Used Cars Have Become Unaffordable | CNN Business https://digitalalabamanews.com/used-cars-have-become-unaffordable-cnn-business/
New York CNN Business —
High prices and rising interest rates are putting used cars out of reach for a growing number of car shoppers.
That’s bad news for CarMax, the nation’s largest used car dealer. CarMax reported Thursday that its earnings plunged 54% as the number of cars it sold in the quarter fell 6.4% compared to a year ago.
The company blamed “vehicle affordability challenges that stem from widespread inflationary pressures, as well as climbing interest rates and low consumer confidence.”
Although higher prices lifted the company’s overall revenue, the results were well below forecasts from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. That set off alarm bells for investors. CarMax (KMX) shares plunged more than 24% Thursday, and other car retailers’ stocks were also hammered. Shares of used car rival Carvana (CVNA) fell about 23% and AutoNation (AN), the nation’s largest new car dealer, fell 10%. Shares of many automakers, including General Motor (GM)s, Ford (F), Stellantis and Tesla (TSLA), were also lower.
Car prices have been climbing steadily for the last two years, as a shortage of parts, particularly computer chips, has limited supply in the face of strong consumer demand. Those higher prices have been a major factor in overall inflationary pressures since roughly 40% of US households buy a car each year.
The effort to curb prices has prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at an historic pace in recent months as the central bank tries to ease consumer demand and slow the economy.
Used car prices — although down 2% in August from the record high reached in January — are still up 48% from August 2019, according he Consumer Price Index, a key inflation measure. New car prices hit a record in August, up 30% over the last three years.
CarMax reported an average per vehicle sale price of $28,657 in the three months ending in August, up 9.6% from a year earlier, but down 1% from the previous quarter.
But it’s not just the cost of buying and financing a car that was a drag on sales, according to CarMax executives. The overall pressures on household budgets from higher prices across the board has become an issue.
“Groceries are higher than ever,” said CarMax CEO William Nash on a call with investors. “Consumer confidence, certainly during the quarter, all-time low as far as recent history, I mean even lower than the height of the pandemic. So I just think consumers are prioritizing their spend a little differently.”
The company’s results were also hurt because of increased reserves to cover potential loan losses at its finance arm. CarMax more than doubled the $35.5 million it held in reserve a year ago to $75.5 million at the end of the most recent quarter.
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Blockchain Association For BSV To Host VIP Reception In Ras Al-Khaimah UAE
Blockchain Association For BSV To Host VIP Reception In Ras Al-Khaimah UAE https://digitalalabamanews.com/blockchain-association-for-bsv-to-host-vip-reception-in-ras-al-khaimah-uae/
ZUG, SWITZERLAND, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The BSV Blockchain Association is excited to announce that it will be hosting a VIP Reception event in Ras Al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.
The event will take place on 8 October 2022 at InterContinental Ras Al Khaimah Resort and Spa and will feature an exclusive invite-only guest list. This includes members of the Royal Family, C-level executives and select members of the media.
The event will feature an evening of talks and panels from global industry experts. Attendees can also expect one-on-one sessions to learn more about BSV and find out more about its use cases of Blockchain in their domains.
Some of the notable guests who are scheduled to speak at the event include:
Marcin Zarakowski – Chief of Staff at BSV Blockchain Association
Bryan Daugherty – Co-founder of blockchain distribution network SmartLedger
Mohammed Ibrahim Jega – Co-founder of Domineum
Geoffrey Weli-Wosu – Co-founder of Domineum
Stephan Nilsson – Founder of UNISOT
Rohan Sharan – Founder of TimeChain Labs
Muhammad Salman Anjum, BSV MENA Hub Lead and Chief Mate of InvoiceMate said:
‘The BSV Hub for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia is working on several blockchain education and implementation projects to drive innovation in the UAE.
This event will include the rolling out of training programme in the Ras Al Khaimah to orient government decision makers and educate local developers and entrepreneurs on the capabilities of the BSV blockchain – an initiative that has already received great interest in the country.’
About the BSV Blockchain Association
The BSV Blockchain Association is a non-profit association (Verein) in Switzerland, and the global industry organization which advances Bitcoin SV (BSV). It brings together enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others in the BSV ecosystem. The Association supports the BSV blockchain as the original Bitcoin, with a stable protocol and massive scaling roadmap to become the world’s new money and global blockchain for enterprise. The organization seeks to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while encouraging digital currency and blockchain innovation.
Lightning Sharks on behalf of the BSV Blockchain Association
Key contact: Haris Khan, PR, and Media Manager
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +44 (0) 7503 581 563
SOURCE BSV Blockchain Association
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South Alabama Looking To Maintain First-Half Intensity
South Alabama Looking To Maintain First-Half Intensity https://digitalalabamanews.com/south-alabama-looking-to-maintain-first-half-intensity/
If there’s one common thread through South Alabama’s 3-1 beginning to this football season, it has been getting off to a good start.
The Jaguars have outscored their opponents 54-13 in the first quarter and scored first in all but one game. With a trip to Louisiana (2-2, 0-1 Sun Belt Conference) for its Sun Belt opener on tap Saturday, South Alabama coach Kane Wommack said maintaining that early energy and execution has been a major focus in practice this week.
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“I think we’re getting better each week in our process and how we do things,” Wommack said following Thursday’s practice. “… We talk about beating people through the week — our execution, our jog-throughs I think are operating at an elite level right now. Our guys are very locked-in. When you have the talent that we have and you don’t make a lot of mistakes, you’re going to win football games and you’re going have a lot of success. So within that, we just need to keep staying in our process. That’s really all we talk about.”
Getting off to a fast start has not been a calling card for South Alabama teams in the past. The Jaguars have not finished a season with a winning record since moving up to the FBS level in 2012, and more often than not have fallen behind early in games against the better teams on their schedule.
Last year’s game vs. Louisiana is a case in point. The Jaguars trailed 14-0 in the first quarter and 20-6 at halftime before rallying late and losing 20-18.
“You think about us a year ago and how that was flipped on its head,” Wommack said. “We did not execute well enough on offense early in games. It took us a while to get going, probably outside of about two or three games. Defensively, sometimes it would take us a while to adjust to what teams were doing. I think our guys are confident in what we’re doing, and so they’re playing faster at the beginning of games.
“There’s always some semblance of getting adjusted to game day speed, even around the middle of the season. At the same time, when you know what to do at such a high level that you can play with more confidence, you’re going to play faster. And I think that’s what we’re doing — we’re executing because we know what to do and we’re playing faster. When you do those things, obviously it gives you a chance to create early momentum. And this game really is about holding and carrying momentum.”
• South Alabama will be without defensive end Brock Higdon for the first half on Saturday due to a targeting suspension that carries over from the fourth quarter of last week’s 38-14 win over Louisiana Tech. Redshirt freshman Ed Smith is also banged up after getting injured vs. UCLA the previous week, leaving the Jaguars without two of their more-talented pass-rushers for at least the first half on Saturday.
Starting defensive end Jamie Sheriff remains a stalwart on one side of the defense, with outside linebacker CJ Rias a capable pass-rusher on the other. It’s possible, however, that players such as sophomore Lamondre Brooks and Oklahoma transfer Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge could see more time on Saturday.
“That is the one fortunate piece about our defensive line, that we have so much depth and so much talent there,” Wommack said. “Obviously you want guys like Ed Smith and Brock Higdon in there. And yet at the same time, we’ve got a group of guys that understand what the standard is. They’re going to go execute.”
• South Alabama is an 8-point favorite at Louisiana as of Thursday afternoon, the first time the Jaguars have been the betting pick on the road this season.
However, South Alabama is 4-0 against the spread in 2022, and has beaten the point spread by an astounding 75.5 points through four games. The Jaguars were a 10-point favorite over Nicholls and won by 41 (+31), then were a 5-point underdog at Central Michigan and won by 14 (+19).
South Alabama was a 15.5-point underdog at UCLA and lost by 1 (+14.5), then was a 13-point favorite over Louisiana Tech and won by 24 (+11). Of note, the Jaguars have never won in Lafayette, going 0-5 all-time at Cajun Field.
Through four full weeks of the 2022 season, only nine FBS teams remain unbeaten ATS. Ironically, four of them are Sun Belt members — South Alabama, Southern Miss (4-0), Arkansas State (4-0) and Old Dominion (3-0).
• Though it needs three more victories to be eligible, South Alabama continues to show up in weekly bowl projections published across the internet.
CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm has the Jaguars playing in the Gasparilla Bowl Dec. 23 in Tampa vs. Tulsa, while 247 Sports’ Brad Crawford puts USA in the Birmingham Bowl Dec. 27 vs. UNLV.
USA Today’s Erick Smith has South Alabama in the Camellia Bowl Dec. 27 in Montgomery vs. Eastern Michigan, while ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura has the Jaguars in the Camellia vs. Northern Illinois. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach projects USA into the Cure Bowl Dec. 16 in Orlando vs. Tulsa.
Two prognosticators, Athlon’s Steven Lassan and the staff of College Football News, have the Jaguars staying home for bowl season. In this case, that would mean playing in the LendingTree Bowl at Hancock Whitney Stadium on Dec. 17 — vs. Kent State according to Athlon, vs. Toledo according to CFN.
Then there’s Brett McMurphy of the Action Network, who puts the Jaguars in the “TBA Bowl” vs. Liberty. ESPN is expected to create a new bowl — site and date yet-to-be-determined — if the San Francisco Bowl (formerly the RedBox Bowl) is canceled for the third straight season.
Kickoff for South Alabama at Louisiana is set for 4 p.m. Saturday at Cajun Field. The game will stream live via ESPN+.
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Russia Says Nord Stream Likely Hit By State-Backed 'terrorism'
Russia Says Nord Stream Likely Hit By State-Backed 'terrorism' https://digitalalabamanews.com/russia-says-nord-stream-likely-hit-by-state-backed-terrorism/
A gas leak from Nord stream 1 is seen in the Swedish economic zone in the Baltic Sea in this picture taken from the Swedish Coast Guard aircraft on September 28, 2022. Swedish Coast Guard/Handout via TT News Agency/via REUTERS
Kremlin says damage to pipelines looks like ‘terrorism’
EU official says leaks change nature of Ukraine conflict
European officials say Russian ships seen nearby -CNN
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday that leaks spewing gas into the Baltic Sea from pipelines to Germany appeared to be the result of state-sponsored “terrorism”, as an EU official said the incident had fundamentally changed the nature of the conflict in Ukraine.
The European Union is investigating the cause of the leaks in the Gazprom-led (GAZP.MM) Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines and has said it suspects sabotage was behind the damage off the coasts of Denmark and Sweden.
Four days after the leaks were first spotted, it remains unclear who might be behind any attack on the pipelines that Russia and European partners spent billions of dollars building.
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“This looks like an act of terrorism, possibly on a state level,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding: “It is very difficult to imagine that such an act of a terrorism could have happened without the involvement of a state of some kind”.
Russia also said the United States stood to benefit, in a war of words with the West over who was responsible. Moscow has previously said the leaks occurred in territory that is “fully under the control” of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing Washington would be able to boost its liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales if the pipelines were put out of use.
But U.S. news channel CNN, citing three sources, reported that European security officials had observed Russian navy support ships and submarines not far from the leaks.
Asked to comment on the CNN report, Peskov said there had been a much larger NATO presence in the area.
Zakharova called for an EU investigation to be “objective”, and said Washington would have to “explain itself” – a reference to President Joe Biden’s comment in February that, if Russia invaded Ukraine, “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2”.
The White House has dismissed Russian allegations that it was responsible for the damage to Nord Stream and Biden’s comments were referring to efforts at the time to secure certification to bring Nord Stream 2 into commercial use.
Leaks from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline are likely to be stopped on Monday, the pipeline’s operator told Reuters.
But the spokesperson for Nord Stream AG said it was not possible to give any forecasts for the pipeline’s future operation until the damage had been assessed.
Russia had halted deliveries via Nord Stream 1, saying Western sanctions had hampered operations.
While neither pipeline was supplying gas to Europe when the leaks were first detected, both had gas in them.
European leaders and Moscow say they can not rule out sabotage. Map of Nord Stream pipelines and locations of reported leaks
‘ROBUST RESPONSE’
EU leaders will discuss the ramifications of the damage next week at a summit in Prague, an EU official said.
“The strategic infrastructure in the entire EU has to be protected,” the EU official in Brussels said.
“This changes fundamentally the nature of the conflict as we have seen it so far, just like the mobilisation … and the possible annexation,” the EU official said, referring to Russia’s mobilising of more troops for the war and expectations President Vladimir Putin will annex Ukrainian regions.
Russia’s war with Ukraine and the resulting energy standoff between Moscow and Europe, which has left the EU scrambling to find alternative gas supplies, are set to dominate the EU summit on Oct. 7.
The European Union on Wednesday warned of a “robust and united response” should there be more attacks and stressed the need to protect its energy infrastructure, but EU officials have avoided pointing a figure directly at possible perpetrators.
Next week, EU leaders will discuss an eighth sanctions package on Russia which European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has proposed, including tighter trade restrictions, more blacklistings and an oil price cap for third countries.
The EU official said he expected the 27-nation bloc to agree parts of the sanctions package before the summit, such as the blacklisting of additional individuals and some of the trade restrictions with regard to steel and technology.
Other topics such as the oil price cap or the sanctioning of banks may not be solved before the summit, he added.
EU states need unanimity to impose sanctions and Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban has been a vocal critic, saying sanctions have “backfired”, driving up energy prices and dealing a blow to European economies.
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Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Edmund Blair
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Voters Decide Week 6 Preps Players Of The Week https://digitalalabamanews.com/voters-decide-week-6-preps-players-of-the-week/
More than 74,000 votes were cast in the Week 6 Player of the Week polls, with the three top vote-getters coming from schools not yet represented atop the polls this year.
Fluff Bothwell of Oneonta won the Hollis Wright Birmingham Player of the Week vote. Jarrett Daughtry of Faith Academy was the Coastal Player of the Week winner. Hartselle’s Jack Smith won the Huntsville Player of the Week balloting.
Bothwell had 402 all-purpose yards with six touchdowns in Oneonta’s 53-22 rout at Springville. The junior ran for 272 yards on 18 carries with four scores, caught four passes for 95 yards with one touchdown and had a scoop-and-score TD on a punt block.
Bothwell had 10,265 of the 28,676 votes cast in the poll. Jordan Woolen of Hoover was second in the balloting.
Daughtry, a 6-foot-4 junior, completed 15-of-16 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns for Faith Academy in a 34-7 win over St. Paul’s. Daughtry was 11-for-11 in the Rams’ win over Citronelle, giving him a 96 percent completion percentage in the past two games. Faith is at No. 8 Vigor on Friday.
Daughtry earned 21,612 of the 42,085 votes cast in the Coastal poll. Millry’s Daylon Edmunds finished second.
Hartselle quarterback Jack Smith won the Huntsville Player of the Week poll with 1,201 of 3,518 votes cast. Smith ran for three touchdowns and pass for another in a 69-21 win over Oxford. Smith, a 6-3, 202-pound senior, completed 11-of-21 passes for 194 yards.
New Hope’s Wyatt Bolden finished second in the voting.
Check in on Sunday to vote on this week’s polls.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
Week 1
Coastal: Cole Blaylock, UMS-Wright
Hollis Wright Birmingham: QB Reese, Ramsay
Huntsville: Ian Garner, Brindlee Mountain
Week 2
Coastal: Cole Blaylock, UMS-Wright
Hollis Wright Birmingham: Conner Nelson, Leeds
Huntsville: Nic Strong, Randolph
Week 3
Coastal: Caden Creel, Fairhope
Hollis Wright Birmingham: Zach Sims, Thompson
Huntsville: Kalob Ford, Brindlee Mountain
Week 4
Coastal: Colin Wilson, Mobile Christian
Holllis Wright Birmingham: Riley Harmon, Oak Grove
Huntsville: Andrew Hunter, Randolph
Week 5
Coastal: Caden Creel, Fairhope
Holllis Wright Birmingham: Jalen Jones, Ramsay
Huntsville: Grayson Davenport, Randolph
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Koy Moore Brings Life To Auburn’s WR Room https://digitalalabamanews.com/koy-moore-brings-life-to-auburns-wr-room/
Koy Moore’s four catches for 74 yards provided rare bright spots for Auburn’s offense during last Saturday’s 17-14 OT win against Missouri.
Auburn had 212 yards, and Moore provided 74 toward the total. His best play was on first down from Auburn’s 24 with 7:49 left in the game. The LSU transfer caught a pass on a rollout by quarterback Robby Ashford. The Tigers had gone three and out on their last three drives and had 44 yards in the second half before Moore’s 24-yard catch.
Moore is a versatile receiver who can play in the slot or split wide. His 6′1 190-pound frame gives a blend of physical toughness and speed. He entered the Missouri game with two catches for 26 yards. Auburn hopes his performance against Mizzou is a sign of Moore’s development.
“Koy brings that fire to the room,” Ashford told reporters on Monday. “I definitely love— from the time he stepped foot on campus, he just was a worker. I mean, one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen.”
Moore had plays 20, 21, and 24 yards against Missouri. One of his best plays was a situation that taught Ashford a valuable lesson. Moore was supposed to throw to an open receiver off a double pass from Ashford; however, he switched it up by running once there wasn’t another option.
Moore ran for 20 yards, and Ashford sprinted to help with a block. Ashford suffered a shoulder injury causing him to exit the game for two series. Freshman Holden Geriner had to take Ashford’s spot.
“That’s just me being just a player. I mean, I want to do whatever for the team. But I kind of learned my lesson a little bit,” Ashford said. “I won’t be as competitive, as hard-going. Just try to get my body out there and set up a block in any way. Probably not try to take them to the ground, but maybe just a little push or something, just to create a little space.”
Auburn head coach appreciated Moore’s effort on the run.
“We had a little trick play and they had it covered, and he made something happen with it,” Harsin said. “It was good on his end just to go create something, but also take care of the football. He’s a really smart player. That’s the one thing why he’s been in those positions. He’s really smart, and it was good to see him get the ball in his hands and do some things.”
Ashford returned and completed two more passes to Moore, including one that led to the Tigers getting set in field goal range. Moore’s sideline catch on first down with less than four minutes left in regulation took the Tigers to the Missouri 38-yard-line.
Moore gets a chance for revenge against his former school on Saturday at Jordan-Hare. He played two seasons in Baton Rouge and caught 27 passes for 248 yards in 11 games. Auburn hasn’t had a receiver score a touchdown through four games. Moore’s emergence against Missouri could lead to extra opportunities with the perfect timing of helping his new squad beat his old team.
I‘m proud of him just the time and effort he put in, just coming from LSU to here,” Ashford said. “The adjustment he made, and just how he took everybody, how we took him in, and he bought into the process. And so it was good to see that pay off on Saturday, and it’s only up from here for Koy.”
Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group
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Trumps Paid-Speeches Organizer Is Struggling Financially
Trump’s Paid-Speeches Organizer Is Struggling Financially https://digitalalabamanews.com/trumps-paid-speeches-organizer-is-struggling-financially/
A company that organized a lucrative series of post-White House paid speeches for former president Donald Trump is now struggling to pay vendors, investors and employees, angering Trump allies who supported the effort.
The American Freedom Tour, which struck a multimillion-dollar deal with Trump after he left office, has lost two top executives and canceled events in a number of locations as it has failed to pay its bills, according to people familiar with the activities and documents obtained by The Washington Post. Its founder and owner, who has a history of bankruptcy filings, recently sought bankruptcy protection again.
The group has promised events in a number of locales but canceled them before they began and appears to be banking on a large event at Mar-a-Lago in December to turn its financial position around.
With speakers, affiliates and investors all clamoring for their money, one of the people involved who did get paid was Trump, people close to the former president say. Some Trump advisers have warned against doing future events, though Trump has expressed interest.
It’s not clear what that means for the tour’s advertised upcoming black-tie gala at Mar-a-Lago, with tickets starting at $10,000 a couple to spend time with Trump. The event includes a poolside reception and a formal ballroom dinner. Dinner and a photo with Trump costs $40,000, and a private library meeting with Trump is so pricey that it’s only listed as: “INQUIRE BELOW.” The company declined to say how much Trump is being paid for the event.
The company’s CEO, Brian J. Forte, declined to be interviewed for this article. A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.
“The tour did have some unexpected scheduling issues over the summer that slowed things down, but we are working through it,” said Larry Ward, a spokesman for the company. “We are positioning the tour for greater strength and success going forward.”
The American Freedom Tour started last October, staging glitzy events around the country that resemble Trump rallies but sell tickets ranging from $55 to more than $4,000. In addition to Trump, the shows featured right-wing celebrities such as Candace Owens and Kimberly Guilfoyle, as well as motivational speakers offering personal finance courses.
Essentially, it was a place where Trump supporters could buy a chance to see him and other conservative luminaries — or pay more for special access — with the money not going to a political campaign, but a for-profit company and Trump himself. It was founded by Forte, a motivational-speaker promoter with a long trail of bankruptcy filings and business disputes across the country.
The tour has had a slate of problems, including angry investors, speakers and vendors who have not been paid, according to people familiar with the situation, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal details.
Some unpaid investors are preparing possible legal action, demanding full payment plus interest, according to a demand letter obtained by The Post. If the company doesn’t pay, the group wants Forte to step aside and give them control of the company, according to the letter. Otherwise, they said they will sue.
“Vendors, speakers and other unpaid participants are lining up to collect,” a lawyer working for the investors said in an email to the group. “The intention is still to put a board of governance in place.”
Forte’s spokesman said he didn’t receive a demand letter. “The tour has a solid relationship with its investors,” Ward said.
Ward said the tour was attempting to pay both investors and speakers. “Unforeseen scheduling issues for the programs caused a delay and we asked a limited number of investors if their payment could be delayed until November,” Ward said.
Several speakers other than Trump have not been paid, including prominent Trump allies, a person with direct knowledge of the tour’s finances said.
“We are working very hard to make them whole, and we are confident they will be made whole very soon,” Ward said.
In July the company missed payroll, according to a note to staff from Forte. “We are experiencing some growing pains and all will be OK,” he said in the internal message reviewed by The Post. The spokesman said the company is currently paying its employees.
Forte recently sought personal bankruptcy protection for a fifth time this summer, according to court filings, saying that he owned 100 percent of the American Freedom Tour, earned $19,900 a month, but owed more than $3 million. In a response seeking to dismiss the case, the Justice Department accused Forte of abusing the bankruptcy system to try to thwart foreclosure proceedings and criticized him for traveling to Puerto Rico rather than “making this fifth bankruptcy case a priority.” The government later withdrew its motion at a hearing.
“The bankruptcy filings were over a dispute with a mortgage company,” Ward said, adding: “Mr. Forte visits Puerto Rico frequently but is a legal resident of Florida.”
The financial pressures at the American Freedom Tour led to business practices that some employees found objectionable. In July, the company canceled a planned event in Milwaukee but continued selling tickets online, according to two people familiar with the matter. At times, the company has continued to sell tickets online for events that organizers knew were unlikely to happen, according to two people familiar with the matter.
When another show was canceled in North Carolina, the company initially said it would honor tickets for a future event before agreeing to issue refunds. “We give the option of refunds or rain checks for postponed or canceled events,” Ward said.
The tour’s website currently lists no upcoming events. A planned show in Birmingham, Ala., was also canceled earlier this year.
To promote the events, the company offered a 25 percent commission for ads and social media posts resulting in sales, according to its website. But a Republican Party county chapter in Texas that helped sign up attendees for an event there went unpaid for at least two months, messages show.
“We are awaiting payment and now four months overdue,” Matt Mackowiak, a Republican consultant who leads the local Republican Party in Austin, wrote in an email on Sept. 7. “I will get loud and litigious if not paid by end of week.”
“As you know from reaching out a few weeks ago looking for your payment, I resigned from the American freedom tour on August 3rd,” Chris Widener, the company’s former president and emcee who quit in August, responded. “You are definitely owed the money and should be paid promptly.”
Widener confirmed his resignation in an email but declined to comment on the exchange with Mackowiak, who said he was paid last Friday afternoon “once The Washington Post sought comment.”
Mackowiak said he vetted the company before entering into an agreement with them, and heard from others that while they often were slow to make payments, they eventually did. He said he demanded a written contract, “which took more than a month even though it was a simple document,” according to Mackowiak.
“I hope anyone that is owed money uses every legal channel available,” Mackowiak said. A spokesman for the company said they were sorry Mackowiak’s payment was late.
The company also recently lost its chief financial officer, Dale Ainge. In an interview, Ainge said he left the company in June due to a health issue and wished the company well. He said the company had defaulted on two of its loans before he left, and some vendors were complaining they had not been paid.
“They had to cancel a couple events, which caused some financial issues,” he said. “They were behind on things. They were behind on payments. So for me to say, what kind of financial position they’re in? They were a little bit behind in a couple of the notes. There were a couple accounts payable that were past 60 days.”
Ainge said he was paid by the company and that he believed they would turn their fortunes around when he left in June. Ainge said he was approached by Forte to plan events around Trump and conservative speakers, similar to events he held for a company called Get Motivated.
He said some of the events had made money, but others had not and some were canceled even after expensive marketing. “It’s a start-up,” he said. “There are always challenges.”
When the tour was starting, investors were promised to earn 20 percent on their money in six months, according to loan documentation obtained by The Post. But internal emails show that when the money came due, the company failed to pay.
“We needed a little more time,” Forte assured investors in March. “The investment is intact. Please bear with us a couple of weeks.”
By August, Forte still hadn’t provided the money, the emails show. In one email, Forte explained that he was trying to raise more money domestically and overseas and confirm future event dates with Trump. He offered to pay $5,000 in a week while the company closed other deals to be able to pay in full by November.
One person familiar with Forte’s actions said he was constantly trying to hold off speakers, investors and others who were seeking money — “putting the biggest fire out and holding on.”
“You have been an INCREDIBLE supporter of President Trump and the events we are doing,” Forte told an investor in an email. “We would love if you could attend the Gala” at Mar-a-Lago in December. “We would like to honor you there if you are able to make it,” he wrote.
Ainge said Trump was the highest paid speaker but declined to say how much, citing a confidentiality agreement. “It’s in line with the speaking fee of past presidents,” he said.
He said that Trump was the group’s biggest seller, and many supporters wanted to meet him backstage and were willing...
Opinion | Unlike Trump DeSantis Is Showing A Populist Can Be Presidential In A Crisis
Opinion | Unlike Trump, DeSantis Is Showing A Populist Can Be Presidential In A Crisis https://digitalalabamanews.com/opinion-unlike-trump-desantis-is-showing-a-populist-can-be-presidential-in-a-crisis/
If you want to understand why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) represents such a threat to Democrats in the next presidential election, watch his hurricane news briefings — and compare them with Donald Trump’s briefings during the pandemic.
Like Trump, DeSantis is a political counterpuncher who relishes taking the fight to the left. He punched back at sanctuary-city advocates by flying planes of illegal migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. He punched back against the progressive education establishment by signing a law banning critical race theory in Florida schools. He punched back against Disney after it demagogued his bill to protect the parental rights of Floridians by removing its special tax status. He punched back against Democrats who smeared GOP election integrity laws as racist by signing a sweeping voting overhaul bill. And he punched back against the perpetual-lockdown establishment by fighting vaccine and mask mandates, and making his state a bastion of freedom during the pandemic. All this has endeared him to Republican voters in Florida, where he appears to be cruising to reelection — and made him the leading potential challenger to Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
But as Hurricane Ian approached, DeSantis did something Trump seemed unable or unwilling to do: He flipped a switch and became the very model of a chief executive leading in a time of crisis. At his news briefings, he has been all business — updating Floridians on the growing strength of the storm, evacuation plans for those in vulnerable locations, instructions for finding shelter and the deployment of line crews to restore power in affected areas; he outlined plans to address gasoline shortages and cellphone service blackouts and warned citizens not to drive through flooded roads. He demonstrated bipartisanship, praising President Biden’s emergency declaration and pledging to work hand in hand with his administration. “You’ve got people’s lives at stake, you’ve got their property at stake, and we don’t have time for pettiness,” DeSantis told reporters Tuesday. “We gotta work together to make sure we’re doing the best job for them.”
DeSantis understands that in a crisis, when Americans are scared and confused, they want information and they want action — not political theater.
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Contrast this with Trump’s daily covid-19 news briefings, which he reportedly compared proudly to a Mike Tyson boxing match. But frightened Americans didn’t want to watch a prize fight — they wanted reassurance. Instead, they got insults, jarring shouting matches with reporters, attacks on “unappreciative” governors, and stream-of-consciousness speculation about sunlight and bleach. While Americans were terrified of a virus that was killing thousands, they heard Trump boasting about how his “ratings” were incredible. It got so bad that his own his advisers reportedly begged him to halt the briefings — which he eventually did. But by then, the damage was done. In mid-March of 2020, 50.6 percent approved of Trump’s handling of the pandemic, but by April, his approval numbers had begun cratering. In July, his approval rating was 38 percent: He had lost the American people and never recovered.
The sad part is, his pandemic response was actually quite strong. He shut down travel with China in January, which even Anthony S. Fauci admitted saved lives. He procured nearly 200,000 ventilators and deployed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build $660 million worth of emergency field hospitals across the country — most of which never treated a single patient. The bipartisan Cares Act he signed into law averted a second Great Depression. And he launched Operation Warp Speed, which produced a vaccine against the virus in less than a year — one of the greatest public health achievements in history — and paved the way for the end of the pandemic. But all of those accomplishments were overshadowed by the unpresidential behavior that alienated millions of Americans who were looking to him for leadership.
If Trump had carried himself then like DeSantis is performing today, he would probably still be in the Oval Office.
DeSantis understands this. And he is showing that, unlike the 45th president, he can take the fight to Biden one day and work with him to help storm-battered Floridians the next. He can provoke the left like a conservative populist, but also govern like a conservative reformer and lead like a president in times of crisis. Watching him manage this crisis, conservatives should see a leader who can give them everything they love about Trump, without the belligerence and bad judgment. Even before the hurricane, a poll of Florida Republicans — the voters who know him best — showed him leading Trump by eight points in a hypothetical primary.
To see why, just watch his next news briefing.
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Russians Rebel As Putin Drafts More People In Battle For Ukraine
Russians Rebel As Putin Drafts More People In Battle For Ukraine https://digitalalabamanews.com/russians-rebel-as-putin-drafts-more-people-in-battle-for-ukraine/
September 29, 2022 at 11:18 a.m. EDT
President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization of Russian men to fight in Ukraine has brought home the reality of war to ordinary Russian families.
For months, Russian voices of dissent were largely silent. Initial antiwar demonstrations were quickly crushed and there were only small displays of defiance in major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. But that all changed after Putin’s announcement on Sept. 21.
Through angry protests, acts of violence and an exodus of more than 200,000 citizens, Russians are rebelling against the prospect of further escalation of the war and the steep price they will probably pay.
Kremlin officials have downplayed the turmoil but the scenes coming out of Russia tell a different story, one of widespread opposition against a government known for quashing it. Dissent has been documented across the country even in areas that were previously quiet.
Videos and images verified by The Washington Post show Russians are angry and afraid for their lives. Dozens of protests broke out in large cities and rural areas that have already lost many men to the war in Ukraine. Some took to violence, while others chose to escape: Miles-long lines of cars waited to cross land borders out of the country and international flights out of Moscow were full of fighting-age men.
On Sunday, demonstrations erupted in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in the North Caucasus. Soldiers from the region have suffered disproportionately high casualties during the Ukraine invasion. In protests in the regional capital of Makhachkala on Sunday and Monday, women confronted, even chased, local authorities. “We are for peace,” they chanted in one widely shared video.
Security forces responded harshly, violently detaining both women and men. Some 120 people were arrested in Makhachkala, according to OVD-Info, an independent group monitoring protests.
The head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, has blamed the unrest on foreign influence “trying to escalate the situation inside the country” and has vowed that the republic will fulfill its part of the mobilization.
In Endirey, a village of around 8,000 people located northwest of Makhachkala, video taken Sunday showed police firing into the air. According to local Telegram channels, 110 men had been called up there.
There were more protests Monday in Makhachkala and security forces again clashed with locals.
Within hours of Putin’s announcement, protesters took to the streets in several large cities including St. Petersburg, Perm, Yekaterinburg and Moscow. Police, as they did months earlier, responded with beatings and mass arrests.
Protesters also came out in western Siberia. A video posted Sept. 21 showed people standing in Novosibirsk’s central square. “I don’t want to die for Putin,” one shouted before being pulled away by police.
Police surrounded demonstrators in a main square of the Siberian city of Tomsk on Sept. 21. One protester was led away holding a sign that said, “give me a hug if you’re also afraid.”
In the eastern cities of Siberia, protesters fought with police shortly after Putin’s announcement and continued demonstrating through the weekend.
In a video posted Sunday on Telegram from the far eastern city of Yakutsk, an impoverished area where ethnic minorities have also borne the brunt of casualties in the war, women surrounded police and chanted, “Let our children live!”
There have also been attacks against military recruitment offices. More than a dozen incidents of violence have been reported across the country against military commissariats since the mobilization announcement.
On Monday morning at a recruitment center in Ust-Ilimsk, 25-year-old Ruslan Zinin shot and critically wounded the chief recruitment officer, Alexander Eliseev, in charge of conscription.
The shooter was detained and a criminal case was opened against him, according to Russian News Agency Tass.
A video posted Monday to Telegram showed a person throwing a Molotov cocktail at an enlistment office in the town of Uryupinsk, part of the oblast or province of Volgograd in southwest Russia.
In a statement from the administration of Uryupinsk posted on the Russian social media channel VK, the office confirmed the enlistment building was set on fire and that “the person at fault has been detained.” The administration said that there was minimal damage and no injuries.
A military recruitment office in Tomsk was evacuated following a bomb threat just hours after Putin’s announcement, media in Tomsk reported.
Rather than engaging in attacks or protests, many more young men seeking to avoid the war have opted to flee the country. Social media posts and satellite imagery showed miles of cars lined up at Russian border crossings as neighboring nations reported influxes of Russian migration.
Lines of cars stretched back at least nine miles from the Upper Lars checkpoint on the border with Georgia, far longer than the usual backup, according to Stephen Wood, senior director at Maxar Technologies. The traffic jams are visible both in satellite images and videos posted online.
For Yana and her boyfriend, crossing into Georgia took days. The 28-year-old, who only gave her first name because she didn’t want to be identified by authorities, described a desperate scene at the border.
“People had been standing there for three or four days already,” she said. “Online help chats are being created, people asking for water, food, diapers, gasoline.”
“I’ve seen a lot of things at the border but never the mayhem such as this,” a tour guide said in a video posted on Sept. 22.
Georgia’s interior minister said there had been a 40 to 45 percent increase in Russians crossing the border daily since the mobilization announcement.
After days of waiting, the couple made it across on Tuesday. “He hadn’t received a summons yet,” Yana said of her boyfriend. “Once it arrives it’s too late to leave.”
Satellite imagery captured by Maxar Technologies on Friday showed a line of vehicles nearly a half-mile long waiting to cross from the Russian republic of Buryatia into Mongolia.
“There are definitely more vehicles trying to leave,” Wood said. Images from Aug. 15, which he said were typical of traffic volumes before the mobilization, contained only a handful of trucks on the Russian side of the border.
Satellite imagery taken in the week since Russia’s announcement also indicated extensive delays at several land crossings into Kazakhstan.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev estimated Tuesday some 98,000 Russians had entered the country since Sept. 21. “Most of them are forced to leave because of the current hopeless situation,” he said in a speech. “We must take care of them and ensure their safety.”
Video taken at the Mashtakovo border crossing into Kazakhstan and posted Sept. 22 also showed cars lined at the checkpoint and men on foot. Footage recorded late Sunday showed large numbers of men still at the border.
“There are many refugees, I feel sorry for them,” Aidos Kairzhanov, who shared the videos with the Post and said he helped transport some Russians from the border.
Many also scrambled to fly out of Russia.
“The decision to leave was a very hard one,” said Alexander, 27, who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals. He left behind his family, girlfriend, mortgage and job, and booked a flight to Kazakhstan when he heard of the mobilization. At first he was nervous and confused, but he made friends on the flight — young Russian men who were also escaping.
“I’m happy I left and have no regrets. But the future is very unclear,” he said.
Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report from Riga, Latvia and Atthar Mirza contributed from Washington DC. Mariya Manzhos provided translations.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization” of troops in an address to the nation on Sept. 21, framing the move as an attempt to defend Russian sovereignty against a West that seeks to use Ukraine as a tool to “divide and destroy Russia.” Follow our live updates here.
The fight: A successful Ukrainian counteroffensive has forced a major Russian retreat in the northeastern Kharkiv region in recent days, as troops fled cities and villages they had occupied since the early days of the war and abandoned large amounts of military equipment.
Annexation referendums: Staged referendums, which would be illegal under international law, are set to take place from Sept. 23 to 27 in the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies. Another staged referendum will be held by the Moscow-appointed administration in Kherson starting Friday.
Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
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What Joe Biden https://digitalalabamanews.com/what-joe-biden/
opinion
I shuddered when I learned that President Joe Biden had called out to a crowd in search of a congresswoman who died nearly two months ago in an automobile accident. He’s going to turn 80 in November and let’s face it, this seemed like a memory fail – a particularly embarrassing one.
Yet there’s another way to look at this: Biden was trying to credit the late Indiana Republican Rep. Jackie Walorski – a lawmaker who voted on Jan. 6, 2021, to object to his presidential victory in Arizona and Pennsylvania and who this March labeled his agenda “radical & reckless” – for her good work on nutrition and hunger.
It’s unfortunate that he made the mistake. At the same time, it demonstrated a generosity and professionalism that was also present in Biden’s Tuesday conversation with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a frequent and harsh Biden critic, as Hurricane Ian bore down on his state.
White House Conference on Hunger: Biden has lofty plan to ‘end hunger.’ But president must address Americans’ urgent needs.
The two men “committed to continued close coordination,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after they talked. “I spoke with Gov. DeSantis for some time,” Biden added Wednesday. “I made it clear to the governor and the mayors that the federal government is ready to help in every single way possible.”
No blue or red states, just the United States
This what we normally expect from national leaders. “There are no red states or blue states, just the United States,” President Barack Obama tweeted during his 2012 reelection campaign.
Later, his vice president – Biden – revived the theme in his own 2020 presidential campaign: “I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president. No red states, no blue states, just the United States. I promise you. I’ll work as hard for those who don’t support me as those who did. That’s the job of a president, a duty to care, to care for everyone in America.”
Midterm elections: If you care about your country and your rights, don’t vote for any Republicans in 2022
The contrast with former President Donald Trump is glaring. If he intuited “a duty to care,” he conveyed that strangely by, for instance, throwing paper towels at a crowd of Puerto Ricans in 2017 after the island had been devastated by Hurricane Maria.
“It showed such a lack of empathy,” chef José Andrés told The Washington Post a year later. By then, he and his World Central Kitchen had served 3.6 million meals in Puerto Rico.
This month, two days before the fifth anniversary of Maria and still struggling to recover, Puerto Rico was battered by Hurricane Fiona. Biden’s response: “We are with you. We’re not going to walk away. We mean it.” Then he told Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, “You have the phone number. You can call me, personally, anytime. And I mean it.”
Trump repeatedly blamed California for its catastrophic wildfires, dismissed the impact of climate change and drought, and threatened to withhold money because the state didn’t follow his advice to “clean” its forest floors. “Maybe we’re just going to have to make them pay for it because they don’t listen to us,” he said.
Crisis of caregivers: COVID Great Reckoning hastens a shortage care for older adults
‘We still don’t have water or electricity’: Voices from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona
And then came the COVID-19 crisis and a new wave of blue-state blaming from “an unpredictable president with a love for cable news and a penchant for retribution,” as The Associated Press put it. Trump warned Democratic governors at the outset to be “appreciative” or his administration would not be responsive, singling out Washington’s Jay Inslee and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer as particular offenders in the appreciation department.
He also blamed governors for failing to handle their own problems and forcing the federal government to get involved. As if national leadership was optional during a terrifying global pandemic.
By fall 2020, Trump was bragging that the U.S. death rate had fallen dramatically despite “tremendous death rates” in blue states. “If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at,” he said. “We’re really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue-state-managed.”
Jackson’s water crisis isn’t just a moment: It’s a systemic catastrophe
Lock them up? Throw them out? Take his red states and secede? COVID soon took hold in red states, of course. It played no favorites. But Trump did. He never saw himself as everyone’s president.
Memory lapses are part of aging
When Walorski died on Aug. 3, Biden offered condolences to her family and a tribute to her work. He noted in a White House statement that she was co-chair of the House Hunger Caucus and said, “I appreciated her partnership as we plan for a historic White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health this fall that will be marked by her deep care for the needs of rural America.”
So yes, Biden not only seemed to blank on Walorski’s tragic death, he also did it at the very conference he cited in his statement after she died.
As so many of us know from our own lives, with age come memory lapses, and that’s often the least of it.
I am already on record as a fan of Biden’s presidency while at the same time hoping he won’t run for reelection in 2024. But let’s put this moment in perspective. You need only look back a couple of years to remember that some things are more important than age and a perfect memory.
Jill Lawrence is a columnist for USA TODAY and author of “The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock.” Follow her on Twitter: @JillDLawrence
More from Jill Lawrence:
Joe Biden shouldn’t run for reelection in 2024, for the good of the nation and his party
Republicans can’t erase diversity or history, but they’re trying so hard it hurts
GOP would investigate Biden or even impeach him. Is that what 2022 voters want?
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GMS Racing NCWTS Race Preview: Talladega Superspeedway
GMS Racing NCWTS Race Preview: Talladega Superspeedway https://digitalalabamanews.com/gms-racing-ncwts-race-preview-talladega-superspeedway-2/
Talladega Superspeedway Stats
– NCWTS Starts: 8, Wins: 1 (2016), Best start: 2nd, Top 5s: 2, Top 10s: 3, Laps led: 96
– ARCA Starts: 6, Poles: 1 (2014), Best finish: 3rd (2009), Top 5s: 1, Top 10s: 3, Laps led: 89
2022 NCWTS Season Stats
– Starts: 20, Wins: 1 (IRP), Best start: 3rd, Top 5s: 7, Top 10s: 11, Laps led: 44, Current points position: 7th
–– About Champion Power Equipment: Since 2003 Champion Power Equipment has earned a reputation for designing and producing the market’s finest power equipment. From our original headquarters in Santa Fe Springs, California, Champion has expanded its North American footprint to include facilities in Jackson, Tennessee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Toronto Canada. Today, Champion’s product line has expanded to include portable generators, home standby generators, inverter generators, engines, winches and log splitters. With over 2.5 million generators sold in North America, Champion is a market leader in the power equipment field. Visit ChampionPowerEquipment.com for more information.
– Chassis History/Info: Enfinger and the No. 23 team will compete with chassis no. 141 at Talladega Superspeedway. This Chevrolet made its on-track debut in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway, where Grant ran inside the Top-10 for the majority of the event before getting swept up in a crash coming to the white flag. Saturday’s race will mark the first time that this chassis has raced at ‘Dega.
– Sweet Home Alabama: Every time the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rolls into Talladega, hometown fans have Grant Enfinger on pinned high on their list to cheer for. Enfinger, who grew up in nearby Fairhope, AL, has had plenty of memorable moments at his home track. In 2010, Enfinger made his first career NCWTS start at the 2.66-mile super speedway, and in 2016, he earned his first career victory in the series driving for GMS Racing. You’d better believe that this track is one of his favorite stops of the season!
– Trackside Appearances: Fans attending Saturday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 will have a chance to meet the hometown hero on race day at the NASCAR Trackside Live stage where he will be participating in a Q&A session from 9:30 AM – 9:45 AM local time.
– Breast Cancer Awareness: As part of a team tradition, Grant Enfinger will be honoring several women who have been affected by breast cancer with pink ribbons lining his No. 23 Chevrolet at Talladega. The women highlighted are family members of GMS Racing employees directly associated with his team.
– #FearTheFinger Playoffs Profile: One race down, two left to go in the Round of 8 for the NCWTS playoffs. Grant and the No. 23 team have been on a hot streak since the start of the postseason, posting four Top-5 finishes in four races including a win in the opening round at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Entering Talladega, the veteran is seeded in seventh position in the points standings, currently 15 points below the cutline.
– GE Quote: Enfinger ‘s thoughts on racing at his home track during the Round of 8:
“Talladega is always a special place for me, so I’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Jeff Hensley and the guys have our Champion Power Equipment Chevy as prepared as we can possibly be. Speedway racing is always chaotic, but hopefully we have the speed and make the right decisions to get some valuable stage points and contend for a win. Roll Tide!”
Talladega Superspeedway Stats
– NCWTS Starts: 1, Best start: 24th, Best finish: 40th (2021)
– ARCA Starts: 1, Best start: 12th, Best finish: 11th (2021)
2022 NCWTS Season Stats
– Starts: 20, Best start: 10th, Best finish: 13th (Atlanta), Current points position: 23rd
– Game On: Earlier this week, GMS Racing officials announced a two-race primary sponsorship with Logitech G on Jack Wood’s No. 24 Chevrolet. One of the most iconic brands in the esports industry will be promoted by Wood at the next two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races at Talladega Superspeedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.
– About Logitech G: Logitech G, a brand of Logitech International, is the global leader in PC and console gaming gear. Logitech G provides gamers of all levels with industry-leading keyboards, mice, headsets, mousepads, and simulation products such as wheels and flight sticks – made possible through innovative design, advanced technologies, and a deep passion for gaming. Founded in 1981, and headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Logitech International is a Swiss public company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (LOGN) and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market (LOGI). Find Logitech G at logitechG.com, the company blog or @LogitechG.
Logitech and other Logitech marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Logitech Europe S.A and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.
– Chassis History/Info: Wood and the No. 24 team will compete with GMS Racing chassis no. 127 on Saturday afternoon. Having raced at the plate tracks since 2016, this Silverado RST has always shown speed on the high banks. In nine previous races, this chassis has finished in the Top-10 four times, including a pair of second place finishes at Talladega with Spencer Gallagher and at Daytona with Justin Haley.
– Breast Cancer Awareness: As part of a team tradition, Jack Wood will be honoring several women who have been affected by breast cancer with pink ribbons lining his No. 24 Chevrolet at Talladega. The women highlighted are family members of GMS Racing employees directly associated with his team.
– JW Quote: Wood’s thoughts on super speedway racing in the Truck Series:
“There are a lot of unknown variables that come along with super speedway racing, but I think Talladega provides us with a great opportunity to capitalize. I wasn’t able to get much experience racing in the pack there last season as we had a mechanical failure, but I learned a lot earlier this year at Daytona and Atlanta that I look forward to using this weekend. Our main goal has to be all about surviving, so if we can avoid ‘the big one’ and put ourselves in a good spot to be there when it counts, that is going to pay huge dividends. I’m looking forward to taking on this challenge with my No. 24 Logitech Silverado RST.”
GMS Racing PR
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Section Of Sanibel Causeway Wiped Out By Hurricane Ian
Section Of Sanibel Causeway Wiped Out By Hurricane Ian https://digitalalabamanews.com/section-of-sanibel-causeway-wiped-out-by-hurricane-ian/
Photojournalist Douglas R. Clifford and I left our hotel room in Fort Myers late Wednesday night and have been searching the area and assessing the damage from Hurricane Ian.
A section of the causeway leading to Sanibel is gone, wiped out by the powerful Category 4 storm.
Here are our dispatches from Lee County:
11:52 a.m.: “There’s barely anything left”
In Fort Myers Beach, emergency officials expect to find bodies in the rubble. They know people did not all heed the evacuation orders, which began Monday. Jennifer Campbell, the local fire marshall, walked through town with a colleague Thursday, surveying the damage and shutting off gas lines.
“Absolute devastation,” she said. “There’s barely anything left.”
4:15 a.m.: Section of causeway to Sanibel is wiped out
An alarm bleats endlessly at the tollbooth for the Sanibel Causeway. Step just beyond it, and the road soon gives way. Where the bridge rises from the mainland toward the island, one of the first sections of the span has disappeared. Crumbled pavement lies near the water’s edge. The rest of the bridge stretches forward, unreachable.
2 a.m.: Pavement leading to Sanibel folded up like an accordion
JUST BEFORE THE SANIBEL CAUSEWAY — Under the toll plaza sign — 1/2 a mile out — McGregor Road to Sanibel Island is impassable.
The pavement is folded up like an accordion, ripped to ribbons by a powerful storm surge. Nearby, a spiral staircase was deposited in the brush next to a white pickup. The storm flung a boat trailer and other debris, too.
Sand was strewn in sheets across the pavement — sea bottom on solid land. Waves lapped at the shore, just steps away.
Two cars tried to pass out to the island about 1:30 a.m., including a group of young men hoping to reach their friend.
They had to turn around.
The pavement just before the causeway to Sanibel is folded up like an accordion, ripped to ribbons by a powerful storm surge. [ Douglas R. Clifford | Times ]
Just before the Sanibel Causeway, a spiral staircase was deposited in the brush next to a white pickup as Hurricane Ian went through the area. [ Doug Clifford ]
12:30 a.m.: Downtown Fort Myers badly flooded
FORT MYERS — Building alarms blared through the wind still rustling downtown shortly before midnight. Shin-high, gray water rippled down First Street outside the United States Courthouse. Small pieces of trash drifted in the current.
One store off First Street suffered a shattered front window. A dress hung in the display, flapping in the wind. Nearby, what might have been chunks of a seawall lay along the road — hulking pieces of foam covered with a hard exterior, scarred by barnacles.
Businesses in downtown Fort Myers suffered damage from Hurricane Ian. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]
A few pickup trucks were stuck on the road out to Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island. One of the drivers had boats to check on.
The water was still too high.
Water still filled some streets in neighborhoods off McGregor Boulevard, southwest of the city center. It drifted halfway up the poles of white mailboxes.
Businesses in downtown Fort Myers suffered damage from Hurricane Ian. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]
A few houses shone out of complete blackness, generators humming.
Felled branches — and some whole trees — littered the lawns.
Some downtown blocks had power, strange aberrations with bright lights — a few empty bars, a house of pizza.
A pickup truck navigates a flooded section of First Street outside of the United States Courthouse in downtown Fort Myers on Wednesday, Sep 28, 2022, where storm surge continued to inundate Lee County long after the eye wall passed into central Florida. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]
10 p.m.: ‘It was just blasting us for hours.’
CAPE CORAL — Hours after Hurricane Ian made landfall near Caya Costa, this city that once rose improbably from wetlands was pitch black Wednesday night.
John Renas, 42, surveyed his yard with two of his children, their headlamps darting over knee-high floodwater.
”It was just blasting us for hours,” said Renas, who has lived in the area since he was 16.
Brianna Renas, 17, inspects a fallen palm tree outside her home at Santa Barbara Boulevard and SE 39th Street Terrace in Cape Coral after riding out Hurricane Ian with her family on Wednesday in Cape Coral. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]
They never really considered evacuating for Ian, he said.
The surge climbed to the edge of their house at the corner of Santa Barbara Boulevard and SE 39th Terrace. The wind was equally terrifying, shaking and lifting the eaves.
For hours, Renas said, it felt like the wind was going to suck out the doors. He held onto one, he said, and his son, Zak Irwin, clutched the other.
”The howling, just something I’ll never forget,” Renas said.
”Like cars revving their engines,” said daughter Brianna Renas, 17.
”Or a plane flying overhead,” Irwin said.
A displaced boat sits beside the roadway in the southeast corner of Cape Coral on Wednesday night as the winds of Hurricane Ian continue to buffet the flood-soaked streets. [ DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times ]
Renas said his 12-year-old daughter was having fun at first, treating shelter-in-place like a camping trip. Then she looked outside and saw the floodwaters creeping closer. She started to cry.
Murky brown seawater still soaked their front and side yards around 9:30 p.m. It lapped against a toppled palm tree, beside which Renas’ daughter usually waits for the school bus.
About 100 yards up the street, a white car lay abandoned in the road, water up to the floorboards.
”Next time they tell us to evacuate,” Renas said, “I’ll leave.”
• • •
2022 Tampa Bay Times Hurricane Guide
ROAD CLOSURES: What to know about bridges, roads as Hurricane Ian approaches.
HOW TO TALK TO KIDS ABOUT THE HURRICANE: A school mental health expert says to let them know what’s happening, keep a routine and stay calm.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN A SHELTER: What to bring — and not bring — plus information on pets, keeping it civil and more.
WHAT TO DO IF HURRICANE DAMAGES YOUR HOME: Stay calm, then call your insurance company.
SAFEGUARD YOUR HOME: Storms and property damage go hand in hand. Here’s how to prepare.
IT’S STORM SEASON: Get ready and stay informed at tampabay.com/hurricane.
RISING THREAT: Tampa Bay will flood. Here’s how to get ready.
DOUBLE-CHECK: Checklists for building all kinds of hurricane kits
PHONE IT IN: Use your smartphone to protect your data, documents and photos.
SELF-CARE: Protect your mental health during a hurricane.
• • •
Rising Threat: A special report on flood risk and climate change
PART 1: The Tampa Bay Times partnered with the National Hurricane Center for a revealing look at future storms.
PART 2: Even weak hurricanes can cause huge storm surges. Experts say people don’t understand the risk.
PART 3: Tampa Bay has huge flood risk. What should we do about it?
INTERACTIVE MAP: Search your Tampa Bay neighborhood to see the hurricane flood risk.
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Calling All Pooches: Tuscaloosa To Hold First Dogtoberfest Pet Parade
Calling All Pooches: Tuscaloosa To Hold First Dogtoberfest Pet Parade https://digitalalabamanews.com/calling-all-pooches-tuscaloosa-to-hold-first-dogtoberfest-pet-parade/
Tuscaloosa’s first Dogtoberfest Pet Parade promises to be something to bark about.
The family-friendly event for dogs and their owners will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday at Capitol Park, 2800 Sixth St. hosted by ReUnited, United Way of West Alabama’s retiree-led leadership society. The parade will be followed by a pet blessing service at 5:30 p.m. hosted by the Christ Episcopal Church.
Jacob Crawford, director of communications and marketing with United Way of West Alabama, said he hopes to make Dogtoberfest an annual event and he looks forward to seeing community members and their furry friends come out on Sunday.
More dog news:Family of Tuscaloosa POW Alex Drueke organizes dog adoption event
“I personally am really excited for the event because it’s an opportunity to not only hang out with animals and our four-legged friends or fur babies, but it’s also a cool opportunity to raise money for dogs who don’t have homes right now,” Crawford said.
The inaugural Dogtoberfest will benefit local animal support programs, including the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter.
The parade, scheduled to begin at 4:45 p.m., will feature a costume contest, judged by ReUnited members.
Prize categories for pets will include “Most Fabulous,” “Mr. or Mrs. Manners,” “Mr. or Ms. Congeniality,” “Most Wise” and “Most Spunky.” The “Best Twosome” award will be given to the best pet and owner costume.
For more information or to register your dog for the parade, go to the United Way of West Alabama’s website.
The Rev. Paul Pradat and the Rev. Emily Rowell Brown of Christ Episcopal Church will bless pets at the end of the parade. Pets of all kinds are welcome to be blessed.
The church’s pet blessing service coincides with the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and the environment. The 13th century monk who founded the Franciscan order was also an advocate of peace, simplicity, and harmony.
John Humber, chairman of ReUnited, said the Dogtober event is a way to promote the retiree organization and celebrate pooches who enrich the lives of people.
“We all love and are so proud of our four-legged friends,” he said.
Humber said people can choose to participate in either the parade or the pet blessing without feeling obligated to engage in both.
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How McKinsey Got Into The Business Of Addiction https://digitalalabamanews.com/how-mckinsey-got-into-the-business-of-addiction/
The consulting firm’s work with opioid makers is well known, but for decades McKinsey worked with Big Tobacco and has also advised Juul, the e-cigarette company.
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McKinsey & Company in New York City. The firm’s work with opioid makers is well known, but its work with cigarette and vaping companies has escaped public scrutiny.Credit…John Taggart for The New York Times
By Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe
Bogdanich and Forsythe, investigative reporters at The Times, are the authors of the forthcoming book “When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm,” from which this article is adapted.
Sept. 29, 2022Updated 12:37 p.m. ET
When McKinsey & Company, the global consulting giant, sat down with executives of Juul Labs in late 2017, the vaping company was well on its way to becoming a sensation among teenagers eager to latch on to the latest fad — inhaling flavored, supercharged nicotine vapor through a sleek new device easily hidden from parents and teachers.
With grand ambitions, Juul needed marketing advice from McKinsey, the most respected voice in consulting, to help it on its way to a valuation greater than the Ford Motor Company. For less than two years of work, McKinsey billed Juul $15 million to $17 million.
But the client came with a reputational risk, and McKinsey preferred to keep the arrangement secret. Although its product was conceived as a way to help adults stop smoking, Juul stood accused of marketing nicotine to teenage nonsmokers, addicting a new generation in much the same way the cigarette industry hooked their parents. This month, several years after McKinsey took the company as a client, Juul agreed to pay $438.5 million to settle government investigations into its marketing practices, though it did not acknowledge wrongdoing in the settlement. Those marketing practices had included using young models, social media and flavored nicotine.
McKinsey, which was not involved in the settlement, said its work with Juul had focused on youth vaping prevention. That work was just the latest in a decades-long history of consulting for companies that sell addictive products. The full story of McKinsey’s role in advising these companies — while also consulting for their government regulators — has never been told.
Last year, McKinsey agreed to pay more than $600 million to settle state investigations into its role in helping Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers fuel the opioid epidemic. And for decades, McKinsey has helped manufacturers boost sales of the most lethal consumer product in American history — cigarettes.
As recently as 2016, more than 50 years after the surgeon general confirmed the link between smoking and cancer, McKinsey still saw merit — and profits — in continuing to help companies sell more cigarettes.
In a slide deck prepared for Altria, formerly Philip Morris, McKinsey offered ideas for how the tobacco company could keep customers and lure new smokers. It presented a mock-up of what a Marlboro smartphone app would look like, complete with a way for loyal smokers to win points redeemable for small prizes.
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McKinsey felt comfortable proposing ways for the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes to sell more of them.Credit…Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times
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McKinsey’s most important work for Juul Labs involved responding to an F.D.A. crackdown on youth vaping.Credit…Caroline Tompkins for The New York Times
“We are one team, working side-by-side,” McKinsey wrote in a slide deck prepared for Altria, illustrated with photos of cigarettes. McKinsey also advised Altria on marketing e-cigarettes, with the goal of making one of its products the “Nespresso of e-vapor” and stopped advising tobacco companies only last year.
McKinsey’s services are highly valued; its clients include many of the most respected blue-chip companies as well as governments around the world. For companies selling addictive products it also offered deep ties to the Food and Drug Administration, a regulatory agency vital to their survival. In four years under President Donald J. Trump, McKinsey took in $77 million in consulting contracts with the F.D.A.
McKinsey’s vaunted value system points to why a company so widely admired could end up working so long for tobacco companies. On one hand, McKinsey used those values to recruit the best and brightest students by suggesting that a job there means more than a big paycheck — it also offers the possibility of doing good, of helping those most in need. Yet McKinsey’s overriding value, No. 1 on its list — to put client interests first — created an environment in which client service sometimes trumped its own moral code.
McKinsey denies any wrongdoing in helping to market opioids, vaping and cigarettes — its trifecta of addiction clients — or that its F.D.A. contracts posed a conflict of interest, because it never advised the agency on any specific drug, a McKinsey spokesman said in a written response.
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McKinsey agreed last year to pay more than $600 million to settle state investigations into its role in the opioid epidemic.Credit…Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press
Seth Green, a former McKinsey consultant who worked at the firm for two years and is now a dean at the University of Chicago, questioned the wisdom of rigidly adhering to the client-first dictum. “If we don’t bring a moral purpose to these businesses, then the purpose inevitably becomes the client and whatever the client is trying to achieve,” Mr. Green said.
Even if that means consulting for Big Tobacco.
Teenagers’ Favorite Flavors
Alfonso Pulido, a McKinsey partner, arrived at the San Francisco offices of the Covington & Burling law firm on a mid-October morning last year to do something antithetical to the firm’s strict code of secrecy: talk about McKinsey’s work with clients, specifically Juul and Altria.
Mr. Pulido was there to give a deposition in connection with an unresolved product liability case filed in a federal court in California. In the deposition, marked highly confidential, Mr. Pulido said McKinsey first discussed doing business with Juul in 2015 when it proposed doing a risk assessment of Juul’s tentative plan to enter the marijuana market.
McKinsey chose not to do the study, Mr. Pulido said, because marijuana “was not regulated or legal at the time.”
It wasn’t until 2017 that the consultancy performed a pricing study for Juul’s vaping device. Afterward, McKinsey offered advice on branding, organization, retail, flavor evaluation, youth vaping prevention and regulatory issues. The company also consulted for Altria, which was trying to muscle into the vaping business.
Flavored nicotine had become highly controversial because health care experts blamed Juul for using flavors that appealed to young people.
Mr. Pulido acknowledged that McKinsey had surveyed teenagers as young as 13, asking them to rank flavor names in order of preference, though he emphasized that no sensory testing had taken place.
Esfand Nafisi, a lawyer representing clients who had sued Juul for marketing to children, pressed him on that answer.
“Did anyone at McKinsey stop and say, ‘Hey, maybe we shouldn’t be helping tobacco companies study teenagers’?”
“The stated objectives were to help inform youth prevention activity as well as responsibly introduce a flavor that was appealing to adult smokers,” Mr. Pulido responded.
“In retrospect, does McKinsey think this survey was appropriate?” Mr. Nafisi asked several minutes later.
“I don’t have an opinion on it,” Mr. Pulido responded. But he added that it “feels correct.”
The survey found that the favorite flavor name among ages 13 to 21 was mint, Mr. Pulido said.
“Did you know that mint would go on to become an incredibly popular flavor with teens a year after this Power Point deck was presented?” Mr. Nafisi asked.
“No, I was not aware of that.”
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McKinsey records show that Bob Sternfels played an administrative role on the Juul team. McKinsey says he did not work on the account.Credit…Singapore Press, via Associated Press
The work with Juul attracted interest at the highest levels inside the firm. Bob Sternfels, now McKinsey’s managing partner, played an administrative role on the Juul account, an internal document shows. (A McKinsey spokesman said that while Mr. Sternfels knew a senior Juul executive, he had not worked on that account.)
McKinsey’s most important work for Juul involved responding to the F.D.A.’s crackdown on youth vaping. With the F.D.A. circling, demanding answers as to why teenagers were so attracted to Juul, the company asked McKinsey to help prepare a defense and respond to the agency’s inquiry.
The nature of that work remains a secret, because for those services McKinsey was paid through Juul’s law firm, Sidley Austin, allowing Mr. Pulido to claim lawyer-client privilege. “I know in some instances we are retained through legal counsel as part of privilege,” Mr. Pulido said.
At least one McKinsey partner, Michael Chui, grew concerned watching vaping spike in popularity, though it was not at all clear that he knew McKinsey had Juul as a client. (Consulting teams are not allowed to share information.)
“In just a few years, vaping has wiped out two decades of work getting teens to quit (or never start) cigarette smoking,” Mr. Chui wrote in a public comment on a magazine article about Juul.
Mr. Pulido said McKinsey stopped work with Juul in 2019 because of “increasing regulatory uncertainty and increased awareness of youth use.”
McKinsey and the Tobacco Industry
Vaping became popular as smoking rates across the nation began to decline in response to a drumbeat of scientific findings that cigarettes are highly add...
Body Recovered From Gorge At Noccalula Falls Park In Gadsden
Body Recovered From Gorge At Noccalula Falls Park In Gadsden https://digitalalabamanews.com/body-recovered-from-gorge-at-noccalula-falls-park-in-gadsden/
Body recovered from gorge at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden
A body was recovered Wednesday from the Black Creek gorge at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama.According to the city, the Gadsden Fire Department responded to the gorge on a report of an unresponsive person between Noccalula Falls and the park’s suspension bridge. Upon arriving, first responders found the person in a rocky area and determined they “had been deceased for a period of time,” the city said. Firefighters conducted a high-angle recovery operation with the assistance of the Gadsden Police Department and recovered the body three hours later.The cause of death and the name of the deceased person are unknown at this time. Get the WVTM 13 app for the latest updates on this developing story.
GADSDEN, Ala. —
A body was recovered Wednesday from the Black Creek gorge at Noccalula Falls Park in Gadsden, Alabama.
According to the city, the Gadsden Fire Department responded to the gorge on a report of an unresponsive person between Noccalula Falls and the park’s suspension bridge. Upon arriving, first responders found the person in a rocky area and determined they “had been deceased for a period of time,” the city said.
Firefighters conducted a high-angle recovery operation with the assistance of the Gadsden Police Department and recovered the body three hours later.
The cause of death and the name of the deceased person are unknown at this time.
Get the WVTM 13 app for the latest updates on this developing story.
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European Stocks Fall As Bank Of England Boost Fades; Stoxx 600 Down 2%
European Stocks Fall As Bank Of England Boost Fades; Stoxx 600 Down 2% https://digitalalabamanews.com/european-stocks-fall-as-bank-of-england-boost-fades-stoxx-600-down-2/
BOE spends additional $1.55 billion on long-dated gilts
The Bank of England bought £1.415 billion ($1.55 billion) worth of government bonds with maturities of over 20 years, Reuters reported.
It is the second day of the bank’s bond-buying scheme, launched to stabilize market volatility after a government budget announcement saw a historic rise in bond yields, which move inversely to prices. It bought £1.025 billion of gilts Wednesday.
The start of the program boosted gilt prices, though they began to fall again after Prime Minister Liz Truss said in a series of interviews that she would stick to her policies.
The 10-year gilt yield was trading at 4.121% at 3:20 p.m. London time.
— Jenni Reid
Stocks on the move: Rational up 15%, Barratt Developments down 12%
Rational shares jumped more than 15% by mid-afternoon trade to lead the Stoxx 600, after the German combi steamer and oven manufacturer raised its sales revenue and profit forecast for 2022.
At the bottom of the European blue chip index, British property developer Barratt Developments fell more than 12%.
– Elliot Smith
Semiconductor shortage set to ease in 2024, Porsche CFO says
Semiconductor shortages will continue to affect Porsche throughout 2023, according to Arno Antlitz, Volkswagen’s chief financial officer, but supply should improve the following year.
“We expect a better supply in 2023, but we expect easing of the shortages only to kick in in 2024,” Antlitz told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.
The comments were made as Antlitz reflected on Porsche shares making their stock market debut in Frankfurt.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Euro zone economic sentiment continues to deteriorate
The European Commission’s economic sentiment indicator, which aggregates business and consumer confidence surveys, fell to 93.7 in September from 97.3 in August, its lowest point since November 2020.
Confidence plummeted across economic sectors amid a broad increase in inflation expectations, despite the European Central Bank‘s commitment to interest rate hikes in order to rein in soaring prices.
– Elliot Smith
Porsche shares rise in Frankfurt market debut
Porsche shares increased almost 2% above its IPO price in its stock market debut on Thursday, in what’s being billed as one of Europe’s biggest ever public offerings.
Shares in the luxury carmaker initially traded at 84 euros ($81) at the start of the day.
Shares had been priced at the top end of their range late Wednesday, putting the company value up to 75 billion euros.
Read CNBC’s full coverage here.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Stocks on the move: Rational up 12%, Barratt Developments down 9%
Rational shares jumped more than 12% in early trade to lead the Stoxx 600 after the German combi steamer and oven manufacturer raised its sales revenue and profit forecast for 2022.
At the bottom of the European blue chip index, British property developer Barratt Developments fell more than 9%.
– Elliot Smith
CNBC Pro: Analyst says this FAANG stock is an evergreen winner — and investors should buy the dip
Tech stocks have had a difficult year so far but a Rosenblatt Securities analyst thinks the sell-off is an opportunity for long-term investors to buy the dip.
“Stay away from the losers,” he said, recommending “winners in the various secular battles and evolutionary battles” in tech.
Pro subscribers can read more.
— Zavier Ong
Stocks may continue this ‘oversold bounce’ over the next few days, Wells Fargo’s Harvey says
Wells Fargo’s Chris Harvey expects stocks to continue their upward move.
“The spike in short interest, retail selling skew, and BOE’s action all suggest stocks will continue their oversold bounce for the next few days,” he said in a note to clients Wednesday.
Stocks hit fresh lows earlier in the week, with the S&P 500 notching a new bear market. The sell-off was triggered by the Fed’s latest rate decision last week, which some investors believe steered the market into oversold conditions.
As the cost of capital rises and prices hover near record highs, the consensus is increasingly coming to believe that a Fed-induced recession is unavoidable, Harvey said.
“We look at a recession like a car crash,” he wrote. “You never know how bad it will be, but there is almost no ‘better-than-expected’ outcome — so policymakers need to be careful what they wish for.”
— Samantha Subin
10-year Treasury yield drops the most since 2020
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped the most since 2020 on Wednesday, despite briefly topping 4% earlier in the session, after the Bank of England announced a bond-buying plan to stabilize the British pound.
The 10-year Treasury yield last dropped 23 basis points to 3.733%, or the most it’s dropped since 2020.
It hit a high of about 4.019%, a key level that was the highest since October 2008, earlier in the day before erasing those gains.
Yields and prices move in opposite directions. One basis point is equal to 0.01%.
— Sarah Min
Wed, Aug 17 202212:29 AM EDT
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European stocks are expected to open in negative territory on Wednesday as investors react to the latest U.S. inflation data.
The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 47 points lower at 7,341, Germany’s DAX 86 points lower at 13,106, France’s CAC 40 down 28 points and Italy’s FTSE MIB 132 points lower at 22,010, according to data from IG.
Global markets have pulled back following a higher-than-expected U.S. consumer price index report for August which showed prices rose by 0.1% for the month and 8.3% annually in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, defying economist expectations that headline inflation would fall 0.1% month-on-month.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.6% from July and 6.3% from August 2021.
U.K. inflation figures for August are due and euro zone industrial production for July will be published.
— Holly Ellyatt
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Ukraine Live Briefing: Separatist Leaders Gather In Moscow Ahead Of Russian Annexation Ceremony
Ukraine Live Briefing: Separatist Leaders Gather In Moscow Ahead Of Russian Annexation Ceremony https://digitalalabamanews.com/ukraine-live-briefing-separatist-leaders-gather-in-moscow-ahead-of-russian-annexation-ceremony/
Russian President Vladimir Putin will sign treaties claiming to annex four areas of Ukraine on Friday, as separatist leaders from Ukraine arrived in Moscow for what they called “a historic decision” to join Russia. Staged referendums — illegal under international law and widely condemned by Western countries — concluded earlier this week in occupied parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. In Russia, state television has been airing an on-screen clock that counts down the hours until Putin signs the treaties.
Explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines and caused natural gas to leak into the Baltic Sea this week appeared to be “the result of deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage,” NATO said Thursday. It vowed to meet any attacks against its members’ infrastructure “with a united and determined response.”
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
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Separatist leaders from Russian-occupied portions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are in Moscow to complete the procedure of Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory, Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-installed official from Kherson, said in a Telegram post. He shared a group photo of the arrival and called it a “happy ending.”
Putin will address lawmakers Friday at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. Eastern time). The ceremony will take place in the Grand Kremlin Palace to sign “agreements on the accession of new territories into the Russian Federation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The inflammatory move appears likely to slam the door on diplomacy for years to come and almost certainly assure further escalation of the war, with Kyiv vowing to fight to reclaim all of its lands.
The annexation requires a number of procedural sign-offs within Russia, including votes from Russia’s State Duma parliament and Federation Assembly to approve the treaty, as happened when Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. The United States, Canada and the European Union have all vowed never to recognize the annexed land as part of Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv was working with Western allies to firm up support against annexation.
The White House has said it is working with “allies and partners to impose additional economic costs on Russia,” should annexation go ahead. “You can expect additional measures from us in the coming days,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said this week.
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A total of four leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines have been reported, after the Swedish coast guard confirmed Thursday that there were two leaks in Sweden’s economic zone and two in Denmark’s. Investigations into the cause of the explosions are continuing.
The European Union and several nations suspect sabotage and have blamed Russia, which denies causing any damage to the underwater energy infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, which supplies gas to Western Europe. NATO said Thursday that current evidence shows the leaks were “the result of deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage.” The alliance vowed it would defend against “hybrid tactics.”
Russia has denied any involvement and blames the United States. Its Foreign Ministry said Thursday the leaks occurred in the trade and economic zones of “NATO-centric countries” that are completely “controlled by the U.S. intelligence services.” The Kremlin has said it was not in Russia’s economic interest to damage the pipelines and called for a U.N. Security Council meeting. A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the United States had nothing to do with any attack, calling the idea “preposterous.”
The damage to the Nord Stream pipelines could result in the largest single release of methane into the atmosphere ever recorded, experts said. The Danish Energy Agency said sections of the damaged pipe contained 778 million cubic meters of natural gas, which, if it reached the atmosphere, would be equivalent to about 1/1000th of estimated annual global methane emissions, according to calculations by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gas Hydrates Project.
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The United States will provide a $1.1 billion weapons package to Ukraine over the next few years, including 18 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers, a “core component of Ukraine’s fighting force in the future,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the Pentagon. Defense officials said nearly 20 other nations have also agreed to accelerate arms production to replace Ukraine’s Soviet-era equipment with modern systems used by NATO.
Russian lawmakers have lashed out at those fleeing to avoid military conscription. Eligible citizens who are registered with the military are “forbidden to leave … without the permission of the military commissariats,” said speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin on Telegram. Thousands of men are scrambling to the border or rushing for flights to avoid being conscripted to fight in Ukraine. “The better off and well educated are overrepresented among those attempting to leave Russia,” Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday in a daily update.
At least 19 people were injured when Russian strikes hit Dnipropetrovsk, regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko said. He said the attack occurred around 8 a.m. local time and targeted industrial infrastructure and damaged homes, power lines and buildings with cluster shells. The Washington Post could not independently verify the account.
Russia continues to send “newly-mobilized and undertrained recruits” to reinforce depleted units in Ukraine, according to an assessment from the Institute for the Study of War think tank. The Russian Defense Ministry also said Wednesday that training for mobilized reservists has started in multiple places across the country. But readying those new troops will be challenging for the Kremlin, a U.S. official told reporters, given the logistics necessary to supply and train them.
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NATO decries pipeline ‘sabotage’ amid efforts to measure environmental impact: The NATO military alliance has become the latest international organization to sound alarms after explosions at the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. It said the blasts appeared to be the result of “deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage.”
Images released Thursday by the Swedish Coast Guard show a large mass of methane bubbles on the sea surface emanating from the leaks.
Cautioning that it was a preliminary estimate, Bjorn Lund, director of the Swedish National Seismic Network told The Washington Post’s Ellen Francis and Meg Kelly that the strength of the larger second blast was equivalent to 100-200 kilograms (220-440 pounds) of TNT. With the consensus among European leaders that sabotage was involved, suspicion is increasingly falling on Russia, which has denied all responsibility.
Amar Nadhir, Mary Ilyushina and Isabelle Khurshudyan contributed to this report.
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Hurricane Ian Devastates SW Florida: Sanibel Causeway Will Need To Be Rebuilt Governor Says
Hurricane Ian Devastates SW Florida: Sanibel Causeway Will Need To Be Rebuilt, Governor Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/hurricane-ian-devastates-sw-florida-sanibel-causeway-will-need-to-be-rebuilt-governor-says/
Published September 29, 2022 4:21AM
Updated 10:32AM
Devastating flooding in Fort Myers due to Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday afternoon near Fort Myers as a major hurricane just shy of a Category 5. The area was somewhat caught off-guard after the storm’s projected path began to shift south a day before. Residents had little time to evacuate their homes before feet of water rushed in due to storm surge.
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Hurricane Ian swamped southwest Florida, leaving behind a damaged power infrastructure in two counties, turning streets into rivers and damaging two bridges, including the Sanibel Causeway.
Governor Ron DeSantis provided an update Thursday morning, saying the electric grid for Lee and Charlotte counties will likely need to be rebuilt, described Hurricane Ian’s devastation in the area a “500-year flood event.”
Part of the Sanibel Causeway that collapsed (Credit: WZVN-WBBH)
Another angle of the Sanibel Causeway collapse (Credit: WZVN-WBBH)
He said the Sanibel Causeway and Pine Island Bridge are both impassable. They suffered structural damage and will need to be rebuilt.
Another angle showing the road damage leading up to the Sanibel Causeway
Law enforcement reported that it was getting many calls from people trapped in flooded homes. Desperate people posted to Facebook and other social sites, pleading for rescue for themselves or loved ones. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward homes’ eaves.
While the exact figure for injuries and fatalities is not confirmed, the Lee County sheriff said the number of deaths could be in the “hundreds.”
During a phone interview with Good Morning America, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said there are thousands of people who still need to be rescued. Lee County includes Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, and Captiva Island.
“I don’t have confirmed numbers, but I definitely know the fatalities are in the hundreds,” he said during the interview. “There are thousands of people that are waiting to be rescued.”
MORE: Florida man, 72, dies after going outside during Hurricane Ian to drain pool, deputies say
Thursday, the Sanibel Lighthouse appears to still be standing.
Side by side images showing a photo of the Sanibel Lighthouse from 2016 (left) and a distant shot of it the morning after Hurricane Ian made landfall (right)
It’s located on the eastern end of the island. It was built in 1884 and given to the City of Sanibel in 2004 for restoration purposes.
The major hurricane pushed a wall of storm surge accumulated during its slow march over the Gulf, flooding Fort Myers roadways even before making landfall in Coya Costa.
FORT MYERS FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 29: Stedi Scuderi looks over her apartment after flood water inundated it when Hurricane Ian passed through the area on September 29, 2022 in Fort Myers, Florida. The hurricane brought high winds, storm surge and rain t
In Naples, the first floor of a fire station was inundated with about 3 feet of water, and firefighters worked to salvage gear from a firetruck stuck outside the garage in even deeper water, a video posted by the Naples Fire Department showed.
Naples is in Collier County, where the sheriff’s department reported on Facebook that it was getting “a significant number of calls of people trapped by water in their homes” and that it would prioritize reaching people “reporting life-threatening medical emergencies in deep water.”
In Port Charlotte, along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the storm surge flooded a lower-level emergency room in a hospital even as fierce winds ripped away part of the roof from its intensive care unit, according to a doctor who works there.
Water gushed down onto the ICU, forcing staff to evacuate the hospital’s sickest patients — some of whom were on ventilators — to other floors, said Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. Staff members used towels and plastic bins to try to mop up the sodden mess.
“As long as our patients do OK and nobody ends up dying or having a bad outcome, that’s what matters,” Bodine said.
Boats floated onto flooded streets and were swept ashore.
The medium-sized hospital spans four floors, but patients were forced into just two because of the damage. Bodine planned to spend the night there in case people injured from the storm arrive needing help.
For WINK-TV, the wall of storm surge that Ian brought entered the newsroom set in Fort Myers. According to one of their meteorologists, Matt Devitt, they lost power and were unable to continue broadcasting. By 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, he said the worst surge was behind them and water levels were slowly lowering.
“This was, without a doubt, the strongest hurricane in Southwest Florida history,” he wrote on Facebook. “Stay tough, we’re almost through it. I’m thinking of all of you. We WILL rebuild back to the community we know and love.”
MORE: Tampa Bay’s rare hurricane landfalls: 1921 storm, ‘Great Gale of 1848’
Video: Hurricane Ian pushes water out of Hillsborough Bay
Along Bayshore Boulevard, Hurricane Ian’s winds drained the water out of Hillsborough Bay. An eerie sight which also occurred back in 2017 during Hurricane Irma. Video shows a timelapse from a weather camera and ground video from FOX 13 crews.
MORE: Hurricane Ian drains water across Tampa Bay area
Brittany Hailer, a journalist in Pittsburgh, contacted rescuers about her mother in North Fort Myers, whose home was swamped by 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water.
“We don’t know when the water’s going to go down. We don’t know how they’re going to leave, their cars are totaled,” Hailer said. “Her only way out is on a boat.”
FORT MYERS FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 29: Brenda Brennan sits next to a boat that pushed against her apartment when Hurricane Ian passed through the area on September 29, 2022 in Fort Myers, Florida. Mrs. Brennan said the boat floated in around 7pm. The hur
President Joe Biden has since approved a disaster declaration for Sunshine State on Thursday morning following Ian’s trek across the state.
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Ian Shifts East Leaving Alabama Dry But Breezy Thursday
Ian Shifts East Leaving Alabama Dry But Breezy Thursday https://digitalalabamanews.com/ian-shifts-east-leaving-alabama-dry-but-breezy-thursday/
Hurricane Ian is losing strength, moving northeast, and will end up making a second U.S. landfall off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina Friday as a tropical storm. Winds are now at 90mph and is currently a Category 1 storm (10pm Advisory). Ian will likely weaken to a tropical storm befor sunrise Thursday.
Rain will remain a huge concern for Florida for the next 24 hours, then storm surge and heavy rain will become impactful for coastal Georgia and South Carolina. After making landfall (again) Friday, Ian will turn slightly inland bringing plenty of rain to north Georgia, east TN, to Charlotte, NC. Alabama gets spared from any major impacts, but we can’t rule a possible shower near the AL/GA state line Saturday or occasional sprinkle on Sunday. Most of Alabama stays dry.
Between now and the weekend Alabama will be breezy with wind gusts tomorrow between 20-25 mph. It’s a hold-your-hat kind of a day. Sunshine returns tomorrow and temps remain cool. Morning lows crisp, in the 40s and 50s and afternoon highs stay in the 70s.
Weekend events will not be threatened by Ian. From Friday night football, where I would advise a light jacket, to a few clouds Sunday for the race. No major rain is anticipated for anyone. Fayetteville will be warm and sunny. Auburn will be cool and partly cloudy. A stray drop of rain is possible but not a concern.
Race weekend will be near perfect. Not too hot. Not too cold. And very little chance of rain. I would plan on some sleeves for the race, especially in the shade, as it will get a little crisp out there.
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Post Politics Now: Congress Angles To Avert Shutdown Before Lawmakers Hit Campaign Trail
Post Politics Now: Congress Angles To Avert Shutdown Before Lawmakers Hit Campaign Trail https://digitalalabamanews.com/post-politics-now-congress-angles-to-avert-shutdown-before-lawmakers-hit-campaign-trail/
Today, the Senate is angling to pass a stopgap funding bill that would keep the government open for 2½ months. Some details remain to be worked out. The House must also pass the measure by midnight Friday to avert a partial government shutdown. Getting the bill to President Biden is among the final pieces of business before lawmakers turn their full attention to campaigning for the November elections.
Meanwhile, Biden is scheduled to receive a briefing on Hurricane Ian, now a tropical storm, which has left more than 2 million people without power in Florida. Later Thursday, Biden is hosting a first-of-its-kind gathering of more than a dozen Pacific Island leaders.
Your daily dashboard
10 a.m. Eastern: House Republican leaders hold an event on their “Commitment to America” agenda at the Capitol. Watch live here.
Noon Eastern: Biden receives a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Washington.
3 p.m. Eastern: Biden speaks at the U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit at the State Department in Washington.
6:45 p.m. Eastern: Biden hosts a dinner at the White House for the Pacific Island leaders.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
On our radar: Biden, Harris to attend investiture ceremony for Justice Jackson
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President Biden and Vice President Harris, along with their spouses, will attend Friday’s invitation-only investiture ceremony at the Supreme Court for its newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, the White House said Thursday.
Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was confirmed by the Senate in April and took her official oaths as a justice in late June as Justice Stephen G. Breyer retired. Friday’s ceremony comes as the court convenes for its new term.
At a White House celebration a day after Jackson’s Senate confirmation, Biden heralded her ascension to the Supreme Court as “a truly historic moment.”
Analysis: In a first, U.S. appoints a diplomat for plants and animals
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As temperatures rise and habitats shrink, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species around the world are at risk of vanishing.
For the first time, the United States is designating a diplomat to advocate for global biodiversity amid what policymakers here and overseas increasingly recognize as an extinction crisis, The Washington Post’s Dino Grandoni writes in The Climate 202.
Per Dino:
Monica Medina is taking on a new role as special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, the State Department announced Wednesday. She currently serves as the department’s assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
The appointment underscores the Biden administration’s desire to protect land and waters not just at home but to also conserve habitats abroad.
You can read Dino’s full analysis here.
Noted: Historically low ratings for the Supreme Court, federal judiciary
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Forty seven percent of U.S. adults say they have “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of trust in the federal judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court — a 20 percentage point drop from two years ago and the lowest number since Gallup started asking the question in 1972.
Another 53 percent in the latest poll say they have “not very much” trust in the federal judiciary or “none at all.”
When asked about the Supreme Court itself, a majority of Americans also express dissatisfaction.
In the new poll, 40 percent of U.S. adults approve of the way the Supreme Court is handling its job compared to 58 percent who disapprove. The disapproval is a record high in Gallup polling.
Analysis: Electoral Count Act changes become latest Trump loyalty test
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The bill to update the Electoral Count Act is on a surprisingly easy path to Senate passage as support among Republicans continues to grow.
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer say that while the bill appears likely to be a major bipartisan win, the split among Republican lawmakers on the bill is spotlighting the continued tensions in the GOP over the party’s leader, former president Donald Trump, and his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Per our colleagues:
On our radar: White House hosts first Pacific islands summit as China makes inroads
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President Biden on Thursday is welcoming to the White House for the first time more than a dozen Pacific island leaders whose countries are receiving fresh attention and resources as China asserts its own influence in the region.
The Post’s Ellen Nakashima reports that the high-level wooing — including meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo — coincides with the unveiling of the first Pacific island strategy that is aimed at addressing the nations’ top concerns. Those include climate change, recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, illegal fishing and technology investments.
This is an excerpt from a full story.
On our radar: Congress moves toward funding government, averting shutdown
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Congress is poised to pass stopgap legislation to avert a government shutdown, a rare bipartisan compromise on the eve of hotly contested midterm elections.
The Post’s Jacob Bogage reports that the Senate is set to advance a continuing resolution — a bill to sustain government funding at current levels, often called a “CR” — on Thursday that would keep the government running through Dec. 16. The House will probably take up the measure Friday.
Jacob writes:
Once Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) agreed to remove language from the legislation that would have overhauled federal rules for permitting large energy projects, the bill easily overcame a procedural vote in the evenly divided Senate on Tuesday, signaling a probable glide path to final passage.
The legislation includes $12.4 billion in military and diplomatic assistance for Ukraine in its now seven-month-long war with Russia but does not include money the Biden administration requested for vaccines, testing and treatment for the coronavirus or monkeypox. …
“We’re going to work quickly and work fast to finish the process here in the Senate and send a CR to the House so they can send it to the president’s desk,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday. “With cooperation from our Republican colleagues, the Senate can finish his work as soon as [Thursday].”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also signaled his expectation that the CR will soon clear the chamber.
The latest: Harris visits DMZ after North Korean missile tests
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Vice President Harris toured the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on Thursday, becoming the most senior Biden administration official to inspect the demarcation line during a four-day trip to Asia that has been dominated by Indo-Pacific security concerns.
The Post’s Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Michelle Ye Hee Lee report that as Harris stood just a few feet from the North Korean side of the border in the Joint Security Area, North Koreans working in a building on the other side peeked out from behind a curtain. Per our colleagues:
Analysis: Stacey Abrams’s rhetorical twist on being an election denier
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In 2018, Stacey Abrams lost a bitter election for Georgia governor to Brian Kemp, then the state’s secretary of state, and refused to concede after suggesting that Kemp used his position to manipulate his way to victory.
Now, Abrams is in a rematch with Kemp, fending off questions from reporters that she is little different from former president Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed that election fraud led to his defeat by Joe Biden, The Post’s Glenn Kessler writes in The Fact Checker.
Per Glenn:
In recent weeks she has subtly adjusted language to argue that, unlike Trump, she “never denied the election” and “never denied that I lost.”
“The difference [with Trump] is very stark when I did not win my election in 2018,” she told Yahoo News in August. “The first thing I said was that I acknowledged the outcome — that the new governor was Brian Kemp. I was not the governor, but I did say the system was broken.” …
Abrams, in her non-concession speech, did acknowledge Kemp “will be certified as the victor of the 2018 gubernatorial election.” But a review of numerous interviews shows that Abrams subsequently used language denying the outcome of the election that she now appears to be trying to play down.
You can read the full analysis here.
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REUTERS WORLD NEWS: Russia Set To Annex Trump Objects Hurricane Devastates Florida More The St Kitts Nevis Observer
REUTERS WORLD NEWS: Russia Set To Annex, Trump Objects, Hurricane Devastates Florida, More – The St Kitts Nevis Observer https://digitalalabamanews.com/reuters-world-news-russia-set-to-annex-trump-objects-hurricane-devastates-florida-more-the-st-kitts-nevis-observer/
The Reuters Daily Briefing
Thursday, September 29, 2022
by Linda Noakes
Hello
Here’s what you need to know.
Trump objects to verifying a list of property seized from Mar-a-Lago, Porsche races higher after a landmark listing, and why Europe is bracing for mobile network blackouts
Construction for a stage near St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square in Moscow, September 28, 2022. Banners read: ‘Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson – Russia!’ REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
President Vladimir Putin will sign formal documents tomorrow proclaiming Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, as Moscow rushes to lock in territorial claims that the Ukrainian army is threatening to reverse on the battlefield.
Ukrainians are fleeing from the Russian annexation – while they still can. We look at what happens now.
The United States will in coming days impose economic costs on Moscow as Biden administration officials look to the finance and energy sectors for future sanctions action.
EU leaders will discuss next week what the bloc has denounced as sabotage on the subsea Nord Stream gas pipelines, an EU official said, adding that the incident had changed the nature of the conflict in Ukraine fundamentally.
Russian IT professionals are moving abroad en masse to avoid military mobilization, industry leaders have warned, despite official assurances that key technology workers will not be called up to fight in Ukraine.
A flooded street is seen in Fort Myers as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida, September 28, 2022. REUTERS/Marco Bello
Hurricane Ian, one of the mightiest to hit the U.S. mainland in recent years, flooded communities and left more than two million homes and businesses without power as it battered Florida’s Gulf Coast with howling winds, torrential rains and raging surf.
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are resisting a federal judge’s instruction to submit a sworn declaration on whether they believe the government’s list of property taken from Trump’s Florida estate is accurate.
The Senate edged toward passage of a temporary government funding bill to avert a partial government shutdown, with leaders of both parties signaling support for the measure and lawmakers eager to return to the campaign trail.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Republican celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in a high-stakes race for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania, lauding what it called his “commitment to free enterprise and pro-growth policies.”
An election worker in a western Michigan town has been charged with two felonies after allegedly inserting a flash drive into a computer containing confidential voter registration data during an election in August, local officials said.
WORLD
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said North Korea is a country with a “brutal dictatorship”, an illegal arms program and rampant human rights violations, issuing unusually strong criticism during a visit to the inter-Korean border.
China signaled no let-up in its combative approach to foreign policy in a third term for Xi Jinping as leader despite criticism from many Western diplomats that the so-called Wolf Warrior stance has been counterproductive.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar jailed deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her former economic adviser, Australian Sean Turnell, for three years for violating a secrets law, a source familiar with the proceedings said.
India’s top court upheld the right of a woman to an abortion up to 24 weeks into pregnancy regardless of marital status, a decision widely hailed by women’s rights activists.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro once said only God could remove him from power. On Sunday, polls suggest, he may need a miracle to keep him there.
A man walks past the Bank of England in London, September 28, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
British Prime Minister Liz Truss broke her silence following nearly a week of chaos in financial markets triggered by her plans for tax cuts, saying she was willing to take “controversial” decisions to reignite growth. We look at what’s likely to happen next in the crisis and explain why Britain’s pension schemes are dumping gilts.
China’s central bank has asked major state-owned banks to be prepared to sell dollars for the local currency in offshore markets as it steps up efforts to stem the yuan’s descent, four sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Porsche shares made a strong start after Volkswagen defied volatile markets to list the sports car brand at a valuation of $72 billion in Germany’s second-biggest market debut ever.
Once unthinkable, mobile phones could go dark around Europe this winter if power cuts or energy rationing knock out parts of the mobile networks across the region. Currently there are not enough back-up systems in many European countries to handle widespread power cuts, four telecoms executives said.
Some major advertisers including Dyson, Mazda, Forbes and PBS Kids have suspended their marketing campaigns or removed their ads from parts of Twitter because their promotions appeared alongside tweets soliciting child pornography, the companies told Reuters.
H&M, the world’s No.2 fashion retailer, launched a $177 million cost savings drive after reporting weaker-than-expected profits due to soaring input costs, slowing consumer spending and its exit from Russia.
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Exclusive: Europe Braces For Mobile Network Blackouts
Exclusive: Europe Braces For Mobile Network Blackouts https://digitalalabamanews.com/exclusive-europe-braces-for-mobile-network-blackouts/
PARIS/STOCKHOLM/MILAN, Sept 29 (Reuters) – Once unthinkable, mobile phones could go dark around Europe this winter if power cuts or energy rationing knocks out parts of the mobile networks across the region.
Russia’s decision to halt gas supplies via Europe’s key supply route in the wake of the Ukraine conflict has increased the chances of power shortages. In France, the situation is made worse by several nuclear power plants shutting down for maintenance.
Telecoms industry officials say they fear a severe winter will put Europe’s telecoms infrastructure to the test, forcing companies and governments to try to mitigate the impact.
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Currently there are not enough back-up systems in many European countries to handle widespread power cuts, four telecoms executives said, raising the prospect of mobile phone outages.
European Union countries, including France, Sweden and Germany, are trying to ensure communications can continue even if power cuts end up exhausting back-up batteries installed on the thousands of cellular antennas spread across their territory.
Europe has nearly half a million telecom towers and most of them have battery backups that last around 30 minutes to run the mobile antennas.
FRANCE
In France, a plan put forward by electricity distributor Enedis, includes potential power cuts of up to two hours in a worst case scenario, two sources familiar with the matter said.
The general black-outs would affect only parts of the country on a rotating basis. Essential services such as hospitals, police and government will not be impacted, the sources said.
The French government, telecoms operators and Enedis, a unit of state-controlled utility EDF (EDF.PA), have held talks on the issue over the summer, the French government and the sources said.
The French Federation of Telecoms (FFT), a lobby group representing Orange (ORAN.PA), Bouygues Telecom (BOUY.PA) and Altice’s SFR, put the spotlight on Enedis for being unable to exempt antennas from the power cuts.
Enedis declined to comment on the content of the talks held with the government on the matter.
Enedis said in a statement to Reuters all regular customers were treated on an equal footing in the event of exceptional outages.
It said it was able to isolate sections of the network to supply priority customers, such as hospitals, key industrial installations and the military and that it was up to local authorities to add telecoms operators infrastructure to the list of priority customers.
“Maybe we’ll improve our knowledge on the matter by this winter, but it’s not easy to isolate a mobile antenna (from the rest of the network),” said a French finance ministry official with knowledge of the talks.
A French finance ministry spokesperson declined to comment on the talks with Enedis, the telecoms groups and the government.
SWEDEN, GERMANY & ITALY
Telcos in Sweden and Germany have also raised concerns over potential electricity shortages with their governments, several sources familiar with the matter said.
Swedish telecom regulator PTS is working with telecom operators and other government agencies to find solutions, it said. That includes talks about what will happen if electricity is rationed.
PTS is financing the purchase of transportable fuel stations and mobile base stations that connect to mobile phones to handle longer power outages, a PTS spokesperson said.
The Italian telecoms lobby told Reuters it wants the mobile network to be excluded from any power cut or energy saving stoppage and will raise this with Italy’s new government.
The power outages increase the probability of electronic components failing if subjected to abrupt interruptions, telecoms lobby chief Massimo Sarmi said in an interview.
TRAFFIC FLOW
Telecom gear makers Nokia (NOKIA.HE) and Ericsson (ERICb.ST) are working with mobile operators to mitigate the impact of a power shortage, three sources familiar with the matter said.
Both companies declined to comment.
The European telecom operators must review their networks to reduce extra power usage and modernise their equipment by using more power efficient radio designs, the four telecom executives said.
To save power, telecom companies are using software to optimise traffic flow, make towers “sleep” when not in use and switch off different spectrum bands, the sources familiar with the matter said.
The telecom operators are also working with national governments to check if plans are in place to maintain critical services.
In Germany, Deutsche Telekom has 33,000 mobile radio sites (towers) and its mobile emergency power systems can only support a small number of them at the same time, a company spokesperson said.
Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) will use mobile emergency power systems which mainly rely on diesel in the event of prolonged power failures, it said.
France has about 62,000 mobile towers, and the industry will not be able to equip all antennas with new batteries, the FFT’s president Liza Bellulo said.
Accustomed to uninterrupted power supply for decades, European countries usually do not have generators backing up power for longer durations.
“We are a bit spoiled maybe in large parts of Europe where electricity is pretty stable and good,” a telecom industry executive said. “The investments in the energy storage area have maybe been less than in some other countries.”
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Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain in Paris, Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Elvira Pollina in Milan; Additional reporting by Inti Landauro in Madrid; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Jane Merriman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Ian Weakens To Tropical Storm As Central Florida Slammed With Flooding Rains
Ian Weakens To Tropical Storm As Central Florida Slammed With Flooding Rains https://digitalalabamanews.com/ian-weakens-to-tropical-storm-as-central-florida-slammed-with-flooding-rains/
WATCH live WESH 2 coverage aboveHurricane Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm as of the 5 a.m. National Hurricane Center advisory as Central Florida experienced massive amounts of rain.Ian came ashore Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa, Florida, with winds of 150 mph and began a punishing march northeastward across the state.As of the 8 a.m. advisory, Ian was moving northeast at 8 mph and winds had slowed to 65 mph. It was located 40 miles southeast of Orlando and 10 miles west of Cape Canaveral.”A turn toward the north-northeast is expected later today, followed by a turn toward the north and north-northwest with an increase in forward speed Friday and Friday night. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to move off the east-central coast of Florida later today and then approach the coast of South Carolina on Friday. The center will move farther inland across the Carolinas Friday night and Saturday,” the National Hurricane Center said. Active watches and warnings: The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Orange & Osceola Counties until 10:45 AM.NWS has issued a Flash Flood Warning/Flood Emergency for Seminole County until 11:45 AM.The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Lake & Volusia Counties until 12:15 PM.The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Brevard until 9:30 a.m. Ian is forecast to produce the following rainfall through Thursday:Central and Northeast Florida: 12 to 20 inches, with isolated totals up to 30 inches.Coastal Georgia and Low Country of South Carolina: 4 to 8 inches, with isolated totals up to 12 inches.Upstate and central South Carolina, North Carolina, and southern Virginia: 3 to 6 inches with isolated totals of 8 inches across western North Carolina.The Florida Turnpike was shut down from SR-528 to I-4 due to flooding. WATCH: Stunning videos shows Central Florida hit with punishing winds, flooding rainsWESH 2’s Tony Atkins rescues woman who attempted to drive through floodwatersFlooding at Disney resort during Hurricane IanFamily grateful to be alive after tree falls on house during IanWild video shows rough hurricane hunter flight into IanRelated: Video shows men wading through Hurricane Ian floodwaters in Key West
ORLANDO, Fla. —
WATCH live WESH 2 coverage above
Hurricane Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm as of the 5 a.m. National Hurricane Center advisory as Central Florida experienced massive amounts of rain.
Ian came ashore Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa, Florida, with winds of 150 mph and began a punishing march northeastward across the state.
As of the 8 a.m. advisory, Ian was moving northeast at 8 mph and winds had slowed to 65 mph. It was located 40 miles southeast of Orlando and 10 miles west of Cape Canaveral.
“A turn toward the north-northeast is expected later today, followed by a turn toward the north and north-northwest with an increase in forward speed Friday and Friday night. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to move off the east-central coast of Florida later today and then approach the coast of South Carolina on Friday. The center will move farther inland across the Carolinas Friday night and Saturday,” the National Hurricane Center said.
Active watches and warnings:
The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Orange & Osceola Counties until 10:45 AM.
NWS has issued a Flash Flood Warning/Flood Emergency for Seminole County until 11:45 AM.
The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Lake & Volusia Counties until 12:15 PM.
The National Weather Service has issued a Flash Flood Warning for Brevard until 9:30 a.m.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Here’s an updated look at the rainfall numbers around.
New flash flood warnings posted for Seminole- and with rainfall like this and more still falling, it’s clear as to why.
Please be safe people… pic.twitter.com/zUmtiAnIYx
— Eric Burris (@EricBurrisWESH) September 29, 2022
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
Let’s just take a minute to review- this WHOLE area is under a Flash Flood Warning.
The deep green area in the Wekiva River area is for the Little Wekiva river.
It’s 1ft above it’s ALL TIME RECORD.
Major flooding widespread in Central Florida;
Oh, and winds are running 60mph pic.twitter.com/UpO4s50g7J
— Eric Burris (@EricBurrisWESH) September 29, 2022
Ian is forecast to produce the following rainfall through Thursday:
Central and Northeast Florida: 12 to 20 inches, with isolated totals up to 30 inches.
Coastal Georgia and Low Country of South Carolina: 4 to 8 inches, with isolated totals up to 12 inches.
Upstate and central South Carolina, North Carolina, and southern Virginia: 3 to 6 inches with isolated totals of 8 inches across western North Carolina.
The Florida Turnpike was shut down from SR-528 to I-4 due to flooding.
WATCH: Stunning videos shows Central Florida hit with punishing winds, flooding rains
WESH 2’s Tony Atkins rescues woman who attempted to drive through floodwaters
Flooding at Disney resort during Hurricane Ian
Family grateful to be alive after tree falls on house during Ian
Wild video shows rough hurricane hunter flight into Ian
Related: Video shows men wading through Hurricane Ian floodwaters in Key West
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Hurricane Ian Impacts Alabama: Coastal Setup Sucks Water Out Of Mobile Bay
Hurricane Ian Impacts Alabama: ‘Coastal Setup’ Sucks Water Out Of Mobile Bay https://digitalalabamanews.com/hurricane-ian-impacts-alabama-coastal-setup-sucks-water-out-of-mobile-bay/
Hurricane Ian was a Category 4 monster storm that swamped Southwest Florida with strong storm surge and maximum sustained winds of around 150 mph.
The storm had no impact on Coastal Alabama, aside from rough surf in the Gulf that led to red warning flags on the beaches.
Perhaps the storm’s biggest impact on the Mobile region was a couple of days of large mud flats within an unsightly Mobile Bay.
The hurricane, in part, contributed to the water temporarily sucked out of the Bay.
Related stories:
“We have an extremely strong low-pressure system that is interacting with a cold front,” said Brian Dzwonkowski, associate professor of marine sciences at the University of South Alabama. “It creates the pressure ingredients of a strong wind from the northeast, and it blows down Mobile Bay and pushes the water toward the exists.”
He said the phenomena is called a “coastal setup.” In New Jersey, he said it is referred to as “a blowout tide.”
“These conditions are such that the water level, with the wind blowing out of the Bay, you’ll see much lower water levels,” Dzwonkowski said.
Jack Cullen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mobile, said the Mobile region had wind gusts up to 45 mph out of the North, with sustained winds throughout the day at 20-25 mph. He said it will be less gusty on Thursday.
“There is a strong high-pressure system to the North and the West and Ian brought a low-pressure system to the South and East,” said Cullen. “We call it a pressure ingredient.”
Ben Raines, a writer and filmmaker and former journalist with AL.com, said the low tide event is not that uncommon. He said it is typical to see the low tides of Mobile Bay “five to six times a year,” especially when cooler northern winds descend on the area.
He referred to Wednesday’s tide as a neap tide, when tidal ranges can be at their lowest.
“There is nothing unique about it,” Raines said. “The wind is blowing, and tides have cycles every month. It’s a weak tide. And we have all of this wind.”
Raines said the Upper Mobile-Tensaw Delta was “three feet lower than normal” on Wednesday. He anticipated the water levels returning to normal by Thursday.
Raines wrote about extreme low tide events that occurred with Hurricane Irma in 2017. Because hurricane winds blow in a circular pattern, the winds into Tampa and cities on the west coast of Florida came from the Northeast and led to conditions perfect to push water out of Tampa Bay, Raines wrote.
He said in that story that a similar condition existed in Mobile during Hurricane Katrina. Early during that storm, Raines wrote, Mobile Bay was inundated with giant mud flats where the water had retreated during the early parts of the storm. When the storm moved over coastal Alabama, the surge came in and inundated portions of downtown Mobile.
“The reason I wrote that story is we had (Hurricane Irma) in Florida that led to some weathermen in Alabama writing something about the water being pushed out of (Tampa) Bay and attributed to the storm in a weird way,” Raines said. “But it happens all the time.”
The only other effect the storm is bring to Mobile: Gorgeous weather.
“The strong winds we are talking about are bringing in dry air,” said Cullen. “Humidity (on Wednesday) is 16 percent. How often in late September can you say it’s 16 percent humidity? We have unseasonably low humidity values. Lucky for us.”
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Russia Says It Will Formally Annex Occupied Ukrainian Regions On Friday
Russia Says It Will Formally Annex Occupied Ukrainian Regions On Friday https://digitalalabamanews.com/russia-says-it-will-formally-annex-occupied-ukrainian-regions-on-friday/
Russia will formally annex four regions of Ukraine partially controlled by its military, the Kremlin announced Thursday, in a major political escalation of the war against its neighbor.
It comes after Moscow-backed authorities staged votes in the occupied regions of Ukraine’s east and south that were widely denounced as a sham to justify a land grab following Russia’s recent military setbacks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend a ceremony on the accession of the four regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia — at the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall on Friday.
“There will be a big speech by Putin there too,” he said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has decried the ballots as an illegal “propaganda show.” The United States and its Western allies have also vowed not to recognize Russia’s claim over the occupied areas.
The votes saw armed troops accompany election officials going door to door asking people to cast a ballot.
The Department of State says it will slap further economic sanctions on Russia in response to what spokesman Ned Price called a “land grab” Wednesday.
“Based on our information, every aspect of this referenda process was pre-staged and orchestrated by the Kremlin,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told another briefing.
The hastily arranged votes were announced last week alongside Putin’s declaration that he would be calling up military reservists to bolster his struggling campaign in Ukraine.
That triggered an exodus of thousands of Russians trying to flee the draft, with miles of lines of traffic at border crossings with Georgia and Finland — the latter announcing Thursday it would close its frontier to Russian tourists.
Many Western experts see the moves as acts of desperation by Putin, whose troops have been pushed back by a lightning Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent weeks.
There is also international concern about how Moscow might seek to defend its new claimed territory if and when Kyiv tries to take it back.
In a rare national address last week to announce the partial mobilization, Putin vowed that Russia would use all the means at its disposal to protect what it considers its territory — a thinly veiled nuclear threat — and warned: “This is not a bluff.”
The U.S. has responded that any use of nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with a “catastrophic” response, without elaborating.
This is not the first time Russia has annexed Ukrainian land. In 2014, the year Moscow began supporting pro-Kremlin troops in eastern Ukraine, Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula after a vote that was also dismissed as a sham.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is undeterred by the new annexations, pledging to retake and liberate all of his country’s territory currently under Russian control.
Underscoring the challenges the Kremlin faces in holding onto that land despite the formal annexation, Russian troops in one strategic city in Donetsk — Lyman — are on the verge of being encircled by Ukrainian troops, according to the latest daily briefing by the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based military think tank.
Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.
Associated Press
contributed
.
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LSU Tries To Keep Streak Rolling With Road Test At Auburn
LSU Tries To Keep Streak Rolling With Road Test At Auburn https://digitalalabamanews.com/lsu-tries-to-keep-streak-rolling-with-road-test-at-auburn/
Posted: Sep 29, 2022 / 01:15 AM CDT
Updated: Sep 29, 2022 / 01:15 AM CDT
Brian Kelly is a month into his first season as LSU’s head coach as he prepares his team for its first conference road game.
LSU (3-1, 1-0) has won three games in a row as it prepares to visit Auburn (3-1, 1-0) Saturday night in the first of six straight games against SEC competition.
“This first month was kind of like, let’s put this together.” Kelly said. “Now we have to apply it to the SEC. That’s a step up. The next month will be good and bad days. We’re going to get hit in the mouth.”
LSU lost its season opener against Florida State, then sandwiched nonconference wins against outmanned opponents (Southern and New Mexico) around a 31-16 home win against Mississippi State in the conference opener.
Kelly said quarterback Jayden Daniels has no ill effects from a lower back strain that knocked him out of the New Mexico game last Saturday.
Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said he’s looking for his quarterback, Robby Ashford, to build off his first start in a 17-14 overtime win against Missouri in the SEC opener last Saturday.
Ashford filled in for TJ Finley, sidelined due to a shoulder injury, and completed 12 of 18 for 127 yards and ran 15 times for 46 yards and a touchdown against Missouri.
“I think Robby managed things well,” Harsin said. “I think he made some good decisions and we took care of the football. He utilized his legs and he made some good throws at times. Overall, his demeanor, his attitude, his approach were real good.”
Finley is expected to be out again for the LSU game, with AL.com reporting he has a Grade 2 AC sprain to his right (throwing) shoulder.
Auburn narrowly escaped an upset against Missouri when the Tigers missed a 26-yard field goal as time expired in the fourth quarter. Auburn kicked a field goal on the first possession of overtime, then a Missouri fumble landed in the end zone for a touchback to end play.
The Auburn offense is second-to-last in the SEC in yards per game (376.8), 12th in passing yards per game (202.8) and 10th in rushing yards per game (174).
“There’s plenty to improve on (offensively),” Harsin said. “If we can get some of the pass game, run game balance going that’ll help us.”
–Field Level Media
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Biden Hits Campaign Trail But Doesn https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-hits-campaign-trail-but-doesn/
September 29, 2022 06:50 AM
President Joe Biden may be less of a political liability to Democrats in competitive midterm elections than previously thought, but he’s still letting them keep him at arm’s length.
Biden and the White House‘s midterm strategy amid the president’s improving poll numbers has been to travel to battleground states to promote his own agenda and Democrats more broadly instead of specific candidates. That tactic has provided his party’s candidates with a polite excuse not to attend, depending on the needs of their own campaign.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY? BIDEN AND DEMOCRATS DOWNPLAY COURTS ON CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Biden’s trip to Florida this week, part of a promise he made at the start of the year to support Democrats this cycle, was canceled because of Hurricane Ian. The president’s scrapped itinerary included a speech in Fort Lauderdale on healthcare and social programs, such as Medicare and Social Security, as well as a Democratic National Committee rally in Orlando. Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), who wants to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), had planned on skipping the Orlando event, though gubernatorial nominee Charlie Crist (D-FL) was going to join him
The Demings example is another instance of “Biden Democrats” distancing themselves from Biden “despite voting with him nearly 100% of the time,” according to Republican National Committee spokesman Nathan Brand.
“Whether it is his low approval ratings, the rising costs he caused, or the recession he created, Democrats know Joe Biden is toxic,” Brand told the Washington Examiner. “Unfortunate for them, voters know congressional Democrats voted in lockstep with Biden to send our nation in the wrong direction.”
Former Democratic consultant Christopher Hahn underscored Biden’s average 42%-52% and 42%-53% approval-disapproval, according to FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, respectively. Biden’s popularity ticked up over the summer after Democrats passed the $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act, a compromise bill based on his 2020 climate and healthcare spending proposal, and the Supreme Court overturned abortion precedent Roe v. Wade.
“The president’s best strategy is to be presidential and keep racking up wins,” Hahn said. “The Supreme Court and [former President Donald] Trump’s insistence that he be the center of political attention have made this a choice election.”
The Aggressive Progressive podcast host added of Trump, “By wrapping their arms around the comically incompetent and potentially criminal ex-president, the GOP has squandered their opportunity to make big gains this year.”
For political analyst Costas Panagopoulos, the White House and the DNC are being “calculated” by focusing on Biden’s legislative achievements and future political priorities.
“In the end, it’s likely the indirect impact of this approach will help Democratic candidates more than any joint appearances, which always come with some risk of backfiring and distracting attention from the candidates themselves,” the Northeastern University politics chairman said.
Biden’s Florida trip was similar to his midterm visits to Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York in that they combined official business with a fundraiser or rally. His Maryland itinerary incorporated two DNC events, while his trips to Pennsylvania and Ohio were supposed to be nonpolitical.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who is seeking a second term against political commentator Tudor Dixon (R), was photographed holding hands with Biden at the Detroit Auto Show. Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan (D), who is hoping to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R) over venture capitalist and author J.D. Vance (R), was with Biden at Intel’s groundbreaking ceremony after the $550 billion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act became law. And although Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), who is running against doctor and television personality Mehmet Oz (R) to represent the state in the Senate, was not at Biden’s Safer America Plan rally, he did go to a Labor Day event with him the following week.
As Biden focuses on the big picture as president, it is not certain he will mount another campaign for himself in 2024.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“In terms of election laws and it’s much too early to make that kind of decision,” Biden told CBS’s 60 Minutes. “I’m a great respecter of fate. And so what I’m doing is I’m doing my job. I’m gonna do that job and, within the time frame that makes sense after this next election cycle here, going into next year, make a judgment on what to do.”
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West Virginia Democrats Hosting Annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Celebration This Weekend WV MetroNews
West Virginia Democrats Hosting Annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Celebration This Weekend – WV MetroNews https://digitalalabamanews.com/west-virginia-democrats-hosting-annual-roosevelt-kennedy-celebration-this-weekend-wv-metronews/
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Democratic Party will host its annual Roosevelt-Kennedy Celebration on Saturday as party leaders look to energize members ahead of the November election.
Saturday’s event at the Charleston Marriott Town Center will feature remarks from Democratic leaders and performances from West Virginia artists Sierra Ferrell, John Ellison and the Carpenter Ants.
“This is going to be very different from the dinners we’ve had in the past,” State Party Chairman Mike Pushkin told MetroNews affiliate WCHS-AM. “I want it to be fun, and this is going to be a fun event. We’re going to celebrate the Democratic Party, and then have a night of fun. Then, we have a very short period of time to get busy and win some elections.”
Kansas Democratic Party Chair Vicki Hiatt will serve as the dinner’s keynote speaker. Her appearance comes after Kansans rejected a ballot measure in August that would have removed abortion rights language from the state’s constitution.
Democrats control half of the state’s statewide elected seats — including the seats of governor (Laura Kelly) and lieutenant governor (David Toland) — but have minority power in the state Legislature.
“This is a freedom that women and those who can get pregnant have had for nearly five decades now,” Hiatt said about the measure’s defeat during Wednesday’s “MetroNews Talkline.”
“Risking that being taken away was something we and many, many, many people here in Kansas felt really passionate about fighting to protect.”
Hiatt said Democrats need to embrace abortion rights issues and expand the electorate; she noted an increase in young voters and young voter turnout in the August election.
“I think that one of the things that Democrats need to look at is understanding that young voters will probably support Democrats more strongly on a lot of the issues, and we need to help them understand how important their vote is and help them get to the polls,” she said.
“We’ve just made a lot of gains in getting our young people active. We’ve got a great Kansas Young Democrat Caucus going and Democrats organizing in high schools and on the college campuses. I think just having those conversations and the direct voter interaction is most important, and that can happen anywhere.”
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., will deliver a video message. Raskin served as the lead impeachment manager during the second impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump. He also sits on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol.
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