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Saudis Say US Sought 1 Month Delay Of OPEC+ Production Cuts https://digitalalabamanews.com/saudis-say-us-sought-1-month-delay-of-opec-production-cuts/ DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia said Thursday that the U.S. had urged it to postpone a decision by OPEC and its allies — including Russia — to cut oil production by a month. Such a delay could have helped reduce the risk of a spike in gas prices ahead of the U.S. midterm elections next month. A statement issued by the Saudi Foreign Ministry didn’t specifically mention the Nov. 8 elections in which U.S. President Joe Biden is trying to maintain his narrow Democratic majority in Congress. However, it stated that the U.S. “suggested” the cuts be delayed by a month. In the end, OPEC announced the cuts at its Oct. 5 meeting in Vienna. Holding off on the cuts would have likely delayed any rise in gas prices until after the elections. Rising oil prices — and by extension higher gasoline prices — have been a key driver of inflation in the U.S. and around the world, worsening global economic woes as Russia’s months-long war on Ukraine also has disrupted global food supplies. For Biden, gasoline prices creeping up could affect voters. He and many lawmakers have warned that America’s longtime security-based relationship with the kingdom could be reconsidered. The decision by the Saudi Foreign Ministry to release a rare, lengthy statement showed how tense relations between the two countries have become. The White House pushed back on Thursday, rejecting the idea that the requested delay was related to the U.S. elections and instead linking it to economic considerations and Russia’s war on Ukraine. “We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed,” said John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council. “Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction,” he added, without naming the countries. U.S.-Saudi ties have been fraught since the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which Washington believes came on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Meanwhile, higher energy prices provide a weapon Russia can use against the West, which has been arming and supporting Ukraine. The statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry acknowledged that the kingdom had been talking to the U.S. about postponing OPEC+’s 2 million barrel cut announced last week. “The government of the kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the U.S. administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” the ministry said in its statement. The ministry’s statement confirmed details from a Wall Street Journal article this week that quoted unnamed Saudi officials saying the U.S. sought to delay the OPEC+ production cut until just before the midterm elections. The Journal quoted Saudi officials as describing the move as a political gambit by Biden ahead of the vote. The kingdom also criticized attempts to link its decision to Russia’s war on Ukraine. “The kingdom stresses that while it strives to preserve the strength of its relations with all friendly countries, it affirms its rejection of any dictates, actions, or efforts to distort its noble objectives to protect the global economy from oil market volatility,” it said. “Resolving economic challenges requires the establishment of a non-politicized constructive dialogue, and to wisely and rationally consider what serves the interests of all countries.” Both Saudi Arabia and the neighboring United Arab Emirates, key producers in OPEC, voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution Wednesday to condemn Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of four Ukrainian regions and demand its immediate reversal. In Congress, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut who long has been critical of Saudi Arabia, proposed a new freeze on military aid to the kingdom. He suggested stopping a planned transfer of surface-to-air missiles to Riyadh and instead sending them to Ukraine, which has faced a renewed barrage of Russian fire in recent days. Saudi Arabia has been targeted by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who hold that country’s capital amid the long, grinding war in the Arab world’s poorest country. American air defenses have been crucial in downing Houthi-launched, bomb-carrying drones targeting the kingdom. Once muscular enough to grind the U.S. to a halt with its 1970s oil embargo, OPEC needed non-members like Russia to push through a production cut in 2016 after prices crashed below $30 a barrel amid rising American production. The 2016 agreement gave birth to the so-called OPEC+, which joined the cartel in cutting production to help stimulate prices. The coronavirus pandemic briefly saw oil prices go into negative territory before air travel and economic activity rebounded following lockdowns around the world. Benchmark Brent crude sat over $92 a barrel early Wednesday, but oil-producing nations are worried prices could sharply fall amid efforts to combat inflation. Biden, who famously called Saudi Arabia a “pariah” during his 2020 election campaign, traveled to the kingdom in July and fist-bumped Prince Mohammed before a meeting. Despite the outreach, the kingdom has been supportive of keeping oil prices high in order to fund Prince Mohammed’s aspirations, including his planned $500 billion futuristic desert city project called Neom. Prince Mohammed and his father, King Salman, hosted former President Donald Trump on his first trip abroad and enjoyed a closer relationship with his administration. Yet even Trump pressured the kingdom over oil production, once telling a crowd that King Salman “might not be there” without U.S. military support. On Tuesday, Biden warned of repercussions for Saudi Arabia over the OPEC+ decision. “There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia,” Biden said. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be — there will be consequences.” ___ Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. Read More…

Japan Stocks Up More Than 3%, Asia Markets Gain After Wall Street's Rally https://digitalalabamanews.com/japan-stocks-up-more-than-3-asia-markets-gain-after-wall-streets-rally/ An employee works at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo, Japan, on Jan. 13, 2022. Toru Hanai | Bloomberg | Getty Images Shares in the Asia-Pacific jumped on Friday, taking the lead from Wall Street overnight as investors shook off a strong inflation report. The Nikkei 225 in Japan was 3.25% higher at 27,090.76, while the Topix gained 2.35% to 1,898.19. Japan’s yen plunged to its lowest levels against the U.S. dollar since 1990 overnight before paring losses, and is still trading at 147-levels. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was 1.93% higher in the final hour of trade after climbing 3.9% earlier in the session, and the Hang Seng Tech index was up 2.16%. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was up 1.84% at 3,071.99 and the Shenzhen Component rose 2.81% to 11,121.72. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.75% to 6,758.80. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2.3% to 2,212.55 and the Kosdaq climbed 4.09% to 678.24. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 2.15% higher. Singapore’s GDP grew 4.4% in the third quarter and is expected to further tighten its monetary policy. In the U.S., inflation data showed consumer prices increased more than expected in September, with CPI rising 0.4% from August, and 8.2% from September last year. Core inflation accelerated even faster in September. Stocks had a volatile session but ultimately rebounded to close higher, with each major index gaining more than 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,500 points from its lows to the highest level on Thursday in the U.S. “Equity investors seemingly decided that a stronger U.S. inflation [report] today still doesn’t negate expectations of a sharp declines in prices ahead,” Rodrigo Catril, currency strategist at National Australia Bank, wrote in a note Friday. He added that the rally could have been a result of short-covering. — CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Carmen Reinicke and Alex Harring contributed to this report. It’s not the right time to invest in semiconductor stocks yet, says analyst Investors should not get into the chip space yet, said chairman of Kirkland Capital, Kirk Yang, explaining that he is cautious of Taiwan and the global semiconductor landscape. Yang said the chip sector now faces a demand-side problem due to higher interest rates, the U.S. imposing restrictions on exports to China, as well as inventory corrections. “Unfortunately, we’ll continue to see negative data points for [the] next several quarters,” Yang projected. “Probably a better time to get into semiconductor stocks sometime in the first half of next year.” — Lee Ying Shan U.S. unemployment will overshoot on continued rate hikes, economist With the Federal Reserve expected to undertake more aggressive interest rate hikes, unemployment in the U.S. will rise higher than forecast, RBC Capital Markets chief U.S. economist Tom Porcelli says. Porcelli expects three more 75 basis-point hikes and predicts the Fed will get to a terminal rate of 4.75%. “But I do not believe that, you know, putting three additional 75 basis point hikes in the system is going to sort of quell near term inflationary dynamics,” he said on CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Friday. “What it will do is raise the unemployment rate meaningfully higher than what they’re forecasting for next year, which is to say, 4.4%,” he said. “There’s no way you will have a 4.4% unemployment rate with a Fed that aggressive.” At 4.75%, unemployment would be at 5% which equates to about 2 million job losses, Porcelli adds. The current U.S. unemployment rate is 3.5%. — Su-Lin Tan CNBC Pro: Don’t let the volatility ‘scare you out of stocks’: What to buy right now “Bear markets are no fun. But we do know that every bear market is eventually followed by a bull market and the trick is not to let the market volatility scare you out of stocks,” Nancy Tengler, CEO and chief investment officer of Laffer Tengler Investments, said. She believes investors should seize the opportunity to put money in the “highest quality names” amid the current market weakness, naming four stocks she likes. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong TSMC surges more than 5% after third-quarter net profit beats estimates Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company jumped as much as 5.31% after its earnings topped estimates, with third-quarter net profits surging almost 80% from a year ago. The Apple supplier’s net income rose to 280.9 billion new Taiwan dollars ($8.81 billion) for the July-September quarter – compared with 156.26 billion new Taiwan dollars for the same period in 2021. TSMC’s stock was last up 4.94%. – Jihye Lee Currency check: Japan’s yen at 32-year low, Australian dollar strengthens The Japanese yen fell to a 32-year low against the dollar overnight and hovered around 147-levels in Asia’s morning. The yen touched 147.67 per dollar after the U.S. inflation report came in hotter than expected, reaching weakest levels since August 1990. It last traded at 147.30 against the greenback. Meanwhile, the Australian dollar strengthened to $0.6329 after falling to $0.6169 following the U.S. CPI data release. “AUD quickly recovered its losses, helped by reports that the UK government would change part of its proposed fiscal policy,” Kim Mundy, a currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note. — Abigail Ng Singapore’s central bank tightens monetary policy as expected The Monetary Authority of Singapore tightened its monetary policy in a widely expected move as inflation pressures weigh on the economy. The central bank said it will re-center the mid-point of its exchange rate policy band known as the Singapore dollar Nominal Effective Exchange Rate. The MAS left the slope and width of the policy band unchanged. Singapore controls policy through its exchange rate rather than interest rates. It manages the strength or weakness of the Singapore dollar against its main trading partners. Inflation stood at 7.5% in August. Read the story here. — Abigail Ng China’s September consumer price index grows at fastest pace since April 2020 China’s September consumer price index grew annually at 2.8%, the fastest pace since April 2020, pushed higher by food costs. Food prices rose by 8.8% annually. The nation’s CPI rose by 0.3% in September from August, missing estimates of 0.4% in a Reuters poll. The producer price index for the month grew 0.9% compared to a year ago, also missing expectations of 1% that economists surveyed by Reuters predicted. — Jihye Lee Singapore’s GDP for the third quarter comes in at 4.4% Singapore’s gross domestic product grew 4.4% in the third quarter from the same period last year, according to advance estimates released by the government, much higher than 3.4% predicted by analysts in a Reuters poll, and in line with growth in the second quarter. GDP in the third quarter also expanded 1.5% from the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, meaning Singapore avoided a technical recession. Second-quarter GDP contracted 0.2% from the first quarter.  The Ministry of Trade and Industry in August narrowed Singapore’s GDP forecast for 2022 to 3% to 4%, compared to an earlier 3% to 5%. Read more here. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: Stocks in this key market are outperforming the S&P 500 — and it’s not where you might expect The S&P 500 has lost 25% of its value so far this year, but could still fall by “another easy 20%,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon predicted on Monday. Its sharp decline is a familiar story around the world, as investors flee stocks. But one “surprising” index is bucking the trend and beating the S&P 500 this year. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong Stocks close higher after remarkable Thursday reversal Stocks closed higher Thursday after staging a major reversal in intraday trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 827 points, or 2.83%, to close at 30,038.06 after being down more than 500 points earlier in the day. The S&P 500 ticked up 2.60% to 3,669.87, breaking a six-day losing streak. The Nasdaq Composite gained 2.23% to end the day at 10,649.15. —Carmen Reinicke Read More…

Nancy Pelosi 'wanted To Punch Trump' If He Came To Capitol Hill – Social News XYZ https://digitalalabamanews.com/nancy-pelosi-wanted-to-punch-trump-if-he-came-to-capitol-hill-social-news-xyz/ Washington, Oct 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly wanted to “punch (Donald) Trump in the face and go to jail if he came to Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021, when supporters of the former President invaded the Congress building. A new footage of the Speaker on the day of the riot shot by her daughter Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker, showed an enraged Nancy Pelosi at the invasion on Capitol Hill’s saying: “If he (Trump) comes, I’m going to punch him out”. “I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m going to punch him out and I’m going to go to jail and I’m going to be happy,” she said. In the footage released by CNN on Thursday evening, Nancy Pelosi and others are seen scrambling to request help to secure the Capitol. She was furious with the former President over his plans to march to the Capitol. The footage showed Nancy Pelosi watching Trump’s speech at the “Save America” rally that preceded the riot, during which he said they were all going to march to the Capitol in protest of the 2020 presidential election results, media reports said. A staffer informs the Speaker that the secret service told Trump not to join the march to the Capitol because it would not be safe, adding, “so at the moment he is not coming but that could change”. Trump ultimately did not march to the Capitol with his supporters, but that march devolved into the mob that broke into the building, forcing lawmakers to flee, CNN reported. The footage followed Nancy Pelosi as she evacuated from the building, constantly making phone calls to request help to secure the Capitol and continue the election certification process. Shewas moved to a secure location at Fort McNair, along with Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell and Representatives Steny Hoyer and Kevin McCarthy. The footage shows Nancy Pelosi and Schumer scrambling to request help from the Trump administration, including the activation of the National Guard. Some of the footage was shown publicly for the first time earlier on Thursday, during the House select committee’s hearing. During the hearing, which may be the last, the committee voted unanimously to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony. Ultimately Vice President Mike Pence called up the National Guard for help while Trump remained reportedly inactive for 187 minutes. Source: IANS About Gopi Gopi Adusumilli is a Programmer. He is the editor of SocialNews.XYZ and President of AGK Fire Inc. He enjoys designing websites, developing mobile applications and publishing news articles on current events from various authenticated news sources. When it comes to writing he likes to write about current world politics and Indian Movies. His future plans include developing SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgment towards any. He can be reached at gopi@socialnews.xyz Read More…

Jimmy Fallon Draws Wacky Parallel Between Trump And Michael Myers https://digitalalabamanews.com/jimmy-fallon-draws-wacky-parallel-between-trump-and-michael-myers/ Jimmy Fallon tied Donald Trump to “Halloween” villain Michael Myers and a new Burger King Whopper after the former president made false claims about other presidents’ record-storing habits. Fallon weighed in on the fraudulent claims Trump made during a campaign rally on Saturday where he pushed for the investigation and prosecution of former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Barack Obama along with former Democratic rival, Hilary Clinton. On Sunday, Trump claimed that George H.W. Bush “took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant,” a remark that even took Bush’s son Jeb Bush by surprise. The case Trump appeared to cite was actually one from “the National Archives and Records Administration – not the former presidents themselves,” which used secure facilities to temporarily store documents, FactCheck.org said. The Bush claim stemmed from the archive’s usage of a former bowling alley and Chinese restaurant to hold Bush’s records during the construction of his presidential library in the ’90s. “Man, this guy just will not go away. Trump’s basically the real life version of Michael Myers,” quipped Fallon. Fallon also discussed Burger King’s new Ghost Pepper Whopper, a sandwich that features ghost pepper cheese, jalapeños and an orange bun. “That thing ain’t natural. I mean, seriously, why would you want a bun that’s freakishly, orange?” Fallon joked as he flashed an image of Trump. Watch the rest of “The Tonight Show” host’s segment below: This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related… Jimmy Kimmel Spots Trump’s Most ‘Embarrassing’ Moment From Jan. 6 Hearings Debate Audience Laughs When Sen. Ron Johnson Insists He Was ‘Set Up’ By The FBI Witness Who Said Trump Ordered Mar-A-Lago Files Moved Is ID’d As Former White House Aide Read More…

“Only If Trump Was The President,” European Leaders Begin Missing Trump As The War Seems Endless https://digitalalabamanews.com/only-if-trump-was-the-president-european-leaders-begin-missing-trump-as-the-war-seems-endless/ According to Politico, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stressed that only Former US President Donald Trump could end the war in Ukraine. Reportedly, the Hungarian PM asserted that peace negotiations are the need of the hour between the U.S. and Russia, with Trump serving as the American representative. Furthermore, Viktor Orbán asserted that only American military assistance has encouraged Ukraine to carry on fighting, adding that “the Ukrainians have infinite resources since they get all that from the Americans.” Orbán believes that the current U.S. President Joe Biden is not the adequate person to lead the negotiations, as he has “gone too far” with his accusations and provocation attempts against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Is Europe missing Trump? Orban has also claimed that the “war would never have broken out if Donald Trump was still head of the United States and Angela Merkel was the German Chancellor.” Well, without any shadow of a doubt, Viktor Orban has never been a great fan of Joe Biden and the Democrats of the USA. Furthermore, just a week ago, the Hungarian PM joined twitter and pitched, “European politics is not formulated by institutions in #Brussels. I believe that European politics resides in Berlin, Budapest, Warsaw, and Lisbon. European politics is none other than the totality of the will of Member States. There is no European position above that.” Some say that European politics is formulated by institutions in #Brussels. I believe that European politics resides in Berlin, Budapest, Warsaw and Lisbon. European politics is none other than the totality of the will of Member States. There is no European position above that. pic.twitter.com/4LSZxPC7aw — Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) October 12, 2022 In recent times, several European leaders, including French President Macron and Finnish PM Sanna Marin have expressed their dissatisfaction with Biden and his non-sensical approach to the Ukraine war. Biden has practically enslaved and blackmailed European countries to continue fighting for Ukraine. Russia and Europe’s ties have been shattered by Biden alone. Read More: It’s official: Trump prevented the war in Ukraine by delaying NATO’s incendiary plans Times were different in 2016-2020 However, things were a lot different when Donald Trump was the President of the United States. Firstly, the crisis in Ukraine is not new at all. The tensions were still high during the Trump era. In 2019, Trump approved the US federal budget, which included around $400 million in military funding to aid NATO’s efforts to stave off Russian forces in Ukraine and the US. Trump highlighted that the assistance should only be used in retribution and not as a means of provocation. Source: Financial Times Trump has often emphasized that official talks between Ukraine and Russia are the only way to settle disputes pertaining to the Donbas region. Even a meeting between Zelensky and Putin at the Normandy conference was arranged at the request of US and EU leaders. There were no signs of a possible war. Trump even tried maintaining a fine line between Russia and the EU. At the UN summit, Trump had warned Germany and the rest of Europe to stop relying on Russia for energy as Putin in future could choke these supplies. Guess what, he was not wrong at all. Putin has undoubtedly choked Europe’s energy. Read More: Viktor Orban and Donald Trump are creating a ‘global right’ movement to bring peace A Changing mood Pushing Zelensky against Putin has been a great bargain for the Democrats. Now as EU industries are also opening operations in the USA, American revenues are skyrocketing. As a result, the EU is becoming dependent on the USA. Additionally, Biden is threatening nuclear war now. The US President emphasized a few days ago that Putin is driving the globe toward “armaggedon.” Pentagon employees and EU politicians did not appreciate these remarks. Due to these faulty approaches of Biden, the tides are turning against him in the European Union. France and Germany are openly raising questions over US’ intent and claiming they don’t want World War III. Read More: The day of reckoning for radical democrats is coming who framed Trump for the Capitol riots When Trump was the President of the United States, the EU consistently criticized him, branding him a megalomaniac who might ignite World War III. They now realize that Joe Biden, who was formerly thought to be a savior of the world, could be the catalyst for the Third World War. They are now pleading with Trump to engage in peace talks, which, to be honest, is what Europe needs right now. Read More…

Rockets Notes: Smith, Sengun, Silas, Season Preview https://digitalalabamanews.com/rockets-notes-smith-sengun-silas-season-preview/ October 13th 2022 at 7:35pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum Rockets rookie big man Jabari Smith Jr. remains sidelined as he continues to rehabilitate from a sprained left ankle, though he was cleared for contact practices on Tuesday, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. The 6’10” power forward, the third pick out of Auburn, expressed confidence that he might be available for Houston’s 2022/23 season opener, scheduled for Wednesday, October 19, against the Hawks. “I’m working to get back in shape now, just getting ready, getting my body ready for the first regular-season game,” Smith said. “It’s been tough, just sitting out, watching my teammates get better. I’m working to get better. I know I’ll be back in no time. It’s a long season.” There’s more out of Houston: Second-year Rockets center Alperen Sengun is working to get more involved in Houston’s offense, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle in a separate piece. “Al-P’s strength is having the basketball and he hasn’t had the ball much,” head coach Stephen Silas remarked. “He’s been a pick-and-roll player. As we go through training camp, which is still going on, he’ll get his post-ups and he’ll get his elbow catches and it’ll be more comfortable for him.” Rockets head coach Stephen Silas has rejoined the club following a week-long absence due to his second COVID-19 infection, per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Silas missed two Houston preseason contests and four team practices. Assistant coach John Lucas led the team in Silas’s absence. “It wasn’t a great experience going through it… but I feel good now,” Silas said. “I told the guys this; the hardest part is not seeing them and not being around them. The practices, it is what it is, the drills and the games and stuff. But just being around these guys, they’re such a fun group — I missed them.” With Rockets first-round draft selections Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason and TyTy Washington Jr. now in the fold, joining young players Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., Kenyon Martin Jr., Josh Christopher, and Usman Garuba, the rebuilding Rockets appear poised to enjoy a fascinating 2022/23 season of development, though that probably won’t translate to wins. John Hollinger of The Athletic previews the club’s season outlook, projecting a 22-60 finish. Read More…

CNN Obtains Footage Of Pelosi Saying She’d 'punch Him Out' If Trump Went To Capitol On January 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/cnn-obtains-footage-of-pelosi-saying-shed-punch-him-out-if-trump-went-to-capitol-on-january-6/ On Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday, CNN aired previously unseen footage of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on January 6, 2021, both before and after the storming of the Capitol. At one point, while watching former President Trump’s speech at The Ellipse in which he told his supporters to march on the Capitol, saying he’d go with, Pelosi left no doubt about how she felt about the former president. “I hope he comes. I’m gonna punch him out,” Pelosi said. “This is my moment. I’ve been waiting for this. For trespassing on the Capitol grounds, I’m gonna punch him out and I’m gonna go to jail, and I’m gonna be happy.” In later footage, Pelosi is seen huddled with other members of Congress speaking with Acting Secretary of Defense Christophe Miller, who was appointed to the position after Trump had lost the election. Along with Pelosi is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who would later falsely blame Pelosi for the lack of security at the Capitol that day, when in fact it was Miller who stripped the commander of the D.C. National Guard of his ability to deploy troops just two days before the insurrection. Any troop deployment had to get the okay from Miller. In the video, Pelosi is seen urging Miller to allow the National Guard to secure the Capitol. “Just pretend for a moment it was The Pentagon or the White House or some other entity that was under siege,” Pelosi said to Miller. “You can logistically get people there as you make the plan, and you have some leadership of the National Guard there, they have not been given the authority to activate.” Read More…

NJ Spotlight News | Jan. 6 Committee Shows New Testimony Against Trump, Allies | Season 2022 | PBS https://digitalalabamanews.com/nj-spotlight-news-jan-6-committee-shows-new-testimony-against-trump-allies-season-2022-pbs/ Skip to Main Content Use one of the services below to sign in to PBS: You’ve just tried to add this video to My List. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. You’ve just tried to add this show to My List. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. Sign in with PBS Account Sign in with Google Sign in with Facebook Sign in with Apple By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. You have the maximum of 100 videos in My List. We can remove the first video in the list to add this one. You have the maximum of 100 shows in My List. We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. NJ Spotlight News Clip: 10/13/2022 | 6m 35s | Video has closed captioning. In the final public hearing on Thursday before the midterm elections, the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection made its strongest case yet, with the committee’s Republican vice chair saying that the majority of evidence collected shows the central cause of the deadly riot was one man — former President Donald Trump. Aired: 10/13/22 Rating: NR Report a Problem Before you submit an error, please consult our Troubleshooting Guide. Type of Error Please add more details Your report has been successfully submitted. Thank you for helping us improve PBS Video. NJ Spotlight News is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN. Read More…

Russia’s Airstrikes, Intended To Show Force, Reveal Another Weakness https://digitalalabamanews.com/russias-airstrikes-intended-to-show-force-reveal-another-weakness/ On Monday, Russia fired 84 missiles, many at Ukrainian civilian infrastructure targets, causing power outages in many cities. On Tuesday, Russia launched another 28 cruise missiles. And on Thursday, the Ukrainian Armed Forced General Staff said Russia had hit more than 40 settlements since the day before. In all, more than three dozen people were killed. But no matter how many times Russia fires at Ukraine, pro-war Russian nationalists want more, even though targeting civilian infrastructure is potentially a war crime. “It has to be done constantly, not just once but for two to five weeks to totally disable all their infrastructure, all thermal power stations, all heating and power stations, all power plants, all traction substations, all power lines, all railway hubs,” said Bogdan Bezpalko, a member of the Kremlin’s Council on Interethnic Relations. “Then, Ukraine will descend into cold and darkness,” Bezpalko said on state television. “They won’t be able to bring in ammunition and fuel and then the Ukrainian army will turn into a crowd of armed men with chunks of iron.” But the hawks, who are demanding publicly on TV broadcasts and on Telegram to know why Russia does not hit more high value targets, won’t like the answer: The Russian military appears to lack sufficient accurate missiles to sustain airstrikes at Monday’s tempo, according to Western military analysts. “They are low on precision guided missiles,” said Konrad Muzyka, founder of Gdansk, Poland-based Rochan Consulting said, offering his assessment of Russia’s sporadic air attacks. “That is essentially the only explanation that I have.” Even as NATO allies on Thursday said they would rush additional air defenses to Ukraine, the experts said the reason Russia had yet to knock out electricity and water service across the country was simple: it can’t. Since May, Russia’s use of precision guided missiles (PGMs) has declined sharply, with analysts suggesting then that Russian stocks of such missiles may be low. Tuesday’s attacks mainly used air-launched cruise missiles, which are slower than Iskander guided missiles and easier for Ukraine to shoot down, according to Muzyka. In March, the Pentagon reported that Russia’s air-launched cruise missiles have a failure rate of 20 to 60 percent. “If Russia had a limitless supply of PGMs, I think that they would still strike civilian targets, because that’s what the Russian way of warfare is,” Muzyka said. He said analysts did not have confirmed information about Russian missile stocks or production levels, and judgments were based on the decline in usage of PGMs and Moscow’s greater reliance on less accurate missiles. At least one person was killed in Zaporizhzhia in a new round of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine on Oct. 11, according to the State Emergency Service. (Video: The Washington Post) But a clue lies in Russia’s failure to destroy the kinds of targets that Ukraine is able to hit using U.S.-supplied HIMARS artillery. “If we take a look at what HIMARS has done to Russian supply routes, and essentially their ability to sustain war, they’ve done massive damage to Russia’s posture in this war,” Muzyka said. “So technically, you know, if the Russians had access to a large stock of PGMS, they could probably inflict a similar damage to Ukrainian armed forces, but they haven’t.” “They actually failed to,” he continued. “They even failed to interdict the main Ukrainian supply roads. They failed to destroy bridges, railway, railway intersections, and so on and so forth.” Russian President Vladimir Putin is juggling so many military problems that some Western analysts are already predicting Russia’s war will fail. Others say it remains too early to write Russia off, especially with hundreds of thousands of conscripted reinforcements potentially headed to the battlefield in coming weeks. Since day one, Russia has sustained shocking levels of battlefield casualties, battering military morale. It has suffered repeated defeats, including the failure to take Kyiv, a retreat from Snake Island, the rout in Kharkiv and loss of Lyman, a strategic transit hub. Ukrainian forces also continue to slowly recover territory in Kherson region, in their ongoing southern offensive. Russia’s military mobilization also remains in shambles, with angry draftees posting videos online almost daily, complaining of insufficient training and poor equipment. Moscow police raided hostels and cafes on Tuesday to grab men and deliver them to mobilization points, and military recruitment is continuing in Russian prisons, according to independent Russian media site SOTA. Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King’s College London, wrote in a newsletter that Russia’s escalation of missile attacks on civilian targets Monday had achieved no clear military gain. “Russia lacks the missiles to mount attacks of this sort often, as it is running out of stocks and the Ukrainians are claiming a high success rate in intercepting many of those already used,” Freedman wrote. “This is not therefore a new war-winning strategy but a sociopath’s tantrum.” Putin’s “need to calm his critics also explains why he has lashed out against Ukrainian cities,” Freedman wrote. “The hard-liners have been demanding attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure for some time and they now have got what they wanted. But they will inevitably be disappointed with the results.” “These attacks could well be repeated, because it is part of the mind-set of Putin and his generals that enemies can be forced to capitulate by such means,” he added. “But stocks of Kalibr and Iskander missiles are running low.” Amid Russia’s military setbacks, striking at Ukraine’s power grid in recent days was designed to shock and terrify civilians, starve them of energy in the winter and break their will to resist, according to Maria Shagina, an analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank. Kyiv residents cleared debris from their homes and stores after a Russian missile attack on Oct. 10. (Video: Reuters) One apparent goal of Russia’s strikes on six electrical substations in Lviv, western Ukraine, was to stop Ukraine exporting electricity to Europe, Shagina said. The strikes also crippled the city’s power supply. “Now we’re seeing the escalation and weaponization of the critical infrastructure,” she said, adding that it was no accident that Russia had destroyed Ukraine’s capacity to export electricity to Europe at the same time Moscow has weaponized natural gas, cutting supplies to pressure European Union countries. “There is some intensification of the war, in terms that Russia doesn’t hide even the fact that they have attacked civilian infrastructure, critical infrastructure,” Shagina added. “They’re trying to escalate the war as much as they can.” Muzyka said Russia, ignoring international conventions, has consistently targeted civilian apartment blocks and infrastructure in two Chechen wars, in Syria and Ukraine. “Definitely they focus on the power grid as a way of making civilian lives miserable,” he said. “For Russians, striking civilian areas, residential areas and anything that can potentially impact the lives of civilians is a military objective, because for Russia, the war is total.” “Essentially what the Russians are trying to do is to wear down Ukrainians, decrease the morale, decrease the willingness to fight and from their point of view, hopefully increase the pressure on the Ukrainian government to enter negotiations with Russia,” he added. Ukraine has asked Western allies for state of the art air defense systems to protect its civilians and vital infrastructure. But even as NATO pledged more help, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that getting those systems to Ukraine would take time. “Unfortunately, the Western response is rather limited,” Shagina said, adding that Russia is trying “to use the full range of measures they can deploy against the West and Ukraine.” But no matter how harsh the attacks, the hawks in Russia say it is still not enough. Russian journalist Andrei Medvedev, a member of the Moscow city council, who runs a popular hard line nationalist pro-war Telegram channel, urged patience, saying the decision “to bomb Ukraine into the Middle Ages” had not yet been taken. Another hawk, Alexander Kots, the war correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda, who has his own influential pro-war Telegram channel, said he hoped the strikes signaled a new kind of warfare that would bombard Ukraine “until it loses its ability to function.” Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report. Read More…

Michigan Gubernatorial Debate: Whitmer And Dixon Portray Each Other As Radical, 'dangerous' https://digitalalabamanews.com/michigan-gubernatorial-debate-whitmer-and-dixon-portray-each-other-as-radical-dangerous/ GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican challenger Tudor Dixon debated for one hour Thursday over abortion, education, school safety, the state’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the condition of Michigan’s roads. Each painted the other as a radical in the lively confrontation, hosted by WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Each accused the other of distorting their positions, in the first of two scheduled debates between them. The last four years, under Whitmer’s leadership, have been “disappointing at best,” said Dixon, a businesswoman. “Everything is more expensive. Our communities are less safe,” she said. “Our schools are getting worse and our roads haven’t been fixed.” Whitmer said Dixon’s pledge to make children and families safer is undermined by her opposition to gun control measures such as red-flag laws, background checks, and keeping schools free of guns except those carried by law enforcement and trained security officers. “She is too dangerous and too out of touch to be trusted with protecting our kids,” Whitmer said of Dixon. “My opponent is long on rhetoric and short on facts.” MIDTERM ELECTION RACES TO WATCH: Control of the Senate is now a coin flip ‘Spirited debate’ A pivotal moment was when Dixon, who favors an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother, said she would honor the will of the people if Michigan voters on Nov. 8 approve Proposal 3, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. “I will always respect the will of the voters,” Dixon said. That statement brought an instant retort from Whitmer, a Democrat who has been governor since 2019. “That’s really ironic,” she said, noting Dixon has not accepted the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Dixon stated during a primary debate in Livingston County that former President Donald Trump — not President Joe Biden — was the rightful winner despite an absence of evidence of fraud affecting the election outcome, and has not pledged to accept the results of the pending Nov. 8 vote. Still, Aaron Kall, director of debates at the University of Michigan, said he heard plenty of zingers from both candidates but no gaffes or devastating comments that would change the direction of the race. “That was a great, spirited debate,” Kall said. “I think both candidates held their own.” Whitmer and Dixon held their first debate the same day the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. published a poll showing Whitmer’s lead shrinking in the race, but the governor was still ahead of Dixon by 11 percentage points. A poll conducted in September by the same firm, EPIC-MRA of Lansing, showed Whitmer with a 16-point lead. WILL REPUBLICANS FLIP THE HOUSE?: These 12 midterm races will tell the story. Abortion takes center stage Just as she has led in the polls, Whitmer holds a huge financial advantage over Dixon as she seeks a second four-year term on Nov. 8. Millions of dollars in campaign ads in support of Whitmer have hammered Dixon on the abortion issue, which has energized Democratic voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. Whitmer has touted her record, which includes historic investments in public schools and billions of dollars in promised investments in Michigan’s manufacturing sector, much of it tied to electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Dixon has emphasized close ties between Whitmer and Biden, saying excessive government spending backed by both leaders has fueled inflation. She has also called for more school choice, including public support of private schools, and more parental control over curricula. Whitmer and Dixon both went on the offensive early, with each accusing the other of lying about their positions on abortion. Whitmer said Dixon wants to put Michigan back under a 1931 law that criminalizes most abortions and would “throw doctors and nurses in jail,” while “I am fighting to protect our right to choose.” Dixon denied wanting to criminalize abortion, despite having described the 1931 law that would do that as “a good law.” She accused Whitmer of wanting to allow “abortion up to the moment of birth.” That’s ridiculous, said Whitmer, who in terms of abortion restrictions said she favors the status quo that existed in Michigan before Roe v. Wade was struck down. HERSCHEL WALKER CAMPAIGN EVENT: Georgia GOP candidate denies abortion report as supporters stick with him Electric vehicles, roads, and taxes Dixon accused Whitmer of failing to honor her signature 2018 campaign pledge to “fix the damn roads,” and of moving the goalposts by now claiming she never promised to do that in a single term. She also reminded viewers of Whitmer’s unsuccessful push for a 45-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, soon after taking office. “Gretchen Whitmer wants you to pay more for gas, to force you into EVs (electric vehicles),” Dixon said. That charge brought a brief laugh from Whitmer, who during the debate described many of Dixon’s assertions as “ridiculous.” As for road repairs, “there are orange cones and barrels all over the state,” Whitmer said. “We are fixing the damn roads and they are built to last,” but years of infrastructure neglect can’t be reversed overnight, she said. Whitmer stressed that she has a bipartisan and pragmatic approach to resolving issues that she said Dixon lacks, saying: “I will work with anyone who is serious about solving problems.” Dixon countered that Whitmer’s policies “are radical, dangerous, and destructive.” Dixon also criticized Whitmer over her vetoes of certain Republican tax cut proposals, including a March plan to cut taxes on personal income and fuel, a separate gas tax pause passed in April, and a $2.5 billion income tax cut the Legislature sent her in March. Whitmer has proposed her own gas tax pause and says she wants to end a tax on certain retirement income and send $500 checks to all Michigan working families. She has generally said that cuts the GOP has proposed are not sustainable when most of the state’s surplus funds are one-time. Dixon also blasted Whitmer for vetoing, in July, money for pregnancy support centers that oppose abortion rights, a $2 million tax credit for adoptive parents, and a $10 million marketing program to promote adoption as an alternative to abortion. Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said at the time that Whitmer vetoed funds for what is sometimes known as “fake women’s health centers” or “pregnancy resource centers,” that frequently “use deceptive advertising that target young women and women with low incomes who are seeking abortion care,” while “painting themselves as comprehensive, licensed health care clinics that provide all options, and then lie to women about medical facts.” The second, and likely final debate, is scheduled for Oct. 25 at Oakland University. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan gubernatorial debate: Whitmer and Dixon spare over records Read More…

'Sad And Tragic Day': Off-Duty Officer, 4 Others Dead In Raleigh Mass Shooting; Suspect In Custody https://digitalalabamanews.com/sad-and-tragic-day-off-duty-officer-4-others-dead-in-raleigh-mass-shooting-suspect-in-custody/ RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Raleigh Police said a suspect is in custody hours after a mass shooting that left five people dead, including an off-duty police officer. Police announced at a 10:45 p.m. news conference that the suspected shooter is a juvenile who is a White male and is in the hospital. RPD Lt. Jason Borneo said he could not provide any other details. There is a news conference scheduled for Friday morning. “This is a sad and tragic day for the City of Raleigh,” a visibly emotional Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said at an earlier news conference Thursday night. Gov. Roy Cooper was present at the late news conference. “Terror has reached our doorstep. The nightmare of every community has come to Raleigh,” Cooper said. WATCH: Gov. Cooper among those at late evening briefing He thanked law enforcement agencies for their bravery and work in capturing the shooter after losing one of their own. Officers first responded around 5:13 p.m. Thursday to an active shooting call near the Neuse River Greenway in the Hedingham neighborhood near Osprey Cove Drive and Bay Harbor Drive. An off-duty Raleigh police officer was shot and killed. Another officer who was shot has been released from the hospital. A K-9 officer was also shot but he suffered what Baldwin said were non-life-threatening injuries. Baldwin said two people were transported to WakeMed, including the K-9 officer who was shot in the knee and released from the hospital late Thursday evening. The civilian victim was in critical condition as of late Thursday. “All of us in Raleigh right now need to come together,” Baldwin said. “We need to support those in our community who have suffered a terrible loss; a loss of a loved one. We need to support the family of the police officer who was killed and also the police officer who was shot.” The mayor urged all who are “watching or listening” to reach out to those you love and let them “know you care.” “We must do more We must stop this mindless violence in America. We must address gun violence,” Baldwin said. “We have much to do and tonight, we have much to mourn.” WATCH: Raleigh officials give update on shooting Cooper tweeted that he had talked to Mayor Baldwin and was deploying state resources to assist at the scene. “DPS is providing any needed resources as requested in this investigation and working with local law enforcement to stop this shooter,” said NCDPS Secretary Eddie M. Buffaloe Jr. ATF Special Agents also responded to the scene. Police reportedly cornered the suspect in a barn off Buffaloe Road, a law enforcement source told ABC11. Police would only say that the suspect was “contained” before tweeting Thursday night that the suspect was in custody. Officers were working at least four separate crime scenes. “It’s a very tragic day for us and we ask for your prayers during this very challenging time for us,” Borneo said. Borneo said Police Chief Estella Patterson was away at a conference but had been kept up to date on developments. She was expected to fly back to Raleigh overnight. WATCH: Residents being allowed back into neighborhood People who live and work in that area were advised to remain in their homes and to contact 911 if they see anything or anyone suspicious. Residents who were on their way home were allowed to go into the neighborhood Thursday evening after waiting for several hours. Others who arrived later were told by police that it would be several more hours before they could get into the Eagle Trace Drive area. A resident who spoke to ABC11 said the neighborhood was in shock. “A lot of police activity, honestly I was actually in the house with my child, my oldest child, and we were hearing a lot of sirens and it was like, kind of alarming because it was more than a couple,” Victoria McGraw said. “The most alarming part had to be my youngest daughter, she was with her dad, and he just kept calling me, like what was going on, and he was seeing a flood of police officers coming in and that’s when I looked outside and there were police officers up and down the street.” McGraw said she stepped outside and saw officers waving to neighbors to go into their houses. WATCH: Hedingham resident recounts confusion as officers swarmed scene “One of the officers informed me that there was some gunman around,” McGraw said. Copyright © 2022 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved. Read More…

AP News Summary At 1:44 A.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-144-a-m-edt/ Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented vivid new video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders pleading for help. And it outlined Trump’s multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss. Police: 5 killed, including officer, in N. Carolina shooting RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina say that the suspect who killed five people in a shooting was a juvenile male. Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said that the suspect was taken into custody around 9:37 p.m. Thursday, hours after the shooting. His identity and age weren’t released. Authorities have said that he opened fire along a walking trail in a residential area northeast of downtown. Authorities say an off-duty police officer was among those slain. Two other people, including another police officer, were taken to hospitals. The officer was later released, but the other survivor remained in critical condition. NKorea fires missile and shells, further inflaming tensions SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch happened early Friday but gave no further details. It’s the latest in a spate of missile launches by North Korea in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says North Korea also flew warplanes near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There have been no reports of clashes between the two Koreas. North Korea’s military also issued a statement accusing South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border Thursday. Ukraine gets more air defense pledges as Russia hits cities KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s allies have committed to providing advanced air defense systems to protect against Russia’s missile intensifying missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskky said Thursday such systems would “protect our sky from the terror of Russia” and help end the war. Responding to Zelenskyy’s pleas, Britain announced it would provide missiles for advanced NASAM anti-aircraft systems that the Pentagon plans to send to Ukraine. The U.K. is also providing hundreds of aerial drones. Russian forces attacked the Kyiv region with Iran-made kamikaze drones and fired missiles at civilian targets Thursday as payback for the bombing of a strategic bridge linking Russia with annexed Crimea. US migrant policy ‘bucket of cold water’ to some Venezuelans NECOCLI, Colombia (AP) — Venezuelan Gilbert Fernández still plans to cross the dangerous Darién jungle into Panama headed over land toward the U.S. despite Washington’s announcement that it will grant conditional humanitarian permits only to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants arriving by air. Fernández says that “the news hit us like a bucket of cold water.” The announcement also said that Venezuelans arriving by land at the Mexico-U.S. border would be returned to Mexico. Fernández spoke on a beach in Necoclí, a coastal town in Colombia where some 9,000 people, mostly Venezuelans, wait to board a boat to take them to the entrance of the Darién Gap. High court rejects Trump plea to step into Mar-a-Lago case WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected former President Donald Trump’s plea to step into the legal fight over the FBI search of his Florida estate. The justices did not otherwise comment Thursday in turning away Trump’s emergency appeal. Trump had pressed the court on an issue relating to classified documents seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago. The Trump team was asking the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Ohio Dems press party to invest in high stakes Senate seat COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Democrats across Ohio are pleading for help in the state’s high-stakes Senate contest. They’re afraid they may lose a winnable election if national party leaders don’t make major investments in the coming days. So far, the most powerful groups in Democratic politics have prioritized Senate pickup opportunities in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania over Ohio. Democratic Senate contender Tim Ryan, a longtime congressman, says party leaders who don’t believe he can win “have no idea what’s going on out here.” Republican JD Vance has benefited from more than $30 million from outside Republican groups. By contrast, Ryan has benefited from roughly $2.5 million in outside spending. Black leaders rebuke Tuberville stance on reparations, crime As far as Jeremy Ellis is concerned, Republican Tommy Tuberville should know or learn more about the long history and struggles of the Black Alabama residents he represents in the U.S. Senate. Tuberville told people Saturday at an election rally in Nevada that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.” His remarks — seen by many as racist and stereotyping Black Americans as people committing crimes — cut deeply for some, especially in and around Africatown, a community in Mobile, Alabama, that was founded by descendants of Africans smuggled in 1860 to the United States aboard a schooner called the Clotilda. Parkland school shooter spared from execution for killing 17 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That sentence comes after the jury announced Thursday that it could not unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed. The decision ends a three-month trial that included graphic videos and photos, and heart-wrenching testimony from victims’ family members. Many family members shook their heads, looked angry or covered their eyes as the jury’s decision was read. Some parents sobbed as they left court. A judge will formally sentence Cruz on Nov. 1. Social Security benefits to jump by 8.7% next year WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Social Security recipients will get an 8.7% boost in their benefits in 2023. That’s a historic increase and welcome news for American retirees and others — but it’s tempered by the fact that it’s fueled by record high inflation that’s raised the cost of everyday living. The cost-of-living adjustment means the average recipient will receive more than $140 a month extra beginning in January.  It is meant to help cover the higher cost of food, fuel and other goods and services. But a separate government report Thursday showed prices accelerating again. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More…

Trial: Trump Tweet About ‘wild’ Protest Energized Extremists https://digitalalabamanews.com/trial-trump-tweet-about-wild-protest-energized-extremists/ FILE – Members of the Oath Keepers on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. A member of the Oath Keepers who traveled to Washington before the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol testified during the seditious conspiracy case against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates on Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022, about a massive cache of weapons the far-right extremist group stashed in a Virginia hotel room. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the far-right Oath Keepers were ecstatic when then-President Donald Trump invited supporters to a “wild” protest in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, when Congress would be certifying the results of the 2020 election, according to messages shown Thursday during the seditious conspiracy trial for the militia group’s founder and four associates. During an FBI agent’s testimony, jurors saw a string of online posts that Oath Keepers members in Florida exchanged after Trump’s tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, about a “big protest” at the upcoming joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. “Be there, will be wild!” Trump said. “He wants us to make it WILD,” Kelly Meggs, an Oath Keepers leader from Dunnellon, Florida, wrote in a message to other group members. “He called us all to the Capitol and wants us to make it wild!!! Sir Yes Sir!!!” Trump’s words appeared to energize Oath Keepers members. They used an encrypted messaging app to discuss their plans to be in the nation’s capital on Jan. 6, when, after a Trump rally near the White House, a mob stormed the Capitol and disrupted Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over the Republican incumbent. “These will be flying Jan. 6 in front of the Capitol,” Meggs wrote in a post that included the image of an Oath Keepers flag. Graydon Young, an Oath Keepers member from Florida who has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge, said he was going to Washington even though it “feels like a fool’s errand.” Oath Keepers founder and national leader Stewart Rhodes responded on Dec. 25, 2020, that he disagreed with that assessment. “Trump needs to know we support him in using the Insurrection Act,” Rhodes wrote. “And he needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.” Rhodes added that he believed the Secret Service would be “happy to have us out there” if Trump “calls us up as militia.” A key argument for Rhodes’ lawyers is that the Oath Keepers founder believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act, which gives the president broad authority to call up the military and decide what shape that force will take. Trump did float that kind of action at other points in his presidency. Meggs and Rhodes, who’s from Granbury, Texas, are on trial with Thomas Caldwell of Berryville, Virginia; Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Florida; and Jessica Watkins of Woodstock, Ohio. They are the first Capitol riot defendants to be tried on seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors said was a plot to stop the lawful transfer of presidential power. The Civil War-era charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. As testimony continued Thursday, the House Jan. 6 committee played a recording at its public hearing of Watkins saying, “It has spread like wildfire that (Vice President Mike) Pence has betrayed us” and “100 percent” of the crowd would be going to the Capitol right after a Trump tweet that had criticized Pence, as the Senate’s presiding officer, for not delaying or rejecting the certification of the Electoral College vote by Congress. Defense lawyers have accused prosecutors of cherry-picking messages and have said there is no evidence the Oath Keepers had a plan to attack the Capitol. The trial started last Monday and is expected to last more than a month. Trump’s Dec. 19 tweet also was a focus of a July hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. One committee member, Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., said the tweet “served as a call to action and in some cases as a call to arms.” A second, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said it “electrified and galvanized” Trump supporters, including the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and other far-right extremists. Several members of the Proud Boys, including former national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, also are charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 attack and await a trial in December. Thursday’s testimony for the Oath Keepers trial focused on members of the group’s Florida contingent and their communications in the days leading up to the riot. In a chat for Oath Keepers members in Florida on the Signal messaging app, Rhodes said they should adopt the QAnon slogan “WWG1WGA,” which stands for “Where we go one, we go all.” QAnon is a conspiracy theory that has centered on the baseless belief that Trump was secretly fighting a cabal of Satan-worshipping “deep state” enemies, Hollywood elites and prominent Democrats. “They come for one of us, they come for all of us,” Rhodes posted on Dec. 21, 2020. “When they come for us, we go for them.” Kelly Meggs responded: “It’s easy to chat. The real question is who’s willing to DIE.” Three days before the Capitol attack, Meggs sent a message to an associate that said, “1776 we are going to make history.” “What happened in 1776?” Justice Department prosecutor Louis Manzo asked FBI Special Agent Kelsey Harris. “The American revolution,” the agent replied. Newsletter Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter. Read More…

Republicans Hope For A 'new' Kris Kobach In Kansas AG Race https://digitalalabamanews.com/republicans-hope-for-a-new-kris-kobach-in-kansas-ag-race/ TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kris Kobach, the Kansan with a national reputation as a hardline provocateur on immigration and voter ID laws, is trying to rebrand himself as a calmer, steadier voice in his comeback bid for elective office. Republicans hope the candidate for Kansas attorney general is a “new” Kobach. Many of them say he’s staying more on message with a better organized campaign after losing the 2018 race for Kansas governor and a 2020 U.S. Senate primary. Both of those losses were chalked up to disorganized campaigns and Kobach being too abrasive even for very Republican Kansas voters. The former Kansas secretary of state built a national profile — and created lasting political foes — as the go-to adviser for state and local officials wanting to crack down on illegal immigration. But his platform this year doesn’t mention immigration. The signature prop of his campaign for governor four years ago was a jeep painted with a U.S. flag design and equipped with a replica machine gun, and it’s nowhere to be seen this year. “There’s been some learning, trial and error, over time, and I think Kobach as a candidate has grown and become more disciplined,” said Moriah Day, a Republican and gun-rights activist who once worked for Kobach in the secretary of state’s office. “There are certainly advisers and others who have pushed hard for that discipline, and some of them have been together for a few cycles now.” Kobach’s Democratic opponent in the Nov. 8 election is Chris Mann, who is making his first run for elective office. While Republicans have won 80% of statewide down-ballot races over the past 50 years, both parties see the Kobach-Mann contest as a toss-up because of Kobach’s political baggage. In this photo from Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, Kris Kobach, the Republican nominee for Kansas attorney general, makes a short speech at the start of a bus tour across Kansas for GOP candidates in Topeka, Kan. Many Republicans say they’re seeing a “new,” calmer, steadier Kobach this year after he lost the 2018 race for Kansas governor and a U.S. Senate primary in 2020. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Hanna In this May 1998 family photo, Chris Mann, right, now the Democratic nominee for Kansas attorney general, stands with his father, left, in his new Lawrence police uniform, in Lawrence, Kansas. Mann would later be injured on duty and forced to give up his career as an officer before becoming a lawyer, a prosecutor in Kansas City, Kansas, and a national board member for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. (Chris Mann via AP) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS In this photo from Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018, Kris Kobach, then the Kansas secretary of state and the Republican nominee for Kansas governor, rides in a parade in a jeep with a replica machine gun in Baldwin City, Kan. The jeep was the signature prop in Kobach’s campaign for governor that year, which he lost to Democrat Laura Kelly. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Hanna In this photo from Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022, Chris Mann, the Democratic candidate for Kansas attorney general, answers questions as he stands out police headquarters in Lawrence, Kan. Mann is a former Lawrence police officer who was injured on duty and then became a local prosecutor and Mothers Against Drunk Driving national board member. (AP Photo/John Hanna) Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/John Hanna PreviousNext Some of the baggage comes from Kobach advocating strict immigration laws years before Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 and upsetting not only immigrant rights advocates but GOP-leaning business and agricultural groups. Kobach also pushed the idea that droves of people could be voting illegally and championed a tough prove-your-citizenship rule for new Kansas voters, only to see the federal courts strike it down and order the state to pay voting rights attorneys $1.4 million. Kobach served as co-chairman of Trump’s short-lived presidential advisory commission on “election integrity” and promoted Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud. At the time, The Associated Press reported that Kobach oversaw an election system in Kansas that threw out at least three times as many ballots in the 2016 election as any similarly sized state did, fueling concerns about massive voter suppression should its practices become the national standard. Then there was his brand in his 2018 and 2020 races, the fighter who was even willing to take on GOP leaders. While Republicans across the U.S. have embraced a combative persona in Trump and other candidates, and Trump carried Kansas twice by wide margins, the state’s voters more often have favored candidates with an aw-shucks demeanor. The jeep with the machine gun became a symbol of how Kobach seemed not to care that he annoyed or angered some voters. He mocked what he called the “snowflake meltdown” the first time he rode it in a parade in 2018. Some are skeptical that Kobach has changed in any substantive way, and say he is not always on message. For example, his comments during campaign appearances sometimes veer into his plan to slowly and quietly maneuver to ban abortion. Kansas voters in August decisively rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have cleared the way for the Republican Legislature to tighten abortion restrictions or ban the procedure. Kobach backed the measure, which was GOP lawmakers’ response to a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision declaring access to abortion a “fundamental” right under the state’s Bill of Rights. Kobach advocates amending the state constitution to elect Supreme Court justices rather than have governors appoint them. Eventually new, more conservative justices would overturn the 2019 ruling, he argues. Backers argue that Kobach’s views on abortion are well-known enough that he can’t backpedal now. But he’s pitching a proposal that faces big political hurdles, and some Republicans fear that talking about abortion will keep moderate Republicans and independents riled and boost Democratic turnout. Kobach has said he’ll defend existing abortion restrictions as attorney general, but his critics worry that he’ll hunt for new ways to curb access if he’s elected. “I thought we had a representative form of government, but it looks like Kris Kobach will certainly be willing to subvert the wishes of the voters when he has a chance,” said former Kansas House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a moderate Republican and western Kansas farmer. Democrat Mann, 46, was a police officer in his early 20s in the northeastern Kansas city of Lawrence, where he now lives. An on-duty accident involving a drunken driver ended his career in uniform and he then served as a prosecutor in nearby Kansas City, Kansas, as a state securities regulator and on the board of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “I’m not in this to chase the spotlight or to grab attention like my opponent, and that’s all he’s going to do,” Mann said during an interview. Kobach, 56, said he’s learned from past campaigns and is delegating more tasks. For this year’s race, he hired Axiom Strategies, a prominent Kansas City-area GOP firm, and his chief consultant is a conservative state senator, J.R. Claeys, in good standing with top Kansas Republicans. And that jeep with the replica machine gun from four years ago? “That was a different time,” Kobach said, chuckling, noting that four years ago was “right in the middle” of Trump’s high-drama administration. Kobach’s lower-key campaign appeals to William Hendrix, a 21-year-old Topeka resident who is treasurer for a local Young Republicans group. He predicted that as attorney general, Kobach would “cool down on the campaign-trail rhetoric.” “He’ll see the limitations of the office and also at the same time, what he can do with what he has,” Hendrix said. But Kobach also might appear more measured than in the past because if he loses this year, “it really could be, possibly, the end,” said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka. Patrick Miller, an associate University of Kansas professor of political science, wondered whether Kobach seems less provocative because the attorney general’s race can’t command the same kind of attention his 2018 and 2020 races did. “All of that attention given to him in 2018 was an invitation for him to be very flamboyant as a politician,” Miller said. “Maybe losing had an effect on that and maybe he’s more cautious. Maybe, he’s more calculating.” Kobach has promised to spend each breakfast thinking about potential lawsuits against the Democratic president’s administration and during one Topeka event urged the crowd to chant, “Sue Biden.” The candidate himself goes back and forth on whether there’s a new Kobach. He says there is a little truth in the GOP buzz but some exaggeration, too. “I’m still my old self in the sense that I stick to my guns,” Kobach said. “I don’t back down.” ____ Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Read More…

NFL Thursday Night: Commanders Hold Off Chicago https://digitalalabamanews.com/nfl-thursday-night-commanders-hold-off-chicago/ Wide receiver Darnell Mooney made a leaping, juggling catch of the football on the Chicago Bears’ final snap of Thursday night’s NFL game. But by the time the former Gadsden City High School star got the fourth-and-goal pass in his possession, he hit the ground barely short of the end zone with 30 seconds to play. That allowed the Washington Commanders to escape with a 12-7 victory that featured the first NFL interception by defensive tackle Jonathan Allen and the first NFL touchdown by running back Brian Robinson Jr. MORE NFL: · JONAH WILLIAMS PLAYS A WHOLE HALF AFTER DISLOCATING KNEECAP · NFL WEEK 6: SCHEDULE, TV, ODDS AND ROUGHING-THE-PASSER · FORMER GARDENDALE, UAB STANDOUT RETURNS TO LEAGUE With 8:06 left to play, Chicago wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. muffed a punt, and Washington recovered the loose football at the Bears 6-yard line trailing 7-6. Robinson had runs of 5 yards and 1 yard to reach the end zone to put the Commanders in front with 7:25 remaining. RELATED: BRIAN ROBINSON JR. SCORES HIS FIRST NFL TOUCHDOWN Chicago quarterback Justin Fields ran for 88 yards on 12 carries, and he got 39 of those yards on a scramble that put the Bears on the Washington 5-yard line with 52 seconds to play. A 1-yard run and two incompletions preceded the soft toss to Mooney that almost produced the winning points. That was the third series in the game that Chicago got to at least the Washington 5-yard line without scoring on Thursday night. The first time, Fields threw a pass into the helmet of Commanders defensive lineman Efe Obada, and the football ricocheted high into the air. Allen boxed out a group of Chicago offensive linemen to catch the ball when it came down for his first interception. The next time the Bears had possession, they were stopped on downs as the Washington 1-yard line. Commanders safety Bobby McCain made two of the three tackles after Chicago gained a first down at the Washington 6 and ran the football three times to go with an incompletion. Thirteen players from Alabama high schools and colleges played in the Washington-Chicago game: · Jonathan Allen (Alabama) started at defensive tackle for the Commanders. Allen made four tackles, recorded one sack, intercepted one pass and forced one fumble, which Chicago recovered. · Bears defensive lineman Angelo Blackson (Auburn) made one tackle. · Bears fullback Khari Blasingame (Buckhorn) made one tackle on special teams. · Eddie Jackson (Alabama) started at safety for the Bears. Jackson made five tackles and forced one fumble, which Washington recovered. · Bears wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. (Saraland) caught a 10-yard pass, had an 8-yard run, returned three punts for 15 yards and ran back a kickoff 22 yards. · Bears offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood (Alabama) is on reserve/non-football injury and not eligible to play. RELATED: ALEX LEATHERWOOD RETURNS TO PRACTICE FOR CHICAGO · Commanders defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis (Alabama) is on injured reserve and not eligible to play. · Bobby McCain (Oxford) started at free safety for the Commanders. McCain made three tackles and broke up a pass. · Commanders running back J.D. McKissic (Central-Phenix City) ran for 20 yards on two carries. · Darnell Mooney (Gadsden City) started at wide receiver for the Bears. Mooney caught seven passes for 68 yards. · Nicholas Morrow (Huntsville) started at linebacker for the Bears. Morrow made nine tackles. · Daron Payne (Shades Valley, Alabama) started at defensive tackle for the Commanders. Payne made three tackles, recorded one sack, had a tackle for loss and registered two quarterback hits. · Jeremy Reaves (South Alabama) made one tackle on special teams. · Brian Robinson Jr. (Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa, Alabama) started at running back for the Commanders. Robinson ran for 60 yards and one touchdown on 17 carries in his first NFL start. Robinson had made his NFL debut on Sunday, six weeks after sustaining two gunshot wounds in an attempted carjacking. · Commanders wide receiver Cam Sims (Alabama) caught a 6-yard pass. Thursday night’s result left each team with a 2-4 record. Washington hosts the Green Bay Packers on Oct. 23. Chicago visits the New England Patriots on Oct. 24 for Week 7′s Monday night game. Washington Commanders safety Jeremy Reaves tackles Chicago Bears wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. during a punt return in an NFL game on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, at Soldier Field in Chicago.(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) 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. Chicago Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney tries to get away from Washington Commanders safety Bobby McCain during an NFL game on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, at Soldier Field in Chicago.(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Garrison Holly, Jackson Intercept St. Michael's Playoff Hopes https://digitalalabamanews.com/garrison-holly-jackson-intercept-st-michaels-playoff-hopes/ St. Michael was vying to secure the first football playoff berth in school history Thursday night in Fairhope. Jackson defensive end Garrison Holly stood squarely in the way. Holly intercepted a Cardinal swing pass with 9:28 left in the game and returned it 45 yards for a back-breaking touchdown as the Aggies pulled way late to beat St. Michael 28-6 in a key Class 4A, Region 1 football game. The win put Jackson (6-2, 4-2) in the playoffs and leaves St. Michael (5-4, 4-2) needing a win at T.R. Miller next week or a Bayside Academy loss to either Escambia County on Friday night or Satsuma next week to make the postseason. “I thought we played hard and gave ourselves a chance,” St. Michael coach Philip Rivers said. “They (the kids) are down. Obviously, they are disappointed. But I said, ‘let’s quickly get our juice back because we have another shot to get in.’ I hope we will recover and come back Monday and give it another shot.” Holly’s 1-yard TD run on Jackson’s first offensive possession of the game gave the Aggies a 7-0 lead until late in the third quarter. St. Michael closed the gap to 7-6 with 27.6 seconds left in the period on Josh Murphy’s 21-yard touchdown strike to Ezra Sexton. However, the extra point attempt never got off the ground, leaving Jackson in front. “We didn’t tie it up right there at 7-7 because of the botched extra point, but even then we are right there,” Rivers said. The St. Michael defense – led all night by Clay Barr and Tyler Cella – stuffed the Aggies on three plays on the ensuing possession and forced a punt. However, on a third-and-5 from the St. Michael 46, Murphy tried a swing pass right down the line of scrimmage. Holly, while being blocked, reached up and grabbed the ball out of the air. His return and the extra point gave the Aggies a 14-6 edge. “The guy blocked me right into it,” said Holly, a senior. “The quarterback threw it right into my hands. I was a surprised. It happened so fast. I just had to go to the house with it.” Rivers didn’t regret the play call or the pass by Murphy. “We were just throwing a swing pass,” he said. “The guy was getting blocked. Josh asked me what he should do there. Nothing. The guy just jumped up and made a good play.” After holding St. Michael on the next possession deep in its territory, Jackson increased its lead. On third-and-18, freshman quarterback Landon Duckworth hit Tychius Caves on a swing pass of his own. Caves turned it into a 62-yard touchdown and a 21-6 edge with 6:40 left in the game. The Cardinals drove 67 yards on 13 plays on their next possession, but they needed 68 yards. Murphy’s pass on fourth-and-goal from the 1 was incomplete with 2:47 left. “I wish I had ran it there at the goal line,” Rivers said. “I thought they were all going to be up there close, but I wish I had just handed it off. You overthink everything when you lose.” On the next play, Duckworth turned a quarterback run up the middle into a 99-yard touchdown for the final points of the game. “It was tight,” Jackson coach Cody Flournoy said. “We were able to get that goal line stand at the end. We had a lot of penalties. We told the guys that we were going into a hostile environment, that we weren’t going to get the calls on our side, and we didn’t. We were still able to stand up and hold them at the 1. Good athletes do good things, and the quarterback, who is just a freshman, took it 99 to close it out.” The 4A, Region 1 playoff race: T.R. Miller leads the way at 5-0 in region play and can clinch the region title with a win Friday night at Satsuma. St. Michael and Jackson are each 4-2. Orange Beach is 3-2, while Bayside Academy is 2-3. St. Michael owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over Orange Beach, while Bayside owns the tiebreaker over St. Michael. The Admirals travel to Escambia County (4-3, 2-3) Friday night and host Satsuma (1-6, 1-4) next week. “We have to win unless something crazy happens tomorrow with Escambia and Bayside,” Rivers said. “If Escambia wins, we’re in. If we win next week, we are the 2 seed. If we lose, we go home. That is what is at stake.” Player of the Game: Holly scored his team’s first two touchdowns, and his interception changed the game for good. “He’s a senior,” Flournoy said. “He’s a coach’s son. He works hard and does everything right. He read the screen. He was able to make a play. He just jumped up and snatched it out of the air and returned it. It is just big-time players making big plays.” Holly is the son of former Blount High head coach Lev Holly, who was in attendance at the game. Raising the Barr: St. Michael seniors Clay Barr and Tyler Cella were in the Jackson offensive backfield for most of the night. The Cardinals had nine tackles behind the line of scrimmage on the night. “The defense was great obviously other than the third-and-20 and the 99-yarder at the end, but I really don’t worry about that last one,” Rivers said. “We are selling out there and trying to cause something to happen and give us a chance. They played great.” What’s next? St. Michael travels to T.R. Miller next Friday. Jackson, which has now won five straight games since back-to-back losses to Orange Beach and T.R. Miller, hosts Wilcox Central (Oct. 21) and Davidson (Oct. 28) in its final two regular season games. “We are playing good football right now,” Flournoy said. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

AP News Summary At 11:46 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1146-p-m-edt-2/ Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented video of interviews with former Trump aides, including several testifying that he had said he knew he had lost the election to Joe Biden. Police: 5 killed, including officer, in N. Carolina shooting RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina say that the suspect who killed five people in a shooting was a juvenile male. Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said that the suspect was taken into custody around 9:37 p.m. Thursday, hours after the shooting. His identity and age weren’t released. Authorities have said that he opened fire along a walking trail in a residential area northeast of downtown. Authorities say an off-duty police officer was among those slain. Two other people, including another police officer, were taken to hospitals. The officer was later released, but the other survivor remained in critical condition. NKorea fires missile and shells, further inflaming tensions SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch happened early Friday but gave no further details. It’s the latest in a spate of missile launches by North Korea in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says North Korea also flew warplanes near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There have been no reports of clashes between the two Koreas. North Korea’s military also issued a statement accusing South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border Thursday. High court rejects Trump plea to step into Mar-a-Lago case Read More…

Nancy Pelosi Wanted To 'Punch Trump Out' If He Turned Up At The Capitol On Jan. 6 – Digital World Acq (NASDAQ:DWAC) https://digitalalabamanews.com/nancy-pelosi-wanted-to-punch-trump-out-if-he-turned-up-at-the-capitol-on-jan-6-digital-world-acq-nasdaqdwac/ Had Donald Trump turned up at the Capitol on Jan.6, 2021, when the insurrection took place, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was ready to “punch him out.” What Happened: Footage shared by CNN and taken by Alexandra Pelosi, the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, shows the speaker watching crowds descend upon the Capitol. The Speaker says, “If he comes, I’m gonna punch him out” after she watches coverage of a Trump rally at the Ellipse where he says he is going to the Capitol. “I’ve been waiting for this, for trespassing on the Capitol grounds. I’m gonna punch him out, and I’m gonna go to jail and I’m gonna be happy,” said Pelosi. See Also: How To Buy TMTG IPO Stock  Before that, Pelosi reacted to Trump’s intention of going to the Capitol by saying, “Tell him if he comes here, we’re going to the White House.” Why It Matters: On Thursday, the House committee probing the Jan. 6 riot unanimously voted to subpoena Trump. Committee vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said, “none of this would have happened without [Trump]. He was personally and substantially involved in all of it.” Meanwhile, Trump hit out at Pelosi and the Committee on Truth Social. The former president questioned why Pelosi hadn’t called out the “troops” before Jan.6, which he “strongly recommended.”  The former leader also asked why the Committee hadn’t asked him to testify months ago and why “they waited until the very end.” Truth Social is a part of Trump Media & Technology Group, which is set to go public through a merger with Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC. Read Next: Mike Pence Ready To Testify Before Jan. 6 Committee ‘If Invited:’ Contents Of Call With Donald Trump In Focus © 2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Read More…

AP News Summary At 11:51 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1151-p-m-edt/ Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented vivid new video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders pleading for help. And it outlined Trump’s multi-part plan to overturn his 2020 election loss. Police: 5 killed, including officer, in N. Carolina shooting RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police in North Carolina say that the suspect who killed five people in a shooting was a juvenile male. Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo said that the suspect was taken into custody around 9:37 p.m. Thursday, hours after the shooting. His identity and age weren’t released. Authorities have said that he opened fire along a walking trail in a residential area northeast of downtown. Authorities say an off-duty police officer was among those slain. Two other people, including another police officer, were taken to hospitals. The officer was later released, but the other survivor remained in critical condition. NKorea fires missile and shells, further inflaming tensions SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch happened early Friday but gave no further details. It’s the latest in a spate of missile launches by North Korea in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says North Korea also flew warplanes near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There have been no reports of clashes between the two Koreas. North Korea’s military also issued a statement accusing South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border Thursday. Social Security benefits to jump by 8.7% next year WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Social Security recipients will get an 8.7% boost in their benefits in 2023. That’s a historic increase and welcome news for American retirees and others — but it’s tempered by the fact that it’s fueled by record high inflation that’s raised the cost of everyday living. The cost-of-living adjustment means the average recipient will receive more than $140 a month extra beginning in January.  It is meant to help cover the higher cost of food, fuel and other goods and services. But a separate government report Thursday showed prices accelerating again. $1B judgment against Alex Jones not the final word WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — The nearly $1 billion judgment against Alex Jones for spreading false conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre bought long-sought relief to family members and hopes the eye-popping figure would deter people from broadcasting falsehoods. But Jones has given no signs of tempering his bluster. A headline on his website Thursday said the “show trial verdict signals the death of free speech.” And lawyers say it’s not certain that relatives who lost loved ones a decade ago will see the full dollar amount after promised appeals and a bankruptcy proceeding play out. High court rejects Trump plea to step into Mar-a-Lago case WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected former President Donald Trump’s plea to step into the legal fight over the FBI search of his Florida estate. The justices did not otherwise comment Thursday in turning away Trump’s emergency appeal. Trump had pressed the court on an issue relating to classified documents seized in the search of Mar-a-Lago. The Trump team was asking the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. Ukraine gets more air defense pledges as Russia hits cities KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s allies have committed to providing advanced air defense systems to protect against Russia’s missile intensifying missile attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskky said Thursday such systems would “protect our sky from the terror of Russia” and help end the war. Responding to Zelenskyy’s pleas, Britain announced it would provide missiles for advanced NASAM anti-aircraft systems that the Pentagon plans to send to Ukraine. The U.K. is also providing hundreds of aerial drones. Russian forces attacked the Kyiv region with Iran-made kamikaze drones and fired missiles at civilian targets Thursday as payback for the bombing of a strategic bridge linking Russia with annexed Crimea. Parkland school shooter spared from execution for killing 17 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 massacre of 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That sentence comes after the jury announced Thursday that it could not unanimously agree that Cruz should be executed. The decision ends a three-month trial that included graphic videos and photos, and heart-wrenching testimony from victims’ family members. Many family members shook their heads, looked angry or covered their eyes as the jury’s decision was read. Some parents sobbed as they left court. A judge will formally sentence Cruz on Nov. 1. Racist remarks could spell trouble for LA political maps LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles City Council is in gridlock as its leader tries to force two members to resign. Acting council President Mitch O’Farrell has canceled Friday’s scheduled meeting, saying members couldn’t conduct business until Gil Cedillo and Kevin de Leon resign. The two were involved in bare-knuckles banter in which former Council President Nury Martinez made racist and crude remarks that were recorded. The two did not object to her comments during a conversation over how to maintain Latino power. Martinez resigned Wednesday. A state investigation could lead to criminal charges and undo efforts to draw districts in their favor. ‘She Said,’ drama of Weinstein reporting, premieres in NYC NEW YORK (AP) — Five years after a pair of exposes revealed Harvey Weinstein’s long trail of sexual abuse, “She Said” premiered at the New York Film Festival on Thursday. The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who helped uncover the many allegations against the movie mogul. “She Said” made its premiere at Lincoln Center while Weinstein is being tried in Los Angeles for 11 counts of rape and sexual assault. He has pled not guilty. The 70-year-old Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Read More…

2 Police Officers Killed In Connecticut After A Suspicious 911 Call https://digitalalabamanews.com/2-police-officers-killed-in-connecticut-after-a-suspicious-911-call/ A third officer was seriously wounded in the violence in Bristol, officials said, and a suspect also died. The police chief called it an act of “senseless violence.” Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Video The Connecticut State Police said that the initial 911 report of a possible domestic dispute may have been a ruse. Two officers were shot dead and another was seriously injured.CreditCredit…Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times Oct. 13, 2022Updated 11:36 p.m. ET The call came in late on Wednesday night, the authorities said. The police were needed at a house in suburban Bristol, Conn., to investigate a possible domestic dispute. When three Bristol police officers arrived, they were met by a man with a gun, the authorities said. Shots were fired, and Sgt. Dustin Demonte, 35, and Officer Alex Hamzy, 34, were killed in what officials are describing as an apparent ambush. The suspected gunman, Nicholas Brutcher, 35, was also shot and killed at the scene, the Connecticut State Police said. Another police officer, Alec Iurato, 26, suffered a severe gunshot wound that required surgery, and the suspect’s brother, Nathan Brutcher, 32, was also wounded. On Thursday, as flags across Connecticut were lowered to half-staff and members of the state’s law-enforcement agencies mourned their slain colleagues, the State Police were investigating what might have led Nicholas Brutcher to open fire on three officers of the law. In a statement, the State Police said that the initial 911 report might have been a ruse, saying its investigation suggested the call had been placed in a “deliberate act to lure” officers to the home on Redstone Hill Road in Bristol. Officials did not explain what led them to that preliminary conclusion. They have also not said who fired first. The State Police referred further questions to the state’s attorney’s office, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Image From left, Sgt. Dustin Demonte, Officer Alex Hamzy and Officer Alec Iurato.Credit…Connecticut State Police Bristol, best known as the home of sports network ESPN, is a town in central Connecticut of about 60,000 that is about 80 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The call to its Police Department came at 10:29 p.m. on Wednesday, reporting a possible conflict between two brothers, Sgt. Christine Jeltema of the Connecticut State Police said. When the police arrived, Nicholas Brutcher was already standing outside the house and soon shot at the officers, officials said. Mr. Hamzy was shot dead at the scene, while Sergeant Demonte was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead there. Officer Iurato, who was hired in 2018, was taken to surgery at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Chief Brian Gould of the Bristol Police Department said. He was released from the hospital after 11 a.m. Thursday, officials said. Nathan Brutcher, who was also shot, was taken to a hospital for treatment. His condition is unknown, and it was not clear whether he had been shot by the police or by his brother. But officials have not identified him as a suspect in the attack. Neighbors said they were shocked on Thursday morning as police officers swarmed their quiet residential area. Several reported hearing screaming and at least a dozen gunshots the night of the shooting. Norberto Rodriguez, who lives across the street from where the shooting occurred, said that on Wednesday night he saw a man dressed in camouflage emerge from the house with a gun. Another man ran out, apparently to restrain him, and the man with the rifle shot the second man, Mr. Rodriguez said. Robyn Lauzon, who lives nearby, said she heard a series of rapid gunshots and then “a woman yelling, ‘You killed them.’” “She was screaming it like bloody murder, but we don’t know who she was yelling it about,” Ms. Lauzon said. “Then every siren in the world came.” The incident was all the more shocking for its setting, she added. “It’s a little sleepy town where this kind of thing doesn’t happen,” Ms. Lauzon said. “I’ve never heard a gunshot in my life.” Chief Gould called Wednesday’s shooting an act of “senseless violence.” The State Police’s major crimes unit is continuing to investigate what may have led to the attack, officials said. WABC, a television station, reported that the shooting happened after the police responded to an altercation at a bar in Bristol, according to a police officer whom the station did not name. The New York Times has not independently confirmed the report. Gov. Ned Lamont in a statement called the shooting a “devastating reminder of the dangers that police officers face every day.” He ordered that flags in the state be lowered in the slain officers’ honor. Across the country, fewer police officers have been shot this year nationwide than last. According to data collected by the FBI, 49 law enforcement officers have been slain in the first nine months of 2022, compared with 54 during the same period in 2021. But ambushes have accounted for 10 of those deaths in 2022, twice as many as the year before. On Thursday evening, Mr. Lamont attended a vigil and gathering at Bristol Eastern High School, where Officer Hamzy had been a student. The school’s auditorium was filled, with town residents filling seats and uniformed police officers standing along the walls to pay their respects. “This is a very difficult night for our community,” Bristol’s mayor, Jeff Caggiano, said at the vigil. Sergeant Demonte was hired by the Bristol police in 2012 and was promoted to his rank last year. Though the department, which has 122 officers, most recently assigned him to the patrol division, he had also served as a resource officer at two public schools in Bristol. Image Brian Gould, chief of the Bristol Police Department, said at a vigil Thursday night that the officers who were killed were “heroes.”Credit…Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times The Bristol Public Schools superintendent, Catherine M. Carbone, said in a letter to parents and students that “Sergeant Demonte was extraordinarily gifted at connecting with our students, and those of us who worked with him considered ourselves fortunate to call him a friend.” Sergeant Demonte is survived by his wife and two children, and the couple had a third child on the way, Chief Gould said. Officer Hamzy, who was raised in Bristol, began working for the police department in 2014, Chief Gould said. He is survived by his wife. “These individuals truly, truly enjoyed serving this community,” Chief Gould said at the vigil on Thursday night. “And they’re heroes, and that’s what we need to remember them as.” The vigil was one of several tributes given to the two slain officers. Around 7 a.m. on Thursday, a motorcade of police vehicles, with emergency lights flashing, had accompanied Sergeant Demonte’s body to the medical examiner’s office in Farmington. Hours later, around 11 a.m., another procession took Mr. Hamzy’s body from the crime scene to the same office. Officers from a wide number of Connecticut law-enforcement agencies lined nearby streets to pay their respects as it passed. Reporting was contributed by Kristin Hussey, Derrick Bryson Taylor, Mike Ives and Jenny Gross. Read More…

Anger At China's Zero-Covid Policy Is Rising, But Beijing Refuses To Change Course | CNN https://digitalalabamanews.com/anger-at-chinas-zero-covid-policy-is-rising-but-beijing-refuses-to-change-course-cnn/ Video shows rare protest in Beijing as Chinese leader is set to extend his reign 02:32 – Source: CNN CNN  —  A young woman stands on her balcony, crying out in desperation after her building was ordered into lockdown. Fighting back tears, she shouts abuse at the hazmat-suited workers below in a video that has recently gone viral on social media platform Weibo and which appears to encapsulate the Chinese public’s growing frustration with their government’s uncompromising zero-Covid policy. The woman has been under quarantine for half a year since returning from university in the summer, she shouts at the workers. They stare back, seemingly unmoved. While most Asian economies – even those with previously hardline zero-Covid stances – are abandoning pandemic-era restrictions, authorities in China remain zealous in theirs, repeatedly insisting this week in state-run media articles that the battle against the virus remains “winnable.” That claim comes even as infections flare and a new strain circulates just days before the country’s most important political event, the Communist Party Congress beginning in Beijing on Sunday at which Xi Jinping is expected to cement his place as the country’s most powerful leader in decades. Observers across the world will be watching the twice-a-decade meeting for signs of the party’s priorities when it comes to its zero-Covid stance, which has been blamed for exacerbating mounting problems in the economy, from stalled growth to a collapsing housing market. Nerves are high in China’s capital, where online photos posted Thursday appeared to show an exceptionally rare public protest against Xi. “Say no to Covid test, yes to food. No to lockdown, yes to freedom. No to lies, yes to dignity. No to cultural revolution, yes to reform. No to great leader, yes to vote. Don’t be a slave, be a citizen,” read one banner hung over an overpass despite the heightened security surrounding the Congress. “Go on strike, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping,” read the other. The protest sent China’s stringent online censorship into overdrive. Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, immediately censored search results for “Sitong Bridge,” the site of the protest. Before long, key words including “Beijing,” “Haidian,” “warrior,” “brave man,” and even “courage” were restricted from search. Numerous accounts on Weibo and WeChat, the super-app essential for daily life in China, have been banned after commenting on – or alluding to – the protest. Still, many spoke out to express their support and awe. Some shared the Chinese pop hit “Lonely Warrior” in a veiled reference to the protester, who some called a “hero,” while others swore never to forget, posting under the hashtag: “I saw it.” Yet even in the face of rising public discontent, all the signs suggest Xi and his party plan to stick with the zero-Covid approach, possibly into 2023, with the state media articles this week serving to dampen speculation the country may change tack post-Congress. More than 300 million people across dozens of cities in China had been affected by full or partial lockdowns at one point last month, according to CNN’s calculations. But while the restrictions are lifted and imposed in response to local Covid outbreaks, the virus just keeps on reemerging. And new outbreaks reported across the country this week suggest more misery could be on the way for China’s citizens – like the woman in the Weibo video – who have grown exhausted by a seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns. China’s Health Commission on Thursday reported 1,476 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases nationwide, a significant number in a country where even one infection can trigger a city-wide lockdown. In the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, 900,000 residents in Hegang city have been locked down since Friday after a single case was found. In Shanghai, where 25 million people have already endured two months of the world’s strictest lockdown, residents are now on edge at any signs of a repeat as authorities begin to tighten measures once again. The city reported 47 Covid-19 cases on Thursday, one day after authorities ordered six out of its 13 districts to shut entertainment venues such as internet cafes, cinemas and bars. Shanghai’s Disney resort has suspended some of its attractions and live performances since Sunday. Spooked by the possibility of unpredictable and unannounced snap lockdowns – and mindful that authorities have previously backtracked after suggesting that no such measures were coming – some people in the city have reportedly been hoarding drinking water. That panic buying has been made worse by an announcement that Shanghai’s water authorities have taken action to ensure water quality after discovering saltwater inflows to two reservoirs at the mouth of the Yangtze River in September. Exactly what is driving the increase in infections is not clear, though authorities are scrambling to contain the spread of the BF.7 coronavirus strain after it was first detected in China in late September in Hohhot, the capital city of Inner Mongolia. The country has also seen an uptick in cases in domestic tourist destinations, despite its strict curbs having discouraged people from traveling or spending over China’s Golden Week holiday in early October. Hohhot logged 329 cases on Thursday, according to the National Health Commission, which now deems the remote region a high-risk hotspot. More than 240,000 university students in Inner Mongolia have been locked down on campuses due to the latest outbreak, according to Zhang Xiaoying, a deputy director of the regional Department of Education. And the outbreak on campus has led to punitive action, with one university Communist Party boss being sacked after 39 students from his institution tested positive. Then there is the situation in far western Xinjiang, where some 22 million people have been banned from leaving the region and are required to stay home. Xinjiang recorded 403 new cases on Thursday, according to an official tally. Yet amid it all, Beijing appears unwilling to move from its hardline stance. For three days this week, the state-run Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily published commentaries reiterating that China would not let its guard down. “Lying flat is not advisable,” it said in its third commentary, on Wednesday, referring to a Chinese phrase that denotes complacency. The battle against Covid was winnable, it insisted. Other countries that had reopened and eased restrictions had done so because they had no choice, it said, as they had failed to “effectively control the epidemic in a timely manner.” Read More…

Wawa To Close 2 Center City Philadelphia Locations Due To Continued Safety Concerns https://digitalalabamanews.com/wawa-to-close-2-center-city-philadelphia-locations-due-to-continued-safety-concerns/ PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Wawa is closing two Center City Philadelphia stores because of “continued safety and security challenges and business factors,” according to a statement from the company. The beloved convenience store chain says it is closing stores at 12th and Market streets and 19th and Market streets. A spokesperson said, “All associates from these two stores will be offered continued employment at Wawa. These two closures do not necessarily impact or limit the potential for future stores in Philadelphia County. We continue to be focused on doing everything we can to monitor.” “It’s getting worse, it’s getting worse. I don’t even understand why they keep doing this. It doesn’t make any sense,” said customer Virginia Carrington of West Philadelphia. SEE ALSO: Philly police release video that shows suspects who ransacked a Wawa store in Mayfair Customers of the Wawa on 36th and Chestnut streets are frustrated after hearing that five women are wanted for stealing and hurting a female employee early Thursday morning. “I heard they pepper sprayed the employees that worked at Wawa. The city is just out of control at the moment,” said Alfie Coker of South Philadelphia. Incidents like one last month when nearly 100 juveniles ransacked a Mayfair Wawa, encouraged City Councilman Michael Driscoll’s office to make contact with Wawa corporate. “We wanted them to know we were there for them we were there to help,” said Driscoll. Driscoll now said he fears for the future of Wawa in Philadelphia if violent or dangerous incidents continue to happen at stores. SEE ALSO: Philadelphia police still searching for suspects who ransacked Wawa in Mayfair “My concern is any business that experiences something like this may change their business model,” he said. Wawa has adjusted and cut overnight hours at several stores and closed others completely in recent years. Regarding the closures of Market street Wawa stores, a spokesperson said, “These closures do not diminish in any way our on-going commitment to serve the Philadelphia community or our acknowledgment of the effort and support we continue to receive from local police. It is our hope to repurpose these two locations to further benefit Philadelphia.” “We are very sorry we can’t be there for our friends and neighbors at these two locations, but we continue to serve the community from our other nearby stores and our commitment to the greater region remains strong. Philadelphia is our hometown and that’s something that will never change.” The City says it’s working with business owners to understand their concerns. “The Night Time Economy Director has launched a listening tour that would publicly engage large and small companies that operate after 5 p.m. in Philadelphia.” Copyright © 2022 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved. Read More…

🌱 Northport Water Park + Fatal Greene County Crash https://digitalalabamanews.com/%f0%9f%8c%b1-northport-water-park-fatal-greene-county-crash/ Skip to main content Pelham, AL Hoover, AL Vestavia Hills, AL Birmingham, AL Mountain Brook, AL Trussville, AL Meridian, MS Montgomery, AL Huntsville, AL Dallas-Hiram, GA Alabama Top National News See All Communities TGIF T-Town! We’re almost to the weekend, so let’s breeze through this Friday morning. In today’s Daily, we have these stories and more … New site for Northport water park Nick Saban’s paycheck. High school football rankings. But first, today’s weather: Pleasant with plenty of sun. High: 79 | Low: 52. Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch. Attention, real estate pros in Tuscaloosa! We’re now offering an exclusive sponsorship opportunity for an agent interested in attracting local clients and standing apart from the competition. Click here to learn more. Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch. Patch Shout Out Our Shout Out for this Friday morning goes to Northport Fire Rescue Lt. Phillip Blazer, who was honored Thursday as the Exchange Club of Tuscaloosa’s Northport’s Firefighter Of The Year. Northport Fire Rescue Here are the top 5 stories today in Tuscaloosa The City of Northport has confirmed plans to pivot its plans for a proposed water park away from a recently purchased tract of land off of Rose Boulevard to a new site along McFarland Boulevard, in addition to revealing new plans for the property initially considered. (Tuscaloosa Patch) Data released Thursday by USA Today says Nick Saban is the nation’s highest-paid college football coach for a third straight year. (Michael Casagrande, AL.com) Alabama softball kicked off its fall season against Jacksonville State Wednesday night in Albertville, with the game ending in a 6-6 tie after seven innings. (Aislyn Jowers, Crimson White) It’s Friday, so we have a full slate of high school football on tap for later tonight. Click here to check out the latest rankings from the Alabama Sports Writers Association. (Christopher Walsh, Bama Central) A 13-year-old was killed and three others injured in a two-vehicle crash Wednesday afternoon on U.S. Highway 43 in Greene County. (Tuscaloosa Patch) Today In Tuscaloosa 2022 VIP WOW Breakfast (More) Moundville Native American Festival (More) Velcro Pygmies tonight @ Rhythm & Brews (More) Jason Jones at Copper Top (More) Our Media Partners Tuscaloosa Patch is proud to be media partners with WVUA 23 News at the University of Alabama and Tuscaloosa Radio. Catch their great content and our headlines here and there on your cable provider, online and, for our radio partners, at the following stations: 92.1 The Possum, 102.1 WJRD, Rock 106.3, and 96.1 The Blessing. 5⃣ Other Stories I’m Reading Today UA Chancellor Dispels Rumors About Taking Over Tuscaloosa’s DCH System (Stephen Dethrage, Tuscaloosa Thread) Jahmyr Gibbs hitting his stride at the perfect time for Alabama (Charlie Potter, Bama Online) Know the Foe: An opposing look at Alabama’s matchup with Tennessee (Max Wolborsky, Tide Illustrated) DOJ finds Alabama’s foster care system violates law (Associated Press) UAB receives $4.6M grant for new Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (Laurel Thrailkill, Birmingham Business Journal) Obituaries Dorothy “Dot” Burroughs, 94, of Tuscaloosa (Heritage Chapel) William Meyers “Bill” Cox, 92, of Northport (Memory Chapel) Gregory Aaron of Tuscaloosa (Williams Funeral Service) Revelle Taylor of Tuscaloosa (Williams Funeral Service) Ricky Jones Sr., 61, of Northport (Wills Funeral Service) Thanks for following along and staying informed! See you all tomorrow morning for another update. — RP Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Tuscaloosa Daily? Contact me at ryan.phillips@patch.com Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. The rules of replying: Be respectful. This is a space for friendly local discussions. No racist, discriminatory, vulgar or threatening language will be tolerated. Be transparent. Use your real name, and back up your claims. Keep it local and relevant. Make sure your replies stay on topic. Review the Patch Community Guidelines. Read More…

Huntsville Downtown Growth Continues With New Hotel, Mixed-Use Project https://digitalalabamanews.com/huntsville-downtown-growth-continues-with-new-hotel-mixed-use-project/ News Updated: Oct. 13, 2022, 9:45 p.m.| Published: Oct. 13, 2022, 9:43 p.m. Rendering showing a mixed-use development (right) at CityCentre on the site of the former aquatic center along Monroe Street. The parking deck (center) is a future possibility but not yet finialized and a Moxy hotel will be built next to the Eclipse (top left). The AC Hotel by Marriott is on the left and Monroe Street is shown at the bottom. (City of Huntsville) Huntsville’s downtown district is continuing to grow as a new hotel along with a mixed-use development has been finalized. The growth is the third phase of CityCentre, the project on the southern border of Big Spring Park near the Von Braun Center anchored by the AC Hotel by Marriott and the Eclipse luxury apartment complex. The new hotel will be a Moxy, a 100-room boutique hotel under the Marriott flag. It will be located adjacent to the AC Hotel and the Eclipse and is the latest planned addition as Huntsville works to grow its inventory of hotel rooms in its downtown district. The mixed-use development will be at the former site of the Huntsville Aquatic Center on Monroe Street near the downtown library. In addition to apartments, it will include office and retail space. The long-planned food hall would be about 15,000 square feet on the ground floor of the Moxy hotel. Shane Davis, the director of urban and economic development, outlined the new developments at CityCentre in a presentation for the council to sell 0.36 acres to CityCentre III LLC. The strip of land, declared surplus by the council in approving the sale for $143,800, is just south of the surface parking lot behind the AC Hotel. Plans call for Lowe Avenue to be extended to connect Joseph Lowery Boulevard and Monroe Street along strip of land through the CityCentre development. Davis said the city is in discussions with a developer that could lead to a multi-level parking deck where the surface lot behind the AC Hotel is currently located that would help ease the parking strain downtown. Davis said the mixed-use building would be “very similar” to the Eclipse, the 278-unit development that fronts Williams Avenue overlooking Big Spring Park and stretches south down Lowery Boulevard toward the Twickenham district. The CityCentre growth will also be in close proximity to a mixed-use development along St. Clair Avenue – the Vista at Councill Square – that broke ground in August. It will be a 5-floor building with 336 apartment units with additional phases planned in the future. The Eclipse opened earlier this year and its ground-floor retail space is about 50% leased, Davis said, and announcements on those tenants are expected soon from CityCentre developers RCP Companies of Huntsville. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

City Plans To Expand McGregor Avenue To Help Congested Traffic https://digitalalabamanews.com/city-plans-to-expand-mcgregor-avenue-to-help-congested-traffic/ MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Drivers who regularly take McGregor Avenue to get on Airport Boulevard or Dauphin Street will be excited to learn the city’s plan to help relieve the congested traffic. In a plan prepared by the City’s Engineer Nick Amberger, McGregor Avenue will expand from two to three lanes, and a roundabout will be installed at the intersection of Dauphin Street and McGregor Avenue. Amberger said he’s fully aware of the traffic issues that people face when driving on McGregor Avenue and believes this plan will help target that issue. “It’s very heavy traffic movement between Dauphin Street and McGregor hitting Airport Boulevard,” said Amberger. “And so we’re very hopeful. And all the designs in the study show that the roundabout should ease up the traffic there.” As this is a big project, costing around $8 million to $10 million dollars, the city turned to other resources to help with the funding. James Gordon with the Alabama Department of Transportation, otherwise known as ALDOT for short, said the city requested federal funding, and ALDOT manages that money. “So anytime federal transportation money is involved, ALDOT manages that money,” said Gordon. “In this case, the MPO, the Metropolitan Planning Organization, requested the money and that’ll take care have 80% of this project, and the city will have to then take care of the remaining amount, which is 20%.” As this construction might be a headache for some drivers while the expansion process of McGregor is happening, some drivers who take Airport Boulevard and Dauphin Street on their daily commute were excited to hear that there is a plan in store to help with the traffic. Mobile residents Katherine Knorr and Brie Thomas were excited about a roundabout coming to Dauphin Street. “I think a roundabout would really help everyone’s commute in the mornings and just driving day to day,” said Knorr. “I think anything that improves, congestion on airport will be welcomed,” said Thomas. Other drivers, such as Kerri Jones, believe more is required to help the traffic issues on McGregor Avenue. “I think the traffic will happen regardless being that there’s a lot of people that take that direction of travel,” said Jones. “And the only way I feel like that would help traffic was either adding another lane or adding a sensor on the light because a lot of people it’s stopping go stop and go traffic going towards each light, and I feel like that’s what’s building up traffic.” According to Amberger, the project is fully designed, and construction will take about 18 months and begin in February. During the construction, parts of McGregor will be closed off, so Amberger encourages those to follow the detour signs that will be posted. Read More…

Get Out And Travel, Finale https://digitalalabamanews.com/get-out-and-travel-finale/ By Felicia Farnsworth For a month now, I’ve been stressing to the Herald’s readers the importance of getting out and seeing this great nation we call home. My travels with my parents were coming to an end, and although we saw some magnificent countryside, it was bittersweet to say goodbye. The last leg of our trip took us through America’s Heartland, the rolling hills of Kansas, as well as crossing the mighty Mississippi River in Tennessee. Once we entered Alabama, I knew I was at home. There’s something about the hills and valleys of our state that makes the saying “Sweet Home Alabama” show its true meaning. Our nation has over 6,600 state park sites that cover 14 million acres of land, and 21 of those parks belong to Alabama, which covers approximately 48,000 acres of public land and water in the state. The U.S. has 423 national park sites, spanning over 84 million acres. Alabama has nine state parks within its state lines. There are 154 National Forests and 20 national grasslands totaling 193 million acres in the U.S. Alabama is home to four national forests making them Alabama’s largest national treasure. Let’s not forget the 129 national monuments, nine military parks, four battlefield parks, and 11 national battlefields that are in the U.S. Our nation is so rich in natural beauty; however, society today is worried about social media and the everyday grind that we (society) tend to forget to unplug and enjoy nature’s beauty and gaze at the wonderment that is America! My favorite parks in Alabama include Cheaha State Park, Noccalula Falls Park and Campground, Blue Springs State Park, and Little River Canyon National Preserve. All of these parks can be visited within a day or can be made into a weekend getaway. Chewacla State Park is in Auburn, Al which makes this park the closest to Union Springs. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip with my parents, and I hope that my story has inspired the citizens of Bullock County to get out of their everyday routine and get out and travel! Read More…

AP News Summary At 9:49 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-949-p-m-edt/ Jan. 6 panel subpoenas Trump, shows startling new video WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump for his testimony about the 2021 Capitol attack. The panel voted unanimously Thursday to compel the former president to appear. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s vice-chair, says, “We must seek the testimony under oath of January 6th’s central player … the man who set this all in motion.” Earlier in Thursday’s hearing, the last before next month’s congressional elections, the panel presented video of interviews with former Trump aides, including several testifying that he had said he knew he had lost the election to Joe Biden. Mayor: 5 killed by N. Carolina shooter, suspect ‘contained’ RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina mayor says that five people including a police officer were killed in a shooting in a residential area. Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said that multiple people were shot on the Neuse River Greenway around 5 pm. Thursday. She said the police department told her around 8 p.m. that the suspect had been “contained” at a residence in the area. Numerous police vehicles and multiple ambulances had swarmed the neighborhood starting in the late afternoon, and officers remained in place for hours during an apparent manhunt. N. Korea fires another missile, flies warplanes near border SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says North Korea has launched a ballistic missile toward its eastern waters. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the launch happened early Friday but gave no further details. It’s the latest in a spate of missile launches by North Korea in recent days. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says North Korea also flew warplanes near the rivals’ border late Thursday and early Friday, prompting South Korea to scramble fighter jets. There have been no reports of clashes between the two Koreas. North Korea’s military also issued a statement accusing South Korea of carrying out artillery fire for about 10 hours near the border Thursday. Social Security benefits to jump by 8.7% next year Read More…

Key Mar-A-Lago Witness Said To Be Former White House Employee And Navy Veteran https://digitalalabamanews.com/key-mar-a-lago-witness-said-to-be-former-white-house-employee-and-navy-veteran/ Marine One lifts off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 29, 2019. (Wikimedia Commons) A key witness in the ongoing Justice Department and FBI investigation of Donald Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is a Navy veteran who followed the former president to Florida after serving as a valet in the Trump White House, people familiar with the matter said. Walt Nauta is the witness in question, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The 39-year-old worked as a valet for Trump in the Oval Office suite, according to former White House staffers, and served as a personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence and private club in Florida. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that an unnamed Trump employee had provided critical evidence to investigators — telling them that he moved boxes at the former president’s request at a time when the government was seeking the return of classified material, including some highly sensitive items, from Mar-a-Lago. The witness account was corroborated by security-camera footage, the people familiar with the case said, giving investigators key evidence of Trump’s behavior as they probe potential crimes including obstruction, destruction of government records or mishandling classified information. Hours after The Post’s report was published, the New York Times reported that surveillance footage from Mar-a-Lago showed Nauta moving boxes. A lawyer for Nauta declined to comment to The Post on Thursday, and Nauta did not respond to a call seeking comment. The information Nauta provided to FBI agents, and the footage described to The Post, offer the most direct account to date of Trump’s actions and instructions leading up to the FBI’s Aug. 8 search of his Florida property. The search came after the Justice Department demanded the return of all classified documents from Mar-a-Lago. Aides to Trump handed over 38 documents in June in response to a grand jury subpoena, but FBI agents found 103 more when they returned to Mar-a-Lago in August. When FBI agents first interviewed Nauta, he denied any role in moving boxes or sensitive documents, the people familiar with the situation said in interviews before Nauta’s name became public. But as investigators gathered more evidence, they questioned him a second time and he told a starkly different story — that Trump instructed him to move the boxes, these people said. Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich declined to answer specific questions about those assertions on Wednesday, instead charging that the Biden administration “has weaponized law enforcement and fabricated a Document Hoax in a desperate attempt to retain political power.” Asked about Nauta’s account on Thursday, Budowich questioned the legality of the court-approved search of Mar-a-Lago and accused the Biden administration of “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.” The people familiar with the Mar-a-Lago investigation said agents have gathered evidence indicating that Trump told people to move boxes to his residence after his advisers received the subpoena. That description of events was corroborated by the security-camera footage showing people moving the boxes, the people said. Separately, FBI agents interviewed another key figure in the documents case last week: Christina Bobb, a lawyer who signed a June letter saying that a “diligent search” had been conducted for classified records at Mar-a-Lago and that all such documents had been given back to the government. Bobb, whose interview with the FBI was first reported by NBC News, told agents that she signed the letter at the request of other lawyers and was not aware of the details of the search, a person familiar with the matter said. The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations, said Bobb told the FBI she was skeptical of signing the letter and insisted on adding a disclaimer clause saying it was based on the information provided to her by others. Bobb has told other Trump advisers that she has done nothing wrong and acted based on what she was told by Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, who handled the search for documents in response to the subpoena. A person familiar with Bobb’s account said she was called by Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn a day before the June 3 meeting with the Justice Department and asked to attend the session with Corcoran, whom she had never met. The person, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to relay Bobb’s account, said Bobb told agents Corcoran informed her that the storage room had been thoroughly searched — and indicated it was the only area of the club that needed to be searched. Corcoran’s search for classified documents in response to the subpoena did not include the president’s private residence, a person with knowledge of the situation said. A person with knowledge of the movement of the boxes at Mar-a-Lago said that after they were taken to the residence, Trump looked through at least some of them and removed some of the documents. At least some of the boxes were later returned to the storage room, this person said, while some of the documents remained in the residence. The Post could not confirm the specific content of the boxes reportedly examined by Trump. Nauta is originally from Guam, according to public records. He enlisted in the Navy and eventually became a cook in the White House mess, a small dining facility run by the Navy in the basement of the West Wing. In 2013, he entered a military culinary competition, part of a team representing “presidential food service.” Not long after Trump took office, Nauta left the mess to become one of Trump’s valets, spending some of his workday in a small passageway that connects the West Wing to a private dining room. From there, he had access to a small refrigerator stocked with Diet Cokes, which he brought to the president in the Oval Office when Trump pressed a call button on his desk, said a former White House staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss activities inside the White House. Nauta frequently served as a kind of gofer, fetching any items the president might need throughout the day and tidying up the room, the former staffer said. When Trump left the Oval Office for the night, it was Nauta who brought his coat. Their daily proximity meant that the two developed a close professional relationship, and Trump “trusted him completely,” this person added. As part of his valet responsibilities, Nauta also moved boxes containing papers for Trump between the Oval Office and a private study, as well as a private dining room that Trump used as an informal office, the former staffer said. Trump routinely took classified documents to that dining room, mingled with newspaper articles and other papers, according to multiple former White House officials who have said Trump never strictly followed the rules and customs for handling sensitive government material. The boxes that Nauta is said to have moved at Trump’s direction at Mar-a-Lago also contained classified documents mixed with newspaper articles, according to people familiar with the case. The former staffer described Nauta as friendly and pleasant to Oval Office visitors. In September 2020, Nauta was promoted to senior chief petty officer, a significant career advancement. When Trump left the White House, Nauta decided to join him at Mar-a-Lago. Campaign finance records show that Nauta was placed on the payroll of a Trump political action committee, Save America, in 2021. He was on payroll as recently as August, making $5,227.81 a paycheck, or about $135,000 a year, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Washington Post’s Lori Rozsa in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Alice Crites and Rosalind S. Helderman in Washington contributed to this report. Read More…

Donald Trump May Learn On Halloween If A Court-Imposed Monitor Will Oversee His Real-Estate And Golf Empire https://digitalalabamanews.com/donald-trump-may-learn-on-halloween-if-a-court-imposed-monitor-will-oversee-his-real-estate-and-golf-empire/ New York’s attorney general has asked a Manhattan judge for a quick ruling in her Trump fraud case. The AG, Letitia James, wants the judge to immediately order Trump to submit to financial monitoring. Justice Arthur Engoron has set October 31 for courtroom arguments and a possible decision. Loading Something is loading. Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. Donald Trump could get some scary news on Halloween: A Manhattan judge has set October 31 for a hearing on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ demand that the former president’s real-estate and golf resort empire submit to an independent financial monitor. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron agreed Thursday night to a Halloween-morning court date. Engoron will preside on that date as lawyers for Trump and for the attorney general spar in his courtroom over whether Trump’s business, which James sued for fraud on September 21, is so rife with ongoing fraud that it’s in immediate need of financial monitoring. Also Thursday night, the judge ruled that James can merely email a copy of her lawsuit to Trump lawyer Alina Habba, and to lawyers for Eric Trump, and that this would suffice as formal service of the suit. In the three weeks since the lawsuit was filed, Habba has dodged formally accepting service of the lawsuit, as have Eric Trump’s attorneys, the attorney general has complained, in court papers accusing Trump’s side of “gamesmanship.” Habba and Eric Trump’s lawyer of record, Clifford S. Robert, have not responded to Insider’s repeated requests for comment on the serving of the lawsuit. Habba did issue a press statement earlier Thursday calling the attorney general’s latest request for relief a “stunt,” insisting, “We have repeatedly provided assurance, in writing, that the Trump Organization has no intention of doing anything improper.” James’ office is hoping for a Halloween order barring the Trump Organization “from engaging in any fraudulent or illegal acts,” according to court papers filed earlier Thursday. She has asked the judge to further bar Trump from transferring any company assets to the Trump Organization II, a company he registered with New York’s state department the very day James sued him, his family, and his company. She has also asked the judge to appoint an independent monitor “to oversee compliance” with whatever ban on fraud or asset-shifting the judge imposes. A decision could come the same day. Engoron repeatedly made same-day rulings after prior oral arguments involving James’ probe of alleged financial wrongdoings at the former president’s business.  Trump’s side will have until October 24 to file papers opposing the attorney general’s demands; the attorney general will then have until October 27 to respond in papers of her own. Read More…

At Least 5 Killed In Raleigh As Police Respond To Active Shooter https://digitalalabamanews.com/at-least-5-killed-in-raleigh-as-police-respond-to-active-shooter/ U.S.|At Least 5 Killed in Raleigh as Police Respond to Active Shooter https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/us/raleigh-shooting.html The dead included an off-duty police officer. The authorities in North Carolina cautioned people in a residential neighborhood on the city’s east side to remain in their homes. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share. Video Officers from several law enforcement agencies rushed to a residential area on the city’s east side after at least five people were shot and killed.CreditCredit…Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer, via Associated Press Oct. 13, 2022Updated 9:47 p.m. ET At least five people were shot and killed, including an off-duty Raleigh, N.C., police officer, on Thursday evening in what the police and local authorities described as an ongoing “active shooter” situation. At least two others were shot, including a police officer, whose injuries were described as “non-life threatening,” according to Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin. “We have much to do and tonight, we have much to mourn,” Ms. Baldwin said. The authorities said that a “suspect was contained,” but declined to provide further information. Multiple law enforcement agencies are involved in this investigation. We are advising residents in the area of Hedingham neighborhood to remain indoors. — Raleigh Police (@raleighpolice) October 13, 2022 The Raleigh Police Department asked residents of the Hedingham neighborhood, on the city’s east side, to stay in their homes. The situation drew a large response of officers from multiple law enforcement agencies to the residential area near the Neuse River Greenway, a popular bike trail for Raleigh residents. Gov. Roy Cooper said on Twitter that he had spoken with Raleigh’s mayor and instructed state law enforcement to respond to the active shooter. “State and local officers are on the ground and working to stop the shooter and keep people safe,” he said. The shootings threw a quiet neighborhood, full of single-family homes and golf courses, into a virtual lockdown. Traffic was at a standstill on Eagle Trace Drive, a normally quiet road with a plant-filled berm in the middle, about a mile and a half from the site. Sirens whined in the distance as the cars inched forward, and police cars with lights flashing nosed through. “I’m never going to get home,” Cheryl St. James, a nurse, said as her car inched forward. “I want to get home. I can’t believe this is happening in my neighborhood. It’s scary.” Anne Berry, 52, who’s lived in the Avington Place neighborhood for more than 20 years, said helicopters had been hovering above her home for more than three hours and that it was “loud enough to feel in your chest when they get close.” Ms. Berry said a neighbor told her that as he was walking his dog, an officer stopped and asked him if he had seen anyone dressed in camouflage and then told him to head back inside. Ms. Baldwin blamed the shooting the epidemic of gun violence across the country. “We must stop this mindless violence in America,” she said. “We must address gun violence.” Emily Cataneo contributed reporting. Read More…