Lindsey Graham Said Trump Could 'Kill 50 On Our Side' And GOP Wouldn't Care Book Says
Lindsey Graham Said Trump Could 'Kill 50 On Our Side' And GOP Wouldn't Care, Book Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/lindsey-graham-said-trump-could-kill-50-on-our-side-and-gop-wouldnt-care-book-says/
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was convinced that Republicans would stick by Donald Trump no matter how extreme — or even bloody — his behavior became, according to an upcoming book.
“Trump could kill 50 on our side and it wouldn’t matter,” Graham flatly told journalists Susan Glasser and Peter Baker, they recount in “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” an advance copy of which was obtained by The Independent.
The comment was an inflated play on Trump’s own boast during the 2016 presidential campaign when he said he was so popular he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
Graham reportedly offered the updated assessment in 2019 “less than 48 hours” after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced an impeachment inquiry into Trump’s strong-arming phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the account of the new book. In the call, Trump appeared to hold back a U.S. arms delivery that had been approved by Congress unless the new Ukrainian leader agreed to launch a baseless investigation into Trump’s expected 2020 presidential rival, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden.
Yet Graham was not completely naive about Trump. He also called the former president a “lying motherfucker” in relation to the Ukraine call, according to the reporting on the book, which is due out next week.
But nearly in the same breath, Graham noted that Trump was a “lot of fun to hang out with,” write Glasser and Baker, per the Independent’s article.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
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Letter: Inflation Is The Highest In Over 40 Years https://digitalalabamanews.com/letter-inflation-is-the-highest-in-over-40-years/
Editor:
Poor ole Chuck Dial is at it again. He just can’t lay off the cool aid served up by the fake news media and the corrupt leadership of the Democratic Party.
As an avid Trump supporter, I make no excuses for President Trump’s behavior because it is far better than the corrupt behavior of the fake news, the leadership of the DOJ and the Democrats.
From the time Trump announced he was running for president he has been under investigation. During his administration and while under Mueller’s and corrupt FBI officials’ intense corrupt investigation based on a phony Russian Dossier, America was made great.
We had better trade deals, manufacturing jobs came back to the USA, we were safer with a stronger and better equipped military, we were not only energy independent we were energy dominate, ISIS was destroyed and both Russia and China were suffering financially.
President Trump also saw to it that other nations began to pay for their membership to the UN, our southern border was secure, inflation was at a standstill and gas prices were going down instead of up. During this time of the corrupt investigation the fake media’s reporting on President Trump was over 93% negative.
Well, Chuck may be right on this one, inflation is the highest in over 40 years, 8%, gas prices are up higher than ever. crime is up, illegal immigration is worse than ever and their coming from all over the world, could there be a terrorist or two in the two million or more that have crossed our southern border since Biden took office.
About the FBI’s search and seizure of President Trump’s documents, according to Constitutional Law Professor Alan Dershowitz the search warrant was not legal.
Ole Chuck is worried about our Social Security and Medicare still being here if Trump is elected again. I would say yes, if we survive the Biden Administration and still have a country and are able to watch more than one TV station like Russia. However, I’m more concerned about my Social security and Medicare surviving the Biden Administration with inflation still going up along with food, gas and everything else my Social Security check is worth a lot less since Biden took office.
— Les Wolfe, Red Bluff
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AP News Summary At 8:39 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-839-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.
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.
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.
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.
Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms
ATLANTA (AP) — The revelation earlier this week that federal prosecutors are involved in investigations of suspected voting system breaches across the U.S. is fueling questions about the security of voting machines just two months before the midterm elections. Security breaches at election offices in Colorado, Georgia and Michigan have been sometimes aided by local officials who allowed unauthorized access to people who copied software and hard drive data, and in several cases shared it publicly. Security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November elections, but say they increase the possibility that rogue election workers could access election equipment to launch attacks.
Arizona Legislature won’t defend law limiting police filming
PHOENIX (AP) — The Republican leaders of the Arizona Legislature won’t try to defend a new law limiting up-close filming of police that has been blocked by a federal judge. The decision essentially ends the fight over the contentious proposal, although the Republican sponsor says he may push a revised measure next year. The judge gave the Republican leaders until Friday to decide if they wanted their lawyers to intervene after the state attorney general refused to defend the law. The judge agreed with the ACLU and press groups that it violates the First Amendment and temporarily blocked it last week. The groups will now seek a permanent injunction.
Alaska braces for huge storm, flooding, power outages feared
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Residents on Alaska’s vast and sparsely populated western coast braced for what forecasters said could be one of the worst in recent history, accompanied by strong winds and high surf that could knock out power and cause flooding. The storm is the remnants of Typhoon Merbok. Warnings anticipate winds reaching hurricane-force speeds in places, water levels reaching up to 18 feet above normal high tide in some communities and widespread power outages and areas of flooding and erosion. The storm also is influencing weather patterns far from Alaska — a rare late-summer storm is expected to bring rain this weekend to drought-stricken parts of California.
Nakate: Leaders are missing the human face of climate change
NEW YORK (AP) — Vanessa Nakate’s climate activism over the past three years has propelled her to the world stage as UNICEF’s newest goodwill ambassador. Since 2019, she has worked to amplify the voices of African climate activists and spearheaded initiatives to stop deforestation and install solar panels on buildings in remote areas of her home country Uganda. But she says it’s not enough to save the planet or save people in the global south who greatly suffer the effects of the climate crisis. Nakate says global leaders need to do more to acknowledge the impact of climate change on those who are most often left out of the conversation.
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway next year
NEW YORK (AP) — “The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, a victim of post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York. The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts — will play its final performance on Broadway in February. The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities. The closure was first reported by the New York Post. A spokesperson says the closing will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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SEC Football By The Numbers: Top 10 For Week 3 https://digitalalabamanews.com/sec-football-by-the-numbers-top-10-for-week-3/
The third week of the SEC’s 90th season features two conference and 10 non-conference contests. Here are 10 numbers, along with the schedule, TV and betting lines, to get ready for the SEC’s third Saturday of 2022:
0 Big Ten teams have played in Auburn before Saturday, when Penn State will become the first visitor from that conference to the Plains. Auburn and Ohio State played to a 0-0 tie on Nov. 24, 1917, in Montgomery in the Tigers’ first game against a Big Ten opponent before Auburn and Wisconsin tied 7-7 in Madison, Wisconsin, on Oct. 10, 1931. The Tigers’ next 13 games against Big Ten members came in bowls until they visited Penn State for a regular-season contest last year. Although Penn State will make its first visit to Auburn on Saturday, the Nittany Lions have played 10 games on the home fields of SEC opponents — against Alabama six times (four games in Tuscaloosa, two in Birmingham) and Kentucky and Tennessee twice apiece. Saturday’s game will be the first for Penn State in an SEC stadium since a 24-3 loss at Alabama on Sept. 11, 2010.
1 Conference game was played between Ole Miss and Georgia Tech in the 31 seasons that they spent together as members of the SEC. Ole Miss lost at Georgia Tech 24-7 on Oct. 12, 1946. They also met as conference members in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 1953, when Georgia Tech posted another 24-7 victory. Since the Yellow Jackets left the SEC after the 1963 season, Ole Miss has beaten Georgia Tech twice – 41-18 in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 30, 1971, and 25-17 in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30, 2013. Ole Miss and Georgia Tech square off again on Saturday.
4 Games for SEC teams on Mid-American Conference home fields when Vanderbilt squares off against Northern Illinois at Huskie Stadium in DeKalb, Illinois, on Saturday. This will be the Commodores’ third game as a MAC visitor. Vanderbilt played at Northern Illinois in 1997 and Miami (Ohio) in 2008. Missouri is the only other SEC team to play in a MAC stadium — against Toledo in 2014. Of the other 78 games between SEC and MAC members, 73 have been on SEC home fields. Four came in bowls, and Kentucky played Miami (Ohio) in Cincinnati in 2014. The SEC leads the series with the MAC 70-12.
7 Consecutive victories for Georgia in its first conference road game of the season and eight consecutive losses for South Carolina in its first conference home game of the season. On Saturday, the Bulldogs visit the Gamecocks. It will be Georgia’s first conference road game and South Carolina’s first conference home game of 2022. Since losing at South Carolina 38-35 on Sept. 13, 2014, the Bulldogs have beaten Vanderbilt three times and Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee and Missouri once apiece in their first conference road game. The Gamecocks haven’t won their first SEC game in Williams-Brice Stadium in any season since 2013, when they defeated Vanderbilt 35-25 on Sept. 14. Since then, South Carolina has lost to Kentucky three times, Texas A&M twice and Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee once apiece in its first conference home game.
8 Consecutive LSU possessions with Jayden Daniels at QB have resulted in TDs – the last three in the season-opening 24-23 loss to Florida State and the first five in last week’s 65-17 victory over Southern. Against Florida State, Daniels became the first LSU player with at least 200 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in a non-overtime game. With 132 rushing yards, Daniels is the Tigers’ leading rusher as well as passer. He has completed 35-of-45 passes for 346 yards with five TDs and no interceptions in 2022. Daniels will try to keep the streak going on Saturday against Mississippi State.
RELATED: SEC FOOTBALL BY THE NUMBERS: TOP 10 FROM WEEK 2
11 TD passes from Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker to WR Cedric Tillman in the Volunteers’ past 11 games, with the latest hookup providing the deciding score in Sept. 10′s 34-27 overtime victory over Pittsburgh. Hooker and Tillman will head into Saturday’s game against Akron two behind the Peyton Manning-to-Marcus Nash connection for the most TDs for a quarterback-receiver tandem in Tennessee history. Hooker has a 14-game streak with at least one TD pass, the second-longest in school history. Heath Shuler had an 18-game streak that started in the 1992 season and ended in the 1994 campaign. During his streak, Hooker has completed 249-of-368 passes for 3,463 yards with 34 TDs and three interceptions. In the only game he’s played at Tennessee without a TD pass, Hooker threw only once.
18 Consecutive seasons have featured at least 31 points for Alabama in the Crimson Tide’s third game of the year. The most recent season in which Alabama failed to score at least 31 points in Game 3 was 2003, when the Tide defeated Kentucky 27-17 in the third game. Alabama plays Louisiana-Monroe in its third game of the 2022 season on Saturday.
54 Consecutive non-conference regular-season games have been won by Alabama –the longest in the nation during the SEC era. The Crimson Tide’s most recent loss in a non-conference regular-season game came on Nov. 17, 2007, when Alabama fell to Louisiana-Monroe 21-14. ULM visits the Tide again on Saturday. Alabama also has defeated 40 consecutive non-conference opponents at Bryant-Denny Stadium, dating from the 2007 loss to the Warhawks.
200 Games as a college head coach for Bobby Petrino when Missouri State hits the field to take on Arkansas on Saturday. Petrino has a 134-65 record, including a 34-17 mark at Arkansas from 2008 through 2011. Arkansas fired Petrino in 2012 for off-the-field incidents. Saturday’s game will be the first for Arkansas in Fayetteville as a top-10 team in The Associated Press Poll since the first contest played by the Razorbacks after Petrino was fired. No. 8 Arkansas defeated Jacksonville State 49-24 on Sept. 1, 2012. In Petrino’s final two seasons at Arkansas, the Razorbacks ranked in the top 10 in 14 polls, reaching a high of No. 3 in the Nov. 20, 2011, poll.
1,300 Games for LSU when the Tigers take on Mississippi State on Saturday. LSU has an 824-428-47 record. LSU will become the eighth of the current SEC programs to reach 1,300 games, joining Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC PAGE
This week’s SEC schedule includes (all times are CDT with point spreads from vegasinsider.com):
Saturday
· Georgia at South Carolina, 11 a.m. at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina (ESPN). Line: Georgia by 25.
· Youngstown State at Kentucky, 11 a.m. at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky (SEC Network). Line: Kentucky by 30.5.
· Abilene Christian at Missouri, 11 a.m. at Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri (SEC+). Line: Missouri by 33.
· Penn State at Auburn, 2:30 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn (CBS). Line: Penn State by 3.
· Ole Miss at Georgia Tech, 2:30 p.m. at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta (ABC). Line: Ole Miss by 17.
· Vanderbilt at Northern Illinois, 2:30 p.m. at Huskie Stadium in DeKalb, Illinois (CBS Sports Network). Line: Northern Illinois by 2.5.
· Louisiana-Monroe at Alabama, 3 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa (SEC Network). Line: Alabama by 49.5.
· Mississippi State at LSU, 5 p.m. at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (ESPN). Line: Mississippi State by 2.5.
· Missouri State at Arkansas, 6 p.m. at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas (SEC+). Line: Arkansas by 26.5.
· Akron at Tennessee, 6 p.m. at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee (ESPN+). Line: Tennessee by 47.
· USF at Florida, 6:30 p.m. at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida (SEC Network). Line: Florida by 24.
· Miami (Florida) at Texas A&M, 8 p.m. at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas (ESPN). Line: Texas A&M by 6.5.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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Football High Live: Scores Updates From Friday's Week 5 Slate
Football High Live: Scores, Updates From Friday's Week 5 Slate https://digitalalabamanews.com/football-high-live-scores-updates-from-fridays-week-5-slate/
It’s the official halfway point of the 2022 season for many high school football teams across the state of Alabama.
Tonight’s huge region games include Florence at James Clemens, Randolph at Westminster, Center Point at Clay-Chalkville, Hoover at Hewitt-Trussville, Theodore at Spanish Fort, Andalusia at Montgomery Academy and much more.
RELATED: Week 5 HS predictions
RELATED: Auburn records milestone win
Check back throughout the night for consistent scores, updates and highlights from all games from Daphne to Decatur.
7:52 PM, Sophomore sensation: Pike Road’s Anthony Rogers with a 65-yard TD run. It’s the only points of the half as the Patriots lead Eufaula 7-0.
Other scores:
Faith Academy 22, Citronelle 0
Hartselle 7, Gadsden City 0
Alexandria 17, Springville 0
Thompson 14, Chelsea 3
T.R. Miller 22, Orange Beach 13
Clay-Chalkville 26, Center Point 7
7:44 PM, Pitching a shutout: Spanish Fort increases its lead to 14-0 on visiting Theodore on the Hill. 4:03 left in the second quarter there.
Enterprise routing Rehobeth 36-0 in the 2nd quarter.
Fairhope clinging to a 12-7 lead against Davidson at Baker.
Baker 14, Daphne 8 (8:53 2nd)
McGill-Toolen 14, Murphy 0 (2 TD passes from Andrew Murchison to South Alabama commit Anthony Eager)
Thomasville 6, Cottage Hill 0 (Half)
T.R. Miller leads Orange Beach 22-7
After 1: UMS-Wright 0, Vigor 0
Decatur 28, Hazel Green 7 (7:33 2nd)
7:41 PM, Huskies respond: Hewitt-Trussville responds to Hoover’s TD with a 7-play, 53-yard drive, capped with a 1-yard TD run by Peyton Floyd. It’s 7-7 at Hewitt.
Pelham leads Helena 14-3 with 10:58 left in the first half.
Decatur increases its lead on Hazel Green to 21-7 with 11:08 left in the half.
Clay-Chalkville leads Center Point 18-7 with 11 minutes left in the first half.
Randolph with 27 unanswered points to lead Westminster 27-7 with 10:36 left in the half.
7:36 PM, Battle for the Cannon: McGill takes the lead on rival Murphy on Andrew Murchison’s 36-yard TD pass to Anthony Eager. Yellow Jackets lead 7-0 with 7:21 left in the first at Ladd-Peebles Stadium.
Defensive stand: Vigor stops Cole Blaylock on forth-and-short at the Wolves 40. No score at UMS.
Austin 14, Albertville 0
Cherokee Co. 7, Hanceville 0
Sardis 8, Crossville 0
Alexandria 7, Springville 0
J.B. Pennington 14, Asbury 0
Andalusia 28, Montgomery Academy 0 (End 1, Huge statement early for the Bulldogs)
7:29 PM, Bucs up: Hoover strikes first on a late first-quarter drive, scoring on an 11-yard TD pass from Brewer Smith to Jordan Woolen. Bucs lead 7-0 over Hewitt-Trussville with 1:25 left in opening frame.
Spanish Fort defense dominating Theodore early. Toros lead 7-0 after 1 on a Pick 6.
Andalusia 21, Montgomery Academy 0
UMS is underway and already playing defense. Joe Lott picks off a deep Vigor pass on the first series of the game. No score after the delayed start.
Oak Mountain 10, Tuscaloosa County 6: Two long drives from Oak Mountain result in points in a close first quarter contest.
Fairhope 12, Davidson 0 (After 1)
Randolph 21, Westminster 7 (1:24 1st)
Pelham 7, Helena 3 (End 1)
Clay-Chalkville 12, Center Point 7
7:23 PM, Some score updates:
Murphy 0, McGill-Toolen 0 (End 1)
Baker 7, Daphne 0 (5:38 1st)
Decatur 14, Hazel Green 7 (2:52 1st)
Mary G. Montgomery 7, Alma Bryant 7 (1Q)
Thomasville 6, Cottage Hill 0 (2:27 1st)
Center Point 7, Clay-Chalkville 6 (2:33 1st)
Florence 7, James Clemens 0 (End 1)
St. Michael 16, Satsuma 0 (1st)
7:32 PM, Update: Ambulance has left Cooper Stadium in Mobile. UMS and Vigor players coming back on the field. Game has not started after a medical emergency in the visitor’s stands. Prayers up for the person affected. Officials now back on field as well.
7:15 PM, Medical emergency: Darron Patterson reports that paramedics are doing chest compressions on a spectator in the Vigor stands. A pair of ambulances on the scene at Cooper Stadium in Mobile where the Wolves are scheduled to play No. 1 UMS. The game has not started yet. Teams had the coin toss and were on the field when the incident happened. They have been sent back to the lockerroom.
Meanwhile, Decatur leads Hazel Green 14-0 with 7:08 left in the 1Q.
Randolph leads Westminster 14-7 with 7:38 left in the 1Q.
Pike Road 0, Eufaula 0 (End 1)
7:06 PM, Delay in Mobile: UMS-Wright won the toss against Vigor, but the game is being delayed right now by an apparent medical emergency in the visiting stands. Officials are sending teams back into the lockerroom for now.
Decatur trying to stay unbeaten and leading Hazel Green 7-0 with 9:55 left in the 1Q
Benjamin Russell leads Homewood 7-0.
Enterprise leads Rehobeth 8-0 with 7:02 left in the first.
Scottsboro up on Arab, 7-0
7:04 PM, On the Board: Westminster is on the board already against Randolph. Brandon Musch with a 77-yard run less than a minute into the game. Westminster leads 7-0.
6:59 PM, Almost Kickoff: Class 3A No. 10 Thomasville in Mobile tonight to take on Cottage Hill. The Warriors got a big road win last week at Flomaton.
6:51 PM, Home sweet home: Adam Winegarden and Tuscaloosa County at home tonight to face Oak Mountain.
6:48 PM, Who’s the coach? Blount travels to Baldwin County tonight in a matchup of 2 teams that need a win. But the big question is who is coaching Blount. Coach Josh Harris has been put on administrative leave after a video surfaced that appeared to show him spanking a player in the lockerroom. Word is his brother, Gerald Harris, may lead the Leopards tonight. We will see if they can rally around their coach as we await word on his future.
6:38 PM, Another big one in 7A, 3: Vestavia Hills traveling to Spain Park. This is basically a must win for one of these teams to stay in the playoff chase.
6:33 PM, Huge one at Hewitt-Trussville: The Huskies are hosting rival Hoover in a key Class 7A, Region 3 game tonight.
6:30 PM, Battle for the Cannon: One of the oldest rivalries in the state is the annual Battle for the Cannon in Mobile between McGill-Toolen and Murphy. The winning team’s students paint the historic Mobile cannon school colors. McGill students are ready at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. Murphy is looking for its first win of the season.
6:20 PM, Big one on the Hill: Theodore travels to Spanish Fort to take on the Toros in a key Class 6A, Region 1 matchup. Ironically, it’s the first time these two teams have ever played football. Champions Hill is one of the best scenes for football in the state.
6:15 PM, Top guys: My man Jason Caldwell is on the scene at Stanhope Elmore tonight to see the top two uncommitted senior prospects in the state in Carver’s James Smith and Qua Russaw.
6:10 PM, Champs on the field: 3-time reigning 7A champ Thompson is on the road tonight at Class 7A newcomer Chelsea. Warriors have won 2 straight after opening the season 0-2.
THURSDAY’S RESULTS
Athens 47, Mae Jemison 6
Auburn 58, Lee-Montgomery 7
Huntsville 28, Bob Jones 24
Mountain Brook 48, Jackson-Olin 0
North Jackson 21, St. John Paul II 14
Oak Grove 41, Curry 26
Williamson 20, B.C. Rain 0
Woodlawn 27, Mortimer Jordan 21
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Phony Document Lands On Docket In Trump Search Case
Phony Document Lands On Docket In Trump Search Case https://digitalalabamanews.com/phony-document-lands-on-docket-in-trump-search-case/
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press.
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Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Regulating Social Media Moderation
Appeals Court Upholds Texas Law Regulating Social Media Moderation https://digitalalabamanews.com/appeals-court-upholds-texas-law-regulating-social-media-moderation/
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a controversial Texas social media law that bars companies from removing posts based on a person’s political ideology, overturning a lower court’s decision to block the law and likely setting up a Supreme Court showdown over the future of online speech.
The ruling could have wide-ranging effects on the future of tech regulation, giving fresh ammunition to conservative politicians who have alleged that major tech companies are silencing their political speech.
But the decision diverges from precedent and recent rulings from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal and lower courts, and tech industry groups are likely they would appeal.
Friday’s opinion was written by Judge Andrew Stephen Oldham, who was nominated to the 5th Circuit by former president Trump. He was joined by Judge Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee. Judge Leslie H. Southwick, a George W. Bush appointee, concurred in part and dissented in part.
In the opinion, Oldham wrote that while the First Amendment guarantees every person’s right to free speech, it doesn’t guarantee corporations the right to “muzzle speech.” The Texas law, he wrote, “does not chill speech; if anything, it chills censorship.”
The ruling criticized the tech industry’s arguments against the law, saying that under the companies’ logic, “email providers, mobile phone companies, and banks could cancel the accounts of anyone who sends an email, makes a phone call, or spends money in support of a disfavored political party, candidate, or business.”
An appeal of the decision could force the Supreme Court, where conservatives have a majority, to weigh in on internet regulation, which has become an increasingly politicized issue since the 2016 election. Democrats have called for new limits on the companies that would block the proliferation of harmful content and misinformation on the platforms, while conservatives have argued that the companies have gone too far in policing their sites, especially after the companies’ 2021 decision to ban Trump following the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol.
In an analysis shared with The Washington Post in July, the industry group Computer & Communications Industry Association, one of the groups that challenged the Texas law, identified more than 100 bills in state legislatures aimed at regulating social media content moderation policies. Many state legislatures have adjourned for the year, so tech lobbyists are bracing for more activity in 2023.
Earlier this week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a bill into law that forces large social networks to make public their policies for how posts are treated, responding to criticism that posts glorifying violence and hatred are being amplified by the platforms.
“If the Supreme Court doesn’t weigh in, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to operate a nationwide social media company because it could be navigating state rules that differ or even conflict,” said Jeff Kosseff, a cybersecurity law professor at the United States Naval Academy.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court stopped the Texas law from taking effect in a 5-4 decision, responding to an emergency request from tech industry trade groups. However, the judges did not explain the reasoning for their decision, which is common in such requests.
In their ruling, the 5th Circuit judges agreed with Texas that social media companies are “common carriers,” like phone companies, that are subject to government regulations because they provide essential services. Conservatives have long made this argument, which has resonated with at least one Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, who has written that there are parallels between social media companies and phone companies.
Tech industry groups and legal experts warned that the 5th Circuit’s decision runs counter to First Amendment precedent and warned that it could result in harmful posts staying on social networks.
“Little could be more Orwellian than the government purporting to protect speech by dictating what businesses must say,” said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “The Texas law compels private enterprises to distribute dangerous content ranging from foreign propaganda to terrorist incitement, and places Americans at risk.”
Netchoice, another industry group that has challenged the Texas and Florida laws alongside CCIA, echoed those concerns about “awful and offensive content” remaining online.
“We remain convinced that when the U.S. Supreme Court hears one of our cases, it will uphold the First Amendment rights of websites, platforms and apps,” said Carl Szabo, Netchoice vice president and general counsel.
Constitutional law experts also largely criticized Oldham’s opinion. Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, said it is a “terrible opinion” riddled with factual errors.
“It’s a gross misunderstanding of the word censorship,” he said. “Censorship is something that governments do.”
Earlier this year, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked major provisions of a social media law that had been passed by Florida’s Republican-led legislature, saying they infringed on corporations’ First Amendment rights. The state of Florida is widely expected to appeal that decision.
In the 5th Circuit opinion, Oldham wrote that the Texas and Florida laws differ in key ways because the Florida law narrowly targets speech by political figures and journalistic businesses while the Texas law targets actions against anyone over their political viewpoints. He wrote he disagreed with the way that court interpreted previous Supreme Court rulings related to “editorial discretion,” or the right of media companies to decide what content they carry, and whether that applies to social networks.
“I don’t see how you could have both of these rulings out there without having resolution from the Supreme Court,” Kosseff said.
Meanwhile, conservative regulators took a victory lap. Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, who has emerged as a major critic of big social media companies, called the decision a “Big court win in the effort to end Big Tech’s unchecked censorship.”
And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) called the court’s decision a “MASSIVE VICTORY” for free speech on Twitter.
BREAKING: I just secured a MASSIVE VICTORY for the Constitution & Free Speech in fed court: #BigTech CANNOT censor the political voices of ANY Texan! The 5th Circuit “reject[s] the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say. pic.twitter.com/UijlzYcv7r
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 16, 2022
Jameel Jaffer, the director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said there are difficult questions for the courts to grapple with.
“It is not obvious exactly how analog-era First Amendment law applies, or should apply, to digital-era communications platforms,” he said. “Unfortunately, this opinion doesn’t present those questions clearly, let alone answer them.”
Naomi Nix and Will Oremus contributed reporting.
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Hundreds Express Interest In Alabama Medical Marijuana Licenses
Hundreds Express Interest In Alabama Medical Marijuana Licenses https://digitalalabamanews.com/hundreds-express-interest-in-alabama-medical-marijuana-licenses/
FOLEY, Ala. (WALA) – More than 230 companies statewide have asked for applications for medical marijuana licenses, including 18 in Mobile County and 13 in Baldwin County, according to the Alabama Medical Marijuana Commission.
Others are considering the idea. That includes Foley-based Oscity Labs, founded four years ago by former Mobile Mayor Mike Dow and others.
Oscity Labs has not applied for a license and has not even requested an application. But Dow, co-founder of the company, says it’s something the firm is considering. It already has a seed-to-sale operation that turns hemp into various products, like CBD and CBG.
Dow told FOX10 News that he became interested in the industry out of concern for veterans.
“It helps them,” he said. “You can get products for sleep, for mood, for anxiety, for calm, for these kinds of things. And there’s kind of a real need in that marketplace for just a lot of health and wellness.”
Requests for medical marijuana license applications.(News Graphic/Amber Gardner)
The state is in the process of creating a tightly regulated medical marijuana industry. The commission expects to award licenses in June 2023 – 12 to cultivators, four each to processors and dispensaries and five to integrated facilities, which will allow firms to perform all four functions. The commission also will award an unspecified number of licenses to transport the product and serve as state testing laboratories.
The deadline for requesting and application is Oct. 7, and a spokeswoman for the license commission said companies will have to submit the application by Dec. 30.
Requests for medical marijuana license applications.(News Graphic/Amber Gardner)
For now, Oscity Labs is relying on its hemp business. Under state law, it can produce a variety of products – marketed as treatments for maladies as wide-ranging as ant bites, burns and insomnia – as long as they contain less than 3 percent THC. That’s the active ingredient of marijuana.
The company moved two years ago into a former sweet potato chip facility in Foley. It grows hemp on its 350-acre farm in Brewton and the processes it at the Foley plant. That involves drying and dehydrating the hemp plant and then storing it.
The facility then extracts cannabinoids off of the hemp plant. CEO Ray French said there are some 140 different cannabinoids. After cleaning and removing the remaining impurities, the facility ends up with distillates, used to create products like CBD and CBG.
French said the company, including the farm, employs about 20 full-time workers plus additional part-time farmhands.
“We’re really excited to be able to bring these jobs and these products here to the state of Alabama and are working to build a team that can bring accurate and effective products to the market,” he said.
Christopher Whaley, a Daphne native who worked in the industry in Colorado before returning home to become Oscity Labs’ chief science officer, said it is an incredibly complicated process – especially in Alabama’s high humidity.
“To get it to that level of purity requires days’ and days’ worth of processing,” he said. “From the time that we bring a flower in here to the time I created a finished distillate, there’s probably a seven-business-day turnaround.”
Dr. Sean Hollonbeck, the company’s chief medical officer, said cannabinoids don’t have the same side effects as many prescription painkillers.
“And I got to see the side effects side, particularly in pain management, and the challenges with sleep,” he said.
Hollonbeck said the healing properties of hemp work by augmenting the body’s owns chemistry. He said he became interested in the field during his time in the military.
“I began my interest in this field because like a lot of scientists and physicians, I’ve heard about it, right?” he said. “But I didn’t really know about it. And they certainly didn’t teach it in medical school.”
—
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Ron Faucheux: To Know Where National Politics Is Going Watch These Gubernatorial Elections
Ron Faucheux: To Know Where National Politics Is Going, Watch These Gubernatorial Elections https://digitalalabamanews.com/ron-faucheux-to-know-where-national-politics-is-going-watch-these-gubernatorial-elections/
When my oldest son was a young lad, I explained to him about presidents and governors. He concluded, “Oh, I see — governors are little presidents.”
Both governors and presidents are chief executives and have to deal with legislative bodies that are both unpredictable and headstrong. Of course, job size differs. Governors worry about a single state, while presidents govern all 50, along with foreign affairs.
Even though pundits tend to focus on congressional elections, governors have a bigger impact on life in each state — from schools, health care and highways to economic development, the environment and law enforcement. They often become national figures (Huey Long, Jerry Brown, Nelson Rockefeller) and even presidents (Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton).
Currently, there are 27 Republican and 23 Democratic governorships. This November, 36 of them will be on the ballot. Eight are open seats without incumbents and the other 28 are incumbents seeking another term.
There are seven races of note. Not only are they interesting in their own right, but outcomes could have national significance.
The first is Florida. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is seeking a second term and is heavily favored, even though recent polls show his lead is modest (3 to 5 points). He’s already raised $172 million for his campaign, which is eleven times more than his Democratic challenger, former Gov. and U.S. Rep. (and onetime Republican) Charlie Crist.
DeSantis is a machine. He dominates his state’s politics and has strong appeal among conservatives nationwide. If reelected, he may seek the White House in 2024. Without Donald Trump in the race, polls show DeSantis is the top contender for the Republican nomination.
A smart political tactician who doesn’t shy away from controversy, DeSantis needs a solid victory to cement his Florida base and national standing. A closer-than-expected win this November could take off some of the shine.
The gubernatorial contest in Michigan is worth watching. Polls show Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with an average lead of 8 points, but polls often jump around in this crucial swing state.
Michigan has voted with the winner in the four last presidential elections. It was a critical piece of Trump’s 2016 coalition and was equally vital to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020. If Whitmer loses, it would presage rough times for Democrats; if she wins big, it would be a disturbing sign for Republicans. Whitmer may be a future prospect for national office.
Pennsylvania is another large swing state. Observers are betting on state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to keep the governorship in the Democratic column. That’s mostly because his Republican opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, holds far-right, pro-Trump views that are seen as too extreme. The average of recent polls puts Shapiro ahead by 8 points.
Wisconsin went with Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, who defeated Republican Gov. Scott Walker four years ago, has a tough fight on his hands. GOP rival Tim Michels, a businessman, won his party’s nod with Trump’s help. Polling shows a tight contest.
Nevada voted Democratic in four of the last six presidential elections, but the state is struggling with its partisan identity along with a population influx. Gov. Steve Sisolak, Nevada’s first Democratic governor in two decades, has his hands full. He faces Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, an off-road racer and former Las Vegas police chief, in a state where crime is a big issue.
Arizona, long Republican-leaning, voted for Biden by a thin margin in 2020. It’s now a key battleground. The gubernatorial race pits Democrat Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s secretary of state, against Republican Kari Lake, a television news anchor who has Trump’s endorsement.
There is a rematch in Georgia, which also has its share of close elections. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp faces Stacey Abrams, the Democrat he defeated in 2018 by 55,000 votes out of nearly four million cast.
Abrams claimed her loss in the last gubernatorial election was caused by Republican-sponsored voting rules that discouraged her supporters from casting ballots; she’s since raised millions of dollars to register new voters. Kemp, who was viciously attacked by Trump for not overturning Georgia’s presidential results, has an average polling lead of 5 points.
Governors may be “little presidents,” but there’s nothing little about these seven campaigns now underway.
Ron Faucheux is a nonpartisan political analyst based in New Orleans. He publishes LunchtimePolitics.com, a free nationwide newsletter on public opinion.
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Iranian Woman Dies After Detention By morality Police Stirring Outrage
Iranian Woman Dies After Detention By ‘morality Police,’ Stirring Outrage https://digitalalabamanews.com/iranian-woman-dies-after-detention-by-morality-police-stirring-outrage/
An Iranian woman who slipped into a coma earlier this week after she was detained by so-called “morality police” died Friday, state media reported, in a case that stirred outrage over the government’s increasingly strict enforcement of ultraconservative dress codes for women.
The woman, Mahsa Amini, 22, was detained on Tuesday in Tehran, the capital, by members of the guidance patrol, a special unit that enforces Iran’s obligatory Islamic dress codes, Amini’s mother, Mojhgan Amini, said in an interview with Radio Farda on Thursday. Within hours of the arrest, “we hear that she is in a coma,” her mother said.
“They killed my angel,” she said in an interview with BBC Persian on Friday.
The police said that Amini suffered a heart attack after being taken to a police “education and advice” center, state media said. Her family insisted that she had no prior health problems, and activists asserted that she may have been beaten by the police. On Friday, as scattered protests erupted in Tehran over the death, the interior ministry ordered an investigation, which it said was ordered by Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.
The headscarf and other conservative dress, known as hijab, have been compulsory for women since Iran’s 1979 revolution. Raisi, a hard line cleric who assumed office last year, has called for strict enforcement of the dress codes. The guidance patrols have become increasingly assertive of late, with their distinctive green-striped vans featured in a series of videos that have gone viral online and provoked anger — including one from last month that appeared to show a detained woman being thrown from a speeding van.
Another recent video showed a mother stepping in front of one of the vans while her daughter was inside, trying to stop it from moving by placing her hands on the hood.
The government crackdown sparked a protest movement over the summer by Iranian women who photographed themselves without a headscarf and posted the pictures on social media.
Amini, a Kurdish woman from western Iran, had been visiting Tehran with her brother when she was arrested, her mother said. It was not clear what about her attire had attracted police scrutiny, but she was detained as soon as she exited a Tehran metro station.
“My son begs them not to,” the mother said. “He says, ‘we are strangers in Tehran, we don’t know anyone, don’t take her,’” the mother said. “But they beat up my son and take my daughter.”
A video carried by Iranian media outlets Friday purported to show Amini in the police station. In the video, which was edited, she can be seen in a large hall filled with women, sitting for a moment, then approaching another woman who appears to be an authority figure and gestures toward Amini’s clothes, touching her headscarf before walking away. Amini can then be seen putting her hands to her face, shortly before collapsing onto a chair.
Pictures of Amini in the hospital, intubated, circulated widely on social media, provoking anguished reactions from activists, celebrities and reformist political figures. In one post, Asghar Farhadi, a prominent Iranian filmmaker, wrote: “We are pretending to be asleep at the face of this never-ending oppression. We are all partners in this crime.”
Following her death, security forces clashed with people in front of Tehran’s Kasra Hospital, in the north of the capital, where Amini was treated, according to videos posted on social media. Some videos also showed protesters nearby at Argentina Square, chanting against Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Khamenei is a killer; his government is invalid,” they chanted.
Babak Dehghanpisheh in Phoenix contributed to this report.
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Fast Start: New Special Master In Trump Documents Case Orders Tuesday Hearing
Fast Start: New Special Master In Trump Documents Case Orders Tuesday Hearing https://digitalalabamanews.com/fast-start-new-special-master-in-trump-documents-case-orders-tuesday-hearing/
The newly appointed special master reviewing the records seized by the Justice Department last month from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, wasted no time Friday evening by quickly scheduling a hearing between Mr. Trump’s legal team and lawyers from the Justice Department.
U.S. District Court Judge Raymond J. Dearie, who was appointed Thursday night by a Florida federal judge, ordered both sides to appear in a Brooklyn federal courthouse at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
Judge Dearie also requested the lawyers submit proposed agenda items for the meeting by the close of business Monday.
U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who appointed Judge Dearie, gave him until Nov. 30 to complete his review of the documents for materials that may be covered by attorney-client privilege or executive privilege granted to presidents. Any materials deemed privileged will be off-limits to Justice Department investigators probing whether Mr. Trump illegally mishandled classified government documents.
Judge Cannon also ordered Mr. Trump to pay for the review’s full cost.
Mr. Trump’s legal team last month asked Judge Cannon to appoint a special master to review the records seized in the Aug. 8 raid and return any materials that may be covered by executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
The Justice Department fought the appointment of a special master, arguing that it had already done its own review and Mr. Trump couldn’t raise executive privilege claims that ordinarily permit a president to withhold information because he was no longer commander-in-chief.
The department is expected to appeal the appointment of a special master to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
Judge Cannon sided with Mr. Trump and ordered both sides to name a candidate for the role. The Trump team put forth two candidates, including Judge Dearie, while the Justice Department suggested three potential special masters.
Judge Dearie was the only candidate both sides agreed on. He serves on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Brooklyn, where he has taken senior status, meaning he still works, but his caseload is significantly less than other judges.
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Big Ten Bets Week 3: It Doesnt Get Any Easier For Nebraska
Big Ten Bets Week 3: It Doesn’t Get Any Easier For Nebraska https://digitalalabamanews.com/big-ten-bets-week-3-it-doesnt-get-any-easier-for-nebraska/
In Week 2, we went 3-3 (-1 unit), including 2-1 on team totals. Let’s build on that team total success towards a winning Week 3. On the season, we’re 7-4 (+2 units).
Scared money, don’t make money. Let’s eat!
B1GGER Bets (2 Units):
Last Week: 0-1; Season: 0-1 (-2 Units)
Oklahoma -10.5 NEBRASKA
Money Line: Oklahoma -400 | Nebraska +310 | Total: 64.5
Time: 12:00 p.m. ET; TV: FOX | Location: Memorial Stadium | Lincoln, NE
Oklahoma: AP Top 25: 6 | Coaches Poll: 6 | SP+: 5 | PFF: 8
Nebraska: AP Top 25: NR | Coaches Poll: NR | SP+: 51 | PFF: 67
Oklahoma: Questionable: OT Wanya Morris, DB Lawrence Key
Nebraska: Out for Season: OL Nouredin Nouili | Questionable: TE Thomas Fidone II | Travis Vokolek
Having written about the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Scott Frost twice this week, it’s fitting to start in Lincoln (on Saturday, where the Huskers take on their old school rival, the Oklahoma Sooners. Some may wonder if the Frost firing might spur on the Cornhuskers (understandable), especially for a big game like OU. But I’m not sold. I’d imagine this team has to be exhausted.
Unlike many that played in Week 0, the Cornhuskers haven’t had a week off. It is crazy when you consider they played across the Atlantic Ocean to start the season. Then you throw in the emotional toll and pressure they’ve dealt with thus far.
They have to be looking forward to no game next Saturday. Who needs an off week more than this group? This is also when you’d make a coaching change if you wanted the best results.
In the Sooners, Nebraska will face the best offensive and defensive units they’ve squared up against all season. It’s not even close.
OU brings a deep and talented secondary and a pass rush led by defensive end Reggie Grimes (four sacks) that should pressure Casey Thompson into some mistakes. The quarterback has four touchdown passes to three interceptions and has been sacked seven times this season, including five in the past two weeks against North Dakota and Georgia Southern (combined 8-15 in 2021).
B1G Bets (1 Unit):
Last Week: 3-2; Season: 7-3 (+4 Units)
Oklahoma Sooners OVER 38.5
The more significant mismatch comes when the Sooners have the ball. Running back Eric Gray is averaging 6.7 YPC, and when backup Marcus Major (7.7 YPC) checks in, the running game doesn’t skip a beat.
Teamed up again with offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, quarterback Dillon Gabriel has completed over 70 percent of his passes and is averaging over ten yards per pass with five touchdowns in 51 attempts. Wide receiver Marvin Mims Jr. is off to an All-American start with ten grabs for 244 yards and two scores.
The Nebraska defense has been inept, especially up front, as they’ve recorded two sacks in three games while allowing 5.7 yards per carry. That’s against an FCS offense, and FBS units ranked 93rd and 103rd in SP+. OU is fifth.
AUBURN TIGERS UNDER 23.5
Money Line: Penn State -140 | Auburn +115 | Total: 48
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET; TV: CBS | Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium | Auburn, AL
Penn State: AP Top 25: 22 | Coaches Poll: 23 | SP+: 14 | PFF: 12
Auburn: AP Top 25: NR (40) | Coaches Poll: NR (41) | SP+: 30 | PFF: 35
Penn State: Out: DE Zuriah Fisher | Questionable: TE Jerry Cross, TE Theo Johnson
Auburn: Out for Season: No injuries reported.
Penn State (-3) is the better team, but I can’t trust that offense at Jordan-Hare Stadium. But I like how the Nittany Lions’ defense matchups up against a shaky Tigers offense.
In hopes of replacing T.J. Finley, Auburn brought in former Texas A&M quarterback Zach Calzada. Finley won the job, but with one touchdown pass to three interceptions against Mercer and San Jose State, I doubt he’s earned more confidence from the coaching staff.
The Tigers are unproven on the interior of their O-line, which spells trouble against mammoth defensive tackle P.J. Mustipher. It’s going to be tough sledding for the Tigers.
MICHIGAN -30.5 UConn (1st Half)
Money Line: Michigan -10000 | UConn +1700 | Total: 60.5
Time: 12:00 p.m. ET; TV: ABC | Location: Michigan Stadium | Ann Arbor, MI
UConn: AP Top 25: NR | Coaches Poll: NR | SP+: 126 | PFF: 124
Michigan: AP Top 25: 4 | Coaches Poll: 5 | SP+: 4 | PFF: 4
UConn: Out: QB Ta’Quan Roberson, RB Brian Brewton
Michigan: Questionable: RB Donovan Edwards, LB Nikhai Hill-Green
We’ve been on the Wolverines in the first two weeks (game vs. Colorado State, first quarter vs. Hawaii). Like last week, we don’t love the game line but expect Michigan to crush it in the first half.
Everyone is starting to catch up on how much a juggernaut this Michigan offense is, and their offensive line is still finding itself. J.J. McCarthy has all the tools, and while he still has to prove himself against higher-caliber defenses, the Huskies aren’t them.
Michigan scored on six of eight first-half drives against Hawaii. Expect more of the same this week. As for the defense, they’ve allowed zero first-half points this season, another trend that should continue against UConn.
Rutgers -17.5 TEMPLE
Money Line: Rutgers -1200 | Temple +700 | Total: 43.5
Time: 2:00 p.m. ET; TV: ESPN+ | Location: High Point Solutions Stadium | Piscataway, NJ
Temple: AP Top 25: NR | Coaches Poll: NR | SP+: 125 | PFF: 118
Rutgers: AP Top 25: NR | Coaches Poll: NR | SP+: 70 | PFF: 72
Temple: Questionable: TE David Martin-Robinson
Rutgers: Out: DE Mohamed Toure, LB Moses Walker | Questionable: QB Noah Vedral, RB Aaron Young, TE Matt Alaimo
In the early going, Rutgers looks to be improved. How much? That’s unclear, and for this week, it doesn’t matter too much. Temple is a bottom 10 team in FBS, and the Scarlet Knights have proven to be a reliable bully team.
The worst three teams they played last season—Delaware, Indiana, and Temple—Rutgers won each game by at least 32 points, including 61-14 over the Owls. Last week they took care of Wagner 66-7.
Evan Simon has given Rutgers University competent quarterback play (72% passing, 0 interceptions), and they’ve rushed for 540 yards and eight TDs (5.6 YPC) through two games. Greg Schiano’s teams always play hard and physically, with sound defense.
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AP News Summary At 6:35 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-635-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.
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.
Surprise is key part of migrant travel from Florida, Texas
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The Costs And Benefits Of Arab-Israeli Normalization On Abraham Accords Two-Year Anniversary Analysis
The Costs And Benefits Of Arab-Israeli Normalization On Abraham Accords’ Two-Year Anniversary – Analysis https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-costs-and-benefits-of-arab-israeli-normalization-on-abraham-accords-two-year-anniversary-analysis/
By Lucas Chapman
Two years ago this week, the UAE and Bahrain formalized the peace deals they had reached with Israel the previous month by signing the Abraham Accords at the White House, in a ceremony overseen by then US President Donald Trump.
As Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and Abdullatif Al-Zayani, respectively the UAE and Bahrain’s foreign ministers, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put their signatures on the document on Sept. 15, 2020, the moment was hailed as the beginning of a new era of Middle East diplomacy.
As part of the agreement, Israel said it would suspend its plans to annex occupied Palestinian territories. Sheikh Abdullah said that the UAE remained committed to a two-state solution and that its support for the Palestinian cause was “unshakable.”
The prospect of immediate economic and diplomatic benefits prompted Sudan to normalize relations with Israel in October 2020. The North African country became a signatory to the Abraham Accords in January 2021, around the same time it was removed from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list.
Morocco normalized its relations with Israel two months after Sudan did, with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz signing a security agreement with his Moroccan counterpart in November 2021. Israel recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for establishing ties.
Two years on from the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the White House lawn, it is now possible to assess some of the outcomes of the agreement, such as how it has affected bilateral ties and who stands to benefit most from them, in a logical and dispassionate manner.
Apart from diplomatic engagement and economic cooperation, Israel and the Abraham Accords signatories were expected to collaborate on a number of shared interests, including energy, agriculture, tourism, security and technological innovation.
Israeli and Bahraini government officials have been interacting with each other publicly since the signing of the accords. Israel began importing aluminum from Bahrain, and the two countries are planning to sign an agreement that allows the transshipment of goods arriving by sea in Bahrain onto planes heading to Israel.
Last year Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid, the foreign minister at the time, made the first ministerial visit to Bahrain, where he inaugurated the Embassy of Israel in Manama. In February this year, Gantz became the first Israeli defense minister to ever officially visit the Gulf country. He was accompanied by several top military and security officials, including the Israeli navy chief.
Gantz signed a memorandum of understanding with his Bahraini counterpart, formalizing a security relationship that his office claimed would “help advance intelligence cooperation, a framework for exercises, and cooperation between the countries’ defense industries.”
Gantz’ visit came as the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, based in Bahrain, launched its biennial International Maritime Exercise 2022. The Israeli Navy took part in the drill, for the first time publicly joining Arab and Muslim countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations.
With regard to Morocco and Israel, today the two countries cooperate in such areas as education, tourism, cross-border investment, renewable energy and security. Morocco has a strong Jewish tradition with many historic Jewish buildings, monuments and cemeteries, as well as the largest Jewish community in an Arab country. Israel, meanwhile, is home to one of the largest Moroccan expatriate communities.
An 84 percent year-on-year growth in Morocco’s trade with Israel to $41.6 million is viewed by the two countries as the beginning of a valuable new trading relationship. Israeli technical know-how combined with capital from the Abraham Accord partners, Bahrain and the UAE, could turbocharge Morocco’s moves to diversify away from fossil fuels .
By contrast, the full agreement between Israel and Sudan has yet to come to full fruition because of instability and the October 2021 coup. In May the Biden administration suspended development, trade and investment assistance to Sudan, including food aid related to its normalization deal with Israel, such as wheat shipments.
Predictably, trade and commerce between Israel and the UAE has flourished since the normalization of relations two years ago. In May this year, the two countries signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that is expected to increase bilateral trade to more than $10 billion within five years, and add $1.9 billion to the UAE’s gross domestic product by 2030.
On June 27, Amir Hayek, Israel’s ambassador to the UAE, said in a message posted on Twitter that total trade volume between the two countries for the first five months of the year reached a value of $912.1 million, compared with $399.5 million during the same period last year.
Israel and the UAE have also signed multi-billion-dollar deals in the fields of medicine, bilateral investment and space travel over the past two years.
In July, the US, Israel, the UAE and India announced the formation of a new bloc, I2U2, with the aim of enhancing technological collaboration in the region and tackling transnational challenges in six main areas: Water, energy, transportation, space, health and food security.
Tourism between the UAE and Israel has also expanded rapidly since 2020. Commercial flights between the two nations began in November 2020, with daily flights introduced the following year. Tourism websites aimed at attracting Arab visitors to Israel encourage them to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, in addition to the Museum of Islamic Art.
The flow of tourists in the opposite direction has been even more substantial. Between 2020 and 2021, about 230,000 Israelis visited the UAE, despite pandemic restrictions.
The increase in tourism between Israel and the UAE has, however, exposed the wide gulf that separates the two societies. In August many Arab and Israeli news outlets reported that Israeli police had briefly arrested two Emirati tourists after a shooting in Tel Aviv.
Though the pair were released and received an apology from the officers who arrested them, many social media users suggested that the Israeli police had racially profiled the tourists, mistaking them for Palestinians. One Twitter user said that “if you are Arab, Israel will always treat you like a suspect.”
The alleged arrest of the Emiratis is not the only reason Arabs worldwide have questioned whether normalization agreements will encourage the hardliners in positions of power in Israel to adopt a more reasonable stance toward Palestinians and the holy sites in Jerusalem.
Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief and a former ambassador to London and Washington, has expressed doubts that Arab normalization efforts with Israel will lead to improved rights for Palestinians.
“The Palestinian people are still occupied; they are still being imprisoned by the Israeli government. Attacks and assassinations of Palestinian individuals take place almost on a daily basis,” he told the Arab News talk show “Frankly Speaking” in May.
“The stealing of Palestinian land by Israel continues despite assurances that Israel gave to the signatories of the peace (accord) between the UAE and Israel. So, there is no sign whatsoever that appeasing Israel is going to change their attitude.”
In July, citing a poll carried out by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which asked residents of Arab countries about their views on Arab-Israeli normalization, UAE academic Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said Emiratis view the normalization process in a negative light. The 2022 poll found that only one in four Emiratis surveyed considered the improved ties to be a positive development.
In the lead-up to the signing of the Abraham Accords, Yousef Al-Otaiba, the UAE ambassador to the US, writing in the Israeli news website Ynetnews, said: “In the UAE and across much of the Arab world, we would like to believe Israel is an opportunity, not an enemy. We face too many common dangers and see the great potential of warmer ties. Israel’s decision on annexation will be an unmistakable signal of whether it sees it the same way.”
Two years on, following two military offensives against Gaza, few Arabs are probably under the illusion that the normalization initiatives under the Abraham Accords have changed Israel’s behavior, much less ended its policy on the annexation of Palestinian land.
Repeated calls by the Arab League for an end to Israeli violations of the sanctity of the holy sites in Jerusalem, a halt to the violence and the restoration of calm appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Attacks by Israeli security forces on Muslim worshippers in Al-Aqsa Mosque and permission for Jewish prayers at the holy site are viewed by the Arab League as a flagrant provocation to Muslims everywhere.
Participating in a discussion on Sept. 8 organized by the Atlantic Council think tank to mark the two-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords, Al-Otaiba appealed for more to be done to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“All the stuff that we’re talking about is great, but we can’t avoid talking about the two-state solution. We really can’t,” he said at the virtual event, during which he described the Palestinians as “the elephant in the room.”
Referring to the Abraham Accords, Al-Otaiba said: “I don’t think it was meant to solve — I think it was meant to buy space and time to create room for diplomacy to address the two-state solution. I still believe the two-state solution is the only game in town. I think we need to pursue it.”
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Trump DERANGED, Threatens Violence If Indicted https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-deranged-threatens-violence-if-indicted/
Donald Trump completely humiliated himself on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show this week when the alternate slate of electors scheme got brought up. Hewitt said, “they are attempting, I think, to indict people for plans to select alternative electors on 1/6. Have you received a target letter, Mr. Preisdent?” Trump fumbled through a response, saying that he hasn’t received such a letter and that “when you look at alternate slates, that’s been done for decades and decades, many many years.” Trump is wrong on this as he is on most things. What does happen is that people get prepared to become electors if their candidate wins. What hasn’t happened before the 2020 election is a bunch of random people coming together to present themselves as electors for the candidate who lost and attempting to cast fraudulent votes on their behalf. There were so many layers of alleged criminality behind the ex-president’s efforts to overturn the race and this is just the latest one that might get Trump associates in trouble.
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President For UAH Named After Unanimous Vote https://digitalalabamanews.com/president-for-uah-named-after-unanimous-vote/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – During a meeting on Friday the University of Alabama System Chancellor Finis St. John recommended the appointment of Dr. Charles L. “Chuck” Karr as the president of The University of Alabama in Huntsville.
“Dr. Karr’s sustained leadership will bring positive momentum and a strategic, unified vision to UAH as it continues its trajectory as a preeminent doctoral research university in one of America’s fastest-growing and most robust regions.”
The vote for Dr. Karr’s appointment was unanimous from the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. Chancellor St. John said Dr. Karr earned his votes from his successful tenure as interim president.
“It is my highest honor to lead UAH as we work to fulfill our institutional mission as a premier research-intensive university that is responsive to the needs of the community and beyond,” said President Karr. “I am grateful for this incredible opportunity and look forward to working with all those driving UAH toward unprecedented success, including the Board of Trustees, Chancellor St. John, our faculty and staff, students and leaders throughout the Huntsville community. There are many exciting things happening on the UAH campus, and I know there is much more to come in our future.”
According to a release from the University of Alabama System, under Dr. Karr, UAH received one of the most significant appropriations in University history for its engineering building project. The project will allow UAH to advance its flagship program, foster innovative and impactful research efforts and address critical STEM workforce needs.
“Dr. Chuck Karr is quite possibly the most dynamic leader that I have ever been associated with, in higher education and beyond,” Trustee Ron Gray, chair of the UAH Committee of the UA System Board of Trustees said. “I am certain that under Dr. Karr’s leadership, UAH will not only reach its full potential but far surpass our expectations.”
As the interim president, Dr. Karr recruited new faculty and strategic leaders as well as secured merit raises for eligible UAH employees in FY 2023.
Before Dr. Karr was appointed as UAH’s interim president in November 2021, he had recently retired from the University of Alabama after 26 years. Sixteen of those years Dr. Karr spent as the dean of the University of Alabama College of Engineering.
Dr. Karr is credited with making the college one of the top-performing programs in the nation. He also more than tripled the College’s undergraduate enrollment with the recruitment of students, grew the faculty, supported the construction of new facilities to enhance academic programs and expanded research activity by increasing research awards to more than $45 million.
Previous to that Dr. Karr chaired UA’s aerospace engineering and mechanics department and was the College’s associate dean for research and graduate studies. Before this, he spent seven years as a research engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
Dr. Karr has earned a B.S in mechanical engineering and an M.S. and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Alabama.
Copyright 2022 WAFF. All rights reserved.
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Carlos D. Butch Pair Obituary (2022) The Birmingham News
Carlos D. “Butch” Pair Obituary (2022) The Birmingham News https://digitalalabamanews.com/carlos-d-butch-pair-obituary-2022-the-birmingham-news/
Carlos D. “Butch” Pair Retired Major General, United States Army Carlos D. “Butch” Pair, 73, of Hoover Alabama, passed away peacefully at his home Sunday, September 11, 2022 surrounded by loved ones. Butch was born in Birmingham, Alabama and his family later moved to Anniston where he graduated from Saks H.S. He then attended Jacksonville State University where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1970 and was commissioned as a Quartermaster Officer in the U S Army. After graduation Butch and his beloved wife Jeannie, traveled to Fort Lee, VA where he began his 39 years of dedicated military service. For the next three years he served in Germany in a petroleum supply battalion, then on to Fort Knox, KY for another three years serving in various positions as a Jr. Officer including commanding a maintenance company. It was here at Fort Knox that his beautiful daughter, Sacha was born. Butch, Jeannie, and Sacha returned to Fort Lee in 1977 to attend the Quartermaster Officer Advanced Course. From there he was assigned to Redstone Arsenal, AL as a Supply and Service Officer. Butch left active duty in 1979 and moved to Sylacauga, AL where he took a job with Georgia Marble Company as General Superintendent. He spent the next 20 years in the mining industry in and around Sylacauga moving on to English China Clay International. Concurrently, Butch remained active in the USAR serving first with the 87th USA Maneuver Area Command in Birmingham, AL and then with the 121st USAR Command again in Birmingham. In these two organizations he held a variety of logistical assignments which culminated in his appointment as Commander of the 696th Maintenance Battalion in Mobile, AL. Following dual commands in Mobile, Butch returned to Birmingham where he served as a Senior Staff Officer for the 121st USAR Command and then the 81st Regional Support Command. In 1995 Butch, then a full Colonel, assumed command of the 3rd Theatre Control Agency in Anniston, AL. Still working in the mining industry in Sylacauga, Butch took an assignment with the Military Traffic Command in Falls Church, VA and was promoted to Brigadier General during that tour of duty. The military was good for Butch and as it turned out Butch was good for the military. He left the mining industry as a civilian and returned to military active duty having been appointed as the first Chief of Staff, United States Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, IL. Butch was promoted to Major General and finished his career between the Pentagon in the office of The Defense Business Systems Acquisitions and assignments in Kuwait and Iraq. Butch was a graduate of the Army Quartermaster Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, Command and General Staff College, Defense Strategy Course, United States Army War College, and Syracuse University National Strategic Leaders Course. His awards and decorations include Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal (with Silver Oak Leaf Cluster), Army Commendation Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters). During the 1980s and 90s, Butch was involved in several Sylacauga, AL. community activities. He was the first President of the B.B. Comer Memorial Library Foundation, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, participated with Sylacauga economic development, and was instrumental in organizing Operation Victory, commemorating the 50th anniversary of WW II. Butch was an active member of the First United Methodist Church Sylacauga where he served on several committees. After his retirement from the U.S. Army in 2009 he and his wife, Jeannie returned to the Birmingham area to be closer to family. Butch cherished his family. He adored and was devoted to his wife Jeannie, his daughter, Sacha, his son in law, Buddy and his grandson, Troy. To Troy, he was Papa, but he was also a father figure and was heavily involved in his life. Those who were close to Butch understood this. Butch also loved people and he always took a genuine interest in those he met whether it be through his civilian work, military career, or friends. He was a self proclaimed “people person” with a larger than life personality and was loved by those who knew him. He made everyone feel special. That was his gift and he was truly one of a kind. Butch is survived by his wife, Jean “Jeannie” Darden Pair, his daughter, Sacha Pair Skinner, William E. “Buddy” Skinner, his grandson, Troy Preston Grauel and his beloved dog, Sophie. Friends are cordially invited to visit with the family from eleven o’clock in the morning until Noon on Tuesday, the 20th of September, at Ridout’s Valley Chapel located at 1800 Oxmoor Road, Homewood, Alabama 35209. Funeral services will commence at Noon. Immediately following the service, full military honors will be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon at Alabama National Cemetery located at 3133 Highway 119, Montevallo, Alabama 35115. In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests with gratitude that gifts be made to Three Hots & A Cot Non-profit organization located at 5704 1st Avenue North, Birmingham, Alabama 35212 https://www.cotsforvets.org/ (205) 202-5755, [email protected] or to Hueytown First United Methodist Church located at 110 Sunset Drive Hueytown, Alabama 35023 | Phone: (205)491-3421 | [email protected] | https://hueytownfirst.com/ Services are under the direction of Ridout’s Valley Chapel (205-879-3401) in Homewood.
Published by The Birmingham News from Sep. 16 to Sep. 18, 2022.
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Morrison Edd Obituary (2022) https://digitalalabamanews.com/morrison-edd-obituary-2022/
Mr. Edd Morrison a resident of Eufaula, Alabama passed away Wednesday, September 14, 2022, at Medical Center Barbour following a brief illness. He was 99 years old.
Funeral services will be held Sunday, September 18, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. at Christian Grove Baptist Church in Eufaula with Reverend Dr. John Friedman and Reverend Frank Morrison officiating and Glover Funeral Home of Eufaula directing. Burial will follow in the Louisville Cemetery. A visitation will be held from 1:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the church.
Edd was born January 10, 1923, in Barbour County, Alabama to the late William Riley and Carrie Scroggins Morrison. He was a lifetime resident of Barbour County and farmed most of his life. He loved his family and spending time with them. He was a member of Christian Grove Baptist Church.
He is preceded in death by his parents; wife, Dorothy Wilson Morrison; brother, Reverend Frank Morrison; four sisters, Daisy Glover, Mamie Lee Glover Cook, Flora Miller, and Myrtle Jean Hudson; son-in-law, Allen Baxley; grandson, Steven Baxley.
Survivors include two daughters, Jeanette Baxley of Eufaula, AL and Linda Friedman (John) of Panama City, FL; two granddaughters, Amanda Bickley (Scott) of Auburn, AL and Amy McSpadden (Brent) of Roswell, GA; four great-grandchildren, Jonathan Bickley (Jeni) of Hoover, AL, Marcus Bickley (Brandy) of Opelika, AL, Anna Kate McSpadden, and Ashley McSpadden; three great great-grandchildren, McKenzie Bickley, Kathryn Bickley, and Cooper Bickley; several nieces and nephews.
Asked to serve as pallbearers are Jonathan Bickley, Marcus Bickley, Eric Glover, James Miller, Mark Hudson, and Nathan Hudson.
Flowers will be accepted or donations may be made to the Louisville Cemetery Fund- P.O. Box 4 Louisville, AL 36048
Glover Funeral Home of Eufaula was entrusted with the arrangements. (334) 687-5725. Please sign the guestbook online at www.gloverfuneral.com
Published by Glover Funeral Home, Inc. – Eufaula on Sep. 16, 2022.
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AP News Summary At 5:45 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-545-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.
Putin vows to press attack on Ukraine; courts India, China
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to press his attack against Ukraine despite its latest counteroffensive. Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that there was no need to revise it. Putin says “we aren’t in a rush,” adding that Russia has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Asked about the Ukrainian counteroffensive that forced Russian forces to withdraw from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week, Putin replied: “Let’s how it develops and how it ends.”
Surprise is key part of migrant travel from Florida, Texas
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Meet Raymond J. Dearie The Special Master In The DOJ
Meet Raymond J. Dearie, The Special Master In The DOJ https://digitalalabamanews.com/meet-raymond-j-dearie-the-special-master-in-the-doj/
The Department of Justice’s investigation into the alleged mishandling of classified material by former President Donald Trump was delayed in early September when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, ruled that the documents seized during an Aug. 8 raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence first must be reviewed by a special master.
The documents seized were alleged to have been taken from the White House to Trump’s private residence, a move the DOJ alleges could violate various federal statutes. Cannon granted a request by Trump’s legal team that a special master should examine thousands of documents including 103 marked classified before the DOJ could move forward.
The Department of Justice then filed a motion requesting Cannon lift this order. Cannon, a Trump-nominated judge who serves in the Southern District of Florida, formally denied the DOJ request Thursday, instead appointing a special master recommended by the Trump team and agreed upon by the government: Raymond J. Dearie.
Here’s what you need to know about the man now front and center in the investigation:
Read our coverage on the Mar A Lago raid: What we know about handling classified documents
FBI under threat after Mar-A-Lago search: Durbin: Trump, allies bear blame for ‘stunning’ rise in threats against FBI
Who is Raymond Dearie?
Judge Raymond J. Dearie is a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. He was in the position from 1982 to 1986.
After that, he served as a chief judge for that same district from 2007 to 2011. He is now a judge on “senior status,” meaning he is semi-retired but still presides from time to time. The Justice Department noted that Dearie continues to hear cases and said the court would need to determine if serving as a special master would run afoul of restrictions on outside employment.
How old is Raymond Dearie?
Judge Dearie is 78. He was appointed in 1986 as a federal judge in New York by then President Ronald Reagan. Prior to that he has served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Read the DOJ’s affidavit: Takeaways from the Mar-a-Lago search affidavit
Where did Raymond Dearie go to college?
Judge Dearie graduated with a law degree from St. John’s University in Queens, New York in 1969.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Fairfield University in Connecticut.
Where was Raymond Dearie a federal judge?
A native New Yorker himself, Judge Dearie served as a federal judge for the Eastern District of New York which covers parts of New York City and Long Island.
What does Dearie’s record look like?
Andrew Weissmann, a former federal prosecutor, and a former senior member of former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s team told NPR that Dearie had a reputation in the legal community of being fair, describing him as the “platonic ideal of what you want in a judge.”
Dearie has a background in matters of national security as well, serving on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for seven years.
He also spent some of the later years of his legal career advocating for sentencing reform. NPR cited a speech he gave to the New York Criminal Bar Association in 2016 in which Dearie said: “If society relies on the jail cell alone to bring relief to the streets of New York or Chicago, or to fight the heroin epidemic that has invaded our communities, little will change.”
More on DOJ probe: Justice Department subpoenas dozens of Trump aides in apparent escalation of investigation
What does Dearie’s appointment mean for the DOJ’s case?
The Department of Justice plans to appeal Judge Cannon’s ruling, arguing that though she allowed for the team to continue its investigation into possible crimes, it will be difficult without access to those 103 classified files.
Judge Cannon’s ruling was viewed as narrow – a 10-page stay which appointed Dearie and gave him until Nov. 30 to finish reviewing the documents. The cost of Dearie’s review will be paid for by Trump and his legal team since he requested a special master.
Classified materials, explained: What are the types of ‘classified’ government documents? Explaining ‘Top Secret’ and more.
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Nine Dead In Flooding After Italy Is Hit By Unprecedented Rains
Nine Dead In Flooding After Italy Is Hit By Unprecedented Rains https://digitalalabamanews.com/nine-dead-in-flooding-after-italy-is-hit-by-unprecedented-rains/
ROME — Several hours of extraordinary rainfall triggered flooding across a stretch of central Italy early Friday and left at least nine dead, with several others missing, according to authorities.
As the rainfall stopped, rescue crews scrambled through mud and around fallen trees to look for survivors. Some people had taken refuge on rooftops or held onto branches amid the flooding. Italian media reported several searing accounts, including a mother and daughter who were believed to have been swept away while getting out of their car.
“All citizens are ordered to not leave their homes and go to higher floors,” one hard-hit town wrote in an all-caps bulletin on Facebook as the high water surged.
While Italy has had deadlier floods over the decades, the event marked yet another example of extreme weather, following a record drought that had sapped lakes and rivers and devastated crops. Fabrizio Curcio, the head of Italy’s civil protection department, said the flooded area over a matter of hours saw “about one-third of the rainfall you’d usually get in a year.”
“There were moments of terror with truly extraordinary levels of water,” Curcio said.
A spokesman for the civil protection department said the area had been hit with 400 millimeters, or about 15.75 inches, of rain.
While it is difficult to connect any single event to climate change, experts say moments of extreme weather are becoming more common — including in Italy, which has seen melting Alpine glaciers, summer wildfires and rising seas that are chipping away at coastal cities.
In a visit to the flooded region, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said flooding risks had become an “emergency with climate change” and would require steps for prevention, including infrastructure investment.
“It also means tackling climate change,” Draghi said.
The flooding Friday stretched across the Marche region, from the inland hills to the Adriatic coast. Some mayors of the hard-hit towns noted that there had been no indication that such an extreme event might be coming.
“[There was] only a yellow alert from the civil protection for wind and rain,” Maurizio Greci, the mayor of Sassoferrato, told Italian radio. “Nothing could foretell such a disaster.”
In a news release, government authorities said that among the nine dead, two people had yet to be identified and could be among the four people who were officially missing.
Photos from Friday showed people beginning the cleanup work, trudging through mud, holding shovels, drying off belongings.
The head of the Marche region, Francesco Acquaroli, wrote on his verified Facebook page that he’d spoken with Italian President Sergio Mattarella as well as Draghi, who offered support for “every necessary need.”
“The pain over what happened is deep,” Acquaroli wrote.
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AP News Summary At 5:47 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-547-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.
Putin vows to press attack on Ukraine; courts India, China
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to press his attack against Ukraine despite its latest counteroffensive. Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that there was no need to revise it. Putin says “we aren’t in a rush,” adding that Russia has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Asked about the Ukrainian counteroffensive that forced Russian forces to withdraw from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week, Putin replied: “Let’s how it develops and how it ends.”
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.
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.
Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms
ATLANTA (AP) — The revelation earlier this week that federal prosecutors are involved in investigations of suspected voting system breaches across the U.S. is fueling questions about the security of voting machines just two months before the midterm elections. Security breaches at election offices in Colorado, Georgia and Michigan have been sometimes aided by local officials who allowed unauthorized access to people who copied software and hard drive data, and in several cases shared it publicly. Security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November elections, but say they increase the possibility that rogue election workers could access election equipment to launch attacks.
Arizona Legislature won’t defend law limiting police filming
PHOENIX (AP) — The Republican leaders of the Arizona Legislature won’t try to defend a new law limiting up-close filming of police that has been blocked by a federal judge. The decision essentially ends the fight over the contentious proposal, although the Republican sponsor says he may push a revised measure next year. The judge gave the Republican leaders until Friday to decide if they wanted their lawyers to intervene after the state attorney general refused to defend the law. The judge agreed with the ACLU and press groups that it violates the First Amendment and temporarily blocked it last week. The groups will now seek a permanent injunction.
‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway next year
NEW YORK (AP) — “The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, a victim of post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York. The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts — will play its final performance on Broadway in February. The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities. The closure was first reported by the New York Post. A spokesperson says the closing will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary.
Racism seen as root of water crisis in Mississippi capital
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A boil-water advisory has been lifted for Mississippi’s capital, and the state will stop handing out free bottled water on Saturday. But the crisis isn’t over. Water pressure still hasn’t been fully restored in Jackson, and some residents say their tap water still comes out looking dirty and smelling like sewage. Carey Wooten says even her dog won’t drink it. Jackson’s treatment plants need billions in repairs, the mayor says. Many blame systemic racism as the root cause. The tax base plummeted after white people moved to the suburbs in response to school desegregation, and government policies denied resources to the Black and poor people who stayed in the city.
Serious breach at Uber spotlights hacker social deception
The ride-hailing service Uber says all its services are operational following what security professionals are calling a major data breach. It says there is no evidence the hacker got access to sensitive user data. But the breach, apparently by a lone hacker, put the spotlight on an increasingly effective and polished break-in routine: The hacker appears to have gained access by tricking an Uber employee into surrendering their credentials. Screenshots the hacker shared with security researchers indicate they obtained full access to the cloud-based systems where Uber stores sensitive customer and financial data. It is not known how much data the hacker took.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Alabama Workers Fired For Being Unvaccinated File Discrimination Suit
Alabama Workers Fired For Being Unvaccinated File Discrimination Suit https://digitalalabamanews.com/alabama-workers-fired-for-being-unvaccinated-file-discrimination-suit/
Mobile Real-Time News
Updated: Sep. 16, 2022, 4:26 p.m.|
Published: Sep. 16, 2022, 4:26 p.m.
Four employees of an Alabama retirement home who were fired after they didn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds have filed a federal lawsuit accusing the facility of discrimination.
The four former workers at Westminster Village in Spanish Fort — Sloan Hamill, Katherine L. Howerin, Jennifer Sigley and Tina Wolfe — accused the retirement community of religious discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and creating a hostile work environment by not granting their religious exemptions last year and firing them, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Mobile.
In some of the cases, the workers’ religious and medical exemptions were initially denied, then accepted before being denied again. In others, the exemptions had been repeatedly denied.
They were all fired on Nov. 30.
The former employees, all Christians, “possess sincere religious beliefs that their body is a temple, and that God planned their existence upon their creation; thus, plaintiffs should not be inoculated or compelled to be inoculated with any experimental foreign substance or biological/medical material that will alter the aspects of their human body,” the lawsuit states.
Westminster Village and its parent and associated companies Acts Retirement-Life Communities Inc. and Presbyterian Retirement Corporation Inc., which were also named as defendants in the suit, denied the exemptions because it stood to lose millions of dollars in federal money, including a $25 million coronavirus relief funds, if its employees were not vaccinated, the lawsuit alleged.
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Billionaire Ray Dalio Warns Stocks Could Plunge 20% If Interest Rates Rise To 4.5%
Billionaire Ray Dalio Warns Stocks Could Plunge 20% If Interest Rates Rise To 4.5% https://digitalalabamanews.com/billionaire-ray-dalio-warns-stocks-could-plunge-20-if-interest-rates-rise-to-4-5/
Billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, warned that stocks could tumble even lower this year after the hotter-than-expected August inflation data rattled markets this week.
“It looks like interest rates will have to rise a lot (toward the higher end of the 4.5% to 6% range),” the Bridgewater Associates founder wrote in a LinkedIn article on Tuesday. “This will bring private sector credit growth down, which will bring private sector spending and, hence, the economy down with it.”
The S&P 500 has already plunged more than 6% this week as concerns over sky-high inflation, rising interest rates and a darkening economic outlook continue to weigh on the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, is down more than 1,800 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite has tumbled about 1.7%.
If interest rates climb to 4.5%, it would trigger a plunge of about 20% in equity prices based on the present value discount effect, Dalio said. In addition, there would be another 10% negative impact from declining incomes.
INFLATION ROSE FASTER THAN EXPECTED IN AUGUST, KEEPING PRICES PAINFULLY HIGH
Ray Dalio, billionaire and founder of Bridgewater Associates LP, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 1, 2019 (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The current benchmark federal funds range of 2.25% to 2.50% is around the “neutral” level, meaning that it neither supports nor restricts economic activity. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has suggested that a restrictive stance will almost certainly be necessary as the central bank tries to pump the brakes on the economy.
One reason that Dalio thinks interest rates will climb so high this year is that he believes the market is severely underestimating where inflation will end up. While the market expects inflation to hover around 2.6% over the next decade, Dalio estimated the real rate will be closer to 4.5% to 5%, barring any major economic shocks.
“The upshot is that it looks likely to me that the inflation rate will stay significantly above what people and the Fed want it to be (while the year-over-year inflation rate will fall), that interest rates will go up, that other markets will go down, and that the economy will be weaker than expected, and that is without consideration given to the worsening trends in internal and external conflicts and their effects,” he wrote.
Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, D.C., on May 4, 2022. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Dalio’s comments come just a few days after the Labor Department reported the consumer price index for August came in hotter than expected. Prices rose 0.1% on a monthly basis and 8.3% year over year, dashing analysts’ hopes for a monthly decline.
Stocks fell sharply on Tuesday after the surprisingly hot report on fears of an even more aggressive Fed, with the Dow sliding 1,276 points – the worst day since June 2020.
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Investors are already bracing for the Fed’s policy-setting meeting next week, which is slated to take place Sept. 20-21. Traders are betting on officials approving another super-sized, 75-basis-point rate hike – the third of its kind this year – at the conclusion of the meeting, although some on Wall Street think that central bankers could go even bigger with a full point increase.
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Nebraska's Interim Football Coach Puts Hold On 59-Year Tradition
Nebraska's Interim Football Coach Puts Hold On 59-Year Tradition https://digitalalabamanews.com/nebraskas-interim-football-coach-puts-hold-on-59-year-tradition/
Mickey Joseph, who was named interim football coach at Nebraska following Scott Frost’s dismissal last weekend, is making a statement to his football team.
During his collegiate career at Nebraska (1988 through 1991), Joseph rushed for over 1,000 yards and threw for just over 900 yards and 14 touchdowns.
*The photo below is of a 1990 game against Kansas. It was his best game as a Cornhusker. He threw for 164 yards and three touchdowns and also ran 10 times for 58 yards in that game.
University of Nebraska Cornhuskers vs University of Kansas Jayhawks
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After spending several seasons as the wide receivers coach at Louisiana State University, where he assisted in the development of star players like Ja’Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, and Terrace Marshall, Joseph came to Nebraska in the offseason. While many may think of him as an offensive mind, Joseph has put his defense on notice.
Nebraska has given up 45 points to Georgia Southern and 31 to Northwestern in their two losses this year. Unimpressed, Joseph has taken away the Blackshirts from members of the Cornhuskers’ defense. This comes just ahead of Saturday’s game in Lincoln against the high-powered offense of the Oklahoma Sooners. Oklahoma is an 11-point favorite.
According to KETV, Joseph announced on Husker Sports Nightly Thursday night that he’s taken away the Blackshirts. His reasoning is, “Not to be negative, clean slate, one team, one heartbeat–when you deserve the Blackshirts, we’ll give them back to you–I’m going to give them back when I think they should.” Nebraska’s best defenders have been recognized with a Blackshirt since 1964.
Nine Nebraska defenders were given Blackshirts before the season began. Joseph is right to make them earn them back. It would require an astronomical effort against Oklahoma on Saturday to get them back quickly.
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30 famous people you might not know were college athletes
Stacker dug deep to find 30 celebrities who were previously college athletes. There are musicians, politicians, actors, writers, and reality TV stars. For some, an athletic career was a real, promising possibility that ultimately faded away due to injury or an alternate calling. Others scrapped their way onto a team and simply played for fun and the love of the sport. Read on to find out if your favorite actor, singer, or politician once sported a university jersey.
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Georgia 2020 Election Inquiry May Lead To Prison Sentences Prosecutor Says
Georgia 2020 Election Inquiry May Lead To Prison Sentences, Prosecutor Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/georgia-2020-election-inquiry-may-lead-to-prison-sentences-prosecutor-says/
From left: Former President Donald Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rudi Giuliani. (Washington Post)
ATLANTA — The prosecutor investigating efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia said this week that her team has heard credible allegations that serious crimes have been committed and that she believes some individuals may see jail time.
“The allegations are very serious. If indicted and convicted, people are facing prison sentences,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis told The Washington Post.
No decision will be made for months on whether there will be indictments – and, most notably, if Trump himself will face charges. At least 17 people have been notified they are targets of the criminal investigation, meaning they could eventually face charges. And more targets will be added to the list soon, Willis said in an interview Tuesday in her Atlanta office.
Willis would not discuss any of the targets by name and has not said if she’s willing to charge the former president. Trump could be called to appear as a witness before the special grand jury that was convened this spring as part of the investigation, Willis said Tuesday.
“A decision is going to have to be made,” she said on whether to seek Trump’s testimony, “and I imagine it’s going to be made late this fall.”
So far, the group of known targets includes former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the state’s 16 would-be Trump electors who created unofficial documents proclaiming Trump as the winner of Georgia’s electoral votes, even though he lost the state. Lawyers for Giuliani and the electors have denied any wrongdoing. Lawyers for the electors say their clients followed the law and made clear they met as a contingency measure as they waited for a court to rule on a challenge to the Georgia vote.
Trump said during a Thursday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that he hasn’t received any target letters “at all” in ongoing criminal investigations. He denied involvement in the multistate plan by Republicans to send the names of Trump electors to Washington, but said such alternate elector slates were “very common.”
The Fulton County investigation is far from the only inquiry into Trump’s conduct around the 2020 election. The House select committee investigating Jan. 6 has looked extensively at the electors scheme and other matters. The Justice Department is investigating Trump’s actions related to the election as part of a federal grand jury probe.
In addition to investigating the Trump electors’ actions, Willis is looking at potential criminal wrongdoing in calls Trump and his allies made to Georgia officials, false statements made to lawmakers, harassment of election officials and the tampering of election systems in one county in southern Georgia.
Willis said she anticipates wrapping up the fact-finding stage of the inquiry before the end of the year, even as she continues to expand its reach. She said the probe will stop public activities, such as calling witnesses, for the month leading to the general election. When the special grand jury has finished hearing from witnesses, it is expected to provide Willis with a report that could include recommendations for indictments. She will then decide which individuals, if any, to charge.
Willis’s open and frank assessment is unusual for a prosecutor, as such high-profile investigations are often shrouded in secrecy. Her approach in this inquiry has drawn criticism from some in the legal community, and it contrasts with the general reticence of Attorney General Merrick Garland. Willis said she believes transparency is a requirement of her job.
Her latest comments come as Republicans in Georgia – including the state’s governor – have complained that her investigation is politically motivated, a claim Willis, a Democrat, denies.
She noted that there was no grand jury activity during the period of the state’s primary election this spring and that she plans a similar quiet period starting Oct. 7 in advance of the November midterms.
“I didn’t want people to claim that this was some political stunt that we were doing to impact the election,” she said.
Willis said that the special grand jury has interviewed about 65 percent of the dozens of witnesses whose testimony has been sought by prosecutors.
“I’m pleased with where it is. I think we’re moving along at a really good speed,” Willis said, adding she was not concerned that some witnesses, including Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), have resisted appearing before the grand jury.
“We are going to be done calling witnesses by the end of this year. Period,” she said.
The probe has already seen appearances from many high-profile witnesses, including Giuliani, who was informed last month that he is a target.
Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, declined to comment on Willis’s latest remarks.
In addition to Giuliani, Willis has notified 16 would-be Trump electors from Georgia that they, too, are targets of the probe. In the past, lawyers for some of the electors suggested their clients would have cooperated with the inquiry had Willis not identified them as targets. The lawyers declined to comment on Willis’s latest remarks.
In the interview, Willis said she fleetingly hoped she would not have to open the 2020 election inquiry at all. She had been in office only a couple of days in early January 2021 when news reports from The Post and others described Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) urging him to “find” additional votes to overcome Joe Biden’s lead in Georgia.
Willis said she quickly realized she would have to investigate the alleged election interference. “I understood that if this occurred in Fulton County, it is serious enough that it needed to be looked at,” she said.
Since then, Willis’s probe has grown and represents – along with a ramped up federal inquiry – a serious threat that criminal charges could be brought against Trump and his allies.
Trump has criticized Willis on social media as a “young, ambitious, Radical Left Democrat … who is presiding over one of the most Crime Ridden and Corrupt places in the USA.”
Willis says she is undeterred by such criticism and by the regular threats directed against her.
Court filings and interviews indicate her team continues to examine several key themes. First, they are pursuing whether there were violations of Georgia law prohibiting false statements to government officials. Those statutes could apply to Giuliani and other Trump campaign advisers who cited evidence – later debunked – of widespread election fraud when speaking to Georgia legislative committees.
Second, Willis is examining the calls made by Trump and others to Georgia officials after the election. In court filings, Willis has cited a Georgia statute prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud.
Third, prosecutors have been pursuing the effort to send the names of would-be Trump electors from Georgia to Washington. Prosecutors are interested in whether sending official Trump electors from battleground states was part of an organized effort to give Vice President Mike Pence a reason to declare that the outcome of the election was in doubt when he presided over the congressional counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021.
Two weeks ago, Willis filed a petition seeking testimony from Boris Epshteyn, a lawyer who worked closely with Giuliani during the post- election period. The petition said Epshteyn “possesses unique knowledge” of “efforts by the Trump Campaign to submit false certificates of vote to former vice president Michael Pence and others.”
Last week, Epshteyn and Giuliani were among those named in a federal subpoena seeking information about the plan to submit slates of would-be Trump electors from Georgia and other states.
Willis in recent weeks has added new items to her investigative agenda, including seeking detailed information about threats made to an election worker.
In December 2020, according to her court filings, Trump allies pressured and threatened Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County elections worker. Willis declined to comment on recent filings related to pressure on Freeman except to say: “I hate a bully. Obviously, I think we would find it offensive to bully an election official to influence an election.”
Finally, Willis has expanded her probe to investigate whether election systems were improperly breached in Coffee County, Ga. That interest was initially disclosed in documents seeking testimony from Sidney Powell, a lawyer who worked for the Trump campaign after the 2020 election.
The Post was the first to report on the effort by Powell and other Trump allies to copy Coffee County’s restricted election systems data. The effort occurred as Trump allies focused publicly on voting machines, making the case that they were part of a plot to rig the election for Biden.
Willis’s petition for an appearance by Powell noted that, in addition to Coffee County, there is evidence indicating that Powell was “involved in similar efforts in Michigan and Nevada” during the same time that the Coffee County elections systems were supposedly breached. Powell did not respond to a request for comment.
Willis has suggested that this complex of activity – from organizing Trump electors to making false statements to applying pressure on local election officials – could be prosecuted under Georgia’s conspiracy and anti-racketeering laws.
State anti-racketeering laws, known as Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO, were enacted decades ago as a legal tool to fight organized crime. Georgia’s RICO statute has been used by Willis and others to prosecute an array of high-profile cases. In 2014, Willis was one of the lead prosecut...
AP News Summary At 4:34 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-434-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.
Putin vows to press attack on Ukraine; courts India, China
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to press his attack against Ukraine despite its latest counteroffensive. Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that there was no need to revise it. Putin says “we aren’t in a rush,” adding that Russia has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Asked about the Ukrainian counteroffensive that forced Russian forces to withdraw from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week, Putin replied: “Let’s how it develops and how it ends.”
Surprise is key part of migrant travel from Florida, Texas
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AP News Summary At 4:47 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-447-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.
Putin vows to press attack on Ukraine; courts India, China
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to press his attack against Ukraine despite its latest counteroffensive. Speaking to reporters Friday after attending a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, Putin said the “liberation” of Ukraine’s entire eastern Donbas region remained Russia’s main military goal and that there was no need to revise it. Putin says “we aren’t in a rush,” adding that Russia has only deployed volunteer soldiers to fight in Ukraine. Asked about the Ukrainian counteroffensive that forced Russian forces to withdraw from large swaths of northeastern Ukraine last week, Putin replied: “Let’s how it develops and how it ends.”
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.
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.
Breaches of voting machine data raise worries for midterms
ATLANTA (AP) — The revelation earlier this week that federal prosecutors are involved in investigations of suspected voting system breaches across the U.S. is fueling questions about the security of voting machines just two months before the midterm elections. Security breaches at election offices in Colorado, Georgia and Michigan have been sometimes aided by local officials who allowed unauthorized access to people who copied software and hard drive data, and in several cases shared it publicly. Security experts say the breaches by themselves have not necessarily increased threats to the November elections, but say they increase the possibility that rogue election workers could access election equipment to launch attacks.
Arizona Legislature won’t defend law limiting police filming
PHOENIX (AP) — The Republican leaders of the Arizona Legislature won’t try to defend a new law limiting up-close filming of police that has been blocked by a federal judge. The decision essentially ends the fight over the contentious proposal, although the Republican sponsor says he may push a revised measure next year. The judge gave the Republican leaders until Friday to decide if they wanted their lawyers to intervene after the state attorney general refused to defend the law. The judge agreed with the ACLU and press groups that it violates the First Amendment and temporarily blocked it last week. The groups will now seek a permanent injunction.
Racism seen as root of water crisis in Mississippi capital
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A boil-water advisory has been lifted for Mississippi’s capital, and the state will stop handing out free bottled water on Saturday. But the crisis isn’t over. Water pressure still hasn’t been fully restored in Jackson, and some residents say their tap water still comes out looking dirty and smelling like sewage. Carey Wooten says even her dog won’t drink it. Jackson’s treatment plants need billions in repairs, the mayor says. Many blame systemic racism as the root cause. The tax base plummeted after white people moved to the suburbs in response to school desegregation, and government policies denied resources to the Black and poor people who stayed in the city.
Sarah Sanders undergoes surgery for thyroid cancer
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Former White House press secretary and Arkansas gubernatorial hopeful Sarah Sanders is recovering after undergoing surgery for thyroid cancer. Sanders said she underwent the surgery to remove her thyroid and surrounding lymph nodes. She said she planned to return to the campaign trail soon. Sanders served as former President Donald Trump’s chief spokeswoman until 2019. She is running against Democratic nominee Chris Jones in the solidly Republican state. Her dad is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
After serious breach, Uber says services operational
The ride-hailing service Uber says all its services are operational following what security professionals are calling a major data breach. It says there is no evidence the hacker got access to sensitive user data such as trip history. A hacker, who appears to have been working alone, announced the breach on Thursday after apparently tricking an Uber employee into providing credentials. Screenshots the hacker shared with security researchers indicate they obtained full access to the cloud-based systems where Uber stores sensitive customer and financial data. It is not known how much data the hacker took.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Obituary: John Abbington Farrington Jr. https://digitalalabamanews.com/obituary-john-abbington-farrington-jr/
John Abbington Farrington Jr., age 87, of Franklin, Tennessee, passed away on (Sept. 14, 2022 in Franklin.
John was born in Coleanor, Alabama to Willie Ethyl Simpson and John Abbington Farrington, Sr. on Nov. 9, 1935. He went to multiple grammar schools around the Birmingham area, married Carolyn Jo Martin on July 15th, 1955 in Oktibbeh County, MS, and graduated with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University in 1957.
He worked as a manufacturing and design Engineer for Anderson Electric/Square D for 55 years. He was involved in Huffman United Methodist Church choir and taught the adult Sojourners class in Birmingham, Alabama.
John was an avid tennis player who loved banana pudding, star trek, and Sneaky Pete’s hot dogs.
His tool collection was extensive and had a vast array of hammers and screwdrivers that he patiently taught all the kids and grandkids how to use. He unselfishly provided unwavering care and devotion to Carolyn in a real life version of The Notebook.
John is preceded in death by his parents John and Ethyl Farrington, brother Bill Farrington, grandson’s Blake Farrington and Daniel Cohn.
John is survived by his wife, Carolyn Jo (Martin); There four children John Michael (Donna) Farrington, Mark (Shannon) Farrington, Chris (Stephanie) Farrington, Jenifer (Kevin) Burke; Granddaughters Abby (Andrew) Goff, Emma Farrington, Taylor Farrington; Grandsons Evan (Jeni) Farrington, Chase (Crystal) Farrington, Ethan Ash Cohn; Great Grandsons Landon Goff, Aidan Goff, Daly Farrington, Ryne Farrington, Ellis Farrington; Great Granddaughters Eva Farrington.
A celebration of life will be held in Spring Hill, Tennessee on Saturday Sept. 17 at 3 p.m. at Spring Hill Memorial Park, 5239 Main Street, Springhill TN, 37174: Tel 931-486-0059.
Visitation will start one hour before.
In addition, a service will be held in Hoover, Alabama on Tuesday Sept. 20 with visitation from 12 to 2 p.m. and graveside burial at 2 p.m.
The service will be at Currie-Jefferson Memorial Gardens, 2701 John Hawkins Parkway Hoover, Al 35244: Tel 205-987-0068. The family of John wishes to extend our sincere thanks to the entire staff at Williamson Medical Center and Morning Pointe of Franklin for providing the highest level of care and understanding during this difficult time.
To plant a tree in memory of John Farrington, Jr. as a living tribute, please visit Tribute Store.
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