Digital Alabama News

'The Amazing Race' Season 34: Release Date, Cast, And How To Watch https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-amazing-race-season-34-release-date-cast-and-how-to-watch/ The Amazing Race is back with its 2022 fall season, and it promises to be another exciting adventure with new countries and surprising twists (or lack thereof). And we have everything you need to prepare for The Amazing Race Season 34 premiere, including who’s racing around the world and where they will travel. ‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34 cast | Photo: Sonja Flemming/CBS Meet the teams who make up ‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34 cast A few contestants in The Amazing Race Season 34 might look familiar to Big Brother fans and football enthusiasts. The teams are: Aastha Lal (33) and Nina Duong (34), an engaged couple from Marina Del Ray, CA Abby Garrett (24) and Will Freeman (25), childhood sweethearts from Birmingham, AL Aubrey Ares (29) and David Hernandez (29), ballroom dancers from Los Angeles, CA Derek Xiao (24) and Claire Rehfuss (25), a reality romance from Los Angeles, CA Emily Bushnell (36) and Molly Sinert (36), long-lost twins from Ardmore, PA, and Palm Beach Gardens, FL, respectively Glenda (41) and Lumumba Roberts (41), newlyweds from Norcross, GA Luis Colon (34) and Michelle Burgos (34), a married couple from Miami, FL Linton (50) and Sharik Atkinson (23), father and daughter from Brooklyn, NY Marcus (38) and Michael Craig (30), military brothers from Richmond Hill, GA, and Alamogordo, NM, respectively Quinton Peron (29) and Mattie Lynch (27), former Los Angeles Rams cheerleaders from Pasadena, CA, and Vista, CA, respectively Tim Mann (40) and Rex Ryan (59), golf buddies from Brentwood, TN Rich Kuo (32) and Dom Jones (35), motivational speakers from Huntington Beach, CA Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss met on Big Brother 23, and their romance began in the jury house. And Rex Ryan is the former head coach of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. When does ‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34 premiere? The Amazing Race Season 34 Episode 1, “Many Firsts But Don’t Be Last,” premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 10 p.m. ET. It will air directly after the Survivor Season 43 premiere, which is a special two-hour episode. The Amazing Race will continue to air on Wednesdays in the following weeks. What countries are the racers traveling to? The Amazing Race Season 34 teams will begin the race outside the United States. The 12 duos will travel from Los Angeles to Munich, Germany, on the Titan Airways Boeing 757 charter plane that the show used in season 33. And the racers will gather at the starting line in Munich. After running around Germany, the remaining teams will travel to Austria, Italy, France, Spain, and Iceland. For the first time in the show’s history, The Amazing Race will feature a leg in Jordan, including a trip to the ancient city of Petra. And for the finale, the final three pairs will head to Nashville. Fans should also know that season 34 won’t feature one long-standing twist. This time around, if a team comes in last place, they will be automatically eliminated from the race. There won’t be any Speed Bumps to save contestants from elimination. ” the=”” title=”Celebrate 20 Years of “The Amazing Race” and Preview the Historic 33rd Race Around the World” width=”1320″ world=”” How to watch the new season Fans can watch The Amazing Race Season 34 live on CBS or Paramount Plus. And new episodes will be available to stream on Paramount Plus the following day. The Amazing Race Season 34 premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel. RELATED: ‘The Amazing Race’ Season 33: Caro and Ray Reveal if They’re Still Together Read More…

Ukraine War: President Zelensky Visits City Recaptured In Rapid Counter-Offensive https://digitalalabamanews.com/ukraine-war-president-zelensky-visits-city-recaptured-in-rapid-counter-offensive/ By Matt Murphy & Merlyn Thomas BBC News Media caption, Watch: Zelensky visits retaken Ukrainian city of Izyum President Volodymyr Zelensky has been to the recaptured city of Izyum, a key logistics hub in north-eastern Ukraine. During his visit, Mr Zelensky thanked troops who took part in the counter-attack against Russian occupiers. He oversaw a flag-raising ceremony and said the Ukrainian flag would return to every city and village in the country. Ukrainian officials say they are targeting towns in the eastern Donbas region after making a series of gains in a rapid counter-offensive. In recent days, Ukraine’s army has reclaimed swathes of occupied territory, forcing Russian troops to retreat. In a late evening address on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky said his forces were fortifying their hold over 8,000 sq km (3,088 sq miles) of retaken territory in the Kharkiv region. Last Thursday, President Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had retaken 1,000 sq km. By Sunday, Ukraine’s figure had tripled to 3,000 sq km, before rising again to 6,000 sq km. The precise scale of Ukraine’s gains has not been verified by the BBC. Mr Zelensky vowed to take back all Ukrainian territory still occupied by Russian forces – he said he did not know when this would happen, but that “truth is on our side”. Meanwhile, the Russian military is deploying so-called barrier troops in Ukraine to prevent its own units from fleeing, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. Ukrainian defence officials said that according to intercepted conversations, “panic” and “refusals to fight” are setting in among Russian troops. Elsewhere in Ukraine, officials accused Russian forces of targeting civilian infrastructure in the southern city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday. Cruise missiles fired at the city’s “hydraulic structures” caused water levels in a nearby river to rise and threatened local drinking supplies, Ukrainian authorities said. Responding to the attack, Mr Zelensky described Russia as a “terrorist state” that was trying to “flood Kryvyi Rih”. “All the occupiers can do is to sow panic, create an emergency situation, try to leave people without light, heat, water and food. Can it break us? Not at all. Will they face a fair response and retribution? Definitely yes,” the Ukrainian president said. In the US, President Biden said Ukraine had made “significant” gains. He said it was “clear” that the advance had enjoyed success, but cautioned that the offensive “could be a long haul”. While Russia still controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, towns in the Donbas that fell early in the war are now the focus of Kyiv’s advancing forces. After failing to capture cities across the country, including the capital, Kyiv, Russia is focusing on the Donbas – parts of which were already under the control of Russian-backed rebels before Russia launched its invasion this year. Andrey Marochko, military commander of the self-declared Luhansk People’s Republic – one of two regions that make up the Donbas – told Russian state media that fighting had reached the borders of the territory. And Serhiy Haidai, the exiled Ukrainian head of the Luhansk region, said Ukrainian forces were engaging Russian troops on the outskirts of Lyman. “There are fierce battles in Lyman now, which I think will last a few more days,” Mr Haidai said in a Telegram post. Lyman fell to Russian forces after a protracted battle at the end of May. It sits less than 150 km (93 miles) away from the city of Donetsk, the capital of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic. Its capture was a coup for Russian troops, giving Moscow control over a key east-west highway. In other areas, Ukrainian forces are said to have reached the Russian border, and Mr Hayday said their capture of two towns – Izyum and Kupiansk – could see supply lines to the Russian-held cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk severed. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, The speed and scale of Ukraine’s advance appears to have taken Russia by surprise As Kyiv’s forces move into previously occupied areas, allegations of Russian war crimes have started to emerge. The Kremlin has admitted that its forces have left some eastern towns, but refused to call it a retreat, instead insisting that its forces were regrouping. On Monday, Moscow insisted that it would press on with its invasion “until all the goals that were originally set are achieved”. But the pace of the Ukrainian advance appears to have taken Russian forces by surprise, with reports of some of Moscow’s forces abandoning their uniforms to blend in with civilians. In some areas, Russian teachers who moved to Ukrainian towns and cities after Moscow seized control were left behind by the retreating troops. An unspecified number have now been detained by Ukrainian forces and Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has warned that they will face charges. Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to re-enter negotiations with Ukraine as soon as possible during a 90-minute phone call on Tuesday. A German government read-out of the call said Mr Scholz urged Mr Putin “to find a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, based on a ceasefire, a complete withdrawal of Russian troops and respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine”. Media caption, Watch: The BBC’s Ros Atkins on… Ukraine’s fightback Read More…

This Alabama Company’s New Tracker Can Take Control Of Suspicious Drones https://digitalalabamanews.com/this-alabama-companys-new-tracker-can-take-control-of-suspicious-drones/ Every night, 50 drones fly illegal drugs across America’s southern border. Huntsville technology company SAIC said today that’s the estimate they got when asking about aerial drug smuggling along the border. The company has been researching rogue drones and how to control them. SAIC dates to Huntsville’s first technology era and presented its answer Wednesday to one of the world’s most modern technical challenges: drones. The answer is called a Counter Unmanned Aerial System (CUAS), and potential customers and media got to see it fly. It isn’t just border security interested in what CUAS could do. The Defense Department, Customs, Federal Aviation Administration, federal prisons and the Transportation Security Administration – among others – want to know what’s up there, where it’s going and how to neutralize it without raining drone parts or cocaine on the countryside. Greg Fortier, vice president of operations for SAIC Huntsville, called the company’s response “a system of systems where we are the technology agnostic integrator.” The company isn’t building the technology, in other words, but has put together a system Fortier called the “single pane of glass approach.” It’s all there on one screen. Systems engineer Jeremy Davidson said the drone threat response has four priorities: detect the drone, track it, classify it (threat or fun-seeker) and if necessary neutralize or mitigate it by jamming or even taking over. It can all happen at a range of about 6 miles. “Maybe they’re just not where they’re supposed to be,” Davidson said. No need to overreact. Just jam their control frequencies and take over. Jeremy Davidson, a drone expert employed by Hunstville, Ala., tech company SAIC, explains a new tracking system that can lead to taking over threatening drones. The control screen uses different colors to distinguish different kinds of drone activity. It’s called a heat map. Different tracking lines also mean different things. Is it a bird, a drone, an aircraft? “You can see where the activity is,” Davidson said, “that tells us a pattern of life of (the) threat. We can take other data and we can tell you exactly what drone models flew, what time of day they flew, what points they originated from, where they flew to. We can start building a threat profile picture.” Feedback helps modify the monitoring screen, Davidson said, including changing to fewer buttons. “We don’t like a lot of button clicks,” customers said. “We want to be able to train quickly, to train anyone and for them to be proficient in a short period of time.” After seeing what the system is designed to do, briefing attendees watched SAIC drone operators take control of a drone launched by others and land it where they chose. They also saw the portable model installed in an off-road vehicle and an even more portable link a person can Velcro to a uniform. “It’s an international solution from Huntsville,” one said, “(because) it’s not just a Huntsville problem.” Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

UM Liberal Arts Completes Education For Students With Any Major https://digitalalabamanews.com/um-liberal-arts-completes-education-for-students-with-any-major/ A recent survey revealed that nearly 50 percent of college graduates who majored in liberal arts and humanities regretted their decision after entering the workplace. We reached out to the Director of Strategic Communications at the University of Montana Dave Kuntz who addressed that survey. “What makes the University of Montana unique is we are a liberal arts institution, but unlike some other smaller colleges, we provide students with the ability to get that broad knowledge, but also to be specifically skilled,” began Kuntz. “So regardless of what a student’s major might be here at the university, whether they’re studying the humanities, journalism, wildlife biology, or pharmacy, they’re also getting that broad general education course that’s rooted in our liberal arts history to make sure that they’re well prepared for the workforce in the years ahead.” Kuntz explained the tools that UM provides to ensure that any graduate can succeed in their chosen field. “What we’ve done to ease any sort of frustration that students or alumni have in terms of what they chose to study is by implementing initiatives such as Elevate U, which is our workplace readiness initiative,” she said. “So right now at the University of Montana, regardless of what you study or what your major is, whether you’re in the humanities or the sciences, the arts or in business, we’re working with students to make sure from their very first semester that they’re getting internships. They’re getting connected to the workforce. They’re getting resources that employers are looking for.” Kuntz acknowledged that the W.R. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation is growing rapidly at UM. “So we’re really lucky here at the University of Montana that College of Forestry is among the fastest growing colleges on our campus,” he said. “That’s because it’s really working to solve some of the major issues of society today, whether that be climate change or sustainability or making sure that we have healthy forests and healthy timber industry. We’ve seen students not only from Montana, but from around the country gravitate to the offerings of the College of Forestry, which has some of the fastest growing majors here at the University of Montana.” Kuntz named several other highly successful programs, including the UM College of Business. “The College of Business here at the University has a long track record of preparing people to enter into the business world,” he said. “Some of the biggest business leaders in the state or in the region are graduates of that college. But also we’ve got tremendous success happening at the College of Health. That’s really growing with new offerings here at the university, with a College of Humanities and Sciences, and continues to produce students at such a high volume that make great civic impacts to society as well. As you know, we’re still the home of the College of Education where we prepare teachers, Missoula College where we work to create those industry impacts. And then our College of Arts and Media is producing some of the best journalists in the world.” According to the University of Montana website, the school boasts a 13 to 1 student-to-faculty ratio, with an average class size of 30 students. 14 Destinations to Visit With Direct Flights From Missoula Here’s a list of places to visit (and things to do while you’re there) with nonstop flights out of the Missoula Montana Airport. 20 Impressive Features at the New and Improved Missoula Airport Missoula’s new airport will include large windows for loved ones to watch planes depart and arrive, and the only escalator on this side of Montana! Plus, a keggerator system for the Coldsmoke Tavern. Read More…

Patagonia Founder Just Donated The Entire Company, Worth $3 Billion, To Fight Climate Change https://digitalalabamanews.com/patagonia-founder-just-donated-the-entire-company-worth-3-billion-to-fight-climate-change/ Yvon Chouinard, founder and owner of Patagonia. Courtesy of Jeff Johnson and Patagonia Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, his spouse and two adult children are giving away their ownership in the apparel maker he started some 50 years ago, dedicating all profits from the company to projects and organizations that will protect wild land and biodiversity and fight the climate crisis. The company is worth about $3 billion, according to the New York Times. In a letter about the decision, published on the Patagonia website on Wednesday, Choiunard wrote of “reimagining capitalism,” and said: “While we’re doing our best to address the environmental crisis, it’s not enough. We needed to find a way to put more money into fighting the crisis while keeping the company’s values intact. One option was to sell Patagonia and donate all the money. But we couldn’t be sure a new owner would maintain our values or keep our team of people around the world employed. Another path was to take the company public. What a disaster that would have been. Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility. Truth be told, there were no good options available. So, we created our own.” The privately held company’s stock will now be owned by a climate-focused trust and group of nonprofit organizations, called the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the Holdfast Collective respectively, the company said in a statement, noting “every dollar that is not reinvested back into Patagonia will be distributed as dividends to protect the planet.” The trust will get all the voting stock, which is 2% of the total, and will use it to create a “more permanent legal structure to enshrine Patagonia’s purpose and values.” It will be overseen by members of the family and close advisors. The Holdfast Collective owns all the non-voting stock of Patagonia, which amounts to 98%. Patagonia expects to generate and donate about $100 million annually depending on the health of the business. The company now sells new and used outdoor apparel, gear for outdoor activities like camping, fishing and climbing, and food and beverages made from sustainable sources. As a certified B-Corp and California Benefit Corporation, Patagonia was already donating one percent of its sales each year to grassroots activists, and it intends to keep doing so. Fewer than 6,000 companies around the world are certified as B-Corp businesses. They have to meet strict environmental, social and governance standards and benchmarks set by B Labs to gain certification. Ryan Gellert will continue to serve as Patagonia’s CEO, and the Chouinard family will remain on Patagonia’s board following the apparel maker’s expanded philanthropic strategy. After informing its employees on Wednesday about this move, the company updated its website to state that “Earth is now our only shareholder.” Read More…

3 Museums You Won't Want To Miss In Mobile | The Bama Buzz https://digitalalabamanews.com/3-museums-you-wont-want-to-miss-in-mobile-the-bama-buzz/ History Museum of Mobile (Emma Lamm / The Bama Buzz) When you think of Mobile, Mardi Gras and rainy days may be the only things that comes to mind. The truth is, there is so much more to learn about this southern city. If you’re in the mood to browse and have some time, check out these three Mobile based museums that you’re guaranteed to learn something new at. 1. Mobile Museum of Art The Mobile Museum of Art’s beautiful building exterior (Emma Lamm / The Bama Buzz) Starting off with the fine arts, the beautiful Mobile Museum of Art is bound to have an exhibit to your liking. Located in the middle of Langan Park in west Mobile and free to the public on Thursdays, it is definitely worth the trip. Currently, the museum is hosting several special exhibitions, including an exclusive hands-on kid-friendly exhibition For Children: The Elements of Art and Design.  The Mobile Museum of Art is also presenting 3 American Artists, displaying the work of three renowned African American artists: Glenn Ligon, Mark Bradford and Barkley L. Hendricks. This special exhibition highlights these artists who have focused on portraying their works that focus largely on themes of: race gender sexual identity class and pop culture. This exhibit will continue through May 2023. Address: 4850 Museum Dr, Mobile, AL 36608 Hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 10 AM – 5 PM | closed Sunday, Monday, and all City Holidays. Contact: Phone / Website Admission: FREE on Thursdays for all Mobile County residents – $12.00 Adults, $10.00 Seniors, $8.00 Students, FREE for children under six 2. Mobile Carnival Museum These colorful jesters make Downtown Mobile come alive! (Emma Lamm / The Bama Buzz) With Mobile being the true and original home of Mardi Gras, it’s only appropriate to visit our one and only official carnival museum. With many historical features on how Mardi Gras came to be, the history behind the parades and more, this museum has it all. Be sure to check out Toomey’s Gift Shop at the Carnival Museum for your own souvenirs once you are done brushing up on your Mobile history. Address: 355 Government St, Mobile, AL 36602 Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat.  – 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM | Tue., Thurs., Sun. – Closed Contact: Website Admission: $8.00 Adults, $3.00 Children (12 and Under), $6.00 Military, Students w/ ID, AAA, AARP Toomey’s Gift Shop (Emma Lamm / The Bama Buzz) 3. History Museum of Mobile The History Museum of Mobile standing tall (Emma Lamm / The Bama Buzz) Last, but certainly not least, the History Museum of Mobile is the heart of all things historic in Mobile. The building itself carries intricate details and rich history lessons of its own, and there’s even more to discover on the inside. This Old City Hall building, originally built in 1855, currently houses this historic museum and all of the iconic Mobile artifacts inside of it. A History of Mobile in 22 Objects is a current exhibit at the History Museum of Mobile, running until December 2022. This exhibit specifically focuses on objects curated over the last 300 years in Mobile history, donated by the city’s leading historians, professors, and museum curators. With the amount of artifacts and stories that lie behind these iconic pieces of history, you are given a full view of how Mobile has progressed into the city that it is today. Address: 111 S Royal St, Mobile, AL 36602 Hours: Monday – Saturday:  9:00 AM – 4:30 PM | Sunday:  1:00 PM – 4:30 PM Contact: Website Admission: Free on the first Sunday of every month, check standard rates here If you’re in the Mobile area and want to catch a break from the beaches and downtown lifestyle, I would highly suggest stopping in at one of these three highly-favored museums. Doing a little sight seeing and learning might just be a perfect addition to your trip agenda for your next visit. You won’t regret the experience or knowledge learned! Wanna stay in the know about what’s buzzing in Mobile? Be sure to sign up for our FREE newsletter for more stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Read More…

Weather Wagers: Week 3 Of College Football And Week 2 Of NFL https://digitalalabamanews.com/weather-wagers-week-3-of-college-football-and-week-2-of-nfl/ Week 4 kicks off with a review of our less than stellar records from last week. We discuss the carnage in college football, including Scott Frost’s reign coming to an end. We talk about the new Monday Night Football booth, Penn State’s big road game this weekend, lots of offensive woes across the football landscape, and what the Eagles can do to best the Vikings next Monday night. We check in on our pie bet too. Also, will the weather have any impact this week? Here’s a hint: it looks pretty boring. Let’s hope the slate of games won’t be. Without further ado, here’s Weather Wagers Week 4! __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Chargers @ Chiefs, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO, Chiefs -4, O/U 54.5 Welcome to a new era of NFL broadcasting as Thursday Night Football comes to Amazon Prime Video. I watched the pre-season game that quietly kicked off Amazon’s NFL package. Quite honestly, it felt like Sunday Night Football. The production was stellar as they hired the same producer that formerly did SNF. The booth is terrific with Al Michaels teaming up with Kirk Herbstreit. Kaylee Hartung is the sideline reporter. It has the feel of a big NFL production. Amazon did all the right things to try and lure viewers, except, at least with their preseason game, they didn’t. It was only viewed by around 1 million eyeballs. It’s going to take some time for people to find this and get used to it. We also all like to channel surf, especially when watching sports. It becomes much harder to do that when launching an app to watch a live broadcast. Nonetheless, this is where the new home of TNF is located and it’s a good matchup to kick things off with an AFC West tilt. The Chargers who had a good showing against the Raiders in Week 1 travel to Arrowhead to take on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. The weather won’t be a factor here with mostly sunny skies expected in Kansas City Thursday. It will be a warm day, however, with highs in the upper 80s. Kickoff temperature will be right around 80° and it should be a lovely night for a football game. It may not be so lovely for the Chargers, however. They played well against the Raiders and had some nice moments defensively. This is a different test, however. While the Chargers have played well at Arrowhead recently, the Chiefs and Mahomes just keep getting better and I anticipate that Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense won’t be able to keep up. The game is a coin flip with the Chiefs as the 3-point favorite here since they are at home. Maybe the Chargers put up more of a fight in a key divisional game, but I know I trust Mahomes and Andy Reid more. I’ll lay the 3.5 with Kansas City. Go Chiefs! Penn State @ Auburn, Jordan-Hare Stadium, Auburn, AL, Penn State -3, O/U 47.5 Penn State already passed a tough road test to open the season at Purdue two weeks ago. The game winning drive by Sean Clifford was impressive after his less than stellar pick-six. Last week, the Nittany Lions were impressive in all facets of the game against an outmanned MAC opponent in the Ohio Bobcats. Yes, Ohio isn’t a great team, but Penn State showed signs of potentially being one for the first time in a while. The passing game looked sharp, the running game was evident, the defense kept Ohio at bay for most of the game, and some younger class guys broke out big time, including QB Drew Allar. There is reason for hope amongst Penn State faithful. But, rather than another weak opponent at home to test their resolve before Big Ten play, the Lions travel to Auburn and take on the Tigers in Jordan-Hare Stadium. This is a true test to see where the program is at heading into the bigger part of the schedule coming up in October. Bryan Harsin and Auburn aren’t world beaters either. They played two weak opponents thus far and haven’t look stellar doing so. There are questions at the QB position, and the overall state of the program is a mess with Harsin’s job security lacking to say the least. They do have a couple of beasts at running back, including Tank Bigsby, who could be a game-changer if he gets going in the trenches. I think Penn State has shown enough to earn the favored status, although it’s a small one. Weather should be a non-factor on The Plains Saturday afternoon. Sunny with highs in the 80s. To me, it’s another coin flip game. Can PSU pull out another one? I think so. If Clifford starts to look rough, James Franklin finally has a Plan B. And it’s a solid one with Allar ready to come in if needed. I’ll take the road favorite here to cover the 3. But as usual, I’m not confident. Penn State -3. Michigan State @ Washington, Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA, Washington -3, O/U 56.5 This is one of the more intriguing matchups in the early part of the college football season. Mel Tucker and Michigan State are off to a fast start against two weaker opponents and now must travel to Seattle to take on their first Power 5 team. Kalen DeBoer is Washington’s new head coach coming in from Fresno State. He doesn’t have a lengthy coaching resume, but he does seem to have the program on better footing. He also has Indiana transfer QB Michael Penix at the helm and that gives the Huskies a shot in most games. They have played two cupcakes so far as well, so this game is a major test for both squads. In addition to each other, they will have to battle some weather on Saturday. Rain is in the forecast with highs in the 60s. Not a surprise in Seattle, really, but conditions could favor a rush attack. This is one of those sneaky good games. Washington is the favorite at home, but it’s one of those I need to see it to believe it first. I’m not quite sold on Mel Tucker’s team yet this season either, but the Spartans have been consistent recently, while Washington certainly hasn’t. If the Huskies win, I won’t be surprised. But I’ll take Michigan State to win outright in sloppy weather. They’re used to sloppy games. Michigan State Money Line. Bears @ Packers, Lambeau Field, Green Bay, WI, Packers -10, O/U 44.5 Shockingly, the Bears are 1-0 coming into this Sunday Night Football matchup as primetime’s best football show heads to Lambeau. They played in quite the weather game last Sunday, besting the 49ers on a field that turned into a slip ‘n slide with standing water drenching some new Soldier Field turf. It didn’t hurt the Bears, but perhaps it hurt the 49ers as they dropped one on the road. Aaron Rogers and the Packers left one up in Minnesota that I’m sure they want back too. Now they return to the friendly confines of Lambeau on a night that could feature a few showers. Temperatures will be dipping into the 60s during game time, which is downright balmy in northern Wisconsin. The Bears won last week, but let’s face it – did they look good doing it? Not really. However, did the Packers look much better? Rogers and his receivers seemed off and that could be in part because they didn’t play together during the preseason. Imagine that. Can they put it together at home against the Bears Sunday night? I don’t think so. I think Chicago and Justin Fields covers the 9. That’s a big spread for the NFL especially favoring a team that looked so lost last week. Bears +9. Vikings @ Eagles, Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA, Eagles -2, O/U 51 This should be one heck of a football game on Monday night and ABC gets the better of the two with the league featuring a doubleheader of sorts. The Eagles looked good last week, or at least their offense did. But it was against the Lions, so again, what do we really know right now? The Vikings impressed me with how they dismantled the Packers and Kirk Cousins seems like a legit threat. He threw for 277 yards and 2 touchdowns. The offense seemed to click. The defense looked good too, although that may have had more to do with Green Bay seeming to be out of sync. Meanwhile, the Eagles just grounded and pounded their way to a win. When so much of the NFL is about passing, the Eagles just ran up and down the field in Detroit. Hurts didn’t throw a touchdown last week and let the running game do all the work. I also have big questions about the Eagles defense giving up 5 touchdowns. Yes, this game is in Philly, but let’s be honest…have the Eagles shown enough to make me think they can win this game handily against a better than average team? Not yet. I’ll take the points with the Vikings on MNF. Minnesota +3. Purdue @ Syracuse, JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY, PICK, O/U 58.5 This game is so intriguing from the standpoint of both programs seem to be ascending and this game would propel each one for the rest of the season and could send the other program back down the rungs of mediocrity. I like what I’ve seen this season from both programs. Penn State played Purdue early and I was able to get a good look at Jeff Brohm’s offense led by QB Aidan O’Connell. They love to pass and often O’Connell’s passes find Iowa transfer receiver Charlie Jones, who leads the nation in receptions. The problem for Purdue? They can’t seem to run, or don’t want to. That likely cost them their home opener against Penn State two weeks ago. Dino Babers, meanwhile, can run and pass with his QB Garrett Shrader and RB Sean Tucker. Babers referred to the team “giving themselves an opportunity to be something” after last week’s win against UConn. This dual threat combined with Babers trying to grow something there for a while gives The Orange an edge in my mind. Plus, they have home field advantage at the JMA Wireless Dome. If Syracuse can establish the run early, I like them to win. I’ll take The Orange money line here. Nevada @ Iowa, Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, IA, Iowa -23, O/U 39.5 If you prefer watching paint dry to sitting in front of your television and watching hours u...

NOVA’s “Ending HIV In America” Shows The Remarkable Progress Science Has Made Against HIV | WITF https://digitalalabamanews.com/novas-ending-hiv-in-america-shows-the-remarkable-progress-science-has-made-against-hiv-witf/ September 14, 2022 | 4:36 PM The film reveals how scientists and affected communities are partnering to deliver new advances to those still struggling on the front lines of the crisis Ending HIV in America, a one-hour special from NOVA, explores the extraordinary scientific progress that has been made in the fight against HIV, highlights the activism and commitment of communities that are still hard hit by the virus, and reveals how close we may be to what once seemed unthinkable – the end of HIV in America. The film follows the twists and turns that HIV treatment has taken since scientists identified the virus nearly 40 years ago, against the backdrop of two very different American cities – San Francisco, CA, and Birmingham, AL – that represent the real-world challenges of getting treatment to the people who need it most. What began as a ferocious disease that frustrated scientists at every turn, led to a long – and global – scientific quest that made a string of extraordinary discoveries. But to deliver those discoveries to the people most in need, equally innovative partnerships had to be forged between the public health community and communities who were often neglected or discriminated against by health authorities. “HIV is a uniquely challenging virus to fight, and the scientific journey over the last four decades has been a dramatic roller-coaster filled with hope and frustration and some truly remarkable discoveries,” said NOVA Co-Executive Producer Julia Cort. “All leading to today, when public health experts say ending HIV transmission in America is within our grasp.” Ending HIV in America asks many questions, including: How did scientists gain the upper hand on one of the most elusive and deadly pathogens ever known? Can we address the deep-rooted challenges of accessibility and stigma that communities across the country face? Could innovative treatment regimens bring new infections to zero? The U.S. government set a bold target in 2019 – to cut new infections by 90% by the year 2030. As with any disease, the final cases are the hardest to stamp out, but the so-called last mile looks different in different parts of the country. San Francisco, which is home to Ward 86, the country’s oldest HIV/AIDS clinic, vowed to be the first city to fully eliminate the virus, rolling out its plan in 2013. By focusing on its most vulnerable residents, the city managed to cut new infections by more than 60%, even as the COVID pandemic brought new challenges. The film introduces health workers who run clinics that deliver HIV care and other services tailored to the city’s homeless and transgender communities. It also introduces HIV-positive activists like Cecilia Chung, who have lived through the HIV/AIDS pandemic’s different eras over the last four decades. In Birmingham, Alabama, the last mile of the fight feels longer. For many residents, the cost of the highly effective preventative treatment, known as PrEP, is prohibitive because the state doesn’t provide the same level of support as in San Francisco. The film follows a group of staff at the 1917 Clinic, run by the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who help patients navigate various challenges. Among this group are chaplain Chris Hamlin, formerly pastor at the city’s historic 16th Street Baptist Church, and Tommy Williams, who connects clients with the clinic’s services and shares a bond with many patients—he too is HIV-positive. With unforgettable portraits and interviews with pioneers of HIV science and community leadership, Ending HIV in America is a story of struggle and triumph, showing how the fight against HIV reshaped the world of science and medicine, as healthcare providers continue to face the challenge of getting treatments to the people who need them most. Watch NOVA: Ending HIV in America Wednesday, September 21 at 9pm on WITF TV, or stream it on-demand through the PBS Video App. Read More…

Why Aren’t More Americans Defending Free Speech And The Rule Of Law? https://digitalalabamanews.com/why-arent-more-americans-defending-free-speech-and-the-rule-of-law/ OPINION: It has been suggested that those on the right have been a bit too energetic in defending the previous president. There can be no doubt that many of President Donald J. Trump’s defenders are aggressive and voluble. There can also be no doubt that in many instances, people conflate defending important elements of the American political and judicial systems with defending Mr. Trump himself. Let’s clear up the confusion. Noting the obvious and troubling fact that the FBI and the DOJ are either unwilling or unable to police their own employees is not defending Mr. Trump. Faced with the reality that agents lied to obtain warrants used to surveil campaigns and members of the media, silence seems a lot like a vitiation of the oath that many of us have taken to the Constitution. It is certainly contrary to the oath that every lawyer has taken as well. Pointing out that no one associated with January 6th has even been charged with, let alone found guilty of, insurrection is not defending Mr. Trump. It is, rather, defending both the utility and primacy of the judicial process in the United States. It is a simple assertion of the foundational understanding that innocence is assumed until guilt is proven. It is alarming to see how many lawyers – officers of court all – have no confidence in the ability of their own system to find facts, ascertain guilt, and assign punishment and remediation in this instance. If you are a lawyer, and are happy to see what is essentially a criminal matter politicized (think the January 6th Committee), that is a problem. Listing off a few of the ways that Team Biden has failed the United States (Afghanistan, inflation, energy prices, regressive policies like the student loan debt fiasco, etc.), is also not defending Mr. Trump or Trumpism. It is simply acknowledging the facts as we know them. President Joe Biden understands them to be facts as well. He has been reduced to calling his opponents’ fascists not because they are, but because he and his party have nothing else to run on in the 2022 elections. Suggesting that a sitting president should not call his opponents (about one-third of all American adults) fascists and threats to the Republic is not defending Mr. Trump. It is simply a practical restatement of the notion that once you place certain people outside the realm of the acceptable, you greatly increase societal entropy and the chances of violence. When people cannot or will not be heard through peaceful channels, the historical answer is usually violence. That’s why the First Amendment is essential; free speech is the first and best bulwark against political violence. Speaking of that… saying that a United States Senator (Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY) should not threaten violence against Supreme Court justices has nothing to do with Mr. Trump. Nor does pointing out that in the last couple of years dozens of churches, pregnancy centers, and Republican Party offices have been firebombed or otherwise damaged. Again, if you’ve taken an oath – either to the Constitution or to preserve the rule of law as an officer of the court — you should oppose and be vocal about opposing all of those instances of violence and threats. To date, the left has said nothing about these ongoing episodes of political violence. Finally, pointing out that there seems to be two kinds of justice in the United States nowadays — one in which a leader of one political party (Mr. Trump) is hounded pretty relentlessly by federal law enforcement and one in which the previous presidential nominee and the son of the current president are essentially ignored by law enforcement – is, again, not defending Mr. Trump. It is, rather, noting what is obvious to everyone: That the rule of law is being routinely traduced by those who are part of the legal system. It is small wonder that few citizens retain confidence in federal law enforcement. Rather than asking why some defend Mr. Trump, perhaps the more important question is, why aren’t more people defending free speech, the rule of law, the judicial process, the citizenry from political violence, judges from political attacks, and federal law enforcement from those who would weaponize it against their political rivals. • Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated” podcast. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House. Read More…

CBP Branch Retweets Disgraced, Bigoted Trump Advisor, Gets Account Locked Down By CBP Commissioner https://digitalalabamanews.com/cbp-branch-retweets-disgraced-bigoted-trump-advisor-gets-account-locked-down-by-cbp-commissioner/ from the this-is-the-part-where-we-remove-our-masks dept Government officials may say acceptable things when pressed for comment by journalists, oversight, and members of the public. But if you really want to know what an agency thinks, just keep your eye on the rank-and-file. So, when the West Texas branch of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) started retweeting one of the Trump administration’s resident bigots, it showed nothing but CBP West Texas’ entire ass. Let’s take a brief moment to reacquaint ourselves with Stephen Miller, the man who became the breathy, white voice in Trump’s spray-tanned ear when it came to immigration policy. Stephen Miller has been subpoenaed by the January 6th committee, which is still trying to determine who in the government assisted in the attempted undermining of the election certification following Trump’s loss at the polls. Miller started out as the “national policy director” for Trump’s 2016 “transition team.” Shortly thereafter he became the face of Trump’s increasingly ugly, increasingly xenophobic immigration polices. Let’s review a few of Miller’s greatest hits, recited here in the dry language of a Wikipedia article any dumbass at the CBP west wing could have accessed before retweeting someone whose opinions on immigration mean less now than ever. In the early days of Trump’s presidency, Miller worked with Senator Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, and Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, to enact policies through executive orders to restrict immigration and crack down on sanctuary cities.[53] Miller and Bannon preferred executive orders to legislation.[50] Miller’s and Sessions’s views on immigration were influenced by anti-immigration groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies.[54] […] Miller played an influential role in Trump’s decision to fire FBI director James Comey in May 2017.[56] […] In September 2017, The New York Times reported that Miller stopped the Trump administration from showing the public an internal study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees had a net positive effect on government revenues.[12][13] […] In October 2018, the Financial Times reported that Miller sought to make it impossible for Chinese students to study in the United States. Miller argued that a ban was necessary to reduce Chinese espionage, but that another benefit was that it would hurt elite universities with staff and students critical of Trump.  […] Miller also advised Trump not to openly embrace mask-wearing to halt the spread of the coronavirus.[83] […] In November 2019, the Southern Poverty Law Center acquired more than 900 emails Miller sent Breitbart News writer Katie McHugh between 2015 and 2016. The emails became the basis for an exposé that showed that Miller had enthusiastically pushed the views of white nationalist publications such as American Renaissance and VDARE, as well as the far-right conspiracy website InfoWars… This is the person the West Texas CBP office felt worthy of retweets: an affirmed xenophobe who acted as a hype man for Trump’s anti-immigration actions. The retweets, screenshotted here by Adam Isacson, show exactly what this CBP branch felt was worth amplifying with its official government account — one with nearly 17,000 followers. If you can’t see the screenshot or read the CBP-amplified Stephen Miller tweets, this is what they say: Violent criminals lay waste to our communities undisturbed while the immense power of the state is arrayed against those whose only crime is dissent. The law has been turned from a shield to protect the innocent into a sword to conquer them. We’ll take a brief break to applaud the man who turned the law into a sword to punish innocent immigrants while burying evidence of their positive contributions to the American way of life — one who actually claims a government that goes after people who participated in an unprecedented raid of the Capitol building cares less about the public’s safety that one that wielded the “immense power of the state” to persecute browner people just wanting a shot at the American dream. And here’s another inconvenient fact standing in the way of Miller’s shitposting-but-I’m-serious tweeting: immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than natural-born residents of the United States. Moving on to the second tweet: The media’s greatest power is its ability to frame what is a national crisis (eg “cops are racist summer ’20) and what is not: Biden’s eradication of our border means we are no longer a Republic — he’s ended nearly 250 years of constitutional government. The media is silent. This is the kind of word salad that will only be appreciated by like-minded connoisseurs of this particular type of word salad. The rest of us will consider it as comprehensible as jello salad featuring suspended pasta and Vienna sausages: yes, it may resemble something a person could theoretically consume in extremely dire circumstances, but no one in their right mind would actually consume it voluntarily. Biden has not “eradicated” the border. (Notably, both Miller and his retweeters have nothing to say about the northern border, which is equally in danger of being “eradicated” by policy changes.) Cops are, in fact, pretty fucking racist. Fortunately, the CBP has decided this is something that needed to be addressed, rather than ignored. As Axios reports, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus stepped up to inform the public the agency as a whole did not approve of this rogue action and has seized control of the regional account. As of the writing of this post, the Twitter account is alive but inactive. The retweets of Stephen Miller have been memory-holed, something that has undoubtedly resulted in dozens of FOIA requests. But when CBP Commissioner Magnus says these tweets “do not reflect the values of this administration,” he’s only partially correct. They obviously reflected the values of the CBP West Texas employees, who decided Miller’s anti-immigration rants were worth amplifying. And that’s a problem he’ll need to address if he expects the nation to believe border enforcement agencies aren’t just playgrounds for bigots. Filed Under: bigotry, cbp, cbp west texas, stephen miller, texas Read More…

US Forecast https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-forecast-29/ City/Town, State;Yesterday’s High Temp (F);Yesterday’s Low Temp (F);Today’s High Temp (F);Today’s Low Temp (F);Weather Condition;Wind Direction;Wind Speed (MPH);Humidity (%);Chance of Precip. (%);UV Index Albany, NY;77;51;67;47;Plenty of sun;WNW;9;53%;1%;5 Albuquerque, NM;77;60;82;60;Mostly sunny;ESE;6;39%;0%;7 Anchorage, AK;55;47;53;47;A little p.m. rain;ESE;12;82%;100%;1 Asheville, NC;77;52;78;54;Mostly sunny, nice;ESE;5;60%;2%;7 Atlanta, GA;83;62;84;60;Mostly sunny;E;7;54%;6%;7 Atlantic City, NJ;80;66;76;59;Sunny and beautiful;NNW;10;56%;4%;6 Austin, TX;93;67;92;73;Mostly sunny;SSE;4;55%;42%;8 Baltimore, MD;83;68;80;62;Plenty of sunshine;N;9;49%;3%;6 Baton Rouge, LA;87;63;90;66;Sunny and pleasant;ESE;7;55%;8%;8 Billings, MT;72;54;76;55;Mostly cloudy;ESE;8;52%;45%;4 Birmingham, AL;84;62;86;64;Sunny and pleasant;E;6;53%;2%;7 Bismarck, ND;88;58;65;53;Cloudy and cooler;NNE;11;84%;27%;2 Boise, ID;82;60;78;55;A thundershower;SE;7;40%;81%;5 Boston, MA;79;58;71;53;Not as warm;WNW;13;41%;2%;5 Bridgeport, CT;79;59;72;52;Sunny and nice;NNW;11;47%;3%;5 Buffalo, NY;74;51;65;51;Hazy sun;SE;7;56%;0%;5 Burlington, VT;76;49;62;48;Cooler;WNW;12;53%;0%;5 Caribou, ME;73;47;59;42;Windy and cooler;WNW;18;53%;2%;4 Casper, WY;73;46;63;44;A stray p.m. t-storm;SSE;5;84%;72%;2 Charleston, SC;86;69;86;70;Mainly cloudy;NE;9;56%;9%;6 Charleston, WV;76;53;81;55;Fog in the morning;ENE;4;70%;4%;6 Charlotte, NC;81;58;84;61;Mostly sunny;ENE;7;51%;2%;7 Cheyenne, WY;79;53;68;49;A t-storm around;N;9;54%;45%;3 Chicago, IL;74;63;81;67;Fog in the morning;S;8;57%;5%;5 Cleveland, OH;73;60;71;62;Hazy sunshine;SE;8;66%;0%;5 Columbia, SC;85;62;86;63;Clouds and sun;ENE;6;47%;5%;7 Columbus, OH;78;57;80;57;Fog in the morning;ESE;5;64%;2%;6 Concord, NH;79;50;66;45;Cooler;NW;13;49%;1%;5 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX;87;67;90;71;Mostly sunny;SE;8;43%;4%;7 Denver, CO;83;56;75;54;A stray t-shower;W;6;50%;48%;4 Des Moines, IA;87;63;85;65;Partly sunny, breezy;S;14;52%;42%;5 Detroit, MI;84;55;74;59;Hazy sun;SSE;7;58%;2%;5 Dodge City, KS;94;65;89;60;A t-storm or two;S;20;50%;93%;6 Duluth, MN;63;55;75;58;Rain and a t-storm;ESE;11;66%;99%;1 El Paso, TX;87;64;91;65;Plenty of sunshine;SSE;7;38%;2%;8 Fairbanks, AK;53;42;59;42;A thick cloud cover;NNE;6;65%;35%;1 Fargo, ND;78;64;77;57;Rain and a t-storm;NW;11;75%;99%;1 Grand Junction, CO;71;55;76;54;Clouds and sun;E;8;61%;24%;6 Grand Rapids, MI;76;55;78;63;Fog in the morning;S;8;69%;2%;5 Hartford, CT;79;57;70;49;Sunny and pleasant;WNW;9;46%;3%;5 Helena, MT;77;50;73;51;A p.m. t-storm;SSW;4;56%;88%;2 Honolulu, HI;89;74;88;74;Showers around;ENE;8;58%;72%;10 Houston, TX;89;71;89;73;Mostly sunny;ESE;8;62%;36%;8 Indianapolis, IN;80;60;82;61;Hazy sun;SE;5;61%;5%;6 Jackson, MS;87;63;89;65;Sunny and delightful;SE;4;53%;5%;7 Jacksonville, FL;90;73;87;74;A shower and t-storm;NE;10;72%;97%;3 Juneau, AK;57;48;55;45;A couple of showers;S;8;82%;97%;1 Kansas City, MO;89;66;87;67;Plenty of sun;SSE;11;46%;44%;6 Knoxville, TN;80;57;84;59;Sunny and pleasant;NE;6;59%;3%;7 Las Vegas, NV;89;71;91;69;Plenty of sun;SSW;8;27%;0%;7 Lexington, KY;79;57;83;59;Hazy sunshine;E;6;67%;3%;6 Little Rock, AR;90;61;90;64;Plenty of sunshine;SE;6;50%;6%;7 Long Beach, CA;80;67;80;68;Clearing;SSW;7;57%;0%;7 Los Angeles, CA;82;65;81;65;Partly sunny;S;7;53%;0%;6 Louisville, KY;80;60;85;61;Hazy sunshine;E;6;64%;3%;6 Madison, WI;75;56;78;63;Partly sunny, nice;S;8;64%;6%;5 Memphis, TN;91;66;91;68;Sunny;SE;6;48%;5%;7 Miami, FL;83;79;87;79;Heavy p.m. t-storms;ENE;7;76%;93%;4 Milwaukee, WI;69;61;79;66;Partly sunny;SSW;10;69%;4%;5 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN;80;65;84;66;A t-storm around;SSW;14;52%;55%;5 Mobile, AL;89;67;91;70;Plenty of sunshine;NE;8;52%;2%;8 Montgomery, AL;87;62;85;64;Sunny and pleasant;E;7;55%;4%;7 Mt. Washington, NH;45;27;36;31;Very windy, colder;WNW;34;78%;0%;5 Nashville, TN;82;59;87;62;Plenty of sun;E;6;55%;3%;7 New Orleans, LA;87;72;88;76;Sunny and pleasant;E;9;54%;5%;8 New York, NY;82;62;75;57;Sunny and nice;NW;10;43%;3%;5 Newark, NJ;82;60;75;52;Sunny and nice;NW;9;46%;4%;5 Norfolk, VA;80;64;82;65;Sunny intervals;NE;9;56%;1%;6 Oklahoma City, OK;90;65;89;66;Partly sunny, warm;S;13;44%;10%;7 Olympia, WA;72;52;70;50;Mostly cloudy;SW;6;68%;13%;2 Omaha, NE;90;66;86;63;Increasingly windy;S;17;48%;71%;5 Orlando, FL;91;73;87;73;Heavy p.m. t-storms;NE;7;77%;90%;4 Philadelphia, PA;82;65;77;57;Plenty of sunshine;NNW;9;46%;4%;6 Phoenix, AZ;96;77;97;78;Brilliant sunshine;WNW;6;33%;0%;7 Pittsburgh, PA;77;58;76;55;Patchy morning fog;ESE;7;56%;4%;5 Portland, ME;81;54;67;49;Mostly sunny, breezy;WNW;15;46%;1%;5 Portland, OR;74;56;73;55;Some sun, pleasant;NNW;5;59%;5%;4 Providence, RI;78;58;71;49;Nice with sunshine;WNW;10;44%;1%;5 Raleigh, NC;81;58;84;60;Sunshine, pleasant;NE;6;54%;1%;7 Reno, NV;78;49;77;47;Sunshine;W;7;31%;0%;6 Richmond, VA;81;60;83;58;Sunny;NE;7;58%;1%;6 Roswell, NM;86;63;89;63;Mostly sunny;S;7;48%;7%;8 Sacramento, CA;79;59;81;56;Abundant sunshine;S;7;49%;1%;6 Salt Lake City, UT;72;60;77;58;Heavy p.m. t-storms;S;7;65%;99%;3 San Antonio, TX;94;68;92;75;Partly sunny, humid;ESE;8;59%;44%;8 San Diego, CA;74;66;76;65;Low clouds, then sun;WSW;9;59%;0%;7 San Francisco, CA;71;62;70;59;Breezy in the p.m.;W;14;62%;3%;6 Savannah, GA;86;66;86;68;Turning cloudy;ENE;9;59%;10%;8 Seattle-Tacoma, WA;72;57;69;54;Mostly cloudy;W;6;68%;17%;2 Sioux Falls, SD;92;68;83;61;A couple of t-storms;SW;15;55%;96%;4 Spokane, WA;73;50;77;51;Partly sunny, nice;SSE;2;56%;2%;4 Springfield, IL;82;57;84;61;Partly sunny;SSE;7;60%;6%;6 St. Louis, MO;84;58;85;60;Plenty of sunshine;SE;7;56%;10%;6 Tampa, FL;85;73;86;73;Heavy p.m. t-storms;ENE;6;85%;93%;3 Toledo, OH;82;58;73;56;Fog in the morning;N;4;67%;2%;5 Tucson, AZ;93;68;95;68;Plenty of sunshine;S;7;33%;0%;8 Tulsa, OK;90;63;90;65;Mostly sunny;SSE;9;42%;10%;7 Vero Beach, FL;90;72;86;72;Heavy p.m. t-storms;ESE;7;82%;92%;3 Washington, DC;81;65;81;59;Sunny;NNE;8;51%;3%;6 Wichita, KS;92;65;89;64;Breezy;S;16;43%;89%;5 Wilmington, DE;81;64;78;55;Plenty of sunshine;NNW;10;52%;4%;6 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Read More…

Tim Ryan Courts Black Voters, J.D. Vance Prepares For Trump Visit As Polls Show Tight U.S. Senate Race In Ohio https://digitalalabamanews.com/tim-ryan-courts-black-voters-j-d-vance-prepares-for-trump-visit-as-polls-show-tight-u-s-senate-race-in-ohio/ A recent Suffolk University/USA Today survey puts the race at ‘a pure toss up’ with 47% of respondents favoring Ryan to Vance’s 46%. CLEVELAND — Two months from Election Day, recent polling indicates a close U.S. Senate race. Democrat Tim Ryan and Republican J.D. Vance are eager to spin those results to their advantage. But outside observers caution that poll and others might overstate Democrats’ position. A tight race… or is it? The Suffolk University/USA Today poll puts the race at “a pure toss up” with 47% of respondents favoring Ryan to Vance’s 46%. Another 6% percent remain undecided, and the poll has a 4.4% margin of error. “J.D. Vance has yet to completely unify his Republican base while Tim Ryan has solidified support among Democrats and is competitive among independents,” Suffolk political research center director David Paleologos said in a press release. “Ryan is even winning a small slice of Republicans and those who say they want the upcoming election to change the direction that President Joe Biden is leading the nation.” That looks like great news for Ryan in a state where the GOP has maintained a durable advantage in recent statewide races. Meanwhile, Vance’s campaign argues Ryan’s summer ad blitz only got him to even odds. Kyle Kondik from Sabato’’ Crystal Ball has seen the race trending in Ryan’s direction. They’ve moved their race forecast from Likely Republican to Leans Republican. But as the name implies, Kondik still thinks Vance has at least a slight advantage. “At the end of the day I think Vance is favored in the race, but I feel like it’s become more competitive over the summer, as opposed to less.” The New York Times’ Nate Cohn took a bit of wind out Democrats’ sails this week as well. He noted Democrats appear to be doing well in states like Ohio, North Carolina and Wisconsin — states where polling in recent cycles overestimated Democratic strength. That track record is enough to give Kondik pause. He allowed it’s possible surveys are discounting Republicans again, but he cautioned, “just because a poll has been wrong before you can’t assume it will be right or wrong or what have you in the future.” It’s also worth noting the same Suffolk University poll shows Gov. Mike DeWine with a substantial lead in the gubernatorial contest. Vance campaign trail After a weekend trading barbs with Jennifer Lawrence, J.D. Vance kicked off the week in Cuyahoga County to help open a Republican party campaign office. After a slow summer, he’s beginning to ramp up — and insisting to wavering supporters that everything is under control. This weekend, he gets a boost with the return of former President Donald Trump. It’s the second time this campaign season that Trump has visited to prop up his endorsed candidates. The former president’s backing was crucial for Vance’s primary win, and the campaign is likely hoping for a repeat. Trump isn’t the only national figure to stop by to try to help shore up Vance’s bid and perhaps burnish his own political reputation as well: Late last month Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned with Vance outside of Youngstown as well. Greetings from Ottawa, where J.D. Vance is addressing the Putnam County Republican Party for its Lincoln Day Dinner. Right now, he’s speaking in a VIP room to a smaller audience. pic.twitter.com/M7biOMZ8ka — Andrew Tobias (@AndrewJTobias) September 6, 2022 Ryan campaign trail Tim Ryan’s week started with a pair of events specifically geared to Black voters as well as a third about addressing the opioid crisis. African Americans constitute about 12% of Ohio’s population. But because they favor Democrats so heavily, maximizing turnout in the Black community is a perennial concern for Democratic campaigns. More to the point, it’s table stakes for a party billing itself as concerned with equity to present an agenda to help systematically disadvantaged communities. But in his ads, at least, Ryan focuses his appeal on workers generally and union members specifically. There’s little if any reference to race. Speaking after a Black voters’ roundtable in Dayton, though, he argued his campaign is showing up in minority communities and making a concerted pitch to their needs and interests. He pointed to infrastructure dollars to remove lead in water pipes and local government funding in the American Rescue Plan. “We’ve been doing this all along and really trying to not just hit the traditional — like, we’re going to talk about economics. We’re going to talk about small business. We’re going to talk about wealth creation, wealth building in the Black community,” he explained. Still there were murmurs of agreement when Dayton city councilman Chris Shaw cautioned Ryan on his campaign’s bid for independents and centrist Republicans. From the outset, Ryan has pitched himself as a Democrat a Republican could vote for. He has repeatedly distanced himself from his own party and President Biden in an attempt to build his own “exhausted majority” coalition. Shaw actually doesn’t fault the strategy. He praised Ryan for going on the attack in a recent ad, and argued it’s smart for him to hew to the center. The problem, he warned, is that sliver in the middle might not be enough come Election Day. “He’s telling the truth, and I respect that, I respect the hell out of that,” Shaw said. “But I just want (an) understanding that it’s about motivating folks to get out and vote — don’t forget that piece of it. “Traditionally a lot of folks from minority communities have been left out in the cold in that way. And I mean, that’s the fear, right?” This story was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal Read More…

Illinois Governor Signs Disaster Declaration, Calls Up National Guard To Assist With Migrants Bused From Texas https://digitalalabamanews.com/illinois-governor-signs-disaster-declaration-calls-up-national-guard-to-assist-with-migrants-bused-from-texas/ Gov. J.B. Pritzker is signing a disaster proclamation to secure resources for the asylum-seekers bused to Illinois from Texas and has deployed 75 National Guard members to assist with the logistics of receiving the migrants, he announced Wednesday. Speaking at a news conference, Pritzker again criticized his Texas counterpart, Gov. Greg Abbott, for failing to coordinate or communicate with Illinois and Chicago officials and derided his actions as a “stunt.” ”I’m not going to mince words here: The governor of Texas is forcing on New York and (Washington) D.C. and Chicago and potentially other places a needlessly last minute and complex process that is a heartless display of politics over people,” Pritzker said. “Why not give reasonable notice? Why send these folks only to blue cities or blue states? Why isn’t Abbott sending refugees to Mississippi or Oklahoma or Idaho? This is about politics for him.” Gov. J.B. Pritzker provides an update on the new migrant arrivals during a news conference in Chicago, Sept. 14, 2022. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Pritzker said the migrants are in the country legally as asylum-seekers and that many trekked for months to make it to the U.S. border to escape oppression and persecution. But upon arrival, Pritzker said, they were herded into buses and dumped in the “dead of night” at Chicago’s Union Station. Mayor Lori Lightfoot characterized the situation as a “manufactured crisis by ambush” and accused the Abbott administration of tricking the migrants into boarding the buses. “Frankly I believe that they have been misled and the only option for them that they’ve been presented to by the folks in Texas is a free bus ride, because they’re not providing any other option,” Lightfoot said. “This is again an orchestrated plan to create chaos in Democratic-controlled cities. Make no mistake about it.” Mayor Lori Lightfoot provides an update on the new migrant arrivals on Sept. 14, 2022. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune) Lightfoot said since Aug. 31, when the first busload of asylum seekers arrived, about 500 migrants have arrived in Chicago. She expects that number to grow. Pritzker said he will seek all available federal assistance, while Lightfoot suggested federal assistance should be diverted from Texas to other places who are welcoming the migrants. “Any dollar that goes to the state of Texas … every single one of those dollars needs to be re-committed to cities like Chicago, New York and Washington D.C.,” Lightfoot said. “We should not and taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay for this kind of callous, inhumane treatment on the part of someone who is racing to the bottom for a political stunt. Those monies need to be reprogrammed and come to us.” Meanwhile, Pritzker said that the Illinois Attorney General and Chicago city attorneys, among other agencies, are investigating whether there is “criminal liability” for Abbott’s actions. “We are still examining and interviewing the folks who have come to Illinois and listening to their stories about whether or not they willingly got on these buses, knew where they were going, were given the information,” Pritzker said, stressing the word “willingly.” He added that though it appeared the migrants signed waivers before boarding the buses, they may not have understood what they were doing and that the papers were not an “appropriate way” for Abbott’s administration to release itself from liability. Shortly after the news conference began, Abbott tweeted a segment of a recent Fox News interview he did in which he said he’s “just helping out our local communities who are located on the border.” Abbott vowed the waves of asylum seekers will continue arriving at cities like Chicago. “Sanctuary city mayors complain they are overwhelmed by a few dozen migrants arriving on buses from Texas,” Abbott wrote. “It’s a fraction of what Texas faces on a daily basis. We will continue bussing migrants until Biden secures the border.” Local officials said an 11th bus from Texas arrived Tuesday night. Prior to that, more than 100 people in two buses arrived from Texas to Chicago’s Union Station Friday. Some members of the group said they were from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Most got onto a couple of CTA buses that were waiting for their arrival, while a few others waited at Union Station for other accommodations. Alyssa Negrete of Rack Em Ent Car Club, hands out clothing donations to migrants outside of the Salvation Army, 825 N. Christiana Ave., after the migrants arrived in Chicago on Sept. 7, 2022. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Friday’s group was at least the fourth round of asylum-seeking migrants in the past two weeks to arrive from Texas, part of a practice by Abbott to bus migrants who arrive at the Texas-Mexico border to northern cities that have also included New York and Washington, D.C. Chicago Public Schools said in a statement Wednesday that it isn’t aware of an influx of new students resulting from the groups of migrants bused from Texas, but the district is ready for them if they enroll. “We are well equipped and committed to serving every new student, including those students who have arrived in recent weeks with their families from Central and South America. CPS has enrolled Afghan and Ukrainian refugees in the past year and has established systems in place to welcome any family,” CPS said in its statement. The first group of migrants sent from Texas arrived at Union Station on Aug. 31 in two buses carrying approximately 75 people seeking asylum. Another bus of migrants arrived in Chicago over the holiday weekend with more than 50 people looking for new beginnings. And more than 150 asylum-seekers arrived in three more buses earlier last week. Most all of the people who get off the buses from Texas carry the same clear plastic bags that have their paperwork and small personal items. Lightfoot’s office said Friday’s group was being taken on the CTA buses to a religious organization for next steps. The city has taken previous groups to shelter at Salvation Army Shield of Hope and even sent some to the suburbs for temporary housing, for which the city has gotten some backlash. The city of Countryside said in a Monday statement on its website that 40 Venezuelan migrants, mostly women and children, have arrived in the southwest suburb — but “neither the Mayor nor any City Official were notified beforehand,” and no city resources will be used to house them. Still, its mayor, Sean McDermott, got a shoutout from Pritzker Wednesday for having “welcomed families seeking refuge into his community.” Afternoon Briefing Daily Chicago Tribune editors’ top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon. Northwest suburban Elk Grove Village had two buses carrying 90 migrants arrive Saturday, and Mayor Craig Johnson said he was notified of their arrival Friday afternoon but had several questions about the logistics. He asked that the city and state work with suburban mayors to arrange for a more organized transition for the people arriving in the area. Last week, 64 migrants were placed in temporary hotel housing in southwest suburban Burr Ridge, and the village was not consulted or contacted ahead of time about their arrival, according to a statement from Mayor Gary Grasso. The governor’s office said the disaster proclamation enables coordination among state, city and county governments to provide assistance the migrants need, including transportation, emergency shelter, food, health screenings and medical treatment. Pritzker and Lightfoot vowed frequent and open communication with all local governments, though Pritzker did characterize some of the complaints as “grumbling.” “I know that there are some who are grumbling and upset that hotels or motels in their communities are opening their doors to strangers in need, arguing that they received short notice,” Pritzker said. “So let’s talk about the challenges presented to the city of Chicago and to the state. Remember, the governor of the state of Texas is choosing not to notify the city or the state when he is sending busloads of families.” Pritzker also raised the idea of suing the Texas government in federal court. “We’re absolutely looking into all of those options. But let’s be clear: We’re going to take care of the people who are on the buses when they arrive in Illinois,” Pritzker said. “What consequence comes to the governor of Texas or to the state of Texas is another question.” Read More…

Editorial Roundup: Alabama https://digitalalabamanews.com/editorial-roundup-alabama/ Dothan Eagle. September 12, 2022. Editorial: Humiliation of female lawyers The year is 2022, but according to an eye-opening report by al.com’s Ivanka Hrynkiw, it’s often 1942 for female lawyers working within Alabama justice system. In the report, women practicing law or serving as clerks or paralegals shared humiliating stories about dress codes and discrimination. One judge’s clerk, on loan to another judge as a fill-in, was stopped at the courtroom door because she was wearing pants, and that judge required women to wear skirts in his courtroom. A lawyer describes the Alabama Department of Corrections dress code, which requires that women wear “a full set of underwear” when visiting clients in prison. She was once detained because prison staff determined she wasn’t wearing a slip. Other women tell of going home to change clothes to adhere to what amounts to unreasonable edicts about dress. The women have a valid complaint – they know of no male counterpart who’s had to change a tie or socks, or prove to prison officials that he’s wearing briefs. It’s a double standard. It’s also insulting to police the wardrobes of professional women who know how to dress like 21st century professional women. In a field where roughly a third of the industry’s practitioners are female, such anachronistic practices to that humiliate women in the judicial system must be eradicated. The Alabama’s Administrative Office of Courts must do what’s necessary to end it. END Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Read More…

Amtrak Cancels All Long-Distance Trains As Freight Rail Strike Looms https://digitalalabamanews.com/amtrak-cancels-all-long-distance-trains-as-freight-rail-strike-looms/ (CNN) — Some travelers are scrambling as a possible freight railroad strike interrupts service along Amtrak’s long-distance routes. Negotiations are ongoing between unions and railroad companies. If they don’t come to an agreement, the first national rail strike in 30 years could start early Friday. While Amtrak is not involved in the negotiations, service has already been adjusted on track that could be affected by the dispute. All long-distance Amtrak trains are canceled starting on Thursday, September 15. Here’s what Amtrak passengers need to know about the situation: Is Amtrak striking? No. “The negotiations do not involve Amtrak or the Amtrak workforce,” Amtrak said in a statement earlier this week. So why is Amtrak canceling service? Amtrak is preemptively suspending some service because its track will be affected if freight rail workers go on strike. “Amtrak operates almost all of our 21,000 route miles outside the Northeast Corridor (NEC) on track owned, maintained, and dispatched by freight railroads,” said Marc Magliari, an Amtrak spokesman. The passenger rail carrier said it would only operate trains this week that it “can ensure will have enough time to reach their final destinations by 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 16.” Will Acela service be affected? No. Amtrak said most travel within the Northeast corridor (Boston, New York and Washington) would not be affected and Acela would operate a full schedule. Related branch lines to Albany, New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Springfield, Massachusetts, also would not be affected. Amtrak expects minimal changes to Northeast Regional services. Which routes are affected? Amtrak announced that all long-distance trains would be canceled starting Thursday. Some routes were suspended earlier in the week. The cancellations “could be followed by impacts to most state-supported routes,” Amtrak said on Wednesday. Here’s a breakdown on suspended services: Suspended services starting Tuesday, September 13: Suspended services starting Wednesday, September 14: Suspended services starting Thursday, September 15: Amtrak said it would try to contact passengers whose trains are canceled at least 24 hours in advance. Can I change my ticket? Yes. Amtrak says it will contact customers who are or may be impacted with offers to change their travel dates. Fare differences will be waived for departures through October 31. Can I get a refund? Yes. Impacted customers contacted by Amtrak may receive a full refund without cancellation fees. Will commuter rail service be affected? Yes, rail service not provided by Amtrak could be affected by a freight rail strike. Many passenger rail services operate on tracks owned by freight railroads, including Metra in Chicago and Maryland Transit Administration’s MARC trains. More on that here. Check directly with local rail providers about potential disruptions. CNN’s Omar Jimenez, Geneva Sands, Vanessa Yurkevich, Chris Isidore, Matt McFarland and Pete Muntean contributed to this report. Top image: Amtrak cars and locomotives sit in a yard on August 25 in Chicago. (AP Photo/David Boe) Read More…

Russia Launches Cruise Missiles At Ukraine After Zelenskyy Visits Retaken City https://digitalalabamanews.com/russia-launches-cruise-missiles-at-ukraine-after-zelenskyy-visits-retaken-city/ “Our soldiers are here. That’s a very important thing. It supports people,” Zelenskyy said. “I see how people meet them, in what a sensitive moment. It means that with our army, the life comes back.” Ukrainian troops have recently carried out a dramatic counteroffensive that has allowed them to recapture large swaths of territory around Kharkiv and inflict a stunning blow on Moscow’s military prestige. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has left more weapons in the hands of its forces as Russian troops most likely left behind dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other heavy weaponry as they fled Ukraine’s advance in the east of the country, a Ukrainian think tank said Wednesday. The Center for Defense Strategies said one single Russian unit that was around Izyum left behind 39 T-80 tanks and 35 infantry fighting vehicles, known by the acronym BMP. Another unit left behind 47 tanks and 27 armored vehicles. The center said Russian forces tried to destroy some of the abandoned vehicles through artillery strikes as they fell back. Typically, armed forces destroy equipment left behind so their opponent can’t use it. However, the chaos of the Russian withdrawal apparently saw them leave untouched ammunition and weapons behind. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a selfie with a police officer in Izyum on Wednesday. Leo Correa / AP In other areas, Russia has continued its attacks over the past day, causing the death toll to keep rising in the war that has now dragged on for more than seven months. Two people were killed and three injured after Russia attacked Mykolaiv with S-300 missiles overnight, said regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim. An educational institution, infrastructure objects and residential buildings were damaged. Settlements near the front line in Mykolaiv region remain under constant fire. The Nikopol area, which is across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was shelled three times during the night, but no injuries were immediately reported, said regional Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko. Nikopol city itself was shelled two times and left almost 3,000 families without electricity. Reznichenko said the electricity has been partially restored. In the Kharkiv region, where Ukrainian forces have retaken more than 300 cities and villages, the process of demining is underway; three people have been injured over the past 24 hours. In the neighboring Luhansk region, where some of the Russian troops retreated from the Kharkiv region, mobile internet has been shut down, according to the region’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, and intense shelling of Ukrainian forces continues. The fighting continued in the Donetsk region as well. Avdiivka, Bakhmut and Kramatorsk have come under a barrage of shelling, which killed five civilians and wounded 16 more. “Every night in Donbas is restless. The civilians should leave the region. It’s a matter of life and death,” Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said. Read More…

Mobile’s Malaga Inn Nominated For USA Today’s Best Haunted Hotel https://digitalalabamanews.com/mobiles-malaga-inn-nominated-for-usa-todays-best-haunted-hotel/ MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — One of Mobile’s most popular hotels has been nominated for the USA Today’s Top 10 Best Haunted Hotels. Malaga Inn could be one of the top 10 if the hotel gets enough votes. Malaga Inn was built in 1862 as twin townhouses by two brothers-in-law, according to the hotel’s website. The townhomes eventually were sold out of the family and changed owners many times before being purchased by the current family in the 1960s. The hotel is also home to underground tunnels, which the owner believes were used during the Civil War as a hiding place for soldiers According to USA Today’s website, Malaga Inn is the home of a ghostly woman who has been seen pacing the balcony of Room 7. Other guests have seen chandeliers swinging and lights turning themselves on and off. Of course, if you stay at the Malaga Inn, you are probably aware that people think we are haunted. While we haven’t seen any specters wandering our halls, some guests swear they have seen and heard creepy things. After a long day looking for ghosts, you might just find one in your room at the Malaga Inn! Malaga Inn website In 2020, Second Sight Paranormal TV and Ericka Boussarhane, a psychic medium, stayed the night in the hotel. The visit was turned into a short film called, “The Haunting of Malaga Inn.” The film can be purchased on Amazon’s website. Insider said Malaga Inn was the Most Haunted Hotel in Alabama in September 2021. The hotel is competing against other famous hotels, including The Stanley Hotel in Colorado, the Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Massachusetts, The Hollywood Roosevelt in California and the 1886 Crescent Hotel in Arkansas. To vote for Malaga Inn to be one of the top 10 hotels click here. Voting for the Most Haunted Hotel ends on Sunday, Sep. 18. Stay ahead of the biggest stories, breaking news and weather in Mobile, Pensacola and across the Gulf Coast and Alabama. Download the WKRG News 5 news app and be sure to turn on push alerts. Read More…

Auburn Offers First Look At Alternate Helmets For Penn State; Fans Have Spoken On Orange Jerseys https://digitalalabamanews.com/auburn-offers-first-look-at-alternate-helmets-for-penn-state-fans-have-spoken-on-orange-jerseys/ Auburn Football Published: Sep. 14, 2022, 12:29 p.m. Auburn will rock the orange facemasks Saturday when it hosts Penn State at Jordan-Hare Stadium. (Photo courtesy of Auburn athletics.) Auburn fans have spoken. They agree with Owen Pappoe and Derick Hall. They want their Tigers in throwback orange jerseys for Saturday’s nonconference showdown with No. 22 Penn State for the “All Auburn, All Orange” game at Jordan-Hare Stadium. According to an AL.com poll posted to Instagram, 72 percent of fans (or 283 of the 395 fans who took the poll) want to see the throwback orange jerseys over the classic blue. On Monday, Pappoe and Hall – the team captains – made it known they wanted to go old school with the jerseys that debuted for the first time in the modern era in 1978. “We’ve talked about it a lot, but obviously Auburn’s very traditional and, you know, we can’t compete with that, but that’s definitely something that I would like to see,” Hall said Monday. “You know, just a little bit of changeup.” Whether Pappoe, Hall and the fans get their wish remains to be seen, but it does appear the Tigers will add a little orange to their helmets on Saturday. Auburn’s going with orange facemasks Saturday in the spirit of the “Orange Out,” something Hall revealed Monday, too. The Tigers donned the orange facemasks for last season’s home win against Ole Miss, a game played the day before Halloween. It was the first time since the 1980s that Auburn wore the orange facemasks. The facemasks were also worn again in the Iron Bowl against Alabama last season. Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

Michael Cohen Urges Trump’s Lawyers To Flee Before They ‘become Entrenched In His Lies And Illegalities’ https://digitalalabamanews.com/michael-cohen-urges-trumps-lawyers-to-flee-before-they-become-entrenched-in-his-lies-and-illegalities/ Read More…

Anti-Immigrant Party Helps Defeat Sweden’s Government https://digitalalabamanews.com/anti-immigrant-party-helps-defeat-swedens-government/ GOTHENBURG, Sweden — A loose coalition of right-wing parties has narrowly defeated Sweden’s center-left government in a general election, a victory that promises to upend Swedish politics and the country’s reputation as a haven for progressive, pluralistic ideals. Victory for the right came after strong support for the Sweden Democrats, a once-fringe anti-immigrant party that will now be the second-largest party in the legislature and the strongest voice from the right. The SD, led by 43-year-old lawmaker Jimmie Akesson, and the Moderate, Christian Democrat and Liberal parties won 176 seats, according to the latest tally, giving them a three-seat lead over the Social Democrats of Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and their Left, Center and Environment allies. Andersson conceded Wednesday evening ahead of the final results. It could still take weeks to form a government. The closely watched election has already reshaped Sweden’s political discourse, pushing anti-immigrant and tough-on-crime rhetoric into the political mainstream and deepening fears here about the polarization — or “Americanization” — of Swedish politics. The European far right has welcomed the SD’s strong showing. “Everywhere in Europe, people aspire to take their destiny back into their own hands!” tweeted Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right firebrand, earlier this week. The result could also shape Sweden’s standing on the world stage as the country works with partners to respond to the war in Ukraine, seeks NATO membership and takes up the rotating presidency of the European Union in 2023. “When you are holding on to power with one seat, it’s a cause of instability,” said Eric Adamson, a Stockholm-based project manager at the Atlantic Council’s Northern Europe office. “This may make it harder for Sweden to take on a leadership role in northern Europe, in the E.U. or in NATO.” The SD gained support by taking a tougher stance against crime, particularly against the rising rates of gun violence in Sweden, and publishing a 30-point plan aimed at making Sweden’s immigration rules among the most restrictive in the E.U. They want to be able to reject asylum seekers based on religion, for instance, or based on gender or sexual identity. A decade ago, Sweden’s liberal immigration policies were not a major political issue. The influx of migrants to Europe in 2015 started to change this. At that time, Sweden took more than 150,000 asylum seekers, including many newcomers from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. In the years since, concerns about immigration and their integration have come to the fore. The Social Democrats maintain that they have reduced asylum claims by making it harder for migrants to get into the country and apply, stepped up the deportation of asylum seekers whose applications had been rejected and insisted that Sweden should receive no more asylum seekers than other E.U. countries. Party leaders also pledged to dilute the numbers of “non-Nordic” immigrants in areas where large numbers of immigrants live, promising an end to “Somalitowns,” “Chinatowns” and “Little Italies.” Even a few years ago, the Sweden Democrats’ ascent would have seemed far-fetched. Formed in 1988 by right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis, the Sweden Democrats did not manage enough votes to win seats in parliament until 2010. After that breakthrough, leaders began to exclude the most extreme members from the party. Other parties and the media have kept their distance from the SD, refusing to talk to it or give it a platform. But support for the party grew rapidly over the past dozen years, culminating in its election showing Sunday. Boycotted for so long by the mainstream media, the party has developed its own online news sites and is extremely effective on social media such as Facebook and YouTube. The Moderates, the largest of the center-right parties, once shunned the SD. But it eventually opted to establish ties, with the aim of upending the political status quo and unseating the Social Democrats. “If you want a government that is not based on the Social Democrats you need to cooperate with the SD,” said Anders Borg, a former finance minister for the Moderates. “I cannot see any other viable election strategy other that finding a way of cooperating with them.” “In Sweden,” he said, “we isolated the SD and yet they grew to 20 percent as a lot of ordinary voters drifted towards them. At the same time, the SD has moved away from a fringe position towards being a more ordinary political party.” Whether the SD is now an “ordinary party” is up for debate. Though the party has distanced itself from its neo-Nazi roots and has stepped away from some of its previous positions, its platform remains exclusionary. Members want to end immigration from outside Europe and return Muslims to their countries of origin. A month before the election, an SD spokesman tweeted a photo of a subway train in the party’s blue and yellow colors with the words: “Welcome aboard the repatriation express. Here’s a one-way ticket. Next stop, Kabul!” “They don’t include Islam in Swedishness,” said Andrej Kokkonen, a professor of politics at Gothenburg University who studies anti-immigrant parties. “You don’t get to be a Swede and a Muslim at the same time.” Sweden Democrat voters tend to live in small towns and rural areas, and most are men, according to Ann-Cathrine Jungar, a professor at Sodertorn University who studies populist radical right parties. They are less educated than the average voter, Jungar said, but many are small-scale entrepreneurs. The party has also attracted votes from the traditional working class and is increasing its support among the young. “These voters have lower trust in the media — they believe there is biased information on their core issue of immigration,” Jungar said. “The SD use the populist rhetoric that there is a ‘left-liberal establishment,’ an elite that doesn’t understand the people.” The party has cultivated links with Trump supporters and the alt-right in the United States, she said: “Previously it was the Moderates who had contacts with the Republicans, but now it is the SD who has taken over and the Moderates are connected with the Democrats.” “There is concern here that we are becoming more like America with polarization and intense rhetoric,” said Adamson, of the Atlantic Council. “Where every battle becomes an existential one.” Rauhala reported from Brussels Read More…

The Allman Family Revival Adds Members Of The Trucks Family And More To 2022 Tour https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-allman-family-revival-adds-members-of-the-trucks-family-and-more-to-2022-tour/ Devon Allman has announced several new artist additions to the 2022 Allman Family Revival including Vaylor Trucks (son of Butch Trucks), Melody Trucks (daughter of Butch Trucks), G. Love (G. Love & Special Sauce), Johnny Stachela (Allman Betts Band) and John Ginty (Allman Betts Band). Says Allman, “The Allman Family Revival Tour is gearing up for our biggest year yet. We are thrilled to welcome our additional artists including members of The Allman Betts Band, our brother and sister from the historic Trucks family. I am also honored to announce that Gibson will be returning as a sponsor. Gibson is the timeless guitar brand that fuels our art and has for decades. Our newest sponsorship partner is Flying Embers, an exciting, progressive all-natural kombucha company that we are stoked to have on board, helping with this year’s production.” 2022 ALLMAN FAMILY REVIVAL LINEUP THE DEVON ALLMAN PROJECT DUANE BETTS DONAVAN FRANKENREITER MAGGIE ROSE LARRY MCCRAY JIMMY HALL ALEX ORBISON JOHN GINTY – *NEW ADDITION* THE RIVER KITTENS ON SELECT DATES LUTHER AND CODY DICKINSON (NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS) GEORGE PORTER JR VAYLOR TRUCKS – *NEW ADDITION* MELODY RUCKS – *NEW ADDITION* JOHNNY STACHELA – *NEW ADDITION* G. LOVE IVAN NEVILLE SAMANTHA FISH MORE TBA SPECIAL GUESTS IN SELECT CITIES TO OPEN GEORGE PORTER JR & RUNNIN’ PARDNERS DUMPSTAPHUNK THE SAMANTHA FISH BAND More information on tickets can be found here. Five years ago, on December 8, 2017, Devon invited some of his closest musical compadres onto the hallowed stage of The Fillmore in San Francisco to perform a three-hour, multi-set monster of a concert for the sold-out crowd in tribute to Devon’s late father, Gregg. For Devon, the date was bittersweet; what would’ve been Gregg’s 70th birthday., and in a year when the award-winning musician lost both parents within a few months of each other. What Devon started in December 2017 as the simple idea of “music as medicine” has since turned into The Allman Family Revival – an epic coast to coast tour that brings a together a happy and healing cosmic experience that celebrates the life, spirit, and indelible musical legacy of Gregg Allman. This year, the 18-date Revival tour will kick off on November 26 in the historic home base of the Allman Brothers, Macon, GA, and will continue throughout the country, wrapping up on December 17 in San Francisco, CA. “My favorite part is just the joy of the audience. I can tell they are touched and getting every penny’s worth,” Allman says. “Knowing Dad is looking down saying, ‘Damn, son, all that hot jammin’ for me?!’ I know he’s tickled that we celebrate him. Because none of us has to do this. We all have busy careers. This is a ‘want to’ situation; absolutely, 100% about music and celebration and tribute.” ALLMAN FAMILY REVIVAL TOUR Nov 26 @ Macon City Auditorium | Macon, GA Nov 27 @ Ruth Eckerd Hall | Clearwater, FL Nov 28 @ Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall| Sarasota, FL Nov 29 @ Pompano Beach Amphitheater | Pompano Beach, FL Nov 30 @ Florida Theater | Jacksonville, FL Dec 2 @ Beacon Theatre | New York, NY Dec 3 @ Shubert Theatre | Boston, MA Dec 4 @ The Warner | Torrington, CT Dec 6 @ Ovens Auditorium | Charlotte, NC Dec 7 @ DPAC | Durham, NC Dec 8 @ Montgomery PAC | Montgomery, AL Dec 9 @ The Ryman Auditorium | Nashville, TN Dec 10 @ The Factory | St. Louis, MO Dec 12 @ The Paramount | Denver, CO Dec 14 @ Celebrity Theater | Phoenix, AZ Dec 15 @ Westgate Resort and Casino | Las Vegas, NV Dec 16 @ The Wiltern | Los Angeles, CA Dec 17 @ The Fillmore | San Francisco, CA Read More…

Mo’Bay Beignet Co. Is State’s Top Emerging Retailer, Business Group Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/mobay-beignet-co-is-states-top-emerging-retailer-business-group-says/ Alabama Life & Culture Published: Sep. 14, 2022, 1:43 p.m. Jaclyn Robinson, founder of Mo’Bay Beignet Co., needed a sign before she committed to her ‘flagship’ location on Dauphin Street in Mobile. (Lawrence Specker|AL.com)Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com The Alabama Retail Association has picked the fast-growing, Mobile-based restaurant chain Mo’Bay Beignet Co. as its top emerging retailer of the year. The association’s Gee Emerging Retailer of the Year Award goes “to an innovative and effective Alabama retailer who has been in business for at least two years, but less than five.” As detailed in a recent AL.com profile, founder Jaclyn Robinson opened her first store in downtown Mobile in February 2020, selling scratch-made beignets, flavored topping syrups and coffee. Mo’Bay now has stores in Hattiesburg, Orange Beach, Tuscaloosa and Auburn, with another under development in Saraland; two food trucks; and an outlet inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. Robinson also started a spinoff company, Bay Town Burger Co., which operates as a sister business at Mo’Bay’s west Mobile location and will do the same in Saraland. Its menu includes regular burgers as well as a flagship Beignet Burger. “Less than three years after opening the doors to her first brick and mortar cafe in downtown Mobile, there are now seven cafes – a mix of corporately owned and franchised locations – plus two food trucks,” said Danette Richards, director of small business development for the Mobile Chamber, which nominated the entrepreneur. According to an award announcement released Wednesday, the Retailers of the Year judges marveled at Mo’Bay Beignet’s “100% word of mouth and social media” marketing. The judges also noted that in less than three years, its corporate and franchise stores have come to employ 125 people. The award is named in memory of the late Morris “Mickey” Gee, a former Alabama Retail board member and University of Alabama at Birmingham professor. Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission. Read More…

What's Left As Jan. 6 Panel Sprints To Year-End Finish https://digitalalabamanews.com/whats-left-as-jan-6-panel-sprints-to-year-end-finish-4/  With only three months left in the year, the House Jan. 6 committee is eyeing a close to its work and a final report laying out its findings about the U.S. Capitol insurrection. But the investigation is not over. The committee has already revealed much of its work at eight hearings over the summer, showing in detail how former President Donald Trump ignored many of his closest advisers and amplified his false claims of election fraud after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. Witnesses interviewed by the panel — some of them Trump’s closest allies — recounted in videotaped testimony how the former president declined to act when hundreds of his supporters violently attacked the Capitol as Congress certified Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Lawmakers say there is more to come. The nine-member panel — seven Democrats and two Republicans — interviewed witnesses through all of August, and they are hoping to have at least one hearing by the end of the month. Members met Tuesday to discuss the panel’s next steps. Because the Jan. 6 panel is a temporary, or “select,” committee, it expires at the end of the current Congress. If Republicans take the majority in November’s elections, as they are favored to do, they are expected to dissolve the committee in January. So the panel is planning to issue a final report by the end of December. Here’s what’s left for the committee in 2022: More hearings The panel’s Democratic chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, said after the private members’ meeting Tuesday in the Capitol that the committee’s goal is to hold a hearing Sept. 28, but that members were still discussing whether it would happen at all. “We’ll we’re still in the process of talking,” Thompson said. “If it happens, it will be that date. We’re not sure at this point.” Members of the committee had promised more hearings in September as they wrapped up the series of summer hearings. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the Republican vice chairwoman, said the committee “has far more evidence to share with the American people and more to gather.” “Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break,” Cheney said at a July 21 hearing that was held in prime time and watched by 17.7 million people. “We have considerably more to do.” It’s unclear if the hearing would provide a general overview of what the panel has learned or if they would be focused on new information and evidence. The committee conducted several interviews at the end of July and into August with Trump’s Cabinet secretaries, some of whom had discussed invoking the constitutional process in the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office after the insurrection. New witnesses testify, panel seeks more information The panel has already interviewed more than 1,000 people, but lawmakers and staff are still pursuing new threads. The committee recently spoke to several of the Cabinet secretaries, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in July and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao in August. The committee also wants to get to the bottom of missing Secret Service texts from Jan. 5-6, 2021, which could shed further light on Trump’s actions during the insurrection, particularly after earlier testimony about his confrontation with security as he tried to join supporters at the Capitol. Thompson said Tuesday that the committee has recently obtained “thousands” of documents from the Secret Service. The committee has also pursued an interview with conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, who’s married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Lawmakers want to know more about her role in trying to help Trump overturn the election. She contacted lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin as part of that effort. How to obtain testimony from Trump and Pence Members of the committee are still debating how aggressively to pursue testimony from Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. Some have have questioned whether the committee needs to call Pence, who resisted Trump’s pressure to try and block Biden’s certification on Jan. 6. Many of his closest aides have already testified, including Greg Jacob, his top lawyer at the White House who was with him during the insurrection as they hid from rioters who were threatening the vice president’s life. Jacobs characterized much of Pence’s thought process during the time when Trump was pressuring him. The panel has been in discussions with Pence’s lawyers for months, without any discernible progress. Still, the committee could invite Pence for closed-door testimony or ask him to answer written questions. The calculation is different for the former president. Members have debated whether they should call Trump, who is the focus of their probe but also a witness who has fought against the investigation in court, denied much of the evidence and floated the idea of presidential pardons for Jan. 6 rioters. Trump is also facing scrutiny in several other investigations, including at the Justice Department and over the classified documents he took to his private club. Subpoenas to House Republicans Another bit of unfinished business is the committee’s subpoenas to five House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. In May the panel subpoenaed McCarthy, R-Calif., and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Mo Brooks of Alabama. The panel has investigated McCarthy’s conversations with Trump the day of the attack and meetings the four other lawmakers had with the White House beforehand as Trump and some of his allies worked to overturn his election defeat. The five Republicans, all of whom have repeatedly downplayed the investigation’s legitimacy, have simply ignored the request to testify. But the Jan. 6 committee seems unlikely to meet their defiance with contempt charges, as they have with other witnesses, in the weeks before the November elections. Not only would it be a politically risky move, but it is unclear what eventual recourse the panel would have against its own colleagues. Final report The committee must shut down within a month after issuing a final report, per its rules. But lawmakers could issue some smaller reports before then, perhaps even before the November elections. Thompson said earlier this summer that there may be an interim report in the fall. The release of the final report will likely come close to the end of the year so the panel can maximize its time. While much of the findings will already be known, the report is expected to thread the story together in a definitive way that lays out the committee’s conclusions for history. Legislative recommendations The committee is expected to weigh in on possible legislative changes to the Electoral Count Act, which governs how a presidential election is certified by Congress. A bipartisan group of senators released proposed changes over the summer that would clarify the way states submit electors and the vice president tallies the votes. Trump and his allies tried to find loopholes in that law ahead of Jan. 6 as the former president worked to overturn his defeat to Biden and unsuccessfully pressured Pence to go along. The Jan. 6 panel’s final report is expected to include a larger swath of legislative recommendations. Read More…

New York MAGA Republican Election Official Arrested By FBI On 12 Counts Of Voter Fraud https://digitalalabamanews.com/new-york-maga-republican-election-official-arrested-by-fbi-on-12-counts-of-voter-fraud/ Election workers sort vote-by-mail ballots for the presidential primary (JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images) This article originally appeared on AlterNet. MAGA Republicans all over the United States have been falsely accusing Democrats of committing widespread voter fraud and stealing elections, and many of them are, in the 2022 midterms, campaigning on the false and thoroughly debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump — including gubernatorial nominees such as Arizona’s Kari Lake and Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano. But in upstate New York, according to the New York Daily News, a Republican elections board commissioner, Jason T. Schofield, was arrested on Tuesday, September 13 “on charges of” allegedly “carrying out a brazen ballot scheme that allowed him to cast votes in voters’ names.” The New York Daily News’ Tim Balk reports, “Jason Schofield applied for absentee ballots for voters who did not want to vote, and, in some instances, personally pushed voters to sign absentee ballot envelopes, positioning himself or his associates to commit voter fraud in primary and general elections in 2021, according to court papers. The 12-count indictment charging Schofield said ballots were counted from at least four voters who were instructed to sign ballot envelopes but were not allowed to complete them.” The court papers, according to Balk, allege, “Schofield was able to vote — or have other people vote — in the RVs’ names.” Schofield is an elections board commissioner in upstate New York’s Rensselaer County, which is near the state capital of Albany and includes Troy, NY. Balk notes that Schofield “faces up to five years in prison on each of 12 counts of unlawful possession and use of a means of identification, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Albany.” According to Balk, “The Albany Times Union reported that Schofield was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday morning outside his home, and entered a not guilty plea at court in the afternoon. Schofield was released pending a trial scheduled before Judge Mae D’Agostino. He declined to comment as he left his arraignment hearing, according to the Times Union. The Times Union reported that he was subpoenaed earlier this year in connection with a sweeping ballot probe that has also led a Troy city councilwoman to plead guilty to a count of identity theft.” Trending Articles from Salon Read More…

Tuscaloosa News Obituaries In Tuscaloosa, AL | Tuscaloosa News https://digitalalabamanews.com/tuscaloosa-news-obituaries-in-tuscaloosa-al-tuscaloosa-news-3/ Fendley Lee Frazier, 85, passed away on Monday, September 12, 2022 at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. He was born on January 11, 1937 in Tuscaloosa County, AL to Vela and Ressie Henton Frazier. He grew up in Tuscaloosa and in 1954 he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps where he served for over two years before being honorably discharged. He married the former Jean Glover in 1958 and he was a counselor for many years before retiring from the Alabama Department of Corrections. He sought to help others in any way he could, and he enjoyed playing cards. He liked to travel, go camping, work in the yard and in his garden, and spend time his family especially his grandchildren. He was a member of River Bend Baptist Church. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. on Saturday, September 17, 2022 at Cleveland-Moffett Funeral Home in Amory. A graveside service will follow at 3 p.m. at the Memory Hill Gardens in Tuscaloosa, AL. In addition to his wife, Jean Frazier, he is survived by his two sons, Mark Frazier (Angela) of Aberdeen and Mike Frazier of Tuscaloosa; three grandchildren, Kyle Frazier (Halie), Kelly Cobb (Jason), Macy Hayes (Corey), Addie Cobb, and Chandler Cobb; 6 great grandchildren, Madison, Brody, Ellie Grace, Finley, Jaxon, and Carson; nephews, Dennis Thigpen (Debbie) and Steve Thigpen (Valerie); and brothers and sisters-in-law, Pam and Don Thompson and Mark and Beth Poe. He was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Lawrence Fraizer; sister, Lorene Thigpen; and niece, Connie Thigpen. Visitation will be on Saturday from 10 a.m. until service time. Condolences and memories may be shared with the family at clevelandmoffettfuneralhome.com. Posted online on September 14, 2022 Published in Tuscaloosa News Read More…

WH Defends Biden’s Taxpayer-Funded Air Force One Trip — To Vote In Delaware https://digitalalabamanews.com/wh-defends-bidens-taxpayer-funded-air-force-one-trip-to-vote-in-delaware/ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday was forced to defend President Biden’s Tuesday evening trip to Delaware on Air Force One — on the taxpayers’ dime — to vote in the state’s Democratic primary. Critics called it wasteful, noting Biden could have voted early when he was in the state last weekend. Jean-Pierre told reporters during a gaggle en route to the Detroit Auto Show that Biden wanted to show “the importance” of voting and to “say hello to poll workers” who are “under attack.” The president employed two motorcades and Air Force One, which costs about $177,000 per hour to operate, for his surprise trip to participate in non-competitive primary elections. He also stopped by his Wilmington, Del., home for about eight minutes before returning to DC. President Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at Andrews Air Force Base on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, after voting in the Delaware primary. AP Biden could have voted early when he was staying at his Wilmington house on Friday and Saturday — or he could have voted by mail. “As you know, the president has a very heavy schedule. He’s the president of the United States. It worked out best for him to vote yesterday, to vote on Tuesday,” Jean-Pierre told reporters. Jean-Pierre didn’t say what Biden was doing during apparent down time in Delaware over the weekend. Biden speaks to reporters after voting in the Delaware primary election at Tatnall School in Wilmington, Delaware, on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022. AP Biden arrived at his Wilmington home at 3:40 p.m. Friday — when early voting was available until 7 p.m. — and on Saturday emerged from his house only to attend church, instead of voting during the 7 a.m.-7 p.m. early voting window that day. Jean-Pierre insisted that Biden’s Tuesday night trip was necessary — despite the fact that no high-profile statewide contests were on the ballot. “He thought it was important to exercise his constitutional right to vote, as I just mentioned, and set an example by showing the importance of voting. He also had the opportunity to say hello to poll workers and thank them for their work and we know how under attack poll workers have been these past several years,” Jean-Pierre said, without offering any examples of poll workers facing attacks. Biden’s Air Force One plane, pictured in June. Biden is taking heat for traveling to Delaware to vote in person in a Democratic primary. Europa Press via Getty Images “Many presidents — it’s not, it’s not unusual to head home to vote in their local elections, and he thought it was important to do so yesterday,” she added. A reporter noted, however, that there was no advance notice to reporters that Biden would be voting, and so it got little publicity. The reporter asked, “Do you think that would have been better than to make it more of like a public event for him to sort of like tout it a little bit more?” “The president has been voting in Delaware for decades,” Jean-Pierre said. “And this is something that was important to do. He wasn’t going to miss that opportunity to vote yesterday and he did that. It’s not unusual for him. He’s done that for again for many decades. And so, you know, he had an opportunity to thank the poll workers. He had an opportunity — I think by the president going to vote, that sends a very strong message to the American public.” Biden didn’t answer ABC reporter Karen Travers’ question Tuesday night about why he didn’t choose to vote absentee — simply smiling and turning to board Air Force One. Republicans slammed Biden for making the trip to Delaware. “Biden flew Air Force One to Delaware to vote in person yesterday for a state auditor race,” tweeted Newsmax host Sean Spicer, a former White House press secretary to President Donald Trump. “He could have voted in person when he was there on Saturday but didn’t. He could have gotten an absentee ballot but didn’t. He chose to spend thousands of tax dollars instead this way.” Read More…

Cathie Wood's Contrarian Deflation Call Gets Endorsements From Elon Musk, Jeffrey Gundlach https://digitalalabamanews.com/cathie-woods-contrarian-deflation-call-gets-endorsements-from-elon-musk-jeffrey-gundlach/ Cathie Wood, chief executive officer and chief investment officer, Ark Invest, gestures as she speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida. Marco Bello | Getty Images Cathie Wood, Wall Street’s most vocal proponent of deflation, is getting a few high-profile supporters even as price pressures continued to surprise to the upside. Jeffrey Gundlach and Elon Musk recently joined Wood’s camp in calling for a decline for prices, expressing worries that the Federal Reserve might go too far. The so-called bond king warned of deflation risk on Tuesday, urging investors to buy long-term Treasurys. Meanwhile, the Tesla CEO called falling commodity prices “neither subtle nor secret” and tweeted to his 100 million followers that “a major Fed rate hike risks deflation.” “We are getting some loud voices now accompanying us on this deflation risk,” Wood said in an investor webcast Tuesday, namechecking Gundlach and Musk in her comments. Wood has been warning about deflation since last year on the belief that disruptive innovation will push down the price of obsolete goods and artificial intelligence will help reduce production cost. She is now doubling down on her call as a number of leading indicators she watches are pointing to deflationary forces instead of inflationary. Ark Invest’s CEO noted that gold, traditionally an inflation hedge, hit its peak more than two years ago. Other commodities including lumber, copper, iron ore and oil have all dropped double digits from their high. She stressed that inflation is less dire than it was in the ’70s as it’s triggered by temporary supply-chain disruptions during the pandemic. Markets are betting the central bank raises benchmark rates by at least 0.75 percentage point next week, which would take the fed funds rate to its highest level since early 2007. The Fed has raised interest rates four times this year for a total of 2.25 percentage points. Tesla’s Musk responded to a Twitter thread with Wood Wednesday that the central bank should “drop 0.25%.” Gundlach said the Fed should hike by only 25 basis points as it might oversteer the economy with a jumbo rate increase. He added that the central bank hasn’t paused enough to see what impact the previous hikes have already had. “In spite of the fact that the narrative today is exactly the opposite, the deflation risk is much higher today than it’s been for the past two years,” Gundlach said Tuesday at the Future Proof FestivaI. “I’m not talking about next month. I’m talking about sometime later next year, certainly in 2023.” Read More…

Ukraine Live Briefing: Zelensky Visits Reclaimed Izyum; E.U. Moves Ahead With Emergency Measures On Energy https://digitalalabamanews.com/ukraine-live-briefing-zelensky-visits-reclaimed-izyum-e-u-moves-ahead-with-emergency-measures-on-energy/ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit Wednesday to Izyum, a strategic town in the northeastern Kharkiv region, where he thanked troops for liberating the area from Russian forces and vowed that the country’s blue-and-yellow flag would fly again “in every Ukrainian city and village.” Ukrainian troops retook much of the region as part of a stunning counteroffensive that has routed Russian forces and revealed the potential limits of Russia’s military for the foreseeable future, analysts said. Ukraine has made “significant progress” in the war, according to President Biden, but he cautioned: “I think it’s going to be a long haul.” Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe. Return to menu The European Union will push ahead with emergency measures to tackle the energy crisis, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday, adding that she plans to visit Kyiv next week. She accused Russia of “actively manipulating” the bloc’s energy market but vowed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “will fail, and Europe will prevail.” The proposed measures include a windfall tax on some energy companies and binding targets to reduce consumption. Zelensky said Ukraine had liberated around 8,000 square kilometers (over 3,000 square miles) of land in the northeastern part of the country — an area nearly the size of Puerto Rico. Moscow’s rapid loss of ground could indicate that the Russian military may be spent as an offensive force, military analysts said, limiting Putin to defending the Ukrainian territory he already holds. Ukraine’s creditors agreed to defer debt service for the war-torn country, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement Wednesday, to allow the Ukrainian government “to direct additional resources toward its domestic needs and the welfare of the Ukrainian people.” The United States was among a group of creditor countries that will suspend Ukraine’s debt service repayment obligations through the end of 2023. Another Russian businessman has died under strange circumstances. The Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic announced the “tragic death” of Ivan Pechorin, the company’s managing director for the aviation industry, in a statement Monday. Pechorin reportedly drowned after falling off a boat on Saturday during “a pleasure boat trip” with friends, Russia’s Pravda news outlet reported. His body later washed ashore on Russky Island in the Sea of Japan. Pechorin is at least the ninth high-profile Russian businessman to die unexpectedly since January, reportedly in accidents or by suicide. Many of the businessmen had links to the energy industry. Return to menu Videos and photos posted on social media have provided a glimpse into what Russian troops left behind during their hasty retreat from the Kharkiv region. Russia likely deployed Iranian drones in Ukraine for the first time, the U.K. Defense Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry cited a report from Ukraine’s military that said its forces shot down an Iranian-made Shahed-136, a kamikaze-style drone with a purported range of about 1,500 miles. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the weapon remnants featured in photos shared by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry appear to match published images of wingtips from intact Shahed-136 drones. U.S. officials said Russian cargo planes began picking up shipments of Iranian-made combat drones for use in Ukraine last month. The Pentagon declined to say whether the United States helped Ukraine plan the Kharkiv counteroffensive, although press secretary Patrick Ryder emphasized ongoing military cooperation between Washington and Kyiv. “We do engage with the Ukrainians at a variety of levels on the military side,” he said at a briefing Tuesday. “We do provide time-sensitive information to enable them to conduct their operations and defend their homeland.” Some 5,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in the United Kingdom as part of a program initiated by the U.K. government called Operation Interflex, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday. Instructors for the program hail from Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Ukraine and Britain. Return to menu Pope Francis called for “dialogue and patient negotiations” to end the war during a religious conference in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. He has criticized Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who has been a vocal supporter of Russia’s war, warning him not to be “Putin’s altar boy.” The United States issued visas for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and some members of his delegation to travel to New York for the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 20, Russia’s official Tass news agency reported. Russia’s Foreign Ministry previously accused the U.S. government of delaying the visa process. Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will discuss Ukraine and Taiwan when they meet this week in Uzbekistan, an aide to Putin said Tuesday, according to Tass. Return to menu Ukrainian offensive thwarted Russia’s annexation plans in Kharkiv: As Ukrainian forces secretly prepared a counteroffensive to expel occupying Russian soldiers from the Kharkiv region, Moscow was so sure of its control of the area that it began imposing Russian curriculums in some schools, Siobhán O’Grady, Isabelle Khurshudyan and Anastacia Galouchka report from northeastern Ukraine. With that land and those schools back under the authority of the Ukrainian military after lightning-fast advances this month, Ukraine said it had arrested Russian teachers left behind by retreating Russian soldiers. They face up to 12 years in prison on charges of violating laws and customs of war, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. Read More…

Judge Unseals Additional Portions Of Mar-A-Lago Affidavit https://digitalalabamanews.com/judge-unseals-additional-portions-of-mar-a-lago-affidavit-2/ Eric Tucker  |  Associated Press Washington – A federal judge Tuesday unsealed additional portions of an FBI affidavit laying out the basis for a search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, showing that agents earlier obtained a hard drive after issuing a subpoena for surveillance footage recorded inside Mar-a-Lago. A heavily redacted version of the affidavit was made public last month, but the Justice Department requested permission to show more of it after lawyers for Trump revealed the existence of a June grand jury subpoena that sought video footage from cameras in the vicinity of the Mar-a-Lago storage room. “Because those aspects of the grand jury’s investigation have now been publicly revealed, there is no longer any reason to keep them sealed (i.e. redacted) in the filings in this matter,” department lawyers wrote. The newly visible portions of the FBI agent’s affidavit show that the FBI on June 24 subpoenaed for the footage after a visit weeks earlier to Mar-a-Lago in which agents observed 50 to 55 boxes of records in the storage room at the property. The Trump Organization provided a hard drive on July 6 in response to the subpoena, the affidavit says. The footage could be an important piece of the investigation, including as agents evaluate whether anyone has sought to obstruct the probe. The Justice Department has said in a separate filing that it has “developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the Storage Room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government’s investigation.” The Justice Department has been investigating the holding of top-secret information and other classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. FBI agents during their Aug. 8 search of the home and club said they recovered more than 11,000 documents and 1,800 other items, including roughly 100 with classification markings. Separately Tuesday, the Justice Department again urged U.S. District Aileen Cannon to lift her hold on core aspects of the investigation. Cannon last week granted the Trump team’s request for an independent arbiter to review the seized documents and weed out from the investigation any records that may be covered by claims of executive or attorney-client privilege. We’re offering a great rate on digital subscriptions. Click here. She also ordered the department to halt its review of the records pending any further court order or the completion of a review by the yet-to-be-named special master. The department urged Cannon last week to put her order on hold and told the judge Tuesday that its investigation would be harmed by a continued delay of its ability to scrutinize the classified documents. “The government and the public unquestionably have an interest in the timely enforcement of criminal laws, particularly those involving the protection of highly sensitive information, and especially where, as here, there may have been efforts to obstruct its investigation,” the lawyers wrote. The Trump team on Monday urged the judge to leave her order in place. His lawyers raised questions about the documents’ current classification status and noted that a president has absolute authority to declassify information, though they pointedly did not say that Trump had actually declassified anything. Read More…

FBI Seizes Mike Lindell’s Phone In Probe Of Colo. Voting Machine Breach https://digitalalabamanews.com/fbi-seizes-mike-lindells-phone-in-probe-of-colo-voting-machine-breach/ FBI agents seized a cellphone belonging to Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and prominent election denier, as part of a federal investigation into an alleged breach of voting machines in Colorado, according to Lindell. The agents served Lindell with a search warrant and grand jury subpoena Tuesday afternoon in the drive-through area of a Hardee’s restaurant in Mankato, Minn., he said on his online TV show. Lindell said the agents questioned him about Tina Peters, the Mesa County, Colo., clerk who was indicted in March on charges that she helped an outsider copy sensitive data from the county’s elections systems in May 2021. The FBI acknowledged that a warrant was served but declined to elaborate. “Without commenting on this specific matter, I can confirm that the FBI was at that location executing a search warrant authorized by a federal judge,” a spokesperson for the bureau’s Denver field office said in an email. Lindell said the FBI agents also asked him about an image copied from a Mesa County voting machine that was published on his website, Frank Speech. In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Lindell told The Washington Post that he was not involved in the copying of Mesa County’s election management system and did not meet Peters until she attended a “cyber symposium” he held in South Dakota in August 2021. “I have no idea what went on then,” Lindell said. “I have nothing to do with it.” The FBI’s action against Lindell, who has used his multimillion-dollar pillow fortune to finance high-profile films, conferences and other media promoting disinformation about elections, points to a widening of the federal investigation into the alleged breach in Mesa County. The probe is one of multiple investigations underway into alleged security breaches of local elections offices in states also including Michigan and Georgia. Efforts to access sensitive voting equipment — in some cases with the help of like-minded local officials — were aimed at finding evidence that the machines were used to rig the 2020 election. Access to such equipment is intended to be tightly controlled. Other Trump allies have recently received subpoenas from federal investigators who are conducting investigations into events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and efforts to overturn the election. Lindell told The Post he has not received any subpoena from a grand jury investigating Jan. 6. A document that Lindell displayed on his show, which he said was a copy of the search warrant, stated that the FBI was seeking information relating to tampering with Dominion Voting Systems equipment, the type used in Mesa and many other counties nationwide. Dominion has come under attack from former president Donald Trump and others promoting false conspiracy theories about election fraud. The company is suing Lindell, Fox News and prominent election deniers for defamation. The document said authorities were seeking evidence of possible violations by Lindell, Peters and several others of federal laws against identity theft and intentional damage to a protected computer. Lindell also displayed a grand jury subpoena, dated Sept. 7, which he said he the FBI agents gave him. The subpoena called for testimony before a federal grand jury in Grand Junction, Colo., on Nov. 3, but it was not clear from the document whether Lindell was required to testify or to merely provide his phone. Lindell also showed The Post a copy of the subpoena. Peters and two other Mesa officials were previously indicted by a state grand jury on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges, including conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation. Prosecutors accuse them of participating in a scheme to allow Conan Hayes, a former pro-surfer who reinvented himself as a data expert, to gain access to Mesa County election systems and copy sensitive files in May 2021. Peters has pleaded not guilty while her former deputy, Belinda Knisley, agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and testify “at any trials in any venue” involving Peters or others involved in the alleged Mesa County breach, according to the plea agreement. Speaking on his show, Lindell said he had advised the FBI agents to check his website for the voting machine image. “They wanted to know about the image. I said, ‘You guys can see the image right here on Frank Speech — we’ve got the whole evidence right up here for you,’ ” Lindell said. In the interview on Wednesday morning, Lindell claimed he was being targeted because of his efforts to get rid of electronic voting machines. “Do you think I’m going to quit now?” he said, scoffing. He said he would welcome the chance to speak with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, but claimed “they won’t have me because I’d bring the evidence … that the election was stolen.” Dozens of judges rejected post-election challenges by Trump and his allies, while multiple local, state and federal officials said that claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election were baseless. Lindell sent his private plane last year to pick up Peters in Colorado and take her to his symposium, according to an email Peters wrote. Lindell previously told The Post that he had paid for Peters’s lodging, security and lawyers after her appearance at the event triggered an investigation by state and federal officials. Hayes, who has not been charged, was among the five people named on the federal search warrant served on Lindell. A phone number listed for Hayes in law enforcement documents is no longer working. He did not respond to several requests for comment from The Post in recent months about his alleged involvement in the Mesa scheme and alleged breaches of voting machines in other states. The document displayed by Lindell also named Douglas Frank, a longtime math and science teacher in Ohio who claims to have discovered secret algorithms used to rig the 2020 election. Frank met with Peters at her office in April 2021 and “showed her how her election was hacked,” The Post has previously reported. He told her that an upcoming Dominion software update could erase data needed to show that the election was stolen and relayed to others her request for technical help copying that data. “I did nothing illegal,” Frank told The Post via text message Wednesday morning. He said the FBI has not served him with a search warrant. On his show, Lindell also displayed a grand jury subpoena dated Sept. 7, which he said the FBI agents gave him. The subpoena sought “documents/objects” for a federal grand jury hearing in Grand Junction, Colo., on Nov. 3. Lindell showed The Post a copy of the subpoena and said his understanding was that it did not require him to testify. “As a subpoena recipient, you are not under an obligation of secrecy,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Teitelbaum wrote. “However, we request that you not disclose the existence of this subpoena for an indefinite period of time.” Bryan Pietsch and Devlin Barrett contributed to this report. Read More…