Digital Alabama News

‘Wishbone Boys’ Documentary Now Available On DVD https://digitalalabamanews.com/wishbone-boys-documentary-now-available-on-dvd/ Alabama Football Updated: Oct. 06, 2022, 9:39 a.m.| Published: Oct. 06, 2022, 9:38 a.m. Quarterback Terry Davis, shown here in 1971, is one of the key figures in Alabama’s wishbone era. The 2021 documentary “The Wishbone Boys” tells the story of those glory years of Crimson Tide football. (Birmingham News file photo) Football fans who missed the premiere of “The Wishbone Boys” documentary last fall in Tuscaloosa can now have a copy of their own. The 62-minute film, directed and produced by actor-turned-filmmaker and lifelong Alabama fan Tim Card, is now available for purchase on DVD. “The Wishbone Boys” tells the story of Paul “Bear” Bryant and his Crimson Tide’s championship run through the 1970s, when they rode the wishbone triple-option offense to three national championships and nine SEC championships in an 11-year period from 1971-81. Nearly a decade in the making and packed with interviews with dozens of former Alabama stars including Johnny Musso, Ozzie Newsome, Terry Davis, Sylvester Croom and Major Ogilvie, “The Wishbone Boys” had its debut showing before a capacity crowd at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa. Since the premiere, Card has screened the film in a number of private settings and has been working to secure a distribution deal with television networks and streaming services. “It took a lot to get this film done,” Card said. “It took eight years to put together — it took five years just to get all the interviews done. The premiere couldn’t have gone any better. It was well-received. Everybody that saw it really loved it. We just want to get it out to more people, and DVD is the way to do that now. “It comes in a nice, commemorative case. It would definitely make a great gift for any ‘Bama fan.” “The Wishbone Boys” retails for $34.99 and is available for purchase at wishboneboys.com. A companion book, written by Card with Robert Wray, is available via Amazon.com and at other booksellers. Here’s a trailer for the film: If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Lafayette High School On Lockdown For The Second Time This Week Due To Online Threats https://digitalalabamanews.com/lafayette-high-school-on-lockdown-for-the-second-time-this-week-due-to-online-threats/ Lafayette High School is currently on lockdown for the second time this week as a result of pointed online threats. The school sent out the following message to parents: This is a message from the district. Lafayette High School is on lockdown status due to a threat to campus. Visitors will not be allowed to enter or leave the campus. Students are safe and in class. We will provide an update as soon as one is available. Thank you. Please visit your district’s web based Student Progress Center for more details. Earlier this week, the school was on lockdown due to online threats that named specific staff members and students on social media. Another screengrab (with names redacted) showing similar threats along with a specific time was circulating on social media earlier this morning. Multiple Lafayette High parents claim their children received the message—some via AirDrop—with the details of what would take place on their campus. Sr. Cpl. Matthew Benoit confirmed that officers were on the scene and that the campus is “secure, and lockdown protocol is in place” as LPSS continues to update parents. Lafayette Police Officers are currently on the scene at Lafayette High School, regarding another threat of violence to students and staff, via social media. Around 8:30 a.m., officers and staff at LHS were notified about the social media threats. LHS administration and school resource officers immediately placed the school into lock down. The school is secure, and lockdown protocol is in place. The LPSS is in contact with parents, and sending updates. While administrators and authorities take every threat seriously, it’s obvious that both parents and students have become frustrated with how these threats are disrupting the school day, not to mention the anxiety stacked on top of the entire situation. Our media partners at KATC went live from the scene earlier this morning. According to parents in a local Facebook group, students aren’t usually allowed to leave the classroom during lockdown. This means that they don’t have access to the bathroom or food outside of what may be with them in the classrooms or buildings they are in during lockdown. Passerbys report a large police presence at Lafayette High “with more on the way” as the school remains on lockdown until further notice. Story developing… 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…

Inbox: This Will Be An Unforgettable Weekend For Packers Fans  https://digitalalabamanews.com/inbox-this-will-be-an-unforgettable-weekend-for-packers-fans/ Eric from Fuquay Varina, NC Will they move Big Ben ahead 15 minutes so Packers players will be prompt by Lombardi time for practice? I’ll have our people talk to their people. Good morning! Jeff from Athens, WI Here we are four games into the season, and a lot of playing time for some of this year’s draft class. I think they have performed well so far. I know many will point out Christian Watson‘s drop in Week 1 as a negative but to say the least, this draft class is looking pretty darn solid. Gotta give a shout out to Romeo Doubs, Quay Walker, and Watson for how they have developed so far this season and I would say never underestimate Devonte Wyatt. This has to be one of the better draft classes for Green Bay, doesn’t it? Now is the time to perfect the imperfect. Larry McCarren provided some valuable insight into Walker during our “Three Things” segment on Tuesday. There were a lot of teachable moments on the film for Walker in the New England game – but his tools and makeup are off the charts. I feel the same way about Doubs and Watson. The Packers’ rookie class has played 546 combined snaps on offense and defense through the first four games of the season. That’s 546 opportunities for development and growth. Ryan from Freeport, IL For the hand-wringing and negative talk in the national media about how the Packers aren’t dominating lesser teams (which neither I nor the team cares about), I remember a wise man once saying, “The worst thing you can do to the other team is beat them.” While prepping for today’s “Unscripted,” I was looking at the NFL standings through the first four games and you know what I saw? Detroit has the league’s highest-scoring offense and is 1-3. Las Vegas has three losses by a combined 13 points. San Francisco has the stingiest defense and is only 2-2. At 3-1, the Packers have nothing to apologize for. This ain’t an all-play fantasy league. It’s about who was better on that Sunday. Of course, the Packers have corrections to make to keep racking up wins, but they are what their record says they are. Vinny from Arlington, VA When the London game was announced, I wondered do you think there is another NFL team that can outdraw Packers fans in London? Just curious on where our fanbase stacks up against other NFL teams on a global stage. Thank you. There is no comparison. To quote Roman Reigns and the Bloodline: “We the ones.” Nick from Bristol, UK I’m a Wisconsin guy transplanted to England and looking forward to being at the stadium Sunday! Do you think the grind of the long flight and time difference will change their game plan? Go Pack Go! I think Matt LaFleur is spot freaking on when he says the team that prepares and acclimates the best to the time change is the one that prevails on Sunday. I also think there’s a lot of truth in LaFleur comparing this week to readying for a Thursday Night Football game. Keith from Greendale, WI Insiders, will the team have any time for sightseeing? I’d think the chance to visit the sites or meet the Queen would be a huge thrill for the Green Bay contingent. I doubt there will be much time for that. While LaFleur said they aren’t locking players in their rooms or anything, the Packers still have a preparation schedule to keep. Like usual road games, players should have some time to themselves after meetings on Saturday evening. As for the coaches, it doesn’t sound like LaFleur will leave the hotel property. There’s too much work to be done. Karen from South Beloit, IL How long until our opponents start realizing they need to double- or triple-team Randall Cobb on third downs? I hope never, but you’d think they’d have figured it out by now. Thanks for the informative article. I mean, it’s not like Cobb has been open by five yards on all these third-down catches. Aaron Rodgers throws darts and Cobb catches them. It’s a tale as old as time. But if teams start doubling Cobb, then it’s up to another skill-position player to take advantage of his one-on-one opportunity. It’s a game of moves and countermoves. Dan from Algonquin, IL Hi II, we often hear that the talent gap between the best and worst teams in the NFL is not very large. The current win-loss records and weekly parity in the league backs this up. An elite QB will certainly “tilt the field.” Beyond that, would you agree the most important variables for determining wins and losses are injuries and a team’s turnover ratio, or do you have other variables at the top of your list? Bingo. If you’re falling short in the turnover department, your team better be good on third down and inside the red zone. Football is the ultimate “everything comes out in the wash” sport. Elite QBs are a huge part of the equation but teams typically get what they earn. Tom from New Braunfels, TX I am a huge Romeo fan already, and yes, it is Tom from N.B. not Juliet. I think his propensity to lose control of the ball when hitting the ground is simply a matter of technique. I was always coached to twist my body so I would not be landing on the ball, but on my side so to let my body absorb the shock. Landing on your elbow or the ball hitting the ground first is the formula for losing control. The game is fast, the defenders are going after the ball…it is just an adjustment that will come. Romeo Doubs is playing at a high level for a rookie fourth-round pick who won’t turn 23 until April. He’s a bright guy and going to get better with every snap he takes. I wouldn’t worry about Romeo Doubs. The kid is gonna be OK. Kurt from Waterloo, IA II, if you fell asleep and woke up in three years, is Watson or Doubs the better player? I say Doubs is Robert Brooks. Watson is Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and neither is a No. 1. Thoughts? My thoughts are neither of us are soothsayers. If both Watson and Doubs are players in 2025, then Brian Gutekunst and his team got it right. Mike from Baraboo, WI It is no secret our offense needs some more weapons on offense. What are the chances the Packers go all in and sign OBJ? I suppose I should just be happy the words “Will” and “Fuller” weren’t included in this submission. Bryan from Venice, CA With all the talent on the defensive line, why are we giving up so many yards on the ground? Is this something Joe Berry can fix as we get to colder weather? Asked and answered, by the head coach himself. The Packers just need to play physical, fill gaps and get the ball carrier to the ground. They have the talent to get it done. 1 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 2 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 3 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 4 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 5 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 6 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 7 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 8 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 9 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 10 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 11 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 12 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 13 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 14 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 15 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 16 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 17 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 18 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 19 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 20 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 21 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 22 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 23 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 24 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 25 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 26 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 27 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 28 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 29 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 30 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 31 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 32 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 33 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 34 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 35 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 36 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 37 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 38 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 39 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 40 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 41 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 42 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 43 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 44 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 45 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 46 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 47 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 48 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 49 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 50 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 51 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 52 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 53 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 54 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 55 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 56 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 57 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 58 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 59 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 60 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 61 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 62 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 63 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 64 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 65 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 66 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 67 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 68 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 69 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 70 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 71 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 72 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 73 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 74 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 75 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 76 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 77 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 78 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com 79 / 79 Evan Siegle, packers.com Krystl from Annville, PA What’s the key to stopping Saquon Barkley? Finishing tackles, getting multiple hats to the ball carrier and not falling for the Giants’ offensive eye candy. Even if Daniel Jones plays, he’s not going to be 100%. I would expect the Giants to take what they did with Barkley against Chicago and build off that performance. Jeff from Omaha, NE Hey Insiders, a quick roster management question here. Multiple teams including the Packers have players on the 53 that have not played a snap yet and practice-squad guys at the same position who have been activated and played ...

Post Politics Now: Biden Heads To New York To Herald IBM’s Major Investment In Hudson Valley https://digitalalabamanews.com/post-politics-now-biden-heads-to-new-york-to-herald-ibms-major-investment-in-hudson-valley/ Today, President Biden is traveling to New York to tour IBM’s facility as the company promotes a $20 billion investment in the Hudson Valley over 10 years, focused on semiconductors, computers, artificial intelligence and other programs. Ahead of the midterm elections, Biden and Democrats have highlighted the bipartisan law to boost production of domestic semiconductor chips. Biden late Wednesday criticized a federal appeals court ruling that said a program to protect nearly 600,000 young immigrants, known as “dreamers,” from deportation is illegal. The three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit allowed those already enrolled to renew their status, but the future of the program — commonly known as DACA — is uncertain. Your daily dashboard 2 p.m. Biden delivers remarks on job creation at the IBM plan. Watch live here. 4 p.m. Vice President Harris swears in Arati Prabhakar to be director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. 5 p.m. Biden participates in a reception for the Democratic National Committee in Red Bank, N.J. 8 p.m. Biden participates in a reception for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in New York City. Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers. Noted: In Ariz., Cheney urges voters to reject GOP nominees for governor, secretary of state Return to menu Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is urging Arizona voters to reject GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, calling them threats to democracy and urging voters to back their Democratic rivals. “If you care about democracy, and you care about the survival of our republic, then you need to understand, we all have to understand, that we cannot give people power who have told us that they will not honor elections,” Cheney said. The congresswoman is one of former president Donald Trump’s fiercest critics and vice chair of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. She spoke late Wednesday at the McCain Institute’s “Defending American Democracy Series” at Arizona State University. Noted: Fetterman campaign says it raised $22 million in third quarter Return to menu Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) on Thursday announced that his campaign for Senate had raised $22 million in the third quarter — doubling his second quarter total of $11 million. Fetterman is running against Republican Mehmet Oz to fill the seat of Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who is retiring. The massive reported fundraising haul indicates Fetterman’s campaign has not slowed down, despite fears that it might be hampered after he suffered a stroke in May and was absent from the campaign trail for weeks. On our radar: Republicans target a House seat in deep-blue Rhode Island Return to menu JOHNSTON, R.I. — Seth Magaziner, the Democratic nominee for an open House seat in Rhode Island, stood in a senior center in this Providence suburb on Wednesday morning, trying to convince Democrats frustrated with high inflation and a weakening economy not to vent their frustrations by voting Republican. The race should not be competitive. President Biden won the district by nearly 14 points in 2020. Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin has held the seat with little trouble for more than two decades, winning by almost 17 points two years ago. A Republican has not won a House seat in Rhode Island in 30 years. This is an excerpt from a full story. Noted: Governor races in at least five states could determine abortion legality Return to menu The future of abortion access in a handful of battleground states may be determined by the winners of their governor’s mansions in November. Democrats are leaning into that message on the campaign trail, seeking to make the November elections a referendum on what they describe as the Republican Party’s extreme position on abortion. This dynamic is playing out in gubernatorial contests in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona — all of which have GOP-controlled state legislatures. As Rachel Roubein reports in The Health 202: This is an excerpt from a full story. On our radar: Biden’s visit to Hudson Valley a reminder of Democrats’ win Return to menu One of the highlights for Democrats this past summer was a surprising win in New York’s 19th Congressional District, which encompasses the Catskills and the mid-Hudson Valley. Democrat Pat Ryan — who made abortion rights the centerpiece of his campaign — defeated Republican Marc Molinaro in a special election in August by just over two percentage points. President Biden had won the district by a little more than one point in 2020. Democratic leaders were buoyed by the results as they face the traditional head winds that cause a party in power to lose seats in a midterm year. They also remain convinced that the Supreme Court decision that took away a national right to an abortion will energize voters as they cast their ballots in the coming weeks. On our radar: Majority of GOP nominees — 299 in all — deny 2020 election results Return to menu A majority of Republican nominees on the ballot in November for the House, Senate and key statewide offices — 299 in all — have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election, according to a Washington Post analysis. Candidates who have challenged or refused to accept Joe Biden’s victory are running in every region of the country and in nearly every state. Republican voters in four states nominated election deniers in all federal and statewide races that The Post examined. Although some are running in heavily Democratic areas and are expected to lose, most of the election deniers nominated are likely to win: Of the nearly 300 on the ballot, 174 are running for safely Republican seats. Another 51 will appear on the ballot in tightly contested races. This is an excerpt from a full story. Noted: Biden ‘disappointed’ in ruling that DACA program is unlawful Return to menu President Biden said he was disappointed in a ruling late Wednesday by an appeals court that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was unlawful. The ruling ordered a lower court review of the program, which was started in 2012 under the Obama administration and prevents “dreamers” — undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children — from being deported. While the program is intact for now, the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit stops new DACA applications. Read More…

Fox News CEO Warned Against 'crazies' After 2020 Election, Dominion Says – WABE https://digitalalabamanews.com/fox-news-ceo-warned-against-crazies-after-2020-election-dominion-says-wabe/ Besieged by angry viewers, denounced by then-President Trump, questioned by some of its own stars, Fox News found itself in a near-impossible spot on Election Night 2020 after its election analysis team announced before any other network that Joe Biden would win the pivotal swing state of Arizona. Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott proved so flummoxed by what ensued that she warned colleagues, “We can’t give the crazies an inch.” That’s according to the account of a lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems, which is seeking $1.6 billion from Fox in a defamation suit over false allegations on the network that the company committed election fraud. A trial date is set for April in Delaware. The voting machine and technology company’s attorney, Justin Nelson, revealed Scott’s remarks in a court proceeding on Tuesday in which he argued that Dominion’s legal team is entitled to receive the employment contracts of 13 Fox News executives, including Scott. She has served as CEO since 2018. (Dominion is also suing Fox Corp, the network’s parent company.) In a ruling yesterday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis affirmed that Dominion should receive the contracts – the point of contention in Tuesday’s hearing. For days after the election, Trump and his top aides demanded the network rescind its announcement of Biden’s victory in Arizona, even pressuring the network’s controlling owners, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. In the weeks that followed, a cadre of Fox News stars hosted Trump’s advisers – and even Trump himself – to peddle baseless conspiracy theories of election fraud. Many of those false claims asserted without evidence that Dominion’s technology and machines had been used to rig the vote and to cheat Trump of the White House. According to Nelson’s remarks at the hearing, senior Fox News executives interceded to try to block Fox Business stars Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo from having Trump’s campaign attorneys, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, on their shows to repeat such lies. In late 2020, Dobbs and Bartiromo hosted Trump’s advocates to make those accusations. Fox’s attorney, Justin Keller, did not dispute the remarks attributed by Nelson to Fox News CEO Scott. Nor did he deny that executives sought to intervene in the two programs’ efforts to book Powell and Giuliani even though their claims had been discredited. Instead, Fox’s attorney made a broader argument against allowing scrutiny of the executives’ contracts, saying they were unnecessary given how many documents the network has already turned over to Dominion. Why Dominion hopes Fox News CEO’s warning could help make its case Fox News and its chief trial attorney, Dan Webb, declined to comment for this article, as did Dominion’s lawyers. However, the arguments that played out during a hearing Tuesday reflected a looking-glass world. Dominion depicted the network’s executives scrambling to rein in the chaos engendered by its stars, while Fox’s attorneys were effectively arguing the executives had little time, ability or inclination to do so. In his exchanges with the judge, Keller drew a line distinguishing between a host or producer “who are sometimes pre-scripting material for the show, that is going to be tethered to a specific channel’s telecast” and a network executive. “That person is going to be far removed from the day-to-day operations of editorial control and discretion over the particular channel’s telecast,” he said. Beyond Scott, the executives whose contracts are being sought also include Jay Wallace, Fox News’ president and executive editor and Meade Cooper, the executive vice president of primetime programming, among others. Nelson, the Dominion attorney, retorted by citing a document obtained from Fox that “talks about the daily editorial meeting that occurs, including almost all of these executives that we’re looking at right now.” Dominion appears to be drilling down on its argument – hotly disputed by Fox – that the network’s executives knowingly allowed such false conspiracies to air on its programs to boost their audiences – because their pro-Trump viewers abandoned them after the Arizona call. Under U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Dominion has to prove Fox demonstrated “actual malice” to win a defamation case. That means either knowingly broadcasting false and damaging information, or doing so with reckless disregard for the truth. “Fox sought to profit off a lie. That’s the allegation,” Judge Davis summarized. “Whether that’s true or not, we’ll stay for the trial.” Dominion appears to be drilling down on its argument – hotly disputed by Fox – that the network’s executives knowingly allowed such false conspiracies to air on its programs to boost their audiences – because their pro-Trump viewers abandoned them after the Arizona call. A new book reveals how Fox journalists acted behind scenes In their new book on Trump, The Divider, journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser reveal that anchor Bret Baier cited intense pressure from Trump’s team to explore whether and under what circumstances the Arizona call could be reversed. Fox did not withdraw its projection. The authors also reported that Wallace, the head of news, overruled his election unit and instructed his anchors to not announce that Biden had won Nevada, too. What ensued involved a split screen. Fox became the last network to project Biden’s win of the presidency despite being the first to make the Arizona call that proved accurate. And while its reporters often unraveled election fraud allegations, many of Fox’s biggest stars tolerated, amplified and even embraced them, Dominion’s lawyers noted. No one at Fox would directly comment on Baker and Glasser’s assertions, other than Baier, who released a statement taking some issue with how his objections were framed. One person inside Fox with direct knowledge of its election coverage told NPR the delay in calling the full White House win for Biden involved a technical glitch in a control room as one show transitioned to the next at the top of the hour. In hosting Fox’s first post-election interview with Trump that November, Bartiromo echoed Trump’s disproven allegations of electoral fraud, saying, “This is disgusting, and we cannot allow America’s election to be corrupted.” She told viewers in mid-December that “an intel source” told her that Trump had won the election. Bartiromo, officially designated as a news anchor, never returned to explain on what grounds the source made that statement. (Fox no longer publicly characterizes her as an anchor, which had rooted her in the news side of Fox, as opposed to an opinion host.) In December 2020, Dobbs contended on the air that Trump’s opponents within the government had committed “treason,” and later suggested any action by a Republican officeholder to uphold Biden’s victory might have been “criminal.” His departure from the network was hastily announced the day after another election software company, Smartmatic, filed its own $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox for defamation surrounding similarly false accusations of fraud. That case is not as far along in the process. Fox News’ lawyers argue Trump’s claims on election fraud – even though false – are ‘inherently newsworthy’ Fox has dismissed both suits as efforts to stifle legitimate coverage of inherently newsworthy allegations – election fraud – made by inherently newsworthy people – including the then-sitting U.S. president and his top campaign advisers. Fox never did back down from its projection of Arizona for Biden, its original sin in the eyes of Trump and his campaign. As viewers abandoned the network for harder-edged fare on Newsmax, OAN and elsewhere, some Fox stars served up incendiary rhetoric and challenged the legitimacy of Biden’s pending certification in early January. In recent weeks, Dominion has argued that Fox host Jeanine Pirro – a former district attorney and New York state judge as well as a Trump confidant – sits at the heart of its case. NPR previously revealed the existence of an anguished email from a Fox News producer begging colleagues to keep Pirro off the air because she was circulating lies about election fraud from dark corners of the Internet. Dominion’s legal team asked the court to compel additional testimony from Pirro late last month, arguing that after Fox invoked a reporter’s privilege to shield her from some questions during her deposition. A ruling on whether Pirro must return for questioning has not been made public. As with the Scott admonition about “the crazies,” Dominion’s legal team is seeking to use those exchanges to show that Fox knowingly allowed Dobbs, Pirro, Bartiromo and their guests to peddle false claims that defamed the company and set the country on edge ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. According to filings reviewed by NPR, Dominion is also asking the court to compel additional testimony from Fox star Sean Hannity, a close adviser to Trump. Dominion’s attorneys are seeking to bar “improper assertions of reporter’s privilege,” arguing that Fox inappropriately asserted reporter’s privilege for Hannity during earlier questioning as well, though the full filing is sealed. He was deposed in late August, according to court records. Fox News has repeatedly defended its conduct by invoking the importance of American free speech principles bound up in the First Amendment, saying the Smartmatic and Dominion cases are attempts to chill independent reporting and commentary. Fox Corp CEO and Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch has taken a seemingly conflicting stance halfway across the globe in Australia, where the media magnate and his family now live. A political columnist for the magazine Crikey accused the Murdochs of being “unindicted co-conspirator...

Falsehoods, Harassment Stress Local Election Offices In US https://digitalalabamanews.com/falsehoods-harassment-stress-local-election-offices-in-us/ CARROLLTON, Ohio — With early voting less than three weeks away, Nicole Mickley was staring down a daunting to-do list: voting machines to test, poll workers to recruit, an onslaught of public records requests to examine. And then, over a weekend, came word that the long-time county sheriff had died. To Mickley, director of elections in a small Ohio county, that added one more complication to an election season filled with them. It meant a new contest was needed to fill the position, so she and her small staff would have to remake the ballots for the fall election for the second time in a week. “I feel like ever since we took office in ’19, it’s just been a constant rollercoaster,” said Mickley, whose 36 months on the job qualify her as the senior member of her four-person staff in the Carroll County elections office. The office Mickley oversees is tucked in a corner of the 137-year-old county courthouse in Carrollton, a close-knit town of 3,200 that sits amid the farm fields and fracking wells of eastern Ohio. She and Deputy Director Cheri Whipkey’s son graduated from high school together. The director and her deputy seem an unlikely pair to be contending with the wrath of a nation. Yet ever since former President Donald Trump began falsely claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, Mickley, Whipkey and local election workers like them across the country have been inundated with conspiracy theories and election falsehoods, and hounded with harassment. They’ve been targeted by threats, stressed by rising workloads and stretched budgets. The stress and vitriol have driven many workers away, creating shortages of election office staff and poll workers. During Ohio’s second primary in August — an added burden for election officials stemming from partisan feuding over redistricting — Mickley’s two clerks darted around the county all day filling in for absent poll workers. Two staff members’ husbands were enlisted to help. And then there’s the stream of misinformation falsely alleging that voting systems across the country are riddled with fraud. Unfounded conspiracy theories about voting machines, manipulation of elections by artificial intelligence or ballot fixing have found a wide audience among Republicans. The claims sometimes lead voters — usually friends and neighbors of the Carroll County election staff — to question them about voting equipment and election procedures, no longer clear what to believe about a system they’ve trusted all their lives. The false claims about the 2020 presidential election also have led believers to inundate election offices around the country with public records requests related to voting processes or equipment, demands to retain the 2020 ballots instead of destroying them, and attempts to remove certain voters from the rolls. Carroll County hasn’t been immune, even though it’s heavily Republican and voted for Trump by nearly 53 percentage points over President Joe Biden in 2020. The county of nearly 27,000 people was flooded over the summer with form-letter emails from self-proclaimed “aggrieved citizens.” They were protesting electronic voting machines, vowing to sue or demanding the county retain thousands of records from past elections. Follow-up letters warned that election officials will “be met with the harshest possible criminal and civil repercussions available under the law” if they destroy any election records. In response, a floor-to-ceiling locked cabinet in Mickley’s office is now jammed with boxes of ballots and other records from 2020, papers that normally would have been destroyed by now to make way for the records of the 2022 election. “We’re already busting at the seams,” she said. “It’s a small office in the bottom basement of the courthouse that was built in the 1800s. Space is not our friend.” Whipkey notes that none of the complaint letters are from local residents, so many of whom she knows personally after 16 years managing the local McDonald’s. She and Mickley both feel lucky they are only receiving letters — not the death threats experienced by some election officials around the country. Still, the accusations sting. Whipkey said she hates being called a liar. “If they wanted the answer, they would have come and asked us. We could give it to them,” she said. “But they don’t want the answer; they just want to harass.” Mickley said attending national conferences has persuaded her that election workers across the U.S. are just as honest, hard-working and passionate as her staff is: “I’m starting to get defensive and angry for them, too.” Behind a Plexiglas window in the front of the office, the other two election staffers answer calls and process voter registration forms and change-of-address and absentee ballot requests. They’re also preparing the precinct kits that will go to poll workers — positions the office is still trying to fill for the Nov. 8 election, when they expect heavy turnout partly because Ohio has one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate races in the country. Clerks Sarah Dyck, a Democrat, and Deloris Kean, a Republican, keep their personal feelings about the movement spawned by Trump’s election lies out of the office. They don’t want to bring politics into their work helping run the county’s elections. When she’s out in the community, Dyck said neighbors are mostly sympathetic about how stressful elections work has become in recent years. “People all the time say, ‘I don’t know about this, but I know you guys are doing a good job,'” she said. “It’s like with congressmen, right? ‘Well, I don’t like Congress, but my congressman’s okay.’ The closer you are to it, you know the people, and so it’s about those relationships.” That’s not always been the experience of members of the Carroll County Board of Elections. The four members of the bipartisan panel — a retired railroad worker, a farmer, a facilities operator and the owner of a local yoga studio — hold their meetings at a table wedged between Mickley’s and Whipkey’s desks in the cramped office. A collection of whiskey bottles shaped like elephants and donkeys sits atop a metal filing cabinet nearby. Some members said they must work constantly to dispel false information that is rampant in the Republican-dominated county. Roger Thomas, one of the board’s two Republicans and the operator of a popular pumpkin stand, said he’s frustrated that many of his friends “are unwilling to get past what they think they know with the facts.” “It doesn’t matter what you say to them, you can’t convince them,” he said. “I don’t know how we combat that. They don’t care if they gum up the works of these elections, and that’s the problem. If these elections go haywire, go south — as the elections go, so goes the country.” Mickley said she is a perfectionist who would never tolerate the slightest interference with carrying out secure and accurate elections. She chokes up when talking about how seriously she takes her job and how she and her staff long to ease the worries of skeptical voters. The widespread belief in election conspiracy theories and hostility toward front-line election workers leaves Mickley questioning the country’s future. “I think about my kids,” she said, “and I think about what I want to leave for them and what I want to build now to make sure that they still have it in 20, 30 years. And I’m not alone in that.” ——— Associated Press writer Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. ——— Associated Press coverage of democracy receives support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ——— Follow AP for full coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ap—politics Read More…

Inside Sean Of The South’s Sweet, Historic Alabama Home https://digitalalabamanews.com/inside-sean-of-the-souths-sweet-historic-alabama-home/ Sean Dietrich can’t resist making a little joke when visitors arrive at his historic home in the Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham. “This is Jamie’s house,” he says, opening the front door that he painted a welcoming “Episcopal red.” “I just live in it.” Jokes aside, it’s hard to tell which half of this couple loves their new house, which they’ve lived in since March, more. Sean, better known as “Sean of the South” – a much-loved writer, talented musician (he sings and plays guitar, piano and accordion) and sought-after speaker – says that each night when he and Jamie sit down at their unique dining room table to eat dinner, they never fail to include among their prayers: “Thank you for this home.” They’ve waited a long time for it. For years, they lived in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, where they watched development encroach on the woods around their home. Since 2018, Jamie, a Brewton native with good friends in Birmingham, has had a real estate agent looking for just the right house. Finally, in February, they found it. Built in 1923, the cottage has a welcoming wraparound porch, complete with a set of rocking chairs Sean built himself, based on Jamie’s grandfather’s original. The house is situated at the end of a street in the popular neighborhood, surrounded by trees. From every window, the view is green. [To read more good news about Alabama, sign up for our This is Alabama Newsletter.] Sean created replicas of Jamie’s grandfather’s rocking chair for their front porch. (Tamika Moore/ AL.com) AL.com “I feel like we’re living in Graceland,” Sean says, only to be playfully elbowed in the ribs by Jamie – their house is anything but Graceland-gaudy. The home’s history is part of its charm. “I always wanted to live in a house that’s older than my grandparents,” says Sean. He and Jamie are only the fifth family to live there in the century since the house was built. With four bedrooms and three baths on the main floor and finished basement, the 1,900-square-foot house seems to be made for them. Jamie, a trained chef, gets the kitchen of her dreams; Sean, who has become regionally famous for his daily columns, gets an office worthy of his talent. They share their home with three dogs, Otis Campbell, Thelma Lou and their newest addition, Marigold the Magnificent, who is blind. (A rescue, she came with the name “Marigold,” which happens to be the name of the man character in Sean’s 2019 novel, Stars of Alabama.) Finally, they have room for their family to spread out, and to host others as well. “We have space to have people over and entertain for the first time ever,” Jamie says. She still gets emotional when she thinks of their first night in the house. As they drank Prosecco out of red Solo cups and ate cheese and crackers, she remembers the way she and Sean hugged each other tightly in the bright, white kitchen. “We were so grateful to be here,” she says. “We’ve wanted to move for so long.” She wipes away a tear, thinking of her mom, “Mother Mary,” who died last summer after a long illness. “It’s so bittersweet, of course,” she says. “It was my greatest honor to care for my mother.” Mother Mary lives on in every room of the house through the antiques Jamie kept – like her prized china cabinet in the corner of the dining room. “Mother had it full of china,” Jamie says. “I have it chock full of liquor.” Read more: Sean Dietrich celebrates everyday heroes in “Sean of the South” columns This china cabinet was a special piece to Jamie’s mother and was one of the pieces she really wanted Jamie to have. (Tamika Moore/ AL.com) AL.com Sean and Jamie’s dear friend, interior designer Sherry Sandquist, helped Jamie decorate the house with her goal of incorporating antiques “without making it look like an old lady’s house.” After Mother Mary died, Sherry walked through her home with Jamie, picking out pieces she thought Jamie would want for her own future house, which she hadn’t yet found. Sadly, Sherry didn’t get to see Sean and Jamie’s Birmingham home. She died in June, but her influence is everywhere. “She was able to put her touch on this house without ever visiting,” Jamie says. Sean paid tribute to Sherry at a recent memorial service. She and her husband, Lyle, had a huge impact on his career. “I wouldn’t be writing if it weren’t for them,” he says. Among other things, Sherry encouraged Sean to paint. Several of his paintings – some abstract, some self-portraits and some of his favorite subject, Jamie – hang throughout the house. He created the tea-stained map hanging in a handmade frame over the sofa in the den. In addition to the rocking chairs on the porch, he has built several other pieces of furniture, including Jamie’s butcher block table in the laundry room and a bench at the foot of their bed. In the entry, a small painting of a bird – a gift from Sherry that’s “so small, yet so precious” to Jamie – sits on the buffet. The light-filled living room, with a fireplace flanked by windows and bookshelves, leads into the heart of the house: the dining room, which the kitchen overlooks. In addition to Mother Mary’s repurposed china cabinet, the dining room holds an impressive armoire that Jamie found in an antiques store in Miramar Beach shortly after she and Sean were married. Her late father bought it for her, and it towered over the main living space of their 800-square-foot, second-floor condo. “That armoire moved from the condo to two other houses before ending up here, where it fits perfectly,” Jamie says. “It’s like it waited 18 years before it found its perfect home here.” Read more: 5 essential Southern questions with Sean Dietrich They use an old merchandise table from Jamie’s family’s downtown Brewton store as a dining table. The wardrobe, a gift from Jamie’s father, has been with them since early in their marriage. (Tamika Moore/ AL.com) AL.com Another prized possession is the dining room table, which was used to display merchandise table at Robbins & McGowin Co., Jamie’s family’s store in downtown Brewton, which sold clothing on one side and hardware on the other. The eight-foot-long table has a burn mark where, the story goes, a lantern overturned one night during a poker game. “I love to think of the stories it could tell,” Jamie says. She jokes that they might not have bought the house if the beloved table hadn’t fit. “I love to set it with pretty china, Mother’s sterling silver flatware that we use every day, linen napkins and flowers, and gather friends and family around and serve them a wonderful meal.” She tears up, once again, at the thought. When they have company, there’s plenty of room for guests to sit at mismatched chairs around the table while Jamie works her magic in the kitchen. Read more: Sean of the South is living his dream During the most recent renovation of the home, a section of brick beside the bar was left exposed in the kitchen, making Jamie feel right at home. “Daddy was a brick salesman, so I love that,” she says. But she also loves the cabinet space, the farmhouse sink, the chalkboard where a door once stood and, well, everything about the kitchen. “When I opened up the refrigerator, I about died,” she says – it was so roomy. “As a chef, I love the gas stove. And I’ve never had a vent hood!” The front bedroom now serves as Sean’s office. “I have waited so long to have an office,” he says. His desk, which he built, sits under a double window overlooking the lush courtyard below, with a stack of mail – potential columns in the making – beside his laptop. Among the treasures he keeps in his office are the ashes of his beloved bloodhound, Ellie Mae. There’s enough space to hold the piano his mother bought him when he was a child. Three guitars hang on the wall above it. On two walls of the room, and flanking his desk, are floor-to-ceiling bookshelves holding Sean’s collection of volumes that he can now have at his fingertips. “Lewis Grizzard has his own shelf,” he says of one of his literary heroes. Sean has wanted a home office for a long time and finally has one to call his own. He loves being able to display his books and mementoes. (Tamika Moore/ AL.com) AL.com Sean and Jamie’s bedroom is at the back of the house, with French doors opening to Jamie’s cozy office. On either side of the bed are Mother Mary’s demilune tables and porcelain lamps that were in her bedroom for years. Read more: 10 books with Alabama ties you’ll want to read Downstairs, there’s an oversized laundry room and a comfortable den that they refer to as “the baseball room.” “We watch the Braves in here,” Jamie says. “After dinner, we come down here and all of us get on the sofa.” This room also holds mounted fish Jamie’s father caught, as well as Sean’s collection of signed baseballs and first copies of his books. There are also two bedrooms and a bathroom in the basement. “We have had more people over than I’ve ever had in my entire life,” Sean says. “The downstairs is always a hotel.” Not only is the house perfect for them, but the neighborhood affirms their decision to move to Birmingham. “Neither of us has lived in a city before,” Sean says. “I was a little scared of not being around nature. But we’ve gone hiking here more than ever.” He also enjoys the proximity of “a different brewery every night.” After a night out or a few nights on the road, returning to their sanctuary is always a joy. “I get so excited to go home,” Jamie says. “I love it so much. Mother Mary would be so, so proud.” Sean Dietrich’s latest book, You Are My Sunshine, will be released Oct. 11. It’s an account of the long bike ride he and Jamie took together along The Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath trail during the pandemic. 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Regulatory Update: OSHA Expands Training Education Centers https://digitalalabamanews.com/regulatory-update-osha-expands-training-education-centers/ On Oct. 4 OSHA  announced the addition of a new organization to its OSHA Training Institute Education Center network and the renewal of 25 existing education centers. Since 1992, the OTI Education Center program has provided training nationwide to private sector and federal personnel from agencies outside OSHA and trained more than 42,000 people in fiscal year 2022. OTI Education Centers are non-profit organizations that offer training courses on OSHA standards and occupational safety and health topics to workers and employers across the country. The centers also help administer OSHA’s Outreach Training Program and fulfill the program’s monitoring requirements. They are the sole distribution channel for Outreach Training Program trainer courses, including OSHA standards and update courses. The program trained more than three million people from fiscal 2020 through fiscal 2022. This voluntary program is not a training requirement of any OSHA standard. Following a national competition, the new and renewed OTI Education Centers were announced on April 18, 2022. The competition evaluated applicants on the following criteria: organizational commitment, experience and qualifications; staff experience and qualifications; location and training facilities; marketing and administrative capabilities; Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility; and language accessibility. OSHA does not fund OTI Education Centers. The centers are supported through established tuition and fee structures and provide instructors and facilities. For more information on the OTI Education Centers Program, the Outreach Training Program, and the Office of Training and Education, please visit the OSHA Training webpage. The new and renewed OTI Education Centers are listed below. An asterisk indicates the new center for 2022: Region I Keene State College – Manchester, NH Region II Atlantic OSHA Training Center, a consortium that includes Rutgers School of Public Health – Somerset, NJ (lead organization);Universidad Ana G. Mendez – Bayamon, PR; and University at Buffalo – Buffalo, NY Rochester Institute of Technology – Rochester, NY Region III National Resource Center, a consortium that includes West Virginia University – Morgantown, WV (lead organization); and CPWR – Center for Construction Research & Training – Silver Spring, MD Mid Atlantic, a consortium comprised that includes Chesapeake Region Safety Council – Baltimore, MD (lead organization); and Northampton Community College – Bethlehem, PA Region IV Eastern Kentucky University – Richmond, KY University of South Florida – Wesley Chapel, FL Georgia Institute of Technology – Atlanta, GA Southeastern OTI Education Center, a consortium that includes North Carolina State University – Raleigh, NC (lead organization); and University of Tennessee – Nashville, TN The University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa, AL Volunteer State Community College – Gallatin, TN Region V Mid-America OTI Education Center, a consortium that includes Ohio Valley Construction Education Foundation – Springboro, OH Great Lakes OSHA Education Center, a consortium that includes University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine – Cincinnati, OH (lead organization); Eastern Michigan University – Ypsilanti, MI; and UAW Health & Safety Department – Detroit, MI National Safety Education Center, a consortium that includes Northern Illinois University – DeKalb, IL (lead organization); and Construction Safety Council – Hillside, IL Region VI Texas A&M University Engineering Extension (TEEX) – College Station, TX University of Texas at Arlington – Arlington, TX Mid-South OTI Education Center, a consortium that includes Alliance Safety Council – Baton Rouge, LA (lead organization); and Louisiana State University – Baton Rouge, LA Oklahoma State University – Stillwater, OK Region VII Great Plains OSHA Education Center, a consortium that includes Metropolitan Community College – Independence, MO (lead organization); Barton County Community College – Grandview Plaza, KS; and Saint Louis University College for Public Health & Social Justice – St. Louis, MO Region VIII Mountain West OSHA Education Center – Salt Lake City, UT *Construction Education Foundation – Denver, CO Region IX University of California, San Diego – La Jolla, CA Arizona State University – Tempe, AZ California State University, Dominguez Hills – Carson, CA Chabot-Las Positas – Pleasanton, CA Region X University of Washington – Seattle, WA Read More…

Europe's New Club Meets Without Russia https://digitalalabamanews.com/europes-new-club-meets-without-russia/ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives at the Informal EU 27 Summit and Meeting within the European Political Community at Prague Castle in Prague, Czech Republic, October 6, 2022. REUTERS/David W Cerny 44 European gather in Prague for symbolic summit Energy and security high on everyone’s minds Truss’ participation gives hope for better EU-UK ties Doubts about viability of wide European format EU 27 to follow with their own summit, gas cap on the menu PRAGUE, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The European Union and its neighbours from Britain to Turkey met on Thursday to discuss shared security and energy problems stemming from Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in a rare and symbolic summit of 44 European countries – but not Russia. The Prague gathering is the inaugural summit of the European Political Community (EPC), a format that is a brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron and brings together the 27 European Union members with 17 other European countries. Some of them are waiting to join the bloc while another, Britain, is the only one ever to leave it. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com “All those who are gathered here know: Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a brutal violation of the peace and security order that we had over the last decades in Europe,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “We don’t accept that part of a neighbouring country is annexed.” His comments were echoed by Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, as well as the top EU diplomat, Josep Borrell. “This meeting is a way of looking for a new order without Russia. It doesn’t mean we want to exclude Russia forever, but this Russia, (President Vladimir) Putin’s Russia, does not have a seat,” said Borrell. British Prime Minister Liz Truss, after meeting the summit’s host, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, stressed their “strong agreement on the importance of likeminded European democracies presenting a united front against Putin’s brutality”. Her decision to attend the summit left some hoping for a warmer tone between the EU and London after Brexit, where the two are still in disagreement over trade issues around Northern Ireland. The gathering at the sprawling Prague Castle is seen by its advocates as a grand show of solidarity for a continent mired in multiple crises from the security fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine to dire economic consequences including an acute energy crunch. Macron said his priority was to build more electricity connections in Europe, and lower gas prices. “We share a same space. Very often, the same history. And we are meant to write our future together,” he said. “I hope we will be able to get common projects.” NO DECISIONS Beyond lofty declarations, there were doubts about the forum’s concrete goals and actions. Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said no decisions were expected at the symbolic gathering the EU had pitched as only an “initial exchange” of thoughts. “The primary goal is that we all come together because Russian war in Ukraine is affecting all of us in the security sense and also through our economies, through the rising energy costs. The only way to handle this is working together,” he said. Some dismissed the EPC swiftly as just another talking shop, one that will be difficult to manage not just because of its size but also because of its diversity and the traditional rivalries between many of its members, from Armenia and Azerbaijan to Greece and Turkey. The 27 EU countries will go on to meet on their own on Friday, with tensions playing out over Germany’s 200 billion euro ($197.50 billion) energy support package that many of its peers see as damaging competition on the bloc’s single market. In their meeting, EU countries will look at their differences about how to cap gas prices to contain soaring energy costs that are harming the post-COVID economic recovery. ($1 = 1.0127 euros) Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Michel Rose, Robert Muller, Jan Lopatka, Michel Kahn, Jason Hovet, Andreas Rinke in Prague, Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels; Writing by John Chalmers and Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Josie Kao, Frank Jack Daniel and Frances Kerry Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Read More…

No Changes To No. 1 Teams In Final AL.com High School Volleyball Rankings https://digitalalabamanews.com/no-changes-to-no-1-teams-in-final-al-com-high-school-volleyball-rankings/ There were no changes to No. 1 teams in the AL.com final high school volleyball rankings. Postseason play begins next week with area tournaments for AHSAA teams, super regionals and the state championship to follow. The No. 1 teams are Class 7A McGill-Toolen, Class 6A Mountain Brook, Class 5A Westminster Christian, Class 4A Trinity, Class 3A St. Luke’s, Class 2A Donoho, Class 1A Addison and AISA Edgewood Academy. The annual Margaret Blaylock Tournament hosted by Homewood is always played the final regular season weekend. This year’s tournament features three No. 1 teams in the field, comprised mostly of Class 7A and Class 6A teams playing Friday and Saturday. Class 7A No. 1 McGill-Toolen, Class 6A No. 1 Mountain Brook and Class 4A No. 1 Trinity will compete, as will eight other ranked teams in the 18-team field. See Margaret Blaylock Tournament Information AL.COM VOLLEYBALL RANKINGS CLASS 7A 1. McGill-Toolen (34-8) 2. Enterprise (34-6) 3. Vestavia Hills (27-7) 4. Bob Jones (36-6) 5. Spain Park (22-9) 6. Huntsville (29-8) 7. Sparkman (40-8) 8. Hoover (26-15) 9. Chelsea (27-10) 10. St. Paul’s (26-9) Others nominated: Auburn (20-10), Daphne (21-20), Oak Mountain (19-15). CLASS 6A 1. Mountain Brook (26-13) 2. Bayside Academy (38-11) 3. Spanish Fort (33-14) 4. Northridge (28-8) 5. Pelham (29-12) 6. Hazel Green (30-18) 7. Homewood (13-20) 8. Hartselle (25-19) 9. Helena (23-17) 10. Briarwood Christian (36-12) Others nominated: Fort Payne (28-17), John Carroll (15-20), Pike Road (23-10), St. James (21-14). CLASS 5A 1. Westminster Christian (30-7) 2. Montgomery Academy (29-4) 3. Alexandria (36-12) 4. Jasper (44-6) 5. Arab (38-9) 6. Madison Academy (27-18) 7. Guntersville (34-17) 8. Brewer (34-13) 9. Lawrence County (30-17) 10. Faith Academy (20-14) Others nominated: Boaz (27-23), Gulf Shores (30-13), Providence Christian (16-19), Rehobeth (26-9). CLASS 4A 1. Trinity (30-6) 2. Montgomery Catholic (23-10) 3. Madison County (27-17) 4. New Hope (28-13) 5. UMS-Wright (29-10) 6. Orange Beach (24-8) 7. West Morgan (34-8) 8. Deshler (33-5) 9. Good Hope (32-10) 10. Priceville (22-13) Others nominated: Andalusia (24-7), Brooks (29-28), Central-Florence (32-16), Curry (39-17), Geneva (25-8), DAR (24-16), LAMP (21-14), Satsuma (18-10). CLASS 3A 1. St. Luke’s (28-11) 2. Plainview (52-10) 3. Danville (47-15) 4. Mobile Christian (28-4) 5. Susan Moore (38-7) 6. Ohatchee (36-9) 7. Prattville Christian (28-18) 8. Geraldine (25-12) 9. Westbrook Christian (25-4) 10. Lauderdale County (28-20) Others nominated: Houston Academy (18-13), Piedmont (15-11). CLASS 2A 1. Donoho (31-12) 2. Hatton (34-12) 3. Bayshore Christian (14-18) 4. Sand Rock (26-8) 5. G.W. Long (17-6) 6. Ariton (26-2) 7. Winston County (23-15) 8. Lamar County (29-4) 9. Pleasant Valley (25-11) 10. Lexington (27-16) Others nominated: Horseshoe Bend (20-7), Ider (13-11), Lindsay Lane (20-21), Samson (16-9), Tuscaloosa Academy (13-8). CLASS 1A 1. Addison (35-10) 2. Spring Garden (27-11) 3. Athens Bible (19-18) 4. Pleasant Home (11-7) 5. Covenant Christian (24-14) 6. Meek (17-19) 7. University Charter (19-7) 8. South Lamar (18-8) 9. Kinston (12-12) 10. Leroy (15-6) Others nominated: Decatur Heritage (10-15), Woodville (16-6). AISA 1. Edgewood Academy (15-0) 2. Glenwood (18-5) 3. Morgan Academy (25-9) 4. Patrician Academy (20-0) 5. Coosa Valley (NA) 6. Macon East (10-5) 7. Hooper Academy (21-8) 8. Lakeside (7-8) 9. Lee-Scott (NA) 10. Lowndes (NA) Others nominated: Cornerstone Christian (16-5), Southern Academy (8-5). If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Hispanic Heritage Month Continues With A Woman Who Helps Migrants Adjust To Life In Mobile https://digitalalabamanews.com/hispanic-heritage-month-continues-with-a-woman-who-helps-migrants-adjust-to-life-in-mobile/ MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — Hispanic Heritage Month celebration we are highlighting this morning the story of a woman from Venezuela who, like many other migrants, came to the U.S. pursuing a better future. Yohaha Carillo works at the Mobile County Public Schools, providing critical support to migrant students and their families, mostly from Latin America. Carrillo says her own life experiences is what’s truly helping her to support these family. Read the full interview below or watch it in the video above. Bill: Well as part of Hispanic Heritage Month celebration we are highlighting this morning the story of a woman from Venezuela who, like many other migrants, came to the U.S. pursuing a better future. Yohaha Carillo works at the Mobile County Public Schools, providing critical support to migrant students and their families, mostly from Latin America. Carrillo says her own life experiences is what’s truly helping her to support these family. Welcome to our Red Couch this morning. Yohaha Carillo, Mobile County Public Schools: Thank you so much for having me. Bill: Thanks for being here. I know you teach English as a second language and you’re in charge of that department. Well, we were just talking during the break. There are more than 60 languages represented in Mobile County public schools there. Yohaha Carillo: We have children from all over the world that we work in every school system. We range from families, from Asia, from Arabic families, Latino families, in families, even from the Pacific Islands. Bill: And I assume Spanish is probably the predominant language there that most people are familiar with in the majority of folks Yes. Yohaha Carillo: Yes, they are. Bill: And your own story, I know you’re from Venezuela, but but helping migrant families here come to this country, maybe don’t speak English Learning some of that language is certainly a critical step to them, correct? Yohaha Carillo: Yes, it is. Coming to a new country and facing all the challenges that come with learning the language itself, as well as adjusting to the culture. It can be very overwhelming for the families and for the students. Bill: What are some of the obstacles they face in order to, first of all, learn a new language, but second of all, get by as they learn that language? Yohaha Carillo: Yeah, it is definitely a challenging challenge for the students and their families. Our department have a wonderful staff that make sure that the children are not only welcome in our school system, but as well as helping them to transition and make the transition is smooth for them to adjust to the schools. Bill: And I we were talking again, I was familiar with Davidson High School’s program and they have like some 25 or 26 different languages spoken there. But certainly a lot of students in how many schools throughout Mobile County teach ESL. Yohaha Carillo: Well, Mobile County School has 92 schools all over the county. We pretty much provide services everywhere where we have an ESL student which is. Bill: Which is everywhere. Yohaha Carillo: Yes, yes. Bill: It’s certainly amazing. And it is a, it is a great program. Now you are over that the whole program or involved in it? Yohaha Carillo: And we have a coordinator that oversees our program. I am the parent program specialist. My job is to make sure that the families, when they come to Mobile, they transition and understand how important education is in this country. Something very different from the country most of the time, depending on where you come from. Sometimes education is not a priority, but it is here. So we make sure that we promote education, that we help them to understand the law, the school laws, whether that they suspect from the families and what is expected from the students in our schools. Bill: Yeah, it’s a very important position and we appreciate you being here and appreciate the job that you’re doing. Hannah Carillo. And you taught me something I have to say to you. Yohanna Carillo, is a roll my R’s. Yohaha Carillo: Yes. Bill: Thank you for being here. Yohaha Carillo: Thank you so much. Bill: And I appreciate it very much as we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. Read More…

Trump Wants CNN To ‘prove The Big Lie’ In $475 Million Defamation Case Against Network https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-wants-cnn-to-prove-the-big-lie-in-475-million-defamation-case-against-network/ Former President Donald Trump says his defamation case against CNN for nearly half a billion dollars is about trying to force the media company to “prove the Big Lie,” a term its anchors and reporters frequently use to describe claims that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate. Mr. Trump hit the network with a $475 million lawsuit on Monday over accusations that it used its “massive influence” to repeatedly air falsehoods about him. “They talk about the ‘Big Lie.’ I said, well, prove the ‘Big Lie.’ The ‘Big Lie’ is not a big lie at all. It’s the opposite. The ‘Big Lie’ is the opposite. All the stats — we have everything,” the former president told Real America’s Voice network’s “Just The News No Noise” on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, we haven’t had judges that want to look at it. They don’t want to change elections, etc. But you show us it’s a ‘Big Lie,’ they will never be able to do that. So, we sued CNN for a lot of money.” There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and lawsuits brought by Mr. Trump and others in the wake of the election were rejected by federal judges. Still, Mr. Trump has a long-running feud with CNN. He vowed to bring legal action against the outlet earlier this year, but he’ll face high legal hurdles to prove his case because of his status as a public figure and First Amendment protections afforded to journalists. The lawsuit name-checked several CNN anchors, on-air personalities and pundits, including hosts John King, Jake Tapper, Brianna Keilar and Don Lemon. Mr. Trump’s lawyers asserted that the use of the phrase “Big Lie” was meant to associate him with Adolf Hitler, who was mentioned 53 times. Read More…

Trump Is Hesitant To Keeping Campaigning For Herschel Walker In Case The Scandals Around Him Get Worse, Report Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-is-hesitant-to-keeping-campaigning-for-herschel-walker-in-case-the-scandals-around-him-get-worse-report-says/ Trump is hesitant to campaign for scandal-hit candidate Herschel Walker, CNN reported.  Per The Daily Beast, Walker paid for a woman to have an abortion despite wanting abortions banned. Walker’s own son has criticized his campaign and alleged that he abused his mom. Loading Something is loading. Former President Donald Trump is reluctant to return to Georgia to campaign for Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker after his campaign was roiled by scandal, CNN reported. Citing a source close to Trump, CNN said the former president’s team is nervous that more damaging revelations could follow about Walker’s personal life. It could mean Trump decides not to make a potential appearance in Georgia to campaign for Walker, even though he has already endorsed him. The Daily Beast this week reported that Walker paid for a woman to have an abortion in 2009 — an especially damaging claim given that Walker has in this cycle vocally advocated for total bans on abortion. Walker has denied the report, and said he’s considering suing the publication. On Wednesday, the outlet followed up with a report that the woman is someone with whom he later had a child. The reporting promoted Walker’s son, Christian, to publically attack his father, calling him a hypocrite and accusing his of unspecified abusive behavior towards his family. CNN’s source told the network: “The President has been to Georgia twice in the past year and the state was in a good spot until yesterday – so now we have to see how the ground shifts.” Trump issued a statement in support of Walker, and according to CNN has been urged by Republican groups to continue backing the candidate. According to the report, Trump will likely wait until the October 14 debate between Walker and his Democratic rival, incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, before making a decision on returning to the state.  Georgia is seen as a crucial battleground in the upcoming midterm elections, where the Republican Party is seeking to overturn the Democrats’ thin majority and win back control of the chamber.  Read More…

SONDERMANN | Too Many Republicans Slow-Dancing With Authoritarians https://digitalalabamanews.com/sondermann-too-many-republicans-slow-dancing-with-authoritarians/ Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban received a rousing welcome at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Dallas. Conservative intellectuals, some pseudo as in Tucker Carlson and some real as in Rod Dreher, have adopted Orban as a model leader. Carlson even traveled to Budapest last year to host his nightly blatherfest from Hungary’s capital. Former President Donald Trump’s decade-long embrace of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin seemingly knows no end. Witness Trump’s comment on Putin’s declaration of the independence of two eastern regions of the Ukraine as pretense for his invasion: “This is genius.” (We will leave aside the question of whether Putin still regards his move as “genius” and whether Trump would know “genius” if he stumbled upon it.) Concern is now high that the likelihood of Republicans gaining control of the House of Representatives in the coming election could result in the whole or partial withdrawal of U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Back in 2018, Trump told a campaign rally of how he and North Korean nutjob autocrat, Kim Jong Un, “fell in love.” This perhaps can be written off as in keeping with the Donald’s lifelong lack of discretion in his amorous affairs. Trump and too many of his acolytes, which means a broad swath of today’s Republican Party, are openly cheering for Brazilian despot Jair Bolsonaro in his bid to hold onto power, despite his multiple nods to tyrannical rule. Other examples abound. As individual circumstances, each is disturbing, sometimes outrageous. Taken together, they beg the question of exactly what is going on here? Why are major elements of the GOP and leading voices of conservative thought so enamored with autocrats and their rule by undemocratic means? We are living through a nationalistic, populist, overly tribal period. Globalization and the changing economy of recent decades have created new sets of winners and losers. Many, especially those feeling left behind, question whether democratic systems honor them or are built to deliver. An attraction of conservative ideology has long been its emphasis on order and control. In a world that seems for many increasingly unsettled and even chaotic, there is an undeniable appeal to such a promise. As those on the left have come to worship all forms of identity and treat it as definitional, the right has responded with its own premium on identity politics. Many understand, or at least intuit, that demography is not on their side. This lends even more salience to issues such as immigration and the wish, usually illusory, to preserve some dated version of national ethnic identity. All of this had led to a distrust of political systems and even a deep paranoia in many quarters. Prodded by self-serving leaders, vaunted concepts such as free elections, a free press and respect for minority rights have come to be expendable. The problem is accentuated by the instinct of too many to view every issue, every difference of opinion and every election in apocalyptic terms. Notions such as “winning some and losing some” or “living to fight another day” have been cast to the wayside. Put all this together and it is hardly a surprise that election denial is now a thing. Per numerous surveys, a solid one-third of Americans do not regard the 2020 presidential election as legitimate. An even higher number are less than fully committed to respecting the results of the next election. If such sentiment is not reversed, it leads to an unspeakable, irrecoverable place for our cherished democracy. Yet our challenge is tame next to that of Hungary where the free press has waned and political opposition is only marginally tolerated. To say nothing of Russia, China, North Korea and too long a list of other places where political dissent is an invitation to a jail cell or a bullet. A visit to most any college campus will disabuse you of the thought that American conservatives have a monopoly on illiberalism. Still, it is those to the right of the political spectrum who are openly, unabashedly dancing with autocrats around the globe who do not give a whit for democratic principles or traditions. It is time for a serious reappraisal on the part of those who claim a deep affinity for America and its core values. Followed by then knocking it off when it comes to dallying with foreign actors of a very different mindset. …………………. That is the guts of this week’s column. But let me use my remaining space to add an unrelated local note. As soon as the November election passes, attention will turn to what is sure to be a vigorously contested race for the mayor’s office in Denver. The common denominator between those elections this fall and next spring is state Rep. Leslie Herod who is inexplicably running for reelection to the state House while having announced her candidacy for mayor. This is wrong. Period. Full stop. Both Colorado law and Denver ordinance explicitly prohibit candidates from running in multiple races. While the intent of these rules is unmistakable, Herod’s attorney has an imaginative theory or loophole for why they do not apply. The law aside, it is bad form. A mayoral race is an intense venture. How does Herod purport to handle the demands of it during the heart of the 2023 legislative session? How do her current constituents not get shortchanged? How does she navigate the ethics of fundraising while voting on legislative issues? Herod’s mayoral ambitions have been evident for some time. She should pursue them without a fallback position. Had she done so in a timely way, the voters of her district would have been able to choose a successor instead of relying on an overused, insider-dominated vacancy committee process. Longtime Denver adman, Arnie Grossman, passed away at the end of September. Decades back, he coined one of the best political slogans on behalf of Pat Schroeder: “She wins, we win.” Simple and elegant. Given Herod’s unfortunate, selfish decision, her slogan could be, “She wins, she wins.” Or even, “She loses, she wins.” Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for Colorado Politics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann Read More…

The Endless Aaron Judge Cut-Ins At Least Led To Some Funny Memes https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-endless-aaron-judge-cut-ins-at-least-led-to-some-funny-memes/ College football fans lost their patience last Saturday as ESPN and ABC continued to cut into college football games to show New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, as the outfielder continued his pursuit of the American League single-season home run record. Time and again, games were interrupted and put into a split-screen as Judge was walked by the Baltimore Orioles. Now, college football fans, and even some teams are having some fun with the cut-ins themselves on social media. One of the more popular memes floating around social media the past few days takes famous plays in college football history, but drops in a Judge at-bat right at the critical moment: Soon, fans of other sports got in on the action: Malcolm Butler picks off Russell Wilson at the goal line to win the Super Bowl for the Patriots but Aaron Judge is chasing 62 home runs pic.twitter.com/xES1Dmo2yo — Jordan Moore (@iJordanMoore) October 4, 2022 One baseball fan even cut into a Judge at-bat: Another baseball fan entered the debate over who is the real single-season home run leader by cutting into an at-bat from Barry Bonds: A personal favorite of mine was this, featuring Judge cutting into Al Michaels as the legendary announcer called the 1980 U.S. Mens Hockey Team as they upset the Soviet Union in Lake Placid: We even got to see a college lacrosse highlight, as Judge interrupts Duke’s run to a national championship: The latest group to join the trend? College football teams themselves. Tulane was one of the teams whose games were interrupted with the cut-ins, so the Green Wave social media account teased a new uniform on social media Wednesday, with a Judge-related twist: Then there is Kansas football, which as you know is fun again. The Jayhawks are 5-0, are ranked for the first time in what seems like forever, and host TCU this weekend in a battle of Top 20 teams. Even ESPN College Gameday will be in town for the weekend. The Jayhawks turned this meme on its head Wednesday: The Judge cut-ins might have frustrated sports fans of all types, but at least they provided some good new memes. Read More…

5 Things To Know For October 6: Mar-A-Lago, Ukraine, Gas Prices, Covid-19, Thailand – ABC17NEWS https://digitalalabamanews.com/5-things-to-know-for-october-6-mar-a-lago-ukraine-gas-prices-covid-19-thailand-abc17news/ By Alexandra Meeks, CNN Hundreds of companies are testing out a four-day work week to determine if employees can maintain the same level of productivity despite the reduction in work time. So far, the experience has been positive, and some experts say the results could shift the perspective of remote work in the near future. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On With Your Day. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. (You can get “5 Things You Need to Know Today” delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.) 1. Mar-a-Lago A new court filing has revealed new details about what the FBI seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence during its search this summer. Among the items seized were clemency requests, health care documents, IRS forms and paperwork that appears to be related to the 2020 election, according to a Justice Department list made public this week. The collection also included apparent communications about Trump’s various business connections. Full details of the documents aren’t available, but taken together, experts say the list offers a glimpse into a handful of the thousands of documents Trump was keeping at his Florida resort after his presidency. 2. Ukraine The US intelligence community believes that the car bombing that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of prominent Russian political figure Alexander Dugin, was authorized by elements within the Ukrainian government, sources briefed on the intelligence told CNN. Russia had accused Ukrainian nationals of being responsible for the attack, which Ukraine had strongly denied in the aftermath of the explosion. In response to the latest reports, Ukrainian defense officials told CNN that Ukraine had nothing to do with Dugina’s death. Meanwhile, Russian forces today fired several missiles on the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, officials said. Zaporizhzhia is one of four areas of Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed — in violation of international law and despite the protests of Western governments. 3. Gas Prices Gas prices in the US are starting to rise again and some industry analysts say more increases are likely on the way. Prices increased nearly 3 cents a gallon in AAA’s daily reading on Wednesday to an average of $3.83 a gallon — the biggest one-day hike in nearly four months. This comes after OPEC+ said Wednesday it will slash oil production by about 2 million barrels a day. The Biden administration criticized the decision by the group of major oil producers, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, calling it “shortsighted” and saying that it will hurt low- and middle-income countries already struggling with elevated energy prices the most. 4. Covid-19 Covid-19 boosters could prevent about 90,000 US deaths this winter, but only if more people get the shots, a new analysis suggests. The study, published Wednesday by The Commonwealth Fund, said if booster vaccinations continue at their current pace, the nation could see a peak of more than 1,000 Covid-19 deaths per day this winter. On average, there are now more than 400 daily Covid-19 deaths in the US, data shows. About two-thirds of the US population is fully vaccinated with at least their initial series, according to the CDC. But only about a third of the population has received a booster dose. 5. Thailand At least 22 children were among 34 people killed in a mass shooting at a child care center in northeastern Thailand today, officials in the country said. Authorities had immediately launched a manhunt for the suspected shooter, who was later identified as a 34-year-old former policeman who had been involved in an ongoing court case for allegedly selling drugs. Investigators later confirmed the suspect had killed his wife and child before taking his own life. The mass shooting took place at the Child Development Center in Nong Bua Lamphu province, according to the prime minister’s office. While gun ownership in Thailand is relatively high compared with other countries in Southeast Asia, mass shootings in the country are rare. BREAKFAST BROWSE Classical statue of Hercules nearly 2,000 years old found in Greece Archaeologists unearthed a stunning artifact after digging on a main street in Greece. Take a look at the classical statue here. How a 12-foot skeleton became the hottest Halloween decoration around Halloween enthusiasts are racing to Home Depot to get their hands on this massive yard decoration affectionately known as “Skelly.” Fat Bear Week 2022: It’s time to vote The annual Fat Bear Week has arrived at Katmai National Park & Preserve — and they want you to decide which bears should be crowned chubby champions of 2022. Hilary Swank is pregnant and expecting twins Actress Hilary Swank is going to be a mom — of two! The rise of sleep tourism Soundproof walls. Pillow menus. Bedtime teas. A growing number of sleep-focused rooms are popping up in hotels and resorts across the world. IN MEMORIAM Kim Jung Gi, an acclaimed comic book artist, died suddenly this week, his US agent told CNN. He was 47. The influential South Korean artist crafted sprawling, intricately detailed scenes with unbelievable speed, often before a live audience. Kim was in Paris for an exhibition of his work when he experienced chest pains. He was transported to a hospital where he died, according to a statement shared on his verified social media accounts. TODAY’S NUMBER 15,000 That’s how many rainbow-colored fentanyl pills were recently found in a Lego box as part of a drug trafficking scheme in New York City. It is the largest seizure of the drug in the city’s history, US Drug Enforcement Administration authorities said, adding that a 48-year-old woman has been charged with possession of the controlled substance. According to Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget G. Brennan, fentanyl is involved in more than 80% of overdose deaths in New York City. TODAY’S QUOTE “We’re absolutely concerned about rebuilding. This could happen again, and it will happen again. However, we will be prepared. We will rebuild, and we will rebuild stronger and better than we were before.” — Richard Johnson, vice mayor of Florida’s Sanibel Island, on communities working to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Every home on Sanibel Island was damaged in one way or another, and people have lost everything in some cases, Johnson said. At least 125 people died as a result of the storm, officials said — 120 of them in Florida and five in North Carolina. TODAY’S WEATHER Check your local forecast here AND FINALLY The beauty of deep-sea creatures Watch this short video to see some of the otherworldly creatures that emerge from the deep ocean at night. (Click here to view) The-CNN-Wire & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. Read More…

House GOP Amps Up Talk About Impeaching Biden's Border Chief, Posing A Test For McCarthy – KVIA https://digitalalabamanews.com/house-gop-amps-up-talk-about-impeaching-bidens-border-chief-posing-a-test-for-mccarthy-kvia/ By Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju, CNN House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy will be swiftly confronted in a Republican majority with a politically dicey proposition gaining steam within his conference: Launching impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden’s top official in charge of the southern border. Senior Republicans and a number of McCarthy allies are signaling little appetite — for now — in immediately impeaching Biden himself, despite the push among a handful of far-right Republicans seeking to remove the sitting President from office if their party takes the House in next month’s midterms. But more than a dozen of former President Donald Trump’s top congressional allies — and several Republicans close to the leadership — told CNN that the focus instead should be on targeting Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and that a new GOP majority should hold impeachment proceedings over the problems at the border. Senior GOP sources close to leadership say it’s a matter of when — not if — House Republicans initiate an impeachment inquiry and that Mayorkas has become their No. 1 target, with their base itching for revenge after Trump’s two impeachments. Impeaching a Cabinet official has only happened once in US history, and the issue would become moot if Mayorkas were to resign. But talk of impeaching Mayorkas already has prompted internal pushback among some veteran Republicans who are skeptical that their policy disputes with the Cabinet secretary meet the bar of charging him with committing “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Yet as they have railed over the migrant crisis in their push to regain the House, a number of leading Republicans fully endorse the idea and acknowledge it’s one that McCarthy will have to deal with if he wins the speakership following the midterms. “Mayorkas deserves (impeachment) for sure, because we no longer have a border,” said Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a McCarthy ally who is in line to chair the powerful House Judiciary Committee, which oversees impeachment proceedings. But while Jordan personally supports the idea, he believes it will be “a conference decision,” saying, “I think we’ll all sit down. Kevin is open to sitting down and figuring out what we do.” Added Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a freshman GOP firebrand who has already endorsed impeachment articles for both Biden and Mayorkas: “Secretary Mayorkas should be a priority. Joe Biden’s his own demise.” Yet McCarthy must also contend with a larger yet less vocal group of moderate and mainstream Republicans, who are wary of the potential political blowback over such a move and warning their colleagues not to weaponize the most powerful oversight tool at their disposal. GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said Republicans “should focus on policy” and “leave some of the other more emotional topics for another day.” “The risk is if people lose faith in the ability of Congress to even do its basic function,” Womack said of voter blowback for impeaching Mayorkas. “The people that I talk to from all stripes tell me they want a Congress that works — not a Congress that is preoccupied with kind of revenge-type agendas. Because then a lot of other things (that) need to happen don’t get to happen. And then that hurts the country.” So far, McCarthy has carefully sidestepped impeachment questions, insisting Republicans are not going to pre-determine the outcome but are willing to go wherever the facts and the law lead them. Yet McCarthy has not shut the door on the idea either, particularly when it comes to Mayorkas. And when pressed by CNN on whether Mayorkas is vulnerable to impeachment in a GOP-led House, he replied: “What happens at the border is above everything else.” Democrats argue the talk is politically motivated and have instead called for Republicans to revisit immigration legislation that they say would alleviate the influx at the border. Biden’s Homeland Security Department has strongly defended its handling of the migrant crisis at the border, and said Mayorkas is solely focused on his mission at the agency — and has no intention of stepping down. “Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve our country,” a DHS spokesman said in a statement. “He has no plan to resign.” Inside the strategy shift How McCarthy handles the impeachment drive from his right flank will be a defining moment of his potential speakership. Those calls — while doomed in the Senate — may be difficult, if not impossible, to resist if McCarthy is working with narrow margins in the House, and those demands are only going to grow louder in the immediate aftermath of a potential GOP takeover next month. Some lawmakers think McCarthy may be more amenable to impeaching Mayorkas than Biden, describing it as a release valve for the inevitable pressure from his right. Going after Mayorkas, even if it’s a fruitless endeavor that would almost certainly fail in the Senate, would also force more attention on immigration and the border, two issues that rile up the GOP base and that Republicans are eager to keep in the spotlight. Indeed, part of the reason for the shift in strategy: These Republicans believe they’ll have an easier time convincing McCarthy and their GOP colleagues to go along with impeaching a Biden political appointee versus a President who was elected to his position, a more politically tenable move that still would throw red meat to the base, according to GOP sources familiar with their thinking. And of all the various impeachment articles already filed by House Republicans, the resolution calling for Mayorkas to be removed from his post has by far the most cosponsors, with 31 GOP lawmakers backing the effort thus far — including Rep. Yvette Herrell of New Mexico, who is in a competitive reelection race, and Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, who is poised to take over the conservative Republican Study Committee next year. “There is a greater appetite among Republicans to impeach Mayorkas,” said conservative Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus. “The reason is, in my opinion, some don’t have the stomach for impeaching Biden or are fearful of the political impact of impeaching Biden. So, (the thinking is) here’s a consolation prize.” Republicans say there’s ground to impeach Mayorkas over allegedly failing to maintain operational control of the border, which they argue caused an influx of fentanyl and illegal immigration, while accusing him of standing in the way of more stringent border controls like constructing Trump’s border wall. One GOP congressman, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, accused Mayorkas of lying to him under oath. The DHS has begun staffing up and taking other steps to prepare for potential investigations and impeachment proceedings in a GOP-led House, according to sources familiar with the situation. But the agency has defended how it has handled the situation at the border, while arguing they’re dealing with a broken immigration system. The Biden administration is still implementing a Trump-era pandemic emergency rule, known as Title 42, that allows authorities to turn away migrants at the US-Mexico border following a court order earlier this year. But that authority has limits, and border officials have been overwhelmed by shifting demographics — many of the migrants are now from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The department maintains that the border is secure, but the change in people arriving at the US southern border has posed a steep challenge given in part frosty relations that largely bar the US from removing those nationalities. DHS has also noted that more individuals encountered at the border will be removed or expelled this year than any previous year, while the agency has stopped over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl from coming into the country during the first six months of this year, though the majority of fentanyl drug smuggling attempts occur at ports of entry. If Mayorkas were to be impeached, he would join the ranks of William Belknap, the secretary of war, who was the only Cabinet official ever to be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors by the House before being acquitted by the Senate in 1876, according to congressional records. Some Republicans don’t think it would be the right move to have Mayorkas meet the same fate. “I don’t think it’d be a very wise decision, and I don’t think (premature impeachment talk) would be appropriate to engage in,” said veteran Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who is the ranking member of the House Rules Committee. “Even talking about that impeachment right now is irresponsible, because it’s a very serious thing. And it’s gotta be handled seriously.” said moderate Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who sits on the House Intelligence Committee. “I felt the same way about the previous attempts as well. We have to restore it to what it was always intended to be, which is a last resort.” Republicans setting stage for impeachment inquiry Regardless of whether Republicans end up going the impeachment route, there will be aggressive oversight of Mayorkas in a GOP-led House, as well as fierce funding fights over border security. Of the more than 500 preservation letters that House Republicans have sent to the Biden administration, a substantial chunk of them have been focused on the border, according to sources familiar with all the requests. Republicans are seeking more information from the Department of Homeland Security about who is coming across the border; the status of the border wall; the administration’s plan to stem the flow of fentanyl and other drugs coming across the border; an...

My Generation Needs To Tell Biden And Trump They’re Too Old | Mulshine https://digitalalabamanews.com/my-generation-needs-to-tell-biden-and-trump-theyre-too-old-mulshine/ It was one of those moments that made the long drive to New Hampshire worthwhile. The occasion was a rally for Bernie Sanders in the run-up to the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Warming up the crowd for Sanders was a band from New York called Sunflower Bean. The band was fronted by Julia Cumming, a blonde, part-time model who looked like the very image of youthful enthusiasm – which isn’t hard to do when you’re just 24 years old. I didn’t know most of the songs until Cumming played that catchy bass line that leads into the Who’s “My Generation.” The crowd went crazy. No one seemed to notice the line that goes “I hope I die before I get old.” Peter Townshend was just 20 when he wrote that line. Sanders was 78 at the time of that rally. That didn’t seem to register with the crowd of college kids – or with the Democratic primary voters across the state. They gave the win to Bernie. Technically he’s not even a Democrat, however. So the party leaders chose to unite around Joe Biden, then a mere youngster at 76. Now they’re stuck with him – just as the GOP is stuck with Donald Trump. It’s an open question which one is showing the most age-related impairment. At a recent anti-hunger event in the White House, Biden called out for a congresswoman who had died in a car crash the month before. His press secretary was forced to issue an explanation that didn’t explain anything – something she does on a regular basis. Meanwhile Trump has become one of those crazy old coots who spews out wacky ideas to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately, his lawyers have to listen. So when he came up with the idea of suing CNN on the grounds that their unflattering coverage cost him the 2020 election, no one could tell him that’s insane. Every election hinges on press coverage. Don’t miss the best in editorials, opinion columns and commentary from NJ.com writers. Add your email here: Similarly, when Biden recently said about a 2024 re-election bid, “I’m going to do it again,” there was no one to tell him, “No, you’re not. You’re already too old.” Both these guys would profit from listening to the guy who wrote that song, Peter Townshend. Townshend was 20 when he wrote it in 1965. As he got older, interviewers would ask him about it. When he was 61, Townshend gave this response to one such interviewer: “I hope I die while I still feel this alive, this young, this healthy, this happy, and this fulfilled. But that may not happen. I may get creaky, cranky, and get cancer, and die in some hospice with a massive resentment against everyone I leave behind.” Pete’s now made it to 77 without getting creaky or cranky. But then he’s not president. Biden is – both president and creaky. As for Trump, he may not be as creaky but he’s certainly more cranky. In a recent online rant against the National Archives, he declared “I want my documents back!” – even though they’re not his documents. Then there was his Truth Social rant against Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell in which he asked if McConnell’s support of spending bills meant he has a “DEATH WISH.” Trump put those words and lots of others in capital letters. That’s the sort of thing you get from a distant relative – often not distant enough. In this case it’s not merely cranky; it’s close to criminal. In an editorial, The Wall Street Journal wrote that “A left-wing follower of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders opened fire on Republican Members of Congress in 2017 and came close to killing Rep. Steve Scalise.” The editorial went on to state that “Many supporters took Mr. Trump’s rhetoric about former Vice President Mike Pence all too seriously on Jan. 6.” My sailing buddy, a former airline pilot, tells me that at a certain age “the airline tells you that you have to go.” Unfortunately we’d need to amend the Constitution to implement an age limit. But there is nothing stopping the leaders of the two major parties from making a deal: We’ll get rid of our old crank if you get rid of yours. I doubt such a deal is forthcoming, But the party that dumps its crank first will have a big advantage in 2024. As it happens, we baby-boomers were the ones who put Trump over the top in 2016, by a margin of 53 percent. The Donald likes to play rock tunes before his rallies. Someone needs to tell him to add “My Generation” to the list. More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mulshine. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook and on Twitter. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read More…

Bacon Is Bill E’s Business, And Business Is Good https://digitalalabamanews.com/bacon-is-bill-es-business-and-business-is-good/ From the outside there’s a tendency to think: If you get the bacon right, the business will just take care of itself. Bill E. Stitt has been making killer bacon in Fairhope for years. Bacon that TasteofHome.com picked as the best bacon in Alabama. Bacon that food writer Scott Gold, “America’s Bacon Critic,” once ranked as one of the four best bacons in the nation. Bacon that chefs all over the central Gulf Coast use to add an explosive top note of flavor to already-rich dishes. Bacon that ships nationwide. But it wasn’t the bacon that recently earned top honors from the Alabama Retail Association, even if the judges loved it. It was Stitt’s hard work on the business side. It helps to know where Stitt is coming from. On bacon itself, his understanding is practically primeval. “I learned how to make it when I was a teenager,” he said. “A guy in Mississippi taught me how to butcher, and then he taught me how to cure meat. Then before I went off to college, he said, ‘I want to teach you to make bacon the way our ancestors did.’ And that’s what I’ve been doing.” After college, Stitt spent 20 years with the Ruby Tuesday chain. The day came when he decided he’d rather stay in Lower Alabama and do his own thing than move to stick with that company as ownership and leadership changed. In 2011 he opened the Old 27 Grill in Fairhope. Now he had an outlet to put his meat-curing knowledge to work. He started curing his own supply of bacon for the restaurant, smoking it in a room right behind the small courtyard stage. He had a great gimmick: He called it “serenaded bacon,” saying it soaked up some of the good vibrations from the songwriters performing on that stage. Somewhere around seven years ago, he ramped up production, making “Bill E’s Small Batch Bacon” available to other restaurants and private customers. Demand grew rapidly, and the acclaim from connoisseurs such as Gold soon followed. Bill E. Stitt said that no matter how much his bacon business grows, he wants his Fairhope restaurant to feel like “a sleepy little burger joint that makes its own bacon.”Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com However, the challenge of self-distributing the product, while still running the restaurant, was running Stitt ragged. “Three years ago I was not in a good place,” he admitted. “I really was afraid it would be the end of me.” Visited recently, Stitt talked about the adaptations that have strengthened his businesses and set the stage for future growth, without requiring him to run himself into the ground. Maybe the biggest one is distribution. Three distributors – U.S. Foods, Ben E. Keith and Louisiana-based Perrone & Sons – now make Bill E’s bacon available to markets and restaurants across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and parts of Florida. Stitt said you can find it in some Piggly Wiggly, Rouses Markets and Winn-Dixie stores. Direct online sales are now handled by Goldbelly.com, and Stitt said that partnership has made a night-and-day difference. “GoldBelly helps me by managing all the emails and phone calls. We just print the labels off in the morning and fulfill the orders. That’s been a dream,” he said. “They don’t make anything and they don’t warehouse anything, but they’re where foodies go to get interesting ingredients.” The bottom line, he said, is that “We were able to scale up without adding a bunch of people.” Scaling up: In a 2015 AL.com interview, Stitt said he was producing about 500 pounds of bacon a week. Now it’s 3,000 to 3,500 pounds a week, maybe more in the ramp-up to the Christmas gift season. He’s got a USDA inspector on-site five days a week. The stuff is going everywhere. “We’ve got a place in Rodeo Drive that orders it every month,” Stitt said. “St. Louis and Cincinnati and several places in Manhattan…Trendy little stores that get it, they’ll order 24 pounds. They constantly reorder.” The Alabama Retail Association honored Stitt as Silver Retailer of the Year for operations doing $1 million to $5 million in annual business. Stitt said that both his restaurant and the bacon business independently rank in that bracket. And yet, the bacon production facility is remarkably compact, even after multiple rounds of expansion. It’s all on the grounds of the sprawling restaurant, if you know where to look. It starts and ends with two walk-in coolers. In one of them, tubs of bacon go through the eight-day curing process. The tubs hang in rolling racks, a fairly recent addition that did away with a lot of hand-carrying. “We just got these trolleys a month or two ago,” said Stitt. “I own bacon trolleys, man! How many people can say that?” The pork bellies come in fresh from a network of farms, mostly in the Midwest, that has grown along with production. Premium pork is a global commodity. It takes relationships to secure a steady supply. “I started with three small farms. I now have 24 that grow for me,” said Stitt. “They’re my friends. They’re, some of them, fourth-generation.” They like knowing their premium pork is getting to domestic craftsmen, he said: “That’s why the farmers like me. I’m an avenue for them to sell high-end product and we can both do well.” After eight days of curing, slabs go into one of five electric smokers, which Stitt uses because he puts a premium on reliability and consistency. They’re packed into the room behind the “bacon stage.” They’re named for “five of my childhood friends and college roommates,” he said. “I tell my other friends, ‘If you stick with me, you might get a smoker named after you.’” Half a day of smoking and they go into three chillers, where they’re cooled and held for slicing and packaging. Stitt said meat comes out of the smoker at around 10:30 a.m. most weekdays and he’s happy for people to come stand at the window and watch before having lunch, “like watching the doughnuts get made at a Krispy Kreme.” Packaging includes wrapping paper and boxes that bear the Bill E’s logo, and that’s another piece of the process that illustrates the extent to which Stitt does not take any of this for granted. “My father was in the packaging business his whole life,” said Stitt. “That’s been very emotional for me because my dad sold empty bags and boxes his whole life. When I went from a stock, generic box to my own branded box, it was a big, big day for us.” Custom packaging is no small thing for Bill Stitt.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com After it’s wrapped and boxed, the bacon goes into the other walk-in, ready to ship. Stitt has never been one to downplay his Ruby Tuesday experience, and he said it helped him understand that he needed to step back sometimes, analyze what wasn’t working and make changes. He needed to delegate. “It gave me a lot of that,” he said. “It gave me a whole lot of ‘don’t quit.’ I’ve never been a quitter, but it gave me the drive. You know, to do this you’ve got to let people do their job. That doesn’t mean you sacrifice quality, but sometimes you’ve got to go through some growing pains to get them to where they understand the brand. You can’t do it all. You feel miserable.” That came in handy during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the shutdowns hit, the bacon business exploded. The restaurant almost imploded. “Fairhope was so good to me,” Stitt said. “Now, just like everybody else, a whole bunch of employees just kind of fell off the face of the earth and disappeared. But we had some that said ‘Billy, I want to work. What can I do?’…That handful of folks that stuck around kept us alive. And then we kind of found a few people.” The restaurant is on Baldwin 181 on the southeast side of Fairhope, just south of a Walmart, just past the edge of the sprawl eating away at the pastoral Baldwin of old. Its dirt and gravel parking lot is shaded by oaks. It’s a ramshackle roadhouse, with rustic indoor-outdoor seating. It used to be known as Old 27 Grill but now it’s Bill E’s, because consolidated branding just made sense. “People didn’t really know what 27 meant. We were trying 27 beers, 27 burgers, 27 wines. The road became Highway 181, The 27 thing just kind of got weirder and weirder,” said Stitt. “I would have these people come in from all over the country, they were like, ‘Hey, man, we’re here to get your bacon. I didn’t even know you had a restaurant.’” As you’d expect, the BLT at Bill E’s restaurant in Fairhope features plenty of the bacon Bill Stitt makes on-site.Lawrence Specker | LSpecker@AL.com Is bacon on the menu? Lord, yes. There’s a fine BLT and a Pork Belly Sandwich that a restaurant industry news site picked as one of the best sandwiches in America in 2018. You can get it in appetizers, such as the Pork Belly Bites Trio. You can get it on a salad or add it to a burger. Stitt, sitting in the restaurant courtyard talking, was clearly at ease and at home. A small group came in after the lunch rush, wearing University of Kentucky blue, and he jumped up to greet them. “Y’all played a good game Saturday,” he said. “I’m an Ole Miss Rebel, don’t hold it against me. I was up there and I thought y’all’s team did really well.” “Didn’t do well enough!” responded one of the visitors, cheerfully. Stitt can see bigger things for the restaurant. In its offices there’s a conference room that can seat 20 to 30 people. He’d like to market it as a corporate retreat site. Factor in the outdoor space, and it could hold bigger groups. It could be a bacon-themed destination. The same is true for the bacon business. Stitt would like to have a production facility big enough to handle more of the pig. Shoulders, butts, hams. Maybe even other meats. With bacon alone, he’s established that the market is there. “From a search perspective, if you Google bacon, you’re going to find me,” Stitt said. “There’s no way not to. And I don’t know how that happened, but it happened.” The potential is, shall we say, mouth...

Dow Futures Fall More Than 150 Points Fall As Treasury Yields Tick Higher https://digitalalabamanews.com/dow-futures-fall-more-than-150-points-fall-as-treasury-yields-tick-higher/ U.S. stock futures dipped Thursday, as a massive rally to start the month eased, with rates ticking higher once again. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures declined by 199 points, or 0.7%. S&P 500 futures slid 0.8%, and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.8%. The benchmark 10-year rate climbed more than 1 basis point to 3.773%. The 2-year yield, which is more sensitive to monetary policy changes, rose 2 basis points to 4.14%. Wall Street started the week on a high note, with the S&P 500 staging its biggest two-day rally since 2020. Stocks fought to keep the winning streak going Wednesday but ultimately fell short. The Dow closed about 42 points lower, or 0.14%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite slid 0.20% and 0.25%, respectively. “Few are convinced that the recent move is more than a bear market rally, with skepticism over the durability,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. “Confidence remains weak, ranging from CEOs, small businesses, consumers, and investors. Universal pessimism is bullish from a contrarian perspective, though timing of the pendulum swing is difficult to predict.” Investors continue to monitor economic data to see if inflation is cooling off, or if the Federal Reserve’s rate hikes are pushing the U.S. closer to a recession. Data from ADP showed that the labor market remained strong among private companies in September, when businesses added 208,000 jobs. That beat the 200,000 job estimate from Dow Jones. On Friday, the September jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics will be released, giving the central bank and investors another piece of data. Some companies are reporting earnings, as well. On Thursday, Constellation Brands will announce its results before the opening bell, and Levi Strauss will report after the market closes. Pinterest pops after Goldman upgrade Pinterest shares rose more than 4% after Goldman Sachs upgraded the social media company to buy from neutral, citing potential improvements in user engagement and monetization. “We upgrade the shares of Pinterest … on the back of improved user growth/engagement trends in the short/medium term and the potential for upside to revenue growth trajectory and operating margin estimates as we move into 2023/2024,” Goldman said in a note. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Fred Imbert Mizuho says OPEC+ supply cut confirms ‘naked desire for price buoyancy’ OPEC and its allies’ decision to cut production by 2 million barrels per day confirms the group’s “naked desire for price buoyancy, not just support,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank. A supply cut of around 1 million barrels per day would have resulted in price gains without a compromise on volumes, but a larger cut shows the alliance’s “disregard for the economic woes of, and geo-political alignment with, global partners,” he wrote. “What may have been argued as an opportunistic gamble exploiting geo-political supply kinks for self-interest advantage is now in danger of being interpreted as an affront to the U.S. and its allies (in protestation of Russia price cap plans) that aligns with Russia,” he added. — Abigail Ng CNBC Pro: Time to buy the dip? Some stocks are still trading at lows with further big upside The beginning of this week has brought something of a relief rally to stocks. Still, global as well as Wall Street indexes, are still well in the red year-to-date. That could present an opportunity for investors looking for quality stocks and future upside in a volatile environment. CNBC Pro screened for stocks trading within 10% of their 52-week low, but have a buy rating from more than 50% of Wall Street analysts that cover them. The stocks have an average price target upside of 20% or more, and earnings growth expectation for 2022 of at least 10%. Here are the stocks that turned up. CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here. — Weizhen Tan CNBC Pro: NYU’s Aswath Damodaran names big tech stocks that are a better bet than ‘traditional safe’ ones NYU’s Aswath Damodaran loves companies that can “withstand a hurricane, a catastrophe if it does happen.” The professor of finance at New York University, who is sometimes referred to as the “Dean of Valuation, believes big tech stocks can do just that, and reveals the stocks he owns. Pro subscribers can read more here. — Zavier Ong October could be the start of a bull market rally, Detrick says Even though stocks pulled back Wednesday, stopping a major two-day win streak, October may still be the start of a new bull market rally according to Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group. “We think this could be the start of a pretty decent-sized end of year rally,” Detrick said during CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” That’s because, traditionally, stock performance improves in October in midterm election years, said Detrick. He also noted that even though markets ended the day lower, stocks posted a major rally in the afternoon that regained a lot of lost ground. That’s a positive, according to Detrick. —Carmen Reinicke Stock futures open flat Wednesday Stock futures opened flat Wednesday evening after all three major averages closed lower, failing to continue a major two-day rally that started this week. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 7 points, or 0.03%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.02% and 0.03%, respectively. – Carmen Reinicke Read More…

Pouring Scorn On 'annexations,' Ukraine Reclaims More Territory In The South And East; 'You've Already Lost' Kyiv Tells Moscow https://digitalalabamanews.com/pouring-scorn-on-annexations-ukraine-reclaims-more-territory-in-the-south-and-east-youve-already-lost-kyiv-tells-moscow/ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Russia’s leadership that it cannot win the war as Kyiv counts more gains on the battlefield, both in the south around Kherson and in the east, with Ukrainian troops pushing from Donetsk into Luhansk. “You have already lost. Lost because even now, on the 224th day of the full-scale war, you are forced to explain to your people the purpose of all this — this war, deceitful mobilization, self-destruction of your nation’s every prospect.” Ukrainian soldiers on a personnel armored carrier on a road in the Donetsk region on Oct. 5, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Anatolii Stepanov | Afp | Getty Images Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian troops for their successes in reclaiming dozens of settlements in the south of Ukraine, in the Kherson region, and said “there will be more” gains to come. “Ukrainians know what they fight for. And more and more Russian citizens realize that they must die simply because one single man does not want to stop the war,” he said, speaking in Russian. The renewed push in Ukraine’s counteroffensives comes after Russia announced last week that it was “annexing” four regions of Ukraine. Kyiv’s successes on the battlefield are showing Moscow that its self-proclaimed “hold” on those regions is fragile. Russian forces shell Zaporizhzhia twice, residents told to shelter Ukrainian firefighters push out a fire after a strike in Zaporizhzhia on October 6, 2022. Marina Moiseyenko | Afp | Getty Images Russian forces have shelled the southern city of Zaporizhzhia several times today with residential buildings being hit in the early hours of the morning. Oleksandr Starukh, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said on Telegram this morning that residential buildings had been struck with two people killed in the attacks and others wounded and trapped under the rubble. Ukrainian firefighters clear debris after a strike on Zaporizhzhia on October 6, 2022. Marina Moiseyenko | Afp | Getty Images Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, slammed the attacks, calling the Russian forces “crazy cowards” for launching rocket attacks on apartment buildings. “Russian terrorists are able to fight only with civilians,” he wrote on Telegram. Both officials posted footage and images of the destruction following the rocket attacks showing the same buildings as the Getty images above. — Holly Ellyatt Russia has few ‘high quality forces’ available to stabilize Kherson front, UK says A damaged car, which was carjacked by Russian soldiers, pictured in front of a damaged hospital building on Sept. 27, 2022, in Vysokopillia, Ukraine. Global Images Ukraine | Getty Images News | Getty Images Russia has “few additional, high quality rapidly deployable forces available” to stabilize the front in Kherson in southern Ukraine, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defense, and Moscow likely aims to deploy mobilized reservists to the sector. Reflecting on Ukraine’s push to reclaim territory in Kherson, the ministry said that Ukrainian units have advanced southward, pushing the front line forward by up to an additional 12.5 miles and “primarily making gains along the east bank of the Inhulets [river] and west bank of the Dnipro [river], but not yet threatening the main Russian defensive positions.” Russian forces have typically broken contact and withdrawn, the ministry noted, adding that Russian commanders are likely to see the growing threat to the Nova Kakhovka area (a town on the south bank of the Dnipro river) as “one of their most pressing concerns” given that the damaged river crossing there remains one of the few routes available for them to resupply forces in Kherson. The U.K. ministry said Russia faces a dilemma given the fact that the “withdrawal of combat forces across the Dnipro makes defence of the rest of Kherson Oblast more tenable; but the political imperative will be to remain and defend.” — Holly Ellyatt More settlements liberated in ‘annexed’ region Luhansk Ukraine’s armed forces are making progress in liberating settlements in Luhansk, an eastern region that Russia claims to have “annexed.” After announcing that the “de-occupation of Luhansk” had begun Wednesday, the Ukrainian head of the Luhansk regional military administration Serhiy Haidai said Wednesday evening on Telegram that Ukrainian troops had “begun to liberate the occupied settlements of Luhansk region: six small settlements have been liberated as of now, but there may be more by the morning.” Haidai refrained from naming the settlements that had been liberated. “We are not naming the villages yet, because the Russians then out of malice start shelling them powerfully,” he noted, adding: “the de-occupation continues … there should be good news every day.” Ukrainian forces have made swift and significant progress after recapturing the strategically important town of Lyman, which was used by occupying Russian forces as a logistics hub, in Donetsk before pushing toward neighboring Luhansk. A Ukrainian army press officer shows the debris of Russian air strike aircraft Su-34 at a collection point of destroyed Russian armored vehicles at an animal feed plant in the recently retaken town of Lyman in the Donetsk region, on Oct. 5, 2022. Yasuyoshi Chiba | AFP | Getty Images Ukraine’s gains in both eastern regions which make up the larger Donbas (which contains two pro-Russian, separatist “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk), come after Russia announced last week that it had “annexed” Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south. There has been renewed vigor in Ukraine’s counteroffensives in the east and south since the “annexations,” which Ukraine and its allies call illegal and illegitimate, and its forces have made gains around Kherson too. Kyiv has vowed to fight until it reclaims all its lost territory. — Holly Ellyatt ‘You’ve already lost’ the war, Zelenskyy tells Russia Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy poses for a pictures with Ukrainian servicemen as he visits the town of Izium, recently liberated by Ukraine’s armed forces, in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine on Sept. 14, 2022. Gleb Garanich | Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told Russia’s leadership that it cannot win the war. “You’ve already lost. Lost because even now, on the 224th day of the full-scale war, you are forced to explain to your people the purpose of all this — this war, deceitful mobilization, self-destruction of your nation’s every prospect,” he said in Russian in his nightly address. Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainian troops for their successes in reclaiming dozens of settlements in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine and said “there will be more” gains to come. “Ukrainians know what they fight for. And more and more Russian citizens realize that they must die simply because one single man does not want to stop the war.” This photograph, taken on Oct. 5, 2022, shows destroyed Russian armored vehicles gathered at a collection point in an animal feed plant in the recently retaken town of Lyman in the Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Yasuyoshi Chiba | Afp | Getty Images Zelenskyy gave more detail on Ukraine’s successes on the battlefield Wednesday, stating on Telegram that the settlements of Novovoskresenske, Novohryhorivka and Petropavlivka in Kherson had been “liberated … and stabilized.” Ukraine’s latest advances in regions like Kherson and Donetsk come after Russia announced last week that it was “annexing” such regions, a move signed into law by President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. Ukraine has said it will never recognize the results of sham referendums in occupied parts of Ukraine and its counteroffensives are proving that Russia’s hold on occupied territory is shaky. — Holly Ellyatt Russian-installed official says Ukrainian troops have made ‘breakthroughs’ in Kherson Ukrainian soldiers wave a national flag as they ride on a personnel armoured carrier on a road near Lyman, Donetsk region on October 4, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Anatolii Stepanov | AFP | Getty Images A Russian-installed official conceded that Kyiv’s forces were making gains around Kherson, one of four regions that Moscow “annexed” last week. “It’s tense, let’s put it that way,” Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head of Ukraine’s Kherson region, said on state television, according to a Reuters report. Last week that Moscow was “annexing” four regions in Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “republics” in eastern Ukraine. Kyiv and its allies condemned the move, calling it illegitimate and illegal. — Amanda Macias Ukrainian defense minister shares video showing reclaimed land from Russian forces Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov shared a video on Twitter of Ukrainian advances on the battlefield against Russian troops. “While the Russian parliament is intoxicated from the futile attempts at annexation, our soldiers continue moving forward,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter. “This is the best answer to any and all referenda, decrees, treaties and pathetic speeches,” he added. In the past few weeks, Ukrainian forces have reclaimed more occupied land from Russia, despite the Kremlin’s announcement that it was annexing four regions in Ukraine. — Amanda Macias Russia ready to supply gas to Europe via Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Kremlin says Nord Stream 2 logo displayed on a phone screen and Russian flag displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo taken in Krakow in Krakow, Poland on February 22, 2022. Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty...

The Ultimate Garage & Estate Sale Guide For This Weekend https://digitalalabamanews.com/the-ultimate-garage-estate-sale-guide-for-this-weekend/ The ultimate garage & estate sale guide for this weekend Don’t miss the great deals at these yard and estate sales around Dothan. (17) updates to this series since 53 min ago Moving Sale 319 Wicklow Drive, Dothan. Oct. 7th, 8am-12pm Oct. 8th, 7am-until. We are selling almost everything! Don’t miss it! Everything must go! 104 St. Francis Rd. Fri. 7th (8 to noon) & Sat. 8th (7 to noon) Clothes, H/H, TV, Cookware Something for Everyone! 5544 Rocky Creek Rd. Sat. 8th (8am to 12) Furniture, clothes, purses, VHS tapes, magazines, LOTS OF DOLLAR ITEMS 4030 So County Rd 33 Ashford Fri. 10/7 (7-?) Sat. 10/8 (7-1) Lots of Misc., Some Furniture, Clothing, Books, Toys, Little Bit of Everything – … 313 East Sand Creek Rd. Enterprise Sat. 8th (8-2) 2-Family leather & wool rugs several sizes, washer, pool vacum, hand held leaf vacum, ch… Triumph Cross Lutheran Church 2643 Murphy Mill Rd. – Indoor Yard Sale Fri. 7th. (1-5) & Sat. 8th (8-12) All size clothing including large … Whitfield Estates Annual Comm. Yard Sale Fri. Oct. 7th & Sat. Oct. 8th (7-?) Sales begin on Fri. with many more sales on Sat. Located Bran… 904 Sizemore Hwy. Geneva Old Hwy 27 Fri. Oct. 7th (9-6) Sat. Oct. 8th (9-2) paintings (finished & unfinished) frames, canvases , H/H and m… CRESTWOOD VILLAGE COMMUNITY YARD SALE Sat. 8th (7 to noon) H/H items, Tools, Toys and LOTS of Miscellaneous items. ESTATE SALE 197 S. Broad St. Cowarts Fri. 7th (8-4) Sat. 8th. (8-1) old toys, costume jewelry, glassware, quilts, linens, H/H, some old & … Louisville ESTATE Sale – At a farm Contents of home and several out buildings. 1468 Co. Rd. 9 Louisville Fri. 7th & Sat. 8th (9-3) sofas, … 113 Club Way in Enterprise Sat. 8th (7-11) MULTI-FAMILY tools, H/H, toys, dining table with chairs, custom drapes & so much more! Southern Family Bargain Store 1118 Headland Ave. Falling prices! Open Wed- Fri (10-5) 334-792-2825 LARGE ABANDONED GOODS SALE: Friday & Saturday, Oct. 7th & 8th (8a – 5p) Located on Maple Ave. Geneva, AL, near courthouse Old South Antique Mall 1861 Reeves St. Dothan M-F 10-5, Sat. 10-6 & Sun. 1-5 Marley Mill Estate Sale Sept 23rd & 24th ( 8am-2pm ) 1479 West Co. Rd. 36, Ozark Furniture, Home Decor & Household Items Hosted by: La… Eufaula Moving/Estate Sale 950 Fox Ridge Road Fri. 23rd & Sat. 24th (9-3) Sofa, Wall Mirror, Grill, Fire Pit, Chair & Ottoman, Lamp, B… Read More…

Court Declares DACA Program Illegal, But Leaves Policy Intact For Nearly 600,000 Immigrant https://digitalalabamanews.com/court-declares-daca-program-illegal-but-leaves-policy-intact-for-nearly-600000-immigrant-2/ A federal appeals court on Wednesday said the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy violates U.S. immigration law, dealing a blow to an Obama-era program that provides deportation protection and work permits to nearly 600,000 immigrant “Dreamers” who lack legal status. A three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded the Obama administration did not have the legal authority to create DACA in 2012, affirming a July 2021 ruling from a federal judge in Texas who barred the Biden administration from enrolling new immigrants in the decade-old program. Despite its conclusion, the appeals court did not order the Biden administration to shut down DACA completely or stop processing renewal applications, deciding instead to leave in place an order from U.S. Judge Andrew Hanen that left the policy intact for current beneficiaries. The government, however, will continue to be prohibited from approving first-time DACA applications.   The appeals court sent the case back to Hanen, tasking him with reviewing regulations that the Biden administration unveiled in August to address the legal challenges over the Obama administration’s decision to create DACA through a memo, instead of a rule open to public comments. The regulations are currently slated to go into effect on October 31.  The Justice Department, which represents the federal government in lawsuits, said it disagreed with the ruling and vowed to “vigorously defend the lawfulness of DACA as this case proceeds.” The Biden administration is likely to file a formal appeal, paving the way for the conservative-leaning high court to issue a final decision on DACA’s legality next year. In a statement issued late Wednesday night, President Biden said he’s “disappointed.” “The court’s stay provides a temporary reprieve for DACA recipients but one thing remains clear: the lives of Dreamers remain in limbo,” he said, adding, “it is long past time for Congress to pass permanent protections for Dreamers, including a pathway to citizenship.”  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “deeply disappointed” by Wednesday’s court decision, denouncing the “ongoing uncertainty it creates for families and communities across the country.” He said his department would continue processing DACA renewal cases. “We are currently reviewing the court’s decision and will work with the Department of Justice on an appropriate legal response,” Mayorkas added in his statement. In its ruling Wednesday, the three-judge panel concluded that DACA had the same legal defects as another Obama-era program that would have offered deportation protection to the unauthorized immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and green card holders. The program, known as the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), was blocked in court and was never implemented. “Like DAPA, DACA “is foreclosed by Congress’s careful plan; the program is ‘manifestly contrary to the statute,'” the ruling said. Like Hanen, the Texas judge who declared DACA unlawful last summer, the appeals court expressed sympathy for immigrants currently enrolled in the program in justifying its decision to allow the government to continue accepting renewal applications.   “We also recognize that DACA has had profound significance to recipients and many others in the ten years since its adoption,” the court said. As of June 30, 594,120 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children were enrolled in DACA, half of whom live in California, Texas and Illinois, according to data published by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that administers the program. Wednesday’s court ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in 2018 by Texas and other Republican-controlled states that have argued DACA was an overreach of the federal government’s immigration powers. While DACA allows beneficiaries to live and work in the U.S. legally without fear of deportation, it does not qualify them for permanent legal status or citizenship. Those enrolled in DACA had to prove they arrived in the U.S. by age 16 and before June 2007, studied in a U.S. school or served in the military, and lacked any serious criminal record.   The court ruling could create a renewed sense of urgency in Congress to pass legislation that places the program’s beneficiaries on path to citizenship, a proposal with robust bipartisan support among lawmakers and the American public. For over two decades, however, proposals to legalize Dreamers have died in Congress amid intense partisan gridlock over other immigration issues. In the current Congress, Democrats would likely need to accept border security measures to secure the necessary number of Republican votes to pass such a legalization bill. Mayorkas on Wednesday urged Congress to “swiftly” take action. “Last month, DHS issued a final rule to preserve and fortify DACA, recognizing that it has transformed the lives of so many Dreamers who have enriched our nation through their contributions,” he said. “It is clear, though, that only the passage of legislation will give full protection and a well-deserved path to citizenship for DACA recipients.” Camilo Montoya-Galvez Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics. Read More…

End Of Week Cold Front To Bring Some Changes https://digitalalabamanews.com/end-of-week-cold-front-to-bring-some-changes/ MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – In a period spanning more than three weeks there has been measurable rain only once in Montgomery. At this point it’s more than fair to say everyone needs rain. Unfortunately there isn’t any in our forecast. No rain expected through at least next Thursday afternoon.(WSFA 12 News) There are signs that suggest a chance of rain just outside of our current 7-day forecast at the end of next week. Long-range models have continued to advertise this chance, so let’s hope it remains a possibility as we get closer. Otherwise look for sunny to partly cloudy skies each day. High temperatures will be in the mid-80s today and tomorrow. A handful of upper 80s are even possible tomorrow. A cold front will then swing through late tomorrow, bringing a reinforcing shot of fall air for the weekend. Plenty of sun overall as the week comes to a close and the weekend progresses.(WSFA 12 News) Highs Saturday and Sunday will be around 80 degrees with a good deal of sunshine and very low humidity. Overnight lows will be around 50 degrees both Saturday night and Sunday night. It won’t be too bad, but the front will likely kick up the wind just a little this weekend, especially Saturday. Wind speeds should stay below 15 mph. Another warming trend will kick off as next week gets underway. Afternoon temperatures will warm from the lower 80s Monday to the middle and perhaps upper 80s beyond. Not only will the afternoons warm, but the overnight periods won’t be as cool. Lows will be in the upper 50s and lower 60s for much of next week! Models are suggesting a chance of rain at the end of next week.(WSFA 12 News) As mentioned above, there are at least 7 more dry days on the way. This means fire danger stays elevated for everyone. It also means drought conditions have been allowed to settle in for some of us. Grass getting browner and crunchier, small creeks and ponds losing water and stressed out plants are some of the impacts we’re currently facing. Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store! Copyright 2022 WSFA. All rights reserved. Read More…

Happenings — What’s Coming Up In Northeast Ohio Starting Oct. 7 https://digitalalabamanews.com/happenings-whats-coming-up-in-northeast-ohio-starting-oct-7-2/ Here is a brief rundown of some coming entertainment options in Northeast Ohio. Make submissions for consideration via email to entertainment@morningjournal.com or entertainment@news-herald.com. You must include a phone number and/or web address for publication. Art Beck Center for the Arts: 17801 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, presents “The Cultural Heritage Exhibition & Experience,” a display of visual arts, through Nov. 6. Call 216-521-2540, or visit beckcenter.org. Canton Museum of Art: 1001 Market Ave. N., Canton, presents Christkindl Market, Nov. 11. Call 330-453-7666 or visit CantonArt.org. Cleveland Botanical Garden: 11030 East Blvd., presents the conclusion of “Stickwork,” a stickwork art installation,” through Oct. 30; “Nature’s Source,” featuring the work of Kristen Chittock inside the Corning Visitor Center, through Nov. 6. Call 216-721-1600, or visit cbgarden.org. Cleveland Museum of Art: 11150 East Blvd., presents “Native North America,” through Dec. 4; “Ancient Andean Textiles,” through Dec. 4; “Arts of Africa,” through Dec. 18; “Cycles of Life: The Four Seasons Tapestries,” through Feb. 19; “Creating Urgency: Modern and Contemporary Korean Art,” through Oct. 23; “Escaping to a Better World: Eccentrics and Immortals in Chinese Art,” through Nov. 6; “The Medieval Top Seller: The Book of Hours,” through July 30, 2023; “Text and Image in Southern Asia,”  through March 5; “Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection,” through Jan. 8; “Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel,” Oct. 9 through Jan. 8; “China through the Magnifying Glass: Masterpieces in Miniature and Detail,” Dec. 11 through Feb. 26; “Nineteenth-Century French Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art,” Jan. 20 through April 30; “The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England,” Feb. 26 through May 14; “Tilman Riemenschneider’s Saint Jerome and Late Medieval Alabaster Sculpture,” March 26 through July 23; “A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur,” June 11 through Sept. 10. Call 216-421-7340 or visit clevelandart.org. Fairmount Center for the Arts: 8400 Road, Russell Township, presents “Patricia Simmons: A Life of Art,” through Nov. 20. Call 440-338-3171 or visit fairmountcenter.org. KINK Contemporary: 15515 Waterloo Road, Cleveland, presents “Sculptural Imprints,” featuring the work of artists Patricia Brett, Emmy Bright, Kat Burdine, Leigh Garcia, Susanna Harris, Taryn McMahon, and Maddie McSweeney, Oct. 7 through Dec. 2. Visit kinkcontemporary.com. Penitentiary Glen Reservation: 8668 Kirtland-Chardon Road, Kirtland, presents the work of An’Angelia Thompson in Lake Metroparks’ fall art show, “Harvest: An Introspective,” through Oct. 9. Call 440-256-1404 or visit lakemetroparks.com/parks-trails/penitentiary-glen-reservation. Auditions Euclid Symphony Orchestra: is offering applications for its annual Tom Baker Young Artists Competition, which open to anyone 18 and older who are advanced musicians, with the competition being held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 12 at Shore Cultural Center. Visit euclidsymphonyorchestra.com or email ESOYoungArtists@gmail.com. Children’s entertainment Akron Civic Theatre: 182 S. Main St., presents “Blue’s Clues & You! Live on Stage,” 2 p.m. Oct. 15; MadCap Puppets – “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Oct. 30. Visit AkronCivic.com. Playhouse Square: 1501 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, presents its “Disney Junior Live on Tour: costume Palooza,” 4 p.m. Oct. 8; 2022-23 Children’s Theater Series — “Grace for President, Oct. 22 and 23 | “Peter Rabbit Tales,” Nov. 5 and 6 |  “It’s Okay to Be Different,” Feb. 11 and 12 | “The Gruffalo,” March 4 and 5; PAW Patrol Live! “Heroes Unite,” March 10 through 12. Call 216-241-6000 or visit PlayhouseSquare.org. Comedy Agora Theatre & Ballroom: 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, presents JB Smoove, Nov. 19; Noel Miller, March 31; Dan Cummins, Mary Santora, April 7. Visit AgoraCleveland.com. Cleveland Improv: 1148 Main Ave., Cleveland, presents Rodney Perry, Oct. 7 and 8; Matt Rife, Oct. 14 and 15; Justin Whitehead, Oct. 16; Gary Owen, Oct. 20 to through 23. Call 216-696-4677 or visit ClevelandImprov.com. Hilarities 4th Street Theatre: 2025 E. Fourth St., Cleveland, presents Dan Soder, Oct. 6 through 8; Josh Gondelman, Oct. 7; Brad Upton, Oct. 8; Chris Franjola, Oct. 14 and 15; Yamaneika Saunders, Oct. 16; Ramy Youssef, Oct. 30;  Carmen Lynch, Nov. 10 through 12. Call 216-736-4242 or visit pickwickandfrolic.com. Playhouse Square: 1501 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, presents “Made in Puerto Rico: An Evening With Comedian Eli Castro,” Oct. 8. Call 216-241-6000 or visit PlayhouseSquare.org. Wolstein Center: 2000 Prospect Ave., presents Jeff Dunham, Oct. 29. Call 877-468-4946 or visit wolsteincenter.com. Dance Cleveland Ballet: presents “Swan Lake,” Oct. 21 and 22 at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace, with a gala event set for 5 p.m. Oct. 21; “The Nutcracker,” Dec. 15 through 18 at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace; “Serenade” and “Spring Collection,” April 21 and 22, 2023 at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace. Visit Clevelandballet.com. Lorain Palace Theater: 617 Broadway, Lorain, presents North Pointe Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker,” Dec. 2 through 4. Call 440-245-2323 or visit lorainpalace.com. MGM Northfield Park: 10777 Northfield Road, Northfield, presents “Dancing With the Stars Live!,” Jan. 22; . Call 330-908-7625 or visit mgmnorthfieldpark.mgmresorts.com. Verb Ballets Center for Dance: 3558 Lee Road, Shaker Heights, presents “Schubert Melodies,” an evening of dance and music in collaboration with BlueWater Chamber Orchestra, Oct. 15 at Breen Cengter for the Performing Arts, 2008 W. 30th St., Cleveland. Call 216-397-3757 or visit verballets.org. Film All Rise — A Festival of Film and Law: hosted by the Cleveland State University School of Film & Media Arts, in partnership with the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, will be Oct. 27 through 20 at Playhouse Square, with screenings in the Westfield Studio Theater and the CSU School of Film & Media Arts and launching Oct. 27 with a keynote event featuring producer, screenwriter and actor Angela Russo-Otstot (“Cherry”). Visit AllRiseFilmFest.org. Chagrin Documentary Film Festival: featuring in-person screenings, throughout downtown Chagrin Falls, through Oct. 9, and online screenings, Oct. 9 through 16 Call 440-247-1591 or visit chagrinfilmfest.org. Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque: 11610 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, presents “Velvet Goldmine, 7 p.m. Oct. 7 and 9:10 p.m. Oct. 8; “Riotsville, U.S.A.,” 9:20 p.m. Oct. 7; “Antoine and Colette,” 5 p.m. Oct. 8 and 8:20 p.m. Oct. 9; “Loving Highsmith,” 7:25 p.m. Oct. 8; “The Chase,” 3:30 p.m. Oct. 9; “Bicycle Theieves,” 6:30 p.m. Oct. 9. Call 216-421-7450 or visit CIA.edu/Cinematheque. Cleveland International Film Festival: presents CIFF47, March 22 through April 1 at Playhouse Square; CIFF47 Streams, April 10 through 17 online. Call 216-623-3456 or visit clevelandfilm.org. Lorain Palace Theater: 617 Broadway, Lorain, presents “Dark Ether” movie premiere, Oct. 19. Call 440-245-2323 or visit lorainpalace.com. Playhouse Square: 1501 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, presents a public screening of a film version of Cleveland playwright David Hansen’s one-man show “I Hate This (a play without the baby),” coinciding with World Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, with a post-show conversation with Hansen, his wife Toni, the play’s director and a representative from University Hospitals, 7 p.m. Oct. 15 in the Westfield Studio Theatre. Call 216-241-6000 or visit PlayhouseSquare.org. Stocker Arts Center at Lorain County Community College: 1005 N. Abbe Road, Elyria, presents the 2022 Fall Film Series, 7:30 p.m. Fridays in the Hoke Theatre — “Montana’s Story,” Oct. 7 | “Secrets & Lies,” Oct. 14 | “Headhunters,” Oct. 21 | “Oranges and Sunshine,” Nov. 4 | “Mississippi Marsala,” Nov. 18. Call 440-366-4040 or visit StockerArtsCenter.com. Music Agora Theatre & Ballroom: 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, presents Lost Dog Street Band, Oct. 7; Within Temptation, Oct. 8; Hippo Campus, CHAI, Oct. 11; King Princess, St. Panther, Oct. 12; SLANDER, Eptic, Wavedash, Oct. 13; Michael Schenker 50th anniversary with Eric Martin, Images of Eden, Oct. 15; Awolnation, Badflower, Oct. 19; Liquid Stranger, Tripp St., Ravenscoon, Oct. 20; The Dollop, Oct. 21; Marcus King, Oct. 23; Mushroomhead Halloween, Oct. 29; Hatebreed, Gatecreeper, Bodysnatcher, Oct. 30; Daniel Howell, Nov. 2; Cannibal Corpse, Dark Funeral, Immolation, Nov. 8; W.A.S.P., I Prevail, Pierce the Veil, Fit for a King, Stand Atlantic, Nov. 11; Armored Saint, Nov. 12; Trevor Wallace, Nov. 13; Mac DeMarco, Nov. 17; Streetlight Manifesto, Nov. 20; Bobby Shmurda, Nov. 27; Foals, Dec. 11; Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd tribute), Jan. 7; Jazz Is Dead, Jan. 22; Angel Olsen, Erin Rae, Feb. 2; Bikini Kill, April 16. Visit AgoraCleveland.com. Akron Civic Theatre: 182 S. Main St., presents Flamenco en Familia, Oct. 16; Bosom Buddies, a benefit concert featuring Ashley Cooke, Joe Nichols and Lainey Wilson, Oct. 19; Mania (ABBA tribute), Oct. 20; Home Free, Erin Kinsey, Oct. 28; Who’s Bad (Michael Jackson tribute), Nov. 4; The Sixties Show, Nov. 5; Almost Queen, Nov. 19; Straight No Chaser, Dec. 22. Visit AkronCivic.com. Apollo’s Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra: presents “Monteverdi Vespers of 1610,” 8 p.m. Oct. 8 at First Baptist Church, Shaker Heights | 4 p.m. Oct. 9 at St. Raphael Catholic Church, Bay Village | 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Akron | 8 p.m. Oct. 15, First Baptist Church, Shaker Heights. Call 216-320-0012 or 800-314-2535, or visit apollosfire.org. Beachland Ballroom: 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland, presents Southern Culture on the Skids, Oct. 7; Kitchen Dwellers, Daniel Donato, Oct. 7; Carnifex, Spite, Oceano, Oct. 8;...

Court Screwup Reveals Mar-A-Lago Judge’s Latest Absurdity https://digitalalabamanews.com/court-screwup-reveals-mar-a-lago-judges-latest-absurdity/ First, she stopped FBI special agents from even glancing at the classified documents they recovered from Mar-a-Lago. Then she appointed a special court referee that former President Donald Trump wanted to slow down the investigation over his mishandling of classified documents. But now, it’s clear District Court Judge Aileen Cannon already knew the Department of Justice was ready to hand Trump back a ton of personal records six days before she claimed the former president was suffering “a real harm” by being “deprived of potentially significant personal documents.” The “medical records” she worried the feds might leak to the press—what she called a “risk of irreparable injury” to the former president—were actually a doctor’s note Trump himself made public when running for the White House in 2016 as part of a publicity stunt. A description in court records indicates the feds were trying to return an addendum to the infamous, eye-rolling letter that a Manhattan doctor quickly typed up emphatically declaring, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” Those details were made public when the court screwed up Tuesday night and posted a sealed DOJ filing on the public docket, which was quickly caught by Bloomberg reporter Zoe Tillmann. The Aug. 30 letter to the judge, which is marked “sealed,” lays out the abundantly cautious way the DOJ treated its raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier that month. The FBI had a “privilege review team” of agents and lawyers conduct an initial sweep and sort through evidence to put aside anything that could taint an eventual prosecution of the former president—such as confidential letters between him and any of his 35 different lawyers. In the letter, a DOJ lawyer representing that “taint team” explained that three weeks after the seizure of goods at the oceanside Florida estate, the team was ready to return 43 items that had nothing to do with the investigation: legal documents ranging from his confidential settlement with the Professional Golfers’ Association to invoices from his attorney Alina Habba. The revelation makes even more obvious how far Cannon went to appease the president who gave her a lifetime appointment to the federal bench. And it’s only adding to what’s become a resounding consensus from legal scholars that Cannon is squarely on Trump’s side. Trump lawyers, who’ve gone judge-shopping for her in the past, seemed to do it again when they filed this lawsuit to freeze the FBI investigation. Avoiding the South Florida magistrate judge who initially approved the search warrant and was already overseeing the matter, Trump’s lawyers marked the case as unrelated to other pending litigation—diverting this over to another judge and ending up with Cannon. At the very first court hearing, Cannon signaled deep distrust of the DOJ and journalists. She expressed a belief that the FBI’s investigation of Trump for mishandling “top secret” records was somehow distinct from the federal government’s damage assessment over whether the nation’s secrets were put at risk. Legal analysts Teri Kanefield, Harry Litman, and others agonized over Cannon’s bizarre legal reasoning. At every turn since, she has granted Trump’s lawyers exactly what their client wants most: time to burn. “She’s just giving him the delay that he’s asked for,” said Peter M. Shane, a legal scholar at New York University’s law school. “She has obvious sympathy for Trump’s contention that, as a former president, he deserves super-consideration.” Trump’s lawyers wanted to hit the brakes on the FBI investigation. Cannon forbade the agents from reviewing the classified documents. They wanted to appoint a “special master” to micromanage the DOJ and review whether any seized document could be considered a privileged presidential record or attorney-client communication. Cannon didn’t just appoint one—she picked the semi-retired judge they wanted. Then, when Raymond Dearie turned out to be a no-nonsense arbiter who wanted to speed this process along—dangerously cornering Trump’s lawyers by telling them to formally explain whether Trump actually declassified these records—Cannon came swooping in out of nowhere to dial him back. “This is how a judge would behave… if her motivation was simply to be helpful to Trump,” Shane told The Daily Beast. The DOJ has already been moderately successful at appealing her decisions. The Eleventh Circuit, despite its conservative leaning, restored the FBI’s ability to keep reviewing the classified government records taken from Mar-a-Lago. And on Wednesday, the federal appellate court in Atlanta granted the DOJ’s pleas and agreed to expedite the appeal that could scrap the entire “special master” ordeal. But while the case makes its way through that process, legal scholars worry Cannon will continue to micromanage her chosen micromanager. “She seems to be cooperating quite well with the former president,” said Carl Tobias, a law school professor at the University of Richmond. Dearie was once the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn and went on to become a federal judge, including a seven-year stint on the coveted and hyper-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which is where the feds ask for judicial approval to conduct some kinds of spying on foreigners. His role in this case could keep it moving forward fairly, although some legal scholars are starting to worry whether he’ll stick around. “This is a person who spent 38 years building his enormous reputation. If I were a judge for 38 years… I wouldn’t want to be ordered around by someone who’s a lackey to Trump,” Tobias said. But her potential to harm the FBI’s investigation is far from over. Dearie’s role is merely to be a temporary referee to shepherd the potentially privileged document review process. His decision’s aren’t even final. Any conclusion he makes will still be submitted for approval to Cannon, who’s 37 years his junior and was a newborn in Colombia when he was already leading the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York while the crime rate was soaring. Tobias stressed that every day the case remains with Cannon is a step in the wrong direction, noting that she should have done the right thing: recognized that this case was already an extension of the Mar-a-Lago search and transferred it back to Bruce Reinhart, the magistrate judge who approved the search warrant. “I just don’t think she ever had jurisdiction,” Tobias said. “She could have kicked this back to the magistrate. To the extent this case had any validity, it belonged there—rather than have this. They forum-shopped to get her. It raises all kinds of issues.” Read More…

Tucker Carlson: Dems Likely To Pick ‘senile’ Biden For 2024 https://digitalalabamanews.com/tucker-carlson-dems-likely-to-pick-senile-biden-for-2024/ Fox News Primetime Host Tucker Carlson has claimed the Democratic establishment has “benefitted greatly” from a “senile” Joe Biden and is likely to push the President to run for re-election in 2024. The 79-year-old President has continued to dismiss speculation on re-election as he stares down the November mid-terms which could see a Democratic Party wipe-out in Congress. Current opinion polls have Joe Biden marginally up from his mid-year trough and recording a 42 per cent approval rating. The President is even behind his predecessor Donald Trump at same stage of their terms leading many to speculate whether he will seek re-election. In an exclusive interview with Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin, Carlson said despite the disastrous polls, the Democratic Party establishment would likely throw its support behind the incumbent come 2024. Stream more US news live and on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 Carlson said Mr Biden had “worked pretty well” for the Democrats and the party was “not going to run” his Vice President Kamala Harris. “Joe Biden is senile and the down side is he’s not capable of organising your daughter’s birthday party much less running a government but the upside is he seems very non-threatening,” Carlson said. “Voters are not afraid of Joe Biden and of course he’s merely a proxy for the people who are actually running the US government – the faceless, diabolical figures who are driving us into the abyss. “So they’ve benefited greatly from having a senile president and the more I think about it, the more I imagine – why wouldn’t they run him again?” The President recently addressed the issue on the US 60 Minutes program where Mr Biden said it was “much too early” to make a call. Mr Biden said he would continue to do his job and delay the decision until a “timeframe that makes sense after this next election cycle here”. “My intention as I said to begin with is that I would run again. But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen,” Mr Biden said in September. As speculation continues to grow around re-election, the spectre of his predecessor, President Trump, continues to loom large in American politics. The former president has played a significant role in the Republicans’ campaign to win back control of the House and the Senate in the upcoming mid-terms. Mr Trump preached to Hispanic voters in Florida on Wednesday but he himself has not declared whether he will run for his party’s nomination in 2024. Carlson said while he was unsure about the former president’s intentions for the 2024 election, Mr Trump had played a significant contribution in altering American politics which “no one in America ever mentions”. “I would say his lasting contribution, and no one in America ever mentions this, is changing the fastest growing demographic in the US which is Hispanic voters,” Carlson said. “He was famously ‘anti-Hispanic’, he wanted to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out for reasons that no one discusses or maybe understands, (but) Donald trump is extremely popular with Hispanic voters, they seem to agree with him. “And because of Donald Trump, Hispanic voters who have traditionally voted Democrat are now voting, the majority of them, for Republicans. “That’s a huge change, it’s an unprecedented change, it’s a change no one expected and it’s a change that’s very much going to hurt the Democratic Party.” Read More…

Public Interest In Having A Third Major Party Dips To 56% https://digitalalabamanews.com/public-interest-in-having-a-third-major-party-dips-to-56/ Story Highlights Support for having a third major party is down from high in 2021 At 56%, current desire for third party is near the long-term average Independents’ third-party support is steady near their all-time high WASHINGTON, D.C. — After reaching a high of 62% at the start of 2021, the percentage of Americans believing the existing political parties “do such a poor job that a third major party is needed” has returned to a more typical 56%. At the same time, four in 10 Americans do not see the need for a third party, agreeing that “the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job of representing the American people.” ###Embeddable### The 56% of Americans who currently believe the country would benefit from a third major party roughly matches the average 55% holding this view across Gallup’s trend, since 2003. Support was much lower in that initial measure (at 40%) than it has been in most years since. The perceived need for a third major party has also tended to be slightly lower in presidential and midterm election years (averaging 54% since 2006) than in nonelection years (57%). The election effect was especially pronounced in 2008 and 2012, when third-party support dropped nine or 10 percentage points from the year prior, into the mid-40s, although the reason for that is not clear. Since then, the dampening of third-party demand during election years has seemingly persisted, with support for a third party being two to four points lower in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2022 than in the immediately preceding years. Independents Maintain Above-Average Third-Party Preference Desire for a third major party has always been much higher among political independents than either Democrats or Republicans, and that continues in 2022. However, after varying between 2003 and 2012, independents’ support has been consistently high over the past decade, not falling below 70% since 2013. And it has been especially high, near 75%, since September 2021. Republicans and Democrats have expressed relatively similar levels of support for third parties over the years. However, in two periods when Republican presidents were in power, Democrats’ support for a third party was significantly higher than Republicans’. These 12-point or greater party gaps — the result of depressed Republican interest in a third party and heightened Democratic interest — occurred between 2003 and 2007 during George W. Bush’s presidency and again in 2018 and 2020 during Donald Trump’s. The reverse pattern, with Republicans significantly more eager than Democrats for a third party during Democratic presidencies, was seen in 2011, 2016 and early 2021. ###Embeddable### Independents who lean toward either the Republican or Democratic Party show a desire for a third party that hews closer to their independent party identification than to their party leaning. According to combined 2021-2022 data, 76% of independents who lean toward the Republican Party and 76% of independents who lean toward the Democratic Party would like there to be a third major party in the U.S. Moderate/Liberal Republicans Increasingly Favor a Third Party Further differences in support for a third party are seen when combining respondents’ party preference and their political ideology. According to combined 2021-2022 data that span Biden’s term thus far, large majorities of independents (74%) and moderate/liberal Republicans (60%) are in favor of having a third major party. Support falls to a bare majority of liberal Democrats (51%), followed by less than half of conservative Republicans (45%) and barely a third of moderate/conservative Democrats (35%). These findings could reveal differences in each group’s contentment with their own party’s political players, as well as dissatisfaction with the opposing party. Moderate/Liberal Republicans’ broad support for a third major party is especially notable because it is sharply higher than the last time a Democrat (Obama) was in power, as well as 24 points higher than in Gallup’s earliest data, from 2003-2008, during the Bush era. Dissatisfaction with former President Trump could be a factor in this group’s elevated interest in having a third party. By contrast, conservative Republicans’ current desire for a third party roughly matches the level seen under Obama and is just eight points higher than under Bush. Regardless of their ideology, Democrats’ interest in a third party is generally consistent with Gallup findings during the Obama presidency and shows little change when compared with the 2003-2008 Bush-era readings. ###Embeddable### Bottom Line People’s belief that the two major parties do such a poor job that a third major political party is needed may stem from dissatisfaction with one or both parties, especially when one’s own party does not occupy the White House. It may also reflect people’s basic support for the core democratic values of pluralism, participation and freedom. However, it is one thing to want to see a third major party emerge and quite another for people to back such a party in the voting booth. If nothing else, structural barriers in election laws work against third parties’ succeeding. Still, Gallup’s third-party data show there is demand across the political spectrum for better leadership that well-conceived third parties may be able to tap into. With moderate/liberal Republicans more supportive of having a third party than they’ve been historically and second only to independents in this sentiment, third parties with a center-right focus might find the most traction right now. Of course, that insight could quickly become obsolete should a Republican win the presidency in the next election. To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter. Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. View complete question responses and trends (PDF download). Read More…

US Moves Aircraft Carrier Strike Group Near Korea After North's Missile Launches, South Korea Says | CNN https://digitalalabamanews.com/us-moves-aircraft-carrier-strike-group-near-korea-after-norths-missile-launches-south-korea-says-cnn/ Seoul, South Korea CNN  —  A US Navy aircraft carrier strike group is moving into waters off the Korean Peninsula as tensions flare after a spate of North Korean missile launches over the past two weeks, South Korean security officials said. South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) held an emergency meeting on Thursday after North Korea launched two more short-range ballistic missiles, the sixth such launch in 12 days, the country’s Presidential Office said in a statement. The NSC warned that North Korea’s provocation will face a stronger response, as demonstrated by the redeployment of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its strike group into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, following Pyongyang’s launch on Tuesday of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) that flew over Japan. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said on Wednesday that the US carrier strike group would be redeployed to the waterway, in what it characterized as a “very unusual” move meant “to demonstrate the resolute will of the SK-US alliance to respond decisively to any provocation or threat from North Korea.” Asked about the South Korean statement on the Reagan’s movements, a US 7th Fleet spokesperson told CNN, “The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Sea of Japan.” The Navy said it does not comment on future operations. The South Korean statement on the US Navy strike group’s movements drew a harsh response from Pyongyang. “The DPRK is watching the US posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula and in its vicinity by redeploying the carrier task force in the waters off the Korean peninsula,” read a statement from the North Korean Foreign Ministry posted on the state-run Korean Central News Agency. Pyongyang’s missile launches Thursday are the 24th such tests this year, including both ballistic and cruise missiles – the highest annual tally since Kim Jong Un took power in 2012. It closely followed the highly provocative launch by the isolated country on Tuesday, when North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over Japan – the first in five years – prompting Tokyo to urge residents in the north to take shelter. The United States and South Korea responded with missile launches and exercises around the Korean Peninsula on Tuesday and Wednesday. Speaking Wednesday during a trip to South America, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that if North Korea continues “down this road” of provocation, “it will only increase the condemnation, increase the isolation and increase the steps that are taken in response to their actions.” Last month, the US, Japanese and South Korean navies conducted joint anti-submarine exercises in international waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula to improve response capability against North Korean submarine threats. The Reagan carrier strike group and destroyers from South Korea and Japan were involved in that joint exercise, according to the South Korean Navy. 02:28 – Source: CNN Explained: How much damage can North Korea’s weapons do? The latest North Korean launch came hours after a Security Council briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York about Pyongyang’s weapons program. Speaking at the council, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China, without naming them, of enabling North Korea. North Korea has “enjoyed blanket protection from two members of this council. These two members have gone out of their way to justify the DPRK’s repeated provocations and block every attempt to update the sanctions regime,” she said. Referring to Russia and China, Thomas-Greenfield said, “Two permanent members of the Security Council have enabled (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un” to continue these “provocations.” But China countered that it was Washington ratcheting up tensions. “The US has recently been bolstering its military alliances in the Asia Pacific region and intensifying the risk of military confrontation on the nuclear issue,” Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Geng Shuang said during the Security Council meeting. The US is “poisoning the regional security environment,” he added. Russia, too, blamed Washington. “It is obvious that missile launches by Pyongyang were a response to the short-sighted confrontational military activities of the US,” said Anna Evstigneeva, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN. 03:29 – Source: CNN Tanks, Apaches, and drones. See South Korea’s state-of-the-art weapons Andrei Lankov, professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, said military displays from the US and its allies have no effect on the North Korean weapons program. “Yes, American strategic assets are deployed, but does it make any difference?” Lankov asked. “It doesn’t make any difference where an American aircraft carrier is … They’re just testing their missiles,” he said of the North Koreans. Experts have warned that North Korea’s recent tests suggest an even greater escalation in weapons testing could be on the horizon. “North Korea is going to keep conducting missile tests until the current round of modernization is done,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told CNN earlier this week. Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii, said North Korean leader Kim has both domestic and regional audiences in mind with the testing. Kim is telling his own people, “We can deal with whatever the threat the West, the US and South Korea can come up with,” Schuster said. “He’s also telling the South Koreans that if they go too far, he can rain destruction on them. He’s also signaling to Japan, ‘I can reach you and I’m not afraid to do so.’” Schuster also said that Kim can be expected to up the ante soon by testing a nuclear weapon. Lewis agreed, saying a nuclear test could come “anytime.” South Korean and US officials have been warning since May that North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test, with satellite imagery showing activity at its underground nuclear test site. If North Korea conducts a test, it would be the country’s seventh underground nuclear test and the first in nearly five years. Read More…

Twitter Under Musk? Most Of The Plans Are A Mystery https://digitalalabamanews.com/twitter-under-musk-most-of-the-plans-are-a-mystery/ Traders gather around a post as Twitter shares resume trading on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Credit: AP Photo/Seth Wenig A super app called X? A bot-free free speech haven? These are some of Elon Musk’s mysterious plans for Twitter, now that he may be buying the company after all. After months of squabbling over the fate of their bombshell $44 billion deal, the billionaire and the bird app are essentially back to square one—if a bit worse for wear as trust and goodwill has seemed to erode on both sides. Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX and Twitter’s most high-profile user since former President Donald Trump was booted from it, has shared few concrete details about his plans for the social media platform. While he’s touted free speech and derided spam bots since agreeing to buy the company in April, what he actually wants to do about either is shrouded in mystery. He could own one of the world’s most powerful communications platforms with 237 million daily users in a matter of weeks, though the deal is not final. The lack of clear plans for the platform are raising concern among Twitter’s constituencies, ranging from users in conflict regions where it offers an information lifeline to the company’s own employees. “Both users and advertisers are—understandably—anxious about whether the move will fundamentally change the culture of the platform,” said Brooke Erin Duffy, a professor at Cornell University who studies social media. “And so, Musk will need to decide whether he wants to quash their concerns by retaining core features (the content moderation system, for instance) and keeping the company public—or whether he will undertake a full-scale overhaul.” Muddling things further, on Tuesday Musk tweeted that “Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” without further explanation. Although Musk’s tweets and statements have been cryptic, technology analysts have speculated that Musk wants to re-create a version of China’s WeChat app that can do video chats, messaging, streaming, scan bar codes and make payments. He gave a little more detail during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in August, telling the crowd at a factory near Austin, Texas, that he uses Twitter frequently and knows the product well. “I think I’ve got a good sense of where to point the engineering team with Twitter to make it radically better,” he said. Handling payments for goods could be a key part of the app. Musk said he has a “grander vision” for what X.com, an online bank he started early in his career that eventually became part of PayPal, could have been. “Obviously that could be started from scratch, but I think Twitter would help accelerate that by three-to-five years,” Musk said at the August meeting. “So it’s kind of something that I thought would be quite useful for a long time. I know what to do.” For now, Twitter has immediate and pressing problems Musk will need to deal with if he takes ownership of the company. Its social media rivals are struggling with declining stock prices and some, like Snap, even announced layoffs. Government regulation and attracting younger users away from TikTok are also challenges. And Musk’s vision of a free speech haven has social media and content moderation experts, as well as digital and human rights advocates, concerned. “When this all started in the spring, we had indicators and a strong sense of what Musk might do with the platform,” said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters, a watchdog group that opposes the takeover. “Because of the lawsuit, we know who he’s been talking to, what he’s been saying and the types of far-right ideological decision makers he wants to put in place. To put it bluntly, the worst fears have been confirmed.” Twitter employees, under former CEO Jack Dorsey and his predecessors, have spent years working to tame the platform once called the “free-speech wing of the free-speech party” where hate and harassment abound into something where all are welcome and safe. While it’s far from perfect, critics worry Musk’s ownership will mean turning back the clock on years of this work. “Musk made it clear that he would roll back Twitter’s community standards and safety guidelines, reinstate Donald Trump along with scores of other accounts suspended for violence and abuse, and open the floodgates of disinformation,” Carusone said. The company, for instance, was an early adopter of the “report abuse” button in 2013, after U.K. member of parliament Stella Creasy received a barrage of rape and death threats on the platform, echoing the experiences of other women over the years. In subsequent years, Twitter continued to craft rules and invest in staff and technology to detect violent threats, harassment and misinformation that violates its policies. After evidence emerged that Russia used their platforms to try to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, social media companies also stepped up their efforts against political misinformation. The big question now is how far Musk, who describes himself as a “free-speech absolutist,” wants to ratchet back these systems—and whether users and advertisers will stick around if he does. Aiming to tamp down such worries, Musk said in May he wants Twitter to be “as broadly inclusive as possible ” where ideally, most of America is on it and talking—a far cry from the far-right playground his critics are warning against. And while Musk has hinted he’d consider reinstating Trump’s account, it’s not clear the former president, who has since launched his own social media platform, would return. Then there’s the matter of Twitter’s employees, who’ve been living with uncertainty, high- (and low-) profile departures and a potential owner who’s publicly derided them on their own platform. Musk has also targeted Twitter’s work-from home policy, having once called for the company’s headquarters to be turned into a “homeless shelter” because, he said, so few employees actually worked there. As a hyper-frequent Twitter user with over 100 million followers, Musk does know how to use the platform. During an all-hands staff meeting Musk attended in June, he said his goal was to make it “so compelling that you can’t live without it.” If he’s able to realize this, it could finally put Twitter in the big leagues of social media, with TikTok and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, where users are counted in the billions, not mere millions. Of course, Musk is also well known for predictions that are delayed or may not come true, such as colonizing Mars or deploying a fleet of autonomous robotaxis. “This is not a car manufacturer where, good enough, all you have to do is beat General Motors. Sorry, that isn’t really that hard,” said David Kirsch, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland who’s studied Twitter bots’ effect on Tesla’s stock price. “You are dealing here with all of these other companies (that) also have very sophisticated AI programs, very sophisticated Ph.D. programmers…everyone is trying to crack this nut.” © 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Citation: Twitter under Musk? Most of the plans are a mystery (2022, October 6) retrieved 6 October 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-10-twitter-musk-mystery.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. Read More…