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What LSU Coach Brian Kelly Said About Facing Auburn https://digitalalabamanews.com/what-lsu-coach-brian-kelly-said-about-facing-auburn/ Brian Kelly’s first SEC road game is looming this weekend, when his LSU team travels to Jordan-Hare Stadium to take on Auburn. LSU (3-1, 1-0 SEC) and Auburn (3-1, 1-0) will square off Saturday under the lights in each team’s first divisional matchup of the season. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. on ESPN. Read more Auburn football: Tate Johnson to miss 6-8 weeks as Auburn moves on to third option at center What Bryan Harsin said about upcoming LSU game Statistically speaking: Auburn’s offense among worst in FBS through Week 4 To start out the week, the first-year LSU coach held his weekly press conference Monday to preview the matchup and provide updates on some of LSU’s key players, including quarterback Jayden Daniels and star receiver Kayshon Boutte. Here’s a look at everything Kelly had to say about facing Auburn and how his team has progressed through four weeks. BRIAN KELLY, LSU coach BRIAN KELLY: What I would like to just point out is consistency takes its shape in many ways. For us it’s been a football team that has had to do a lot of things differently, and with that comes blind faith. And I told our team I was really proud of the way they have just embraced change. It’s hard. It’s hard for everybody to change. So, I’ve been really proud of the way they have embraced change and done the things that we’ve asked them to do to become more consistent on a day-to-day basis and within our process and their preparation and their mindset, their habits, the way they think. We’ve been able to make the progress necessary to have a modest winning streak, and this is modest. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. This month will tell us a lot, right? We’ve got an SEC slate in front of us over the next four weeks, which will challenge us to a new level. We’ll certainly find out even more about our grit and what kind of football team this will continue to grow to be. We know where our issues are. It’s a team that will fight, but we’re thin in some areas. So, we’ve got to make sure we keep our team rested. We’ve got to stay away from injuries, things of that nature. But, there’s no doubt about the fight. These guys will fight for the right reasons. I just wanted to make sure that from my perspective that this win this past weekend against a New Mexico team was significant in that we built some consistency with a group that has been willing to follow a whole new pattern. It’s been enjoyable. Now we get into, obviously, the SEC over the next month. Two games on the road, two at home, and we begin with Auburn. I think the first thing is that routines will stay the same other than we’re going to get on a plane, but we’ll be in a stadium that will not be pro-LSU. The first month of the season it was pro-LSU for the most part, so now the enemy is distractions. We’ll have to do a great job of not being distracted and to be focussed on making sure that our guys are locked in on what’s important, and we’ll work on that skill this week as well as the preparation that we’ve had all year. Auburn has some talented football players offensively. Both backs are outstanding. Bigsby, obviously, he is a three-year starter, over 2,000 career rushing yards, 19 touchdowns. I think that’s kind of for us when we’re watching film, the running backs are outstanding players. Ashford at quarterback started last week against Missouri. He, too, is a great runner. That’s going to be our biggest concern is to keep him in wraps in terms of running the football. He is very capable. He is a transfer from Oregon. Extremely gifted athlete. Again, I think from our perspective, a guy that can throw it, but more importantly, a dual-threat quarterback that is dangerous running the football. Outstanding receiving corps and a defense that has a guy that’s a game-wrecker in Derick Hall. He is a guy that you’re going to have to find. We’ll have to game-plan and make sure we know where he is. Riley, outstanding linebacker. Again, a football team that’s playing at home, coming off its SEC win against Missouri in overtime. It will be a great challenge for our football team. With that, we’ll open it up to questions. Q. You mentioned Ashford at quarterback. Do you expect Ashford to start, or are you going to prepare for multiple quarterbacks this week? BRIAN KELLY: I think you always have to keep an eye on whether Finley plays as well. Certainly he gives you the throwing end of things, so we’ll have to prepare for both. We don’t have any firsthand information that one is playing over the other, but we’ll be prepared for either one. Q. Just any injury updates? Jayden, is he still feeling okay, and then Amani and Jay Ward as well? BRIAN KELLY: Jayden, no residual effect from Saturday. He will be able to practice. Let’s see, Jay Ward feeling really good. I think he is a go for Tuesday. We’ll probably limit his workload on Tuesday, but he should be able to go. Amani, it will be a day-to-day situation with him. Q. Just wondering what prompted your opening remarks there. Were you pleasantly surprised by kind of their focus, I guess, for lack of a better word and your ability to kind of coalesce everything? BRIAN KELLY: Well, I think it was important to point out that in anything that you do, when there’s change, it requires a commitment. Even though this is a modest winning streak of three games, it should be noted that these guys are doing everything possible to make sure that LSU football regains its place. They’re working really hard at it, but there’s still a lot of work ahead of us. So, I just wanted to make sure that it was dually noted that there’s going to be some tough days ahead of us, and we’re going to have to grind through it, but they are giving us all that they have. Q. Just considering you’re switching guys, Jay Ward and Greg Brooks, and you’ve had guys out with injuries. Now Joe is back this week. What has the challenge been, or maybe not at all, of kind of the constant movement? BRIAN KELLY: You would like a little more continuity. I think Matt and Carey have done a good job of communicating what we need to do back there. I think it’s going to be a little bit easier with Joe Foucha in terms of he is an experienced player, so it was a little bit more difficult when we had to move Jarrick back there because you didn’t have an experienced safety. As we move forward now with Jay Ward probably coming back this week and being healthy and getting Joe, you’ve got experience back there. In one instance we would like a little more continuity, but on the positive side with Brooks, Foucha, and Jay Ward, you’ve got experience. Q. The hurricane appears to be heading towards Florida and hopefully not in the path of your game, but is it something you’re going to have to monitor, your officials watching obviously throughout the week? BRIAN KELLY: Yeah, no doubt. We’ve talked about a game plan in terms of what it might look like. Hopefully that’s going to pass through. We’re going to get probably some rain of some kind, and that will be our first time in that kind of element. It’s a grass situation, so you put those plans together relative to what that would look like if, in fact, we did get hit with some severe rain. Q. How big was the game for Jayden Daniels and his growth, and what did you go back on the film and see? In the game it was obvious, he was determined to stay in the pocket, but when you go back and look at film, what did you see? BRIAN KELLY: There are a couple of things. Decisiveness is starting to be part of the vocabulary instead of being hesitant, and that comes with knowledge of the offense. I think the other thing is that he has become a lot quicker in his setup. I think I mentioned this quick feet, but slowing down and not rushing through progressions. I think one of the bigger plays in his development was the dig that he threw to Jaray Jenkins in the Red Zone. That was his fourth receiver through a progression. Those are the kind of things you’re looking for in terms of development of a quarterback, and we’re starting to see that as well as the screen to Malik Nabers, how quickly that ball comes out. I think a little bit of everything was coming together, and the word I would use is just he is becoming more comfortable and more decisive. Q. Not to harp on the open again, but you seem pleased. Does this seem better through four games than you thought they would be, or are you pleased with the progress over a month? BRIAN KELLY: I guess the setup was we’re going to find out now. This first month was kind of like, let’s put this together, you know, and the preface was these guys have worked really hard to do exactly what we’ve asked them to do. They’ve put themselves in a position. They have followed a process, and they’ve been consistent with it. Now we’re going to have to apply it to the SEC, and that is a step up. The next month there’s going to be some good days, and there’s going to be some bad days. They cannot try to do things differently. It’s like anything else. You know the old Mike Tyson line, you know, “Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth,” right? We’re going to have to stick with our plan and stick with our process every single day because we’re going to get hit in the mouth, and we’re going to have to trust it and keep going. I guess that was the preface that I was trying to make. Q. I want to talk to you about weather. How do you manage a game where the playing conditions can be affected by something like that and especially with a team where you do like to pass the ball a lot? BRIAN KELLY: I’ve been in two remnants of hurricanes. One at North Carolina State, which was abysmal. I think the other one was at Clemson. They affect the game conditions. So, you have to plan accordingly in terms of your passing game, running game. Kicking game is affected dr...

Bills Would Curtail Objections At Future Jan. 6 Vote Counts https://digitalalabamanews.com/bills-would-curtail-objections-at-future-jan-6-vote-counts-2/ If the bills are consolidated into one measure that becomes law, it will do away with a tradition that has become increasingly popular as Congress has become more polarized. The certification of Electoral College votes for the state of Arizona is unsealed during a joint session of the House and Senate convened to confirm the electoral votes cast in November’s election, at the Capitol, on Jan 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of Congress have officially objected to the results in four of the last six presidential elections, a partisan practice that has been legal for over a century but became much more fraught after a violent mob of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol last year. In an effort to prevent another Jan. 6, 2021, bills moving through the House and the Senate would make it harder to lodge those objections when Congress counts the electoral votes in a joint session after every presidential election. The move to curtail the objections is part of a larger effort to overhaul the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act and safeguard the integrity of the vote after Trump tried to persuade his Republican allies in Congress to vote against Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and overturn his 2020 defeat. Under current law, only one member of the House and one member of the Senate has to challenge a state’s results to trigger votes on that state’s electors in each chamber. If a simple majority in each chamber votes to sustain the objection, that state’s votes can be thrown out. The House and Senate bills would each raise that threshold substantially, with the House bill requiring a third of each chamber to object and the Senate bill requiring a fifth of each chamber to object. The House legislation, passed last week, would also lay out new requirements for the grounds for an objection. Courthouse News’ podcast Sidebar tackles the stories you need to know from the legal world. Join our hosts as they take you in and out of courtrooms in the U.S. and beyond. “It is just too easy to trigger an objection when it only requires one person in each chamber,” says Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican co-sponsor of the Senate version. Eleven GOP senators have signed on to the legislation, which is up for a vote in a Senate committee on Tuesday. If the bills are consolidated into one measure that becomes law, it will do away with a tradition that has become increasingly popular as Congress has become more polarized. Democrats have objected the last three times that Republicans were elected — twice against George W. Bush and once against Trump — but in each of those cases the Democratic candidate had already conceded the election. The stakes were raised considerably in 2021, when Trump and his allies were actively trying to thwart Biden’s win, with a strategy to throw out Biden electors in Congress and the support of a violent mob that broke into the Capitol, interrupted the joint session and threatened the lives of lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence. House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of California, the Democratic sponsor of the House bill with Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, said the bill would protect the voters’ will from “frivolous” objections and more sinister efforts. “If you want to object to the vote, you better have your colleagues and the Constitution on your side,” Lofgren said just before the bill passed. “Don’t try to overturn our democracy.” At the 2021 joint session, two GOP senators — Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri — joined a larger group of House Republicans in objecting to Biden’s electoral votes in Arizona and Pennsylvania, two swing states that Trump had won in the 2016 election but lost in 2020. Both the House and the Senate voted to certify Biden’s win in those states in the hours after the rioters had injured police officers, rampaged through the Capitol and sent lawmakers running for their lives. But eight senators and almost 140 members of the House voted to sustain the objections. Congress had only held such votes twice since the enactment of the Electoral Count Act 135 years ago. In 1969, two Democratic senators joined a member of the House to object to the vote of one elector in North Carolina during the certification of Republican Richard Nixon’s victory. In 2004, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, objected to President George W. Bush’s electors in Ohio over what they said were voting irregularities. In both cases, the House and the Senate rejected the objections. In several other instances, members of the House have lodged objections without the support of a senator. In 2000, several members of the Congressional Black Caucus objected to Bush’s electors in Florida after the Supreme Court had forced a halt to vote-counting in that state and decided the election. Vice President Al Gore, whom Bush had defeated, gaveled the objections down as he presided over the session. In 2016, several Democrats stood and objected to Trump’s win over Democrat Hillary Clinton but no senator joined, and Vice President Joe Biden dismissed them. Like Gore, Clinton had already conceded defeat. Members on both sides of the Capitol have been working on the revisions to the Electoral Count Act since the 2021 insurrection, saying the law’s vague language was not robust enough protection against Trump’s overt attempts to subvert the will of the people. The bills would also clarify that the vice president’s role is solely ceremonial and try to prevent states from creating slates of illegitimate electors, as Trump’s allies tried to do. The House bill is more expansive than the Senate bill, and the two sides will eventually have to resolve their differences into a single measure. That includes the House language with new grounds for any objection, which would restrict the process even further. Under the House legislation, no member could make an objection unless it fell under a strict set of parameters that relate to the Constitution — that the state is not validly a state, if the state submits too many electoral votes or if a candidate is not eligible, for example. House Republicans argued against the legislation by saying it was a political attack on Trump, noting the frequent Democratic objections over the years. It only received nine Republican votes, all from members who are not returning to the House next year. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., responded that if lawmakers believed there had been too many objections in the past, “you should absolutely be supporting this legislation.” Hawley, who was photographed raising a fist to pro-Trump protesters outside the Capitol ahead of last year’s joint session, said in an interview that he is “skeptical” of the effort to change a law that has been in place for so many years. “My concern is that it’s going to look like to Republican voters that Democrats can object as much as often as they want,” the Missouri Republican said, noting the objections in 2000, 2004 and 2016. “As soon as Republicans do, they change the law,” Hawley said. “I can promise you, that will be the perception.” Still, 11 Republican senators have signed on to the Senate bill, enough to break a filibuster and pass the bill in the 50-50 Senate. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring, was the latest GOP senator to sign on to the legislation last week. “The poor drafting of the 1887 Electoral Count Act endangered the transition of power from one Administration to the next,” Toomey said when he announced his support. “Unfortunately, in the over 100 intervening years, individual Democratic and Republican members of Congress have occasionally attempted to exploit the ambiguities in this law to cast doubt on the validity of our elections, culminating in the debacle of January 6, 2021,” he said. “It is past time Congress act.” __ By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Read the Top 8 Sign up for the Top 8, a roundup of the day’s top stories delivered directly to your inbox Monday through Friday. Read More…

Debunked Anti-Trump Dossier Sub-Source Who Sought To Traffic Classified Information Remained On FBI Payroll Until Late 2020 | U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley Of Iowa https://digitalalabamanews.com/debunked-anti-trump-dossier-sub-source-who-sought-to-traffic-classified-information-remained-on-fbi-payroll-until-late-2020-u-s-senator-chuck-grassley-of-iowa/ 09.26.2022 Grassley, Johnson demand explanation for the FBI’s continued reliance on sketchy source at taxpayer expense WASHINGTON – Years before it paid the rumor peddler at the center of the debunked anti-Trump dossier, the FBI considered him a counterintelligence threat. Payments from the FBI to Igor Danchenko, the dossier’s primary sub-source, continued from March 2017 to October 2020 despite his problematic history and ongoing congressional investigations into the FBI’s years-long Russia probe codenamed Crossfire Hurricane. Since 2016, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and others have raised a number of concerns about Crossfire Hurricane given its reliance on unverified – and now debunked – allegations from dubious sources who were paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign and Democratic National Committee. That information was central to securing a federal warrant to eavesdrop on a member of the Trump presidential campaign in 2016 and 2017. At the time the FBI was paying Danchenko, it was aware of his history, including his interactions with Russian intelligence services and his offer to procure and sell U.S. government secrets. “This extraordinary fact pattern requires additional information from the Justice Department and FBI relating to why Danchenko was placed on the payroll and paid by the taxpayer to assist in the federal government’s flawed investigation into President Trump,” Grassley and Johnson wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Revelations of the FBI’s reliance on Danchenko as a paid human source were made in a recent court filing by Special Counsel John Durham, who continues to investigate the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe. Danchenko is accused of lying to federal authorities in that investigation. Grassley and Johnson are seeking all FBI and Justice Dept. records related to government payments to Danchenko, the counterintelligence concerns he posed and the FBI’s decision to rely on him. September 21, 2022 VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION The Honorable Merrick Garland Attorney General Department of Justice The Honorable Christopher Wray Director Federal Bureau of Investigation Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray: On September 2, 2022, Special Counsel John Durham filed a motion in limine with respect to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) case against Igor Danchenko, Christopher Steele’s primary sub-source, for lying to federal investigators.[1]  In that motion, Special Counsel Durham noted that, “[i]n March 2017, the [Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)] signed [Danchenko] up as a paid confidential human source of the FBI.  The FBI terminated its source relationship with the defendant in October 2020.”[2]  As you are aware, in May 2009, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Danchenko based on his reported attempts to facilitate payment for classified information.  Specifically, a declassified summary of the investigation noted that Danchenko approached several individuals at a work-related event in 2008 and “indicated that if the two individuals at the table ‘did get a job in the government and had access to classified information’ and ‘wanted to make a little extra money,’” Danchenko knew individuals who they could speak to.[3]  The summary further stated that an individual interviewed by the FBI expressed the possibility that Danchenko could be “a Russian spy.”[4] The preliminary investigation then proceeded to a full investigation because Danchenko was identified as an associate of two FBI counterintelligence subjects.[5]  The FBI also determined that Danchenko had contact in 2006 with the Russian Embassy and known Russian intelligence officers.[6]  The FBI also learned that during the course of Danchenko’s contacts with Russian intelligence officers, he appeared to be involved in the transmission of Russian documents at the request of a Russian Intelligence Officer.[7] In December 2016, the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team identified Danchenko as Steele’s primary sub-source and, according to the FBI, “became familiar with the 2009 investigation.”[8]  The FBI, even in light of the extensive derogatory information attached to Danchenko, proceeded to pay him as a confidential human source three months later from March 2017 to October 2020 as part of Crossfire Hurricane.  Therefore, while we were investigating the Justice Department’s and FBI’s misconduct with respect to Crossfire Hurricane, you maintained him on the government’s payroll. This extraordinary fact pattern requires additional information from the Justice Department and FBI relating to why Danchenko was placed on the payroll and paid by the taxpayer to assist in the federal government’s flawed investigation into President Trump.  Accordingly, no later than October 22, 2022, please provide all records relating to government payments made to Danchenko, the counterintelligence investigation into him and his later hiring.[9]  Sincerely, Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member Committee on the Judiciary Ron Johnson Ranking Member Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations cc:         The Honorable Richard Durbin               Chairman               Committee on the Judiciary               The Honorable Jon Ossoff               Chairman               Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations               The Honorable Michael Horowitz               Inspector General               Department of Justice -30- [1] Gov’t’s Motion In Limine at 3, United States v. Danchenko, No. 21-CR-245 (AJT) (E.D. Va. 2022), https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.515692/gov.uscourts.vaed.515692.78.0.pdf.  Notably, on page 18, the motion confirms Danchenko was Steele’s primary subsource, “Specifically, Steele informed the FBI that his primary subsource for the Steele Reports (the defendant) had met with Sergei Millian on two or three occasions – at least once in New York and once in Charleston, South Carolina.” [3] FBI, Overview of the Counterintelligence Investigation of Christopher Steele’s Primary Sub-source, Sept. 23, 2020 at 1. [Attached.]  The document, on page 1, confirms that the investigation involved “Christopher Steele’s Primary Sub-Source” who Durham identified as Danchenko. [9] “Records” include any written, recorded, or graphic material of any kind, including letters, memoranda, reports, notes, electronic data (e-mails, email attachments, and any other electronically-created or stored information), calendar entries, inter-office communications, meeting minutes, phone/voice mail or recordings/records of verbal communications, and drafts (whether or not they resulted in final documents).  This definition applies to all requests for records in the questions for the record. Read More…

US Forecast https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-forecast-44/ City/Town, State;Yesterday’s High Temp (F);Yesterday’s Low Temp (F);Today’s High Temp (F);Today’s Low Temp (F);Weather Condition;Wind Direction;Wind Speed (MPH);Humidity (%);Chance of Precip. (%);UV Index Albany, NY;71;49;67;50;A shower in the p.m.;SSW;8;61%;67%;2 Albuquerque, NM;80;59;82;58;Partly sunny, nice;E;6;37%;9%;6 Anchorage, AK;49;42;51;42;Clouds and sun;E;7;73%;50%;1 Asheville, NC;73;45;66;42;Plenty of sunshine;NW;10;41%;10%;6 Atlanta, GA;79;53;75;50;Sunny and pleasant;N;9;32%;2%;6 Atlantic City, NJ;74;60;73;55;Mostly sunny, breezy;WNW;14;44%;18%;5 Austin, TX;93;63;92;62;Plenty of sunshine;NE;5;28%;3%;7 Baltimore, MD;78;59;73;53;Nice with some sun;WNW;10;39%;16%;5 Baton Rouge, LA;92;61;84;60;Sunshine and nice;NNE;9;39%;0%;7 Billings, MT;81;52;84;56;Sunny and very warm;S;7;38%;4%;4 Birmingham, AL;81;53;75;53;Sunny and pleasant;NNE;9;36%;2%;6 Bismarck, ND;72;41;69;46;Mostly sunny;ESE;10;56%;1%;4 Boise, ID;87;59;91;62;Very warm;ESE;8;20%;1%;4 Boston, MA;73;58;72;54;Clouds and sun;WSW;9;54%;31%;4 Bridgeport, CT;73;56;72;52;Partly sunny, nice;W;11;49%;23%;5 Buffalo, NY;58;55;59;52;A couple of showers;WNW;15;79%;98%;1 Burlington, VT;68;53;65;52;A shower in the p.m.;S;13;68%;92%;1 Caribou, ME;64;53;67;47;Sun and clouds;SSW;8;68%;44%;2 Casper, WY;78;40;81;45;Sunny;SSE;6;36%;5%;5 Charleston, SC;89;65;82;60;Partly sunny;N;7;41%;7%;6 Charleston, WV;74;48;64;43;Sunshine and cool;W;7;56%;20%;5 Charlotte, NC;81;52;75;49;Sunny and pleasant;NNW;6;37%;4%;6 Cheyenne, WY;77;46;75;48;Nice with sunshine;S;10;32%;3%;5 Chicago, IL;63;48;58;47;Breezy;NNW;15;53%;29%;4 Cleveland, OH;63;54;61;54;Heavy showers;NW;18;75%;99%;2 Columbia, SC;88;55;81;55;Sunshine and nice;N;6;32%;6%;6 Columbus, OH;66;47;60;45;An afternoon shower;WNW;9;61%;69%;3 Concord, NH;74;48;70;46;Partly sunny;W;7;59%;26%;4 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX;88;64;88;65;Plenty of sunshine;ESE;6;29%;2%;6 Denver, CO;81;52;77;51;Partly sunny;S;6;33%;29%;5 Des Moines, IA;69;49;68;39;Plenty of sun;NE;8;47%;0%;5 Detroit, MI;65;49;59;48;Breezy with a shower;NW;15;71%;91%;2 Dodge City, KS;84;53;85;51;Mostly sunny;NE;9;41%;2%;5 Duluth, MN;57;40;54;38;Partly sunny;N;9;60%;0%;4 El Paso, TX;85;64;86;63;Mostly sunny;ESE;9;37%;1%;7 Fairbanks, AK;47;34;44;31;Mostly cloudy;NE;5;81%;29%;1 Fargo, ND;65;39;59;37;Mostly sunny;E;8;53%;0%;4 Grand Junction, CO;83;54;82;54;Sunshine, pleasant;SE;7;32%;1%;5 Grand Rapids, MI;58;47;54;45;Breezy with a shower;NNW;14;79%;66%;1 Hartford, CT;74;54;72;50;Mostly sunny;WSW;8;52%;25%;4 Helena, MT;82;49;83;49;Sunny and very warm;SW;4;41%;0%;4 Honolulu, HI;89;75;89;75;A morning shower;ENE;13;57%;44%;9 Houston, TX;94;67;88;66;Plenty of sunshine;NE;8;34%;4%;7 Indianapolis, IN;67;47;63;47;Mostly sunny;N;10;48%;29%;5 Jackson, MS;85;55;81;57;Sunny, low humidity;NE;8;38%;3%;6 Jacksonville, FL;91;71;85;73;A t-storm around;NE;9;59%;55%;7 Juneau, AK;60;50;54;49;Rain;SE;8;95%;98%;0 Kansas City, MO;74;50;77;49;Mostly sunny, nice;NE;5;44%;0%;5 Knoxville, TN;78;46;71;43;Sunny and nice;N;7;43%;10%;5 Las Vegas, NV;99;73;97;73;Partly sunny;WNW;6;22%;23%;5 Lexington, KY;70;46;66;43;Mostly sunny;NNW;11;46%;12%;5 Little Rock, AR;85;53;83;56;Sunny and beautiful;NE;6;35%;1%;6 Long Beach, CA;89;69;89;69;Some sun;S;6;55%;0%;5 Los Angeles, CA;90;69;95;70;Sunny and hot;SE;7;46%;0%;6 Louisville, KY;71;48;68;44;Mostly sunny;NNW;10;42%;6%;5 Madison, WI;59;41;55;37;Cool with some sun;N;9;57%;5%;4 Memphis, TN;83;55;83;56;Sunny and nice;E;7;34%;2%;6 Miami, FL;87;78;84;80;Some wind and rain;SE;10;84%;100%;2 Milwaukee, WI;62;46;58;44;Breezy and cool;N;15;58%;26%;3 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN;63;44;59;40;Mostly sunny;N;10;46%;0%;4 Mobile, AL;91;63;85;61;Sunny and not as hot;NNE;10;36%;0%;7 Montgomery, AL;89;56;76;55;Sunny and pleasant;NNE;8;38%;2%;6 Mt. Washington, NH;43;32;39;33;Windy;W;29;90%;52%;1 Nashville, TN;77;47;75;46;Sunny and nice;N;8;37%;3%;5 New Orleans, LA;92;71;84;67;Sunny and not as hot;NE;12;37%;0%;7 New York, NY;74;58;72;54;Partly sunny;W;11;43%;20%;5 Newark, NJ;73;54;71;51;Clouds and sun, nice;W;9;45%;22%;4 Norfolk, VA;83;61;78;57;Sunshine;NW;8;36%;15%;5 Oklahoma City, OK;84;57;88;61;Partly sunny;SSE;11;32%;3%;6 Olympia, WA;84;49;74;52;Mostly sunny;SSW;6;68%;63%;4 Omaha, NE;74;47;73;41;Sunny and pleasant;ENE;8;46%;0%;5 Orlando, FL;92;75;83;75;A shower and t-storm;ENE;7;84%;100%;2 Philadelphia, PA;77;58;73;54;Clouds and sun;WNW;10;41%;20%;5 Phoenix, AZ;103;82;102;81;Sunshine and warm;E;8;24%;14%;6 Pittsburgh, PA;67;49;62;48;Mostly cloudy, cool;WSW;10;62%;43%;2 Portland, ME;71;54;66;50;Clouds and sun;SW;9;69%;34%;3 Portland, OR;85;55;80;56;Mostly sunny;SSW;7;54%;26%;4 Providence, RI;73;56;72;50;Some sun, pleasant;WSW;8;55%;28%;4 Raleigh, NC;82;56;77;51;Sunny and beautiful;NNW;7;34%;10%;5 Reno, NV;87;55;85;53;Breezy in the p.m.;WSW;11;28%;0%;5 Richmond, VA;80;54;75;48;Sunny and pleasant;WNW;8;40%;14%;5 Roswell, NM;85;58;89;58;Plenty of sun;S;7;35%;4%;6 Sacramento, CA;91;57;88;58;Abundant sunshine;S;6;49%;0%;5 Salt Lake City, UT;84;59;88;63;Mostly sunny;ESE;7;26%;0%;5 San Antonio, TX;95;65;92;64;Sunny and very warm;NE;9;29%;3%;7 San Diego, CA;79;68;80;68;Humid with sunshine;WNW;8;68%;0%;6 San Francisco, CA;68;58;69;59;Turning sunny;W;11;68%;0%;5 Savannah, GA;90;63;84;61;Not as hot;NNE;6;47%;8%;6 Seattle-Tacoma, WA;80;55;76;56;Mostly sunny;SSW;8;63%;63%;4 Sioux Falls, SD;71;43;69;38;Mostly sunny;ENE;6;47%;0%;4 Spokane, WA;85;49;89;52;Very warm;SE;2;37%;2%;4 Springfield, IL;67;42;67;37;Plenty of sunshine;N;10;47%;0%;5 St. Louis, MO;71;48;71;42;Mostly sunny;NNE;9;41%;2%;5 Tampa, FL;94;74;82;74;A shower and t-storm;ENE;10;86%;100%;2 Toledo, OH;63;47;59;46;A stray shower;NW;9;66%;90%;2 Tucson, AZ;98;76;96;73;Mostly sunny;ESE;11;31%;14%;7 Tulsa, OK;84;55;87;57;Plenty of sunshine;SE;7;32%;3%;5 Vero Beach, FL;89;75;82;76;Rain and a t-storm;ESE;10;90%;100%;2 Washington, DC;78;56;72;51;Partly sunny, nice;WNW;9;43%;14%;5 Wichita, KS;82;54;87;54;Mostly sunny;ENE;9;33%;2%;5 Wilmington, DE;78;56;72;52;Partly sunny, nice;WNW;11;45%;18%;5 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Read More…

GOP Candidates Often Beat The Pollsters https://digitalalabamanews.com/gop-candidates-often-beat-the-pollsters/ OPINION: The polls for Republicans in 2020 were awful. Awfully wrong. So awful that the normally sedate Pew Research Center unleashed a post-election scolding to the polling triumvirate of media/colleges/consultants who consistently undercounted GOP chances.  “It’s clear that national and many state estimates were not just off, but off in the same direction: They favored the Democratic candidate,” Pew said in a post-Nov. 3 analysis.  The error gap is important, Republicans say because bloated Democratic poll numbers can tamp down fundraising and influence some voters to give up — before even voting. It is what Democrats would call “voter suppression.” Seven weeks away from the Nov. 8 midterms, conservative backbiting has surfaced as they see the “generic congressional” poll in which voters are asked which party they will back tilt away from Republicans. YouGov just posted numbers that show the Democrats are up 6 points. But Republicans would point out that in 2020, the same firm had the Democrats up a whopping 10 points near Election Day. Democrats actually lost 14 House seats and its post-election spread was three, not 10, or just about a tie, according to data posted by RealClearPolitics.com. YouGov’s final 2020 presidential poll had Joseph R. Biden winning the popular vote by 10, a giant landslide. He beat then-President Donald Trump by 4.5%.  Afterward, noted GOP pollster Frank Luntz called on colleagues to quit, referring to mistakes in 2016 too.  “I think what is happening is accountability in action,” Mr. Luntz said on Fox News’s “Media Buzz.” “And if you got it wrong this time, you got it wrong twice in a row, you shouldn’t be working in the business. There are other things you can do. You can sell real estate. You can sell stocks.” Pollsters gave Mr. Trump virtually no chance of gaining the magic 270 electoral votes in 2016. He garnered 306, winning in the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. I’ve spoken to conservative-aligned polling companies with generally better records than the big guys. They say the major mistake is not to “weight” the curated sample of, say, 900 voters. Weighting means to increase or decrease the share of certain demographics, such as white or Black if the final sample is out of whack with recent election history. Here is some history: In 2020, Quinnipiac University’s final polls had Mr. Trump losing Florida, 47-42. He won by 3.3%. Quinnipiac foresaw Mr. Trump beaten in Ohio 47-43. He won Ohio by 8.2 points. Nationally, it said Mr. Biden would win by 11 points. CNBC polls had Mr. Biden winning Florida and North Carolina, where he lost, and saw an 8-point win for him in Wisconsin, where he squeaked a win by 0.7. One major poll said Mr. Biden would win Wisconsin by 17 points. None of 14 polls found Maine Sen. Susan Collins in the lead. Some predicted a substantial defeat. She had a substantial win — by 9 points. “After this election, I think the polling industry needs to take a hard look at what it does,” Ms. Collins told Fox News. The GOP undercount goes back further than 2016. In 2014, pollsters said Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst was tied with Bruce Braley. She won by 9 points. Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts faced a deficit against Greg Roman. Mr. Roberts won by 9. Two-term Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan was hopelessly behind, according to polls by the New York Times and Washington Post. In 2018, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saw every mainstream media poll foretell his defeat — except Trafalgar. He beat Andrew Gillum in a half-point squeaker. After Nov. 3, 2020 voting, Pew blamed “systematic” flaws. “The fact that the polling errors were not random, and that they almost uniformly involved underestimates of Republican rather than Democratic performance, points to a systematic cause or set of causes,” Pew said. Mr. Trump, of course, is not on the ballot this year in person, but his presence is everywhere. He is actively campaigning and endorsing candidates. His voters need to turn out if the GOP is going to win. I asked Quinnipiac if it has changed any methodology since 2020. Polling Director Doug Schwartz told me: “We found that our polls were generally accurate in measuring the Biden percentage of the vote, but we had a notably high incidence of respondents not providing a response to the election matchup question. In an effort to reduce the number of respondents not providing an answer to our election matchup question, we have modified the way we probe those respondents who do not initially provide an answer to this question.” I asked YouGov America the same question and spokesman Allen Houston. He said: “What is different for 2022 vs. 2020? We have a new frame (used for selection and weighting of samples) based upon imputing the 2020 vote to the voter file and aggregating it to state-level sampling units. This attempts to correct for the 2020 miss, so that the sample is composed at least of the right fraction of 2020 Biden and Trump voters. We are weighting the sample to 2022 primary participation and vote choice, in addition to demographics and 2020 vote. We are using a new turnout model, combining past turnout from the voter file and self-reported likelihood of voting from the survey.” There it is. Technical, yes. But it does show that pollsters listened to the Pew Center’s criticism and have a commitment to correcting bad polls. Tom Bevan, co-founder and president of RealClearPolitics.com, wrote in early September about generic ballot history. An important hint at the GOP congressional landslide in 2010, he said, was the Virginia governor’s race the previous year. Republican Bob McDonnell won. Last year, Republican Glenn Youngkin defied Virginia’s blue-ness and captured the governorship.  Mr. Bevan also examined other general ballot years when congressional Republicans did well, such as 2014, and when Democrats prevailed, as in 2018.  His conclusion: “This year appears to be following the pattern from previous good Republican years — especially 2014. Perhaps Democrats will be able to defy recent trends, but if the pattern holds, expect Republicans to gain in the Generic Congressional Ballot post-Labor Day.” On Sunday, new generic polls seemed to back Mr. Bevan’s prediction.  An ABC News/Washington Post poll had Republicans up 5 points. Rasmussen has them up 2. And CBS News puts them 1 ahead. These are much better GOP numbers compared with August’s, when, for example, The New York Times wrote, “Growing Evidence Against a Republican Wave.” • Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times. Read More…

US Forecast https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-forecast-43/ City/Town, State;Yesterday’s High Temp (F);Yesterday’s Low Temp (F);Today’s High Temp (F);Today’s Low Temp (F);Weather Condition;Wind Direction;Wind Speed (MPH);Humidity (%);Chance of Precip. (%);UV Index Albany, NY;71;49;67;50;A shower in the p.m.;SSW;8;61%;67%;2 Albuquerque, NM;80;59;82;58;Partly sunny, nice;E;6;37%;9%;6 Anchorage, AK;49;42;51;42;Clouds and sun;E;7;73%;50%;1 Asheville, NC;73;45;66;42;Plenty of sunshine;NW;10;41%;10%;6 Atlanta, GA;79;53;75;50;Sunny and pleasant;N;9;32%;2%;6 Atlantic City, NJ;74;60;73;55;Mostly sunny, breezy;WNW;14;44%;18%;5 Austin, TX;93;63;92;62;Plenty of sunshine;NE;5;28%;3%;7 Baltimore, MD;78;59;73;53;Nice with some sun;WNW;10;39%;16%;5 Baton Rouge, LA;92;61;84;60;Sunshine and nice;NNE;9;39%;0%;7 Billings, MT;81;52;84;56;Sunny and very warm;S;7;38%;4%;4 Birmingham, AL;81;53;75;53;Sunny and pleasant;NNE;9;36%;2%;6 Bismarck, ND;72;41;69;46;Mostly sunny;ESE;10;56%;1%;4 Boise, ID;87;59;91;62;Very warm;ESE;8;20%;1%;4 Boston, MA;73;58;72;54;Clouds and sun;WSW;9;54%;31%;4 Bridgeport, CT;73;56;72;52;Partly sunny, nice;W;11;49%;23%;5 Buffalo, NY;58;55;59;52;A couple of showers;WNW;15;79%;98%;1 Burlington, VT;68;53;65;52;A shower in the p.m.;S;13;68%;92%;1 Caribou, ME;64;53;67;47;Sun and clouds;SSW;8;68%;44%;2 Casper, WY;78;40;81;45;Sunny;SSE;6;36%;5%;5 Charleston, SC;89;65;82;60;Partly sunny;N;7;41%;7%;6 Charleston, WV;74;48;64;43;Sunshine and cool;W;7;56%;20%;5 Charlotte, NC;81;52;75;49;Sunny and pleasant;NNW;6;37%;4%;6 Cheyenne, WY;77;46;75;48;Nice with sunshine;S;10;32%;3%;5 Chicago, IL;63;48;58;47;Breezy;NNW;15;53%;29%;4 Cleveland, OH;63;54;61;54;Heavy showers;NW;18;75%;99%;2 Columbia, SC;88;55;81;55;Sunshine and nice;N;6;32%;6%;6 Columbus, OH;66;47;60;45;An afternoon shower;WNW;9;61%;69%;3 Concord, NH;74;48;70;46;Partly sunny;W;7;59%;26%;4 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX;88;64;88;65;Plenty of sunshine;ESE;6;29%;2%;6 Denver, CO;81;52;77;51;Partly sunny;S;6;33%;29%;5 Des Moines, IA;69;49;68;39;Plenty of sun;NE;8;47%;0%;5 Detroit, MI;65;49;59;48;Breezy with a shower;NW;15;71%;91%;2 Dodge City, KS;84;53;85;51;Mostly sunny;NE;9;41%;2%;5 Duluth, MN;57;40;54;38;Partly sunny;N;9;60%;0%;4 El Paso, TX;85;64;86;63;Mostly sunny;ESE;9;37%;1%;7 Fairbanks, AK;47;34;44;31;Mostly cloudy;NE;5;81%;29%;1 Fargo, ND;65;39;59;37;Mostly sunny;E;8;53%;0%;4 Grand Junction, CO;83;54;82;54;Sunshine, pleasant;SE;7;32%;1%;5 Grand Rapids, MI;58;47;54;45;Breezy with a shower;NNW;14;79%;66%;1 Hartford, CT;74;54;72;50;Mostly sunny;WSW;8;52%;25%;4 Helena, MT;82;49;83;49;Sunny and very warm;SW;4;41%;0%;4 Honolulu, HI;89;75;89;75;A morning shower;ENE;13;57%;44%;9 Houston, TX;94;67;88;66;Plenty of sunshine;NE;8;34%;4%;7 Indianapolis, IN;67;47;63;47;Mostly sunny;N;10;48%;29%;5 Jackson, MS;85;55;81;57;Sunny, low humidity;NE;8;38%;3%;6 Jacksonville, FL;91;71;85;73;A t-storm around;NE;9;59%;55%;7 Juneau, AK;60;50;54;49;Rain;SE;8;95%;98%;0 Kansas City, MO;74;50;77;49;Mostly sunny, nice;NE;5;44%;0%;5 Knoxville, TN;78;46;71;43;Sunny and nice;N;7;43%;10%;5 Las Vegas, NV;99;73;97;73;Partly sunny;WNW;6;22%;23%;5 Lexington, KY;70;46;66;43;Mostly sunny;NNW;11;46%;12%;5 Little Rock, AR;85;53;83;56;Sunny and beautiful;NE;6;35%;1%;6 Long Beach, CA;89;69;89;69;Some sun;S;6;55%;0%;5 Los Angeles, CA;90;69;95;70;Sunny and hot;SE;7;46%;0%;6 Louisville, KY;71;48;68;44;Mostly sunny;NNW;10;42%;6%;5 Madison, WI;59;41;55;37;Cool with some sun;N;9;57%;5%;4 Memphis, TN;83;55;83;56;Sunny and nice;E;7;34%;2%;6 Miami, FL;87;78;84;80;Some wind and rain;SE;10;84%;100%;2 Milwaukee, WI;62;46;58;44;Breezy and cool;N;15;58%;26%;3 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN;63;44;59;40;Mostly sunny;N;10;46%;0%;4 Mobile, AL;91;63;85;61;Sunny and not as hot;NNE;10;36%;0%;7 Montgomery, AL;89;56;76;55;Sunny and pleasant;NNE;8;38%;2%;6 Mt. Washington, NH;43;32;39;33;Windy;W;29;90%;52%;1 Nashville, TN;77;47;75;46;Sunny and nice;N;8;37%;3%;5 New Orleans, LA;92;71;84;67;Sunny and not as hot;NE;12;37%;0%;7 New York, NY;74;58;72;54;Partly sunny;W;11;43%;20%;5 Newark, NJ;73;54;71;51;Clouds and sun, nice;W;9;45%;22%;4 Norfolk, VA;83;61;78;57;Sunshine;NW;8;36%;15%;5 Oklahoma City, OK;84;57;88;61;Partly sunny;SSE;11;32%;3%;6 Olympia, WA;84;49;74;52;Mostly sunny;SSW;6;68%;63%;4 Omaha, NE;74;47;73;41;Sunny and pleasant;ENE;8;46%;0%;5 Orlando, FL;92;75;83;75;A shower and t-storm;ENE;7;84%;100%;2 Philadelphia, PA;77;58;73;54;Clouds and sun;WNW;10;41%;20%;5 Phoenix, AZ;103;82;102;81;Sunshine and warm;E;8;24%;14%;6 Pittsburgh, PA;67;49;62;48;Mostly cloudy, cool;WSW;10;62%;43%;2 Portland, ME;71;54;66;50;Clouds and sun;SW;9;69%;34%;3 Portland, OR;85;55;80;56;Mostly sunny;SSW;7;54%;26%;4 Providence, RI;73;56;72;50;Some sun, pleasant;WSW;8;55%;28%;4 Raleigh, NC;82;56;77;51;Sunny and beautiful;NNW;7;34%;10%;5 Reno, NV;87;55;85;53;Breezy in the p.m.;WSW;11;28%;0%;5 Richmond, VA;80;54;75;48;Sunny and pleasant;WNW;8;40%;14%;5 Roswell, NM;85;58;89;58;Plenty of sun;S;7;35%;4%;6 Sacramento, CA;91;57;88;58;Abundant sunshine;S;6;49%;0%;5 Salt Lake City, UT;84;59;88;63;Mostly sunny;ESE;7;26%;0%;5 San Antonio, TX;95;65;92;64;Sunny and very warm;NE;9;29%;3%;7 San Diego, CA;79;68;80;68;Humid with sunshine;WNW;8;68%;0%;6 San Francisco, CA;68;58;69;59;Turning sunny;W;11;68%;0%;5 Savannah, GA;90;63;84;61;Not as hot;NNE;6;47%;8%;6 Seattle-Tacoma, WA;80;55;76;56;Mostly sunny;SSW;8;63%;63%;4 Sioux Falls, SD;71;43;69;38;Mostly sunny;ENE;6;47%;0%;4 Spokane, WA;85;49;89;52;Very warm;SE;2;37%;2%;4 Springfield, IL;67;42;67;37;Plenty of sunshine;N;10;47%;0%;5 St. Louis, MO;71;48;71;42;Mostly sunny;NNE;9;41%;2%;5 Tampa, FL;94;74;82;74;A shower and t-storm;ENE;10;86%;100%;2 Toledo, OH;63;47;59;46;A stray shower;NW;9;66%;90%;2 Tucson, AZ;98;76;96;73;Mostly sunny;ESE;11;31%;14%;7 Tulsa, OK;84;55;87;57;Plenty of sunshine;SE;7;32%;3%;5 Vero Beach, FL;89;75;82;76;Rain and a t-storm;ESE;10;90%;100%;2 Washington, DC;78;56;72;51;Partly sunny, nice;WNW;9;43%;14%;5 Wichita, KS;82;54;87;54;Mostly sunny;ENE;9;33%;2%;5 Wilmington, DE;78;56;72;52;Partly sunny, nice;WNW;11;45%;18%;5 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Read More…

Trump Agenda ‘America First’ Bus Stops In Hoover https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-agenda-america-first-bus-stops-in-hoover/ Former President Donald Trump wasn’t on the big red bus as it pulled up to the gun store and firing range, but several former Trump administration officials carried many of his policy ideas aboard the America First Agenda Bus as it stopped Monday afternoon at Hoover Tactical Firearms. Dozens of Alabama Republican Party officials including party chairman John Wahl were on hand to meet the bus and hear a pep talk from Ashley Hayek, former national coalitions director of the Trump 2020 campaign. Clay Shoemaker, former senior digital strategist in the Trump administration and Hilton Beckham, who worked in the communications office for Trump, also arrived on the bus. Shoemaker said that whether or not Trump runs for president again in 2024, the agenda will be a factor for whoever the Republican nominee is. Hayek said the “America First” agenda continues to battle the “radical left” as midterm elections approach. “The radical left has over 300 individual organizations, compared to less than 100 of what America First has,” said Hayek, chief engagement officer for the America First Policy Institute and Executive Director of America First Works. “It’s absolutely insane the amount of funding that they have, the amount of organizations they have, what they’re able to do. It’s time we have to really step up and think longer term too. One thing the previous administration did really well too is outreach to different groups that were historically ignored.” The “America First Agenda,” listed on the AFPI website, includes making America energy independent and making it “easy to vote and hard to cheat,” and giving parents more control over their children’s education. “We’re not just going to show up when it’s 50 days from the election cycle to try and get a vote,” Hayek said. “This is a long-term, multigenerational play for the heart and soul of our country. It’s a 100-year plan.” The bus had recently been in Georgia and was on its way to Illinois as it crisscrosses the country promoting Trump’s policies leading up to the mid-term election. Republican activists only got word over the weekend that the bus would stop in Hoover. Supporters filed into Hoover Tactical, maneuvered past the sound of gunfire in the shooting range and into a meeting room where they were offered free T-shirts and caps emblazoned with a “1776″ logo. Wahl introduced Hayek and spoke to Republican loyalists. “You care about this election that we have coming up,” Wahl said. “We really do believe that America First policies and Republican Party policies will best help the citizens of this country be safe, successful and accomplish what they want with their lives.” “We like to think of ourselves as a do-tank, not just a think tank,” Hayek said. “We’re pro-family, we’re pro-God, we’re pro-gun, we’re pro small business. The message resonates.” Ashley Hayek, former national coalitions director for the Trump 2020 campaign, speaks to Alabama Republicans at Hoover Tactical Firearms on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022. (Photo by Greg Garrison/AL.com) Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Gunman Attacks Russian Military Recruiter As Thousands Flee Mobilization https://digitalalabamanews.com/gunman-attacks-russian-military-recruiter-as-thousands-flee-mobilization/ A young man shot and wounded the chief recruitment officer at a military enlistment station in Russia’s Irkutsk region on Monday, local authorities said, as thousands of fighting-age men continued to flee the country to escape President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. The alleged shooter in the attack on the military commissariat in Ust-Ilimsk, a small town in Irkutsk, was apparently distraught that his close friend had been called for duty despite having no prior military service. When Putin announced a “partial mobilization” last week, he said only experienced servicemen would be summoned. “In other words, only military reservists, primarily those who served in the armed forces and have specific military occupational specialties and corresponding experience, will be called up,” he assured Russians in a national address. But there have been a torrent of reports from across Russia, even from ardent supporters of the war, of people being summoned for duty despite having no military experience, or being too old or physically incapable of serving. Those reports, along with the government’s acknowledgment that thousands of fighting-age men have fled the country to avoid conscription, suggest that the chaotic mobilization is becoming the latest debacle in Putin’s war. A video clip of Monday’s shooting showed the suspect, identified as 25-year-old Ruslan Zinin, firing at least one shot inside the office. “The shooter was immediately arrested, and he will definitely be punished,” Irkutsk regional governor Igor Kobzev wrote in his Telegram blog. “I can’t wrap my head around what happened, and I am ashamed that this is happening at a time when, on the contrary, we should be united.” The recruiter, Alexander Eliseev, has been hospitalized in critical condition, Kobzev said. Zinin’s mother, Marina Zinina, told Russian outlet ASTRA that her son was upset because his best friend got a mobilization summons despite never having served in the army. “They said that there would be partial mobilization, but it turns out that they take everyone,” she was quoted as saying. As local commissariats rushed to fulfill quotas, call-up notices were sent to men who should be legally exempt from service because of their age, health or lack of military experience. Some were sent home after a public uproar. Others, such as 59-year-old Viktor Dyachok, who has Stage 1 skin cancer and is blind in one eye, were called to duty, independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported. “He has astigmatism, hypertension, age-related deafness,” his daughter told the newspaper, saying the family had hoped he would be granted a medical dispensation. “[But] no one at the hospital objected to this; everyone follows the plan.” Amid swirling confusion over who would be summoned, thousands of Russians continued to flee the country, fearing the Kremlin would soon move to shut the borders. The attack in Irkutsk was just one in a spate of incidents that show resistance to the mobilization is becoming more widespread — and more unpredictable. In Ryazan, a city in western Russia, a man reportedly set himself on fire at a bus station to protest the war. Local outlet YA62.ru reported that he “started laughing and shouting that he did not want to participate in the special operation in Ukraine,” using the Kremlin-preferred euphemism for the war. A video online showed the man, who did not appear to be severely injured, being led outside the bus terminal by police and ambulance workers. Sporadic protests have also broken out, including in Russian regions populated mainly by ethnic minorities, such as Dagestan, where the majority of residents are Muslim, and the Indigenous lands of Buryatia and Yakutia. Local activists say men in these areas are being disproportionately targeted by the mobilization. More than 2,300 protesters have been detained across dozens of Russian cities since Putin announced the partial mobilization Wednesday morning, according to rights group OVD-Info, which monitors protest activity. Traffic jams stretching for miles have formed at the border crossings with Georgia and Kazakhstan as the departure of Russians continued through the weekend and on Monday. “The jam at the Russian-Georgian border continues to be about 20 kilometers long” — roughly 12½ miles — “and the wait time to cross into Georgia is now up to three days,” Nikolai Levshitz, a Russian-speaking blogger who helps expatriates assimilate in Georgia, wrote in his daily Telegram update. With air tickets to virtually all visa-free destinations long sold out, Russians are fleeing by foot, by car or even by bicycle. Photos and video clips posted on social media have shown piles of abandoned bicycles near border posts. One Russian man who flew into Istanbul on Monday morning said he took a charter flight from Moscow because commercial flights were sold out. He said he paid about $5,000 for his ticket. Reports from Russian independent outlets said that authorities could close the country’s borders to military-age men as soon as Wednesday. The outlets Meduza and Khodorkovsky Live, citing Russian government sources, each reported that Moscow will halt departures as soon as it announces the results of the staged referendums now being carried out in parts of four Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia. There is no doubt that the results of the referendums, which are illegal under Ukrainian and international law, will be reported by the Kremlin as showing overwhelming support for Russian annexation. Western countries have slammed the referendums as a “sham,” and Britain announced a new round of sanctions Monday against more than 90 individuals and companies involved in organizing the process, which is expected to conclude on Tuesday. “Sham referendums held at the barrel of a gun cannot be free or fair and we will never recognise their results,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement. “They follow a clear pattern of violence, intimidation, torture, and forced deportations in the areas of Ukraine Russia has seized.” Putin and other Russian officials have signaled that once Russia annexes the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the Kremlin would consider any Ukrainian attacks there as direct strikes against Russia — creating the justification for stronger reprisals, including the possible use of nuclear weapons, and providing a basis for declaring partial or full-fledged martial law. On Monday, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov deflected those rumors, saying that “no decisions have been made in this regard.” But Russia’s international isolation is deepening. Japan announced Monday that it would ban exports to 21 Russian organizations that could be used to produce chemical weapons, and Tokyo warned Moscow against making further nuclear threats. Later Monday, Russia’s domestic security agency detained the Japanese consul general in the eastern city of Vladivostok, Motoki Tatsunori, and accused him of spying. Russian authorities declared him persona non grata, meaning he must leave the country. Thousands of miles from Moscow, Putin met with his closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in the sunny Black Sea resort town of Sochi. Lukashenko allowed Putin to use Belarus as a staging ground for the invasion of Ukraine in February, and has remained publicly supportive throughout the conflict, even as Russia has lost ground and momentum. In 2020, Lukashenko claimed he was reelected in an election widely condemned as fraudulent. He then cracked down on protests, subjecting thousands of Belarusians to beatings and harsh prison sentences. In the two years since, up to 200,000 people have left Belarus. In their meeting Monday, Lukashenko told Putin not to “worry” about the Russian men now doing the same. “Let’s say 30,000, even 50,000 left,” Lukashenko told Putin. “So what? If they had stayed here, would they have been our people? Let them run.” Robyn Dixon and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, and Kareem Fahim in Istanbul contributed to this report. 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? 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Putin Grants Russian Citizenship To U.S. Whistleblower Snowden https://digitalalabamanews.com/putin-grants-russian-citizenship-to-u-s-whistleblower-snowden/ Former contractor of U.S. National Security Agency Edward Snowden is seen on a screen during his interview presented via video link at the New Knowledge educational online forum in Moscow, Russia September 2, 2021. REUTERS/Olesya Astakhova Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Sept 26 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, nine years after he exposed the scale of secret surveillance operations by the National Security Agency (NSA). Snowden, 39, fled the United States and was given asylum in Russia after leaking secret files in 2013 that revealed vast domestic and international surveillance operations carried out by the NSA, where he worked. U.S. authorities have for years wanted him returned to the United States to face a criminal trial on espionage charges. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com There was no immediate reaction from Snowden, whose name appeared without Kremlin comment in a Putin decree conferring citizenship on a list of 72 foreign-born people. The news prompted some Russians to jokingly ask whether Snowden would be called up for military service, five days after Putin announced Russia’s first public mobilization since World War Two to shore up its faltering invasion of Ukraine. “Will Snowden be drafted?” Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the state media outlet RT and a vocal Putin supporter, wrote with dark humour on her Telegram channel. Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, told RIA news agency that his client could not be called up because he had not previously served in the Russian army. He said that Snowden’s wife Lindsay Mills, who gave birth to a son in 2020, would also apply for citizenship. U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said he was unaware of any change to Snowden’s status as a U.S. citizen. “I am familiar with the fact that he has in some ways denounced his American citizenship. I don’t know that he’s renounced it,” Price said in a press briefing. Russia granted Snowden permanent residency rights in 2020, paving the way for him to obtain Russian citizenship. That year a U.S. appeals court found the program Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth. Putin, a former Russian spy chief, said in 2017 that Snowden, who keeps a low profile while living in Russia, was wrong to leak U.S. secrets but was not a traitor. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Grant McCool Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

Tennessee Woman Sentenced To More Than Four Years In Prison For Bank Fraud And Aggravated Identity Theft https://digitalalabamanews.com/tennessee-woman-sentenced-to-more-than-four-years-in-prison-for-bank-fraud-and-aggravated-identity-theft/ MOBILE, AL – A Knoxville, Tennessee woman was sentenced to 54 months in prison for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft after pleading guilty to those offenses in April 2022. According to court documents, Ramie Renee Marston, 53, was previously convicted and served prison time for various federal felony fraud convictions in the District of New Hampshire. Those crimes included access device fraud, fraud in connection with identification documents, false representation of a social security number, and bankruptcy fraud. Marston was released from federal prison on August 10, 2018, and married her codefendant, Robert Alan Peters, shortly thereafter. Peters was also a convicted felon, having previously been convicted of armed bank robbery and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime in the District of Oregon. Marston and Peters relocated to the Southern District of Alabama, where Peters was being supervised by the U.S. Probation Office. On August 13, 2018, three days after Marston was released from federal custody, she and Peters visited a branch of Regions Bank in Tillman’s Corner. As captured on bank surveillance video, Marston and Peters opened two new Regions accounts and used fraudulent checks to fund them. Marston admitted that she knew the checks used to open the accounts were fraudulent and contained inaccurate and invalid account numbers. Marston and Peters later withdrew money from the accounts, generating a loss to the bank. On December 7, 2018, Marston submitted an application containing false information to Sallie Mae for a student loan to attend Remington College in Mobile. In the loan application, Marston fraudulently represented that an individual was a cosigner on the loan when she knew he was not. Marston used the victim’s name, social security number, and date of birth in the application without the victim’s knowledge and authorization. Senior United States District Judge Callie V.S. Granade ordered Marston to serve a five-year term of supervised release upon her release from prison, during which time she will undergo testing and treatment for substance abuse, will receive mental health evaluation and treatment, and will be subject to credit restrictions. The court did not impose a fine, but Judge Granade ordered Marston to pay $12,858.35 in victim restitution and $200 in special assessments. Marston’s codefendant, Peters, died in May 2022 while awaiting trial in this case. U.S. Attorney Sean P. Costello of the Southern District of Alabama made the announcement. The United States Secret Service investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sinan Kalayoglu and Justin Roller prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States. Read More…

Auburn Updates Depth Chart With A Few Changes Ahead Of LSU Game https://digitalalabamanews.com/auburn-updates-depth-chart-with-a-few-changes-ahead-of-lsu-game/ Auburn Football Published: Sep. 26, 2022, 1:41 p.m. Auburn quarterback Robby Ashford rolls out to pass against Missouri during the second half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022 in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP Auburn made a few changes to its official two-deep depth chart ahead of its SEC West clash with LSU this weekend. Robby Ashford, coming off his first career start, is listed as Auburn’s starting quarterback for Saturday’s 6 p.m. matchup at Jordan-Hare Stadium (ESPN), while the backup spot is shared by freshman Holden Geriner and T.J. Finley, who are separated by an “OR” on the two-deep. Finley started the first three games of the season after winning the starting job in fall camp, but he missed last week’s SEC opener against Missouri due to a shoulder injury he sustained against Penn State. It’s unclear if Finley will be available for the LSU game, but Bryan Harsin said Monday the junior will practice this week. Geriner, meanwhile, made his debut against Missouri, playing parts of two drives in the third quarter of Auburn’s 17-14 win. Along with the change at quarterback on the depth chart, Auburn listed Jalil Irvin as its starting center for the LSU game, with Avery Jernigan occupying the backup spot. Tate Johnson, who started the first four games of the season, was not listed on the two-deep after exiting the Missouri game with an injury. He will undergo elbow surgery on Thursday and miss 6-8 weeks, according to Harsin. Auburn also made a couple changes at receiver on the two-deep: Koy Moore and Malcolm Johnson Jr. are listed as co-starters at the Z-receiver spot, while converted tight end Landen King has supplanted Tar’Varish Dawson Jr. as the No. 2 in the slot. Defensively, D.J. James and Jaylin Simpson are listed as co-starters at cornerback opposite Nehemiah Pritchett. James has been one of the most effective defensive backs for Auburn so far this season. AL.com will update this post. Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Fox News Host Thinks QAnon Salute At Trump Rally Is A ‘Call For Unity’ https://digitalalabamanews.com/fox-news-host-thinks-qanon-salute-at-trump-rally-is-a-call-for-unity/ A Fox News host claimed former President Donald Trump was calling for “unity” when his supporters put their index fingers in the air at a recent rally. In reality, the supporters were expressing support for a deranged conspiracy theory asserting Democrats are Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Emily Campagno was bashing Hillary Clinton on Fox News show Outnumbered Monday after the former secretary of state compared Trump rallies to how Germans became enthralled with Adolf Hitler. Campagno claimed that while Clinton was criticizing Trump, Trump himself was describing the United States as “one America,” and that his supporters were putting “the finger in the air saying one.” “So his calls for unity are ironically met with her comparison of World War II,” Compagno said. Ironically, it wasn’t a call for unity that prompted supporters at the Trump rally to put their fingers in the air. It was Trump playing a song associated with QAnon, a conspiracy theory that asserts Democrats pedophiles who worship Satan and want to destroy the world. Trump, the theory holds, is the man who can stop this global cabal of pedos. What’s more, in a clip that went viral of Trump playing the QAnon song, he was attacking President Joe Biden as “cognitively impaired,” the Justice Department as pursuing him in a witch hunt, “fake news” media being “the enemy of the people,” crime being “rampant,” etc. You could describe his comments as the opposite of unifying: this is one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen at a Trump rally. All it is missing is passing around Kool-Aid right after. pic.twitter.com/BmPOztb7kA — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 18, 2022 Of course, Trump has never been one to embrace unity, or nuance, or measured rhetoric of any kind. Winking at a conspiracy theory that deems your political opposition Satan-worshipping pedophiles is at this point par for the course. Compagno is likely referring to another part of Trump’s speech, when he referred to his supporters as “one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious American nation.” The QAnon song played throughout those comments as well, and his supporters raised their fingers before he made his comments about “one America.” Even Trump’s team acknowledged the QAnon salute might have crossed a line. “Once we saw that, we realized we might have a problem,” a Trump aide told CNN after the first incident of finger-gesturing in Ohio earlier this month. At Trump’s Friday rally in South Carolina, the former president once again played the QAnon song, and supporters in the crowd once again raised their fingers — prompting security working for Trump to tell the supporters to cut it out. Watch above, via Fox News. Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com Read More…

CBO: White House Plan To Relieve Student Loan Debt Costs $400 Billion https://digitalalabamanews.com/cbo-white-house-plan-to-relieve-student-loan-debt-costs-400-billion/ The White House’s plan to cancel student loan debt for tens of millions of American borrowers will cost roughly $400 billion over 10 years, according to a new estimate released by Congress’ nonpartisan scorekeeper. The scorekeeper also found that the White House’s plan to temporarily extend an existing pause on student loan payments would cost roughly $20 billion. The new estimate will fuel the debate over President Biden’s student debt decision, which was cheered by advocates but immediately assailed by Republican lawmakers as a wasteful and inefficient waste of government spending. Biden announced in August that his administration would cancel up to $20,000 in student debt for lower- and middle-class borrowers. Supporters of student debt cancellation have argued that similar estimates in the past have overstated the policy’s cost to the federal government, because despite formally owing the federal government money many borrowers never pay back the loans. The CBO estimate excludes the White House’s simultaneous move to lower the monthly amount borrowers can be forced to repay as a percentage of their income from 10 percent to 5 percent. That policy is set to cost an additional $120 billion, according to estimates from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a D.C.-based think tank that has opposed Biden’s policy. “The president announced possibly the most expensive executive action in history without a score, and we’re now seeing just how expensive this policy is going to be,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president for policy with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, in an interview before the score’s release. More than 40 million Americans could receive some level of student loan relief under Biden’s plan. Half of those could have their debt completely canceled, according to the White House. The administration estimates that 60 percent of borrowers are entitled to have their debt reduced by $20,000 because they received Pell Grants, federal aid for lower-income students, as undergraduates. A recent analysis by the Census Bureau said Black and Hispanic women could benefit the most from the one-time cancellation policy. Both groups hold a disproportionate share of education debt relative to their peers. White House officials have said the typical Black borrower will see their balance cut nearly in half, and more than one in four will have their debt erased altogether, even before applying the additional $10,000 for Pell recipients. Roughly 8 million borrowers, whose income is already on file at the department, will have their loans automatically forgiven without having to apply, according to the Education Department. Everyone else will have to apply in early October, when the agency expects to release the form. GOP lawmakers and state attorneys general have said they are exploring the possibility of a lawsuit to overturn the policy before it goes into effect. One conservative group, the Job Creators Network, has said it plans to sue the administration once the Education Department guidance is released. Some economists cautioned that opponents of the policy frequently overstate its price-tag. Marshall Steinbaum, an economist at the University of Utah, said his research suggests that more than 60 percent of outstanding student loans have rising balances over time — suggesting that many of them are not being paid off. “A very large share of already outstanding student debt was not going to be repaid anyway, so I’m curious how the CBO will account for the fact that most student debt was already uncollectable,” said Steinbaum, who supports student debt cancellation, in an interview before the CBO’s release. Danielle Douglas–Gabriel contributed reporting to this article. Read More…

Liz Cheney Says She Will Campaign Against Republicans | Cowboy State Daily https://digitalalabamanews.com/liz-cheney-says-she-will-campaign-against-republicans-cowboy-state-daily/ ***For All Things Wyoming, Sign-Up For Our Daily Newsletter*** By Leo Wolfson, State Political Reporter Leo@Cowboystatedaily.com U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney continued her departure from Republican Party loyalty on Saturday, saying she will campaign against GOP nominees for governor in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Both candidates – Kari Lake of Arizona and Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania – have questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. “That’s the kind of thing we cannot see in our party. We cannot see an accommodation like that,” Cheney said at a festival put on by the left-of-center Texas Tribune on Saturday. “And I think it’s very important that we be clear about that.” Lake is the Republican nominee for governor in Arizona, running against Democrat Katie Hobbs in the general election. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Kari Lake is not elected,” Cheney said. Lake shot back in an interview on Fox News on Sunday, mentioning Cheney’s primary election loss in August. “That might be the biggest, best gift I’ve ever received,” Lake said. “I mean, the people of Wyoming can’t stand her. I’m pretty much sure that the people of Arizona don’t like Liz Cheney.” A Larger Effort Lake, along with the Arizona Republican nominees for secretary of state and attorney general, have called for decertification of the 2020 election. Cheney has consistently spoken out against those who question the results of the 2020 election, saying this rhetoric and its corresponding actions is an attack on the U.S. Constitution and one of the root causes of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Former President Donald Trump has been at the forefront of 2020 election claims. Cheney also said Saturday that she will leave the Republican Party if Trump wins the party’s nominee for president in 2024. “If he is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican,” she said. Although Cheney did not clarify specific candidates she plans on supporting in Arizona and Pennsylvania, she said her campaign against Lake and Mastriano could include endorsing their Democratic opponents.  Candidates from the Independent-Green Party and Libertarian Party also are running in the Arizona governor’s race, and candidates from the Green, Libertarian and Keystone Party of Pennsylvania are running for governor in that state. “The Independent voter and the moderate Democrats and the moderate Republicans around this country want sanity,” Cheney said. “And they want responsibility. And they want to know that their elected officials are serious.” Although Cheney said she as supported Republican Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin because he “hasn’t bought into the toxin of Donald Trump,” she also criticized him Saturday for supporting Lake. Important Races President Joe Biden’s 2020 election wins in Arizona and Pennsylvania were some of the most contested results in the nation, with many Trump supporters levying claims of fraud and irregularities. The claims were almost entirely unsupported. Arizona’s governor race will be of particular interest to watch, as Biden was the first Democrat to win that state since 1996. If Lake does not win the election, it could be a sign that voters are still unwilling to give Trump their support and a bellwether for his chances in the 2024 presidential election. Conversely, if Lake wins, it could be a positive sign for Trump’s 2024 hopes. Pennsylvania is a traditional swing state and will be another important marker for the 2024 election.  Mastriano has not yet responded to Cheney’s comments. He was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and, like Lake, has been one of the driving voices behind Trump’s claims the 2020 election was illegitimate. He proposed giving the Pennsylvania Legislature the power to designate its own slate of presidential electors and pushed for a “forensic audit” of the 2020 election. “I think we have to do everything we can in ’22 to make sure those people don’t get elected,” said Cheney. “We have to make sure Mastriano doesn’t win.” ***For All Things Wyoming, Sign-Up For Our Daily Newsletter*** Read More…

The Premise Poll Finds Plus 10% Plurality Margin Opposing Governors Sending Undocumented Persons To Northern States https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-premise-poll-finds-plus-10-plurality-margin-opposing-governors-sending-undocumented-persons-to-northern-states/ Trump remains in statistical dead heat with Biden, who remains underwater in job approval, 41% approve, 51% disapprove , /PRNewswire/ — The Premise Poll, in its latest regular political tracking poll, found that by a margin of 10 points, 42% – 32%, a plurality of Americans oppose sending undocumented individuals from the U.S.-Mexico border to cities in the North.  Nearly half of respondents (48%) are in favor of increased security along the U.S. and Mexico border. However, 39% are in favor of establishing a way for immigrants here illegally to stay legally, and 39% are in favor of allowing those who came to the U.S. illegally as children (also known as “dreamers”) to remain here. Only 27% favor increasing deportation of immigrants here illegally. The same poll, taken September 17-19, of a total nationwide sample of 1,703 adults, also had former President Donald Trump in a statistical dead heat with President Joe Biden in a possible 2024 presidential election – with Trump at 49% and Biden at 51%. The Premise Poll’s tracking poll from two weeks ago also had Biden and Trump in a statistical tie. President Biden’s job approval ratings remain underwater (virtually unchanged from two weeks ago). 51% somewhat or strongly disapprove of the job President Biden is doing vs. 41% who somewhat or strongly approve. More than three times as many in the sample “strongly disapprove” of Biden’s job performance as “strongly approve” – 31% vs. 10% respectively. Trump still leads the field of potential GOP candidates by huge margins among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents – at 63% for Trump to 14% for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. On the Democratic side, if Biden does not run again, Vice President Kamala Harris is way out front among Democrats and independent leaners – 36% followed by 18% for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 10% and 7% for California Governor Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, respectively.  A narrow margin of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents in the sample do not think President Biden should run again (52% – 48%), which is virtually identical to the 53% – 47% opposing another run as seen in Premise’s tracking poll two weeks ago. Other findings: More respondents prefer the Democratic party (46%) to have control of Congress following the 2022 midterms than the Republican party (34%) – a margin much larger than other polls. This could suggest an outlier (although the total sample taken mirrors the results of the 2020 presidential election, suggesting the sample is relatively representative). On opposing vs. favoring what two governors have done in sending undocumented persons north, respondents located in the South (39%) were more likely to approve than respondents located in the Northeast (27%). More respondents prefer the Democratic party (45%) to lead on immigration policy than the Republican party (37%). For cross tabulation tables by party, gender, ethnicity, region, see here: https://www.premise.com/blog/premise-poll-immigration/.  Follow the “Great Minds Think Data” Podcast, hosted by Premise CEO Maury Blackman, on your favorite podcast selection site. Methodology These results are based on responses from 1,703 Americans collected between September 16th and September 19th via the Premise smartphone application. Premise randomly sampled its opt-in panel members, stratified on Age, Gender, Region and Education, based on the 2019 American Community Survey (ACS). The results are weighted by Age, Gender, Region and Education benchmarked against the 2019 ACS estimates. Respondents were compensated for their completion of the survey through the Premise app. About Premise Premise, the innovative platform that democratizes the way data is sourced, analyzed, and applied, recently surveyed, is an on-demand insights company. Its technology mobilizes communities of global smartphone users to source actionable data in real-time, cost-effectively, and with needed visibility. In more than 135 countries and 37 languages, Premise finds Data for Every Decision. To learn more, please visit www.premise.com. Contact: Taylor C. Pearson [email protected] 202-235-3482 SOURCE Premise Read More…

The South's Top 50 Barbecue Joints https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-souths-top-50-barbecue-joints/ A lot has changed on the barbecue landscape since Southern Living published its last list of The South’s Top 50 Barbecue Joints in 2019. For starters, the global COVID-19 pandemic shut down dining rooms in the spring of 2020. Soaring food costs and labor challenges followed, putting many barbecue operations on the ropes and threatening the entire industry. But the South’s barbecue joints proved surprisingly resilient. We have witnessed a few sad departures of old favorites in recent years, but, remarkably, only one of the 50 restaurants on our 2019 list — B’s Cracklin’ BBQ — is no longer in business today. Fire destroyed the pithouse at B’s Atlanta location in March 2019, and the remaining Savannah location closed the following year, but there is a silver lining: owner/pitmaster Bryan Furman has a new Atlanta restaurant in the works, and this time it will bear his full name: Bryan Furman BBQ. Resilience and new beginnings are recurring themes on this year’s list. Instead of widespread gloom, the past two years have brought a flourishing of barbecue entrepreneurship. Established restaurants have added new locations, and some have evolved into nascent multi-state chains. A parade of ambitious new players has entered the market, too, and they are transforming the long-running Southern barbecue tradition with their energy and creativity. Yes, Texas-style smoked brisket continues its relentless march across the South, and many of the best new restaurants do put brisket at the center of their menus. At the same time, we’re enjoying a vibrant new wave of barbecue diversity, as up-and-coming pitmasters blend traditional regional styles with flavors inspired by their family heritage and by the culinary diversity of the communities in which they live. Five years ago, simply tucking smoked beef or pork inside a tortilla and calling it a barbecue taco seemed pretty cutting edge. These days, such combinations are run-of-the-mill, and pitmasters are increasingly looking around the globe for inspiration. At the core, though, they remain committed to the fundamentals: smoking top quality meats low and slow on wood-fired pits. The bar for top-notch barbecue, in other words, has only gotten higher, and it shows in this year’s list, which blends old-school icons and impressive newcomers. Taken as a whole, the rankings offer a capsule assessment of “The State of Southern Barbecue,” and the state of barbecue in the South is indeed strong—and getting stronger each year. Editor’s Note: This list, which was compiled and ranked by Southern Living‘s Contributing Barbecue Editor, is distinct from our South’s Best rankings, which was released back in March and was based upon a survey of our readers. You can think of that list as the “readers’ choice” and this one as the “editor’s picks.” There is a lot of overlap between the two rankings, though. We Southerners love to argue about who cooks the best barbecue, but the cream tends to rise to the top. #50. Jenkins Quality Barbecue 830 N Pearl St Jacksonville, FL (904) 353-6388 jenkinsqualitybarbecue.com What’s the secret to the success of this long-running Jacksonville institution? The Jenkins family says “it’s in the sauce.” Indeed, the golden hue of that signature mustard-based preparation is bound to grab your attention, and if you opt for the hot version (and you really should), it’ll put sweat on your brow and tears in your eyes. I think the real secret, though, is the big open brick pit on which they cook ribs, chicken, pork, and beef. The direct heat from burning oak logs imparts an inimitable crisp, smoky flavor to the ribs. Served over slices of white bread and smothered in that distinctive yellow mustard sauce, it’s been a winning combination since 1957. #49. Swig & Swine 1217 Savannah Hwy Charleston, SC (843) 225-3805 swigandswinebbq.com With three locations in the Charleston area, Swig & Swine has become one of the anchors of the Lowcountry’s vibrant barbecue scene. “All wood all the time” is owner Anthony DiBernardo’s motto, and that wood-fired flavor can be found in everything from pulled pork and ribs to turkey and chicken wings. The thick-sliced prime brisket is always a solid choice, but the real treasures are the silky, smoke-tinged pork belly and DiBernardo’s tangy take on South Carolina’s signature side dish, hash and rice. Keep your eye on the daily specials board, too, which offers ever-changing novelties like Thai chili wings, pork steaks, and house-cured pastrami sandwiches. #48. Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q 1238 DeKalb Avenue Northeast Atlanta, GA (404) 577-4030 foxbrosbbq.com In recent years, twin brothers Jonathan and Justin Fox have expanded their Atlanta footprint with new locations in The Works on the Upper Westside, a concession inside the Braves’ baseball stadium, and a “Que-osk” in a converted shipping container on Ottley Drive. It was 15 years ago, though, that the original DeKalb Avenue restaurant opened just east of downtown, and that’s where the brothers introduced the barbecue style of their native Texas to the people of Atlanta. Brisket, ribs, and sausage remain the heart of the menu, but plenty of creative combinations span the South’s barbecue regions. “Chicken fried” ribs come with Alabama-style white sauce, tater tots are smothered with a layer of Brunswick stew, and jalapeno cheddar sausage is served with a scoop of pimento cheese. These days, the Foxes call that cross-regional blend “Atlanta Style”, and it seems perfectly at home in one of the South’s fastest growing metropolises. #47. Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous 52 S 2nd St Memphis, TN 38103 (901) 523-2746 www.hogsfly.com Back in the 1940s, Charlie Vergos converted an old coal chute in his basement restaurant into a barbecue pit, and he started cooking pork ribs hot and fast over a charcoal fire. He finished the racks with a reddish-brown spice blend borrowed from his father’s Greek chili recipe, and Memphis classic “dry rubbed” ribs were born. Nothing can quite compare to the Rendezvous’s iconic setting, from the stylish red and green awning outside to the red-checked tablecloths and photograph-lined walls of the basement dining room. Start things off with a cold draft beer and an “appetizer plate” of ham, cheese, and sausage, then move on to a big basket of charcoal-crisped ribs. It’s a barbecue experience found only in Memphis. #46. Hurtado Barbecue 205 E Front St Arlington, TX (682) 323-5141 hurtadobbq.com In the space of just two short years, Brandon Hurtado went from cooking his first barbecue pop-up at a local brewery to moving into a permanent location in a former biker bar in downtown Arlington. Branding his style “Mexicue,” Hurtado proudly incorporates the flavors of his Hispanic heritage into traditional Texas-style barbecue. The fundamentals are solid, like luscious brisket with a sharp peppery bark tender and pork ribs tinged pink with smoke straight down to the bone. Traditional sides get a few bold twists, too, like poblano mac ‘n cheese, hatch chile cheddar grits, and zippy elotes that top yellow corn kernels with squiggles of bright orange hot sauce and a dusting of cotija cheese. Hurtado’s not resting on his laurels, either. Just this summer he opened a second Hurtado Barbecue up north in Little Elm. #45. Truth BBQ 110 S Heights Blvd., Houston, TX (832) 835-0001 truthbbq.com In the summer of 2015, Leonard Botello IV parked a used Klose offset pit next to a small red metal building along the side of U.S. 290, midway between Austin and Houston. There he opened the first Truth BBQ, and long lines quickly formed. Four years later, he headed east to Houston and opened a much larger version in the Heights neighborhood, and the long lines followed there, too. They’re coming for what may well be the best brisket in Houston—thick sliced and with a great blocky texture—plus juicy turkey, savory brisket-laced boudin, and, on Saturdays, Carolina-style whole hog. Attention to detail shows in everything from the labels on the stout glass sauce bottles to the piquant array of housemade pickled vegetables that garnish the trays. An assortment of hearty sides—especially the creamy, cheesy tater tot casserole—finish things off with style. #44. Big T Bar-B-Q 2520 Congaree Road Gadsden, SC (803) 353-0488 bigtbbq.com Two primary features define the Midlands South Carolina style of barbecue: pork dressed in yellow mustard sauce and hash and rice served on the side. Big T has exemplary versions of both, and though there are two satellites in the Columbia suburbs, it’s worth a drive out to Gadsden to check out “the mothership.” That’s where Larry “Big T” Brown and his family cook the barbecue and hash for all three restaurants. They do it the old-school way, too, reducing logs to coals in a warped metal burn box, carrying them by shovel into the pit room, and scattering them beneath pork shoulders cooking on open metal pits. The meaty hash has wonderful dark, earthy notes plus a boost from a dose of the same golden-hued mustard sauce that dresses the pork. There’s also a full slate of options like fried pork chops, fried whiting, and plenty of delicious sides. #43. Blood Bros. BBQ 5425 Bellaire Blvd Bellaire, TX (713) 664-7776 bloodbrosbbq.com Many of the new arrivals on this year’s Top 50 blend traditional Southern barbecue styles with other culinary traditions. Blood Bros. BBQ is a splendid example. Three natives of the Houston suburb of Alief, brothers Terry and Robin Wong and their friend Quy Hoang, started staging barbecue pop-ups at local bars in 2014. They opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant four years later and, in the process, created a unique style of Texas barbecue inspired by their neighborhood’s culinary diversity. The Texas standards are solid—smoky brisket, tender sliced turkey, an excellent jalapeño cheddar sausage—but the more fusiony cr...

Swastika-Wearing Ex-Pupil Kills 15 In Russian School Shooting https://digitalalabamanews.com/swastika-wearing-ex-pupil-kills-15-in-russian-school-shooting/ Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com MOSCOW, Sept 26 (Reuters) – A gunman with a swastika on his teeshirt killed 15 people, including 11 children, and wounded 24 at a school in Russia on Monday before committing suicide, investigators said. The attacker, a man in his early thirties who was named by authorities as Artem Kazantsev, killed two security guards and then opened fire on students and teachers at School Number 88 in Izhevsk, where he had once been a pupil. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles major crimes, said it was looking into the perpetrator’s suspected neo-Nazi links. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “Currently investigators…are conducting a search of his residence and studying the personality of the attacker, his views and surrounding milieu,” the committee said in a statement. “Checks are being made into his adherence to neo-fascist views and Nazi ideology.” Investigators released a video showing the man’s body lying in a classroom with overturned furniture and papers strewn on the bloodstained floor. He was dressed all in black, with a red swastika in a circle drawn on his teeshirt. The Investigative Committee said that of the 24 people wounded, all but two were children. Regional governor Alexander Brechalov said surgeons had carried out a number of operations. Police officers secure the area near a school after a gunman opened fire there, in Izhevsk, Russia September 26, 2022. REUTERS/Stringer He said the attacker had been registered with a “psycho-neurological” treatment facility. Investigators said the man was armed with two pistols and a large supply of ammunition. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin “deeply mourns” the deaths. He described the incident as “a terrorist act by a person who apparently belongs to a neo-fascist organisation or group”. He said doctors, psychologists and neurosurgeons had been sent on Putin’s orders to the location of the shooting in Izhevsk, about 970 km (600 miles) east of Moscow. Russia has seen several school shootings in recent years. In May 2021, a teenage gunman killed seven children and two adults in the city of Kazan. In September last year, a student armed with a hunting rifle shot dead at least six people at a university in the Urals city of Perm. In April 2022, an armed man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region before committing suicide. In 2018, an 18-year-old student killed 20 people, mostly fellow pupils, in a mass shooting at a college in Russian-occupied Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Reuters; writing by Mark Trevelyan, editing by Frank Jack Daniel, Angus MacSwan and Nick Macfie Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

Alabama Prisons Report Work Stoppage After Group Calls For Inmate Strike https://digitalalabamanews.com/alabama-prisons-report-work-stoppage-after-group-calls-for-inmate-strike/ News Updated: Sep. 26, 2022, 1:16 p.m.| Published: Sep. 26, 2022, 12:59 p.m. The Alabama Department of Corrections said it has received reports of an inmate work stoppage at all the major prisons in the state after a prison reform organization called for a strike. The organization Both Sides of the Wall called for the strike beginning this morning. The ADOC said it is controlling the movement of inmates and has deployed other security measures. The ADOC said it does not comment on security procedures because of the safety of inmates, staff, and the public. “All facilities are operational and there have been no disruption of critical services,” ADOC Commissioner John Hamm said in a statement. Both Sides of the Wall held a rally outside the ADOC offices in Montgomery this morning. About 80 people attended the event. Speakers called for reforms to Alabama’s sentencing and parole laws. The group, which included former inmates and family members of inmates, called for improvements to conditions in prison and medical care. “Take care of them while they’re in there,” said Marquetta London of Montgomery, who said she has two nephews in prison. “They’re not taking care of those prisoners like they should. They’re just not doing it.” Speakers talked about the plight of inmate Kastellio Vaughan, whose sister posted photos on Facebook that show him emaciated. A civil rights lawyer hired by the family said Vaughan’s condition has deteriorated since he underwent surgery in August to remove a portion of his intestines as a result of gunshot injuries sustained prior to his incarceration. The ADOC released a statement Saturday saying that Vaughan has received appropriate medical care. The ADOC said Vaughan has requested and received medical attention at least 11 times between July 30 and Sept. 22, including major surgery and a stay of at least 17 days in an an outside hospital. The U.S. Department of Justice has alleged that conditions in Alabama’s prisons violate the constitutional rights of the incarcerated men because of inmate-on-inmate violence and sexual abuse, excessive use of force by staff, and a failure to provide safe physical conditions. The state has acknowledged problems in its prisons but disputes the allegation that conditions violate the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. This story will be updated. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Three Men Charged With Fraud In $100 Million New Jersey Deli Scheme https://digitalalabamanews.com/three-men-charged-with-fraud-in-100-million-new-jersey-deli-scheme/ Hometown Deli, Paulsboro, N.J. Mike Calia | CNBC Three men were charged with fraud and other crimes in a scheme involving a company that was worth $100 million in the stock market despite having only a small-town New Jersey deli to its name, federal authorities said Monday. The three men – James Patten, 63, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Peter Coker Sr., 80, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Peter Coker Jr., 53, of Hong Kong – were charged with 12 counts, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices. Patten and Coker Sr. were arrested Monday. Coker Jr. is still at large. Federal prosecutors said Patten is also charged with four counts of manipulation of securities, four counts of wire fraud, and a count of money laundering. The men were also accused of market manipulation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Your Hometown Deli, the business at the center of the probe, was located in Paulsboro, New Jersey, over the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The deli, lauded for its cheesesteaks and Italian subs, made under $40,000 in annual revenue and closed earlier this year. The parent company, Hometown International, had merged with a bioplastics company. E-Waste also merged with another company last year. The controversy surrounding Your Hometown Deli and the people involved in it prompted questions about whether its parent company was operating within the law. The accusations also are connected to the men’s involvement in a fellow shell company called E-Waste. The $100 million New Jersey deli, as Your Hometown Deli came to be known, was first brought to the public’s attention by investor David Einhorn in a letter to clients. CNBC reported further on the company, including by unearthing more details about the company’s then-CEO, Paul Morina, a legendary high school wrestling coach in southern New Jersey. Patten, one of the men charged in the scheme, wrestled in high school with Morina. Prosecutors said Patten convinced the owners of the deli, which was established in 2014, to put it under the control of an umbrella company, called Hometown International. “Unbeknownst to the deli owners, almost immediately after Hometown International was formed, Patten and his associates began positioning Hometown International as a vehicle for a reverse merger that would yield substantial profit to them,” prosecutors said in a release. In 2019, Hometown International started selling shares on what’s known as the OTC Marketplace, where shares of small companies are traded. “Shortly thereafter, Patten, Coker Sr., And Coker Jr. undertook a calculated scheme to gain control of Hometown International’s management and its shares from the deli owners,” prosecutors said. The men took similar actions to take control of another small company, E-Waste, prosecutors said. That company’s shares surged, too, even though it didn’t have any real business, according to CNBC reporting. Prosecutors said the tactics “artificially inflated” the values of Hometown International and E-Waste stock by 939% and 19,900%, respectively. As of last year, Patten was barred by FINRA, the broker-dealer regulator, from acting as a stockbroker or associating with broker-dealers. He was the subject of repeated disciplinary actions by FINRA. In 2006, he successfully appealed sanctions issued by an SEC judge in a case where he was accused of manipulating the price of a stock listed on the Nasdaq. Patten was defended in that matter by Ira Sorkin, who was best known for representing Ponzi scheme kingpin Bernie Madoff. The Cokers and Patten face steep prison sentences and fines. The securities fraud and securities price manipulation counts carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The wire fraud and money laundering counts also have maximum penalties of 20 years in prison. The conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate securities prices counts each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison. Coker Jr. and Sr. are father and son. CNBC had previously reported on their business dealings and other misadventures. Read the full indictment here. Read More…

Wisconsin's Top Republican Sues To Block Jan. 6 Subpoena https://digitalalabamanews.com/wisconsins-top-republican-sues-to-block-jan-6-subpoena/ MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s Republican Assembly leader is suing to block a subpoena that orders him to testify before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection about a conversation he had with Donald Trump about overturning the 2020 election. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos filed the lawsuit on Sunday in federal court in Wisconsin arguing that the subpoena falls outside the scope of the committee’s investigation into last year’s Capitol attack and infringes on his legislative immunity from civil process. Vos, who had a falling out with Trump this summer, also alleged that the short notice of the subpoena placed an undue burden on him. Rep. Bennie Thompson, committee chair, issued the subpoena Friday ordering Vos to appear on Monday morning either in person or via videoconference. The deposition did not occur. In his lawsuit, Vos said the only explanation for the “extreme deadline” was to conduct the interview before the committee’s next televised hearing on Wednesday “so that clips can be edited out to be used in a multimedia show.” Others who have been subpoenaed by the committee have also sued to avoid giving testimony. Former President Donald Trump tosses caps to the crowd as he holds a rally, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022, in Wilmington, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Chris Seward Vos, in a statement Monday, said he was surprised to be subpoenaed because he has no information about the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attacks. “Given how close we are to the midterms, this subpoena seems to be more about partisan politics than actual fact-finding,” he said. A letter from Thompson that accompanied the subpoena said lawmakers want to talk with Vos about a July call with Trump in which the former president asked Vos about steps he was taking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The call was in response to a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that absentee ballot drop boxes, which were used in the 2020 election and others before it, would be illegal going forward. After Vos took no action to overturn the election, Trump endorsed his primary challenger. Vos narrowly won his primary, and three days later fired Michael Gableman, the former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice he had hired, under pressure from Trump, to investigate the 2020 election. Vos called Gableman, who also endorsed his primary opponent, an “embarrassment.” Gableman’s inquiry turned up no evidence of widespread fraud, but the investigator joined Trump in calling for lawmakers to consider decertifying the 2020 election. The new lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama. ___ Venhuizen is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. ___ More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump Follow the AP’s coverage of Jan. 6 at: https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More…

Will This 220 Page Lawsuit Break Donald Trump? https://digitalalabamanews.com/will-this-220-page-lawsuit-break-donald-trump/ President Biden says he will veto a bill restricting abortion access nationally should the Republicans win Congress this November election. Allison Gill from Mueller, She Wrote joins Stephanie to discuss the 220-page lawsuit brought forth against Donald Trump. She believes this New York Attorney will be what breaks Donald Trump. The Stephanie Miller Show discusses politics, current events, and pop culture using a fast-paced, impromptu style. Before going nationwide, The SM Show pulled #1 ratings at KABC and KFI in Los Angeles and other radio stations in New York and Chicago. You know her from tons of exposure on TV, and on comedy’s prime stages: host of CNBC’s Equal Time, Oxygen TV’s I’ve Got a Secret, and many others. Stephanie has also appeared on CNN’s Joy Behar, Larry King Live, and Reliable Sources, as well as MSNBC’s The Ed Show, Hannity and Colmes and Neal Cavuto on Fox News, the Today Show, The Tonight Show, and Good Morning America, among many others. Her humor and snappy political wit draw listeners from all sides and makes her the perfect antidote to cantankerous conservatives. Missed an episode? Check out The Stephanie Miller Show on FSTV VOD anytime or visit the show page for the latest clips. #FreeSpeechTV is one of the last standing national, independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change. As the alternative to television networks owned by billionaires, governments, and corporations, our network amplifies underrepresented voices and those working on the front lines of social, economic and environmental justice. #FSTV is available on Dish, DirectTV, AppleTV, Roku, Sling and online at freespeech.org. criminal lawsuit Donald Trump FBI federla lawsuit financial fraud Investigation New York Read More…

DeSantis Privately Elevates Election Deniers While Publicly Staying Mum On 2020 – KRDO https://digitalalabamanews.com/desantis-privately-elevates-election-deniers-while-publicly-staying-mum-on-2020-krdo/ By Steve Contorno, CNN Two months before he was Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ pick to oversee Florida voting, Cord Byrd was a featured speaker at a seminar for people who falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen and wanted training to stop it from happening again. Leading the Orlando summit was Cleta Mitchell, a conservative lawyer deeply involved in Donald Trump‘s failed plot to overturn the 2020 election. In audio obtained by CNN, Mitchell introduced Byrd as someone committed to “election integrity ” — a phrase that has become a dog whistle for stoking myths about voting vulnerabilities. Mitchell described Byrd, a Republican state lawmaker at the time, as a trusted sounding board for new election policies and an active participant in weekly calls she hosted with like-minded officials across the country. In turn, Byrd encouraged Mitchell’s trained activists to stay vigilant in the coming elections. “You’re going to be our army on the ground monitoring your local (election supervisors) to ensure that they’re doing their job right,” Byrd said in the March recording. By the end of May, he was Florida’s next secretary of state. Byrd’s past collaboration with Mitchell, unreported until now, is illustrative of the access election deniers and those who have given oxygen to their conspiracies have gained in the highest levels of DeSantis’ government. For the past 10 months, top officials in DeSantis’ administration have met numerous times with Florida activists greatly influenced by Mitchell and other national figures involved in the scheme to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat, according to records obtained by CNN. These activists, who operate under the name Defend Florida, argue that even the election results in the Sunshine State — which Trump won by a healthy margin — were tampered with. Publicly, DeSantis has straddled the GOP’s divide over the last election as he considers whether to run for president in the next one. He is careful not to alienate voters animated by Trump’s relitigating of 2020, while maintaining credibility with Republicans desperate to talk about something else. He rejected calls for an intrusive Arizona-style review of Florida’s election, but nevertheless championed changes to voting procedures that conspiracists have celebrated as evidence of their growing clout in Tallahassee. DeSantis recently embarked on a national tour to boost the campaigns of some of the most fervent election deniers nominated by his party this cycle, though he has not joined them in suggesting Trump should still be president. DeSantis, who has refused to say if he thinks President Joe Biden was lawfully elected, also privately addressed the Orlando summit, which was organized by the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group that has attracted multiple Trump confidantes. Its leadership now includes Mitchell, who was on the phone with Trump when he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to flip the election result in his state. Documented, a watchdog group that tracks outside influence in politics, obtained the leaked recordings from the event and provided them to CNN. In his remarks, DeSantis recalled for the audience election night 2020, when the governor said he wanted to publicly declare Trump the winner in Florida before the networks had but “this is like the one time Fox News would not allow me to go on.” “They’re always begging me,” DeSantis said. “They would not let me go on because I was going to say Trump won Florida.” Someone in the crowd yelled out, “Traitor.” DeSantis went on to raise concerns about the election process in neighboring Georgia, dancing around the edges of the conspiracies that have rattled the state ever since Trump lost by less than 12,000 votes. He said there was “massive ballot harvesting” in Atlanta, demonizing a practice that until 2020 allowed for people in Georgia to legally drop off other people’s absentee ballots at voting locations and drop boxes. He alleged that Atlanta prosecutors wouldn’t investigate voter fraud even if presented with evidence. DeSantis took particular issue with the amount of time needed for Georgia to finish tallying votes. It took days for the state to report a result. Election officials in Georgia had warned that counting absentee ballots often lasts past election night, but in 2020, the tight race and a surge in mail-in votes due to the coronavirus pandemic heightened the awareness of those votes counted later. Florida also counted mail-in ballots from military personnel and overseas voters received after the election, but Trump was too far ahead for the outcome to change. “Even if you tell me it was 100% above board, it doesn’t sit well with people,” DeSantis said. “They’re not going to have confidence in that. Obviously, the more you spread it out, the more opportunities there are, you know, to not do it with integrity.” Local election officials from both parties say they are troubled that DeSantis and others in his administration continue to entertain activists who have for the last two years hounded their offices with unfounded accusations of malfeasance and worked to undermine confidence in their operations. “It’s unfortunate that their message is being amplified within government,” said Mark Earley, the supervisor of elections in Leon County and a Democrat who serves as president of the association representing local election officials in Florida. “It’s very disheartening. And it’s very hard to defend ourselves.” Mark Ard, a spokesman for the Florida Department of State, did not respond when asked whether Byrd still participated in Mitchell’s organized calls. Ard said Byrd was “performing the role of a legislator” by participating in the Orlando summit and working with Mitchell’s group on election legislation. Byrd represented parts of Florida’s northeast coast in the state House for about five years until he was named DeSantis’ secretary of state. “As a Representative, he was proactive in his role in ensuring that people were aware of legislation that would impact his constituency and was involved in discussions to improve legislation that would best suit the needs of his voters,” Ard said. In a statement about his administration’s meetings with Defend Florida, DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin said the governor’s office “hears concerns from a variety of citizen interest groups regularly” and forwards them to the Florida Department of State. “These matters are taken seriously,” Griffin said, “as election integrity is critical to a democratic society.” Defend Florida goes to Tallahassee In the days after the 2020 election, DeSantis was among the first Republican leaders to suggest that Trump-aligned legislators in key swing states had the power to intervene in the choosing of electors, even after all the votes were counted. He floated the idea during an appearance on Fox News two days after the election. But he quickly pivoted to highlighting Florida’s successful election night. By promoting Florida’s flawless election performance, though, DeSantis was at odds with an increasingly vocal group of Trump supporters who baselessly believed the state hadn’t escaped a national conspiracy to commit widespread voter fraud. Organized under the name Defend Florida and modeled after Arizona Trump supporters, they spent the year after the 2020 election knocking on thousands of doors across the state in an effort to prove voter fraud existed on a mass scale. Supporters of their cause put their demands on a billboard in Tallahassee addressed to DeSantis: “Audit Florida’s 2020 Election Now.” In his public remarks, DeSantis repeatedly rebuffed Defend Florida’s calls for an audit, insisting the state had already adequately verified the election results. But behind the scenes, several members of DeSantis’ top staff were assembled for a meeting last December with representatives from Defend Florida, according to a calendar invite obtained by the watchdog group American Oversight and provided to CNN. Two days after their meeting, Caroline Wetherington, a co-founder of Defend Florida, sent DeSantis’ legislative affairs director Stephanie Kopelousos a document full of anti-Muslim conspiracies that suggested voter fraud was committed by a member of the Seminole County canvassing board identified as “the woman in the hijab.” Wetherington noted that Defend Florida “did not put this information together” but twice forwarded it to Kopelousos. If the governor’s office found any validity in the accusations, it didn’t follow up with Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson, a Republican appointed by DeSantis Ωƒwho told CNN that whoever authored the document was “misinformed.” Nevertheless, the governor’s office scheduled to huddle again with Defend Florida two weeks later, another calendar invite showed. Defend Florida landed another meeting in February with the state’s top election officials, then-Secretary of State Laurel Lee, a DeSantis appointee, and Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews, according to an email between Defend Florida organizers and the state provided by American Oversight. Marion County Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox attended a meeting between Defend Florida representatives and the DeSantis administration in which he and Lee painstakingly debunked the evidence the group had collected. For example, the group claimed that having thousands of voters registered to an Okaloosa County courthouse suggested obvious fraud. Wilcox, a Republican, told CNN he informed the group that the courthouse served as the address for Air Force service members stationed at a nearby base. Wilcox thought the Defend Florida representatives left with a better understanding of the state’s election proc...

College Football TV Schedule For Week 5 Of 2022 Season https://digitalalabamanews.com/college-football-tv-schedule-for-week-5-of-2022-season/ Below is the college football TV and live stream schedule for Week 5 of the 2022 season. All times Central: Thursday, Sept. 29 Utah State at BYU, 7 p.m., ESPN (ESPN+) Friday, Sept. 30 Tulane at Houston, 6 p.m., ESPN (ESPN+) Penn at Dartmouth, 6 p.m., ESPNU (ESPN+) Texas-San Antonio at Middle Tennessee, 6:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network (CBS Sports video) San Diego State at Boise State, 7 p.m., Fox Sports 1 (Fox Sports) Washington at UCLA, 9:30 p.m., ESPN (ESPN+) New Mexico at UNLV, 10 p.m., CBS Sports Network (CBS Sports video) Saturday, Oct. 1 Oklahoma at TCU, 11 a.m., ABC (espn3) Navy at Air Force, 11 a.m., CBS (CBS Sports video) Michigan at Iowa, 11 a.m., Fox (Fox Sports) Kentucky at Ole Miss, 11 a.m., ESPN (ESPN+) Purdue at Minnesota, 11 a.m., ESPN2 (ESPN+) Temple at Memphis, 11 a.m., ESPNU (ESPN+) South Carolina State at South Carolina, 11 a.m., SEC Network (ESPN+) Louisville at Boston College, 11 a.m., ACC Network (ESPN+) Illinois at Wisconsin, 11 a.m., Big Ten Network (Fox Sports) Georgia State at Army, 11 a.m., CBS Sports Network (CBS Sports video) Oregon State at Utah, 1 p.m., Pac-12 Network (Pac-12 Network Live) Wake Forest at Florida State, 2:30 p.m., ABC (espn3) Alabama at Arkansas, 2:30 p.m., CBS (SEC on CBS) Oklahoma State at Baylor, 2:30 p.m., Fox (Fox Sports) Northwestern at Penn State, 2:30 p.m., ESPN (ESPN+) Iowa State at Kansas, 2:30 p.m., ESPN2 (ESPN+) SMU at Central Florida, 2:30 p.m., ESPNU (ESPN+) Michigan State at Maryland, 2:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1 (Fox Sports) Virginia Tech at North Carolina, 2:30 p.m., ACC Network (ESPN+) Rutgers at Ohio State, 2:30 p.m., Big Ten Network (Fox Sports) Central Michigan at Toledo, 2:30 p.m., NFL Network (NFL Network live) Fresno State at Connecticut, 2:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network (CBS Sports video) Texas A&M at Mississippi State, 3 p.m., SEC Network (ESPN+) South Alabama at Louisiana, 4 p.m., no TV (ESPN+) California at Washington State, 4:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network (Pac-12 Network Live) LSU at Auburn, 6 p.m., ESPN (ESPN+) Cincinnati at Tulsa, 6 p.m., ESPNU (ESPN+) Troy at Western Kentucky, 6 p.m., no TV (ESPN+) North Carolina State at Clemson, 6:30 p.m., ABC (espn3) Georgia at Missouri, 6:30 p.m., SEC Network (ESPN+) Indiana at Nebraska, 6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network (Fox Sports) West Virginia at Texas, 6:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1 (Fox Sports) San Jose State at Wyoming, 6:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network (CBS Sports video) Virginia at Duke, 6:30 p.m., Bally Sports South (Bally Sports+) UAB at Rice, 6:30 p.m., no TV (ESPN+) Georgia Tech at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m., ACC Network (ESPN+) Colorado at Arizona, 8:30 p.m., Pac-12 Network (Pac-12 Network Live) UC Davis at Montana State, 9:15 p.m., ESPNU (ESPN+) Arizona State at USC, 9:30 p.m., ESPN (ESPN+) Stanford at Oregon, 10 p.m., Fox Sports 1 (Fox Sports) Select games are also available via FUBO.tv. Click HERE for subscription information. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Amplifying Diverse Voices In Microbiology – Nature Microbiology https://digitalalabamanews.com/amplifying-diverse-voices-in-microbiology-nature-microbiology/ We present a series of commissioned articles authored by people from groups that are under-represented in research, to highlight past and present scientific contributions in microbiology and to increase the diversity of Nature Microbiology authors. Diversity in science is essential to generate a strong community, to boost empowerment and engagement, and to bring different perspectives that are essential to advance research. As a journal, we seek to represent the entire field of microbiology, and to do so by publishing research and commentary from a diverse authorship, meaning those with different genders, ethnicities, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, as well as people with physical disabilities, or that are neurodivergent. Diversity in our author group is important because science is practiced in a diverse society that journals should faithfully represent. To help us achieve this goal, we are partnering with various community groups to better represent microbiologists in our pages. As a first step, we are launching a series of articles to amplify diverse voices, and in this issue we announce our first such partnership, with the Black Microbiologists Association (BMA). In the science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) academic communities, there is a clear lack of diversity. The under-representation of minority groups in STEMM research is unfortunately pervasive, with only a small percentage of people from minority ethnic or gender identity groups occupying senior STEMM positions. As reported in peer-reviewed studies, gender and ethnic disparities in science are manifested by unequal authorships1 and citations2, and under-representation of certain groups in medical research3 studies, grant applications4 and funding5. A recent large-scale bibliometric analysis6 examined the intersection between under-represented minority ethnic groups, authorship and scientific research areas in the United States, demonstrating that Black, Latinx and women authors are under-represented in many STEMM fields and are more frequently authors in less-well-cited fields. A long and growing list of studies highlighting inequalities in STEMM disciplines is a call to action. To make science a more inclusive and equitable environment, a systemic change, with strong diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) culture and policy is needed, as discussed by Lerback et al. in a recent Comment in Nature Communications7. We need to take responsibility and conscious action to foster activities that make the research community more inclusive. It is imperative that we consider equity and justice as essential in our communities and institutions if we want to see real change, claims researcher Beronda Montgomery8. As an example, the creation of the National Summer Undergraduate Research Program (NSURP)9 provides research experience to under-represented minority groups that would not normally have such opportunities in their home institutions. Too often, however, it is members of under-represented groups that shoulder the brunt of the work that is needed to make change happen. In scientific publishing, increasing awareness of the issues around DEI has resulted in different journals taking specific actions to increase diversity in science. For example, Nature Medicine has launched a collection of articles on DEI in medical research from multiple perspectives. Several publishers, including Springer Nature, have started a pilot initiative10 to collect information on race or ethnicity and gender from scientists submitting their work, to document representation in journals with the goal of identifying and correcting potential editorial and reviewing biases. In 2020, the Nature Microbiology editorial team joined the academic Strike for Black Lives, and the #ShutDownSTEM day, and published an Editorial11, in which we discussed our actions (or inactions) and detailed strategies to improve diversity in our authors and reviewers. Our collaboration with the BMA was inspired by these discussions. The initiative comprises a series of Journal Club pieces, written by microbiologists who are BMA members. Each Journal Club will highlight a published primary research article that we think has broad appeal, because it reports a substantial conceptual advance, or reports a technical tour de force, or has value because it reports a key advance in a field. Papers that are highlighted will be chosen by authors from the BMA with input from Nature Microbiology editors. Journal Clubs will be written by two or more authors (usually one senior, the other junior) to facilitate mentorship, and all pieces will be edited and published with support from our editorial team. In this issue of Nature Microbiology, research investigator and BMA co-founder Ariangela Kozik contributes a Turning Points article that shares some of the life events that have shaped her career and her passionate advocacy for equity for Black microbiologists. This piece sets the stage for our first Journal Club article of the series, written by Kozik and graduate student Amali Stephens. They highlight a study published by Carson et al. in 2018 that links psychosocial stress, the gut microbiota and race. We will curate these and future Journal Club articles in a series named Amplifying diverse voices, creating a browsable and frequently updated resource of commentaries written by under-represented microbiologists. Our aim is to establish partnerships with under-represented author groups that enable us to commission scientific critiques from the broadest possible set of authors. We hope that this will nurture collaborative networking opportunities among microbiologists, aid training and career progression, and organically increase the diversity of our reviewers and authors. We believe that partnerships with under-represented author groups will foster constructive interactions between editors and authors from all backgrounds. We commit to provide a journal where great science from the whole community is highlighted. We hope that developing a partnership with the BMA will lay the foundation for collaboration with microbiologists from other under-represented groups, and we encourage interested groups to get in touch. Our Journal Club partnership initiative is one small step towards improved diversity, equity, justice and inclusion in Nature Microbiology. We hope that our series of Journal Clubs inspires you to partner with us to help us to showcase the remarkable breadth of microbiology research with a representative, diverse and authoritative set of author voices. References Broderick, N. A. & Casadevall, A. eLife 8, e36399 (2019). Article  Google Scholar  Thelwall, M. A. FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 367, fnaa021 (2020). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Smart, A. & Harrison, E. Ethn. Health. 22, 65–82 (2017). Article  Google Scholar  Erickson, H. P. Science 334, 899 (2011). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Ginther, D. K. et al. PLoS ONE 13, e0205929 (2018). Article  Google Scholar  Kozlowski, D., Larivière, V., Sugimoto, C. R. & Monroe-White, T. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2113067119 (2022). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Lerback, J. C. et al. Nat. Commun. 13, 1684 (2022). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Montgomery, B. L. Nat. Microbiol. 6, 7–8 (2021). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Johnson, M. D. L., Baltrus, D. A. & Gardy, J. Nat. Microbiol. 5, 1311–1313 (2020). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Else, H. & Perkel, J. M. Nature 602, 566–570 (2022). CAS  Article  Google Scholar  Nat. Microbiol. 5, 875 (2020). Download references Read More…

QAnon Now Has A Troubling New Splinter Group Called 'Negative48' https://digitalalabamanews.com/qanon-now-has-a-troubling-new-splinter-group-called-negative48/ Turns out, things can always get worse. A new “splinter group” from theQAnon movement called Negative48 has emerged – and members caused friction with security at former President Donald Trump‘s rallies, it has been reported. On Monday (26 September), The Washington Post ‘s Isaac Arnsdorf reported on the group and the strained relationship with the security team. Negative48’s members were behind the voyage to Dallas last year to see the apparent reemergence of John F. Kennedy Jr and his team effort with Trump to reclaim America from a dark evil. They are also following the former commander-in-chief’s rallies around the country like they’re following their favourite band. Sign upto our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “The arrival of the QAnon group, however, has led to a silent standoff with Trump’s team, raising concerns that they could disrupt events, alienate other fans, distract from the former president’s message or generate bad publicity,” reported Arnsdorf. Arnsdorf also said that the security, who were “male and female bodybuilders,” kept a close eye on Negative48, informing them that they “can’t block the aisles with their dancing.” The report also stated that the splinter group has an odd form of numerology within their plan, even going as far as to create ominous parallels. “One man with the group who didn’t identify himself illustrated how it worked using the name of this newspaper. ‘The Washington Post?’ he said. ‘W is 23 in the alphabet. P is 16. Thirty-nine. Angel 39. Which angel? Lucifer was an angel,'” the report added. The broader conspiracy viewpoints of the QAnon movement are centred around the belief that Trump wants to free the US from a malicious group of sex-trafficking cannibals who eat the flesh of children to be immortal. They also believe that an event dubbed “The Storm” will enact martial law, leading to the arrests of political opponents. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings. Read More…

IT'S TIME For The Media To Cover Donald Trump As The Messiah Of The QAnon Cult https://digitalalabamanews.com/its-time-for-the-media-to-cover-donald-trump-as-the-messiah-of-the-qanon-cult/ The MAGA movement that Donald Trump started has always had the the most disturbing and dangerous attributes of a religious cult. It’s leader demands unflinching devotion. It’s followers declare unwavering loyalty. And most importantly, the flock is taught that only the leader will tell them the truth, and that everyone else is lying to them. Click here to Tweet this article That’s the only explanation for how the MAGA Minions can buy into the preposterous scenarios spun by Trump in his messianic quest for power. Trump requires his disciples to believe that he won the 2020 Presidential election by a landslide – and that evil Democrats and traitorous Republicans stole his victory – despite never having been able to provide a shred of evidence. He insists that he’s innocent of a multitude of crimes – from bank and tax fraud, to extorting the president of Ukraine, to inciting the January 6th insurrection, to hoarding national security documents at Mar-a-Lago and lying to the FBI about it – despite abundant evidence of his guilt. RELATED: LOL: Sean Hannity Thinks He’s Helping Trump By Scrolling a Long List of His Crimes on Fox News In recent weeks the shape of Trump’s political activities have advanced beyond the mere appearance of cult behavior. He is now fully embracing the associated ultra-rightist confederacy of crackpots known as QAnon. These are freakazoids who believe that Democrats are Satanic pedophiles bent on destroying America and can only be vanquished by Trump and his anointed-by-God warriors. Sadly, that army is currently populated by much of the Republican Party. At first Trump tip-toed into the QAnon swamp with subtle allusions to their doctrine and symbolism. But last week he made the connection unmistakably explicit. Amidst a flurry of fanatical postings on his floundering social media scam, Truth Social, Trump included some unambiguous invocations to QAnon. For instance, he posted a picture of Christ with the caption “Jesus is the Greatest. President @realDonaldTrump is the second greatest.” That’s precisely what the QAnon-sense followers profess. And it elevates Trump from a politician to a deity. Another example was Trump’s posting of video that contained multiple references to QAnon through its iconography and slogans… Given Trump’s deep dive into this mystical madness, it no longer makes sense for the media to cover Trump as a political figure. He is promoting himself as a religious leader and aligning himself with people who regard him as their savior. It is what the pseudo-scriptural phrase “make America great again” really means. Trump and his devotees (aka the Republican Party) define it as the greatness of divinity. And they intend to follow him to heaven, even if it means waging a civil war. Or more accurately from their perspective, the war of Armageddon. NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Read More…

Hurricane Ian Strengths To 80 Mph As Watches Extended Farther Into Florida Keys https://digitalalabamanews.com/hurricane-ian-strengths-to-80-mph-as-watches-extended-farther-into-florida-keys/ Hurricane Ian’s top winds increased to 80 mph late Monday morning, beginning a period of rapid intensification expected to bring the storm to Category 4 strength. Tropical storm watches were extended to the Middle Florida Keys and Lake Okeechobee, reflecting the storm’s larger wind field, while Florida’s Gulf coast braced for the first direct hit on the continental United States of the 2022 hurricane season. As of 11 a.m. Monday, Ian was 100 miles west of Grand Cayman and 240 miles southeast of the western tip of Cuba. Both Cuba and Grand Cayman are under hurricane warnings. The storm is expected to strengthen quickly, becoming a major hurricane with winds of up to 120 mph by Monday night when it’s expected to approach landfall in western Cuba, the National Hurricane Center said. Its winds are projected to top out at 140 mph, Category 4 strength over the Gulf of Mexico before weakening slightly before landfall. Despite the attention given to high winds, the biggest killer in hurricanes tends to be water. The hurricane center warned Monday that the Gulf coast faces a high risk of storm surge, the rapid increase in sea level that can flood coastal neighborhoods. “Life-threatening storm surge is possible along much of the Florida west coast, with the highest risk from Fort Myers to the Tampa Bay region,” the hurricane center said at 11 a.m. Hurricane watches went up on Florida’s west coast Monday morning, from north of Englewood to the Anclote River, including Tampa Bay. Southeast Florida remains outside the cone projecting the likely course of the storm’s center. But winds of tropical force and hurricane force can occur outside the cone, depending on how close to the center comes to the edge of the cone. South Florida has a 35-45% chance of tropical-force winds, meaning winds of at least 39 mph, the National Weather Service said in a Monday morning report. The earliest time these winds could arrive is Tuesday morning, although Tuesday night or Wednesday morning is more likely. [ MAP: See the latest forecast map for potential Hurricane Ian  ] “Heavy rain bands with wind gusts and squalls to near tropical storm force are expected over all of South Florida tomorrow through Wednesday,” the weather service said. “Rainfall flooding and isolated tornadoes are possible across all of South Florida during this time frame.” The storm is expected to expand as it strengthens, placing a larger area at risk of high winds. These winds can rip off tree branches, knock down power line and blow objects off the ground, the weather service said. “While a direct landfall to South Florida is unlikely at this time, hazardous conditions can extend well away from the center of the system” the weather service said. The National Hurricane Center said Ian is forecast to rapidly into a major hurricane by Monday night, meaning Category 3 or above. If it were to reach major hurricane status, it would be the season’s second major Atlantic hurricane. Fiona, which dissipated Sunday as a remnant low, was 2022′s first major hurricane. Experts predict Ian’s maximum sustained winds could ultimately reach up to 140 mph this week, which would make it a Category 4 hurricane. [ RELATED: NASA plays it safe, to roll Artemis I back from launch pad ] Most of Florida continued to brace for the uncertain path of the intensifying storm. In addition to the hurricane watch for part of west Florida, a tropical storm warning was in effect from Seven Mile Bridge to Key West, including the Dry Tortugas, meaning tropical storm conditions are possible within 36 hours. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to pass near or west of the Cayman Islands on Monday, and near or over western Cuba Monday night and early Tuesday. Ian will then emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday. Tropical storm force wind probability from Hurricane Ian in the National Weather Service’s 11 a.m. update The National Weather Service continues to emphasize uncertainty in the storm’s path once it enters the Gulf, and said the storm is expected to expand in size as well. The models show a possible direct hit to the Tampa area all the way through the Florida Panhandle. In addition to the tropical storm warning for the lower Keys, a storm surge watch has been issued for the Keys from the Card Sound Bridge westward to Key West, including the Dry Tortugas, and for the west coast of Florida from Englewood southward to the Card Sound Bridge, including Florida Bay. A tropical storm watch has been issued for the west coast of Florida from Englewood southward to Chokoloskee. Small changes in the path will make a big difference in the impact throughout Florida. In South Florida, widespread rain could lead to major flooding, accompanied by winds gusting up to tropical storm levels. [ STAY UPDATED with the latest forecast for tropical weather at SunSentinel.com/hurricane ] DeSantis said to expect heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surges and even isolated tornadoes. He has issued a state of emergency for all 67 counties “given the uncertainty of the storm.” Breaking News Alerts As it happens Get updates on developing stories as they happen with our free breaking news email alerts. President Biden has also approved a federal emergency declaration for Florida, allowing it to access the resources of FEMA. The state has waved restrictions for commercial trucks and authorized emergency refills of prescriptions or 30 days. DeSantis said he’s also activated 2,500 members of the Florida National Guard to assist with the emergency. [ RELATED: Everything you need to know heading into the potential hurricane ] Meanwhile, forecasters say there’s a 40 to 50% chance a tropical depression could form this week from a broad area of low pressure in the Atlantic off Africa. However, experts say it may be short-lived if it encounters upper-level winds, which hinder storm formation. What was Tropical Storm Gaston had dissipated by early Monday. The next named storm to form would be Julia. Hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Staff writer Scott Travis contributed to this report. Read More…

Las Vegas Review-Journal Demands Police Not Search Slain Reporter’s Devices – Poynter https://digitalalabamanews.com/las-vegas-review-journal-demands-police-not-search-slain-reporters-devices-poynter/ Good morning, everyone. Tom Jones is on vacation, but the team at Poynter is keeping tabs on the latest media news and analysis. Here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know today. The Las Vegas Review-Journal is seeking to protect confidential reporting materials on slain reporter Jeff German’s electronic devices, which were seized by police as part of their investigation into the reporter’s murder. German, an investigative reporter, was fatally stabbed earlier this month. Just a few days later, police arrested a county official, Robert Telles, who had been the subject of several stories by German. To aid their investigation, authorities took German’s cellphone, four computers and an external hard drive. But those devices likely contain unpublished materials and information about the Review-Journal’s confidential sources, some of whom may work in the very agencies investigating the murder, said an attorney representing the paper. That information is protected by Nevada’s shield law, the Review-Journal argues. The paper is also arguing that authorities violated federal law prohibiting the search and seizure of journalists’ work product materials. Though the Review-Journal has been working with authorities to address these concerns, “negotiations have reached an impasse,” executive editor Glenn Cook told The Associated Press on Friday. German’s murder has drawn widespread outrage among journalists. His colleagues have praised his dedication to his work. He spent more than 40 years reporting in Las Vegas. But last week, Nevada Independent editor Elizabeth Thompson wrote in the outlet’s “Daily Indy” newsletter that the praise was “a bit much.” “Yes, people generally hesitate to speak ill of the dead. On the flip side, dying doesn’t make you an insta-hero — and by all candid accounts, Jeff definitely wasn’t one,” Thompson wrote. “I’m of the opinion that we should tell the truth about people, dead or alive, for better or worse. I’m silly like that.” The next day, the Independent’s newsroom staff released an apology, calling Thompson’s comments “insensitive” and stating that they do not reflect the newsroom’s brand or its mission. Thompson later released her own statement saying that if she had a do-over, she would either say nothing or provide more context for her views. “I regret making the grieving process worse for those who knew and loved Jeff  — co-workers, colleagues, family, friends. It was not my intent to hurt or anger anyone,” she wrote. Check out this gut-wrenching editor’s note on a Sept. 23 article about the Oath Keepers from the Review-Journal: “​​Reporter Jeff German had started writing this story before he was killed earlier this month. His colleague has finished his reporting.” CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter is slated to come back today, with senior media reporter Oliver Darcy at the helm. Darcy told The Hollywood Reporter the newsletter will be more concise and have a new, “polished” look. The 7-year-old media news newsletter is one of the most-read in the industry. It was most recently written by Darcy and Brian Stelter, host of the Sunday morning CNN show also called “Reliable Sources,” until CNN canceled the show in August and Stelter left the network. The last edition of Reliable Sources was published Aug. 18. Darcy said the newsletter will “continue to tackle issues relating to newsrooms, partisan media, social media, podcasts, and streaming services” and “continue to pay close attention to industry titans who are reshaping our information environment.” PolitiFact and Poynter’s United Facts of America: A festival of fact-checking begins tomorrow. The three-day online festival of fact-checking will offer forward-thinking discussions about the role of facts in everyday life with experts in media, politics, technology and counterintelligence. Speakers include Judy Woodruff, broadcast journalist, anchor and managing editor at “PBS NewsHour;” Donie O’Sullivan, correspondent at CNN; U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, and many more. Also on the schedule is Chris Stirewalt, senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute. Until recently, Stirewalt was political editor at Fox News, and part of the team that (quickly and correctly) called the state of Arizona for Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election. The call angered then-President Donald Trump, who lashed out at Fox News. United Facts of America runs from Sept. 27-29, 2022. Tickets are still available. A crane crashed into the under-construction KWTV News 9 building in downtown Oklahoma City. One person who was on the 60-ton crane was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, News 9 reports. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins has left the White House Correspondents’ Association board and will not serve as WHCA president in 2024. That role will instead fall to Eugene Daniels, Politico White House correspondent and Playbook co-author. Collins, a CNN White House correspondent since 2017, is moving to a new role at CNN on a revamped morning show with Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow. Today’s Poynter Report was written by Angela Fu and Ren LaForme. Have feedback or a tip? Email us at news@poynter.org. Hiring? Post jobs on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers. Celebrate facts with Poynter and PolitiFact at the second annual United Facts of America, Sept. 27-29. Get tickets. Join Poynter, PolitiFact and CNN’s Joan Biskupic in Washington, D.C., for a discussion about the Supreme Court’s most debated rulings Sept. 28. Get tickets. Tickets are on sale now for Poynter’s Speaker Series at The Straz in Tampa. Up first, AP Executive Editor Julie Pace will take you inside one of the world’s largest newsrooms  Oct. 11. The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook. Read More…

Red Bike Coffee To Open In Former Crestwood Coffee Location https://digitalalabamanews.com/red-bike-coffee-to-open-in-former-crestwood-coffee-location/ Alabama Life & Culture Published: Sep. 26, 2022, 10:43 a.m. Crestwood Coffee Company opened in summer 2004 in the Crestwood Shopping Center in Birmingham. (AL.com file photo) A new coffee shop is coming to the former Crestwood Coffee location. Irondale-based coffee roaster Red Bike Coffee Co. is set to open a brick and mortar shop in the Crestwood Shopping Center at 5512 Crestwood Blvd., according to reports from Bham Now and the Birmingham Business Journal. After two years of selling coffee online using a small warehouse in Leeds, Red Bike owners Wael Amara and Jeff Cloar opened a facility in Irondale in 2011. The move set the precedent for more opportunity. Over the past decade, Red Bike Coffee has expanded into grocery stores, including Whole Foods and Piggly Wiggly. The roaster also supplies beans to a number of Birmingham-area coffee shops, including Filter-Coffee Parlor, Gatos and Beans, and the former Crestwood Coffee. The upcoming Crestwood location will be Red Bike’s first brick and mortar coffee shop. Red Bike spokesperson Christina Frantom said opening a shop has been a longtime vision of the owners. “It’s sort of a natural progression in the business sense, but Covid really just put a wedge in those plans,” Frantom told the Birmingham Business Journal. While the pandemic delayed Red Bike’s timeline to open a shop, the company’s online business did grow during the public health crisis– additional revenue that helped the roaster better position itself to not only open its first shop, but also consider opening additional locations in the future. “We’re very interested to see how the storefront goes,” Frantom told the BBJ. “And then if that location is successful, of course we would love to expand on that success and continue to open coffee shops around the area.” Crestwood Coffee closed its doors in April, after 18 years in business. Owners of the popular coffee shop said financial struggles prompted by the coronavirus pandemic were the reason for the closing. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

European Markets Close Lower; Sterling Slumps To Historic Low Against The Dollar https://digitalalabamanews.com/european-markets-close-lower-sterling-slumps-to-historic-low-against-the-dollar/ European stocks ended a choppy day lower on Monday as investors continued to weigh the deteriorating economic outlook in the region. The pan-European Stoxx 600 provisionally ended down 0.4%, having earlier fallen more than 0.8%. Utilities dropped 2.3% while travel stocks added over 2%. Concern for the global growth outlook has been increasing as inflation remains high and central banks resort to aggressive interest rate hikes to try to tame rising prices. The British pound plunged to a record low of $1.0382 early in the day, following last week’s announcement by the new U.K. government that it would implement tax cuts and investment incentives to boost growth. By 4:30 p.m. it had risen to $1.0666, but remained 1.6% down on the previous session. Investors in Europe are also watching Italy following a snap election on Sunday. The country is on course to elect its first female prime minister and the first government led by the far-right since the end of World War II. Shares in Asia-Pacific fell sharply on Monday, and U.S. stocks opened lower. Stocks on the move: Housebuilders suffer British housebuilding and property development stocks were the biggest fallers shortly before the close. Vistry Group and Bellway were both down around 7%, while Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon were down around 6% at 4:15 p.m. in London. It comes amid concerns that the Bank of England will raise interest rates more rapidly than expected, potentially damaging the outlook for the property sector. — Jenni Reid Stocks on the move: UK housebuilders tumble on weaker pound U.K. housebuilders broadly fell to the bottom of the Stoxx 600 on the back of the plunge in the pound. Bellway, Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey, Vistry and Virgin Money all dropped more than 6%. At the top of the European blue chip index, shares of Swiss heating and ventilation manufacturer Belimo Holding climbed more than 9% by mid-afternoon trade after Berenberg upgraded the stock to “buy” and increased its price target, citing rising demand for home renovation. – Elliot Smith UK bond yields set for record monthly rise British government bond yields are on course for the biggest monthly rise recorded within Refinitiv and Bank of England data going back to 1957, a Reuters analysis found. The yield on 10-year gilts has risen 131 basis points so far in September, with a sell-off intensifying Friday after the government announced extensive tax cuts. Yields move inversely to prices. “The speed [of gilt yield rises] has been quite eye-watering. We’ve not seen moves like this since the Financial Crisis,” Craig Inches, head of rates and cash at Royal London Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” “The problem you’ve got now is markets are very thin, liquidity is very low, and you’ve got a lot of market participants caught in long positions. There’s been many people who’ve been trying to call the top in the interest rate profile and they’ve been stopped out of markets,” he said. — Jenni Reid UK economy: “Something’s got to break”, says bank CIO As sterling slumps against the dollar, hitting a record low in the early hours of Monday, the U.K. is in a position where “something’s got to break”, according to Fahad Kamal, CIO at Kleinwort Hambros. “Sterling is the thing that seems to be taking a lot of the pressure right now,” Kamal told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.” Falling energy prices would also not cause inflation to dip anytime soon, according to the CIO. “The oil price falling will help, but ultimately inflation has gone beyond just the oil price and commodity prices, it’s much deeper and more entrenched and linked to things like rent and wages,” Kamal said. — Hannah Ward-Glenton German business sentiment plummets in September German economic sentiment deteriorated rapidly in September, according to the latest survey from the ifo Institute. The ifo Business Climate Index dropped to 84.3 points this month, its lowest value since May 2020 and down from 88.6 points in August. “The decline is affecting all four sectors of the economy. Companies assessed their current business as clearly worse,” said Clemens Fuest, president of the ifo Institute. “Pessimism regarding the coming months has grown decidedly; in retail, expectations have fallen to a record low. The German economy is slipping into recession.” – Elliot Smith Brent crude slides below $85 a barrel as dollar surges Brent crude fell below $85 a barrel Monday, as recession fears mount and the U.S. dollar surged. Brent futures for November settlement were trading down over 1% around $84.92 at 8 a.m. London time. West Texas Intermediate futures also fell to trade around $77.93. Central banks around the world — including the U.S. and the U.K. — continue to hike interest rates in an effort to tackle inflation. You can read the full story on CNBC here. — Hannah Ward-Glenton Stocks on the move: Belimo up 7%, K+S down 8% Shares of Swiss heating and ventilation manufacturer Belimo Holding climbed more than 7% in early trade after Berenberg upgraded the stock to “buy” and increased its price target, citing rising demand for home renovation. At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, German chemical company K+S fell 8%. – Elliot Smith Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy party top vote in Italian elections, exit poll shows Giorgia Meloni seen speaking during the campaign. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the right nationalist and conservative party Brothers of Italy (Fratelli dItalia, FDI) held the conclusive electoral rally at Arenile, in the left-oriented district of Bagnoli, Naples. Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images Italians are on course to elect the country’s first female prime minister and the first government led by the far-right since the end of World War II. Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party are set to gain 26.4% of the vote, according to an exit poll early Monday morning. The party is in a broad right-wing coalition with Lega, under Matteo Salvini, Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and a more minor coalition partner, Noi Moderati. This alliance is set to win 44.43% of the vote, according to exit polls, enough to gain a parliamentary majority with the center-left bloc on 26.57%. Early projections from the actual election results are due Monday morning. Read more on the story here Sterling hits record low against the dollar, as Asia-Pacific currencies also weaken CNBC Pro: Morningstar reveals its top high-dividend global stocks — and gives three 30% upside Morningstar has revealed its pick of global stocks with the highest dividend yields, saying they stand out in an environment where many companies may not be able to maintain their dividends due to “economic strain.” Pro subscribers can read more here. — Ganesh Rao CNBC Pro: Dan Niles predicts when the S&P 500 might bottom, and reveals how he’s profited this year Stocks prepare to test their lows in the final week of trading for September Heading into the final week of trading for September, the Dow and S&P 500 are each down about 6% for the month, while the Nasdaq has lost 8%. Both the Dow and S&P are now sitting 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively, above their lows from mid-June. The Nasdaq is 2.9% above its low. — Tanaya Macheel 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 Read More…