Digital Alabama News

They're All Hands On Deck': Coroner Releases Some Victims' Names In Quintuple Homicide https://digitalalabamanews.com/theyre-all-hands-on-deck-coroner-releases-some-victims-names-in-quintuple-homicide/ PANTHERS, PARTING WAYS WITH ITS HEAD COACH TODAY. JULIA MORRIS, WITH WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE TEAM, COMING UP. AUTHORITIES IN SPARTANBURG COUNTY ARE STILL INVESTIGATING A QUINTUPLE HOMICIDE IN INMAN. GABRIELLE: THE CORONER HAS IDENTIFIED TWO THE FIVE VICTIMS. PEYTON: WE JUST GOTTEN UPSTATE — WE HAVE JUST GOTTEN — THE CORONERS OFFICE WAS ABLE TO CONFIRM TWO OF THE VICTIMS IDENTITIES, 37 YEAR OLD THOMAS ELLIS ANDERSON AND 32 YEAR OLD ADAM DANIEL MORLEY OF BOBO DRIVE IN INMAN WERE AMONG THE FIVE DEAD IN THIS HOMICIDE. THIS AFTERNOON THE SPARTANBURG COUNTY CORONER CONFIRMED FIVE PEOPLE ARE DEAD. FOUR WERE FOUND DEAD ON THE SCENE. ONE MAN WAS TRANSPORTED TO SPARTANBURG REGIONAL MEDICAL WHERE HE LATER DIED. THE CORONER CONFIRMED THEY’D ALL DIED FROM GUNSHOT WOUNDS, SOME WERE SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES. ALL FIVE PEOPLE WERE FOUND INSIDE THE HOUSE EACH IN DIFFERENT ROOMS. THE CORONER SAYS NO ONE WAS RELATED TO ONE ANOTHER AND NO CHILDREN WERE INVOLVED. THE SPARTANBURG COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS THIS IS STILL VERY MUCH AN ACTIVE INVESTIGATION. SPARTANBURG COUNTY RESPONDED TO A CALL AT 7:45 LAST NIGHT. A PERSON WHO IDENTIFIED THEMSELVES AS A FAMILY MEMBER OF ONE OF THE POTENTIAL VICTIMS SAID A NEIGHBOR FOUND THE SCENE AND CALLED 911. WHILE THEY CONTINUE THEIR INVESTIGATION, THE CORONER’S OFFICE IS STILL WORKING TO IDENTIFY ALL FIVE OF THE VICTIMS. SPARTANBURG COUNTY CORONER RUSTY CLEVENGER ONE VICTIM WAS STILL ALIVE WHEN EMS ARRIVED LAST NIGHT. THEY’RE ALL HANDS ON DECK. EVERYBODY IS REALLY WORKING HARD ON THIS. THE PUBLIC NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THIS MAY BE SHOCKING, BUT THE SHERIFF AND HIS MEN, PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE, MY FOLKS, WE’RE GOING TO STAY WITH IT UNTIL THIS GETS SOLVED. PEYTON: IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ON THIS QUINTUPLE MURDER, CLEVENGER ASKS THAT YOU CALL THE SPARTANBURG COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE. WE REACHED OUT TO THE SHERIFF’S OFFICE FOR COMMENT BUT BECAUSE THIS IS SUCH AN ACTIVE INVESTIGATION Coroner releases some victims’ names in quintuple homicide Law enforcement is still investigating a quintuple homicide that happened in Inman on Sunday. An Upstate coroner released two names of the five people killed at a home Sunday night.Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger released the names of Thomas Ellis Anderson, 37, and Adam Daniel Morley, 32, both of Bobo Drive, in Inman.Both were found dead inside the house, Clevenger said.Three hours later, Clevenger identified another victim as 59-year-old Mark Allen Hewitt. According to Clevenger, Hewitt was staying at the home at the time of his death and was pronounced dead at the scene.Law enforcement is still investigating the quintuple homicide that happened Sunday night at the home on Bobo Drive.On Monday afternoon, Clevenger confirmed the five people dead. He said four people were found dead inside the house, each in a different room. One person suffering from a gunshot wound was found still alive, according to Clevenger.They were taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, where they later died during surgery, he said. The coroner confirmed all the victims died from gunshot wounds, and some had been shot multiple times.Clevenger said no children were involved, and none of the victims was related to one another.The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation continues. They responded to the scene just before 8 p.m. Sunday.A family member of a potential victim said a neighbor found the scene and called 911. While they continue their investigation, Clevenger was still working to identify the rest of the victims.”Public needs to understand, the sheriff’s office, my office, nobody’s going to let up on this, even the prosecutor’s office, we’re not going to let up on this,” Clevenger said. “They’re all hands on deck, everybody is really working hard on this. The public needs to understand this may be shocking, but the Sheriff and his men, prosecutors’ office, my folks, we’re going to stay with it until this gets solved.”Anyone with information is asked to call the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office.WYFF News 4 reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment. They did not provide more information, citing an active investigation. INMAN, S.C. — An Upstate coroner released two names of the five people killed at a home Sunday night. Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger released the names of Thomas Ellis Anderson, 37, and Adam Daniel Morley, 32, both of Bobo Drive, in Inman. Both were found dead inside the house, Clevenger said. Three hours later, Clevenger identified another victim as 59-year-old Mark Allen Hewitt. According to Clevenger, Hewitt was staying at the home at the time of his death and was pronounced dead at the scene. Law enforcement is still investigating the quintuple homicide that happened Sunday night at the home on Bobo Drive. On Monday afternoon, Clevenger confirmed the five people dead. He said four people were found dead inside the house, each in a different room. One person suffering from a gunshot wound was found still alive, according to Clevenger. They were taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, where they later died during surgery, he said. The coroner confirmed all the victims died from gunshot wounds, and some had been shot multiple times. Clevenger said no children were involved, and none of the victims was related to one another. The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation continues. They responded to the scene just before 8 p.m. Sunday. A family member of a potential victim said a neighbor found the scene and called 911. While they continue their investigation, Clevenger was still working to identify the rest of the victims. “Public needs to understand, the sheriff’s office, my office, nobody’s going to let up on this, even the prosecutor’s office, we’re not going to let up on this,” Clevenger said. “They’re all hands on deck, everybody is really working hard on this. The public needs to understand this may be shocking, but the Sheriff and his men, prosecutors’ office, my folks, we’re going to stay with it until this gets solved.” Anyone with information is asked to call the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office. WYFF News 4 reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment. They did not provide more information, citing an active investigation. Read More…

Troup County Sheriff’s Office Arrest/Release Reports For Period Ending Oct. 11 – LaGrange Daily News https://digitalalabamanews.com/troup-county-sheriffs-office-arrest-release-reports-for-period-ending-oct-11-lagrange-daily-news/ Darryl Oneil Williams, 56, 517 Southlawn Dr., Montgomery, AL, theft by shoplifting – $500 (felony) Adreana Johnson, 33, 356 Kempeton Dr., Montgomery, AL, theft by shoplifting – $500 (felony), driving on suspended/revoked license, fail to maintain minimum insurance, expired tag Terry Dewayne Waters, 58, 89 Yarbrough Dr., Hogansville, GA, theft – other (felony), burglary-no forced entry non-residence Kahleighya Enaja Taylor, 25, no known address, disorderly conduct Nneka Hunter, 28, no known address, disorderly conduct Saafiyah Muhammad, 21, no known address, disorderly conduct Idarius Khyree Dearing, 18, 505 Borton St. Apt. A, LaGrange, GA, failure to appear (LaGrange) Darian Deon Thrash, 19, 201 Brown St., LaGrange, GA, failure to appear (LaGrange) Genetria Densie Alford, 33, 110 Fendig St., LaGrange, GA, criminal trespass (FVA), criminal damage to property – 2nd degree (FVA) David Edward Clark, 48, 504 E. Depot St., LaGrange, GA, criminal trespass (city) Amberia Chanee Davenport, 31, no known address, fail to maintain minimum insurance, driving on suspended/revoked license Anthony Terrance Harris, 33, 1710 Prospect Way Conyers, GA, driving motor vehicle on suspended/canceled/revoked registration, failure to maintain lane, fail to maintain minimum insurance, DUI – alcohol Christon Caziah Ridgeway, 20, 9 Louise St., LaGrange, GA, aggravated assault-gun, murder-gun Jeirico Dewayne Johnson, 40, 1610 Whiteville Rd., LaGrange, GA, failure to appear (LaGrange) Jimmy McAfee, 45, 33 Perry St., Manchester, GA, probation violation (LaGrange), theft by receiving (felony), driving on suspended/revoked license Jonathan Martez Moss, 42, 303 Valley Ct., LaGrange, GA, aggravated stalking, speeding 19-23 mph over speed limit Lonzell Turman Jr., 51, no known address, theft by shoplifting – $500 (4th conviction) Shakeria LaShaun Allen, 22, 611 Elm St., Hogansville, GA, affray, obstruction of officer Christopher Jamaal Harrison, 28, 2226 Roanoke Rd., LaGrange, GA, DUI-less safe – alcohol, fail to use safety belts in passenger vehicle, open container Michael Lee Wilson, 31, 1008 Juniper St., LaGrange, GA, failure to appear (superior) Dylan Wayne Huffman, 25, 36 N. Whatley Rd., LaGrange, GA, aggravated assault-gun, reckless conduct Allen Eady, 55, no known address, simple battery, disorderly conduct (city) Markesha Lashea Reeves, 17, 611 Elm St., LaGrange, GA, obstruction of officer, affray Charlie Alfred Edwards, 43, 5858 Hammett Rd., Hogansville, GA, failure to appear (superior) Walter Leonidas Diaz-Lucero, 36, no known address, battery, simple battery (FVA) Joshua Lamonz Davis, 27, 156 Holiday Dr., Carrollton, GA, failure to appear (state) Read More…

Mueller Prosecutor Says Trump Gave DOJ https://digitalalabamanews.com/mueller-prosecutor-says-trump-gave-doj/ October 10, 2022 08:27 PM During his rallies over the weekend to boost MAGA candidates in the 2022 midterm elections, former President Donald Trump made it easier for the Justice Department to bring a criminal case against him, a top prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller argued on Monday. Andrew Weissmann, a former Justice Department official and FBI general counsel who was known as Mueller’s “pit bull,” made the assessment stressing that Trump’s own comments bode ill for him as the federal government’s investigation into the former president’s handling of records heats up. He was making an appearance on MSNBC alongside New York Times journalist Michael Schmidt, who has reported several scoops on the documents inquiry. TRUMP LAWYER WHO SIGNED LETTER ON CLASSIFIED RECORDS SPEAKS WITH AUTHORITIES: REPORT “I look at this with my former prosecutor’s hat on, and the reporting from Mike and Maggie Haberman and the speech that you talked about that he gave over the weekend are really damning evidence because the typical defense for somebody like Donald Trump is what a CEO argues, which is ‘I didn’t know the details, I don’t have the knowledge or intent to have violated the law,'” Weissmann said. “Meaning, I didn’t know what was at Mar-a-Lago. I didn’t know the content of what was at Mar-a-Lago, and so I didn’t have an intent to illegally take or retain these documents. That would be what a CEO would probably argue and is typically what we see in CEO cases.” Trump headlined two rallies this weekend. At the second one, in Mesa, Arizona, Trump said the FBI should return documents seized from his Florida resort in August. “They should give me immediately back everything that they’ve taken from me because it’s mine, it’s mine. They took it from me — in the raid. They broke into my house,” he said on Sunday. Trump also denied committing any crimes. Trump: I had a small number of boxes in storage… There is no crime. They should give me immediately back everything they have taken from me because it’s mine. pic.twitter.com/nSR2MjmAMk — Acyn (@Acyn) October 10, 2022 And as reported by the New York Times, Trump tried to cut a deal with the National Archives and Records Administration to exchange boxes of material held at Mar-a-Lago for documents related to the FBI’s investigation of his ties to Russia. Although they never pursued it, Trump floated the idea to aides to try trading records later taken by the authorities for confidential documents he thought would exonerate him on Russia. Trump is being investigated under the Espionage Act, as well as related to laws regarding obstruction of justice, court documents show. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER “The trick is always how do you show that somebody like Donald Trump knew what was at Mar-a-Lago, and it wasn’t just his lawyers or underlings who knew the details,” Weissmann added. “Well, that he’s trying to engage in the art of the deal with respect to classified documents, and he’s saying these documents were all mine, those are incredibly damning statements that go directly to knowledge and intent, and you can be sure that the DOJ prosecutors are doing what I’m doing, which is listening to this, going, this is making it that much easier to prove the only element that it could pose any real difficulty for the Department of Justice in bringing a case involving the Mar-a-Lago documents.” Read More…

Tim Ryan, J.D. Vance Fire Away In Lone Ohio Senate Debate https://digitalalabamanews.com/tim-ryan-j-d-vance-fire-away-in-lone-ohio-senate-debate/ In one of the most closely watched Senate contests in the country, Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Ryan swung hard at each other on abortion, illegal immigration, inflation and crime in their only face-to-face meeting ahead of the Nov. 8 election. The two contenders for Ohio’s open U.S. Senate seat sparred Monday night in Cleveland as polls showed the race statistically tied and more competitive than the GOP initially expected. Mr. Ryan said he’s running to represent “the exhausted majority,” and that Mr. Vance represents what he called an extremist and dangerous wing of the Republican Party that still pledges allegiance to former President Donald Trump and his MAGA agenda. Mr. Vance said Mr. Ryan has worked against jobs in Ohio and has crushed the state’s critical manufacturing sector by opposing the state’s fracking industry. “That’s one reason Ohio manufacturers go to China,” Mr. Vance said. Mr. Vance, 38, is the Trump-endorsed Republican in a state where the former president remains popular after winning Ohio by eight points in both 2016 and 2020. Mr. Vance is running on a conservative platform to fight overspending, secure the southern border, increase domestic energy production and rebuild the nation’s manufacturing sector. He’s also promising increased funding for the police. Mr. Ryan, 49, has represented Northeast Ohio in the U.S. House since 2003. He is also running on revitalizing the state’s industrial sector, and said he’ll support policies to lower health-care costs and increase wages if he’s elected to the Senate. The Vance-Ryan battle is among several close Senate races that will determine which party controls the chamber in January. The two candidates differ perhaps most significantly on the issue of abortion. Mr. Vance said he opposes the procedure at any point in a pregnancy while Mr. Ryan has said he supports access to abortion without any limits. Each man has tried to frame each other as an extremist on the issue, which become a leading concern among some voters following the Supreme Court decision to overturn its 1973 ruling making abortion a federal constitutional right. Mr. Ryan, who in the past opposed abortion, said his views changed after speaking to pro-choice women about the issue. “We can’t ignore the level of extremism that we’re hearing from J.D. Vance on this position,” Mr. Ryan said. “No exceptions for rape and incest. If you get raped, J.D. Vance and others are gonna say you have to have that baby. State-mandated pregnancies for a rape victim. That is so far out of the mainstream, it’s not even funny.” Mr. Vance said Mr. Ryan is lying about his views and “it’s insulting.” Mr. Vance said he believes women should be allowed to have abortions in some cases, including rape. He said Mr. Ryan approved legislation legalizing abortion up to 40 weeks and another bill that would end federal funding for free and reduced lunches at schools that do not allow transgender boys to participate in girls sports teams. “The extremist here, Tim, is you,” Mr. Vance said. “Let’s at least be honest with voters about what our actual views are.” On the campaign trail, Mr. Ryan sells himself as an independent-minded Democrat who backed former Mr. Trump’s policies on China trade and the military, while telling voters he has disagreed with his own party on many issues, including border security. He’s promoting a “worker’s first” agenda on a statewide bus tour. Mr. Vance has accused Mr. Ryan of disguising himself as a moderate while Mr. Trump, during a recent rally for Mr. Vance in Youngstown, called Mr. Ryan “a militant left-winger who is lying to your faces.” The two also sparred over immigration in Monday’s debate. Mr. Vance said Mr. Ryan, during his two decades in Congress, did nothing to secure the border or stop the flow of deadly illegal drugs that have killed thousands of Americans. “You’ve been in Congress for 20 years and the problem has gotten worse and worse,” Mr. Vance said. Mr. Ryan accused Mr. Vance of starting a phony nonprofit group to help drug addicts, which Mr. Vance denied and said Mr. Ryan’s ad campaign is funded by pharmaceutical companies that spurred the opioid epidemic. Mr. Ryan accused Mr. Vance of being “all in” with “election deniers,” and said he helped raise money for the people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Vance countered by noting that Mr. Ryan backed the Black Lives Matter rioters who attacked the police and voted for House legislation that would have stripped money from law enforcement. “Tim Ryan threw the police under the bus,” Mr. Vance said. “He attacked them as the new Jim Crow, and as systemically racist.” Each man accused the other of presenting an inaccurate public persona. Mr. Ryan criticizes Mr. Vance, a former venture capitalist, as an out-of-touch millionaire and a fraud who invested in companies that outsourced jobs to China. Mr. Vance said that, during this Congress, Mr. Vance voted entirely with the Democratic leadership and President Biden, failing to stand up to them on any issue. While the polls have tightened between Mr. Vance and Mr. Ryan, the state’s electorate has turned increasingly red. A Spectrum News/Siena College poll published Sept. 28 found 41% of Ohio voters want the GOP to control Congress next year, compared to one-third who want Democrats in charge and 22% who favor divided control. Read More…

Nevada Secretary Of State Contender Pledges To Secure Trump Victory In 2024 https://digitalalabamanews.com/nevada-secretary-of-state-contender-pledges-to-secure-trump-victory-in-2024/ The head of a US coalition of election deniers standing for secretary of state positions in key battleground states has made the most explicit threat yet that they will use their powers, should they win in November, to subvert democracy and force a return of Donald Trump to the White House. Jim Marchant, who is running in the midterms as the Republican candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, has vowed publicly that he and his fellow coalition members will strive to make Trump president again. Speaking at a Make America Great Again rally in Minden, Nevada, on Saturday night, he repeated the lie that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump. Marchant said he had investigated what he described as the “rigged election” and had discovered “horrifying” irregularities. He provided no details – an official review of the 2020 count in Nevada, which Joe Biden won by 34,000 votes, found no evidence of mass fraud. Addressing the crowd of Trump supporters, Marchant then went on to pledge that he and his band of election deniers would secure a Trump victory in two years’ time. “When I’m secretary of state of Nevada, we are going to fix it, and when my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get elected we’re going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024,” he said. Marchant’s comments are certain to heighten jitters ahead of the 8 November midterm elections. Secretaries of state act as the top election officials, and as such can shape how federal elections, including presidential ones, are conducted. Several virulent advocates of the stolen election lie, many with links to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, have been nominated as Republican secretary of state candidates in swing states that were critical in determining the outcome of the 2020 presidential contest. Theoretically, they could send pro-Trump slates of electors to Congress even were the former president to lose in their states, turning the result on its head. A similar ruse was tried unsuccessfully in 2020. A repeat effort, were it now made by individuals wielding secretary of state powers, might prove far more effective. Marchant formed the “coalition of America First secretary of state candidates”, as the group of election deniers call themselves, after he himself lost a 2020 election for a US House seat in Nevada. In an echo of Trump’s falsehood, he claimed victory had been stolen from him. Marchant pushed for fake Trump electors to be sent from Nevada to Congress to try and subvert the 2020 results. In an interview with the Guardian in January, he was asked whether he might try to do the same in 2024, and replied: “That is very possible, yes.” At Saturday’s rally, Marchant mentioned several other election deniers running as Republican candidates in secretary of state races in November. He named Mark Finchem, who was present at the US Capitol during the January 6 attack and is running in Arizona; Kristina Karamo in Michigan; Audrey Trujillo in New Mexico; and others. “If we get all of our secretaries of state elected around the country like this, we take our country back,” he said. With the midterm elections only a month away, alarm is spreading in Democratic circles and among pro-democracy groups about what lies ahead. Several of the election deniers running for secretary of state are proving very viable. Marchant is ahead by eight points against his Democratic challenger, Cisco Aguilar, a recent Nevada poll showed. In Arizona, a state that has become critical in determining presidential election outcomes, Finchem is registering 49% support among likely voters compared with 45% for the Democratic candidate, Adrian Fontes, a CNN poll found. Read More…

College Football Heisman Trophy Odds In Week 7: Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker Soars Before Alabama Game https://digitalalabamanews.com/college-football-heisman-trophy-odds-in-week-7-tennessee-qb-hendon-hooker-soars-before-alabama-game/ Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker and Alabama’s Bryce Young are in the middle of the Heisman spotlight heading into Saturday’s unbeaten SEC showdown at Neyland Stadium. FanDuel Sportsbook updated its Week 7 Heisman odds Monday with all signs pointing to that game between the Vols and Crimson Tide as a midseason barometer on the race for college football’s most prestigious individual honor. Hooker accounted for two touchdown passes and nearly 300 yards of total offense during Tennessee’s blowout win at LSU over the weekend while Young missed Alabama’s narrow win over Texas A&M with a shoulder injury. He’s expected back for one of the Crimson Tide’s most important games, however. Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud threw six touchdown passes for the Buckeyes in their win at Michigan State, increasing his Big Ten-leading total to 24 on the season. Stroud’s already thrown for 1,737 yards in six starts. Subscribe to 247Sports YouTube for the latest college football, basketball and recruiting news including live college commitments. Here’s a look at the top 10 players in the Heisman race, according to updated odds, and our thoughts on the selections. (Photo: Jay Biggerstaff, Getty) Stetson Bennett’s 64-yard touchdown run against Auburn was an impressive play, but will the Georgia quarterback’s numbers be expansive enough this season to warrant more Heisman praise? That’s the primary question for the former walk-on. It looks like he’s going to need a couple more 300-yard, multi-touchdown games to jump back into the race. And if Georgia keeps winning in the SEC, that will certainly help his case. Upcoming games against Florida and Tennessee are vital. (Photo: Icon Sportswire, Getty) Consecutive impact performances from Jahmyr Gibbs makes him the only running back at midseason with a shot to win the Heisman, but he needs more touchdowns. He rushed for 154 yards in Saturday’s win over Texas A&M, but failed to find the end zone. His only two scores this season came against Arkansas. Gibbs provided not one, but a pair of knockout blows against a tiring Razorbacks defense in the second half when he showed off world-class speed. Gibbs has been a reliable playmaker throughout the campaign for the Crimson Tide, who fell back to No. 3 after their narrow victory over the Aggies. (Photo: Kansas State Athletics Media Relations) Will any Big 12 defense be able to stop Adrian Martinez this season? It’s a pivotal question given his early success. Martinez delivered a game to remember in the Wildcats’ 41-34 win over Oklahoma, accounting for five touchdowns throughout the Wildcats’ upset victory in Norman. Martinez rushed for four scores and threw for another, tallying 382 yards of total offense against the sixth-ranked Sooners — one week after Oklahoma demolished his former program, Nebraska. Martinez followed that head-turning outing with 171 yards rushing and three scores against Texas Tech, before Saturday’s matchup at Iowa State was an offensive struggle throughout. (Photo: USA TODAY Sports) Running backs aren’t often mentioned in the Heisman race in college football’s current state, but Blake Corum has managed to do the heavy-lifting three consecutive weeks for Michigan in Big Ten play. After rushing for a career-high 243 yards while 8.1 yards per carry against Maryland, Corum topped 100 yards and sealed a win at Iowa with a scoring scamper. Both of Corum’s touchdowns against the Terrapins previously came in big spots, the first on fourth down late in the first half to give the Wolverines the lead and his second coming late in the contest to ice the win. He is Michigan’s offensive MVP through six games. (Photo: Cory Fravel, 247Sports) Coming off consecutive high-end performance against top-25 competition in the ACC Atlantic, Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei is in the middle of the Heisman race with 14 touchdowns and two interceptions at midseason. Tigers coach Dabo Swinney promised an improved Uiagalelei and that’s exactly what the junior signal caller has shown the world so far for the unbeaten Tigers. He was terrific during last week’s win over NC State and the Tigers will be favored in every game the rest of the way as they march back toward the College Football Playoff. (Photo: Steve Cheng, 247Sports) UCLA’s senior quarterback is taking names this season. His latest victim was Utah after knifing his way through the Utes’ defense for five total touchdowns in Saturday’s notable win. UCLA is one of two remaining unbeatens in the Pac-12 and Dorian Thompson-Robinson has a chance to continue moving up in the Heisman rankings if his play continues. Chip Kelly has a dependable signal caller who can take out defenses with his arm or his legs. (Photo: Nelson Chenault, USA TODAY Sports) Young has an AC sprain in his throwing shoulder that forced him to miss Saturday’s win over Texas A&M. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner left last week’s win against Arkansas in the first half and did not return. That is six quarters without snaps the last two weeks, which shows why Young has fallen out of frontrunner stats. Prior to leaving the field against the Razorbacks, Young completed seven of his 13 pass attempts for 173 yards and one touchdown with one interception. In Alabama’s first five games of the 2022 season, Young has passed for 1,029 yards and 13 touchdowns to just two interceptions. He jumps back into the race if he plays and Alabama beats Tennessee this weekend. (Photo: Tennessee Athletics) If you saw Tennessee’s blowout win at LSU, you noticed Hooker throw one of the most spectacular touchdown passes of the season to open the second quarter, a 45-yard strike to Jalin Hyatt down the sideline. That was a dagger for the Volunteers, who ran away from the Tigers in prep for Saturday’s mammoth matchup with third-ranked Alabama. Tennessee hasn’t beaten the Crimson Tide since Nick Saban was hired and Hooker’s Heisman candidacy will hit supernova status if he’s able to register multiple scores during a big-time win. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea, USA TODAY Sports) Caleb Williams remains firmly in the No. 2 hole ahead of Hooker this week after a couple touchdown passes during Saturday’s win over Washington State. The Oklahoma transfer quarterback will get a spotlight opportunity on Saturday at nationally-ranked Utah. This USC offense looks incredibly difficult to defend early on in the Lincoln Riley era, much of that due to Williams and the precision shown thus far in the passing game. Williams may need help within the Big Ten to pass Stroud if the two quarterbacks post matching numbers the rest of the way. (Photo: Gregory Shamus, Getty) C.J. Stroud is beginning to create separation from others in the Heisman race as the facilitator of an Ohio State offense that appears pressed to pad stats this season in the Big Ten. His career-best six touchdowns helped the Buckeyes annihilate Michigan State over the weekend. He overcame an early interception return for a score to throttle the Spartans through the air. Ohio State doesn’t even have its full arsenal in the passing game and Stroud is still dissecting opposing secondaries with precision. How he plays in upcoming games against Penn State and Michigan down the stretch will determine where he stands among others in the race. “247Sports Read More…

First On CNN: Former White House Aide Cooperating With Investigation Of Trump Effort To Overturn Election Results – KESQ https://digitalalabamanews.com/first-on-cnn-former-white-house-aide-cooperating-with-investigation-of-trump-effort-to-overturn-election-results-kesq/ By Sara Murray and Zachary Cohen, CNN An Atlanta-area prosecutor investigating Donald Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn the 2020 election has secured cooperation from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. Hutchinson, whose cooperation has not previously been reported, became a prominent witness during a summer hearing for the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill insurrection. The former top aide to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows could offer Georgia prosecutors insights about what she witnessed in the West Wing, as well as steps her former boss took specifically when it came to Georgia. Prosecutors have called for Meadows to testify before the special grand jury, but they are still working to secure his testimony. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for late October. Meadows was among the participants on the January 2021 call between Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, and Meadows also made a surprise visit to a Cobb County location in December 2020, where officials were conducting an absentee ballot signature audit. Hutchinson has also been cooperating with the Justice Department, which also faces a pre-election quiet period, in its criminal investigation into efforts to subvert the 2020 election. An attorney for Hutchinson did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said the Georgia probe is shifting into a quieter mode to avoid any appearance of influencing the upcoming midterm election. Legal experts told CNN she could still use that time to have the special grand jury pore over information it has already obtained and work on the final report it will issue when its investigation is complete. CNN previously reported that Willis is aiming to swiftly wrap up her probe after the midterms and could begin issuing indictments as soon as December. A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to comment. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

Shooting Outside NY GOP Governor Nominee's Home Sharpens Debate Over Crime And Guns – KESQ https://digitalalabamanews.com/shooting-outside-ny-gop-governor-nominees-home-sharpens-debate-over-crime-and-guns-kesq/ By Gregory Krieg, CNN A shooting that wounded two teenagers on the property of Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican nominee for governor of New York, was a disturbing development in a campaign that has seen him hammer Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul over public safety and a controversial bail reform law enacted more than three years ago. The random incident Sunday afternoon outside his Long Island house — his two 16-year-old daughters were inside, terrified but uninjured — provided Zeldin with an opportunity, however personally unwelcome, to sharpen his message on an issue for which concerns cross party lines and potential solutions have often defied typical partisan divides. “This is day after day after day,” Zeldin told Fox News on Monday. “And there are a lot of parents, there are a lot of families, dealing with this reality of rising crime in New York. For us, fortunately, my daughters knew exactly how to respond. But listen, they were just sitting there at the kitchen table doing homework and bullets started going off all around them.” An ally of former President Donald Trump, Zeldin has mostly run a one-issue campaign focused on crime and his criticism of the 2019 Democratic-led enactment of a bail reform law that made it more difficult for judges to keep some suspects behind bars. The law has been amended twice, but Republicans and some Democrats have pushed for more substantial revisions. While the backlash is real, Zeldin’s ability to parlay it into a winning message remains in doubt. He has struggled to break through with voters in deep-blue New York and Hochul has used his opposition to new gun restrictions to undermine his “soft on crime” attacks. Zeldin entered the general election at a clear disadvantage. There are more than twice as many registered Democrats in New York as Republicans, whose party has been hollowed out by a generation of cascading defeats. The last GOP victory in a statewide election came in 2002, when Gov. George Pataki won his third term in office. Hochul, nominally an incumbent after replacing disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo following his resignation last year amid a sexual harassment scandal, has distanced herself from her predecessor, but not the state’s Democratic donor apparatus, and has trounced Zeldin in fundraising. Zeldin has employed familiar GOP attacks against Hochul over the economy and inflation, but like other Republicans around the country, he sees an opening on the criminal justice front. Last November, months after he entered the GOP primary, Republicans won a pair of district attorney races in the New York City suburbs. In Nassau County, the incumbent Democratic executive was also unseated by a Republican. The backlash to bail reform played a central role in GOP messaging in those races. Zeldin has followed that roadmap. Perhaps, some critics suggest, too closely for a candidate whose path to an upset win requires a strong performance in the suburbs and upstate, but also a significant dent in the blue wall of New York City. For her part, Hochul has largely focused her broadsides against Zeldin on his ties to Trump and his opposition to abortion rights. (Zeldin has said he would not seek to change state law guaranteeing access to the procedure.) When pressed on the bail reform law, Hochul has pointed to the amendments passed by the legislature. Zeldin’s efforts to make hay over the controversy has been hamstrung by cash woes. Short on money, he turned to Trump for a fundraiser in early September. The event netted Zeldin’s campaign a reported $1.5 million but underscored a fundamental conundrum — Trump, and his wing of the Republican Party, are crucial drivers of campaign funds, but close public ties to them can be self-defeating in a state the former President lost by 23 points in 2020. “I don’t think Zeldin is in an impossible situation. In fact, I think he’s going to do better than expected,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College. “But the campaign has been totally negative, hasn’t presented any positive reasons for supporting him. He says nothing about his record in prior offices. He says nothing about issues other than to attack. At some point, he has to explain why he’s a desirable alternative to Hochul.” Zeldin has found an unwilling ally of sorts in New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who, though he endorsed Hochul, has pilloried the state’s bail reform law and demanded lawmakers hold a special session in Albany to further restrict rules over pretrial detention. His ask was rejected. But Zeldin and Adams break sharply on gun violence, with the mayor — along with Hochul — pushing for stricter regulations on firearms. Zeldin criticized a new round of gun control measures passed in Albany and signed by Hochul this past summer that sought to circumvent a recent Supreme Court decision striking down some restrictions on concealed carry outside the home. “I think we need to separate a law-abiding New Yorker who wants to safely and securely carry a firearm for, solely, their self-defense and the criminals who want to carry firearms illegally and commit offense after offense after offense, harming others, and then because of the system in New York, they end up back on the street,” Zeldin told Fox News in an interview from early July. A federal court last week blocked enforcement of large chunks of the law. The ruling is being appealed by the state attorney general’s office. Early Sunday evening, Hochul tweeted a conciliatory note in response to the incident involving Zeldin’s family. “I’ve been briefed on the shooting outside of Congressman Zeldin’s home. As we await more details, I’m relieved to hear the Zeldin family is safe and grateful for law enforcement’s quick response,” Hochul said from her campaign’s Twitter account. The shooting marked the second time Zeldin has been thrust into the headlines by an act of violence. The first came over the summer, when a man wielding a sharp object accosted him onstage at a campaign event near Rochester. Zeldin was not hurt, and the alleged attacker was promptly subdued and arrested. Asked about the shooting on Monday, Hochul reiterated to reporters that her office had “sent our message right away” that the state police would be made available if desired to aid in the investigation. “It’s a reminder, we all have to work together to get guns off the streets,” she added. “And so I will continue, as I’ve been on this journey as governor, to do everything we can to ensure that our streets are safe. That is one of my highest priorities.” The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

'Trump Lawyers Turning Against Each Other': Legal Experts React To Report That Christina Bobb Said She Was Told To Sign Alleged False Statement About Mar-A-Lago Docs https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-lawyers-turning-against-each-other-legal-experts-react-to-report-that-christina-bobb-said-she-was-told-to-sign-alleged-false-statement-about-mar-a-lago-docs/ Christina Robb during her days as a commentator on the far-right One America News Network. Legal Twitter was abuzz over recent reports that one of former President Donald Trump’s attorneys recently spoke with federal prosecutors about various details regarding allegedly classified documents discovered at Mar-a-Lago during an August FBI raid. According to an NBC News report citing “three sources familiar with the matter,” that attorney, Christina Bobb, a onetime talking head on the right-wing network One America News Network, “named two other Trump attorneys involved with the case” during a recent talk with the U.S. Department of Justice. As Law&Crime previously reported, Bobb signed a letter in June of this year averring that Trump had returned all documents subject to a May grand jury subpoena. That letter claimed the former president no longer had any documents identified as classified at his Florida estate. The statement Bobb signed, however, was allegedly authored by Trump attorney Evan Corcoran, according to The New York Times. A mid-September report by the paper of record notes: Investigators are seeking information from Ms. Bobb about why she signed a statement attesting to full compliance with the subpoena, and they have signaled they have not ruled out pursuing a criminal inquiry into the actions of either Ms. Bobb or Mr. Corcoran, according to two people briefed on the matter. The attestation was drafted by Mr. Corcoran, but Ms. Bobb added language to it to make it less ironclad a declaration before signing it, according to the people. She has retained the longtime criminal defense lawyer John Lauro, who declined to comment on the investigation. A late August report by CNN citing anonymous sources alleges that Bobb’s name appears in a DOJ court filing – albeit in redacted form. That filing contains a copy of the letter in question. The letter claims that a “diligent search” was undertaken by Trump’s legal team to ensure subpoena compliance. According to NBC News’ report, Bobb told DOJ attorneys that Corcoran “drafted it and told her to sign it,” citing the anonymous sources. The added language insisted upon by Bobb and referred to by the Times was reportedly a clarification that she would only certify Trump no longer had marked-as-classified records in his possession “based upon the information that has been provided to me.” Such information, Bobb allegedly told the feds, came from Corcoran. Law&Crime reached out to Corcoran for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication. There is no indication by the latest developments that Bobb is being threatened with prosecution to move higher up the ladder. “She had to insist on that disclaimer twice before she signed it,” one source reportedly told NBC News’ Marc Caputo. “She is not criminally liable. She is not going to be charged. She is not pointing fingers. She is simply a witness for the truth.” Lawyers on Twitter suggested the development was substantial. “Bobb spoke to the Feds and told them that another Trump lawyer, Evan Corcoran, was the source of the false info in the certification she made regarding the Mar-a-Lago documents,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote. “If true, she is likely right that she has no liability. But now *he* is in the hot seat.” A variation of the metaphor of heat was also employed by former Assistant U.S. Attorney, onetime general counsel for the FBI, and, most famously, Robert Mueller’s right-hand man during the Russiagate investigation, Andrew Weissmann. “Bobb has passed the hot potato squarely to Corcoran to now tell DOJ how HE knew responsive docs had all been provided pursuant to the subpoena,” Weissmann tweeted. “Its [sic] a crime to intentionally not comply with a subpoena.” Attorney and former special counsel for the U.S. Department of Defense, Ryan Goodman, termed the Monday NBC News report an instance of “Trump lawyers turning against each other” on Twitter. “Inevitable,” mused former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman also via Twitter. “And the way cases get made. So an excellent development.” [image via screengrab/OAN Network] Have a tip we should know? [email protected] Read More…

Live Updates: Putin’s ‘Mass Strike’ On Ukraine Draws Furious Condemnation https://digitalalabamanews.com/live-updates-putins-mass-strike-on-ukraine-draws-furious-condemnation/ For months, Russia’s state media insisted that the country was only hitting military targets in Ukraine, leaving out the suffering that the invasion has brought to millions of civilians. On Monday, the mask came off. Russian state television showed gas lines in Ukraine, empty store shelves and a long-range forecast promising months of freezing temperatures there. And rather than focus on the civilian destruction in Russian-held areas as they usually do, news broadcasts in Russia showed columns of smoke and carnage in central Kyiv. “There’s no hot water, part of the city is without power,” one anchor announced, describing the scene in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The sharp shift was a sign that domestic pressure over Russia’s flailing war effort had escalated to the point where President Vladimir V. Putin felt a decisive show of force was necessary. His military has come under increasingly withering criticism from the war’s supporters for not being aggressive enough in its assault on Ukraine, a chorus that reached a fever pitch after Saturday’s attack on the 12-mile bridge to the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea — a symbol of Mr. Putin’s rule. With Monday’s brutal escalation of the war effort, Mr. Putin in part appears to be responding to those critics, momentarily quieting the clamors of hard-liners furious with the Russian military’s humiliating setbacks on the battlefield. “This is important from the domestic political perspective, first and foremost,” Abbas Gallyamov, a Russian political analyst and former Putin speechwriter, said of Monday’s strikes. “It was important to demonstrate to the ruling class that Putin is still capable, that the Army is still good for something.” But with his escalation, Mr. Putin is also betting that Russian elites — and the public at large — do indeed see it as a sign of strength, rather than a desperate effort to inflict more pain in a war that Russia appears to be losing. “The response was supposed to show power, but in fact it showed powerlessness,” Mr. Gallyamov said. “There’s nothing else the army can do.” After Monday’s strikes, some of the invasion’s harshest critics among the Russian hawks declared that the military was finally doing its job. The strongman leader of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov — who recently excoriated the army’s “incompetent” leadership — said in a Telegram post that he was now “100 percent happy” with the war effort. “Run, Zelensky, run,” he wrote, referring to Ukraine’s president. Other cheerleaders of the war triumphantly recalled Mr. Putin’s declaration in July that Russia had not “started anything yet in earnest” in Ukraine. “Now, it seems, it’s started,” one state television talk show host, Olga Skabeyeva, said. Mr. Putin described Monday’s strikes as a response to Ukrainian “terrorist acts,” casting them as a one-time assault to deter future Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. In his home city of St. Petersburg, where he had traveled on Friday for his 70th birthday, Mr. Putin spoke on national television for just over three minutes in what the Kremlin characterized as the start of a meeting with his Security Council. He made a point of saying the strikes came at the military’s initiative, an apparent effort to head off assertions that he was plotting the war effort in isolation. “This morning, at the suggestion of the Ministry of Defense and according to the plan of the Russian General Staff, a massive strike with air, sea and land-based high-precision long-range weapons was launched against Ukrainian energy, military command and communications facilities,” Mr. Putin said. “If attempts to carry out terrorist attacks on our territory continue, the measures taken by Russia will be tough and in their scale will correspond to the level of threats posed to the Russian Federation. No one should have any doubt about it.” In his speech, Mr. Putin made one notable omission: he did not mention the West as the ultimate culprit behind Saturday’s Crimean bridge explosion or other suspected Ukrainian attacks. That was a departure from the typical Kremlin rhetoric that portrays Washington and London as the puppeteers behind Ukraine’s resistance. The shift was a possible signal that the Russian leader was interested in controlling the escalation of the war, and that he was not on the verge of provoking a direct conflict with NATO. But some signs pointed to Mr. Putin being prepared for a wider escalation of the war. On Saturday, he appointed a general known for his ruthlessness, Sergei Surovikin, to lead the war effort in Ukraine. And Mr. Putin’s closest international ally, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, declared on Monday that thousands of Russian soldiers would soon arrive in the country to form a joint military group with Belarusian forces — creating the specter of a new threat to Ukraine’s north. Greg Yudin, a professor of political philosophy at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, said Mr. Putin had bent to pressure from right-wing hawks who are calling for even more escalation. He said he expected that Mr. Putin would “sooner or later” heighten the threats of potentially using tactical nuclear weapons. In central Moscow, many people said they were unaware of what had happened in Ukraine. People soaked up the sun in the chic neighborhood of central Tsvetno, or rushed to work or appointments. Some younger people, more attuned to social media, said they were aware of the strikes on Ukraine but felt powerless to assign blame. “It is bad when people are killed for any reason,” said Sasha, 19, a university student. Still, she went on, “In any fight, both sides are responsible.” In Russia, the penalties for criticizing the war — or even using the term war — come with hefty fines and even jail time, so many Russians are cautious about making comments that might have a negative connotation about the war. Valerie Hopkins reported from Moscow. Alina Lobzina also contributed reporting. Read More…

Tuberville: Democrats Want Reparations For “people That Do The Crime” https://digitalalabamanews.com/tuberville-democrats-want-reparations-for-people-that-do-the-crime-2/ The freshman U.S. senator from Alabama has not released a statement since the comments nor attempted to explain the bizarre tirade. HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Alabama’s Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville described the Democratic Party as “pro-crime” and said the party supports reparations for “the people that do the crime” in a race-baiting screed during a rally for former President Donald Trump in Nevada on Saturday. In the aftermath on Friday, Tuberville’s remarks were seen by many as overtly racist and false. The freshman U.S. senator from Alabama has not released a statement since the comments nor attempted to explain the bizarre tirade. “[The Democrats] want reparations ’cause they think the people that do the crime are owed that — bullshit!” Tuberville said to cheers and applause from the crowd of Trump supporters. “They’re not owed that.” Many national and state Democratic figures and leaders took to social media in the direct aftermath to voice their dismay with Tuberville’s comments. “There is some bullshit here, but it isn’t what [Tommy Tuberville] thinks it is,” said former Alabama Democratic Party chairman and sitting state Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, on Sunday in a post to Twitter. “The bullshit is that this guy is a United States senator in the first place.” Alabama Democratic Party Vice Chair Tabitha Isner called out the Alabama Republican Party on Saturday: “Tuberville just equated Black Americans with ‘people that do the crime.’” She asked what the party planned to do as a result. “What’re you going to do about such blatant racism in your party’s leadership?” Isner said in a post on Twitter. “My money’s on NOTHING. But please, prove me wrong.” Joe Scarborough, the anchor of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and a former Republican congressman from Florida, described Tuberville’s remarks as “an open appeal to racism” that would have made “George Wallace and Lester Maddox proud” in a Tweet on Sunday. “You don’t have to be a Southerner like me to understand that ‘they’ is Tuberville’s substitute for a racial slur he can’t say behind a microphone in 2022,” Scarborough said. Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on alreporter.com. WATCH: Read More…

Pork Industry Takes Fight Over California Law To U.S. Supreme Court https://digitalalabamanews.com/pork-industry-takes-fight-over-california-law-to-u-s-supreme-court/ Industry groups appeal ruling that backed California law At issue is Commerce Clause U.S. constitutional provision WASHINGTON, Oct 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in an industry challenge to the constitutionality of a California animal welfare law in a case that could undermine the power of states to regulate a range of issues within their own borders. The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation are appealing a lower court’s decision to throw out their lawsuit seeking to invalidate a 2018 ballot initiative passed by voters barring sales in California of pork, veal and eggs from animals whose confinement failed to meet minimum space requirements. The pork industry has defended the size of the cages used at pig farms as humane and necessary for animal safety. Animal rights groups have said some pork producers confine mother pigs in cages so small the animals cannot turn around for most of their lives. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com The industry groups have argued that the measure, called Proposition 12, violates a provision of the U.S. Constitution known as the Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, by requiring out-of-state producers to comply or face a California sales ban. A legal doctrine called the “dormant” Commerce Clause bars states from passing laws discriminating against commerce in other states. Proposition 12 violates that doctrine, the pork producers argued in a legal filing, because it would increase costs for pig farmers, nearly all of whom are located outside California. While being the most populous U.S. state and an important market, California produces just 0.1% of the nation’s pork. “If you’re looking for an example of an unconstitutional law, this is it,” said Michael Formica, chief legal strategist for the pork producers. Proponents of the law disagree, saying California has the right to set standards for products sold to its consumers regardless of where these are produced. “There’s a long history of state laws that have to do with protecting public health, food safety and animal welfare,” said Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, which led the campaign to pass Proposition 12 and is a party in the case. “Producers have a choice if they want to sell products within the state’s borders that meet that standard.” The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s decision to throw out the lawsuit, finding no Commerce Clause violation. President Joe Biden’s administration has sided with the pork producers, saying in a Supreme Court brief that states cannot ban products “that pose no threat to public health or safety based on philosophical objections.” ‘DRAMATIC EXPANSION’ A ruling by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, favoring the pork industry would have major implications for Commerce Clause interpretation, according to some legal experts. The industry is “asking for a dramatic expansion of the doctrine in a way that would call into question all kinds of state laws,” lawyer Brian Frazelle of the Constitutional Accountability Center liberal advocacy group, which filed a brief in the case on behalf of law professors, told reporters in a conference call. Sixteen liberal U.S. senators, including both of California’s, had urged Biden’s administration to back the law. They wrote that a ruling endorsing the industry’s Commerce Clause position “could allow large, multi-state corporations to evade numerous state laws that focus on harms to their constituents, including those addressing wildlife trafficking, climate change, renewable energy, stolen property trafficking and labor abuses.” A group of 20 primarily Republican-governed states led by Indiana said in a brief that upholding Proposition 12 would undermine state sovereignty. Another group of 14 primarily Democratic-governed states and the District of Columbia, led by Illinois, said overturning it would undermine state authority to legislate. A ruling favoring pork producers could inspire more industry challenges to state regulations, according to Nandan Joshi, an attorney with the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which filed a brief supporting California. Pressed by animal welfare and consumer groups, many food and restaurant companies already have committed to phasing out small confinements for pigs and to buying or producing cage-free eggs. Proposition 12, passed with the support of about 63% of California voters, set the required space for breeding pigs, or sows, at 24 square feet (2.2 square meters). The current industry standard is between 14 and 20 square feet (1.3 to 1.9 square meters), according to a 2021 report from Dutch banking and financial services company Rabobank. The measure also increased the space required to house egg-laying hens and calves raised for veal. Top U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods, owned by Chinese company WH Group Ltd (0288.HK), said last year it plans to comply with the law. Kansas-based Seaboard Foods, the No. 2 U.S. pork producer, said this year it is was converting some of its production to achieve compliance. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by Will Dunham Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Leah Douglas Thomson Reuters Washington-based award-winning journalist covering agriculture and energy including competition, regulation, federal agencies, corporate consolidation, environment and climate, racial discrimination and labour, previously at the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Read More…

OPEC Cut Spurs U.S. Hedging – But Against Lower Oil Prices https://digitalalabamanews.com/opec-cut-spurs-u-s-hedging-but-against-lower-oil-prices/ A model of 3D printed oil barrels is seen in front of displayed stock graph going down in this illustration taken, December 1, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo NEW YORK, Oct 10 (Reuters) – The decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies last week to cut oil production has spurred a flurry of activity in the options market – but with more U.S. bettors opting for a bearish stance, data from CME Group showed. OPEC+, as the group is known, decided on Wednesday to cut its target by 2 million barrels per day (bpd), including voluntary production curbs by Saudi Arabia and other nations. Oil futures have risen over 7% since to five-week highs, as the move was seen as putting a floor under the market. However, the U.S. oil options market skewed toward buying of put options, used to either bet on or protect against downside movement. There are several reasons why this can happen, including worry about weaker demand, or because the cheapness of those options made it an opportune time for oil companies to buy to protect against downside. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “I would classify the put buying as hedges,” said Bob Iaccino, chief market strategist and co-founder of Path Trading Partners. “Demand is still expected to be weak and get weaker given the overall economic picture… so it’s just massive, massive hedging in case the downside develops.” Trading volumes for U.S. crude futures puts and calls for November delivery gained over 40% to Wednesday, the day of the OPEC+ meeting, from Tuesday, data from CME Group showed. Volume in puts rose to 25,615 for the U.S. crude futures November contract on Wednesday, 10,922 more than the during the previous session, CME Group said. By contrast, there were 19,473 call options – bets on a higher price – purchased that day. “The put-to-call skew actually moved out in favor of the put after the OPEC decision,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. On Thursday and Friday, volumes in puts totaled 15,579 and 25,771, respectively, while volumes in calls totaled 16,087 and 42,291, CME Group data showed. Trading spiked on Friday after the White House suggested last week it was reviewing its relationship with Saudi Arabia, and as it seeks ways to reduce OPEC’s control over energy prices. In the futures market, crude spreads widened on Friday, with near-term contracts rising at a faster rate than later-dated contracts. That signals renewed worry about current supply, which is more of a bullish indicator. “There is plenty of supply uncertainty going into 2023 and let’s also not forget that there is also a lot of demand uncertainty given the macro outlook,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities research at ING. The spread between international benchmark Brent expiring in December 2022 versus December 2023 climbed more than 12% to over $13 per barrel on Friday, highest since June, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Stephanie Kelly, Florence Tan and Noah Browning; editing by David Gaffen and Marguerita Choy Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Stephanie Kelly Thomson Reuters A New-York-based correspondent covering the U.S. crude market and member of the energy team since 2018 covering the oil and fuel markets as well as federal policy around renewable fuels. Read More…

Hudson Valley Judge Censured For Political Social Media Posts https://digitalalabamanews.com/hudson-valley-judge-censured-for-political-social-media-posts/ The world of Social Media is a strange place. We as people have the ability to at any point or time we choose, connect to hundreds and thousands of people with a couple of taps on a screen. While that may have some advantages, it also has some disadvantages as one Hudson Valley Judge recently found out for themselves. hands of business person working on computer Getty Images/iStockphoto loading… What We Know Recently, according to the Town of Lloyd Justice Terry Elia was found to be on the other end of a verdict by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for liking and sharing particularly charged social and political posts on LinkedIn. The Commission levied the penalty of “censure” against Judge Elia, which in relation to the courts, is the second greatest disciplinary action the, or any, commission can apply aside from removing the judge from the bench. Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian was quoted saying “A judge must be and appear impartial, or public confidence in the integrity of the courts may be compromised….”. Judge Elia agreed to the censure and issued this statement through his legal representation, “It is with a heavy heart that I accept the determination of the commission which noted that I am not trained as a lawyer, but that I made certain errors relating to my conduct in my private life (via social media and volunteer work) which may negatively impact the public’s perception of the judiciary. For that, I am very sorry.” Why This Is Serious This is not the first case of its kind and I’m sure it will not be the last. In this particular instance, the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct was undoubtedly correct in its verdict and punishment for Judge Elia. While I understand some people saying “well that was on his time, he wasn’t in court” and while that may be true, the fact of the matter is the Judge is an elected official, he is a public figure and part of this job, in particular, is knowing that you will be held to a different standard, especially for things you like and say whether they are on social media or not. In the case of being a judge, regardless of what side of the political or social spectrum you may reside on, the law and justice are supposed to be completely impartial. Having a judge or any public official openly indicate in one way or another where their own personal thoughts or feelings rest would give the interpretation by others that said official would be incapable of remaining impartial. In addition, Judge Elia agreeing with the Commission is also an indication that he recognizes the mistake he made. For full details regarding the story, I would encourage everyone to read it for themselves. Two Hidden Laws in New York State Two shocking laws that are somehow on the books in New York State. LOOK: What major laws were passed the year you were born? Data for this list was acquired from trusted online sources and news outlets. Read on to discover what major law was passed the year you were born and learn its name, the vote count (where relevant), and its impact and significance. Read More…

Former Auburn Star On Tuberville’s ‘reparation’ Remark: ‘Unnecessary, Dead Wrong, Ugly’ https://digitalalabamanews.com/former-auburn-star-on-tubervilles-reparation-remark-unnecessary-dead-wrong-ugly/ This is an opinion column. I’m not at all convinced Tommy Tuberville even knows the meaning of reparations. Not even in the context of the criminal justice system. Last Saturday, our junior senator (God help us) spewed an inane and racist rant at a place where he felt safe doing so—a Donald Trump rally. Appearing before a frothy crowd gathered near Lake Tahoe to support Republican Adam Lexalt in a tight U.S. Senate battle with Nevada’s incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Tuberville took out the old Republican bullwhip of fear, fear of them. Democrats, he charged, “want reparation because they think the people who do the crime are owed that.” Then he popped off an insipid vulgarity. Related: Tuberville draws fire for ‘pro-crime reparations comment. Here’s one truth about reparations: Those convicted of crimes are often ordered to pay financial recompense to victims, not receive them—an insane idea I’ve heard no one, from either political party, espouse. Related: Tuberville: Democrats want ‘reparation’ for ‘people who do the crime’ Here’s another one: Reparations is about righting a wrong, about, as before stated, compensating victims for crimes perpetrated against them. Related: Alabama leader reactions to Tuberville: ‘The bull**** is that this guy is a U.S. Senator’ We’ll converse and debate at another time on whether (how) America should pay reparations to African Americans for its greatest crimes—the enslavement and murder of more Black people than will ever be counted in the founding and building of this nation; the government-sanctioned bombings and burning of generations of Back businesses; the plethora of never-prosecuted massacres of people striving for something as noble as freedom or as simple as voting. The discussion would most likely fly right over Tuberville’s head anyway. U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., is introduced at a rally for former President Donald Trump at the Minden Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nev., Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. Tuberville says that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.” (AP Photo/Jose Luis Villegas)AP Though the man, the ex-football coach, knows reparations. In 2008, following an abysmal 5-7 season at Auburn, Tuberville received $5 million after quitting. He then landed a squishy $250,000-a-year (plus benefits) gig as a special assistant to the university president, which he later admitted under sworn deposition, came with no office. He also qualified, after ten seasons at Auburn, for a state retirement pension. Based on disclosures previously reported by my colleague Kyle Whitmire, he annually receives $57,638 from Retirement Systems of Alabama. Now, that’s reparations gone wrong. Karlos Dansby was an All-America linebacker for Tuberville at Auburn before playing 14 stellar seasons for Arizona, Miami, and Cleveland in the National Football League—one of dozens upon dozens of Black men upon whom Tuberville earned upwards of $25 million as a college head coach. “What [Tuberville] said was unnecessary, dead wrong, ugly,” Dansby told me Monday. “But that’s where he stands right now. I guess it’s a game within the game that’s being played. He just took it to the extreme and it turned a lot of people sour. But you can’t put nothing past politicians; you never know what their end goal is. No excuse for that, though; just uncalled for. If that’s his true view, that’s his true view, but ain’t nothing right about it. Ain’t nothing right about what he said. “He’s playing in that in that field, man. I can’t get in that field. That ain’t where I’m at.” Dansby wasn’t aware that just recently, Tuberville, along with other members of Alabama’s congressional delegation, connected with Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin, members of his administration, and a few city councilors in Washington, D.C. as a means of bridge-building with Tuberville poised to become the state’s senior U.S. Senator upon the retirement of Sen. Richard Shelby. Related: With sights set on federal millions, Birmingham leaders court Alabama Republicans at Black Caucus “Wow, bro,” he said. “Wow. I can’t explain him. If that’s what you truly feel, you’ve got to stand on that. You got to stand on it every day. You can’t waver. You can’t go take a picture with some Black guys and then have that kind of conversation. You can’t do that; you’re a hypocrite.” I trust Tuberville is familiar with that meaning. More columns by Roy S. Johnson Alabam’s SCOTUS lawyer gets critical race history lesson, courtesy Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson If Brett Favre is sacked by the Mississippi welfare scandal, this one could really hurt Alabamians are struggling to eat; state officials must ensure all are fed. Gov. Ron DeSantis’s people-as-pawns stunt backfired; it showed our humanity If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Lane Kiffin’s Answer To Coaching Amid Hot-Seat Rumors As It Relates To Bryan Harsin Is Pure Kiffin https://digitalalabamanews.com/lane-kiffins-answer-to-coaching-amid-hot-seat-rumors-as-it-relates-to-bryan-harsin-is-pure-kiffin/ Auburn Football Published: Oct. 10, 2022, 3:30 p.m. OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI – SEPTEMBER 03: head coach Lane Kiffin of the Mississippi Rebels during the game against the Troy Trojans at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 03, 2022 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Justin Ford/Getty Images)Getty Images Only Lane Kiffin, man. The Ole Miss coach was in top form Monday when asked about dealing with hot-seat rumors as a coach. The topic seems relevant as his No. 9 Rebels face Auburn and coach Bryan Harsin, who has been the target of hot-seat talk for weeks. “Well, I didn’t do very good,” Kiffin deadpanned. “I got fired after five games, so I’m probably not the one to ask how to do that. I was 3-2, so I’m probably not the right one to ask that.” Kiffin, the former Alabama offensive coordinator, was notoriously fired in 2013 on an airport tarmac in Los Angeles by USC officials. He has certainly referred to the firing over the years. Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0 SEC) and Auburn (3-3, 1-2) play Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN. The game will be live streamed on fuboTV (free trial). Jaxson Dart threw for a career-high 448 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday as Ole Miss overcame a 10-point deficit in routing Vanderbilt 52-28 for its first 6-0 start since 2014. The Rebels won their fourth straight in the series after trailing 20-10 in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Stetson Bennett raced 64 yards for a touchdown, Daijun Edwards scored three times on the ground and No. 2 Georgia ran over Auburn 42-10 last week. Robby Ashford was 13 for 38 for 168 yards while frequently scrambling to elude pressure for the Tigers. Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

US Forecast https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-forecast-67/ City/Town, State;Yesterday’s High Temp (F);Yesterday’s Low Temp (F);Today’s High Temp (F);Today’s Low Temp (F);Weather Condition;Wind Direction;Wind Speed (MPH);Humidity (%);Chance of Precip. (%);UV Index Albany, NY;60;37;66;46;Sunshine;SSE;6;65%;2%;4 Albuquerque, NM;68;51;73;52;Partly sunny, nice;SW;8;44%;0%;5 Anchorage, AK;40;29;41;27;Rather cloudy;ENE;5;68%;31%;1 Asheville, NC;68;45;68;54;Nice with some sun;SE;7;71%;17%;4 Atlanta, GA;75;53;74;60;Partly sunny;ESE;7;72%;26%;3 Atlantic City, NJ;68;49;70;53;Mostly sunny;SW;9;57%;2%;4 Austin, TX;90;65;89;67;Warm with sunshine;S;6;57%;3%;5 Baltimore, MD;70;50;73;54;Sunny and pleasant;S;5;49%;1%;4 Baton Rouge, LA;85;56;85;64;Plenty of sun;ESE;7;47%;58%;5 Billings, MT;78;50;61;44;Cooler;WSW;11;46%;65%;3 Birmingham, AL;76;49;81;62;Plenty of sunshine;SE;7;54%;12%;5 Bismarck, ND;73;43;67;39;Partly sunny, windy;W;17;51%;50%;2 Boise, ID;79;49;74;43;Sunny and pleasant;NNE;10;35%;0%;4 Boston, MA;64;45;65;51;Sunny;SSW;6;53%;1%;4 Bridgeport, CT;68;46;68;49;Plenty of sun;SW;6;58%;4%;4 Buffalo, NY;61;45;68;52;Breezy in the p.m.;S;11;56%;29%;4 Burlington, VT;55;37;62;47;Mostly sunny;SSE;9;57%;7%;3 Caribou, ME;51;29;56;36;Partly sunny;SW;8;55%;7%;3 Casper, WY;76;45;61;36;Cooler;SSW;15;39%;71%;4 Charleston, SC;81;64;75;68;Humid with a shower;ENE;11;79%;55%;2 Charleston, WV;70;41;75;51;Partly sunny, nice;SE;5;61%;1%;4 Charlotte, NC;73;52;73;58;Nice with some sun;ESE;6;69%;17%;4 Cheyenne, WY;73;47;66;37;Breezy, not as warm;NNW;17;31%;54%;3 Chicago, IL;71;55;72;58;Breezy and warm;S;15;60%;89%;3 Cleveland, OH;63;53;72;56;Mostly sunny;S;10;52%;81%;4 Columbia, SC;72;58;73;62;Periods of sun, nice;ENE;6;70%;27%;2 Columbus, OH;70;44;72;53;Partly sunny, nice;SSE;8;53%;26%;4 Concord, NH;54;33;64;39;Sunny and milder;SW;7;61%;2%;4 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX;85;67;86;69;Mostly sunny, warm;S;12;49%;30%;5 Denver, CO;77;49;75;41;Mostly sunny;NNE;9;25%;12%;4 Des Moines, IA;77;58;80;54;Clouds and sun, warm;SSW;18;62%;96%;4 Detroit, MI;67;49;73;57;Breezy in the p.m.;S;11;51%;84%;4 Dodge City, KS;79;55;86;47;Mostly sunny, breezy;SSW;18;45%;55%;4 Duluth, MN;59;47;71;50;A p.m. thunderstorm;SW;11;69%;91%;3 El Paso, TX;75;56;79;57;Partly sunny;W;6;52%;0%;5 Fairbanks, AK;37;17;33;20;An afternoon flurry;S;5;73%;66%;0 Fargo, ND;68;49;77;40;A stray p.m. shower;WNW;15;49%;55%;3 Grand Junction, CO;73;48;78;44;Mostly sunny, nice;N;10;33%;0%;4 Grand Rapids, MI;66;45;74;57;A shower in the p.m.;S;11;57%;91%;4 Hartford, CT;68;43;68;47;Plenty of sunshine;S;5;57%;3%;4 Helena, MT;73;47;64;44;Cooler;WSW;9;51%;57%;3 Honolulu, HI;87;73;85;74;A couple of showers;E;6;77%;99%;2 Houston, TX;86;65;86;70;Mostly sunny;SE;8;61%;17%;5 Indianapolis, IN;74;50;72;58;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;8;53%;44%;3 Jackson, MS;82;52;83;59;Mostly sunny;SE;6;42%;11%;5 Jacksonville, FL;84;69;82;70;A stray shower;NE;10;77%;55%;4 Juneau, AK;50;46;52;46;A couple of showers;SSW;9;86%;98%;0 Kansas City, MO;80;63;79;58;A t-shower in spots;SSW;14;64%;99%;2 Knoxville, TN;72;44;76;54;Partly sunny;ESE;4;58%;8%;5 Las Vegas, NV;89;65;91;65;Mostly sunny;NNW;6;27%;0%;5 Lexington, KY;72;44;76;57;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;8;51%;5%;4 Little Rock, AR;85;59;86;60;Partial sunshine;S;8;48%;13%;5 Long Beach, CA;76;65;75;64;Partly sunny;WSW;6;72%;25%;4 Los Angeles, CA;78;63;76;62;Partly sunny, nice;SW;7;81%;23%;4 Louisville, KY;75;48;79;61;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;7;47%;5%;4 Madison, WI;67;49;73;58;Breezy;S;14;62%;86%;3 Memphis, TN;83;60;84;62;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;8;39%;11%;5 Miami, FL;88;79;88;79;A t-storm in spots;ENE;10;72%;73%;3 Milwaukee, WI;62;51;71;60;Breezy;S;14;63%;40%;4 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN;70;53;79;50;Warm, a p.m. t-storm;SW;15;54%;91%;3 Mobile, AL;82;54;83;68;Sunny and pleasant;SE;7;48%;59%;5 Montgomery, AL;78;49;82;61;Partly sunny;ESE;7;54%;17%;5 Mt. Washington, NH;30;20;36;33;Very windy;WNW;33;63%;7%;4 Nashville, TN;75;45;81;60;Partly sunny;SSE;7;48%;7%;4 New Orleans, LA;81;64;83;70;Mostly sunny;ESE;10;49%;57%;5 New York, NY;68;50;70;54;Abundant sunshine;SW;7;51%;3%;4 Newark, NJ;69;47;71;50;Sunny and nice;SW;6;53%;4%;4 Norfolk, VA;72;48;71;52;Mostly sunny;SE;6;56%;0%;4 Oklahoma City, OK;75;60;79;63;Increasingly windy;S;16;68%;55%;4 Olympia, WA;69;46;68;40;Turning sunny, nice;NNE;5;71%;5%;3 Omaha, NE;79;57;85;50;Partly sunny, warm;WSW;19;54%;83%;4 Orlando, FL;87;74;87;74;A stray t-shower;E;7;75%;49%;3 Philadelphia, PA;69;49;72;53;Abundant sunshine;SW;6;51%;4%;4 Phoenix, AZ;91;71;92;70;Partly sunny;NNE;5;32%;0%;5 Pittsburgh, PA;69;46;72;51;Sun, some clouds;SE;6;52%;2%;4 Portland, ME;53;38;60;43;Mostly sunny;SW;7;61%;1%;4 Portland, OR;75;50;71;48;Nice with sunshine;N;6;63%;5%;3 Providence, RI;66;43;66;48;Sunny;SSW;5;53%;1%;4 Raleigh, NC;72;48;73;54;Periods of sun, nice;ESE;5;63%;1%;5 Reno, NV;80;46;81;44;Sunny and warm;W;5;27%;0%;4 Richmond, VA;69;42;74;49;Mostly sunny;SSE;5;52%;0%;4 Roswell, NM;70;53;82;54;Partly sunny, warmer;W;7;53%;3%;5 Sacramento, CA;91;54;90;55;Sunshine;S;5;42%;1%;4 Salt Lake City, UT;80;55;78;49;Sunshine and warm;ESE;8;27%;0%;4 San Antonio, TX;88;66;88;69;Clouds and sun, warm;SSE;7;59%;3%;6 San Diego, CA;71;66;73;66;Partly sunny, nice;NW;8;78%;17%;4 San Francisco, CA;69;54;67;55;Some sun;WSW;10;73%;1%;4 Savannah, GA;81;64;78;67;Humid with a shower;NE;9;85%;56%;2 Seattle-Tacoma, WA;69;52;67;50;Turning sunny;NNE;8;61%;6%;3 Sioux Falls, SD;77;54;82;44;Winds subsiding;NW;16;48%;17%;4 Spokane, WA;76;46;72;43;Sunny and nice;SSW;7;46%;1%;3 Springfield, IL;78;54;66;58;Showers, not as warm;S;14;78%;99%;1 St. Louis, MO;81;58;71;59;Showers, not as warm;S;8;73%;99%;1 Tampa, FL;91;73;90;74;A t-storm around;ENE;7;76%;48%;4 Toledo, OH;69;48;74;55;Partly sunny, warm;SSW;9;51%;65%;4 Tucson, AZ;83;63;86;63;Partly sunny;E;6;40%;0%;5 Tulsa, OK;73;63;79;65;A shower in spots;S;11;61%;65%;2 Vero Beach, FL;89;73;87;75;A t-shower in spots;E;8;73%;49%;5 Washington, DC;70;47;72;51;Mostly sunny;S;6;53%;0%;4 Wichita, KS;81;61;83;56;Windy;S;20;59%;88%;4 Wilmington, DE;69;46;72;49;Sunny and pleasant;SSW;7;55%;3%;4 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Read More…

US Forecast https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-forecast-66/ City/Town, State;Yesterday’s High Temp (F);Yesterday’s Low Temp (F);Today’s High Temp (F);Today’s Low Temp (F);Weather Condition;Wind Direction;Wind Speed (MPH);Humidity (%);Chance of Precip. (%);UV Index Albany, NY;60;37;66;46;Sunshine;SSE;6;65%;2%;4 Albuquerque, NM;68;51;73;52;Partly sunny, nice;SW;8;44%;0%;5 Anchorage, AK;40;29;41;27;Rather cloudy;ENE;5;68%;31%;1 Asheville, NC;68;45;68;54;Nice with some sun;SE;7;71%;17%;4 Atlanta, GA;75;53;74;60;Partly sunny;ESE;7;72%;26%;3 Atlantic City, NJ;68;49;70;53;Mostly sunny;SW;9;57%;2%;4 Austin, TX;90;65;89;67;Warm with sunshine;S;6;57%;3%;5 Baltimore, MD;70;50;73;54;Sunny and pleasant;S;5;49%;1%;4 Baton Rouge, LA;85;56;85;64;Plenty of sun;ESE;7;47%;58%;5 Billings, MT;78;50;61;44;Cooler;WSW;11;46%;65%;3 Birmingham, AL;76;49;81;62;Plenty of sunshine;SE;7;54%;12%;5 Bismarck, ND;73;43;67;39;Partly sunny, windy;W;17;51%;50%;2 Boise, ID;79;49;74;43;Sunny and pleasant;NNE;10;35%;0%;4 Boston, MA;64;45;65;51;Sunny;SSW;6;53%;1%;4 Bridgeport, CT;68;46;68;49;Plenty of sun;SW;6;58%;4%;4 Buffalo, NY;61;45;68;52;Breezy in the p.m.;S;11;56%;29%;4 Burlington, VT;55;37;62;47;Mostly sunny;SSE;9;57%;7%;3 Caribou, ME;51;29;56;36;Partly sunny;SW;8;55%;7%;3 Casper, WY;76;45;61;36;Cooler;SSW;15;39%;71%;4 Charleston, SC;81;64;75;68;Humid with a shower;ENE;11;79%;55%;2 Charleston, WV;70;41;75;51;Partly sunny, nice;SE;5;61%;1%;4 Charlotte, NC;73;52;73;58;Nice with some sun;ESE;6;69%;17%;4 Cheyenne, WY;73;47;66;37;Breezy, not as warm;NNW;17;31%;54%;3 Chicago, IL;71;55;72;58;Breezy and warm;S;15;60%;89%;3 Cleveland, OH;63;53;72;56;Mostly sunny;S;10;52%;81%;4 Columbia, SC;72;58;73;62;Periods of sun, nice;ENE;6;70%;27%;2 Columbus, OH;70;44;72;53;Partly sunny, nice;SSE;8;53%;26%;4 Concord, NH;54;33;64;39;Sunny and milder;SW;7;61%;2%;4 Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX;85;67;86;69;Mostly sunny, warm;S;12;49%;30%;5 Denver, CO;77;49;75;41;Mostly sunny;NNE;9;25%;12%;4 Des Moines, IA;77;58;80;54;Clouds and sun, warm;SSW;18;62%;96%;4 Detroit, MI;67;49;73;57;Breezy in the p.m.;S;11;51%;84%;4 Dodge City, KS;79;55;86;47;Mostly sunny, breezy;SSW;18;45%;55%;4 Duluth, MN;59;47;71;50;A p.m. thunderstorm;SW;11;69%;91%;3 El Paso, TX;75;56;79;57;Partly sunny;W;6;52%;0%;5 Fairbanks, AK;37;17;33;20;An afternoon flurry;S;5;73%;66%;0 Fargo, ND;68;49;77;40;A stray p.m. shower;WNW;15;49%;55%;3 Grand Junction, CO;73;48;78;44;Mostly sunny, nice;N;10;33%;0%;4 Grand Rapids, MI;66;45;74;57;A shower in the p.m.;S;11;57%;91%;4 Hartford, CT;68;43;68;47;Plenty of sunshine;S;5;57%;3%;4 Helena, MT;73;47;64;44;Cooler;WSW;9;51%;57%;3 Honolulu, HI;87;73;85;74;A couple of showers;E;6;77%;99%;2 Houston, TX;86;65;86;70;Mostly sunny;SE;8;61%;17%;5 Indianapolis, IN;74;50;72;58;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;8;53%;44%;3 Jackson, MS;82;52;83;59;Mostly sunny;SE;6;42%;11%;5 Jacksonville, FL;84;69;82;70;A stray shower;NE;10;77%;55%;4 Juneau, AK;50;46;52;46;A couple of showers;SSW;9;86%;98%;0 Kansas City, MO;80;63;79;58;A t-shower in spots;SSW;14;64%;99%;2 Knoxville, TN;72;44;76;54;Partly sunny;ESE;4;58%;8%;5 Las Vegas, NV;89;65;91;65;Mostly sunny;NNW;6;27%;0%;5 Lexington, KY;72;44;76;57;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;8;51%;5%;4 Little Rock, AR;85;59;86;60;Partial sunshine;S;8;48%;13%;5 Long Beach, CA;76;65;75;64;Partly sunny;WSW;6;72%;25%;4 Los Angeles, CA;78;63;76;62;Partly sunny, nice;SW;7;81%;23%;4 Louisville, KY;75;48;79;61;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;7;47%;5%;4 Madison, WI;67;49;73;58;Breezy;S;14;62%;86%;3 Memphis, TN;83;60;84;62;Partly sunny, warm;SSE;8;39%;11%;5 Miami, FL;88;79;88;79;A t-storm in spots;ENE;10;72%;73%;3 Milwaukee, WI;62;51;71;60;Breezy;S;14;63%;40%;4 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN;70;53;79;50;Warm, a p.m. t-storm;SW;15;54%;91%;3 Mobile, AL;82;54;83;68;Sunny and pleasant;SE;7;48%;59%;5 Montgomery, AL;78;49;82;61;Partly sunny;ESE;7;54%;17%;5 Mt. Washington, NH;30;20;36;33;Very windy;WNW;33;63%;7%;4 Nashville, TN;75;45;81;60;Partly sunny;SSE;7;48%;7%;4 New Orleans, LA;81;64;83;70;Mostly sunny;ESE;10;49%;57%;5 New York, NY;68;50;70;54;Abundant sunshine;SW;7;51%;3%;4 Newark, NJ;69;47;71;50;Sunny and nice;SW;6;53%;4%;4 Norfolk, VA;72;48;71;52;Mostly sunny;SE;6;56%;0%;4 Oklahoma City, OK;75;60;79;63;Increasingly windy;S;16;68%;55%;4 Olympia, WA;69;46;68;40;Turning sunny, nice;NNE;5;71%;5%;3 Omaha, NE;79;57;85;50;Partly sunny, warm;WSW;19;54%;83%;4 Orlando, FL;87;74;87;74;A stray t-shower;E;7;75%;49%;3 Philadelphia, PA;69;49;72;53;Abundant sunshine;SW;6;51%;4%;4 Phoenix, AZ;91;71;92;70;Partly sunny;NNE;5;32%;0%;5 Pittsburgh, PA;69;46;72;51;Sun, some clouds;SE;6;52%;2%;4 Portland, ME;53;38;60;43;Mostly sunny;SW;7;61%;1%;4 Portland, OR;75;50;71;48;Nice with sunshine;N;6;63%;5%;3 Providence, RI;66;43;66;48;Sunny;SSW;5;53%;1%;4 Raleigh, NC;72;48;73;54;Periods of sun, nice;ESE;5;63%;1%;5 Reno, NV;80;46;81;44;Sunny and warm;W;5;27%;0%;4 Richmond, VA;69;42;74;49;Mostly sunny;SSE;5;52%;0%;4 Roswell, NM;70;53;82;54;Partly sunny, warmer;W;7;53%;3%;5 Sacramento, CA;91;54;90;55;Sunshine;S;5;42%;1%;4 Salt Lake City, UT;80;55;78;49;Sunshine and warm;ESE;8;27%;0%;4 San Antonio, TX;88;66;88;69;Clouds and sun, warm;SSE;7;59%;3%;6 San Diego, CA;71;66;73;66;Partly sunny, nice;NW;8;78%;17%;4 San Francisco, CA;69;54;67;55;Some sun;WSW;10;73%;1%;4 Savannah, GA;81;64;78;67;Humid with a shower;NE;9;85%;56%;2 Seattle-Tacoma, WA;69;52;67;50;Turning sunny;NNE;8;61%;6%;3 Sioux Falls, SD;77;54;82;44;Winds subsiding;NW;16;48%;17%;4 Spokane, WA;76;46;72;43;Sunny and nice;SSW;7;46%;1%;3 Springfield, IL;78;54;66;58;Showers, not as warm;S;14;78%;99%;1 St. Louis, MO;81;58;71;59;Showers, not as warm;S;8;73%;99%;1 Tampa, FL;91;73;90;74;A t-storm around;ENE;7;76%;48%;4 Toledo, OH;69;48;74;55;Partly sunny, warm;SSW;9;51%;65%;4 Tucson, AZ;83;63;86;63;Partly sunny;E;6;40%;0%;5 Tulsa, OK;73;63;79;65;A shower in spots;S;11;61%;65%;2 Vero Beach, FL;89;73;87;75;A t-shower in spots;E;8;73%;49%;5 Washington, DC;70;47;72;51;Mostly sunny;S;6;53%;0%;4 Wichita, KS;81;61;83;56;Windy;S;20;59%;88%;4 Wilmington, DE;69;46;72;49;Sunny and pleasant;SSW;7;55%;3%;4 _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather Read More…

Russian Missile Strikes On Kyiv And Other Cities Draw Angry Condemnation; Ukraine Will Halt Electricity Exports To EU https://digitalalabamanews.com/russian-missile-strikes-on-kyiv-and-other-cities-draw-angry-condemnation-ukraine-will-halt-electricity-exports-to-eu/ Zelenskyy says he spoke with Biden about Ukraine’s air defense “This week, the largest part of the reports is the list of settlements liberated from the enemy within the scope of our ongoing defensive operation. The story of the liberation of Lyman in the Donetsk region has now become the most popular in the media. But the successes of our soldiers are not limited to Lyman,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Valentyn Ogirenko | Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke to U.S. President Joe Biden following a mass attack on civilian targets in Ukrainian cities overnight by Russian missiles. “Had a productive conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden. The main topic of discussion was air defense. Currently, this is the number 1 priority in our defense cooperation,” Zelenskyy posted on his Telegram account. “America’s leadership with the G7’s tough stance and with support for our UN GA resolution is very important for Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy. In the wake of Russia’s overnight missile strikes on civilians in major Ukrainian cities, both U.S. and European officials are being forced to reconsider the complex issue of how to supply Ukraine with better air defenses. — Christina Wilkie Blinken calls on U.N. member states to unequivocally condemn Russia after missile strikes U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends the Informal Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affair in Berlin, Germany, May 15, 2022.  Kevin Lamarque | Reuters U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on nations around the world to drop their long-held positions of diplomatic neutrality over Russia’s war in Ukraine, following Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities overnight. “Now is the time to speak out in support for Ukraine; it is not the time for abstentions, placating words, or equivocations under claims of neutrality,” Blinken said in a statement. “Russia’s attacks are yet another reminder that its war against Ukraine presents a profound moral issue,” he added. Blinken’s statement came as the U.N. General Assembly convened in New York to begin debate on a resolution condemning Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Ahead of the meeting, American and European officials have been engaged in a major lobbying effort to shore up votes in the General Assembly for the resolution. In March of this year, 141 out of the 193 U.N. member states voted in favor of a resolution calling on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine. Five members voted against the resolution, while another 35 abstained. The number of abstentions in March were widely seen as a measure of Russia’s political and financial clout, with countries abstaining in part so as not to risk creating a rift with Moscow. — Rocio Fabbro U.K. stands ‘wholeheartedly behind president Zelenskyy and Ukraine,’ Britain’s Truss says British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took office in September, has announced a sweeping program of economic reforms. David Dee Delgado | Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke with British Prime Minister Liz Truss and told her that he is counting on the U.K.’s leadership as Russia’s war shows no apparent signs of stopping. “We count on the U.K.’s leadership in consolidating international political and defense support for Ukraine, particularly regarding the protection of our skies. And also in the further isolation of Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter. The British government confirmed the call in a separate readout saying Truss told Zelenskyy that the U.K. “stands wholeheartedly behind president Zelenskyy and Ukraine.” “She strongly condemned Putin’s appalling attacks on civilian areas in Kyiv and elsewhere today. The Prime Minister said that these are a sign of Ukrainian success and increasing desperation by Putin in response,” the U.K. readout added. The two leaders are expected to speak again on Tuesday during a virtual meeting of G7 leaders. — Amanda Macias Defense secretary Austin heads to NATO this week to discuss war in Ukraine U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group at the U.S. military’s Ramstein air base on September 08, 2022 in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany. Thomas Niedermueller | Getty Images News | Getty Images Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to Brussels this week to participate in the NATO Defense Ministerial meeting at the alliance’s headquarters. The defense ministers of Finland and Sweden will join the NATO summit as invitees as they await their accession into the military alliance. Following the NATO ministerial, Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley will hold an in-person meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on Oct 12. The meeting of defense ministers and chiefs from 50 nations will be the sixth since the group was formed in April. — Amanda Macias Russian missile strikes killed 11 people and injured at least 89, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service says Smoke rises over the city after a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine October 10, 2022. Yaroslav Debelyi | Reuters Russian missile strikes have killed 11 people and injured at least 89 others, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service in a telegram post, providing the latest figures on the human toll of the multi-city attacks. Additionally, the SES said 35 residential buildings were damaged and critical infrastructure – including power and water supply systems – in 12 regions and the city of Kyiv were struck. This resulted in over 30 fires. Electricity supply remained disrupted late Monday in 15 regions: Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy, Ternopil and in the city of Kyiv. The Ukrainian SES also said it was offering psychological support to victims at shelters, “paying special attention to children and the elderly.” — Rocio Fabbro Ukrainian energy ministry to halt electricity exports to EU after Russian missile strikes Russian military vehicles escort a motorcade transporting the International Atomic Energy Agency expert mission while leaving the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Sept. 1, 2022. Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters The Ukrainian energy ministry said it will halt exports of electricity to the European Union following Russian missile strikes on energy infrastructure. “Today’s missile strikes, which hit the thermal generation and electrical substations, forced Ukraine to suspend electricity exports from Oct. 11, 2022 to stabilize its own energy system,” the ministry said in a statement on its website. Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Halushchenko said the attacks on the energy system were “the biggest during the entire war.” In a TV broadcast he said that missile strikes “on the entire chain of supply (were made) in order to make switching supply as difficult as possible.” In June, the Ukrainian energy ministry said by the end of the year it was hoping to bring in €1.5 billion (approximately $1.45 billion) from electricity exports to the EU, its main export market for energy since the war began. — Reuters Biden: Russian missile attacks show the ‘utter brutality’ of Putin’s war U.S. President Joe Biden pictured in London on September 18, 2022. Biden said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that U.S forces would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, his most explicit statement so far on the issue. Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images President Joe Biden responded to the Russian missile attacks, saying they “once again demonstrate the utter brutality of Mr. Putin’s illegal war on the Ukrainian people.” “We offer our condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were senselessly killed today, as well as our best wishes for the recovery of those who were wounded,” said Biden. “These attacks only further reinforce our commitment to stand with the people of Ukraine for as long as it takes. Alongside our allies and partners, we will continue to impose costs on Russia for its aggression, hold Putin and Russia accountable for its atrocities and war crimes, and provide the support necessary for Ukrainian forces to defend their country and their freedom,” he added. The statement came as high ranking members of Biden’s administration held calls with their Ukrainian counterparts about the strikes, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin prepared to travel to NATO meetings later this week. — Christina Wilkie Top Ukrainian officials speak with U.S. envoys and vow to hold Russia accountable Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Bridget Brink at a press conference. Pacific Press | Lightrocket | Getty Images Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he spoke with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink on the heels of Russian missile strikes across Ukrainian cities. “The United States condemns Russia’s attacks on the infrastructure facilities of Ukraine and is committed to holding Russia accountable for war crimes and atrocities committed in our country,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agreed that “Russia must not get away with its inhumane missile attacks on Ukraine.” “I raised a number of important issues, including the strengthening of Ukraine’s defense capabilities, new sanctions on Russia, and holding Moscow accountable for its terrorism,” Kuleba said of his conversation with Blinken. — Amanda Macias U.N. Secretary General ‘deeply shocked’ by Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian ci...

Artist Booth Applications Now Being Accepted For 2023 Druid City Arts Festival https://digitalalabamanews.com/artist-booth-applications-now-being-accepted-for-2023-druid-city-arts-festival/ TUSCALOOSA, AL — The City of Tuscaloosa is now taking applications for artist booths at the 2023 Druid City Arts Festival on Friday, March 31 and Saturday April 1, 2023. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts. The free, two-day festival will once again be held at Government Plaza in downtown Tuscaloosa and will highlight local artists and musicians. Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch. The window for artist booth applications will close Feb. 1, 2023. Click here for an application, which has a $25 non-refundable application fee. Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch. The festival aims to showcase work in a variety of areas, including: contemporary art and sculpture, contemporary craft, traditional/heritage craft and folk/self-taught artists. The City of Tuscaloosa say only original, handmade work may be displayed and sold at artist booths. Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you’re interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. The rules of replying: Be respectful. This is a space for friendly local discussions. No racist, discriminatory, vulgar or threatening language will be tolerated. Be transparent. Use your real name, and back up your claims. Keep it local and relevant. Make sure your replies stay on topic. Review the Patch Community Guidelines. Read More…

Winter Holiday Travel: Pounce Now On Flights Or Roll The Dice? https://digitalalabamanews.com/winter-holiday-travel-pounce-now-on-flights-or-roll-the-dice/ (CNN) — The high prices, the canceled flights, the booked-up lodging and rental cars. The summer of travel chaos still seems hot and fresh somehow. But it’s time to look forward, for there’s another crunch time looming less than two months away: the 2022 winter holiday travel season. So put away your T-shirts, break out your sweaters and get ready for the winter holidays. Here’s what to know: When should I buy tickets for winter holiday flights? Decision-making on when to buy airline tickets seems more complicated that ever. Prices change daily, even hourly. The staffing and capacity ramifications of the pandemic are still being felt. But October is probably the best window of opportunity. In other words, NOW. “Typically … travelers tend to start planning their holiday travel too late, and they miss out on some of the best prices available,” said Hayley Berg, lead economist at Hopper, the planning and booking travel app. And she told CNN Travel she is seeing people waiting later than ever to seal the deal during the pandemic rebound. “For the holidays in particular, that’s a real problem because now is actually the best time to be booking your Thanksgiving and Christmas travel,” Berg said. Hopper suggested in an email to wait no later than mid-October. It’s not just a pricing issue, Berg said. She also noted another risk by waiting: “Flights may be sold out completely on the dates you want to fly.” The worst time to book? ‘The last minute’ Scott Keyes, the founder of flight deals and travel advice site Scott’s Cheap Flights, told CNN Travel the very best deals were actually this past summer (remember that for 2023). But don’t be discouraged this year, he said. “The second best time to be booking your flights is now — because the worst time to book them is to wait until the last minute,” Keyes said. “If you haven’t booked those flights already and you’re really hoping to travel over the winter holidays, try to get it booked in the next week or two.” Keyes thinks air fares are likely to get more expensive, not less, as we get closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Phil Dengler, a co-owner of the travel resource The Vacationer, uses a popular fall holiday as his guide. “I view Halloween as the cutoff date for getting a reasonable price on a Thanksgiving flight, but aim to get booked before then,” Dengler said in an email interview. “After Halloween, prices will increase considerably as Thanksgiving gets closer. For Christmas flights, you should really book before Thanksgiving, but the best deals are between now and Halloween.” An Alaska Airlines flight arrives at Los Angeles International Airport on October 2. How you time your ticket purchase can depend on a lot of personal factors in addition to airline prices. AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images The auto and travel club AAA had different pricing data for Thanksgiving air fares. Based on booking data from 2019, 2021 and 2022 so far, AAA found the lowest average fares just seven to 14 days before Thanksgiving, with the highest prices 28 to 60 days before the holiday. However, the data also showed prices rising in the last seven days before the holiday. So should you wait? A lot depends on personal circumstances such as your budget and how flexible you are with your flying plans, AAA told CNN Travel. If you don’t have a lot of wiggle room, it might not be worth the risk to wait for a chance at a lower fare. “Airlines have fewer flights than they did in 2019, which means fewer options for consumers,” said AAA’s Paula Twidale, senior vice president of travel. “With staff shortages and capacity being at its peak, you run the risk of being delayed or even missing flights, particularly if weather plays into the equation.” What are the best days to fly for Thanksgiving? Expedia shared some insights on when to travel for Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 24): To save money, the travel company suggested waiting until Monday (November 21) to depart instead of Saturday (November 19) and Sunday (November 20), “as the weekend is the most expensive time to start your Thanksgiving week trip.” Average ticket prices for Monday are more than 30% lower than Saturday and nearly 15% cheaper than Wednesday (November 23), it said. As for returns, Expedia said Friday (November 25) is the cheapest date. Coming back Monday (November 28) instead of Sunday (November 27) could save from 5% to 10%. Hopper also suggests flying Thanksgiving Day if you can, offering savings of around $100 off peak prices. Plus planes should be less crowded. Keyes said the Thanksgiving weekend comes with a bonus. “Thanksgiving is the hidden best week for international travel,” Keyes said. Why is that? Christmas and New Year’s are celebrated worldwide and thus come with global demand, but Thanksgiving is just a US holiday, he said. Domestic flights are pricey, but not international ones. “You find some incredible deals all throughout Europe over Thanksgiving week.” He said that on one price check this week, he found cheaper fare from New York City to Lisbon, Portugal ($429 round-trip, than to Cedar Rapids, Iowa ($567 round-trip). What are the best days to fly for Christmas? Hopper had advice on when to travel for Christmas (Sunday, December 25): For departure, it said travelers can save $120 off peak prices by departing the Monday (December 19) or Tuesday (December 20) before Christmas. Leaving on Christmas Eve could save people about $100 this year, Hopper estimated. The site said avoid flying out Thursday (December 22) or Friday (December 23), as those will be the most expensive travel days. For returns, the Tuesday (December 27) or Wednesday (December 28) after Christmas Day could save you $40 per ticket. It said avoid coming back on Monday (December 26), New Year’s Day or January 2, the most expensive return dates. Some other tips from the experts Have your ducks in a row: “Preparation is the best way to reduce stress when flying over Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Dengler said. “If possible, book a nonstop flight early in the morning” on a lower-volume travel day. He also advised not checking a bag if possible. Treat yourself: If you fly several times a year or more and value a low stress level, Keyes suggested getting a credit card that includes “compelling perks.” That includes access to special airport lounges that get you away from the crowds and offer free food, drinks and even massages. Avoid the rush: If you’re driving, Twidale said leave early in the morning before rush hour or after 8 p.m. If you need a rental car, reserve it early to lock into the rate and pay in advance to save money. If you’re flying but driving to the airport, book parking spaces. She also suggested enrolling in TSA Pre-check to bypass long security lines. Hotels: Berg said if you’re headed to a big city (think New York, Chicago, etc.), you are likely to get a better deal if you wait until just a few days before your arrival date to book the room. The caveats: This is for people who aren’t dead set on a certain hotel or specific neighborhood. And for smaller cities, she said people should still book earlier as choices are limited. Top image: The United Airlines ticket counter at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on Christmas Eve 2021. (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Read More…

PolitiFact – No, Elon Musk Has Not Given Donald Trump His Twitter Account Back https://digitalalabamanews.com/politifact-no-elon-musk-has-not-given-donald-trump-his-twitter-account-back/ Stand up for the facts! Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info I would like to contribute No, Elon Musk has not given Donald Trump his Twitter account back If Your Time is short Former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account remained suspended as of Oct. 10, 2022. Elon Musk has indicated he plans to follow through with buying Twitter, but the deal has not yet been finalized. Billionaire Elon Musk has changed his mind once again on a potential Twitter deal, indicating Oct. 4 that he intended to buy the social media platform for his original offer price of about $44 billion. While the deal has not yet been finalized, some on social media claimed Musk has already made big changes. “Donald Trump is back on Twitter and he made sure to thank Elon Musk,” claimed two Facebook posts shared Oct. 9. The posts included a screenshot of a supposed tweet from the former president that said, “Thank you Elon Musk, I’m Back!!” These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned Trump from the platform for violating its policies against inciting violence. Before the ban, Trump had also repeatedly used his Twitter account to widely spread misinformation about the 2020 election. Musk has criticized Twitter’s decision to ban anyone other than spam accounts and “those that explicitly advocate violence” from the platform. In May, he pledged to reverse the ban on Trump’s account, saying it was “a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme.” However, Musk has not taken over ownership of the social media platform yet. And as of Oct. 10, Trump’s Twitter account @realDonaldTrump was still suspended. No record of the tweet used to claim Trump is back on Twitter could be found on the platform. The account that apparently sent the tweet is @realDonJTru, which is not an official account for the former president. We rate this claim False. Facebook post, Oct. 9, 2022 Facebook post, Oct. 9, 2022 Twitter, @realDonaldTrump, accessed Oct. 10, 2022 Twitter, @realDonJTru, accessed Oct. 10, 2022 Twitter advanced search for tweet in claim, Oct. 10, 2022 Twitter, “Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump,” Jan. 8, 2021 The New York Times, “Elon Musk Suggests Buying Twitter at His Original Price,” Oct. 4, 2022 NPR, “Here’s what Elon Musk will likely do with Twitter if he buys it,” Oct. 7, 2022 NPR, “Elon Musk says he’ll reverse Donald Trump Twitter ban,” May 10, 2022 In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. Sign me up Read More…

Robby Ashford Learns Tough Lessons From The 42-10 Georgia Loss https://digitalalabamanews.com/robby-ashford-learns-tough-lessons-from-the-42-10-georgia-loss/ Robby Ashford’s third start as Auburn’s quarterback had several twists and turns in a 42-10 loss against No. 2 Georgia at Sanford Stadium. Ashford threw for 165 yards on 13 out of 38 passing attempts against the Bulldogs. Completing less than 40% of your passes isn’t ideal as a quarterback. However, several of the incompletions were throws out-of-bounds on third down when Georgia’s defensive line pressured the Tigers’ offensive line, and the Bulldogs’ secondary blanketed the Tigers’ receivers. Georgia didn’t record a sack against Auburn mainly because Ashford scrambled for a team-leading 50 rushing yards and the throwaways. Extending plays with his legs and better decision-making could create a bright future for the Hoover High alum on the Plains. Read More Auburn Football: Takeaways and impactful plays from Auburn’s 42-10 loss at No. 2 Georgia Bryan Harsin ‘freaking frustrated’ by miscues in loss at No. 2 Georgia Rewinding Auburn’s blowout 42-10 loss vs No. 2 Georgia “I’ve seen from him, too, like, when everybody’s covered, he can pull it down and go make plays. He did that in the last game,” Harsin said. “We knew that would be a thing that would hurt Georgia, and really any defense too, when you’ve got a guy where everybody’s covered, he can pull it down and make some plays with his legs. We saw that from both sides. Robby did it, and we saw it from Stetson. He was able to do some things with his feet as well. So that has helped us. And now it’s just, not just him, but it’s everybody, right?” As unfortunate twists of fate go, one of Ashford’s better running attempts ended in disaster. He fumbled during Auburn’s first trip past the 50-yard line on offense with the Tiger down 14-0 in the second quarter. Ball security has been an issue for Ashford and Auburn, as reflected by the team’s -9 turnover ratio. ‘You carry a football a certain way, and as a quarterback, you’re going to palm the ball for a minute because you’re trying to throw the ball,” Harsin said. “At some point, you’re going to tuck it away. And there’s that transition where you’re going to go from palming the ball because now you’re moving. After all, you might throw it, so you still have that grip, to then you’re going to tuck it and become a runner. And just in between that transition is where the ball came out, right? I don’t think he’s trying to be careless with it.” Life doesn’t get easier for Auburn. The Tigers travel to Oxford for Saturday’s game against No. 9 Ole Miss. Auburn’s last win against a ranked opponent was last October 30th against the Rebels at Jordan-Hare. Auburn is 13-2 at Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium. If the Tigers extend the six-game win streak against the Rebels, they’ll need Ashford to continue improving decision-making and developing plays. “I think he’s made some good decisions there. And even in the last game, too, there was a couple of times he threw the ball away,” Harsin said. “That’s not a bad choice, alright, when he was out there. It wasn’t a bad decision. Because there was nothing there. And he was going to lose yards. Even sometimes (when) things don’t go well, that decision, nobody likes it, but it’s still the right decision. And so, more experience helps guys just be better at those things.” If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

‘Our Bubble Has Been Burst’: Older Storm Victims Face An Uncertain Future https://digitalalabamanews.com/our-bubble-has-been-burst-older-storm-victims-face-an-uncertain-future/ FORT MYERS, Fla. — More than two decades ago, Jane and Del Compton stumbled upon Fort Myers while on vacation in southwest Florida. This was where they would retire, they decided on the spot, in a place where they could grow old in peace and sunshine. They bought a double lot with a mobile home and a few small luxuries: a fan with a remote and his-and-hers televisions so she could follow her soap operas and he could watch cowboy shows. But Hurricane Ian ravaged their piece of paradise, soaking the photos from four decades of marriage, destroying their car and leaving them without a place to live. They had no homeowner’s insurance; their policy was canceled in June because of the age of their home, a 1978 model. Now the Comptons — she at 77, he at 81 — are resigned to abandoning their retirement dream. They will return to their native Louisville, Ky., in the coming weeks to stay with their daughter and figure out their next steps, though they are loath to leave their beloved church community and friends. Spending their twilight years in Florida seems suddenly out of reach. “We have talked about it, we have argued about it, we have screamed about it, we have cried about it,” said Ms. Compton, sitting outside the church where the couple has stayed with the one box of sentimental treasures they managed to salvage. “Our bubble has been burst.” Official tallies of deaths related to the storm suggest that older Americans died in disproportionate numbers: Of the 87 victims (out of 123 overall in the United States) for whom an age or approximate age has been released, 61 of them were at least 60 years old. Many victims were found dead at their homes. But Ian not only killed more older people; it also created uniquely wrenching situations for those who survived. Even if they can afford to rebuild, those people may not have the time or energy required for such a difficult task and the prospect of tighter building codes might make that more expensive than ever. Many, like the Comptons, live on fixed incomes, lack flood insurance or purchased their homes before the housing boom of the last decade, when the region was far more affordable. Recapturing their paradise may not be possible — a cruel and abrupt blow. Image Some residents of Pine Island, on Florida’s southwestern Gulf Coast, were taken to the mainland after Hurricane Ian.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York Times Image Hurricane Ian destroyed many of the homes on Pine Island.Credit…Hilary Swift for The New York Times In interviews, several residents said they had defiantly ridden out the storm in the homes they had poured their savings into, partly to ensure they could easily begin cleaning up the damage. Richard Hoyle, 75, moved with his wife to Pine Island, near Fort Myers, in December, after she asked to move to the region from the mountains of Tennessee. He had insisted that they stay through the hurricane, but the storm surge lapped the second flight of stairs to their home, and they watched boats fly across the canal in winds that topped 150 miles per hour. “We’d already decided, this is our retirement home, and we’ll stay and fight for it,” said Mr. Hoyle, a former Marine and firefighter. “I’m glad that we stayed — some battles are worth fighting.” Likewise, Garland Roach, 79, said he had no intention of leaving his badly damaged home in a modest neighborhood of North Fort Myers, where the lone palm tree in his front yard was now surrounded by drain pipes, siding and other debris. “My daughter wants me to come back to Ohio, and I told her I would in my ashes,” he said, adding that he was hoping the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the National Guard would provide a tarp for his mangled roof. “I couldn’t last another winter up there with my arthritis.” Image Richard Hoyle, 75, who rode out the storm on Pine Island with his wife, is committed to staying. Credit…Callaghan O’Hare for The New York Times Two deaths from the storm, Florida officials said, were men in their 70s who shot themselves after seeing the destruction to their property. “I think it’s a breaking point for a lot of people,” said Carol Freeman, 75, pausing as she cleaned the muddied floor of her home on Pine Island, which was ravaged by the storm. Since the hurricane, Ms. Freeman, a retired postal worker who lives with her parrot, Jose, had been without power, forced to use baby wipes to keep clean and, at least once, eat a donated military-style meal for dinner. She had spent days debating whether it was worth staying. It may be time, she said, to return to her native Chicago after about four decades on the island. “Too old to be doing this,” she said. Some retirees who wintered on the Gulf Coast are already planning their exits from the state. In Fort Myers Beach, an island town that attracted tourists and Midwestern snowbirds, entire groups of friends were gathering recently to inspect the wreckage — and to start mourning the end of their Florida lives. At Gulf Cove, a mobile home community near the base of a bridge, residents were trying to salvage belongings from their ruined properties. Some said that they expected that the patch of waterfront land where they had cultivated tight-knit friendships over the years would be sold to developers and razed. “Even if something miraculous happened that we could get back together, there are a lot of couples in their 80s or 90s,” said one of the residents, Deb Macer, 69. “They’re just not going to come back.” Image Damaged homes in Fort Myers Beach.Credit…Callaghan O’Hare for The New York Times Image Hurricane Ian ruined the piece of paradise that Del and Jane Compton had found in Florida. Credit…Callaghan O’Hare for The New York Times Before the hurricane, days in their neighborhood had a familiar, comforting rhythm. The retirees who lived there planned coffee hours and daily walks over the bridge to Estero Island. Ms. Macer planned crafting get-togethers and her husband, Stacy, 70, was known as the community handyman. “I fear it’s gone,” said their friend Paul Wasko, 75. “This way of life is gone.” Cindy and Steve Duello had barely begun fulfilling their dream of retiring here. Frequent walks and bike rides around Fort Myers Beach had kept them feeling vibrant and healthy well into their 60s. They fussed over their orchids, mingled with neighbors and taught their grandchildren to scour the beach for prized heart-shaped rocks. At the center of it all was a modest two-bedroom house on Albatross Street, the gathering place since the 1980s for four generations of Duellos. “It was only 1,200 square feet, but it was our mansion,” said Ms. Duello, 68. Ian left much of Fort Myers Beach a flattened, unrecognizable ruin, and the Duello house saturated with seawater. Days after the storm, the Duellos made their way to the island, saw their destroyed home and realized that the town could not be rebuilt in time for them to enjoy it again. “It won’t return in our lifetime,” Ms. Duello said, through tears. “I can feel this has already aged me.” Image “I think it’s a breaking point for a lot of people,” said Carol Freeman, 75, who lives on Pine Island.Credit…Callaghan O’Hare for The New York Times For some older Floridians, the storm created a world with no good options: They could not imagine leaving the state at this stage of their lives, yet their homes were gone, perhaps forever. In Naples, about 40 miles south of Fort Myers, the River Park neighborhood was a scene of despair on Thursday. Workers and homeowners were lugging soaked items out of homes, building giant heaps of debris on the curb. Rosalie Bulger, 73, was in her living room, surveying what was left of the stucco one-story house where she had lived for 35 years. The smell of mold and rot was overpowering. “I am numb,” she said as workers wearing N95 masks moved her belongings into the driveway: glassware, decorative pots, a rack of brightly colored dresses. Ms. Bulger was enjoying a life with the comforts of family close by: Her daughter and son-in-law lived in the bungalow next door. As she looked around at her ruined belongings, she said she would depend on God to help her figure out what to do next, though she could not imagine how long it would take — if ever — for her house to be habitable again. “I’m not going,” she said of the notion that she would join relatives or friends in another state. “But we can’t live here anymore, either.” Image Debris and destruction left behind in Fort Myers Beach.Credit…Johnny Milano for The New York Times Image Linda Stevens in her grandson’s room in Tampa, Fla., after she was evacuated from Pine Island. Credit…Zack Wittman for The New York Times After her husband died last year on Mother’s Day, Linda Stevens, 75, decided to live permanently on Pine Island, which had offered many people a far more affordable sanctuary than the wealthier homes on nearby Sanibel Island. She and her husband had traded the harsh winters of Maine for days by the water on the island’s northern end. She loved their new life: the friends from church, the volunteering, the lush scenery. Ian was Ms. Stevens’s first hurricane, sending her huddling with neighbors after the traffic jam of evacuees deterred her from leaving the island. They cared for her, making sure she was fed and able to safely leave after days without power and running water. “If I was 50, I’d tough it out and say, I’m coming back. But I’m not 50 anymore,” Ms. Stevens said. “I will never live through another hurricane season.” Now, she is debating selling her house altogether or returning to the snowbird lifestyle, moving closer to one of her daughters and spending only the winter months in the area. But for the time being, she said, “I can’t make that decision. I’m still grieving.” I...

Jeff Landry Touts Endorsement By Donald Trump, Jr. In Early Salvo Of Governor https://digitalalabamanews.com/jeff-landry-touts-endorsement-by-donald-trump-jr-in-early-salvo-of-governor/ Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, speaks with reporters at a news conference where it was announced that Republican Attorneys General of 21 states submitted a letter to the Senate to reject the two articles of Impeachment against President Donald Trump, in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. Standing from left are, Leslie Rutledge, Ark. Curtis Hill, Ind. Alan Wilson, S.C., and Steve Marshall, Ala.. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) Cliff Owen Donald Trump Jr. has endorsed Attorney General Jeff Landry in his bid for governor, a seal of approval Landry is touting as he seeks to tap into former President Donald Trump’s formidable popularity in Louisiana. Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, the activist Kimberly Guilfoyle, attended Landry’s annual alligator hunt last month, where he unofficially launched his campaign, debuting merchandise advertising his bid. Landry has used his power as attorney general to support Trump numerous times, most recently when he filed a friend-of-the-court brief in favor of Trump over his legal problems surrounding his handling of classified documents, which culminated in an FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago property. Landry also supported an effort by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the electoral vote result in four states that went to President Joe Biden in 2020. Landry, a Republican in his second term as attorney general, is likely to face Republicans Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and Treasurer John Schroder in what is expected to be a hotly contested race to replace Gov. John Bel Edwards. Edwards, a Democrat, is term-limited. Republican state Rep. Richard Nelson is also considering a bid, and U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy’s name has been bandied about as a possible candidate. Landry is the first of the group to formally launch his campaign, releasing a nearly seven-minute long introductory spot last week. The field will likely begin to solidify after the midterm elections. Trump Jr. said in a statement that Landry will “never back down to the woke liberal radicals trampling on our conservative values at every turn.” “I’m proud to endorse my friend Jeff Landry to be the next governor of Louisiana,” Trump Jr. said. “He has a strong record of always putting Louisiana and America first. Louisiana is one of the greatest states in the union, but sadly liberal leadership and policies have failed it. Crime is out of control across the state, and New Orleans now has the highest murder rate of any city in the entire country. It’s time for a change.” Investigative reporting is more essential than ever, which is why we’ve established the Louisiana Investigative Journalism Fund, a non-profit supported by our readers. To learn more, please click here. Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission For You, from The Advocate Read More…

Newly Released Emails Debunk Trump And Allies' Attempts To Blame The GSA For Packing Boxes That Ended Up In Mar-A-Lago https://digitalalabamanews.com/newly-released-emails-debunk-trump-and-allies-attempts-to-blame-the-gsa-for-packing-boxes-that-ended-up-in-mar-a-lago/ (CNN) — When the General Services Administration prepared to ship pallets of material to Florida for former President Donald Trump in July 2021, the federal agency asked Trump aide Beau Harrison to affirm what was in the boxes being shipped. Harrison, Trump’s former assistant for operations, was asked to affirm that everything packed and shipped to Florida was either “required to wind down the office of the Former President or are items that are property of the Federal Government,” so it could be covered by transition funding. Former presidents are allowed to take certain government materials and office equipment required to set up a permanent office away from the White House. But that does not include the sort of classified documents Trump took to Mar-a-Lago — which are at the center of an ongoing Justice Department criminal probe. Harrison, one of the handful of aides interviewed by federal investigators in the spring as they sought information on presidential records, returned a letter on “The Office of Donald J. Trump” letterhead stating what was in the boxes. The email exchange between GSA officials and Harrison is one of more than 100 pages of emails and documents newly released by the GSA that debunk claims from Trump and his allies that the government agency is to blame for packing the boxes containing classified documents that were later recovered by the FBI during the search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in August. The newly released emails also provide new details underscoring the rushed, chaotic nature of Trump’s transition after he spent two months exhausting numerous avenues trying to overturn the 2020 election. The emails make clear that the boxes had already been packed and sat shrink-wrapped in an empty office space in Arlington, Virginia, as GSA officials planned logistics to ship the five pallets of boxes — including 30 banker boxes similar to those recovered by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago — to Florida. The released communications, which were first reported by Bloomberg News, outline how boxes, including 1,400 pounds of “document boxes,” traveled from the White House to Florida, from inventories of the purchase of boxes and shipping materials to photos of the new office space Trump’s team would inhabit. It remains unclear whether anything in the boxes that GSA shipped contained the government documents in the 15 boxes sent to the National Archives in January or the tens of thousands of documents the FBI retrieved in August — materials now at the heart of the criminal investigation into the classified material found at Mar-a-Lago. But the new cache of email adds new detail showing how documents from the Trump administration made their way to Florida — and directly debunks attempts Trump and his allies have made to defend the former President by blaming GSA. In an interview on Fox News on August 12, four days after the FBI search, former Trump defense official Kash Patel claimed the GSA was responsible for the documents being at Trump’s Florida home. “Even if (the documents were) classified … they’ll never meet the burden of intent because the president didn’t pack it up and take it out himself, the GSA has said they did it and they made a mistake,” Patel said. The GSA has never said they packed the boxes. “They packed them,” Trump said in an interview with Sean Hannity on September 23. A spokesman for Trump did not directly address how these emails dispute claims made by the former president and allies, and instead attacked the Biden administration. “A routine and necessary process has been leveraged by power-hungry partisan bureaucrats to intimidate and silence those who have dared to support President Trump and his America First agenda,” said Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich. “Why? Because Democrats have done nothing to deliver for the American people and they are left scrambling to fabricate a new witch-hunt to distract from their abject failures.” A 300-pound portrait In emails throughout 2021, however, career officials at the GSA outlined to Trump’s aides what could and could not be included in the shipments GSA would send to Florida — underscoring that the federal agency was relying on Trump’s aides to assess the contents being shipped. While the transition team worked with the GSA to facilitate the move, concern inside the National Archives over missing presidential documents was growing. The National Archives alerted Trump’s lawyers in May 2021 that Trump’s letters with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — and two dozen boxes of records — were missing. But documents were never raised in the logistics email exchanges. Instead, they focused at times on what items could and could not be shipped to Florida on the federal government’s dime. In particular, a 300-pound portrait of Trump that had been gifted to the former President led to multiple rounds of back and forth, with the GSA ultimately declining to ship the item, deeming it “personal property.” At one point, the GSA outgoing transition director sent the Trump aides guidance on what was allowed to be sent. “If the item is considered property of the Former President then it should not be shipped using Transition Funds. If the item is considered property of the Federal Government then it should go to NARA or GSA,” Kathy Geisler wrote in an email and attached the guidance on gifts. “I just wanted to make sure we had an understanding of what you are allowed to ship using Transition funds.” The gigantic portrait was sent to an aide’s home to eventually ship to the former President’s resort. In the email exchange, Trump’s director of correspondence Desiree Thompson Sayle asked Geisler to point out where in the federal code she was referring to. “I want to ensure that we are in compliance, and the attached appears to be general guidance on what gifts (foreign and domestic) can be accepted by a government employee or elected official,” she wrote. “Working with NARA and GSA, I am in full compliance with the final disposition of gifts. So much so, we are loading the large portrait received after the 21st on a Penske truck to transport to my house so I can put it on my moving van,” Sayle added. Missing deadlines and disorganization It wasn’t until mid-January — just nine days before President Joe Biden’s inauguration — that Trump’s staff began setting up a post presidential life for the former President following a plan signed off on by former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Following the same pattern of past presidential transitions, GSA would provide the funds and support to help with the transition and setting up a post-presidential office. Around the time Meadows signed the plan, White House aides described a chaotic and unsure environment with a President more focused on overturning the 2020 election than beginning his next chapter. These circumstances lead to a delayed, unorganized and nontraditional transition, made apparent in the trove of emails. The chaotic environment continued after Trump vacated the White House. In July 2021, a flurry of late-night emails show staff scrambling unsuccessfully to get the boxes sent off on the final night the outgoing team would be allowed to use transition funds to assist the move, eventually having to use other resources. After the boxes were to be picked up and Trump’s team had long gone to Florida, there was yet another snag in August — one pallet was the wrong size and couldn’t fit on the freight elevator. The event delayed the delivery again, the emails show, and resulted in an intern being flown back from the Sunshine State to repack the pallets and prepare them to be sent to Mar-a-Lago, where they finally arrived mid-September. “My intern is flying back to DC tomorrow, and he can repack the pallets in Crystal City,” Sayle wrote to GSA. “Before I send him to pick up a roll of shrink wrap from Uhaul and plan to head over, can you tell me if there is AC on the 12th floor?” CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correctly reference the General Services Administration. © 2022 Circle City Broadcasting I, LLC. | All Rights Reserved. Read More…

Trump Lawyer Christina Bobb Points Finger At Colleague For ‘we Returned All Documents’ Claim https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-lawyer-christina-bobb-points-finger-at-colleague-for-we-returned-all-documents-claim/ Christina Bobb, a lawyer who signed the infamous letter certifying that former President Donald Trump had returned all sensitive documents, is reportedly pointing the finger at a fellow lawyer for drafting the false claim. The former TV anchor told federal investigators that Evan Corcoran, a more senior member of Trump’s legal team, ordered her to sign the statement falsely suggesting the former president had complied with a subpoena for the top-secret documents, NBC News reported Monday. The feds say they consider Bobb to be a witness, not a target, of the sprawling probe into Trump’s mishandling of the documents. “She is not going to be charged,” one source told NBC after Bobb’s grilling on Friday. Christina Bobb, inset, and former President Donald Trump. (AP; Social Media) Bobb’s cooperation moves Corcoran into the legal hot seat where he could potentially face charges or professional legal sanctions if he told a colleague to make false claims to federal authorities. The feds would want to know who, if anyone, instructed Corcoran to concoct the false statement. A previous lawyer for Trump has said he refused the former president’s demand that he make a similar false claim earlier. The June 3 letter from Bobb forms a key milestone in the investigation into the documents that Trump improperly took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort home. The statement claimed that Trump no longer had any documents marked as classified and had complied with a grand jury subpoena demanding their return. In the weeks after receiving the statements, the feds determined it was not true. They proceeded to obtain a search warrant for parts of Mar-a-Lago. FBI agents found thousands of documents in the Aug. 8 search, including more than 100 highly classified ones, in the explosive search, confirming their evidence that the letter signed by Bobb was a lie. [ Trump reveals search of Mar-a-Lago estate in top-secret document search ] Trump has called the search a witch hunt designed to embarrass him ahead of his planned 2024 White House comeback run. He also says the seized documents belong to him, although only a tiny fraction are actually personal records. The former president has not offered any explanation why he took the top secret documents, which reportedly include spy reports about French President Emmanuel Macron and a description of an unnamed foreign nation’s nuclear capabilities. Read More…

Fact Check: Trump Falsely Claims George H.W. Bush Took Millions Of Documents To A Former Bowling Alley And Chinese Restaurant – KVIA https://digitalalabamanews.com/fact-check-trump-falsely-claims-george-h-w-bush-took-millions-of-documents-to-a-former-bowling-alley-and-chinese-restaurant-kvia/ By Daniel Dale, CNN First, former President Donald Trump tried a false claim about the document-handling practices of former President Barack Obama. Now, Trump is making the same false claim about other former presidents. In August, after the FBI recovered classified documents and numerous other presidential records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and resort in Florida, Trump declared that Obama had taken millions of presidential documents to Chicago. The National Archives and Records Administration quickly debunked his assertion, explaining it was NARA itself, not Obama, that took the documents to a NARA-managed facility in the Chicago area. Then, at a rally in Arizona on Sunday, Trump not only repeated the false claim about Obama but added near-identical dishonesty about previous presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Most dramatically, Trump said, “George H.W. Bush took millions of documents to a former bowling alley and a former Chinese restaurant; where they combined them. So they’re in a bowling alley slash Chinese restaurant.” Trump added, “A Chinese restaurant and a bowling alley. With no security and a broken front door.” Trump also claimed that “Bill Clinton took millions of documents from the White House to a former car dealership in Arkansas” and that “George W. Bush stored 68 million pages in a warehouse in Texas.” Facts First: All of these Trump claims are false. George H.W. Bush did not take millions of documents to a former bowling alley and Chinese restaurant. Rather, the National Archives and Records Administration took Bush’s presidential documents to this facility prior to the opening of the Bush presidential library in the same city. Trump’s claims about Clinton and George W. Bush are inaccurate in precisely the same way: NARA, not the former presidents themselves, put the documents in temporary storage at NARA-managed facilities at the former car dealership in Arkansas and the warehouse in Texas. And Trump was also wrong that there was “no security” at the facility where the elder Bush’s documents were housed: the facility was heavily secured, according to a news report at the time. So there is no equivalence between Trump’s handling of presidential documents and those of his predecessors. In the others’ cases, the presidential documents were in NARA’s possession and stored securely and professionally. In Trump’s case, the presidential documents found in haphazard amateur storage at Mar-a-Lago were in Trump’s own possession, despite numerous attempts by both NARA and the Justice Department to get them back. Trump’s claims about George H.W. Bush At the Sunday rally, Trump urged the authorities to “look into what took place” with George H.W. Bush and presidential documents. But there is nothing of substance to investigate: the National Archives and Records Administration has been forthright since the 1990s about where it temporarily stored Bush documents before his permanent library opened. In fact, the NARA official who was in charge of the transition of the Bush documents to the permanent library publicly joked about the temporary facility at the time. “I’ve told reporters this for the last four years: It’s not just a bowling alley; it’s a bowling alley and a Chinese restaurant,” David Alsobrook said. While the temporary College Station, Texas, location made for a fun story, there was nothing unusual about NARA’s use of such a building. NARA needs lots of space to house presidential documents before presidents’ permanent libraries are built, so it finds and modifies large nearby facilities that often have formerly housed other activities. Someone listening to Trump’s rally comments might have pictured documents from the first Bush administration being scattered carelessly in bowling lanes. But that’s not what happened. The Washington Post reported in 1993: “There aren’t any lanes anymore. No gutters, no pins, no beer. Thanks to a rush remodeling job after last November’s election, there are a few simple offices, a massive, fire-resistant vault and row after row of steel shelves filled with cardboard boxes and wooden crates.” There was also extensive security. The Associated Press reported in 1994: “Uniformed guards patrol the premises. There are closed-circuit television monitors and sophisticated electronic detectors along walls and doors. Some printed material is classified and will remain so for years; it is open only to those with top-secret clearances.” Robert Holzweiss, who began working on the George H.W. Bush library in 1996 and is now deputy director, told People magazine for an article in early 2022: “When I got involved the temporary facility for the Bush museum was in College Station, Texas, in an old bowling alley. Without the alleys it was perfect, it was like a warehouse. They just built a secure space within to house the classified material.” Bush died in 2018. His son Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who ran against Trump in 2016 for the Republican presidential nomination, wrote on Twitter in response to Trump’s Sunday claim about the late president: “I am so confused. My dad enjoyed a good Chinese meal and enjoyed the challenge of 7 10 split. What the heck is up with you?” Trump’s false claims about Bill Clinton and George W. Bush Trump’s claims at the rally about former presidents Clinton and George W. Bush are false for the exact same reason as Trump’s claims about Obama and the elder Bush are false. That former Balch Motor Company building in Little Rock, Arkansas, where millions of Clinton presidential documents were stored? Again, it was the National Archives and Records Administration that took the documents to this facility, which NARA managed, in advance of the opening of Clinton’s library in the same city. That warehouse in Lewisville, Texas where millions of the younger Bush’s presidential documents were stored? It was a NARA-managed facility, used to store documents while Bush’s permanent library was being readied in nearby Dallas. The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

What Bryan Harsin Said About Auburn’s Upcoming Game Against No. 9 Ole Miss https://digitalalabamanews.com/what-bryan-harsin-said-about-auburns-upcoming-game-against-no-9-ole-miss/ The second half of the season is about to get underway for Auburn, as the team tries to steady the ship following an uneven and often frustrating first half of the schedule. Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC) is coming off its third loss in the last four games and second in a row, a 42-10 thrashing on the road against rival Georgia. The Tigers are set to hit the road for the second straight game, traveling to Oxford, Miss., on Saturday to take on No. 9 Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0) at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Kickoff is set for 11 a.m. on ESPN. Read more Auburn football: Bryan Harsin left searching for answers, “hope” after blowout loss to Georgia Bryan Harsin justifies failed fake punt attempt against Georgia Statistically speaking: Auburn’s defense folding in the red zone To kick off the week, Auburn coach Bryan Harsin met with the media at 1:30 p.m. for his weekly Monday press conference to look ahead to this weekend’s matchup with the Rebels. Below is a quick recap of Harsin’s comments. BRYAN HARSIN — Jumps right into Ole Miss: “6-0, team is hot, so they’re playing really well.” — Says Auburn has to be prepared for Ole Miss to go up-tempo; they snap the ball with about 20 seconds left on the play clock. — RB Quinshon Judkins “is the real deal.” — Notes that Ole Miss has a couple of Auburn transfers from last season: defensive tackle J.J. Pegues and defensive back LaDarius Tennison. — On importance of sustaining drives: “It’s always important…. You want to keep the ball in your offense’s hands.” — Stresses the need to eliminate penalties, which really stymied Auburn’s drives last weekend against Georgia. — Has been pleased with Robby Ashford’s ability to extend plays with his legs, but reiterates that the QB needs to do better protecting the ball. He has fumbled the ball way too much. — Turnovers happen in games, but they need to not happen, Harsin says, referring to Robby Ashford’s fumble against Georgia. Says next time Ashford will likely tuck the ball and secure it better when he scrambles. — On the team’s offensive identity at the midpoint of the season: “I think the identity right now, we want to be balanced; we want to throw the ball, we want to run the ball…. and really try to be balanced as much as we can…. Now, have we been very good at that to this point? Are we where we want to be right now? We’re not.” — On dealing with Robby Ashford’s emotions through ups and downs: “The emotion of the game, that’s part of it, but at the same time, you still got to think.” — On the factors limiting Tank Bigsby’s production: “Penetration slows the backs down, right?… You don’t want to give up penetration. I think that’s what’s happened to us at times.” — On issues along the offensive line, where injuries have mounted this season: “It’s not because of talent.” Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

WATCH: Nick Saban's Monday Press Conference Ahead Of Tennessee https://digitalalabamanews.com/watch-nick-sabans-monday-press-conference-ahead-of-tennessee/ TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Third Saturday in October is right around the corner and Monday kicked off the week for the No. 3 Crimson Tide as it prepares to make the trip to Knoxville to take on the undefeated, sixth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers. Click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter and breaking news alerts. Fresh off of a heart-stopping 24-20 victory at home over Texas A&M, the Tide will have plenty to address this week, head coach Nick Saban said during his press conference on Monday. Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch. He also gave updates on the injury status of quarterback Bryce Young, who missed the game against the Aggies with a shoulder injury, but could be back in the lineup for the Tide against the Volunteers. Watch the video link at the top of our story or click here to watch the full press conference on YouTube. Find out what’s happening in Tuscaloosawith free, real-time updates from Patch. Kickoff for Saturday’s game in Neyland stadium is set for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on CBS and the Crimson Tide Sports Network. Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you’re interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. The rules of replying: Be respectful. This is a space for friendly local discussions. No racist, discriminatory, vulgar or threatening language will be tolerated. Be transparent. Use your real name, and back up your claims. Keep it local and relevant. Make sure your replies stay on topic. Review the Patch Community Guidelines. Read More…