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Coastal Flooding And Damaging Winds Are Imminent As Storm Bears Down On Alaskan Shore | CNN https://digitalalabamanews.com/coastal-flooding-and-damaging-winds-are-imminent-as-storm-bears-down-on-alaskan-shore-cnn/ CNN  —  Flooding and damaging winds are beginning to affect portions of Alaska’s western coast early Saturday as a powerful storm threatens the region over the weekend. The remnants of Typhoon Merbok could potentially deliver the state’s strongest storm in over a decade, forecasters have said. Weather and local officials have been urging residents to prepare for the dangerous storm, which already reported hurricane-force wind gusts and wave heights over 50 feet in the Bering Sea Friday morning. “As we receive more reports, we cannot stress this enough. PLEASE do not go near any flooded areas. Remember, turn around, don’t drown. It only takes 6” to sweep you off your feet,” the National Weather Service in Fairbanks warned. Generally, the storm is packing winds between 40 mph and 60 mph, with gusts at 90 mph, according to the weather service. Water levels are could be as high as 12 to 18 feet above normal in some bays, with widespread areas 3 to 10 feet above normal. And that’s why weather officials have advised caution as the storm stands to overwhelm critical infrastructure and wash away roads. Late Friday night, water levels in the town of Golovin were rising rapidly, the weather service in Fairbanks said. “Water continues to rise and will be rising throughout the night. Significant impacts are likely to continue. Stay safe,” the weather service said. It could take about 10 to 14 hours for the water to recede, causing flooding to linger through Saturday night, the weather service warned. The storm has triggered multiple extreme weather warnings for coastal flooding, high winds as well as air due to threats of low-level severe turbulence over western Alaska, according to the weather service. Coastal flood watches have also been issued for all coastlines along the west coast of Alaska between just north of the Arctic Circle down through the Kuskokwim Delta coast. “Strong winds and coastal flooding will continue to increase Saturday afternoon local time. The peak of the winds is likely to occur overnight into Saturday morning, as is the worst coastal flooding,” CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam said. On Saturday evening, water levels along Unalakleet, Shaktoolik and Golovin are expected to reach at least 10 feet above high tide and winds up to 50 mph with higher gusts up to 90 mph, according to the weather service. Other areas including Shishmaref, Wales and Kivalina could see water reach at least 5 feet or higher this weekend. In Nome, where water could reach up to 11 feet above high tide Saturday, officials have opened a recreation center as an emergency shelter and urged their more than 10,000 residents to be prepared. The Nome, Norton Sound station is reporting water levels of 8.22 feet above the normal high tide line, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Port users should secure boats and vessels in the harbor and on Belmont Point. Please check your lines and gear periodically to avoid losses,” the town of Nome said on its Facebook page. Nome, with over 9,800 people in the area, is also reporting street closures along River Street, “F” Street and Seppala Drive. Meanwhile, the state’s division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said local agencies are aware of the storm and were preparing to respond. In 2011, Alaska endured a storm system that left behind a wide swath of destruction. Like Merbok, the 2011 storm was an extratropical storm. Such a storm or cyclone has cold air at its core – unlike a tropical storm or cyclone which has a warm core. Both can cause significant damage from strong winds, heavy rain and storm surge. While most areas will see around 1 inch of rain with this storm, some could pick up as much as 3 inches through the weekend. Even if Anchorage – more than 500 miles from Nome – picks up 1 to 2 inches of precipitation from this storm, it will push this year into the top five wettest years on record. The weather service in Anchorage said that winds peaked at 65 to 75 mph Friday night across the Kuskokwim Delta. Read More…

Multi-Car Crash Causes Vehicle Fire On I-10 Westbound Near Grand Bay: ALEA https://digitalalabamanews.com/multi-car-crash-causes-vehicle-fire-on-i-10-westbound-near-grand-bay-alea/ A multi-vehicle crash and a vehicle fire caused all lanes to be closed on I-10 westbound near Grand Bay for roughly 25 minutes early Saturday morning, according… A multi-vehicle crash and a vehicle fire caused all lanes to be closed on I-10 westbound near Grand Bay for roughly 25 minutes early Saturday morning, according to a release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. by: Brett Greenberg Posted: Sep 17, 2022 / 10:15 AM CDT Updated: Sep 17, 2022 / 10:15 AM CDT A multi-vehicle crash and a vehicle fire caused all lanes to be closed on I-10 westbound near Grand Bay for roughly 25 minutes early Saturday morning, according… A multi-vehicle crash and a vehicle fire caused all lanes to be closed on I-10 westbound near Grand Bay for roughly 25 minutes early Saturday morning, according to a release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. by: Brett Greenberg Posted: Sep 17, 2022 / 10:15 AM CDT Updated: Sep 17, 2022 / 10:15 AM CDT MOBILE COUNTY, Ala. (WKRG) — A multi-vehicle crash and a vehicle fire caused all lanes to be closed on I-10 westbound near Grand Bay for more than an hour Saturday morning, according to a release from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. A crash involving multiple cars occurred at around 5:13 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 17 on I-10 westbound at the four-mile marker near Grand Bay, in Mobile County. A vehicle was on fire due to the crash. It’s not clear if anyone was hurt in this crash. All lanes have reopened. WKRG is working to learn more and will update when we learn more details. Stay ahead of the biggest stories, breaking news and weather in Mobile, Pensacola and across the Gulf Coast and Alabama. Download the WKRG News 5 news app and be sure to turn on push alerts. Latest Videos More Local News Trending Stories Read More…

King Charles, William Greet Well-Wishers In Queen's Queue https://digitalalabamanews.com/king-charles-william-greet-well-wishers-in-queens-queue/ Queen Elizabeth’s grandchildren to hold vigil Line to see queen’s coffin stretches to 16.5 hours World leaders start arriving in London for funeral LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – King Charles and his son William shook hands and greeted well-wishers who had queued for hours in central London on Saturday to file past the coffin of Queen Elizabeth, asking people how long they had been there and whether they were warm enough. To cheers of “hip, hip, hurrah” and shouts of “God save the King”, Charles and William spoke to mourners near Lambeth Bridge, as they neared the end of the mammoth line to see the lying-in-state in the historic Westminster Hall. On Friday night, Charles had joined his three siblings — Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward — in a silent vigil at the coffin while their eight children, including William and Harry, will form their own ceremonial guard later on Saturday. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “She wouldn’t believe all this, she really wouldn’t,” William was heard telling one man of the late monarch who died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96. “It’s amazing.” One woman told Charles it had been “worth the wait” and others wished him well when he asked how long they had been standing there. People continued to flock to central London, adding to the hundreds of thousands who have filed past the coffin in a solemn stream to honour Britain’s longest-reigning monarch – a testimony to the affection in which she was held. Ahead of the state funeral on Monday, world leaders also starting arriving in the British capital. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were among the dignitaries to pay their respects on Saturday while New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was seen curtsying to the coffin on Friday. U.S. President Joe Biden was expected to go on Sunday to see Elizabeth lying in state in an oak coffin on a purple-clad catafalque, draped in the Royal Standard and with the bejewelled Imperial State Crown on top. London’s police force has described the funeral as the biggest security operation it has ever undertaken as prime ministers, presidents and royals come together, and the king visited police headquarters to thank emergency services workers involved in the planning on Saturday. Underscoring the risks, police said one man had been detained and arrested after a witness told Sky News he “ran up to the queen’s coffin”. Footage showed a man being pinned to the ground by police officers and taken away. Charles was also due to greet leaders of the 14 countries where he is head of state such as Canada, Australia, and Jamaica after meeting the governors-general – the people who represent the monarch in overseas realms – at Buckingham Palace. VETERANS SALUTE By 2 p.m. (1300 GMT), Britain’s culture ministry said the waiting time to reach Westminster Hall was up to 16.5 hours. Britain’s King Charles greets people queueing to pay their respects to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth following her death, in London, Britain, September 17, 2022. REUTERS/Tom Nicholson Inside the silent hall, some mourners wept, many were tearful while current soldiers and veterans saluted their former commander-in-chief. Others fell to their knees. At one point the government had warned it would pause entry to the queue if demand became too high, adding at 1 a.m. (0000 GMT): “Please do not travel.” New friendships, acts of kindness and the struggles of standing in line for hours, sometimes overnight, have come to define what has become known as just “the queue”. Film-maker Matthew West described how a military man was offered the chance to get to the front but declined. “That was the highlight. The lowlight was when we stood still for two hours and I lost the will to live.” The death of the queen at her summer estate in the Scottish highlands has sparked an outpouring of emotion across the country and 10 days of choreographed events. Having laid at rest in the Scottish capital the coffin was flown south to London, where tens of thousands of people crowded onto a normally busy road in driving rain to observe the flag-draped casket being driven to Buckingham Palace. FUNERAL PLANS The queen’s children have described being overwhelmed by the reaction to their mother’s death. The state funeral, to be attended by nearly 100 presidents and heads of government is likely to be one of the biggest ceremonial events ever held in Britain. Soldiers took part in early morning rehearsals in Windsor, where the queen’s coffin will be taken after the funeral at Westminster Abbey. Marching bands playing music and Grenadier Guards, who wear a tall bearskin hat on ceremonial duties, were seen marching down the High Street in preparation. Later on Saturday, the focus will switch to the younger royals and their vigil. William and his brother Harry, who have grown apart in recent years after Harry moved to the United States, will both stand guard at the coffin in military uniform. Harry served two tours of duty with the British Army in Afghanistan but so far has appeared in processions in morning suits after he lost his honorary military titles when he stepped back from public royal duties. The two brothers will be joined by their cousins – Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, the children of Princess Anne, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, the children of Prince Andrew, and Louise and James, the children of Prince Edward. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar and Elizabeth Piper, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Alison Williams Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

PEPSI LACEUP High School Highlights And Scores: Week Four – Alabama News https://digitalalabamanews.com/pepsi-laceup-high-school-highlights-and-scores-week-four-alabama-news/ Posted: Sep 17, 2022 9:50 AM CDT by Alabama News Network Staff AHSAA Football Scoreboard Week 4 Results CLASS 7A Auburn 58, Lee-Montgomery 7 Austin 47, Albertville 10 Daphne 25, Baker 14 Dothan 57, Smiths Station 43 Enterprise 50, Rehobeth 6 Fairhope 55, Davidson 28 Florence 38, James Clemens 20 Hoover 17, Hewitt-Trussville 7 Huntsville 28, Bob Jones 24 Mary Montgomery 33, Alma Bryant 19 Prattville 24, Opelika 21 (OT) Sparkman 57, Grissom 0 Thompson 48, Chelsea 3 Tuscaloosa County 34, Oak Mountain 31 Vestavia Hills 36, Spain Park 7 CLASS 6A Athens 47, Mae Jemison 6 Blount 18, Baldwin County 9 Calera 38, Chilton County 14 Carver-Montgomery 46, Stanhope Elmore 44 Clay-Chalkville 56, Center Point 19 Cullman 53, Lee-Huntsville 13 Decatur 48, Hazel Green 14 Hartselle 16, Gadsden City 9 Helena 31, Pelham 24 Hueytown 59, Bessemer City 21 Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa 44, Brookwood 0 Homewood 31, Benjamin Russell 24 McAdory 37, Central-Tuscaloosa 7 McGill-Toolen Catholic 34, Murphy 14 Mountain Brook 48, Jackson-Olin 0 Northridge 41, Paul Bryant 6 Pike Road 16, Eufaula 10 (OT) Pinson Valley 44, Oxford 20 Shades Valley 63, Huffman 34 Sidney Lanier 28, Park Crossing 12 Theodore 29, Spanish Fort 21 Wetumpka 49, Russell County 7 Woodlawn 27, Mortimer Jordan 21 CLASS 5A Alexandria 33, Springville 15 Arab 28, Scottsboro 7 Beauregard 26, Charles Henderson 14 Brewer 21, Lawrence County 7 Carroll 33, Seminole County (GA) 3 Carver-Birmingham 20, Joh Carroll Catholic 14 Demopolis 49, Clarke County 13 Fairview 50, West Point 7 Faith Academy 43, Citronelle 0 Gulf Shores 45, LeFlore 12 Guntersville 62,  Boaz 14 Jasper 45, Wenonah 7 Marbury 22, Tallassee 20 Moody 32, Lincoln 6 Pleasant Grove 53, Hayden 0 Ramsay 48, Fairfield 14 Russellville 52, East Limestone 7 Sardis 36, Crossville 14 Selma 36, Greenville 6 Southside-Gadsden 52, St. Clair County 3 UMS-Wright 10, Vigor 7 Williamson 20, B.C. Rain 0 CLASS 4A American Christian 41, Hale County 26 Andalusia 49, Montgomery Academy 7 Anniston 49, White Plains 13 Bibb County 56, Sipsey Valley 10 B.T. Washington 34, Slocomb 14 Central-Florence 35, Brooks 28 Cherokee County 49, Hanceville 15 Cordova 41, Hamilton 21 Corner 24, Dora 14 Dale County 29, Bullock County 18 Dallas County 20, Holt 0 Deshler 55, Wilson 13 Escambia County 34, Wilcox Central 0 Etowah 35, Good Hope 6 Haleyville 35, Northside 27 Handley 26, Central, Clay County 15 Jackson 30, Bayside Academy 10 Jacksonville 76, Talladega 21 Madison County 28, DAR 0 Montgomery Catholic 62, Geneva 0 Munford 42, Cleburne County 28 Oak Grove 41, Curry 26 Oneonta 51, Fultondale 13 Priceville 40, New Hope 0 North Jackson 21, St. John Paul II Catholic 14 Randolph 53, Westminster Christian 20 St. Michael Catholic 45, Satsuma 8 T.R. Miller 38, Orange Beach 13 West Blocton 7, Montevallo 6 West Limestone 48, East Lawrence 13 West Morgan 35, Rogers 16 Class 3A Alabama Christian 62, Sumter Central 14 Colbert Heights 52, Clements 38 Dadeville 22, Walter Wellborn 14 Daleville 16, Northside Methodist 15 Excel 31, Flomaton 24 Gordo 49, Tarrant 0 Hokes Bluff 24, Westbrook Christian 21 Houston Academy 49, New Brockton 6 JB Pennington 47, Asbury 0 Lauderdale County 29, Colbert County 0 Madison Academy 48, Danville 0 Mars Hill Bible 69, Elkmont 8 Mobile Christian 48, Monroe County 6 Oakman 35, Carbon Hill 20 Opp 28, Pike County 27 Piedmont 42, Ohatchee 14 Plainview 28, Glencoe 7 Prattville Christian 28, Greensboro 14 Randolph County 20, Weaver 0 Saint James 56, Southside-Selma 14 Saks 42, Childersburg 14 Straughn 41, Ashford 12 Susan Moore 29, Vinemont 22 Sylvania 41, Geraldine 24 Thomasville 12, Cottage Hill Christian 7 Trinity Presbyterian 38, Sylacauga 7 Winfield 56, Midfield 8 W.S. Neal 28, Hillcrest-Evergreen 27 CLASS 2A Aliceville 54, Sulligent 28 Ariton 35, Zion Chapel 0 B.B. Comer 36, Vincent 35 Chickasaw 20, Francis Marion 6 Cleveland 40, Pleasant Valley 13 Collinsville 37, Sand Rock 20 Cottonwood 22, Samson 0 Falkville 21, Hatton 6 Fyffe 54, Section 0 Goshen 60, LaFayette 28 G.W. Long 21, Geneva County 0 Highland Home 42, Horseshoe Bend 0 Isabella 59, Fayetteville 21 J.U. Blacksher 21, St. Luke’s Episcopal 15 Lexington 53, Tharptown 18 Locust Fork 27, Cold Springs 6 Luverne 26, Lanett 25 North Sand Mountain 54, Whitesburg Christian 28 Pisgah 42, Ider 10 Port St. Joe (FL) 45, Pike Liberal Arts 0 Ranburne 40, Woodland 0 Red Bay 58, Hackleburg 24 Reeltown 76, Barbour County 0 Sheffield 48, Tanner 47 Southeastern 57, Holly Pond 53 Thorsby 48, Central, Coosa 0 Tuscaloosa Academy 42, Lamar County 7 West End 51, Gaston 0 Wicksburg 29, Abbeville 8 Winston County 51, Greene County 22 CLASS 1A Addison 69, Waterloo 0 Appalachian 53, Gaylesville 34 Autaugaville 49, Billigsley 6 Brantley 53, Kinston 6 Decatur Heritage 43, Cedar Bluff 20 Donoho 21, Victory Christian 7 Florala 50, Pleasant Home 20 Fruitdale 64, JF Shields 0 Georgiana 22, Houston County 13 Keith 30, Marengo 18 Linden 62, RC Hatch 0 Loachapoka 50, Notasulga 14 Lynn 49, Holy Spirit Catholic 13 Maplesville 56, Calhoun 0 Marion County 54, Berry 6 Meek 40, Phillips 6 Millry 46, Choctaw County 20 Pickens County 36, South Lamar 6 Ragland 32, Wadley 25 Red Level 25, McKenzie 24 Shoals Christian 59, Cherokee 6 Southern Choctaw 22, McIntosh 21 Spring Garden 33, Winterboro 16 Sumiton Christian 49, Brilliant 0 Sweet Water 57, A.L. Johnson 0 Valley Head 35, Coosa Christian 33 Verbena 42, Central-Hayneville 40 Woodville 58, Vina 26 AISA Patrician Academy 41 Sparta Academy 0 Bessemer Academy 31 Monroe Academy 20 Lowndes Academy 34 Edgewood Academy 7 Clarke Preparatory School 27 South Choctaw Academy 13 Jackson Academy 48 Escambia Academy 12 Lee-Scott Academy 35 Glenwood School 16 Chambers Academy 42 Banks Academy 0 Hooper Academy 68 Snook Christian Academy 40 Read More…

US-UK Relations Enter New Chapter As New PM, King Settle In https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-uk-relations-enter-new-chapter-as-new-pm-king-settle-in/ AAMER MADHANI and DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Sep. 17, 2022Updated: Sep. 17, 2022 9:46 a.m. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 1of12President Joe Biden waves as he stands at the top of the steps of Air Force One before boarding with first lady Jill Biden at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022, as they head to London to attend the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II. To commemorate the U.S. Air Force’s 75th Anniversary as a service the Bidens are wearing Air Force One jackets.Susan Walsh/APShow MoreShow Less 2of12This combination of photos shows U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Aug. 24, 2022, in Washington, left, and Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss at Westminster Hall, in the Palace of Westminster, in London on Sept. 12, 2022. The prime minister’s office said Biden and Truss will meet on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 10 Downing Street, one of several meetings that the new prime minister plans to hold with world leaders converging on London for Monday’s royal funeral. Show MoreShow Less 3of12 4of12FILE – Britain’s Prince Charles, left, greets the President of the United States Joe Biden ahead of their bilateral meeting during the Cop26 summit at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 2, 2021. Charles and Biden discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. (Jane Barlow/Pool Photo via AP, File)Jane Barlow/APShow MoreShow Less 5of12FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, greets U.S. President Joe Biden , at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 1, 2021. (Christopher Furlong/Pool via AP, File)Christopher Furlong/APShow MoreShow Less 6of12 7of12FILE – President Donald Trump meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019.Evan Vucci/APShow MoreShow Less 8of12FILE – U.S. President Barack Obama sits next to British Prime Minister David Cameron before the first working session of the North Atlantic Council at the NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2016.Markus Schreiber/APShow MoreShow Less 9of12 10of12FILE – U.S. President George W. Bush, right, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair laugh together during the meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the NATO summit in Istanbul, Turkey, June 29, 2004.Charles Dharapak/APShow MoreShow Less 11of12FILE – U.S. President Ronald Reagan, right, and Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, laugh together during a break from a session at the Ottawa Summit in this file photo dated July 21, 1981, at Government House in Ottawa, Canada. Thatcher and Reagan forged a close alliance in the midst of the Cold War, with the prime minister once telling students that the Republican president’s “really good sense of humor” helped their relationship.Anonymous/APShow MoreShow Less 12of12 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden heads to the United Kingdom on Saturday to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II at a time of transition in US-UK relations, as both a new royal and a new prime minister are settling in. The hawkish approach of Prime Minister Liz Truss to Russia and China puts her on the same page as Biden. But the rise of Truss, 47, who once called the US-UK relationship “special but not exclusive,” could mark a decidedly new chapter in the trans-Atlantic partnership on trade and more. Of high concern for Biden officials in the early going of Truss’s premiership is her backing of legislation that would shred parts of the post-Brexit trading arrangements in Northern Ireland. Analysts say the move could cause deep strain between the UK and the European Union, and undermine peace in Northern Ireland. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the move “would not create a conducive environment” for crafting a long-awaited U.S.-UK trade deal coveted by Truss and her Conservative Party. “She’s signaled that she’s willing to go to the mattresses on this and that’s going to cause a rift not just between the UK and EU, but the UK and the U.S.,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former senior State Department official in the Obama administration. “It’s one that’s going to keep the White House up at night.” Biden and Truss had been set to meet Sunday, but the prime minister’s office said Saturday they would skip the weekend hello, opting instead for a meeting at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, though Truss still planned to gather with other world leaders converging on London for the royal funeral. The White House confirmed the U.N. meeting just as the president boarded Air Force One. The two close allies now find themselves in a period of political uncertainty on both sides of the Atlantic. Not unlike his fellow septuagenarian Biden, Charles faces questions from the public about whether his age will limit his ability to faithfully carry out the duties of the monarch. Charles, 73, and Biden, 79, discussed global cooperation on the climate crisis last year while both attended a summit in Glasgow, Scotland. They also met at Buckingham Palace in June 2021 at a reception the queen hosted before a world leaders’ summit in Cornwall. Truss finds herself, as Biden does, facing questions about whether she has what it takes to lift a country battered by stubborn inflation borne out of the coronavirus pandemic and exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unleashing chaos on the global energy market. All the while, Britain — and the rest of Europe — is carefully watching to see what the upcoming U.S. midterm elections will bring for the Democratic American president after he vowed upon taking office that “America is back” to being a full partner in the international community after four years of Republican Donald Trump pushing his “America First” worldview. “It certainly is a time of change and transformation in the UK,” said Barbara A. Perry, presidential studies director at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. She added, “What will happen to this Brexit, isolationist, getting out of NATO approach to the United Kingdom’s foreign policy, which Biden was able to overcome, at least for the last two years, by defeating Donald Trump? We don’t know what will happen in our midterms. We don’t know what will happen in 2024.” Truss, a former accountant who was first elected to Parliament in 2010, hasn’t had much interaction with Biden. The U.S. president called her earlier this month to congratulate her. Truss, as foreign secretary, accompanied her predecessor, Boris Johnson, on a White House visit last year. It’s been more than 75 years since Winston Churchill declared there was a “special relationship” between the two nations, a notion that leaders on both sides have repeatedly affirmed. Still, there have been bumps along the way. Tony Blair was derisively branded by the British tabloids as George W. Bush’s “poodle” for backing the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq. David Cameron and Barack Obama had a “bromance,” but Obama also had his frustrations with the Brits over defense spending and the UK’s handling of Libya following the 2011 ouster of Muammar Gaddafi. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan forged a close alliance in the midst of the Cold War, with the prime minister once telling students that the Republican president’s “really good sense of humor” helped their relationship. But there were difficulties too, such as when Thatcher and members of her Cabinet bristled at the Reagan administration’s initial neutrality in the Falklands War. The White House wasn’t expecting Truss’s announcement in May, when she was foreign secretary, that the government would move forward with legislation that would rewrite parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The agreement was part of the UK’s 2020 Brexit withdrawal from the EU that was designed to avoid a hard north-south border with Ireland that might upset Northern Ireland’s fragile peace. Now, in the first weeks of Truss’s premiership, Biden administration officials are carefully taking the measure of the new British leader. Analysts say there is some trepidation in the administration that undercutting the Northern Ireland protoco l could plunge Europe into trade turmoil at a moment when Biden is working mightily to keep the West unified in confronting Russia over its aggression against Ukraine. “Brexit could once again become the issue — the issue that can make it difficult for all of Europe to work together at a time when it is critical for Europe to work together,” Bergmann said. “If you’re the Biden administration, this is not the time for the two of your closest partners getting into fights.” To be certain, there were areas of friction between Biden and Johnson, who had a warm rapport with former President Donald Trump. Biden staunchly opposed Brexit as a candidate and had expressed great concern over the future of Northern Ireland. Biden once even derided Johnson as a “physical and emotional clone” of Trump. Johnson worked hard to overcome that impression, stressing his common ground with Biden on climate change, support for international institutions and most notably by making certain Britain was an early and generous member of the U.S.-led alliance providing economic and military assistance to Ukraine in the aftermath of the Russian invasion. The former prime minister also unsuccessfully pressed Biden starting days into his administration to begin negotiations on a new U.S.-UK trade deal just as the U.K. regained control over its national trade policy weeks before Biden took office and following the end of a post-Brexit transition period. But Biden largely kept focus on his domestic to-do list in the early g...

Trump Documents Case: Judge Dearie's Appointment As Special Master Welcomed Across Board | World https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-documents-case-judge-dearies-appointment-as-special-master-welcomed-across-board-world/ Washington:  When Florida Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a former Chief Federal Judge in New York, to sort through more than 11,000 documents – including classified materials – that FBI agents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida residence last month, jurists across both the Republican and Democrats side hailed the move. The 78-year-old Dearie, a former Chief Federal Judge in New York and the then President Ronald Reagan appointee, was described by his peer group lawyers and colleagues as an exemplary jurist who is well suited to the job of special master, having previously served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), which oversees sensitive national security cases. The Department of Justice also said he was acceptable to them after Judge Cannon rejected two candidates proposed by them. In 2015, Dearie took the unusual step of reducing the prison sentences of three convicted Canadian terrorists, saying he had been “haunted” by the case and his growing sense that their sentences were unfair. Under federal law, Dearie had been required to sentence the men to 25-year terms for conspiring to acquire missiles on behalf of the Tamil Tigers, a rebel group fighting the government of Sri Lanka. He later cut those sentences to 15 years. While the DOJ has been hit by Florida Judge Cannon’s ruling to slow down investigation into Trump’s classified documents case until Dearie reviews the documents in public interest to prevent reputational harm with a possible indictment of the former President, the DOJ has continued to maintain that a special master is legally unnecessary and should not be charged with reviewing any of the 100 or so seized documents marked as classified. Appointing a special master to review these documents, prosecutors argued in numerous court filings, would slow down a criminal investigation into the potential mishandling of classified information and could pose a national security risk, according to multiple reports in the media outlets. Here’s everything you need to know about Dearie and what he will be doing in this high-profile and unusual investigation. What is a special master? A special master is an impartial outside expert who can essentially be viewed as a judge’s helper, said David R. Cohen, an attorney and longtime special master. In theory, the special master can help with whatever a judge needs. In this case, Cannon appointed a special master to sort through the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago on August 8 to see if any should be shielded from criminal investigators because of attorney-client or executive privileges. How did Judge Cannon choose Dearie? When Cannon granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master earlier this month, she asked the Justice Department and Trump’s legal team to jointly submit a list of potential candidates. In a subsequent joint filing, the Justice Department named two judges as candidates. Trump’s side proposed a lawyer who is not a judge, and Dearie. Trump’s lawyers then told the judge they did not believe any of the Justice Department’s candidates would be suitable special masters. The Justice Department said they thought Dearie would be acceptable. Days later, Cannon named Dearie for the high-profile job. Is Dearie still working as a judge? Yes, Dearie still serves as a judge in Brooklyn federal court, albeit on senior status, which means he can take a reduced caseload if he chooses. He has also recently signalled that he plans to leave the bench. It is not immediately clear if the appointment will speed his departure from Brooklyn federal court or if court administrators will work out some other accommodation for the unusual dynamic of a judge appointing another judge a special master. What will he do as a special master in this case? The Justice Department and Trump’s lawyers have held drastically different positions on what the special master should do in this case. Trump wants the special master to search through all the seized documents – including the classified ones – to see if any are protected by attorney-client or executive privileges and should not be used in the investigation. On the other side, the Justice Department has questioned whether Trump, who is no longer President, can even invoke executive privilege – a power that Presidents can assert to shield communications from courts, Congress, or the public. Either way, the Justice Department did not want classified documents to be part of the special master review, saying that privilege would not apply to them or to the unclassified documents, and that delaying investigators’ access to those sensitive documents could pose national security risks. Ultimately, Cannon ruled in Trump’s favour. She also denied a bid by prosecutors to allow them to use the seized material in their ongoing criminal investigation before Dearie conducts his review. How long does Dearie have to complete the job? Cannon ordered Dearie to complete his review by November 30. She said he should prioritise sorting through the classified documents, though she did not provide a timeline as to when that portion must be completed. The Justice Department had asked in a previous court filing for the review to be completed by October 17. And Trump’s lawyers had said a special master would need 90 days to complete a review. Does Dearie have the necessary clearance to sift through these highly classified materials? Because Dearie previously served on the FISA court, it will probably not take much time or effort to get him authorised to review the classified material, and he may not have to travel far to look at them. New York City has a number of federal facilities in which Dearie could review highly classified material, which is important since the storage and safekeeping of such documents is the crux of the case. Can Dearie get help for his review? In theory, yes. Special masters typically have others help them review documents. But in this case, staff assistance could be complicated by the 100 classified documents, and whether any potential assistants have the necessary security clearances. It is possible that Dearie could end up reviewing that material on his own, and hiring others to help him with the non-classified documents. Now what? The Justice Department is expected to file an appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta. Depending on what part of Cannon’s decision the government challenges, the appeal may or may not interfere with the special master’s review. Once Dearie completes his review, he would deliver his recommendations to Cannon on what documents should be shielded from investigators. It’s up to Cannon to decide whether she will follow those recommendations. (IANS) Read More…

Mark Meadows Claimed Boxes Held At Mar-A-Lago Contained Only 'news Clippings' https://digitalalabamanews.com/mark-meadows-claimed-boxes-held-at-mar-a-lago-contained-only-news-clippings/ According to the Post, National Archives attorney Gary Stern spoke with former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin. Philbin told Stern that he had spoken to Meadows about concerns Trump had left the White House with presidential records. But according to Meadows, Trump didn’t have anything. Just that dozen boxes of clippings.  According to Meadows and Philbin, “Trump’s team was aware of no other materials.” This is an enormous lie. First, there was the simply quantity of the documents Trump ferried away. The National Archives got 15 boxes back in January. The FBI took more documents in July. And FBI agents took 12 boxes in the search at Mar-a-Lago. On top of that, we know they didn’t take everything. Donald Trump and Mark Meadows may not be excessively clever, but there should be an assumption they can tell the difference between twelve and more than thirty. Then comes the actual nature of the documents. Even if Judge Aileen Cannon chooses not to believe the FBI, the National Archives have already stated that they found more than 150 classified documents just in the materials that were handed to them in January. That was before another stack of classified documents was handed over in July. And before the FBI carried out it’s search in August. In all, there were over 300 classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.  And, thanks to that one photo provided in a DOJ filing, we not only know that Trump has atrocious taste in carpet, but that these documents were clearly marked as containing some of the most sensitive information in existence. It’s hard to mistake these for news clippings. The blatantly obvious nature of the documents that Trump stole—and the fact that he kept many of the classified documents not among the boxes in storage, but in his office—shows that he absolutely knew what he had. Trump knew what he was taking. He also knew how critical it was to national security. He just didn’t care. Because he knew what it was worth. A spokesperson for Meadows has responded to the Post story with a statement that Meadows, “did not personally review the boxes at Mar A Lago and did not have a role in examining or verifying what was or wasn’t contained within them.” It’s too bad that’s not what he told Philbin. If Meadows didn’t personally review the boxes, but he told Philbin they contained only ‘news clippings,’ then where did he get that information? Meadows deserves a chance to explain. Under oath. Read More…

Louisiana-Monroe Vs. Alabama By The Numbers https://digitalalabamanews.com/louisiana-monroe-vs-alabama-by-the-numbers/ Louisiana-Monroe (1-1) at No. 2 Alabama (2-0) 3 p.m. CDT Saturday (SEC Network) Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa 3 Victories and two losses against Alabama for Louisiana-Monroe coach Terry Bowden when he held that position at Auburn. Bowden’s Tigers defeated the Crimson Tide in 1993, 1995 and 1997 and lost to Alabama in 1994 and 1996. 4 Victories over SEC teams have been scored by Louisiana-Monroe since the Warhawks moved to NCAA FBS in 1994. ULM defeated Kentucky 21-14 in 1994, Mississippi State 34-32 in 1995, Alabama 21-14 in 2007 and Arkansas 34-31 in 2012. The Warhawks have a 4-46 record against SEC opponents in that time. ULM has lost its past 11 games against SEC opponents. MORE SEC FOOTBALL BY THE NUMBERS: · TOP 10 FOR WEEK 3 · TOP 10 FROM WEEK 2 5 Alabama players have scored more points than K Will Reichard, who has 317 after making two field goals and two extra points in last week’s 20-19 victory over Texas. The players ahead of Reichard on Alabama’s scoring list are Leigh Tiffin with 385 points, Adam Griffith with 357, Philip Doyle with 345, Najee Harris with 342 and Michael Proctor with 326. 9 Receptions for 74 yards and one TD by Alabama RB Jahmyr Gibbs in a 20-19 victory over Texas last week. Gibbs had the 43rd game this century in which an Alabama player has recorded at least nine receptions, but it was the first one that wasn’t achieved by a wide receiver. 9 Players in Alabama history have accumulated more yards of total offense than QB Bryce Young, who passed Jay Barker for 10th place in the Crimson Tide career list last week. With 213 passing yards and 38 rushing yards in a 20-19 victory over Texas, Young boosted his career total to 5,551 yards – 142 more than Barker had from 1991 through 1994. Next on the Tide’s total-offense list is Walter Lewis with 5,690 yards from 1980 through 1983. The Alabama record-holder is AJ McCarron, with 8,969 yards of total offense from 2010 through 2013. Young set a school single-season record in 2021 with 4,872 yards of total offense. 15 Victories in 16 games against Sun Belt Conference opponents for Alabama. The Crimson Tide lost to Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 17, 2007. Alabama has won its past 10 games against teams from the Sun Belt, scoring at least 34 points in each, including a 34-0 victory over Louisiana-Monroe in 2015. 18 Consecutive seasons have featured at least 31 points for Alabama in the Crimson Tide’s third game of the year. The most recent season in which Alabama failed to score at least 31 points in Game 3 was 2003, when the Tide defeated Kentucky 27-17 in the third game. 26 Consecutive September games have been won by Alabama, the longest current winning streak in the ninth month in the nation. The Crimson Tide’s most recent September loss came 43-37 to Ole Miss on Sept. 19, 2015. 33 Consecutive September non-conference home games have been won by Alabama. The Crimson Tide’s most recent loss in the ninth month to a non-conference opponent in Bryant-Denny Stadium is a 19-16 setback against Northern Illinois on Sept. 20, 2003. 40 Consecutive non-conference opponents have been defeated by Alabama in Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Crimson Tide’s most recent loss to a non-conference opponent at home is a 21-14 defeat by Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 17, 2007. 43 Point difference in the outcomes in this season’s games against Texas for Louisiana-Monroe and Alabama. The Warhawks lost to the Longhorns 52-10 on Sept. 3, and the Crimson Tide defeated Texas 20-19 on Sept. 10. Both games were played in Austin. 54 Consecutive non-conference regular-season games have been won by Alabama –the longest streak in the nation during the SEC era. The Tide’s most recent loss in a non-conference regular-season game came on Nov. 17, 2007, when Alabama fell to Louisiana-Monroe 21-14. 147 Consecutive Alabama games have featured at least 10 points for the Crimson Tide, the longest streak for scoring in double figures in major-college football history by 21 games. Alabama most recently failed to score 10 points in a game in a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU on Nov. 5, 2011. 253 Passing yards and 55 rushing yards for Louisiana-Monroe QB Chandler Rogers in a 35-7 victory over Nicholls last week, when he was the Warhawks’ leading rusher as well as passer. Rogers had a TD among his eight runs and completed 20-of-25 passes with two TDs and no interceptions. 285 Games have been played by Alabama since it was most recently shut out, a school record and the fourth-longest scoring streak in SEC history. Alabama’s most recent shutout loss came 9-0 to Auburn on Nov. 18, 2000. FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC 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…

WAPO: “Rodrigo Chaves Sigue Los Pasos De Trump En Costa Rica” https://digitalalabamanews.com/wapo-rodrigo-chaves-sigue-los-pasos-de-trump-en-costa-rica/ QCOSTARICA – Ronny Rojas, a Costa Rican journalist, who works for Noticias Telemundo and is a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Journalism, posted on the Washington Post an opinion piece on Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves, titled “Rodrigo Chaves sigue los pasos de Trump en Costa Rica“. Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves. (Moises Castillo/AP) Following is a translation and adaption of the article. The aroma of Donald Trump Costa Rica’s Casa Presidencial (Presidential House) is difficult to hide. Since President Rodrigo Chaves came to power in this small Central American country in May, his character and style of governing have been compared to that of the former US president. Perhaps the most obvious similarity is Chaves’ public confrontation with the Costa Rican press, especially with the media that exposed him during the presidential campaign by revealing the accusations of sexual harassment that Chaves faced while working at the World Bank, which cost him to be demoted from his management position and a three-year salary freeze. Before winning the election, Chaves already announced that, like a “tsunami”, he was going to destroy two of the main media outlets in the country: Canal 7 (Teletica television Channel 7) and the  La Nación newspaper. In Costa Rica, it is said that there is a long way from words to deeds, but that does not seem to be the case with Chaves. Barely a month after assuming the presidency, his administration ordered the closure of Parque Viva, an event center of the Grupo Nación, which brings significant income to the journalistic company. Costa Rican journalists see in this attitude an attempt by the president to settle accounts with the media that showed his failures to the public. He has also called the media “rats” and personally singles out journalists from the podium where he spends more than an hour every Wednesday in colorful press conferences broadcast live over the internet, a practice reminiscent of live lawsuits between Trump and the American press at the White House. He has asked the Ticos with a smile not to believe the press, to “don’t buy the smoke”, assuring that the only thing journalists want is to cause confusion. But he also assures that his government will defend freedom of the press “at all costs” and rejects the criticism saying that there is no closed media outlet in the country. Rodrigo Chaves does not want Costa Ricans to believe the press and it could be because in recent weeks the press has reported how the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) —one of the strongest electoral institutions on the continent— found evidence to presume that the Progress Party campaign Social Democratic Party (PPSD), which brought Chaves to power, used a “dark financing scheme.” In June, the TSE sent an extensive report to the Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office), which is investigating the matter, in which it details that the campaign would have received money from companies, individuals and even foreign citizens without reporting its origin and far from public control. Costa Rica is one of the strongest democracies in Latin America and one of the 10 countries with the greatest press freedom in the world. However, the threats and the confrontational style of Chaves have already caused the country to be seen abroad on the same populist path and with an authoritarian course as other Central American nations such as Nicaragua – where the headquarters of the newspaper La Prensa was taken over by the government of Daniel Ortega and dozens of journalists have had to go into exile— or Guatemala, where the founder of the newspaper elPeriódico, José Rubén Zamora, has been under arrest since July accused of money laundering and other charges, after the media reported the Attorney General for allegedly allying with President Alejandro Giammattei “to attack judges and lawyers involved in anti-corruption cases.” And not to mention El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele accuses El Faro —one of his main critics— of money laundering without evidence. The press is not the only stone that bothers Chaves. One of his first actions as president was to sign a decree to eliminate the mandatory nature of vaccines against COVID-19, contrary to medical recommendations, although it was later shown that he did not have the power to do so. Together with his Minister of Health, he attacked the scientists of the National Vaccination Commission for refusing to remove the order to vaccinate children, adolescents, public and private employees, accusing them of “they like anomalous things”. In early August, one of those specialists, Hugo Marín Piva, was excluded from the commission. Marín accused the government of being allied with anti-vaccine groups and pressuring the commission to comply with its orders without “the proper technical foundation.” Very similar to when Trump threatened to impeach expert Anthony Fauci. The problem is that, although the journalists shout to the heavens, it seems that Costa Ricans like Chaves’ confrontational style and embrace him in front of the critical press. Almost eight out of 10 Costa Ricans consider that his work has been “good or very good”, a record figure, according to a survey by the University of Costa Rica, one of the most credible. At least until July, a majority supported the style with which Chaves has handled the media and considered him a firm president with leadership. In this case, it could be that the effects of the pandemic on the Costa Rican economy, which registered the highest unemployment rate in Central America in 2021, or the recent corruption scandals in public works contracting, which led to the arrest of six mayors, dozens of officials and the owners of the largest construction companies in the country fed up the Ticos and fertilized the land where Chaves sowed his seed. Those were his campaign promises: “Restore hope” to unemployed people and entrepreneurs and fight corruption. The obvious question is what will happen from now on. The president’s popularity will depend on what he can actually do to keep his promises. His party barely reached 10 seats in Congress and, like it or not, that is where any structural change is processed, so he is at the mercy of what he can negotiate with the opposition majority. The cost of living and the economy are the main concern of the people and, despite a polarizing political campaign, the citizenry continues to strongly support the democratic system that sustains the country. Specialists believe that Chaves’ high popularity is not a “blank check” or a “citizen mandate” for his government to disrespect democratic norms. Just as they support his president, at least for now, the Ticos also believe that he must comply with the laws. And although the show and the confrontation with the press does not end and has complicated things for Chaves —on September 2 he dismissed his Minister of Communication without giving reasons, who later assured that the attacks on the press are a personal decision of the president and correspond to “open wounds” during the campaign—they can also generate a loyal fan base. But it is to be expected that an authoritarian escalation on his part would not be welcome in a vain country, which likes to be recognized in the world as a “pura vida” little corner. You can read the original, in Spanish, at Washingtonpost.com. Read More…

Journalist Joy-Ann Reid To Moderate Two Panels At Black Girls Dream Conference In Birmingham https://digitalalabamanews.com/journalist-joy-ann-reid-to-moderate-two-panels-at-black-girls-dream-conference-in-birmingham/ Journalist and MSNBC political analyst Joy-Ann Reid will join the Black Girls Dream Conference in Birmingham this weekend to moderate two panels: one about the history of Black girls in the civil rights movement and another about Black girls and personal development. The Black Girls Dream Conference, which kicked off on Friday, September 16 with an opening reception at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, continues from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. today at the Harbert Center. The mission of the conference is to pay homage to the 60th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and highlight “Invisible Giants” who were instrumental in the civil rights movement. At 9:00 a.m., Reid will moderate a panel discussion called “Invisible Giants: Black Girls of the Civil Rights Movement.” The panel will feature Sarah Collins Rudolph, who was injured in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed her sister Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise McNair; Dr. Robertiena Fletcher, who was jailed along with approximately thirty teenage girls for marching to to the Leesburg Stockade, Paulette Porter Roby, who marched in the Birmingham Children’s crusade in 1963, and Sheyann Webb-Christburg , one of the youngest marchers during the Selma to Montgomery Marches of 1965 and the co-author of the book “Selma, Lord, Selma.” Later this morning at 11:30 a.m., Reid will join LaTosha Brown, the founder of the Southern Black Girls Women’s Consortium and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, and Teresa Younger, the President and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, for a special fireside chat entitled “Manifesting Your Black Girl Dream.” The conference will also feature a number of sessions and panels about civics, social justice, health, and professional development. The brainchild of The Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium, the Black Girls Dream Conference is part of the Joy is our Journey Dream Bus Tour, a month-long caravan of interactive workshops and programming centered around mental health and wellness, arts and culture, and entrepreneurship and S.T.E.M.– designed for Black girls, young women and gender-expansive youth across the South. After stops in Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, and the Blackbelt in Alabama, the tour culminates today in Birmingham. In conjunction with the conference, Kelley Ingram Park will host the Journey Dream Village from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Events at the Journey Dream Village are free. Registration is recommended. The Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium is a collective of Black women who work in philanthropy and activism. Founded by LaTosha Brown, the consortium is led by four anchor institutions including the Appalachian Community Fund, the BlackBelt Community Foundation, the Fund for Southern Communities and the TruthSpeaks Innovation Foundation. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Trump: US Justice Department Appeals Judge’s Mar-A-Lago Investigation Hold https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-us-justice-department-appeals-judges-mar-a-lago-investigation-hold/ The justice department asked a federal appeals court on Friday to lift a judge’s order that temporarily barred it from reviewing a batch of classified documents seized during an FBI search of former president Donald Trump’s Florida home last month. The department told the 11th circuit US court of appeals in Atlanta that the judge’s hold, imposed last week, had impeded the “government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security” and interfered with its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago. It asked the court to remove that order so work could resume, and to halt a judge’s directive forcing the department to provide the seized classified documents to an independent arbiter for his review. “The government and the public would suffer irreparable harm absent a stay” of the order, department lawyers wrote in their brief to the appeals court. US district judge Aileen Cannon’s appointment of a so-called special master to review the documents, and the resulting legal tussle it has caused, appear certain to slow by weeks the department’s investigation into the holding of classified documents at the Florida property after Trump left office. The justice department has been investigating possible violations of multiple statutes, including under the Espionage Act, but it remains unclear whether Trump, who has been laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run, or anyone else might be charged. The FBI says it took about 11,000 documents, including roughly 100 with classification markings found in a storage room and an office, while serving a court-authorized search warrant at the home on 8 August. Weeks after the search, Trump lawyers asked a judge to appoint a special master to conduct an independent review of the records. Cannon granted the request last week, assigning a special master to review the records and weed out any that may be covered by claims of attorney-client or executive privilege. She directed the department to halt its use of the classified documents for investigative purposes until further court order, or until the completion of the special master‘s work. On Thursday night, she assigned Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court based in Brooklyn, to serve in the role. She also declined to lift her earlier order, citing ongoing disputes about the nature of the documents that she said merited a neutral review by an outside arbiter. “The Court does not find it appropriate to accept the Government’s conclusions on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party in an expedited and orderly fashion,” she wrote. The justice department on Friday night told the appeals court that Cannon’s injunction “unduly interferes with the criminal investigation”, prohibiting investigators from “accessing the seized records to evaluate whether charges are appropriate”. It also prevents the FBI from using the seized records in its criminal investigation to determine which documents, if any, were disclosed and to whom, the department said. Though Cannon has said investigators are free to do other investigative work that did not involve a review of the documents, the department said on Friday that that was largely impractical. Noting the discovery of dozens of empty folders at Mar-a-Lago marked classified, it said the judge’s hold appeared to bar it from “further reviewing the records to discern any patterns in the types of records that were retained, which could lead to identification of other records still missing”. The department also asked the appeals court to reject Cannon’s order that it provide the newly appointed special master with the classified documents, suggesting there was no reason for the arbiter to review highly sensitive records that did not involve questions of legal privilege. “Plaintiff has no claim for the return of those records, which belong to the government and were seized in a court-authorized search,” department lawyers wrote. “The records are not subject to any possible claim of personal attorney-client privilege. And neither Plaintiff nor the court has cited any authority suggesting that a former President could successfully invoke executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch from reviewing its own records.” Cannon has directed Dearie to complete his work by 30 November and to prioritize the review of the classified documents. She directed the justice department to permit the Trump legal team to inspect the seized classified records with “controlled access conditions” something government lawyers said on Friday was needless and harmful. On Friday, Dearie, a former federal prosecutor, scheduled a preliminary conference with Trump lawyers and justice department lawyers for Tuesday afternoon. Read More…

The Ultimate Billionaire Tax Dodge https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-ultimate-billionaire-tax-dodge/ Entrepreneurs tend to hate paying taxes, and they love supporting pet causes. Now it’s becoming clearer how they can pass entire billion-dollar companies through a charitable loophole. Why it matters: The tax code has incentives for owners to give their companies to non-profits. For the time being, such transactions remain relatively rare — but they seem certain to accelerate. Driving the news: In the past year, at least two billion-dollar companies have been donated to obscure 501(c)(4) nonprofits — Tripp Lite, which makes electrical devices, and then, this week, Patagonia, which makes outdoor gear. In both cases, the founders avoided paying any kind of capital gains or income tax on billions of dollars of value that they controlled and helped to create. They also avoided paying gift tax — the tax that is normally payable whenever anybody makes gifts exceeding a lifetime limit of $12 million. Details: Tripp Lite was donated by its founder, Barre Seid, to a group called the Marble Freedom Trust that immediately sold the company to Eaton Corporation for $1.6 billion, in a series of transactions documented by ProPublica and the NYT. Patagonia was donated by its founder, Yvon Chouinard, to an entity he founded called the Holdfast Collective, designed to receive and spend the company’s profits in perpetuity. Neither Marble Freedom Trust nor Holdfast Collective will ever pay any taxes on the billions they receive from Tripp Lite and Patagonia respectively. How it works: The richest people in America tend to get that way not by earning money but by owning very large stakes in companies. When those stakes rise in value, no tax is payable unless and until they are sold. If the stake is not sold at all but instead is given away charitably, then no tax is payable ever. Warren Buffett, for instance, has donated some $33 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares to the Gates Foundation — shares that would generate billions of dollars in capital gains tax if he sold them himself, but that are not taxable when they’re first donated to a nonprofit and then sold. The big picture: Hundreds of billionaires have signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give most of their wealth to charity. Until recently, it’s been very unclear how that is likely to work, in practice. But now there are models that can be replicated. Mike Bloomberg, for instance, one of the signatories, could create a 501(c)(4) organization, working hand-in-hand with the existing Bloomberg Philanthropies, and donate Bloomberg LP to it, much as Chouinard did with Patagonia. Even 501(c)(3) organizations are now allowed to own for-profit companies, under what’s known as The Newman’s Own Exception. The impact: Patagonia and Tripp Lite will continue to pay corporate income taxes, unlike the many hospitals and universities that are run as businesses and control billions of dollars but that bask in tax-exempt status. But the U.S. government will never get a take of any of their massive decades-long increase in value. Meanwhile: The fortunate recipients of Seid’s and Chouinard’s largesse are 501(c)(4)s — a set of organizations often known as dark-money groups. Unlike the more common 501(c)(3)s, 501(c)(4)s can get involved directly in electoral politics, giving money to candidates and campaigning for or against them. Marble Freedom Trust and Holdfast Collective are at opposite ends of the political spectrum, but have similarly outsized ambitions. Marble Freedom Trust is run by Leonard Leo, who helped to construct the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority as Donald Trump’s adviser on judicial nominations. It’s expected to “supercharge efforts to further shift American politics to the right,” per ProPublica. Details are scarce for who is running Holdfast Collective, but Axios Pro’s Megan Hernbroth reports that it “could remake the climate philanthropy space for decades.” Between the lines: Both U.S. entrepreneurs were able to choose or even found nonprofits that were entirely aligned with their own visions. For the foreseeable future, the money will get spent in exactly the way that the billionaires wanted it to be spent. What to watch: While Marble Freedom Trust is the more explicitly political of the two, the only way that Holdfast is going to be able to achieve its goals is by getting governments on board. Both organizations are ultimately in the business of spending money to try to bend democratic institutions to their will. Read More…

Penn State Vs. Auburn By The Numbers https://digitalalabamanews.com/penn-state-vs-auburn-by-the-numbers/ No. 22 Penn State (2-0) at Auburn (2-0) 2:30 p.m. CDT Saturday (CBS) Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn 0 Big Ten teams have played in Auburn before Saturday’s game. Auburn and Ohio State played to a 0-0 tie on Nov. 24, 1917, in Montgomery in the Tigers’ first game against a Big Ten opponent before Auburn and Wisconsin tied 7-7 in Madison, Wisconsin, on Oct. 10, 1931. The Tigers’ next 13 games against Big Ten members came in bowls until they visited Penn State for a regular-season contest last year. Auburn has a 7-7-2 record against Big Ten opponents with losses in the past three meetings. 2 Previous games for Penn State coach James Franklin against Auburn. Franklin guided Vanderbilt to a 17-13 victory on Oct. 20, 2012, and Penn State to a 28-20 victory on Sept. 18, 2021. MORE SEC FOOTBALL BY THE NUMBERS: · TOP 10 FOR WEEK 3 · TOP 10 FROM WEEK 2 3 Previous games between Auburn and Penn State. The Nittany Lions defeated the Tigers 43-14 in the Hall of Fame Bowl on Jan. 1, 1996. Auburn defeated Penn State 13-9 in the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, 2003. In their only previous regular-season meeting, Penn State won a home game against Auburn 28-20 on Sept. 18, 2021. 3 Victories in 10 games on the home fields of SEC opponents for Penn State, which has visited Alabama six times (four games in Tuscaloosa, two in Birmingham) and Kentucky and Tennessee twice apiece. The SEC road wins for the Nittany Lions came 30-0 in 1978 at Kentucky and 23-3 in 1986 and 9-0 in 1990 at Alabama. Saturday’s game will be the first for Penn State in an SEC stadium since a 24-3 loss at Alabama on Sept. 11, 2010. 4 TD passes are needed by Penn State QB Sean Clifford to become the school’s career leader. Trace McSorley holds the Penn State record with 70 TD passes from 2015 through 2018. 13 Consecutive Auburn games have featured at least 16 points for the Tigers’ opponent, tied for the longest such streak in Auburn history. The first 13-game streak was ended by a 17-14 victory over Mississippi State on Sept. 9, 2010. The current streak started after Auburn’s 62-0 victory over Alabama State in the second game of the 2021 campaign. In the current 13-game streak, Auburn has a 6-7 record. Auburn won eight times during the first 13-game streak. 14 Consecutive non-conference regular-season games have been won by Penn State since the Nittany Lions lost to Pitt on 42-39 on Sept. 10, 2016. 17 Consecutive non-conference home games have been won by Auburn, the fifth-longest such streak in school history. The Tigers started the current streak with a 51-14 victory over Arkansas State on Sept. 10, 2016, after falling to Clemson 19-13 the previous week at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn’s longest streak for home victories against non-conference opponents is 29, which started with a 55-20 win over New Mexico State on Sept. 22, 2007, and was ended by the season-opening loss to Clemson in 2016. Auburn has won 46 of its past 47 non-conference home games. 17 Victories and 22 losses for Penn State against SEC opponents. The Nittany Lions have a 7-13 regular-season record and a 10-9 bowl mark against SEC members. The average score of the games has been 18-18. 102 Rushing yards and two TDs on 23 carries for Auburn RB Tank Bigsby in the Tigers’ 28-20 loss to Penn State last season. With 2,131 rushing yards, Bigsby ranks 17th on Auburn’s career list. 119 Consecutive games without being shut out for Auburn, the second-longest streak in school history. Auburn’s most recent shutout loss came 49-0 to Alabama on Nov. 17, 2012. Auburn’s record scoring streak lasted 149 games, starting with a 55-16 victory over Richmond on Oct. 4, 1980, and ending with a 17-0 loss to Alabama on Nov. 26, 1992. 179 Yards and two TDs on 10 carries for Penn State RB Nicholas Singleton in the Nittany Lions’ 46-10 victory over Ohio last week. Singleton had the most rushing yards for a Penn State player in his Beaver Stadium debut and was the first for Penn State with three runs of at least 40 yards in the same game in the past 20 seasons. Singleton scored on runs of 44 and 70 yards and also had a 48-yard carry. 364 Points for Auburn K Anders Carlson, who moved into second place on the school’s career scoring list with six in the Tigers’ 24-16 victory over San Jose State last week. Carlson replaced Wes Bynum as the second-leading scorer in Auburn history. Bynum scored 363 points from 2007 through 2010. Daniel Carlson, Anders Carlson’s brother, is the Tigers’ career leader with an SEC-record 480 points from 2014 through 2017. FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC 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…

As Farmers Split From The GOP On Climate Change, They https://digitalalabamanews.com/as-farmers-split-from-the-gop-on-climate-change-they/ Soybeans pour from a combine during harvest in a field in Rippey, Iowa, in 2019. Joe Raedle/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images Soybeans pour from a combine during harvest in a field in Rippey, Iowa, in 2019. Joe Raedle/Getty Images If you ask Iowa farmer Robb Ewoldt about the federal dollars he’s received over the last few years to help make his land more sustainable, it’s clear he’s a big fan. “It works out really well in our operation,” says Ewoldt, who farms corn and soybeans on “just shy of 2,000 acres” near Davenport, Iowa. “We see tremendous benefits in conservation, water quality and carbon sequestration.” He’s been involved with the Conservation Stewardship Program, or CSP, for about eight years now. The program aims to help farmers improve yields, increase the resilience of their fields to extreme weather and maintain and improve their conservation systems — such as no-till and cover crops. On his farm in that time, “soil health [has] improved to a point where we see a yield advantage in our farming practices. …We can watch those yields go up year after year. That’s where the real benefit comes in,” he says. The government’s conservation programs are meant to bolster farmers’ response to climate change, as Ewoldt and others like him are forced to confront worsening droughts on the one hand, and unprecedented rainfall and flooding on the other. But even with billions more in federal assistance on the way, there is little sign the massive infusion of money from Democrats’ recently passed Inflation Reduction Act will reshape politics in the solidly Republican state of Iowa, nor move the dial for farmers in other rural areas where the GOP maintains a seemingly irreversible foothold. Farmers will be getting billions more for conservation The CSP was enacted as part of the 2008 Farm Bill, but the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Democrats on a straight party-line vote, has added a whopping $20 billion to it and other conservation programs specifically aimed at helping farmers combat the effects of climate change. “This is a big chunk of funding relative to what they’ve had in recent years,” says Cathy Day, climate policy coordinator with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. She says in the past, the programs have been stretched so thin that “we generally have somewhere in the range of 3 to 4 times the farmers applying compared to those who actually get contracts.” The programs can have a huge impact for farmers and the environment, says Sara Nicholas, a policy strategist at the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Pasa Sustainable Agriculture. She cites a 2015 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council showing that “for every additional 1% of organic matter that gets into the soil, which is what a lot of these CSP programs’ practices are trying to do, those soils can capture an additional 20,000 gallons of rain per acre.” “If you think about a flood-prone state like Pennsylvania … it would just make all the difference if you can capture that much additional rainfall before it runs off the fields, into creeks, cascading down and tearing out bridges and culverts and infrastructure,” she says. Ewoldt, who accepts climate change and says farmers “need to do things to mitigate it,” acknowledges that his farming practices have “allowed my soil to hold more water during drought conditions.” The additional government funding is a good thing, he says. But Ewoldt’s congressional representative, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, sided with her fellow Republicans in unanimously rejecting the Inflation Reduction Act. “Now is not the time to pass a $740 billion spending bill, let alone one filled with partisan priorities,” she said in a statement. Ewoldt plans to vote for her anyway. “I know her,” he says. “And there’s other things that come into it besides the economics.” More farmers are bucking the GOP on climate Ewoldt’s attitude toward climate change reflects a growing trend among farmers. A survey published in 2021 indicates that about 80% of farmers now believe climate change is occurring. That’s a huge shift from just eight years ago, when a four-state survey indicated that most did not accept the concept of climate change nor believe its impact would reduce their crop yields. The time period over which that switch has occurred coincides with the warmest seven years on record globally, as well as climate-fueled fires, floods and heat waves in the U.S. Even so, as a group, farmers have remained steadfast in their support of Republicans, despite the party’s history of being closely associated with denying the scientific consensus on climate change. (Although among Republican voters in general, there’s been a significant shift from just a decade ago). Farmers have also been rock steady supporters of former President Donald Trump, despite a trade war with Beijing that led agricultural exports to China to plunge by more than 60%, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration. And this summer, Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee have already called for cutting commodity and conservation programs in the new Farm Bill, which will come up in Congress next year. A farmer praises President Trump as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy looks on during a legislation signing rally with local farmers, in February 2020 in Bakersfield, Calif. David McNew/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption David McNew/Getty Images A farmer praises President Trump as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy looks on during a legislation signing rally with local farmers, in February 2020 in Bakersfield, Calif. David McNew/Getty Images Ewoldt, who says he’s a lifelong Republican, voted twice for Trump even though the years 2017 through 2019 were “miserable for farm production” due in large part to the then-president’s trade war. Ahead of the 2020 election, he told NPR that Trump represented “the devil I know and not the devil I don’t know.” Tim Dufault, 62, works 1,600 acres in northwestern Minnesota, near the town of Crookston. He’s seen a lot of changes in farm fields in the state in the past several decades that he attributes to climate change. “It’s hard to refute that the world is getting warmer,” he says. The mix of crops in his corner of the state is a lot different than when he started farming four decades ago. “There’s hardly any barley, sunflowers, [or] potatoes anymore because it’s gotten warmer and wetter and it’s harder to get a good quality crop,” he says. “In the meantime, warm season crops like soybeans and corn have moved up into this area. So, you know, that kind of really tells the story,” says Dufault, who describes himself as “a moderate, but mostly Democrat.” Trade often outweighs worries about the climate South Dakota Farm Bureau President Scott VanderWal counts himself among those who see that climate — or at least the weather — is changing, but disagree with the scientific consensus on the cause. “The climate has been changing since the Earth was created and we’ve been through cycles before,” he says. VanderWal says Trump’s trade dispute with China hurt farmers in South Dakota, but now his frustration with President Biden is in not moving past his predecessor’s policies. In 2020, Phase 1 of a new trade agreement with China went into effect, with Beijing agreeing to purchase $80 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products in the first year. VanderWal wonders what comes next. “We’ve asked them what the future [is],” he says. “It’s almost two years now, and we’ve heard almost nothing about international trade.” Democrats face a steep challenge winning rural votes President Biden speaks during a visit to Menlo, Iowa, in April. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Democrats on a party-line vote, has added $20 billion to conservation programs aimed at helping farmers combat climate change. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Scott Olson/Getty Images President Biden speaks during a visit to Menlo, Iowa, in April. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed by Democrats on a party-line vote, has added $20 billion to conservation programs aimed at helping farmers combat climate change. Scott Olson/Getty Images Given rural voting patterns, which heavily favor Republicans in more rural states, shifting farmers to the blue column may seem impossible for Democrats. It’s a task made even harder by Trump’s undisputed dominance of his party. “Rural America has been mostly Republican for a couple of generations,” says David Hopkins, a political science professor at Boston College. “But Trump did significantly better.” Lots of rural counties in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that used to be 60-40 Republican “all of a sudden were 70-30 Republican or more” for Trump, he says. Even so, Democrats don’t need to win over a majority of farmers. Instead, “if they can cut those margins back [and] regain some of their lost ground over the last 10 years in rural areas, that might actually be important in some of those battleground states,” he says. Isaac Wright, co-founder of the Rural Voter Institute, a progressive research firm, says to get there, Democrats need a lesson in how to talk to voters outside their urban base. “Our values are not the issue,” he insists. “It’s how we communicate and often how we fail to communicate.” “For one thing, I would de-emphasize using the phrase ‘climate change,'” Wright says. “I would talk about how [these programs] help build our farm communities, especially our small farms, with investment for stewardship. And for clean air and clean water investments for the long term.” Timothy Hagle, an associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa, says it’s also important for Democrats to realize that just hitting econ...

50 Years Ago: A Very Different ‘M*A*S*H’ Makes Its Debut https://digitalalabamanews.com/50-years-ago-a-very-different-mash-makes-its-debut/ There was something special about M*A*S*H from the moment the pilot episode aired Sept. 17, 1972, on CBS, if only just below the surface. The show at first seemed to be another well-executed service sitcom in the style of many that had gone before. Over the course of its 11-season run, a depth would come to the fore. But early episodes concentrated mainly on comedy, despite the dramatic background provided by a show about doctors at a mobile Army hospital in 1950 during the Korean War. Viewers first met these characters in a 1968 book by Richard Hooker, which was then followed by a successful 1970 M*A*S*H movie. The small-screen versions were introduced with the wisecracking duo Hawkeye Pierce (Alan Alda) and Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers) trying to raise money for a young Korean man’s education in the U.S. by staging a sweepstake. Top prize was a weekend of R&R with a sexy nurse – with hilarious consequences. Some deeply outdated lines included Pierce calling Maj. Margaret ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan (Loretta Swit) “baby,” then being ordered to address her by rank. “Sorry, major baby,” he responds. He later describes Lt. Dish, the sexy nurse in question, as “a girl with so much body she should be continued on the next girl.” When she tells him she’s engaged, he counters: “I’m engaged too – think of me as a dress rehearsal.” Despite how it might have aged, the show was written well enough by Larry Gelbart and directed well enough by Gene Reynolds to be nominated for two Emmys, while Reynolds won a Directors Guild of America award. Watch the ‘M*A*S*H’ Pilot Opening Besides, there were much better lines to be found elsewhere. “We’ve all had 12 straight hours of meatball surgery in there,” Hawkeye tells Maj. Frank Burns (Larry Linville). “You must be tired too after all that malpractice you put in.” Burns himself angrily tells a nurse who carried out his incorrect instructions: “Give me what I want, not what I asked for!” A reflective Hawkeye suggests: “We gotta do it someday – throw away all the guns and invite all the jokers from the north and the south in here to a cocktail party. Last man standing on his feet at the end wins the war.” When Pierce and McIntyre’s cunning plan lands them in trouble but their operating-room expertise gets them back out of it, Hawkeye notes: “We got to give up this preoccupation with keeping people alive, or we’ll never get out of here!” Hints at the possibility of a more serious future for M*A*S*H could be found in Hawkeye’s narrated letter to his dad near the beginning of the episode: “This particular mobile Army hospital, we’re not concerned with the ultimate reconstruction of the patient. We only care about getting the kid out of here alive enough for someone else to put on the fine touches. We work fast, and we’re not dainty because a lot of these kids who can stand two hours on the table just can’t stand one second more. We try to play par surgery on this course. Par is a live patient.” Alda almost immediately became the breakout performer in what had been planned as an ensemble show, leading to several cast departures, including Rogers and McLean Stevenson’s Lt. Col. Blake. Already an award-winning Broadway actor, he’d been impressed by the first script and became determined to win the part of Pierce because he wanted to mine the M*A*S*H concept for its dramatic potential. Watch the ‘Major Baby’ Scene From ‘M*A*S*H’ Pilot “It was really sharp, you know?” Alda told NPR in 1997. “But I was concerned about what would happen after the show went into production. I was worried that it would become a ‘high jinks at the front,’ and that the war would just sort of exist as a pretext for silly stories.” Of course, that’s exactly what happened sometimes. “Freelance writers – who didn’t know what the possibilities were and were sure that on television you don’t go for anything substantive – wrote, in essence, McHale’s Navy in Korea … and it really scared me at that point,” Alda admitted. “But by then we had already had an agreement. We all agreed that we wanted to do a show in which the war was seen for what it is – a place where people are badly hurt. And the humor came out of the reaction to that. The humor came out of the crazy pressure everybody was put under.” Lead writer Gelbart later recalled his constant battles with the studio as he fought to force his own standards into the commercial property that was M*A*S*H. For instance, he didn’t want a laugh track in the show. What followed was “outrage, anger – on a good day, mere frustration,” he told Vanity Fair in 2009. “The one concession from the network was to permit us to never have the laugh track in any operating-room scenes.” Some broadcasters were offered the option of including the canned laughter or leaving it out. One episode was accidentally broadcast by the BBC in the U.K. with the laughter included, leading to thousands of complaints from an audience who’d never experienced the show like that before. Watch the ‘Lt. Dish’ Scene from ‘M*A*S*H’ Pilot “If you’ve ever watched it without a laugh track, well, that’s the show as we intended it to be watched,” Gelbart added. “We did not mean for people to be cackling throughout the show. It becomes so much more cynical and heartbreaking without all that cheap, mechanical laughter.” The pilot episode of M*A*S*H kicked off a satisfactory first season: The show ranked 46th. Later seasons never left the Top 10 rankings. By the time it ended with the 1983 TV movie Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, Gelbart was long gone and Alda – who wrote and directed a number of later episodes – had brought the darkness and drama to center stage. Over its run, M*A*S*H won 14 Primetime Emmys and eight Golden Globes, but that was all in the future. First, everyone had to prove that a show with the subtext “war is hell” had a right to its 8PM Sunday slot on the schedule. Of course, M*A*S*H did prove that – and it’s often argued that the show helped contribute to bringing the Vietnam War to a close. “I wanted to be able to work in material that I cared about,” Alda said. “I wanted to work with actors that I respected, and I wanted to do that in front of an audience that would get it – you know, that would appreciate the rich material, something that wasn’t just a lot of foolishness.” He recalled that his father once wanted Alda to go to medical school, but had to settle for him being best known for playing a doctor on TV. “He was finally satisfied with that,” Alda added. 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…

Why It's Time To Start Paying With $2 Bills https://digitalalabamanews.com/why-its-time-to-start-paying-with-2-bills/ New York (CNN Business)Inflation has made it hard to buy much with a buck these days. “If you had a $2 bill, perfect,” said Heather McCabe, a writer and $2 bill evangelist who runs the blog Two Buckaroo chronicling her spending with twos and other people’s reactions. “It’s a very useful thing to pay for a small amount.” Yet the $2 note is the unloved child of paper currency. It’s considered a curiosity to some and scorned by others in the United States. The myths around the $2 bill — nicknamed “Tom” by fans because it features Thomas Jefferson’s portrait on the front — are endless. Many Americans think $2 bills are rare, are not printed anymore or have gone out of circulation. Wrong. The Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) will print up to 204 million $2 bills this year, based on an annual order from the Federal Reserve System. There were 1.4 billion $2 bills in circulation in 2020, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve. But $2 bills account for just 0.001% of the value of the $2 trillion worth of currency in circulation. BEP doesn’t have to request new $2 bills each year, like it does for other bills. That’s because $2 bills are used so infrequently and last longer in circulation. The Fed orders them every few years and works down the inventory. “Many Americans have pretty dubious assumptions about the $2 bill. Nothing happened to the $2 bill. It’s still being made. It’s being circulated,” McCabe said. “Americans misunderstand their own currency to the extent they don’t use it.” Bad luck The United States first issued $2 bills beginning in 1862, around the time the federal government first started printing paper money. Alexander Hamilton’s portrait was on the two until a new series was printed in 1869 with Jefferson. But the deuce was unpopular and never gained a foothold with the public. A major reason: The the $2 bill was considered bad luck. Superstitious people would rip off the corners of the bill to “reverse the curse,” making the bills unfit to use. “He who sits in a game of chance with a two-dollar bill in his pocket is thought to be saddled with a jinx,” the New York Times said in a 1925 article. “They have been avoided as ill-starred.” The two was also known for keeping controversial company. It was associated with gambling, where it was the standard bet at racetracks, and prostitution. And during the nineteenth century, crony candidates frequently used $2 bills to bribe voters. Someone holding a $2 bill was thought to have sold a vote to a crooked politician. The Treasury Department during the 1900s tried unsuccessfully several times to popularize the use of the $2 bill. In 1966, it gave up and discontinued printing the bills “because a lack of public demand.” But a decade later, as the United States approached the bicentennial, the Treasury designed a new $2 bill series with a portrait of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back. The aim was to cut the number of $1 bills in circulation and save the Treasury money on production costs. But the relaunch in 1976 failed. People viewed the new version as a collector’s item and hoarded them instead of going out and spending them. The Postal Service offered to stamp them only on April 13, the first day they were issued in honor of Jefferson’s birthday, unintentionally adding to the idea that they were commemorative bills -— a misconception that continues to this day. “The press and public now tend to link the $2 bill with the Susan B. Anthony dollar under the general heading of ‘fiascos,'” the New York Times said in 1981. There’s no rational reason why $2 bills aren’t as popular as other bills, said Paolo Pasquariello, a professor of finance at the University of Michigan. But people exhibit a preference for multiples of 1 and 5, he said. Another reason $2 bills never took off: Cash registers, invented in the late 1800s, were never designed with a place to hold them, so cashiers didn’t know where to stash them. “There wasn’t an alteration of cash registers for $2 bills,” said Heather McCabe. “The infrastructure of paying for things didn’t change. There was not an adjustment of how people work with that bill.” If cash registers had a familiar slot for $2 bills, the bill would be more popular, she argued. $2 subculture But there are people who swear by $2 bills. In fact, communities and subcultures have developed around them. US Air Force pilots who fly U-2 spy planes always keep a $2 bill in their flight suits. Since the 1970s, fans of Clemson University’s Tigers football team have paid and tipped with $2 bills -— “Tiger Twos” — in other cities’ restaurants, bars, shops and hotels. The tradition started as a way to prove to Georgia Tech in Atlanta that it would benefit the city to schedule games against Clemson. “There is a degree of popularity to them. There is a sense of excitement,” said Jesse Kraft, a curator at the American Numismatic Society. “But as far as putting them back into circulation, that’s the key that’s missing.” Kraft is a proponent of adopting $2 bills more widely. He notes that it’s about half as expensive for the Treasury to print a $2 bill than higher denominations, which come with costlier security features on the paper. It’s also more efficient to print $2 bills than $1 bills because the Treasury can print twice as much for the same amount of money and requires less storage. John Bennardo, who made a 2015 film about $2 bills called “The Two Dollar Bill Documentary,” has made it his mission to “educate people and enlighten them and start using $2 bills in their life.” In short, he concludes, $2 bills are underappreciated in the United States and a way for strangers to meet and engage. “You will get remembered if you use a $2 bill,” Bennardo said. “It has this ability to connect people in way that other bills don’t. It opens up a dialogue between you and the cashier.” “It’s a practical bill with inflation. But it’s social currency as well.” CNN’s Harry Enten contributed to this article. Read More…

Georgia Vs. South Carolina By The Numbers https://digitalalabamanews.com/georgia-vs-south-carolina-by-the-numbers/ No. 1 Georgia (2-0, 0-0) at South Carolina (1-1, 0-1) 11 a.m. CDT Saturday (ESPN) Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina 0 TDs have been scored against Georgia this season. The Bulldogs are the only team in the nation that has not yielded a TD this season. 1 Victory in six games for South Carolina against the No. 1 team in the AP Poll. The Gamecocks upended No. 1 Alabama 35-21 in 2010. MORE SEC FOOTBALL BY THE NUMBERS: · TOP 10 FOR WEEK 3 · TOP 10 FROM WEEK 2 2 Consecutive Georgia games have featured RB Kenny McIntosh as the leading receiver. In the Bulldogs’ 49-3 victory over Oregon to open the season, McIntosh came out of the backfield for nine receptions for 117 yards. In Georgia’s 33-0 victory over Samford last week, McIntosh had five receptions for 61 yards. 7 Consecutive victories for Georgia in its first conference road game of the season. Since losing at South Carolina 38-35 on Sept. 13, 2014, the Bulldogs have beaten Vanderbilt three times and Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri in their first conference road game. 8 Consecutive seasons have featured a loss for South Carolina in its first conference home game. The Gamecocks haven’t won their first SEC game in Williams-Brice Stadium in any season since 2013, when they defeated Vanderbilt 35-25 on Sept. 14. Since then, South Carolina has lost to Kentucky three times, Texas A&M twice and Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee once apiece in its first conference home game. 8 Times since South Carolina joined the SEC in 1992, the Gamecocks have given Georgia its first loss of the season. South Carolina pinned the first defeat on the Bulldogs in 1993, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2019. 11 Consecutive conference games have been won by Georgia. The Bulldogs have had only one winning streak in SEC play longer. A 23-game streak across the 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 seasons ended in a 13-7 loss to Auburn on Nov. 12, 1983. 12 Consecutive Georgia games have included at least one TD pass by QB Stetson Bennett. During the streak, Bennett has completed 205-of-307 passes for 3,015 yards with 26 TDs and five interceptions. 16 Consecutive Georgia regular-season games have featured 17 or fewer points for the Bulldogs’ opponents. That’s Georgia’s longest such streak since 16 in a row in the 1949 through 1951 seasons. The Bulldogs have only two longer streaks – 31 in a row from 1916 through 1922 and 22 in a row from 1906 through 1908. Since a 31-24 victory over Mississippi State on Nov. 21, 2020, only Tennessee last season has managed to score as many as 17 points against Georgia. The Bulldogs’ postseason games during the streak have included a 24-21 victory over Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1, 2021, a 41-24 loss to Alabama in the 2021 SEC Championship Game and a 33-18 victory over Alabama in the 2021 CFP national title game. 21 Consecutive September games have been won by Georgia, dating from a 45-14 loss to Ole Miss on Sept. 24, 2016. 22 Victories and seven losses for Georgia when a ranked Bulldogs team plays an unranked South Carolina team. The unranked Gamecocks upset ranked Georgia teams in 1978, 1984, 1989, 1998, 2000, 2007 and 2019. 53 Victories for Georgia, 19 for South Carolina and two ties in the Bulldogs-Gamecocks series, which reaches its 75th game on Saturday. Since South Carolina joined the SEC in 1992, the Bulldogs lead the series 20-10. Georgia has a 22-10-2 record in Columbia. 128 Receiving yards for South Carolina WR Josh Vann – a career high – in the Gamecocks’ 40-13 loss to Georgia last season. Vann has one reception for 9 yards this season. 137 Offensive snaps apiece for Georgia and South Carolina this season. The Bulldogs have gained 1,050 yards – 328 more than the Gamecocks. 185 Yards on eight receptions for South Carolina WR Antwane Wells Jr. in last week’s 44-30 loss to Arkansas. Wells scored on a 62-yard reception and also had a catch good for 64 yards. 346 Games have been played by Georgia since it was most recently shut out, the second-longest scoring streak in SEC history and the sixth-longest in major-college football history. The Bulldogs haven’t been blanked since losing to Alabama 31-0 on Sept. 30, 1995. FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC 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…

ULM Vs. Alabama Picks And Best Bets For Week 3 https://digitalalabamanews.com/ulm-vs-alabama-picks-and-best-bets-for-week-3/ The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide return home on Saturday to play host to the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks at 4 p.m. ET. The game will take place at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL, and will air on the SEC Network. Louisiana-Monroe (1-1) picked up its first victory of the season when pummeling in-state foe Nicholls for a 35-7 win. Quarterback Chandler Rogers was in control for the Warhawks, going 20-25 through the air for 253 yards and two touchdowns and also added 55 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Alabama (2-0), of course, narrowly escaped Austin last weekend with a 20-19 nailbiter victory over Texas. Down by two with less than two minutes left, quarterback Bryce Young marched his team down the field to set up a game-winning 33-yard field goal by Will Reichard with just 10 seconds left. The Crimson Tide won despite committing 15 penalties for 100 yards, the most of the Nick Saban era. Jase McClellan led the team in rushing with six carries for 97 yards and a touchdown. Here’s all the data you’ll want, and a pick for the game! SP+ Rankings ULM: 124th overall, 115th offense, 126th defense Alabama: 2nd overall, 2nd offense, 4th defense Injury update ULM No new injuries to report. Alabama WR Tyler Harrell – Out (Foot) ATS/Total Against The Spread ULM: 1-1 ATS Alabama: 1-1 ATS Total ULM: Over 0-2 Alabama: Over 0-2 Returning/Overall Talent from 247Sports ULM: 104th overall, 54th offense, 124th defense Alabama: 50th overall, 72nd offense, 42nd defense Current lines at DraftKings Sportsbook Spread: Alabama -49.5 Total: 61.5 Moneyline: No moneyline Opening line: Alabama -50 Opening total: 60 Weather 88 degrees, sunny, 6 MPH winds ESE The Pick Alabama -49.5 Alabama could decide to bench its starters in this one and it would still be an overwhelming blowout. The only thing preventing the Tide covering is if Saban decided to play things ultra conservatively in the second half and even then that might not be enough. Don’t overthink this, roll with the Tide. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), ConnexOntario 1-866-531-2600 (ONT), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Eligibility restrictions apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for full terms and conditions. DraftKings operates pursuant to an Operating Agreement with iGaming Ontario. Please play responsibly. Read More…

Voter Challenges, Records Requests Swamp Election Offices https://digitalalabamanews.com/voter-challenges-records-requests-swamp-election-offices/ Posted: September 17, 2022 – 6:38am Spurred by conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, activists around the country are using laws that allow people to challenge a voter’s right to cast a ballot to contest the registrations of thousands of voters at a time. In Iowa, Linn County Auditor Joel Miller had handled three voter challenges over the previous 15 years. He received 119 over just two days after Doug Frank, an Ohio educator who is touring the country spreading doubts about the 2020 election, swung through the state. In Nassau County in northern Florida, two residents challenged the registrations of nearly 2,000 voters just six days before last month’s primary. In Georgia, activists are dropping off boxloads of challenges in the diverse and Democratic-leaning counties comprising the Atlanta metro area, including more than 35,000 in one county late last month. Election officials say the vast majority of the challenges will be irrelevant because they contest the presence on voting rolls of people who already are in the process of being removed after they moved out of the region. Still, they create potentially hundreds of hours of extra work as the offices scramble to prepare for November’s election. “They at best overburden election officials in the run-up to an election, and at worse they lead to people being removed from the rolls when they shouldn’t be,” said Sean Morales-Doyle of The Brennan Center for Justice, which has tracked an upswing in voter challenges. The voter challenges come as activists who believe in the election lies of former President Donald Trump also have flooded election offices across the country with public records requests and threats of litigation, piling even more work on them as they ready for November. “It’s time-consuming for us, because we have to consult with our county attorneys about what the proper response is going to be,” said Rachel Rodriguez, an elections supervisor in Dane County, Wisconsin, which includes Madison, the state capital. She received duplicate emails demanding records about two weeks ago: “It’s taking up valuable time that we don’t necessarily have as election officials when we’re trying to prepare for a November election.” Michael Henrici, the Democratic commissioner of elections in New York’s Otsego County, received a single-line email last week warning of unspecified “election integrity” litigation, then a follow-up complaining he hadn’t responded. “These aren’t people with specific grievances,” Henrici said. “They’re getting a form letter from someone’s podcast and sometimes filling in the blanks.” Multiple investigations and reviews, including one by Trump’s own Department of Justice, found no significant fraud i n the 2020 presidential election, and courts rejected dozens of lawsuits brought by Trump and his allies. But Trump has continued to insist that widespread fraud cost him re-election. That has inspired legions of activists to become do-it-yourself election sleuths around the country, challenging local voting officials at every turn. In Linn County, Iowa, which includes the city of Cedar Rapids, Miller said he and the auditors who run elections in the state’s other 98 counties have been deluged with both records requests and voter challenges. “The whole barrage came in a two-week period,” Miller said, following the tour by Frank, who uses mathematical projections to make claims of a vast conspiracy to steal the election from Trump, “and it’s happening to auditors across the state.” Election offices routinely go through their voter rolls and remove those who have moved or died. Federal law constrains how quickly they can drop voters, and conservative activists have long complained that election officials do not move swiftly enough to clean up their rolls. The recent challenges stem from activists comparing postal change-of-address and other databases to voter rolls. Election officials say this is redundant, because they already take the same steps. Sometimes the challenges come after election conspiracists go door-to-door, often in heavily minority neighborhoods, seeking evidence that votes were cast improperly in 2020. Texas’ heavily Democratic Harris County, which includes Houston, received nearly 5,000 challenges from a conservative group that went door-to-door checking voter addresses. The election office said it dismissed the challenges it legally had to review before the election and will finish the remainder after Nov. 8. Activists in Gwinnett County, which stretches across the increasingly Democratic northern Atlanta suburbs, spent 10 months comparing change-of-address and other databases with the county’s voter rolls. They submitted eight boxes of challenges last month. About 15,000, they said, were complaints that specific voters improperly received mail ballots in 2020. Another 22,000 were for voters they contend are no longer at their registered address. There are so many challenges that election officials have yet to even count them all. But Zach Manifold, Gwinnett’s election supervisor, said that, in every single mail ballot complaint the office has sampled, the voter properly received a mailed ballot. But if any of the address-challenged voters do try to cast a ballot in November, the county’s elections board will need to decide whether that vote should count. They’ll only have six days to make a decision, as they have to certify their vote total by the Monday after Election Day under Georgia law. Manifold estimated his office has a month to log and research the challenges, before mail ballots go out for the November elections: “It is a tight window to get everything done,” he said. Many of the large counties facing voter roll challenges are places where President Joe Biden beat Trump in 2020, including Gwinnett and Harris. Yet those behind the effort dispute the notion that they are targeting Democratic-leaning counties and say they’re working on behalf of all voters. In Florida’s Nassau County, for example, Trump won with more than 72% of the vote. “They should be glad that the voter rolls are being cleaned up so they can make sure their votes count,” said Garland Favorito, a conservative activist who has teamed up with supporters of Trump’s election lies and is helping with voter challenges in Georgia. Favorito said more challenges are coming in other Georgia counties. Under legislation passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature, there are no limits on the number of voter challenges that can be filed in Georgia. Most states implicitly set restraints on challenges, said Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center. They require a complainant to have specific, personal information about the voters they target and establish penalties for making frivolous challenges. Florida is an example. Its voter challenge law only permits the filing of challenges 30 days before an election, requiring election officials to contact each voter challenged before Election Day. It is a misdemeanor to file a “frivolous” challenge. But voter challenges almost derailed Florida’s primary last month in heavily-Republican Nassau County, in the northeastern part of the state. Two women who belonged to a conservative group, County Citizens Defending Freedom, dropped off the nearly 2,000 challenges at the county elections office six days before the Aug. 23 primary. Luckily for the office, the challenges were filed in an incorrect format. Elections Supervisor Janet Adkins told the activists they would review them, anyway — after the primary. “To take away a person’s right to vote is a very serious thing,” Adkins said. —- Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. Read More…

GOP Lawmakers Introduce Mandatory Minimum Illegal Firearms | Five For The Weekend – Pennsylvania Capital-Star https://digitalalabamanews.com/gop-lawmakers-introduce-mandatory-minimum-illegal-firearms-five-for-the-weekend-pennsylvania-capital-star/ Government & Politics For a first offense, the bill proposes a sentence be a minimum of eleven months but under two years Happy weekend, all.  Two Bucks County lawmakers say they plan to introduce legislation that would establish a mandatory minimum sentence for the illegal possession of firearms. Republican state Reps. Frank Farry and Kathleen “K.C.” Tomlinson joined law enforcement officials in Bensalem Township on Friday to announce the new legislation.  “This legislation will send a message across the Commonwealth that felons who possess firearms will not walk away unpunished,” Farry said. “And we don’t just need to take that firearm out of the felon’s hands. We need to take the felon off the street.” The legislation would establish a new mandatory minimum sentence for previously convicted offenders. For a first offense, the bill proposes a sentence be a minimum of eleven months but under two years. According to lawmakers, the bill would then increase the mandatory minimum sentence for each subsequent offense. “Our legislation creates serious punishment to hold these criminals accountable and hopefully send the message that these kind[s] of violent acts will not be tolerated,” Tomlinson said. CeaseFire PA Executive Director Adam Garber expressed concern the bill wouldn’t target the source of illegal firearms – traffickers and some gun stores. “For years, we have tried to only arrest our way out of a gun violence problem that has spiraled out of control,” Garber said. “The evidence makes it clear it hasn’t worked. While we must hold violent offenders accountable, until Rep. Tomlinson and Rep. Farry get serious about going after the source of illegal guns, we will continue to lose lives.” As always, the top five stories from this week are below.  1. New Pa. poll points to trouble for Republicans on abortion | Mark O’Keefe There are surprises in just about every political poll, but some numbers from the recent Franklin and Marshall College poll showed particularly astounding results. In the poll conducted by Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research, John Fetterman, the state’s lieutenant governor, leads GOP candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz 43 percent to 30 percent in the Senate race with 20 percent undecided, while Josh Shapiro leads GOP state Sen. Doug Mastriano 44 percent to 33 percent in the race for governor with 19 percent undecided. Nothing was surprising in those numbers. Both Fetterman and Shapiro jumped out to early leads and have continued to enjoy comfortable leads in both races. Lt; Gov. John Fetterman in his Capitol office (Capital-Star photo by John L. Micek) 2. No, John Fetterman isn’t wearing a tie. And you need to stop talking about that | John L. Micek So, this isn’t a “John Fetterman” column. And you know what we’re talking about here. After more than two years on the statewide political stage, there’s already a well-established journalistic shorthand for Pennsylvania’s new lieutenant governor. It’s the lather, rinse, repeat formula of “black clothes, bald head, tattoos, gosh he’s tall but skinnier, cheerleader for the struggling steel town of Braddock, Pa.” that’s launched a thousand profiles — including a recent one by NYMag.com. And while all that’s true about Fetterman, it often feels like the media branding of Gov. Tom Wolf’s second-in-command overshadows the actual human behind it. Supporters of former President Donald Trump have threatened violence against the FBI after the law enforcement agency executed a search warrant at the former president’s residence in Florida (Getty Images). 3. Trump isn’t going to jail. And that’s good news for Democrats | Bruce Ledewitz Democrats are aware that the search of former President Donald Trump’s home by the FBI hurt the Party politically. This Aug. 17 headline from The New York Times, referencing the Inflation Reduction Act, says it all: President Takes a Bow, but Spotlight Stays on His Predecessor. Yet, even with this knowledge, 88 percent of Democrats want Trump charged for fomenting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Slightly over half of Democrats think he will be. Undoubtedly, Democrats are also hoping that state criminal investigations into financial improprieties and election interference will lead to prosecutions. And now there is concrete evidence from the search of his home that Trump broke the law by possessing “top secret” documents. Since no one is above the law, surely now there must be a criminal case. Democratic U.S. Senate nominee John Fetterman (L) and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mehmet Oz (R) Campaign file photos 4. Oz clarifies abortion views, Fetterman capitalizes on conflicting views in Senate race Pennsylvania’s position as an abortion battleground state is taking shape in the U.S. Senate race, with John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee, capitalizing on conflicting statements from Mehmet Oz, his Republican opponent, in the high-profile contest. Fetterman, who said he would support codifying Roe v. Wade if elected, has recently focused on Oz, who clarified his stance on abortion this month, and his views on reproductive health. Oz told reporters at a press conference in Philadelphia this month that he would not support criminal penalties for people who sought or doctors who performed abortions. Describing himself as “strongly pro-life,” he added that he supports exceptions for rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is at risk. Tori Tambellini, former Starbucks employee and current organizer with Workers United (Pittsburgh City Paper photo). 5. From steelworkers to baristas: the new face of Pittsburgh’s evolving labor movement Six months ago, Tori Tambellini barely knew what a union was; now, the recent college graduate wants to devote her career to the labor movement. Having worked as a barista throughout the coronavirus pandemic years, Tambellini helped found the union for Starbucks’ Market Square location this spring, after organizers from other shops convinced her it could give staff a voice in workplace issues they’d long felt excluded from. She was fired six weeks later in a move she sees as thinly disguised retribution from her employer. Instead of feeling cowed, though, Tambellini said she feels confident and energized. And that’s the week. We’ll see you back here next week. Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics. Read More…

The Lookout: A Roundup Of News From The Sierra Club https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-lookout-a-roundup-of-news-from-the-sierra-club/ By the Numbers 421 parts per million: The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere measured in May. That’s 50 percent higher than CO₂ levels before the Industrial Revolution and a level Earth hasn’t seen in millions of years.   35: The percent increase in monarch butterflies that overwintered in Mexico last winter compared with the previous year.   0: The carbon budget left to accommodate new coal plants, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. To limit global temperature rise to 2.7°F, coal use needs to fall by 75 percent by 2030.   6,200: The number of new union jobs created by Ford and the United Auto Workers in their push to manufacture electric vehicles. Alerts Earth Comes First Despite local opposition, the Federal Aviation Administration approved a license for the biggest rocket in history, SpaceX’s Starship. The project will expand operations in Boca Chica, Texas, an unincorporated community on the Gulf of Mexico. Explosions, fires, and water contamination from SpaceX threaten nearby communities as well as sensitive coastal ecosystems that are home to endangered species, including the ocelot and the snowy plover. » Read more: sc.org/spacex Invisible but Deadly A recent inspection by air above Bakersfield, California, revealed that two idle oil wells, located 370 feet from a residential neighborhood, are leaking massive amounts of methane, with concentrations of 50,000 parts per million and 20,000 ppm, respectively. Methane is a greenhouse gas that, in the short term, has 80 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Oil and gas wells also leak a cocktail of chemicals called volatile organic compounds that are associated with asthma, cancer, and nervous-system damage. » Read more: sc.org/bakersfield Clean Schools The Biden-Harris administration approved a program to replace diesel school buses. This year, under the new program, the EPA will distribute $500 million for schools to purchase electric buses. The program also allocates $4.5 billion for future years. Diesel engines are the single largest source of black carbon, a potent driver of global warming that is also terrible for public health; it’s associated with cancer, heart and lung disease, and asthma. Victories Win for Wildlife In a major legal victory in July, a federal district court restored comprehensive Endangered Species Act protections for hundreds of species and their habitats when it threw out harmful regulations put in place by the Trump administration. The case involved a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, joined later by a group of states. “In the midst of a global extinction crisis,” said Sierra Club attorney Karimah Schoenhut, “the court’s decision to vacate the rules will help ensure that imperiled species receive the protections they desperately need.” Clean Air for All Following extensive organizing by the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, Environmental Law Program, and Grand Canyon Chapter, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted to reject a proposal from the Salt River Project to expand the gas-fired Coolidge Generating Station. The proposed expansion included 16 new gas turbines and would have polluted the historically Black community of Randolph, which already suffers the environmental and health impacts of the Coolidge plant. Don’t Try That on Us The Kern County Superior Court has prevented the county from fast-tracking tens of thousands of new oil and gas wells. The court ruled that the attempt, which was based on a single environmental review, failed to meet the minimum requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. Most important in that ruling was the fact that the review failed to disclose the magnitude of effects on marginalized communities and didn’t address the impact of the wells on productive agricultural land. Chapter Corner No More Gaslighting A new law in Colorado requires oil and gas companies to disclose the chemicals used in oil and gas production—information chemical manufacturers have long been able to hide, citing trade secrets. It also bans the use of PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” in these operations. The first-in-the-nation bill originated with and was drafted by the Sierra Club’s Colorado Chapter. To build support for it, leaders of the chapter worked hard to develop close relationships with key legislators, while members were persistent in calling and writing letters to their representatives. “Knowing that a particular list of chemicals is being used would be helpful for first responders, researchers, and public health officials,” said Ramesh Bhatt, the chapter’s conservation chair. “Hopefully this will force the industry to think about what they’re using.” Leave the Ocean Alone For 15 years, volunteers at the Angeles Chapter have rallied alongside Sierra Club California and ally organizations to stop a proposed desalination plant in Huntington Beach. In June, they achieved a major win when the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny development company Brookfield-Poseidon permits to begin construction. Concentrated brine from the plant would have created a marine dead zone, and emissions from the energy-intensive desalination process would have the potential to exacerbate the climate crisis, said Charming Evelyn, chair of the Angeles Chapter’s water committee. “California is saying we want to be carbon neutral, yet here we are building a plant that would put a bunch of greenhouse gases into the air,” she said. Get Plugged In Sierra Club members get free access to Sierra’s digital edition. Just log in to My Account at sc.org/login. To receive action alerts about Sierra Club priority campaigns, visit sierraclub.org/take-action. Campaign Updates Making Electric Vehicles More Accessible Lack of access to convenient charging is a major reason why people hesitate to adopt electric vehicles. In June, following months of advocacy from the Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration said it would establish minimum standards for EV charging. “These will make the charging experience more convenient, in turn driving up EV demand,” said Hieu Le, a senior campaign representative for Clean Transportation for All. Justice for Pueblo Colorado’s newest and largest coal plant is set to retire early, thanks in part to efforts from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. In June, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission concluded deliberations for a settlement with XCel Energy, the company that owns the Comanche 3 coal plant. Based on this new settlement, the plant will retire no later than January 1, 2031. “This victory really can’t be understated,” said Anna McDevitt, a senior representative for Beyond Coal. “This is a plant that was built with the anticipation that it would operate until 2070.” Comanche 3 is located in Pueblo, a majority-Latino community, which has suffered from air pollution and groundwater contamination as a result of the plant. This settlement forces XCel Energy to pay taxes to Pueblo every year through 2040. “Pueblo community members are literally going to be able to breathe easier after 2030,” McDevitt said. Read More…

Tropical Storm Fiona A Flood Threat To Caribbean; Hurricane Watch Issued For Puerto Rico | The Weather Channel https://digitalalabamanews.com/tropical-storm-fiona-a-flood-threat-to-caribbean-hurricane-watch-issued-for-puerto-rico-the-weather-channel/ Tropical Storm Fiona will move through the northeastern Caribbean. It will produce flooding rain and strong wind gusts in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Fiona could become a hurricane when it is near Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It’s far too soon to tell if this system will ever become a mainland U.S. threat. Tropical Storm Fiona is producing flooding rainfall and strong wind gusts in the northeastern Caribbean and it may strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks near Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. H​ere’s what we know about Fiona’s threats to the Caribbean and what the storm could mean down the road for the mainland United States. Latest Status And Forecast Fiona’s center has entered the northeastern Caribbean after passing over Guadeloupe. Tropical-storm-force conditions will continue in the northern Leeward islands Saturday morning. The storm continues to fight some unfavorable upper-level winds (wind shear) and dry air. The worst of the rain and gusty winds are occurring on the central Lesser Antilles now after the center has passed because most of the thunderstorm activity is on the eastward side of the system due to wind shear. O​n this track, Fiona will move near or just south of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico this weekend, then into Hispaniola Sunday night or Monday. A slightly more favorable environment may allow for some intensification this weekend and Fiona could strengthen into a hurricane as it tracks near Puerto Rico and Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti). A​fter that, uncertainty grows because of that possible land interaction, but some intensification is expected once Fiona reaches the waters north of Hispaniola. Projected Path (The red-shaded area denotes the potential path of the center of the tropical cyclone. It’s important to note that impacts (particularly heavy rain, high surf, coastal flooding, winds) with any tropical cyclone usually spread beyond its forecast path.) C​aribbean Threats A​ hurricane watch has been issued for Puerto Rico, meaning hurricane conditions are possible within the next 48 hours. T​ropical storm warnings are in effect for the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, Saba and St. Eustatius, St. Maarten, Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy and St. Martin and for portions of the Dominican Republic. Tropical storm conditions are expected in the warning area within 36 hours. Tropical storm watches have been issued for portions of the southern coast of the Dominican Republic. This means that tropical storm conditions are possible within the next 48 hours. Areas from the Leeward Islands to Puerto Rico to eastern Hispaniola to the Turks and Caicos could see r​ain totals of 4 to 10 inches (locally higher) from Fiona. That heavy rain could trigger dangerous flooding and mudslides this weekend into early next week, particularly over mountainous terrain. Up to 16 inches is possible, particularly across eastern and southern Puerto Rico. Rainfall Forecast (This should be interpreted as a broad outlook of where the heaviest rain may fall and may shift based on the forecast path of the tropical cyclone. Higher amounts may occur where bands of rain stall over a period of a few hours. ) Some modest storm surge is possible on east and south-facing shores this weekend in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola. In addition, rip currents and rough surf are likely. I​s Fiona A Mainland U.S. Threat? The bottom line is that the mainland U.S., especially from Florida to the rest of the Southeast coast, should just monitor the forecast for now since it’s too soon to tell if Fiona will eventually become a threat. T​hat’s because Fiona faces the obstacles mentioned earlier, including wind shear, dry air and potential track over some mountainous Caribbean islands such as Hispaniola. Among the wide range of possibilities include: -​Intensifying sooner, and therefore curling north into the central Atlantic Ocean far off the U.S. East Coast, similar to Hurricane Earl last week. -​Minimal strengthening in the next several days, continuing west to west-northwest, then curling north later, much closer to or over the Bahamas and possibly the Southeast U.S. later next week. For now, the National Hurricane Center forecast calls for Fiona to gain some strength by early next week, which would allow it to make a gradual northward turn near Hispaniola and the Turks and Caicos. However, as frequently happens in hurricane season, this forecast may change. Check back with us at weather.com for the latest updates to this forecast in the days ahead. Regardless of what happens, now is a good time to make sure you have a plan in place before a hurricane strikes. Information about hurricane preparedness can be found here. More from weather.com: 12 Things You May Not Know About Your Hurricane Forecast 7 Things Florida Newcomers Should Know About Hurricane Season T​he Florida Peninsula’s Luck Since Hurricane Irma Won’t Last The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM. Read More…

“We're Talking About Gold Diggers From The Nightlife Scene” – Former Arsenal Star Nicklas Bendtner Says Premier League Footballers Prefer Paying For Sex Workers Than Indulging In One-Night Stands  https://digitalalabamanews.com/were-talking-about-gold-diggers-from-the-nightlife-scene-former-arsenal-star-nicklas-bendtner-says-premier-league-footballers-prefer-paying-for-sex-workers-than-indulging-in-one-night-stands/ According to former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, Premier League players prefer to hire sex workers rather than go out and hook up with random girls. The Danish forward made the explosive revelation in his 2020 autobiography titled ‘Both Sides’, culled by the DailyStar. In his write-up, the ex-Arsenal star explained that Premier League players, especially the elite ones, are wary of getting blackmailed. As a result, they choose to hire sex workers instead of going out and having one-night stands with girls. ‘I know about loads of incidents involving prostitutes’Nicklas Bendtner says many footballers PREFER to hire sex workerstrib.al/nHzfPWu “Believe me, everyone in my industry has heard of someone who’s been at it, especially in England where it’s a grand old tradition to share your c**k-and-ball stories with a full audience,” Bendtner wrote. He continued: “It’s less risky than picking up girls while out on the town. You hardly dare do the deed with a ‘civilian’ any longer, not when you’re a famous footballer. I know about loads of incidents involving prostitutes. But I know of just as many stories about extortion via social media.” Talking about ‘gold diggers’ from the ‘nightlife scene’, Bendtner said: “We’re talking about gold diggers from the nightlife scene who are up for a f*** and then take a photo of you sleeping it off while you’re starkers. With those photos as their trump card, they can demand stuff to keep their mouths shut. And they do.” The former Arsenal forward proceeded to reveal how he was forced to pay for a girl’s b**b job after she got in touch, with the girl claiming he had impregnated her. “One of the girls I’ve been with comes back and claims I’ve got her pregnant. That there’s a price if she’s going to do something about it,” he continued. “http://www.sportskeeda.com/”And what does that mean?’ I ask. ‘It means you’ve got to pay for a pair of new boobs for me. I want my t*****s fixed,’ she says. So I end up paying for her trip to the cosmetic surgeon.” Nicklas Bendtner’s record with Arsenal Arsenal at both youth and senior-team level between 2004 and 2014. There were loan spells with Birmingham, Sunderland and Juventus interspersed in between. During his time with the senior team, he made 171 appearances across competitions, recording 47 goals and 22 assists. Bendtner won the FA Cup with the Gunners in 2014 before leaving for German club VFL Wolfsburg that summer. He later represented Nottingham Forest, Rosenborg and Copenhagen before retiring last year. Paul Merson has predicted Brentford vs Arsenal and other Premier League GW 8 fixtures! Click here Rate this story! ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ Thank You! Read More…

Gubernatorial Hopeful Sanders Recovering After Thyroid Cancer Surgery https://digitalalabamanews.com/gubernatorial-hopeful-sanders-recovering-after-thyroid-cancer-surgery/ Gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes the stage with family as she is greeted by supporters on her way to accept the Republican nomination for governor at the Embassy Suites Little Rock in this May 24, 2022 file photo. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Metthe) Republican gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Friday she had surgery to remove her thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes after cancer was found in the area. Sanders, 40, said in a news release that during a check-up earlier this month her doctor ordered a biopsy on an area of concern in her neck which revealed she had thyroid cancer. “Today, I underwent a successful surgery to remove my thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes and by the grace of God I am now cancer-free,” Sanders said in the news release. “I want to thank the Arkansas doctors and nurses for their world-class care, as well as my family and friends for their love, prayers and support. I look forward to returning to the campaign trail soon.” Judd Deere, a spokesman for Sanders’ campaign, declined to go into further detail Friday afternoon when contacted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “I would refer to the doctor’s statement that says she is cancer-free and expects a full recovery and for her to be back on her feet in short order,” Deere said. “I am not going to speculate or put a timetable on that, but she expects to be back on the campaign trail very soon.” Dr. John Sims, a head and neck oncologic and microvascular reconstructive surgeon at CARTI Cancer Center in Little Rock, said in the news release that Sanders is recovering from the surgery. Sims said the surgery went “extremely well” and that he expects Sanders to be back on her feet within the next 24 hours. “This is a Stage I papillary thyroid carcinoma, which is the most common type of thyroid cancer and has an excellent prognosis,” Sims said. “While she will need adjuvant treatment with radioactive iodine, as well as continued long-term follow up, I think it’s fair to say she’s now cancer-free, and I don’t anticipate any of this slowing her down.” Sanders, of Little Rock, is a former White House press secretary for President Donald Trump and the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. She said in the news release that the experience is a reminder not to lose heart in whatever battle someone may be facing. “As governor, I will never quit fighting for the people of our great state,” she said. Stage 1 papillary or follicular thyroid cancer is used to describe any small tumor with no spread to the lymph nodes and no metastasis, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology website cancer.net. The American Cancer Society states on its website that most papillary cancers are treated with the removal of the thyroid gland, and if lymph nodes are enlarged or show signs of cancer spread, they will be removed as well. The organization also states that even if lymph nodes aren’t enlarged, some doctors recommend the surgical removal of lymph nodes next to the thyroid along with the removal of the thyroid. The American Cancer Society also notes that radioactive iodine treatment is sometimes used after thyroidectomy for early stage cancers, but the cure rate with surgery alone is excellent. People who have had a thyroidectomy will need to take daily thyroid hormone pills, according the American Cancer Society’s website. Cancer Research UK, the world’s largest independent cancer research organization, states on its website that generally it takes a few weeks after surgery before a person is able to get back to doing all the things they were doing before surgery. The organization states most people are able to go back to work about two weeks after undergoing the operation, depending on how strenuous their work is. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Jones and his wife Dr. Jerrilyn Jones said Friday afternoon that their hearts go out to the Sanders family and that they wish her a successful recovery. “Our family is thinking of you and praying for you and your family,” the Jones family said in a statement sent to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “It’s truly a blessing that you caught this cancer early and were able to receive world-class treatment so quickly. From one family of Arkansans to another, we send you hope, love and healing. “Our family has been on this journey before and, while it’s not easy, we know personally the power of prayer, the healing hand of God, and the strength that comes from being surrounded by community,” Jones said. “May you have an abundance of all in this season.” Ricky Dale Harrington, the Libertarian candidate for governor, also offered prayers for Sanders’ recovery. He said Friday afternoon he didn’t want to speculate about what this means for the campaign, and that he hopes Sanders will make a full recovery and continue participating in the governor’s race. “I pray for her and her family,” Harrington said. “Cancer sucks.” Sanders is the second former Trump administration official to publicly acknowledge they had thyroid cancer. Former senior White House adviser Jared Kushner revealed earlier this year he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2019 while serving in the White House. Read More…

Lindsey Graham Goes Rogue https://digitalalabamanews.com/lindsey-graham-goes-rogue/ “));var m=y[i.size_id].split(“x”).map(function(e){return Number(e)}),v=(0,r.Z)(m,2);f.width=v[0],f.height=v[1]}f.rubiconTargeting=(Array.isArray(i.targeting)?i.targeting:[]).reduce(function(e,t){return e[t.key]=t.values[0],e},{rpfl_elemid:p.adUnitCode}),t.push(f)}else(0,a.logError)(“Rubicon: bidRequest undefined at index position:”.concat(s),n,e);return t},[]).sort(function(e,t){return(t.cpm||0)-(e.cpm||0)})},getUserSyncs:function(e,t,n,r){if(!C&&e.iframeEnabled){var i={};return n&&(“boolean”==typeof n.gdprApplies&&(i.gdpr=Number(n.gdprApplies)),”string”==typeof 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Trump Now Openly Embraces, Amplifies QAnon Conspiracy Theories https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-now-openly-embraces-amplifies-qanon-conspiracy-theories/ FILE – Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Sept. 3, 2022. Trump is increasingly embracing and endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world incidents linked to the movement increase.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File) After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows. On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the “storm” refers to Trump’s final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television. As Trump contemplates another run for the presidency and has become increasingly assertive in the Republican primary process during the midterm elections, his actions show that far from distancing himself from the political fringe, he is welcoming it. He’s published dozens of recent Q-related posts, in contrast to 2020, when he claimed that while he didn’t know much about QAnon, he couldn’t disprove its conspiracy theory. Pressed on QAnon theories that Trump allegedly is saving the nation from a satanic cult of child sex traffickers, he claimed ignorance but asked, “Is that supposed to be a bad thing?” “If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it,” Trump said. Trump’s recent postings have included images referring to himself as a martyr fighting criminals, psychopaths and the so-called deep state. In one now-deleted post from late August, he reposted a “q drop,” one of the cryptic message board postings that QAnon supporters claim come from an anonymous government worker with top secret clearance. A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Even when his posts haven’t referred to the conspiracy theory directly, Trump has amplified users who do. An Associated Press analysis found that of nearly 75 accounts Trump has reposted on his Truth Social profile in the past month, more than a third of them have promoted QAnon by sharing the movement’s slogans, videos or imagery. About 1 in 10 include QAnon language or links in their profile bios. Earlier this month, Trump chose a QAnon song to close out a rally in Pennsylvania. The same song appears in one of his recent campaign videos and is titled “WWG1WGA,” an acronym used as a rallying cry for Q adherents that stands for “Where we go one, we go all.” Online, Q adherents basked in Trump’s attention. “Yup, haters!” wrote one commenter on an anonymous QAnon message board. “Trump re-truthed Q memes. And he’ll do it again, more and more of them, over and OVER, until (asterisk)everyone(asterisk) finally gets it. Make fun of us all you want, whatever! Soon Q will be everywhere!” “Trump Sending a Clear Message Patriots,” a QAnon-linked account on Truth Social wrote. “He Re-Truthed This for a Reason.” The former president may be seeking solidarity with his most loyal supporters at a time when he faces escalating investigations and potential challengers within his own party, according to Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State University who has studied QAnon and recently wrote a book about the group. “These are people who have elevated Trump to messiah-like status, where only he can stop this cabal,” Bloom told the AP on Thursday. “That’s why you see so many images (in online QAnon spaces) of Trump as Jesus.” On Truth Social, QAnon-affiliated accounts hail Trump as a hero and savior and vilify President Joe Biden by comparing him to Adolf Hitler or the devil. When Trump shares the content, they congratulate each other. Some accounts proudly display how many times Trump has “re-truthed” them in their bios. By using their own language to directly address QAnon supporters, Trump is telling them that they’ve been right all along and that he shares their secret mission, according to Janet McIntosh, an anthropologist at Brandeis University who has studied QAnon’s use of language and symbols. It also allows Trump to endorse their beliefs and their hope for a violent uprising without expressly saying so, she said, citing his recent post about “the storm” as a particularly frightening example. “The ‘storm is coming’ is shorthand for something really dark that he’s not saying out loud,” McIntosh said. “This is a way for him to point to violence without explicitly calling for it. He is the prince of plausible deniability.” Bloom predicted that Trump may later attempt to market Q-related merchandise or perhaps ask QAnon followers to donate to his legal defense. Regardless of motive, Bloom said, it’s a reckless move that feeds a dangerous movement. A growing list of criminal episodes has been linked to people who had expressed support for the conspiracy theory, which U.S. intelligence officials have warned could trigger more violence. QAnon supporters were among those who violently stormed the Capitol during the failed Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. In November 2020, two men drove to a vote-counting site in Philadelphia in a Hummer adorned with QAnon stickers and loaded with a rifle, 100 rounds of ammunition and other weapons. Prosecutors alleged they were trying to interfere with the election. Last year, a California man who told authorities he had been enlightened by QAnon was accused of killing his two children because he believed they had serpent DNA. Last month, a Colorado woman was found guilty of attempting to kidnap her son from foster care after her daughter said she began associating with QAnon supporters. Other adherents have been accused of environmental vandalism, firing paintballs at military reservists, abducting a child in France and even killing a New York City mob boss. On Sunday, police fatally shot a Michigan man who they say had killed his wife and severely injured his daughter. A surviving daughter told The Detroit News that she believes her father was motivated by QAnon. “I think that he was always prone to (mental issues), but it really brought him down when he was reading all those weird things on the internet,” she told the newspaper. The same weekend a Pennsylvania man who had reposted QAnon content on Facebook was arrested after he allegedly charged into a Dairy Queen with a gun, saying he wanted to kill all Democrats and restore Trump to power. Major social media platforms including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have banned content associated with QAnon and have suspended or blocked accounts that seek to spread it. That’s forced much of the group’s activities onto platforms that have less moderation, including Telegram, Gab and Trump’s struggling platform, Truth Social. FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump, including Doug Jensen, center, confront U.S. Capitol Police in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Jan. 6, 2021. The former president is increasingly embracing and endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world incidents linked to the movement increase. On Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, using his Truth Social platform, Trump reposted an image of himself — wearing a Q lapel pin — overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File) FILE – A QAnon conspiracy theory button sits affixed to the purse of an attendee of the Nebraska Election Integrity Forum on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, in Omaha, Neb. Former President Donald Trump is increasingly embracing and endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world incidents linked to the movement increase. On Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, using his Truth Social platform, Trump reposted an image of himself — wearing a Q lapel pin — overlaid with the words “The Storm is Coming.” (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz, File) Read More…

High School Football Scores For The Southland And The Aurora, Elgin, Naperville And Lake County Areas https://digitalalabamanews.com/high-school-football-scores-for-the-southland-and-the-aurora-elgin-naperville-and-lake-county-areas/ Email Daily Southtown results to southtownsports@gmail.com. Beacon-News, Courier-News and Naperville Sun results to tribwestsports@gmail.com and News-Sun results to newssunsports@gmail.com. FRIDAY’S RESULTS HIGH SCHOOLS FOOTBALL WEEK 4 BIG NORTHERN Byron 35, Genoa-Kingston 15 Genoa-Kingston (3-1, 3-1): Nathan Kleba 19-yard TD pass to Traven Atterberry. Ethan Wilnau 4-yard TD run. CCL/ESCC BLUE Mount Carmel 42, Marist 7 CCL/ESCC GREEN St. Rita 41, Benet 12 CCL/ESCC ORANGE Joliet Catholic 49, Providence 41 JCA (4-0, 2-0): T.J. Schlageter 2 TD passes. Aaron Harvey, H.J. Grigsby 2 TD runs. Drew Willis 7-yard TD reception. Kivlin Van Tassel 19-yard TD reception. Providence (2-2, 1-1): Lucas Proudfoot 2 TD runs; 38-yard TD pass to Dominick Agate. Mason Santiago 2 TD runs (11, 25); 32-yard fumble return TD. St. Laurence 20, Montini 14 St. Laurence (2-2, 1-0): Aaron Ball, Vinny Enoch TD each. CCL/ESCC PURPLE Carmel 28, St. Viator 14 CCL/ESCC RED DePaul Prep 14, Leo 12 Leo (1-3, 0-1): Javon Logan 7-yard TD run. Kevin Jackson 65-yard INT return TD. CCL/ESCC WHITE Fenwick 33, De La Salle 15 St. Ignatius 35, Marmion 0 DUKANE Batavia 42, Lake Park 0 Geneva 35, Wheaton Warrenville South 11 Glenbard North 41, St. Charles East 34 St. Charles East (2-2, 0-2): Lane Robinson 35-yard TD pass to Charles Bolsoni. Blake Schuette 55-yard TD run. Devean Shearer INT return TD. St. Charles North 22, Wheaton North 21 St. Charles North (3-1, 2-0): Drew Surges 2-yard TD run and GW 2-point conversion pass to Jake Furtney with :49 left in regulation. DUPAGE VALLEY DeKalb 58, Metea Valley 12 Naperville Central 35, Waubonsie Valley 7 Neuqua Valley 29, Naperville North 16 FOX VALLEY Crystal Lake Central 7, Hampshire 0 Crystal Lake South 39, Dundee-Crown 32 Huntley 16, Burlington Central 7 Jacobs 42, Prairie Ridge 35 Jacobs (4-0, 4-0): Joey Scrivani 2 TD runs; GW 1-yard TD run in 4th quarter. Antonio Brown 3 TD runs (41, 2, 15 yards). Max Benner 62-yard TD pass to Grant Stec. KISHWAUKEE RIVER/INTERSTATE EIGHT WHITE Kaneland 49, Woodstock 7 METRO SUBURBAN BLUE Aurora Central Catholic 26, Elmwood Park 12 METRO SUBURBAN RED Riverside-Brookfield 35, Aurora Christian 7 St. Francis 56, Chicago Christian 0 NORTH SUBURBAN Lake Zurich 42, Zion-Benton 0 Libertyville 22, Lake Forest 7 Libertyville (2-2, 1-1): Kristian Gavric 2 TD receptions. Lake Forest (1-3, 1-1): Graham Garrigan 16-yard TD run. Mundelein 43, Waukegan 12 Warren 35, Stevenson 16 NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY Antioch 47, North Chicago 0 Grayslake North 27, Grayslake Central 17 Lakes 55, Round Lake 0 Lakes (2-2, 1-1): Max Bausch 3 TD runs (27, 2, 29). Amir Al Hindi 3 TD runs (7, 5, 35). Wauconda 17, Grant 9 SOUTH SUBURBAN BLUE Hillcrest 47, T.F. North 6 Lemont 48, Bremen 19 Oak Forest 26, T.F. South 13 SOUTH SUBURBAN RED Eisenhower 53, Oak Lawn 12 Richards 27, Evergreen Park 7 SOUTHLAND Crete-Monee 42, Thornwood 0 Rich Township 42, Thornton 0 SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN BLUE Bolingbrook 41, Sandburg 14 Sandburg (0-4, 0-1): Anthony Shelton 2 TD runs. Homewood-Flossmoor 35, Lockport 20 SOUTHWEST SUBURBAN RED Bradley-Bourbonnais 39, Lincoln-Way West 32 Lincoln-Way Central 41, Stagg 0 Lincoln-Way Central (2-2, 1-0): Michael Kuehl 3 TD passes. UPSTATE EIGHT Elgin 24, Bartlett 7 Glenbard East 42, East Aurora 0 Glenbard South 49, Streamwood 20 South Elgin 47, Larkin 12 NONCONFERENCE Argo 18, Tinley Park 7 Hersey 56, Highland Park 17 LaSalle-Peru 47, Plano 14 Plano (2-2): Waleed Johnson 18 carries, 123 yards, 80-yard TD run. Armando Martinez 16-yard TD pass to Nick Serio. Lincoln-Way East 42, Andrew 0 Lincoln-Way East (4-0): Braden Tischer 2 TD passes to Jayden Cook. James Kwiecinski 2 TD run. Conner Durkin INT return TD. St. Edward 37, Christ the King 0 BOYS SOCCER De La Salle 3, Hope Academy 0 Serena 3, Plano 0 Vernon Hills 1, Highland Park 0 Vernon Hills (5-4-1, 1-0-1 Central Suburban North): Brandon Marquez goal. Warren 2, Lake Zurich 1 Warren (6-2-1, 1-1-1 North Suburban): Miguel Garcia 2 goals. Westminster Christian 9, St. Edward 1 MORTON INVITATIONAL Lyons 2, Libertyville 0 Morton 2, Benet 0 THURSDAY’S RESULTS HIGH SCHOOLS FOOTBALL NONCONFERENCE Buffalo Grove 23, Deerfield 13 Conant 49, Vernon Hills 14 Oswego East 49, Joliet Central 0 Joliet West 36, West Aurora 31 Oswego 56, Romeoville 7 Yorkville 40, Plainfield East 20 Yorkville (4-0): Kyle Stevens 2 TD passes. Blake Kersting 15-yard TD reception, 28-yard INT return TD. Josh Gettemy (17), Dominick Coronado (23) TD reception each. Armani McFerren 80-yard kickoff return TD. BOYS SOCCER Addison Trail 4, Andrew 0 Argo 2, Cristo Rey 1 Beecher 10, Momence 4 Bloom 6, Kankakee 1 Bremen 3, Evergreen Park 1 Bremen (6-4, 2-2 SSC Blue): Saul Lagunas 3 goals. De La Salle 4, St. Rita 3 Geneva 3, Bartlett 2 Geneva (4-1-6): Trent Giansanti 3 goals. Grayslake Central 6, Grant 1 Jacobs 3, Larkin 2 Jacobs (3-5-2): Kelvin Medina, Peter Wolf, Alexander Trujillo goal. Joliet Catholic 7, Coal City 0 JCA (3-5-1): Aldo Estrada 3 goals. Ramon Rios 2 goals. Diego Rios 3 assists. Lemont 2, T.F. United 0 Lemont (7-2-1, 3-1-1 SSC Blue): Marek Skotnicki 2 goals. Libertyville 2, Waukegan 0 Lincoln-Way Central 2, Downers Grove South 0 Lincoln-Way Central (7-3): Johnny Roussakis, Nico Espinosa goal. Marmion 2, Fenwick 0 Oak Forest 5, Tinley Park 1 Oak Forest (6-2-2, 2-1-1 SSC Blue): Marcos Sandoval 2 goals. Jose Vega, Jhan Ruiz, Lennon Flores goal. Oak Lawn 3, Reavis 0 Oak Lawn (10-1-1, 3-0-1 SSC Red): Tristan Kramarz goal, assist. Akram Ouarernhi, Dylan Walsh goal. Ottawa 7, Sandwich 0 Richards 3, Eisenhower 1 Richards (6-4, 2-2 SSC Red): Ahmed Dhari goal, assist. St. Laurence 8, Hinsdale South 0 St. Laurence (8-2-1): Nate Lara goal, 2 assists. Vernon Hills 1, Highland Park 0 Vernon Hills (5-4-1, 1-0-1 Central Suburban North): Brandon Marquez goal. Zion-Benton 4, Lake Forest 1 PLAINFIELD CLASSIC Antioch 1, North Chicago 1 Waubonsie Valley 5, Joliet Central 0 West Aurora 1, Joliet Central 1 STREAMWOOD FALL CLASSIC Dundee-Crown 0, Leyden 0 Elgin 9, Rockford Auburn 0 Lockport 4, Lake Park 0 St. Charles East 2, York 2 St. Charles East (8-1-2): Mason Brockmeyer, Aiden Wost goal. St. Charles North 6, Crystal Lake Central 0 Streamwood 2, Loyola 1 GIRLS VOLLEYBALL Antioch d. North Chicago 25-8, 25-7 Batavia d. Waubonsie Valley 25-19, 25-22 Batavia (9-8): Amanda Otten 9 kills, 9 assists, 8 digs, 3 aces. Beecher d. St. Anne 25-13, 25-13 Bolingbrook d. Lincoln-Way West 25-12, 25-18 Hinckley-Big Rock d. Somonauk 25-12, 16-25, 25-18 Hinckley-Big Rock (10-6, 4-1 Little Ten): Bryann Gawel 11 kills. Madaline Hogan 8 digs. Somonauk (3-7, 1-3): Josie Rader 8 kills, 13 digs. Baylee Ohlson 6 kills. Riley Snider 12 assists. Haley McCoy 11 digs. Huntley d. Dundee-Crown 25-19, 25-16 Indian Creek d. Newark 17-25, 25-20, 25-10 Indian Creek (8-4-1, 2-1 Little Ten): Audrey Witte 6 kills, 6 digs, 7 aces. Geena Sanford 10 assists, 9 digs. Newark (13-1, 4-1 Little Ten): Kiara Wesseh 9 kills, 16 digs. Lauren Ulrich 14 assists, 4 kills. Taylor Kruser 14 digs. Jacobs d. Hampshire 25-23, 26-24 Jacobs (6-7, 4-4 Fox Valley): Bella Van de Burgt 5 kills, 9 digs. Ali Pierre 5 kills. Abby Deacon 7 assists, 11 digs, 4 aces. Kate Wilson 16 digs. Joliet Catholic d. Providence 25-22, 25-17 JCA (11-6): Olivia Chovanec 6 kills. Kaneland d. Rochelle 25-16, 20-25, 25-8 Lake Forest d. Carmel 14-25, 25-23, 25-18 Lemont d. Oak Lawn 25-13, 25-15 Lemont (12-6, 5-0 SSC Blue): Keira O’Donnell 7 kills. Anna Benson 4 kills. Jessica Rimbo 10 assists. Oak Lawn (5-3, 3-2 SSC Red): Kaitlyn Berkery 5 kills, 5 digs. Maeve Hassett 9 assists. Emma McAuliffe 14 digs. Lincoln-Way Central d. Homewood-Flossmoor 25-18, 25-22 Lincoln-Way Central (9-2, 1-0 SWSC Red): Mia Mattingly 10 kills. Kiera King 5 kills, 10 assists, 7 digs. Alyssa Teske 13 assists, 7 digs. Madelyn Freiberg 15 digs. Lincoln-Way East d. Stagg 25-19, 25-15 Lincoln-Way East (11-1, 1-0 SWSC Blue): Jada James 9 kills. Maggie Simon 12 assists. Annie Simon 5 kills, 2 aces. Lockport d. Andrew 25-20, 25-27, 25-22 Lockport (14-3, 1-0 SWSC Blue): Grace Juergens 18 kills. Lainey Green 20 assists. Payton Malinoski 19 digs. Montini d. Chicago Christian 25-20, 25-19 Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday Morris d. Sandwich 25-18, 23-25, 25-20 Sandwich (7-11, 0-4 Interstate Eight): Claire Allen 18 kills. Alana Stahl 7 kills, 7 digs. Kaylin Herren 5 kills. Breanna Sexton 13 digs. Mother McAuley d. Downers Grove North 25-21, 25-10 McAuley (16-0): Ellie White 10 kills. Tess Hayes 10 assists. Olivia Klapp 9 assists. Sam Falk 13 digs. Vernon Hills d. Maine East 25-12, 25-15 Vernon Hills (12-2, 2-0 Central Suburban North): Alexa Cieslinski 7 kills, 3 aces. Morgan Hart 6 kills. Sonia Bondar 5 kills. Maya Raval 16 assists. Compiled by Josh Krockey. Read More…

Proposing ‘more Benign’ World Order, Famed Harvard Scholars Cite Iran’s ‘measured’ Responses To US ‘escalation’ https://digitalalabamanews.com/proposing-more-benign-world-order-famed-harvard-scholars-cite-irans-measured-responses-to-us-escalation/ Seeing an America increasingly in decline, two famed scholars have proposed a “more benign” world order, and have praised Iran’s “measured” responses to acts of “escalation” by the United States as evocative of the world they envision. American Stephen M. Walt and Turkish Dani Rodrik, both of them acclaimed scholars at Harvard University, wrote in a joint article for Foreign Affairs’ September/October 2022 issue that despite global upheavals, “one can… envision a more benign order in which the United States, China, and other world powers compete in some areas, cooperate in others, and observe new and more flexible rules of the road.” “The global order is deteriorating before our eyes,” they wrote. “It is increasingly clear that the existing, Western-oriented approach is no longer adequate to address the many forces governing international power relations.” They offered a “four-part framework” in which “all actions and issues would be grouped into four general categories: those that are prohibited, those in which mutual adjustments by two or more states could benefit all parties, those undertaken by a single state, and those that require multilateral involvement.” They said that approach “would do much to increase trust and reduce the possibility of conflict,” including when states, even “hardened adversaries,” refuse to escalate or to respond to escalation with equally unruly behavior. In a section subtitled “Acting, Not Escalating,” Walt and Rodrik cited Iran’s behavior in responding to massively escalatory acts by the United States under former President Donald Trump, including the “the shortsighted U.S. withdrawal” from the 2015 Iran deal (known as the JCPOA) and the “‘maximum-pressure’ campaign.” “When the United States left the JCPOA in 2018, for example, Iran did not respond by immediately restarting its full nuclear program. Instead, it adhered to the original agreement for months afterward,” they said. Even later, and as other signatories failed to uphold their end of the bargain, Iran reduced its commitment “in an incremental and visibly reversible fashion, signaling its willingness to return to full compliance if the United States also did so.” Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Iran deal in 2018, and launched what he called a campaign of “maximum pressure” on Iran in the hopes that the country would cave in and agree to a new agreement on American terms. “Iran’s reaction to the Trump administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign was also measured,” Walt and Rodrik said, citing the US assassination of revered Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq in 2020, an act of provocation that led many to believe the US was provoking war. That act, the US scholars said, “did not lead Iran to escalate.” General Soleimani was assassinated by the US military in Baghdad. In a statement, the Pentagon claimed responsibility for the act of terror. Iran promised revenge, but also initially responded by firing missiles at a base hosting US soldiers in Iraq. At least 109 American soldiers received brain injuries in that attack, according to the Pentagon. Since Trump’s exit from the White House in 2021, the Iran deal has been the subject of renewed negotiations over its revival. Those negotiations have slowed down more recently, however, as US President Joe Biden refuses to reverse some of Trump’s actions. Read More…

US President Biden To Depart For UK To Attend Queen Elizabeth's Funeral https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-president-biden-to-depart-for-uk-to-attend-queen-elizabeths-funeral/ Washington [US], September 17 (ANI): US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden on Friday (local time) will depart for the UK to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. The latter breathed her last on September 9. In the morning, the President and the First Lady will leave the White House and reach Joint Base Andrews to depart for London. The departure from the South Lawn will be open press, read a White House press release. The President and the First Lady will pay respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Saturday. Both of them will sign the Official Condolence Book for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the venue. They will also attend a Reception hosted by His Majesty King Charles III. Biden and Jill will attend the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey on September 19 and depart for the US on the same day, said the release. All heads of state visiting London for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral have been invited to attend the lying-in-state in Westminster Hall ahead of Monday’s state funeral and to sign a book of condolences at Lancaster House. However, opening a fresh diplomatic rift with Beijing, a Chinese government delegation has been refused permission by the House of Commons authorities to attend the queen’s lying-in-state in Westminster Hall, London, Politico reported citing a senior parliamentary figure familiar with the matter. People of the UK will relive the glorious life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II at her state funeral on Monday. For the funeral, many guests from political heads of countries to distinct royal family members and dignitaries from across the globe will fly to the UK. Although the official guest list hasn’t been released yet, New York Post has shared the names of a few countries that didn’t make the cut. They are – Russia, Belarus, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria and Venezuela. According to the online publication, Russian President Vladimir Putin wished King Charles III on his accession recently, however, the country was still snubbed by the UK as they reportedly didn’t get an invite for the funeral. It’s also interesting to note here that North Korea, Iran, and Nicaragua were sent invites however those were only sent out to their ambassadorial representatives and not the head of state. Another news that recently made rounds was that former US President Donald Trump would also be in attendance however, the UK government, according to New York Post, has squashed the rumour saying that only the sitting US President and his wife will be attending. New York Post further reports that 750,000 people will be present at the funeral. More than USD 7 million (around INR 59 crores) will be shelled to beef up the security for the Queen’s funeral on September 19. According to New York Post, protecting Queen Elizabeth’s funeral will be the most expensive single-day operation in UK history, costing over USD 7.5 million. To secure the unprecedented number of foreign leaders, who are expected at the funeral on Monday, the British Mi5 and Mi6 intelligence agencies, London’s Metropolitan Police, and the Secret Service will work together. “This is the biggest policing operation that the United Kingdom policing has ever undertaken,” New York Post quoted Simon Morgan, a former Royal security officer, as saying. (ANI) This report is filed by ANI news service. TheNewsMill holds no responsibility for this content. Read More…

Ramaphosa, Biden Discuss Trade, Climate And Energy – SABC News – Breaking News, Special Reports, World, Business, Sport Coverage Of All South African Current Events. Africa's News Leader. https://digitalalabamanews.com/ramaphosa-biden-discuss-trade-climate-and-energy-sabc-news-breaking-news-special-reports-world-business-sport-coverage-of-all-south-african-current-events-africas-news-leader/ South African (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday discussed trade, climate, and energy with  United States (US) President Joe Biden in a meeting at the White House during Ramaphosa’s working visit to the US. The presidents also discussed relations with Russia. Biden, who has led an international coalition to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the near seven-month war in Ukraine, wants South Africa’s help in efforts that include forcing Moscow to sell its oil at below-market rates. Ramaphosa has resisted joining Washington’s campaign against Moscow for the war in Ukraine. US-SA Relations I Joe Biden and Kamala Harris meet Cyril Ramaphosa in the United States ‘The world’s most urgent challenges’ After a jovial greeting before the press, the two leaders spoke privately in the Oval Office for more than an hour on topics that included trade, climate and energy, the White House said. They committed to addressing several of “the world’s most urgent challenges over which we both share concern, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its negative consequences for food security in Africa,” the White House said. Biden also announced $45 million in funding for an $8.5 multinational venture aimed at accelerating the phasing out of coal-fired power generation in South Africa. The additional US funding for the Just Energy Transition Partnership comes at time when declining natural gas and oil exports from Russia and Ukraine have boosted South African coal and set back decarbonization goals for one of the world’s most carbon-intensive economies. Meeting between Presidents Ramaphosa and Biden: Sherwin Bryce-Pease In recent weeks, Biden and his aides have been ramping up engagements with African countries as they cast a wary eye on investments and diplomacy by rivals Russia and China on the continent. Ramaphosa has resisted calls to directly criticize Russia, instead opposing the use of force generally. In March, he blamed NATO’s eastward expansion for instability and said the conflicts should be solved through United Nations mediation rather than Western-led sanctions that hurt “bystander countries.” South Africa was one of 17 African countries to abstain from the United Nations (UN) vote condemning Russia’s assault. “Our position on this is respected, it is known and recognized,” Ramaphosa told reporters after the meeting. “Clearly the conflict has to be resolved. Our view is that it can best be resolved through dialogue and negotiations.” Ramaphosa’s African National Congress (ANC) party, which has governed South Africa since white minority rule ended in 1994, had strong ties to the former Soviet Union, which trained and supported anti-apartheid activists. However, South Africa still enjoys a high level of diplomatic clout among Russia’s rivals in the West relative to its economic size since its peaceful transition to democracy. Last month, during a visit to South Africa, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would not dictateAfrica’s choices, after pledging to “do things differently, “following former President Donald Trump’s insulting remarks about African countries. A bill passed by the US House of Representatives in April would boost US efforts to counter Russian influence in Africa. “We have expressed our discomfort and our opposition,” Ramaphosa said in a video uploaded to Twitter. “We should not be told by anyone who we associate with and we should never be put in positions where we have to choose who our friends are.” Africans often resent being a theater for competition between China, Russia and the Western order. The Ukraine war exacerbated the longstanding rivalry over Africa’s natural resources, trade and security ties. War and inflation have pressured South Africa, where half of the population lived below the poverty line even before the war dried up Russia and Ukraine’s grain and fertilizer exports. Biden is due to host more leaders from the continent in December, when ANC members will also decide whether to keep Ramaphosa as their party leader. Outlining President Ramaphosa US state visit with Sherwin Bryce-Pease Read More…