Atlanta Falcons Show Confidence In Rashaan Evans https://digitalalabamanews.com/atlanta-falcons-show-confidence-in-rashaan-evans/
In his final game of his fourth season with the Tennessee Titans, linebacker Rashaan Evans was a healthy scratch. But his play in his first five games with Atlanta appeared to have eased any second thoughts the Falcons could have had about trading former Pro Bowler Deion Jones.
Atlanta sent Jones to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday night in an exchange of draft picks. A Pro Bowl selection in 2017, Jones had totaled 353 tackles for the Falcons over the previous three seasons.
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The Falcons unloaded Jones’ 2023 base salary of $12 million without feeling as though they hurt their defense.
Atlanta’s leading tacklers were its inside linebackers Foyesade Oluokun and Jones last season, when the Falcons finished 30th in points allowed and 27th in rushing yards allowed among the NFL’s 32 teams. Oluokun left for the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency during the offseason, and Jones has been recovering from shoulder surgery in 2022.
Atlanta’s leading tacklers this season are inside linebackers Mykal Walker and Evans. Through five games, the Falcons rank 21st in points allowed and 17th in rushing yards allowed.
“We honestly feel that’s a strength of our team, and things evolve,” Atlanta coach Arthur Smith said about his team’s inside linebackers on Monday. “… Mykal Walker, we think, is playing really good football and the numbers show that, and the same with Rashaan.”
A first-round draft choice from Alabama in 2018, Evans made 207 tackles while starting every game in the 2019 and 2020 seasons for Tennessee. But in 2021, Evans dropped to 57 tackles as he missed five games with an ankle injury. In Tennessee’s 19-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the playoffs, the former Auburn High School star was healthy again, but he didn’t play.
After becoming an unrestricted free agent on March 16, Evans signed a one-year contract with the Atlanta Falcons on April 19.
Through five games this season, Evans has made 41 tackles and recovered two fumbles, which is tied for the league lead among defensive players.
“Like any move we make, we try to do it for the best interest of the team,” Smith said about trading Jones. “We’re always mindful of the players and very appreciative of all the players that played here, especially the guys that have played well … Very appreciative of what Deion has done for us.”
Jones has spent 2022 on injured reserve, but the Browns are looking for him to make an impact after losing linebacker Anthony Walker to a season-ending injury in the third game. In the two games that Walker has missed, Cleveland yielded 390 rushing yards and lost twice.
At 2-3, the Falcons are tied for second in the NFC South. Atlanta would be in first, but it lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 21-15 on Sunday. The Bucs lead the division at 3-2.
With a six-point margin, Sunday’s game was the most lopsided of the Falcons’ five this season. Atlanta lost to the New Orleans Saints by one point and the Los Angeles Rams by four points in its first two games before beating the Seattle Seahawks by four points and the Cleveland Browns by three.
The Falcons will square off against the San Francisco 49ers at noon CDT Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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.
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The Most Surprising Battleground For The House: New England
The Most Surprising Battleground For The House: New England https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-most-surprising-battleground-for-the-house-new-england/
JOHNSTON, R.I. — Seth Magaziner, a Democrat running for an open House seat, stood in a senior center in this working-class Providence suburb last week to warn that voting for his opponent would threaten Social Security checks.
His message on this day and throughout his campaign to voters has been clear: You will live to regret venting your frustrations at the status quo by voting for his opponent and potentially handing control of the House to Republicans.
“We cannot take that risk,” Magaziner said at the senior center. “We cannot let Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District be the place that put the fox in charge of the henhouse.”
The district voted for Biden by nearly 14 points in 2020, and longtime Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin, who is retiring, has held it easily for more than two decades, winning by big margins even in strong years for Republicans.
But Magaziner’s Republican opponent, Allan Fung, is threatening to break through the blue wall of New England, which has been a Democratic a stronghold for nearly two decades.
Two recent polls have shown Fung, a popular former mayor and the Republican nominee, with a slight lead.
He is one of a handful of Republicans in New England — including candidates in Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut — who have a chance of winning in a region where congressional Republicans had been considered an endangered species. There are no New England Republicans in the House, and Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) is the only Republican senator from the region.
The party out of power historically picks up seats in a president’s first midterm, and the political environment appears to favor Republicans to retake the House. But Republicans in New England point to additional factors in their favor, including a cadre of strong candidates and a “perfect storm” of issues that include the high cost of energy and food as well as the rise of fentanyl in New England communities, which GOP candidates argue is arriving up north due to a lack of security at the southern border.
“I guess, a perfect storm would be too easy of an analogy, but the issue environment is perfect for a Republican,” said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire Republican political strategist.
Republicans also argue that abortion, an issue that has bolstered Democrats’ hopes of retaining control of the House after Roe v. Wade was overturned, does not resonate with voters in New England as much as in other parts of the country because it’s unlikely states in the Northeast will enact laws restricting access to abortion.
“I think a woman’s right to have an abortion is very important, and while that plays a role in people’s decision, I believe I’m seeing firsthand that it falls on deaf ears a little bit here in New England,” said Scott Brown, a Republican who won the race to fill the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts in an upset in 2010, only to the lose reelection two years later.
No House Republican has represented New England since Rep. Bruce Poliquin (Maine) — who is running this year against Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) to reclaim his seat — lost reelection in 2018, but it has been longer since Republicans had a strong presence in the region.
Republicans held nearly half of New England’s Senate seats and a quarter of the House seats until the 2006 Democratic wave election, when Republicans lost the House. Four of the 30 House seats Republicans lost that year were in New England, leaving one House Republican survivor.
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) lost his seat in 2006 despite high approval ratings, as Rhode Islanders took out their frustrations with President George W. Bush and congressional Republicans on him.
“People just didn’t want a Republican Senate,” Chafee said in an interview.
Now, Republicans are betting that New England voters unhappy with President Biden are willing to give the GOP a strong look. They’re aggressively spending in the region, forcing Democrats to defend territory Biden won in 2020.
Democrats argue that the Republicans, regardless of how moderate they are promising to be, will have difficulty distancing themselves from the extreme elements of the party that dominate today’s GOP.
“New Englanders don’t want their representatives in Washington pushing abortion bans, enabling violent insurrections and slashing their Social Security and Medicare benefits — that’s why they’ve rejected the MAGA brand of the GOP cycle after cycle,” said James Singer, spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Republicans are well represented in the region’s governors’ mansions: Three of the country’s most popular governors — Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire and Phil Scott of Vermont — are New England Republicans.
But competitive House districts have different dynamics and often don’t include the states’ largest cities, and the more rural makeup lends to more moderate political instincts.
“Working class, and add on to that rural, that’s a good formula for Republicans,” said Dante Scala, professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. “Democrats can’t afford to be complacent and where they might be the ones saying, ‘What has Biden done for me?’ ”
In addition to Rhode Island, Republicans are targeting two seats in New Hampshire and one in Connecticut that Biden carried in 2020, as well as a Maine district that former president Donald Trump won twice.
In Connecticut’s 5th District, George Logan, a former Republican state senator, is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Jahana Hayes in a seat formerly held by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who flipped the seat blue in 2006.
“Waterbury, Danbury, Torrington, these cities used to be pretty reliably Democratic,” Murphy said in an interview. “But as factories closed and the union families disappeared, they began to vote more Republican.”
Logan is positioning himself as a moderate, leaning into “sensible leadership,” but has lagged in fundraising, raising a small fraction of Hayes’s haul, although his most recent fundraising totals for the third quarter haven’t been released.
Signifying the importance of the race for Republicans, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who first won in Upstate New York in a district carried by President Barack Obama, has prioritized making Republican inroads in the Northeast. She held a fundraiser for Logan on Tuesday night.
“Republicans are absolutely going to dominate the Northeast as single-party Democratic rule has delivered inflation, skyrocketing energy and home heating bills and a significant crime crisis. House Republicans are on pace to pick up seats throughout” the region, Stefanik told The Washington Post in a statement.
Barbara Ellis, Hayes’s campaign manager, said Logan’s reliance on the national party in the final weeks is proof that he’s no moderate.
“The GOP knows that if they win these purple districts in New England, they will have a pathway to a majority, so they can implement the MAGA agenda and [House Leader] Kevin McCarthy’s Commitment to America,” she said. “Simply, winning a few seats will allow them to turn back the clock.”
The Post contacted the Logan campaign multiple times for comment or an interview but received no response.
Both Republican and Democratic operatives interviewed for this article acknowledged that the potential for Republican success this cycle may be fleeting.
“Let’s say on the off chance Allan Fung and George Logan get into Congress and they stick with McCarthy and vote this extreme, extreme Republican line — they’re going to have a very short career,” a Democratic official working to elect House Democrats said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s electoral strategy in New England.
A Stefanik protégé and former Trump press aide Karoline Leavitt is running competitively against Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.). She doesn’t fit the mold of a moderate New England Republican and is highlighting culture-war issues alongside an emphasis on the economy.
“I look forward to flipping this district red and serving as a much needed conservative voice in Congress for our Live Free or Die State and our beautiful New England region,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Pappas, elected in 2018, points out that his district often flips between the parties and that he could be the first person to win a third term there since former Rep. John E. Sununu won reelection in 2000.
“I think that’s a huge contrast between myself and my opponent, who’s never worked across the aisle for anything,” Pappas said in an interview. Leavitt has “only sort of read off the MAGA talking points and pushed a pretty extreme agenda.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and House Democrats’ flagship super PAC together have booked more than $19 million in TV ads in New England, while the National Republican Congressional Committee and House Republicans’ lead super PAC have booked more than $23 million, according to the super PACs and people familiar with the committees’ spending. Congressional Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC, added $1 million to its TV ad reservations in Rhode Island on Tuesday.
Such ad reservations are subject to change in the final weeks of the campaign, and they don’t include ad buys coordinated with the campaigns or the ads the candidates are running themselves.
One of the critical issues specific to the Northeast that Republicans say will work in their favor is the high cost of home heating oil.
“I’m not sure how folks are going to get through the winter,” Poliquin said at a recent campaign even in Lewiston.
The cost of home heating oil — which is how a quarter of people in the Northeast heat their homes, especially in rural areas — has doubled in the past year and costs the most since at least 1992, according to the U.S. Energy Informa...
New Book Details How Trump Nearly Triggered A Mutiny Among Moderate Republicans
New Book Details How Trump Nearly Triggered A Mutiny Among Moderate Republicans https://digitalalabamanews.com/new-book-details-how-trump-nearly-triggered-a-mutiny-among-moderate-republicans/
Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a “Save America” rally at Country Thunder Arizona in 2022. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Donald Trump reportedly found himself on thin ice in October 2019 as Republicans seriously considered voting to impeach him over the Ukraine extortion scheme, and his chief of staff arranged a meeting with some of those on-the-fence GOP lawmakers.
The former president had further inflamed tensions by publicly announcing that he would hold the next G-7 summit at his Miami gold resort, and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney brought a group of moderate Republicans to Camp David — but Trump himself didn’t show, according to excerpts from a new book by Politico’s Rachael Bade and The Washington Post’s Karoun Demirjian that were published by NBC News.
“Who would want to go there?” Trump said, according to the book.
But Mulvaney, himself a former House member, understood the importance of presidential invitations and the allure of the seldom-seen presidential retreat, but the group of lawmakers immediately “charged the president’s chief of staff like a pack of wolves” at the retreat, according to “Unchecked: The Untold Story Behind Congress’s Botched Impeachments of Donald Trump”.
RELATED: How Trump could face a worse indictment if Merrick Garland chooses DC as the venue instead of Florida
“Hell of a week. Can we try a little harder here? Like really, Mick?” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) while huddled around a campfire with other lawmakers.
The Doral announcement angered centrists who were already uneasy about defending Trump on Ukraine, and the G-7 summit would pump foreign money into the president’s family-owned business in likely violation of the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause.
“The backlash, Mulvaney realized, was going to jeopardize the tenuous GOP coalition that they needed to keep intact in order to defend Trump from the impeachment inquiry,” the authors wrote. “He knew that if Trump kept acting out, some members would find it impossible to keep resisting the pressure to support at least the framework of an investigation.”
Trump called the lawmakers, some of whom were shocked that he was seeking their input.
“Why don’t you think it’s a good idea?” Trump asked, according to the book. “It’s a great venue! Everyone will love it!”
Wagner told the former president they didn’t want to defend him on that — certainly not while impeachment was looming — but Trump, who was surprised by their resistance, eventually came around and called them back at Camp David to workshop a tweet announcing his reversal.
“All right. I’m going to tweet something like this out,” Trump said, according to the book. “How does this tweet sound?”
In the end, not one House Republican voted in favor of launching the first impeachment inquiry or for any of the impeachment articles passed by the Democratic majority.
Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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Social Security COLA 2023 Release Live Online: Estimate Adjustment And Inflation Relief Checks | SSA Updates
Social Security COLA 2023 Release, Live Online: Estimate, Adjustment And Inflation Relief Checks | SSA Updates https://digitalalabamanews.com/social-security-cola-2023-release-live-online-estimate-adjustment-and-inflation-relief-checks-ssa-updates/
Update: October 12th, 2022 06:35 EDT
2023 COLA: live updates
How is the Social Security COLA calculated?
The Social Security Administration calculates the Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applied to benefits each year by comparing the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers from quarter 3 (July, August, September) from the current year to the previous.
The CPI-W data for July and August is available and the current average sits at 291. The average for Q3 last year was 268.421. This means that if the COLA was determined by the numbers from July and August, seniors would see an 8.4 percent boost in their payment amounts. However, if price increases in September were not as large as those seen earlier this summer, this number could shrink.
Social Security COLA 2023
When does COLA 2023 take effect for Social Security Benefits?
The Social Security Administration adjusts recipients’ benefits on an annual basis in order to keep monthly payments apace with inflation. The COLA 2022 increase of 5.9 percent announced last year was the highest in four decades due to rampant inflation as the economy recovered from the pandemic-induced slowdown.
Once again, with prices still rising at an accelerated rate, another historic COLA increase has been predicted for benefits in 2023, expected to surpass the one from last year. The final results of the Social Security Administration’s calculation will be released Thursday 13 October.
Read our full coverage on when the new benefit amounts will be distributed.
When will the COLA inflation increase be announced?
The inflation figures for September 2022 are expected to be released later this week, at which point the Social Security Administration (SSA) will confirm details of the cost-of-living adjustment for next year. The 2023 COLA increase will be released on Thursday 13 October, if the SSA sticks to the schedule employed in previous years.
Latest news
Are stimulus checks for inflation taxable?
Even though this year no stimulus checks have been granted at the federal level, several states in the country, at least 16, have taken it upon themselves to authorize their own relief checks to help their residents combat the high costs of inflation.
When the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) delivered the first, second and third stimulus checks, though, some people had doubts about whether they had to pay taxes on the money received, and at the time, the answer was a resounding NO. As with the federal stimulus checks, the reality is that the inflation stimulus checks are also not taxable.
US NEWS
California Inflation Relief Check: when will I receive the payment & how to track?
The first payments for the Middle Class Tax Refund were sent out on October 7. People will of course be hoping to receive their money as soon as possible and fortunately the Californian Franchise Tax Board (CFTB) has published information for when people should receive their payment.
The CFTB says it expects to send 90 percent of the direct deposit payments for the Middle Class Tax Refund in October 2022. Those who received the first or second Golden State Stimulus (GSS I and II) via direct deposit can expect to see the money in their account between 7 October and 25 October. The remaining direct deposits will be issued between 28 October and 14 November 2022.
Hello and welcome to AS USA’s live blog on the support available to help combat inflation at the household level.
Several states are sending out payments to low-and-middle-income families to help them increase their purchasing power as inflation cuts into it. One of these state, California, is also considering applying a windfall tax on the increased profits from oil and gas companies that will be divided and redistributed to drivers.
Tomorrow the Social Security Administration will announce the 2023 Cost-of-living adjustment, which could be as high as eight percent, based on recent consumer price reports.
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Inflación
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Search For Savannah Toddler Quinton Simon Reaches 1-Week Mark. The Latest On The Investigation
Search For Savannah Toddler Quinton Simon Reaches 1-Week Mark. The Latest On The Investigation https://digitalalabamanews.com/search-for-savannah-toddler-quinton-simon-reaches-1-week-mark-the-latest-on-the-investigation/
It’s been one week since 20-month-old Quinton Simon disappeared from his Savannah home.The child was last seen around 6 a.m. October 5. He was reported missing about three hours later.The Chatham County Police Department is leading the investigation, with help from several other law enforcement agencies including dozens of FBI agents and personnel.Police continue to say they are investigating the case from multiple angles.On Tuesday, police said they had seized evidence they believe will lead to closure in the case. It was not specified what that evidence was, nor did police speak to the media following the statement. TRENDING STORIESPolice issue statement on new evidence seized in search for missing Savannah toddlerThe 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season forms. Where Karl tracks nextNew details released after Savannah teen charged in toddler’s deadly shootingBelow video: Police analyzing new evidence found in Quinton Simon missing toddler case in SavannahA dispatch call obtained by WJCL sheds some light on what authorities were told the morning of Quinton’s disappearance.”Complainant advised her 1-year-old son is missing,” the dispatcher is heard saying. “She woke up, her door was open. Advised he’s unable to open a door. Thinks someone came in and took him.” Earlier this week, Chatham Fire was called out to the home to begin pumping the backyard pool. It’s unclear if they found any clues. Chatham County Police previously said they don’t believe there was any foul play involved and hope Quinton is still alive. Below file video: Chatham County police chief gives Monday update in search for toddler Quinton SimonCourt documents obtained by WJCL show that the family was at odds before Quinton’s disappearance.The documents show that Billie Jo Howell, Quinton’s grandmother, attempted to remove the child’s mother, Leilani, and her boyfriend, Daniel Youngkin, from the home.Billie Jo, Leilani’s mother, said in the document “They have damaged my property and at this point no one is living in peace.”She added that she wanted Leilani and Daniel out “as soon as possible.” Documents also show that Quinton’s grandparents, Billie Jo and her husband, are the ones who have custody of Quinton and his 3-year-old brother. Below video: Hear from Quinton’s grandparents”She hasn’t always done the right thing,” Billie Jo said of her daughter on Thursday. “Sometimes she does really great, sometimes she doesn’t. I don’t know what to think right now. I don’t know what to believe, because I don’t think anybody ever believes this is going to happen to them. I don’t know if I can trust her or I don’t. I just know I’m hurting and I want this baby home. He’s my baby.”Chief Hadley says police will leave no stone unturned in the search. “There’s a very sequential process that takes place here,” Hadley said last week. “It may be frustrating to the general public, it may be frustrating to y’all that things aren’t developing as quickly as you may like. But we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing the right thing, that we’re being lawful, making sure we dot our I’s and cross our T’s. So that if we discover evidence, it can be admissible in court and we can use it in court if we have to.” Police say a search has been conducted of the home, the backyard pool and a nearby pond.A tipline has been established for information regarding the case: 912-667-3134. Below video: Initial coverage of disappearance
It’s been one week since 20-month-old Quinton Simon disappeared from his Savannah home.
The child was last seen around 6 a.m. October 5. He was reported missing about three hours later.
The Chatham County Police Department is leading the investigation, with help from several other law enforcement agencies including dozens of FBI agents and personnel.
Police continue to say they are investigating the case from multiple angles.
On Tuesday, police said they had seized evidence they believe will lead to closure in the case. It was not specified what that evidence was, nor did police speak to the media following the statement.
TRENDING STORIES
Police issue statement on new evidence seized in search for missing Savannah toddler
The 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season forms. Where Karl tracks next
New details released after Savannah teen charged in toddler’s deadly shooting
Below video: Police analyzing new evidence found in Quinton Simon missing toddler case in Savannah
A dispatch call obtained by WJCL sheds some light on what authorities were told the morning of Quinton’s disappearance.
“Complainant advised her 1-year-old son is missing,” the dispatcher is heard saying. “She woke up, her door was open. Advised he’s unable to open a door. Thinks someone came in and took him.”
Earlier this week, Chatham Fire was called out to the home to begin pumping the backyard pool. It’s unclear if they found any clues.
Chatham County Police previously said they don’t believe there was any foul play involved and hope Quinton is still alive.
Below file video: Chatham County police chief gives Monday update in search for toddler Quinton Simon
Court documents obtained by WJCL show that the family was at odds before Quinton’s disappearance.
The documents show that Billie Jo Howell, Quinton’s grandmother, attempted to remove the child’s mother, Leilani, and her boyfriend, Daniel Youngkin, from the home.
Billie Jo, Leilani’s mother, said in the document “They have damaged my property and at this point no one is living in peace.”
She added that she wanted Leilani and Daniel out “as soon as possible.”
Documents also show that Quinton’s grandparents, Billie Jo and her husband, are the ones who have custody of Quinton and his 3-year-old brother.
Below video: Hear from Quinton’s grandparents
“She hasn’t always done the right thing,” Billie Jo said of her daughter on Thursday. “Sometimes she does really great, sometimes she doesn’t. I don’t know what to think right now. I don’t know what to believe, because I don’t think anybody ever believes this is going to happen to them. I don’t know if I can trust her or I don’t. I just know I’m hurting and I want this baby home. He’s my baby.”
Chief Hadley says police will leave no stone unturned in the search.
“There’s a very sequential process that takes place here,” Hadley said last week. “It may be frustrating to the general public, it may be frustrating to y’all that things aren’t developing as quickly as you may like. But we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing the right thing, that we’re being lawful, making sure we dot our I’s and cross our T’s. So that if we discover evidence, it can be admissible in court and we can use it in court if we have to.”
Police say a search has been conducted of the home, the backyard pool and a nearby pond.
A tipline has been established for information regarding the case: 912-667-3134.
Below video: Initial coverage of disappearance
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OBITUARY: Henry 'Bud' Kleeman Jr. https://digitalalabamanews.com/obituary-henry-bud-kleeman-jr/
Henry “Bud” Kleeman, age 91, a resident of Spring Hill, passed away Sunday, October 9, 2022, at Maury Regional Medical Center.
Born on July 17, 1931, in Reading, Pennsylvania, Henry was the son of the late Henry Merrill Kleeman, Sr. and the late Maria Cody Kleeman.
He served in the United States Navy during the Korean War on USS Coral Sea Aircraft Carrier where he worked as a pipe fitter and in the boiler room. He was granted a GI bill and used that along with part time work as a plumber to pay for his college tuition.
He was married to Barbara Ulsh who passed away shortly after they had two sons. Henry was a graduate of Presbyterian Seminary College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Penn State College of Engineering.
He moved to Bristol, Tennessee where he work as an electrical engineer for Sperry Rand Corporation. When John F Kennedy announced “The Space Race,” Henry moved to Huntsville, AL and went to work with NASA as an aerospace contractor working on the Wernher von Braun designs which developed guidance systems for manned rockets.
In addition, while in Huntsville, he served as an Intermittent Pastor and Deacon at Weatherly Heights Baptist Church and Willowbrook Baptist Church.
Henry was a life-long member of the Gideons International and was instrumental in two church plants. After retirement, he became a director for Teen Challenge organization in Cape Girardeau, Missouri for about ten years.
He later moved back to Pennsylvania after his father’s death to take care of his mother. Upon her death, he moved to Spring Hill, Tennessee, where he resided for thirteen years to be closer to his family.
He is survived by his sons, Mark (Rhonda) Kleeman, of Columbia, TN, Kurt Matthew (Gloria) Kleeman of Huntsville, AL, sister-in-law, Belle Kleeman of Pennsylvania, eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
Along with his parents, he was preceded in death by the mother of his children, Barbara Ann Ulsh Kleeman.
A funeral service will be held on Thursday, October 13, 2022, at 2:00 PM at Heritage Funeral Home with Pastor Eric Nichols officiating. Burial will follow in the Garden of Freedom at Maury Memorial Gardens. A visitation will also be held on Thursday from 12:00 – 2:00 PM at the funeral home. Heritage Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements. https://www.tnfunerals.com
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to Hospice Compassus: 830 Hatcher Lane, Columbia, TN 38401, or a charity of your choice.
For more obituaries visit https://williamsonsource.com/obituaries/
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Opinion: Doug’s Dug Himself A Nice, Deep Hole https://digitalalabamanews.com/opinion-dougs-dug-himself-a-nice-deep-hole/
If you’re looking for good news this week – and who isn’t? – how about this recent headline in The New York Times:
“Mastriano’s Sputtering Campaign: No TV Ads, Tiny Crowds, Little Money”
And the subhead below that:
“As he runs for governor of Pennsylvania, Doug Mastriano is being heavily outspent by his Democratic rival and trails badly in polling. National Republicans show little desire to help him.”
The Times piece tells us that no one is coming to Mastriano’s rallies, no one is giving him money and no one is giving him a snowball’s chance on a hot skillet of beating Josh Shapiro in November. Polls show Mastriano down by double digits.
Perhaps you’re thinking, what can you expect from those libs at The Times? (Mastriano won’t talk to The Times, nor to any other mainstream news organization. My dad would call this cutting off your nose to spite your face.)
So let’s see what George Will has to say about the Republican Party’s nominee for governor of Pennsylvania. Will has been a leading voice among American conservatives since the invention of the bowtie. As such, I’m no fan, despite our shared addiction to baseball.
But unlike Donald Trump and the jellyfish that cling to him, Will has actual beliefs. When he saw that Trump’s flights of nincompoopery were at odds with those beliefs, he broke ranks. (He has called Trump “a suppurating wound on American life.” Too kind.)
Noting that Mastriano counts himself among those who refuse to accept that the American people really and most sincerely booted Trump’s saggy bottom back to Mar-a-Lago in November 2020, Will wrote in his Washington Post column that Mastriano “has the scary sincerity of the unhinged whose delusions armor them against evidence.”
The Mastriano-Shapiro race is getting all this national attention because of its potential national implications. Like Trump, Mastriano thinks you win elections the same way you win at Scrabble if you’re a sorehead with a rack full of vowels: Hide some consonants up your sleeve, accuse your opponent of same, and if those gambits don’t work, “accidentally” flip the board and scatter the tiles.
If elected, Mastriano says, he’ll appoint a secretary state who he’ll give the power to “make the corrections to elections.”
So imagine this scenario. The 2024 presidential election is another barn burner. Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes, which ties it with Illinois for the fifth-most behind California, Texas, Florida and New York, are going to be the difference maker, just as they were in 2020. And Gov. Mastriano has his thumb on the scale.
Some other things one needs to know about the Republican nominee:
Famously, he brought a busload of supporters to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to start the steal.
He has called global warming “fake science.”
Though he’s against government mandating masks (“child abuse”) and vaccines (“the government’s poison”), he’s for government making pregnant women have babies and telling people whom they can and cannot marry. Note the inconsistency.
His solution to the mass murder of children? Turn schools into forts: “I have called for a $20 million funding increase in this year’s budget that may be used for armed resource officers, metal detectors, door fortifications, emergency response training, security cameras, door-locking technology, and increasingly innovative solutions that will provide more security than taking guns away from law-abiding citizens.”
Among people involved in his campaign are a couple of self-described prophets, one of whom says that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi drinks the blood of children. (Not true! What Madame Speaker actually did was drink Bloody Marys as a child.)
And here he is outlining his busy, busy first day in office, should he get elected: “On day one ‘woke’ is broke. On day one critical race theory will no longer be taught in Pennsylvania schools. On day one no more boys on the girls’ team…On day one, no more boys in the girls’ bathroom…On day one — we’re blessed Pennsylvania, we’re blessed — on day one we’re gonna withdraw from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. We’re going to open up our state lands and rollback regulations, and we’re going to drill and dig like never before.”
A whopping 50 attendees heard about these plans at Mastriano’s rally at the state capitol a couple of weeks ago. That’s what you get when you counter-schedule against Penn State vs. Central Michigan. Not to mention the Irish Fall Festival on the Jersey Shore, which had to have been way more fun.
Those of you who are terrified at the thought of this guy becoming the commonwealth’s chief executive probably aren’t comforted by the poll numbers. You shouldn’t be. Trump wasn’t supposed to win in 2016 either.
As ever, it may come down to turnout. When Tom Wolf was reelected in 2018, 58 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. When Wolf defeated Tom Corbett in 2014, turnout was 43 percent.
Both numbers are pathetic. If ever there was a year when sane people needed to vote for sanity, it’s this one.
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Labor Proposal Could Upend Rules For Gig Workers Companies
Labor Proposal Could Upend Rules For Gig Workers, Companies https://digitalalabamanews.com/labor-proposal-could-upend-rules-for-gig-workers-companies/
FILE – An Uber sign is displayed inside a car in Palatine, Ill., Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. The U.S. Department of Labor is proposing a new rule on employee classifications, saying workers have incorrectly been deemed independent contractors, which hurts their rights. The department said Tuesday, Oct. 11, that misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees denies employees’ protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over businesses, and hurts the economy. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
The Biden administration proposed new standards Tuesday that could make it more difficult to classify millions of workers as independent contractors and deny them minimum wage and benefits.
The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which could take months to take effect, would replace a scrapped Trump-era standard that had lowered the bar for classifying employees as contractors, workers who are not covered by federal minimum wage laws and are not entitled to benefits including health insurance and paid sick days.
The reaction in markets for major gig companies was immediate. Shares of of the ride-hailing companies Lyft fell 12 percent while Uber tumbled about 10 percent, although both companies dismissed the significance of the new proposal and its potential to affect their business.
In one key change, employers are required to consider whether the work provided is an integral part of their business. That could affect app-based companies that rely almost entirely on freelance workers to provide their services. The Trump-era rule had narrowed that criteria to whether the work in part of an integrated unit of production, and gave more weight to other considerations such as the worker’s opportunity to make a profit or loss.
The new rule directs employers to consider six criteria for determining whether a worker is an employee or a contractor, without predetermining whether one outweighs the other. The criteria also include the degree of control by the employer, whether the work requires special skills, the degree of permanence of the relationship between worker and employer and the investment a worker makes, such as car payments.
The rule, however, does not carry the same weight as a law passed by Congress or state legislatures, nor does it specify whether any specific company or industry should reclassify their workers. Rather, it offers an interpretation of who should qualify for protections under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.
The rule could bolster labor advocates seeking to challenge worker classification in courts, or state lawmakers seeking to pass stricter laws for designating workers as contractors, said Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
“It creates a base from which to work and it discourages predatory companies that want to lower their costs by denying basic rights to their employees,” said Campos-Medina.
Still, there is room for interpretation since some companies might meet one set of criteria for contractor designation, but not others.
“I don’t think it will stop the debate,” Campos-Medina said. “The only thing the federal rule does is it creates a basic standard for evaluation.”
The Labor Department said misclassifying workers as independent contractors denies those workers protections under federal labor standards, promotes wage theft, allows certain employers to gain an unfair advantage over businesses, and hurts the economy.
“While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors, particularly among our nation’s most vulnerable workers,” said Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh in a prepared statement.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the proposal would constitute a major change for workers and employers from previous years.
“A classification to employees would essentially throw the business model upside down and cause some major structural changes if this holds,” Ives wrote.
But both Uber and Lyft dismissed the potential impact of the new rule.
“Today’s proposed rule takes a measured approach, essentially returning us to the Obama era, during which our industry grew exponentially,” CR Wooters, head of federal affairs at Uber, said in a statement.
In a blog post, Lyft said the company had expected this change since the start of the Biden administration.
“Importantly this rule: Does not reclassify Lyft drivers as employees. Does not force Lyft to change our business model,” the company said.
The new rule is subject to a 45-day period ending Nov. 28 during which stakeholders can submit comments, and may not take effect for months.
Gig economy giants have weathered past attempts in the U.S. to require their drivers to be classified as employees.
In 2020, California voters overwhelmingly approved a proposition to exempt drivers for app-based companies from a state law requiring them to be designated as employees. Uber, Lyft and other companies had spent $200 million campaigning in favor of the proposition. However, a judge struck down the ballot measure as unconstitutional last year, setting up a legal fight that could end up in the California Supreme Court.
App-based companies have long argued that their workers want the flexibility to set their own hours as contract workers.
Beyond gig workers, the new law has the potential to change the circumstances of millions of custodians, truck drivers, waiters, construction workers and others, according to the Labor Department.
Workers themselves are divided over the debate. In California, for example, hundreds of port truck drivers seeking to preserve their independent contractor status shut down operations in the Port of Oakland last summer to protest the state’s gig workers law. But other truckers have successfully fought to force their companies to classify them as employees with full benefits.
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Instead Of Freaking Out About Nuclear War, Let https://digitalalabamanews.com/instead-of-freaking-out-about-nuclear-war-let/
This is an emergency.
Right now, we’re closer to a cataclysmic nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. One assessment after another has said the current situation may be even more dangerous.
Yet few members of Congress are advocating for any steps that the U.S. government could take to decrease the dangers of a nuclear conflagration. The silences and muted statements on Capitol Hill are evading the reality of what’s hanging in the balance — the destruction of almost all human life on Earth. “The end of civilization.”
Public passivity is helping elected officials to sleepwalk toward unfathomable catastrophe for all of humanity. If senators and House members are to be roused out of their timid refusal to urgently address — and work to reduce — the present high risks of nuclear war, they need to be confronted. Nonviolently, but emphatically.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made thinly veiled, extremely reckless statements about possibly using nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. At the same time, some of the U.S. government’s policies make nuclear war more likely. Changing them is imperative.
For the last few months, I’ve been working with people in many states who aren’t just worried about the spiking dangers of nuclear war — they’re also determined to take action to help prevent it. That resolve has resulted in organizing more than 35 picket lines this Friday, Oct. 14, at local offices of Senate and House members around the country. (To find out about picketing in your area, go here.)
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
What could the U.S. government do to lessen the chances of global nuclear annihilation? The Defuse Nuclear War campaign, which is coordinating those picket lines, has identified key needed actions. Such as:
Rejoin nuclear-weapons treaties the U.S. has withdrawn from.
President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002. Under Donald Trump, the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Both pacts significantly reduced the chances of nuclear war.
Take U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
Four hundred intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) are armed and ready for launch from underground silos in five states. Because they’re land-based, those missiles are vulnerable to attack and thus are on hair-trigger alert — allowing only minutes to determine whether indications of an incoming attack are real or a false alarm.
End the policy of “first use.”
Both Russia and the United States have so far refused to pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Support congressional action to avert nuclear war.
In the House, H.Res. 1185 includes a call for the U.S. to “lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war.”
The single overarching need is for senators and representatives to insist that U.S. participation in nuclear brinkmanship is unacceptable. As our Defuse Nuclear War team says, “Grassroots activism will be essential to pressure members of Congress to publicly acknowledge the dangers of nuclear war and strongly advocate specific steps for reducing them.”
Is that really too much to ask? Or even to demand?
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Margaret Stephens – The Selma Times‑Journal https://digitalalabamanews.com/margaret-stephens-the-selma-times%e2%80%91journal/
Margaret Stephens
Published 4:16 pm Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Margaret Stephens, age 98, died on Monday, October 10, 2022.
Father Bart Horner, retired Anglican priest, will conduct her memorial service at Hart-Wyatt Funeral Home Chapel located at 202 E Colorado St. in Walters, OK, on Saturday, October 15, 2022 at 1 p.m., and the interment at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Lawton, OK, to follow.
Margaret was born January 12, 1924 on a dairy farm in Sterling, KS to Howard and Janet Findley Thompson. She lived on the farm until her father’s passing when she was 12. Soon after, she and her family relocated to Lawton, OK. Margaret spent the majority of her 98 years in Lawton. She graduated from Lawton High School in 1941, and attended Cameron Agricultural College’s two year program. She then continued her education at The University of Oklahoma in Norman, OK graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1946. Margaret also earned her American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) certification. After finishing her education, Margaret moved back to Lawton where he used her expertise to aid the community in a variety of medical clinics over the years.
In 1955, she met Robert “Bob” O. Fietz on a blind date. The two were smitten and tied the knot on February 11, 1956. They had one child, a daughter Janet whom they loved dearly. Margaret and Bob were very active in the Episcopal Church and known by their church friends to throw the best parties with good food, great live music, and lively conversation. In 1965, a group of doctors formed Great Plains Medical Square and asked Margaret to manage their laboratory. Always up for the task, she remained there until her retirement in 1983. She and Bob had many wonderful years together before his sudden passing in October of 1991. The goodness of the Lord, brought an old friend, COL(R) Chester “Check” O. Stephens, back into her life. Both having lost their spouses, the two reconnected and were married in September of 2003. The pair returned to Check’s home in Selma, where they enjoyed time with Check’s family and friends, rooting for Auburn University at home games, and taking the four wheeler on drives through their fields of Christmas Trees. Check passed on August 18, 2014. Margaret enjoyed a few more years in Selma before moving back to live with Jan in Walters, OK in December of 2019. She spent her last few years in Walters with a cat in her lap and a book in her hand, surrounded by family, catching up with friends and continually surprising people with her sharp mind and determination even in her late 90’s. She loved the Lord and was blessed to be loved well by two men and their families. She is survived by her daughter Janet Fietz McCoy (Jan) and her husband LTC(R) Cary McCoy III of Walters, OK; her grandson CPT Robert McCoy and wife Jennifer of Vilseck, Germany; her granddaughter Megan McCoy of Oklahoma City, OK; and her granddaughter Sarah Kendall and her husband Keegan of Fletcher, OK, as well as many bonus family members to include the Cary and Barbara McCoy family, the Jimmy and Gladys Stephens Elliott family and the Jimmy and Martha Stephens Hughes family both of Selma. Memorial contributions may be made to the Baptist Home for Girls, 13976 Anthony Lane, Madill, OK 73446 or Ivy Creek Cemetery Fund, 3068 Highway 14 West, Autaugaville, AL 36003 or any Christian charity of your choice.
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Justice Dept. Asks Supreme Court To Deny Trump's Request To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Case Mountain Top Media
Justice Dept. Asks Supreme Court To Deny Trump's Request To Intervene In Mar-A-Lago Case – Mountain Top Media https://digitalalabamanews.com/justice-dept-asks-supreme-court-to-deny-trumps-request-to-intervene-in-mar-a-lago-case-mountain-top-media/
Justice Dept. asks Supreme Court to deny Trump’s request to intervene in Mar-a-Lago case
mountain top media
Article Updated: October 12, 2022
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The Justice Department has urged the Supreme Court to reject Donald Trump’s request to allow a third-party arbitrator review classified documents taken from his Mar-a-Lago home.
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Orban Calls On Trump To Negotiate Peace As He Takes A Swipe At Scholz
Orban Calls On Trump To Negotiate Peace As He Takes A Swipe At Scholz https://digitalalabamanews.com/orban-calls-on-trump-to-negotiate-peace-as-he-takes-a-swipe-at-scholz/
Russian military shells Nikopol in Ukraine
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In a thinly-veiled swipe at Chancellor Scholz, Viktor Orban said on Tuesday that if Angela Merkel had not retired from politics, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have been avoided this year. Speaking at a public event in Berlin, the Hungarian leader said Ms Merkel’s reaction to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea was a “masterstroke”.
Asked whether he believed that the war could have been prevented should Ms Merkel still be in office, Mr Orban replied: “For certain.”
The Hungarian leader and Chancellor Scholz do not see eye to eye ideologically.
Mr Orban also took the meeting as an opportunity to take a swipe at US President Joe Biden, calling on the American leader to reach an agreement with Russia.
He said: “The Americans have to come to an agreement with the Russians.
“Anyone who thinks that this war will be concluded through Russian-Ukrainian negotiations is not living in this world.”
He added: “This is going to sound brutal, but hope for peace goes by the name of Donald Trump.”
Launching his Twitter account on the same day, the Hungarian Prime Minister wrote after the meeting: “Good discussion, but we still have a long way to go.”
Viktor Orban says peace in Ukraine should be negotiated by Donald Trump (Image: GETTY)
Viktor Orban met Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Tuesday (Image: GETTY)
Mr Orban is seen as Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU, though he has denounced the Russian President’s invasion of Ukraine as an “act of aggression”.
The meeting came as G7 leaders accused Putin of war crimes on Tuesday after a wave of missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Prime Minister Liz Truss and allies from the G7 democracies condemned the strikes in the “strongest possible terms”, adding that “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilian populations constitute a war crime”.
Russia launched a further wave of missile and drone strikes on Tuesday, hitting power plants and civilian areas across Ukraine.
The blasts followed a barrage which killed 19 and injured scores more in cities including Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Monday.
After crisis talks the G7 leaders issued a statement vowing to “hold President Putin and those responsible to account”.
The group rejected the “illegal attempted annexation” of four areas of Ukraine and vowed to step up sanctions against Moscow.
READ MORE: Putin humiliated as propagandist brands Ukraine war ‘terrible crime’
“We have imposed and will continue to impose further economic costs on Russia, including on individuals and entities – inside and outside of Russia – providing political or economic support for Russia’s illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory,” the G7 statement said.
The leaders also warned Moscow that any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons would have “severe consequences”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed leaders from the G7 – the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union – at the virtual meeting on Tuesday.
They assured him they remain “undeterred and steadfast” in their support for his nation.
“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” they said.
The G7 also said any “just peace” should include respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and could also include reparation funding from Russia.
The shift in the Kremlin’s strategy to attacks on civilian areas and infrastructure followed Ukraine’s strike against the strategically and symbolically important Kerch Bridge linking Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
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The head of the GCHQ intelligence agency said Mr Putin’s regime was becoming increasingly desperate as it ran short of weapons, allies and troops.
Sir Jeremy Fleming said Moscow still had a “very capable military machine” despite the shortcomings, although it was being stretched by the conflict.
Mr Putin has warned about the potential use of nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory – a definition which he could extend to the occupied regions of Ukraine.
Sir Jeremy said he hoped the UK would see “indicators” from Russia before any deployment of nuclear weapons, which would be a “catastrophe”.
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Racist Audio Spurs Chaos At LA City Council Meeting Amid Resignation Demands
Racist Audio Spurs Chaos At LA City Council Meeting Amid Resignation Demands https://digitalalabamanews.com/racist-audio-spurs-chaos-at-la-city-council-meeting-amid-resignation-demands/
Protesters at the Los Angeles City Council meeting. Photo: Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
An angry crowd confronted the Los Angeles city council Tuesday following the release of a racist conversation between councilmembers, as President Biden joins calls for resignations.
Why it matters: The nation’s second-largest city is in the midst of a mayoral election where rising crime, growing homelessness and the economy have dominated. A new mayor will have to tackle those issues — and heal a new fallout.
Driving the news: The White House said Tuesday that Biden believed Los Angeles councilmembers Nury Martinez and others should resign from city council over racist remarks heard in leaked recordings made public this week.
“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
She called the comments on the recording “unacceptable” and “appalling.” Biden is scheduled to visit Los Angeles on Wednesday as part of a four-day Western swing
Details: Protesters met with councilmembers Tuesday in their first meeting since the release of the secret recording and demanded three Latino councilmembers in the audio resign.
The crowd chanted “fuera” — “out” in Spanish — and “we’re with the Blacks” and “shut it down.”
Demonstrators vowed to keep protesting going until councilmembers stepped down.
Background: In a nearly year-old recording, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, then-Los Angeles City Council President Martinez made racist comments about a white councilmember’s Black son.
In the recording, she complained that another official was “with the Blacks” in a redistricting fight, and made racist remarks about Indigenous people from the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Councilmembers Gil Cedillo, Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera were on the call and did not challenge Martinez.
Herrera resigned Monday, Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, head of the California Labor Federation, told KABC-TV.
Yes, but: Martinez resigned as city council president and announced Tuesday she was taking a leave of absence from the legislative body. She remains on the council.
Cedillo and de León, who attended Tuesday’s meeting, have apologized but have not resigned.
Of note: Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, mayoral candidates Karen Bass and Rick Caruso, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and other members of the city council have called for all three councilmembers to step down.
Meanwhile, in a new recording of the same conversation, Martinez can be heard saying the “judíos” — which means Jews in Spanish — “cut their deal with South L.A.,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Zoom out: Martinez’s racist comments came during a discussion about the once-in-a-decade redistricting process of the city’s 15-member city council.
The Latino population in Los Angeles has exploded while the percentage of Black residents has stagnated yet Black leaders were able to keep some Black-majority seats.
State of play: “There’s an anxiety on the part of the African American population is they’ve been pushed out of these historic neighborhoods in South L.A.,” Tom Hogen-Esch, a California State University, Northridge political science professor, told Axios.
Hogen-Esch said the recording confirms the distrust among some Black leaders that some Latino elected officials don’t understand the struggles of Black residents.
What they’re saying: Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin fought back tears as he addressed the taped racist comments about his Black son at Tuesday’s meeting.
“There are a lot of people who are now asking for forgiveness. … First, you must resign and then ask for forgiveness,” Bonin said.
What’s next: The crisis is unlikely to affect the upcoming mayoral election, but if the councilmembers refuse to resign and the protests continue tension will increase.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with L.A. City Councilmember Mike Bonin.
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European Markets Slightly Lower As Investors Look Ahead To U.S. Inflation Data
European Markets Slightly Lower As Investors Look Ahead To U.S. Inflation Data https://digitalalabamanews.com/european-markets-slightly-lower-as-investors-look-ahead-to-u-s-inflation-data/
Stocks on the move: Chr. Hansen up 11%, Philips down 11%
Shares of Danish bioscience company Chr. Hansen jumped more than 11% in early trade after a robust quarterly earnings report and promising outlook.
At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, Philips shares slumped more than 11% after the Dutch health tech firm issued a third-quarter profit warning and highlighted a 1.3 million euro ($1.26 billion) charge for its embattled sleep and respiratory care business.
– Elliot Smith
British pound whipsaws after mixed messages from the Bank of England
UK economy shrinks by 0.3% in August
U.K. GDP contracted by 0.3% month-on-month in August, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday, below expectations for stagnation from a Reuters poll of economists.
The fall in activity was driven partly by manufacturing weakness and maintenance work on North Sea oil and gas facilities, the ONS said, while both production and services activity fell.
July GDP growth was revised down to 0.1% from a previous estimate of 0.2%.
“While this figure is not what the country wants to see, it won’t make much of a difference to the path we are already on. The Bank of England (BoE) will continue to increase its base rate at it battles to tame runaway inflation,” said Marcus Brookes, chief investment officer at Quilter Investors.
“The BoE continues to face the incredibly difficult task of guiding the country through this uncertain period where it finds itself in a rock and a hard place by raising rates to meet inflation but embarking on a gilt buying operation to help steady the markets following the turmoil precipitated by the mini budget.”
– Elliot Smith
CNBC Pro: It’s too early to buy the dip, investor says, naming 8 stocks to buy when the time is right
One fund manager is cautioning against buying the dip, despite a 25% decline in the S&P 500 this year.
Instead, investors should be repositioning toward stocks sensitive to interest rates, John Ricciardi, head of asset allocation and a fund manager at Deuterium Capital, said.
He names three stocks in the consumer staples sectors, three in utilities, and two in materials for investors to scoop up when the time is right.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Ganesh Rao
U.S. economy is doing well amid economic uncertainty, says Treasury Secretary Yellen
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the U.S. is “doing very well” amid global economic uncertainty.
Although the U.S. economy has slowed after a strong recovery, jobs reports indicate a resilient economy, she said in an interview Tuesday with CNBC’s Sara Eisen.
She also acknowledged that inflation is too high and that lowering it is a priority for the Biden administration, and emphasized the importance of maintaining a healthy labor market while doing so.
— Chelsey Cox, Tanaya Macheel
IMF cuts global growth forecast for next year
CNBC Pro: This stock is a better bet than even U.S. Treasurys, fund manager says
Nick Griffin, chief investment officer at Munro Partners, is so bullish on one stock, he says it’s a better bet than U.S. Treasurys.
“It’s cheaper than a U.S. Treasury. It grows faster than the U.S. Treasury, and it’s probably got a better balance sheet than the U.S. Treasury. So from our point of view, it’s a fairly safe place to [put your] cash,” he said. Short-term U.S. Treasurys have surged in popularity among investors of late as yields pop.
CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Weizhen Tan
Wed, Aug 17 202212:29 AM EDT
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European markets are heading for a lower open on Wednesday with global growth concerns dominating sentiment and investors looking ahead to Thursday’s inflation data out of the U.S.
The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 22 points lower at 6,867, the German DAX down 56 points at 12,148, France’s CAC down 27 points at 5,799 and Italy’s FTSE MIB down 127 points at 20,511, according to data from IG.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecast for next year to 2.7%. The prediction is 0.2 percentage points lower than its July forecast, and suggests that 2023 will feel like a recession for millions around the world.
European markets closed lower on Tuesday with all major bourses and the majority of sectors ending the trading session in the red. The region’s markets have suffered consecutive losing days as volatility continues to rattle sentiment.
The Bank of England intervened again to restore order to U.K. markets on Tuesday, with volatility in long-dated government bonds posing what it called a “material risk to U.K. financial stability.”
— Holly Ellyatt
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Thai Nursery Massacre Unfolded Over Three Hours Of Horror
Thai Nursery Massacre Unfolded Over Three Hours Of Horror https://digitalalabamanews.com/thai-nursery-massacre-unfolded-over-three-hours-of-horror/
Gunman was volatile, fired pistols at home
The head of the village warned him about violence
Police admit the response was slow
THA UTHAI, Thailand, Oct 12 (Reuters) – In the days before he murdered 36 people, including 22 children stabbed as they slept, the former police sergeant behind Thailand’s worst massacre was firing guns in his back yard.
For several nights the sound of 34-year-old Panya Khamrap’s 9 mm pistol cracked the silence in the sleepy village of Tha Uthai, neighbours said.
It was the latest show of violence from the former police officer, once a village success story who became an angry, introverted man in a downward spiral, though still invested with some of the authority his old job bestowed.
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“How were we going to report him to the police? He was the police,” said Phuwan Polyeam, 29, who lives close by with her two children.
Panya murdered the 36 people in a three-hour rampage through the district in which he was born, shooting and stabbing to death neighbours, including a childhood friend.
The 22 child victims at the nursery were boys and girls aged two to five. Seven are in hospital.
The violence – the deadliest massacre of children anywhere in recent years – has stunned the country.
Authorities initially blamed drugs. Panya was described by police as a user of methamphetamine pills known as yaba and was fired in January for drug possession.
But an autopsy found no trace of drugs in Panya’s system on the day of the killings, on Thursday last week, police said.
Thailand’s deputy police chief, General Surachate Hakparn, told Reuters the violence resulted from “exploded emotion”, pointing to his dismissal from the police and legal, money, and family troubles.
Panya’s movements that day are obscure. There were multiple murders in different locations and police have yet to release a comprehensive account.
Reuters established a timeline of events through interviews with neighbours, witnesses, and an investigating officer.
They recounted three hours of horror and a slow police response. Phone records confirmed many details.
Surachate acknowledged the police response had been slow and officers arrived too late to stop the killing. He also pointed to the law, which forbids even licensed gun owners from firing at home or in public.
“If there had been an arrest then this might not have happened,” he said.
TROUBLING SIGNS
Nong Bua Lam Phu is a poor northeastern province lush with rice and sugarcane fields.
Panya grew up in the remote village of Tha Uthai and attended high school before winning a place to study law at a top Bangkok university. He later got a job with the police, working in some of the capital’s wealthiest neighbourhoods.
But in 2020 he arrived back home. Newly divorced, he moved in with a woman who worked at a karaoke bar and her son.
He worked at a police station but in January was fired for drugs. Colleagues said he was hot tempered and started fights.
There were other troubling signs. A neighbour said he locked his girlfriend and her son inside when he went out.
The deputy chief of a neighbouring village told media Panya had praised the 2020 massacre of 29 people in another province at the hands of a soldier, saying that he would have killed more. She declined to be interviewed.
Another neighbour said that days before his rampage the village chief warned Panya about his behaviour. They argued and the village chief was afraid, said the neighbour, Suwan Tonsomsen. The chief could not be reached for comment.
Early on the day of the massacre, Panya had a court appointment on a drugs charge. The verdict was due the next day. Before dawn, neighbours heard him arguing with his girlfriend at their small home at the edge of the village. Police said she told him she was leaving him.
‘SO QUICKLY’
Reuters was unable to establish what happened at the court but media, citing neighbours, reported that Panya’s lawyer had asked him to show evidence of good character. Another neighbour told Reuters he had seen Panya’s mother with his degree certificate.
When he returned home, police said, Panya’s girlfriend and her son were gone.
At around midday, he left in a white pick-up truck. Turning a corner, he crashed into a man on a motorcycle outside a small shop. He rolled down the window and shot him, according to witness Sombat Rattani, who ran the shop.
The mortally wounded man crawled towards the shop, pleading for help, Sombat said. He glimpsed Panya through the window, his gun pointed at him, and thought he was going to die. They knew each other. Panya had bought water from his shop.
Panya did not shoot. Instead, he drove to an intersection where he rammed into a group of people, left his truck, and stabbed them. Three died and several were wounded.
From there he drove to the administrative complex where the Uthai Sawan Child Development Centre, a pink, one-storey building, is located next to a government office.
Teachers in the nursery had put the children down for their nap by the time Panya arrived at around 12:30 p.m.
He attacked people in the courtyard, shooting some, slashing others with a long blade that farmers use for hacking crops.
Several people were killed there.
“Everything happened so quickly and there was blood everywhere,” said office worker Kittisak Polprakap, 29.
“I saw the wounded and dead sitting together at a table as if nothing had happened.”
People ran. Two female employees, Jidapha Boonsom, 48, and Saowaluk Keeta, 25, dashed into an office looking out onto the nursery.
Some staff called the police but were told they were busy elsewhere.
Panya shot twice at the nursery door and kicked it open, a witness told media. For about 20 minutes he went from room to room, shooting teachers and slashing the children with his machete.
Some teachers fled over a wall but not Supaporn Pramongmook, 26, who was eight-months pregnant. Another teacher, Maliwan Lasopha, tried to plead with Panya. They had played together as children.
He killed them both.
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’
The office workers said Panya emerged calmly holding the blade and drove off.
News of the violence spread with photos showing up on social media. Suwimon Sudfanpitak, the aunt of one of the children killed that day, rushed to the complex to see two bodies outside the nursery. “His teacher came to apologise, saying there was nothing that she could do to save the kids,” she said.
The only child to emerge from the nursery unscathed, a three-year-old called Ammy, was carried out with a blanket covering her eyes.
After driving back to his neighbourhood, Panya was approached by a neighbour. “What are you doing?” the man asked. “I’m here to fucking kill you,” Panya replied. He shot the neighbour dead before fatally attacking another, said witness Phuwan Polyeam.
Sheltering in her house with her two young children, her hand clamped over the mouth of her son to keep him quiet, she sent her mother-in-law, Suwan Tonsomsen, frantic messages. “He is here,” one read.
Suwan’s phone records showed numerous calls to the police. “They said there were not enough police,” she said, and they had to wait for a commando unit. “It took them a while,” she said.
Suwan said that after Panya tried to set fire to their car he left. He walked back to his house where, at around 3 p.m., he burned his truck, shot his girlfriend, her son and then himself.
The community is reeling.
“Everyone gets depressed,” shopkeeper Sombat said. “But the solution is not crime … Why did he attack and hurt children? That is what we’re asking.”
(This story has been corrected to fix erroneous reference to “several” from five people killed in courtyard in paragraph 32)
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Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-Um, Vorasit Satienlerk, Chayut Setboonsarng and Ardchawit Inha; Writing by Poppy McPherson; Editing by Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Gulf Coast Lawmakers Express Concern Over Foreign-Owned Farmland
Gulf Coast Lawmakers Express Concern Over Foreign-Owned Farmland https://digitalalabamanews.com/gulf-coast-lawmakers-express-concern-over-foreign-owned-farmland/
An aerial view of two farms on the Susquehanna River March 25, 2011 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP via…
An aerial view of two farms on the Susquehanna River March 25, 2011 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA (Photo credit should read STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)
by: Cory Johnson
Posted: Oct 11, 2022 / 04:52 PM CDT
Updated: Oct 11, 2022 / 04:52 PM CDT
MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) – A pair of Gulf Coast congressmen are asking questions about the amount of foreign-owned farmland in the U.S. and how it is tracked.
Representatives Jerry Carl (AL-01) and Steven Palazzo (MS-04) signed on to a letter from 130 House Republicans asking the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a study regarding foreign investment in U.S. farmland and its impact on national security, trade and food security.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report found that foreign entities owned 37.6 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2020, representing 2.9% of all privately held agricultural land. Alabama has the third-highest total acres owned by foreign entities, 1.8 million. 6.2% of all agricultural land in the state is foreign-owned.
Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom are the most frequent investors, but the letter says China and Saudi Arabia have increased their investment in U.S. farmland.
At least 14 states, including Mississippi, have imposed restrictions or constraints on foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, such as the size of land-holdings and limits on leases.
“Concerns about national security, including a Chinese company’s purchase of farmland in North Dakota near an Air Force base that is home to top-secret drone technology, drive fears of foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land,” the letter states.
Some lawmakers, researchers, and industry groups have expressed concern that these ownership agreements could lead to foreign control over food production and food prices.
The Agriculture Foreign Investment Disclosure Act (AFIDA) “requires that a foreign person who acquires, disposes of, or holds an interest in United States agricultural land must disclose such transactions and holdings to the Secretary of Agriculture.”
A 2020 study by an Auburn University researcher found AFIDA does not guarantee that all foreign entities report ownership to the federal government. Many get around reporting by keeping holdings under a limited liability company (LLC).
For the entities that do report to the federal government, an April report by Investigate Midwest found the government’s database to be incomplete and erroneous. 3.1 million acres do not have an owner listed. Other land held by major foreign companies was not listed.
“If you’re happy with Bayer/Monsanto — a German corporation — being your farmer. Or Saudi Arabia. Or China. Then OK,” Joe Maxwell, president of advocacy group Farm Action, told InvestigateMidwest. “But if you’re not OK with that, then you ought to care about this issue. We ought to make sure the next generation of farmers are individuals who will care for the land for future generations and care about producing safe and healthy food for their neighbors.”
Over 547,000 acres in the WKRG viewing area are listed by the federal government as being foreign-owned.
County
Number of Acres
Owner’s Country
Baldwin County, AL
108,000
Austria, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Clarke County, AL
13,823
Canada, Luxembourg
Conecuh County, AL
100,196
Canada, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Escambia County, AL
40,288
Canada, Italy, Netherlands
Mobile County, AL
22,808
Canada, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden
Monroe County, AL
140,423
Canada, Cayman Islands, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Washington County, AL
87,096
Canada, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Escambia County, FL
10,753
Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom
Okaloosa County, FL
7,872
Netherlands, Panama, Switzerland, Turks and Caicos Islands
Santa Rosa County, FL
11,913
Netherlands, Panama, Switzerland
George County, MS
4,292
Ireland
Greene County, MS
70
Germany
Lawmakers are now asking GAO to report back with answers to the following questions:
What is known about the extent of and trends in foreign investment in U.S. agricultural land (e.g., by country of investor, by state, by type of land)?
How does the Farm Service Agency collect data on foreign investment in U.S. agricultural land and what steps are taken to ensure data reliability? How have USDA’s data collection methods changed since AFIDA was enacted in 1978?
What procedures are in place to ensure proper disclosure of acquired agricultural land by a foreign person or entity and does USDA have a process to ensure accurate disclosure of the transfer or sale of such lands?
Do the current standards for filing under AFIDA ensure that land acquired by a foreign person or entity through a U.S. chartered company or corporation is accurately disclosed as a foreign investment in agricultural land?
How, if at all, does the U.S. government use the data on foreign investment in U.S. agricultural land to ensure the land is used for its intended purpose and does not pose a threat to national security?
What improvements or policy options, including regarding national security, could be made to strengthen reporting of foreign investment in agricultural land?
Are there other Departments or Agencies that USDA is or should be partnering with to ensure accurate disclosure of foreign owned agricultural land?
Stay ahead of the biggest stories, breaking news and weather in Mobile, Pensacola and across the Gulf Coast and Alabama. Download the WKRG News 5 news app and be sure to turn on push alerts.
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Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Trumps Penis For Going After Late-Night Hosts
Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Trump’s Penis For Going After Late-Night Hosts https://digitalalabamanews.com/jimmy-kimmel-mocks-trumps-penis-for-going-after-late-night-hosts/
There was a time when Donald Trump’s Twitter account not only drove the mainstream news cycle but also provided nightly fodder for late-night television. Since he’s been relegated to Truth Social, that hasn’t been the case.
So it took Jimmy Kimmel a bit longer than usual to notice a post Trump made about him and his fellow late-night talk show hosts. “I didn’t even see it, that’s how badly his social media platform is doing,” he joked on Tuesday night before sharing what the former president had to say.
“It was my great honor to have destroyed the ratings of Late Night ‘Comedy’ shows,” Trump wrote on Monday. “There is nothing funny about the shows, the three hosts have very little talent, and when Jimmy Fallon apologized for having humanized ‘Trump,’ and his ratings soared, the Radical Left forced him to apologize—that was effectively the end of The Tonight Show.”
Kimmel rightly pointed out that Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show is “still on” more than six years after that host playfully ruffled Trump’s hair during the 2016 election and then later apologized for “normalizing” the then-candidate. “I made a mistake,” Fallon said in 2018. “I’m sorry if I made anyone mad. And, looking back, I would do it differently.”
“So proud of himself,” Kimmel added of Trump, “like a tubby, orange brat knocking over sand castles at the beach. And I like that he says we have ‘very little talent.’ You know, that’s the same thing Stormy Daniels said about him—except, instead of ‘talent’ she said ‘penis.’” In addition to writing about it in her book, Daniels made similar comments about the size of Trump’s “junk” on Kimmel’s show.
“But if anyone knows talent, it’s Donald Trump,” he continued. “He has walked backstage unannounced while young women were changing at some of the biggest talent competitions in the whole world!”
Finally, Kimmel addressed Trump’s comments about late-night ratings by sending him a message on behalf of his fellow late-night hosts: “Jimmy, Stephen, Seth and I, we’ve been on for a total of 58 seasons and counting. Your Presidency got canceled after one.”
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Bilich Wins VGA Title For Second Straight Year https://digitalalabamanews.com/bilich-wins-vga-title-for-second-straight-year/
Hancock native Anthony Bilich poses with the trophy he won during the 2021 Veterans Golf Association National Championships at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey. (Provided photo)
MADISON, Wis. — While the rest of the country tuned into news outlets to hear news about Hurricane Ian as it made landfall in Florida in late September, a group of golfers from all over the country gathered in Miami for the Veterans Golf Association’s national championship.
For the second year in a row, Hancock native Anthony Bilich took home top honors, winning by four strokes in one of the most memorable experiences he has ever had playing the game, at least since he won the 2021 nationals by climbing the leaderboard the second day with four consecutive birdies to force a playoff, which he followed by making another birdie in the playoff to win.
“It was awesome,” he said. “Honestly. I felt like I could freewheel a little bit.
“Coming from behind last year, in that fashion, was really, really special. Then this year, I just felt like I was going to go out and just freewheel, have fun for the week, and not focus so much on score. Just try to play good golf and see what happens.”
With Hurricane Ian battering its way through Fort Myers, high winds and heavy rain battered Miami, home of Trump National Doral Golf Club, affectionately known as the “Blue Monster” to golfers and fans across the country.
Anthony Bilich attempts to hit his tee shot during the 2022 Veterans Golf Association National Championship at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, Florida, during Hurrican Ian. (Provided photo)
Bilich, who won the VGA national championship in 2021 at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey, knew going into the 2022 tournament, things would be different this year, given the expected conditions, and the location.
With the weather taking a turn for the worse as the tournament was scheduled to begin, the traditional practice round, which gives the golfers a chance to play the course before competing on it, was canceled, and instead, the tournament began on that day.
For any golfer, not playing a golf course before competing in a tournament would be difficult, but to play for a national championship, Bilich and his opponents all entered the course essentially blind.
As conditions worsened, Bilich knew that if he could just play even par golf, he would probably put himself in a great position to defend his title.
“The second day was 30 to 40-mile-an hour sustained winds, on and off rain,” he said. “I mean, we’re on the south side of Hurricane Ian, so it was like I literally played in a hurricane. I just said, ‘You know what, pars are golden.’ If I can make 18 pars somehow, I felt like I was gonna win by a bunch.
“It was tough. It was the hardest conditions I’ve ever played in golf.”
The high winds affected shots heavily, especially during the second day.
“I was trying to explain this to one of my friends,” he said. “I hit a gap wedge, downwind, from 200 yards, and hit it on the green. The next hole, I hit 6-iron from 140 yards and didn’t even make it to the green. I could not comprehend the wind switch.”
Bilich, who has competed in four straight national championship tournaments as part of the VGA, loves winning, but admits there is much more to the entire experience than just playing in a golf tournament.
“I would say the VGA is 90% about camaraderie, and the people, and 10% about golf,” he said. “I know, at the highest level, the (Veteran) A Division has a lot, if you figure all the members nationwide, hundreds and hundreds of scratch golfers that compete throughout the year to make it to nationals. It is competitive at every level. But, at the end of the day, sitting down and having dinner and hanging out with everyone, I mean, that’s the most important thing.”
The VGA was founded in 2014 to provide an avenue for veterans, especially younger veterans like Bilich, who also grew up playing hockey in the Copper Country, to connect with each other and have a little fun, rather than sit at home and struggle.
“It was some guys just trying to figure out ways to help veterans get together,” he said. “The one thing about the military or hockey or anything, if you’re part of a team, and you (suddenly) don’t have that anymore, it’s kind of weird. The military is the ultimate team. You go overseas, or you’re in the military for a while, and then you don’t have that anymore, you kind of feel like you’re on an island a little bit.”
The VGA now puts on between 400 and 500 tournaments a year now with 15,000 members. Players have to play a minimum of three tournaments in their home state to qualify for the state tournament. If they win the state tournament, they move to a regional competition, and eventually nationals, if they keep winning.
Through the VGA, Bilich has met a number of people he now considers friends.
“It’s a really cool organization,” he said. “They do a lot of good things. It’s a nonprofit and (they) try to get veterans together. Honestly, some of my best friends in life I’ve met through this VGA thing the last four or five years. It’s turned out to be really good for me.”
Bilich earned his Purple Heart after getting wounded in a blast in Afghanistan while serving with the 1431st Engineers out of Calumet in 2009. While he compares his injuries to those a hockey player might suffer from a violent bodycheck, he knows that many veterans are in much worse shape than he is. That is part of what makes what the VGA is trying to accomplish so vital in his eyes.
“It’s a great way to get veterans together,” he said. “I’m happy I’ve won, golf-wise, the last couple of years, but the friendships and bonds I’ve made with the people over the last four or five years is definitely more important to me than the trophies.”
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Bader's First Yanks Homer The Stuff Of Childhood Dreams
Bader's First Yanks Homer The Stuff Of Childhood Dreams https://digitalalabamanews.com/baders-first-yanks-homer-the-stuff-of-childhood-dreams/
18 minutes ago
NEW YORK — The start of Harrison Bader’s Yankees career came with more questions than answers.
Bader, who made his first appearance in the Yanks’ clubhouse with a fresh haircut and a walking boot, was a last-minute Aug. 2 Trade Deadline acquisition who hadn’t suited up for the Cardinals since June 26. While homegrown starter Jordan Montgomery made an instant impact for St. Louis, Bader had to bide his time, waiting for his injured right foot to heal and for a chance to contribute to the team he grew up rooting for.
In a twist of fate, Montgomery’s National League Central champion Cardinals made a quick exit from the postseason, swept by the lower-seeded Phillies last weekend in St. Louis. Bader’s postseason with the American League East champion Yankees hadn’t even begun yet.
But when it did on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium, the 28-year-old Bronxville, N.Y., native might not have been able to dream up a better way for it to start.
With the Yankees down by one run in the third inning of Game 1 of the AL Division Series, Bader launched the first home run of his pinstriped tenure, a game-tying blast that answered Steven Kwan’s solo shot in the top of the frame. His first career postseason long ball, Bader’s well-timed drive into the left-center-field seats off Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill helped propel the Yankees to a 4-1 victory over the Guardians in the opener of the best-of-five series.
It also made Bader the first player in Yankees history to have his first career home run with the team come in the postseason. He made sure to soak in the reception he received from the electric crowd of 47,807, who packed the house for the club’s first postseason game in the Bronx since 2019.
“The energy from the fans, it was just amazing,” Bader said. “When you have such an incredible fan base, fans that are just rabid and want to win as badly as Yankees fans do, it’s almost like you’re playing with them on the field. They are on your team as you go into the dugout, as the opposition feels pressure with two strikes. That’s the type of energy that is a part of a winning history of a city.”
Growing up in nearby Bronxville and attending games at the old Yankee Stadium across the street, Bader knows a lot about that history. He also joined it in another way Tuesday, becoming the sixth New Yorker to homer in the postseason for the Yankees, adding his name to a distinguished list that includes Lou Gehrig, Alex Rodriguez, Raul Ibanez, Phil Rizzuto and Joe Pepitone.
More significant to him, though, was what it meant not within the context of the franchise’s storied past, but in the present moment as the Yankees seek to capture their first World Series title since 2009, a run that Bader was in the stands for during his late teen years.
That’s why Bader tried to keep his emotions in check as he rounded the bases, running at nearly full speed while the ball sailed out of the park, even though his mom, dad, sister and a considerable contingent of friends were in attendance. It’s a style of play he attributes to one of his coaches at the University of Florida, Brad Weitzel, who taught him to be “emotionless” on the field in order to keep his focus on the task at hand.
It’s a similar mantra to what he reminded himself throughout the rehab process, which culminated in his debut on Sept. 20, with only two weeks left in the regular season.
“I want to show them all why I earned that uniform, there’s no doubt,” Bader said. “The biggest thing is, I’ll be ready to play when I’m ready to play and when I’m healthy. That takes time. But I can assure you it was absolutely worth it. … Now we are in a position where I feel great and we’re in the postseason, and I’ve got everything to look forward to.”
With one big moment under his belt, Bader is already eyeing more. After all, for him, this was just the start.
“There’s such a long road ahead in October, ultimately in November, that I will save all of those emotions for a later date,” Bader said. “But no doubt, it’s special.”
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GOPs Jacobs Doubles Down On Controls For High-Powered Guns
GOP’s Jacobs Doubles Down On Controls For High-Powered Guns https://digitalalabamanews.com/gops-jacobs-doubles-down-on-controls-for-high-powered-guns/
CLARENCE, N.Y. (AP) — After back-to-back mass shootings last spring, including one that killed 10 people at a supermarket not far from his suburban Buffalo home, Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Jacobs made a decision.
If an assault weapons ban came to the House floor, he would support it, he told voters in his conservative congressional district.
“I could have said nothing,” said Jacobs. Silence would have allowed him to cruise through the Republican primary. But after 31 deaths in 10 days, including the slaying of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas, he felt he had an obligation to take a public stance.
“Having two young children, it just really — you have a different perspective when, you know, thinking about going home to your kids when those 19 children perished,” Jacobs said.
A week later came another decision. With Republicans withdrawing their support for him in droves, Jacobs announced he would not seek reelection.
The expiration of his career is another sign of the polarization that is ever-growing in a Congress where, as Jacobs said, “If you stray from a party position, you are annihilated.”
“There’s a lot of single-issue voters in the Republican Party on this issue, and on the other side, abortion,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The idea of big tents for parties, I think, is very important. And right now it’s very strident both ways, and I just don’t think that’s good,” he said. “The polarized nature is why you see a lot of frustrated members of Congress and not enough is getting done.”
But if there is regret for the decision that abruptly halted his political career, it doesn’t show. On his way out of Congress, the Republican serving his first full term has doubled down on his support for the regulation of certain high-powered firearms, proposing a licensing regimen for people who want to buy them.
“Ninety-nine percent of people are very responsible gun owners. Unfortunately, saying it’s only 1% (who are not) gives no solace to someone who lost somebody senselessly in Buffalo or in one of these mass shootings,” Jacobs said.
His Federal Assault Weapons Licensing Act would require people to take a safety course, pass an FBI background check and submit fingerprints before buying a “semi-automatic assault weapon.” There are exemptions, including for current owners, active duty military and law enforcement officers.
The steps would be similar to those required for the thousands of pistol permits Jacobs issued during five years as Erie County clerk, a process he considers a reasonable balance between Second Amendment protections and responsible ownership.
Many of Jacobs’ former supporters see his position as a betrayal.
“It’s just not really tolerable,” said the state’s Conservative Party chair, Gerard Kassar.
“In terms of single issues, the Second Amendment in parts of upstate New York … is a very, very significant single issue and represents more than just the issue of guns,” Kassar said. “It represents the issue of freedom, represents an issue of constitutionalists. It represents the position of libertarians.”
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that Jacobs had “caved to the gun-grabbers.”
Jacobs’ reputation as a moderate has, until now, worked to his advantage. He was the first Republican to be elected Erie County Clerk in 40 years and gained acceptance on the school board in the heavily Democratic county seat of Buffalo.
He was serving in the state Senate when, with the endorsement of President Donald Trump, he won a special election to Congress in June 2020.
In Congress, Jacobs was endorsed by the National Rifle Association, voted against impeaching Trump and has strongly advocated for completion of the wall begun by the former president along the southern border.
But his break with the party on guns began when an 18-year-old shooter killed 10 Black people and wounded three victims at a Tops Friendly Market near where his real estate development business is based.
“It was profound to all of us,” said Jacobs, a member of a prominent Buffalo family. His uncle is Jeremy Jacobs, the billionaire owner of the Boston Bruins and chair of concessions giant Delaware North.
Two weeks later, another 18-year-old with a similar weapon opened fire at the elementary school in Uvalde, killing 19 students and two teachers. This time, Jacobs’ thoughts turned to his own children, one 3 and the other less than a year old.
When the House in July voted to ban certain semi-automatic guns for the first time since 2004, he was one of two Republicans to support the proposal, which had little chance in the U.S. Senate.
If Jacobs had decided to run for reelection, he would have been campaigning in a newly drawn district that was even more conservative than the one he now represents in the suburbs and rural areas around Buffalo.
The new territory would have included six new mostly rural counties along the Pennsylvania border in which he is largely unknown.
“Clearly if I ran — and I thought I could have pulled it off — but I thought the NRA, it would have been outside money galore and I just didn’t think that was good for the district or the party,” Jacobs said, “and I just decided it was not right to do.”
The state’s Republican committee chair, Nick Langworthy, ultimately won the primary in the new district and will be the prohibitive favorite against Democrat Max Della Pia in November. Langworthy stepped in after saying he was caught by surprise by Jacobs’ support for a ban on semi-automatic firearms.
“I think everybody was caught very flat-footed by his adopting the Democrat position on gun control,” he said at the time.
If elected, Langworthy “would not support an assault weapons ban or any other legislation that limits the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans and has been proven ineffective,” his campaign spokesperson, Chris Grant, said in a statement Tuesday to the AP.
Andrea Nikischer, who co-founded a progressive group in Jacobs’ current district, has long criticized the Republican over his politics and pro-Trump votes. Nevertheless, she was disappointed by his decision to leave office after shifting his stance on guns.
“I’m sorry he didn’t run,” she said. “I think it would have been a very meaningful discourse, and he could have pushed his party in a more positive direction. The power of incumbency is strong, and I wish he had used that power to push this discussion in his own party further.”
Jacobs has not yet found support for his assault weapons licensing proposal and doesn’t expect to see it emerge with the election just weeks away.
But he said he’s hopeful more support might emerge after November.
“I’m going to put this forward,” he said, “and I hope somebody grabs it.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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AMENDMENT/FALL 2022 https://digitalalabamanews.com/amendment-fall-2022/
Details for AMENDMENT/FALL 2022
Updated 18 min ago
STATE OF ALABAMA PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR WHEREAS, on November 3, 2020, the people of Alabama ratified Amendment 951 to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, authorizing the Alabama Legislature, during its 2022 Regular Session, to draft a recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901; WHEREAS Amendment 951 confines the draft recompilation to arranging the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 into proper articles, parts, and sections; removing all racist language; deleting duplicative and repealed provisions; consolidating provisions regarding economic development; and arranging all local amendments by county of application; and the draft may make “no other changes”; WHEREAS Amendment 951 further requires any such draft recompilation to be submitted to the voters upon approval, through a joint resolution, by a three-fifths vote of each house of the Legislature; WHEREAS the Legislature at its 2022 Regular Session enacted a joint resolution by the requisite three-fifths vote approving a “Proposed Constitution of Alabama of 2022” and specifically finding that it complies with Amendment 951 to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, see Ala. Act No. 2022-111; WHEREAS the full text of the Proposed Constitution of 2022 is published on the website of the Secretary of State as required by Amendment 951 and is available for viewing at http://alison.legislature.state.al.us/proposed-2022-constitution; WHEREAS, in conformity with Amendment 951 and other applicable provisions of Alabama law, the Legislature has ordered an election by the qualified electors of the State upon ratification of the Proposed Constitution of 2022 to be held at the 2022 general election; and WHEREAS, upon ratification of the proposed Constitution of 2022 by a majority of the qualified electors of this State voting on the question of ratification, the Proposed Constitution of 2022 shall succeed the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 as the supreme law of this State in accordance with Amendment 951; NOW, THEREFORE, I, Kay Ivey, as Governor of the State of Alabama, do hereby give notice, direct, and proclaim that on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, an election will be held in the State of Alabama in the manner and form provided by law upon the question of ratification of the proposed Constitution of Alabama of 2022, which has been certified by the Secretary of State to appear on ballots as follows: “Shall the following Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 be ratified?” PROPOSED CONSTITUTION TO APPEAR ON THE BALLOT STATEWIDE CONSTITUTION OF ALABAMA OF 2022 Proposing adoption of the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, which is a recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, prepared in accordance with Amendment 951, arranging the constitution in proper articles, parts, and sections, removing racist language, deleting duplicated and repealed provisions, consolidating provisions regarding economic development, arranging all local amendments by county of application, and making no other changes. (Proposed by Act 2022-111) ( ) YES ( ) NO STATE OF ALABAMA PROCLAMATION BY THE GOVERNOR WHEREAS the Alabama Legislature at its 2021 and 2022 Regular Sessions enacted Act No. 2021-199 (SB74), Act No. 2021-201 (HB131), Act No. 2021-202 (SB68), Act No. 2021-284 (HB388), Act No. 2021-327 (HB178), Act No. 2022-117 (HB255), Act No. 2022-177 (HB319), Act No. 2022-256 (SB196), Act No. 2022-286 (HB458), and Act No. 2022-288 (HB148), proposing amendments to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901; WHEREAS, in conformity with Section 284 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, the Legislature has ordered an election by the qualified electors of the state upon such proposed amendments; and WHEREAS notice of this election, together with the proposed amendments, is required by law to be given by proclamation of the Governor, which shall be published once a week for at least four successive weeks immediately preceding the day appointed for the election; NOW, THEREFORE, I, Kay Ivey, as Governor of the State of Alabama, do hereby give notice, direct, and proclaim that on Tuesday, November 8, 2022, an election will be held in the State of Alabama in the manner and form provided by law upon the following proposed amendments to the Constitution of 1901 of the State of Alabama: AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY ACT NO. 2021-199 (a) This amendment shall apply only in Shelby County. (b) Except as provided for in subsection (c), any private entity and any privately owned plant, property, or facility for the collection, treatment, or disposal of sewage that uses, directly or through a lease or contract, public rights-of-way of public roads for any part of its collection or disposal system, that discharges to a Grade III or higher wastewater treatment facility as defined in and by the current classification system used by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management on January 1, 2020, and its equivalent classification thereafter, and that has residential or commercial customers that are billed a flat service fee or fee based on water usage, hereinafter referred to as utility or utilities, shall be certified and regulated by the Public Service Commission, which regulation shall include, but not be limited to, regulation of the rates, charges, and increases in rates or charges imposed on its customers. The Public Service Commission shall certify and regulate the entities, plants, facilities, and utilities affected hereby, based on and in accordance with Title 37, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended. Implementation of this amendment, whether gradual or at one time, shall be determined by the Public Service Commission. Until the Public Service Commission determines applicable rates and charges to be imposed on customers, the rates and charges shall be in accord with and governed by the most recent and controlling rate control agreement or in the event there is not a controlling rate control agreement, that utility’s most recent published rate. (c) If the county, a municipality, or a governmental utility service corporation (GUSC) in the county enters into a rate control agreement with an entity or facility described in subsection (b), the county, municipality, or GUSC may opt out of regulation by the Public Service Commission as to and for any residential or commercial customers affected by and are subject to the rate control agreement. In the event a rate control agreement or any part thereof is found to be invalid, or is terminated by the county, municipality, or GUSC that entered into the rate control agreement, or becomes unenforceable or void in whole or in part, then the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission and the provisions in subsection (b) pertaining to regulation by the Public Service Commission shall by operation of law be restored and enforced to the full force and effect of this amendment. (d) In the event Public Service Commission jurisdiction is restored after the county, municipality, or GUSC has exercised its opt-out provision provided in subsection (c) and has voluntarily terminated the rate control agreement, the county, municipality, or GUSC may not again exercise its power to opt out of Public Service Commission jurisdiction and rate control for a period of five years from the date Public Service Commission jurisdiction is reinstated. (e) In the event that an entity, plant, property, or facility serves customers located in more than one municipality, the opt-out option provided in subsection (c) shall vest with the municipality that has a rate control agreement executed as of or prior to January 1, 2021, subject to approval of the Shelby County Commission. AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY ACT NO. 2021-201 Part I. This amendment shall be known and may be cited as Aniah’s Law. Part II. Section 16 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 16 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama 1901, as amended, is amended to read as follows: “Section 16. “That all persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great unless charged with an offense enumerated by the Legislature by general law capital murder, as provided in Section 13A-5-40, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; murder, as provided in Section 13A-6-2, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; kidnapping in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-6-43, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; rape in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-6-61, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; sodomy in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-6-63, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; sexual torture, as provided in Section 13A-6-65.1, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; domestic violence in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-6-130, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; human trafficking in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-6-152, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; burglary in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-7-5, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; arson in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-7-41, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; robbery in the first degree, as provided in Section 13A-8-41, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; terrorism, as provided in subdivision (b)(2) of Section 13A-10-152, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; and aggravated child abuse, as provided in subsection (b) of Section 26-15-3.1, Code of Alabama 1975, as amended; and that excessive bail shall not in any case be required.” AMENDMENT PROPOSED BY ACT NO. 2021-202 Section 6.06 of Amendment 328, as amended by Amendment 364, of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 144 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, is amended to read as follows: “Amendment 364. “Section 6.06. Probate court. “There shall be a pr...
Holder Schimmelpfennig https://digitalalabamanews.com/holder-schimmelpfennig/
HARVEST
Holger Schimmelpfennig was born on August 11, 1944, in Brake, Germany and died on October 10, 2022, in Huntsville, AL.
Holger came to Alabama in 1970 with the German Luftwaffe to work on the HAWK Missile System on Redstone Arsenal, AL. He returned to Germany, along with his bride, Sandra Kennedy Schimmelpfennig, to fulfill his military service. They returned to America in 1974, and in 1985 Holger became a U.S. Citizen. Holger graduated from UAH with a B.S. in Computer Science and worked until retirement in the related field. Holger enjoyed building ship models, working outdoors, and traveling with Sandra across the U.S., Europe, and Costa Rica. Holger had an extensive knowledge of history, especially war, and could spot a fake tank in war movies. During the past years, he has rescued and loved eight dogs that brought years of joy. Friends and neighbors were special to him.
Holger is survived by his devoted wife of 52 years, Sandra Schimmelpfennig, Harvest, AL; sisters, Ursala Stoll (Brake, Germany) and Edeltraut Kipp (Drangstedt, Germany); sister-in-law, Heidi Schimmelpfennig (Ingolstadt, Germany); sister-in-law, Carolyn Kennedy Mathis (Ron), Prattville, AL; three nieces and three nephews, all of Germany. He was preceded in death by his parents, Hermann and Greta Schimmelpfennig; brother, Bodo Schimmelpfennig; and in-laws, James and Ruby Kennedy.
Visitation will be today, October 12, 2022, from 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. at Morrison Funeral Home, Tuscumbia. Funeral will follow at 2 p.m. in the funeral home chapel. Douglas O. Sharp and Eddy Hammond will preside.
Friends and neighbors will serve as pallbearers.
Online condolences may be left at morrisonfuneralhomes.com.
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Biden Administration Considering Humanitarian Parole Program For Venezuelans
Biden Administration Considering Humanitarian Parole Program For Venezuelans https://digitalalabamanews.com/biden-administration-considering-humanitarian-parole-program-for-venezuelans/
The program, an effort to deal with a surge in migrants, would be similar to one offered to Ukrainians.
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More than 150,000 Venezuelans have been apprehended at the southwestern U.S. border between October 2021 and the end of August.Credit…Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Published Oct. 11, 2022Updated Oct. 12, 2022, 12:17 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is considering a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans who have been fleeing political instability and poverty in large numbers, according to two administration officials familiar with the proposed plan, which the administration hopes will discourage Venezuelans from crossing the southwestern border illegally.
If implemented, the program for Venezuelans would be similar to a humanitarian program offered to Ukrainians, which allows a family member or sponsor in the United States to apply on behalf of the refugee and commit to providing them with financial assistance while they’re in the country.
While the Ukrainian program received bipartisan support, Republicans have been less welcoming to the Venezuelans, more than 150,000 of whom have been apprehended at the U.S. southwestern border from October 2021 through the end of August.
The humanitarian parole program would not apply to Venezuelans who are already in the country, but the hope is that it would encourage migrants to seek refuge closer to home and fly to the United States instead of traveling north by foot and crossing the border illegally. Venezuelans in their home country or who crossed into a neighboring country legally would qualify to apply for the program. Official ports of entry have been closed to migrants since the beginning of the pandemic, effectively forcing those intent on reaching the United States to take a more dangerous route to cross illegally.
The administration officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan that had not yet been finalized.
Because Washington does not have formal diplomatic relations with Caracas, the United States has not been able to repatriate most of the Venezuelans who enter the country and turn themselves in to border officials. Instead, the administration has been giving most permission to stay in the country temporarily and face deportation proceedings in immigration court.
In a significant departure from that process, under the new plan the administration would turn away many Venezuelans who do not have a sponsor or cross illegally. They would be expelled to Mexico under a public health authority — known as Title 42 — that was put in place at the start of the pandemic. This is only possible because Mexico recently agreed to take Venezuelans who are expelled from the United States under Title 42, according to officials.
The full scope of what a humanitarian parole program would look like and why the administration is considering it now were not immediately clear. Immigration advocates have for months been calling for a more orderly process that would allow vulnerable immigrants to enter the country without resorting to breaking U.S. law. But they are firmly against the continued use of the public health authority, which a federal court blocked the Biden administration from lifting earlier this year.
Throughout the Obama and Trump administrations, Mexican and Central American families made up most of those who crossed the border to seek protection in the United States. But the Biden administration has been scrambling to find ways to deter additional populations that until now did not historically cross in record numbers, including Venezuelans. Throughout Mr. Biden’s term, senior White House officials have been anxious over criticism from both Republicans and Democrats that the administration lacks an orderly way to both process and turn away migrants who do not qualify for asylum.
In recent months, thousands of Venezuelans have been making the dangerous journey through the Darién Gap between South and Central America to get to the United States. Most of those who have been allowed to stay temporarily will eventually face removal proceedings that will likely take years to advance. The United Nations estimates that more than 6.8 million Venezuelans have fled their country.
What we consider before using anonymous sources. Do the sources know the information? What’s their motivation for telling us? Have they proved reliable in the past? Can we corroborate the information? Even with these questions satisfied, The Times uses anonymous sources as a last resort. The reporter and at least one editor know the identity of the source.
Still Venezuelans only account for about 7 percent of the total crossings in the southwest between last October and the end of August, according to the most recent government data.
“Venezuelans are only one group. You’re also seeing Cubans and Nicaraguans arriving in significant numbers,” said Cris Ramón, an immigration consultant who has written for the Migration Policy Institute and the George W. Bush Institute. “This policy is not going to address these groups who are arriving at the border right now.”
A plan under consideration by the White House as recently as last week included offering the same humanitarian parole to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans, according to officials briefed on the discussions. It was not immediately clear why these nationalities were ultimately left out. People from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela have made up about one-quarter of the total number of migrants crossing the southwestern border between last October and the end of August, according to the most recent government data available.
Last month, Mr. Biden said, “What’s on my watch now is Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, and the ability to send them back to those states is not rational.”
The United States has not been repatriating most migrants from Cuba and Nicaragua because of ongoing political instability in those countries and will likely continue releasing them temporarily until they face an immigration court hearing where they can try to argue that they should not be deported.
The White House has long been wary of making any changes to its border policy that could encourage more migrants to cross illegally.
Calls for protections for Venezuelan migrants grew louder after Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican of Florida, flew a group of mostly Venezuelan migrants who had illegally entered the country to Martha’s Vineyard, an upscale island off the Massachusetts coast, last month.
Rebecca Shi, the executive director of a business advocacy group, the American Business Immigration Coalition, said the new program could benefit Florida, “where tourism, construction and rebuilding from natural disasters is so completely dependent on immigrants and refugees.”
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U.S. Supreme Court Rebuffs Fetal Personhood Appeal
U.S. Supreme Court Rebuffs Fetal Personhood Appeal https://digitalalabamanews.com/u-s-supreme-court-rebuffs-fetal-personhood-appeal/
Oct 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to decide whether fetuses are entitled to constitutional rights in light of its June ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that had legalized abortion nationwide, steering clear for now of another front in America’s culture wars.
The justices turned away an appeal by a Catholic group and two women of a lower court’s ruling against their challenge to a 2019 Rhode Island law that codified the right to abortion in line with the Roe precedent. The two women, pregnant at the time when the case was filed, sued on behalf of their fetuses and later gave birth. The Rhode Island Supreme Court decided that fetuses lacked the proper legal standing to bring the suit.
Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee, a Democrat, welcomed Tuesday’s action by the justices.
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“We’re satisfied that the Supreme Court declined to hear this frivolous appeal. Governor McKee believes that we should be expanding access to reproductive healthcare for women,” spokesperson Matt Sheaff said in a statement, adding that the governor “is committed to using his veto pen to block any legislation that would take our state backwards.”
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in June’s ruling overturning the abortion rights precedent that in the decision the court took no position on “if and when prenatal life is entitled to any of the rights enjoyed after birth.”
Some Republicans at the state level have pursued what are called fetal personhood laws, like one enacted in Georgia affecting fetuses starting at around six weeks of pregnancy, that would grant fetuses before birth a variety of legal rights and protections like those of any person.
Under such laws, termination of a pregnancy legally could be considered murder.
Lawyers for the group Catholics for Life and the two Rhode Island women – one named Nichole Leigh Rowley and the other using the pseudonym Jane Doe – argued that the case “presents the opportunity for this court to meet that inevitable question head on” by deciding if fetuses possess due process and equal protection rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The Rhode Island Supreme Court relied on the now-reversed Roe precedent in finding that the 14th Amendment did not extend rights to fetuses. The Roe ruling had recognized that the right to personal privacy under the U.S. Constitution protected a woman’s ability to terminate her pregnancy.
Old Rhode Island laws included a criminal statute, predating the Roe ruling, that had prohibited abortions. After the Roe ruling, a federal court declared that Rhode Island law unconstitutional, and it was not in effect when the Democratic-led legislature enacted the 2019 Reproductive Privacy Act.
Gina Raimondo, a Democrat who was the state’s governor at the time and is now President Joe Biden’s U.S. commerce secretary, signed the 2019 law, which codified the then-status quo under Roe in terms of abortion rights.
More than a dozen states have enforced near-total abortion bans since the Supreme Court’s abortion June ruling in a case called Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
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Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Nate Raymond
Thomson Reuters
Nate Raymond reports on the federal judiciary and litigation. He can be reached at nate.raymond@thomsonreuters.com.
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Rockford School Board Called On For Answers After Video Of Auburn Student Being Slammed By Officer | Rock River Current
Rockford School Board Called On For Answers After Video Of Auburn Student Being Slammed By Officer | Rock River Current https://digitalalabamanews.com/rockford-school-board-called-on-for-answers-after-video-of-auburn-student-being-slammed-by-officer-rock-river-current/
Mel Champion, president of Women’s March Rockford, speaks to Rockford School Board members on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, during a board meeting. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Parents, educators and other community members called upon the Rockford School Board for answers and accountability on Tuesday following a news report that showed video of an Auburn High School freshman being slammed to the ground by a school resource officer last year.
The CBS 2 Chicago report said that Parris Moore suffered a fractured skull and permanent brain damage affecting his memory and speech. He was two weeks into his freshman year when he left his classroom and wandered the halls before being confronted by school staff and then Bradley Lauer, a Rockford police officer who was assigned to the school.
The boy’s family and its attorney, Al Hofeld Jr. of Chicago, have said the officer used excessive force and plan to file a lawsuit.
“The punishment for being a new high school student in the hallway on your phone during class should not be permanent brain damage,” said Skye Gia Garcia, who called for officers to be removed from Rockford schools. “Students should return home in the same condition that they went to school in, not leaving school in a wheelchair.”
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Garcia was one of multiple people who spoke before the school board on Tuesday, including six who addressed the incident directly. Some echoed the family’s comments in the report, saying this should have been a school disciplinary matter, not one that required police.
“I reread the handbook today and nowhere in it did it say that upon signing that I was agreeing to corporal punishment being inflicted on my child as a punishment for skipping class or doing anything else that involves behavioral issues,” said Mel Champion, a mother of three RPS students, including one who attends Auburn. “Watching a grown man bodyslam a student, a 14-year-old baby, what is that telling our children?”
School administrators and board members said the couldn’t comment on the video because of privacy rules involving students and because there is possible litigation against the district.
“When situations come up, when people are upset about something, they may have a piece of information and they think they know the complete story and we know other things and we’re not allowed to talk about it,” board vice president Tim Rollins said during the meeting. “There are usually multiple sides to a story and much more information out there that we’re not allowed to talk about and we’re not allowed to share.”
Superintendent Ehren Jarrett said the district would conduct its own investigation into the incident. However, he reiterated that because of the student’s privacy rights and the pending lawsuit he couldn’t speak about it publicly. He said that could change if the student were to waive privacy rights and if litigation were settled.
“We have to conduct our own investigation to ensure that protocols were followed properly and the Rockford police, of course, is very involved in reviewing the performance of their officers as well,” Jarrett said.
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The district has training protocols for school resources officers and a code of conduct, but its too complex to generalize, Jarrett said.
“Every situation involves a combination of professional judgement and following our established protocols,” he said.
Champion said she wanted to know if staff statements about what happened reflected the video, she asked if the officer was still employed and what would be done to ensure this didn’t happen again.
“I understand the frustration. I can empathize with the concerns and there has to be accountability for every action,” school board member Denise Pearson said. “Our community members need to partner with us with a solution because we can’t stop at a complaint and put a period there.”
School board member Denise Pearson responds Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, to complaints and calls for action from community members following a video that showed an Auburn High School student being slammed to the floor by a resource officer. School board member David Seigel listens at left. (Photo by Kevin Haas/Rock River Current)
Robert Bunch told the board that the officer’s takedown of the student looked deliberate and intentional.
“The person who is the so-called resource officer should be somebody who is educated in sociology, psychology, who has some knowledge of how to treat kids,” Bunch said. “Not just some police officer that you hired from the Rockford police system who is going to behave like that simply because that is what they’ve been trained to do.”
Mayor Tom McNamara, asked by the Rock River Current for comment, said he supports the continued presence of Rockford police in schools.
“I don’t respond to every law firm’s press release. They are following a playbook to provide partial information and inflame the public prior to filing a lawsuit,” McNamara said in a written statement. “I support our officers and the longstanding relationship we have had with our public schools to provide a safe learning environment.”
Nina Giannangeli, a Winnebago High School English teacher and a member of Elminate Racism 815, told the Rock River Current after the meeting that the district needs to show the public what’s being done to prevent violence from happening in our schools.
“I can’t imagine what would ever justify slamming a child’s head into the floor. There are so many alternatives,” said Giannangeli, who has taught for a dozen years. “When I have a student skipping class, it’s more of a conversation and figuring out, ‘Why are you skipping class? Why are you out here? What’s the root cause of the problem?’ And, what can we do to help you want to be here.”
She said the school needs a better approach.
“They’re still children … They need different approaches than violence,” she said. “If students see violence then that’s how they’re going to respond in the future.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas
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Mike Lee Asks Mitt Romney For Endorsement In Final Weeks Of Campaign
Mike Lee Asks Mitt Romney For Endorsement In Final Weeks Of Campaign https://digitalalabamanews.com/mike-lee-asks-mitt-romney-for-endorsement-in-final-weeks-of-campaign/
Sen. Mike Lee publicly called on fellow Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney and his family to finally endorse his campaign.
Mr. Romney reportedly called Mr. Lee and independent challenger Evan McMullin “good friends,” but said last month that he would not endorse either candidate in the closest race for federal office in deep-red Utah.
Mr. Lee, during a Tuesday night appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” explained his surprise when Mr. Romney first told him he would remain “neutral” in the election.
“Well, he’s explained that he’s got two friends in this race, when he first told me that. My reaction was, ‘Who was the other friend?’ And he wants to remain neutral,” Mr. Lee said, before he accused Mr. McMullin of being a “Democrat running in disguise.”
Mr. McMullin is formally running as an independent, but Utah Democrats are not putting up a candidate and their April nominating convention endorsed Mr. McMullin’s independent bid.
Mr. McMullin came into the spotlight in 2016 when he was recruited by anti-Trump Republicans to run for president.
He garnered less than 1% of the vote across the country but picked up 21% in his home state of Utah. Some polls at the time suggested that he could tip one of the nation’s most conservative states in favor of Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Running as an independent again, Mr. McMullin has built a coalition of Democrats, independents and disgruntled Republicans in a bid to oust Mr. Lee, a staunch conservative.
Mr. McMullin has not indicated which party he will caucus with if he wins, but he has been endorsed by Jenny Wilson, the Democratic mayor of Salt Lake County, and other Democratic leaders.
Mr. Lee has the support of all his GOP colleagues in the upper chamber except Mr. Romney. He said Tuesday that he previously asked Mr. Romney for his endorsement to no avail.
“As soon as Mitt Romney is ready to, I will eagerly accept his endorsement. He’s got a big family, and I encourage all of them to go to LeeforSenate.com and make donations to my campaign,” he said.
“Evan McMullin is raising millions of dollars off of Act Blue, the Democratic donor database based on this idea that he’s going to defeat me and help perpetuate the Democratic majority.”
A new poll, conducted by public polling company Dan Jones & Associates for Deseret News and the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute, found that 41% of the Utah voters surveyed say they will vote for Mr. Lee, while 37% say that they will vote for Mr. McMullin.
The survey, which polled 801 Utah voters Oct. 3-6, has an error margin of 3.46 percentage points.
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AP News Summary At 11:30 P.m. EDT https://digitalalabamanews.com/ap-news-summary-at-1130-p-m-edt/
UN, G7 decry Russian attack on Ukraine as possible war crime
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces have carpeted Ukraine with a fresh barrage of missiles and munition-carrying drones. The bombardment came a day after strikes across the country killed at least 19 people and knocked out power across the country. The U.N. human rights office says the “particularly shocking” attacks could amount to war crimes. The leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers also condemned the attacks and said they would “stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes.” Their pledge defied Russian warnings that Western assistance would prolong the war and the pain of Ukraine’s people. Russia launched the attacks in retaliation for a weekend explosion that damaged a bridge linking Russia to the Crimean Peninsula.
Prosecutors drop charges against Adnan Syed in ‘Serial’ case
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges against Adnan Syed in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee after additional DNA testing excluded him as a suspect in a case chronicled by the hit podcast “Serial.” Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for the city of Baltimore, said Tuesday that her office will continue to pursue justice for Lee, but that it has closed its case against Syed, who spent 23 years in prison for the killing. She says the decision was made after additional DNA testing excluded Syed as a suspect in the strangulation of Lee, whom Syed had dated. Syed’s case captured the attention of millions in 2014 when the first season of “Serial” focused on it.
Smashing success: NASA asteroid strike results in big nudge
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA says a spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away last month succeeded in shifting its orbit. The space agency announced the results of the experiment Tuesday. NASA attempted the first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way. The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble. It took consecutive nights of telescope observations to determine how much the impact altered the asteroid’s path around its companion, a bigger space rock.
20 years after Bali bombings, ‘the ache does not dim’
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — People affected by the 2002 Bali bombings gathered on the Indonesian resort island to commemorate 20 years since the twin bombing that killed 202 people. Most of the dead were foreign tourists, including 88 Australians and seven Americans. The commemoration services are being held at several places in Australia and at Bali’s Australian Consulate in the city of Denpasar. Australian survivors of the 2002 terrorist attack and relatives of the deceased were among the 200 in attendance to pay tribute to their loved ones. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the strength and unity shown since the tragedy. He said, “Twenty years on, the ache does not dim.”
Trump lawyer who vouched for documents meets with FBI
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for former president Donald Trump who signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government has spoken with the FBI. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The person says Christina Bobb told federal investigators during Friday’s interview that she had not drafted the letter but that another Trump lawyer who she said actually prepared it had asked her to sign it in her role as a designated custodian for Trump’s records. NBC News first reported the interview.
California expands largest US illegal pot eradication effort
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s four-year-old legal marijuana market is in disarray. So the state’s top prosecutor says he will try a new broader approach to disrupting the illegal pot farms that undercut the legal economy while sowing widespread environmental damage. The state will expand its nearly four-decade-old multi-agency seasonal eradication program. It’s the nation’s largest and this year scooped up nearly a million marijuana plants. California will turn it into a year-round effort aimed at investigating who is behind the illegal grows. Attorney General Rob Bonta said Tuesday that the new program will attempt to prosecute underlying labor crimes, environmental crimes and the underground economy centered around the illicit cultivations.
Ex-Texas cop charged for shooting teen eating hamburger
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A now-former San Antonio police officer has been charged for shooting and gravely wounding a teen eating a hamburger in his car in a McDonald’s parking lot. A family attorney says 17-year-old Erik Cantu remains hospitalized in critical condition. A police statement said the ex-officer, 25-year-old James Brennand, was charged Tuesday with two counts of aggravated assault. Police Chief William McManus says Brennand turned himself in to police Tuesday night and is in custody. The shooting was recorded on Brennand’s body camera. Investigators quickly determined that the use of deadly force was unwarranted, and he was fired.
Angela Lansbury, ‘Murder She Wrote’ star, dies at 96
NEW YORK (AP) — Angela Lansbury, the scene-stealing British actor who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy” and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder, She Wrote,” has died. She was 96. Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from her three children. Lansbury won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances. She earned Academy Award nominations as supporting actress for two of her first three films, “Gaslight” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and was nominated again for “The Manchurian Candidate” and her deadly portrayal of a Communist agent and the title character’s mother.
Biden vows ‘consequences’ for Saudis after OPEC+ cuts output
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says there will be “consequences” for Saudi Arabia as his administration begins reevaluating the U.S. relationship with the kingdom. That’s after the Riyadh-led OPEC+ alliance of oil-producing nations announced it would cut oil production. Biden said in a CNN interview Tuesday that he was weighing action against the Saudis but declined to detail potential next steps. The OPEC+ production cut is expected to help Russia pad its coffers as it continues its nearly eight-month war in Ukraine. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Ro Khanna of California have introduced legislation that would immediately pause all U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Cole cruises, Bader, Rizzo bash, Yanks beat Guardians 4-1
NEW YORK (AP) — Gerrit Cole cruised for most of the night, Harrison Bader and Anthony Rizzo homered and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-1 in their AL Division Series opener. Not even another Josh Donaldson baserunning blunder could slow the Yankees, who have won six straight postseason games against Cleveland dating to a comeback from a two games to none deficit in the 2017 Division Series
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