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Storm Fiona Rips Into Canada's East Coast, Destroying Homes And Roads https://digitalalabamanews.com/storm-fiona-rips-into-canadas-east-coast-destroying-homes-and-roads/ HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Powerful storm Fiona slammed into eastern Canada on Saturday with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, blowing over trees and powerlines, and reducing many homes to “just a pile of rubble.” The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the storm, downgraded to Post-Tropical Cyclone Fiona, was now in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after racing through Nova Scotia. After taking its toll on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the storm battered Newfoundland, but is now likely to weaken, the NHC said. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Port aux Basques, with a population of 4,067on the southwest tip of Newfoundland, declared a state of emergency and is evacuating parts of the town that suffered flooding and road washouts, according to police, Mayor Brian Button, and resident Rene Roy. Several homes and an apartment building were dragged out to sea, Rene Roy, editor in chief if Wreckhouse Weekly in Port aux Basques, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. “This is hands down the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Roy said. Many homes are “just a pile of rubble in the ocean right now… There is an apartment building that’s literally gone. There are entire streets that are gone.” Police are investigating whether a woman had been swept to sea, CBC reported. “This is hitting us really, really hard right now,” Button said in a Saturday morning video posted on Facebook in which he urged residents to stay indoors or, if asked, to evacuate. “We have a fair bit of destruction in town… We do not need anyone else injured or hurt in during this.” Fiona, which nearly a week ago battered Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean, killed at least eight and knocked out power for virtually all of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million people during a sweltering heat wave. Fiona made landfall between Canso and Guysborough, Nova Scotia, where the Canadian Hurricane Centre said it recorded what may have been the lowest barometric pressure of any storm to hit land in the country’s history. Ian Hubbard, meteorologist for the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told Reuters it appears Fiona lived up to expectations that it would be a “historical” storm. “It did look like it had the potential to break the all-time record in Canada, and it looks like it did,” he said. “We’re still not out of this yet.” Storms are not uncommon in the region and typically cross over rapidly, but Fiona is expected to impact a very large area. Hubbard said Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island still have many hours of strong winds, rain and storm surge to go, and the west coast of Newfoundland would be pounded throughout the day. While scientists have not yet determined whether climate change influenced Fiona’s strength or behavior, there is strong evidence that these devastating storms are getting worse. HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER Some 79% of customers, or 414,000, were without power in Nova Scotia, and 95%, or 82,000, had lost power on Prince Edward Island, utility companies said. Police across the region reported multiple road closures. The region was also experiencing spotty mobile phone service. Mobile and Wifi provider Rogers Communications Inc said it was aware to outages caused by Fiona, and said crews would work to restore service “as quickly as possible”. Prince Edward Island produces more than a fifth of Canada’s potatoes and the island’s potato farms, which are in harvest season, were likely to be impacted by the storm, Hubbard said. “She was a wild ride last night, sounded like the whole roof was going to blow off,” said Gary Hatcher, a retiree who lives in Sydney, Nova Scotia, near where the storm made landfall. A maple tree was toppled in his back yard but did not damage his house. Sydney recorded wind gusts of 141 kph (88 mph), Hubbard said. In Halifax, 11 boats sank at the Shearwater Yacht Club and four were grounded, said Elaine Keene who has a boat at the club that however escaped damage. Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told the CBC that no injuries had been reported so far. Quebec Premier Francois Legault said no injuries or fatalities had been reported. The storm weakened somewhat as it traveled north. As of 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), it was over the Gulf of St. Lawrence about 100 miles (160 km) west-north-west of Port aux Basques, carrying maximum winds of 80 miles per hour (130 kph) and barreling north at around 25 mph (41 kph), the NHC said. Fiona is expected to maintain hurricane-force winds until Saturday afternoon, the NHC said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delayed Saturday’s departure for Japan, where he was to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to receive briefings and support the government’s emergency response, Press Secretary Cecely Roy said on Twitter. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting Eric Martyn in Halifax and John Morris in Stephenville; Additional reporting by Ivelisse Rivera in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Ismail Shakil and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Writing by Steve Scherer; Editing by Frances Kerry, Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

Democrats Face Tough Prospects In Battleground Pennsylvania – Social News XYZ https://digitalalabamanews.com/democrats-face-tough-prospects-in-battleground-pennsylvania-social-news-xyz/ By Ashe O Washington, Sep 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Soaring inflation is high on the agenda for voters and that’s troubling for the Democrats in the midterms for the house of reps, just two months away in November, which promises to be a new defining moment in politics that could change the course of history of the country with both parties seem equally divided on the voter’s choice. MAGA Republicans tearing the BBB initiatives of Joe Biden on inflation upsetting daily life of Americans with budgeting woes seems to be producing a disconnect between democrats string of legislative successes and voters concern of high cost of living in the battleground state of Pennsylvania where democrats have high stakes in the gubernatorial, mayoral and congressional candidates. Though the Washington administration is touting the inflation reduction act, climate change and lowering prescription prices of drugs, waiver of college students’ debts and cheaper health care by insurance companies, a small-town Pennsylvania is not too taken in by the positive economic change. That disconnect could spell trouble for Democrats, says BBC in an analysis of the election scenario for the midterms scheduled for November 8. The Democratic Party has borne the brunt of Americans’ fury over the soaring inflation, and insiders have warned that voters must be convinced the economy is improving if Democrats hope to stave off major losses in the midterms, BBC said. Though the president’s party scored policy wins in the final weeks of summer — passing long-sought climate legislation that, they claim, also addresses inflation, and announcing student loan debt relief for millions — Democrats are expected to lose the majority they hold in at least one chamber of Congress, the BBC predicts. Those policy wins aren’t yet connecting with voters like Tina Jordan, who told BBC News that rising prices had cut into her profits. Tina Jordan, 55, was “totally against” Donald Trump for president in 2016. A registered Democrat in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, she went for Hillary Clinton, though Trump ultimately won the state that year, delivering him the White House. But in 2020, Jordan changed her mind and voted for Trump because his presidency, she confessed, coincided with “the best I’ve been in a long time, financially”. She will “probably vote for Trump again” if he runs in 2024, she said – two years into Joe Biden’s presidency, Jordan didn’t think he was “in touch with small business owners” like herself. Pennsylvania is the top prize in this year’s November mid-term elections, with Democrats fighting to gain a seat in the US Senate and keep a candidate away who backs Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen out of the governor’s mansion. Biden, who has long touched on his middle-class Pennsylvania roots and made his ties to the state a part of his political identity, has been trumpeting his economic record there. At a speech in Philadelphia this month, he declared that “today, America’s economy is faster, stronger than any other advanced nation in the world”. However, Jordan’s concerns about her financial stability were echoed by voters throughout Pennsylvania, with Biden and Trump supporters alike concerned about the continued high cost of everyday living and disillusioned with leaders in Washington. “You got a lot of folks in Pennsylvania that are worried about what’s right in front of them,” said Mustafa Rashed, a Philadelphia-area Democratic strategist. “It’s harder to get people involved in the voting process. You’re competing for their attention with pocketbook issues.” Washington’s victories aren’t felt on the ground, says BBC. Republicans have hammered Democrats in local races over inflation and the cost of basic necessities, trying to pin blame for a complex economic issue on the party in power. Recent polling shows that Democrats’ midterm prospects have improved since the party’s late-summer policy spurt. They have gotten a boost since the fall of Roe v Wade made abortion access a major election year issue. Surveys taken in Pennsylvania consistently show the Democratic candidate for US Senate, John Fetterman, and governor, Josh Shapiro, running slightly ahead of their respective Republican rivals, Dr. Oz and Doug Mastriano. Source: IANS About Gopi Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc. He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources. When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any. He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz Read More…

Georgia Voting Equipment Breach At Center Of Tangled Tale https://digitalalabamanews.com/georgia-voting-equipment-breach-at-center-of-tangled-tale-2/ KATE BRUMBACK ASSOCIATED PRESS September 24, 2022, 9:46AM Updated 9 minutes ago ATLANTA — The tale of breached voting equipment in one of the country’s most important political battleground states involves a bail bondsman, a prominent attorney tied to former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and a cast of characters from a rural county that rarely draws notice from outsiders. How they all came together and what it could mean for the security of voting in the upcoming midterm elections are questions tangled up in a lawsuit and state investigations that have prompted calls to ditch the machines altogether. Details of the unauthorized access of sensitive voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, became public last month when documents and emails revealed the involvement of high-profile Trump supporters. That’s also when it caught the attention of an Atlanta-based prosecutor who is leading a separate investigation of Trump’s efforts to undo his loss in the state. Since then, revelations about what happened in the county of 43,000 people have raised questions about whether the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia have been compromised. The public disclosure of the breach began with a rambling phone call from an Atlanta-area bail bondsman to the head of an election security advocacy group involved in a long-running lawsuit targeting the state’s voting machines. According to a recording filed in court earlier this year, the bail bondsman said he’d chartered a jet and was with a computer forensics team at the Coffee County elections office when they “imaged every hard drive of every piece of equipment.” That happened on Jan. 7, 2021, a day after the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and two days after a runoff election in which Democrats swept both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats. The trip to Coffee County, about 200 miles south of Atlanta, to copy data and software from elections equipment was directed by attorney Sidney Powell and other Trump allies, according to deposition testimony and documents produced in response to subpoenas. Later that month, security camera footage shows, two men who have participated in efforts to question the results of the 2020 election in several states spent days going in and out of the Coffee County elections office. The footage also shows local election and Republican Party officials welcoming the visitors and allowing them access to the election equipment. The video seems to contradict statements some of the officials made about their apparent involvement. The new information has made Coffee County, where Trump won nearly 70% of the vote two years ago, a focal point of concerns over the security of voting machines. While there is no evidence of widespread problems with voting equipment in 2020, some Trump supporters have spread false information about machines and the election outcome. Election security experts and activists fear state election officials haven’t acted fast enough in the face of what they see as a real threat. The copying of the software and its availability for download means potential bad actors could build exact copies of the Dominion system to test different types of attacks, said University of California, Berkeley computer scientist Philip Stark, an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the voting machines lawsuit. “This is like bank robbers having an exact replica of the vault that they’re trying to break into,” he said. Stark said the risks could be minimized by using hand-marked paper ballots and rigorous audits. Dominion says its equipment remains secure. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, the group that sued over the state’s voting machines, said the state has been slow to investigate. She was on the receiving end of the phone call from the bail bondsman. The state, she said, has been “repeatedly looking the other way when faced with flashing red lights of serious voting system security problems.” State officials say they’re confident the election system is safe. All Coffee County election equipment that wasn’t already replaced will be swapped out before early voting begins next month, the secretary of state’s office said Friday. State officials also noted they were deluged by false claims after the 2020 election. “In retrospect, you can say, well what about this, this and this,” said Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office. “In real time, no, there was no reason to think that.” In late January 2021, a few weeks after the computer forensics team visited, security video shows a secretary of state’s office investigator arriving at the Coffee County elections office. He and the elections supervisor walk into the room that houses the election management system server. Seconds later, Jeff Lenberg, who has been identified by Michigan authorities as being part of an effort to gain access to voting machines there, is seen walking out of that room. Read More…

'Diary Of A Wimpy Kid’ Actor Sentenced To Life In Prison For Killing Mother, Plus More Celeb News This Week ICYMI https://digitalalabamanews.com/diary-of-a-wimpy-kid-actor-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-killing-mother-plus-more-celeb-news-this-week-icymi/ By Mark Gray 9:31am PDT, Sep 24, 2022 Dark crime On Sept. 21, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” star Ryan Grantham was sentenced to life in prison for the slaying of his mother. Prosecutors said the former actor, 24, confessed to the killing on a GoPro camera after the 2020 incident, indicating he shot her while she played piano. “I shot her in the back of the head. In the moments after, she would have known it was me,” he said, according to TMZ. After murdering his mom — he pleaded guilty — prosecutors claimed that Ryan, who’s also appeared on shows including “Riverdale,” “iZombie” and “Supernatural,” had aspirations of assassinating Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In fact, one day after his mother’s death, Ryan loaded his car with guns, ammunition, Molotov cocktails and directions to the political leader’s home. CBC.ca reported that Ryan thought about carrying out a mass shooting while driving there. However, he aborted his plans and turned himself into Vancouver police.  RELATED: Celebrity mug shots Who’s at fault? Jonathan Goodwin, the daredevil who nearly died last year in a stunt he performed during rehearsals for “America’s Got Talent: Extreme,” is convinced that he’s not to blame for the horrible accident that left him paralyzed. During an Instagram Q&A on Sept. 18, a fan specifically asked the stuntman if the tragedy occurred due to an “improper setup” or a mistake on his end. Jonathan, 42, replied, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” Whether he blames the setup isn’t known, but he clearly believes that he executed his stunt as intended. Last year, Jonathan was practicing the dangerous act he planned to perform on the reality TV show in which he hung upside down between two swinging cars while escaping from a strait jacket. Video shows Jonathan escaping but being sandwiched between the two suspended swinging vehicles. At the time of the incident, many people thought he was dead, and the outlook certainly appeared bleak. Jonathan survived but was paralyzed. He is now confined to a wheelchair.  RELATED: Celeb’s near-death experiences Cheating scandal Adam Levine has some explaining to do. On Sept. 19, social media model Sumner Stroh alleged that she and the Maroon 5 singer had a year-long affair, and she shared several risqué messages that they exchanged. Afterward, multiple other women came forward claiming Adam, 43, sent them flirty messages as well. Following Sumner’s further claims that she and Adam had a “physical” relationship, the singer released a statement claiming he didn’t have an “affair” but did admit he “crossed the line.” According to Adam, “I want to clear the air. I used poor judgment in speaking with anyone other than my wife in ANY kind of flirtatious manner. I did not have an affair, nevertheless, I crossed the line during a regrettable period in my life. In certain instances it became inappropriate; I have addressed that and taken proactive steps to remedy this with my family. My wife and my family is all I care about in this world. To be this naive and stupid enough to risk the only thing that truly matters to me was the greatest mistake I could ever make. I will never make it again. I take full responsibility. We will get through it. And we will get through it together.”  RELATED: Notorious cheating scandals Farewell Her Majesty has been buried. On Sept. 19, the world said goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II in what was Britain’s first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s in 1965. After days of lying in state in London, QEII’s coffin was carried from Westminster Hall to Westminster Abbey on the State Gun Carriage of the Royal Navy, drawn by 142 sailors. The service was attended by 2,000 people including the royal family and numerous heads of state. The queen’s coffin was then driven from London to St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England. Tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets to view the procession and pay their respects. Following the pomp and circumstance, the queen was lowered into the royal vault and later that day, in a private interment attended by her family, was laid to rest next to her husband, Prince Philip, her parents and her sister inside the King George VI Memorial Chapel inside the church. Mom-shamed Some people just aren’t cool with Ice-T’s wife. On Sept. 22, the “Ice Loves Coco” alum got a mixed reaction from her Instagram followers after sharing an image of 6-year-old daughter Chanel bathing in a kitchen sink. “The sink is easiest when you have to be fast,” Coco captioned an Instagram video of her child using her iPad in the makeshift bathtub. Several of Coco’s followers weren’t loving Chanel’s bathing situation. “Yall [sic] still treating her like an Infant,” one Instagram user wrote. Another said, “She’s to [sic] old to be in the sink..that was really Awkward to see.” A third added, “Not the sink.” Others, however, were far more interested in how deep the sink was! “I need a kitchen upgrade,” one fan said. Polygamy lawsuit “Escaping Polygamy” star Amanda Rae Grant was one of 10 women who filed a lawsuit accusing a Utah-based sect of fraud, sex abuse and forcing women into marriage. According to the suit, which was obtained by Salt Lake City’s KUTV, it is a “common and intentional practice” within the Kingston polygamist family — also known as “The Order” — to require girls and women to “submit sexually to their husbands even if the sexual submission is against their will because having children results in workers for the benefit of the Order. It is also a common and intentional practice in the Order for girls to be impregnated and have children when they are young so they cannot leave, which also benefits the Order.” In Amanda’s case, she claims she was abused for 10 years by John Paul Johnson, a son of one of her father’s wives. She was 8 when the alleged abuse began and John was 13. Amanda, who left the religion and the Kingston clan nine years ago, claims she was eventually forced to marry her first cousin. “Despite telling her parents, Amanda was not protected by those in the Order who knew of it, and the abuse continued,” her complaint, obtained by Radar Online, said. “Amanda eventually told two outsiders.” Bombshell lawsuit On Sept. 21, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil fraud lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, some of his children and other Trump Organization associates, claiming they inflated the value of Trump properties to get bank loans or deflated them for tax relief. The AG, a Democrat, called it the “art of the steal.” NBC News reported that the 220-page lawsuit alleges more than 200 instances of fraud over 10 years. James’s office is seeking approximately $250 million in penalties. Following the lawsuit filing, Trump denied any wrongdoing and dubbed it “another witch hunt.” The announcement prompted a slew of celebrities to chime in. John Cusack tweeted, “Trump is going to call for a terrorists strikes against law enforcement judges feds DA’s rather then him living within the rule of law Doj / indite him – arrest him.” Billy Baldwin said, “Am I alone, or should Donald Trump be CRIMINALLY charged as well?” Donald Trump Jr. said it was “ALL politics.” Andrew Chin / Getty Images Nils Jorgensen/Shutterstock Matt Baron/Shutterstock Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire / WPA Pool/Shutterstock Lev Radin/Pacific Press/SIPA/Shutterstock Amanda Rae Grant / Instagram Al Drago/UPI/Shutterstock Read More…

Carl Lawson Takes Aim At Joe Burrow, Former Team https://digitalalabamanews.com/carl-lawson-takes-aim-at-joe-burrow-former-team/ Two games into his comeback season, New York Jets defensive end Carl Lawson has three quarterback hits and one-half sack. In Game 3, the former Auburn standout will get to take aim at a quarterback who’s been under siege. Cincinnati visits the Jets on Sunday, and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow has been sacked 13 times this season, more than any other NFL quarterback. MORE NFL: · DALLAS COWBOYS AND AMARI COOPER: ‘YOU CAN’T HAVE IT ALL’ · ‘EVERY GUY IN THAT LOCKER ROOM BELIEVES IN’ MAC JONES · FORMER ALABAMA PREP STAR MAKES EYE-POPPING CATCH FOR STEELERS “I know the narrative is he’s been sacked and the offensive line isn’t good,” Lawson said on Thursday. “But when you watch the film, it’s a plethora of things, and I think they’re definitely going to try to come out and change that and do whatever they can to make sure he doesn’t go down as much. When you watch the film and dive into it, I wouldn’t necessarily put it all on the offensive line. I think it’s a collective issue.” Lawson could find himself trying to get past former Alabama All-American Jonah Williams to get to Burrow. Williams plays left offensive tackle for Cincinnati. “I know Jonah’s a very good pro,” Lawson said. “Very technical. Goes about his business. Nothing but good things to say about him.” Lawson and Williams were teammates for two seasons with the Bengals. After joining Cincinnati in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft, Lawson spent his first four seasons with the Bengals. “Nothing, really,” Lawson said about his feelings facing his former team. “Same as every game. We got to go out there and win. But no different emotions.” During Lawson’s time with Cincinnati, the Bengals posted a 19-44-1 record. But last season, Cincinnati won the AFC North, then ran off three postseason victories to capture the AFC championship and reach Super Bowl LVI. “You get a lot of bonds and you kind of create close ties sometimes when you go through a lot of different struggles,” Lawson said. “Kind of like similar to this last week pressing, pressing, pressing, seeing these guys work and just go out there and get the win this last week, it was something special, and you bond with your teammates. To see the work that those guys have put in over the years – the media used to jump on them and call them different type things – and to see them go to the Super Bowl, I was extremely happy, extremely excited for a lot of those guys.” RELATED: NFL WEEK 3: SCHEDULE, TV, ODDS The Bengals haven’t had the same magic this season. Cincinnati lost its opener 23-20 in overtime to the Pittsburgh Steelers, then lost to the Dallas Cowboys 20-17. Each game closed with a successful field-goal attempt as time ran out. “That team could easily be 2-0 if you think about it,” Lawson said. The Jets also dropped their opener, falling 24-9 to the Baltimore Ravens. But New York got a 31-30 victory over the Cleveland Browns in Game 2 by scoring two touchdowns in the final 82 seconds. Lawson started both games and played 55 percent of the Jets’ defensive snaps as he returns to action after missing the 2021 season. On Aug. 19, 2021, Lawson suffered a torn Achilles tendon during a joint training-camp practice with the Green Bay Packers. The Jets signed Lawson in free agency to a three-year, $45 million contract in March 2021 after he had recorded 5.5 sacks and finished second in the NFL with 32 quarterback hits in 2020 for Cincinnati. “Body’s starting to heal faster,” Lawson said. “I’m starting to get healthier. Things are beginning to slow down. Each week I have better and better practices and things of that nature. I don’t really want to put necessarily a percent on it, but I’m getting healthy, I’m getting better, and each day I’m continuing the process and just working. … “I’m not pushing the process. The process is the process. And I’m getting better. I’m working each day, and I’m keeping my mind focused to get where I want to go.” The Bengals and Jets kick off at noon CDT Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

AP News Summary At 10:45 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1045-a-m-edt/ ‘Fighting fit’: Trial to show Oath Keepers’ road to Jan. 6 It’s been a long road to the upcoming Capitol riot trial of the the leader of the extremist group Oath Keepers. But the prosecution’s case against Stewart Rhodes covers a lot more than just the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Rhodes and four co-defendants are facing the difficult-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors will try to show that for the Oath Keepers, the siege wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment protest but that it was part of a weekslong plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from election-denier Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Jury selection begins Tuesday in federal court in the nation’s capital. The trial is expected to last several weeks. Russia shells Ukrainian cities amid Kremlin-staged votes KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kremlin-orchestrated votes continue to pave the way for Moscow to annex occupied regions of Ukraine. Ukraine’s presidential office said the latest Russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 19. Kyiv and its Western allies say the votes underway in four regions of Ukraine are a sham with no legal force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged residents to undermine “this farce.” He also encouraged people called up to fight to desert or sabotage the Russian military. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a hastily approved bill that toughens the punishment for soldiers who disobey officers’ orders, desert or surrender to the enemy. West: More sanctions, isolation if Putin carries out threats WASHINGTON (AP) — How will American leaders and their allies respond if President Vladimir Putin seeks to escalate his way out of his bad situation on Ukraine’s battlefields? Putin this week renewed threats of claiming more Ukrainian territory, and even using nuclear weapons. U.S. and European leaders have made clear they will try to double down on the same tactics that have helped put Russia in a corner in Ukraine. That means more financial penalties and international isolation for Russia, more arms and other backing for Ukraine. There’s no sign of the United States and NATO matching Putin’s intensified nuclear threats with the same bluster, which could raise the risks of escalating the conflict. As Ukraine worries UN, some leaders rue what’s pushed aside Read More…

'Fighting Fit': Trial To Show Oath Keepers' Road To Jan. 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/fighting-fit-trial-to-show-oath-keepers-road-to-jan-6-3/ The voting was over and almost all ballots were counted. News outlets on Nov. 7, 2020, had called the presidential race for Joe Biden. But the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was just beginning to fight. Convinced the White House had been stolen from Donald Trump, Stewart Rhodes exhorted his followers to action. “We must now … refuse to accept it and march en-mass on the nation’s Capitol,” Rhodes declared. Authorities allege Rhodes and his band of extremists would spend the next several weeks after Election Day, Nov. 3, amassing weapons, organizing paramilitary training and readying armed teams with a singular goal: stopping Biden from becoming president. Their plot would come to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say, when Oath Keepers in battle gear were captured on camera shouldering their way through the crowd of Trump supporters and storming the Capitol in military-style stack formation. FILE – A man wearing an Oath Keepers shirt stands outside the Kenosha County Courthouse, Nov. 19, 2021 in Kenosha, Wis. The trial of the founder of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes, and four associates charged with seditious conspiracy in the attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to begin next week. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Paul Sancya Court documents in the case against Rhodes and four co-defendants — whose trial opens Tuesday with jury selection in Washington’s federal court — paint a picture of a group so determined to overturn Biden’s victory that some members were prepared to lose their lives to do so. It’s the biggest test for the Justice Department’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the Capitol attack. Rioters temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s victory by sheer force, pummeling police officers in hand-to-hand fighting as they rammed their way into the building, forcing Congress to adjourn as lawmakers and staff hid from the mob. Despite nearly 900 arrests and hundreds of convictions in the riot, Rhodes and four Oath Keeper associates — Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — are the first to stand trial on the rare and difficult-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy. The Oath Keepers accuse prosecutors of twisting their words and insist there was never any plan to attack the Capitol. They say they were in Washington to provide security at events for figures such as Trump ally Roger Stone before Trump’s big outdoor rally near the White House on Jan. 6. Their preparations, training, gear and weapons were to protect themselves against potential violence from left-wing antifa activists or to be ready if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to call up a militia. Rhodes’ lawyers have signaled their defense will focus on his belief that Trump would take that action. But Trump never did, so Rhodes went home, his lawyers have said. ___ On Nov. 9, 2020, less than a week after the election, Rhodes held a conference call and rallied the Oath Keepers to go to Washington and fight. He expressed hope that antifa (anti-fascist) activists would start clashes because that would give Trump the “reason and rationale for dropping the Insurrection Act.” ”You’ve got to go there and you’ve got to make sure that he knows that you are willing to die to fight for this country,” Rhodes told his people, according to a transcript filed in court. By December, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, prosecutors say. On Dec. 23, he published an open letter on the Oath Keepers website declaring that “tens of thousands of patriot Americans, both veterans and nonveterans” would be in Washington. He warned they might have to “take to arms in defense of our God given liberty.” As 2021 approached, Rhodes spent $7,000 on two night-vision devices and a weapon sight and sent them to someone outside Washington, authorities say. Over several days in early January, he would spend an additional $15,500 on guns, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment, according to court documents. ___ Rhodes had instructed Oath Keepers to be ready, if asked, to secure the White House perimeter and “use lethal force if necessary” against anyone, including the National Guard, who might try to remove Trump from the White House, according to court documents. On Jan. 5, Meggs and the Florida Oath Keepers brought gun boxes, rifle cases and suitcases filled with ammunition to the Virginia hotel where the “quick reaction force” teams would be on standby, according to prosecutors. A team from Arizona brought weapons, ammunition, and supplies to last 30 days, according to court papers. A team from North Carolina had rifles in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot, prosecutors have said. At the Capitol, the Oath Keepers formed two teams, military “stacks,” prosecutors say. Some members of the first stack headed toward the House in search of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., but couldn’t find her, according to court documents. Members of the second stack confronted officers inside the Capitol Rotunda, prosecutors allege. Rhodes isn’t accused of going inside the Capitol but was seen huddled with members outside after the riot. Rhodes and others then walked to the nearby Phoenix Park Hotel, prosecutors say. In a private suite there, Rhodes called someone on the phone with an urgent message for Trump, according to an Oath Keeper who says he witnessed it. Rhodes repeatedly urged the person on the phone to tell Trump to call upon militia groups to fight to keep the president in power, court papers say. The person denied Rhodes’ request to speak directly to Trump. “I just want to fight,” Rhodes said after hanging up, according to court papers. Authorities have not disclosed the name of the person they believe Rhodes was speaking to on the call. That night, Rhodes and other Oath Keepers went to dinner in Virginia. In messages over the course of the evening, they indicated their fight was far from over. “Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming,” Rhodes wrote. Rhodes returned to Texas after the Jan. 6 attack and remained free for a year before his arrest in January 2022. In interviews before he was jailed, he sought to distance himself from Oath Keepers who went inside the Capitol, saying that was a mistake. He also continued to push the lie the election was stolen and said the Jan. 6 investigation was politically motivated. ___ For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to 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…

NHC Forecasts Tropical Storm Ian Will Hit Florida As Category 3 Hurricane https://digitalalabamanews.com/nhc-forecasts-tropical-storm-ian-will-hit-florida-as-category-3-hurricane/ NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Ian will hit Florida as Category 3 hurricane saturday, I’m first morning meteorologist Derek Burress wanted to get you kind of *** more elaborate look at what’s going on within our tropical system in the caribbean, there’s *** look at it as of the eight o’clock, intermediate advisory maximum sustained winds at 45. And the storm system really bubbling up some decent convection today. Starting to look like it’s wanting to produce more circulation Overall, the trends this morning have been for this storm system to look better organized, feeding off of that very warm water and of course, the thus getting *** little more organized. Let’s talk about the overall forecast from the National Hurricane Center, expected to become *** hurricane neither late tomorrow or early on monday and then make its way towards cuba as *** borderline Category two or category three storm system approaching florida and moving into the gulf of Mexico as *** major hurricane Category three intensity. Now *** couple of things here, major hurricane status, that’s *** big storm. Um intensity models are probably the weakest in terms of the forecasting confidence and day four and five, the Wednesday thursday point of this are also particularly low in confidence overall, more so than even most tropical systems. And the reasoning is the overall weather pattern. Let me show you what’s steering this Okay, you’ve got our tropical system down in the Caribbean working toward the gulf and while Ian is working to the north, there’s *** cold front that’s working off to the south and when the two of them meet that will eventually steer the storm system. If this front is *** little weaker, it would allow in to go *** little further north before turning, If this front is *** little stronger, it would recurve in *** little sooner. So we really are looking at the dynamics here, both in terms of timing, on both things and in terms of intensity on both things. If IAN is *** little further north or *** little further south, if that cold front and overall trough is *** little weaker, *** little stronger, it all plays in. And that’s The same scenario as Charlie. If you followed back 18 years ago, I can’t believe it’s been that long. I remember this exact scenario when I was forecasting Charlie Uh covering central Florida weather 18 years ago and we also remember Charlie made kind of that last minute adjustment and that’s one of the big reasons why you have to know that these are not set in stone. It’s not over until it’s over. As *** matter of fact, *** lot of you may be asking is this Charlie 2.0 is what *** lot of people were asking and I mean, you know, I wouldn’t call it Charlie 2.0, but it certainly has some pretty significant memories or or will will make you think that there’s *** current location uh v in this blue line here is the path, the actual path of charlie. So when you kind of look to the future, *** reminder charlie went in here, the forecast for Ian is anywhere in here. So we don’t know exact yet, but one lesson we learned in charlie because at the time the forecast thinking was like Tampa and we know what kind of made that right hand turn. The one lesson we learned was you can’t focus on the skinny line, you’ve got to broaden it out and look the cone itself. And because of that, let’s just look where we are. In terms of the overall timeline in central florida. This, I made this graphic yesterday and it’s probably my favorite tropical graphic I’ve ever made because this really breaks it down into where we are. Alright, so for today, storm landfall confidence is low. In other words, we know it’s heading toward the eastern gulf. The models are zeroed in on that. Perfect. We understand that, but that’s about all we know right? There’s way too many variables in there. So for today, I want you and your family to just start thinking, huh? Okay. May have *** hurricane this week. May have nothing. I mean if it goes into the panhandle, we get nothing. If we get *** tropical system. Alright, what could that mean for us? Does that then mean I need to bring in my furniture or secure my patio furniture is the backyard *** mess and I need to do that, you know? Um Oh, I usually mow my yard midweek like me. Do I need to mow it now. Um do I have enough food and water in my hurricane supply kit? You know? We talked early hurricane season all about this, but this is *** very important thing, right? Keep that in mind tomorrow and monday. That’s when our confidence starts to go up and we start to zero in on some ideas. Oh all right, now we’re looking at this area of the coastline. Okay, so based on that, maybe I should start doing this or that or this or that and then Tuesday, Tuesday morning is fine but like late Tuesday the weather is gonna start to get *** little crummy er assuming the worst of the weather kind of works in our general direction. All right. And then Wednesday kind of the worst of the weather is moving through the area, so confidence is low, but we’re going to be getting there these next couple of days. Okay. It’s very, very important to know. Alright, Alright. So when then do we think that the worst of the weather could be moving into the area based on current thinking from the hurricane center, Tuesday evening, the worst of the weather starts in south florida and this can and will shift Wednesday morning in our area and then Wednesday evening in north. But again, there is particular lack of guidance helping us day four and five, we’re gonna get there tomorrow and monday I think we’ll get there but we’re not there yet. Okay, so again, just, just to repeat what we’re looking at our entire area under the cone, the cone of confidence, meaning we are confident the storm will be in that cone now, of course, for planning purposes it meaning the entire peninsula is in that cone, but we’ll hone it in, give it *** couple of days time. We are well ahead of the curve. We’re doing great now, we just need to let the models do their thing. Hurricane Hunters have nearly round the clock missions in today, so we will be getting plenty of data. Alright? Stay with west to west Two News west dot com for the very latest updates throughout the day and evening. First, right here on west dot com and the west to mobile app. GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Privacy Notice NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Ian will hit Florida as Category 3 hurricane ABOVE: WESH 2 Meteorologist Eric Burris tracks timing of Ian in extended forecastTropical Depression Nine strengthened into Tropical Storm Ian Friday night. This system is forecast to hit Florida as a Category 3 hurricane next week.As of 11 a.m. Saturday, Tropical Storm Ian was expected to strengthen rapidly throughout the weekendIan had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was located 270 miles south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 520 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman. The system was moving west at 15 mph. See the latest maps, models and paths here “Rapid intensification is forecast Monday through Wednesday over some very warm water,” WESH 2 Meteorologist Tony Mainolfi said. “GFS model continues to be slower and west of Euro with the forecast cone between these two models tonight. Intensity forecasts remain very impressive in the Category 2 – Category 4 range.”The NHC advises hurricane conditions are possible in the Cayman Islands by early Monday. The Florida Keys and South Florida can expect heavy rains to begin as early as Monday. Some flash and urban flooding is possible with this rainfall, according to the NHC.”A westward to west-northwestward motion is expected through early Sunday, ” the National Hurricane Center said. “A turn toward the northwest is forecast late Sunday, followed by a north-northwestward turn by late Monday. On the forecast track, the center of Ian is forecast to move across the central Caribbean Sea today, pass southwest of Jamaica on Sunday, and pass near or over the Cayman Islands Sunday night and early Monday. Ian will then approach western Cuba on Monday.”WESH 2 Hurricane Survival Guide 2022Surviving the season: Everything you need to know this hurricane season in Florida SUMMARY OF WATCHES AND WARNINGS IN EFFECT:A Hurricane Watch is in effect for…* Cayman IslandsA Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for…* JamaicaA Hurricane Watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area. A watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds, conditions that make outside preparations difficult or dangerous.A Tropical Storm Watch means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the watch area, generally within 48 hours. The National Weather Service has urged Florida residents and visitors to gather supplies and keep tracking the forecast.Prepping for the storm: Related: DeSantis declares State of Emergency for dozens of Florida countiesRelated: Seminole County begins sandbag preps ahead of tropical storm arrivalKNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN A HURRICANE WATCH IS ISSUEDStay tuned to WESH 2 News, WESH.COM, or NOAA Weather Radio for storm updates.Prepare to bring inside any lawn furniture, outdoor decorations or ornaments, trash cans, hanging plants, and anything else that can be picked up by the wind.Understand hurricane forecast models and cones.Prepare to cover all windows of your home. If shutters have not been installed, use precut plywood.Check batteries and stock up on canned food, first-aid supplies, drinking water, and medications.The WESH 2 First Warning Weather Team recommends you have these items ready before the storm strikes.Bottled water: One gallon of water per person per dayCanned food and soup, such as beans and chiliCan opener for the cans witho...

‘Fighting Fit’: Trial To Show Oath Keepers’ Road To Jan. 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/fighting-fit-trial-to-show-oath-keepers-road-to-jan-6-4/ FILE – Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, center, speaks during a rally outside the White House in Washington, June 25, 2017. Hundreds of pages of court documents in the case against Rhodes and four co-defendants, whose trial opens with jury selection Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, in Washington’s federal court, paint a picture of a group so determined to overturn Biden’s election that some members were prepared to lose their lives to do so. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) Susan Walsh AP The voting was over and almost all ballots were counted. News outlets on Nov. 7, 2020, had called the presidential race for Joe Biden. But the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was just beginning to fight. Convinced the White House had been stolen from Donald Trump, Stewart Rhodes exhorted his followers to action. “We must now … refuse to accept it and march en-mass on the nation’s Capitol,” Rhodes declared. Authorities allege Rhodes and his band of extremists would spend the next several weeks after Election Day, Nov. 3, amassing weapons, organizing paramilitary training and readying armed teams with a singular goal: stopping Biden from becoming president. Their plot would come to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say, when Oath Keepers in battle gear were captured on camera shouldering their way through the crowd of Trump supporters and storming the Capitol in military-style stack formation. Court documents in the case against Rhodes and four co-defendants — whose trial opens Tuesday with jury selection in Washington’s federal court — paint a picture of a group so determined to overturn Biden’s victory that some members were prepared to lose their lives to do so. It’s the biggest test for the Justice Department’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the Capitol attack. Rioters temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s victory by sheer force, pummeling police officers in hand-to-hand fighting as they rammed their way into the building, forcing Congress to adjourn as lawmakers and staff hid from the mob. Despite nearly 900 arrests and hundreds of convictions in the riot, Rhodes and four Oath Keeper associates — Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — are the first to stand trial on the rare and difficult-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy. The Oath Keepers accuse prosecutors of twisting their words and insist there was never any plan to attack the Capitol. They say they were in Washington to provide security at events for figures such as Trump ally Roger Stone before Trump’s big outdoor rally near the White House on Jan. 6. Their preparations, training, gear and weapons were to protect themselves against potential violence from left-wing antifa activists or to be ready if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to call up a militia. Rhodes’ lawyers have signaled their defense will focus on his belief that Trump would take that action. But Trump never did, so Rhodes went home, his lawyers have said. ___ On Nov. 9, 2020, less than a week after the election, Rhodes held a conference call and rallied the Oath Keepers to go to Washington and fight. He expressed hope that antifa (anti-fascist) activists would start clashes because that would give Trump the “reason and rationale for dropping the Insurrection Act.” ”You’ve got to go there and you’ve got to make sure that he knows that you are willing to die to fight for this country,” Rhodes told his people, according to a transcript filed in court. By December, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, prosecutors say. On Dec. 23, he published an open letter on the Oath Keepers website declaring that “tens of thousands of patriot Americans, both veterans and nonveterans” would be in Washington. He warned they might have to “take to arms in defense of our God given liberty.” As 2021 approached, Rhodes spent $7,000 on two night-vision devices and a weapon sight and sent them to someone outside Washington, authorities say. Over several days in early January, he would spend an additional $15,500 on guns, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment, according to court documents. ___ Rhodes had instructed Oath Keepers to be ready, if asked, to secure the White House perimeter and “use lethal force if necessary” against anyone, including the National Guard, who might try to remove Trump from the White House, according to court documents. On Jan. 5, Meggs and the Florida Oath Keepers brought gun boxes, rifle cases and suitcases filled with ammunition to the Virginia hotel where the “quick reaction force” teams would be on standby, according to prosecutors. A team from Arizona brought weapons, ammunition, and supplies to last 30 days, according to court papers. A team from North Carolina had rifles in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot, prosecutors have said. At the Capitol, the Oath Keepers formed two teams, military “stacks,” prosecutors say. Some members of the first stack headed toward the House in search of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., but couldn’t find her, according to court documents. Members of the second stack confronted officers inside the Capitol Rotunda, prosecutors allege. Rhodes isn’t accused of going inside the Capitol but was seen huddled with members outside after the riot. Rhodes and others then walked to the nearby Phoenix Park Hotel, prosecutors say. In a private suite there, Rhodes called someone on the phone with an urgent message for Trump, according to an Oath Keeper who says he witnessed it. Rhodes repeatedly urged the person on the phone to tell Trump to call upon militia groups to fight to keep the president in power, court papers say. The person denied Rhodes’ request to speak directly to Trump. “I just want to fight,” Rhodes said after hanging up, according to court papers. Authorities have not disclosed the name of the person they believe Rhodes was speaking to on the call. That night, Rhodes and other Oath Keepers went to dinner in Virginia. In messages over the course of the evening, they indicated their fight was far from over. “Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming,” Rhodes wrote. Rhodes returned to Texas after the Jan. 6 attack and remained free for a year before his arrest in January 2022. In interviews before he was jailed, he sought to distance himself from Oath Keepers who went inside the Capitol, saying that was a mistake. He also continued to push the lie the election was stolen and said the Jan. 6 investigation was politically motivated. ___ For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege Read More…

Elton John ‘flabbergasted’ And Teary After Biden Surprises Him With Medal https://digitalalabamanews.com/elton-john-flabbergasted-and-teary-after-biden-surprises-him-with-medal/ LONDON — British singer Elton John was left teary eyed and “flabbergasted” after being awarded a surprise national humanities medal by President Biden, following a concert at the White House on Friday night. John, 75, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, has become a globally renowned singer, pianist and songwriter. He has also championed various charities and humanitarian causes, especially those tackling HIV/AIDS. Flanked by the president and first lady, John, wearing his signature red-tinted spectacles, looked visibly shocked as he first spotted the medal, covering his face with his hands in disbelief. “I’m never flabbergasted but I’m flabbergasted and humbled and honored by this incredible award from the United States of America,” he said, overcome, moments after clutching Jill Biden’s hand and later hugging her husband. “I will treasure this so much.” The Grammy-winning singer praised “America’s kindness to me as a musician,” calling it “second to none,” and vowed his new medal would push him to redouble his efforts to help eradicate the illness that impacts more than 38 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization. Biden, a big fan, described John as a “tidal wave,” quoting Irish poet Seamus Heaney, and praised his “incredible career.” With the White House as his backdrop, John opened with “Your Song” followed by classic tracks: “Tiny Dancer,” “Rocketman,” “Crocodile Rock,” and closed with the jaunty “I’m Still Standing.” The concert on the South Lawn, entitled “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” was part of his farewell tour, as the singer prepares to hang up his mic after a glittering 50-year career. It was also an event to honor “everyday history-makers in the audience,” according to the White House, among them teachers, military families and LGBT+ advocates. John dedicated “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” to Ryan White and his mother Jeanne White-Ginder, who attended the concert. Her son lost his life to AIDS-related complications after a blood transfusion and died in 1990, just a month before his high school graduation. The legendary singer launched the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, which has raised over $450 million so far and funded programs across four continents. In between songs, John spoke to the audience about his hope to help eradicate the virus by 2030. Among the estimated 2,000 guests at the musical event were former first lady Laura Bush, tennis champion Billie Jean King, British ambassador to the United States Karen Elizabeth Pierce, and John’s husband, David Furnish. Members of Biden’s administration including transport secretary Pete Buttigieg and defense secretary Lloyd Austin were also at the concert. John has previously performed at the White House in 1998 alongside Stevie Wonder at a state dinner for former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Other artists who have performed at the coveted venue include Patti LaBelle, opera star Andrea Bocelli and the Jonas Brothers. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide, according to his official website, and carried out more than 4,000 performances in over 80 countries. He became Sir Elton John after being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 and has been a close ally of Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, defending them in the press after the criticism they received for stepping back from senior royal duties. John reworked “Candle In The Wind” following the death of Harry’s mother in 1997, which went on to break records, selling over 33 million copies as people across the world mourned. Earlier this week, John told fans while onstage in Canada that he was “very sad” to learn of the death of the queen, praising the late monarch’s decency and noting she had for decades “worked bloody hard.” His medal from Biden will sit alongside his Legion d’Honneur given to him by French President Macron in 2019. Read More…

Megan Montgomery Didn https://digitalalabamanews.com/megan-montgomery-didn/ Getty Images This story contains descriptions of physical and emotional abuse. If you or a loved one is a victim of abuse, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or log on to thehotline.org for help, or call 911 if physical abuse is happening or imminent. For more about the warning signs of domestic abuse, visit the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) website at womenslaw.org. The first time I meet Susann Montgomery-Clark to talk about her daughter Megan’s murder, a kitchen timer interrupts us and Susann rushes away from our Zoom call to pull a casserole out of the oven. She comes back into the frame and apologizes; she’s making the meal for her daughter Meredith. “It’s great to have both girls in town,” she says, then catches herself. Before Megan died on December 1, 2019, at the hands of her husband, she lived a quick drive from her mother. Nearly three years later, Susann is still adjusting to the fact that she can’t invite her younger daughter over for dinner. Susann says Megan began dying on July 23, 2017 — the day she went on her first date with police officer Jason McIntosh, the beginning of a relationship that would end 861 days later — after a string of escalating altercations and 911 calls — with McIntosh fatally shooting her in a parking lot 20 miles from the home they had shared. Over the years, Megan had done what abused women are told to do: She’d reported him to his own police department; she’d filed for protection from abuse and for divorce; she’d moved out; she’d pursued domestic violence charges. Still, the system failed her, through a cascading series of events, each triggering the next. But Megan’s story is not unique: More than a quarter of homicides in the U.S. are related to domestic violence. When an abusive partner has access to a firearm, as McIntosh did, a domestic violence victim is five times as likely to be killed. Susann is the first to point out a few of the obvious reasons Megan’s case garnered national attention (it’s been covered by People and NBC News): She was white with long blonde hair, hazel eyes and a master’s degree. “A lot of people said, ‘If it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody,’ which is the wrong thing to think because it does happen to anybody, across socioeconomic classes,” Susann says. Regardless of background, abusers pull from a similar script: love bombing, isolation, gaslighting, escalating aggression. The identities of the victims and the perpetrators vary, but law enforcement officers are up to 15 times as likely as the general population to abuse their significant others, according to Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence. The question is no longer How did this happen? It’s Why does this keep happening — and how can we stop it? Susann, who retired from her paying job the week after she lost Megan, has grappled with these questions ever since. Experts say homicides such as Megan’s are preventable, so for the past year Susann and her husband, Rod Clark, have worked with schools to raise awareness about domestic violence. Susann also works to help people whose loved ones are already in unhealthy relationships, and unbeknownst to her, over the course of my reporting this story she did exactly that for me. A Charmed Child By all accounts, Megan grew up happy in Birmingham, AL. Her father, Johnny Montgomery, was a real estate agent who traveled the world competing in Ironman races in places like Hawaii, Switzerland and Holland, sometimes with his daughters in tow. He and Susann divorced, and Susann remarried when Megan was 6. Megan’s stepfather, Rod, practiced basketball with her in the driveway every afternoon. (He still jokes about her criticizing him for “guarding her like a girl.”) Megan later joined the cheerleading squad at the local Catholic high school she and her older sister, Meredith, attended. Megan Montgomery, right, with her mother, Susann Montgomery-Clark. courtesy of Susann Montgomery-Clark One of Megan’s best friends, Ameshia Cross, describes Megan as a “lifelong cheerleader.” They joined the Alpha Sigma Tau sorority together at Belmont University (a Christian college in Nashville), and Megan choreographed their initiation-night dance to Huey’s “Pop, Lock and Drop It.” “Megan was quite the performer,” Ameshia says. “She was the life of the party.” The two became especially close when Ameshia’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and later died. Megan sat on Ameshia’s dorm room floor and held her as she cried; they flew together to the funeral in Chicago a week later. The two stayed in touch even after Megan returned home to Alabama, where she finished her bachelor’s degree, earned a master’s degree and began a career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Outside work, Megan was a founding member of the Young Professionals Board at the Greater Birmingham Humane Society, where she organized events, fostered animals and drove rescue transports. Megan’s “Mirror” When Megan met Jason Bragg McIntosh, 13 years her senior, on a dating app, she thought he was perfect. He presented himself as an upstanding member of the community, sensitive and caring — “a mirror of Megan,” Susann says. This image, she believes now, was carefully manufactured: Mirroring is a tactic abusers often use to gain their victims’ trust. “They don’t come across as violent. They seem like Prince Charming,” Susann says. McIntosh seemed infatuated with Megan. He showered her with gifts and compliments; he was constantly around, and within a few months he started talking about marriage. In retrospect, Ameshia believes this was her first indication that something was off: “It basically went from getting to know someone on an app to ‘Now this guy wants to get married,’ ” she told me. “I was very cautious of that: Walking into something that serious that swiftly is scary.” Susann now recognizes McIntosh’s actions as love bombing, a tactic narcissists and abusers often use to influence, control or gaslight a partner. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, it typically manifests as “soulmate status” (things get serious unusually fast), exaggerated compliments (“My life would be nothing without you”), the giving of gifts (especially expensive ones) and constant communication. On average, every minute, nearly 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner. Source: National Coalition Against Domestic Violence McIntosh worked as a police officer for more than 20 years and had been with the Hoover Police Department since 1999, which suggested to Susann and Rod some level of trustworthiness. Megan’s dad, Johnny, and stepmom, Liz Montgomery, ran into the couple at a college football game a month after McIntosh and Megan started dating. Johnny is a recovering alcoholic (he stopped drinking after he and Susann divorced), and he recalls that he had an uneasy feeling about McIntosh, who, he and Liz believe, was heavily intoxicated when they met. Then, according to her family, in November 2017 Megan said that she and McIntosh had gotten into an argument at his condo. When Megan tried to leave, McIntosh locked the security gate around his unit and refused to open it until she started to yell for help. Megan took an Uber home that night, and the next morning she told her parents what had happened. She asked Johnny and Rod to confront McIntosh directly rather than go through the police department, because she was scared that he’d be fired. McIntosh apologized to Johnny and Rod, who say they made him swear that he wouldn’t contact Megan again. But within weeks, the two were back together. Susann believes that “because [McIntosh] was drinking whenever anything bad happened, he used that as an excuse,” she says. “Megan would forgive somebody and believe they would do better next time. As Christians, we raised our children around forgiveness. But domestic violence is different.” Valentina Shilkina//Getty Images Ups and Downs Ameshia remembers Megan telling her that early on, McIntosh started showing up wherever Megan was. Sometimes he would park his truck outside Megan’s gym to meet her after her workout. “He was sending gifts, always around, 24/7, wouldn’t let her out of his sight — he was popping up everywhere and was wary of any male friends [of hers],” Ameshia says. (When we reached him for comment, McIntosh denied having any problem with her male friends.) But at the time, Megan thought she’d met her soulmate: They were secretly married at the courthouse in February 2018, less than seven months after their first date. Slowly, Ameshia recalls, Megan began talking about how McIntosh had started to isolate her. He became “aggressive, in terms of diminishing her: talking about her appearance, telling her that nobody else would want her, telling her that her family and friends didn’t want her,” Ameshia says. (McIntosh denies making any disparaging comments.) Her self-esteem and confidence began to falter. Her sister, Meredith, remembers cracks starting to show in their relationship, but “lots of couples get in fights. I think they broke up a couple of times; then they’d get back together. Some couples do that,” she says. Then, on their one-year dating anniversary, July 23, 2018, Megan and McIntosh got (publicly) engaged. Around that same time, Ameshia says Megan started withdrawing from her friends. Eventually, she stopped reaching out altogether: “Megan basically went dark.” Then, in February 2019, Megan posted wedding photos on Instagram, taking her friends by surprise. She and McIntosh had flown to New York for the ceremony. “That’s not Megan,” Ameshia says. “She includes us in everything she does.” Even Megan’s family didn’t learn about the ceremony until the two returned to Alabama. Two or three weeks later, Megan confided in Ameshia that McIntosh had pushed her into a wall and hit her the night before th...

An Iconic Soap With Two Weird Claims To Fame — “It Floats” And It's “99 And 44⁄100% Pure” https://digitalalabamanews.com/an-iconic-soap-with-two-weird-claims-to-fame-it-floats-and-its-99-and-44%e2%81%84100-pure/ New York (CNNBusiness)Walk into a Walmart, Target, any drugstore chain in your neighborhood or a corner bodega for New York City dwellers, and chances are you’ll find an Ivory Soap bar, or a pack of 10 bars for under $5, sitting on the shelf. This iconic cake of soap, invented almost 150 years ago, has become a part of Americana largely by advertising its two strange merits: “It Floats” and it’s “99+44⁄100% Pure.” The original product is a no-frills, plain white, mild-scented bar soap with the name “IVORY” etched into it in script. Impressively, it has stayed exactly that way for 143 years — barring the addition of an Aloe scented variety, and is also still around. Ivory soap’s longevity flies in the face of a notoriously fickle market for personal beauty products where new trends can appear and disappear in a flash. So why has Ivory Soap stood the test of time? One theory is because of its clever advertising and branding. Ivory Soap packaging famously, and relentlessly, touts the attributes of purity and buoyancy. “That’s brilliant execution,” said David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding, a branding expert who has helped name such popular consumer products as “Swiffer,” “Blackberry” and “Dasani.” “Just think about it. How many other soaps can you think of that tout an attribute that’s analogous to “It Floats?” said Placek. “I can’t think of another. It makes you remember it because it also makes you think about other soaps that don’t float.” Because Ivory Soap’s taglines have remained consistent and endured for over a century and through generations of consumers, they’ve seeped into the subconscious, said Placek. “Even if you’ve not used Ivory Soap you know about it and you remember it,” he said. The need for floating soap Ivory Soap is the brainchild of Procter & Gamble. Not the huge multinational consumer brands conglomerate that it is today, but of two individuals — Harley Procter (son of P&G cofounder William Procter) and James N. Gamble (son of P&G’s other cofounder, James Gamble). It was in the late 19th century, a period when river bathing was prevalent among large swaths of the population. Now imagine losing your grip on a bar of soap when you’re immersed waist-deep in murky water. But what if there was a soap bar that could float? An AdAge article about Ivory Soap’s invention explained how Gamble at the time was trying to create a new type of gently formulated soap. The R&D process inadvertently created a batch of soap that was found to float because air bubbles got trapped inside. Gamble, according to P&G’s website, recognized the “floating soap” could revolutionize the washing experience in more ways than one. He initially thought the floating soap could be used both for laundry and for washing up. Over time, the soap bar primarily became a bath soap. Naming the soap was another story. According to P&G legend, Harley Procter came upon the word “ivory” while attending church and thought it perfectly fit the new soap’s look and feel and both men adopted “Ivory Soap” as the name. P&G launched the soap in 1879 hyping it not only as a soap bar that floated but for its purity. That claim, according to the company, hinged on a study of the soap by chemistry professors at the request of the inventors. One study showed the soap had only a small amount of impurities — 56/100 of a percent — of a non soap material in it. So they decided to play that up in Ivory Soap’s advertising, rounding it up to create its second iconic tagline — “99 and 44-100% pure.” P&G maintains that while it continues to innovate its Ivory Soap, the product is still made with a simple formula free of dyes and parabens meant to gently cleanse the skin. It has, however, extended the brand to other products. In the 1950s, according to the AdAge article, P&G launched a light-duty dishwashing detergent under the Ivory brand, followed by liquid hand soaps in the 1980s and moisturizing body washes in 1996 with the introduction of Ivory Moisture Care. Today, the Ivory personal care portfolio also includes baby care products, hair and body washes and deodorant. Ivory soap has become so iconic that in 2001 P&G donated a collection of its Ivory Soap artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution, including its earliest advertising and a bar of unused soap from the 1940s. Lexicon Branding’s Placek said Ivory Soap is a product way ahead of its time. “It was ‘pure’ before pure, clean and simple products became as popular as they are with consumers today,” he said. Read More…

The Most Popular Beer Among Alabama And Auburn Fans Is… https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-most-popular-beer-among-alabama-and-auburn-fans-is/ Alabama and Auburn football fans may not agree that the folks on the other sideline are good people, but both can get behind Good People. The Birmingham-based brewing company, that is. Good People, which boasts on its cans that it has been legally brewing beer in Alabama since 2008, was the most popular beer among both fanbases, according to analysis of social media data by the marketing company Zoomph. Good People beat out much larger macro brands like Miller Lite, Bud Lite and more. But even though the very top of the list looks similar for both fanbases, that doesn’t mean both Alabama and Auburn fans have the exact same drinking preferences. RELATED: Alabama fans love MMA, Auburn fans prefer golf. But the differences don’t stop there In general, Auburn fans seem to enjoy craft beer more than Alabama fans. Based on Zoomph’s data, Auburn fans are more likely to be considered beer fans in general than Alabama fans, and the gap grows even wider when looking at craft beer. And that difference can be seen in the top of the list of most popular beer brands among Auburn football fans. [Can’t see the chart? Click here.] Outside of Good People at No. 1, two other Birmingham-area breweries were among Auburn fans’ top four beer brands, including No. 2 Avondale Brewing – which is owned by Good People – and No. 4 Cahaba Brewing. Auburn fans also had some other national and regional craft brands in their top 10, including Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing, Georgia-based SweetWater Brewing and Delaware-based Dogfish Head Brewing. About 2% of Auburn football fans followed Good People Brewing, which may not seem like a lot. The overall numbers for all beers was low, but much higher than the baseline – people who aren’t Alabama or Auburn football fans. Good People was also the most popular beer brand for Alabama fans, but it wasn’t nearly as popular among that fanbase as it was among Auburn fans. About 1.4% of Alabama fans were Good People fans, compared to Auburn’s 2%. And Alabama fans preferred some domestic macro beers more than Auburn fans, including brands like Miller Lite, Bud Light and Budweiser. Miller Lite was the most popular domestic macro beer among both fanbases, followed by Bud Lite and Budweiser. [Can’t see the chart? Click here.] Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Tropical Storm Ian: Alabama Forecasters Watching Track https://digitalalabamanews.com/tropical-storm-ian-alabama-forecasters-watching-track/ Hurricane Published: Sep. 24, 2022, 8:00 a.m. Tropical Storm Ian’s path shifted just slightly to the west on Saturday morning, and forecasters said more track shifts will be possible in the next few days as the storm strengthens. It is still expected to make landfall on Florida’s west coast next week as a Category 2 or 3 hurricane. The white “cone of uncertainty” shows the areas where the just center of the storm could go, not the entire storm itself. Alabama forecasters continued to watch strengthening Tropical Storm Ian in the central Caribbean on Saturday. Ian was a minimal tropical storm with 45 mph winds on Saturday morning but is expected to strengthen quickly and become a hurricane by Sunday night, according to the National Hurricane Center. As of 7 a.m. CDT Saturday, the center of Tropical Storm Ian was located about 300 miles south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, or 570 miles southeast of Grand Cayman Island, and was moving west-southwest at 15 mph. The forecast path shows Ian crossing over Cuba and moving into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico by Tuesday. The official track has what could be a Category 2 or 3 hurricane turning more to the east and making landfall somewhere on the west coast (or Gulf side) of the Florida peninsula by late Wednesday or early Thursday. As of Saturday morning Alabama remained outside what’s called the “cone of uncertainty,” or the possible areas where the center could go. However, Ian’s long-range track shifted slightly to the west on Saturday, and the hurricane center warned that more track shifts will be possible. Forecasters noted that computer models show a 180-nautical-mile spread in possible tracks at the 72-hour point, and the cone of uncertainty stretched from the eastern Florida Panhandle all the way eastward into the Atlantic on Saturday. The National Weather Service in Mobile was closely watching Ian on Saturday. Forecasters said that the risk for rip currents will likely increase next week along the Alabama and northwest Florida beaches, and rough seas will also be likely. It will also likely be breezy near the coast on Thursday. Beyond that it’s still too soon to be more specific about what effect Ian could have on Alabama’s weather. “Stay tuned as there is uncertainty with the forecast track for Ian which could result in changes to the forecast,” the weather service said Saturday. Farther north, the weather service in Birmingham also had eyes on Ian. Forecasters said winds could pick up across central Alabama from Wednesday through Friday from the pressure difference as Ian moves closer. “The forecast for Thursday and Friday is likely to change drastically depending on where the system tracks,” forecasters said Saturday. The weather service in Huntsville also was watching Ian for the possibility it could bring some rain to parts of eastern Alabama late next week. Forecasters said some models bring Ian northward once it’s inland into Georgia, and the outer fringes of the storm could generate a few showers in northeast Alabama. “However, with a lot of uncertainty in the tropics have opted to go non mentionable (rain chances) through the end of the period,” forecasters said. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Newly Constructed Houses You Can Buy In Opelika https://digitalalabamanews.com/newly-constructed-houses-you-can-buy-in-opelika/ Newly constructed houses you can buy in Opelika Check out modern homes in new communities around Opelika 3 Bedroom Home in Auburn – $383,980 Move In Ready+ $10,000 incentive! This beautiful home in the newest phase of Mimms Trail can close as soon as possible. This one level home has a gorgeous backyard, an open floor plan, and a huge primary closet and kitchen pantry! $10,000 incentive can be used towards closing costs, rate buy down, etc! Incentive expires on 10/1/22. 4 Bedroom Home in Phenix City – $315,000 Charming 4 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home with tons of upgrades including LVP throughout the first floor! The open concept two story great room features a beautiful electric fireplace and custom blinds on windows. The kitchen features leathered granite countertops, stainless appliances, gray painted cabinets and is open to the dining area. The first floor master bedroom has LVP floors, 2 large walk-in closets, a beautiful tiled shower and double vanity. The exterior features a side entry garage, oversized covered porch and fenced in yard that backs up to woods. Upstairs are 3 additional bedrooms and a full bath. 4 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $373,900 All new BELLMOORE PLAN minutes from everything! Soaring Two-Story Foyer leads to Dining Room featuring wow factor accent wall! Two Story Family Room offers tons of light, wood-burning fireplace with brick hearth, and cedar mantle. Open concept offers great flow from family room to eat-in kitchen. Kitchen features shaker styled cabinets, quartz counters, designer backsplash, serving area, and walk in pantry! Stainless Electric Range/Oven, Dishwasher, and Microhood included. The Owner’s Suite is nicely sized featuring large closet and luxurious tiled bathroom with double vanity boasting quartz counters, garden tub, and separate tiled shower. On the second level, you’ll find multi purpose space, three bedrooms, and two additional bathrooms. Mohawk Revwood flooring in much of the main level common area and tiled flooring in bathrooms. Cvd rear patio to enjoy during the upcoming Spring season. Fiber Cement Siding, Architectural Shingled Roof, and Rear Covered Patio. Cul-de-sac lot! 4 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $379,914 OVERSIZED Cul-de-sac Lot! Langdon Plan features open concept featuring Vaulted Family Room w/wood-burning fireplace; spacious dining area, and kitchen ideal for entertaining. Kitchen features shaker styled cabinets, quartz counters, tiled backsplash, and a large corner pantry! Stainless Electric Range/Oven, Dishwasher, and Microhood included. The Owner’s Suite is nicely sized and features luxurious tiled bathroom with double vanity boasting granite counters, garden tub, and separate tiled shower. Also on the main level, you’ll also find mud room entry from garage, separate pocket office and guest bedroom/bathroom. On the second level, you’ll enter into loft/study area leading to two guest rooms and a shared bathroom with double vanity. Mohawk Revwood flooring in much of the main level common area and tiled flooring in bathrooms. Fiber Cement Siding, Architectural Shingled Roof, and Rear Covered Patio. Mins from downtown Opelika and Souther Union Community College! 4 Bedroom Home in Auburn – $496,420 NEW INCENTIVE on this Quick Move in Home! With the purchase of this home, buyer will receive a washer & dryer, blinds, AND $10,000!Harris Doyle Homes is proud to reintroduce the Garrett floor plan in Woodward Oaks! The Garrett is one of Harris Doyle’s most popular floor plans for good reason! This is a very open floor plan with the primary bedroom and bathroom, a secondary bedroom, a full bathroom, and storage area all on the main level. Upstairs you’ll find a large loft, great for entertaining! The two bedrooms upstairs share a jack and jill bathroom. Use the following link to view a list of included home features, and the sitemap of the community: https://harrisdoyle.com/communities/auburn/creekside-falls-at-woodward-oaks#detail 4 Bedroom Home in Auburn – $476,030 NEW INCENTIVE on this Quick Move In Home! With the purchase of this home, buyer will receive a washer & dryer, blinds, AND $10,000! Harris Doyle Homes is proud to reintroduce the Jefferson floor plan in Woodward Oaks! The Jefferson floor plan offers the primary bedroom, a secondary bedroom and full bathroom on the main floor! The main floor also has a “flex room”, which can be used as an office, nursey, playroom, etc! The other two bedrooms share a jack and Jill bathroom upstairs. A spacious loft can also be found in the second level. Use the following link to view a list of included home features and the sitemap of the community: https://harrisdoyle.com/communities/auburn/creekside-falls-at-woodward-oaks#detail 4 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $320,000 This is a charming 4 bedroom 3.5 baths and is a very open plan downstairs. The downstairs flooring is LVP and there is a fireplace in the den. All kitchen appliances are stainless steel and there is a large pantry located in the kitchen. There is a lovely covered porch overlooking the yard. There is also a nice size dining room. All bedrooms and laundry are located up stairs. 4 Bedroom Home in Phenix City – $315,000 Charming 4 bedroom 2.5 bathroom home with tons of upgrades including LVP throughout the first floor! The open concept two story great room features a beautiful electric fireplace and custom blinds on windows. The kitchen features leathered granite countertops, stainless appliances, gray painted cabinets and is open to the dining area. The first floor master bedroom has LVP floors, 2 large walk-in closets, a beautiful tiled shower and double vanity. The exterior features a side entry garage, oversized covered porch and fenced in yard that backs up to woods. Upstairs are 3 additional bedrooms and a full bath. 5 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $364,900 MOVE-IN READY! The professionally designed ‘Hawthorn B’ home at Drake’s Landing is sure to impress! Enjoy an bundance of room for relaxing, entertaining, dining, study and sleep! Inviting entry foyer. Step-up Media Room! Luxurious Lighting, Plumbing, & Hardware Packages! Trendy open concept Eat-in Kitchen offers beautiful granite countertop, oversized island, SS Appliance Package, & breakfast area that flows through to the Great Room with wood burning fireplace! Open Concept Dining off Entry Foyer Room! Luxurious Owner’s Suite with HUGE walk-in closet, PRIVATE access to tiled laundry room, piedrafina countertops, tiled shower, and garden tub! Covered front porch + spacious 10×10 covered patio out back! Guest Suite on Main with full bathroom ensures privacy from upstairs. Three additl spacious bedrooms, & third bathroom located upstairs. Virtual tour & design selections available upon request. TOUR this weekend at our open home tour! Builder Incentives w/ use of trusted lending partner. 5 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $369,900 Only minutes away from the heart of Auburn, AL! Hughston Homes’ newest community, Drake’s Landing featuring the Hawthorn A plan! This trendy homesite encompasses five spacious bedrooms with an abundance of room for relaxing, entertaining, dining, study and sleep, three luxurious bathrooms, entry foyer, Media Room, and a sleek stylish Kitchen offering Luxury Lighting and Hardware Package, granite countertops, a huge island and breakfast area that flows through to the Great Room with wood burning fireplace, Formal Dining Room, and the covered 10×10 patio out back! The Guest Suite on Main with full bathroom ensures privacy from upstairs. Upstairs you will find the open Media Room, Luxurious Owner’s Suite offering a MASSIVE walk-in closet, double vanity with Piedrafina countertops, shower, and separate garden tub, three additional spacious bedrooms, third full bathroom, and laundry with entry to Owner’s Bathroom. Virtual tour available upon request. 3 Bedroom Home in Salem – $274,900 Minutes from Lake Harding. Super cute 3 bedroom 2 bathroom home. Only two years old! Open concept with split floor plan. Large laundry room. Pantry. Patio with fenced in backyard. 4 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $399,900 Welcome to Wyndham Village -a Hughston Community! Must-see HARRISON plan has 2778 energy efficient square feet! Inviting open kitchen with SS appliances, beautiful granite counters, breakfast area, large island, and walk-in pantry. Formal dining room with designer coffered ceilings and timeless judges panel w/ chair rail. Cozy up in the Great room by the wood burning FP! Tiled laundry room on the 2nd level. Large owner suite on 2nd level includes 2 vanities, garden tub, separate shower, double walk-in closets and electric FIREPLACE! Owner entry from 2-car garage has convenient drop zone w/ built-in storage cubbies! Intelligent home tech–Keyless Entry, Touchless Video doorbell, control panel, controlled front porch lighting (and Gameday patio speakers) – all connected through 1 app from anywhere. Enjoy natural gas with cooking, Great room FP and tankless water heater! Includes signature Gameday patio! 5 Bedroom Home in Opelika – $414,900 Welcome to Wyndham Village – a Hughston Community! Our HOTTEST selling plan! Must-see CYPRESS has 3158 energy efficient sqft! Inviting open kitchen concept with SS appliances, beautiful granite counters, sink WITHIN the large island, and walk-in pantry. Formal dining room with designer coffered ceilings and timeless judges panel w/ chair rail. Cozy up in the Great room by the wood burning FP! Tiled laundry room on the ¬2nd level. Large owner suite on 2nd level includes sitting area, 2 vanities, garden tub, separate shower, and oversized walk-in closet! Upstairs has a versatile media room. Guest Bedroom on main level. Owner entry from 2-car garage has convenient drop zone w/ built-in storage cubbies! Intelligent home tech–Keyless Entry, Touchless Video doorbell, control panel, controlled front porch lighting (...

Exclusive: Trump's Secret Court Fight To Stop Grand Jury From Getting Information From His Inner Circle – KYMA https://digitalalabamanews.com/exclusive-trumps-secret-court-fight-to-stop-grand-jury-from-getting-information-from-his-inner-circle-kyma/ By Evan Perez, Katelyn Polantz and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) – Former President Donald Trump‘s attorneys are fighting a secret court battle to block a federal grand jury from gathering information from an expanding circle of close Trump aides about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, people briefed on the matter told CNN. The high-stakes legal dispute — which included the appearance of three attorneys representing Trump at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse on Thursday afternoon — is the most aggressive step taken by the former President to assert executive and attorney-client privileges in order to prevent some witnesses from sharing information in the criminal investigation events surrounding January 6, 2021. The court fight over privilege, which has not been previously reported and is under seal, is a turning point for Trump’s post-presidency legal woes. How the fight is resolved could determine whether prosecutors can tear down the firewall Trump has tried to keep around his conversations in the West Wing and with attorneys he spoke to as he sought to overturn the 2020 election and they worked to help him hold onto the presidency. This dispute came to light as former Trump White House adviser and lawyer Eric Herschmann received a grand jury subpoena seeking testimony, the people briefed said. Other former senior Trump White House officials, including former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin, appeared before the grand jury in recent weeks, after negotiating specific subjects they would decline to answer question about, because of Trump’s privilege claims. Herschmann himself is not in court fighting the subpoena. Instead, Trump’s lawyers are asking a judge to recognize the former President’s privilege claims and the right to confidentiality around his dealings. Herschmann’s grand jury testimony has been postponed. It’s still unknown if prosecutors want to use the information for possible cases against Trump or others. Trump’s lawyers have expected the Justice Department to eventually seek a judge’s order to compel additional testimony from White House witnesses, CNN has previously reported. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. Fight playing out under seal Under grand jury secrecy rules, the legal dispute is under seal, with no public documents to show the state of play. The Justice Department has been girding for a legal challenge along these lines for months, CNN previously reported. In addition to Cipollone and Philbin, former vice presidential aides Greg Jacob and Marc Short have appeared before the grand jury in the DC courthouse and declined to answer some questions because of Trump’s executive privilege claims, CNN previously reported. On Thursday afternoon, Evan Corcoran, Tim Parlatore and John Rowley, who work together representing Trump in the January 6 probe, exited the courthouse accompanied by a law clerk. Parlatore told reporters he was there “representing a client” but would provide no further details. The other lawyers declined to comment. The Trump legal team’s push to broadly assert privilege has been subject of disagreement among its lawyers over legal strategy, people briefed on the matter said. Herschmann received a grand jury subpoena for testimony and documents related to January 6 weeks ago. But he was irked before his court date by what he saw as vague guidance from Trump lawyers not to share information, people briefed on the matter say. Herschmann pushed Trump lawyers to provide him with more detailed instructions for which topics to assert privilege over, according to emails reviewed by CNN and first reported by The New York Times. “A letter directive from President Trump without a court order would not be sufficient. I don’t understand your statement that the chief judge will decide the issue,” Herschmann wrote. He then raised concerns about DOJ seeking to compel his testimony if he refused to testify to certain questions. Herschmann previously testified to the House committee about what he saw at the White House around January 6. The outspoken lawyer expressed concerns that the Trump team’s approach potentially put him at risk for grand jury contempt, according to people briefed on the matter. He pushed back when Trump’s lawyers sent him a letter with instructions that he cite executive or attorney-client privileges to the grand jury. Other former Trump aides have expressed similar frustration at the vagueness of the Trump privilege claim, people briefed on the matter tell CNN. Attorney-client privilege claims can be overcome for a number of reasons, including if any information is shared outside of the attorney-client pipeline and if the communication relates to possible wrongdoing. In the January 6 situation, a federal judge in California has already found email exchanges to and from John Eastman, Trump’s election attorney, wouldn’t be covered by this confidentiality, providing the records to House investigators and allowing the Justice Department to access those and other similar exchanges. Executive privilege is a tougher pursuit for investigators, though not impossible to overcome. The Justice Department gained access to Nixon’s Watergate tapes for a federal grand jury in the 1970s because of a Supreme Court ruling that the criminal investigation needed the materials. But courts haven’t hammered out exactly where the lines would be drawn in this investigation, or for a former President who may try to keep secret advice he was given while leading the country. The dispute is separate from privilege protections Trump has tried to claim in the separate investigation of handling of federal records and national security information after his presidency. That investigation prompted the FBI to seize classified documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and a judge acting as a special master is now working through the more than 10,000 non-classified records to determine if Trump can block them from investigators. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

'Fighting Fit': Trial To Show Oath Keepers' Road To Jan. 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/fighting-fit-trial-to-show-oath-keepers-road-to-jan-6/ The voting was over and almost all ballots were counted. News outlets on Nov. 7, 2020, had called the presidential race for Democrat Joe Biden. But the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was just beginning to fight. Convinced the White House had been stolen from Republican Donald Trump, Stewart Rhodes exhorted his followers to action, suggesting they emulate a popular uprising that brought down Yugoslavia’s president two decades earlier. He published a version of his appeal online, headlined, “What We The People Must Do.” “We must now … refuse to accept it and march en-mass on the nation’s Capitol,” Rhodes declared to fellow Oath Keepers. Authorities allege that Rhodes and his band of extremists would spend the next several weeks amassing weapons, organizing paramilitary training and readying armed teams outside Washington with a singular goal: stopping Joe Biden from becoming president. Their plot would come to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say, when Oath Keepers wearing helmets and other battle gear were captured on camera shouldering their way through the crowd of angry Trump supporters and storming the Capitol in military-style stack formation. Hundreds of pages of court documents in the case against Rhodes and four co-defendants — whose trial opens with jury selection Tuesday in Washington’s federal court — paint a picture of a group so determined to overturn Biden’s election that some members were prepared to lose their lives to do so. The trial is the biggest test so far for the Justice Department’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the Capitol, a violent assault that challenged the foundations of American democracy. Rioters temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s victory by sheer force, pummeling police officers in hand-to-hand fighting as they rammed their way into the building, forcing Congress to adjourn as lawmakers and staff hid from the mob. Despite nearly 900 arrests and hundreds of convictions in the riot, Rhodes and four Oath Keeper associates — Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — are the first to stand trial on the rare and difficult-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors will try to show that the insurrection for the Oath Keepers was not a spur-of-the-moment protest but part of a serious, weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power. The trial could shed new light on Trump’s attempts to cling to power. It comes amid growing legal peril for the former president, who faces multiple investigations, including one by the Justice Department into his handling of sensitive government documents. Defense lawyers for the Oath Keepers will tell jurors the government case is all a lie. The Oath Keepers accuse prosecutors of twisting their words and insist there was never any plan to attack the Capitol. They say they were in Washington to provide security at events for figures such as Trump ally Roger Stone before the president’s big outdoor rally behind the White House. Their preparations, training, gear and weapons were to protect themselves against potential violence from left-wing antifa activists or to be ready if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to call up a militia. Rhodes’ lawyers have signaled that their defense will focus on his belief that Trump would take that action. “When he believed that the President would issue an order invoking the Insurrection Act, he was prepared to follow it. When that invocation did not come, he did precisely nothing,” Rhodes lawyers wrote in court documents. “The Government would like this Court to believe that is sedition, when in fact, it is the opposite. It is loyalty to an oath taken in defense of the Country.” ___ Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 and it has grown into one of the largest anti-government groups in U.S. history. It recruits past and present members of the military, first responders and police officers, and promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties. It portrays its followers as defenders against tyranny. On Nov. 9, 2020, less than a week after Election Day, Rhodes held a conference call and rallied the Oath Keepers to go to Washington and fight. He expressed hope that antifa (anti-fascist) activists would start clashes because that would give Trump the “reason and rationale for dropping the Insurrection Act.” “You’ve got to go there and you’ve got to make sure that he knows that you are willing to die to fight for this country,” Rhodes told his people, according to a transcript filed in court. He urged those on their way to Washington to stop at Arlington National Cemetery to see the graves of thousands of people who died fighting for the United States. “They were willing to give up their entire life,” Rhodes told them. “Most of us are in our 50s or 60s or older. You’ve lived a good life. You’ve lived way past the age of these young men. … And if you don’t stand up now, everything they fought for and died for will be fought for nothing.” Some Oath Keepers would stay outside Washington but be “prepared to go in armed if they have to,” Rhodes said on the call. If they failed to “save” the country, Rhodes predicted there would be “a bloody, bloody civil war.” After the call, another Oath Keeper, Watkins, told people who expressed interest in joining her Ohio militia group about “military-style basic” training planned for early January, prosecutors say. The Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers held training in “unconventional warfare.” Watkins told one recruit, “I need you fighting fit” by the inauguration, which was Jan. 20, 2021. Watkins later predicted their “way of life” would be over if Biden became president. “Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights,” she wrote in another message. By December, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, prosecutors say. Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet about a “big protest in D.C. on January 6th” that he predicted would “be wild” seemed to energize the Oath Keepers. Days later, Meggs — the leader of the Florida chapter— wrote in a Facebook message: “Trump said It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying. He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!!” During an interview Dec. 22 with a regional Oath Keepers leader, Rhodes described Jan. 6 as “hard constitutional deadline” for stopping Biden from becoming president. On Dec. 23, Rhodes published an open letter on the Oath Keepers website declaring that “tens of thousands of patriot Americans, both veterans and nonveterans” would be in Washington. Many would have their “mission-critical gear stowed nearby just outside D.C,” he wrote, warning that they might have to “take to arms in defense of our God given liberty.” In late December, the Oath Keepers were making plans for “quick reaction force” teams to be stationed at a Virginia hotel in order to shepherd weapons into the city quickly if needed, prosecutors say. In one message days before the Capitol attack, Caldwell suggested getting a boat to ferry “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River into the Oath Keepers’ “waiting arms.” As 2021 approached, Rhodes spent $7,000 on two night-vision devices and a weapon sight and sent them to someone outside Washington, authorities say. Over several days in early January, he would spend an additional $15,500 on guns, including an AR-platform rifle, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment, according to court documents. “There is no standard political or legal way out of this,” Rhodes wrote in a message on New Year’s Eve. ___ Oath Keepers from across the country began traveling to the Washington area. Rhodes had instructed them to be ready, if asked, to secure the White House perimeter and “use lethal force if necessary” against anyone, including the National Guard, who might try to remove Trump from the White House, according to court documents in the case of one member who has pleaded guilty. On Jan. 5, Meggs and the Florida Oath Keepers brought gun boxes, rifle cases and suitcases filled with ammunition to the Virginia hotel where the “quick reaction force” teams would be on standby, according to prosecutors. A team from Arizona brought weapons, ammunition, and supplies to last 30 days, according to court papers. A team from North Carolina had rifles in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot, prosecutors have said. Surveillance footage shows Oath Keepers rolling bags, large bins and what appears to be at least one rifle case into the hotel. On the morning of the riot, one of the quick reaction force team members warned on a podcast about the prospect of violence: “We are applying as much pressure as we can. The only and obvious next step is to go into armed conflict but hoping very much that that doesn’t happen.” Trump delivered his speech at the Ellipse behind the White House, repeating his false claims about a rigged election and urging his supporters to “fight like hell.” The crowd started marching to the Capitol, eventually fighting past police barricades. As word began spreading that people were storming the Capitol, Rhodes wrote: “All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no attempt by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it in their own hands. They’ve had enough.” At the Capitol, the Oath Keepers formed two teams, military “stacks,” prosecutors say. The first stack, with members wearing protective vests, helmets and communication devices, pushed through the crowd and up the Capitol steps. Over a channel called “Stop the Steal J6” on the walkie-talkie app Zello, Watkins said they were inside. “Get it, Jess. … Everyt...

'Fighting Fit': Trial To Show Oath Keepers' Road To Jan. 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/fighting-fit-trial-to-show-oath-keepers-road-to-jan-6-2/ The voting was over and almost all ballots were counted. News outlets on Nov. 7, 2020, had called the presidential race for Democrat Joe Biden. But the leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group was just beginning to fight. Convinced the White House had been stolen from Republican Donald Trump, Stewart Rhodes exhorted his followers to action, suggesting they emulate a popular uprising that brought down Yugoslavia’s president two decades earlier. He published a version of his appeal online, headlined, “What We The People Must Do.” “We must now … refuse to accept it and march en-mass on the nation’s Capitol,” Rhodes declared to fellow Oath Keepers. Authorities allege that Rhodes and his band of extremists would spend the next several weeks amassing weapons, organizing paramilitary training and readying armed teams outside Washington with a singular goal: stopping Joe Biden from becoming president. Their plot would come to a head on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say, when Oath Keepers wearing helmets and other battle gear were captured on camera shouldering their way through the crowd of angry Trump supporters and storming the Capitol in military-style stack formation. Hundreds of pages of court documents in the case against Rhodes and four co-defendants — whose trial opens with jury selection Tuesday in Washington’s federal court — paint a picture of a group so determined to overturn Biden’s election that some members were prepared to lose their lives to do so. The trial is the biggest test so far for the Justice Department’s efforts to hold accountable those responsible for the attack on the Capitol, a violent assault that challenged the foundations of American democracy. Rioters temporarily halted the certification of Biden’s victory by sheer force, pummeling police officers in hand-to-hand fighting as they rammed their way into the building, forcing Congress to adjourn as lawmakers and staff hid from the mob. Despite nearly 900 arrests and hundreds of convictions in the riot, Rhodes and four Oath Keeper associates — Kelly Meggs, Jessica Watkins, Kenneth Harrelson and Thomas Caldwell — are the first to stand trial on the rare and difficult-to-prove charge of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors will try to show that the insurrection for the Oath Keepers was not a spur-of-the-moment protest but part of a serious, weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power. The trial could shed new light on Trump’s attempts to cling to power. It comes amid growing legal peril for the former president, who faces multiple investigations, including one by the Justice Department into his handling of sensitive government documents. Defense lawyers for the Oath Keepers will tell jurors the government case is all a lie. The Oath Keepers accuse prosecutors of twisting their words and insist there was never any plan to attack the Capitol. They say they were in Washington to provide security at events for figures such as Trump ally Roger Stone before the president’s big outdoor rally behind the White House. Their preparations, training, gear and weapons were to protect themselves against potential violence from left-wing antifa activists or to be ready if Trump invoked the Insurrection Act to call up a militia. Rhodes’ lawyers have signaled that their defense will focus on his belief that Trump would take that action. “When he believed that the President would issue an order invoking the Insurrection Act, he was prepared to follow it. When that invocation did not come, he did precisely nothing,” Rhodes lawyers wrote in court documents. “The Government would like this Court to believe that is sedition, when in fact, it is the opposite. It is loyalty to an oath taken in defense of the Country.” ___ Rhodes founded the Oath Keepers in 2009 and it has grown into one of the largest anti-government groups in U.S. history. It recruits past and present members of the military, first responders and police officers, and promotes the belief that the federal government is out to strip citizens of their civil liberties. It portrays its followers as defenders against tyranny. On Nov. 9, 2020, less than a week after Election Day, Rhodes held a conference call and rallied the Oath Keepers to go to Washington and fight. He expressed hope that antifa (anti-fascist) activists would start clashes because that would give Trump the “reason and rationale for dropping the Insurrection Act.” ”You’ve got to go there and you’ve got to make sure that he knows that you are willing to die to fight for this country,” Rhodes told his people, according to a transcript filed in court. He urged those on their way to Washington to stop at Arlington National Cemetery to see the graves of thousands of people who died fighting for the United States. “They were willing to give up their entire life,” Rhodes told them. “Most of us are in our 50s or 60s or older. You’ve lived a good life. You’ve lived way past the age of these young men. … And if you don’t stand up now, everything they fought for and died for will be fought for nothing.“ Some Oath Keepers would stay outside Washington but be “prepared to go in armed if they have to,” Rhodes said on the call. If they failed to “save” the country, Rhodes predicted there would be “a bloody, bloody civil war.” After the call, another Oath Keeper, Watkins, told people who expressed interest in joining her Ohio militia group about “military-style basic” training planned for early January, prosecutors say. The Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers held training in “unconventional warfare.” Watkins told one recruit, “I need you fighting fit” by the inauguration, which was Jan. 20, 2021. Watkins later predicted their “way of life” would be over if Biden became president. “Our Republic would be over. Then it is our duty as Americans to fight, kill and die for our rights,” she wrote in another message. By December, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, prosecutors say. Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet about a “big protest in D.C. on January 6th” that he predicted would “be wild” seemed to energize the Oath Keepers. Days later, Meggs — the leader of the Florida chapter— wrote in a Facebook message: “Trump said It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! It’s gonna be wild!!!!!!! He wants us to make it WILD that’s what he’s saying. He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!!” During an interview Dec. 22 with a regional Oath Keepers leader, Rhodes described Jan. 6 as “hard constitutional deadline” for stopping Biden from becoming president. On Dec. 23, Rhodes published an open letter on the Oath Keepers website declaring that “tens of thousands of patriot Americans, both veterans and nonveterans” would be in Washington. Many would have their “mission-critical gear stowed nearby just outside D.C,” he wrote, warning that they might have to “take to arms in defense of our God given liberty.” In late December, the Oath Keepers were making plans for “quick reaction force” teams to be stationed at a Virginia hotel in order to shepherd weapons into the city quickly if needed, prosecutors say. In one message days before the Capitol attack, Caldwell suggested getting a boat to ferry “heavy weapons” across the Potomac River into the Oath Keepers’ “waiting arms.” As 2021 approached, Rhodes spent $7,000 on two night-vision devices and a weapon sight and sent them to someone outside Washington, authorities say. Over several days in early January, he would spend an additional $15,500 on guns, including an AR-platform rifle, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment, according to court documents. “There is no standard political or legal way out of this,” Rhodes wrote in a message on New Year’s Eve. ___ Oath Keepers from across the country began traveling to the Washington area. Rhodes had instructed them to be ready, if asked, to secure the White House perimeter and “use lethal force if necessary” against anyone, including the National Guard, who might try to remove Trump from the White House, according to court documents in the case of one member who has pleaded guilty. On Jan. 5, Meggs and the Florida Oath Keepers brought gun boxes, rifle cases and suitcases filled with ammunition to the Virginia hotel where the “quick reaction force” teams would be on standby, according to prosecutors. A team from Arizona brought weapons, ammunition, and supplies to last 30 days, according to court papers. A team from North Carolina had rifles in a vehicle parked in the hotel lot, prosecutors have said. Surveillance footage shows Oath Keepers rolling bags, large bins and what appears to be at least one rifle case into the hotel. On the morning of the riot, one of the quick reaction force team members warned on a podcast about the prospect of violence: “We are applying as much pressure as we can. The only and obvious next step is to go into armed conflict but hoping very much that that doesn’t happen.” Trump delivered his speech at the Ellipse behind the White House, repeating his false claims about a rigged election and urging his supporters to “fight like hell.” The crowd started marching to the Capitol, eventually fighting past police barricades. As word began spreading that people were storming the Capitol, Rhodes wrote: “All I see Trump doing is complaining. I see no attempt by him to do anything. So the patriots are taking it in their own hands. They’ve had enough.” At the Capitol, the Oath Keepers formed two teams, military “stacks,” prosecutors say. The first stack, with members wearing protective vests, helmets and communication devices, pushed through the crowd and up the Capitol steps. Over a channel called “Stop the Steal J6” on the walkie-talkie app Zello, Watkins said they were inside. “Get it, Jess. … Ever...

Elon Musk Greenlit To Activate Starlink Internet For Iranians https://digitalalabamanews.com/elon-musk-greenlit-to-activate-starlink-internet-for-iranians/ Legal guidance by the American government on expanding internet services to Iranians was changed despite US sanctions on the country. Published On 24 Sep 202224 Sep 2022 SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been given the green light by the United States government to activate the satellite internet service Starlink to help Iranians protesting against the death of a woman in police custody. Access to social media and some content is tightly restricted in Iran and significant internet outages were reported across the country on Saturday, with one of the biggest mobile phone operators disrupted, leaving millions of Iranians offline. The US Treasury Department on Friday issued guidance expanding internet services available to Iranians despite US sanctions on the country. The move follows deadly protests around Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died after being detained by “morality police” who questioned the way she was wearing her headscarf. Hundreds of angry demonstrators have been arrested with crowds taking to the streets of major cities across Iran for eight straight nights. State television said the number of deaths in “recent riots” had risen to 35, up from 17 previously, including at least five security personnel. We took action today to advance Internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people, issuing a General License to provide them greater access to digital communications to counter the Iranian government’s censorship. — Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 23, 2022 A US State Department spokesperson said the updated licence was self-executing and “anyone who meets the criteria outlined in this general license can proceed with their activities without requesting additional permissions”. Musk could not be reached for comment or clarification regarding Starlink’s clearance to operate in Iran. However, he said on Monday the company wanted to provide the Starlink satellite broadband service – already provided to Ukraine for its fight against Russia’s invasion – to Iranians and would ask for a sanctions exception. Iran has curbed access to social media networks Instagram and WhatsApp amid the protests, according to residents and internet watchdog NetBlocks. Azadeh Akbari, from the University of Twente, said the digital shutdown in Iran is “a continuation of decades of internet filtering by the Iranian government”. She gave examples of “keyboard filtering” and the arrest of journalists as a means of cracking down on access. Akbari added with the shutdown of global cyberspace in Iran it would be increasingly “difficult and dangerous” for members of the public to access safe messenger apps and use methods to get around the blocks. Speaking from Capetown, South Africa, mobile video journalism publisher Yusuf Omar said the Iranian government’s attempts to limit internet access is a form of “government censorship” as well as “self-censorship” of the population. “People we are getting in touch with stories even if they do have access to the internet for a couple of hours and want to send a video out. They are really afraid,” Omar told Al Jazeera. President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that Iran must “deal decisively with those who oppose the country’s security and tranquility”, Iranian state media reported. Raisi’s comments were made in a condolence telephone call to the family of a security agent stabbed to death last week, allegedly by protesters enraged over the death of Amini. Source : Al Jazeera and news agencies Read More…

Elijah McClain's Death Caused By Complications From Ketamine Injection Following Restraint, Coroner Says In Amended Autopsy Report | CNN https://digitalalabamanews.com/elijah-mcclains-death-caused-by-complications-from-ketamine-injection-following-restraint-coroner-says-in-amended-autopsy-report-cnn/ CNN  —  The autopsy report for Elijah McClain, an unarmed Black man who died while in police custody in Colorado three years ago, has been changed to update the cause of death from “undetermined” to “complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint,” Adams County Chief Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan said Friday. In August 2019, McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was walking home from a store when he was apprehended by Aurora police officers responding to a “suspicious person” call. Police said McClain had resisted and he was placed into a carotid hold. Paramedics diagnosed McClain with “excited delirium” and administered the powerful sedative ketamine. He suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital. Three days later, he was declared brain dead. The original autopsy report listed the cause of McClain’s death as “undetermined.” The coroner’s office received body camera footage, witness statements and additional records that were part of a grand jury investigation and not available before the autopsy was performed, pathologist Dr. Stephen Cina wrote in the amended autopsy report. 08:20 – Source: CNN Man tranquilized during police stop calls for ban on practice “Simply put, this dosage of ketamine was too much for this individual and it resulted in an overdose, even though the blood ketamine level was consistent with a ‘therapeutic’ concentration,” CIna wrote. “I believe that Mr. McClain would most likely be alive but for the administration of ketamine.” Cina, who was assisted at the autopsy by Broncucia-Jordan, wrote that based on his training and experience, he still believes the manner of death is “Undetermined.” “I acknowledge that other reasonable forensic pathologists who have trained in other places may have their philosophy regarding deaths in custody and that they may consider the manner of death in this type of case to be either HOMICIDE or ACCIDENT,” the pathologist added. CIna could not determine whether the carotid hold contributed to McClain’s death, he added. But “I have seen no evidence that injuries inflicted by the police contributed to death,” he wrote. The amended autopsy report was signed in July 2021. It was released Friday after a Denver District Court judge approved the coroner’s emergency motion. McClain’s death days after his interactions with police brought renewed scrutiny of the use of carotid holds and ketamine during law enforcement stops. His case gained renewed attention during Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Last year a grand jury indicted three police officers and two paramedics involved in the McClain case. They face charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and other charges. In 2021, the city settled a civil rights lawsuit with the McClain family for $15 million, and the Aurora police and fire departments agreed to a consent decree to address a pattern of racial bias found by a state investigation. Read More…

45 Years Ago: 'The Love Boat' Perfects Escapist TV https://digitalalabamanews.com/45-years-ago-the-love-boat-perfects-escapist-tv/ There is a legend that Aaron Spelling, who produced more television shows than anyone in history, once said, “Do you know what our suicide rate would be if we didn’t have television? Do you know how much happiness I’ve brought to people who couldn’t get out of the house but could watch The Love Boat?” It’s unclear if this utterance ever really escaped Spelling’s lips, but it does perfectly capture the television show it referred to, as well as Spelling’s legacy more broadly. Premiering on Sept. 24, 1977 (following three made-for-TV prequel movies that had aired in 1976 and ’77) The Love Boat was an hour-long episodic comedy/drama. It aired on Saturday nights on ABC, along with the similarly-themed Fantasy Island, which was also produced by Spelling, and soon became a national sensation. Watch The Opening Credits of ‘The Love Boat’ Each episode revolved around the adventures of the staff and guests during a journey to exotic destinations aboard a cruise ship called the Pacific Princess (which was a real ship operated by Princess Cruises, although little of the show was actually filmed on it.) There were always three different plot lines: one featuring comedy, one featuring drama and one featuring romance, which are the “three magic words” of television, as Spelling noted in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. It was a repetitive structure that relied on broad jokes (it is one of the only hour-long shows to ever use a laugh track) and heavy doses of melodrama, but out of these elements The Love Boat created a sense of romance and escape that absolutely entranced its viewers. In part, this spell came from the casting. The regulars included Captain Stubing (Gavin MacLeod), who was both firmly in charge and often the butt of the joke, “Doc” Bricker (Bernie Kopell) who was famously amorous with the ladies and had been married (and divorced) six times, a much-beleaguered purser named “Gopher” (Fred Grandy), a friendly bartender named Isaac (Ted Lange) and a plucky young cruise director named Julie (Lauren Tewes). These actors, along with the other regulars, managed to create the feeling that they knew each other well and shared a great deal of camaraderie, which helped give the viewer the feeling that when they tuned in they were becoming part of a fun, close-knit community. The actors were also all adept at handling the swings from comedic to serious that the show’s nine seasons threw at them, which is one of the main reasons the characters they created have lingered so long in popular memory. Watch a List of Famous Appearances on ‘The Love Boat’ Beyond this, The Love Boat made famous an effective secondary casting approach: each episode featured at least four or five – and sometimes as many as ten – guest stars from other television shows, movies and Hollywood history. There were crossover moments – The Brady Bunch actors Robert Reed and Florence Henderson both guest-starred in one episode, and the 1979 season premiere of Charlie’s Angels (another Spelling production) took place on the Pacific Princess – and appearances by Hollywood royalty, including some thirty-two Oscar winners, along with up-and-coming celebrities from Tom Hanks to Janet Jackson. This aura of Hollywood past and present gave the show an added romance, surrounding the viewer on each week’s journey with famous faces and memories of other shows and movies. And it relied on the theory that Spelling would use to great effect over and over again throughout the years, from Starsky & Hutch in the ’70s, to Hart to Hart, T.J. Hooker and Dynasty in the ’80s and all the way through to Beverly Hills, 90210 in the ’90s: people don’t watch television to engage with life, they watch it to escape from life. “I think life is reality enough,” Spelling told the L.A. Times in 1992. “People want to be entertained. They want fantasy, love stories and happy endings.” Modern viewers might be tempted to laugh at this idea, but it earned Spelling a 123-room mansion and the envy of less-successful TV producers throughout Los Angeles. Watch the Charlie’s Angels Board the Love Boat in a Crossover And maybe the best proof of Spelling’s theory is The Love Boat. Play its famous opening theme song – performed by Jack Jones, with lyrics by Paul Williams and music by Charles Fox – and more likely than not people will still recognize it today, even though the last episode of the show aired in 1986, more than a third of a century ago. Turn on any TV network on any night, and you’ll see the influence of Spelling’s approach to storytelling, and The Love Boat in particular: from our sitcoms to our tent-pole hour-long shows, we’re still interested in comedy, drama and romance, and love things served up to us in multiple story-lines. It’s a formula that will probably never get old. As Gavin MacLeod, who played Captain Stubing, remembered in a 2007 interview with Entertainment Weekly, “I went to my cleaners. There was a new girl. And she said, ‘Man, aren’t you the captain?’ I said, ‘Well, I used to be.’ She said, ‘You’ve got to tell somebody to put that show back on.’ I said, ‘Why?’ And she said, ‘That show used to give me something to dream about. Nothing on television gives me anything to dream about.'” The Love Boat did just that. And it worked. 28 Classic Films That Were Turned Into (Mostly Failed) TV Shows Many classic ’70s and ’80s flicks have spawned TV series – but few have found success.  Read More…

AP News In Brief At 6:04 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-in-brief-at-604-a-m-edt-3/ As Ukraine worries UN, some leaders rue what’s pushed aside UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In speech after speech, world leaders dwelled on the topic consuming this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting: Russia’s war in Ukraine. A few, like Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, prodded the world not to forget everything else. He, too, was quick to bring up the biggest military confrontation in Europe since World War II. But he wasn’t there to discuss the conflict itself, nor its disruption of food, fuel and fertilizer markets. “The ongoing war in Ukraine is making it more difficult,” Buhari lamented, “to tackle the perennial issues that feature each year in the deliberations of this assembly.” He went on to name a few: inequality, nuclear disarmament, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the more than 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who have been living in limbo for years in Bangladesh. Russians strike Ukraine as Kremlin-staged votes continue KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities Saturday as Kremlin-orchestrated votes continued in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow. Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city, and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others. The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, damaging residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. The British Defense Ministry said that Russia was targeting the Pechenihy dam on the Siverskyy Donets River in northeastern Ukraine following previous strikes on a dam on a reservoir near Kryvyi Rih, causing flooding on the Inhulets River. “Ukrainian forces are advancing further downstream along both rivers,” the British said. “As Russian commanders become increasingly concerned about their operational setbacks, they are probably attempting to strike the sluice gates of dams, in order to flood Ukrainian military crossing points.” West: More sanctions, isolation if Putin carries out threats WASHINGTON (AP) — How do American leaders and their allies intend to respond if President Vladimir Putin seeks to escalate his way out of a bad situation on Ukraine’s battlefields, and makes good on renewed threats of annexing territory or even using nuclear weapons? At least to start with, by trying to double down on the same tactics that have helped put Russia in a corner in Ukraine, U.S. and European leaders have made clear: more financial penalties and international isolation for Russia, more arms and other backing for Ukraine. That won’t necessarily be easy. It’s been tough enough staying the current course of persuading all of dozens of allies to stick with sanctions and isolation for Putin, and persuading more ambivalent countries to join in. Global financial and energy disruptions from Russia’s war in Ukraine already promise to make the coming winter a tough one for countries that have depended on Russia for their energy needs. And there’s no sign of U.S. or NATO officials matching Putin’s renewed nuclear threats with the same nuclear bluster, which in itself might raise the risks of escalating the conflict to an unimaginable level. Even if Putin should act on his nuclear threat, President Joe Biden and others point, without details, to an ascending scale of carefully calibrated responses, based on how far Russia goes. To start with, “they’ll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been,” Biden told CBS’ “60 Minutes” just ahead of Putin’s new wartime measures and renewed nuclear threat. Georgia voting equipment breach at center of tangled tale ATLANTA (AP) — The tale of breached voting equipment in one of the country’s most important political battleground states involves a bail bondsman, a prominent attorney tied to former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and a cast of characters from a rural county that rarely draws notice from outsiders. How they all came together and what it could mean for the security of voting in the upcoming midterm elections are questions tangled up in a lawsuit and state investigations that have prompted calls to ditch the machines altogether. Details of the unauthorized access of sensitive voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia, became public last month when documents and emails revealed the involvement of high-profile Trump supporters. That’s also when it caught the attention of an Atlanta-based prosecutor who is leading a separate investigation of Trump’s efforts to undo his loss in the state. Since then, revelations about what happened in the county of 43,000 people have raised questions about whether the Dominion Voting Systems machines used in Georgia have been compromised. The public disclosure of the breach began with a rambling phone call from an Atlanta-area bail bondsman to the head of an election security advocacy group involved in a long-running lawsuit targeting the state’s voting machines. Puerto Ricans seething over lack of power days after Fiona SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Half of Puerto Rico is without power more than five days after Hurricane Fiona struck — including an entire town where not a single work crew has arrived. Many on the U.S. territory are angry and incredulous, and calls are growing for the ouster of the island’s private electricity transmission and distribution company. Fuel disruptions are worsening the situation, forcing grocery stores, gas stations and other businesses to close and leaving apartment buildings in the dark because there is no diesel for generators. Many are questioning why it is taking so long to restore power since Fiona was a Category 1 storm that did not affect the entire island, and whose rain — not wind — inflicted the greatest damage. “It’s not normal,” said Marcel Castro-Sitiriche, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. “They have not given a convincing explanation of what the problem is.” China using civilian ships to enhance navy capability, reach BANGKOK (AP) — A Chinese scientific ship bristling with surveillance equipment docked in a Sri Lankan port. Hundreds of fishing boats anchored for months at a time among disputed islands in the South China Sea. And ocean-going ferries, built to be capable of carrying heavy vehicles and large loads of people. All are ostensibly civilian ships, but experts and uneasy regional governments say they are part of a Chinese civil-military fusion strategy, little concealed by Beijing, that enhances its maritime capabilities. China’s navy is already the world’s largest by ship count, and has been rapidly building new warships as part of a wider military expansion. It launched its first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier in June, and at least five new destroyers are on the way soon. The buildup comes as Beijing attempts to exert broader influence in the region. It is increasing its military activities around the self-governing island of Taiwan, seeking new security agreements with Pacific islands and building artificial islands in disputed waters to fortify its territorial claims in the South China Sea, which the U.S. and its allies have challenged. The civilian vessels do more than just augment the raw numbers of ships, performing tasks that would be difficult for the military to carry out. The AP Interview: Marcos wants to ‘reintroduce’ Philippines NEW YORK (AP) — Looking to “reintroduce the Philippines” to the world, new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ambitious plans for his nation on the international stage and at home — if, that is, the twin specters of pandemic and climate change can be overcome or at least managed. And if he can surmount the legacies of two people: his predecessor, and his father. He also wants to strengthen ties with both the United States and China — a delicate balancing act for the Southeast Asian nation — and, like many of his fellow leaders at the United Nations this week, called on the countries that have caused global warming to help less wealthy nations counteract its effects. Marcos, swept into office this spring, is already drawing distinctions both subtle and obvious between himself and his voluble predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, who alienated many international partners with his violent approach to fighting drug trafficking and the coarse rhetoric he used to galvanize supporters. Asked if Duterte went too far with his lethal drug crackdown, Marcos redirected the criticism toward those who carried out the plan. Shapiro wages drama-free Pa. campaign amid big personalities CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, is perhaps best known as an election denier who was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. John Fetterman, the Democrat hoping to flip the state’s Senate seat, has revolutionized how campaigns use social media. And Dr. Mehmet Oz was a TV celebrity long before he launched a GOP Senate campaign. And then there’s Josh Shapiro. In one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S., the Democratic contender for governor is waging a notably drama-free campaign, betting that a relatively under the radar approach will resonate with voters exhausted by a deeply charged political environment. But Shapiro faces a test of whether his comparatively low-key style will energize Democrats to rally against Mastriano, who many in the party view as an existential threat. The GOP candidate, who worked to keep Donald Trump in power and overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, supports ending abortion rights and would be in position to appoint the secretary of state, who oversees elections in this state that is often decisive in choosing presidents. The tension of Shapiro’s strategy was on...

Trump Advisers Panicked DOJ Investigation Is Moving 'perilously Fast': Report https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-advisers-panicked-doj-investigation-is-moving-perilously-fast-report/ Read More…

AP News Summary At 7:44 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-744-a-m-edt/ As Ukraine worries UN, some leaders rue what’s pushed aside UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In speech after speech, world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly are spotlighting Russia’s war in Ukraine. A few are prodding the world not to forget everything else. While no one is dismissing the importance of the conflict, some comments quietly speak to some unease about the international community’s absorption in Ukraine. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, for one, says the ongoing war in Ukraine is making it more difficult to tackle other longstanding issues including inequality, nuclear disarmament and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Russians strike Ukraine as Kremlin-staged votes continue KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kremlin-orchestrated votes continue in occupied regions of Ukraine to pave the way for their annexation by Moscow. Zaporizhzhia Gov. Oleksandr Starukh said the Russians targeted infrastructure facilities in the Dnieper River city early Saturday and one of the missiles hit an apartment building, killing one person and injuring seven others. The Russian forces also struck other areas in Ukraine, causing damage to buildings and civilian infrastructure. Amid the fighting, voting continued in Russian-held areas of eastern and southern Ukraine in Kremlin-organized referendums on making them part of Russia. The votes were dismissed by Kyiv and its Western allies as a sham with no legal force. West: More sanctions, isolation if Putin carries out threats WASHINGTON (AP) — How will American leaders and their allies respond if President Vladimir Putin seeks to escalate his way out of his bad situation on Ukraine’s battlefields? Putin this week renewed threats of claiming more Ukrainian territory, and even using nuclear weapons. U.S. and European leaders have made clear they will try to double down on the same tactics that have helped put Russia in a corner in Ukraine. That means more financial penalties and international isolation for Russia, more arms and other backing for Ukraine. There’s no sign of the United States and NATO matching Putin’s intensified nuclear threats with the same bluster, which could raise the risks of escalating the conflict. Georgia voting equipment breach at center of tangled tale ATLANTA (AP) — A breach of sensitive voting equipment data from a rural county in Georgia spilled into the public light last month when documents and emails produced in response to subpoenas revealed the involvement of high-profile supporters of former President Donald Trump. Since then, a series of revelations about what happened in Coffee County have raised questions about whether the Dominion Voting Systems machines used throughout Georgia have been compromised. The tale involves a bail bondsman, a prominent attorney tied to Trump and a cast of characters from an area that rarely draws notice from outsiders. Puerto Ricans seething over lack of power days after Fiona SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Half of Puerto Rico is without power more than five days after Hurricane Fiona struck the U.S. territory — including an entire town where not a single work crew has arrived. Many people are angry and incredulous, and calls are growing to oust the island’s private electricity transmission company. At the same time, fuel disruptions are worsening the situation, forcing grocery stores, gas stations and other businesses to close because there is no diesel for generators. Many Puerto Ricans are questioning why it is taking so long to restore power since that Fiona was a Category 1 storm that did not affect the entire island, and whose rain — not wind — inflicted the greatest damage. China using civilian ships to enhance navy capability, reach BANGKOK (AP) — China has been increasingly using civilian ships including hundreds of fishing trawlers to back up its vast territorial claims and project military power. China’s navy is already the world’s largest by ship count and has been rapidly building new warships. It launched its first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier in June and at least five new destroyers are on the way soon. Experts say civilian vessels such as fishing boats that are anchored for months at a time in the disputed South China Sea do more than just augment the raw numbers of ships. They perform tasks that would be difficult for the military to carry out such as slowly displacing other vessels without involving armed conflict and complicating the rules of engagement. The AP Interview: Marcos wants to ‘reintroduce’ Philippines NEW YORK (AP) — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants to “reintroduce the Philippines” to the world. He has ambitious plans for his nation on the international stage and at home. That is, if the twin specters of pandemic and climate change can be overcome or at least managed. And if he can get past the legacies of two people: his predecessor, and his father. He also wants to strengthen ties with both the United States and China. That’s a delicate balancing act for the Southeast Asian nation. Marcos spoke in an AP interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. Shapiro wages drama-free Pa. campaign amid big personalities CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. (AP) — In one of the most politically competitive states in the U.S., the Democratic contender for Pennsylvania governor is waging a notably drama-free campaign. Josh Shapiro is betting that a relatively under the radar approach will resonate with voters exhausted by a deeply charged political environment. But Shapiro faces a test of whether his comparatively low-key style will energize Democrats to rally against Republican Doug Mastriano, whom many in the party view as an existential threat. The GOP candidate supports ending abortion rights and would be in position to appoint the secretary of state, who oversees elections in a state that’s often decisive in choosing presidents. Dissident: ‘Iranian women are furious’ over headscarf death NEW YORK (AP) — Iranian activist Masih Alinejad says the videos and messages she’s been receiving in recent days from women in Iran are showing how angry they are following a young woman’s death in police custody over a violation of the country’s strict religious dress code. The spur for this latest explosion of outrage was the death earlier this month of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The young woman was detained for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely in violation of strictures demanding women wear the Islamic headscarves in public. She died in custody. Protests have been going on around the country for days. Alinejad would love to see more support from those in the West, as well. Cards’ Pujols hits 700th home run, 4th player to reach mark LOS ANGELES (AP) — St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit his 700th career home run, becoming the fourth player to reach the milestone in major league history. The 42-year-old Pujols connected for his second home run of the game, a three-run drive against Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford in the fourth inning. The ball landed in the first few rows of the left-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium. It was same location where homer No. 699 landed in the third inning off left-hander Andrew Heaney. With the drive in the final days of his last big league season, Pujols joined Barry Bonds, who had 762 homers, Hank Aaron with 755 and Babe Ruth at 714 in one of baseball’s most exclusive clubs. The Cardinals beat the Dodgers 11-0. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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No. 24 Pitt To Host Narduzzi https://digitalalabamanews.com/no-24-pitt-to-host-narduzzi/ PAT NARDUZZI PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pat Narduzzi has always been a fixer. A project guy. It doesn’t matter if it’s painting an office or slowly building a program, the Pittsburgh coach is always drawn to something that keeps his hands or his mind busy. Rhode Island gave him a chance to do both. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. SEATTLE — For the Seattle Kraken, their inaugural season was all about the wonderment of having an actual NHL team in town, playing in a brand-spanking-new arena. LOS ANGELES — All Nadia Nadim needed was a chance. A chance at an education, a chance to study medicine, a chance to play soccer. MINNEAPOLIS — This has been one of the most confounding Twins seasons in memory. ATLANTA — I’m confident that Trae Young and Dejonte Murray will make it work sharing the ball as Hawks backcourt partners. The Hawks already know how to score. Young and Murray will work out the details on the best way for them to keep the Hawks humming as co-lead guards. LOS ANGELES — Jimmy Garoppolo is the NFL’s most photogenic quarterback this side of Tom Brady. But for at least the last couple seasons, when they looked at Garoppolo, the San Francisco 49ers only saw the photo negative. Rising teenager Qinwen Zheng has continued her winning run at the Toray Pan Pacific tournament by beating the sole remaining seed Veronika Kudermetova 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 in the semifinals in Tokyo. In another Chinese-Russian matchup, unseeded Liudmila Samsonova overcame Shuai Zhang 7-6, 6-2. In a match that lasted a little over three hours, Zheng and fourth-seeded Kudermetova traded huge ground shots, big serves and plenty of errors as they pushed each other to the limits. “I feel so amazing to arrive in the final,” the 19-year-old Zheng said. “Today was a really, really difficult match.” UNDATED (AP) — No. 7 USC and Oregon State are both undefeated heading into Saturday night’s game at Reser Stadium. The Trojans have a high-scoring offense with quarterback Caleb Williams and wide receiver Jordan Addison. The Beavers make the most of their roster on offense. Oregon State is s… Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi will face his alma mater when the 24th-ranked Panthers host Rhode Island on Saturday. Narduzzi played linebacker for the Rams in the late 1980s and later served as an assistant coach for the program. Narduzzi says he knew he wanted to be a coach in college. He jokes that he was one of the few players who had a film projector in his dorm room to go over game tape. Pitt is 2-1 after a decisive road win last week at Western Michigan. The Rams are also 2-1 after a loss to Delaware a week ago. Penn State defensive end Adisa Isaac is becoming a force for the No. 14 Nittany Lions. He had three tackles for loss, including a sack, and two quarterback hurries against Auburn last week in a game the Nittany Lions dominated at the line of scrimmage, winning 41-12. He’ll look to add to his totals when Penn State hosts Central Michigan on Saturday. Nittany Lions coach James Franklin says he thinks Isaac will continue as the year goes on to be more consistent. Last season was supposed to be a breakout campaign for Isaac, but Penn State’s top defensive end spent it on the sideline with a busted ankle. Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten has surprised her rivals to win the women’s road race at the world road championships. Van Vleuten moved ahead with 600 meters left, attacking the lead group for an improbable win in the 164.3-kilometer road race. Belgian Lotte Kopekcy finished second while Italian Silvia Persico took the bronze medal. Earlier Britain’s Zoe Backstedt celebrated her 18th birthday by turning the women’s junior road event into a one-woman race. Backstedt cycled away from the peloton with a solo attack at 10 kilometers and stayed clear for the remaining 57 kms to win by more than two minutes. Eglantine Rayer of France was second ahead of Dutch rider Nienke Vinke. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Chase Brown became the first Illinois running back to rush for 100-plus yards in five straight games, Tommy DeVito passed for 329 yards and three touchdowns and the Fighting Illini blanked Chattanooga 31-0. Illinois improved to 3-1 and is off to its best start since 20… SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Andre Szmyt knocked in five field goals, including the 31-yard game-winner with just over a minute left, and Syracuse held off Virginia 22-20. Syracuse led 16-0 at halftime, but Virginia recorded three second-half touchdowns to take a 20-19 lead with six minutes remaini… The Colorado Rockies lead 1-0 in a three-game series against the San Diego Padres. The Baltimore Orioles host the Houston Astros aiming to extend a three-game home winning streak. The St. Louis Cardinals face the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 1-0 series lead. The San Francisco Giants hit the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks trying to continue a seven-game road winning streak. The Cleveland Guardians visit the Texas Rangers trying to extend a seven-game road winning streak. The Chicago White Sox take on the Detroit Tigers looking to break a five-game home slide. The New York Mets face the Oakland Athletics with a 1-0 series lead. The Kansas City Royals, on a five-game home winning streak, host the Seattle Mariners. The Milwaukee Brewers seek to keep a three-game win streak intact when they play the Cincinnati Reds. The Toronto Blue Jays are looking to stop their three-game slide with a win against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Miami Marlins lead 1-0 in a three-game series against the Washington Nationals. The Minnesota Twins will try to break a five-game skid when they play the Los Angeles Angels. Former UCLA standout Marcos Giron and local favorite Brandon Nakashima won their quarterfinal matches to advance in the San Diego Open ATP 250. Nakashima continued to take advantage of home-court advantage at Barnes Stadium, where he defeated 75th-ranked Daniel Elahi Galan, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Giron reached his second ATP semifinal of 2022 with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over 83rd-ranked James Duckworth of Australia. St. Louis Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols hit his 700th career home run, becoming the fourth player to reach the milestone in major league history. The 42-year-old Pujols connected for his second home run of the game, a three-run drive against Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Phil Bickford in the fourth inning. The ball landed in the first few rows of the left-field pavilion at Dodger Stadium. It was same location where homer No. 699 landed in the third inning off left-hander Andrew Heaney. With the drive in the final days of his last big league season, Pujols joined Barry Bonds, who had 762 homers, Hank Aaron with 755 and Babe Ruth at 714 in one of baseball’s most exclusive clubs. The Cardinals beat the Dodgers 11-0. A’ja Wilson scored 20 points to help the U.S. beat China 77-63 in the women’s World Cup. The U.S. now has won 25 consecutive World Cup games since losing in the 2006 semifinals to Russia. The Americans advanced to the quarterfinals and are one win away from matching their record 26-game run from 1998-2006. These two teams came into the game unbeaten in the tournament. The U.S. (3-0) led 25-20 with 6:23 left in the half before outscoring China 19-5 the rest of the second quarter, including the final 13 points. Alyssa Thomas and Breanna Stewart combined for seven of the 13 points during the game-changing burst. Li Meng finished with 21 points to lead China (2-1). With the bravado and timing that the Cardinals have come to expect from one of the best to ever play the game, Albert Pujols made history – and sparked the present. The Giants got an off night from Carlos Rodón Friday against the Diamondbacks and blew an early lead but reclaimed it for good in the top of the ninth to pull out a win, 6-5, running their streak to five in a row and pulling them closer to .500 than they have been since the first week of thi… J.D. Davis had the go-ahead RBI double in the ninth, Shelby Miller pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in his season debut and the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5. The Giants rallied with two outs in the ninth off reliever Caleb Smith, who gave up the unearned run. Mike Yastrzemski started with a line drive single and then Evan Longoria reached on a fielder’s choice after Arizona third baseman Sergio Alcantara made a bad throw to second that bounced and ended up in the outfield. Davis followed with a double down the left field line. The Diamondbacks fell to 70-82, which guarantees a losing season for the third straight year. Taylor Ward homered twice and Shohei Ohtani took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, helping the Los Angeles Angels beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on a cool, rainy night. Ohtani seemed to have trouble adjusting to the weather conditions, tying his career high with six walks. He also hit a batter in the first, when Minnesota scored without a hit, but he managed his way through five-plus innings to earn his fourth straight win. MINNEAPOLIS — An announced total of 24,896 fans came to Target Field on a chilly and drizzly fall Friday evening, and probably a majority of those were not there to witness the Twins (73-78) potentially formally eliminate themselves from the American League Central race. Gavin Hardison threw for one touchdown, Marcus Bellon returned a punt for another score and UTEP defeated Boise State 27-10. Bellon’s 47-yard punt return gave a Miners a 20-10 lead late in the third quarter. The Miners iced the game with a 14-play, 80-yard drive that took 9:10 off the clock in the fourth quarter. Reynaldo Flores capped the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Although the Miners outgained the Broncos 148-53 in the first half, UTEP didn’t take the lead until Hardison hit Jeremiah Ballard with a 42-yard touchdown pa...

Hillary Clinton Likened Donald Trump's Ohio Rally To Adolf Hitler Speeches, Report Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/hillary-clinton-likened-donald-trumps-ohio-rally-to-adolf-hitler-speeches-report-says/ Hillary Clinton liked Donald Trump’s rally in Ohio to speeches by Adolf Hitler, per Fox News. She made reference to Trump’s supporters pointing their index fingers in the air while he spoke. Trump’s spokesperson told Fox News that the comparison was “pathetic” and “divisive.” Loading Something is loading. Hillary Clinton compared former President Donald Trump’s rally in Ohio, which took place last week, to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s speeches, Fox News reported. Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Friday, Clinton made reference to Hitler’s speeches, which saw people raise their right arms in the air in the Nazi salute, per Fox News. “I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out, how people get basically brought in by Hitler,” Clinton said, per Fox News. “How did that happen?  I’d watch newsreels and I’d see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, ‘What’s happened to these people?'” Clinton then drew a comparison between those rallies and Trump’s event in Ohio and the former president’s supporters’ unusual finger salute as he stumped for Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance. Attendees of the rally in Youngstown, Ohio, raised their fingers to the sky as a QAnon-associated song played. “You saw the rally in Ohio the other night, Trump is there ranting and raving for more than an hour, and you have these rows of young men with their arms raised,” she said. “I thought, what is going on?” Trump’s post-presidency office did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Saturday morning, but a spokesperson for the former president described Clinton’s comments as “some of the most disgusting smears imaginable” in a statement to Fox News. “It seems like perpetual-failed-candidate Hillary Clinton’s basket of deplorables has run stale, not unlike herself,” said Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesperson, per Fox News. “It’s pathetic, it’s divisive, and it is further cementing her legacy of cringe.” The finger salute at the Ohio rally generated controversy, prompting New York State Senator Anna Kaplan to compare it to the “Heil Hitler” salute used by Nazis. “I talk a lot about the importance of learning the history of the Holocaust — so that we don’t repeat history’s darkest chapter ever again — and the horrifying images from these events remind us that we have a lot more work to do yet,” said Kaplan, a Democrat, last Sunday. Insider’s Alia Shoaib reported that security staff at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, appeared to try and stop rally-goers from doing the salute on Friday, according to a video. PBS Newshour journalist Lisa Desjardins, who attended the rally, tweeted that security staff fanned out and told people to take down their fingers.  Read More…

Fiona Makes Landfall In Canada, Leaving Hundreds Of Thousands Without Power https://digitalalabamanews.com/fiona-makes-landfall-in-canada-leaving-hundreds-of-thousands-without-power/ One of the strongest storms ever to hit Canada slammed into Nova Scotia’s coastline early Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Former Hurricane Fiona made landfall early on Saturday morning over Guysborough county on the northeast corner of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada’s weather service said. There were maximum sustained winds of almost 81 mph, while peak gusts of over 100 mph were detected, it added. It is the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center, which also described hurricane-force gusts battering the area. More than 40% of the population in Nova Scotia is affected by power outages, according to utility company Nova Scotia power. Previously a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center declared that Fiona morphed into a post-tropical cyclone as it bolted north, exhibiting characteristics of storms with both tropical and high-latitude pedigree. Irrespective of its technical designation, forecasters cautioned that the storm would be a blockbuster. “This storm will be a severe event for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec,” the Canadian Hurricane Center wrote Friday. The federal agency previously said the storm had the potential to become “historic” and “a landmark weather event.” The storm was forecast to be so serious that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau postponed a visit to Japan, where he planned to attend Shinzo Abe’s funeral, at the last minute on Friday. Hurricane warnings cover most of Nova Scotia as well as Prince Edward Island and western Newfoundland, where meteorologists predict 3 to 6 inches of rain, with up to 10 inches in some areas, and hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph. Tropical storm warnings extend from New Brunswick to eastern Quebec to northern Newfoundland, where rainfall could reach 5 inches and winds at least 39 mph. The center also predicted a considerable ocean surge, or storm-driven rise in water above normally dry land, causing coastal flooding. It predicted a “rough and pounding surf” with waves up to 26 to 40 feet (8 to 12 meters). Ahead of the storm’s arrival, Nova Scotia, home to about 1 million people, was preparing Friday for the worst. Nova Scotia Power warned of widespread power outages, with trees still in full bloom and soils relatively soft, and activated its emergency operations center. And the blackouts could be lasting, as crews will wait for winds to calm before they safely begin repairs, said Dave Pickles, the utility’s chief operating officer. Fiona, which brought devastating flooding to Puerto Rico and cut power to the entire island, is the latest marker of an Atlantic hurricane season that started slow but has suddenly turned active. The storm is one of five systems meteorologists are watching in the Atlantic basin, including one that organized into Tropical Storm Ian Friday night and could soon become a threat to Florida as a hurricane. Jason Samenow contributed to this report. Read More…

City Hall Fence, Eric Schmitt, Josh Hawley: You Gotta Laugh At Kansas City’s News Week https://digitalalabamanews.com/city-hall-fence-eric-schmitt-josh-hawley-you-gotta-laugh-at-kansas-citys-news-week/ Senator Hawley seems to be the one who’s confused about how many genders there are. That and more in this roundup of wacky current events. File photos City Hall fence in downtown KC Kansas City recently installed a massive chain-link fence around the City Hall building at 12th and Oak. We assume it’s meant to keep protesters off the grounds, but it may send a different message: Sure, it keeps the people locked out, but it keeps the mayor, the City Council and city manager locked in. Eric Schmitt, Donald Trump versus the FBI Where Texas goes, Missouri follows? Or more precisely, where Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued and under-indictment Texas attorney general, goes, soon follows Eric Schmitt. Missouri’s attorney general signed onto an amicus brief written by Paxton in support of Donald Trump in the ongoing battle over classified documents found by the FBI when it raided his Mar-a-Lago compound earlier this year. Schmitt’s spokesman said his boss is proud to join the effort, and as for the merits? “The arguments in the amicus speak for themselves.” They sure do. They come down to one claim: Under President Joe Biden, the FBI can’t be trusted. And here we thought the folks with the credibility problem were those who signed on to far-fetched legal arguments, such as the absurd case Paxton brought challenging the 2020 election. Schmitt joined that one, too. You would think being laughed out of court once would be enough. On Wednesday night, the 11th Circuit — a three-judge panel, including two judges appointed by Trump — rejected team Trump’s arguments and told the DOJ it can have access to the classified documents as the case proceeds. Chick-fil-A and KCI Airport This week, the Kansas City Aviation Department released a map of the 50 or vendors at the new single terminal for Kansas City International Airport. And Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley lamented the year-old news that Chick-fil-A wasn’t among them. “Are you serious?’‘ Missouri’s junior senator wrote on Twitter. “No @ChickfilA at the new KCI because the company is too conservative…” How about no Chick-Fil-A because the concessions operator — Vantage Airport Group — was wise enough to avoid sending a message of intolerance when it had plenty of other options for adding good eats to the new terminal. The Kansas City’s LGBTQ commission had pushed back on Chick-Fil-A because owner Dan Cathy’s has invested so much in anti-LGBTQ issues over the years. And since when is supporting discrimination a baked-in element of conservatism, anyway? Hawley’s faux outrage notwithstanding, Cathy has the right to spend his money as he chooses. But then, Vantage Airport Group had the right to leave his company off its plans, too. Josh Hawley’s confused about gender(s) Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, had a curious question for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson back during her confirmation hearings. “What makes a woman a woman?” Blackburn asked. We suppose it was just one more attempt by the GOP to stir up the polarizing issue of gender identity, something that the party keeps doing, and sometimes with unintentionally humorous results. Take Sen. Josh Hawley’s campaign email from this past week. Outraged over the “socialists lies” supposedly being spread through public schools, the senator asks supporters to take a stand on an urgent question: “YES — Keep transgender propaganda OUT” or “No — Teach young children there is more than one gender.” We didn’t realize anyone was arguing there is just one gender, but we get it: It’s hard to keep even basic ideas straight when you’re spending every day stirring the pot from dawn to dusk. Read More…

Top Meta Official To Decide If Trump Can Return To Facebook & Instagram In 2023 https://digitalalabamanews.com/top-meta-official-to-decide-if-trump-can-return-to-facebook-instagram-in-2023/ In the aftermath of the chaotic events of January 6, 2021, former US President Donald Trump was barred from most social media platforms. Nearly two years down the line, Meta (more colloquially known as Facebook) is expected to decide on whether to reinstate the Republican leader on the platform or not.  Reportedly, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs has been charged with the duty to decide if Trump can return to Facebook and Instagram in 2023. The top Meta official, at a recent public event, stated he will make the final call in consultation with CEO Mark Zuckerberg.  “It’s not a capricious decision. We will look at the signals related to real-world harm to make a decision whether at the two-year point which is early January next year whether Trump gets reinstated to the platform.” said Clegg.  It is pertinent to note that Trump was banned from nearly every major social media platform in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riots where Trump supporters allegedly attempted to overturn the election results. The Republican leader was accused of posting messages online to incite violence. While Twitter banned the Republican leader for perpetuity, Facebook imposed a two-year ban to be later re-evaluated. However, since the ban was imposed, much water has flown under the bridge. Trump has formed his own social media platform called Truth Social where he routinely gives an unabridged piece of his mind. While Trump has not commented on a return to Facebook, he has made it clear that he is not returning to Twitter, the microblogging platform.  “I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth. I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man, but I am going to be staying on Truth. The bottom line is, no, I am not going back to Twitter.” Trump said in an interview earlier this year. Read more: Is Donald Trump’s social media platform in financial trouble? (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE:   Read More…

Arizona Judge Reinstates Near-Total Abortion Ban From 19th Century https://digitalalabamanews.com/arizona-judge-reinstates-near-total-abortion-ban-from-19th-century/ An Arizona judge revived a ban on abortion that dates back to the mid-19th century, lifting a decades-old injunction that means the procedure is effectively illegal in the state at all times except when a pregnant person’s life is at risk. Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson’s ruling was released Friday, a day before a law that restricts abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy was due to take effect. The conflicting restrictions on abortion had created confusion, with state Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) pushing to enforce the tougher prohibitions and Gov. Doug Ducey (R) previously insisting that the 15-week ban was the law of the land. Johnson cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which established a fundamental right to abortion, as rationale for lifting the injunction. Roe had been the basis of the 1973 injunction that prevented bans on abortion from being enforced, Johnson ruled. And because the nation’s top court had returned decisions on the procedure to Congress and the states, that injunction can also be annulled, she wrote. The Arizona law threatens abortion providers with between two and five years in prison. It originated from a 1864 law, and has no exception for victims of rape or incest. Some states did not update the laws on their books after Roe was decided in 1973, and the overturning of that decision has caused confusion from Michigan to West Virginia as to whether those laws still apply. Johnson indicated that the older law, which was updated and codified in 1901, supersedes the recently passed law that was to take effect Saturday. “Most recently in 2022, the Legislature enacted a 15-week gestational age limitation on abortion. The legislature expressly included in the session law that the 15-week gestational age limitation does not ‘repeal’” the older ban, she wrote. Ducey’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday. Brnovich thanked Johnson on Twitter, saying that the court had provided “clarity and uniformity on this important issue. I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans.” Planned Parenthood Arizona, which was a plaintiff in the case, criticized the court for reviving an “archaic” law that it said would send “Arizonans back nearly 150 years.” The reproductive health organization, which can appeal the ruling, also said it “will never back down.” Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs said in a statement that she was “mourning” the decision and pledged to veto antiabortion legislation if elected. Johnson’s ruling means the older abortion ban “is no longer unenforceable” and Brnovich’s position as the state’s chief law enforcement officer “opens the door to prosecutions under that law,” said Kaiponanea Matsumura, a family law professor at Loyola Marymount University who previously taught in Arizona. Barbara Atwood, a law professor emerita at the University of Arizona, predicted further legal and legislative wrangling over abortion in Arizona. The 1901 law “directly conflicts with many laws regulating abortion in Arizona enacted since 1973,” she said, including those that permit the procedure in emergencies such as pregnancies that can result in the loss of major organ function for pregnant women and other pregnant individuals. “It is an unworkable situation,” she said. Read More…