Distinguished Young Woman Of Idaho For 2023 To Be Named During Statewide Scholarship Competition | Oneida County Newspaper
Distinguished Young Woman Of Idaho For 2023 To Be Named During Statewide Scholarship Competition | Oneida County Newspaper https://digitalalabamanews.com/distinguished-young-woman-of-idaho-for-2023-to-be-named-during-statewide-scholarship-competition-oneida-county-newspaper/
High school senior girls from across Idaho will join in Idaho Falls for the Distinguished Young Women of Idaho program to be held Friday and Saturday, October 7 & 8 at the Civic Auditorium. Participants will compete for $35,000 in college scholarships and the opportunity to represent the state as the Distinguished Young Woman of Idaho for 2023.
The program is open to the public and preliminaries will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 7 and 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 8. Finals begin at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 8. Tickets will be available at the door for $15.
The 33 young women competing will be evaluated by a panel of five judges in the following categories: Scholastics (25%), Interview (25%), Talent (20%), Fitness (15%), and Self-Expression (15%). The participant selected as the Distinguished Young Woman of Idaho will advance to the national level at the 66th Distinguished Young Women National Finals in Mobile, Ala., on June 22, 23, and 24, 2023, where she will join with 50 other representatives from across the country in competing for cash scholarships and the opportunity to represent the program as the Distinguished Young Woman of America .
Distinguished Young Women of Idaho welcomes the following participants to Idaho Falls:
Savannah Bagley from Rigby; Jaylee Ball from West Jefferson; Maddi Barfuss from Magic Valley; Delaney Beckner from Potlatch; Ashlynn Bishop from Kootenai County; Anna Lee Bitton from Pocatello/Chubbuck; Andi Bulkeley from South Mini-Cassia; Hannah Call from Ririe; BrynLee Carter from Boise Valley; Alyssa Crowther from Franklin County; Addie Dalling from Sugar/Salem; Hailee Daniels from Bonneville County; Elisheva Davis from Priest River; Mallory Erickson from Firth/Shelley; Hannah Evans from Caribou County; Katie Gray from Troy; Annika Huff from Lewiston; Ayva Johnson from Moscow; Abby Larsen from Snake River; Ruby Lewis from Marsh Valley; Blanca Mazo from Ashton; Leah Moellmer from Bonners Ferry; Isabelle Monk from Genesee; Claire Neibaur from North Mini-Cassia; Megan Orme from South Fremont; Emma Pratt from Aberdeen; Bretta Robinson from Kuna; Kassidi Scott from St. Maries; Raegan Smith from Malad; Sydney Stewart from Blackfoot; Kiersty Sutton from Madison; Brooke Tibbitts from Teton; and Alizabeth Walker from Kendrick/Juliaetta.
The current Distinguished Young Woman of Idaho is Kenadee Kuhn, daughter of David and Monica Kuhn, from Bonneville County.
For more information on Distinguished Young Women of Idaho or to set up an interview with the current representative ahead of this year’s program, please contact Darady Michaelson, mailto:[email protected]” [email protected], 208-521-0011.
About Distinguished Young Women
Founded in 1958, Distinguished Young Women is a free program that encourages participants to reach their full individual potential. Our mission is to empower young women by providing over $1 billion in scholarship opportunities, connecting with a nationwide network of women, developing their self-confidence, and participating in our Life Skills Workshops that prepare them for success after high school. National sponsors include Barbara Barrington Jones Family Foundation, Mobile County, City of Mobile, Alabama Power Foundation, Master Boat Builders, Shoe Station and the Barkin Family, Gant Travel Management, the Coffeen Family, Regions Financial Corporation, Jostens and Alabama Media Group.
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College Football Top Matchups Info Odds: Noon Window Packs A Punch In Week 6
College Football Top Matchups, Info, Odds: Noon Window Packs A Punch In Week 6 https://digitalalabamanews.com/college-football-top-matchups-info-odds-noon-window-packs-a-punch-in-week-6/
Malik Nabers of the LSU Tigers reacts after an LSU victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium on October 1, 2022 in Auburn, Alabama. Photo by Brandon Sumrall/Getty Images via AFP.
Breaking down the opening odds and attempting to predict how the lines will move for some of the biggest matchups on the Week 6 college football schedule.
Another weekend of college football is in the books. Week 5 provided several thrilling finishes. numerous upsets, and a few VERY close calls. Yeah, we’re looking at you, Georgia.
The action only figures to get more intense from here as the College Football Playoff race heats up. As we close in on the halfway point of the season, even teams who are not in the CFP mix still have the motivation to reach six wins in order to make a bowl game.
When it comes to our list of college football games to watch in Week 6, the noon window on Saturday really stands out. Multiple ranked matchups and a major rivalry game at the Texas State Fair headline the action. Throw in massive games in both the Pac-12 and SEC scheduled for later in the day and it promises to be another entertaining weekend of football!
Here are previews and analyses for our top seven games to watch in Week 6 of the 2022 college football season (odds via DraftKings Sportsbook).
Top College Football Matchups to Watch in Week 6
Arkansas vs. (23) Mississippi State
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, noon ET
TV: SEC Network
Location: Davis-Wade Stadium, Starkville, MS
Odds: MSU -5 | O/U 62
Aside from the third quarter, Arkansas was thoroughly outclassed in last week’s home game against Alabama. The Razorbacks will look to snap their two-game losing skid when they head to Starkville to face a newly-ranked Mississippi State team.
After the Bulldogs throttled Texas A&M in Week 5, it was no surprise to see oddsmakers open them as 6-point favorites. While DraftKings sits a full point lower at the time of writing, one would have to believe that the line will shift in Mississippi State’s favor. Head coach Mike Leach’s experienced roster may not be flying under the radar much longer.
(8) Tennessee vs. (25) LSU
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, noon ET
TV: ESPN
Location: Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, LA
Odds: TENN -4 | O/U 62
Another massive SEC battle scheduled for Saturday’s noon window is a matchup between Tennessee and LSU. The Volunteers sat idle this past week while the Tigers escaped with a hard-fought road win over Auburn.
With Tennessee opening up as a 4-point road favorite, it will be fascinating to see how the line moves in the lead-up to game day. Bettors will also need to keep tabs on the status of LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, who got knocked out of last week’s contest with a knee injury.
(17) TCU vs. (19) Kansas
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, noon ET
TV: FS1
Location: David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium, Lawrence, KS
Odds: TCU -6.5 | O/U 67.5
After being picked to finish last in the preseason Big 12 media poll, Kansas enters Week 6 undefeated and ranked 19th in the AP Poll. Joining the Jayhawks as a newcomer in the Top 25 this week is a TCU team that is riding high after a thorough beatdown of Oklahoma.
Only one of these teams can walk out of Saturday’s showdown with their perfect record intact. Oddsmakers seem to believe it will be the Horned Frogs that do so. After opening as a 5-point road favorite, TCU is now laying six or more across the market. Given the Jayhawks’ feel-good story, KU could very well wind up being a public underdog.
Texas vs. Oklahoma
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, noon ET
TV: ABC
Location: Cotton Bowl, Dallas, TX
Odds: TEX -6.5 | O/U 65
Notably absent from the 118th edition of the Red River Showdown is a ranked participant. Saturday’s matchup between Texas and Oklahoma marks the first time since 1998 that neither team is ranked in the AP Poll coming into the game.
With the Sooners having suffered two ugly losses in a row, it’s no surprise to find the betting market leaning towards Texas early on. The Longhorns opened as 5-point favorites and are now laying nearly a full touchdown. OU has notably won six of the last seven meetings, including the 2018 Big 12 title game.
Check out the latest comprehensive and most trusted Sportsbook Reviews by SBR.
Georgia Southern vs. Georgia State
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, 2 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN3
Location: Carter Parc Stadium, Atlanta, GA
Odds: GSU -2.5 | O/U 65.5
When it comes to mid-major games to watch this weekend, the Sun Belt Conference rivalry between Georgia Southern and Georgia State stands out. Those who are in tune with college football’s biggest rivalries have to appreciate this game’s nickname of “Modern Day Hate”.
After earning their first win of the season, the Panthers opened as 3-point home favorites. The Eagles lost a heartbreaker to Coastal Carolina last week and have exceeded expectations through five weeks of play. Georgia State began the year with a much higher power rating, so it will be interesting to see how the market’s view of these teams has adjusted.
(11) Utah vs. (18) UCLA
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: FOX
Location: Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA
Odds: UTA -3 | O/U 64
For the second week in a row, the Rose Bowl is the site for one of our college football games to watch. UCLA entered the AP Top 25 after cruising past Washington. An even tougher test awaits in Week 6 when the defending Pac-12 champs come to town.
Saturday’s trip to Pasadena will easily be the toughest game Utah has had since a season-opening loss at Florida. Interestingly enough, oddsmakers opened the spread at the same 3-point margin that the Utes were favored by in Gainesville. If this line moves at all, it will probably be in Utah’s favor.
Texas A&M vs. (1) Alabama
Date: Saturday, Oct. 8, 8 p.m. ET
TV: CBS
Location: Bryant-Denny Stadium, Tuscaloosa, AL
Odds: ALA -24 | O/U 52
Coming into the 2022 college football season, the showdown between Texas A&M and Alabama was considered to be one of the marquee games of the year. While the stakes are plenty high, the Aggies’ shaky start has certainly deprived this matchup of some of its luster.
Before the season began, it’s hard to imagine many betting analysts would’ve expected the Crimson Tide to be favored so heavily in this spot. Alabama opened as a 20-point home favorite. The spread ballooned to ‘Bama -24 in a matter of hours. Given how anemic the A&M offense has been, the Tide may not even need QB Bryce Young to win decisively.
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Written By:
Henry John Twitter link
Henry’s passion for sports dates all the way back to childhood and has ultimately led to a full-fledged career as an analyst and content creator. After getting his start penning fantasy football articles, he forrayed into the betting side of the business in early 2019. His love for sports and statistics proved to be an ideal match with the dedicated research and strategy that handicapping requires. Henry currently specializes in betting analysis and picks for college football, college basketball, and NASCAR. He counts NFL, WNBA, and NBA player props as additional leagues/markets of interest.
Henry graduated from SUNY Buffalo in 2021 with a Communication Studies degree and a Psychology minor. A native of the Finger Lakes region in Upstate New York, he and his pup, Harold, have since relocated to Laramie, Wyoming. Thanks to his professional goals within the sports betting industry, there has been a whole lot of steam on the odds for a move to Las Vegas in 2023! Most of Henry’s free time is spent on outdoor adventures, playing chess, snowboarding, or reading a good book. He is also a competitive powerlifter and aspires to qualify for the USAPL Nationals meet within the next 2-3 years.
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Effect Of Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Using Mobile Health Applications For Stress Urinary Incontinence In Women: A Systematic Review BMC Women
Effect Of Pelvic Floor Muscle Training Using Mobile Health Applications For Stress Urinary Incontinence In Women: A Systematic Review – BMC Women https://digitalalabamanews.com/effect-of-pelvic-floor-muscle-training-using-mobile-health-applications-for-stress-urinary-incontinence-in-women-a-systematic-review-bmc-women/
BMC Women’s Health volume 22, Article number: 400 (2022) Cite this article
Abstract
Background
Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is the first-line treatment for urinary incontinence, but adherence to PFMT is generally poor. Currently, a number of novel strategies exist to facilitate adherence of PFMT. We sought to determine effectiveness of mHealth app-based PFMT for treating stress urinary incontinence (SUI) or stress-predominant mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) in women. The primary objective was to assess the effects of mHealth app-based PFMT and usual treatment on severity of the symptom, the quality of life (QoL) of users and the patient’s global impression of improvement. The secondary objective was to assess how mHealth app use affects adherence of PFMT.
Methods
All randomized controlled trials and quasi-randomized controlled trials aimed at evaluating the effects of mHealth app-based PFMT in women with SUI or stress-predominant MUI were included. Twelve electronic databases, namely the Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Web of science, OVID, SciELO, REHABDATA, PEDro database, Chinese CNKI and Wanfang and the Open Grey databases were used as search sources. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (CRD 42020183515). This systematic review was developed following the PRISMA 2020 Checklist. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions for Randomized Controlled Trials was used to assess risk of bias in included studies. Two authors extracted the data into a standardized spreadsheet.
Results
Six studies that met the eligibility criteria were included. The full sample included 439 patients with treatment via mHealth app and 442 controls of usual treatment. ICIQ-UI SF, ICIQ-VS, and QUID scores decreased after follow-up in the mHealth app and control groups in six studies. ICIQ-LUTS QoL scores decreased after follow-up in the mHealth app and control groups in three studies. In only one study, ICIQ-VS QoL scores decreased after 1 month and 2 months of follow-up in the mHealth app group, but increased abruptly after 3 months of follow-up. EQ5D-VAS scores increased in both groups in one study. The percentage of PGI-I increased in the mHealth app group in three studies after follow-up. After follow-up in three studies, BPMSES scores and self-reported adherence scores increased in the mHealth app group relative to the initial time point, but in one study, at 6 months compared with 3 months of follow-up, adherence scores decreased slightly in the mHealth app group.
Conclusions
This systematic review determined that mHealth app-based PFMT showed promise from the perspective of improving both outcomes and exercise adherence.
Peer Review reports
Introduction
SUI is defined by the International Continence Society as “complaint of involuntary loss of urine on effort or physical exertion (e.g., sporting activities), or on sneezing or coughing” [1], and it is common among women and often leads to a significant decline in their QoL [2]. Accumulating epidemiological evidence indicated that the prevalence of SUI across studies varied from 10 to 39% and increased with age [3,4,5]. Data released by the United States Census Bureau recently showed that the demand for care for pelvic floor disorders will increase by 35% between 2010 and 2030 [6].
Evidence-based incontinence treatment can be separated broadly into stress incontinence surgery, medications, behavior and lifestyle modification, with the PFMT most commonly undertaken [7]. PFMT is the first-line conservative management programme for SUI with no adverse reaction [8]. The ideal treatment requires patients to be instructed to perform the exercises properly and persistently commit to it [9,10,11]. There is evidence that women perform better with exercise regimes supervised by medical staff and supervised PFMT showed satisfactory results in alleviating SUI symptoms [12, 13]. However, supervised PFMT is time-consuming, costly, and requires frequent visits to relevant medical institutions, which may hinder long-term treatment adherence. Adherence is considered crucial to PFMT success [14]. Unfortunately, treatment adherence to PFMT is still poor [15].
Mobile health applications (mHealth app) are increasingly being used in health care and public health practice for patient communication, monitoring, education, and to promote adherence to chronic diseases management [16]. A cross-sectional study of 200 adult women in Pennsylvania showed high rates of overall mHealth app ownership, with smartphones accounting for 92%, and women with pelvic floor disorders have high capability of using mHealth app to communicate with their health care providers [17]. MHealth app for PFMT are personal care apps that assist users in training their pelvic floor muscles. A recent systematic review including three eligible studies showed that mHealth app-based PFMT can reduce urinary symptoms [18].
Therefore, this systematic review extends the current literature providing meta-analysis of the most recent RCTs and quasi-randomized controlled trials evaluating mHealth app to deliver PFMT for SUI or stress-predominant MUI. The primary objective was to assess the effects of mHealth app-based PFMT and usual treatment on symptom severity, the QoL of users and the patient’s global impression of improvement. The secondary objective was to assess how mHealth app use affects adherence of PFMT.
Materials and methods
Protocol and registration
This systematic review was developed following the PRISMA 2020 Checklist [19]. The systematic review protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database under number CRD 42020183515.
Study design and eligibility criteria
This systematic review aimed to answer the following guiding question based on the PICO strategy: “Do women with SUI or stress-predominant MUI (P) who use mHealth app for PFMT (I) have better results (O) when compared with women using the usual treatment (C)?”. (1) Participants: participants were women who were diagnosed with SUI or stress-predominant MUI; (2) Intervention: in the intervention group, participants received mHealth app-based PFMT to help women treat or prevent SUI or stress-predominant MUI; (3) Comparison: traditional care (e.g., conventional home-based training without mHealth app) or no treatment in the control group; (4) Outcome: one or more of the following interesting outcomes have been reported (e.g., the severity of symptoms, QoL and the patient’s global impression of improvement were included as main outcome indicators; a secondary outcome measure was adherence to PFMT).
All RCTs and quasi-randomized controlled trials were included and there were no restrictions on year, language, publication status and type of setting.
The studies about qualitative studies, observational studies, review studies, case reports, case control studies, cohort studies, letters to the editor, conference abstracts, personal opinions, and books or book chapters were excluded.
Sources of information and search
We searched the Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Web of science, OVID, SciELO, REHABDATA, PEDro database, Chinese CNKI, Chinese Wanfang, and the Open Grey databases, a total of twelve electronic databases, each from their date of inception to October 2021. Our search strategy involved a combination of the following MeSH and free word [PubMed for example, (“Urinary Incontinence” OR “Stress Urinary Incontinence”) AND (“Pelvic Floor” OR “Pelvic Floor Muscle” OR “Pelvic Floor Muscle Training”) AND (“Woman” OR “Women” OR “Girl” OR “Female”) AND (“Mobile” OR “Portable” OR “Electronic” OR “eHealth” OR “mHealth” OR “App” OR “Software” OR “Reminder Therapy” OR “Programme” OR “Program” OR “System” OR “phone” OR “smartphone” OR “application” OR “web-based”). A reviewer first drafted the search strategy and then defined it through discussions with team members. Two reviewers conducted an independent literature search and thoroughly checked the reference lists of included studies to avoid omitting relevant studies.
Study selection
During the literature screening process, search results from different electronic databases were imported into EndNote Version X9. These studies were selected at three distinct stages. In the first stage, two reviewers performed a methodical analysis of all study titles independently, and titles that did not meet the eligibility criteria were removed.
In the second stage, two reviewers read the abstracts independently for the initial application of the eligibility criteria. Studies containing titles that met the study objectives but did not have abstracts and full text available were removed.
In the last stage, the preliminary eligible studies were assessed in full text to verify whether they met the eligibility criteria. When reviewers disagreed about a particular study, a third reviewer was consulted to make a final decision. All stages were performed to reduce the literature search bias and literature screening bias.
Process of data collection and extraction
After the selection, we used structured forms to extract data from each study, such as authors, year, place of the study, sample characteristics including number of participants and age, SUI diagnosis, name of mHealth app used, control group, information contained in the mHealth app, timing of outcome measurement, reminder frequency and outcome measurement tools.
In the PROSPERO database, the systematic review protocol took adherence as the main outcome measure and incontinence severity as an additional measure. But when we read the relevant literature, we found that mHealth app-based PFMT should first b...
Oath Keepers Trial Live Updates: Openings Begin In Seditious Conspiracy Case
Oath Keepers Trial Live Updates: Openings Begin In Seditious Conspiracy Case https://digitalalabamanews.com/oath-keepers-trial-live-updates-openings-begin-in-seditious-conspiracy-case/
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Updated October 3, 2022 at 11:52 a.m. EDT|Published
October 3, 2022 at 10:17 a.m. EDT
Opening statements are underway in the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and other members of the extremist group who face seditious conspiracy and other charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Rhodes and four co-defendants — Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell — have pleaded not guilty to felony charges alleging that they conspired for weeks after the 2020 presidential election to unleash political violence to oppose the lawful transfer of power to Joe Biden.
The defendants came from Texas, Florida, Ohio and Virginia, and allegedly led a group that traveled to Washington and staged firearms nearby before forcing entry through the Capitol Rotunda doors in combat and tactical gear.
Oath Keepers described as splitting up in Capitol to take chambers, prosecutors say
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Florida Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs had a three-way call with founder Stewart Rhodes and “operations leader” Michael Greene on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors in his opening statement.
Then, he said, Meggs led 14 Oath Keepers who “pushed their way past Capitol Police officers” into the building.
“The crowd cheered for them, yelling ‘Oath Keepers, Oath Keepers’ — they were the leaders,” Nestler said.
It was 2:40 p.m., and staff and members of Congress were still evacuating.
Guns, ammunition, grenades stored in Va., with quick boat access to D.C., prosecutors say
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As part of the Oath Keepers’ preparation to interrupt the congressional proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021, they stashed weapons, ammunition and hand grenades in a Comfort Inn in Arlington County, Va., the day before, as a “Quick Reaction Force” to be summoned as needed, federal prosecutor Jeffrey S. Nestler said.
After Nestler played a video of Florida members of the group taking target practice with various weapons, he said they had received “training on unconventional warfare” with a man not on trial Monday, Jeremy Brown. Nestler said Brown drove an RV with hand grenades inside to D.C., alongside other Florida Oath Keepers, and “sure enough the FBI later recovered grenades from Jeremy Brown’s RV.”
Prosecutor dismisses ‘magic words’ of Insurrection Act
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Defendants in the Oath Keepers trial are arguing that they were only armed and at the Capitol in the expectation that President Donald Trump would call on them to legally prevent what they viewed as a Democratic coup.
The Insurrection Act says that the president can deploy military forces domestically to quell rebellions. Trump never invoked the law, and prosecutors argue that he could not have legally deputized militias to attack their fellow citizens on Jan. 6, 2021.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said Stewart Rhodes, who had the “impressive pedigree” of Yale Law School, was only claiming to rely on the Insurrection Act as “magic words” that hid illegal actions. The Insurrection Act was “a code, or a shorthand,” for keeping Trump in office by force, Nestler alleged.
Prosecutor explains ‘weird quirk’ of presidential elections
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After sketching out the alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy, prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told jurors a brief legislative history that, until the 2020 election, was obscure.
It’s “a weird quirk” of our system, he said, that the winner of the presidential election isn’t officially the winner when ballots are done being counted in November. “Under the Constitution, it is not official until Congress says so, and Congress has to say so on Jan. 6.” Moreover, “the vice president of the United States must be the person to preside over the session.”
Prosecutors begin outlining Oath Keepers’ alleged roles in conspiracy
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As part of the planning to interrupt the congressional proceedings on Jan. 6, 2021, the Oath Keepers staged weapons in a hotel across the river from D.C., in a hotel in Arlington, “to physically prevent members of Congress from certifying the election,” federal prosecutor Jeffrey S. Nestler said in his opening statement. Making an agreement to do that, even if it wasn’t in writing or spoken specifically, qualifies as a conspiracy, Nestler said.
Nestler pointed out each of the five defendants in the courtroom to the jury, starting with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes. Nestler explained that Oath Keepers recruits largely from former members of the military and law enforcement. He said that “the term Oath Keepers derives from soldiers’ oaths to defend the constitution against all enemies, and the idea that oath must be kept for life. But Rhodes perverts that oath. He says they should disobey orders that he says are unconstitutional.”
Prosecution: Oath Keepers tried ‘to shatter a bedrock of American democracy’
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The Oath Keepers tried “to stop by whatever means necessary the lawful transfer of presidential power, including by taking up arms against the U.S. government,” federal prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler said in his opening statement Monday.
Nestler began by invoking history, saying that “ever since our government transferred power from George Washington to John Adams,” one president has peacefully given way to another. “These defendants tried to change that history,” he said.
He then briefly introduced the five defendants, starting with Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Rhodes “preaches to his followers they should disobey orders that he says are unconstitutional,” Nestler said. The entire group is not on trial, he said — “many did nothing wrong.” But these defendants “concocted a plan for an armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy,” Nestler said.
Judge denies last-minute bid to avoid jury trial
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Just before the trial session began Monday, Judge Amit P. Mehta denied multiple motions filed over the weekend in which defendants tried to keep a D.C. jury from determining their guilt or innocence.
Defendant Kelly Meggs asked for Mehta to decide his fate rather than the jury, saying through his attorney that the jury could not be “fair and impartial” because “the majority of those questioned” as part of the jury pool “had negative feelings about the events of January 6, 2021.”
He and the other four defendants also asked for the trial to be moved to a federal court in Virginia, for similar reasons.
What new info could the Oath Keepers sedition trial reveal about Jan. 6?
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The trial of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes could reveal new information about the quest to subvert the 2020 presidential election results as prosecutors continue to probe President Donald Trump’s conduct and that of his inner circle.
Prosecutors’ challenge will be to prove that Rhodes, one of the most visible figures of the far-right anti-government movement, and his group intentionally conspired to use force to prevent President Biden’s swearing-in. Whether the government tips its hand in court about the Oath Keepers’ ties to other political figures, the trial is an important step in the wider probe, analysts said.
Jury selected after three days of vetting
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A jury of 12 members and four alternates was selected Thursday in the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and other members of the extremist group who face seditious conspiracy and other charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Opening statements are set for Monday.
Painstaking vetting over three days revealed a political and cultural clash that posed tests both for the Justice Department — led by prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington — and defense attorneys for the leaders of the right-wing anti-government Oath Keepers, whose movement recruits members willing to prepare themselves for eventual battle to prevent federal tyranny.
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Texas Woman Who Charged U.S. Capitol Dressed As Captain America Gets Jail Sentence
Texas Woman Who Charged U.S. Capitol Dressed As Captain America Gets Jail Sentence https://digitalalabamanews.com/texas-woman-who-charged-u-s-capitol-dressed-as-captain-america-gets-jail-sentence/
By Sarah Bahari
10:41 AM on Oct 3, 2022 CDT
A Texas woman who charged the U.S. Capitol dressed in a Captain America costume, then fought law enforcement officers trying to clear the scene, was sentenced to six months of jail.
Micki Larson-Olson, 53, of Abilene, was convicted by a jury of unlawful entry onto public property, a misdemeanor.
Authorities say a costume-clad Larson-Olson, wielding two flags, joined an enormous crowd on the west side of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Officers with the Metropolitan Police Department, called to assist the U.S. Capitol Police, repeatedly asked Larson-Olson to leave the premises. She refused, lowered herself down and clung to the scaffolding with her arms and legs. As six officers worked to physically remove her from the scaffolding, Larson-Olson screamed, swore and called them traitors, the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Superior Court of the District of Columbia Judge Michael O’Keefe handed down Larson-Olson’s sentence. This marked the Washington, D.C. court’s first Jan. 6 trial.
Larson-Olson is a frequent and hard-to-miss presence at Trump rallies across the country, where she dresses in red, white and blue Captain America-style costumes and drives a red car covered in conspiratorial and Trump-supporting stickers.
The believer of the QAnon conspiracy theory was one of hundreds of members of a cult-like group who gathered in Dallas last year to wait for John F. Kennedy and his son, John F. Kennedy Jr., — both of whom are long dead — to reveal themselves and usher in the beginning of a new Trump presidency.
QAnon followers believe that Trump is fighting a group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring and are trying to control our politics and media.
More than 870 people have been arrested for their roles in the U.S. Capitol breach, including some 265 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection said that Trump’s election lies emboldened and mobilized many of his supporters. Committee members said Trump asked them in a tweet to gather in Washington, D.C., that day, writing “Be there, will be wild!” That infamous prompt “electrified and galvanized” his followers, a committee member said.
Michael Williams contributed to this report.
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Power 25 Rankings: Tight Race Forming In The Top 10
Power 25 Rankings: Tight Race Forming In The Top 10 https://digitalalabamanews.com/power-25-rankings-tight-race-forming-in-the-top-10/
Auburn is a unanimous No. 1 in this week’s AL.com Power 25 high school football rankings following a 51-29 win over Opelika last week.
The Power 25 ranks the best football teams in Alabama regardless of classification. The Tigers (7-0) are idle this week before traveling to No. 7 Central-Phenix City on Oct. 14.
Behind Auburn, there is a tightly contested race for No. 2. Just eight total points separate Thompson, Hoover, Saraland, Theodore and Clay-Chalkville.
The biggest mover of the week is Anniston. The Bulldogs jumped from out of the poll all the way to No. 16 with an impressive 32-7 rout of Handley.
Here are this week’s rankings heading into Week 8 of the 2022 season.
25. Elba (6-0)
Total points: 13
Previous ranking: NR
Last week: Defeated Red Level 42-6
This week: at Georgiana, Friday
23. (TIE) Ramsay (5-2)
Total points: 16
Previous ranking: 22
Last week: Defeated Wenonah 41-6
This week: vs. John Carroll, Thursday
23. (TIE) Gardendale (4-2)
Total points: 16
Previous ranking: 25
Last week: Defeated Jackson-Olin 40-6
This week: at Minor, Friday
22. Deshler (7-0)
Total points: 18
Previous ranking: 23
Last week: Defeated West Morgan 21-6
This week: vs. Central-Florence, Friday
21. Gulf Shores (6-1)
Total points: 20
Previous ranking: NR
Last week: Defeated Williamson 51-12
This week: vs. Elberta, Thursday
20. Pinson Valley (4-2)*
Total points: 22
Previous ranking: 18
Last week: Defeated Huffman 47-0
This week: at Center Point, Friday
*Lost to Florence by forfeit
19. Decatur (6-0)
Total points: 23
Previous ranking: NR
Last week: Defeated Columbia 65-0
This week: vs. Muscle Shoals, Friday
18. Opelika (4-3)
Total points: 25
Previous ranking: 15
Last week: Lost to No. 1 Auburn 51-29
This week: vs. Smiths Station, Friday
17. Fyffe (6-0)
Total points: 29
Previous ranking: Tied for 19
Last week: Defeated Collinsville 61-0
This week: at Sand Rock, Friday
16. Anniston (7-0)
Total points: 31
Previous ranking: NR
Last week: Defeated Handley 32-7
This week: Idle
15. Andalusia (7-0)
Total points: 35
Previous ranking: 16
Last week: Defeated Geneva 69-19
This week: vs. Slocomb, Friday
14. Hewitt-Trussville (4-3)
Total points: 41
Previous ranking: 13
Last week: Lost to No. 2 Thompson 14-12
This week: vs. Vestavia Hills, Friday
13. Fairhope (5-1)
Total points: 43
Previous ranking: Tied for 7
Last week: Lost to Foley 39-38
This week: at Daphne, Friday
12. Hartselle (7-0)
Total points: 49
Previous ranking: 14
Last week: Defeated Muscle Shoals 29-26
This week: at Athens, Friday
11. UMS-Wright (6-0)
Total points: 58
Previous ranking: Tied for 10
Last week: Defeated Elberta 34-13
This week: at B.C. Rain (at Alma Bryant), Friday
THE TOP 10
Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa’s Ethan Crawford rolls out to throw during the second half of the Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa at Hueytown high school football game in Hueytown, Ala., Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022. (Vasha Hunt | preps.al.com)Vasha Hunt
10. Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa (7-0)
Total points: 59
Previous ranking: 12
Last week: Defeated Central-Tuscaloosa 63-19
This week: vs. Bessemer City, Friday
Montgomery Catholic’s Caleb Mccreary grabs a hike during the Trinity at Montgomery Catholic high-school football game, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, in McCalla, Ala. (Vasha Hunt | preps.al.com)Vasha Hunt
9. Montgomery Catholic (7-0)
Total points: 63
Previous ranking: Tied for 10
Last week: Defeated Montgomery Academy 72-15
This week: vs. Bullock County, Friday
Mountain Brook running back Cole Gamble (19) is grabbed from behind by Hoover defensive back Devan Carlisle (12) during a game at Spartan Stadium in Mountain Brook, Ala., Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (Marvin Gentry | preps@al.com)
8. Mountain Brook (5-1)
Total points: 71
Previous ranking: Tied for 7
Last week: Idle
This week: at Parker, Thursday
Central-Phenix City head coach Patrick Nix talks to the team during warm ups before an AHSAA football game Friday, Aug. 19, 2022, in Phenix City, Alabama. (Julie Bennett for AL.com)Julie Bennett for AL.com
7. Central-Phenix City (5-2)
Total points: 75
Previous ranking: 9
Last week: Defeated Dothan 35-28
This week: at Lee-Montgomery, Thursday
Clay Chalkville’s Mario Craver (4) carries the ball against Thompson during a game at Warriror Stadium in Alabaster, Ala., Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. (Marvin Gentry | preps@al.com)
6. Clay-Chalkville (5-1)
Total points: 81
Previous ranking: 5
Last week: Idle
This week: vs Huffman, Friday
Theodore’s Tevaris Sullivan takes the handoff for a long run against Spanish Fort. (Todd Stacey | preps@al.com)
5. Theodore (6-0)
Total points: 84
Previous ranking: 6
Last week: Idle
This week: at Blount, Friday
Saraland quarterback KJ Lacey rolls out to pass during a prep football game, Friday, August 26, 2022, in Saraland, Ala. (Scott Donaldson | al.com)Scott Donaldson/al.com
3. (TIE) Saraland (7-0)
Total points: 86
Previous ranking: 4
Last week: Defeated Blount 35-0
This week: at Baldwin County, Friday
Hoover’s Andrew Parrish and Hoover’s Keith Christein stop Oak Mountain’s Trey Vassell during the first half of the Hoover at Oak Mountain high school football game in Birmingham, Ala., Friday, Sept. 16, 2022. (Vasha Hunt | preps.al.com)Vasha Hunt
3. (TIE) Hoover (6-1)
Total points: 86
Previous ranking: 3
Last week: Defeated Oak Mountain 40-0
This week: vs. Tuscaloosa County, Friday
Hewitt-Trussville quarterback Peyton Floyd is stopped by Thompson’s Kelby Taylor, left, and Tony Mitchell during a game at Thompson High School’s Warrior Stadium in Alabaster, Ala., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (Dennis Victory | preps@al.com)
2. Thompson (5-2)
Total points: 89
Previous ranking: 2
Last week: Defeated No. 14 Hewitt-Trussville 14-12
This week: vs. Oak Mountain, Thursday
Auburn High cheerleaders cheer during a high school football game Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, in Auburn, Alabama. (Julie Bennett | preps@al.com)Julie Bennett | preps@al.com
1. Auburn (7-0)
Total points: 100
Previous ranking: 1
Last week: Defeated No. 18 Opelika 51-29
This week: Idle
Dropped out: Handley, Guntersville, Pleasant Grove, Muscle Shoals
Also receiving votes: Pleasant Grove (11), Helena (10), Leeds (9), Muscle Shoals (9), Moody (5), Piedmont (5), Mars Hill (4), Benjamin Russell (3), Austin (3), Priceville (3), Gordo (2), Handley (1), Faith Academy (1), Patrician (1).
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WATCH: Wynonna Judd Honors Late Mother Naomi Judd With Emotional Tribute On The Judds Final Tour Music Mayhem Magazine
WATCH: Wynonna Judd Honors Late Mother Naomi Judd With Emotional Tribute On The Judds Final Tour – Music Mayhem Magazine https://digitalalabamanews.com/watch-wynonna-judd-honors-late-mother-naomi-judd-with-emotional-tribute-on-the-judds-final-tour-music-mayhem-magazine/
Wynonna Judd embarked on the highly-anticipated The Judds: The Final Tour, fulfilling her promise to honor The Judds’ legacy along the way.
The tour kicked off over the weekend with two shows featuring special guests Martina McBride and Brandi Carlile. The entire show was a celebration of The Judds and the late Naomi Judd, but Wynonna’s performance of “Love Can Build A Bridge” stood out as a highlight of the show.
A fan at the Toledo, Ohio concert captured the chilling moment Wynonna honored her late mother alongside Carlile and her sister, Ashley Judd.
“As we close, you have changed my life so many times and I think this one is very unique. We’re all gonna face what it is that Ashley and I are facing right now, we’re all gonna face it. Let’s try to be kinder to one another. It’s not getting any easier out there,” Judd somberly told the crowd.
Wynonna Judd; Photo Courtesy of YouTube
Before performing the song, Wynonna shared an inspirational message.
“Tonight, this next song goes out to anybody out there that’s maybe struggling to believe. Been there, done that, many times. But this next song reminds me that there is always hope.”
Wynonna began performing the moving ballad with her sister and Carlile sharing the mic behind her.
Moments later, historical footage of Naomi Judd appeared on the giant screen behind Wynonna and their voices seamlessly blended together as if she were there. The powerful moment silenced the audience who appeared to stand and watch in awe.
Brandi Carlile and Ashley Judd could be seen standing arm-in-arm behind Wynonna as the moving performance came to a close.
Wynonna bid farewell to fans and her band members as she told the crowd “goodnight” and exited the stage with her hands raised into the air.
The Judds: The Final Tour will continue on Friday, October 7 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with special guests Martina McBride and Ashley McBryde.
The remaining dates of the tour will feature a variety of country superstars, including Little Big Town, Kelsea Ballerini, Trisha Yearwood, and Faith Hill.
“I continue to find myself both grateful and humbled by the unwavering support from my fellow artists, music community, and of course, the fans,” Wynonna shared in a statement ahead of opening night of the tour. “I am looking so forward to celebrating The Judds music one final time. It will be a bittersweet experience, and one that I will never forget.”
Naomi passed away on April 30 at the age of 76. She died just one day before The Judds were set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was later revealed during Ashley Judds’ sit-down interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts that Naomi died of “mental illness” and that she used a “firearm.”
Her life was celebrated at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium with ‘Naomi Judd: A River Of Time Celebration.’ The event served as a tribute to the life and legacy of Naomi Judd and featured performances, special messages, and more from Ashley McBryde, Bette Midler, Bono, Brad Paisley, Brandi Carlile, Carly Pearce, Emmylou Harris & Allison Russell, Gaither Vocal Band, Jamey Johnson, Little Big Town, Martina McBride, Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey, Reba McEntire, Reese Witherspoon, Salma Hayek, among others.
The Judds; Photo Courtesy of CMT/CBS
The special aired on CMT and was the network’s highest-rated musical special in two years.
The Judds earned 14 No. 1 hits during their career that spanned nearly three decades, including “Love Can Build a Bridge,” “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Why Not Me,” “Turn It Loose,” “Girls Night Out,” “Rockin’ With the Rhythm of the Rain” and “Grandpa.”
The Judds toured in the ’80s where they had a catalog of twenty Top 10 hits, 20 million-plus albums sold, a combined 16 Gold, Platinum, and multi-Platinum albums, and The Judds Greatest Hits.
Since launching their career in 1983, the duo went on to release six studio albums and an EP. The superstar pair have also won several awards, including nine CMA Awards, seven Academy Of Country Music Awards and five GRAMMY Awards for hits like “Why Not Me” and “Give A Little Love.”
Remaining Dates Of The Judds’ Final Tour
Friday, October 7 – Denny Sanford PREMIER Center – Sioux Falls, SD *Ashley McBryde
Saturday, October 8 – Resch Center – Green Bay, WI *Ashley McBryde
Friday, October 14 – Gas South Arena – Duluth, GA *Little Big Town
Saturday, October 15 – Propst Arena at Von Braun Center – Huntsville, AL *Little Big Town
Friday, October 21 – Choctaw Grand Theatre – Durant, OK *Kelsea Ballerini
Saturday, October 22 – Dickies Arena – Ft. Worth, TX *Trisha Yearwood
Thursday, October 27 – Mississippi Coast Coliseum – Biloxi, MS *Ashley McBryde
Friday, October 28 – Bridgestone Arena – Nashville, TN *Trisha Yearwood
Saturday, October 29 – Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY *Faith Hill
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Poll: Partisan Latinos More Likely To Back Trump Biden Than Broader Electorate
Poll: Partisan Latinos More Likely To Back Trump, Biden Than Broader Electorate https://digitalalabamanews.com/poll-partisan-latinos-more-likely-to-back-trump-biden-than-broader-electorate/
Oct. 3, 2022, 3:37 PM UTC
By Ben Kamisar
Latino Republicans and Democrats have been more likely than voters nationally to consider themselves supporters of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden respectively, according to data from the new national NBC News/Telemundo poll of the Latino electorate.
The new numbers show affinity for both men are higher among Latinos partisans than what was found in the NBC News September national poll of the broader electorate.
Forty percent of Latino Republicans (and leaners) say they are primarily a supporter of Trump over the national party, while 55% call themselves party-first Republicans, a 15-point edge for “party Republicans.” Trump had stronger support among Latinos aged 65-and-over as well as those with “blue collar” jobs and those with both parents born in the mainland U.S.
By comparison, registered voters who identify or lean Republican more broadly backed the party over Trump by a margin of 58% to 33% in the September national poll, a 25-point edge for the “party Republicans.”
Among Latino Democrats and Democratic leaners, 52% say were supporters of Biden during the 2020 primaries, with 26% saying they backed Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, 8% saying they backed Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and 9% naming another candidate.
That’s significantly more support for Biden among Latino Democrats than from all registered voters who identify with or lean toward the party. In the September national poll, 40% named Biden, 31% named Sanders, 12% named Warren and 13% named another candidate.
Biden’s 2020 support among Latinos is more pronounced with Democrats who are older, those in the middle/upper class, and those who consider themselves more moderate or conservative.
The NBC News/Telemundo poll was conducted Sept. 17-26 of 1,000 Latino registered voters, 75% of whom took the survey in English and 25% who took it in Spanish.
Respondents were contacted via landline, cell phone and text message. And the poll has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points.
Ben Kamisar
Ben Kamisar is a deputy political editor in NBC’s Political Unit.
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Russian Woman Behind On-Air War Protest Reportedly Escapes House Arrest
Russian Woman Behind On-Air War Protest Reportedly Escapes House Arrest https://digitalalabamanews.com/russian-woman-behind-on-air-war-protest-reportedly-escapes-house-arrest/
Russia has put Marina Ovsyannikova, the former state TV editor who interrupted a news broadcast to protest against the Ukraine war, on a wanted list after she reportedly escaped house arrest.
The Ukrainian-born Ovsyannikova, 44, gained international attention in March after bursting into a studio of Channel One, her then employer, to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin, holding a poster reading “no war”. At the time she was fined 30,000 roubles (£460) for shunning protest laws.
Ovsyannikova continued protesting against the war and was charged in August with spreading false information about the Russian army for holding up a poster that read “Putin is a murderer, his soldiers are fascists” during a solo protest on the Moskva River embankment opposite the Kremlin. She was subsequently placed under house arrest to await trial and was facing up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
On Saturday, Ovsyannikova’s ex-husband said she had escaped house arrest together with her young daughter.
“Last night, my ex-wife left the place that the court assigned her, and disappeared with my 11-year-old daughter in an unknown direction,” Igor Ovsyannikov, who is employed at the state-run news outlet RT, said.
Ovsyannikova’s whereabouts are unknown and she did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Monday, she was added to the interior ministry’s online list of fugitives, accompanied by a photograph.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has launched an unprecedented crackdown on protesters, independent news outlets and foreign social media networks. In early March, the president, Vladimir Putin, signed off on a draconian law imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally “fake” news about the military, in effect criminalising any public criticism of the war.
Hundreds of leading Russian independent journalists and activists have fled the country, fearing a wave of government repression. But the war in Ukraine also resulted in a steady stream of resignations from Russia’s tightly controlled state-run television channels.
Last month, Zhanna Agalakova, a former Channel One newsreader who at the time of her resignation in March was the station’s correspondent in Paris, announced she was returning the two state medals she received from Putin for her work at the channel.
“Mr President, your leadership is leading the country to the abyss,” Agalakova said in a handwritten note posted on her Facebook page. “I consider your awards unacceptable.”
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Job-Seekers: 23k Jobs Are Open Right Now In The Greater Birmingham Area
Job-Seekers: 23k Jobs Are Open Right Now In The Greater Birmingham Area https://digitalalabamanews.com/job-seekers-23k-jobs-are-open-right-now-in-the-greater-birmingham-area/
Sponsored
Indeed.com. Keep reading to learn more about the labor market and which companies are hiring.
Check out Bham Now’s featured listings
Post your job—we’ll feature + promote it on Bham Now + social media.
Alabama has a low unemployment rate
Alabama Department of Labor Market Information Division. This was 1.1% less than the national unemployment rate.
There are 6 jobs in Birmingham-Hoover per available candidate
According to AlabamaWorks!, there are 3,544 candidates for 23,022 open positions in Jefferson County. That seems like a pretty good chance to get your dream job.
Get your resume ready
Looking for an opportunity to connect with employers? Add the Birmingham Career Center’s Second Annual Open Air Job Fair to your calendar on Tuesday, October 18.
What: A chance for job-seekers to meet with employers, including the Alabama Department of Corrections, America’s Thrift Stores, Birmingham Airport Authority, Coca-Cola Bottling Company United and UAB Medicine
When: Tuesday, October 18 | 10AM-2PM
Where: Birmingham Career Center, 3216 4th Avenue S, Birmingham, AL 35222
5 of the top 10 employers in Jefferson County are in healthcare
Indeed.com:
The University of Alabama at Birmingham: 1,237
UAB Medicine: 762
Tenet Healthcare: 442
Children’s of Alabama: 346
Grandview Medical Center: 309
Ascension: 267
Hibbett Sports: 224
Deloitte: 207
Dollar General: 204
Regions Financial: 178
Birmingham, check out our job listings to find your dream job. Employers can post jobs here.
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Supreme Court Will Hear Social Media Terrorism Lawsuits
Supreme Court Will Hear Social Media Terrorism Lawsuits https://digitalalabamanews.com/supreme-court-will-hear-social-media-terrorism-lawsuits/
The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear two cases seeking to hold social media companies financially responsible for terrorist attacks.
What You Need To Know
The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear two cases seeking to hold social media companies financially responsible for terrorist attacks
Relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks in France and Turkey had sued Google, Twitter, and Facebook, accusing the companies of helping terrorists spread their message and radicalize new recruits
The Supreme Court also said Monday it won’t take up two cases that involved challenges to a ban enacted during the Trump administration on bump stocks
And the high court said it won’t intervene in a lawsuit in which Dominion Voting Systems accused MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell of defamation for falsely accusing the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election
Relatives of people killed in terrorist attacks in France and Turkey had sued Google, Twitter, and Facebook. They accused the companies of helping terrorists spread their message and radicalize new recruits.
The court will hear the cases this term, which began Monday, with a decision expected before the court recesses for the summer, usually in late June. The court did not say when it would hear arguments, but the court has already filled its argument calendar for October and November.
The Supreme Court also said Monday it won’t take up two cases that involved challenges to a ban enacted during the Trump administration on bump stocks, the gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns. And the high court said it won’t intervene in a lawsuit in which Dominion Voting Systems accused MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell of defamation for falsely accusing the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election against former President Donald Trump.
One of the social media cases the justices will hear involves Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen studying in Paris. The Cal State Long Beach student was one of 130 people killed in Islamic State group attacks in November 2015. The attackers struck cafes, outside the French national stadium and inside the Bataclan theater. Gonzalez died in an attack at La Belle Equipe bistro.
Gonzalez’s relatives sued Google, which owns YouTube, saying the platform had helped the Islamic State group by allowing it to post hundreds of videos that helped incite violence and recruit potential supporters. Gonzalez’s relatives said that the company’s computer algorithms recommended those videos to viewers most likely to be interested in them.
But a judge dismissed the case and a federal appeals court upheld the ruling. Under U.S. law — specifically Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — internet companies are generally exempt from liability for the material users post on their networks.
The other case the court agreed to hear involves Jordanian citizen Nawras Alassaf. He died in the 2017 attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul where a gunman affiliated with the Islamic State killed 39 people.
Alassaf’s relatives sued Twitter, Google and Facebook for aiding terrorism, arguing that the platforms helped the Islamic State grow and did not go far enough in trying to curb terrorist activity on their platforms. A lower court let the case proceed.
Bump stocks
The justices’ decision not to hear the bump-stock cases comes on the heels of a decision in June in which the justices by a 6-3 vote expanded gun-possession rights, weakening states’ ability to limit the carrying of guns in public.
The cases the justices declined to hear were an appeal from a Utah gun rights advocate and another brought by the gun rights group Gun Owners of America and others. As is typical the justices made no comments in declining to hear the cases and they were among many the court rejected Monday, the first day of the court’s new term.
The Trump administration’s ban on bump stocks took effect in 2019 and came about as a result of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. The gunman, a 64-year-old retired postal service worker and high stakes gambler, used assault-style rifles to fire more than 1,000 rounds in 11 minutes into the crowd of 22,000 music fans. Most of the rifles were fitted with bump stock devices and high-capacity magazines. A total of 58 people were killed in the shooting and two died later. More than 850 people were injured.
The Trump administration’s move was an about-face for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. In 2010, under the Obama administration, the agency found that bump stocks should not be classified as a “machinegun” and therefore should not be banned under federal law. Under the Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect.
The high court previously declined a different opportunity to take a case involving the ban.
MyPillow CEO
As is typical, the high court did not say anything Monday about the Lindell case in rejecting it among a host of others.
Lindell is part of a case in which Dominion also accused Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani of defamation for falsely claiming that the election was “stolen.” The Denver, Colorado-based Dominion has sought $1.3 billion in damages from the trio.
A lower court judge in August of last year declined to dismiss the case and instead said it could go forward. Lindell had appealed that determination, but a federal appeals court said his appeal was premature. The Supreme Court declined to take up that issue.
Powell and Giuliani, both lawyers who filed election challenges on Trump’s behalf, and Lindell, who was one of Trump’s most vocal public supporters, made various unproven claims about the voting machine company during news conferences, election rallies and on social media and television.
There was no widespread fraud in the election, which a range of election officials across the country, including Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, have confirmed. Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia, key battleground states crucial to Biden’s victory, also vouched for the integrity of the elections in their states. Dominion machines tabulated ballots in 28 states.
In September, a judge in Minnesota declined to dismiss a separate defamation lawsuit by a different voting machine maker, Smartmatic, against Lindell. Smartmatic’s machines were used only in Los Angeles County during the 2020 election. MyPillow is based in Minnesota.
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Oath Keepers Trial: 'Armed Rebellion' Plan Prosecutor Says
Oath Keepers Trial: 'Armed Rebellion' Plan, Prosecutor Says https://digitalalabamanews.com/oath-keepers-trial-armed-rebellion-plan-prosecutor-says/
WASHINGTON — (AP) — Federal prosecutors began Monday to lay out for jurors their case against the founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group and four associates charged in the most serious case to reach trial yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler delivered his an opening statement in Washington’s federal court in the trial of Stewart Rhodes and others charged with seditious conspiracy. They are accused of a weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power from Republican Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden.
“Their goal was to stop by whatever means necessary the lawful transfer of presidential power, including by taking up arms against the United States government,” he said. “They concocted a plan for armed rebellion to shatter a bedrock of American democracy.”
Defense attorneys will also get their first chance to address jurors, who were chosen last week after days of questioning over their feelings about the insurrection, Trump supporters and other matters. The judge on Monday denied another request from the defense attorneys to move the trial out of D.C., where they contend the jury pool is biased against them.
The stakes are high for the Justice Department, which last secured a seditious conspiracy conviction at trial nearly 30 years ago.
About 900 people have been charged and hundreds convicted in the Capitol attack. Rioters stormed past police barriers, engaged in hand-to-hand combat with officers, smashed windows and halted the certification of Biden’s electoral victory.
But the Oath Keepers are the first to stand trial on seditious conspiracy, a rare Civil War-era charge that carries up to 20 years behind bars. The trial is expected to last several weeks.
Prosecutors will tell jurors that the insurrection for the antigovernment group was not a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage but part of a drawn-out plot to stop Biden from entering the White House.
On trial with Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, are Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers; Kenneth Harrelson, another Florida Oath Keeper; Thomas Caldwell, a retired U.S. Navy intelligence officer from Virginia; and Jessica Watkins, who led an Ohio militia group. They face several other charges as well.
Authorities say Rhodes began plotting to overturn Biden’s victory just days after the election. Court records show the Oath Keepers repeatedly warning of the prospect of violence — or “a bloody, bloody civil war,” as Rhodes said in one call — if Biden were to become president.
By December, authorities say, Rhodes and the Oath Keepers had set their sights on Congress’ certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6.
The Oath Keepers organized trainings — including one in “unconventional warfare” — and stashed weapons at a Virginia hotel so they could get them into the capital quickly if necessary, prosecutors say. Over several days in early January, Rhodes spent an $15,500 on guns, including an AR-platform rifle, magazines, mounts, sights and other equipment, according to court documents.
On Jan. 6, Oath Keepers equipped with communication devices, helmets, vests and other battle gear were seen on camera storming the Capitol. Rhodes is not accused of going inside, but telephone records show he was communicating with Oath Keepers who did enter around the time of the riot and he was seen with members outside afterward.
And prosecutors say the plot didn’t end on Jan. 6. In the days between the riot and Biden’s inauguration, Rhodes spent more than $17,000 on firearm parts, magazines, ammunition and other items, prosecutors say. Around the time of the inauguration, Rhodes told others to organize local militias to oppose the Democratic administration, authorities say.
“Patriots entering their own Capitol to send a message to the traitors is NOTHING compared to what’s coming,” Rhodes wrote in a message the evening of Jan. 6.
Defense attorneys have said the Oath Keepers came to Washington only to provide security at events for figures such as Trump ally Roger Stone before the president’s big outdoor rally behind the White House. Rhodes has said there was no plan to attack the Capitol and that the members who did acted on their own.
Rhodes’ lawyers are poised to argue that jurors cannot find him guilty of seditious conspiracy because all the actions he took before Jan. 6 were in preparation for orders he anticipated from Trump — orders that never came.
Rhodes’ attorney has said that his client will eventually take the stand to argue that he believed Trump was going to invoke the Insurrection Act and call up a militia, which Rhodes had been calling on him to do to stop Biden from becoming president. Rhodes’ attorneys will argue that what prosecutors have alleged was an illegal conspiracy was merely lobbying the president to use a U.S. law.
Prosecutors say Rhodes’ own words show he was going to act regardless of what Trump did. In one message from December 2020, Rhodes wrote that Trump “needs to know that if he fails to act, then we will.”
The last successful seditious conspiracy case was against an Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, and nine followers convicted in a plot to blow up the United Nations, the FBI’s building, and two tunnels and a bridge linking New York and New Jersey.
___
For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Supreme Court Rejects Trump Ally Mike Lindell's Appeal In 2020 Election Lawsuit
Supreme Court Rejects Trump Ally Mike Lindell's Appeal In 2020 Election Lawsuit https://digitalalabamanews.com/supreme-court-rejects-trump-ally-mike-lindells-appeal-in-2020-election-lawsuit-2/
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell attends a “Save America” rally in Warren, Michigan, on October 1, 2022.
Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s bid to fend off a defamation lawsuit the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems filed over his far-fetched claims about the 2020 presidential election.
The justices’ decision not to hear the case means a federal judge’s ruling in August 2021 that allowed the lawsuit to move forward remains in place.
Lindell, a prominent TV salesman for the pillows his company makes, is an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Dominion sued Lindell and MyPillow in February 2021, claiming $1.3 billion in damages and alleging that Lindell purposely pushed the “big lie” that Trump won the 2020 election. Lindell repeatedly echoed baseless claims that Dominion’s machines manipulated vote counts to ensure that Joe Biden defeated Trump. The claims have been widely debunked. In the lawsuit, Dominion argues that Lindell knew his claims were false, while Lindell’s lawyers say he genuinely believes them.
“Lindell asserts today, as he did throughout the relevant period, that his statements regarding Dominion, its voting machines, and the integrity of the tabulation were, and continue to be, valid, accurate, and true,” Lindell’s lawyers wrote in court papers.
Lindell had unsuccessfully asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols of Washington, D.C., to allow him to appeal two legal questions related to the landmark 1964 Supreme Court defamation ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, which concluded that there must be evidence of “actual malice” for a public figure to pursue a defamation claim. Lindell argues that Dominion is a public figure because it performs a government function in elections and that therefore the “actual malice” standard applies. His lawyers argue that because Lindell genuinely believes in his claims, there was no “actual malice” and that therefore the lawsuit should be dismissed.
Dominion also sued Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani for defamation. Nichols allowed those claims to move forward, as well, but Powell and Giuliani were not involved in Lindell’s Supreme Court appeal.
A view of the U.S. Supreme Court building on the first day of the court’s new term in Washington, U.S. October 3, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
In a separate case, Nichols in May threw out Lindell’s own defamation lawsuit against Dominion and Smartmatic, another voting machine company. Dominion and Smartmatic have also filed similar defamation lawsuits against Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
Two conservative justices — Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — have suggested that the 1964 defamation precedent, which makes it harder for public figures to bring defamation claims, should be overturned.
Read More…
Tigers Split Sunday Doubleheader In Hanceville Auburn University Athletics
Tigers Split Sunday Doubleheader In Hanceville – Auburn University Athletics https://digitalalabamanews.com/tigers-split-sunday-doubleheader-in-hanceville-auburn-university-athletics-2/
HANCEVILLE, Ala.– After falling to Wallace State 4-0 in Sunday’s opener, Auburn softball answered back with a 4-0 victory over Chipola to split the doubleheader slate and improve to 3-1 over its fall exhibition season.
Great defense and shutdown inning after shutdown inning in the circle poised for a scoreless game through the first five innings against Wallace State, but the Lions scratched across four runs in the sixth to rally for the win. Auburn stormed back against Chipola and used back-to-back home runs from junior Annabelle Widra and freshman Axe Milanowski to return to the win column.
Nine different Tigers knocked hits during Sunday’s doubleheader. Junior Sydney Cox and senior Lindsey Garcia both knocked doubles Sunday to join Widra and Milanowski with extra-base hits.
As a staff, Widra, junior Maddie Penta and freshman Emmah Rolfe split the workload in the circle. Penta was the clubhouse leader in strikeouts with eight in her four innings of work. The right-hander allowed a lone hit on Sunday. Widra struck out seven through her five innings of relief spread across the doubleheader while earning the win against Chipola. Rolfe racked up six strikeouts on Sunday.
AUBURN 0, WALLACE STATE 4
Wallace State kept Auburn off balanced at the plate, holding the Tigers to four hits. Garcia was the lone Tiger to knock an extra-base hit in the contest with a double in the first inning.
The Lions did their damage in the sixth, loading the bases with back-to-back singles and a one-out walk.
On a ground ball to third, the Tigers elected to go for the play at home, but a bobbled ball allowed the run to score. The miscue proved costly as Wallace State would clear the bases with a two-out double to extend the lead to 4-0.
Auburn led off the sixth and seventh innings with singles from senior Carlee McCondichie and sophomore Jessie Blaine, respectively, but was unable to follow up with the timely hit.
AUBURN 4, CHIPOLA COLLEGE 0
After a slow start to the offense, Auburn took advantage of Chipola miscues to scratch across the first run of the game in the fourth. A two-out miscue at shortstop allowed sophomore Abbey Smith to score for second.
Auburn’s 1-0 lead would hold until the sixth inning when Widra and Milanowski slugged back-to-back home runs. After Cox led off the seventh inning with a double, sophomore Nelia Peralta drove in the final run with a single through the left side.
In the circle, Widra earned the win in relief. Widra struck out six of the 11 batters she faced and allowed just one hit and a walk through three innings.
UP NEXT
The Tigers return to the diamond on Sunday, Oct. 9, making the short trek to Montgomery to face Alabama State. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. CT.
Players Mentioned
#12 Carlee McCondichie
UTL
5′ 7″
Freshman
#5 Lindsey Garcia
INF
5′ 5″
Freshman
#2 Sydney Cox
UTL
5′ 3″
Sophomore
L/R
#9 Maddie Penta
RHP
6′ 2″
Sophomore
R/R
#13 Nelia Peralta
INF
5′ 6″
Freshman
R/R
#20 Abbey Smith
OF
5′ 8″
Freshman
L/R
#22 Jessie Blaine
C
5′ 10″
Freshman
R/R
Players Mentioned
#12 Carlee McCondichie
5′ 7″
Freshman
UTL
#5 Lindsey Garcia
5′ 5″
Freshman
INF
#2 Sydney Cox
5′ 3″
Sophomore
L/R
UTL
#9 Maddie Penta
6′ 2″
Sophomore
R/R
RHP
#13 Nelia Peralta
5′ 6″
Freshman
R/R
INF
#20 Abbey Smith
5′ 8″
Freshman
L/R
OF
#22 Jessie Blaine
5′ 10″
Freshman
R/R
C
Read More…
Art Industry News: A Vanity Fair Editor Is Penning An Unauthorized Biography Of Larry Gagosian Other Stories | Artnet News
Art Industry News: A Vanity Fair Editor Is Penning An Unauthorized Biography Of Larry Gagosian + Other Stories | Artnet News https://digitalalabamanews.com/art-industry-news-a-vanity-fair-editor-is-penning-an-unauthorized-biography-of-larry-gagosian-other-stories-artnet-news/
Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most consequential developments coming out of the art world and art market. Here’s what you need to know on this Monday, October 3.
NEED TO READ
Biden Restarts Arts Committee Disbanded Under Trump – President Biden signed an executive order reestablishing the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, an advisory group of arts leaders that had been inactive since August 2017, when its members unanimously resigned—with a secret message, no less—in protest of Trump’s handling of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. (Washington Post)
Art Institutions Assess Hurricane Damage – Some museums and art spaces in Florida emerged from Hurricane Ian largely unscathed due to a mix of luck and careful preparation. But other hard-hit sites, including museums in Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, and Fort Meyers, as well as Robert Rauschenberg’s former home and residency on Captiva Island, remain inaccessible to those seeking to survey the damage. (The Art Newspaper)
Michael Shnayerson to Pen Gago Bio – The Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of the 2019 tome Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers and the Rise of Contemporary Art is turning his attention to the biggest fish of them all: Larry Gagosian. Shnayerson is at work on an unauthorized biography of the dealer from Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (ARTnews)
Museum Cancels Drag Show After Proud Boys Appearance – Memphis’s Museum of Science & History was forced to shut down the family-friendly drag show that was a part of its programming for the exhibition “Rise Up: Stonewall and the LGBTQ Rights Movement” after 30 armed protesters from the far-right extremist group turned up. (Hyperallergic)
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Taipei Fine Arts Museum Renovation Breaks Ground – The $164 million expansion of Taiwan’s oldest modern and contemporary museum commenced on Friday with a groundbreaking ceremony in Taipei Expo Park. The nearly 500,000-square-foot building is expected to be complete in 2028. (Press release)
Jewish Museum Leader to Depart – Claudia Gould will leave her post as at the New York museum in June 2023 after 11 years. (ARTnews)
Preview the Getty Collection – The 1,500-work-strong collection assembled by Ann and Gordon Getty, ranging from Asian works of art to Impressionist and Old Master paintings, is expected to fetch $180 million at a series of Christie’s sales in New York this month. (TAN)
Greek Culture Ministry Backs Contemporary Museum – The government is backing three projects at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) with €1.7 million ($1.7 million) in funding from the national recovery fund. The money will support digitization of the museum’s archive and the promotion of Greek artists and curators abroad. (Archaeology Wiki)
FOR ART’S SAKE
Oslo’s Industrial Wasteland Regenerated With New Museums – This year’s opening of the National Museum, designed by the German architect Klaus Schuwerk, and last year’s debut of the Munch Museum, built by Spanish architects Estudio Herreros, have helped complete a nearly 20-year process to revitalize the former port of the Norwegian capital. (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)
OSLO, NORWAY- OCTOBER 22: The opening of the new Munch museum on October 22, 2021 in Oslo, Norway. (Photo by Rune Hellestad/Getty Images)
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Firefighters Free Woman Who Was Stuck Inside New York Hookah Bar
Firefighters Free Woman Who Was Stuck Inside New York Hookah Bar https://digitalalabamanews.com/firefighters-free-woman-who-was-stuck-inside-new-york-hookah-bar/
A bizarre incident unfolded early Saturday when firefighter were called to rescue woman who somehow got trapped inside a hookah bar.
As of now, firefighters haven’t revealed how exactly the woman trapped herself in the basement of the establishment. However, officials say they received a call about a “person with altered mental status”, so this woman may have either been left behind, or trapped herself inside the building without knowing.
The New York Post says the woman was locked in the basement of an East Village hookah bar known as Karma Friday night. The Post says the club remained closed by Saturday afternoon, and a manager from there declined comment. The Post described the woman as appearing “shell-shocked” when she was rescued, and she was taken to Bellevue Hospital for examination.
In Other News
You may have seen this out-all brawl break loose recently at New York pizzeria in 2021, as staff and customers threw down behind the counter. The footage of the scuffle was first posted on Reddit, but quickly went viral all over the internet, as it’s one of the wilder fights we’ve seen in a while.
FOX says one lower Hudson Valley man from West Nyack was arrested and charged with assault after the incident.
See the fight HERE.
Pizza Fight
FOX says the fight broke out at Joe’s Pizza in Brooklyn during the early morning hours in July 2021. It is not clear from the footage exactly how or why the fight started, but you can see customers and staff throwing lefts and rights during the wild melee that went all over the place. Pizza paddles soon became weapons, and a cash register was even almost knocked over as the rumble continued.
GeorgeRudy
GeorgeRudy
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One customer can be heard saying out loud, “Is this really happening?”. Meanwhile, another wanted to know where their order was even amid the chaos. “I’m still waiting for my pizza, by the way.” Another customer can be heard responding, “You’re not getting it.”
The fight, which resembled something out of World Wrestling Entertainment, continued as the enthralled customers continued to record the carnage.
Unlike a lot of other public fights you see on YouTube, this one was actually pretty intense. Usually most taped scuffles, that usually end with a couple of clowns widely throwing haymakers and missing, as they slip and stumble around like fools, this fight pretty much delivered. It’s kind of hard to keep up with all the action, or who’s hitting who or what.
More People Behaving Badly
This wasn’t the only fight between store employees and unruly customers caught on video recently. A wild fight at a Ohio McDonald’s over a slushy order ended when an employee pummeled an out-of-control woman in a viral video. The footage made national headlines in June 2021.
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.
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Supreme Court Rejects Gun Rights Challenge To Bump Stocks Ban
Supreme Court Rejects Gun Rights Challenge To Bump Stocks Ban https://digitalalabamanews.com/supreme-court-rejects-gun-rights-challenge-to-bump-stocks-ban/
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a new effort to expand gun rights by declining to hear a challenge to a Trump-era ban on so-called bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more quickly.
The decision not to hear the two related cases, a blow for gun rights activists, leaves the ban in place. The conservative-majority court issued a major ruling in June that expanded gun rights, although the legal issues in the bump stock cases were different.
Bump stocks are accessories for semi-automatic rifles, such as the popular AR-15-style weapons. They use the recoil energy of a trigger pull to enable the user to fire up to hundreds of rounds a minute.
In a rare example of a Republican administration’s taking action on gun control, President Donald Trump’s administration imposed the ban after the mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017, when Stephen Paddock used bump stocks to open fire on a country music festival, killing 58 people. Paddock died by suicide as he was about to be apprehended.
The ban, implemented by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, went into effect in 2019 after the Supreme Court declined to block it. Since then, the already conservative court has tilted further to the right, with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, replacing liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in 2020.
The court, with its new 6-3 conservative majority, ruled for the first time in the June gun rights decision that the right to bear arms under the Constitution’s Second Amendment protects an individual right to carry a handgun outside the home. The ruling was the most significant expansion of gun rights since the Supreme Court held in 2008 that there was an individual right to bear arms in self-defense at home.
The bump stocks challenge, however, did not deal directly with the scope of the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment. The challengers instead said the government did not have authority to ban bump stocks under the National Firearms Act, a law enacted in 1934 to regulate machine guns. In 1968, the Gun Control Act expanded the definition of machine gun to include accessories “for use in converting a weapon” into a machine gun, and the ATF concluded when it issued the ban that bump stocks meet that definition.
The groups challenging the ban said the legal definition of machine gun has been distorted beyond recognition and argue that courts should not defer to the federal agency’s interpretation.
The court turned away two related appeals, one brought by Clark Aposhian, a Utah gun lobbyist who had purchased a bump stock before the ban took effect, and another led by Gun Owners of America and other gun rights groups. Lower courts upheld the ban, although judges on the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals were divided in both cases.
In June, some Republican in Congress joined Democrats in enacting the first legislation to reduce gun violence in decades. Momentum was spurred by another mass shooting, this time at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, a month earlier, in which 19 schoolchildren and two teachers were killed.
Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News Digital.
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Supreme Court Rejects Trump Ally Mike Lindell's Appeal In 2020 Election Lawsuit
Supreme Court Rejects Trump Ally Mike Lindell's Appeal In 2020 Election Lawsuit https://digitalalabamanews.com/supreme-court-rejects-trump-ally-mike-lindells-appeal-in-2020-election-lawsuit/
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s bid to fend off a defamation lawsuit the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems filed over his far-fetched claims about the 2020 presidential election.
The justices’ decision not to hear the case means a federal judge’s ruling in August 2021 that allowed the lawsuit to move forward remains in place.
Lindell, a prominent TV salesman for the pillows his company makes, is an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump.
Dominion sued Lindell and MyPillow in February 2021, claiming $1.3 billion in damages and alleging that Lindell purposely pushed the “big lie” that Trump won the 2020 election. Lindell repeatedly echoed baseless claims that Dominion’s machines manipulated vote counts to ensure that Joe Biden defeated Trump. The claims have been widely debunked. In the lawsuit, Dominion argues that Lindell knew his claims were false, while Lindell’s lawyers say he genuinely believes them.
“Lindell asserts today, as he did throughout the relevant period, that his statements regarding Dominion, its voting machines, and the integrity of the tabulation were, and continue to be, valid, accurate, and true,” Lindell’s lawyers wrote in court papers.
Lindell had unsuccessfully asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols of Washington, D.C., to allow him to appeal two legal questions related to the landmark 1964 Supreme Court defamation ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, which concluded that there must be evidence of “actual malice” for a public figure to pursue a defamation claim. Lindell argues that Dominion is a public figure because it performs a government function in elections and that therefore the “actual malice” standard applies. His lawyers argue that because Lindell genuinely believes in his claims, there was no “actual malice” and that therefore the lawsuit should be dismissed.
Dominion also sued Trump allies Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani for defamation. Nichols allowed those claims to move forward, as well, but Powell and Giuliani were not involved in Lindell’s Supreme Court appeal.
In a separate case, Nichols in May threw out Lindell’s own defamation lawsuit against Dominion and Smartmatic, another voting machine company. Dominion and Smartmatic have also filed similar defamation lawsuits against Fox News and other conservative media outlets.
Two conservative justices — Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch — have suggested that the 1964 defamation precedent, which makes it harder for public figures to bring defamation claims, should be overturned.
Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News Digital.
Read More…
When Will Student Loans Be Forgiven? What To Know About Debt Relief Applications.
When Will Student Loans Be Forgiven? What To Know About Debt Relief Applications. https://digitalalabamanews.com/when-will-student-loans-be-forgiven-what-to-know-about-debt-relief-applications/
Applications for student debt forgiveness will be available soon.
Borrowers should start preparing now to apply to ensure there’s no delay in getting debt relief.
Some 8 million people won’t have to do anything to get their debt canceled. Find out if you’re one.
On your marks, get set.
Federal student debt forgiveness applications are about to drop, and you don’t want to be caught flat-footed.
People who earned $125,000 or less (or $250,000 for households) in 2020 or 2021 are eligible for at least $10,000 in federal student loan debt forgiveness. Recipients of Pell Grants – usually awarded to low-income undergrads – can receive up to $20,000 in relief.
Roughly 40 million borrowers are eligible for some student debt relief, with about 20 million expected to have their entire balance canceled, the White House says.
If you’re one of the lucky ones, here is what you should do to ensure some or all of your debt is forgiven before repayments restart in January.
When will the application for student debt forgiveness go live?
The federal government has said early October. On Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said there was “no date set yet” for the release of the application form, but confirmed it would still be released in October.
“We’re trying to give relief to everyday Americans,” Jean-Pierre said.
Ensure you’re qualified for student debt forgiveness
Only borrowers with federal loans are eligible for relief if their individual income is less than $125,000 or $250,000 for households. Pell Grant recipients can get up to $20,000 canceled, and everyone else up to $10,000.
Public service workers (people working for federal, state, local, tribal government, military, or a non-profit organization) with at least 10 years of service (It doesn’t need to be consecutive.) may be eligible to have all their debt canceled.
The government recently tweaked the requirements for the program to allow more borrowers to qualify for forgiveness, but it’s a limited time offer. Interested borrowers must apply before Oct. 31 if they want to take advantage of the temporary flexibility.
Want student loan forgiveness?: Millions of jobs qualify for updated program — and yours might be one of them.
A parent with parent PLUS loans for their child may qualify for debt relief if they meet the income eligibility criteria.
Private loans aren’t eligible for any forgiveness.
How can I tell if I had a Pell Grant?
Create an account (an FSA ID) at StudentAid.gov or log in if you already have one. Make sure your contact information is accurate. If you’ve forgotten your log in information, use the Forgot My Username or Forgot My Password links or go to the tips page for help.
You’re not required to have an FSA ID to apply for forgiveness, but this can be extremely helpful. It’s where for example, you’ll find if you received a Pell Grant while in college. It will also show your loan servicer(s), types of loans you have and what you owe. (If you received a Pell Grant before 1994, that information won’t display in StudentAid.gov, but you’ll still receive the full benefit. The Department of Education has a record of every Pell Grant award.)
The government will send you updates by email and text message, so make sure to sign up to receive text alerts.
At what cost?: Biden’s student loan forgiveness will cost US about $400 billion, CBO estimates
Legal landmine: Legal challenges stack up for Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan
Alert your loan servicer
Make sure your loan servicer has your most current contact information so they can reach you. If you don’t know who your servicer is, you can log into your StudentAid.gov account and see your servicer(s) in your account dashboard.
Your servicer(s) will process the relief and notify you when the relief has been applied to your account. The White House says most borrowers will see the forgiveness reflected in their accounts within six weeks.
If you still have a balance after debt forgiveness, your monthly payment will be recalculated based on your new balance, potentially reducing your monthly payment. Your loan servicer will let you know what your new payment amount is. The White House says borrowers should apply by mid-November to receive relief before the payment pause expires on Dec. 31. However, the application window will stay open through 2023.
Complete and submit the application
The application for student debt relief is expected to be available this month. Once it is ready, you should receive an email alerting you or you can keep checking StudentAid.gov for updates.
Borrowers won’t need to upload any documentation or have an FSA ID to submit their application. Initially, the application will be available only online. A paper version will be made available later.
As many as 8 million borrowers will receive automatic forgiveness because the federal government already has their income and loan information – if they don’t opt-out. The department uses Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and income-driven repayment application information to identify those borrowers – or, as appropriate, parents – who have submitted income data for tax years 2020 or 2021.
Not enough: President Biden grants some student debt relief. Advocates worry it’s not enough.
Too much: ‘Excessive’: Sen. Joe Manchin criticizes Biden student loan forgiveness plan as too much
Can I get a refund of past student loan payments?
Yes, borrowers may be eligible for refunds, but only if they made payments during the pandemic that brought their balance below the relief they would be eligible to receive. So if you had $11,000 in debt before March 13, 2020 and paid it down to $9,000, you could receive a $1,000 refund.
Relief for some workers: Want student loan forgiveness? Millions of jobs qualify for updated program — and yours might be one of them.
More time for fun: Lazy rivers and college costs: How Biden’s loan forgiveness subsidizes students’ play time
Which loans are eligible for forgiveness?
Federally held subsidized loans, unsubsidized loans, parent PLUS loans, and graduate PLUS loans are eligible. Consolidated loans also qualify for relief as long as all the combined loans that are federally held were taken out on or before June 30.
Last week, the Education Department said borrowers with Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) that are commercially held can no longer apply for debt relief by consolidating their loans into the Direct Loan program. But they will be eligible if the loans were consolidated before Sept. 29.
When asked about the FFEL borrowers who no longer qualify for the program, Jean-Pierre said the goal has always been to get relief to borrowers as fast as possible.
“This change helps us achieve that,” she said.
Asking forgiveness: Do you have student debt? Here are ways to get loan forgiveness under new federal rules
It’s complicated: Student loan forgiveness reality check: Paperwork hurdles, legal challenges could complicate relief
Is this for real?
Several lawsuits claim the loan forgiveness plan is harmful or that the president is overstepping his authority. Any one of them has the potential to block the plan or delay it.
Jean-Pierre said she couldn’t say if there would be additional changes to the program that would further winnow the pool of eligible borrowers (and serve to circumvent a lawsuit).
She did say it was “unfortunate” that some people in Republican states were making it more difficult to give “a little bit of a breathing room to working Americans.”
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First Glance: Alabama Crimson Tide https://digitalalabamanews.com/first-glance-alabama-crimson-tide/
Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images
What You Need to Know:
The No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide are 5-0 overall and 2-0 in SEC play after wins over Vanderbilt and Arkansas to begin conference play. Their dominance is inevitable and you just hope Nick Saban doesn’t find a way to out-scheme Father Time himself.
Texas A&M is 3-2 and 1-2 in SEC play after getting run out of Starkville 42-24.
Betting Lines:
The Aggies opened as a 23.5-point underdog. Yikes.
Historical Notes:
Alabama leads the all-time series 11-3 and leads 8-2 since A&M joined the SEC, but the Aggies won last year so clearly we are the better team here.
Johnny Manziel’s “lightning in a bottle” game is the Aggies only win in Tuscaloosa.
Famous Alabama alumni include Ponzi scheme artist Bernie Madoff, author Harper Lee, Benjamin Russell (founder of Russell Athletic), College Gameday’s Rece Davis and actor Sela Ward.
What To Watch For:
A pulse: Not to be confused with The Pulse, we’re just looking for any sign of life from this A&M team after things unraveled in Starkville last weekend.
Backup QB battle? Max Johnson suffered a hand injury in the second half and it appears likely he will miss this game. Similarly, Alabama QB Bryce Young missed a good portion of the second half of last week’s game with a shoulder injury. The backup QBs are Haynes King for A&M and Jalen Milroe for Bama.
Jimbo vs. Saban references: Expect plenty of chatter on the broadcast about this summer’s war of words between the two head coaches.
Media Blitz:
Venue: Bryant Denny Stadium (Tuscaloosa, AL)
Kickoff: 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8
TV: CBS
Read the latest on the Tide on their SB Nation team site, Roll Bama Roll.
Weather:
Partly cloudy with a 0% chance of rain. High of 72, low of 42. Now that’s football weather.
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Ukraine Live Briefing: Russian Lawmakers Approve Annexation Of Ukrainian Regions; Lyman Retreat Buoys Kyiv
Ukraine Live Briefing: Russian Lawmakers Approve Annexation Of Ukrainian Regions; Lyman Retreat Buoys Kyiv https://digitalalabamanews.com/ukraine-live-briefing-russian-lawmakers-approve-annexation-of-ukrainian-regions-lyman-retreat-buoys-kyiv/
Russia’s lower house of parliament voted Monday to absorb four regions of Ukraine, formalizing the illegal takeover of Ukrainian territory that began with staged referendums last month in Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk.
Ukraine celebrated the retaking of Lyman, saying Sunday that the key logistics hub in the eastern Donetsk region was completely “cleared of the Russian occupiers.” Russian forces’ retreat from Lyman and other recent setbacks led to unusually open criticism of the Russian military on hard-line pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
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Putin overruled his top security service in a prisoner swap with Ukraine. The Russian leader approved a prisoner swap with Ukraine in late September over the objections of his top security service, the FSB, which had concerns about a public backlash in Russia, according to senior Ukrainian and U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
The nearly 300-person swap, the largest exchange of prisoners since the war started in February, involved the release of 215 Ukrainians, 55 Russians, a Putin confidant and 10 foreign nationals, including two Americans.
The lopsided numbers in the exchange — almost four times as many Ukrainians released as Russians, John Hudson and Isabelle Khurshudyan report — and the type of Ukrainian soldiers involved, 108 from the Azov Regiment, concerned Russia’s Federal Security Service, the officials said. “The FSB was completely against it,” said a senior Ukrainian official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “They realized the consequences of how the deal would look to the public.”
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3 Reasons You Can't Miss Unleashed A Philanthroparty Oct. 20 | Bham Now
3 Reasons You Can't Miss Unleashed, A Philanthroparty, Oct. 20 | Bham Now https://digitalalabamanews.com/3-reasons-you-cant-miss-unleashed-a-philanthroparty-oct-20-bham-now/
Sponsored
Women’s Foundation of Alabama‘s signature fundraiser—Unleashed, a Philanthroparty, Presented by EBSCO—on Thursday, October 20. Prepare to get your party on while celebrating changemaking women in Alabama in a BIG way. Read on for why this is a must-attend event, and get your tickets here.
Behind the event
Women’s Foundation of Alabama (WFA).
WFA is Alabama’s only philanthropic foundation focused solely on addressing the unique needs of women and girls, envisioning a society where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, or place. Backed by groundbreaking research, WFA works to accelerate economic opportunity and remove barriers for women at a systemic level through philanthropy and legislative advocacy.
In 2019, the organization expanded its footprint and influence across the entire state of Alabama.
Since its founding in 1996, WFA has invested over $7.5 million in initiatives in an effort to build a world where all women across Alabama can thrive
“Unleashed is more than ‘a party’. It’s our chance to recognize trailblazing women, their deep-seated passion for their communities, and all the ways they embody the power of philanthropy. Every dollar raised is multiplied to create a ripple effect of change across Alabama.”
Women’s and girls’ organizations represent only 1.9 percent of total charitable giving in the US. Through initiatives like Unleashed, Women’s Foundation of Alabama is striving to be the vehicle that connects philanthropy to the change we want to see.”
Melanie R. Bridgeforth, President + CEO, Women’s Foundation of Alabama
3 reasons to attend
Now, onto the exciting part… the event details! Trust me when I say Unleashed, a Phlianthroparty is an event not to miss. Here are three reasons why:
Ready to celebrate Alabama’s innovative women? Get your tickets now.
1. You’ll celebrate Alabama’s Changemakers
WFA unleash the power of women and philanthropy by boosting funding and resources that fuel economic opportunity for women and girls. Every dollar raised ensures WFA can continue:
Securing future policy wins like the Equal Pay Statute and building an army of women fighting for economic opportunity through WFA’s Women’s Policy Institute.
Producing groundbreaking research like Status of Women in Alabama and Clearing the Path, which serve as roadmaps for future change.
Sustaining organizations on the frontline of change, serving women and girls through training, education and wraparound support to ensure future success.
3. It’s WFA’s annual signature fundraiser
Unleashed, a Philanthroparty benefiting Women’s Foundation of Alabama
When: Thursday, October 20 | 5:30-8:30PM
Where: Protective Stadium, 1020 24th St N, Birmingham, AL 35233
Tickets
Can’t attend the event, but still want to support Women’s Foundation of Alabama? That’s awesome! Here’s how:
1. Make a gift.
2. Give in honor of a Changemaker.
3. Register to create your free personal fundraising page + network to raise funds to accelerate change for women.
Learn more about the Women’s Foundation of Alabama—visit their website and follow them on Facebook + Instagram.
Sponsored by:
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Credit Suisse Shares Slip Despite Moves To Soothe Investor Concerns
Credit Suisse Shares Slip Despite Moves To Soothe Investor Concerns https://digitalalabamanews.com/credit-suisse-shares-slip-despite-moves-to-soothe-investor-concerns/
Credit Suisse caught in market turbulence ahead of revamp
Shares fell as much as 10% in early trading on Monday
Bank’s euro-denominated bonds reach record lows
Swiss bank says its capital, liquidity are strong
ZURICH, Oct 3 (Reuters) – Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) shares slid by as much as 10% on Monday, reflecting market concerns ahead of a restructuring plan due to come with third-quarter results at the end of October.
Swiss regulator FINMA and the Bank of England in London, where the lender has a major hub, were monitoring the situation at Credit Suisse and working closely together, a source familiar with the situation said.
Credit Suisse’s recent problems were well known and there had been no major recent developments, the source added.
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The Bank of England, FINMA and the Swiss finance ministry declined to comment.
Chief Executive Ulrich Koerner last week told staff that Credit Suisse, whose market capitalisation had dropped to 9.73 billion Swiss francs ($9.85 billion) on Monday, has solid capital and liquidity. read more
And bank executives spent the weekend reassuring large clients, counterparties and investors about its liquidity and capital, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. read more
A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment on the FT report, which said the weekend calls followed a sharp rise in spreads on the bank’s credit default swaps (CDS), which offer protection against a company defaulting on its debt.
Credit Suisse’s euro-denominated bonds dropped to record lows, with the Swiss bank’s longer-dated bonds suffering the sharpest declines. read more
In July, Credit Suisse announced its second strategy review in a year and replaced its CEO, bringing in restructuring expert Koerner to scale back investment banking and cut more than $1 billion in costs. read more
The logo of Swiss bank Credit Suisse is seen at an office building in Zurich, Switzerland September 2, 2022. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
It has said it was considering measures to strengthen its flagship wealth management franchise, scale back its investment bank into a “capital-light, advisory-led” business, and evaluate strategic options for the Securitized Products business.
Citing people familiar with the situation, Reuters reported last month that Credit Suisse was sounding out investors for fresh cash as it attempts its overhaul. read more
LIQUIDITY ‘HEALTHY’
JP Morgan analysts said in a research note that, based on its financials at the end of the second quarter, they view Credit Suisse’s capital and liquidity as “healthy”.
Given the bank has indicated a near-term intention to keep its CET1 capital ratio at 13-14%, the second-quarter end ratio is well within that range and the liquidity coverage ratio is well above requirements, the analysts added.
Credit Suisse had total assets of 727 billion Swiss francs ($735.68 billion) at the end of the second quarter, of which 159 billion francs was cash and due from banks, while 101 billion was trading assets, it noted.
While Credit Suisse’s CDS spreads have widened, this should be seen in the context of widening credit spreads across the sector, which was expected in an environment of rising interest rates with ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, the analysts said.
Over the past three quarters alone, Credit Suisse’s losses have added up to nearly 4 billion Swiss francs. Given the uncertainties, the bank’s financing costs have surged. Deutsche Bank analysts in August estimated a capital shortfall of at least 4 billion francs.
Credit Suisse shares, which have fallen by more than half this year, came off their early morning lows and were down 7.4% at 3.68 Swiss francs at 0927 GMT.
($1 = 0.9882 Swiss francs)
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Reporting by Michael Shields and Oliver Hirt in Zurich; Additional reporting by Lucy Raitano and Huw Jones in London; Editing by Noele Illien, David Goodman and Alexander Smith
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Michael Shields
Thomson Reuters
Switzerland and Austria bureau chief leading a multimedia team of journalists based in Zurich, Geneva and Vienna covering Swiss and Austrian spot news, features, pictures and video with experience reporting from dozens of countries on three continents since 1987.
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LSUs Brian Kelly Thanks Staff At East Alabama Medical Center After Treating Sevyn Banks
LSU’s Brian Kelly Thanks Staff At East Alabama Medical Center After Treating Sevyn Banks https://digitalalabamanews.com/lsus-brian-kelly-thanks-staff-at-east-alabama-medical-center-after-treating-sevyn-banks/
After a scary injury early in the Auburn-LSU game Saturday, LSU senior Sevyn Banks was taken to the East Alabama Medical Center where he was treated and released before the end of the game.
LSU head coach Brian Kelly on Sunday thanked the staff at EAMC for their work with Banks, along with the Auburn’s medical team and LSU’s own trainers and doctors. Banks returned to the stadium before the end of the game.
Banks went down on the game’s opening kickoff. Auburn player Wesley Steiner saw his injury and immediately jumped up and down gesticulating for the LSU trainers to come to the field to treat Banks. The stadium fell into a hush as Banks was carefully carted out.
Later in the game it was announced that, after a series of tests at the hospital, Banks was alert and mobile and had been cleared to leave the hospital and return to the stadium.
“A special thanks to the Auburn medical team, staff at East Alabama Medical Center and Beau Lowery and our trainers and doctors for their work last night,” Kelly posted to Twitter on Sunday morning.
Steiner posted shortly after the game: “For all those that believe in prayer please pray for Sevyn Banks long term health and swift recovery to playing football. He suffered and injury tonight at Jordan-Hare and it struck me deeply. He was being responsive. Thank Jesus for that one. I just want others to pray for him.”
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Trump Allies Have Interviewed Nearly 200 Election Officials To Probe For Weaknesses Wisconsin Examiner
Trump Allies Have Interviewed Nearly 200 Election Officials To Probe For Weaknesses – Wisconsin Examiner https://digitalalabamanews.com/trump-allies-have-interviewed-nearly-200-election-officials-to-probe-for-weaknesses-wisconsin-examiner/
Politics & Government
Voting
Volunteers for “Operation Eagles Wings” are using surveys in eight states to seek support for conspiracy theories
Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent allies in his fight to overturn the 2020 election are leading a coordinated, multi-state effort to probe local election officials in battlegrounds such as Michigan, Arizona, and Texas ahead of the November election.
The America Project, an organization founded by Michael Flynn, a retired three-star general and former national security adviser, and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, has so far interviewed or attempted to interview officials in nearly 200 counties across eight swing states, according to copies of notes, recordings of the interviews, and other documents Votebeat found on web pages associated with the organization. The survey questions reflect the same debunked conspiracies and misleading information about elections that Flynn and Byrne have been propagating for years.
The survey questions appear intended to detect potential weaknesses in local election systems and gather detailed information about how elections are run. Election experts say the information could easily be used to fuel misinformation campaigns, disrupt voting, or challenge results.
“It seems consistent with their efforts to really understand how to manipulate the machinery of election administration in this country,” said Ben Berwick, counsel at national nonprofit Protect Democracy, a research and advocacy group.
In 2020, Byrne and Flynn were among the Trump loyalists who devised a plan to seize voting machines across the country and dig up enough evidence of fraud to persuade state lawmakers, Congress, or the vice president to overturn the election results. Now, they are focusing their efforts on the midterm election, with new strategies. A group backed by The America Project, for example, is attempting to purge voter rolls in Georgia ahead of the election.
The surveys are part of The America Project’s latest mission, dubbed “Operation Eagles Wings,” which is organized on foramericafirst.com, with web pages for each of the swing states the group is focused on. Key to the effort is building relationships with local election officials, according to two manuals for local volunteers on the organization’s websites. The officials are asked their opinions on debunked conspiracy theories, perhaps to determine whether they are like-minded individuals. Interviewers are also marking down which clerks are particularly helpful.
Berwick points out that it’s the mission of prominent Trump supporters to fill positions of power — from governors down to local clerks — with people who believe their allegations of election fraud and improprieties. Noting who does and does not support the cause, he said, may be the group’s way of determining “who will be sympathetic to their efforts in the future.”
Election officials have generally been friendly to their interviewers, but have also repeatedly assured them that their elections are fair, voting machines are secure, and voter rolls are accurate.
In Harris County, Georgia, an election official repeatedly assured the interviewer that no one voted on behalf of deceased voters in the county.
“In some counties they did,” the interviewer insisted. “They weren’t removed from the rolls. And there have been some reports. It’s down to the proof. Prove it.”
The America Project and its officers did not respond to phone and email requests for comment about the surveys.
Surveys probe administrators on debunked theories
The survey questions vary slightly by state, though nearly all ask if counties remove deceased voters from the rolls. They also request contact information for vendors who service voting machines, and whether the county will consider designating a “neutral” third-party group to provide “training and support” for poll watchers. Some ask whether voting machines are connected to the internet, and if the local election officials are confident that local advocacy groups register voters “without bribery, intimidation or coercion.”
Interviewers asked the officials whether they support counting votes using a “manual process like that used in France.” This is a common talking point of such activists, who routinely praise the country for efficiently hand-counting votes and use it as justification to end the use of vote-counting machines. “If France can do it, we can do it!” shouted Trump’s former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his War Room podcast earlier this year. Mike Lindell, his guest and a prominent conspiracy theorist who is also the owner of MyPillow, agrees. “Terminate the machines!” yells Lindell. There are several differences between French and U.S. elections that make hand counting more effective in that country.
Byrne and Flynn have both voiced strong support for these ideas, routinely claiming without evidence that voting machines were manipulated and that left-leaning activists routinely facilitate mass voter fraud. “Our country and its founding principles are under attack by globalists and their allies in government, Wall Street, the legacy media and by others which make-up the political left in this country,” the Georgia for America First website states. “The weapon of choice is our vulnerable election system.”
The America Project was the top funder of the Arizona Senate’s election review, and Byrne supported the now-discredited investigation of voting machines in Antrim County, Michigan. Both have said they’ll continue to work to remake American elections.
“This will be our last shot,” wrote Byrne in his book, “The Deep Rig,” which he self-published last year. The book declares: “If we do not restore election integrity by then, then next election will also be rigged [sic], and we will have tipped our way into a fascist, authoritarian dystopian version of America, run by Goons.”
A key goal of Operation Eagles Wings is to create small volunteer teams across the country who observe the entirety of the election process, starting in part with the surveys, according to the manuals Votebeat found.
‘Operation Eagles Wings’
It’s the expansion of what they have dubbed “the Virginia model,” which refers to the work of Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network in Virginia to create a network for the state’s 2021 election, according to the manuals. The America Project provided funding to that effort.
The larger Operation Eagles Wings initiative is aimed at educating “election reform activists on everything from grassroots training to election canvassing and fundraising,” according to The America Project’s website. The site claims the group provides training “for Americans who want to make sure there are no repeats of the errors that happened in the 2020 election.”
“We need to do everything in our power to protect the voting process from election meddlers who care only about serving crooked special interest groups that neither respect nor value the rule of law,” the homepage says.
Along with the surveys, the initiative encourages election skeptics to serve as poll workers and observers, perform in-person “voter registration audits,” and to visit “large farms, factories, businesses and especially care homes,” and ask residents whether anyone is forcing them to vote, according to the manuals.
Election officials’ top concern? “Misinformation.”
Volunteers have conducted interviews in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin, according to copies and audio recordings of the interviews that Votebeat found online. Most of the documents are stored on what appear to be unlisted pages of a site called libertyshepherd.com, which had no active homepage as of Friday, while the Florida documents are accessible from the state’s page on foramericafirst.com.
Election administrators surveyed by the group told Votebeat they weren’t bothered by the questions themselves, inviting them as opportunities to debunk misinformation.
Many election officials told the interviewers that their top concern about the upcoming election was misinformation. In Sterling Heights, Michigan, City Clerk Melanie Ryska told the interviewer that people insinuate “that we aren’t doing something right, that we are hiding something, that our [absentee] ballots are not legitimate, that we have early voting when we don’t, that we are trying to sway the vote somehow.”
Ryska told Votebeat in an interview that she is glad when people come to her for information, rather than get it elsewhere.
“I just think it is great that different organizations are actually talking to clerks now and trying to get their side of the story, if you will, because the misinformation dramatically hurts the election administrators, their team, the process,” she said. “Because it just creates so much mistrust in the process.”
Susan Nash, city clerk in Livonia, Michigan, said she was interviewed by two women with the group this summer. “Nothing wrong with questioning,” Nash told Votebeat. “It’s better to contact the clerks instead of getting misinformation elsewhere.”
Most interviews were conducted in person or by phone, with the interviewer filling out the survey themselves. Shown the completed surveys, two election supervisors told Votebeat the volunteers had not accurately recorded their answers.
Cortney Hanson, city clerk in Novi, Michigan, said the interviewers recorded most of her responses correctly, except for one question. They used their own words to mischaracterize the funds the city accepted from the Center for Tech and Civic Life before the 2020 election, writing that she accepted “Zuck bucks” — a term championed by some conservatives referring to the grant, which ha...
Post Politics Now: Biden Heading To Puerto Rico To Survey Storm Damage Will Visit Fla. On Wednesday
Post Politics Now: Biden Heading To Puerto Rico To Survey Storm Damage, Will Visit Fla. On Wednesday https://digitalalabamanews.com/post-politics-now-biden-heading-to-puerto-rico-to-survey-storm-damage-will-visit-fla-on-wednesday/
Today, President Biden is heading to Puerto Rico on his first of two trips scheduled this week to hurricane-damaged communities. On Wednesday, he plans to visit Florida. While in Puerto Rico, Biden will announce more than $60 million in federal funding to shore up levees, strengthen flood walls and create a new flood warning system to help the island better prepare for storms. Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico on Sept. 18, knocking out power across the U.S. territory.
Congress is in recess until after the November midterm elections. The Supreme Court is starting a new term. And opening arguments are scheduled in the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and other members of the extremist group who face seditious conspiracy and other charges in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Your daily dashboard
10:10 a.m. Eastern time: Biden departs the White House en route to Puerto Rico. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters on board Air Force One. Listen live here.
2:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden receives a briefing and delivers remarks in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Watch live here.
3:30 p.m. Eastern: Biden visits a school in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. Eastern weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
Noted: Larry Summers has Biden’s ear — but not always his support
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President Biden spent more than an hour in the Oval Office in late August with former treasury secretary Larry Summers, prompting some aides to marvel that he had granted such a lengthy audience to a combative economist who had assailed the economic management by Biden and the Federal Reserve as the “least responsible” in four decades.
The Post’s Jeff Stein and Tyler Pager report that the meeting set off fresh speculation inside the White House about the influence of what some aides jokingly call Biden’s “shadow” director of the National Economic Council — a position actually held by Brian Deese — and the uncertain stature of Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen, who has sometimes struggled to get Biden to back her recommendations.
Analysis: House GOP whip race heats up in weeks before midterms
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Congress has left Washington to campaign ahead of the midterm elections and while the main focus is on winning as many seats as possible, the behind-the-scenes race for leadership positions is also in full gear.
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer say that on the Republican side, the top two positions are probably set, with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) running unopposed for speaker if Republicans regain the House and Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the minority whip, running unopposed for majority leader.
On our radar: Biden to announce $60 million in storm preparedness funding in Puerto Rico
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President Biden, during a trip Monday to see hurricane damage in Puerto Rico, plans to announce more than $60 million in federal funding to shore up levees, strengthen flood walls and create a new flood warning system to help the island better prepare for storms.
The Post’s Matt Viser reports that the funding will come from money allocated through the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that Congress approved last year, according to a White House official. Per Matt:
The president and first lady Jill Biden will meet with families and community leaders affected by Hurricane Fiona. They will also participate in a community service project to help pack bags with food and other essential items — a portion of the visit that could evoke contrasting images with President Donald Trump’s trip in 2017, when he tossed rolls of paper towels into a crowd in San Juan after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
Biden will also receive a briefing on recovery efforts during the trip, and he will be joined by Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
You can read Matt’s full story here.
On our radar: As TV doctor, Mehmet Oz provided platform for questionable products and views
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As a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is putting his medical background and his popular TV show at the center of his campaign pitch.
The Post’s Colby Itkowitz and Lenny Bernstein report that at a recent town hall in a Philadelphia suburb, he said his approach to medicine and politics is similar: “If you teach people on television or whatever forum you use, they actually begin to use the information and they begin to change what they do in their lives. I want to do the same thing as your senator. Empower you.”
Analysis: What happens if Republicans take the House, Senate (or both) in 2023?
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This November, voters will determine which party controls Congress for the last half of President Biden’s first term. Democrats control the House of Representatives and Senate now. What was once widely expected to be a wipeout for their party has turned into a competitive battle.
The Post’s Amber Phillips writes that it’s possible that Republicans pick up one or both chambers of Congress — or neither. Per Amber:
What happens in these elections will drastically reshape the next two years before Biden potentially runs for reelection — and potentially runs against Donald Trump again.
With Congress under Democratic control, he could have another chance to pass major liberal priorities. Under split or all Republican control, his administration could spend the next two years defending itself from investigations — and maybe even impeachment.
You can read Amber’s full analysis, in which she details the three likeliest scenarios for who will win Congress, here.
Noted: Democrats embrace a dark midterm message
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With a tough midterm election about six weeks away, many Democrats have largely settled on a campaign message, and it’s not one that simply emphasizes their accomplishments.
Instead, it amounts to a stark warning: If Republicans take power, they will establish a dystopia that cripples democracy and eviscerates abortion rights and other freedoms, The Post’s Yasmeen Abutaleb reports.
Yasmeen’s piece opens with these examples:
Democrat Max Frost, running for U.S. Congress in Florida, has said Republicans like Gov. Ron DeSantis are trying to build “right-wing fascist power.” Rep. Pat Ryan, a New York Democrat, says America faces “a coordinated domestic attempt to undermine our Constitution.”
And Rep. Chris Pappas, a New Hampshire Democrat seeking reelection in a swing district, paints an Orwellian America if his Republican opponent gets her way on abortion: “It wouldn’t be a woman’s choice — it would be the government’s choice.”
You can read Yasmeen’s full story here.
Take a look: On the Sunday shows, officials talk about lessons learned from Ian
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On the Sunday talk shows, officials — including Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both Republicans from Florida — spoke about lessons learned from Hurricane Ian. The Post’s JM Rieger pulled together the highlights.
Noted: Trump escalates attacks on McConnell with ‘DEATH WISH’ post
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Former president Donald Trump is facing blowback for an online message attacking Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that many viewed as a threat.
“He has a DEATH WISH,” Trump posted late Friday on his Truth Social platform, criticizing McConnell for agreeing to a deal to fund the government through mid-December.
The Post’s Isaac Arnsdorf reports that Trump also disparaged McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, in racist terms, calling her “his China loving wife, Coco Chow!” Chao, who served as Trump’s transportation secretary, was born in Taiwan.
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National Archives Tells House Committee It Hasn https://digitalalabamanews.com/national-archives-tells-house-committee-it-hasn/
Former Pence aide Marc Short talks Mar-a-Lago search
Former Pence aide Marc Short calls Trump’s assertions on declassifying documents “absurd” 07:56
Washington — The National Records and Archives Administration told House Democrats on Friday that it has not yet retrieved all the records from officials in the Trump administration that it should have under federal law and would consult with the Justice Department on further action.
In a letter to House Oversight Committee chair Carolyn Maloney, Debra Steidel Wall, the acting archivist of the United States, said some White House staff used “non-official electronic messaging accounts” for official business that were not copied or forwarded into their official accounts, which is required under federal law.
“While there is no easy way to establish absolute accountability, we do know that we do not have custody of everything we should,” she told Congress.
The Archives, Wall wrote, “has been able to obtain such records from a number of officials and will continue to pursue the return of similar types of presidential records from former officials.”
Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York and chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, speaks during hearing in Washington, D.C., US, on Wednesday, July 27, 2022. Bloomberg
“As appropriate, NARA would consult with the Department of Justice on whether ‘to initiate an action for the recovery of records unlawfully removed,’ as established under the Federal Records Act,” she said.
Wall also referenced a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department in August against Peter Navarro, a top trade adviser to former President Donald Trump, for the retrieval of official email records sent from his personal email account. Navarro’s lawyers told The Hill in August that he “instructed his lawyers to preserve all such records” and “expects the government to follow standard processes in good faith to allow him to produce records.”
In response to Wall’s letter, Maloney said it’s “outrageous” that the records, which are property of the U.S. government, are unaccounted for 20 months since the end of the Trump administration.
“Former President Trump and his senior staff have shown an utter disregard for the rule of law and our national security by failing to return presidential records as the law requires,” she said in a statement.
Trump has come under scrutiny by the Justice Department for his handling of sensitive records that were brought with him from the White House at the end of his presidency to his South Florida residence, Mar-a-Lago.
The Archives recovered 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago in mid-January and records marked classified were found in 14 of them, according to the Justice Department. The tranche of sensitive documents included: 184 documents bearing classification markings, including 67 marked confidential, 92 marked secret and 25 marked top secret.
A representative of Trump turned over an additional 38 unique documents with classification markings to the Justice Department in June and, after the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in August, found roughly 100 more documents with classification markings in a storage room on the property and in desks in Trump’s office.
The Justice Department is investigating Trump for what it said is the improper removal and storage of classified information in unlawful spaces, as well as the unlawful concealment or removal of government records.
Trump’s lawyers, however, have said the investigation against him is “unprecedented and misguided.”
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Britain Reverses Part Of Controversial Tax Policy That Sent Pound Plunging
Britain Reverses Part Of Controversial Tax Policy That Sent Pound Plunging https://digitalalabamanews.com/britain-reverses-part-of-controversial-tax-policy-that-sent-pound-plunging/
LONDON — The British government said “we get it” as it abandoned plans to abolish the top rate of income tax for its highest earners, a key part of its centerpiece economic plans that spooked the markets and pushed the British pound to an all-time low against the U.S. dollar.
In a major U-turn for the British government, Prime Minister Liz Truss said Monday that the proposed scrapping of the 45 percent rate for those earning more than 150,000 pounds ($168,000) had become a “distraction.”
Reacting to the news, the pound on Monday morning rebounded against the U.S. dollar, returning to where it was before the announcement of the “mini-budget” sent it plunging.
But the climbdown is a huge blow to the authority of the young Truss government, in office for less than a month. Its plans to offer Britain’s highest-paid people a tax cut — at a time when millions face a financial squeeze from a cost-of-living crisis — were widely condemned.
Investors, fearing that the moves would worsen inflation, dumped the pound and government bonds. In a highly unusual move, the Bank of England intervened last week to stop a financial market revolt. Some Conservative politicians accused their own government of being tone deaf.
We get it and we have listened.
The abolition of the 45pc rate had become a distraction from our mission to get Britain moving.
Our focus now is on building a high growth economy that funds world-class public services, boosts wages, and creates opportunities across the country. https://t.co/ee4ZFc7Aes
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) October 3, 2022
The dramatic U-turn leaves the government hugely weakened and exposes the lack of support for Truss from her own backbenches, said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst with Eurasia Group. Her critics “now scent weakness,” he said in a briefing note.
As recently as Sunday morning, Truss was defending her economic plans, saying that she was committed to the tax cuts. In comments given to journalists overnight, Kwasi Kwarteng, the new chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance minister, was expected to defend the tax cuts in his address to the Conservative Party’s annual conference later Monday.
Instead, on Monday morning, he said in a statement: “We get it, and we have listened.”
Truss’s government unveiled its hugely controversial economic plans in a “mini-budget” on Sept. 23 that called for the country to borrow billions to pay for tax cuts and spending to insulate consumers from soaring energy bills. Ditching the top tax rate represented just 2 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) out of the 45 billion pounds ($50.3 billion) of cuts promised, but it was by far the most controversial measure.
Not only did it prompt stormy financial weather, but the Conservative Party’s popularity plummeted as well. In one breathtaking survey by YouGov, the Conservatives lagged 33 points behind the opposition Labour Party, a gap not seen since the 1990s.
The government faced a growing backlash from within its own ranks as well, with several Conservative lawmakers coming out publicly to voice their opposition. “I can’t support the 45p tax removal when nurses are struggling to pay their bills,” tweeted Conservative lawmaker Maria Caulfield, who served as a minister of state for health in the previous government. Michael Gove, a senior Conservative, said that unfunded tax cuts are “not Conservative.”
The plans still have to be passed by Parliament, and some commentators have questioned whether they would have made it through.
Asked by the BBC if he were scrapping the plans because they would not get support in Parliament, Kwarteng said: “It’s not a question of getting it through; it’s a question of actually getting people behind the measure. It’s not about parliamentary games or votes in the House of Commons. It’s about listening to people, listening to constituents, who have expressed very strong views about this, and on balance I thought it was the right thing not to proceed.”
In interviews, Kwarteng said he has not considered resigning, but analysts say that he is not yet out of the woods, and his Monday afternoon speech to the Conservative Party faithful will be closely watched.
Truss will also address the party conference this week. In her first address to the conference as prime minister, on Wednesday morning, Truss will seek to calm those who have been furious at how her government has performed in its early days in office.
Rahman, the analyst, said there could be fresh revolts on the horizon over the plans to lift the cap on bankers’ bonuses and the very real possibility of steep spending cuts necessary to deal with the dramatic loss of revenue and promised help with energy bills.
Rahman said the chaos over the last 10 days will bolster the voices of those calling for a change to the rules for the Conservative Party leadership so that lawmakers, rather than the 160,000 grass-roots members, make the final decision on who becomes leader.
Truss became prime minister after receiving the support of Conservative Party members around the country, while a majority of lawmakers supported her rival, Rishi Sunak.
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🌱 National Night Out + New Sunday Adult Chess Club https://digitalalabamanews.com/%f0%9f%8c%b1-national-night-out-new-sunday-adult-chess-club/
Hi friends! I’m back for a whole new week of the Huntsville Daily to explain everything you need to know about what’s happening in our community. Including news on…
National Night Out with the HPD and Huntsville Community Watch Association
New Sunday Adult Chess Club
Info for November 8 election
But first, today’s weather:
Pleasant with plenty of sun. High: 78 Low: 49.
Find out what’s happening in Huntsvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
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Here are the top stories today in Huntsville:
Tomorrow, the Huntsville Police Department and the Huntsville Community Watch Association will be hosting the National Night Out at the Jaycee Building at John Hunt Park from 5-7 p.m. The free, family-friendly event will have a petting zoo, music and pizza with local community agencies, including law enforcement officers. (Patch Press Release Desk)
This year’s Madison Street Festival brought in thousands to the city, making it the largest ever. The educational grants that the festival funds are open through Halloween and are open to anyone in the community with an idea for a local educational program. (WHNT News 19)
The Madison City Chess League has formed a new adult group, the MCCL Sunday Adult Chess Club. They will meet on Sundays at the Madison Public Library in Auditorium 2 from 2-4:30 p.m. The first meeting will be October 9! (The Madison Record)
Thanks to Zach Hester at WHNT for putting together this comprehensive list of the uncontested races as we look to the midterm general elections on November 8. There are many Alabama House and Senate races for our area with no opponents, and in Madison County in particular, there are four local races that are uncontested. (WHNT News 19)
Today in Huntsville:
Alabama Restaurant and Hospitality Association’s 2022 Bartender of the Year Competition at the Westin (5:00 PM)
“Clue” Auditions – Theatre Huntsville (6:00 PM)
Decatur Park Concert – Reginald Jackson and Friends (6:00 PM)
Lee vs. Brewer – JV Football (7:00 PM)
From my notebook:
Leaves are starting to change at the Huntsville Botanical Garden! Make sure to go check it out and send me pictures! (Details)
The Huntsville Museum of Art exhibition “A Beautiful Mess: Weavers and Knotters of the Vanguard” closes October 9. Don’t miss it! (Details)
You’re all caught up for today. I’ll see you soon!
— Amy Young
Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Huntsville Daily? Contact me at huntsville@patch.com
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