Norma M. Nathan Obituary (2022) The Pantagraph https://digitalalabamanews.com/norma-m-nathan-obituary-2022-the-pantagraph/
Norma M. Nathan
June 24, 1925 – Sept. 14, 2022
BLOOMINGTON – Norma M. Nathan, 97, of Bloomington passed away peacefully, at 10:40 AM Wednesday, September 14, 2022, surrounded by her family.
Her funeral will be at 10:00 AM, Tuesday, September 20, 2022, at Wesley United Methodist Church, 502 E. Front St., Bloomington. Visitation will be held prior to the funeral from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM at the church. Interment will be immediately following the service at Park Hill Cemetery, Bloomington.
Memorials may be made to Wesley United Methodist Church.
Norma was born June 24, 1925 in Bloomington, daughter of Earl and Mae (Brown) Doage. She married Albert R. Nathan on November 4, 1956, in Bloomington.
Norma is survived by her four children: Alvin (Barb) of Bloomington, Steven of Dothan, AL, Amy (Dan Allen Baginski) of Chicago, Sharon of Joliet; and three grandsons: Daniel Nathan (Darcy Johanson) of Chicago, Benjamin Nathan (Keshema) of Philadelphia and Porter Baginski of Chicago. Also surviving are extended family, friends and deeply remembered niece Romina Alexander.
She is preceded in death by her parents; husband; and siblings: Edward, Ralph, Elmer, Wilbur, Earl Jr., LaVerne, Katherine, Thelma and Mable.
Norma graduated from Bloomington High School in 1943. Sixty-five years later, she attended Heartland Community College, a promise she had made to her husband, Albert, to further her education. There she studied her passion for political science.
Norma, was self-employed as a residential and commercial housekeeper for over forty years. She was a proud member of the Bloomington High School Board of Education. She was a participant of the Hope Circle at Wesley United Methodist Church. She was an avid gardener and home decorator. Norma loved to travel. She traveled with her husband and their children around the US. Later in life, she traveled to Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco with her daughters. But her greatest love was taking care of her family. She was most proud of her children’s and grandson’s success in education.
Norma was a loving daughter, aunt, wife, mom, and grandma. She loved to talk and had a joy for everything in life. Her deep relationship with God, family and friends led her to care and to help other people throughout her long journey. Her famous words were “glad to know you.”
She will be forever and ever loved and missed by her family. Thank you and God bless Kibler-Brady-Ruestman Memorial Home.
Online condolences and memories of Norma may be left at kiblerbradyruestman.com.
Published by The Pantagraph on Sep. 17, 2022.
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Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires Reveal
Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires – Reveal https://digitalalabamanews.com/locked-up-the-prison-labor-that-built-business-empires-reveal/
Credit: Molly Mendoza for Reveal
After the Civil War, a new form of slavery took hold in the US and lasted more than 60 years. Associated Press reporters Margie Mason and Robin McDowell investigate the chilling history of how Southern states imprisoned mainly Black men, often for minor crimes, and then leased them out to private companies – for years, even decades, at a time. The team talks with the descendant of a man imprisoned in the Lone Rock stockade in Tennessee nearly 140 years ago, where people as young as 12 worked under subhuman conditions in coal mines and inferno-like ovens used to produce iron. This system of forced prison labor enriched the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad company – at the cost of prisoners’ lives.
At the state park that sits on the former site of the Lone Rock stockade, relics from the hellish prison are buried beneath the soil. Archeologist Camille Westmont has found thousands of artifacts, such as utensils and the plates prisoners ate off. She has also created a database listing the names of those sent to Lone Rock. A team of volunteers are helping her, including a woman reckoning with her own ancestor’s involvement in this corrupt system and the wealth her family benefited from.
The United States Steel Corporation helped build bridges, railroads and towering skyscrapers across America. But the company also relied on forced prison labor. After U.S. Steel took over Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad in 1907, the industrial giant used prison labor for at least five years. During that time, more than 100 men died while working in their massive coal mining operation in Alabama. U.S. Steel has misrepresented this dark chapter of its history. And it has never apologized for its use of forced labor or the lives lost. The reporters push the company to answer questions about its past and engage with communities near the former mines.
Lone Rock Stockade in Tracy City, Tennessee, in an undated photo. Courtesy Travis Turner.
Credits
Reporters: Margie Mason and Robin McDowell | Lead producer: Michael Montgomery | Producer: Najib Aminy | Editors: Cynthia Rodriguez and Jenny Casas | Production and research support: Alexander Richey and Carmen White | Fact checkers: Nikki Frick and Kim Freda | Production manager: Amy Mostafa | Digital producer: Sarah Mirk | Score and sound design: Jim Briggs and Fernando Arruda | Post-production team: Kathryn Styer Martínez and Steven Rascón | Interim executive producers: Taki Telonidis and Brett Myers | Host: Al Letson
Special thanks: The show was produced in collaboration with the Associated Press. Special thanks to Robin McDowell, Margie Mason, and editor Ron Nixon. The AP team had support from Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights in conjunction with the Arnold Foundation.
Support for Reveal is provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Hellman Foundation, Democracy Fund, and the Inasmuch Foundation.
Michael Montgomery is a senior reporter and producer for Reveal. He has led collaborations with the Associated Press, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Frontline, KQED and others.
Previously, Montgomery was a senior reporter at American Public Media, a special correspondent for the BBC and an associate producer with CBS News. He began his career in eastern Europe, covering the fall of communism and wars in former Yugoslavia for the Daily Telegraph and Los Angeles Times. His investigations into human rights abuses in the Balkans led to the arrest and conviction of Serbian and Albanian paramilitaries and creation of a new war crimes court based in The Hague. Montgomery’s honors include Murrow, Peabody, IRE, duPont, Third Coast and Overseas Press Club awards. He is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.
More by Michael Montgomery
Najib Aminy is a producer for Reveal. Previously, he was an editor at Flipboard, a news aggregation startup, and helped guide the company’s editorial and curation practices and policies. Before that, he spent time reporting for newspapers such as Newsday and The Indianapolis Star. He is the host and producer of an independent podcast, “Some Noise,” which is based out of Oakland, California, and was featured by Apple, The Guardian and The Paris Review. He is a lifelong New York Knicks fan, has a soon-to-be-named kitten and is a product of Stony Brook University’s School of Journalism. Aminy is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.
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Cynthia Rodriguez is a senior radio editor for Reveal. She is an award-winning journalist who came to Reveal from New York Public Radio, where she spent nearly two decades covering everything from the city’s dramatic rise in family homelessness to police’s fatal shootings of people with mental illness.
In 2019, Rodriguez was part of Caught, a podcast that documents how the problem of mass incarceration starts with the juvenile justice system. Caught received an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for outstanding journalism in the public interest. Her other award-winning stories include investigations into the deaths of construction workers during New York City’s building boom and the “three-quarter house” industry – a network of independent, privately run buildings that pack vulnerable people into unsanitary, overcrowded buildings in exchange for their welfare funds.
In 2013, Rodriguez was one of 13 journalists to be selected as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where her study project was on the intersection of poverty and mental health. She is based in New York City but is originally from San Antonio, Texas, and considers both places home.
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Jenny Casas is a radio editor for Reveal. She was previously a narrative audio producer at The New York Times developing shows for the Opinion Department. She was in the inaugural cohort of AIR’s Edit Mode: Story Editor Training. She has reported on the ways that cities systematically fail their people for WNYC, USA Today, City Bureau and St. Louis Public Radio. Casas is from California and is based in Chicago.
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Nikki Frick is the associate editor for research and copy for Reveal. She previously worked as a copy editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and held internships at The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times and Washingtonpost.com. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was an American Copy Editors Society Aubespin scholar. Frick is based in Milwaukee.
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Amy Mostafa (she/they) is the production manager for Reveal. She is a UC Berkeley School of Journalism alum, where she focused on audio and data journalism as a Dean’s Merit Fellow and an ISF Scholar. She has reported on science, health and the environment in Anchorage for Alaska Public Media and on city government in Berkeley and San Francisco for KQED. Her work also has appeared on NPR, KALW and KALX. Mostafa holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature and public policy. She has most recently reported on housing and aging in the Bay Area. She is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.
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Sarah Mirk (she/her) is a digital engagement producer for Reveal. Since 2017, she has worked as an editor at The Nib, an online daily comics publication focused on political cartoons, graphic journalism, essays and memoirs about current affairs. She works with artists to create nonfiction comics on a variety of complex topics, from personal narratives about queer identities to examinations of overlooked history. Before that, Mirk was the online editor of national feminist media outlet Bitch, a podcast host and a local news reporter. She is also the author of several books, including “Year of Zines,” a collection of 100 handmade zines, and “Guantanamo Voices,” a collection of illustrated oral histories of the world’s most infamous prison. Mirk is based in Portland, Oregon.
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Jim Briggs III is the senior sound designer, engineer and composer for Reveal. He supervises post-production and composes original music for the public radio show and podcast. He also leads Reveal’s efforts in composition for data sonification and live performances.
Prior to joining Reveal in 2014, Briggs mixed and recorded for clients such as WNYC Studios, NPR, the CBC and American Public Media. Credits include “Marketplace,” “Selected Shorts,” “Death, Sex & Money,” “The Longest Shortest Time,” NPR’s “Ask Me Another,” “Radiolab,” “Freakonomics Radio” and “Soundcheck.” He also was the sound re-recording mixer and sound editor for several PBS television documentaries, including “American Experience: Walt Whitman,” the 2012 Tea Party documentary “Town Hall” and “The Supreme Court” miniseries. His music credits include albums by R.E.M., Paul Simon and Kelly Clarkson.
Briggs’ work with Reveal has been recognized with an Emmy Award (2016) and two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards (2018, 2019). Previously, he was part of the team that won the Dart Award for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma for its work on WNYC’s hourlong documentary special “Living 9/11.” He has taught sound, radio and music production at The New School and Eugene Lang College and has a master’s degree in media studies from The New School. Briggs is based in Reveal’s Emeryville, California, office.
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Fernando Arruda is a sound desi...
Bank Holdups Snowball In Lebanon As Depositors Demand Their Own Money
Bank Holdups Snowball In Lebanon As Depositors Demand Their Own Money https://digitalalabamanews.com/bank-holdups-snowball-in-lebanon-as-depositors-demand-their-own-money/
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Five more depositors hold up banks to access their money
Depositors cash out $60,000, only some in custody
Banks announced three-day closure over security concerns
Frustration over frozen savings, spiralling crisis
BEIRUT, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Five Lebanese banks were held up by depositors seeking access to their own money frozen in the banking system on Friday, in a spiralling spate of holdups this week spurred by frustration over a financial implosion with no end in sight.
Seven banks have been held up since Wednesday in Lebanon, where commercial banks have locked most depositors out of their savings since an economic crisis took hold three years ago, leaving much of the population unable to pay for basics.
On Friday morning, an armed man identified as Abed Soubra entered BLOM Bank in the capital’s Tariq Jdideh neighbourhood demanding his deposit, the bank told Reuters.
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He later handed his gun to security forces but remained locked in the bank past sunset, negotiating with bank officials to withdraw his $300,000 in savings in cash, he told Reuters.
Soubra eventually left the bank with no money as part of a settlement negotiated by an influential sheikh, local media reported. He was not taken into custody.
Throughout the day, he had been cheered on by a large crowd of people gathered outside, including Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, who carried out a hold-up in August to get his own deposits from his bank, which dropped charges against him.
“We’re going to keep seeing this happen as long as people have money inside. What do you want them to do? They don’t have another solution,” said Hussein.
BANKS ARE ‘WORTH MY SHOE’
The Depositors’ Union, an advocacy group established to help clients get access to their funds, described Friday’s hold-up spree as “the depositors’ uprising” and a “natural and justified reaction” to banks’ restrictions.
Lebanon’s banks association announced a three-day closure next week over security concerns and urged the government to pass laws to deal with the crisis.
A man walks outside a closed Byblos Bank branch, where a man, according to security source, was detained after holding up the bank to access his own savings, in the southern city of Ghazieh, Lebanon September 16, 2022. REUTERS/Aziz Taher
Authorities have been slow to pass reforms that would grant access to $3 billion from the International Monetary Fund, and on Friday failed to pass a 2022 budget.
Without a capital controls law, banks have imposed unilateral limits on what most depositors can retrieve each week in U.S. dollars or the Lebanese lira, which has lost more than 95% of its value since 2019.
The four other hold-ups on Friday concluded in partial pay-outs with a total of $60,000 cash given to the assailants, most of whom were arrested while one went into hiding.
Jawad Slim entered a branch of LGB Bank in Beirut’s Ramlet al-Bayda area on Friday morning.
By nightfall, he agreed with the bank to leave with $15,000 in U.S. dollars and a cheque for $35,000 which he could cash in at a haircut, his brother told local media.
Security forces took him into custody but it was not immediately clear what charges would be pressed.
Separately, Lebanese citizen Mohammad al-Moussawi got $20,000 in cash from his account at the Banque Libano-Francaise bank after threatening employees with a fake gun.
“This banking system is tricking us and it’s worth my shoe,” he said, telling Reuters he would be going into hiding. BLF confirmed the incident took place.
In the fifth incident on Friday afternoon, a former member of the military got $25,000 in cash from his account at a BankMed branch outside of Beirut after firing shots inside the branch and threatening to commit suicide if he did not get the full amount, an industry source told Reuters.
The source said the man handed the money to his mother and was subsequently detained by security forces.
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Reporting by Timour Azhari, Laila Bassam and Issam Abdallah; Writing by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean, Toby Chopra and Richard Chang
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Texas Bans Social Media Apps From Censoring Users Due To viewpoint
Texas Bans Social Media Apps From Censoring Users Due To “viewpoint” https://digitalalabamanews.com/texas-bans-social-media-apps-from-censoring-users-due-to-viewpoint/
Platforms like Twitter and Facebook are facing what may be a lengthy lawsuit ahead as it was ruled in Texas that they cannot censor users based on their political viewpoints.
TX law bans social media apps from banning users due to “viewpoint” (Bloomberg)
A Texas law was sustained by a US appeals court on Friday, prohibiting large social media companies with at least 50 million monthly active users from censoring their users on account of “viewpoint”.
The state’s decision comes as an unprecedented measure that limits the tech industry’s ability to micromanage accounts and discourses, something social media companies claim would allow their platforms to become a “stronghold of dangerous content”.
Based in New Orleans, Louisiana, the 3-0 ruling by the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, is considered the groundwork that would lead to the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the law, which conservatives and right-wing commentators expressed as critical to preventing “Big Tech” from censoring their views.
Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the ruling, which was passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature and signed by its Republican governor: “Today we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say”.
The tech groups concerned in the ruling – and thus recorded a legal loss on Friday – included NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which count Meta Platforms’ (META.O) Facebook, Twitter (TWTR.N), and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube as members, which have sought to regulate user content when they believe it may incite violence, raising concerns that unregulated platforms will enable extremists such as Nazi supporters, terrorists, and hostile foreign governments.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association on Friday expressed its dismay with forcing private companies to provide equal treatment to all viewpoints.
“‘God Bless America’ and ‘Death to America’ are both viewpoints, and it is unwise and unconstitutional for the state of Texas to compel a private business to treat those the same,” it said in a statement, as some conservatives labeled the social media platforms’ practices as abusive, pointing to Twitter’s permanent suspension of former US President Donald Trump from the platform shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters, after which Twitter had cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” as a reason.
The ruling allows either users or the Texas attorney general to sue to enforce the law, as the ruling was praised as a “massive victory for the constitution and free speech” by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The included parties have a stronger case for petitioning the Supreme Court to hear the matter due to the 5th Circuit ruling conflicts with part of a ruling by the 11th Circuit, which is based in Atlanta, and which has previously found in May that most of a similar Florida law violates the companies’ free speech rights and thus cannot be implemented.
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Trump Openly Embraces, Amplifies QAnon Conspiracy Theories https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-openly-embraces-amplifies-qanon-conspiracy-theories-2/
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.
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AP News Summary At 2:31 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-231-a-m-edt/
Royal fans give London tourism a bump amid UK economic woes
LONDON (AP) — Hotels, restaurants and shops are packed as royal fans pour into the heart of London to experience the flag-lined roads, pomp-filled processions and brave a mileslong line for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to bid adieu to Queen Elizabeth II. Visitors crowding into central London from as far away as the U.S. and India for the historic moment are giving a boost to businesses at a time when the British economy is facing a cost-of-living crisis fueled by the highest inflation in four decades and predictions of a looming recession. The overall economic boost might be limited because Monday has been declared a public holiday for the queen’s funeral. But experts said renewed interest in the royal family could sustain tourism demand.
King stands vigil; Wait to see queen’s coffin hits 24 hours
LONDON (AP) — A surging tide of people — ranging from London retirees to former England soccer captain David Beckham — have lined up to file past Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin as it lies in state at Parliament. So many have shown up that authorities called a temporary halt Friday to others joining the miles-long queue. The waiting line reopened late Friday afternoon. Still the British government warned the waiting time to see the queen’s coffin had climbed to more than 24 hours. King Charles III on Friday visited Llandaff Cathedral in Wales for a prayer service in honor of his late mother. Later in the evening, Charles and his three siblings stood vigil around queen’s flag-draped coffin in London.
Ukrainian president: Burial site contains torture victims
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Investigators searching through a mass burial site in Ukraine have found evidence that some of the dead were tortured, including bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks. That’s according to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who spoke Friday. The site near Izium was recently recaptured from Russian forces. It appears to be one of the largest of its kind discovered in Ukraine. Zelenskyy rushed out a video statement just hours after the exhumations began, apparently to underscore the gravity of the discovery.
Military intel chief says Putin can’t achieve Ukraine goal
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon’s intelligence chief says Russian forces have shown themselves incapable of achieving President Vladimir Putin’s initial objectives in Ukraine, as things stand now. Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier spoke on Friday to an intelligence and national security forum outside Washington. He said Putin is at a point where he will have to revise his initial aims in invading Ukraine. Berrier said what Putin decides next will determine how long the conflict continues. His comments followed Russian forces latest major setback, a Ukrainian offensive that drove Russians out of a large swath of northeast Ukraine. Putin on Friday vowed to keep pressing his offensive.
Voter challenges, records requests swamp election offices
Election conspiracy theorists are flooding local election offices with voter challenges and public records requests. The wave of inquiries is adding to the already heavy workload those offices face as they scramble to prepare for November’s elections. Election officials say many of the challenges they’re receiving contest the presence on voter rolls of people who already are being removed or have the right to be registered. At a minimum, it takes time for election offices to record all the challenges. And if some of the targeted voters cast ballots in November, there could be a fight over whether to count their votes.
Abrams’ strategy to boost turnout: Early voting commitments
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is launching an intensive effort to get out the vote by urging potential supporters to cast in-person ballots the first week of early voting as she tries to navigate the state’s new election laws. The strategy, outlined to The Associated Press by Abrams’ top aides, is a shift from 2018, when she spent generously in her first gubernatorial bid to encourage voters to use mail ballots. It also moves away from Democrats’ pandemic-era emphasis on mail voting, a push that delivered Georgia’s electoral votes to President Joe Biden and helped Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win concurrent U.S. Senate runoffs.
US asks appeals court to lift judge’s Mar-a-Lago probe hold
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court 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 made the request Friday with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta. It says the judge’s hold is impeding the “government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security” and interfering with its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago. It says the hold needs to be lifted immediately so work can resume.
Trump openly embraces, amplifies QAnon conspiracy theories
Donald Trump is increasingly embracing and endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to the movement rises. Using his Truth Social platform, Trump this week reposted an image of himself overlaid with the words “the Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the storm refers to Trump’s final victory, when his opponents supposedly will be tried and possibly executed. It’s among dozens of recent Q-related posts from the Republican former president, who also ended a rally with a QAnon song. Experts who study QAnon say Trump may be trying to rally his most stalwart supporters as investigations into his conduct escalate.
Biden meets with families of Whelan, Griner at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden met with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan. The meetings Friday at the White House are the first face-to-face encounter between the president and the relatives of Griner and Whelan. Administration officials say the sessions are meant to underscore Biden’s commitment to bringing home Americans held overseas and to establish a personal connection, but are not an indication that negotiations with Russia for their release have reached a breakthrough. A national security spokesman told reporters Friday that the U.S. had made a serious offer to get the Americans home but the Russians had not responded to that offer.
Surprise is key part of migrant travel from Florida, Texas
EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took the playbook of a fellow Republican, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to a new level by catching officials flat-footed in Martha’s Vineyard with two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants. An immigration attorney says the migrants had “no idea of where they were going or where they were.” Providing little or no information is part of the plan. On Friday, the migrants were being moved voluntarily to a military base on nearby Cape Cod. Before going to the wealthy Massachusetts island, a woman in San Antonio showered them with gifts and promised jobs and housing.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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2022 SEC Football Predictions | Week 3 https://digitalalabamanews.com/2022-sec-football-predictions-week-3/
Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022
#1 Georgia (2-0, 0-0 SEC) at South Carolina (1-1, 0-1 SEC)
Noon ET | Columbia, SC | ESPN
It’s still a little early for Beamer Ball to be in full effect. It’s up and running, but Georgia loves serving reality checks to teams who feel they are on the rise (see 2021 Arkansas game in Fayetteville).
The Gamecocks need to look for the small victories to build on and scoring a touchdown against Georgia’s defense will be a legit building block.
PREDICTION: Georgia 27, South Carolina 10
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Youngstown State (2-0) at #9 Kentucky (2-0, 1-0 SEC)
Noon ET | Lexington, KY | SEC Network
Expect the entire Stoops family tree to be in attendance for this game. Kentucky is ranked No. 9 in the country and coming off a huge win last week in Gainesville. Youngstown State will frustrate the Wildcats in a game that will resemble the opening week win over THE Miami University of Ohio.
PREDICTION: Kentucky 31, Youngstown State 20
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Abilene Christian (2-0) at Missouri (1-1, 0-0 SEC)
Noon ET | Columbia, MO | ESPN+/SECN+
The only team trying to beat up a school with the name “Christian” in it is Missouri. That’s a brave move when you’re playing in the Bible Belt SEC.
PREDICTION: Missouri 34, Abilene Christian 6
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#20 Ole Miss (2-0, 0-0 SEC) at Georgia Tech (1-1)
3:30 pm ET | Atlanta, GA | ABC
This is a fun game for football fans who are old enough (and/or just love the history of the SEC) to remember Georgia Tech was a member of the SEC. I know it’s hard for some of the young’uns out there to comprehend that Georgia Tech is anything more than the alma mater of Jeff Foxworthy.
Lane and Juice Kiffin will bring a high-powered Rebels offense to Bobby Dodd Stadium and leave a winner.
PREDICTION: Ole Miss 41, Georgia Tech 21
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#22 Penn State (2-0) at Auburn (2-0, 0-0 SEC)
3:30 pm ET | Auburn, AL | CBS
I know it sounds crazy, but underperforming Auburn teams love to put together a great show at home at least once per season (See Iron Bowl 2021. See Iron Bowl 2019. See Iron Bowl 2017). Don’t be surprised when the defense starts swinging that pressure treated YellaWood pine on James Franklin and the visiting Nittany Lions of Penn State.
PREDICTION: Auburn 17, Penn State 13
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Vanderbilt (1-1, 0-0 SEC) at Northern Illinois (1-1)
3:30 pm ET | DeKalb, IL | CBSSN
You read that right. Vanderbilt is traveling to DeKalb, Illinois, this weekend to take on Northern Illinois.
Here’s some history on DeKalb according to Wikipedia:
The city is named after decorated Franconian-French war hero Johann de Kalb, who died during the American Revolutionary War.
So, there you have it. Nobody comes into Johann de Kalb’s house and pushes the Huskies around. Well, some might, but Vanderbilt will not.
PREDICTION: Northern Illinois 35, Vanderbilt 32
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Louisiana-Monroe (1-1) at #2 Alabama (2-0, 0-0 SEC)
4:00 pm ET | Tuscaloosa, AL | SEC Network
Will Alabama ever be Alabama again after having the audacity to only win by one point in Austin, Texas?
PREDICTION: Alabama 52, Louisiana-Monroe 0
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Mississippi State (2-0, 0-0 SEC) at LSU (1-1, 0-0 SEC)
6:00 pm ET | Baton Rouge, LA | ESPN
Brian Kelly and the talent crawling all over the LSU sideline can’t look mediocre every week. Expect the college football world to crown Brian Kelly king of football after beating the Bulldogs Saturday night in Baton Rouge.
PREDICTION: LSU 42, Mississippi State 27
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Missouri State (2-0) at #10 Arkansas (2-0, 1-0 SEC)
7:00 p.m. | Fayetteville, AR | ESPN+/SECN+
Arkansas is finally living up to the hype I’ve been throwing their way for the last five years. Sam Pittman has the Hogs oinking like some bosses.
PREDICTION: Arkansas 34, Missouri State 6
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Akron (1-1) at #15 Tennessee (2-0, 0-0 SEC)
7:00 pm ET | Knoxville, TN | ESPN+/SECN+
Y’all seeing Tennessee over there in Knoxville? Well, you better.
PREDICTION: Tennessee 47, Akron 13
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South Florida (1-1) at #18 Florida (1-1, 0-1 SEC)
7:30 pm ET | Gainesville, FL | SEC Network
Florida gets back on track after losing to Kentucky again last week.
PREDICTION: Florida 31, South Florida 10
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#13 Miami (2-0) at #24 Texas A&M (1-1, 0-0 SEC)
9:00 pm ET | College Station, TX | ESPN
Want to spend $1.5 million and lose a home football game? There’s an App (State) for that.
The U sends College Station into an absolute frenzy of hatred for its head coach and the program that some had predicted would be in the College Football Playoff at season’s end.
PREDICTION: Miami 28, Texas A&M 24
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US Justice Department Appeals Halt Of Trump Classified Docs Review Capital News
US Justice Department Appeals Halt Of Trump Classified Docs Review » Capital News https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-justice-department-appeals-halt-of-trump-classified-docs-review-capital-news/
Washington (AFP), Sep 17 – The US Justice Department on Friday appealed in part a judge’s decision to halt the review of seized documents from former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate, asking to continue its investigation of those materials marked as classified.
Federal investigators have been blocked since last week from reviewing thousands of documents taken by the FBI from Trump’s seaside mansion, after a judge sided with the former president and decided to appoint an independent arbiter to sort through the files.
The Justice Department, in its filing Friday evening, argued that Judge Aileen Cannon “fundamentally erred in appointing a special master and granting injunctive relief,” but would limit its appeal to just the “roughly 100 records bearing classification markings,” recovered from Trump’s estate.
Delaying the review of the classified documents, which it argues are government property, “impedes the government’s efforts to protect the Nation’s security,” the Justice Department said.
“It also irreparably harms the government by enjoining critical steps of an ongoing criminal investigation and needlessly compelling disclosure of highly sensitive records, including to Plaintiff’s counsel,” the filing added, referring to Trump’s lawyers.
Trump is facing mounting legal pressure, with the Justice Department saying top-secret documents were “likely concealed” to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials.
He has denied all wrongdoing, and said the raid on his mansion was “one of the most egregious assaults on democracy in the history of our country,” while making it a major talking point at his political rallies.
The appeal will be heard first by a three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit, but could ultimately wind up at the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, Judge Cannon appointed Raymond Dearie to review the files, as the so-called special master.
The 78-year-old senior federal judge in New York was one of two people proposed by Trump’s legal team.
Dearie issued an order on Friday for Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department counsel to meet with him in New York early next week.
Agenda items for the Tuesday meeting are to be submitted by either side by the close of business on Monday, Dearie ordered.
In addition to the documents probe, Trump faces investigations in New York into his business practices, as well as legal scrutiny over his efforts to overturn results of the 2020 election, and for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
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Ayres May Get 60 Days For 1/6 Role https://digitalalabamanews.com/ayres-may-get-60-days-for-1-6-role/
The U.S. government is recommending a Champion man serve 60 days in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the nation’s Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Attorneys on both sides of the case involving Stephen Ayres submitted memos this week to U.S. Judge John D. Bates of the District of Columbia District Court, who set the sentencing hearing for Thursday.
Stephen Ayres, 39, of Carolewood Circle NW, pleaded guilty June 8 as part of a plea agreement his lawyer reached with prosecutors in May. He remains free on bond.
Ayres, through his attorney Eugene Ohm, asked the court to sentence him to probation and community service.
At the beginning of a 19-page memorandum to the court, Ohm writes his client “is a devoted husband and father to a 1-year-old son and a 10-year-old stepson.” At the time of his arrest, Ayres was working as a supervisor for KraftMaid Cabinetry in Middlefield.
“Because of his mistakes on January 6th, he was terminated from that job — a place he had worked for 20 years beginning in high school,” Ohm states. “This termination — and more specifically, his mistake on January 6th — wreaked havoc on Mr. Ayres’ life.”
THOUGHTS OF A FRIEND
The defense memo also talks about Ayres’ emotional sufferings, especially from the tragic loss of his co-defendant and high school friend Matthew Perna. Ohm’s memo stated that Perna killed himself largely because of the pressures of this case after Perna pleaded guilty to federal charges late last year.
“Mr. Ayres thinks of Mr. Perna every day,” Ohm wrote, noting that Perna had conveyed to his client that he felt responsible that Ayres had been charged.
Ohm stated his client is deeply ashamed to be categorized as a rioter who attacked the Capitol.
“Mr. Ayres has spent considerable time reflecting on what led him to be part of January 6th, how his loyalty to a president somehow led him to becoming — to the world — an insurrectionist.”
In live testimony in June to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, Ayres said he no longer follows politics as closely and is off social media entirely. In his sentencing memo, Ohm reiterated this issue.
“He (Ayres) recognizes the deep divisions that still exist in politics, and he is determined that extracting himself from them is the only way to ensure that he remains focused on what is and has always been his greatest priority — his family,” Ohm wrote.
According to the memo, Jan. 6 was the first political rally Ayres attended upon an invitation from Perna, who gave him a ride to Washington, D.C.
“Ayres… wanted to see President Trump speak and had no designs of going to the Capitol,” Ohm wrote.
But as Ayres told the house committee, Trump had told him to march to the Capitol.
According to the memo, Ayres waited until the end of the rally and joined the crowd, wondering if the president would be speaking again.
The memo said Ayres has no excuse for making the poor choice to walk into the building.
“But he entered and walked around for about ten minutes, never departing from the velvet ropes from the hallway. Then he left and went outside,” Ohm writes.
A footnote in the memo stated that Ayres had remained in the general area until a Trump tweet at 4:17 p.m. that day urged all to leave the area.
Ohm also talks about Ayres’ decision to testify before the House committee.
“While he first faced scorn when he was arrested, he was met with anger and was even abandoned by some close to him after he testified. But Mr. Ayres did what he had to do and became a cooperating witness albeit in a nontraditional sense,” Ohm writes.
Ayres was asked by the government to help by assisting in the prosecution of others for the aftermath of what happened on Jan. 6 and help in determining what steps the government can take to ensure that this would never happen again.
“Ayres did everything that was asked,” Ohms writes, noting that Ayres provided testimony on three occasions, twice in person in D.C.
GOVERNMENT MEMO
In its 18-page memo, assistant U.S. Attorney Nihar Moharity — in addition to the short prison term — recommends that Ayres serve one-year of supervised release, do 60 hours of community service and pay $500 in restitution.
Ayres participated in an attack that forced the interruption of Congress’ certification of the 2020 Electoral College vote count, threatened the peaceful transfer of power, injured more than 100 police officers and resulted in more than $2.7 million in losses, which accounts for damage to the Capitol building and grounds, costs borne by the Capitol Police and cost of repairs.
Ayres had pleaded guilty to one count of committing disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
Moharity wrote she thinks 60 days is appropriate based on Ayres’ social media statements prior to Jan. 6 that stated members of Congress, Chief Justice John Roberts and Vice President Mike Pence had committed treason and “were now put on notice.” She also noted Ayres’ entry into the building and posting images of the riot on social media as well as agreeing with another person in a YouTube video posted after the attack that the purpose of the riot was “to expose Pence as a traitor.”
“The Court must also consider that Ayres’ conduct on January 6, like the conduct of hundreds of other rioters, took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm police, breach the Capitol and disrupt the proceedings,” the government lawyer wrote.
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Breaches Of Voting Machine Data Raise Midterm Fears
Breaches Of Voting Machine Data Raise Midterm Fears https://digitalalabamanews.com/breaches-of-voting-machine-data-raise-midterm-fears/
ATLANTA (AP) — Sensitive voting system passwords posted online. Copies of confidential voting software available for download. Ballot-counting machines inspected by people not supposed to have access.
The list of suspected security breaches at local election offices since the 2020 election keeps growing, with investigations underway in at least three states — Colorado, Georgia and Michigan. The stakes appeared to rise this week when the existence of a federal probe came to light involving a prominent loyalist to former President Donald Trump who has been promoting voting machine conspiracy theories across the country.
While much remains unknown about the investigations, one of the most pressing questions is what it all could mean for security of voting machines with the midterm elections less than two months away.
Election security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November voting. Election officials already assume hostile foreign governments might have the sensitive data, and so they take precautions to protect their voting systems.
The more immediate concern is the possibility that rogue election workers, including those sympathetic to lies about the 2020 presidential election, might use their access to election equipment and the knowledge gained through the breaches to launch an attack from within. That could be intended to gain an advantage for their desired candidate or party, or to introduce system problems that would sow further distrust in the election results.
In some of the suspected security breaches, authorities are investigating whether local officials provided unauthorized access to people who copied software and hard drive data, and in several cases shared it publicly.
After the Georgia breach, a group of election security experts said the unauthorized copying and sharing of election data from rural Coffee County presented “serious threats” to the November election. They urged the state election board to replace the touchscreen devices used throughout the state and use only hand-marked paper ballots.
Harri Hursti, a leading expert in voting security, said he is concerned about another use of the breached data. Access to the voting equipment data or software can be used to develop a realistic looking video in which someone claims to have manipulated a voting system, he said.
Such a fake video posted online or to social media on or after Election Day could create chaos for an election office and cause voters to challenge the accuracy of the results.
“If you have those rogue images, now you can start manufacturing false, compelling evidence — false evidence of wrongdoing that never happened,” Hursti said. “You can start creating very compelling imaginary evidence.”
There has been no evidence that voting machines have been manipulated, either during the 2020 election or in this year’s primaries. But conspiracy theories widely promoted among some conservatives have led to calls for replacing the machines with hand-marked and hand-counted ballots and raised concerns that they could be targeted by people working inside election offices or at polling places.
The suspected breaches appear to be orchestrated or encouraged by people who falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. In several of the cases, employees of local election offices or election boards gave access to voting systems to people who were not authorized to have it. The incidents emerged into public view after the voting system passwords for Mesa County, Colorado, were posted online, prompting a local investigation and a successful effort to replace the county clerk from overseeing elections.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has organized or attended forums around the U.S. peddling conspiracy theories about voting machines, said this week that he had received a subpoena from a federal grand jury investigating the breach in Colorado and was ordered to hand over his cellphone to FBI agents who approached him at a fast-food restaurant in Minnesota.
“And they told me not to tell anybody,” Lindell said in a video afterward. “OK, I won’t. But I am.”
Lindell and others have been traveling the country over the past year, holding events where attendees are told that voting machines have been corrupted, that officials are “selected” rather than elected and that widespread fraud cost Trump the 2020 election.
In an interview with the Star Tribune of Minneapolis, Lindell said FBI agents questioned him about the Colorado breach and Dominion Voting Systems. The company provides voting equipment used in about 30 states and has had its machines targeted in the Colorado, Georgia and Michigan breaches.
When agents asked him why he flies between different states, Linden told them, “I’m going to attorney generals and politicians, and I’m trying to get them to get rid of these voting machines in our country.”
The Justice Department did not respond when asked for details about its investigation.
Dominion has sued Lindell and others, accusing them of defamation. In a statement this week, the company said it would not comment about ongoing investigations but said its systems are secure. It noted that no credible evidence has been provided to show that its machines “did anything other than count votes accurately and reliably in all states.”
The scope of the federal grand jury probe in Colorado isn’t known, but local authorities have charged Mesa County clerk Tina Peters in what they described as a “deceptive scheme which was designed to influence public servants, breach security protocols, exceed permissible access to voting equipment and set in motion the eventual distribution of confidential information to unauthorized people.”
Peters has pleaded not guilty and said she had the authority to investigate concerns that the voting equipment had been manipulated. She has appeared at numerous events with Lindell over the past year, including Lindell’s “cybersymposium” last August in which a digital copy of Mesa County’s election management system was distributed.
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who now leads the Center for Election Innovation & Research, notes the irony of those who raise alarms about voting equipment being involved in allegations of breaches of the same systems.
“The people who have been attacking the integrity of elections are destroying the actual integrity of elections,” he said.
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Andalusia Crushes Montgomery Academy In Top-10 Showdown
Andalusia Crushes Montgomery Academy In Top-10 Showdown https://digitalalabamanews.com/andalusia-crushes-montgomery-academy-in-top-10-showdown/
Andalusia has remained somewhat of a mystery to veteran coach Trent Taylor this season despite winning its first four games in runaway fashion.
“We hadn’t really been challenged,” Taylor said. “I got on ‘em this week and told them they wouldn’t find out if they’re getting better until they played a team like Montgomery Academy. We didn’t know if we had improved because we had been playing some young teams. I told them we’ve got to make sure we’re going to practice and doing the things we’ve got to do to get better.”
Class 4A, No. 3-ranked Andalusia then defeated No. 7-ranked Montgomery Academy on Friday night, using a combined 19 plays to score all its points in a 49-7 rout in a Class 4A, Region 2 game at McLemore Field in Montgomery.
The Bulldogs raced to a 28-0 lead in the first quarter as running back J’Marion Burnette scored on a 33-yard run on Andalusia’s third play from scrimmage and linebacker Kam Weaver scored on a 90-yard return of an intercepted screen pass. Burnette then scored on a 4-yard run after a blocked punt when he flicked off a defender with a stiff-arm and quarterback Jack Lathrop scrambled and dumped a pass to Cedric Sinkfield, who sprinted 40 yards for a TD.
And the Bulldogs weren’t even set up to block the punt. A punt safe was on but Dorean Crittenden smothered it at the Eagles’ 20.
Burnette, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound junior, finished with 134 yards on nine carries — all in the first half — and added a 66-yard TD run in the second quarter when the right side of his offensive line folded up the Eagles’ defense, leaving him untouched until he was congratulated by his teammates.
Crittenden broke an 80-yard TD run on Andalusia’s first play of the second half, and Zerrick Jones was also untouched on a 33-yard scoring run midway through the fourth quarter.
“They’ve got a heckuva football team and we didn’t help ourselves either,” said Montgomery Academy coach Robert Johnson, whose team reached the Super 7 last year in Class 3A before moving up to 4A.
The Eagles had four turnovers, including three first-half interceptions by quarterbacks Carson Springer and Parker Cook.
“Even if we had played mistake-free football, it’s not like we were going to beat them,” Johnson said. “Make it more competitive, maybe. We can’t make those kind of mistakes and hang with a team like that. Our guys have got to learn if we don’t play better and execute better, we’ll get embarrassed.”
The Bulldogs (5-0 overall, 3-0 in 4A, Region 2) have outscored their opponents 219-54 this season for the first 5-0 start in Taylor’s eight years at his alma mater. Andalusia has lost five times in the semifinals during Taylor’s tenure but said he senses his team has the intangibles to win Andalusia’s first state championship since 1977.
“I told this bunch back in January when we were starting the offseason program, ‘Guys, you are special,’” Taylor said. “You could see a difference. They have a hunger.”
Stars of the game: Burnette and Andalusia’s offensive line, which dominated the line of scrimmage and led the way to 290 yards on the ground.
“They had to have played well,” Taylor said of his starting line of center Collin Davis, guards Dawson Rhodes and Mark Hart, and tackles Kol Petrey and Brody Stewart.
The Bulldogs had only one run stopped for a loss and that was with the backups playing most of the second half.
Burnette, who speaks softer than he plays, suffered a knee sprain two weeks ago and was held out last week.
“It’s fine,” he said. “We’ve got a great offensive line. They do it all. We have great relationships. Everybody loves each other.”
Added Taylor, “It was good to see J’Marion back out there getting after it.”
Stat sheet: Montgomery Academy had more first downs (14-10) but was 2-of-12 on third down, … The Eagles controlled the ball for 33½ of the game’s 48 minutes. … Lathrop threw his first interception this season but Andalusia has only two turnovers in five games. … The Bulldogs faced only three third downs … The Eagles’ touchdown came on an 18-yard pass from Springer to Bryson Lilly late in the game, which was played with a running clock in the second half.
By the numbers: 68-1, Andalusia’s record since 2000 when scoring 40 or more points … 1-29, Montgomery Academy’s record since 2000 when giving up more than 40 points … 11, yards per carry this season for Burnette. … 75, victories for Taylor at Andalusia. He can tie two-time state champion Don Sharpe as the school’s winningest coach with one more victory. The Bulldogs have had some of the state’s coaching luminaries, including Rick Rhodes, Doug Barfield, Wayne Trawick and R.L. Watson.
Game within the game: Montgomery Academy was held to 73 yards rushing, 128 below its average.
“They have five senior offensive linemen, so we were concerned about that,” Taylor said.
What’s next?: Andalusia (5-0, 3-0) visits Bibb County on Sept. 23 and Montgomery Academy (3-2, 2-1) visits Alabama Christian in non-region games.
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Theodore Rallies From 14-0 Deficit To Top Spanish Fort
Theodore Rallies From 14-0 Deficit To Top Spanish Fort https://digitalalabamanews.com/theodore-rallies-from-14-0-deficit-to-top-spanish-fort/
Theodore quarterback Cameron Rigby completed only 5 of his first 13 passes for 48 yards.
But three of his next four throws went for touchdowns as the fifth-ranked Class 6A Bobcats rallied for a 29-21 win at Spanish Fort.
“If you’re going to take away our run, we can throw it around, too,” said Theodore coach Eric Collier. “I’m so proud of how our guys went above and beyond to keep playing hard all night long.”
The Bobcats fell behind 14-0 before scoring touchdowns on the last play of the first half and their first offensive play of the second half to tie the game.
Spanish Fort’s defense dominated early. Three minutes into the game, Rigby was pressured by Javontae Walton as he tried to throw a middle screen. The pass was intercepted by Williams Anderson and returned 39 yards for a touchdown.
The Toros added to their lead with 4:04 left in the first half when Brayden Walker hooked up with Anthony Passarelli for a 24-yard catch and run.
Spanish Fort appeared to be in complete control at that point. But the Bobcats’ offense finally came alive with a 10-play drive that ended with Rigby finding Vandy commit Kam Johnson crossing the middle for a 14-yard touchdown 44 seconds before halftime.
Theodore’s swarming defense forced a quick three-and-out that was followed by a short punt to start the third quarter. The offensive responded with a 24-yard touchdown reception by Trey Glover.
Theodore took its first lead on its next possession. Rigby hit Johnson in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown and a 21-14 lead.
Spanish Fort responded to tie the game on a 35-yard bomb to UAB commit Jake Godfrey on the final play of the third quarter.
The game was tied for only two minutes. That’s how long it took Theodore to drive 60 yards in six plays. Brayden Jenkins scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 2-yard run. When Spanish Fort jumped offsides before the extra point kick, Theodore decided to go for 2. It was successful when Jenkins powered his way into the end zone.
Spanish Fort had one last chance to rally, but an impressive drive ended at the Theodore 23. The Bobcats then powered their way to two first downs to put the game away.
They said it: “The will to win is something special with this group. Even though we started slow our focus was really, really good all night.” — Collier
Star of the Game: Kam Johnson is almost impossible to cover with one defender because of his leaping ability and catch radius. “We call him 6-5,” Collier said, referring to the receiver’s height.
Did you know? Theodore had yielded only 16 points total in its first four games before Spanish Fort scored 14 early points and 21 overall.
Stat of the game: Theodore had a balanced offense, rushing for 114 yards while passing for 115. Spanish Fort rushed for only 74 yards but passed for 152. That means Theodore outgained Spanish Fort 229-226.
By the numbers: Jenkins rushed for 103 yards on 25 carries. He now has 671 yards on the season. “We started off slow but in the second half I knew we had a good game plan,” Jenkins said. “We never quit.”
What’s next? Theodore will make the long trip to Lee County to face Class 7A power Opelika in one of the state’s marquee games. Spanish Fort takes on rival Daphne.
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Justice Dept. Appeals Judges Rulings On Classified Material In Mar-A-Lago Case
Justice Dept. Appeals Judge’s Rulings On Classified Material In Mar-A-Lago Case https://digitalalabamanews.com/justice-dept-appeals-judges-rulings-on-classified-material-in-mar-a-lago-case/
The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court Friday night to override parts of a judge’s order appointing a special master to review documents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and club, arguing that some of the terms hamper a critical national security investigation.
The appeals court filing comes a day after U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon appointed another federal judge, Raymond J. Dearie, to serve as special master and review the almost 11,000 documents seized in the FBI’s Aug. 8 search.
The new filing from the Justice Department notes that it disagrees with that decision but for the time being is asking the appeals court to intercede on two parts of Cannon’s ruling — one barring criminal investigators from using the seized material while the special master does his work, and another allowing the special master to review the roughly 100 classified documents seized as well as the nonclassified material.
The government filing asks for a stay of “only the portions of the order causing the most serious and immediate harm to the government and the public,” calling the scope of their request “modest but critically important.”
It’s unclear how long the special master review, or the appeals, might take, but the new filing asks the appeals court to rule on their request for a stay “as soon as practicable.”
Cannon ordered Dearie to complete his review by Nov. 30. She said he should prioritize 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 Oct. 17. And Trump’s lawyers had said a special master would need 90 days to complete a review.
Dearie, 78, was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan (R) after serving as a U.S. attorney. Fellow lawyers and colleagues in Brooklyn federal court describe him as an exemplary jurist who is well suited to the job of special master, having previously served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees sensitive national security cases.
The appeals court filing also argues that the very premise of Cannon’s order, as it relates to the classified material, makes little sense because classified documents are by definition the property of the government, not a former president or a private club.
Trump “has no claim for the return of those records, which belong to the government and were seized in a court-authorized search. The records are not subject to any possible claim of personal attorney-client privilege,” prosecutors wrote, adding that Trump has cited no legal authority “suggesting that a former President could successfully invoke executive privilege to prevent the Executive Branch from reviewing its own records.”
The Justice Department contends that Cannon’s instruction for intelligence officials to continue their risk assessment of the Mar-a-Lago case, while criminal investigators could not use that same material in their work, is highly impractical because the two tasks are “inextricably intertwined.”
That order “hamstrings that investigation and places the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) under a Damoclean threat of contempt should the court later disagree with how investigators disaggregated their previously integrated criminal-investigative and national-security activities,” the filing argues. “It also irreparably harms the government by enjoining critical steps of an ongoing criminal investigation and needlessly compelling disclosure of highly sensitive records, including to” Trump’s lawyers.
Prosecutors have also said the judge’s restriction on further investigation prevents them from determining if any other classified documents remain to be found — a potential ongoing national security risk — and the appeals filing says it also makes it harder for the FBI to determine if anyone accessed the documents they did recover.
“The court’s injunction restricts the FBI … from using the seized records in its criminal-investigative tools to assess which, if any, records were in fact disclosed, to whom, and in what circumstances,” the new filing says.
Similar arguments did not sway Cannon, who repeatedly expressed skepticism about the Justice Department claims, even on the question of whether the roughly 100 documents at the core of the case were classified. In her ruling Thursday, she rejected the argument that her decision will cause serious harm to the national security investigation. Evenhanded application of legal rules “does not demand unquestioning trust in the determinations of the Department of Justice,” the judge wrote.
Cannon, a Trump appointee confirmed by the U.S. Senate just days after Trump lost his bid for reelection, added that she still “firmly” believes that the appointment of a special master, and a temporary injunction against the Justice Department using the documents, is in keeping “with the need to ensure at least the appearance of fairness and integrity under unprecedented circumstances.”
The Justice Department is investigating Trump and his advisers for possible mishandling of classified information, as well as hiding or destroying government records — a saga that began last year when the National Archives and Records Administration became concerned that some items and documents that were presidential records, and therefore government property, were instead in Trump’s possession at his Florida club.
After months of discussions, Trump aides turned over about 15 boxes of material to the archives, and a review of those boxes turned up what officials say were 184 documents with classification markings, including some that were top secret.
After the FBI and Justice Department opened a criminal investigation, a subpoena was sent in May seeking the return of all documents marked classified. In response, a lawyer for Trump turned over 38 additional classified documents, and another Trump aide signed a document claiming they had conducted a diligent search for any remaining sensitive documents, prosecutors said.
“The FBI uncovered evidence that the response to the grand-jury subpoena was incomplete, that classified documents likely remained at Mar-a-Lago, and that efforts had likely been undertaken to obstruct the investigation,” the filing says in describing the decision to get a court order to search Mar-a-Lago.
That search, officials said, turned up roughly 100 more classified documents, including some that were at the highest level of classification.
Two weeks after that search, Trump’s lawyers filed court papers seeking the appointment of a special master to review the seized material and hold aside any documents covered by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege.
Executive privilege is a loosely defined legal concept meant to safeguard the privacy of presidential communications from other branches of government, but in this case Trump’s legal team has suggested the former president can invoke it against the current executive branch.
The government’s appeals argument also tries to demolish the suggestion that Trump may have declassified the material while he was president, noting that his legal team has never claimed he did so at any point in the long months of negotiating the return of the documents, and since the raid has only suggested he might have or could have declassified them.
In buying that reasoning, Judge Cannon “erred in granting extraordinary relief based on unsubstantiated possibilities,” the Justice Department lawyers wrote.
Read More…
First Down Friday Night Week 4 September 16th 2022
First Down Friday Night Week 4 – September 16th, 2022 https://digitalalabamanews.com/first-down-friday-night-week-4-september-16th-2022/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Region play began to heat up in the AHSAA. We’ve got several key matchups on the latest episode of FOX 54’s First Down Friday Night.
– Grissom vs Sparkman
– Florence vs James Clemens
– Huntsville vs Bob Jones
– Rogers vs West Morgan
– Hazel Green vs Decatur
– Lee vs Cullman
– Athens vs Mae Jemison
– Randolph vs Westminster Christian
– St. John Paul II vs North Jackson
AHSAA Football Scoreboard
Week 4 Results
CLASS 7A
Auburn 58, Lee-Montgomery 7
Austin 47, Albertville 10
Dothan 57, Smiths Station 43
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
CLASS 6A
Athens 47, Mae Jemison 6
Blount 18, Baldwin County 9
Clay-Chalkville 56, Center Point 19
Cullman 53, Lee-Huntsville 13
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
Pike Road 16, Eufaula 10 (OT)
Sidney Lanier 28, Park Crossing 12
Theodore 29, Spanish Fort 21
Wetumpka 49, Russel County 7
Woodlawn 27, Mortimer Jordan 21
CLASS 5A
Alexandria 33, Springville 15
Beauregard 26, Charles Henderson 14
Carroll 33, Seminole County (GA) 3
Demopolis 49, Clarke County 13
Fairview 50, West Point 7
Faith Academy 43, Citronelle 0
Jasper 45, Wenonah 7
Marbury 22, Tallassee 20
Pleasant Grove 53, Hayden 0
Ramsay 48, Fairfield 14
Selma 36, Greenville 6
UMS-Wright 10, Vigor 7
Williamson 20, B.C. Rain 0
CLASS 4A
Andalusia 49, Montgomery Academy 7
Anniston 49, White Plains 13
B.T. Washington 34, Slocomb 14
Central-Florence 35, Brooks 28
Cherokee County 49, Hanceville 15
Cordova 41, Hamilton 21
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
Handley 26, Central, Clay County 15
Jackson 30, Bayside Academy 10
Madison County 28, DAR 0
Montgomery Catholic 62, Geneva 0
Munford 42, Cleburne County 28
Oak Grove 41, Curry 26
Oneonta 51, Fultondale 13
North Jackson 21, St. John Paul II Catholic 14
Randolph 53, Westminster Christian 20
West Blocton 7, Montevallo 6
West Limestone 48, East Lawrence 13
West Morgan 35, Rogers 16
Class 3A
Dadeville 22, Walter Wellborn 14
Daleville 16, Northside Methodist 15
Excel 31, Flomaton 24
Gordo 49, Tarrant 0
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
Opp 28, Pike County 27
Plainview 28, Glencoe 7
Prattville Christian 28, Greensboro 14
Randolph County 20, Weaver 0
Saint James 56, Slouthside-Selma 14
Straughn 41, Ashford 12
Susan Moore 29, Vinemont 22
Thomasville 12, Cottage Hill Christian 7
Trinity Presbyterian 38, Sylacauga 7
W.S. Neal 28, Hillcrst-Evergreen 27
CLASS 2A
Ariton 35, Zion Chapel 0
Chickasaw 20, Francis Marion 6
Cleveland 40, Pleasant Valley 13
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
Luverne 26, Lanett 25
North Sand Mountain 54, Whitesburg Christian 28
Pisgah 42, Ider 10
Ranburne 40, Woodland 0
Reeltown 76, Barbour County 0
Thorsby 48, Central, Coosa 0
West End 51, Gaston 0
Wicksburg 29, Abbeville 8
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 38, JF Shields 0
Linden 62, RC Hatch 0
Loachapoka 50, Notasulga 14 (corrected score)
Lynn 49, Holy Spirit Catholic 13
Maplesville 56, Calhoun 0
Marion County 54, Berry 6
Meek 40, Phillips 6
Millry 46, Choctaw County 20
Ragland 32, Wadley 25
Spring Garden 33, Winterboro 16
Sweet Water 57, A.L. Johnson 0
Read More…
Auburn Football Fan Guide For Home Game Against Penn State
Auburn Football Fan Guide For Home Game Against Penn State https://digitalalabamanews.com/auburn-football-fan-guide-for-home-game-against-penn-state/
Auburn is undefeated. Two games, two wins. They went to Penn State and fell just short of a huge non-conference road win in 2021. Will the Tigers get payback against the Nittany Lions inside a raucous Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday?
Will there be orange uniforms? Are we prepared for this?
Here’s what you can expect in Auburn this Saturday.
THE GAME!
TIGER WALK: 12:30 p.m.
GATES OPEN: 12:30 p.m.
EAGLE FLIGHT: 2:10 p.m.
KICKOFF: 2:30 p.m.
TV: CBS
VENUE: Jordan-Hare Stadium
TICKETS: Available on StubHub, Vivid Seats and Seat Geek.
After winning the season opener against Mercer, Auburn beat San Jose State inside Jordan-Hare. It wasn’t pretty, but it’s still early and a win is a win.
Penn State enters Saturday with an undefeated record, including a conference win over Purdue. Last week, they dismantled Ohio 46-10 at home ahead of this week’s showdown.
The Auburn defense allowed a touchdown in every quarter in last year’s game in State College, while running back Tank Bigsby did all he could with 23 carries, 102 yards and two touchdowns.
Saturday could mark a turning point for each program, with Auburn and Penn State looking to ride a wave of momentum ahead of the rest of their respective conferences schedules.
It’s also the first CBS 2:30 p.m. broadcast, so if you can’t make the game in person, you have your old pals Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson to guide you through.
“SEC Nation” analysts Roman Harper (far left), Tim Tebow (center) and host Laura Rutledge on set before Alabama-Ole Miss kickoff Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. (Ben Flanagan / AL.com)
SEC NATION | THE PAUL FINEBAUM SHOW | MARTY & MCGEE
The SEC Network’s weekly pre-game show “SEC Nation” travels to The Plains to preview Auburn and Penn State this Satuday. The show will broadcast live from the Wellness Kitchen Green Space from 9-11 a.m. CST, Saturday, Sept. 17, on SEC Network.
Laura Rutledge hosts the show, her sixth season in the role and her seventh on the show overall, joined by Paul Finebaum, Roman Harper, Jordan Rodgers and Tim Tebow for a weekly breakdown of the SEC football action to come.
Additionally, “Marty & McGee” will broadcast live on Saturday morning from 8-9 a.m., with Smith and Ryan McGee blending Southern lifestyle and college football, on the road with “SEC Nation” every Saturday this fall.
The Wellness Kitchen Green Space will also host “The Paul Finebaum Show” Friday from 2-6 p.m.
ORANGE JERSEYS?!
Auburn plays said they want their Tigers in throwback orange jerseys for Saturday’s nonconference showdown with No. 22 Penn State for the “All Auburn, All Orange” game at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and an AL.com poll posted to Instagram showed 72 percent of fans (or 283 of the 395 fans who took the poll) want to see the throwback orange jerseys over the classic blue.
Auburn will wear orange facemasks Saturday in the spirit of the “Orange Out,” and even head coach Bryan Harsin said this week he’s for it. “I might like it,” Harsin said Wednesday when asked about potential orange jerseys during the weekly SEC coaches teleconference. “I’ve seen the orange jerseys, from the past, and yeah, I think that’s something that Auburn’s done, so it’s not too farfetched, but at the same time, I also think too it’s something that people would be excited about, especially your younger crowds, I’m sure, would be excited about it.”
The Orange Out is Auburn’s answer to Penn State’s traditional “White Out,” when nearly 110,000 fans wear all-white to Beaver Stadium for the team’s biggest home game of the year — which they did last season when Auburn came to town.
Do you want to see orange jerseys in Jordan-Hare on Saturday?
CASH-FREE
All transactions for tickets, concessions and merchandise locations at Jordan-Hare Stadium will be cashless (credit cards only).
PARKING & TRAFFIC
Season-Long and Single-Game Public Parking Passes are on-sale now and can be purchased online You can contact the Bruno Event Team: auparking@brunoeventteam.com or (205) 262-2848. Additional single-game parking passes are also on sale now through RevelXP.
Fans can park in two newly constructed parking lots in downtown Auburn with one located on Wright Street and the other on Burton Street. Access to the lots is open to the public and available for purchase in-person on a day of game basis.
An exit has been added to the Public Safety Lot. Those parked in the west side of the lot should exit toward Wire Road and follow the direction of law enforcement at intersections leading to Shug Jordan Parkway. Learn more about parking on the Auburn website.
Auburn shared the following updates for the 2022 season:
Duncan Drive – Extension: Duncan Drive has been extended between Samford Avenue and Woodfield Drive. The extension will provide an additional south bound outlet to S. College Street.
Donahue Drive – Northbound: Northbound traffic on Donahue Drive from Magnolia Avenue to MLK Drive (Alabama Highway 14) will be three lanes one way. The change will allow for more efficient egress for Tiger Transit Buses, as well as those that park in the business school and public safety lots.
Crosswalk Assistance – North and South Donahue: Attendants will be in place at Lem Morrison Drive and Donahue Drive, as well as Donahue Drive and Magnolia Avenue to assist with post-game traffic egress for fans on foot.
During home games, Tiger Transit runs special routes. Buses run for four hours prior to kickoff, intermittently throughout the game and for two hours post-game to return fans to their stops. You may face delay in arriving from and returning to all locations due to pre- and post-game traffic.
Tiger Transit also utilizes Doublemap/Transfer technology to let fans view buses in motion and the routes in real-time via internet and smartphone. Learn more.
TAILGATING
Home Plate Tailgate is located in the Plainsman Park parking lot. According to the Auburn gameday website, the space is free of charge and open to the public as a tailgating destination close to the action of Jordan-Hare Stadium. The site will open four hours prior to kickoff and feature TVs for live college football game viewing and tailgate games. Once in the area, fans will have access to restrooms and tents for shade. Food and beer will be available for purchase.
The Tiger Tailgate Show will again originate from the east side of Jordan-Hare Stadium three hours prior to kickoff.
Coke Fan Fest is a free pre-game entertainment area located in front of the Nichols Center on Donahue Drive. It opens four hours prior to kickoff and includes inflatable games, a live DJ, TVs for live college football game viewing and more.
Tailgating begins at 4 p.m. on Friday except for Mell Street Corridor, which begins at 6 p.m.
Reserving tailgating spots in grass areas using stakes, ropes, ribbons, tape, chairs, tables, tents, vehicles or other items is not allowed until 4 p.m. on Friday, except for Mell Street Corridor and specially permitted university events. Monitors will be placed in Mell Street areas to ensure that driving lanes and entrances to certain parking areas remain clear.
TIGER FAN FEST
Coca-Cola Tiger Fan Fest is Auburn’s free pregame interactive entertainment area located in front of the Nichols Center on Donahue Drive, just north of Auburn Arena and Jordan-Hare Stadium. Fan Fest offers fun for everyone in the family, from parents to young children. Features inflatable games for the kids and a live DJ.
STADIUM ENTRY / METAL DETECTORS
Fans are encouraged to arrive early to avoid delays. Gates and all stadium services open two hours prior to kick-off. Pre-game begins 20 minutes prior to kick-off. Walkthrough metal detectors will be in operation for the 2021 season. The units will be placed at gates 1 and 12 that do not require individuals to empty their pockets to expedite stadium entry. These gates will be express lines for individuals without bags. Individuals with bags will need to proceed to the next closest gate.
PROHIBITED ITEMS
The following items are prohibited from being brought into the stadium: Artificial noise makers, cameras with lenses over four inches, non-clear bags, outside food and drink, pets, stadium seats with arms, umbrellas, video cameras, and weapons (including pocket knives).
CLEAR BAG POLICY
The clear bag policy will remain in effect for the 2022 football season. Fans are encouraged to bring as few items as needed into the stadium. Bags must be clear plastic and not exceed 12-inches-by-6-inches-by-12-inches. One-gallon clear resealable plastic storage bags and small clutch purses not exceeding 4.5-inches-by-6.5-inches may be permitted into the stadium. Read the full policy.
FREE WATER
The weather has cooled some, but it will still in Auburn. Complimentary water refill stations are available throughout Jordan-Hare Stadium. Fans are allowed to bring in one empty water bottle for use at the complimentary water refill stations or one unopened factory-sealed bottle of water (up to one liter in size). You can also find cooling and hydration stations throughout the stadium.
CONCESSIONS
All transactions for concessions, merchandise and chairback locations at Jordan-Hare Stadium will be cashless (credit cards only).
Fans can even skip lines and order digitally for pickup at the stand nearest you by using your smartphone to select “CONCESSIONS” from the sidebar menu on the Auburn Athletics Official app. The dedicated pick-up window for Mobile Express orders will be available at concessions stands located behind sections 3, 28, 58, and 106.
WEATHER
Friday: Sunny skies with a high near 87, followed by mostly clear skies and an overnight low around 64.
Saturday: Sunny skies with a high near 88, followed by clear skies and an overnight low around 67.
Sunday: Sunny skies with a high near 89, followed by clear skies and an overnight low around...
Trump Openly Embraces, Amplifies QAnon Conspiracy Theories https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-openly-embraces-amplifies-qanon-conspiracy-theories/
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)
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.
Read More…
Phony Document Lands On Court Docket In Trump Search Case
Phony Document Lands On Court Docket In Trump Search Case https://digitalalabamanews.com/phony-document-lands-on-court-docket-in-trump-search-case/
President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate Aug. 31, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. A document purporting to be from the U.S. government and claiming the Treasury Department had information related to the search at Mar-a-Lago was a fabrication. A review of court documents and interviews by The Associated Press shows identical documents were filed in a separate case brought by a federal inmate at a prison medical center in North Carolina. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
WASHINGTON — When a government document mysteriously appeared earlier this week in the highest profile case in the federal court system, it had the hallmarks of another explosive storyline in the Justice Department’s investigation into classified records stored at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
The document purported to be from the U.S. Treasury Department, claimed that the agency had seized sensitive documents related to last month’s search at Mar-a-Lago and included a warrant ordering CNN to preserve “leaked tax records.”
The document remained late Thursday on the court docket, but it is a clear fabrication. A review of dozens of court records and interviews by The Associated Press suggest the document originated with a serial forger behind bars at a federal prison complex in North Carolina.
The incident also suggests that the court clerk was easily tricked into believing it was real, landing the document on the public docket in the Mar-a-Lago search warrant case. It also highlights the vulnerability of the U.S. court system and raises questions about the court’s vetting of documents that purport to be official records.
The document first appeared on the court’s docket late Monday afternoon and was marked as a “MOTION to Intervene by U.S. Department of the Treasury.”
The document, sprinkled with spelling and syntax errors, read, “The U.S. Department of Treasury through the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals Service have arrested Seized Federal Securities containing sensitive documents which are subject to the Defendant Sealed Search Warrant by the F.B.I. arrest.”
It cited a federal statute for collecting financial records in federal investigations. The document also included the two supposed warrants, one that claimed to be sent to CNN in Atlanta and another to a towing company in Michigan.
Those supposed warrants, though, are identical to paperwork filed in another case in federal court in Georgia brought by an inmate at the prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina. The case was thrown out, as were the array of other frivolous lawsuits the man has filed from his prison cell.
The man has been in custody for several years since he was found not competent to stand trial after an arrest for planting a fake explosive outside the Guardian Building, a skyscraper in Detroit. Since his incarceration, he has filed a range of lawsuits and has impersonated the Treasury Department, claimed to be a federal trustee and claimed to be a lawyer for the Justice Department, a review of court records shows.
In the Georgia case, the man alleged that Trump and others had “acquired ‘millions of un- redacted classified tax returns and other sensitive financial data, bank records and accounts of banking and tax transactions of several million’ Americans and federal government agencies,” court documents say.
The judge in that case called his suit “fanatic” and “delusional,” saying there was no way to “discern any cognizable claim” from the incoherent filings.
The man has repeatedly impersonated federal officials in court records and has placed tax liens on judges using his false paperwork, two people familiar with the matter told the AP. Because of his history as a forger, his mail is supposed to be subjected to additional scrutiny from the Bureau of Prisons.
It’s unclear how the documents — the fake motion and the phony warrants — ended up at the court clerk’s office at the courthouse in West Palm Beach, Florida.
A photocopy of an envelope, included in the filing, shows it was sent to the court with a printed return address of the Treasury Department’s headquarters in Washington. But a postmark shows a Michigan ZIP code, and a tracking number on the envelope shows it was mailed Sept. 9 from Clinton Township, Michigan, the inmate’s hometown.
The AP is not identifying the inmate by name because he has a documented history of mental illness and has not been charged with a crime related to the filing.
“There is simply nothing indicating that he has any authorization to act on behalf of the United States,” the judge in the Georgia case wrote.
But despite the clear warning signs — including a stamp noting the Georgia case number on the phony warrants — the filing still made its way onto the docket.
Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the Treasury Department would not comment. They declined to answer on the record when asked if the document was false and why the government had not addressed it.
Representatives in the court clerk’s office and the magistrate judge overseeing the search warrant case did not respond to requests for comment.
——
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Fatima Hussein in Washington, Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.
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QB John Paul Head Leads Vestavia Hills Over Spain Park
QB John Paul Head Leads Vestavia Hills Over Spain Park https://digitalalabamanews.com/qb-john-paul-head-leads-vestavia-hills-over-spain-park/
Sports
Updated: Sep. 16, 2022, 10:44 p.m.|
Published: Sep. 16, 2022, 10:42 p.m.
Even though it is still early in the season, Vestavia Hills kept its playoff hopes alive with a 36-7 win at Spain Park.
John Paul Head, who missed last week’s game at Hoover with a concussion, scored two third-quarter rushing touchdowns and topped 100 yards in the air and on the ground.
The Rebels (2-3, 1-2 Class 7A Region 3) also got a strip sack and fumble recovery by Jordan Ross in that 21-point third quarter after they took a 9-0 lead into the break.
William Tonsmeire added a 51-yard touchdown run.
Spain Park (1-4, 0-3) got its only score on a 7-yard run by Damarai Shanks early in the fourth quarter.
Vestavia coach Robert Evans said it was like a playoff game because the winner controls its destiny to earn a spot from the tough Region 3.
Play of the Game: It was two defensive plays that sparked the Rebels. Grant Downey made an acrobatic interception at the 16-yard line on the second play of the third quarter to set up the first score, and Jordan Ross teamed up with Andrew Sykes to force a fumble that Ross recovered in the end zone for a touchdown to put the Rebels up 30-0.
By the numbers: 18 – plays ran by Vestavia on its second-quarter drive that ended with a 22-yard field goal by Carter Shirley to give the Rebels a 9-0 halftime lead. The Rebels ran 55 plays to the Jaguars’ 21 in the first half… 2 – forced turnovers by Vestavia. 5 – consecutive wins by Vestavia over Spain Park in the series. 5 – Spain Park penalties in the third quarter
Stat sheet: Head threw for 108 yards and ran for 104. Tonsmeire, just a freshman, had 108 yards and a touchdown. Spain Park quarterback Evan Smallwood was 14 of 26 for 126 yards, but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Jonathan Bibbs had nine catches for 91 yards for the Jaguars.
They said it: “Basically, Coach Evans describes me as a running back who happens to be able to throw a football. It’s hard to do, but it was a little bit more explosive tonight.” – Vestavia quarterback John Paul Head
“That was incredible. We hyped him up as soon as he got to the sidelines and it was the best thing we had ever seen. He doesn’t even tackle in practice. It was incredible.” – Vestavia defensive end Jordan Ross after kicker Tucker Shirley forced a first-quarter fumble on kick coverage
“We still have not played a four-quarter game. When we can play a fourth quarter game, we’ll be something to deal with.” – Vestavia coach Robert Evans
“I’ve got to do a better job of preparing kids and putting them in the right place and that’s on me. The kids are not going to quit, but I’ve got to do a better job.” Spain Park coach Tim Vakakes
Up next: Both teams are off next week and return to Class 7A, Region 3 play in two weeks. Vestavia will host Chelsea and Spain Park will host Tuscaloosa County.
Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
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Friday Football Roundup: Thompson, Homewood Win https://digitalalabamanews.com/friday-football-roundup-thompson-homewood-win/
Oneonta’s Fluff Bothwell ran for 178 yards and two touchdowns, all in the first half as the Redskins downed Fultondale 51-13 in the Class 4A, Region 6 game.
The fifth-ranked Redskins (5-0, 3-0) sprinted to a 37-0 halftime lead and led 51-0 before Fultondale scored the final two touchdowns of the game.
Bothwell scored on a 76-yard run and a 29-yard run in the first quarter while Ethan Green added a 1-yard scoring run as the Redskins led 20-0 after a quarter.
Green added a 2-yard score while Malikih Montgomery added two running touchdowns and Aaron Espinoza kicked a 27-yard field goal.
BIRMINGHAM
Thompson 48, Chelsea 3
Thompson totaled 399 yards of total offense while holding Chelsea to 186 yards in the Class 7A, Region 3 contest.
The seventh-ranked Warriors (3-2, 3-0) ran for 233 yards and passed for another 166 yards.
AJ Green led the rushing attack with 112 yards and three touchdowns — Green also caught a 42-yard scoring pass — including Thompson’s opening score on a 63-yard run after Chelsea (1-4, 1-2) scored first on a 33-yard field goal by Sam Parrish.
It was all Thompson from there.
Michael Dujon and Omari Thomas also ran for touchdowns, while quarterback Zach Sims completed 4-of-9 passes for 32 yards. Trent Seaborn was 5-of-5 passing for 134 yards and two touchdowns.
Korbyn Williams grabbed three passes for 35 yards and a touchdown.
Jake Ivie led the defense with eight tackles while Seth Hampton added five stops
Three-time Class 7A defending champion Thompson hosts Class 6A top-ranked and defending champion Clay-Chalkville next week.
Tuscaloosa County 34, Oak Mountain 31
Tuscaloosa County’s Kevin Riley scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including the game-winning 1-yard with three seconds remaining, to lift the Wildcats to a 34-31 victory over Oak Mountain in Class 7A, Region 3 game.
Riley finished with 25 carries for 184 yards and TD runs of 83, 5, 1 and 1 yards. Sawyer Deerman added a 30-yard TD run and had 133 yards on 13 carries.
Pelham led 17-6 at halftime and 31-20 after Jason Blackwell’s 20-yard TD catch from Will O’Dell with 11:07 to play. O’Dell also threw a 62-yard TD pass to Sawyer Smith and scored on runs of 1 and 11 yards.
Oak Mountain’s Trey Vassell ran 30 times for 175 yards.
Homewood 31, Benjamin Russell 24
Homewood quarterback Woods Ray threw three touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the Patriots to a 31-24 victory over Benjamin Russell at Waldrop Stadium.
Homewood (4-1 overall, 3-0 in Class 6A, Region 3) has won three straight games.
The Wildcats built an early 10-0 lead, but Homewood answered with 24 second-quarter points.
Ray finished 14-of-27 passing for 287 yards and added 71 yards rushing on 17 carries. Connor Bruner caught three passes for 160 yard and two TDs for the Patriots, while Darren Stitt and Mondrell Odell caught TD passes.
Homewood plays Pinson Valley at home next week, while the Wildcats (3-1 overall, 1-1) plays Smiths Station at home in Alexander City.
Calera 38, Chilton County 14
Calera broke open a tie game at the half with 24 second half points on the way to the victory in Class 6A, Region 3 play.
The Eagles (2-3, 1-2) got three touchdowns from Daniel Brown, including a pair of third quarter scores, and Michael Banks-Mason returned an interception 96 yards for a touchdown, all in the third period.
TJ Hernandez added a 41-yard field goal to complete the scoring.
Brown ran 12 times for 53 yards while quarterback Preston Sikes completed 16-of-22 passes for 171 yards.
Braylyn Farrington led the receivers with six catches for 100 yards.
Banks-Mason also had 15 tackles, a sack and tackle-for-loss in addition to the interception return.
DeKendrick Bennett and Grayton Carlee each had six tackles.
West Blocton 7, Calera 6
West Blocton scored just before halftime and made the long score hold up for the Tigers’ second straight win.
Montevallo’s King Braxton threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jaydien Rutledge with 4:46 to play, but the 2-point conversion failed.
Montevallo (2-2 overall, 2-1 in Class 4A, Region 3) plays at Jemison next week. West Blocton (2-3, 2-1) plays at Holtville next week.
MOBILE
Saraland 50, Robertsdale 0
K.J. Lacey threw 4 TD passes – 3 to fellow sophomore Ryan Williams – and the Class 6A, No. 3-ranked Spartans remained undefeated.
Williams caught TD passes of 60, 42 and 62 yards. C.D. Gill caught a 25-yard TD pass. Santae McWilliams added TD runs of 27 and 5 yards and Kingston Bush had a 12-yard TD run.
The Saraland defense allowed the Golden Bears just one first down.
The Spartans improved to 5-0, 4-0 in Region 1 play. They travel to Class 7A Foley next week in a non-region game. Robertsdale fell to 0-4 overall and in the region. The Bears travel to Class 7A Alma Bryant next week.
Blount 18, Baldwin County 0
Deshune Williams rushed for 180 yards and a TD on 19 carries as the Leopards won on the road.
Jarius Houston added 85 yards and a TD on 8 carries. Antonio Robinson-Jackson threw for 102 yards and ran for 51 yards and a TD.
On defense, Kevin Norwood led the way with 9 tackles, 3 TFL and a sack. Charles Buford had 6 tackles, 1 TFL, a sack and an interception. Bobby Jones also had an interception.
Blount won its second straight game to improve to 2-2 overall. The Leopards host Williamson next week. Baldwin County fell to 0-4. The Tigers have scored seven points in four games. They travel to Mary G. Montgomery next week.
Mobile Christian 48, Monroe County 6
Mobile Christian earned a third straight victory with a runaway victory over Monroe County at Tiger Stadium in Monroeville.
Kolin Wilson ran 10 times for 109 yards, with TD runs covering 25, 3 and 7 yards. Devin Harris scored on a 4-yard run, Landon Snow completed a 6-yard TD pass to Jaxon Roberts and Jason scored on an 8-yard run.
Monroe County scored its lone touchdown on Jamarcus Locke’s interception return for a score late in the third quarter. Mobile Christian’s Michael Moore returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown.
The Leopards limited Monroe County to just 112 yards of total offense. Jacorey Stallworth ran 12 times for 31 yards and completed 11-of-23 passes for 62 yards for the Tigers, but the Leopards picked him off three times. Stallworth also had an interception on defense.
Mobile Christian (4-1 overall, 3-0 in Class 3A, Region 1) plays Pensacola Catholic (Fla.) at home next week. Monroe County (1-3, 0-3) is at home against Escambia County.
J.U. Blacksher 21, St. Luke’s 15
J.U. Blacksher’s Quinton Parker scored on a 32-yard run with 42 seconds to go, lifting the Bulldogs to a Class 2A, Region 1 victory over St. Luke’s at John M. Sawyer Memorial Stadium in Uriah.
Nathan Cole’s 15-yard run midway through the fourth quarter, followed by Jake Coker’s extra point, tied the game at 15-all. Cole scored on a 2-yard run earlier in the game.
St. Luke’s got a 17-yard TD pass from Jeremy Menhennett to J.T. Busby for a 15-7 lead. Menhennet also scored on a 54-ayrd run.
Busby finished with 95 yards on 10 carries. Cole had 141 yards on 31 carries for J.U. Blacksher.
J.U. Blacksher (4-1 overall, 2-1 in region play) plays Excel at home next week. St. Luke’s plays Leroy at home.
Gulf Shores 45, LeFlore 12
Class 5A No. 7 Gulf Shores built a 42-6 halftime lead and rebounded from their only loss of the season.
Ronnie Royal had 207 total yards and 3 TDs. He caught 7 passes for 121 yards and rushed for 86 yards on 10 carries. J.R. Gardner rushed for 72 yards on 9 carries.
Brendon Byrd was 16-of-22 for 275 yards and 3 TDs.
Braden Jackson caught 2 passes for 82 yards.
Gulf Shores (4-1, 3-1 5A, Region 1) will host Class 6A Murphy next week. LeFlore (0-5, 0-4) will travel to B.T. Washington. The Rattlers have lost 18 straight games overall. Their last win came against Elberta on Oct. 12, 2020.
STATE
Montgomery Catholic 62, Geneva 0
Class 4A, No. 1-ranked Montgomery Catholic definitely has a 1-2 punch in the backfield.
Auburn commitment Jeremiah Cobb ran for 179 yards and two TDs on 10 carries, and junior quarterback Caleb McCreary accounted for five touchdowns – four passing and one rushing – in Friday’s 62-0 victory over Geneva. The Knights have scored more than 50 points for four straight games.
Luke Harkless caught two passes – both touchdowns – for 80 yards and returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown. Josh Palmer added three catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns. E.J. Babies had five carries for 100 yards and another touchdowns.
The Knights (5-0 overall, 3-0 in Class 4A, Region 2) earned a second straight shutout after beating Slocomb 58-0 last week. Jaden Jones led the defense with nine tackles, wile Zay Rudolph added six tackles and two sacks. K.J. Washington also had six tackles and a sack.
Montgomery Catholic plays at Pike Liberal in Troy next week, while Geneva (1-4, 0-3) is at home against Geneva County.
Brantley 53, Kinston 6
Fourth-ranked Brantley got 160 yards and two touchdown passes from Jayden Parks in the Class 1A, Region 2 win at home.
Keldric Brown scored twice on five carries for 115 yards for the Bulldogs and scored a pair of receiving TDs.
Robert Shine had seven catches for 120 yards and three touchdowns for Brantley (4-1, 3-1).
Kinston dropped to 1-3, 0-3 in region play.
Pike Road 16, Eufaula 10 (OT)
Kaleb Foster scored on a QB sneak in overtime to lift Pike Road to the win. The Patriots missed the PAT but held Eufaula on defense.
Brennan Tormey made a 28-yard FG to force overtime.
Anthony Rogers carried 22 times for 110 yards and a TD for Pike Road. He also had a crucial 38-yard catch in regulation to keep the game-tying drive alive.
The Patriots held Eufaula to 93 yards on the ground. Jaylan Jarret had 6 tackles and a sack. Malik Blocton had 8 tackles and a sack and Cody Markham had 9 tackles.
Pike Road (3-2) is open next week. Eufaula (3-1) travels to Pe...
The Migrants Sent To Martha's Vineyard Have Been Voluntarily Taken To A Military Base For Support Officials Say
The Migrants Sent To Martha's Vineyard Have Been Voluntarily Taken To A Military Base For Support, Officials Say https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-migrants-sent-to-marthas-vineyard-have-been-voluntarily-taken-to-a-military-base-for-support-officials-say/
(CNN)The roughly 50 migrants who were sent by plane to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts by Florida’s governor this week were taken to a military base Friday to receive shelter and humanitarian support, officials said.
The migrants, after two days of uncertainty on the small island and a large local effort to provide for them, cheered Friday morning when they were told they’d be taken to Joint Base Cape Cod.
The migrants had been flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday in arrangements made by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — part of a series of moves by Republican governors to transport migrants to liberal enclaves to protest what they say are inadequate federal efforts on southern border security.
Martha’s Vineyard had not been expecting the group, and DeSantis’ move was sharply denounced by the White House, migrants’ advocates and Democratic officials.
At a church where they had been staying on Martha’s Vineyard, migrants cheered Friday morning when they heard the Massachusetts government would shelter them at the Cape Cod military base. They boarded government-arranged buses willingly, officials said, and they arrived at the military installation Friday afternoon.
Joint Base Cape Cod — already an emergency shelter designated by the state emergency management agency — is set up to provide “a safe temporary accommodation appropriate for the needs of families and individuals,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s office said in a news release.
The migrants “will be housed in dormitory-style spaces at JBCC, with separate spaces accommodating both individuals and families,” and families will not be separated, it said. They will have access to services including legal, health care, food, hygiene kits, and crisis counseling, according to Baker’s office.
At the base, some of the migrants from Venezuela received general information about US immigration laws, according to a migrant who spoke to CNN. At this time, CNN is unable to verify what exactly was shared or from whom due to lack of access.
Meanwhile, a group of civil rights attorneys working with the migrants said their stories are “heartbreaking — and infuriating.” Many of the migrants went to a hospital in need of care upon their arrival at the island Wednesday.
Some of these migrants were sent to Martha’s Vineyard even though they have immigration hearings scheduled nowhere near Massachusetts, the group said. Migrants released from government custody often move to other cities in the US as they go through their immigration proceedings.
“This cowardly political stunt has placed our clients in peril,” the Lawyers for Civil Rights group said in a news release Friday. “Some now have immigration hearings as early as Monday thousands of miles away.”
Some attorneys from the group accompanied the migrants on the buses to the Cape Cod base.
CNN has reached out to Baker’s office and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency for comment, as they are coordinating efforts to care for the migrants at the base.
Flights came from Texas, though Florida governor says he arranged them
Though Florida’s governor says he arranged for the flights, the migrants had been in Texas — not Florida.
Wednesday’s flights originated in San Antonio, Texas, according to the director of Martha Vineyard’s airport, Geoffrey Freeman.
For months, DeSantis has been talking about his plans to get Florida involved in redirecting migrants from the southern border in a way to maximize heartburn for Democratic leaders. And last month, DeSantis telegraphed Florida might help move migrants from the US-Mexico border — not from his state.
“We do have money to be able to do (that), but that’s from people from the southern border, that’s not going in the interior of Florida,” DeSantis said at an August press conference.
His administration secured $12 million in the state budget to pay for migrant relocation, and he has repeatedly threatened to use the money to send them to liberal strongholds.
When he laid out his immigration plans at a December news conference, DeSantis teased Martha’s Vineyard as a potential destination, saying, “It’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it is true, if you sent (them) to Delaware or Martha’s Vineyard or some of these places, the border would be secure the next day.”
In a Friday news conference in Daytona Beach, DeSantis said he intends to use “every penny” of the $12 million and set the expectation for more buses and “likely more” flights with migrants paid for by Florida.
“These are just the beginning efforts,” he said. The governor defended using taxpayer dollars to send the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard because he said many of the people who cross the border end up in his state.
State budget records show six days before the migrants were flown to Massachusetts, Florida’s Department of Transportation paid $615,000 to Destin, Florida-based aviation company Vertol Systems as part of the governor’s program to relocate migrants.
Budget records do not detail what kind of “contracted services” Vertol provided the department, nor is it clear whether the $615,000 was for two flights to Martha’s Vineyard. Additional budget records obtained by CNN also show the state first requested the payment on September 7.
CNN reached out to Vertol Systems, the Department of Transportation and DeSantis’ office but did not immediately receive a response.
Civil rights attorneys: Migrants didn’t know they were going to Martha’s Vineyard
The migrants on Wednesday’s planes did not know they were being taken to Martha’s Vineyard specifically, according to the legal group helping them.
They were induced to board the planes with “representations of work assistance and immigration relief in Boston,” the Lawyers for Civil Rights group said in a news release.
“Mid-flight, they were informed they were not going to Boston after all, but to Martha’s Vineyard. They were dropped on the island without notice to anyone in the community,” the news release reads.
In his Friday news conference, Florida’s governor disputed the migrants did not know where they were going, because he said they had signed a waiver and had been provided with a packet including a map of Martha’s Vineyard adding, “It’s obvious that’s where they were going,” and it was all “voluntary.”
Two of the migrants told CNN, while they were in San Antonio, they decided to go on the trip after two women and a man approached them on the streets near a migrant resource center.
One of the migrants, Wilmer Villazana, said he was put up in a hotel for five days before the flights and was well taken care of. The women told him they were from Orlando and worked for private organizations that raise funds to help migrants, Villazana said.
One of the women told Villazana and the other migrant, Yang Pablo Mora, they would get help with shelter and jobs once they arrived at their destination, Villazana and Mora said.
Villazana and Mora did not know the flights were headed to Martha’s Vineyard, they said. Villazana thought they were going to Boston, he said.
White House denounces DeSantis’ move
DeSantis’ decision to arrange the migrants’ flight to Massachusetts was one of two high-profile transports sent north by southern Republican governors this week. On Thursday, two buses of migrants sent from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott arrived outside Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in the nation’s capital.
Texas started busing migrants to Washington this spring. Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey followed suit, and the two states have since sent thousands of migrants to Washington. Abbott has expanded Texas’ effort to include New York City and Chicago.
The White House on Thursday denounced this week’s moves by DeSantis and Abbott. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused the governors of using migrants as “political pawns” and said their actions amounted to a “cruel, premeditated political stunt.”
US Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins will speak with members of the Department of Justice about DeSantis sending the migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, though she did not yet have enough information to say whether he broke any laws in doing so, she told reporters on Thursday.
Despite Wednesday’s unannounced arrivals on Martha’s Vineyard, some residents of the island worked quickly to provide some key services. The island is known for being a summer haven for the affluent.
“Our island jumped into action putting together 50 beds, giving everyone a good meal, providing a play area for the children, making sure people have the healthcare and support they need,” Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat who represents the island, wrote on Twitter. “We are a community that comes together to support immigrants.”
CNN’s Steve Contorno, Paul P. Murphy, Bob Crowley, Leyla Santiago, Chuck Johnston, Maria Santana and Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.
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Missing For 20 Years: Womans Family Still Pushing For Answers
Missing For 20 Years: Woman’s Family Still Pushing For Answers https://digitalalabamanews.com/missing-for-20-years-womans-family-still-pushing-for-answers/
MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) -A Mobile woman has been missing now for 20 years. But even though the case may have gone cold — the family of Jacklen Natasha Wilson is still pushing for answers.
February 25, 2002 marked 20 years since Jacklen — better known as “Tash” — was last seen. At the time of her disappearance — she was 26-years-old. Her family has never stopped looking for answers.
“She would think that someone out here loves her… There’s somebody that cares about her,” said Susan Weaver, Tash’s older sister.
Her disappearance was front page news then. Her family tells us Tash had a court appearance that morning and was later dropped off by a friend at Cody Road and Old Shell Road near the Cimarron Club. The friend said he witnessed Tash and a man arguing before the man forced Tash in his vehicle and drove off.
Tash’s sister-in-law recalled reporting her missing.
“It was hard to do — and I think that is when it set in — is when I did that. That she actually was missing — because I kept wanting to believe she was coming back,” said Tanya Orso, Tasha’s sister-in-law.
But she did come back — not even to her daughter’s 8th birthday — an occasion she never missed. She’s now 28-years-old.
“At points and times in my life — especially when I was pregnant — I wanted her there. I still want her there sometimes, especially when life is hard,” said Chelsea Wilson, Tash’s daughter. “It’s hard not to think about what could have been had she been here.”
The family admits Tash had her own struggles with drugs. They would organize searches and hand out fliers in the area she was known to frequent. The “not knowing” was especially hard on her mother.
“Everywhere she looked she would think it was Tash — well I seen Tash… that was Tash — turn around, turn around. And you know it wouldn’t be her. But she died thinking she would see her on every other corner. And it was devastating on the whole family,” said W.T. Weaver, Tash’s Uncle.
The case has since gone cold. Even though Mobile Police have followed up on leads — the family says Tash’s case has never been filed in the database for missing persons.
“So for the past 20 years — if there was any unidentified body or anything — it was never compared to her. No DNA — nothing. And she still isn’t to this day listed,” said Orso.
Still 20 years later — they’re hopeful they’ll one day find out what happened.
“And I’m asking if anyone knows anything about her whereabouts or what may have happened — please come forward. And I know that there is someone out there. I know there is,” said Susan. “It’s been 20 years — please give us some relief let us be at ease. Just think about if it was your child who went missing — wouldn’t you want something done.”
Mobile Police tell us this is an open case. When asked about the missing persons database — they tell us the family needs to contact the investigator on the case — which the family assures us they will.
Meanwhile, if you know anything about this case that can help investigators — give Mobile Police a call at 251-208-7211.
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Abrams Explores Facts Of Clinton Emails Trump Docs
Abrams Explores Facts Of Clinton Emails, Trump Docs https://digitalalabamanews.com/abrams-explores-facts-of-clinton-emails-trump-docs/
(NewsNation) — Democrats have come out in full force to deride former President Donald Trump for the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, in which dozens of classified documents, which his team allegedly claimed were not there, were found by investigators.
In response to Democrats, Republicans and the right-wing media have tried to turn our attention back to the Hillary Clinton email scandal that played out during the 2016 presidential election. They often claim the two situations are the same, and that this is just another Democratic attempt to attack Trump.
But, between all the political fighting and fierce rhetoric, there lies nuance, facts and the law.
In a special episode of “Dan Abrams Live,” NewsNation’s Dan Abrams attempts to shed light on the facts of both cases, doing away with the cheap shots and deep political overtones politicians and the media have layered on both situations.
Abrams, along with Politico’s Josh Gerstein and national security lawyer Mark Zaid, delivered analysis and facts in an attempt to cut through the political fog.
Abrams begins by laying out the timeline of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, which began in 2014 after a House Committee on the Benghazi massacre requested Clinton’s emails from the State Department. Abrams weaves the timeline with the facts of what happened all the way to November of 2016, when then-FBI Director James Comey declared the FBI would stick with its determination Clinton committed no crimes.
Center to the timeline of Clinton’s emails was whether classified information resided in her personal email server. To that question, Gerstein believes there is a definitive answer.
“I think it’s pretty clear that there were things in there that, according to the official rule books and guidebooks of the federal government, should have been classified at various levels,” Gerstein said.
In total, 30,000 emails were given to the State Department. Of those, 110 emails had classified information, eight were top secret, eight were secret and 36 were confidential.
“In the Clinton case, much as with the Trump case, the issue is really, looking then and looking now, what potential efforts were being undertaken to thwart the government from retrieving possession of classified information to obstruct the investigations, to cover anything up or to provide false statements or very blatantly lie,” Zaid said.
Adding oddness to the Clinton situation was her staff destroying tech equipment with hammers, another aspect of the case analyzed by Abrams, Zaid and Gerstein.
Ultimately, Abrams reaches the conclusion, in light of all the facts not yet being known about Trump’s situation, that it is safe to say Clinton did not commit a crime with her emails. Was she reckless? Yes, Abrams says. A criminal? No.
As far as Trump, Abrams says he is “not convinced” he will be indicted, given the uphill battle prosecutors will face in showing Trump had malicious intention by holding onto the classified documents.
The full special episode of Dan Abrams Live can be viewed above or at NewsNation’s YouTube channel.
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AP News Summary At 10:38 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1038-p-m-edt/
Trump openly embraces, amplifies QAnon conspiracy theories
Donald Trump is increasingly embracing and endorsing the QAnon conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to the movement rises. Using his Truth Social platform, Trump this week reposted an image of himself overlaid with the words “the Storm is Coming.” In QAnon lore, the storm refers to Trump’s final victory, when his opponents supposedly will be tried and possibly executed. It’s among dozens of recent Q-related posts from the Republican former president, who also ended a rally with a QAnon song. Experts who study QAnon say Trump may be trying to rally his most stalwart supporters as investigations into his conduct escalate.
Ukrainian president: Burial site contains torture victims
IZIUM, Ukraine (AP) — Investigators searching through a mass burial site in Ukraine have found evidence that some of the dead were tortured, including bodies with broken limbs and ropes around their necks. That’s according to Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who spoke Friday. The site near Izium was recently recaptured from Russian forces. It appears to be one of the largest of its kind discovered in Ukraine. Zelenskyy rushed out a video statement just hours after the exhumations began, apparently to underscore the gravity of the discovery.
US asks appeals court to lift judge’s Mar-a-Lago probe hold
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court 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 made the request Friday with the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta. It says the judge’s hold is impeding the “government’s efforts to protect the nation’s security” and interfering with its investigation into the presence of top-secret information at Mar-a-Lago. It says the hold needs to be lifted immediately so work can resume.
Military intel chief says Putin can’t achieve Ukraine goal
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US Justice Department Appeals Halt Of Trump Classified Docs Review
US Justice Department Appeals Halt Of Trump Classified Docs Review https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-justice-department-appeals-halt-of-trump-classified-docs-review/
This undated file photo released by the US Department of Justice on August 31, 2022 shows a photo of documents allegedly seized at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort spread over a carpet. Photo: Handout / US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE/AFP/File
Source: AFP
The US Justice Department on Friday appealed in part a judge’s decision to halt the review of seized documents from former president Donald Trump’s Florida estate, asking to continue its investigation of those materials marked as classified.
Federal investigators have been blocked since last week from reviewing thousands of documents taken by the FBI from Trump’s seaside mansion, after a judge sided with the former president and decided to appoint an independent arbiter to sort through the files.
The Justice Department, in its filing Friday evening, argued that Judge Aileen Cannon “fundamentally erred in appointing a special master and granting injunctive relief,” but would limit its appeal to just the “roughly 100 records bearing classification markings,” recovered from Trump’s estate.
Delaying the review of the classified documents, which it argues are government property, “impedes the government’s efforts to protect the Nation’s security,” the Justice Department said.
“It also irreparably harms the government by enjoining critical steps of an ongoing criminal investigation and needlessly compelling disclosure of highly sensitive records, including to Plaintiff’s counsel,” the filing added, referring to Trump’s lawyers.
Trump is facing mounting legal pressure, with the Justice Department saying top-secret documents were “likely concealed” to obstruct an FBI probe into his potential mishandling of classified materials.
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He has denied all wrongdoing, and said the raid on his mansion was “one of the most egregious assaults on democracy in the history of our country,” while making it a major talking point at his political rallies.
The appeal will be heard first by a three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit, but could ultimately wind up at the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, Judge Cannon appointed Raymond Dearie to review the files, as the so-called special master.
The 78-year-old senior federal judge in New York was one of two people proposed by Trump’s legal team.
Dearie issued an order on Friday for Trump’s lawyers and the Justice Department counsel to meet with him in New York early next week.
Agenda items for the Tuesday meeting are to be submitted by either side by the close of business on Monday, Dearie ordered.
In addition to the documents probe, Trump faces investigations in New York into his business practices, as well as legal scrutiny over his efforts to overturn results of the 2020 election, and for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Source: AFP
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Google Adds Parler App To Play Store But Not Trump's Truth Social
Google Adds Parler App To Play Store, But Not Trump's Truth Social https://digitalalabamanews.com/google-adds-parler-app-to-play-store-but-not-trumps-truth-social/
After being banned over claims it helped incite violence at the Capitol Hill riots in January 2021, the right-wing app, Parler, has been allowed back on the Google play store. Truth Social, however, has not been so lucky.
According to new data from research firm GlobalData, the news comes as an investment into social media companies has slowed down.
When Parler was launched back in 2018, it marketed itself as a space for free speech and an alternative to dominant platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Rather quickly, it became associated with those in support of then-United States President Donald Trump. After the Capitol Hill insurrection, Trump was banned from Facebook and Twitter.
Many journalists and critics alike have expressed negative opinions on Parler for being a space for far-right extremists and conspiracy theorists. In 2020, NBC News reported that the app was banning liberal users.
Google banned Parler for its lack of initiative to prohibit hateful and violent content from its users, like the failed Trump’s Truth Social app. The timing of this could work against Parler’s favor.
The months leading up to the US mid-terms could be a particularly dangerous time for Parler to be re-introduced to the app store. In order for Parler to be back up and running, its content moderation must be of the highest standard.
The right-wing app was brought back to Apple’s App Store four months ago after it agreed to clean up some posts and look out for hate speech on its iOS version.
Google even considering accepting the app back to the platform probably means that Parler has made similar changes to its Android app.
In an emailed statement, former CEO Mark Meckler stated,
“The entire Parler team has worked hard to address Apple’s concerns without compromising our core mission. Anything allowed on the Parler network but not in the iOS app will remain accessible through our web-based and Android versions. This is a win-win for Parler, its users, and free speech.”
Conservative-focused Truth Social, a Twitter copycat created by Trump, is still working on convincing Google to let it on to the Play Store.
Google announced they were blocking the app last week, as it wasn’t meeting the necessary standards to be listed.
Macie LaCau is a passionate writer, herbal educator, and dog enthusiast. She spends most of her time overthinking and watering her tiny tomatoes.
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Migrants Flown To Marthas Vineyard Say They Were Misled
Migrants Flown To Martha’s Vineyard Say They Were Misled https://digitalalabamanews.com/migrants-flown-to-marthas-vineyard-say-they-were-misled/
The flights, arranged by Florida’s Republican governor, underscored how easily the fate of immigrants can be swept up in politics.
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A mother and daughter who were among the migrants flown from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard take in the view as the ferry leaves the island. Credit…Matt Cosby for The New York Times
Sept. 16, 2022Updated 9:12 p.m. ET
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — Migrants shipped to this elite vacation island by Florida’s Republican governor said on Friday that they had been misled about where they were being taken, prompting immigration lawyers to promise legal action as the group of Venezuelans were relocated temporarily to a federal military base.
The lawyers said they would seek an injunction in federal court early next week to stop the flights of migrants to cities around the country, alleging that the Republican governor had violated due process and the civil rights of the migrants flown from Texas to the small island off the coast of Massachusetts.
“They were told, ‘You have a hearing in San Antonio, but don’t worry, we’ll take you to Boston,’” said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the executive director for Lawyers for Civil Rights Boston. He said dozens of the migrants had told his team they only had been informed midair that they were going to land in tony Martha’s Vineyard rather than Boston.
“They were also told there would be employment opportunities and immigration relief available to them if they boarded the plane,” Mr. Espinoza-Madrigal said. “That’s not only state interference with federal immigration matters, it’s also a violation of our clients’ civil rights.”
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Volunteers and migrants share a hug and say goodbye on Martha’s Vineyard just before the migrants are loaded onto buses.Credit…Matt Cosby for The New York Times
The lawyers lobbed legal threats as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida vehemently defended his actions, saying the flights were voluntary and denying that the migrants had been misled, and the White House condemned the governor for using human beings as political pawns.
“Luring asylum seekers under false pretenses and then abandoning them on the side of the road thousands of miles away is not the solution to a global challenge — in fact, those are the kinds of tactics that smugglers are arrested for,” said Abdullah Hasan, a White House spokesman.
The drama underscored the decades-old shortcomings of a backlogged immigration system groaning under the weight of thousands of migrants fleeing persecution and economic instability. And it demonstrated once again how easily the fate of immigrants can be swept up in a toxic political battle, especially in election season.
A fleet of buses arrived at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown on Friday morning to ferry about 50 migrants — many of them dazed and a bit confused, but happy to be in the United States at last — to Joint Base Cape Cod, a temporary shelter.
Many of the migrants described having traveled for more than two months from Venezuela as they made their way through half a dozen or more countries to reach the United States, where they have a legal right to seek asylum. Once in Texas, they said they had been offered transportation to Massachusetts — on flights arranged by Mr. DeSantis at Florida’s expense that were designed to grab headlines about what he calls lax border security just weeks before voting begins.
Pedro Torrealba, from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, said he was told the plane he had boarded was going to arrive at a shelter where there would be housing and work, something that proved not to be true.
But for migrants like Mr. Torrealba and Luis, who declined to give his last name, the charter flight ended up being just what they wanted — a ticket away from the border while they wait for the slow-moving immigration system to determine whether they can stay for the long term.
“I didn’t expect it to be like this, but I feel comfortable here,” said Luis, who had traveled two months from Caracas to reach Texas before being conveyed to Martha’s Vineyard. “I want to be here.”
Mr. Torrealba, who worked as a trucker in Venezuela and barely made enough to feed his entire family, said he was pleased to have almost made it to a big American city where he can hopefully find work.
“I feel really good,” he said. “Before we got here, I felt a little lost, because I didn’t know if I was going to get here. But now that I’m here, honestly, I don’t want to leave.”
Many of the thousands of migrants arriving at the southern border each day are caught or surrender themselves to the Border Patrol. They are processed and then released with an order to come back for a hearing in months or even years. Most have relatives in America’s big cities: Miami, Los Angeles, New York or Washington, D.C. In the past, they often found bus or plane tickets to those places from friends or nonprofit groups.
Now, they are escaping the border region by becoming props in an effort by Republican governors like Mr. DeSantis, Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona, to use immigration as a political weapon against Democrats.
How Times reporters cover politics. We rely on our journalists to be independent observers. So while Times staff members may vote, they are not allowed to endorse or campaign for candidates or political causes. This includes participating in marches or rallies in support of a movement or giving money to, or raising money for, any political candidate or election cause.
It remains uncertain whether that effort will move voters in the fall. In 2018, former President Donald J. Trump and his allies alienated many swing voters by trying to make fear of immigrants a central campaign issue. Republicans lost control of the House.
Inside the West Wing, aides to President Biden say they believe the ploy by the Republican governors has backfired. They say putting migrants on buses or planes, in some cases without telling them where they are headed, appears to voters as meanspirited and cruel. Mr. Biden on Thursday night accused the governors of “playing politics with human beings,” calling the busing “un-American” and “reckless.”
But the buses filled with migrants appear likely to continue arriving in Democratic cities, fueled by record levels of migrants who are streaming toward the United States from countries racked by political and economic instability. Many recent border-crossers are fleeing the political corruption, inflation and economic collapse in Venezuela.
A roaring labor market in the United States is helping to draw migrants north, along with the knowledge that Mr. Biden has relaxed some of the harshest restrictions that were put in place by Mr. Trump during his four years in office. The border is not “open,” as some Republicans insist; authorities have turned hundreds of thousands of migrants away using a pandemic-era rule known as Title 42.
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A bus pulls off the ferry from Martha’s Vineyard, carrying migrants to their next destination.Credit…Matt Cosby for The New York Times
But the Biden administration has allowed more than 1 million migrants entry into the country while their asylum cases are processed — a message that has reached throughout the southern hemisphere.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, lashed out at the Republican governors again on Friday, telling reporters that the state officials and their party’s lawmakers in Congress are blocking real solutions to the nation’s immigration problems.
“What have they done? They do these political stunts. They vote against our funding requests. They vote against policies to fix this broken system. Stunts aren’t solutions here,” she said. “All we’re seeing is from them are petty and dangerous stunts. This is dangerous. They’re putting children’s lives at risk.”
Ms. Jean-Pierre declined to say whether the administration was considering any legal action to stop future such efforts by the Republican governors.
Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Ducey and Mr. Abbott have been unapologetic about their headline-grabbing tactics, insisting that they are merely pointing out the hypocrisy of Democratic mayors who advocate compassion at the border but are geographically far from the surge of migrants and their impact on local areas.
On Friday morning, the migrants and the volunteers who had helped settle them into their stay on the island erupted into applause and group hugs as the migrants departed St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown, Mass., where they had stayed the past two nights. All 48 migrants have left the island, officials said, but some have expressed interest in returning, and families on Martha’s Vineyard have volunteered to host.
Mr. DeSantis told reporters in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Friday that the migrants on the flights had to sign a release form and had been given an informational packet. “That packet included a map for Martha’s Vineyard,” he said, “so it’s obvious that’s where they were going.”
“It’s all voluntary,” Mr. DeSantis continued.
After the Florida Legislature set aside $12 million to transport unauthorized immigrants out of state, Mr. DeSantis said his administration had sent officials to Texas to identify migrants entering the country who are planning to go to Florida, and offer them free transportation to sanctuary jurisdictions instead.
“What we’re trying to do is profile, ‘OK, who do you think is trying to get to Florida?’” he said, adding: “If they end up coming to Florida, that’s going to impose a lot of costs on the community.”
He said his administration had hired a contractor. “There’s a bunch of stuff that goes into creating the infrastructure” to identify and transport the migrants, he said.
“There’s going to be buses and there’s likely g...
Citizens React To Satsuma’s Homecoming Curfew https://digitalalabamanews.com/citizens-react-to-satsumas-homecoming-curfew/
SATSUMA, Ala. (WKRG) — Satsuma mayor Mark Barlow signed an ordinance placing a curfew for high school students.
The ordinance is only in place for homecoming week, and students are not allowed to be out past midnight. Barlow said the ordinance was created to ensure students’ safety.
“We feel like whatever they’re doing, we don’t need to have them out on school nights in the wee hours in the morning,” said Barlow. “And you know the things that could happen. We just like to prevent major incidents from happening, and that was all of our intent was.”
Barlow told WKRG News 5 that the ordinance was requested by Satsuma City Schools. Satsuma Highschooler Jarrett Brown finds the ordinance strange.
“It’s kinda weird because you should be able to stay longer with your parents and stuff just having fun,” said Brown. “And they just kinda cut it off so yeah.”
Brown believes this curfew was put in place because the city wanted to limit its homecoming tradition of rolling.
Parent Scott Wood thinks the ordinance is reasonable because kids can go out and do their traditions while also getting home at a normal time.
“There’s really no need for them to out after 12 at night, that’s how I feel about it,” said Wood. “I think it’s fine; I think it’s great. I think it’s great the city allows them to do this. But also keep them in check.”
Mayor Barlow said the ordinance has been in place since 2019 before he took office. He said no students violated the ordinance. The ordinance is set to end at 6 a.m. on Sep. 18.
Read More…
Sophie Wessex Looks On With Louise And James At Special Vigil
Sophie Wessex Looks On With Louise And James At Special Vigil https://digitalalabamanews.com/sophie-wessex-looks-on-with-louise-and-james-at-special-vigil/
Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, stood at the viewing gallery while the Queen’s four children stood vigil by her coffin. The silent vigil lasted for 15 minutes, as members of the public walked by, having queued for hours to pay their respects.
Sophie looked mournful as she watched over her children, Lady Louise, 18 and James, Viscount Severn, 14. The vigil comes ahead of Her Majesty’s State Funeral, which will be held on Monday.
Standing beside Sophie was Camilla, now Queen Consort, who watched as her husband King Charles III led the vigil. Sophie’s husband Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, paid tribute to his “beloved mama” ahead of tonight’s vigil.
He added that the Royal Family has been “overwhelmed by the tide of emotion” following the Queen’s death. The couple spoke with stewards and Crown Estate staff outside Windsor Castle as they viewed tributes to the late monarch.
The Countess placed bouquets given to her by the crowd with other floral tributes as Edward read some of the messages left for his mother.
READ MORE: Charles leads siblings in vigil to Queen as mourners pay respects [REVEAL]
Tomorrow the Queen’s eight grandchildren, including the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex, will mount their own vigil to pay their respects to their grandmother. Edward and Sophie’s children will also take part in the vigil on Saturday.
The Wessexes have largely endeavoured to give their children a relatively normal childhood, making their recent public appearances a rare occurence. While Lady Louise has increased her appearances in recent years given her age, her younger brother James remains largely out of the spotlight.
His public appearance for tomorrow, therefore, represents a new departure for the young royal.
DON’T MISS: Hug from grieving Sophie Countess of Wessex for young boy [REVEAL]
Should Charles make Edward and Sophie Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh? [INSIGHT]
King Charles wants to optimise the monarchy and make his reign count [ANALYSIS]
In a tribute released on Friday afternoon, the Earl of Wessex said the Queen’s death had left an “unimaginable void in all our lives”.
He said: “As a family, we have grown up learning to share our parents, especially our beloved mama, with the nation, her realms and the Commonwealth. While it has been lovely to have spent time saying our own farewell privately at Balmoral, it is now time to allow others to be able to say their farewell.
“We have been overwhelmed by the tide of emotion that has engulfed us and the sheer number of people who have gone out of their way to express their own love, admiration and respect to such a very special and unique person who was always there for us. And now, we are there for her, united in grief. Thank you for your support, you have no idea how much it means.
“The Queen’s passing has left an unimaginable void in all our lives. Sophie and I have taken huge pleasure in seeing our James and Louise enjoying the places and activities that their grandparents loved so much. Given that my mama let us spend so much time with her, I think she also rather enjoyed watching those passions blossom. Those times together, those happy memories, have now become massively precious to each and every one of us.”
Read More…
Alabama High School Football Scores Highlights From Week Four
Alabama High School Football Scores, Highlights From Week Four https://digitalalabamanews.com/alabama-high-school-football-scores-highlights-from-week-four/
IN THURSDAY NIGHT. NO CARBS GAMES, BUT HIGH SCHOOL ON THE DOCKET, CENTRAL ALABAMA WITH A FEW GAMES. JACKSONVILLE AND TAKING ON MOUNTAIN BROOK. THE PHOTO TAKEN ON THE TWO AND TWO. JACKSON, OAKLAND MUSTANGS FIRST DRIVE FOR MOUNTAIN BROOK. JOHN COOPER. REMEMBER HIS NAME? HE’S GOING TO TAKE THE HANDOFF HERE, GO 18 YARDS WEAVING IN AND OUT OF TRAFFIC FOR THE TOUCHDOWN SET IN NOTHING MOUNTAIN BROOK TO START. THEY’RE GOING GET THE BALL AGAIN. WHY NOT JUST GIVE IT TO JOHN COOPER AGAIN DIRECTS SNAP THIS TIME ALL THE WAY IN FOR THE TOUCHDOWN ROUND 14 NOTHING AND THAT’S HOW THE NIGHT WENT FOR MOUNTAIN BROOK THE FINAL SCORE IN THIS ONE WILL POP BIG BOARD AND SHOW YOU MOUNTAIN BROOK WINS BIG 41 NOTHING. NEXT UP FOR THE SPARTANS, A TOUGH ONE AGAINST THE HOOVER BUCKS MORE MADRID AGAINST WILLARD. THIS IS THE THIRD QUARTER 20 TO 14 IN THE THIRD WITH MORE DRIVING. IT’S TRICKERY AND VASSER BREAKS OFF A 12 YARD RUN AND HE EARNED IT ON THIS ONE FOR THE TOUCHDOWN, TAKING THE LEAD 27 TO 14. AND ONE MORE JORDAN NOT DONE YET IT’S GETTING AMES FINDING TERRANCE GAINES FOR A SIX YARD TOUCHDOWN BRADLEY GOT IN 2721. BUT THAT’S THE SCORE THAT STAYS 27 TO 21. WOODLAWN WINS THIS ONE, THEY ADVANCE A THREE AND ONE ON THE SEASON GOING T
Alabama high school football scores, highlights- Week four
Check out Alabama high school football scores from week four! See highlights from the big games in central Alabama above.—AHSAA SCORES CLASS 7AAuburn 58, Lee-Montgomery 7Huntsville 28, Bob Jones 24CLASS 6AAthens 47, Mae Jemison 6Mountain Brook 48, Jackson-Olin 0Woodlawn 27, Mortimer Jordan 21CLASS 5AWilliamson 20, B.C. Rain 0CLASS 4AOak Grove 41, Curry 26North Jackson 21, St. John Paul II Catholic 14—
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —
Check out Alabama high school football scores from week four! See highlights from the big games in central Alabama above.
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AHSAA SCORES
CLASS 7A
Auburn 58, Lee-Montgomery 7
Huntsville 28, Bob Jones 24
CLASS 6A
Athens 47, Mae Jemison 6
Mountain Brook 48, Jackson-Olin 0
Woodlawn 27, Mortimer Jordan 21
CLASS 5A
Williamson 20, B.C. Rain 0
CLASS 4A
Oak Grove 41, Curry 26
North Jackson 21, St. John Paul II Catholic 14
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