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ROCK SPRINGS — Every year, thousands of participants across America walk, climb and run to remember those who sacrificed their lives to save others on Sept. 11, 2001.
In Rock Springs, firefighters are hosting the 2022 Walk the Rock, 9/11 Memorial Climb.
According to Kelly Mathis, captain of the Rock Springs Fire Department, the twin towers at the World Trade Center each had 110 floors and 2071 steps.
“We want to keep doing this for community involvement,” said Mathis. “Members of the community will join firefighters to climb Grant Street in honor of the 343 firefighters from the Fire Department of New York City who gave their lives while trying to save others on that dark day.”
Mathis explained that Walk the Rock will consist of four lengths of Grant Street, starting and ending at the top of the street.
“This will show the participants in the walk what it was like to be in full gear as those brave people climbed 110 stories,” he said.
The first responders will have weight vests, hose bundles and tools for people to carry if they would like to experience the weight that firefighters had to carry while ascending the burning twin towers.
“It’s steep, challenging and it can accommodate a lot of people,” Mathis described. Mathis also mentioned that some participants and first responders may even go above and beyond by doing the equivalent of 343 flights of stairs in memory of the 343 emergency responders who lost their lives on 9/11.
Those who complete the 343 Challenge will receive a commemorative challenge chip. On the chip, the words “Never Forget” are inscribed.
Rock Springs Fire Department Chief Jim Wamsley said, “For us, in fire service, those aren’t just words. We will always remember those sacrifices and we don’t want to forget.”
“We want to remember their heroism – their attempt to save a few lives – maybe some of those lives were already lost but they climbed in and did what needed to be done anyway,” he added.
“I think that’s an example for our conduct for all walks of life; certainly, for those in fire service. It’s our job,” said Wamsley. “We get in there and do whatever we can to save lives. That’s what the fire service is all about. A lot of times we are fortunate to be able to prevent loss of life but bad things happen and we have a job to do.”
Mathis was working at Copier and Supply, a small business in downtown Rock Springs, with his brother, before becoming a firefighter.
“My brother heard about it before coming into the shop and told us what was happening in New York City,” Mathis explained. “My best friend was in the academy at West Point at the time. Back then, we had no way to track what was going on. We didn’t even have a TV in the shop.”
Mathis tried contacting him for about eight hours before he finally heard his voice.
“He wasn’t close to downtown, in fact, he was 43 miles away from where they got hit,” he shared. “I told him that the first thought I had when I heard the news was that the enemy would hit the military academy and wipe out all the future leaders of the United States.”
Wamsley noted that “the towers were a symbol of western culture.”
“They represented exuberance and power,” he said.
Wamsley was still working for Church and Dwight in 2001. He had just gotten home from a graveyard shift when the attack began.
“I listened to the radio on the way home and the news of the towers wasn’t mentioned,” Wamsley revealed. “I had to call the plant for something and whoever answered the phone was in a panic. He said, ‘Can’t talk now. A plane just hit one of the towers in New York City!’”
Wamsley turned his television on as a commercial aircraft flew into the second tower.
“I normally would have slept all day but I didn’t get a wink of sleep that day,” he said. “They were somber days. It’s one of those things where you hear people talk about those momentous events in their lives.
“It was truly the darkest day in the United States.”
“For my parents, it was the assassination of John F. Kennedy,” Wamsley said. “For me, it will always be 9/11. Before that, it was the first man landing on the moon when I was in the first grade.”
“There are a few things I can recall but with 9/11, I’ll always remember the feeling and just the way that day was so surreal,” he said. “It has fundamentally changed our philosophies in the United States. It created a whole new federal bureau – Homeland Security of the United States.”
The Walk the Rock 9/11 Memorial Climb opening ceremonies will begin at 6:46 a.m. sharp on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022.
“The first plane struck the twin towers at 6:46 a.m. mountain standard time,” Mathis said.
“Anyone at any fitness level is invited to join us,” said Wamsley. “This is definitely not a fitness competition. This is a memorial event and a personal challenge.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/firefighters-recall-the-darkest-day-in-america/article_d02c0ae2-2499-11ed-af0c-1b14bfd1a044.html | 2022-08-26T20:34:32Z |
A sketch from 1862 laying claim to 640 acres at Green River Station, now in the possession of the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne. Note that the original Transcontinental Telegraph Line also crossed the Green River at the site.
Green River County, Utah Territory, was huge, extending nearly 250 miles from northern Utah to Bridger Pass, not far from present-day Rawlins.
Photo Courtesy of Sweetwater County Historical Museum
A sketch from 1862 laying claim to 640 acres at Green River Station, now in the possession of the Wyoming State Archives in Cheyenne. Note that the original Transcontinental Telegraph Line also crossed the Green River at the site.
SWEETWATER COUNTY -- The county seat of Sweetwater County was not the first community in Wyoming named “Green River,” according to a new article on WyoHistory.org.
“Crossing the River at Green River Station,” by Dick Blust, museum services specialist of the Sweetwater County Historical Museum, tells the story of Green River Station, a tiny settlement that served as a stage stop, Pony Express station, ferry, and ford located dozens of miles upstream from the city of Green River.
What is now Sweetwater County was once in Green River County, Utah Territory, created in 1852, and existed until 1868, with the establishment of Wyoming Territory. Green River Station was one of a number of fords and ferry sites across the Green used by emigrants traveling the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, as well as stagecoaches and Pony Express riders.
The Station was home to the first Post Office in what would later become Sweetwater County, established in 1853, as well as “‘five stores and one Indian wigwam, which served as a saloon,’ as well as six cabins where people lived, including the station keeper, stagecoach drivers, riders, and stock tenders for spare horses.”
Little is now left of Green River Station, which faded away and died in the years after the railroad arrived in Sweetwater County in 1869.
WyoHistory.org, a project of the Wyoming State Historical Society, is an extensive online resource for articles and information on Wyoming history.
Located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River, the Sweetwater County Historical Museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/rocketminer/museum-specialist-reveals-facts-of-the-original-green-river/article_b77b4a0e-2560-11ed-b547-f7b30dcc9877.html | 2022-08-26T20:34:38Z |
Rock Springs librarian Sunny Hobbs’ daughter Daisy enjoys reading Maurice Sendak’s book before the exhibit of the original artwork arrives at the CFAC. The public is invited to the opening reception of the traveling exhibit of Sendak’s work to be held Sept. 1 from 4 to 6 p.m.
ROCK SPRINGS -- Maurice Sendak: the Memorial Exhibition is opening at the Community Fine Arts Center on Thursday, Sept. 1, with a public reception from 4 to 6 p.m.
A retrospective of original paintings and illustrations by Maurice Sendak has been touring many museums and libraries across the country since 2013. That year was the 50th anniversary of when the book “Where the Wild Things Are” was originally released. Presidents, renowned illustrators, friends and celebrities have shared a quote about the renowned author; how he inspired them, influenced their careers and touched their lives. The quotes will be presented together with the artwork, offering viewers food for thought as well as a feast for their eyes.
“We first arranged for this exhibit in 2017, but had to reschedule when the pandemic closed many public venues,” said Debora Soulé, CFAC director. “Now it’s finally here and we can’t wait to share in with our community. And not to give anything away, but there will be a special guest during the opening reception that the kids will not want to miss!”
The exhibit has been made possible by funding from the Sweetwater County Library Foundation and the CFAC programming supported by the city of Rock Springs.
The public is invited to the opening reception on Sept. 1 and the exhibit will be on display through Oct. 8. Also available to see is the permanent art collection owned by Sweetwater County School District No. 1. A small gift shop of local artists’ work is at the center and supports an annual scholarship for a Rock Springs senior student going to college.
The CFAC is a department of the Sweetwater County Library System and programming is supported by the City of Rock Springs. An extensive library on the arts is maintained by the CFAC for the public for research and checkout. The current center’s hours are Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday noon to 5 p.m. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/advertising_and_marketing/wild-things-are-happening-at-the-cfac/article_028409dc-2566-11ed-9970-efb6ba044019.html | 2022-08-26T20:34:44Z |
Crews work at 13th and Lewis street. Laramie City Council approved the closure of a section of Lewis between 14th and 15th streets during a meeting Tuesday night.
As the University of Wyoming welcomes thousands of students to its Laramie campus, part of a nearby street is closing.
Laramie City Council has given a green light to close Lewis Street between 14th and 15th streets as work continues on an ongoing $250 million UW effort to build new residence halls in the area.
Once the project is completed, the section of Lewis Street will act as a service road to the new dormitories.
The closure, while part of a longstanding agreement between the city and university, came as a disappointment to some Laramie City Council members and one resident who expressed concern about public access to the area near the UW Lab School.
Council member Andrea Summerville has said the closure could make it more difficult and dangerous for parents to drop their children off at the school, which is located near Lewis and 13th streets.
The university agreed to add a bus stop and school zone around the area to mitigate the issues along with improving nearby crosswalks and adding two 30-minute parking spaces for Lab School parents and visitors.
During a meeting Tuesday, council member Bryan Shuster worried that long-term UW projects in the area impacting 15th Street will have an ongoing negative impact on the community as they move forward.
The university’s plan is not in line with the city’s needs, he said.
“People are not negotiating in good faith,” Shuster said. “I’m sure there’s going to be more problems down the road.”
Council member Fred Schmechel and Mayor Paul Weaver agreed that communication between UW, the city and residents needs improvement. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/construction/laramie-city-council-oks-closure-of-road-near-uw-lab-school/article_1cf2dadc-2566-11ed-8f74-6f2597c68d53.html | 2022-08-26T20:34:51Z |
The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee considered four draft bills Thursday that would modify the state’s liquor license statutes.
Only one was ultimately approved for the committee to sponsor for the 2023 general session, which would loosen population formulas for bar-and-grill liquor licenses.
Stakeholders from throughout the state have been pushing the Legislature to take action to make more liquor licenses available, saying the current laws are stifling economic growth and encumbering innovative business proposals. A recent example came from Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins, who had 11 local entrepreneurs apply for a sole retail liquor license.
“We have 38 people who own a retail liquor license. Some of them are good friends of mine, and I feel like our future growth has been held hostage because no one wants to do anything that will take the sale of even one beer from those 38 people,” Collins told committee members Thursday. “I’ve heard all of the reasons, you’ve heard them all, but it frustrates me. It’s hurting our ability to diversify our economy.”
Along with supporters of expanding the number of liquor licenses available or changing the population requirements come wary critics. Health care providers, as well as law enforcement and state liquor association members, shared their perspectives on more liquor distribution, such as rising alcoholism, increased crime and unsafe quantities of alcohol available to the public.
Lawmakers listened to the debate and conflicting positions on all four bills. They decided to indefinitely delay a piece of legislation that would have made any retail liquor licenses issued after July 1, 2023 non-transferable, and continue to draft changes to two others before the next meeting in mid-October.
The bills that the committee will reconvene to consider relate to the cost of retail liquor license fees, and creating a tavern and entertainment liquor license. There would have been no limit on the number of the latter licenses based on population, and many criticisms came from both sides of the argument due to the definition of “entertainment.”
April Brimmer-Kunz, one of the 11 applicants for the single retail liquor license in Cheyenne, was especially passionate regarding the development of a new type of liquor license. She and her son plan to open Ace’s Range in Cheyenne, a golf and laser-shooting simulator location, but were denied the license. She told committee members that she understood why they were denied, yet there wasn’t a license that fit the needs of their business.
“The world is changing,” she said. “And I think the liquor licenses need to change with it.”
Bar-and-grill liquor licenses
The one proposal that was supported by the committee relates to changes to bar-and-grill licenses. The committee’s fourth draft bill would change the population formula for bar-and-grill licenses starting July 1, 2023, and incrementally increase the number of licenses available. It would sunset on July 1, 2028, when another set of population formulas would be issued with even more licenses available per thousand.
The final sunset would be in 2033, when population would no longer be a factor in the issuance of bar-and-grill liquor licenses.
A similar system is laid out for county commissioners, and the cost of those licenses is adjusted, as well. The license fee assessed for bar-and-grill liquor licenses would not be less than $1,500, no more than $10,500. Those amounts would be changed in 2033, when each license would cost no less than $500 and no more than $3,000.
Applicants for a bar-and-grill liquor license would still have to satisfy the appropriate licensing authority that not less than 60% of revenue from the operation of the bar and grill would come from food service, not alcohol sales. This applies to all 12 months of operation, and an annual gross sales figures report would be required.
“It worries me sick to flood the market, because of the burden to our communities, law enforcement, etcetera. This does it in phases,” said Mike Moser, the executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association. “And I think that way we can gradually adopt it is, as Mick Jagger says, ‘You can’t always get what you want. But you find you always get what you need.’ And this gets what people need.”
Jasmine Hall is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s state government reporter. She can be reached by email at jhall@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3167. Follow her on Twitter @jasminerhphotos and on Instagram @jhrose25. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/economy_and_labor/more-liquor-license-changes-considered/article_32c3a666-2566-11ed-9657-d3c8bbfbb586.html | 2022-08-26T20:34:57Z |
A year ago, 13 Marines and more than 100 Afghans died when a bomb exploded at the Kabul Airport. Stories from the frenetic last days of the American evacuation are still coming out.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A year ago, 13 Marines and more than 100 Afghans died when a bomb exploded at the Kabul Airport. Stories from the frenetic last days of the American evacuation are still coming out.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/1-year-later-more-details-emerge-about-the-americans-killed-in-kabul-airport-bombing | 2022-08-26T20:39:35Z |
Severe droughts have lowered the levels of waterways around the world, leading to the discovery of several artifacts and historical sites previously hidden underwater.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Severe droughts have lowered the levels of waterways around the world, leading to the discovery of several artifacts and historical sites previously hidden underwater.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/buddhist-statues-and-roman-bridges-droughts-reveal-history-in-the-worlds-waterways | 2022-08-26T20:39:41Z |
Hospitals and doctors around the country are facing harassment and even death threats over the medical care they offer to transgender kids. In many cases, they have been the subject of posts by a Twitter account called Libs of TikTok, as well as stories in conservative media outlets casting gender-affirming care as child abuse and mutilation.
Which raises the question: where should social networks draw the line with accounts promoting narratives that spark harassment campaigns on their platforms and beyond?
Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. became the most recent target this week when Libs of TikTok posted an audio recording in which hospital staff appeared to say that gender-affirming hysterectomies had been performed on minors. The hospital said that claim was incorrect and that none of the people recorded deliver care to patients.
"The information in the recording is not accurate. We do not and have never performed gender-affirming hysterectomies for anyone under the age of 18," Children's National said in a statement to NPR. "The operator speaking provided wrong information."
The statement continued: "Since the spreading of misinformation on Twitter, we have been the target of a large volume of hostile and threatening phone calls and emails."
Childrens' hospitals in Boston, Seattle, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon, have also been targeted. Last week, Boston Children's Hospital warned it was receiving "a large volume of hostile internet activity, phone calls, and harassing emails including threats of violence toward our clinicians and staff" after false claims it performs genital surgeries on minors.
The U.S. Justice Department even weighed in, with the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts calling the attacks "disturbing."
False claims, out-of-context videos
These false narratives about pediatric gender-affirming care are rooted in fundamental "misperceptions," said Dr. Angela Kade Goepferd, a pediatrician and director of the Gender Health Program at Children's Minnesota.
"People have misperceptions that we're doing surgery on young kids. People have misperceptions that we are changing kids from boys into girls at a very young age," they said.
They said care for transgender kids is wide-ranging, from efforts to help children socially transition to puberty-blocking medications to various gender-affirming surgeries, and is undertaken with the input of pediatric psychologists, clinical social workers, hormone experts and endocrinologists, as well as families.
Some of the claims about Children's National, Boston Children's and other hospitals were pushed by the Libs of TikTok account, which regularly reposts videos and social media posts from LGBTQ people, teachers, schools and other institutions. The clips are sometimes taken out of context and framed to fuel outrage or ridicule of LGBTQ and anti-racist causes, in what the account owner has described as "exposés" of "the crazies."
For example, a short clip about gender-affirming hysterectomies from a video originally posted by Boston Children's that Libs of TikTok reposted makes no mention of patients' ages. But Libs of TikTok tweeted alongside the clip the false claim that the hospital offers the surgery "for young girls."
Libs of TikTok, run by a Brooklyn woman named Chaya Raichik, has 1.3 million followers on its biggest platform, Twitter. It's gained prominence and influence in right-wing circles over the last year as conservatives increasingly try to use anti-LGBTQ sentiment to gain support.
NPR reached out to Raichik for this story. She initially responded and agreed to an interview, but did not respond to a follow-up message. Raichik frequently condemns criticism of her online activities as efforts to "cancel and silence" her. She has said that she has also been targeted with death threats.
Platforms struggle with harassment networks
Twitter and Facebook prohibit bullying and harassment, coordinated mass attacks, and incitement to violence. Both companies ban the use of the word "groomer" as a smear against LGBTQ people under their rules against hate speech.
The platforms have taken down some of the threats against the hospitals. But it's less clear how much accountability the companies can or will put on accounts that draw attention to the targets that end up getting harassed.
Twitter has previously temporarily suspended Libs of TikTok for breaking its rules. The company declined to comment on the account. Following Boston Children's Hospital's reported threats, Libs of TikTok said it had been permanently suspended by Facebook for violating the platform's community standards. But that was quickly reversed, and the account returned to posting on Facebook, saying the social network said that was an error. Facebook declined to comment on the suspension.
Libs of TikTok appears to have evaded outright bans by coming right up to the edge of the platforms' rules but not breaking them. The account does not explicitly encourage followers to threaten anyone, and typically uses its target's own words, sometimes stripped of context, to imply wrongdoing.
But while its individual posts may stick to the letter of the platforms' rules, their cumulative effect is what worries researchers like Joan Donovan, who studies online extremism, media manipulation and disinformation at Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.
"We've reached this phase in social media where people know what to do when an account like Libs of TikTok calls out another account or a person or institution," she said. Call-outs can spark harassment campaigns known as "brigading," where commenters pile on a common target.
In the case of the children's hospitals, "the threats have moved from insulting people or targeted accounts online into more direct threats," Donovan said. "The online threat escalates very quickly into offline violence when we start to see these patterns of attack."
For social networks to deal with what Donovan calls "networked incitement," she says effectively tracking those threats means looking beyond single posts on specific platforms.
"The precipitating comments may not be that incendiary, but if that creates a pattern of attack that is recognizable, which it is with an account like Libs of TikTok, then these companies are well within their jurisdiction to warn and then ban the account."
Right-wing groups target LGBTQ events, education and healthcare
Pediatricians and children's hospitals are just the latest targets of right-wing outrage, in a new iteration of decades-old smears of gay, lesbian and transgender people as pedophiles or "groomers."
"The Libs of TikTok account has been a major actor in driving a lot of the harassment campaigns that we've seen over the past year," said Ari Drennen, LGBTQ program director at Media Matters for America, the liberal advocacy group.
In some cases, events and figures publicized by Libs of TikTok have been targeted offline by far-right extremists known for brawling.
On a single day this summer, for example, men with ties to the white nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested outside a Pride event in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and alleged members of the far-right Proud Boys crashed a drag queen story hour at a library in San Lorenzo, Calif. Libs of TikTok had tweeted about both events, although there's no conclusive link between the posts and the extremist groups' activities.
As the Washington Post reported in April, the account's subjects and posts are regularly featured and promoted by other conservative influencers and media figures, including podcaster Joe Rogan. Raichik has appeared on Tucker Carlson's prime time Fox News show.
The escalating stigmatization of transgender medical care has doctors worried.
"This is a developmentally appropriate, team-based approach that allows kids time to figure out their identities," said Dr. Goepferd of Children's Minnesota.
Threats to hospitals ripple out, affecting not only hospital staff but also patients and families seeking all kinds of care, as well as longer-term research needed in the field. "I worry that this type of false narrative would make research institutions or funders nervous to fund more research into finding out what is the best possible care we could be providing right now," Goepferd said.
"The fact that somewhere the message has gotten through that it's okay to attack physicians, pediatricians, children's hospitals in this way is just a really disturbing societal trend," they said.
Editor's note: Facebook parent Meta pays NPR to license NPR content.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/childrens-hospitals-are-the-latest-target-of-anti-lgbtq-harassment | 2022-08-26T20:39:47Z |
SANTA FE, N.M. — This summer, when Elaine heard the news stories about a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who'd become pregnant as a result of rape and had to travel out of state for an abortion, it was hard to look away.
"I knew it was coming," she said. "I knew that it was only a matter of time before someone like me hit the news. And that a doctor would go public on the effects of these laws."
That doctor was Caitlin Bernard, an OBGYN in Indiana. Bernard's story, about a young patient who was unable to get an abortion at home in Ohio after a ban there took effect, prompted backlash from conservative leaders. Without providing evidence, Indiana's Republican attorney general, Todd Rokita, questioned the doctor's credibility and threatened to investigate her.
A matter of time
For Elaine, that story took her back to 1969, when she was an 11-year-old growing up in Amarillo, Texas. The youngest of five children in a big Catholic family, Elaine describes herself then as a "tomboy" who loved sports and riding her bicycle.
"I walked miles and miles and miles barefoot," she said. "I was kind of precocious. I was kind of the class clown, actually."
Now 65 and living in New Mexico, Elaine has asked us to call her only by her middle name because she fears her family could face backlash for her telling the story from her childhood.
Elaine says she was in bed one night in early 1969, in the room she shared with her older sister, when their bedroom door suddenly opened in the early-morning hours. A man snuck in, climbed into her bed, and began to rape her – threatening to kill her unless she stayed quiet. It went on for what "seemed like an eternity."
Eventually, Elaine's sister woke up. That's when she says "all hell broke loose" as her sister chased the rapist out of the house. The rest of the family woke up to Elaine screaming.
"I know the police were there, but I don't remember much about them that night," Elaine says. "[My mom] called our family doctor and he met us at the hospital and he examined me."
It was the same doctor who had delivered her 11 years earlier.
In a police report dated Jan. 15, 1969, 2:58 a.m., Elaine and her family recounted those events to Amarillo police. The report, reviewed by NPR, describes the attacker as a white man between 20 and 30 years old.
He was never caught. But the trauma from that night would stay with Elaine, in her mind and her body, long afterward. One of her sisters later told her that when Elaine returned home that night, she began singing as she bathed herself.
"Knowing what I know now, I think that's a pretty good indication that I was dissociative – that I had checked out."
When the unthinkable is no longer "theoretical"
Elaine says she was in the early stages of puberty, and didn't know what to look out for after the rape. But her mother was paying attention. Several weeks later, around the time of Elaine's 12th birthday in April, her mother said they needed to go back to the doctor.
"My mom just said, 'We've got to, you know, fix some problems down there,' " Elaine says.
At the time, she didn't understand what was happening. But now, as a retired pharmacist, she recognizes that the doctor was performing a common procedure called dilation and curettage, or D&C, which can be used to terminate a pregnancy.
"What I remember about that was the pain," she says. "My anesthesia was squeezing my mother's hand."
Elaine says her mother explained in more detail what had happened a few years afterward, when she was about 16.
"I just said, 'Thank you,' " she says. "There was just no question it was the right thing to do. No question. And I'm just so grateful that I had a mother and a doctor to get me out of that."
When she reflects on it now, Elaine says she's grateful for how her "very Catholic" mother, who died in 2010, handled an impossible situation. She says she understands that some people have strong moral objections to abortion. But to them, she says: "I'm here to tell you, in this kind of a situation you would throw out your religion in half a second. It's easy to say what other people should do when it's theoretical."
Decades later, remembering
She says she couldn't fully face the trauma from her experience for many years — after she became a mother, and watched her own daughter turn 11.
"A lot of my grief was really realizing what it must have been like for my mother to go through something like that," Elaine says.
Elaine spent a few years in therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. She says she's sharing her story now because she wants to make clear that these situations do happen, even if people would rather not think about them.
"I think a big part of the reason why we're seeing these draconian laws is because it's been 50 years since Roe," she said. "A few generations have grown up and enough people in today's society don't remember what it was like. ... They don't remember."
In 1969, abortion was illegal in Texas, except to save a pregnant woman's life — as it is again now. This week, several more states are implementing abortion bans in response to this summer's Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. Some bans, in states including Tennessee and Ohio, include no exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors who perform illegal abortions can often face jail time.
While the rape itself was thoroughly documented by Amarillo police at the time, no such records of Elaine's abortion appear to exist. Her doctor died decades ago. And abortions were often carried out in secret, says historian Leslie Reagan, author of the book "When Abortion Was a Crime." She says people who had resources or connections could sometimes find doctors who would discreetly offer the procedure – if the doctor felt it was warranted.
"Something like this, where the patient knows the doctor, the doctor knows the patient and the family – they could be very sympathetic in this situation, which means they would do it," she says. "My guess would be he probably never wrote anything down about this – because, why would he?"
NPR spoke with two family members who say they remember hearing about the rape for years, including one who recalls discussing the abortion more recently.
Reagan says what's happening now looks very much like a repeat of the past.
"This is the result — this is going to be one of the results," Reagan says. "The other results are some people will go all the way through pregnancies and bear children and will be forced into birth."
Stopping the trauma
Elaine sometimes thinks about what would have happened without her family doctor, if she'd been forced to continue the pregnancy as a sixth-grader, still reeling from the trauma of rape.
"I probably would've been shipped off somewhere to have the baby," she says. "But for me – being 4'10", 100 pounds – it would've been a guaranteed C-section, no question. And the thought of that is just abhorrent."
Now, with three grown children out of the house and living with her husband high on a hill overlooking the mountains around Santa Fe, Elaine says she feels compelled to speak up – for girls like her who can't.
"What these children need above all is for it to be over – they need the trauma to stop," she said.
Elaine says if she could say anything to Dr. Bernard's 10-year-old patient, it would be a very simple message:
"This was not your fault. This was a bad, bad man who did this to you. And you're going to have a lot of people who love you, who are going to help you get through this. And you're going to be OK."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/for-one-rape-survivor-new-abortion-bans-bring-back-old-painful-memories | 2022-08-26T20:39:53Z |
Game over? Why some Twitch streamers are burning out By Keller Gordon Published August 26, 2022 at 3:19 PM CDT Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Keller Gordon, contributor and reporter for NPR's Join the Game, about burnout among professional Twitch streamers. Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/game-over-why-some-twitch-streamers-are-burning-out | 2022-08-26T20:39:59Z |
Here's an open secret: IPOs, Initial Public Offerings, aren't actually public. Insider investors buy all the shares the night before. Spotify tried to change that.
Darian Woods is a reporter and producer for The Indicator from Planet Money. He blends economics, journalism, and an ear for audio to tell stories that explain the global economy. He's reported on the time the world got together and solved a climate crisis, vaccine intellectual property explained through cake baking, and how Kit Kat bars reveal hidden economic forces. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/how-spotify-did-an-ipo-on-its-own-terms | 2022-08-26T20:40:05Z |
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell pledged that he and his colleagues will keep raising interest rates until they're confident that inflation is under control.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell pledged that he and his colleagues will keep raising interest rates until they're confident that inflation is under control.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/interest-rates-will-rise-until-inflation-is-under-control-fed-chair-powell-says | 2022-08-26T20:40:11Z |
Librarians in Missouri are preparing for a law that bans school personnel from providing sexually explicit material to students — an escalation in the effort to remove books from schools, some say.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Librarians in Missouri are preparing for a law that bans school personnel from providing sexually explicit material to students — an escalation in the effort to remove books from schools, some say.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/missouri-schools-are-taking-books-off-shelves-due-to-sexually-explicit-content-ban | 2022-08-26T20:40:17Z |
Selena became an international superstar in the 1980s and '90s because of her warm stage presence and emotional singing style. She died in 1995, when she was only 23.
But on a new album, Moonchild Mixes, out Friday, she no longer sounds like her early-20s self. Instead, these remixes employ digital technology to age her voice. Take her 1986 song "Dame tu amor," which was recorded when she was a teenager; in the remixed version, her voice has been pitched down a semitone. It's also fuller, especially at the low end.
"We worked on her vocal track to make her sound more mature," said Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, who, along with other members of Selena's family, collaborated with Warner Music Latina on the new release. "It'll make you think that she recorded the songs this morning."
But some Selena devotees aren't on board with this approach. After Warner Music Latina dropped a preview track a few weeks in advance of the album's release, fans took to social media to express their displeasure.
The human ear is such a complex, precise apparatus. It will sound weird and messed up, no doubt about it.
— Wenceslao Prince (@hoverboardthief) August 2, 2022
"Her voice is timeless," said Brandon Hunter, a die-hard Selena fan who lives in Tampa, Fla. "Don't touch it."
Hunter said he would have preferred the new album to include rare releases from Selena's back catalog instead of heavily-produced remixes of hits.
Fellow Sacramento, Calif.-based fan Ruben Moody said he worries that her music will now sound overly polished — which would be too bad, because fans love her voice as it was.
"While I welcome new Selena music, it bothers me to know that her brother and others are unnecessarily editing her vocals," Moody said. "There's no need to guess how Selena would sound as an older singer. Just give the fans the unreleased material as a posthumous album or a deluxe version of an existing album."
The use of digital audio processing technologies like Autotune and Melodyne to adjust or add special effects to performers' voices is now ubiquitous in pop music production. And for many people, that's a good thing.
"If these new technologies can expose and create new music fans, then I'm all for them," said Taurin Barrera, executive director of a music technology program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a longtime Selena fan himself.
However, Barrera said he doesn't like the use of technology to lower Selena's voice. "Her original recordings are so raw and incredible. But when they pitched the music a little bit lower so that it would sound like a more mature version of Selena, that's not really how us fans of Selena envision her."
But he said because Selena's original recordings pre-date contemporary audio production techniques, it's easy to understand why her family would want to use them to bolster her visibility in a pop landscape packed with noisy, heavily-produced music.
Rupal Patel, a speech scientist at Northeastern University, said although some fans may be uncomfortable, the producers of Moonchild Mixes haven't created a whole new synthetic voice or voice clone for Selena. They've just tweaked her original tracks. Yet, she said, the singing voice carries so much emotional weight, it can make people acutely sensitive even to tiny changes in the voices of the singers they love.
"Whereas for speech, we're listening for the information content, for music, we're listening for the pleasure, how it moves us," Patel said.
Then there's the fact Selena isn't around today to give consent to her new mature-sounding voice.
"Was she someone who would never want to be seen or heard in a way that sounds older than she is, or unauthentically her than what she was?" Patel said.
The Quintanilla family didn't respond to NPR's questions about the ethics of manipulating Selena's voice or address the fans' criticisms.
"This is just breathing life into older music for the new generation," said Selena's sister Suzette Quintanilla in defense of the new album.
Despite the detractors, many Selena fans — old and new alike — are all for it.
"We have the original recordings, for example, 'Santa La Ranita,' a really funny song about a frog that she did when she was so young," said University of Chicago undergrad Vivian Benishek, who currently lives in Houston, Texas. "And now I'm looking forward to hearing it fast forward, you know, years later with a different sound."
"Personally, I'm excited that it's something new," said another Selena devotee, Kyra Fortenberry from Shefield Lake, Ohio . "You can only go through the existing albums so many times."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/new-selena-album-moonchild-mixes-sparks-voice-aging-debate | 2022-08-26T20:40:24Z |
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with music critic Nate Chinen about the legacy of iconic jazz Hammond organ player Joey DeFrancesco, who died on Thursday.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with music critic Nate Chinen about the legacy of iconic jazz Hammond organ player Joey DeFrancesco, who died on Thursday.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/remembering-joey-defrancesco-pioneering-hammond-organist-who-changed-jazz-music | 2022-08-26T20:40:30Z |
The affidavit the FBI used in to get a warrant to search former president Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago is now public. A redacted version of the document was released by a federal court in Florida.
Copyright 2022 NPR
The affidavit the FBI used in to get a warrant to search former president Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago is now public. A redacted version of the document was released by a federal court in Florida.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/the-redacted-affidavit-used-to-justify-the-mar-a-lago-search-has-been-released | 2022-08-26T20:40:36Z |
A brazen, early morning robbery of a Brinks truck may be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history. Thieves took 22 containers, each weighing about 100 pounds, which could be worth $100 million total.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A brazen, early morning robbery of a Brinks truck may be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history. Thieves took 22 containers, each weighing about 100 pounds, which could be worth $100 million total.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/thieves-may-have-just-pulled-off-the-heist-of-the-century | 2022-08-26T20:40:42Z |
A mystery is shaking up South Carolina — literally. An unusually large number of earthquakes have hit the state this year and scientists don't know why.
WFAE's Nick de la Canal can be heard on public radio airwaves across the Charlotte region, bringing listeners the latest in local and regional news updates. He's been a part of the WFAE newsroom since 2013, when he began as an intern. His reporting helped the station earn an Edward R. Murrow award for breaking news coverage following the Keith Scott shooting and protests in September 2016. More recently, he's been reporting on food, culture, transportation, immigration, and even the paranormal on the FAQ City podcast. He grew up in Charlotte, graduated from Myers Park High, and received his degree in journalism from Emerson College in Boston. Periodically, he tweets: @nickdelacanal | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/unusually-large-number-of-earthquakes-hit-south-carolina | 2022-08-26T20:40:48Z |
NPR's Sequoia Carrillo and Carolina Rodriguez of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program examine Biden's announcement and help answer some questions about how this might actually work.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Sequoia Carrillo and Carolina Rodriguez of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program examine Biden's announcement and help answer some questions about how this might actually work.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/what-to-know-if-youre-hoping-for-student-loan-cancellation | 2022-08-26T20:40:54Z |
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to discuss findings from the Justice Department's release of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann to discuss findings from the Justice Department's release of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/what-were-learning-from-the-redacted-mar-a-lago-search-affidavit | 2022-08-26T20:41:00Z |
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Republican effort to remove a host of Libertarian candidates from the November ballot, saying the GOP did not bring their challenge soon enough.
In a unanimous opinion, the all-GOP court did not weigh in on the merits of the challenge but said the challenge came too late in the election cycle. The Libertarian Party nominated the candidates in April, the court said, and the GOP waited until earlier this month to challenge their candidacies.
On Aug. 8, a group of Republican candidates asked the Supreme Court to remove 23 Libertarians from the ballot, saying they did not meet eligibility requirements. The Republicans included Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and others in congressional and state legislative races.
State law requires Libertarian candidates to pay filing fees or gather petition signatures, the amount of each depending on the office sought. The Libertarian Party has been challenging that law in federal court, arguing it is unfair because the fees do not go toward their nomination process like they do for Democrats and Republicans.
Republicans also tried and failed to kick a group of Libertarian candidates off the ballot in 2020. In that case, the state Supreme Court said the GOP waited until after the deadline to challenge candidate eligibility. This time, the Republicans filed their challenge before that deadline but apparently still did not satisfy the court’s preference to deal with election challenges as soon as the alleged issues arise.
In its opinion Friday, the court suggested the “emergency timeframe” argued by the GOP “is entirely the product of avoidable delay in bringing the matter to the courts.”
Republicans have long sought to marginalize Libertarians under the thinking that they siphon votes from the GOP. Democrats, meanwhile, see the Green Party as a threat.
Among the 23 races in which the GOP challenged Libertarian candidates this time, few are expected to be close. The most clear exception, though, is the 15th Congressional District, the most competitive congressional race in the state and a top target of Republicans nationwide. Libertarian Ross Lynn Leone will remain on the ballot there against Republican Monica De La Cruz and Democrat Michelle Vallejo.
Patrick’s race could also be competitive. He won reelection by 5 percentage points in 2018, while the Libertarian candidate then took 2% of the vote. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-elections/2022-08-26/republican-effort-to-remove-libertarians-from-november-ballot-rejected-by-texas-supreme-court | 2022-08-26T20:41:07Z |
Attempted child abduction caught on camera
CINCINNATI (WLWT) – A stranger approached a 6-year-old girl in her own front yard Wednesday and tried to take her, according to police in Ohio.
Surveillance video shows the girl screaming for her parents.
She was throwing out garbage in front of her home when a man walking down the sidewalk approached her.
“He sees her, touches her and then starts to walk away,” the girl’s mother said. “He goes back, grabs her wrist, starts to pull her and she screams, and he lets go.”
At first, the child’s parents who were just steps away inside their home didn’t know what happened.
Their daughter came inside and told her parents that a man tried to kidnap her. The girl’s dad decided to chase after the man with his car.
“He tried to dip in and out of alleys and through people’s yards to try to get away from me,” he said. “But the only thing that kept running through my mind is that I can’t let him do this to another kid.”
Surveillance video from Terry’s Automotive shows the man trying to hide in between cars at an automotive dealer.
“I went around the other side to see where he was, and I found him sitting inside an old Dodge caravan,” the girl’s dad said.
Hamilton police said they found the man identified as Deric McPherson, 33, and charged him with abduction and gross sexual imposition.
Copyright 2022 WLWT via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/attempted-child-abduction-caught-camera/ | 2022-08-26T21:12:55Z |
Firefighters reunite 6-year-old crash survivor with beloved toy
YAVAPAI COUNTY, Ariz. (CNN) - First responders in Arizona are helping a child cope after losing his parents and brother in a tragic crash last month.
Authorities say the Stone family was driving home from a family reunion near Ash Fork, Arizona, when their vehicle slid across the highway in a rainstorm and collided with a semi-truck.
Brian and Alison Stone and their 8-year-old son Oliver were killed. Only 6-year-old Alex survived.
“I told him you have to be tough. We got to get you out of here,” said Tracy Zinn, a Kaibab Estates West volunteer firefighter.
Zinn said he just happened to be driving by the day of the crash.
“The car was so crushed that the little boy was in the front seat window,” he said.
The entire Kaibab Estates West volunteer department responded to the scene.
Five days later, the team got another call for help. Alex requested his stuffed animal from the car while in the hospital.
“I remembered seeing something blue on the hill that day. I didn’t realize it was a Cookie Monster toy,” Zinn said.
So, the team headed back to the site to look for it on the highway still littered with debris.
“We returned and walked down the freeway until we found the spot. We came up on a mission to rescue Cookie Monster. That was the day’s goal,” said Jessica Puisis, a Kaibab Estates West volunteer firefighter.
Even the fire chief’s daughter pitched in to help.
The team said they spotted the boy’s stuffed animal, but it needed some first aid.
“I scrubbed him up as best I could in the sink and rinsed him until he was as blue as he was going to be,” Puisis said.
Then the team headed to the hospital.
“We didn’t have time to dry him because we knew it was going to be late. So, Tracy [Zinn] held him out the window of the truck, driving him the entire hour and 15-minute drive,” Puisis said.
Alex’s grandmother, Cindy Mason, said everyone at the hospital was excited when the team walked in.
“It was so important to Alex to have Cookie. He just loved him, and to see them return, I will never forget it,” Mason said. “When we told Alex about Oliver, the first thing he asked for was the teddy bear. He was just so glad to get Cookie.”
Hospital staff said Alex is expected to fully recover from his injuries, while his grandmother said he is holding on to Cookie and memories of his family.
The firefighters who responded to the crash are also supporting a GoFundMe campaign for Alex and his grandmother, who is now the boy’s primary caregiver.
Alex’s grandmother said he thanked the firefighters for helping rescue him and Cookie and wants to see them again.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/firefighters-reunite-6-year-old-crash-survivor-with-beloved-toy/ | 2022-08-26T21:13:02Z |
At least 12 injured on Six Flags roller coaster
Published: Aug. 26, 2022 at 3:57 PM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
JACKSON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (WPVI) – At least a dozen people were hurt on a Six Flags roller coaster in New Jersey Thursday night.
Ambulances responded to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey after several riders complained of back injuries.
The ride apparently malfunctioned around 7:30 p.m., just before the park closed at 8 p.m.
According to the park’s website, El Toro is one of the fastest and tallest wooden roller coasters in the world.
With an initial drop of 176 feet, the coaster reportedly reaches speeds of 70 mph.
There’s no word yet on what caused the issue, but according to police, the injuries were minor.
Copyright 2022 WPVI via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/least-12-injured-six-flags-roller-coaster/ | 2022-08-26T21:13:08Z |
Scammers take money from grieving mother burying son: ‘I’m sitting here crying’
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB/Gray News) - A mother in Louisiana says she is dealing with the impossible of not only burying her son but getting swindled out of money in the process.
Ester Banks said she was targeted by a phony insurance company that took money from her that she needed to pay for her son’s funeral.
WAFB reports a person contacted the funeral home Banks was working with, claiming to be with a major life insurance company where her son had a policy. Banks said she then spoke with the mysterious caller.
“She was telling me that my son had insurance. She knew his full name. She knew everything about him. She knew all the details,” Banks said.
According to Banks, she believed the company because the representative had all her information.
“The lady went as far as telling me she just lost her son. He got shot in the head. Why would you do that? Make me feel sorry for you. I’m sitting here crying for you on the phone and myself,” Banks said.
The woman on the phone reportedly told Banks to receive a payout of more than $100,000, she would have to pay the rest of her son’s premium.
Banks said she sent the money through an app totaling $1,530, but the so-called insurance company stopped answering calls and eventually disconnected its phone number.
According to the Better Business Bureau, there are multiple platforms where companies can purchase personal information, including phone numbers, addresses and the names of family members.
The organization said if you get a call you’re unsure of, ask questions and take control of the conversation. Tell them you will check them out before you verify anything.
Banks said she has filed a police report and hopes to get some answers.
The funeral home Banks was working with said this was the first time it has heard of such a situation.
Copyright 2022 WAFB Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/scammers-take-money-grieving-mother-burying-son-im-sitting-here-crying/ | 2022-08-26T21:13:15Z |
President Joe Biden's student loan debt relief plan is expected to help mainly working and middle class borrowers, an updated report from an influential research group found. That's a shift from its earlier projection that more higher-income borrowers would benefit from basic loan forgiveness.
About 75% of the benefit will go to households making $88,000 or less per year, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis released Friday.
The three-part relief package could cost up to $605 billion over 10 years, though the price tag could exceed $1 trillion depending on how the proposed income-driven repayment program is actually set up and how many people participate, Penn Wharton found. That's substantially higher than its initial estimate of a less comprehensive debt relief plan.
The revised report takes into account the plan's provision that would forgive up to $20,000 of debt held by those who qualified for Pell grants as undergraduates, as well as the measure to forgive up to $10,000 for those who did not receive such grants.
To be eligible, borrowers must make less than $125,000 a year if they are single and less than $250,000 a year if they are married or head of household.
The original Penn Wharton report, which was published before Biden's package was released and only considered $10,000 in loan forgiveness for borrowers, found that 70% of the benefits would go to households in the top 60% of earners.
That equates to 55% of the benefit going to households making $88,000 or less.
Republicans had jumped on Penn Wharton's analysis as proof that Biden's plan would help many top earners.
Pell grant measure
However, the addition of the Pell grant provision shifted the direction of the assistance.
"The Pell grant adjustment is much more geared toward lower-income student borrowers," said Kent Smetters, Penn Wharton's faculty director.
Pell grants, which provide up to $6,895 in aid for the 2022-23 academic year for those who qualify, are a key way that the federal government helps students from lower-income families go to college. Typically, the grants do not have to be repaid. However, they only cover about one-third of the cost of college so many students also have to take out loans to earn their degrees.
The Biden package also proposes to make substantial changes to student loan income-driven repayment programs, including capping monthly payments at 5% of discretionary income for undergraduate loan borrowers, down from the current 10%.
That proposal would likely target lower-income households even more than the loan forgiveness program would, Penn Wharton found. It has yet to estimate the gains to specific income groups, however.
Higher cost
The three-part package is more costly than just forgiving $10,000 in student loan debt, which Penn Wharton estimated could cost $330 billion over 10 years.
The more comprehensive forgiveness program could cost between $469 billion and $519 billion over a decade, depending on whether existing and new students are included.
Biden also extended the pause on student loan repayments to December 31. Loan forbearance for 2022 could add $16 billion to the cost, according to Penn Wharton's analysis.
And the income-driven repayment proposal could cost an $70 billion, assuming the same participation rate of current programs. But the proposal could add another $450 billion or more depending on how it is structured and how many borrowers participate.
That could lift the total price tag to more than $1 trillion.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told CNN's Don Lemon on Thursday that the relief package could cost about $24 billion a year, assuming a 75% take-up rate.
And the White House also pushed back on Penn Wharton's estimate on Friday, calling it "somewhat speculative" and "clearly at the top end of the range."
"I want to make totally clear that we don't think that a trillion dollars is anywhere in the ballpark of what this is going to cost," Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Bharat Ramamurti told CNN's MJ Lee at a press briefing.
The Penn Wharton assessment didn't take into account reforms to the income-based repayment program and was based on 100% of borrowers taking advantage of it, he said. A similar loan forgiveness program saw 75% of eligible applicants apply, according to the White House. Also, it didn't account for borrowers already in default on their loans, among other factors, he said.
One budget watchdog has decried the cost of the plan, noting that it would wipe out the deficit reduction included in the recently enacted budget reconciliation package, which Biden and congressional Democrats ballyhooed.
"The one truly meaningful action the White House has taken to reduce deficits, the Inflation Reduction Act, would see its reduction wiped out twice over by the student debt policies that were just announced," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which estimated the student debt measures could cost as much as $600 billion over a decade and could be one of the most expensive executive actions in history.
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™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.kitv.com/news/business/bidens-student-loan-relief-plan-will-mainly-help-working-and-middle-class-borrowers-report-finds/article_7d1ec194-623f-556f-b9cc-80eab065dd91.html | 2022-08-26T21:21:35Z |
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When it comes to launching Artemis I -- the next generation of spacecraft to explore the moon and beyond -- forecasting the weather is a crucial part of its success.
When it comes to launching Artemis I -- the next generation of spacecraft to explore the moon and beyond -- forecasting the weather is a crucial part of its success.
Meteorologists can accurately forecast up to three days in advance, and even then, things can change. Launch dates that are set weeks to months in advance -- such as Monday for Artemis I -- can cause forecasters stress.
But launch preparations remain on track for Monday, NASA says, with a 70% chance of favorable weather. A two-hour launch window opens at 8:33 a.m. ET; scattered showers are the biggest concern during that period.
Adverse weather conditions are the most common cause of rocket countdown scrubs, according to meteorologist Mark Burger, the launch weather officer with the US Air Force at Cape Canaveral.
"Roughly 16% of every launch attempt we have at Cape Canaveral gets scrubbed due to weather," said Burger, who has 23 years of forecast experience. "Roughly 23% of all the countdowns have some sort of weather consideration."
If any aspect of the weather -- temperature, precipitation, lightning, wind and clouds -- is unfavorable, Artemis' launch will be postponed until conditions improve. NASA has announced the next possible launch dates as September 2 and September 5 should the inaugural mission be delayed Monday.
Meteorologists have been working for years for a near-perfect forecast to allow for this mission's 40,000-mile trip beyond the moon and back to Earth. Plans have included launch weather forecasts, ground operations forecasts, launch weather briefings and even forecasts for emergency landings and end-of-mission plans.
Burger started looking over weather data three years ago, keeping an eye on everything that could possibly delay the Artemis I mission.
"We had a tropical storm that was threatening the area, so they wanted to move some components to sturdier buildings," he said. "We have a barge that comes and delivers parts for the Artemis mission over the last couple years. We forecast seas and waves all the way from New Orleans to the Cape."
On launch day and the days preceding it, lightning and cloud cover are the most important to observe, because Florida is known as the lightning capital of North America, according to NASA forecasters.
"It's more than just simply the lightning bolt that you see yourself, but also the capacity of each cloud to potentially carry a charge when you launch a rocket," Burger said. "It could trigger lightning on its own."
A launch could also be scrubbed when thunderstorms are in the vicinity. Sea breezes kick in during the summertime across Florida as well. Any type of cumulus cloud within 10 nautical miles (18.5 kilometers) of the flight path will also inhibit a launch.
"It's not just the cloud itself but the history of the cloud," Burger said. "Sometimes going back as far as four hours to producing lightning then could potentially be a no-go situation."
Forecasters use sensitive radar and modern satellite data.
No one can predict an all clear on Artemis' launch day on Monday, but Burger said he is realistically hopeful. "It won't be perfect," he said. "There are some concerns, but for now we have a fair opportunity to launch." | https://www.kitv.com/news/national/weather-could-interfere-with-the-artemis-i-launch/article_f5191626-c1e4-571a-b09e-f6a47c2a57a1.html | 2022-08-26T21:21:47Z |
Firefighters reunite 6-year-old crash survivor with beloved toy
YAVAPAI COUNTY, Ariz. (CNN) - First responders in Arizona are helping a child cope after losing his parents and brother in a tragic crash last month.
Authorities say the Stone family was driving home from a family reunion near Ash Fork, Arizona, when their vehicle slid across the highway in a rainstorm and collided with a semi-truck.
Brian and Alison Stone and their 8-year-old son Oliver were killed. Only 6-year-old Alex survived.
“I told him you have to be tough. We got to get you out of here,” said Tracy Zinn, a Kaibab Estates West volunteer firefighter.
Zinn said he just happened to be driving by the day of the crash.
“The car was so crushed that the little boy was in the front seat window,” he said.
The entire Kaibab Estates West volunteer department responded to the scene.
Five days later, the team got another call for help. Alex requested his stuffed animal from the car while in the hospital.
“I remembered seeing something blue on the hill that day. I didn’t realize it was a Cookie Monster toy,” Zinn said.
So, the team headed back to the site to look for it on the highway still littered with debris.
“We returned and walked down the freeway until we found the spot. We came up on a mission to rescue Cookie Monster. That was the day’s goal,” said Jessica Puisis, a Kaibab Estates West volunteer firefighter.
Even the fire chief’s daughter pitched in to help.
The team said they spotted the boy’s stuffed animal, but it needed some first aid.
“I scrubbed him up as best I could in the sink and rinsed him until he was as blue as he was going to be,” Puisis said.
Then the team headed to the hospital.
“We didn’t have time to dry him because we knew it was going to be late. So, Tracy [Zinn] held him out the window of the truck, driving him the entire hour and 15-minute drive,” Puisis said.
Alex’s grandmother, Cindy Mason, said everyone at the hospital was excited when the team walked in.
“It was so important to Alex to have Cookie. He just loved him, and to see them return, I will never forget it,” Mason said. “When we told Alex about Oliver, the first thing he asked for was the teddy bear. He was just so glad to get Cookie.”
Hospital staff said Alex is expected to fully recover from his injuries, while his grandmother said he is holding on to Cookie and memories of his family.
The firefighters who responded to the crash are also supporting a GoFundMe campaign for Alex and his grandmother, who is now the boy’s primary caregiver.
Alex’s grandmother said he thanked the firefighters for helping rescue him and Cookie and wants to see them again.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/firefighters-reunite-6-year-old-crash-survivor-with-beloved-toy/ | 2022-08-26T21:32:14Z |
It’s been a quiet hurricane season... so far
(WHSV) - The 2022 Hurricane Season has been very quiet, at least to this point. So far we’ve only had three named storms. The last named storm we did have was Tropical Storm Colin, all the way back on July 3rd!
So far, there have been no hurricanes this season. The strongest tropical system we’ve had so far was Tropical Storm Alex back in early June which at one point had maximum winds of 70 mph, just west of Bermuda. That storm technically did not get to tropical storm status until it had passed Florida.
Saharan dust is the culprit for a quiet season so far. In the summer, the Sahara Desert in Africa gets very hot and dry. With temperatures being so hot and the air being so dry, this influences rapid rising motion in the atmosphere over the desert. The trade winds then push the dust that rises in a westerly direction, resulting in a layer of dust that moves across the Atlantic Ocean. Saharan Dust reaches as far as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.
This pattern happens from about mid-June to mid-August but when the Sahara gets above-average rainfall, it results in less dust that travels. When that dust moves over the ocean, it blocks some sunlight, resulting in cooler water temperatures across the main development region of hurricanes. Remember, cooler water results in less energy for hurricanes and when Saharan dust is present, it can keep water temperatures down to 1-2 degrees below average. This inhibits the development of tropical systems.
However, we are getting closer to the end of August, a time where Saharan dust is no longer affecting the tropics. With the peak of the hurricane season also approaching (September 10th), things can unravel in a jiffy.
Despite the low activity, NOAA is still expecting an above-average season for tropical systems. We are likely going to remain in a La Niña for the rest of 2022, which ironically favors hurricane development.
During a La Niña, water temperatures are typically a little cooler but wind shear is not as high. Higher wind shear tears up or limits the development of hurricanes, meaning the atmosphere is still very favorable for things to pick back up.
We have seen activity pick up some over the last week or so. Potential Tropical Cyclone Four formed last week but did not get organized enough to become our next named storm before hitting land.
There are two disturbances of interest right now. One is just off the coast of Africa and another is in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. Both have a low chance of developing into a tropical system as the disturbance in Africa only has a 30 percent chance of developing in the next 5 days with the one in the Caribbean only having a 20 percent chance.
If a storm does not form for the rest of August, which is likely, it will be the first time since 1997 that no tropical system formed in August. This is also the slowest start to a season since 2014 and the first year no hurricanes formed before September 2013.
Despite the lack of activity, that doesn’t mean the season will be quiet. It can unravel quickly. It’s also important to remember that the number of named storms in a given hurricane season doesn’t matter that much. It takes one big storm to significantly impact a hurricane season and cause widespread destruction in a given area. The hurricane also doesn’t have to be a Category 5 to create a significant threat to life and property.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/its-been-quiet-hurricane-season-so-far/ | 2022-08-26T21:32:20Z |
At least 12 injured on Six Flags roller coaster
Published: Aug. 26, 2022 at 3:57 PM EDT|Updated: 2 hours ago
JACKSON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (WPVI) – At least a dozen people were hurt on a Six Flags roller coaster in New Jersey Thursday night.
Ambulances responded to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey after several riders complained of back injuries.
The ride apparently malfunctioned around 7:30 p.m., just before the park closed at 8 p.m.
According to the park’s website, El Toro is one of the fastest and tallest wooden roller coasters in the world.
With an initial drop of 176 feet, the coaster reportedly reaches speeds of 70 mph.
There’s no word yet on what caused the issue, but according to police, the injuries were minor.
Copyright 2022 WPVI via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/least-12-injured-six-flags-roller-coaster/ | 2022-08-26T21:32:26Z |
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Keller Gordon, contributor and reporter for NPR's Join the Game, about burnout among professional Twitch streamers.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Keller Gordon, contributor and reporter for NPR's Join the Game, about burnout among professional Twitch streamers.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/game-over-why-some-twitch-streamers-are-burning-out | 2022-08-26T21:58:50Z |
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell pledged that he and his colleagues will keep raising interest rates until they're confident that inflation is under control.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell pledged that he and his colleagues will keep raising interest rates until they're confident that inflation is under control.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/interest-rates-will-rise-until-inflation-is-under-control-fed-chair-powell-says | 2022-08-26T21:58:57Z |
HARTFORD, Conn. — Medical examiners confirmed Friday that convicted Ponzi schemer and Jeffrey Epstein mentor Steven Hoffenberg was the person found dead in a Connecticut apartment earlier this week.
Hoffenberg, 77, is believed to have died at least seven days before his body was found Tuesday in Derby by police, who responded to a request to check on his welfare, authorities said. He had to be identified through dental records because of the decomposition of his body, police said.
His cause of death is pending toxicology test results. An autopsy showed no signs of trauma, and there were no indications of a struggle or forced entry at the apartment, officials said.
Epstein, the disgraced financier who killed himself in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on allegations he sexually abused dozens of girls, worked for Hoffenberg's bill collection company, Towers Financial Corp., in the late 1980s, when prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme began.
Hoffenberg, who once tried buying the New York Post, ended up getting busted in one of the country's largest frauds. He admitted he swindled thousands of investors out of $460 million and was sentenced in 1997 to 20 years in prison. He claimed Epstein was actually the architect of the scheme, but Epstein was never charged.
He was released from federal custody in 2013, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. It was not immediately clear how he ended up living in a small apartment in a multifamily home in Derby, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of Bridgeport.
Gary Baise, one of Hoffenberg's friends and lawyers and a former acting deputy U.S. attorney general, said Hoffenberg and Epstein had a "special relationship" and Hoffenberg said Epstein was the smartest person he knew when it came to money.
Baise said Hoffenberg also was very intelligent, which may have contributed to his downfall.
"He was too smart for his own good," Baise said in a phone interview Friday. "He thought he could get away with his Ponzi scheme but he could not. He did not have self-control. He always thought he was smarter than the next guy and that was one of his problems. ... But he was a good man."
Baise, who said he had not had contact with Hoffenberg for several months, said he wasn't surprised by his death because Hoffenberg did not appear to be taking good care of himself.
Police in Derby were asked to do a welfare check on Hoffenberg on Tuesday by a private investigator for a woman who identified herself as close to Hoffenberg and a sexual abuse victim of Epstein's, Derby police Lt. Justin Stanko said. The investigator said the woman had not heard from Hoffenberg for five days, and that was unusual, Stanko said.
Hoffenberg briefly took over the New York Post in 1993 while bidding to own it. The Post reported that Hoffenberg funded the paper for three months and rescued it from bankruptcy. His efforts to buy the paper were derailed by civil fraud allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission that led to the criminal prosecution of the Ponzi case.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/jeffrey-epsteins-mentor-who-once-ran-a-ponzi-scheme-was-found-dead-he-was-77 | 2022-08-26T21:59:03Z |
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with music critic Nate Chinen about the legacy of iconic jazz Hammond organ player Joey DeFrancesco, who died on Thursday.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with music critic Nate Chinen about the legacy of iconic jazz Hammond organ player Joey DeFrancesco, who died on Thursday.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/remembering-joey-defrancesco-pioneering-hammond-organist-who-changed-jazz-music | 2022-08-26T21:59:10Z |
President Biden's announcement to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients has ignited enthusiasm from progressive Democrats lawmakers. But the plan's high cost has put some moderate Democratic candidates on edge.
The Wednesday announcement builds on the momentum from Biden's summer successes of passing major legislation on climate, health care and veterans benefits. And it comes just a few months before the midterm elections — at a time when Biden's approval rating has been hovering around 38%, though according to polling from Gallup in the days just before the announcement, he's enjoying an uptick to 44%, his highest in a year.
The move impacts 43 million borrowers, and particularly targets Black borrowers, who, on average, need to take out more loans to pay for higher education, and take longer to pay it back compared to their white counterparts. Overall, it's a politically popular decision.
"Democrats needed this," Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told NPR. "I tend to believe people who deliver policy will win the day. ... We're months away and Biden is building momentum at the right time."
Republicans immediately spoke out against student debt forgiveness after Biden's announcement.
"President Biden's student loan socialism is a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid their debt, and every American who chose a certain career path or volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces in order to avoid taking on debt," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "This policy is astonishingly unfair."
Biden has said to Republicans that he won't apologize for taking steps to help middle- and lower-income Americans. And the White House further pushed their stance with a viral tweet thread posted Thursday night, targeting Republican lawmakers who took out Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from earlier in the pandemic. Those loans, though, were not designed to be paid back.
But the skepticism isn't just coming from the GOP. Moderate Democrats, particularly those in tight Senate races this year, have also expressed concerns.
Ohio Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the plan sends the "wrong message" to Ohioans who don't have a college degree. Ryan is up against Trump-backed Republican J.D. Vance in one of the tightest Senate races in the country.
There's also concern about how much the plan will cost
Another concern is the sheer cost of forgiving student debt. Estimates from the University of Pennsylvania show the plan could cost around $1 trillion.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who is up for reelection, said Wednesday that the White House should have laid out a more targeted plan, and a way to pay for it.
"While immediate relief to families is important, one-time debt cancellation does not solve the underlying problem," Bennet said. "Moving forward, we need to reform the system that got us here in the first place with solutions to bring down the absurd cost of college. ... And we need to continue our work to build career pathways to economic security for every American, including those who choose not to pursue a two or four-year degree."
Bennet's opponent, Joe O'Dea, wrote in an email to supporters: "Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness scheme doesn't erase the debt. It puts $300 billion of new debt on the backs of working Americans. The debt is a national crisis. This compounds it."
Some experts say it's still a political win for Biden
Despite pushback from Republicans and some Democrats, Perry says youth voter turnout due to debt forgiveness will make a critical difference in the election. And he adds the argument that forgiving student loan debt is "unfair" likely won't cause voters to flip on a candidate.
"It certainly energizes young people and people with student loan debt, which also includes many Republicans. I think this will have more of a unifying effect than any negative politics consequences he may face," Perry said.
"Overall, it's a political win for Biden because he's delivering on his promises, he has a chance to pick up on some moderate Republicans who have debt. ... This is a universal issue."
Perry also says that even groups and lawmakers who are calling for more debt cancellation will have to applaud Biden's announcement and stay connected to the president, which he says is a "crafty" move from the president.
Dominique Baker, a professor at Southern Methodist University and expert in education policy, said that while there isn't enough research to say how this debt cancellation policy will play out politically, previous research shows that student loan forgiveness does have a "material improvement" on peoples' lives.
"We see that people are more easily able to move around the country, they are earning more money, they are able to reduce the share of defaults that they have on things like credit cards and other types of loans," Baker said. "It feels like one of the best ways to govern is to try to do things to improve peoples' lives, and then make sure people know that you did things to improve their lives."
Baker added that because Biden included more debt forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients in particular, the benefits will extend more to Black and Latinx borrowers.
And among some borrowers, it's providing a bit of hope — and potentially motivation to go to the polls.
"This is like a beacon of hope in field of hopelessness when everything else is going wrong," Sean Wiggs, a junior at UNC Charlotte and a digital strategist for Gen-Z for Change, told NPR.
With Biden's announcement, Wiggs will have some of his debt forgiven and he says it's a good first step — and one that he thinks will motivate his peers to vote.
"A lot of people who may have been apathetic about voting saying, hey, if the government actually works for me, then why would I not go and vote? " he said.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/student-loan-forgiveness-is-politically-popular-but-not-all-democrats-are-on-board | 2022-08-26T21:59:16Z |
A brazen, early morning robbery of a Brinks truck may be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history. Thieves took 22 containers, each weighing about 100 pounds, which could be worth $100 million total.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A brazen, early morning robbery of a Brinks truck may be the largest jewelry heist in U.S. history. Thieves took 22 containers, each weighing about 100 pounds, which could be worth $100 million total.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/thieves-may-have-just-pulled-off-the-heist-of-the-century | 2022-08-26T21:59:23Z |
A mystery is shaking up South Carolina — literally. An unusually large number of earthquakes have hit the state this year and scientists don't know why.
Copyright 2022 NPR
A mystery is shaking up South Carolina — literally. An unusually large number of earthquakes have hit the state this year and scientists don't know why.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/unusually-large-number-of-earthquakes-hit-south-carolina | 2022-08-26T21:59:29Z |
President Biden's announcement to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients has ignited enthusiasm from progressive Democrats lawmakers. But the plan's high cost has put some moderate Democratic candidates on edge.
The Wednesday announcement builds on the momentum from Biden's summer successes of passing major legislation on climate, health care and veterans benefits. And it comes just a few months before the midterm elections — at a time when Biden's approval rating has been hovering around 38%, though according to polling from Gallup in the days just before the announcement, he's enjoying an uptick to 44%, his highest in a year.
The move impacts 43 million borrowers, and particularly targets Black borrowers, who, on average, need to take out more loans to pay for higher education, and take longer to pay it back compared to their white counterparts. Overall, it's a politically popular decision.
"Democrats needed this," Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told NPR. "I tend to believe people who deliver policy will win the day. ... We're months away and Biden is building momentum at the right time."
Republicans immediately spoke out against student debt forgiveness after Biden's announcement.
"President Biden's student loan socialism is a slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid their debt, and every American who chose a certain career path or volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces in order to avoid taking on debt," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. "This policy is astonishingly unfair."
Biden has said to Republicans that he won't apologize for taking steps to help middle- and lower-income Americans. And the White House further pushed their stance with a viral tweet thread posted Thursday night, targeting Republican lawmakers who took out Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans from earlier in the pandemic. Those loans, though, were not designed to be paid back.
But the skepticism isn't just coming from the GOP. Moderate Democrats, particularly those in tight Senate races this year, have also expressed concerns.
Ohio Senate candidate Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, said Wednesday that the plan sends the "wrong message" to Ohioans who don't have a college degree. Ryan is up against Trump-backed Republican J.D. Vance in one of the tightest Senate races in the country.
There's also concern about how much the plan will cost
Another concern is the sheer cost of forgiving student debt. Estimates from the University of Pennsylvania show the plan could cost around $1 trillion.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, who is up for reelection, said Wednesday that the White House should have laid out a more targeted plan, and a way to pay for it.
"While immediate relief to families is important, one-time debt cancellation does not solve the underlying problem," Bennet said. "Moving forward, we need to reform the system that got us here in the first place with solutions to bring down the absurd cost of college. ... And we need to continue our work to build career pathways to economic security for every American, including those who choose not to pursue a two or four-year degree."
Bennet's opponent, Joe O'Dea, wrote in an email to supporters: "Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness scheme doesn't erase the debt. It puts $300 billion of new debt on the backs of working Americans. The debt is a national crisis. This compounds it."
Some experts say it's still a political win for Biden
Despite pushback from Republicans and some Democrats, Perry says youth voter turnout due to debt forgiveness will make a critical difference in the election. And he adds the argument that forgiving student loan debt is "unfair" likely won't cause voters to flip on a candidate.
"It certainly energizes young people and people with student loan debt, which also includes many Republicans. I think this will have more of a unifying effect than any negative politics consequences he may face," Perry said.
"Overall, it's a political win for Biden because he's delivering on his promises, he has a chance to pick up on some moderate Republicans who have debt. ... This is a universal issue."
Perry also says that even groups and lawmakers who are calling for more debt cancellation will have to applaud Biden's announcement and stay connected to the president, which he says is a "crafty" move from the president.
Dominique Baker, a professor at Southern Methodist University and expert in education policy, said that while there isn't enough research to say how this debt cancellation policy will play out politically, previous research shows that student loan forgiveness does have a "material improvement" on peoples' lives.
"We see that people are more easily able to move around the country, they are earning more money, they are able to reduce the share of defaults that they have on things like credit cards and other types of loans," Baker said. "It feels like one of the best ways to govern is to try to do things to improve peoples' lives, and then make sure people know that you did things to improve their lives."
Baker added that because Biden included more debt forgiveness for Pell Grant recipients in particular, the benefits will extend more to Black and Latinx borrowers.
And among some borrowers, it's providing a bit of hope — and potentially motivation to go to the polls.
"This is like a beacon of hope in field of hopelessness when everything else is going wrong," Sean Wiggs, a junior at UNC Charlotte and a digital strategist for Gen-Z for Change, told NPR.
With Biden's announcement, Wiggs will have some of his debt forgiven and he says it's a good first step — and one that he thinks will motivate his peers to vote.
"A lot of people who may have been apathetic about voting saying, hey, if the government actually works for me, then why would I not go and vote? " he said.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-26/student-loan-forgiveness-is-politically-popular-but-not-all-democrats-are-on-board | 2022-08-26T22:12:13Z |
Updated August 26, 2022 at 6:40 AM ET
You can generally trust that when you flip a light switch in the U.S., the power will come on.
But earlier this year, a forecast by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) predicted much of the country could see blackouts during peak summer demand, when everyone is blasting their air-conditioners.
While major outages haven't happened so far, GOP elected officials and fossil fuel supporters still used the report to bash the shift to renewable power.
" 'Biden blackouts' will make it impossible to run even fans and air conditioners on the hottest days of the summer," said Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst during a speech on Capitol Hill in July, claiming these outages would be the result of "the Democrats' push towards renewables."
Iowa is major producer of wind power, said Ernst, but she accused Democrats of causing energy shortages by restricting oil and gas leases.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top coal-producing state in the country, made a similar argument in a USA Today op-ed. So did Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, in a piece that also cast doubt on climate change. "Senator Barrasso's opinion column expresses his point of view based on data," said Kristen DelGuzzi, USA TODAY's opinion editor. The Washington Post declined to say how it fact-checked Thiessen's column.
This message is part of an ongoing misinformation campaign, says Dave Anderson of the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group.
The aim is, "To keep alive the idea that we need large amounts of fossil fuels" to back up the grid, he says, despite the scientific consensus that the world must rapidly slow down and stop using them to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
How disinformation for the fossil fuel industry started spreading
When the power did go out during the big winter storm in Texas last year, killing 246 people, "The disinformation machine for the fossil fuel industry very quickly jumped into action," Anderson says.
He put together a 19-page timeline of how elected officials and advocacy groups began publicly hammering wind power, even before the blackouts started.
The day before the storm, DeAnn Walker, then-chairperson of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, had warned that gas generation plants were having issues and wind turbines were frozen.
But only part of that message was picked up and widely circulated. Photos and tweets about frozen wind turbines flew around social media. Some spreading the message, like the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, have received money from coal and gas interests. As the weather worsened, conservative media amplified the message, with segments by Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight and Mornings with Maria.
"It's just reaching millions of people in a way that's hard to reach with any sort of fact-check," Anderson says.
This campaign is designed to drown out the truth, says Anderson, "When a situation like this arises that highlights in a enormously public and consequential way how fossil fuels can also fail."
A federal report would later find that natural gas fired plants suffered the majority of outages during the storm, with wind power a distant second.
This pattern repeated again during the summer of 2022, when the grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warned the power could go out during a heatwave in July.
"They put out a press release which basically was setting up wind to be the fall guy if there were problems," says Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.
This time, the power stayed on. ERCOT declined to make anyone available for an interview, but confirmed to Politico that at the same time it warned about wind power, conventional power plants were also down.
The message that renewables were to blame, Dessler says, "It's not honest."
Transitioning to renewable energy is doable but must be done at a managed pace
Jim Robb, CEO of NERC, says there are two main challenges when adding renewables to the grid: Managing times when wind and solar power aren't producing, and converting power from renewable sources to a form that the grid can use.
"This clean energy transition is doable. It needs to be done at a managed pace," he says. Bringing more wind and solar onto the grid, without focusing on how to back it up, could cause outages, Robb says. For now, natural gas is often the power source for times the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining, according to NERC. In the future, it could be batteries, hydrogen power, or another clean energy source.
But, technology exists now to make a renewable grid work better, says Shelley Welton, professor of law and energy policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Solutions like building transmission lines to connect power sources in different parts of the country are a policy challenge, not a scientific one.
Blaming renewables is a distraction, says Welton, "A way to forestall a transition that's underway, but needs to move faster than it is right now."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-24/renewable-energy-is-maligned-by-misinformation-its-a-distraction-experts-say | 2022-08-26T22:19:55Z |
There is no major industrialized country in the world more dependent on Russian energy than Germany.
Natural gas, mostly from Russia, is used to power the country's manufacturing sector, and it heats nearly half of the country's households.
To Berlin-based entrepreneur Karolina Attspodina, it is an especially troubling reality, as the European energy crisis revealed how much Germany needs Russia's oil and gas exports to simply function.
"I'm pretty frustrated," said Attspodina, 34, who was born in Ukraine. "And it not just me. A lot of people are. How could we get to this stage that we're so reliant on somebody else, especially Russia?"
Last year, Attspodina co-founded a company to empower Germans to rely a bit less on Russian energy: She sells solar panels that can be installed on apartment balconies and garages.
Here's how it works: The solar panels collect energy from the sun, which is then sent to a device, known as a microinverter, that is plugged into a power socket. The energy from the panels then becomes the initial source of energy for the household, ahead of power from the grid.
By the most optimistic measure, her solar panels can save residents up to 25% on their utility bills.
When Putin's forces invaded Ukraine earlier this year, her crusade against Germany's reliance on Russian oil and gas become even more personal.
"I can see my people dying over at home. I still have family and friends there," Attspodina said.
Other Germans, meanwhile, realized that the invasion meant energy prices at home would soon rise.
The war spiked sales of her solar panels by 70%, she said.
"I wish it never happened in this way, but everyone really understood in a new way that we needed to be more independent in terms of energy," she said.
She is now racing to keep up. Even though regulations limit the amount of power her solar panels can generate, she has a backlog of 3,000 orders she is now trying to fill.
"This is a way for you to actually reduce your energy bill, but also reduce CO2 and help our climate crisis and obviously help the fact that we are reliant on the Russian gas," she said.
Dimming lights countrywide to save energy
Across Germany, the government is taking its own steps to try to reduce energy consumption: Dimming lights in public places; cranking down the heating of public pools; turning off water fountains — some cities are even considering turning off traffic lights in lightly populated areas.
Russia has been gradually sending less gas to Europe in response to Western sanctions. The critical Nord Stream 1 pipeline now sends just 20% of what it is capable of to Europe — some fear that Russia will turn off the taps completely this winter.
That would make a painful energy crunch even worse, said Fabian Ronningen, a senior analyst at Rystad Energy.
"The energy crisis will last as long as prices are very high and Germany remains reliant on Russian gas, which will not be a short-term thing," he said.
We Do Solar's sales bump, according to Ronningen, dovetails with residential solar panel purchases surging across Germany in response to the energy crisis.
Solar energy now accounts for around 9% of the electricity Germany consumes. Ronningen said residents installing more solar modules on balconies and rooftops is a welcome development, but there is no easy fix to solve the crisis.
"Consumers have to deal with these prices in the winter and also for the coming year," he said.
Solar is a boon for some, out of reach for others
In Berlin, one of Attspodina's customer, Leo von Bismarck, 40, a tech entrepreneur, recently installed the solar panels at his parents' place in the city's posh Mitte neighborhood.
Looking at the eight black panels attached to the outside of the balcony, von Bismarck said they were appealing because they double as a privacy screen. He is happy about the cost savings too.
"Some people are just paralyzed by the urge to do something, but at the same time not knowing how to do it," he said. "And this is really plug and play, to be honest. It's really as simple as that."
Easy for a von Bismarck say. For many Germans, at 1,300 euros, the cost of buying the cheapest set of solar modules is simply out of reach.
Like for Lydia Dietsch, a graphic designer in Berlin who said there is no way she could afford them.
At the same time, her utility bill recently delivered a nasty sticker shock. She lives with her partner and a roommate.
"Prices already increased from like 91 Euros per month to 410 per month," she said.
With solar panels out of reach and her energy bill soaring, Dietsch is taking shorter showers. Sometimes cold showers.
"I'm trying to avoid cooking with the gas oven and use other things instead," she added. "We have a grill."
Bracing for the coming winter, Dietsch said she might have no choice but to shiver her way through it.
"I'm afraid of winter. I don't know what will happen," she said. "We will just be in the cold rooms, I guess."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.keranews.org/2022-08-23/as-germany-struggles-in-energy-crisis-more-turn-to-solar-to-help-power-homes | 2022-08-26T22:20:01Z |
US agents seize antique Egyptian artifact that could potentially be 3,000 years old
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Gray News) - Customs and Border officers say they came across an ancient find when checking a recent shipment from Europe.
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, officers at the port of Memphis intercepted an Egyptian artifact Aug. 17 that was being sent to a private buyer in the U.S.
Authorities said the shipment was noted as an antique stone sculpture that was over 100 years old. However, after further inspection, the item is believed to be potentially 3,000 years old.
According to the CBP, its team worked with experts at the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. The artifact was deemed authentic and identified as an Egyptian canopic jar lid of the funeral deity Imsety.
Officials said canopic jars were used to hold the internal organs of mummies, with ones featuring Imsety specifically protecting the deceased’s liver. The lid is likely from the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, 1069 B.C. to 653 B.C.
CBP officials said the artifact is on a list of items protected by bilateral treaties and subject to seizure and forfeiture. The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act of 1983 restricts importing some archaeological and ethnological materials into the country.
Authorities said the shipper also made contradictory statements regarding the declared value of the item, and officers seized the sculpture before turning it over to Homeland Security Investigations for further examination.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/us-agents-seize-antique-egyptian-artifact-that-could-potentially-be-3000-years-old/ | 2022-08-26T22:57:13Z |
Dr. Anthony Fauci talks about his career, COVID-19, and the threat of a Republican investigation against him.
Dr. Fauci confirmed this week he’s stepping away from his federal role in December.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Dr. Anthony Fauci is reflecting on his long career. This December he will step down from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the end of December.
He spoke one-on-one with Washington News Bureau reporter Jamie Bittner about the work ahead, COVID-19, and the Republican threat of an investigation against him.
Question:
“We’ve been hearing a lot from lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and a lot of Republicans are already promising an investigation against you if they would retake power in Congress. How do you respond?”
Answer:
“Well, I mean, I don’t have any idea what they would want to investigate, but I have always respected oversight authority. I think it’s an important part of government. But, I also would warn people, well not warn them, alert them that there’s a difference between legitimate and well-intentioned oversight to make things better, as opposed to character assassination, which sometimes sneaks into that little bit of oversight. So I always am very willing to cooperate in any way to help anyone understand better what has been going on over the past two and a half years.
Question:
“When it comes to your critics, how do you think that they have hurt your messaging to the American people throughout the COVID 19 pandemic?”
Answer:
“Well, that’s tough for me to gauge. But, you know, I would think that I have always been if you look at everything I’ve said, try to get the message across, to get the public to do whatever it is best to preserve and protect the health of the American public, be that wearing masks, be that avoiding congregate settings, be that getting vaccinated and boosted. And I think when you have people out there trying to diminish someone’s credibility, the ultimate result of that is to diminish the effectiveness of the public health message. So, it’s really unfortunate that that happens, but it does.”
Question:
“I have to ask you the question everyone always asks, is COVID-19 over?”
Answer:
“No. I think you just look at the numbers and it’s obvious that it’s not. We certainly are much better off now than we were several months ago when we were having 80 to 900,000 new infections and 3000 deaths per day. We are much, much lower than that, but we’re not in a place that we can feel comfortable that it is actually behind us. We want to get it to a low enough level that it doesn’t disrupt the social order, and that is not where we are. We can get to that much better by getting more people vaccinated and boosted. I mean, if you look at where we are right now, we’re still averaging about 100,000 cases a day, which is likely a rather significant underestimate because many people get in test, get infected, get tested, but don’t report their positive test. The number that you can’t run away from is that we still have approximately 400 deaths per day. And if you do the math on that, that’s close to 150,000 deaths per year. We don’t want that to be the steady state at all for COVID. We’ve got to get much lower than that. And that’s the reason why we continue to encourage people to get vaccinated and those who have been vaccinated to get boosted. It’s really a shame that in our country, which is a rich and enlightened country, that we have only 67% of the entire population vaccinated, and of that, only about half have been boosted. There are so many other countries in the world, including low and middle income countries, that are doing better than we have. But the short answer to your question is no. The outbreak is not yet behind us. I hope we’re going in the right direction to get it behind us, but we’re not there yet.”
Question:
“When could we see something like COVID-19 happen again? Could it happen within our lifetime?”
Answer:
“Absolutely. You know, I have been lecturing and talking about the potential for pandemics literally for the last 40 years. In fact, if you go back and pull out lectures that I’ve given, I predicted that in every administration, and I’ve had the honor of serving and advising seven presidents over the last close to 40 years, that almost inevitably there is some form of emerging infectious disease almost in every administration. Some of them are not globally serious, but others are transforming, like the HIV/AIDS pandemic that we began to recognize during the administration of Ronald Reagan or the pandemic flu during the Obama administration, and now spanning two administrations. We’re seeing the historic pandemic of COVID-19.”
Question:
“How do you feel your response to the AIDS epidemic helped prepare you for COVID -19?”
Answer:
“Well, any time you’ve been through the emergence of a new outbreak and realize the extraordinary unpredictability of it, there are a lot of lessons learned. I tried to make that point early on in the outbreak when I was warning that this could really get out of control and others were saying, ‘no, it’s not. It’s going to just go away in a season.’ What you learned from HIV was that you never underestimate the potential of an emerging outbreak because you never know when you first see it what its ultimate potential is. Remember, with HIV, we were seeing a number of desperately ill, mostly young gay men in the United States, and that was before we knew what the pathogen was and before we had a diagnostic test. Once we got a diagnostic test, we realized that the that the obviously ill people were only the tip of the iceberg of the number of people that had been infected, because, as you know, with HIV, you could be infected and go for years without having serious illness. That then brings you to the attention of a physician. So one of the big lessons is don’t ever under mis-underestimate the potential of a new mysterious outbreak.”
Question:
“You have a few months left on the job. What will you focus on and what is the biggest challenge that lies ahead for whoever is your predecessor?”
Answer:
”Well, I’m going to continue at full speed right up until the last day that I walk out in December. We have a lot of things. We have a lot of challenges. We have COVID. We have monkeypox. And we have all the other things that we do from a scientific and public health standpoint. So, I’m going to be going very much full speed right until the end on the things that we’re doing now, as well as we have a pandemic preparedness plan that we’ve already started on. Obviously, we need a lot more resources to really implement the plan to the extent that we want. You know, the thing that I will hope that my successor appreciates and hopefully will be able to steer this course is to stick with the science and try to the extent possible to stay away from any kind of and, you know, entrapment in the political divisiveness that we’ve have in this country. It is very difficult to do a coherent public health and scientific endeavor when there’s such a profound degree of political divisiveness in this country, which there is.
Question:
“How much of a say will you have on who your predecessor is?
Answer:
None. And, I shouldn’t. I don’t think it’s appropriate that I do. What will happen is that there will be a national search by a search committee of peers who will make recommendations to the NIH Director. And the NIH Director will make that decision.
Question:
“Take me back to your first day on the job. Can you kind of tell me what the emotions you were feeling back then and compare it to now? When you’re looking at your place in the history books, how would you want to be remembered?”
Answer:
“Well, I walked on to this campus 54 years ago, in June of 1968, just out of my medical residency at the New York hospital, Cornell Medical Center. And, this is a place that I absolutely love every aspect of it. I’ve been fortunate enough to be the director of the Institute for 38 years. So, it really has been an evolving process with me starting off as a young trainee, becoming a senior investigator, getting recognized nationally, internationally for my research, and then taking over the institute and being very much involved in building the AIDS program, developing the PEPFAR program with President George W Bush. It’s been a very long and very gratifying journey. You know, I hope that I made an impact on global health both, you know, internationally and in this country. And I hope that I’ll be remembered for that.”
Question:
“What will you do in retirement?”
Answer:
“Well, it’s not retirement. I think that’s a very misleading word. I think it’s more of a rewiring. One of the reasons I’m leaving now is because I still have the energy and the motivation and the good health and the passion to do more for the global health and scientific enterprise. And I think the best way I can do that, given my almost six decades of experience and almost four decades of leading the institute that I hopefully by reading and writing and lecturing and getting involved in different projects that I could serve as an inspiration for the younger generation of scientists and would be scientists to perhaps consider a career in public service, particularly in the arena of public health, medicine and science. So, I have no intention of retiring. So, you’re not going to see me on the golf course or lying on a beach somewhere.”
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/dr-anthony-fauci-talks-about-his-career-covid-19-threat-republican-investigation-against-him/ | 2022-08-26T23:03:58Z |
US agents seize antique Egyptian artifact that could potentially be 3,000 years old
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Gray News) - Customs and Border officers say they came across an ancient find when checking a recent shipment from Europe.
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, officers at the port of Memphis intercepted an Egyptian artifact Aug. 17 that was being sent to a private buyer in the U.S.
Authorities said the shipment was noted as an antique stone sculpture that was over 100 years old. However, after further inspection, the item is believed to be potentially 3,000 years old.
According to the CBP, its team worked with experts at the University of Memphis Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. The artifact was deemed authentic and identified as an Egyptian canopic jar lid of the funeral deity Imsety.
Officials said canopic jars were used to hold the internal organs of mummies, with ones featuring Imsety specifically protecting the deceased’s liver. The lid is likely from the Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, 1069 B.C. to 653 B.C.
CBP officials said the artifact is on a list of items protected by bilateral treaties and subject to seizure and forfeiture. The Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act of 1983 restricts importing some archaeological and ethnological materials into the country.
Authorities said the shipper also made contradictory statements regarding the declared value of the item, and officers seized the sculpture before turning it over to Homeland Security Investigations for further examination.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/us-agents-seize-antique-egyptian-artifact-that-could-potentially-be-3000-years-old/ | 2022-08-26T23:04:05Z |
Courtney Clenney, 26, is scheduled to appear in Hilo District Court on Thursday following her arrest in Hakalau at the Exclusive Hawaii Rehab Center on the Big Island.
Courtney Clenney, 26, is scheduled to appear in Hilo District Court on Thursday following her arrest in Hakalau at the Exclusive Hawaii Rehab Center on the Big Island.
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- Courtney Clenney, the OnlyFans and Instagram model accused of stabbing her boyfriend to death in their Miami apartment, has been extradited back to Florida.
The Hawaii Department of Public Safety confirmed Clenney is no longer in its custody and she was transferred on Thursday by federal authorities.
Clenney, 26, was arrested by US Marshals, with help from Hawaii County police, at an exclusive rehab treatment center in Hakalau on the Big Island on Aug. 10. She was wanted on a second-degree murder complaint out of Florida.
Clenney is accused of stabbing her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Obmuseli, to death in their Miami apartment back on April 3. Her attorney has told the press the stabbing was done in self-defense.
Florida law enforcement officials held a press conference the day after Clenney’s arrest, during which they laid out a timeline of the events they say led up to the stabbing incident.
Florida officials said the couple had a tumultuous relationship, with multiple incidences of domestic violence from both sides over the period of their relationship.
Clenney is now in custody at the Miami-Dade County Jail. She is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 31 and has an evidentiary hearing scheduled for Sept. 6.
Matthew has been the digital content manager for KITV4 since September 2021. Matthew is a prolific writer, editor, and self-described "newsie" who's worked in television markets in Oklahoma, California, and Hawaii. | https://www.kitv.com/news/crime/onlyfans-model-accused-of-murder-extradited-back-to-florida/article_e3f6bb2a-2585-11ed-91db-7bf49966eec9.html | 2022-08-26T23:13:56Z |
Running for office is more expensive than ever, and candidates at every level are raising more money to keep up.
When Harriet Hageman defeated Liz Cheney in the Republican primary, the two candidates set a record for the costliest U.S. House race in Wyoming history. As WyoFile reported earlier this month, primary contests for state house and state senate seats also broke records.
Nearly $2 million was spent across Wyoming by lawmakers fighting to keep their seats or candidates hoping to take those seats. The contest for Senate District 29, which is in Natrona County, cost each candidate more than $50,000 dollars.
But even local races have inspired large donations and spending.
In Albany County, five candidates for sheriff across the two primaries spent a collective $65,000 during the primary. One candidate running for Sheriff, Republican Rafael Delgadillo, spent $35,000 of his own money. He lost the primary to a candidate who raised a total of $15,000.
In Park County, the two Republican candidates for the County Attorney's office raised more than $60,000 – in one of the most, if not the most, expensive race ever for that seat.
The losing candidate spent the lion's share of that, some $40,000. But the winner, incumbent Bryan Skoric, raised the second highest amount ever raised for a Park County Attorney's race.
Several races drew large amounts from out-of-state donations. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/news/2022-08-26/in-wyomings-expensive-primaries-even-some-local-races-spent-big | 2022-08-26T23:29:09Z |
A playwright reading based on the life of a Wyoming man who openly crossdressed will tour the Cowboy State. "A Sissy in Wyoming" focuses on Larry Goodwin's life based on oral interviews conducted by the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center with his wife, Vickie Jones Goodwin. Wyoming Public Radio's Kamila Kudelska spoke with Vickie, the American Heritage Center's Archivist Leslie Waggener, and Gregory Hinton, who wrote and reads the play. Vickie starts out talking about her late husband.
Vickie Jones Goodwin: As he told it when he was very young he started experimenting with wearing female attire. But he was very comfortable with it. I guess a lot of young men experiment and, you know, move on, but he didn't. It brought him a kind of comfort. So as he got older, he got frustrated with having to hide this part of himself. He had a bit of an inferiority complex. And I was always telling him what a good person he was, and that he needed to know that he was a good person. And he said, 'If I'm a good person, then I should be able to present myself the way I am.' And so he began, I guess, becoming more and more public around the early 90s. And then to a point where he was just "out there." He stuck to his guns, you know, people were always calling him names. At some point, some woman said, 'Well, you're just a sissy.' And he decided that he would adopt that name. And so he adopted the name of Sissy. He said, 'Okay, that's who I am.' And he asked people to start calling him that and introduced himself that way to new friends.
Kamila Kudelska: So Leslie, when you interviewed Vickie, I wonder if maybe you could talk about a couple of things that stood out for you when you guys were talking?
Leslie Waggener: One thing that really struck me was Vickie talking about how much he (Sissy) struggled with loving himself. He would say to himself and cry, 'You are a good person, you are a good person,' and I remember you saying how difficult that was for him. And literally, he had tears in his eyes when he did that. And I just, that just was heart wrenching to me, because he was such a good person. And also, I think what struck me was Vickie, she just took…you didn't take everything in stride, but you sure seem to. And you're just, there's a word that Greg and I have used, is it b-e-a-t-i-f-i-c, is it that word?
Gregory Hinton: It's beatific.
LW: Thank you. Vickie is beatific.
GH: I stole that from one of our friends.
LW: And Sissy had the perfect partner. When he was attracted to Vicki, I think it was not only because she was physically beautiful, but there was something about her that he needed. And she brought something to his life that maybe he didn't even know that he needed.
KK: Gregory, how did you take those oral interviews and how did you manage to take what sounds like so many great stories in both Vickie and Sissy's life and make it into a play?
GH: I just chose to kind of do it in a linear fashion. We open with Sissy repeating to himself, 'I'm a good person, I'm a good person, I'm a good person.' And he's basically working in his garage and he's putting his tools away and he's just kind of reminiscing about his life growing up in Wyoming. He hid his cross dressing, but coming up, he became a bull rider and he adopted a lot of the traditional masculine traits and ended up volunteering to go to Guam in the service and so it just kind of evolves and you get an eye into what he's thinking.
KK: And then I guess if we can kind of touch upon the difficulties of being Sissy in Wyoming. So I just wonder how maybe the example of Sissy and this play plays a significance in that acceptance maybe in the state?
GH: Sissy might have been out in front throwing the football with his son, wearing a dress and tennis shoes or whatever, and a truck pulls up, a guy jumps out and beats the crap out of him in front of his son, and gets away. Vickie and Sissy, always, because they were social people, they like to go out. They had a lot of friends and they had supportive friends, but they'd like to go out to dinner. But there's a piece in the play, Sissy, he's always looking over his shoulder and whispering to Vickie, 'There's a guy over in the corner who's looking at us, I'm keeping an eye on him', or Did you see those two? They've been following us for two blocks.' I mean, he had, it wasn't paranoia, it was just, he was watchful. Because anything could go and they're good people, and that's what Wyoming is made up of. I think that that's a core Wyoming value is, live and let live. And that's what I guess we're gonna test on our Cowboy State tour of "A Sissy in Wyoming."
VJG: For example, like Greg said, he would notice when somebody is following us. And we were in Laramie, we had gone down there for some kind of an event, and so we're in Laramie, and there used to be a Whole Foods store. We were down there, and we're going through the food store, and Sissy said, 'See that? There's a policeman back there.' Like, well, you know, there was a big event going on, a big fall thing going on out in the street, and I didn't think anything about it. And so we're getting ready to go around the corner and this policeman, as soon as we get around the corner, away from the crowd, stops him and says, 'I need some ID,' and Sissy had been very strong member of the ACLU and he said, 'I'm not giving you my ID.' And anyway, he was, in fact, being followed. I just kind of read it off. The combination of that was that the police officer put his finger, you know, shook his finger in Sissy's face and Sissy, he pushed his finger away, and was arrested for assaulting a police officer. So, you know, I mean, Laramie, at some points, was one of our more challenging cities. And so when the tutu parties were done in Laramie, it was gratifying for Sissy to be out there on the street with all these people supporting him. And for all of Laramie to come together. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/a-stage-reading-of-a-sissy-in-wyoming-will-go-on-a-state-tour | 2022-08-26T23:29:15Z |
States in the Colorado River Basin have failed to meet a federal deadline to conserve an unprecedented amount of water. The lack of consensus on how to wean off the river’s dwindling supply puts the water source for 40 million in the Southwest in jeopardy.
In June, federal officials said the seven Western states that rely on the river needed to cut their water use by a tremendous amount — 2 to 4 million acre-feet — and they threatened to take action if the states couldn’t agree. Bureau of Reclamation commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton gave the states 60 days to commit to new conservation measures.
The deadline has now passed and there’s no deal.
Despite the states’ failure, some users on the river will see their supplies tightened in 2023. An August forecast for water levels at Lakes Mead and Powell, the nation’s two largest reservoirs, triggered additional cutbacks to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. Those cuts were first implemented last year, and will run deeper in 2023. The reductions were previously laid out in 2019 and 2007 agreements. In 2023, Arizona will have to reduce its reliance on the Colorado River by 21%, Nevada by 8%, and Mexico by 7%.
Now that a watershed-wide plan has failed to coalesce, it’s unclear what repercussions federal officials have in store for the seven U.S. states that rely on it -- Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada.
In a press conference Tuesday, federal officials said they would begin new administrative processes to further study how water might be used more efficiently in the basin, and how an additional $4 billion in the recently signed Inflation Reduction Act might be put to use. They also said they will initiate studies to see how feasible it is to pass water through Glen Canyon Dam when its level drops below the intakes for its hydropower facility.
“Without prompt responsive actions and investments now, the Colorado River and the citizens that rely on it will face a future of uncertainty and conflict,” said Tanya Trujillo, assistant secretary for water and science at the Interior Department.
The level of conservation the Bureau of Reclamation identified as necessary came from an analysis of what it would take to stabilize water levels at Lakes Mead and Powell. Without further commitments, the federal agency says both reservoirs are at risk of dropping to levels where hydropower production ceases, and it becomes physically impossible to move water downstream through existing infrastructure.
“We need to be as flexible as possible,” Trujillo said. “We need to be as creative and innovative as possible because we are truly facing unprecedented conditions in this basin.”
The Bureau of Reclamation releases a new “24-month study” each month, projecting the next two years of water levels in Lakes Mead and Powell. When the forecast shows levels are likely to dip below a certain threshold, the Bureau issues water cutbacks that were agreed upon in the 2019 Drought Contingency Plan and the 2007 Interim Guidelines.
That’s exactly what happened Tuesday. The latest study forecasted that water levels in Lake Mead will drop just under 1,048 feet in January 2023. That’s below the threshold of 1,050 feet, triggering “Level 2a shortage conditions.” That means less water will be released to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.
While the basin is projected to reach that level for the first time ever, it’s the second year in a row that restrictions of some kind were issued. Last August, the Bureau of Reclamation implemented similar cuts.
The 2023 cuts are a relatively small step up from the first round. Even Arizona, which is losing the largest share of water by a wide margin, will see cuts of 592,000 acre-feet. That’s only 80,000 more than the state’s existing cutbacks. In total, the two states and Mexico will see 108,000 acre-feet less than the previous year. That’s only a fraction of the size of other recent water conservation measures, including a notable agreement in which three lower basin states agreed to set aside 500,000 acre-feet to prop up Lake Mead.
Environmental groups say those cuts are inadequate in the face of the basin’s worsening supply-demand imbalance.
“The 2a cuts alone are not going to be enough,” said Kyle Roerink, director of the Great Basin Water Network. “If we don't get an all hands on deck effort right now, we're just going to be realigning the deck chairs on sinking houseboats at Lake Mead and Powell, where it's completely deficient and not tenable.”
Cuts are likely to be felt most sharply in central Arizona, but water agencies in that area are pulling from their reserves to soften the blow. Cities, especially, have invested in water storage and conservation programs to keep taps flowing uninterrupted. In Tucson, for example, the city banks about a third of its water each year in an underground aquifer.
Water managers say restrictions to Arizona’s municipal supplies could start in as few as five years, but residents probably wouldn’t see the effects for even longer because of those storage efforts.
While past agreements provided some certainty about near-term conservation measures, future federal actions were left uncertain. Some water districts saw the government’s announcement as a deadline extension to keep working on a regional solution.
“We appreciate [Commissioner Touton’s] support today in giving us a limited extension to meet the goal and to provide resources to help us implement a plan,” said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “We also understand that if we don’t succeed, Reclamation will implement its own approach to stabilize Lake Mead and Lake Powell.”
Since June talks among the basin states have exacerbated longstanding tensions. Leaders in the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, called on those downstream in Arizona, California and Nevada to pony up firm commitments first. In a five-point plan, Upper Basin leaders’ wish list included the reauthorization of a voluntary conservation program that pays farmers to use less water and send it downstream.
“However, this plan is ineffective without action in the Lower Basin,” said Colorado Water Conservation Board director, Becky Mitchell. “Downstream of Lake Mead and Lake Powell, depletions must come into balance with available supply.”
Publicly, the region’s water managers often extoll the value and necessity of collaboration, hinting at a desire to find a collective solution to the collective problem. Roerink says the stalled talks and finger-pointing go against that spirit, and open the door for federal intervention.
“We always hear about these notions of everybody singing Kumbaya, and the collaboration is so wonderful and so great. How many times have we heard that?” Roerink said. “But really, what's happening is they're sharpening their knives. We're getting ready to potentially see legislation that could change the game, potentially litigation that could change the game.”
Meetings among those Lower Basin states were heated from the start, as fingers pointed toward California’s sizable water budget as a place to find the volumes the federal government demanded.
Amid the tension between the states, some tribes in the Colorado River basin said they weren’t being adequately represented in talks about conservation. A group of 14 tribes sent a letter to the Department of the Interior asking for a seat at the table. The basin includes 30 federally-recognized Indian tribes, which collectively hold the rights to about a quarter of the Colorado River’s flow, but often lack the funding and infrastructure to use their full allocations.
“What is being discussed behind closed doors among the United States and the Basin States will likely have a direct impact on Basin Tribes’ water rights and other resources, and we expect and demand that you protect our interests,” their letter reads.
This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC, and supported by the Walton Family Foundation.
Copyright 2022 KUNC. To see more, visit KUNC. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/colorado-river-states-fail-to-meet-federal-deadline-on-restricting-water-use | 2022-08-26T23:29:21Z |
Mark Miller is a former Wyoming state archaeologist and author of a new book, "Big Nose George and His Troublesome Trail." Grady Kirkpatrick recently spoke with Mr. Miller about his book and the notorious Wyoming outlaw.
Mark Miller is a former Wyoming state archaeologist and author of a new book, "Big Nose George and His Troublesome Trail." Grady Kirkpatrick recently spoke with Mr. Miller about his book and the notorious Wyoming outlaw. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/grady-kirkpatrick-talks-with-an-author-about-his-new-book-big-nose-george-his-troublesome-trail | 2022-08-26T23:29:28Z |
The Jackson Town Council has approved a new affordable housing development. That’s a pretty common story in Northwest Wyoming – until you dig a little deeper. Wyoming Public Media’s Will Walkey talked with Kyle Mackie, News Director of Jackson Hole Community Radio, about how one building has stirred up controversy and misinformation in Teton County.
Will Walkey: Can you first tell us a little bit about why this affordable housing development is important and what the town council was trying to accomplish here?
Kyle Mackie: Yeah, so anyone who has spent any amount of time in Jackson, probably going back decades but especially in the last few years, knows that Jackson is facing a real crisis and a lack of affordable housing. This is a serious issue here. And especially for the lowest income workers, it is very difficult to, A, find housing and then, B, find housing you can afford, right?
So this plan is for a 48-unit affordable housing project that would be on one acre of town-owned land, and it would be for the lowest income workers. So, people earning less than $52,000 for one person–for an individual–and less than, like, $66,000 for a family of three. So these are folks who are especially squeezed in the local real estate market.
One thing I hear a lot is folks saying that, you know, for any new affordable housing project, you know, “It's just going to bring more people here, like, who is this going to serve? We're gonna have more people coming to the area.” But there's actually really strong data showing that people who are already here and living here need housing now.
WW: Okay, so it's 48 units. Where is it going? And what is it replacing?
KM: The location of this project is what's become controversial. I mentioned it's on town-owned land. This is one acre of town-owned land that is across from the very famous rodeo and fairgrounds right in downtown Jackson. And what was on this acre is the Teton County Fair’s exhibition hall. That building was in disrepair and is actually being replaced after this year. So now that this year’s fair is over, the building is actually being demolished. And there's a new replacement community center that's replacing that exhibit hall. And the town has said, you know, “We ran on affordable housing, and, you know, we support this affordable housing project that's gonna go on town owned land.”
Some folks still conceive the whole area to be the historic fairgrounds and don't want to see even just one acre, you know, given up, in their opinion, to a housing project. They see this, you know, as a historic plot that has been the fairgrounds and they want to keep it the fairgrounds.
WW: Okay, so now to the controversy. You have a political action committee that's formed in opposition to this development. They're putting ads in the paper. They are threatening a lawsuit. What are they so upset about? And what has the opposition looked like to you on the ground?
KM: Right, this has turned into a really heated political and cultural issue in Jackson. You have two groups raising the public profile of this issue, I would say, through ads. Like, through mailers. Stickers. I see stickers around town. Really operating under this brand of “Save the rodeo grounds.” And even using that language implies that it needs to be saved from something.
And many local elected officials have taken issue with that and how this conversation is being framed because they say, “We're not trying to get rid of the fairgrounds. We're not trying to get rid of the rodeo.” In fact, the town council actually recently extended the lease for the rodeo and fairgrounds through the end of 2030. And I believe that's about the longest lease that's ever been in place for the fairgrounds and the rodeo grounds.
However, opponents of this housing project on the one acre in question, say, “You know, we can't trust you, this is just the first cut of what is going to be a series of cuts and eventually we're going to have no fairgrounds left.”
At the same time, it's made more complicated because the Teton County Fair Board actually does indeed want to relocate the fair, mostly because it's such a small space. Like, there's no horse warm-up area, for example, and they're not able to do all of the activities that they would like to do for, you know, a standard fair and rodeo. And so actually going back 20 years, the Fair Board has been requesting tax monies to purchase a larger amount of land out of town.
And actually many housing advocates here in town, they have also kind of seized on this and said, you know, “Yes, like, we can make this a win-win. Let's use the town-owned land in town for housing for workers who desperately need it and relocate the fairgrounds out of town to a larger and more modern facility where we can have a better fair and a better rodeo.”
WW: So finally, at the end of the day, the Jackson Town Council is trying to create a dent in this housing problem that you just mentioned. And the story has kind of been turned into something else. It's become a story about small town politics and misinformation. What do you think that this story in this controversy in general has said about government communication and the media?
KM: Yeah, it stirred up a lot of emotion. And I think that this is a local example of the difficulties we are seeing across the country of, how do we maybe respectfully disagree? And how do we also agree on a set of facts?
You are hearing from many town council members, for example, [who] said at a recent public meeting that got very emotional. Very heated. There was a lot of anger in the room. You know, not necessarily name calling, but allegations of town council members being corrupt or this process for the project being corrupt and threats of lawsuits. And you did hear two council members, in particular, really push back and say, “Hey, I don't recognize this tenor of my town.” Like this disrespect that has come out around this issue is very upsetting to some people.
And I do think the town council is very upset that this one acre near the fairgrounds or part of the historic fairgrounds–however you would like to characterize it–has become kind of a stand-in and it's been framed as the future of the entire fairgrounds, which is not the issue at stake here. It's really a local example of how difficult it is these days to find common ground on any kind of controversial topic. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/jackson-approves-controversial-affordable-housing-project-near-local-fairgrounds | 2022-08-26T23:29:35Z |
The Miss Rodeo Wyoming pageant crowned its 2023 winner on August 18 to represent the state's rodeo scene at events across the state and on the national stage. The annual event has been a staple of the Wyoming State Fair for years, and for many, celebrates and represents the sport of rodeo and the Western way of life.
The first Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Marilyn Scott Freimark of Cheyenne, was also the first winner of the Miss Rodeo America pageant, which was held in Casper in 1955. Since then, three other Wyomingites have achieved the title.
Three contestants competed for the title this year.
"I rodeoed when I was younger, and it's just an opportunity to really show what Wyoming is and who our community is and represents," said Reata Cook, 21, Miss Sheridan WYO Rodeo.
Cook and the others began preparing for this competition a long time ago, like Crystal Myers who held the title in 2007. Now Myers is the National Director for the pageant. She understands the preparation and effort that goes into competing for the title.
"I mean, most of them have been preparing for over a year for this pageant, and so the rodeo knowledge they have to know, the horsemanship they have to know, current events, public speaking, they have to give an impromptu speech that they have 10 minutes to prepare for," she said.
Myers added that they ultimately are looking for a title holder that will represent the state well, which includes competing for the Miss Rodeo America title in Las Vegas. But she said that things have changed over the years, which led to a decline in the number of women competing.
"In the 90s and early 2000s, we would have seven, eight, nine contestants," she explained. "It has declined a little bit, well, quite a bit, and now we go between three and probably six contestants. We did have one year where we only had one contestant."
She added that they've discussed why this is and what they feel can be done to promote the pageant and its benefits to young women. Emphasizing life skills, such as public speaking and building self-confidence, are just two of the aspects they're trying to convey to prospective contestants.
"There's not as many people who are involved in that western lifestyle, so we're really trying to promote what these contestants and young ladies can get out of being Miss Rodeo Wyoming," Myers said.
But this year's contestants understood that there's something bigger than themselves in competing for the Miss Rodeo Wyoming title.
"Ever since I was little, I've always wanted to support rodeo and be the person to help it out and inform people about the sport," said Jordan Lutz, 21, who grew up in Jackson.
Competing in rodeos and showing horses at the state fair in addition to holding several rodeo royalty titles beginning at the age of eight are some of her previous experiences with rodeo and agriculture, though she said she's a first-generation cowgirl. She most recently held the title of Miss Historic Jackson Hole Rodeo before deciding to go for the Miss Rodeo Wyoming title.
"I grew up with Desiree Bridges, who was Miss Rodeo Wyoming 2014, and so she was a big role model in my life, and so I always looked up to her. And when she won, I was like 'That's where I want to be when I'm about her age,'" she added.
Alexis Wheeler, 20, is from Laramie and was crowned Miss Laramie Jubilee on New Year's Eve of last year.
"As I was doing my Laramie Jubilee Day stuff, I was just meeting all these state queens and I thought it'd be an amazing experience to try out for a state queen title," she explained. "Even if I didn't get it, it would be a great experience at the pageant."
After a long day of competition, the three hopefuls waited to see which one of them would be crowned.
"And now for the moment of suspense we've all been waiting for," said public address announcer and former Miss Rodeo Wyoming 1994 Laurie Thoman for the event. "I present to you the young lady who will reign over Miss Rodeo Wyoming for 2023. Please help me welcome Miss Reata Cook, Sheridan WYO Rodeo queen."
A grandstand full of spectators cheered and applauded for Cook.
"I was very surprised," Cook said. "I think me and Alexis and Jordan were very, very close. We were all great competitors, and everything that I got to see, of course, personal interviews I didn't get to see, but all of us are excelling in our horsemanship, our speaking, our personality, and our appearance. And I was truly surprised when I won. I couldn't have done it without those two girls challenging me, pushing me this whole week."
Cook will now go on to compete for Miss Rodeo America in Las Vegas, Nevada from Nov. 27- Dec. 4, which is held in conjunction with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The last Miss Rodeo Wyoming to win that title was in 1994. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/miss-rodeo-wyoming-pageant-hopes-to-attract-contestants-through-skills-learned-by-competing | 2022-08-26T23:29:41Z |
On a recent weekday evening, a few members of the Sublette County Trails Association were updating some old mountain bike trails just outside of Pinedale.
"Try and curve it back, and just kind of sneak in," Ryan Grove explained to Paul Swenson. "So it's not fall line the whole way, and then we'll put some drains into it."
They were deciding the best way to reestablish a trail that had partly given way to Mother Nature with overgrown foliage.
These specific trails were built for downhill mountain biking back in the late 90s.
"Maybe a little too early for downhill mountain biking in the West, which is now exploding in popularity," said member Alex Artz. "These trails are still used and usable, but they definitely need a lot of improvements."
In places like Jackson or Laramie, there are many purposefully built trails for activities like biking and hiking, and while there are endless trails all over more rural parts of Wyoming, a lot of them are from cattle, wildlife, logging roads or are just rugged.
So making those old, steep trails more user friendly for biking, hiking and horseback riding is the Sublette County trail group's goal.
Grove said well maintained trails that include switchbacks and water drainage can make a huge difference in someone's outdoor adventure.
"Lots of people get hurt just coming down trails that are too steep and whether they step on a rock or rocks get loose because the trail's eroding," he said. "So it's more fun, it's more accessible and it's safer for everybody."
Tim Farris, the Jackson Ranger District trails and wilderness specialist for the U.S. Forest Service, said the agency oversees about 750 miles of trails in the Pinedale area.
"A lot of the trails just simply weren't designed, you know, they were basically the shortest distance between two points," he said.
Farris added that collaborating with trail organizations is helpful.
"We don't have the workforce to really be able to fix all those trails," he said.
Even on the state level, Pinedale is recognized as a place ripe for updated trails.
"Pinedale is this semi-undiscovered outdoor recreation heaven," said Patrick Harrington, the manager of the Wyoming Office of Outdoor Recreation.
Harrington said in the near future, his office hopes to work with Pinedale locals on trail development, adding that trail systems and tourism go hand-in-hand.
In the last couple of years, a record number of visitors have explored Wyoming's public lands.
"I think my office is sort of coming of age at a really important time in Wyoming history, and that we're looking at development at a grand scale and what the future of our state is going to be," he said.
Harrington's office has created ' collaboratives ' with seven different communities in the state. They focus on creating more access to outdoor recreation.
Harrington said building and updating trails for newcomers is crucial for sustainability.
"The option is to get in front of it now in a way that doesn't damage the resources, doesn't hurt wildlife, and is considerate of the community in which it's in," he said.
Harrington said he recognizes that a lot of locals in Pinedale live there because it is remote, and the mountains and trails are rugged.
"My office is really careful about that perspective," he said. "And not coming in with that we have a cooked idea that we want you guys to do in your community. Instead, we want to hear from y'all what is important for you."
It seems rural places like Pinedale are at a crossroads. The state is looking for economic growth, as its main industry of coal mining is declining and tourism continues to grow.
While members of the trails group expressed they know growth in Pinedale is inevitable, they are more interested in updating the trails for the local community, not really to spur tourism.
Alex Artz said they are just trying to improve what is already there and make recreating more fun.
"We don't want to turn into Jackson Hole. We don't want to be anyone else," said Artz. "We just want to be Pinedale." | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/updating-recreational-trails-in-rural-wyoming-a-way-to-spur-tourism-or-build-local-community | 2022-08-26T23:29:47Z |
Wyoming Cowboys kicker John Hoyland had an odd season last year. After being named a freshman All-American and 2nd Team All-Conference Performer in 2020, Hoyland's 2021 season was average. He made ten out of just 14 field goal attempts, a low number for most teams. But heading into his third season, the Broomfield, Colorado native is looking for a big year.
Head Coach Craig Bohl calls him a cool customer. In 2020, Hoyland was a non-scholarship player who had to take over kicking duties at the last second after an injury to the former starter.
"His first game was against Nevada. And he ended up going out there in overtime, and he kicked one kick, I think was good, but they had called a timeout. And he was, I think, singing a rap song or something and hit the next one," said Bohl. "He owns his work, he works hard at it. That's a real good weapon for us."
Hoyland came into field goal kicking late in life after being a soccer player. He said the key to successfully making kicks is being confident.
"I've done the whole step back and just seeing the ball being kicked off the ground many times before, and definitely just getting comfortable with the guys around me."
Unlike some of us when we miss our spot on the golf course, Hoyland said you have to remain composed.
"I'm a lot more angry on the golf course than I am on the field. You just gotta take it one kick at a time. And you know, if you miss one, you just got to focus on the next kick, because that can make or break us," said Hoyland.
He doesn't miss many though. He's only missed five field goals in his career and he's never missed an extra point. Hoyland showed that same consistency during kicking drills prior to a Cowboys practice earlier this month. Under the watchful eye of head Coach Craig Bohl they practice the snap…hold and kick…over and over. Later in the day, he faced defenders as they tried to block his kicks. Bohl said he times everything to see how long the snap, the hold and the kick takes. If it's too slow, it risks getting blocked.
"The other things that you're trying to do is allow them an opportunity in a closed set setting to really focus on the fundamental things, and then we videotape everything. And then trying to create a memory set up to where when they run out in the game, they're not going through that checklist," said Bohl.
Practice is strange for kickers. They don't participate in scrimmages or contact drills like the rest of the team. They get work sporadically and have a lot of free time.
"There's only so much kicking you can do so we kind of just hang out sometimes, hold your drill work sometimes, we'll just stay busy. And that's a good part of being a kicker. And so you've got to find ways to stay busy," said Hoyland.
And he needs to stay ready because field goals and extra points are often the difference in a game. That kind of pressure isn't for everyone, but Hoyland loves it.
"Oh, it's always been fun. I've always enjoyed kicking and yeah, definitely, one of my favorite things ever is just seeing the ball go through the uprights because that means I've done my job and everyone's happy at that point," he said.
But if you miss, they're mad. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-08-26/wyoming-cowboys-kicker-is-hoping-for-a-big-year | 2022-08-26T23:29:53Z |
Today on the show, A playwright reading based on the life of a Wyoming man who openly crossdressed will tour the Cowboy state. Recreational trails - like for hiking or biking - are all over the state…but some are better than others. One community is beginning to refurbish its old trails. A look at an affordable housing development at the Teton County fairgrounds. Those stories and more. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/podcast/open-spaces-podcast/2022-08-26/open-spaces-august-26-2022 | 2022-08-26T23:29:59Z |
Listen To The Full Show
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Today on the show, A playwright reading based on the life of a Wyoming man who openly crossdressed will tour the Cowboy state. Recreational trails - like for hiking or biking - are all over the state…but some are better than others. One community is beginning to refurbish its old trails. A look at an affordable housing development at the Teton County fairgrounds. Those stories and more.
Segments
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States in the Colorado River Basin have failed to meet a federal deadline to conserve an unprecedented amount of water. The lack of consensus on how to wean off the river’s dwindling supply puts the water source for 40 million in the Southwest in jeopardy.
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Wyoming Cowboys kicker John Hoyland had an odd season last year. After being named a freshman All-American and 2nd Team All-Conference Performer in 2020, Hoyland's 2021 season was average. He made ten out of just 14 field goal attempts, a low number for most teams. But heading into his third season, the Broomfield, Colorado native is looking for a big year.
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On a recent weekday evening, a few members of the Sublette County Trails Association were updating some old mountain bike trails just outside of Pinedale. They were deciding the best way to reestablish a trail that had partly given way to Mother Nature with overgrown foliage. These specific trails were built for downhill mountain biking back in the late 90s.
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Mark Miller is a former Wyoming state archaeologist and author of a new book, "Big Nose George and His Troublesome Trail." Grady Kirkpatrick recently spoke with Mr. Miller about his book and the notorious Wyoming outlaw.
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The Miss Rodeo Wyoming pageant crowned its 2023 winner on August 18 to represent the state's rodeo scene at events across the state and on the national stage. The annual event has been a staple of the Wyoming State Fair for years, and for many, celebrates and represents the sport of rodeo and the Western way of life.
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A playwright reading based on the life of a Wyoming man who openly crossdressed will tour the Cowboy State. "A Sissy in Wyoming" focuses on Larry Goodwin's life based on oral interviews conducted by the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center with his wife, Vickie Jones Goodwin. Wyoming Public Radio's Kamila Kudelska spoke with Vickie, the American Heritage Center's Archivist Leslie Waggener, and Gregory Hinton, who wrote and reads the play. Vickie starts out talking about her late husband.
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The Jackson Town Council has approved a new affordable housing development. That’s a pretty common story in Northwest Wyoming–until you dig a little deeper. Wyoming Public Media’s Will Walkey talked with Kyle Mackie, News Director of Jackson Hole Community Radio, about how one building has stirred up controversy in Teton County. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/show/open-spaces/2022-08-26/august-26-2022 | 2022-08-26T23:30:06Z |
Sgt. Tyler Holloway of the 115 Field Artillery Brigade in the Wyoming Army National Guard calls in a medical evacuation as part of a round-robin set of events at the Volunteer Training Site in Milan, Tenn.
CHEYENNE — Legislators hope to provide state funding to the Wyoming Guard for future recruitment and retention efforts.
The Wyoming Military Department has reiterated its need for support in the wake of being seven percentage points below the strength goal of 102% in 2021, which members of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee heard Wednesday. Without funding for incentives from the state, it could be nearly a decade before the department meets the 100% threshold.
Even with this year being a large success in terms of accessions, officials said they are bracing for the impacts of COVID-19 vaccination requirements. Many are waiting for their religious accommodations, or other aspects of the process, and will no longer be able to serve if not approved.
“We anticipate that number may go down to as low as 85% of our end strength,” said Maj. Karen Hinkle. “So, you’ll see a pretty significant dip.”
In response to these concerns, leaders of the Transportation Committee asked the Legislative Service Office to draft two bills before its next meeting in early November. One is designed to temporarily fund incentive payments for successful referrals to the Guard, which would include a starting appropriation of $350,000 per biennium, and another bill would enhance existing state education and tuition benefits for Guard members.
The two bills are based on proposals put forward by a working group that identifies and studies opportunities to address recruiting and retention goals. Hinkle said the department has discovered it is a more complex issue than a lack of desire from candidates.
In fiscal year 2019, the Department of Defense as a whole attracted 565 candidates from Wyoming, and in 2022, it decreased to only 241 applicants.
“The Wyoming Army National Guard has captured 41% of the market of all new people in Wyoming who are joining in military service. The only thing that’s been kept out of that number is the Air National Guard,” said Hinkle, who didn’t clarify why the Air Guard number wasn’t included. “So, our recruiting team is doing a fantastic job when it comes to attracting applicants. The problem is the applicant pool has shrunk significantly.”
Other factors leading to a decline in accessions has been a lack of qualified applicant pool; low test scores; increased medical issues, criminal records and disqualifying mental health conditions; and deterrence due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Wyoming military data also shows a decrease in retention. The top reasons for leaving include retirement, members rendered ineligible to serve due to medical issues, declining to re-enlist because of political concerns of benefits being used up and interstate transfer. They often stay for incentives, quality of life, military education and a sense of community.
Incentivizing service
Tapping into incentives is key for both military officials and lawmakers.
One of the more direct paths is providing a cash bonus of $500 to Guard members who make a successful referral. The appropriation would be included in an individual bill. Since it was recommended as a three-year program, the department would likely receive $525,000 from the Legislature. Several other states have adopted a similar program, and Hinkle said the department believes it will maximize peer-to-peer recruiting.
The second piece of legislation that will be considered at the next Transportation Committee meeting covers additions to the Wyoming National Guard tuition assistance program. It currently limits participation to one program for a degree, requires a six-year service commitment, and there is no option to transfer the benefit to spouse or dependents, unlike the GI Bill.
Hinkle said with additional funding from the state, the Wyoming Military Department could put it toward authorizing the transfer of unused benefit to a spouse or dependent, and authorize funding for individuals to obtain a second degree from the state. They would have to commit to additional years in the Guard in exchange.
“The goal here is to really incentivize them to stay past that first term of service,” she said.
Committee members also discussed other recruitment and retention measures that will not be developed into draft bills yet, but target members to relocate to Wyoming or incentivize out-of-state members to join Wyoming Guard units. Some of those included reduction in vehicle registration rates, property tax exemptions, as well as reduced costs for hunting, fishing and camping permits, preferential treatment for hunting tag draws and admission to state recreational facilities.
The working group made up of legislators and military recruitment officials will continue to deliberate on those topics, as well as returning the Combat Vets Tuition Program to its original benefit level.
Jasmine Hall is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s state government reporter. She can be reached by email at jhall@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3167. Follow her on Twitter @jasminerhphotos and on Instagram @jhrose25. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/lawmakers-want-support-for-wyoming-guard-recruitment/article_bd3b5d5a-2491-11ed-ad65-dfa56cd0653c.html | 2022-08-26T23:45:52Z |
Donald Trump has more than $100 million in his political war chest. But he has something even more valuable — an active FBI investigation against him.
Anyone can raise money. Few can dominate the nation’s political consciousness, cleaving the country into two passionately opposed sides and giving rise to perfervid theories and counter-theories, based on being the target of a law enforcement action. That’s the quality that Trump has brought to the table for years, and it is boosting him still.
Democrats all over the country have been cynically and not-so-subtly promoting MAGA candidates in GOP primaries. If the Federal Bureau of Investigations were doing the same thing, it wouldn’t have handled its search of Mar-a-Lago any differently.
The raid has put Trump front-and-center again. It has made it easy for him to portray himself as an embattled victim. It has caused nearly everyone in the GOP to embrace him.
Of course, none of this was intended by FBI Director Christopher Wray, although it was entirely foreseeable.
No one is above the law, yet if the FBI search was really over a document dispute, it’s hard to see how the law-enforcement stakes were big enough to justify taking a step sure to inflame roughly half the country.
The episode and its fallout are a reminder that the magnitude of controversy and attention generated by Trump is beyond what anyone else can hope to match.
Ron DeSantis recently suspended a “woke” county prosecutor who pledged not to enforce laws that he opposed. For a couple of days, this felt like a big deal. Yet, compared to the action at Mar-a-Lago, the firing was a picayune dispute over county government — Hollywood, Florida, compared to Hollywood, California.
The FBI search played into Trump’s hands in another way. Populism thrives on the sense that big, out-of-control forces are wielding outsize power, that things aren’t what they seem, and that institutions are fundamentally corrupt.
Trump built his political career playing to this sentiment. He portrays himself as the courageous fighter against such malign forces, and their victim.
For him, the contention that he’s being treated unfairly, a constant throughout his adult life, is both a negotiating posture (“How dare you charge such an exorbitant amount to build the clubhouse at my new golf course?”) and a worldview. In the political realm, the more he’s being cheated, the worse and more malevolent his enemies are — and the more his supporters need to rally to his side.
That’s what happened after the raid — for good reason.
It is impossible to overestimate the effect of the Russia investigation on the Republican psyche. To have a couple of years of “the walls are closing in” media coverage, speculation Trump might be a Russian agent, and an intense special counsel investigation all coming to naught and predicated on the Steele dossier that was laughably bogus from the start won’t soon be forgotten.
After that experience, no assurance that, “There’s no way the FBI would do that,” or, “Well, they had a warrant, so it must be OK,” is ever going to get any traction for Republicans.
And because any political taint around federal law enforcement naturally raises apocalyptic fears — and don’t kid yourselves progressives, you’d feel the same way if the shoe was on the other front — there is no room for modulation or nuance.
To the extent Trump becomes the central figure in a Manichean struggle between good and evil, it makes any other concern — electability, a well-considered and achievable agenda — seem small-minded by comparison.
Now, maybe what we learn about the classified material sought by the FBI turns out to be so shocking that the search looks different in the cold light of day.
Maybe, the initial rallying around Trump fades.
Maybe. For now, the chances of another Republican beating Trump for the GOP nomination look more remote. Thank you, Christopher Wray.
Rich Lowry is a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter @RichLowry. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/opinion/guest_column/why-is-the-fbi-choosing-bidens-opponent-for-him/article_c9aa1b6c-24b4-11ed-848c-7b79f0c60df9.html | 2022-08-26T23:45:58Z |
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Board, 8:30 a.m., Google Meet only. Online access available at meet.google.com/hxe-vtug-wek.
Wyoming Legislature's Select Committee on Tribal Relations, 9 a.m., Central Wyoming College, Intertribal Center, Wind River Room, 2660 Peck Ave., Riverton. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature's Subcommittee on Manual of Legislative Procedures Updates, online only. Public comment taken at Room W110, Wyoming State Capitol, 200 W. 24th St. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature's Select Natural Resource Funding Committee, 11:30 a.m., Hot Springs County Museum, Conference Room 700, Broadway St.,Thermopolis.
Tuesday
Wyoming Legislature's Select Natural Resource Funding Committee, 11:30 a.m., Hot Springs County Museum, Conference Room 700, Broadway St.,Thermopolis.
Wyoming Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, 1:30 p.m., Hot Springs County Commissioners Building, Government Annex Meeting Room, 117 N. 4th St., Thermopolis. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature's Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, 8:30 a.m., Hot Springs County Commissioners Building, Government Annex Meeting Room, 117 N. 4th St., Thermopolis. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Thursday
Wyoming Legislature's Air Transportation Liaison Committee, 8 a.m., Snow King, Grand Room, Main Hotel, 400 E. Snow King Ave., Jackson.
Wyoming Legislature's Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee, 8:30 a.m., Central Wyoming College, HS 100, 2660 Peck Ave., Riverton. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature's Joint Revenue Committee Property Tax Working Group, 8:30 a.m., via Zoom. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Friday
Wyoming Legislature's Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee, 8:30 a.m., Central Wyoming College, HS 100, 2660 Peck Ave., Riverton. Livestream available on the Legislature's website at www.wyoleg.gov. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/government-meetings-8-29-2022/article_589b26be-2586-11ed-a54b-07f862fd3465.html | 2022-08-26T23:46:04Z |
CASPER — President Joe Biden’s recently announced student loan forgiveness plan could bring welcome relief to some students in Wyoming.
“It’s going to help a lot of our students,” Brandy Payne, Laramie County Community College financial aid director, said. “We needed relief in the wake of the pandemic.”
But some are skeptical.
Wyoming’s Sen. John Barrasso said in a statement Wednesday that the plan is “an insult to every American who played by the rules and worked hard to responsibly pay off their own debt.”
“This decision is also a boon for Biden’s wealthy supporters,” he said. “Once again, the Biden administration is selling out working families to appease the far-left wing of the Democrat party.”
Likewise, Wyoming’s Sen. Cynthia Lummis said in a Wednesday statement that the plan is “incredibly unfair to the hardworking people of Wyoming,” and that it will add billions of dollars to the nation’s debt.
Biden announced the outline of his student loan forgiveness plan on Wednesday.
The plan only applies to students with federal loans who have an individual or married income of less than $125,000 and $250,000, respectively.
It will give Pell Grant recipients who fall under those criteria up to $20,000 in debt relief and cancel up to $10,000 in debt for non-Pell Grant recipients.
It’s also going to halve the cap on monthly payments for undergraduate loans from 10% of borrowers’ discretionary income (income leftover after paying taxes and essential cost-of-living expenses) to 5% of that income.
On top of that, the plan will extend the pause on federal student loan repayment through the end of the year.
There’s still a lot that has to be hammered out before it’s clear who exactly could benefit from the loan forgiveness plan; officials from several community colleges that the Star-Tribune reached out to said they can’t estimate how many students might be impacted because they don’t track student income, and there are still questions about who could qualify.
But some are already looking forward to what the debt forgiveness could mean for their own futures.
Gabe DeGraeve, a Casper native and third-year political science student at Belmont University in Tennessee, has about $15,000 in debt right now. He expects to be eligible for loan forgiveness under the new plan, based on the requirements that have been outlined so far.
“One of my big concerns is being able to find work and pay off that debt,” he said. “The chance for some of those loans to be forgiven is something that I’m very excited about and looking forward to.”
DeGraeve, who hopes to return to Wyoming in the future and work in politics, actually interned for Barrasso last summer in Washington, D.C.
“I’m not at all surprised by their reactions,” he said of Lummis and Barrasso’s denouncement of the loan forgiveness plan. “I think that no matter what happens, Lummis and Barrasso will be against policies of the Biden administration.”
Student debt is pretty low in Wyoming compared to other states. That’s because there are a lot of opportunities for students to get scholarships — like the Hathaway scholarship — or save money by going to community college.
Abby Gruner, a chemical engineering student at the University of Wyoming, said these kinds of opportunities influenced her decision to stay in state for school; she’s a Trustees’ Scholars Award recipient, meaning that her education at UW is completely covered.
Having her education completely paid for is the main reason why she chose to attend UW rather than her dream school, Pomona College, where she had also been accepted.
“Having such amazing scholarships to colleges in Wyoming is certainly a blessing, but I do feel like it inhibits new ideas from reaching the state because so many never have the opportunity to experience living outside the state,” Gruner said in a text message. “I am not sure if I would have chosen differently when deciding where to attend college had Biden’s plan been in place at the time, but I definitely would have taken it into consideration.”
For more than three years, student loan debt among UW graduates has stayed around 45%, according to the university’s spokesperson.
According to the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, about 38% of students there get federal loans, and the median total debt after graduation is $18,318.
Those numbers are lower at Wyoming’s community colleges.
At Laramie County Community College, for example, about 17% of students graduated with debt in the 2021 academic year, according to data kept by the college.
The U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard shows that the median total debt after graduation among students at the college is $10,500. (Remember, not everyone who graduates with debt from federal loans will have their debt canceled under the plan. They have to fall under certain criteria for that to happen).
Jessica Cowen, a second year Casper College student double majoring in psychology and musical theater, said in a text message that the plan could relieve students from “unnecessary stress.”
Although she doesn’t have any debt, she’s talked with other community college students who’ve had to take out loans.
“Classes already put a lot on our plates, and we do not need [added-on] obstacles that cause possible burnout,” she said.
This story was published on August 26, 2022. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/banking_and_finance/loan-plan-reactions-mixed-many-students-look-forward-to-relief-but-politicians-are-critical/article_d98bf5a0-258b-11ed-bc2d-dfb10f0fb1fa.html | 2022-08-26T23:46:11Z |
A federal judge in Montana issued two separate decisions this month that threaten the future of federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin — where mining was already expected to continue a precipitous decline.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ordered the Bureau of Land Management to revise two resource management plans to more fully analyze the climate and human health implications of leasing federal coal, oil and natural gas in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana.
The RMP revisions, administered by BLM field offices in Buffalo and in Miles City, Montana, are due by Aug. 3, 2023, according to the order.
The same federal judge, a President Barack Obama appointee, also issued a summary judgment this month to reinstate an Obama-era leasing moratorium for all federal coal reserves in the U.S. until the BLM revamps the program to make climate and public health among priority considerations in leasing decisions.
Taking into account coal’s contribution to planet-warming CO2 emissions, as well as its toll on public health, the decisions could curtail new coal leases or significantly cut back on the volume of coal offered for development in the Powder River Basin, according to a coalition of conservation groups.
“This is a significant victory for our climate and the communities across the country who are impacted by our continued reliance on this dirty and dangerous fuel [coal],” Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine said via a press release.
Wyoming intervened on behalf of the BLM in both cases. Gov. Mark Gordon criticized the moratorium ruling as “wrong-headed” and a “step backwards that doesn’t protect the environment and ensures consumers will pay more for energy.
“This decision is bad for Wyoming,” Gordon continued in a press statement. “It hurts our country’s ability to provide reliable, low-cost energy to Americans and hinders the abilities of companies to plan and invest in new technologies like carbon capture and utilization.”
The National Mining Association and other coal backers have promised to challenge the rulings.
A federal court ruling in 2018 instructed the BLM to include an analysis of climate implications when considering whether to lease more coal in the PRB. Judge Morris agreed the agency’s revision in response to the 2018 ruling gave only a cursory look and didn’t consider climate impacts as a reason to not lease. This month, Morris more explicitly ordered the BLM to consider a “no leasing” alternative.
The BLM must “consider no coal leasing and limited coal leasing alternatives and […] disclose the public health impacts, both climate and non-climate, of burning fossil fuels from the planning areas,” Morris wrote. “Coal mining represents a potentially allowable use of public lands, but BLM is not required to lease public lands.”
“That a federal judge ordered the [BLM] to consider a no-leasing alternative and disclose to the public how many people will be sickened and die as a result of the combustion of federal coal is groundbreaking,” Western Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Melissa Hornbein said in a press release. “The courts recognize the seriousness of the climate crisis and the impacts of fossil-fuel pollution. The BLM must now do likewise.”
The separate ruling that reinstates the coal-leasing moratorium adds another layer of assurance for a full analysis of climate and human health implications, according to Western Organization of Resource Councils and other groups, as well as an opportunity to update federal royalty rates and reclamation requirements.
Now, conservation groups want to press the federal government even further. Some want the Biden administration to “phase out” or buy back existing coal leases. “There is no room to continue producing coal in a climate emergency,” Earthjustice’s Harbine said.
“That’s troubling right there,” Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti said. “Every little effort to try to inhibit and stop [coal production], that’s tough and that’s troubling.”
Continued coal production and slowing the retirement of coal-fueled power plants are key to launching carbon capture and sequestration technologies, Deti said. Goals such as electrifying vehicles can’t happen without coal-based power and the opportunity to cut greenhouse gas emissions from those facilities, Deti said.
Regardless of whether the PRB coal industry continues to shrink due to the retirement of coal-burning power plants or if federal policies hasten the decline, Wyoming and its coal-reliant communities are in for an economic shock, according to some industry watchers. That’s not lost among conservationists who celebrate the potential demise of Wyoming coal.
“There isn’t a good answer or a ready replacement for Wyoming,” Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter Director Connie Wilbert told WyoFile. But, she added, “if we don’t stop emitting carbon and methane pollution nothing else is going to matter. This is way bigger than the immediate hardship that we face here in Wyoming.”
Coal production in the Powder River Basin — the nation’s largest coal-supplying region — has declined 49% from 2008 to 2021, according to WyoFile’s analysis of U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration data. Even before Judge Morris’ rulings this month, the PRB mining industry may have already seen its last round of large federal coal leasing.
The most recent large federal coal leases sold in the basin went to Peabody Energy and Arch Coal (now Arch Resources) in 2012. Peabody paid $1.24 billion for the rights to mine 1.12 billion tons of coal to extend operations at its North Antelope Rochelle mine, according to the BLM. Arch paid more than $300 million for 222.67 million tons of federal coal for its flagship Black Thunder mine.
All told, some 2.5 billion tons of federal coal reserves were leased in the Powder River Basin under Obama prior to his administration issuing a coal leasing moratorium in 2016 to revamp the leasing program. But bad investments and shifting markets had already sent coal company finances into a nosedive, kicking off a series of coal company bankruptcies and mine layoffs in Wyoming.
Since 2016, PRB coal producers have withdrawn several federal lease applications, and some have even relinquished tracts of coal.
The basin’s second largest producer, Arch, for example, told investors last month it’s using its current cash windfall from PRB coal to close its operations in the state. The company, which has shifted its focus to mining coal in the eastern U.S. for steelmaking clients, intends to relinquish millions of tons of Powder River Basin coal already under federal lease.
Deti with the Mining Association pointed out that PRB coal producers are enjoying a surge in demand and pricing, and mine operators are in a good position — for “the short term.”
“We’ve got enough [PRB coal] leased for the next decade,” Deti said.
But that doesn’t mean the court rulings and more stringent leasing rules are inconsequential. “The issue is, when these [court rulings] come out, our utility customers see that and they’re looking down the line and saying, ‘Well, is this even going to be an option in the future?’” Deti said. “So that’s what’s really concerning about it.”
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/economy_and_labor/court-rulings-threaten-to-hasten-wyo-coal-s-demise/article_f664578a-258b-11ed-a557-dfb639419359.html | 2022-08-26T23:46:17Z |
CHEYENNE – Lawmakers agreed Thursday to draft legislation that, if approved by the full Legislature next year, would distinctly change the format of elections across the state in 2024.
The approval came after more than two hours of testimony and discussion in the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee. Members carefully weighed the benefits and shortcomings of instant runoff elections, ranked-choice voting and open primaries.
Legislative staff has been directed to draft two bills for the Corporations Committee to consider at its upcoming meeting in October. It took a second vote for both motions to pass, but either would closely align with election formats used by fellow “red” states.
“I’m just happy Alaska and Utah are our models, and not Massachusetts or New York,” said Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, chairman of the committee, following the votes.
Currently, the state utilizes a closed primary and plurality voting system. Only voters registered with the Republican or Democratic Party can vote in their party’s primary, and the party affiliation is included in voter registration so there is an official record. Voters are allowed to switch their party affiliation at any time.
The plurality system refers to how a candidate is elected. The contender who receives the highest number of votes is elected, and it is not required that they receive more than 50% of the total votes cast.
This is a significant difference from the first proposed election format bill the Legislative Service Office is responsible for drafting. It will take after the initiative Alaskan voters approved in the 2020 general election to establish a nonpartisan primary and ranked-choice voting system.
However, the recommendation by Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, was for an open primary that would have the top four choices move forward to a ranked-choice voting system in the general election.
His second motion, which also was passed, was to keep a closed primary, but to implement a ranked-choice voting system similar to what is being tested by Utah at the municipal level. Both proposals will be considered in October.
Open primary, ranked-choice
FairVote, a nonpartisan election reform organization, defines an open primary as an election where “voters of any affiliation may vote in the primary of any party. They cannot vote in more than one party’s primary, although that prohibition can be difficult to enforce in the event a party has a primary runoff. In many open primaries, voters do not indicate partisan affiliation when they register to vote.”
Along with a ranked-choice voting system, the Wyoming election format would transform dramatically. Voters would rank candidates by preference on their ballots, and if a candidate wins more than half of first-preference votes, they are declared the winner. If no candidate wins based on first-preference, Ballotpedia explains that the candidate with the least first-preference votes are eliminated.
“All first-preference votes for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots,” according to the digital encyclopedia on American politics and elections. “A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won an outright majority of the adjusted voters. The process is repeated until a candidate wins a majority of votes cast.”
Case suggested the system after hearing testimony from stakeholders on its positive impacts. Many argued it would address concerns of crossover voting and the plurality system, as well as encourage candidates to communicate to a greater number of voters, rather than to the extremes of either party.
“With 94% of people voting on the same ballot last Tuesday, we essentially had an open primary here in Wyoming. Open primaries almost eliminate the need for crossover voting, though. There’s no need to switch parties when there’s no parties involved,” said Jennifer Lowe, executive director of the Equality State Policy Center. “The other wonderful thing about open primaries is it allows taxpayers – those who are funding these elections – to fully participate.”
The majority of votes Aug. 16 were in the Republican primary, which pitted U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., against challenger Harriet Hageman. Although many Democrats crossed over to vote for Cheney, Hageman easily ousted the incumbent and advanced to the Nov. 8 general election.
Despite significant support for the system voiced in testimony, there were those who criticized its consideration.
Wyoming GOP National Committeeman Corey Steinmetz said the political philosophy between the parties was very evident, and taking away a partisan primary would be a challenge. He said many voters trust the “R” behind a Republican candidate’s name when they’re running, and it assures that the contender represents their shared values and beliefs.
“What we’ve heard from Republicans all across the state is that we want to keep our primary,” he told lawmakers. “We want Republicans voting for Republican nominees, they want Democrats voting for Democratic nominees, and we would have competitive elections if the Democrats would have people run.”
Steinmetz said changing the voting system has been an ongoing discussion for years, but he didn’t know if “we need to reinvent the wheel.” He was concerned any major changes to the election statutes would also impact political organization makeup and elections for precinct committee persons.
“That’s a very dangerous territory,” he said.
Jacqueline McMann was a supporter of an open primary and ranked-choice voting, and argued against Steinmetz’s theory about Wyoming voters. She said the current system deters healthy participation, and the Republican Party has developed a monopoly on voting.
“We use a shorthand, the ‘R’ in front of a person’s name and the ‘D’ in front of a person’s name. The ‘L’ for libertarian. It’s a shorthand for trust,” she said. “And I think we have broken down that trust by our divisiveness, and people are no longer engaged.” | https://www.wyomingnews.com/wyomingbusinessreport/industry_news/government_and_politics/legislative-committee-considers-election-format-changes/article_ca7139cc-258b-11ed-b85a-eff9d1362ee0.html | 2022-08-26T23:46:23Z |
Man gets deferred probation in sexual assault of 13-year-old girl: ‘He’s sorry this happened’
WACO, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - A 20-year-old Texas man has been placed on felony deferred probation after pleading guilty in a sexual assault case that involved a 13-year-old girl.
KWTX reports Tevion Tyreek Mack pleaded guilty in June to sexual assault charges after Waco police arrested him in February 2020 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
On Friday, State District Judge Thomas West approved Mack’s request for deferred probation during a brief sentencing hearing.
Officials said West placed Mack on deferred probation for 10 years, fined him $1,000 and ordered him to work 120 days on a county work program as a condition of his probation.
Court documents stated the 13-year-old girl told police she had sex with Mack about 17 times. Officials said the 20-year-old was found in the girl’s home without her parents’ consent.
“He’s sorry this happened,” said Jason Darling, Mack’s attorney. “He’s happy the judge gave him the opportunity to make amends on probation and he apologizes to the victim.”
According to legal advisors, in deferred probation cases, there is no final judgment of guilt if a defendant completes the terms and conditions of probation.
Copyright 2022 KWTX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/man-gets-deferred-probation-sexual-assault-13-year-old-girl-hes-sorry-this-happened/ | 2022-08-27T00:34:22Z |
Pa. man who attacked police on Jan. 6 gets 46-month sentence
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pennsylvania man was sentenced Friday to 46 months in federal prison for attacking a police officer with a Donald Trump flag during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The newspaper reported that Howard Richardson, 72, of King of Prussia, told the court in Washington “there’s no excuse” for his behavior and pleaded for mercy.
But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly responded, “Your presence and actions in joining other insurrectionists was an inexcusable attack on our democracy.”
Richardson’s sentence is one of the longest yet among those who have been prosecuted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. In addition to the nearly four-year prison sentence, Richardson was ordered to serve three years under court supervision after his release and to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Richardson never entered the Capitol, the Inquirer reported, but prosecutors said his attack on a Washington, D.C., police officer merited a lengthy prison term.
According to the paper, police body camera footage showed Richardson bludgeoning an officer outside the Capitol with a metal flagpole. NBC News reported that Richardson also joined a mob using a giant Trump billboard as a battering ram.
Approximately 850 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. Over 350 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and over 230 have been sentenced. Dozens of Capitol riot defendants who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offenses have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to five months.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/pa-man-who-attacked-police-jan-6-gets-46-month-sentence/ | 2022-08-27T00:34:28Z |
Augusta County lowers personal property tax assessment ratio
VERONA, Va. (WHSV) - Augusta County Board of Supervisors voted at their Wednesday, Aug. 24 meeting to lower their personal property tax assessment ratio.
Since vehicle values are up, many taxpayers are paying more for their personal property taxes. Augusta County Commissioner of Revenue, Jean Shrewsbury, said the change for locals would be significant.
Shrewsbury met with county leaders to figure out how they could reduce that tax burden.
“We’d discussed that previously in the spring of this year during budget time but at that time we didn’t know the exact figures,” she said. “Because of them learning that, they decided that they wanted to explore avenues to help lower the impact of those higher values on the taxpaying citizens of Augusta County.”
The Board first voted to lower the personal property tax rate from $2.60 to $2.50, with only Supervisors Scott Seaton and Pam Carter voting in favor. Eventually, they voted five-to-two to lower the assessment ratio, with Supervisors Jeff Slaven and Butch Wells voting against.
“We are actually taking the full fair market value of your vehicle and reducing it 8% which gives us a 92% assessment of the fair market value of the vehicle,” Shrewsbury said.
The Board also discussed the possibility of leaving the tax rate and assessment ratio the same, so they could use the money for other projects.
Previously, the assessment value sat at 100%, and they follow the J.D. Power Pricing Guide.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/augusta-county-lowers-personal-property-tax-assessment-ratio/ | 2022-08-27T00:34:35Z |
CSHD and BrightView team up for Narcan education and distribution event
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Friday was all about education and prevention at BrightView in Harrisonburg. It teamed up with the Central Shenandoah Health District to give community members free Narcan training and education.
This is part of CSHD REVIVE! program.
“We thought what a great way to launch awareness for overdose,” Mick Ruggiero, director of outreach for northern Virginia at BrightView said.
Ruggiero said the turnout was great and enough to where they hope to offer this event again in the future.
”Educated now, if they’re ever in the scenario where they find someone in need of reviving from an overdose, they’ve now been trained and have the ability to do so,” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero mentioned that overdose is still an epidemic and this is a way they hope to help curve the numbers.
“It is important that just average citizens have the ability to respond to a crisis situation if need be, whether it be within their own family or just within their community and neighborhood,” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero said one community member showed up today and said he had witnessed two overdoses in his community so he wanted to come out and get the training and tools to help prevent that from happening in the future.
If you’re interested in getting trained and having access to this program, Ruggiero says to call CSHD or your local health district. He said this is a big asset to the community as Narcan can be expensive and hard to come by.
“In the state of Virginia there is an executive order in place where anyone can get a prescription, as a standing prescription per se, for Narcan but they would be paying out of their pocket or through their insurance, well this is free,” Ruggiero said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, Ruggiero said BrightView is a no barriers access treatment facility that can help.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/cshd-brightview-team-up-narcan-education-distribution-event/ | 2022-08-27T00:34:41Z |
Rare species, Mississippi Kite, admitted to Wildlife Center of Virginia for care
WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) - The Wildlife Center of Virginia is treating a Mississippi Kite, a rare species and the first of its kind treated at the center throughout its 40-year history.
A Henrico Animal Protection officer found the young raptor in early July on the side of the road. It was not able to fly or fend for itself. With no trees or sign of a nest nearby, the officer picked up the bird and brought it to the Wildlife Center.
According to the center, young raptors in need of care are not uncommon patients during the summer months. Offspring that are separated from their parents at a young age, suffer from physical injury or illness, or simply fail to thrive on their own are admitted to the Wildlife Center with a degree of predictability each year, but this raptor’s presence was anything but predictable.
At the time of admission, the bird was identified as a Cooper’s Hawk, a fairly common hawk in the accipiter family. The Wildlife Center says raptor identification can be tricky at times, even for wildlife professionals.
As the young bird developed more flight feathers and began looking more like a juvenile raptor, the staff were puzzled by the raptor’s lack of interest in the provided diet of mice and chicks. The young bird also did not look like a growing Cooper’s Hawk.
After additional scrutiny, the staff realized that this bird was actually a Mississippi Kite, which searches for large flying insects making up a majority of their diet. Unlike some other North American raptors, the Mississippi Kite is not currently listed as threatened or endangered but is not common in Virginia.
Established breeding populations exist in the Richmond and Virginia Beach areas, but their long-distance migrations (from North America through Central America, Brazil, and as far south as Argentina) make formally documented sightings extremely rare in the Shenandoah Valley area.
This young kite has been receiving specialized veterinary care at the center for the past month and a half. When it arrived at the Wildlife Center, it had significant nursing and a puncture wound on the side of its abdomen. The bird was started on anti-inflammatories and placed in a small enclosure with supplemental oxygen.
Since then, the kite was moved to an outdoor flight pen, where it is not enjoying a diet of insects and exercising daily to prepare for the fall migration.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/rare-species-mississippi-kite-admitted-wildlife-center-virginia-care/ | 2022-08-27T00:34:47Z |
Valley mom and daughter fall victim to rental home scam
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - A Valley mom and daughter trying to find a place to rent found themselves the victims of an online rental scam, costing them $700.
When Ronda Henderson placed an ad on Craigslist saying she and her daughter, Virginia Bowling, were looking for a place to rent, they immediately got a response. They spoke to the property owner on the phone, and they drove by the property.
What first seemed like a miracle quickly started looking suspicious.
“That night he ends up calling me saying I need the money now so that way I can do the sewer and water so the town knows to keep it on. That right there is when I started saying this don’t seem right,” Bowling said.
Then, he asked for payment through Cashapp under a different name.
“I should have then said that’s not right because it’s going to go directly to a banking account of the landlord or something of that order,” Bowling said.
However, they needed a house.
“I’m pregnant, I’m desperate, so when he said you know your application went through, you’ve got the credit that we need. Like, this is a miracle that this is happening, but all of a sudden I started questioning the decisions I was making,” Bowling said.
They continue to look for a home, but they haven’t had any luck. The two are on limited income, they have pets, and Henderson is disabled. All three of those factors limit the possible properties they could rent.
“Her being disabled and handicapped, it’s harder because we can’t have a two-story home, or we can’t live in a basement without a ground entrance, or something of that sort because she’s not able physically to walk up the three steps we have now,” Bowling said.
Between regular deposits and pet deposits, they don’t have the money to start a new lease, especially after falling victim to a scam.
“Even if we did find a place, we don’t have the money to put down for a deposit,” Bowling said.
After the weekend, they may not have a roof over their heads.
“If anybody has any type of housing or anything that they have open and willing to share, I’m here. I’m honest,” Bowling said. “I’ll mow your grass.”
The mom and daughter said they hope their story will help others avoid scams like this.
“Even if you’re desperate, double check. Go with your gut instinct. I didn’t, and I wish I had,” said Henderson.
Bowling, adding an extra piece of advice.
“Don’t send nothing, absolutely nothing, over CashApp,” she said.
Bowling and Henderson said they’re working with local investigators to figure out who is responsible for this.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/valley-mom-daughter-fall-victim-rental-home-scam/ | 2022-08-27T00:34:54Z |
Dr. Anthony Fauci talks about his career, COVID-19, and the threat of a Republican investigation against him.
Dr. Fauci confirmed this week he’s stepping away from his federal role in December.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Dr. Anthony Fauci is reflecting on his long career. This December he will step down from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the end of December.
He spoke one-on-one with Washington News Bureau reporter Jamie Bittner about the work ahead, COVID-19, and the Republican threat of an investigation against him. Read the full interview below.
Question:
“We’ve been hearing a lot from lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and a lot of Republicans are already promising an investigation against you if they would retake power in Congress. How do you respond?”
Answer:
“Well, I mean, I don’t have any idea what they would want to investigate. But, I have always respected oversight authority. I think it’s an important part of government. But, I also would warn people, well not warn them, alert them that there’s a difference between legitimate and well-intentioned oversight to make things better, as opposed to character assassination, which sometimes sneaks into that little bit of oversight. So I always am very willing to cooperate in any way to help anyone understand better what has been going on over the past two and a half years.”
Question:
“When it comes to your critics, how do you think that they have hurt your messaging to the American people throughout the COVID 19 pandemic?”
Answer:
“Well, that’s tough for me to gauge. But, you know, I would think that I have always been if you look at everything I’ve said, try to get the message across, to get the public to do whatever it is best to preserve and protect the health of the American public, be that wearing masks, be that avoiding congregate settings, be that getting vaccinated and boosted. And I think when you have people out there trying to diminish someone’s credibility, the ultimate result of that is to diminish the effectiveness of the public health message. So, it’s really unfortunate that that happens, but it does.”
Question:
“I have to ask you the question everyone always asks, is COVID-19 over?”
Answer:
“No. I think you just look at the numbers and it’s obvious that it’s not. We certainly are much better off now than we were several months ago when we were having 800 to 900,000 new infections and 3000 deaths per day. We are much, much lower than that, but we’re not in a place that we can feel comfortable that it is actually behind us. We want to get it to a low enough level that it doesn’t disrupt the social order. And, that is not where we are. We can get to that much better by getting more people vaccinated and boosted. I mean, if you look at where we are right now, we’re still averaging about 100,000 cases a day, which is likely a rather significant underestimate because many people get... infected, get tested, but don’t report their positive test. The number that you can’t run away from is that we still have approximately 400 deaths per day. And if you do the math on that, that’s close to 150,000 deaths per year. We don’t want that to be the steady state at all for COVID. We’ve got to get much lower than that. And that’s the reason why we continue to encourage people to get vaccinated and those who have been vaccinated to get boosted. It’s really a shame that in our country, which is a rich and enlightened country, that we have only 67% of the entire population vaccinated. And of that, only about half have been boosted. There are so many other countries in the world, including low and middle income countries, that are doing better than we have. But the short answer to your question is no. The outbreak is not yet behind us. I hope we’re going in the right direction to get it behind us, but we’re not there yet.”
Question:
“When could we see something like COVID-19 happen again? Could it happen within our lifetime?”
Answer:
“Absolutely. You know, I have been lecturing and talking about the potential for pandemics literally for the last 40 years. In fact, if you go back and pull out lectures that I’ve given, I predicted that in every administration, and I’ve had the honor of serving and advising seven presidents over the last close to 40 years, that almost inevitably there is some form of emerging infectious disease almost in every administration. Some of them are not globally serious, but others are transforming. Like, the HIV/AIDS pandemic that we began to recognize during the administration of Ronald Reagan. Or, the pandemic flu during the Obama administration. And now spanning two administrations, we’re seeing the historic pandemic of COVID-19.”
Question:
“How do you feel your response to the AIDS epidemic helped prepare you for COVID-19?”
Answer:
“Well, any time you’ve been through the emergence of a new outbreak and realize the extraordinary unpredictability of it, there are a lot of lessons learned. I tried to make that point early on in the outbreak when I was warning that this could really get out of control and others were saying, ‘no, it’s not. It’s going to just go away in a season.’ What you learned from HIV was that you never underestimate the potential of an emerging outbreak because you never know when you first see it what its ultimate potential is. Remember with HIV, we were seeing a number of desperately ill, mostly young gay men in the United States. And, that was before we knew what the pathogen was and before we had a diagnostic test. Once we got a diagnostic test, we realized that the obviously ill people were only the tip of the iceberg of the number of people that had been infected, because, as you know, with HIV you could be infected and go for years without having serious illness that then brings you to the attention of a physician. So one of the big lessons is don’t ever underestimate the potential of a new mysterious outbreak.”
Question:
“You have a few months left on the job. What will you focus on and what is the biggest challenge that lies ahead for whoever is your predecessor?”
Answer:
”Well, I’m going to continue at full speed right up until the last day that I walk out in December. We have a lot of things. We have a lot of challenges. We have COVID. We have monkeypox. And, we have all the other things that we do from a scientific and public health standpoint. So, I’m going to be going very much full speed right until the end on the things that we’re doing now as well as we have a pandemic preparedness plan that we’ve already started on. Obviously, we need a lot more resources to really implement the plan to the extent that we want. You know, the thing that I will hope that my successor appreciates and hopefully will be able to steer this course is to stick with the science and try to the extent possible to stay away from any kind of and, you know, entrapment in the political divisiveness that we have in this country. It is very difficult to do a coherent public health and scientific endeavor when there’s such a profound degree of political divisiveness in this country, which there is.”
Question:
“How much of a say will you have on who your predecessor is?”
Answer:
None. And, I shouldn’t. I don’t think it’s appropriate that I do. What will happen is that there will be a national search by a search committee of peers who will make recommendations to the NIH Director. And the NIH Director will make that decision.”
Question:
“Take me back to your first day on the job. Can you kind of tell me what the emotions you were feeling back then (were) and compare it to now when you’re looking at your place in the history books, how would you want to be remembered?”
Answer:
“Well, I walked on to this campus 54 years ago in June of 1968, just out of my medical residency at the New York hospital Cornell Medical Center. And, this is a place that I absolutely love, every aspect of it. I’ve been fortunate enough to be the director of the Institute for 38 years. So, it really has been an evolving process with me starting off as a young trainee, becoming a senior investigator, getting recognized nationally, internationally for my research and then taking over the institute and being very much involved in building the AIDS program, developing the PEPFAR program with President George W Bush. It’s been a very long and very gratifying journey. You know, I hope that I made an impact on global health both, you know, internationally and in this country. And I hope that I’ll be remembered for that.”
Question:
“What will you do in retirement?”
Answer:
“Well, it’s not retirement. I think that’s a very misleading word. I think it’s more of a rewiring. One of the reasons I’m leaving now is because I still have the energy and the motivation and the good health and the passion to do more for the global health and scientific enterprise. And I think the best way I can do that, given my almost six decades of experience and almost four decades of leading the institute that I hopefully by reading and writing and lecturing and getting involved in different projects that I could serve as an inspiration for the younger generation of scientists and would be scientists to perhaps consider a career in public service, particularly in the arena of public health, medicine and science. So, I have no intention of retiring. So, you’re not going to see me on the golf course or lying on a beach somewhere.”
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/dr-anthony-fauci-talks-about-his-career-covid-19-threat-republican-investigation-against-him/ | 2022-08-27T00:37:11Z |
Man gets deferred probation in sexual assault of 13-year-old girl: ‘He’s sorry this happened’
WACO, Texas (KWTX/Gray News) - A 20-year-old Texas man has been placed on felony deferred probation after pleading guilty in a sexual assault case that involved a 13-year-old girl.
KWTX reports Tevion Tyreek Mack pleaded guilty in June to sexual assault charges after Waco police arrested him in February 2020 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
On Friday, State District Judge Thomas West approved Mack’s request for deferred probation during a brief sentencing hearing.
Officials said West placed Mack on deferred probation for 10 years, fined him $1,000 and ordered him to work 120 days on a county work program as a condition of his probation.
Court documents stated the 13-year-old girl told police she had sex with Mack about 17 times. Officials said the 20-year-old was found in the girl’s home without her parents’ consent.
“He’s sorry this happened,” said Jason Darling, Mack’s attorney. “He’s happy the judge gave him the opportunity to make amends on probation and he apologizes to the victim.”
According to legal advisors, in deferred probation cases, there is no final judgment of guilt if a defendant completes the terms and conditions of probation.
Copyright 2022 KWTX via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/man-gets-deferred-probation-sexual-assault-13-year-old-girl-hes-sorry-this-happened/ | 2022-08-27T00:37:17Z |
Pa. man who attacked police on Jan. 6 gets 46-month sentence
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pennsylvania man was sentenced Friday to 46 months in federal prison for attacking a police officer with a Donald Trump flag during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The newspaper reported that Howard Richardson, 72, of King of Prussia, told the court in Washington “there’s no excuse” for his behavior and pleaded for mercy.
But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly responded, “Your presence and actions in joining other insurrectionists was an inexcusable attack on our democracy.”
Richardson’s sentence is one of the longest yet among those who have been prosecuted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. In addition to the nearly four-year prison sentence, Richardson was ordered to serve three years under court supervision after his release and to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Richardson never entered the Capitol, the Inquirer reported, but prosecutors said his attack on a Washington, D.C., police officer merited a lengthy prison term.
According to the paper, police body camera footage showed Richardson bludgeoning an officer outside the Capitol with a metal flagpole. NBC News reported that Richardson also joined a mob using a giant Trump billboard as a battering ram.
Approximately 850 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. Over 350 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and over 230 have been sentenced. Dozens of Capitol riot defendants who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offenses have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to five months.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/26/pa-man-who-attacked-police-jan-6-gets-46-month-sentence/ | 2022-08-27T00:37:24Z |
More than three months into the U.S. monkeypox outbreak, there's a new – and welcome – phrase coming from the lips of health officials who are steering the country's response: cautious optimism.
The change in tone reflects early signs that rates of new infections are slowing in some of the major cities where the virus arrived early and spread quickly, in particular New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Federal officials warn it's still too soon to make pronouncements about the country turning a corner. Still the slowdown in some parts of the U.S. – coupled with data about how those at highest risk are protecting themselves and getting vaccinated – are promising signs.
"Our numbers are still increasing, [but] the rate of rise is lower," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on Friday. "We're really hopeful that many of our harm reduction messages and our vaccines are getting out there and working."
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Reported case numbers have been trending down since mid August, based on an NPR analysis of data the CDC released Wednesday. Overall, there's been around a 25% drop in the 7-day average of new cases over the past two weeks.
However, health officials caution that lags in data reporting can offer an incomplete picture of the outbreak in recent weeks, making it hard to know if cases have truly peaked.
The decline in parts of the U.S. mirrors what's already being seen in some European countries, where the virus was detected a few weeks earlier. In both the U.K. and Germany, daily case counts have steadily dropped since late July. In several other countries, including the Netherlands and Italy, the number of new cases have plateaued.
Cases slow down in big cities
In New York City – one of the epicenters of the outbreak – the number of new people being infected has dropped 40% over the past month. San Francisco health officials are also seeing a decline in the rate of new cases.
"I'm cautiously optimistic," says Dr. Susan Philip, health officer for the city and county of San Francisco. "We know, though, it's going to take a lot of work and effort to sustain that downward curve and to make sure that cases continue to go down."
The picture is also improving in other cities like Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago where local health leaders say there are indications that infections are leveling off.
Key metrics – such as the average number of cases and the time it takes for cases to double – have decreased over the past couple of weeks, says Janna Kerins, medical director at the Chicago Department of Public Health. "I'm not sure we're ready to say this outbreak is truly ending," Kerins says, "But all of those things are encouraging."
The changes also track with modeling released this week that suggests the national outbreak is on the decline.
"We are seeing signs of a substantial slowdown and the forecasts suggest that this is going to go in the right direction," at least over the next four weeks, says Gerardo Chowell-Puente, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Georgia State University, who's modeling the monkeypox outbreak
Changes in behavior drive the decline
Given the size and diversity of the U.S., there's still considerable uncertainty on how the outbreak will play out in different parts of the country, but infectious disease experts largely attribute the slowdown to efforts to change behavior among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men – a group that accounts for the vast majority of cases.
"Most of us in public health who work on this disease are quite confident that the majority of the reduction is due to change in behavior," says Dr. Jay Varma, director of the Cornell Center for Pandemic Prevention and Response at Weill Cornell Medicine.
More than 94% of monkeypox cases in the U.S. are associated with sexual activity. And on Friday, CDC officials highlighted new data showing that gay and queer communities are modifying their sexual behaviors in response to messaging around monkeypox.
In one online survey, about 50% of respondents said they had reduced "their number of sexual partners, one-time sexual encounters [or] use of dating apps because of the monkeypox outbreak." An accompanying modeling study released by the CDC showed that a "40% reduction in one-time sexual partnership might delay the spread of monkeypox and reduce the percentage of people infected" by up to about 30%.
"What this means is that the LGBTQIA+ people are doing things that are actually reducing their risk, and it's working," said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, White House monkeypox response deputy coordinator, at a press briefing Friday.
It's not entirely surprising that the virus appears to be slowing down in the U.S. as it has in Europe, says Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases, population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
"Most of the cities will see a decline in cases – that decline may not be as fast or as steep as the ascent," says Klausner.
Klausner notes that monkeypox has stayed mostly within certain relatively small sexual networks – that makes it harder for the virus to maintain momentum as vaccination increases, people build up immunity from infection and those at highest risk change their behavior.
"People who raised concerns about the spread of infection on college campuses and daycares and other kinds of settings where there's close personal contact, at this point, that hasn't occurred," he says.
Uncertainty remains
But other experts are not as sanguine about the trajectory of the outbreak – at least not yet.
"It's great to see some declines," says Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at UCLA who has studied monkeypox for years. "But if the downward trend is due to changes in behavior and vaccinations, it's not clear how long behavioral changes can be sustained, and how well the vaccinations actually work to prevent infections."
Health officials are urging members of affected communities to keep taking precautions to slow the spread of monkeypox.
"Let me be clear," Daskalakis said Friday. "The advice about how to reduce risk for monkeypox exposure is for now, not forever, and is an important part of our public health and community response as we urgently surge vaccinations to control this outbreak."
Still, there isn't robust real world data on how well the monkeypox vaccine – approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019 – protects against infection and transmission. Further complicating the picture is that a shortage of vaccine has led the Biden administration to pursue a new strategy of offering the shots intradermally in order to stretch the supply.
"The laboratory data that we have on the vaccine suggests that it's going to be very effective in humans," says Varma. "But what we know in medicine is that until we see what happens in the real world, we never know for sure."
NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/early-signs-suggest-monkeypox-may-be-slowing-in-the-u-s | 2022-08-27T01:02:47Z |
This week, House of the Dragon blew up streaming, the Independent Spirit Awards moved towards gender-neutral acting categories, and the Girl Scouts chose their next new cookie flavor.
Here's what the NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
Diary of a Void
It's either this or me talking about The O.C., but I'm working on a piece about a book called Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi. It's a Japanese book, recently translated into English, about this woman who works at an office. And to get out of all the menial, unpaid tasks women are often expected to do at the office, like clean up after a meeting and make coffee, she fakes being pregnant.
Since she gets maternity leave (this book can't take place in America), she has all this time to think about her life and delves into this weird psychosis. She almost starts buying her own lie. It's a fascinating book that I'm really enjoying digging into. — Andrew Limbong
People Dancing in Peppa Pig Costumes
My friends in India posted this video of people dressed like Peppa Pig dancing at, I'm guessing, a North Indian wedding, to this Punjabi Bollywood song.
Well, this is post-colonial, and this is how the colony rights itself. There are these British pigs dancing to this Punjabi Bollywood song, and I've been thinking about it more than I should. — Bedatri D. Choudhury
Lost Ollie
There's a new series coming out on Netflix called Lost Ollie that's a combination of live action and stunning animation. It's just about a lost toy; I think the story is a little bit familiar. Jonathan Groff plays the voice of Ollie, Mary J. Blige is in it, and Tim Blake Nelson plays this sort of Elvis kind of toy character.
It is dark, not really for very young children, but I love all of these dark odysseys across American wastelands with toys. I'm in love with the look of it, I'm in love with the execution of it, and I'm in love with the people who did it. It is a very heartwarming four episodes. — Walter Chaw
Apostle
I've been trying to speed summer out the damn door and usher autumn in early by getting into folk horror as a genre. It's very harvesty, very autumnal, very earth tones. I recently checked out the film Apostle, which is a Netflix film released in 2018, starring Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen.
It's a period piece set in 1905 in which Sheen and his brothers have set up their own cult, and Stevens goes undercover to rescue his sister from them. It seems to just be a film about the power of messianic belief, I guess. And then it becomes very much something else.
I'm not sure it works, but it works for me because I am tired of summer and I want to start layering again. — Glen Weldon
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
I've been listening to the audiobook this week of Retail Gangster: The Insane, Real-Life Story of Crazy Eddie. It traces the story of Eddie Antar, the man (and the family) behind the New York electronics discounter whose TV and radio ads in the '70s and '80s were both loved and loathed — and whose business practices ultimately landed him in prison for racketeering conspiracy. It's a very good and highly entertaining book, and a very good reminder that the scammers we know now in the startup world have plenty of history to call their own.
Luke Macfarlane is kind of a fascinating actor with a fascinating history (I loved watching him on Brothers & Sisters as well as in many, many Hallmark movies), and David Canfield talked to him this week for Vanity Fair.
This week wasn't the first time I'd seen the Sesame Street classic "Put Down The Ducky," but I'm always happy to see it again, and I'll be darned if I didn't sing it all day long.
Friend of the show Jesse Thorn has a voice appearance on this week's Season 13 premiere of Archer. This is something Jesse has dreamed of for a long time, so make sure you don't miss it.
NPR's Maison Tran adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment "What's Making Us Happy" into a digital page. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/2022-08-26/whats-making-us-happy-a-guide-to-your-weekend-reading-listening-and-viewing | 2022-08-27T01:02:54Z |
The Birth Sisters of Charlottesville celebrate Black Breastfeeding Week
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - At the Birth Sisters of Charlottesville, women are coming together to support each other with the transition to motherhood and educating each other on the benefits of breastfeeding.
Aug. 25-31 is Black Breastfeeding Week, and the Birth Sisters of Charlottesville is marking the occasion through celebrating and continuing their advocacy.
“There’s a lot of evidence-based information that says that having a support partner, having someone there for you, is beneficial to a better outcome for your birth. Increased rates of soothing, decreased rates of infant mortality, decreased rates of premature birth, better outcomes for mom, less interventions during their delivery,” Co-founder and Executive Director Lisa Brown said.
Tikara Cannon is a mother who says that lack of access and recognition to education on breastfeeding created unrealistic expectations for her.
“So, I’m a twin mom, I had my girls prematurely in 2015, and I knew nothing about breastfeeding. No one in my family had prepared me for it. I knew my grandmother likely breastfed her four children, but no, I wasn’t provided any of that family education, and nobody in my area gave me a warning of what I was to experience in having been early,” Cannon said.
Women of color are less likely to breastfeed, and Brown wants to use this week as an opportunity for encouragement and support.
“This week is really about celebrating just the fact that we do breastfeed, black women do breastfeed. I breastfed all three of my children, and that representation needs to be seen. I think that is an encouragement for other women,” Brown said.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.
Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/birth-sisters-charlottesville-celebrate-black-breastfeeding-week/ | 2022-08-27T02:07:26Z |
Legal analyst discusses President Biden’s partial loan forgiveness announcement
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - The pause on federal student loan repayment will be extended for the last time through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should expect to resume payment in January 2023, but what’s owed could be a lot less.
NBC29′s legal analyst AC Reiman says President Biden’s loan forgiveness plans are legal even though they have some people upset.
“The distinguishing factor of why President Joe Biden has been able to provide up to $10k (for non-pell grant recipients) is that ‘student loan’ only applies to federal loans,” Reiman said.
Up to $20k in loan forgiveness is on the table for Pell Grant recipients.
“This does not apply to borrowers who have any private loans or any private companies, or equity. That will not be forgiven, but that’s the reason that the government is able to allow this forgiveness,” Reiman said.
She says approaching elections could be a partial driving factor in this decision.
“This is not a presidential election that is happening, but there needs to be an incentive to have people vote, and especially with the recent events of Roe v. Wade, this might be a push to get younger voters back into the polls,” Reiman said.
Younger voters and those in the middle class are the ones who will be most deeply impacted by this decision on loans. It only applies to people who make under $125k each year.
“If if you have fully payed off your debt and have none left, you might be in a position of being potentially upset that you had to pay your own student loans. Often that is the position that Republicans are taking, they’re saying, ‘this is unfair, this doesn’t help inflation, this is billions of dollars.’ On the other hand, those who think this is great are saying, ‘we’ve never been able to get ahead, and now we’re able to get a break,’” Reiman said.
This link can lead you to the loan forgiveness qualification requirements.
The application is not yet available, but it will be by December. You will not be able to apply after the pause on repayments ends.
Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here.
Copyright 2022 WVIR. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/26/legal-analyst-discusses-president-bidens-partial-loan-forgiveness-announcement/ | 2022-08-27T02:07:32Z |
BrightView addiction treatment center helps those in the Valley with substance use disorder
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - BrightView, an addiction treatment center, has 15 locations around Virginia and noticed a need for services in the Shenandoah Valley. It opened a Harrisonburg location in May and has been helping people work toward their recovery.
“There’s been pent-up demand. There’s a lack of resources and so typically, when we open our doors, there are folks waiting in the parking lot and that was the case here in Harrisonburg,” Mick Ruggiero, the Director of Outreach for Northern Virginia with BrightView, said.
Right now throughout Virginia, BrightView is treating more than 2,500 patients, with just over 70 people seeking help in Harrisonburg. There is no waitlist and people can begin treatment the same day.
“We treat every person as an individual,” Ruggiero said. “Stigma is something that we don’t want any part of.”
It offers a holistic approach to those with substance abuse disorder.
“An individual that comes to us will receive medically assisted treatment if necessary, but along with that they are required to have group and individual counseling which is provided here right on site,” Ruggiero said. “Folks that are in active recovery are involved in counseling services. It’s very helpful to see it through the eyes of someone who’s gone through it.”
In addition to that, case managers can help minimize additional barriers, including housing, employment, transportation, help with insurance issues and connect patients to additional services in the community.
“If you’re within 25 miles of our clinic, we can get you here and get you home,” Ruggiero said. “That’s been very helpful in accessing a larger population of individuals that need our help that has just had barriers to get it.”
The final piece of the BrightView puzzle is an on-site pharmacy that will dispense FDA-approved medications that can be utilized in the treatment of some patients.
“Same day they can be treated and dosed and leave with their medications which can be very valuable in terms of a relapse scenario,” Ruggiero said.
The pharmacy will be opening in the coming months. Ruggiero said BrightView accepts almost all commercial insurance, including Medicaid, and care coordinators can help those without insurance try to acquire it.
If you walk into the Harrisonburg clinic, located at 16 Pleasant Hill Road, before 3 p.m. on weekdays, you can be seen and receive treatment the same day.
You can simply walk in, schedule an appointment and transportation on the BrightView website, or call its 24/7 phone line at (833) 510-4329.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/brightview-addiction-treatment-center-helps-those-valley-with-substance-use-disorder/ | 2022-08-27T02:07:45Z |
Driver charged after crash creates traffic mess in Harrisonburg
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - A driver faces charges after a crash brought down power lines which ultimately created a traffic mess in Harrisonburg on Friday night.
According to a Harrisonburg city spokesman Michael Parks, a single-vehicle wreck around 5:45 p.m. led to the closure of the Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Reservoir Street intersection. The crash created extensive delays and backups throughout the area.
Parks said the driver of the vehicle was charged with failure to maintain proper control of the vehicle and for not being licensed. He did not immediately identify who was behind the wheel.
Nobody was hurt and no other vehicles were involved.
Those traveling in the area from Martin Luther King Jr. Way to Eastover Drive on Friday night into Saturday are asked to avoid the area as several utilities crews work to repair the damage.
A spokesperson for Harrisonburg Electric Commission said the downed power lines only impacted service to the Hardees location at the intersection intersection of MLK Jr. Way and Reservoir St.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/driver-charged-after-crash-creates-traffic-mess-harrisonburg/ | 2022-08-27T02:07:51Z |
Financial planner: You can still achieve financial goals during inflation
HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) -- Building your savings during inflation is not impossible to do. That’s according to financial planner Dusty Dean with Good Wealth Management in Harrisonburg.
He says it takes intentionality and planning to achieve your financial goals.
He recommends saving enough money to cover the necessary expenses for three to six months. While it can seem intimidating to some people, Dean reminds you savings is not something immediate. It is something to work toward.
”Saving is building to the point which you are able to save,” Dean said. “So come up with a plan. Set your goals. Be committed to them, and keep track of your progress.”
Once you’ve done that, begin working to lower your housing and debt ratio.
Housing ratio, or expenses, includes rent or mortgage payments, utility costs, and any other expense needed to keep your home running. That should equal about 28% of one’s income: about 36% or less should go towards debt payments.
After clearing those “hurdles”, Dean said it is safe to start saving into your future.
When it comes to investing, his advice is simple: “Start early. Invest often.”
This, too, requires a plan. If you are not sure where to start, he suggests speaking with a financial planner.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/financial-planner-you-can-still-achieve-financial-goals-during-inflation/ | 2022-08-27T02:07:57Z |
Police: Mother arrested after child found outside in heat, covered in feces
SURPRISE, Ariz. (Arizona’s Family/Gray News) - A mother in Arizona has been arrested after her son was found reportedly living in deplorable conditions.
Arizona’s Family reports 29-year-old Cheyenne Fenney was taken into custody on Thursday on a count of child abuse after police found her 2-year-old son outside, alone and covered in animal feces.
Police said they were called to the neighborhood regarding reports of a child walking outside unattended on a sidewalk.
Arriving officers said they found a 2-year-old boy, wearing only a diaper and pants, outside in temperatures that were about 102 degrees. Authorities noted that the boy was covered in what appeared to be animal feces from head to toe.
Witnesses told police the child was wandering around for over an hour before the boy’s mother came outside looking for him.
According to officers, they went to Fenney’s home to make contact with her when they found feces and urine throughout the house from five dogs and two cats living there.
Investigators said Fenney’s other child, an adult who also lives at the home, told them that Fenney leaves the boy to care for himself as she stays in her room all day until he comes home.
Police said the child was evaluated and given medical attention before being turned over to the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
Copyright 2022 Arizona's Family via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/police-mother-arrested-after-child-found-outside-heat-covered-feces/ | 2022-08-27T02:08:03Z |
Semitrailer fails to clear bridge; city planning more signage for truckers, officials say
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV/Gray News) - The Kansas City Police Department shared photos of a tractor-trailer that was simply too tall to make it under an area bridge on Friday.
KCTV reports that dozens of large trucks have tried driving under the Independence Avenue Bridge over the years. But unless they are under 12 feet tall, they will not make it.
Lewie Pugh, with the Independent Driver’s Association, said in June that these types of incidents are common as drivers who aren’t from the area don’t know the roads well.
“If you’re a trucker and you’re not from Independence, you don’t know how to get around this bridge or where you’re going,” Pugh said. “Your customer is on the other side of that bridge. You need to know how to get around it safely.”
In June, Kansas City officials said they were working with the Kansas City Terminal Railway, which owns the bridge, to help fund new signage. The railway company said it has spent $100,000 on repairs and signage over the past decade.
“Nothing is foolproof, of course,” Pugh said. “I think hanging signs before the bridge is a good thing because that’ll get a person’s attention and hopefully stop before they hit the bridge.”
Kansas City officials said they plan additional signage, but crews could not raise the bridge or lower the road because that would be a massive investment.
On Friday, police did not immediately release any further details about the driver or truck involved in the incident. No injuries were reported.
Copyright 2022 KCTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/semitrailer-fails-clear-bridge-city-planning-more-signage-truckers-officials-say/ | 2022-08-27T02:08:10Z |
Shenandoah Co. high school football game canceled over social media comments
STRASBURG, Va. (WHSV) - Friday night’s football game at Strasburg High School was canceled out of an abundance of caution.
According to a tweet posted on the Strasburg Athletics Twitter account at 3:40 p.m. on Friday, the school division learned of comments made on social media which threatened the safety of students and fans at Friday night’s scheduled football game at Strasburg High School.
Shenandoah County Sheriff Tim Carter said the alleged threat came from a student at Strasburg High School. Carter said he’s been in touch with Shenandoah County’s Commonwealth Attorney. As of early Friday evening, Carter said there is no sufficient evidence to press charges.
The contents of the alleged threat are unclear.
WHSV reached out to Shenandoah County Public Schools superintendent Melody Sheppard for comment and to learn more details about the situation. Calls and an e-mail were not immediately returned.
Strasburg was set to host Skyline at 7 p.m. on Friday.
This is a developing story. Stay with WHSV News for updates.
Copyright 2022 WHSV. All rights reserved. | https://www.whsv.com/2022/08/27/shenandoah-co-high-school-football-game-canceled-over-social-media-comments/ | 2022-08-27T02:08:17Z |
Police: Mother arrested after child found outside in heat, covered in feces
SURPRISE, Ariz. (Arizona’s Family/Gray News) - A mother in Arizona has been arrested after her son was found reportedly living in deplorable conditions.
Arizona’s Family reports 29-year-old Cheyenne Fenney was taken into custody on Thursday on a count of child abuse after police found her 2-year-old son outside, alone and covered in animal feces.
Police said they were called to the neighborhood regarding reports of a child walking outside unattended on a sidewalk.
Arriving officers said they found a 2-year-old boy, wearing only a diaper and pants, outside in temperatures that were about 102 degrees. Authorities noted that the boy was covered in what appeared to be animal feces from head to toe.
Witnesses told police the child was wandering around for over an hour before the boy’s mother came outside looking for him.
According to officers, they went to Fenney’s home to make contact with her when they found feces and urine throughout the house from five dogs and two cats living there.
Investigators said Fenney’s other child, an adult who also lives at the home, told them that Fenney leaves the boy to care for himself as she stays in her room all day until he comes home.
Police said the child was evaluated and given medical attention before being turned over to the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
Copyright 2022 Arizona's Family via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/27/police-mother-arrested-after-child-found-outside-heat-covered-feces/ | 2022-08-27T02:17:06Z |
Rain chances stay low, but not zero through the weekend
We’ll be partly cloudy with occasional showers/storms
Aside from a stray shower or two, we look partly cloudy overnight tonight and into early Saturday. We’ll see some patchy fog here & there and low temps dropping into the upper 50s and low 60s.
Saturday will bring warm & muggy weather, with highs in the upper 70s to mid 80s. We’ll see again a mix of sun and clouds, and we could see a few hit-or-miss showers during the afternoon and evening hours. Not everyone will see rain, but we could see some thunder, lightning, and a heavier downpour here or there. Overall, flooding and severe chances look to stay nil. Saturday night will be partly cloudy with lows again on either side of the 60-degree mark.
Sunday and Monday will bring more of the same; sun, clouds, and isolated showers/storms.
A better chance of rain will come on Tuesday-Wednesday of next week. Scattered showers and t-storms are looking more likely as a stronger area of low pressure moves in.
During the second half of next week, we look to have a little bit of a cool-down...
STAY TUNED!
BLUEFIELD, W.Va. (WVVA) -
Copyright 2022 WVVA. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/27/rain-chances-stay-low-not-zero-through-weekend/ | 2022-08-27T02:17:13Z |
Semitrailer fails to clear bridge; city planning more signage for truckers, officials say
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV/Gray News) - The Kansas City Police Department shared photos of a tractor-trailer that was simply too tall to make it under an area bridge on Friday.
KCTV reports that dozens of large trucks have tried driving under the Independence Avenue Bridge over the years. But unless they are under 12 feet tall, they will not make it.
Lewie Pugh, with the Independent Driver’s Association, said in June that these types of incidents are common as drivers who aren’t from the area don’t know the roads well.
“If you’re a trucker and you’re not from Independence, you don’t know how to get around this bridge or where you’re going,” Pugh said. “Your customer is on the other side of that bridge. You need to know how to get around it safely.”
In June, Kansas City officials said they were working with the Kansas City Terminal Railway, which owns the bridge, to help fund new signage. The railway company said it has spent $100,000 on repairs and signage over the past decade.
“Nothing is foolproof, of course,” Pugh said. “I think hanging signs before the bridge is a good thing because that’ll get a person’s attention and hopefully stop before they hit the bridge.”
Kansas City officials said they plan additional signage, but crews could not raise the bridge or lower the road because that would be a massive investment.
On Friday, police did not immediately release any further details about the driver or truck involved in the incident. No injuries were reported.
Copyright 2022 KCTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wvva.com/2022/08/27/semitrailer-fails-clear-bridge-city-planning-more-signage-truckers-officials-say/ | 2022-08-27T02:17:19Z |
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People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe | https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/ingram-judy/article_d876c8c2-44cf-519d-9db5-e67e8560297e.html | 2022-08-27T02:32:50Z |
Doris Mildred Lucas 1933-2022 Doris M. Lucas, 89, passed away peacefully on August 14, 2022, at Davis Hospice Center in Cheyenne, WY. Born in Fredonia, Kansas on February 3, 1933, Doris grew up on the family farm, raising sheep and enjoying the outdoors. She attended college at Wichita State, and met her husband, Bill. She majored in business and minored in music. Doris eventually settled in Worland, Wyoming where she was a children's social worker, and a school social worker. She always had a heart for troubled kids. Doris moved to Cheyenne after receiving her MSW from DU and worked as a therapist. Retirement didn't slow her down, because she traveled all over the US, Canada, and Guam to accredited mental health facilities until she was 86 years old. Doris was an avid quilter and highly creative. She always liked to learn new things and see new places. She loved birds and clouds, and always wanted to learn to fly. She loved being in the mountains, immersed in God's creation. She is preceded in death by her parents, Lee and Velma Miller, and her sister Eva Brauninger. She is survived by her husband Bill, her children Gregg Lucas, Chris (Mike) Galagan, Kelli (Jim) Kilpatrick, Shelly (Chris) Los, seven grandchildren, and one great grandchild. Funeral services will be held at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church on Sept. 10 at 10:00 am. Her ashes will be scattered at a later date in the mountains she loved. Memorials may be made to Smile Train or St. Jude's.
To plant a tree in memory of Doris Lucas as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/milestones/obituaries/lucas-doris-mildred/article_2573c703-8abf-50ee-a387-c06c9b751bb7.html | 2022-08-27T02:32:56Z |
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Beth Schadel 1935-2022 Our beloved mom, oma and friend, Beth Schadel, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, went to be with the Lord on Sunday Aug 21, 2022. She was born to William and Edith Rothell in November 1935 in Westover, Texas. The family later moved to Dallas where she fell in love with city life as it was back then with street cars, baseball games and later modeling for Neiman Marcus. She spent a semester at the University of Texas before she trained as a flight attendant with Continental Airlines. In 1955, Beth met her future husband, Hal Schadel, a pilot. Beth and Hal married in 1956 and for 21 years followed Hal's Air Force career through several nation-wide assignments. The family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1970 where, while raising the family, Beth finished her teaching degree, taught kindergarten and pre-kindergarten at Trinity Lutheran School and then at Our Savior Lutheran School. She loved the churches she attended and always attracted people who became part of our extended family. She loved teaching and believed education was key to success. She also loved to travel and see new places. She enjoyed reading, especially cookbooks, and she was herself a wonderful cook. She loved gardening, especially her roses which the deer loved. Her friends have described her as warm and loving but also sweet and sassy. She will be very missed. Beth is survived by her children, Janis, Curt, Susan, Carl, Gregory, and Michael; grandchildren, Brandon (Elizabeth), Samantha (Josh), Elise (Koda), Elizabeth, Tom and Adrienne, Jeremy (Amber), and Sean; great-grandchildren, Jada, Jaxson, Jayson, Jaxon and Emy; brother, Harvey and Rhonda Rothell, Lane, Chloe and Cameron from Texas, long-time friend, Pete Roe; and many, many friends and nieces and nephews. Beth is preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Hal; and brother, Jim. A graveside service will be conducted on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. at Mountain View Memorial Park,10701 Yellowstone Rd. Cheyenne WY 82009. A combined reception for Mary "Beth" Schadel and Celia Schadel will immediately follow the graveside service at 2:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 220 West 22nd St, Cheyenne WY 82001. A celebration of life for Celia Schadel will immediately follow the combined reception at the First Presbyterian Church at 4:00 p.m. Livestream is available by going to firstpresbcheyenne.org and navigating to the YouTube link. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to St Joseph's Indian School, P.O. Box 326, Chamberlain, SD 57326, or any charitable cause you deem worthy. Condolences may be offered on-line at www.schradercares.com.
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Celia Schadel 1960-2022 Our beloved Celia went to be with the Lord on Monday, August 22, 2022 after enduring a long struggle with health complications. She was surrounded by her devoted husband, loving sister, and Davis Hospice nurses during transition. Celia (Cleveland) Schadel was born and raised in San Jose, California until age 16 when her family moved to wonderful Wyoming. Celia excelled in high school. She joined the FBLA club, as well as started her career at the Laramie County Clerk of District Court. Her organizational skills and talents eventually promoted her to office manager where she graciously served for 28 1/2 years. Her job duties called her to serve on special projects including a statewide computer system and project manager for countless other vital tasks. Celia exemplified a true code of ethics. She possessed profound integrity, honesty, and team-oriented spirit. Her memory was as strong and could match that of an elephant, which benefited all who knew her. Celia's faith was steeped in her membership of First Presbyterian Church. She joyfully served on a few Deacon committees. Celia was joined in marriage to Carl William Schadel on July 27, 1985, and they lived their lives together in Cheyenne. As a couple, they enjoyed family, traveling, dancing, and outdoor adventures. She will be very missed. Her last breath on earth was her first breath in Heaven. Celia is survived by husband, Carl Schadel; brother, Noel(Song Nyo); sister, Colette; brother, Chad; nephew, Van; nieces, Jade and Hunter; in-laws, Janis, Curt, Susan, Gregory and Michael; along with many nieces, nephews and friends. A combined reception will be held for Celia Schadel and Mary "Beth" Schadel (mother-in-law) on Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 220 West 22nd Street, Cheyenne WY 82001. A celebration of life service for Celia Schadel will immediately follow the reception at 4:00 p.m. in the sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church. Livestream is available by going to firstpresbcheyenne.org and navigating to the YouTube link. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the First Presbyterian Church, Davis Hospice Center, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, or Daystar Television Network (Partner Processing, PO Box 610546, Dallas TX 75261-0546). Condolences may be offered on-line at www.schradercares.com.
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Monday
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Board, 8:30 a.m., Google Meet only. Online access available at meet.google.com/hxe-vtug-wek.
Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund Board, 8:30 a.m., Google Meet only. Online access available at meet.google.com/hxe-vtug-wek.
Wyoming Legislature’s Select Committee on Tribal Relations, 9 a.m., Central Wyoming College, Intertribal Center, Wind River Room, 2660 Peck Ave., Riverton. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature’s Subcommittee on Manual of Legislative Procedures Updates, online only. Public comment taken at Room W110, Wyoming State Capitol, 200 W. 24th St. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature’s Select Natural Resource Funding Committee, 11:30 a.m., Hot Springs County Museum, Conference Room 700, Broadway St.,Thermopolis.
Wyoming Legislature’s Select Natural Resource Funding Committee, 11:30 a.m., Hot Springs County Museum, Conference Room 700, Broadway St.,Thermopolis.
Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, 1:30 p.m., Hot Springs County Commissioners Building, Government Annex Meeting Room, 117 N. 4th St., Thermopolis. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, 8:30 a.m., Hot Springs County Commissioners Building, Government Annex Meeting Room, 117 N. Fourth St., Thermopolis. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature’s Air Transportation Liaison Committee, 8 a.m., Snow King, Grand Room, Main Hotel, 400 E. Snow King Ave., Jackson.
Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee, 8:30 a.m., Central Wyoming College, HS 100, 2660 Peck Ave., Riverton. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Revenue Committee Property Tax Working Group, 8:30 a.m., via Zoom. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands, and Water Resources Committee, 8:30 a.m., Central Wyoming College, HS 100, 2660 Peck Ave., Riverton. Livestream available on the Legislature’s website at www.wyoleg.gov.
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A receipt was sent to your email. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/government_meetings_listing/government-meetings-8-29-2022/article_589b26be-2586-11ed-a54b-07f862fd3465.html | 2022-08-27T02:33:40Z |
CHEYENNE – State lawmakers spent Friday morning searching for ways to provide more affordable housing to Wyoming residents, including solutions such as a state housing trust fund and land banking.
Discussions were led by members of the Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, state agencies and local nonprofits invested in breaking down barriers to housing development. It falls in line with the committee’s second-highest priority to address the lack of workforce housing, which they have studied throughout the interim.
“Because of housing, we can’t keep teachers, snowplow drivers, or doctors and nurses,” said Rep. Jim Roscoe, I-Wilson.
Despite stakeholders showing support for a state housing trust fund, legislators decided only to take action on land banking. There were concerns expressed that the state housing trust fund would be unconstitutional because legislative appropriations for charitable or industrial purposes are not allowed unless the recipient is under control of the state.
“Section 6 prohibits the state and its political subdivisions from loaning or giving credit to guarantee private obligations, and also prohibits these actors from making donations to private individuals or entities except for the necessary support of the poor,” said Legislative Service Office staff attorney Anna Johnson.
A state housing trust fund could be possible, but not by following the original recommendation based on Iowa’s model, which legislative staff attorneys said could be problematic because of the difference in how Wyoming’s trust funds are laid out. Wyoming is one of just three states in the nation without a housing trust fund.
Other housing programs in Wyoming already exist, but legislators hoped to find additional ways to manage the pressure on the market.
The Wyoming Business Ready Community Program doesn’t specifically address workforce housing, but Johnson outlined in a memo how it would be a helpful framework for a program, since it provides loans for infrastructure, economic or educational development projects.
There is the Wyoming Workforce Housing Infrastructure Program, which provides loans for the creation of workforce housing subdivisions or developments. However, the infrastructure must be publicly owned, and doesn’t include the building of actual houses in order to follow state statute.
The Wyoming Community Development Authority was also created for many of the same reasons as the infrastructure program, and provides low-interest mortgage loans and financial education. Opportunities are available for down payment assistance, but it is still a loan.
Land banking
Advocates for a direct approach to solving the affordable housing crisis pushed for land banking. The banks are state-enabled public entities with unique governmental powers “that are solely focused on converting problem properties into productive use according to local community goals.”
“It’s a device, in part, where a municipality can clean up that kind of problem and eventually wind up with a property that is sellable,” said Sen. Charles Scott, R-Casper.
Brenda Birkle, executive director of the local nonprofit My Front Door and chair of Cheyenne’s Affordable Housing Taskforce, made her case for the land bank. She played an instrumental role along with Dan Dorsch, special coordinator for Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County, in identifying tools the Legislature could consider.
In her presentation to the committee, she described the land bank as having special powers, “including the ability to hold land tax-free, clear title, negotiate sales, convey property for other-than-monetary consideration and lease for interim uses.”
It acquires property through the expedited tax foreclosure process, lending institutions and the Department of Housing and Urban Development transferring low-value properties to the land bank, as well as private individuals and probate estates not wanting the burden of owning a property and giving it away. This, in return, can address community blights, increase the number of low- to moderate-income units, increase area property values and provide economic growth.
“Land banks are most commonly established in localities with relatively low or declining housing costs and a sizable inventory of tax-delinquent properties that the community wants to repurpose to support community goals,” according to Local Housing Solutions. “In high-cost localities, however, where there are few tax delinquent properties, land banks can serve as a vehicle for holding land purchased strategically for future affordable housing development.”
Based on the presentation and support from nonprofits, legislators passed a motion for the legislative staff to draft a bill based on Nebraska’s statutes. It would not require an appropriation from the Legislature, but rather develop legislation that enables local entities to develop interagency agreements to establish the land bank.
Housing trust fund
Although the housing trust fund that would have fallen under the Wyoming Community Development Authority’s responsibility was not supported by the majority of the committee, it did take up a significant portion of the discussion.
Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, was a supporter of the housing trust fund, even with the work required make it constitutional. She was unsure whether the bill would move forward, but she encouraged efforts to be made, nonetheless.
“I do think, in light of it being one of our priority topics that this committee has chosen to take up, and hearing the overwhelming testimony from May, which I know we have all forgotten that there is an attainable housing concern – then at least we will have something tangible to work on at some meeting,” she told her fellow Corporations Committee members. “And, unfortunately, it will be our last.”
The wariness among legislators to draft the bill started hours before her call to draft the bill, and not just regarding the legal barriers.
According to the Housing Trust Fund Project, they are distinct funds established by governments that receive ongoing sources of public funding to support the preservation of affordable housing.
“Housing trust funds systemically shift affordable housing funding from annual budget allocations to the commitment of dedicated public revenue,” the advocacy organization wrote. “While housing trust funds can also be a repository for private donations, they are not public/private partnerships, nor are they endowed funds operating from interest and other earnings.”
Birkle said money from a statewide trust fund could go into local housing trust funds to create local control, and millions could be used to address housing issues. She said it could be used as gap funding for projects, to acquire and redevelop properties or land, to teach financial literacy and housing counseling, or for down payment assistance for homebuyers that are of low to moderate income.
“The good news is it's customizable,” she told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle days before she went before the committee.
In order to implement it in Wyoming, it could be placed under the authority of agencies such as the WCDA and the Wyoming Business Council.
However, the WBC didn’t want to take on the housing affordability tool, and leadership argued its focus should be in expanding the workforce.
“The Business Council's job is to create a housing problem. And I say that, in all seriousness, and I don't mean to be flippant about it, but it is actually our job to create an environment where businesses can thrive, where businesses can grow,” WBC CEO Josh Dorrell testified Friday. “Housing is one component of it, but, ultimately, it's our job to create the pressure. That creates a housing problem. And if we stay focused on that, we can create enough pressure, we can create enough of a housing problem, that will make us attractive to developers.”
Dorrell was supported by staff from Gov. Mark Gordon’s office, who argued the agency should stay in line with its duties and not take on the housing trust fund. Policy advisor Ivy McGowan-Castleberry said the governor expressed that he feels very strongly that the Business Council has a mission, that they need to work on activating new economic opportunities, and that the framework and expertise for a housing trust fund don’t currently exist.
Some lawmakers questioned whether companies would be deterred from moving into the state if there wasn’t housing, or why the private sector was having difficulty developing enough properties. Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, stepped in to defend the private sector, and said his colleagues were forgetting how well it worked.
“I don't think we should be so short and frustrated with what the private sector has accomplished and say, ‘Well, it’s not working right now, let's create a program,’” he said. “I think there's complementariness that we can pursue.”
Lawmakers will continue to try to find that balance at the next Corporations Committee Oct. 13-14. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/committee-supports-land-bank-housing-solution/article_c6f4b252-2585-11ed-82d6-ff76501aff5c.html | 2022-08-27T02:33:46Z |
CHEYENNE – The Wyoming State Museum is accepting registration for its Digital Skills for Seniors course. This season, the course will be focused on Apple/iOS users, but Android classes will be available in the future.
Digital Skills for Seniors is a free, eight-week course that will gradually introduce skills that older adults can use to simplify and improve their everyday lives.
Made possible by a Spectrum Digital Education Grant, these courses will help participants get comfortable using smartphones and tablets to access the internet, utilize tools like the magnifying glass, connect with friends and family on social media, and more. Each class builds on the previous lesson, and will include time for one-on-one assistance and practice. Participants can bring their own device from home or borrow a tablet from the museum for free.
The course begins on Sept. 15 and ends on Nov 3. Class meets on Thursdays from 1:30-3 p.m.
To register for free, call Melisa McChesney at 307-630-2573 and leave a voice message, including your name and phone number. Space in this class is extremely limited; participants will be registered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Android users can join a waitlist for spring 2023 classes by calling McChesney.
Digital Skills is offered in collaboration with Wyoming Relay, a state program that offers no-cost services for people who have a hearing loss or speech disability to communicate with standard telephone users. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/latest-digital-skills-for-seniors-course-will-focus-on-apple-ios-users/article_d4751db8-25ad-11ed-b9a9-53fcf81e3f03.html | 2022-08-27T02:33:52Z |
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Women spend 47 minutes more on housework, on average, than men each day, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That adds up to roughly 5-1/2 hours each week, and that’s not including child care, grocery shopping or errands, which the BLS classifies in other categories and of which women also do far more.
Here’s another way to think about it: To equalize the load, women would have to stop doing housework on Aug. 29 for the rest of the year.
So maybe they should. We already have Equal Pay Day every spring to bring attention to the additional months women would need to work to catch up to men’s earning power. I suggest we adopt Equal Housework Day every August to underline the extra labor women put in at home.
The housework gap affects millions of Americans. More than half of U.S. households consist of romantic partners; the vast majority (98%) are opposite-sex couples. For women in the key career-establishing years of 25 to 34, most (59%) live with a spouse or partner.
The gender gap in housework persists regardless of a couple’s other commitments. Among dual-career couples, women do more housework – even when they earn more money than their partners. Among retirees, women do more housework. Among non-employed men and women of prime working age, men spend the lion’s share of their waking hours watching TV. Women spend it on housework.
It isn’t as if men don’t have time to cook or clean. The average man has about 40 minutes more daily leisure than the average woman. Among married parents who both work full time – where time to rest is tight, and the housework gap shrinks to about 30 minutes – the husbands take even more leisure than their wives: 44 minutes more every day.
The result is that in almost every coupled household, women do more and have less time to recover. Women consistently report higher rates not only of burnout, but also of stress, depression, anxiety and insomnia. The housework gap is surely not the only reason, but it can’t help.
One survey from March, led by advertising agency Berlin Cameron and author Eve Rodsky, asked respondents what single thing their spouse or partner could do to lower their stress levels. The most common response from women: “Help around the house more.” Yet when men were asked what one thing their wives could do to lower their stress levels, their most common response was “Nothing, I’m happy with the way things are.”
I don’t think these men are saying “I’m happy my wife is so burned out.” But they might not be fully aware of the stress their partners are feeling, and of their own, passive role in fueling it. Indeed, multiple studies suggest that men consistently overrate their own household contributions. That obliviousness is a problem that Equal Housework Day could help solve.
One challenge is that the activities men do tend to be less frequent and more deferrable: yard work, home repairs, car maintenance. It’s women who disproportionately end up with the daily grind of cooking, cleaning and laundry. As consultant Kate Mangino points out in her new book, “Equal Partners,” one reason women prioritize flexibility at work – and often accept lower salaries as a result – is because their unpaid work is so inflexible. The gutters can wait; dinner can’t.
Women pay a steep economic penalty for being so helpful: A college-educated woman in her 20s, Mangino points out, earns roughly 90% of what her male peers earn. By the time she’s in her 40s, that drops to 55%. Looking at comparative data across countries, the more housework men do, the more women there are in leadership roles in government and business. Gender inequalities at home are inextricably linked to those at work, and COVID-19 has widened the gap in both places.
To close the housework gap, men don’t need to spend more time mowing the lawn; they need to start doing some of the tasks their female partners do every morning and every night. That might be awkward, especially at first; our cultural associations about who does what are so strong that we often, mistakenly, think that “she’s better at” tasks like cleaning. A wife might forbid her husband from entering the laundry room, the way he tells her to keep her hands off the cordless drill. But, at best, female skill is simply the result of years of doing a task over and over.
Most people don’t think of their own households as reproducing sexist societal dynamics, research by Allison Daminger, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has shown. That would be too painful. Instead, we find ways to rationalize the housework disparity, making excuses like “She’s a perfectionist” and “He’s laid back.” This isn’t really true – as Daminger points out, some men who claim they aren’t detail-oriented hold jobs as project managers or surgeons.
And one result of seeing the housework gap as the result of individual quirks and choices is that any attempt to solve it risks becoming an interpersonal argument. Those can be costly for women – literally. Beth Livingston, a management professor at the University of Iowa, has found that if women negotiate too aggressively with their husbands about whose career should be prioritized, it can result in the husband withholding his emotional support from his wife, and in his wife’s career coming second. (When husbands negotiate aggressively, they don’t experience this backlash from their wives.)
Equal Housework Day would help by admitting that the housework gap is actually a cultural problem that’s bigger than any one couple. And just as we can’t expect the gender pay gap to go away by getting women to “negotiate better” with their bosses, it shouldn’t be down to individual wives to solve the housework gap by “negotiating better” with their husbands.
But solving it wouldn’t take much: Men have 40 minutes more a day of leisure time than women do; women do 47 more minutes of housework than men. Men could do just 23 minutes more of housework each day and nearly wipe out the housework gap.
The alternative is for women to exercise the nuclear option: Leave the house messy and the fridge empty from now until 2023. | https://www.wyomingnews.com/opinion/guest_column/carmichael-women-shouldn-t-do-any-more-housework-this-year/article_8558267c-259d-11ed-9838-0bb4ede19b87.html | 2022-08-27T02:34:05Z |
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