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Jalen Hurts Conducts ‘Quarterback 101’ For Cowboys https://digitalalabamanews.com/jalen-hurts-conducts-quarterback-101-for-cowboys/ The Philadelphia Eagles used the formula that had allowed them to win their first five games of the 2022 NFL season in Game No. 6 against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night – the defense throttled the opposing offense in the first half while quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ offense exploded in the second quarter. Philadelphia scored 20 points in the second quarter on Sunday night to give the Eagles 112 points in the period in 2022 – the most points that a team has scored in any quarter six games into a season in NFL history and more points than 11 teams have scored this season. MORE NFL: · STATE ROUNDUP: TYREEK HILL RINGING UP BIG STATS · ALABAMA ROUNDUP: QUINNEN WILLIAMS PLAYING ‘AT DIFFERENT LEVEL’ · AUBURN ROUNDUP: BRADEN SMITH DROPS ANCHOR AGAIN But Dallas didn’t stick to the Philadelphia’s script and, 21 seconds into the fourth quarter, trailed by three points. That’s when the Eagles went on a 13-play, 75-yard series that took 7:37 off the clock and ended on Hurts’ 7-yard touchdown pass to former Alabama teammate DeVonta Smith to set the final score at 26-17. “Who’s toughest the longest?” Hurts said after the game. “Who can control what they can the longest? Who can stay the course? Who can truly stay the course? I think this football team, today we played together. Circumstances in the game changed. We had momentum change in the game. We had a lot of different things going on in the game, but we didn’t waver from what we wanted to accomplish. We trusted in each other. “You get in a situation like that, you kind of started off really hot, OK, ballgame’s 20-17. Don’t flinch. Take your head strong and keep going. I think that was a great display of controlling what we could and playing together and trusting each other on that drive. That was a big-time drive for this win today.” On the fourth-quarter TD drive, Philadelphia used four ball-carriers to gain 45 yards on 10 rushing attempts, including three by Hurts that gained 10 yards, and the Eagles QB completed his three passes for 30 yards. Philadelphia converted three third-down snaps on the series, including with a 5-yard run by Hurts on third-and-4 and a 2-yard run by Hurts on third-and-1. “Big-time leadership,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said during his postgame press conference. “This guy’s not fazed by things. He’s got a great demeanor that you see in great quarterbacks. There’re so many big games in the NFL. This was a huge game, right? Sunday Night Football, division rival, both at the top of the division, and he’s unfazed by things. That’s what I love about him, is that he just goes and he plays the next play. “And he made a big play on third-and-4, I think, when we didn’t have anybody open and made a play with his legs. He controlled the offense. He used the clock. I’ve said this before: He was in complete control, communicating what our message was to the offensive line, or the running backs in that scenario. “It was Quarterback 101 right there for Jalen.” Hurts completed 15-of-25 passes for 155 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and ran nine times for 27 yards at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night. His first touchdown pass went to wide receiver AJ Brown, who finished the 15-yard scoring play with a sprint to the end zone as Philadelphia took a 14-0 lead with 10:40 left in the first half. While the Eagles entered Sunday night’s game as the NFL’s only unbeaten team, Dallas had won its past four games to boost its record to 4-1, adding a showdown quality to the first of the teams’ two meetings as NFC East rivals this season. In college, Hurts spent three seasons at Alabama and one season at Oklahoma, so he’s well-versed on rivalries. “Every rivalry individually has something to it that makes it uniquely special,” Hurts said. “Alabama-Auburn, Alabama versus everybody, really. You have the Oklahoma-Texas game, a pretty big game, and the Okie State-Oklahoma game. “And here, you see the passion surrounding this game. It’s rivalry football. That’s how it is at every level, so I’m just happy we got it done today.” Hurts faced Dallas once last season, his first full year as the Eagles’ No. 1 QB. In the third game of the 2021 campaign, Hurts passed for 326 yards and two touchdowns, but he also threw two interceptions in a 41-21 loss. “I try to treat every game individually,” Hurts said. “But you’d be naïve to think I hadn’t remembered that. I try to find value in all my experiences, and that was a valuable experience for me. … “I think this team was hungry for it. Eager to come out here and play in a big-time game.” Philadelphia has a 6-0 record for the first time since the 2004 season, which ended in a 24-21 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX. The Eagles won’t go for Win No. 7 until Oct. 30. Philadelphia has an open date for Week 7 of the 2022 NFL season. The Eagles will return to the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers at noon CDT Oct. 30 in Philadelphia. “I think we have a long way to go as a football team in terms of our growth, our development, everything,” Hurts said. “But I think the beautiful part about this football team is regardless of the circumstance, regardless of how it looks, we stick together, and we’ve shown that throughout this first six-week stint. We just want to continue to grow together. It’s not going to be easy. It’s a climb, and the higher you get in that climb, it gets more treacherous.” FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Endangered House Democrat Puts Trust In Sparty To Save House Seat https://digitalalabamanews.com/endangered-house-democrat-puts-trust-in-sparty-to-save-house-seat/ Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty EAST LANSING, Michigan— As 50,000 students and their families milled about Michigan State University’s sprawling campus, with fall leaves crunching under their feet over homecoming weekend, Democratic Rep. Elisa Slotkin was pounding the pavement and calling for reinforcements. Her House seat was already one of the most competitive in the country—rated a pure toss-up by the Cook Political Report—before 2020 redistricting took away Slotkin’s turf in the Detroit suburbs, where white voters with college degrees helped her win a pair of terms in a district that former President Donald Trump won twice. Enter the Michigan State Spartans, whom Slotkin called “fundamental” not just to her re-election chances, but the fate of the Democrats’ House majority. In such a split district, the hard-partying Big 10 school known for its exceedingly jacked mascot, underdog athletic prowess, and research heft could decide whether House Republicans will be able to wield their majority to wreak havoc on the final two years of the Biden administration. No pressure, Sparty. Slotkin told The Daily Beast that the abortion referendum on the Michigan ballot this year, Proposition 3, has reshuffled the board in a campaign that was shaping up to center around inflation. “I can count on one hand the number of times in 2018 or 2020 when I was asked about abortion,” Slotkin told The Daily Beast in the first of two interviews. “Now it’s one of the top two issues I’m asked about no matter where I go, no matter who I’m talking to: Democrat, independent, or Republican.” College students are generally a notoriously fickle group of voters and historically a non-factor in East Lansing elections. That’s mostly due to a mix of students being registered to vote back home and a lapsed Republican-backed state law banning college students from voting absentee in their first election, which fell apart after a legal challenge from college Democrats led to a settlement with Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson in 2019 making it easier for students to vote. Even if just a few hundred more pupils within that 50,000 student population turn up and vote when they otherwise wouldn’t have, that could push Slotkin over the top in what could turn out to be the most expensive House race in the 2022 midterms, with Slotkin winning her last race by less than 3,000 votes. There’s been minimal public polling in the race. From ‘Too Extreme’ to ‘Grim Death,’ Michigan Guv Debate Gets Dark Fast Barrett, an Iraq War veteran whose campaign did not return a request for comment, has been attacking Slotkin on the usual GOP talking points of crime and inflation, as well as running ads hitting Slotkin for moving into a new home in the redrawn district. “My opponent has been harping on my residence and some of his allies published pictures of my home in Lansing, taken from a private parking lot with my address clearly marked,” Slotkin said, noting that she has taken “a bunch” of security measures around her home and in varying her movements, borrowing from her CIA training. “And that has not made me feel more safe, I will say that.” Slotkin is literally banking on the Spartan students to come through for her, with her campaign borrowing a page from the Stacey Abrams playbook in Georgia by paying door knockers $18 per hour and student managers $25 per hour. “So we have an extremely aggressive strategy targeting Michigan State University to educate voters, to register voters, and then get voters to turn out on campus,” Slotkin told The Daily Beast. “And a lot of those voters may not know the details. What we’re finding is more that they know that something’s on the ballot, but they don’t know exactly what it is, and they’ve heard that it’s extreme and confusing.” Adrianna, a junior elementary school education major at MSU who asked for her last name to remain private, is the exact kind of student the congresswoman needs. “I didn’t know anything about these politicians,” she said after Slotkin’s Sunday rally outside of Shaw Hall. This was Adrianna’s first time attending a political rally of any kind. She said she had heard about the abortion ballot referendum—picking up bits and pieces through YouTube ads—but was “shocked” at how informative the rally was in terms of what’s at stake in November’s election, both at the federal and state level. “Look, I don’t think you could possibly miss, if you’re a TV watcher—it would be hard to miss that we have a ballot initiative related to abortion,” Slotkin said. “But if you’re talking to a younger woman, what we do see is there’s definitely very different media that the younger women in particular pay attention to.” Michigan State’s turnout skyrocketed from the 2016 election to 2020, going from a 24.4 percent turnout rate to 76 percent. However, the split of which of those students vote absentee back home compared to on campus as residents of East Lansing is the key to Slotkin’s strategy. Older voters, such as Lee Griffin, a 78-year-old retired history teacher from Haslett, a town of about 19,000 in Slotkin’s district, are historically far more likely to vote in midterms than voters under 24, even more so than in presidential election years. Griffin recalled spending the whole month of January each year with generations of her students on the Constitution and the experiment of American democracy. “Most of my life, I think I did take it for granted,” Griffin told The Daily Beast. “But lately, I’m not taking it for granted.” Abortion’s on the Michigan Ballot—and Anything Could Happen As student canvassers dispersed across campus following the rally, Slotkin recalled an interaction she had with a non-voter earlier in the morning in Mason, Michigan, a town of about 8,000 some 15 minutes south of campus. Slotkin knocked on the woman’s door, where she learned her husband is a Republican, and her daughter is an Air Force veteran and a Democrat. But the woman, in her words, doesn’t “fuck with politics.” “She goes, I don’t vote,” Slotkin told The Daily Beast in a followup interview. “And I said, ‘Why? You know, tell me.’ And she’s like, ‘Sorry for the foul language, but,’ she says, ‘I don’t fuck with politics.’” The congresswoman and former CIA analyst riffed on the very un-Michigan use of profanity to make a counterpoint in the doorway. “And I said, ‘OK, you may not wanna fuck with politics, but it may fuck with you,’” Slotkin said with deadpan delivery. “You never know when it’s coming for things that affect your life.” Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast’s biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast’s unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Read More…

Kanye Says 'Jewish Zionists' Control The Media, Jews Own The Black Voice https://digitalalabamanews.com/kanye-says-jewish-zionists-control-the-media-jews-own-the-black-voice/ Rapper Kanye West once again made antisemitic statements on Sunday – this time blaming “Jewish Zionists” for news stories about his ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her then-boyfriend Pete Davidson having sex in front of a fireplace in his latest antisemitic rant. “It’s Jewish Zionists that’s about that life. That’s telling this Christian woman that has four black children to put that out as a message in the media,” he said. Kanye doubling down and blaming Jewish Zionists for it being public that Kim had sex by a fireplace with Pete.“It’s Jewish Zionists that’s about that life. That’s telling this Christian women that has four black children to put that out as a message.”pic.twitter.com/5m1F5wVpsO — Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) October 16, 2022 West, who also goes by “Ye,” made these statements on the “Drink Champs” podcast, where he also echoes a conspiracy theory that Jewish people control all forms of media and entertainment. Drink Champs is a popular hip-hop podcast, hosting some of the biggest names in the industry, including Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and more. “It’s Jewish Zionists that’s about that life. That’s telling this Christian woman that has four black children to put that out as a message in the media.” Kanye West The rapper then mentions Dov Charney, the founder of the Los Angeles apparel manufacturing company and American Apparel, who is also Jewish. According to West, he refused to release the rapper’s controversial “White Lives Matter” shirt shortly after West published his “Death con 3 on Jewish people” tweet. “It’s cause he’s Jewish, and this is my exact point that I’m making,” West said following Charney’s decision. Echoing the antisemitic conspiracy theory “Jewish people have owned the Black voice,” West said. “Whether it’s through us wearing the Ralph Lauren shirt, or it’s all of us being signed to a record label, or having a Jewish manager, or being signed to a Jewish basketball team, or doing a movie on a Jewish platform like Disney.” In the podcast can be watched below, Kanye makes these remarks at the 4:30 mark. West said that Jewish people “came into money through the lawyers.” He then makes claims that Catholics refused to divorce people, “so the Jewish lawyers came in and were willing to divorce people. That’s how they came into the money.” The rapper goes on to say that Jewish people in the entertainment industry “will take one of us that could really feed a whole village, take us and milk us till we die.” West then claims that Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner “is an example of how the Jewish people have their hand on every single business that controls the world.” Denies request to visit Holocaust museum The rapper seemed to deny a request when he was asked to visit the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, to which West said on the podcast: “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood, that’s our Holocaust Museum,” in what seems to be a comparison between abortions and the Nazi genocide of Jews. West recently claimed that Planned Parenthood was created with the help of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in order to “control” the Jewish population. These claims were taken from unaired clips from his recent Fox News interview that was obtained by Vice. “I want you to visit Planned Parenthood, that’s our Holocaust Museum.” Kanye West “Jewish media” “You get used to paparazzi taking a picture of you, and you don’t get money off it. You just get used to being screwed by the Jewish media. “The Jewish media blocked me out. This shit lit right?” Kanye continued. He goes on to say that he’s getting canceled by “the left, the Jewish media and the Chinese.” On all of these claims that he makes, Kanye West says that he cannot be antisemitic because of another argument he makes that “Black people are actually Jewish.” Even Trump says Kanye needs help Before West’s interview on the Drink Champs podcast, former president Donald Trump said that the rapper “is acting too crazy” and “needs some professional help,” according to a report by Rolling Stone citing two sources with knowledge of the situation. Trump had said in the past that the rapper was a friend of his for a long time. This came shortly after the former president said on his social media app Truth Social that US Jews “have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel.” Trump also said that “no president has done more for Israel than I have” and claimed that American Jews are ungrateful for the Trump administration’s relationship with the Jewish state – stating that “evangelicals are far more appreciative of this.” Trump also claims he could be the Prime Minister of Israel because Israelis are allegedly more appreciative of his work. Read More…

The Sleeper State Republicans Are Targeting To Win The Senate https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-sleeper-state-republicans-are-targeting-to-win-the-senate/ POLITICO illustration/Photos by AP, iStock DENVER — For months, top party operatives have mused that Joe O’Dea is the best Republican candidate running for Senate this year. While other GOP nominees are countering reports that they have encouraged abortions, killed puppies or waffled on the 2020 election being legitimate, O’Dea has been talking non-stop about soaring inflation. The moderate Colorado Republican Senate nominee has never led a public poll in the race, and polling averages show O’Dea continues to trail his opponent, Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, by 8 percentage points. But Bennet’s approval ratings are in line with President Joe Biden’s, in the low 40s, and both parties see the potential for a surprise. So, in the final weeks of the 2022 midterm campaign, with the GOP’s pickup prospects fading in states like Arizona and Georgia, national Republicans are looking for backup opportunities and holding out hope that O’Dea can eke out an upset in a state that’s on the bluer side of purple. With the Senate locked in at 50-50, Republicans need to gain just one seat to tip the chamber’s balance in their favor. But neither party currently has the upper hand as Election Day nears, and key races in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia remain too close to call. Now, both sides are putting irons in the fire in Colorado, where mail-in voting begins this week. Senate Republicans’ top super PAC moved $1.25 million into the state just over a week ago, as outside Democratic groups in the last month have steered more than $9 million to the Colorado race. It’s one sign they aren’t willing to take any chances on Bennet’s ability to hold the seat for Democrats. Another was that President Joe Biden traveled to Colorado last week to tout a Bennet project. To pull off a victory in Colorado, Republicans will not only have to turn out their waning base, but win over unaffiliated voters who have heavily favored Democrats in the years since former President Donald Trump took office. And even though O’Dea has maintained that the 2020 election was legitimate, he’s working to prevent Democrats from linking him to the GOP’s more extreme wing. “Colorado is a tough state, Bennet has been outspending Joe O’Dea, and frankly, there’s this lingering stench of stolen election conspiracy crap that has pulled the party down overall,” said Dick Wadhams, former chair of the Colorado Republican Party. “Bennet has not put this away,” Wadhams continued. “He’s had this huge spending edge, and yet he has to beg and plead for the president to come out here to do something that Bennet could not get done in the Senate.” During his visit, Biden used his executive powers to designate a World War II military training camp as a national monument, a project Bennet has pursued through legislation since taking office in 2011. Steven Law, president of the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund super PAC, recently placed Colorado in the same category as two of Republicans’ other tough-but-possible pickup opportunities this year. “There’s some potential in places like New Hampshire, Colorado, maybe Arizona,” Law said on an Oct. 4 episode of the conservative political podcast “Ruthless.” Three days after the episode aired, SLF put $1.25 million into the Colorado race. The amount is far less than the super PAC is spending in other states, though a spokesman said the group is continuing to watch Colorado. The recent SLF funds, which the group contributed to a pro-O’Dea super PAC in Colorado rather than creating its own ads, have gone toward a new $1.6 million, two-week ad buy in Denver starting Tuesday. On the day last week when Bennet appeared with Biden at an event south of Vail, O’Dea attended a Denver Chamber of Commerce candidate forum. The split-screen of activities that day was emblematic of the candidates’ strategies. The two-term senator is campaigning on Democratic accomplishments and the party’s ability to pass major legislation since taking control of Washington. It’s a tactic that differs from other endangered Democrats, who are avoiding the president and have declared in ads that they aren’t beholden to the party. Bennet can come across as cerebral: At the business forum, he opened his pre-recorded remarks with thoughts on democracy. By contrast, O’Dea appeared in person and emphasized the practical. He noted that he has run his own construction company for 35 years; “It’s called business acumen,” he said. O’Dea takes pains to signal that he will be independent of his party, describing himself as a “Republican Joe Manchin.” “They’re not going to know where Joe O’Dea’s at,” O’Dea told the Chamber crowd. “I’ll buck the party. If McConnell wants my vote, we’re going to get good things done for Colorado. I’ll sit there and I’ll just wait him out. I don’t care.” As examples of his willingness to go against GOP policies, O’Dea noted he supports abortion access beyond what most elected Republicans have called for, wants citizenship for childhood Dreamers and an easier path to legal immigration for workers, and opposes the repeal of Obamacare, citing the need to protect those with preexisting conditions. O’Dea made a similar pitch to a room full of donors the night before, while acknowledging he needs all the support he can get if he is going to catch up with Bennet. Mail-in ballots, which are provided to every voter in the state, begin distribution this week. “Some of the polling you guys have seen, it’s kind of a crapshoot,” O’Dea said to 50 supporters at the fundraiser in Golden last week, referencing public surveys about the race. Former Sen. Gary Hart, a Democrat, is supporting Bennet and said he believes he’ll win, but credited O’Dea for the strategy he’s taking in the race. “Speaking objectively, I think he’s presenting himself about the way he should,” Hart said. “He’s punching all the right buttons in terms of his TV ads — riding horses and having his daughter campaign for him on TV, all those fundamental, smart politics. “The candidates are two decent, two honest people, not attention-getting. So it’s awfully hard to dislike either one of them.” Josh Holmes, a political consultant who advises Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, recalls meeting O’Dea before his primary victory and sensing something “special” about his pitch: “I think pretty quickly, Democrats came on to the same idea we did, which is likely why they spent money in the primary trying to defeat him.” Democratic groups spent millions of dollars trying to sink O’Dea’s primary bid, hoping to propel a much more conservative Republican to the nomination. In an interview at Spanky’s Roadhouse in Denver, sipping a Michelob Ultra he poured into a glass of ice, O’Dea elaborated on the kind of Republican senator he would be. He praised GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski for trying to codify abortion rights up to roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy, a bill O’Dea said he is eager to help get passed if he’s elected. Sen. Mitt Romney “steps out every once in a while” to do what’s right, O’Dea said, adding that Sen. John Cornyn should be lauded for leading bipartisan talks on a gun control bill this year. O’Dea said he would have been a no on convicting former President Donald Trump of impeachment — as he would be on any future GOP effort to impeach Biden. As for who he’d like to see win the White House in 2024, O’Dea rattled off several names for a future party leader: Tim Scott, Mike Pompeo, Tom Cotton or Nikki Haley, before adding that Ron DeSantis has done a good job as Florida governor. Democrats have zeroed in on abortion as O’Dea’s largest vulnerability. Despite wanting protections for abortion rights, O’Dea said he doesn’t regret signing a petition in 2020 in support of a 22-week abortion ban, which failed on the ballot that year and did not include exceptions for rape and incest. “I don’t believe in late-term abortion on command,” O’Dea said in the interview. “I just don’t.” O’Dea maintains he is in favor of abortion access up to five months of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the woman. Floyd Ciruli, a longtime Colorado pollster who now directs the University of Denver’s polling program, said political observers in the state entered the election believing there was a chance the Senate seat could flip. Ciruli said there’s no question inflation is voters’ No. 1 concern, and that Biden isn’t particularly popular there. And he doesn’t doubt that polling this year — Colorado no exception — is missing the full extent of the populist vote. All the same, disenchantment with national Democrats doesn’t seem to be ushering in a red wave in Colorado, he said. “We could be surprised on the 8th, but at the moment with where the polls are, there’s this sense that (independent voters) just may not be available to the Republicans” this year in Colorado, Ciruli said. Republicans last won a Senate seat in Colorado in 2014, when Cory Gardner — propelled by voter dissatisfaction with Barack Obama — ousted Democratic Sen. Mark Udall by 2 percentage points. Udall’s loss was also attributed to his heavy focus on abortion rights over other issues during in the campaign. But public polling that fall showed a tight race, with Gardner and Udall trading off the lead and remaining within a few points of each other. The neck-and-neck 2014 contest appeared much more competitive in the months leading up to the November election than polling in the current Colorado Senate race. Gardner lost reelection in 2020, defeated by former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper. O’Dea argues that a similar referendum on the party in power will help him this time. “Senator Gardner — who I really like and have a lot of respect for — John Hickenlooper was able to tag him with voting with President Trump 100 percent of the...

Deontay Wilder Breaks Record For Fewest Punches In Knockout Fight https://digitalalabamanews.com/deontay-wilder-breaks-record-for-fewest-punches-in-knockout-fight/ Deontay Wilder broke a record on Saturday night by ending a world title eliminator fight with just three punches landed. The boxing superstar and former longtime heavyweight champion announced his return Saturday night. He blasted out the top-rated Robert Helenius in the first round of their WBC heavyweight title eliminator. How many punches did it take Deontay Wilder to win? “The Nordic Nightmare” was taken care of in 177 seconds and with only the third thrown punch of the fight by the American. Wilder vs Helenius headlined a FOX Sports PBC Pay-Per-View from Barclays Center in Brooklyn on October 15. In his first fight since an epic trilogy with Tyson Fury, Wilder stepped into the ring after a year. He quickly reminded the world why he’s one of the most feared punchers in boxing history. “I set him up,” said Wilder. “I allowed him to reach. When he reached, I attacked,” said Wilder, adding a little sarcasm to the mix with his following statement, “It was a great fight. “It’s been a good camp for me. We worked to make this fun for me. But we work at this so much that it can just become a job. “We made it fun again. We put in over 700 rounds. It paid off tonight big time.” Headlining at Barclays Center for the fifth time in his career, Wilder added yet another devastating highlight to his resume at the arena in Brooklyn and credited the fight’s setting for adding inspiration to his triumph. “It’s just amazing to be back in Brooklyn,” said Wilder. “It’s like a second home to me. It feels so good to be back. “When I got off the plane, I felt great energy and love. That’s all I needed.” Short right hand or half a punch After a mostly cautious first round, Wilder only landed three punches, according to CompuBox. Wilder caught a lunging Helenius with a short right hand that has ended the nights of numerous heavyweights over the last decade plus. Referee Mike Griffin quickly halted the action 2:57 into the round as Wilder turned his attention toward a second reign as heavyweight world champion. “I’ve been hearing rumors about (unified heavyweight champion) Oleksandr Usyk, but he’s not here, is he?” expressed Wilder. “When guys see these knockouts, they turn the corner away from me. I’m ready for whatever. “Whether it’s Andy Ruiz Jr. or Usyk, I’m ready. Deontay Wilder is back. The excitement in the heavyweight division is back.” One of the best heavyweights in the world, Wilder put back-to-back defeats against Tyson Fury behind him. “The Gypsy King” could be back in his sights if he wins a final eliminator against Ruiz. Despite calling out Anthony Joshua, Tuscaloosa’s finest is lined up by Premier Boxing Champions promoter Al Haymon to fight Ruiz in Las Vegas next year. The clash could happen as early as February and will see the hardest puncher on the planet potentially become the mandatory challenger for the WBC title. Deontay Wilder vs Helenius results In the pay-per-view opener, former bantamweight world champion Manny Rodriguez (21-2, 13 KOs) won a technical decision. His bout ended two seconds into round ten. It was a rematch against the previously unbeaten Gary Antonio Russell (19-1, 12 KOs). After their August 2021 matchup ended in a no-contest due to a head butt in round one, the rematch was again called after a head butt, with this one occurring in round nine. Rodriguez suffered the worst clash but could rise to his feet and finish the round. The ringside physician stopped the fight as round ten began. Puerto Rico’s Rodriguez emerged victorious on the cards by scores of 100-90, 99-91and 97-93. “I’m going to get a little rest now, then I want to come back and fight for the world title,” said Rodriguez post-fight. “He was the better fighter today,” said Russell. “I felt like he outpointed me. I thought I started to pick it up after the fifth round, but it wasn’t enough.” Russell brought an unbeaten record into the contest and was looking for a signature victory to launch himself into title contention. Rodriguez However, he was initially met with a stiff defense, as Rodriguez found spots for powerful counter shots that staggered Russell in rounds one and four. Rodriguez remained patient and nearly scored a knockout blow in round eight, landing a perfect straight counter right hand that put Russell on the mat. Rodriguez controlled the action throughout, out-landing his opponent 120 to 73 overall and 78 to 41 in power punches on his way to the win. “If you get knocked down with a good shot, you feel it,” said Russell. “People like to lie about that. “But I was conscious and able to regain myself. It was the first time I was hurt in a fight, but I was prepared for it.” “I knew that I was dominating the fight,” said Rodriguez. “When I knocked him down, I thought his corner should have stopped the fight. He wasn’t right at that moment.” Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews, Instagram, and Twitter @worldboxingnews. Read More…

European Markets Open Marginally Higher; UK Awaits Another Fiscal Statement https://digitalalabamanews.com/european-markets-open-marginally-higher-uk-awaits-another-fiscal-statement/ Stocks on the move: ITV up 9.6%, Hargreaves Lansdown down 4.4% Shares in ITV are up 9.6% following a report by the Financial Times that it may be selling a stake in its production arm ITV Studios. ITV Studios is one of the largest program producers in Europe and some analysts estimate it could be worth more than its parent company’s £2.5 billion ($2.82 billion) market capitalization. British investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown is down 4.4% following slowed earnings reports and news that CEO Chris Hill is stepping down. The company reported assets under administration fell during the first quarter of fiscal 2023. The organization has also been hit by a multimillion pound lawsuit over the failure of one of its former fund managers, Neil Woodford. — Hannah Ward-Glenton UK government bond yields drop ahead of fiscal statement The yields on long-dated U.K. government bonds, known as gilts, have fallen ahead of a fiscal statement by the new Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt expected later today. 10-year gilt yields fell 19 basis points to trade around 4.129%. The yield on 20-year gilts was down around 15 basis points at market open, while 30-year index-linked gilt yields were down around 17 basis points. Yields on 5-year and 2-year gilts also slid Monday. — Hannah Ward-Glenton British pound strengthens after policy reversals Sterling rose on Monday morning in Asia following more policy reversals by the U.K. government late last week. The pound was last 0.56% higher at $1.1233. CNBC Pro: Nearing retirement? How to allocate your portfolio right now, according to the pros Despite the volatility in markets, asset managers say it’s important to remain invested if you’re nearing retirement. But how should one allocate funds, bearing in mind unsettled markets, a shorter investing horizon and the need for retirees to have some liquidity? CNBC Pro asks the experts for their views. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan China’s central bank leaves medium-term rates unchanged The People’s Bank of China rolled over its medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans and kept its interest rate unchanged at 2.75%, according to a statement on its website. The central bank announced it would keep the one-year rate unchanged for a second month and injected 500 billion yuan ($70 billion) through the MLF. A Reuters poll expected no change to the MLF rate and a partial rollover of loans from the central bank. —Jihye Lee CNBC Pro: As market volatility persists, Wall Street analysts say to sell these stocks Stocks worldwide have taken a beating this year, and major indexes remain deep in negative territory. As investors weigh whether to sell or stay invested, CNBC Pro screened almost 1,500 large and mid-cap global stocks and found a number of major companies with sell or underweight ratings. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Ganesh Rao Wed, Aug 17 202212:29 AM EDT European markets: Here are the opening calls European markets are heading for a lower open on Monday as investors survey the deteriorating economic outlook. The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 31 points lower at 6,819, the German DAX down 60 points at 12,377 and the French CAC 29 points lower at 5,902, according to data from IG. The lower open in Europe comes amid increasingly pessimistic global sentiment; shares in the Asia-Pacific region fell on Monday as recession fears weighed on sentiment. In the U.S., meanwhile, stock futures traded higher early on Monday as investors awaited big earnings reports to roll in from Bank of America on Monday, while Goldman Sachs will release numbers Tuesday morning. Last week, a hotter-than-expected inflation reading stoked wild price swings in the markets as investors readjusted their expectations for the U.S. Federal Reserve’s forthcoming rate hikes. On the data front in Europe, final inflation reading data for Italy in September is due. — Holly Ellyatt CNBC Pro: Morgan Stanley’s Mike Wilson flags a key risk to earnings — and names the stocks to avoid Morgan Stanley’s U.S. equity team, led by Michelle Weaver and Mike Wilson, says there’s a key risk to earnings on the horizon. The investment bank named several stocks it believes will be most impacted in the next 3-6 months, and which could see downside to their share prices in the same period. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Read More…

Russian Drones Attack Central Kyiv, Heavy Fighting In East Ukraine https://digitalalabamanews.com/russian-drones-attack-central-kyiv-heavy-fighting-in-east-ukraine/ Kyiv hit by Russian drones Attacks a week after massive cruise missile strikes KYIV, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Russia attacked the centre of Kyiv during morning rush hour with drones on Monday and shelled other cities around the country, the second time in a week it has unleashed strikes across Ukraine while its forces face setbacks on the battlefield. Soldiers fired into the air trying to shoot down drones after the blasts rocked central Kyiv. Residents fled for shelter. An anti-aircraft rocket could be seen streaking into the morning sky, followed by an explosion and orange flames. Reuters later saw pieces of a drone used in the attack that bore the words: “For Belgorod” – an apparent reference to Ukrainian shelling of a Russian region bordering Ukraine. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The attacks came exactly one week after Russia unleashed its heaviest aerial bombardment of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities since the start of the war – also during morning rush hour. “All night and all morning, the enemy terrorizes the civilian population. Kamikaze drones and missiles are attacking all of Ukraine. A residential building was hit in Kyiv,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. “The enemy can attack our cities, but it won’t be able to break us. The occupiers will get only fair punishment and condemnation of future generations. And we will get victory.” There was no immediate word on casualties from the blasts. Ukraine said the Kyiv attacks used Iran-made ‘suicide drones’, which fly to their target and detonate, which Russia has increasingly deployed in recent weeks. A view shows a street after a Russian drone strike, which local authorities consider to be Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Shahed-136, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich Iran denies supplying drones to Russia. The Kremlin has not commented. European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg may consider further sanctions on Iran if they can establish concrete evidence that it is supplying drones to Russia, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said. SHELLING Russia has accused Ukraine of hitting targets in Belgorod region near the border. Pro-Russian news sources on the Telegram social media app reported that Ukraine had struck Belgorod’s airport overnight. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv, which typically does not comment on incidents in Russia. Elsewhere on Monday, renewed Russian shelling near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, caused it to be disconnected again from Ukraine’s power grid, Ukrainian state energy firm Energoatom said. The plant, which has often been shelled during the war, is occupied by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian staff. In southern central Ukraine, a large fire broke out at an energy facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region after an overnight missile hit, a local official said. Ukraine also reported strikes that set ablaze a sunflower oil terminal in the southern port of Mykolaiv. British military intelligence said on Monday Russia was facing more acute logistical problems in southern Ukraine after a blast on Oct. 8 caused damage to a road-and-rail bridge linking mainland Russia to Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Himani Sarkar and Gareth Jones; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel, Peter Graff Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

Herschel Walker Doubles Down On Cop Badge: ‘It’s Real’ https://digitalalabamanews.com/herschel-walker-doubles-down-on-cop-badge-its-real/ U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker has defiantly claimed again that the cop badge he pulled out at Friday’s debate is real and that he has been “working with law enforcement for years,” including training, leadership, and health and wellness programs. After copping heat online for the stunt, where he was criticized for producing a prop during the debate, the Georgia Republican sat down with NBC News’ Kristen Welker for an interview airing in part Monday on Today. In it, he says he has an “honorary sheriff badge” for Chatham County, Johnson County, and Cobb County with “limited rights.” “That’s a badge that I was given by a police officer, and I do have the badge I carry with me all the time. It’s a real badge. It’s not a fake badge. It is a real badge,” Walker says in the interview, according to a transcript obtained by The Daily Beast. Questions surrounding the former NFL star’s alleged work with law enforcement have plagued his Senate campaign, including a June article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that indicates there is no real evidence to prove Walker’s longtime claims that he has worked alongside the FBI or police. During Sunday evening’s debate, which Walker declined to attend and was represented by an empty podium, opponent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said Walker doesn’t tell the truth, using Friday night’s badge incident as an example of his lies. “The other night when I said, ‘You keep pretending to be a police officer,’ he presented a badge as if that were proof that he really is a police officer,” Warnock said. “Now he wants us to think that he’s a senator. I think the people of Georgia are wise and discerning, and they know that at the end of the day, I know who I work for: I work for them.” In the NBC interview, Welker asks Walker, “Who gave you that badge?” Walker responds: “This badge is from, um—this badge. I have badges from all over the—all over Georgia, even from Chatham County. I had to wait—wait—I had from Chatham County, which is a county, which is a county, uh, which is a county from…” At this point Walker shows the badge again, but it is unfortunately upside down. “Oh, I have it upside down. Right, which is a county from where Sen. Warnock is from. I have an honorary sheriff badge for that county with limited rights.” Welker presses Walker on where the badge he is holding is from. “This is from my hometown,” Walker says. “This is from Johnson County, from the sheriff from Johnson County, which is a legit badge. Everyone can make fun, but this badge give me the right… If anything happened in this county, I have the right to work with the police getting things done. People that don’t know that—I’ve been working with law enforcement for years. I do training program, but they get to get credit for it. I do a program, a leadership program. I do health and wellness programs. I visit prisons so, everyone will make fun, but I’ve been—have my men and women in black—men and women in blue backs since I’ve been doing this.” When asked if the badge confers any arresting authority, Walker confirms it is an “honorary badge,” but that “they can call me whenever they want me and I have the authority to do things for them to work with them all day.” Then, Welker tells Walker directly that “The National Sheriffs Association said an honorary badge… ‘is for the trophy case’ and asks, ‘why make the decision to flash it at the debate?’” Walker answers: “That is totally not true. You can call the guy that gave me the badge… call the woman who gave me the badge and the same thing is, I tell you one thing they’re having fun in. They said I wasn’t working with Cobb County police, right? The Cobb County Sheriff Police.” Walker appears to be referencing a Walker campaign spokeswoman’s claims to the Journal-Constitution that Walker is an honorary deputy in Cobb County, though the Cobb County Police Department told the newspaper it had no records to back up the claim. “And this is the way people do news media,” Walker continues. “And I had the sheriff that gave me the badge and been there for years, been there for years came out and did a press conference with me and said, ‘Herschel has been with us for years, he’d been working with us.’” Walker claimed the media “wasn’t listening to anything and want to try to find an excuse.” He said: “No, I will always have my men and women in blue. That’s the reason they support me. I have more… more sheriffs that have supported Herschel Walker in Georgia than any candidate running today.” Read More…

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan Has Stark Warning Over Trump’s Latest Antisemitic Rant https://digitalalabamanews.com/msnbcs-mehdi-hasan-has-stark-warning-over-trumps-latest-antisemitic-rant/ MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said Donald Trump’s warning to American Jews on Sunday might seem like just another wild rant from the ex-president. But it shouldn’t be dismissed as “Donald Trump being Donald Trump” ― because the escalating antisemitic rhetoric from Trump and others on the right is part of a dangerous pattern, he said. “These are not isolated or unconnected acts of antisemitic hate,” Hasan warned. “It’s all part of the same thing: The rising and dangerous fascism on the American right.” Trump on Sunday complained that American evangelicals appreciate him more than Jews, while also insisting he has the “highest approval rating in the world” in Israel. “Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel — Before it is too late!” he wrote on his floundering Truth Social platform. Hasan played a series of clips of Trump’s other antisemitic comments over the years, and noted he’s not alone in the Republican party in this regard. And he warned where it could lead. “Now is not the time to stay silent or to give the GOP a pass on this issue,” he said, adding: “President Joe Biden recently called out Trump’s MAGA philosophy as a kind of ‘semi-fascism’ he said. For me, using that ‘semi’ is a little too generous. And look, people can argue over the exact definition of fascism. But the one thing that fascist movements across the west have always had in common is this: They go after Jewish minorities in their midst.” See his full monologue below: This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Read More…

January 6 Committee Member Says Panel Will Ask Former Secret Service Agent To Testify Again – ABC17NEWS https://digitalalabamanews.com/january-6-committee-member-says-panel-will-ask-former-secret-service-agent-to-testify-again-abc17news/ By Paul LeBlanc and Christian Sierra, CNN Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a member of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, told CNN on Sunday the panel will ask former Secret Service Assistant Director Tony Ornato to testify again. “We’re in a position in the very near future to call the witnesses from the Secret Service back in for a few additional questions,” the California Democrat told CNN’s Pamela Brown on “CNN Newsroom,” explaining that the panel had wanted to “get through all the documentary evidence … over a million documents,” which they’ve now done. The House select committee has made clear it believes Ornato was a central figure who could provide valuable information about former President Donald Trump’s movements and intentions leading up to and on January 6. Not only did Ornato once run Trump’s detail, but he also made the unprecedented move of joining White House staff as the deputy chief of staff in December 2019 on a temporary assignment and eventually returned to the Secret Service to run its training program. To this point, Ornato has met with the panel on two occasions — in January and March — as part of its investigation. It’s not clear whether Ornato will end up testifying related to the claims from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Hutchinson specifically testified that Ornato had told her about Trump lashing out in anger and lunging at a member of his protective detail as he demanded to be taken to the Capitol on January 6. Lofgren said Sunday she could not expand further on Rep. Pete Aguilar’s comments during Thursday’s public hearing that the committee is examining a potential attempt to obstruct testimony related to that incident. “It’s not just about the incident, but the testimony — and I will say, we have, broadly, questions about the advice given to some witnesses, and whether all the witnesses were completely candid with the committee, and that’s something that we’re interested in, and I think the Department of Justice will be very interested in,” Lofgren said. Asked Sunday who else from the Secret Service would be called back to testify, Lofgren also mentioned the head of Trump’s Secret Service detail, Robert Engel, “and a few others,” but did not specify whom. “We want to make sure that we’re getting the straight story. Some of the testimony received doesn’t seem to align with some of the documents, so we have a need to understand that better from them,” she said. This story has been updated with additional information Sunday. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

AP News Summary At 3:46 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-346-a-m-edt-2/ Ukraine: Explosions rock Kyiv, struck by waves of drones KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Explosive-laden suicide drones have struck Ukraine’s capital as families were preparing to start their week, the blasts echoing across Kyiv and sending people scurrying to shelters. Kyiv city Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital’s central Shevchenko district was hit, damaging several apartment blocks and setting fire to a non-residential building. There was no immediate word on casualties. The drones’ intended targets weren’t immediately clear but Russian strikes over the past week have hit infrastructure, including power facilities. Witnesses posted videos of drones buzzing across bright morning skies over Kyiv and of what sounded like gunshots of people trying to shoot them down. Ukrainians’ resilience persists despite new Russian barrage KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The resilience by Ukrainians in Russia’s nearly 8-month-old war continues to be unwavering, despite a rise in the past week in attacks that have been seen as President Vladimir Putin’s vengeful response to an explosion that damaged a Moscow-built bridge in Crimea on Oct. 8. Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones struck at least 10 regions across the country two days later, targeting critical infrastructures in major urban centers, leaving 19 dead and more than 100 wounded. But the more the Kremlin threatens to make the upcoming winter intolerable, the more Ukrainians seem to unite in their intent to defeat Putin. For Biden and Trump, 2022 is 2020 sequel — and 2024 preview? WASHINGTON (AP) — This year’s midterm elections are playing out as a strange continuation of the last presidential race — and a potential preview of the next one. Donald Trump refused to exit the stage after his defeat and has spent months raging against Joe Biden. That’s reshaping downballot campaigns that normally function as a simple referendum on the incumbent president. The result is an episode of political shadowboxing with little precedent, as the current president and his immediate predecessor crisscross the country in support of their party’s candidates. But polls suggest voters have little appetite for a rematch. Most say voting vital despite dour US outlook: AP-NORC poll WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll shows 71% of voters think the future of the country is at stake when they vote in November’s midterm elections. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll findings suggest voters are motivated to turn out despite deep pessimism about the state of U.S. politics and dissatisfaction with the country. With less than a month to go, about 8 in 10 registered voters say casting their ballot this year is extremely or very important. That’s true of voters who prefer Republicans win majorities in Congress, and those who want to see Democrats remain in control. How Michael Flynn goes local to spread Christian nationalism VENICE, Fla. (AP) — Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn is influential in the far-right Christian nationalist movement that has growing stature in of the Republican Party. Flynn is making Sarasota County, Florida, a laboratory of sorts for his political agenda. Flynn’s slogan is “Local action equals national impact,” and he has energized local conservative activists through social media and public appearances. He questions American democratic institutions, repeats lies about the 2020 election, attacks the news media and embraces conspiracy theories about COVID-19. One of the groups he’s welcomed into the fold is the violent extremist group the Proud Boys. Iran prison fire death toll rises to 8 as protests continue DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s judiciary has raised the death toll in a blaze at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, saying at least eight prisoners have been killed as protests continue nationwide. The judiciary’s Mizan news agency offered the new toll, saying the prisoners had succumbed to their injuries from the incident Saturday night. It said all those dead had been held on theft charges. Flames and thick smoke rising from Tehran’s Evin Prison had been widely visible Saturday night, as nationwide anti-government protests triggered by the death of a young woman in police custody entered a fifth week. In online videos, gunshots and explosions could be heard in the area of the prison. Pregnant women struggle to find care after Pakistan’s floods RAJANPUR, Pakistan (AP) — Pregnant women are struggling to get care after Pakistan’s unprecedented flooding this summer that inundated a third of the country at its height and drove millions from their homes. The United Nations says around 130,000 pregnant women in flood-hit areas require urgent healthcare and more than 2,000 are giving birth every day, most in unsafe conditions. Months after unprecedented deluges stopped battering the country, survivors lack basics like clean clothing and food. Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous nation, has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia, and experts fear there will be an increase in child marriage, infant mortality, and unwanted pregnancies because of the flooding. China’s party congress promises continuity, not change BEIJING (AP) — The overarching theme emerging from China’s ongoing Communist Party congress is one of continuity, not change. The weeklong meeting is expected to reappoint Xi Jinping as leader, reaffirm a commitment to his policies for the next five years and possibly elevate his status even further as one of the most powerful leaders in China’s modern history. For many Chinese, weary of pandemic restrictions, the more immediate question is whether there will there be any easing of “zero COVID” after the party congress. The answer is probably not immediately, and changes when they do come will most likely be gradual. Groups mobilize to help voters confronting new election laws ATLANTA (AP) — Voters in Georgia, Texas and some other states are facing new hurdles to cast a ballot during the midterm election under laws passed by Republican-led legislatures following President Donald Trump’s false claims that voter fraud cost him re-election in 2020. The restrictions have prompted groups that assist voters to reorient themselves so they can avoid running afoul of new barriers. They anticipate confusion and conflict at the polls, and are redoubling efforts to register and educate. The Brennan Center for Justice says lawmakers in 21 states have passed at least 42 restrictive laws since 2021. At least 33 of those are in effect for this year’s midterm. New Zealand arts funder rejects Shakespeare as ‘imperialism’ WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Is Shakespeare still relevant to today’s students? New Zealand’s arts council appears to have its doubts after ending funding for a popular school Shakespeare program. The independent but tax-funded council said the Shakespeare program relied too heavily on busy schools, failed to show relevance to “the contemporary art context” and relied on a genre “located within a canon of imperialism.” But many have taken issue with the decision by Creative New Zealand, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was once a student thespian. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More…

Auburn NFL Roundup: Braden Smith Drops Anchor Again https://digitalalabamanews.com/auburn-nfl-roundup-braden-smith-drops-anchor-again/ Entering Week 6 of the NFL’s 2022 season, the Indianapolis Colts had scored the fewest points in the league and Matt Ryan had been sacked as any times as any quarterback in the NFL. Did that ever change on Sunday. In attempt to find some offense, the Colts made changes in their offensive line for the previous game, including moving Braden Smith from right tackle to right guard. Smith had started his past 57 games at right tackle for Indianapolis. He had been a first-team All-American selection as Auburn’s right guard in 2017, but Smith had never started at guard in the NFL until Week 5. The changes proved ineffective. Even though the Colts defeated the Denver Broncos 12-7 in overtime on Oct. 6, Indianapolis did not score a touchdown and Ryan was sacked six times. With Smith back at right tackle, the Colts defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-27 on Sunday. Ryan completed 42-of-58 passes for 389 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Despite all those dropbacks, the 15-year veteran was never sacked by the Jaguars, and Ryan’s 32-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds to play provided the winning points. “The O-line was special,” Colts coach Frank Reich said. “We gave up no sacks. We threw 58 times, and we didn’t give up a sack, so hats off to the O-line. They’ve taken a lot of heat. That was an unbelievable performance by the O-line.” Smith was among the 19 former Auburn players who got on the field on the sixth Sunday of the NFL’s 103rd season. Three other former Auburn players were involved in the Jacksonville-Indianapolis game: · Colts defensive tackle Byron Cowart made two tackles. · Jaguars safety Daniel Thomas (Lee-Montgomery) made a tackle on special teams. · Jaguars wide receiver Seth Williams (Paul Bryant) is on the practice squad and not eligible to play. In the other Sunday games: Atlanta Falcons 28, San Francisco 49ers 14 · Falcons defensive lineman Marlon Davidson (Greenville) is on injured reserve and not eligible to play. New England Patriots 38, Cleveland Browns 15 · Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones was designated as a game-day inactive. Jones has an ankle injury. · Browns wide receiver Anthony Schwartz was targeted three times but did not have a reception in the game. New York Jets 27, Green Bay Packers 10 · Packers safety Rudy Ford (New Hope) made two tackles. · Carl Lawson started at defensive end for the Jets. Lawson made two tackles. · Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood made two tackles on special teams. · C.J. Uzomah started at tight end for the Jets. Uzomah caught two passes for 17 yards. Minnesota Vikings 24, Miami Dolphins 16 · Dolphins defensive end Big Kat Bryant is on the practice squad and not eligible to play. · Dolphins cornerback Noah Igbinoghene (Hewitt-Trussville) broke up two passes. Cincinnati Bengals 30, New Orleans Saints 26 · Saints safety Smoke Monday is on injured reserve and not eligible to play. New York Giants 24, Baltimore Ravens 20 · Josh Bynes started at middle linebacker for the Ravens. Bynes made five tackles, including one behind the line of scrimmage. · Darius Slayton started at wide receiver for the Giants. Slayton caught an 18-yard pass in his first start of the season. Pittsburgh Steelers 20, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 18 · Steelers defensive tackle Montravius Adams made one tackle. · Buccaneers inside linebacker K.J. Britt (Oxford) played but did not record any stats. · Carlton Davis started at cornerback for the Buccaneers. Davis made four tackles and broke up a pass. · Jamel Dean started at cornerback for the Buccaneers. Dean made five tackles on defense and one on special teams. Dean saved a touchdown when he ran down Steven Sims on the second-half kickoff, tackling him at the Tampa Bay 12-yard line to end his return at 89 yards. Pittsburgh got a field goal from the field position to take a 13-9 lead. Los Angeles Rams 24, Carolina Panthers 10 · Derrick Brown started at defensive tackle for the Panthers. Browns made seven tackles, shared a sack and registered two quarterback hits. Brown entered Sunday’s game without a sack and with one quarterback hit this season. He also reached a career high in tackles, surpassing the six that he recorded in a 25-3 loss to the New York Giants on Oct. 24, 2021. Seattle Seahawks 19, Arizona Cardinals 9 · Cardinals linebacker Chandler Wooten is on the practice squad and not eligible to play. Buffalo Bills 24, Kansas City Chiefs 20 · Chiefs offensive tackle Prince Tega Wanogho (Edgewood Academy) played but did not record any stats. Philadelphia Eagles 26, Dallas Cowboys 17 · Eagles offensive lineman Jack Driscoll played right tackle in the second half after Lane Johnson left the game with an injury. Last week, Driscoll went all the way at left tackle as an injury fill-in. · Eagles punter Arryn Siposs averaged 46.8 yards on four punts, with a net average of 37.8. Siposs had a 44-yard punt that was returned for no gain at the Dallas 24-yard line, a 54-yarder returned 15 yards to the Dallas 21, a 59-yarder returned 34 yards (but a holding penalty on the return put the ball back on the Dallas 7) and a 30-yarder that went out of bounds at the Dallas 12. Week 6 started on Thursday night, when the Washington Commanders defeated the Chicago Bears 12-7. Week 6 concludes on Monday, when the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers square off at 7:15 p.m. CDT at Lumen Field in Seattle. ESPN and ESPN Deportes will televise the game. FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AmarkG1. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

The News Isn’t Objective — And It Shouldn’t Be | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-news-isnt-objective-and-it-shouldnt-be-opinion-the-harvard-crimson/ A few weeks back, The Crimson held its first News-Editorial social in recent memory. I bring this up not to reminisce on the bacchanalia that may or may not have ensued, but rather to point out the significance of the event, the announcement of which brought with it joking cries to “tear down this wall.” The reason for this reaction was not a belated response to the death of Mikhail Gorbachev, but rather a wisecrack meant to poke fun at the institutional norm that defines the daily activities of The Crimson: the News-Editorial wall. This (non-physical) wall separates the personnel and work of the News Board — which is devoted to objective, unbiased journalism — and the Editorial Board, which opines on topics. This strict separation is one of many structures put in place to ensure that The Crimson remains an objective source of news for the general public. But, if not torn down outright, the wall and the goal of objective journalism it exists to attain needs to be reconsidered. Firstly, objective journalism is impossible to begin with. The Crimson, when deciding what news to cover, inherently makes a decision about what information is newsworthy. For example, this newspaper’s extensive coverage of the sexual harassment allegations and subsequent investigation against Professor John L. Comaroff reflects its judgment that abuses of power are so important to expose that every twist and turn of the situation merits coverage. This is uncontroversial in this case, but it is still an implicit value judgment. The reason news organizations can never be truly objective is because their purpose is not just to give information to the public, but to construct a narrative that shows why it matters. Former Crimson editor and “father of modern journalism” Walter Lippmann ’10 wrote that “The function of news is to signalize an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them into relation with each other, and make a picture of reality on which men can act.” In constructing these narratives, news organizations are inherently making judgments about what sort of narrative is useful to the public. That truly objective journalism is an unattainable ideal is not a unique claim, though. Many believe that even if newspapers will never be unbiased, objectivity remains an ideal worth seeking. Yet objectivity is still a flawed goal. In pursuit of objectivity, journalists follow a set of industry norms built up over time that defines what is newsworthy. As Jay Rosen, a professor of journalism at NYU, put it, newsworthiness becomes like “a machine that nobody remembers how it was built.” In so refusing to make a conscious, agential decision about what constitutes newsworthiness, newspapers attempt to absolve themselves of responsibility and give readers the false impression that they are merely showing them reality. But newspapers aren’t ethereal mirrors that offer, to quote Rosen, a “view from nowhere.” Like it or not, they play an active role in society, and failure to recognize that leads them to have problematic effects on the very news they report. Take the Trump presidency. Whenever mainstream organizations reported on an outrageous, bombastic action by Trump, they were relying on the implicit judgment that a bombastic president was newsworthy. In doing so, they incentivized Trump to continue acting this way to dominate the news cycle. But did it have to be that way? As Ezra Klein has wondered on his podcast, what if the bar for covering Trump was that he had to “produce policy plans and say something worth covering as opposed to acting like an insult comic dog”? In 1976, economist Robert Lucas published a paper that later became known as the Lucas critique. The idea was as follows: If economic models rely on the optimal actions of agents and the policy recommendations that they make inevitably change the economic structure and therefore agents’ optimal actions, then the recommendation itself becomes invalid. From then on, actors like the Fed needed to anticipate how the public would react to their actions in order to properly administer policy. News organizations should do the same. In some sense, to pursue objectivity at all, they must be self-conscious of their non-objective role in society. Where do these critiques leave journalism? At first, it seems like the only alternative to objectivity is subjectivity. But journalism can retain its mission of creating informed, active members of society without attempting to be objective in the strictly-defined present sense. After Paris was liberated during WWII, Albert Camus advanced a new view on the ideal role of news organizations with his newly-founded newspaper, Combat. Camus argued that newspapers should embrace the fact that they need to make critical judgments to construct effective narratives. This “critical journalism” would then enable citizens to participate in society by making informed judgments. Most importantly, newspapers should be completely transparent about their critical mission. Newspapers today should heed Camus and Lucas. It’s impossible for them to avoid making value judgments about the stories they publish. Instead, they should make concrete what their priorities are (Democracy? Civil Rights?), publicly acknowledge these priorities, and be honest with themselves about the role they play in the narrative. This is the only way that news organizations can fulfill their true purpose, to provide citizens with the information necessary to become active and productive members of society. Manuel A. Yepes ’24, an Associate Editorial Editor, is a Social Studies concentrator in Cabot House. Read More…

Pound Moves Higher After Mini-Budget U-Turns https://digitalalabamanews.com/pound-moves-higher-after-mini-budget-u-turns/ Image source, Reuters By Michael Race & Annabelle Liang Business reporters, BBC News The pound has moved higher after the UK government made a series of U-turns as it abandoned tax cutting policies announced in last month’s mini-budget. Sterling gained around 0.9% to trade above $1.12 in Monday trading. On Friday, Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and said the mini-budget “went further and faster than markets were expecting”. The mini-budget announced by Mr Kwarteng on 23 September had been blamed for causing turmoil in the financial markets. The pound slumped to a record low of $1.03 and UK government bond prices also fell sharply. The UK government bond market is due to reopen at 08:00 BST (07:00 GMT). It will be the first time since the Bank of England ended its emergency support on Friday. The shift in the government’s economic policies and market turmoil in recent weeks has led to Goldman Sachs downgrading the UK’s economic growth. The investment bank revised its 2023 UK economic output forecast from a 0.4% drop to a 1% contraction. Goldman said it expected a “more significant recession in the UK” in part due to “significantly tighter financial conditions” and the planned higher corporation tax rate from next April. Meanwhile, analysts at the EY Item Club said “high energy prices, elevated inflation, rising interest rates and global economic weakness” meant the UK economy was “expected to be in recession until the middle of 2023”. A recession is defined by the economy shrinking for two three-month periods – or quarters – in a row. However, EY said the risk of a severe downturn had been reduced by the government’s energy bills support for households and businesses, meaning that it will not be as bad as previous recessions. The economic forecasting group has significantly downgraded its previous summer forecast which estimated the economy would grow by 1% in 2023. “There’s no doubt the UK economy faces a difficult period ahead, with global headwinds adding to domestic pressures,” said Hywel Ball, EY UK chair. “The silver lining is that the government’s intervention on energy bills is expected to limit the extent of the downturn, while ONS data suggests that households have access to a larger cushion of pandemic savings than previously thought.” The EY Item Club said it expects inflation to peak at just below 11% in October, lower than previous predictions because of the government’s intervention on energy bills. Currently, inflation is running at 9.9%. EY warned average annual inflation is still expected to outpace annual average wage increases until 2024, with household real incomes likely to decline over the next 12 months to the greatest extent since the 1970s. Consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics said the prime minister’s decision to appoint Mr Hunt as chancellor had “done little to shrink the risk premium embedded in UK assets”. “Households and businesses, therefore, are still facing a huge increase in their borrowing costs,” analysts said. They added the forthcoming real-terms reduction in government spending looked “set to be bigger than in the 2010s”. You may also be interested in: Media caption, WATCH: Jeremy Hunt – Hard decisions ahead Read More…

Multiple Car Crash Leads To Homicide Investigation In Kansas City, North https://digitalalabamanews.com/multiple-car-crash-leads-to-homicide-investigation-in-kansas-city-north/ ROAD. IT HAPPENED AT A REALLY BUSY INTERSECTION, AND IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. AFTER 3 P.M. YOU CAN SEE MULTIPLE CARS INVOLVED IN THIS INCIDENT. ONE OF THEM WITH A VISIBLE BULLET HOLES IN THE SIDE. A BUSY INTERSECTION, SO A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE BEEN STANDING AROUND TRYING TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED. WE KNOW ONE MAN IS DEAD. ANOTHER PERSON IS IN THE HOSPITAL IN CRITICAL CONDITION. POLICE SAY THEY ARE NOT SURE WHERE THE SHOOTING HAPPENED. THEY KNOW THIS IS WHERE IT ENDED. AN ACCIDENT WITH MULTIPLE OTHER CARS. THAT MAKES THIS ONE OF TWO DIFFERENT CRISES. KCP’S — KCPD SAYS ANOTHER WENT DOWN THE ROAD OR THEY FOUND EVIDENCE. WE WANT THE PUBLIC’S HEALTH — HOW. PARTICULARLY HERE, THERE ARE PEOPLE STOPPING THE EAT LUNCH, SHOPPING BEFORE THE GAME, THIS IS WHEN THE GAME STARTED. MAYBE THEY WERE TRYING TO GET ITEMS IN THE AREA. WE ARE ASKING FOR ANYONE WHO SAW ANYTHING TO GIVE US A CALL. MULTIPLE UNITS ARE HERE. THE CRASH INVESTIGATION UNIT AND CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATORS. KCPD SAYS THEY DO NOT HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THIS ASPECT. WHICH IS WHY THEY NEED THE PUBLIC’S HEL Multiple car crash leads to homicide investigation in Kansas City, North One man is dead, and another person is in the hospital in critical condition. Police are opening a homicide investigation in the busy area of Northeast Vivion Road and North Oak. Officers responded to a reported shooting around 3:30 p.m. and arrived to a crash involving multiple vehicles, just north of the intersection. In one of the vehicles, officers found two victims suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Both were transported to local hospitals. One of the victims, an adult male, died. Another person is in the hospital in critical condition. KCPD said they don’t know where the shooting happened. They just know it ended near the intersection of Vivion and North Oak, at the scene of the crash. KCPD also said there is another crime scene where they found more evidence. Multiple units are investigating, including the crash investigation unit. Right now, they don’t have any information on the suspect. KCPD stressed the importance of the public’s help in cases like this. “We definitely want the public’s help in this case, as we do all our cases, but particularly here,” KCPD’s Donna Drake said. “There’s people stopping to eat lunch. There are people shopping before the game. I mean, this is right around the time the game was starting, maybe they were trying to get some last-minute items in the area. So, we’re asking for anyone who saw anything to give us a call.” KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police are opening a homicide investigation in the busy area of Northeast Vivion Road and North Oak. Officers responded to a reported shooting around 3:30 p.m. and arrived to a crash involving multiple vehicles, just north of the intersection. In one of the vehicles, officers found two victims suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. Both were transported to local hospitals. One of the victims, an adult male, died. Another person is in the hospital in critical condition. KCPD said they don’t know where the shooting happened. They just know it ended near the intersection of Vivion and North Oak, at the scene of the crash. KCPD also said there is another crime scene where they found more evidence. Multiple units are investigating, including the crash investigation unit. Right now, they don’t have any information on the suspect. KCPD stressed the importance of the public’s help in cases like this. “We definitely want the public’s help in this case, as we do all our cases, but particularly here,” KCPD’s Donna Drake said. “There’s people stopping to eat lunch. There are people shopping before the game. I mean, this is right around the time the game was starting, maybe they were trying to get some last-minute items in the area. So, we’re asking for anyone who saw anything to give us a call.” Read More…

GOP Hopefuls Turn To Pence To Broaden Appeal Before Election https://digitalalabamanews.com/gop-hopefuls-turn-to-pence-to-broaden-appeal-before-election/ FILE – Former Vice President Mike Pence gestures as he addresses the Convocation at Liberty University, Sep. 14, 2022, in Lynchburg, Va. By refusing to go along with former president Donald Trump’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But in the final weeks of an intensely competitive midterm election, Pence’s fortunes may be shifting. He’s an in-demand surrogate for Republican campaigns, including from some candidates who have spent much of the year hugging Trump and parroting his lie that the election was stolen. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File) NEW YORK (AP) — In Donald Trump’s assessment, Mike Pence “committed political suicide” on Jan. 6, 2021. By refusing to go along with the former president’s unconstitutional push to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Pence became a leading target of Trump’s wrath and a pariah in many Republican circles. But the final weeks of the intensely competitive 2022 election suggest the former vice president’s fortunes have shifted as he lays the groundwork for his own potential campaign for the White House in 2024. The man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now an in-demand surrogate for Republican candidates, including some who spent their primaries obsessively courting Trump’s endorsement, in part by parroting Trump’s election lies. Pence has been traveling the country, holding events and raising millions for candidates and Republican groups, including signing fundraising solicitations for party committees. For some campaigns in tight races, Pence is seen as something of a neutralizing agent who can help broaden their appeal beyond Trump’s core base of support. That includes Arizona, with a key Senate race on Nov. 8 and what is expected to be a hotly contested stop in the 2024 presidential campaign. Last week, Pence endorsed Senate nominee Blake Masters, who has struggled to pivot from the primary to win over moderates in a state where one-third of voters are registered independents. “He takes a little bit of the edge off Masters with a lot of voters,” veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed said. “You know Masters is new to this, first time candidate, said some silly things he probably regrets during the campaign.” Yet the endorsements can seem jarring given that Pence has spent much of the past year pushing back on Trump’s election lies, which spurred the violent mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, while Pence was trying to preside over the formal congressional certification of Joe Biden’s presidential victory. Pence and members of his family had to be rushed to safety and held for hours in an underground loading dock as the marauders roamed the hallways, some chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!” and erected a makeshift gallows outside. Masters, during the primary, baselessly denied the 2020 results, recording a video in which he said he thought Trump had won. Masters claimed on his website that, “if we had had a free and fair election, President Trump would be sitting in the Oval Office today.” Trump said when he endorsed Masters in June: “Blake knows that the “Crime of the Century” took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again.” Pence made no mention of that in Phoenix on Tuesday. “What I came here to Arizona to say is not only is Blake Masters the right choice for the United States Senate, the people of Arizona deserve to know Blake Masters may be the difference between a Democrat majority in the Senate and a Republican majority in the Senate,” Pence said. Pence, along with Masters and Gov. Doug Ducey, took just three questions, two of them from conservative websites. When a television reporter noted that Masters has questioned the 2020 election, a spokesman for Masters cut him off before he could finish his question. Masters is not the only election denier Pence has endorsed or assisted. Two days after the Masters event, Pence was in Georgia headlining a fundraiser for Burt Jones, the nominee for lieutenant governor. Jones not only embraced Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud and called for a statewide investigation into the 2020 race, but also signed on to be one of his state’s fake alternate electors — a scheme that is now under criminal investigation. Last month, Pence campaigned in New Hampshire for Senate nominee Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who also spent his primary campaign telling voters the 2020 race was stolen from Trump. Marc Short, a longtime Pence adviser, declined to set a red line for candidates Pence would and would not endorse. “It’s more about making sure that he’s being a team player where he needs to be,” he said. “I think as a lot of these candidates look to solidify the party behind them, Pence can be helpful.” There is no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in the 2020 election, underscored by repeated audits, court cases and the conclusions of Trump’s own Department of Justice. Still, support of false election claims run deep among GOP candidates this year. Short said Pence was happy to support candidates who had moved past 2020, as he has urged the party to do. “If people sort of acknowledged a mistaken position before, he certainly wants to reward that,” said Short. “I think he wants to help conservatives first and foremost, but if people who were elected are now adopting new position about the events of Jan. 6,” he said, “then that’s a positive.” Reed, the Republican strategist, said he wasn’t surprised by the candidates Pence had chosen to back. “He’s a big picture party guy. And it doesn’t surprised me that he’s hustling as hard as he is for people who may not be 100% Pencers,” Reed said. “By doing these kinds of events,” he added, “they’re going to take another look at him if he decides to run.” Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox Read More…

Biden Turning To Trump-Era Rule To Expel Migrants https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-turning-to-trump-era-rule-to-expel-migrants/ WASHINGTON — Two years ago, candidate Joe Biden loudly denounced President Donald Trump for immigration policies that inflicted “cruelty and exclusion at every turn,” including toward those fleeing the “brutal” government of socialist Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Now, with increasing numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Nov. 8 election nears, Biden has turned to an unlikely source for a solution: his predecessor’s playbook. Biden last week invoked a Trump-era rule known as Title 42 — which Biden’s own Justice Department is fighting in court — to deny Venezuelans fleeing their crisis-torn country the chance to request asylum at the border. The rule, first invoked by Trump in 2020, uses emergency public health authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the new Biden administration policy, Venezuelans who walk or swim across America’s southern border will be expelled and any Venezuelan who illegally enters Mexico or Panama will be ineligible to come to the United States. But as many as 24,000 Venezuelans will be accepted at U.S. airports, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion in February. Mexico has insisted that the U.S. admit one Venezuelan on humanitarian parole for each Venezuelan it expels to Mexico, according to a Mexican official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke condition of anonymity. So if the Biden administration paroles 24,000 Venezuelans to the U.S., Mexico would take no more than 24,000 Venezuelans expelled from the U.S. The Biden policy marks an abrupt turn for the White House, which just weeks ago was lambasting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans, for putting Venezuelan migrants “fleeing political persecution” on buses and planes to Democratic strongholds. “These were children, they were moms, they were fleeing communism,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the time. Biden’s new policy has drawn swift criticism from immigrant advocates, many of them quick to point out the Trump parallels. “Rather than restore the right to asylum decimated by the Trump administration … the Biden administration has dangerously embraced the failures of the past and expanded upon them by explicitly enabling expulsions of Venezuelan migrants,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. The administration says the policy is aimed at ensuring a “lawful and orderly” way for Venezuelans to enter the U.S. Why the turnaround? For more than a year after taking office in January 2021, Biden deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which used its authority to keep in place the Trump-era declaration that a public health risk existed that warranted expedited expulsion of asylum-seekers. Members of Biden’s own party and activist groups had expressed skepticism about the public health underpinnings for allowing Title 42 to remain in effect, especially when COVID-19 was spreading more widely within the U.S. than elsewhere. After months of internal deliberations and preparations, the CDC on April 1 said it would end the public health order and return to normal border processing of migrants, giving them a chance to request asylum in the U.S. Homeland Security officials braced for a resulting increase in border crossings. But officials inside and outside the White House were conflicted over ending the authority, believing it effectively kept down the number of people crossing the border illegally, according to senior administration officials. A court order in May that kept Title 42 in place due to a challenge from Republican state officials was greeted with quiet relief by some in the administration, according to officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss internal discussions. The recent increase in migration from Venezuela, sparked by political, social and economic instability in the country, dashed officials’ hopes that they were finally seeing a lull in the chaos that had defined the border region for the past year. By August, Venezuelans were the second-largest nationality arriving at the U.S. border after Mexicans. Given that U.S. tensions with Venezuela meant migrants from the country could not be sent back easily, the situation became increasingly difficult to manage. So an administration that had rejected many Trump-era policies aimed at keeping out migrants, that had worked to make the asylum process easier and that had increased the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. now turned to Title 42. It brokered a deal to send the Venezuelans to Mexico, which already had agreed to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. All the while, Justice Department lawyers continue to appeal a court decision that has kept Title 42 in place. They are opposing Republican attorneys general from more than 20 states who have argued that Title 42 is “the only safety valve preventing this Administration’s already disastrous border control policies from descending into an unmitigated catastrophe.” Under Title 42, migrants have been expelled more than 2.3 million times from the U.S. after crossing the country’s land borders illegally from Canada or Mexico, though most try to come through Mexico. The administration had announced it would stop expelling migrants under Title 42 starting May 23 and go back to detaining and deporting migrants who did not qualify to enter and remain in the U.S. — a longer process that allows migrants to request asylum in the U.S. “We are extremely disturbed by the apparent acceptance, codification, and expansion of the use of Title 42, an irrelevant health order, as a cornerstone of border policy,” said Thomas Cartwright of Witness at the Border. “One that expunges the legal right to asylum.” Today’s breaking news and more in your inbox Read More…

Bowl Projections, College Football Playoff Predictions: Week 7 https://digitalalabamanews.com/bowl-projections-college-football-playoff-predictions-week-7/ Oh did this just get even more interesting. There will be plenty of upsets on the way, but until then the College Football Playoff picture remains … clear? It’s not what you think, and you’ll see what we’re talking about when we get there. There are a slew of funky things happening with this week’s bowl projections, and they all have to do with remaining schedules. Remember, a team needs to get to six wins to become bowl eligible. Michigan State might have just beaten Wisconsin, but it has to win three of its last five games against at Michigan, at Illinois, Rutgers, Indiana, at Penn State. It could happen, but the call is that it’ll lose three of those last five. Wisconsin? It has been awful at times, but it has an easier finishing kick and should sneak in with three wins in the last five games. Stanford?! Yeah, remember, it lost to four tough teams – USC, at Washington, at Oregon, Oregon State – but it can beat Arizona State, Washington State, Cal, and BYU to get to six. That might be a stretch, but that’s what the bowl projections are. Even crazier might be the number of eligible teams. Yup, we’re making the call that ESPN will crank up the Frisco Bowl Classic like it did last year to get that extra TV game on. So just as second half of the season gets going … Bowl Projections: Week 7 Bowl Projections: Week 7 2022-2023 Bowl Projections, Part 2 | New Year’s Six College Football Playoff Prediction 12-Team College Football Playoff: What If? Week 7 CFN Week 7 Rankings 1-131 | Rankings By Conference Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak 2022-2023 conference bowl tie-ins All Times Eastern HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl Friday, December 16, 2022 11:30 am, ESPN Thomas Robinson Stadium, Nassau, Bahamas Last Year: Middle Tennessee 31, Toledo 24 Bowl Ties: Conference USA vs MAC Bowl Projection: WKU vs Ball State Duluth Trading Cure Bowl Friday, December 16, 2022 3:00, ESPN Camping World Stadium, Orlando, FL Last Year: Coastal Carolina 47, Northern Illinois 41 Bowl Ties: Group of Five vs Group of Five or Army Bowl Projection: Bowling Green vs Old Dominion Wasabi Fenway Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 11:00 am, ESPN Fenway Park, Boston, MA Last Year: Canceled Bowl Ties: ACC vs American Athletic (Conference USA) Bowl Projection: Syracuse vs Tulane Cricket Celebration Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 12:00, ABC Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA Last Year: South Carolina State 31, Jackson State 10 Bowl Ties: MEAC vs SWAC Bowl Projection: North Carolina Central vs Jackson State New Mexico Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 2:15, ESPN Dreamstyle Stadium, Albuquerque, NM Last Year: Fresno State 31, UTEP 24 Bowl Ties: Mountain West vs AAC, C-USA, MAC or Sun Belt Bowl Projection: San Diego State vs North Texas Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 3:30, ABC SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA Last Year: Canceled Bowl Ties: Mountain West vs Pac-12 Bowl Projection: San Jose State vs Washington LendingTree Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 5:45, ESPN Independence Stadium, Shreveport, LA Last Year: Liberty 56, Eastern Michigan 20 Bowl Ties: MAC vs Sun Belt (C-USA) Bowl Projection: Toledo vs South Alabama SRS Distribution Las Vegas Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 7:30, ABC Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV Last Year: Wisconsin 20, Arizona State 13 Bowl Ties: Pac-12 vs SEC Bowl Projection: Stanford vs Mississippi State Frisco Bowl Saturday, December 17, 2022 9:15, ESPN Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX Last Year: San Diego State 38, UTSA 24 Bowl Ties: Group of Five vs Group of Five or Army Bowl Projection: Rice vs Wyoming Myrtle Beach Bowl Monday, December 19, 2022 2:30, ESPN Brooks Stadium, Conway, SC Last Year: Tulsa 30, Old Dominion 17 Bowl Ties: C-USA, MAC, Sun Belt Bowl Projection: Miami University vs Southern Miss Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Tuesday, December 20, 2022 3:30 ESPN Albertsons Stadium, Boise, ID Last Year: Wyoming 52, Kent State 38 Bowl Ties: MAC vs Mountain West Bowl Projection: Ohio vs Boise State RoofClaim.com Boca Raton Bowl Tuesday, December 20, 2022 7:30, ESPN FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, FL Last Year: WKU 59, Appalachian State 38 Bowl Ties: Group of Five vs Group of Five Bowl Projection: Georgia Southern vs Memphis R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl Wednesday, December 21, 2022 9:00, ESPN Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans, LA Last Year: Louisiana 36, Marshall 21 Bowl Ties: Conference USA vs Sun Belt Bowl Projection: UAB vs Coastal Carolina Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Thursday, December 22, 2022 7:30, ESPN Amon G. Carter Stadium, Fort Worth, TX Last Year: Army 24, Missouri 22 Bowl Ties: American Athletic vs Conference USA (Big 12, Pac-12) Bowl Projection: UCF vs Texas Tech Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl Friday, December 23, 2022 TBA, ESPN Ladd-Peebles Stadium, Mobile, AL Last Year: UAB 31, BYU 28 Bowl Ties: American Athletic vs Army Bowl Projection: Houston vs BYU Union Home Gasparilla Bowl Friday, December 23, 2022 TBA, ESPN Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL Last Year: UCF 29, Florida 17 Bowl Ties: ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC (AAC, C-USA) Bowl Projection: Appalachian State vs UTSA Frisco Football Classic* Friday, December 23, 2022 TBA, ESPN Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX Last Year: Miami University 27, North Texas 14 Bowl Ties: None Bowl Projection: Kansas vs Liberty *We’re making the call that once again there will be too many available bowl teams, so – this is a true projection – ESPN will revive the Frisco Football Classic to get a Big 12 team in against a bowl eligible team that has to find a spot somewhere. Easyport Hawaii Bowl Saturday, December 24, 2022 8:00, ESPN Clarence TC Ching Complex, Honolulu, HI Last Year: Canceled Bowl Ties: Conference USA vs Mountain West Bowl Projection: Middle Tennessee vs Air Force Bowl Projections: Week 7 2022-2023 Bowl Projections, Part 2 | New Year’s Six College Football Playoff Prediction 12-Team College Football Playoff: What If? Week 7 More Bowl Projections After Week 7: NEXT Read More…

MLB Playoffs: Guardians-Yankees ALDS Game 5; Astros Await https://digitalalabamanews.com/mlb-playoffs-guardians-yankees-alds-game-5-astros-await/ For the second night in a row, the only playoff game on the schedule features the New York Yankees facing the Cleveland Guardians. This time, it’s Game 5 at Yankee Stadium to decide their American League Division Series after New York staved off elimination Sunday, tying the series 2-all with a 4-2 victory in Cleveland behind $324 million ace Gerrit Cole. Aaron Civale (5-6, 4.92 ERA) starts for the Guardians, his first career postseason appearance. Jameson Taillon (14-5, 3.91) goes for the Yankees after taking the Game 2 loss in a playoff debut that marked his first major league relief outing. Taillon allowed two runs and three hits without getting an out. Civale hasn’t pitched since Oct. 5, but he’s won his last three starts with a 3.18 ERA. The right-hander was on the injured list three times this season. The winner heads to Houston for Game 1 of the best-of-seven AL Championship Series on Wednesday night against Justin Verlander and the rested Astros. Houston reached its sixth straight ALCS by completing a three-game Division Series sweep of Seattle when rookie Jeremy Peña homered in the 18th inning Saturday for a marathon 1-0 win over the Mariners. AL West champion Houston (106-56) went 4-3 against the Guardians this season and 5-2 versus the Yankees. With a history of postseason heartbreak, Cleveland teams are 1-7 in winner-take-all games — losing their last seven. The young Guardians are trying to end Major League Baseball’s longest current World Series championship drought in their first year after a franchise name change. Cleveland hasn’t won it all since 1948. Here’s what else to know about the MLB playoffs Monday: MONDAY’S SCHEDULE (All times ET) ALDS Game 5: Cleveland at New York Yankees, 7:07 p.m., TBS A LONG TIME COMING The San Diego Padres haven’t reached the World Series since 1998. The Philadelphia Phillies haven’t made it since 2009. One of them is going to the final round this year. The all-wild card matchup of Philadelphia and San Diego in the NL Championship Series features two teams that have known mostly losing in recent years. The Phillies are in the postseason for the first time since 2011, and the Padres are making the franchise’s third-ever NLCS appearance. “This is what the city’s been waiting for for a long time,” San Diego slugger Manny Machado said. Game 1 is Tuesday at Petco Park. Zack Wheeler is expected to start for Philadelphia, and Yu Darvish takes the mound for San Diego. The Phillies went 4-3 against the Padres this season, last meeting on June 26. “I don’t think any of us are shocked about where we are,” Phillies slugger Bryce Harper said. “We’re really excited about the opportunity ahead for us, and we’ve taken every opportunity and tried to go with that. And we’re just all excited as a club and a group that we can go out to the West Coast and play.” The best-of-seven matchup features a fun twist, too — Phillies ace Aaron Nola facing his older brother, Padres catcher Austin Nola. HARRISON’S HOMERS Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are the biggest sluggers in the New York Yankees’ power-packed lineup. But who knew the Cleveland Guardians would have such a hard time keeping Harrison Bader in the ballpark? Bader hit his third homer of the AL Division Series for his hometown Yankees on Sunday night, an early two-run shot that gave them a 3-0 lead on the way to a 4-2 victory in Game 4. Bader’s first three postseason homers have been his first three long balls with the Yankees. They acquired him from St. Louis in a surprising deal for starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery at the Aug. 2 trade deadline, but the Gold Glove center fielder didn’t make his New York debut until Sept. 20 because of a foot injury. “To be able to do it in a Yankees uniform is definitely sweet, no doubt about it,” Bader said. The 28-year-old Bader grew up a Yankees fan just north of New York City and went to Horace Mann School, located 5 miles from Yankee Stadium. “Every day I wake up, it feels good to be a Yankee,” he said. Bader’s three homers in the series are his three longest this season. RELIEF REPORT Both managers are expected to empty their bullpens in the Division Series finale between the Guardians and Yankees, though Cleveland’s top relievers are probably fresher. Working his third straight day, New York left-hander Wandy Peralta earned a save in Game 4 on Sunday night, retiring three batters on just seven pitches. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said it’s possible Peralta could pitch in his fifth consecutive game Monday, and Game 2 starter Nestor Cortes is also available in relief. New York’s depleted bullpen blew Game 3 on Saturday, when the Guardians became the first team in 168 postseason games to overcome a multi-run deficit in the ninth inning and beat the Yankees. Cleveland manager Terry Francona is confident Civale will pitch well, and after that he’s got Trevor Stephan, James Karinchak and All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase — his top three relievers — all rested and ready. ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Read More…

Crimson Tide Roll Call: Monday, Oct. 17, 2022 https://digitalalabamanews.com/crimson-tide-roll-call-monday-oct-17-2022/ Your daily briefing on what’s going on with Alabama athletics, and how to watch the Crimson Tide. Today is … National Pasta Day Check out and subscribe for free to our new: Newsletter YouTube channel There’s also the Bama Central Forums. Facebook: @AlabamaonSI or BamaCentral: For All Things Crimson Tide Today’s Crimson Tide Schedule Men’s Tennis: ITA Fall Regional Championships, Tuscaloosa, AL Women’s Tennis: ITA Southern Regional Championships, Baton Rouge, LA Women’s Golf: Alabama at The Ally, West Point, Miss., All Day Scroll to Continue Crimson Tide Results Men’s Tennis: The Alabama men’s tennis team finished the fourth day of play at the ITA Southern Regional Championships, which are being held at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. Enzo Aguiard, Roan Jones and Filip Planinsek highlighted play Sunday as each won their match to advance in the main draw. Women’s Tennis: The Alabama women’s tennis team continued play at the ITA Southern Regional Championships Sunday, which is being held at the LSU Tennis Complex. The Crimson Tide’s fourth day at the event was highlighted by Petra Sedlackova’s straight-set victory to advance to the semifinals of this year’s event. Soccer: No. 2 Alabama 2, No. 7 Arkansas 1 Did you notice? Quinnen Williams blocked a field goal for the New York Jets against the Green Bay Packers: Raekwon Davis sacked Kirk Cousins during the Miami Dolphins game against the Minnesota Vikings: And a penalty kick for Ashlynn Serepca propelled Alabama soccer past Arkansas to improve the Crimson Tide to an overall record of 14-1-1: On This Date in Crimson Tide History: October 17, 1985: John Parker Wilson was born in Montgomery, Ala. October 17, 2009: During what some thought was his Heisman Trophy moment, Mark Ingram Jr. churned out a career-high 246 yards, many out of a wildcat formation on the decisive drive, and scored the game-clinching touchdown to lead No. 2 Alabama to a 20-6 home victory against No. 22 South Carolina. The Crimson Tide had four turnovers, but scored on a pick-six by Mark Barron. October 17, 2015: Derrick Henry ran for a career-high 236 yards and two scores, and No. 10 Alabama had a school-record three touchdowns on interception returns for a 41-23 victory at No. 9 Texas A&M. Minkah Fitzpatrick opened and closed the scoring with returns of 33 and 55 yards, respectively, and Eddie Jackson had a 93-yard pick-six. Crimson Tide Quote of the Day: “Last year, I could just chuck it as far as I could and it was either out of bounds or no one caught it, and that was the checkdown. It’s real football now.” – Missouri quarterback Drew Lock after facing Alabama We’ll leave you with this… Read More…

Asia Shares Ease, Major Test Looms For UK Bonds https://digitalalabamanews.com/asia-shares-ease-major-test-looms-for-uk-bonds/ https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4 Nikkei down 1.4%, S&P 500 edges up after slide Focus on gilts as BoE buying ends, Truss future in doubt Dollar near 149 yen, market wary of intervention SYDNEY, Oct 17 (Reuters) – Asian share markets slipped on Monday following another drubbing for Wall Street as investors braced for a further drastic tightening in global financial conditions, with all the risks of recession that brings. Concerns about financial stability added to the corrosive mix with all eyes on UK bonds, now that the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) emergency buying spree is over. Prime Minister Liz Truss’ decision to fire her finance minister might help reassure investors, but her own fate is unclear with media reporting Tory lawmakers will try and replace her this week. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com BoE Governor Andrew Bailey warned over the weekend that interest rates might now have to rise by more than thought just a couple of months ago. “The BoE was doing emergency bond-buying that’s technically identical to QE with one hand, while furiously raising the policy rate with the other,” said analysts at ANZ in a note. “Monday’s market action will provide a test, not only for the survival of Truss’ low-tax vision, but also her political future.” Sterling was quoted up 0.4% at $1.1219 , but off the early high with trading sparse in Asia. FTSE futures fell 0.5%, and EUROSTOXX 50 futures 0.6%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) eased 1.2% and back toward last week’s 2-1/2 year low. Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) shed 1.4% and South Korea (.KS11) 0.1%. Chinese blue chips (.CSI300) dipped 0.4% ahead of GDP data due on Tuesday. S&P 500 futures edged up 0.4% after Friday’s sharp retreat, while Nasdaq futures added 0.3%. While the S&P is an eye-watering 25% off its peak, BofA economist Jared Woodard warned the slide was not over given the world was transitioning from two decades of 2% inflation to a time of something more like 5% inflation. “$70 trillion of ‘new’ tech, growth, and government bond assets priced for a 2% world are vulnerable to these secular shifts as ‘old’ industries like energy and materials surge, reversing decades of under-investment,” he wrote in a note. “Rotating out of 60/40 proxies and buying what is scarce – power, food, energy – is the best way for investors to diversify.” INTERVENTION WATCH A red-hot U.S. consumer price report and rising inflation expectations have markets fully expecting the Federal Reserve to hike rates by 75 basis points next month, and likely by the same again in December. A host of Fed policymakers are speaking this week, so there will be plenty of opportunity for hawkish headlines. The earnings season also continues with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), Netflix (NFLX.O) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) reporting, among others. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) also reports this week and the WSJ reported the investment bank plans to restructure its biggest businesses into three divisions. In China, the Communist Party Congress is expected to grant a third term to President Xi Jinping, while there could be a reshuffle of top economic roles as incumbents are near retirement age or term-limits. In currency markets, the dollar remains king as investors price in U.S. rates peaking around 5%. The yen has been particularly hard hit as the Bank of Japan sticks to its super-easy policy, while authorities refrained from intervention last week even as the dollar sped past the 148.00 level to 32-year peaks. Early Monday, the dollar was up at 148.73 yen and heading for the next target at 150.00. The euro was holding at $0.9733 , having put in a steadier performance last week, while the U.S. dollar index eased a fraction to 113.20 . The rise of the dollar and global bond yields has been a drag for gold, which was stuck at $1,648 an ounce . Oil prices were trying to bounce, after sinking more than 6% last week as fears of a demand slowdown outweighed OPEC’s plans to cut output. Brent firmed 64 cents to $92.27 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 55 cents to $86.16 per barrel. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Muralikumar Anantharaman Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

NFL Power Rankings Week 7: Where Bears Stand After Loss Vs. Commanders https://digitalalabamanews.com/nfl-power-rankings-week-7-where-bears-stand-after-loss-vs-commanders/ Bloomberg Toshiba Sale Faces Delay as Banks Wary on Financing, Sources Say (Bloomberg) — A takeover of Toshiba Corp., which could be the biggest buyout in Asia this year, is at risk of slipping behind schedule as the bidding groups run into obstacles securing financing commitments from banks.Most Read from BloombergNATO-China Tension Over Ukraine Flares at Conference in IcelandSecret Service Minimized Threats Before Jan. 6, Records ShowDeSantis Chief of Staff Planned Migrant Flights, Documents ShowThe consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners Inc. and a rival group The Brownsville Herald, Texas Hard Work, Hope: Recovery Center responds to ongoing need Oct. 16—The Recovery Center of Cameron County is celebrating its 25th anniversary knowing it could be serving three or four times as many clients if it had the personnel and state funding of a decade ago. The center occupies a suite of offices in the old Rio Grande Valley Gas building at 355 West Elizabeth St. in Brownsville. It became its own entity in 1997 after beginning life as part of the … Reading Eagle, Pa. What to know about Monday’s BCIAA field hockey quarterfinals Oct. 16—Monday’s quarterfinals: No. 5 Daniel Boone at No. 4 Twin Valley, 5:30 p.m. No. 8 Conrad Weiser at No. 1 Oley Valley, 7 p.m. No. 7 Gov. Mifflin at No. 2 Wilson, 7 p.m. No. 5 Wyomissing at No. 3 Berks Catholic, 7 p.m. Daniel Boone (9-7) vs. Twin Valley (11-7) The Blazers Who to watch: Junior Hannah Huddleson is fifth in the county in scoring with 18 goals and seven assists for 43 points. … Bloomberg Chinese Conglomerate Fosun Halts Trading Pending ‘Inside Information’ Release (Bloomberg) — Fosun International Ltd. agreed to sell its stake in the parent company of Nanjing Iron & Steel Co. for 15 billion yuan ($2.1 billion), as one of China’s largest non-state conglomerates disposes assets for debt repayment, according to people familiar with the matter.Most Read from BloombergNATO-China Tension Over Ukraine Flares at Conference in IcelandSecret Service Minimized Threats Before Jan. 6, Records ShowDeSantis Chief of Staff Planned Migrant Flights, Documents ShowJiangsu Business Wire Record-Breaking Project Twelve Teams up with BNB Chain, Quest3 and Yeeha Games, Unveiling Unprecedented Gaming Event – P12 Arcana NEW YORK, October 17, 2022–With the support of co-hosts and partners like BNB Chain, Quest3, and Yeeha Games, Project Twelve has launched the P12 Arcana game carnival in October 2022. An unprecedented event that explores the synergy between Web2 and Web3, P12 Arcana will offer the ultimate experience for a global audience of gamers, e-sport fans, Web3 enthusiasts, and beyond. Newsfile RED TOKEN (RED) Is Now Available for Trading on LBank Exchange Internet City, Dubai–(Newsfile Corp. – October 16, 2022) – LBank Exchange, a global digital asset trading platform, has listed RED TOKEN (RED) on October 14, 2022. For all users of LBank Exchange, the RED/USDT trading pair is now officially available for trading.RED Listing BannerTo view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8831/140683_0a54852b0419fa4b_001full.jpgTo reimagine entertainment for the next generation, RED TOKEN ECONOMY PROJECT fuse Read More…

Chris Christie Says Trump Took Files As 'Trophies' To Soothe His Wounded Ego https://digitalalabamanews.com/chris-christie-says-trump-took-files-as-trophies-to-soothe-his-wounded-ego/ Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie is convinced Donald Trump took White House documents to stash at his home as “trophies” to soothe his wounded ego after losing the presidential election. “He wanted to keep these documents as a trophy; that’s what they were more than anything else,” Christie told George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “He walks around and says, ‘Look, I got this, I’ve got this classified document or that.’” Trump still “can’t believe he’s not president,” Christie explained. “He needs to display to everybody down at Mar-a-Lago, or up in Bedminster … that he still has some of those trappings: the replica Resolute Desk [from the Oval Office] in Mar-a-Lago and all the rest of those things. [They’re] assuaging his disappointment and his disbelief that he’s not the president anymore,” Christie explained. Despite Trump’s motivation for taking the files, an employee told the FBI that he deliberately tried to keep them hidden, according to media reports. The staffer, identified by The Washington Post as Walt Nauta, reportedly told investigators that Trump told him to transfer boxes of documents to other locations at the Mar-a-Lago compound after the Justice Department issued a subpoena in May for missing government files. Nauta, who became a personal aide to the former president in Florida after serving as a military valet in the Trump White House, was later shown on surveillance apparently carrying out Trump’s orders. Asked if he considered that evidence of obstruction of justice, Christie, a former prosecutor, responded with an emphatic “yes.” Months after the FBI confiscated several boxes of official documents, including classified and top secret information, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound, observers are still trying to figure out his motive for taking files that were supposed to be handed over to the National Archives. Some have speculated Trump may have planned to sell documents or use them as blackmail or some other kind of “leverage,” as Stephanopoulus suggested. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related… Witness Who Said Trump Ordered Mar-A-Lago Files Moved Is ID’d As Former White House Aide Trump Employee Reportedly Gave FBI Key Evidence In Mar-A-Lago Probe Trump Freaks Out On Truth Social After More Raid Details Are Made Public Supreme Court Rejects Donald Trump’s Appeal On Classified Mar-A-Lago Docs Read More…

IVAN MOODY “Retiring From Heavy Metal” After Making One More FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH Album https://digitalalabamanews.com/ivan-moody-retiring-from-heavy-metal-after-making-one-more-five-finger-death-punch-album/ This past Friday, October 14, Five Finger Death Punch played Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado. Unexpectedly, vocalist Ivan Moody brought two of his children on stage and made the following announcement, fan-filmed video can be seen below. “I wanted to tell you this. And nobody else in the world knows, Denver, so this is where it’s going to start. And what you do with it is up to you. The last 15 years of my life I have toured the world, I have seen every country, every city on this planet at least twice. That’s a fact. And through that time as many of you parents know… I have missed a lot of time with my kiddos. So I made them a deal today, and I’m going to stick to it. After this year, I am going to make one more Five Finger Death Punch album and then I am retiring from heavy metal.” Five Finger Death Punch and Brantley Gilbert will be joining forces this fall for a massive US arena tour with support from newcomer, Corey Marks. Produced by Live Nation, the tour will kick off in Grand Rapids on November 9 and lay waste to 20 more cities before wrapping up in Las Vegas on December 17 (full routing below).  This epic run is not the first time Five Finger Death Punch and Brantley Gilbert have joined forces. The two artists brought the worlds of hard rock and country rock together when they partnered on their global #1 hit, “Blue On Black” in 2019. The track also featured Brian May, the song’s original performer, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and was in support of The Gary Sinise Foundation, to benefit first responders. To date, the collaboration has garnered a staggering 110 million YouTube views and 62 million Spotify streams, proving that this very special tour should not be missed by fans of either artist. Tour dates: November 9 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena 10 – Fort Wayne, IN – Allen County War Memorial Coliseum 12 – Lexington, KY – Rupp Arena 14 – Columbus, OH – Schottenstein Center 16 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena 17 – Knoxville, TN – Thompson-Boling Arena 19 – Charleston, WV – Charleston Coliseum & Convention Center 20 – Greenville, SC – Bon Secours Wellness Arena 22 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena 25 – Birmingham, AL – Legacy Arena at The BJCC 26 – Little Rock, AR – Simmons Bank Arena 29 – Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center 30 – Omaha, NE – CHI Health Center Omaha December 2 – Madison, WI – Coliseum at Alliant Energy Center 3 – Green Bay, WI – Resch Center 5 – Minneapolis, MN – Target Center 7 – Des Moines, IA – Wells Fargo Arena 9 – Grand Forks, ND – Alerus Center 10 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford PREMIER Center 13 – Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena 15 – Nampa, ID – Ford Idaho Center Arena 17 – Las Vegas, NV – Michelob ULTRA Arena Five Finger Death Punch released their ninth studio album, AfterLife, in August via Better Noise Music. Get your copy at this location. Tracklisting: “Welcome To The Circus” “AfterLife” “Times Like These” “Roll Dem Bones” “Pick Up Behind You” “Judgment Day” “IOU” “Thanks For Asking” “Blood And Tar “ “All I Know” “Gold Gutter” “The End” “Times Like These” lyric video: “IOU” lyric video: “AfterLife” lyric video: “Welcome To The Circus” lyric video: Read More…

Truth Social Investigation: Co-Founder Claims Trump's Media Company Violated Federal Securities Law https://digitalalabamanews.com/truth-social-investigation-co-founder-claims-trumps-media-company-violated-federal-securities-law/ There is more potential legal trouble for former President Trump, as sources tell ABC News the SEC and federal prosecutors in New York are investigating claims by a co-founder that Trump’s media company violated federal securities law. An insider is claiming Truth Social isn’t telling the truth to its investors. Federal regulators are pouring over a complaint by a former executive at Truth Social’s parent company, alleging Trump Media & Technology Group violated securities laws. “It’s serious. It’s not a good idea to be on the wrong side of a securities law violation,” said Michael Klausner, a law professor at Stanford University. Truth Social was meant to be a post-presidency business opportunity and a way for Trump to get back on social media after Twitter shut him out because of January 6. The co-founder told the Washington Post that the former president asked one executive to relinquish his shares in the company to former First Lady Melania Trump and had him removed from the board of directors when he refused. The complaint also said Trump Media tried to raise capital by making fraudulent misrepresentations about the company’s finances. “Ultimately, with respect again to the securities laws, this would all have to be disclosed,” Klausner said. Sources tell ABC News that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating, as are federal prosecutors in New York. However, there has been no comment from either. In a statement provided to ABC News, Trump Media touted its successes and said the whistleblower’s account is “rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodrama.” Copyright © 2022 ABC News Internet Ventures. Read More…

COMMENTARY: Who Said, “Never Say Never?” https://digitalalabamanews.com/commentary-who-said-never-say-never/ By Miles Jaye | Texas Metro News & Garland Journal Who said never say never? Who claimed it was wise to never say never? Never is a powerful term. Never precludes the opportunity or possibility of a particular thing taking place at present, or more importantly, in the near or distant future. Never, say never? The inability to affirm or to swear never is an indication of an inability to, or prediction of, failure to honor an oath, pledge or promise to others or to oneself. An oath is by definition a promise, commitment, vow, or a pledge. Doesn’t “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands — one Nation, (Under God), indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” assert, I will never betray my country? Consider the irony of this police officers’ oath. He or she pledges to never betray their integrity. “On my honor, I will never betray my integrity, my character, or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always maintain the highest ethical standards and uphold the values of my community, and the agency I serve.” One could argue that Donald Trump betrayed his country and should have never been elected President. The dystopia brought on by the Trump kleptocracy is at best inexcusable and at worst, irreversible. The damage inflicted on this already struggling Democracy by him, his family and his criminal miscreant cronies is immeasurable. The setbacks to human and civil rights are beyond any analytic diagnostic. It should have never happened. He should have never happened to us. He should never have been given keys to the White House. One could argue that President Donald Trump revealed the true nature and depths of ignorance, prejudice, xenophobia, institutionalized racism, and systemic stupidity camouflaged as heritage and American tradition. I would argue, the true danger in Trumpism is that it reveals, promotes, and endorses the true nature and depth of ignorance, prejudice, xenophobia, institutionalized racism, and systemic stupidity camouflaged as heritage and American tradition. Trumpism continues to provide agency and legitimacy to the likes of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Trump’s bigotry supplies encouragement and imparts permission to the passionate, and far too prevalent, violent racists among us. He fuels the engine of fear of a browning America and the frustration brought on by a diminishing white middle-class and the white privilege it engenders. Why continue to write about Donald Trump? Because it should give rise to a public outcry — never again. Trump exposed America’s vulnerability to greed, conspiracy and criminal enterprise and he hasn’t gone away. His movement remains alive and well. Unprotected by the Constitution, a common sense of decency, and absent a spirit of equity as outlined by the Declaration of Independence, we were caught with our skirt up with a trail of toilet tissue hanging from our rear — our behind exposed to the world. He was openly mocked; we were openly mocked, so let’s say it loud and say it together… NEVER AGAIN! That’s what’s on my mind! Website: http://www.milesjaye.net, Podcast: https://bit.ly/2zkhSRv, Email: milesjaye360@gmail.com Post Views: 33 Read More…

After Third Rejection Of Contract Proposal, Port Of Mobile Dock Workers Poised To Strike https://digitalalabamanews.com/after-third-rejection-of-contract-proposal-port-of-mobile-dock-workers-poised-to-strike/ Work at the Port of Mobile? Tell the World Socialist Web Site why you’re ready to strike by filling out the form at the bottom of this article. All submissions will be kept anonymous. Around 800 members of International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1410 at the Port of Mobile in Alabama are poised to strike this week after rejecting a new company contract for the third time last month. Workers at the CSA Equipment Company have been without a contract since October 2018, and already voted down two previous proposals in October 2020 and April 2021. While the union is continuing to negotiate with the company, workers will strike if no deal is reached by midnight on October 20. Local 1410 President Mark Bass reported to Al.com that three of the membership’s demands are: union control over tying up vessels, more workers assigned per unit, and retroactive payout of benefits and pensions since the last contract expired. For four years, including three during the COVID-19 pandemic, union members have had their benefits and pension funds frozen, but CSA has agreed to backpay only from October 2020. CSA, formed in 1999 out of partnership between parent company Cooper/T. Smith Stevedoring and SSA Marine, is one of several bulk, container, cargo, and rail terminals that operate out of the 3,600-acre deep-water Port of Mobile. A strike by ILA members would be a major development which would impact Alabama’s infrastructure expansion projects and the entire national supply chain. It would also objectively undermine attempts by the Biden administration to prevent strikes and enforce substandard contracts in critical infrastructure with the assistance of the union bureaucracy. For the past three months, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the West Coast counterpart of the ILA, has kept workers on the job and in the dark without a contract, in talks with unprecedented involvement from the White House. Biden also brokered a sellout contract last month with the two largest rail unions in a bid to prevent a national strike, which workers are now voting on. Just as with the Mobile workers, railroaders nationwide have been working without a contract for three years. The potential strike in Mobile is part of a broader international movement by dockworkers. In addition to the 22,000 ILWU workers on the west coast, 200 Canadian ILWU members at Westshore Terminals Ltd. and the Delta coal port in Vancouver walked off the job in September. German portworkers took part in a national strike earlier this year against the Central Association of German Seaport Operators (ZDS). In England, dockworkers in Liverpooland Felixstowe (the UK’s largest ports), both of which handle 60 percent of UK container freight, are engaged in a bitter struggle. Established in 1928, the Port of Mobile has become one of the top 20 tonnage, dry bulk, and container ports in the US as of 2020 statistics provided by the US Department of Transportation. Playing an increasingly prominent role in the global shipping and transportation supply chains in recent years, politicians from federal down to the local level have accelerated investments in the port and its interconnected logistical networks since 2020. One of the recent investment programs is the Alabama Seaport Modernization Program, a $365.7 million, four-year port expansion project initiated in May 2021 and overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its aim is to widen and deepen the Port’s waterways to 50 feet in order to facilitate the handling of larger cargo ships. Another is the Alabama-USA Corridor development project. Announced at the beginning of this year, it is a massive multi-million dollar project co-directed by Norfolk Southern, one of the five Class I rail carriers that have terminals at the port. Its aim is to increase the rail capacity of Norfolk Southern’s 3B line, stretching from Mobile up into the Birmingham area, in order “to strengthen the resiliency of the supply chain in the Southeastern United States,” according to the project’s website. The project is directly overseen by the state’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey, the state Commerce and Transportation departments, the Business Council of Alabama (whose First Vice Chairman and Executive Committee member is Angus Cooper III of Cooper/T. Smith Corporation), and Birmingham Business Alliance (one of whose investors is Norfolk Southern). US Senator Tommy Tuberville and House Representatives Robert Aderholt, Barry Moore, and Mike Rogers are also major supporters. Speaking on the significance of the project, Ivey said, “[w]orking together with the Port in Mobile to build out our infrastructure to move the commerce for Alabama and the greater southeastern region of the country must be one of our top priorities.” President of Norfolk Southern Alan Shaw stated that the “A-USA Corridor is an innovative public-private partnership that will strengthen the nation’s supply chain at a critical time and boost the regional economy.” Additionally, the Port of Mobile has received over $100 million from the federal government this year to expand its rail and freight capacity. This includes over $50 million allotted to a joint construction project between the Port and CSX rail carrier for an inland intermodal transfer facility (ICTF) in Montgomery that will increase the speed of transit between the Port and the state capital. Combined, these projects are fueling the rapid uptick in volume the Port has handled over the past year, with the Port announcing last week that it handled 56,545 20-foot containers last month, “[surpassing] July’s record of 52,911 20-foot containers, making September the largest throughput month since APM Terminals’ container operations began in 2008.” ILA Local 1410 also has members contracted with APM Terminals, whose website boasts that it “operates one of the world’s most comprehensive port networks,” with terminals and inland services stretching across five continents. Its terminals in Mobile are also in the process of a $104 million expansion. Managing director of APM Terminals Mobile Brian Harold commented on the expansion that “APM Terminals is extremely excited by this next step. This is our third expansion in six years, which underscores the high level of demand by the shipping community to utilize the Mobile gateway.” Mobile County Commission President Connie Hudson added that the “investment is further proof that Mobile County is the gateway for containerized cargo along the central gulf coast.” The Port’s expansion projects are a response to the ensnarled supply chain. Beth Branch, chief commercial officer for the Alabama Port Authority, stated that “[w]e talk daily with shippers who are actively shifting their supply chain to the Port of Mobile because their bottom line depends on it,” adding that the Port is “here to help companies reduce the landed cost of their goods and to offer reliability.” These increased investments and demands on the Port are finding their reflection in increased exploitation. ILA members that work for CSA at the Port have smaller work crews assigned to each unit than their counterparts that work at APM Terminals. Compounding this is a modern day “shape up” system where ILA members at CSA only work when a ship contracted with the company enters the docks. Because of this, job consistency is one of the demands of the workers, just as it was for the earlier generations of ILA members. ILA members confront a union bureaucracy that does everything in its power to prevent a strike from happening and, if one takes place, works day and night to ensure its isolation and suppression. With 200 local affiliates at 100 seaports, the ILA is “the largest union of maritime workers in North America, representing upwards of 65,000 longshoremen on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes, major U.S. rivers, Puerto Rico, Eastern Canada, and the Bahamas,” according to its website. Its International President, Harold J. Daggett, was elected in 2011 and is only “the ninth president in the ILA’s 124 years of existence.” Department of Labor filings indicate that he took home over $710,000 last year. Other bureaucrats in the upper echelons of the union also make six-figure salaries. Notoriously anti-communist, the ILA’s history page states that its “patriotism runs deeper than the personal convictions of the Union’s dynamic leaders – it is an expression of the central role longshoring has played in this nation’s history.” This “patriotism,” that is, the defense of American business interests, is bound up with the ILA’s $0 in expenditures on strike benefits last year, while $866 million were outlaid for “political activities and lobbying.” To wage a successful strike that will not be blindsided by the union bureaucrats means developing the organizational means through which rank-and-file control can be enforced over the entire process, including the central question of whether or not a strike will take place. There can be no doubt that, both under pressure from and in collaboration with the state government in Montgomery and with Washington, the ILA will be working overtime this week to find some means of avoiding a strike, or of limiting its scope and impact if that proves to be impossible. Read More…

Trump Complains American Jews Don't Appreciate His Moves On Israel, Drawing Criticism | CNN Politics https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-complains-american-jews-dont-appreciate-his-moves-on-israel-drawing-criticism-cnn-politics-2/ Washington CNN  —  Former President Donald Trump on Sunday criticized American Jews for what he argued was their insufficient praise of his policies toward Israel, warning that they need to “get their act together” before “it is too late!” The suggestion, made on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, plays into the antisemitic trope that US Jews have dual loyalties to the US and to Israel, and it drew immediate condemnation. “No President has done more for Israel than I have,” Trump wrote before saying it was somewhat surprising that “our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” The head of the American Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt accused Trump of “Jewsplaining.” “We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship. It is not about a quid pro quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting,” he wrote. The Jewish Democratic Council of America similarly lambasted Trump’s remarks. “His threat to Jewish Americans and his continued use of the antisemitic dual loyalty trope fuels hatred against Jews,” the group tweeted. “We will not be threatened by Donald Trump and Jewish Americans will reject GOP bigotry this November.” Trump’s comments echo an argument he has made before. In an interview last December, the former President argued that Jewish Americans “either don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel,” and also repeated his claim that evangelicals “love Israel more than the Jews in this country.” A Pew Research survey released in 2021 found that 45% of Jewish adults in the US viewed caring about Israel as “essential” to what being Jewish means, with an additional 37% saying it was “important, but not essential.” Only 16% said caring about Israel was “not important.” During his first campaign for president, Trump delivered a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition that was rife with antisemitic stereotypes. Read More…

Whistleblower Complaint Claims Trump Media Company Committed 'fraudulent Misrepresentations' https://digitalalabamanews.com/whistleblower-complaint-claims-trump-media-company-committed-fraudulent-misrepresentations/ A former executive has claimed to the government that Donald Trump’s eponymous media company — which sources say is under federal investigation — committed “fraudulent misrepresentations” regarding possible mergers with two other firms as it sought to raise money. The complaint from Will Wilkerson, a former executive at Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), alleges federal securities law violations were committed by TMTG and several company officials, as well as Benessere Capital Acquisition Corporation (BENE) and Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC). BENE and DWAC had been considered or are being used as investor vehicles to potentially take TMTG public, a move which would also ensure a reported $1 billion in further financing from other investors, should the deal close. Wilkerson’s complaint, filed in August and obtained this weekend by ABC News, alleges “fraudulent misrepresentations concerning the attempted mergers between these companies [Trump’s firm, BENE and DWAC] in violation of federal securities laws.” More specifically, Wilkerson claims in his complaint that DWAC and Trump’s media company “had substantive communications” about merging before DWAC was a public company itself, violating regulations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC and federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are investigating Trump’s company, according to sources familiar with the matter. Both agencies declined to comment to ABC News. Neither of the SPACs named in the complaint immediately responded to requests for comment. In a statement, TMTG’s legal team touted the company’s work so far — such as its launch on multiple platforms and its millions of users — while pushing back on what it described as “knowingly false and defamatory statements” in a Washington Post article on Saturday in which Wilkerson spoke about his whistleblower complaint and his time as a TMTG executive. Wilkerson was fired last week as senior vice president of operations after the Post sent questions to Trump based on his account, the paper reported. DWAC first acknowledged in December that the SEC was probing its merger with TMTG and was seeking related documents. DWAC also indicated in June that it was aware of a federal grand jury investigation in the Southern District of New York. Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference 2022 in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 26, 2022. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images, FILE The whistleblower complaint states that DWAC was substituted as the SPAC to merge with Trump’s company, TMTG, because a deal with BENE “could not sufficiently capitalize TMTG at a valuation that was acceptable to President Trump” and others involved. BENE’s CEO would have also made “less money” than if the CEO used his other, newer SPAC, according to the complaint. “For these reasons, the parties agreed to substitute BENE for DWAC” in a merger, the whistleblower complaint reads. Wilkerson’s complaint was first reported last week by The Miami Herald. TMTG launched last year and is the umbrella company for Truth Social, the platform Trump uses since being banned by most major social media websites in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Wilkerson also claimed to The Post in its Saturday report that TMTG co-founder Andy Litinsky was booted from the board because he would not hand over shares of the company to the former president’s wife, former first lady Melania Trump, when Donald Trump asked him to do so. The Post published a copy of an email that Wilkerson shared with them, apparently sent by Litinsky in March, in which Litinsky refers to Donald Trump’s alleged demand that he transfer his shares and his belief that being removed from the board was retaliation against him. The Post reported that it was not known whether Litinsky ultimately relinquished his shares. Speaking with the Post, Wilkerson attacked the leadership of TMTG CEO Devin Nunes, a former California lawmaker. In its statement, TMTG defended Nunes, saying he was hired by Donald Trump “to create a culture of compliance and build a world-class team to lead Truth Social.” The Post’s story was “rife with knowingly false and defamatory statements and other concocted psychodramas,” the company said. “We will consider republication of such statements to be legally-actionable evidence of reckless disregard for the truth.” Read More…

Bernie Sanders: Democrats Should Have The https://digitalalabamanews.com/bernie-sanders-democrats-should-have-the/ October 16, 2022 10:53 PM Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Sunday that Democrats should have the “guts” to court voters who supported former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 through policies that benefit the working class. Sanders made the comments after being asked during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press about his own efforts to appeal to those voters during his two presidential runs. Host Chuck Todd noted that a majority of Republican voters think the 2020 election was stolen before asking if those individuals were too far gone to bother campaigning for. BERNIE SANDERS URGES DEMOCRATS TO FOCUS ON MORE THAN ABORTION IN MIDTERM ELECTIONS “Look, I think there are some extreme right-wing voters who are racists, who are sexists, who are homophobes, xenophobes. No, I don’t think you’re going to ever get them,” the Vermont senator began. “But I also think there are millions of people in this country, working-class people who look at Washington and they say: ‘You know what? I’m falling further and further behind. I can’t afford health care. I can’t afford to send my kids to college. I can’t afford the outrageous costs of prescription drugs. Who is listening to me?'” What voters need, Sanders argued, “is a Democratic Party that has the guts to stand up to them and say: ‘Yeah, we’re going to take on the greed of the insurance companies, and the drug companies, and Wall Street.’ And I think if we do that, some of those people — I’m not saying all — will say, ‘You know what? I’m going to stand with the Democratic Party because on these economic issues, they’re far preferable to right-wing Republicans.'” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Despite being one of the most progressive senators in the Democratic caucus, Sanders made rural outreach a major focus during both of his presidential campaigns. Democrats in general have seen their numbers plummet in rural counties nationwide in recent decades, especially in state-wide and presidential contests. Sanders’ prescription for this was to radically increase his campaign’s efforts in rural communities, though that was not enough to win him the Democratic nomination. With regard to his policy proposals, the senator has pushed his party to move on a host of social spending and health care programs while Democrats hold their majorities in both the House and Senate. Read More…