sees an opportunity not just for district students but for the community. Klamath Falls currently has indoor pickleball courts at Mike’s Fieldhouse and outdoor courts at Steens Sports Park and Stukel Park. Now the tennis courts at Mazama and Henley can now accommodate pickleball games as well.
Klamath Basin Pickleball Club members are offering training for teachers at KCSD’s inservice later this month, and the district hopes to eventually incorporate pickleball into P.E. programs.
Tiffany Poe, P.E. teacher at Shasta Elementary School, was at the Henley camp Tuesday, helping the coaches and learning the game.
“It’s fun for the kids, and good for hand-eye coordination,” she said.
Pickleball is a game that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong using a paddle and plastic ball with holes.
For the KCSD Pickleball Camp, KBPA president Bill Kuerz developed lesson plans and club member and retired elementary teacher Sandy Pine facilitated how to teach the skills to elementary students.
More than 50 students signed up for the free program, which featured two-hour morning and afternoon sessions coached by 25 volunteers, who embraced teaching the game to the next generation.
One of those volunteers was Greg Cunningham. A firefighter with Klamath County Fire District No. 1, he is one of the lead pickleball coaches for the local club.
Cunningham, a multi-sport competitive athlete in high school, was excited to be working with youth.
“I have never fallen in love with a sport as much as this one,” he said. “It’s just great, and I think the kids are having a blast.”
During a short break in the action, Harper, Archer, and Violet took turns trying to describe pickleball.
They all compared it to tennis, but with a twist.
“Like tennis but different,” Archer said.
“It’s kind of like spike ball plus tennis,” Violet chimed in.
“Like softball plus tennis,” Harper added.
Klamath Basin Pickleball Association offers Pickleball 101 lessons the second Saturday of each month, and is inviting parents to come with their children to learn the sport. For more information, go to their website at www.kbpickleball.com. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/klamath/pickleball-the-next-generation/article_1d423f96-5cac-5078-b9b1-c4878bce7eba.html | 2022-08-19T03:59:27Z |
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They came in all shapes and sizes from every corner of Klamath Falls. They wore button-down shirts and tank tops. Baggy camo pants and yellow summer dresses. There was a man with dog tags and a man with a dog.
On Wednesday, Aug. 17, the First United Methodist Church in Klamath Falls hosted a celebratory community dinner, drawing a close to the PALM dinner services after 15 years.
PALM — Provide a Loving Meal — has served dinners in the church basement every Tuesday and Sunday since it began in 2007. Since the church began keeping track in 2011, they have served more than 155,000 meals.
Attendees gathered near the kitchen, piling their plates with sandwiches, watermelon, veggies and potato chips. At the end of the meal, volunteers brought out big trays of cake and delivered them to the guests.
Pastor James Matichuk presented a plaque to Vickie and Don Dumbeck, who have hosted the service since its inception, thanking them for their dedicated service. The Dumbecks sat at a table near the center of the room, where they were honored with gifts and hugs from the night’s attendees.
“It’s been a joy for us,” Vickie said. “We’ve really made a family from all people at PALM.”
While balloons, flowers and piles of candy decorated the tabletops, the event itself was bittersweet. Matichuk called it a “celebration of life.” When people stood up to share their thoughts and feelings about PALM, they addressed it much like one would a beloved friend who had passed away.
Allen Wenick attended Wednesday’s celebration, splitting his time between taking part in the event and volunteering in the kitchen. He said that while other services in town such as the Klamath Falls Gospel Mission provide meals every day to those who need it, the sense of community provided by PALM will be greatly missed.
Melissa Cannon and Antoine Buchanan arrived together, shortly after most of the attendees had sat down with their dinners. They each have relied on the services provided by PALM, both for the meals themselves and for the community, which they have not been able to find elsewhere.
“This is the only thing that brings the community together,” Cannon said. “Literally.”
She said that people at the church have been warm and welcoming, and that it’s the closest thing she has to a family dinner.
“I’m not from here, so I appreciate when other folks speak to me and make me feel like a human being,” Buchanan said. He said he used to sleep on the church steps, spending more than one winter out on the streets where he struggled to stay warm and safe.
Since then, Buchanan has found a job in Klamath Falls with Reach, where he says he met welcoming members of the community who helped him get on his feet. According to their website, Reach Inc. is a non-profit organization that provides work opportunities for people with disabilities, and those who have barriers to employment.
As people began to file out, depositing their empty plates in the garbage can, Cannon looked around, watching them exit the church basement for what might be the last time.
With an exaggerated frown, she said, “I’m afraid I’m never going to see anybody again.”
Matichuk said the Catholic church will serve dinners the second Sunday of each month, and that he was in the process of trying to get volunteers to cover an additional Sunday. But these services will not fill the gap left by PALM’s departure.
“The bottom line,” he said, “is that we don’t have anyone at the church who can do what they’ve been doing on a regular basis.” | https://www.heraldandnews.com/news/final-palm-dinner-service-provided-at-first-united-methodist-church-in-klamath-falls/article_14a62804-1f42-11ed-b11f-33f3700efc06.html | 2022-08-19T03:59:39Z |
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Oregon Tech has announced the hiring of Mike Anderson as interim men’s and women’s cross country coach for the 2022 season.
Anderson joins the staff after 15 years as the top assistant at College of Idaho, helping the Yotes to a combined 19 Cascade Conference cross country and track championships. In 2021, he was honored as the USTFCCCA West Region Women’s Track and Field Assistant Coach of the Year.
The native of Ilwaco, Wash., helped build C of I into one of the premier distance running programs in the Northwest – coaching four student-athletes to individual NAIA national titles and leading teams to eight top-five finishes at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships.
Anderson is a 2001 graduate of Eastern Oregon, earning NAIA Cross Country All-America honors in 2000. Post-collegiately, he placed third at the 2008 USATF Trail Marathon Championships.
A search for a permanent cross country and track head coach will begin later this year.
Volleyball
Owls open with two losses: Despite a school record from libero Aubrey Kievit and 20 kills from Nicole Reyes, Oregon Tech couldn’t hold off two-time defending NAIA national quarterfinalist Concordia (Neb.), dropping a four-set match at the Raider Invitational in Ashland.
OIT staved off five set points to win the opening set, but the Bulldogs scored the final four points of set 2 to even the match. The Nebraska squad posted their two best attack percentages of the match in the final two sets to earn the victory.
Kievit had 32 digs – the most by a Lady Owl in a four-set match in program history – and became the first player with multiple matches with 32-or-more digs.
Reyes recorded her fifth 20-or-more kill match and her 44th career double-double.
Later in the day, the Owls finished the opening day 0-2 after a 4-set loss to Park-Gilbert.
Kaylin Talonen had 16 kills and Molly Grace tied a career high with 11 kills in the loss for the Lady Owls. | https://www.heraldandnews.com/sports/oit-notebook-mike-anderson-named-interim-cross-country-coach/article_2d00422c-1f51-11ed-8bee-5342261adcb1.html | 2022-08-19T03:59:51Z |
For African-American athletes, sports will never be just a game, says sports writer Howard Bryant. "This is a question of black body versus black brain," he says. "In the United States, the black body has always been what's been compensated — whether you can sing, whether you can dance, whether you can ... work manually. That's what we care about. That's the currency."
Bryant, a senior writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine, traces the legacy of black athlete activists in his new book, The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism. He says there were "40 years of dormancy" when black athletes by and large didn't use their platforms to advocate for social change. Now, with NFL players taking a knee during the national anthem, athletes are once again asserting their voices.
This coincides with a particular moment in post-9/11 America, he explains. Newer sports fans may not realize it's a relatively recent phenomenon that arenas and stadiums celebrate the U.S. armed forces and law enforcement with military flags, flyovers and first responders throwing out ceremonial pitches. This display of patriotism, Bryant says, "is colliding with the sudden revival of the African-American player ... protesting police brutality."
Interview Highlights
On why some fans think athletes should keep their politics off the field
You cannot separate 9/11 from what's happening with the black athlete today because the white athletes and anybody else who tried to challenge what was taking place after the towers fell — they felt the wrath. It's not necessarily a racial issue only. This is a question of patriotism — of weaponizing patriotism, of weaponizing jingoism, and of weaponizing the flag and of being able to speak.
On the athletes having first-hand experience with the issues
We see famous people speaking out of their depth all the time. And then you hear people say: Shut up and play, or shut up and act, or we don't want to hear from you. But on this subject, this is an area where ballplayers actually have direct knowledge and direct experience ... We should be listening to LeBron James, who comes from a tough neighborhood in Akron. We should be listening to Carmelo Anthony, who's from West Baltimore, where Freddie Gray was killed.
On athletes who choose not to use their platforms to advocate for social change
O.J. [Simpson] was the first athlete who really opened the door to endorsements and to the big money. And then with free agency in the '70s, ballplayers were ... on their way to becoming super-rich, as they are today. And then by the time you get to the '80s, you've got Michael Jordan, who really was the guy who identified the player with commerce. And he was the guy who became 'a brand,' as they say today.
And you did not hear elite athletes talk about anything important. They did not get involved in social issues. You didn't see players get involved with Rodney King when we actually saw videotape of what took place. And it's not just Michael Jordan. Magic Johnson and Patrick Ewing and the rest of them — they did not get involved at all. And I think that the sports fan got really comfortable with that, and that's why today [when athletes are protesting, it] is so jarring.
On whether sports can ever be 'just a game' for black athletes
I don't see any mechanism for that happening, especially when you look at colleges. You see how much push back you get to compensating athletes. But at the same time, you don't see a great deal of interest in educating athletes. ...
What has been difficult in doing a lot of research for this book is you recognize that college was supposed to be the place ... where that began to go away. But yet, more and more and more of these athletes — whether it's the one-and-done rule, or whether they're working at Home Depot because they blow out their knee — they're not being educated. So when black body is secondary to black brain, then maybe things will change.
Sarah Handel and Ed McNulty produced and edited this story for broadcast. Sarah Handel adapted it for the Web.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-05-05/to-play-protest-or-both-book-traces-the-heritage-of-black-athlete-activists | 2022-08-19T04:01:03Z |
Leon Bridges is more than a Sam Cooke comparison. The Fort Worth, Tex. singer exploded onto the music scene in 2015 thanks to his old-school, doo-wop sound. Three years later, the 28-year-old is proving he has more to offer with his sophomore album Good Thing. He's mixed his signature soul with R&B flavors from later decades. But he's not leaving the past completely behind.
Many of the songs on the album, like "If It Feels Good (Then It Must Be)" sound nothing like the soul ballads of Bridges' debut Coming Home. "I'm very thankful for what Coming Home did, but I didn't want to be placed in this box and depended upon as like, this Sam Cooke prodigy," Bridges says. "I wanted to be able to take elements from Coming Home, but move the sound forward."
The tender love songs on Good Thing reach to greater depths than their 2015 precursors. Bridges says love songs are the essence of R&B, and it's especially clear on his single "Bet Ain't Worth The Hand", that he takes the art to heart and writes from experience.
"Forgive You" is written from the perspective of an ex-girlfriend of his. Bridges kept that relationship from his mother, who raised him in a religious household.
"I was taught that if you're not going to pursue a woman in marriage then anything else in between is sin," he explains. "At that time I was living with that certain girl. So I had to really keep that away from my mother."
This narrative also appeared on Coming Home, albeit less brazenly. "I felt that those songs, as innocent as they are, [were a] big step because it just wasn't gospel music," he says.
Songs like "Georgia To Texas" chronicle personal vignettes from Bridges' life, like his birth in Atlanta — "the land of the peach" — and move to Forth Worth.
Bridges clarifies that his distancing himself from old-school stylings doesn't mean they're gone forever. "When I made Coming Home ... I felt it was necessary to tell my narrative and my family's narrative through '60s R&B," he says. "I wanted to kind of prove that this style of music is black music because I've heard ignorant things that people say, as far as that what I make is for white people." He points out that to compare him to classic soul singers doesn't do justice to his own artistry. It removes agency from the musician to assume a white audience.
"I came into the whole music industry with this retro sound ... That's still a part of me," Bridges says. "But that doesn't totally define who I am as an artist."
News Assistant Stefanie Fernández contributed to this story.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/arts-culture/2018-05-04/leon-bridges-remixes-his-retro-style-to-move-the-sound-forward | 2022-08-19T04:01:09Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Our next guest says China's economic pressure on North Korea was key to prompting Kim Jong Un to start negotiating.
WILLIAM BROWN: China has come to the plate just in the last six months and slammed shut its imports from North Korea.
SHAPIRO: William Brown says if China keeps that door shut, it would devastate North Korea's already shackled economy. Brown is a retired CIA officer who worked on North Korea. He now teaches at Georgetown University. I asked him to explain how the North Korean economy works and where he thinks it could go. He says officially, North Korea has a command economy, meaning it's controlled by the government.
BROWN: Money doesn't operate. A ration ticket decides how much you eat, where you live, where you go to school, your doctor. Everything is dependent on that ration.
SHAPIRO: But North Korea is not a purely command economy. It's a mix, right?
BROWN: Right. It had a famine in the middle 1990s. As a result, the ration system broke down, and money started to circulate. But the money economy has never really totally taken hold. So they're in this very awkward, extremely inefficient half-market, half-command economy, which is kind of the worst of all worlds, if you think about it.
SHAPIRO: You had an interesting example of how this works involving electricity, which is free, but only for an hour or two a day.
BROWN: Yes.
SHAPIRO: So what do people do to get around this?
BROWN: They're buying car batteries from China, for example. And when the electricity is on, they'll plug them in, charge them up. It's free. They might use it for their own cell phone or whatever. But more likely, they'll take it down on the street and sell electricity at a huge price, right? So it's innovative. It shows you how enterprising North Koreans are. They're all this way.
SHAPIRO: Yeah, innovative, enterprising and also a huge headache for the people involved.
BROWN: Yes.
SHAPIRO: What does this mean for ordinary North Koreans?
BROWN: Well, they've learned to adapt. I mean, the famine forced them to adapt. Their standard of living is about, like, maybe Sudan, someplace like - about the lowest in the world. So here are educated people in a wonderful location, between China and Japan, eking out an incredibly low income.
SHAPIRO: So in terms of people's actual jobs, they're working.
BROWN: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: They're getting wages.
BROWN: The state wage is between 3,000 and 5,000 won per month.
SHAPIRO: How many dollars would that be?
BROWN: Forty cents a month.
SHAPIRO: A month.
BROWN: If that. You can't buy a cup of coffee. But within that state system, you get free perks, free housing, free everything, right? If you're working for a Chinese company in North Korea, you can get 300,000 won per month. Now, that's $40. It's still not much by our standards, but it's a lot more than the 40 cents.
SHAPIRO: Than the textile worker making 40 cents.
BROWN: So ideally, a family will have people in multiple jobs. And even if you just have a state job - a high school teacher, doctor or nurse, whoever you are - even a military person will sell their services on the market and not do their state job.
SHAPIRO: And is that part of what's making Kim Jong Un feel pressure to change his economy?
BROWN: Absolutely. I mean, he looks around and sees state machinery not being worked and everybody using state property to make private income. You know, he gave a kind of an amazing speech in April in which he says byungjin, the parallel development of nukes and economy, is over. We're now going to focus on the economy. This is a pretty big thing, especially because North Koreans now are getting very optimistic that something good is going to happen on the economy.
SHAPIRO: What would a reformed North Korean economy look like? Would it be like the Soviet economy or China or more like the United States?
BROWN: The new system would be a hard shift toward a open-money system. They're already halfway there. That's why I think they can do it. China has done it well over 30 years - how have they done it? They've slowly privatized their economy. So right now, North Korea owns the whole dadgum country. That's that Marxist system. China did in 1978. North Korea's effectively bankrupt. Nobody will lend them a dime.
But I like to think they're illiquid and not insolvent. They own so much assets - the government does. All they have to do is slowly, gradually peel off government assets and suck in the money. Sell farms. Sell apartment buildings. Sell coal lots - whatever. So by doing that, they pull in money to the government. That allows the government to sort of raise the wages for its workers. It's not that hard a solution. That's what I would hope that Kim Jong Un is starting to realize. There is a positive way that he can do this.
SHAPIRO: Bill Brown, formerly of the CIA, now with the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, thanks for joining us today.
BROWN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/a-look-at-how-north-koreas-economy-works | 2022-08-19T04:16:26Z |
Updated at 4:30 p.m. ET
Amid an unceasing series of revelations about alleged ethical misconduct, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is rapidly losing support with influential Republican lawmakers and conservatives who, until now, have strongly backed Pruitt and the pro-fossil fuel deregulatory agenda he's implemented.
In recent days, new reports have emerged showing that Pruitt repeatedly used his position to seek employment and business opportunities for his wife, and had agency staffers doing personal errands on his behalf — both allegations that could run afoul of federal ethics laws. At least a dozen investigations are underway into various aspects of Pruitt's conduct.
"PRUITT BAD JUDGMENT HURTING @POTUS, GOTTA GO," tweeted influential conservative talk radio host and Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham on Wednesday.
"It just doesn't look good. If you want to drain the swamp, you got to have people in it who forego personal benefits and don't send your aides around doing personal errands on the taxpayer dime, otherwise you make everyone else look bad," said Ingraham on her radio show on Wednesday.
"All these things that are coming are really not good things," said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. in an interview with Ingraham. "I've kind of taken the position that if that doesn't stop, I'm going to be forced to be in a position where I'm going to say, 'Scott you're not doing your job.'"
Inhofe is one of Pruitt's political mentors and allies from his home state of Oklahoma and said the Senate should hold hearings into Pruitt's scandals.
"I support Sen. Inhofe's call for a hearing on EPA Administrator Pruitt's scandals; and I continue to urge the President to take a hard look at Mr. Pruitt's actions — as I do not feel that Mr. Pruitt is serving President Trump's best interests," tweeted Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa later in the day. Ernst and fellow Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley have particularly clashed with Pruitt over rules around the use of ethanol.
I support Sen. @JimInhofe’s call for a hearing on EPA Administrator Pruitt’s scandals; and I continue to urge the President to take a hard look at Mr. Pruitt’s actions – as I do not feel that Mr. Pruitt is serving @RealDonaldTrump’s best interests.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) June 13, 2018
Conservative condemnation of Pruitt's behavior has stepped up as Pruitt's ethical problems have deepened.
The American Future Fund, a political nonprofit, is running a campaign-style television ad calling Pruitt a "swamp monster" and using a clip of President Trump when he hosted "The Apprentice" saying "You're fired."
A scathing editorial published by the National Review said, "we are now at a point where a good week for Pruitt sees only one report of behavior that is bizarre or venal."
"This is no way for any public official to treat taxpayers," the influential conservative magazine continued. "It also makes it practically impossible for Pruitt to make the case for the Trump administration's environmental policies — a case that we continue to believe deserves to be made."
Deputy administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist, would be a likely candidate for the job, were it to be vacated by Pruitt.
In his interview with Ingraham, Inhofe suggested that it could be a "good swap" if Wheeler took over the EPA.
During a regular press conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., deflected questions about Pruitt's controversies. "Frankly, I haven't paid that close attention to them."
So far, Pruitt's ethical lapses have not crimped President Trump's support for his top environmental regulator.
"Scott Pruitt is doing a great job within the walls of the EPA. I mean, we're setting records," said Trump last week. "Outside, he's being attacked very viciously by the press. And I'm not saying that he's blameless, but we'll see what happens."
All of this fits a Washington pattern, said former congressman, now-lobbyist Tom Davis.
"Scott's got some really powerful enemies in this town. And they're not gonna let up," Davis said, referring to a treasure trove of EPA emails that environmental groups got through Freedom Of Information requests. But the emails only documented Pruitt's conduct.
"It looks to me like the snowball is rolling down hill and it's just gathering more and more," said Davis. "I don't know what he does to reverse it at this point."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/as-the-scandals-mount-conservatives-turn-on-scott-pruitt | 2022-08-19T04:16:32Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Despite its title, the new romantic comedy "The Year Of Spectacular Men" is mostly about women. Critic Bob Mondello says men do play a role, though, by providing lots of complications.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: From the start, there's a Woody Allen vibe - early Woody Allen.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Izzy was the first girl I met in, I mean, years who was...
MONDELLO: This is the boyfriend...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) ...Insecure enough...
MONDELLO: ...Who is no great catch.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) ...To think that I was right for her.
MONDELLO: Then there's the self-absorbed actor...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) She was insistent that I told her how I felt. Can you believe that? Who does that?
MONDELLO: ...And the admittedly sweet but really inarticulate musician...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character) Dude, she's my fabric softener.
MONDELLO: ...And others, none of them quite right for Izzy, who is just finishing college in New York and having a quarter-life crisis wondering what to do next. Her little sister has plenty of ideas.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
ZOEY DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) Why don't you take the year for yourself? You're a millennial. You could try the whole, like, having fun in your 20s thing. They're all doing it except for me.
MONDELLO: Sabrina is a model/actress who's a big enough deal to get recognized as they're walking.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Oh, my God, Sabrina, can I get a pic?
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) Yeah.
MONDELLO: This does nothing of course for Izzy's self-esteem, but she recognizes that while Sabrina may be the little sister, she's the wiser sister when it comes to romantic breakups.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) What? He leaves you in a totally heartless way and is shallower than a kiddie pool. You're post-breakup. You're pre-real world. Save a little face while you still have some.
MONDELLO: And Sabrina has a couch to crash on when the boyfriend kicks Izzy out, which makes listening to advice kind of a requirement.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) How many times did you call me and you were like, he's a lunatic? He is a lunatic.
MADELYN DEUTCH: (As Izzy) I'm doing a scene with a really hot new guy from class.
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) When I said there are other fishes in the sea, I meant, like, look through the sea, not immediately at the first person that shows up.
MONDELLO: If these two sound like sisters, it's partly because in real life they are sisters. Madelyn Deutch, who plays Izzy, also wrote the script. Zoey Deutch, who plays Sabrina, is indeed a successful model/slash actress. Their mother is Lea Thompson, who got her acting break in another growing-up saga, "Back To The Future." She's sitting in the director's chair for this one and playing their mother.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
LEA THOMPSON: (As Deb) Honey, Sabrina told me you had waffles for dinner the other night.
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) Why are you - you and Sabrina have conversations about my diet?
THOMPSON: (As Deb) It's a concern of the family's.
MONDELLO: So in many senses, "The Year Of Spectacular Men" is a family affair. It's also a consistently funny affair not just when Izzy's interacting with the variously unspectacular men on offer but in the sisters' inevitable Monday morning quarterbacking.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) I think it's over.
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) You can never trust a guy who has 20 of the same shirt in the same color. It's not natural. That's not OK.
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) It's not.
MONDELLO: Being woman-centric, the film qualifies as a nice corrective to the sort of comedies it most resembles, those '80s rom coms that joked about romance novel conventions without actually challenging them. The script's take on Hollywood is amusingly in the know - the Greek chorus of paparazzi outside Sabrina's apartment, the Hollywood couple that's not stuck on itself, the indignities of the audition circuit. For a film that marks both a screenwriting debut and a big screen directing debut, "The Year Of Spectacular Men" makes very few rookie mistakes, and the ones it does are easily outweighed by the snap of the dialogue.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE YEAR OF SPECTACULAR MEN")
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) All I said was that he's good-looking. That's it.
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) Don't do it, Izzy.
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) All I...
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) Don't...
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) That's...
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) ...Do...
M. DEUTCH: (As Izzy) So...
Z. DEUTCH: (As Sabrina) ...It.
MONDELLO: Also by the believable back-and-forth of two fun sisters playing sisters. I'm Bob Mondello. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/despite-its-title-the-year-of-spectacular-men-is-mostly-about-women | 2022-08-19T04:16:39Z |
It's been clear for many years that vitamin D helps keep bones strong, but studies have been inconclusive and conflicting about the vitamin's value in protecting against certain cancers, including colorectal cancer.
Now a large international study provides the strongest evidence yet that vitamin D may indeed be protective against colorectal cancer and that a deficiency may increase the risk of this cancer. The findings appear Thursday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"For both men and women, deficient levels of vitamin D were associated with a 30 percent increased risk of colorectal cancer," says Marji McCullough, a nutritional epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society and study co-author. People who had higher circulating blood levels of vitamin D, above the range deemed "sufficient," had a 22 percent lower risk, she says.
The study pooled findings from 17 previous studies that included 12,813 adults in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Those studies collectively looked at 5,706 people with colorectal cancer and 7,107 people of a similar age and race who didn't have cancer. Women's menopausal status was also taken into account.
To determine what role vitamin D might be playing, researchers looked at participants' blood samples collected in the years before their cancer diagnosis. They also considered the established risk factors for colorectal cancer, including smoking, low physical activity and high body mass index.
"Our findings suggest what's optimal for bone health may not be optimal for colorectal risk reduction," McCullough says, which could mean higher doses are needed to prevent cancer. Current recommendations for vitamin D supplementation are based solely on studies showing conclusively that it does preserve bone health.
A particularly provocative finding of the study, McCullough says, is the relatively strong correlation between higher blood levels of vitamin D and lower risk of colorectal cancer in women.
"We don't know why," she says. One hypothesis is that there is some interaction between vitamin D and female hormones. Or it's possible vitamin D prevents cancer by reducing the proliferation of tumor cells or by stopping their growth and "actually killing those cells," she says.
Studies like this do not prove cause and effect but rather show only that there may be a connection between the levels of vitamin D circulating through the body and cancer. Still, the authors of the paper write that the results "substantially strengthen the evidence, previously considered inconclusive, for a causal relationship" between low vitamin D levels and colorectal cancer.
Another interesting observation in the study, McCullough says, was that beyond a certain level, increasingly higher amounts of vitamin D in the blood had no additional benefit. At the highest levels above what is considered "adequate," there was no further reduction in risk. In other words, she says, "more is not necessarily better."
Her take-home message: Don't race out and buy high doses of vitamin D "just in case." Overdoing it can be toxic. Taking too much vitamin D can cause kidney stones and, in very rare cases, death.
The issue of whether vitamin D supplements should be used at all to prevent colorectal cancer is still up in the air. "The key question now is whether intervening with people who have low levels of vitamin D can make a difference," says Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who was not involved in the study.
The study didn't evaluate whether adding vitamin D through food, sunlight or supplements made a difference in cancer risk. It was limited to looking at the level of vitamin D in people's blood.
Currently, a large study involving more than 25,000 patients is underway at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston to find out whether taking vitamin D supplements might reduce the risk of numerous cancers as well as heart disease and stroke. Meyerhardt says answers may be available in the coming year.
In the meantime, he suggests people talk with their health care provider about having a blood test to measure vitamin D levels. If you're starting in the deficient range, he says, some doctors might prescribe high doses, to be taken each week for a month or two, and then prescribe lower, maintenance levels.
The cancer society's McCullough says it is generally recommended that adults have a daily intake of 600 international units of vitamin D up to age 70. Men and women over age 70 should increase their uptake to 800 IUs daily, she says.
People should talk with their doctor because different individuals have different needs, she says.
"It depends on where you live and what race you are, because darker skin tends to absorb less vitamin D." Sun, age, genetics and weight also play a role in how the body processes vitamin D.
Vitamin D can be obtained from vitamin D-rich foods such as egg yolks, salmon, trout, swordfish, tuna and sardines. Numerous foods are fortified with vitamin D including cow's milk, almond milk, soy milk, some cereals and some orange juices.
"If you have a serving of salmon, that's about 500 IUs, and a cup of milk would give you 100 IUs," McCullough says, which adds up to the daily recommended dose of 600 IUs.
But Meyerhardt says most people don't eat enough fatty fish to reach the recommended vitamin D intake.
"Most vitamin D doesn't really come from your diet" in most cases, he says. And he says multivitamins contain relatively low levels of vitamin D. "So you really have to take a supplement" to meet recommended doses.
Vitamin D is often called the "sunshine" vitamin, because exposure to sunlight can stimulate production of the vitamin. But exposure to sun is generally not recommended as a way to boost vitamin D, McCullough says, since at excessive levels it can raise the risk of melanoma and other skin cancers.
More than 20 medical centers and organizations participated in the study, including Harvard, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/does-vitamin-d-really-protect-against-colorectal-cancer | 2022-08-19T04:16:45Z |
Playwright Arthur Miller was a giant of American theater and a champion of social justice. On stage, his iconic plays Death of a Salesman and All My Sons portrayed the American family with tight bonds and searing discord. Much of the tension he wrote about was between fathers and sons.
As it turns out, Arthur Miller was wracked by family turmoil of his own: He had a son with Down syndrome, and he and his wife kept the boy's existence a secret. That story is now a play, called Fall, that's having its world premiere at Boston's Huntington Theatre.
Fall begins in 1966; Arthur Miller is the toast of high society, he's married to photographer Inge Morath and they're living with their little girl in a rambling home in Connecticut when Morath gives birth to their son Daniel. 27-year-old Nolan James Tierce plays Daniel — and like Daniel, Tierce himself has Down syndrome.
"My name is Daniel Miller," he says in the play. "Everyone calls me Danny. I'm a Yankees fan. I know every lyric to every Beatles song. I have Down syndrome."
Miller never got to know those aspects of his son. In the play, a doctor advises Miller and Morath to put Daniel in an institution. At first, Morath cajoles her husband to ignore doctor's advice and raise their son at home — "He's your son and my son!" she implores him. But instead, they find an institution close to their home.
In the play and in real life, Morath visited Daniel in the institution. Miller did not. (Years later, the institution — the Southbury Training School in central Connecticut — was cited for dangerous living conditions.) Vanity Fair magazine revealed the story of Arthur Miller's secret son in 2007; both Miller and Morath had died by then.
You can't say their motives were evil or anything like that. They did what they felt they had to do. And to demonize him would diminish the play.
Bernard Weinraub wrote Fall, and he says it was important to him to not demonize the couple. "You can't say their motives were evil or anything like that. They did what they felt they had to do. And to demonize him would diminish the play, because I think you have to understand and try to get to the complexity of motives and marriage and what happened between them."
Weinraub based parts of the script on interviews he did with social workers at the institution. When he told Huntington Theatre Artistic Director Peter DuBois about the play, DuBois was enthusiastic. "I thought this is an incredibly important story to tell," he says. "This was someone who lectured us on right and wrong. And I felt this real deep passion about telling this story of human fallibility."
But when DuBois tried to partner with other theaters on the production, there were no takers. "There have been a lot of people that have said, 'I don't want to be the one to be launching this narrative in the theater' — that, you know, Arthur is too respected a writer." As it happened, Arthur Miller never wrote another masterpiece after Daniel was born.
The real Daniel Miller is now 51 years old, thriving, and living with a foster family in Connecticut. Actor Nolan James Tierce has never met Daniel, but considers him an idol — in part for surviving in a now-notorious facility. And Tierce is well aware of that period in America, when it was common to house children with disabilities in institutions. "That history was, actually, at that time, barbaric. I feel so bad for those people who've been institutionalized for many years like Daniel," he says. And, he adds, he feels for Miller and Morath, "because of they didn't really get to know Daniel that well, except for Inge. She was there at the sidelines, and Arthur just completely shunned him out of his life ... It is their loss — and a tragedy."
DuBois says he's proud to direct the world premiere of the play about Arthur Miller. "But I won't beat around the bush, I mean, I think this is about a hero who falls ... I think he took a huge fall in his life when he decided not to make Daniel a part of it ... I feel like he would have found something in his relationship with Daniel that I think would have affected his writing — in a good way."
The playwright and his son did meet, when Daniel was grown. And when Miller died, he left Daniel and his three other children equal portions of his estate.
This story was edited by Andrea de Leon, produced for radio by Andrea Hsu and Chad Campbell, and adapted for the Web by Petra Mayer.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/fall-examines-playwright-arthur-millers-secret-son | 2022-08-19T04:16:51Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
New York's attorney general has sued President Trump and his three eldest children. The AG says they used the Trump Foundation charity to help his presidential campaign and cover personal expenses. As Bobby Allyn reports, New York prosecutors want to dissolve the foundation and force Trump to pay nearly $3 million.
BOBBY ALLYN, BYLINE: There are strict rules about what charity money can and cannot be used for. And according to New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood's civil suit, President Trump's foundation routinely flouted many of them. Pamela Mann formerly led the Charities Bureau in the New York attorney general's office.
PAMELA MANN: It is absolutely prohibited for a private foundation like the Trump Foundation to spend any of its assets on anything related to political activity.
ALLYN: And the suit says that is exactly what Trump's charity was doing - allegedly using his foundation as almost a personal ATM for business expenses, legal bills and to boost his presidential campaign.
NORM EISEN: It's a profound perversion of any charity to use it for private purposes, for self-aggrandizement as opposed to serving the public interest.
ALLYN: That's Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
EISEN: But to do it for a political campaign is the lowest of the low.
ALLYN: Underwood's legal action calls for the Trump Foundation to be completely dissolved and that the president pay at least $2.8 million in restitution for what the state prosecutor calls persistent illegal activity. On Twitter, Trump called the lawsuit a, quote, "ridiculous case" brought by, quote, "the sleazy New York Democrats." The Trump Foundation said the suit represents politics, quote, "at its very worst," claiming the group has donated $19 million to worthy causes.
The investigation was first launched by former New York Attorney General and fierce Trump critic Eric Schneiderman, who resigned last month amid a sexual misconduct scandal. Underwood, who's been on the job for just about a month, told CNN this type of action is not unusual. But what makes it unique is the person at the center of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARBARA UNDERWOOD: But there's no reason why a foundation owned and operated by a sitting president should be exempt from the laws that we routinely apply to other foundations.
ALLYN: In its statement, the foundation said it had already been planning to shut down for more than a year, but the AG's investigation forced them to stop. Mann, the former New York state prosecutor, said had they close the foundation in the midst of an investigation, it would have likely made the civil probe moot. And as the case proceeds, Mann says previously unknown information about the foundation could come out of its top officials if they are forced to sit for depositions. Bobby Allyn, NPR News in New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/new-york-attorney-general-sues-trump-foundation-and-its-board-of-directors | 2022-08-19T04:16:57Z |
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
President Trump was briefed on the Justice Department's inspector general report on the Clinton email investigation this morning. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders says the report's findings bolster Trump's beliefs about the FBI director that Trump fired, James Comey.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS: It reaffirmed the president's suspicions about Comey's conduct and the political bias among some of the members of the FBI.
CORNISH: NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson joins us now from the White House. And, Mara, is there enough in the report to help the president politically?
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Sure. There's enough in this report that he can say it reaffirms his attacks on his No. 1 nemesis, James Comey. The report called him insubordinate. That could be a new nickname Trump will affix to him. It said that Comey used bad judgment. But as Carrie just explained, it definitely presented a mixed picture because it said there was no political bias towards Clinton on the part of Comey. But there was enough in the report to show the president at least that in his mind, there were bad actors in the FBI motivated by animus against him. And it's no longer just his opinion. He now has an official document from the Department of Justice to point to.
CORNISH: At the same time, the president has also been saying that Comey helped Clinton because of the way he handled her email investigation. I mean, does the IG report back that up?
LIASSON: No, it shows that there was no political motivation in the way Comey handled the report. Of course Democrats think Comey's actions cost Clinton the presidency. But still, there is enough in this report that the president, if he wants to, can use this to continue to attack the FBI and to Comey.
CORNISH: In the meantime, I understand the president is facing a new lawsuit. Who is suing him, and why?
LIASSON: This is the New York attorney general. She is bringing a suit. She's alleging illegal conduct by the president and three of his adult children in relation to Trump's personal charitable foundation. The New York AG says that the charitable foundation was little more than a checkbook for payments from Trump to his businesses or nonprofits. So this is something that we've heard about a lot - that the foundation didn't do much in the way of charitable activity. Now it's in court in New York.
CORNISH: Can you talk about what the president had to say about this or the White House?
LIASSON: Yes. The White House didn't have much to say, but the president started tweeting about it, and he responded in a very familiar fashion. He tweeted, quote, "the sleazy New York Democrats are doing everything they can to sue me on a foundation that took in $18 million and gave out more money than it took in." He also tweeted, quote, "I won't settle the case."
So he is going after the New York AG in the same way he's been going after other investigations, other lawsuits. His strategy is to attack his adversaries, hope to undermine their credibility, so even if he can't prevail legally, he can prevail politically. He can dismiss these investigations as nothing more than partisan witch hunts regardless of what results from them. And if polls are correct, this strategy is working because already public opinion about Robert Mueller has been declining among Republicans. They used to see him as a fair arbiter. They no longer do.
CORNISH: I wanted to ask you about that because - do you get the sense that his party is rallying around his stance?
LIASSON: Yes, I think so. There always was a pretty ardent group of Republicans on Capitol Hill that were carrying out these attacks on Mueller, trying to investigate the investigation, calling on the Justice Department to appoint a second special counsel and questioning how the investigation began. So that's been going on. I think that there are many members of Congress who still believe that the Mueller investigation should be allowed to take its course, but you hear more and more voices saying, you know, it's been over a year; let's wrap this thing up.
CORNISH: Do you get the sense that in any way it's overtaking his other news, what he considers a policy win in North Korea?
LIASSON: Well, that's always the problem with Donald Trump. He has a policy win, and then he comes on the plane, and he says, sadly, I must turn my attention to the witch hunt.
CORNISH: (Laughter).
LIASSON: I mean, he just never really lets - basks in victory. He always goes on to pick another fight. So yes, it does take away a little bit from the great success he said he had in Singapore.
CORNISH: That's NPR's Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/president-trump-attacks-credibility-of-fbi-doj-after-watchdog-report | 2022-08-19T04:17:03Z |
Updated at 7:51 p.m. ET
A Justice Department watchdog on Thursday criticized former FBI Director James Comey for violating long-standing department guidelines and mishandling the Hillary Clinton email investigation in 2016.
The probe by Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has already prompted reassignments and departures at the highest levels of the FBI. Former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe abruptly left the bureau in January, as watchdogs raced to finish their report, and later was fired outright.
McCabe's lawyer later confirmed that prosecutors in Washington, D.C., were considering a criminal referral on McCabe, who allegedly lied to investigators.
Horowitz's full report was released on Thursday in a spray of new fuel onto the still smoldering political fires over the 2016 election that have never stopped burning.
Comey's actions, it concluded, were "extraordinary and insubordinate," and none of his explanations amounted to a "persuasive basis for deviating from well-established department policies."
Comey responded swiftly Thursday afternoon once the report was released. "The conclusions are reasonable, even though I disagree with some," the former FBI director wrote on Twitter. "People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently." And Comey provided a longer response in a column for the New York Times published online.
Asked about the report at the daily White House briefing, press secretary Sarah Sanders said, "The president was briefed on the IG report earlier today, and it reaffirmed the president's suspicions about Comey's conduct and the political bias amongst some of the members of the FBI."
Speaking recently to reporters, Trump suggested the inspector general's findings could be something of a "birthday present" for him. Trump turns 72 on Thursday.
Comey wasn't the only person whose conduct has undercut public faith in the Justice Department, the report found.
For example, two FBI officials, special agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page, also have been under intense scrutiny after their text messages were collected during the inspector general investigation and later released to Congress and the public.
Page has left the FBI. The disclosures about the range of candid political and other opinions that Page traded with Strzok on their official government mobile phones has been an embarrassment for the bureau.
In one new message released on Thursday, Page writes to Strzok:
Page - (Trump's) not ever going to become president right? Right?!
Strzok: No. No he's not. We'll stop it.
The FBI officials did not "stop" Trump from being elected, but Trump and Republicans have cited those kinds of statements in months of attacks on federal law enforcement. "Biased" officials in what they call the "deep state" are trying to frame Trump in another investigation, they contend — the one by special counsel Robert Mueller into the Russian attack on the 2016 election.
Trump and his Republican allies also have accused then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and other officials in the Obama administration of being too soft on Clinton. "Lock her up" was a campaign rally leitmotif in 2016 and remains a popular chant at the president's campaign events now.
But, like Comey, Lynch seized on the finding of no political bias, saying in a statement Thursday evening that the report "outlines how I, along with the career prosecutors I oversaw at DOJ, did everything we could to handle a sensitive probe in a highly politicized environment in a way that was non-partisan, impartial, and fair." She added, "I stand behind our collective effort to preserve the integrity and impartiality of the institution during a challenging moment in our nation's history."
Dems: The feds didn't go easy on Hillary. They hurt her
Democrats, meanwhile, said the findings of the report made it clear that the FBI had effectively helped elect Trump — by damaging Clinton.
For example, the minority leaders of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees cited Comey's choice to reveal the FBI's investigation into Clinton but not its counterintelligence investigation into Trump aides' ties to Russians.
"As we warned before the election, Director Comey had a double standard: He spoke publicly about the Clinton investigation while keeping secret from the American people the investigation of Donald Trump and Russia," said Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler of New York and Oversight Committee ranking member Elijah Cummings of Maryland.
The Democrats also said they are angry that Comey talked so much, so often, about a case that he ultimately had concluded should not result in any prosecution.
"The FBI should not have spoken publicly about the case after recommending against criminal charges," Nadler and Cummings said. "They should not have revealed that they had reopened the case just days before the election. These actions violate long-standing guidelines designed to protect citizens from unfair attacks and avoid influencing elections."
Justice, FBI vow to do better
Attorney General Jeff Sessions — whom Trump has said he regrets nominating — said on Thursday that he views the "errors" uncovered by IG report as an opening the Justice Department can use to improve itself.
"Accordingly, this report must be seen as an opportunity for the FBI — long considered the world's premier investigative agency — and all of us at the department to learn from past mistakes," Sessions said. "The department is not above criticism, and it is accountable to the chief executive, Congress, and most importantly, the American people."
FBI Director Christopher Wray, whom Trump nominated to replace Comey after an interregnum in which McCabe was acting director, picked up that theme from Sessions.
"The FBI is taking immediate remedial actions to reinforce the importance of maintaining a work environment free from the appearance of political bias," he said in a written response to the inspector general. Wray also said the actions include a review of whether commingling of work discussions and political commentary violates any FBI guidelines and "a review of how the FBI staffs, structures and supervises sensitive investigations."
Read the report's executive summary here.
But in a news conference Thursday evening, Wray seemed to push back at the persistent attacks on the FBI's reputation in recent months by the president and some in Congress. Asked about those critics and the bureau's reputation, Wray said, "There's no shortage of opinions about us out there. I will tell you that the opinions that I care the most about are the opinions of the people who actually really know us and know us through our work."
Those faulted in the report fire back
Comey has defended his actions in 2016 as the response to an unprecedented situation for which there was no instruction manual. He said on Twitter after the release of the IG report that he welcomed the work that investigators have now completed.
I respect the DOJ IG office, which is why I urged them to do this review. The conclusions are reasonable, even though I disagree with some. People of good faith can see an unprecedented situation differently. I pray no Director faces it again. Thanks to IG’s people for hard work.
— James Comey (@Comey) June 14, 2018
Comey also pointed out in a column in The New York Times that Horowitz's report had effectively vindicated his decision-making — that there was no "prosecutable" case against Clinton.
Others defended themselves on Thursday, too.
McCabe, who faces potential criminal charges, did not comment on the report, but his attorney Michael Bromwich issued a statement defending him.
"In short, the report demonstrates that any and all claims that political bias or political influence affected Mr. McCabe's actions, including charges from the president and other critics, are entirely baseless," Bromwich said.
A lawyer for Strzok, Aitan Goelman, pointed to a section that said there is no evidence that the political views Strzok expressed "impacted the handling of the Clinton email investigation."
Moreover, Goelman said, the IG report noted instances in which Strzok and Page supported investigative techniques even more aggressive than those supported by their bosses, including the potential use of search warrants or a grand jury to get witnesses' testimony and issue subpoenas.
And David Laufman, the former Justice Department counterintelligence official who oversaw the Clinton email probe, defended the integrity of the investigation amid repeated attacks from the president and his allies.
"Particularly given the formidable circumstances, the Justice Department lawyers who conducted this investigation carried out their responsibilities with exceptional rigor, professionalism and integrity consistent with the finest traditions of the department," he said.
The Clinton matter
The IG report has its origins in the tumultuous days after the 2016 presidential election, when politicians and Justice Department veterans of all stripes cried foul at the FBI's public statements about its investigation of Clinton's email practices.
Clinton used a private email server while she served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama. Although she said she regretted the practice, Clinton said she never knowingly used it to handle classified information. Republicans alleged that she knowingly hazarded important secrets and received sympathetic treatment from then-Attorney General Lynch.
Thursday's IG report faulted Lynch for not being more sensitive to the public perceptions she created by meeting privately with former President Bill Clinton aboard an airplane as the FBI investigation was taking place.
"Lynch's failure to recognize the appearance problem created by former President Bill Clinton's visit and to take action to cut the visit short was an error in judgment," the report said. Her statements later about her decision not to recuse "created public confusion and didn't adequately address the situation."
Early last year, following calls from Congress, the DOJ inspector general announced he would review allegations that the FBI failed to follow procedures when Comey criticized Clinton in a hastily called news conference on July 5, 2016.
"Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," Comey told reporters at the time.
"In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order," he also said.
Comey eventually appeared before lawmakers to explain his findings and promised to update them if any new information came to light.
The FBI director notified Congress he had reopened the probe Oct. 28, 2016, because of emails that investigators had found on the laptop belonging to Anthony Weiner, the then-husband of longtime Clinton confidante and aide Huma Abedin.
And then, just days before the election, Comey went public again, to tell lawmakers he had found no new bombshells and would again close the investigation with no charges — on Nov. 6.
Clinton and her top aides blamed Comey's verbosity for slowing her momentum in the waning days of the campaign and turning the election for her opponent, Donald Trump.
"I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey's letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off," she later said.
Comey, of course, was fired by Trump in May 2017, a move that helped prompt the Justice Department to appoint special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian election interference and whether any Americans took part.
In a book published this year, Comey defended himself as caught in a "500-year flood," and he concluded he would probably take the same actions that drew so much criticism of himself and the FBI.
In response to revelations in the report about how Comey had used a personal Gmail account to conduct official business while FBI director, Clinton couldn't resist and posted on Twitter, "But my emails."
But my emails. https://t.co/G7TIWDEG0p
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 14, 2018
Other matters
The other subjects under investigation by the inspector general included:
Prior to the report's release Thursday, Horowitz established some limits about what he would conclude in it.
"The review will not substitute the OIG's judgment for the judgments made by the FBI or the Department regarding the substantive merits of investigative or prosecutive decisions," the inspector general pledged in January 2017 when he launched the probe.
In other words, although the IG report faulted Comey and others, it did not second-guess their decisions not to press criminal charges against Clinton.
Horowitz, a former federal prosecutor who worked under both Democrats and Republicans, has drawn bipartisan support over his career. But he was the subject of a tweet from Trump in February that called him "an Obama guy."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/report-condemns-fbi-violations-in-2016-clinton-probe-but-finds-no-political-bias | 2022-08-19T04:17:09Z |
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
President Trump has tweeted that North Korea is no longer a nuclear threat after his summit with its chairman, Kim Jong Un. That has given Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a lot of explaining to do in conversations with international leaders in both South Korea and China. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: In meetings with leaders of three countries in two different cities, Pompeo's message was a much sober one than that of his boss just hours earlier. After reassuring American allies Japan and South Korea this morning in Seoul, he flew to Beijing, where he said the U.S. would consider making a call to lift economic sanctions on the North.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE POMPEO: But we have made very clear that the sanctions and the economic relief that North Korea will receive will only happen after the full denuclearization, the complete denuclearization of North Korea.
SCHMITZ: Pompeo told reporters in Seoul he expected, quote, "major disarmament" in North Korea before the end of President Trump's first term in office. When pressed on how the U.S. would verify the North's denuclearization, though, Pompeo became irritated and berated a reporter by calling the question insulting and ludicrous. The administration is under heavy criticism from media and regional experts who say the agreement Trump signed with Kim Jong Un conceded too much and, in the end, served China's interests, too.
BILL BISHOP: All the things that they were really concerned about - conflict, refugees, collapse of their neighbor - seemed to be off the table in the near term.
SCHMITZ: China expert and author Bill Bishop says China is likely pleased with the outcome in Singapore. Up until now, China's government has scrambled to keep up with rapidly escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea. And on Trump's behest, they've cooperated with U.N. sanctions on the country. China's has also played a key role in getting Kim Jong Un to the table with Trump, who has linked his trade demands to Beijing's willingness to help put economic pressure on North Korea.
BISHOP: You know, they did a lot more than they've really I think ever done to pressure North Korea. It seemed like the message from the Trump administration had been, you know, the trade in North Korea are linked. You help us with North Korea, we'll go easy on trade. Now it seems pretty clear that Trump wants to de-link those two.
SCHMITZ: Bishop says now that Trump has gotten what he wants from China and North Korea, his patience with the trade imbalance with China may be running out. The Trump administration is expected to impose 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports as soon as this Friday, when it's expected to publish a final list of Chinese goods that'll take the hit. Renmin University professor of international relations Shi Yinhong says China's watching closely.
SHI YINHONG: (Through interpreter) If tomorrow Trump announces imposing tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, China's promises to increase U.S. exports and make it easier for U.S. companies to enter the Chinese market won't happen.
SCHMITZ: Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking through an interpreter at a press conference with Mike Pompeo in Beijing, laid out the options on trade.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
WANG YI: (Through interpreter) We have two options. One is cooperation and win-win outcomes. The second, confrontation and a lose-lose scenario.
SCHMITZ: That's where both countries lose on trade and, says professor Shi, China would likely stop helping the U.S. on North Korea, a scenario that could spell trouble for the goodwill still lingering from the Singapore summit. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Shanghai. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/secretary-of-state-pompeo-visits-china-japan-south-korea-after-summit | 2022-08-19T04:17:15Z |
Updated at 6:51 p.m. ET
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday struck down a Minnesota law that bars voters from wearing political apparel inside polling places.
Though two justices dissented on procedural grounds, all the justices agreed that the Minnesota law, combined with the way it was enforced, was simply too broad.
"An island of calm"
The decision was something of a technical knock-out, a TKO, for those challenging the law, because the court, at the same time, reaffirmed the notion that political speech can be regulated at polling places in order to prevent arguments, harassment and voter suppression.
Every state bans some form of political apparel inside polling places. The laws were enacted in late 1800s and early 1900s to put an end to rampant violence, harassment and intimidation at the polls. The problem with the Minnesota law, the court said, is that the state failed to "articulate some sensible basis for distinguishing what may come in from what must stay out."
At the same time, though, the court said states are entitled to exclude some political apparel in order to preserve "an island of calm in which voters can peacefully contemplate their choices."
Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts said Minnesota's definition of political apparel, combined with the "haphazard" guidance provided by state officials to poll workers, rendered the statute unconstitutional. Because the state takes the position that it can ban apparel with a message on any subject on which a party or candidate has taken a stand, Roberts said, any number of T-shirts or buttons could be banned from the polling place, even those with the insignia of the AARP, the World Wildlife Fund or Ben & Jerry's, all of which take positions on some political issues.
The state's argument, he said, creates "riddles" that even the state's top lawyer could not solve at the oral argument in the case earlier this year. At the argument, the state's lawyer, in response to pointed questions from the justices, maintained that a T-shirt emblazoned with the First Amendment would be allowed into the polling place, but not a Second Amendment T-shirt.
Standards, not perfection
The court stressed that in the context of polling places and the areas immediately surrounding them, states are not required to achieve "perfect clarity" in their regulations, but, the court said, the Minnesota law and regulations are simply too broad and too unreasonable to swallow.
The decision is "good news for people who worry about the polling place turning into yet another place where there's a kind of riotous and disruptive political speech," said Doug Chapin, direction of the Election Academy at the University of Minnesota.
He said that in answer to the challengers' contention that polling places have to be open to all kinds of speech, the court's answer was, "No, polling places can be insulated from that kind of back and forth. We just need states to be much more clear about what is and isn't allowed."
"Please I.D. Me"
The case before the court was brought by voters from a group calling themselves Election Integrity Watch. They wore Tea Party T-shirts and buttons that said "Please I.D. Me."
After poll workers asked them to either remove or cover up their message, they sued, contending their First Amendment right of free speech had been violated. On Thursday, they won, but with some huge caveats giving states considerable latitude in barring political messages at the polls.
In his opinion for the court, for instance, Chief Justice Roberts specifically said that the state may prohibit messages like the "Please I.D. Me" buttons, which poll workers worried were intended to mislead voters into thinking they needed a photo I.D. to vote.
But Roberts said that Minnesota had not written its law to deal with such misleading messages.
Everybody claims victory ... or not
Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said that his concern about Thursday's case was that it "not be a license for vigilantes screaming about voter fraud to come in and make it so that it's harder for people to vote."
Fortunately, he said, "What the Supreme Court said is that the state can still restrict that kind of conduct."
Jeanette Senecal, senior director at the League of Women Voters, agreed. "All the state legislature needs to do," she said," is go back and write a law that is more clear."
At the state level of the League of Women Voters, however, there was some consternation.
"The decision may increase the likelihood that malicious individuals will attempt to intimidate or confuse other voters at the polls," said Michelle Witte, the Minnesota state executive director of the league. "We now rely on the Minnesota state legislature to pass a new law that has more clarity to meet the court's standards."
The Minnesota legislature is not scheduled to reconvene, however, until next January, after the November election. Most states are not expected to face Minnesota's problems, as the Minnesota law was considered the broadest in the country.
That said, free-speech purists are not giving up. Ilya Shapiro of the libertarian Cato Institute insisted that there is still room for a further challenge to more narrowly drawn statutes.
"I'd like to see a challenge to a law that actually specifically prohibited simply wearing a T-shirt with a party logo or the name of a candidate," he said.
The court's opinion, however, approvingly cited several state laws that specifically ban such T-shirts.
Dissenting from Thursday's opinion were Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer. They agreed with the court's reasoning, but said the case should have been remanded to the Minnesota Supreme Court to see if the state court could uphold the statute by construing its terms more narrowly.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/supreme-court-delivers-tko-win-on-political-apparel-ban | 2022-08-19T04:17:21Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
This week, we've heard a lot about what was discussed at the summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un - nuclear weapons, military exercises, returning the remains of U.S. troops killed in the Korean War. As David Sanger filed his stories from Singapore, he noticed something very big missing. Sanger is a national security correspondent for The New York Times whose new book is all about cyberweapons.
DAVID SANGER: Cyber is not included in any of these discussions with North Korea. They want to do nuclear, bio, chem. And yet cyber is the only weapon that they've actually used against us and used effectively.
SHAPIRO: North Korea used cyberweapons against the U.S. in the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures to catastrophic effect. And Sanger's book describes a raging cyber war happening just below the surface of public perception. The U.S. and Israel attack Iran. Russia and China attack the U.S. Sanger's new book is called "The Perfect Weapon." One story he tells in detail is about the Sony hack, which began with North Korea getting upset over a movie called "The Interview" about two journalists who plot to kill Kim Jong Un.
SANGER: The North Koreans wanted to stop it. The first thing they did was the very logical thing you'd want to do whenever you wanted to stop a movie. They wrote a letter to the secretary general of the United Nations and asked him to stop it.
SHAPIRO: Sure.
SANGER: When that failed, they put some code into the Sony Pictures Entertainment computer system. And what was fascinating about this was that they put it in, and then they were patient - very patient. They put it in in September of 2014. And they used a few months to map the entire computer system at Sony Pictures Entertainment. Now, the code was designed to melt down Sony's computer systems, melt down the hard drives.
And right around Thanksgiving of that year, months after they had first gone in, that's exactly what they did. The only people whose hard drives really got saved that morning were those who were smart enough to reach behind their computers and unplug them, literally pull the plug so the hard drive stopped spinning. Everybody else lost their data. We didn't know at that time the North Koreans could do this.
SHAPIRO: So this North Korea-U.S. dynamic points to something that you make clear throughout the book, which is that cyberweapons are a great equalizer.
SANGER: They're an equalizer, Ari, because while they are not as powerful as nuclear weapons - at least so far they're not - they have a bunch of attributes that nuclear weapons do not. A cyberweapon is the ultimate short-of-war weapon. You can target it to a specific group of computers. You can dial it up to be more powerful. You can dial it down. You can make sure that your tracks are hidden, or you can be incredibly obvious about it as the Russians were, by and large, in their hacks during the election season. So it's a much more usable weapon.
SHAPIRO: I want to ask you about that phrase short-of-war weapon because you describe a lot of instances in this book where if the perpetrator had used traditional weapons to carry out what they did with cyberweapons, it would have been an act of war. You know, if the U.S. sent a missile to hit Iranian centrifuges instead of sending a Stuxnet virus to do it - I should say the U.S. and Israel because it was a joint effort - that would have been an act of war. So why do we consider these cyberattacks something short of war?
SANGER: It's a fascinating question. And I've spent a lot of time sort of wrestling with this. Why is it - if the effect is the same as hitting something with a missile or sending in a saboteur and blowing something up, why is it we don't react that way? You know, the Sony hack's a really good example. What happened to the North Koreans for this? President Obama issued a weak series of sanctions that I'm sure the North Koreans never noticed amid all the other sanctions...
SHAPIRO: Right.
SANGER: ...That are on North Korea. So we have not internalized the thought that it can be an attack even if you don't see the smoking, charred remains of the building on TV.
SHAPIRO: Which teaches hostile countries that they can get away with it.
SANGER: It's why it's the perfect weapon.
SHAPIRO: Knowing that North Korea has attacked the United States using cyberweapons, knowing how powerful a weapon this can be, how did you feel watching the Singapore summit with all this talk about nuclear weapons that have never been used against the U.S. and no talk whatsoever about the cyberweapons that are a very real and present danger?
SANGER: Well, look; I've been covering nuclear weapons and the North Korean nuclear program since the late-'80s when I was a reporter posted in Tokyo. So I deeply believe we've got to deal with the North Korean nuclear program. But we have completely failed to recreate in the cyber world the kind of deterrence that got created in the nuclear world. Now, the nuclear analogies do not work for cyber.
They don't work because you don't know entirely where the attack is coming from and because there are so many players and because there are so many different targets. And many cyberattacks are going to be below the threshold at which you're going to go respond. So we need a different kind of deterrence put together. And we need it first for places like North Korea.
SHAPIRO: President Trump's biggest public action on cybersecurity was to eliminate the position of national cybersecurity coordinator, which he did last month. Now those responsibilities go to John Bolton, his national security adviser who has many other responsibilities, too. How big of a deal is this change?
SANGER: Well, we don't know yet, but I suspect it's a pretty big deal. I mean, think about this. Every year for the past four or five years when the national intelligence threat assessment comes out, the biggest single threat that they identify to the United States are cyberthreats.
SHAPIRO: Bigger than terrorism.
SANGER: Bigger than terrorism, bigger than the possibility of nuclear war breaking out. Cyber has been No. 1. And the White House response to this is to take the cyber coordinator's job and eliminate it.
SHAPIRO: And they haven't given a good explanation for why they eliminated the job.
SANGER: They have - they certainly have not. And, you know, certainly it could not be that we're over-coordinated because if you talk to anybody in the U.S. government, they will tell you that even the basic responsibilities of who's responsible for defending certain parts of the United States are all over the map.
SHAPIRO: It is really clear from your book that the U.S. is totally unprepared for a major cyberattack. What would it take for the U.S. to get there?
SANGER: Well, what worries me the most out of my reporting is that in some ways we're better prepared for the big attack, the cyber Pearl Harbor...
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
SANGER: ...Than we are for the everyday attacks.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
SANGER: What worries me the most is time and time again we get taken by surprise because something that is of vital importance to the way America operates is left unprotected. It probably would take that cyber Pearl Harbor - and I'm sad to say that, but there are a lot of people who believe that you don't actually get the United States to kick into gear politically behind something until there is something so big that you can't ignore it.
SHAPIRO: That leaves a lot of room for countries to do a lot of mischief in the meantime.
SANGER: That's right. And they're going to figure out ways to do it without triggering that cyber Pearl Harbor.
SHAPIRO: David Sanger, thanks so much for talking with us today.
SANGER: Thank you.
SHAPIRO: He's national security correspondent for The New York Times. And his new book is "The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, And Fear In The Cyber Age." It comes out next week.
(SOUNDBITE OF PINDARIC FLIGHT'S "LIMON") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/the-perfect-weapon-tells-the-story-of-growing-cyber-war-that-the-u-s-is-fighting | 2022-08-19T04:17:28Z |
Updated June 15 at 12:50 p.m. ET
This is the largest government-contracted migrant youth shelter in the country: Casa Padre, a former Walmart supercenter converted into living, recreational and dining quarters for nearly 1,500 immigrant boys.
Shelter managers took reporters on a tour of the facility in Brownsville, Texas, on Wednesday, amid criticism over the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy that has led to separating migrant families who crossed the border illegally.
"We want to show you that these are not kids kept in cages," said Alexia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Texas nonprofit Southwest Key that operates the shelter. "We provide them excellent care."
A network of about 100 migrant youth shelters are now 95 percent full. Casa Padre, which houses boys ages 10 to 17, has room for just 28 more children.
The federal government is looking for additional places to put the surge of migrants, mostly from Central America, coming across the border seeking asylum. And officials are considering housing young immigrants temporarily at U.S. military facilities.
The Trump administration wants to end the "catch and release" of migrants illegally entering the country. Instead of being released until their immigration court date, migrants are being detained, and the government has been separating families while parents are prosecuted.
Casa Padre officials say "the great majority" of young residents who are there traveled alone to the United States seeking protection; the remainder were separated from their families at the border. More than 10,000 migrant youngsters are being held at shelters like this throughout the country.
On Wednesday, reporters were allowed a rare glimpse inside Casa Padre, a 250,000-square-foot facility located on the outskirts of Brownsville across from a pizza joint and a McDonald's. The boys confined there waved, smiled and said "hola" to the group of visiting journalists; reporters were forbidden to interview the children or staffers. The ratio is one adult counselor to eight children, to keep them in line and to watch for behavioral and emotional problems.
During the carefully scripted visit, the boys were shooting baskets, kicking soccer balls, playing video games, watching a movie, sitting in classrooms where they were taught about the U.S. government, learning tai chi and chowing down on a meal of chicken and mixed vegetables. They are kept inside most of the day.
On the walls of the facility are murals of and quotations from U.S. presidents, including James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, and lots of Pokémon posters.
The sprawling shelter was opened in March 2017. The kids spend an average of 49 days in Casa Padre, which is contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Then they're turned over to sponsors, such as family members or foster families.
"Our goal is to reunite kids with their families," Rodriguez said.
But immigrant advocates fear these children may end up staying longer in shelters like this one. That's because the federal government has begun fingerprinting family members who want to take in these children, and sharing that information with the Department of Homeland Security. The advocates fear this will make the relatives less willing to step forward.
Juan Sanchez, the founder and CEO of Southwest Key, said there are occasional runaways from Casa Padre.
"It's to be expected," said Sanchez, whose company bio says he grew up in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brownsville, Texas, on the border with Mexico. Southwest Key runs more than two dozen shelters for migrant children.
Sanchez declined to say whether Casa Padre has housed any members of MS-13, the violent Central American street gang. The Trump administration has warned that MS-13 gang members are coming across the border to make mayhem in the United States. Sanchez said any violent youths are sent back to the Office of Refugee Resettlement for placement elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration's policy of separating families is facing harsh criticism from members of Congress, religious leaders and pediatricians.
House Republicans plan to vote next week on a pair of immigration bills, including one that would end the Trump administration's practice of separating children from their parents at the Southwest border.
"We don't want kids to be separated from their parents," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, as quoted by the Associated Press.
Another Republican, Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, tweeted, "I am asking the White House to keep families together as much as we can."
"This is barbaric. This is not what America is. But this is the policy of the Trump administration," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said.
The separation of families also has come under criticism from the Southern Baptist Convention and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics.
While the policy is debated in Washington, immigrant children will remain detained in facilities like Casa Padre.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/these-are-not-kids-kept-in-cages-inside-a-texas-shelter-for-immigrant-youth | 2022-08-19T04:17:34Z |
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Now let's hear about a man who is likely to play an important diplomatic role on U.S. policy toward the Korean Peninsula. Admiral Harry Harris most recently led U.S. Pacific Command. The Trump administration has tapped him to become its ambassador to South Korea. Harris had his confirmation hearing today, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: In his previous job, Harry Harris took a hard line on North Korea, so the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Menendez, was eager to hear what Harris thought about President Trump's summit with Kim Jong Un.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ROBERT MENENDEZ: Do you think we no longer need to worry about North Korea's nuclear threat?
HARRY HARRIS: No, Senator. I think we must continue to worry about the nuclear threat.
MENENDEZ: I appreciate that because I know the president said the other day that after Singapore, we can sleep well because we no longer have to worry about North Korea's nuclear threat. But I didn't sleep much better.
KELEMEN: Admiral Harris spent a lot of the hearing trying to reassure lawmakers that the administration is realistic about this latest effort to talk North Korea out of its nuclear weapons program. And he's trying to reassure them that if he's confirmed as ambassador to South Korea, he will try to keep the Trump administration in sync with its ally.
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HARRIS: It's critical that the decisions that we make with regard to troop levels, with regard to exercises and with regard to everything else that affects the alliance - that their decisions be taken together with our South Korean ally.
KELEMEN: Born in Japan, Harris grew up in Tennessee and Florida. He graduated from the Naval Academy. And though he spent his career in the military, Harris has dealt with the State Department as the military liaison to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And he sounded diplomatic when asked about President Trump's decision to call off war games with South Korea. Harris didn't refer to the exercises that way.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HARRIS: We should give major exercises a pause to see if Kim Jong Un in fact is serious about his part of the negotiations. You know, I've spoken in the past about, you know, the need to bring Kim Jong Un to his senses and not to his knees. And I think the president's efforts in Singapore did just that.
KELEMEN: He says he is concerned that China will want to relax sanctions too soon. Harris says he will be an advocate in the administration to maintain pressure and to talk eventually about North Korea's cyber and conventional threats in addition to its nuclear program. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/trumps-south-korea-ambassador-nominee-defends-cancellation-of-joint-military-exercises | 2022-08-19T04:17:40Z |
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
There is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea. That statement made by President Trump on Twitter yesterday as he returned from the historic summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un has been hotly debated the last 24 hours. One person skeptical of that statement is Wisconsin Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher. He spoke to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED yesterday about the agreement between Trump and Kim Jong Un.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
MIKE GALLAGHER: Prior to us making any concessions, we need to see proof from the Kim regime that they are serious. I think the last three decades of history should give all of us great skepticism. Every time the North Koreans have agreed to anything, they've cheated on that agreement.
CORNISH: Raj Shah is a White House spokesman. He was in Singapore with the president for that meeting. He joins us now. Welcome to the program.
RAJ SHAH: Thanks a lot for having me on.
CORNISH: President Trump has already agreed to suspend military exercises with South Korea. Can you respond to Congressman Gallagher's skepticism here? Has the North proved it's serious enough for the U.S. to make that level of concession already?
SHAH: Well, I think that the congressman, you know, has some merit when he's talking about skepticism. I think that North Korea, you know, hasn't acted in great faith over the last several decades. But that's what makes the visit in Singapore and the president's actions so historic. And I think that the president has, you know, extracted at least some good-faith signals from North Korea and from Kim Jong Un.
This is his first time leaving the Korean Peninsula. He traveled to China on a train but since that has not left the country since he became the leader of the country to travel to Singapore. And, you know, the United States and the president believes that when Kim Jong Un has changed some of his behavior of late and set a much better tone, we have to, you know, give diplomacy a chance and this - and seize this historic opportunity.
Now, with what the president has announced, there hasn't been a loosening of the maximum pressure campaign, and sanctions by the United States and our allies remain in effect. And that's very important going forward. That's something that both the president and Secretary Pompeo have been very firm on. Looking forward...
CORNISH: I want to ask you...
SHAH: Yeah, please.
CORNISH: ...A little more about that then. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he made it clear on Monday that - U.S. policy goals when talking about what the U.S. wants to see from North Korea on denuclearization. Here he is.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE POMPEO: The ultimate objective we seek from diplomacy with North Korea has not changed. The complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is the only outcome that the United States will accept.
CORNISH: Now, what North Korea wanted - a note about the Korean Peninsula being nuclearized - that was in the agreement in black and white. But neither are the words verifiable or irreversible or complete - those weren't in the agreement. How come?
SHAH: Well, I think that the statement that both the president and leader Kim Jong Un signed was an initial statement. It was a statement about intent and about goals. And I think we're going to move forward over the next few weeks and months toward more concrete steps. How you get to verifiability, how you get to irreversible are things that are tangible. And we need specific commitments about inspections, about, you know, destroying sites, about details that, you know, it will take a lot more than one meeting to sort out.
And there'll be subsequent meetings at a staff level, at a principals level and then at the presidential and leader level. So this is a process. This is the first step in that process. The statement was a great and important step forward. And as the president said, you know, our eyes are wide open. Peace...
CORNISH: But Secretary Pompeo...
SHAH: Yes.
CORNISH: ...Called it silly when someone asked why it wasn't in there. He called that a silly question. How come? It seems very important if it's U.S. policy.
SHAH: It is certainly U.S. policy. And the secretary is stating U.S. policy. But I think when you have a word like that in there people are going to ask how, right? And I think that's a very fair question. We're developing the how right now. And those are the next steps that are very important to take. To ask for two countries that have had longstanding, you know, conflict, essentially, you know, a war of words, if you will, and really frankly no real relationship to begin to thaw - to expect that to change overnight I don't think is realistic.
But again, as the president said, you know, our eyes are wide open. Our eyes are wide open, but peace is always worth the effort. This is the effort that we have to engage. And we have to engage. We have to take their seemingly positive steps forward. Remember; they did release three Americans.
CORNISH: They did.
SHAH: They have changed the tone in the rhetoric. And we're seeing now, you know, even the state-run media's starting to treat the administration in America a little bit differently. So...
CORNISH: But to that point, I know that...
SHAH: Yeah.
CORNISH: ...People have also raised the issue of human rights. And I know today the White House said that the president did bring this up with North Korea.
SHAH: That's correct.
CORNISH: But is it going to be a point of negotiation?
SHAH: Well, I don't want to get ahead of negotiations. Obviously it's a priority for the United States. You know, the issue of human rights, the issue of, you know, the remains of Americans in Korea and other issues that are not specific to denuclearization are issues that we will raise. But the core issue, as the press secretary said today, is denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula and stopping a situation in which millions or tens of millions of people can be killed almost instantly. So that has to be the priority. And we are realistic.
But the president addressed this in his press conference. He does want to see people in forced labor camps and people who are being treated - you know, and there's a variety of human rights abuses you can speak to that are well-documented. He wants to see them treated differently and treated better. But right now the danger that could be posed by a nuclear program in North Korea has to be the priority.
CORNISH: I want to turn to immigration. House Speaker Paul Ryan says he doesn't want to see immigrant children from their families - separated from their families at the border. He said Congress needs to pass legislation that would stop this. And there is an immigration bill, a compromise bill, headed to a vote next week. Would the president sign legislation that would include such a provision, include an end to that practice?
SHAH: Well, we actually have to see the legislation before, you know, we offer kind of a statement of administration policy. And both...
CORNISH: But we know Stephen Miller has been on Capitol Hill helping with negotiations.
SHAH: Yeah. I fully understand that. And we are supportive of the approach as we've seen it so far. What we want to see - and the president has kind of laid out his pillars for immigration reform. He wants to see a reformed legal immigration system which would move us from a system of what we've called chain migration or family-based immigration almost exclusively toward a system of merit-based immigration where individuals - you know, essentially the best and the brightest around the world who have a lot of skills and education...
CORNISH: And I think that part people understand 'cause it's a broad-based bill, right? It's going to have many elements.
SHAH: I understand. But my - I understand that. But the point I am making is that there are a lot of things the president wants to see, and they're all important to him and to the administration. They're all part of our priorities. And seeing more of those things in detail will help us, you know, move forward along this process. So he wants to see merit-based immigration reforms. He wants to see an end to the visa lottery system. He wants to see, you know, more border security, including the physical wall on the southern border. And he's also talked about closing these legal loopholes which you're citing.
CORNISH: But...
SHAH: We don't - hang on.
CORNISH: ...Dealing with separating families not on the table?
SHAH: Well, what I am saying is that the administration wants a holistic approach to fixing the problems at the southern border and that ignoring the law as the previous administration did is not a solution. It's, you know, a Band-Aid in search of a solution. What we need to do is actually fix the problem, secure our southern border and actually fix our laws so that way those implementing them can actually enforce laws, stop and stem the flow of illegal immigration and also fix our legal immigration system.
CORNISH: We'll have to leave it there. Raj Shah is a White House spokesman. Thank you for speaking with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
SHAH: Thanks so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/white-house-spokesman-discusses-whats-next-in-u-s-north-korea-relations | 2022-08-19T04:17:46Z |
If all goes as planned, a long-anticipated ceremony will be held in Fort Worth, Texas on the first official day of summer. It's to mark the nation of Turkey taking possession of its first F-35 jet fighter.
The F-35 is widely considered the world's most advanced and versatile warplane. Not only has Turkey ordered more than 100 of them - it's also part of a nine-nation consortium manufacturing the 300,000 parts that make up Lockheed Martin's 5th-generation stealth fighter.
But there may be a problem. Congress is moving to block delivery of the F-35 to this nation that's been part of the NATO alliance since 1952. And it could be many months before Turkey's first F-35A would be ready to cross the Atlantic, because Turkish pilots have yet to begin their training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona to fly it.
The Senate has led opposition to the deal.
"On its surface, because they're a NATO ally, I don't object to it," North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis declared this week on the Senate floor. "But today, I strongly object to it."
Tillis accuses Turkey of holding a Presbyterian minister from North Carolina hostage for the past year and a half. He says Pastor Andrew Brunson, whom he visited in jail two months ago, is being held on "bogus" charges to pressure the U.S. to extradite Fetullah Gulen.
Turkish authorities say Gulen, a Pennsylvania-based Turkish preacher and political leader, was behind a failed attempt two years ago to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
There are national security concerns as well about turning over F-35s to Turkey.
"The Turkish government claims to have purchased a Russian air defense system designed to shoot these very planes down," New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen declared as she joined Tillis in the Senate chamber. "NATO partners need these F-35s to counter Russian activity. We would be handing this technology over to the Kremlin if we granted Turkey these planes, and Congress will not stand for it."
NATO ally looks to Russia for an anti-aircraft system
Late last year, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli announced that Turkey had ordered the Russian-made Triumf S-400 air defense system, whose eight launchers and 32 missiles can target both stealth warplanes and missiles within a radius of 372 miles. The missile system is not inter-operable with NATO's air defenses.
More worrisome, Russia and Turkey could together use it to run tests to reveal vulnerabilities in the F-35.
"If the Russians want by electronic means or even through their technicians to get access to all this F-35 stuff that's highly classified, that's a problem," says James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey.
Senators Shaheen and Tillis have co-authored, along with Oklahoma Republican James Lankford, legislation that orders the Pentagon to come up with a plan that would keep the F-35 out of Turkey's hands. It's part of the much larger National Defense Authorization Act that the Senate is set to vote on just days before the Fort Worth handover ceremony.
The Trump administration has also signaled its concern.
"It is still very much a live issue, the Turks' capacity to have access to the F-35," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Congress late last month.
That was followed by a more specific warning last week from Wess Mitchell, who's the State Department's assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs and its point man on Turkey.
"They should expect that if they move forward with a sophisticated Russian weapons platform, they can expect to see it have a ripple effect for their participation in U.S. military industrial projects," Mitchell said at the Heritage Foundation, "and I think that includes the F-35."
The same day that the senators spoke out against the Turkish warplane deal, which includes that nation hosting a maintenance center for F-35s worldwide, a senior Pentagon official struck a more conciliatory tone in an appearance at the Atlantic Council, a NATO-focused Washington think tank.
"Our preference is that they do not acquire the S-400," said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Thomas Goffus. "Given that, they are a sovereign nation and they are trying to take care of their defense needs."
Dispute threatens to disrupt NATO alliance
According to Washington-based Nilsu Goren, who studies Turkey's military, Turkey turned to Russia after concluding that the U.S., and the U.S. Congress in particular, would not provide the Patriot air defense system made by Raytheon that Ankara wants to defend its southern border.
"From their perspective, the U.S. has denied them the technology and access to its security assets at the times that Turkey needed them the most," Goren tells NPR. "Turkey sees no contradiction in purchasing a Russian air and missile defense system while continuing to work with its NATO partners."
Oklahoma's Lankford disagrees. "If Turkey is not going to end up cooperating with NATO," he tells NPR, "there's no reason to have a NATO base there."
But former U.S. ambassador Jeffrey says losing Turkey as part of NATO would be a huge blow to the alliance.
"You can do nothing in the Levant, nothing against Iran or very little, nothing in the Caucuses, nothing in the Black Sea without Turkey's geographic space, its bases and its military force, which is the second largest in NATO," says Jeffrey, who's now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "I mean, it's extremely important."
Jeffrey says it is unlikely Erdogan will make any concessions to the U.S. until after Turkey's June 24 national elections, given what he says is the longstanding unpopularity of the U.S. among Turks. "It's a little bit tricky for the Turks to respond to this," he adds.
It's bound to be a conundrum for the U.S. as well.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/why-lawmakers-are-trying-to-block-delivery-of-fighter-jets-to-turkey | 2022-08-19T04:17:52Z |
The United States is among the notable no-shows for the month-long World Cup tournament. It's the first time since 1986 the U.S. men haven't qualified for their sport's biggest event.
Soccer officials say they are moving on from criticism and controversy to get the men's national team back on track. But some wonder whether they're focusing on what really needs to be fixed — from improving coaching to broadening the appeal of the sport at the youth level — to put the American team back on the world stage.
Still stings
It's been eight months since the disastrous match where Trinidad and Tobago beat the U.S., knocking the Americans out of the World Cup. Nineteen-year-old Christian Pulisic, a star midfielder for the U.S., played that night. He still laments he'll be watching the World Cup rather than competing.
"You know [it's] sad, obviously," Pulisic said. "We'd like to do it [play in the tournament] but now we're just working on developing this team and being ready to qualify for the next one."
Pulisic was part of this team that took the field two weeks ago in a Memorial Day friendly against a national team from Bolivia. The game was in Chester, Pa. and more than 11,000 fans were there. So were top U.S. Soccer officials, like Nico Romeijn. As chief sport development officer, Romeijn oversees five departments in the Federation, including youth national teams and talent identification. Asked whether missing this World Cup means there's a crisis in men's soccer, Romeijn said "no, [that's] too strong."
Carrying on after criticism
Not qualifying, of course, was a "big disappointment." And Romeijn says it gave urgency to work already underway. For instance, work on coaching education.
"It's so important to improve the level of coaching all over the U.S.," says Romeijn, adding "not only when you're looking at the highest levels, but also when you're looking at grassroots. Because it's all connected to each other."
Romeijn says youth development continues as well, with recent signs of success. The U.S. made it to the quarterfinals last year at both the Under-17 and Under-20 World Cups.
U.S. Soccer may be keeping calm and carrying on. But it can't ignore the fractures in the men's national team that contributed to the qualifying debacle. Fractures caused by coaching controversies and the harsh criticism that followed the Trinidad and Tobago upset. The Federation has responded by adding new personnel. Last week U.S. Soccer hired former player Earnie Stewart as the first-ever general manager of the men's team. In February, U.S. Soccer elected a new president.
Hoping for a culture change
Former national team player and current NBC soccer analyst Kyle Martino ran for president of U.S. Soccer, but lost. Still, Martino continues to share his campaign calls for reform. Starting with the U.S. Soccer culture.
"There's a culture of patronage," says Martino. "It's become incredibly insular [with] a handful of people that don't have the technical qualifications or the history as a player to grow the game and create macro architecture that can help not only develop players but improve the quality of experience within the sport."
"[U.S. Soccer] hasn't become the meritocracy it should be," Martino continues, "where the qualified people who are in it for the right reasons rise to positions where they have the authority to, in a democratic way, make great decisions for soccer in this country."
Despite his criticism, Martino says he's rooting for new U.S. Soccer President Carlos Cordeiro.
"I hope he does a great job," says Martino. I hope [he pushes] the reform that's necessary to change the culture within U.S. Soccer and bring this game to a larger amount of people who've found it hard to either participate or stay in the U.S. Soccer family for a long time."
Casting a wider net
Martino's particularly passionate about the idea of spreading the game. As the new board chairman of Street Soccer USA, a non-profit working to grow the game in inner city communities, Martino wants U.S. Soccer to cast a wider net at the youth levels of the sport – as part of a broader search for the next generation of national team players.
It's the most diverse and non-discriminatory game in the planet. And in our country it's a rich kid's game.
"You have to create the architecture so that it's inclusive," he says. "This is a blue collar sport everywhere else in the world. The teams that win World Cups, that list is made up of kids from favelas in Brazil and the streets of Buenos Aires. That's where the game lives. It's the most diverse and non-discriminatory game in the planet. And in our country it's a rich kid's game. Fixing that absolutely will improve our national team."
A hopeful glimpse of the future
At the game in Chester, fans were happy for a night. The U.S. beat Bolivia and two 18-year-olds were stars. Josh Sargent and Tim Weah both scored. Sargent made his national team debut.
"I was very nervous to be honest," Sargent said. "It was my first professional game ever, so it was a pretty big deal to me and I was proud to net one."
After Pennsylvania, the U.S. went overseas and lost to Ireland and then tied World Cup-bound France.
The friendlies perhaps offered a hopeful glimpse of the future. Now that the 2026 World Cup is coming to North America, qualifying for that event, at least, may not be an issue since there's a good chance the U.S. will automatically qualify since it's the principal host.
But new Federation President Carlos Cordeiro has the kind of big plans that might help the U.S. avoid other World Cup qualifying embarrassments for years to come.
"We believe this event [the 2026 World Cup] will become a lightning rod," Cordeiro said Wednesday, after the U.S., Canada and Mexico won the bid. "It will become transformational for the sport as kids that're now 8, 10, 12 years old can all dream of potentially playing for a national team."
"I make the argument," Cordeiro continued, "that we are a vast, powerful, wealthy nation, but we have haves and have-nots. And our disenfranchised are underserved, and in many ways these are the people with whom the sport resonates most. We don't have enough of them – at 3.5, 4 million registered kids [in U.S. Soccer], we believe there are many, many more who could be playing with us."
It's a message of inclusion that should give hope to critics — that with the right people making the right decisions, the U.S. finally can realize its potential in men's soccer.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/world-cup-begins-without-the-u-s-mens-team | 2022-08-19T04:17:58Z |
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
We already have a final score in the World Cup. Host Russia beat Saudi Arabia in the opener today 5-0. But there are 63 more matches over the next month before a World Cup champion is crowned. And for a preview, we welcome back Tariq Panja. He's in Moscow covering the soccer tournament for The New York Times. Welcome back.
TARIQ PANJA: Nice to be with you again.
CORNISH: So are you looking at something like a full-fledged soccer fever in Moscow?
PANJA: Yeah, well, maybe not from the Russians. It's not a football nation. But what you have here are thousands upon thousands of the world's soccer fans here. So there is an avenue behind the Kremlin, and if you walk down it, it's like being in a museum of soccer fans. So, you know, you walk 5 yards, and there's, like, hundreds of Argentines. Walk maybe 10, 20 more feet, and then there's a group of Peruvians. And then you bump into the Iranians and then the Moroccans. And then why not turn left, and then you get into the Egyptian section. So it is fantastic. There is a World Cup fever in the city. But I believe that's been kind of imported by all these fans that have come in.
CORNISH: You mention Argentines. And I know Germany won that, like, huge, thrilling final over Argentina in 2014. Can Germans repeat as champions in 2018?
PANJA: I'm really not good at predictions.
CORNISH: (Laughter).
PANJA: But I'm going to say no, so they probably will do it. And the reason is, they enter this competition on a - what's for them a bit of a rocky buildup. And it just hasn't been playing as well as we know it can. I think they'll go deep in the competition, but perhaps they aren't the ones who are going to take the trophy away at the end.
CORNISH: Brazil has won five World Cups, but the last time around, we watched them also fall to Germany, right? They were eviscerated in front of a stadium of distraught fans. What's their situation this time around?
PANJA: This time around, Brazil has turned a corner. But, you know, as you say, they were eviscerated. We've never seen anything quite like that. And you thought, can this nation bounce back in time for the World Cup? And to me, it looks like they certainly have. They've got a new coach since then, Tite. He's galvanized a new team. And they've been performing extremely well. They topped their group, in fact sailed through South American qualifying and are the ones to beat here, I'd say.
CORNISH: Here in the U.S., we're bummed because the U.S. men's team didn't make it of course. But neither did perennial powers - Italy, also the Netherlands. Does the tournament feel a little weird with some of these countries missing?
PANJA: Yeah, and I guess if you're someone of a certain age and used to seeing them as I am, like, Italy are kind of - when you think of the World Cup, there's a few nations. You mentioned Germany, Brazil. You've got to throw in Argentina. And then you always throw in Italy as well. It's a passionate soccer country. They were in pieces (laughter) when they didn't qualify.
But I think it kind of goes to show if your program isn't running on full-steam, you can't rely on the past. You can't rely on legacy, and you can't rely on your name anymore. Soccer has become a lot more sophisticated. And with some investment and a bit of luck, a lot of teams are performing a lot better than they may have done in the past. I mean, you only have to look to Iceland, the world's smallest - World Cup's smallest ever of a country. They're coming to their second straight tournament. We're all looking forward to seeing them and their supporters.
CORNISH: It's a good thing you're telling me this because when I sit down to watch a World Cup game, I basically just root for whoever is the underdog. So are there any other upstart countries that I should look forward to watching?
PANJA: Yeah, yeah. For me - I'm flying tomorrow to the city of Saransk where Peru are meeting Denmark. And if you were to arrive in Moscow today, you may think you've come to Lima. There are thousands and thousands of Peruvians everywhere. It's a soccer-mad country on a soccer-mad continent, and it hasn't qualified for 36 years. So the whole generation of people have never seen their team play a World Cup, and they've done it. So people have been selling their cars and remortgaging homes I heard. And they're here. I think when we see the game against Denmark, their opening game, it may feel like a home game for the Peruvians. They're a good story.
CORNISH: That's Tariq Panja, sports correspondent for The New York Times. He's covering the World Cup in Russia. Thanks for speaking with us.
PANJA: Happy to be with you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-06-14/world-cup-kicks-off-in-russia | 2022-08-19T04:18:04Z |
Updated August 8, 2022 at 6:07 PM ET
The new movie Thirteen Lives, now streaming on Prime Video, re-creates the dramatic rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach who had been trapped in a flooded underwater cave in Thailand in 2018.
The world was riveted as rescue attempts were launched. Even Elon Musk got into the act by proposing a plan.
There was a happy ending to this story. So it's no surprise that Ron Howard filmed a movie about it.
"It's tailor-made for Hollywood," says Brian Klaas, associate professor of global politics at University College London. "There's nothing harmful in a big budget film that tells a compelling story."
At the same time, there are millions of children who are suffering in the world's lower resource countries — and their stories are largely untold. "We ignore much worse tales of mass, avoidable tragedy," says Klaas. "Who's going to make a film about the 500,000 kids that die of malaria each year?
"And that's the trouble: The everyday tragedies that warrant our attention most — the ones where we can save the most lives — are the stories that are least likely to attract the attention of Hollywood or of ordinary people in rich countries."
Here's a post we published at the time of the rescue that touched on these themes.
Like millions of global citizens, Abraham Leno has been riveted by the story of the 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a cave in Thailand.
"I sat around the radio with my family and we wanted to hear the recent updates of the kids, every little detail," he says. "To see all the governments sending their best divers, giving them equipment, offering their moral support — it was a beautiful thing to see."
But Leno has another perspective. As a youth, he spent ten years in refugee camps in Guinea. Now working as executive director for the Eastern Congo Initiative at the nonprofit group Concordia, he wishes that the media had paid more attention to his plight and his fellow refugees: "It would have shed a better light to create the understanding necessary to help us."
Others share his concerns. Manyang Reath Kher became a Lost Boy at age 3 and later founded the charity Humanity Helping Sudan. He says, "I don't want to sound horrible to those kids [in the cave], but the attention they got, it should be spread around. Give that to other children, too."
The aid community is grappling with that issue as well. While they all stress that they were deeply moved by the story of the boys in Thailand, they raise a point: Can the world bring the same level of care and resources to other children living in crisis? More than half a million Rohingya children live in camps in Bangladesh, for example, and more than 1,300 children die of malaria each day.
There are, of course, reasons why the cave story is so riveting.
"This is a human story. There's a clear drama," says Brian Klaas, an associate professor of global politics at University College London. "Everybody is rooting for them."
Other life-and-death situations do not resonate in the same way, says Klaas. In a viral tweet, he wrote:
He'd like to see stories about Rohingya refugees, Syrian refugees and South Sudanese refugees told "in a straightforward way."
But there isn't always an audience for such stories. "Protracted conflicts are more and more difficult to get people energized about," says Christy Delafield, associate director of external communications at FHI 360, a human development organization. "It loses newness and novelty."
There's another reason why a story about 12 boys gets more attention than the world's 12 million refugees under the age of 18. The more people who are suffering in a crisis, the harder it is for people to become engaged with their stories, says Delafield.
That's because of a phenomenon known as "psychic numbing," which psychologist Paul Slovic has written about extensively.
One of the jarring things about the Thai cave story: 41 people died when a boat capsized in Thailand on Thursday evening and nobody really cared. It’s a pretty clear illustration of how we latch onto stories that are gripping while ignoring worse human suffering that lacks drama.
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) July 9, 2018
As Shankar Vedantam, host of the podcast Hidden Brain, wrote when he was at the Washington Post:
"In a rational world, we should care twice as much about a tragedy affecting 100 people as about one affecting 50. We ought to care 80,000 times as much when a tragedy involves 4 million lives rather than 50. But Slovic has proved in experiments that this is not how the mind works.
"When a tragedy claims many lives, we often care less than if a tragedy claims only a few lives. When there are many victims, we find it easier to look the other way."
The cave crisis was also notable for the response by the world's rich and famous.
Soccer stars like Brazil's Ronaldo told the boys to "stay strong." After the rescue, all 12 were invited to the upcoming World Cup final. (They're reportedly unlikely to go because they are recuperating from their ordeal.)
Tesla CEO Elon Musk put together a team to design and build a special "kid-size" submarine to assist in the rescue efforts (although the Thai government said it was "not practical for this mission").
What if the same degree of brainpower and resources were devoted to other crises, asks Klaas. "A lot of [other] tragedies are much more solvable. If we had Elon Musk devote his attention to malnourishment or people dying from preventable disease, then things would get solved much quicker. We'd be able to save much more than 12 people in two weeks."
And even though big numbers can be overwhelming, they can still be powerful, says Martin Scott, associate professor in media and development at the University of East Anglia.
"The point is that it doesn't have to be human interest stories to tell about the suffering of others," says Scott. "I was reading a U.N. briefing and it made me cry. The statistics were so overwhelming. I didn't need the story of a child who's just lost her mother to make that meaningful."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-07-10/why-the-thai-cave-rescue-got-a-movie-but-other-crises-with-kids-get-ignored | 2022-08-19T04:34:10Z |
In the dystopian AMC television action series Into the Badlands, Daniel Wu stars as a lethal warrior on a quest to discover the truth about his past.
Over two decades, the 43-year-old has played leading roles in everything from romantic comedies to kung fu costume dramas. He's become a celebrity across Asia. But Badlands is the first starring role in the United States for the California native.
"As a kid growing up in the '70s, '80s, as a person of color, I didn't see a future for that," Wu says. "In my field, there was a roadblock. And so, I basically had to go to Asia and get successful there in order to come back here to have success here."
This year, Hollywood blockbusters like The Mummy, Ready Player One and Transformers: The Last Knight have done better box office numbers in China than they have in the U.S, according to IMDbPro's Box Office Mojo. That's part of the reason why Asian-American actors are starting to snag more leading roles in U.S. films like Crazy Rich Asians and in TV shows after decades of being sidelined in this country.
Daniel Wu is one of them.
Wu grew up in the Bay Area, the son of immigrants from Shanghai. He went to the University of Oregon, and thought he'd become an architect. But in 1997, after graduating, he traveled to Hong Kong, where he was randomly spotted in a bar by a talent scout for a TV commercial.
It just so happened that Hong Kong film director Yonfan caught the ad — and gave the chiseled 20-something his first big break. The director tapped the novice to star in Bishonen, his drama about an ill-fated gay romance. But there were some challenges.
"I've never acted before," Wu says. "And my Cantonese was not good at the time. So I turned it down."
Yonfan wouldn't let go.
"By the end I was like, 'OK, if you don't blame me for screwing it up, I'll give it a shot,'" Wu says.
That was the start of Wu's fast rise to stardom in China, though it didn't exactly happen overnight.
"I came to Hong Kong as a foreigner," he says. "Even though I'm the same skin color, same hair color, same culture, I was treated differently at first."
It took a couple years, but Wu says he was welcomed.
"These are my people, my own culture, and they're accepting me," he says. "I think that's the most touching thing that's happened to me."
Over the years, Wu says he returned to the U.S. for occasional, mostly disappointing, meetings with movie executives.
"They don't really know what they're looking for," he says. "They're just looking for someone Chinese, you know, or Asian."
But slowly Wu started to find opportunities. There was the American-Chinese co-production The Man with the Iron Fists, shot in China by the rap artist and and movie director RZA, who cast Wu in a small role. The RZA says he was surprised when his local crew saw Wu as the biggest celebrity on set.
"I'm telling you, nobody gave two cents' s*** about none of us," RZA says. "When Danny came on the set, everybody went crazy. And all of a sudden, I was making a movie."
These days, Wu is spending more time in California with his family. And after two decades of superstardom in China, Wu has finally landed a major role in the United States.
"It wasn't until Badlands came about that I really kind of moved back here, because there's a steady strong job," Wu says.
He trains at a gym near his home in Oakland. He needs to stay in shape for Into the Badlands -- where he says he's been in more than 30 fight scenes in three seasons.
Wu says while he and a few fellow Asian-American actors are starting to get more lead roles in the U.S., there's still plenty of room for growth.
"It's still not at the point where I'd like it to be," Wu says. "But you know, I understand that it's a slow process. It's a transition."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-07-21/a-superstar-in-china-daniel-wu-emerges-in-his-native-california | 2022-08-19T04:34:16Z |
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And finally today, you probably know the rapper and emcee Tariq Trotter as the frontman of the hip-hop group The Roots. It's the house band for "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon." But now Trotter, who is also known as Black Thought, has a new album out of his own, a collaboration with music producer Danger Mouse. It's called "Cheat Codes." We called Jack Hamilton to tell us about it. He is a music critic for Slate magazine and professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. And he joined us to tell us about a few of the album's standout tracks.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHEAT CODES")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Rapping) Young gunners in beast mode, K-9 teeth show. Cheat code, playing with unlimited free throws.
JACK HAMILTON: "Cheat Codes" is the title track of the album, and I think it's a really great example of the hallmarks of this record in terms of - you can hear the brilliance of Black Thought's rapping and Danger Mouse's production style just really, really evidently on display.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHEAT CODES")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Rapping) Go on, take his name in vain, like a phlebotomist. I'm the one that tell you what time it is. Never been into selling you promises. It's hot as a pot of grits.
HAMILTON: Everything is very kind of in the pocket, as people say - very, very sort of rhythmically complex, but always - you know, always very much under control. It's really - it's a real masterful, I think, display of rapping on this track. And, you know, it's indicative of the rest of the album, as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHEAT CODES")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Rapping) Playing a game, trying hard to hang by the same string. You better get the cheat code or get RICO-ed.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO GOLD TEETH")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Rapping) Wind in my face, hound at my heels. At the end, I'm winning this race. Only then can I chill. But till then, don't ever try to stagnate the magnate. When it's money on the line, never make the bag wait. I just add weight to the bag until the bag break. That holy swag make the cash get the gas face.
HAMILTON: So "No Gold Teeth" was the first track that a lot of people heard from this album because it was the first song to be released from it. It came out a few months ago. But this might actually be my favorite track on the album.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO GOLD TEETH")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Rapping) They requested my IG. I replied deny. Tell me I'm in the top three. They ain't never lied. Stop through in that Peking to Paris. What a ride. The car's two-to-five. The doors suicide. Testing the GOAT'll be your suicide. No matter which corner of the globe you reside.
HAMILTON: The musical backdrop changes quite a bit, you know, throughout the verses. And you have all of these different kind of musical ideas and textures that are happening behind Black Thought. In a way, it's, like, almost mimicking the experience of sort of hearing more of a live band, something that has a lot of kind of dynamism to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BELIZE")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Singing) Away from you. (Rapping) Yo, I'm sick. No lymph nodes is swollen. They told me even when the records skip, keep it rolling. On the shoulder like a California highway patrolman.
HAMILTON: So "Belize" is probably one of the most special tracks on this album because it's a collaboration - a posthumous collaboration with the late MF Doom.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BELIZE")
MF DOOM: (Rapping) Doom get rude with the dude off chips. The mood switch. He chewed off strips of a Broodwich (ph). Danger make him groove off a glitch. Made your boo booty twitch and the crew rich. Always wanted to say that, ever since the days in the hallways taunting a stray cat, the one he often frequently slapped around. All the while, waited then graduated - cap and gown.
HAMILTON: When you see a posthumous collaboration, you're somewhat apprehensive - you know? - because you're like, wait, what if this is something that's just sort of added - you know, it's some sort of rough draft type thing that the artist never really meant to be released? You know, that happens a lot. But then to hear it and have it be just totally brilliant, and it sounds like, you know, peak MF Doom - like, it's just like - it's like being able to hear this sort of lost Doom verse.
And MF Doom is just sort of a legendary hip-hop figure in terms of just a dazzling lyricist, dazzling emcee. There's very few people, I think, who are really at the level of Black Thought throughout the history of hip-hop music, and MF Doom is absolutely one of them. So it's just this really kind of moving experience to be able to hear both of these artists sharing a track together.
MARTIN: That was Jack Hamilton, music critic for Slate magazine, telling us about "Cheat Codes." That's the new album from rapper Black Thought and producer Danger Mouse, and it's out now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STRANGERS")
BLACK THOUGHT: (Rapping) Yeah, while y'all was suffering from future shock, hurting and hating, waiting for that other shoe to drop, I was relocating this whole operation to the top for you to copy and paste. In case you forgot, I'm super hot and beyond your range. It's kind of strange how the change in climate ain't because of climate change. I acquired this affinity for finer things, like big folds, Range and... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-14/album-review-of-danger-mouse-black-thoughts-cheat-codes | 2022-08-19T04:38:11Z |
2 Wendy’s employees shot in Cincinnati, one critically injured
Published: Aug. 18, 2022 at 11:24 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
CINCINNATI (WXIX/Gray News) - Cincinnati police are investigating a shooting at a Wendy’s in Walnut Hills.
The shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. outside the location, when two people were shot, according to police. Both victims are employees of the restaurant.
EMS transported them to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where one of the victims is in critical condition. The other victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
There is no additional information on the suspect.
CPD District Four units are investigating the shooting.
Copyright 2022 WXIX via Gray Media Group. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/2-wendys-employees-shot-cincinnati-one-critically-injured/ | 2022-08-19T04:38:14Z |
Liberty pushes for third straight postseason with young roster
Raiders open season at Independence on August 25
Published: Aug. 19, 2022 at 12:27 AM EDT|Updated: 10 minutes ago
GLEN DANIEL, W.Va. (WVVA) - Liberty returns four starters from last season’s playoff team. The Raiders’ young players will have to mature quickly if they want to win the program’s first playoff game.
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/liberty-pushes-third-straight-postseason-with-young-roster/ | 2022-08-19T04:38:21Z |
R. Kelly’s lawyer gets chance to question government witness
CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly’s legal team will get its chance to question the government’s star witness on Friday after she gave what jurors could see as damning testimony against Kelly at his federal trial in Chicago on charges that include the production of child pornography.
Jane, the pseudonym used for her during the trial, has been central to Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades. She testified for over four hours Thursday, telling jurors it was her and Kelly in a videotape that was at the heart of his 2008 child pornography trial, at which he was acquitted.
Jane, now 37, paused, tugged at a necklace and dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she said publicly for the first time that the girl in the video was her and that the man was Kelly.
When a prosecutor asked Jane how old she was at the time the video was shot, she said quietly: “14.” Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 years old at the time.
In addition to charges of child pornography and enticement of minors, Kelly faces charges of conspiring to rig that 2008 trial by intimidating and paying off the girl to ensure she didn’t testify then.
Some jurors who presided over that 2008 trial, which was on state charges, said that they had no choice but to acquit the R&B star because the girl — by then an adult — didn’t testify. On the stand Thursday, Jane conceded that she lied to a state grand jury in 2002 when she said that it was not her in the video.
“I was afraid something bad would happen to Robert,” she told jurors about why she didn’t tell the truth then, referring to Kelly by his full first name. “I was protecting him.”
She added there was another reason she lied about the identity of the person in the video. “I also did not want that person to be me,” she told jurors. “I was ashamed.”
Dressed in a white dress coat and removing a face mask before testifying, Jane remained on the witness stand for over four hours for the government. Kelly’s attorney was scheduled to get her chance to cross-examine Jane starting Friday morning.
A prosecutor asked Jane toward the end of the day Thursday why she decided in recent years to begin speaking honestly about what happened with Kelly, who Jane said she continued to care for and sometimes live with into her 20s.
“I became exhausted living with his lies,” she answered. She added that federal prosecutors assured her she would not be charged with lying to authorities if she testified truthfully at this trial.
Earlier, Jane also became emotional when she was asked to explain why Kelly can be seen handing money to her in the video. She said it was a precaution against anyone accusing him of abusing a child if the video ever fell into the hands of authorities.
“If anyone saw the tape ... he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute,” Jane said.
She described her parents confronting Kelly in the early 2000s about whether he was having sex with their daughter. Kelly dropped to his knees and begged her parents to forgive him, Jane testified. She said she later implored her parents not to do anything to get Kelly in trouble, telling them she loved him.
As she spoke, Kelly mostly stared down at the defense table and rarely looked up at her. She, too, rarely looked in his direction.
Earlier, she testified that Kelly sexually abused her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was 15. She said they were having oral sex in the video and that she was 14 at the time.
Jane told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
She said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse.
Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered, “He would tell me what to do.” Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times. … Hundreds.”
A federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to a 30-year prison sentence this year for his 2021 conviction for using his fame to sexually abuse fans.
Speaking softly and tentatively when she first took the stand Thursday, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in a Chicago suburb, including that she was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group that she joined when she was about 12.
Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She had tagged along to Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Soon after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly was going to be her godfather.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so prosecutors say he conspired to fix that trial.
Kelly has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified after the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex at the Chicago trial — one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.
___
Follow AP Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the R. Kelly trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/r-kellys-lawyer-gets-chance-question-government-witness/ | 2022-08-19T04:38:27Z |
VIDEO: Flash mob ransacks, vandalizes 7-Eleven after street takeover, police say
LOS ANGELES (Gray News) - Police in Los Angeles say a flash mob ransacked and looted a 7-Eleven convenience store earlier this week following a street takeover.
The Los Angeles Police Department shared surveillance video from the store located in South Los Angeles.
Police said the video shows several group members grabbing various items on Aug. 15 at about 12:40 a.m., including drinks, cigarettes, lottery tickets and other merchandise.
LAPD said members of the group were also throwing merchandise at store employees.
Afterward, the store was left in disarray, with authorities saying the group left before law enforcement arrived.
Police said before the incident within the store, the group held a street takeover at a nearby intersection that blocked traffic with vehicles performing “donuts” in the street.
The LAPD urged anyone with further information about this incident to contact South Traffic Division Detectives at 323-421-2500.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/video-flash-mob-ransacks-vandalizes-7-eleven-after-street-takeover-police-say/ | 2022-08-19T04:38:34Z |
In America today, communities are sorting themselves into like-minded bubbles. There are red teams and blue teams, where you're less likely to run into people who disagree with you.
Lately, immigration has been a flashpoint for debate.
But in the border town of McAllen, Texas, it's a part of everyday life.
Carlos Garcia is an immigration lawyer. Ben Wilson is a border patrol agent. Garcia fights to keep people in the country — some of the same people Wilson might arrest.
The two are nextdoor neighbors. And they and their children often gather to play on the Garcia's slide or sit down for a tea party. It's the kind of close relationship where the kids often forget to knock when they come over to the other's house.
Ben and Jacqui Wilson met as police officers in Indiana. Carlos and Elizabeth Garcia met as law students in Seattle.
Ben mans a Customs and Border Protection checkpoint 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Carlos jokes that liberals like him refer to it as a "Constitution-free zone."
They moved next door to each other four years ago and realized they had kids the exact same age.
"Him being an immigration attorney and me being a border patrol agent is such a small part of us living next to each other that it's never even been a thought to me," Ben says. "As long as you keep an open mind and you're not so locked in that we have to be enemies because he's trying to save the people we arrest. It's not like that at all."
"I would say it's more complicated than just conservative or liberal," Carlos says. "I think we have a set of values, and I think so long as we follow that, it's easy to get along with someone who works in a field that for instance others would consider that is on the opposite side of me."
Spending time with them, it's fairly clear how they make it work. They don't discuss politics; they talk about their kids. They borrow the lawnmower or help fix the fence. It feels like what conversation used to be before national politics dominated everybody's social media feeds.
Their wives are on different parts of the political spectrum too. Jacqui's a Republican, Elizabeth a conservative Democrat. But they say that doesn't get in the way of their bond as mothers.
"We teach our children every day about respect, and I think that if we can emulate that in our lives, then certainly everyone else can," Elizabeth says. "That's the lesson we're teaching our children."
Between the two families, there's a new baby and a new puppy. On a recent Tuesday morning, they're all playing together, and it's hard to tell who belongs to whom.
The kids all sit down together for a breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon. Ben sighs and says his kids will only eat blueberries when they're at Carlos' house.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-08-03/an-unlikely-friendship-an-immigration-attorney-and-a-border-patrol-agent | 2022-08-19T04:51:13Z |
When Jorge Lara's father opened a bakery in the tiny South Texas town of Raymondville in 1963, the city boasted three theaters, dozens of restaurants and a bustling main street. The cotton fields that cover the county raked in profit. Jobs were plentiful.
More than 50 years later, Lara's Bakery is one of the few businesses left downtown. Each morning, employees fill the glass cases with glazed doughnuts and Mexican pastries like pan dulce and pumpkin empanadas.
Although the bakery is busy, the storefronts all around it are boarded up with faded signs. The historic movie theater on the city's main drag is vacant. Even the Walmart has gone out of business.
Anything that can come in will help out.
So when Lara heard the county would reopen an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in town, he welcomed the news of jobs that pay $18 an hour. "Anything that can come in will help out," he says.
Willacy County, Texas, is not the only place hoping to reap the benefits of a new detention facility.
When President Trump campaigned on a pledge to crack down on illegal immigration, the nation's big private prison companies saw opportunity.
And they weren't wrong. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is currently seeking new contracts for 3,000 new bed spaces in immigration detention within 180 miles of Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City. And just in June, ICE asked for information from companies that could potentially accommodate 15,000 new family immigration lockups.
And with the majority of immigrant detainees held in facilities operated by for-profit companies, it's not hard to predict who will get those contracts.
The problem is that many of the private prison companies have troubling track records — ranging from poor living conditions to allegations of physical and sexual abuse of detainees.
But with the promise of good-paying jobs in places where they're sorely needed, communities like Raymondville are increasingly having to grapple with a complicated choice.
Trouble in Willacy
Officially, the new center in Raymondville is called El Valle Detention Center. Unofficially, some people call it Ritmo — short for Raymondville Gitmo, a play on the nickname for the infamous detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
Others still call it Willacy, the name the detention center had before inmates torched it in 2015.
For years before the riots, immigrants at Willacy had complained about overcrowding, rodents and physical and sexual abuse.
Mark Fleming, who observed Willacy in 2009 for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, visits a lot of immigration detention centers. He says Willacy was uniquely bad. It included a literal tent city, each Kevlar tent packed with rows of bunk beds.
"I think it was in a class of its own," Fleming says. "When it was built, it was intended to be a temporary facility and soon temporary turned into an over five to 10 years slowly disintegrating situation."
The Utah-based company that operated Willacy, Management and Training Corp., operates several other private immigration detention facilities for ICE. Willacy first opened as an immigration detention center in 2006. By 2015, Willacy was no longer operated by ICE; it had become a Bureau of Prisons facility. Inmates were immigrants with criminal records, including many whose crime was crossing the border multiple times. ICE severed ties with Willacy in 2011 after allegations of abuse.
When the facility shut down after the riots and tent fires, the county was in tens of millions of dollars of debt for the cost of the center. The county sued MTC for breach of contract, accusing the company of "abysmal management of the prison."
In the suit, Willacy County alleged MTC "turned a blind eye to the enormous problems that plagued the prison from its inception," including flooding toilets, rodents, failure to provide basic services and overcrowding so bad that some detainees were forced to stay in solitary confinement. Eventually, Willacy County dropped the lawsuit and sold the land Willacy sits on to MTC. As part of the agreement, MTC agreed to pay off the county's debt from the prison.
The facility remained closed until July, when busloads of immigrant detainees starting arriving again. Days before the reopening, protesters marched in front of Willacy County Courthouse, where commissioners met to approve final amendments to a new three-year contract with MTC.
The deal was, for the most part, already done.
At that meeting, Judge Aurelio Guerra, the county official who oversaw the process for Willacy County, heralded the jobs that MTC would bring back.
"I have not had a single constituent come to me and tell me since February of 2015 not to consider reopening it," he told reporters.
NPR requested an interview with Guerra and with each county commissioner. They all either declined or did not reply. NPR also filed a public records request for the new contract between the county and MTC. The request remains unanswered.
In an interview with NPR, Dan Joslin, MTC vice president of corrections, said the company had always hoped to reopen its immigration detention center there.
"That's certainly been our goal all along," Joslin said. "We're committed to Willacy County ... and we feel like we're a part of that community, and we're committed to helping the community out as best we can and our goal all along has been to bring a project back there."
Economic development
For many people who live in Willacy County, the most important thing about the facility is that it pays guards close to $20 an hour. Other jobs in town pay less than half that.
David Correa Gomez, the city of Raymondville's economic development coordinator, says the region is impoverished and badly needs good-paying jobs.
"If we take a step back, it's very important to take two steps forward to compensate," he said.
Asked whether he had any hesitations about going back into business with a company that the county once said failed to provide safe and adequate care for inmates, Guerra says "absolutely not."
He says MTC has not offered the city any explicit assurances that it has taken steps to address the failures documented at Willacy leading up to the riots.
"Not at the moment," Guerra says. "But we have an extreme amount of confidence in MTC because they're highly reputable in the U.S. in terms of the operations. They have the background and the credentials to back it up."
We were unfortunate to have the riot in 2015, but things happen.
"We were unfortunate to have the riot in 2015," he says, "but things happen."
Opponents of the facility say this is a false choice between jobs and immigration detention.
"To put money on the table and to say, 'If you lock up your brothers and sisters, we will improve the quality of your street' is a completely false setup," says Christina Patiño Houle, an organizer with a local advocacy group, Equal Voice Network. "To position the well-being of the few, against the well-being of the collective, I think is an absolutely false dichotomy."
For its part, MTC says the new facility will house fewer people — 1,000 men instead of nearly 3,000. About 250 people will work at the new facility, the company says, about 150 fewer employees than the old Willacy facility.
Joslin says that the main lessons his company learned from Willacy are that Kevlar tents are ineffective and that Bureau of Prison inmates are a higher-risk population than Immigration and Customs Enforcement inmates.
He also said most of the claims made about conditions in Willacy were unfounded — especially those in the county's lawsuit against the company.
In a statement, MTC also said the company does not tolerate inappropriate behavior by its staff — and employees are disciplined or face criminal charges for any wrongdoing.
Joslin calls the accusations raised by the county "posturing just based on what happened in this instance" and says "we clearly have moved past that."
Profit motive
Allegations of abuse and neglect of detainees at privately run detention facilities are not unique to Willacy. In 2016, following reports of mismanagement at federal lockups across the U.S., the Justice Department announced it was moving away from using private companies to manage prisons. One federal report found that prisons run by private companies, including MTC, had more safety violations than prisons run by wholly by the U.S. government.
On the day of the Justice Department's announcement, stocks of the two largest private prison companies in the U.S. — CoreCivic and GEO Group Inc. — fell by nearly 40 percent.
The day after the 2016 election, when Donald Trump claimed victory after running on a platform of pledging to lock up and deport more people who came to the country illegally, GEO Group stock prices rose 21 percent. CoreCivic stocks went up by 43 percent.
MTC is not a publicly traded company, but MTC officials tell NPR that private immigration detention is a sector where there is room for growth and that the company expects to continue evaluating requests from ICE for new facilities.
A complicated choice
The new detention center is a few minutes from Raymondville's quiet downtown, across the street from the high school.
MTC denied NPR's request for a tour of the facility. Instead, the company sent a promotional video described as a "virtual tour" of MTC's three other detention facilities. It shows detainees playing volleyball, taking computer classes and getting medical care from a doctor. The video displays the company's motto, "BIONIC: Believe it or not, I care."
For former Willacy corrections officer Luz Montez, the experience she had working there does not match up to that slogan.
Even though she could really use the job, Montez says she would not apply again to work for MTC. She quit because of the conditions but says she understands how hard to come by good jobs are here, and that's what makes this debate so difficult.
"When they said it was opening up, I was like, 'You know what, there were a lot of people working there that were from Raymondville. So they need jobs. They'll have jobs,' " she says over doughnuts at Lara's Bakery. "But at the same time, if people asked me if I [applied], I was like 'no.' And I would not recommend anybody to apply."
In Raymondville, for all intents and purposes, the debate over private immigration detention is settled now that the center is open and filling up with immigrant detainees.
The Trump administration continues to request appropriations to fund more detention center beds, meaning El Valle likely won't be the last new facility.
Companies in the business of immigrant detention are looking for more towns like Raymondville — places eager to meet a demand that is likely only to grow.
Christina Cala and Allison Mollenkamp contributed reporting.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-08-03/as-private-ice-lockups-grow-towns-could-see-economic-boon | 2022-08-19T04:51:20Z |
The busiest section of the U.S.-Mexico border is the Rio Grande Valley. It's not unusual for Border Patrol agents to catch more than 500 immigrants a day trying to cross into the U.S. along this 55-mile stretch. In spite of increased border security and rising costs to cross, migrants are still determined to make the journey.
NPR recently spent time on both sides of the border, where immigration is part of everyday life.
Border Patrol Agent Robert Rodriguez has been patrolling this section of border near McAllen, Texas, for about 10 years. He says this stretch of the border wall used to be much busier a decade ago.
"It was very common to see a group of 40, 50 coming across in this area," Rodriguez says. "This has gone down to about half, even less."
The Rio Grande is the border line. Rodriguez says almost nobody tries to cross here without the help of cartels — who have spent years learning how best to evade the authorities.
He says those who enter the U.S. illegally here fall into two general groups: Half are smuggling drugs or people and don't want to be found. The other half want to claim asylum, and they're hoping agents find them as soon as possible.
Around a bend in the road, there's a group of about 25 seeking asylum; about half are children. Most are from Central America, trying to escape gang violence. These days, 80 percent of the people who cross the border here are not from Mexico.
Dahani Gudiel came from Guatemala with three kids — a 7-year-old and 4-year-old twins. She decided to cross after her husband, who was living in Boston, died and she started receiving threats from members of a local gang.
"They said I had to pay $2,000 by Aug. 1," Gudiel says. "They told me they were watching my daughters and that if I didn't give them the money something would happen to them. So I decided to come here."
She says she told her kids they were going on vacation.
Jessica Carolina Santos Lopez came from Honduras with her 9-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son. She said the worst part was when the smugglers put her group in a trailer for three days and the air conditioning broke. She got dizzy and threw up. Her baby got rashes from the heat.
"I was scared because I felt like I was suffocating and my son, too, so I kept putting water on him," Santos Lopez says.
The group stands in 100-degree heat for about an hour while Border Patrol agents fill out paperwork about each migrant. Agents then drive them in vans along the unpaved roads.
This group's next stop is likely to be a central processing facility in McAllen. That's where migrants are held while the government decides where they will go next. For many that's a longer-term immigration detention facility where they will remain locked up while their case works its way through the immigration courts.
Here, they'll be given silver Mylar blankets and green foam pads to lie on. They will not step outside for the duration of their stay, which lasts on average between 36 and 48 hours, and then move on through the U.S. immigration system.
The man in charge of the entire Rio Grande Valley for the Border Patrol is Manuel Padilla, who has been with Customs and Border Protection for some 30 years and came to this area in 2015.
"Until there is immigration reform, you will continue having this problem, and it will go from this administration to the next to the next. So at some point, Congress has to fix this," he says.
Migrants who want to request asylum are supposed to go to what's called a legal port of entry. On this part of the border, that's most often one of the three bridges over the Rio Grande.
On a recent Friday afternoon, a dozen people in their 20s and 30s from countries like Cuba and Nicaragua sit under a tarp on the Mexican side of one of the bridges. They say they're waiting because U.S. officials turned them away, telling them they can't process the claim at the moment because there's no room for more asylum-seekers.
But it's not clear why there is a backlog. NPR asked several U.S. agencies involved with different parts of the process and couldn't get an answer.
Alfonso Garcia sits in the shade of a big umbrella at the bridge's midpoint and writes names in a notebook. He arrived a few days ago from Cuba, on his 30th birthday. He is recording a waiting list of people who want to claim asylum. CBP officials turn people away, rather than keep an organized waiting list. Garcia's list is unofficial, but people seem to take it seriously. There are 23 people on his list.
"The American police don't care, so it's better for me to keep this organized," he says. "At least there's some order."
A family of four from Cuba approaches him, luggage in tow, and puts each one's name on the list. The father is William Moreno.
"There's nothing as important as freedom," Moreno says. "And if there's one country that understands the importance of liberty, it's the United States."
After making it into the U.S., some migrants — especially women with children — are released to a sponsor elsewhere in the U.S. as they await their day in immigration court.
At the central bus station in McAllen, asylum-seekers are dropped off in large groups. You can spot them by their ankle monitors and the manila envelopes they're holding. Some envelopes have handwritten notes with their names, bus times, a destination. On others, big bold letters that read: "Please help me; I do not speak English; what bus do I need to take? Thank you for your help."
Sister Norma Pimentel runs the Humanitarian Respite Center in Brownsville, Texas. It's administered by Catholic Charities and is located just a few blocks from the bus station.
A sign on the wall reads,"Restoring Human Dignity." It's a mantra volunteers at the center try to follow from the moment migrants walk in, offering them water, counsel and a warm shower.
"There's a sense of unbelief," Pimentel says. "You see faces break into tears and joy and there's definitely a sense of appreciation and gratitude for the fact that we're offering them a sense of welcome and a sense of 'I care about you and want to help you in every way I can.' "
This shelter offers respite, but there's still a long process ahead for people applying for asylum. And the Trump administration has narrowed the grounds for who can be granted asylum in the U.S.; most people seeking asylum because of gang and domestic violence are no longer eligible. Most of the people here will very likely have their asylum claims rejected and be sent back to the countries from which they came. According to federal data, immigration judges are granting appeals from asylum-seekers half as much as they did a year ago.
The other side of the Rio Grande
Across the bridge from Brownsville, in the Mexican city of Matamoros, migrants await an opportunity to cross into the U.S. Some plot when they can go to a legal port of entry to claim asylum. Others will try to sneak across.
A shelter called La Casa del Migrante is a stopping point for people headed to the U.S. It's also where many people who have just been deported from the U.S. seek respite as they chart their next move.
This shelter is a safe haven in an otherwise violent city. For asylum-seekers turned away at the bridge, staying too long in Matamoros can be dangerous. The cartels see an opportunity to extort money from waiting family members in the U.S.
Juan Antonio Sierra Vargas, an engineer by training, is one of the volunteers who help operate this shelter.
He says he has seen the effect of the U.S.'s increased immigration enforcement on this side of the border.
"The enforcement effort works in the sense that people don't cross alone like they used to," he says. "Now they have to use organized crime to help them at least get to the border. And the costs for helping them get into the United States have just exploded. It used to cost $1,000 to take someone to Houston. Now it costs $10,000."
After President Trump's election, Vargas saw a flood of people come through this shelter, trying to enter the U.S. before Inauguration Day. Vargas says the numbers fell that day, and they've stayed low ever since.
On the day we visit, most of center's 48 beds are full of deportees heading south. Vargas says people headed north are increasingly hidden in stash houses, instead of shelters like this one. He says that is because migrants now have to rely more heavily on the cartels to smuggle them to the border.
But we do meet a few people headed north.
Julio Sanchez Pacayo is from El Salvador. He spent 12 years in the U.S. and has three kids there. Four years ago, he was deported when police in Houston caught him driving without a license. Now he hopes to cross back into the U.S. This time, he says, he would do things differently.
"You have to be a lot stricter now. Things are more repressive than they were under Obama. It was freer before," Sanchez says.
Throughout the day, different people arrive at the shelter to help. Barbers-in-training give free haircuts; a nurse stops by to check everyone's blood pressure; Doctors Without Borders offers free counseling.
Alejo Rubio-Martinez, 38, from Hidalgo, Mexico, has crossed into Texas six times, and he has been deported twice.
He says he sees no reason not to cross and that there's nothing the U.S. can do to stop people from trying. His advice to those looking to cross: "If you're determined to cross, give it your all."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-08-08/photos-what-its-like-on-both-sides-of-the-u-s-mexico-borders-busiest-crossing | 2022-08-19T04:51:26Z |
KAPOLEI, HAWAII (KITV4) - A retirement celebration was held at AES Hawaii – the state’s last coal fired power plant. The plant first opened in 1992 and will cease operations September 1,2022 on its 30th anniversary.
Officials said this is a monumental step towards the state's energy goal to have 100% renewable energy use by 2045.
"Coal is a carbon intensive fuel and if you believe in climate change and it being caused by man then you would go after carbon intensive products, coal being one of them. I believe it’s a freight train you can’t stop," said Patrick Murphy, AES employee.
AES Hawaii will generate electricity until August 31st and start clean up and dismantling the power plant September 6th.
"There’s a set amount of coal on the planet and we're eventually going to run out. We’re apart of leading our community to a sustainable future," said Max Guarniere, maintenance team leader at AES Hawaii.
However, Senator Glenn Wakai disagrees. He said this decision might be good for the future but closing the plant is two years too soon. He believes electricity rates will skyrocket and black-outs are possible.
"This coal plant provided 20% of firm, renewable power. We can talk all about solar and batteries but that’s intermittent. There’s obviously 12 hours of the day we're not getting energy,” said Senator Wakai, chair of Senate energy committee.
He said he and other lawmakers tried to push back closing AES Hawaii but there was too much pushback from environmentalists. AES officials said the company is working on several renewable energy projects across Oahu while they prepare to close their doors on coal.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com | https://www.kitv.com/news/aes-hawaii-in-last-weeks-of-operation/article_2865008a-1f75-11ed-b92b-5fcb9180c886.html | 2022-08-19T04:58:21Z |
For the first time since his grandfather opened the family dental office in the 1920s, Dr. Jeffrey Kagihara said thieves finally broke in.
Caught on surveillance video one man is shown rummaging through the office, stealing personal and business information, as well as patient records.
"I'm scared of them. They know me, but I don't know them. Every day they walk around here they're the one who steal my stuff who jump in our place, dig around my stuff," said Kagihara's wife, June, who helps run the business. "They got my personal checks, my bank accounts, every single (thing with) my personal information written down on my papers they took it with them."
And this is not the first time they've tried.
"Last 10 years they've attempted our office more than five times," she said. "They try front door, back door you name it. It's not a one or two-person crime. This is organized crime. One person watch, second person driver, two (people) get in."
The Kagiharas said several people were caught on surveillance video both inside and outside the office on South King Street, but a month later little's been done to catch the thieves.
"At least in my particular case for this robbery, I just feel like I've done way more detective work than the police have done," Kagihara said. "And it's gone nowhere and it's one month later so now it's probably too late."
And they said they're not alone. The Kagiharas said many others throughout the neighborhood have also been burglarized.
"I heard every other day, every other house," June Kagihara said. "Everyday I feel anxiety, I feel unsecure, I feel unsafe."
Honolulu police said they are investigating the incident, but so far have made no arrests.
Kristen joined KITV4 in March 2021 after working for the past two decades as a newspaper reporter. Kristen's goal is to produce meaningful journalism that educates, enlightens and inspires to affect positive change in society. | https://www.kitv.com/news/honolulu-dental-office-the-latest-target-for-thieves/article_c3dab49e-1f6e-11ed-8757-e329204188e8.html | 2022-08-19T04:58:27Z |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- There's some good news for the Braddahhood. More University of Hawaii (UH) football fans will be able to attend the Rainbow Warriors' home games starting next year.
The UH Board of Regents on Thursday approved a plan to nearly double the number of seats at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. That's currently the home stadium for UH since Aloha Stadium is closed and unusable.
The Ching Athletics Complex currently has 9,300 seats, and the project will increase the capacity to 17,000 seats.
The NCAA requires Division I football teams to have at least 15,000 people at the games.
UH will add new grandstands to the area where there's currently a track, so crews will build a new track where the practice fields for football and women's soccer are currently located.
The whole project will cost $30 million, and the money will come from UH's Tuition and Fees Special Funds. UH will have federal COVID money that can be used to pay for things that the Tuition and Fees Special Funds would've otherwise covered.
Construction work to expand the seating is set to begin in January 2023 and is expected to be finished in August, in time for UH's 2023 season opener against Stanford University on September 1.
In addition to adding extra seats, crews will install a 75-foot wide video scoreboard that's currently located at Aloha Stadium.
By adding the extra seats, UH expects its net revenue from its home football games to go up by $1 million a year.
As for the upcoming football season, we're now just a little over a week away from UH's season opener against Vanderbilt University, which is set for Saturday, August 27.
Meanwhile, the work to relocate the track is set to begin next May, and is expected to take one year to complete. That includes excavation work to level the two practice fields. Crews will also install a retaining wall, drainage and irrigation systems, and grandstand seating.
Marisa Yamane joined KITV4 in January 2022 as an anchor and executive producer. She is an award-winning veteran journalist, who’s spent most of her career in Hawaii. She’s a proud graduate of Iolani School and UCLA. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/uh-board-of-regents-approves-plan-to-nearly-double-the-seating-at-ching-athletics-complex/article_476b6b68-1f6b-11ed-91ac-1b59c3768e15.html | 2022-08-19T04:58:33Z |
20-Yard Dash: Luray
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - The Luray football program is looking to rebound after a difficult season last year.
The Bulldogs had a dominant start to their 2021 campaign, going undefeated in their first four games. However, the team struggled with COVID-19 issues throughout the season, losing six games in a row and falling in the first round of the Region 2B Playoffs.
In the past, Luray has been one of the most consistent programs in the area. Before last fall, the Bulldogs had posted winning seasons for nearly ten years in a row.
This year, twelve seniors will be leading the team as the Bulldogs look to regain their reputation as one of the toughest teams on Friday nights.
Luray Head Coach Nolan Jeffries will be entering his 7th season at the helm of the program. Although the team went 4-5 last fall, Jeffries is confident that the seniors will use their experience to guide the younger players.
“Our kids have been through it,” said Jeffries. “We haven’t had the best years since the pandemic but our kids gained a lot of experience. They’ve spent time in the weight room and haven’t given up. ”
According to senior running back/linebacker Braden Jenkins, the 2022 Bulldogs have grown up together on the football field.
“We’ve put in the work since age six,” said Jenkins. “This team is built through our seniors so it’s our time.”
Senior center/defensive tackle Alex Heglar added the importance of weight room training to help the Bulldogs become a more physical presence on the field.
“We’re really strong,” said Heglar. “It’s our strength in the weight room, our strength on the field. We’re a lot faster... we’re better.”
Senior running back/outside linebacker Kenny Frye is ready to put Luray back on the map in 2022.
“We’re trying to rekindle that spotlight,” said Frye. “We’re trying to get back to the top.”
Luray - 2022 Schedule
8/26 - at Rock Ridge
9/2 - vs. Buffalo Gap*
9/16 - at Page County*
9/23 - at Skyline
9/30 - vs. Stuarts Draft*
10/7 - at Central*
10/14 - vs. East Rockingham*
10/21 - vs. Strasburg*
10/28 - at Clarke County*
11/4 - vs. Madison County*
*Shenandoah District Opponent
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/20-yard-dash-luray/ | 2022-08-19T05:00:19Z |
R. Kelly’s lawyer gets chance to question government witness
CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly’s legal team will get its chance to question the government’s star witness on Friday after she gave what jurors could see as damning testimony against Kelly at his federal trial in Chicago on charges that include the production of child pornography.
Jane, the pseudonym used for her during the trial, has been central to Kelly’s legal troubles for more than two decades. She testified for over four hours Thursday, telling jurors it was her and Kelly in a videotape that was at the heart of his 2008 child pornography trial, at which he was acquitted.
Jane, now 37, paused, tugged at a necklace and dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she said publicly for the first time that the girl in the video was her and that the man was Kelly.
When a prosecutor asked Jane how old she was at the time the video was shot, she said quietly: “14.” Kelly, 55, would have been around 30 years old at the time.
In addition to charges of child pornography and enticement of minors, Kelly faces charges of conspiring to rig that 2008 trial by intimidating and paying off the girl to ensure she didn’t testify then.
Some jurors who presided over that 2008 trial, which was on state charges, said that they had no choice but to acquit the R&B star because the girl — by then an adult — didn’t testify. On the stand Thursday, Jane conceded that she lied to a state grand jury in 2002 when she said that it was not her in the video.
“I was afraid something bad would happen to Robert,” she told jurors about why she didn’t tell the truth then, referring to Kelly by his full first name. “I was protecting him.”
She added there was another reason she lied about the identity of the person in the video. “I also did not want that person to be me,” she told jurors. “I was ashamed.”
Dressed in a white dress coat and removing a face mask before testifying, Jane remained on the witness stand for over four hours for the government. Kelly’s attorney was scheduled to get her chance to cross-examine Jane starting Friday morning.
A prosecutor asked Jane toward the end of the day Thursday why she decided in recent years to begin speaking honestly about what happened with Kelly, who Jane said she continued to care for and sometimes live with into her 20s.
“I became exhausted living with his lies,” she answered. She added that federal prosecutors assured her she would not be charged with lying to authorities if she testified truthfully at this trial.
Earlier, Jane also became emotional when she was asked to explain why Kelly can be seen handing money to her in the video. She said it was a precaution against anyone accusing him of abusing a child if the video ever fell into the hands of authorities.
“If anyone saw the tape ... he wanted it to appear as if I was a prostitute,” Jane said.
She described her parents confronting Kelly in the early 2000s about whether he was having sex with their daughter. Kelly dropped to his knees and begged her parents to forgive him, Jane testified. She said she later implored her parents not to do anything to get Kelly in trouble, telling them she loved him.
As she spoke, Kelly mostly stared down at the defense table and rarely looked up at her. She, too, rarely looked in his direction.
Earlier, she testified that Kelly sexually abused her “hundreds” of times before she turned 18 years old, starting when she was 15. She said they were having oral sex in the video and that she was 14 at the time.
Jane told jurors that in the late 1990s when she was 13, she asked the Grammy award-winning singer to be her godfather because she saw him as an inspiration and mentor.
She said within weeks, Kelly would call her and say sexual things. She told jurors she was 15 when they first had intercourse.
Asked by a prosecutor how she would know what to do sexually, Jane answered, “He would tell me what to do.” Asked how many times they had sex before she turned 18, she answered quietly: “Uncountable times. … Hundreds.”
A federal judge in New York sentenced Kelly to a 30-year prison sentence this year for his 2021 conviction for using his fame to sexually abuse fans.
Speaking softly and tentatively when she first took the stand Thursday, Jane described her upbringing in a musical family in a Chicago suburb, including that she was home-schooled because she was in a touring musical group that she joined when she was about 12.
Jane first met Kelly in the late 1990s when she was in junior high school. She had tagged along to Kelly’s Chicago recording studio with her aunt, a professional singer who worked with Kelly. Soon after that meeting, Jane told her parents that Kelly was going to be her godfather.
Kelly, who rose from poverty on Chicago’s South Side to become a star singer, songwriter and producer, knew a conviction in 2008 would effectively end his life as he knew it, and so prosecutors say he conspired to fix that trial.
Kelly has been trailed for decades by complaints and allegations about his sexual behavior. The scrutiny intensified after the #MeToo era and the 2019 six-part documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
Kelly also faces four counts of enticement of minors for sex at the Chicago trial — one each for four other accusers. They, too, are expected to testify.
___
Follow AP Legal Affairs Writer Michael Tarm on Twitter at https://twitter.com/mtarm
___
Find AP’s full coverage of the R. Kelly trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/r-kellys-lawyer-gets-chance-question-government-witness/ | 2022-08-19T05:00:26Z |
RCBL Finals: Bridgewater takes 3-2 series lead after victory in game five
Published: Aug. 19, 2022 at 12:38 AM EDT|Updated: 21 minutes ago
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Bridgewater has the chance to win the RCBL Finals after defeating Stuarts Draft 5-1 on Thursday evening. The Reds now lead the series 3-2.
Corbin Lucas homered, drove in 2 runs, and scored once for Stuarts Draft. Chris Huffman also drove in two runs for the Reds while Greg Sherfey drove in one.
Derek Shifflett threw 159 pitches and 9 strikeouts across 9 innings for Bridgewater. Shifflett has now thrown 942 pitches and 51.2 innings during the RCBL Playoffs (since August 1).
Game six of the RCBL Finals is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Bridgewater.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/rcbl-finals-bridgewater-takes-3-2-series-lead-after-victory-game-five/ | 2022-08-19T05:00:33Z |
Pyotr Verzilov, a member of the Russian protest band Pussy Riot who fell seriously ill in Moscow two weeks ago, says he believes he was poisoned by agents working for the Kremlin.
Verzilov, speaking in an interview with the BBC after being released from a hospital in Berlin on Wednesday, blamed Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU, saying: "The poisoning was carried out so professionally that no other conclusion is possible."
Verzilov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, showed symptoms of poisoning in a Moscow courtroom on Sept. 11 as he was attending a hearing for a friend. Verzilov suffered from vision and speech problems and was unable to walk.
Last week, he was flown to Germany for treatment.
At the time, Verzilov's partner insisted he had been poisoned and doctors at Berlin's Charité hospital agreed that poisoning was "highly plausible," saying they had "no indication" that the cause of the activist's illness was "an infection or metabolic disease."
However, doctors said, "we cannot say anything about the question of how this toxin got into the body. It's not for us to answer this question."
Pussy Riot, is known for a series of daring public protests against Putin that have landed several of its members in Russian jails. In July, Verzilov and three other members of the band rushed the field dressed as police during a World Cup soccer final and served 15 days in jail for disrupting the match.
Verzilov told the BBC that his poisoning is "just the price you have to pay if you want Russia to change."
Russia's GRU is also blamed for a nerve-agent attack on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter, Yulia, who were found slumped on a bench in Salisbury in southern England in March. Although the Skripals survived the attack in which a Cold War-era nerve agent known as Novichok was used, two others who lived in the Salsibury area were accidentally exposed to the same substance weeks later. One of them died as a result.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2018-09-27/pussy-riots-verzilov-released-from-berlin-hospital-blames-kremlin-for-poisoning-him | 2022-08-19T05:03:36Z |
2 passengers in custody after attack kills NYC cab driver
(CNN) - Two people are in custody after an attack that left a New York City taxi driver dead, as police search for three other suspects.
Meanwhile, the victim’s wife spoke out during an emotional news conference.
Abigail Gyimah says she found the strength to speak because she wants justice for her husband, 52-year-old Kutin Gyimah.
“My husband was a good man, he was everything we had, he was my children’s hero.” Abigail Gyimah said.
His last moments were captured on surveillance video early Saturday night, when police say he was assaulted by five passengers he had driven in a taxi.
After transporting the suspects to their destination, they refused to pay their fare and attempted to rob him in the far Rockaways.
He fell to the ground and hit his head, causing severe head trauma.
“His life has just been cut short just like that,” the victim’s wife said.
Police say two men turned themselves in at the New York City Police Department’s 101st Precinct last night.
Suspect 20-year-old Austin Amos faces several charges, including manslaughter, gang assault and theft, while Nickolas Porter, 20, faces gang assault and theft charges.
Investigators say they are still looking for the three other suspects involved.
Gyimah’s wife says she is praying for them and hopes they do the right thing.
“I’m telling them to turn themselves in, because we want justice to be served,” she said.
She says her husband was the family’s breadwinner and doesn’t know how she will raise, feed, and put their four children through college without him.
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $150,000 for the Gyimah family.
Copyright 2022 CNN. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/2-passengers-custody-after-attack-kills-nyc-cab-driver/ | 2022-08-19T05:14:03Z |
Iran deal tantalizingly close but US faces new hurdles
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last week’s attack on author Salman Rushdie and the indictment of an Iranian national for plotting to murder former national security adviser John Bolton have given the Biden administration new headaches as it attempts to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
A resolution may be tantalizingly close. But as the U.S. and Europe weigh Iran’s latest response to an EU proposal described as the West’s final offer, the administration faces new and potentially insurmountable domestic political hurdles to forging a lasting agreement.
Deal critics in Congress who have long vowed to blow up any pact have ratcheted up their opposition to negotiations with a country whose leadership has refused to rescind the death threats against Rushdie or Bolton. Iran also vows to avenge the Trump administration’s 2020 assassination of a top Iranian general by killing former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iran envoy Brian Hook, both of whom remain under 24/7 taxpayer-paid security protection.
Although such threats are not covered by the deal, which relates solely to Iran’s nuclear program, they underscore deal opponents’ arguments that Iran cannot be trusted with the billions of dollars in sanctions relief it will receive if and when it and the U.S. return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, a signature foreign policy accomplishment of the Obama administration that President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.
“This is a tougher deal to sell than the 2015 deal in that this time around there are no illusions that it will serve to moderate Iranian behavior or lead to greater U.S.-Iran cooperation,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The Iranian government stands to get tens of billions in sanctions relief, and the organizing principle of the regime will continue to be opposition to the United States and violence against its critics, both at home and abroad,” he said.
Iran has denied any link with Rushdie’s alleged attacker, an American citizen who was indicted for attempted murder and has pleaded not guilty in the Aug. 12 stabbing at a literary event in Western New York. But Iranian state media have celebrated Iran’s long-standing antipathy toward Rushdie since the 1988 publication of his book “The Satanic Verses,” which some believe is insulting to Islam.
Media linked to Iran’s leadership have lauded the attacker for following through on a 1989 decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie to be killed that was signed by Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
And the man who was charged with plotting to murder Bolton is a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Justice Department alleges the IRGC tried to pay $300,000 to people in the United States to avenge the death of Qassam Suleimani, the head of its elite Quds Force who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2020.
“I think it’s delusional to believe that a regime that you’re about to enter into a significant arms control agreement with can be depended on to comply with its obligations or is even serious about the negotiation when it’s plotting the assassination of high-level former government officials and current government officials,” Bolton told reporters Wednesday.
“It certainly looks like the attack on Salman Rushdie had a Revolutionary Guard component,” Bolton said. “We’ve got to stop this artificial division when dealing with the government of Iran between its nuclear activities on the one hand and its terrorist activities on the other.”
Others agree.
“Granting terrorism sanctions relief amid ongoing terror plots on U.S. soil is somewhere between outrageous and lunacy,” said Rich Goldberg, a former Trump administration national security council staffer and longtime deal critic who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has also lobbied against a return to the JCPOA.
While acknowledging the seriousness of the plots, administration officials contend that they are unrelated to the nuclear issue and do nothing to change their long-held belief that an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be more dangerous and less constrained than an Iran without one.
“The JCPOA is about the single, central challenge we face with Iran, the core challenge, what would be the most threatening challenge we could possibly face from Iran, and that is a nuclear weapon,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said this week. “There is no doubt that a nuclear-armed Iran would feel an even greater degree of impunity, and would pose an even greater threat, a far greater threat, to countries in the region and potentially well beyond.”
“Every challenge we face with Iran, whether it is its support for proxies, its support for terrorist groups, its ballistic missiles program, its malign cyber activities — every single one of those — would be more difficult to confront were Iran to have a nuclear weapons program,” he said.
That argument, however, will be challenged in Congress by lawmakers who opposed the 2015 deal, saying it gave Iran a path to develop nuclear weapons by time-limiting the most onerous restrictions on its nuclear activities. They say there’s now even more tangible evidence that Iran’s malign behavior make it impossible to deal with.
Two of the most outspoken critics of the deal, Republican senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have weighed in on what the Rushdie attack should mean for the administration.
“The ayatollahs have been trying to murder Salman Rushdie for decades,” Cruz said. “Their incitement and their contacts with this terrorist resulted in an attack. This vicious terrorist attack needs to be completely condemned. The Biden administration must finally cease appeasing the Iranian regime.”
“Iran’s leaders have been calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie for decades,” said Cotton. “We know they’re trying to assassinate American officials today. Biden needs to immediately end negotiations with this terrorist regime.”
Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, or INARA, the administration must submit any agreement with Iran for congressional review within five days of it being sealed. That begins a 30-day review period during which lawmakers may weigh in and no sanctions relief can be offered.
That timeline means that even if a deal is reached within the next week, the administration will not be able to start moving on sanctions relief until the end of September, just a month from crucial congressional midterm elections. And, it will take additional time for Iran to begin seeing the benefits of such relief because of logistical constraints.
While deal critics in the current Congress are unlikely to be able to kill a deal, if Republicans win back control of Congress in the midterms, they may be able to nullify any sanctions relief.
“Even if Iran accepts President Biden’s full capitulation and agrees to reenter the Iran nuclear deal, Congress will never vote to remove sanctions,” the GOP minority on the House Armed Services Committee said in a tweet on Wednesday. “In fact, Republicans in Congress will work to strengthen sanctions against Iran.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/iran-deal-tantalizingly-close-us-faces-new-hurdles/ | 2022-08-19T05:14:09Z |
GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Angel Yeast, (SH600298), a globally listed yeast and yeast extract manufacturer, showcased its latest yeast and yeast extract products, health ingredients, and fermentation ingredients alongside its wide range of innovative solutions at FIC 2022 in Guangzhou.
An expo on food additives and ingredients, the FIC is an important and influential event for the industry in both China and Asia.
"We are very excited to attend this year's FIC to share our latest offerings with consumers and business partners. The expo is also a great way for us to learn about trends and industry updates in the Asian market," said Minghua Xiao, general manager at Angel Yeast.
Xiao noted that the pandemic has induced healthier eating habits among consumers, making plant-based protein food, and food that maintains a strong immune system and improves bowel movement are new hits in the market.
"Informed by these insights, the industry is paying more attention to the clean label project and trying to drive sustainable growth. At Angel Yeast, we've also stepped up efforts in innovation to make our yeast and biotechnology products better appeal to the changing habits and trends of the market," added Xiao.
Products on display at FIC 2022 includes:
- New dry yeast products
The latest dry yeast products developed by Angel Yeast can be used in various conditions. It has a stronger tolerance to recipes that are high in sugar, oil and salt; it is also more tolerant of cold shock, osmotic pressure, and weak organic acids. In addition, it has a good response to sugar and can be used in both high and low sugar recipes. This new dry yeast can be stored for a longer time as it has a lower water content.
- Angeotide Yeast Extract
One of the new Hou-feel YE products, Angeotide contains an abundance of natural amino acids and peptides. It enhances the meaty notes, thickness, and overall mouthfeel. Together with other flavors, Angeotide makes the end products richer and thicker with a pleasant after taste. Some of Angeotide products contains over 70% of peptides, and this healthy and innovative flavor improvement can be used in snacks, meat products and many others.
- AngeoPro Yeast Protein
The AngeoPro products are microbial proteins that offer the same amount of nutrients as that of animal proteins. It has a balanced combination of amino acids and micro-nutrients. Recognized by the market as an innovative protein source for plant-based food, the AngeoPro products can be used in producing protein sticks, beverages, baked food and plant-based meat products.
- Plant-source peptone products
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SOURCE Angel Yeast | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/angel-yeast-brings-latest-innovative-products-solutions-fic-2022/ | 2022-08-19T05:14:15Z |
2 passengers in custody after attack kills NYC cab driver
(CNN) - Two people are in custody after an attack that left a New York City taxi driver dead, as police search for three other suspects.
Meanwhile, the victim’s wife spoke out during an emotional news conference.
Abigail Gyimah says she found the strength to speak because she wants justice for her husband, 52-year-old Kutin Gyimah.
“My husband was a good man, he was everything we had, he was my children’s hero.” Abigail Gyimah said.
His last moments were captured on surveillance video early Saturday night, when police say he was assaulted by five passengers he had driven in a taxi.
After transporting the suspects to their destination, they refused to pay their fare and attempted to rob him in the far Rockaways.
He fell to the ground and hit his head, causing severe head trauma.
“His life has just been cut short just like that,” the victim’s wife said.
Police say two men turned themselves in at the New York City Police Department’s 101st Precinct last night.
Suspect 20-year-old Austin Amos faces several charges, including manslaughter, gang assault and theft, while Nickolas Porter, 20, faces gang assault and theft charges.
Investigators say they are still looking for the three other suspects involved.
Gyimah’s wife says she is praying for them and hopes they do the right thing.
“I’m telling them to turn themselves in, because we want justice to be served,” she said.
She says her husband was the family’s breadwinner and doesn’t know how she will raise, feed, and put their four children through college without him.
A GoFundMe page has raised more than $150,000 for the Gyimah family.
Copyright 2022 CNN. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/2-passengers-custody-after-attack-kills-nyc-cab-driver/ | 2022-08-19T06:09:27Z |
China’s response to Pelosi visit a sign of future intentions
BANGKOK (AP) — China’s response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was anything but subtle — dispatching warships and military aircraft to all sides of the self-governing island democracy, and firing ballistic missiles into the waters nearby.
The dust has still not settled, with Taiwan this week conducting drills of its own and Beijing announcing it has more maneuvers planned, but experts say a lot can already be gleaned from what China has done, and has not done, so far. China will also be drawing lessons on its own military capabilities from the exercises, which more closely resembled what an actual strike on the island claimed by Beijing as its own territory would look like, and from the American and Taiwanese response.
During the nearly weeklong maneuvers that followed Pelosi’s early August visit, China sailed ships and flew aircraft regularly across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, claiming the de facto boundary did not exist, fired missiles over Taiwan itself, and challenged established norms by firing missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
“I think we are in for a risky period of testing boundaries and finding out who can achieve escalatory dominance across the diplomatic, military and economic domains,” said David Chen, an analyst with CENTRA Technology, a U.S.-based consulting firm.
Pelosi was the highest-level member of the U.S. government to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and her visit came at a particularly sensitive time, as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to seek a third five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party later this year.
Under Xi, China has been increasingly forceful in declaring that Taiwan must be brought under its control — by force if necessary — and U.S. military officials have said that Beijing may seek a military solution within the next few years.
Tensions were already high, with China conducting regular military flights near Taiwan and the U.S. routinely sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait to emphasize they are international waters.
China accuses the U.S. of encouraging the island’s independence through the sale of weapons and engagement between U.S. politicians and the island’s government.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying called Pelosi’s visit a “serious provocation” and accused Washington of breaking the status quo and “interfering in China’s internal affairs.”
“China is not the old China of 120 years ago, and we are not Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan — we will not allow any foreign force to bully, suppress or enslave us,” she told reporters in Beijing. “Whoever wants to do so will be on a collision course with the Great Wall of steel forged by the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
The U.S. continues to insist it has not deviated from its “one-China” policy, recognizing the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.
China held off on its maneuvers until Pelosi had left Taiwan, and turned back its forces before they approached Taiwan’s coast or territorial airspace, which showed a “modicum of restraint,” Chen said. But, he noted, another congressional visit following Pelosi’s triggered the announcement of more exercises.
“We are likely entering a period of regular military demonstrations in and around China’s maritime domain,” he said.
“The Chinese Communist Party is also quite capable in creating cross-domain responses, as has been seen in the cyber realm. Beyond that, we could see escalatory moves in space, in the South China Sea, Africa, the Indian Ocean, or the South Pacific.”
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the scale and coordination of the exercises suggested China was looking past Taiwan toward establishing dominance in the western Pacific. That would include controlling the East and South China Seas via the Taiwan Strait, and having the capability to impose a blockade to prevent the U.S. and its allies from coming to the aid of Taiwan in the event of an attack.
Short of an armed conflict, a blockade of the Taiwan Strait — a significant thoroughfare for global trade — could have major implications for international supply chains at a time when the world is already facing disruptions.
In particular, Taiwan is a crucial provider of computer chips for the global economy.
Though ostensibly a reaction to Pelosi’s visit, it is clear China’s exercises had been long planned, said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow in the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund think tank.
“I do think they were looking for an opportunity to escalate,” she said. “This is not something you prep after the announcement (of the visit) and then pull off that quickly and that easily.”
The U.S. held back throughout the maneuvers, keeping an aircraft carrier group and two amphibious assault ships at sail in the region, but not close to the island. Taiwan avoided any active countermeasures.
Kurt Campbell, the Biden administration’s coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, said this week that the U.S. was taking a “calm and resolute” long-view approach that would include continued transits of the Taiwan Strait, supporting Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, and otherwise deepening ties with the island.
To that end, the U.S. announced Thursday that it was opening talks with Taiwan on a wide-ranging trade agreement.
Campbell said Washington sees China’s actions as “part of an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan, which has not ended.”
“We expect it to continue to unfold in the coming weeks and months,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Defense has acknowledged China’s increasingly capable military, saying it has become a true rival and has already surpassed the American military in some areas, including shipbuilding, and now has the world’s largest navy.
The reserved American response to the recent exercises seemed calculated to avoid any accidental confrontation that could have escalated the situation, but could also feed China’s confidence, Ohlberg said.
“The base of China’s thinking is that the U.S. is in decline and that China is on the rise, and I guess the response would have been seen in Beijing as confirming that thinking,” she said.
The U.S. and China came perhaps the closest to blows in 1996, when China, irked by what it saw as increasing American support for Taiwan, fired missiles into the waters some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Taiwan’s coast ahead of Taiwan’s first popular presidential election.
The U.S. responded with its own show of force, sending two aircraft carrier groups to the region. At the time, China had no aircraft carriers and little means to threaten the American ships, and it backed down.
China subsequently embarked on a massive modernization of its military and the recent exercises demonstrate a “quantum leap” of improvement from 1996, showing a joint command and control coordination not seen before, Chen said.
Before being confident enough to launch an actual invasion of Taiwan, however, the Chinese military still needs to do more to assure the country’s political leadership it would be successful, he said.
“These latest exercises are probably part of proving that capability, but more needs to be hammered out before they could be confident in conducting a full-scale Taiwan amphibious invasion,” he said. “They’ve only demonstrated the maritime blockade and air control parts of that campaign, without opposition.”
Following the visit, China released an updated “white paper” on Taiwan outlining how it envisioned an eventual annexation of the island would look.
It said it would follow the “one country, two systems” format applied in Hong Kong, which critics say has been undermined by a sweeping national security law that asserts Beijing’s control over speech and political participation. The concept has been thoroughly rejected in Taiwanese public opinion polls in which respondents have overwhelmingly favored their current de facto independence.
Tellingly, the new white paper discarded a pledge in its previous iteration not to send troops or government officials to an annexed Taiwan.
China has refused all contact with Taiwan’s government since shortly after the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai was overwhelmingly reelected in 2020.
China’s bellicose response to Pelosi’s visit may have the unintended effect of strengthening the DPP in midterm elections later this year, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the College of International Affairs at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
Ideally, it would be in Taiwan’s best interest if both sides backed off and found “reasoned ways” to settle differences, he said.
“There’s an old saying that when two big elephants fight, the ant and the grass suffer,” he said.
___
AP journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this story.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/chinas-response-pelosi-visit-sign-future-intentions/ | 2022-08-19T06:09:34Z |
Iran deal tantalizingly close but US faces new hurdles
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last week’s attack on author Salman Rushdie and the indictment of an Iranian national for plotting to murder former national security adviser John Bolton have given the Biden administration new headaches as it attempts to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
A resolution may be tantalizingly close. But as the U.S. and Europe weigh Iran’s latest response to an EU proposal described as the West’s final offer, the administration faces new and potentially insurmountable domestic political hurdles to forging a lasting agreement.
Deal critics in Congress who have long vowed to blow up any pact have ratcheted up their opposition to negotiations with a country whose leadership has refused to rescind the death threats against Rushdie or Bolton. Iran also vows to avenge the Trump administration’s 2020 assassination of a top Iranian general by killing former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Iran envoy Brian Hook, both of whom remain under 24/7 taxpayer-paid security protection.
Although such threats are not covered by the deal, which relates solely to Iran’s nuclear program, they underscore deal opponents’ arguments that Iran cannot be trusted with the billions of dollars in sanctions relief it will receive if and when it and the U.S. return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, a signature foreign policy accomplishment of the Obama administration that President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.
“This is a tougher deal to sell than the 2015 deal in that this time around there are no illusions that it will serve to moderate Iranian behavior or lead to greater U.S.-Iran cooperation,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The Iranian government stands to get tens of billions in sanctions relief, and the organizing principle of the regime will continue to be opposition to the United States and violence against its critics, both at home and abroad,” he said.
Iran has denied any link with Rushdie’s alleged attacker, an American citizen who was indicted for attempted murder and has pleaded not guilty in the Aug. 12 stabbing at a literary event in Western New York. But Iranian state media have celebrated Iran’s long-standing antipathy toward Rushdie since the 1988 publication of his book “The Satanic Verses,” which some believe is insulting to Islam.
Media linked to Iran’s leadership have lauded the attacker for following through on a 1989 decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie to be killed that was signed by Iran’s then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
And the man who was charged with plotting to murder Bolton is a member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Justice Department alleges the IRGC tried to pay $300,000 to people in the United States to avenge the death of Qassam Suleimani, the head of its elite Quds Force who was killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in 2020.
“I think it’s delusional to believe that a regime that you’re about to enter into a significant arms control agreement with can be depended on to comply with its obligations or is even serious about the negotiation when it’s plotting the assassination of high-level former government officials and current government officials,” Bolton told reporters Wednesday.
“It certainly looks like the attack on Salman Rushdie had a Revolutionary Guard component,” Bolton said. “We’ve got to stop this artificial division when dealing with the government of Iran between its nuclear activities on the one hand and its terrorist activities on the other.”
Others agree.
“Granting terrorism sanctions relief amid ongoing terror plots on U.S. soil is somewhere between outrageous and lunacy,” said Rich Goldberg, a former Trump administration national security council staffer and longtime deal critic who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which has also lobbied against a return to the JCPOA.
While acknowledging the seriousness of the plots, administration officials contend that they are unrelated to the nuclear issue and do nothing to change their long-held belief that an Iran with a nuclear weapon would be more dangerous and less constrained than an Iran without one.
“The JCPOA is about the single, central challenge we face with Iran, the core challenge, what would be the most threatening challenge we could possibly face from Iran, and that is a nuclear weapon,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said this week. “There is no doubt that a nuclear-armed Iran would feel an even greater degree of impunity, and would pose an even greater threat, a far greater threat, to countries in the region and potentially well beyond.”
“Every challenge we face with Iran, whether it is its support for proxies, its support for terrorist groups, its ballistic missiles program, its malign cyber activities — every single one of those — would be more difficult to confront were Iran to have a nuclear weapons program,” he said.
That argument, however, will be challenged in Congress by lawmakers who opposed the 2015 deal, saying it gave Iran a path to develop nuclear weapons by time-limiting the most onerous restrictions on its nuclear activities. They say there’s now even more tangible evidence that Iran’s malign behavior make it impossible to deal with.
Two of the most outspoken critics of the deal, Republican senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have weighed in on what the Rushdie attack should mean for the administration.
“The ayatollahs have been trying to murder Salman Rushdie for decades,” Cruz said. “Their incitement and their contacts with this terrorist resulted in an attack. This vicious terrorist attack needs to be completely condemned. The Biden administration must finally cease appeasing the Iranian regime.”
“Iran’s leaders have been calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie for decades,” said Cotton. “We know they’re trying to assassinate American officials today. Biden needs to immediately end negotiations with this terrorist regime.”
Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, or INARA, the administration must submit any agreement with Iran for congressional review within five days of it being sealed. That begins a 30-day review period during which lawmakers may weigh in and no sanctions relief can be offered.
That timeline means that even if a deal is reached within the next week, the administration will not be able to start moving on sanctions relief until the end of September, just a month from crucial congressional midterm elections. And, it will take additional time for Iran to begin seeing the benefits of such relief because of logistical constraints.
While deal critics in the current Congress are unlikely to be able to kill a deal, if Republicans win back control of Congress in the midterms, they may be able to nullify any sanctions relief.
“Even if Iran accepts President Biden’s full capitulation and agrees to reenter the Iran nuclear deal, Congress will never vote to remove sanctions,” the GOP minority on the House Armed Services Committee said in a tweet on Wednesday. “In fact, Republicans in Congress will work to strengthen sanctions against Iran.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/iran-deal-tantalizingly-close-us-faces-new-hurdles/ | 2022-08-19T06:09:40Z |
China’s response to Pelosi visit a sign of future intentions
BANGKOK (AP) — China’s response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was anything but subtle — dispatching warships and military aircraft to all sides of the self-governing island democracy, and firing ballistic missiles into the waters nearby.
The dust has still not settled, with Taiwan this week conducting drills of its own and Beijing announcing it has more maneuvers planned, but experts say a lot can already be gleaned from what China has done, and has not done, so far. China will also be drawing lessons on its own military capabilities from the exercises, which more closely resembled what an actual strike on the island claimed by Beijing as its own territory would look like, and from the American and Taiwanese response.
During the nearly weeklong maneuvers that followed Pelosi’s early August visit, China sailed ships and flew aircraft regularly across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, claiming the de facto boundary did not exist, fired missiles over Taiwan itself, and challenged established norms by firing missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
“I think we are in for a risky period of testing boundaries and finding out who can achieve escalatory dominance across the diplomatic, military and economic domains,” said David Chen, an analyst with CENTRA Technology, a U.S.-based consulting firm.
Pelosi was the highest-level member of the U.S. government to visit Taiwan in 25 years, and her visit came at a particularly sensitive time, as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares to seek a third five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party later this year.
Under Xi, China has been increasingly forceful in declaring that Taiwan must be brought under its control — by force if necessary — and U.S. military officials have said that Beijing may seek a military solution within the next few years.
Tensions were already high, with China conducting regular military flights near Taiwan and the U.S. routinely sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait to emphasize they are international waters.
China accuses the U.S. of encouraging the island’s independence through the sale of weapons and engagement between U.S. politicians and the island’s government.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying called Pelosi’s visit a “serious provocation” and accused Washington of breaking the status quo and “interfering in China’s internal affairs.”
“China is not the old China of 120 years ago, and we are not Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan — we will not allow any foreign force to bully, suppress or enslave us,” she told reporters in Beijing. “Whoever wants to do so will be on a collision course with the Great Wall of steel forged by the 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
The U.S. continues to insist it has not deviated from its “one-China” policy, recognizing the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.
China held off on its maneuvers until Pelosi had left Taiwan, and turned back its forces before they approached Taiwan’s coast or territorial airspace, which showed a “modicum of restraint,” Chen said. But, he noted, another congressional visit following Pelosi’s triggered the announcement of more exercises.
“We are likely entering a period of regular military demonstrations in and around China’s maritime domain,” he said.
“The Chinese Communist Party is also quite capable in creating cross-domain responses, as has been seen in the cyber realm. Beyond that, we could see escalatory moves in space, in the South China Sea, Africa, the Indian Ocean, or the South Pacific.”
Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said the scale and coordination of the exercises suggested China was looking past Taiwan toward establishing dominance in the western Pacific. That would include controlling the East and South China Seas via the Taiwan Strait, and having the capability to impose a blockade to prevent the U.S. and its allies from coming to the aid of Taiwan in the event of an attack.
Short of an armed conflict, a blockade of the Taiwan Strait — a significant thoroughfare for global trade — could have major implications for international supply chains at a time when the world is already facing disruptions.
In particular, Taiwan is a crucial provider of computer chips for the global economy.
Though ostensibly a reaction to Pelosi’s visit, it is clear China’s exercises had been long planned, said Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow in the Asia Program of the German Marshall Fund think tank.
“I do think they were looking for an opportunity to escalate,” she said. “This is not something you prep after the announcement (of the visit) and then pull off that quickly and that easily.”
The U.S. held back throughout the maneuvers, keeping an aircraft carrier group and two amphibious assault ships at sail in the region, but not close to the island. Taiwan avoided any active countermeasures.
Kurt Campbell, the Biden administration’s coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs, said this week that the U.S. was taking a “calm and resolute” long-view approach that would include continued transits of the Taiwan Strait, supporting Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, and otherwise deepening ties with the island.
To that end, the U.S. announced Thursday that it was opening talks with Taiwan on a wide-ranging trade agreement.
Campbell said Washington sees China’s actions as “part of an intensified pressure campaign against Taiwan, which has not ended.”
“We expect it to continue to unfold in the coming weeks and months,” he said.
The U.S. Department of Defense has acknowledged China’s increasingly capable military, saying it has become a true rival and has already surpassed the American military in some areas, including shipbuilding, and now has the world’s largest navy.
The reserved American response to the recent exercises seemed calculated to avoid any accidental confrontation that could have escalated the situation, but could also feed China’s confidence, Ohlberg said.
“The base of China’s thinking is that the U.S. is in decline and that China is on the rise, and I guess the response would have been seen in Beijing as confirming that thinking,” she said.
The U.S. and China came perhaps the closest to blows in 1996, when China, irked by what it saw as increasing American support for Taiwan, fired missiles into the waters some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from Taiwan’s coast ahead of Taiwan’s first popular presidential election.
The U.S. responded with its own show of force, sending two aircraft carrier groups to the region. At the time, China had no aircraft carriers and little means to threaten the American ships, and it backed down.
China subsequently embarked on a massive modernization of its military and the recent exercises demonstrate a “quantum leap” of improvement from 1996, showing a joint command and control coordination not seen before, Chen said.
Before being confident enough to launch an actual invasion of Taiwan, however, the Chinese military still needs to do more to assure the country’s political leadership it would be successful, he said.
“These latest exercises are probably part of proving that capability, but more needs to be hammered out before they could be confident in conducting a full-scale Taiwan amphibious invasion,” he said. “They’ve only demonstrated the maritime blockade and air control parts of that campaign, without opposition.”
Following the visit, China released an updated “white paper” on Taiwan outlining how it envisioned an eventual annexation of the island would look.
It said it would follow the “one country, two systems” format applied in Hong Kong, which critics say has been undermined by a sweeping national security law that asserts Beijing’s control over speech and political participation. The concept has been thoroughly rejected in Taiwanese public opinion polls in which respondents have overwhelmingly favored their current de facto independence.
Tellingly, the new white paper discarded a pledge in its previous iteration not to send troops or government officials to an annexed Taiwan.
China has refused all contact with Taiwan’s government since shortly after the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Tsai was overwhelmingly reelected in 2020.
China’s bellicose response to Pelosi’s visit may have the unintended effect of strengthening the DPP in midterm elections later this year, said Huang Kwei-bo, vice dean of the College of International Affairs at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.
Ideally, it would be in Taiwan’s best interest if both sides backed off and found “reasoned ways” to settle differences, he said.
“There’s an old saying that when two big elephants fight, the ant and the grass suffer,” he said.
___
AP journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this story.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/chinas-response-pelosi-visit-sign-future-intentions/ | 2022-08-19T06:30:42Z |
Washington fugitive shot by US Marshals, taken into custody in Arizona
TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5/Gray News) - A man who escaped a Washington state prison is now in custody after U.S. Marshals shot him on Thursday evening near Tempe Marketplace.
Arizona’s Family reports, the man was wanted for robbery, assault, burglary and theft in two Washington cities.
He also had a warrant for escape from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
Officials say U.S Marshals Task Force members attempted to arrest the man in his vehicle at an intersection.
The fugitive reached into his backseat for a gun, and that’s when task force members shot him, according to investigators.
He was transported to a local hospital for his injuries. His name has not been released by authorities.
No marshals or bystanders were injured during the shooting.
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/washington-fugitive-shot-by-us-marshals-taken-into-custody-arizona/ | 2022-08-19T06:30:49Z |
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Doctors stay in Ukraine’s war-hit towns: ‘People need us’
ZOLOCHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Dr. Ilona Butova almost looks out of place in her neatly pressed lavender scrubs as she walks through a door frame that hangs from a crumbled wall into what used to be an administrative office of her hospital in Zolochiv.
Not one building in the facility in the northeastern Ukrainian town near the Russian border has escaped getting hit by artillery shells.
Since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, space to treat patients at the hospital has shrunk constantly because of damage. Her staff has dwindled to 47 from 120. And the number of people seeking treatment in the small town 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the border is often higher now than before the fighting began.
Ukraine’s health care system struggled for years because of corruption, mismanagement and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the war has only made things worse, with facilities damaged or destroyed, medical staff relocating to safer places and many drugs unavailable or in short supply. Care is being provided in the hardest-hit areas by doctors who have refused to evacuate or have rushed in as volunteers, putting themselves at great risk.
WARNING: Videos used may contain graphic content.
“It’s very hard, but people need us. We have to stay and help,” said Butova, a neurologist who also is the administrator of the hospital in the town near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. She added that she has had to do more with fewer resources.
The World Health Organization declared its highest level of emergency in Ukraine the day after the invasion, coordinating a major relief effort there and in neighboring countries whose medical systems also are under strain.
About 6.4 million people have fled to other European countries, and a slightly higher number are internally displaced, according to U.N. estimates. That presents a major challenge to a health care system built on family doctor referrals and regionally separate administrations.
Across Ukraine, 900 hospitals have been damaged and another 123 have been destroyed, said Health Minister Viktor Liashko, noting: “Those 123 are gone, and we’re having to find new sites to build replacements.”
In addition, scores of pharmacies and ambulances have been destroyed or are seriously damaged, and at least 18 civilian medical staff have been killed and 59 others seriously wounded, he said.
“In occupied areas, the referral system has totally broken down,” Liashko told The Associated Press. “People’s health and their lives are in danger.”
Kyiv’s economy was drained by the conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014. When he came to power five years later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inherited a health care system that was undermined by reforms launched under his predecessor that had slashed government subsidies and closed many small-town hospitals. During the pandemic, people in those communities had to seek care in large cities — sometimes waiting as long as eight hours for an ambulance in severe cases of COVID-19.
As Russia has expanded the territory it controls in eastern and southern Ukraine, the supply of drugs in those areas has dwindled, along with medical staff to administer them. In the southern front-line town of Mykolaiv, “things have been very difficult,” volunteer Andrii Skorokhod said.
“Pharmacies have not been working, and shortages have become increasingly acute: Hospital staff were among those evacuated, including specialists. We just need more staff,” said Skorokhod, who heads a Red Cross initiative to provide residents with free medications.
Volunteers like Skorokhod saved the life of 79-year-old Vanda Banderovska, whose home near Mykolaiv was destroyed by Russian artillery. Her 53-year-old son, Roman, was killed, and she was brought to the hospital badly bruised and barely conscious.
“My son went out to the car to get his mobile phone when the Russians started shelling. He was hit in the head,” she said at a recovery ward, her voice trembling with emotion. “They’ve destroyed everything and I have nothing left.”
Banderovska said she was deeply grateful to the people who saved her life but also overcome by grief and anger.
“The pain I feel is so great. When doctors took me to the hospital I was bruised black and blue but I slowly recovered,” she said.
___
Derek Gatopoulos reported from Kyiv. Vasilisa Stepanenko and Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report from Kyiv.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/19/doctors-stay-ukraines-war-hit-towns-people-need-us/ | 2022-08-19T06:48:06Z |
Doctors stay in Ukraine’s war-hit towns: ‘People need us’
ZOLOCHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Dr. Ilona Butova almost looks out of place in her neatly pressed lavender scrubs as she walks through a door frame that hangs from a crumbled wall into what used to be an administrative office of her hospital in Zolochiv.
Not one building in the facility in the northeastern Ukrainian town near the Russian border has escaped getting hit by artillery shells.
Since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, space to treat patients at the hospital has shrunk constantly because of damage. Her staff has dwindled to 47 from 120. And the number of people seeking treatment in the small town 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the border is often higher now than before the fighting began.
Ukraine’s health care system struggled for years because of corruption, mismanagement and the COVID-19 pandemic. But the war has only made things worse, with facilities damaged or destroyed, medical staff relocating to safer places and many drugs unavailable or in short supply. Care is being provided in the hardest-hit areas by doctors who have refused to evacuate or have rushed in as volunteers, putting themselves at great risk.
WARNING: Videos used may contain graphic content.
“It’s very hard, but people need us. We have to stay and help,” said Butova, a neurologist who also is the administrator of the hospital in the town near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. She added that she has had to do more with fewer resources.
The World Health Organization declared its highest level of emergency in Ukraine the day after the invasion, coordinating a major relief effort there and in neighboring countries whose medical systems also are under strain.
About 6.4 million people have fled to other European countries, and a slightly higher number are internally displaced, according to U.N. estimates. That presents a major challenge to a health care system built on family doctor referrals and regionally separate administrations.
Across Ukraine, 900 hospitals have been damaged and another 123 have been destroyed, said Health Minister Viktor Liashko, noting: “Those 123 are gone, and we’re having to find new sites to build replacements.”
In addition, scores of pharmacies and ambulances have been destroyed or are seriously damaged, and at least 18 civilian medical staff have been killed and 59 others seriously wounded, he said.
“In occupied areas, the referral system has totally broken down,” Liashko told The Associated Press. “People’s health and their lives are in danger.”
Kyiv’s economy was drained by the conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that began in 2014. When he came to power five years later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inherited a health care system that was undermined by reforms launched under his predecessor that had slashed government subsidies and closed many small-town hospitals. During the pandemic, people in those communities had to seek care in large cities — sometimes waiting as long as eight hours for an ambulance in severe cases of COVID-19.
As Russia has expanded the territory it controls in eastern and southern Ukraine, the supply of drugs in those areas has dwindled, along with medical staff to administer them. In the southern front-line town of Mykolaiv, “things have been very difficult,” volunteer Andrii Skorokhod said.
“Pharmacies have not been working, and shortages have become increasingly acute: Hospital staff were among those evacuated, including specialists. We just need more staff,” said Skorokhod, who heads a Red Cross initiative to provide residents with free medications.
Volunteers like Skorokhod saved the life of 79-year-old Vanda Banderovska, whose home near Mykolaiv was destroyed by Russian artillery. Her 53-year-old son, Roman, was killed, and she was brought to the hospital badly bruised and barely conscious.
“My son went out to the car to get his mobile phone when the Russians started shelling. He was hit in the head,” she said at a recovery ward, her voice trembling with emotion. “They’ve destroyed everything and I have nothing left.”
Banderovska said she was deeply grateful to the people who saved her life but also overcome by grief and anger.
“The pain I feel is so great. When doctors took me to the hospital I was bruised black and blue but I slowly recovered,” she said.
___
Derek Gatopoulos reported from Kyiv. Vasilisa Stepanenko and Hanna Arhirova contributed to this report from Kyiv.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/doctors-stay-ukraines-war-hit-towns-people-need-us/ | 2022-08-19T07:40:42Z |
Washington fugitive shot by US Marshals, taken into custody in Arizona
TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5/Gray News) - A man who escaped a Washington state prison is now in custody after U.S. Marshals shot him on Thursday evening near Tempe Marketplace.
Arizona’s Family reports, the man was wanted for robbery, assault, burglary and theft in two Washington cities.
He also had a warrant for escape from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
Officials say U.S Marshals Task Force members attempted to arrest the man in his vehicle at an intersection.
The fugitive reached into his backseat for a gun, and that’s when task force members shot him, according to investigators.
He was transported to a local hospital for his injuries. His name has not been released by authorities.
No marshals or bystanders were injured during the shooting.
Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/19/washington-fugitive-shot-by-us-marshals-taken-into-custody-arizona/ | 2022-08-19T07:40:49Z |
KAPOLEI, HAWAII (KITV4) - A retirement celebration was held at AES Hawaii – the state’s last coal fired power plant. The plant first opened in 1992 and will cease operations September 1,2022 on its 30th anniversary.
Officials said this is a monumental step towards the state's energy goal to have 100% renewable energy use by 2045.
"Coal is a carbon intensive fuel and if you believe in climate change and it being caused by man then you would go after carbon intensive products, coal being one of them. I believe it’s a freight train you can’t stop," said Patrick Murphy, AES employee.
AES Hawaii will generate electricity until August 31st and start clean up and dismantling the power plant September 6th.
"There’s a set amount of coal on the planet and we're eventually going to run out. We’re apart of leading our community to a sustainable future," said Max Guarniere, maintenance team leader at AES Hawaii.
However, Senator Glenn Wakai disagrees. He said this decision might be good for the future but closing the plant is two years too soon. He believes electricity rates will skyrocket and black-outs are possible.
"This coal plant provided 20% of firm, renewable power. We can talk all about solar and batteries but that’s intermittent. There’s obviously 12 hours of the day we're not getting energy,” said Senator Wakai, chair of Senate energy committee.
He said he and other lawmakers tried to push back closing AES Hawaii but there was too much pushback from environmentalists. AES officials said the company is working on several renewable energy projects across Oahu while they prepare to close their doors on coal.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com | https://www.kitv.com/news/aes-hawaii-the-states-last-coal-powered-plant-in-last-weeks-of-operation/article_2865008a-1f75-11ed-b92b-5fcb9180c886.html | 2022-08-19T08:10:35Z |
The approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore represents a big step to offering Digital Payment Token services to consumers in Singapore
SINGAPORE, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bhop Consulting Pte Ltd trading as Singapore-based crypto exchange BHEX.SG, announces that it has received the Standard Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The new acquirement comes after a stringent examination and approval process conducted by MAS. Licensees are required to meet a high bar of compliance requirements to protect consumers. The granting of the Standard Payment Institution license will enable BHEX.SG to offer DPT services to customers in Singapore.
Since it was founded in 2018, there has been no system accidents or fraud incidents reported in the past few cryptocurrency cycles. Continuous upgrades of system infrastructure and security risk managements are implemented to mitigate any possible new threats and meet the growing demands of the industry.
BHEX.SG has partnered with leading licensed service providers in the global market aiming to focus and better serve institutional investors, family offices, accredited and high net worth investors rather than the retail investors, as this crypto field is still volatile for the retail segment.
Tyler Wu (Wu GuanLi), CEO of BHEX.SG, said, "Compliance is an essential element in the digital asset industry and BHEXSG is committed to being a fully compliant service provider to protect our customers. Future opportunities in the industry belong to companies that practice these values."
With Singapore being among the most competitive economies globally and serving as a regional hub, he also believes that Singapore plays a significant role as a financial and crypto pioneer in Southeast Asia. To further unlock the potentials of this market, BHEX.SG will aim to provide an improved crypto landscape for the public.
Interested consumers can keep up to date with the latest developments and initiatives by BHEX.SG through its official website. The platform is also available for download on iOS and Android devices as well.
About BHEX.SG
Founded in 2018, BHEX.SG operated by Bhop Consulting Pte Ltd is committed to providing best in class compliant crypto trading services with focus on building a better future with technology to ensure compliance and reliability. The platform is powered by an expert team, each with an average experience of 10 years or more in the digital asset industry. CEO Tyler Wu further adds in his strong track record in the digital asset and financial space into the portfolio. The platform provides users with more convenient and smoother services at lower costs. BHEX.SG will continue to provide users with high-quality services and leading innovations to create more value for users.
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SOURCE Bhop Consulting Pte Ltd | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/bhexsg-receives-standard-payment-institution-license-mas/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:08Z |
SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- J INTS BIO announced that it held its 1st International Advisory Board Meeting for its Novel Oral 4th Generation EGFR-TKI 'JIN-A02' on the sideline of the 2022 IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer held in Vienna, Austria, on 7th August. This followed the 2 successful focus group meetings conducted during ASCO in June.
J INTS BIO established this Global Advisory Board to provide expert advice and support for its clinical development program. In attendance were Prof. Byung-Chul Cho & Prof. Sun-Min Lim (Yonsei Cancer Hospital, Korea), Prof. Ignatius Ou & Prof. Misako Nagasaka (UC Irvine Health, USA), Prof. Sally Lau (NYU Langone Health, USA), Prof. Thanyanan Baisamut (Mahidol University, Thailand), Prof. Benjamin Solomon (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Australia) and Prof. Ross Soo (National University Cancer Institute, Singapore). Experts from China and Japan were unable to attend this time because of travel restrictions imposed by their respective institutions.
At this meeting, J INTS BIO conducted in-depth discussions with the experts on the development plans of 'JIN-A02', with the emphasis on enhancing the planned global Phase 1/2 clinical study which expects the first patient to be enrolled before the end of the year.
The experts in attendance agreed that the focus of this study should be on C797S double and triple mutations which are the current unmet medical needs without an approved therapy or treatment and against which 'JIN-A02' showed highly potent inhibition both in-vitro and in-vivo. In addition, patients with non-C797S mutations following the use of 3rd Generation EGFR-TKI and those with stable metastatic disease in the brain were added to the clinical program.
About J INTS BIO
J INTS BIO is a bio company specialized in developing innovative anti-cancer and orphan drugs to realize the goal of changing lives and improving health for patients around the world. J INTS BIO's teams have prior multi-year experience in multinational pharmaceutical companies and CROs and track records in medical, regulatory affairs, drug discovery and development.
About 'JIN-A02'
'JIN-A02' is a novel orally administered 4th Generation EGFR TKI targeting C797S mutations in NSCLC. Although 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation EGFR TKIs have been used with some success, recurrence occurs in most patients including 3rd Generation TKIs such as Osimertinib. Currently, there are no approved therapies for patients who developed EGFR C797S mutations due to the use of 3rd Generation EGFR TKIs and with the high propensity of these cancers to metastasize to the brain, there is an urgent need to develop an effective drug with high blood-brain barrier permeability. 'JIN-A02', a novel oral EGFR TKI, which is effective against C797S mutations and have a high brain penetrance, is therefore expected to become the most promising Best-in-Class 4th-generation EGFR TKI in NSCLC patients with limited or no viable treatment options.
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SOURCE J INTS BIO | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/j-ints-bio-successfully-held-its-1st-international-advisory-board-meeting-its-novel-oral-4th-generation-egfr-tki-jin-a02-vienna-austria-during-wclc/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:14Z |
GÖTEBORG, Sweden, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jan Gurander will step down as Volvo Group Deputy CEO as of December 31st, 2022. His other managerial assignments within the Group will gradually be distributed to other members of the Volvo Group Executive Board. After the turn of the year, Jan Gurander will stand available to President and CEO Martin Lundstedt's disposal.
Jan Gurander has a long and successful career within the Volvo Group, starting as Volvo Group Chief Financial Officer in 2014. He held the role of acting President and CEO for parts of 2015 and was appointed Deputy CEO in 2016. Prior to his career in the Volvo Group, Jan Gurander held the role of Chief Financial Officer in numerous automotive companies and has a background within finance.
"As Deputy CEO, CFO and Chairman of several Business Areas over the last nine years, Jan has been one of the key drivers to the positive growth and profitability development of the Group, as well as the strengthening of our financial position", says Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO. "Jan has also been one of the main contributors when setting our strategic direction to lead the transformation into sustainable transport and infrastructure solutions. I want to express my appreciation for a significant contribution throughout the years, and I look forward to the continuous collaboration."
August 19th, 2022
Journalists wanting further information, please contact:
Claes Eliasson, Volvo Group Media Relations, +46 76 553 72 29
For more information, please visit volvogroup.com
For frequent updates, follow us on Twitter: @volvogroup
The Volvo Group drives prosperity through transport and infrastructure solutions, offering trucks, buses, construction equipment, power solutions for marine and industrial applications, financing and services that increase our customers' uptime and productivity. Founded in 1927, the Volvo Group is committed to shaping the future landscape of sustainable transport and infrastructure solutions. The Volvo Group is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, employs almost 100.000 people and serves customers in more than 190 markets. In 2020, net sales amounted to about SEK 338 billion (EUR 33.6 billion). Volvo shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.
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SOURCE AB Volvo | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/jan-gurander-step-down-volvo-group-deputy-ceo/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:20Z |
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
The clinical development of fostrox remains the focus
April - June
Financial summary for the quarter
- Net turnover amounted to SEK 0.5 (0.9) million.
- The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -21.5 (-17.1) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -0.42 (-0.31) and SEK -0.42 (-0.31) respectively.
- Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -17.6 (-21.9) million.
- Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 162.8 (247.8) million.
Significant events during the quarter
- At Medivir's AGM on May 5, Uli Hacksell, Lennart Hansson, Bengt Westermark and Yilmaz Mahshid were re-elected and Anette Lindqvist was newly elected as board members in the company. Uli Hacksell was re-elected as chairman of the board. An van Es Johansson had declined re-election.
January - June
Financial summary for the period
- Net turnover amounted to SEK 1.0 (10.8) million.
- The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to SEK -52.9
(-24.3) million. Basic and diluted earnings per share amounted to SEK -1.00 (-0.51) and SEK -1.00 (-0.51) respectively. - Cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -57.5 (-23.3) million.
- Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period amounted to SEK 162.8 (247.8) million.
Significant events after the period
- Fostroxacitabinebralpamide - the name given to MIV-818 by the World Health Organization (WHO) - received formal approval as a pharmaceutical name in the USA by the United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council.
Conference call for investors, analysts and the media
The Interim Report January - June 2022 will be presented by Medivir's CEO, Jens Lindberg.
Time: Friday, August 19, 2022, at 14.00 (CET).
Phone numbers for participants from:
Sweden + 46 8 566 426 93
Europe +44 33 3300 9031
US +1 646 722 4902
The presentation will be available on Medivir's website after completion of the conference.
CEO's message
Our steadfast determination is one of the most important factors enabling Medivir to deliver continued good results, both with fostrox and in the business development of our other assets.
The past quarter was above all characterized by the work to drive the clinical development of our cutting-edge project fostroxacitabine bralpamide (fostrox), for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fostrox has the potential to become the first liver-targeted and orally administered drug that can help patients with various cancers of the liver. Its unique mechanism of action in liver cancer enables attractive combination treatments with other drug alternatives for HCC.
In our currently ongoing phase 1b/2a combination study, fostrox is given in two different combinations, either with Lenvima®, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or with Keytruda®, an anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor. The study is conducted at clinical trial centers in the UK, Spain and South Korea.
During the second quarter, we have continued to focus on activating additional trial centers and on recruiting patients to the two arms in the study. We have now initiated 3 centers in the UK, 5 centers in Spain and 5 centers in South Korea. In addition, we intend to increase the number of investigators and centers primarily in South Korea. We are also working to open centers in additional countries. At the same time, we have intensified Medivir's presence at the activated trial centers to ensure that investigators and other staff have a continued focus on our study.
Increased competition from other studies in our patient population and changes in second-line treatment, where we saw patients could receive Tecentriq® + Avastin® treatment also in second-line, have led to slower recruitment than planned in Europe in the second quarter. We are therefore in the process of broadening and simplifying the inclusion criteria, among other things by opening up to third-line patients if they do not have an overly advanced liver disease.
These measures, which include broadened inclusion criteria, an increased number of trial centers and investigators as well as an increased presence of our employees at the centers, create the conditions for the recruitment rate to increase during the second half of 2022.
I would also like to mention that the name fostroxacitabine bralpamide that we received from the WHO has now also received formal approval as a drug name in the USA by the USAN Council. Furthermore, our work to open an Investigational New Drug (IND) in the USA in 2023 is progressing according to plan.
The continued focus for our business development lies on our two clinical projects for partnerships, remetinostat and MIV-711. Both projects come with very robust data packages. The data packages for these two projects have been strengthened during 2021-2022 and we continue our dialogue with external parties with the ambition of finding the best possible solution for each substance.
During the quarter, we have seen continued positive development of IGM Bioscience's clinical development work with birinapant. In the phase I clinical trial in solid tumors with birinapant in combination with IGM's own DR5 agonist antibody IGM-8444, patient inclusion in the third dose escalation cohort has been completed. No dose-limiting toxicity or clinically significant hepatotoxicity has been observed to date. The patient recruitment for the fourth dose-escalation cohort of the study has been initiated. The agreement with IGM can potentially provide milestone payments up to a total of approximately USD 350 million as well as tiered royalties up to "mid-teens".
Finally, in 2017, Medivir's MBLI program, aimed at addressing the threat of resistant bacteria, was out-licensed to AMR Centre in England. AMR, today INFEX Therapeutics, has in 2022 presented additional preclinical data and communicated its intention to initiate a phase 1 program in 2022/23. Several countries have developed innovative financial solutions for new antibiotics, which has increased the commercial opportunities for this type of pharmaceutical. Medivir is entitled to a share of potential future revenue.
I would also like to extend a warm welcome to Anette Lindqvist, who was elected as a new member of Medivir's board at the annual general meeting on May 5. I also want to thank An van Es Johansson, who declined re-election, for her efforts as a board member.
We are working with great enthusiasm to achieve the goal that our cutting-edge project fostrox can become an effective drug against liver cancer which would make a real difference for patients and for healthcare and thus also for our shareholders. We see that the measures we have taken in the clinical program have begun to yield results and look forward with confidence to the second half of the year and to keeping you informed about Medivir's continued development.
Jens Lindberg
Chief Executive Officer
For further information, please contact:
Magnus Christensen, CFO
Phone: +46 (0)8 5468 3100
E-mail: magnus.christensen@medivir.com
This report has not been subject to auditors' review.
The information was submitted for publication at 08.30 CET on August 19, 2022.
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SOURCE Medivir | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/medivir-ab-interim-report-january-june-2022/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:27Z |
STOCKHOLM, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Skanska and the Kronoberg Region have signed an agreement on phase one of the work on Växjö's new emergency hospital. Phase one involves pre-construction work in strategic collaboration for the hospital. The contract is worth about SEK 1.2 billion, which will be included in the order bookings for Sweden in the third quarter of 2022.
Last spring, Skanska and the Kronoberg Region signed an agreement on a feasibility study for the new emergency hospital that will replace the existing hospital in Växjö. In total, there are approximately 135,000 square meters of new construction to be carried out and the project is divided into three phases; feasibility study (phase 0), design (phase 1) and production (phase 2).
The fact that Skanska has participated in the feasibility study has provided an opportunity to benefit from accumulated experience of hospital construction and make good use of it in the project at an early stage.
Work on phase one will begin in August with the goal of being able to begin phase two, production, in the autumn of 2023. The emergency hospital is expected to be completed in 2029.
CONTACT:
For further information please contact:
Olle Rundgren, Media Relations Manager, Skanska AB, tel +46 (0)10 448 67 94
Direct line for media, tel +46 (0)10 448 88 99
This and previous releases can also be found at www.skanska.com.
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SOURCE Skanska | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/skanska-conducts-preparatory-works-new-emergency-hospital-vxj-sweden-about-sek-12-billion/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:33Z |
HEFEI, China, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sungrow, the global leading inverter and energy storage solution supplier for renewables, announced that it is listed in Forbes China's Top 50 Most innovative companies and is the only inverter company listed. This honour reaffirms Sungrow's years-long dedication to technological innovation and recognizes its continuous achievements in the renewable energy industry.
Referring to Innovation, Jack Gu, Sungrow's Super Vice President, expressed his thoughts during his dialogue with Forbes China the other day: "Solar inverters will still be the 'Brain' to manage modules and be able to detect and repair failures. In addition, as large-scale renewables connect to the grid, PV plants need actively support the grid, which requires the inverter to be more intelligent and competent to manage the system. What is more, when governmental subsidies to this industry decrease, PV plants must bring long-term benefits. Hence, Sungrow seeks to upgrade the inverter equipment with advanced algorithms and other innovative technologies so that they can help save the O&M costs, lower the LCOE and increase the overall ROI for all stakeholders."
Sungrow's innovative spirit is not only manifested in the solar inverter development but is inherited in its booming energy storage system business. "Sungrow aims to be a professional company in storage system integration and smart energy management. We provide three core equipment including Battery Management System (BMS), Power Conversion System (PCS) and Energy Management System (EMS), which are supported by Sungrow's innovative technologies in power conversion, battery, and grid forming," Jack Gu emphasized, "Sungrow will focus on refining the integration of software and hardware of storage system as well as improving energy management systems."
25 years-long innovation and R&D bring fruitful results to Sungrow. It was ranked as the No.1 PV inverter supplier globally with 47.1 GWac shipments by IHS Markit now a part of S&P Global. It also shipped a total 3GWh of ESS globally in 2021, all working safely. Being listed as the Top Innovative Company also testifies to its capabilities to innovate. "At Sungrow, the R&D personnel occupies over 40% of the total, and we are also the Top.1 patent holder in this industry with over 4400 patents. This large team keeps exploring more possibilities in the renewable energy industry. When sticking to the main business of inverter and energy storage systems, Sungrow also seeks growth in wind energy solutions, NEV driving solutions, EV charging solutions and renewable hydrogen production systems. This industry is creating numerous opportunities, but potential risks will also arise. Hence, we will remain proactive and prudent amid the complex situation and keep a close eye on the market and industry changes constantly so that we can maintain strong competitiveness in the long term," Jack Gu concluded.
About Sungrow
Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd. ("Sungrow") is the world's most bankable inverter brand with over 269 GW installed worldwide as of June 2022. Founded in 1997 by University Professor Cao Renxian, Sungrow is a leader in the research and development of solar inverters with the largest dedicated R&D team in the industry and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions and energy storage systems for utility-scale, commercial & industrial, and residential applications, as well as internationally recognized floating PV plant solutions, NEV driving solutions, EV charging solutions and renewable hydrogen production systems. With a strong 25-year track record in the PV space, Sungrow products power over 150 countries worldwide.
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SOURCE Sungrow Power Supply Co., Ltd | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/sungrow-is-listed-forbes-chinas-top-50-most-innovative-companies/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:40Z |
CHANGSHA, China, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Trip.com Group, a leading online travel service provider, held its annual Traveler's Forum (TF) in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province in central China, on August 18, 2022, focusing on travel content marketing innovation and destination development.
The Traveler's Forum consists of three parts: International Travelers' Content Creator Forum, Travelers' Night, and a Music Festival & Lifestyle Fair. The forum offered cross-border communication opportunities to the tourism industry, experts, academics, and travel content creators.
As a rapid-growing travel destination, Changsha is popular among influencers and KOLs, attracting millions of travelers from home and abroad. Jointly hosted by Changsha Municipal People's Government, the forum shared Changsha's development roadmap of building a vibrant travel destination through travel content marketing, technology, and integration of resources.
Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group commented, "Changsha has become a stylish tourism destination, not only because of its fascinating history and culture but because the city is actively embracing innovation and building Internet-famous products. Changsha's inclusiveness and diversity will attract widespread attention and become a trendsetter."
Rungang Zhang, Deputy Chairman and Secretary General of the Chinese Tourism Association shared, "In recent years, with high internet attention, Changsha has rapidly grown into an internet-famous tourism destination. From Changsha's experience, I believe that travel content incubation and upgrade will be an essential pivot of the future destination development."
Yong Tan, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Changsha Municipal Committee, said, "With Trip.com Group's strong resource integration capabilities, Changsha is confident it can facilitate tourism transformation further and, in time, build a robust international tourism destination."
Trip.com Group has been an essential strategic partner in Changsha's fast-growing tourism development. Leveraging Trip.com Group's strong resource integration capabilities and content marketing strategy, the city has rolled out various travel campaigns and products on Trip.com Group's platforms. For instance, Changsha Municipal Bureau of Culture, Tourism, Radio and Television, together with Trip.com Group, have launched consumption vouchers this year, accelerating travel recovery in the city. As part of the Group's Rural Revitalization Plan, Trip.com Group built a country retreat in the suburb of Changsha in 2021. Only a week after the retreat was built, the number of bookings surpassed the same period last year.
Trip.com Group's Traveler's Forum has been held in various cities across China, including Lijiang, Chengdu, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chongqing, Guiyang, Anyang, and Sanya. Over 100,000 travelers have actively participated in the annual event, which has generated billions of online exposures.
With the recovery of tourism following the pandemic, the forum showcased Trip.com Group's content marketing strategy. Through gathering high-quality content creators, holding special activities, and facilitating the interaction of experienced travelers, Trip.com Group aims to revitalize the tourism economy and reconnect with keen travelers in post-pandemic times and beyond.
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SOURCE Trip.com Group | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/tripcom-group-holds-travelers-forum-focusing-content-marketing-innovation-destination-development/ | 2022-08-19T08:17:47Z |
WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Two small planes collided in Northern California while trying to land at a local airport Thursday and at least two of the three occupants were killed, officials said.
The planes crashed at Watsonville Municipal Airport shortly before 3 p.m., according to a tweet from the city of Watsonville. The city-owned airport does not have a control tower to direct aircraft landing and taking off.
There were two people aboard a twin-engine Cessna 340 and only the pilot aboard a single-engine Cessna 152 during the crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Officials say multiple fatalities were reported but it was not immediately clear whether anyone survived.
The pilots were on their final approaches to the airport before the collision, the FAA said in a statement. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which did not immediately have additional details, are investigating the crash.
No one on the ground was injured. The airport has four runways and is home to more than 300 aircraft, according to its website. It handles more than 55,000 operations a year and is used often for recreational planes and agriculture businesses.
Watsonville, near the Monterey Bay, is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of San Francisco.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed the wreckage of one small plane in a grassy field by the airport. One picture showed a plume of smoke visible from a street near the airport.
A photo from the city of Watsonville showed damage to a small building at the airport, with firefighters on the scene.
The planes were about 200 feet (61 meters) in the air when they crashed, a witness told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Franky Herrera was driving past the airport when he saw the twin-engine plane bank hard to the right and hit the wing of the smaller aircraft, which "just spiraled down and crashed" near the edge of the airfield and not far from homes, he told the newspaper.
The twin-engine aircraft kept flying but "it was struggling," Herrera said, and then he saw flames at the other side of the airport.
The manager of the Watsonville Municipal Airport was unavailable for a phone interview in the hours after the crash. The airport accounts for about 40% of all general aviation activities in the Monterey Bay area, according to the City of Watsonville's website.
The Watsonville Police Department referred calls to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, where a dispatcher had no information.
Two other pilots also were hurt in aircraft crashes elsewhere in California on Thursday.
A 65-year-old San Diego man received injuries that were major but not life-threatening when his single-engine plane crashed on a street near a busy freeway overpass in El Cajon, authorities said.
The plane reportedly struck an SUV but nobody on the ground was hurt in the city nearly 20 miles (32 kilometers) northeast of downtown San Diego.
Later, the pilot of an ultralight aircraft was critically injured when it crashed upside down on a building at the Camarillo Airport in Ventura County, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-19/multiple-fatalities-are-reported-after-2-small-planes-in-california | 2022-08-19T08:57:44Z |
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ITE HCMC 2022 – the largest international tourism event in Vietnam and Mekong sub-region will happen from 08 – 10 September at Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
ITE HCMC 2022 is expected to be a gather place for tourism industry to connect and promote inbound tourism of Vietnam and Mekong sub-region, which attracted thousands of domestic and international delegates who are NTOs and tourism authorities, travel agencies, airlines, hotels, and resorts and industry experts from 41 provinces and cities in Vietnam and 10 countries and territories.
ITE HCMC is the only international tourism event in Vietnam that organizes the Hosted Buyer Program which offers an opportunity for international tourism businesses who plan to expand their business and aim to bring tourists to Vietnam. From thousands of registrations, the Organization Committee has selected and invited over 150 international buyers from 18 countries and territories. Thereby, the 16th ITE HCMC promises to witness more than 6,000 B2B meetings between buyers and exhibitors.
For three days, ITE HCMC 2022 is expected to attract more than 22,000 visitors, including 10,000 trade visitors and 12,000 public visitors.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa - Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism shared: "As the leading international tourism event, ITE HCMC 2022 is constantly improving in terms of scale and quality and commit to accompany tourism authorities and businesses to promote to domestic and international tourists, actively promoting the recovery of tourism in Vietnam and the region. Ho Chi Minh City is privileged to be host city for Asia and Oceania Gala Ceremony of World Travel Award 2022. This reinforces the position of Ho Chi Minh City on the world map of tourism."
Event Highlights:
- Vietnam MICE Forum – in collaboration with the EuroCham and Nova Hospitality.
- Vietnam Night "Dear Gạo" x Award Ceremony World Travel Award.
- Tourism Night: Cambodia Night (08 Sep) & Korea Night (09 Sep).
- Seminars on key & potential tourist market (India & Middle East); digital transformation in tourism; destination marketing.
ITE HCMC 2022 is honored to receive the companionship of the leading businesses:
- Diamond Sponsor: Vietnam Airlines - Official Airline; Saigontourist Group
- Gold sponsors: GEM Center, ACV, Nova Hospitality, Renaissance River Saigon.
- Other sponsors: Bamboo Airways, Vietjet Air, Vietravel, Sofitel, Dien Quan Group, PRNewswire and many more.
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SOURCE Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Promotion Center | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/countdown-ite-hcmc-2022-where-tourism-industry-growing-forward-together/ | 2022-08-19T09:48:31Z |
LONDON, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- FCA-registered crypto custodian Digivault, part of the EQONEX Group (Nasdaq: EQOS) has added support for BNB Chain enabling clients to now hold assets running on BNB Chain, including BNB, BUSD & BEP20 tokens, in their Digivault accounts.
This follows the announcement earlier this year by Digivault's parent company, EQONEX Limited, that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Binance Connect (Bifinity UAB), a payments technology company that is part of the Binance Group.
The introduction of BNB Chain is the latest in a long line of additions that Digivault has added support for in 2022. Each asset is subject to a thorough due diligence process prior to being approved for custody to ensure that Digivault holds only high-quality digital assets.
Tom Griffiths, Digivault's Chief Compliance Officer, explains: "It is fundamental that all assets go through a thorough Asset Assessment to assure that as a Financial Conduct Authority Anti Money Laundering (FCA AML) registered business, we are doing all that we can to protect the consumer. A robust due diligence process is just one aspect of why clients seek to work with FCA-registered custodians."
BNB Chain has seen immense traction since launch, in part due to its low gas fees which is in stark contrast to the Ethereum network's sky rocketing gas prices, and in part due to BNB Chain's reduced network congestion, another issue with the Ethereum network during peak periods.
Rob Copper, CEO of Digivault, says: "We have been working closely with the Binance Connect / Bifinity team since our strategic partnership was announced and are thrilled to add BNB Chain to our portfolio of assets that we support. I am excited at what the next 12 months will bring and am positive that BNB Chain will play a central role."
About Digivault
Digivault provides digital asset custody that integrates physical and virtual security, giving institutions tangible solutions in a rapidly evolving world. We deliver a powerful custodian that combines multiple layers of protection, eliminating the need for trust in a single person or group of people. As part of a Nasdaq-listed company, we are accountable to the SEC, meaning increased regulation. However, we eliminate the need for trust through our processes and technology, providing our clients with peace of mind.
Digivault is part of the EQONEX Group. EQONEX Limited (NASDAQ: EQOS) is a technology driven digital assets financial services group that provides institutional grade infrastructure, custody and asset management solutions to clients. The Group's digital assets ecosystem has been designed to accommodate the needs of institutions and individuals with the same degree of regulatory oversight and security they are accustomed to in traditional financial markets. primarily encompasses Digivault, and Asset Management.
For more information visit: www.digivault.com. Follow Digivault on social media on Twitter @DigivaultGlobal, and on LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Information
Any forward-looking statements in this press release are based on available current market material and management's expectations, beliefs and forecasts concerning future events impacting EQONEX. You are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions, which, if they were to ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of EQONEX to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made in this press release speak only as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation, except as required by law, to provide updates, revisions or amendments to any forward-looking statements to reflect changes in our expectations or future events.
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SOURCE Digivault | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/digivault-now-supports-bnb-chain/ | 2022-08-19T09:48:38Z |
- Elacestrant, if approved, would be the first oral selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD) to be available for patients suffering from second-line (2L) and third-line (3L) ER+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer in the European Union
- Submission supported by results from the pivotal Phase 3 EMERALD study showing a statistically significant difference in the efficacy in favor of elacestrant over current standard-of-care (SOC) medications for both the overall study population and patients whose tumors harbor an ESR1 mutation
FLORENCE, Italy and NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Menarini Group ("Menarini"), a privately held Italian pharmaceutical and diagnostics company, and Stemline Therapeutics ("Stemline"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Menarini Group, today announced that EMA has validated the Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for elacestrant, a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD), for patients with ER+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer. Validation of the application confirms the submission is complete and begins EMA's centralized review procedure.
"There is a major unmet need in the treatment of advanced or metastatic ER+/HER2- breast cancer after resistance builds in the earlier lines of treatment" commented Elcin Barker Ergun, Chief Executive Officer of the Menarini Group. "The acceptance of our application for review by the EMA represents a significant step for our company and we look forward to working with the agency to potentially bring elacestrant to patients suffering from second and third line ER+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer in Europe."
The Phase 3 EMERALD study (NCT03778931) evaluated elacestrant compared to SOC endocrine monotherapy (investigators' choice of either fulvestrant or an aromatase inhibitor) in ER+/HER2- advanced or metastatic breast cancer patients. The study results were recently published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) on May 18, 2022. Further post-hoc analysis from the study will be presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress 2022 taking place September 9-13, 2022, in Paris, France.
The Menarini Group obtained global licensing rights for elacestrant in July 2020 from Radius Health, Inc, who conducted and successfully completed the EMERALD study. Based on the positive phase 3 data, Stemline submitted a MAA to EMA on July 27, 2022. The regulatory review for elacestrant is also underway in the US as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently accepted a new drug application for elacestrant designating a priority review. The Menarini Group is now fully responsible for global registration, commercialization and further development activities for elacestrant.
About Elacestrant (RAD1901) and the EMERALD Phase 3 Study
Elacestrant is an investigational selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD). In 2018, elacestrant received Fast Track designation from the FDA. Preclinical studies completed prior to EMERALD indicate that the compound has the potential for use as a single agent or in combination with other therapies for the treatment of breast cancer. The EMERALD Phase 3 trial is a randomized, open label, active-controlled study evaluating elacestrant as second- or third-line monotherapy in ER+/HER2- advanced/metastatic breast cancer patients. The study enrolled 477 patients who had received prior treatment with one or two lines of endocrine therapy, including a CDK 4/6 inhibitor. Patients in the study were randomized to receive either elacestrant or the investigator's choice of an approved hormonal agent. The primary endpoint of the study was progression-free survival (PFS) in the overall patient population and in patients with estrogen receptor 1 gene (ESR1) mutations. Secondary endpoints included evaluation of overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), and duration of response (DOR) and safety.
About The Menarini Group
The Menarini Group is a leading international pharmaceutical and diagnostics company, with a turnover of over $4 billion and over 17,000 employees. Menarini is focused on therapeutic areas with high unmet needs with products for cardiology, oncology, pneumology, gastroenterology, infectious diseases, diabetology, inflammation, and analgesia. With 18 production sites and 9 Research and Development centers, Menarini's products are available in 140 countries worldwide. For further information, please visit www.menarini.com
About Stemline
Stemline Therapeutics, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Menarini Group, is a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel oncology therapeutics. Stemline commercializes a novel targeted treatment directed to CD123 for patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) in the United States and Europe which is also being evaluated as monotherapy and in combination with other agents, in additional clinical trials for a variety of other indications. Stemline has an extensive clinical pipeline of small molecules and biologics in various stages of development for a host of solid and hematologic cancers.
About Radius
Radius is a global biopharmaceutical company focused on addressing unmet medical needs in the areas of bone health, neuro-orphan diseases, and oncology. Radius' lead product, TYMLOS® (abaloparatide) injection, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of postmenopausal women with osteoporosis at high risk for fracture.
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SOURCE Menarini Industrie Farmaceutiche Riunite | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/menarini-groups-elacestrant-marketing-authorization-application-accepted-review-by-european-medicines-agency-ema-treatment-erher2-advanced-or-metastatic-breast-cancer/ | 2022-08-19T09:48:44Z |
SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator: August notifications 2.35%
WINDSOR, Conn., Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSNC) today announced that the SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator for August 2022 measured 2.35%, up from 1.82% in July.
"SS&C GlobeOps' Forward Redemption Indicator for August 2022 was 2.35%, slightly above the record low for the month, which was 2.24% reported a year ago," said Bill Stone, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SS&C Technologies. "Since the outbreak of COVID-19, hedge funds have seen redemptions decrease markedly from historical levels. Moreover, the most recent data points show while redemption levels may no longer be falling rapidly, they continue to run at or near record lows. Under these conditions, hedge fund asset retention should remain strong."
The SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator represents the sum of forward redemption notices received from investors in hedge funds administered by SS&C GlobeOp on the SS&C GlobeOp platform, divided by the AuA at the beginning of the month for SS&C GlobeOp fund administration clients on the SS&C GlobeOp platform. Forward redemptions as a percentage of SS&C GlobeOp's assets under administration on the SS&C GlobeOp platform have trended significantly lower since reaching a high of 19.27% in November 2008. The next publication date is September 22, 2022.
Published on the 15th business day of the month, the SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator presents a timely and accurate view of the redemption pipeline for investors in hedge funds on the SS&C GlobeOp administration platform. Movements in the Indicator reflect investor confidence in their allocations to hedge funds. Indicator data is based on actual investor redemption notifications received. Unlike subscriptions, redemption notifications are typically received 30-90 days in advance of the redemption date. Investors may, and sometimes do, cancel redemption notices. In addition, the establishment and enforcement of redemption notices may vary from fund to fund.
About the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Index®
The SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Index (the Index) is a family of indices published by SS&C GlobeOp. A unique set of indices by a hedge fund administrator, it offers clients, investors and the overall market a welcome transparency on liquidity, investor sentiment and performance. The Index is based on a significant platform of diverse and representative assets.
The SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Index is available at www.sscglobeopindex.com.
The SS&C GlobeOp Capital Movement Index and the SS&C GlobeOp Forward Redemption Indicator provide monthly reports based on actual and anticipated capital movement data independently collected from all hedge fund clients for whom SS&C GlobeOp provides administration services on the SS&C GlobeOp platform.
The SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Performance Index is an asset-weighted benchmark of the aggregate performance of funds for which SS&C GlobeOp provides monthly administration services on the SS&C GlobeOp platform. Flash estimate, interim and final values are provided, in each of three months respectively, following each business month-end.
While individual fund data is anonymized by aggregation, the SS&C GlobeOp Hedge Fund Index data will be based on the same reconciled fund data that SS&C GlobeOp uses to produce fund net asset values (NAV). Funds acquired through the acquisition of Citi Alternative Investor Services are integrated into the index suite starting with the January 2017 reporting periods. SS&C GlobeOp's total assets under administration on the SS&C GlobeOp platform represent approximately 10% of the estimated assets currently invested in the hedge fund sector. The investment strategies of the funds in the indices span a representative industry sample. Data for middle and back office clients who are not fund administration clients is not included in the Index, but is included in the Company's results announcement figures.
About SS&C Technologies
SS&C is a global provider of services and software for the financial services and healthcare industries. Founded in 1986, SS&C is headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut, and has offices around the world. Some 20,000 financial services and healthcare organizations, from the world's largest companies to small and mid-market firms, rely on SS&C for expertise, scale and technology.
SOURCE: GlobeOp SS&C
Additional information about SS&C (Nasdaq: SSNC) is available at www.ssctech.com.
Follow SS&C on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
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SOURCE GlobeOp SS&C | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/ssampc-globeop-forward-redemption-indicator/ | 2022-08-19T09:48:51Z |
Conference Call to Be Held at 7:30 A.M. U.S. Eastern Time on August 19, 2022
GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Vipshop Holdings Limited (NYSE: VIPS), a leading online discount retailer for brands in China ("Vipshop" or the "Company"), today announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2022.
Second Quarter 2022 Highlights
- Total net revenues for the second quarter of 2022 were RMB24.5 billion (US$3.7 billion), as compared with RMB29.6 billion in the prior year period.
- GMV[1] for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB40.6 billion, as compared with RMB48.1 billion in the prior year period.
- Gross profit for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB5.0 billion (US$750.1 million), as compared with RMB6.0 billion in the prior year period.
- Net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders for the second quarter of 2022 increased by 17.4% year over year to RMB1.3 billion (US$191.5 million) from RMB1.1 billion in the prior year period.
- Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders[2] for the second quarter of 2022 increased by 8.4% year over year to RMB1.6 billion (US$237.7 million) from RMB1.5 billion in the prior year period.
- The number of active customers[3] for the second quarter of 2022 was 41.7 million, as compared with 51.1 million in the prior year period.
- Total orders[4] for the second quarter of 2022 were 186.3 million, as compared with 221.5 million in the prior year period.
Mr. Eric Shen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vipshop, stated, "Our second quarter results came in better than expected, driven by improving macro conditions with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively under control. Our business demonstrated strong execution and flexibility in helping our brand partners navigate through an uncertain environment with extensive support, while securing more supply of merchandise that appeal to the value of our customers. In addition, we have been refreshing our brand mix with new trendy and higher-end brands that cater to different customer groups. Our high-value customers continued to grow and showed resilient spending power. While macro uncertainties could linger ahead, we are steadfast in positioning ourselves for more opportunities in discount retail, adapting our business as needed to best serve our brand partners and customers."
Mr. David Cui, Chief Financial Officer of Vipshop, further commented, "In the second quarter, we delivered solid profitability on top of decent topline performance that beat our prior guidance, thanks to our relentless efforts to drive operational efficiency. Our bottom-line and the overall margins achieved year-over-year increases as a result of effective cost savings and rational spending. In addition, we were committed to our share buyback plan and had repurchased US$177.1 million of our ADSs during the quarter. Looking ahead, we are confident to maintain healthy and sustainable profitability and create long-term value to our shareholders."
Second Quarter 2022 Financial Results
REVENUES
Total net revenues for the second quarter of 2022 were RMB24.5 billion (US$3.7 billion), as compared with RMB29.6 billion in the prior year period, primarily attributable to soft consumer demand for discretionary categories amid a challenging macro environment with the COVID-19 resurgence in China.
GROSS PROFIT
Gross profit for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB5.0 billion (US$750.1 million), as compared with RMB6.0 billion in the prior year period. Gross margin for the second quarter of 2022 increased to 20.5% from 20.1% in the prior year period.
OPERATING EXPENSES
Total operating expenses for the second quarter of 2022 decreased by 18.7% year over year to RMB3.9 billion (US$588.0 million) from RMB4.8 billion in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, total operating expenses for the second quarter of 2022 decreased to 16.1% from 16.4% in the prior year period.
- Fulfillment expenses for the second quarter of 2022 decreased by 13.7% year over year to RMB1.8 billion (US$265.2 million) from RMB2.1 billion in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, fulfillment expenses for the second quarter of 2022 was 7.2%, as compared with 6.9% in the prior year period.
- Marketing expenses for the second quarter of 2022 decreased by 60.5% year over year to RMB555.6 million (US$82.9 million) from RMB1.4 billion in the prior year period, primarily attributable to more prudent marketing strategy. As a percentage of total net revenues, marketing expenses for the second quarter of 2022 decreased to 2.3% from 4.8% in the prior year period.
- Technology and content expenses for the second quarter of 2022 increased by 11.3% year over year to RMB411.8 million (US$61.5 million) from RMB369.9 million in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, technology and content expenses for the second quarter of 2022 increased to 1.7% from 1.2% in the prior year period.
- General and administrative expenses for the second quarter of 2022 were RMB1.2 billion (US$178.4 million), as compared with RMB1.0 billion in the prior year period. As a percentage of total net revenues, general and administrative expenses for the second quarter of 2022 was 4.9%, as compared with 3.4% in the prior year period.
INCOME FROM OPERATIONS
Income from operations for the second quarter of 2022 was RMB1.3 billion (US$189.4 million), as compared with RMB1.5 billion in the prior year period. Operating margin for the second quarter of 2022 increased to 5.2% from 5.0% in the prior year period.
Non-GAAP income from operations[5] for the second quarter of 2022, which excluded share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, was RMB1.6 billion (US$231.6 million), as compared with RMB1.7 billion in the prior year period. Non-GAAP operating margin[6] for the second quarter of 2022 increased to 6.3% from 5.9% in the prior year period.
NET INCOME
Net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders for the second quarter of 2022 increased by 17.4% year over year to RMB1.3 billion (US$191.5 million) from RMB1.1 billion in the prior year period. Net margin attributable to Vipshop's shareholders for the second quarter of 2022 increased to 5.2% from 3.7% in the prior year period. Net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders per diluted ADS[7] for the second quarter of 2022 increased to RMB1.97 (US$0.29) from RMB1.56 in the prior year period.
Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders for the second quarter of 2022, which excluded (i) share-based compensation expenses, (ii) impairment loss of investment, (iii) investment loss and revaluation of investments excluding dividends, (iv) reconciling items on the share of equity method investments, (v) amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, and (vi) tax effects on non-GAAP adjustments, increased by 8.4% year over year to RMB1.6 billion (US$237.7 million) from RMB1.5 billion in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net margin attributable to Vipshop's shareholders[8] for the second quarter of 2022 increased to 6.5% from 5.0% in the prior year period. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders per diluted ADS[9] for the second quarter of 2022 increased to RMB2.45 (US$0.37) from RMB2.10 in the prior year period.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2022, the Company's weighted average number of ADSs used in computing diluted income per ADS was 649,671,995.
BALANCE SHEET AND CASH FLOW
As of June 30, 2022, the Company had cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash of RMB17.3 billion (US$2.6 billion) and short term investments of RMB4.1 billion (US$615.4 million).
For the quarter ended June 30, 2022, net cash generated from operating activities was RMB4.5 billion (US$666.7 million), and free cash flow[10], a non-GAAP measurement of liquidity, was as follows:
Share Repurchase Program
On March 31, 2022, the Company announced a share repurchase program authorized by its board of directors under which the Company may repurchase up to US$1 billion of its ADSs or Class A ordinary shares for a 24-month period. As of June 30, 2022, the Company had repurchased US$177.1 million of its ADSs under the program.
Environment, Social and Governance
On July 8, 2022, Vipshop was named Forbes China's 2022 Best Employer and 2022 Most Sustainable Employer. The awards recognized the Company's best practices in talent mangement and its commitment to sustainable development.
Business Outlook
For the third quarter of 2022, the Company expects its total net revenues to be between RMB21.2 billion and RMB22.4 billion, representing a year-over-year decrease rate of approximately 15% to 10%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which is subject to change.
Exchange Rate
The Company's business is primarily conducted in China and the significant majority of revenues generated are denominated in Renminbi. This announcement contains currency conversions of Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollars solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars are made at a rate of RMB6.6981 to US$1.00, the effective noon buying rate on June 30, 2022 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. No representation is made that the Renminbi amounts could have been, or could be, converted, realized or settled into U.S. dollars at that rate on June 30, 2022, or at any other rate.
Conference Call Information
The Company will hold a conference call on Friday, August 19, 2022 at 7:30 am US Eastern Time, 7:30 pm Beijing Time to discuss the financial results.
All participants wishing to join the conference call must pre-register online using the link provided below.
Registration Link: https://register.vevent.com/register/BIb9eec4ae01f249d6bc23e596cc164be4
Once pre-registration has been completed, each participant will receive dial-in numbers and a unique access PIN via email. To join the conference, participants should use the dial-in details followed by the PIN code.
A live webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/853ts7kw. An archived webcast will be available at the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.vip.com.
[1] "Gross merchandise value (GMV)" is defined as the total Renminbi value of all products and services sold through the Company's online sales business, online marketplace platform, offline stores, Shan Shan Outlets and city outlets during the relevant period, including through the Company's websites and mobile apps, third-party websites and mobile apps, Vipshop offline stores, Vipmaxx offline stores, Shan Shan Outlets and the city outlets in Hefei, Anhui province that is operated by the Company, which were fulfilled by either the Company or its third-party merchants, regardless of whether or not the goods were delivered or returned. GMV includes shipping charges paid by buyers to sellers. For prudent considerations, the Company does not consider products or services to be sold if the relevant orders were placed and canceled pre-shipment and only included orders that left the Company's or other third-party vendors' warehouses.
[2] Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders excluding (i) share-based compensation expenses, (ii) impairment loss of investment, (iii) investment loss and revaluation of investments excluding dividends, (iv) reconciling items on the share of equity method investments, (v) amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, and (vi) tax effects on non-GAAP adjustments.
[3] "Active customers" is defined as registered members who have purchased from the Company's online sales business or the Company's online marketplace platforms at least once during the relevant period.
[4] "Total orders" is defined as the total number of orders placed during the relevant period, including the orders for products and services sold through the Company's online sales business and the Company's online marketplace platforms (excluding, for the avoidance of doubt, orders from the Company's offline stores and outlets), net of orders returned.
[5] Non-GAAP income from operations is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as income from operations excluding share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions.
[6] Non-GAAP operating income margin is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as non-GAAP income from operations as a percentage of total net revenues.
[7] "ADS" means American depositary share, each of which represents 0.2 Class A ordinary share.
[8] Non-GAAP net margin attributable to Vipshop's shareholders is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders, as a percentage of total net revenues.
[9] Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders per diluted ADS is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders, divided by the weighted average number of diluted ADS outstanding for computing diluted earnings per ADS.
[10] Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure, which is defined as net cash from operating activities adding back the impact from Internet financing activities and less capital expenditures, which include purchase and deposits of property and equipment and land use rights.
[11] Net impact from Internet financing activities represents net cash flow relating to the Company's financial products, which are primarily consumer financing and supplier financing that the Company provides to its customers and suppliers.
About Vipshop Holdings Limited
Vipshop Holdings Limited is a leading online discount retailer for brands in China. Vipshop offers high quality and popular branded products to consumers throughout China at a significant discount to retail prices. Since it was founded in August 2008, the Company has rapidly built a sizeable and growing base of customers and brand partners. For more information, please visit https://ir.vip.com/.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as Vipshop's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. Vipshop may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Vipshop's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: Vipshop's goals and strategies; Vipshop's future business development, results of operations and financial condition; the expected growth of the online discount retail market in China; Vipshop's ability to attract customers and brand partners and further enhance its brand recognition; Vipshop's expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of flash sales products and services; competition in the discount retail industry; the potential impact of the COVID-19 to Vipshop's business operations and the economy in China and elsewhere generally; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions in China and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Vipshop's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and Vipshop does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The condensed consolidated financial information is derived from the Company's unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP"), except that comparative consolidated statements of income and cash flows for the period presented and detailed footnote disclosures required by Accounting Standards Codification 270, Interim Reporting ("ASC270"), have been omitted. Vipshop uses non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders, non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders per diluted ADS, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP operating income margin, non-GAAP net margin attributable to Vipshop's shareholders, and free cash flow, each of which is a non-GAAP financial measure. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders is net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders excluding (i) share-based compensation expenses, (ii) impairment loss of investment, (iii) investment loss and revaluation of investments excluding dividends, (iv) reconciling items on the share of equity method investments, (v) amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, and (vi) tax effects on non-GAAP adjustments. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders per diluted ADS is computed using non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders divided by weighted average number of diluted ADS outstanding for computing diluted earnings per ADS. Non-GAAP income from operations is income from operations excluding share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions. Non-GAAP operating income margin is non-GAAP income from operations as a percentage of total net revenues Non-GAAP net margin attributable to Vipshop's shareholders is non-GAAP net income attributable to Vipshop's shareholders as a percentage of total net revenues Free cash flow is net cash from operating activities adding back the impact from Internet financing activities and less capital expenditures, which include purchase and deposits of property and equipment and land use rights. Impact from Internet financing activities added back or deducted from free cash flow contains changes in the balances of financial products, which are primarily consumer financing and supplier financing that the Company provides to customers and suppliers. The Company believes that separate analysis and exclusion of the non-cash impact of (i) share-based compensation, (ii) impairment loss of investment, (iii) investment loss and revaluation of investments excluding dividends, (iv) reconciling items on the share of equity method investments, (v) amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, and (vi) tax effects on non-GAAP adjustments add clarity to the constituent parts of its performance. The Company reviews these non-GAAP financial measures together with GAAP financial measures to obtain a better understanding of its operating performance. It uses these non-GAAP financial measures for planning, forecasting and measuring results against the forecast. The Company believes that non-GAAP financial measures are useful supplemental information for investors and analysts to assess its operating performance without the effect of (i) share-based compensation expenses, (ii) impairment loss of investment, (iii) investment loss and revaluation of investments excluding dividends, (iv) reconciling items on the share of equity method investments, (v) amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, and (vi) tax effects on non-GAAP adjustments. Free cash flow enables the Company to assess liquidity and cash flow, taking into account the impact from Internet financing activities and the financial resources needed for the expansion of fulfillment infrastructure,technology platform and Shan Shan Outlets. Share-based compensation expenses have been and will continue to be significant recurring expenses in its business. However, the use of non-GAAP financial measures has material limitations as an analytical tool. One of the limitations of using non-GAAP financial measures is that they do not include all items that impact the Company's net income for the period. In addition, because non-GAAP financial measures are not measured in the same manner by all companies, they may not be comparable to other similar titled measures used by other companies. One of the key limitations of free cash flow is that it does not represent the residual cash flow available for discretionary expenditures.
The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Vipshop Holdings Limited Reconciliations of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results" at the end of this release.
Investor Relations Contact
Tel: +86 (20) 2233-0732
Email: IR@vipshop.com
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SOURCE Vipshop Holdings Limited | https://www.whsv.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/vipshop-reports-unaudited-second-quarter-2022-financial-results/ | 2022-08-19T09:48:57Z |
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HONOLULU (KITV4) -- It was a sign wave at the corner of King and University, signaling to motorists and pedestrians to obey traffic lights & crosswalks. It was also HPD mobilizing to cite those who were in violation.
"We have lots of officers strewn across this neighborhood. And we're looking at the types of intersections and different intersections where there is a potential for conflict," Captain Jason Slayter told KITV, "So down here on University we have 2 plain cloths officers. They are walking down the street using the cross walk and basically any vehicle that fails to yield to them, they are getting pulled over by the solo bikes."
Resident Ginny Kawamura who lives in an apartment complex nearby at the Kuilei intersection a block away says that she doesn't mind HPD stepping up enforcement.
"I crossed the side walk and I almost got hit. I don't know if they just don't see us or what, but it's dangerous right here," she said.
Those failing to yield to the plain cloths officers were cited. Some vehicles were caught trying to make that left turn after the light had gone red. Pedestrians and bicyclists also were stopped for crossing illegally.
"Whether it's people entering the crosswalk with the red signal, or possibly jay walking outside of the crosswalk. We are just trying to educate everybody," Captain Slayter said.
For those not paying attention, or distracted, it may have been a tough lesson. It's all an effort to cut down on fatalities. There have 17 pedestrian fatalities in Hawaii so far this year, 9 of them on Oahu.
"The kind of scary number, if you look back over the last decade, we have over 200 pedestrian fatalities on Oahu alone," Captain Slayter told KITV, "That is a staggering number if you think about it. And just thinking about this year with 9 -- just think of 9 of your family members that you would be ok with not having to come to Christmas this year."
This month HPD has launched 20 operations like the one Thursday. 600 citations and 300 warnings have been issued as part of the Pedestrian Safety Month effort.
Do you have a story idea? Email news tips to news@kitv.com
Jeremy Lee joined KITV after over a decade & a half in broadcast news from coast to coast on the mainland. Jeremy most recently traveled the country documenting protests & civil unrest. | https://www.kitv.com/news/hpd-steps-up-traffic-enforcement-for-pedestrian-safety/article_65ab236a-1f94-11ed-abac-bba78de67878.html | 2022-08-19T09:49:34Z |
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- Pohoiki Boat Ramp in the Puna District of the Big Island has not been usable for the past four years, after the Kilauea eruption in 2018.
Recreational and commercial fishermen in East Hawaii depended on that boat ramp.
"So imagine, I know for those who live on Oahu may not understand Puna or understand the country lifestyle that we live here on the Big Island, but if you were to take the shoreline over Oahu and not have any boat ramp, that is the same shoreline from Hilo to Kau with no boat ramp," said Rep. Greggor Ilagan, (D) Puna.
The boat ramp itself is still there, but if you launch your boat off of it, you can't go anywhere because it's blocked by a lot of sediment.
The 2018 eruption created new land. The waves are eroding some of that new land and are depositing the sediment, essentially black sand, right into the bay. That is what's blocking ocean access to and from the boat ramp.
On Thursday afternoon, there was a community meeting at Pahoa Community Center to discuss the future of Pohoiki Boat Ramp.
"The community wants the boat ramp to open as soon as possible, and that's always been their stand from the beginning," Ilagan said.
The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources' Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation is in charge of Pohoiki Boat Ramp.
It hired Limtiaco Consulting Group to work on a solution to ultimately re-open Pohoiki Boat Ramp.
The consultants held the community meeting to discuss options and to get feedback.
"With alternatives that they gave, which the first one is a narrower channel, which will cost around $3.6 million, that's with some fluff there too, as you know, the cost goes up. And the second alternative is a wider, wide channel, which is still dredging for the first and second, and that's going to cost $5.2 million. And the last alternative is going to be a permanent boat ramp with jetties and that that can range from $25 to $62 million," Ilagan said.
During the meeting, the community asked for a combination of options -- dredging to begin with, then ultimately a permanent harbor with jetties.
The consultants said if they get the green light to dredge, crews could likely start working on that as early next summer because they still have to finish the environmental assessment, and they still need the funding, which will not be available until January. Phase two could be the longer-term fix.
This past weekend community members started taking things into their own hands, creating a bucket brigade to try to remove the black sand, but there's so much sediment in the area.
Marisa Yamane joined KITV4 in January 2022 as an anchor and executive producer. She is an award-winning veteran journalist, who’s spent most of her career in Hawaii. She’s a proud graduate of Iolani School and UCLA. | https://www.kitv.com/news/local/community-meeting-held-on-the-big-island-to-discuss-the-future-of-pohoiki-boat-ramp/article_fc394846-1f9b-11ed-bbfa-1fcb1418831a.html | 2022-08-19T09:49:36Z |
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